the great concernments of the Nation they have the just title of the people of England having interposed between the peoples Rights and Liberties and that slavish Tyranny that was breaking in upon them III. The Army are a constitution of more vigor and strength than any other the Parliament of it self could act but in a low weak inconsiderable way their greatest Authority lying in the Camp The Military Sword being alwayes more sharp than that of the Civill more able to do justice and to give protection than any Civil Sword or instituted power could The Parliament had the form but the Army had the power of the highest administration of justice as having more intrinsical and fundamental strength in it than any other The Malignants felt the power and by experience know that this is true Could the Parliament overcome the King beat him out of the field bring him to tryall and execution but by the power of an Army by this its undeniable that the power of the people thus formed into an Army are the strongest power IV. A Fourth consideration proper for this is that the Army are the people in an active body not in a bulky heavy sluggish heap but the people gathered up into heart and union filled with spirit and life for work of their generation very usefull and active men of publique spirits carrying the interest of the people of God and the good of the Nation in their aim and eye To this may be added the concurrence of the hearts and affections prayers and good desires of the honest party of the Nation going along with them these have contributed their best assistance to help them in their progress Although of late many partly through weaknesse and passion or divisions and factions amongst them and partly from the Armies miscarriages and apostacies have been offended with them but when the Lord shall blow away these mists and lead forth the Army in the ways of righteousness he will lead his people back to their former hearty concurrence of their affections to and their prayers for them As being such in whom the Lord hath treasured up their great interest with their Lives and Liberties V. There is a peculiar right of Government or power due to them in the Army in that they have ventured their bloud and have with the Jeopards of their lives rescued themselves and the honest party of this Nation from Tyrany and have purchased Liberty both civill and spiritual with the price of bloud so that God and Nature have put Authority into their Hands The former slavish Government that denied Liberty to men as men and to Christians as Christians being thrown down by them the priviledg of Rule belongs therefore to honest men as such and to the Army as such by the most undoubted Right that can be imaginable VI. I shall add one thing more and that is the designation of providence which first brought forth the honest people of this Nation into a Military body and that distinct from the Civill power and these accompanied with many signal Deliverances Victories and successes the produce and issue whereof doth entitle the Army and honest People to the most unquestionable Right of Power Government in these Nations I would not by all this draw men to adore an Army or arme of flesh but the Lord in the midst of his People whether in the Army or without all the Saints in the Land are the Army of God they are publique persons that minde a publick good and have all one Common interest These are the men God hath designed for Government Thus we may plainly see where the Power and Right of Government is seated in the good People and especially to those in the Army who was pleased to recall the Members of Parliament to a further exercising of their Trust formerly reposed in them this the Army did at least tolerate or condescend unto though this act of theirs did not proceed so much from judgement and wisdome as from urgency and necessity being tossed to and fro by the vicissitudes and changes of things and being in some darkness having at that time no better thing in their eye they chose this as the next expedient hoping some good might have been done by them but sinding that instead of going forward to settle the Nation they were carried on to many precipitate actings to throw down many things done in point of Reformation and not onely so but they went about to destroy and alter the whole Conduct of the Army though they were the very legs that bore them up and the Power that called them together And when the greatest part of the Nation was ready to rise up against them the Army onely did interpose by their power to uphold them Now if the Army had power to gather them they had also power to scatter them for the same power that sets up may pull down it was no breach of law to dissolve them that sat by no law Especially when their proceedings were Diametrically opposite to those ends for which they were called The Army a Military body so owned of God united in strength and courage carried forth with just and honest intentions standing upon their own feet being a distinct power raised by God by his immediate power for it was not the King that called the Parliament but his necessity neither was it the Parliament that raised the Army but their streights and both these as the product of providence and not the intentions of either the one or the other of them If then this Army being the ordinance and appointment of God to secure our Liberties and Lives should have given back their power to the Parliament as once the Parliament would have given theirs to the King it had been the highest