quarters which threatens famine upon you Squeesd by taxes wrack'd with war the anvill indeed of misery upon which all the stroakes of vengeance fall A wofull Nation once the freest people in the world now the veriest slaves slaves not to one but to many Masters and those many of various and different tempers by whom you are forced to be sometimes one way sometimes another And the Church which is the joy of Saints strangely confounded that none almost knows his owne or his Neighbours Religion in such a mist of darknesse are you Chap. VIII Shewing the wickednesse of the Ministry or Clergy and their judgement THe Clergy so called have a great hand in the evills of these times and require an especiall discovery But I purpose more fully herafter to open the state of the Church and to shew the particular evils and good of every sect with their defects the reason of their difference and so reduce them all to their proper place and order which is the true vniformity And therefore shall only at this time take notice of them briefly and as respecting these evill distractions The Clergy are deeply concernd and especially eyed by Divine justice a corrupt generation and horribly departed from their Lord and Rule Christ The Son of God the Prophet the Prest the Bishop is the life original and true patterne of al Ministry And there is no true office that Christ doth not constitute by his owne presence nor no right dispensation of that office if Christ himselfe do not administer and be the thing administred and therefore all others are Antichristian and Babylonian In whom the Spirit and power of the Holy Anointing lives not It s true that the Clergy of England all sorts of them that have appeared upon this preset stage Episcopacy Presbytery and Independency have their particular excellencies from particular Angels assisting them The Bishops grave Magisteriall Authoratative Honourable and having imprinted upon them a dark and earthly form of Christ The great Bishop and of him in his Lordly or Royall priest-hood as he is exalted The Presbyters being laborious painfull zealous earnest affectionate carrying an image of the Elders and Apostles of the Church The Independent delighting in a more particular and intire union with his people of greater strictnesse and exactnesse and personal care of his flock is more truely in the Pastors or Teachers place But they are all earthly and carnall darkning the true light of Christ in their ministry and holding forth the name of Christ but not the power but their owne parts opinions readings humane and weak affections yea have wickedly departed from their Master and do not worship in the Temple in Heaven in the new Jerusalem but in Aegypt and Babylon of this world where the Lord is crucified and stand at a distance from and enmity to the Spirit of Christ They professe Christ in their way that is in enmity to him they professe they are not with him nor he with them glory in their shame which is a Worldly and a Devillish life They are ignorant of heaven came not from heaven are not in heaven neither returne they to heaven they judge not things in the light of heaven nor know things as they are in the booke of life the Scriptures of truth as they are in the Spirit of God but as they are written and spoken of in the world and so are blinde guides and have led the blinde people of this Nation into a ditch of destruction on all sides Their great unlikenes to Christ appeares in these things First Christ is Anointed with the Spirit of God he is sent of God he comes from the Father Hath all power given him in Heaven and Earth But these men all of them derive not their ministry but from men at best according to the outward fashion of the letter of the Word and so from Paul c. and that they follow most lamely and so far only as serves their turne taking indeed their ministry themselves from their earthly Fathers according to the customes and traditions of men therefore have no power at all but the power of their own reason which being weaknes it self they presently run to the power of the Magistrate and strengthen themselves with that whithout which they are most contemptible and despisable things The Bishops take away the King and what becomes of them The Presbyters if the Parliament fail they fall into the ditch Secondly Christ emptied himself and became of no reputation took upon him the form of a servant but these men are one all sides stickling for worldly greatnesse contending by all waies of cunning and policy to raise themselves to the highest point of preferment in their severall spheres pleading for their honour from the People urging and forcing from the People respect to the Ministers each party in their seasons labouring might and main with blood to uphold that interest in the Nation that they have gotten and pressing upon mens consciences to fight for Religion which is their means places honours and safeguards Thirdly Christ fore-told and desired his sufferings The Baptisme