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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	become_v	cast_v	great_a	173	3	2.1558	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45518	The nations claim of native right Wherein the gross and extreme defection and injustice of the court martial, and of all courts; the destructive abuse of the law, and pressing necessity, that the nation speedily unite (as one man) for an agreement in righteousness, is by particular example, and an appeal to the general councel of the army, and by several considerations cleerly demonstrated and proved. Secondly, the nullity of order, matter, and form of a free people is asserted, and proved by scripture: and how (to persons, families, people, and churches) right order, matter, and form may be attained. Thirdly, a brief pourtraict of a right government of the nation, and agreement of the people; and how such government and agreement may be with ease attained; a new representative freely elected: the laws rectified: the poor relieved: and the peoples, and armies, and every particular persons just interests (in peace with truth) satisfied, is proposed to the nation. By Thom. Harbye, late Quarter-master in the Regiment late	Harby, Thomas.	1650 (1650)	Wing H684; ESTC R216528	94,995	134

tenents of truth but practique and executive truth which is righteousness then the people of God in her are in no wise to come out of her but they are to pray for the peace of Babylon and to seek it for in her peace they shall have peace Neither were the people of God ever called or commanded to come out of her until she be first fallen or falling in her righteousness her and their form and life of their being but if no address or agreement in righteousness whereby all just interests may be satisfied shall be endeavoured or shall or can be made and if Babylon be already fallen or falling in her supporting form her righteousness if she be an habitation of Devils a strong hold wherein every foul spirit is fortified Then God with a strong voice calls and commands his people to come out of her and then her plagues are coming upon her and her final destruction follows But it is to be feared that she is already fallen in her supporting form and become a strong hold wherein every foul spirit is fortified and that the plagues of her destruction have seized or are seizing upon her because she vomits up all antidotes which should expel her sins the poison of her plagues If a man infected with the plague be taken with a violent vomiting and casting it shews that the plague hath seized or is seizing upon the life When God sent all his plagues upon Pharaohs heart and upon the hearts of his servants they vomited up the antidotes of wholesom admonitions by Moses which shewed that those plagues had seized upon the life of Pharaoh and his servants and were the plagues of their destruction So Babylon is taken with a violent vomiting and casting If any wholesom means or medicine of faithful and sincere admonitions be given her she vomits it up If any thing profitable for her peace and safety be proposed to her or if any thing that should free her from her sins break her sickness and bring health be given her her stomack nauseates and loaths it it staies not there she casts it up again her soul loaths all cordial antidotes against the poyson of her plagues which shews that she is fallen or falling in her supporting form her righteousness and become a strong hold wherein every foul spirit is fortified and that the plagues of her destruction have seized or are seizing upon her Sixtly The people of God must come out of her because they al so are fallen from their righteousness which is their and her sole life and support and therefore cannot support her nor be supported in her They were once in her type that great Image in Daniel a head of gold compact and knit in Righteousness and had in and with her a Kingdom Power Strength and Glory Then they were in that Image as a little gold in its Breast and Arms of Silver which did not change the name and property of Silver yet did support the whole Body that it fell not Then they were as a little gold in its Belly and Thighs of Brass which did not change the property of Brass yet did support the whole Body that it fell not Then they were as a little gold in its legs of Iron not changing the property of Iron yet did they support those legs of Iron and the whole Body that it fell not Then they were as a little gold in its feet and toes that were part Iron and part clay not changing the property of Iron and Clay yet did they support those Feet and Toes of Iron and Clay and the whole Body that it fell not But now the Iron will not mix with the Gold but rejects it and thinks to rule by perfect force of the Sword alone and will have no power of the gold by Law and Righteousness mixt in its government and gold mixing with myrie clay is made weaker and more embased Therefore the gold in this Image that is the people of God in Babylon can now no more support her or themselves in her from falling Seventhly But the people of God in Babylon are so far from supporting her or themselves that they are if they come not out of her the first that must fall and be destroyed The two middle pillars in Dagons house upon which the house stood and on which it was born up fell first and then all the House fell So the people of God in Babylon are the middle pillars upon which she stands and on which she is born up and shall be if they come not out of her the first that must fall and be destroyed 8ly The people of God in Babylon must come out of her because she rejecteth God and them Saul rejected God and Samuel and God him and Samuel came no more at him but prayed for him unto the day of his death When Pharoah and his servants rejected the just Addresses of the Elders of Israel and the crys of the Israelits and drove out Moses and Aaron from their presence then their destruction and Israels deliverance from bondage was at hand so Babylon rejecteth