away the greatest wrath of God from a people if it be generally and commanded by their King and Governours otherwise it will not avail for in King Charles his time by some the Sabbath was kept more exact then ever and specially more then it is now when Families are broken into several Opinions that there is hardly three in a great Family of one judgement and all might have so kept it for any thing that he declared against it but he did not declare for it soon enough and therefore wrath came from the Lord upon his people A man in King Charles his time could not pass along the streets morning evening or at night on the Sabbath but he should hear them in most houses reading repeating of Sermons singing Psalms and praying yea and every day they had prayers in their Families both evening and morning and now such things are out of use Also how beautiful a thing was it to see them go to Church in those dayes the Master went before the Mistress Children and Servants following with one consent surely then they were in the way of God if I can judge but now the Master goeth one way the Mistress another the Children and Servants another every one goeth several wayes and when they come home Mum is best for they can neither pray together nor speak any thing of God if they do there is a hot house presently with their damning and confounding one another God is not the Author of such confusion but of peace and concord 1 Chron. 14. 33. and how can there be religious Government or a keeping of the Sabbath in Families when the Church is without Government for if the Foundation or Church-Government be destroyed what can the righteous Masters of Families do Psal. 11. 3. they cannot say with Joshua 24. 15. We and our Families will serve the Lord for there is a power above them that will nor suffer them to bear a compleat rule in their own houses Esther 1. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22. The granting Liberty of Conscience was the overthrow of the late King for had he been severe to make all men keep holy the Sabbath he had not fallen and his tolerating men to use on that day their own Conscience and wills as they listed was his failing so that he and his lost all by it and now there is no way left to pacifie God's wrath but by fasting and prayer to seek the Lord in publick and private and specially to keep holy the Sabbath-day And to tell you which day is that day Bishop Bayley in the Practise of Piety doth witness from Scripture and Reason that it is the day commonly called Sunday and he gives you many instances of judgements on Towns and Persons that had profaned it And truely that Prophet for so I may call him foreseeing this judgement with an intention to prevent it directed his Book to King Charles But a lass that is nothing to what we can witness for the vindicating our Sabbath the Lord's day for we have seen since Kings and Kingdoms routed Parliaments and States destroyed and all for profaning that day Therefore now God hath resolved that Jews question so that it is without doubt our Sabbath and none but it is the Sabbath which God doth own Wherefore if you look to be saved of God strive and have a care to keep it holy and wait patiently upon the Lord we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6. 9. I know many good Protestant is now in Job's condition having his Family destroyed his House and Goods plundered and perhaps his Body smitten with sore Diseases besides his Friends being Independent Anabaptist or Presbyterian as Job's three Friends come to oppress accuse and condemn him falsly but Job for al this appeals to God for his integrity and saying through Faith that though his flesh should be destroyed and his body consumed yet that he did believe as many now in the same manner do believe that they shall see King Charles on his Throne and was assured that he should see his Redeemer in that very same body Job 19. 25 26 27. And you see God doth at last shew himself to Job and as his three friends were forced to have him pray for them Job 42. 5 6 7 8 9. so these that now condemn you as evil doers will be glad to lie at your feet and have you pray for them to God and also petition to the King for them But observe this vers. 10. that after Job had prayed for his Friends then and not afore God turned away his captivity and gave him twice as much as he had lost From hence learn thus much You that have suffered most are to pray earnestly to God for them that most wronged you then shall you be accepted of God for your selves and them Again you must likewise make their peace with the King for you onely are accepted fitted under God and none but you can do that and doing thus your captivity immediately upon it shall be ended and you shall have twice as much as you had before both of honour and riches I speak thus much in particular to you that were great ones if you do as abovesaid you will be far greater then ever you were And do this with all speed it will take but a little time if you be willing to do it but however do not despair wait patiently upon God until he frames your minde to do it for it is far from you to consent to what I say in these things David though anointed to be King of Israel notwithstanding the promise 1 Sam. 16. 