1.17 to 20. 5. These persons thus called together having more light faith and communion with God then formerly they had in the work of the latter dayes and that they are called unto as I conceive they have and laying Jesus Christ the Foundation on which they intend to Build as also consulting with and managing all their Affairs according to the Scriptures as is their judgement founded upon the same Deut. 17 18 19 20. Deut. 4.6 7 8. 2 Tim. 3.16 and not onely theirs but of most of the Friends of the Cause as also assented to by your selves and all the Great Lawyers and all others present at the * Sir Thomas Widdrington having presented your Protector with a Robe afterwards delivered him a Bible and among other expressions said It is a Book of Books and besides other things it conteins in it both Precepts and Examples for good Government Alexander so highly valued the Books of his Master Aristotle and other great Princes other Books that they have laid them every night under their Pillows these are all but Legends and Romances to this one Book a Book to be had alwayes in remembrance I finde it said in part of this Book which I shall desire to read and it is this Deut 17.18 19 20. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priestt and Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of this Law and those statutes to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his Brothren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom he and his Children in the midst of Israel In which words you acknowledge that the Scriptures ought to be the foundation of both the Government and Laws of this Nation which though after this you decline from and therein adde Apostacy to Apostacy yet do justifie all others that shall go on therein and proceed according to Scripture Quualifications for the choice of Rulers according to Exod. 18.21 Hosea 11.12 Speech made by Sir Thomas Widdrington then Speaker of your Petition and Advice Parliament at the second Inauguration of your late General in the Protectorall Government is the duty of all Gods Magistrates to do Having also the concernments and welfare of the Nation upon their hearts more then their own will I hope whilest they are Sitting carry it so self-denyingly graciously and uprightly and with such tenderness towards all fearing the Lord esteeming none because of this or that judgement further then their sincerity and faithfulness to the Cause and Interest of Christ appears and will endeavour to do all things both at home and in other Nations so for the honour of him who is their and our Judge King and Lawgiver as also your own and the Nations real good and likewise with the approbation and consent of the faithful Friends of the Cause to carefully provide for the future well Government of the Nation by the hands of other faithfull Persons against they rise as you will have no occasion if your hearts be sincere and upright with God indeed and have grace to deny your selves to maintain any enmity in your spirits towards them so as to despise reject and turn them out as you did before but will rather encourage rejoyce in and bless God for them And whatsoever your politique shifts and devices may be to avoid it hither you must come at last for without this be done let the foundation you lay as to future Governments and the Persons you call to build thereon in the outward appearance be never so pure or so much for Christ yet it is and you will finde it so but a false Conception a Bed too short a Covering too narrow a Plaister that though it may skin over will not thorowly heal the wound that your Apostacy and treacherous dealing with your Principles hath made upon you for the first foremenoned Cause of the Lords displeasure against you must be taken away or else no sound cure can be expected neither indeed would such as are faithful had they a true understanding of things and did seriously weigh and consider what hath been already and might further be said in this business dare to come in and assist you till this work were done for fear lest the House that in the simplicity of their hearts they would be building should fall upon their heads and the Lords thus dealing with you is no other then according to the usual method he goes in in matters of this nature Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Remember what became of Cain who retain'd his wicked spirit after he slew his Brother Abel Gen. 4. to verse 14. Of the Ongregation of Israel who out of such a spirit as you are acted by would have stoned Caleb and Joshua for opposing their going back into Egypt and pressing them to go on the Canaan Numb 14.23.32.43 Of Corah Dathan and Abiram and the two hundred and fifty famous renowned Princes of the Congregation and the people joyning with them in opposing the spirit of the Lord in Moses and Aaron upon the account with the former and how all these remaining in the wickedness of their spirits in opposition to the spirit of the work of the Lord in his little Remnant in that day must not prosper but their Carkasses fall in the wilderness dye of the Plague fall before their enemy the ground open and swallow Korah and his company up alive Numbers 16.2.31 32. Josephs Brethren who out of the wickedness and enmity of their spirits towards him cunningly endeavoured all they could to make him away and sold him into Egypt must lay aside their enmity and own and acknowledge their iniquity therein to him and beg pardon for the same or else no peace or prosperity for them could be expected Gen. 50.17 to 21. Ephraim and Israel having committed whoredom Begot strange Children Revolted from and Dealt treacherously against the Lord as you have done and the Lord having rebuked them and threatned that they should fall in their iniquity that he would be as a moth and rottenness to them as he hath hitherto been to you yet they went on and the Text sayes would not frame their doings to turn unto their God because the spirit of whoredoms was in the midst of them as it is with you but instead of returning to the Lord in a right manner as to the very thing wherein they had displeased him It is said When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb as you have
Isa 60.22 I the Lord will hasten it in his time And could believe no other but that those late wonderfull Revolutions and Overturnings did loudly call upon them to be looking out that way and to be considering what was next to be done by them in order to a further going on with the Lord as Instruments of his pleasure in the bringing forth these things And knowing very well that the Lord eminently owned his people and his presence was wonderfully with them whilest there was a zealous pressing after Righteousness and strong endeavours used by some among you and in the Army to get the most godly faithful men into all places of Trust in the Army Navy and elsewhere who would brow beat and punish wickedness and countenance and endeavour to promote goodness and good men and that nothing prosper'd and went on to purpose till this blessed course and way was taken Witness the Victory obtained by the Eastern Association Sectarian so called Horsemen chiefly and Foot at Marston Moor against Prince Rupert and his Army Also after the New Moddel at Naseby Fight Afterwards in the West Then at Preston in Lanckashire against Duke Hamilton and the Scottish Army The subduing of Ireland and Scotland The Fleet also beating the Dutch and so on till the last Battel at Worcester They were very much carried forth to desire and endeavour that all things for the future might run in that channel without which they were considently perswaded as well they might that the Lords former presence would not be with our Councels and Forces as it was before but would forsake them Now there being at that time a Corrupt Malignant Neutral Presbyterian party among you in the House as there hath been all along and was to the very day of your Second Dissolution who were unsuitable to the work you were called to do and that knew not * Let the Army beware of this Joseph but rather closed with wicked men and enemies they did so oppose and hinder that the Righteousness and Justice and putting faithful men into places of Trust so greatly desired and promised could not be effected as it ought to be Insomuch that when the late General Cromwel came from Worcester several persons eminent for Godliness of the Congregations in and about London and others came to him Desiring that he would employ his utmost endeavours to get you to improve the great Mercies and Victories which the Lord had bestowed upon us as also to answer the expectations of his people in doing the good things promised In answer to which he replied beside other as bad expressions of you That there was no more hopes of drawing on the Parliament thereunto meaning you then was of making a bar of iron become a Lute string and desired that they with the Congregations to which they did relate would seek unto the Lord to know his pleasure in what was to be done and to let him know what upon such seeking should be set upon their hearts whereof you shall hear more afterward And would likewise say of you at other times that there was not above five or six of you in the House which more plainly appeared in your second sitting that had either a heart or minde to do any good thing which words were occasioned by several other good people who came to him for help complaining That they had waited upon you day after day till their hearts aked their legs were weary and they almost undone and could get little or nothing from you but a company of fair promises Others saying That when you did any thing for them it was for the most part so long first that they had almost as good have been without it And was it not too much so in your second sitting Many also were the complaints of the Countrey people and others against you upon the same account some of them saying That you were a company of corrupt self-seeking persons that minded your own Interest more then any thing else which they said was manifested by giving and receiving gifts to and from one another out of the Spoils of the Enemy that ought to have been brought into the Lords Treasury for the discharging of Publick Debts and the further carrying on of his work withall And that you preferr'd your Kindred Relations Friends Servants and Flatterers whether wise men or fools honest men or knaves into places of Trust and so it was in your second sitting witness Nedham and others contrary to the Qualifications so much pretended to in that day wherefore you being acted by such a corrupt self-seeking spirit little or no good at all could be expected from you All which being too sadly known to the forementioned good people of the several Congregations they proposed to the General c. as being the result of what was set uptheir hearts after seeking the Lord. That a short time of six moneths or thereabouts might be put to your sitting and that in the interim care might be taken for the Qualifications of persons to be elected to succeed in the Government which might be furnished by the Lord for the further carrying on of his work which you had not enough of * Were you not as short of spirit for the work in your second sitting as before spirit nor it seems of honesty to go on in withal And to say the truth upon this account among other the like things that might be mentioned was there a general out-cry amongst most of the friends of the Cause in the three Nations for a New Representative as so called in that day and for your Dissolution the Generall as you have heard by himself together with the Officers of the Army as well as others complaining of you and both privately and publiquely among themselves and elsewhere breathing out their desires for your Dissolution and that such faithful persons might come into the Power as would indeed bring forth the good things promised as may more plainly appear in a Letter sent by the Officers of the Army in England to Lieutenant General Fleetwood in Ireland after you were dissolved shewing the reasons thereof signed by Major General Lambert Major Generall Disbrow Commissary Generall Whaly Major General Harrison Collonel Saunders Collonel Hacker Collonel Rich Captain Farley Major Packer Major Wiggan and others As also in a Speech made by General Cromwel in his own and in the names of the Officers of the Army to the Members of the Little Parliament in the Council Chamber before their Sitting likewise shewing the grounds and necessity of their dissolving you and by way of encouragement to them to sit in both which are several Particulars laid to your Charge with which whosoever shall compare your late spirit and actions it will very plainly appear that you were rather worse in your late second sitting then in the time of your first I shall first begin with the * Both the Letter and Speech may be seen in a Book called
