Land that want bread are numerous 3. Kingly Government is a kind of Scourge and at best an allay of the freedome of a people a sacred thing esteem'd of difficult accesse Idolatrously adored an occasion of great superfluity excesse and vanity unsuitable to this day that is upon us and lastly makes the Person too stour and haughty to fall under the reproofs of the poor mean servants of Christ that come to them onely in the name of the Lord and so exalts their hearts to their own destruction in the end and the people's smart in the mean time 4. The Kings of Judah were Types but Types are Ceased Kingship is now to be preserved in the Person of Christ He will administer it in Truth in the truth of his own righteous and royal spirit not in figure and shadow through pitiful poor base men servants of lusts The poorest Saint that Cobbles under a Stall hath more of true Majesty and is more a King then the greatest Prince among them that is under the power of lust in his own soul I might give many other Reasons as the Impolitiquenesse of it to make a Family-quarrel the unsafeness of it for the person or family we should so set up But I leave politiques to Statesmen I am chiefly exercised in the Conscience of the thing The like I say for Lords I am not against Lords simply But they are thrown out It concerns us to consider by what hand and on what grounds before we admit them again If they were unnecessary and hinderful of our Cause and proceedings either we have altered our Cause or they are so still It was not the Persons we animadverted against but the Power How unrighteous is it if our Judgments be altered of the Power to place it in New Persons when many of the Ancient Peers are yet living as deserving as the New Is not this the way to breed a quarrel between Peers and Peers as between King and King 2. Walk not in the way of the Gentiles The Judgment of God made Kings Kings made Lords They were onely to help the King to inslave the people What people that had their choice would set up either Lords without Lands can do no more service for God nor their Country then other men 3. I am not against a Distinction of Ranks of men Variety is the beauty of the universe and an exercise of Vertue Where would bounty and humility be if there were not Rich And where were patience and contentation of mind if there were not mean men I would have every one have their Rights no industrious men want all honest men free I would not affectedly set up mean men against the wealthy nor would Itye wisdome and understanding to men of Estate Liberal and generous Education is a good quality but let it not go alone in the choice of men to rule but look for the spirit of Government 4. It is far from me to Monopolize or ingrosse in my judgment the priviledges and advantages of that Righteous Kingdome which God is setting up over the Earth to Saints onely which shall be shared among all that submit to it and oppose it not so far as they are Capable much lesse do I reckon of Saintship by any form of words that men expresse themselves in And though I dare not abett all that are zealous for this Cause for Saints yet I must professe my faith is shaken concerning those that desert it and it is an argument of some more Noble if not divine thing in men through all Shocks of temptations on the one hand and the other to preserve their Integrity And this I am perswaded As many have bin already shaken off as untimely figgs so few or none will hold out with this good Cause to the end but those that are of an Incorruptible seed whom therefore I shall desire to know by their fruits and judge of them according to their works 5. And as I am not able to say but a spirit of righteous Government as to things between man and man may be found in some who are not Saints upon the Strictest account of regeneration who may therefore for ought I know have the exercise of their talent allowed them even in the Kingdom of Christ subjecting that Rule of theirs in due subserviency to the spirit Spiritual affaires so can I not on the other hand admitt that to be the proper Rule and Government of Christ be it exercised by whomsoever though the Highest Professors in Religion and on never so high an account that is contrary to the light of Scripture rightly understood or the light of incorrupt Reason in any sort of men The Demonstration of the spirit and the righteousness of that Kingdome justifying its self undeniably to the conscience of the natural man in things that are under his Judgment as well as to the spiritual Christian in things which are proper to his discerning So as there is no Arbitrariness here in this Kingdome but all by Rule and that Rule is so clear and undenyable as nothing can rise up against it in any mans conscience Lastly I desire I may be believed that I have not bin led by any prejudice against his present Highnesse in this Testimony which I bear who as He hath not by any Publique Act of his Government disobliged any that I know of so by his affability and Courtesie wins upon all if any private passages have not bin so to the Rule I would not mention them because I would not multiply them As the Place he is in sought him not he it so I desire He may lay it and himself at the feet of Christ to dispose of him and his Interest as may be most for his glory So is he sure not to be layd-by dishonourably if any could have a heart or stomach so to do Christ himself