that can be accursed for them It is his way it is his nature he dealt so with Christ and therefore must be justified and honoured for it And so I do with my soul And desire office and employment in his Church upon no other terms Blessed for ever be his holy name for it in my heart And blessed be his name in this Church and Nation And let all his people say Amen For he will establish only such ministers over them in his house as are of his and his Sons mind and spirit God may and doth for a time employ other spirits to do baser services to break afflict and punish so long as there is proud flesh to be subdued But none shall be admitted to minister healing life and salvation but such as are of this spirit The form or title is title and the question is not great who or which But this is the Nature and Spirit chosen of God to rule his people Lastly Let me assure you under the word and oath of Jesus Verily verily except you be born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 Except you be born out of this earthly sensual darkness into heavenly light out of this heathenish or legal spirit into the largeness of heaven you cannot so much as see the Kingdom of God so long as you think that it consists in a multitude of prayers in the opening of Scriptures in fleshly striving for earthly liberty and earthly power you do not you cannot see the Kingdom of God Alas you admire your selves your zeal and intentions your gifts and notions But what are those to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which is over all things in heaven in earth and under the earth Over all things first in heaven He employes innumerable Angels and all their holiness power and light in distinct ages and places And brings them forth successively to act their parts and to shew the utmost of their strength and wisdom in governing the world And when he hath done with them folds them up as a vesture layes them aside and changes them for others Possibly all that you have attained to may not amount tb one Angel Be it what it will you cannot but confess one Angel may do as much and more know as much and more speak as much and more then all you have done And that in greater holiness purity brightness and majesty And when he hath done it must bow down and be dismissed Why then should you be troubled at the fall of your works Secondly Christs Kingdom extends to all men in all Nations He hath power to spirit and anoint all men with what spirit he please to sanctifie them and gift them either as heathens so he did Cyrus and his Medes or as Jews so he did Saul or as Christians so he did the Saints of old And yet none of them must raign only minister and serve in those spirits He hath laid infinite variety of gifts in mans nature and knows how to use them all and will have a time for every purpose And as he will draw out the good of every man of what degree soever so the evil of every man All mens lusts and corruptions must be drawn out and judged In one state of things mens Religion and Gifts lie uppermost and cover their sins that Religion must have a time to work and have honour or reward for that work and when it is worn out it must as an old garment be laid aside And then that evil that is under that form of Godliness must be seen shewed forth and punished In another state the good may lie under the evil God hath a work and an object prepared for that evil when its work is done then the good will rise and have its time and place Thirdly As Christ rules all Angels and men so all Devils all infernal spirits and will bring them forth out of the bottomless pit into his own House and City and give them their time and place to shew forth all the evil that is in them And thereby judge them and then cast them into the Lake of fire for ever And there are various sorts and kinds of flesh or humane weakness for them to feed upon in the nature of man What is theirs they do challenge and must have first for words and actions and then for shame and punishment And if we do in the least see the Kingdom of Christ we shall be content to take our lot in any of these or in all of them as it pleases God to dispose of us If your minds were enlarged into the sight and view of the greatness of the Kingdom of God and the continuance of it in all ages everlastingly you would with submission and joy consider and behold the present works of God upon your selves and upon the Nation But so long as you are shut up in that narrow spirit and limit the Kingdom of Christ to such a poor inconsiderable temporary thing as your present dispensation and service you cannot understand any thing of it Therefore know that you are in darkness and know not whither you go you are quite out of the way to Christs Kingdom SECT XIII WE will suppose likewise that you do desire holiness and that your trouble is either that you or the Nation is no more holy And therefore in zeal for reformation you go forth against the present state of things as unholy denouncing wrath against it and seeking the destruction of it Herein likewise you are extreamly blinded by enmity For First That holiness which you profess and in which you live is not the holiness of Christ you are not holy as he is holy and therefore it cannot stand before him it neither is nor shall be accepted to raign with him It may do him service be a scourge in his hand it may stand before men before worse men in the field it may stand before mens worldly passions and lusts before the Laws of men and their punishments It may stand before prisons and chains yea before death it self And so will the holiness of moral men heathens or Jews and of all sorts of Christians But it cannot it shall not stand before God 1. It is impure 2. It is imperfect in its kind 3. It is fleshly and fading 4. It is not an holy nature 5. It is not holiness that can take away sin 6. It is not holiness that can take away the sins of the world And therefore not the holiness of God and Christ Secondly As it is short in its kind and insufficient to answer the perfect and good will of God either in your own souls or upon the Nation so it is corrupted openly defaced and for guilt rejected Because it is polluted it is not your rest To abide and persist in a way and state disowned and refused by God is not only sloth and ignorance but unbelief and disobedience God never pulls down one dispensation but he provides another If you were
that good in the office and institution of a King and that good in the nature and person or his Majestie as a man and a Prince if we consider no more that you may live under him with more Peace spiritual comfort more holiness and godliness and with less sin and evil then you have done all these wars or since This I affirm upon knowledge of a sure root and foundation laid by God and Jesus Christ in the beginning of the world now manifested and revealed so firmly and strongly that no humors passions or lusts of men nor any spirits and powers of darkness can overthrow so that what ever men say or do the foundation is sure they may prejudice themselves and deprive themselves of the comfort and benefit of it but the foundation remains firm for it is that tried stone that hath born all Nations in all ages I have likewise affirmed to his Majestie concerning you and your way and work that the spirit of that Ministrie in which you acted against him is dead that your power both Civil and Military hath resigned to him and that the principles or opinions being proper only for that work of destroying and of their own nature weak and short are reducible And then that there are in you those gifts and abilities that may be of singular use to him and the Kingdom So that upon a good understanding between you the King may be happy in you and you in him As the thing propounded is not only just and honest in the sight of all men but also good and profitable for all Parties To you no less then saving of life liberty and estate To his Majestie security honour and the great advantage of the hearts affections and judgements of a great and considerable people And to all the Nation that rich blessing of Peace in knowledge and right understanding So the means propounded