Parliament and took Armes thinking he was running to his own destruction that he would split himself and his party by it and that we should have the spoil of them and have an opportunity to obtain our ends And though we complained of the Kings obstinacy really we have been alwaies glad of it because that it led to his destruction And the Kings not yielding at this time ye know was thirsted after by us meaning at the time of the Treaty in the Isle of Wight And ye would not stir by force to seclude the major part of the Members out of the House of Commons and so to interrupt the Treaty till the King manifested a willing mind to accommodation Peace being alwaies held destructive to our ends or the recovery of our rights the whole Kingdom for we think our selves the only true Lords unlesse the King would take part with us and become one of our Saints And that this was all the change of heart was expected appeareth by another passage of our Author aforesaid that speaketh to purpose indeed Pag. 27. Ye say the Kings heart is not changed to which I answer Ye expect that he should turn not to God but to your selves to your own form of Religion and Government and cannot account any thing a change but yielding to your own Way Which if he should he would be seven times more the child of the devil May other passages to this purpose I might have collected out of the said Book but these I hope will now undeceive such of us as have been plain hearted and did believe what was with much confidence affirmed That the Cause which of late years hath been pleaded for since the Interruption of the Treaty was for the Publick interest of the Nation that the Liberties of all Gods people were imbarqued therein Especially considering who maketh this discovery of these private ungodly designs which have from the beginning been driven on by many that look upon themselves as the only Saints One as I have said before neither of the Episcopal or Presbyterian party Let therefore the Consideration of these particular passages not only humble us deeply for what is past but rectifie our judgements for the time to come incline us to the publick peace and settlement of the Nation and free us from those corrupt and destructive principles to all Civil Government with which many of us I fear by what I have observed are leavened and corrupted And to this purpose I shall from all these before recited collections lay before you these undeniable Conclusions flowing from the premises aforesaid 1. The first Conclusion then that I desire you to observe with me from the Collections aforesaid is this That the Good Old Cause in which we first engaged with the Parliament was to preserve and not to subvert the Fundamental Lawes and Government of the Nation to protect and defend the Kings Person and Family and not to ruine and destroy the same 2. That the Publick Interest of the Nation consisteth in being governed by their King according to their known Lawes and that this is their Birth-right 3. That the Crown-Revenue and Dignity of the King are as righteously his Birth-right as any other mans House or Lands are his 4. That to divide between the Interest of the Publick and the King terming it only the Interest of Charles Stuart as we have done of late years is a very wicked and ungodly thing 5. That to change the Government into a Common-wealth was to pervert that righteous Cause in which we first engaged and was an invention to secure a guilty Party and altogether against the publick Interest of the Nation 6. That the real or supposed wickedness of a Prince or People is no Scripture Ground for those who are or do profess themselves to be more holy to usurp Dominion over them and to get the Government of the Nation into their own hands The five former Propositions our aforesaid Author hath expressed in Terms and may be plentifully confirmed by the several Remonstrances and Declarations of the Parliament our several Oaths and Obligations and by the Protestation which was so generally taken by the known Lawes of the Land and many other waies besides But this sixth and last being only declared as a Principle upon which many took occasion from the Differences between King and Parliament to act thus desperately to the ruine both of Prince and People Because as Mr. Sedgwick saith there was this in our minds that the King and his Party were wicked and so unworthy of the places and power and we were the Saints c. Being through mercy converted from this destructive Principle of Government with which many of us are more or less corrupted besides the fifth Monarchy men in whom it reignes I hold it my Duty to strengthen my Brethren against the Power and Contagion thereof That therefore which I meekly offer to your Consideration is this That this aforesaid Principle of invading the Rights either of Prince or People because wicked and ungodly is expresly against the written Word of God in the Old and New Testament contrary to the Examples of Christ and his Apostles of the Primitive Christians and to the Judgment of all Reformed Churches and derives its Pedigree and Original from the Devil and that Roman Antichrist which we profess so much to hate and abhor All this you shall find at large proved by that Reverend and Holy man * In an Assize Sermon of his preached above 30 years since bound up in his Works Mr. Robert Bolton who being