men for an outward liberty They would rather suffer from them then so acknowledge them Therefore liberty of conscience will be found a new and upstart thing born in this age amongst many other weak things and that it is not of the old rase of the right generous and heavenly Saints It may be pittied and indulged but cannot challenge much Thirdly This liberty of conscience seeks earthly things and outward freedom Which is not only for conscience or but for an outward and earthly conscience and with that for worldly ease honour and advantage For conscience if the Son make him free and so he be free indeed it can and doth live with God and with men in heaven and in earth and under the earth in bonds chains and death and is still free with God and Christ and cannot be confined It is therefore some outward thing that is pleaded for as well as or more then liberty of conscience Fourthly It is a common observation that men while they have been under their enemies and in a low condition then they cry up liberty of Conscience but when the same persons have attained power they content not themselves then with liberty but set up their consciences to be a Law to others It hath been practised by all sorts of people as they have gotten power into their hands in some degree or other They have all punished some for Conscience Let this be well examined and if we can let us find out the reason of it it will enlighten mens minds and clear the truth Consider then First Whether conscience receiving its Law and rule from God the supream Lord ought not to exalt that Law as it hath opportunity and hold it forth as a Law to all men I believe it is so and therefore conscience taught and instituted of God is truly royal and Princely in his nature and both must and will rule Which is the reason why neither the Jews nor Christians would seek to their enemies or to the heathen States for liberty but knowing and loving the majesty of their Lord they would either raign with him or suffer with him and from him If this be the royal nature of truth then it follows 1. That whatever men profess when they are down and low yet we must expect that when they get up they will exalt that which they hold to be truth as high as they can and exalt themselves with it And 2. If they pretend otherwise they do either weakly or deceitfully hide and cover their minds or else basely stoop below the majestie of truth for present ease and advantage And 3. If we our selves by the Law of our own life and religion do exalt our religion as a Law we must not wonder if others do so also but have reason to be content with it and submit to it And 4. Knowing that the Law and Religion of our Lord Jesus must and will rule if we have it with us and in us it will be sufficient 1. To uphold us in a low state 2. To assure us that whatever other persons or spirits God sets up they must come down with shame 3. That when that Law comes to rise we shall rise and raign with it And 4. In the mean time suffering with it will prepare us to raign with it and him Secondly If this be true that conscience rightly taught and enlightened is and will be a Law to all men then what a poor or false conscience is that which craves liberty of men If it be only weak it is to be pittied if it be an evil thing it is to be judged Be it one or other we see by experience it is to be suspected For if it be carnal and naught when it is low it will be certainly worse when it gets power If it be base subtile and serpentine when it is poor it will be cruel and tyrannical when it rises Therefore though there be a natural right to liberty of Conscience yet it is just reason it should be examined For further Fifthly They that profess much for liberty of Conscience could never give it to others neither to their enemies that first denyed it to them nor to them that needed it from them I do think they that contend for it will never grant it That large and generous spirit that shall he able to give it will neither need it nor stoop so low as to ask it And that narrow low fleshly mind that knows not how to bear the darkness and shortness of them that are above him I doubt would less bear the darkness and shortness of them that are under him Sixthly This liberty of Conscience hath brought forth to the Church a very strange brood of absurd opinions loose practises proud and rebellious spirits to the scorn of Religion contempt of all kind of Government breaking of all relations of all bonds natural civil and religious Now that which is a cause or occasion of so much ill hath certainly an evil thing in it And therefore is no clear nor strong ground to engage upon There is no question but men in tenderness to their own flesh and bodies do when they are in danger of suffering cry up liberty of Conscience as a great thing and decry the contrary beyond measure Passion passion for self for self unmortified to avoid the Cross is not a proper judge of Laws Liberties Religions and Kingdoms It doth likewise appear from what hath been said that this liberty contended for is not according to the antient Christian and Apostolical spirit But a carnal impure and mixed thing Yet on the other side I do acknowledge there is a humane and natural right in it which although it be weak and low ought to be considered and pittied It being a thing of natural and rational equity if it be fairly and rationally demanded it may I suppose be had His Majesty hath in goodness and prudence graciously promised and declared it It is in it self a reasonable thing and therefore if reasonably claimed the reason of man cannot justly deny it And much less reason of State which is the reason of the Nation Besides the natural reason of it the present state of the Nation gives it a great advantage and makes it even to reason of State which is the preservation of civil peace necessary And therefore nothing so likely to endanger it as mens irrational heady and violent opposing the Government of the Church and Kingdom And therefore I affirm that for you to stand out in open enmity to the present Government in attempting war and hostility or in preaching and praying against it or cursing and reviling of it as wicked or Antichristian which tends to the destruction of it either by war or otherwise To continue in this is not the way to procure liberty of Conscience but to overthrow and destroy it This liberty of Conscience must be had either by an utter ruine of all that is against it and so of the present
that good in the office and institution of a King and that good in the nature and person or his Majestie as a man and a Prince if we consider no more that you may live under him with more Peace spiritual comfort more holiness and godliness and with less sin and evil then you have done all these wars or since This I affirm upon knowledge of a sure root and foundation laid by God and Jesus Christ in the beginning of the world now manifested and revealed so firmly and strongly that no humors passions or lusts of men nor any spirits and powers of darkness can overthrow so that what ever men say or do the foundation is sure they may prejudice themselves and deprive themselves of the comfort and benefit of it but the foundation remains firm for it is that tried stone that hath born all Nations in all ages I have likewise affirmed to his Majestie concerning you and your way and work that the spirit of that Ministrie in which you acted against him is dead that your power both Civil and Military hath resigned to him and that the principles or opinions being proper only for that work of destroying and of their own nature weak and short are reducible And then that there are in you those gifts and abilities that may be of singular use to him and the Kingdom So that upon a good understanding between you the King may be happy in you and you in him As the thing propounded is not only just and honest in the sight of all men but also good and profitable for all Parties To you no less then saving of life liberty and estate To his Majestie security honour and the great advantage of the hearts affections and judgements of a great and considerable people And to all the Nation that rich blessing of Peace in knowledge and right understanding So the means propounded to this end is as innocent and safe That wise sober and spiritual men of large hearts and indifferent in their judgements should have the hearing and trying of mens principles and opinions The end being unquestionably good peace and love and the means to that end proportionable a trial of mens opinions before the wisest and best in the Church We cannot reasonably doubt of a good effect except we conclude one of these two things that there is not with men or in the Church that Grace and Spirit of Christ which is able to judge and lead into a way of Peace or else that men are not willing to receive that blessing of Peace though it should be manifested No man can conclude the first without the guilt of unbelief and denying the truth of the Promise of God that his spirit shall abide with his people for ever nor the second without great injury and uncharitableness to mankind But if his word and Spirit be with us and that Word and Spirit be sufficient for that end whereunto it is given which is to purifie enlighten heal and unite the body of Christ to deny it is blasphemy against that Spirit then walking according to the rule of that Word and Spirit we need not doubt of obtaining that end which is so much according to his own nature which is love peace and salvation Why you should think that such a proposal should come from an enemy I can impute it to nothing but this the extremity of your anguish under your fore and grievous loss and disappointment which makes all things seem harsh while the mind is drowned in that sense It is true you meet with sharp reproof there but you must come to find true love in the severest reproof before you can be soundly healed Proposals of a Treatie and Peace for the preventing of present and imminent danger use not to be the way of enemies If such things should come from a professed enemy I think the nature of the things deserves acceptance and not scorn or reviling I confess I think you have wronged me and the Book and I therefore might require reparations of you I know in time you will give it There is that right and reason in you which will give me satisfaction when it shall recover it self from the passions of fear grief and anger which now darken and suppress it In the mean time let us consider whether there be not something in the Book that is yet improveable for the good of the whole Party that stand in opposition to the present Government and so are in danger to be destroyed by it We hope his Majestie and in him the Law is satisfied and by that sacrifice of blood that hath been shed is attoned as to past things yet the breath is not healed but your spirits are still set in opposition to the power of the Nation and the Law and Power of the Nation looks upon you with jealousie and an evil eye thinking that yet you may attempt against the Peace of the Kingdom Great discontent appears in you it cannot be hid all endeavours are used to uphold and revive the cause and consequently that enmity and war that hath formerly been acted against his Majestie and Party This is seen known and felt and doth undoubtedly provoke the Power of the Nation to endeavour the suppressing the Party for preventing future inconvenience It cannot be otherwise all men do it When you had the Power you did as they now do you interrupted their meetings and required Oathes of them This now fills the prisons ruines many Families exasperates mens Spirits into bitterness and wrath which destroyes the sweetness and comfort of religion wounds the life and power of godliness and grieves the good spirit of love and peace in Christ What ever you think of it now I know it is in it self a good and mercifull work and will be so acknowledged by you in time to reconcile a poor broken people guilty by Law and their own consciences to the authority and power of the Nation in which they live For a naked people to be in their judgements and affections zealously set against the Law and Government of a Nation which is provoked and enraged newly recovered and restored experienced fore-warned and fore-armed against them what ever may be expected hereafter there is in it apparent ruine for the present Alas a Law and Power is an Iron Scepter and in the hand of a self preserving spirit such as was in you and is in all men yet must needs be hard to them that are professed enemies to it The consideration of it wounds my soul and affects my bowels of compassion to you which urges me to do what I can to prevent misery to your persons and families And therefore I do earnestly entreat you to consider seriously whether your botom upon which you stand in this divided and opposite state to the present power and Government of Church and Kingdom be sufficient to bear you up against what you are likely to suffer if you persist The foundation upon which you
