gainst you, which they conceive may make for your difadvantage, and dif-intereft in the People, because they think they fhall never get much higher, except they make you a little lower; for they muft (according to the Law of Antichrift)fet their feet on your power, to get up to to their own.

Some difcoveries of this Spirit you might fee in Mr. Love's Sermon, telling you before your faces, and before the People; That fome call'd you a mungrel Parliament: Indeed the King (as I understand) call'd the Parliament at Oxford fo, but Mr. Love was the first (for ought I can learn) that ever named you fo, and I wish he may be the laft, (but any Doctrine is Orthodox, out of a mans mouth of his Order (farther threatning you with a dif cerning People, to look into your Actions, and to fpy out your boundless Privileges; as if you must do juftice, not out of the love of Righteousness, but out of fear of Mr. Love's difcerning People. Telling you also, the Clergy had done as much Service for you in their Pulpits, as your Regiments in the Field; that by this means he might mind you, what they can do against you, as well as for you, if you be not Servants to their defigns; for they that have heretofore been for you, can (if they please) turn to others against you, who fhall be more for themfelves. And in many other things flying out against your worthy Commanders in the Army, upon fufpicions of his own; and against the Articles at Oxford, &c. for it is no proper Presbyterial Doctrine, that does not (at least) meddle with the affairs of the State, which in time they may hopefully come to order. In thefe and divers other things, he took his full fwing, all of them (no doubt) deeply appertaining to the Myftery of the Gospel.

The other things, he fpake, to the difadvantage of the ignorant and weak,and neither to the Truths

difadvantage,

difadvantage, nor mine, I fhall clear in a fhort Reply, fet after the Discourse, and fo fhall trouble you no farther with any fuch ftuff, but only with a fmart expression, from one (it feems) of fome note in the Affembly, who faid, If the Parliament approved Mr. Dell's Sermon, it were no Blafphemy to fay, they were no Parliament. So that it feems you fhall be no longer a Parliament, than you approve what the Aflembly approves; but the Kingdom hopes you are built upon a better foundation. And to him (who hath been fo bold with you)I fhall only crave leave to reply in your prefence, If the Affembly (which I hope they will not) fhould condemn that Doctrine of the Gospel for the fubftance of it, deliver'd then by Mr. Dell, it will be no blafphemy to fay, They are the enemies of the truth of Chrift; and I hope, the last prop of Antichrift in the Kingdom.

For your felves, Honourable and Worthy, I befeech you confider, that God is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working, and that all Power is given to Chrift, in Heaven and in Earth, that he might give free paffage to the Gospel. And therefore take heed, after God hath bleft your Power and Forces in the Field, and fubdued that malignant Power that was against you, and hath given you a little peace and quietnefs in the Kingdom, you do not now begin your affairs with discountenancing, difrelishing, much lefs condemning the faithful and true word of God, witnessed in the Scriptures,and confeft to by the faithful and Martyrs of Christ in all Ages; and with the fetting off from you, that Ministry that hath most of the Spirit in it, left the Lord withdraw his prefence from you, and your latter end be not answerable to your beginnings.

It might be easily fhewed unto you, how many great and wife Kings and Magistrates, acting according to humane wisdom and prudence, and defpifing or neglecting the wisdom of the Word,

have with all their own wisdom, prudence, and defigns, destroyed themselves, and their Kingdoms: For it is written, He takes the wife in their own craftiness: And again, The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are but vain.

And therefore renounce the wisdom of the world, with all its fleshly Counfels, and cleave close to the True, Faithful and Sincere Doctrine of the Gospel, and then, though you have many Enemies and Kingdoms against you, you shall not be moved, but God will yet eftablish you, in all the shakings of the World, and your Enemies fhall be as a thing of nought. I fhall no longer detain you, but only defire this, in the behalf of the Faithful, God's peculiar Portion in the Kingdom, That you would not fuffer us to be oppressed by our Adverfaries, who would ufe your power againft us, not for you, but for themselves; neither would fuffer them, thus publickly and fhamelefly to call us Sectaries, and Hereticks, who do believe and profess the truth of the Gospel in fincerity and fimplicity of heart, according to what we have received from God; but that you would fuffer, yea, procure us to live quietly and fafely under you, in the Faith and practice of the Gospel, we in all things obeying you, as becomes Chriftians.

The Remainder, is to affure you, That there is no Man shall serve the State more fincerely, according to his Place and Calling, nor in more faithfulness and humility tender the Truth of God, either to your felves or the Kingdom (as occafion ferves) according to the measure of the Gift of Christ, than

Your Servant in the Gospel,

W. DELL.

ТО ТНЕ

READER.

Christian Reader,

T

HE Times we live in, are dangerous Times; it is dangerous to conceal the Truth, and dangerous to Publish the Truth; if we Publish the Truth, God hath taught us, and we have heard and learnd from the Father, we fall into the hands of men; if we conceal it, we fall into the hands of God. And therefore, in this cafe, in a contrary choice to David, Ireckon it much better to fall into the hands of men, than into the hands of God; feing the wrath of men can but reach the body, but the wrath of God,body and foul. I shall therefore willingly confefs Chrift, amidst an adulterous and finfull generation, not doubting but Chrift will confefs me, before bis Father, and before his Angels. And for the reproaches of men, it is best conquering them, as Luther was wont to fay, Silendo & contemnendo, by filence and contempt of them, feeing a man may as eafily reftrain Satan himself, in his various workings, as ftop the mouths of his inftruments. And therefore it is good for us Christians, to do the work of God, without fo much as taking notice of such men : and if sometimes we are sensible of these things, because we are flesh, yet as we are Chriftians, we are above them in the Spirit, and fee already in certain faith and hope, all evils and enemies under our feet: And therefore for Mr. Love, and other men of the fame mold and mettal, I am refolved neither now nor hereafter, to take them into any more confsderation than the business it felf neceffarily requires :

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quires and where they may be omitted, without prejudice to the truth, to let them quite alone: being every day through the use of affliction, enabled to patience, and through patience brought to experience, and fo to a propotionable measure of hope: And this carries me above the fhame of the world, in the ftrength of the love of God.

For the Doctrine contained in this Difcourse, thou shalt not find it New light (as fome men flanderoully affirm) but the ancient light, that sprang forth in the first morning of the Gospel, but was fince obfcured, by the New darkness of Antichrift, which thefe men love better than that old light, and will by no means exchange the one for the other. But this light, that now after a long night, breaks forth again, in fome of its firft glory, let thefe men fet their hearts at reft; for they shall never be able to obfcure it again, and the fire of the Spirit that God hath kindled in the Kingdom, they shall never be able to quench, with any fire either of Earth or Hell. And therefore we fear them not, though they breath forth threatnings now, and ere long, are like to breath forth blood: For by all their fubtile and industrious actings, in the end, they shall not work the truths ruine, but their own. And thefe, as well as their forefathers, of the fame race and lineage, in whofe ftead they are now rifen up, fhall in due time become a reproach and a fhame, and their name fhall be for a curfe to all Gods chofen.

Reader, It is my earnest defire, that the Lord would deliver thee from this new form of the Mystery of Iniquity, which in every Age puts on a feveral form, when the old one is difcovered by the light of the Word. And in this prefent Age, it is become, fo Exceeding cunning, and fo furnished with all deceiveableness of unrighteoufnefs, under the form of Righteousness, that it seems to be the last and sub

tilest