breach of trust that could be imaginable both to God and his people And surely the Lord would have brought deliverance some other way and would have left them their houses to have been trodden under foot at the lusts and wills of men the foot of pride should have trampled on them like mire in the streets I shall now come to Answer all the materiall Objections that I can think of that are made against the past and present proceedings of the Army Object 1. The first is this The Army owned the Parliament as the Supream Authority received Commissions from them and called themselves their Servants Answ The Parliament were the Supream Authority of the Nation only as the Army did own them so but as the Army did set them up tollerate and condescend to their Authority for a time yet by no act did confirm or perpetuate them nor I believe never intended it The Army having so much of Power and Government devolved upon them as we have already shewen having the life the spirit the vertue of all the good People gathered up into a military body and being of publique spirits for the good of the honest interest in the Nation It
s beyond question to ask by what law or Authority the Army could dissolve the Parliament they were obedient while they set them in Power over them but when they thought of changing their Masters they might do it without breach of any law where there is no law there is no transgression And had the good People known the bottom of the Parliaments proceedings and how they were about to espouse a National Interest intending to have thrown the Government upon the spirit of the Nation no question but all unbyassed good men in the Nation would have concurred as much with the Army in this last breach as in the former but here one precipitant action draws on another and many mens judgments were surprised in this last action of dissolving the Parliament more than in the former But when good men have their eyes open to see that their Lives and Liberty their safety and security is wrapt up with the Armies Interest as ever the peoples did in King and Parliaments No question but as one piece as one body as one soule and spirit they will agree to such a Government as may best secure their own safety and the good of the whole Nation That which causes men of carnall and earthly minds to rage and fret and to strive like a Bull in a net because we setle not upon a worldly foundation a Constitution that may take in the spirit of the Nation in all its filth and corruption in all its malignity and enmity that we may not make up a Heterogeneall body a mixture of Iron and Clay What were this but to return to Aegypt to the Oynions and Garlick a going back to the house of bondage to be intangled with the customes and manners of Aegypt this were but to be brought to the place where we first begun and so to suffer loss yea all the price of Blood and Treasure the fruit of all the Prayers and Teares that have been spent but the way is to go forward we must to Canaan the Land of peace and truth of righteousness and justice and short of this we must not sit down Object 2. In the second place Some charge the Army of a second Apostacy and back sliding which they seemed of late to repent off and that they confessed they lost the presence of God ever since they first interrupted the Parliament Answ That the Presence of God went a long time with the Actions of the Parliament this is acknowledged by all good people as well as by the Army and this was one of the grounds of the Armies inviting it to sit this last time but that they lost the presence of God by breaking the Parliament or ever since they were broken this was never acknowledged by the Army they must then have been fals to their own experience for all know that the good people did as much rejoyce at the Parliaments first breaking as at any act of Providence that had been done amongst us and the presence of God appeared much more in the time of the Little Assembly than in the latter end of the long Parliament But the Apostasies and backslidings the Army did bewaile was for dancing after the pipe of a single Person and together therewith espousing a worldly Interest and so building up the broken walls of the City Jericho that they made them a Calf in the Wildernesse this was the sin of the then General and the Army though most of the Army were passive as to the setting up of such a Single Power But the last act of Apostacy in the Army was to give a new Resurrection to this Parliament which was so signally disowned of God and his people long before not but there were good things and good men found in it but what was this but to return to Aegypt for help Why doe we speak so high for a Parliament is it not a worldly Constitution a Body sitted for a King the Interest of the Nation not of the people of God and every whit as Babylonish as Kingship it self at best the most of them are men of estates under some prudent qualifications This Constitution hath been excellent in its season and while there was life and power in it we could not but honour it but that having been the hand that brought us out of Aegypt into the Wildernesse it must die at mount Nebo it cannot carry us into the land of Rest and Settlement to strive about it is to raise the body of Moses to honour a dead Carcasse to repair a broken Idoll that can no longer be the Interest of the kingdome of Christ or his people I would not be mistaken as if I had not great respects for those Members in this last Parliament that were worthy I speak not against