to this end is as innocent and safe That wise sober and spiritual men of large hearts and indifferent in their judgements should have the hearing and trying of mens principles and opinions The end being unquestionably good peace and love and the means to that end proportionable a trial of mens opinions before the wisest and best in the Church We cannot reasonably doubt of a good effect except we conclude one of these two things that there is not with men or in the Church that Grace and Spirit of Christ which is able to judge and lead into a way of Peace or else that men are not willing to receive that blessing of Peace though it should be manifested No man can conclude the first without the guilt of unbelief and denying the truth of the Promise of God that his spirit shall abide with his people for ever nor the second without great injury and uncharitableness to mankind But if his word and Spirit be with us and that Word and Spirit be sufficient for that end whereunto it is given which is to purifie enlighten heal and unite the body of Christ to deny it is blasphemy against that Spirit then walking according to the rule of that Word and Spirit we need not doubt of obtaining that end which is so much according to his own nature which is love peace and salvation Why you should think that such a proposal should come from an enemy I can impute it to nothing but this the extremity of your anguish under your fore and grievous loss and disappointment which makes all things seem harsh while the mind is drowned in that sense It is true you meet with sharp reproof there but you must come to find true love in the severest reproof before you can be soundly healed Proposals of a Treatie and Peace for the preventing of present and imminent danger use not to be the way of enemies If such things should come from a professed enemy I think the nature of the things deserves acceptance and not scorn or reviling I confess I think you have wronged me and the Book and I therefore might require reparations of you I know in time you will give it There is that right and reason in you which will give me satisfaction when it shall recover it self from the passions of fear grief and anger which now darken and suppress it In the mean time let us consider whether there be not something in the Book that is yet improveable for the good of the whole Party that stand in opposition to the present Government and so are in danger to be destroyed by it We hope his Majestie and in him the Law is satisfied and by that sacrifice of blood that hath been shed is attoned as to past things yet the breath is not healed but your spirits are still set in opposition to the power of the Nation and the Law and Power of the Nation looks upon you with jealousie and an evil eye thinking that yet you may attempt against the Peace of the Kingdom Great discontent appears in you it cannot be hid all endeavours are used to uphold and revive the cause and consequently that enmity and war that hath formerly been acted against his Majestie and Party This is seen known and felt and doth undoubtedly provoke the Power of the Nation to endeavour the suppressing the Party for preventing future inconvenience It cannot be otherwise all men do it When you had the Power you did as they now do you interrupted their meetings and required Oathes of them This now fills the prisons ruines many Families exasperates mens Spirits into bitterness and wrath which destroyes the sweetness and comfort of religion wounds the life and power of godliness and grieves the good spirit of love and peace in Christ What ever you think of it now I know it is in it self a good and mercifull work and will be so acknowledged by you in time to reconcile a poor broken people guilty by Law and their own consciences to the authority and power of the Nation in which they live For a naked people to be in their judgements and affections zealously set against the Law and Government of a Nation which is provoked and enraged newly recovered and restored experienced fore-warned and fore-armed against them what ever may be expected hereafter there is in it apparent ruine for the present Alas a Law and Power is an Iron Scepter and in the hand of a self preserving spirit such as was in you and is in all men yet must needs be hard to them that are professed enemies to it The consideration of it wounds my soul and affects my bowels of compassion to you which urges me to do what I can to prevent misery to your persons and families And therefore I do earnestly entreat you to consider seriously whether your botom upon which you stand in this divided and opposite state to the present power and Government of Church and Kingdom be sufficient to bear you up against what you are likely to suffer if you persist The foundation upon which you
cry of the cause be not only a great sound or more sound then substance Empty vessels give the greatest sound Most noise least truth and substance is very common Or things when they go off make the greatest report This I have observed of this cause it floats like Wine in mens heads fills mens Prayers and Sermons flies about in Books and Discourses and so raises a smoak of talk zeal and affection But in all this time First It never attained or gathered a body into any consistency but mens minds are still blown about like dust one people talk this and another that but there never was any consent or agreement about it 2. As it never could gain a body so it never had any form it was never yet stated by any man or by any company of men only confused thoughts and talks there are about it Thirdly it never yet attained any power in the Nation it never was owned as the cause of God by either Parliament or Army Men in their private prayers and Sermons talk of the Kingdom of God of the fall of Babylon and building Zion but those powers owned nothing but necessity safety interest of the people and such like things And therefore you may well think what a bottom it is that you adventure your selves in or rather how bottomless it is Many words many affections many duties multitudes of sacrifices many Scriptures quoted preached on But what power and substance is there in these What heavenly glory is there in them or among you that is able to convince your enemies Or what earthly strength is there in them that can defend and support a poor naked people against a strong and mighty Prince against a standing Law and Authority My reason experience and knowledge tells me that as you are so you will be left in confusion in any engagement for such a cause that hath no more solid body state or power in it And therefore be perswaded to retire from the noise that you make in each others ears and affections and enquire within in your own reasons and memories And remember if you can where had you this Cause from whence came it where and when was it born in what year of these late changes in which of them was it brought forth Or from what Scripture do you derive it is there such a thing spoken or named there as the Cause of God God pleads the Cause of his people by outward Judgements and by his Spirit the Advocate and by Christ their Counsellor But his Cause is not now at the Bar no he hath set Christ upon the throne and he is exalted far above all principalities and powers He is now actually judging and ruling the world he pulleth down and setteth up whom he will You may feel his power and authority he judges you for your unrighteousness and sets up your enemies above you What is it that thus blinds your eyes that you should contend or that which is already done for Christs Kingdom doth not the enemy abuse your understandings and perswade you it is the Cause of God and his Kingdom when indeed it is your own honour dominion and greatness But hath there not been a cause of God in this Nation Yes there hath been that which we may call so and it was this The Church and Kingdom of England stood in a very dark fleshly and corrupt state and the Governors of it were also corrupt and had sinned against God For which God had a Controversie both with their persons and standing And therefore sanctified you with a fleshly holiness