the demands and proposals of the earle of norwich, and sr. charles lucas, (in the name of themselves, and the rest of his majesties officers and souldiers in the city of colchester) to generall fairfax, concerning the surrendering of the said city, ad their resolution thereupon. with the answer of the lord generall to the said demands and proposals also, the proceedings of the scots-royalists neare the parliament doores, and their animating on the people to cudgell the parliament. likewise, the d[i]scovery of a great designe in the city of london, to have murthered most of the parliament men, and the apprehending of the princes agent at the royall exchange, and taking of divers commissions from his highnes to the citizens, for the raising of a army for his royal father the king. signed, charles. p. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing n thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) the demands and proposals of the earle of norwich, and sr. charles lucas, (in the name of themselves, and the rest of his majesties officers and souldiers in the city of colchester) to generall fairfax, concerning the surrendering of the said city, ad their resolution thereupon. with the answer of the lord generall to the said demands and proposals also, the proceedings of the scots-royalists neare the parliament doores, and their animating on the people to cudgell the parliament. likewise, the d[i]scovery of a great designe in the city of london, to have murthered most of the parliament men, and the apprehending of the princes agent at the royall exchange, and taking of divers commissions from his highnes to the citizens, for the raising of a army for his royal father the king. signed, charles. p. goring, george goring, baron, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : printed anno dom. . sometimes attributed to sir george goring. (cf. wing). annotation on thomason copy: "august ye th". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng royalists -- england -- th century -- early works to . great britain -- history -- civil war, - -- early works to . london (england) -- history -- th century -- early works to . colchester (england) -- history -- siege, -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no the demands and proposals of the earle of norwich, and sr. charles lucas,: (in the name of themselves, and the rest of his majesties office goring, george goring, baron c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the demands and proposals of the earle of norwich , and sr. charles lucas , ( in the name of themselves , and the rest of his majesties officers and souldiers in the city of colchester ) to generall fairfax , concerning the surrendering of the said city , and their resolution thereupon . with the answer of the lord generall to the said demands and proposals also . the proceedings of the scots royalists neare the parliament doores , and their animating on the people to cudgell the parliament . likewise , the d●scovery of a great designe in the city of london , to have murthered most of the parliament men , and the apprehending of the princes agent at the royall exchange , and taking of divers commissions from his highnes to the citizens , for the raising of an army for his royall father the king . signed , charles . p. london , printed anno dom. . the discovery of a great plot in the city of london to massacre the parliament men , and other jnhabitants with in the city , and the apprehending of the princes agent neere the royal exchange . the treaty is carried on violently , & many jealousies possess the honest party , who are as active as scrutinous , knowing a personall treaty was never yet desired with out some designe to cut their throats ; divine providence , with gods wonted goodnesse to his people discovers a hellish plot in the city , to massacre all honest members in parliament , and inhabitants in city and suburbs , for which commissions were granted from his sacred highnesse the prince of wales , to citizens and others , who in the prosecution of the covenant with their deare brethren of scotland , and their zeale to the royall cause of his gracious majesty , make large subcriptions for buying armes , and maintaining the forces listed for this great designe ) no marvell now ▪ that the prince , and the city , with the reformadoes should so much presse for a personall treaty in london , that their brethren of scotland may be provided for , and a cessation and free trade insisted on , that the city should raise forces by act of common councel , and the royal party so much domineere . ) a committee was this day appointed to joyne with the miltia in examining and discovering this designe , with power to send for parties , witnesses , &c. seize horses armes , and ammunition , and secure such persons as they shall think fit . they consider of their lordships votes upon the businesse of the treaty , and make some additions and alterations therein : agree to the repealing of foure votes for no further application to the king . to the vote for persons to attend him during the treaty , the commons add a provision , that they be not persons accepted against under restraint , or in actuall warr by sea or land , nor so many as may cause suspition : to that , for his majesty to be in the same freedom as at hampton court , concurred . to that for domestick servants to attend him , agreed to , so that they be not in any of the former limitations . his highness the prince of wales , hath sent for a dr. and apothecary from london to wait spedily upon him : they acquaint the speaker with the princes command , the occasion thereof , and their desires to the house in relation thereuto . the house ordered , that the said dr. and chirurgion go aboard the prince , and return : it s conceived the message was mistaken , and an oculist intended , ah poor prince this is worse then blasting his land army , for now his amorous features will no more tempt the french ladies , and besides , his highnesse may come to an incapacity of — if his sight be not recovered . some of the scots commanders insolencies was this day taken notice of in westminster hall , in stirring up the discontented people at the house rising , to fall on the parliament men , crying , cudgell them , cudgell them . the princes agent was seen this day in the exchange , london , and being friendly invited to a glasse of wine , a squadron of major gen. skippons horse in the interim secured him , upon search finde the clavis of the princes characters , commissions from the prince to citizens , and severall particulars of armes in relation to the grand designe of the city : the prisoner and two troopers are coched , a squadron of horse-guard them down to derby hous who dispose of the agent into safe custody , & return thanks to the troopers , who rest not here , but scout round , and thorow the city this night , and sunday likewise , their activiandy gallantry makes them terrible , and more dispicable , the enemy calling them fairfax bastards . make these horse ● . and give them power , they will secure both parliament and city . the bunch of cavaliers and citizens were hapily discovered at a tavern in london , but more unhappily prevented . sir , we have little news here , god is acting for us , though we do little for ourselves , and the lesse we se our selvs do , the more we shall do : our great work now , is the carrying on of the approaches , which are so neare , that our souldiers and theirs lay down their arms and instead of shooting cast stones one at another ; our line between botolph gate and east-gate , is almost brought to their wall . the enemy in town are very full of distractions , and the inhabitants of straits and disturbance , as you will perceive by the enclosed petitions , which were this day sent unto his excellency in a letter from the l. norwich , and the rest , expressing , that they had at the desire of the inhabitants , thought fit to restrain them and that they should be constrained for the better accommodation of the souldiery , to turn out the towns-people whereby their houses and goods would be left liable to spoile and ruine ; for the prevention whereof , they had thought fit to treate with his lordship for the surrender of the town , if he pleased , to which purpose they would send six officers , if his lordship would appoint the like number to meet them on his behalf . with this letter came another , offering the exchange of capt. gray for mr , weston , and mr. rawlens : his excelencies answer was , that as to the exchange he accepted of , but as to the matter of treaty , he would send answer by a messenger of his own . as yet no inclination to grant their requests , the officers are to advise about it to morrow , delay being now the best part of our game . this evening his excelency going into one of the forts near east gate , the enemy discharged a drake with case shot , which scattered durt upon him and his attendants , but did none of them any harme . our men kil'd one of theirs looking over the wall . the other day sr. richard hastings boy being exchanged for one gooday a townsman , whom the enemy had apprehended as a spie , having heard some discourse among the souldiers , and told it among the rest , that our soldiers bid him comend them to goring , & tell him they would bore a hole through his nose , and draw him with a rope through cheapside , crying here is the great bull of colchester , which made his lordship merry . to the right honorable the earle of norwich , the lord capell , and sir charles lucas . the humble petition of the inhabitants of colchester . sheweth , that your petitioners having lately received your commands to prepare our selves generally to depart the town , for the better supplying of the souldiers we have been bold humbly to petition the l. fairfax for liberty to passe into the country , least being forced we go voluntarily without his lordships licence , we might expose our lives to eminent danger . we therefore humbly pray your honors to be pleased to give way that our petition may be sent to his lordship , and that till we have received answer of it , we may not be enforced from our habitations . au. . . subscribed by us the mayor & aldermen in the name of all the petitioners . w. cooke mayor , r. buxton , io. furley t. laurence , and io. sharp aldermen . to the right honorable thomas lord fairfax his excelency . the humble petition of the inhabitants of colchester . sheweth , that divers of your petitioners of every parish , having been summoned this present morning to attend the commanders in chief here , have received this message from them , strict charge to communicate it to all the inhabitants in generall , namely , that we must with all expedition provide to depart the town , or otherwise we sh●ll by power be forced therunto , for that what ever becometh of us ; the souldiery , who maintain the kings cause must and shall be provided for . now my lord , your petitioners being driven to this exigency , they have no other means but to fly to your christian clemency , and humbly pray , that you will give them leave to passe into the country for the preservation of their lives . and your petitioners shall pray , &c. aug. . subscribed by the mayor and aldermen in the name of all the petitioners . wil. cook mayor , rob. buxton , io. furley , tho laurence , and io. saw. aldermen . colchester . leaguer aug. . my lords , i am willing to beleive that the necessities of the inhabitants of the towne of colchester have wrung from them the petition in your letter inclosed , i shall not only clear my self to all the world from the occasion of their sufferings but so far contribute to their releif , as to allow all the inhabitants of that town to enjoy the liberty in their petition desired , provided the committee of the county of essex , now prisoners with you , be sent out with the first , only i shall not permit the wives and children of any townsmen , or others who shall abide with you in arms to have the benifit above mentioned . and to the other part of your lordships letter that concerne the rendition of the town , i make this offer , that all such officers and souldiers under the degree of a capt , ( excepting all such of my army , who have since the of may deserted their colours shall have passes without injury offered them to return to their homes , engaging themselves never hereafter to bear arms against the parl. and all other superiour officers , with lords and gentlemen , to submit to mercy . your lordships servant , t. fxirfax . for the earl of norwich , lord capel , and sr. charls lucas . finis . a true relation of the surrendring of colchester to his excellency the lord generall fairfax. as it was sent in a letter to the honourable william lenthal, esquire, speaker of the honourable house of commons. rushworth, john, ?- . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason .f. [ ]). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing r thomason .f. [ ] estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; : f [ ]) a true relation of the surrendring of colchester to his excellency the lord generall fairfax. as it was sent in a letter to the honourable william lenthal, esquire, speaker of the honourable house of commons. rushworth, john, ?- . lenthall, william, - , recipient. sheet ([ ] p.) printed by r.w. for iohn partridge, london : . dated at end: colchester august . . signed: iohn rushworth. reproduction of the original in the british library. eng fairfax, thomas fairfax, -- baron, - -- early works to . great britain -- history -- civil war, - -- early works to . colchester (england) -- history -- siege, -- early works to . a r (thomason .f. [ ]). civilwar no a true relation of the surrendring of colchester to his excellency the lord generall fairfax. as it was sent in a letter to the honourable w rushworth, john a this text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a true relation of the surrendring of colchester to his excellency the lord generall fairfax . as it was sent in a letter to the honourable william lenthal , esquire , speaker of the honourable house of commons . sir , the last night about ten of the clock the articles were signed by the commissioners on both sides , which were to this purpose , that all horses , with furniture , should be delivered this day by ten of the clock , that all private souldiers , and officers under captains shall have fair quarter , and render themselves prisoners . that the lords , and all captains , and superiour officers , and gentlemen be drawn together to the kings-head inne , with their clothes and baggage , by eleven of the clock , and there to render themselves to the mercy of the lord generall . that the enemies guards be drawn off , and guards of this army appointed in their stead : that all ordnance , ammunition , waggons , &c. be delivered to the comptroller . that the sick and wounded be provided for , with accommodation , untill recovered . and accordingly this forenoon col. rainsboroughs regiment , and another regiment entred the town , and the articles in all things else performed : you will very suddenly receive an account from his excellency , of the particulars , of this businesse , as also a list of what persons of quality , officers , and commanders are at mercy , and the number of ordnance , arms , and quantity of ammunition . this morning we rode round about the wall of the town , and finde it to be a very strong place in all parts of it ; where it was weakest , there they made strong works , or strengthened it with earth . it was a sad spectacle to see so many fair houses burnt to ashes , and so many inhabitants made so sickly and weak with living upon horses and dogs . many glad to eat the very draught and graines for preservation of life . i remain , your humble servant , iohn rushworth . cochester august . . london printed by r. w. for iohn partridge . . a letter, from a gentleman in colchester, to his friend in london. i. b. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason .f. [ ]). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing b thomason .f. [ ] estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; : f [ ]) a letter, from a gentleman in colchester, to his friend in london. i. b. sheet ([ ] p.) s.n., [london : ] dated at end: colchester . june . signed: i.b. imprint from wing. annotation on thomason copy: "jul june ". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng great britain -- history -- civil war, - -- early works to . colchester (england) -- history -- siege, -- early works to . a r (thomason .f. [ ]). civilwar no a letter, from a gentleman in colchester, to his friend in london. i. b. a this text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter , from a gentleman in colchester , to his friend in london . sir i am happie in this occasion , to tell you how greatly i affect you , and what high content and satisfaction it would bring to me to heare of your wel-fare , and other my loving friends . bee assured our condition here is very good : our store-houses and magazines are full , our souldiers at as good command as the centurians in the gospell . one said ; should hee paint warre like a beast , hee would begin with his belly : money may bee the nerves and sinnues of warre ; but meate and drink is the soule of it . this place is the grannary of the county , and fish-market of these eastern-parts , wee have infinite quantities of corne , salt , &c. and had they not got the block-house at the mouth of the river , wee had liv'd in too much luxurie , yet have wee no dearth of oysters and other fish . the lord fairfax hath made a battery on the conny-warren , halfe a mile from us , but our cannoneers shoote so exactly well they have little rest in their new workes ; wee heare they dwindle away daily by reason of fresh insurrections in other places , and that some bumpkins are come to them from suffolke , but all that are arethmeticians know that a great many such ciphers stand for nothing . mounsieur thomas is lievtenant to his cozens troopes and salutes you all . commend me kindly to all friends . i pray you doe it particularly . i would faine see a perfect relation of the fight wherein lambert was slaine . i pray for you all daily . wee heare you had a common-hall in london on saturday , wee expect glorious events thereby : i wish you could at last become a loyall subject , and leave that idoll the present parliament which you so much adore , i pray for your conversions ; and rest . your faithfull servant i. b. colchester . june . a letter sent to the honorable william lenthal esq; speaker of the honorable house of commons, of the late fight at colchester, and, how the suburbs of the said town were fired by the lord goring, lord capel, sir charls lucas, and the rest of the enemy. printed by the command of the honorable william lenthal esq; speaker of the honorable house of commons. rushworth, john, ?- . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing r thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) a letter sent to the honorable william lenthal esq; speaker of the honorable house of commons, of the late fight at colchester, and, how the suburbs of the said town were fired by the lord goring, lord capel, sir charls lucas, and the rest of the enemy. printed by the command of the honorable william lenthal esq; speaker of the honorable house of commons. rushworth, john, ?