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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66772	A proclamation in the name of the King of kings, to all inhabitants of the isles of Great Brittain and especially to those who have hypocritically pretended to justice, mercy, honesty, and religion (as also to them who have lived in open prophaness and impiety) summoning them to repentance, by denouncing God's judgements, and declaring his mercy, offered in the everlasting gospel / warrantably proclaimed and preached by Geo. Wither ... ; whereto are added, some fragments of the same authors, omitted in the first imprinting of the book, intituled Scraps and crums, and a few which were collected since that impression, and during his imprisonment.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1662 (1662)	Wing W3181; ESTC R12240	34,610	74

A Proclamation In the Name of the King of Kings To all the Inhabitants of the Isles of Great Brittain And especially to those who have Hypocritically pretended to Justice Mercy Honesty and Religion as also to them who have lived in open Prophaness and Impiety summoning them to Repentance by denouncing GOD's Judgements and declaring his Mercy offered in the Everlasting Gospel Warrantably Proclaimed and Preached by GEO. WITHER Though not by any Humane Ordination Whereto are added some FRAGMENTS Of the same Authors omitted in the first Imprinting of the Book Intituled Scraps and Crums and a few which were Collected since that Impression and during his Imprisonment LONDON Printed in the year 1662. A PROCLAMATION In the Name of the King of Kings To the Inhabitants of the Isles of Great Brittain especially to all those who have Hypocritically pretended to Justice Mercy Honesty and Religion as also to them who live in open Prophaness and Impiety summoning them to Repentance by denouncing GOD'S Judgments and thereto encouraging them by declaring his Mercy offered in the Everlasting Gospel ON the first day of the Week the second day of the first Moneth in the second Year of revived Monarchy in these Islands and in the eighth Moneth of my Confinement for discharging my Conscience My Consort being then with me in the house of my Imprisonment and intending to reade some parcel of holy Scripture for our instruction and refreshment The first place presenting it self to her view and then read was the seventh Chapter of the Prophecy of Jeremiah the Contents whereof and part of the next seemed to my understanding when I had heard them to be so pertinent to these Nations in this Generation that I was immediatly inspired with a strong perswasion that the effect of those words heretofore dictated to Jeremiah by the LORD was then spoken to me by the Spirit of the same GOD and he having given me fifty years Experience of the Transactions between Himself and this People since I came to years of discretion and also called me to be a Prophet by that Ordinary Anointing whereof every true Member of Jesus Christ is partaker I thereupon thought my self as truly obliged in Conscience to proclaim it to all the Provinces Counties Towns and Cities of these Islands as the said Prophet Jeremiah was to publish it in the Gate of the LORD's House at Jerusalem Therefore in obedience to that Internal Motion I now declare and apply it in the same tearms changing and adding only the names and prevarications therein mentioned into those which are proper to this Time and Place The Effect of the said Prophecy is this which next follows paraphrastically expressed and in the Name and Fear of GOD I thus proclaim it Mutatis mutandis JEREMIAH the 7th Chapter and part of the 8th THe Word which came to the Prophet Jeremiah from the LORD came to me by the said Prophet saying Stand in the Gate of this City wherein the LORD hath yet his House there Proclaim this Word and say Hear the Word of the LORD and ye Inhabitants of Great Britain who pretend to worship the LORD Thus saith the LORD the LORD of Hosts the GOD of Israel and your GOD Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place Trust ye not in lying words or in your formal sanctity and will-will-worship saying The Temple of the LORD The Temple of the LORD nor say in boast here is only his true reformed Church and with us are his Ordinances for know The Temple of the LORD are these even they that obey his Word in them he dwells and among them is his approved Worship If you amend your wayes and your doings If you thorowly execute Judgement between a man and his neighbour If you oppress not the Stranger the Fatherless or the Widow nor shed innocent Blood in this place nor walk after other Gods in your heart to your hurt nor worship the True GOD according to the superstitious Inventions of men then will I cause you to dwell in this place which I gave unto your fathers for ever But behold ye trust in lying words that cannot profit Will ye murder commit