Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	heart_n	power_n	soul_n	6,944	5	4.6487	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74924	A Faithfull searching home vvord, intended for the view of the remaining members of the former old Parliament in the time of their late second sitting at Westminster. Shewing the reasonableness and justness of their first dissolution, as also the dangerous rock they formerly split upon, that so they might learn to beware for the future: But being a second time dissolved upon the like account, as so many fruitless trees twic dead plucked up by the roots. It is now presented to the officers of the army as another looking-glass wherein they may plainly see, how woefully they also have dissembled, dealt treacherously, deceitfully and wickedly both with God and man, in having so greatly apostatized from, rejected, trodden under foot, persecuted, Judas-like betrayed, and as it were crucified and kept down in the grave (as the soldiers formerly did Christ) that blessed cause and those good principles, they once so highly pretended to own ... Together with an other seasonable word by way of counsel and proposal to the aforesaid officers of the armies of England, Scotland, and Ireland. All which, is also to be seen, and read of all men loving righteousness, that thereby they may (with the army) better know how to chuse the good, refute the evil, and rightly steer their course, and bend their spirits in the future, for the exaltation of Christ, his cause, and interest, and against all the apostacy and treachery, though never so refined, that may further appear in this gloomy, dark, overturning day.		1659 (1659)	Wing F285; Thomason E774_1; ESTC R207286	59,601	45

done to the Lawyers National Clergy Cardinal Mazarine and other corrupt Interests in the Nation and it is to be fear'd that to please and keep the rude multitude quiet that so you may go on in your way or to draw trade to the City you suffer wicked Stage-Playes which were once supprest to be in use again if a right spirit of Magistracy were among you these things would not date to shew themselves but these practises will not cure you of your wound no more then King Jareb and the Assyrian cured them For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion and as a young lion to the House of Judah even I will tear and go away I will take away and none shall rescue him I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early Hosea 5. These with many other Scriptures of this nature doth witness the truth of what hath been asserted wherefore it concerns you to consider and to look about you Sixthly And if yet the Lord shall so far love own and honour you as to change your spirits and cause you willingly to stoop to this then their and your next work and oh that it were so now is to endeavour all you can according to your former declared principles denying your selves in your kindred and relations if not rightly qualified to let no man pass into any command or place of trust in the Army Navy or Commonwealth but faithfull persons fearing God and of approved integrity and have love to all the Saints that so wickedness may be supprest and punished righteousness encouraged and the Lord engaged to be present with bless and prosper you in all your future undertakings for the preservation and advancement of his Cause and people as in former dayes Your thus maintaining purity love and unity between persons both in the Civil and Military Power and being as it were of one heart and soul upon the account of righteousness and in a spirit of self-denyal meekness and zeal growing up together in every day and generation in the light spirit and things relating to the Cause and Work of Christ in the world towards the forementioned perfection that shall be in the Saints in the latter dayes according to Micah 4.2 Isa 32.1 2. will so revive the Cause and encourage the former honest lively spirit that seemed to be among you and through grace is yet alive in a Little Remnant or else we had been as Sodom as will not onely cause the Lord to be in the midst of us but also to rejoyce over us with joy and singing and to rest in his love as he will more eminently do over his faithfull people in the latter dayes Zeph. 3.17 and cause our terrour upon our enemies to be greater then ever it was before and surely honest men may think it is high time for you who have power in your hands and profess to be Saints and to be now as ever equally endeared to the good Old Cause throughly to deny your selves and not suffer the Cause and the Nation to be lost and ruined for want of a little honesty but rather to be doing what you possibly can do to bring things into the posture that hath been laid before you for that it so plainly appears both by the Scriptures and the late Revolutions and outgoings of the Lord in the midst of us together with the present fearfulness that hath possest you and according to Isa 33.14 shall more eminently fall upon the Sinners and Hypocrites that pretend to be of Zion in the latter dayes there is nothing less then your hearkening unto and following the forementioned counsel that hath been given you will save you and the Nation from the further ruine and destruction that is coming upon you And for your encouragement that the Lord will receive you graciously and pass by all that you have done against him in case it be in the purpose of your hearts in reality thus to come unto him consider that he stiles himself The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and will by no means clear the guilty c. Exod. 34.6 7. Also the case of the Prodigal who went from his Father and came not again till all was spent and he brought to eat husks and so must return or perish as soon as ever it was in his heart and accordingly did so to arise and go to his Father and acknowledge his sin unto him the Text sayes Luke 15.20 But when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and run and fell on his neck and kissed him and instead of upbraiding and punishing him commands the best Robe be put on him a gold Ring on his hand and shooes on his feet as also the fatted Calf to be killed to eat drink and be merry and if you return as he did I hope you will finde no elder Brethren to repine at it And so David Psal 32.3 4 5 6. Sayes he When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture was turn'd into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid Now this is that I minde sayes he I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin for this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found When Josephs Brethren acknowledged the evil they did unto him and begged pardon for the same instead of being revenged upon them it is said And Joseph wept when they spake unto him and said Fear you not I will nourish you and your little ones and he comforted them and spake kindely to them Gen. 50.17 21. Now if there be so much pitty and compassion in men to those that trespass against them there is so in the Lord much more Also Jer. 3.22 and Hosea 14 4.5 6 7. I will heal their back-slidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the Lilly his Branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the Olive-tree and his smell as Lebanon They that dwell under his shaddow shall return revive as the corn and grow as the vine c. These among other Scriptures shews the readiness that is in the Lord to forgive the iniquities of and to be gracious to a repenting returning and back-sliding people and oh that this goodness of his might powerfully and kindely work upon your hearts to acknowledge your iniquity deny your self-interests and to return unto him But if notwithstanding all that I have said I trust in faithfulness to the Lord and you you shall yet continue to go