all cals and commands of God rejecteth the crys of the poor and perishing free-born people rejecteth all just Addresses and drives out the people of God from her presence in Army and Nation therefore it may be feard the plagues of her destruction are coming upon her and therefore the people of God in her may justly and must come out of her 9ly They must come out of her because as the people of God in Babylon did by their righteousness ever suport her and themselves in her so if they come not out of her being called and commanded of God their sins of stubborness and rebellion against God shal be the only main cause of bringing the plagues of her destruction and her sal upon her and upon themselves as Ionas by his sin of disobedience was the only cause that the ship and all in it was ready to sink and perish until they cast him out into the Sea So the people of God in Babylon who by their righteousness have ever heretofore suported her and themselves from falling shal now being called if they come not out of her sink her and destroy her and themselves by their sinnes of stuborness and rebelion against God and it is not likely that they should preserve and support her or themselves in her any ●onger who by their sins of rebelion against God are the only main cause of her and their fal and destruction 10ly The people of God cannot support her nor subsist in her and therefore must come out of her because her Governors and Commanders are bruitishly violent and impatient and by impatience incapable of being convinced by reason and satisfaction Nabal as a foole railed upon Davids messengers that came in peace and sent them away empty with a churlish answer And Pharoah said to Moses get thee from me see my face no more for in that day thou seest my

life also Want is Vertues clog and the most violent spur and provocation to all wickedness It fits men for all vassallage and slavery It puts out the eys of reason and renders mens minds brutish It subjects their Spirits to all servile wickedness and their Bodies to all unjust burdens of corporal calamities and miseries It maketh Souldiers slaves to bloudy Designes Vassals of base and wicked enterprises to kill if commanded or not commanded one another or their best friends and to engage in bloud against any or against all the Free-born People to destroy them Extreme and unjust Poverty caused by cruel oppression is the iron chain of cursed bondage which makes men slaves to other mens wills and wickedness Slaves to their own sins slaves to all miseries slaves to their own utter ●uine slaves to destruction of Body and Spirit They that put the poor and the Souldiers and the middle sort of people in iron chains of unjust wrongs and oppressions and they that do not effectually endeavour to break their chains and to redress their wrongs and oppressions bring the guilt of the bloud of the poor and of the Nation upon themselves and upon the Nation The poor of the Nation for the most part are Souldiers undone in service turn'd out and deprived of their proper Rights the price of their bloud Many of the Nation are made poor in pursuing their and the Peoples Rights and Liberties and the rest of the poor for the most part are such as are undone by slavery and oppression I mention these things for no other purpose but that the bloud-guilty defilement of the Land if possible may be purged from it and for redress of it I propose First that the Foot may have 12. d. per diem from the begining of the Service as was promised or as due by a better right the just claim of Equity and Necessity Why should the Souldiers eat ashes and be clothed in rags by those for whom they have purchased by their hazard and bloud to be clothed in Scarlet and to eat the fat of the Land Secondly That the constant future pay for the Foot be at least and when things are as cheap as they have bin twelve pence per diem and that their present and future pay be as rates of all provisions are now and may be so much above twelve pence per diem as may competently maintain them and their charge in due health with honesty 3. That Troopers and Dragoons may have 2. s 6. d per diem from the begining of the Service and for future what more may justly countervail their necessities the deerness and scarcity of all things considered 4. That the sick and wounded Horse and Foot that for that cause are out of Service may have the same pay that they in service have but not pay for horses except they keep horses for the Service The Souldiers when sick and wounded have most need of their pay and they best deserve it who in discharge of their faithfulness have suffered most 5. That the sick and wounded Officers may the same pay which they had in service it being extreme hard and unjust measure that they or the Souldiers should be then most destitute when they have most need or that their faithfulness wherein they have hazarded their lives and bin wounded should be punished with privation or abridgement of their pay 6. That all Officers and Souldiers that have bin faithful to their trust and for that cause or otherwise unjustly turn'd out dismissed or cashiered may be forthwith restored to their respective charge and places of trust and have all legal and due administrations of Right and Justice and equal and answerable reparations given them in all just relations For it is unreasonable and unjust in the Nation and in its Trustees and Officers and dangerous to the Nation That they that have bin ever faithful to their trust and born the burden of the Service should be turned out or cashiered especially without due satisfaction and other Officers and Souldiers perhaps false to their present Trust or late enemies to it or newters or not fit for Service should ' be trusted with the charge and trust of the Nation Seventhly That all Widdows and Orphants or the next kindred of all such Souldiers or Officers if they have been faithful to their Trust as have been or shall be dead or slain in Service may have their Arrears Audited and paid them that the Nation