O YE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND! by whom I most Unjustly suffer, because it is in your Hands, but not in your Hearts to this very day to let the Oppressed go free: And though the Lord God hath (by putting this power into your Hands) tryed you once more, to see whether ye would do as ye have often said; and performe the Vowes which ye have uttered before the Almighty God and good Men, when ye were in trouble. But alas! in this case ye have not dealt faithfully, but like Ephraim, ye have turned back in the Lords Battell, and turned aside like a deceitfull Bow: Therefore is the Lord arising in his Jealousie, and in his Anger against you, as he hath done against yours, and his Enemies. And will the Lord disown one Persecuting Go­vernment, and save another which are walking in their steps? Nay, he will not. And though he hath wonderfully been with you, and in your Loe condition hath he many a time remembred you, and saved you out of their hands that have been too strong for you: And if ever Israel had cause to say, (You much more) Had not the Lord been on our side, We, and our little Ones should have been a Prey, and utterly perished by our Enemies. Moreover, the Lord hath saved you; and ye are not only a People saved by the Lord from outward Enemies; and your Lives, and the lives of your Wives, and your little Ones given you for a prey; but he hath given you also the Necks of your Enemies, and those that hated you, come Bending before you; and he hath given you goodly Houses which ye did not build, and Fields for which ye did not labour; not because ye were better than others, but because ye should be a shelter to his People, and let his Out-cast dwell with you: But thus saith the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, Ye also have wasted my heritage: and instead of break­ing the Jawes of the Wicked, and delivering the Iland of the Innocent, and saving the afflicted; and delivering them that were appointed for Destruction instead hereof, saith the Lord Almighty: Ye are setting up them that are smiting at you, and such as God would have had you to have thrown down, rather than strengthen them by your oppressing Lawes which are yet by you maintained, and not thrown down. And though ye have done well in delivering some out of Prison, that for Conscience towards God, could not maintain a false and deceitful Ministry; yet ye have not (like Caleb, and Joshua) gone through with the work; but ye (like Israel of old) have been afraid of the People whom the Shield, and strength of the Lord is departed: And ye have not in this thing done wisely, but very foolishly, and your hearts have not been upright; neither have ye wholly followed the Lord God of Israel; and many Popish Laws are yet in force, and not Repealed by you; by which Laws, them whom ye have set at liber­ty, may by their persecutors suffer again when they please. And so Friends, this is not to do the Lords work faithfully, but deceitfully; so We (by You) are not preserved in the liberty of a pure Conscience, but rather reserved for a day of Destruction at our Enemies pleasures. And what have we done? or wherein have we been Treacherous against this, or any Government? but that we, who have been, of all people of this Nation Faithful, and have done you good, (that of God in you shall bear us witness) for this your Evil dealing towards us, that we, of all men, can have little Justice from you: And this ye have done against the Lord, and against his People: and after all Gods goodness to you, (in Hypocrisie) ye Proclaimed a day of Feasting, and Thanksgiving, and there you hearkned to one of your Teachers, that falsly accused the Lords People to you, and cries to the Magistrate, as the old Per­secutors did in the days of the Apostles, Help men of Israel, these men turn the world upside down. And so your Feasting is not much better than Ahabs Fasting: for ye suffered three of us (at your THANKSGIVING-SER­MON) to be Beaten, only for speaking a few words, in the Name and Au­thority of the Lord; and two of us lie in Newgate now, and ye were Eye­witnesses of this thing; who of all others should not suffer such things to be; yet ye suffered us to be beaten before your Eyes, and none of you so Valiant for the Lord, as to stand up, and desire to understand this thing: but after we were beaten (contrary to all Law) we were violently carried to Newgate, and not so much as Queen Maries Law broken by me; by which Law so many of us have lost both our lives and liberties, being Imprisoned till Death: as if this were not enough, but your Teachers are still stirring you up to turn the Sword against the Innocent.

And will ye call this a Day of Thanksgiving, or a day Acceptable to the Lord? Nay, nay, God will find you out; and as for Us, we are in Gods hand; and if he command us to cry in the Kings Chappel, or against the Heads and Mountains of Israel, we love not our lives to the Death: and whether we ought to obey God or Man, judge ye, with the spirit of the Lord in your Consciences? And though we are rejected, and our necks under Bondage; and our lives, liberties, and goods Spoiled by you, it being in your power to break in pieces all Persecution: Yet know, the Lord is Our strength, and Our shield; and the Voice of a King is amongst Us, though ye have with Feasting, and Fulnesse, shut both your hearts and ears against him, and we know the Rock of Ages: and though our lives (by you) may be made bitter to us, yet against the tried Stone shall ye never prevail; and though ye are building your own Houses, and Honouring one another, and rejecting him that receives not honour of Men, yet the Lord will honour him, when all your honor lieth in the dust: for the Lord will yet overturn, overturn, untill he Raign, whose right it is to Raign: for Righteousness (of a truth) doth not yet raign among you; neither is the Name of the Lord exalted in England to this very day, after all your large Engagements for a GOSPEL-REFORMATION.

