Part 3

But there is yet a piece of Artifice behind, of no less consequence then the former, and that is, a seeking to perswade the present Army, that They were the men, who first engaged thus solemnly to destroy the Government under which they were born, and reduce it to this miserable condition: whereas it is well known by such as converse daily with them, that there is hardly one of ten amongst them, who was then in Armes; and that it was the Zelots under Essex, and the succeeding Generals, who were the persons whose perfidiousness{2} he makes so much use of, and that the present Army consists of a far more ingenuous spirit, and might in one moment vindicate this aspersion, make their conditions with all advantage, and these Nations the most happy People upon the Earth, as it cannot be despaired but they will one day do, when by the goodness of Almighty God, they shall perfectly discern through the mist which you have cast upon their eyes, lest they should discover the Imposture of these Egyptian Sorcerers.

And now, Sir, if after all this injustice, and impiety on your parts, you have prosecuted that with the extreamest madness, which you esteemed criminal in your enemies, viz. To arrogate the supream power in a single person;{3} condemn men without Law; execute, and proscribe them with as little: Imprest for your Service, violate your Parliaments, dispense with your solemn Oaths; in summe, to mingle Earth and Heaven by your arbitrary proceedings: All which, not only your printed books, this pretended plea; but your Actions have abundantly declared; have you not justified the Royal party, and pronounced them the only honest men which have appeared upon the stage, in Characters as plain, that he which runs may read, whilst yet you persecute them to the death? Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O Man, that perpetratest these things; For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thy self, seeing thou that judgest doest the same things. But thinkest thou this O Man, that thus judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the vengeance of God? I tell ye nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Truly, Sir, when I compare these things together, and compare them I do very often, consider the purchases which you have made, and the damnation you have certainly adventured; the despite you have done to the name of Christ, the Laws of Common humanity which you have violated, the malice and the folly of your proceedings; in fine, the confusion which you have brought upon the Church, the State, and your selves; I adore the just and righteous judgment of God; and (howsoever you may possibly emerge, and recover the present rout) had rather be a sufferer among those whom you have thus afflicted, and thus censure, then to enjoy the pleasures of your sins for that season you are likely to possess them: For if an Angel from Heaven should tell me you had done your duties, I would no more believe him, then if he should preach another Gospel, then that which has been delivered to us; because you have blasphemed that holy profession, and done violence to that Gracious Spirit, by whose sacred dictates you are taught to live in obedience to your Superiours, and in Charity to one another; covering yet all this Hydra of Impostures with a mask Of Piety and Reformation, whilst you breath nothing but oppression, and lye in wait to deceive. But O God! how long shall the Adversary do this dishonour, how long shall the Enemy blaspheme thy name, for ever? They gather them together against the soul of the Righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. Lo these are the ungodly, these prosper in the World, and these have riches in possession: And I said, then have I cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. Yea, and I had almost said as they; but lo, then I should have condemned the generation of thy Children. Then thought I to understand this, but it was too hard for me, untill I went into the Sanctuary of God; then understood I the end of these Men. Namely, how thou dost set them in slippery places, castest them down and destroyest them.

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O how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a fearfull end!

We have seen it, indeed Sir, we have seen it, and we cannot but acknowledge it the very finger of God, mirabile in oculis nostris; and is that, truly, which even constrains me out of Charity to your Soul, as well as out of a deep sense of your Honour, and the Friendship which I otherwise bear you, to beseech you to re-enter into your self, to abandon those false Principles, to withdraw your self from these Seducers, to repent of what you have done, and save your self from this untoward Generation: There is yet a door of Repentance open, do not provoke the Majesty of the great God any longer, which yet tenders a Reconciliation to you. Remember what was once said over the perishing Jerusalem. How often would I have gathered you together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her winge, and ye would not? Behold, your House is left unto you desolate.--For do not think it impossible, that we should become the most abandon'd, and barbarous of all the nations under heaven. You know who has said it: He turneth a fruitfull land into a Wildernesse, for the iniquity of them that inhabit therein. And truly, he that shall seriously consider the sad Catastrophe of the Eastern Empire, so flourishing in piety, policy, knowledg, literature, and all the excellencies of a happy and blessed people; would almost think it impossible, that in so few years, and a midst so glorious a light of learning and Religion, so suddain, and palpable a darknesse, so strange and horrid a barbarity should over-spread them, as now we behold in all that goodly tract of the Turkish dominions: And what was the cause of all this, but the giddinesse of a wanton people, the Schisms and the Heresies in the church, and the prosperous successes of a rebellious Impostor, whose steps we have pursued in so many pregnant instances; giving countenance to those unheard of impieties, and delusions, as if God be not infinitely merciful, must needs involve us under the same disasters? For, whilst there is no order in the Church, no body of Religion agreed upon, no government established, and that every man is abandoned to his own deceitfull heart: whilst learning is decried, and honesty discountenanc'd, rapine defended, and vertue finds no advocate; what can we in reason expect, but the most direfull expressions of the wrath of God, a universall desolation, when by the industry of Sathan and his crafty Emissaries, some desperate enthusiasme, compounded (like that of Mohomet,) of Arian, Socinian, Jew, Anabaptist, and the impurer Gnostick, something I say made up of all these heresies, shall diffuse it self over the Nation, in a universall contagion, and nothing lesse appear then the Christian which we have ingratefully renounced?

