justifie and take away sin and shame and hath healing in his wings gives life and strength to doe what he leades us to do 1. Seeing the Lord hath passed from other powers to you and exalted or set up you as the present standing power of the Kingdome and hath given himselfe to you and taken you up into his glorious presence then must you exalt the Lord publish declare the name of the Lord. Confesse him to be in the mid'st of you sound him forth evidently boldly aloud say the LORD lives with you that he is come to reigne amongst you gloriously Bring him forth in brightnesse and power let this oppressed one go free tell it to all the nations the Saviour of Israel is come to redeem his people from all their enemies you doe mutter it and speak it softly and by halves but declare it fully that we may heare the shout of a King in the camp that God himselfe is in you of a truth Let us heare the sound of that Trumpet in the Camp which the seventh last and blessed Angel sounds And those great voices in heaven saying The Kingdomes of this world are become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall reigne for ever and ever Doe you not in words but in power and truth cast your crownes down to the earth fall with your faces to the earth your crowne of successes victories lay them downe in the dirt being but earthly and your faces your excellency of honesty valour wisedome honour lay it down to the earth for t is but dust and doe you worship God live God confesse God exalt God his righteousnesse and power which is worthy perfect almighty Say and doe we give thee thanks O Lord God almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned Rev. 11. Give tip your selves from humane weake and fleshly state as thanks or a free will offering to the glory and majesty of God to act and live the life of the Almighty put on the Almightinesse of God be cloathed with God Almighty and know the Lord is with you who art deny not his present being in power and glory in you and confesse he alwaies hath beene with you which wast and that which is to come that which is eternall and everlasting is present disjoine not these let not him that is now with you be another from him who is to come or from him who was but say and sweare in truth that he who is to come in all that he will doe is now present with you to doe it He hath taken his great power and hath reigned he hath already begun hath taken his last and great power and is in the exercise of it Therefore Arise and shine forth for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee For behold the darknesse shall cover the earth and grosse darknesse the people but the Lord shall rise upon thee and his glory shall be seene upon thee And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightnesse of thy rising This lifting up the name of the LORD in you will have a very great effect upon others and your selves 1. Upon others Sad darknesse now covers the People of this Nation they are in perplexity not knowing which way to go Do you shake your selvs from the dust of your own vilenesse and put on the goodnesse power and wisedome of God and all people will flow in unto it for helpe and succour you will presently cause all to gather about you for reliefe The glory and light of God will melt the heart of your adversaries into love to you The sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending into thee and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves downe at the soles of thy feet and call thee the City of the Lord the Sion of the holy One of Israel Holding forth the goodnesse of God you will be a joy of many generations revive the Nation now lying in a grave of misery And those that continue obstinate the name of the Lord will be a terrour to them fill their faces with shame and confusion 'T will be as lightning immediatly blasting and withering them 'T will pierce through their heads hearts and loynes and for ever disable them from any undertakings or practises against you 2. For your selves This presence of God will burne up all those low and base spirits that are amongst you covetousnesse pride self-love shall not dare to abide in the camp 'T will be an anointing to you filling you with royall and Princely minds create majesty power wisedome justice and truth amongst you fill you with light and understanding so that all your wayes shall be clear and plain before you and every one shall be more mighty then a hundred able to fill the earth with righteousnesse and truth Secondly You being the People of England and all power and dominion descending and coming downe into you You are the Mother of the Nation the earth basis and foundation upon which all lie and being thus in the light and strength of God you are Jerusalem which is above the Mother of us all And therefore must 1. Spread your armes to receive the whole Nation open your bosomes to us and let us see that you carry in you all the happinesse and welfare of the Kingdome manifest the largenesse and comprehension of your spirits that you have in you the King and his royalty the Parliament and their wisedome and majesty these two in Treaty nay in perfect union that religion trade justice order covenant settlement reformation riches honors propriety lies treasured up in your breasts What you have not gather into you all the offices treasure authorities seales