other things declares plainly you would have dealt as deceitfully in the business of the Representative you were lately about had you not been dissolved a second time But I forbear to mention any further at present though very much more might be spoken in manifestation that your spirit in your second Sitting was worse in every particular then in the time of your first deceitfully with the General and the Officers of the Army in saying you would endeavour to suspend proceeedings with the Representative the next day till you had a further Conference with them and yet for all this did you that very day proceed with all the eagerness you could and had almost finished it and brought it to that issue with that haste that it had never been before unsafely and dishonestly leaving out the things that did necessarily relate to due Qualifications and resolved to make it a paper Bill not to ingross it that so in a cheating manner you might make the quicker dispatch of it thus to have thrown away all the Liberties of the Nation into the hands that never bled for it and therefore for the preservation of the Cause they say they thought it their duty not to suffer it and upon this the House was dissolved Thus far is charged upon you in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament This we tell you speaking to the Little Parliament that so you may know that what hath been done in dissolving this Parliament was as necessary as the preservation of this Cause and that necessity that led us to do that hath brought us to this issue of exercising an extraordinary way and course to draw your selves together upon this account that you are men who know the Lord and have made observations of his marvellous dispensations and may be trusted with the Cause c. In which words of the General and Officers of the Army to the Little Parliament thus laid before you is given a perfect Character and Description of the then and may it not too truly be said the late frame of your Spirits and what you would not do as to a more thorow carrying on his Work and Cause as also what with all haste you were doing against it with several other things too truly laid to your Charge contained in this Speech and that upon the accompt of these things you were dissolved Now what ever the design of the then General Major Gen. Lambert and some other of his Machevilian politick Officers and Assistants was in dissolving and thus casting durt upon you the Lord and themselves best knows who doubtless in his own time will and hath begun to do already discover and bring all the hidden works of darkness and secret wicked things to light yet there then was and as by after actions also did appear very evident grounds to believe and say it chiefly was to make way and as a stirrup to get into the Power themselves and therefore though it was unrighteously and wickedly done as to them yet doubtless as just and righteous in the sight of God considering the forementioned evils laid to your charge as was formerly the sifting and purging your House to hinder the personal Treaty and upon other accounts or beheading the late King and casting out his Monarchy for his Tyranny and dissolving the last Parliament as enemies to and opposers of the Cause of God and his people that so your selves or better then you might come into their places both of which according to mans Law and the old almost ruined Constitutions of this Nation are judged lawful Powers as well as your selves And although it be granted there was a deceitfull treacherous spirit which lay like a serpent under the grass in the bottom of this action in some of the Army who pretended to be either the stone it self mentioned * See page 43 of the forementioned Book Dan. 2.44 or at least to have had somewhat of the spirit of it So was there likewise at the same time an honest single sincere spirit among some of the Army the Navy the Churches and good people of the Nation who were indeed for the work and will erelong be found had then and yet have the true spirit of the stone in some measure both planted and abiding in them who did very much approve of and rejoyce in your being dissolved and that upon the forementioned too true account given by the General and Officers of the Army as is manifested in the latter end of the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament page 45. of that Book in the following words Sayes he All that I have to say in my own and in the names of my Fellow Officers who have joyned with me in this work that we shall commend you to the Grace of God and to the guidance of his Spirit having thus far served you or rather our Lord Jesus Christ in it we as we hope and shall be ready in our stations according as the Providence of God shall lead us to be subservient to the work of God and the Authority which we reckon God hath set over us And although we have no formal thing to present you with to which the hands and outward visible expressions of the hearts of the Officers of the three Nations are set yet we may say for them and we may say also with confidence that our Brethren at Sea with whom neither in Scotland nor Ireland nor at Sea hath any Artifice been used to perswade their approbation to this work yet we can say that their consent and affections hath flowed into us beyond our expectations and we may say with all confidence that we have had their approbation and full consent ☞ unsought indeed to the other work to wit in dissolving of you so that you have their hearts and affections in this and not onely they but we have very many papers from the * Whatever Churches or other Persons they were that closed with former Declarations or thus freely sent in their papers or otherwise spake in approbation of your first Dissolution for not doing the good things promised as also approved of the Call of the Little Parliament in order to the doing of them and yet afterward closed with and abetted the Protectoral Government which was raised up upon the ruines of the honest part of the Little Parliament on purpose to hinder their doing those good things have turn'd their backs upon the Cause of Christ as well as the Army and ought to repent of their great evil in so doing as well as they Churches of God thorowout the Nation wonderfully both approving what hath beene done in removing obstacles that is in removing of you and approving what we have done in this very thing to wit in calling the Little Parliament In all which together with the forementioned particulars of your Charge contain'd in that Speech and Letter is set forth the matter of fact that was against you together with the righteous
judgement that for the saving of the Cause there was an absolute necessity to pass upon you and also how most of the good people in the Army Navy and Churches c. in the three Nations did both approve of and rejoyce therein And to say the truth there was but very few compared with the others who might then truly be said were Friends to the Cause that were dissatisfied whose dissatisfactions were not meerly because you were dissolved and the other chosen in your stead for they also complain'd of you and desired a New Representative as well as others but that it was done in such a manner as in their then apprehensions not onely made way for the General to take the Power himself but also tended to pluck up by the very roots the old way of chusing Rulers by the whole Bulk or Body of the people which they called and formerly was so the Legall Foundations which was then in their judgements and still is of some of them who understand no better how to follow the Lord in his overturning dispensations the onely legal and best way for the choice of Rulers So that all things considered setting aside the forementioned dissatisfactions of some which was onely as to the manner but not to the matter of your being dissolved which signifies little or nothing at all as to the clearing of you it plainly appears that for your unfaithfulness in and unfitness for your stewardship and not thoroughly improving the Talent which was then committed to you for God and his People you were both by his Providence and their Approbation and Consent justly laid aside Insomuch that if the now true friends of the Cause had either Light and suitable thereunto a sincere upright courageous single and lively Spirit for Christ and Righteousness as they ought to have and as the Saints shall have when the Law shall go forth of Zion to follow the Lord in his Overturning dispensations who as he hath formerly and in our Day so hath promised for the future safely to lead his People on in his work in wayes they have not gone with their feet Isa 41.2 And to bring the blinde by a way they know not and lead them in paths that they have not known c. Isa 42.16 Would lay aside the excrementitious outside shell or notion of things relating to a further carrying on of the Cause in its purity to wit the spirit of the Nation or whole body of the People which the Lord by a continued series of providential Dispensations because of the malignity of their spirits against his Cause and People hath one time after another cast out and witnessed against and on the other hand would look into the very spirit kernel and substance of things relating thereunto to wit the spirit of the good People who have gone on with the Lord in his work to this very day who desired consented and approved of your being then laid aside you were really clearly deservedly and justly cast out and to say the truth had not from that time to the very day of your second Call nor have not now the least â—â—ght to sit again upon the former account which I am perswaded the Lord in due time will make manifest notwithstanding through the short-sightedness though I trust simplicity of some friends who desired and were instrumental therein you might be called to sit a second time and possibly by your selves it is apprehended that there we went out of the way at first and therefore must there begin again But if I know any thing of the minde of God as I trust through his Grace I do by the observations that I have made of his footsteps in the carrying on of his work hitherto amongst us you are all mistaken and I know you will finde it so which I doubt not but clearly to manifest in that which follows For although we had many Deliverances and Victories and the Lord eminently blest us with success and our dread was upon our Enemies both at home and abroad whilest you were sitting especially towards the latter end yet be it known unto you it was not purely for your sakes considered as you were a Parliament in the Bulk but as there was a sincere single honest spirit according to their then light acting for Christ his Cause and Interest in some among You in the Army and also in the Nation which I conceive will be granted by every discerning person who was upon the place and made observation of things and which the late General Cromwell and his then Officers do also acknowledge in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament Page 27. of that Book in the following words Sayes he After divers turnings of Affairs it pleased God much about the midst of the War to winnow the Forces of this Nation and to put them into the hands of men of other Principles then those that did engage at the first c. Those strange windings and turnings of Providence those very great appearances of God in crossing the designs of men to wit Hollis Stapleton and the men of that spirit among you and in the Army that he might raise up a contemptible company of men not verst in Military Affairs nor having much natural propencity to them through the owning a * If the General and Officers of the Army had kept close to the practice of this honest Principle those Officers he hath left behinde him and their pretended faithful brethren lately imprisoned in Scotland had not been served such a Monckish treacherous trick as now they are but they that deal treacherously with their Principles as also stand by and assist whilest their Brethren are imprisoned for their faithfulness thereunto it is just with the Lord to suffer or appoint others to deal treacherously with them Principle of Godlines which so soon as it came to be owned and the state of Affairs put upon that foot of Account how God blest them and all their undertakings by the raising up of that most improbable despicable contemptible means for that we must for ever own you very well known c. He goes on Page 27 28. The issues of those successes that God was pleased to give this Nation were very great things brought about besides the Dints that were upon those Nations and places where they were carried on even in the Civil Affairs to the bringing Offenders to Justice the state of this Government to the Name at least of a Commonwealth the searching and sifting of all Places and Persons the King removed and brought to Justice and many great ones with him The House of Commons the Representative of the People of England winnowed sifted and brought to a handful c. All which great things were instrumentally brought forth by the honest Party after the many strivings and contendings with a Malignant Rigid Presbyterian Neutral Corrupt Party among you as the then General and Officers also confess in Page 28. of that Book Sayes
he As the effect of that memorable Year 1648. was to lay the foundation of bringing Delinquents to punishment so it was of the Change of the Government although it be true if we had time to speak the carriages of some in Trust in most eminent Trust was such as would have frustrated to us the hopes of all our undertakings had not God miraculously prevented I mean by that closure that would have beèn endeavoured with the King whereby we should have put into his hand all that Cause and Interest we had opposed and had nothing to have secured us but a little piece of paper c. Which clearly confirms what I have said that the Lord blest us with success in our Councils and Forces as there was a sincere spirit acting for the Cause and Interest of Christ in that day and no otherwise his free grace onely excepted For when you were dissolved and the Little Parliament called there was a greater presence of God with them a terrour upon the enemy both at home and abroad especially upon the Lawyers National Clergy and all other corrupt Interests as also the hearts of most of the true friends to the Cause more rejoycing then in the time of your sitting But I let that pass and shall in the next place in some measure discover the mystery of iniquity that lay in the bottom and was working in Transactions after you were dissolved wherein lies the corrupt fountain or spring though unseen by most people from whence the late Apostacy had its rise which so caused the forementioned presence of the Lord to depart from our Councills and Forces and exposed us to the reproach and scorn of our enemies both at home and abroad and also occasioned the late distractions and divisions as between the true so the true and false professours amongst us and is as it were the pin and hinge on which all the confusion and dark apprehensions of things have had their dependance and moving from that time to this very day and is as follows For after you were dissolved and the Little Parliament were about to be chosen besides what was spoken to your selves and was desired of you by the General and Officers of the Army to wit That you would divolve your trust over to Persons of Honour and Integrity that were well known men well affected to Religion and the Interest of the Nation c. He also declared in the presence of Major Gen. Lambert Sir Gilbert Pickering