For this plague is already beginning amongst us, and there is none to take the Censer, and to stand between the living and the dead, that we be not consumed as in a moment; for there is wrath gone out from the Lord. Let us then depart from the tents of these wicked men (who have brought all this upon us) and touch nothing of theirs, lest we be consumed in all their sins.

But you will say, the King is not to be trusted: judg not of others by your selves; did ever any man observe the least inclination of revenge in his breast? has he not betides the innate propensity of his own nature to gentlenesse, the strict injunctions of a dying father and a Martyr, to forgive even greater offenders then you are? Yes, I dare pronounce it with confidence, and avouch it whith all assurance, that there is not an individuall amongst you, whose crimes are the most crimson, whom he will not be most ready to pardon, and graciously receive upon their repentance; nor any thing that can be desired of him, to which he would not cheerfully accommode, for the stopping of that torrent of blood, and extream confusion, which has hitherto run, and is yet imminent over us. Do but reason a little with your self, and confider sadly, whether a young Prince, mortified by so many afflictions, disciplin'd by much experience, and instructed by the miscarriages of others, be not the most excellently qualified to govern and reduce a people, who have so succeslesly tried so many governments, of old, impious and crafty Foxes, that have exercised upon us the most intollerable Tyrannies that were ever heard of?

But you object further, that he has lived amongst Papists, is vitiously inclin'd, and has wicked men about him: What can be said more unjustly, what more malitious? And can you have the foreheads to tell us he has lived amongst Papists to his prejudice, who have proscrib'd him from Protestants, persecuted him from place to place, as a Patridg on the Mountains? You may remember who once went to Achich the King of Gath and changed his behaviour before them, and fain'd himself mad in their hands; had many great infirmities, and was yet a man after Gods own heart; Whilst the Catholick King was your Allie, you had nothing to do with Papists, it was then no crime: God is not mocked, away with this respect of persons: But where is it you would have him to be? The Hollander dares not afford him harbour, lest you refuse them yours: The French may not give him bread for fear of offending you; and unless he should go to the Indies, or the Turk (where yet your malice would undoubtedly reach him) where can he be safe from your revenge? But suppose him in a Papist Countrey, constrained thereto by your incharity to his Soul as well as body; would he have condescended to half so much, as you have offered for a toleration of Papists, he needed not now have made use of this Apology, or wanted the assistance of the most puissant Princes of Christendome to restore him, of whom he has refused such conditions as in prudence he might have yielded to, and the people would have gladly received; whilst those who know with what persons you have transacted, what truck you have made with the Jesuites, what secret Papists there are amongst you, may easily divine why they have been no forwarder to assist him, and how far distant he is from the least wavering in his Faith. But since you have now declared that you will tollerate all Religions, without exception; do not think it a sin in him, to gratifie those that shall most oblige him.

For his vertues and Morality, I provoak the most refined Family in this Nation to produce me a Relation of more piety and moderation; shew me a Fraternity more spotlesse in their honour, and freer from the exorbitances of youth, then these three Brothers, so conspicuous to all the world for their Temperance, Magnanimity, Constancy, and Understanding; a friendship and humility unparallel'd, and rarely to be found amongst the severest persons, scarcely in a private family. It is the malice of a very black Soul, and a virulent Renegado (of whom to be commended were the utmost infamy) that has interpreted some compliances, to which persons in distress are sometimes engaged, with those whom they converse withall, to his Majesties disadvantage: whilst these filthy dreamers defile the flesh themselves, and thinking it no sin to despise dominion, speak evill of dignities, and of the things which they know not. But woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Kain, and run greedily after the errour of Balaam, for reward, having mens persons in admiration because of advantage.