The Fifth Monarchy or Kingdom of Christ in Opposition to the Beasts Sold at the Crown in Popeshead Alley Letter wherein are five of the Particulars of your Charge See that Book page 22. First They complain of your evil mannagement of the Affairs that were under your hand 2. That the then dangerous remedy of dissolving you was not used till all other ways had been by the Army assayed and by you rejected 3. That after four years expectation from you since the change of the Government to wit from Kingship to a Commonwealth they found no * Was it not so again in this your second sitting Indeed you were very expert in laying Burthens and Taxes upon the people But what Righteousness and Justice did you bring forth Or what yokes lying either upon the Consciences or Bodies of the good people did you take away Or what hath the Officers of the Army who thus complain of you and dissolved you for not doing these good things done herein to this very day but strive to advance and settle themselves performance by you of those good things that tended to the settlement of the Commonwealth in Peace and Righteousness 4. They say They were abundantly satisfied from the long experience they had of you that as you were then constituted you were so far from being the Instruments of perfecting the Work of the Lord that the whole Cause was in great danger to perish under your hands for which there hath been so vast an expence of Blood and Treasure and therefore after seeking the face of God and taking counsel with one another it was generally apprehended that the onely way left to preserve the Cause was to prevent your sitting by a speedy dissolving you and laying the Government upon the shoulders of such men as might hopefully give the People the fruit of all their Labour and Blood and encourage good men to be still willing to hazard their lives against the Common Enemy which as things then stood many had little heart to do 5. That it was in their hearts to seek those good things in such a way as that you might have had the honour of it but you had not then a heart to incline to the Motion made in order thereunto but rather endeavoured a hasty inconsiderate passing of an Act for a New Representative though the General and Officers at a meeting with many of your Members did abundantly demonstrate the evident danger of it yet did you the next day so earnestly and precipitantly persist in it as necessitated them to put you to that suddain dissolution Thus far the Letter They also say in the Speech by way of charge against you see page 29 30 31. of the forementioned Book wherein are twelve Particulars 1. That when the General and the Officers of the Army came from Worcester they expected that you having such a History to look back unto a God that appeared for you so eminently so visibly the mercies that God had shewed the expectations that were in the hearts of all good men would have prompted you that were in Authority to have done those good things which might by honest men have been judged a Return fit for such a God and worthy of such Mercies and a discharge of duty to those for whom all these Mercies had been shewed to wit the true interest of the three Nations And likewise say They came fully bent in their hearts and thoughts to desire and use all fair and lawful means they could with you to have had the Nation reap the fruit of all that Blood and Treasure that had been expended in this Cause and had many thirstings in their spirits to finde out wayes and means wherein they might be any wayes instrumental to help it forward and that they did from time to time solicite you to that purpose and when they saw nothing could be done they reminded you by a Petition but had no return at all all the satisfaction they could get from you was but a few words And finding the People * It hath since appear'd that the Armies strivings and thirstings to have had the Nation better'd by all the expence of Blood and Treasure hath onely been to greaten and enrich themselves and studying how to get the peoples money to be upheld therein whereby they are looked upon as cheating self-seeking unfruitfull persons as well as your selves neither of you both having either honour or repute but are a stink unto all honest men do bring down judgements upon the Nation put all things into confusion yet neither they nor you the honesty or goodness to lay these things to heart to this very day but Lambert Disbrow Berry-like go on to advance your selves though the Nation perish dissatisfied in every corner and bringing home to their doors the Non-performance of those things that had been promised and were of due to be performed judging themselves concern'd they say they endevoured as became honest Men to keep up the Reputation of honest men in the world it seems you would not and therefore had divers times endeavoured to obtain a Meeting with divers of your Members and in those Meetings did in all faithfulness and sincerity beseech you that you would be mindeful of your duty and of the discharge of your Trust to God and man and that they had at the least ten or twelve Meetings begging and beseeching you that of your own accords you would do those good things that had been promised that so it might appear you did not do them by any suggestion from the Army but of your own ingenuities that so you might have the reputation and good opinion of the people to the utmost also declared plainly to you that the Issue of not doing those good things would be the judgement and displeasure of God against you the dissatisfaction of the people and the putting things into confusion yet they could not prevail with you and that you laid them not to heart 2. That you would not hear of a New Representative till such time as the Army came to their close considerations what to do and then you began to take it to heart and seem'd exceeding willing to put it on but not with that integrity and caution as would have saved the Cause and Interest that you and they had been so long engaged in and that your intendment and design in all you did at that time was onely to recruit the House the better to perpetuate your selves several of the Officers having divers times been spoken to by you to give way thereto which was so unreasonable a thing as they not onely had a perpetual aversation to but did abominate the thoughts of and alwayes declared their dissatisfaction with and judgements against it 3. That though you were unwilling to hear of a * It was just thus with you in your second sitting for though you seem'd exceeding willing to hear of Proposalls from the Friends of the Cause in order

he As the effect of that memorable Year 1648. was to lay the foundation of bringing Delinquents to punishment so it was of the Change of the Government although it be true if we had time to speak the carriages of some in Trust in most eminent Trust was such as would have frustrated to us the hopes of all our undertakings had not God miraculously prevented I mean by that closure that would have beèn endeavoured with the King whereby we should have put into his hand all that Cause and Interest we had opposed and had nothing to have secured us but a little piece of paper c. Which clearly confirms what I have said that the Lord blest us with success in our Councils and Forces as there was a sincere spirit acting for the Cause and Interest of Christ in that day and no otherwise his free grace onely excepted For when you were dissolved and the Little Parliament called there was a greater presence of God with them a terrour upon the enemy both at home and abroad especially upon the Lawyers National Clergy and all other corrupt Interests as also the hearts of most of the true friends to the Cause more rejoycing then in the time of your sitting But I let that pass and shall in the next place in some measure discover the mystery of iniquity that lay in the bottom and was working in Transactions after you were dissolved wherein lies the corrupt fountain or spring though unseen by most people from whence the late Apostacy had its rise which so caused the forementioned presence of the Lord to depart from our Councills and Forces and exposed us to the reproach and scorn of our enemies both at home and abroad and also occasioned the late distractions and divisions as between the true so the true and false professours amongst us and is as it were the pin and hinge on which all the confusion and dark apprehensions of things have had their dependance and moving from that time to this very day and is as follows For after you were dissolved and the Little Parliament were about to be chosen besides what was spoken to your selves and was desired of you by the General and Officers of the Army to wit That you would divolve your trust over to Persons of Honour and Integrity that were well known men well affected to Religion and the Interest of the Nation c. He also declared in the presence of Major Gen. Lambert Sir Gilbert Pickering Major Gen. Harrison Mr. Cradock Mr. Lockyer and others who were in a private consultation about that choice That if there were one man more faithful to the Saints and more suited to the work then another and that had not been left behinde in former dispensatious by the blessing of God he should be chosen and that Relations and all others not thus qualified should be rejected and that from this Scripture which was then mentioned by the party to whom these words were spoken to wit Hosea 