Major Gen. Harrison Mr. Cradock Mr. Lockyer and others who were in a private consultation about that choice That if there were one man more faithful to the Saints and more suited to the work then another and that had not been left behinde in former dispensatious by the blessing of God he should be chosen and that Relations and all others not thus qualified should be rejected and that from this Scripture which was then mentioned by the party to whom these words were spoken to wit Hosea 11.12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies and the House of Israel with deceit but Judah yet ruleth with God and is faithful with the Saints The first part of which Scripture he and his Officers applied to you in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament page 38. of that Book viz. That like Ephraim and Israel you had compassed God about with lies and deceit to wit with your Fastings and Thanksgivings and other exercises yet did not do the good you were call'd for which they had all cause to lament of but the Little Parliament were called by God to be faithfull with the Saints who were somewhat instrumentall in their Call and to be just ruling in the fear of God c. Which principle was more publickly though hypocritically declared by them in that Speech page 41. of the forementioned Book sayes he to them I confess I did never look to see such a day as this it may be nor you when Jesus Christ shall be so * If Christ indeed be King of Nations as well as of Saints as surely he is and as the Officers of the Army have both here and elsewhere acknowledged him to be and the Little Parliament was called to act upon his foundation and to do all things in his Name upon an avowed account as their Judge King and Law-giver as these their words import And the Lord by his eminent presence with and refreshing the spirits of such as were faithful among them as also rejoycing the hearts of his faithful people and striking a terror upon the enemy whilest they were sitting and endeavoured to be acting according to that blessed spirit and principle gave testimony thereunto and the Spirit of the Lord and his faithful people grieved and his presence as also their prayers withdrawn and the Nation almost ruined since they were rejected and the Lord so wonderfully overturned and blasted the designs of whatever had enmity to and was set up after it and seems by those his overturning dispensations not to be pleased till those who have dealt thus treacherously return to the real practice of this their declared principle and to own that Spirit they have so rejected Then whosoever it is that shall be either laying or building upon any other foundation or be promoting any persons into power on this side of it though never so refined do set down short of what the Lord in that day had brought us unto and are in the apostacy still and must be overturned as well as your selves and all others that have gone before them own'd as he is this day and in this world Jesus Christ is owned this day by you all and you own him by your willingness in appearing here and you manifest this as far as poor creatures can to be a day of the power of Christ by your willingness I know you remember that Scripture Psal 110.3 The people shall be willing in the day of thy power God doth manifest it to be a day of the power of Jesus Christ Having through so much Blood and Trials as have been upon these Nations made this to be one of the great Issues thereof to have a People called to the Supreme Authority upon such an avowed account God hath owned his Son by this and you by your willingness do own Jesus Christ c. I confess I did never look to see such a sight as this We have not allowed our selves in the Choice of one person of whom we had not this good hope that there was faith in Jesus Christ and love to all the Saints and thus God hath owned you and by your comming together have you owned him c. And towards the latter end of that Speech Book page 43. he further saith unto them Truly seeing things are so that you are at the edge of the Promises and Prophesies at least if there were neither promise for this nor prophesie you are to be coveting after the best things endeavouring after the best things and
as I have said elsewhere If I were to chuse the meanest Officer in the Army or Commonwealth I would chuse a godly man that hath Principles especially where Trust is to be committed for I know where to have a man of Principles I believe if any of you should chuse a servant you would do so and I would all our Magistrates were so chosen that may be some effects of this it is our duty to chuse men that fear the Lord to praise the Lord yea such as the Lord forms for himself and he expects not praises from others c. In all which are good words spoken and principles laid down as if he and his Officers fully intended to persevere in the practice of them but may not the true Friends of the Cause to the great grief and sadness of their spirits say of them as the Lord concerning Israel of old Deut. 5.28 29. They have well said all that they have spoken but oh that their hearts and tougues had gone together that there had been indeed such a heart in them as in sincerity to have kept to the real practice of those blessed principles then had it been well with them and with the poor Nation upon that account But notwithstanding these golden words and pretences the Lord my self and others knows that there was at the same time yea some time before these words were spoken as in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman or in the spirit of Saul and his followers against the spirit of David and his followers so a spirit of enmity and hatred secretly lodging in the breasts of the then General Major Gen. Lambert Major Gen. Disbrow Sir Gilbert Pickering Coll. Whaly Coll. Goff Dean Owen so called and others against several of those honest men who were afterwards turned out of the Little Parliament who were faithful Friends to the Cause of God and indeed above others and that upon Scripture grounds for the Advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and most suited to those good things which the General and Officers in the foregoing Speech do seem so much to press after whose principles they seemingly most owned and whose assistance they greatly desired pretending to be of one heart with them in the dissolving of you and choice of the other yet for no other cause then their pressing to be acting up to these principles in reality and power was this enmity against them which will afterwards appear so plainly as he that runs may read it For notwithstanding the forementioned pretences and promises of chusing none but what were faithful with the Saints and most suited to the work yet was there such persons who were of a contrary spirit and principle purposely chosen and packt together viz. Coll. Montague Coll. Barton Coll. Mathews Sir William Roberts Alderman Tichborn and others and those the greater number as that when the forementioned good things came to be done and the remaining more refined oppressions which lay upon the good people and others to be taken away they did so oppose and hinder the honest party in the House that very little or nothing at all could be done for them the General Ma. Gen. Lambert and the forementioned persons secretly owning of and holding a Correspondency with this corrupt Party all the while which was such unheard of juggling deceit and wickedness that when I most seriously and thorowly set my self to consider of it I cannot but cry out with a holy detestation and abhorrency in my spirit both of it and them and say Oh! the Hypocrisie Treachery Villany Wickedness and abominable unrighteousness that lies hid in the bottom of the late and present Apostacy and that surely the Lord who loveth righteousness and hates iniquity and every false way will not let so great and not to be parallel'd wickedness pass unpunisht without some more eminent publick repentance for the same then hath yet been * If this wretched envious spirit did not yet remain would they since your second Dissolution have been so forward to take into their New Council Lawrence Strickland Tichborn Hewson Clark and others of that corrupt part of the Litttle Parliament who left the House and went to deliver up their pretended power to the General upon which he was made Protector and promoted and abetted the late Apostacy and do what they can as it were to stave and keep off the faithful Friends of the Cause who are well known to be men of integrity and well affected to the Interest of the Nation which your not endeavouring to divolve the Trust in your hands upon was one of the great grounds why they pretendedly dissolved you The Lord who wil not be mocked nor his faithful people whom both you and they have cheated and dealt unrighteously and hypocritically with all will not long bear such wicked actions at their hands manifested by them and it will be well for them if the aforesaid enmity to the true spirit of their forementioned profest and declared principles and to these very persons and others like them who through grace in some measure are endued therewith doth not yet remain untaken away for herein in a great measure will lye the contest for the future for either this hypocritical self-seeking treacherous envious spirit in the remaining Officers of the Army that have now power in their hands must be put away and they really united to what they have so greatly profest and declared and what they have so pretended to dissolve you for nor doing of which they have not been to this very day or else there will be no peace from the Lord and his faithful people with them and all their shrowding themselves under your wasting decaying wing had you been sitting or under a power that is more refined then you if short of the spirit they have so rejected and as it were crucified and endeavoured to keep down in the grave as the Souldiers did Christ in the dayes of his Humiliation can save them from the wrath of God and the Lamb and his faithful followers I shall now return to speak a little further how and for what cause it was that the forementioned presence of the Lord departed from and went not forth to own and prosper the Councells and Forces of this Nation as before As I said before when you were dissolved and the Little Parliament called upon the avowed account of the Son of God and to be acting upon his foundation as he is King of Nations and to do all things in his Name as their and our King Judge and Law-giver Isa 33.22 as you may see by the forementioned Speech they were called to do and the persons of the aforesaid honest spirit and principle who for some time till the fish was caught and the bird taken were seemingly owned were labouring as it were in the very fire to bring forth in reallity what the General and his Officers so pretended to in words and to own
and preserve the honest Interest and taking away all the remaining * Among other Acts and Votes that past whilst this honest Party fat they prevailed for the passing of these four hereafter mentioned First for abolishing and taking away the Court of Chancery wherein was depending 23000. Causes some of them having lain there five some ten some twenty some thirty years and more to the utter undoing of many Families The second Vote for a New Body or Moddel of the Law then and now so greatly desired by good people which your not doing of was one other reason of your Dissolution A third Vote the taking away the Power of Patrons to make Presentations to Church Livings The fourth was that Innocent Negative Vote of not agreeing with the report of the Committee for Tythes touching what they offered as the best way to eject ignorant prophane and scandalous Ministers upon which presently followed the Dissolution of the House See a Book written by L. D. otherwise Mr Barhone then a member of that House sold at the Crown in Popes head Alley and worthy your taking notice of oppressions lying upon the bodies and Consciences both of them and others not onely the same but a greater presence and glory was with and upon our Councils and Forces our terrour upon the Enemy both at home and abroad and the hearts of most of the true Friends to the Cause of Christ and the Commonwealth more rejoycing then in the time of your first sitting yea the very Nations were angry and began to be wondering and looking after the things that were coming upon them as they shall more eminently be and do when the Spirit of Life from God shall enter into the Lords faithful people to revive that spirit which in these persons was afterwards as it were trampled upon cast out and crucified according to Rev. 11.11 18. So also the Lawyers Clergy and all other corrupt Interests to wit the Adonijah false spirit of Magistracy and Ministry in these Nations were almost at their wits end for fear their Corruption Bribery Dilatory proceedings in Law suits Double Fees Taking Fees from both parties c. A Coercive power over their Brethren Consciences Tythes of all kinds Power of haling their Parishioners before Magistrates Casting them into Prisons Seizing upon their Goods and Forcing them to pay treble Dammages for non-payment of Tythes and great Riches they gain'd upon this account would cease and be utterly taken away and were ready to faint and cry out as the more wicked Children of their dear Lady Mother Mystery Babylon the great Whore and mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth both in the Magistracy and Ministry thereof shall certainly and more eminently do in the latter dayes according to Revel 18. And seeing no other way to help themselves By their Emissaries and Agents such as Whitlock * And it may too truly be suspected that the same dark lanthorn spirit and most of the same persons are now at work with some of the Grandees of the Army as in the time of your first Dissolution labouring as for life to keep such faithful men from coming into power as will suffer no custom or practice though never so specious in the outward pretence that is Oppressive and without warrant in Scripture to lie upon the Bodies or Consciences of the Lords people Which forementioned persons and others of that spirit have been and are the great Incendiaries as was