that he was to be baptized with But these men never knew their own or the Kingdomes sufferings to give or take warning but fild with the visions of their own hearts prophesie pleasing things in their seasons The glory of the Church blessed times great and wonderfull things And if their sufferings hath been declared to them by God they would not hear it but as Peter in his satanicall pride Master be it far from thee and when they had gotten into the mount of Court and Parliament favour then they cry It s good to be heer abhorring the thoughts of suffering And would be reigning upon the Throne before they touch upon the Crosse These carnall Gospellers are in all their thoughts enemies to the Crosse of Christ 4. Christs Ministry was glory to God on high on Earth Peace c. But these mens is glory to themselves and to their King and their Parliament and for want of this a sword fighting like Satans Priests Preaching and speaking the fire of their rage Pulpit incendiaries pronouncing curses and judgements upon their brethren and so giving them up to the sword of one another Priests indeed not to offer up their honours places preferments and lives to purchase peace a Christ did and they should But have offered up the Kingdome a Sacrifice to their own blinde zeale and carnall lusts together In stead of standing in the gap have made a gap and increased the divisions of the times casting not water to quench but Oyle to inflame the differences of the Nation not laying down their lives but seeking the lives of others to serve their ends Fifthly Your bitter and violent persecuting each other when you have gotten power into your hands You have been in your severall seasons the ruine of each other denying each other subsistance or the exercise of each others gifts Far from the love
given the swaying of the great affaires of your Kingdome to private and inferiour persons who have brought forth instead of Noble and Righteous Lawes a brood of low jugling tricks a rabble of Monopolies Pattents and such brats True thou hast exactly served thy personal relations a loving Husband a tender Father a constant Friend but hast been short in thy Office as a Prince the greatnesse of a KINGS heart hath been shrunke up and withered into the nature of a private man And thy private and Domesticall state hath drowned thy Publike and Royall As thou hast been defective in love and faithfullnesse so in sufficiency and ability of a Head Thou hast not dwelt with her as a man of knoweldge There hath been in the Nation many high and strong workings of spirit towards a greater perfection in Religion and Justice which though mingled with many unholsome vaporus and clog'd with great weaknesse might by an able head have been digested the evill being purged out into good spirits advantagious for the further grouth and increase of the body These are spilt and for want of wisdome to manage them the Kingdome spilt with them This Nation was of a fruitfull and teeming constitution apt to bring forth gallant and noble increase of light knowledge government great improvement in vertue which you in weaknesse of fear and jealousy laboured to stifle and in a superstitious opinion of former times confine this age to their example And being shy and not understanding the waies of God have left the body to her self or to other persons whence ariseth this hideous and misshapen birth in Church and Common wealth This universall disorder and confusion which the wisdome only of the Head and Father of the family can or could prevent I le but adde this one When thou hadst provoaked thy Parliament into a distemper by thy mis-government and estrangeing thy self from her then un-naturally un-Kingly irrationally un-christianly to forsake her betake your selfe to force an act so full of folly revenge so unbelieving so unlike God as along time durst not look up would not bee confest This cropt the sweet flower of Englands peace broke that great vein from whence such streames of bloud have flowed In sum The majesty justice mercy and goodnes of the great God hath not been held forth in thy Government but hid and buried in thee their appearing visibly in thee nothing but the weaknes inconstancy injustice and oppression of vile man Your evils have been great and so are your Judgements you are fallen into a deep pit of misery the chief offender and the chief sufferer great now in nothing but in losse and affliction You have slain the Kingly glory or the true glory of a King and therefore your Authority and dominion must needs die you have laboured to save an earthly greatnesse against Heavens displeasure the onely way to have it ruin'd to expose it to a multitude of stroakes of warth You have divided your self from your People your Parliament and so they become of a help a plague to you and are by others rent and detained from you You Idolized your Wife and friends and are therefore seperated from them Blasted and accursed in all your attempts Your Kingdome is full