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
given the swaying of the great affaires of your Kingdome to private and inferiour persons who have brought forth instead of Noble and Righteous Lawes a brood of low jugling tricks a rabble of Monopolies Pattents and such brats True thou hast exactly served thy personal relations a loving Husband a tender Father a constant Friend but hast been short in thy Office as a Prince the greatnesse of a KINGS heart hath been shrunke up and withered into the nature of a private man And thy private and Domesticall state hath drowned thy Publike and Royall As thou hast been defective in love and faithfullnesse so in sufficiency and ability of a Head Thou hast not dwelt with her as a man of knoweldge There hath been in the Nation many high and strong workings of spirit towards a greater perfection in Religion and Justice which though mingled with many unholsome vaporus and clog'd with great weaknesse might by an able head have been digested the evill being purged out into good spirits advantagious for the further grouth and increase of the body These are spilt and for want of wisdome to manage them the Kingdome spilt with them This Nation was of a fruitfull and teeming constitution apt to bring forth gallant and noble increase of light knowledge government great improvement in vertue which you in weaknesse of fear and jealousy laboured to stifle and in a superstitious opinion of former times confine this age to their example And being shy and not understanding the waies of God have left the body to her self or to other persons whence ariseth this hideous and misshapen birth in Church and Common wealth This universall disorder and confusion which the wisdome only of the Head and Father of the family can or could prevent I le but adde this one When thou hadst provoaked thy Parliament into a distemper by thy mis-government and estrangeing thy self from her then un-naturally un-Kingly irrationally un-christianly to forsake her betake your selfe to force an act so full of folly revenge so unbelieving so unlike God as along time durst not look up would not bee confest This cropt the sweet flower of Englands peace broke that great vein from whence such streames of bloud have flowed In sum The majesty justice mercy and goodnes of the great God hath not been held forth in thy Government but hid and buried in thee their appearing visibly in thee nothing but the weaknes inconstancy injustice and oppression of vile man Your evils have been great and so are your Judgements you are fallen into a deep pit of misery the chief offender and the chief sufferer great now in nothing but in losse and affliction You have slain the Kingly glory or the true glory of a King and therefore your Authority and dominion must needs die you have laboured to save an earthly greatnesse against Heavens displeasure the onely way to have it ruin'd to expose it to a multitude of stroakes of warth You have divided your self from your People your Parliament and so they become of a help a plague to you and are by others rent and detained from you You Idolized your Wife and friends and are therefore seperated from them Blasted and accursed in all your attempts Your Kingdome is full of miseries and you the Center of them all and must bear in all and for all Become the shame of the World by horrid confusion and distraction Deprived of all power of dominion Thy Revenue and dignity shared by others The majesty of thy Government like a Potters vessell dasht in peeces into Committees c. Thy Mame wounded yea buried under foul and black oblique become the scorne of Pampletters Thy Prerogatives and the highest priviledges of the Crown banded and tossed about the Kingdome in the mouthes and hands of common men When thou hadst left the Lord thy stabillity see what a race of misery thou hast run When thou didst leave the Parliament and wentest into the North Thy Sun set and another rose in England From that time its a dark night with majesty Kinglinesse is laid upon a sick bed and those Nobles gentlemen like blazing torches attending upon you All your waies then were weak faint sick-snatches at a Crown unnaturall and violent striving after a fading glory while your Kingdome lay wallowing in its own bloud At last the Lamp wants Oyle and Majesty dies and gives up the Ghost when you left your Regalia your Seal Crown Councel c. at Oxford now you indeed put of the state of a King and in the condition of a private person wander as a spirit in the Ayre till at last found in the North Apud inferos thrown amongst those leane hungry hagges the Scots who greedily devour this sweet morsel a King and in their ambitious and covetous lusts prey upon him Forced amongst those that he had little before proclaimed traytors and enemies to his Crown and dignity and were devils in his thoughts to him heer he is for a while tormented mockt with the title of a King but indeed a Captive nipt scurged and lasht with their rebukes tempted to blaspheme God in his own Royaltlty and at last valued at lesse then his quoin sold for mony into another hell He is resigned up into other hands Commissioners of the Parliament where he is again to be squeesd and wrackt by Propositions to give up the heart of Regall power ground tween the Milsiones of both Nations not admitted to come to his Parliament but Holdenby