formerly Strafford Cottington Canterbury Wren and others in their day and I am very much out of the way if they leave not off but persist in this wicked underhand opposing the work of the Lord that the wrath and judgement of God and his people will break forth against them as against the former St. Johns Lisle As also Philip Nye afterwards Metropolitane Tryer at White Hall Deane Owen Doctor Tho. Goodwin so called and others they repair to the then General and some of his Officers and to a Corrupt party in that Little Parliament pack'd beforehand for such a purpose crying out as it were for help which General c. were as willing to receive and hearken to them as they to come for that the aforesaid honest Party in the House did also strike at their self-seeking and corrupt Interests and were labouring to bring the great Officers to serve the State which was so impoverished a Year without pay as also would render them very cheap and have their persons no further in admiration then as they honoured the Lord and their sincerity to the Cause and Interest of Christ appeared Wherefore the forementioned corrupt persons being so well agreed their Case also being alike desperate and knowing right well they could expect no better at their hands being thus greatly afraid as they are to this day according to Isa 41.6 7. They helped every one his neighbor and each corrupt Interest said to his Brother Be of good courage So the corrupt Lawyer encouraged the Clergy-man the Clergy-man the eminent Vniversity man the eminent University man the corrupt self-seeking General and his Officers the General and his Officers with the former the corrupt Party in that Little Parliament who upon a first day Heathen-like called Sunday on which they usually pretend to worship God and compass him about with lies an evill they so complained of in you they held Cabals at Whitchall and the Cockpit to consult the Dissolution of the Little Parliament which being fully agreed and concluded upon the Plot was so laid between them that Sydenham Montague Pickering Strickland Lawrence Clark and others of the corrupt Party must get together betimes the next morning into the House two hours sooner then usually without the honest Parties knowledge and before they could get together and move a resigning or translating their pretended Power to the General that so his after Power and Government might appear with the greater face of Legality and be accepted of by the good people but as early as it was this their wicked Motion met with opposition from the friends of the Cause of Christ who came in unexpectedly upon them insomuch that the Corrupt Party durst not hazard to put the forementioned Motion to the Vote but without either Vote or Adjournment to any other place or time they with their Speaker in all haste go away to White-Hall to deliver up their pretended Power to the General leaving a considerable number of the honest Party behinde them in the House who in a little time after were by that Tyrant and Traytor both to God and Man Coll. Goff and Lieu. Collonel White since drowned coming from Mardike and Musqueteers they brought who are alwayes ready for any villany they are put upon turn'd out of the House thereby thinking and endeavouring so to fasten the Image of their corrupt Interests and therewith all the remaining oppressions lying both upon the Bodies and Consciences of the Lords People with nails that it should not be moved and
thus the business stands between the Officers of the Army and that honest Party of that Little Parliament to this very day In doing which wicked action and therein discountenancing persecuting yea what in them lay as it were crucifying this honest Spirit in these persons who were bringing forth the forementioned good things which the Army so greatly promised declared and pretended to fight for and which you were dissolved for not doing of And the General thus setting up himself upon the Monarchical or Beast-like Foundation so contrary to former Declarations and as it were upon the ruines of the very spirit and principles which he and his Officers but a little before had so greatly pretended to own and be of themselves and also doing the very same yea worse things then for which the late King was beheaded and which they also condemned in you as also Persecuting Imprisoning and Banishing some of the forementioned faithful Friends of the Little Parliament and others of the Lords people and blaspheming the Spirit of the Lord in them saying They were acted by a giddy headed rash fanatick devillish Spirit and this for no other cause then their faithfulness to the Lord in pressing after the good things according to their forementioned declared Principles and opposing the General and his Officers backsliding from them and doing things so diametrically contrary thereunto therein falsifying their Trust and building again what they formerly had destroyed and declared against the Army and all the forementioned corrupt Interests with several Independent and * The good things they desired in those Addresses doth no more excuse their evil in addressing and thereby abetting that Tyrannical Beast-like Government then the Devils bringing Scripture in his mouth excused his wickedness in tempting of Christ some Baptized Churches by their Power Addresses and otherwayes in the mean while countenancing encouraging abetting and upholding them therein by all which the blessed Cause and work of Christ was very greatly stopt and hindered the Spirit of the Lord and his People grieved Now since these with many other wicked things that might be mentioned came to be done by that professing hypocritical generation the forementioned glorious presence that was formerly with you the Little Parliament and their Councils and Forces was withdrawn the courage of the enemy heightned the corrupt Interests before mentioned lifting up their heads and rejoycing according to Rev. 11.10 The Nations abroad contemn and scorn us the lively fresh spirit for the work and Cause of Christ which seem'd formerly to be in the Army very much choaked and lost the hearts and prayers of the remaining faithful Friends of the Cause which were formerly with and for them now grieved and engaged against them by all which the state and condition of this poor Nation was and is very greatly impaired our Land Forces wasted and consumed at Hispaniola Jamaica Mardike Flanders and elsewhere our Shipping lessened and diminished our Stores and Provisions for Sea and Land expended and very much consumed and but very very little or no profit our Magazines emptied Treasures wasted Trade in a very great measure lost and decayed as Tradesmen of all sorts and Shopkeepers many of whom are broken and are breaking every day finde by such sad and woful experience as they never did before nor in the memory of man was the lke ever known or heard of though Mr. Nye Tho Goodwin Dean Owen so called and the Officers and Messengers of above one hundred Congregations in England could tell their late Protector that they and the Nation had not eaten the Bread of Adversity nor drunk the Water of Affliction but had served God in the abundance of all things Very great new debts contracted little of old being satisfied all which sad effects with others that might be mentioned as was said before he that hath but half an eye or that runs may read is the bitter fruit of the Apostacy Treachery and Crucifying the Spirit of the Lord in the Members turned out of the Little Parliament who were bringing forth that Justice and Righteousness which the Army and good People of the three Nations were so greatly engaged in and was no other then what the faithfull Friends of the Cause are calling for in this day and will give the Lord nor them no rest till they do obtain All things going thus contrary to the sinful desires and vain expectations of the upholders and abbettors of this great Apostacy notwithstanding the many helps they had to carry it on yet as if they had been left by the Lord to studdy and procure their further destruction they not onely afresh imprison the Lords faithful people for witnessing against them but also suffer others of them to be haled before Magistrates cast into prisons forced to pay trebble dammages their goods to be seized upon and ten times more taken away then their pretended due came to for not paying of Tythes and this greatly approved of by the then General his Officers and all his worthy Addressors upholding him therein who was once the head of the Sectaries out of a carnal design to draw in the Presbyterian Cleargy to stand by his Interest who since the New Moddel and beheading the late King to this very day it is well known have been enemies to and opposers of the Lords Work and Cause that hath been and is yet further to be carryed on in these Nations Though he and his Officers not long before had as good as acknowledged in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament See Book page 40. 41. that the now Ministry of England as to their then and present standing derived it self and succession through the Papacy and therefore a false succession and none to be the true succession but what was through the Spirit given in that measure the Spirit is given which sayes he Christians are well able to discerne and do And yet for all this contrary to Scripture or Reason forced them to pay such Ministers as they judged were not onely destitute of a work of Grace in their hearts much less of the Spirit for that work but also derived their succession through the Papacy wherein with other things of this nature that might be mentioned it appeared their tenderness was forgotten to the Lords people under several forms as much as yours and that the cause of the people of God was despised by them Thus were things going on one the one hand and some of the Lords faithful people called Sectaries Anabaptists and Fifth Monarchy men by their Faith Prayers Appeals Prophesyings and Testimony against the Apostacy and Abettors of it counterworking and pulling down on the other which honest faithful spirit in them to the Lord his Cause and interest can will never leave working nor overturning till our Lord Jesus Christ comes whose right it is This remnant of witnessing Sectaries so called get ground all the designs and stratagems made use of to quell them and to uphold and strengthen the
Protectoral Beast-like foundation in himself and family were frustrated and came to nothing the Lords faithful people rejoyce the old Protector so called is greatly troubled grows faint his heart as it were falls flat and he dyes I do the rather mention these things that you may the better remember the several steps of providence preceding your second coming into power The light the delight of their eyes the breath of their Nostrils their Moses David great Mordecay and Elijah or rather the most Famous Renowned Prince of their Apostate Congregation who was gotten so far on of his journey towards Zion yet by himself and them through unbelief and a self-seeking self-exalting spirit made their great Captain to return back again into Babylon being thus taken away and therein their head as it were struck from of their shoulders the remaining body of the Apostates to wit the late Council Army Independent Cleargy Tryers and Vniversity men c. either not seeing or rather being ashamed it should be known they saw this their sin of Apostacy from the Cause of Christ and how the presence of the Lord was departed from them upon that account instead of acknowledging the same and returning into the way from whence they had so treacherously and wickedly departed and was the cause of all this evil that was upon them and the Nation they go on like so many blinde Bayards or as a people besotted in their former evil wayes and to mend the matter or lick themselves whole again they set up Richard Cromwel the eldest son of that family upon his deceased Fathers Throne thereby endeavouring what in them lay to confirm and establish the aforesaid Tyrannycal oppressive Power which they had exercised in the life time of his Father who to establish himself more strongly therein he calls a Parliament chosen by the whole bulk or spirit of the Nation as did his father before him without any respect had to those good qualifications which you not being so honest to provide for in the Act of a New Representative you were about in the time of your former sitting was charged upon you as one of the great crimes that it seems would have been committed by you for which they pretended you were dissolved These persons so chosen come together some of whom were friends to a Commonwealth Government in opposition to that of a Single person yet most of these as was in his Fathers Parliaments very short of that * Your unwillingness to divolve your trust over to persons of Honour and Integrity who were well affected to Religion and the Interest of the Nation for the further carrying on of the Cause of Christ was another of the pretended Reasons why the Army first dissolved you and yet afterward as here may be seen they did worse themselves excellent lively spirit for Government and bringing forth of Righteousness which the dispensation that is upon us calls for from Rulers in this our day and these three Nations so that no great good could be expected from them had they not been overvoted by the greater pary that were of a contrary spirit to them The other part of the House which were very much the greater number consisted of persons tainted with both the Old and New Court Interest who like Simeon and Levi brethren in iniquity would alwayes be sure to joyn together against the Commonwealths men and others to hinder whatever tended to advance that interest or way of Government and did strike at the dethroning of their own and of these the Old * Your not endeavouring in the time of your first sitting to keep out Presbyters Neuters and Masignants from coming into Power was another of the pretended Reasons why the Army dissolved you yet therein also as may be seen they did the same themselves I mention these things not to excuse you or in the least to make divisions but that the poor people of God and the Nation may the better see and know how likely they are to be ruined and undone between