to the People they are fild with indignation against them If to the Army that 's misery enough to have the sword to be their Lord they know they then must be their slaves t were well they could not be but that 's dreadfull too and therefore they must continue in the great wrath of an angry God who hath left them given them up to this wretched state blasted accursed in every thing they take in hand setting a stamp and marke of dispeasure upon all their undertakings every thing that come forth from them sign'd with vengeance that we may reade vanity and death upon all that passes from them and so cold and ineffectuall that it s buried in neglect as soon as t is brought forth In great shame and confusion fallen from great honour and Majesty to be the scorne and contempt of the meanest People utterly spoyld of all renown and laid open to the revilings of the basest And in hideous confusion not knowing where they are how they come in or which way to get out not knowing the state of the Kingdome or their own affairs fallen into a vast wildernesse of numberlesse evils not knowing how to settle King People Army or any on peece in his right place In perpetuall distraction and division continually griped and paind with the rending of their own bowels being tormentors to themselves they need not others to mischiefe them if they were alone they would continually mischiefe themselves they are in perfect hatred and deadly feare one of another and broke and shattered into such variety of factions that they can't handsomly side but every side hath his subdivisions and so his owne side when he hath joyned to ruin others will ruin him There is this of hel too They are restlesse perpetually agitated and tossed about from side to side from party to party from one thing to another full of contradiction to themselves drunke with the wine of the wrath of God they reele and stagger to and fro from one thing to another condemn a thing for Treason one while justify it another a King and no King Vote and un-vote and that not in triviall but in the weightiest things of the Kingdome childishly and miserably uncertain Thus are you of a remedy become a wofull disease of Saviours destroyers of Church and Common-wealth Our great fence against tyranny and oppression become the strength of tyranny and opression Mighty and strong in nothing but to keep misery and destruction together that it leave us not Evil imbodied ruine form'd into a state wickednesse in a Law all folly and confusion inthroning it selfe securing it felse and sitting in the great Councell of Parliament to contrive for the People new vexations This is your doom For leaving the light and wisdome of the Lord Jesus and for exalting your selves above him left in wrath cast off and become the Kings your own and the peoples hell Chap. VII Shewing the sin and punishment of the people of both parties HAving seen the sin judgement of these two great earthly powers let us descend lower and view the People of England as they are divided by these two heads King and Parliament into two streames Round-heads and Cavailiers You are both deeply guilty of the evil of both your heads and therefore justly fall into the same condemnation look upon your King and in him see your transgressions and proportionably your sufferings from a righteous God Look you upon your Parliament and in them behold your wickednesse and your just afflictions you have joynd your selves to them or leand upon them and are fallen with them or you upheld them and supported them in their wicked waies and they are fallen with al the burthen of Gods wrath upon you and so breake you to peeces But particularly and besides theirs you are guilty First of the same things in a lesser way You are tyrants and oppressors in your estates in your families as husband wife father and children and do all live not in the light of God and Christ but in the darknes of Satan and this world if you had not a generall you would be devoured with private vexations the same evils being broken forth upon the world in families trades bargains deceits cosonage suites strife warrs jarres differences if the light of God appear not for your deliverance you will bee utterly ruined and the joy and comfort of these things utterly wasted for the whole frame of things is out of course and there is secret curses stolne into all relations and things which much shakes and distracts though not quite over-throwes their peace There is in your taking of parts blinde zeale ignorance of God and of the Kingdomes constitution and grosse Idolizing man Every one hurrying on in his way without judgement or consideration forgetting God and making flesh your arme mad of your particular Idols KING and Parliament which now you see are empty vaine and helplesse things In taking sides you are carried much by sinister and by respects each seeking to make himselfe something by the warre and to advance themselves whil'st they seeke to advance their party all aiming at a worldly and carnall ease prosperity and preferment and while you strived to exalt your selves you have lost the ground and foundation of all your hopes and every one seeking to make himselfe something hath made the whole nothing in seeking to adde to what you had you have lost the whole There was also much revenge bloudy malice against your neighbours and malignancy against each other thirsty after the ruine of each other and glad of oppertunities of doing mischief one against another And for these wicked things are become partners in the misery of the King and Parliament as you have their and your owne sinnes so you suffer their and your owne plagues Their destruction is yours you can't but be miserable in their misery in their divisions your very hearts are divided The very foundations are out of course and you are left in a state of calamity without meanes or hopes of recovery Besides The wrath of God is daily wasting of you and you are wasting one another the Nation becoming such a hel of confusion that men are Divels one to another maligning and hating each other to death These waies would utterly waste you if you had ten thousand times more then you have The fruit of all your long labours sweept away from you in a moment by mischievous villains to have your bread taken from you and your selves and wives and children tirannized over by free quarterers Honest industry quite discouraged being almost use-less most men that have estates betrayed by one side or other plundered sequestered Trading the life and subsistance of thousands decaying eaten up with taxes your poor ready to famish or to rise to pull reliefe from the rich mens hands by violence the heavens and earth jarring in unseasonable weather and summer and winter fighting together and invading each others
standest The new Jerusalem that is from above Neither hast thou shined with that blessednesse and holinesse but upheld a worldly and divelish darknesse and so art become a filthy Sodome a vile and poluted thing living not as the Lambs wife but in filthiness of adultery with the pomp and greatnesse of the World glorying in thy own Riches Power Multitude and not in the Lord. Thou hast been proud and lifted up and every way hast vaunted and boasted of thy government Militia wisdome c. and hast boldly pressed into the Throne of the Government of the Kingdome and at pleasure hast interposed authoritatively beyond thy place Common Citizens in great confidence of their ability to rule the state busily intermedling in things much above their understandings and quite out of the sphere of their callings You have often given check both to King and Parliament and lifted up your head above the power of the Kingdome and that rashly effeminately and without judgement in rude bold violent and tumltuous waies You have not in a Mother wisdome and moderation endeavoured the composing these differences it was thy place to spread thy Armes of love to imbrace both King and Parliament to have inclosed and begirt them both in unity But thou hast headily passionately according to thysex engaged with the Parliament and wert far too eagar and inconsiderate in promoting war and partiall in thy affection and laying out thy strength T is thy property to be rich and wanting it in a