of miseries and you the Center of them all and must bear in all and for all Become the shame of the World by horrid confusion and distraction Deprived of all power of dominion Thy Revenue and dignity shared by others The majesty of thy Government like a Potters vessell dasht in peeces into Committees c. Thy Mame wounded yea buried under foul and black oblique become the scorne of Pampletters Thy Prerogatives and the highest priviledges of the Crown banded and tossed about the Kingdome in the mouthes and hands of common men When thou hadst left the Lord thy stabillity see what a race of misery thou hast run When thou didst leave the Parliament and wentest into the North Thy Sun set and another rose in England From that time its a dark night with majesty Kinglinesse is laid upon a sick bed and those Nobles gentlemen like blazing torches attending upon you All your waies then were weak faint sick-snatches at a Crown unnaturall and violent striving after a fading glory while your Kingdome lay wallowing in its own bloud At last the Lamp wants Oyle and Majesty dies and gives up the Ghost when you left your Regalia your Seal Crown Councel c. at Oxford now you indeed put of the state of a King and in the condition of a private person wander as a spirit in the Ayre till at last found in the North Apud inferos thrown amongst those leane hungry hagges the Scots who greedily devour this sweet morsel a King and in their ambitious and covetous lusts prey upon him Forced amongst those that he had little before proclaimed traytors and enemies to his Crown and dignity and were devils in his thoughts to him heer he is for a while tormented mockt with the title of a King but indeed a Captive nipt scurged and lasht with their rebukes tempted to blaspheme God in his own Royaltlty and at last valued at lesse then his quoin sold for mony into another hell He is resigned up into other hands Commissioners of the Parliament where he is again to be squeesd and wrackt by Propositions to give up the heart of Regall power ground tween the Milsiones of both Nations not admitted to come to his Parliament but Holdenby thrust into a corner while others frolick in his Dominion Now hurried into another hell snatched out of this as too honorable and taken away by agitators and common souldiers They must have their turn to vex this peece of misery They that had often chased him pursued him with death he must be their prey and be carried about as Army baggage They now will have the moulding of him and will cut out a new garnent of Royalty to cover his nakedness But t is shrunk in the making and they have disposed of the cloth to their own turnes Poor wretch frighted from hence by a new and strange fiend to Regallity Levellers and after another Pilgrimage he arrives at the Isle of Wight where he is again Imprisoned Labouring to please his masters studying how to content all parties and seeking favour and relief of all not forbearing being in great torment to ask the Levellers a drop of water to coole his tongue At last the pit shuts her mouth upon him in the Parliaments Votes to make no more addresses to him which is confirmed by the power of the Army and so forever rejected as an abominable thing never to be medled with Chap. V. Shewing the Parliaments errors WHen the King had involved himselfe in difficulties and weary of toyling to extaicate himselfe hee seeks at length to lay down his head in the lap of the Parliament and to seek help of his owne Spouse to compose the disorders of his Family And the
two without this subordination would not be so safe so profitable nor so delightfull But being two subordinate one to another without offending each other yea to the advantage of each other is exceeding delightfull the King the Father hath all retained People the Son al dispenced in the first its absolute and intire in the second it s propagated enlarged spread-forth The Husband gives the Wife receives hee hath all and bestowes it she hath all and receives it The King saies ask what you will and it shall be given unto you so GOD saies to Christ chuse what Laws and Priviledges you will I le grant it That 's my word and Oath I have no negative voice I can't deny you But this is no wrong to the King for the Parliament being one spirit with him can ask nothing but what he is minded to give as prayers in the Church though GOD bee bound to give yet it s no losse to him because his own Spirit asks for we know not what to ask So the KING is the originall of asking and gives the desire of the thing that which moves the inferiour to desire is most excellent in the superiour and in this is the fulnesse of the King hee shall still call ask of ME and shall still out-goe the desires of the Petitioners and give more then they can ask his heart being more large towards his Spouse or Childe then his Spouse or Childe can bee to it selfe and that minde that is in the Spouse or Childe of good to it selfe is in the Father before it was in the Son and more