Adultery swear falsly sacrifice to false Gods and walk after such as ye know not and then come and stand before me in my House or think in your hearts you were delivered from your late troubles to do all these abominations Is that House which is called by my Name become a Den of Robbers in your eyes Behold I have seen it saith the LORD Consider now my Place which was in Shiloh where I set my Name at the first Consider also the City of Jerusalem and my Temple therein heed what I did to those places for the wickedness of my People Israel For in regard ye have done such works as they did saith the LORD and forasmuch as I spake unto you as I did to them rising up early yet was not heard not answered when I called upon you I will now do unto those Temples upon which ye have imposed my Name and to that Superstitious Worship wherein ye trust as I have done to Shiloh and Jerusalem For I will cast you out of my sight as I long ago cast our Ephraim and as I lately cast out many of your brethren Therefore pray not for this people that they may totally be delivered from the temporary visitation which their wilful sins have as it were constrained my Justice to bring upon them lest my Mercy should be quite contemned life not up thy prayer nor make intercession on their behalf for I will not hear thee to that purpose Seest thou not what they do in the Cities of these Isles and in the streets of LONDON their chief City Observest thou not what Swearings and Forswearings there are what Dissemblings what Apostacies and how few are now secure from the Spiritual and Temporal Oppressions of this Generation As they did in Jeremiahs dayes the Children gathered wood the fathers kindled the fire the women kneaded the dough to bake cakes for the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink oblations to other gods that they might provoke me to anger saith the LORD So the Children the Fathers the Women and the People of all sorts and degrees contribute toward their Superstitions according to their abilities after the mode of these times and pour out their drink Oblations of cursed healths to those Idols which they have set up and honour to the provocation of GOD's wrath But do they provoke me to anger saith the LORD do they not rather provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces Verily they do so therefore thus saith the LORD Behold my anger and my fury shall be poured out on this place upon Man and Beast upon the trees of the Field upon the Fruits of the ground and they shall consume as if they were burnt up with an unquenchable fire Thus also saith the LORD of hosts the GOD of

Israel make your selves merry with your carnal delights and Superstitious vanities Put your burnt-offerings to your Sacrifices and eat Flesh Add more of your formal Thanksgivings to your formal Humiliations Revive the late interrupted Traditions of men Please your selves in them and Gormundize upon the Profits you raise out of them untill you are fat yet know GOD delights not in them What I spake unto your Fathers and unto your selves in the dayes wherein I brought you out of Aegypt out of the bodily and ghostly servitude of that mystical Aegypt and out of that Babylonish Captivity whereunto you are preparing to return I commanded nothing concerning such sacrifices as you have offered nor gave I unto you any such Ordinances as are many of those which ye imposed as mine But this I commanded you saying obey my Voice and I will be your GOD and ye shall be my People walk in the wayes that I have commanded that it may be well with you nevertheless ye have not hearkned nor inclined your ear but walking after the evil Counsels of your own hearts went backward and not forward Ever since that day wherein I delivered you from your Spiritual Thraldom and in which I would have delivered you from your Corporeal slaveries I have even from that time until this day sent unto you my servants the Prophets of all sorts and with various dispensations rising early and dayly sending them as I did heretofore to my People Israel yet you hearkned not unto me nor Inclined your ear unto them but hardned your necks and did worse then your Fathers yea worse then other transgressors whom I formerly destroyed and by whose fall ye ought to have taken warning Therefore thou shalt speak unto them these words Even thou into whose heart I have put it to make application of what I heretofore spake by my Prophet Jeremiah shalt Proclaim unto them these words though they have not hearkned unto them yea thou shalt call again upon them though they will not answer thy expectation And thus thou shalt say unto them This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their GOD nor receive Instruction notwithstanding the Judgments whereby I have lately proved them many years together and which in part yet lie upon them for Truth is perished and cut off from their mouth