the Army and you Oh that ever men who have profest to be the Army of the Lamb and such professing men as many of you would be looked upon to be should ever deal so treacherously with the Cause of God and his people as you have done Malignant Neutral and Presbyterian spirit were predominant who endeavoured covertly all they could to bring things to run in the old Malignant Channel and to be laying bonds upon the consciences as well as upon the bodies of the Lords people called Sectaries as also if they had been suffered to go on would have disbanded if not the whole Army yet at least have purged out all therein whom they had judged to have been such factious seditious persons as Sir Arthur Haselrig who then pretended to be a more faithful friend to the honest frinds of the Cause then in this time of your second sitting he hath proved to be and others very well know Things going on in this manner and the Brass Iron and Clay of this Toe of the Image or Horne of the Beast mixing and agreeing no better together and the pretended honest part of the Army so likely to be cast out and as it were undone if things went on so they consult together and conclude that there was nothing would preserve themselves and the honest Interest but the dissolution of that Parliament in order to which they rendezvouz together in their arms the night before in several places of the City and about White-hall Richard Cromwell the then Protector Coll. Goff Com. Gen. Whaly and others of the Army who closed with this corrupt party of that Parliament at the same time endeavouring all they could to draw away a party or all engaged with the other to stand by them fearing that their Kingdom would also be struck at or diminished by this business the pretended honest part of the Army prevail and send to the aforesaid Richard Cromwell a pretended legal Authority desiring him by his power to dissolve that Parliament who sore against his will answered their desire therein whereby they apprehended they were Legally Dissolved This great overturning dispensation being thus brought about the Lords faithful people and all others that may truly be said were friends of the Cause did greatly concurr with and approve of what was done by the Army in procuring the Dissolution of that wretched Parliament and did bless the Lord for the same and likewise desired and greatly pressed after the Dissolution of the Protectoral Government also as that which they formerly in the King and now again so lately in the Protector so called had the too sad experience was Tyrannical and Oppressive and altogether inconsistent with the well being of the people of these Nations and were not without some hopes The Army having but a little before Declared to the world They could not but bewail their great failings and turnings aside and wherein soever they had back-slidden
they desired to take shame to themselves and that they were now as ever equally endeared to the good Old Cause and utter enemies to all Tyranny and Oppression c. but that they would have gone on to endeavour with all their might to have brought things to that perfection and state they were in when the forementioned presence and glory of the Lord was with and upon us to wit either to the choyce of the same or other persons of that honest spirit and principle who were formerly turned out of the Little Parliament who have not since defiled their Garments with the late Apostacy or if they have have repented publickly for the same the departing from and rejecting of which spirit and principle by the then and now builders was the onely chief Cause of the Lords so withdrawing his presence from their Councels and Forces since that time In order to which several faithful friends to the Cause in discharge of their consciences and duty as they then apprehended to serve the Lord in that present juncture of affairs did draw up and by the hands of Major Mallery Lieutenant Collonel Pinchin Captain Cust and others present to Lieutenant General Fleetwood and the General Council of Officers a paper called the Good Old Cause Stated which holds forth that the Army themselves did formerly declare for and approve of that very spirit and principle and such persons to be in Power as is before mentioned and therein was desired Now whether it was that the spirit of the Army which was so deeply drenched and as it were over head and ears in the late Apostacy like old Bottles could not bear the new wine to wit the self-denying spirit in the forementioned persons turned out of the Little Parliament and in others like them that was the reason they were not called again or what the matter was but to be sure if they and the people who called you had been right and clear in their understandings or had had a true hint or taste upon their spirits of that Blessed Excellent Lively Spirit that shall execute the Justice and Righteousness that shall be when the Law shall go forth of Zion and our Lord Jesus Christ and his Saints shall reign in Righteousness Isa 32.1 They would have walked in that matter less by sence and more by faith have trusted God and never called you But so it came to pass that through the darkness and short-sightedness of some of the Friends of the Cause and according to their desires you were called together again to take your former Power as being in the outward appearance the onely visible Legall Authority in the Nation The best expedient to root out the Monarchicall Protectorall Government To raise * Indeed you were very good at raising money and Soldiers to secure your selves and at going to Feasts prepared out of the Orphans money by the carnal vain Magistrates of the City to bribe and blinde you that you might not search into and purge out the foolish apish corrupt practices and oppressive Customs that are amongst them and from framing the Government of the City in the way of a Commonwealth as you had declared the Government of the Nation to be And at voting the continuance of Tythes and therewith your wicked Ordinance for trebble dammages at raising Enemies to the Cause under Collonel Thomson to ballance and put a check upon the faithfull Friends thereof at perpetuating your selves as before by filling up your House with new Members at owning corrupt Interests and preferring corrupt persons into places of Trust contrary to your own Votes and Declarations at discountenancing the business of the friends of the Cause to the countenance of the enemies thereof at dealing deceitfully with the Army and Friends of the Cause as backward to reform the Law as also to divolve the Trust lately in your hand over into the hands of faithful men as formerly you were and as ready to do the same yea worse things then in the severall foregoing Particulars is charged against you But as for the Cause of Christ according to the true intent and spirit of it the Just Civil and Religious Liberties of the good People and providing Persons of a more excellent spirit for Government to promote and bring this forth you understood it not nor laid it to heart no more then the Army and therefore very unmeet to be continued but dissolved as formerly Money And to prevent future War and Bloudshed Maintain the Good Old Cause the Liberties and Freedoms of the good people in the things of God relating to the Conscience until such time as a better Moddel of Government should be found out so that here was your then Second call and Standing by all which it is probable you might apprehend the Lord did own you notwithstanding you retained the same spirit as before and that during the time of your more then six years dismission from your former Power had onely been putting you as formerly Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon to eat grass with the Beasts of the Field Dan. 4.25 or made you as ordinary men that so you might the better understand and know that the most High ruled in the Kingdoms of men and gave them to whomsoever he would thereby to humble and make you better Now seeing you were once more brought together into the Power not called thither by Malignants Presbyterians or the late new Court Party who profess to remain in that spirit but by some of the faithfull Friends of the Cause and the Army who as they say though honest men think otherwise are returned from their Apostacy to do the forementioned good things till such time onely as a better Moddel was found out who in case you answer'd not what you were called for had also the same power to take from you again what they had so committed to you you should not have been high minded but feared and been looking about you and considering whether the same or a worse spirit had not been in you now then formerly and have taken heed of doing the same or worse things that so caused the Friends of the Cause and the Army to complain of you and so greatly desire your Dissolution and a New Representative to come in your places For if during the time of your almost seven years Dismission from your former Power you had only been like unto Nebuchadnezars stump Dan. 4.15 rooting in the earth and bound as it were about with iron and brass and had not repented and broken off your former sins and evils charged upon you by the Army and others and grown better by the shame and affliction of being so laid aside but still remained as at your first Dissolution you could not honestly expect that the Friends of the Cause who called you onely to do those good things which the Army pretendedly dissolved you for not doing of would take it well at your hands or bear you herein because the former glory and
presence of the Lord that was with the Councels and Forces of this Nation is by reason of the late and present Apostacy almost clean departed and we as it were upon our last legs and do well understand some of them at least who are more clear-sighted that it is not barely the name of a Commonwealth Government and a people of a low dull spirit and understanding exercised therein who like so many heavy listless horses put into their gears must either draw or be whipt to it as most of you were in the time of your first Sitting and to the day of your late dissolution But the Righteousness and Justice thereof executed and brought forth with an excellent lively fresh spirit by an humble gracious willing people who have the concernments and wellfare of the Nation upon their hearts more then their own and are tender unto and faithful with all the Saints anointed thereunto by the Lords Spirit which once the Army so greatly pretended to own that will save and exalt these sinking Nations and do see that thither we must come or we perish and therefore if you would not speedily put to your helping hand in this crisis of danger to bring this in but would from time to time as in the time of your first Sitting either continue your selves with your old spirit or not before your rising so provide as to keep out Cavaleers Neuters Presbyters and the late New Court Party from coming into Power for the future as there was very little likelihood you would so many among you having Apostatized from your former Acts Votes and Declarations and fell in with the Protectorall Government nay voted for Kingship again and therein dealt treacherously with the Cause of Jesus Christ and your own Principles as well as the Army you could not expect any other from them and the Army if their hearts were sincere and upright with God indeed as they lately pretended to be but that they would take care to do it themselves though as formerly a desperate disease had a desperate cure And it seems for this very cause among others it was that you were so lately dissolved a second time whereby it very plainly appears that your late call to the Power was not a dispensation from the Lord to manifest we went out of the way in your first dissolution but onely that the necessity and justness thereof might more plainly appear not onely to your selves but to the satisfaction of some friends of the Cause that could not otherwise be satisfied but by the late tryal of your spirits a second time As also that you might be instrumental as the righteous judgement of the Lord upon them to take away the Power Government Splendor and Greatness of that family which was so hypocritically unrighteously and wickedly raised up upon your and the honest part of the little Parliaments ruines though in the outward pretence and shew for better ends and this your work being done to be removed again as before that so a second trial might be upon the spirits of the Army to see whether according to their former and late pretences they would indeed be so honest having so greatly mist it hitherto * The Lord hath one time after another since the Army rejected their profest spirit and principles in casting out the honest part of the Little Parliament as upon Pharaoh of old who would not let Israel go to Canaan Exod. Chap. 7. to Chap. 12. so blasted their designs and thereby plagued and brought them down as they are necessitated for their own preservation to send unto and call upon the faithful Remnant as did Pharaoh to Moses to pray for advise with and come into their assistance as if he would force them to let them go and doubtless will never let them rest till they acknowledge their iniquity and return to walk with more refinedness according to their former honest Principles and thereby Pharaoh-like hindered the Lords faithfull people from going to Zion as to bring in better and more suitable persons then your selves whom they had so greatly complained of into the Government of the Nation to carry on with life and power the blessed Cause and Work of the Lord for the future which both you and they notwithstanding your many high professions have so greatly opposed and dealt treacherously withal I might have been more large in comparing your spirit and actions in your late second Sitting with the forementioned Particulars charged upon you by the Officers of the Army as the grounds and reasons of your first Dissolution and have shewn more fully wherein you were rather worse then in the time of your first Sitting but it being more properly the Armies work to do it for their further vindication who have in the Generall done something therein already in their Plea they set forth for your late Dissolution I shall leave it to them or to some other persons who were more upon the place and could better observe you then my self who had little heart to come where you were upon the forementioned account and shall conclude with I hope a Seasonable Word by way of Counsel and Proposal to the Officers of the Army themselves of whom the true Friends of the Cause have to this day too great reason to say having had such sad and woful experience of their Adulteries from their former honest principles neighings and going a whoring after the accursed thing to wit the Monarchical Tyrannical Power Pomp and Greatness and their great lewdness and abominations therein committed yea greater then for which the late King was beheaded and they also pretended to dissolve you a first and second time and yet like the Whore Prov. 30.20 wipe their mouths as if they had done no wckiedness But are now as ever equally endeared to the Good Old Cause and utter enemies to all Tyranny and Oppression when as the Lord and his people yea the carnal people of the Nation knows it is not so As the Lord concerning Jerusalem of old Jer. 13.27 O Army Army will you not be honest sincere upright deny your self-Interest and Greatness and he in reality what you have so greatly profest Will you not return from whence you are fallen and so truly be said to repent must you needs ruine the Nation by your continuing to go on in your Apostacy and Wickedness will you not be clean when shall it once be A Seasonable Word by way of Counsel and Proposal to the Officers of the Armies of England Scotland and Ireland YOu may by reading over the foregoing Word to the Remaining Members of the Long Parliament lately sitting at Westminster whom you have now dissolved a second time as it concerns you so to do take notice of almost all the most considerable circumstances relating to the Blessed Cause and Work of Christ that you and the good people of this Nation have been so long engaged in and upon what account it was that the Lord so