1 13. it being deferred and he hotly persecuted he thought it would never be and that one day he should fall by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27. 1. and again said in his haste All men were lyars Psal. 116. 11. concluding that Samuel had erred in anointing him and in saying he should be King but at last when David came to be King indeed he confessed his error in being too hasty Psal. 31. 21 22 23 24. and exhorteth men in such cases not to be hasty but to wait patiently upon the Lord shewing that though sometimes he was hasty which was but folly yet most times he waited patiently upon the Lord Psal. 27. 13 14. Psal. 40. 1 2. A Reproof for Withers Walker and Lily THere hath been and there is certain ungodly men that devour this Nation by infusing into them the spirit of rebellion confusion and disorder Truely such men are no less then Witches 1 Sam. 15. 23. Gal. 3. 1. and of late yeers they have gained too much credit to the ruine of the Nation by setting the Subjects against the King the Church against the Bishops and Pastors the Wives against their Husbands the Children against their Parents the Servants against their Masters the Souldiery against their Commanders striving to set all in rebellion against God's Ordinances pretending to the
the death witness Saint PAUL who did all this insomuch that Saint PETER at last calls him Our beloved brother PAUL 2 Pet. 3. 15. Wherefore nowithstanding they have so violently persecuted your Royal FATHER to the death most glorious Soveraign upon their repentance receive your Subjects in love and mercy as your FATHER hath commanded you who went beyond any one Martyr because of his power and dignity and therefore his sufferings were greater and are morefull of glory which is to you an unspeakable joy full of glory through Jesus Christ who did enable him To the Son JESUS CHRIST be all Glory and Praise for ever and ever Amen In long-Ally at the entrance of Crown Court in Black-fryers March 23. 1654. Your faithful Servant in the LORD Arise Evans To the Reader Beloved THese things had been out in print before the last Christmass but that I had Visions to the contrary which shewed me that the King's party then had high hopes to prevail another way so that these things then would have been rejected but now I hope they are satisfied and see no good can come to them that way and that they will look upon this to be the most probable and the most excellent way for the King to come in and that this for that end comes out seasonably now and the Lord send his presence and blessing with it to his glory and our comfort So be it To the ROYALISTS Reloved YOU see in my little book called Voice of Michael the Arch-angel what Lines I have presented to his Highness the Lord PROTECTOR to shew him how God is for us And I believe and so doth his Highness give credit by all that I can gather from his deportment toward me He believeth also that what I shewed him came to pass On last Saint Michael's â—ay was the appearance of God for you and since the Almighty hath appeared for us insomuch now that his Majesty CHARLES STEWARD upon good terms may come to his Throne when he please And God forbid but that the QUEEN DUKE of York DUKE of Glocester and all the late KING's Children should come in upon the same Agreement and be highly honoured by this Nation if her Majesty leave Idolatrous Superstition and all other sins attending Courts in our days behinde her which the Lord of Heaven and Earth that beareth rule in this Nation cannot a bide I know nothing that hinders the KING at this time but a seeking of his Kingdom and shewing himself willing to agree with his Highness the Lord PROTECTOR and his Party Then let us praise God to whom onely be the glory of our Salvation by Jesus Christ and truely as you see by the above said book I have not spared them but roughly shewed them the Truth which albeit his Highness received not in wrath but as it is a sharp loving reproof to his and their honour be it spoken they received it with all readiness mildness meekness and clemency shewing to a discerning eye a willingness in them to perform what is required on their part provided that they have an Agreement suitable to their Worth and Valour of which Demands in reason they ought not to be denied by his Majesty CHARLES STEWARD Therefore having through God's assistance brought it to this pass left I should be unfaithful I shall God willing now speak a word of reproof unto you of the KING's party and chiefly to you who have not hitherto changed your habit of sin and cause of your misery yet you would have the Kingdom come with all haste and some of you are so violent that nothing will satisfie you but blood and treading down of such parties and especially upon such and such men as you fancy to be guilty you would have no mercy shewed And in all these things you are mistaken for they are so willing to do righteously and to have peace that they please God thereby And therefore neither you nor all Europe shall not be able to bring them down by force Truly let me tell you I think it is in vain for any to fight