excellently Neither can the Sonne ask any thing in this spirit that can derogate from the Father for thereby he should prejudice himself and weaken or lessen that power that conveighs good to him and so wrong himself most to wrong his head or fountaine from whence he is supplyed Neither is it any wrong to the Son to have it this way but t is the most perfect way of having it by asking it of another for thus there is a stock and treasure in which is store layd up that is the Sonnes riches the surest and sweetest way of having is by the easy way of asking T is the excellency of it that it 's a gift and that t is free or that it hath the Royall stamp of love and Authority upon it by which it is not a stolne and forced but lawfull and pleasant favour T is a free and ingenious subordination where the inferiour hath power to chuse what it will and chuses to have it in that way and not in another and hath that freedome in asking that is powerfull The woman hath power over the head to command by love and to say as Christ I will have it so and then t is most acceptable to the Father when it is most boldly and freely ask'd it being the great joy of the head to have the wife confident in his love And in this way there is and shal be a river of pleasure running betwen King and people or from King and Parliament and People wherein they shal do nothing but please one another The fulnes of the one compleatly answering the largenesse of the other And the KING having to give what ever the Parliament or People can desire and desiring them to receive as much as they desire him to give and taking more pleasure in creating greatnesse and freedome in them then in possessing of it himself it being his nature and place to give forth and without their receiving honour from him he were not a King and it being as pleasant to the People to receive it from a King it would not content them to have it in themselves but their Kings gift sets the price upon all favours they doe enjoy it s therefore sweet because their Lord bestowes it upon them This is the florishing estate of King and Parliament in their restored life living now in the glory of the Spirit and in union As God and Christ are of themselves are in each other and neither without each other but the Kingdome of both is compleated in their dwelling together in the third the Spirit where they doe continually delight in each other in bestowing themselves upon each other and are most happy in fellowship so 't is a heavenly blessednesse for Head and Body to be thus united and to give and take largely and openly to communicate themselves to each other The King in prosperity in health strength and pleasure is in breaking forth his Majesty upon his Nobles that have affinity to his greatnesse thence to derive it to the People this is a full King in hight bredth and a People ascending through the Lords into the bosome of the King is a People in hight and depth the body in prosperity and pleasure three states in one and one in three in perfect agreement and in compleat unity all make up but one fulnesse one Kingdome Thus each is a Heaven to himself and a Heaven to the other and this conjunction by this righteous law of Spirit the highest Heavens being all in the light and face of the eternall majestty This is the great and main pillar of Englands happinesse the foundation of our comfort which as its most excellent in its self so it will effectually change the whole Kingdome into its forme all parts must follow the condition of King and Parliament yea all are included in it in this our whole happinesse lies The body being thus in health it cannot but send forth nourishment into every part not a man in England but shall presently finde a reviving upon this agreement a new spirit of love joy comfort trade and prosperity is immediatly dispersed into the whole Nation every one leaping for joy in the goodnesse of God and the happinesse of the Nation Chap. XVIII Of the Cure of the People of the Land by this Death and Resurrection THE God of the whole Earth delights to doe great things and to fill the whole earth with his glory The great favour of divine presence of love and peace is not reserved for Princes alone but to be communicated generally to all People That all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God You the People of England have sinned Wee have all like sheep gon astray but God laies on him the iniquities of us all Wee see the zeale of Christ under your blinde rage one against another Christ in you in weaknesse and infirmity The Lord saith of you You are my People all my children your families relations comforts and persons are the Lords not one English man or woman but carries the Lord with him and in him The Land-Lord is the Lord of the Earth the Tennant is the Son holding of the Father all he hath The buyer the seller the rich the poor Master and Servant Father and Son Husband and Wife are all but various breakings forth of God and Christ and the severall enjoyments they have