immediate conjunction and union And the Lamb is with her dwells in her she is the Mountain of God or the City of the living God 4. She is washed cleansed enlightened and filled with the Spirit of the Lord whereby she is established strengthened guided and kept in even and straight pathes she is adorned and beautified with righteousness wisdom peace honour and salvation and therefore when she appears she will be a praise in the earth 5. She is in all things ordered and ruled by the pure and perfect Law and Word of God whereby she walks steadily surely justly to God to men and to all creatures These things in word and notion are not strange to you that Zion is a Body a Nation a holy People united and compact according to the heavenly pattern joyned unto God sanctified established and adorned by the Spirit ruled by the eternal Word Then consider and compare your state with this Zion where is this body this holy matter or when was this body formed was it in the Parliament at what time though you sifted and purged it yet it was mixed unclean and corrupt and afterward rejected as chaff Or was the Army this holy body with all that vile and filthy rabble If this was the body how came it to be such an offence to you why did it at last cast you off and betray you and your cause Or is it all the godly people why then are you not drawn out united built into a holy Nation or City by your selves Zion and no Union Consistencie or Order No Magistrates nor publick Ministers Can you say when in which of the ten powers that you set up in twelve years you were formed by the Spirit or Word of God which state Oath Protestation Covenant or Engagement was made by the Word of God If all then you were led into contradictions if any one why did not that one judge and condemn all the rest and why doth it not still stand and defend it self and you It grieves my soul to think that you should be so drunk with the wine of your own gifts and success as to need such sensible demonstrations to convince you of the evil of your state We have briefly shewed you the beauty of Zion I can give you a view of your own state possibly you have not observed it as I have done now you have time and opportunity to think seriously of it It is this You are a confused heap raised from the earth by the tumults and commotions of the people being impatient of suffering and full of consultations for self-ease self-safety and advantage actuated and stirred by the Providence of God who can make use of all creatures natures and dispositions And sanctified by and furnished with a spirit and gifts fit to execute his displeasure upon the Nation for their sins Finding success beyond your expectations you grew into high opinions and conceits of your selves overthrew the Government of the Nation break all Oathes and Bonds prey upon the wealth of the Nation enrich and exalt your selves under a name and profession of Godliness for which you are rejected into misery and shame I do feel what effect this may have upon your minds some will think it very hard and severe so think all children when they are beaten Others will rage and gnash their teeâ—h yet it must be born Others will say this is true but why should it be published to all the world I would avoid it if it were possible but it cannot be otherwise how can one write to a people but all may read that will But alas I see it is most righteous and just that you should bear shame for you have put the Lord to open shame and your iniquities and abominations are discovered in the sight of all the Nations they cannot be hid and publick sins must have publick shame publick confession and repentance Eze. 16.52 Thou that hast judged thy sisters Samaria and Sodom bear thy own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable then they they are more righteous then thou yea be thou confounded also and bear thy shame in that thou hast justified thy sisters And know for certain that till you are ashamed and confounded for your abominations you never can never shall know a better state But when you see God pacified towards you it will make you to remember to be confounded and never more to open thy mouth And then will he lead you into a better state Therefore know this I do not charge all this upon some eminent persons of the Party as some do nor upon the persons of the whole Party as most do My soul pitties you I know you have a sore and grievous burden upon you and your personal sins are punished with personal judgements I do both pitty and forgive you and if I could prevent it I would It was the intent of the other Book and is the intent of this to take you off from your state and spirit of opposition to the power of the Nation from which you have do and will suffer so long as you persist in it The judgement I pass is upon the state in which you stand and the spirit by which you are acted This state which I have discoursed to you it is not Zion but Babylon Her filthiness is discovered in the sight of all the world and can no longer be hid In one hour is her judgement come Great is the Lord that judgeth her Righteous and true are his Judgements and they are made manifest God hath openly shewed what was in you it is seen known and felt that it is Babel confusion Therefore is the name of it called Babel because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth Gen. 11.9 Shall I need to apply it to you Do you not remember how much your language was confounded And do you not now feel how much you are scattered Doth it need to be said This is Babel As to your persons gifts and graces I do admit them to be the Lords and to belong to Zion But it is Zion that dwells with the daughter of Babylon Therefore I do write this to call you forth of Babylon Come out of her my people and be not partakers of her sins that ye receive not of her plagues Sword war blood killing persecuting wrath cursing and destroying are her sins and must be her plagues Neither you not any men can live in them but they will perish by them No man or men can act in them but they must suffer them It is the righteous jugdement of God against the beast and for the Lamb he that takes the sword shall perish by the sword and the meek suffering Lamb only shall reign If you had again or could recover all the power and force you had and an hundred times more you could hold it but one hour with
the intent of this Treatise to bring you off from that and to shew you a more excellent way Your former ministry is finished that state is perished you must have a new one Read diligently and you will find here is an entrance into that which will not fail I know the prejudices you have against me I know that there is weakness in what I write both may disadvantage my work I leave it to the Lord of all hearts and spirits The things I have written are I think just and it is just I should publish them The Law of love and truth in my mind led me to it and upheld me in it and therefore I am satisfied in my self And in the righteousness truth and faithfulness of God in whom I live and rest Yours W. S. The Contents SECT I. SHews the nature of the offences taken at the Inquisition and the Authors sense of them SECT II. Shews the justice due to them and the friendly way of dealing with them SECT III. Censures the Book and first for its unseasonableness with the cause of it and the Authors suffering for it SECT IV. Censures the multiplicity of things in the Inquisition and the sharpness of its reproofs Of several kinds of reproof SECT V. Opens the Allegories in the Inquisition and shews the thing intended in it A tryal of principles in order to peace SECT VI. Prosecutes the same thing of peace and shews the necessity and possibility of it And examines the ground upon which the opposition stands SECT VII Compares the Old Cause 1. With the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt 2. Out of Babylon 3. With the ministry of Christ and the Apostles SECT VIII Measures the same cause by the Propheticall Scriptures and compares it with Zion her self SECT IX Further examines the ground of the enmity and advances a standard of love SECT X. The original cause of the war it ceased SECT XI Hatred blinds the eyes else we may see that there is good in enemies with which we may agree There is good and evil in both Parties SECT XII Shews the root of enmity is the Devil How opposite it is to the Kingdom of Christ SECT XIII War and enmity are not for but against holiness SECT XIV Common liberty not to be in nor to be attained by war and opposition SECT XV. Liberty of Conscience animadverted Not to be obtained but by agreement with the Magistrate SECT XVI Animadverts the late sufferings and shews the nature and kind of them SECT XVII Considers the late Insurrection with respect to what hath been written and the use of it to both sides SECT XVIII Shews a rational and easie way for all opposite Parties to obtain a Treaty and by it an Agreement with his Majesty both for his security and their safety ANIMADVERSIONS Upon a Book entituled Inquisition for the Blood of our late Soveraign c. AND Upon the offence taken at it Sect. I. THat I did deny my name to go forth with that Book when it was first published was I think a foolish or weak niceness Possibly the want of that courage and confidence that was due both to my self and it may expose both to the greater contempt But I did resolve in my mind and promise that if ever it came to be questioned I would own it and either correct and amend it if it needed or else justifie and defend it if it deserved it What I promise is ordinarily required of me and if it be I am bound to perform it There is a justice due to things as well as to persons If to any thing then certainly to a mans own works which are his children and therefore he ought to Father them and either to call them home or maintain them abroad A mans Spirit Religion and Name are all tender things if I have any sense of any of them or of my self and what I have done I cannot but resent the grievous offence that is taken at that book and at me for writing of it The minds of many are exceedingly disturbed at it and the censures run as high against it and me as possibly they can It is judged the very Spirit of Antichrist and of the Devil the sin against the Holy-Ghost Apostacy Persecution Treachery Bloodiness and Cruelty And the condemnation is answerable the curse of horrour despair and self-destruction which are not only threatned and expected but reported to be already upon me These things are in their own nature weighty and they come thick upon me from all sects and sorts of people from friends and strangers and discharged at me from their very hearts with all the strength of their Religion with all their might in a bitter and angry Spirit sharp and fierce and in some with great seriousness and gravity yea in love to me And most of them solemnly in the name of God and for his cause as against an enemy to God to godliness and to his people This is the sense I have of them and I think the description is just and true These things being breathed forth from men friends Christians professing godliness and the Spirit of God besides the common rage that foames out Rogue Jesuite hang him c. They do requite and justly challenge from me that I should Animadvert and duly consider what these things are whence they come What they would have and what I am and have done to deserve them As these things drive me in to review both my self and book so they do peal and call me forth to shew in what Spirit and Light I live from what root this work came and upon what foundation that and my self stand so that I now count my self bound not only in honour and justice but in love freely to open and discover my self and my mind and spirit concerning my self my book and the great offence taken at it I confess I do feel that these censures are high and that men are hearty and serious in them and do lay them on with all their strength and with a sharp spirit angred and provoked And that they do sometimes sting and twinge a little and consequently stir some choler in me that I could be as heartily angry at others as others are at me But as yet I do not find that they go deep or abide long in me But on the contrary I have been well able to bear them yea to slight and neglect them as sick and sore passions which cannot live long and although they stumble at me and bruise me yet if I did but lie still I should quickly see them faln in their own dirt by their own darkness and weakness For that I find constantly to be the nature of Passion it is a blind thing that runs it self into ruin and needs no enemy to destroy it it is the Gunpowder of the mind while it is shot at another it doth crack stink and vanish As I must confess they do sometimes sting a little so I must
having written some part of it I offered it to the Press by the Book-seller that printed the Inquisition Upon consideration he told me that there was that rage kindled in mens minds against the other Book that his men durst not shew them in the shop and that nothing of mine would pass till that spirit was laid and therefore he durst not meddle with this to print it My mind being very weak and tender and apt to take check at such things this did not only put me to a stand but turned my mind quite about to hearken more attentively to this cry that did thus earnestly pursue me And to consider that sure this mouth that was thus opened against me did require something of me And that I could not fairly nor justly slight and neglect it any longer And that I could not proceed in my intended work till I had answered this plea against me SECT II. T IS a position in my mind that no persons or things that we converse with are absolutely evil but there is some good in every thing else it could not be and therefore nothing is to be reprobated or not till it be first sifted and tried By my own rule I am bound to think that though these angry speeches against me are my enemies yet sure there is some just reason in them such sounds at these are not without their significancy If so then I must not reject them because opposite and unpleasing but must admit them to the bar of my own reason and not only give them a fair hearing but all the advantage also that I can because the Court is my own mind where they are strangers and being weak distempered things I ought to humble my self to them though mine enemies and to descend from my own right to hear and satisfie them if I can or at least to do them justice For I consider though they be dark passions yet they are humane and every man is honourable and every affection in man though sick and distempered is of value besides they are zealous serious brethren friends Christians therefore I must query Have I not erred against them have I not done them wrong have I not detained something from them that is their due We have professed a Kingdom of Heaven within us if it be there indeed then we have in us a throne of judgement which must do right to all things that come before us In this Kingdom there is also sufficient to answer every plea and claim that is made to it or against it and therefore we need not fear to admit the greatest and strongest accusation to a full and fair hearing Where there is authority to judge and sufficiency to answer there is likewise wisdom to understand what there is in these clamours though they be of themselves very dark and confused things for the mind may taste and try all things throughly and every thing that comes into it must be opened and seen in that light that is in it because the mind is a supream light to which all things are subject that come before it Therefore setting my self to examine and consider these things I found first that although there was just reason