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
THE CAUSE of GOD And of these NATIONS Sought out and drawn forth from the Rubbish of the Lusts and Interests of Men and lifted up into sight and view for all the upright in heart to follow it Wherein is shewed What our Cause was What opportunity we had for it How miserably it has been deserted What was the Cause of that desertion The spiritual Judgment that is already upon the Desertors With a Word of encouragement to all the faithful and persevering friends of it Isa 59.19 When the Enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him London Printed Anno Dom. 1659. To all the Honest-hearted of the Land who though through weaknesse they have staggered yet have not wickedly departed from the Cause of God and the Nation GOD hath pardoned your sins You have had your temptations and weaknesses and God hath chastend and afflicted you for them You have borne your shame you have turned away from God rejoyced in a thing of nought Therefore God hath withdrawn from you his presence and blessing and your Renown is much perished You have minded the enriching of your selves the making your Families and Names Great Therefore hath God set up a greatness over you to afflict you You would be so wise and so in the fashion of the World and of the Nations so afraid of the meanness of Christ and of the Spirit that I think ye have had enough of a Lordly Spirit and yet in the name of Christ too bringing you under God hath payd you in your own Coine Ye would ride upon horses and upon the swift therefore they that have pursued you have been swift Glorifie God in his Judgements Confesse him and sanctifie his Name Are ye willing to be delivered Or do ye affect bondage still Will ye be boared for perpetual slaves Will ye yet accept of the Government of Christ Are ye weary and heavy laden Will ye put into a good harbour The Lord opens his Arms to you He waits that he may be gracious He hath hid love under all this dispensation These winds and waves have been but to waft you over into his own Bosome It is one of his Ordinances In the world you shall have tribulation But he is wherever he was and the Cause is and lives All ye that are the Natural children of it Come own your Mother Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all and ye are free and nothing can inthral you no Bonds no Yokes no Temptations no allurements can hold you in that that is unrighteous Ye can not rest till ye come to your own Land till ye see the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein Righteousness dwells Of whatsoever Kindred Nation Tribe or Tongue ye are no Form can or shall imprison you long or hold the truth in unrighteousness I know ye have your several Lights and discernings gradually differing But ye are one and agree perfectly in the true Ground and Reason of your life Ye would have Truth and Righteousnesse take place that is Ye would have Christ reign For Truth and Righteousnesse are but so many Names of Him and he would have ye happy and free every way free in your Persons free in your Estates free inwardly free outwardly for the Earth is his as well as Heaven He made it and that not in Vain He made it to be inhabited Sin and unrighteousness hath desolated it The fruit of the Earth shall be excellent and comely when the Branch of the Lord is beautiful and glorious for his escaped Remnant He hath married you and calls you by Name You are the true English race those that are against you are strangers and forreigners Aliens from their own Countrey Therefore when I call you English-men it is as much as if I call'd you Israelites Ye are but a Remnant yet ye are the seed and hopes of the Land God hath winnowed and sifted the Nation those that were not of you are fallen off from you It is your advantage that you know them you shall not want their Numbers nor need you fear their Multitude for the whole Multitudes that gather against you shall be as the Dream of a night Vision God is arisen to judge them ye shall need to do nothing against them but to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Their Mighty men are fallen their strength is perished the anointing is ceased and departed from them Your Cause is risen I feel it is risen The Witnesses thereof begin to stand upon their feet The Interest of this short discourse is First to awaken you and to point out unto you the Cause of all our Breakin gs since that signal Witness given from Heaven to our Cause There was much Darkness wrath foolishness selfishness mingled with our zeal Love Righteousness in the managing of the Cause which was to be pared and pruned off burnt up and separated from us and the fire hath seized upon it There was also a mixt multitude with us as there was with Israel when they came up from Egypt who had not a stedfast Spirit nor a right aim Children in whom was no faith which were to be made manifest and to be knockt off These their buits have caught them and they are at their journeys end they will be left hehind and that is not the worst that awaits them While yon had to deal with the open and declared Enemy ye were still successful against them but these false brethren have betrayed you and your Cause Trust them no more nor that Spirit It is your great advantage that you now know the depths of Satan you have seen Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light the Man of sin working in all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse in praying preaching weeping c. You cannot be cousened any more with these Where the Life the Seed the Nature is it will recover it self and this Discourse may be serviceable to awaken and call it forth out of that Caprivity wherein it lyes but where is only the Notion the Form the Profession it will wither away more and more Let all that are the Children of this Cause hear this Voice and obey this Call to come out of Babylon and partake no longer in her sins as they would not partake in her Plagues A second aym of this Discourse is to enlarge our apprehensions in the just Extent and Dimensions of our Cause which is not to be restrained or limited by the scant Models of any private thoughts but is to be learned and received from the heavenly patterne as God is pleas'd to let it down and shew it unto us Hence all those Designs will be found too short or narrow of those that would rest in forming these Nations meerely into a Common-wealth or that bound the Work by Civil or Spiritual liberties as they are commonly apprehended The Cause of God in its latitude and adaequate extent is