For the rest, I suppose the same was said of Holy David, when in his extream calamity, he was constrain'd to fly from Saul. For every one that was in distresse, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became Captain over them. And to this retinue, has your malice and persecution reduced this excellent Prince; but he that preserv'd him in the Wood, and delivered David out of all his troubles, shall likewise in his appointed time, deliver him also out of these distresses.

I have now answered all your calumnies, and have but a word to add, that I may yet incline you to accept of your best interest, and prevent that dreadfull ruine which your obstinacy does threaten. Is it not as perspicuous as the Sun, that it lies in your power to reform his Counsell, introduce your selves, make what composition you can desire, have all the security that mortall men can imagine, and the greatest Princes of Europe to engage in the performance? This were becoming worthy men, and honourable indeed; this ingenuous self-denyall: And it is no disgrace to reforme a mistake, but to persist in it lyes the shame. The whole Nation require it of you, and the lawes of God command it, you cannot, you must not deferr it. For what can you pretend that will not then drop into your bosomes? The humble man will have repose, the aspiring and ambitious, honours: The Merchant will be secure, Trades immediately recover, Aliances will be confirm'd, the Lawes reflourish, tender Consciences consider'd, present purchasers satisfied; the Souldier payed, maintained and provided for; and what's above all this, Christianity and Charity will revive again amongst us, Mercy and Truth will meet together; righteousness and peace shall kiss each other.

But let us now consider on the other side, the confusion, which must of necessity light upon us if we persist in our rebellion and obstinacy; We are already impoverisht, and consum'd with war and the miseries that attend it; you have wasted our treasure, and destroyed the Woods, spoyled the Trade, and shaken our properties; a universall animosity is in the very bowells of the Nation; the Parent against the Children, and the Children against the Parents, betraying one another to the death; in summe, if that have any truth which our B. Saviour has himself pronounced, That a Kingdome divided cannot stand, it is impossible we should subsist in the condition we are reduc'd to. Consider we again, how ridiculous our late proceedings have made us to our neighbours round about us. Their Ministers laugh at our extream{4} giddinesse, and we seem to mock at their addresses: for no sooner do their Credentialls arrive, but behold the scean is changed, and the Government is fled, he that now acted King, left a fool in his place, and they stand amazed at out Buffoonery and madnesse.

What then may we imagine will be the product of all these disadvantages, when the Nations that deride and hate us, shall be united for our destruction; and that the harvest is ripe for the sickle of their fury? shall we not certainly be a prey to an inevitable ruine, having thus weakned our selves by a brutish civill war, and cut off those glorious Heros, the wise and the valiant, whose courage in such a calamity we shall in vain imploar, that would bravely have sacrificed themselves for our delivery? Let us remember how often we have served a forraign people, and that there is nothing so confident, but a provoked God can overthrow.

For my part, I tremble, but to consider what may be the issue of these things, when our iniquities are full, and that God shall make inquisition for the bloud that has been spilt; unlesse we suddainly meet him by an unfained repentance, and turn from all the abominations by which we have provoaked him; And then, it is to be hoped, that he who would have compounded with the Father of the faithfull, had there been but ten Righteous men in Sodom; and that spared Nineveh that populous and great City; will yet have mercy on us, hearken to the prayers, and have regard to the teares, of so many Millions of people, who day and night do interceed with him: The Priests and Ministers of the Lord weeping between the porch and the Altar, and saying, Spare thy people O Lord, spare thy People, and give not thine Inheritance to reproach.