Cut off therefore your hair lay aside your Ornaments and cast them away Forbear your Pride your Luxury your Oppressions and the Trophies of your vanities in this time at least of penury and Afflictions and take up a Lamenta●ion in the high Places wherein ye have exalted your own Inventions For the L0RD hath rejected and forsaken the Generations of his wrath The Children and Inhabitants of these Isles have done evil in my sight saith the LORD They have set up their abominations in my house to pollute it and in those places whereupon they have imposed my Name instead of what I commanded They have built high places wherein are committed things as abominable as the sacrificing of sons heretofore in Tophet in the valley of the son of Hinnom They have set up set wayes of worshipping me as were not commanded by me nor ever entred into my heart Therefore the dayes will come saith the LORD that those Places shall not be called by their old names but places of slaughter and in them shall be Burials until there be not roome to contain more Then the Carkasses of these Nations shall be meat for the Fowls of Heaven and for the Beasts of the Earth and no man shall fright them away Then also will I cause to cease from the Cities of Great Brittain and from the Streets even of her chief City the voyce of mirth and gladness the voyce of a cheerful Bridegroom and his Bride and the sound of those Musical Instruments wherein ye are now so delighted with all the altar'd Relicks of Superstition Moreover thus saith the LORD a time will come wherein they shall take the bones of your Kings and the bones of your Princes as it lately befell to others and the bones of your Priests and Prelates and the bones of your Prophets who seduced you and the bones of the Inhabitants of your chief City out of their Graves and spread them before the Sun and Moon and before the Hoast of Heaven and before the face of those false gods whom you have loved served walked after sought and worshipped and they shall never be gathered together nor buried but be as dung upon the face of the Earth And death shall be rather chosen then life of all those who remain of this evil Family wheresover they remain in the places whither I have driven them saith the LORD of Hoasts Thou shalt say thus likewise unto them Thus saith the LORD shall they fall and not rise Shall they cause him so to turn away from them that he shall not return If not why then is this People slidden back by a perpetual backsliding holding fast their deceit and refusing to return I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repenteth himself perfectly of his wickedness saying what have I done but every one runneth on in his course as the Horse rusheth into the battel They are more brutish than the brute Creatures for the Stork knoweth her appointed time the Turtle the Crane and the Swallow know the time of their coming but my People know not the Judgement of the Lord yet they say We are wise and the Law of the LORD is with us yea they boast as if they were the most glorious and best reformed Church of Christ upon Earth The remainder of this Prophetical rebuke and Invitation to Repentance I leave to be perused in the said prophesie of Jeremiah and applyed by every Reader as GOD shall give him understanding that the Mystical Balm of Gilead therein mentioned may be timely sought after and that Physitian found by whom our Maladies may be cured To which purpose I will proceed with what I have more to say in order to the making you desirous and capable of receiving benefit by that Universal Gospel which the Angel flying through the midst of Heaven was to Preach to every Nation Kindred Tongue and People throughout the World and after a more general reception thereof it being that which will destroy the whole Mystery of Iniquity Root and Branch the Angel next immediately following will bring tidings that Babylon is fallen This foregoing Branch of the Prophet Jeremies Commission being as it were by way of Exemplification delivered out to me upon the occasion aforesaid I was internally moved to publish it to these Nations in this my Generation as I have now done this day And I have performed it warrantably with a good Conscience because I am infallibly assured that it was recorded for all Nations and Generations to the end of the World as well as intended for the Inhabitants of Judah in Jeremiahs dayes and that it ought to be applyed to all those

