which God did and will avenge Lev. 26. 23. not the blasphemous foolish Scots Covenant as the Presbyterians would have men believe no it was that covenant with death and hell Isa. 28. 15. God never owned that wicked Covenant but will punish all that had a hand in it the King all others that took it be Anathema Maranatha the late King and that rightly did abominate it Nothing will clear this King all that took it but to repent and be rebaptized as abovesaid for that was the arm of the abomination of desolation Mat. 24. 15. and it threw down the pillars of Christs Church and our Bishops it was the work of the Presb. Coppersmith the Lord reward him according to his works 2 Tim. 4. 14. God send us to love and to enjoy truth and peace in all our generation through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Black friers in Long-aLley March 1. 1654. Arise Evans POSTSCRIPT ANd now if the King and the rest of the royal party will submit unto God according to the foregoing lines by his providence directed to them and humble themselves before him constantly calling upon him as they finde occasion not onely in forms of prayers in which many times they come short of asking what they need but also calling upon him by the dictates of God's Spirit in them for as they know how to ask a man what they need so the Apostle would have them make known then requests unto God Phil. 4. 6. and not plead ignorance as if they had not the Spirit of prayer for if they know what they need they know how to ask it of God as well as they know how to ask any thing they want of men and easier for God is not as man that will be courted with fine phrases afore he gives any thing but plain simple terms are acceptable with God and as available as the highest eloquence And as a Father delighting to hear his little child speak and ask him somthing from the dictates of his own wit to encourage the child for to speak to him will give him sooner what he asketh then he will give to others of his children that can speak better so God doth delight to hear his little ones speak to him from their own breast and will answer their prayers when eloquent Orators prayers are denied And let me tell you that I believe God doth not bless any thing that men possess so much as he blesseth that thing if it be a lawful thing which they ask him in prayer and return him thanks for it for though a man be born to the highest preferment in the world and look not upon it as the immediate gist of God unto him not glorying in his birth-right but in the Lord that gave it he shall finde that God will deprive him of that he gloried in by making one born in a barn and cast into the briers to enjoy his dominion I say if the King and his party will observe these things and practise them then I am sure God will suddenly restore him and his party and they shall finde it is not in vain for men to seek the Lord but if they will not observe these things and put them in practise I wish them well let them go on in their own wayes and see the fruit thereof for I know the meek and not the furious and proud shall inherit the earth Mat. 5. 5. and the humble shall be exalted Luk. 14. 11. for Before destruction the heart of man is haughty and before honour is humility Prov. 18. 12. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time 1 Pet. 5. 6. FINIS Arise Evans 〈…〉 ost 〈…〉 us 〈…〉 you 〈…〉 saith 〈…〉 with 〈…〉 1
THE VOICE OF King CHARLS the Father to CHARLS the Son And the Bride say Come Being An Invitation of King Charls to come in peaceably and be reconciled to his Kingdoms according to his Father's minde and shewing the integrity of his Highness OLIVER CROMWEL Also That the Author's Prophesie is fulfilled in part and shall perfectly be verified in 1655. The Sabbath straightly to be sanctified kept The Vindication of Infant-baptism and re-baptizing proved by Scriptures and Fathers to be a Truth With an exhortation to the Royalists And many other discoveries of Truth Noble Royalists this is your way of advancement By ARISE EVANS Heb. 4. 7. To day if ye will hear bis voice c. Printed at London for the Author 1655. To the most glorious King CHARLS of Great Britain ARISE EVANS wisheth that Grace Truth Peace and Glory may come to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Most illustrious King I Am not fitted to direct a Speech unto so great a Majesty being not vers'd in Courtly Complements or acquainted with Princely Titles I hope your Majesty doth not expect such Language from me nor yet that you will despise the simpleness of the Stile but seriously consider and regard the matter of this mean Method I presume the more to present your Majesty with these few Lines after sorude a manner yet so well dressed as I am most able to pen them because I have heard of your vertuous Clemency and Humility towards such as were of so low a Rank as I my self am even of the poorest of men Therefore I beseech your Majesty likewise to bear with my boldness and presumption in speaking the Truth to you for it will be the glory of your Royal Patience not to look upon it contemptibly but rather give ear to it for that it cometh from the pure affections of a true heart towards you If I know my own heart Jer. 17. 