A Looking Glass for Malignants

Examples.

The first fearful example (then) of God's most just vindicative hand and avenging indignation, even most evidently falling heavy by a sore and heart-piercing personal blow upon the outrageous maligners, and graceless and godless inveterate haters of the ways of Piety, and truly and thoroughly intended Reformation of Religion shall be this:

One Charles Rose (a Rose of a very unsavory sent) an Apprentice to one Master Charnell a Carver of Wood, at the upper end of Fanchurch-street near Algate in London, who put himself into the Parliaments service a little after Bartholomew tide 1642. pretending to be willing to side with the Parliament against the common enemy, but secretly intended and resolved when he should find a fair opportunity (as he told his fellow-servant) to join with the King and his Army against the Parliament: And when he was to go forth, declared further (in the hearing of his Mistress) That he was now going to help to make halters to hang the Round-heads. And it was observed by his Master, in his former carriage, That he was of a refractory, yet dissembling spirit; and thus he marching forth with a base treacherous heart to the cause of God and the Parliament, was suddenly stricken by the just hand of God on the way, sometimes ill and sometimes well, and being at last in his march as far as into Buckinghamshire in the way to Alisbury, he was suddenly and fearfully stricken mad and utterly distracted & bereft of his senses. Now three of my very loving and religious friends travelling into those parts, found this wretched young man in the high way as they rode, and saw him one of the saddest spectacles that ever they beheld, for he was stark naked, only a course old sackcloth thrown over his shoulder, neither Hat on his head, nor Shoes on his feet, his eyes very red with weeping, and standing and staring as one affrighted; so these my friends came to him, asked him whither he was going, and whence he came, but he would give them no answer, nor take any relief in money (which they proffered him) but fell down and cried out, Oh my Soul, my Soul; whereupon they all three stayed still, alighted from their horses, and with much ado, at last got him to the next Town, and by the way he was heard to say, Blood, Blood. It pleased God to direct these my friends to an Inn in the Town, where the Hostesse of the house, on knowledge of his name, knew his father; where these my good friends took some care to have him looked unto, and some of the Town took care after their departure to have him conveyed to his Father, who lived some 16. or 18. miles from that place about Oxford. When his Father saw him, he churlishly refused to give him any entertainment (which, I confess, was inhumanely and unnaturally done) yet herein observe the righteous hand of God too, who as he hath promised, that when a man's ways please him, he will make even his enemies to be at peace with him; So likewise (by the just law of contraries) when our ways, wits, and parts are against God and goodness, he will make even our best friends to be at enmity with us. For, as here, his father, I say, utterly rejected him, and suddenly dispatched him to London to his Master, where he lived a while after pitifully distracted, and never recovered his senses again; but about three hours before his death, he seemed to have some reasonable apprehension of things, and to be somewhat sensible, and just then was heard to cry out bitterly, He was a dog, he was a damned wretch, and thus miserably died. And the truth of all these passages, since my three honest and religious friends left him, they had from his Master and Mistress, upon their farther enquiry after him. O that this sad and fearful example of this so sure and severe hand of God upon this malignant young man, might be as terrible to our London malignant Apprentices, yea, and their malignant Masters too, as that affrighting hand-writing on the wall was to that wicked Belshazzar, to make them tremble and quake, and to make them hear and fear, and do no more so wickedly.

In the time of the siege of Hull in Yorkshire, in the year of the Lord 1641. among many other very memorable and remarkable passages in that famous siege this was one, which I have by most credible and indubitable information from thence, That the Kings Cormorants having straitly begirt that strong Town by land and by water also, and they having planted three pieces of Ordnance at a point of the river called Hassell, to hinder any passage of Barkes and Vessels from coming into Hull, and a Keele coming laden in the River toward the Town, the Master Gunner shot at her, and mist her, whereupon being (it seems) enraged, he swore, God damn him, if he did not sink her at the next shot: And presently charging a Piece as he thought fit, and furiously discharging it, the Piece brake in pieces, and instantly killed the Master Gunner himself, and some two or three others that stood near unto him; but the Bark or Vessel passed safely into Hull, without any prejudice or hurt. A most fearful example to terrify (I should think, if it might be) such execrable cursing and swearing Malignants. The truth whereof was (I say) confirmed by most credible testimony from Hull, immediately after this accident 〈◊〉 out.

In the year also 1642. some of Prince Ruperts Forces facing and assaulting Windsor-Castle, and making many shots at it, but still missing what they aimed at, it being a little aim, and so not easily hit, a Captain amongst them (but his name my honest Intelligencer knew not) from Eaton, where they had made their Station, cried out to the Gunner, who was going to fire a Drake against the Castle, Give me thy Gun-stock, for, God damn me (says this wretch also) I will slay some of those Round-head Dogs; and while the Oath or causeless Curse was yet warm in his mouth, ere he could fire the Piece, a shot from the Castle dashed him in the face, brake his teeth into his throat, of the pain and smart whereof he lay lingering in much misery for two or three days, and then died in a miserable and wretched condition. This relation I had from a very honest Gentleman (then a Soldier and Officer in Windsore-Castle ) and my very good friend and acquaintance, whose testimony I know to be without exception.

About April 23. 1643. being the Lord's Day, one Master Morton, Vicar of Sheriff-Hales, preaching upon a portion of Scripture out of the 120. Psalm, took occasion thence in his Sermon to vent bitter imprecations against Round-heads (that is, God's faithful servants, and the Kings and Parliaments loyal and fastest friends) charging them with Faction, Rebellion, and such like opprobrious scandals, adding withal, in express terms, That the Powder-plot, and other Treasons that have been practiced by Papists, were nothing to this late Round-new-invention of the Round-heads. At which words (having stood hardly half his time) he most strangely on a sudden gasped and gaped as he stood in the Pulpit, and stared in the Auditors faces, but could not speak a word more for a good space after, the people all that while, being amazed at this so sudden and most strange a dumb-show in him. At length he stooping down, as it were to take up some what at his feet, re-erected himself, and then said, Let us give thanks for what we have heard, which he accordingly did, in a sumbling and hardly intelligible manner▪ and soon made an end, and so went home; but what became of him since I have not heard.

Also in the parish of Hollowell in Oxford, one of the inhabitants of the said parish being a most licentious and profane fellow, set up a May-pole in the Summer-time, 1641. and that it might transcend the vanities and impieties of other May-poles, set upon this the picture of a man in a Tub, thereby (as he said) to describe a Round-head; which picture, as it was credibly reported, he made in derision of a godly Gentleman, a Munciple of one of the Colleges in Oxford; and the reason why it must represent this Gentleman, was, because he was truly religious and used repetition of Sermons, singing of Psalms, and other holy duties in his house. This picture being thus set up on the May-pole, the said profane fellow the author of it, with his loose and licentious companions, making themselves mad-merry about it, at last must needs go shoot at the Round-head upon it, and having for this purpose brought Muskets with them and other pieces, one of them, being the servant of the chief master of this wicked May-game, shot and did hit the Picture; at which the said Master fell a laughing extremely, and on a sudden sunk down, falling into a sharp and terrible convulsion fit, and so continued a long time after very sick, and in great pain and misery; but whether he be since alive or dead, I am uncertain. This relation I had confirmed to me by an honest young Gentleman a Scholar of Oxford, then resident in Oxford, and an eye-witness of most of it, besides other credible information.

