c. are wholly left out And so the words shall not be restrained from their Publike Profession but have due encouragement and equal Protection in the Profession of their Faith and exercise of Religion must necessarily refer onely be so understood unto those of your own profession thus publickly held forth that is to say all such persons as are of our own Profession shall not be restrained from their profession but all such Persons shall have encouragement and equal protection in the profession c. and no others so setting up one Profession of Religion onely and protecting onely such as are of that Profession and this whilest ye are speaking of the fundamentals of the Good Old Cause and the endeavouring the Settlement of this Common-wealth upon such a foundation as may assert establish and secure the liberties of the people in reference unto all as men and Christians and of your full and fixed resolution through the assistance of God effectually even to the hazzard of your lives to endeavour the recovery and security of the same and of the signal Providences wherein the Lord hath owned the Parliament and you their forces both by Sea and Land in asserting that righteous Cause wherein the civil and religious liberties of the People of these Nations are involved so as all open opposition was beaten down before them and of the Discouragements which that publick Spirit which appeared in that work hath received since that time in the late changes of Government And of another raised up drawing back to the same things the Parliament had contended against even to the hazxard of the Essentials of that cause And lastly of your thinking it your Duty upon serious thoughts of heart once more to appear against those back-sliding wayes I say whilest ye are speaking of such things as these in the Preamble to this your profession Are not your eyes yet open Do ye not yet see how ye are deceived and who hath deceived you And how the smoak of the bottomless Pit hath smothered you whilest the coersive or imposing Spirit hath slipt up between your Representation and Deliverance Fifthly The fifth exception is that whereas your Settlement saith so as they abuse not this Liberty to the actual disturbance of the Publick Peace on their parts words honest and good neither limiting the Lord nor stinting his witness nor compelling conscience nor medling with worships things of Religion and conscience but with what is proper to the Magistrate to take cognizance of and to exclude protection viz. Disturbance actual disturbance or disturbance made by overt act or force qualifying it to the Law and speaking plainly that men may certainly know what it makes a transgression of the Publick peace and this on their parts too not on nor by occasion of or under the pretence of them such as shall so abuse the Liberty afforded them shall not be protected I say whereas your Settlement thus saith this article leaves this clause wholly out and adds another altogether strange and forraign and destructive to the Cause of Liberty of Conscience contended for in the Warrs and contained in the Settlement viz. The disturbance of others saith the Article in their way of worships neither saying what disturbance or explaining what shall be understood to be such a disturbance as shall exclude protection nor of what worships for there are many worships used in England and there is but one true worship and the true worshippers who worship God in Spirit and truth whome the Father seeks to worship him and the hour is come wherein the true worshippers worship the Father in Spirit and in truth seek not to man for protection nor qualifying it to the Actual disturbance of the Publick Peace and this on their parts but only to the disturbance of others in their way of worships general words like the bottemless Pit out of which they come so that be the worships what they will or the worshippers or the way of their worships how false invented vile wicked hypocritical soever be the occasion cause or ground witnessing against them never so righteous just and substantial be the command of the Lord never so urgent to bear witness against them If any such witness-bearing be whether in the time or place or out of it whether in Writing Speaking or Printing whether in looking standing still or sitting for it sayes not where nor when nor what nor how but disturbance in the general Term or latitude This as it hath been and the witnesses of God have suffered for as to all these things from this adulterous generation and the humble Petition and Advice hath a Law for most of it even to imprisonment working and whipping if they speak but to a Priest as he is going to or coming from his worship yea at the discretion or rather malice of the Justices for most of them were their enemies on a Civil and Religious account laid it cruelly upon them being given up by your General you in the time of your Degeneration as sheep to the slaughter is now desired by you yea that they be continued under the same slavery and sufferings for it and because of conscience for ever and this in the day of your bewailing of and saying ye desire to take shame to your selves wherein soever ye have back-slidden For in that ye say that all Laws c. to the contrary may be declared null and void those which are according to it are such as must be understood to be by you desired to stand yea as the foundation of the Common-wealth for so ye lay it in this your Address I say this as it hath been so it must be deemed a Desturbance in the construction of the Law aforesaid which ye have thus