gainers I am I confesse so much a Leveller that in this corrupt state of mens principles and minds corruptible at the best it is safer for Laws to govern than Men. Not but that that blessed day of the Lord 's own righteous Reign may be neerer the dawning upon us than perhaps the present dark and cloudy complexion of our thoughts and affairs would seem to hold forth Therefore I would not have the door of a lively expectation shut against our Lord's appearing as I would not that in the mean time though we knew He were to come to morrow we should throw away our Reason and put out our Lights as men and despise those liberties he hath given us as advantages for our serving of him The late violent turns and changes that have befallen this poor Commonwealth since our Arms rested from the common enemy have to my apprehension lookt more like the Trumpets in the Apocalypse that with gallantry and state brought in Corruption than the Vials that work it out These pour not forth themselves at once with observation but leisurely and secretly wast and consume long-rooted Usurpations And all that either the Civil or Military power hath to do is but to maintain us in peace and freedom that so we may attend unto that Light of God which according to the prophecies of Scripture is breaking forth which will certainly undermine and destroy the State Anti-christian as well as the Church Anti christian for there is both and both shall be destroyed with the Spirit of Christ's mouth and the brightnesse of his Appearing And without his appointment it will never be done by secular Sword or Arm. When I say The Powers are to maintain our peace and freedom I am aware what I say and that it implyes We were in the possession of them and indeed so we were and they were given us of God If it be demanded when we were so and wherein it appeared I answer When our Arms were victorious over all our enemies in the field which was not till after Worcester fight Then was there nothing in our way visibly but Mercy and Truth Righteousnesse and Peace might have embraced each other The Enemy was subdued in England before that but there was a remnant of him in Scotland and Ireland And then the Rent that was made among us by the taking off the King weakned the honest Interest much as the Action it self gave opportunity to the ambitious aspirings and designs of some when that place was empty to get into it at least wise such jealousies there were Perhaps when that action shall be reveiw'd by us in Cooler Spirits we may see Cause to acknowledge that the King was not so ripe for the Capital Justice of man in those passive Circumstances wherein he then stood as a Prisoner of War till he had forfeited the security we might have laid upon him I am sure our Eager policy in that Action for self-preservation hath little succeded or answered our desires However the sickle of Divine Justice cutting him down it was not adviseable for honest men when they had discharged their judgments and consciences in a saithful testimony to divide thereupon But notwithstanding this breach we were again as I said upon fair advantages after the Battle at Worcester when nothing was wanting but a Spirit and wisdome to manage so great an opportunity A time like that of Augustus Caesar When our Saviour was born all the World was quiet So was all our little world for the Saviour to be born into it the 2d time Tyrants both in Church and State expel'd their Armyes vanquisht The Nations like wax ready to receive any good and righteous impression yea the Parliament it self expecting what good thing would be required of them to do having power to refuse nothing should have bin demanded The Lawyers quaked the formal Clergy were down in the Mouth the Malignant trembled the loose Nobility and Gentry lookt pale All men were frighted into a fear and awe of God and the hearts and expectations of all good men were up exceedingly But wherefore is a price put into the hand of a fool when there is no heart Now was the time that God said unto us as once unto Israel Go up and possesse the Land which I have sworn that I would give you Go fill the Land with Righteousnesse plant my Name and my Truth there Drive out all profannesse unmercifulnesse injustice oppression ease the burdens break the yokes relieve the necessities of my people stamp my Image upon the Nation consecrate it to me whatever thing in your minds that is honest and just and good and merciful bring it forth and fear not for the Lord your God which goeth before you He shall fight for you according to all that He did for you in Egypt He that brought you up from under Regal Tyranny and Episcopal domination that hath vanquished the Enemy in the three Nations before you and all their formidable hosts He is with you 4. This was the possessing of the Land which the Lord called his people then unto Even to fill the seats of Judicature and all places and things with the presence of God not to satisfie our selves to possesse the King's and Bishops Lands and Deane and Chapters Lands or rather to be possessed by them All men must here needs understand that I charge the Army And indeed I do so though not them alone but many of the then Parliament who took a new scent of the Honors promotions and Advantages of those whom God had cast out before them and lost the scent of the Cause yea and many of the zealous people of the Nation too were taken off by these things These were the Moabitish snares that inveigled the Princes And what hath followed thereupon is sad to behold at this day We having lost in a manner all that we had got and being relapst deeper into bondage then heretofore in the Kings time He is not an Englishman that doth not bleed to see how since that Liberty is lost Property expos'd to Arbitrary Lust and Will The Publique Cause and Interest laid-by A Private Cause and Interest set up Men sworn to it Judged by it not only as to liberty and livelyhood Officers being Casher'd the Army and others put out of Places of Trust but some put to death for not preferring it before the publique Malignants countenanced and taken into favour occasion given to the formal yea the profane spirit to lift up its head while publique spirits and the precious of the Land were discouraged yea that very spirit whereby our Cause rose and obtain'd so far lookt upon as an Enemy and watcht over with a jealous eye Tryers set up to keep it out of the Pulpit good Justices removed and the old spirit of the Gentry brought in play again worldly greatnesse again affected by those that sometime seemed to set their face another way The burdensome pompe and vanity of a Court again revived
