vain it is to talke of Providence untill we see what are the tokens of Providence Wherefore before I come to handle how particular men may lose their priviledges I shall a little discourse of the tokens of Providence whereby a Nation may apprehend deliverances and see whether there be any certain enough to engage a Christian in what may be called opposition to Powers For to a Heathen to have power to try the event for Liberty is enough to hold his conscience in suspence till the issue to him manifest the present will of Providence but to morrow he will attemp again But the Christian ought to obey for conscience sake the Powers knowing there are none but of God and that he sets up and plucks down whom and as he pleases therefore Christians submit to Vsurpers in Acts just and lawful yea to Tyrants and being enthralled they seek liberty justly that is First When God shall upon their Petitions stir the heart of the Prince to afford them their just dues Next They seek help of their Conservators of Priviledges if any be but these are natural and just to all men Again These seek not out evasions for Rebellion such as some call Providence Therefore let us see further what we can finde in Reason Let a Prince come to the height of private wickedness is this a sure sign God hath rejected him No sure let him err in many acts of Justice to particular persons yet this will not do simply considered that is if it stretches not to an universal end Now some would bound this to the life onely that is if the King or any Supream did not adventure upon the breach of Laws for safety of life there ought to be no opposition Others make liberty others call goods Priviledge but all agree that when he holds none of these he loseth the nature of a Prince and is an Enemy a Lycaon a Wolfe and with Lycaon or Nebuchadnezzar to be driven into the Wilderness till they know the most High reigneth over all the Kingdoms of the sons of men and giveth them to whom he pleaseth and that no Tribe Family Linage or other relation can engage a Duty but he will incline all hearts as he did in several cases among his own people Some Quaere this yet if it were so and surely God may do it for Judgement But O Kings Princes and all Supreams know while there is a body joyned to a soul your foul exorbitances will not be continually brooked but you having led the people into sins with you God will either punish you together or one by another therefore look not wholly to the ingageing the conscience of your people while yours have no bounds yet this is certain Providence is allowable in difficult cases and doubful if we be in bivio in a streight at a loss and Reason and Religion both seem silent or speak not out plain enough Providences following just means is a warranting sign of approbation of the righteous God But in things evidently against the light of Religion setled Law and good Reason Providences I say onely so and most men expect no further assure not at all Yet if effected and setled we must obey but till then it is our duty to oppose which clears us of Turcism By this it is clear and evident That for any Nation to make an other its pattern meerly from Similitude is no way warrantable but their several conditions in all regards not onely of Nature but of civil Reason is to be considered lest we swerve into the puddle of confusion while we seek the pure streams of Government walking upon the slippery bank of Providence These general heads passed which will to some clear all the rest yet to all men of all capacities to which general sort 't is most fit for me to speak to I intend this Treatise We come now to see how particular men in their own free Nations may become absolutely bound or more or less Now to this it is plain that as Nations may acquire power over Nations so men over men yet the generalty of Nations Christian have avoided slavery so called of Christians but why they should do it to others is not apparent except onely in the disuse and that disuse come from the evil of servants multiplying to danger as shall be made apparent afterwards But now as some offences become dangerous to life some to liberty some to goods and some to honor some for a time some for ever as the Law is so are priviledges of men lost or regained and that justly As the Romane Mutineers some banished into Sicilia and never suffered to return some but for seven years some untill released by the Senate as they were guilty in degrees just as now they are by Act made uncapable of office for one two or more years or for ever at the liberty of the Supream Magistrate and surely such penalties will if prudently improved prove the greater incentives to trust and politique vertue Now as particular men are indulged so are Nations and by faithfulness or necessity are incorporated into Free Societies as Wales was with us by which you have the wayes of regaining freedom made plain the justice of them is before discussed but the right of particular men while acted in due course of Law how ever usurped upon affords little matter at least at first to raise objections against the Supremacy of power This asserted to clear all things if it may be we will briefly consider the nature of subjection Whether Subjection and Obedience be due to the Person or to the Power Whether it be local or universal and how conscience binds BY what hath been said before it plainly appears that the Law doth and must distinguish betwixt the Office and Person of a Monarch King c. and all other Supreams upon the like ground by attributing to them properties