provided to stand unto which there must be recourse ye having not assigned the particulars wherein yea such a one as cuts off Protection so that the Lord in whom is the breath of your nostrils may not speak may not testifie against Idolatry or Idolators false worships or false worshippers Priests or People for those who shall speak his word and be his witnesses against such worships or worshippers or wayes of worships must have no Protection this is your new Cause and Religion this the fruit of your late Representation and Contrition Sixthly the sixt Exception is that ye say in the conclusion of this Article viz. And that all Laws Statutes Ordinances and Clauses in any Laws Statutes and Ordinances to the contrary may be declared null and void That is to say All Laws Statutes and Ordinances and Clauses in any Laws Statutes and Ordinances for Liberty of Conscience For this profession excluding all Professions from Protection but it self as I have proved cuts off Liberty of Conscience to any other Profession but it self and all Laws c. to the contrary of this profession which so cut off Liberty of Conscience being voided and made null it makes null and void
and different That viz. the Settlement hath onely these viz. That such as professe Faith in God by Jesus Christ words few and simple The Addresse That all persons who professe Faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ his eternall Son the true God and in the holy Spirit God coequall with the Father and the Son One God blessed for ever Which because they are not all of them the words of Scripture for where saith it God coequall with the Father the Son And for that those of them which are Scripture words are no where spoken by the holy Ghost in the Scriptures so together as Ye have set them nor for that purpose viz. to hold forth a Distinction of Persons of three Persons in the Godhead or Trinity which the Imagination of Man hath formed of God which knowes not God And in regard these Your Tearms are laid as so many Shibboleths or Snares for the tender Consciences of those who cannot speak of God in the will and words that Mans wisdome teacheth which must be confounded but in the will of God and the words which the holy Ghost teacheth And forasmuch as ye are notwithstanding so Dogmaticall and peremptory therein as that ye make the Confession of this your Faith to be the Quallification sine qua non without which there is no Protection And have placed it as the bound or limit of Conscience-Liberty under which it must come or suffer which indeed destroyes Liberty of Conscience for where it is bound in any one Particular there it cannot be said to be Liberty of Conscience And inasmuch as Ye seem to set such a high value on the Scriptures that ye make the acknowledging of what ye have pleased to call it though not in its own words nor have ye made it to appear that it saith so of it self essentiall to Protection of which in the next particular And finally in that ye exact this Profession as the issue and fruit of all the bloud and Warrs and your late Deliverance I say upon these Considerations in the Name and dread of the Eternall God I do require you and all your Doctors and both their Mothers the two Universities and all their Children the Priests to prove in Plain and expresse Scripture words together where the Scriptures do attribute Faith or believing to the holy Spirit as a distinct Person as here ye have set it Or confesse that ye cannot and so raze out with your own Pens your new Confession of Faith contained in this Article which ye seek to enforce as the fruit and issue of all and with such a Penalty Or if ye are silent ye shall be taken pro confesso that is to say by your silence to confesse that ye cannot True it is the Scriptures bear Record of Christ that he said to his Disciples Ye believe in God believe also in me John 14. 1. And He that believeth in me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water this spake he of the holy Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified John 7. 39. And no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him The Comforter when he is come even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me John 15. 25 26. And Paul said unto them at Ephesus Have ye received the holy Ghost since ye believed And they said unto him we have not so much as heard whether there be any holy Ghost And when Paul had laid his hands on them the holy Ghost came on them Act. 19. 1 2 6. And again In whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise Ephes 1. 13. And There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witnesse on earth the Spirit the Water and the Bloud and these three agree in one 1 John 5. 7 8. And this we believe and set our seals to But where say they as ye have exacted it Now the words of Mans wisdom concerning God which knowes not God which must be confounded which must be brought to nought which the holy Ghost teacheth not and the Doctrines which are not from the Spirit of Truth we reject Secondly that the words viz. And do acknowledge the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the revealed or written word or will of God Are wholly added as so many Shibboleths or snares also for those who in tenderness of Conscience to God cannot say of the Scriptures what they say not in their own words of themselves And that there be who in tenderness of Conscience to God cannot do thus is known by the sufferings of many in divers parts of the Nation because of it True it is the Scriptures say of Christ Jesus that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made And the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten son of the Father full of grace and truth John 1. 