judicatures all the prerogatives and priviledges of the Nation let nothing lie out of you and be lost but be you the center of all and call in all into you 2. Let it appeare that they are in you as in the Lord In the Lord in you and so are in you most excellently safely that though we have them not in a visible and sensible way yet let all know they are in you as corne sowd in the earth that you do embrace them all in your tenderest bowels of love and care and but entrusted for a time with them that as all have seene a seeds time a fall of the fruit and leafe so we may expect a spring as we have seene a death by you of all so we may hope to see a resurrection 3. Receive them and retaine them all in judgement make a thorow digestion of the good and evill of them all keepe them as in a fire by the sword of divine justice with the exactnesse of God cut off all evil things and persons separate the precious from the vile in the Common-wealth let nothing that is of particular or hurtfull interests remaine but be a
A second view of the Army REMONSTRANCE OR Justice done to the Armie Wherein Their Principles are new model'd brought out of obscurity into clearer light BY Which the Army and the whole Kingdome are under the conduct of the Spirit of God led out of a Wildernesse to the view of a Canaan Dedicated To the Generall and the Councel of War By William Sedgwick In the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there it shall be said unto them ye are the sons of the living God Hose 1. 10. LONDON Printed for H. Hils and G. Calvert and are to be sold at his house over against S. Thomases Hospitall in Southwark and at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls neare Ludgate M.DC.XLIX TO His Excellency Thomas Lord Fairfax GENERALL Of the Parliaments Forces AND To the Generall Councell of Warre I Have done Justice upon you because I saw evill in you There is a holy One likewise in you I must doe him Justice too I have smitten you and not you onely but the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheeke It pleases me to bruise him and him as much to be bruised t is his advantage and therefore he freely submits himselfe to be chastised Ephraim is my dear son a pleasant childe For since I spake against him I doe earnestly remember him still Therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. It grieves me to see you as a Woman with childe big with justice righteousnesse reformation c. and know not how or which way to be delivered Here is an arm stretched out to you that will gently leade them that are with young and guide the blind into a way they know not You have high and great designs but are imprison'd in the darknesse of flesh that you cannot get out into a clear and strait way My intent is to open the two-leav'd gates and free you I have opened the left already and so turned aside that dark and evill spirit that lay in your way shal now unfold the right which brings you into light and so makes crooked places strait for you c. You are upon the execution of justice I would not have you goe blindly passionately and rashly upon it but accept this anointing of God prepared for you which will fill you with wisedome and righteousnesse Ascend this Throne of majesty first that is here set up for you Arise from the common and darke nature of man into the holy nature of God and then you will be able to judge suffer this holy child Jesus to come forth and then goe on in the name of God Reade it and if you see a little truth in it reade it againe the light is dim but t is a morning and growing light and wil shine more and more untill perfect day This I dare challenge of you from that great and publique trust that is committed to you in which we have all a deepe share from those high and weighty affaires that you are upon of such mighty concernment to the glory of God and the good of his people from that ingenuity and freenesse that you have professed to receive advise from all and to give satisfaction to all and especially upon the authority of him whose name I here declare and set up that you will not sleight what is offered to you and lay it aside unconsidered but that you will give it due hearing And if in any thing you dissent from it I may know it and either receive or give satisfaction or if it be doubtfull to you I may have opportunity to clear it or if these things appeare true as I believe they will but yet at a distance from you that I may by removing that out of the way that hinders you from fellowship with them bring you into the power and possession of them And to this end I am and would be more Yours W. Sedgwick Justice done to the Army REMONSTRANCE I Told you when I was administring Justice upon your Remonstrance that it was a mixt thing of good and evill that the Lord was in it but hid under so much filth that we could not discerne him You are Sion but not perfect and therefore we must wash away your filth and purge away your bloud by the spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning The Lord is amongst us and sits as a refiner and purifier of silver he is set to it close and will make it his constant businesse and doe it hotly sharply even the silver the sons of Levi the people of God must passe thorow this sire and therefore Who may abide the day of his coming and who may stand when he appeareth Many cannot stand before