by the Lord of Hoasts not only refuse to disband but as aforesaid march up and bring that evill upon the Parliament which by their own and the Kingdoms Protestation they feared from the Northern Army Viz A Rape and Force upon them And that by your continuance in Armes should occasion as through the Activity of Malignant Spirits so generally through the sence the Countries and the Kingdom had of their unsupportable burthen by your means to be again imbroyled in a New War Wherein as you are not guiltlesse as in the occasion of the war So chiefly in the interruption of that peace so generally desired And therefore when as the poor Kingdom torn and rent with civill wars weary of its burthen seeing no hopes of ending by the Sword but that one extremity did daily beget another had prevailed by their Petitions to the Parliament for a Treaty which was obtained and in it such a progresse made as that the Parliament notwithstanding your Remonstrance voted The Kings last Answer to be a good foundation for a Peace and settlement Yet who hath disappointed the Kingdoms hopes but you not only inveighing against the Treaty as just or safe for the Parliament to mannage though you durst when time was presume to Treat with him your selves when it was unquestionably unjust for you having no delegation from the Kingdome or its Representatives but also by the power of the Sword to interrupt it without and against the consent of the oppressed Kingdom whose cry I fear is gone up to heaven against you Besides which with your interposition in the affaires of the Kingdome in taking the work out of the hand of the Kingdoms Representative Have you not by your late practises not only endeavoured but acted those iniquities which you were only raised to prevent in the forces raised by the King namely the subverting of the fundamentall Laws of England the power and priviledges of the Parliament and the lawfull Liberties of the Subject And all under the colour of laying new foundations for freedome which in the language of Justice Sedgwick have little of right freedome or common safety in them being framed with restect to your own private interest why therefore saith he doe you dissemble with men holding forth a foundation to settle the Kingdom when that you doe professe your selves to be appointed and called for breaking in pieces the powers of the world page 48. But if there be any reall intentions in you of a settlement which your intimate friend doth much question that you may see what your private spirits confident of their Abillity and Judgement for greatest matters of State Policy have produced to impose upon the Kingdome I shall give you the description of your intended Government by Justice Sedg Not in his New View but in his True View of the Army p. 22. For your present forme of Government it is such a headlesse Monster such a boddy doddy such an all breech so different from the Majesty of God and the Wisdome of men that it would fright solid and serious men to their Armes If I should fight against any thing I should fight against this But more seriously hoping that God will never permit you to erect and set up a second Fabrick that falling so short of the glory of the first Temple of our Government should fill all Spectators with watery eyes and yet extreamely fearing lest that under all your pretences for justice instead of any kinde of Government you are laying the foundation of perpetuall misery unto this Kingdome both by intestine and Forraigne troubles Oh let Odeds interrogation take hold of your hearts are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God not onely in Relation unto the King and Parliament but in Relation unto the whole Kingdome But in the fourth place let me be your Remembrancer a little further And with Oded aske you Are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God not onely in relation to King Parliament and Kingdome but also in relation to the Metropolis of the Kingdome the Famous City of London the great assistant of the Parliament Famous for its incouragement to the Parliament in maintaining it as was acknowledged by Mr. John Pym in his Speech to them Novemb. 10. 1641. Not to speake of its sufferings in common with the Kingdome by the meanes of your former disobedience to the Parliament Or to minde you at large of the contempt you poured upon the City shortly after when you marched through the City as Conquerours with Bayes in your hats your possessing your selves of the Tower of London casting out their Lievetenant put in by the Parliament at their request impeaching and imprisoning by your meanes some of their Aldermen that were knowne to be of Publique Spirits not inriching themselves with the ruines of the Kingdome together with some of the Common Councell both for piety and stability to their Principles Protestation Vow and Covenant without exception charging the whole City with defection and Apostacy from the Parliament I beseech you seriously consider cannot they taxe you with unfaithfulnesse as well as King Parliament and Kingdome Peruse but your Letter sent to them from Royston June 10. 1647. Wherin you professe you desire no alteration of the Civill Government nor that you seek to open a way unto licentious liberty under pretence of obtaining ease for tender consciences page 5. and doe not you professe that when the State hath once made a settlement you have nothing to say but to submit or to suffer Do but compare your practices with this profession made unto the City and consider whether you have not much cause to be humbled are not all your present practices in opposition to the Parliament Kingdome and City made our of measure sinnefull by acting so contrary unto your profession But besides all this Consider I pray you the feares and the dangers which you have exposed them unto in this your last expedition against the Parliament not to speake of your unreasonable demands for monies in such vast summes your menacing pressing for your arreares even for those twelve moneths service past since the Vote of your disbanding Is not your possessing your selves of the gates of the City planting Ordinances against them as in Black-friers and other places your violent seizing upon the person of their Shreive Major Generall Browne Are not these most injurious and unchristian carriages to the City And besides the unconceivable damage you have brought unto it by the decay of trade and merchandizing who knoweth what further danger may arise by quartering the Army thus amongst them These things thus laid together and well weighed must needs bring you to a sound conviction that there are with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God in relation to the City Again are there not with you even with you sins against the Gedly learned and sound Ministers in the Kingdome Are you not such