in the book yet there was something that hindered men from the seeing of it and though there was love and good in it yet there was something also that denyed men the benefit of it and therefore t is righteous that it should be animadverted and endure a tryal And secondly I find that there is some thing in my self that is justly due both to my friends and brethren and to the Book it self that was not therein communicated which is my life and spirit the ground upon which I stand upon which I wrote and by which I am enabled to assert things so different from others As these high challenges of my spirit and peace do tell me that this is the thing wanting and now demanded of me so I am upon this review of things conscious to my self that I have not fully opened my self and my mind but have in a great measure concealed it as well as my name And therefore I must thus far justifie the plea against me That if a man bring forth a notion of things different from and contrary to the life of others they may justly refuse that notion if the Author do not bring forth his own life spirit and peace which only can maintain those notions and satisfie for that life that he would take away by those notions This is for you and therefore I hope you will well observe the justice of it I am content to condemn what I have done as guilty of this capital offence It may possibly stand as a Law to me and others hereafter That if any man write be it never so good reason and with good intention if he do not produce the head of the spring from whence it comes and his own heart soul and peace with it let it wither and be rejected truly I believe it will There is a further justice in the persons offended If any man utter his matters to his friends and conceal himself he deals injuriously with them in bringing forth the weaker and worse and hiding the better part which the royal Law of love will condemn as a great wrong for certainly if there be any thing worthy in a man t is his spiritual life and therefore I justifie your anger you do like friends and men not to take words notions and reason if there be a better thing in me your own life and peace being aimed at you may well challenge me to shew a better I have this relief against this charge that though I am guilty in not discovering the best yet the best is still with me and being my own as yet it will support and justifie me Neither can I complain justly of any injury done to me by these sharp censures for if any man will put on an appearance strange to his neighbours and withal cover his face t is no wonder if men beat him and the dogs bark at him if he be ill used he may thank himself and his covering There is this remedy also if hiding the life and face be the fault that enmity that is occasioned by it will rend that vayl and then the quarrel will be ended If I have a right sense of the offence that is against me it being at me and upon me it sure belongs to me to feel and understand it then I am called forth to give a judgement of my Book and to hold forth to the view of all the world my spirit and life from whence it came and to shew what righteousness and power is with me that can maintain me and others in the receiving and practising such things as I have writ I have been very inward and retired in my spirit a long time not without some motions to look out but I have suppressed them and till now declined all publick appearance
body to keep or recover life in it or are so lamentably angry for the loss of it I would have that charity to hope that it is because you think that holiness and godliness will be suppressed and prophaness and wickedness will get up To satisfie you know this assuredly 1. Iniquity unrighteousness had got a Sanctuary in and amongst you and was lodged more secure in your professions and gifts then in any company or state of men in the earth and therefore 2. It is a most holy and righteous God that hath pulled down or is pulling down that strong hold that spiritual wickedness in high places And 3. As God will not suffer iniquity to harbour under his own name and cause so he will not suffer it to rest upon the earth for the earth is the Lords and the creation is his 4. Sin and ungodliness got ground of you in your greatness and riches you know it did And while you thought to reform the world you were deformed by it and that the spirit that engaged for righteousness against the world betrayed that cause and fell into the unrighteousness and filth that it opposed The Lord rejects this pretender in great jealousie know assuredly God in this act is gone forth with vengeance against unholiness and will manifest himself in such holiness as you will not bear if you were not plunged into suffering 5. Know God hath set his holy Son upon his holy hill of Zion The Lord reigns in righteousness and in righteousness hath brought you down for your unholiness and if you have any true love to holiness but a spark of the truth of what you profess you will rejoyce more in these fires while they consume you and your dross then ever you did in your success and greatness because God is now avenging himself of his wicked enemies that lurked in the prayers preachings gifts prophecying of his kingdom and for the world trouble not your self with that he hath laid you aside as unworthy of and false to the work of reformation which you professed he that refuses that spirit because it was unholy and base hath a more excellent spirit which he will manifest to the purging of all things and all men I cannot without some indignation pass this point that men so palpably corrupt and unclean when under rebuke and judgement and that for their impurity yet should think that they are the only Champions of holiness as if the cause of holiness did die or fall with them No it is iniquity and hypocrisie that falls There is an incorruptible holiness that is mighty and will throughly purge away yours and others dross and cleanse the whole earth As to the things that I write in my Book concerning his Majestie and those principles of rest and grace laid in Noah and in that Covenant which God made with him and his seed for perpetual generations which I affirm to be the firm foundations of all the Kingdoms of the world that tried stone tried first in all Nations and then laid in Zion and is now the root of his Majesties restoration after his long sufferings I confess the things are deep and remote from common understandings What I feared and writ concerning these principles I find true that they are little understood being yet low and under a vail and therefore might appear remote and strange both to his Majestie and the Nation which way prolong our trouble c. They are so indeed understood neither by one side nor other Let them lie and sleep a while foundations must do so when shaking and troubles make us need them they will be enquired after if any do there they are But my friends let us reason a little together and lay aside all allusions and all passions and soberly consider what evil was offered to you in that book After the case of the prisoners and so of the partie was represented I still think to their advantage more then ever I yet met with elsewhere the desire was to wave that tryal and procure another Court that should try principles that might at least supersede or succeed that What the issue of that Court and tryal is we now see and had reason to foresee Supposing his Majesty and the Law of the Nation to be offended and provoked against them that took away the life of the late King what probable or rational way was left to save the Prisoners but by moving that they and their principles and so the principles of the whole party should be tried in a higher and more spiritual Court A trial must be the common Law and ordinary way certainly destroyes both life liberty and estate To avoid that another must be proposed What rests to be tryed but opinions and principles And how can that be done humanely but by such a Court and by such a Law as is there propounded If those principles are good they may not only be justified but prevail to rule if they be not found so then their deceit will be discovered your judgements delivered from them and the prisoners and Party in a fair way to be pardoned by and reconciled to the present power Or else a third and middle state would have appeared A large righteous and merciful Law might have been produced that might have united comprehended and saved both Parties I confess freely I do believe and know it is to be had and will come forth whenever the righteous and good Law of God may obtain among men and right reason may be heard I confess to obtain this I did declare to his Majestie my sense and judgement of your principles which I have long had and do still retain upon a judgement made by many and great trials in my spirit and confirmed by constant experience much examination and deliberation And being many years fully convinced of humbled and sore afflicted for that prophane carnal cruel and selfish spirit in which this work was begun and carried on I did and do still offer them up to trial and was and am still willing that his Majestie and the Nation might see that they need not seek the lives of men seeing they might have the principles which is the best satisfaction can be given It is that which I have long desired even of this Party when they were up That we might have a Bar of Religion and Reason where the right of all parties in the Nation may be fairly argued and heard but could never obtain it I do judge it the true and only Christian and humane way to come to Peace and therfore I shall and do earnestly desire it There is nothing in the earth that I do seek more then this That my mind and judgement may be tried by the Reason and Religion of the Nation or the Reason and Religion of the Nation tryed by my Judgement Had it been a known enemy that had propounded such a thing to you why should you be angry at it or why not embrace and
seek it For a people that profess themselves Spiritual and Saints to engage in a war to the expence of so much blood for their Religion and at last wave an argument for it it is strange you will sure in time examine the reason why it should be so And consider whether that cause be truly Christian that avoids a Christian trial that shrinks from reason and will not appear against its enemy but in arms with a rude and tumultuous rable Truth and integrity cannot but rejoyce in a combate of Reason and it is gross guilt and carnality either in the cause or persons that declines argument and flyes to brutish force If you fear treachery that your principles might have been drawn out and so your persons exposed to danger That wisdom that makes you suspect would enable to prevent such danger freedom of discourse is commonly granted in time of arbitration with security against taking advantage by such discourses But alas neither you nor any other no not your enemies can possibly bring forth your principles so ill-favoured as they have appeared in action I dare say there is no man in this Nation but his Reason or Religion will teach him a better state of things then hath been acted in the Nation since these wars begun that no mans mind or reason is so crooked and absurd as the series of actions have been It will be found that poor men have been hurried and thrust into many things either by company incogitancy the influences of the stars or rather the predominancie of evil spirits by the irresistible fate of times or some superiour over-ruling determinations of Providence Few men have exercised judgement in these wars either humane or Christian but have been tossed about by the earth-quakes and violent commotions of greater powers And if we could come but to look into mens minds when passions and furies are over we shall see that men are better things then they have appeared in this Scene of War And that at bottom there is but one man one nature one religion and that a good one Therefore I know I am a friend to you and to mankind in seeking to draw forth the reason of men to sift and trie principles and opinions But there is so much jealousie and accusation in the world that men are not only jealous of all others but of themselves also If men misjudge mankind they must needs misjudge themselves the first they do it is too manifest and therefore cannot be wholly free from the second It is sure your too hard thoughts of your selves and suspition of your principles that makes you afraid to appear in them I know there is a strong passion of fear upon you a great dread of sufferings in your minds And all your thoughts are how to bear the evil of this day so drowned in a sense of it that you can hardly think a thought of any thing else nor admit of a proposition of peace and safety to your selves It is true and evident that the way and course of your actions have been directly against the antient power authority and Law of the Nation And you are unhappily set in an opposite and contrary spirit to them and have done as much against them as you could You thought you had laid them all low enough and had buried them so deep that they could never rise again And that you had gotten into a heaven into the Kingdom of Christ or so near it that all danger of suffering had been quite past But now you see that all the weight and strength of your Prayers Gifts and Knowledge together with your Armies cannot keep down the things that you opposed nor uphold you against them But contrary to all your thoughts when you were strongest they rose up against you A state law and power of a Nation is a mighty thing and to rise up from death and the curse whether you had sent it provoked against you by so many and great injuries must needs be very terrible to you It would scare a man to see his enemy alive that he thought he had slain were it but a single person But to find the whole Magistracie and Ministry of the Nation the King Nobility and Gentrie with many thousands of oppressed people rise up against you in all the power and strength of the Nation Civil and Military all which have suffered from you I know it must needs astonish and amaze you coming upon you so much contrary to the assurance you had as you thought from God of a better state I do not wonder when I consider it that you are overwhelmed with fears and despair of receiving any good from them that rise from that pit of destruction into which