flatter you you have counted gain godliness not godliness great gain you will reap what you have sowed amend your lives if you would be happy the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand to your comfort or destruction Rich men hardly enter into Heaven covetuous and unmercifull men not at all I beg of God for your amendments although you have necessitated me to beg of the World mony to Print this Book which I will repay God willing Yet I believe some that commoded me rather thought it given than lent so visibly poor hath violent men and these ill times made me I have lost by hundreds thousands despoiled of all but what makes a continual feast it is not for faithfull servants and good subjects to lie down in Beds of Roses when their Saviour stands Crowned with Thorns and their King falls shorter by the Head we must suffer with them before we can Raign with them happiness is for him that overcometh and the Crown of Glorie is given to such as fear God and Honour the King Of which blest number though I cannot presume you are yet I hope this Rabby and good Jews I next direct too will shortly be For Mannasseth BEN-ISRAEL at AMSTERDAM Most Learned Rabby SIR your Book intituled the Hope of Israel Dedicated to the Supream Court of England a Parliament came not to my hand untill this was near ready for the Press Certainly Sir you have been of Gods goodness guided aright to make your addresses to this Church and Nation you observe well we have continued to pray for your conversion duty binds us to it to treat your persons otherwayes than well we should not to assist what possible we can a people so anciently the beloved Sons of God and most honourable off-spring of Faithfull and blessed Abraham is and ought to be all our devoirs Sir I read your so excellent and profitable resolution to carry on the Famous and Learned History of Josephus And also further observe your desire that if any thing offer to men in the Christian world fit for your purpose your request is they would be pleased to acquaint you with it Sir In this Book you will finde things very highly considerable God having been pleased to communicate it to the World in his own way by Prophesie your Brethren expect a deliverance restauration not far off because all the Prophesies amongst your own are fulfilled Sir It is my firm belief that in our Kings Raign CHARLS STUART Charls the Second and under his government you will have deliverance Peace and Protection the ground for my so believing this book will inform you I have therefore given you it with all its circumstancies at full that thereby you may have the clearer satisfaction that it is not delusion About the 18 th year of my age I was in several of your Synagogues my eldest Brother a Studient and fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford there with me to observe accomplish himself for the good of others He Sir having conversed with divers of your Rabbies did after tell me what they so believed as not to be moved from That for a people so beloved of God and to whom the promises of the Almighty were so peculiarly good so many so frequently afforded and made known as to the Jews they were your Rabbies could not be perswaded that Shilo or the Messiah could be come into the World and they not know of it to whom say they he was promised as a King to deliver restore and govern them in this World take heed Sir the love of this world deceives a world thus to bound the Almighty and herein to place your happiness demonstrates your misapprehend of him what was Prophesied by your own of him David tells you as well as others his Kingdom was not of this World he came to his own which were your selves but ye refused him he after turned to us the Gentiles who indeed injoy him that you yet hope for I wonder Sir you see not this clearly fulfilled and proved to you in your own Prophets as also in that so excellent piece of History you are carrying on Josephus was not Jerusalem destroyed and made a heap of stones all which our Saviour long foretold it should be so and that Generation should not pass untill all were fulfilled as in the 22 of Luke and the 32 verse referring to the destruction of Jerusalem that it was fulfilled Josephus his story confirmeth and the continuance of that verdict is yet evident The other Prophesie which evidently argues Christs Divinity by its success also is what your self and your own Rabbies cannot but see and hear fulfilled concerning the Woman that spent the Oyntment on our Saviour for which he told that it should never be forgotten but with the Gospel be Preached to all ages as in Matthew the 26. and the 13. your self Sir living in the Christian World cannot but see read and hear this fulfilled the Fathers of our Church Protestant Religion have published to the World the fulfill of your allowed Prophesies and shewed it you clear as the Sun Sir have you ever lain so long under Gods displeasure as since you have shut your eyes against so great and clear a truth That God will in mercy gather you from the corners parts of the World is my belief as well as yours that many of you are in America I may not doubt neither do I allow for other than true the relation given to your self and others at Amsterdam in the year 1644. by Antony Montezinus I now onely advise and especialy commend to your reading the New Testament you have it with you in languages very many of you now sufficiently understand God hath put us of this Church and Nation to give it you in more languages hasting to you Sir that will acquaint you with truer and better things to Salvation than the story of the Sabaâ—…icâ—l River whose great stones you say rest upon your Sabboth onely but all other dayes continue to be carried about in motion Sir to the frequent reading of that New Testament the best Book in the whole World be pleased to joyn your often prayers beseeching the Almighties guidance in all things for the better understanding of it thus continuing in well doing reading and praying you are sure to be taught of God and know you will that what the Prophet Isaiah Prophesieth in his 28 Chapter and 16 vers Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious corner stone a sure foundation he that believeth shall not make haste Now Sir would you and all yours as new born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the word that ye may grow thereby you would suddenly know that this corner stone and sure foundation is Christ our Lord already come To whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious would you I say but come thus fitly prepared ye also