with these men in the field I know none that did attempt to fight them which got any thing by them but the humbling of their high and lofty Spirits And his Majesty the late KING was sensible of it and knew that he had chosen the wrong people for his Souldiers when he said of them Sect. 26. pag. 209. of his Book as followeth For the Army which is so far excusable as they act according to Souldiers principles and interest demanding pay and indempnity I think it necessary in order to the publick peace that they should be satisfied as far as is just no man being more prone to consider them then my self And though they fought against me yet I cannot but so far esteem that valour and gallaâ—try they have sometimes shewed as to wish I may never want such men to maintain my Self my Laws and my Kingdoms in such a peace as wherein they may enjoy their share and portion as much as any men And truly the King had great reason to wish such a wish when he had considered the carriage of both Armies for as the King's Army were generally given to swearing drunkenness whoredom with other such vain sinful lusts which to maintain such a course of life no small means will serve turn so that to maintain such lusts they wronged the Countries where they came which Countries observing the different dealing of both Armies and that the KING's Army made them who afore were really for the King to abominate such doings so that they all did joyne with the PARLIAMENT's Party against the KING which thing proved both his and his Armies ruine and indeed the ruine of all his Party Besides such men were the worst men for Souldiers as could be imagined for when they should be watching and alwayes in readiness one party was with their whores another drunk a third gaming a fourth plundering a fifth swearing and fighting one with another which things are destructive to an Army who should sanctifie themselves specially at such times Deut. 24. 9. but when they were got together though they would fight most gallantly at a single duel or at an Ale-house yet such men are never good in the field specially when they come to encounter with a people whom they think do seek the Lord and fear him and live civilly then the fear of God's wrath and of death commonly makes them run away or else their ambitious Commanders strive for honour till time be past when indeed they should go on by lot Judg. 1. 1 2 3. and if they chance to do an exploit they too soon fall a plundering that seldom but at the last they come to lose all again These things the late KING understood and experience did witness it to him But the PARLIAMENT-Souldiers were men of another temper and though of divers Opinions yet they went out of zeal in rage and fury to fight against
raise you above the meditating of any revenge or executing your anger upon the many the more conscious you shall be to your people the more prone you will be to expect all love and loyalty from them and to inflict no punishment upon them for former miscarriages You will have more inward complacency in pardoning one then in punishing a thousand And again saith he for those that repent of any defects in their duty toward me as I freely forgive them in the word of a Christian King so I believe you will finde them truely zealous to repay with interest that loyalty and love to you which was due to me c. And dear Soveraign many such exhortations to press you to offer a free pardon to all and not to seek to be revenged on any ye have in his Book and last Speech to you Now I say If a Subject had been murthered and that his sonshould forgive all the murtherers yet the Law hath a power in it to put them to death for their actings in murthering his Father notwithstanding his son's remittance because his son is not a competent Judge in the cause But in a King in whom is the life of the Law it is not so for in any Case and especially his own Case he may forgive what he will and that must stand for Law because he is a compleat Judge so that his word by the Law is made to be above the Law as we see in Cases of Remittance for after that many have been cast to die by the Law the King's pardon hath saved them and whosoever denieth this denieth the King's Prerogative Royal. Again I say There is a distinction between Martyring and Murthering for a Martyr offereth himself for the defence of the Truth of God as our Savicur saith John 10. 17 18. He layeth down his life none properly can be said to take it from him because he hath power to lay it down and to take it up again else he is not a Martyr but the life of him that is murthered is violently taken from him that though he would live upon any terms he may not live and he cannot help it And your Royal Father understanding this did not say at his death nor as you have it in his Speech to you that he was murthered but said that he was martyred Therefore he that saith he was murthered doth not onely deny him to be a Martyr but doth also denie both his power and pardon and belyeth him for he did never pardon any for wilful murther yet pardoneth all these men being his own enemies looking not on them as his murthereres but as they wilfully yet ignorantly did slay him and he would have you to pardon them in like manner Your Royal Father following Christ Jesus in it who as he was a King and a pattern to all Kings for the future times had an eye to his Perogative Royal thus that he gives order to his Apostles concerning them that had put him to death that if they did repent his blood should not be required of them and we see Peter proceeds with them accordingly for after he had shewed the Jews how they had slain the Lord Jesus until they were pricked in their hearts and made to cry out to the Apostles saying Men and brethren what shall we do Peter doth not say Tou must die for it but saith Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost Act. 2. 