must give up the Kingdome to God and so must all Rulers and Potentates unto Christ else Wo be to them THE Cause of God AND Of these Nations CHAP. I. Of the deplorable Estate of the Nation at this day after so fair advantages as were put into our hands IT is a certain truth No man is made unhappy but by his own choice God hath not bin wanting to let us find that all the power of our enemies either at home or abroad could not destroy us while we had hearts and were watchfull to use the means to preserve our seivs confidence in men and distrust in God commonly go together and are much of like dangerous Issue and Consequence We have lost more in this seven years Peace by trusting too much to a friend then we did in all our twelve years war while we conflicted with hoasts of enemies inasmuch as we have been still losing our liberty by little and little which all the time of the wars we went on gaining more and more and if we get no more by losing him but resolution to take up our trust we shall be confiderable
not the sweet and candid Rule of Christ whom they refused in his heavenly appearance but an Earthly Lordly Rule puts an Iron Scepter into his hand to dash them in peices like a Potter's vessel and so answers these fools according to their folly yet answers them not Their spight was at the spiritual seed therefore they shall have the Children of the Earthly Jerusalem Reign over them for these were his Body or his Princes which he set over all the Earth Thus as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge or to entertain Christ in his meek large gentle heavenly appearance which knows how to give men their Rights as well as Christians and every one their food in due season The Lord gives them up to their own hearts lusts and desires and feeds them with flesh which they called for a fleshly Religion till it came out of their Nostrils and they are sick and vomit again and have enough of this Religious spirit insomuch that with all their hearts they would have had the power any where rather in this hand that in the name of God and Religion could do such things take away liberty and property destroy their Rights inslave their persons alter and change laws and times at his pleasure break Oaths and Engagagements without remorse Any spirit but this spirit Thus God filled them with their own ways and punisht them with their own Inventions Thus he brought fire out of Abimelech to devour the men of Shechem and fire out the men of Shechem to devour Abimelech for they were a plague to each other for they were of one spirit but thus wonderfully ordered to be each others Torment If you ask me now What spirit this was that made such work what was the spirit of that Generation and of Him that was in Judgment set over them though in mercy too I will grant you for God did make use of him as a Bulwark still against the Common enemy though we lost ground within doors Was it an evil spirit how then could any good come from it I answer It was not a profane spirit nor a spirit void of Religion there was much of Religion and Righteousness of one sort in it but if you would know what spirit it was It was the spirit of the first Covenant grafted indeed upon a new and living stock Christ and the Gospel but bearing its own sowre grape The spirit of the Law which you know makes nothing perfect though in a Gospel dresse the spirit of the first born after the flesh or the life of Christ's first appearance which is never safe and sure from starting back returning to corruption till it be made a sacrifice seasoned with salt and salted with the fire of the eternal Spirit through the offering up of the flesh And because this discovery is of so main importance and concern unto us therefore I shall discourse largely of it in the next Chapter and shew you How this is the Spirit in which our first life and Activity appears and how it ministers in the things of God that is in the first Court and where it is to give up and resigne which when it doth not it converts into Enmity against that better and latter spirit and so is justly rejected and throwen off by God And these things I shall as God assists discourse to you not as Notions barely but as things that have really operated and produced their fruits among us Which if the Lord give us to understand and make a right use of may make us wise to salvation to save our souls I am sure if not to save the Nation but I say to save the Nation also for This man shall be our peace when the Assyrian shall come into the Land and this wisdome and knowledge shall be the Stability of our times Though I cannot say whether we be yet humble and broken enough to receive it but may put the Lord to cast us again into the fire to make us Malleable to this Impression CHAP. IV. Shewing what manner of Spirit that was that miscarryed in this Cause I Am apt to believe that the Instruments which carryed on the work in this Nation generally were not mistaken in themselves but that they were sincere and upright with one sort of uprightnesse and did indeed intend the freeing and delivering of us yea I am apt to retain that charity of the late Protector that He intended no lesse when He dissolved the long Parliament and did those High Arbitrary things But it is not every spirit Nay it is not any spirit be it never so raised and anointed that can carry through to the end in case of some temptations but that spirit that