their Persons but am only shewing the weaknesse of a worldly Constitution I do desire in my heart that those who were Members would come a little beyond that old form of Government and espouse themselves with the Cause they have heretofore managed and to act under such a Form of Government that Providence shall designe which by love and union may prove much more comfortable and safe both for them and us Object 3. Again it s commonly said that the Army is bound to subject to such as raise monies and pay them Answ For Answer hereunto It s well known that this Army for the most part of them took up Arms out of Judgment and Conscience and not as a Mercenary Army but who goeth a warfare at his own charge If the Pay of the Army should make them serve the wils and lusts of men and let go the Interest of good men they could not answer the end of their pay it is rather the end should commen surate the action and will more doe so than the means can direct to the end and it is not so considerable who pays the Army as for the Army to consider wherefore they are paid If they keep their eye to the right end the safety and Liberty of honest men this will more crowne their actions then to serve the humours of such as pay them The Malignant Neuter and malecontent cry out against Taxes excise not so much from the Burthen of them as from their enmity against the Army who are as a girdle of strength to the righteous in the Land and a bank to keep out that sea of misery that an inraged enemy would inflict upon them But when shall we hear any of these men complaine of the corruption of the Courts of Justice or of the oppression of the common Lawyers Who sell the poor for shoos and the needy for silver Little complaint is made of these though I am very confident they pick as much monies out of the pockets of poor people as would in a very great measure maintain the Armies in the three Nations this oppression men love and plead for as being most natural to them as most suitable to an old corrupt interest But I
of the Lord it was not an arm of flesh that could do this but a Divine presence the Word and the Arm of the Lord going along with an Army Thirdly Consider the necessity of an Army and that in these respects First the ancient Hedge of Civil Power is broken down and mens hearts and minds full of rage and revenge the army is the onely bridle to restrain it and is as a wall of fire to keep the exhorbitant and beastly fury of evil-minded men that they would exercise upon a remant of people that God would preserve in the Land Secondly it is a time of breaking and pulling down all worldly Constitutions God is staining the pride of all glory and treading down strength for this reason God gathers his people into the form of an Army as he said to his people of old Ier. 51.20 Thou art my Battle-axe and Weapons of war with thee will I destroy Nations and break Kingdomes And again Fear not thou worm Iacob and ye men of Israel I will make thee a sharp threshing Instrument that hath teeth and thou shalt thresh the Mountains and beat them small and make the hills as chaff thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the wilderness shall scatter them Isa 41.15 The Lord seemed to sleep in former days suffering his people to lie under oppression but now he awakes as in ancient days cutting Rahad and wounding the Dragon breaking the bands and bringing his people from under Egyptian burthens This cannot be done but by an Army Thirdly our condition at present is not a fixed Station but a posture of direct motion we are upon our March from Egypt to Canaan from a Land of bondage and darkness to a Land of Liberty and Rest Now the Army is a Body of Activity of life and motion and so fit for such a Work being full of Spirit and vigor inlarged in love and kindness separated from the old Forms and Customes of the world so that while the Lord leads us in a troublesome wilderness in dark and ruff pathes amidst wilde beasts and enemies on every side How comfortable is it to all good people to be led by the hand of an Army in the ways of Justice and Freedome Fourthly The Army being as the Sword of Gideon before whom three Nations fell in whom there is Majesty Justice and Protection they are engaged to dispose and frame an Order of Government for these Nations would not the King and his party think you had they prevailed made his own terms and that without controul And have not the Army the reason to secure themselves their Friends their Estates Lives and Liberties by the best security they can possibly provide for them it 's reason that they which give Protection should give Law This also must be done by the Assistance of an Army That which subjects the Army most to contempt and reproach is that they hardly own that Power that God and nature hath given them it being the most Superiour the most absolute in the world but how can the world own it so when it doth not own it self this renders it inconsisting with it's own being and it 's own Actings This is the true reason of present Troubles and Perplexities but let the Army but own it 's own Power and it 's own Friends and it need not to fear it's success and happiness The Law of the Land the Priviledges of Parliaments old and rotten Customes not regarded Hence those of poor low and drossie spirits cannot own you nor love you but those that can see beyond the vail of these outward things that know what true liberty and peace is and what the Foundations of Righteousness are these know how to have charitable Opinions of you and your