3 14. Vpholding all things by the word of his power Heb. 1. 3. His name is called the word of God King of Kings and Lord of Lords Revel 19. 13 16. And of this Word the Scriptures are a true declaration Luke 1. 1. And all Scriptures is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good words 2 Tim. 3. 16. And the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. And this the Scripture saith of it self and this we own and testifie and our Testimony is true but as for the terms revealed or written word or will of God where sayes the Scripture such words I require you and your Doctors again to prove it for we cannot take a testimony of the Scripures which is not from the Spirit that gave it which spake its own words and its words we receive who have received the Spirit which cannot be imposed upon by the wisdome of man which must be confounded 'T is strange and a thing to be noted that ye your Priests and Doctors who keep such adoe about the Scriptures and who have put you upon this and so magnifie the Letter cannot make four lines of a Confession of your faith in the Letter of the Scriptures as appears by this your Article and that those whom ye seek to ensnare with terms about the Letter which it
saith not of it self and whom ye judge but unrighteously as undervaluing of the Letter and as not attributing that to it which ye would have yea as denying it and therefore have made such a provision should be constrained by your going from the Letter whilest ye are making the confession of your faith in the Letter and setting that your confession up for all to worship your Image of the Letter I say that they should be constrained or that ye should give them this just occasion to Judge you for departing from the Letter whose Judgment ye cannot avoid for that it is the Judgment wherewith by this your provision ye Judge and so thou art inexcusable O man who judgest another and yet doest the same thing for in so doing thou condemnest thy self And is it not also a strange thing for any to be so deluded by the Prince of Darkness as to believe that those who witness the holy Spirit which spake in them who spake forth the Scriptures as they were moved of the Holy Ghost and who by the Revelation of the same Spirit that moved in them who spake forth the Scriptures know it to be true and witness it to be fulfilled and fulfilling in them as do the people of the Lord who are aimed at in this provision I say to beleeve that such are denyers of the Scriptures and that such a snare and in such terms should be laid for them as such as in this Article surely they can as soon deny their life the holy Spirit in them as the words it spake forth But to your terms the revealed or written word or will of God How can any thing be called or said by the creature to be the will of God but what is Gods discovery of himself or Revelation to the Creature otherwise who can attribute or say any such thing of God as his will seeing that he is infinite and cannot otherwise than by the Revelation of himself and the language of his Spirit in the measure of himself be comprehended or exprest How is it then and from whence comes it that ye thus distinguish the Revealed will of God which implies something else that is or may be called by the Creature the will of God which cannot be affirmed so intruding into those things which ye have not seen in a voluntary humility and worshipping of the Scriptures into which ye are beguiled and of your reward for your former service to the Nations Liberty by the subtilty of men which have lain in wait to deceive you vainly puft up with their fleshly mind not holding the head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment Ministred and knit together encreaseth with the encrease of God How soon do ye appear by this to be sunck in the Ground of your Divinity which ye lay as a foundation for all to build upon as a God for all to worship whilest ye are soaring aloft to speak that of God which ye do not understand to distinguish of Gods will who is undistinguishable And so Friends how soon is Babel writ upon your goodly buildings How quickly is your language confounded lifting it self up indeed to Heaven but is thus brought down to Hell Cease vain man whose breath is in thy nostrils to take upon thee to speak of Gods secret for wherein art thou to be accounted of cease ye potsherds of the earth to prescribe to conscience as to the things and worship of God of which only he is Lord least he dash you to peeces Come down to the door the witness of God in you the little thing that is as a grain of Mustard-seed to that which reproves the Dominion of God to that which makes manifest the Light which comes from the Son of God the Saviour of all them who believe in him least ye be turned out amongst the Beasts of the Field and times pass over you till ye acknowledge that the most high ruleth among the children of men that God alone is as of right Lord of Conscience Again as to the things of God revealed on record in the Scriptures or the Scriptures of truth Can any man say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Is it not thus written can any man say that all Scriptures is given by inspiration but by the Revelation of the same Spirit which inspired the holy men of God who spake and wrote as they were moved of the Holy Ghost Knows any man the things of God but the Spirit of God and they who have received the Spirit