Heads of the people whose names are upon record to their eternall honor stood up against them that came from the war and said you shal not bring in the Captives hither But yet to teach us that as they which are convinced of sins themselves will valiantly oppose sin in others So they are tender of giving any ground of just offence or showing wilfulnesse in their opposition therefore they do here give them a reason of it which containes an ingenious confession of their own sinnes ver 13 Intimating further That a sound conviction of sin is accompanied with an ingenious confession of sin And therefore say they ver 13. For whereas we have offended against the Lord already you intend to adde more unto our sins and our trespasses Concluding with all that The cruelties of an Army towards their brethren by Nation or Profession shall be charged not onely upon themselves but those that raised them And therefore said the Princes and the Governours you will adde unto our sins and our trespasses And let me but observe one thing more that these Heads of the children of Ephraim or Israell they were not the Heads of the Army for it is said expresty that these four Govenours they stood up against them that came from the War And therefore Mr. Will. Sedgwicks new Doctrine in his New view of the Army c. That when a State or Kingdom puts armes into Souldiers bards they divest themselves of their power and authority and consequently by it become the peoples Representatives which he doth indeavour to prove in severall Propositions Are all answered by this Scripture instance and the obedience of these Armed men that had no such Chaplaine and by which is evident that in this point Mr. Sedgwick is as sound in his judgement as he was upon the day of Judgement it selfe It appearing I say in this story that the Governours and Head of the people when the Army acted cruelly and sinfully to provoke the Lord to anger withstood them and opposed them in such away as declared they had not divested themselves of their authority and therefore not as unto their Equalls do they fall a praying and beseeching them Nor as to their Superiours in power to Petition them But as to those that were still under their command they speak in the Imperative Moode You shall not bring in the Captives hither for whereas we have offended against the Lord already you do intend to adde more unto our sins and our trespasses for our trespasse is great and there is fierce wrath against Israel Now follow the effects of this sound Conviction both upon the Army and the Princes for they are distinguished by the Holy ghost First observe the successe of it upon this successefull Army to whom by Oded it was directed v. 9 10. But are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God v 11. with which the Civill Magistrate concurring as I have shewed you so prevailed upon the Armie that they neither pretend to Salus populi they affirm not all their Brethren have is theirs that they have conquered them they say not have we not adventured our lives to get all this spoil and plunder No but they deny themselves in that which is a Souldiers joy to devide the spoil and as a President for all Souldiers to be at the command of those that raised them they submit themselves vers 14. So the armed men left the Captives and the spoil before the Princes and all the Congregation The Lord being intended to put a period unto the troubles of his suffering people works a happy conformity in the Army to the commands of the Princes And now to give us also a resemblance to the life of the sincerity of that sorrow that was in the Princes for what they had done amisse also though they could not shew it by putting life again into the dead carkases of their slaughtered Brethren yet they not only decline the intended cruelty of the Army But v. 15. they arise up and with the spoil cloath all that were naked of their captived Brethren and having comfortably resteshed them they return them home again in peace and liberty And I doe not find after this Reconciliation by the aforesaid expedient applyed unto them that were the Conquerors that there were ever after any more Civill wars between Israel and Jadah And thus now having presented you with a Story which doth in part gratifie your desire Remon p. 27. of a people given up unto a preposterous and self-deserting way so as to part with their Prisoners and plunder and be diverted from a cruell design But doth fully present you with a Scripture Expedient not only for the composing of our Divisions and ending this civill War but in particular most usefull to stay you in this your sinfull progresse and to alter your purposes and intentions declared in your Remonstrance To which end I shall as your Remembrancer remember you from whence you are fallen and into what condition and by propounding Odeds Interrogation indeavour to bring you to a sound conviction That there are in you even in you sins against the Lord your God Are there not with you even with you That doe professe your selves to be the Saints of the LORD and the children of the most High The Illuminated ones of the LORD and the children of the light such as are called with a holy calling to be conformable unto your head in humility meeknesse self deniall contempt of the world and saithfullnesse in your trust Upon which your aforesaid profession you were concluded to be such as would prove the only faithfull ones in your trust and without all question be obedient unto the Authority of those that raised you and put the sword into your hands But are there not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with you you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sinnes Conscience-wasting and land-desolating sins as the same root is used Psal 34.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall not be desolate Against the Lord your God against him in whom you professe so much propriety and speak with so much boasting of his presence with you and your intimate familiarity communion and acquaintance with him Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God against him Absolutely and against him Relatively Absolutely and Immediately against his holinesse against his truth against his free grace against his glory against his Gospell against his mercies and against his Providence And Relatively are there not in you even in you sinnes against the Lord your God in Relation to 1. the King 2. the Parliament 3. the Kingdome 4. the Ministry 5. the City 6. all that doe professe Godlinesse 7. and lastly in relation to your owne selves and soules That there are in you even in you sinnes against the Lord your God under all these considerations That so you may be brought unto a sound conviction and may bee restored and set in