you lye downe in the Eternall By this your arreares are paid you are nothing you are dead and you can require nothing you and your demands are fallen to the ground your service is dead and nothing is due to it but to be buried and all your miscarriages in forgetfulnesse Who do you require arreares of The Kingdome is dead the sword reignes and therefore the Kingdome is free if you will be paid take blood want spoile confusion ruin that 's all that is left of the Kingdome pay your selves of that Do you expect it of the Parliament That is dead too Poor Parliament you have eat it up your selves in greedines of pay you tore her bowels out and you can have no more But all anger is past there remaines nothing but love you are dead and live with Christ come forth of your graves stand up in the resurrection of Christ in union and fellowship with Christ The Lords host now the Lord is in you and you pitch your tents about the Lord and are the arme of God stretched out for his owne defence and for the punishing of transgressors living in the strength and Spirit of the Lord and now mighty and powerfull to execute Divine pleasure Now you are under the Captain of our salvation and at once interested in the salvation of the Nation and of Christ our Saviour Now we can pay you arreares you never stuck upon arreares till you sunk into the earth into poor earthly mindes rise you again into spirit you will count it your honour to help England freely Mony and a Saviour cannot subsist together That Spirit of Christ that once acted in you to let goe the prisoners Englands freedome and justice without price or reward that spirit shall revive in you and then you will scorne to be mercenary I know you disdaine to keep Englands woundes open to suck her blood you have hazarded your lives for justice and freedome and can't now insist upon pay you are worthy your selves and have the worth of all with you if you desire pay enter with us into Cānaan and you shall have Vinyards that you planted not wels that you diged not A land flowing with milk and hony such mercies and blessings as you could not expect The Lord is Judge he will audite your accompts and pay all that he owes you Religion flourishing in the purity of it peace and righteousnesse as Rivers and Seas the sweet holy unmolested enjoyment of your own families and estates in the presence under the government of the most high You shall now subsist in our bowels be disolved into the Church and Kingdome which is the beloved of Christ Terrible as an Army with banners terrible to the world and the God of the world to the prince of darknesse and so wee shall disband you into spirit and power the whole Nation shall be Souldiers able to draw the sword of the Spirit against all forrain power amongst our selves wars shall cease from the earth you must beat your swords into plowshares and spiers into pruming hooks to your honest trades again there will need no Iron or steely wrath but to plow up your own hearts and to cut down enemies within your own brests all our Townes and Cities are garisoned with a heavenly host and we have salvation for our wals and bulwarks we shall lye down in peace and none make in afraid while we need force we shall use you but not in civil wars you must be removed and only imployed in service against strangers if you delight to sit down by the still streames of Englands peace and feed in our green pastures of eternall love you shall if your valour makes you desirous of military actions we shall finde enemies abroad to imploy your swords against and when you under take such expeditions the Lord shall goe with you you shall have Angels spirits that shall make you invincible where ever you goe The Levellers grew out of the Army and are again shrunk into the Army and therefore we will now joyne you to the Army being mingled together In your endeavour to impose your Democracy your popular Government upon the Kingdome over-throwing and overturning all powers into the People we hear the voice of one crying in the Wildernes England is become a Wildernesse all flesh grasse all power is corrupt the Spirit of the Lord hath blowne upon it and its withered This is John Baptist that exalts the valies and brings down the hils he brings all into the waters the People God is in these Levellers casting the Mountains into the depths of the Seas plunging all into a confused People not suffering one stone to lye upon another Thy place is to be in the Wildernesse and not to come into the City to expire and dye speedily to decrease that he that comes after may increase Thou art beheaded thy devices are fallen to the ground a mushrome thou wert little and art nothing What went you out to see A reed shaken with the wined growing out of the mire of the Nation or a man clothed with soft rayment People got into Kings houses In this state thou art vanisht lost and raised in the Spirit of Christ the divine and eternall love of God and in this Kingdome