9. which speaketh unto you wishing you eternal happiness both for your Soul and Body and that your glorious splendor may shine in Power and not in Words onely which are like vain shadows without the substance as some perhaps would have themselves so exalted yea too many are apt to flatter Princes with hollow Titles which are as empty shells or nuts without kernels yet with such vain-glory earthly Princes whose mindes are ridiculous afore God and godly men too too much delight to be applauded So that it is now and it was ever so with God and good men That he which humbleth himself and slighteth such earthly pomp though an honour truely belonging to him is of God and good men counted most worthy of Honour Favour and Exaltation And I hope your Majesty doth and will observe this Rule and not fix your self upon such rotten branches which promise much yet let you sall but upon God the sure Rock and the Community of those that love him and keep his Commandments so shall you be surely fixed and established And not to trouble your Majesty with too long a Prologue I shall now God willing speak to the purpose Judges 6. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 21. When the Angel of the Lord appeared unto Gideon he saluted him thus The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valour And when Gideon answered If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us that we are delivered into the hand of our enemies And then the Lord looked upon him and said Go in this thy might and thou shalt save Israel from the hands of his enemies mark it have not I sent thee And when Gideon said Wherewith shall I save Israel my family is poor in Manasseth and I am the least in my father's house The Lord said I will be with thee and thou shalt smite the enemy as one man Moreover the Angel gave him a sign by touching his present that was upon the rock with the end of his cane or walking-staff until the fire came out of the rock and consumed his present And something to that purpose was done to your Majesty by this last rising at Salisbury as you may see by my book called The Iron Rod And after that Gideon sought to know thr Lord by Sacrifice and Prayer and the Lord made himself known unto him by Signs and gave him Wisdom and prospered him so that with three hundred chosen men he overthrew the numerous host of the Midianites Here your Majesty may see what it is to seek the Lord And these things are as properly spoken to your Majesty now as they were then to Gideon and they will be as effectually performed to you if with faith you receive them as Saint Augustine did as they were then to Gideon or as if the same Angel had spoken them unto you yet the case is not the same for Gideon used his Sword onely but you are to use first your Word and if that will not your Sword then will prevail I have as you shall finde in this ensuing little Book set down to you if happily from your Subjects after a propitiatory manner something to ingage your Soveraign Majesty for your own good and their desire and good of all if your Majesty please to comply with it which Subjects I finde if they be real are willing to prostrate themselves before you as soon as you shall hold forth your golden Scepter of mercy unto them as Ahasuerus did to Esther Esther 6. 2 3. And I beseech your Royal Majesty though you may well think me inconsiderable to intercede between you and your People yet hear the voice of your Royal Father of famous memory saying Son for so he beginneth I have offered Acts of Indempnity and Oblivion to so great a latitude as may include all that can but suspect themselves to be any way obnoxious or liable to the Laws and which might seem to exclude all future jealousies and give securities I would have you alwayes propense to the same way whenever it shall be desired and accepted let it be granted not onely as an Act of State-policy and necessity but also of Christian charity and choice All I have now left me is a power to forgive those that have deprived me of all and I thank God I have a heart to do it and joy as much in this Grace which God hath given me as in all my former injoyments for this is a greater Argument of God's love to me then any prosperity can be Be confident as I am that the most of all sides who have done amiss have done so not out of malice but out of mis-information or mis-apprehension of things none will be more loyal and faithful to me and you then those Subjects who sensible of their errors and our injuries will feel in their souls most vehement motives to repentance and earnestly desire to make some reparations for their former defects As your Quality sets you beyond any duel with any Subject so the nobleness of your Minde must
in his infancy he had had John's baptism and confessing when he was sick what then he had done saith confes. lib. 1. ch. 11. Thou sawest O my God! for thou wert my Keeper with what earnestness of minde and with what faith I importuned the piety both of my own mother and thy church the mother of us all for the baptism of thy christ my Lord God Mark the baptism of thy christ And observe for here he makes a distinction betwixt John's Baptism which he had received when he was an infant and the baptism of Christ which now being sick he would have had for he thought it not meet to term that Baptism which infants receive It was a wonderful providence that brought me to maintain this point by any thing out of S. Aug. and it was thus When I was about to write this two learned men the one a Minister the other a great student being at my house together and I perceiving they would be my great antagonists in it to hear what they would say I broke my minde unto them they began to oppose me in it with might main I held it forth against them both so that at last the student said Now