naturall and just way of trade you are many of you turned Officers publicans Excise men others buying Bishops and Irish Lands an unnaturall way of Merchant adventurers to strive to catch the ruines of the Kingdome as they fall or to grow rich upon publick miseries this is un-blest wealth there is a curse followes it Thou sufferest deeply in the common calamity and the spoyling and plundering in the Nation must be put upon thy accompt thou art pillaged in most parts of the Nation The great and intolerable losse of King Court to shine in thee in peace righteousnes proena damni the pesence of the King in thee living in agreement with his People is thy true life and glory and makes thee a heaven and the want of it is to thee intolerable and makes thee a Hell After the recovery of this happinesse doest thou insatiably thirst and canst not live without re-enjoyment of it Thy glory and reward hath been stained thy greatnesse brought down by the Army Thy trade is lost and broken thy wealth wasting and consuming there is stretched out upon thee The line of confusion and the stones of emptinesse Thou art continually shaken with fears and indignations tossed about as a Ball unstable and uncertain Fires of divisions kindled and burning fiercely in thee in all thy meetings common Councel common Hall Nothing but fire and brimstone bitter and sharp contests horrible rage one against another spitting fire in the face of each other preparing for the destruction of one another The wants of the poor threatning to tear out thy bowels a heap of disorder and confusion acting in all things in darknesse and wrath and so art of the nature of the Kingdome in the destroyer and a particular hell of thy self and to thy self mighty in malice rich in madnesse t is thy trade and busines having little else to doe but to design mischiefe to torment thy self Chap. XII Shewing the irrecoverablenesse of Englands ruine by humane waies ENgland thou art lost for ever lost Thou hast departed from God who is thy life and now thou art dead Rejected into destruction The Peace Wisdome Justice and Goodnesse of God hath left thee and the madnesse wrath injustice and malice of Satan fils thee Thou art broken like a Potters vessell into shivers into many peeces Thou art nothing but division head from body limb from limb and each party hath a peece of thee thou art by divine justice distributed and given forth into severall interests The King hath his part The Parliament their part The Army another c. and each an essentiall or integrall part without which the whole cannot subsist These severall principles or spirits of the Nation are by the breath of God blown into the severall parts of the earth scattered into the four winds as much divided as East and West North and South And all parts have distinct natures given to them severall principles of self-subsistence which sets them a contending for their own being yea such beings as can never be nulled standing upon the unmovable pillars of the decree of God and of the constitution of the Kingdome especially in the great division of King and Parliament both must subsist T is as impossible to destroy Kinglinesse wholly or to settle England without a King as t is to overthrow the first person God the Father if Heaven would dispence yet the earth would not King being as naturall unto us as a head to the body King is engraven in the spirit of the Nation If it were consumed to ten men they would have a King if the Nation were shrunk into one Family they would he governed by a King Upon the same ground stands the Parliament you may pull Christ out of Heaven as well as overthrow the interest of Parliament it may be suspended a while but quite suppressed it cannot Christ will eternally uphold it so the Nation will perpetually and restlesly require it it being the heart and life of the Nation The distinct natures or principles are strongly confirmed by Covenant Oath conscience honour on all parts whereby the Persons in whose hands these interests are are engaged to maintain and uphold their particulars to death And so bound to maintain their own both at a distance from God and from each other as while they save it they lose it being in the dark seperated from God to continue it is its certain death so that it must be and they will have it and in the way it is it cannot but be miserable But these parties are not only thus divided one from another but inplacably set to destroy one another in deadly opposition one to another and so instead of being each others life as they should they are each others death standing directly in the way to each others happines each perswaded that they might be well if their adversaries were gon There is a good and an evill in both the good of each is hid from the other and turned away the bright side the face and the back-parts the weaknesse the foule part in view and sight of each other The Kings party say if it were not for this Parliament and Army the Kingdome would be happy the Parliament and Army say if it were not for King and Cavaliers the Kingdome would be happy Being desperatly with mortall hatred enraged one against another they heartily seeke the destruction of each other and in destroying each other they do destroy them selves for indeed they are
the whole Nation in all parts of it are found fighters against Christ and for it are destroyed You have all been bigge with this misery it hath been within you declared it self in your several formes of cursings and because you lov'd it it s come upon you as a girdle about your loynes it cleaves fast to you Thy Sores are opened from head to foot and lanc'd to let out the filth corruption and if you suffer it to come forth you will immediately finde ease He that confesseth his sinnes and forsaketh findeth mercy If you would you cannot hide them all your reasons pleading your good intentions the clearnes of your consciences can't justify you Here 's one greater then your consciences a sentence so Authoratative as will not be resisted Neither can you by cunning or force escape out of this prison not the stoutest of you not your friends Armies multitudes none can help you Kings are bound in chaines of Iron and Nobles in fetters Such honour have all the Saints Chap. XI Shewing the method of God in curing the Nation viz First to take our sin upon himself T IS written in your hearts and spoken in your mouths That none can save us but God T is the happinesse of the extremity of our misery that wee are past the wisdome and strength of man and so fall onely and immediatly upon the mercy and goodnesse of God Cease from man Behold your LORD The LORD is our Judge The LORD is our Law giver The LORD is our KING Hee will save us He that hath opened hell and death to let you in can and will open it to let you out He hath the Keyes and opens and none shuts and shuts and none opens All this sin and wrath was in us in our best estate though it appeared not t is good t is broken forth t is in order to perfect health our recovery was designed in it and the foundation of a mighty salvation is laid in these deep miseries The method of our cure must be this First to take away sin and curse so long as they lye at the doore there is no passage for mercy to come in or man to go out Now the only way to do this is to lay them upon one that can beare them The LORD Himself they have lain upon the Nation and sunk it utterly destroyed it But now wee see there is one will beare Englands sinnes and the sin and curse of the whole world and there we must charge them yea The LORD charges himself and saies Is there any evill in the City that I have not done Why hast thou caused us to Erre from thy waies Thou hast blinded us that we might not see and hardened our hearts that we might not understand T is thou that hast mingled a perverse spirit amongst our Princes that hast given the Nation the wine of astonishment to drinke The cup of thy wrath that they may Erre in judgement that they may stagger and reel vomit up their own filth and fall and not rise againe And in all this thou hast been just There hath been two great evils amongst us our being divided from God and amongst our selves and this the LORD hath done especially in the great divisions of King and Parliament The day