- . , [ ] p. printed for edward husband, printer to the honorable house of commons, london : july . . signed at end: j.r., i.e. john rushworth. reproduction of the original in the british library. eng colchester (england) -- history -- th century -- early works to . great britain -- history -- civil war, - -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no a letter sent to the honorable william lenthal esq; speaker of the honorable house of commons, of the late fight at colchester,: and, how t rushworth, john a this text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - celeste ng sampled and proofread - celeste ng text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter sent to the honorable william lenthal esq speaker of the honorable house of commons , of the late fight at colchester , and , how the suburbs of the said town were fired by the lord goring , lord capel , sir charls lucas , and the rest of the enemy . printed by the command of the honorable william lenthal esq speaker of the honorable house of commons . london , printed for edward husband , printer to the honorable house of commons , july . . to the honorable , william lenthal esq speaker of the honorable house of commons . sir , in my last i intimated to you , that we hoped to gain the gate-house , the works about it , & church ; all which the enemy had fortified very strongly , and it pleased god this afternoon about five of the clock to deliver all these places into our hands , the maner was thus ; vve discharged four pieces of canon altogether , vvhich much amazed the enemy in the works , and then discharged four more ; and immediately our musquetiers fell on and storm'd the gate-house with ladders , and threw in hand-granado's : the enemy opposed very stoutly for a while , and threw down several of the ladders , but at last gave back ; some held out their handkerchiefs , others fired very fiercely : yet notwithstanding , our men gained the work , and part of the gate-house , and throwing in a hand-granado , where there was some of the enemy stood to their arms , it hapned to light amongst their magazine , consisting of about four barrels of powder , and blew up about forty of their men : it pleased god that we had but one man hurt with that blow . all this evening our men have been digging , and pulling out the dead bodies of the enemy , finding here and there a leg and an arm by it self . there were in the whole number , as some of the prisoners who had quarter confest sevenscore , and we had about threescore prisoners , not any could escape ( we getting between them and home ) so the rest were put to the sword , and destroyed as aforesaid . i send you herewith some poysoned bullets , that you may see how they still persist in their venemous disposition , to shoot such things as may be sure to rancour and poyson the flesh . the enemy vvas so enraged at this loss ( having totally by this means shut themselves up vvithin the walls , and not having any part of the suburbs ) that they set the suburbs round the town on fire , and at this present there is the sadest spectacle to be seen , that hath fallen out in this age , there being novv burning in a great flame , houses above a mile in length , and with that violence , that it is a wonder to behold it : by this we conceive that they are desperately bent , and will not onely destroy the suburbs , but even burn the town also before they yield . i hope in the lord he will enable us very shortly to gain this place , and to make such destroyers of the nation , examples to posterity . leaguer before colchester , july . at night . j. r. finis . a most true and exact relation of that as honourable as unfortunate expedition of kent, essex, and colchester by m.c., a loyall actor in that engagement, anno dom. . carter, matthew, fl. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a most true and exact relation of that as honourable as unfortunate expedition of kent, essex, and colchester by m.c., a loyall actor in that engagement, anno dom. . carter, matthew, fl. . [ ], p. s.n.], [london : . attributed to matthew carter. cf. nuc pre- . place of publication from nuc pre- imprints. print stained on p. - and in filmed copy. pages - photographed from the bodleian library copy and inserted at the end. reproduction of original in harvard university libraries. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng kent (england) -- history -- th century. colchester (england) -- history -- siege, . great britain -- history -- civil war, - -- campaigns -- sources. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a most trve and exact relation of that as honourable as unfortunate expedition of kent , essex , and colchester . by m. c. a loyall actor in that engagement , anno dom. . printed in the yeere , . the authors letter to the publisher . to the truly noble , and my worthily honoured friend sir c. k. honoured sir , since through the calamitous , and dark distractions of these unfortunate times , i am thus ecclips'd , and linkt to an ill and duskie fate ; as by being cloyster'd in a dungeon , am debarr'd of that happy liberty that might allow me the wish'd-for opportunity of kissing your hands ; yet am i thus only cloyster'd , since though my body suffer a most severe and strict confinement , it rather addes to the liberty of my soul , and makes it expatiate it selfe with a greater freedome ; and so i am alwayes waiting on you , though not to your apprehension , yet with my better genius ; and though not as an angell guarding you , yet still attending the illustrious throne of the all-powerfull majesty in my wishes , and prayers for you . and that you may not onely know the reality of my soul , but the command also you have over it ; i have adventured to answer ( in my obedience ) your will , though perhaps not expectation , in sending to you , with this my account of colchester ; by which you shall only understand i stood not there as a dumb cypher , though not as a very eminently active figure : other honour to my self i dare not appropriate by it , but am content ( chusing ex malis minimum ) to lay open to your serious scanning my greatest imperfections , rather than adventure the hazard of falling under the censure of ingratefull disobedience ; hoping your charity will extend to a courteous reception of my imbecillities , because cloathed with as cheerfull endeavours ; in which garb they humbly thus come to waite on you , having for attendance onely this serious request : that your own eyes alone may be made witnesses of their nakednesse . for though i know that truth ( which i assure you here really is , and nothing else ) need not be abash't who ever she meet with , she is naturally of her self so beautifull , and never was more than in this service : yet i am sensible enough how grosse an absurdity it is for any man to send her abroad in vile , and ragged unshapen garments ; of which i must acknowledge my self too much too guilty to expect a justification when i shall appear at the bar of a judicious examination ; but therefore suffer under the condemnation of a just and weighty censure . which i might the more seriously expect , were it more exactly done , should it come to the publick stage , since i have been inform'd , and made it my observation too , how the honour of that unparallel'd action is dayly crucified , with a confusion of monstrous , and prejudiciall opinions , almost metamorphosing it into a prodigious disguise past knowledge . yet i have a little digressed as possible , knowing that many passionate historians transported with splean against tyrants , or too great a luxury in the glorification of those theyhonored , have imperfectly delineated the image of truth ; like aurelius a roman painter , who , when he was to draw the face of any image , alwayes made it to the resemblance of a woman that he most dearly affected . but i have confined my self to a strict-commentary of the reall passages ; and to adde more to your satisfaction , i have drawn my rise not onely from the first step of it's motion , but the cause that gave a product to that motion . by which means it must prove something more tedious to you ; yet if your patience shall so far sympathize with my desires , as my obedience hath done to your will ; and at some intermisse times permit you to run it over : you shall not only receive the benefit of satisfaction to your own phancy in requitall , but a knowledge to give the like to others that you shall finde unresolv'd , and deserving , in it , and heap much of obligation and honour on your most entirely devoted , and humblest servant , m. c. to the reader . ingenious reader , ( for to none other doe i wish this may come ) not that i value any mans censure of the author , but because it is an age wherein truth is accounted diabolicall , and loyalty a treason unpardonable : and i may justly suppose some thick-skull'd separatist , or frothybrain'd ignoramus , whose customes are to criticize , because they would undervalue what they fancie not , as much as what they understand not , will be swarming about it with their hypocriticall censures to stifle it with an undeserving odium : but let not the so sloslovenly , and obscure birth of this off-spring of loyall zeale , any whit derogate from its worth in your opinion ; for you cannot but know , that many gallant pieces , and personages , have received life from as great an obscurity ; and truly i shall thus far apologize for it , ( though its deserts require not any ) read but the fore-going letter , ( not at all intended for what is now placed ) and you shall easily understand , that the authors will , and desire of not publishing it , as not intending it for the publike stage of the world , hath been the chiefest reason of it : having made it his request , as being diffident of its worth , that it might not suffer the danger of the presse . but i having raised a contrary reason , and far exceeding his for silencing , from the same grounds , thought it a greater evill to let so worthy a structure lye buryed in the wombe of perpetuall oblivion , when it had received so happy a conception , then to give it a lasting life , though by so obscure a birth . i cannot but expect that the so many legions of lyes , that doe every day oppresse the very presse it selfe , and tyre out mens fancies with their mutinous tumults upon the stage of the world , will be ever justling at so handsome and candid a piece of loyall truth , whilst the devill the father of lyes is so much adored , and christ that fountaine of honour and truth crucified and slandered every houre amongst us . but i am confident their power will never prevaile to beat it off , while there is yet a sparke of loyaltie left to light us through this dark chaos of atheisticall rebellion . that i am cautious of too plainly divulging its author , is , because otherwise there might much of inconveniency accrue to him for so bold a discovery of his conscience , ( being already in prison ) by the splenitick malice of some base-born phlegmatick dispositions ; whose stomacks are so full gorg'd with rebellion against god and his vicegerent , they can brooke or digest nothing that savours not of treason or disloyalty . these reasons being well weighed by any ingenious and loyall reader , will be sufficient . wherefore i shall urge no more , but desire all such , as they peruse , to draw examples of loyaltie from it , and pick not out more cautiously what they may more artificially convert to poyson , if not liked ; as it is too often seen : and let your constant endeavour ( who ere you be ) in the behalfe and service of your king , and country , exceed his if you can ; then censure and spare not ; so wishing all mens consciences as good and faithfull subjects to a sweet and glorious prince ought to be , reader i commit you to the protection of heaven so long as you are so , and bid you farewell . your friend as you censure mine , c. k. a most true and exact relation of that as honourable as unfortunate expedition of kent , essex , and colchester . upon christmas day , . many gentlemen and others of the meaner ranke in the city of canterbury in kent , being religiously disposed to the service of almighty god , according to the liturgy and orders of the church , ( a hainous offence , i must confesse , in these times of reformation ) met at saint andrews church in the high street , where m. allday the resident minister of the parish preached to them a sermon answerable to the day ; a thing so much out of custome now , that we begin to forget even that christ was ever borne , as well as the celebration of his birth . and now this piece of orderly and christian devotion startled the consciences of the new saints , who enflamed with fiery zeale , began to make tumults in the streets , and under the church windowes , thinking thereby to drown the voice of the preacher : but it could not any whit discourage him from persisting in his holy and devout exercise . the sermon being done , the people began to flock more tumultuously together , so that the disturbance encreased very much ; by the meanes especially of the major , ( a man indeed knave enough , and i thinke as much foole , as appeares by this ) who walking through the streets purposely , would have forc'd some people to open their shops , and set out their wares to keep the market ( the day being saturday , and market day ) but he denying , and urging of it more seriously ; one man answering his commands with some words which he could not well relish , he strook him a blow in the face with his fist : making himself , by that means , the first ingager and instrument to the breach of that peace , which upon all occasions whatever , he was sworn to see kept and preserved . this made a greater distraction and hubbub in the city ; and many men throng'd together , and so mad they grew , that the mayors heeles were soon flung up , and all his worship thrown in the channell , he was afterwards glad to shift for his life , as he supposed . but one of the constables , by name and quality huse , a shoo-maker , a senior of the faction , ran hastily out with a pistoll in his hand ; and running up and down the streetes with aggravating clamours summons out his crue , who immediately tumbled out of their houses with their armes in their hands , and such mischievous weapons as first they could lay hold of , in such hast , they over powred all they met : among the rest , one white a barber , ( a man swell'd as full of ungodly schismaticall principles of rebellion as a toad with poyson ) standing in the street with a musket loaded , and his match ready cockt , meeting another man by chance stepping forth of his doore , as being inquisitive to understand the occasion of the tumult ; whom he knew to be one that fancyed not his humour , made not much dispute with him , but upon his questioning his standing in that posture , le ts fly at him , and shot him through the body , so that there was little hope of life in him . thus the businesse grew still to a greater height , and more people still flocked together , as it is alwayes seene in such mutinous broyles ; and many bickerings fell out in the streetes : but ere long those gentlemen , who ranged about as furiously at first , as herods souldiers in the infant martyrdome , began to slink , and were at last glad to betake themselves to their heeles , and every one to shift for himselfe . white being taken , was committed to custody into the towne goal , there to lie till he should receive the justice of the law for so horrid a villany . the other party being thus enraged , and incensed by so foul an affront , began to think of their owne security ; and knowing the malice of those they should most certainly have to do with , seized on the magazine of the town , and placed guards about at every gate of the city ; fearing that mischief which indeed afterwards came to passe , and might have been prevented , had they not thought themselves too secure . at last they grew something violent , and encreased to a very great number , till sir william man , master lovelace the councellour , and some other gentlemen , by an extraordinary industry had perswaded them to a quiet desisting from prosecuting those rash attempts which they boldly resolved on ; engaging themselves with the mayor , and master savin an alderman , and justice of peace , by articles drawn up , and signed between them , that no man should be molested or questioned for an thing that was done . upon this , they all quietly lay down their armes , and every man betook himselfe to his vocation , and particular habitation , which else might have produced greater matters both in that city and the whole county . about a moneth after , upon the instigation of the mayor , whose malice could not be appeased without revenge , by order of parliament came down col. husons regiment of foot from about london to quarter in canterbury ; who no sooner were settled in their quarters , but by order from the house they seized on sir will : man , master lovelace , m. savine , m. dudley wiles , and some other gentlemen ; and many poor men of the city also , and hurried them away to leeds castle neer maidstone , where they continued prisoners about two moneths , and more , till some of the poorer sort that had not where withall to subsist ( none daring to relieve them ) were wel nigh starved there , as their wives and families at home . at last , with some solicitation of the gentlemen to the house , by the mediation of the burgesses of the city , and some other of the deputy lieutenants of the county , who began to be a little touch'd with a sence of their abominable injury , procured so much favour as to have baile taken for their liberty , till they should be called upon to answer at the barre of their mock-justice for this high and unpardonable ryot of peace-making . this high favour being obtained , they all returned home ; but they were no sooner there , and scarce setled , but the mayor , out of his own power , having myrmidons enough then to maintain him in any thing , though never so ignoble , wicked , or unjust , ( although hee had before signed to the articles of indempnity , and that those poor men had suffered so much misery , notwithstanding ) would have had all those of the most inferiour rank to be whipt , or ride the wooden horse ; for now he knew how to domineer , having the souldiers to clap him at the back , and encourage what ever he would doe : but by the more grave advice of some of his more moderate brethren he was taken off from that project , & the busines lay quiet till about a forthnight before whitsontide ; at which time the parl. gave commission of speciall oyer and terminer for a court of sessions in the castle at canterbury , and sent done sergeant wild , and sergeant steel to try them upon life and death , who in the whole businesse were the onely sufferers , and the raisers of that , got either to be their judges , or witnesses against them to condemne them . condemned indeed beforehand , as by the sequell appeares . a grand jury also was summoned in of gentlemen from every lathe of the county , and none to be prickt but such as they thought so well affected to the parliament as to cast any whom they should desire to convict . all the deputy lieutenants were also appointed to meet at this great sessions ; sir michaell lusey being then one of the house , and not in command ( a colonell in the service once , and before that , in debt farre beyond what he was worth , but now clear from all , and his estate very much augmented ) made it his suite to the house that he might have leave to be there at the bench , which he soon obtained ; and comming down , made it his brags that he thanked god he had obtained leave of the house to be there , and that he would endeavour to set some of those gentlemen packing to another world , which he would willingly have done had god given so large a power into his hands ; but his protection guarded them from the intended ruine these unjust judges had pre-ordained them to . for the day being come , and the judges and bench in much state and pomp set , the prisoners were summoned to the bar , and the jury impannell'd : then the indictment was read , and the jury sent out to bring in their verdict , who retiring , and scanning the businesse after they had heard the indictment pleaded against , found an ignoramus upon it ; and being again brought in , gave in their verdict accordingly , at which the bench wondred , and the judges were much displeased , having resolved their doome beforehand ; wherefore the jury was a second time commanded forth , and againe returned the same verdict ; whereupon the judges , as it were forc'd to it , cleared the businesse for that time , and broke up the court , but would not absolutely quit them , till the house should resolve farther upon it , intending to have brought them to a second triall : but ere the bench could rise , came in a packet from the house of parliament , with a relation of that great defeat given the welch at s. fagons neer cardiff in clamorganshire ; which being read , one of the bench rising up , said to one of the grand jury , had we known but this newes before , we would have made you found something else than an ignoramus : but the gentleman being a resolute man , and as consciencious , soone made him this answer , neither your newes sir , nor your threatning words should have made us give in a verdict upon another mans life , contrary to the result of our consciences . let the world now judge by this , what the justice of these men is , whom nothing but fear shall keep from committing homicide and murder on their fellow-christians , subjects and country , upon the very seats of justice and judgement . after this passage , the grand jury all meeting together , began to revolve in their discourses , ( being aggravated by so inconscionable a speech ) of the intollerable misery and slavery this wretched kingdome was involved and plunged into ; and under what a tyranny they did now suffer , by the unlimited , usurped , and arbitrary jurisdiction their fellow-subjects now used over them , as so many illegall lords & kings ; supported in it , by the unmercifull power of the blood thirsty sword ; still disputing with much resolution and boldnesse among themselves , which way they might best set themselves free-men from such an inhumane slavery , and unsufferable bondage : they refolved unanimously at the last to petition their servants ( that should be ) the commons , and their servants servants , the lords once more , to see if they could be perswaded yet into any remorse , or consideration of the misery with which they had overwhelm'd this gasping common-wealth . where a petition was drawn up , and after some correction , shewed to some of the deputy leiutenants , who seeing