thrust into a corner while others frolick in his Dominion Now hurried into another hell snatched out of this as too honorable and taken away by agitators and common souldiers They must have their turn to vex this peece of misery They that had often chased him pursued him with death he must be their prey and be carried about as Army baggage They now will have the moulding of him and will cut out a new garnent of Royalty to cover his nakedness But t is shrunk in the making and they have disposed of the cloth to their own turnes Poor wretch frighted from hence by a new and strange fiend to Regallity Levellers and after another Pilgrimage he arrives at the Isle of Wight where he is again Imprisoned Labouring to please his masters studying how to content all parties and seeking favour and relief of all not forbearing being in great torment to ask the Levellers a drop of water to coole his tongue At last the pit shuts her mouth upon him in the Parliaments Votes to make no more addresses to him which is confirmed by the power of the Army and so forever rejected as an abominable thing never to be medled with Chap. V. Shewing the Parliaments errors WHen the King had involved himselfe in difficulties and weary of toyling to extaicate himselfe hee seeks at length to lay down his head in the lap of the Parliament and to seek help of his owne Spouse to compose the disorders of his Family And the
Parliament appeares at first assisted by a lovely and sweet Angell as the tender Mother of all our liberties as the womb in whom our Civil rights lay as Jerusalem that is from above the Mother of us all having the face of Jesus a saviour from all our troubles speaking nothing but a generall and universall love and a care of all as a rich treasury full of all blessings that might make us happy But that Angell leaving her she quickly discovers her weaknesse and inability and sinks into confusion under her sins and Divine displeasure Your evils are against Christ against the King and against the People Chiefly against your Fundamentall Law Christ the Sonne of God who is in you and with you and you know him not yea deny him and in expresse words scorne his Spirit You some times profess for the Kingdome of Christ but do indeed put him to open shame burying the Wisdome Beauty Righteousnesse of Christ and holding forth visibly nothing but an abominable heap of folly disorder and unrighteousnesse you are indeed the seat of all the fullnesse of Christ the house of God where God would dwell and so a body of Heavenly wisdome religion justice goodnesse and everything that is Excellent But you have departed from this principle yea wholly kild it and walk after the imaginations of your owne hearts after the customes of men yea worse after the will and minde of others not following the stable rule The Lord you are become subject to People City Scots Army any And having lost the true life and spirit of a Parliament the presence and Majesty of God you are become a dead Idol standing in the power of darknesse in direct opposition to God This poor empty name this vanity do you with all your might maintain zealous for your Priviledges as if all happinesse lay in them and while you labour to uphold them you doe most destroy them selling your selves for relief in any danger to any that can but seeme to help you making your selves cheap and common mercenary and so the great betrayers of your own rights In your rebellions against the holy God you have trodden in the steps of your Father the King and in his may see your own iniquities But particularly You are guilty of hipocrisy and deceit in that great pretence of Reformation seeing such a spirit acting in the People to keep them sure to you and by that to gaine advantage against your adversaries you assume this title The Cause of God and Reformation without either love to it or judgement to know how to go about it T is known you are men your selves unreformed men of corupt and loose lives and that whereupon yon insist most you are most guilty of Arbitrary power every one being in dispose of his estate a Tirant and wracking Tennants according to his own will which is the generall sin of the Nation every one labouring to oppresse others to advance himselfe And since you came together walking in a continuall course of illegall and arbitrary power You are grosly ignorant of the Heavenly Kingdome The true Patterne out of which the Kingdome was taken and form'd and into which it must bee Reformd As you want judgement so want you power having trampled under your feet the power and Spirit of Christ your Ordinances are all spiritlesse weake and despicable But having layd this Egge of Reformation you make this use of it When you want an Army to help you you carry it to Scotland to bee hatched there and thence it brings forth an imperfect earthy crawling Cockatrice Presbytery which never yet did any good but vex the Nation and help your friends to get into fat livings And because you want the help of active men heer of different judgements they sit upon the Egge and bring forth liberty of conscience and with it a monstrous heap of mis-shapen errors and opinions which you cannot suppresse by conviction nor dare restrain by power The Church t is true was extreamly corrupted full of tyranny darknesse worldly pride and great disorder But you have brought nothing to it but