dawning after this dark night of sorrow we can say of England GOD is in thee and none else In these clouds is the Lord and nothing but the Lord Here is God in the lower parts of the earth and the earth shall disclose her blood and no longer cover her slain Verily God is in this place and we knew it not Thou hast alwaies dwelt in the Majesty and greatnesse of the King It is thou that hast Reigned in him But verily thou art a God that hidest thy self under vanity and a lye under a poore sinfull unstable weake creature in a crawling worme thou art there covered with corruption falshood wilfulnesse made sin cloathed with filthy garments so vailed under a thick covering that he himself knew thee not had he known thee he would not have denied thee and crucified the Lord of glory he did it ignorantly thou didst not come forth nor act out thy selfe in thy own brightnesse and power but didst retyre withdraw thy self and lye down in weaknesse and so liv'd in sinfull flesh Thou wert in him dwelling in such thick darknesse in such stormes and tempests of wrath in such a thick mist fog of wicked men lying down there in such a hel of a Dam me crue that his own body did not know thee there His People Rebelled against him and thee when dressed in this deformed shape Thou wert in him raysing up his heart into an absolutenesse and greatnesse T is thou that say dest in him I am alone and there is none besides me I le doe what I will and none shall resist it Thou wert there most Righteously and accoding to thy nature gathering up all thy glory into thy self keeping thy self incommunicable minding only thy selfe and thy owne Majesty and rejecting all things else refusing to stoop to any thing that is mean or below thy selfe disdaining that any should excell but thy self magnifying thy selfe and being confident of thy own sufficiency This now we see darkly shadowing out it self in the Kings Prerogatives Now we see it is Thee The LORD that in his leaving his Parliament leavest thy own Son thy own spouse because she is unclean because she was filthy and poluted This is righteous in God to leave a diseased body labouring under the guilt of the Nations sin to give her up to be tormented to be left desolate for her iniquities In the Kings flying from his Councell to strength Wee now see Divine jealousy that is impatient of having his Majesty sullied and stained by common hands The indignation of the Lord of hosts hurried the King away in violence and taught him to begirt himselfe with power to uphold Royalty yea rather to bury it in the earth then that another should wear the Crown It is the Lord that stiffens and hardens the spirit of the King against all Propositions that may lessen his Greatnesse here God saies My glory will I not give unto another To retain golden Royalty in the flames to be a King still while hated opposed denied Is the Divine Spirit When it is most opposed to contend for it This the Lord doth In the Kings dark and unknown waies in his secret practises We now see Our LORDS obscuring himselfe when fleshly man would finde him out to prey upon him when wicked and rebellious man would rob him of his glory he mists himself in the privacy of darknesse hee hath a long while concealed himself in the midst of us and so kept himself from the world who have alwaies been in pursuite of him because he sees they are not fit to injoy him This is the Lords doing in the darknesse of man the Highest Majesty of God under the shamfull vilenesses of man
from his Father favour for himself and his people he comes with boldnesse to take what he asks and saies I will and the power that Saints have in Christ to command God in prayer In thy siding with the Parliament against the King and thy free powring forth thy self for her We see the excessive love of Christ to his Church who is ravisht with love and for her forgets all things else In thy ingrossing the riches of the Kingdome into thee thou art a shadow of Christ who treasures up wealth and riches of glory in the City of God for us But thy glory is gon thy true life the beautifull presence of God hath left thee and thou art burning in flames of wrath jealousies envies divisions thou art wasted into a sceleton thy trade obstructed by Sea and Land thy People filled with rage thy bowels pained with fierce contests of parties pulling various waies quite restlesse an unquiet Sea in continuall agitation The Lord dyes in thee the LORDS delight thou wert his Spouse thy glory and greatnesse it was the LORDS he suffers in thy suffering and is covered in thy ashes lyes under the burthen of all thy wants is pierced with the necessities of the poor And thou art in the dust of confusion a ruinous heap the seat and place of vexation lying in a thick cloud of darknesse But his fire purifies thee in these flames thou losest thy filthy pride coveteousnesse malice revenge c. Thou shalt not perish utterly The voice of God is heard in thee to revive thee thou shalt be built again Thy foundations shall be all of precious stones c. The glory of God shall shine in thee thou art now the City of God a Righteous City this is thy name The Lord is there The Lord displaies his glory in the midest of thee The new Jerusalem indeed in truth in Spirit in perfect union with GOD a heaven and so in union amongst your selves Peace within thy wals and plentiousnes in thy palaces a City at unity in it self there shall not be the least found of discord in thee Thy nature is love light and holines The City of the great King made happy by the presence of the King and all the state and honour of the Kingdome Now open thy armes of Divine love and take into thy imbraces the glory of England Kings Princes Nobility Gentry Ministry Judges Lawyers with all the wisdom justice power and excellency of heaven and earth let all flock together in one God one Christ one Spirit one City and thousands of thousands of Saints and Angels dwelling in thee Nothing shal be heard in thee but mirth and joy in the Lord our God praises of the Great King Open thy gates thy everlasting doors that the King of glory the Lord of Hosts with all his host of Princly powers may enter in And all the riches of the World shal flow into thee in thy trade naturally and abundantly the wealth of both Indies and all parts shal seek unto thee and offer up it selfe to satisfy thee thou shalt be crownd with blessings all contents and pleasures shal continually run dawn thy streets and all in the sight and face of the holy God in the pure River of life Chap. XXI Of the admirable fullnesse and compleatnesse of this restoration satisfying all interests ALL the works of God are perfect found out of all them that take pleasure therein The greatest and highest are reserved for us in this later and great day of God wherein it pleaseth the LORD to appear in his fullest and most excellent glory this of Englands salvation is a sweet bud of it a little taste of that infinite Majesty that is now breaking forth in the glorious appearing of God In this businesse the Lord satisfieth his own Interest who is Alpha and Omega the first and the last and this is the rock of our pleasure that thou art pleased and satisfied Thou reignest thou art King this is thy due all power and dominion is thine t is thy right to have all all are thine for thee they were created and made King Parliament Lords Commons Ministers People all sorts all sides all parties are the Lords and thou wilt reign over and in all from Sea to Sea from one end of the Earth to the other as lightening shining from East to West so is thy Kingdom and thy glory is now due to thee that thou shouldest appear not in weaknesse to serve men but in thy great Majesty in thy highest honour thou must now shew forth plainly thy self in thy utmost most enlarged goodnesse power wisdom Nothing now will serve thee but to be ALL IN ALL To be All thou art in Heaven in all the Earth to bring forth all thy riches to fill every creature all glory in all things Thou art all in Earth as well as all in Heaven all in King in Parliament in People there is nothing but thy self in these thou art Bishops Presbyters Independents all these and all in these all Majesty power glory justice in the King and all the same in the Parliament and all that too in the People