A Humble Address to the Parliament

A PARAENETICK, OR HUMBLE ADDRESSE to the PARLIAMENT and ASSEMBLY for (not loose, but) CHRISTIAN LIBERTIE.

T HERE have been many Nayles and Goades sharpened in this Argument, by Masters of the Assemblies, if there were but a steady hand to drive them home, and fasten them. The LORD fasten them by his Spirit, in the hearts of all whom they concern, of all before whom now lies an opportunity of killing and making alive, that ye do not now put out that only Coale that is left to us, (after all our sufferings and privations) our Christian Liberty.

How have we promised ourselves (not in the least diffiding the Reasonablenesse of such an Expectation) that though we did eat the bread of affliction, and drink the water of adversity, yet our eyes should see our Teachers, and they should no more be thrust into Corners? And if this hope fail us, we are of all men most miserable. Had we not better, if we had looked at ourselves only, and not at the common Cause, while we had something, to have betaken ourselves into some remote Island; then after the loss of all to have it set on the score of a mercy and kindness to us, to be quietly dismissed thither? Wherein we should find it (for we already feel the workings of it) no small aggravation of our Affliction, the Con • ideration of those from whose faces we flee. If it were an Enemy, (dear Friends and Bre • hren) if it were the Bishops doings, we should not marvel, we could better bear it; but what, you, our Brethren, our Companions once in the same iron yoke and furn • ce of affliction, (the dearest Remembrance that can be) that 〈…〉 and fasted t • gether in Corners, that have s • te and wept t • gether by the Rivers of B • bylon, remembering Zion; and hanged our 〈◊〉 upon the Willows, bemoaning ourselves oft to one another; and are the same men still both for Religion toward God, and affection toward you! O tell it not in G • th, publish it not in Askelon, lest the P • ilistims rejoy • e, and the daughter of the uncircum • ised triumph. Let not Malignants hear of it, Papists and Atheists, Neutrall Protestants, and hollow-hearted Professors: and oh that the th • usand y •• res were begun that the Devil were shut up too, (who rather is let loose now) that there be not joy in hell for the divisions of the Brethren! But seems it not reasonable to you (that which seems so reasonable to Christ) that we who have 〈◊〉 with you, should reign with you, and that Comfort being restored to Ierus • l • m, all her 〈◊〉 should have a s • are in it? Or are we those vassals alone that now in this year of Jubiliee, must whether we will or no, have our ears bored; when all other liberties are vindicated? Is it for that we have no T •• tullus to plead our Cause, or for that we are few and peaceable, and you may use us how you list? Sure it is not in you to make so ill an use of our good Principles? However, be it known to you, 〈◊〉 Redeemer is strong, and though he be gone a long journey, yet he will come upon those Evil s • rvants, that (secure through his delay) fall a beating instead of feeding their fellow-servants; He will come in an 〈◊〉 when they • re not aware, and look not for him; as he did before your eyes upon the domineering generation of the Prelacy. The more you oppress us, the more we shall grow. Refraine from us therefore; and let us alone; for if this Counsel, or this work be of men, it will come to n • ught, but if it be of God, ye c • nnot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found • ighters against God. Stand therefore to God's arbitrament. If we build upon the true foundation, with hay and stubble, the d • y shall decl • re it; for it shall be revealed by fire, and our work shall be burnt, though we shall be saved.