and open violence upon many of the most cordiall and truly Godly Members of the House of Commons by which the Priviledges and Freedome of Parliament were transcendently broken by you Besides this I say and your intentions by force to put a speedy period unto this Parliament I beseech you search into your Consciences and seriously examin your selves whether you have not a more sinful and sacrilegious design against the Parliament having forced them to rob and ravish them of their Coercive power in spiritualls in things pertaining to Religion though you doe pretend that you have faithfully remonstrated your Grievances with the Remedies yet your dissimulation is without comparison in that though not a word in your Remonstrance concerning Tolleration as declaring it to bee the rise or ground of these your present Commotions yet is it evident by your present agitations That the Magistrats of your making shall neither have Coercive or Restrictive power in matters of Religion and that by Club-law you would deprive this present Parliament of the fame which I beseech you to weigh seriously and consider the guile and the guilt of this design which is aggravated by what you doe acknowledge page 20. Your Remonstrance That it is the Parliaments interest in plaine english that which doth belong to them To protect and countenance Religions men and godlinesse in the power of it to give freedome and inlargement unto the Gospel to take away those corrupt formes of an outside Religion and Church-government All which by the abuse of that power they have put in your hands you would now wrest out of their shires which with many other sinnes against the Parliament in that horible contempt that you have cast upon them If but brought home by a sound conviction must needs make you acknowledge in this respect there are with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God in relation to the Parliament 3. But thirdly are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God in relation to the whole Kingdom Besides the miseries contracted upon the Kingdom since your refusall to disband at the command of the Parliament in the extream expences and charges you have drawn upon them by taxes and free-quarter wherein you have shewed but little publick-spiritednesse or love unto the Common wealth Though you have pretended to a great deal of bleeding of soule that you should be forced to take Free quarter for want of pay But that your dissimulation is great in this particular and so your sin answerable against the Kingdom You have almost doubled the burthen even upon those that would willingly have paid you the States pay per diem either for horse or man to be freed from such troublesome and uncomfortable Guests But alas what is this to what you have done against the whole Kingdome in your late transactions How doth this Remonstrance demonstrate that there are with you even with you sins against the whole Kingdom You doe pretend unto Salus Populi and that extremity of publich danger hath put you upon these extraordinary wayes you have taken But hath the Kingdom sensible of this their Publick danger invested you with any power to stir up these commotions in their behalf Are you in the condition of Representatives for the Kingdom Why then doe you so deceitfully pretend unto publick danger when as that by your walking out of Gods way you are like to be the only instruments of danger unto the Publicke as well as your selves Hath the Kingdom called upon you in their Names to cry out for Jastice to interrupt the Treaty to muster up so many Arguments against the goodnesse and safety of it which you have presented in so many sheets of paper in your Remonstrance containing more of the Serpents Subtlety then the Doves Innocency Are your Proposals therein for the altering the fundamentall Constitutions of the Kingdome are these injunctions laid upon you by the Originall of all power as you pretend the People of the Kingdome Alas they know none of these things so as to approve of them not one of a hundred will own what you doe set down for the Publick Interest Nor subscribe unto that Agreement that you speak on pag. 66. And yet such is your Arrogancy Injustice and sublimed Tyranny that though but an inconsiderable part of the Kingdome and that a diseased one but a Member of the body Politique in comparison of the whole and that a dislocated one yet how cruelly would you indeavour to force the whole body of the Kingdome to an agreement with your dis-joynted part to rack and torture their consciences with a subscription unto your intended Tolleration and Confusion And yet without this Subscription though none can take away the Kingdomes liberties without their personall or represertatives consent yet have you so proposed or rather imposed it upon the Parliament in your remonstrance that none shall either elect their Representatives who shall not joyne in agreement to this settlement page 66. or be Elected unto any office or place of publique trust without expresse accord and subscriptions to the same page 67. Certainely Sirs your injustice and cruelty to the Kingdome will cry loud in the eares of God against you Especially considering the aggravations of it even in relation to the Kingdome that you deale so injuriously withall That when a Kingdom by the first Remonstrance of their Representatives in Parliament made sensible of their danger both in regard of Spirituall and Secular Interests and withall assured in the same of the reallity of their intentions to prevent it without the change of the frame of the civill Government or letting loose the golden reines of the Ecclesiasticall and upon satisfaction given by the Magistracy and Ministery of the lawfulnes of opposing the Kings Arbitrary power without the breach of the Oath of Allegiance unto his Person as is evident by the first Protestation May 5. 1641 the chief Subject of it being to maintain and defend Religion his Majesties Royall Person Honour and Estate according to the duty of our Allegiance as also the power and priviledges of Parliament with the lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subject And the ground of it being but a suspicion of endeavours to subvert the fundamentall Laws and to introduce the exercise of an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall government by most pernicious and wicked counsells and plots amongst which is instanced their jealousie of being forced by that English Armie then on foot Which were then strong Arguments to incourage the Kingdome generally to enter into that ingagement and after that to proceed further to the opposition of the Kings forces in a defensive wat which in the second vow was clearly expressed to be their intent of raising Forces Viz. For the defence of the true Protestant Religion and Liberties of the Subject against the Forces raised by the King That now the Forces so raised by the Parliament for the Kingdoms good should after crowned with successe