thou art all the labour strength riches freedome in the People all this in the Parliament all the same in the King all night and all lownesse Thou art all wisdom Authority Government in Bishops all care zeal labour in Presbyters all love union absolutenesse in Independents and all these in every one thou art the same in all ALL IN ALL All in darknesse all in light all in weaknesse all in strength all that every part is all the wholl is all the wholl in every part and all Heaven all Glory all peace all quietnesse all love all goodnesse in all these parts and wholl Lesse then this generall and near union and mariage will not satisfie thee being thy self satisfied thou doest satisfy all and being pleased thou pleasest all thy content contents every one because thou art all art content it self in all Thou hast shaken all Nations and the desire of all Nations is come We have been shaken into peeces and every peece shaken out of all order and peace Thou art good that thou doest but shake only rends that thou mayest make way for thy selfe to enter and for all to enter with thee into every part What we desire we have we can desire nothing but the Lord nothing is desirable but the Lord the Lord we have and in the Lord wee meet with every desirable thing the desire satisfied which if a tree of life God was our desire which is now interpreted being brought forth into performance and enjoyment God the bottom and top the desire and desired meeting in one Spirit and Kingdome GOD the root in our desires grown up into the fruit attainment The interest of this whole Kingdome in this restoration is satisfied and that consists in First PEACE a sure Peace a well grounded Peace here you have the richest jewell of peace that heaven hath
of his Christ Above all the Nations this of England with her two sisters Scotland and Ireland is with peculiar favour seperated from the World Being an Island imbraced with armes and Seas of righteousnesse peace safety and the knowledge of God The bosome of the earth where the divine glory chuseth to treasure up his richest Jewels His private lodging whereinto he delights to retire himself and out of which he pleases first to arise and thence to proceed to visit the whole World Nothing heer but is spoken by God made by the Word of God and doth again speak God A fruitfull and beautifull Earth meeting with and married unto a pleasant and powerfull Heaven in a healthfull and temperate Spirit and Ayre doe bring forth abundance of excellent fruit Especially those rich Flocks of Sheep that cover the Earth shewes the Soyle to be the Lambs and to were his Livery and so to be his Store-house from whence he will cloath the world with garments of Salvation In the disposition of the People of England shine many sparkes and beames of divine majesty ingenuity and freedome gentlenesse and mildnes zeal and devotion gravity and wisdome stoutnes and courage noblenes and greatnes of spirit aptnes for generall and high undertakings which renders them feard honored and beloved abroad and fit instruments of good to the Vniverse As other Nations are furnisht with mines of Gold and silver England with rich minds full of true worth indeed a Race and seed of heavenly Lords obscured under earthly infirmities yet so as their luster doth discover it selfe and shine out But that which indeed exalted us to Heaven was this That this excellent People in a happy Country were by the Ministry of mighty Angels moulded into a government after the pattern of the highest and perfectest glory of God in Father Son and Spirit Or to make England a happy Canaan Father Son and Spirit agree together to dwell in it and to bestow themselves upon it in their severall fulnes and doe themselves vail'd and covered over with fleshly formes unite and govern us in righteousnesse and peace First the Father advances the King in his own likenesse and by living in him makes him to be Pater patriae the Father of his Country the Head and Supreme The Husband and Lord of the Kingdome In him as in God the Father is all the Majesty Honour Justice and Riches of the Kingdome 1. In unity bound up close in one Person all in its Center hence it comes and hither it returnes 2. In Head and Fountain the originall from whence honour and justice flowes 3. In Priority or prerogative in him as highest and Supreme 4. But more hid and deeply conceald not so outward and visible as in others Hence is the King the Anointed of God God eminently I said ye are Gods in nearest conjunction unto God The greatest representative of God His Vicegerent Next under God in immediate fellowship with God God and the King Secondly The Sonne appears in the People especially as they are form'd in one Representative the Parliament and by his fulnesse makes them the Body of the Head The Wife the Spouse And so gives them all the Majesty Honour justice and Riches of the Kingdome and that that is in the King to be in them 1. Divided and multiplied not bound up in center but drawn forth into circumference and come forth in many 2. In stream and flowing forth for the use and benefit of others 3. In second place in subordination to the first 4. Imbodied and drawn forth into open view more visible and manifest unto others Thus are they the Kings yoak-fellows a meet help have what ever he hath his Son and heire And being raised into a Parliament by the Kings Writ are then fit mediators tween the King and the People by whom the People offer up gifts to the King and the King gives favours pardons and priviledges to them Thirdly The Spirit the third Person he by the Law and by mutuall Covenants bindes these two together and is the marriage that joynes them or the house of love in which they both live in peace and happines with each other and disposes both into a just and equall distance yet a perfect agreement or give them both to subsist in proper and distinct Rights and both in union together that they both fully have what is due to them and both have what each other have the same and that equally without robbery without injury or wrong to each other The Law gives to the King his Prerogative his authority in unity in Fountain c. And diversifying or multiplying give the same in another way to the body and yet takes nothing from the King So gives it to the King as is most advantagious to the body and so to the body as is most advantagious to the head The body hath it best in the Kings having of it with that honour safety and union as shee cannot have it in her self And the head hath it best in the bodies having of it with that fruitfulnes and strength that he cannot have it out of them Yea in this Spirit and Law in this bond of perfection they both have it in each other and could not nor cannot have it long nor well if they have it not together The Royalty of a King as a fountain freely giving it self into the Authority of Parliament as a husband giving himself to his wife and the Parliament only being what shee receives from the King so they mutually nourish support uphold each other and being divided and seperated they presently wither away and dye They both have it and both give it the body gives it to the head and receives it from the head in severall waies and this is its life and perfection that it passes by vines and arteries from one to another and are knit together by nerves and sinewes so that what honour the King hath he gives to his People and what riches and substance the People had they gave it to the King the People honorable in the Prince and the prince mighty and strong in the People The body breaths sees tasts c. in the head the head workes walkes and digests in the body Thus the Trinity are truly The foundamentall Lawe constitution of the Kingdom which is the cause of ability strength and peace of the Kingdom the Pillars that kept it upright the health and soundne of it where by it was able to subsist in prosperity and florish in it self and to defend and maintain it self against enemies from abroad In this estate we for a while flourished and enjoyed a heaven upon earth or an earthly heaven a sweet figure or shadow of the Kingdome of glory and but a shadow yet such a shadow as was in union with the substance King and People being knit together by the Spirit and by the same spirit knit to God Christ Such a figure as had the original living in