Actings therefore be in union with such as these and your Foundation cannot be shaken by any opposition whatsoever 10. Obj. In the last place many complain that upon every change we look for much but the Issues Effects are very little Ans We always expect more from men then they are able to give us as for instance Some think a Free Parliament will do the work because they have been usefull heretofore but let any man rightly consider the Temper of the people how Malignant some how Neutral others how divided and broken the rest of men are at this day this remedy by Parliament would prove but a killing distemper it might wound us but could not cure us Again others expect much from such such men in the Army but we little consider how much darkness and blindness possesses mens minds how little knowledge they have of the Kingdom of Christ which is at the very Birth and no man knows how to give it a deliverance Neither do we well consider how unfit the world is to receive that which is truly Righteous and good being froward stubborn and perverse The work of Righteousness shall be peace only to those that embrace Righteousness with love and liking Now alas what can we expect more from man then to be diligent in his place to exercise humane wisdome to keep peace and the like The best Government we can expect from man will be mixt having something of Christ and his Kingdome and something of humane prudence and of a worldly concernment Expect no more then this and you may not be deceived To conclude with a word to the Army First Open your bosomes and hearts to all the people of God in the Land that ace one with you in your Cause and Interest your strength lies in perfect union with them The Governors of Judah shall say in their hearts the inhabitants of Jerufatem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God Zech. 12.15 Judah that had formerly many populous Cities and great Armies being now without Walls and almost without Inhabitants yet even they shall with courage and with confidence say the Inhabitauts of Ierusalem be they never so few or dispised shall be our strength This also will be the strength of the Army A sirme Union with the Faithfull here you can never loose your Interest he that will save his life shall loose it but he that will thus loese his life shall save it Secondly and Lastly be sure you make some progress in your way by every opportunity Wherefore cryest thou unto me saith God to Moses by this question God doth not find fault with his Prayer or Supplication for the people but rather the Lord doth hasten them to action Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward saith he and I will fall in with my power miraculously to preserve my people and destroy their enemies Then let it be the work of those in power to pluck up eveoy plant the Father hath not planted let no destroying interest remain God saith to you as to Israel of old Go up and possess the Lond which I have sword I will give you Go on reform the Law and Ministry purge all Courts of Judicature break every Yoke ease all burthens banish all profaneness release the Prisoner releeve the poor Fill the Land with Righteousness what ever is good holy just Honourable let it be brought forth and exercised and the Lord your God will go before you he will fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt And your Enemies shall bow at the soles of your feet they shall call you the City of the Lord the Sion the holy one of Israel Isa 60. You see besides your encouragement you have reward in your Work FINIS
dare say that no honest man interested in the cause of God and of his people of an unbyassed judgment of a publick spirit truly minding his own welfare and the lives and liberties of his brethren can be against convenient pay for the Army Considering they carry themselves with love and tenderness not Robing nor Plundering those under their power but defending the rights and properties of all being under a severe discipline they are civill and of good behavour I say no man that is in his right minde can be against their pay except he be an enemy It 's well known they grounded great necessities to save the purses of the people there is the same reason of their pay as of their continuance and both are of an indispensable necessity Object 4. In the next place it 's said that be the intentions of the Army never so good yet they must not doe the least evill that the greatest good should come thereby Ans It 's true we must not chuse the least evill yet howere evill may cleave to our actions so there may appear to be much weaknesse and darknesse in some actions of the Army their work being to destroy and pull downe as those that pull down old houses cannot but trouble the eyes of the stander by so that some of their wayes may be accompanied with precipitancy and rashnesse but who is it that doth not plough with an Ox and an Asse in his best services and doth not blemish his best duties with some notable defects Moses smote the rock twice Numb 20.11 And Rahab concealed the two spies by telling an untruth yea and she seemed to do it with unfaithfullness to her owne country But the Author to the Hebrews tells us she did it by faith that is she by warrant of some particular revelation received from God did this believing that the Lord was the author of the War was with his people in the Wildernesse and would give them their Land and therefore God doth cover her defects and declares it an Act of faith So I believe many in the Army act by faith believing the Lord will