travelling towards the Land of rest promised of the Lord to them to be obtained and enjoyed by them and they do and have sojourned strangers in these Nations over whom thou art called to Rule and appointed chief Governour this 7 years and greatly are and have they been afflicted and oppressed and even trodden down through unjust Judgment and unrighteous dealing by the Rulers and Inhabitants of the Land and all the dayes of thy Father the late Protector they were held in great captivity and bondage and unrighteous men made them a prey and layed heavy yoaks of cruel sufferings upon them and daily increased their task and something thy Father did for them in their journey of great distress yet but a little of what the Lord required of him and what the Lord looked for that he might have done for power was in his hands given him of the Lord but he was not fully obedient and therefore was the Lords hand stretched out somewhat against him and his Family and he was smitten of the Lord and suddenly taken away in Judgment for he hearkened not to the Counsel of the Lord concerning that people neither did fully relieve them from oppression but slighted many warnings from the Lord the day of his visitation passed over and death took him away in disobedience while this people were yet under great oppressions for he left above a hundred of them in prisons unjustly suffering for â—â—righteousness sake and not for evil-doing and in this he fulfilled not the Will of God but left his name and glory somewhat stained because of these things and though the Lord chose him and shewed love unto him and gave him power over his enemies and made him an Instrument in his hand to break down great oppressions yet he was not obedient to the end to do my will saith the Lord but left something undone which he was truly called unto Now this innumerable people that is come and coming up as aforesaid are them called Quakers and this Aegypts Land is that great darkness ignorance and wickedness and false ways and worships in the Apostacy and fleshly bondage to sin and death which all the world and kindreds and multitudes that are unconverted to God lives and walks in and that Land of rest promised to which they travel is the peaceable and quiet dwelling with the Lord free from the heavy oppression of sin and iniquity and cruelties of men and free in the exercise of their pure Consciences by the Spirit of the Lord as it shall move and lead them into all truth and their sojourning as strangers is their denying and despising the world and all its glories and walking in the daily Cross of Christ whereby they are crucified to the love and respect and renown and honours of the world and are come out of kindreds tongues and people counting the reproach for Christ great riches not respecting men but the Lord altogether in all things and also their suffering unrighteusly false imprisonment and spoiling of their goods for righteousness sake this is their sojourning as strangers And that something that thy Father did for them is he released many of them divers times out of prisons where they were unjustly cast and he signified sometimes his displeasure against them that made them suffer and shewed love to them in hearing their innocent cause with some respect thereunto and that which he did not which he might have done is he took not away Tithes that cause of great oppression to many nor the unrighteous laws wholly as he ought to have done and as the Lord required of him And know thou from the Lord that this same people are the people of the Lord and beloved of him and as dear to him as the apple of his eye and his presence is with them and he leads them as a flock by his Spirit into all truth and who shall bless them shall be blessed but he that acts against them shall not prosper but be smitten of the Lord for their cause will the Lord plead in his Judgments and avenge them of their enemies and the dread of the Lord God shall fall heavy upon the heads of their persecutors and though they are hated of all men and are under great afflictions yet are they a Just people and innocent seeking the good of all men and are peaceable towards all and receiving all manner of wrongs and evil and speakings against them by ungodly men but they render to no man evil for evil but bless them that curse and do good to their enemies and bears all things from all men in long suffering and patience for they are learned in the practices of doing and suffering of the holy Apostles and Prophets and are of the seed of Abraham who was the friend of God and they were thy fathers friends and are not enemies to thee nor to righteous Government but wishes well unto thee in the Lord and that thou may not be destroyed in wickedness but be established in righteousness and peace in thy Government to rule in Gods authority over all wicked men that may seek thy hurt and we desire for thee that the Lord may give thee wisdom a perfect understanding and the Spirit of just and sound Judgment to Judge righteously in all things and to settle the Government in true Judgment that the principle of God in every man may answer to it in defending and preserving and protecting all that walk in truth and righteousness and being a terrour to all evil-doers for for that end is rule and government ordained of God amongst men to be a praise to all that do well and a terrour to all that do evil and now the Lord having suffered it to be brought to pass that thou art set up in thy fathers stead to be chief Ruler amongst men this the Lord God Almighty requires of thee as thou hopes to prosper and be blessed in this life and to enjoy life Eternal when this world is passed away and this is the Word of the Lord God unto thee be humble meek and lowly in heart and exalt not thy own horn nor seek not this worlds honour but seek the Lord with thy whole heart and let Justice and true Judgment and righteous Government which is according to the Law of God be set up and exalted in the Nations and come to know in thy self the Dominion and Authority of the Lord God over sin and transgression and to keep down and condemn all that which is contrary to God in thy own heart and that will make thee a dread and a terrour to men and Nations and then the Lord will be thy Crown and his people will rejoice in thee and lift up their hearts to God for thee if thou throw down and abolish all unrighteous lawes and decrees which have been set up in the days of ignorance and yet stands wherereby the Lords dear Children are afflicted and oppressed at this day and establish such a Government