your hands you were high peremptory churlish and froward towards him and so refused him He hath done you wrong and since offered you satisfaction which you have not accepted but require unjust and unreasonable tearmes he offended in personall acts but you insist upon hereditary satisfaction from him and his Children He hath offended himselfe and suffers for it but you would have restitution from the Office which is Gods and that never offended You have quite lost that reverence and honour that is due to him and look not upon him as he is in the Book of God you Lord and Head and his Anointed never minding God in him though buried under a heap of drosse and so never durst put any confidence in him or in the Divine Ordinance but looking upon him through the Glasse of your own weak jealousies and feares in which he is still presented to you as a black fâ—ul mischievous person you count it the greatest safety to keepe at distance from him To satisfy the People and your owne consciences you promised to make him the greatest Prince in the World and alwaies swore and Covenanted to defend his Person honour c. and since you have conquered his Armies and gotten all into your possession there appears nothing but high neglect or him instead of putting any honour on him because he doth not tamely sit down under your weak and absurd frame of government of Church and common wealth you imprison his person and honour You have greatly transgressed against the People who have intrusted you You have by your folly and weaknesse and unworthy managing that trust committed to you betrayed the honour and greatnesse of Parliaments into scorne and contempt and for ever except the hand of God wonderfully appear ruind and destroyed the Kingdomes great interest and the Peoples right a Parliament You have grosly disowned the People of England and have been led after others to save your selves becoming not ours but now the Armies then the Cities then the Scots Parliament You are cut off and dis-joynted from us making use of us for no other purpose but to bear your intolerable burdens of Excise Taxes c. by which yon have almost wasted us and minde onely your selves we receive not acts of favour justice Peace or honour from you you doing nothing effectually but reward your own Members suck and draw into your selves the honour wealth and places of the Kingdome the whole Kingdome languishing in misery you onely and some few of your creatures getting wealth Not a Parliament but a trade now a great Menopoly of honour wealth Law dignity and every thing that 's good in the Nation You never would or durst suffer any thing for us if you would as by right you should have suffered for the People we might have been saved from ruine but you constantly avoid it in your selves and expose us to it so cowardly that you dare not stand by your own Votes Ordinances Principles but upon all occasions for fear disert them justice and us Wee charge you with weaknesse and inability to manage the affaires in your hands for want of judgement and sore-sight you have brought your selves into a maze of confusion and know not which way to go either backwards or forwards and so will lose your selves and us at last in a wildernesse of woe and perplexity As you waste our estates so are you prodigal of our bloods you never were tender enough of peace but too forward in war As the King was guilty of beginning so you of upholding the plague of war as not in seeking peace so not in accepting of it when it was offered especially in continuing of an Army in the Kingdom when there was no enemy to hurt wherein you shewed your distrust of Gods protection the Peoples affection your feeling the guilt of your unreasonable and unjust Government which made you keep up force to defend your Turkish Tyranny This being certain publicke justice righteousnes requires no protection but it self in a Kingdom Had you universally distributed right to all and established peace and righteousnes you needed no force So that as the King begun the former you are the beginners of the second war in England and so guilty of the blood that is shed Your grosse and constant breach of faith and Covenant with all whereby the Faith of the Kingdome is become a scorne and reproach and our expectations of good from you are continually frustrated and for all our losses of estate and blood we are repayd with nothing hut shamefull confusion in Church and common wealth Chap. VI Shewing the Judgement upon the Parliament NO Error can be small in a Parliament yours have been exceeding great and great evils must bring great Plagues and your evils hold proportion with your sins and standing the greatest evils that can befall such a body as you are Along while you have laboured under the disease and distempers of blindnesses malice frightings faction c. wasting by them into faintnesse and feeblenesse and carried into many indirect and false waies but at last comes your dissolution when you were rent and torne a peeces by women and boyes Apprentices forced by them to their pleasure and so broken into two peeces one part flying and another part staying and both in armes one against another shewing by open war your former inward contests so broken as none could tell which was the Parliament neither part being in deed but parts able to challenge the being of the whole Parliament the standing peece pretends most right but the other the best sword this breach not heald but smothered up as they were broken so composed by force and so to this day they stand not a naturall free but a violent forced Parliament not bottomb'd upon Christ or standing upon the Pillars of the Kings writ the Peoples free choyce and their own joynt consent but as an accursed broken Idoll upheld by necessity and Armies force and in professe enmity one against another A body of death in the Kingdom of darknesse subsisting and acting in Satan standing not to save the Nation but to be a parpetuall plague to themselves and others They have the nature of hell a civill hell full of grosse darknesse in chaines of darknesse in such a thick mist they cannot tell how to take one right step but t is into misery void of true wisdome all their actions poor petty shifts weak devices improper independent irrational things Already miserable undone labouring under their own the Nations ruin but so incompassed with misery that attempting to get out they meet with greater The destroyer hath the upper hand of them and is their master they are in a pit of destruction and so shut up that that which should save them is destruction to them If they look to the King their evill consciences the great difference tween him and them assures them if he come to have power will be revenged of them If they look
in waies of justice courage industry love mercy they were favoured with admirable mirable successe relieving the Kingdome from war And while they were contented with their state the condition of servants to the Parliament they shined in honour and reputation though malignd and envied while their masters daily impaired I hey shine in the eyes of the Nation and were the peoples hopes yea an Idol upon whom many had placed their confidence of a worldly deliverance When the Parliament or a party of them in ingratitude and malice against the favours God bestowed on them would have them disbanded as standing in the way of some malicious designe They united imboldned and strengthened by their just and honest intentions refuse and so grew to be a body of their owne independant and to stand upon their owne bottom For a while they appeare in this forme very faire and cleare Proposing honest and generall good fixing upon just and good things and obtaine by the assistance of their good Angell successe against their adversaries But alas How short lived is thy goodnesse A very morning dew that presently passes Thou hast only the power to propose and offer good but none to performe or a scourge to others a sickle to cut down the withered King Parliament but no power to build up when thou didst begin a new frame thy folly self-love in-justice worldlines quickly appeares and thou art left and forsaken in the same pit of darknes with others Thy Iniquities