love to thee in the Nations and in thy Family for a season till their own ends of advantage be accomplished and may in the very time hatch evil against thee and secretly invent to uncover thy nakedness and betray thee for many men are treacherous but thou receiving a measure of the Wisdom of God it will guide thee over all such and thou wilt see into the hearts and spirits of men and to discern between love unfained which will seek thy good not self that love which is fained which will flatter thee and blind thy Judgement and lead thee into snares and such as will the least flatter thee will be the most true to thee so beware and let not vain flatterers and proud ambitious and ungodly self-seeking men nor drunkards nor covetous nor politick and deceitful men and spirits have any place in thy heart nor in thy house nor in places of authority and trust in thy Government for such men will be a snare unto thee and a dishonour to thee and the cause of Gods wrath curse against thy person family and whole Nations for such men God will not bless nor thee nor the Government for their sakes this thou wilt find true one day therefore chuse unto thee such men as fears God who are just and humble and upright-hearted who are sincere and faithful to the Lord who hath the Wisdom of God and true nobility of spirit in righteousness and simplicity free from the prophanness of this evil world let such be thy companions to wait upon thy person and to Govern and Rule in thy Family and Nations and let such be put in trust who will not be treacherous for such are blessed and will be a blessing to thee and the whole Government and we know that the Lord gives respect and regard to the upright that fears his Name and such he will accomplish his work by to thy renown and the peace and happiness of the Nations more then to craft and policy and the wisdom and subtilty of this world for thereby the Lord will never fulfil his work nor prosper a Ruler nor his people and if thy strength and defence be there and not in the Lord and his pure Wisdom only thou canst not prosper but the Nations men will over-reach thee beguile thee and thou cannot be happy nor thy Government be kept in peace but a little measure of the fear power and wisdom of the Lord God from heaven in thy heart amongst such as are thy Counsellors to guide you Govern you will be of more value and worth unto thee in thy place and condition then all worldly policy and wisdom and craft which with God is not regarded nor of him ever blessed and if thou deny the Lord and righteous men and chuse thy own way and this worlds wisdom that 's from below then thy trust and strength shall pierce thee and make thee feeble and of all others thy state will be the most miserable if thou be given into the policy and deceipts of treacherous men so be wise and seek the Lord that he may be thy trust and put not confidence in vain man whose heart is deceitful and desperately wicked And as concerning the condition of these Nations they are in a broken state much devided and divers in Judgements and far out of good order for there is much corruption and abuse in all orders and places of men and much to be purged out and Judged both in Magistracy and Ministry before righteousness peace and truth union joy and faithfulness can embrace one another amongst the Inhabitants of the Nations for both are in a diversion degeneration from what they were at the first ordained of God and this I could clearly manifest unto thee for the Nations are but newly come out of Popery having put off but part of the dress of that polluted Whore and the garments of professions in Religion yet smell thereof as not being throughly purged from her abominable Idolatries and superstitions as thou maist see when the Lord opens thy eye to view the present state of all things As for Magistracy it was ordained of God to be a dread and terrour limit to all evil-doers to be a defence praise to all that do well to condemn the guilty to justifie the guiltless but the exercise thereof at this day inthese Nations is degenerated and some that are in authority are greatly corrupted and regards not the Just and pure Law of God to Judge onely thereby but oppresseth the poor by injustice and subverts the good Laws of God and men to a wrong end and use abusing Authority and turning the sword against the Just whereby true Judgement is turned backward the innocent made unjustly to suffer for righteousness sake through the corruption of men in Authority and didst thou but know what we know in this particular it would pierce thy heart Why It is frequent amongst some of the Judges Magistrates to commit a just man to prison impose some great fine up on him and to cast him into a dungeon or hole among thieves and murtherers for a long season for no other offence or breach of any Law but because he cannot put off his hat to them and respect their persons by bowing the hat or knee and many others that fears God and for Conscience sake cannot swear upon a book by kissing it laying hand upon it because Christ saith swear not at all though they deny not to do and speak the truth in all things as in the presence of God and all men and many others that because they are moved to cry against sin and declare against the iniquities of the times in Teachers Rulers and People that highly abounds perhaps in a Market or Steeple-house or High-way or other place as they are moved of God and many others because for conscience sake they cannot pay Tythes nor give mony and wages to a maintain a Priest or false Teacher that they receive no profit by or to maintain a steeplehouse where the world worships in vain traditions and not in the spirit and power of God and many have been taken out of peaceable meetings where they were waiting upon the Lord and some out of their Innes and friends houses and many have been taken on the way travelling about their lawful occasions and some from their callings and labours and for these causes through the envy of wicked men and without any just conviction of the breach of any Law or any lawful tryal or examination have hundreds of just men being wholly innocent been sent to prison and layed many Moneths and some for years or whipt and put in the stockes and grievously abused by cruel executioners of wicked mens envy and injustice and upon such grounds onely and for such causes mentioned and without the transgression of any just Law have and do at this day many hundreds of