when they are layed before you for you do not relieve the oppressed neither doth remove oppressors as you ought to do and as the Lord requireth of you what hath the abundance of this worlds glory and its treasure quite overcome and stollen away your hearts wholly from all sence and feeling of the unjust sufferings of your brethren who have in times past as faithfully as your selves served their Nation with their lives and estates to the purchasing of this peace and freedom out of the hands of tyrants and such may now justly claim the benefit of this peace and freedom and to have a part with you therein even by birth-right and by purchase and also by promise from some of your selves but alas while they have waited for it and thought peaceably to enjoy the same under you are many of them entrapped into as great bondage as ever if not more woful and unjust and they are unjustly imprisoned and unreasonably fined and every way oppressively dealt withall and are even spoiled in their persons and estates their lives often in danger being through great injustice become a prey to their very enemies who now takes occasion to revenge their former cause because of their faithfulness for the Commonwealth against them and all this is done while you look on and no way shewing your dislike to these things wch strengtheneth greatly the hands of evil doers to add to the bonds of the afflicted yet are you without excuse for you are not wholly ignorant of these things for the knowledge of them hath often been layed at your doors yea and the very cry of these oppressions and cruelties reacheth through the whole Land to the wounding deeply of all people that fears God to know so great injustice and oppression brought forth upon the innocent and faithful people by some so far entrusted as having the Law committed to them which they pervert and turns Judgement backwards and the greater is the wound because you who have power to stop and prevent these things should no more regard to set at liberty the unjust sufferers and to render Judgement upon those as thus perverts true Justice by whom the Land is filled with violence whereby the name of the Lord is greatly dishonoured and the Government greatly reproached in many parts of the world why because the faithful subjects cannot enjoy their birth-right priviledge as they ought according to the Law of God and man for their equals yea their inferiours have exalted themselves above and are become oppressors of the free born people divers ways doth these hainous oppressions cruelties abound upon the innocent and not for evil doing but for the exercise of their pure consciences towards God for many hath been taken travelling on the high way and some out of peaceable meetings and some out of their Innes and friends houses and by some wicked men in authority without shewing just cause therefore have just innocent men been whipped or stocked or imprisoned or other cruelties done unto them and yet the transgression of no just Law truely charged against them neither have been convicted of any evil doing but they have suffered wholly innocently onely through the malice and will and pleasure of their enemies who have taken occasion without any just offence at all to stock and whip and imprison many of the true and faithful subjects and this hath not been done in secret but openly in many parts of this Nation and you have had information of these things that you should have been awakened to true Justice Judgment and this the Lord requireth of you though the guiltless sufferers have born all these things without complaining yet ought you to have Judged justly according to their deeds such as caused such cruelty and unjust sufferings that for time to come the like might not have been brought forth but the free subjects might live in Peace and rejoice under the Government and all perverters of Judgment and Justice might stand in awe and be afraid so should you be a praise to ages after you and likewise many who are at this present remaining in prisons in divers parts of this land some upon one false accusation and evil surmizing and some upon another for a good conscience sake the cause of whom hath often bin laid before you which seemed for the present to have some entrance upon you yet little is brought forth by you as ought to be in that cause for though none of any such doth complain unto you who have and doth unjustly suffer yet the Lord doth require you to set the oppressed and falsely imprisoned at liberty and to bring true Judgment forth upon their persecutors also there is another suffering great and grievous growing upon many if it be not prevented many faithful and approved men are dispossessed of their freedom which truly belongeth to them by the law of God and man in divers Cities and corporations because for conscience sake they cannot swear by kissing the book and laying the hand upon it according to the vain tradition in such causes formerly used though to deal justly towards God and man in their craft and science they are bound by the Law of God yet because they will not swear and so break Christs Commands are they threatned and their windows shut up and dis-priviledged of their trading whereby they should maintain themselves and families in the Creation and this one thing tendeth to the destruction of many as in this world and no little hurt will thereby grow to the whole Nation in a generation of time and it is required of you by the Lord to prevent these sufferings though many can forgo their own freedom in this world and their lives also rather then break the least Command of Christ and thus are many faithful people made a very prey to their enemies and in divers manners it is brought forth upon them for many also suffers deeply in the house of correction for reproving sin and others are grievously spoil'd in their estates because for conscience sake they cannot pay to maintain a professed Minister or uphold a Steeple-house for it is a common thing for a Priest to take or have it done four or five times so much by distress as any way he can prove a pretended due and many other sufferings there are which are only for conscience sake as because some cannot put off a hat to a Magistrate or the like which gives an ill savour to the Government in which they are acted without reproof Ah my Friends be awakened to Justice and true Judgment to relieve such unjust sufferers and to throw down all such hainous oppressions and oppressors that the Lord may yet make you and your Government blessed after his long suffering to you which hath been great for Justice and true Judgement in a Government is the happiness thereof and the foundation for a long continuance and on the contrary cruelty and injustice and oppression being brought