incompatible or no way agreeing with the person not onely ubiquity and immortality but also infallibility in their Sphears that is not to be able to do wrong while observing their rule this might be enough ro some men if interests had not made us wise to destruction Therefore to the opposers we may seem to look back a little by resolving conscience more clearly That the interest of Princes by all means seeking to avoid the eternal decree of altering Kingdoms at the pleasure of the Almighty by setting up and pulling down at his pleasure seeking to tie the Subject to blinde obedience as well in the universality as particular persons without hesitation simply because commanded is not held forth so much to assure the quiet of the people as to exalt the absolute power of Princes to the dishonor of God and thraldom of Nations And as before either power or consent giving this power the same respectively may take it away except it be a special Ordinance of God which few if any do attempt to make good neither can that Rule upon any ground Scriptural
malice of the enemy subtil to deceive they generally drive at two things Community and Parity the one against the Tyranny and Oppression c. of great men in power the other against the covetize selfishness luxuriousness c. of rich men Now these things O you great and rich men do most assuredly as you rightly conceive tend to mutiny to nourish feuds and envyings betwixt the multitude and you All that I say is remedy not these evils by worse you know what Beast you have to deal with it s of such stomack and force that Prudence must have the honour of the management if you subdue know its but by a part of the Beast you must admit the Allusion and what in the winding up hath been the issue of these things the Pretorians at Rome the Mamelucks in Aegypt and others now testifie Consider therefore what you have to do God hath set all these as signs and tokens to you if you fall the evil is of your selves your improvidencies lightnesses and instabilities your odd and incertain followings of providences evidence your fears those your doubts those the error of your principle all things work contrary O that every interest now could lay it self down at the foot of Jesus and say I part with all for thee and then take up all it hath as from him and of his gift and be ready to part with it to morrow Should we then live as we do now How many would then give to the poor to day lest they should have nothing to give to morrow How would they then not delight in luxurious Apparel Housholdstuff c. wherein multititudes of riches lie dead and buried lest another should enjoy them to morrow I know this to some melancholy spirit may give occasion to think I aim at or give too great footing to Community and Parity for they should in such contemplations cast away all but I speak to the setled Christian who knows its lawful to use the world but all in due order and as its lawful to recreate but spend more time in prayer then in playing so it s lawful to rejoyce in and to have that we may rejoyce in outward blessings but glorifie God with a greater portion to the poor then thy superfluity amounts to I intend a due and just reproof to excess and prodigality Keep not all horses and doggs some poor not all in cloathing thy self some to the naked and thy self with moderacy and yet if thou dost these things thou meritest not Heaven but thou avoidest the scandal of men Now that this is not done is the fault of the Magistrate O Watchman its thy duty but thou settest up for favor and by-respect lazie idle and ignorant and some evil Watchmen therefore the work is not done and that thou mighest trust these thou madest thy Law to extend to each matter or so intendest and this was for two reasons one that fools or any might not err for the Letter was their guide the other that they that would abuse their power might not and by this not having each week a new Law as occasion grew Justice and Government is lost for act by these particular Laws who can in one hundred thousand things justly requiring remedy The poor are thus sold for less then a pair of old shooes If you would give a remedy to this authorize some few or many who shall examine and determine all actions by or against any person not worth an hundred pounds for no Tryal can be under twelve pound and the eighth part of all a man hath indeed of the thing in controversie to be spent in trial of whether my horse be mine or thine my knife nay the sheath of that knife is a woful thing in a Christian Commonwealth I shall not declaim against it but onely say its contrary to the worst of Heathens proceedings I intend not to make the wound wider while I desire healing the difficulty seems to be onely to perswade men this is a wound I have been as lenytive and gentle in opening this Orifice of the ulcer of the Law and its practise as may be I acknowledge it my Profession not my Practise and I account this according to the Head Rule of Englands Law rather the Practise then the Principle the error of Custom and interest from men then of the Law I hold forth nothing for Law which is treated of in the Laws of England but according to the general rule of that Law holding nothing contrary to the Law of God or just reason to be its Rule all which I am ready to all or any particular to manifest when ever called thereto And now I come to speak one word to the people You are of many sorts and many interests you have but as I find the worst and wickedest as educated professing Christianity I advise you first to labour as