is by extraction divine That that is of the Earth will seek and at last find its Center in the Earth though it may by strong Engines be carryed and kept aloft awhile But natural principles let them be never so much heightened will never hold out to the end of God's Works As the eye of the fleshly Israelite could not see to the End of those things that were to be Abolished And this is the great witnesse which God is minding to hold forth unto us in this day by all our Apostacy and backslidings even to distinguish between seed and seed Spirit and Spirit Then saith the Prophet ye shall returne and discern between the Righteous and the Wicked c. There is a Righteousnesse in the flesh which is Wickednesse before God not simply in it self but as it exalts and magnifies it self in a sense of its own self-sufficiency and in the excellency of its work opposing the work and way that is more excellent because it finds not its own strength adaequate to it as being that which Flesh and Blood cannot endure and yet cannot give way to Another no not to the Lord himself by the breaking and crucifying it in its Natural abilityes to do that which it cannot do This was the very Case in our Saviour's time The Jewes were pitifully at a losse and would faine have recovered their ancient splendor and glory but they mistook both their objest and their way to it expecting a Carnal when the designe of God was a Spirituall Kingdome and expecting to attain that by their own Righteousnesse which God discerning the insufficiency and weaknesse of the Law to assist them unto through the Flesh sent his own Son to do for them Rom. 8. And this is that alone that can unriddle and resolve our Case Therefore I said We must go into the Sanctuary to understand it To clear this up to those that are spirituall and can judge what I say I shall desire to make this Question Whether this Apostacy that is upon us be not a Judgment That is whether to be delivered up to such a Reprobate sense as we seeme to be both Rulers and people The one to act and the other to accept and submit to those very things which we destroyed be
Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent But few go to the Root of our distemper we must go lower yet Sure that which hath blasted all our hopes and made us return and sit down as men ashamed re infectâ must be discovered and this Light I am apt to think must come out of the Sanctuary Those that have travelled through the like passages in their own hearts and have known the depths of Satan the admirable shapes he transforms himself into and what an absolute Newness of life and frame of Spirit is requisite for the carrying on the work of the Kingdom of God steadily and without starting back they may tell us something of importance and siguificancy in our Case In searching out the Root of our Distemper we may profitably reflect upon many things which might be partly Causes of it and have a hand in bringing us thus low when we were in so hopeful a way as was hinted before Such as are a carnal Succumbency of Spirit lying down in the advantanges attained and so making the Kingdom of God a thing too outward consisting in worldly and outward ease honour and the like and neglecting it within 2. Making it too private and narrow contenting our selves with our own not travelling of others deliverance the poor remaining yet in streights in our own Land through want of justice to help them to their own and want of mercy to extend something of ours to them 3. Unwatchfulness of Spirit through which the enemy got an advantage to work in the night of our security and sloth to undo all again while we were sleeping and shorting in our private advantages And many such like Reasons might be assigned which if we should be exact to muster up we might be lost in them But they being infirmities of all Times common to all as Men they have their easier and more ordinary censure and pardon from the Lord and cannot be supposed to be so severely animadvered against by the hand of his justice as to cause him after such intimacy to turn his back upon a people And therefore we must search for some other blacker and fowler thing to charge this great Desertion and sorsaking of us upon And as Physitians use to inquire of their Patients the time when their diseases seized upon them and the Manner of its on-set how and where it found them where they had bin what they had bin doing what they had eaten or drank that day or what exercise they had bin at and such like Circumsiances so let us do We may remember that it was a constant observation which was again and again inculcated upon us both by the Lord himself and those that were wise observers of his providences and dispensations that when ever we began to consult with flesh and blood and to deal wisely to restrain or deal hardly with the true Israel of God The Lord did alwayes animadvert against us with some losse ill successe or disappointment in our publique affaires which was as that voice unto us Touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harme It is for their sakes that God doth all that he rebukes Kings He gives Nations for them and therefore not to discern this the Lords body whose good and deliverance is the scope and aime of all God's works and dispensations No wonder if it cast us into a sick and weak and languishing Estate By these we rose with these we thrived It may be remembred Our