And now I have said what was upon my Spirit for your sake, when, for the satisfaction of such as (through its effect upon your soule) this Addresse of mine may possibly come to, I have religiously declared, that the Person who writ it, had no unworthy or sinister design of his owne to gratifie, much lesse any other party whatever; as being neither Courtier, Souldier, or Church-man, but a plain Country Gentleman, engag'd on neither side, who, has had leisure, (through the goodnesse of God) candidly, and without passion to examine the particulars which he has touched, and expects no other reward in the successe of it, then what Christ has promised in the Gospels: The Benediction{5} of the peace maker; and which he already feels in the discharge of his Conscience being for his own particular, long since resolv'd with himself, to persist in his Religion, and his loyalty to the death; come what will; as wrongfully perswaded, that all the persecutions, losses, and other accidents which may arrive him for it here, are not worthy to be compared to that eternall{6} weight of glory which is to be revealed hereafter; and to the inexpressible consolation, which it will afford on his Death-bed, when all these guilded pleasures will disappear, this noise, and empty pompe, when God shall set all out sins in order before us; and when, it is certain, that the humble, and the peaceable, the charitable and the meek shall not loose their reward, not change their hopes, for all the Crownes and the Scepters, the Lawrells and the Trophies which ambitious and self seeking men contend for, with so much Tyrannie and injustice.

Let them therefore no longer deceive you, dear Sr. and as the guise of these vile men is, tell you they are the Godly-party, under which for the present they would pass, and courage themselves in their wickedness, stoping their ears, and shutting their eyes against all that has been taught and practised by the best of Christians, & holiest of Saints these sixteen hundred years: You shall know them by their fruites, do men gather Grapes of Thornes, or Figs of Thistles? But so, being miserably gall'd with the remembrance of their impieties, and the steps by which they have ascended to those fearfull precepices, they seek to allay the secret pangs of a gnawing worme, by adopting the most prodigious of their crimes into a Religion fitted for the purpose, and versatile as their giddy interest, till at last, encourag'd by the number of thriving Proselytes and successes, they grow feared and confident; swallowing all with ease, and passing from one heresie to another; whilst yet they are still pursued, and shalt never be at repose: For Conscience will at last awake, and then how frightful, how deplorable, yea, how inexpressably sad will that day be unto them! For these things have they done, and I held my tongue (saith God) and they thought wickedly, that I am such a one as themselves; but I will reprove them and set before them the things that they have done. O consider this ye that forget God, least he pluck you away, and there be none to deliver you!

And now Sir, you see the liberty which I have taken, and how farr I have adventured to testifie a friendship which I have ever professed for you: I have indeed been very bold; but it was greatly requisite; and you know that amongst all men there are none which more openly use the freedom of reprehension, then those who love most: Advices are not rejected by any, but such as determine to pursue their evill courses; and the language which I use, is not to offend, but to beseech you to return. I conjure you therefore to re-enter into your self, and not to suffer these mean and dishonourable respects, which are unworthy your nobler spirit, to prompt you to a course so deform'd, and altogether unworthy your education and Family. Behold your friends all deploaring your misfortunes, and your Enemies even pitie you; whilst to gratifie a few mean and desperate persons, you cancell your duty to your prince, and disband your Religion; dishonour your name, bring ruine and infamy on your posterity.

But when all this shall fail (as God forbid a title of it should) I have yet this hope remaining; that when you have been sufficiently fated with this wicked course, wandred from place to place, government to government, sect to sect, in so universal a deluge, and find no repose for the sole of your foot (as it is certain you never shal) you with at last with the peaceful Dove, return to the Arke from whence you fled, to your first principles, and to sober counsels; or with the repenting Prodigall in the Gospel, to your Father which is in heaven, and to the Father of your Countrey: For in so doing, you shall not only rejoyce your servant, and all good men, but the very Angels which are in heaven, and who are never said to rejoyce indeed, but at the Conversion of a sinner.

This 27. Octob. 1659

Et tu conversus, converte Fratres.

PSAL. 37.

10. Yet a little while, and the ungodly shall be clean gone, thou shalt look after his place, and he shall be away.

36. I my self have seen the ungodly in great power, and flourishing like a green Bay-tree.

37. I went by, and lo he was gone; I sought him, but his place could no where be found.

38. Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right: For that shall bring a Man peace at the last.

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I request the Reader to take notice, that where, mentioning the Presbyterian, I have let fall expressions, somewhat relishing of more then usuall asperity; I do by no means intend it to the prejudice of many of that Judgment, who were either men of peaceable spirits from the beginning; or that have of late given testimony of the sense of their errour, whilst they were abused by those specious pretences I have reproved; but I do regard them with as much charity and affection, as becomes a sincere Christian, and their Brother.