you had doomed them for ever looking upon them as you do as Antichristian enemies to God and for in rejected you cannot expect good from them You are so oppressed with the evil that is upon you that you sink into resolutions of suffering and judge your selves lost for the present and your thoughts are only to bear the indignation that is upon you You could not forgive your selves nor your enemies neither could your enemies forgive you I do forgive them and you and so shall do the worst you can For my love is absolute without condition and therefore without repentance In love to you I proposed a sacrifice and an atonement Which is not your honesty or godliness but these things which we call principles I care not to call them so any longer I mean opinions or tenents which I say are delusions deceits or at best broken imperfect and short apprehensions or mis-apprehensions of things that have misled you in all your business into such crooked pathes that perverted your Counsels corrupted your spirits and made you a vexation to your selves and friends a burden and scourge to the Nation These would I have found out and sacrificed that not only your honesty and uprightness may be discovered which is certainly another thing from them but that your lives and liberties may be preserved also But neither side would regard what was offered You would not part with your opinions called principles no nor offer them to tryal Neither would the Law and authority of the Nation accept of any such sacrifice but being of a more outward and earthly nature hath required outward and bodily satisfaction What could not be resisted we must be content patiently to endure SECT VI. WE may now hope that this scene of blood is over and that the Law and Authority of the Nation is satisfied if it be not again provoked by new attempts upon the peace My soul is a friend to peace and an enemy to destruction And therefore I shall I hope perpetually seek Peace and endeavour to prevent mischief May I now obtain so much favour of you in your low and afflicted state as calmly and rationally to consider what I have and do propose weigh it well I do affirm that there is
God which did call them forth and then continue to judge them and God maintained his own and their authority over them We were called out at first not by Officers from God but by part of that we call Egypt or the world by the Parliament which we used as Egypt or Egyptians or worse we overthrew them and their authority 4. Israel had a Law given them from heaven and one Tabernacle built for all according to the pattern in the Mount of God We never had a Law from heaven to govern us but were left to the Laws and Customs of Egypt of the world No pattern for a Tabernacle but every one built according to his own mind which must needs make division and so bring confusion 5. God destroyed Egypt with his Plagues and armies of Frogs Lice Flies and Locusts but we our selves were these Armies that eat up this Egypt we were the Frogs Lice and Locusts that vexed the Egyptians 6. Israel were led out of Egypt into a Land that the Lord their God gave them We could never get out of Egypt nor had we any Land to go to They were driven out of Egypt by Pharaoh and the Egyptians we drove Pharaoh and the Egyptians out of Egypt and kept Egypt for our selves the goodly buildings the riches honours preferments and all the Laws Ordinances and Customs of Egypt and could do no other wayes for we had no Land of our own to go to 7. Pharaoh and Egypt first tasked and oppressed then persued Israel We had got the way of tasking and oppressing Egypt and then persued Pharaoh into the Sea and beyond the Sea Pharaoh and his Charets and Horse-men were drowned in the red Sea for his pursuing Israel And now our Charets and Horse-men are drowned in a kind of a Sea of confusion and it was for persuing with endless and implacable enmity Here is a wide difference betwixt us and our foundation and as wide an end There Israel overcame here Egypt overcomes And if that be our bottom and we build so very far from it we cannot expect a better end Let us consider the second ground the redeeming of Israel out of Babylon whether we have been truer to that Copy we have made great use of those Scriptures Prophesies and Promises how justly must be examined 1. First Israel did not destroy their enemies Babylon and the King of Babylon was destroyed by the hands of the Medes and Persians under the command of Cyrus a heathen Prince but anointed for that purpose But we have destroyed Babylon our selves and therefore have hitherto acted but the part of Cyrus the part of Israel is yet to come 2. In the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt God visited them by a King of their own Moses Who was King in Jesurun In this deliverance God visited them in the Emperour Cyrus and charged him to build his house And the Jews moved not but by Proclamation Command and Commission from the Prince When a succeeding King Artaxerxes forbade them to build the City they ceased until Darius made a new Decree enlarged their Commission and contributed to the work Afterwards another Artaxerxes was stirred up to give command for the carrying on the same work and supplying of all the wants of the builders We had no such authority for our work but on the contrary we went forth upon our own heads at our own pleasure according to our own minds without any authority and overthrew the Authority of the Nation because they would not joyn with us 3. Israel were the known people of God visibly distinct from the world owned to be so Even by those Princes in whose Dominions they were God gave them honour in the sight of the heathen where they were carried captive We have no such visible character no such justification but assume it to our selves and destroy others because they would not so honour us 4. Israel as they were outwardly and visibly the people of God so they were the known heirs of that Countrey to which they went they had an unquestioned Civil right to it although they had been for a time sequestred from it for their sins And when they returned home they recovered but what they lost enjoyed their own Temple Priests Tithes Offerings But we not content with our own inheritance usurp other mens rights Indeed the parallel fits the other side much better who have been for their sins driven out and now return to their inheritance to their Law Church Temple and Worship from which they were sequestred and driven away 5. When God brought Israel out of Babylon he instituted the same Officers Prince and Priest that he did when he brought them out of Egypt For Moses and Aaron then there was Zerubabel and Joshua now and to those was given a spirit that would scatter confusion a line and plumet the seven eyes the fulness of the Spirit to furnish them for the repairing the Temple and City of God The two anointed ones that stand before the Lord of the whole earth which through the golden pipes empty the golden oyl out of themselves And therefore it was then not by might nor by armies but by my Spirit saith the Lord But alas we have no King nor Priest no anointing to scatter confusion but confusion scattered us Our Motto may be contrary to theirs Not by Gods Spirit but by might and by Armies For we were successful in nothing else but in force and arms Therefore if the Scripture be a rule to measure your actions you must confess you have grosly erred and walked not only in crooked but in contrary pathes to it Consider fairly the third dispensation of God to his people the grace and salvation revealed by Christ and the Spirit in the Gospel Gospel-Ordinances Gospel-Saints Gospel Order and a Gospel-Spirit have been much spoke of I am grieved at my heart for you to think that any men should be so grosly deceived or deceive themselves as to perswade themselves that such works as you have done and such a way as you are engaged in should have any countenance or authority from the holy and pure Gospel of of the Lamb of God For though you have endeavoured to frame your outward forms of Worship according to the outward letter of the Gospel yet you have denyed and opposed both the Doctrine and Spirit of the Lamb and his Apostles and that not only in those things which you call miscarriages but in the main of your work and business 1. First Christ begins his Ministrie with blessing he blessed the poor in Spirit them that mourn the meek the merciful the peace-makers the persecuted so he taught so he practised he was himself a Lamb he sent his Disciples out as Sheep among Wolves and commanded resist not evil love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven c. This was the Law of his whole Life and Death He that will be my Disciple must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me Alas alas how can you look into this glass and not blush to see the deformities of your whole work how directly contrary yours is to this Instead of blessing you have cursed What he blessed you reject the meek the mourners the merciful the peace-makers the persecuted you begun this war because you would not endure persecution Instead of not resisting evil you have inflicted evil and would not be resisted in it Instead of loving enemies you have hated and destroyed them Instead of blessing them you curse as bitterly as you can Instead of bearing persecution you persecute Instead of denying self you sight for self Instead of taking up the Cross you flie to force to avoid it and load others with it make others bear it So hath the blessed God set things that they that are not with him are against him And they who refuse to bear the Cross must become Crucifiers of others All men that will not endure persecution they will persecute they that cannot or will not be killed will kill So have you done and therefore been enemies to the Cross of Christ and so enemies to Christ himself for he is crucified in all crucifying And they that hate the flesh of the whore and burn her with fire they make war with the Lamb also Rev. 16.14 So have you made war with the Lamb with his doctrine nature life and death 2. Christ our Lord humbled himself and became a servant to others you have exalted your selves as far as you could into all kinds of places of honour He became poor that he might make others rich you have made others poor that you may be rich He suffered the errors and contradictions of sinners but sinners those that you have judged sinners have suffered your contradictions in your several Oathes and Impositions He bore the infirmities and diseases of the whole Nation the whole Nation have born your infirmities and diseases your blindness haltings and staggerings He bore the sins and curse of the people The poor people have born yours both sin and curse He died that others might live You kill others that you may live your selves He suffered the just for the unjust but others have suffered from you because they resisted your unjust power and will I believe you have been misled by an evil spirit and therefore I pitty you Alas you have walked in darkness and not known whether you have gone You did not think your way and work had been so contrary to the way of Christ you found it weak and short but now you will see that it is in the whole from the rise of it to the end of it contrary to the nature and spirit of the Lamb and to his Law and Doctrine 3. Christ in the Gospel brought forth a new Creation a new and Spiritual Kingdom a new Law new Ordinances new Ministers new Worship And this not in opposition to nor to the destruction or disturbance of any authority either of the Jews or Gentiles but he taught and practised obedience to both But you have only disturbed and destroyed what you could of the Government of the Nation but have brought forth no better no new Kingdom or new Law for the people and what forms of worship you have made for your selves and several Parties are but some broken pieces of the letter of the old Apostolical frame set up in another spirit Let us compare your work and way with the Spirit and his holy and pure Ministrie He came from Heaven himself cloathed with an outward and visible appearance in great Majestie and Power openly manifesting himself to all Nations in mighty signs and wonders that were his own and not anothers He did truly glorifie Christ and set him up above his enemies making them know that Jesus was the Son of God and that the Kingdom of God was with men And this to the face and in the consciences of all the powers of the earth He formed and built a Church upon the rock from the heavenly pattern He came from heaven and carried the Saints into heaven and made them sit down together with Christ in the heavenly He led them into the holiest and brought them to Mount Zion indeed the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly c. Have you had the substance and truth of any of these things with you You have been able to talk of them to notion fancy or prophesie something of them which others could not But had you had this heavenly glory you needed not your earthly Armies nor worldly Polities nor the help of profane and loose people and practices to save you The Spirit had his own manifestation his union his own tongues interpretation of tongues his own signs and miracles his own power and glory pure holy and clear his own anointing was sufficient to lead into all truth But instead of manifesting you have by your wayes extreamly darkened others your selves and the name of Christ and Religion which you professed Instead of tongues and interpretation to others you were in such confusion that you could not your selves understand one another you pretended to signal mercies and successes but they are not spiritual but such as are common to others so is victory in battle Instead of being led into all truth alas you were led into all kinds of contradictions and into many erroneous wayes which proved to be lyes and delusions to you And therefore you must not any longer boast of the Spirit of God You cannot shew that he is descended upon you or that he hath led you as he did the Apostles into a heavenly state You are still in the world in the gross uncleanness of the world in the wrath malice destruction pride covetousness deceit of the world You are and have been under the Ministrie or Judgement of the Spirit In his giving you up to corruption that you may be manifest to be but men and not born from on high In blowing upon and infatuating your Counsels In scattering and dividing your spirits In rejecting your work and way as not his own as abominable to his purity goodness truth and righteousness In judging of you in the sight of all the world for abusing his name and in kindling a sire upon all your riches honours and works a fire of jealousie that burns like an Oven which will purifie you And therefore you are in this day nearer to the Spirit of God then you were from the first day you engaged Consider now what ground you stand upon in your present opposition to this Power and Providence You cannot stand up with Moses and Aaron in their Office for you have not led us out of Egypt into Canaan but have been intangled and fettered in Egyptian darkness Nor can