affaires never succeeded till they came to be managed by these hands in the Army and then we had not any considerable stop or Check that did dwell upon us till the salvation of the three Nations was wrought out and accomplished But when God had Vanquished our Enemies I dowell remember an evil spirit grew up against the people of God we grew jealous of them we were glad to be Saved by them but afraid they should Rule over us And therefore as their weaknesse unwatchfulnesse and unheedfulnesse to this spirit gave way those that should have prevented and forbid being otherwise privately taken up and employed or wanting such a sense and value of themselves in the Lord as was requisite to keep off the World from presuming and incroaching upon them by little and little they grew from jealousie to Emnity and to plant their Engines against that people and that spirit that had bin their Raepart and defence in all assaults that had bin made against their peace and safety Nay then sayes God if this be your Requital of me if you that have bin fellow Souldiers in one Cause fellow servants in one house know no better how to use your peace and liberty but fall a beating your fellow servants I will make one among you or I will send in One upon you that shall seize and secure things you so abuse not to be restored again till you know how to make a better use of them You love your Liberty you love your property you are not for Me nor will give my Saints their Liberty and free breathing among you if ye drive me away from you if I go up from you these go with me And as for those you Maligne I will be a little Sanctuary to them And there is this thing farther in it which is worthy our observation The spirit we were so jealous of was that growing light in the people of God which we knew not where it would end being a free born Creation that had no name nor form for that which was formed we could admit and grew pretty familiar with though at first we were shy of some of them as Independents Anabaptists c. But this namelesse thing this Virgin that was not espoused nor determined to or by any forme This spirit that owned no Father but God no Master but one and He in Heaven that was in a pure absolute and constant dependance on him that professed to follow the Lamb whithersoever he should go that had resigned its will its wisdome the Conduct of it self wholly to him This was the Offence Top and keep down this spirit let not this get the head of us if it do we are undone our Religion our Consistency is gone we shall be the most tossed wavering uncertain fluid ridiculous people in the World No Nation will value us none of the Potestant Churches will own us Let not this Man let not any men in this spirit Rule over us nor be suffered among us Now mark what God did He took one that was in no form neither Presbyterian Independent nor Anapatist and sets him up in despight of all this wit and contrivance to the contrary And so the very thing that generation so studiously avoyed fell unto them The thing they feared as Iob saies came unpon them and that very life they sought to save they assuredly lost This was the first thing But this is not all In the next place God committs into his hand a Rule not heavenly Divine and spiritual
not a judgment from God upon us For my part I take it to be one of the greatest of judgments and an effect and token of Gods forsaking and declaring against a people Spirituall Judgments are the greatest of claring against a people Spirituall Judgments are the greatest of Judgments for thus the wrath of God was revealed from Heaven against the Heathen Rom. 1. for Corrupting themselves in their known light and not improving and going forward in it Now whether the manifest tokens of such a Judgment be not upon us let every sober mind consider And if so If this Corrupting our selves be a Judgment then necessarily through the righteousnesse of God it must be the fruite and punishment of some preceeding sin either sinfull Acts or a sinfull State one or both and so we shall come home to the point to see what many of the adherents to this cause were and how unlikely it was they should bring forth any better fruit then as they have done And in this disquisition we shall be upon surer ground in chargeing the sinfull State which is generall and which we must needs acknowledge as being undeniably witnessed both by Scripture and all experience then the particular Actions that turn'd them out of the way which lye more dark and are more immediately reserved to the Judgment of God though we are not altogether without light to guesse at them too And first we must premise that of the Apostle That is not first which is spirituall but that which is Naturall The first man is of the Earth earthly the second man is the Lord from Heaven As is the Earthly so are they that are Earthly and as is the Heavenly so are they that are Heavenly and as we have borne the Image of the Earthly so we shall beare the Image of the Heavenly For flesh and blood doth not inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption It is a Scripture that was wont to be read at the burial of the dead We are now I hope burying this dead the old man and O that we might lay him downe in the grave of Christ never to rise in Corruption or in a Corruptible and weake state more But to the Text. As God in bringing forth things out of the first Chaos first sets up man in