there is a perfect Levell The People the originall of the Parliament and King by a free giving up themselves and and their estates to the Parliament and King are in the King and Parliament and fully pertake of the royalty and power of both and are leveld with it The People give honour and glory to the King and so higher then hee or he their Subject He that gives is greater then he that receives heer all the people are one with that spirit that is kingly that Anointing that makes Christ King and so called mine Anointed living all in the liberty of that spirit that makes Kings and are most perfectly content in the Kings greatnesse being that which themselves constitute making it themselves they live in it and enjoy it And the King is levelled to the people by his sufferings or humiliations and by his love taking in every Subject to himself humbling of himself to be but the Kingdoms Servant and wearing his Crown only for the happinesse and good of the people living together and brought into one body head and member The eternall love is the Leveller Divine Charity that lifts not up it selfe but is lifted up and being lifted up drawes all after it I rejoyce in the healing thy breaches oh London thou honourable City Thy iniquities have been great there is a righteous one under them that will carry them without the City as a scape Goat into the wildernesse we see the Lord in thee in thy greatest filth in thy violent enforcing powers above thee to thy own minde in constraining the Parliament to thy will by bold petitions urged with tumults we see darkened and shadowed the intercession of the Son of God who with violence wrests
from his Father favour for himself and his people he comes with boldnesse to take what he asks and saies I will and the power that Saints have in Christ to command God in prayer In thy siding with the Parliament against the King and thy free powring forth thy self for her We see the excessive love of Christ to his Church who is ravisht with love and for her forgets all things else In thy ingrossing the riches of the Kingdome into thee thou art a shadow of Christ who treasures up wealth and riches of glory in the City of God for us But thy glory is gon thy true life the beautifull presence of God hath left thee and thou art burning in flames of wrath jealousies envies divisions thou art wasted into a sceleton thy trade obstructed by Sea and Land thy People filled with rage thy bowels pained with fierce contests of parties pulling various waies quite restlesse an unquiet Sea in continuall agitation The Lord dyes in thee the LORDS delight thou wert his Spouse thy glory and greatnesse it was the LORDS he suffers in thy suffering and is covered in thy ashes lyes under the burthen of all thy wants is pierced with the necessities of the poor And thou art in the dust of confusion a ruinous heap the seat and place of vexation lying in a thick cloud of darknesse But his fire purifies thee in these flames thou losest thy filthy pride coveteousnesse malice revenge c. Thou shalt not perish utterly The voice of God is heard in thee to revive thee thou shalt be built again Thy foundations shall be all of precious stones c. The glory of God shall shine in thee thou art now the City of God a Righteous City this is thy name The Lord is there The Lord displaies his glory in the midest of thee The new Jerusalem indeed in truth in Spirit in perfect union with GOD a heaven and so in union amongst your selves Peace within thy wals and plentiousnes in thy palaces a City at unity in it self there shall not be the least found of discord in thee Thy nature is love light and holines The City of the great King made happy by the presence of the King and all the state and honour of the Kingdome Now open thy armes of Divine love and take into thy imbraces the glory of England Kings Princes Nobility Gentry Ministry Judges Lawyers with all the wisdom justice power and excellency of heaven and earth let all flock together in one God one Christ one Spirit one City and thousands of thousands of Saints and Angels dwelling in thee Nothing shal be heard in thee but mirth and joy in the Lord our God praises of the Great King Open thy gates thy everlasting doors that the King of glory the Lord of Hosts with all his host of Princly powers may enter in And all the riches of the World shal flow into thee in thy trade naturally and abundantly the wealth of both Indies and all parts shal seek unto thee and offer up it selfe to satisfy thee thou shalt be crownd with blessings all contents and pleasures shal continually run dawn thy streets and all in the sight and face of the holy God in the pure River of life Chap. XXI Of the admirable fullnesse and compleatnesse of this restoration satisfying all interests ALL the works of God are perfect found out of all them that take pleasure therein The greatest and highest are reserved for us in this later and great day of God wherein it pleaseth the LORD to appear in his fullest and