dead yet speaketh fully against this wretched Principle Wherein you shall find that Bellarmine Father Bennet and other of that Jesuitical Party and Popish Crew were the Founders and Authors thereof I shall only add that our Saviour whose Disciples we all profess our selves to be when he commanded us to give to Caesar the things which are Caesars doth plainly evidence that Caesar which was the Name by which all those Pagan Princes and Roman Emperors were called they had notwithstanding their Impiety their dues and rights which did belong to them and we are all commanded and enjoyned to give to them their rights and dues But to take their Rights and Dues away from them upon the A warning piece for England especially for London in the famous Hystory of the frantick Anabaptists Printed 1642. pretence of their Impiety or our Saintship is to be found no where but in the History of John of Leyden who with his Disciples whilst the City of Munster the Prime City of Westphalia was besieged out of which they had driven many of the Inhabitants without respect of age or sex running throughout the Streets in Troops crying out Get ye hence all ye wicked if ye mean to save your lives p. 9. They also published a Book called the Restitution wherein they affirmed this Doctrine That Christ shall have a Kingdom here upon earth before the Day of Judgment wherein
necessity must go before Repentance even Consideration before Conversion Psal 119. I considered my waies and turned my feet c. Now therefore let me entreat you to consider The Nation being as I have said before divided into three Parties which of them have longest persisted in those waies that Mr. Sedgwick chargeth upon the Army and in the justification of them which of our Gathered Churches declared the trouble of our hearts and our great dislike of the Armies disobedience to the Authority of the Lords and Commons that raised them that bewailed the great severity and John of Leyden-like cruelty they afterwards exercised when fire came out of the Bramble and consumed the Cedars of Lebanon which of us professed with Holy Jacob Gen. 49. 6 7. Into their secret let not my Soul come my Glory be not thou joyned with their Assembly Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce their anger for it was cruel But rather blessed them and God for it joyning with them in daies of Rejoycing and Thanksgiving accounting the other Parties refusing but old and new Malignants I desire you also to consider what Party have enriched themselves with the spoil which Mr. Sedgwick speaketh of That have as I said before not only bid the Army God speed and so are partakers of all their evil deeds but have joyned with them and have owned them in all those woful changes and Revolutions that our eyes have seen we have been for all Governours and Government but the right except a few fifth Monarchy men that are only for King Jesus We have been for a Common-wealth without King and House of Lords for a Protector and his Son for a Common-wealth again and then for that most dangerous Committee of Safety erected by the Souldiery that did so much threaten the Ruine and Eradication of the Magistracy and Ministry of this Nation and last of all for the last Sediment of the House of Commons also many of us unnaturally complying with them in their horrid violence upon the City for declaring for a free Parliament To which Free Parliament also how much we have shewed our aversness and how well we have wished to Col. Lambert and his Party whom many of us hoped would interrupt their Meeting together is notorious to the world otherwise I should not have spoken so freely thereunto Let us therefore upon these Considerations take shame to our selves get our proud hearts humbled our Soules softned our Spirits cooled the heates and animosities of our minds abated and make all our harsh censuring judging and accusing of others to terminate in the accusing judging and condemning of our selves And let us in these dayes wherein of late we have seen our selves so much neglected by the Nation so few of us being put either into the Militia in City or Country or by the people of this Nation chosen for their Representatives in Parliament let us be so far from censuring and judging of them for prophane and ungodly in so doing imputing it only to the enmity that is in the hearts of all unregenerate and unconverted men to the power of Godliness But let us who have so much denied the Power of it as we have done judge and condemn our selves for that Cruelty Injustice and Usurpation of ours over them of which we have given them just occasion to be so sensible of for these many years I do profess it is that which much saddens my Spirit to observe that we that do profess our selves to be Saints and to be of such scrupulous and tender Consciences that in the Circumstantials of the Worship of God we will do nothing without an express Command though it be no where forbid but all must be according to the Pattern in the Mount dare not communicate with any at the Lords Table but such as we account for Saints like our selves though Christ did with Judas or baptize our young Infants because we find no express Command for it in the New Testament Many of which Judgment renouncing the Ministry of this Nation as coming from the Pope and yet that many of us should carry on the * See Mr. Strongs Serm. Preached at Pauls Nov. 5. 