utter ruine and defacement Not having that Spirit of judgement and burning to seperate twixt the precious and the vile in Episcopacy c. you have in a blinde conformity with Scotland and to supply your own needs of their lands untterly demolisht all Your errors against the King are not following your foundamentall constitution He a Husband you his body he a Father you a Son Hee being plunged in his government and in necessity he cals you together and seeks your help which was a fair opportunity for you by fair carriage and dutifulnesse to regain his restranged heart but you grow upon his necessities and in stead of insinuating into him by love you at first rigidly and harshly capitulate for priority and priviledge and fell into a violent and illegall forcing the sword the Militia out of his hands a strange and un-naturall contest having no other bottom but jealousy and feare of suffering for the Wife or Sonne to disarme the Husband or Father You have unkindly unjustly requited his error who would have Reigned without you made you ciphers and kept the substance of Government from you You deal so with him would take all power from him and leave him to be a state ceremony a great nothing a gaudy thing set out with Titles for pomp and fashion sake to be looked upon a servant having power to doe neither good nor hurt And that which every man as a man contends for to be Arbitrary or to have the exercise of his will without which we are the greatest slaves in the World that is wholly denied him in Government Your endeavours is to imprison the Throne to infeeble your Lord and disable him from doing the Kingdome any good such an empty weak thing would be a heavy curse to the Nation a dishonour and shame to you and that which you would quickly be weary of T is most true you have Royalty in you in the second place being bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh the expresse image of his person but to set up this above the head or by this to thrust out the other is falshood and disloyalty to your head That any thing in you should live in distinction from or opposition to your head and Father t is to commit Adultry with your selves or shadow of your Lord to fashion up a notionall King amongst your selves When he was departed from you you should even to death have followed him and not rejoyced in his absence and shut the door upon him all jollity mirth and confidence in his going was un-naturall Then your civill life and glory went and it had been your way to have lost your selves with him or to have sat as widow till you had recovered him When there was in him a minde of returning as at Notingham you should then have opened your hosomes to him but having possession of all in
quarters which threatens famine upon you Squeesd by taxes wrack'd with war the anvill indeed of misery upon which all the stroakes of vengeance fall A wofull Nation once the freest people in the world now the veriest slaves slaves not to one but to many Masters and those many of various and different tempers by whom you are forced to be sometimes one way sometimes another And the Church which is the joy of Saints strangely confounded that none almost knows his owne or his Neighbours Religion in such a mist of darknesse are you Chap. VIII Shewing the wickednesse of the Ministry or Clergy and their judgement THe Clergy so called have a great hand in the evills of these times and require an especiall discovery But I purpose more fully herafter to open the state of the Church and to shew the particular evils and good of every sect with their defects the reason of their difference and so reduce them all to their proper place and order which is the true vniformity And therefore shall only at this time take notice of them briefly and as respecting these evill distractions The Clergy are deeply concernd and especially eyed by Divine justice a corrupt generation and horribly departed from their Lord and Rule Christ The Son of God the Prophet the Prest the Bishop is the life original and true patterne of al Ministry And there is no true office that Christ doth not constitute by his owne presence nor no right dispensation of that office if Christ himselfe do not administer and be the thing administred and therefore all others are Antichristian and Babylonian In whom the Spirit and power of the Holy Anointing lives not It s true that the Clergy of England all sorts of them that have appeared upon this preset stage Episcopacy Presbytery and Independency have their particular excellencies from particular Angels assisting them The Bishops grave Magisteriall Authoratative Honourable and having imprinted upon them a dark and earthly form of Christ The great Bishop and of him in his Lordly or Royall priest-hood as he is exalted The Presbyters being laborious painfull zealous earnest affectionate carrying an image of the Elders and Apostles of the Church The Independent delighting in a more particular and intire union with his people of greater strictnesse and exactnesse and personal care of his flock is more truely in the Pastors or Teachers place But they are all earthly and carnall darkning the true light of Christ in their ministry and holding forth the name of Christ but not the power but their owne parts opinions readings humane and weak affections yea have wickedly departed from their Master and do