In the same City of Oxford also, a company of profane fellows and deep drinkers met together in a Tavern, and being ( 〈◊〉 the custom is) mad-merry, in the midst of their cups would needs go drink a health to the confession of Round heads, which having accordingly gone round, one among the rest not content therewith (being, it should seem, too soundly whitled with his caroused cups) would needs for joy (forsooth) of this health thus drunk, rise up and dance, and cut a caper, using these or such like words, Come (says he) I will now cut a caper to the confusion of Round-heads; but he beginning to dance and cut his caper, his head it seems, being too light to rule his heels, suddenly fell down and broke his leg, whereof (being carried home) he lay in great pain and misery, and not long after died thereof; this also confirmed by credible testimony, In the time of the siege of Redding by the right honorable the Earl of Essex the Parliaments most renowned Lord General, there happened (as is well known) a most notable and remarkable skirmish between some of our Parliaments forces, and the Kings Cormorants from Oxford, at a place called Cansambridge, In which fight most valiantly and victoriously (by God's admirable assistance) performed by ours, there fell out a most memorable and strange passage, most pertinent to this our present purpose and worthy our most sad and serious commemoration, namely, that among the many slain and dead bodies on the Kings side, (very many of them being prime Commanders and Officers in Arms, as was clearly discerned by their brave clothes, pure fine Holland -shirts and fair skins, being stripped naked at the end of the fight) there was found the body of Serjeant-major Smith General of the Kings Army, a most wicked and desperate Cormorant, who being a very fat and corpulent fellow, was found with his belly ripped up, and his Greace taken away out of his body; which very thing (as I had it by most credible and that not single information) this wicked Smith had (about a twelve-month before, or not so much) threatened to act upon the Round-heads at Okenham, where some of the Kings forces were then quartered, but driven out by the Parliaments forces; where, and at which time of his enforced departure thence he was heard in a furious threatening manner to say, Well, farewell Round-heads for this time, but I will return again amongst you, and then I will rip up your fat panches, and make medicines of your Greace, or words to this effect. A most remarkable pattern of the Lord's justice on him, in so punctually repaying him ( Adonibezech-like ) in his own coin. And in the stripping of him (as was credibly reported) they found a Crucifix about him and other marks of the Romish beast, a fit Champion (among the rest) to fight for the maintenance of the Protestant Religion.

In the year also, 1642. there happened another very fearful example of God's revengeful hand upon these most ungodly and graceless abusers and tongue-persecutors of God's people, which was thus; Divers roystering and swaggering young Gallants, being drinking in the Miter-Tavern in Fleet-street London, it so fell out, that in the time of their swaggering, swearing, and carowsing in the said Tavern, the Trained-bands of the City passing by, one of these roaring gallants cast out something most unseemly out of the Chamber-window among the said soldiers, using also some very abusive language against them; whereupon, one of them having more Gentility and ingenuity of spirit than the rest, reproved them that did it; whereupon they furiously asked him if he were a Round-head, and presently drew their Swords one upon another, and this Gentleman being suddenly made at by one of them, puts by his thrust, got within him, and stabbed him with a Stilletto; the other two also coming on him, he likewise wounded them both; of which three wounded, two of them immediately died, and the recovery of the third was very questionable and dangerous; Which done, this Gentleman made a way down the stairs with his Sword in one hand, and the Stillet to in the other, and running down Ram-alley got to the water and so escaped away. This I had from unquestionable information, the very morning it was done, I my self going into Fleet-street betimes that morning on some business of mine own, where and when I heard it exactly and fully telated to me.

About the 20 of June also 1643, One M ^rs ▪ Haughton wife to Mr. Will. Haughton of Prickmarsh within the parish of Kirkham in Leyfield in Lancashire, was delivered of a child still-borne, which had no head, yet two ears, two eyes, and a mouth in the breast of it, and the hands turning backwards to the elbows, with a cleft down the back; so as it was not discernible whether it were male or female. After this child had been buried two or three days, the Midwife teporting its monstrous and prodigious shape & not being credited, it was thereupon taken out of the grave and reviewed, and was apparently found to be as is already described, & as was reported to be; only a bundle of clouts was taken up with it, which (it seems, & was known) the parents had (in proportion of a head) caused to be fitted unto it. Now that which is very remarkable herein is this▪ That the parents of this monster were (even as their own parents also and predecessors were) notorious professed▪ Papists, impudently abusive towards Protestants, cursing and calling them familiarly by the name of Round-heads; 〈◊〉 that which is yet more memorable herein, and most remarkably worthy our serious consideration, and most clearly demonstrates that foresaid prodigious birth to be a direct judgment of the Lord for desperate malignancy against the Lord's choice ones, is this, that the Grandmother of that monster was she (whom pious Mr Prynne (to her indelible and perpetual infamy) hath already set forth in print▪ in his famous History of that pair-royal of heroic sufferers, Dr. Bastwicke▪ Mr. Burton, and Mr. Prynne, ) who out of an inveterate malignity against, and in devilish derifion of those three foresaid Worthies, called three Cats (which she had at that time) by the names of those three precious Christians, and cut off the ears of those her three Cats, both in desperate disdain (as it should seem) of their glorious sufferings; and thereby also (in seeming jollity) to act again that more than Turkish Tragedy. And was not here a most notable and clear evidence of God's undoubted indignation against such intolerably impious and impudent malignants as these, the Lord thus manifesting that sooner or later he will meet with their insolent and most audacious impieties?

In November also, 1643. a malignant Soldier (being intended for service of the Parliament ) was hanged at Cambridge for running from his Colours, which came thus to pass: He with others also in the same condemnation being apprehended for the cause aforesaid and by Martial-law to cast Dice for their lives; this fellow coming to the Dice, when he threw them out, cried at the cast, Now, for God and the King, and God receive my soul. Whereupon it so fell out that he casting the least chance of the Dice, must suffer death, and so was accordingly executed at the same time▪ Now that which was very remarkable in God's hand thus on this fellow (besides the voluntary discovery of his Cavalierian-heart • in those words, Now for God and the King, which is the Cavallers common signal word ) was this, that when he was first pressed for a Soldier he was heard often to say, He would be hanged before he would fight for the Parliament. Even just like Sir Iervase • ll • wales, once Lieutenant of the Tower of London in King James his days, who was hanged on T •• er-hill, for being accessory to the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, then his prisoner in the • ower, about the Earl of Somersets business. Which Sir Jervase himself, being on the Ladder at the Gallows freely confessed; That in his life time he had oft (in his playing at Cards and Dice 〈◊〉 that he might be hanged if it were not so and so; and therefore ingenuously confess • 'd God's hand upon him for that sin. And so say I now here, See O thou unflexible and flinty-hearted malignant, how the Lord most justly met with this malignant spirited Soldier, paying him most palpably in his own Coyne; as this most notable and personal example hath most clearly declared. This I received out of a Letter sent by a religious young Gentleman, a Scholar of Cambridge, to his father, a very reverend Minister of the City of London, who gave me a transcript of it, and whose testimony is, I know, without all exception.