may be free from the guilt and sins of bloud and oppression least God say to it or to many of it as Elisha to Ahab for Naboths bloud Hast thou killed and also taken possession or least God plead the Cause of the many thousands of Souldiers slain by cruel and unjust murder and oppression and the Cause of their desolate widdows and fatherless with the Nation and Representative of it and say Have you killed not one man as Naboth was but one but many thousans not who denied you their vineyards but gave their lives for you to do you service Have you killed them by keeping back the slender pittance of their deer purchase their due Pay which should have kept them alive Have you killed there by keeping back the price of their blouds who kept not back their own bloud that they might preserve your lives and Estates entire Did you enthral their bodies in all corporal calamities exigences extremities even unto death and did you kill their bodies did their calamities and extreme exigents enslave their Souls and Spirits in all excess of wickedness for ●so greater inforcement can be to all wickedness then necessity are they utterly cut of and killed Body and Soul in and by their and in them your wickedness And have you cut off and killed them in body and soul To keep back and bridle them from wickedness had been your duty and did you set your steely spurs of oppression in their sides and cause them to rush headlong into all wickedness and perish in it Did you kill them by keeping back the price of their hazard and bloud which had you paid them they had not perished or you had bin guiltless And have you taken possessian of it Did you possess the whole Land in peace and did you keep back when you had no need the price of their lives from their desolate widdows and forsaken fatherless Did you give possession of it to others that had no right to it and did dogs to whom it was not due lick their bloud Did you when you had power free the Nation from bloud or by not doing it plunge and re-involve it in a new bloudy War Did Ahab when sharply reproved humble himself and have you hardned your hearts when friendly admonished in the spirit of meekness Did you harken to corrupters and seducers and despise imprison persecute and destroy those that did faithfully admonish and friendly exhort you Let the Nation at least the Conscientious Party seriously consider these things as

face thou shalt die But these as Nabals servants said of him are such sonnes of Belial that the people of God cannot speak to them nor make any humble and faithful Addresses to them to undeceive and convince their judgements and cause them to see and forsake their bloody sins and oppressions or if they do make any such humble and faithful Addresses they do not only raile upon them as Nabal did and send them away emptie with churlish answers but add greater wrongs to their injuries and cruelty to their oppressions they answer their humble and faithful Addresses by doing double injurie and satisfie their just interests by making their oppressions so much greater as their thigh is thicker than their little finger they do not only threaten to kill them as Pharoah did Moses but do murder and kill them either by immediate stroak of lawless and wicked violence or by injury oppression and extortion But they will not believe that injuries oppressions and extortions wel hooded and masked under false formes of holy pretences can be murder as if Saul standing in the midst of the people was Saul but Saul hid amongst the stuffe was not Saul but Saul hid amongst the stuffe was Saul and the people ran and brought him thence and he stood before the people So injuries oppressions and extortions hooded and masked under formes of holy pretences are murders hid in the stuffe and the people must run as the Israelits did to fetch them thence and set them before the people Murders of the tallest statures are ever hid amongst the stuffe and these implicit massacres are most in number and the worst kinds of murder Lam. 4.9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger Therefore to murder the poor or midle-sort of people or the Soldiers by poverty or hunger caused by unjust oppression is worse than to slay them with the sword If the people do not seek out these sinister and implicit murders that are hiden amongst the stuffe and se● them before the people they cannot be freed from their Nations sins and their and its destruction 11ly They cannot support her because of the grand imposturies of her Sorcerers and Seducers who by her harkning to them do deceive and harden her heart The Kings of Egypt and their servants did once harken to the wholsome councel of the people of God then they exceeded all Nations in peace riches strength and glory but when they rejected their counsel and harkened to Sorcerers and corrupters creatures most vile and filthy they were led and fel into infamous sins and the plagues of their destruction came upon them But by her that is Babels Sorcerers all Nations are deceived Rev. 18 23. Her Rulers Commanders and Officers reject the people of God and hate them and their Councels and their own Sorcerers and flatterers vilest and most wicked of execrable creatures take up their the affections and understandings and entire beings as spirits take up little children and sel them for slaves into far countries And why do they dote so upon the Sorcerers because they cover their filthy sins and nakedness with the figg-leaves of their Libels cast stumbling blocks before them betray and destroy them but these Sorcerers must set no name to their Libels lest the vertue of their hocus pocus vanish like bloome colours as soon as it sees light these lead them and by these they are and will lead and hardned that the people of God cannot by any faithfulnes undeceive and convince their judgments that they might be freed from their sins and from the plagues of their destruction 12ly The people of God in Babylon cannot support her from falling because they themselves are fallen in the spirit