in the next place that I may shew you my Commission to bear me out in this my enterprize besides that call that I have from your selves in your Remonstrance p. 4. The publique affairs in your hands being brought to the utmost Crisis of danger calls upon every man to contribute what help he can Behold I have it written in such a book as is more authentique then yours Levit. 19.17 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin on him The morality of which precept in regard of its equity and necessity being of more force under the Gospel as the bonds of the Brother-hood are now more strong and spirituall Besides which I find in the Gospel that we are not only to mourn for other mens sins Philip. 3.18 but to reprove them Ephes 5.11 And that by the communion of Saints we are not only to exhort and admonish one another Rom. 15.14 But that it is the duty of all that are spirituall to restore those that are overtaken with a fault Gal. 6.4 That they may be set in joynt again after a dislocation Now that you may be restored set in joynt again I shall present you with a Scripture expedient by which you may be recovered out of that dangerous condition in which you have involved your selves and the whole Kingdom in walking by providence without a precept And because that it is more then evident that by those great Victories and Successes wherein God hath used you to be instruments for the Kingdome Your hearts with Vzziahs are lifted up to your own destruction 2 Chron. 26.16 and of the Kingdom Medling with those matters and affairs for which you have no more Commission then hee had for the Priests Office I shall present you with a History out of the truest Chronicle wherein if you will but weigh it as I have done you shall find That which may cure you of your spirituall Tympany As first That successe in Civill warre to prevaile over our Brethren by the Sword is not alwayes a signe of the Conquerours Saintship Secondly That Conquerours that have found good successe in the field are very backward to beleeve that they are Sinners And Thirdly That a sound Conviction of it that there are sins in a prevailing party over their Brethren is an excellent expedient to alter cruell purposes and intentions and beget a brotherly union Now because that I desire nothing more then that you may parallell that Army in the History both in the change of your purposes and desisting from your practises as they did upon a sound Conviction I shall a little amplifie the following History and become not only your Remembrancer but Observator also for want of a Better Because that our Odeds our Prophets that should come to you with the Message I now bring you are like to have but little acceptance Because you are not only apt to question their Commission whether lawfull Ministers but musing as you use to conclude it might come from self-interests and by-respects To detain you no longer therefore from this story you shall find it 2 Chron. 28.6 There wee read of a cruell warre which ended in a bloody slaughter made upon the people of Judah by Pekah the King of Israel who all came out of the loyns of Jacob and were all one Kingdome till through sin seperated and rent asunder by whom was slain in Judah one hundred and twenty thousand in one day which were all valiant men because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers vers 6. At which time the Kings Son was slain and two of his Councellors and two hundred thousand women sons and daughters were plundred and brought captive to Samaria But in the midst of this great victory and conquest over their brethren had they an Euge from their Master was it looked upon as that which called for a solemne day of thanks-giving No such matter for behold a Prophet of the Lord was there whose name was Oded and he went out before the Hoast that came unto Samaria and said unto them Behold because the Lord God of your fathers was wrath with Judah he hath delivered them into your hands and yee have slaine them with a rage that reacheth up to heaven vers 10. and now you purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bond-men and bond-women unto you Now if you wil consult with the story you shal ther see by what argument he diverts them from this cruell purpose of theirs to prosecute this victory with a cruell captivity Saith he But are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God This interrogation begot a sound conviction that they notwithstanding their successes were sinners as well as their brethren But how by a particular application of sin unto them with a double interrogation Are there not with you even with you implying how hardly those which are victorious and successefull will bee convinced of their sinfullnesse Had not the Prophet Oded come with this seasonable conviction they might have been puffed up with pride and self-conceitednesse at their successe and have looked upon their conquered and captivated brethren as those Jewes did upon the Galileans whose blood Pilat had mingled with their sacrifices to be greater sinners then themselves They would have said oh these vile wretches these cursed Apostates these having forsaken the Lord God of their fathers are therefore justly delivered as a prey into our hands who are more righteous then they Their King would have introduced idolatry Or at leastwise innovations in the worship and service of God and therefore when he went unto Damascus to strengthen himselfe by the King of Assiria 2 Kings 16.1 he there saw an alter with which he was enamored and by it corrupted the worship and service of God And Vrijah his Cheife Priest was as forward in adulterating the same as he v. 16. And all the people were like their Priest all had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers and turned Apostates But it appeareth that upon this sound conviction by Odeds interrogation the pride of their spirits upon this mighty successe was much abated their cruell purposes and intentions were changed And therefore we read of no reply made unto it no studying for evasions to keep off the blow not a word in the aggravation of their brethrens wickednesse or by way of extenuation of their owne rage and cruelty with which they were charged by the Prophet But to shew the tractability of convinced sinners the Heads of the people instead of arguing they fell to acting and that in opposition to the Army that had been so victorious and were now returned with such a numerous company of prisoners They use no carnall reasonings they consult not with flesh and blood Wee must not discourage the Souldiery they will not ingage for us another time No But in the 12. v. certain of the