and Judgements are First Thou wast ignorant of the presence of the Lord of Hosts with thee and of that extraordinary power that guided thee thou didst talk of it but falsly and didst not simply and absolutly follow the LORD and walk in his power but didst mingled God and Baall do things haltingly and imperfectly in base fear respect and stooping to men and declining the noble high actings of the Spirit of God didst consult with flesh and bloud with sense and reason worldly customes and wayes which disabled thee to bring forth any excellent or honourable thing Thou durst not trust in GOD alone but deceitfully turnd away from him to thy own sense and reason Thou weart weak and unable to manage the affaires of state in this storme in which it is but being called to it hast in thy insufficiency brought it to another and worse wrack Thou undertookest a work beyond thy power and losest thy self and the Kingdome by it When the Nation lay at thy door begging for reliefe and thou hadst an opportunity to restore it a prize in thy hand and knewest it not But didest stifle and by unbeliefe and carnall policie smother the wisdome and power of the Lord in thee and not suffer him to come forth for the Nations salvation but bring forth thy own foolish waies to the Nations farther ruine When thou begun thy work through fear of the Kings party whom thou hadst conquered and brought to thy feet thou didst weakly and without judgement take up the King in his filthy curse and as a peece of a ruind wall to strengthen your selves and when you had fouly promised you as fouly brake with him and so become guilty of all his iniquity in taking him un-washt and of his unjust sufferings in leaving of him When you had broken the Parliament trampled upon it defiled its authority besmeared it with your disobedience dishonoured it inslaved it by force you then in hope to secure your selves by it in confidence in it set up this broken Idol againe in all its masse of folly and weaknesse injustice and oppression without giving any satisfaction to God or man You in opposition to the Spirit of the Lord that is pulling down worldly power set them up patch and bodge them together in a confused and broken way and set your selves to heal the breaches that God makes and so stand in the way of Divine displeasure to be consumed by it And now imploy your Army which God set to pull down unjust and corrupt powers in which you did prevaile to uphold and maintaine those powers no whit better in which you cannot prevaile your Army is now the girdle of strength that holds together the ungodly and oppressing power of Parliament or the fence and wall to keep out the vengeance of God from coming farther in upon men and it is so far from keeping it out that it keeps vengeance in or upholds them in a state of wrath You when you were lifted up begun to please your selves to admire and blesse the Army to magnify your selves as the Kingdomes Lords and conqerors to make your Army intyre to conceive a necessity of continuing an Army to get preferments in it to bethinke your selves of living richly in it of recovering your Pay and arreares And upon these grounds to continue the Army upon the Kingdome with taxes and free-quarter the greatest oppression that England or any other Nation ever bore so that now you are the last and heaviest of the Nations burthens that promised to save and deliver and turne the greatest Tyrants lose all the good you have done set up a forcible Government turne warre into a trade England into a Campe perpetuate desteruction and provoak new commotions You have at last deceived all parties promised much but done nothing broken your word frustrated all expectations of good from you become a broken reed which while men leand upon runne into their hands and so become of a remedy a great disease You judgement is the same with your Mother the Parliament and with all Power upholding it selfe and maintaining it selfe in enmity to God Accursed of God your standing is in the darknesse of Satan and the World The King in the pit the Parliament the pit it self of confusion and you shut the mouth of it the Porters of this Nationall hell to keep them in torment that are there to conjure downe those keep them in torment that are there to conjure downe those spirits that would come forth by these risings and to set bounds to this Sea of confusion that it do not over-flow The rock against which these proud waves dash themselves in peeces the walls to contain and instruments to inflict evill on the People against which they continually fome and fret or the fetters and shakels of the Nation in prison under you the chaine in which the mad Kingdome is bound and tied for their folly and rage you are to inflict more evill on them and because they will not bear what is laid on them patiently you are to lay on more and as you lay plagues on them so you receive some blowes from them And so are sunke from that great favour to be the Kingdomes hope a saviour to be a jaylor vexing and being vexed able to keepe men in misery but in no way at all to deliver them And to this are you tied and bound A way of peace and quietnesse hath been set before you that way of peace you have not known but being
insnared and caught in this net of trouble you are ingaged by honour self-preservation c. to go on in this hellish trade You are in darknesse and know not which way to goe having got a course of fighting you go on to fight for you know not who nor what Not for the Parliament you know if ever they have opportunity they will remember your war against them and make it Treason and if you had the same opportunity you would doe as much for them again as you have done master them So your cause is lost and you only fight because you are an Army because fighting is your businesse All that you did in your greatest undertaking against the Parliament and City is blasted and undone Members restored to the House the Tower in the same hands it was which writes vanity upon your proceedings and shewes what foolish builders you were that when you had power in your hand instead of doing good too and for all you minded nothing but your own and your friends advancement having indeed not the generall nature of the whole but the affection of a party and faction Your waies are not now paved with love and sweetnesse as heer to fore but full of briers and thornes your work hard and knotty meeting with a fierce bloody inraged Enemy sharpned and provoaked against you by a sense of their own and the Kingdomes ruine harsh and angry weather True you have subsistance still but not in honour peace greatnesse but in war in vexation and that increasing so fast upon you as threatens your overthrow or at least shew you so much worke to doe that you must go on butchering men as long as you live for as fast as one party is crusht another rises that tels you the spirit of the Nation is against you and that oppressing power upheld by you so that you must fall under their fury or the Nation be consumed by you either you must give way to their rage which you can't or continue to be the scourge of the Kingdome still a wretched life This Woolfe you have by the ears in this dark and black path you walk in If you think you are well because you live because you are not come to nothing you know not to be an Army or to be in the cnodition of private persons would be your mercy but you are ingaged to bee in dishonour in warre shame tormentors and being tormented Chap. X. Shewing the state of the Levellers THe Levellers are men that are justly sensible of the miscariage of all that are gon before them see c their corruption how they have swarved and declined c that 's not heard but in applying a remedy they are as much mistaken as any His excellencies is not great assisted he is by a discerning Angell that discovers the falshood injustice and wicked waies of others and opens this truth more then any how all power and authority ascends out of the People or descends from the People making in a kinde them the chiefe But alas this Angell is low and weak that speakes and writes in a corner but come forth into action he cannot but sinkes under the fall of the Kingdome and his own mistake Thy errors are these Thou canst not bear the Kingdomes