not worship in the Temple in Heaven in the new Jerusalem but in Aegypt and Babylon of this world where the Lord is crucified and stand at a distance from and enmity to the Spirit of Christ They professe Christ in their way that is in enmity to him they professe they are not with him nor he with them glory in their shame which is a Worldly and a Devillish life They are ignorant of heaven came not from heaven are not in heaven neither returne they to heaven they judge not things in the light of heaven nor know things as they are in the booke of life the Scriptures of truth as they are in the Spirit of God but as they are written and spoken of in the world and so are blinde guides and have led the blinde people of this Nation into a ditch of destruction on all sides Their great unlikenes to Christ appeares in these things First Christ is Anointed with the Spirit of God he is sent of God he comes from the Father Hath all power given him in Heaven and Earth But these men all of them derive not their ministry but from men at best according to the outward fashion of the letter of the Word and so from Paul c. and that they follow most lamely and so far only as serves their turne taking indeed their ministry themselves from their earthly Fathers according to the customes and traditions of men therefore have no power at all but the power of their own reason which being weaknes it self they presently run to the power of the Magistrate and strengthen themselves with that whithout which they are most contemptible and despisable things The Bishops take away the King and what becomes of them The Presbyters if the Parliament fail they fall into the ditch Secondly Christ emptied himself and became of no reputation took upon him the form of a servant but these men are one all sides stickling for worldly greatnesse contending by all waies of cunning and policy to raise themselves to the highest point of preferment in their severall spheres pleading for their honour from the People urging and forcing from the People respect to the Ministers each party in their seasons labouring might and main with blood to uphold that interest in the Nation that they have gotten and pressing upon mens consciences to fight for Religion which is their means places honours and safeguards Thirdly Christ fore-told and desired his sufferings The Baptisme that he was to be baptized with But these men never knew their own or the Kingdomes sufferings to give or take warning but fild with the visions of their own hearts prophesie pleasing things in their seasons The glory of the Church blessed times great and wonderfull things And if their sufferings hath been declared to them by God they would not hear it but as Peter in his satanicall pride Master be it far from thee and when they had gotten into the mount of Court and Parliament favour then they cry It s good to be heer abhorring the thoughts of suffering And would be reigning upon the Throne before they touch upon the Crosse These carnall Gospellers are in all their thoughts enemies to the Crosse of Christ 4. Christs Ministry was glory to God on high on Earth Peace c. But these mens is glory to themselves and to their King and their Parliament and for want of this a sword fighting like Satans Priests Preaching and speaking the fire of their rage Pulpit incendiaries pronouncing curses and judgements upon their brethren and so giving them up to the sword of one another Priests indeed not to offer up their honours places preferments and lives to purchase peace a Christ did and they should But have offered up the Kingdome a Sacrifice to their own blinde zeale and carnall lusts together In stead of standing in the gap have made a gap and increased the divisions of the times casting not water to quench but Oyle to inflame the differences of the Nation not laying down their lives but seeking the lives of others to serve their ends Fifthly Your bitter and violent persecuting each other when you have gotten power into your hands You have been in your severall seasons the ruine of each other denying each other subsistance or the exercise of each others gifts Far from the love
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-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
receive law honour justice and protection from my selfe you shall now see the beauty sweetnesse and goodness of my government I le be a King to and in every one of you And I le reign over you in and by King Charles I will take him out of the prison of Satans darknesse out of the pit of the world from all his vilenesse of lusts of oppression coveteousnesse folly fiercnesse wrath and from all his shame and dishonour from his evill counsellers wicked spirits that have seduced him to evil into my bosome and turne his heart as a river of water It shal no longer be mudded with evill counsellers nor with pride coveteousnesse cruelty but run in a pure stream of Divine justice and goodnesse and so largely and plentifully that it shall flow forth freely upon you Righteousnesse shall run down your streets A fountain of honour as wel as justice that shal give reall true not titular honour to his People that shal stream forth Majesty and greatnesse as freely into the whole Nation as the Sun doth beames he shall freely communicate Royalty that it shal be every ones and every one shal live in the view