on in faithfulness to the end and in that day when thou was raised up when the fear of the Lord was before thy face and thy heart was towards him and thou was but little in thine own eyes then was it well with thee and the Lord blessed thee and made thee honourable and his people had love towards thee and desires for thee that thou might have been as a helper to the poor and a father to the faithful and a preserver of the upright from unreasonable men and an easer of the oppressed a taker away of every oppressive bond and it was not once thought concerning thee that the hands of the ungodly would have been strengthened against the righteous under thee or that such grievous and cruel burthens and oppressions would ever have been laid upon the Just and acted against them in thy name and under thy Dominion as unrighteously have come to passe in these three years as a large testimony might be given and this thy suffering of such things is thy transgression and thou hast not requited the Lord well for his goodness unto thee nor fulfilled his will in suffering that to be done under thee and in thy name which the Lord raised thee against to break down hadst thou been faithful to the end Again consider and let it move on thy heart not to exalt thy self nor to be high minded but to fear continally knowing that thou standest not by thy self but by another and that he is able to abase thee and give thee into the will of thy enemies when soever he will and how the Lord hath preserved thee sometimes wonderfully and doth unto this day from the murderous plots and crafty policie of evil men who seeks thy evil and would rejoyce in thy fall and in the desolation of thy family and countries how have they and do they lay snares for thy feet that thou may be cut off from amongst men and die unhappily and be accounted a curse and yet to this day he hath preserved thee and been near thee to keep thee though thou hast hardly known it and the Lords end is love to thee in all these things and yet a little longer to try thee and that thou might give him the glory O that thy heart were opened to see his hand that thou mayst live unto him and die in him in peace and beware least hardness of heart possesse thee if thou slight his love and so be shut up in darkness and given to the desires of thine enemies and left to the counsels of treacherous men who may seek to exalt thee by flattery that they might the better cast thee down and destroy thee and blot out thy name in reproach and make thy posterity a People miserable but now O consider and let it enter into thy heart for thou hast not answered the Lord but been wanting to him for all this and hast chosen thy own way and glory rather then his and not fulfilled his counsel in raising thee for the bonds of crueltie are not loosed by thee and the oppressed is not altogether set free neither is oppression taken off from the back of the poor nor the Laws regulated nor liberty of pure conscience altogether allowed but these Dominions are filled with cruel oppressors and the poor groans every where under their heavy hand of injustice the needy are troden down under foot and the oppressed cries for deliverance and are ready to faint for true Justice and Judgement the proud exalts himself against the poor and the high minded and Rebellious contemns the meek of the earth the horn of the ungodly is exalted over the Lords heritage and they that are departed from iniquity are become a prey to oppressors and the cruel hearted deals cruelly with the innocent in these Nations and such whom the Lord hath freed in their consciences from false worships and Teachers and from the wayes of sin and death are made slaves and greedily preyed upon by unjust men through casting into prisons and dungeons and unjust fines and Illegal proceedings and beatings and abusings and woundings and bruisings hard to be expressed and large to be declared even the hands of many of the people over whom thou art set to rule are full of blood merciless and cruel and neither fears God nor are subject to the just rule and Government of men and the mouth of many of thy subservant Rulers and Governours that have their power from thee are as the teeth of young Lions and the upright and harmless are devoured and made a spoil by them through policy and oppression both in their persons and estates if I perish I must speak the truth my life is not dear to me for the truth sake many who should have judged in true Justice and righteousness the cause of the poor have been as bryars and thorns to insnare and pierce the just man and have perverted Judgement and turned it backward equity have hardly had place to enter most of the prisons this day in all thy Juridictions have and doth testifie the unjust judgement and the great oppressions and cruelties of some in Authority who have used or rather abused thy name and made it a cloak for their hard-heartedness O my heart is troubled and my bowels pained at the remembrance of this how doth the poor cry under the heavy hand of oppession and the needy lament for want of true Judgement and the oppressed groan for want of deliverance and these things are thought upon by the Lord though not considered by thee as they ought to be and because of this will he arise to plead the cause of the innocent against him that is too strong for him and will dash to pieces his enemies and break the jawes of the devourers and the righteous shall not alwayes be a prey to the teeth of the ungodly O Friend when wilt thou consider the oppression of the poor and hearken to the cry of the oppressed within thee and without thee when shall it enter into thy heart this cause of the unjust sufferings of the Lords people from which thou canst not altogether be excused for it is acted in thy name though not by thee O let thy ear be opened unto the cryes of the oppressed in the prisons and let the cause of the innocent come before thee and let thy heart be pierced at the consideration of these things which are come to pass in thy dayes contrary to the expectation of many and see if it be not contrary to thy own promises sometimes vowed by thee let the light of Christ in thy own conscience answer and some of the multitude of the grievous oppressions of which the Land is full hath been laid at thy door and brought unto thee but scarcely found an entrance upon thee and this aggravates the crime of thy transgression in that thou knowest of these things wonderful is it to consider that even thou with whom the power of the Lord hath