In Cree-church parish also, by Algate in London, one James Atkinsons wife, who with her said husband, were both of them commonly noted to be most malignant enemies of the power and purity of the Gospel, and mockers of goodness and good men; which her ungodly and ill disposition she manifested in the Church of the said parish, at a Sermon preached there by reverend and religions Mr. Wells of New-England, who in his Sermon, desired his auditors that they would not sleep; & she being asleep at that time, and awakened by one Mrs. Clarke her neighbor, a godly Gentlewoman of the same parish, and that in a very loving and neighborly way, by jogging of her knee as they sat together in the Pew; But she presently upon her awakening fell into strange expressions of rage and fury, and instantly belched out these wicked words, O you bold drunken flut, do you kick me? with divers other such uncivil speeches. All which the said Mrs. Clarke very piously and discreetly (for the present) put up in modest and grave silence, and only acquainted her husband, a very religious Gentleman, with Mrs. Atkinsons said usage of her in the forenoon, and therewith expressed her unwillingness to fit again with her in the Few. Whereupon Mr. Clarke unwilling there should be any further difference between them, at least to continue with any private heart-burning against each other, repaired to the Minister of the said Church, and desired that he with the Church wardens and some of the ancientest of the Parish would after the afternoons Sermon send for Mr. Atkinson to see whether he would abet or countenance his wife in this her ill carriage. According to the said desire he was sent for, and came; where, after he had asked the cause of his being sent for; and Mr. Clarke beginning to relate it, Atkinson would not suffer him to go on, but he also brake forth into foul words, and told him, He lied; for Mrs. Clarke, he said, did kick his wife in the Church. Whereupon, the Lecturer of the said Church Mr. Falkingham, desired in love to take him off, entreating him that each of them might be heard, and so the business would be the better and sooner reconciled. To whom Atkinson replied, Sir, I have nothing to do with you; nor you with me. And to Captain Cower, who reproved him for such ill behavior, he said, You are a Bl • ckhead and a Roundhead; and thereupon went hastily and fretfully out of the Vestry, and fetched his wife, who also came thither in a great heat, and (very probably) full of bitterness; and some credibly reported, that she had boasted, being at home, how she had used Mrs. Clarke. But most certain it is, that in the Vestry, (being questioned of these things) she wished she might never go home alive, if Mrs. Clarke did not kick her, and said, she would have the Law on her for it. And both she and her husband did utter many other bitter words, at, and before this most evident token of God's displeasure: for (as I before touched) it was well known that they both had been a long time much disaffected to pure religion and were very ready ofttimes, not only to speak evil of ordinary Christians, but even of God's own Messengers; and now, I say, at this time, she especially suffering her tongue to wander beyond its bounds, it pleased the Lord that presently after that fearful imprecation upon her self, afore-mentioned, she was stricken so ill, that she began to falter in her speech; insomuch that those present took notice of it, and thereupon she was led forth of the Vestry into the Church-yard and set down upon a bench there, where she had means used for her recovery; but she in a very short time there died, and was carried home dead: And which is yet more remarkably fearful, it was credibly affirmed that a little before her death (in her forementioned weakness, one of the women about her had said unto her, that certainly Mrs. Clarke would not abuse her; but she instantly cursed her, saying, A pox on you, you are one of the holy sisters; and that it was observed by some at the time of her death, that her tongue turned black in her head. A most terrible and dreadful example of God's wrath and indignation, both to her most malignant husband, and all such irreligious spirits, as either in themselves, wives, or friends manage and countenance such unchristianlike ways and wicked courses. All this I have by most unquestionable information both from Mr. Clarke himself, and from others who most exactly knew the truth of these things.

Upon Tuesday also Novemb. 23. 1642. about 11 of the clock at night, the monthly Fast-day being the very next day after it, one Captain Bard of Sir Francis Wortleys Regiment, with about thirty Horse came from Ludlow in the County of Salop, of purpose to plunder the house of one Mr. John Green a reverend, godly, and learned Divine (and one of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster ) Pastor of Pencombe in the County of Hereford, being eleven miles distant from the said Ludlow. Who being accordingly come to the said Ministers house, whiles some of the Soldiers were breaking open the door of his dwelling house, one Ogle a Northern man and a Cornet of the said Troope of Horse was the first that brake open the stable door; and as soon as ever the said Ogle was stepping over the threshold to go into the stable first, as the Ministers servants who lay in a chamber adjoining to the stable reported, and testified) he fell down as dead into the stable, and in the morning his Hat and a small Piece were found in the stable behind a stone-horse (which stood in a stall next the stable▪ door, which was made up so firm with plankes and bars both behind and on each side of him, that he could not possibly strike him) and so some of the other Soldiers brought him into the said Ministers house as a dead man, the Captain saying, that he fainted for want of meat, and so desired that some comfortable refreshing might be given him. Then they placed him in a Chair, and so having plundered what they thought fit from the godly Minister, they left the Cornet there and returned to Ludlow. About some 2 hours after he began to revive, and a little to come to his speech, and the first words he uttered (after an imperfect manner, were, Holy mother of God help me; and by his often crossing of himself, and by the testimony of others there that knew him, he was discovered to be a professed Papist. Thus he continued a senseless man▪ his head, hands, and joints of his body, seeming quite loose, he spake very little and seldom and imperfectly, did eat whatever was given him, and would pluck raw meat from the spit newly laid to the fire and offer to eat it; and as he sat in his chair, if he offered to lean forward, he would fall into the fire; if he leaned backward, he would fall down backward; and one night he was found under his bed wrapped up in one of the sheets only in his shirt. The women that attended and watched with him, upon a diligent search of his body, could not discern or perceive any bruise or so much as discolouring of his skin in any part of his body; whereby they all could not but clearly conceive and believe it to be the immediate hand of God upon him; and at that time some of his own Companions were heard to say, (as was credibly informed) Let us be gone hence, for God fights against us. This said Cornet being sent for to Ludlow upon the Saturday following the Soldiers at his first coming seeing him in that senseless condition, said, Sure he was drunk; but he still continued after the very same manner as was forementioned, without sense or understanding, and a little time after (as the Captain himself reported) died in that sencelesnesse. All this being testified for most true, both by the said reverend Minister Mr. Green himself, by his servants, and divers others who were eye-witnesses of all these premises.

About the midst of January also, 1643. there fell out a most memorable and fearful example of God's immediate punishing hand (near unto the City of Salisbury ) upon a most pestilent and desperate malignant and persecutor of God's people in those parts; namely, one Laurence Hyde a Commissioner of enquiry after all such as had either given or lent anything for the Parliaments service; who the very same day that Heath, Banks, Foster, and Glanvill, those wicked Oxonian Earthwormes, Judges, and Lawyers of illegalities, came into the City of Salisbury, to keep the Assizes there) having threatened most vigorously to prosecute all the Roundheads in those parts at the said Assizes; and thus riding with his Commission (as Saul to Damascus, though not with such a blessed blow to beat him off from his horse to holy repentance) as he was hastily riding on, within a mile of the said City he suddenly fell from his Horse and so brake his neck or his shoulder-bone in the fall, that thereby he instantly died before he could be brought alive into the Town. Being thus by God's most evident and heavy hand upon him, cut short and deprived of power to do that mischief to God's honest and innocent hidden-ones, which (as 'twas well known) he had frequently before menaced against them. The truth of this I have confirmed unto me, not only by the printed relation, (but as my custom is in all such like occasions) upon diligent enquiry from such honest and credible testimony, as I know to be without all exception.