great and strange things to pass in this Kingdom and Christian World which God will make marvelous in our eyes As the promote of the Protestant Religion and Honour of his King I may not detain you longer nay I dare not from Gods word of Prophesie in this Book agreeable to his own in nothing contrary Proclaim it I must to all concerned and so I do though the unworthiest of my Lords servants a faithfull Communicator of his mercifull loving kindness I am commanded to be unto all the Sons and Subjects of the Protestant Church and Gods Vice-Roy on Earth CHARLS STUART To the Church of Rome and the Rebellious faithfull will I also shew my self that Church shall fall and no Rebellion ever prosper God hath said it and if it come not to pass put me to Death I may not for fear or favour be unfaithfull to my trust that is a sacriledge of the highest nature and therefore in spite of the Devil or danger I tell you wickedness shall not longer prosper on Earth Did not the ground open and swallow quick those first Rebels and Schismaticks Corah Dathan and Abyram and did not Absolons Mule in the midst whilst he was acting of his Rebellion go from under him leaving him hanging by the head Such shall no more prosper than their Church of Rome which shall fall good men shall be Honourable and rule but for the ungodly whilest I pray for their conversion I fear their confusion WALTER GOSTELO THE Protestant RELIGION more conspicuously glorious than ever the Defendors of that Faith CHARLES STEWART and OLIVER CROMVVEL United Sect. I. HAving past from Bristol the Seas and much foul weather in December 1652. I arrived at Cork Where I heard the sentence of death pronounced upon some 30 or more of the Irish Gentry and others for several Barbarous Murders by them committed The last that spoke from the Bench to those unhappy men after sentence of death read unto them was the Lord of Broghill Who well minded them that they were not proceeded against upon the accompt they shed our blouds either as we were English men or else because not of their Religion both unwarrantable We should not kill him we conceive out of the way but rather shew him the way to walk in 'T was murder justly condemned them to suffer not rash zeal with which God is not well pleased who would that all men should live and come to the knowledge of his truth But for the Murderer the Law of God was he should die for it So they suffered not as they were Irish or Roman Catholicks This I could not but observe passing the rather because it tended in that so mixt Assembly highly to the setting right the judgement as I conceive to the glorie of God And indeed the first I ever saw or heard pronounced from those new erected High-Courts of Justice Against which I have heard so many bitter Invectives that they were like Hell from whence is no returning There it was not so where I also saw many acquitted From thence my business commanded me to Youghill in March following A season more fit for travel and observance I removed from thence to Lismore 11 miles off cituate upon the Black-water A Seat very ancient and not a little eminent and honourable Where having well viewed the improvements and good contrivances of the late deceased Earl of Cork who had there purchased caused to bebuilt made many fair and commodious Seats governing in the well mannage of Affairs as born for the publick good for so he was communicable to the imploy of the poor to the improve of those Lands to the good example of others and to the honour of this Nation That had not War prevented and death put an end to his dayes both broken in upon us as a stream too violent to withstand those inundations of evil heightened by our sins and follies of all sorts the onely inlets of all Gods judgements upon us it might be presumed before this time it had in some measure risen again from the ashes which former Wars I conceive had buried it in A very fair strong built Scholehouse with Almes-houses on both sides of it that Earl lived to finish there And now I believe he really intended to re-build the Church So that like Him that was a man after Gods own heart in this he followed him that he loved the place where his Honour dwelleth And therefore he would so provide for it that in publick he might be worshipped and that youth might early be taught the wayes of godliness Thus being instrumental to well-accomplish them he might best serve God and his Nation in being communicably good to all the end for which we were born This observing I sometimes was prone to think That what he happily begun might in future time by his posterity and others be carried on to the making it what is to be desired and what it once was as informed an University So conveniently is it situate naturally affording the delights and good accommodations that may best commode serve and adorne an University As also that part of the Land in regard of its being well inhabited and remoteness from Dublin called for and stood much in need of the Church indowments being there and thereabouts full for incouragement and invitation fit to help on with so good and pious a work were not the possessors of those profits more lovers of themselves than lovers of God and his service Is it reasonable that our Fore-fathers certainly out of love and zeal 't is possible not misguided too should so largely give and endow for the Glorie Worship and Service of God Almighty and we who have more inlarged Fortunes should have more streitened hearts and more cruel hands Indeed onely strongly bent alwayes ready to pull down and by Thieving Sacriledge Covetousness which is the root of all evil make that ours which neither God Man or law ever meant should Nay they have all forbid it with a curse to the Robber which in the end will prove that Cursed Thing that will make us and our posterity most miserable A Cole from that Altar fires all our ill gotten nay other goods or else fits us and our Posterity for the slaughter which is the end of the ill-advised Into the remain of this Church of Lismore Thursday the 3 of March 1652. I came as well might for it had neither door to keep out the unclean beasts nor in it any thing becoming a House set apart for the worship and service of God Almighty as inform'd this Church had belonging to it 8 thousand pounds per Annum before the War Out of it I often hunted Beasts of several sorts which indeed by their dung recreating themselves in the ruins of it had help to make it with their fellows more like a Den of Thieves than a House of God This seeing I could not but lament and did there kneel down and supplicate God Almighty not