11.12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies and the House of Israel with deceit but Judah yet ruleth with God and is faithful with the Saints The first part of which Scripture he and his Officers applied to you in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament page 38. of that Book viz. That like Ephraim and Israel you had compassed God about with lies and deceit to wit with your Fastings and Thanksgivings and other exercises yet did not do the good you were call'd for which they had all cause to lament of but the Little Parliament were called by God to be faithfull with the Saints who were somewhat instrumentall in their Call and to be just ruling in the fear of God c. Which principle was more publickly though hypocritically declared by them in that Speech page 41. of the forementioned Book sayes he to them I confess I did never look to see such a day as this it may be nor you when Jesus Christ shall be so * If Christ indeed be King of Nations as well as of Saints as surely he is and as the Officers of the Army have both here and elsewhere acknowledged him to be and the Little Parliament was called to act upon his foundation and to do all things in his Name upon an avowed account as their Judge King and Law-giver as these their words import And the Lord by his eminent presence with and refreshing the spirits of such as were faithful among them as also rejoycing the hearts of his faithful people and striking a terror upon the enemy whilest they were sitting and endeavoured to be acting according to that blessed spirit and principle gave testimony thereunto and the Spirit of the Lord and his faithful people grieved and his presence as also their prayers withdrawn and the Nation almost ruined since they were rejected and the Lord so wonderfully overturned and blasted the designs of whatever had enmity to and was set up after it and seems by those his overturning dispensations not to be pleased till those who have dealt thus treacherously return to the real practice of this their declared principle and to own that Spirit they have so rejected Then whosoever it is that shall be either laying or building upon any other foundation or be promoting any persons into power on this side of it though never so refined do set down short of what the Lord in that day had brought us unto and are in the apostacy still and must be overturned as well as your selves and all others that have gone before them own'd as he is this day and in this world Jesus Christ is owned this day by you all and you own him by your willingness in appearing here and you manifest this as far as poor creatures can to be a day of the power of Christ by your willingness I know you remember that Scripture Psal 110.3 The people shall be willing in the day of thy power God doth manifest it to be a day of the power of Jesus Christ Having through so much Blood and Trials as have been upon these Nations made this to be one of the great Issues thereof to have a People called to the Supreme Authority upon such an avowed account God hath owned his Son by this and you by your willingness do own Jesus Christ c. I confess I did never look to see such a sight as this We have not allowed our selves in the Choice of one person of whom we had not this good hope that there was faith in Jesus Christ and love to all the Saints and thus God hath owned you and by your comming together have you owned him c. And towards the latter end of that Speech Book page 43. he further saith unto them Truly seeing things are so that you are at the edge of the Promises and Prophesies at least if there were neither promise for this nor prophesie you are to be coveting after the best things endeavouring after the best things and

thus the business stands between the Officers of the Army and that honest Party of that Little Parliament to this very day In doing which wicked action and therein discountenancing persecuting yea what in them lay as it were crucifying this honest Spirit in these persons who were bringing forth the forementioned good things which the Army so greatly promised declared and pretended to fight for and which you were dissolved for not doing of And the General thus setting up himself upon the Monarchical or Beast-like Foundation so contrary to former Declarations and as it were upon the ruines of the very spirit and principles which he and his Officers but a little before had so greatly pretended to own and be of themselves and also doing the very same yea worse things then for which the late King was beheaded and which they also condemned in you as also Persecuting Imprisoning and Banishing some of the forementioned faithful Friends of the Little Parliament and others of the Lords people and blaspheming the Spirit of the Lord in them saying They were acted by a giddy headed rash fanatick devillish Spirit and this for no other cause then their faithfulness to the Lord in pressing after the good things according to their forementioned declared Principles and opposing the General and his Officers backsliding from them and doing things so diametrically contrary thereunto therein falsifying their Trust and building again what they formerly had destroyed and declared against the Army and all the forementioned corrupt Interests with several Independent and * The good things they desired in those Addresses doth no more excuse their evil in addressing and thereby abetting that Tyrannical Beast-like Government then the Devils bringing Scripture in his mouth excused his wickedness in tempting of Christ some Baptized Churches by their Power Addresses and otherwayes in the mean while countenancing encouraging abetting and upholding them therein by all which the blessed Cause and work of Christ was very greatly stopt and hindered the Spirit of the Lord and his People grieved Now since these with many other wicked things that might be mentioned came to be done by that professing hypocritical generation the forementioned glorious presence that was formerly with you the Little Parliament and their Councils and Forces was withdrawn the courage of the enemy heightned the corrupt Interests before mentioned lifting up their heads and rejoycing according to Rev. 11.10 The Nations abroad contemn and scorn us the lively fresh spirit for the work and Cause of Christ which seem'd formerly to be in the Army very much choaked and lost the hearts and prayers of the remaining faithful Friends of the Cause which were formerly with and for them now grieved and engaged against them by all which the state and condition of this poor Nation was and is very greatly impaired our Land Forces wasted and consumed at Hispaniola Jamaica Mardike Flanders and elsewhere our Shipping lessened and diminished our Stores and Provisions for Sea and Land expended and very much consumed and but very very little or no profit our Magazines emptied Treasures wasted Trade in a very great measure lost and decayed as Tradesmen of all sorts and Shopkeepers many of whom are broken and are breaking every day finde by such sad and woful experience as they never did before nor in the memory of man was the lke ever known or heard of though Mr. Nye Tho Goodwin Dean Owen so called and the Officers and Messengers of above one hundred Congregations in England could tell their late Protector that they and the Nation had not eaten the Bread of Adversity nor drunk the Water of Affliction but had served God in the abundance of all things Very great new debts contracted little of old being satisfied all which sad effects with others that might be mentioned as was said before he that hath but half an eye or that runs may read is the bitter fruit of the Apostacy Treachery and Crucifying the Spirit of the Lord in the Members turned out of the Little Parliament who were bringing forth that Justice and Righteousness which the Army and good People of the three Nations were so greatly engaged in and was no other then what the faithfull Friends of the Cause are calling for in this day and will give the Lord nor them no rest till they do obtain All things going thus contrary to the sinful desires and vain expectations of the upholders and abbettors of this great Apostacy notwithstanding the many helps they had to carry it on yet as if they had been left by the Lord to studdy and procure their further destruction they not onely afresh imprison the Lords faithful people for witnessing against them but also suffer others of them to be haled before Magistrates cast into prisons forced to pay trebble dammages their goods to be seized upon and ten times more taken away then their pretended due came to for not paying of Tythes and this greatly approved of by the then General his Officers and all his worthy Addressors upholding him therein who was once the head of the Sectaries out of a carnal design to draw in the Presbyterian Cleargy to stand by his Interest who since the New Moddel and beheading the late King to this very day it is well known have been enemies to and opposers of the Lords Work and Cause that hath been and is yet further to be carryed on in these Nations Though he and his Officers not long before had as good as acknowledged in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament See Book page 40. 