who are found guiltie of the same or of the like Prevarications and this I believe in regard he who doth nothing in vain would not have preserved during so many Ages this Record of his Judgements and of the particular passages between him and his People and caused it to have been so dispersed throughout the Earth had it not concerned all his People in all Times and Places Therefore it evidently appearing unto me that GOD moved me to apply it to these Nations I have accordingly made Application in this manner conceiving it will operate the more effectually by being expressed in the Prophets own powerful words sense and much better heeded and regarded then in mine onely or if it had been undertaken by my own Premeditated Design though I have seen enough to warrant the justness and necessity of making such an Addresse upon a morral account I have not hereby charged upon these Nations any transgression which was charged upon the Inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem by the Prophet Jeremiah nor any Prevarications resembling their sins or to them equivolent but such as GOD my own Conscience and most men know or may know these Nations are guilty of nor do I exclude my self out of that number which needs Repentance but have performed my duty faithfully without respect or disrespect of Persons according to my understanding And being conscious that it is my duty so to do I will now by the Authority of those Credentials which GOD hath written in my heart and which are in part publickly shown make use of them in such Immergencies and Contingencies as occur faithfully adding what I believe he hath further Commissioned me to declare so far forth as my Experience and his known Instructions joyntly considered shall indubitably warrant And that is at this time to send out among you an Exhortation to be wary that you still harden not your hearts as in those former dayes of Temptation and Provocation wherein ye provoked GOD's wrath but that you hearken unto his Voice whilst the day of Grace lasteth But alas I am between hope and fear it is almost too late with many For they who are worst have so high a conceit of themselves that there is more hope of meer fooles then of them They think themselves to be safe clear-sighted when they are indeed miserable poor blind and naked they suppose they are setled upon the hill of Sion whereas they are yet but as it were upon the mount Gilboa even in slippery places where they cannot long stand fast For we have almost so generally indulged Oppressions Injustice and Vanities that they seem to be the principal supporters of our Safety Power and Honour yea to be essential to our Lawes and legal Customs as also so great a part of our Revenues the means of our Subsistance that we can hardly live without them Verily break off in due time from your sins and from all the occasions of transgressing Hear repent and turn speedily to the LORD our GOD not presuming nor despairing In the first place I do humbly though I might do it Magisterially beseech you my dear brethren who seeming to be Professors of the Gospel have dissembled or Apostatized or any way given occasion of Scandal be exemplary to others in a signal Repentance For nor your formal nor your former Righteousness will avail if you have Apostatized from it Though not in respect to my words yet for the Honour of GOD whose servants you are thought to be and for your own safety sake repent and turn to the LORD unfeignedly all ye who have hitherto taken the Name of Christ in vain and prophaned it by not living the Life of Christ according to those Doctrines of his which ye have professed nor acting nor suffering constantly according to that honesty and Piety whereof ye made fair outward shewes For many of you have made sordid Gain by a pretended Godliness and like the Religious Whore of whom Solomon speaketh have made your seeming holiness and formal Devotions and Conformities to be Preambles and Brokers to your Avarice and uncleanness There have been very great failings of late in that kind among the best of us so much self-seeking dissembling and Apostatizing that there was little truth in our words or deeds and very great and severe are those chastisements which GOD hath already laid upon us for our transgressions and greater are yet to come if we more heartily repent not All GOD's Judgements afore-mentioned and threatned against Judah by the Prophet Jeremiah might have been prevented by timely Penitence and so may those wherewith we are threatned and these also be quite removed which yet continue But neither our Righteousness in time past from which we have Apostatized shall profit us nor shall our sins which we have heretofore committed damnifie us if we reform our wayes For GOD hath not onely said it but sworn it also by his own Life Ezek. 33. 