will revealed in his word which is to fear God honour the King not to side with those that are given to change but to keep his Commandments do the thing that is Just Honourable and good that is to all men as we would they should do unto us If we will take any thing by violence let it be the Kingdom of Heaven which ought to be our devoir not other mens rights whether of birth or estates which ought to be our restore Write O Lord all these things in our hearts and incline us to keep thy Law which is the Commandments of God and not of men I have now done referring to all of Dream and my own Interpretation of that yet what God was pleased to have me observe also finished some of my Visions which refer to this as I humbly conceive most material and therein I have observed what I could not but observe For that of Prophesie truely I believe I may without any delusion or spirit of pride call it the words and good pleasure of the ever living God and so far am I from believing it to be other or that it will not come to pass that I could not depart Youghall before I had given it under my hand sealed with the Coat of the Right Honourable Lord of Broghill and upon my knees delivered it before no less than twenty other Honourable and good witnesses that if it came not to pass they put me to death Now that I may not appear other than what I was at that time to the praise and honour of God well in my sences not mad but true to what I have received of the Lord no impostor nor yet a lying Prophet or one that would delude by lying vanities and speak when and what not commissioned of the Lord I do here again confirm agree unto and consent that if it come not to pass the things in the Prophesie I refer to onely which are of the most wonderfull and strangest nature there is the most improbability by outward appearance if these come not to pass I say I consent that you first shew me to the World from place to place afflicting my body and after that burn my book and by death put an end to my dayes as I conceive deservedly I ought to suffer if I speak as from the Lord when never sent For allowance of which to me it seems there is good warrant in that Deuteronomy the eighteenth Chapter from the twentieth verse to the end being the word of God to which words of God and its interpretation I refer all I have said and Prophesied to be tried by as being the most sure rule against and contrary to which word of God no Prophesie or Prediction of man can stand as I firmly believe which indeed the Lord Cromwell well observed to me when I gave him the knowledge of my Prophesie by word of mouth But if this be besides Scripture yet not contrary to Scripture then I say in my Judgement it is a work fit for the mission of a Prophet or if it be for further explain of some things in Scripture not untill now or yet fully revealed or well understood then also hath it warrant but any new or giddy Tenets I will never force to my own destruction out of this holy word O Lord which to do I believe is the greatest sacriledge in the whole world But willingly I do as I wish all men would refer all to thy most holy word of which I conceive wise men and the body of that ministery thou hast sent into the world to be the fittest Interpreters to our well understanding of it for to and with such thou hast promised to be assisting with thy holy Spirit for their enablement unto the end of the world and that neither Hell nor the Devil shall ever prevail over or against them And those thus blest and so sent I believe are not the Pope nor his Cardinals who for their own ends make marchandise of the Kingdom of Heaven that they may keep up their own upon earth so do Schismaticks others to the dishonouring of God the scandalizing of his Protestant Religion which shall now flourish beyond all compare But those shall suddenly fall and melt away as greater and lesser snow-bals this is certain And now methinks I hear some as I read those did in the first of the Acts of the Apostles and the sixth ask our Lord Wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom Truely I know nothing to the contrary but it will be so if you will but break off from your so much beloved and too long lain in sins and impieties it may now presently be Certainly there is no better way to hasten its coming yet the next verse tells you It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power Read it the case there just as ours The Scepter departed from Judah the Government forst out of the hands of the Jews the people desire nothing more than the return of it Nay the Apostles themselves are the Persons that enquire if it may not be at this time Yet observe our Lords answer even to them It is not for you to know what the Father hath put in his own power for shame seek the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness which doing all other things shall in due time be given unto you Your selves are the cause it is not already come to pass by your continuance in sin Suffer me but a few words and I have done there is an end you hear of all the Wars in the Christian World but as yet you see it not God be thanked for what you do see more probability than ever Is it not very far advanced here on earth Have we not that already with some Nations People we never had before leagues of perpetual peace as I have heard and are we not with others in treaty Nay very far agreed towards that purpose Who well understand the Scriptures know it is very frequently in them used that very expression by the Prophets sent of God the present tense for the future there is an end that is it is so decreed in Heaven and it shall be so on Earth it being the ordinary phrase of the Prophets by reason of the infallible certainty of the events to speak of things to come as already past the instances are obvious and infinite See here another motive to repentance that you may forthwith reap this so great a blessing of peace on Earth that which makes Heaven so desireable and lovely having in it the blessing of peace And yet will you be mad to go on in sin and make the Prophets sent to you for amendment of life mad also as your iniquities continued in will do it did so to that good Prophet Hosea the 9. and the 7. as before I hasten to an end there are 18 persons you read of that shall never dye but be