1653. Pag. 19. Papists designs all this while and act from their Popish and Antichristian Principles against Magistrates because Hereticks or ungodly and go against the express Precepts and Presidents of our Lord and Master Christ I say this should very much humble us especially to consider That such as make not that high Profession with us should stumble at the Scandals we give and they take at our Principles and Practises in reference to Civil Government And that the Prophane Rabble of the world Swearers Drunkards and Sabbath-breakers Whoremongers and such like Flagitious Sinners should exceed us in Loyality to our Native Prince when as the Scriptures even the New Testament is as clear and express in the charging of that upon our Consciences as to hear to pray to meditate to walk with God and to fear his Dreadful Name And therefore we shall find that to fear God and honour the King are joyned together by the Holy Ghost 1 Pet. 2. 17. Giving us to understand that the contempt of this Precept which answers to the Fifth Commandment is not only inconsistent with the true fear of God but also drawes after it the Breach of all the rest of the Commandments of the Second Table Rebellion Treason Regicide Paracide and all kind of Murder Injustice Cruelty and Oppression the slanderous defaming and devouring of our Neighbours Good name of all which I could wish that our own times did not give too full proof and evidence of the same Let us therefore upon all these Considerations be moved to the exercise of Repentance as to these particular sins To think upon Restitution without which as one of the Fathers hath it non remittitur peccatum nisi restituetur ablatum And let us be perswaded to give over the reproaching of such who are for a regulated Monarchy that desire the Throne may be established in Righteousness I say let us no longer revile them with the odious Name of Cavee and Malignant which words ye know are frequent amongst us with which now we are apt to brand all that are not of our Party Whereas if we would look into the first remonstrance of the Parliament we should find the Malignant Party to be described to be such as would introduce erroneous Doctrines into the Church endeavour to subvert the Fundamental Lawes and Government of the Nation to erect an arbitrary power to distemper the Army that then was in the North and to bring it up to overaw the Parliament By all which Characters my Friends I fear the Name doth most properly belong to our selves And let us now get out of these Extreams into which we have so madly run for some misse-governments in the King to cut him off and cast off all Kingly Government and upon selfish designs to erect a
Common-wealth which Mr. Sedgwick calleth a Hoddy Doddy and all Breach such a one as derogates from the Majesty of God and the wisdom of man Though it had a precious Foundation and the Mortar thereof was tempered even with the Blood of all degrees of men in the Kingdom and of all Parties but our own and hath consumed more Millions then any if not all the Kings of England ever did I say let us be weaned from this Novelty and now let our Spirits be reconciled to Kingly Government again Even that Ancient Government by Kings which oweth its Original to the Ancient of Daies who hath said By me Kings reign and to Jesus Christ who is the Lord of Lords the King of Kings the true Fountain of Honour That Government by which God hath promised in Gospel times that his Church shall be provided for and protected that Kings shall be their Fathers and Queens their Nursing Mothers That Government in the want of which we have found by experience all those wickednesses perpetrated as were done in those daies when there was no King in Israel Judg. 17. 6. 19. 1. That Ancient way of Government by which God ruled his people of old even by Moses who was King in Jesurun and by which this Nation hath been Governed for many hundred years and never by a Common-wealth before I say let us by these Arguments shake hands and be friends again with Kingly Government with which we have been at odds these many years And to bring us together again I shall to these Arguments give you one Quotation more from our Friend Mr. Sedgwick saith he P. 11. Kingliness agreeth with all Christians they who are of a Royal Nature and made Kings with Christ cannot but be Friends to it It is a Bastard Religion that is inconsistent with the Majesty and Greatness of the most absolute Monarch And such Spirits are strangers from the Kingdom of Heaven and know not the Glory in which God liveth and are of narrow and evil minds that are corrupt themselves and not able to bear Greatness and so think God cannot or will not qualifie men for such high Places with answerable and proportionable Goodness and Power In my mind there is very much of Truth in this Quotation and I wish he be of the same mind still that then uttered it Without all doubt they which know any thing of the waies of Gods administrations either in the Kingdom of Grace or of Glory should not be of Anti-monarchical Spirits Their Spirits as he saith are narrow their Minds are evil Especially those amongst us who have loaded with such reproaches him whom I am apt to believe the Divine Providence hath so wonderfully preserved to rule these three Kingdoms And now the very naming of Providence doth furnish me with a most cogent Argument in my judgment to prevail with us all to incline to what I move you For how hath the Divine Providence overturned overturned overturned all the waies of Government we have attempted to set up contrary to the Right both of Prince and People as Mr. Sedgwick teacheth us Doubtless we have cause to fear we have highly offended in walking so by Providence making that to legitimate those Actions of ours for which the Word gave no warrant but condemned rather This was the Argument by which we answered all our Opposers Oh the Providence of God hath declared from Heaven the justness of our Cause and Waies Our Protector though in his long Speech at the Dissolution of the Parliament so called Jan. 22. 