of their forme which is love The Apostle distiguisheth man into body soul and spirit and the form of the new man into faith hope and love Spirits are the fiery living and executive powers of creatures so is love in the people of God But their love is fallen from all lively executive heat and become contrary to the nature of spirits cold The love of many saith our Saviour shal wax cold Coldness of love is the power of death in the spirit and sourse of life from whence universal defection in the people of God floweth their goodness righteousness and faith is cold dying and decaying their courage and constancy wavering as a wave of the Sea the Sun and the light and the Moon and the Starres are in them darkened Their faith to God and man doth but deceive and destroy themselves and others they are pillars made up of shadows and deceits dashing pitchers broken pot-sheards The stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig-tree casts her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind Rev. 6.13 They are the stars fallen from heaven to earth from heat to coldness from life to death or are dying They are Fig-trees that keep their leaves and cast their fruits They have left the power of Righteousness for appearances and embraced like Demas this present World Their Designes and Actions relate not to God nor the good of one another but terminate in their own corrupt ends and interests They are ignorant of true Righteousness and know not what it is nor wherein it consists but are zealous in their own Righteousness For the Jews the Type of the people of God had a Righteousness of their own wherein they were exceeding strict and that Righteousness was extreme wickedness So the people of God have a Righteousness not of God but of their own not of faith but of their own fancies and they are zealous in tihs their own Righteousness The Righteousness which the Jews had of their own consisted in Sacrifices refrainings from meats washings and in solemn fruitless Assemblies and Meetings Isa 1.10 and they were most hot and violent in pursuit of this their own Righteousness when they were most cold and fallen in their love to true Righteousness So the people of God being most cold and fallen in their love to true Righteousness are most hot and violent in pursuit of their own Righteousness which consists much in many Assemblings and fruitless solemn Meetings most needful were they well improved where they come together to serve God by jaring one with another What is true Righteousness the doing of that which is good and just unto all men they call moral and civil Righteousness and think it not essential in Religion whereas to give to every one their just right and proper due to evil doers their just reward to those that do well theirs and to all persons their own proper interests is the only expressive esential part of Religion and the visible life and marrow of all righteousness pure religion and undefiled with them is to abound in fruitless and needless disputes nice tenets and fond opinions They conceive that true righteousness and their obedience consists much in certain joynt solemnities of

empty functions which they call duties whereof just consideration might be had in their due respects and as some filled spunge with vineger and gave it to Christ so they sacrifice these empty spunges or take and fill them with all filth and defilement of oppression and wickedness and offer them up to God these sacrifices without salt of sincerity or substance of truth are their owne righteousness which is extrem wickedness and in this their own righteousness they are very zealous they are also forward to execute true righteousness so far as it conduceth to the satisfying of their own lusts or advanceth their own designes and unjust ends But for pure religion and undefiled and perfect righteousness without respect to their own corrupt ends and interests they will not once see it nor looke towards it their love to true righteousness is cold that is indeed dead or dying for coldness is as contrary to life as light to darkness therefore the original sourse and cause of life in the people of God being cold and dying all its effects the whole body of true righteousness in them is dying and dissolving they are slippery as ice brittle as glasse you may put your life in their hands and be sure they will deceive you ask not their counsel in any thing for they can give none nor receive any but carp at without cause those men and that means wherein and in whom their own safety most consists 't is dangerous to advise them for they can give no advice but to destroy themselves nor take any but to destroy those that give it Moses advised two striving Israelites to agree and he that was in fault betrayed him and in him all Israel and questioned him for his life for which cause he was forced to flee from Aegypt to Midian so if any faithfully advise the people of God to agree in righteousness they are the first that will betray and destroy them and it is their best safety that are faithful amongst them to flee from them as Moses did and not come neere them for they will betray and destroy both them and themselves such are the violent evils and effects of slavery the furnaces of base and slavish bondage separate as fire separtes gold from drosse or oare all vertues from the people of God and deprives them of wisdom prudence and reason This imbased the Israelits spirits and made them slavish and wicked Num. 14.12.10 But it separates occasionally the dross from their gold that are his people indeed as in Moses Caleb and Ioshuah and makes them more compact and refined yet the people of God have a great noyse of a name as Sardis had that she lived and was dead Laodicea that was most fallen from her love to true righteousness boasted more than all the other six Churches that she was rich and increased with goods and needed nothing but knew not that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked So the people of God are rich and increased in the riches