and under it how can they stand for thee and thy Government or out of pure love be subject thereunto though be it known to thee that we the People of God doth not envy thy person or Government in the least neither hath purpose of seeking advantage against thee or it to hurt or betray you by secret plotting or turbulent arising as others may yet friend the want of our prayers to God for thee is worse to thee then the secret plotting of all wicked men And how can we mention thee in our prayers to God except it be to be delivered from thee who are dayly cruel and unjust sufferers by thee or because of thee as I have said or how can we be friends to that Government or subject to obey that power under which we dayly suffer such hard and cruel things as the loss of our liberty and estates and danger of life also let that light in thy own conscience Judge though for all these things we do rather pitty thee and desires thy repentance then conspires against thee or wisheth thy destruction yet oughtest thou to consider of these things with a humble heart and what a condition thou art in who is hated of the wicked with deadly hatred and not loved of the Saints because thou lovest not the Lord also it might make thy heart to tremble to consider how that thy Dominions are thus devided and the affections of the people thus dis-united and few of them thy real friends some having real offence given by thee wherefore they are forced to loath that Government which is unjust and others verily supposing of great wrong sustained from thee wherefore they are turned against thee Moreover besides all this greatly it may be suspected that even they in whom thou dost repose confidence who seems to cleave unto thee may not be altogether true unto thee though in appearance subject yet may have secret hypocrisie and hatching of evil in their minds if it were possible to uncover thy nakedness and some others also there may be who may make use of places under thee which may have no more affection to thee nor service for thee then while their own ends of great advantage are served under thee by their subjection to thy Government and now friend these things being justly considered and viewed by thee in righteousness how is thy Dominions as a broken vessel that cannot easily be bound up and as a bruised reed not to be confided in by thee and these several sorts of people being substracted out of the whole how few is it that thou wilt find that are thy real and faithful friends who may stand by thee in a needful time some out of envy cannot be subject to thee and others for the fear of the Lords sake cannot own thee in such a Government whereby the just suffers even all men are ready to stand afar off from thee and because thou hast denyed the people of God therefore cannot he be thy trust and verily thy state and the state of thy Dominions are truly to be lamented thou hast so much sought thy self that thou hast lost almost all people and their affections every one judging themselves to be the greatest sufferers under thee Ah consider for thou art but the head of a disjoynted body which may not easily be bound up to thee and thou art lost for lack of true knowledge for the Lord hath done many things for thee though thou hast not known it altogether and much less then knowest thou of those things which are eternal which belongs to thy peace it shewes thou ownes not the Lord who cannot own his people but rather counts them thy enemies and suffers all evil to be inflicted upon them and this is the greatest of thy misery in that the Lord hath been so good unto thee and thy promises so large towards him for the freedom of his people and yet all forgot and the Lords goodness not answered and his people made as slaves and bondmen under thee suffering the loss of liberty and even their birth-right priviledge in many parts of these Nations wherefore be awakened O man and sleep not totally in carelesness but remember thy self either to perform the good or at least to escape the evil which may suddenly come upon thee And this I have written to thee out of perfect love in the fear of God without the fear of any man or without any secret or open envying of thee couldst thou but own the Lord he would be thy strength to forgive all thy iniquities and blot out thy sin and to defend thee from all thy enemies and above all things love Judgement mercy and truth and fear before the Lord and let not his people be thy bond-slaves who is more dear unto the Lord then all earthly glory is unto thee and if thou couldst own them they would own thee in the face of all thine enemies many times hast thou been warned and that from the Lord and thou shalt confess it when the Lords hand is upon thee and thou delivered into the will of thy enemies remember that I have told thee what the Lord hath shewed me happy art thou if thou canst receive it that peace may be unto thee and not war salvation and not condemnation renown and not dishonour which waits for thee except thou turn to the Lord Edward Burrough The Original of this was delivered to him in the seventh moneth 1657. To the Protector and Counsel A Servant of the Lord and to you a friend wisheth Grace and Wisdom the spirit of sound Judgement and the knowledge of God unto you that in all things true Justice and righteous Judgement may be brought forth and abound unto all people that you may be more honourable and may be made a blessing to your selves and this Nation and to generations after you but alas my friends how long shall Justice and true Judgement be neglected and the innocent deeply groan for want thereof how long shall it be ere the distressed cry of the unjustly afflicted enter into your hearts I say when shall your ear be bowed down to hearken to and consider of the guiltless cause of many of the faithful subjects who lies deeply afflicted through this Nation some under one cruel bond of oppression and some under another being most unjustly and wickedly imposed upon them by cruel men who perverts Justice and turneth true Judgement backwards and neither fears God nor regards men but contrary to Justice and the good Lawes of this Land as men without reason and natural affections to mankind doth act most illegally to the grievous oppression of many approved faithful subjects and the true knowledge and consideration hereof is enough to pierce the hardest heart and to vex the most patient mind and undoubtedly the fierce anger of the Lord is greatly kindled because of these things and even against your forbearance who seems to take little notice of such cruelties and in justice