that is not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that they may know the things that are freely given them of God And are not the Scriptures the things of God the things freely given of God the deep things of God which none but the Spirit reveales none but the Spirit searcheth out Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Are they not a Book sealed and is not the vision of all become to all who have not received the Spirit as a book sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is Sealed and the Book is delivered to him that is not learned and he saith I am not learned Is it not thus written yea Is it not also written Bind up the Testimony and Seale the Law among the Disciples those who have received the Spirit yea saith not Christ Jesus Father I thank thee because that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to Babes even so Father for so it seemeth good in thy sight And said he not to his Disciples to you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingome of Heaven but to them it is not given therefore speak I to them in Parables because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand And in them is fulfilled that of Isa c. and those were the Jewes of whom it is written that they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him How then can any man know of a truth and acknowledge them to be the revealed word or will of God but by Revelation the Revelation of the same Spirit as moved them who wrote it to speak it forth and if it cannot be of a truth acknowledged to be such but by Revelation how is it then that ye require all to acknowledge it to be the revealed word or will of God without having respect to the Spirit or to Revelation What faith is this that ye impose upon all People to confess upon pain of being denyed protection whether they have received the Spirit or not which Spirit unless they have received and by it speak they cannot acknowledg it to
be such without a lye against the truth What a Religion have ye here held forth that saith Profess so and so of God Christ the Spirit whether thou of a truth know them to be so or no And acknowledge the Scriptures to be so and so whether they say so of themselves or of God Christ the Spirit or that thou understandest them by the Spirit to be so or not or thou shalt be cast out What a cruelty is in this Religion that requires a man to profess what he knows not nor can without another viz. the Spirit as I have proved and the gift of the Holy Ghost cannot be bought with money nor can it be forced or excludes him the benefit of the Law the priviledge of his Birth-right how diserving soever he be as to the Nation or howmuch soever he hath fought or suffered or done for Liberty for Liberty of Conscience Liberty Civil and Religious or exercises a good Conscience towards God or Man or is serviceable in his Generation or according to Scripture in his profession or knows the Lord or fears before him or otherwise so that if he profess what ye say and not by the Spirit which as hath been made appear ye have not respect to for ye require it of all that mind your protection and all have not the Spirit he lyes and so ye expose him to the danger of the Lake that burnes with fire and brimstone as it is written and all Lyars are for the Lake if he do not profess it he is in danger of being cast into the Pit for preserve him out of it ye say ye will not in saying such shall not be protected That is to say in plain English Profess of God and Christ and the Spirit and acknowledge of the Scriptures what we will have thee and say thou shalt whether thou canst or not whether thou hast the Spirit and by it canst speak or otherwise Or Do who will what they will with thee in thy Profession And so ye expose him to be undone either in Soul or Body or both Time was it was otherwise with you O my Friends and I knew it yea it was your case from your then and the Enemies of all who were against the enslaving of Conscience But now alas How soon hath night overtaken ye and Darkness covered ye Wherein differs this your Profession from that of the world This Imposition in the root from that of Rome unto whose height of Coertion and cruelty it will in time ascend if not beyond unless it be cut down Thus much for your Terms Revealed or written Will of God Now for the other viz. Revealed or written Word of God Is not a word a Revelation truly and so understood in Propriety of speech How is it then that your Doctors cannot yet speak of their believing without a heresie in proper speaking A Revealed Word as much as to say a written writing a spoken speech Do they not call such Improprieties as these Bulls at Oxford And disdaine they not those who speak so as the Vulgar or Ignorant Deserve they not then to be turned back again from their Doctorship of Divinity in things concerning God or being Teachers of others unto which they pretend to learn the Art of proper speaking unto men May not this be brought as a just reproofe and a Taunt upon those who have despised Truth because it hath been brought forth by a stammering tongue as to Natural learning viz. Has not the Head of the Vniversity yet attained the Tongue of the learned The Revealed Word of God say ye Here ye are taken as in the former For in that ye say the Revealed Word of God what do ye thereby imply but that there is another word of God Now Christ Jesus is the Word of God or Gods Revelation of himself to the Creature and further than this the Creature cannot go nor look nor say as to the Word of God For as I said God is infinite and