suffering under the hand of God nor thy owne but in a carnall love of this worldly state seekest to uphold it against the justice of God and so fallest into the same evil of thy Fathers self-love and preservation in enmity to the LORD To save thy self that the over-flowing scourge may not come nigh thee thou makest a Covenant with hell and an Agreement with death the Agreement of the People who are turned by the Divine justice into a hel and death Thou art ignorant of that wisdome of God that only can save the Nation and having gathered some scraps of earthly knowledge from others thy proud heart is lifted up and thou conceivest highly of thy self as if thou art able to save the Kingdome and so presumest upon that which thou art not called unto T is true The King is by the People and the People are the originall of power but this is an imperfect peece and take it alone it is very destructive The King is of the People so is Man by the Woman yet the Woman must not shake off her yoke of subjection For as the Man is by the Woman so the Woman is of the Man and for the Man so the People are taken out of the King and are for the King as well as the KING by the People KING and Parliament are in relation to the people as Christ to David He is the root and of-spring of David Davids Son yet Davids Root and David in spirit calls him Lord. So is power in King or Parliament the root and ofspring of the People The King is Son to the People and Father too and so in spirit is called Lord. While you take one part in darknesse and leave the other you confound and disorder the whole In your actings to set up a worldly power now you are of the earth earthly The Nation ground to powder or dust dust thou art and to dust c. the Serpents meat You confess no Father acknowledge none above you and therefore art Terroe-filius or filius populi Son of the Earth or Son of the People The base Son of the Parliament begotten in her Adultery growing out of her principles The people must not be left without a remedy to save themselves c. Self-saviours your cry is the People all power is disolved and the people must judge T is according to your wish the people in divers parts do take the power and above all would mine you their greatest indignation is against you so you runne from God to hell for help T is your portion to suffer in the common calamity and to be as mad men striving with your fetters as a Bull in a net toyling your selves or agitators not resting quietly in the grave of publicke misery waiting for a resurrection but disturbed agitated dust in a whirlewinde of divine wrath Chap. XI Shewing the Judgement of the City of London LONDON the chief and Mother City of this Nation hath been the place of residence of the great glory of England the house that gives entertainment to the head the King and body the Parliament and these florishing together in peace and righteousnesse The Heaven wherein these dwell and chiefly shine forth themselves The habitation of these Majesties in which they are comprehended That is inriched by them with honour state greatnesse and doth again supply and inrich them with plenty of cloaths food c. And thou hast held up thy head high in these times and been mightily preserved by a great Angell in thy many dangers Thy evils of sinne and punishment are besides the common guilt and plagues of the Nation Thou art wholly ignorant of thy heavenly originall thy true foundation upon which thou
two without this subordination would not be so safe so profitable nor so delightfull But being two subordinate one to another without offending each other yea to the advantage of each other is exceeding delightfull the King the Father hath all retained People the Son al dispenced in the first its absolute and intire in the second it s propagated enlarged spread-forth The Husband gives the Wife receives hee hath all and bestowes it she hath all and receives it The King saies ask what you will and it shall be given unto you so GOD saies to Christ chuse what Laws and Priviledges you will I le grant it That 's my word and Oath I have no negative voice I can't deny you But this is no wrong to the King for the Parliament being one spirit with him can ask nothing but what he is minded to give as prayers in the Church though GOD bee bound to give yet it s no losse to him because his own Spirit asks for we know not what to ask So the KING is the originall of asking and gives the desire of the thing that which moves the inferiour to desire is most excellent in the superiour and in this is the fulnesse of the King hee shall still call ask of ME and shall still out-goe the desires of the Petitioners and give more then they can ask his heart being more large towards his Spouse or Childe then his Spouse or Childe can bee to it selfe and that minde that is in the Spouse or Childe of good to it selfe is in the Father before it was in the Son and more excellently Neither can the Sonne ask any thing in this spirit that can derogate from the Father for thereby he should prejudice himself and weaken or lessen that power that conveighs good to him and so wrong himself most to wrong his head or fountaine from whence he is supplyed Neither is it any wrong to the Son to have it this way but t is the most perfect way of having it by asking it of another for thus there is a stock and treasure in which is store layd up that is the Sonnes riches the surest and sweetest way of having is by the easy way of asking T is the excellency of it that it 's a gift and that t is free or that it hath the Royall stamp of love and Authority upon it by which it is not a stolne and forced but lawfull and pleasant favour T is a free and ingenious subordination where the inferiour hath power to chuse what it will and chuses to have it in that way and not in another and hath that freedome in asking that is powerfull The woman hath power over the head to command by love and to say as Christ I will have it so and then t is most acceptable to the Father when it is most boldly and freely ask'd it being the great joy of the head to have the wife confident in his love And in this way there is and shal be a river of pleasure running betwen King and people or from King and Parliament and People wherein they shal do nothing but please one another The fulnes of the one compleatly answering the largenesse of the other And the KING having to give what ever the Parliament or People can desire and desiring them to receive as much as they desire him to give and taking more pleasure in creating greatnesse and freedome in them then in possessing of it himself it being his nature and place to give forth and without their receiving honour from him he were not a King and it being as pleasant to the People to receive it from a King it would not content them to have it in themselves but their Kings gift sets the price upon all favours they doe enjoy it s therefore sweet because their Lord bestowes it upon them This is the florishing estate of King and Parliament in their restored life living now in the glory of the Spirit and in union As God and Christ are of themselves are in each other and neither without each other but the Kingdome of both is compleated in their dwelling together in the third the Spirit where they doe continually delight in each other in bestowing themselves upon each other and are most happy in fellowship so 't is a heavenly blessednesse for Head and Body to be thus united and to give and take largely and openly to communicate themselves to each other The King in prosperity in health strength and pleasure is in breaking forth his Majesty upon his Nobles that have affinity to his greatnesse thence to derive it to the People this is a full King in hight bredth and a People ascending through the Lords into the bosome of the King is a People in hight and depth the body in prosperity and pleasure three states in one and one in three in perfect agreement and in compleat unity all make up but one fulnesse one Kingdome Thus each is a Heaven to himself and a Heaven to the other and this conjunction by this righteous law of Spirit the highest Heavens being all in the light and face of the eternall majestty This is the great and main pillar of Englands happinesse the foundation of our