a Natural Image which was but the figure of the true so in restoring things from the Chaos of Confusion whereinto they are fallen he first brings forth man in the exercise of a Naturall righteous life and principle which hath its beauty and Comelinesse though it be but as a flower and soon withers if it be left alont Yet God is not wanting to it in serving it with all advantages that it desires of him for the attayning of its end and therefore according to his Covenant is just unto it affording his presence and blessing untill it turnes off from him into its own crooked wayes For though it be short and too weak to answer the Call and expectation of God in it self and God restifies so much unto it and therefore calls unto it to resigne its life and self activity and to take it up anew in him by another Covenant yet untill it refuse this testimony betake it self proudly and perversly to its own wayes he doth not pronounce Judgment against it not totally desert it Now in the life and vigour of these first principles did many and those not meane ones set forth in our cause at first which were but Gentile-principles or principles common with the Nations though mixt with better things a light of Scripture and Prophesies at least in the Letter and these managed by men called up by the Spirit of the Nation which is a mixt Spirit and persons chosen having a mixture of Spirit in themselves at best and what was of a purer and higher Nature was under not above was fain to serve and to come as Jacob in Esaus Garments When I say it was but the strength and vigour of a Naturall righteousnesse that girded most in their first setting forth my meaning is not to devest them of zeal to Religion and Reformation I can beare them record with the Apostle they had many of them a zeal of God that way and if that be more then Gentiles we will admitt them Jewes the people of God in Covenant with him But what will that profit if there be a resting in the Law in things that may be shaken if there be onely a forme of knowledge and of the truth in the Law Most of the Jewes had no more and most professors of Christianity are not beyond that and yet I believe they are many of them in very good Earnest their hearts seem to be in what they professe but the very heart of the wicked saith Solomon is little worth The heart is deceitfull The inward and truest life of the Naturall man is but a form a figure of life Adam was no more in his best and purest state Therefore true Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit not of the heart barely but the heart in the Spirit There is one greater then the Heart knowes all things saith John The heart may lye therefore saith the Apostle my Conscience beares me witnesse in the Holy-Ghost that indeed is something else Conscience it self is deceitfull where the Spirit hath not been at work cutting down Man in his Naturall abilityes and his own self-exalting Righteousnesse All his Religion may waste and wither away It cannot hold out against all batteryes and assaults that may be made He that shall desire a fuller witnesse to this truth let him peruse Sr. Henry Vanes book intituled The Retired mans Meditations where he shall find an ample testimony This Honour must be given him for God hath given it him to be the first that in that clearnesse hath ministred this knowledge to the world since the night of Apostacy fell upon it wherein certainly he hath been specially guided by the Holy Spirit I can set my seale to it CHAP. V. A Confirmation of the former with the Historical Exemplification of those Principles in the late Transactions SO then there was in our first Engagement the shooting forth of such a Spirit as God was pleas'd to entertain a Tryal of and to joyne issue with as far as it would goe in his work And many of those worthy Patriots and Souldiers were no doubt accepted of God in their day and were gathered home where they are reaping the wages of their faithfull services being taken from the Evils to come the time being not then for the two seeds and principles which were in this Cause to be discovered in their distinction or opposition rather and to part asunder but being complicated together as light and darknesse day and night were in the first Creation before God divided them the good seed was the blessing of the Cluster though I say it was the younger Brother and the Underling and the other
they in whomsoever not in person or appearance disliking the same thing in this person and countenancing it in another If ye desire to see your sin This is thy sin O England All our thoughts all our wayes all our motions all our imaginations have bin are will be found before the Righteous God in this Day of his clear Judgment that is coming upon thee evil onely evil and that continually thou canst not turn thee to any one of them to find the least comfort and satisfaction of a good and righteous working and operation in them for How can an evil tree bring forth good fruit or a bitter fountain send forth sweet water Thy fountain is bitter thy root is rottennesse This I must testifie against thee from the Lord. Not but that thou hast done Gods work and fullfil'd and executed his pleasure upon Kings Nobles Bishops and all the slain and poyled of the Land Thou hast dressed the Lord's sacrifice but thou hast done it in thine own spirit and so art no better then Jeroboam then John then Nebuchadnezar and art