such to approve your selves you have its probable been most of you Baptized the Covenant is indelible after once you have I say not been Rebaptized or Baptized with the Spirit but owned that Covenant in the name Baptism you are a debtor to the Lord Christ of all the duties of the Gospel This then O poor Christian goes far it s the Magistrates duty to rule well so 't is thine to obey well 'T is the same with you as with the people in Christs time when the great and powerful men speak the Law and hold forth duties of Righteousness do as they say however they do It s the Magistrates duty to hear and receive in a right way just things from you and by the implicite Reason of power onely to vote them unreasonable and scandalous is unsatisfactory but if they do so remain you in your integrity break not out against them untill the Lord shall open a way he will do it in his due time go on and satisfie thy soul in thy own righteousness I say so Comfort thy self in the mercy of thy God who hath given thee to see others failings and though thy condition be poor and needy yet break not out This I say of this great scarcity which hath faln upon us wherein I believe many have perished yet the evil hath light on the rude stubborn disordered poor against whom mens bowels have been shut up walk therefore according to the condition wherein God hath set you exalt not your selves against great men no nor against rich men they will be too mighty for you poor and proud is a high judgement it brings misery with rejoycing I know many of your souls die within you when you see the wicked full their eyes stare with fat you wait upon God and your children famish yea many hence think God regardless so unjust at first at last deny him Fools know 't is his Wisdom he punishes or tries or both he punishes the body in the want of temporals for breaches of duty to thy brother neglecting the creature or abusing it and the Creator in it He tries
might be just but the way of undertaking disowned and they soon quelled by the valour and policy of the Lieut. General who had also with as much confidence as cunning strangled it formerly at Ware How warrantable all proceedings were I cannot at large here discuss but this is evident as souldiers they could not so dispute the matter but their way was unjust what ever their cause was as Subjects they could but Petition untill a lawful power or just necessity headed them This awhile obstructed the relief of Ireland together with some scattered scrupling objections as that the Land was theirs Originally ours by Conquest onely c. Which Arguments admitted would reduce us all to the mountain of Arrarat and make all Nations fight there if they could finde them till they had the possession which onely they could prove was the first indubitable rightful possession of their first Ancestor after the flood not that I think it lawful for one Nation to dispossess another at lust but possession anciently acquired is just till lawfully evicted and if the contest be drawn to the Swords decision it is at least lawful on the Conquerors part But really what ever appeared in it all these were but the stratagems of the defeated party of the King to foment if possible new quarrels among the Parliament party to give some new hopes to their dying yea dead-hearted cause who meeting with discontented hot and eager spirits were easily seduced yea so as to declare for the necessity of introducing the Son when themselves agreed to dethrone nay execute the Father and so far may men be seduced by false interests but some did highlier engage declaring the Parliament no Parliament and charging of some men eminently instrumental to their own design as absolute Traytors yea higher then the King deceased How things came to this height is not worthy the controverting here but this I must say the Author was a man of a high spirit and good natural parts a great sufferer for the common Cause and promoter of it but in stead of reward expected sleighted in what was acknowledged to him as duly merited and upon mistakes as he avowed imprisoned by his own party thus highly exasperated he engages a strong party with him who urging highly the failings of others by opening errors lay the seeds of new divisions as is objected against them and he is upon this miscalled or called the Prince or Ring-leader of the so called Levellers wherein I shall to clear all interests on foote speak a few words concerning Levelling and that both properly and improperly that is both as it holds forth a just Rule and is scandalized and an unjust end and therefore to be rejected and the contest is but the same of Satans old way of malignity There are just things held out under the name of Levelling which he would hide and his instuments therefore I beseech all holding forth a profession of Christianity to walk worthy of their high Calling to which they are called in the Lord Jesus not to expound take or receive things matters or persons into obloquie or honor for mens sake or because of Interest sake but according to the rule of our holy profession Levelling then may be considered first improperly and so injustly that is for a forcible taking away the property of rich men or men that have any property be it more or less Now this is divers as first under colour of a Title I take away the estate whether reall or personal of my neighbour and will by no means come to either restore or arbitrate the business but knowing the Law as now used will afford a debate lasting and a trick may overthrow as aforesaid my neighbours