There were also three neighbors dwelling on Ludgate-hill in London, two of them Hosiers, dwelling directly one over against the other, the third a Wollen-Draper, who lived next door to one of the Hosiers, all three of them of one mind in malignancy, and inveterate enemies to the Parliaments proceedings. One of these Hosiers in the month of January 1642. did intimate unto the other Hosier his desire and purpose to go to Oxford, which the other understanding, consented and promised to go along with him, and accordingly away they went, and what their work and business was there, though not certainly known, yet may be easily judged, no goodness, to be sure of it; but about a week after, one of them having spent (as 'twas believed) all his spare prodigal money, or done his wicked work, returned back again to his house in London; the other stayed there longer behind, and came not back with him. Within a few days after the return home of the said Hosier, he with his said neighbor the malignant Woollen-Draper, went (as it was known to be their custom) to the Tavern, called The Devil and Saint Dunstones near Temple-Barre, together with some others, ejusdem farinae, of the same temper, or untempered mouldy- Malignancy, their business there being to be mad-merry, and to drink healths to Prince Rupert that Prince of Plunderers, the Atheistical Marquess of Newcastle, and such others of that rotten-rout: Now it so fell out that one of their Companions proved more civil then the rest, and shown his dislike of these their doings; whereupon the Hosier began to quarrel with that man, and from their wrangling discourse they both fell to fighting, and as the Hosier was struggling with the said party, there comes a third man and violently pulled the Hosier off, who instantly fell backward, and with the fall brake his leg, whereof he lay under cure a long time after. The Woollen-Draper, his foresaid Associate, being a prodigal Spend-thrift, and run much in debt to his Creditors, they (on the very same day of this their drinking in the said Tavern, and at the very same instant time of his drinking healths there) came with Serjeants and Officers, seized on all his clothes and goods, whereof he hearing, and knowing himself thereby undone in his estate, instantly fled away, and was no more seen. The third party of the foresaid ungodly society, to wit, the other Hosier, (late servant to one Pate, a most desperate Malignant also against God and the Parliament, and a notorious scoffer at godliness and good men) who, I told you before, continued at Oxford, and came not home with his fellow Hosier, abiding still, I say, behind at Oxford, kept continual company with the Kings Cormorants there, drinking and swilling day and night in their deboist company, and that in such excessive and immoderate measure, that he was not only drunk, but fell mad among them; in so much that getting his horse out of the Stable, he most desperately rode up and down the streets there, till at last being espied by some Citizens of London that knew him, who perceived quickly in what condition he was, and being for London themselves at that time, they brought him home with them, with no little ado by the way; who being thus brought home, continued so distracted and besotted in his senses, that he neither regarded what any said or did to him, and wholly neglected his calling, as being unfit to do ought therein, and shortly after he fell sick for a season, and still continued so distracted, that at last it was held fit to have him away to Bedlem; yet for some credit sake, his friends so prevailed, that he was not put into the common condition of the Madmen there, but was kept private in the house of one that endeavors the cure of such persons, and there he was continued, but could not be cured of this his miserable and distracted estate. And was not here a most evident and remarkable hand of God upon them all three, to the terror (one would think) of all such desperate and incorrigible Malignants. All which relation I have received from such honest and credible testimony of the truth thereof, even of such as knew the three parties very well, as is without all just exception therein.

And thus now, I have (as I suppose) sufficienly made good my word, and performed my promise in the two former parts of this my Looking-glass, namely, in most clearly representing and setting forth to the eyes and understanding of everyone, of any one that is compos mentis, and is not stark mad with malice and mischief, both God's hand most eminently against our Anti-Parliament arians or Malignants, and also God's evident heavy hand upon those our Malignants persons, even immediately in the very acting of their malignancy. Enough, one would think, to fright and terrify them from such impious and audacious flouting, • ff • onting, and maligning of God's honest and harmless servants, were not their Consciences cauterized with the hot iron of graceless impenetrable obstinacy, and their hearts more hardened (against pure and innocent Truth and Holiness ) than the impenetrable Tortice shell, and they thereby even given over by God to a reprobate sense, to their irrecoverable ruin and perdition.

But now, to go on to my Third promised part or representation in this our Looking-glass, namely, the Caveat for Cowards and fainthearted Neutrall-Deserters of the Parliaments cause; and therein, I say most clearly, God's cause. As also hereby to speak to all unsettled and unresolved weak Christians (whom in this case we must pity, pardon, and pray for, as being ourselves subject to like failings and errors, should not grace prevent and support us) to show them the great danger and hard hazards they put themselves on, both in soul and body too, in so unworthily fearing or refusing to own God's Cause, though not out of treachery, yet if it be but of base timidity or fear; God herein showing his wrath and indignation, and causing his jealousy to break out against these also, letting them see how dangerous it is to jest or dally with such sharp edge'd tools as these to the undoing of their souls and bodies too, I say, if in his own free grace and mere mercy he did not in the midst of justice remember to intermix mercy, and to look back, as it were, on their sinking souls, as he did on Peter in such a case (if at least they belong to Christ as Peter did) teaching them thereby to know the price of denying their Master or his Cause before men, if not, I say, prevented by true and timely repentance. All which I shall make most evident and clear by these four or five Examples, all of them fallen out lately in these our probationall times, which (by God's providence) have come to my hands and knowledge, and which for the glory of God and honor of our most precious Parliaments Cause, I could not conceal, but set forth most faithfully, as I have received them from most indubitable and unquestionable Testimonies of the truth of them all; even, I say, by those who were both Eye and Ear-witnesses of the truth of them.

And here now in the first place, I might instance in a learned and reverend Minister of Lincolnshire, a Doctor in Divinity, who being taken by the Kings Cormorants, and carried prisoner to Newark, and there enforced to take the Oxonian Protestation or Covenant against the Parliament, which (it seems) out of servile fear and unworthy pusillanimity, he did, immediately after it, out or remorse of Conscience, fell mad and fearfully distracted in his senses, and so continued for almost the space of half a year, this being done by him about the midst of the last Summer 1643. but being since at liberty among his Parliamentary friends, is in good measure recovered, and a hearty Penitent for it. But it being desired his name should be concealed, I cease to say anymore therein save only this, That I have this brief relation from such unquestionable and credible testimony as most strongly confirms the truth thereof unto me. And might we not, here now, think this one single example sufficient, to deter our cowardly Newters from so vicious and pernicious prejudicating and deserting the Parliaments pious proceedings? Yes certainly, had they but any small sparks of ingenuity left alive in them: but since I know that they, yea, and God's own people too, must have line upon line (as the Prophet says) and example upon example, and all too too little, till God's Spirit of Grace awakens their dead and drowsy Consciences. I shall now give them another Example which comes more close unto them, and most worthy their deep and serious observation and consideration, which briefly is this:

Upon the second day of May 1643. one Thomas Bretton a young man, and most bitter and active Malignant against the Parliament, late servant to Alderman Cullum in Gracious street in London, falling very sick (which indeed shortly after proved a sickness unto death) desired most earnestly to speak with a reverend and religious Minister of the City, whom he had formerly heard preach, and could not be quiet till he was sent for. The Minister being sent unto, and entreated to come unto him accordingly, very willingly came; of whom (so soon as the sick party saw him) he most heartily desired his pardon and forgiveness. The Minister answered, That he knew not anything wherein the sick party had injured or offended him. But Bretton replied, That he had done him wrong in jeering and scoffing at him, though he knew not of it, and told him the particulars thereof. Whereupon this pious Minister told him, He freely forgave him. Then he desired the Minister to pray with him, which he also did for the space of about half an hour. Immediately after Prayer the sick party said, He was now most happy, since God and Man had forgiven him; and told the Minister, he was certain God pardoned him all his sins. The Minister answered, It was well, if his assurance were on good grounds. He replied, That he was sure of it, for Christ had taken away all his sins, which God had in his sickness set before his eyes; yea, and some such sins as he did not know or believe formerly to have been sins; but now Christ had borne them all on his own shoulders, and eased him of all that heavy burden, with many other most heavenly and divine expressions. And being near his death, even the night before he died, he said, He assuredly saw Christ in a vision appearing unto him, and telling him that his sins were pardoned, and that he had a Cause on earth, and that the Parliament of England defended it, and that in the year of our Lord Christ 1644. the Parliament should obtain a great victory over the Kings Forces; and that then there should be none of those wicked Ministers (that had misled God's people) left among them, and that from that time the Parliament should prosper; but in the mean season, that the rod of the wicked should rest on the backs of his righteous ones. And after this he lay glorying and rejoicing in the forgiveness of his sins, and even triumphing over death till the time of his departure, which was the next day. This relation was testified both by the said learned, reverend, and religious Divine, who was often with him in his said sickness, and heard most of his expressions; and also by another religious Gentleman who was also then present, and heard what is here delivered, as aforesaid.

Also one Thomas Clarke, a rank malignant young man, and servant to one Master Travill a merchant of London, being in the year 1643) stricken with sickness, of which he died; about three days before his death, one William Coote (a neighbor of his) coming to visit him in this his sickness, and having sat a while with him, as he was going away the sick party desired him to stay a little, and told him, that he would now say more to him then he had done to any, which was this, I am now (says he) strongly persuaded in my heart, that the Parliament maintains a right cause, and at last shall have victory over the Kings Forces, for they, he said, fought for Antichrist; and he confessed withal, that he had lived a very sinful life, and was most of all grieved that he had spoken so much against the Parliament, for which he wished he could now weep tears of blood, together with very many pathetical speeches to this purpose, and shortly after it departed this life. This I have also from very honest and religious hands and testimony, who have faithfully informed me of the truth thereof, as having been both eye and ear-witnesses of the same.

In September also 1643. one Master Whitleigh in Golding, lane in London, with his wife Mistress Whitleigh, both of them very religious Christians, and truly fearing the Lord, came with their four children (not long before) to London from Tewksbury in Gloucestershire, principally desiring to remove thence because of the wicked conversation of the Cavaliers, billeted where he lived. And he having formerly served in the Parliaments Army against the Kings Forces, but being now at London, and for about three months space void of employment, resolved to give over service in the wars, as finding a timorous fearfulness in himself to adventure anymore into the Parliaments Army, thereupon at last he had some thoughts to go into New-England, and advising with his wife, who also was most unw • l • ing he should anymore put himself into the Service of the Parliament, but by all means began to strengthen his resolution to go away for New-England. Whereupon he peremptorily now resolving to depart thither with his wife and children, presently laid out thirty pounds for their passage by Sea, and as much more for provision of necessaries to the voyage. But being ready to depart, the Lord suddenly struck him very sick, and in his sickness he was very much troubled in his mind, lamenting and crying out very much against the sin of Cowardice and Fearfulnesse (which he conceived to be the ground of his intended removal to New-England ) and therefore much distrusting his souls estate, cried out often, That he had sinned against God in cowardly deserting his holy Cause; yet earnestly praying the Lord to forgive him this sin, promising and protesting that if the Lord vouchsafed to restore him to health and strength again, he would resolutely go on to spend every drop of the blood in his veins for the Parliaments Cause; and afterward blaming his wife for giving her consent and encouraging him therein, he shortly after died, yet before his departure he testified abundance of comfort and assurance of God's favor and the pardon of his sin. Immediately also after his death, it so pleased the Lord that his wife fell so distracted, that three or four women could scarcely hold her down in her bed, and she taking no sustenance but what was forced into her mouth for many days, she still in all this time of most sad perplexity crying out, That she had sinned against God in counseling and encouraging her deceased husband to forsake God's Cause, and thereby (she fear • ) she had been the cause of his death. And thus she lay divers days in much misery, crying out of this her sin, and craving pardon of God for it. And about the end of September aforesaid, my godly friend, from whom I had this relation, coming occasionally to her house to see her, found that her raging fits had left her, but her spirits much spent, and she lying speechless, so that he knew not how to administer a word of comfort to her in that case; wherefore being about to depart thence, she looked steadfastly on him, reached out her hand to him, which he took in his, being as cold as clay, and therewith spake many comfortable words unto her, and ere he departed she manifested very much consolation in her soul, both by words (though faintly) and gestures also, and in a most happy and comfortable condition departed this life also, the very next morning after his departure from her. This relation, I say, I had from a very religious Citizen of London, and faithful servant of the Lord, who himself was with Mistress Whitleigh thus departing, and whose own Sister lived close by these parties, was well acquainted with them both in their lives and death, and whose testimony I know to be without exception.

There was also about the time of the first victories of the famous and renowned Town of Manchester in Lancashire, in the year 1642. one M. Standidge a Gentleman of Lancashire, who had formerly been a man much engaged in his affections for the Parliaments Cause, and had oftentimes expressed so much both by his stiff contendings with some that were very near and dear unto him, as also by his practice and assistance given to the said Cause. But afterward, by the sly insinuations and persuasions of some seeming friends near about him; but especially being at last overswaied and prevailed with (as was strongly supposed) by the Lord Strange (then a great, but, blessed be God, a most unsuccessefull stickler for the Kings party) he being very intimate with the said Lord Strange. This said Gentleman did at last so much cross his own former practice and good esteem he had and held of the Work and Cause of God in the Parliaments proceedings, that he most unworthily quite deserted it, yea so far as to take up Arms against it; and as he was in person, in command, and going against that honest, famous, and victorious Town of Manchester in the Lord Stranges Army; the Lord God of Heaven, in apparent displeasure met with him in this most disloyal Apostasy, and going against God and his Cause: For as he was going to take Horse upon some design, near to the said Town of Manchester, a bullet suddenly hit him, and killed him presently, not directly from the Town, but the bullet glancing upon a wall, reached him with a gliding blow, and so cut him short of his purpose, and gave him the sad reward of his unhappy backsliding. This I have from such unquestionable and religious testimony of a godly friend and neighbor of mine, as I know to be without all just exception.