against their fleshly corruption and called you forth for the executing of his judgement upon them And therein you were justified being engaged to speak in your language in the cause of God or being employed to administer that judgement which he had given in the cause Thus much I can grant to you and it will be found the right of the case But if the Judgement decreed be executed and the measure of outward punishment be fulfilled then your cause ceases If this kind of wrath by war blood and spoil be finished why should not you be content to be discharged from this employment First it is a mean service to be the Executioners of an outward destruction It is O Assyrian the rod of my anger and the staff in their hand is my indignation I will send him against an hypocritical Nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him change to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread down like the mire of the streets Isa 10.5 6. Secondly as it is a vile service so it hath been vilely polluted It is a filthy thing to destroy and the filthiness of it is manifested It is Babylonian and the confusion is sufficiently discovered The brightness and cleanness of it and all the honour and glory of it was the wrath and justice of God when that was finished then it presently shewed its vile nature covetousness self-seeking pride and cruelty Nothing but ignorance or a love of the prey and spoil can make men to doat upon it and desire to continue in it Thirdly being it self unclean it cannot purifie nor reform the Nation It reaches but to the out-side to the outward life honour and greatness It never touches the spirit and therefore may waste and spoil and so restrain for a time the fleshly part but the nature and spirit of the thing still remains yea confirmed and strengthened It may tread down in the mire but its unclean feet of wrath and pastion pollute more then purge and so make worse Fourthly to purifie is left to the fire of of his own Spirit which will thorowly purge with the spirit of judgement and burning You administred 1. without judgement you could not discern between the gold and the dross And 2. without burning for if the dross be not separated from the gold it cannot be consumed as yet we have had neither separation nor burning for want of both these their dross still remains after all the wrath administred But doubt not the holy purpose and power of God He will certainly purge both you and them by the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his appearing This pure heavenly fire is descended is kindled is set as a refiners fire and no iniquity shall escape the flame of it For it is holy mighty effectual and eternal it doth and will burn for ever You have heard the sound of it in your spirits ye are in the smoak of it and so is the whole Nation which is the reason of the present blackness darkness and confusion But when the evil is brought forth and discovered he will certainly destroy it yea it is actually destroying and in destruction in being brought forth Fifthly That outward wrath which you administred you could nor but execute it you could not cease from it till it was finished but you have since turned from that cause and made
another which is planting your selves in the place of them that you thrust out exalting your selves and Ministry upon their ruines Pray observe First That the great things now boasted of the Kingdom of Christ and reign of the Saints which are indeed eternal truths and sure things but the application of them to your persons gifts and Ministry and apprehending of them to your selves in your lace work are things that are sprung up since the beginning of the wars and are the children or idols of the success you have had in the wars these notions were not known at first the war was betwixt King and Parliament opportunity advantage and success made you bold to assume these titles Secondly you could not claim this title to the Kingdom of Saints till Babylon was destroyed In assuming of it your own works declare that ministry of wrath to be finished you did believe profess praise and practice accordingly And therefore you cannot return to it again without contradicting your own judgements and opinions yea those very judgements and opinions in which your strength lies Observe it well The present Governors and Government of Church and Kingdom are say you Babylon and the enemies of God and his people You therefore did execute the wrath of God upon them to destroy them Was that justice or wrath perfect full and compleat or no If it was it finished and you have no more to do of that kind you certainly thought it so perfect and sufficient and so believed praised and lived Babylon being destroyed Zion comes forth you own your selves to be Israel Gods people and that the Kingdom is the Saints which you could not do till Babylon was destroyed for Israel cannot come forth nor have her liberty till then This ground you now stand upon not upon the Parliament as at first but as Zion and Gods people and this title stands only upon the ruines of Babylon Therefore either you must hold to this that you are Zion and then Babylon is destroyed and then you are not to engage again in a war against her Or else if you think Babylon yet stands and is not destroyed you must relinquish your confidence and title of the Kingdom of Saints and go back again to begin a new heathenish work and war But you have been the ax wherewith Christ hath hewed and the saw that he hath shaken and as foolish proud man uses to do you have boasted and magnified your selves and ministry into the place of Christ and so against him that heweth therewith and for that you suffer so great shame and rebuke I have endeavoured to let you see that that which is the most of the cause of God that ever you had which is the execution of his justice is now finished and ceased And that in love both to your souls lives liberties and families that I might withdraw you from this way of enmity and opposition in which you stand and in which you will suffer if you do not retreat The true ground of our war ceasing which is the administration of an outward punishment the cause of God as to that point ceaseth And therefore you are deceived in your cause passion having blinded your eyes The second thing that strengthens you in your enmity is your holiness religion and godliness This must be tryed whether you be not deceived in it also It consists much in Religious duties performed by gifts as praying speaking prophecying and an outward conformity to the Gospel For the power and Spirit of Christ and the Apostles is not manifested in you by any signs or fruits or not more in you then in others There is nothing singular produced but what is common to others only your manner of speaking praying worshipping which is affirmed to be 1. nearer to the rule and 2. of more power then others And that the worship of your enemies is superstition and humane invention and hath no life in it It is most certain that this kind of Religion and Holiness is not with God what you esteem it You do highly yea too highly value it But it doth not it cannot stand in the presence of God not in his own immediate presence but is of a worldly nature and stands only in the world It is not the worship that is in the Temple of God before the throne of God and of the Lamb I hope you will confess it For you know there is no such contention war blood cursing nor such mixtures of uncleanness can or dares come before him And therefore though it stood awhile as a Ministry yet it is faln and that before him For what cannot stand before him falls before him The reason of his dislike of it is First It is not of a right kind It is not a new nature not a nature but a gift not a divine nature but a humane thing not from heaven and in heaven but in the earth and from the earth Secondly Because it is not a nature it is not deep solid and lasting it washes the outside of the platter makes new words gestures expressions but your confessions say the heart is still a most vile and filthy thing and that your natures are still corrupt If the heart be unclean Religion is but a shadow and cannot