1654. he doth very much in many places press all to observe the voice of Providence which had done such great things wondering that they could not proceed further to the Settlement of the Government of the Nation according to his desire for which he broke them up yet he was somwhat loath to own the Providence of God therein For saith he I cannot apprehend what it is I would be loath to call it a Fate that were too Paganish a Word but there is somthing in it that we have not our expectation P. 26. And sure there was the Divine Providence counter-working But how evidently it hath appeared since is our Duty as Christians to own and acknowledge especially since this remarkeable passage in his Speech aforesaid P. 27. As for this Cause it is either of God or man If it be of God it will bear up if it be of man it will tumble as every thing that hath been of man hath done since the World began And as this is so the all wise God deal with it Now let us who have made the Providence of God our Rule contrary to this express Command amongst others that we should do no evil that good might come of it Let us I say as becometh Christians acknowledge the all-wise Providential Dispensations in so stupendiously tumbling down the chief Actors and Agitators in those unwarrantable waies we have too too much owned and justified Truly me thinks the strange Tumblings that we have seen since the Protector was laid in his Grave and how by an evil Spirit the all-wise God hath sent among the men of Sechem he hath so strangely Judg. 9. 23. tumbled down the Family of Abimelech I say that the neer Relations of the Old Protector should be so instrumental in pulling down the New One and in that to lay the Foundations of that Disgrace that is come upon themselves And how strangely the Providence of God hath brought about the Calling of this Parliament defeated Col. Lambert since his escape scattering the Disturbers of the Nations Peace and disappointed their hopes of hindring the peaceable Meeting of this great Convention I say these strange and most admirable Providences which would fill a Volume with the Observations of all the Circumstances of them should now convince us that it is hardkicking against the pricks and should very much bring us into a low Opinion and esteem of our selves and encline us to a peaceable and Christian Accommodation with all Parties and to shew forth more Moderation of mind than we have yet made known to the World It is only for these ends that I have spoken so home and dealt so impartially with you being acquainted with the temper of many of your spirits which require it But if any Prophanatick shall make this cursed use of what I have written as thereby to heighten that hatred of holiness that is so natural to all unregenerate men or to harden himself in his way of wickedness stumble and be scandalized at the fallings of some I have here presented I say no more to him but at his eternal peril be it For though it be true which our Saviour hath said Wo be to them by whom offences come so it is as true also Wo be to the world Matth. 18. 7. because of offences As for many of the late Kings Party that have been the greatest sufferers for him I fear not that any such ill
you were gone towards Rome in this respect your silencing many Godly Orthodox and Able Preachers for not conforming to your Superstitious Ceremonies doth witness against you And that you remain still of the same mind that there is no Religion nor Service without these Ceremonies your violent Desires and high Hopes to see them again imposed doth abundantly declare Let me therefore perswade you to more Moderation And though you have as our aforesaid Author saith fallen too much upon that Spartans Pag. 170. Conceit that in his Travels seeing the Beams and Posts of Houses squared and carved asked if the Trees grew so in those Countries so having been long acquainted with a Form of Worship squared and carved trickt and set out with shew and Ceremony have been apt to think that Trees grow so that there is no natural shape and Face of Gods Worship Yet he will tell you that abinitio non fuit sic and this he doth learnedly and largely prove p. 171. To which I refer you Let therefore the woful miseries and calamities which you have brought upon the Land by so altering the Face of the English Church since the Reformation thereof in Queen Elizabeths daies through your so Popish and Superstitious Innovations that you made it look so like the Painted Whore of Babylon that Sancta Clara hath published That the Face of our Church began to alter the Language of our Religion to change and setting