comfort which as its most excellent in its self so it will effectually change the whole Kingdome into its forme all parts must follow the condition of King and Parliament yea all are included in it in this our whole happinesse lies The body being thus in health it cannot but send forth nourishment into every part not a man in England but shall presently finde a reviving upon this agreement a new spirit of love joy comfort trade and prosperity is immediatly dispersed into the whole Nation every one leaping for joy in the goodnesse of God and the happinesse of the Nation Chap. XVIII Of the Cure of the People of the Land by this Death and Resurrection THE God of the whole Earth delights to doe great things and to fill the whole earth with his glory The great favour of divine presence of love and peace is not reserved for Princes alone but to be communicated generally to all People That all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God You the People of England have sinned Wee have all like sheep gon astray but God laies on him the iniquities of us all Wee see the zeale of Christ under your blinde rage one against another Christ in you in weaknesse and infirmity The Lord saith of you You are my People all my children your families relations comforts and persons are the Lords not one English man or woman but carries the Lord with him and in him The Land-Lord is the Lord of the Earth the Tennant is the Son holding of the Father all he hath The buyer the seller the rich the poor Master and Servant Father and Son Husband and Wife are all but various breakings forth of God and Christ and the severall enjoyments they have
of each ether and passing from one to the other by and in the Spirit Ministers and People Townes Corporations Manufactures Markets Grasing Feeding all but the abundant flowings forth of the fulnesse of Christ pleased to expresse it self in such formes You are all one Common-wealth of God and Christ and in you all doth Christ suffer in that deadnes disorder spoil confusion that is amongst you doth the body of Christ suffer T is the blood of Christ that gives life to all these things and in the spilling of them his blood is spilt With him you suffer as he with you The glory riches peace and comfort of England is become a troubled Sea yea mare mortuum a dead Sea There is no life in any thing you doe no joy in your labours no comfort in your lives no hope of enjoying what you have a Chaos a great grave is England become wherein is cast all her riches But by this death is Satan the Prince of death overcome the author of your miseries the destroyer of the earth that fils you with wanes suits quarrels that sowed the tears of strife amongst Gods husbandry that hot fiery Serpent that provoaked thirst to drunkennesse that empty hungry fiend that led you to gluttony that filthy one that wrought breaches in your families discontents in your relations wasting in your estates that cursed all your blessings denies you joy mirth sports recreations Thou enemy of man art slain and with thee darknesse blindnesse mistakes accusations treacheries lies falshoods that vexed English men These hatefull quarrels between Round-head and Cavalier are dead and buried with all your transgressions one against another and all will and power to mischief one another That partition wall is broken down that kept you at distance from God and from each other that made you dark ignorant and sinfull in your way And you are now raisd in a new life The old heaven and earth is fled away because it was corrupt and we have a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwels righteousnesse In all your waies businesse trade sports neighbourhood dwels the God of righteousnesse they are all in God and God in them the goodnesse of God flows forth in them and all of them shall bee filled with the peace joy and life of God Truth stall spring out of the earth and Righteousnesse look downe from heaven The Lord shall give that which is good and our Land shall yeild her increase You are sow'd in sin in darknes and shall rise now light and holynesse and with you truth it self The true and living God shall spring up in every thing The truth of God filling all your fields with corne pastures with grasse that which is good God Himselfe your corne shall be better then Manna Angels food you shall feed continually upon the bread of life you shall lye down quietly in the armes of God and none shall make you afraid God Reigns let the earth rejoyce let all that is in it be glad you shall have mirth plenty wealth food rayment and GOD all in all You shall be Govern'd by God in peace and righteousnesse the wicked one shall be destroyed for ever Our Sonnes shall be as plants grown up in their youth our Daughters as corner stones pollished after the manner of a Palace our Garners full of all manner of store our Sheep shal bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets our Oxen strong to labour there shal be no breaking in of trouble nor going out of comfort no complaining in our streets Happy are the People that is in such a case yea happy is the People whose God is the Lord. This is the Great happinesse God is our God and we his People Now ye may sit under your own Vine and under your own Figge-tree which is the love of God shadowing you and feeding of you Let the earth be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the Sea there shall be none barren of the grace of God amongst you not a dark corner of the Earth for cruelty to dwell in but all shall bee enlightened with the joy and peace of God such a power of light and heat shal shine from the Sun of righteousnesse as shall melt the churles heart into liberality the Land-lord shall not rack you nor the Vsurer grinde you Taxes and Excise shal not oppresse you The rich shall not be a prisoner to his wealth nor the poor for want he that hoorded corne shall bring it forth the buried mony shal rise trade shall revive the hungry shall be fed the naked cloathed all happy but he that refuses and resists this grace the Devill You shall all praise the Lord from the rising of the Sun to the going down of it rejoyce in the King in the Parliament all their honour greatnesse and dominion is yours you shall have the comfort and benifit of it and from them shall you receive flouds and streames of righteousnesse that none shall want the rich shall be freed from the curse in his wealth and desire no more the poor shall be satisfied and have enough every one and every thing shall be filled And your railings shall be turned into songs your fightings into daunces your feares into rejoyceings live in love in the face of God as brethren as owe family lying in the wombe of one happy Mother England a Paradice the Land of Emanuel rejoycing in the prosperity of each other and the heavens shall blesse you the God of heaven shal shine on you Christ The true Heaven is open to you Princes Magistrats look gently upon you in love smile on you and these lowring frowning clouds that have vexed you with excesse of raine shall be scattered and these heavens shall favour you with seasonable weather you shall have all blessings of heaven and earth Thus the People are recovered from slavery under Satan and wicked men into a freedome to live in the face of God into freedome with and union to their King their Parliament and amongst themselves and so are free-borne a Nation borne in one day a Royall and Princly race a blessed and happy generation Borne of GOD and of their KING Chap. XIX The restoration of the Ministry by Christs bearing their sin and by his death and resurrection THE Ministry hath been deeply defiled and wofully accursed they lye under great sinnes and heavy judgements But here is balme for them a Physitian will cure them a fire will purify the Sonnes of Levi you are the LORDS portion GOD who said you were not my People will say you are the People of the living God Idol Shepherds are you but the GREAT Shepherd is seeking after you and will restore you The Lord is under your sinnes bears your iniquities under the Luciferian pride of Episcopacy seeking to advance themselves into worldly greatnes into Princes favour into Lordlinesse it being broken in peeces we see under it the Kingly and Priestly Office of Christ in