And is not here now (one would think) testimony enough for thee, O incredulous Malignant, yea, even from the mouths of two Converts formerly of thine own rank and rotten condition, but now, and that upon their death-beds ( and the words of dying men we know, do, or ought to take deep impression ) making ingenious confession of their and your folly and madness in so injuriously opposing the pious and just proceedings of the Parliament? But now take one more to clear these truths yet more abundantly, yea, one of no less moment and materiality then any of the former, and most worthy serious notice and observation, namely, of one Master Joseph Latch, a Merchant in Bashingshall-street in London, who having (by God's blessing upon his endeavors in his calling) gotten a good estate, and being a pious young Gentleman, and well affected to the public good of the Kingdom in the beginning of this Parliamentary war, and set forth two Horses for the said service at his own proper charge; but having some considerable goods at Bristol, which he desired to convey to Manchester by land, in which land-passage a protection from the King was necessary for their safe convoy thorough Shrewsbury, where lay a Garrison of the Kings Cormorants: upon this occasion he forced himself to go to Oxford to procure such a protection. Thus then he took his journey thither, where he was no sooner arrived, but it pleased the Lord it should so fall out, that he was presently espied by one that had been a Malignant neighbor of his in London, a Lawyer, by whose means he was presently apprehended as a Spie, on which suspicion he was instantly clapt up prisoner in the Castle, and immediately after was fetched before the Council-Table, and in danger of his life. But having there very good friends of the Kings party, namely, Sir George Binion, Sir Nicholas Crisp, and Mr. Bradborne his kinsman, and others, he was by the Kings own Warrant set at liberty and entertained at Sir George Binious lodgings; and yet again for all this, Smith that hellish Cerberus, the Provost-marshall fetched him out of Bynions lodgings at eleven of the clock at night, and carried him to prison again. Whereupon Bynion went again to the King, together with Mr. Bradborne, told His Majesty of it, who seemed much discontented thereat, and presently sent a Squire of His body with a Commission to lay Smith by the heels for his presumption, and to enlarge Mr. Latch; yea, and that without taking the Oxford Protestation, lest thereby his estate in London should have been seized on by the Parliament, as the estate of a Swornemalignant, yet with a private serious promise and engagement to Bynion, that he would never hereafter put forth himself in any public service for the Parliament. So he at last returned safely home, and in order to his promse was now grown very shy of serving with his Company according to the Ordinance of the Militia; and shortly after, through the ill-advice of a very malignant companion of his, made over his estate into Holland, put off his house in Bashing shall -street, and then withdrew his person also into Holland, intending there to have lived till these times might change; and thus he quite deserted the Parliament. But he had not been there above three weeks or a month, but that it pleased God he fell sick there, and had a great and restless desire to come back again into England; and accordingly, having a fit opportunity, imbarked himself, and was brought back sick to London, that thus by the providence of God so ordering it, he might manifest his repentance here where he had finned, and be an example to others both of the horror which arises out of a guilty conscience sensible of apostasy from a good Cause, and also from our Parliamentary Protestation and Covenant to maintain the same. Thus then, I say, being come off the water, on Monday Sept. 25. 1643. he went to a friends house of his, one Mr. Lacey in Canon-street, where he went sick to bed, and in two days his sickness and corscience working together, he much desired to speak with some godly Minister. Whereupon one was sent for, who accordingly came to him on the Wednesday night; but knowing nothing of his defection from the Parliament, and hearing a good report of his former honest conversation, he only questioned him about his faith in Christ; whereunto receiving an apposite answer, he held out unto him some promises of the Gospel, wherein his soul might cleave unto the Lord, and having commended him unto the grace of God, departed for that time; but Mr. Latch found such sweetness in those promises, that he still would be asking when that Minister would come again. That Thursday and Friday past, and the Minister not sent for; but on the Saturday following he called very earnestly for the said Minister, and would not be satisfied without him: so he being sent for, came to him that Saturday at night, and found him very anxious about getting Christ, he oft saying, if I have not Christ, I must perish eternally. But immediately after, as a man swallowed up of despair and drenched in the wrath of God, he cried out, I am in Hell, I am in Hell. Then an honest young Gentleman his loving friend, who had been his fellow-apprentice, and unto whom he had used to unbosom himself, stepped to the Minister and told him what was the cause of all this horror of conscience in him, and so related to him the substance of all fore-mentioned. Then the said Minister went again to M. Latch, and asked him if he had taken the Kings Protestation at Oxford, who answered, no; yet still rejected (in a desperate manner) all the comfortable words that were alleged for his faith to rest upon; still crying out, I am in hell, I sink lower and lower; O was there ever such an hypocrite as I am, and therefore I must be damned, and I alone must have my portion with Judas, and be an example to all the world and lie in hell to all eternity, in so denying the Parliament: and go, says he, to his brother that stood by him, and tell such an one, and such an one, two persons to whom he had near relation, that if they hold on their way, they must burn in hell as I do; and neither his godly friend, nor the Minister could persuade him that he was out of Hell; yet the Minister still most piously wrestling against his despair, told him that Hell was not above ground (in the Land of the living) and therefore he was not yet in Hell, but that he should go to Hell shortly if he would not believe in Christ Jesus; and then told him he would pray for him: But he replied, you shall save the Flock of Christ, but you cannot save me, I am past prayer. And with the like lamentable speeches, as of a man in the very torments of the damned; he did oft interrupt the Minister in his prayer, and so continued in this despairing fit till after prayer. Then the Minister charged him to hearken to him, saying, You never (you assure me) took the Protestation at Oxford against the Parliament, but Peter denied Christ with an Oath, yea and with a Curse too; yet he went out and wept bitterly, and was restored to grace and favor again. Christ saith, Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest: you are weary and heavy laden, come to Christ, believe in him, and he will ease you, and will blot out your iniquities for his own names sake. At which words, he suddenly raised up himself in his bed, and with exceeding earnestness of spirit put forth strong cries unto God, saying, Lord help mine unbelief, Lord help mine unbelief, Lord help mine unbelief, three times together; and immediately thereupon burst forth into exceeding great comfort, saying, O wonderful mercy, Christ is come to fetch me out of Hell, and I shall not perish; my cries have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath, who hath now given sweet rest to my soul. And thus with many heavenly expressions of Christ's wonderful mercy toward him, he continued at least two hours full of sweet raptures and ravishments of soul; and besought the Minister and his friends about him to make known these things, and how gracious and merciful Christ had been unto him: and this also he desired them to take special notice of; namely, that he protested that what he had said (as before) was not out of any lightness or distemper of his brain, but in sensible apprehensions of his soul, and what Christ had dictated to him, in whose arms he said he now was most sweetly embraced, and that he had now found (as he had often heard) that as the way to Heaven was by the gates of Hell; so he had found it true, and had not only gone by the gates of Hell, but even through Hell it self, but now Christ's glorious mercy had fetched him forth; and therefore he prayed them again to tell and publish abroad what great things Christ had done for him, and then all that were present went again to prayer, and he prayed with them; and when his breath failed, he would lift up his hands; but before prayer was quite ended he most sweetly expired, as he said, in the Arms of his sweet Savior Christ Jesus, leaving the Minister and his Christian friends (who had been sorrowful witnesses of the former dreadful peoplexities and horror of his conscience) now most abundantly cheered and full of comfort and consolation in the Lord, for this admirable, gracious change and conclusion.