41. that the now Ministry of England as to their then and present standing derived it self and succession through the Papacy and therefore a false succession and none to be the true succession but what was through the Spirit given in that measure the Spirit is given which sayes he Christians are well able to discerne and do And yet for all this contrary to Scripture or Reason forced them to pay such Ministers as they judged were not onely destitute of a work of Grace in their hearts much less of the Spirit for that work but also derived their succession through the Papacy wherein with other things of this nature that might be mentioned it appeared their tenderness was forgotten to the Lords people under several forms as much as yours and that the cause of the people of God was despised by them Thus were things going on one the one hand and some of the Lords faithful people called Sectaries Anabaptists and Fifth Monarchy men by their Faith Prayers Appeals Prophesyings and Testimony against the Apostacy and Abettors of it counterworking and pulling down on the other which honest faithful spirit in them to the Lord his Cause and interest can will never leave working nor overturning till our Lord Jesus Christ comes whose right it is This remnant of witnessing Sectaries so called get ground all the designs and stratagems made use of to quell them and to uphold and strengthen the

presence of the Lord that was with the Councels and Forces of this Nation is by reason of the late and present Apostacy almost clean departed and we as it were upon our last legs and do well understand some of them at least who are more clear-sighted that it is not barely the name of a Commonwealth Government and a people of a low dull spirit and understanding exercised therein who like so many heavy listless horses put into their gears must either draw or be whipt to it as most of you were in the time of your first Sitting and to the day of your late dissolution But the Righteousness and Justice thereof executed and brought forth with an excellent lively fresh spirit by an humble gracious willing people who have the concernments and wellfare of the Nation upon their hearts more then their own and are tender unto and faithful with all the Saints anointed thereunto by the Lords Spirit which once the Army so greatly pretended to own that will save and exalt these sinking Nations and do see that thither we must come or we perish and therefore if you would not speedily put to your helping hand in this crisis of danger to bring this in but would from time to time as in the time of your first Sitting either continue your selves with your old spirit or not before your rising so provide as to keep out Cavaleers Neuters Presbyters and the late New Court Party from coming into Power for the future as there was very little likelihood you would so many among you having Apostatized from your former Acts Votes and Declarations and fell in with the Protectorall Government nay voted for Kingship again and therein dealt treacherously with the Cause of Jesus Christ and your own Principles as well as the Army you could not expect any other from them and the Army if their hearts were sincere and upright with God indeed as they lately pretended to be but that they would take care to do it themselves though as formerly a desperate disease had a desperate cure And it seems for this very cause among others it was that you were so lately dissolved a second time whereby it very plainly appears that your late call to the Power was not a dispensation from the Lord to manifest we went out of the way in your first dissolution but onely that the necessity and justness thereof might more plainly appear not onely to your selves but to the satisfaction of some friends of the Cause that could not otherwise be satisfied but by the late tryal of your spirits a second time As also that you might be instrumental as the righteous judgement of the Lord upon them to take away the Power Government Splendor and Greatness of that family which was so hypocritically unrighteously and wickedly raised up upon your and the honest part of the little Parliaments ruines though in the outward pretence and shew for better ends and this your work being done to be removed again as before that so a second trial might be upon the spirits of the Army to see whether according to their former and late pretences they would indeed be so honest having so greatly mist it hitherto * The Lord hath one time after another since the Army rejected their profest spirit and principles in casting out the honest part of the Little Parliament as upon Pharaoh of old who would not let Israel go to Canaan Exod. Chap. 7. to Chap. 12. so blasted their designs and thereby plagued and brought them down as they are necessitated for their own preservation to send unto and call upon the faithful Remnant as did Pharaoh to Moses to pray for advise with and come into their assistance as if he would force them to let them go and doubtless will never let them rest till they acknowledge their iniquity and return to walk with more refinedness according to their former honest Principles and thereby Pharaoh-like hindered the Lords faithfull people from going to Zion as to bring in better and more suitable persons then your selves whom they had so greatly complained of into the Government of the Nation to carry on with life and power the blessed Cause and Work of the Lord for the future which both you and they notwithstanding your many high professions have so greatly opposed and dealt treacherously withal I might have been more large in comparing your spirit and actions in your late second Sitting with the forementioned Particulars charged upon you by the Officers of the Army as the grounds and reasons of your first Dissolution and have shewn more fully wherein you were rather worse then in the time of your first Sitting but it being more properly the Armies work to do it for their further vindication who have in the Generall done something therein already in their Plea they set forth for your late Dissolution I shall leave it to them or to some other persons who were more upon the place and could better observe you then my self who had little heart to come where you were upon the forementioned account and shall conclude with I hope a Seasonable Word by way of Counsel and Proposal to the Officers of the Army themselves of whom the true Friends of the Cause have to this day too great reason to say having had such sad and woful experience of their Adulteries from their former honest principles neighings and going a whoring after the accursed thing to wit the Monarchical Tyrannical Power Pomp and Greatness and their great lewdness and abominations therein committed yea greater then for which the late King was beheaded and they also pretended to dissolve you a first and second time and yet like the Whore Prov. 30.20 wipe their mouths as if they had done no wckiedness But are now as ever equally endeared to the Good Old Cause and utter enemies to all Tyranny and Oppression when as the Lord and his people yea the carnal people of the Nation knows it is not so As the Lord concerning Jerusalem of old Jer. 13.27 O Army Army will you not be honest sincere upright deny your self-Interest and Greatness and he in reality what you have so greatly profest Will you not return from whence you are fallen and so truly be said to repent must you needs ruine the Nation by your continuing to go on in your Apostacy and Wickedness will you not be clean when shall it once be A Seasonable Word by way of Counsel and Proposal to the Officers of the Armies of England Scotland and Ireland YOu may by reading over the foregoing Word to the Remaining Members of the Long Parliament lately sitting at Westminster whom you have now dissolved a second time as it concerns you so to do take notice of almost all the most considerable circumstances relating to the Blessed Cause and Work of Christ that you and the good people of this Nation have been so long engaged in and upon what account it was that the Lord so