and enjoyment of it and fully satisfied with it it being truly his own A King enlarged with the largenesse of God that comprehends all his People as the sands on the Sea shore and is an Ocean of goodnesse and righteousnesse to cover those sands whose Armes of love can at Once imbrace the whole Kingdome every party and person that carries every English man in his bosome That impartially wil communicate favour to every one according to his true worth and ability to receive it of large wisdome fil'd with the wisdome of God of quick and piercing understanding to execute judgement in all causes one living in the light of GOD shin'd upon with the Majesty of God that he shal not be deceiv'd by flatterers but shal scatter all such mists from before the Throne that of all places wicked men and wicked things shal fly from the Court and presence of the King Of such tendernes that he shall really bear the burthens of all his subjects and every mans trouble shal make him restlesse that cannot be fully content til he hath fully satisfied all the wants of his People That is all mildnesse and gentlenesse to his own People as a Father and terrible only to your adversaries whose indignation is bent continually against the enemies of his People and his childrens peace a Lion to them but a Lambe a Shepherd to you A Prince Mighty with the Mightinesse of God able to do you good mighty in word and deed able to save you and to destroy them that hate you A King that hath no joy or delight but the good and prosperity of his People T is your happynesse only that is his Crowne that knows no glory but a loyall and loving People that is King only to make you happy and your happinesse is his Kingdome or health and prosperity in the People grows up into a lively flower of glory a King or breaths out it selfe in his Majesty So the KING is the breath of our nostrils That is indeed a King Anointed by God by and in the grace of God that is covered over with Divine grace that is nothing but what God is and hath all the Kinglines of God shining in him With whom and in whom you shal nakedly see the face of Divine justice and in whom the glory of God doth take pleasure to shew it self and not as another from him but in perfect Vnion in truth and righteousnesse where there is nothing to seperate nor part the earthly from the heavenly King but the earthly is in agreement in covenant with the heavenly living together in the same Spirit The heavenly God being intire himself and the King intire himself yet both but one in true marriage and conjunction for ever a bond and covenant that never shall be broken the King in God God in the King The King is what God is and God is what the King is neither alone God all in him he all in God He that opposeth one opposth both hee that loveth one loveth both exclude one you exclude both deny one you deny both disobey one you disobey both This is heaven and earth married together in harmony and agreement and the King that once appeared an Image of God a shadow in which he was weak and which he hath dyed to and the evill and corrupt part left in the grave hee is raised up in the very substance in Vnion in Spirit in Truth in Eternall fellowship with GOD. Chap. XVI Of the Parliament in its Raised estate ALL things are made new a new King and a new Parliament a new Head and a new Body a Heavenly body a Host of Divine excellencies in which all the perfections of the Son of GOD shines An assembly or body of Christ The fullnes of him who fills all in all not only a company of weak men But this is thy new name The LORD is there GOD is with us Christ in glory in Majesty Highly exalted Thou in whom are hid The treasures of wisdome thou sittest in Councell to draw forth excellent Laws for us and to rule in the midst of us One chosen out of the People in which meet in one the life spirit and wisdome of heaven The LORD is here challenging the Kingdome to be his here is gathered the heads of the Tribes a congregation of the first borne the chief and choisest Saints and Angels collected and imbodied into one Son of God The LORDS Christ he saith I am here your flesh and blood one of you I 'le provide and constitute wholsome Laws for you in this Parliament And this Parliament taken out of all its filth and guilt out of all its madnesse and disfraction folly and confusion out of the hands of the envious man that divides destroies from under cursed darknesse violence and oppression from the Peoples woe and curse I 'le wash it and cleanse it and fill it with Majesty and goodnesse make it a mountain of holinesse a City of Righteousnesse Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Thou shalt no longer sit in darknesse Thy Sun shall go down no more thou shalt not stumble nor fall for want of light thou shalt not dash thy foot against a stone The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory The Sun of righteousnesse is Risen in thee with healing under his wings Thou now art Divine justice A habitation of justice where justice it selfe shal delight to dwell No unclean thing shall be found in thee living alwaies in the righteousnesse of Christ thou shalt be seperated from sinners blamelesse live in a hight of righteousnesse above accusation The Lord Our Righteousnesse The Saviour of the People thy walls shall be called salvation and thy gates praise sending forth saving health