the ease of the people you turned them out on purpose to hinder them from bringing what they had so voted and were going on to do unto perfection And after this illegally and dishonestly imprisoned and banished some of the aforesaid honest Members of the Little Parliament and others of the faithful friends of the Cause without any thing laid to their charge seeing the face of an accuser or bringing them to a legal Tryal which is worse then was done in the Kings dayes As also sent Alderman Chiverton then Lord Major now one of your Commissioners for the City Militia and Alderman Robbinson the then Sheriff two reputed Malignants with their Malignant City Marshals the acquaintance and confederates of the late Mall Cutpurse and her Crew to hale others of the forementioned friends of the Cause from their Meeting-place in Colemanstreet when they were seeking the Lord and pleading for his Righteous Cause and witnessing against your Apostacy from it and to cast them in prisons to make them give over and afterward set the then Chief Justice Glyn one of the Eleven Members formerly impeached by your selves of Treason as also Alderman Tichborne and others of your now new Council of Safety and Commissioners of the Militia to try and pass Sentence upon them who though the Jury had cleared them yet to satisfie your lust and please you for their own advantage they illegally laid Fines upon * viz. Cornet Day and John Clark two of them and kept them in Newgate above half a year after at great charges and when the judgements and overturning dispensations of the Lord came upon you and took away the light of your Eyes breath of your Nostrils and struck your head from off your Shoulders and they durst keep them no longer they turned them out saying nothing unto them which wicked action among other things of this kinde that might be mentioned declares plainly That the Cause even among your selves as well as among the Old Parliament was almost in every thing going to the ground yea the Cause of the people of God a despised thing with you Likewise unrighteously decimated the Estates of the Cavaleers when by your carnal unbelieveing selfish Act of Oblivion they would not be drawn to your Interest As also carryed it in so insolent high and arbitrary a manner that almost no Lawyer durst plead in a Cause against you for fear of being cast into prison Revived and upheld Monopolyes so greatly complained of in the late Kings dayes not onely in Merchandise and other things but also upon the Scriptures so that some Bibles were not to be had without paying ten or eighteen pence a piece more then they were formerly sold for Suppressed the printing Presses against all who wrote in vindication of that Blessed Cause and those good Principles you once so highly pretended to own and assert and against your Judas = like Treachery and Back-sliding from them and is another evil that your selves formerly * See Book called the Looking-glass page 19.20 complained of in the Old Parliament also stood by and abetted your Kingling or Humble Petition and Advice Parliament Mostly made up of Sons Kindred Servants and Sallary-men to trappan and like so many evening Wolves ravening the prey cunningly to steal upon and take away one whole years rent from the people for all such new houses as they had built within ten miles round the City of London upon new Foundations to the almost if not altogether ruine and undoing of many of them the better to uphold your new Court Pride Pomp and Luxury which persons of a self-denying sincere honest publick spirit would greatly abhor to do All which with many other evil practises of yours relating to the late and present abhord Apostacy that might be mentioned which I leave to the lately dissolved Members of the Old Parliament for the lessening their evil if compared with yours to make a more full discovery of it plainly appears that not onely in every one of those particulars which you have so charged upon them as the reasons of their first and second Dissolution but also then for which you fought with brought to Justice and beheaded the late King you have by far done worse your selves and therein overpassed the deeds of the wicked which treacherous dealing of yours with wickedly departing from Judas-like betraying and as it were crucifying and keeping down in the grave that blessed Cause of Christ his faithful people and those good Principles you once so greatly pretended to own thereby standing in the way and hindering the faithful Friends of the Cause from going to Zion is the chief cause of all those losses miseries disappointments and judgements which hath been from the Lord upon you and the Nation as upon Pharaoh of old who would not let Israel go to Canaan from that time to this very day and hath occasioned the enemy both at home and abroad as also the Carnal Episcopal Atheisticall Apprentices of the City of London whom the Lord for the malignity and opposition of their spirits to his Cause and People hath so many times disappointed and subdued as the people of his curse to misapprehend and say it is onely because the Government by King and Bishops is taken away with other blinde stuff of that nature and that it will never be well until they be restored again thereby casting dirt upon and as much as in them lies making null and void all those wonderfull and glorious Appearances Deliverances and Victories which the Lord from time to time hath shewen and given to his People both against them and it as if all had been onely by Chance Fortune or Common Providences or as among Papists Turks and Heathens and to threaten once more to put it to the trial whether it be not so and how far the Lord may make use of them as his Rod to rebuke and scourge you and all your Cycophant Addressors who have sided with abetted and not witnessed against your wickedness as also the poor Nation may likewise suffer in the common calamity for your sakes together with their own iniquities and opposition of their spirits to the Cause and People of God the Lord who will not be mocked nor dealt treacherously withal by you as you have mocked and dealt treacherously with his people onely knows For how can you rationally or honestly expect any other but that a consumption and destruction from the Almighty is determined and will unavoidably come upon you unless you speedily and thorowly repent and return from your Apostacy And yet too too much is it to be feared that notwithstanding this as also all the wholesome advice admonition and reproof that by speaking writing printing and therein line upon line that from time to time hath in all singleness and plainness been laid before you in order thereunto you lay it not to heart nor intend to act according to it no more then the Old Parliament did the Counsel and Advice
of the same nature which you say you gave to them but are still resolved to deal treacherously and deceitfully as they did with the Cause and People of God and to go on acting by the very same carnall selfish spirit and policy as before calling to your assistance chiefly those very Persons that were the first Contrivers Promoters and Abetters of the laâ—e and present Apostacy whom the Lord hath had and doubtless yet hath a controversie with and would not no nor without eminent repentance will not own nor give favour in the eyes of his faithful People but rather more cause them to stink in their nostrils and are as unwilling and backward as a Bear to come to the stake to call the forementioned faithful Persons turned out of the Little Parliament and others of that publique spirit into Power for fear they will do their work too thorowly But go on as long as you will and be as Politique in your Shifts and Contrivances to uphold your carnal Interests and to keep them out as ever you can yet assure your selves the Lord who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity and every deceitful practice and takes the wrong you have done to them and therein to his Cause as if done unto himself and hath already begun to call you to an account and to punish you for the same will never cease disappointing overturning and sending streights upon you till you acknowledge your iniquity in that very thing and well if you escape so too which so far as I yet understand you have not done to this very day And that you may the better weigh and consider what I say herein read the following Scriptures Isa 26.11 Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shal see and be ashamed for their envy at the people the fire of thine enemies shall destroy them Also Isa 33.1 Woe to thee that spoilest and thou wast not spoiled and dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee when thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled c. comp Rom. 1.31 32. and Rom. 2.3 Think not because you are a professing people and the Lord hath so many times appeared for you covering your heads in the day of battel and likewise given you houses full of good things which you filled not Deut. 6.11 that you shall alwayes have his presence and salvation with and about you though you commit iniquity and go on therein without repentance but rather consider what he saith to Israel of old who had sinned and back-slidden from him as you have done Amos 3.2 You onely have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities Oh how greatly hath the blessed Name Cause Wayes and People of God suffered been reproached set at nought and blasphemed by your as well as by the late Old Parliaments evil mannagement of the Affairs under your hand from the first beginning of your Apostacy or turning the honest Members left behinde in the Little Parliament out of the Power to this very day How is the Enemy encouraged to lift up themselves in the hopes and expectations that they shall once more have a day to advance their Carnal Popish Superstitious wicked Interest and to tread down the Cause and People of God under their feet What might not you have done by this time for the Advancement of the Cause of God and his People not onely in our own but in other Nations had you kept growing up in the light spirit and practice of those good Principles you once so greatly pretended to own and had not through unbelief and a self-seeking self-exalting spirit so treacherously and wickedly departed from them Yea how far might we have been gotten on of our journney towards Zion had you pressed forward according to what above nine years since you * See Declar. Heathen-like called August 1. 1650. by it self or in p. 18 19. of a Book called the Fifth-Monarchy declared to the Scots wherein you say It is our prayer daily that those that fear the Lord in England and Scotland may become one in the hand of the Lord and joyn together in the Advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and throwing down and trampling upon the Seat of the Beast why should not Scotland as well as England rejoyce to see the Horns of the Beast cut off that we may joyn together to hate the Whore and burn her flesh with fire as also that the Lord was about to put on the Saitns beautiful garments and to make them a praise in the Earth And likewise above six years since to the Little Parliament page 43 44 of the forementioned Book that you thought something was as the door that you were at the threshold and therefore it became you and them to life up your heads and to encourage your selves in the Lord looking upon your selves to be either the Stone it self or at least to have had somewhat of the spirit of it and that your Call of the Little Parliament was a fruit and an effect of the Stones smiting saying That some of you thought it your duty to endeavour that way not vainly looking on that Prophesie Dan. 2.44 and the Kingdom shall not be delivered to another people and that it was set upon your hearts and upon all the faithfull in the Land it may be it was not your duty to deliver it over to any other people and that that Scripture might then be fulfilling unto you Also that we were at the edge of the Promises and Prophesies and did think that God was bringing the Jews home to their station from the Isles of the Sea as once he led Israel thorow the Red Sea And although there were neither Promise for this or Prophesie we should be coveting after the best things and therefore if you were to chuse the meanest Officer in the Army or Commonwealth you would chuse a godly man that had Principles especially where trust is to be committed for you knew where to have a man of Principles and wisht that all our Magistrates were so chosen c. Wherein you speak as highly for the Work Kingdom and Interest of Christ as can almost be spoken by any in this or indeed in any other day on this side the eminent fulfilling of the Promises and Prophesies relating thereunto Now what great things might have been done towards the Calling home of the Jews Also what a glorious Presence and Salvation from the Lord might we have had upon and about us to the amazement terrour and silencing of the Enemy both at home and abroad according to Psal 48. so as they would not have dared to lift up their heads or have wagged their tongues against us as now they do Yea how many poor creatures might according to Esther 8.17 Zech. 8.22 23. have been won over to own and love the Cause and Interest of Christ that now are either turn'd Atheists or