that so they might hot hinder your corrupt design of advancing and perpetuating your selves And just so was it in the last Free Parliament so called summoned by his Son Richard your late Protector chosen as was his Fathers by the Clergy and * And this also you did contrary to your former declared Spirit and Principle in your Speech to the Little Parliament See Book pag. 42. where you acknowledge that the whole Bulk of the People of this Nation were not fit to chuse or be chosen Rulers till the Spirit was more poured forth and they thereby brought to own the Interest of Jesus Christ spirit of the Nation most of whom were enemies to and opposers of the Cause of God and his People and what endeavours you used by writing Letters and sending your Emissaries and Agents to the several Burroughs and Corporations to get your Kindred Relations Servants Flatterers and mercenaries whether wise men or fools honest men or knaves to be chosen for that end and to keep the faithful friends of the Cause from being chosen another evil complain'd of in the Old Parliament and yet how the Lord blasted you in all your vain hopes and expectations from them and for the preservation of your selves and the honest Interest you were still necessitated to dissolve them you very well know in all which you not onely dealt deceitfully treacherously and wickedly with your former honest Principles but doubtless did worse then the Old Parliament would have done and the great kindness you pretended to shew unto the good People in dissolving them doth not in the least excuse your great evil in laying such a wicked Foundation as necessitated you to call such unworthy Persons to be building upon it And I appeal to any honest faithful unbyast person to judge whether your late unbelieving treacherous carriage since the second Dissolution of the Old Parliament in framing your new Council of Safety so called mostly with those very Persons that were the promoters abettors of the late Apostacy as also casting several faithful friends of the Cause out of the City Militia and placing in their stead such as Alderman Tichborn Alderman Pack Alderman Viner Alderman Atkins Alderman Foot Alderman Chiverton and others who have likewise bowed the knee unto and abetted the aforesaid wickedness doth not declare you notwithstanding your many late Prayers Tears Fastings shews of Repentance and also Professions of your sincere intentions to return to own and advance the Cause of Jesus Christ to be still acted by the very same if not a worse spirit then before Fourthly Did the Old Parliament in their second Sitting so carry it as if the Interest of the People of God was grown cheap with them and not laid to heart and discountenanced their business that came before them to the discountenancing of them and countenancing the Malignant Party and as if they never intended good to the people of God So did you and worse For you stood by and upheld your Old Protector whilest he confirmed a former wicked Ordinance and therewith all those cursed Popish Oppressive Laws contrary to Scripture or Reason for imprisoning the Lords People taking away their goods and forcing trebble dammages from them for non-payment of Tythes and this out of an unbelieving carnal design to quiet the National Clergy and draw them to your Interest though known enemies to the Cause of Christ which hath been is and ought further to be carried on in these Nations whereby several poor Families of the Lords people have been almost ruined and undone and how they were many times discountenanced and overthrown in their business by reason of your countenancing and abetting those corrupt Interests you very well know Did the Old Parliament do evilly in their late Sitting in keeping Mr. Sympson out of Bishopsgate so long and so unwillingly voting his readmission at last as also in being so negligent and backward in doing right to Mr. Feake in restoring him to the Meeting-house by Newgate Market where he formerly preached and was placed by their Order and afterward unrighteously turned out by the late Apostacy As also in voting Major General Harrison uncapable of future publick employment So did you For after the Old and Little Parliament were dissolved you first turned Mr. Sympson and Mr. Feake out of those places and cast them into prisons for their faithfulness to the Cause of Christ and your forementioned honest Principles and witnessing against your back-sliding from them and suffered if not ordered Mr. Lee Mr. Jenkins and others who are known enemies to the Cause to come into their places and there continued them keeping the others out till the late Sitting of the Old Parliament who though long first restored Mr. Sympson but Mr. Peake if there be a keeping close to the former honest spirit and orders thereupon was and is unrighteously kept out both by them and you to this very day And how you likewise took Maj. Gen. Harrison's Commission from him or otherwise put him by his Command in the Army as also inhumanely and unworthily sent him to Prisons and Banishment upon the same account with the former and to this very day endeavour all you can to keep him and other faithful friends out of Publick Employment unless they comply with your selfish corrupt practises and own you as indeed returned from your Apostacy when it is not so you very well know which with many other things of this kinde that might be mentioned declares plainly that the interest of the people of God is grown cheap with you and not laid to heart and their business discountenanced to the countenance of the Malignant Party and that you intend good to the people of God no further then your own interest and safety will stand therewith and therein also are worse then the Old Parliament Fifthly Did the Old Parliament manifest their Spirit and Complexion to be corrupt by their backwardness in proceeding to regulate the Law which was then and to this day is so much groaned under as that many moneths together you say was not sufficient to pass over one word called incumberances So did you and worse by many degrees For when the forementioned honest Party of the Little Parliament had voted a new Body or Moddel of the Law for the speedy ending of Law Suits with little charge as also the abolishing and taking away the then and now corrupt oppressive Court of Chancery wherein was depending twenty three thousand Causes where some had lain five some ten some twenty some thirty years and more to the undoing of many families and had appointed a Committee for the bringing of Sir John Lenthal Chief Jaylor of the Vpper Bench Prison and all other corrupt persons imployed in Publick Trust to an account for the evil management of their Trust and had made some good progress therein to the suspending or casting the aforesaid Sir John Lenthal out of his place among other good things they were doing for

else remain in the hardness wickedness and opposition of their hearts and spirits thereunto had you not declined but as was said before kept growing up in your then light as also in the frame of your spirits and actions towards that perfection that shall be in the Lords faithful People when the Righteousness of Zion shall go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth and he make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth Isa 62.1 6 7. which is our duty not onely to be praying for but pressing after as well as after that perfection of light and holiness in the inward man that shall be in that day or at the Resurrection of the dead Saints when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come and all the Saints with him Zech. 4.5 comp 1 Cor. 15.23 Rev. 20.4 and how we were growing up into this Righteousness and the People according to Hosea 14.7 began to return from their oppression revive as the corn and grow as the vine and this glorious Presence and Salvation was dawning and breaking in upon us when the honest spirit which you have so rejected was encouraged and acting in the Authority of this Nation as hath been already mentioned you very well know But our too sad experience tells us that the Lord hath now cause rather to complain and say according to Isa 1.4.21 22 23. Ah sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel How is the faithfull City become an Harlot it was full of judgement righteousness lodged in it but now murtherers Thy silver is become dross thy wine mixt with water thy Princes are rebellious and companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widdow come unto them and upon this account we have cause to