11 12. c. As I live saith the LORD I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live The Righteousness of the Righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his Transgression nor shall the wicked fall by his wickedness in the day that he turneth from it neither the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be remembred when he committeth Sin without Repentance nor the wickedness of the wicked be mentioned when he forsaketh his Sin but he shall surely live though I formerly said unto him thou shalt surely die GOD who will not be mocked hath begun to execute Judgements at his own House and we prolong and increase them by continuing and encreasing our Trangressions yea and not onely by our little awe of his Judgements but by not rightly considering his Love and by defect of that mutual and hearty love to each other which most essentially denominats us to be Christs Disciples for we have thereby multiplyed our sorrows and Troubles more then all our Adversaries could else have done And though we had no other Oppressors or Persecutors that alone is suffcient if it continue to make us utterly destroy our selves Consider this my dear brethren with what it hath already brought upon us that ye may speedily repent GOD vouchsafe his Grace to assist you therein and to me Perseverance also in unfeigned Repentance and Amendment Repent likewise all ye who say in your hearts There is no GOD and sport away your Salvation by such horrible Imprecations as GOD damn me For though you not onely think but speak and act also as if indeed there was no GOD you will one day find there is one and that he hath several wayes manifested himself unto you both openly and in secret by his Judgements and Mercies upon your selves and others for your example though you will not yet acknowledge it but run on impudently into all manner of impietie and prophaness promising unto your selves Peace when destruction hangs over your

mercy without excepting any who returns unto him by hearty repentance yea he takes all opportunities whereby he may shew Compassion with preservation of his Justice and is so inclinable to Mercy that he oft withholds his Judgments from wicked persons and places for the sakes of a few Righteous men among them though they persecute and seek to destroy them for whose sakes they are preserved and vouchsafes temporal Blessings as he did to Ahab for outside Humiliations He is not as his Enemies do scandalously report of him a hard Master who looks to reap where he sowed not and to gather where he strewed not but so just that he will require no more at any mans hands but according to what he hath given nor punish any one for the sin of another There is no better means for us who are Subjects to live safely in Holiness and Righteousness without fear than to adhere constantly to GOD's Commands without dread of men and to obey our Superiours in obedience to the LORD Nor any surer way for Kings to possess the Thrones of their Kingdoms upon Earth in honour and safety without jealousies than to provide as much as in then lieth that GOD may possess his Throne in the Hearts and Consciences of Men without Rivals and to endeavour to be just as he is just and to be merciful as he is merciful acording to their measure For whatsoever the Parasitical Flatterers of Kings would make them believe they may be more secure from dangers at home abroad by those poor consciencious men who are despised than with twenty times so many Ruffians and God-damn-me's though assisted also by the formal devotions and fained sanctity of superstitious worshippers who seem glorious and powerful in outward appearances I have observed by what Histories testifie that those great Kings and Conquerors of the world to whom GOD heretofore translated the Kingdoms of men from their former possessors when he changed Governors and Governments enjoyed them in peace and honour so long and so far forth as they tolerated the Servants of GOD to worship Him according to their Consciences though they themselves were Heathens and false worshippers The Mercy of GOD leadeth to Repentance and extendeth to and over all his Works This I am warranted to proclaim by vertue of his grand Charter and by his Commissions heretofore issued-out for the comfort and encouragement of every true penitent Believer in the days of his fiercest Indignation These are the glad Tydings of the Universal Gospel which caused the Angels to rejoyce and sing at the birth of Jesus Christ this song Glory be to GOD on High On Earth peace good will towards men Let us joyn with that celestial Quire in magnifying of this great Mercy which so much concerns us for it is our noblest Interest and that which most advanceth GoD's Glory Let our Burthen to that Song be Amen Hallelujah Praise the LORD Let us be zealous in defending this Universal Charter and not be seduced by those who seek to abridg itto such a narrowness and to such an uncertainty that if they should be believed we had more cause to howl and lament than to sing This Gospel is the sum and scope of that Testimony which was and is given by those two Witnesses the two Olive Branches and two Candlesticks which stand before the God of the Earth bearing witness against the Beast rising out of the bottomless-Pit who was to war upon them and slay them and leave their Bodies as a dead Letter unburied three dayes and an half in the Streets of the great