37 38. yet by the Jews Laws such offenders were to die without mercy Levit. 24. 17 18. and if it had been the will of Christ Peter had power enough to put them to death as we see Ananias and Sapphira were slain by the word of his mouth Acts 5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. but herein is Christ's pardon or Perogative Royal seen Most Royal Soveraign That Text 2 Chron. 25. 3. which many urge in this Case is no president for you to follow first Because Joash was murthered 2 King 12. 20. Secondly Because we read not that King Joash gave any such charge to his son as your Royal Father gave you to shew that he forgives all his enemies and would have you to forgive them freely if they repent and come to agreement with you Thirdly We read not of the repentance of them that slew King Joash therefore it was but just for his son Amaziah to put them to death And it behoves your Majesty if there be any defects in your Father's Speech to rectifie it by the word of Christ and let not any wrest it to a wrong sence contrary to his minde for I am sure he meant to imitate his Saviour notwithstanding he might fail in expressing his minde through the frailty of flesh and blood following the customes of former Kings whose conditions did not reach unto him yet I know none that came neerer to Christ in word and deed then he did Therefore do you follow the best as he did and take Peter's doings Acts 2. 37 38. for your president and so you will honour your Father for if you do not offer mercy to all freely without exceptions and receivs all that will accept of your pardon preferring and securing them for the time to come you wrong your self and disobey and dishonour your Royal Father more then any ever yet did by taking from him that power to forgive all which power as he saith all his enemies could not take from him for in the well managing of that power lieth all your happiness and of your peoples God did appoint three several Voices to be heard of men and obeyed upon pain of his displeasure The first Voice was that of Moses and Joshua to the children of Israel and because they did not obey it all that generation fell in the wilderness Heb. 3. 16 17 18 19. The second Voice was that of John Baptist and Jesus Christ to the Jews and because they did not obey it Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews which lieth desolate to this day Heb. 4. 1 2 3. The third Voice is this Voice even the Voice of your Royal Father to your Majesty and for not obeying it you and your people have suffered hitherto and this Voice is signified Heb. 4. 7. and therefore I beseech your Majesty obey it now And as Peter took the first spouse of Christ after his resurrection out of those that had put him to death so I see no way left for you to obtain your three Kingdomes but by joyning your Royal Self to his Highness the Lord Protector and his Counsel and to prevent all jealousies make one of his Daughters partaker of your Royal Crown for you see the people dare not rise against him for you this is evident by the last appearance for you in most places of the heart of England which if the generality of the people that are well-affected to
those incivilities of the KING's Army for truely had the KING's Army been temperate considering what they went about and adorning their Religion specially at such a time with a holy life they had not lost the day neither had so many as did go out been so eager to fight against them And when the KING's Army above-said were fulfilling their lusts the PARLIAMENT's Army some were praying others meditating a third reading the Scripture the fourth exercising their Armes the fifth consulting and taking care how to provide for the Army that they should not wrong the Country and all watching opportunities being alwayes in readiness And there is much more difference if you consider all in both Armies as they differed in all points so that it was impossible for the KING to prevail though I confess the KING had as gallant men but not many as ever England bred who have done gallantly here sometimes and specially beyond Sea And the PARLIAMENT's Army knowing that they fought against such profane sinners that made no conscience of their wayes had comfort and they were assisted with courage that they seldome turned their backs upon the Enemies because they feared the Lord though it was sometimes irkesome to them to go against the Lord's anointed specially to them that did truly understand but others