And who that fears the Lord can be silent, to see what grievous Oppres­sion, and wicked Tyranny is found in your Prisons; for within this three weeks, there is three poor debtors in Newgate perished for want of Bread; while you, after all your Vows and Promises to ease Oppression, are consu­ming many hundreds in Feasting: And in this Prison, where men are cast, pretending that they shall pay their Debts; which thing ought to be done, but the Lord hath a Controversie with you: for these things are done, and ye suffer them, which ought not to be suffered among you, who have before the Lord Engaged to take off all Oppression, which was in your Power.

They are most grievously oppressed, being constrained to pay ten shil­lings and six pence a week for a poor bed; so that the By-fees, and such things are utterly ruined, and made altogether unable either to pay depts, or to redeem themselves out of perpetuall slavery, and this is suffered by you, in whose days we had cause given us, by your large promises to hope that true Judgement, and Justices should have streamed down our streets: Therefore Friends, before it be too late, consider whether this is to performe that which your mouths have uttered when ye were in trouble and distress: But if you do not throughly amend your wayes, and your doings, the Lord will not long suffer you, who will not suffer the Lamb to rule amongst you; yet the Lord standeth in the Congre­gation of the Mighty, yea, he judgeth amongst the Gods.

Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, to you that rule this oppressed people, break all oppressing Lawes, and fears not the faces of man, But let my Son come out of Spirituall Egypt, and let him rule in your hearts, and let every Soul in AUTHORITY be subject to the Higher Power, and so in Christ: Gods Power, and Gods Wisdom, ye shall rule and prevaile as Princes with God and men, and so when Christ the King of Righteousnesse raines in you, he shall scatter the wicked, and as chaff shall they be before you, and your memoriall shall not rott, but your names shall be had in everlasting remembrance; and you shall be as oyntment poured out, and the Lord shall command his Strength for you, and your hearts shall be as the heart of a Lion; and the everlasting God shall be your refuge, and you shall be strength­ned by the Arme of the Mighty God of Jacob.

But friends, this is the plain truth to you all, that so long as the spirit in you is grieved, ye will grieve it in others; and so long as he is oppressed in you, ye will oppress his heritage, and make the heart of the righteous sad: Therefore ye must all come to the measure of his Spirit, which he hath given every one of you to profit withall, and ye shall with it see, and truly discerne, how many Popish unprofitable, and wicked Lawes are yet in force: and how do ye grant liberty, when we and our goods are spoiled to repair an Idol-Temple, and maintain a false Ministry which God never sent, but were made at Oxford and Cambridge in the wills of men? therefore, how long shall the Lord warn you, that ye do not compell us to drink any longer of the Whors Cup, Rev. 17. which hath made all Nations, Multitudes, and all the Kings of the earth Drunke with the wine of her Fornication.

To you this is the word of the Lord, Hate the Whore, the Beast, and the false Prophet, and lay her desolate; and give not your strength to them any longer, for if ye go on thus, to turne the Sword against his people, your strength which he hath commanded for you he will Speedily take away, and ye shall be weak as water; ye your mighty men shall be as women, and feare in your hearts shall surprise you, and God shall con­found you, as he hath done the persecutors that went before you; and all your wis­dom and strength shall be to destroy one another, and you that have been warned so often by the Lord in his people: but like Pharoh to this day have not broken the bands of oppression, notwithstanding all Gods goodnesse to you, and your promises of re­formation to him: O friends! with my soul I desire you do not forget him dayes with­out number, that hath in your loe condition so often remembred you: there is a witness in you, that the Lord stood by you; ye Commanders of the Army, remember who stood by you in Scotland, and many a time in England hath the Lord raised up his power in you, and your Souls have troden downe strength; and a secret hand, and inward confidence ye have felt, and deliverance hath come ye knew not how your selves. Thus the Lord hath been a Father to you when ye were fatherlesse, and comfortlesse, yea, when almost all the Priests in England and Scotland were preaching you downe, and as one man joyning together against you, these flatterers are now fed by you with the bread of others that did never thus act; and like Baals Prophets which did eat at Jesabells Table, they are crying persecute, and prosper.

Therefore, in the Name, and Athority of the Lord God of Host, this is a charge to you all, let Jesabells Priests eat at Jesabells Table; or, who will set meat before them, but do not force, impison, and compell my people to maintaine them any longer, as ye have long done, but let them be left free in their spirits, and consciences, to main­taine whom they in their hearts do believe it is their Duty.

And again, in the name and feare of the Lord I lay it upon you, that ye break all wicked Lawes, and customs in your prisons, and let no more perish for want of bread, or not paying of fees when they have nothing to pay. And when I consider how many of the Lords Servants have been moved of the Lord to write to you, to warne you of these things, and of all the persecution that hath been, and still is in England, and all parts of your dominions, yea, this very day of your Thanksgiving, how violently we were abused before your eyes, and none stood up amongst you in the Lords behalfe, to say so much as Pilate did, What evil hath these men done? and though we were moved of the Lord, and came in his name and Authority to speake, yet ye suffer us to be beaten, and carried to Newgate before your eyes; and few so moderate as to hearken, but cry, away with them after, I had spoken a few words; and so condemned me, being Innocent in the sight of God, and good men: I say, considering this, I was unwilling to write, neverthelesse, I being moved of the Lord to write, I am obedient; and I told you Magistrates then, that unless ye would quiet the people which pulled me down while I was speaking, I could not be cleare of you in the sight of the Lord.