cannot be comprehended nor understood but in the Declaration of himself Christ the Word Nor to or of this can the Creature go or say but by Revelation For saith Christ Jesus the Word of God All things are delivered me of my Father and no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him The Comforter when he is come whom I will send to you from the Father he shall testifie of me Now to say there are two Words of God or to distinguish of the Word of God that one part of the Word of God is so and another part is not so as ye must needs be understood to imply in the case what is it but to say there are two Christs or that Christ is divided who neither is nor can be Than which what can be more Blasphemous Again for your Terms Written Word of God How can or dare any to say without the highest Blasphemy that the Scriptures or any visible comprehensible thing is the word of God who is invisible incomprehensible whom no man hath seen nor can see God blessed for ever who cannot be written and his word is like himself for when ye speak of a written word of God yee speak of something that is circumscribed Physical or Local that is to say something that may be seen toucht or handled by Man as Man which God cannot be nor his word nor his will which is himself nor his Church which is in himself the Ground and Pillar of truth For though God from the beginning hath not left himself without a witness but hath placed some thing of himself in Man which reproves which makes manifest the Light which comes from Christ to which he hath spoken through all generations and declared his will so far as concerned that generation to which he spake as after divers other manners so by writing of which the Scriptures of truth now extant are a part and but a part of what was so written as the Scriptures themselves testifie yet to say of all that hath been so spoken declared and wrote from the beginning hitherto that it is the word or will of God which is unfathomable incomprehensible unutterable inexpressible much less of the Scriptures which are but a part of what was so written as aforesaid to say that that is the written word or will of God which the Scriptures no where say of themselves is as absurd as Blasphemous and can no more be said to be the written word or will of God because they are a declaration of the will of God to many generations or a Record in writing with Pen and Ink of his word so spoken by which his will was so declared to those Generations Or because they being so recorded are a Testimony that God left not himself throughout all ages without a witness nor his people and so are useful for the Man of God as the Spirit testifies in them and
were written for our learning the Church of God to which the Holy Ghost in Paul spake which is in God than the Heavens can be said to be the word of God which were made and are upholden by the word of his Power for they declare the glory of God Or the Firmament for it sheweth his handy work Or the day for day by day uttereth speech or the night for night unto night sheweth knowledge or all of them for there is no speech nor Language where their voice is not heard their line is gone out through all the Earth and their words to the end of the world which cannot be said of the Scriptures this the Scriptures testifie yea even that the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are saith the Holy Ghost in Paul of those who held the Truth in unrighteousness because that which is to be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewn it to them without excuse yea that he left not himself without a witness in that he did good and gave us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness And yet how do ye darken Counsel by words without knowledge words which neither the Scriptures know nor the Spirit of Truth nor do ye your selves understand what ye say and then set it up as the Faith of Gods Elect to be imposed upon all yea upon Gods Elect yea for a Snare for Gods Elect whose Faith never sought to inforce it self otherwise upon any than by commending it self to that of God in every mans Conscience which this of yours doth viz. by the Penalty of exclusion of Protection if it be not Professed and therefore we rejct it and should though it were in the very words of Truth which this of yours is not because coertion in matters of Faith or Conscience in things Spiritual or Evangelical we are sure is out of Truth and comes from him who is out of it to wit the Devil O how would vain man be wise in his wisdom to speak of God who by wisdome knows not God for so it hath pleased the wisdom of God But man is born as the wild Asses colt To conclude this particular How can he be written who is without beginning of Dayes or end of life of whom it is written who can declare his generation How can he be said to be written who is the Son of God the word of God and there is no other without circumscribing him without making him an Image a thing like unto your selves The third Exception against this 6th Article of your Address is that instead of the words however differing in judgment from the Doctrine Worship or Discipline publickly held forth as aforesaid viz. Article 1. where ye say it is intended that Christian Religion be held forth and recommended as the publick Profession in this Nation which we desire may by the grace of God be reformed to the greatest purity in Doctrine Worship and Discipline according to the word of God the instructing of the people whereunto in a publick way so it be not compulsive as also the maintaining of able Teachers