please him who is truth and substance He requires a good man that hath a good treasure in a good heart and a good tree of a right kind that brings forth good fruit not briers and thorns of contention and violence Thirdly Being not from heaven it corrupts and decayes it is not an incorruptible life Actually it hath foully corrupted into the grossest pollutions that any people did ever commit Into gross covetousness ambition and self-seeking into absurd and palpable errours lies and delusions And into that most which is the worst enmity cruelty and persecution and that generally and universally of all both friends and foes and in all in the highest most And therefore observe it with a special observation First That the several parties Presbyterian Independant Anabaptists and fifth Monarchy-men have all one life of holiness one peace one righteousness one hope one heaven Of each sort some died in the late execution and they all breathed out their souls in one and the same faith and hope Secondly Yet these had been not many Moneths before mortal enemies one to another and attempted war one against another some of them were for the Rump against the Army and some of them for the Army against the Rump and the fifth Monarchy-men would gladly have fought them both and have offered at it and yet they appeared at last Brethren And if they were restrained from fighting and drawing blood yet their prayers faith and religion were set against one another which hath been the constant practise of all these Parties they have discharged bitter curses and judgements against each other which is the greatest corruption even to a dissolution Thirdly And therefore if men allow of enmity against any
profess that hitherto they have not only been tolerable and easie to bear but that I have had pleasure in suffering of them I shall honestly discover the reason of it to you in justice to truth and in love to you that you may hereafter learn better to bear the reproofs that either I or others shall charge upon you if you do indeed find the same cause in you What ever infirmities are either in my self or the Book I know most certainly and feel that I am not that which I am judged to be or if I am all that I am also something else that supports me under it else I could not live I know assuredly that there is both Truth Reason Love and Innocency in me and in what I have written however it is vailed and therefore people are much mistaken in me Learn this then That Truth Love and Innocency have a constant peace in them that none can take from them When under infirmity and under Judgements and Trials for infirmity they have then a singular and special lustre and brightness in them and an answerable complacency For he that indeed enjoyes these things knows that he hath a royalty within himself an autarchie content and self-sufficiency And not only sufficient to bear but an absolute and supream authority by which he can deliver himself from the judgement of others as weak remote and ignorant and can justifie himself Truth knowing its own sufficiency ability and authority to deliver it self both from its own weakness and others mistakes secretly triumphs is well pleased to lie down under and to rise up out of obscurity These things I discover to you as my present and constant experience knowing that you have great need of them in this day of your rebuke if you have them not search for them they will be far better then striving with or victory over enemies I was for some time passive and quiet under these hard censures and much more at rest in my mind since I writ the Book then before Be it good or bad be the mistakes in it or concerning it what they will I am thus far well satisfied as to my self it is better out then in It was a burden to me while it was in me and an ease to be delivered of it Being quiet and still under his storm I was at work about another piece drawing a line of History Divine and Spiritual Humane and Rational Scriptural and Literal of Church and Kingdom from the begining of both unto this day Wherein I found great content seeing that the state of the Church now under Controversie and the things that I had produced now the matter of offence had so excellent ground in the Divine and Eternal Law of God in the Reason and Nature of man and in the letter of the Scripture That there are these three distinct Laws I think no man questions and that these three do perfectly agree is as generally confessed For the Divine and Eternal Law or mind of God hath imprinted his own image upon man And therefore the true reason or understanding of man must answer to its Original the mind of God The same God hath expressed he same mind in his written Word And therefore the written Word must agree both to the mind of God that declared it and to the true reason of man that is formed by the same Original and they cannot but all answer to each other If these three agree and are united and brought together by Christ as certainly they are for all three meet in him and come sorth together from him Then if we truly understand one we shall understand all And that which is truly spiritual or the mind of God is also most Rational and that which is Spiritual and Rational is also Scriptural or according to the written Word And it is as true on the contrary that what pretends to be Spiritual and is not also Rational is not of the man Christ but is a spiritual beast And what seems Rational and is not also Spiritual that doth not derive it self from the heavenly man it is earthly and sensual at least And what men have from the Scriptures only and not from the heavenly pattern must needs be a broken reed not fit to measure any thing For the heavenly mind which gave forth the Scriptures can only interpret them and what is Spiritual and Scriptural will be also Rational Therefore these two things do necessarily follow First That no man can justly expect to be received in the Church or to be believed in what he affirms if he do not demonstrate what he brings from all these three because the Church is the body of Christ and partakes of Christs nature if these three agree in him she cannot subject to any thing rightly but what hath the Light of all three in it Neither can there be any demonstration made of any thing in Religion but from the first and highest of these into the two lower And secondly That which hath the joint testimony of all these may challenge belief from all men and Christians and from the whole Church And it were great breach of Charity and Trust to doubt the success of Truth so delivered to the Church And therefore I was not a little pleased to find that I had so much light with me as to essay such a thing and to satisfie my reason that it was possible for me to do it Not doubting but if I could attain it I should not only enlighten and satisfie my offended Brethren but bring forth that which might heal and restore the Church of God by leading of her up to her own head and heavenly pattern whereby only she can be cured purged justified and honoured I do desire by the way that men would take notice of this That what I have brokenly and briefly hinted in that Book concerning a National Church the right of Kings and Bishops in the Church c. whatever you judge of them that they are now started up from the basest and vilest spirit of time-serving for preferment yet I do affirm to you whatever weakness doth attend the manner of expressing of them that they are from the holy Mount from the heavenly and divine Law thence I received them how ever I may mis-represent them and that not of late twelve years since I writ and published the same things and they have continued in the inward frame of my mind through many and sore spiritual trials ever since without any change This being plainly and honestly affirmed to you and upon the review of my self and mind occasioned by your rebukes I may expect from you so much friendly and Christian ingenuity that you would not so scornfully reject them to throw them away as not worthy to be read but that you would read them with that seriousness and consideration that is due to things that come under such a name and profess such an original I was interrupted in this work thus