of their own righteousness that is in Babels scarlet sins and apostasies the eyes of their faith look back like Lots wife to her Sorcerers they are fallen or falling from God and from all love unto true righteousness and have imbraced a righteousness of their own a righteousness contrary to true righteousness of their own fansies and deceitful hearts as the Iewes and Churches of Sardis and Laodicea did which is an immediate fore-runer of sure destruction to the people of God as it was to them without their vigourous and speedy care to prevent it which they may and must endevour but can hardly do it without being transient or passing into another body The people of God are so far from supporting her by their righteousness that their sins are the chifest cause of her fall and they most guilty of her sins she is fallen from truth and righteousness and they from faith towards her and themselves she is wholely putrified and corrupted and they her salt have lost ●ts savour she was a City of defence they her watch-men but she is surpriz'd and become a habitation of divels and they did not warn her but betray her they have seen as the Prophets of Israel did foolish things for her and themselves have not discovered their own and her iniquity but have loved vaine visions and flattering divinations Ezek. 12.24 Lam. 2.14 They have betrayed her and themselves by suffering their hearts to be deceived and hardned by her Sorcerers she hath committed main crying sins and they like the men of Iabish Gilead have sitten still and have not gathered themselves together as one man unto the Lord to convince her and to free her and themselves from these sins and have thereby dyed her sins in a scarlet dye upon their own spirits she had not fallen had not they fallen her power to stand was in them and their righteousness and they have dissolved and destroyed her and their own power to stand they have drawn one another and those that have bin farthful amongst them to unite and engage in righteousnesse for her and their own support and then have apostated perfideously and broken their faith to God and Man leaving these that were faithfull that in Conscience could not betray their faith and revolt as sacrifices to the yron teeth of her tyranny and oppression They have been forward to condemn them themselves for their faithfulnesse and have seen her grind and destroy them whiles they stood and lookt on as those Parents that offered their children to Molech The blood of those that have been most faithfull and their perfideous infringement of their just faith to God and Man will be required at their hands if they do not vigourously and faithfully quit themselves Therefore they are so far from supporting her by their righteousnesse that their wickednesse and guilt of blood and their slothfull unfaithfulnesse hath polluted her and their sins are the cause of her fall Fourteenthly The People of God cannot support her or themselves and therefore must come out of her because they are divided and scattered The Israelites because straw was not allowed were scattered over all Egypt The cause is the same here Gods people are Pharaohs Brickills those in Egypt burnt with fire these in the fire and rage of slavery and food maintains their lives as straw did their fires Pharaoh denyed Israel straw afflicted them with burdens and hard bondage and all their service wherein their Task-masters made them serve was with rigour The oppressors of Gods people deny them straw afflict them with burdens and hard bondage and all their service wherein they make them to serve is with rigour Israels oppressors kept back Straw but these both straw and corn they kept back fuel these food and raiment they kept back that straw which was the Egyptians but these keep back that Straw that food and raiment which belongs to Israel and if they would eat straw or if straw

act unto righteousness and freedom from the curse and then immediately relinquish freed●m and righteousness and desert and betray those that co-operate sincerely to slaughter and destruction Their best and most forward obedience is not wrought by the free spirit of God in life and power but their perfideous Apostasie and tr●ch●ry are real works of the spirit of bondage No Fountain sends forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Iam. 3.11 12. Neither can a fountain of bondage bring forth any work of Freedom Their continued breaches of faith and their quiet and peaceable doing and suffering of all unrighteousness and their oft revoltings are manifestly the works of bondage and do manifest that all their obedience are real works of bondage They seek just things for and from slavish and unjust principles and ends and seek to accomplish those ends by head-long and rash means and their best actions being subject to unjust ends and under the powers and forms of bondage the matter must needs be the matter of those forms and not of the free spirit in the power of God That some sincere are among them alters not their condition of bondage because they also are outwardly in bondage and outwardly not seen nor visible their righteousness and freedom is inward and so secret and secret things belong to God They that wore sincere of Israel in bondage did not alter the condition of the generality for they were all in bondage But as the Law by transgression is the power of sin so their service and obedience by back-sliding is the power of the curse of bondage for they could not revolt did they not first seem to stand nor betray the sincere did they not seem to hold forth faith and obedience nor be nigh unto cursing were it not that they were once enlightned Heb. 6. therefore the people of God are so far from being or begining of order matter or form of a people called to the life and form of freedom and righteousness which is of God that their seeming form their service and obedience is the occasion and their deflecting from it the real cause of their being under the form or power of the spirit of bondage There is no mention