the gentlemen so confident in it , though visibly against their interest they were sensible enough it was , yet durst not dis-approve of it . the petition was as followeth : to the right honourable the lords and commons assembled in parliament at westminster . the humble petition of the knights , gentry , clergy , and comminalty of the county of kent , subscribed by the grand jury the of may , . at the sessions of the judges upon an especiall commission of oyer and terminer , then executed at the castle of canterbury for the said county . sheweth , that the deep sence of our own miseries , with a fellow-feeling of the discontents of other counties expos'd to the like sufferings ; prevaileth , with us , thus humbly to present to your honours these our ardent desires . . that our most gracious soveraigne lord king charles , may with all speed be admitted in safety and honour to treat in person with his two houses of parliament , for the perfect setling of the peace both of church and common-wealth , as also of his own just rights , together with those of the parliament . . that for prevention , and removall of the manifold inconveniences occasioned by the continuance of the present army under the command of the lord fairfax , their arrears may be forthwith audited , and they disbanded . . that according to the fundamentall constitution of this common-wealth , we may for the future be governed and judged by ( the english subjects undoubted birth-right ) the known and established lawes of the kingdome , and not otherwise . . that according to the petition of right , our property may not be invaded by any taxes or impositions whatsoever ; and particularly that the heavy burthen of excise may no longer be continued , or hereafter imposed upon us . all which our earnest desires we humbly recommend to your grave and serious considerations , not doubting of that speedy satisfaction therein , which the case requires , and we humbly expect : whereby we may well hope to see ( what otherwise we cannot but despair of ) a speedy and happy end of those sad and heavy pressures and distempers , whose continuance will inevitably ruin both our selves and our posterities : your timely prevention whereof , by a cheerfull condescent to what we here propound , in order thereunto , shall oblige us ever to pray , &c. which petition soon obtain'd the approbation of all the gentry and clergy , excepting some who were troubled with the heart-burning faction , and could not digest so great a state-pill . some deputy lieftenants also did approve of it , and willingly signed ; others seemed to approve of it likewise , but when they were desired to signe , slipt their necks out of the coller , and left the city : but that day it was signed by above two hundred gentlemen then in the city , and copies transcribed , and dispersed amongst them all , by which means , by a very quick flight they were dispersed over all the county also ; there being so many centlemen then met together from every lath and hundred , a more fitting opportunity could never have been fancied . then on the backside of every petition was endorsed this post-script : it is desired , that all copies and subscriptions be brought into rochester on munday , the . of this instant may . and that all who intend to accompany this petition doe meet at black-heath the day following by nine of the clock in the morning . by this meanes the whole county might unanimously go , not only in their subscriptions , but in the presentation of it to the parliament . but there were at the same time some of the grandees , in the city , who by no means could swallow it , lest it should have choaked their reputation , with the house ; and indeed , being stung with too guilty a conscience , found this pill too harsh a corrasive to them . amongst the rest , sir henry heyman , and sir michaell lnsey , who posted immediately away to the parliament to give them a timely notice , for prevention of a design so honourable , conscientious , and religious , but absolutely destructive to their interest and proceedings ; or at least , that they might , by being praemoniti , be also praemuniti , which two are seldome other then correlatives ; the one drawing a usuall consequence from the other , as indeed it proved by them , as will afterwards appear by their votes , and stratagems against it . but ere they went , out of the tender affection his rebellious bowels yearn'd with , towards his true bretheren in iniquity , went to the prison where white the barber lay for his horrid villany ; ( the man not being yet recovered ) and brought him out , with hat in hand , giving him thanks for his so good service , and extraordinary zeal to the cause ; and thus set him at liberty without ever being questioned for his fact. upon sunday following , letters were sent from the speaker of the lower house , to all the deputy lieftenants in the county , and what justices of peace the house thought good , that they understood of an intended petition to be preferred to the house from that county , willing them to use their utmost indeavours for the speedy preventing it , and suppressing the people in it . never disputing the justice of it , nor injustice of themselves in denying the proceeding of it , which was as horrid as might be for any man that knowes how to judge between right and wrong almost in any thing , knowes that the intentions of a kings calling a parliament are for the speedy redressing the agrievances of his kingdome , and the admitting by him , and the choosing by the people , the commons into parliament never for any other reason then to present the agrievances of the commons in generall for what part of the kingdome they served as representatives , by way of petition , from them to the king and lords for redresse . but they have now so altered the constitution of parliament by their new-found kirk-lawes of reformation , that no man , no not the best of polititians is physitian good enough to feel its pulse , though in a most horrid distraction too of ill humours ; and our blessed reformers have so long faught for the priviledge of parliament , as that they have both lost that , and the liberty , and true rights of the subject , with the prerogative of the king to boot ; and metamorposed the lawes of the kingdome into the shapelesse monster of an arbitrary government , and tyrannous power of the sword. but these letters also they were ordered and authoriz'd to seize , and surprize all persons they should find , or suspect to to be active in the prosecution of it ; & to secure all castles , towns , and strong holds in the county ; and by their greatest care to prevent all publick meetings at any places whatsoever within the county , except their own . then began the committee to thunder abroad their loud menaces with high threats , to all such as should dare to prosecute so bold a villany , and tumultuous seditions , as they tearmed it ; and issued forth a libellous order against it , and all such as should signe it , or any way prosecute the progresse of it amongst the people , by any publique or sinister means . the order was as followes . by the deputy lieutenants of the county of kent , the city , and county of canterbuy , at their generall meeting at maidstone the . of may , . whereas we understand , that diverse persons have given out , that they intend to assemble themselves towards the latter end of this moneth , or the beginning of the next , at severall dayes and places , upon pretence of carrying a petition to the parliament , which doth concern matter against the authority of both houses , and tendeth to the raising of seditions and tumults , within this county : we having lately received a speciall command from the house , to use our best endeavours for the preserving the peace of that county , doe hereby , in order thereunto , advise all whom it may concerne , to forbear all occasions of publick disturbance , by any such pretence whatsoever : and if any well-affected persons have beene abused , and misled , so as to signe , or procure hands to any such seditious paper under the name of a petition , and upon false-giving out , that the deputy lieutenants of this county doe approve thereof , to the end that such well-meaning persons may be undeceived , we having seen a copie of the said pretended petition , doe hereby signifie our utter detestation of such seditious practices : and doe advise all well-wishers to their countries peace to take heed thereof , and to counsell , and perswade their neighbours accordingly : and if any pretended copies of such pretended petition come unto or be in their hands , to deliver up the same unto the next deputy lieutenant . and we doe hereby , require the ministers of severall parishes publickly to read this signification in their parish churches upon the next lords day after the receit hereof , immediately before they begin their morning sermon ; and the church wardens of the severall parishes , are hereby required the next day after the time appointed for the said publication , to certifie what hath beene done therein under their hands unto the next deputy lieutenants , who is hereby directed forthwith to transmit the said certificate to the standing committee at maidstone , that so notice may be taken what ministers , and church wardens or other persons doe their duty therein : and such as shall be found wilfully faulty , may be proceeded against accordingly . ant : wilding . john rivers . richard lee. thomas lewis . james oxenden . richard beale . thomas syliard . lam : godfrey . will : james . john bix . will : keniorash . to the mayor of gravesend , who is hereby required to cause proclamation hereof to be read in open market , next day after the receit hereof , in the height of the market by the common cryer , and afterwards to deliver it to the minister of the said parish to read it in the church . but this violent course of theirs in indeavouring to obstruct , added rather a more vigorous life to it , and made it fly through the county with a far greater velocity , and the more exasperated the whole country to a prosecution of it , according to the saying of seneca : patientia laesa fit furor . the whole county being , by this means , enraged , they resolv'd upon the prosecution of their petition , being so farre engaged , maugre all obstructions what ever , which caused many meetings of the gentry , in canterbury & rochester , and diverse other places of the county , at which meetings the businesse was more deliberately weighed ; and upon a serious deliberate scanning they found themselves likely to be lost in a maze of inconveniencies if they went not resolutely forward in what they had begun , whereupon this order of the committee was re-viewed , and a vindication of their proceedings in answer to it , drawn up , and published as followeth : the petitioners vindication and answer to the deputy lieutenants declaration against the said petition . we the knights , gentry , clergy , and comminalty of the county of kent , who have subscribed , and do intend to present the reall petition ( which is absolutely called a pretended one , and a seditious paper ) to the honourable the lords and commons assembled in parliament at westminster , according to the just rights and priviledges of the subjects of england , in pursuance of the suscriptions of the grand jury of our county the . of may , . ( who are , and ought to be representers of the sence of our county ) have taken notice of a late order , or declaration , of the deputy lieutenants of our county , of the . of may , . tending to the discountenancing , and suppressing of our said petition ; and untruly charging the same to containe matter against the authority of both houses ( to whom it is addressed ) and the petitioners to be raisers of sedition and 〈◊〉 . in a deep sence whereof , and indignation of such false scandalls imposed upon us , we doe declare to the world , that the matter of the petition , containes in it , nothing but what is just , and fit for free-borne subjects to demand , and tends to the preserving of the peace , not onely of our county , but of the whole kingdome . and the manner of our intentions to prosecute the same shall be so peaceable ( on our parts ) as shall not give occasion of tumults , or publick disturbance . we doe protest against raising of any factious against the parliament , to whom we addresse our selves for a just reliefe of our grievances : in pursuance of the right of subjects , and their own ordinances , and our intentions so peaceable , we must declare , that ( not withstanding all 〈◊〉 threats , published to our discouragement ) we shall go on to prosecute our just rights and desires , in such a way as shall neither render us guilty of sedition , or publick disturbance ; nor of betraying our selves to the violence of such who shall unjustly endeavour to oppose us . and we doe desire all persons of our comity , well affected to the said petition , not to be discouraged from the just prosecution thereof , upon any threats or orders : whatsoever . our intention being ( if it shall please god 〈◊〉 dispose us ) to sacrifice our 〈◊〉 and fortunes in the prosecution of these our just rights and desires . we have not a desire to deceive any 〈◊〉 , nor have we 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 , with pretending the deputy of our paetition . nor doe we desire any to joyne with us , but those whose reason and conscience dictate to themselves the sence of our petition . now the committees began to bestirre themselves on the other party with more resolution , because they saw threats would no whit prevail to their advantage ; and sent out their warrants for all the trained troops and companies to meet at rendezvouze at severall places of the county . but this neither would availe , or any whit answer their expectations ; for , not any shewed in answer to their warrant , but rather absented themselves from their homes , except captain foach , and some of his troop ; who , with about twenty of his men , met together , and marched away to maidstone there to attend the committee , who thought it by this , time to consider of their own security . sir t. t. sent out his warrants likewise for his troop to meet him at barham down , where appeared some ten , but not one officer , nor any colours , for his officers were all engaged for prosecution of the petition . there he waited almost all the day in constant hopes and expectation of their comming up ; but towards night , no more appearing , he dispatcht his man away to canterbury , to see if any were met together there , and to invite them ( for now he durst not command ) but his worships man no sooner entered the gates of the city , but he was surprized by a guard there , and dismounted , and so forc'd to return back to his master on foot . in the interim sir t. staying on the downes with his few men he had , by chance was resolved to drink ; and calling for some beer , one of his men began the kings health to him , which rellished not well with his pallate , having long time been a trusty wight for the parliament ; and as he said , not being accustomed to drink healths , it would impaire his own health very much ; but indeed was something jealous they did that but as an occasion to advance some other inconveniency to him : whereupon he stole away from them , and clapping his heeles to his mule ( for spurs he seldome wore any ) away he drove as furiously as jehu , never making the least stop till he thought he was clear of the danger of the cannon jug ; and like a hare , regarding nothing before him ; overtaking by chance another of the deputy lieutenants more suttlely plodding along , and ruminating upon the businesse ; he had certainly over-run him had his beast been big enough to have performed it without taking any notice of him ; so extraordinary was his hast , as i was informed by the same deputy lieutenant himself . now , as it was high time , the gentlemen engaged in the petition began to consider farther of their interest ; and being so farre engaged , how to make what they had done good , and which way with most security to goe forwards ; for retreat they could not now , and not to perfect what they had initiated , was not only to undoe it , but themselves also without dispute ; wherefore they neglected not to meet every day . and considering withall , the imminent danger of that perpetuall slavery , not only they , but the whole kingdome were fallen into ; and the extremitie of violence the grand taxments of the kingdome did threaten to crush them with , for but petitioning ( with the children of israell under the slavish tyranny of pharaoh ) for ease of their burdens ; resolved like men of kent to maintain , if it were possible , their ancient honour and liberties , or to perish in the attempt , which indeed they knew must prove a hard difficulty , having such an infection within themselves all over the whole body of the county ; insomuch that they knew not any sound part in it , but that every one might be likely enough to cherrish and breed up vermin to destroy it . but yet , notwithstanding their losty menacings , and bug-bear threats , to proceed in their engagement . whereupon a manifesto was drawne up by them , and signed as an absolute and unanimous engagement amongst themselves , and afterwards disperst to the view of the whole world , that all might know the candid reality of their resolutions , in these words : that the innocency of our intentions , and justice of all our undertakings may clearly appear to all men of uncorrupt understandings , and hearts not made too servile by the long , and odious custome of oppression . we the knights , gentlemen , clergy , and franchlins of the county of kent , the most free people of this late flourishing nation , by the wisdome and valour of our ancestours delivered from the lawes of the conquerour , and to the late dayes of unhappy confusion and distraction enjoying the same , through all the raignes of the most glorious , and victorious kings and princes of this nation : doe hereby declare , and manifest to all the world , that our meetings , and assembling together , is no other then a vindication of our selves , and purposes from the scandall and aspersions of the committee of this county ; who , upon occasion of a petition , in behalf of the county of kent , assented , and subscribed to , by the grand jury at the sessions of the judges , upon speciall commission of oyer and terminer , executed at the castle of canterbury the . of may instant for the said county ; have not only made orders against the same , and commanded them publickly to be read in all churches , sentencing and condemning the said petition , and all the abettors thereof ; but have summoned the troopes of horse , and forces of foot of this county for suppression of the said petition . which tends not only to the suppression of the liberty even of the most enslaved persons in the world , but also , as much as in them lies , shew an indeavour upon any causes whatsoever , which suit not with their humours , to over-owe the sentences of other men ; and , upon opposition therein , think they have ground enough to take away the lives or fortunes , or both , of their said opposers . in consideration whereof , and that now the said committee finding themselves unable to involve this county in bloud , have made their addresses to the parliament and army ; and make strange , and malicious representations of our purposes , thereby discovering nothing so much as their owne pride and malice . we the said knights , gentlemen , clergy , and free yeomen of the said county of kent , doe hereby appeal to all the world to judge , if it were not high time for us to put our selves into a posture of defence : and doe further declare , that we will prosecute our said petition , with our lives and fortunes , not doubting of a faire reception from the two houses of parliament , whom we know to have been instigated against us by the said committee . and therefore , saving to our selves , the enlarging of the said petition : we have resolved to charge the said committee with increasing the taxes of this county above due proportion , and onely for maintaining their owne private luxury and pride ; with usurping a power over the estates and fortunes of the free men of this county , not granted to them by any power of parliament ; and with a tyrannicall , unlimitted , and imbittered spirit naturally engrafted in them , and expressed by words and actions all along the exercise of this power ( which makes them unfit to rule ) to the exasperating of the peoples hearts into all animosity , and overthrowing of all love and peace in this county : which also hath been followed to that height of persecution , that had not the two houses given a stop to their 〈◊〉 proceedings , we had suffered much more under the torment of these mens projected designes . wherein we doe acknowledge our selves also to have been secured in the temper and moderation of the houses . we have no more to say or doe , but to defend our selves till we can have a right understanding of our purposes