most excellent glory this of Englands salvation is a sweet bud of it a little taste of that infinite Majesty that is now breaking forth in the glorious appearing of God In this businesse the Lord satisfieth his own Interest who is Alpha and Omega the first and the last and this is the rock of our pleasure that thou art pleased and satisfied Thou reignest thou art King this is thy due all power and dominion is thine t is thy right to have all all are thine for thee they were created and made King Parliament Lords Commons Ministers People all sorts all sides all parties are the Lords and thou wilt reign over and in all from Sea to Sea from one end of the Earth to the other as lightening shining from East to West so is thy Kingdom and thy glory is now due to thee that thou shouldest appear not in weaknesse to serve men but in thy great Majesty in thy highest honour thou must now shew forth plainly thy self in thy utmost most enlarged goodnesse power wisdom Nothing now will serve thee but to be ALL IN ALL To be All thou art in Heaven in all the Earth to bring forth all thy riches to fill every creature all glory in all things Thou art all in Earth as well as all in Heaven all in King in Parliament in People there is nothing but thy self in these thou art Bishops Presbyters Independents all these and all in these all Majesty power glory justice in the King and all the same in the Parliament and all that too in the People thou art all the labour strength riches freedome in the People all this in the Parliament all the same in the King all night and all lownesse Thou art all wisdom Authority Government in Bishops all care zeal labour in Presbyters all love union absolutenesse in Independents and all these in every one thou art the same in all ALL IN ALL All in darknesse all in light all in weaknesse all in strength all that every part is all the wholl is all the wholl in every part and all Heaven all Glory all peace all quietnesse all love all goodnesse in all these parts and wholl Lesse then this generall and near union and mariage will not satisfie thee being thy self satisfied thou doest satisfy all and being pleased thou pleasest all thy content contents every one because thou art all art content it self in all Thou hast shaken all Nations and the desire of all Nations is come We have been shaken into peeces and every peece shaken out of all order and peace Thou art good that thou doest but shake only rends that thou mayest make way for thy selfe to enter and for all to enter with thee into every part What we desire we have we can desire nothing but the Lord nothing is desirable but the Lord the Lord we have and in the Lord wee meet with every desirable thing the desire satisfied which if a tree of life God was our desire which is now interpreted being brought forth into performance and enjoyment God the bottom and top the desire and desired meeting in one Spirit and Kingdome GOD the root in our desires grown up into the fruit attainment The interest of this whole Kingdome in this restoration is satisfied and that consists in First PEACE a sure Peace a well grounded Peace here you have the richest jewell of peace that heaven hath
of Christ or his People Paul in case of greater difference then these outward formes of Government wish'd himself accursed for his brethren but you in the spirit of Satan blaspheme and curse one another Both upon false and alike hipocriticall grounds The Bishops pretending tending the peace of the Church conformity Oath subscreption obedience to the Kings Lawes And the Presbyters Reformation Covenant uniformity and obedience to the Parliaments Ordinances but mainly t is your intolerable pride that cannot bear any to dissent from you a conscience guilty of your own weak foundation that makes you fear that every one will supplant you and earnest contending for self-honour self-security and wicked malice against your Brethren They are but fellow servants not judgess as they presume though they beat their fellows Both servants living at a distance from God in the World not upon the Throne in Heaven and but fellowes set each to do their severall works in their severall waies and that much upon equall tearmes though they admire themselves and think highly of themselves and despise others as of no use But of the two it s most strange to see the Presbyterian who the other day was opprest by the Bishop for his conscience in point of Sabbath c. who could not long since live without the favour of the Bishop should now thrust out those under whom he lived for not taking the Covenant which is contrary to their conscience and shew lesse favour to them then he received from them and doe that which he condemned in others and this upon weak and fleshly grounds admiring his own way which is to pray and preach longer and more then another to be strict in repetitions on Sabbath daies and some such poor formall things To set up this as the power of godlinesse and reformation to the ruine of