can command it it will master every mind in which it is and lead him at last to carnal wayes if it be not outwardly restrained ' For he that will curse will also destroy And he that doth the greater what should hinder him to do the less They that condemn men to Satan and to hell they will hardly forbear killing of them if they have power and opportunity or doing such mischief as their hatred directs them to The root of all this is the Serpent Out of the Serpents root comes forth a Cockatrice and his fruit a fiery flying Serpent from this root the Serpent shoots forth this hissing Adder or Cockatrice of cursing And the fruit is a fiery flying Serpent the former soon gets wings and flames out in open hostility I aim at no less then the root of this hatred â—n all men the Devil And finding that he hath at last taken Sanctuary in Religion and the profession thereof and hath therein acted with so much vigor and security I must pursue him into your heart and spirits It is his main fort Zeal for God and his Cause if we can heat him hence we shall hope to drive him out of the earth For if this hold be taken from him he will have very little strength to make resistance any where else That this enemy is amongst you we have sufficient proof We follow him by a train of blood and by the track of all the beasts his companions pride covetousness falshood self-seeking And we see the smoak of his confusion and hear the noise of his violence among you Therefore you must endure to be assaulted and searched I know it will cost you dear it will shake the whole frame and foundation of your Religion to have him quite destroyed in you it did so in me his root lies deep But if you can bear the tryal and become free from this soul enemy your persons and gifts will shine in the true and everlasting glory of the Lamb of God Possibly you may have the honour of yielding up and slaying the last and greatest strength of this enemy of mankind I am satisfied that the horns of his beastly power are both sawn off and scattered And that the Lamb of God is conqueror and doth begin already to bud and spring forth in many persons who do abhor the filth and deceit of war blood and wrath And do see that nothing springs from thence but mischief and confusion To help forward the birth of this spirit of love and to guide your feet in a way of peace have I engaged in this discourse It will be an honourable and lasting conquest to overcome him He hath betrayed and spoyled all other your conquests Now we shall be revenged on him and destroy him who hath destroyed by you and then destroyed you also I suppose there is a rich treasure of life righteousness and holiness hid in the nature of man Yea I know it and am one with it Even the very Kingdom of God is amongst us and in us This rich treasure hath come forth in profession name and prophesie in your spirits But it hath miscarried and faln short This is certainly from this evil one it is he that hath done you this michief And it is he amongst your selves For an open enemy could not hurt you could not stand before you It is he that hath betrayed you His great strength lies in enmity whereby he brings darkness confusion and every evil work You know confusion and enmity divided distracted and ruined you What need we any plainer evidence Therefore it must be enmity and hatred that hath destroyed you And it must be victory against him and it that must save you We have already shewed you that hatred though it begin against those that are further off yet it will not stay there If it be admitted it will reign He that will hate any man because he differs from him or because he is sinful will hate his nearest friend because he may and doth differ and is sinful He that to preserve himself and his own way of Religion will destroy a Cavaleer will upon the same ground destroy a Presbyterian Independant or Quaker and consequently all that oppose him Indeed he that will not suffer for sinners for enemies must resolve to kill all sinners and enemies or all that will not conform to him Therefore it is the same enmity wherewith you prosecuted your first enemies and your brethren the very same violence and self-love that enraged you against them kept you from agreeing one with another And the same conceits that you were the people of God and that yours was the only way of God that made you abjure and renounce the King and Church the very same opinion and confidence made you oppose one another Each man being confident his own way was the only way made you unyielding one to another For that which will not submit to any thing but what is Gods mind and what he knows to be Gods mind must necessarily oppose every man that differs from him You know whereunto this tends And therefore there can be no peace but in that love which can bear with that which to him doth not appear to be Gods mind or can submit to them that do not in all things the holy and perfect will of God And if we have so much love and pitty as to bear them that do err in a little if we have more love we may bear them that err much The truth is we must either quarrel with all or bear the weakness of all in love to all It is therefore this enemy that hath abused you and misled you into those dark wayes in which you now he Hitherto you have not known whither you have gone he perswaded now by light reason and experience not to follow him who draws you into a snare and there spoils you of your peace and safety We suppose you are travelling towards the Kingdom of Christ I believe you would see him upon the throne The enemy tells you These men that you oppose hinder him and his Kingdom and that by their destruction Christ shall be exalted You are herein quite out of the way to his Kingdom First While you seek to gain a Kingdom for him you deny to acknowledge that Kingdom which his Father hath already given him He is set down upon his Fathers Throne And that throne is everlasting You may therefore seek a Kingdom for your selves but not for him And in doing so you do both deny and resist his Kingdom And fight with him because he doth not set you up with him Secondly His Kingdom is first in patience The Kingdom and patience of Jesus And a blessed Kingdom it is to rest in suffering They that are truly Kings with him have the Kingdom in themselves and first enjoy it on the Cross triumphing there They who by the riches of their natures or by God in them can enrich poverty make bonds free
that can be accursed for them It is his way it is his nature he dealt so with Christ and therefore must be justified and honoured for it And so I do with my soul And desire office and employment in his Church upon no other terms Blessed for ever be his holy name for it in my heart And blessed be his name in this Church and Nation And let all his people say Amen For he will establish only such ministers over them in his house as are of his and his Sons mind and spirit God may and doth for a time employ other spirits to do baser services to break afflict and punish so long as there is proud flesh to be subdued But none shall be admitted to minister healing life and salvation but such as are of this spirit The form or title is title and the question is not great who or which But this is the Nature and Spirit chosen of God to rule his people Lastly Let me assure you under the word and oath of Jesus Verily verily except you be born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 Except you be born out of this earthly sensual darkness into heavenly light out of this heathenish or legal spirit into the largeness of heaven you cannot so much as see the Kingdom of God so long as you think that it consists in a multitude of prayers in the opening of Scriptures in fleshly striving for earthly liberty and earthly power you do not you cannot see the Kingdom of God Alas you admire your selves your zeal and intentions your gifts and notions But what are those to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which is over all things in heaven in earth and under the earth Over all things first in heaven He employes innumerable Angels and all their holiness power and light in distinct ages and places And brings them forth successively to act their parts and to shew the utmost of their strength and wisdom in governing the world And when he hath done with them folds them up as a vesture layes them aside and changes them for others Possibly all that you have attained to may not amount tb one Angel Be it what it will you cannot but confess one Angel may do as much and more know as much and more speak as much and more then all you have done And that in greater holiness purity brightness and majesty And when he hath done it must bow down and be dismissed Why then should you be troubled at the fall of your works Secondly Christs Kingdom extends to all men in all Nations He hath power to spirit and anoint all men with what spirit he please to sanctifie them and gift them either as heathens so he did Cyrus and his Medes or as Jews so he did Saul or as Christians so he did the Saints of old And yet none of them must raign only minister and serve in those spirits He hath laid infinite variety of gifts in mans nature and knows how to use them all and will have a time for every purpose And as he will draw out the good of every man of what degree soever so the evil of every man All mens lusts and corruptions must be drawn out and judged In one state of things mens Religion and Gifts lie uppermost and cover their sins that Religion must have a time to work and have honour or reward for that work and when it is worn out it must as an old garment be laid aside And then that evil that is under that form of Godliness must be seen shewed forth and punished In another state the good may lie under the evil God hath a work and an object prepared for that evil when its work is done then the good will rise and have its time and place Thirdly As Christ rules all Angels and men so all Devils all infernal spirits and will bring them forth out of the bottomless pit into his own House and City and give them their time and place to shew forth all the evil that is in them And thereby judge them and then cast them into the Lake of fire for ever And there are various sorts and kinds of flesh or humane weakness for them to feed upon in the nature of man What is theirs they do challenge and must have first for words and actions and then for shame and punishment And if we do in the least see the Kingdom of Christ we shall be content to take our lot in any of these or in all of them as it pleases God to dispose of us If your minds were enlarged into the sight and view of the greatness of the Kingdom of God and the continuance of it in all ages everlastingly you would with submission and joy consider and behold the present works of God upon your selves and upon the Nation But so long as you are shut up in that narrow spirit and limit the Kingdom of Christ to such a poor inconsiderable temporary thing as your present dispensation and service you cannot understand any thing of it Therefore know that you are in darkness and know not whither you go you are quite out of the way to Christs Kingdom SECT XIII WE will suppose likewise that you do desire holiness and that your trouble is either that you or the Nation is no more holy And therefore in zeal for reformation you go forth against the present state of things as unholy denouncing wrath against it and seeking the destruction of it Herein likewise you are extreamly blinded by enmity For First That holiness which you profess and in which you live is not the holiness of Christ you are not holy as he is holy and therefore it cannot stand before him it neither is nor shall be accepted to raign with him It may do him service be a scourge in his hand it may stand before men before worse men in the field it may stand before mens worldly passions and lusts before the Laws of men and their punishments It may stand before prisons and chains yea before death it self And so will the holiness of moral men heathens or Jews and of all sorts of Christians But it cannot it shall not stand before God 1. It is impure 2. It is imperfect in its kind 3. It is fleshly and fading 4. It is not an holy nature 5. It is not holiness that can take away sin 6. It is not holiness that can take away the sins of the world And therefore not the holiness of God and Christ Secondly As it is short in its kind and insufficient to answer the perfect and good will of God either in your own souls or upon the Nation so it is corrupted openly defaced and for guilt rejected Because it is polluted it is not your rest To abide and persist in a way and state disowned and refused by God is not only sloth and ignorance but unbelief and disobedience God never pulls down one dispensation but he provides another If you were