of his adversaries to whom he renders vengeance at the same time Remember I have warned you and believe me also I could not have any quiet untill I had done so Thus in all ages God hath sent his Prophets to forewarn before he consume a people or in mercy deliver them I have done my duty do you yours repent and live The number was but few I told you though all that were then in being who when they saw this Crown in heaven worshipped God and said This is of Heaven we will follow it Which when done with my self hear we did pleasant sounds in Heaven and saw the earth shine with plenty amongst men good will all praising God and participating those blessings I once more tell you they were but a small number make haste be you of it Before judgement is gone out repentance is seasonable but you may cry to late From this Citie was the Kingdom fyrced let O Lord if it be thy good pleasure the inhabitants tears and thy mercy spare it from an heap of ruin a City that hath been and yet is the harlot mother of Bastard conceptions and prodigious births confusion she hath brought forth that hath filled the world and land to her dishonour with God and men Spare us O Lord we beseech thee and have mercy upon us even upon us also thy most unworthy servants Here I have ended but because God hath as I formerly observed to you of his wise delay suspended the publishing of this book for his own time which certainly is the best and fittest as also that my Dependency on him may be the more as his mercies the greater when deliverance afforded us I must yet a little go on and one insert more be pleased to allow me it being for the General good Let me therefore present your eye and entertain your ear as of Gods mercy he hath done mine for your benefit upon the day and night of the 5. of November last being our Lords day on which we did commemorate Gods deliverance afforded us from the Gun-powder Treason I dare not but do it mark it it is considerable of the Lord himself being the Lord of Hosts who hath delivered us doth deliver us and will deliver us all good grounds to trust him and a set Text of Scripture it is for that day to be Treated on A good Act of Parliament we have for the thankfull and perpetual commemoration of that so great a mercy that God was pleased then and so to deliver Our so good so wise so well-accomplished King and his posterity to sit upon his Throne and to sway the Scepter of these Kingdoms for ever as we see God hath now so appointed whose ways admit of no variation or shadow of turning Deliver he did we see the house of Peers and Persons of Honour in duty waiting upon their King Deliver he did the wise and learned Authors of the Protestant Church and Religion with them also the Judges both together the best interpreters of his word and his Laws Deliver he did also those Worthies of the house of Commons called thither by their King and sent thither by the wise obedient and then quiet people of the land who were and because so shared in that deliverance and long enjoyed they and we the Blessings that succeeded of peace order riches beauty in Religious worship of God Almighty in his Churches to the wonder as well as to the envie of the world Here was a Parliament of Gods and good mens choise and blessing For Majesty and Honour well met together And this when so he delivers from that horrid unparrall'd Treason until those times the like not heard of And what to do I beseech you but to let us see how precious in his sight we are when met together as those to fear God honour our King love brotherly love all applying our selves to live and do according to his will revealed in his word and our known Laws the onely rule we should go by and conform unto applying our selves to these not to our own willdered thoughts for confusion covetuousness rebellion irreligion murder of those people whose persons peace and propriety we come to preserve and maintain not for our self-ends to kill that we may divide the spoil Something like him I have heard of in the Church of Rome who upon the words spoken in a vision to the Apostle S. Peter Arise kill and eat all things are now Common to please the then Pope of Rome at difference with the Venetians gave this gloss upon that Text that is saith he your Holiness may make War with the Venetians kill them and devour their estates up and do it arise take kill and feed upon them Thus his unholiness suitable Cleargy force mis-interpretations of holy Writ to their own and others destruction Peter's successors they pretend to be and in the worst of things they certainly follow him nay exceed him draw their sword they do cut not off the ear onely with Peter but the heads of Kings and Potentates which wicked action our Lord reproves healing the person wounded when but an ear to let us see his Kingdom was not to be carried on by the sword and shew us he doth he had no need of a fighting Clergy he made no Apostle to offer violence no Bishop in Buff with back-sword to help on with Presbytery no Priest or Deacon to kill and supplant that he might get his more pious and therefore more peaceable brothers living because it is better than his own which when he hath by violence gotten he inricheth himself but starves or poysons those he pretended to feed better and do more good for both in body and soul No these are not the men fit to build God a Church he needs no such hackers or hewers in Field or Pulpit such furious fighters and rash zealous Clergy Go on to imitate Peter further the very next apprehension of danger they deny their Lord and Saviour for swearing him also if once in custody or times of persecution come upon them then they are Sidonians or Samaritanes no more Jews and they have a Temple not yet dedicated to any God which you their profitable master so they get by you shall call them and it what you please for they are resolved to side with the seeming strongest to get by so doing Cura Romana non capit ovem sine lana Oh! and have not we such Peters if but one too many but the more the pitie well I have shewed you what those furious boote-feux have done set us and the Christian World on fire I would to God I could shew you them imitating that blessed saint Peter repenting which would be not onely ours the Churches and their own rejoycing at the conversion of such sinners there is joy in Heaven and though by words actions misunderstood they have engaged us with Curse ye Meros so carried on the cause falsly perswading they are the Lords