Prejudice not yourselves further (Brethren) or your way▪ For God hath said, There shall be no destroying be • st in all his holy Mountain. The Beasts of prey come from Mount Seir, not from Mount Zion. Es • u was rough, hairy, and lordly: Jacob was smooth, plain, and pleasant. Is it a form agreeable to you, to be as that Image in Nebuchadnezz •• rs Vision, That was dreadful and terrible, having great iron teeth, dev • u • ing • nd breaking in pieces, and stamping the residue with the feet? Or will you not rather ride on and prosper, because of truth, • nd righte • usnes • e, • nd meekness? So should you carry the hearts and votes of all men along with you, but those that are lost. And we trusted we had seen a hopeful beginning, that we might have improved to a greater Expectation; when (besides former express encouragements ministered to us by pregnant passages of great note and observation with us in certain Declarations or Ordinances of Parliament, which except need be, we are loath to repeat) God had lately put it into the heart of the Parliament, to consider the just and merciful accommodation of tender Consciences. Which makes us the more amazed and astonished at the sudden prejudice we seem to have received in their affections, and the varied, yea, contrary aspect both of Parliament and Assembly upon us, who are no other then we were before, and have continued in your several and respective service and assistance, with the same faithfulness since as ever: Wherein God hath been very merciful unto us, (whether it be acknowledged to us or no, it must be acknowledged by us to him) that hath made us faithful, and not one Instance can be given of the contrary: And we looked for peace, and there's no good, and for the time of healing, and behold trouble; Yet we are neither so profane nor desperate, as (with Esau ) to sell our Birth-right for a mess of pottage, nor our hopes in your Justice and Clemency, for the quiet enjoyment of it, for a thing of naught. We hope this seeming remission and intermission of these Counsels of peace in behalf of us, shall but make them rebound the higher, and run the stronger. And therefore we cease not to pray for you, (most just Senators) that God would hide repentance from your eyes; that the Lord that stir'd up Cy • us, Darius, and Artaxerxes, and wedg'd them in by his powerful Spirit would keep this in the thought and purpose of your heart, till you have brought it to perfection. Truly there is a dreadful opportunity before you of gladding the hearts of thousands, your kindness unto whom Christ will put upon his own account; a dreadful opportunity, I say, if either omitted, or not proportionably improved. Let it never be said, ye did run well, who did hinder you? nay, who can hinder you, or who shall harm you, if you be followers of that that is good? There is nothing (under Christ) wanting to make us live quietly by one another, though of several judgments, whilst we agree in fundamentals, but your word to bid us do so.

Is it not time for the Lord's Harbengers and Trumpeters, to sound the allarm to the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and to apply yourselves now to turn the he • rt of fathers to the children and of the children to the fathers, lest the Lord come and smite the earth with a curse? Nay, hath he not sorely smitten us, for not only the neglect, but the contempt of this prescription by a contrary practicing, even setting the Fathers, the nursing-fathers of the Church (those that should be so) against their children? And indeed excuse us, if when we consider how fair we were for a good issue of the common troubles of late, when God gave us those many Occasions, and those solemn opportunities of praise and thanksgiving, when some can say (if ever) they found their hearts then drawn forth in earnest supplications and triumphant expectations of a smooth success; and instead thereof, what an unusual return we had from the hand of God, contrary to the tenor of his former proceedings, beating back our hopes upon us? and when we compare this with former the like passages of providence in the like juncture of times; (as that ill success that interrupted the Petition ready to be presented at the Common-Council against us) and also compare these with some Scriptures, and Scripture examples, how God hath made Ierus • lem a burthensome s • one, &c. Zech. 12. and how he hath formerly rebuked Kings for his people's sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, &c. and how he brought Artaxerxes and his Realm under wrath for that cause, Ezra 7. and consider how righteous this is, that if the children fall out the father should make the third; excuse us, I say, if we can give no better account of these things but the Lord's jealousy over his people's liberties▪