it but are overturnd into a beastly ditch of rage fretting and foolish passion this is a bastard spirit that cannot endure chastisement But others doe stand in peace and quietnesse there we see the spirit and strength of the Son who willingly suffers chastisement knowing that he is chosen in the furnace and that by it he is made partaker of Gods holinesse purified from humane holinesse which is at best but filthinesse into the divine holinesse And to such I apply that of Solomon As the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold so is a man to his praise The fining pot and furnace are for the best mettals and t is for their praise that they may be brought forth in a more noble forme and fitted to receive some excellent impression Now therefore having cast you into the fire and taken away your drosse wee shall hold you forth with a beautiful stamp of the majesty of God upon you That vail of an uncleane spirit being rent away we now behold your face shining with the glory of God upon you Now we have taken away the scum and cast it into the fire we may safely eate of the meat having done justice upon the fleshly worldly part we must doe justice to the heavenly and holy part The Remonstrance of it selfe is as the earth without form and void there is a face on it but t is deep and darknesse is upon it But the spirit of God moving or brooding upon the face of the Waters brings forth a new creation which is blessed and good The Kingdomes of the earth and the way of Gods dealing with them in these last times are describ'd in Nebuchadnezzar and his Vision Dan. 4. A Kingdome is a great tree growing out of the earth unto a great strength and height reaching unto heaven and the sight thereof unto the ends of the earth it grows out of the people and receives its life and nourishment from the lowest element the inferiour people but arises up to such a height as touches heaven i. e. comes near the heavenly glory the Kingdome of heaven or Christ This tree hath fair leaves and much fruit meat for all it brings forth honour order peace
him and put us into this state as he hath foretold Rev. 20. The camp of the Saints The Armies in heaven Thus have we brought you forth as the Virgin daughter of Zion a select and chosen Generation a lovely and pretious people But yet a femall a woman and so in flesh and weaknesse being subject to sin and suffering a state that must be tried and by temptations improved t is no sure nor stable condition being not in compleat and eternall union with God you have had the love of espousals many kinde favours from God a Father a Lord but have sind against them and him for which he hath caus'd you a while to wander in darke and troublesome waies and not admitted you to that state of rest and glory which he intends to you He hath taken the Crown and Diadem from off your head for your unbeliefe and departure from him and for that impurity which was in you he stript you of your beautifull garments of Praise and Honour that once clothed you and so expos'd you to wrath curses reproach and put you again into a new fire of trouble to purifie you to make you seeke the Lord. But he hath not dealt with you as he hath dealt with other people he hath refrained for his namesake that he might not make an utter end of you Because he will have a people that shall bear his name Hath he smiteen him as he smote those that smote him Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are flaine by him No In measlure when it shouteth forth thou wilt debate with it be stayeth his rough winde in the day of the east winde By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin When he maketh all the stones of the alter as chalke stones that are beat asunder c. Isa 27 There is a a shouting forth of the righteous branch in you and therefore we must stay all rough windes and breath gentle gales upon you your iniquity being taken away we will present you holy to the Lord and marry you to the God of your salvation Know therefore that the Lord the most high God is in the midst of you is in you and with you in a glorious presence as you have professed The glorious God or the glory of God dwels with you or God in his highest glory rests upon you so that you are not only the People of England but the People of God sanctified by the holy mighty wise spirit of God and en lowed by the divine wisedome strength and justice and you are as an Army so the LORDS hoast or the Lord himselfe in his great majesty appearing amongst men in an hoast the whole hoast of heavenly and blessed men and Angels with all their various and innumerable excellencies and perfections gathered together and embodied upon the earth in you An earthly Army in union with the heavenly host or the Lord of hoasts in Mount Sion among his people gloriously This is your Righteousnesse the Lord Jehovah is your covering your garment of salvation and onely this can justifie you honest intentions aid good meanings are rotten rags and too narrow to cover your nakednesse we shall therefore open and unfold this glory unto you and bring forth this your righteousnesse First The Lord is with you in his highest and greatest majesty there is no power no glory of God but t is in you and with you and no power nor glory greater then that which dwels in you none besides none above none beyond it The Lord is here the most high God and