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
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
that there were some of this Spirit under all the several degrees of light and discerning in this Cause I do verily believe who were therefore accepted of God and blessed in their Deed and in Christ were the blessing of the whole and are many of them at rest whither they arrived some sayling through the Sea of their own blood spilt in the High places of the field others spent and wore out themselves in Counsels leaving the Remnant of their despised and afflicted Brethren to suffer the indignation of an Apostate world and to be sad spectators of the havock and shipwrack of a blessed Cause ready to enter the Haven of its publick obtaining and triumph While this Spirit was up in our Counsels and Armies God never withdrew from them for God was the Father of it and it is his own Child and he cannot deny himself to this Spirit which is become a fool in it self and seeks all its wisdom and dirction from him therefore he cannot he may not be wanting to it When in the management of the most outward Affairs viz. our Martial Affairs the Army or those that had the conduct thereof own'd this Spirit they never were without Counsel nor without Signal ownings and testimonys of acceptance from God When they said They knew not their way but from step to step when they had done one thing they knew not what was next neve were they guided in so safe and successful a path the Promise being to the bliud that have thus made themselves blind for the Kingdom of Heavens sake that have resigned their way and the leading of them to the Lord that The will lead the blind by a way that they knew not He will make darkness light crooked waies streight and not forsake them But when some thought they had been children and fools long enough and had a lust to be wise and saw that unless they were so God did not make hast enough to give them that which it may be he would have given nay certainly will give his people in his own time Rule and headship over the world and that with a clear evidence and demonstration in the Conscience of the world it self of the indubitablenesse of their right and title thereunto and their fitness alone separate from all other men to exercise this dominion But I say they would have it in their own time and by their own way would ravish and usurp the blessing and I could wish it were but so as Jacob did and that no worse might come of it though that was bad enough He got the blessing with a present curse and a great deal of sorrow But here is the very splitting and loosing of our Cause so far as in them was to expose it but that indeed it cannot be lost being the Cause of God and the whole world is his and the Earth and all things must give up their dead Whosoever and whatsoever hath swallowed it up must render it again That 's the comfort of it which therefore incourages me to hope it may not be in vain to close with a word of Exhortation to all that are faithful whether in Parliament or Army or abroad in the Nation or in any of these three Nations wheresoever these may find them That they would not give up their hope that they would not despond concerning our good Cause Joseph is yet alive the Cause lives still though under many gashes and stabs yet it is alive being of an eternal nature it cannot dye The Cause of God the right of God and of his Son Jesus Christ cannot be extinguished Therefore I beseech you prepare your selves to serve it contend vigorously for it It will shew it self to you and that shortly I am perswaded and that not to suffer any more Maintain it a while it will be able to maintain you I say All you that are born of it and born into it that have suckt its milk that are Natural to this Cause and it natural to you Go on to seek the peace and welfare of it It will reward you all Perhaps you may discern it some of you in one light some in another gradually differing as you may read before is allowed Let that make no difference at all among you Some it may be are exercised in the rights of men others in the rights of Christians some more in the Letter others more in the Spirit The more outward not opposing that to the inward work and Kingdom God accepts of the one as well as of the other All did not bring the same offering to the Tabernacle but some Badgers skins while others brought silk and gold c. The lower is in order to the higher the outward to the inward and is in some sense the preservation of the inward Therefore I say ye are all one womans children Jerusalem that is above which is free stand fast in your Liberties If any of your Brethren be at present found in opposition they will they must be brought over to you it cannot be avoided and those that seemed sometime friends but were not but servants of Mammoni you have an ease and freedom by the removall of them for they were but a clog unto you and for them you have lost you shall have double come forth to you even from whence you least of all expected yea Nations shall flow in unto you Be but true to God you shall never want strength if all the Armies in Heavou and all the Interest of God in the Earth be able to carry you out you shall not fall nor shall your Cause fall Only be sample and be not too wise to look before hand as those whose way is in themselves but as he that was brought down to God's foot that righteous man so be ye waiting truly upon him in a Resignedness of mind following him as his Providence opens the way to you designing nothing of your selves and you shall see God will shew you what to do yea how you shall recover this Cause again for All things are possible to him and it lives to him now and he will make good what you do and his glory shall be your rereward when He goes before you and who dares fall upon that Rear And all this pittiful poor dark worldly stuff which hath been built upon that precious foundation which God hath layd in this Nation in the hearts of his people and in the works of his providence shall crumble and moulder away like dirt and melt like wax before the fire of this righteous Appearing and arising of God in his poor broken Remnant Amen Hallelujah Wherefore serve the Lord without sollicitousnesse for your labovr shall not be in vain Believe so shall ye be established The words are few and the Counsel is short but heed it well and lay it to heart It is of greater Moment then ye may be presently aware of I will not say Heaven and Earth shall passe away before they shall be unfulfilled but it may be ye may find the Lord hath said so I think I may say It is the Counsel of God unto you for your good which first or last must and shall take place and that ere long too FINIS