for very vanity If it be not in this spirit in vain is all the tugging of our friends in Parliament though I would not discourage any honest and righteous spirit to be holding up the bucklers against oppression and slavery upon an honest account Yet I fear me nay I see and I see with joy that the day is gone down upon the head of man in his highest Activity wherein he boasts himself The Princes of Zoan are become fools through our laying too much stresse on them It is another spirit that must bring salvation a spirit that is true indeed that was never false a spirit that cannot lye nor deceive that cannot be corrupted A spirit that hath overcome the World And I hope this spirit is taking the work into his own hand in this day CHAP. VII Containing a brief Recapitulation of some principal Heads and the Conclusion of the whole TO sum up all briefly and clear up more distinctly what hath bin in general hinted Whosoever is able rightly to discern past affaires will see there was a double Cause set on foot amongst us viz. the Cause of God and the Cause of these Nations which most have had some notion of but few have adequately described or rightly distinguished them only have admitted the Interest of Spiritual as well as Civil liberties But certainly the Cause of God must needs be higher larger of nearer concerr of greater consequence than the Cause of the Nation though that be great as the Soul is more noble than the body and the Creator to be preferred before the Creature The Cause of God like the Heavens waters with its dew cherishes with its influence embraces in its Arms and bosome the Natural Rights and Liberties of men as its Earth and Spouse in a subserviency and usefulness to the illustration of its own bounty and glory The Heavens are independent on the Earth not so the Earth on the Heavens The Cause of God needs not us but we receive all our vigor and blessing from it 2. As there were two Causes so there were two people or sorts of men that were drawn forth to serve them some upon a Natural and Civil account only having a just resentment of the languishing state of their Civil and Natural Rights and Liberties and others upon a higher account as being sensible of the sad condidition we were in as to spirituall affairs by the Ecclesiastical Taskmasters 3. These 2 Causes and their Adherents went hand in hand together in a joynt socious way the cause of God the cause of the Nation The People of God were concerned in both Causes and contributed to both not only their lives and fortunes as we call them in common with the Nation but besides and above them their Faith their Prayers their Comforts their Experiences all their Interest in God and in the Promises for the promoting of both and this not only out of love to themselves and their own particular concerns but in love to the Nation and in duty and faithfulness to God whereby the Cause of the Nation in some sense became to them the Cause of God though always the distinction and subordination preserved The Cause of God consists of two parts the one outward and visible such as is the object of the Natural Man's discerning viz. Freedom from outward violence and persecution in the externall exercise of Religion and the worship and service of God which because of things that relate to God may in a large sense be called the Cause of God but in respect of the Subjects of these Liberties which are all Men or every Nation of men they are but Natural Rights such as every sort of Men and Religions whether true or false do challenge and expect for every Nation will walk in the Name of their God This part of the Cause of God is but as the outward Court which the Gentiles may come into and tread down and is such an Interest as may be playd fast or loose withall by the Owners if they hold it only on the tearms of a Natural Right according as its makes with or against their Ruling worldly Interest or Concerns whether it be profit or honour as hath been too too manifest in these days which hath made so many go back from those Principles in this kind which once they abetted and contended for The other part of the Cause of God is wholly spiritual and so invisible to that Eye that is only natural though ever so enlightned even in the Letter of the Scripture it self and is exprest by the Apostle to consist in the deliverance of the whole Creation from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God It is the delivering up all to God the subjecting of all to him which is the true liberty of the creature and this delivering up to God is not to Him as the head of the first Creation exercising his Rule by natural Light or Principles but as the Head of the New Creation by Christ risen from the dead exercising a far higher and better Rule in the New Creature which though it have for its Subject Matter the same things that are found in the Rule of the Natural or Moral Conscience viz. All External righteousness Religion and worship yet it hath them upon another account that is on other grounds and to other ends and over and besides them it subjects the Mind in all its operations in these to the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus whereby the Creature is brought forth in newness of operation with Christ not seeking its own glory but the glory of its Head as Christ seeks the glory of his Father And this true spiritual and glorious liberty where it is brought forth in any soul is such an interest as cannot be disposed of or parted with by its possessor or made to serve but disposes of all things in that soul to the service of the Lord seeking alwaies to do the things that please Him not being able to do any thing against the Truth but for the Truth Thus those whom the Son makes free are free indeed and abide in the house for ever and never prove false nor turn their backs upon God or that that is his interest and glory Every other Spirit is corruptible and the Rule and Law of its walking is uncertain and variable may be turned this way or that way as worldly Interest or advantage swayes but though every man be a lyar yet God is true and cannot deny himself and so are they true that are thus born of him and become one Spirit with him by the spiritual slaying and crucifying of that life in them which is subject to chaxges and may be corrupted bribed and bought off from its Allegiance Had all that took upon them the defence of our Cause been of this Spirit we should never have had cause to have complained of the betraying and deserting of it But