City until the Spirit of Life from GOD should enter into them and make them ascend up into Heaven in the sight and to the amazement and vexation of their Enemies Therefore they whosoever they be though pretending to be of GOD's Counsel and to be acquainted with his Eternal Decrees shall preach contraty hereto and think they honour GOD by bounding His universal and infinit Mercy deal with Mankind concerning His Charter of General Redemption as many among us now do concerning the Kings late Act of Indempnity and general Pardon pretending thereby to do him honour where●● intends both to his dishonour and disservice It is this mis-understanding and limiting the infinit Love of GOD which hath been the chief occasion of the narrowness of mens love to each other and of much of that discord and bloodshed which hath been in the world For such as men make their Gods to be such will they themselves be in regard as David saith They who make them are like unto them This I adde not impertinently nor by the suggestion of a contentious spirit in opposition to the judgment of others or with an uncharitable censure of those who do yet think otherwise But I have thus in my mode preached it in zeal to GOD's Truth and Glory who sees my heart and will punish me for it if it proceed from any other cause He is perfectly merciful so merciful in his Justice and so just in his Mercy that neither of them infringes the other and hath left us upon record two unquestionable exemplary Evidences which manifest that his Mercy is sincerely intended to every true penitent to be his Consolation when Judgements are epidemical and universal For though he spared not the old world but brought a general flood upon all the ungodly yet he even then spared Noah and his family and when he made the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah an example to wilfull transgressors he then also spared Lot who lived among them and whose righteous soul they had vexed with their filthy and wicked conversation Thus will he likewise deal with all those in all times who have an upright and contrite heart though they have been grievous offenders so far forth as it shall be for his Glory and their eternal happiness Hear and heed this Proclamation for it is of GOD who is pleased in these dayes to preach Mercy by his most contemned Servants and cause them otherwhile to act in such Modes and by such Dispensations as to the world seem ridiculous and as probably he did in most mens eyes when his beloved Son rode meekly through Jerusalem on the foal of an Ass at the time wherein he first came to take a visible possession of his Kingdom upon Earth which humble deportment his now pretended General Vicar and the proud Kings of the Earth would have scorned upon the dayes of their Inauguration Which the Prelats though raised out of the lowest of the people as Jeroboams priests were and though pretending to be the successors of Christs humble Apostles would have disdained to be carried in that meek manner to their Instalments But many other things appearing contemptible to flesh and blood will be permitted ere long to make preparation for the coming of King JESUS whom they scoff at who sit in the Chair of the Scornfull It hath pleased GOD in this unusual manner to make me though unworthy to be his

then Resolved am to lay aside my Pen Yet when I do discover some remain Unfinished I take it up again For when I promise what concerneth none In any manner but my self alone 'T is alwayes in mine own pow'r to dispense With ev'ry such Resolve without offence Then specially when else perhaps I may To GOD my self or others in some way Infringe my Duty by the prosecution Of that unprofitable Resolution For this cause therefore I now think it fit Not only such Resolvings to remit But also by these Presents to declare That whensoere a just Cause doth appear To write or speak or do what I believe GOD may have honour by or Men receive A future benefit I will assay Whilst I have life to do it as I may This Promise binds me and I must confess That if in time to come I shall transgress Against this Resolution there 's in me No pow'r whereby I from it can be free Reprove me therefore if at any time I break this Promise for it is a crime XII Of Governours and Governments and how we ought to demean our selves toward them ALl Pow'r is of the LORD the GOD of Heav'n And Man hath none but that which he hath giv'n To raise pull down to change or innovate In governing a Kingdom or a State Belongs to Him alone and nought to do Have private men but to submit thereto When He a Change hath made whether he hath Vouchsafed it in Mercy or in Wrath. Therefore the Persons or the Government To change I never sought nor had intent But to submit to that what ev'r it be Which GOD was pleased to set over me Both Men and Forms if well compar'd together Do prove so like and so unlike each other That oft