now faln 1. They had many of them a work upon their spirits and many gifts wherewith they were anointed 2. These works and gifts were but flesh but earthly but man after the image of the first Adam which is of the earth earthly and not the second Adam the Lord from Heaven Not the Lord nor from Heaven 3. As they were earthly and fleshly so they were private and personal servile and ministerial not the Lord no largeness to comprehend the whole nor authority to subject the whole nor wisdom to rule the whole either the whole Nation or their whole party 4. That they had Commission only to destroy subdue and punish the Church and Kingdom standing in darkness and corruption There never was in that party or people any union strength glory or success in any thing but in fighting and killing And therefore could never attain any Civil or Religious body either to be a Church or Kingdom but an Army to fight And for this work they were anointed and sanctified So was Cyrus and his Medes Isa 13.3 and 45.1 which is not only a Legal Ministry but a heathenish and bloody one 5. That when they had subdued and broken down they had nothing to build no new Law or Religion either from heaven or earth either for themselves only or for the whole Nation No man or sort of men did ever so much as pretend that they were Legislators nor did ever tender to the Nation a Law either from heaven or earth but after they had cursed and rejected the old state they dressed up the carkase of King Lords and Commons in a Protector another House and a Parliament and had more stability in it then in any of their inventions beside They never could produce any thing like unto the wisdom and reason of a Law but every bird would chatter its own note such broken stuff and absurd confusion never was 6. They never had a publick or healing spirit talk they did of the common good of all men But their spirit was not only narrow but stood in opposition to the spirit of the Nation They were alwayes bound up most firmly and strongly to a private and so to a selfish spirit and could never be perswaded to accept of any thing that was large Those miserable principles of Interest Self-preservation and Necessity began carried on and ended the War and Party 7. Their gifts and work being fleshly and earthly and having only figures and prophesies of the heavenly Kingdom of God â—nd not the nature and substance of that Kingdom with them they could not administer it but those prophesies and figures must cease and die before the truth of the Kingdom can come forth 8. Their gifts being only private and personal and their work only to subdue and â—ull down when they aspired beyond their â—bility and commission to reign and to make â—ew Common-wealths and new Churches â—hey corrupted into pride enmity opâ—ression covetousness self-seeking greedily â—evouring the wealth riches pleasures hoâ—ours and places which they had cursed and condemned and therein were more foul â—hen those that they cast out 9. And from corruption they fell into divisions jealousies persecuting others and â—ne another and so into destractions and confusions 10. And by that into their present reâ—ection from all power authority riches â—nd estates into contempt imprisonment poverty plunged into a deep Baptism of afflictions and disappointment 11. Into which if they can retire with meekness humility and repentance they will find rest safety and purifying A condition more sweet and clean and as to God and their souls more comfortable and profitable then their former greatness though it be to the flesh grievous 12. There the Book would leave them in quietness and cover them from the wrath of their enemies justifying them in the exercise of their private and personal gifts as honest men And promising them a resurrection in a more large pure spiritual and durable state Ministries and Dispensations of a far more excellent glory then this have perished and why there should be such unwillingness to bury this I know not It died to me and in me long since and hath been ever since corrupting rotting reeling and staggering till it fell in pieces It hath had its time done its work fulfilled its Ministry emptied and poured out all the wrath it had upon others and when it had executed others it was a torment and vexation to it self wanting other matter to work upon The Party it self was weary of it complained of the vanity corruption and filthyness of it were ashamed of it annoyed by it it stunk so in the nostrils of every ingenuous and enlightened spirit none pleased at it but for what they got and kept by it none easie under it but sick of it and it self sick and hated at last executed it self to fulfill that word He that taketh up the sword shall perish by the sword even by that sword they took up and by that force they fomed That Power that Army they raised against the King turns to the King and against them that raised it It was long dying and every Party watched to have had it themselves and were pulling and catching at it some had it one while and some another whilest quarreling amongst your selves it is faln into your Adversaries hands and that I suppose is the great trouble You would be content it should die and you would execute it but thought also it belonged to the Executor to have its riches honours power and success But it seems there was an elder Brother an heir alive that you did not dream of Though this work of yours with its power fall very contrary to your hopes designs purchases and carnal confidences yet not contrary to many hints of prophesies in their own spirits nor contrary to common justice and reason For first it hath been often said to you and in you Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit That an Army is a harsh cruel worldly brutish self-seeking power and that while it stood it was a burden to all but them that received pay in it or by it And secondly if it doth fall as you thought and desired what must necessarily follow The antient Government of the Nation was suppressed by force if it had been by Light and Reason that Light that removed one would have shewed us a better but that we could never see The old one being suppressed and only suppressed for all you could do could not root it out and no other prepared if that force that suppresseth it be weary sick forsaken and spent whether should it go but to its center to the standing foundation If the force ceales that suppressed what can be expected but that the old suppressed Government should rise When therefore either the purity or truth of your spirits or the power of your reason shall prevail over your passions and losses you will rest satisfied That you still arc chafing and rubbing this dead
seek it For a people that profess themselves Spiritual and Saints to engage in a war to the expence of so much blood for their Religion and at last wave an argument for it it is strange you will sure in time examine the reason why it should be so And consider whether that cause be truly Christian that avoids a Christian trial that shrinks from reason and will not appear against its enemy but in arms with a rude and tumultuous rable Truth and integrity cannot but rejoyce in a combate of Reason and it is gross guilt and carnality either in the cause or persons that declines argument and flyes to brutish force If you fear treachery that your principles might have been drawn out and so your persons exposed to danger That wisdom that makes you suspect would enable to prevent such danger freedom of discourse is commonly granted in time of arbitration with security against taking advantage by such discourses But alas neither you nor any other no not your enemies can possibly bring forth your principles so ill-favoured as they have appeared in action I dare say there is no man in this Nation but his Reason or Religion will teach him a better state of things then hath been acted in the Nation since these wars begun that no mans mind or reason is so crooked and absurd as the series of actions have been It will be found that poor men have been hurried and thrust into many things either by company