sung by the Quire on the Leads his Star then appearing I my self shewed it to very many hundreds if not thousands witness this So that the Heavens haveing now again demonstrated Him the Seas waiting on him the Earth flourishing under him what remains but that we get our selves into a readiness to receive so great a blessing from so good a God Whom in mercy he hath appointed over us as I firmly believe The Lord of Broghill I confess I advised never to right or draw sword against this King For the war of Ireland I now understood it better than formerly and therefore did believe that to his Lordship who was born there at Lismore too as I conceive and resided in that Kingdom the devices and subtleties of the Church of Rome in that Rebellion or since in the carrying on of that War were better known than to his late Majesty whose goodness by some was too too much abused seeing it not with his own eyes but hearing it by others misrepresented His Lordship who had that great advantage as to be amongst them himself which was denied his late Majesty did see that his Unholiness of Rome had onely a modest design to suppress the Protestant Religion and cheat the King of that Kingdom that he might the better be soon usurper of all the rest This I now firmly believe was the ground of the Lord of Broghills fighting in that Kingdom So never at all against the King but for him And I do the rather believe this because I never had any Commission or desire to treat him other than with all respect as a person of Honour that had great and good accomplishments For I told him that day before I went out of his presence that I believed he never was against the King Further I never had desire to apply my self to any man in that Kingdom but his good self And see now as you shall anon how God honoureth that Man above all the sword-men in that Kingdō as Oliver Cromwel only of the sword-men the most in the Kingdō of England And more than to these two onely did I never apply my self sent of Heaven to these so glorious Saints first on Earth that they may be most glorious ones hereafter in Heaven But thou Church of Rome shalt fall as anon I shall shew you God will down with thee These two Persons of Honour have and shall the most of any two Subjects in the world help down with her I had all most forgot my then last observe to his Lordship A material on it is that although every man stood up bowed and Worshipped God following the Crown and with one consent crying out O Lord we praise thee for this Crown is of Heaven come we will follow and obey it yet I say this of all people wherein no one man dissented did not seem for number to exceed four or five hundred persons which occasioned from me then this observe to his Lordship That I feared our sins and the punishment for sin would almost lay waste our Land we having so highly provoked the Lord by our too much delighted in iniquities and rebellions of all sorts which we had just ground to bewail least they consumed us But truely since I have better hopes nay firmly believe I do that if we would turn to God with all our hearts and do the things here God adviseth to by me his unworthy servant in much mercy sent unto you that you might repent finde deliverance and so live abundantly happy this number of men which as I former observed past for the whole people in the Land of which none dissented I now hope and pray will most happily prove to be that number of men which represent the whole people of the Land and yet exceed not 4 or 5 hundred persons now of this Parliament to which purpose I beseech every good mans prayers and every bad mans amendment of life and for dissenting persons in that body believe as I do there will not be found one or not one to hurt us Who can be unhappy when all agree to fear God and honour their King keeping the commandments of the one the wholesom and well constituted Laws of the other in which doing there cannot but be happiness here and ever hereafter into which good old way of thine and ours good Lord be pleased to set us that we may be certainly blest our feet being then found in the way of thy steps Thus ended all I then observed and to my Lodging I retired to the Widdow Marricks house in Youghall SECT III. VEry few dayes past but by accidental rancounter I met and fell into discourse with a Gentleman who had commanded formerly a Troup of Horse in the Parliament service we argued and to this we came whether Kings were made so originally of God or the people the latter he held I the former which I proved to him out of the Word of God that first the Choice next the Anointing of them was of God onely and his Prophets sent by his command as in Saul David and others so not at all in the people 'T is true the people were all along commanded to pray for them and to obey them when thus set up by God So we ended the discourse and quietly parted Some four dayes after one Sunday morning as I best remember having lain most of that night in Meditation Prayer about day I did see sitting at my beds foot behinde the curtain a Man sent of God whilest He continued there sitting there fell a Showre of Fire thick and in drops like Rain all about my beds foot Full in my eye was the Spirit there sitting and the fire falling down Awake I conceive my self to have been for at that very time I called to minde the Fire that came down from Heaven upon the heads of the Apostles to their inablement Anon the Spirit called me by my name Walter Gostellow I indeavoured to reply did open my mouth tried twice but my tongue doubled in my mouth and I could not bring forth my words or speak He called me the second time by my name Walte Gostellow I indeavoured the second reply but my tongue doubled as formerly and I could not speak He called me the third time by my name Walter Gostellow to which I then answered Here I am he asked and said unto me Did you see the fire come down from Heaven as a shore of Rain I replied Yes I did he then strook by the Curtain looked me full in the face so I him He wept and said unto me you do well interpret Scripture clearly referring as I believe to this That the Choice of Kings this of ours especially is onely in God and not at all in the people This over I wrote to the Lord of Broghill that nights Vision for other I cannot call it besought his Lordship that once more he would be pleased to admit me before him there and then to be present also some