And now, I hope, I have fully performed what I promised at the beginning, and have copiously confirmed the truchs I intended to deliver and represent in this my Looking-glass. And now I shall only desire to sum up all in a very succinct hortatory observation of all hitherto delivered in this our Malignants mirror or Looking-glass. And first I desire to speak a word or two to our cowardly Neuters, and faint hearted deserters of God's Cause in this our Parliament; wherein I fear too many even of God's children (and otherwise good Christians, I hope) are too guilty. That since the Parliaments cause is unquestionably God's cause, and that our Malignants have clearly seen that God is so jealous of this his honorable Cause, that he will not spare even his own Servants, if they either reject or neglect his Cause before men, and that he will certainly sooner or later wound their consciences with terror, if they think to wound his cause, with either treachery or timidity and base cowardice; let them not, I say, think to sleep in a whole skin, to shrink their necks out of the collar and do well enough for all that: for certainly God can and will find them out at last, as they also may have seen in these former examples of two or three, even of God's dear children, who like Jonah would needs be flying from God and his cause, one into New-England, and another into Holland, but how the Lord found them out, caused them to see their faithless folly, and ere he was reconciled to them smarted them both soundly for it; and though he come slowly and (as the observation is) with Leaden-heels, yet will come sorely, and with Iron-hands, as hath been here before most evidently seen. And let them often ruminate and remember (and that with trembling) what the Spirit of God says in the book of the Revelations, He that overcometh (that is, which stands close to God and his cause, without fainting or giving over) shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But, the fearful and unbelievers (see here, O cowardly Newters, to thy shame and terror, who are put in the very front or forlorn hope of the rabble of wicked ones, that shall be shut out of the New-Jerusalem) shall have their part in the like which burns with fire and brimstone. Take heed therefore my brethren (as the Author to the Hebrews adviseth) lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. For certainly, says the spirit of truth (in the same Epistle) If any man draw back (or has, as Christ himself testifies, put his hand to the Plough of God's work and cause, and looks back, is unfit for Heaven; nay more) God's soul will take no pleasure in such an one. Besides, remember this seriously, I pray thee, that a Newter, or Key-cold fellow in God's cause, is a most despicable creature, despised both of God and the Devil, being apt to be false and faithless to them both, and so good for the use of neither of them, as not caring whether God's or the Devils cause fail or prevail, sink or swim; what cares he so he may sit still and enjoy his base peace and pelf? only, it may be, he will give them some seeming good wishes, at most and best. O let such as these, timely take heed by these examples, that God meet them not sorely and surely too at last: and if thy Neutrality be from willful and wicked principles, then fear indeed and tremble at thy estate, by those examples of God's hand upon those mischievous and malevolent malignants by death and destruction, even in the very acting of their evils. If out of mere slavish fear and unworthy cowardice, yet fear also by those other examples, considering what terrible straits and soul-pinching perplexities it may bring thee unto, at the best; and presume not, though they happily repented and were saved; for repentance is a Flower that grows not naturally in our Gardens, but is the only gift of God, and he gives it graciously when and to whom he will. Therefore, I say, presume not but fear; and whiles thou hast yet space, labor for grace, even immovable faithfulness, courage, and perseverance; remembering ever, who it was that said, even truth it self, He that denies me, or is ashamed of me before men, I will deny him and be ashamed of him before my Father which is in Heaven. And thus I have done with these.

But now in the last place I desire also to speak a word or two unto our most unhappy, miserable, and marble-hearted malignants (whom from my soul I pity and pray for, as my brethren in the flesh) implacable and inveterate haters of Holiness and of a pure Reformation, who would fain (under a beggarly pretext of a lazy, licentious Peace, forsooth) still be more and more settled on the Lees of their old, infant, half Reformation, (comfortable then I confess, in blessed Queen Elizabeth's days, if we reflect on the woeful Marian days before) even mere formal Protestantisme at large, which in effect is but down-right Atheism; or at best, a back door to Papistry, as we have used the matter for so many years past; The upholding and maintaining whereof, I take for granted; to be the ground of the great quarrel between them and God's people nowadays. What will ye (then) or what can ye say for yourselves poor mole-ey'd and miserable men? (after the serious fight and rumination on all these forelaid remarkable evidences and most luculent and conspicuous demonstrations of God's immediate hand both against and upon you; and after all these notable Convictions and Confessions of the horrible and God-hated evil of your cause and cases; ) what, I say, will you now answer for yourselves, why you may not most properly and pertinently be called and counted willful and obstinate fighters against God and his just cause? See then, I beseech you (but if you will not timely see, you shall (as I said before) see at last and be ashamed and smart too) and be timely and wisely persuaded (as the truth is) that though you will not acknowledge it, you your malignant works plainly show it, and especially the Spirit of God (the only true searcher and discoverer of the hearts and reins of all) hath most clearly declared to us in the second Psalm, both your work and your wages, your wicked cause; and your wretched cases, viz. That all the banding and binding of the heads and hearts together of Gebal, Ammon and Amalek &c. of sottish formal Protestants, Prelates and Papists, with all that Jesuitical rabble, is mainly and only this; We will not have this man, King Jesus; (but the tyrannical and diabolical usurpers, base lusts, soul-slaying corruptions, sin and Satan) to reign over us; and therefore let us (say they) break his bands in sunder; that is, let us violate and vitiate his holy and wholesome Laws and Commandments: let us east away his cords from us; that is, let us contemn and despise his soul-saving counsels, free grace and love, and all his heart-establishing precious promises: but all this while they blindly and blockishly forget, or will not see and perceive (as the same Spirit and fountain of Truth tells them) that the Lord now resolves to set his only begotten Son Christ Jesus, as Lord and King to • u • e and reign (over the tops of all the Mountains of the earth) upon Zion his most holy Hill; and that he therefore, even the Lord, the great Jehovah sits in Heaven sees, and smiles at, and laughs to scorn all their combinations and accursed confederacies, all their freting and fuming, beating and breaking of their brains and hearts too, and telling them to their teeth, and showing them, maugre their brazen brows, that all the while they do but imagine a vain thing, which they never can they never shall bring to pass; For of this let them be most sure, that till they can make it appear or probable that Satan is stronger and wiser than the Almighty, that Antichrist is able to overcome the Lord Christ, to whom the Father hath committed all power in Heaven and Earth; I shall never believe, that they or their cause shall prevail. For, I say, God hath put into Christ's hands an Iron Mace, not only to bruise, but to break in pieces (like so many pot-sheards ) their earthen and stony hearts though ever so seemingly stout and stubborn, as partly and pretty-well (one would think) I have here, in these forecited examples made most plain and conspicuous, but especially, as the Lord God himself in all ages and times hath made most manifest to the whole World, even from the beginning of it to our present times; nay, not only so, but that the Lord hath most admirably made (and that with a witness too) the wrath of man to turn to his own high glory and praise, yea and so restrained and constrained the remainder thereof to keep within limits and bounds, as not to break out to do that mischief unto His which their malignant adversaries most desperately and divellishly intended to have done unto them. Nay (wherein they are yet far more miserable, yea most miserable of all) God most wisely and wonderfully makes them in this their intended malice and mischief, to be but as it were, the very drudges and scull-boys of his Church and children▪ and to do them far more good than hurt, in scouring and refining them from their dross and filth contracted from the rubbish of the world in this life; yea and by their malignant plottings, fighting and spighting, cursing, swearing, jesting and jeering at truth and holiness ) they shall (as a most holy and reverend Minister of the Lord, said) exceedingly help forward, promote and advance God's cause, yea more (many times) than many of the choice friends thereof; and yet (which, I say, is the height or rather the depth of their misery ) when they have thus done God's work (though they little thought it, and never intended it) they themselves (like the blind builders of Noah's Ark, who were after it drowned in the Deluge ) shall be so far from having any part or portion in the comfortable issue & prosperity of his cause, that they shall die in their sin, and be everlastlingly damned and perish for their pains therein; if, I say, in the interim▪ God in his infinite & boundless rich mercy, gives them not space and grace to repent.