Wherefore, if pity will not move you, let equity at least constr • in you: Let no man go beyond or defraud his brother, saith the Apostle. Have you taken of us a price? deny us not our commodity; Christ bought our liberties for us with his blood, we have bought them over again at your hands with our own blood, shed not for ourselves only, but for you also. We have set you down, as it were, where you would be; we have dislodged the Can •• nites before you, we are necessitated to pass on further; it were but your duty to march on before us, and give us quiet possession with you. We have fought, and adventured purse and person upon this expectation of Liberty, (not of another Religion, but) of this Way of walking in your Religion; as of the Liberty of the Religion itself, which we eyed in the first place; If nothing less was in your hearts, why did you not tell us so? Nay, why hath the Assembly born us in hand with such hopes and intimations? Why have such Considerations been tendered to us, intimating; nay, almost assuring us, an after-liberty upon condition of a present modesty in that juncture of time only. For what else is the tenor of the 5 ^th Consideration, published, Dec. 23. 1643. in these words, That it is not to be doubted, but the Counsels of the Assembly, and the care of the Parliament will be, not only to reform and set up Religion throughout the Nation, but will concur • e to prese • ve wh • t ever shall • ppe •• e to be the RIGHTS of particular CONGREGATIONS, according to the Word, and to be • re with such, whose Cons • iences • annot in all things conform to the public 〈◊〉 , so far as the Word of God 〈◊〉 have them born with • ll, which is all that we de • ire. What did you do with those terms, The Rights of 〈…〉 and these contradistinguished to the general Reformation an • setting up of Religion through the Kingdom, if you did not speak to our sense? But (you will say) 'tis cautioned, What ever shall appe •• e according to the Word. To whom mean • ou it should appear? To yourselves? What promise were this? To preserve what ever appears to you, is not grace, but debt; and if this was your meaning, you might have said more properly, When ever these Rights should appear to you; and if by [ according to the Word ] you meant only, in your own interpretation, that's not thank-worthy: what bait is held out to us therein, but a miserable collusion? But the latter part of the Consideration is more express, which promise a bearing with those whose Consciences cannot in all things conform to the public Rule. And what though it follow, so far as the word of God would h • ve them born with • ll? for that implies a concession, that the word would have them born withal; otherwise, why do you bob our mouths with these Apples of liberty and toleration, and condescend to terms of the measure thereof, if no such thing in any degree be due unto us, or warrantable by Word? Why then do you give place to us so much, as for an hour? and if a toleration duly bounded be divine, then how have you endeavored it? or why do you not endeavor that degree? What jot or tittle of toleration have you yet brought forth, or do you give us hopes of in your proceeding hitherto? What things more terrible and more void and exclusive of all bearing and forbearing can you meditate yet, then Fines, Prisons, Exi • e, prohibiting the exercise of our W • y and our Ministry, but upon hard conditions; which things we have too much cause to fear and expect, as not much exceeding the rate and proportion of some present conclu • ions, and more menacing agitations. Judge now whether the performance of this Consideration be not yet wholly in arrere to us.

And to mind you of some other passages; What do you in that earn • t entreating Ministers and People ( Consid. 6.) to forbear for a convenient time, the joining themselves into Church-societies, until they see 〈…〉 will not be commended 〈◊〉 them in 〈◊〉 orderly 〈◊〉 ? I say, what do you in this, but set as at liberty afterwards? And why do you there bespeak us as free-men if you made account (and it be in your power) to make us bond-men, or use us so? And further, why doth the Assembly (in the 7 ^th C •• sideration ) glance with that congratulatory respect upon the liberty to serve God according to his Word, which we enjoy in this ti • e, more then hath been at any time in England 〈◊〉 the beginning of the Reformation, if it be not a just liberty? and if it be just, why doth it begin to be contracted? at least some part of that liberty we have enjoy'd? viz. preaching without ordination, till we can have it according to our consciences? And lastly, do you not cherish as great a hope in us, as all that we have asked, or shall ask, comes to, in the last Consideration; where you pawn your own hopes to cherish ours, that we shall never come to suffer for doing what shall appear to be our duty, though not co-incident with the public Rule given us; where you must mean what shall appear [ to us ] to be our duty; for we cannot fear we shall ever suffer by you for what appears [ to you ] to be our duty. And how can you be comforters of us in our sufferings, as you are in the sequel of that Consideration, if they be not sufferings for righteousness sake? and if they be, how miserable men are you, to be the authors of them? Or do you count it no suffering for all the Ministers of this Way to be deprived of their livelihoods and opportunities to serve God with their gifts, and their flocks depending on them bereft of their food? Pardon this repetition, it is not done to reproach or upbraid you, but timely to warn and remember you.