lament and complain according to Lam. 2.15 16. All our enemies have opened their months against us they hiss and gnash their teeth they say we have swallowed them up certainly this is the day that we looked for we have found we have seen it comp with Job Chap. 29. Chap. 30. and this is the very state and condition that the Cause and people of God and the Nation which had once a beauty and glory upon them is brought into at this day by reason of your Apostacy Now in regard it is thus with you and the poor Nation for your sakes as it is and things are under so ill sense abroad to use your own words to the Old Parliament and the issue like to be the further displeasure and judgements of the Lord against you the dissatisfaction and sadning the hearts of his faithful people and putting all things into greater Confusion if you continue to steer your course as formerly which so far as I can yet see or hear you are resolved to do though the Cause Your selves and the Nation perish and although you therein so carry it as to give the Lord and his Faithfull People just cause to say of you as of Ephraim of old Hosea 4.17 The Army is joyned to Idols let them alone Yet considering on the other hand that he likewise calls to such a back-sliding people as you are to return unto him and upon their return hath graciously promised he will heal their back-sliding and love them freely Jer. 3.22 comp Hos 14.4 And not knowing though you have gone on so long in the hardness of your hearts but he may yet pour out a spirit of grace and supplication upon you and give you to look upon his Cause and Faithfull Remnant whom you have so rejected and as it were Pierced and Crucified and to mourn and be in bitterness for the same as one is in bitterness for his first-born as also to return to the real practice of your forementioned honest Principles it being better with you then then now and to cause Judgement so visibly to return unto Righteousness as that all the upright in heart may follow it and be encouraged to venture their Lives with you as formerly against the Common Enemy which as things now stand they cannot but be very unwilling to do And likewise having though I have so searched to the quick and spoken plainly a desire to be merciful as my heavenly Father is merciful and to be instrumental so far as he shall assist to pluck you out of this deep ditch you have plunged your selves into and that whether you will hear or whether you will forbear you may be left without excuse As also that I may discharge my love and duty towards the Blessed Cause of Christ the Saints and the Land of my Nativity I shall in all sincerity and faithfulness lay before you what according to my present Light and Vnderstanding will if any thing recover the forementioned Cause the Saints Your selves and this almost ruined Nation out of that sad and perishing condition that by reason of your Apostacy and treacherous dealing with your former honest principles they are brought into and will engage the forementioned Glorious Presence and Salvation of the Lord to be with and about us as in former dayes in order to which though in and of my self I am very unworthy and unable to advise in a business of so high and weighty a concernment as this is I counsel and propose as followeth First endeavour to be humbled for repent of and to turn from every particular personal sin and iniquity that you have been in the committing of for if you or I or any other regard iniquity in our hearts or wilfully live in the practise of any known sin the Lord will not hear our prayers nor accept of any thing we do for him wherein his Name and Glory is concerned Psal 66.18 Prov. 15.8 9. Isa 1.11 to 20. Therefore if there be any such thing as false musters or Dead pay or wherein soever wrong hath been done or sin committed do so no more As also restore back to those of whom you have bought Debenters at cheap rates somewhat proportionable to your great gains thereby if they be living and if dead then to the Widdows Children or Kindred related to them that are left behinde them As also to be sure to promise nothing to any for the future either of a publick or private nature but what is in the power of your hand to do and have a real intention thorowly and speedily to perform and herein be growing up into that holy frame mentioned Zeph. 3.13 The Remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths c. And what I say to you in this particular I say to my self and to all others fearing the Lord for the People whom the Lord will delight to use in his Work must be a sincere upright self-denying holy people therefore let us not hide our

iniquities but rather say to the Lord according to Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Secondly Be also humbled for repent of suppress and put away for the time to come All the Pride of Apparel c. Luxury Gaming and whatever else is sinful and of an evil report that is committed in your Families by your selves Wives Children Servants and Relations according to Job 11.13 14. comp with Chap. 22.23 If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hand towards him if iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles c. And endeavour all you can for the future to get such as fear the Lord to attend upon you for it is not onely your duty but declared Principle to the Little Parliament so to do See page 43. of the forementioned Book Let not their failings infirmities and too many times neglect of duty hinder you from doing yours if you can get them there is little good to be expected from you whoever you are though your knowledge and profession be never so high whilest you are careless and slight in this particular Thirdly Be also deeply humbled for and repent of your forementioned great Apostacy from rejecting of treacherous dealing with the Cause of Jesus Christ and your forementioned honest Principles and all your persecuting Imprisoning and Banishing of your Brethren for their faithfulness thereunto and for all other your great evils and miscarriages therein committed whereby the Name of the Lord and the Profession of the Gospel hath been and is so much reproached and dishonoured and his Blessed Cause and Work so greatly stopped and hindered The hearts of his faithful people grieved and hath brought so much poverty and misery upon this Nation and return in the sincerity and uprightness of your hearts to revive and promote the aforesaid Blessed Cause and those good Principles from whence you have so greatly departed and resolve in the strength of the Lord to return no more to folly And that this your repentance and thorow returning may so appear to all the faithful Friends of the Cause as to put them past all doubts and fears of your deceiving them any more for the time to come First Cast off the Counsel of St. Johns Lisle Whitlock Philip Nye Tho. Goodwin Dean Owen so called and all other the like Incendaries the Heads of the corrupt Lawyers and Clergy unless you finde they have really and thorowly repented of their great evil in being so instrumental to help turn and keep your then General and you aside into these crooked paths after the first Dissolution of the Old and choice and turning out of the Little Parliament as also see them singly and sincerely pressing you to come up to the practise of your former Declarations and to the owning of that spirit those principles and persons which you once so greatly seemed to own but afterwards through the enmity of your spirits and their wicked Counsel and Advice as greatly and wickedly rejected For if they remain as they were Owen c. according to Lam. 2.14 Are the Prophets that have seen vain and foolish things for you and have not discovered your iniquity to turn away the judgements that are fallen upon you but have and do see for you false burthens and causes of banishment Secondly Send by way of intreaty it being your duty so to do according to Matth. 