with him all power in heaven and earth there is no wisedome or strength that you have not and all imaginations of a power absent from you either in heaven or earth is an injury or accusation to Gad and to you is theft and robbery stealing away the riches of God from you and from himselfe in you if you look upon the Kingdome of God the new creation new heavens and new earth as absent or to come you deny the holy one with you who is present in deed and power though under your weakenesse Secondly The Lord is with you in perfect union and communion you are what he is he is what you are whatever is in him t is communicated to you and whatever is in you is communicated to him Is there power or glory in God t is in you also Or is there weaknesse in you it lies upon him Or is there righteousnesse in God t is in you as it is in him to live in it act in it and by it to employ and bring forth And is there infirmity in you t is in him as t is in you a clogge a burden an enemy hated separated taken away c. Nothing now is spoken of God but may be spoken of you you being in union with him or nothing spoken or done to you but t is done to God with you you being one And t is the blasphemy of hell and divell to separate God from you or you from God Will men say you are Rebels Destroyers they say it of the Lord or will you or satan in you say you are weake and men and can't do such high things they are too great for us you and they will know you speak the same of God and so judge him as weak and unable to do them For in nothing you must be divided or if you think that is God's but this is our work you wrong God and your selves you must speak the words and doe the workes of God God is now God in the earth and you an Army in heaven 3. The Lord is with you in spirit and truth eternally inseparably in a kingdome that never shall be destroyed in an everlasting covenant that cannot be broken The kingdome is so with you the Lords people as it shall never be taken front you but shall endure for ever and all oppressing feares or dark doubts they are of the malicious one your enemy and the darknesse of hell that obscures the glory of God which is an everlasting light a Sun that will not set and all attempts of Satan or his instruments will be as waves against a rock dash'd in pieces and you shall grow from a little stone to a great mountain from a little branch to a great tree that shall spread it selfe and fill the earth with fruit Upon this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest Having laid this foundation now shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousnesse shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rerc-ward you shall at once have light cleare light to walke by health to cure your diseases to make you strong and Righteouesse to justifie all that you doe For these cannot be separated when the Sun rises with light to direct he is a Sun of righteousnesse to
dominion into their hands For his great designe before was to rule without them to uphold his owne interest in opposition to theirs looking upon them not as a help to him but as enemies to his prerogative being set upon principles of government in contrariety to the Parliament and his calling them being not naturall or voluntary but forced the union being first violated by his dis-affecting and disdaining them it was an erecting or setting up another power distinct and divided from his owne and by that God passed from him to the Parliament left him and set up majesty power and glory in the Parliament and gave hearts affections honours riches strength into their hands and so seated himself amongst them They as ignorant of God as he and not exalting the name of God that gave them their power but seeking their owne and a worldly good divided from the Most High they corrupt likewise And God finding no satisfaction or rest amongst them blasts and withers their glory and fils the Kingdome with such wrath or raises such stormes in the nation that they could not guide the ship but are forced to cast themselves and the government and safety of themselves and Kingdome upon others Not being able to support their owne and the peoples good they let all fall upon the people and doe expresly in their declarations appeale to the people to judge and require them to defend their owne safety and upon that ground summon them to armes or raise an Army as may appeare in their Declarations at the beginning of these troubles and thus they erect and set up another power The Army Now it is exactly to be observed how secretly God passes out of one forme into another as from King to Parliament and from Parliament to the Army and not so secretly but his footsteps are seene visibly upon and in the actions of men and he rides his journey upon their backs This very much concernes the clearing up of the Armies case and the scattering the mists that yet cover them and hinder them from seeing their owne right and others from discerning and acknowledging their power and therefore I shall endeavour to unfold it in these five particulars 1. That there is a transmitting or translating of power from the Parliament to the People or Army 2. That this change of power from Parliament to people is according to humane and divine reason 3. That this power of the People so raisd by the Parliament is a superiour and stronger power then that of the