France or beyond the Seas be highly instrumental to turn the Queen to the Protestant Religion who with the King and all of our Nation should return into this Land and there should be no more Heart-burnings divisions or disgust amongst us but we should all agree in the future to fear God honour the King and live in brotherly love one with another to our General good content and admiration of the world I dare not here omit to let the Reader know I did then say I did believe these happy Mutations would be shortly and that the Kings Birth-day would be a day of great Rejoycing in these his Kingdoms Nay I have expected more alterations already than yet I have seen and said I have to some that I did believe this Summer past would have made the certain things yet to come to pass much more apparent before now But I see where the bringing of any things to pass depends on mans seeing to do Evil there is nothing but disappointment O Lord if thou turn not Man to thy self or thy self do the work when will it be Those that have robbed thy house and undone man their brother whether thy Ministers or others are in no disposition as yet to part with their so much beloved sins because profitable Those that on the otherside have by swearing forswearing uncleanness and all manner of deboystness yet continued in giving just occasion to say the former men and Times were as bad as these because they repent not but continue to wallow in all manner of their pleasing sins and corruptions who by so doing caused the Protestant religion as much as the former Evil doers to be Evil spoken of Truely reader if any thing hath befooled in regard of time the spiritual man it is your sins of all sorts yet continued in Read the 9 of Hosea and the 7 vers There you shall see that the iniquity of the people made that Prophet mad yet you that will not part with your lusts and Hypocrisies and other impieties of all sorts must be reckoned the onely sober and wise men whilst he whom God hath spoken to you account mad Did I not tell you That he which covers his sins should not prosper but he that confesseth and forsakes them should finde mercy Gods displeasure is ready to blow over did we but seek him by our unfained repentance and lay hold on him in faith by our true and new obedience Doth not the Scriptures all along give you this for reason of the withhold of Gods mercies There are yet reasons Observe I beseech you as anon I shall let you see I had no sooner proclaimd this and other his loving kindnesses towards us A distracted and distressed people in that Church of Youghall which I could not chuse neither can I do other than apply my self to all concerned either by word of mouth or by writing But I truely say unto you I was there the third day clapt into prison committed onely for Teason when I know no man living is or can be further from the contrivance or less desirous of shedding any one mans bloud in the world Nay I would from the bottom of my heart so do I pray that God would be pleased to set every mans sins in order before his face give him the heart truely to repent of them come forth confess and truely forsake all his iniquities and practice the contrary virtues for the time to come So it is clearly certain God would be most glorified and we most happy that have all done amiss one way or other It is the worst of men can kill but who can make alive The good Spirit of God stirs not any man to any private revenge Not a Bird of prey but a Dove was the shape wherein our Saviour Christ appeared Many O Lord lived by thee never any destroyed onely the poor Fig-Tree as a real Embleme of thy severity to the unprofitable and fruitless After mercy so long abused 't is time for judgement So that I say there I was some eight weeks imprisoned and although I often wrote and sollicited that I might be sent over to Oliver Cromwell to whom I was more particularly deputed and so most considerable for the carrying on of this work of the Lord. Nay I offered if they pleased I would pay bear the whole charge of a convoy to him and give it under my hand and faith I would not so much as endeavour to escape Further that if I was found to be deluded then I was content they should inflict upon my body what punishment they pleased But if an Impostor or one that would deceive by lying or false promises speaking unto them when not sent or what God had not deputed me for then in that case that they burned me or put me to death all these Original papers I have by me to shew any that doubts it Yet these prevailed not for my inlargement so there I was retarded in prison and coming over near 3 months and almost 2 months more after arrived in England before I could come to communicate what I had to say to the General of all the English Forces Oliver Cromwell Here was one impede of 5 moneths May is now gone Such Aversness have I met with in all or most of men that truely had not the Providence of Almighty God put into the mindes and mouths of some men I have on late dayes heard preach and upon such suitable Subjects also certainly his Almighty goodness hath guided me to my great consolation and them also even to my great amazement just as if they had been within me and with me in all my sufferings I say had I not been thus supported I had well nigh sunk under the burden For so fit encouragements have I had from wise men preaching that I shall never reckon it other than the loving kindness of God to me for my support and carrying on in this his business Even so did the Jews thus evilly persecute despise traduce imprison and not hearken unto the Prophets sent to them although men of their own Religion Thus was I shewed what I am to expect from All or almost all so that now I thank God I am armed for it For further reason I may not do other than present you with the passage of Nineveh and the Prophet Jonah who told them that yet 40 dayes and that great Citie should be destroyed You may there see the good effect of true repentance and speedy turning from bad works how it kept off their judgement 40 years and can we then expect or believe other but that continuance in sin it may be augmenting them also will have the contrary effects to keep off mercie There is yet a reason and that is come to my cognizance and observe in a Book lately published by Arise Evans a man you are unworthy of whom you have persecuted too as you have all Gods Ministers almost all either by Imprisonment Sequestration or