joynt again I shall endeavour by hard arguments and soft words to convince you from your owne Papers your practizes and declared purposes by all which it will appeare that though by many you have beene most miserably flattered yet besides those manifest fruits of the flesh which are predominant in many of you as Wrath Strife Sedition Heresie Gal. 5.20 There are likewise many other sinnes to be found amongst you that will declare that the Spots that are upon you are not the spots of Gods Children But before I begin besides what I have already sayd in my Preamble to take off all prejudice and that you might see into my heart and behold the Rise of this conviction which is the truest love that can be manifested I doe in the Bowels of Christ not onely desire your patience to reade over and over what I am now to lay before you though it may seeme to be expence of time and a diversion from your weighty imployments Because if effectuall may save you a great deale of time which otherwise you are like to spend in the undoing of your selves and the Kingdome But as I desire your patience to reade it so to be Patients And if to restore you and set you in joynt againe I should handle you hard to your feeling Consider I beseech you it is not intended to hurt you but to helpe and heale you If the Lord Jesus by the ligament of his convincing Spirit be but pleased to binde on that which I onely can apply to your dislocations I begin therefore with Oded to aske you this question Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord immediately Are not you who doe expresse so much bitternesse of spirit against others as Apostates Are not you guilty of Apostacy both Dogmaticall and Morall Have you not beene so farre from walking worthy of that liberty the Lord hath given us from Prelaticall Persecution by holding fast the forme of sound Doctrine of Faith and Love 2 Tim. 1.13 and that faithfull word you have beene taught As not onely to be carryed about with every wind of Doctrine to bring the Mysteries of faith unto the Barre of shallow and corrupt reason that incompetent Judge And to disgust and dislike those Ancient Truths of Humiliation for sinne and mortification of the same but also from these beginnings of Dogmaticall Apostacy into small errours proceeding unto such as doe race those very Fundamentall Poynts and Principles of Religion which have the greatest influence into practicall Holinesse Therein verifying Mr. John Goodwins assertion in his booke of justification in his Preface to the Reader Page 13. sayes he Lots plea for Zoar is it not a little one is at no hand to be admitted for the sparing of any errour A small errour cannot lightly be favoured or connived at but that great errours will be comprehended in the Indulgence Oh Brethren I beseech you be but serious in a selfe reflection in this particular who by Sathans subtlety and sophestry are so beguiled as that though your Gold be turned into Tynne your Silver into Drosse Truth into Errour Verity into Here is yet to conclude your condition was never better and therefore doe account those Ministers or Christians your greatest Enemies that doe oppose you Especially in your endeavoured for Act of * Tolleration Indemnity for all Apostates that shall depart from the truth I shall forbeare in this place interrogating whether there are not in you sins against the Lord your God Not onely by your misbeleefe in point of Errour and Heresie but by your unbeleefe the universall Cause or Mother of that Morall Apostacy you are guilty of because I shall have occasion to mind you both of that and your abuse of the mercies and providence of God by and by And not to mind you at large of your grand and Originall disobedience unto the Commands of the Parliament in Refusing to disband May 1647. your surprizing and removing the Kings Person from Holdenby without and against the Parliaments pleasure or privity and after that your marching up against the House accusing their Members presenting the House with Messages so full of arrogancy as was altogether inconsistent with humble Saints prescribing them a time with menacing expressions to answer you before night as is to be seen in some of your printed Letters and Messages which are upon record to the scandall of Religion I say not to mention or remember you of these any further then to bring you unto a sound conviction of your unconformity unto the Rule of the word and the example of your Saviour Oh the sinnes that are with you even with you against the Lord your God Even since as it was reported to the gladding of the hearts of many that were truely godly that you did keepe a day of Humiliation for those forementioned offences Yea even since you have found the Lord graciously preserving you from being devoured by a fire of your owne kindling from ruine and destruction through those late Insurrections both in England and Scotland of both which you were the occasion by your not disbanding I beseech you aske your selves this Question Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God Have not you abused the late mercies of God to your selves and this Kingdome those great Victories and speedy successes with which God had crowned you for the Kingdomes good Have not you crossed that providence of his by which as with a Sunne beame he writ his gracious intentions towards this Kingdome in ending their troubles by a Treaty having from so low a condition suddainely raised up our Representatives to a capacity of Treating upon Tearmes both Honourable safe and profitable for themselves and the Kingdome Have not you abused all by your practises and purposes declared in your Remonstrance That you have so I shall onely be your Remembrancer to remember you of an objurgation and expostulation with you of a Prophet of your owne Mr. William Sedgwick who though a very unlikely instrument yet in his Justice upon your Remonstrance in many places God hath opened his mouth as once he did Baalams Asse to reprove you Though now in his New view he would like that Prophets Animall carry you himselfe lest you should not move fast enough into those courses that are like to prove so destructive to your selves and the Cause of God But by the light he then had heare him from the quick stirrings of his owne conscience who professeth intimate acquaintance with your designes from the beginning pag. 23. Remon I say nay I pray heare his expostulation with you pag. 17. God hath beene gracious unto you and reprieved you for a while from destruction doe you thus abuse it to harden your hearts to pride malice and wicked insulting over your Brethren Is this the use of your Victories to have opportunities to doe more mischiefe and so treasure up wrath for your selves for all that you lay upon