5.24.25 having so greatly wronged them for those faithfull persons whom you have so rejected and turned out of the Little Parliament whose Garments have not since been defiled with the late and present Apostacy or if they have are known to have throughly repented of the same with others of that publick spirit to come unto you who if any in the Nation yea I may say in the world will the Lord assisting bring forth the good things promised and have been so long expected for the good of the Nation And when you have so done Thirdly Acknowledge your great sin and iniquity to them First for rejecting and casting them out of your hearts and afterwards out of that Little Parliament on purpose to hinder them from doing that good for the people which you pretendedly dissolved the Old Parliament for not doing of and called them to do which were no other then what you will finde the true friends of the Cause will neither give you nor any other that for the future may come into the Government of the Nation rest do what you can to uphold your own and other carnal Interests in opposition thereunto yea the Lord no rest till they do obtain And when you have in the singleness of your hearts thus acknowledged your iniquity to them and desired mercy for the same as Gen. 50.16 to 20. Josephs Brethren did to him I hope they will have so much both of the spirit of the Father of the Prodigal though brought to your Husks and of the spirit of Joseph to his Brethren as to be willing to go forth in their spirits to meet this in you and weepingly to joy and rejoyce over you as also to pardon and pass by all the wrongs and injuries that you have done unto them and therein to the Cause of God and his people But if this be not in your hearts to do they must remain where they are keeping the same distance from you as before lest they go before they are sent and so come off with loss and disappointments in their own spirits as to you as my self and others have done since you so deceivingly Declared that you were now as ever equally endeared to the good Old Cause c. when it was not so Fourthly With the Advice and Consent of the faithfull friends of the Cause both in City and Countrey it being usurpation in you and acting arbitrarily to do any thing without them Deliver up with limitations not to impose upon the consciences of any in matters of Faith and Worship and in all things else that are against the safety of the Whole the Power Authority and Government of the Nation into their hands for by what hath been said both by you my self and others in this and other Papers and keeping close to the spirit of them under Christ their right it is and take heed of mixing them as in the time of their first Sitting with persons of a contrary spirit and principle on purpose to hinder them from doing the good they are called to do and thereby designedly and wickedly give your selves a second feigned necessity of turning them out and setting up another Single Person or Protector upon their ruines as you did before but rather encourage and strengthen them all you can in the bringing forth this good and suppressing the evil for that it is onely the bringing forth of righteousness and breaking off all yokes of oppression that will save and exalt this sinking Nation Prov. 14.34 Isa

1.17 to 20. 5. These persons thus called together having more light faith and communion with God then formerly they had in the work of the latter dayes and that they are called unto as I conceive they have and laying Jesus Christ the Foundation on which they intend to Build as also consulting with and managing all their Affairs according to the Scriptures as is their judgement founded upon the same Deut. 17 18 19 20. Deut. 4.6 7 8. 2 Tim. 3.16 and not onely theirs but of most of the Friends of the Cause as also assented to by your selves and all the Great Lawyers and all others present at the * Sir Thomas Widdrington having presented your Protector with a Robe afterwards delivered him a Bible and among other expressions said It is a Book of Books and besides other things it conteins in it both Precepts and Examples for good Government Alexander so highly valued the Books of his Master Aristotle and other great Princes other Books that they have laid them every night under their Pillows these are all but Legends and Romances to this one Book a Book to be had alwayes in remembrance I finde it said in part of this Book which I shall desire to read and it is this Deut 17.18 19 20. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priestt and Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of this Law and those statutes to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his Brothren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom he and his Children in the midst of Israel In which words you acknowledge that the Scriptures ought to be the foundation of both the Government and Laws of this Nation which though after this you decline from and therein adde Apostacy to Apostacy yet do justifie all others that shall go on therein and proceed according to Scripture Quualifications for the choice of Rulers according to Exod. 18.21 Hosea 11.12 Speech made by Sir Thomas Widdrington then Speaker of your Petition and Advice Parliament at the second Inauguration of your late General in the Protectorall Government is the duty of all Gods Magistrates to do Having also the concernments and welfare of the Nation upon their hearts more then their own will I hope whilest they are Sitting carry it so self-denyingly graciously and uprightly and with such tenderness towards all fearing the Lord esteeming none because of this or that judgement further then their sincerity and faithfulness to the Cause and Interest of Christ appears and will endeavour to do all things both at home and in other Nations so for the honour of him who is their and our Judge King and Lawgiver as also your own and the Nations real good and likewise with the approbation and consent of the faithful Friends of the Cause to carefully provide for the future well Government of the Nation by the hands of other faithfull Persons against they rise as you will have no occasion if your hearts be sincere and upright with God indeed and have grace to deny your selves to maintain any enmity in your spirits towards them so as to despise reject and turn them out as you did before but will rather encourage rejoyce in and bless God for them And whatsoever your politique shifts and devices may be to avoid it hither you must come at last for without this be done let the foundation you lay as to future Governments and the Persons you call to build thereon in the outward appearance be never so pure or so much for Christ yet it is and you will finde it so but a false Conception a Bed too short a Covering too narrow a Plaister that though it may skin over will not thorowly heal the wound that your Apostacy and treacherous dealing with your Principles hath made upon you for the first foremenoned Cause of the Lords displeasure against you must be taken away or else no sound cure can be expected neither indeed would such as are faithful had they a true understanding of things and did seriously weigh and consider what hath been already and might further be said in this business dare to come in and assist you till this work were done for fear lest the House that in the simplicity of their hearts they would be building should fall upon their heads and the Lords thus dealing with you is no other then according to the usual method he goes in in matters of this nature Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Remember what became of Cain who retain'd his wicked spirit after he slew his Brother Abel Gen. 4. to verse 14. Of the Ongregation of Israel who out of such a spirit as you are acted by would have stoned Caleb and Joshua for opposing their going back into Egypt and pressing them to go on the Canaan Numb 14.23.32.43 Of Corah Dathan and Abiram and the two hundred and fifty famous renowned Princes of the Congregation and the people joyning with them in opposing the spirit of the Lord in Moses and Aaron upon the account with the former and how all these remaining in the wickedness of their spirits in opposition to the spirit of the work of the Lord in his little Remnant in that day must not prosper but their Carkasses fall in the wilderness dye of the Plague fall before their enemy the ground open and swallow Korah and his company up alive Numbers 16.2.31 32. Josephs Brethren who out of the wickedness and enmity of their spirits towards him cunningly endeavoured all they could to make him away and sold him into Egypt must lay aside their enmity and own and acknowledge their iniquity therein to him and beg pardon for the same or else no peace or prosperity for them could be expected Gen. 50.17 to 21. Ephraim and Israel having committed whoredom Begot strange Children Revolted from and Dealt treacherously against the Lord as you have done and the Lord having rebuked them and threatned that they should fall in their iniquity that he would be as a moth and rottenness to them as he hath hitherto been to you yet they went on and the Text sayes would not frame their doings to turn unto their God because the spirit of whoredoms was in the midst of them as it is with you but instead of returning to the Lord in a right manner as to the very thing wherein they had displeased him It is said When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb as you have