shake all Nations untill the desire of Nations come and hence the Lord will overlook all irregularityes and weaknesses that mhy cleave to theer actions in pulling down worldly powers The men of the world are chiefly offended because the kingdome of Christ is at the very door it s so conspicuous and bright that it makes men rage and fume they know not how to resist it because its unresistable and they cannot own it because it suits not with the Worlds wisdome and policy It s likely to be much rejected of this generation to whom its first offered Men are pleased to view Christs kingdome at a distance as the Jews could converse with Christ in types and shadows but when he comes indeed they reject him so will it be with this Generation 5. Object It is farther urged that we must be subject to eivil powers as to the Ordinance of God the powers that be ordained of God Rom 13.1 The usurp'd powers of the Roman Emperour was ordained of God Answ The answer for this is at hand A Military power is us truly an Ordinance of God as any other and superior to it The antient Government being irrecoverably lost the Army with the good People in the condition of Conquerors being an Army cloathed with the peace freedom and privileges of the good people this is as rational and as just as any other Government and much better and most suitable then any other for us at this day as I shall shew hereafter It 's therefore necessary for us to know that a Military power is as much an Ordinance of God as the Civil if not more and the Lord doth as usually delight to appear in this form of Government as in any other he is stiled the Lord of Hosts very often he doth also manifest it in the Creation casting his work into the mould of an Army when he had finished the heaven and earth and the Host of them Gen. 2.1 In his Providence he is said to pitch his Tent about them that fear him when he redeems he comes as a man of War with his garments dipt in blood Isu 9. When he comes to destroy Antichrist comes with his Arm es in heaven when he comes to judge he comes with thousands of Angells And thus the Lord rejorceth to come forth in a Military cloathing And therefore know that an Army is an Ordinance of God appointed by him as the most absolute perfect power on earth having the substance of all Governments contajned in it This was Rubens portion and 't is called the Excellencie of Dignitie the Excellency of Strength Hence all Governments are called powers and in Scripture called the Sword The Apostle speaking of the Civil Magistrate saith He bears not the sword in vain By this we see the Sword is an Ordinance of God and must be subjected unto as well as Civil power 6. Objection In the next place it is often demanded How it was such a hainous crime in the King to demand but five Members and no breach at all in the Army to dissolve the whole Parlament Answ It is answered thus When the King came to pluck out the Five Members out of the House he came in a hostile manner in a time of Peace when the Government of the Nation was whole and intire standing in its full strength and luster But now the Act of the Army is quite another thing the Government being broken and shattered and that remaining part of the Parkament was very lame and defective and this standing onely by the Armies power this lessens the Crime if not wholly obleterated 7. Object Another Objection to be removed is this Did not Essex and Waller disband at the command of the Parlament and why not this Army Answer The Earle of Essex with others were called in by the Self-denying Ordinance as they were Members of Parlament and the Government was in the same condition as whole as intire as when they were first sent out Besides they were not crowned with such victories and success as the Army since was and moreover there had been never such a breach of Trust committed by the Parlament as after all those victories they were about giving all up to the King again as by the personal Treaty was like to be done and so those that had ventured their lives should have been left to the mercy of an inraged enemy Upon this the people make their Appeals to the Army to interpose in those concernments Now if the Army had disbanded at such a time it would have been to subjected their lives and liberties so dearly purchased to the lusts and designs of evill men all which in conscience and duty to God and man they were bound to preserve Besides the case of the Nine Officers that made the breach now was quite another thing then that of disbanding it
was by an Executive Authority the Parliament took upon them while they owned themselves to be the Legislative power going about to turn out Nine Eminent Officers upon a Criminal Account without any tryal or so much as a hearing it being a high piece of Injustice so to do The old Protector would alwayes labour to satisfie any dissenting Officer before he would dismiss him from his Command If these Nine had gone off quietly they should suddenly have had more fellow-sufferers the design being to breake the whole Conduct of the Army who had as it were a natural Right to their Places being such as had hazarded their lives and the like Now for these to have suffered themselves to be thus trodden under foot and together with themselves the interest of all good people had been a greater crime then can at this time be laid to their charge 8. Object In the next place 't is said by some That if self-love particular interest and necessity had not stirr'd the general good would not so much moved them To this I