the Constitution which at first Appear'd the best becomes at last the worst And as the Elements do change into Each other so the Governments will do According to th' Affections and the Pow'rs Of those who are the present Governours All kinds of Government in some respect Are but one and the self-same in effect And when refined will corrupt agen So long as actuated by meer men Who overswayed by their Lusts and Passions Are alwayes subject to Prevarications And so oft also as the People's sin Compels GOD's Justice to bring Changes in This when the Supream Pow'r was here divided So that some this way and some that way sided Made many Wise-men both in resolution As also in their wayes of prosecution Exceeding doubtfull that a sad Result Might follow in a path so difficult I therefore then endeavoured to adhere To that wherein most Justice did appear When I had cause of doubt and did comply Where I saw with most visibility That Pow'r did then reside For so I thought And still believe I was divinely taught By Precept and Examples and I joyn'd Therein to those who seeming of that mind And judgment did in shew the same profess With zeal and with much conscienciousness And some few doubtless acted to that end Sincerely which the rest did but pretend But I was cozned by the greater part Yet went on in simplicity of heart Till I so far into a snare was run That back I could not go nor further on Without a Mischief or a breach had made Upon that Faith which I engaged had For few I saw pursuing any thing Concerning GOD the People or the King With true integrity to which-soere Of those three they pretended to adhere With whether side soever they then closed Or whatsoever they in shew proposed I saw that either by an open scuffling Or by a politick and secret shuffling Both sides had so the Knaves and Court-cards laid That cheating Games were likely to be plaid And that our Losses who intended best Would be the losing of our Stakes at least Some for Religion did pretend to fight Some for the Royal some for Common-Right But I perceiv'd Self-Interest was that Which principally most men aimed at And had not thereof a bare jealousie For 't was apparant by that Policy With which they prosecuted their Intent What else by them could probably be meant Who jugling with both sides to none were true But as their own advantage might ensue Who siding with one Party sent a Brother A Son or else a Nephew to the other Who mutually did their Designs advance With Correspondence and with Maintenance With Counsels and with Treasure strengthning those Unseen whom they did openly oppose And otherwhile by murdring their own Friends Made bloody passages to their self-ends Thus did they yet some of those now appear In better case than we whose Actings were Most innocent But though we suffer first The better seeming Game will prove the worst For my part though it cost me all I had To keep my Conscience clear a shift I made And am as well contented with my Lot As they are who have by my Losses got Trust rather therefore thine own Conscience then Upon the Counsel of sev'n wiser men For in a dubious path no humane light So well directs us how to walk upright If so far forth as GOD doth means provide We take his Word and Spirit for our Guide Be faithful to the prsent Government That GOD permits to whatsoere intent He doth permit it or what-ere it be For as I said LORD of all Pow'r is He And ev'ry Government is good save when It is usurped by unrighteous men And we must bear it then till he shall please Who laid it on us to vouchsafe us ease Because though He permitteth it our Sin Was that yea that alone which brought it in We may and must endeavour in our places According to those Talents and those Graces Which GOD bestows to offer that which may Help keep them in a safe and Righteous way For their sakes and our own and without fear Speak to that end what we shall know or hear Though they offended be so we apply Our Balm with prudence and sobriety Our seeking to reform it by a course Not lawful will but make it much the worse Whereas if we with patience do attend On GOD he 'l better what we cannot mend Or else with His own hand destroy it quite Ev'n when their Tyranny is at the height These are my Principles These without fear Have kept me and will keep me still who ere Shall govern me and whether Right or Wrong Be done me either little-while or long XIII A Scrap added to the former since the sending of the Authors Remonstrance to the house of Commons THough Liberty I 've lost with my Estate Yet as things are I wonder not thereat Nor marvel that my Poem for which here I suffer to the World must not appear For I confess it speaks not in a strain Which Flatt'rers with esteem can entertain And they by whom I have accused been Would miss their Arm were that in Publick seen Occasion likewise I should not have had Of that advantage which is thereby made