another who it may be is a man of more justice ability and wisdome more sobriety more stability more patience and constancy in suffering The persecution of the Bishop was wicked and abominable but this being now acting and the other part and almost blotted out and forgotten by their sufferings is especially to be noted Did these men live in the largnesse of heavenly love that comprehends all these parties and in the light and wisdom of God who brings forth all these out of himself and for his own holy purpose manages all in order The Bishops and the Presbyters might agree as well as Christ and the Apostles and be so far from destroying as they would support each other did they know that heavenly order that is in divine things they might live in as sweet a fellowship as the one throne of Christ and twenty four Thrones of the Elders or Presbyters Rev. 4. All three might live in one Family as elder and yonger brethren as Fathers children and grand-children who while they live in Satan the accuser and in the darknesse of the World they oppose and destroy each other You are worldly live in the World and suffer the calamities of the World and are partners great sharers in the misery of the Nation being publick persons are of publick concernment these evils doe lie in a large and more generall way upon you in these desolations the Prophet that teaches lies he is the tayle The lower and baser kinde of judgements fall upon you the deep scorne of the People you are cast out by God from your honour and glory as an abominable branch as salt wanting savour to the Dunghill What 's become of the Episcopall glorious Church his lordly Palaces stately worship adorn'd Temples great Revenues Made desolate torne in peecs left to the Satire Schrich-owle to Zim Gim under what a hideous curse do they lie What 's become of the great Reformation of the other party that promised such glorious daies pure Ordinances power of godlines become a breach in a wall a rotten and putrifid sore abotch a filthy issue nothing appears in it but wretched disorder their eyes sinke in their heads while they look for salvation they inwardly cut themselves as Baals Priests crying to God to deliver them and finde no reliefe but scorne tormented with feares to be torne in peeces by the people Palenesse and blacknesse fills your faces and horrour and confusion you spirits on both sides To see your worldly glory burning in the fire of Divine jelousy your Idols broken to pouder cast into a Sea of confusion your fleshly beauty eaten up with worms of rottennesse and putrefaction To see your confidences in your Idols rejected your prophesying lyes of a glorious time by Gods hand confuted your fastings and multitude af solemne prayers cast as dung in your faces not regarded your zealous covenants wherby you thought to save your selves broken in peeces and trampled under foot your much admired worships of Directory and Service-booke Creeds Confessions Articles of no profit use-lesse and helplesse things laid by the wals scornd and despised your Churches and People taken from you scattered severall waies your gifts dying in you or dying in their use and ineffectuall The Church which is heaven shining in the light and presence of God in unity peace and order in holinesse majesty and righteousnesse through your dark and wicked government through your weaknes worldlines and want of Divine power and wisdome become a cursed field over-run with thistles briers and thornes a wildernes full of wild beasts a hel full of blasphemies malice revilings scornings derision railing errors mistakes herisies of all sorts the greatest pillars of truth Trinity Father Son and Spirit Christ his death c. defaced with foule errors so many so various so abundant as it is a confused heape of folly and madnes and coming in upon you in such a torrent that they drown you and are so high and prevalent that not a man of you dares or can appeare in any power or strength against them but are forced to lye-down and expose the truth your crown if ever you had any to be stamped in the dirt by them Chap. IX Shewing the iniquity of the Army and its judgement THE Army though but a branch of the Kingdome and a particular part yet in these civill warres the power of the sword hath been great and got the upper hand of the Civill The Army descended from the Parliament as its Childe but the Parliament growing old and weake and leand so long upon the tressels of the Army that its power at last sunk into the Army manifest in the Members flying to the Army in its approach to London The power or the King the head fell into the breast and shoulders the Parliament and thence descended into the legs the Army but there they make a swelling disease quickly and shew themselves to be in an un-naturall course The Army a company of honest and active men fitted excellently by a strong Angell for the work they were called to under whose conduct they dispatcsht their businesse speedily and honourably walking