and actions before the houses . in the mean time we shall look upon all opposition as the provocation of a conscious and endangered committee ; and in respect of the invasion lately made upon the persons of our neighbours , we think fit not to lie at the mercy of the souldiers , but to have refuge to our armes , from which no threats , or face of souldiery shall drive us , knowing well the justice of our cause , and the temper of our own hearts . thus resolv'd they proceeded in their desigue , seizing all the armes and ammunition at scots hall , ashford , feversham , and diverse other places , whilst sir michael lusey , and some others of the deputy lieutenants ceased not to act , to the utmost of their power , for the suppressing of them ; but esquire hales ( being a man well beloved , and that indeed for his true desert , and worth ) in short time had raised a great party in that part of the county ; and falling to work with those bold opposers , soon laid their power flat , and their honour in the dust , till at last they were forc'd to shift for a better security than their armes , and took sanctuary in sir peter ricots house at ailsford ; but the foxes lay not long there ere his terriers were so neer forcing them forth , that they were glad to make conditions for law to run away from them ; which being granted , they delivered up the house , a great magazine of armes and ammunition , which proved very serviceable to the victors . in the interim other parties being encreased , and modell'd into order , still moved up and down , and received all that wished well , and had signed and engaged in the petition , who were so unanimous , that within two dayes space there were strong parties gotten together about wy , ashford , sittingborne , rochester , gravesend , and diverse other places ; insomuch , that the whole committee were glad to make triall of the old proverb , one paire of legs is worth two pair of hands , so they posted away to london to tell a lamentable story to the parliament . captaine lee , and another of the house being sent downe by order of the house , came to rochester to parley with those that were met there ; where , upon debate of the businesse , they used the greatest policy they could to perswade them to accept of an act of indempnity from the house , and to lay down their designe ; but these gentlemen were immediately confin'd , and were forc't to treat for their owne indempnity and liberty at last ; for well the engagers knew what the indempnity of the house would be , if once they laid their swords out of their hands , and were submitted to the malice of theirs . tuesday , may . a great number of knights and gentlemen were again met at canterbury , intending one and the same interest , and as active as cordiall in the reall advancing the generall businesse , not minding any other interest then the publique welfare ; concluding with a magnanimous courage , to march with the petition in one hand , and a sword in the other : not , though ( as some have malicioufly ( not conscientiously ) given a false interpretation to ) to force the higher powers to what they should fancy , or desire , ( which indeed they might have done , ( according to so grand examples in that kinde , as have been shewed by those too they were to deal with ) the law now being swallowed up into the unlimited arbitration of the power of a , though bloud-drunk , yet bloud-thirsty sword ) but that they might make their way through all obstructions , and have liberty ; maugre all apposition to present their agrievances ( according to the ancient custome of this kingdome ) to the houses of parliament , a thing never opposed , nor accounted riotous till this parliament by their all-powerfull arbitration voted it so . which being a generall resolve through the county , all men betook themselves cheerfully to their armes ; the inferiour sort , and comminalty , submitting themselves to the commands of the superiours ; who , as commissioners , acted what by a generall councell was thought most convenient for the security of so great an engagement as that was now brought to . and that there might be a clear , and candid satisfaction given as well to their friends as enemies throughout the kingdome for their thus arming themselves , caused this ensuing remonstrance to be published . ( having also understood before of the bloudy answer their neighbours of surrey had to their peaceable and legall petition ; for which unhumane massacre the butchering mirmidons ( being fetcht for the same purpose by some of both houses ) had the thanks of the house . ) being reduced to this choice , whether to deliver up our lives and liberties together , or die free : we are resolved to act the last scene of this tragedy with our swords in our hands , which we shall sooner turn upon our own hearts , than upon the publique peace . by what necessities exasperated to this resolve let the world determine , and understand , that a petition to religion and honour ( if the parliament may be judge ) is by some persons neither warranted by any authority from the two houses , nor pretending to it , upon their owne score have audaciously affronted : the petitioners menaced , and persecuted into this extremity , by spirits so implacably distempered , that sir anthony welding vowed he would not crosse the street of rochester to save one soul that subscribed to the petition . and it was a proposition of beales , to hang two of the petitioners of every parish . if this be not enough to admonish others , let it suffice that it awakens us into a just sense and scorne of these indignities . we have lost all with patience ; and if at last it be accounted a crime to beg , we shall prefer to perish . therefore we doe solemnly , and religiously , oblige our selves , with our lives and fortunes , to oppose effectually , what person or persons soever shall presume to interrupt us in the just and legall presentation of our humble desires to the two houses of parliament ; and to the utmost of our endeavours to save harmlesse , and protect each the other in a priviledge so undoubtedly our own ; and so not only adjudged , but practiced and encouraged by this present parliament . and further , in case any single person shall be for this engagement prosecuted , all of us to rise as one man to the rescue ; this so help us god , as we shall respectively perform , and resolutely . thus gallantly resolved was the greatest part of the gentry in the county , which animosity encouraged also the comminalty into as great bravery , and resolute boldnesse . and indeed it was high time , as the state of all the kingdome then stood , in so dismall a cloud of dull and sordid slavery : the tyrants swords having so long time drunk the bloud of the loyal-hearted gentry of the kingdome , that now they were insensible how they went on , or upon whom they exercised their cruelty . this tuesday , about noone , the knights and gentlemen that were intrusted as commissioners ( for that part of the county ) at canterbury , gave commission to colonell robert hammon for the beating up his drums to raise a regiment of foot , and colonell hatton for listing , and raising a regiment of horse . their commissions ran thus : for the more safe and speedy expedition in preferring the generall petition of this county , we the gentry now interested and trusted therein , do nominate and appoint you r.h. colonell of one regiment of foot , &c. having the day before seiz'd on the magazine of that part of the county then in that city , being very great both of armes and ammunition of all sorts ; colonell hammon immediately beating up his drums , he had in a short time listed a considerable number of men , more , i think , than ever were listed by one man in so short a time . then both colonell hatton and he had orders given to rendezvouz the next day at barham-downe , where all the trayned souldiers of that part of the county were appointed ( by warrant from the commissioners ) to meet : but this day proved extraordinary wet , which hindred the appearance very much . however colonell hammon came with about . foot well accoutred and armed ; and colonell hatton with about threescore horse : a good collection for so short a time as one half day to 〈◊〉 them in : but there came not in above 〈◊〉 trayned men by reason of the illnesse of the weather . here met also most of the knights , and deputy lieutenants then in that part of the county , for now many of the deputy lieutenants had joyn'd with the petitioners , although , i suppose , out of a politick consideration , not a cordiall 〈◊〉 , as indeed did afterwards appear . there ( after some consultations ) they 〈◊〉 many businesses for the advancement of the engagement , using their utmost endeavours for the raising not onely of men , but money also , for the supporting , and encouraging those who were not able to goe through it themselves , being off from all their callings and imployment . engaging for the constant paying both of souldiers and officers whilst they should continue in the countries services : for the better advancement whereof , every gentleman , according to his ability , subscribed to the loan of moneys , some a hundred pounds , some eighty , some fifty , some forty , some more , some lesse ; and sent abroad their warrants into all parts of the country for the summoning all such men as had , and would engage in that service for the advancing the generall safety of the county , and liberty of the kingdome . towards night the rendezvouze breaking up , colonell hammon , and colonell hatton marched off to quarter towards dover . then sir richard hardres , sir anthony aucher , and master ant. hammond , justices of the peace , and men as hearty , as reall , and as indulgently industrious in the propagation of the engagement as men could be . and mr. thomas 〈◊〉 with about seven score trained men , being then by reason of the wetnesse of the weather on horseback as dragoones , marched towards sandwich , having dispatcht a messenger with a letter to the mayor of the town before to advertise him of their comming , and intentions . where , when they came , they found the ports all shut , and guarded round about the town ; then master mat. carter , by appointment of the rest of the gentlemen marching in the head of the men , gave a summons to them ; but they at first refused to open the gates , till after some parley with them an officer asked him if sir rich. hardres were there or not , who was one of the deputy lieutenants for the parliament : who comming to them , and demanding entrance , the recorder of the towne came out , and told him that the mayors orders were , that if he came the gates should be opened , but not else . so immediately they were , and marching quietly in , they drew up in the market place , and first changed all the guards about the town before they engaged in any other businesse , it being then almost night . then the commissioners being together , they sent for the mayor of the town , and demanding his subscription to the petition , gave him orders immediately for the raising of moneys for the forwarding the businesse ; but he proved very slow in that service , pretending that the town was very poor , and could by no means raise any : the excise officers were also called in , but their stores proved very poor also ; insomuch much that there remained little hopes of any good to proceed from that place . in the evening came in a gentleman that had been formerly a divine , and a chaplaine at sea , and a major in the service of the parliament , ( as it seemed by his deportment ) very penitent for that he had engaged himself in so unjust a cause , and horrid employment ; and proffered the best , and utmost of his service to the furthering the petition , and the engagement of the country if he might be employed in any thing that might give him opportunity . whereupon , they knowing him to have been at sea , and well acquainted with the navie , being both chaplain there to the earl of warwick , and minister of deal , thought it could not prove amisse to employ him , having signed to the petition before ; and so had letters drawn up for him that night , to every ship one , and in every letter a copy of the petition , making this absolute result , that some happy successe might follow ; however , if it did no good , yet it could no way endamage them ; which indeed proved a most happy , and fortunate designe as all the kingdome are witnesses of . the next morning being thursday , the mayor and aldermen were againe called upon to know what moneys they had raised , or would advance to that service , being solely for the re-enthronement of the king ( as they told them ) and the speedy redemption of the most turkishly enslaved subjects of england to their true , ancient , and native liberty : but they were then found as tardy as before , dull , and unwilling to endeavour , pleading the great necessity , and inability of the towne , as nothing touch'd with any consideration of loyalty or conscience to their imprisoned king , or the bleeding 〈◊〉 of their enslaved country . whereupon the commissioners thought it neither 〈◊〉 , nor fitting , to intrust them with a military power ; but took away the comissions from the mayor ( who was captaine of a trayned company in the town ) and the other trained captains , and disposed of the companies to other gentlemen in the town , such as for their honesty and loyalty were thought worthy the trust ; cutting to pieces that commission of the captaine of the auxiliary company , then seized on the magazine of the towne ; and having loaded a waggon with powder , match and ball , for the present occasion made ready for a march towards dover . but ere they march'd , the souldiers being againe drawn up to their colours in the market place , the commissioners went together to give a visite to a stripling imposture that lodged ( by order of the mayor , and his wise brethren ) at captain forstalls house , one of the jurates , who pretended himself to be the prince of wales , and that he was forc'd to fly out of france , because the queen , his mother , had endeavoured to poyson him : which notable phancy he had seriously insinuated into the generall opinions both of towne and country , by his often asseverating it with impudent oathes , and damnable imprecations : insomuch that many gentlemen and women came dayly to kisse his hand ; and many presents he had made him , rich cloathes , and accommodation in every kind provided him by the mayor and jurats of the town , who were so serious in it , that sir thomas dishingto a scotish man , being upon a message from the queen , and prince , into england ; and at dover , in his journey back againe , hearing the report so generally in the country of the princes being at sandwich was much startled at it ; and to satisfie himself went to sandwich to be informed , where he found him indeed a welch prince , but not the prince of wales : and comming to him , after some discourse , as asking him who was his gentlemen usher , who his pages , and other servants ? where the queen was when he left her , and the like questions ? he not being well provided with answers to either ; and those questions so unexpectedly proposed to him , could give him no account at all ( which was enough to satisfie any reasonable opinions that he was an impostor ) whereat sir tho. being much incenst , call'd him villaine , and counterfeit rogue ; the new-coyn'd prince immediately shewes his power , and commands the mayor to clap sir tho. up in prison for his treason ; the mayor presently obeyes his command , and sir tho. instead of going back to dover , is carryed to prison , where he lay about two dayes ere he could be set at liberty . master carter was also the sunday after sir tho. was confined to see him too , to satisfie not only himselfe , but some deputy lieutenants in the county whether it were he or not , ( comming in so strange a manner as on foot , and in an old black ragged sute , without any companions but lice ) being acquainted with some of the jurates , who knew that he could satisfie them well too , but would not be convinc'd of their foolish confidence , although he not only assured them ( amongst the rest , captaine forstall , at whose house he lay ) that he was an impostor , but affronted him upon the beach , before the mayor and jurates , who , with a guard of musquetteers were walking there with him . so highly did this young prince of sandwich bear up his businesse in as high a raunt as can possibly be imagined above a week ; trumpets sounding his meat to the table most commonly , and , as some say , most nights drunk ere he was acquainted with his bed. but the commissioners having had this account , and understanding of him , intended to carry him away with them ; believing he was sent ( by some who have too long enjoyed a power of marring princes , though not of making any ) upon some designe on the county ; and finding the hearts of the people much inclined to him ( as believing what he had said to be true ) spake nothing at all of him over night , nor of their resolutions , but just as they were ready to march , as to give him a civill visit , went to see him , having an empty coach of sir richard hardreses , in which they intended to invite him to march with them , as to free him from that restraint he had , by a declaration which he had published , pretended to be in , lest by violently taking him away they might cause a mutinous hubbub in the town and country : but this would not take , for when they came to the house , this precious prince , and his confederates , surmising their intentions , as guilty of their reall knaveries , refused to let them in ; captaine forstall shutting his doores , told them , the prince had commanded him to keep them out , and he durst not disobey him . this they took as a high indignity and affront ; and upon their desires master carter immediately drew up sixty musquetteers before the house to force an entrance , the rest of the party loading their musquets , and lighting their matches , stood all to their armes , expecting some suddaine service ; for now the whole town grew into a mutiny , and distraction , so that the commissioners were forc'd to prepare themselves for to fight too , for they did expect it every minute , and commanded all houses , and shops , to be shut up . mean time this young impostor raunting in his new invested authority , waves his hat , and plume , out at the window , calling out , raise the towne , raise the towne : seamen , stand to me seamen : throwing out handfulls of money into the streets among the people , which began to swarme up and down in throngs and tumults ; women weeping for the violence they feared would be done to their prince , and men swearing they would all die rather than suffer the prince to be injured any way , or violently taken away : almost every one either certainly believing him to be really the prince of wales , or else undoubtedly confederates in the same designe , raised so high a tumult as would have ended in much mischief , had not the gentlemen bestirr'd themselves resolutely , and undauntedly , in the quelling them . but whilst they were thus forcing an entrance into the house , those confederates who were within , privately conveyed him through the back-side ; and some seamen waiting purposely at the water-side , transported him immediately over into the isle of thanet , where a party being sent after him , found him that night at master crispes house at supper , where he was entertained like him that he pretended himself to be : from whence he was conveyed to canterbury , master crispe being so courteous as to lend him his coach thither also , and from thence to newgate . this passage being over , he escaped for the time ; they took captaine forstall , and would have carryed him away prisoner for refusing to let them enter his house ; and by that meanes expressing his confederacy in the designe of that mock-prince , and so being the cause of the hubbub in the towne , which was so dangerous as might have caused much bloud . but pretended he did really believe him to be the prince , and he had commanded him to it , and he durst not disobey him : then the town clark engaging himselfe for his appearance when he should be called to answer for his default , he was left behind . then the gentlemen leaving some of those men they brought with them , and an officer with them in the town for the securing of it , and orders to the new captaines to call their companyes to their armes ; they marched away with the rest towards dover , where they found colonell hammons regiment encreased by that time to five hundred , and upwards ; and colonell hattons of horse to be about . according to their former orders drawing up to face the castle , with some trained companies of that part of the county ; and many people with cartes of scaling-ladders , spades , shovels , and pickaxes , according to the former dayes warrants . here they found the town in a joyfull posture to receive them with much alacrity , where captaine bethels fort resigned to them , and all the towne