boasting glorying and quarrelling and then where bread is they must bow for it and will and then the Bishop and Shepheard that can feed them will be honoured by them But if England be still a Church or there be a Church in England of old and late and all men professing faith in Christ are members and neither the worst nor best are dismembred but all continue one body though broken and under confusion Then as every particular member is apart so parties united by any bond of spirit perswasion or opinion must needs be a great part an integral part And if so there can be no peace nor building but of all these parties And it is easier for a workman to constitute a house of all then for another to make a shed or hovel of some parts But there will never be any harmony nor health in the body if every joint supply not its place It is love only can unite and heal and only an intire love or a love of the whole to the whole If any part be rejected there is want of love or love is not in that agreement that leaves out any part and if love be not there the agreement will not hold Love the more the divisions the wider and greater the distance the more able it is to unite and the more pleased to do it because it is infinite And the greater the variety is the more wisdom delights to shew its skill in ordering and composing of them into harmony and the more excellent will the musick be when composed It is not imaginable that any one Party can comprehend the whole nor can any one Party comprehend any other Party And therefore every person and Party will in their divided state think and conclude an union impossible But as it is impossible for any party or few parties to agree or to think how to agree so it is impossible but the whole must agree because she comprehends all the parts and they all do consist in her and she consists only by and in all Therefore as the reason of any or many parts be they eminent parts cannot unite the whole while they stand as parts divided from any of the whole So the reason of the whole cannot but comprehend and gather into it all the parts and consequently must unite all For all do already meet in that universall reason wherein and whereby both all the parts and the whole subsist This is the reason of the liberty of conscience that is in my mind I would that all may have liberty to come forth to come together and to agree and to agree first in this point of liberty For it is impossible that ever we should agree or consent by force No man will agree to be beaten If we give not liberty to men to profess enquire and bring forth their minds we deny them liberty to consent For there cannot be a free consent till there be all freedom to profess and to debate and of all means both of professing and trying all things What is restrained and imprisoned by jealousie and enmity is thereby shut up in division and denyed both the first step to and the right means of agreement And is thereby enforced to dwell in it self and to maintain its own private divided state being thrust out from all fellowship with the whole The admitting all to come abroad into open light and profession with liberty to try is the beginning of peace and agreement But as I would give this liberty of conscience so I expect and may justly challenge a liberty to deal with this conscience in the way of conscience For therefore would I that their consciences may come forth that they may be convinced and instructed Sure then you will not deny me liberty to reprove and rebuke and if I can to wound and afflict your consciences if they be guilty If they be not guilty I cannot hurt them if they be it must be known felt and discovered else they cannot be healed It is a freedom that God hath given me to reprove and reform I shall use it and I hope so use it as not to be denyed the exercise of it At this time I would examine this plea of liberty of conscience as it hath been urged all along in our late troubles I do very much suspect this title and claim of conscience to liberty or liberty for conscience as it hath been and still is promoted by many that there is some notable evil in it more then hath been yet discovered For First Where the whole is unsound the parts must needs be so also And therefore if there hath been deceit and hypocrisie in the whole state and spirit of this work this of liberty of conscience being a great part of the business must necessarily partake of the corruption of the whole Secondly I cannot derive it from any antient and honourable root The Jews while they were in their own land they needed not liberty for they were under a Law of necessity and duty I do not remember that ever they desired it when they were in captivity In Aegypt they would not sacrifice Lo shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Aegyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us Gen. 8.26 And in Babylon they said How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land Psal 137.4 I am sure if you had been as sensible of your spiritual al captivity as they were of their outward you would not have made such haste to sacrifice and set up so many notes or songs When you feel the confusion that is in your spirits you will find you are still in Babylon and hang up your harps and mourn instead of singing I am most certain of this there hath been a whorish impudency in the great liberty taken to pray profess build Churches Ministries and Worship And for this spiritual whoredom is liberty pleaded as well as for conscience Neither did the Apostles or the Primitive Christians seek for liberty of conscience from the Princes of the world But having commission from Christ the supream Lord to preach the Gospel they executed it boldly and freely They were called both to preach and suffer and therefore did not seek liberty from the cross A true spiritual Ministry derives it self immediately from the person of Christ who is exalted far above all principalities and powers And being far above them they need not cannot rightly seek for a licence from them to obey the commands of a superiour Lord. If the powers of the world be only worldly and the life and religion of the Saints heavenly the heavenly is above the earthly and may justly bless preserve and instruct the earthly and the earthly is to submit to the spiritual and heavenly If the powers of the world are as they were then in the wicked one then it was not only in vain but a wicked thing for the servants of Christ to seek to his enemy the devil and his enemies wicked
Government Or else by a friendly agreement with these or any other Governours If you resolve upon the first to destroy all that are not according to your conscience that your conscience may have liberty Then you would destroy all mens consciences but your own and all men for their consciences which is the most contrary to liberty of Conscience that can be Most contrary because you will endure none but your selves and that you would raise a war that you might establish a Law of cruelty which is a thousand times worse then to persecute by an established Law and Authority That power that you would have must be thorow the lives of thousands of your enemies and after that thousands of your friends for they that strive for a power never did nor never will agree in the sharing or administring of it But when through blood and destruction of friends and foes you have gotten it If you should prevail and you in your own persons escape yet that power gotten by war in that spirit you and we in reason must expect that it will be most cruel because raised and begotten by cruelty Indeed it is so horrid and irrational that the bare proposing of it will make reasonable men abhor such a thought For nothing but irrational and blind zeal with discontent and passion can so much blind the nature of man as to lead him into such unnatural things If your spirits do indeed drive to this to the removing and destroying the present state of things as an accursed thing then the ingenuous and seek not liberty from them nor complain of them for not giving it For every such acknowledgement of them doth confirm them and so contradict your prayers and endeavours to destroy them Sometimes secretly and cunningly to curse them and another time openly and for advantage to acknowledge them is falshood and deceit And will attain nothing but shame and confusion For there is little but shame and confusion in it It is a vile thing in private and secret to pray or warily to preach against a State and openly to comply with it in so doing our lives contradict our prayers or our prayers our lives But if this be the drift of your spirits though never so warily carried do you think it is not felt and understood by them that you so oppose you cannot conceal it from them It is wise counsel Solomon gives Curse not the King no not in thy thought or conscience for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter It must be understood spiritually for it cannot be meant literally Angels are intelligences and intelligencers they are principalities and powers and attend both the Throne and Altar they are present in dominion at Court and in your Closets at your devotions They are the birds and that which hath wings that tell the matter Publick authority hath publick ears and eyes and reach all corners Spiritual intelligencers as well as outward informers If they know and feel that you intend their destruction must they not abhor that spirit that under pretence of liberty of Conscience really endeavours liberty of destroying and of overthrowing Governments to exalt themselves And if they understand any thing they must think These men seek our destruction and as they pray for it and preach it so they will if they can or dare attempt it as they have done And therefore they having such a sense of you you cannot in reason expect but that they should labour to suppress you If they find rebellion war and wrath in the principles of it though in religious duties and conscience will they not suppress both the rebellion and conscience and the duties or worship in which it is And shall they not be justified in so doing I am sure your Law and Practise will justifie them For the same thing hath been done often and would be again if you had power while you are in this spirit When you shall recover either your own nature and reason or the nature of the Lamb out of this Spiritual drunkenness and cruel zeal you will find First That Antichrist the great enemy of Christ is also an enemy to man to his life peace civil order Law and to all humane Ordinances Secondly That this enemy is a spirit the Angel of the bottomless pit And therefore his chief seat and place is in spiritual things in conscience and in the spirits of men and in those things wherein spiritual men or the spirits of men are exercised in gifts religion and holy duties and his last and greatest strength is not in corrupt forms but in those that are most spiritual most lively zealous and gifted Others are but the flesh these the horns of the beast Thirdly And therefore conscience and the spirits of men even in Religion and in lively or spiritual Religion is grievously polluted by him This Templo of God is defiled by him You must come to know it and feel it as I have done Fourthly The nature of this beast is to destroy whence he hath his name Apollyon a destroyer His highest place is conscience gifted mens spirits enlightened and his highest work is to kill and destroy and in order to that to curse and blaspheme with those spiritual gifts Fifthly This spiritual beast this destroyer cannot but be seen and felt by the common reason of men although they cannot judge him yet they must have a sense of him as an enemy to that life and peace in which they live and to that Authority and Government which is committed to them Sixthly As they cannot but discern and feel the horns of this beast that pushes them and wounds them so they cannot but arm themselves with such weapons as they have against him If it be a State it will defend it self by Laws punishments policies and power Seventhly This self-defence though it be earthly cannot be denyed them yea they will be justified in it so far as it is rational humane and necessary and for the preservation of peace and common safety Wherein any are cruel and revengeful that is devilish also and then it is the beast against the beast But an humane care to maintain Law Authority and Peace though it be no more yet it is good against a destroying spirit that would bring in war and confusion under the highest notion of Religion and Reformation The ordinary and common Ordinances of man are to be justified in acting against a Religion Zeal that seeks the subverting of them The first is useful necessary and profitable the other is hurtful and destructive Eighthly The Law and Authority of a Nation defending it self from this spirit by its own weapons being outward must necessarily fall upon the persons lives and liberties of them that are ngaged in this spirit I am grieved in my soul for both both wound my heart both the agents and patients In love to mankind I am afflicted for them and feel the