These were not over forward expressions only dropping casually from some more remiss and neutral spirits undertaking for you without your warrant (which you might judge it credulity in us to reckon upon, and injury to challenge you by) but serious deliberations and conclusions of your own ministered to us by some in the name of you all, not whisper'd in the ear, but published to the world, and to be understood in the proper, plain▪ and natural sense of the words and phrases commonly, holding forth to us a bait of timely and seasonable liberty. Now your intention herein was either feigned, merely to make us sleep away our opportunity upon the knees of vain promises and hopes, till your cords were twisted, and your bonds upon us; and so all these passages are but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , empty forms, and shapes, words filled with wind, condensed by a sleighty contexture, into a very promising and specious appearance only, which is not to speak the truth in Christ, but to be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Him: Or your intention was real, as indeed purposing to gratify and accommodate us after the Rule agreed upon for the Kingdom; and so there was reality in your words, which is that alone that honest men will offer, and wise men consider; and if so, this design was either good or evil: if evil, then it might not be undertaken for the greatest good that could come thereof; and why do you not retract and repent publicly of giving such hopes in your Considerations? But if it were good and just, why is it not pursued? Whether these do call upon you audibly, being your own words, promises, engagements, let all indifferent men judge; but surely our lives spent for you cry aloud for love and mercy to be shown us from you; Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the come: He that planteth a Viney •• d, shall eat of the fruit thereof. Doth God take care for Oxen? would he not have us die in an Oxes debt? and is it meet and congruous his children (whom he can maintain without being beholding to the world) should hire out themselves for nothing more then the common, when they fain would, but cannot live upon it? God forbid all our privilege should be, that we shall be last eaten, that when you have done with the more dangerous enemy, you should turn your hand upon us; shall this foul blot of ingratitude lie upon you? Will you so bury all your fame and glorious achievements in so horrid a pit? Will you so disappoint the expectation of meek souls, who hope for this, as an additional recompense (next to the liberties of the Kingdom, and of the Protestant Religion) for the lives of Brethren, Husbands, Friends lost in the public service and defense? How inaccessible soever such cries may be to your ears now through the multitude of your businesses and tumultuousnesse of your though • ghts for present; yet sure there will be a dead of the night, when the least noise will be heard; I had rather say, there will be a morning, when your eyes will be opened, and it will not repent you, the kindness you have shown, and the violence you have forborne to tender consciences. Good, my brethren, is your • leep too sweet unto you, and your beds too soft, and your consciences at too much ease, that you desire to create more trouble • nto yourselves, and to bring the neglected votes of the dead (sa • red among all) upon you, who laid down their lives upon no other condition, then Liberty, first of the Kingdom, then of the Conscience in the Protestant Religion, that they nor you might be inslav'd in eith • r; would it not shame you, the cry of the widows and orphans of such persons. Do you take away my liberty, restore my husband who died to purchase it for you? would it not scare you, should the Ghosts of those persons that have died in this Cause (those many hundred souls, that while they lived, were laden with the reproach of their consciences, but sufficiently vindicated the worthiness of their spirits by their doings and •• fferings so freely, so cheerfully undertaken:) I say, should they come to your bed-sides and cry, Give us our lives again; we laid them down for your liberty, perform the like for us; or bear the guilt of ingratitude, and injustice? O should they but tell you the lamentable Stories of their warfare, what affections of dearest Relations they conflicted withal, and were fain to despise and over-rule with an high hand in their first engagements, even tearing themselves from wives and children, almost contrary to the Apostles Rule, and far exceeding the highest dispensation for the most absolute service of prayer and fasting: And what hardship they endured of hunger and cold, and watchings, and weariness: What wounds they have sustained, what streams of blood they have lost, what agonies they have been in, and how they have borne down with a high hand all starting doubts and fears, lest they should not sow a considerable advantage unto themselves in those adventures, and whether or no they should indeed water a crop of ingenuous (nay Christian) liberty to you and themselves, or their posterity at least with their blood: Should they tell you, how they have undertaken to their own misgiving hearts and cautelous spirits, that their labor should not be in vain, that they should not lose their lives for naught, they did not serve such Masters: No, they were confident another Pharaoh must arise, before Joseph should be forgotten: Should they but tell you, how their Faith did put in bail to their Reason, and how this comforted them in all their anguish, and it made their farewell out of this life sweet; and twas the last prospect or Lands • ip of this Island that they saw, they beheld it as the habitation of righteousness, the faithful City. Should they tell you, how ambitious they were of wounds, how prodigal of their blood, how desirous to die, that by their death they might make a feast of liberty to their Brethren in this particular. And should they from thence fall to this Expostulation; Shall we die for you, and must not our friends live with you, who are of the same religion with you? Did you send us out to be cut off, and to make a hand of us? Did you slay part of us in the field with the sword of the Enemy, that you might the easier suppress the residue at home? Do you count us no better then to be swords-meat, and to stop the mouths of Canons? O Earth, cover thou not our blood, the Lord behold it and require it. Should such a din fill your ears sleeping and waking, what fruit would you have of your violent proceedings? Should you effect your purposes, suppress our Way, and cast forth our persons out of this good Land, could you put the price of our blood into the treasury? Would you have any list to r •• st what you had g • t by such hunting? Would not your stomachs nauseate and turn again at the raw and bloody cruelty of the game? Take up, Oh take up betimes, know you not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? Are we not your fellow-servants and Brethren? Did not the same hand make us, that made you? And is there not one Father of us both? One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one Religion? Are you the only rightful Inhabitants of this good Country? And is there not a curse denounced against those that lay house to house, and land to land, that they may dwell alone? Do you stand in no more need of us, or have we been reprieved till now, only as the Canaanites to help you to master the Lions, & the wild Beasts, that they prevail not against you:

Brethren, I would to God there were no Divisions among us; I wish it under the Imperial law of Heaven, and my hearts desire and prayer for Engl • nd is, that they were of one heart, and one way: But is that upon any Scripture-ground to be expected here (at least till those Halcyon days come) while we kn • w but in p • rt? Must we never be of one heart, till we be of one way? Then belike those Exhortations to love, and peace, and Christian forbearance of one another; and not to judge but to keep the unity of the Spirit, are not visions which the Apostles saw for these days. The time is not yet, as the Jews said, Hag. 2. But the Lord may answer us as he answered them; Is it time for you, O ye to dwell in your • eiled houses, &c? So is it time for you to agree and make your common engagement against any of the Lambes of Christ, the ground of a renewed friend • hip? Is it a time for Papists, Atheists, loose and carnal Protestants and Malignants to agree, laying aside their particular interests, opinions, and differences? Is it a time for French, and Spaniards, and Danes, and Walloones, and Irish Rebells to agree and make a confederacy with our homeborne Vipers against the truth? And is it not a time for us to agree for the truth? Is it a time for godly able men, that have in a great part renounced the hidden things of Antichristian darkness, to agree with ignorant superstitious Ceremony-mongers, (that are devoted still to a Common-Prayer-Book, and petition for a Captain to lead them back into Egypt ) and with the meanest and unworthiest spirits, (that will but serve the time, and acknowledge their sovereignty) as good Christians and able Ministers, to make their party stronger? And is it not a time to agree with those that denying themselves, and the world, profess to seek the truth in love. Is all truth among one sort of men? Hath not Christ rendered his members all in a mutual need of one another? Is your way the fullness of him th • t fills all in all? Can your refuse-Brethren in Conference and Communication of spiritual gifts, add nothing to you? Is there not most, ofttimes, in things that are most despised?

Would Christ have such desperate Experiments practiced upon his members, to kill them, if you cannot cure them of their lesser errors; to fine them, prison them, banish them, which to some persons and estates, is little more mercy then to knock them on the head? Doth not nature teach to bear with a blain or blemish, rather then to destroy the body? Is Christ so put to it, quite out of hope? May they not be gained hereafter? Are their opinions damnable, either in themselves, or proper consequences? Are they not further engaged to persist in their ways good or bad, by suffering for such things so deeply, and is not the bridge of retractation drawn up thereby?

Consider these things, and take heed what you do unto these men; the Lord hath made Jerusalem a burdensome stone, that shall crush all that attempt to remove her. If our Way be of God, you cannot overthrow it; You may show yourselves fighters against God, and get the reward of such, and that's all. Take heed of walking contrary unto God, of casting shame on those, on whom he hath reflected such eminent honor, both in the Army and otherwise: For I ask you, By whom hath God more delivered us hitherto? Who have shown themselves more valiant in fight? who have oftener put to flight the Armies of the Aliens in the North, and else-where, but those men that in the end shall be put to flight themselves, if some may have their will? The sword of the Lord, and despised Gideon, hath saved this Nation: Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. Let no man envy. God will be acknowledged in his Instruments, as well as in his Attributes. Take heed of resisting the Holy Ghost; for that mighty works have been done by these men, you cannot deny: their power in prayer, their shining doctrine, their exemplary burning conversation, though we will not paint the blemishes of any of them. But 〈◊〉 de tabula, I have offered my candle; it is in the Lord to proportion the success: To some it may be a word in season: to others perhaps it will be a 〈◊〉 and a stone of stumbling.