of any service to God that Israel ever did in Egypt before they kept the Passe-over for it was impossible for them to serve God before they were or had being or beginning of order matter or form of righteousnesse and freedom but of bondage unto sin and slavery only in a type So the true Israel as persons families people and Churches did never nor can or shall ever do any service to God at least in the cleer evidence of the life and power of God until they by and in their anti-typical families prepare and keep the true Passeover neither shall they have being or beginning of order matter or form in the power of true righteousnesse and freedom until they be called out of the power of bondage into the freedom and power of God receiving the seal of the Name of God c. and they onely shall bee the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb Rev. 14.21 A stone or clodd of earth cast by a strong hand flies as fast as the swiftest creatures that have life and motion in themselves so the people of God act just things vigorously for their own private ends singly of which did they seek them in the joynt good and safety of each other and by right means they could not misse and their outward motives failing they fall as a clodd of earth quit freedom and if peril appears their hearts like Nabals are dead as stones but they not only lick up the vomit of a slavish spirit but bend the power of it in resistance against God They hide their treacheries and apostasies with fig-leaves of deceits adding fraud to unfaithfulnesse and ensnare and betray those that are sincere and themselves in them to destruction and slavery Israel told Sampson plainly that they were come down to bind him and to deliver him into the hands of the Philistims and that they would bind him fast and deliver him that is betray him and they did so Iudges 15.12 13. but the people of God deal not so sincerely and truly with those that are faithfull and sincere amongst them They indeed bind them fast in cords of bondage and betray them but tell them not they will do so they need not they have many examples to warn them Moses and the Prophets reason and experience tells them that as Israel bound Sampson and betrayed him and Moses and in them all Israel into the power of slavery and death so all that the people of God do or can do in bondage by any Engagement is but to bind those that are sincere and faithful in strong cords of slavery and death and betray them to destruction and slaughter And this their trecherous disservice thus quitted they confine and terminate in outward strict form of profession and their own corrupt interests until opportunity be given that they may again seek for slavish ends just things by head-long and rash means and again betray those that are faithful to slaughter and themselves to slavery So they scarce leave any name or being of those that are sincere as few were left when the floud came in a Type They rally not but to revolt desert and betray those that are faithful and oppose base excuses to faith and obedience Israel heard gladly the message of their deliverance and then all both Elders and People so soon as resisted revolted and were scattered all over Aegypt under the power of bondage more then ever God sent a second message but they in no wise harkned Exod. 6.9 They had somthing else to mind then Moses they must either submit to bear or be beaten it was their living their calling and they must follow it The people of God bidden to the great Supper Luke 14.17 begin all with one consent to make excuse one had bought five yoak of Oxen another a house c. So the people of God called out of bondage at first seem forward to harken and engage for just Freedom but then the first noise of Fear before they see any danger puts them all to retreat and scatters them under the power of bondage more then ever the first brunt before it approach or come neer them breaks their spirit Moses was sent with a second message but they did not harken for cruel bondage their servile spirits made bondage matter of excuse and a strong Bar against their deliverance from it The Lord sent to call those that were bidden to the great Supper and they also harkned not but opposed the power of bondage against the power of God in making excuses an excuse is a shaking off or a casting out and they by making excuses did shake off God and his power for their deliverance So the people of God cast off God oppose his messages and resist his power

spirits to serve under all barbarous calamities and bloudy wickedness of blind obedience the vi●est vassals of slavery as the sons of Jacob sold their brother the preserver of their lives and beings into the house of bondage They must in all their motions and actions walk and act in the liberty of the light of God in their own spirits and not act or acquiesce from principles of an implicite-faith in the Arbytrarie commands of will and power in any Representative or person whatsoever It is small satisfaction or security to any man that may see if he will but will follow and be led by a blind man till both fall into a ditch and perish to think to say for himself a blind man led him and it was his own will and he would be led by him So if any sub-Officers Souldiers or others shall execute any unjust decree by order of or from any Commanders or Representatives whatsoever the plea of their order were weak and without all satisfaction They must not think their Officers command if unjust can free them or their Officers from the just doom and due penalty of the Law no more then a murderers plea at the Bar that his fellow robber commanded him to kill the murdered can quit him or his fellow from guilt of murder or from death due to murderers Neither may any person or persons or Representatives Courts or Councels vainly conceive that any imposed Trust Place or Office or personal Eminency or that their being many is or can be of any force to free them more then any one privat mean man from due punishment though it be death which the Law