just right and if he be but poor or patient he will be quickly disheartened and I shall gain my end and injoy as justly even by colour of Law what was with detestable injury forced from another this was the great beam in some mens eyes and called legal Levelling the most unjust of all if truth it be so which is much feared being in all mens mouthes The next unjust Levelling was a Tenet that the poor had an interest in the Commonwealth as well as the rich and that every man ought to have his portion and that the great rich men having hoarded up the Treasure and joyning house to house and field to field they had so much care for the private that the publike was neglected yea that the immoderate heaping of estate was unlawful and that there ought to be a proportion above which no man might rise and to remedy these evils they would have all estates cast into a common stock and the land at least divided equally and surely they had a great president in a famous Commonwealth which twice in a short space for such a Revolution or I am deceived did such an Act but the Common-wealth was Heathen and I know no Rule for us to walk by their example unless the Word of God allow it The next unjust Levelling is by forcing not an equality of division but a perpetual community as supposing all evils to grow principally from the infatiable thirst after riches therefore these propound Not now to apportion estates and after to settle propriety and admit buying selling and transmutations of possession and so an alteration of the first settlement by degrees but to vest the whole interest in the body of the people and to settle allowances first for exceeding vertue as Magistrates and all for eminent excellencies imployed in publike trust according to their set and unalterably appointed degrees and next for the multitude according to a like set and unalterable proportion except by the publike Magistrate appointed respect being duly had unto the number and condition of Age or Youth and other qualifications according to the plot laid down in that exquisite piece of Sir Tho. Moore intending as I conceive the perfect Idea of a Commonwealth according to the rule of Nature perfected by Evangelical Doctrine and sure it is were such a State from a voluntary and unfeigned desire of well and righteous living voluntarily established it were an earthly Paradise and that it is not impossible the pattern of the Lacedemonian State overcomming the most difficult parts of it plainly declares But its thought fit not the powers onely but the body are to be convinced of such things moderately and wisely not by indiscreet agitations much less perturbations of a State they are to be left to their judgements God will effect assuredly such things as he hath determined in his appointed season Another Levelling here called unjust that is from error continued or by force attempted as was objected some so pretending being instrumental in renewing wars and to cause out breakin gs is in them who were thought happily to settle or attempt the settlement of their own private frame of Commonwealth by such means but truly though some assist and others more wise declare themselves not
experience hath proved it sufficiently a plentiful portion then settle Tythes encrease Gleabs build Monasteries c. and there is another portion Colledges and Halls I will reckon to them then Physicians and Merchants so that if you seek due Reformation you will make each one your enemie and the whole world will be against you and nothing but confusion can be ushered in by the pretended Reformation you will have Parliament City Countrey Lords Gentry Comminalty and all against you nay if you will purge throughly you must alter the whole course of all commerce For there is no Traffique according to a rule of Righteousness Let Errors as they came by degrees so by degrees be reduced pull out a crazie stone but put in a good one the contrary party objected that this was to dawb with untempered Morter not to serve God but themselves that it was to pretend to do good and do evil that this was the Error of the King and the two first Parliaments that they had upheld following providence to mount into the Carr of Government that they had dared enough then against all interests Kingly Parliamentary Countrey and City by their executing Charls and imprisoning the members Garrisoning the City Quartering in the Counties Thus were matters bandied and some parties grew so fierce as anger is alwayes a short madness that they did they knew not what which yet testified that their anger was selfish others more wisely wrote but unwisely in that they remembred not they stirred a Lyon they depended so much upon their first engagement to the Parliament that they thought they might have said any thing Let truth bear sway she alwayes carrieth a Majesty and will prevail but many tell truth some with upbraidings and revilings some with cursings and others almost all with bitterness truth is ashamed by these frailties and suffers for a weak servants sake But these men concealed their names and though some wise men did so yet their writings were such as could not justly be traduced for scandall or sedition and these men neither owned their names when their books were most acceptable nor in times most dark and dangerous but some of these others owned them sometimes otherwhile they denyed them whereby they were suspected of no great integrity others did openly own their works in times of great danger under the King and also under the Parliament yea even when they