by the sword to raigning and ruling by force They are surely most contrary and therefore Christ knowing he was to suffer commanded Peter to put up his sword and gave this rule for ever He that taketh up the sword to defend himself from suffering or to fight for Christ shall perish by the sword Note 1. We took up the sword at first to avoid suffering and to deliver our selves and Party 2. We now perish by that sword 3. If we now begin to learn what we then refused we go back and repent of all these twenty years work We may I think well do it as it was our work and therein justifie both the righteousness of God in his works and our honesty and innocency in serving of him This your Profession of suffering for Christ will I think overthrow all your active dispensation and if you be true to it it will lead you to an open declaration of the change of your minds and to a faithful resolution wholly to commit your cause to God and never more take up arms to deliver your selves and destroy others If you can do this pluck up this root of bitterness and cut out this core it will be a great ease both to your selves and the Nation If you are able to pull it up and remove it from you by a full honest and clear demonstration of your hearts and minds that may be sufficient to satisfie the Magistrate It will effect one of these two things Either it will overcome your enemies with love and so heal all the distractions of the Nation Or if they continue to persecute after such a declaration of your minds they will soon break themselves For by love and patience Christ hath and doth overcome all enmity and will do so for ever it is the most certain and invincible strength that ever was When you prosecuted the King and his Party beyond bounds and measure you went into confusion and there lost your selves And if they should be guilty of the same thing and pursue a weak faln people beyond the measure set by God the same confusion will be in their affairs that was in yours I think this of your present sufferings That in a large and common sense they are the sufferings of Christ as the sufferings of all men are his so far as they are humane though weak In all their afflictions he is afflicted The sins and sufferings of all are laid upon him We all like sheep have gone astray and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all and as our sins so our sorrows Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows Even of all Parties and of the worst of all not the godly only but the wicked not the obedient only but the rebells He made his grave with the wicked Even for the rebellious that the Lord God might dwell amongst them Therefore we do see that all Parties are enabled to suffer for that Cause they engage in And do find mercy to pardon their sins and strength to suffer death The common resolution of a man strengthened with the common grace of the Gospel and with any measure of common honesty or an opinion of the justice and truth of their cause do carry men off the stage of the world into death handsomly and steadily That some of you that have suffered have met with more peace and more innocency in suffering then in acting And more love and comfort in a prison and death then in a corrupt toylsom and sinful life in war and contests I do not wonder and yet cannot magnifie it as Martyrdom This I am bold to affirm That Christ hath not yet in these times so clearly or visibly set up his standard and gathered a people to it into distinction from other men as to commit his name truth and cross wholly and only to them Nor hath he formed a body by any law rule spirit or ministry into an outward profession under any visible charracters as he did in the Primitive times And therefore there are none whose sufferings can challenge this peculiar honour of fighting under this standard the Cross of Christ Therefore I do much fear that this profession and glorying in the Cross will cost you dear and involve you in deeper sufferings then you are aware of You will sooner come to a true feeling of your selves and a sober sense of your condition if you would sink down into your confession and acknowledgement of the righteous hand of God upon you for your sins And alas not so much for your personal sins as for the evil state and spirit in which you have acted Against it hath God very great indignation I feel in my soul God hath great pitty to your persons as men and as his creatures and servants And because as weak men you have been deceived and misled But that corrupt state and that spirit that misled you is judged for ever and never can nor shall recover It is not the lowness of a condition that keeps a people down but the unsoundness of it Were we once true and single we should find rest and peace in the worst things and deliverance out of them The upright may and shall rejoyce in the hottest fires and soon come forth But a false and unsound state must fall from heaven though it be exalted thither To fall under sin and shame to be humbled under the feet of the vilest creatures in the world to bear first our own sins and then the wrath scorn and revenge of all the world Is nearer to Christ shews more of innocency then t◠〈◊〉 our selves For the first part of 〈◊〉 Christian righteousness is to bear sin to judge and condemn our selves and to intercede for others To justifie our selves and condemn others is very contrary to the Cross of Christ This may seem and is strange to men but the mysterie of the Cross of Christ will open it to them that seek wisdom To conclude this point I do judge that as there was confusion in your actings so there is in your sufferings And though you are much to be pittied yet not to be justified in them or for them There is much mixtures in them Ingagements and necessity make men stout in their way Naturally what men cannot make good by wisdom and power they will maintain by resolution in suffering It is easier far for men to do so and die then to repent A false spirit and zeal will carry men out in suffering even to death it self as well as a true Yea the anguish and pain of so great a disappointment will make men chuse rather to die then to live in the shame and disgrace of it Shame is the greatest affliction to some tempers And therefore it is easier to die then to yield confess and give glory If there should be none of all this in your present sufferings yet so long as there is bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not
become our advantage if we be made wise by our failings Let us first observe the process of things After his Majesties return there was by the sweetness and gentleness of his Government a great calmness and stilness in the Nation and in a degree in the most opposite The trying condemning and executing of the prisoners for the death of his late Majesty stirred a new passion in the spirits of many people And the execution together with the resolution of the sufferers revived a zeal confidence and boasting of their cause and an extraordinary earnestness in their minds which was expressed in incessant meetings discourses and prayers day and night These passions and religious exercises boyl up their minds into new heats which kindled this wild-fire and at last blowed it up into this open Insurrection That you may understand the reason of these things let it be considered what I have expressed in this and the former Treatise 1. That God had a controversie with this Church and Nation because of its sins and its sinful state and standing not with the things themselves only as they stood in darkness and weakenss 2. God must have some to plead this controversie with the Government and Governors of Church and State 3. Those that he called forth for that purpose he inspires and impowers with spirit for that work 4. The seat and subject of this spirit and ministry is the judgements and consciences of men For men by being inspired and led into opinions and judgements contrary to the received Law of the Church are thereby fitted to be instruments in Gods hand of his displeasure to the Church For the Church cannot be tried but by such spirits and judgements which differ from it and are contrary to it 5. They that are thus impowered for such a service so far as they do the will of the most high Lord in it are to be owned and justified Though the office be never so mean and never so contrary to â—he honours wills and wayes of States and Kingdoms yet it is the rod of God and must be kissed 6. These ministers of this displeasure have transgressed exceeded â—heâ—r Commission and exalted themselves in their service And so corrupted themselves and defiled their work This also is true Therefore there is in them that have executed this displeasure and in their consciences and work something that is just and something that is unjust and unrighteous Till these are distinguished there is no right judgement of them It must also be considered and it is granted by all Divines That the works of divine Providence and Government are executed by the administration of Angels Both the standing and changing of Governments is by the ministry of these principalities and powers Therefore in the great revolutions of this Kingdom both good and bad Angels have been employed They being spirits their proper sphere in which they move is the spirits and consciences of men Therefore it follows that as there hath been in these great Providences a righteous work of God and with it much unrighteousness so there are both Angels of light and of darkness inspiring the minds and consciences of men Now to administer justice upon men that have acted in these things without any judgement made of the principles and spirits that have moved in them cannot be thought to be perfect nor a right way to cure our distractions For outward punishments upon the body will not remove the evils that are planted by spirits in the consciences and judgements of men 1. For all men know First That if there be but a little truth and uprightness in any conscience it will bear up the person in the greatest outward suffering Neither death nor hell are able to over-power the least grain of honesty in the poorest wretch that ever lived That which is sincere is able to live and triumph under many sins and sufferings and will never yield till right be done to it 2. Mens spirits and consciences and the spirits that inspire and lead them are above the reach of the secular sword and only subject to the Scepter of Christ in his Church to the sword of the Spirit 3. Conscience though erroneous and seduced will enable men to suffer bodily punishment imprisonment and death with great chearfulness And if they are laid upon men without the means of conviction they do harden men in errour And therefore legal proceedings only to bodily punishments are not sufficient remedies to cure these distempers The case of the Nation under its present distempers is certainly extraordinary and far different from what it was an hundred or fifty years since Great variety of spirits are gone forth which have raised up the minds of men to a greater height of reason religion and resolution And old ordinary remedies will not cure new and extraordinary diseases If the Physick be not proper to cure and remove the disease it will by stirring the humours and enraging of them make dangerous commotions in the body For if men either from some measure of simplicity be it in the least degree and much mixed or from some spiritual operation be it of what kind it will or from an erroneous conscience If from any of these the sufferer be able to repell the Sentence of the Judge and to glory in his suffering and in a shew of righteousness to triumph over death he doth notably affront and wound that authority and judgement under which he suffers A man and his cause when he comes to judgement is brought out into the open view of all men and not only made publick but he and his cause is exalted to endure a conflict and tryal with the Law If the Law comes forth with that brightness and majesty that it ought the man is condemned in his own conscience and so justifies the Law and submits to his sentence and by this the Law and Authority is honoured But if the person judged stands clear in his own conscience upon any account and acquits himself in the face of dead when all men ordinarily yield such have a kind of conquest and do seem to overcome the sentence which must needs have an effect upon the people For people do naturally mind dying men death is King of terrours and it is a great thing to die it raises men on high And therefore in them that can die comfortably and confidently there is a great appearance of righteousness and worth which doth much affect the minds of people some are moved to pitty the sufferer and thereby his words and cause steals into their minds Others are convinced and drawn to the Party Others are hardened and strengthened by it For men think with themselves I cannot live comfortably bur here is that which will make me able to die comfortably and that is worth embracing That which makes the Magistrate to be feared and reverenced is his power of life and death That which makes men able to overcome death secretly overcomes the Magistrate
For every one that goes out of the world glorying in his righteousness makes a breath both in death and in the authority that inflicts it And when it comes to be easie and familiar as it will by a little practise Authority and Magistracy it self will be by such despised I shall commend to the Magistrate an Observation of mine own concerning the nature of man That he may consider what he governs and how he ought to govern him Man is a noble and stout creature There is so much of the majesty of the image of God in faln man that he retains much of the greatness though he have lost his goodness There lies raked up in this dust an invincible spirit that never will be subdued by force God could never break the rebellion of the Israelites by all his punishments upon them And therefore sayes Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more Isa 1.5 All the terrours of the Law could never subject Paul but he sayes himself When the commandment came sin revived and I died Rom. 7.9 When the law came with terrour against him then fin roused up it self unto a desperate opposition There being such stoutness in mans heart that all the force of the Law could not subdue God sent his Son in love to this stout creature to take his flesh and so to soften and overcome it and in it to destroy both Law and sin This will shew us what is in man There is as much of this courage and greatness of spirit in the English as in any people under heaven which is very much awakened in these times both by the wars and by long liberty and a free exercise of their minds in Religion For first the people were inspired and impowered to execute the determined displeasure of God upon the Church and Nation which exalted them and subjected the Church and Nation under them Having as they think judged the former state of Religion they have opportunity and liberty to erect several new forms of Religion which is an act of spiritual principality and power and not without zeal for God and obedience to his Law By these things the genius of the Nation and the natural stoutness of the people is much lightened and encreased And therefore to reduce them into that state that they think they have judged and to destroy all their little principalities set up in their consciences only by outward force or by the meer letter of that Law which they have condemned without a superiour Law that judges them and their work to my reason seems not only impossible but dangerous Let the whole be considered and it will be found That meer legal and outward punishments upon such a people so spirited and principled so employed and exercised if their consciences and spirits be nor first fairly heard judged and convinced will inflame their minds into such a mad and desperate spirit as appeared in the late Insurrection into hardness and insensibility of death and danger which is the greatest enemy to Government that can be For it turns men into wild beasts not to be ruled by humane Laws And though they do attain nothing to themselves yet they may give disturbance and force the Magistrate from all humane and divine wayes of love and gentleness into violence and perpetual severity and fill the whole Nation with continual troubles and distractions It is true the Magistrate is bound by all