for that end and for the confutation and discovery of heresie error whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine is allowed to be provided for by our Representatives the maintenance of which Teachers may be out of a publick Treasure and we desire not by Tythes And Article 2. That to the publick Profession so held forth none be compelled by Penalties or otherwise but onely may be endeavoured to be won by sound Doctrine and the example of a good Conversation Which are the immediate preceding Articles to this third of either of which Articles there is not a whisper in this your new Profession I say the third Exception is that instead of the words however differing in judgment from the Doctrine Worship and Discipline publickly held forth as aforesaid shall not be restrained from but shall be protected in the Profession of their Faith and exercise of Religion according to their Consciences These only are inserted viz. Shall not be restrained from their Profession but have due encouragement and equal Protection in the Profession of their Faith and exercise of their Religion which varies the case both as to the matter of the third Artitle of your said Settlement and Cause and plainly shews that the allowance of the Profession of their faith and the exercise of the Religion of such as Profess faith in God by Jesus Christ according to their Consciences however differing in judgment from the Doctrine Worship or Discipline publickly held forth is not intended in this Article nay its clear cut out but the forcing of the Consciences of all such as shall differ in judgment from that which it holds forth as the Publick Profession which quite overthrows Liberty of Conscience And it is worthy the observation that the Clauses viz. However differing in judgment from the Doctrine Worship or Discipline publickly held forth and according to their Consciences are wholly left out of this sixth Article of your Address it is the whole matter and words of the first and second Article of your Settlement aforesaid unto which these Clauses of the third have relation Which undenyably manifests that as there is not a word of Conscience in this your new Cause and profession of Religion so that it proceeds from the Spirit not that which fought for but that which fought against and hath murthered Liberty of Conscience And further that the good old Cause is changed and that the hand hath done it which engaged against it Fourthly The fourth Exception is that whereas in your Settlement Article 3. ye say shall not be restrained from viz. such as profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ but shall be protected in the profession of their faith and exercise of Religion according to their Consciences in any place except such as shall be set apart for the Publick Worship where we provide not for them except they have leave This Article of your Address runs it thus shall not be restrained from viz. All persons who profess faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ c. their profession but have due encouragement and equal protection that is to say such only shall so have as are of the same Profession as is therein publickly held forth which indeed is no encouragement at all nor Protection of Liberty of Conscience but a meer delusion as seeming to hold forth that which it contains not neither doth it intend for as I said before in the former exception the Provisions viz. However differing in judgment from the Doctrine c. Publickly held forth c. And according to their Consciences and the Provision mentioned in this Exception viz. In any place c. Except such as shall be set apart for the Publick
Commission upon some scruples that were in him it thinking thereby to have broken ye in all which its Priests were chiefly active and consulted and put ye to it early to look to your own House by marching into theirs who were preparing for yours and to pass thorow the sore extremities of wet and weather of want of victuals and provision in a cold naked and Sterile Countrey during the winter season and to attend under these upon the Scots couched in their Fastnesses whilest the Plots in England might have set England in a flame behind ye on which they waited and miserable necessity should in a manner reduce your Souldiers in the midst of ye into little better condition than of dying men which was even effected that then its Army before ye might swallow ye up which it attempted even when all those distresses had even compassed ye about and it so thought it and it was so and then it vaunted it self and spake proudly and sought to come between the passages and ye that ye might not get home into your Countrey And then sought ye at Dunbar where ye were delivered with a wonderful Deliverance My Friends let it never be forgotten nor the wonderful Discovery and breaking of their Plots in England which immediately foreran it and corresponded therewith and were on the Point of execution to have served it Call to mind the former things and let the things that are past come into Remembrance And then held yee there another winter whilest Plots and designs were forming up in England again by Christopher Love and his Brethren the Preists and Confederates and the Cavaleire Party who thought to have attacht those of you in this Nation in the depth of Winter by a general Insurrection which the breaking forth of that of Norfolk hindred before the general Day was come and when they were disappointed thereby wrought yet more subtilly and made all things ready against Spring to have risen up generally as