unanimously betook themselves to their armes ; trained men ( which were two companies ) and others to joyn with them in so hopefully-happy a designe , as by all appearance that must of necessity be . in the afternoon diverse summons were sent to the castle for surrender of it to the service of the king and country , but all denyed . sir h. a grand independent , and parliament man being then in it ( pretending no power at all there ( as by his letters indeed appeared ) yet bearing the only sway , & commanding all privately ) by whose command those in the castle had made incursions up . on the country a night or two before , and drove in many sheep for to victuall it ; resolving to make out his own interest , as it seemes , under the notion of the parliaments ; for it was without any commission from them , as if it were an axiome amongst them , every one to act his phansie for the propagating the generall calamity of the kingdome , no matter at what rate , so their interest were secured : so large an extent hath their arbitrary prerogative , and unlimitted illegall jurisdiction , as to abhor , as destructive , all conscience , or thought of affection to their countryes peace , which easily discovered it self by the answers he made to the letters and propositions which were sent into the castle to him from the commissioners : as if that burden of intollerable guilt of innocent bloud , and unparallel'd misery of this gasping nation had over-whelm'd his conscience with a cloud of dispaire of any other safety than the old roman rule , per 〈◊〉 semper , sceleribus tutum est iter ; knowing indeed himselfe to have been as zealous a promoter , and accessory to the generall calamity as any confederate in the grand juncto what ever ; to whom indeed the name of peace is as odious as the punishment they know themselves guilty of , and if given over to the hand of justice , and the law of the kingdome , they must unavoidably perish under . of which i doubt not , but though their resolutions be with cataline , yet their end will be as the thirty tyrants of athens , whose proceedings have not much deviated from theirs . now they sent not only summons to the castle , but also civill letters to sir hen : h. to invite him to a compliance , or at least to a cessation from his engagement , with all promises of their engageing for his security , and fafety , either for his staying in the county , or passing to london , or where he pleased ; but he was farre enough from hearkning any whit to their civill treaty , and by his meanes and one lieutenant swans , ( who had before betrayed the princes commission ( after he had engaged his faith for the acting according to it , ) and indeavoured the taking away the lives of some gentlemen that himselfe treated with about it ) those in the castle withheld from any rendition though often summoned , and the greatest part as often willing to deliver . this night major keme that went to the fleet returned , assuring that those letters he carryed to the commissioners , were not onely received with extraordinary cheerfulnesse , but answered with as industriously reall action , relating , that the mariners had no sooner read them , but immediately declared , one , and all , for the king , the liberty of the kingdome , and the engagement of the gentlemen of kent . boldly disputing the businesse upon the deck ( though they knew not generally one anothers mindes ) with their armes in their hands ; as if being surprised with so happy an opportunity were resolved to try what party they could make against opposition ; which they found indeed so weake as not to engage , much more dispute , then to give them occasion to seise on some officers and a few marriners in their particular vessels , who did but timorously seem to contradict their actions ; for oppose they durst not , so small was their party , they were able to make amongst them , as any else whose former knowledge made them undesirous , or unwilling to trust , who they secured immediately upon their businesse in the holds , and round-houses of the respective vessels . upon this , the shouts they made aboord were so loud , that they ecchoed a shrill alarum to the eares of colonell rainsborow , then vice admirall , who being a shore at deal castle , and hearing such acclamations made him haste from the leads of the castle ( where he stood all the while the commissioners and gentlemen were marching by , waving his sword over his head in a threatning defyance to them ) to goe aboord , that he might be the more certainly informed of the cause of this so generall shout , not being from one , but every ship then riding at anchor in the downs . but when he came neer , and would have boorded , the admirall , he was put off by the marriners , who told him he had nothing to doe with them , nor should he . he demanded their reason , and what the matter was , being so much amazed at so suddaine an alteration ? they answered him immediately , that they were now upon other designes then they knew he would lead them on , or joyne with them in , and had declared themselves for the king , and the gentlemen of kent . but did confesse he had been a loving , and courteous colonell to them ; and in that respect should have no injury offered unto him , nor should he suffer any the least damage in person or goods ; but what things he had aboord he should have safe away when he pleased . whereat , seeing them so serious , and resolute , demanded a pinnace to carry him up to london , for he was something timerous , and jealous how to trust himself a shore , although he had the command of deal castle within his commission . but a coxon stepping forth upon the deck , answered him : sir , we cannot spare you any the least vessell in the downes , they are engaged for better service ; but there is a dutch flyboate at shore , and for six pence you may have a passage in her to london . this much distracted him , and augmented an apprehension of danger in him ; for understanding that sandown castle had at the same time declared with the navy for the king and country : he did not know how to trust himself either at sea , or ashore . for he might justly fear the same in every castle for ought he understood of their resolutions , yet was forc'd to betake himself to that ultimum refugium ; in which manner , with his wife , children , sisters , and the rest of his family , which remained before in deale castle , he wafted it away to give an account of his honourable escape to his great masters at london : which alteration , with him , was as much beyond all mens expectation as his own . this welcome messenger having given this fortunate account of his , and the generall good successe : he was immediately dispatched away with letters of summons to the other two castles of deale and wamer ; having instructions also , and power to treat with them for rendition . which actions , at that time , although they carryed a martiall face with them , to the opinion of our enemies , yet took forme and life only from prudentiall , and cautious premonition , not military designes , for who could not but think it most unsafe to the country , especially that part of it ? and dangerous both to private and publick interest , to leave the strongest holds of those parts ? in the rear of them possessed by a violent and bloudy enemy to make encursions , and inrodes upon them , when they should please , the greatest strength of the county being to march away with the petition ; of which , those in dover castle , by command of sir h. h. had given us a taste , as a faire warning , some two or three nights before ; having sent out a party , and plundred the country , taking ( or rather robbing ) from one man at least a hundred sheep , and many more from others , that they had intelligence to have been interested in the petition . yet in all these actions of possessing the fleet and townes , was there so orderly a comportment , that not the least prejudice accrued thereby , either to the life , person , estates , or goods of any man. then were letters sent into france , and holland , with engagement of the gentry and merchants , for the bringing over ten thousand armes , and a great proportion of amunition of all sorts ; as letters also to the prince to give him an account of all proceedings and intents of the engagers ; altogether as honest , as resolute , and as yet ( by gods providence ) so prosperous , that fortunes gates seeme to be wide set open to their so honourable resolutions : being nothing intended , or inclinable to the raising of any offensive warre , but the purchasing ( though at the hazard of all our lives and fortunes ) of a happy and lasting peace ; and that not particular to our selves , but generall , to the sion of our church and common-wealth for which all men , i think , ought both to pray , and fight , if rightly , and loyally called to it . and now having thus far proceeded , and with so auspicious successe , they went on , and prosecuted their businesse with much expedition , alacrity , and courage : know that time admits not any delayes where danger always is knocking at the door ; and sloth and neglect in desperate and difficult enterprizes , are advancements onely to ruine and destruction ; but in extremities the winning of time is the purchase both of life , and honourable successe . wherefore the next morning they marched back from thence towards deal castle , leaving in dover , and before the castle , the trayned bands of the towne , and three other companies of that part of the country that were not yet compleatly come up . and m. arnold brumes , and one or two more justices of peace more , being commissioners for the country , to steer at the helme , lest for want of good pilots the businesse should suffer wrack ; who the next morning drew up the great pieces that were planted on the bench , and mounted them on the most advantagious ground on the hill neer the castle , which they did without any more losse than of one man , although the castle played both small and great shot very thick upon them ; and having boldly planted them ( where , i believe , never any cannon were ever known to be placed , it being a most extraordinary 〈◊〉 ) very neer the castle ; they played very hot upon it , and battered the walls very much , being old ; supposing , that seeing this violent prosecution , they would have yeelded it up , but all to no purpose , and storme it they could not . the commissioners , with the rest of the gentlemen , ( which were a handsome company ) marched on towards deal , carrying with them colonell hammons regiment , being by this time compleated to a thousand , well armed , and as perfectly resolv'd , with colours flying , of white answerable to the candid innocence of a peace-making egagement ; and col. hattons horse , with some dragooners : the gentlemen being about forty , were orderly drawn up into a troop , and marching thus all the way upon the downes , gave a very handsome appearance both to the country on the one side , and the ships then riding at anchor in the downes on the other , which gave encouragement to both , and a disheartning also to the castles , then upon treaty for rendition . then the castles discovering so orderly a body of men advancing towards them , sent to the commissioners to desire that they would not advance any neerer to them till they had concluded their conditions , being on treaty about them , the articles being drawing up . whereupon a halt was made , and a rendezvouz , the party being drawn up , and planted an orderly front towards the castles . the knights and gentlemen then leaving them at the rendezvouz , rid away to deal towne ; where the first ( as indeed most requisite ) thing they did , was the taking care for sending provision to that small army they left in the field ; and afterwards went aboord the ships to take possession of them , and to place such officers as they thought fit to entrust with their command . where they were received with great acclamations and expressions of joy. there one might have read in every mans face a perfection of cheerfulnesse , as having been a long time like slaves gally-chain'd to a more than turkishly condemnation , and now happily set free into the glorious liberty of loyall obedience ; wherein they expressed themselves so highly devoted to the service of the king and country , as that they would not only be commanded by sea , but desired they might have first admittance to be listed ashore ; but that would not be granted them by the commissioners , for they should thereby have disfurnish'd the ships , and did not perceive they should have any need of them for land service ; for now they thought , that although they expected nothing lesse then an affront , and opposition ere they should have performed what they had undertaken concerning their petition ; yet they supposed the county would so unanimously joyne , as there should be little want of number , able to force through all obstruction whatsoever : foot comming in at that time also very fast from all parts , and this happy successe , and gallant deportment of the gentry being so high an incouragement to call them to their aid , gave new life and courage to the commonalty , and made them content to leave all rurall occasions to joyne in that so christian-like , and loyall designe . although there were yet too many that lay lurking in their dunghill dens suttlely , to joyne with any enemy that should endeavour to make a prey of them , and help forward ( upon any opportunity ) so desperate a ruine , as they cared not though it turned to a generall dissolution to the whole kingdome , and a most wretched and untimely fall to their too indulgent , gloriously virtuous , and unparallel'd patient soveraigne ; so their owne factious interest might recover to their wished ( but ignorantly proposed ) end . a nest of other cockatrices lay brooding also as idlely in the very heart of the county , nay , too many all over , whose dirty souls were so settled on the lees and puddle of worldly interest , as depressed them down to so ignoble and cold a disposition , that would not suffer them to look up to loyall obedience , nor permit their capacities to climb so high as a knowledge of that duty they owed to their king and country , though their owne interest was as much included as anies that was the most active , every man being alike concerned in a generall peace ; and , i think , according to his quality and condition ought to endeavour as industriously for its advancement , many of them , knowing as much too , yet so wretchedly worldly as to prefer the enjoyment of their estates , though like jewes , under the worst of bondage , than like christians to hazard ( the impairing them onely ) for the setled and assured enjoyment of them in the happiest liberty the golden age of a just and religious peace would give them in the future . there were some deputy lieutenants also came in , ( for their security more than their conscience sakes , which they slubber'd o're with a counterfeit disguise of dissimulation to purchase a better welcome ) whom i could name too , but shall forbear ; the comming in , and entring the lists , with these loyall engagers , after they had signed not onely to the petition , but warrants , and commissions too , made a faire retreat , and bidding adieu to the danger of proving loyall subjects , slipt their engaged coller , and stole away to london , and may chance deserve a halter for it hereafter , as well as the rest of the greatest opposers : but , i suppose , ere this , though not in respect of their fortunes , ( for which they may rejoyce ) yet in respect of the better wealth of their soules they may have undergone so much of repentance , as may purchase a pardon from heaven , which my charity makes me hope rather , than wish the contrary : and they are sensible enough they have a soveraigne to deal with , so farre inheritor of his fathers virtues as well as honours and prerogative , as by his excesse of mercy to mittigate the rigour of treason and law against them . but to return to our new sea-royalists , who now not onely thought , but express'd also the great happinesse of their chang'd condition ; saying cheerfully , many of them , they onely now lived , and had a long time , as it were , laine amazed 'twixt life and death , and desired rather to die in the service of their king , then to live againe in that of the parliament . all which the commissioners were much joyed to see , and encouraged them on in their gallant loyalty , giving amongst them in every ship , a summe of mony to drink , which they as gratefully received ; and at their putting off to shore , gave them from every vessell many great shot , answered with as many shouts , and acclamations . but many of the marriners were so eager in prosecuting this new engaged loyalty , that the greatest difficulty in the ordering them , proved in the keeping them aboord , being almost mutinous to come ashore to list themselves for land service , as believing they should not finde any opposition at sea ; or if , yet not time enough for them to expresse in their actions what they had already done in their words , and as absolutely resolved in their hearts , as it was the expression of many of them . which , to make up the more compleat , they afterwards , of themselves , sent away a messenger to the commissioners of the navy with this declaration following . the declaration of the navy , in a letter to the commissioners at london . worshipfull , these are to certifie you that we the commanders , and officers of the ship called the constant reformation , with the rest of the fleet , have secured the ships for the service of the king and parliament ; and we have refused to be under the command of colonell rainsborow , by reason we conceive him to be a man not well-affected to the king , parliament , and kingdome : and we doe hereby declare unto you , that we have unanimously joyned with the kentish gentlemen in their just petition to the parliament , to this purpose following , viz. first , that the kings majesty may be with all expedition admitted in safety , honour , and freedome to treat with his two houses of parliament secondly , that the army now under the command of the lord fairfax , their arreares being paid them , be forthwith disbanded . thirdly , that the knowne lawes of the kingdome may be re-established and continued , whereby we ought to be governed and judged . fourthly , that the priviledges of parliament , and the liberty of the subjects may be preserved . and to this end and purpose we have sent our loving friend captain penrose with a letter to the earl of warwick ; and we are resolved to take in no commander whatsoever , but such as shall resolve to live and die with us , in the behalf of the kingdome , and paliament , which is the positive result of us : and we humbly desire your speedy answer . officers of the constant reformation . thomas lisle licutenant . and : michell boatswain . james allen gunner . tho : best carpenter . officers of the swallow . leonard harris captaine . joh : london master . nic : lawrance licutenant . andrew jackson gunner . john short carpenter . signed also by the captain of the roe-buck , hynde , and severall other officers of these , and other ships . this day about night the articles for the castles of deale , and wamer were signed , and the one delivered before , the other after the commissioners marched away . their conditions upon surrender were to march away with their baggage , leaving their arms and ammunition behind them entirely , without any imbezelment or diminution . the rendevouze being broke up , they marched away and quartered in sandwich againe that night , leaving in deale anthony hamond , esq. and cap. bargrave , who had been formerly an officer of the navie ; ( both justices of peace , and gallant discreet men , ( not according to those of this wise reformation ) as commissioners for the managing of the businesse there , and in the fleet ; having sent away for sir john mince , capt. fogg and some others , officers that had formerly been employed at sea by the king , and for their loyalties displaced by the parliament , who were also earnestly desired by the officers and marriners aboarde . when they came to sandwich having beene so prosperous in all these undertakings , and done so much in so little time as indeed amazed the whole country . the mayor and his brethren began to comply , and received them with farre more cheerfulnesse then before they had done ; and that night made them a present of two hundred pounds to the advancement of the designe , who before were so needy they knew not how to subsist amongst themselves , much lesse to raise any summe of money for extraordinary service . the next morning they hasted their march from thence to canterbury , leaving also behind them two or three commissioners , and five trained companies , for the better securing that town , being a place very factious and apt to take the opportunity of the weaknesse of the country , to make a mutinous opposition in case of a retreate . that night being sunday night , they quartered in canterbury , not slipping any opportunity or minute of time , without an improvement of it to the best advantage , and acting something to the furtherance of that engagement ; the next day being the appointed limitation for their meeting at rochester . here there came in many gentlemen and others to joyn with them that were not at all engaged before , unlesse against us ; amongst the rest , sir john roberts , and one or two deputy lieutehants more who signed to the petition , and subscribed to the loane of money , although they had before engaged themselves with the rest of the committee against the petition ; but rather like physitians , that out of a private interest , are nimble to assist and pleasure others to profit themselves , than out of any cordiall affection to so just , and honest an enterprize . the dutchmen of the city ( which indeed are very numerous ) engaged themselves for the raising and paying of two companies ; here also colonell hammon compleated his regiment , many more men comming in to him , and others that he had raised in the city , and neere about fitted themselves for a farther march. in this city and suburbs were three trained compaines which were all drawn up to armes ; which , that they might secure the place ( with the two dutch companies then a raising ) they left behind some knights and gentlemen to manage the affaires in that part of the county were left there , lest some insurrection might happen by the obstructers of the designe , who swarmed about that place ; and by surprizing it , not onely doe much mischief in the rear of the body , but in case so much misfortune should befall them , as to force them to a retreat , ( which caution is no whit too soon remembred in the strongest , or more prosperous armies at any time ) and which indeed most unfortunately fell out to them at the last . in this time the noble peer , the earl of tha. acted his most heroick gallantry about ashford , hotfield , and charing , being indeed the first that rose , and drew that part of the country to a resolution of betaking themselves to their armes , by sending his letters to all gentlemen he knew had any power , and secured above a thousand men in that part to rise in a short time ; and at the first of any rising at all in the county , giving an account of it also to squire hales , encouraging him thereto , who farre more gallantly proceeded than ever he began . so now , when he had made a fair and hopefull beginning , and had assured very large assistance from his purse , makes a slovenly exit from this scene of honour , and obscures himselfe behinde the hanging of apostatisme . in so much that when he was sought for by his neighbouring gentlemen , whom he had incited by his forwardnesse , and invited by perswasions , the noble earle was fled , ( not for religion , nor i thinke to any ) to take councell of his peere the earle of pembroke ; whom ( after some grave and wise consultation had ) he engaged so farre as to goe with him to derby-house , there to plead with the quintessence of his oratory for forgivenesse , promising if he might but scape a whipping , then never to doe so againe , which he did . where the gallant and doubty earle ( after a pause for recovery of breath ) made what discovery the whole action was lyable to , and his capacity could reach ; making also severall propositions to the committee , which he assured them was the only way to remove those distempers ; declaring , that he had heard such things from divers gentlemen in the engagement that gave assurance to his hopes . the committee thereupon began to be a little enclinable unto his discourse , and gave as much credit to it , having his friend , and couzen p : to sweare for him ; and thereupon resolved upon some instuctions to be given him as concerning indemnity upon a disbanding , and submission again to the yoak , and the like : which being rereported to the house , were resolved on ; and he on the thursday morning dispatcht away with them . who immediately posts home , and with his greatest power endeavours the disbanding of the commonalty ; beginning first with the discouraging the gentry , who being once down , the other must necessarily fall ; and indeed proceeded so farre in it , that caused diverse gentlemen , as well as commoners , to desert the businesse ; but the generality being constant , and their consciences linck'd to the service , by the golden chain of religion , and loyalty , were not to be disheartned ; insomuch , that i think , those stratagems , as the other endeavoured for suppression , gave a more couragious life to their actions , and converted that pestiferous obstruction to a cordiall advancement . the gentlemen and commoners being not onely sensible of this his basenesse , but also insens'd at it , gave the noble earl this satisfaction to that designe of his ( or rather treachery ) as it were a pill for to purge his apostatisme ( better physick i confesse might have been administred , and more proper ) remitted him up to the committee with this letter . to the right honourable the committee of lords and commons at darby house . my lo : we have seene the instructions from your lordships , to the right hourable the earl of thanet , upon consideration whereof we have thought fit to return this answer to your lordships . that we have cause to believe there are many persons about your lordships , who endeavour to infuse into you very sinister opinions of our proceedings , in relation to the safety of this county at this time : who when we shall be admitted to a fair and equall hearing , will appear to be the greatest disturbers thereof themselves : and that our intentions are free from all other ends than naturall defence , we humbly beseech your lordships to understand , that we are in firme resolution to observe the declaration of the houses ; and for the manner of presenting our petitions and complaints will follow the directions in the said declaration . but saving to our selves alwayes the liberty of preserving the most ancient and inviolate freedomes of this county ; we must desire your lordships to put a faire interpretation upon our purposes of continuing within the safeguard of our armes , till we have assurance from your lordships that the clamours of those above against us , have had no successe in their enraged designes of engaging against this county in bloud and ruine when they finde never so small a diminution of their arbitrary power , so long exercised over us , endeavoured to be taken from them ; not doubting but upon the presentation and faire reception of our petition , and just complaints , the houses will give such seasonable relief therein , as will abundantly discover the inclination of this county to peace and amity . my lords , this is the account we can give you of this county by the hands of the noble lord , the earl of thanet , whom also we have desired to informe your lordships further : that our present posture tends not to offer violence to the parliament ; nor suffer acts willingly unbeseeming our faire intentions ; but doe , and shall take strict care to represse wheresoever ever we finde it , the incensed spirit we see in the people : which , how it hath been raised , we shall in due time be able to make appear . and so we rest my lords , your lordships most humble servants . tho : peyton . john darell . tho : palmer . james hales . tho : hardres . tho : godfrey . geo : newman . ja : newman . tho : courtop . edw : whitton . will : hugesson . rich : lee jun. james darell . r : wilkinson . edw : roberts . phillip ward mayor of rochester thus did this jewish apostat lord fall short of his intended treachery to his lord and master the king , and disloyally to his country : and his supposed glorious designe extinguish'd in a stink , so great , i fear , as will remain fresh in the nostrils of fame , and render him odious to his country to all posterity ; how he savoured in the apprehensions of the committee i know not . yet he hath obtained thus much reward , he hath gotten a fame by it , which he may if he please boast of ; that in it he shall live after death ; but it is no better then that of erostratus , who wilfully set fire to the temple , that he might get to himselfe a fame when he was dead . which will be as due a recompence as so unhandsome and unnaturall apostatisme can deserve . but now on the contrary our resolute engagers resolving to regard no obstructions what ever , any further then to kick it out of the way ; and the time drawing neer to the limitation of the postscript , those from canterbury hasted their march on the munday morning towards rochester both horse and foot : but the march was too tedious , and the men not able to perform it , that day being the time of meeting , and to march away again the next morning towards black-heath ; wherefore the foot marched no farther then sittingborne , where they quartered that night , intending to march on the next morning . but the commissioners and the rest of the gentlemen , with col. hattons horse marched on that night to rochester , ordering their march to a very military conformity . at rochester they met with the gentry of the county from all quarters , in a very great number , as at a generall rendevouze : but the maine body of those men they had drawn together , ( or rather who had drawn themselves together ) for they came in with a voluntary cheerfulnesse , and as cheerfull a resolution ) lay in , and about daertford , as being an advance twenty miles forwards of their next dayes march to the appointed rendevouze . that night came one or two gentlemen out of essex , to treat with the commissioners at rochester ( being then generally met from all parts of the county ) about the association of both counties in that generall engagement , assuring that the whole county of essex would unanimously rise to joyne with them , and desired a meeting of a resected party of the kentish gentlemen , to joyne in a parley some where over the water , with some that should be selected in essex for that purpose , but we being then so neer the period of that time , wherein by our generall engagement we had bound the whole country to meet , and to march towards london , could not joyne in any such thing ; but took the promise of those gentlemen as an assurance , that the county of essex would unanimonsly concurre to rise at the same time to joyne with us in the maine interest ; others came also from surrey to treat on the same termes , promising as great a readinesse of that county to joyne in that association which was received with a great deale of alacrity . but about midnight the same night ( they being to march onwards the next morning ) came down a post with an order from the house of commons to rochester , to the commissioners joyned in that engagement to this purpose ; that , whereas they did understand that the people of kent were comming up to westminster in a tumultuous , and pretended petitionary way , they knew not the intentions of it , and had therefore referred them to treat with the generall the lord fairfax , and the committee of derby-house . this rigorous order of prevention being received and read , in the morning the generall councell being met , the businesse was scand and discust ; for now this graine of paper had quite turned the ballance , and absolutely altered the constitution of the generall interest ; for they could not but believe that the army would advance entirely against them , knowing well enough ( considering the posture the country was in ) what it would be to treat with a conquering and potent adversary , in that inexperienced condition , i meane of a new rais'd and unmodelled body of raw men . whereupon by a generall result , orders were immediately dispatched away to dartford ; and the other places adjacent , where the maine body then quartered and lay upon guard , to march then back to rochester ; having also intelligence within a very short time that the lord fairfax with his maine body was advanceing towards us already : but however upon their retreate left a guard at a place called stone bridge neer gravesend to secure that passe , but they could not long hold it , the enemy ( for so we might easily guesse them to be by this time , by the ceizing all gentlemen and others they met ) comming up so close , although , to say truth , a better order might have been observed in it ; and indeed would , had the party been a formidable body . when they came back to rochester , master mat : carter having received commission of quarter-master generall of all the forces then raised , or to be raised in that county , from the commissioners and gentlemen engaged , received orders from the councell for the quartering them there , whereupon he first caused them to be drawn up by distinct regiments in severall fields ; whereby he was able to take an exact account of the strength of every . regiment , so to know how to dispose of them , and ascertaine the councell of the full number in grosse ; which then he mustred in rank and file compleatly arm'd , seven thousand of the infantry , and as well accoutred , being most of them very sufficient men of ability , and not wanting of as honourable resolutions . the horse not being drawn together , but abroad , the most of them upon severall parties , could not be so well taken notice of . at which time also there were at severall places of the country about three thousand more which never came up to this party , as at canterbury , maidstone , sittingborne , sandwich and dover . this gallant body by his care were equally divided into quarters in rochester , strood , and chatham the horse in villages neer adjacent . and the engagers now began to cling more closely , and taking time by the fore-locke , thought it not good to let slip any minute , lest their hopes and security might be lost with it ; and began more seriously to consider what might most probably advance their safety and honour , knowing that what they were now to trust too was difficult severity of fortune , the army being like enough to fall in suddainly upon them . amongst many considerations , at last they easily concluded , that the next businesse that must be endeavoured , must be to mould that party into a formidable army , and to appoint one particular man to command in chief . for now they were forc'd to stand upon their own guard , to maintain that with the sword which was intended onely in a just and peaceable way , according to the ancient customes of this kingdome . but this is a new liberty of the subject , none of the old i am sure : a sad world when men shall fall deeper into the pit of destruction , by the endeavours of those they supplicate for aid to bring them out ; and who , by naturall , as well as legall alliance , and interest , are bound to assist , and by themselves placed for it . if this be to reforme , heavens blesse all good christians , and loyall subjects from reformation . having now thus resolved , they appointed a rendezvouz the next day at barham downe , some three miles distant from thence towards maidstone : where the lord norwich was proclaimed generall in the head of the army , ( for now being drawn together , they deserved that title ) so gallant a body they were of infantry , who received him with as much cheerfulnesse ; expressing an unparallel'd willingnesse to serve their king , and as much joy that they were so engaged to it , knowing that their service was not onely for him , but the whole kingdomes peace , the recovering of their countries liberty , and the churches tranquility . as it hath been a generall , and as true an observation in all ages and common-wealths , that those that engage in other mens quarrels are more remisse , and unspirited , as knowing that they shall partake in the danger , but not in the victory , since another would receive the greatest and fairest fruit thereof , and arrogate the honour likewise to themselves : whereas they also that take armes for their country , may conceive better hopes that god will prosper them , for that they seek not to take from others , but to keep their own ; and that they fight not for other mens phancies , but their owne defence , whereby the whole benefit of victory will redound to themselves . this rendezvouz being broke up , the army marched again into quarters , though not the same as before , neither by the quarter-master generals laying out ; much , i confesse , contrary to the lord generalls sense or intentions , whose advice it was that it would have been most convenient to lodg them close together , or in the field , it being very faire weather at that time . although i have been informed there are some , who have broach'd a most damnable aspersion on the earl of norwich ; throwing this dirty and odious calumny in the face of his innocent and unspotted fame : that he was the man who betrayed that service to its succeeding destruction ; and that he made it his designe to take that command upon him , that he might the more easily effect that designe , being himself no souldier . and so impudently , or else ignorantly , they proceeded in this ignoble derogation , as to raise a confirmation of it from this conclusion : that had it not been so , he had as well paid the losse of life for his loyall service , as the lord capell , and the earl of holland , &c. first , that his owne designe steered him to that interest , is so palpably false , that it was as absolute an accident as could be , that brought him to rochester , ( as at the first of his comming , and at his being in colchester i have heard him relate my selfe ) being in his journey to sussex , and taking that road to scape the army , who then lay very thick in the other , and who knows not how dangerous it is to travaile amongst them . where when he came , and the commissioners ( just then upon the dispute , whom to invest with that command ) hearing of his arivall , immediatly selected peculiar gentlemen to make a civill addresse unto him , with the tender of that command , and their serious obedience and service with it , as being a peer of the realm , and a man of so known a worth , and a mind so deep and able , as to capacitate him for any great command . whereby he might easily end that strife which so sodainly might have been blown up to a destructive flame , being already kindled by those more then sparks of emulation , in the breast of some gentlemen then interested ; having before with much earnestnesse solicited the duke of richmond , to that no whit dishonourable ( though it might be feared unbeneficiall ) engagement . but his feares turning prophets , dictated to his soul more powerfull arguments for easie denyalls . to which the earle of norwich returned this most courteous answer , ( with as modest an excuse from undertaking so high a concernment in a country where he had so little engagement ) that he was confident the duke would yet engage with his country , being so generally , unanimously , and courageously met , and upon so just , unquestionable , and candid a designe , and that he believed he would undertake the command . for the further advancing whereof , proffered himselfe a solicitor for them to the duke ; which favour they accepted gratefully , and he as willingly performed . and going to cobham to him with his best rethorick , and powerfull perswasions , invited , and courted him to it ; but all to no effect . whereupon the commissioners at his returne still intreating him , and as it were pleading a necessity of it to him , he at the last accepted of it , to the great content , and satisfaction of all the gentry , and commonality too , then met together . but ( as i have heard him declare since ) onely that the army might be modelled , whereby it might be a greater invitation to the duke ; not that he intended afterwards to dissert the service , but continue it , only with an acknowledgment of superiority in the duke , for the better encouragement of the army ; who must of necessity receive so much the more of a vigorous courage , by how much the more nobility , and generous honour , is engaged in their conduct . yet all perswasions proved alike in effect ; by which meanes he became totally engaged . which i thinke ( though he were no soldier ) was then as advantageous ( if heaven had designed it fortunate ) as could be then expected . for through the whole course of the succeeding service , upon any nicety , he did most prudently declare himself , and after his owne opinion layd downe , gave it a reference to a councell of warre , for a more mature and generall result : appearing in his constant actions more a soldier then some of no small name and undertaking , who have so boldly adventured to traduce his loyalty and honour . more confutations , i neither need , nor shall desire to give . now this night the army , ( by perswasion of some at the councell held in the field ( as being indeed more generous spirited gentlemen then experienced polititians , or soldiers ) was quartered at large in the country , the generall and commissioners returned back to rochester , where sir anthony aucher , and master hales left them ; not as