execution of justice whilst they break out into such courses as are full of unrighteousnesse and tend to the ruine of others as well as themselves I beseech you Sirs weigh this seriouslie and consider whose case this is that I have propounded whither there be not in you even in you sins against the Lord your God in relation to all that are godly who upon the grounds aforesaid are exposed unto the irritated enmity of the men of the world though M. Peters say it is only for a little holines c. And though I hope that God wil take care of those professors that shal professe their present dislike of your present practises and mourn for them so as that they may be preserved if God see it good for them from that calamitie that shall come upon you yet assure your selves that without repentance you shall feele the justly exasperated rage of the men of the world and bee brought into a suffering condition as evill doers and where then will the spirit of glorie be to rest upon you you may peradventure by this argument think that I am too great a legalist and may think your selves to be above all these feares because that you are Saints and have your sins forgiven you But know that Aaron the Saint of the Lord with Moses and Samuel though God forgave their sins yet he took vengeance of their inventions Ps 90.8 and therefore be not high minded but fear least God to vindicate his glory to let the world know that he stands not in need of the sins of men to preserve his Church or Cause But that he is the Lord that loveth judgement and hateth robbery for a burnt offering Isa 61.8 should take vengeance on your inventions by exposing you unto a suffering condition as evill doers that have invented and do so strongly urge and act for it a Toleration that you might keep your selves from a suffering condition in relation to what you hold forth as truth we have a memorable example in the book of Martiers of one that could not burn for Christ and yet to save some goods his house being on fire was burnt and consumed by it The Lord give you in this your day to know the things that do belong unto your peace and that you may prevent that danger and destruction which these practises will produce For as there are in you sins against the Lord your God as in relation to others so unto your own selves these your unwarrantable waies and actions if they should not bring destruction upon the Kingdome yet as I have already intimated will without making your repentance as publicke as your offence bring you unto ceraine ruin and destruction And that you may see the danger you have brought your selves in as by all those sins of which I have been your Remembrancer so in particular by your intended change of the Government both of Church and State in opposition to King Parliament and Kingdom I shall commend unto your view Mr. Henry Burtons two Sermons for God and the King I shall onely give you his text with some part of its explication leaving it to your own application Prov. 24.21 22. My son feare thou the Lord and the King And meddle not with them that are given to change for their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both I shall only remember you of the admonition with his reason explicated in his own words Meddle not with them which are given to change Meddle is not meant here that wee may not meddle at all by way of reproofe detection conviction impeading or impeaching their wicked courses and practises that are given to change But not meddle that is have no fellowship side not countenance not approve not applaud not such men in their evill waies But who are these men we are admonished of Such as are given to change the best Interpreters expound it of Innovations of Religion or of the Republike So Mercer and Lavater and Pagnin renders it Such as change and break the commandements of God and of their Princes and fall away from the feare of God and the King in their rebellious lives but we need goe no further then our owne translation which is very full meaning it of all such as are factious seditious given to change the Lawes of God and the King page 6. 7. Now is the reason of the admonition annexed which is taken from the dangerous condition that those that are given to change are obnoxious unto the matter of their danger calamity and ruine set downe in its suddennesse in its certainty It shall rise that is although they seeme to be so high that are given to change as to surmount all feare of dangers as trampling all under their feet yet calamity shall rise above them and bring them to ruine as the Lord saith Ier. 37.10 page 8. 2. It shall arise suddenly and unexpectedly that is though there be no outward appearance of ruine to these men but that all things prosper and seeme to be on their side page 5. Yet who knoweth the ruine of them both this is subject to sundry interpretations the glosse and Lyra to both to Arch-heriticks and those that are seduced by them Mercenus and Lavater understand ruine of them both in an Active sense referring the ruine of those that are given to change to God and the King who both shall bring ruine upon those that are given to change So that those ring-leaders with their adherents and complices shall both fall and perish together and both God and the King that is the justice of Gods law and mans law shall conspire together to root them out page 8. And thus now having laid before you that from Mr Burtons explication of the Text which if but mixed with faith and applied must needs be energeticall in its operation to change your purposes I shall goe on as your Remembrancer having with Odeds interrogation indeavoured to convince you that there are in you even in you sinnes against the Lord your God both absolutely and relatively in relation to King Parliament Kingdome Ministery City with all that professe godlinesse I shall proceed to minde you of some aggravating circumstances with which some of your most publique sins are cloathed and also with some sad effects of them As first doe not you professe in your Remonstrance page 4. You are not ignorant that rule of salus populi suprema lex is of all others most opt to be abused or misapplied and indeed you show wherein it may be abused and how most truly But doth it not aggravate your guilt that you should abuse it in all those kindes The Lord give you tender consciences and then you will confesse that you have as truly abused it as you have described how it may be done For doe not your practices since the publishing of your Remonstrance together with what is in agitation by you declare page 4. That notwithstanding your pretences