one man Cavaleir and Presbyter to have served M. G. Massies designed invasion of England with a Brigade of Horse which being also discovered and broken put yee upon your attempts on Fife wherein ye being made successful as formerly it slipt into England as its last Refuge whilest ye were engaged at St. Johnstons lay down in Worcester till your long march from Johnstons reached them and ye with your friends in this Nation joyning together soon encompassed them about and gave them and it a total overthrow To conclude which was glad at the late Interruption of the present Parliament and complyed with him that made it and set him up that it might set it self up by him again in a single Person and House of Lords and in all things that it had before endeavoured upon Conscience and the Liberties of the Nation And which by him did set it self up in the late Humble Petition and Advise and other Acts of that Parliament over the Liberties of the Nation and Conscience wherein ye may read the Language of this Article and then he being cut down when he had built again the things that he destroyed so making himself a Transgressor sought to over-run and cut down you who yet stood in its way Trampling on the Cause viz. in asserting a coersive power in them in matters of Religion of Conscience in its intended Declaration for a fast as this Article doth in you where ye may read its Language again even the Language of both to be the same and from one Spirit I say trampling on the Cause and you and the sufferings of truth together shewing what it would do as it had power and who they were it looked upon as its enemies viz. the Truth the Cause and you Israel and Judah were aâ—â—licted together and prepared a Pit for you all which opening its mouth wide to swallow you up and your eyes being opened to see it started ye so that ye cryed to the Lord and confessed and vowed as in your late Representation who heard your Cry and delivered you Now being delivered this Spirit expected no other than to be tumbled into the Pit which it had digged for you which was ready to receive it and to close its mouth upon it unless it could so work as to enter into you a difficult and one would think an impossible thing as things stood and in and by you preserve it self out of it and so set up it self at last through you over all which by wrapping it self in a friends mantle and coming under it viz. the Garment of a Priest who had formerly been your friend ye may guess whom I mean it hath now done raising up it self in you to do that which a man looking upon you as in your former Declarations and enâ—ngagements and your late Representation and hour and deliverance and the sense oâ— them all that was upon you would have thought impossible that ever ye should do and which will lead you further as ye are led by it to do that which if a man should tell you now ye would say are we Dogs thus to do perking its head on and over your shouldiers above the Good Old Cause who had trod that Spirit under foot and was now ready to make of iâ— an utter end and treading under foot the Good Old Cause which on and over your shouldiers and you upon it had stood above it and which by you had trod it under This is a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation And yet which of you of this is sensible but so it is after all your victories and apportunities and deliverances over and upon and from this Spirit and its workings and this last especially which was the greatest of all by which this Spirit was given into your hand as appointed by God to utter destruction which would have destroyed ye ye have let go out of your hand the Spirit which God hath appointed to utter destruction Therefore your life or the life of those of ye or him who wrought and hath done it shall go for its life and your or his people for its Its faithfulness in me to tell ye or him so and wo to me if I should not being required of the Lord of whom I have received it However the King of Israel may take it and go to his house heavy and displeased ye know the history Read and apply it to your selves in the case ye who are concerned who have done this thing for it is your Portion and shall assuredly come upon you from the Lord. Yea is not the day from the Lord come upon you already is not your strength your life already gone Are not your Locks already cut off viz. your distinct Consistency in your selves to chuse your General from among your selves to receive your Commissions and Orders from such your General not to disband or divide nor to suffer your selves to be disbanded or divided till you and the just grievance of
of the Lord what hath since been attempted and for that I also knew and observed the workings of him and he knew it that miss-led you from Worcester fight to that time yea I observed how that Principle entred and wrought from the time of his and many of your falling under the King by an Heart of unbelief assoon as he and you were delivered by the Spirit that rose in the Souldiery and the inferiour Officers at Triploe Heath from the Major party in Parliament which voted you Traytors unheard for your Innocent Petition intended to be presented them by your General for things necessary to you as Souldiers and ordered your disbanding as aforesaid which spirit as I have said he and many of you falling under viz. upon distrust how as the case stood then with you ye should be able to carry it against King and Presbyter in Parliament who and their interest ye expected would be united against you he being at that time in their custody upon that your