〈◊〉 vineet veritas, Truth shall overcome I verily believe and expect. The little Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands, shall irresistibly grow, and fill the whole earth: and every plant that the He • v • nly Father hath not planted, shall be pulled up. Men may root out themselves by persecution; as the Prelates have done; but they shall never root up the truth.

Christian friends and Brethren, if the truth be on your side, confide to your Cause; cease from force and violence, that you reflect not disparagement upon it.

I would end, as I began, in the spirit of love and meekness; Consider your calling Brethren, that you are called unto peace; and take our Lord Jesus Christ for an example, who though he was Lord of all, yet became a servant unto all. He was further above his Disciples in knowledge and understanding, then the wisest among us above the simplest Infant; yet he disdained them not, provoked them not, upbraided them not, punished them not, taught them as they were able to bear; after his resurrection comes to them always with this salutation, Peace be unto you; and since his ascension, every Epistle brings commendations of grace and peace. Consider of what a spirit ye are, and ought to show, a Dove-like spirit, and oh that the voice of this Turtle were heard in our Land!

Were not the nature of my discourse indifferent and general, I might say somewhat, which might not only induce liberty, (as for every way not scandalous) but also beget a good opinion of the Congregational way in special. I will say but this; The members of this society grow up freely unto it; act freely in it to mutual comfort and edification; they meddle with their own things, and are not busy with others, without authority from Christ: They are ready to advise, and be advised upon every lawful call and needful occasion: They count not themselves perfect, but stand ready to receive further light, yea, though from the meanest of the Brethren: They aspire to be punctual, yet they allow many grains to other Churches, so they have the substance: They are no otherwise Independent, but as they depend more upon Christ, and less upon men: Though their first and immediate ragards be to their own, yet they count themselves debtors to all the Churches and members of Christ: They will do what good they can to rectify the mistakes of others that are not of them, but know no remedy but patience, if the truth fall not upon all men's apprehensions: They say not more might not be done or devised to reclaim men from errors, but they say they have Commission for no more then they practice, and they dare not say a Confederacy with any means, with which the Lord hath not said a Confederacy by his Institution: They boast not in their Way, as approving it self to flesh and blood, but as a way of faith, justified only of the Children of Wisdom, that have learnt to put off their own understanding and fleshly dependence in the things of God, and to lay the weight of all on Christ, who hath given his Word for it. Lastly, They will communicate in all Ordinances with any true Church of Christ, that walks up to their light, and shows a readiness to receive whatsoever more shall be shown them.

Now take this Way, and compare it with any other, wisely, spiritually and impartially, according to that Rule given by our Savior; and we will stand to the issue and arbitrament of it. Let that Way which rases the foundation of man's glory, and wholly applies it self to the glory of Christ the Founder, hanging absolutely on him for a Word, either express or else by consequence, to everything, and a blessing on everything they undertake or do, resolving all into his care of them, and presence among them; be acknowledged, countenanced, and practiced among us, as the Way and truth of God, having no unrighteousness in it.

And let that Way which neglecting or denying Christ's sufficiency of rule and direction, and the promise of his grace and protection, apply themselves to man, to supply them with precepts, and support them with the fleshly arm of numbers and multitudes, of power and authority, be discarded as the way of man.

And if we after all our casting and contriving, cannot come to you, see (if you would not be wanting to this Accord which you have so much in your mou • hs) if you can come to us; which no question, but all that are godly could most heartily do, as some of you have expressed in terms upon serious consideration of our Way, (for what is there to offend you, but a further degree of purity aimed at in the body, the worship being alike in both?) and others in terms equivalent, as that they believe it will not cease till it come to this Way, which they grant was the Primitive way, and is the purest, and the Presbyterian way is but a step thereto, and will rest here as its center, and end in this as its perfection. For our parts, we have waited mannerly all this while, and we are heartily grieved, that the particulars of difference between us remain yet so many, nay, that there are any, and especially so important, that we cannot yield to you therein. For as he said well, Amicus Plate, Amicus Aristoteles, sed magis amica veritas.