fruits making their conversion to appear as good Zacheus did when truely converted who shewed it by his words and actions If I have wronged any man I restore to him fourfould and for the rest of my goods I give the one half of them to the poor you have it in the 19 of Luke verse 8. if they would nor thus uprightly turn repent live truely they should uprightly and perpendicularly hang together as being brethren in iniquity and this I believe would be pleasing to God and man whom they have injured and are indebted to you wicked Judges Committees and Lawyers repent of your Club-Law too long practised upon the persons Estates of men of worth and honour imprisoning the one devouring the other tell me if you can from whence had you these presidences for Law not from God he is a God of mercy not from his word that 's a word of truth not from our well constituted and better known Laws those are for defence not offence Come I will tell you whence you are you say you are of the seed of Abraham but you do the works of you Father the Devil and if I mistake not it was to men of your profession and practise our Saviour said so that could not erre Some gave that for Law which was not when time was they did help to undo a good King and run a way after others of you have played the same game since and it is not improbable will shew us such a trick also but stay a little and take some of my counsel before you stir what you gave and took for Counsel was too dearly bought neither worth what 't was sold for nor at all fit to be followed those you have destroyed or decoyed of your own party will shortly tell you so be you ruled by me for the time to come if you go on to practice in the Law do in all your cases and causes as I have done in this of mine presented in this book Open it aright carry it one no other ways present it not falsly in any one circumstance speak the whole truth which done pray to God Almighty that he would be pleased to give you a sentence in favour if in truth and uprightness of heart be assured he will desire onely that the Lord may have the glory of it and man his Creature the benefit of his just but mercifull and righteous judgements My imploy is not to flatter any one of you or others I never spoke word to Sir John in my life the accomplishments of a judge was found upon that Trial as well as others to be in the Prisoner at the Bar Sir John Stowel in his fixed heart was sincerity resolution and uprightness in his head was wisdom and discerning in his mouth and tongue were the words of truth the Grand jury were those worthies that gave hin what you Mr. Post-Master Prideaux laboured to beguile him of the benefit of his Articles not you onely but the rest of the Black Robe that quacked after you the decoy upon his left hand all of you stole a heard of Goats you are Hoofs and Horns you have for offence in the very end of my Prophesie if you repent not you see the place you are doomed to as well as the condition you are found in when others are taken up into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that never shall have end the Sheep that then stand before the Judge of all men shall go to the right hand but the Goats to the left will any of you evil doers ye go on to sin against conscience for the accursed love of the World do no more so hear and take my counsel make not haste haste haste Post-haste to be Rich run not into destruction covetuousness is known to be the root of all evil Do you Sr. for the time to come nay let us all do as new born Babes desire the pure milk of the Gospel not your Law may we become O Lord as little Children Infants unspotted of the flesh the World and the Devil thus being Heaven is then open to us and that 's a Kingdom For your Infant Common-wealth truely it died almost as soon as born or named I fear not Innocent also how have you lead me out of the way I must return to Croppredy where I was named an Infant From Croppredy-Field his Majesty went into the West the same Summer there God gave him such another success but greater over a greater number out of their hands he took all the Militia but their persons go free not a man perisheth by his good will Who would not have expected that these mercies God having cast his Enemies into and under his own dispose and all pardoned who would not I say have presumed these carriages of mercy and unparalell'd clemency would have won his Subjects to a better obedience than forthwith to fight him afresh O my God I heard his majesty speak these words at Southam in Warwick-shire the very day before Edge-hill fight he being then and there importuned presently to hang 80 men that night taken To perswade him to it thus some reasoned the Lord of Essex is near you the present doing it will deter your Enemy make his men that love you not run away whose fear if not affection will be your great advantages they were so many and so powerfull that thus counselled as indeed my good King had but his good conscience mercy and a few persons of Honour on his side of which very small number was the Lord Henry Wilmot and the Lord Willowby Son to the Earle of Linsey whose Father was mortally wounded the next day at Edge-hill of which he died in a few dayes after nay so bold and so pressing were these in his presence that they told him Sir if we must take these Rebels and you pardon them when can you hope to see an end of this Rebellion they went on to importune him to hang but 70 of them yet still to do it presenlly as therein being his advantage his Majesty wisely and mercifully replied his design was to make a conquest of their judgements and affections by clemency and forgiveness and not to murder their persons they grew more impatient pressed him then to hang 60. his Majesty found out wise delays for not doing of that presently to 50 to 40 to 30 to 20 they fell still his Majesty stood unmoveable at last some of them swore as I take it thereby to dispose him that passing the other day by Coventry the Enemy had taken and hang'd four of his men to second him another said they had hang'd five of his more of them went on three of theirs two of anothers his Majesty to get rid of them and it may be to enquire into the truth of it also first I did so told thē he would presently take an order with them now see the order taken by him twelve inlarged and of them continued not a man suffered in his