inflicteth for breach of it or to free any person or persons whom they employ from the like punishments Howbeit the Free-born of God in Army or Nation Officers Souldiers or private men that groan under the cursed burdens of bloudy wickedness and barbarous oppressions which they have born themselves or laid upon others if they seek earnestly and effectually endeavour the redemption of their bodies and spirits and to free others from the same bondage whereof the Israelites bondage in Aegypt and deliveranoe out of it was but a type and shaddow may and ought to be in some measure commiserated and their cruelties time past if utterly renounced and really repented of may be so far passed by as the Law can admit also some unjust actions o● infirmity and weakness so far only as may stand with law and equity may be born withal God keeps not the children of light in chains of darkness but willeth that all men should be saved from cursed servitude and bondage of body and spirit by coming unto and following after the pillar of God the knowledge of the Truth in their own Judgements and Spirits and that they walk and act at all times and in all relations in the light of this pillar of fire within them Wherefore let all the Free-born of God in the Army and Nation cast off the wicked burdens of cursed and blind obedience to Representatives Arbytrarie commands of Will and Power and fix the eys of their understandings upon the pillar of God in their own Judgements and Spirits Let them seriously consider in and with themselves and with one another the grounds of all their actions engagements and executions and be well advised and satisfied in their Spirits to what end and where unto they tend whether to liberty or bondage light o● darkness to Zion or Sinai whether they be works of Hagar o● Sarah Sem or Cham and whether they tend to enslave oppress and wrong themselves the people and Nation and other persons people or Nations or to right and free themselves and Nation and other Nations from slavery wrong and oppression Let them improve the most rich and precious Talent of their Birth-right and Freedom to debate dispute pleade question and examine the causes grounds and terms upon which they act engage or execute any thing Eph. 5.15 And in all things walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Heb. 15.14 And as those that are of full age who by reason of perfection and use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Let them consider their Representatives Propositions Counsels and Decrees whether they be just or unjust whether they are to be observed by them or to be reproved or punished in their Representatives whether they tend to involve them and the Land in bloud and massacre or to free it and them from it If Chams cursed Sons compel or perswade them to forsake Freedom and imbrace bondage to mo●l themselves by doing all base and dirty drudgery of vile and servil wickedness and to wallow in all unjust and extream wants and cursed calamities caused by unjust oppressions and cruelties let them fix their eyes upon the pillar of God in their own Spirits and walk in the light of it and follow after it If they command them to couch under all burdens of cursed servitude and to be with them as they are servants of servants slaves of servile and blind obedience and bruitish ignorance to act from an implicite Faith in their usurping task-masters arbritary commands of Will and Power to kill and murder at their command their best and most faithful friends and fellow Souldiers to enterprize any bloudy act of massacre and slaughter upon each other or upon the nation to perpetrate and execute at their command all oppression and crueltie upon the nation and through wicked blindness and brutish ignorance upon and against themselves also and to involve the nation at their wills in new Wars to destroy it and themselves Let them renounce and detest such cursed servitude and cast off slavish bondage of such blind obedience and fix their eyes upon the pillar of God the pillar of light and truth in their own Spirits and let them walk in the liberty of that light Let them try all things and hold fast the truth for this liberty is the proper peculiar and most rich and precious Talent of all the free-born of God which God hath given them Therefore let them try and examine with all exactness in themselves and advise together whether the light in their own Spirits be the light of the pillar of God or a delusion and whether it be the light of truth or a lying dream in their own fancies For if it be a true light to discover the truth of God and if they walk in that light and follow after that truth it will be certainly and infallibly a pillar of support and deliverance to free them from the most extensive and deepest guilt of bloudy and desperate wickedness and from the fruit and reward of such bloudy wickedness the most cruel and accursed calamities and destruction of bodie and Spirit All that observed and followed the commands of Chams cursed sons being free from danger before were drawn into a sea of death and destroyed not one escaped All Israel that observed and followed the