that went on false Principles fought stoutly as we say without fear or wit being not able to see the event thereof Now the prudence of our late KING was such seeing these gallant Spirits that though he sacrificed his life to satisfie them that fought against him yet such was his clemency that he loved them and wisheth to have them stand for him counting them excusable for what they did against him and worthy of mercy none exempted but that all according to their degrees and merits should injoy their share in peace and happiness as much as any men in his Kingdoms which minde of the late KING is clearly seen in the words above cited And truely let me tell you That the KING and all the Nobles in England could not have done so much right to the Commonwealth or Crown of England as his Highness the Lord PROTECTOR did and after times will further manifest it And again I say if we consider you shall finde that he is true to the Crown whatsoever men say to the contrary for whenas his Highness took upon him the Title of PROTECTOR if such righteous thoughts had not been then in his Heart he might have as easily then been a KING as a PROTECTOR and he did refuse it to manisest that he acknowledgeth the KING and that he would be but a PROTECTOR until the KING came to an Agreement with his Kingdom For according to the Laws of England a PROTECTOR is no more then a person that standeth for a KING and ruleth for a time that is till the KING come to age or otherwayes till he be capable of ruling which now our KING being at a difference with his Subjects though he be of Age and Discretion susficient to rule yet the difference and distance between Him and his Subjects makes him uncapable And I believe you will finde if you examine former presidents of this nature that though the KING doth not rule himself in person while there is a PROTECTOR yet alwayes the time of his raign is recknoned so that the King beginneth his raign from that time as his PROTECTOR which is his Deputy takes the rule upon him and therefore I hope you that think I have missed in saying That KING CHARLES should come to raign in 53. when you see the time of this PROTECTOR reckoned to KING CHARLES ' raign then you will say I said right If there be any antipathy as I believe there is between David and CHARLES he must raign in Hebron for a time 2 Sam. 5. 1 2 3 4 5. that is without the consent of all his people having nothing from them for Hebron in the British Language signifies That he raigns KING though the Kingdom be not given to him for Heb in English is not and ron in English is given so that Hebron by interpretation is not given any Welch-man can tell you that Hebron in English is not given and if not I will put it into a phrase that is undeniable Ron iddo dyrnas that is A Kingdom will be given him I mau nw etto heb i roi hi that is they gave it not yet Therefore I say CHARLS raigns in Hebron and doubt not but after the similitude of David he shall raign in Jerusalem that is by the consent of all God's people And to stop their mouths that do asperse me as a false Prophet concerning 1653. put the case I took CHARLES for OLIVER for he came in in 53. it is no more thenwhat Samuel did in the like case when he took Eliab for David 1 Sam. 16. 6 13. therefore a true Prophet may be subject to such a mistake yet as above to clear my self of such a mistake I hope you will see hereafter that CHARLES then came to the Throne though in the person of OLIVER his Deputy by my account But you will object David and Eliab was of the same family I answer CHARLES and OLIVER also be of the same family if Haraulds reports be true for Oliver by the one side comes of the ancient British Kings and by the other side comes of the Stewarts and that is the true Line of the late King Charles by which he enjoyed the Crown of Great Britain And though some say It was a presumption in me to declare so much concerning 53. yet I do not fear but God will maintain me in what I said against all those that asperse me and will overthrow the aspersion that is cast upon me of them that understand not by a judicious party which doth both understand and will plead my Cause It is true I have set down somthing concerning my anointing from 1 Sam. 16. 3 11 12. which by no means can sinke into the brains of some learned men that cavil against it Gentlemen I directed it not to you but to his Highness the Lord PROTECTOR who I know delighteth in such things for that he is able to comprehend them Therefore you might have passed by it with silence rather then condemn that which you understand not for sacred mysteries are not to be understood by your Grammer-Rules without faith neither is that a rule for a Prophet to understand the mysteries of God's Kingdom for if Faith be wanting he cannot see nor say nothing to that and our Saviour Christ gives thanks to God the Father because it is so ordered and tells you plainly That such things are hid from the wise and prudent Luke 10. 21. Matth. 13. 11. and Saint Paul tells ye That our rule of Faith that we go by shall destroy all such learning as opposeth it 1 Cor. 1. 19 20 25. 1 Cor. 2. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. for