answer Ans First as to self-love as 't is mentioned in 2 Tim. 3.2 is an Evil when it is either fixed on wrong object or runs after a good object inordinately But self-love in its due latitude and measure is no sin but a virtue rather because 't is made the Rule whereby we must regulate our love to others Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self If then it be a duty that I love another it is also necessary I should love my self This Principle of self-love duly regulated is so necessary that the World could not subsist without it for from the same Principle that I love my self I love another and if I did not love my self I would not love mankind for that I love my own flesh my life my good name and the like from the same principle I com to love the body the life the credit of another so that take away Self-love self-preservation and you take away mercy love and tenderness out of the World No man ever so hated his own flesh as to suffer it to be trodden down by pride and injustice if it lay in his power to redeem himself Secondly the same may be said of particulor interest If any particular interest be a prejudice to the whole I must pass it by but when it is for the good of the whole I am bound to stick fast to it Now 't is evident that together with the Interest of those Nine Officers with others that share in the Conduct of the Army lyes wrapt up with it the Interest of all honest men for if such as had with the hazard of their lives rescued the people from slavery and bondage should have delivered up their place of Office which is so naturally and providentially their own have given up their own with our conquering Sword into the hands of others it had been a high breach of trust committed against the good people of this Nation Thirdly Lastly as to an Act drawn forth through Necessity it may be very acceptable to God when our Wil is brought to consent to a necessiry We come to chuse obedience being called thereunto by an Act of Providence so that when necessities meet with an obediencial frame of heart necessity become a virtue as we say and obedience thus drawn forth by an Act of Providence is as acceptable with God as Obedience grounded upon Gods Word In the last of John Christ tells Peter he should be carried whither he would not There was a necessity but his Will being drawn forth to meet the Necessity made it acceptable with God Sometimes nay often God works greatest things by mans necessities for as necessity hath no law so it needs none being a Law to its self 9. Obj. In the ninth place that which is strongly opposedly opposed is That we should be ruled by the Sword Ans The Sword its true when it is drawn forth to kil and destroy to eat flesh and dring bleod 't is a dark and most sad dispensation but as 't is onely used to keep down inraged Enemies and keep off destruction and when it 's accompanied with Wisdom and Goodness with Righteousness and Justice then it comes to be good and desirable But what do we speak of a Government by the Sword Is the Government of the world any other Have not Emperours Kings and Commonwalths their Militia's to force obedience when their Civil Sword is contemned being blunt and dul Do they not draw the Military Sword which is far sharper Did not the late King draw this Sword to force the Scots to uniformity All the Government of the Sword is but this That a convenient number of the Forces be kept under pay to keep down a turbulent Enemy and to protect honest men in their Rights and Liberties that would live in peace if they could This is all the Rule of the Sword Are not the Civil Administrations of Justice kept up and exercised amongst us Is not every man secured in his peculiar rights Since I have mentioned the Sword I shal speak a little of it First consider the Sword is the Original and beginning of all Governments in the world and is the onely Protection and Preservation of them Whither do Emperors Kings or Common-Weelths retire themselves in case of tumults and insurrections but unto a Military Power there being onely succour and defence They cannot in such cases subsist but as it were resolving into their first principles the Sword from whence they had their first rise Secondly Consider what special hand of Providence raised the Sword first It was not man but God raised up his People into an Army when they were at peace and quiet The King being great in Worldly Pomp and Glory did bend all the force of his Government to oppress a poore harmless people that could not live in the Nation unless they would defile their consciences these lived as sheep among Wolves and were as Doves and Lambs they had no horns to push or hoofs to tread under they had no sword to destroy but were willing to lye down under all their oppresions But the Lord calling forth these to war that not from a private spirit but with the stamp of publike Authority the Lord raised up their spirits and made them men of War like himself who is stiled the Lord of Host The Lord took his people as he did David from the sheepfold to make them men of War put a mighty spirit into them affording a great manifesttion of his own presence going along with them before whom all earthly Powers are fallen and broken to pieces Thus the Lord cloathed himself with Zeal as with a garment and hath indued his people with such Masculine virtue and strength that their Horns have been as Iron and their Hoofs as Brass whereby they have threshed the Mountains and the Hills as Chaff And this hath not been by Might and Power but by the spirit