new Engagement not minding the Arm that had delivered you so oft and but then had wrought your Deliverance to a Miracle and so taking into your Custody out of the Parliaments the King whom ye had opposed the Spirit of the King or of Absoluteness Monarchy or King-ship against Civil Liberty under which he and many of you fell then entred him and many of you as that of the Priests or the Spirit against Religious Liberty or Liberty of Conscience ye falling under it by an heart of unbelief assoon as ye were delivered hath now into you viz. upon diffidence how as was now your case ye should buckle with the same generation engaged against ye in Parliament and ye expected would be much more now upon that their Dissolution who ordered the Dissolution of your Counsels and ye know what that signified even the Dissolution of you should ye lay aside their Coersive Principle in matters of Religion held forth in their intended Declaration for a Fast May 1659. And consequently the Priests upon that your new state or condition not considering your former and but then astonishing Deliverance and so taking the Principle which ye had engaged against out of the Parliaments Declaration into your Address ye fell under it as I have said and it entred into you that Spirit of absoluteness being entred into him who had so withstood it and cut it down it never rested till as time opportunity would admit it had wrought it self into that Head-ship in him thorough multitudes of disguises as it was at his Death where It buried his Name and his Memory and his valiant Acts together with his Carcass in the Pit of Infamy and the Common-Wealth which he trampled upon and despised and made so inexpressibly to suffer in order to this end is rose over him as the same Spirit against Liberty of Conscience Mark what I say and remember for the time to come will do by as many of you as shall not speedily repent we will be to you out of whom it is not purged till ye die and Truth the Dominion of God in and over Conscience Liberty of Conscience which that Spirit in this your Article hath trampled upon and despised and all the Blood that hath been shed for it and against which it purposely provided as in that Article and laid a foundation therein to work it self Lord over Conscience or Lord as I may say over the God of the spirits of all flesh who is Lord alone of Conscience as the other endeavoured over the Common-Wealth and will through notable disguises yea more notable than have been yet endeavour and make to suffer in order to this end beyond what hath been or will be after it I say Truth the Dominion of God in and over Conscience Liberty of Conscience shall when it is as yea more unlikely than was the late case of the Common-Wealth yea I may say impossible as to men rise over your graves and carcasses and Spirit and Rule for ever The Lord hath spoken it and the things make hast blessed is he that endures to the end the same shall be saved ye may think these things strange but the time is at hand I say I was not for but against the late Interruption because it was not only foreshewn me by the Lord even what hath since come to pass yea that he would never return as there are that can testifie to whom I then told it but I knew and was within the Curtain of his Cable or misterious proceedings in order thereunto and did often put checks to his carreir in that attempt though single and alone for though I signified it to some Members of Parliament whom I could trust and proposed a plain way for the prevention thereof yet they had no heart thereunto and at length seeing how the design hastened to an Issue and that no Spirit appeared in them whose proper work it was to endeavour to crush it and having no other way before me in behalf of the Common-Wealth the Committee of the Coucil of State for Examinations and Discoveries of which I was Secretary being unrevived by reason of a vote for that purpose obtained of the New Counsel November 1652. by him for the security of his design I caused it to be devulged yea the very day when it would be and on which it was done if so be such an Alarm might raise up a Spirit in the Parliament to prevent it which it did not nor could any thing hinder it for the thing was of God for the stayning of the pride and glory of Man and the bringing about of his mighty works of wonder for the glory of his Name who alone will be known to be King and to Rule in the Earth Since the Interruption what I have done and suffered I speak not my life is given me for a prey after all the Secret huntings after my blood and my entegrity is with me having a Testimony among men as with the Lord that as from the beginning I never betrayed nor acted contrary to my Principle nor was induced thereunto upon any Temptation whatsoever neither valuing my life nor what I had in relation to the Common-Wealth so I have continued to this day mourning with them that mourned and weeping for them who wept for it When the late hour was I felt your burthen and the weight of the powers of Darkness which sought to overwhelm and obstruct you and the power of God wrought through me which overcame your difficulties and overthrew your enemies even at the very instant as there be that can bear me witness to whom I signified here what was doing at the time of its Action ye being delivered I waited and with much gladness of heart received whatsoever the Lord shewed me and required to write in order to your direction and sent it to you that ye might be preserved which was the earnest desire and breathing of my Soul yea that it might have