some falsely surmise , and give out , because they heard of the enemies advancing ; nor through any discontent as others as idly report ; but upon this account , master hales being of a more noble and virtuous gallantry , then his yeares might speak him to be , living within fifteen miles of rochester , had upon his first engagement , ( as his expression to my hearing ) made a resolution not to see home till he had seene the army in a formidable posture ; according to which resolution he had not , but constantly continued with them till this night , and now having seen the army in such a modell as that daies redevouze and the appointment of a generall rendered it : took it for an absolute solution of his engagement , and resolved that night to goe home onely to accomodate himself the better with mony , and other necessaries for a longer march , and to return the next morning ; so took his leave of the generall , the commissioners , and the rest of the gentlemen , and rid to his house ; and sir anthony aucher , by his earnest entreaty , went along with him , but the misfortunes of the succeeding night obstructed their return . for in the night the lord fairfax , with his whole body , marching downe towards maidstone , and finding the river slightly guarded , about farley bridge beyond the town some two miles , easily got over ; and with a strong party fell upon the towne , ere those within it were almost alarumed ; in which town lay part of sir john maynies , and sir will : brockmans regiments enquartered , that never came to the rendezvouz , consisting of about eight hundred men . the enemy being possessed of that passe , marched over with their whole body , they in the towne not having any true intelligence all the day before of them , or their motion , and fell in upon their out-guards so violently , that within a very short space those in the town were forced to fight upon extraordinary disadvantages ; the enemy so farre exceeding them in number , and the army quartered at such a distance , they could never make a retreat , nor have any relief time enough to assist them . however , their courage was such , as made their enemies know they fought with men so well satisfied in the justice of their cause , as not to be daunted , or startled at the appearance , or apprehension of death , though in never so grim a shape ; but rather like true-borne heroes contemning all danger , and death it self , so they might but bury their misfortunes in the wounds of their surious opposing , and oppressing enemies ; who thinking them no other then a number of men hudled together in a tumultuous manner , because of their being so suddainly gotten together , the whole body being raised within ten dayes ; fell on them with so much violence , as if they had been lyons , and would have devoured them at an instant ; or like a boysterous whirlwind scattered them before them like dust : but much contrary to their expectations , instead of finding a prey , they met with those that were more likely to make a prey of them , whose bold resolutions soone daunted their fury . and these tumultuous disorderly fellowes , as they termed them , they found orderly enough to oppose them ; and although newly raised , yet of courages of the oldest souldiers , selling their lives and liberties at as dear a rate as ever men did ; few of them falling without first dispatching twice as many i am confident , ( and their survivers must confesse it ) to receive their reward of their grand lord and muster , who , i believe , hath ere this paid them their arreares in the other world for their good service in this . this service , ( though unexpected ) grew very smart , and hot , both parties contending which should expresse more valour ; the one defending their lives , disputing their fortification , which were but bare , and thin hedges , with as little thought of danger , or security , as if this had been in an impregnable fort. the foe behaving themselves as gallantly as if they did not think of such a thing as a possibility of being beaten . yet this over-powred party so bravely defended their ground , that ere long them had beaten they off , in such manner that the lord fairfax finding his party in such disorder , even upon a retreat , alighted from his horse , and came on himselfe with them to encourage them on , who were so daunted by the unexpected courage of these defendants , that their disorder was like enough to have much endangered their whole body . but at the last , fresh men still powring their shot in upon them , they were beaten off from their hedges , and forc'd to dispute the losse of their ground from place to place , against an extraordinary disadvantage , the enemies horse now breaking in upon them on all parts , and shewing but little remissenesse in their execution , when they had an opportunity to make any home charge upon them ; yet they left not their courage with their ground , but still disputed the losse of every foot with as clear a courage as if but still beginning to engage ; from street to street , and from porch to porch , often falling upon the enemies horse with onely their swords , in such a generous manner , as they seemed as prodigall of their bloods , as they were of their blowes , which they distributed in a plentifull manner on every one durst stand to receive them ; insomuch , that they put them to as often retreats , by their so handsome and bold encounters ; but being still over-powred by the numerous reserves that continually advanced on them , were enforced still to retreat , till at the last they came to the church-yard , and from thence to the church , quitting not any place dishonourably , or unhandsomely : so that they made the businesse so really hot , and difficult , that i am confident the victors themselves would have wish'd to have rather been without that victory , than to have purchased it at so dear a rate . but this party , after a long fight , were drawne to so hard a push , they were forc'd to capitulate , none comming up to their assistance or reliefe unlesse it were a few scattering men , who hearing them so engaged , though without any order , left their quarters and hudled into this croud of confused destruction , which they were over-whelmed in . and here againe in a cause received , that too many gentlemen conceive sufficient for them to approbriate the generall , as either treacherous , or infinitely negligent in not relieving that party , which as they say might easily have been done . and then in all their discourses they frequently urge , endeavouring thereby to obscure the face of his honour with black shades of infamy . but all cannot do ; his honour is too high flowne , for those short wing'd bastards to reach at , having a soule i am confident as white , with innocent and loyall thoughts , as his head with hairs , and a spirit as active as the boldest he that dares question it : and to cleare him in this , first , although proclaimed generall of that army , yet of so little a date was that title to him , as that he was not so immediately and clearly impowered with the charge of them , and conduct of their interest , as ( like a generall ) to act his owne will immediately in it ; there being as yet too many generalls , or at least ambitious spirits interested , who having formerly a power in the 〈◊〉 of them , had not yet so clearly layd downe their power , they supposed , that nothing must be done ( or at least ought ) without the result of their opinions in it . by whose advice and perswasion the whole body was quartered in the countrey at large ; too wide indeed to be rallyed in any time considerable , or drawn to any rendevouze , what ever occasion might , or should fall out ; as it fell too appearantly true in this . although of my own knowledge it was the advice of the generall , to lodge them all that night in the field by the river side ; which counsell , had the gentlemen of that county observed , the body had remained entire , ready to wait , and receive the enemy upon any motion they should , or could make ; and the river so garded that the enemy could never possibly have forc't any place , passe , or forde of it . but the men are thought weary , and harased off their leggs , ( having indeed marched very tedious marches ) and therefore must have fresh quarters , and large , to revive and refresh their tired spirits ; by which meanes the enemy made an easie passage over the river , without any opposition at all , and the party in the towne quite lost , e're the army or a party considerable for their reliefe could be drawne together to any rendevouze . and yet not only strangers to the businesse ( who indeed ought also to be carefull how they censure , and asperse men of so much honour ) but some whose young soldierships councells were partly the cause , cast the losse of the businesse upon the generall , who i am assured all that night , while constant alarums were sounded in his eares , of their being in fight , did his endeavours to draw parties to a rendevouze from their quarters , to their assistance ; but none could be forced out , at least considerable ; whereupon the next morning early , he caused the army as soone as it was possible to get them together , ( having sent out orders at the first newes of their being in fight at maidstone ) to be drawn up to a rendevouze at finsbury fields , on the other side the river medway , by stroode ; where a councell was called in the field , and upon a report that it was yet possible to relieve them at maidstone , it was a generall result , and desire of the generall , yet to march entire thither . whereupon the whole army marched through rochester , it being the resolution of the generall if it were yet possible to relieve them or to fight the whole army of the enemy . but he had not marched two miles , when certaine intelligence came , that they were all cut off , and taken prisoners the night before early ; though many of them came up to the army afterwards having made their escape . upon this intelligence the army was marched back againe to rochester ; where the generall with the commissioners betooke themselves to their councells againe , to consult what was best to be done in that condition ; the parliament having before hand refused to receive their petition , and the enemy already entred the very bowells of their country , and a party roaving about , and making a prey of their estates , and friends . for one major osborne an officer of the parliaments with a troope of horse , was before wheeled downe about ashford , and so towards sittingborne , whereupon col. hammon was ordered to stay with his regiment at sittingborne , and col. hatton marched back with his horse , and liting on this troope of the enemies , chared them , where major sumner was kil'd , and one or two gentlemen more wounded . upon which sir rich : hardres was againe entreated back , by the commissioners , into east-kent to raise the rest of the country , and to take care for the securing of canterbury and the other townes . sir michaell lusey was also raising all he could make , this major osborne with his troop securing him in it ; by which meanes the whole country began to seeme with a face of an absolute seat of warre . but now the courage of the soldiery at rochester was such , as would not admit the generall time enough to resolve on any thing , being then at consultation what course to steere ; for though the weather were such as would have envited them rather , to desire the shelter of the towne , then to expose themselves to such an extremity of raine , as then showered downe ; yet they were so desirous and greedy of action , as almost tended to mutiny ; for drawing out their collours themselves caused their drums to beat , saying ; if their officers would not march , they would both march and fight without them . whereupon the earle of norwich commanded them to be drawn into the field to a rendevouze in the same place as before ; not being yet resolved which way to contrive the laying of his designe to the best advantage ; for he would act nothing without the absolute conclusion of the councell , in which was now included many able soldiers , which came in from severall parts to joyne and engage with us , more indeed there came then the present condition of the county would permit accommodation to : which gave an occasion to divers gentlemen to thinke themselves disrespected , wanting horse , and other conveniences for warre , by reason of their comming down from london by water , and unprovided : but indeed the county at that time could not yeeld so many horse as was supposed it would , therefore they could not be furnished for the present , but order was given by the commissioners for their civill treatment , and an ordinary provided at the county charge for them , that they might continue on free quarter with promise of the furniture of all accoutriment answerable to their quality , as opportunity would give leave : master hales also out of his owne purse presented a party of them that most wanted for the present , with thirty pound to be distributed amongst them . now it had beene the advice of some to plant the army in that place , and by fortifying that city to maintaine it as long as they could ; but this young millitary policy was not liked by some , who better understood that the generall engagement concerned action , and not to lie still under a passive designe , besides that towne was not to be maintained , though some thinke it was , by reason of that river which of it selfe was a fortification to one part of the towne . wherefore now comming into the field , the generall called again the chief officers of the army and gentlemen to counsell ; where it was a great dispute , and the onely now , whether they should march on towards london in the prosecution of the intended designe , according to the engagement , or march back to fight the enemy who was wildly roaving , and raving in the very heart of their country ; and by joyning with those in east-kent strengthen their force , and either fight the enemy or secure that county : but it was not long , e're they concluded to march on ; knowing that though their body of infantry was strong enough for to give the enemy a field , if occasion should require it ; yet the horse was so weak as not to enable them to any fight at all , having not two hundred horse they durst put any confidence in ; and for joyning with those in east-kent , they were strong enough , or would be , of themselves ; besides , they knew , that if they marched backwards , the enemy would certainly draw down more powerfully upon them ; and forcing them to retreat into a corner of the country , take off all hopes of any assistance from any other county , which they expected , according to the association agreed on betwixt surrey , essex , and themselves . and if they marched on , they should draw the army after them : and by drawing nearer those two counties be both an encouragement , and assistance to draw them together ; who once joyning with them , would make so great a body , as in all probability would be formidable to the enemies ; for now they were forc'd by that violence , into an absolute defensive war. this being the result of the councell , we immediately marched from the rendezvouz towards dartford ; onely colonell d. wyles with his regiment ( some of them being gone before ) marched away towards east-kent ; which regiment was full upon muster twelve hundred men . colonell hammons of foot lying about sittingborne , feversham , were ordered by the generall to march back to canterbury , to strengthen that place , and never came up to the rendezvouze at all . about midnight we came to dartford , where the generall caused a letter to be drawne up , and sent to the mayor , aldermen , and common councell of the city of london , to give them notice of our march that way , as also of our intentions . desiring withall , that if it might be , we might have their assistance , which we hoped for , having treated before with them : or at least wise that if we might not have their assistance , yet that they would permit us to march through the city of westminster without interruption , or resistance . engaging the whole counties security for theirs that they should not thereby be endamaged the least mite . but they ( like a dogge to his vomit ) turned to their old course of parliament service ; and no sooner received the letter , but immediately instead of returning a civill answer to the generall , dispatch'd it away to the speaker of the house unbroke up . however , we knew nothing thereof till the next evening ; so we marched on all that night , and the next day without any refreshment , or repose at all . the next day about noone we came to greenwich , where the generall drew the whole army into the park , expecting to receive some good satisfaction from the city , as also from surrey , southwark , and essex . but we found but small encouragement , or reason for the continuance of those hopes , receiving no intelligence from surrey , nor any newes of appearance of men for our assistance , either from thence , or any other place . london we heard had shut , and guarded their ports against us ; onely there came a gentleman out of southwark , as he sayed , who comming to the quarter-master generall , assured him , that if the generall would send any considerable party into the burrough of southwark for their assistance , that they would unanimously rise and joyne with us ; which he acquainted the lord generall with , and returned him this answer : that in regard he was a stranger , and not known , he must not expect a party should be adventured upon his bare assertion ; but if he would returne to those gentlemen of the burrough that he said employed him , and that any of the principle men would engage to what he promised , that then they should have what party they should desire . with which answer he returned , but never came againe . there came a gentleman also out of essex , who assured the generall that the county was up for to joyne with us , ( which was more then we expected , having heard contrary newes before at our first comming to the park , or afterwards found trne ) and that about bow there were two thousand men in armes , and more at chelmesford : upon which intelligence the generall ( earnestly intending the prosecution of what he had undertaken ) cross'd the water in the ferry-boat with his horse , and went over privately into essex himself , not carrying one servant with him , intending onely to goe to stratford , or bow , where his intelligence assured him a body was gotten together , to assure himself of the truth of it , and to returne ; and in case it proved not true , to steer some other designe with the army : but if he should finde the country in so good posture as his intelligencer related , upon his returne to provide boates , and to conduct the army safe over to joyne with them . leaving sir william compton with the charge of the army then major generall , by whose appointment provision of bread , beere , and cheese , was brought into the parke : though it proved a great difficulty to procure it in that towne , not being very well furnished for its owne store . but now our party began to be much weakned from what it was two dayes before , and no assurance of any aide appearing , and we absolutely frustrated of our designe , of marching through the city to westminster : our condition began to seeme something desperate , not knowing what to trust to , besides gods providence : for we were not able to fight with any hopes of victory , or successe , if they had followed us , although so great a resolution was still amongst us , that had an army double the enemies engaged us , it would have proved something of a difficulty to have vanquisht us . now the night being come , and the generall not returned , according to expectation ; which he could not doe , for finding no party stirring at bow , or stratford , he made no stay till he came to chelmsford , because he would assure to himselfe a certainty of the condition of that county ere he returned , which would be the next morning . there being no possibility of procuring boats for the transporting such a number of men over the river in the night , which was the next hopes we had left , some timerous spirits began to steale away , which put such a distraction amongst the whole party , as every man was almost in an amazed confusion . to advance which disorder , one riding into the park in the darke of the night , told the soldiers , that they were in very great danger , and that their officers wisht them to shift for themselves ; no man regarding what he was , nor demanding his reason ; which so amused the soldiers that heard it , and so aggravated the distraction ( although no enemy were neere ) then many began to shift for themselves , and procuring the ferry boat wafted over to the isle of dogge as they thought for their absolute security . some also endeavouring it , and being got into , were againe forced back by other soldiers , who exclaiming upon them for running away , threatned to fire at them