incogitancy the influences of the stars or rather the predominancie of evil spirits by the irresistible fate of times or some superiour over-ruling determinations of Providence Few men have exercised judgement in these wars either humane or Christian but have been tossed about by the earth-quakes and violent commotions of greater powers And if we could come but to look into mens minds when passions and furies are over we shall see that men are better things then they have appeared in this Scene of War And that at bottom there is but one man one nature one religion and that a good one Therefore I know I am a friend to you and to mankind in seeking to draw forth the reason of men to sift and trie principles and opinions But there is so much jealousie and accusation in the world that men are not only jealous of all others but of themselves also If men misjudge mankind they must needs misjudge themselves the first they do it is too manifest and therefore cannot be wholly free from the second It is sure your too hard thoughts of your selves and suspition of your principles that makes you afraid to appear in them I know there is a strong passion of fear upon you a great dread of sufferings in your minds And all your thoughts are how to bear the evil of this day so drowned in a sense of it that you can hardly think a thought of any thing else nor admit of a proposition of peace and safety to your selves It is true and evident that the way and course of your actions have been directly against the antient power authority and Law of the Nation And you are unhappily set in an opposite and contrary spirit to them and have done as much against them as you could You thought you had laid them all low enough and had buried them so deep that they could never rise again And that you had gotten into a heaven into the Kingdom of Christ or so near it that all danger of suffering had been quite past But now you see that all the weight and strength of your Prayers Gifts and Knowledge together with your Armies cannot keep down the things that you opposed nor uphold you against them But contrary to all your thoughts when you were strongest they rose up against you A state law and power of a Nation is a mighty thing and to rise up from death and the curse whether you had sent it provoked against you by so many and great injuries must needs be very terrible to you It would scare a man to see his enemy alive that he thought he had slain were it but a single person But to find the whole Magistracie and Ministry of the Nation the King Nobility and Gentrie with many thousands of oppressed people rise up against you in all the power and strength of the Nation Civil and Military all which have suffered from you I know it must needs astonish and amaze you coming upon you so much contrary to the assurance you had as you thought from God of a better state I do not wonder when I consider it that you are overwhelmed with fears and despair of receiving any good from them that rise from that pit of destruction into which you had doomed them for ever looking upon them as you do as Antichristian enemies to God and for in rejected you cannot expect good from them You are so oppressed with the evil that is upon you that you sink into resolutions of suffering and judge your selves lost for the present and your thoughts are only to bear the indignation that is upon you You could not forgive your selves nor your enemies neither could your enemies forgive you I do forgive them and you and so shall do the worst you can For my love is absolute without condition and therefore without repentance In love to you I proposed a sacrifice and an atonement Which is not your honesty or godliness but these things which we call principles I care not to call them so any longer I mean opinions or tenents which I say are delusions deceits or at best broken imperfect and short apprehensions or mis-apprehensions of things that have misled you in all your business into such crooked pathes that perverted your Counsels corrupted your spirits and made you a vexation to your selves and friends a burden and scourge to the Nation These would I have found out and sacrificed that not only your honesty and uprightness may be discovered which is certainly another thing from them but that your lives and liberties may be preserved also But neither side would regard what was offered You would not part with your opinions called principles no nor offer them to tryal Neither would the Law and authority of the Nation accept of any such sacrifice but being of a more outward and earthly nature hath required outward and bodily satisfaction What could not be resisted we must be content patiently to endure SECT VI. WE may now hope that this scene of blood is over and that the Law and Authority of the Nation is satisfied if it be not again provoked by new attempts upon the peace My soul is a friend to peace and an enemy to destruction And therefore I shall I hope perpetually seek Peace and endeavour to prevent mischief May I now obtain so much favour of you in your low and afflicted state as calmly and rationally to consider what I have and do propose weigh it well I do affirm that there is
sort of men because they are against them and their wayes they will exercise the same to all that oppose their way He that will kill a Cavaleer because he is not godly will likewise kill a Presbyterian Independant Anabaptist or any other if he cross his way and notion be he never so near to him in the kind of his life And he that will kill an Episcopal person or party for his own safety or for the Cause of God will for the same Cause kill his Brother Independent or Anabaptist Fourthly This kind of corruption of a body or society of people into deadly hatred and exercise of their spirits and gifts against each other is the worst kind of corruption that can be of Holiness or Religion Because 1. it is against love which is the supream Law 2. It tends to a dissolution For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand if not a Civil then much less a Religious Kingdom 3. Where this sin is all others are also For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work Jam. 3.16 Therefore if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish ver 14 15. The wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie ver 17. From all which we must conclude that the Religion and Holiness in which you glory and upon which you stand is earthly and sensual It began in strife and self-seeking and its end is devilish It is corrupted and faln As great and greater things then these have corrupted the Scripture witnesses it I testifie it upon experimental knowledge and your works manifest this of yours to be faln If you glory in this and think there is not a better you lie against the truth as the Apostle saith I know there is a more excellent heavenly and perfect state which now judges this of yours and you will know it also when you are ashamed of this SECT XI LEt me mind you what we are upon He that hateth his Brother is in darkness walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because darkeness hath blinded his eyes I am proving that the darkness of hatred hath blinded your eyes that you know not 1. What you are 2. What your enemies are 3. What the way is you are going or whither you go You are blinded as to your selves and in a mist of strife and confusion have lost 1. your Cause 2. your Religion you retain the form or carkass of both but have lost the justice of one and the life of the other I shall now shew you how you are blinded concerning your enemies that you do not cannot understand them in the present state in which you stand I will not urge upon you my apprehensions of them which I have declared in my Book They are there published and let them abide the tryal I meet with nothing yet that is of sufficient authority to make me retract them You wonder and are offended at the good that I have written of the King from those antient foundations of rest and grace in Gods sight laid in Noah My authority for it I tell you pag. 65. in these words My love is my first and chief guide in this application to your