should not having the more sure word of God the Scriptures to rest on good counsel it was I agree all and the best to avoid delusion the Prophesie being the Lords I cannot have a dis-esteem of one word of that My Lord is not all I have said unto you agreeable to the word of God Is it not your duty to fear God Honour and obey your King to assist the rebuild of Gods House the restore of his Ministers and their maintenance not to side with those that are given to change to be in love with all men also with justice mercie and forgiveness to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness and then all other things less considerable unpursued shall be given unto you My Lord do this and live for ever happy Now because its possible this hath not been done by you certainly not by the Nation see God sends his Prophets unto both and that you may know they are his they bring nothing contrary to Scripture 't is true they come to you in a unwonted and seeming strange way the reason of that is this To persons of Honour or a people the Lord intends mercy too it hath been his accustomary manner of proceeding to such he sends his Prophets that they may repent and live and shall Gods mercy your own happiness and the Kingdoms welfare become our contempt your destructions if not harkned unto No God forbid do you as all others what I have advised too and be happy Nay you shall do it There is a Gentleman of known worth and Honour his name I will not Print his Paper I have with this Gentleman God hath sent me acquainted very lately my Lord this person of good accomplishments tells me of a Vision he had some time since and in it how he saw the King and your Lordship on one side of the water Moderators on the other debating upon the 39 Articles of the Church of England from Article to Article the word Protestant Religion was much insisted upon and discussed it was whether in so large a sence you intended it as to take in the Sectaries and disturbers of the peace of that Church and this Kingdom so to comprise all my Lord in fine there was so much said to his Majesty and such clear satisfaction given to your Lordship by such as sate as Moderators that it brought your Lordship to a most humble and thankfull submission and so bowing before his Majesty you came both into one Boat where the King kindly and with good affection imbraced you and so went away both together in good understanding That done this Gentleman heard the Bells generaly ring saw the bone-fires and great was the acclamations as well as the rejoycings of the people in the Land My Lord make all this good do you Proclaim as well as pray God save the King and then the people will pray and say God save the best of Subjects and the honourablest of Souldiers O. Cromwell Amen say I God preserve both The PROPHESIE and Message of ELNOR CHANNEL sent to the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell April 19. 1654. 1. PEace be to this House and Peace be to the whole Kingdom and the peace of God be with us for ever 2. The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob hath opened the mouth of the Dumb to speak for peace the Sword must be stayed the World draweth toward an end and the knots of peace and love must be made in all the Christian Lands 3. Sir You have taken upon you to be a Protector of your Lords Vineyard but he requireth that you should make the Hedges and the Walls of it which is peace and love and the true Gospel and that you Protect the Stuart to plant his Vine-yard 4. If a man fall into the hands of a Creditor if his Creditor be one of Christs servants he will not take body and goods if his Body payes the Debt his Heir shall have the Inheritance REader observe this ELNOR CHANNEL Arise Evans my self with others I have heard of all agreeing and sent unto Oliver Cromwell Protector upon this very imploy the rebuild of Gods House the return of his Ministers the restore of the King the Promote and declare of a General Peace through the Christian World the Conversion of the Jews the Protestant Religion more Glorious than ever with its fruits of peace and love amongst all men we I say whom God hath sent to promote and declare these things of his mercy for you coming to pass are all of the Protestant Religion the true Church of England no Papists no Schismaticks no abettors to any faction whatsoever yet as in duty bound we continue to pray for the Conversion of all them and more to the true Religion which Gods Word shews you as well as our Prophesies now tells you is the Protestant and shall be now more conspicuously glorious than ever The Defenders of which Faith is CHARLS STUART and Oliver Cromwell United AN ADMONITION to Covetuous and therefore miserable men WHat Compassion left the Christian World and fled into America Certainly the Gospel follows he hath said it that is the word of Truth whose Compassions fails not through the world that shall be preached happy America most happy Exchange hath thou made for thy Clay and Dirt the surface of that Earth is not so Barren Thorny Stony as our hearts which stick to thy Ore as to our All Thou wisely sents it from thee as a Servant to do thy will it 's unhappily become our Master whilest we neglect and contemne the onely Jewel to purchase which we should sell all this Gospel Teacheth better things than you formerly have either heard or we practised covetuous and miserable comforters are you all more than thirty of you in six Moneths solicitation not lend so much money as to Print this Book which I told you was so highly to Gods glory the Kings interest and the Worlds general good with the honour of the Protestant Religion to all which you pretend good affection but to promote any of them this ready answer no money would you borrow to set up Gods Kingdom he can do that without you our mony is to set up our own let him look to his we and you to our own callings I can value your Estates worth at least 150 thousand pounds your persons I cannot value at more than so many 0000000000 miserable men bring forth better fruits for the time to come know that mercy neglected leaves room for judgement follow me Reader and I will in the next place shew thee better Jews than these were therefore God sends them his Gospel to guide their feet in the wayes of his Commandments which are Compassion and loving kindness it is the mercifull that shall finde mercie Misers you are going out of the world also you shall shortly finde if your treasure be laid up in Heaven for there it perisheth not but I may not