What an inexpressible sad condition are ye (then) in, O most miserable Malignants, if you could but see this your wicked work, and this your wretched wages, as aforesaid, even with profane Esau, thus to strive and struggle to sell away (as 'twas said of Ahab, that he sold himself to work wickedness ) your blessed Birth-right of life and salvation. (I speak here the pure language of Canaan, maugre the false and fl • shy conceits and whimsies of our impious Antinomians, those sly and juggling underminers of Christian humiliation for sin, and of all other holy duties, under a color of their either ignorant or perverse wresting and misapplying of God's eternal decree of salvation and free grace to his children. Yea, I say of those unjust and injurious scandalizers of our venerable, pious, and most painful Pastors, falsely terming them Legal Preachers, and pressers of performance of holy duties in our own strength and abilities; a most gross scandal and aspersion audaciously cast on them by these Satan's Seedsmen of sedition and division in point of Religion. Pardon, good Reader, this glancing digression of zeal in me, and now to go on) to struggle, I say, with profane Esau, to sell your blessed Birth-right of life and salvation, for a poor, base, and beggarly morsel of meat, or mess of pottage of worldly pel • e, carnal pleasure, and pretended peace forsooth, which shall all perish in the use of them, and prove unto you nothing but mere vani • y and vexation of spirit.

Cease then, I beseech you, O most unholy and unhappy Malignants, cease I say, and that timely too, thus to fret and fume, to swear and swagger, and to show yourselves such palpable and apparent fighters against God, such banders and combiners against Christ in his precious and peculiar members, whom though you do in your life and healthy times scorn and contemn, yet in times of sickness or extreme straits and heavy pressures, and conscience-distresses, these are the only men you fare the better for; these are the men, I say, that you are often enforced (even out of Conscience) to send for in your sickness (especially when you think 'tis a sickness to death) to pray for you, counsel and comfort you; yea, and ofttimes in health too, are constrained to confess of them, and to say with wicked Saul to holy David, Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil. And therefore truly friends, in these like cases, I may greatly and most justly fear (and I beseech you mark well what I now shall say unto you, and fear and tremble at it too) that most of the Grandees and Cosmopolites of these our abominably back sliding and apostatizing times, (most of them, I say, for I believe that they do not all fight against God upon one and the same principle ) especially our learned & knowing Courtiers, Prelates, scandalous Priests, and intelligent Protestants at large, I greatly fear, I say, that they come as near to that sin, that terrible and unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost, and are as deeply plunged into it as ever any Apostate before them which sin, (if I mistake not) is willfully, knowingly, maliciously, and perseveringly to persecute and prosecute with all spite and bitterness of spirit the Truth and true Professors thereof, eo nomine, because it is, and they know it is the Truth of God, and therefore they cannot abide it, because their own works being darkness, they love darkness more than light. And that there are such to be found, the Apostle Paul testifies, and their desperate condition too) and I make no doubt but some of them have or will be enforced ere they die to acknowledge and cry out, if not true penitence, yet in damnable despair, with that accursed Apostate Julian the heathenish Emperor, Uicisti Galilae, vicisti; So these, You have overcome us, O Puritans and Round heads, you have overcome us; for God's judgments have overtaken us in contending against you. And therefore I may and must say unto you all, whoever you be in this case, and persist therein, as Simon Peter said to Simon Magnus, You are certainly in the gall of bitterness, in thus abusing the Spirit of grace and his peculiar and precious jewels; pray therefore, O yet pray, if peradventure this sin may be forgiven you: which indeed is the ultimum refugium, the last and best refuge and hope you have, yet most unlikely to help you, if not serious and seasonable; For, he that turns away his ear from hearing the Law (that is, from loving God and goodness, his Cause, his Saints and Servants) even his very prayers are an abomination to the Lord. And then you may with wicked Esau beg the blessing you so carelessly and contemptuously sold away, even with frightful cries and tears, and yet everlastingly go without it. O consider this therefore, all ye that thus forget God, lest he suddenly tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you. And since all these things are thus conspicuous and evident by all those remarkable forementioned and recited examples, let not any of the Malignant fellow-factors of so foul abuses to God's Cause, his Church and Children, willfully close up the eyes of their uunderstanding, and still harden their hearts and spirits against such providential workings and demonstrative convictions and confessions as those are, lest they also become fellow-seelers of the like exemplary and most just corrections. But pray, O pray (as I will with you and for you) that God would anoint your eyes with that Collyrium, his precious eye-salve, that you may see; and that he would speak to your Souls and Consciences with a powerful Ephphata, Be ye opened; that so you might see and repent. For I ingenuously confess, that unless his Spirit speaks thus, all the means in the world else that may be used come too short, and are but in vain: yet give me leave to speak unto you as the Lord did to stubborn Israel by the Prophet, You, whether you will hear or not hear (for you are a rebellious and obstinate people) yet shall you know that there hath been a word among you; that the means have not been wanting to you, and if you (notwithstanding all Threats and Treats, Mercies, or Judgments) will persist desperately in your malignant folly & madness, I must and will farther say unto you all, as the Spirit of God did of old Eli's most wicked and malignant two sons, Notwithstanding all that their old godly father had said unto them, they hearkened not to the voice of their father, and why? because (says the Spirit of God) the Lord had a purpose, for their incorrigible wickedness, to stay and destroy them. Wherefore to conclude all, my counsel (in brief) shall be unto you all, poor miserable malignant men and women, only that of the holy Spirit of God himself by the holy Prophet David, Be wise now therefore, O ye malignant Princes and Peers of the earth: be instructed and timely advised, O ye Judges and great Ones of the land. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, even the Lord Jesus Christ, lest he be angry, and so ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled, yea but a little: (O what will it be then when • is mightily inflamed?) O then most blessed are all they only that put their trust in him, and rest under the shadow of his wings, where only is true healing for body and soul. The Lord give us all assisting and persevering grace so to do. Amen, and Amen.

An Epilogue TO MALIGNANTS, In the Language of Canaan.

IF now after the perusal (if at least thou hadst any piety or patience there unto) of all formerly said and shown unto thee, thou are yet refractorily resolved to say, as the Malignants did in Jeremiah's time to him: As for the words which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee, but we will certainly do whatsoever thing cometh out of our own mouth.

Then give me leave to tell thee the Lord's resolution concerning thee. Behold, I have sworn by my great Name (saith the Lord) that my name shall be no more named in the mouth of any malignant. Behold I will watch over them for evil and not for good. Yea, now will I arise (saith the Lord) now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself; ye shall contrive Chaff▪ ye shall bring forth Stubble, your own (cursing) breath, as fire, shall devour you.

But, as for you my people, (my cordial Covenanters, yet that have sinned against me) for your sins, I will cause you to pass under the rod; I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant or Holy-league; And then I will purge out from among you the Rebels or Malignants, and them that transgress against me. I will bring them out of the Country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the Land of Israel, or happiness of my children.