pillar of God being before involved in the greatest troubles that ever were were all freed and delivered not one perished That this pillar of Light and Truth may be more conspicuous and apparent to all the free-born of the Army and Nation I propose first for the Army That all Troops and Companies select and appoint in each Troop of horse and Company of foot two Representors men if it may be that have been ever firm to all the Armies and Nations just Interests and Engagements and faithful and wel-affected to the conscientious and honest party in both impartial to all yet free from Pharisaical bloudy rigour and indiscreet rashness Let these sit and act in all Councels of their Regiments with those Officers that concur with them in their Agreements according to their just Engagements Secondly Let them have liberty to sit and act in general Councels with concurring Officers as aforesaid Thirdly To sit and act in Councel in their own Troops and Companies Fourthly To sit and act in Councel in their proper Bodies represented the Souldiers of their respective Troops and Companies Their Office in Councel in and with their proper represented the souldiers of their respective Troops and Companies is to inform satisfie and convince their understandings and judgments what their and the armies and the nations proper Rights and Interests are what the proper Rights of the poor of the nation are and to re-present the Proposals Results and decrees of superior Councels to the Souldiers of their respective Troops and Companies in all things wherein their concurrence in execution is to be required They are to assert sign and attest under their hands superior Councels Proposals Results and Decrees to their said Troops and Companies that the truth may be firmly ascertained and established to them by testimony of two witnesses in all things wherin their concurrence in execution is to be required They are to represent to them and from them reciprocally to superior Councels such things as are profitable and honest for the Army and Nation and those things that are good just and lawful for them and for all men Without this or the like Order the particular Bodies Represented and their Representatives and the general Body Represented the State and its Representatives must sit in darkness and the shaddow of death without guide of light or pillar of truth to deliver them from the most execrable slavery of bondage and misery in body and Spirit and both Army and Nation must remain a dead Babylonish Chaos of confusion darkness and disorder without light or form Let the Representors of Troops and Companies by concurrence and assent of their respective Represented chuse in every Regiment two Representors for the Regiment to concentrate the work of many into unity and to avoid confusion Let the Representors of Regiments by concurrence and assent of their respective Troops and Companies and their Representors chuse two Representors for the whole Army who may sit and act in any Councel in the Army and also sit and act in the general Representative of the Nation for and in behalf of the Army as Commoners and Souldiers Let the people of the Nation the poor and middle sort of people especially select and appoint for them Representors to perform like offices to them to preserve them from iminent and otherwise irresistable necessity of perishing and to free them from most vile and miserable bondage of body and Spirit Let the poor and middle sort of people in every parish chuse two Representors for the poor of their parish or at least for every 120 or 200 families of poor Representors that fear God deal truly and hate covetousness and that are qualified as aforesaid are to the Army Nation and poor of it as Anchors in violent storms to ships and as strong cords binding arrows in bundles whereby they cannot be broken 14 Consider the Impostury and guilt of those that what they can cast infamy and odium upon the conscientious and honest party of the Army and Nation calling them Levellers Jesuits c. putting them upon vile and unjust actions turning them out of employment and places of Trust oppressing killing or cashiering them without cause and feigning many a●persions and slanders against them as to which I enquire whether there is not the same Anal●gy in anti-type and substance betwixt these and the usurping and tyrannical Egyptians in type and shadow The Egyptians wicked and unjust fear was That the Israelites by their might and multitude would Level the powers of Egypt and therefore sought by all means to Level their number and power by drowning their Males in rivers by imposing heavie burdens and servile labour upon them to keep them under by with-holding straw for fuel by restraining them their proper rights and liberties and the use of their own goods wherewith to sacrifice unto God and to serve him Whereas the Israelites from the time they came first into Egypt were under God the only supporters of the power and might of Egypt and the only freers of the whole Land from all destructions and plagues So these real and indeed self Levellers the true sons of Cham servants of wicked Jealousies and Fears doubting the honest party of Army and Nation will level and over-power their might begin first and that effectually to level them They level their power and number by casting their male Children that is such as have the spirit and courage of a man to stand for the Armies and Nations just Rights and Liberties into the violent streams of unrighteous judgments rash executions unjust oppressions starving prisons where they sink and perish And none but Females that is such as are of feeble spirits and courage to seek and stand for Right and Justice are suffered to survive and live They level them by imposing upon them heavie burdens not only of hard service but of wicked and unlawful actions and by setting the vilest and basest persons to be over-seers and task-masters over them They Level them by putting them out of places of Trust by Disbanding them without satisfying their and the Nations just Interests without considerable recompence for their faithful service and some without any pay or recompence by cashiering them without cause or for being true to their Trust conscientious and faithfull by condemning them contrary to all Law of God or Nature their enemies being Judges accusers and witnesses against them They Level them by reducing their pay already due for their service past in deducting part for free Quarter without showing or proving what or how much or to whom or from whom in particular any part of it is due They Level them by reducing the future past and present pay of the Horse in general and of divers Officers of Horse and Foot contrary to the Faith of this Nation and their own just engagements By this means they that are conscientious and honest both Souldiers and Officers and their families perish and are destroyed or at least