Puritans aside our Articles and their Religion would soon be agreed Let also your violent urging conformity to these Ceremonies which you made the Devils Sieves to winnow Pious men of Tender Consciences out of their Ministerial Employments I say let these with your many other Provocations of the Divine Majesty meeken and moderate your Spirits restrain your eager pursuit of Episcopacy in statu corrupto with its superstitious vanities especially considering how much Blood and Treasure hath been expended in this Quarrel My Lord Digby was of another mind before a Drop of Blood was spilt Saith he P. 74. Let us not destroy but make Bishops such as they were in the Primitive times Do their large Territories their large Revenues offend let them be retrencht The good Bishop of Hippo had but a narrow Diocess Do their Courts and Subordinates offend let them be brought to govern as in the Primitive times by Assemblies of their Clergie Doth their intermedling in Secular Affairs offend Exclude them from the capacity it is no more than what reason and all antiquity hath interdicted them That you may be glad of this when you can get it and may meet with no further Obstructions I shall now direct my Discourse to you of the Presbyterian Party Who also have as great Cause to be humbled and repent as the Party before spoken to though not for the very same sins The great and cogent Argument by which God would restrain his people of old from oppression of others was this the sense of the oppressions which they had lain under in the Land of Egypt And one would think this should have restrained you that groaned so much under the oppression of your Consciences and Estates And yet no sooner were you come out of great Tribulation your selves but like that cruel Servant in the Gospel you fell to beating and wounding of your Fellowes in both All that woful cruelty and severity which you inflicted by Sequestration and Imprisonment upon those that could not joyn with you in taking up of Arms and in the Eradication in stead of the Reformation of the Government of the Church while you were in Power should very much melt and molifie your hearts and much incline them to accomodation and moderation Especially considering with what little respect unto the Consciences of others ye violently imposed upon them vowes and Oaths wherein you only were satisfied your selves For refusing whereof many Orthodox Ministers lost their Livings that could not otherwise have been ejected as scandalous and insufficient but only for this particular Malignancy Forgetting how much you cried out against the Bishops new Oath which they would have imposed Surely had you in this observed that Golden Rule of our Saviour to do to others as you would be done by you would not to promote the Interest of your own Party have hewed out a Reformation with so much violence and to impose a rigid Presbytery have spared none of a different judgment from you that stood in your way I hope in all this time that God hath laid you aside ye who are what you profess your selves to be whether Ministers or people such as fear to offend the Divine Majesty and avoid all appearances of evil have made some serious reflexions upon your selves and have humbled your Soules before the Lord for your many miscarriages while you were in power and for those extreams into which you have run with the rest I am sure it was your Duty in the day of Adversity to consider You should have considered what might provoke the Lord against you not only to disappoint your hopes of setling your so much admired Church-Government but also to bring the whole Ministry of these Nations as near to an utter extirpation as you had brought those that ordained you and set you apart to the work of the Ministry But the violence of many of your Spirits which appeareth in this day-break of your hopes of deliverance from men of Antimonarchical and Anti-ministerial spirits makes me think you have not truly and throughly been humbled for what is past No marvel therefore that so many of you are so pertinacious in your way I beseech you therefore let your Modesty and Moderation be known unto all men in giving over your violent pursuit of an absolute and independent Presbytery from the Angels of the Churches and be of a condescending towards others who may have as much Reason and Scripture on their side and may appear to be as pious and conscientious as your selves Do not think that there can be no purity of Ordinances but where there is a Parity in their Administrators Neither any Reformation of Church-Government without the extirpation of it root and branch The great Objection that lieth against this Motion is that you lie under an Obligation by Covenant to extirpate the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. And therefore you cannot recede from it To which I Answer that an unlawful Oath bindeth not Now whether that long League or Covenant wherein were too many words to be without sin were lawful yea or no I desire you to compare it with those Rules and Qualifications of a lawful Oath or Vow laid down by the Assembly of Divines in their Humble Advice § 11. An Oath say they must be imposed by lawful Authority whoso takes it is to avouch nothing but what he is fully perswaded is the truth what is good and just and what he is able to perform and bindeth not to sin Now I say if you