opposed them in their highest priviledges some debating one thing some another yea some against the publike transactions of the State and some for a general liberty of all opinions and printing and publishing which to be setled with safety to the State and no prejudice to the light of truth is a matter difficult but of importance not to be neglected they also urged to the men in power the hand of God upon the Nation how introduced that the same or worse evils were now upon us our Courts of all sorts having changed rather their Judges then their justice that Committees were worse rather then ordinary Courts as being made of those persons who were the supream Judges and they erring all the inferiour wheels might well move out of order And proceedings in Parliament were the same so difficult dilatory and so expensive that men were even tired in body as in spirit they did acknowledge the greatness and difficulty of the work they considered interests and yet they thought there was not that expedition or integrity requisite to so high trusts in such a season of judgement And this was evidenced by the expedition in matters of interest private so called that is to the assurance of the acquired Supremacy and raising the due assessments but not in the general settlement as was propounded this draws some men to that piece so called the Agreement of the people a thing which were the people capable of such a work might if rightly stated be of great availe but indeed to put into the hands of so vast a multitude of such divers interests and that without an assured and competent number to carry on the work which in probability they neither had nor could have had without imploying the Sword-men which in it self had totally ruined the nature of an Agreement had unravelled all the work and set us as far back as at the beginning but that the propounders of it were turned recreant to their principles some particular man might or had joyned interest with the Royall party I cannot beleeve it But I suppose really they were by that party and some others of eager spirits it may be really longing and breathing after Righteousness and setling the Kingdom of Jesus Christ I fear yet in their own strength encouraged to go on in their design which some of them politickly saw tended to divide and that was to let them raign but surely these Royal instigators were men of lost condition for what could the issue have been but renewing a more deadly and confused warr for the multitude being by this Act publikely appealed to and that by the sole existent power Civill they must have assumed the absolute supremacy into the meer vulgar Ocean and sooner can you set bounds to the Ocean then their appetites This foreseen this piece was after long debate with much wisdom for the present cast into the number of Petitions Remonstrances c. of Parliament to be by their mature advisements qualified fit for propagating common interest in due time but this obstruction imbittered the more and made some spirits under concealed or not owned names to set abroach the failings errors and miscarriages of all the Members in Parliament or else scandalize them and pinching still the ablest and activest they hoped to foyl so that some soyle should remain though most would not gain credit Far be it from me pretending integrity to assert what I know not but I must hope the Charges against some men if not the most are meerly suggestions of envy to eminent vertue for I see great things done by them and their words are sweet as honey Truth is I am not so blind neither but I can see and hear that favour and friendship is the Mistress with the State as it was at Court and oppression and covetize is not banished Englands Commonweale but I must say that retorted is as true namely that it is incident to men neglected to complain and so to men oppressed I would allow an equall and speedy tryall according to my rule even to my deadliest manly enemy the want of this hath much exasperated many and gained none cordially Now in all this enarration you say what coherence is there 'twixt Christ and his Doctrine his professors and their conversation had we not better have sate still How many thousands nay ten thousands hath this Warr cost as in the Kingdomes account is evident But I cannot agree the Doctrine it was necessary to purge it is evident there was need and great need of Reformation let not the particular errors
fellow creatures Enforce unjust men to cast away the masque of hypocrisie in simulations of Piety and vertue to gain advantage to savage gripings and extortions If you cannot allow the heights of the Gospel-Liberty allow us but a just settlement upon the evident principles of natural equity or ruled by to avoid contests the Mosaical Judicials as the boundary or prescribe your own way this will admit satisfaction to many interests and if rightly regulated none in themselves corrupted else we deny our holy Profession For the grace of God that brings salvation unto all men hath appeared And it teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and that we should live righteously soberly and godly in this present life Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the mighty God who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purge us to be a peculiar people to himself zealous of good works Now these good works are shortly laid down in the Gospel thus in obedience to Principalities and powers c. and that not onely Kings but inferior Magistrates yea Husbands Parents Masters yea to Teachers Elders c. or any