I call to mind I think S. Aug. speaks of such a thing And he having the book in his pocket drew it out and it silenced them very much yet they would give me no encouragement nor would they tell me plainly what S. Aug. said in it Upon this I went into Pauls Church-yard to see if I could finde S. Aug. and hear him speak by means of some Latine Scholar but being there I found him to speak English and I brought him home with an intent that before he and I part to be better acquainted with him Thus Gods providence helps forward his own work that men may see that the practice of the ancient Church was agreeable to the New Testament and that by their practice we may the better understand the Scripture specially in the mysterious great Controversie about Baptism the foundation of Christianity to end and reconcile the difference of Christendom in that point of Rebaptizing commonly called Anabaptism which opinion being weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary hath as much truth in it yea more then the contrary yet the Ana baptists follow not the footsteps of the Ancients in Christning their infants and acknowledging the holy Spirit in their infants baptism to be of value but seeking another spirit in baptism and not the renewing of that holy Spirit which they had in their infants baptism for their punishment and to bring them home God sends them an evil spirit 1 Sam. 16. 14. that puffeth and vexeth them and sets them one against another so that there is no peace among them and though they do mighty things for a time prevailing yet at last they come to nothing because they deny and pitifully reproach the breathing of Gods Spirit upon them in their infancy On the other side because the Church of Engl. at the first appearing of the Anab. did not admit Rebaptizing it being Gods way take those people into the Church they confessing the Church and their infants baptism as the most eminent part of it the difference grew greater and they became a scourge so that all Heresies broke out in the Church upon its refusing condemning such a truth warranted by Scripture and Fathers which truth is the means appointed to bring men into communion with God for none ought to come to the Lords table before they themselves being at yeers of discretion do confess their sins repent and be baptized upon their own score And good reason for we see if a man himself be bound to pay a debt he oweth he will take special care to pay it lest his adversary cast him into prison but if sureties be bound for it the principal careth not but lets them suffer this is common among men So infants in baptism are not bound but their sureties and as they are bound to or promise nothing so they are as careless to perform any thing promised for them or in their name for pray where is any doth forsake the devil and all his works the pomps and vanities of the wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the flesh that doth believe all the Articles of the Christian faith that doth keep Gods holy will and commandments all the days of their lives Here are mighty things promised who performeth them Take heed God will not be mocked Gal. 6. 7 8. Now if Ministers had prest men to renew their Covenant with God and caused them with their own mouthes to promise such obedience as above said and rebaptized them upon that account shewing such as would not come in upon such terms their damnable condition and that their infant-baptism was but a figure to save them if they had died in the time of their ignorance surely men would not have been so careless in keeping Gods Word as now they are Therefore I give this as a Rule of truth to the Church for time to come which Rule is grounded as abovesaid on Scripture the best Fathers practice Reason and on the confession of our Church of England in the book of Common-Prayer as you have it afore Baptism in the Rubrick 1. I say that Infants ought to be by their sureties baptized in water as we formerly did in the church of England 2. That they should be catechized and educated in the faith and by all means perswaded to leave their sins 3. That they being come to the age of discretion should repent and confess their sins and shew their resolution to amend their lives before they come to renew their baptism 4. That they be re-baptized in water and then the Bishops to lay their hands upon them and all this to be done to them afore they be admitted to come to the Lords Table 5. That those Heathens or Jews that are perswaded to the faith converted and baptized they being of full age refraining from sin and stedfast in the faith need not be rebaptized but if they have young children or servants that are subject to youthful vanities notwithstanding they be baptized with their masters or fathers they ought to be rebaptized as abovesaid 6. That whosoever after re-baptizing opposeth the faith or breaketh the commands of God be excommunicated and not received in again until he repent and be willing to suffer a shameful penance If he will not come in but goeth about to seduce the people of Christ then shall the King put him to death speedily that others may fear the Lord and King 7. That the King and all keep holy the Sabbath not onely by forbearing servile work but by praying reading bearing speaking Gods word meditating on it and deeds of charity And let me tell you in the name of God that Gods Covenant in baptism is that perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten Jer. 50. 5. It is the quarrel of that Covenant