Majestie I believe it will uphold and justifie me against that weakness or strangeness which either is in it or may seem to others to be in it For I do in my soul give unto love the most absolute authority as the most supream royal Law in heaven and in earth the most certain and infallible rule For that only is without errour that is able to cover the errours and supply the defects of all things else I only advance it as a standard let it stand naked by it self I do it to invite you to deal with it Both reason and sense are against it Overthrow it if you can I do desire it may be throughly tryed because I know it is a stranger in the world You have other thoughts of this application that it comes from the vile and base principle of flattery I profess the most honourable principle of love if you have I any strength of truth and righteousness in you suffer not so gross an evil as this to pass uncorrected My business with you is to slay that enmity that is in you to the present power and to take you off from that dangerous opposition in which you are engaged that so you may come to live a quiet and sober life under it And to let you see how hatred hath blinded your eyes No man that hates ought to judge while he hates he cannot judge All passions darken the judgement above all hatred which is a foul black devilish thing it is of the wicked one whom God hath cast down from all authority of rule and judgement And made him a slave a vile Executioner of his wrath I pleaded this in my Book in the behalf of them that since have suffered pag. 152. and now plead it with you And shall I hope never cease to plead it with God and with men and with God in man till this base spirit of malice be cast out of all power both Civil and Religious For I know that hatred though it seem to judge and to be very forward in judging yet it hath neither true right nor light to judge any Only it is a servant to the justice of God It is true God hath given this beast a kingdom greatness and power but it is only in wrath and destruction Foolish man is deceived miserably by him poor dust if he can get up into any kind of power though it be only to plague and destroy yet he thinks it a great attainment if he hath so much knowledge religion or power as to inflict punishment he fancies himself a god because he administers divine displeasure But if ever you come to so much light of God as to know what you do you will abhor your selves for that which you now glory in If you will shew your selves men and but exercise your reason you will quickly see that you cannot judge of your enemies that you hate and therefore that they are not what you judge them to be while you judge in hatred First No man can judge when he hates or after he hates For when men hate they suppose those they hate are to be destroyed and therefore they are already judged and condemned For hatred is the executing of one condemned and that with the worst condemnation unto the utmost and irrevocable ruine Men think when they hate there remains nothing to do but to prosecute to utter destruction to spoil pull down shame disgrace and ruine them And it is impossible that they should judge that are thus employed to execute For to judge a person or
can command it it will master every mind in which it is and lead him at last to carnal wayes if it be not outwardly restrained ' For he that will curse will also destroy And he that doth the greater what should hinder him to do the less They that condemn men to Satan and to hell they will hardly forbear killing of them if they have power and opportunity or doing such mischief as their hatred directs them to The root of all this is the Serpent Out of the Serpents root comes forth a Cockatrice and his fruit a fiery flying Serpent from this root the Serpent shoots forth this hissing Adder or Cockatrice of cursing And the fruit is a fiery flying Serpent the former soon gets wings and flames out in open hostility I aim at no less then the root of this hatred â—n all men the Devil And finding that he hath at last taken Sanctuary in Religion and the profession thereof and hath therein acted with so much vigor and security I must pursue him into your heart and spirits It is his main fort Zeal for God and his Cause if we can heat him hence we shall hope to drive him out of the earth For if this hold be taken from him he will have very little strength to make resistance any where else That this enemy is amongst you we have sufficient proof We follow him by a train of blood and by the track of all the beasts his companions pride covetousness falshood self-seeking And we see the smoak of his confusion and hear the noise of his violence among you Therefore you must endure to be assaulted and searched I know it will cost you dear it will shake the whole frame and foundation of your Religion to have him quite destroyed in you it did so in me his root lies deep But if you can bear the tryal and become free from this soul enemy your persons and gifts will shine in the true and everlasting glory of the Lamb of God Possibly you may have the honour of yielding up and slaying the last and greatest strength of this enemy of mankind I am satisfied that the horns of his beastly power are both sawn off and scattered And that the Lamb of God is conqueror and doth begin already to bud and spring forth in many persons who do abhor the filth and deceit of war blood and wrath And do see that nothing springs from thence but mischief and confusion To help forward the birth of this spirit of love and to guide your feet in a way of peace have I engaged in this discourse It will be an honourable and lasting conquest to overcome him He hath betrayed and spoyled all other your conquests Now we shall be revenged on him and destroy him who hath destroyed by you and then destroyed you also I suppose there is a rich treasure of life righteousness and holiness hid in the nature of man Yea I know it and am one with it Even the very Kingdom of God is amongst us and in us This rich treasure hath come forth in profession name and prophesie in your spirits But it hath miscarried and faln short This is certainly from this evil one it is he that hath done you this michief And it is he amongst your selves For an open enemy could not hurt you could not stand before you It is he that hath betrayed you His great strength lies in enmity whereby he brings darkness confusion and every evil work You know confusion and enmity divided distracted and ruined you What need we any plainer evidence Therefore it must be enmity and hatred that hath destroyed you And it must be victory against him and it that must save you We have already shewed you that hatred though it begin against those that are further off yet it will not stay there If it be admitted it will reign He that will hate any man because he differs from him or because he is sinful will hate his nearest friend because he may and doth differ and is sinful He that to preserve himself and his own way of Religion will destroy a Cavaleer will upon the same ground destroy a Presbyterian Independant or Quaker and consequently all that oppose him Indeed he that will not suffer for sinners for enemies must resolve to kill all sinners and enemies or all that will not conform to him Therefore it is the same enmity wherewith you prosecuted your first enemies and your brethren the very same violence and self-love that enraged you against them kept you from agreeing one with another And the same conceits that you were the people of God and that yours was the only way of God that made you abjure and renounce the King and Church the very same opinion and confidence made you oppose one another Each man being confident his own way was the only way made you unyielding one to another For that which will not submit to any thing but what is Gods mind and what he knows to be Gods mind must necessarily oppose every man that differs from him You know whereunto this tends And therefore there can be no peace but in that love which can bear with that which to him doth not appear to be Gods mind or can submit to them that do not in all things the holy and perfect will of God And