on in the hardness wichedness and slavish fearfulness of your hearts and spirits and through the advice and perswasion of Philip Nye Tho. Goodwin Dean Owen so called and the forementioned Ineendiaries upon carnal politique considerations be still upholding carnal Interests and the Old Corrupt Oppressive Customs and Practises relating either to Magistracy or Ministery that hath no warrant in Scripture which hath brought all the divisions confusion and miseries upon the Nation and the better to carry on this your wicked design shall continue in your rejecting the true spirit of your forementioned honest Principles in those faithfull Persons turn'd out of the Little Parliament and in others with them who as was said before are spirited and principled if any to bring forth good to the Nation and shall rather proceed to moddel your future Councels with Malignants Neuters Presbyters or unconverted Apostate Protectorians such as Tichbern Lawrence Strickland Whitleck Clark and others of that spirit be it known unto you you are Apostates still though the form you come under in the outward appearance be never so specious and the Protestations and Declarations you make and set forth be never so glorious and taking upon the people and the faithful Friends of the Cause if they intend to retain their former integrity and faithfulness both to the Lord and it cannot dare not own or touch with you but according to Numb 16.21.26 must separate and stand at a distance from you as before lest they be consumed in all your sins And although by your more refined Machevilian Devices and the many Professors yea Pastors and Members of Churches you may gain thereby to your Interest as also by the strength of your Armies and Navies you may think to bear up and to stout it out a little longer against the Lord his Cause and his faithful Remnant and the very spirit of your former honest Principles yet know that when you have done all you possibly can do to uphold your selves therein the spirit of the Lord in his forementioned faithful Remnant as it hath already begun to do will according to Isa 28.17 further overflow and look into your hidling place and see your sin as if written in your foreheads and to have a lye in your right hand and so will go on to abhor and blow upon you and by degrees will bring you down as your old and late Protectors with their Parliaments and the late Old Parliament and so shall you become as a shameful spewing a by-word and a reproach not onely in our own but the Nations round about us If God be God as surely he is and Righteousness be Righteousness and the Scriptures are the dictates of his Blessed Spirit and he ever had a glorious Cause on foot in England leading us out of Babylonish and Antichristian Bondage towards that glorious freedom and liberty that the Saints who have the first fruits of the Spirit and the whole creation groans travelleth in pain for and waits to be delivered into and shall eminently be when Zion shall fully be delivered Antichrist destroyed the Jews called and our Lord Jesus Christ and his Saints according to Isa 32.1 2. shall Reign and Rule in Righteousness in the world all which as is mentioned in pag. 2. of this Book shall certainly be fulfilled in the latter dayes it must be so unless the Lord be more merciful to you then ordinarily he is to others that have sinned against and back-slidden from him as you have done which you have no reason to expect he being so much concern'd for the recovery of his Name and Glory to do some eminent remarkable thing against such a perfidious hypocritically Apostate professing Generation as you have been and are that thereby he not onely may keep the feet of his faithful witness-bearing people from slipping and encourage them to fear and trust in him for the future but that also all others may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly And that the Common Enemy may not have the least encouragement from what I have said to believe that now all shall be their own and that the Lords lifted up hand against you is in order thereunto I further declare my present apprehensions are that although the Lord may make use of them as his Rod to rebuke and scourge you not onely for not bringing forth that good but also contrary to your Declarations doing worse things your selves then for which you sought with and beheaded their King as also cast out and banished his Posterity yet the Lord hath a people in this Nation whom he hitherto hath kept and I trust will keep faithful to the end to his Blessed Cause and those good Principles you have so treacherously departed from whom he will by his Almighty Power and Providence so preserve out of their hands that they shall never be able to overcome or have their wills upon them but they shall go on in the power of his Spirit Isa 59 19. and Mal. 4.2 3. with life power and an undaunted spirit in that blessed Work and Cause that for some years together hath with such wonderful success been carried on against them Neither do I see in the midst of all the confusions distractions fears and straits you are encompassed with the least ground to believe that the Lord will cast away the Cause and Interest of his Son to make way for a carnal Man and that wicked Generation whom he hath so many times subdued as the people of his Curse to bear Rule in this Nation and therein send us back to Egypt or Babylon any more but rather is thereby removing that which stands in the way and hinders his faithful people from going to Zion Wherefore if the Lord hath so punisht you a professing People who in the outward shew may be said to be the green tree and caused you thus to fall before the spirit of his Cause and faithful people and so to disappoint and bring to nought all that you contrive and act against them then how shall they who are a wicked Generation who should they prosper would set up wickedness by a Law and may truly be termed the dry tree be able to prevail against them And if you who by your profession are called a righteous people scarcely be saved where shall they who may be said to be the ungodly and sinners appear The present dispensations that are upon you gives not the least ground to believe that they shall bear rule any more therefore let them set their hearts at rest Surely the Lord would never give his people that light faith and communion with himself and such tastes of sweetness in their spirits in that Communion in the discovery Isa 33.17 18. of the glory that according to the Promises and Prophesies is to be revealed in the latter dayes and so much love to his Cause and Work that hath been formerly and is yet on foot though not so visible as once it was leading thereunto and so owned their Testimony against you in bringing you down for opposing of them or shewen us all these things as the wife of Manoah said to him Judges 13.23 if he intended to cast them away or deliver them up either into your or the common enemies hand Would the Lord who stiles himself a faithfull promise Covenant keeping God and that cannot lye ever bid his people Isa 62.6 7. not to keep silence and give him no rest till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth if he did not really intend to do so or have begun to put on the Saints Beautiful Garments and to make them a praise in the earth not for their righteousness or Goodness but for his own Names sake As also plagued Israel of Old for not pressing forward but endeavouring to go back to Egypt and will not he who hath a fulness of the spirit and love to his work and all power in his hand to do it and hath already laid the Foundation of Zions welfare carry it on and lay the top-stone also Surely he will And the Rage and Tumults of the Carnal Apprentices and others at this day for the bringing in Charles Stuart and saying They will lose their lives every one of them rather then they will have such men to Rule as will take away the corrupt Customs and Practices that are among them is an eminent hint to me that the very Day of the setting Christ and his Saints upon his holy Hill of Zion is at hand yea so upon us that none can put it off and being so fully satisfied in my Spirit it is so I shall conclude with the following Scriptures Esther 6.13 And Zeresh Hamans wife and his wise-men said unto him If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevail against him but shalt surely fall before him Psal 2. Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed saying Let us break their Bonds assunder c. THE END