bonds of Law of reason and nature to suppress and punish rebellion But when the seeds of rebellion lie in the mind and conscience the spiritual sword is as necessary as the secular and the one not effectual without the other What is written in this Treatise will I hope satisfie them that will read and consider that there is with us in the Church a spirit and understanding that will reach the root of rebellion in the mind and fully convince the conscience Which being joyned to the civil authority is sufficient to cure and heal the Church and Nation On the other side I must desire the present suffering Party that were so highly offended at my Book and at my proposition for the tryal of principles that they consider how much lower they are now faln There was certainly a loftiness and unsubjection of mind unsutable to their condition expressed in a glorying and boasting of their old cause and state which hath brought forth this contempt and suffering upon them I do believe that this late Insurrection was the work of a few rash and unreasonable men And do find that all sober men do express a great abhorrency of the act with resolution to wait patiently upon God for their deliverance Which truly I rejoyce in Yet the whole Party lying under the shame of these mens folly and madness they must seriously and deeply consider how far they yet stand unhumbled and unconvinced of those principles that carried these men into this practise Principles lie deep and when once they get rooting in the mind they are like ill weeds in a garden not presently destroyed Many times the judgement is enlightened against them yet they have a root in the heart which will spring up if not quite eradicated Their appearing in others and the evil fruit they bear is a good means to beget an utter detestation of them To make you sensible of the hand of God upon you and to help to clear your minds wholly of them I only propound these queries to you 1. First Whether those principles upon which they acted of the Cause and Kingdom of Christ and the honour and priviledge of the Saints above and against the world Have not been received into the minds and spirits of most men more or less that have erected new Churches and new Governments in the Nation Secondly Whether the same principles and the hopes of such things be not that which fills your heads and hearts with multitude of prayers and great confidences that you shall yet prevail and your enemies be destroyed And so though your understandings be more prudent then others yet whether the same things be not yet in your faith affections and duties Thirdly Whether these spirits and principles have not had a great influence upon the whole business a long time If so then if they be not rooted out by repentance and change of mind they lie not still in the heart though they seem not to act and appear Fourthly Whether men being upon an extraordinary bottom as the Saints of God distinct from others And exercising themselves in extraordinary duties with extraordinary hopes and confidences of extraordinary deliverances Are not thereby disposed and prepared to attempt extraordinary things to attain these extraordinary ends If so then you are drinking the same wine that intoxicated their heads that rose only they are weaker and you more able to bear it Remember Solomons counsel Who hath sorrow who hath contention who hath babling who hath wounds without cause They that tarry long
matters promised in the Scriptures and drunk into your thoughts should cause you to adhere to your former opposition and so divert you from the plain path of peace and safety To answer you in this Know 1. The things that you expect both are and will be manifested and far more and greater then you imagine 2. But never to be obtained by enmity and wrath but by love peace and by the good Spirit of Christ 3. It is a false Prophet that holds forth greater and future things to restrain from an exercise of present and plain duties 4. I desire you to consider and remember that though these high strains have got up into your prayers and private discourses yet they never were of any power in your great business You will find that the strength of your cause as it was urged by the Parliament against the King and the Army against the Parliament lay in these low and common things of safety necessity and the interest of the honest Party and at the highest providence and success Consider now Whether the same principles do not now urge you to peace that carried you to war and more strongly and justly For safety and necessity it is both seen and felt that if you persist in an opposition to the present Government you will ruine your selves and families except a miracle appear for you You have no true ground nor faith for miracles if you have any you may sooner expect them in a Gospel way of peace reconciliation and perswasion then of war And for Providence it now directs you to agree with his Majesty For the great Providence of his restoration hath eaten up all your lesser Providences as Aarons rod eat up the Egyptian Magicians rod And all your success is now in the belly of this If then safety necessity interest and providence could then lead you to make war and the same things cannot now prevail with you to seek peace it will seem a dangerous and foul spirit To delight in war that is bloody and spoyling unclean and filthy and to decline the humble and meek way of reason and treaty is not Christian The second thing I doubt is your confidence in the multitude and earnestness of your prayers And to that I propound the words of our Lord which are of eternal authority Mat. 5.23 24. If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there rememberest that thy Brother hath ought against thee Leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift The divine reason of it is this God is the Lord and Father of all men they are all his family if any one of his children or servants injure another and the injured person cry to him this cry comes up to him and is there put in as a bar or plea against that mans prayers till he make satisfaction For God is just and doth right to all men Now you know there is a cry gone up against you for the oppression of the Nation All Parties as well as your adversaries have something yea much against you And therefore mark what I say I speak it as a Priest unto God that do minister in his presence and as a Minister of the Word of Jesus till you can do these two things First forgive your enemies as heartily and truly as you desire God to forgive you And secondly ask forgiveness of them wherein they have ought against you Till these two things be done I put in a bar against all your prayers were they ten thousand times more then they are they shall not prevail Read but what follows ver 25 26. Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way Lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer and thou be cast in prison Verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing Your adversary is your judge the more reason to agree with him You must either agree compound or stand it out If you stand out you must pay for all those years of trouble and vexation that you inflicted upon your enemies for all the poverty ruine and destruction you laid upon them and their families If you stand upon your righteousness all must be paid to the utmost farthing It is a great debt Except by forgiving and seeking forgiveness you agree troubles and disturbance will offend the Nation and then jealousies bonds and imprisonments will attend you Till satisfaction be made for former injuries to the last farthing If you desire peace and safety read this last Section diligently till you have made it your own If you desire either further satisfaction or my assistance I am ready to serve you Reader I Promised thee in the beginning of this Treatise a discovery of my life and state Thou hast some parts of it scattered here and there But the whole I must reserve to some further opportunity Because this hath swelled into a greater bigness then I did at first intend it And the matter of it is such that I judge it necessary to be first published FINIS
Being sensible that my mind is both weak and a great stranger to all the Forms and ways of Religion that are abroad and having found by experience that when I did look out I met with great trouble and opposition from all sorts of people I have been willing to enjoy my peace and comfort at home and alone I did the least think to come forth in opposition to any party having in my heart a general love to all men But I am by this Book unexpectedly engaged to come forth in some kind of opposition to many if not all sorts of spirits now stirring in the Nation The people that have severely censured this book and me for it are Independents Anabaptists Quakers Fifth monarchy men and such as profess themselves spiritual and are in no particular form I desire them all friendly to consider how high they have raised the controversie and what must necessarily be the issue if it be determined If any of them had taken the book and dealt with the reason of it and had answered it and convinced me I had been bound to have been their Scholler and to have subscribed to them as my Master And if my reason had been too good for theirs I might have expected the same from them and no more But they all leaving the reason and falling directly upon my person and the state of my soul my life and peace the â—ar is like to be of a higher nature and the question who is the Antichrist who the Apostate who hath sinned against the Holy Spirit and consequently who must go down into horror and trouble into Satan and the displeasure of God and so it is a war of souls and spirits about the most solemn things of life and peace with God And therefore the issue must be this if you subdue me and overthrow my state I must bow and seek for mercy and peace of you upon such conditions as you shall think good to give it This I know you do expect and as necessarily I must so I do believe I readily shall perform it on the other side if my state and peace be good and yours fail I may require the same of you that you should submit to me and accept of my peace and pardon according to that equal and just Law Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them I do earnestly desire that we may on both sides heartily engage in this quarrel if I find you do shrink from it I shall endeavour to compell you to stand to it till there be a compleat victory gained by one of us If you be men and true to any thing that you say or think you cannot avoid the tryal for I know and feel that you are come forth against me in your censures of me with all your hearts and with the strength of your God Religion and Life as against an enemy to God and his cause t is so evident it cannot be denyed And by it you have drawn forth my life and spirit which till now lay close and still to answer you and therefore you are bound to stand and abide the dispute This I write neither lightly boastingly nor threatning but soberly and seriously in love to you and to the good and peace of souls The combat may be sharp but it may be friendly also For I do constantly find this truth in my mind that as all good doth and will overcome evil because it is larger stronger truer and more durable then evil so doth love conquer swallow up enmity enmity is a mean inferiour base thing that is but a servant to the greatness and majesty of love And at this time I find a special love both of pitty and friendship provoked and stirred in my heart by these wounds that you have given me For I feel such a nature in me the more you pierce the more freely my love and life will flow forth to you so that there is a ring of love made for us in which we may safely try our strength and therefore though it be both a serious and sharp contest yet it must also be a friendly strife It may be love hath laid a train to catch us all and all the enmity of all men For observe our quarrel it is of a very high nature for no less then the life and peace of our souls yet if we fight it out the end will be this either I must return to you and receive mercy from you of you must come to me and receive it from me Either you must be my Pastors or Ministers and so heal and feed me as a brother or I your Bishop and Father The quarrell is Whether you shall serve me with your life or I serve you with mine Whether I shall forgive you or you forgive me Possibly after some anger spent in the conflict it may be comprimised and we may both have our ends both serve and be served forgive and be forgiven But let us resolve to try it out for if you draw back and refuse the combat you will go down into your dark holes of enmity but press forward and we shall certainly come to feel and understand one another though through some smart and at last after we have spent our heat end in love If we had dealt in opinions that concern the State you might have feared trouble but you shall have the state of my mind to deal with which you may do without danger of any suffering but in your spirits our war will be now purely in and about spiritual things If we should controvert National Church Episcopacy c. the power of the Nation might be with me but declining that as you do and dealing only with my spirit and life possibly the Bishops may be as different from me and from my spirit and life as you are yea and be more with you then they are with me and I am apt to think it may prove so How ever you may be confident you are free from outward danger in dealing with the spirit of a private person You have advantage enough you are many I am alone you are whole and sound I am I confess much broken and weak you stand firm I have been tossed about my infirmities and failings are many and visible to all the world and most of all to my self yet truly I do desire and shall endeavour a fair trial not doubting the issue which way soever it fall it must be good SECT III. FIrst for the Book I have had many complaints against it but only in general as a monstrous strange wicked and cursed thing I have invited many to shew me particularly what false or unrighteous propositions there are in it and to this day not one man hath said to me that this or that sentence is untrue or will give me any reason against any passage of it But when we come to the point either they have not read it or but part of it