either the Lord would smite him immediately or if not he should shortly end his daies according to the course of nature or that he should come to a casuall end Oh Sirs you that doe professe your selves to be Saints as David walke not by reason or providence without or against a precept behold his consident perswasion that God had waies enough to free him from his potent Adversary but by no sinnefull shifts or pretences would he free himselfe Ambition and selfe-love were both mortified in him let them be so in you if you are Saints indeed His faith did subjugate his carnall reason and experience Oh show that that precious grace is not dead at the roote in you but stirre up those sparkes of it that are ready to goe out that it may breake out into a flame and walke by the light of that and not of reason and experience the ordinary lights that men walke by That so you who are but private persons that were never called or chosen for those services in which you are now so sedulous nor to cry for justice upon the grounds already mentioned by Mr. Sedgwick may desist from these conscience-wasting and land desolating courses of yours and putting your trust in the Lord you leane no more unto your own understanding I conclude therefore the Counsell given in relation to the King with a point of Doctrine Collected by Master Henry Burton who being dead yet speaketh in his booke for God and the King p. 44. where from his aforesaid Text he raiseth this point of Doctrine That the true fear of a King as it is a filiall fear so it is a fear of adherency a fear full of loyalty and fidelity which makes a true Subject to stick so close to his Prince at all times and in all conditions as nothing shall make a separation But then secondly as I would desire you to heare mee and deliver up your Captived King So likewise I beseech you heare me now and deliver up again your Captives of the Parliament men for if to retaine prisoners of warre that are brethren as Captives may expose an Army unto the fierce wrath of God as appeareth in this history 2 Chron. 28.21 Now heare me therefore and deliver the Captives again which you have taken captive of your brethren for the fierce wrath of God is upon you For this was spoken to the Army that successefull Army Oh what divine vengeance and fiery indignation is like to fall upon you without repentance for the violence you offered unto the persons of so many godly and sincere assertors of the Subjects libertie and the Kingdomes good If to offend but one of Christs little ones may expose a person to a condition more eligible then to have a milstone hanged about his necke and be drowned in the depth of the Sea Mat. 18.6 I say if to offend but one little one may prove so dreadfull to the offendor what then to offend an eminent Sufferer for the Publick a strong man in Christ that could suffer 8 years imprisonment 4 of them close 3 in exile three Pillories with the losse of eares calling and estate for the publicke good both in relation to Church and State And I beseech you consider doe you thinke that you did not offend him when you seized forcibly upon his person going to the House to discharge his duty haled him violently thence into the Queenes Court notwithstanding his protestation of breach of priviledge and a double demand of the House that raised you for his present inlargement Doe you thinke you did not offend him when you carried him prisoner to Hell and there shut him up all night without any lodging or other accommodations keeping him still prisoner deprived of his liberty and calling without objecting the least cause for this your unjust restraint Oh that God would but convince you both of your sinne and danger Not only in relation to that most eminent Martyr and true Philopater who hath solemnly declared this and more then I have charged upon you before the most just and righteous God of Heaven and Earth the searcher of all hearts the whole Kingdome English Nation and the World in his declaration subscribed William Prynne Decem. 26. 1648. But also in relation to the violence and offence offered unto not that one but many godly and sincere Patriots for I cannot thinke but that there are many such amongst those imprisoned and secluded Members being above one hundred in number which I beseech you let not seeme a small sinne no sinne in your sight If that you call the Kings attempt in his proceedings against the Members bee impeached that appeared to assert common liberties against his interest to witnesse his revenge page 31 Oh what may be said not only for your bold attempt but unparalel'd execution of that violence upon the persons of many that appeared in the House to sticke fast unto their first principles or the publique against your interest of Anarchy and Tolleration loaden with unchristian reproaches of rotten Members Apostates and such as drive private designes But do you thinke the searcher of all hearts can be blinded as you would doe the Kingdome who now see into the ground of that violence offered unto the persons of their Representatives and secluding them from the House That so those whom you have thought fitting to set there may vote and unvote what you would have them and do you think that the righteous judge of the whole world will not declare against you by some visible tokens of his displeasure for these things was the fierce wrath of God upon the Souldiery in this History for their cruell intentions towards their brethren and shall you escape Assure your selves if that God loves you he will rebuke and chasten you and wil make you know that it is an evil thing and a bitter to walk in such ways as are so unwarrantable and unsuitable to your profession And therefore now I beseech you hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you Set the members at liberty that you have restrained declare your hearty sorrow and repentance for those sinnes that are in you even in you against the Lord your God of which I have bin your Remembrancer Publish your unfeined purposes and resolutions to meddle no more out of your calling with the affaires of the Kingdome with which you were never intrusted But that you with other Subjects will acquiesse with what shall be concluded betweene King and Parliament And no question but upon your desire of pardon for what hath been done against them you shall find that according to the injunction given them by our Saviour they will be as willing to forgive and forget as you shall be to desire it Luke 17.2.3 I confesse this motion may seeme to Carnall Politicians to be very rediculous and like the maker of it very weake and simple But if ever you would enter upon a worke without consulting with flesh and blood next