accountable for all that thou hast done And God hath now taken thee in the snare of thy own heart and hath spread thy filthynesse thy unrighteousnesse thy ambition thy partiality thy hypocrisie in the sight of the Sun Thou art returned with the Dog to the vomit and with the Sow to the wallowing in the mire Thou hast corrupted thy self and art become abominable Judah hath justified Samaria Thy sins are as Scarlet they are of a double dye to the sins of the former generation which God hath cast out before thy face Thou sawest the Judgments of God on them for the wayes of pride unjustice oppression which thou walkest in and wast the Rod in his hand the Instrument of his vengeance upon them shalt thou therefore escape O! I dread to think what a sad reckoning this Generation hath to make I can see no glimpse of Comfort for us in any promise or prophecy or example or record in Scripture unlesse God powre out a spirit of grace and supplication a spirit of deep contrition and humiliation upon us but our Carcases must fall in the wildernesse as Israel's did Loruhamah and Loammi must be named upon us Israel shall be as Ethiopia and the bringing up of the Phlistins from Caphtor and the Assyrians from Kir shall be of as sacred memory as our Victories and successes the successes of the great Turk as holy things as all our deliverances I say unlesse God make us ashamed not onely of our sins but of our selves and of the spirit and root we have growen upon and acted from in all this I speak not now to natural men I know God judges every one by the light and law that they are under but I speak to the Saints of England that would be thought and call'd so many moral men have done bravely and faithfully and those that have corrupted in those principles having profest no higher shall be judged no deeper But you that say Ye see you that have discern'd and cryed up a Cause of God not civil liberties onely as men but a Cause of God in civil liberties all for God for the glory of God for the Kingdome of God I say you shall be judged out of your own mouths Is this the Cause of God Is this the Kingdome of God You in the Council you in the Army Is this the Cause of God now your turn is served Moral men shall onely be judged for their work not prosecuting the Cause but letting it fall but you shall be judged for no better a spirit unless you judge your selves I say there is no hope for you unlesse a spirit of judgment and burning arise up within you and cleanse your blood and filthynesse from you And ye shall pay not onely for your spirit but for that guilt also wherein ye are in Common with others for not prosecuting but letting fall this Cause when so far carryed on though darkly and blindly by you and in the letter For the same evil made you desist namely self-Interest that made you manage it in unrighteousnesse For be it known unto you The Cause of God is amongst us and shall go on and is carrying on through all these dark Meanders and Intricacies whilst you sleep on your down Pillows and stretch your selves upon your beds of Ivory and the next advance of it will be the routing of you Except God awaken you to meet him by speedy Repentance God will glorifie himself in his Judgments on you as upon the Cavaleirs before you Therefore trust not in vain Visions and cry not The Temple of the Lord. Is there any truth mercy and justice in the Land Are not the necessities of the poor as great as ever are not the oppressions as many is not pride luxury and profannesse as rife are not the Courts of Justice as corrupt Is not the spirit of God restrained and persecured Is Christ in the Throne Will ye call this a Reformation that ye are made Kings and Princes No! the Lord will not own it This is your work and your Cause it is none of his and God will make you know one day ye had power to have reformed these things but used it not forsooth because you would have offended this great man and tother useful Interest ye must have broak with a broken shatter'd World which will not be able to afford you the least shelter in the day when God shall visit you God will carry on his own Cause if we had never a tongue in the Parliament to plead it nor never a pen in the Nation to contend for is but what will become of you I know not How God will do it I know not but by his own appearing It is the day of His Power the day of the Spirit that is to have its turn next not Man's day but God's not Man's spirit but God's and whom He will use as his Instruments I know not if any of this Generation it must be by a Regeneration of them new moulding new framing new spiriting new principling of them The new wine must have new bottles but I see little towards any such thing in any of you Yet I believe God hath a remnant among you whom He will lead on to farther things but it will be with weeping and supplications with great brokennesse of heart and poverty of spirit with self-judging and self-abhorring and then what revenge will ye take of your selves what restitution will ye make to the Nation what right will ye do to all men even to your enemies Then will ye throw away your Idols of Gold and Silver to the Moles and to the Bats Then the lofty looks shall be humbled and the haughtinesse of man shall be laid low and the Lord alone exalted in that day Till the Spirit be thus powred forth from on high I look for no salvation to be wrought but the people shall labour in the fire