else remain in the hardness wickedness and opposition of their hearts and spirits thereunto had you not declined but as was said before kept growing up in your then light as also in the frame of your spirits and actions towards that perfection that shall be in the Lords faithful People when the Righteousness of Zion shall go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth and he make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth Isa 62.1 6 7. which is our duty not onely to be praying for but pressing after as well as after that perfection of light and holiness in the inward man that shall be in that day or at the Resurrection of the dead Saints when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come and all the Saints with him Zech. 4.5 comp 1 Cor. 15.23 Rev. 20.4 and how we were growing up into this Righteousness and the People according to Hosea 14.7 began to return from their oppression revive as the corn and grow as the vine and this glorious Presence and Salvation was dawning and breaking in upon us when the honest spirit which you have so rejected was encouraged and acting in the Authority of this Nation as hath been already mentioned you very well know But our too sad experience tells us that the Lord hath now cause rather to complain and say according to Isa 1.4.21 22 23. Ah sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel How is the faithfull City become an Harlot it was full of judgement righteousness lodged in it but now murtherers Thy silver is become dross thy wine mixt with water thy Princes are rebellious and companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widdow come unto them and upon this account we have cause to lament and complain according to Lam. 2.15 16. All our enemies have opened their months against us they hiss and gnash their teeth they say we have swallowed them up certainly this is the day that we looked for we have found we have seen it comp with Job Chap. 29. Chap. 30. and this is the very state and condition that the Cause and people of God and the Nation which had once a beauty and glory upon them is brought into at this day by reason of your Apostacy Now in regard it is thus with you and the poor Nation for your sakes as it is and things are under so ill sense abroad to use your own words to the Old Parliament and the issue like to be the further displeasure and judgements of the Lord against you the dissatisfaction and sadning the hearts of his faithful people and putting all things into greater Confusion if you continue to steer your course as formerly which so far as I can yet see or hear you are resolved to do though the Cause Your selves and the Nation perish and although you therein so carry it as to give the Lord and his Faithfull People just cause to say of you as of Ephraim of old Hosea 4.17 The Army is joyned to Idols let them alone Yet considering on the other hand that he likewise calls to such a back-sliding people as you are to return unto him and upon their return hath graciously promised he will heal their back-sliding and love them freely Jer. 3.22 comp Hos 14.4 And not knowing though you have gone on so long in the hardness of your hearts but he may yet pour out a spirit of grace and supplication upon you and give you to look upon his Cause and Faithfull Remnant whom you have so rejected and as it were Pierced and Crucified and to mourn and be in bitterness for the same as one is in bitterness for his first-born as also to return to the real practice of your forementioned honest Principles it being better with you then then now and to cause Judgement so visibly to return unto Righteousness as that all the upright in heart may follow it and be encouraged to venture their Lives with you as formerly against the Common Enemy which as things now stand they cannot but be very unwilling to do And likewise having though I have so searched to the quick and spoken plainly a desire to be merciful as my heavenly Father is merciful and to be instrumental so far as he shall assist to pluck you out of this deep ditch you have plunged your selves into and that whether you will hear or whether you will forbear you may be left without excuse As also that I may discharge my love and duty towards the Blessed Cause of Christ the Saints and the Land of my Nativity I shall in all sincerity and faithfulness lay before you what according to my present Light and Vnderstanding will if any thing recover the forementioned Cause the Saints Your selves and this almost ruined Nation out of that sad and perishing condition that by reason of your Apostacy and treacherous dealing with your former honest principles they are brought into and will engage the forementioned Glorious Presence and Salvation of the Lord to be with and about us as in former dayes in order to which though in and of my self I am very unworthy and unable to advise in a business of so high and weighty a concernment as this is I counsel and propose as followeth First endeavour to be humbled for repent of and to turn from every particular personal sin and iniquity that you have been in the committing of for if you or I or any other regard iniquity in our hearts or wilfully live in the practise of any known sin the Lord will not hear our prayers nor accept of any thing we do for him wherein his Name and Glory is concerned Psal 66.18 Prov. 15.8 9. Isa 1.11 to 20. Therefore if there be any such thing as false musters or Dead pay or wherein soever wrong hath been done or sin committed do so no more As also restore back to those of whom you have bought Debenters at cheap rates somewhat proportionable to your great gains thereby if they be living and if dead then to the Widdows Children or Kindred related to them that are left behinde them As also to be sure to promise nothing to any for the future either of a publick or private nature but what is in the power of your hand to do and have a real intention thorowly and speedily to perform and herein be growing up into that holy frame mentioned Zeph. 3.13 The Remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths c. And what I say to you in this particular I say to my self and to all others fearing the Lord for the People whom the Lord will delight to use in his Work must be a sincere upright self-denying holy people therefore let us not hide our
iniquities but rather say to the Lord according to Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Secondly Be also humbled for repent of suppress and put away for the time to come All the Pride of Apparel c. Luxury Gaming and whatever else is sinful and of an evil report that is committed in your Families by your selves Wives Children Servants and Relations according to Job 11.13 14. comp with Chap. 22.23 If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hand towards him if iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles c. And endeavour all you can for the future to get such as fear the Lord to attend upon you for it is not onely your duty but declared Principle to the Little Parliament so to do See page 43. of the forementioned Book Let not their failings infirmities and too many times neglect of duty hinder you from doing yours if you can get them there is little good to be expected from you whoever you are though your knowledge and profession be never so high whilest you are careless and slight in this particular Thirdly Be also deeply humbled for and repent of your forementioned great Apostacy from rejecting of treacherous dealing with the Cause of Jesus Christ and your forementioned honest Principles and all your persecuting Imprisoning and Banishing of your Brethren for their faithfulness thereunto and for all other your great evils and miscarriages therein committed whereby the Name of the Lord and the Profession of the Gospel hath been and is so much reproached and dishonoured and his Blessed Cause and Work so greatly stopped and hindered The hearts of his faithful people grieved and hath brought so much poverty and misery upon this Nation and return in the sincerity and uprightness of your hearts to revive and promote the aforesaid Blessed Cause and those good Principles from whence you have so greatly departed and resolve in the strength of the Lord to return no more to folly And that this your repentance and thorow returning may so appear to all the faithful Friends of the Cause as to put them past all doubts and fears of your deceiving them any more for the time to come First Cast off the Counsel of St. Johns Lisle Whitlock Philip Nye Tho. Goodwin Dean Owen so called and all other the like Incendaries the Heads of the corrupt Lawyers and Clergy unless you finde they have really and thorowly repented of their great evil in being so instrumental to help turn and keep your then General and you aside into these crooked paths after the first Dissolution of the Old and choice and turning out of the Little Parliament as also see them singly and sincerely pressing you to come up to the practise of your former Declarations and to the owning of that spirit those principles and persons which you once so greatly seemed to own but afterwards through the enmity of your spirits and their wicked Counsel and Advice as greatly and wickedly rejected For if they remain as they were Owen c. according to Lam. 2.14 Are the Prophets that have seen vain and foolish things for you and have not discovered your iniquity to turn away the judgements that are fallen upon you but have and do see for you false burthens and causes of banishment Secondly Send by way of intreaty it being your duty so to do according to Matth. 5.24.25 having so greatly wronged them for those faithfull persons whom you have so rejected and turned out of the Little Parliament whose Garments have not since been defiled with the late and present Apostacy or if they have are known to have throughly repented of the same with others of that publick spirit to come unto you who if any in the Nation yea I may say in the world will the Lord assisting bring forth the good things promised and have been so long expected for the good of the Nation And when you have so done Thirdly Acknowledge your great sin and iniquity to them First for rejecting and casting them out of your hearts and afterwards out of that Little Parliament on purpose to hinder them from doing that good for the people which you pretendedly dissolved the Old Parliament for not doing of and called them to do which were no other then what you will finde the true friends of the Cause will neither give you nor any other that for the future may come into the Government of the Nation rest do what you can to uphold your own and other carnal Interests in opposition thereunto yea the Lord no rest till they do obtain And when you have in the singleness of your hearts thus acknowledged your iniquity to them and desired mercy for the same as Gen. 50.16 to 20. Josephs Brethren did to him I hope they will have so much both of the spirit of the Father of the Prodigal though brought to your Husks and of the spirit of Joseph to his Brethren as to be willing to go forth in their spirits to meet this in you and weepingly to joy and rejoyce over you as also to pardon and pass by all the wrongs and injuries that you have done unto them and therein to the Cause of God and his people But if this be not in your hearts to do they must remain where they are keeping the same distance from you as before lest they go before they are sent and so come off with loss and disappointments in their own spirits as to you as my self and others have done since you so deceivingly Declared that you were now as ever equally endeared to the good Old Cause c. when it was not so Fourthly With the Advice and Consent of the faithfull friends of the Cause both in City and Countrey it being usurpation in you and acting arbitrarily to do any thing without them Deliver up with limitations not to impose upon the consciences of any in matters of Faith and Worship and in all things else that are against the safety of the Whole the Power Authority and Government of the Nation into their hands for by what hath been said both by you my self and others in this and other Papers and keeping close to the spirit of them under Christ their right it is and take heed of mixing them as in the time of their first Sitting with persons of a contrary spirit and principle on purpose to hinder them from doing the good they are called to do and thereby designedly and wickedly give your selves a second feigned necessity of turning them out and setting up another Single Person or Protector upon their ruines as you did before but rather encourage and strengthen them all you can in the bringing forth this good and suppressing the evil for that it is onely the bringing forth of righteousness and breaking off all yokes of oppression that will save and exalt this sinking Nation Prov. 14.34 Isa