to your salvation doe it now to save the Kingdome if you debate this motion in the Court of carnall reason it will be cast over the barre and want of its due recentment and acceptance But if the Lord by his convincing spirit through those convincing interrogations which I have propounded shall but awaken your consciences as he wrought upon those armed men in the History by Odeds unexpected coming out to meet them I should then hope all carnall and fleshly reasonings being denyed you would prove as imitable a president to future generations as I desire that army in the History may prove a convincing paterne to you Upon a sound conviction that army was changed in their purposes delivered up their Captives forsooke their spoyle and submitted to their Princes Oh that God by what I have propounded to worke this sound conviction would make it effectuall Then would you deliver up your Captives submit to your Princes and that blacke and bloody cloud of raine and confusion that is like to come upon you and the Kingdome would be scattered And let me adde thus much further that if to what hath beene propounded the Lord shall graciously incline your hearts As you shall therby revive the hearts of this dying Kingdome with hopes of a joyfull accommodation betweene the King and Parliament which for the present is only interrupted by your meanes I make no question but as you shall finde the Lord accomplishing his promise to you that when a mans wayes please the Lord he will make his enemies to be at peace with him So likewise stirring up the hearts both of King and Parliament to grant you that liberty of conscience that Christ hath purchased for you and not only so but giving you such favour in their eyes as still to be continued in such numbers and for such time as shall be thought convenient for the publique safety and that for your maintenance the people will chearefully pay their Taxes when they are but in some hopes of a comfortable end of all their troubles Weigh this I beseech you and consider that there are many thousands that although they cannot close with you or approve of your sinfull waies yet would be exceeding sad to see any of you that are the eminent Officers and Commanders of this Army or the Souldiery either That have done such gallant service as Souldiers exposed unto such a miserable condition as this course you are in doth inevitably tend unto We would willingly save you and pluck you as firebrands out of the fire rescue you from that sentence of death that your unwarrantable actions have possed upon you We would say of you who are the Jonathans the Worthy Commanders of the Army Shall Jonathan dye that hath wrought this great salvation in Israel God forbid 1 Sam. 14.15 But Oh do not you by shutting your eares against the counsell now given you destroy your selves and become your own executioners expose the Kingdome to perpetuall wars both sorreign and intestine Which that it may be prevented do not study how to evade any Arguments that I have presented before you for your conviction that there are in you even in you sins against the Lord your God But follow the example of these Worthies here in the History leave arguing against them and fall to acting and let me but humbly adde one thing more That if you shall but find your hearts inclining to the counsell and advice that I have laia before you and that this Scripture Expedient hath taken hold of your hearts That you as Saints and Christians as plainly and lovingly would administer the same Physick to the City There is no question but you with Oded may say unto them Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God and that not only absolutely but in relation to your selves and that the City with humilitie and due respects may tender the same expedient unto the Parliament to whom no doubt it may be said as unto the Souldiers and Governours in this Historie Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God and they likewise may present it unto the King who stands in need of a convincing Interrogation also Which Scripture Expedient being sincerely and cordially laid before each other out of Principles of Love and an unfained desire of Reconciliation that there may be no more disterences amongst us that are Brethren by so many bonds We according to the Gospel-precept Confessing our sins one unto another and praying one for another James 5.16 We who have so wofully wounded one another with wounds of all sorts and kinds we may be healed and may find the Lord graciously returning unto his Jerusalem healing us with revealing abundance of Peace and Truth And thus hoping by what I have presented before you I shall administer occasion to you to make use of Davids benediction 1 Sam. 25.32 Blessed be the Lord which hath sent thee this day to meet us and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept us this day from coming to shed blood from avenging our selves with our own hands And that I shall receive as comfortable an Answer from you as did that weak instrument vers 15. Goe up in peace to thy house for we have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted of thy person We look not upon the weaknes or the unworthinesse of the Instrument nor any failings of his in the delivery of his mind in the discharge of his Conscience Which aforesaid favour I doe the more importunately desire being conscious to my self of my own weaknesse and dis-abillity for this Service which though I might have bin helped against by consulting with some of the godly and learned Ministry in it yet I purposely declined the same knowing your prejudice against them as those which trouble your Babel Thus humbly beseeching the Lord to give the Comforter to be your Convincer I leave you to the serious consideration of what I have said and the Lord give you understanding Jer. 13.17 But if you will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret for your pride FINIS