Parliament 4. That this Army is truly the people of the Kingdome already formd into a body of an Army 5. That this forme of an Army is the most excellent agreeable to God and fittest for the present worke and the mother of other powers First The Parliament having all power by the presence of God with them and the majesty of the King dying into them they doe by the will of God convey all that they had to the people gathered together in armes for their owne security 1. They themselves cease and expire their end ceasing The end of a Parliament is the execution of justice reforming of corruptions preserving the peoples liberties c. Now 't was manifest the malignancy of the Kingdome was such as they could not heal it and their liberties so endangerd they could not save them 't was beyond their power and skil And so becoming uselesse surrender to others 2. Besides they raise up another power that is inconsistent with their owne for civil legal or Parliamentary power cannot subsist together in the same Kingdome with military but the military wil and necessarily must silence enforce and subject the other at his pleasure The power of the sword in a forrain nation may be inordinate but at home being raisd for its own safety 't wil be master and eate up or trample upon the other 3. As an Army being rough thrusts out the civil power being the gentler so the people being raisd abolishes the representatives for the figure or image ceases when the substance comes in place it loses its use and imployment when the body it self appeares 4. The raising of the power of an Army is an act of God who is the Lord of hoasts and hath a peculiar prerogative in gathering them together and delights much to shew himselfe in this formeâ— and the Parliament were but instruments God the main in raising an Army for his owne great designes and therefore as soone as these are set up he begins to shew forth his glory in them and to withdraw himselfe from the other leaves the Parliament to weaknesse divisions vanities disgrace and appeares in the Army in union successe power vigour The Parliament since the Army was on foot could doe nothing that had the face of majesty justice or goodnesse On the other side the Army goe on with great honour and glory in their work being as full of power as the other empty The Parliament doing nothing sutable to their trust or worthy of a Parliament the Army discharge their place gallantly faithfully and happily So that we see the Parliament hath expowerd it selfe and impowerd the people emptied and made void themselves of authority and fild and formd the people with it and that there is a transition of the glory of God from one to the other and so a translation of dominion from the Parliament the representative to the body of the people themselves Secondly We must know this that this descent of power is most naturall and according to the will of God or agreeable to humane and divine reason It is indeed very harsh and unpleasing to those beasts and fowles that live under the shadow and in the branches of this great tree of the Kingdome and had their interest and subsistance in royalty in offices in preferments c. It seemes to them nothing but confusion that all this glory and with it their lives should goe into the earth and remain in a stump of the root but if they had the wisedome of God and did see his counsel and end in it they would be satisfied For 1. T is exceeding natural that when the sap of the tree hath risen to its height and brought forth its fruit it should when the fruit fals and the winter comes sharp and cold seasons return into its root Power did arise from simple poore man had its originall from the dust of the earth common people and receives its life and being from humane nature in its simple state there it was purest unmixt from pride cruelty deceit it was quietest and at rest without violence and disturbance though in a mean and rude manner And thence it rises into the glory of Kingdomes into Lordship Monarchy and all such greatnesse Now when it comes to the top and begins to corrupt finds stormes of wrath malice and mischiefe in those heights it naturally returnes to its center and retires for its own safety and recover to it self
ever it did in King or Parliament and will too be a guide to leade the Army into waies of common good and will enlarge their principles to a generall love of all and a desire of making all happy as themselves The Fifth and last particular is very considerable and is that which the evill spirit of darknesse hath obscured from the Army and the Kingdome and by it denied them the comfort and us the benefit of their being and that is this That the Army are the People gathered and united into a most excellent and divine forme Or an Army is a singular Ordinance of God appointed for speciall purposes and at this time raisd by God as most fit for those noble honourable and difficult works he hath now in hand For the clearing of this I would have considered That Army is a peculiar Ordinance of God wherein he hath a speciall delight and appropriates it to himselfe as a power that hath more neare relation to him and more immediate dependance upon him in which he will most visibly shew himself therfore chuses so often to be cald the LORD OF HOASTS And though they have a very dark and black out-side being the instruments of his wrath