sett over them of or in the Lord taking care for all sorts of persons in the relations political both Publike and Domestick and also in spiritual Its truth the qualifications of Magistrates under the Gospel are not directly spoken unto in the Gospel which gives a ground to some to altercate whether Magistracy may be under the Gospel But Generals may sometimes be gathered from particulars the principal scope t is true of the Gospel shews the worlds enmity with the Spirit and the special enmity rests in the Princes Powers c. These are the men with their carnal interest But the Powers simply considered cannot by that be opposed for because I will not admit an evil Magistrate that is a terror to the good shall I not allow him that is a terror to the bad because it was a shame that the Corinthians went to Law before Heathen Judges shall each one do what is right in his own eyes No St. Pauls Let 's not sin that grace may abound includes much And so that qualification of an Elder of a Church those mental excellencies soul-beautifyings of a spiritual Ruler no Mitre Crown Bells Pomegranates Breast-plate Ephod c. are to be allowed no outward blemish Though that was admitted among some Bishops of the Primitive Church is now just exception If such purity in Elders for the Church then surely also for the State by this all the Typed Mosaical qualifications and more also are required Indeed the words are mean and low but the meaning is transcendent I shall therefore shortly according as the grace of God gives me give a short essay to the principles of a Christian Government and resolve most of these Quaeries which here seem but barely controverted without determining I truely faint under the burden knowing my own weakness and the mighty wisdom which I know in some whom I cannot believe think an alteration necessary while they have accepted so great places of honor and profit in what I must think wholly corrupt and the world calls the prophane Commonwealth or Babel in the Magistrate that is they are feared principally to adore the Amusive part of Justice in the formalities of Robes as Judges Caps Furrs Blacks Serjeants Gowns c. the same with Rochets Caps Hoods Gowns Tippets Surplices c. So for Officers of Courts so for Appeals the same for dependances upon the Supream Magistrate in degrees by way of variety of Courts Officers c. as in the Bishops course from the Chancelors and Arch-Deacons Courts to the High Commission So in the Presbyterian way according to the course of the Sanhedrim from the Parishional to the National Assembly All which hath in it but a form of Justice and is delusory necessaries I admit but no more I affect not the Laconick harshness nor the Stoical superstition nor the Anabaptistical confusion nor the Persian pomp and vanity Yet I think it was the more honor for the Greeks that they were learned valorous and free though with little pomp or ostentation then to the Barbarians that they were pompous and bondslaves rich but had nothing their own cowardly and ignorant obedient even to shadows an Ape or Hound of the Kings in the formality should have ruled them as well as the King himself for they were ignorant I would therefore have Order to prevent confusion Obedience flow from Knowledge in civil things as from Faith in divine yet all for conscience sake otherwise the Law will never go further then half way and that will rule and perswade where no Promoter or Officer of State can Therefore I say pretending to a Christian Commonwealth I there explode all bare Forms they are above them necessary Forms are admitted for they must be but Forms of bare interest cannot will not Happily you will say This will put the Magistrate to a demur whether then he should have two Forms to govern by in the same Nation but that Quaere will be useless For it is intended the Christian Magistrate should wave all those Amusions and onely in the power of Righteousness do Iustice keep the Law of God with his whole heart make it his study and due execution of Law and propagating the knowledge of it in an easie civil Chatechistical way will soon shew that Form is a very Idol no more then the Goddess Opinion to which I fear not to say they sacrifice who so much exalt Form Now know Forms are also in delayes as not to give Iudgement in a plain Case of Law the same day it is complained of it is Custome not Form to weep lamentably upon the Bench at the giving sentence of death when this passion arises not from compunction of soul but weakness of Spirit and this weakness is evidenced by no care for soul after sentence past It is then therefore suspected to tend specially to self interest Truly our sweet Fountains of Iustice are imbittered we looked with the Prophet for Iustice but it s turned into mourning for Righteousness but behold a Cry the excessive Fees of all sorts the Selfish formal hearings the dilatory attendances the usual squeesing griping Officers as Undersheriffe Baillffs Registers Clerks c. all continued whereby the poor is sold for nothing and Iustice at the rate of Customs and Clerks Fees which I nor no man can call a bribe O you that sit in Seats of Iustice beware the Lord hath a controversie with the mighty and to pull down those in his glory he doth it in Iustice and his Iudgements are true good intentions so called will not excuse before him that searcheth hearts yea to the dividing of soul and spirit Know this you great men if you seek to uphold any interest against the Lord it will down yea your own hands shall work your own overthrow you may have seen it in