which is justly according to God in which righteousness and truth Justice and true Judgement may run down and all the contrary may be stopped and chained and limited and confounded and then that which thy father left undone the Lord will fulfil through thee and doing these things the Lord would make thee truly honourable and happy and blessed in this life and in the life to come but in doing the contrary the Lord will make thee a curse and take thee away in his Judgements and thy name shall be left a reproach to ages for ever and if thou do rule in oppression and cruelty and suffer the innocent to be destroyed for want of true Judgement then shall thy dayes be fewer then thy fathers if thou be disobedient to him the Lord shall cut thee off and thy memorial shall rot and this is the Word of the Lord God to thee And as for this afflicted sojourning people they desire nothing to thee but truth peace righteousness no more of thee but Justice Justice and true Judgement and that they and their little ones which to them are brought forth may sojourn in peace and quietly pass through the Nations till they come up to the Land of Promise and they may not carry away of the glory nor riches of this world with them nor seek great places of honour from thee nor be hurtful to thee nor the people nor to mankind in their sojourning only what the Lord Commands them that they must do and what he forbids that they must not do for they have chosen the Lord to be their Leader and to give him their obedience in all things and thy Government so far as it is according to God they will not destroy nor rebel against but are true friends thereunto subject in all things and if thou walk with the Lord and chuse him for thy Counsellor and abase thy self and altogether exalt him and preserve his people that fear him then shalt thou prosper and thy name shall be greater then was thy fathers the numberless number of this now distressed people will be unto thee a strength and stand by thee in thy day of trouble and defend thee and thy just Government and their hearts shall cleave to thee and thou shalt prosper for their sakes and none of thy enemies shall shall have power over thee to destroy thee though many may seek for thy life Wherefore my friend awake awake and now consider the day of thy visitation is present and thy fathers is past and now thou hast a time to gain unto thy self everlasting honour and renown or otherwise to leave thy name a curse and a reproach for evermore do thou hearken to the voice of the Lord and fear his dreadful Name and bow before our God that made Heaven and earth who rules in the kingdoms of men and pulleth down one and setteth up another at his pleasure and as he will and he will make thee know that he lives and reigns over all and doth whatsoever he will and if he smite thee none shall heal thee and if he wound thee none shall comfort thee Therefore take him for thy Counsellor and beware of the wicked counsels of men for thou hast many enemies and they would rejoice to see thy fall and if the lord be not on thy side thou cannot long stand but if thou be obedient to him and preserve his people and break down all oppression then thy enemies shall fall and thy foot shall tread them down and the terrour of the Lord shall be upon all that hate thee but thus shall it be done unto thee if thou be disobedient to him and reject his Counsel by his servant I am thy Friend and a lover of thy Soul and seeks thy happiness in this world and in the world to come known to many by of the name of EDWARD BURROUGH The Original of this was delivered to him a few days after he was proclaimed Protector To Richard Cromwel Protector so called FRIEND THou being chief Magistrate of these Nations and Dominions belonging thereunto Carry thy self wisely in the fear of God and take heed of being lifted up but be low and grave and temperate then thou wilt foresee dangers that would happen to thee and come upon thee and not a plot or act against thee but wisdom foresees live in that mind the humility of Moses the meekness of Moses and the humility that Solomon the King speaks of who sayes That before honour was the humility Prov. 15. And keep on thy own leggs in the power and strength of the Lord waiting for his wisdom from above by which all things were made and created with which wisdom thou mayest be ordered to Gods glory and all thou hast under thy hand to his glory that with it thou maist feel the blessing of the Lord God of glory and life with thee whereby thou maist come to see the Law of God and counsel and wisdom and strength from him and understanding and knowledge that with the Law of God received of him thou maist come to answer the principle of God in every man which Law of God the higher Power goes over all transgressors and with that order the Creation which will let thee see as it did Moses that meek man before any transgression was the first transgression upon the earth this Law the higher power to which the Soul must be subject the which is a terrour to the evil-doers a praise to them that do well is higher then all the transgressors evil-doers upon the earth and a terrour to them that do evil which Law and higher Power answers the Principle of God in every one that do evil which goes from that of God in them Now this is for the praise of them that do well for them that do well are led by the Spirit of God and such lives in the power and this Law was not made for the righteous but for sinners and transgressors now there is no sinner nor transgressor upon the earth but first goes from the principle of God in his own particular then he goes out of the fear of God and loses his Wisdom and Counsel and such will turn the sword backward against the righteous which the Law was not made for and by such hath all the righteous upon earth suffered and such hath been all the persecutors upon the earth from the foundation of the world that is first gone from the principle of God in their own selves and have been in authority they have persecuted the just and turned it against the just and made a prey of such as reproves in the gate yea they that departs from sin and evil comes to be their scorn and these were they that made men offenders for a word and compelled others to do such things which they could not but sin against their own Consciences and against the Lord and such the Lord soon cut down and cut off and swept