so they have a very sweet and precious in-side when God brings forth his owne name upon them and discover them to be his As the blackest afflictions have in them the choicest mercies the crosse of Christ hath glory in it and privation it selfe obtaines the honour to be a cause and to bring in new and more excellent formes so an Army that in the outside sounds dread and terrour yet hath riches treasured up in it which when we see we shall not fly from it but rejoice to have it neare us and to goe into it for subsistence 1. When God brought forth the first creation he cast them into this mould an Army and so laid the foundation of all his works in the camp Gen. 2.1 When he had finished the heaven and the earth and all the host of them In this posture hath he put all things not onely the stars above who fight in their order march in their course but the very locusts goe forth by bands The reason is that they might all quietly serve him under the protection of an Army and that if they be infested with any adverse power they might have force to retreat to In this military wisedome hath the Lord of Hoasts made and established the world 2. When God expresses his presence with his people in the world he manifests himselfe to be in a military state I will encamp about my house Pitch his tents about them so in a second middle or angelicall state he is an Army while he preserves us he gathers his Ministers about us in a body an Army 3. When he comes in his last and great glory he brings his hoasts with him and comes as a Generall and Lord of Hoasts thousands of thousands attending upon him all his Saints and Angels so that wherever the Lord appeares it is in this state either in the reare or lowest in the body or midst in the van or highest t is in this order the creatures a camp the Church militant a camp the Saints in glory a camp or host likewise In the providence of God in the world God hath made great use of Armies First They have beene the parents of all the Empires and Kingdomes of the world all the present Common-wealths upon earth must owne the sword to be their originall and confesse that from it they had their beginnings and t is rationall for an Army hath in it all government and all parts of government order justice c. in highest and noblest virtue and majesty Secondly As all Kingdomes come out of an Army so are much cherished and upheld by the same most Kingdomes flourishing while their military virtues are kept bright and cleare by use and quickly languish when the sword is wholly laid aside The presence of the sword keeping off destruction from them Thirdly As Kingdomes are begotten and nourished by Armies so doe they againe resolve into them as into their first principles And when by strength of wickednesse civill societies are disturbd they naturally retire to a military as unto their owne Father for safety for they have a peculiar majesty severity activity and masculine vertue or force to uphold a state against such evils as are in the world which no power besides hath And therefore Armies are not such hideous evils as some imagine but are beautifull glorious and exceeding profitable societies not onely scourges but saviours and protectors they have motherly bowels as well as iron hands and so in Gods raising and supporting this Army there is a most perfect wisedome of God casting his people into this form is very seasonable and proper for us at this time For we are at this time become a wildernesse the pale of civill power being broken down and men let loose to furious and beastly lusts such as would leade them to inhume and brutill villanies were there not this curb in their mouths nor could any man promise himself security in what he hath but that God is a wall about us in this Army And wise men wil easily see if sense of some present suffering or adhering to another side or party did not blind them that the violent and exorbitant lusts of men in this age is no way to be restrained but by this sharpe bit an Army T is true t is our wickednesse hath brought us to it but seeing it is so t is mercy in God to put himselfe and people into such a posture for our defence And this is the minde of God1 formerly decalred not onely to breake nations but to rule them also with an iron scepter 2. The worke that God hath now in hand is not an earthy fixt thing but he is upon motion marching of us out of Egyptian darknesse and bondage into a Canaan of rest and happinesse and therefore t is proper for him to gird up himselfe to contract himselfe from a vast body of a Kingdome into a narrower compasse into a few spirits in an active body such as an Army is loose and free from the clogge of old formes and customes to act lively his pleasure and to follow him into those new waies and pathes of truth and liberty that he shall lead them and because this work is attended upon with difficulties and through a wildernesse full of wild beasts and enemies on all sides it s his great wisedom to Arme himselfe and to imploy men skilfull at the sword as well as at the truel to build Jerusalem with weapons in their hands our great dangers requiring it And we know the beginings of God's great works of good to his people have been by Armies as their deliverance out of Egypt and Babilon in the same part doth he walk still and therefore doth he now in his last appearing gather his hoast about