done to the Lawyers National Clergy Cardinal Mazarine and other corrupt Interests in the Nation and it is to be fear'd that to please and keep the rude multitude quiet that so you may go on in your way or to draw trade to the City you suffer wicked Stage-Playes which were once supprest to be in use again if a right spirit of Magistracy were among you these things would not date to shew themselves but these practises will not cure you of your wound no more then King Jareb and the Assyrian cured them For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion and as a young lion to the House of Judah even I will tear and go away I will take away and none shall rescue him I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early Hosea 5. These with many other Scriptures of this nature doth witness the truth of what hath been asserted wherefore it concerns you to consider and to look about you Sixthly And if yet the Lord shall so far love own and honour you as to change your spirits and cause you willingly to stoop to this then their and your next work and oh that it were so now is to endeavour all you can according to your former declared principles denying your selves in your kindred and relations if not rightly qualified to let no man pass into any command or place of trust in the Army Navy or Commonwealth but faithfull persons fearing God and of approved integrity and have love to all the Saints that so wickedness may be supprest and punished righteousness encouraged and the Lord engaged to be present with bless and prosper you in all your future undertakings for the preservation and advancement of his Cause and people as in former dayes Your thus maintaining purity love and unity between persons both in the Civil and Military Power and being as it were of one heart and soul upon the account of righteousness and in a spirit of self-denyal meekness and zeal growing up together in every day and generation in the light spirit and things relating to the Cause and Work of Christ in the world towards the forementioned perfection that shall be in the Saints in the latter dayes according to Micah 4.2 Isa 32.1 2. will so revive the Cause and encourage the former honest lively spirit that seemed to be among you and through grace is yet alive in a Little Remnant or else we had been as Sodom as will not onely cause the Lord to be in the midst of us but also to rejoyce over us with joy and singing and to rest in his love as he will more eminently do over his faithfull people in the latter dayes Zeph. 3.17 and cause our terrour upon our enemies to be greater then ever it was before and surely honest men may think it is high time for you who have power in your hands and profess to be Saints and to be now as ever equally endeared to the good Old Cause throughly to deny your selves and not suffer the Cause and the Nation to be lost and ruined for want of a little honesty but rather to be doing what you possibly can do to bring things into the posture that hath been laid before you for that it so plainly appears both by the Scriptures and the late Revolutions and outgoings of the Lord in the midst of us together with the present fearfulness that hath possest you and according to Isa 33.14 shall more eminently fall upon the Sinners and Hypocrites that pretend to be of Zion in the latter dayes there is nothing less then your hearkening unto and following the forementioned counsel that hath been given you will save you and the Nation from the further ruine and destruction that is coming upon you And for your encouragement that the Lord will receive you graciously and pass by all that you have done against him in case it be in the purpose of your hearts in reality thus to come unto him consider that he stiles himself The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and will by no means clear the guilty c. Exod. 34.6 7. Also the case of the Prodigal who went from his Father and came not again till all was spent and he brought to eat husks and so must return or perish as soon as ever it was in his heart and accordingly did so to arise and go to his Father and acknowledge his sin unto him the Text sayes Luke 15.20 But when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and run and fell on his neck and kissed him and instead of upbraiding and punishing him commands the best Robe be put on him a gold Ring on his hand and shooes on his feet as also the fatted Calf to be killed to eat drink and be merry and if you return as he did I hope you will finde no elder Brethren to repine at it And so David Psal 32.3 4 5 6. Sayes he When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture was turn'd into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid Now this is that I minde sayes he I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin for this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found When Josephs Brethren acknowledged the evil they did unto him and begged pardon for the same instead of being revenged upon them it is said And Joseph wept when they spake unto him and said Fear you not I will nourish you and your little ones and he comforted them and spake kindely to them Gen. 50.17 21. Now if there be so much pitty and compassion in men to those that trespass against them there is so in the Lord much more Also Jer. 3.22 and Hosea 14 4.5 6 7. I will heal their back-slidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the Lilly his Branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the Olive-tree and his smell as Lebanon They that dwell under his shaddow shall return revive as the corn and grow as the vine c. These among other Scriptures shews the readiness that is in the Lord to forgive the iniquities of and to be gracious to a repenting returning and back-sliding people and oh that this goodness of his might powerfully and kindely work upon your hearts to acknowledge your iniquity deny your self-interests and to return unto him But if notwithstanding all that I have said I trust in faithfulness to the Lord and you you shall yet continue to go
on in the hardness wichedness and slavish fearfulness of your hearts and spirits and through the advice and perswasion of Philip Nye Tho. Goodwin Dean Owen so called and the forementioned Ineendiaries upon carnal politique considerations be still upholding carnal Interests and the Old Corrupt Oppressive Customs and Practises relating either to Magistracy or Ministery that hath no warrant in Scripture which hath brought all the divisions confusion and miseries upon the Nation and the better to carry on this your wicked design shall continue in your rejecting the true spirit of your forementioned honest Principles in those faithfull Persons turn'd out of the Little Parliament and in others with them who as was said before are spirited and principled if any to bring forth good to the Nation and shall rather proceed to moddel your future Councels with Malignants Neuters Presbyters or unconverted Apostate Protectorians such as Tichbern Lawrence Strickland Whitleck Clark and others of that spirit be it known unto you you are Apostates still though the form you come under in the outward appearance be never so specious and the Protestations and Declarations you make and set forth be never so glorious and taking upon the people and the faithful Friends of the Cause if they intend to retain their former integrity and faithfulness both to the Lord and it cannot dare not own or touch with you but according to Numb 16.21.26 must separate and stand at a distance from you as before lest they be consumed in all your sins And although by your more refined Machevilian Devices and the many Professors yea Pastors and Members of Churches you may gain thereby to your Interest as also by the strength of your Armies and Navies you may think to bear up and to stout it out a little longer against the Lord his Cause and his faithful Remnant and the very spirit of your former honest Principles yet know that when you have done all you possibly can do to uphold your selves therein the spirit of the Lord in his forementioned faithful Remnant as it hath already begun to do will according to Isa 28.17 further overflow and look into your hidling place and see your sin as if written in your foreheads and to have a lye in your right hand and so will go on to abhor and blow upon you and by degrees will bring you down as your old and late Protectors with their Parliaments and the late Old Parliament and so shall you become as a shameful spewing a by-word and a reproach not onely in our own but the Nations round about us If God be God as surely he is and Righteousness be Righteousness and the Scriptures are the dictates of his Blessed Spirit and he ever had a glorious Cause on foot in England leading us out of Babylonish and Antichristian Bondage towards that glorious freedom and liberty that the Saints who have the first fruits of the Spirit and the whole creation groans travelleth in pain for and waits to be delivered into and shall eminently be when Zion shall fully be delivered Antichrist destroyed the Jews called and our Lord Jesus Christ and his Saints according to Isa 32.1 2. shall Reign and Rule in Righteousness in the world all which as is mentioned in pag. 2. of this Book shall certainly be fulfilled in the latter dayes it must be so unless the Lord be more merciful to you then ordinarily he is to others that have sinned against and back-slidden from him as you have done which you have no reason to expect he being so much concern'd for the recovery of his Name and Glory to do some eminent remarkable thing against such a perfidious hypocritically Apostate professing Generation as you have been and are that thereby he not onely may keep the feet of his faithful witness-bearing people from slipping and encourage them to fear and trust in him for the future but that also all others may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly And that the Common Enemy may not have the least encouragement from what I have said to believe that now all shall be their own and that the Lords lifted up hand against you is in order thereunto I further declare my present apprehensions are that although the Lord may make use of them as his Rod to rebuke and scourge you not onely for not bringing forth that good but also contrary to your Declarations doing worse things your selves then for which you sought with and beheaded their King as also cast out and banished his Posterity yet the Lord hath a people in this Nation whom he hitherto hath kept and I trust will keep faithful to the end to his Blessed Cause and those good Principles you have so treacherously departed from whom he will by his Almighty Power and Providence so preserve out of their hands that they shall never be able to overcome or have their wills upon them but they shall go on in the power of his Spirit Isa 59 19. and Mal. 4.2 3. with life power and an undaunted spirit in that blessed Work and Cause that for some years together hath with such wonderful success been carried on against them Neither do I see in the midst of all the confusions distractions fears and straits you are encompassed with the least ground to believe that the Lord will cast away the Cause and Interest of his Son to make way for a carnal Man and that wicked Generation whom he hath so many times subdued as the people of his Curse to bear Rule in this Nation and therein send us back to Egypt or Babylon any more but rather is thereby removing that which stands in the way and hinders his faithful people from going to Zion Wherefore if the Lord hath so punisht you a professing People who in the outward shew may be said to be the green tree and caused you thus to fall before the spirit of his Cause and faithful people and so to disappoint and bring to nought all that you contrive and act against them then how shall they who are a wicked Generation who should they prosper would set up wickedness by a Law and may truly be termed the dry tree be able to prevail against them And if you who by your profession are called a righteous people scarcely be saved where shall they who may be said to be the ungodly and sinners appear The present dispensations that are upon you gives not the least ground to believe that they shall bear rule any more therefore let them set their hearts at rest Surely the Lord would never give his people that light faith and communion with himself and such tastes of sweetness in their spirits in that Communion in the discovery Isa 33.17 18. of the glory that according to the Promises and Prophesies is to be revealed in the latter dayes and so much love to his Cause and Work that hath been formerly and is yet on foot though not so visible as once it was leading thereunto and so owned their Testimony against you in bringing you down for opposing of them or shewen us all these things as the wife of Manoah said to him Judges 13.23 if he intended to cast them away or deliver them up either into your or the common enemies hand Would the Lord who stiles himself a faithfull promise Covenant keeping God and that cannot lye ever bid his people Isa 62.6 7. not to keep silence and give him no rest till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth if he did not really intend to do so or have begun to put on the Saints Beautiful Garments and to make them a praise in the earth not for their righteousness or Goodness but for his own Names sake As also plagued Israel of Old for not pressing forward but endeavouring to go back to Egypt and will not he who hath a fulness of the spirit and love to his work and all power in his hand to do it and hath already laid the Foundation of Zions welfare carry it on and lay the top-stone also Surely he will And the Rage and Tumults of the Carnal Apprentices and others at this day for the bringing in Charles Stuart and saying They will lose their lives every one of them rather then they will have such men to Rule as will take away the corrupt Customs and Practices that are among them is an eminent hint to me that the very Day of the setting Christ and his Saints upon his holy Hill of Zion is at hand yea so upon us that none can put it off and being so fully satisfied in my Spirit it is so I shall conclude with the following Scriptures Esther 6.13 And Zeresh Hamans wife and his wise-men said unto him If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevail against him but shalt surely fall before him Psal 2. Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed saying Let us break their Bonds assunder c. THE END