if we have so much love and pitty as to bear them that do err in a little if we have more love we may bear them that err much The truth is we must either quarrel with all or bear the weakness of all in love to all It is therefore this enemy that hath abused you and misled you into those dark wayes in which you now he Hitherto you have not known whither you have gone he perswaded now by light reason and experience not to follow him who draws you into a snare and there spoils you of your peace and safety We suppose you are travelling towards the Kingdom of Christ I believe you would see him upon the throne The enemy tells you These men that you oppose hinder him and his Kingdom and that by their destruction Christ shall be exalted You are herein quite out of the way to his Kingdom First While you seek to gain a Kingdom for him you deny to acknowledge that Kingdom which his Father hath already given him He is set down upon his Fathers Throne And that throne is everlasting You may therefore seek a Kingdom for your selves but not for him And in doing so you do both deny and resist his Kingdom And fight with him because he doth not set you up with him Secondly His Kingdom is first in patience The Kingdom and patience of Jesus And a blessed Kingdom it is to rest in suffering They that are truly Kings with him have the Kingdom in themselves and first enjoy it on the Cross triumphing there They who by the riches of their natures or by God in them can enrich poverty make bonds free
at least of the Church are together with the Presbyterians who are engaged in an opposition a large people a great part of the Nation And very considerable both for number for their activity and resolution for their courage in military affairs for their parts and abilities in civil affairs for their zeal and gifts in Religion And now being under one and the same dislike disappointment and suffering melting again into union As the Law and Government of the one side is so rooted in the earth that it is not to be removed by any humane means so these several sects are deeply rooted in the judgement and conscience and all of them are founded in some spirit that hath authority from God over the conscience be that spirit or authority true or false I dispute not now But they are by some authority under the name of God fixed and bound in their several wayes And therefore not possibly to be removed by any secular or worldly power It is as irrational and impolitick for a State to seek by power to suppress or wholly to extirpate such a people fixed unto death in their judgements as it is for those people to seek the overthrow of government Not only because it is against policy interest or reason of State to discommon and cast out of protection or otherwise to provoke into despair so great and mighty a people But it is also against the very nature of man and more against the nature and being of Government and Governors to seek the ruine of so great a part of the body and therefore it cannot be imagined to be in the Magistrate Neither can the Magistrate entertain such a thought without committing a greater absurdity then for the common people to attempt the overthrow of the Kingdom For the undertaking of impossible things and things destructive to humane and civil peace are much worse in publick persons then in the people But as on the other side I represented the state of the Government as immoveable not only to deter from attempts against it but to draw the people to it that they might be protected by it So do I represent these dissatisfied and divided people strong and immoveable not only to disswade from designs against them but also to encline the Magistrate to them For as safety and protection is by the Providence of God ordained in the hands of Governors and Government so the same mighty Providence hath disposed the peace rest security and strength of the Nation and Government in the minds affections and spirits of such a people It will be easily seen and understood if it be but considered That there is this day no rational or visible cause or danger of disturbance to the Nation but our own divisions neither from our selves nor from abroad For as none can hurt us but our selves so nothing amongst our selves can hurt us but our own divisions And therefore as the safety and protection of the subject is in the Law Government and Magistrate so the rest peaâ—â— and security of the Government and Nation is to be had from a union of such a people so divided and disaffected as now they are It is clear then that each of these Parties as they are now disposed are able to confer upon each other and upon the whole the most excellent blessings On the one side protection safety and subsistence on the other side security rest and settlement Let us now consider Whether both these Parties are willing to give and to receive these things from each other For if both be willing both to give and receive then there is a foundation laid in them of peace In reason both Parties must be willing to have these great blessings because neither can subsist without them or not comfortably It is manifest his Majesty seeks security and peace both by the imposing the Oaths which is but to oblige the people to quietness and obedience And by restraining and imprisoning those that may be suspected to make disturbance It is as manifest likewise that he is willing to give safety protection and liberty to these people witness his gracious Declaration But beyond all these the reason of State and nature of Government binds his Majesty to be willing both to give safety and receive security The question then is on the other side Whether they are willing to give security and receive protection I think it is not to be questioned but that they will be glad of protection And they cannot expect protection where they will not give reasonable security for their Allegiance As reason nature and religion lead them to do it so there doth appear in most of them a readiness to do it if they knew how to do it Both Parties being willing to receive and give these blessings of safety and security to each other It is then to be enquired Whether there be any thing in either Party that may let or hinder them from these mutual benefits Two things may be suspected First That there may be some opinion or doctrine in Religion that may imbondage mens minds and keep them from yielding or receiving this good I do hope and believe that there is no opinion amongst us so inhumane and absurd as to debar us from the exercise and practise of natural and civil duties If any such be whispered or privately suggested there is enough in every mans own reason religion and nature to teach him to abhor it But if it should be in mens private fancies I am sure if it come forth in any debate it will quickly be answered and rejected An open treaty or conference will expell it Another thing that may hinder is jealousie prejudice and enmity begotten by these wars by the different forms of worship and the opposite tempers of their minds and spirits But these are all a mist or dust which only darken at a distance As soon as the Parties come near one another their own natures and reasons together with the necessity and benefit of safety and peace will dissipate these clouds Being weak dark passions they will vanish before the strength of more solid and substantial things The lets being removed there is no doubt of the sufficiency of reason to instruct both Parties in a way how to communicate one with another so that they shall be understood received and believed by each other For if both Parties are heartily willing to do that for each other which is proposed they are able to say how why and upon what conditions they think reason to do it And this being reasonably propounded reason also will accept it For God never yet left man so void of understanding and knowledge one of another nor so void of confidence and trust in one another but they had power both to consent and agree and to gain belief and confidence one in another Though the envious man hath filled the Nation with great enmity and division yet sure we are men still he hath not rob'd us