if they should offer to stirre off the shore with their boat . thus did this hopefully well-ordered businesse suddainly suffer under the unconstant humour of fortune , to the greatest change that ever was . but all men are naturally subject to change , and therefore ought to be the more cautious in prosperity and resolute in change ; for too much security in the one precipitates to the other , and too much dejection and remissenesse in the other hurles into despaite ; to destruction . at last this causlesse , and unlook'd for distraction begat in some a pannick fear , in others a mad fury ; so that every man began to shift for himselfe , and hunt out for his owne security , being doubtfull of it almost in every place ; but as a thing designed by an extraordinary providentiall power of that all-powerfull divinity that always prevents misfortunes , and so gives life to future ; actions , especially such as are ground in religious honour , though in a disorderly rout , throwing themselves into the very mouth of destruction ( who else might have been secure enough , had they remained till the generalls returne where he left them ) the greatest part of the foot , and some few of the horse at severall places transported themselves over the river of thames , no man knowing what would be the event of their rashnesse , nor able almost to give a reason for what they did in it , or if any , but a supposititious one , though it proved lucky enough : for had we remain'd there till the generalls return , according to the condition he found the essexians in , he would hardly , in reason , have laid the scean of his designe that way ; by which means we had likely , not only have lost that service which afterwards hapned , but have fallen in an instant , and in much lesse honour . but this rashnesse had been ill enough too , had not the great and all-seeing soul of nature inlivened our then almost dead fortunes by a miraculous guidance through that gulf of mischief we were then plunged into , and as before strangely , and unexpectedly brought us together , so now as providentiall conducted us through a misery as great , and else , unevitably ruinous . for having thus confusedly , as it were , throwne our selves over to the other side of the thames for our further safety , ( in that fear where indeed no danger was ) we had no sooner landed , but supposing our selves to have been in essex , where then our only hopes had fixt their anchors ; but we unexpectedly understood that we were in midlesex , under the hamlets of the tower , and posting to absolute ruine ; like that unfortunate vessell , that seeking to avoid the fatall rock of scylla , plung'd her self into the more desperate gulph of charibdis . here ( by the appointment of the house ) lay a regiment of hamletteers of the tower drawne up to their armes in severall guards , ready to receive , and cut us off at our landing , which might easily enough have been performed , considering the disorder we were then in ; every man marching according to his owne phancy , and comming up from the river sides at severall places and wayes : yet all , at it were by a strange sympathy , steering one and the same course . but sir will : compton ( a man truly noble , and more compleat in gallantry , virtue and honour , than yeers ) having first discovered this plotted mischief , and perceiving the ruine we were running blind-fold into : as supposing it the best course in that condition , treated with them for the whole party before he would permit any man almost to march in amongst them . by which means conditions were drawn , and signed between him , and the officers in chief of the regiment : which were , that all our foot should , upon laying downe their armes , depart to their own homes , or where they pleased quietly , without any violence , or molestation offered to them . and all gentlemen , and officers , with their horses , and armes , to march where they pleased also without any disturbance . but those conditions were soon as almost broke , as made ; for , before the foot came up , some gentlemen marching through their guards , had their horses and armes both taken from them by the major of the regiment , by whom the articles on their party were signed . then the foot , and a greater number of gentlemen , by their easie march comming up together ; and understanding what was done , and how unlikely they were to keep articles when they should lie unarmed at their mercy , that had so unworthily begun , and so soone broke them , marching through two or three guards , no man being permitted to passe any by-way , by reason of the easie march the gentlemen made , the foot came closer up ; so that they hop'd the better to avoid abuses of those who began already to scoffe and fleere at us . and considering what a condition an inauspicious fate had reduced us to , and how these gallants had broken conditions ; we began to think of some other way then so lamely disband , and submit our selves by such worthlesse boores , ( who understood not so much honour ( i except the chiefest of them ) as to know what was meant by drawing , and signing articles of conditions ) and so began to sift out the disposition of the private souldiers , who we soone found so resolute as to expresse themselves rather desirous to die there , in the bed of honour , than to survive such an infamous misfortune , and live slaves all the dayes of their lives after . this bold resolution proved now the happy guide to a better fate ; and all concluded to make a second dispute for conditions , and charge through them . and being now in the midst of them , every man provided himselfe accordingly , the foot all lighting their matches , and the gentlemen drawing their pistols , began to alter the constitution of our fleering hamletteers , who left their vanity of jeering , and so we marched on from gaurd , to gaurd , through the midst of them , as moving to the place of disbanding , where we expected an opposition , and as much resolv'd to force through it ; but that proved the last and utmost guard just at bow towne . but now they beholding us marching in this resolute manner , and still moulding our selves into better order , were absolutely dasht from a thought of opposition ; so we marched on without the least affront till we came to bow-bridge , where we supposed was the place for our disbanding : at the other end of which bridge was a turne-pike strongly guarded with musketteers , and having entred upon the bridge , we made a stand to parly with them ; but after a very short discourse being asked whether they were friends , or foes , we were answered from them , friends ; whereupon we replyed , if you are friends let your turne-pike be opened ; so they opened their turne-pike , and with a very great shout let us in . and now we were in essex . so we marched cleere through these hamletteeres , and carryed away the major prisoner , and another officer ; but afterwards , upon their parolls , they were suffered to goe to london , but never returned againe according to their engagements , by which also you may guesse how much honour they had in them ; so we marched on still till we came to stratford . here we met with the generall againe , returning backe to us , expecting to have found us in the same posture he left us in the parke at greenwich : but understanding the carriage of the businesse , and what had fallen out , was much troubled at it , and knowing the long and tedious marches they had made , and the precedent nights actions , could not permit them any repose ; nor that they had received any refreshment for two nights , and that the third day . immediately gave command for the drawing them up into order , and by planting on the green , to procure such refreshment as the place would afford for the present , ere we marched any further . and here was a providence in all this unhappinesse , had we received the least affront or opposition by these hamletteers , or by any obstruction been hindred never so little time , we had beene absolutely cut off ; or had we been disbanded , we had beene as sodainly ruined ; for we had no sooner marched over the bridge , and scarce drawne up , but we received a very strong alarum by a party of col. whalies horse ; who , as it was conceived , came thither purposely upon the intelligence that we were to disband , to make a prey of us when we were naked ; and by surprising us , make what spoile they pleased with the private soldiers , and take all the gentlemen prisoners ; but by gods assisting providence that was prevented ; and now they fell on thinking to have beat us off from our guards by their sight onely , so they marched on a full carreer ( having laid an ambuscade of dragoones to secure their retreate ) as if they would have destroyed us in a minute , which indeed had been facile enough had we been as tame as they supposed we had beene , and had not the gentlemen bestirred themselves couragiously ; but now we were awakned againe by this alarum , and roused from the drowsie spirit that possest every man almost , if he but sat downe , or still on horseback ; and drawing out a party of foot to strengthen the guard , rallyed a party of horse to a number of thirty , and marching forth the turne-pike , gave them such a home charge , that so started them , as it put them to such a perfect rout in an instant , and kill'd and wounded many of them ; which succesful action gave life to our defatigated spirits , and encouraged our party so , that they followed the pursuit as far as milend-greene ; but by that meanes fell into their ambuscade , who fired upon them from the hedges , so they were forced to make as much speed in retreating , though none pursued . in which service only one gentleman , a grecian , being shot by the dragooners was left behind about the green , and in the charge cap. john lynne cut over the chin , and over the brest , which was all the hurt we sustained in it . but although our pursuit continued no further , yet the enemy kept on their flight in that disorder , no body following them , till they came to white . chappell ; which , as i was informed , gave an alarum to the whole city , as farre as temple-barre . but now the hamletteeres began againe to oppose us , but were as soone forc't to take sanctuary in bow church , where we surrounded them with a party of horse and foote , and put them to treate with us for a quiet returning home to their owne houses , engaging themselves never to oppose us againe . thus was there a convertible change of various fortune in two opposite parties , in lesse then two houres space . after this our party again retired within the turn-pike ; and strong guards commanded on all passes and fords about the river , and on all high-waies and avenewes , for hindring the enemy from making incursions upon us , who were againe calling and drawing up a strong guard at milend-greene , both of horse and dragoones . but after all this , our party resting a little began to take heart againe , as thinking themselves secure from any opposition or inconveniencie , being amongst our professed friends ; when our condition gave another reverse , and was like to change for the worse , then ever before : for after he had run through so many difficulties , and wearied out with so tedious marches , our soldiers ready almost to fall downe in the street for want of foode to sustaine them : we were like to fall into another encounter with adverse fortune . the generall , notwithstanding his great age , which might easily have dis-inabled him from such toyle , yet as if he had beene absolutely indefatigable , or else miraculously nourisht , ( not receiving almost any rest or sleepe , for the space of foure daies , and three nights , and yet not seeming to want any ) posted immediately away againe to chelmsford , where the gentry of the country were met ; giving order for the quartering that shattered army in stratford till further orders from him . but when quarter-master generall carter had sent for the constable , and given him orders accordingly : the constable seeming to goe about in obedience to his warrant ( whilst by some other gentlemen he was civilly , and honourably treated as a stranger ) makes no long stay ere he returned againe , accompanied with three or four burly gentlemen , ( as i conceive justices of peace of that part of the country ) who making it their businesse , began to question the quarter-master generall of his authority of quartering an army in that country , intimating that they were all quiet before , and at peace amongst themselves , and with the parliament ; and that the parliament had granted them what they desired , and had sent them an act of indempnity : but we bringing an army into their county , should draw down the parliaments army upon them , and make it a seat of warre ; and they could not any way condescend that we should fix a quarter there , it being no way for their safety , but like to prove the readiest way to their destruction . cheerfull expressions to men that had run through so many hazards , and confused difficulties . having let our own country to the cruelty of a most barbarous and mercilesse enemy , to come as by an abolute associated engagement to their assistance ; whereby we hoped to be strong enough to break the bonds , and tear off the shackles from our most inhumanly imprisoned soveraign , and unnaturally enslaved country-men ; and now no sooner entred the confines of their county ( from whence so many publick declarations of their loyall and sincere intentions had flowne abroad throughout the kingdom ) and so late checked the insolence of the proud enemy , and beaten them off from forcing a violent incursion upon it , and to have such an unexpected welcome , was too harsh , and severe , and might have proved very mischievous , if resented by the inferiour sort of the army , whose fury knowes little , or no more , when enflamed with so just a discontent . but the quarter-master generall returned them this answer in short : that for the power by which he quartered that army , it was by commission from the generall , and that he quartered them in that place by immediate command also from him : but for our comming into that country , it concerned him not to dispute it ; neither could he give any other account then the engagement between both counties , and the generall , the earl of norwich : but if they should desire any further satisfaction , to their desires , they must receive it from the lord generall himselfe . but the generall being gone to chelmsford , sir will : compton being major generall , hearing of this dispute , came also to them , and gave the like satisfaction , but would not long dispute the businesse with them , knowing nothing at all of them , nor by what authority they were empowred to make those interrogatories . and now our blouds being hardly coole , since the last affront , when heated again by this new , and the consideration of the sad successe of our so just , and honourable designes , almost boyling to fury , resolved to quarter there till we should againe receive orders from the generall ; and then ( in case the businesse of the country should prove so , contrary to our hopes , and the expectations of the whole kingdome , as to answer the expressions of those men of beliall ) to march on , forcing our way through all obstructions , till we should find a party to joyne with , or be destroyed in the field ; that we might thereby win an honourable liberty , or tombe . here we quartered till wednesday in the afternoon , it being sunday morning when we came thither , still keeping the enemy in some play , who lay with their guards within half a mile of us , and their scouts still pekiering with us at bow townes end . all which time the earl of norwich continued at chelmsford , agitating the businesse with the gentlemen of the county ; and minding to what it would turne there , who had not long before put forth this declaratory engagement . the engagement , or declaration of the grand jury , free holders , and other inhabitants of the county of essex , in prosecution of their late petition presented to both houses . we the grand jury , free-holders , and other the inhabitants of the said county in the prosecution of the said petition , doe engage our selves one to another , and declare , . that we will not pay any more exoise , or other taxes , till all the desires expressed in our said petition be obtained by us . . that we will admit of no souldiers to come into our county but such as agree with us in our said petition , and in this engagement . . that we will imploy our utmost endeavours to preserve and defend our royall king charles , his kingly government ; the subjects liberty , and the known lawes of this kingdome : that is to say , the common , and statute lawes , and will never submit our selves to any other kind of lawes , much lesse to any arbitrary power whatsoever . . that we will protect , and defend one another , and all that shall adhere to us in the pursuance , performance , and keeping of this engagement : and that if any inhabitant of our county shall refuse to joyne with us herein , we shall esteeme him a person dis-affected to the peace and welfare of the same . but notwithstanding this engagement , they were yet backward enough in prosecuting any thing to the purpose , in answer to their petition , or association here . when his excellency came , he found the greatest part of the gentry of the county met ; but all business so dis-joyn'd , and so strangely confused , as there seemed almost an impossibility of any good to proceed from that so high engagement , and mountainous conception : and our party consequently left ( as inconsiderable ) to be cut in pieces by a most cruell enemy , who had already possessed themselves of our whole country ; ruin'd our friends , made lavish havock of our estates : and having proclaimed us traytors for comming thither for their assistance , would prove as undoubtedly prodigall of our lives , if ever we should fall under their power . the distraction indeed was so great , that the gentlemen , and commoners , who came there with reall intention to prosecute their petition , and engagement , were likely to have been dispersed in lesse time then they were in coming together ; capt. lin of that country had once before raised a thousand men , which were immediately dispers'd . an order of indempnity being read in the head of them by colonel farre , which the committee of the county so pressed to them , that they went all quietly home . and now were as active in their indeavours for the ruine of the maine interest of that designe ; as indeed it concern'd them enough , for they knew the prosperity of loyalty is destruction of rebellion : i leave them to make the application . they were so active in their machivilian stratagems for countermining all policy against them , as that charles lucas being there urgently tending upon the designe , and many other gentlemen with carefull diligence for the advancement of the king , and countries liberty , ( it being the sole and generall end , both they and we really intended , and the sole reward of our actions we all aimed at ; and consequently prosecuted secuted all circumstantiall opportunities which we conceived conducing to it , that at last , though by the hazard of a warre , we might generally attaine to the happy blessing of an honourable and lasting peace ) thought it their best course in that distraction to depart privately forth the town , lest some unexpected inconveniency might take hold on their persons , if once it had over-whelmed the generall interest , as now they began to fear would be , absolutely dispairing of any good at all . but some of the country gentlemen then got together in the town , and by chance meeting them , desired sir charles lucas that he would not goe away so , but let the committee doe what they would , they were sensible enough how they had ruined and undone them , and they would be abused no longer by them ; but if he would be pleased to draw them out into the field , and stay with them , they would one and all engage with him , and live and die in that engagement , according to the intention of their meeting together , having resolved not to returne till they had performed something . this suddaine change in a little time proved very violent , as it is commonly scene in all things ; so they immediately drew into the field , and seiz'd on the committee , and were so furiously incenst against them , that some of them would have kill'd them immediately , had not some gentlemen rescued them , & pacified the others fury , and afterwards placed a guard over them ; for now they were resolved , that since they had actively engaged themselves , they would be no more obstructed in their prosecution by those grand opposers ; who they well understood would be active enough in their endeavours , for the destruction of that designe , ( if at liberty ) and the ruin of the actors in it , being right-becked committee-men of the parliaments own bringing up , as appeared afterwards by sir tho : honywood , who being at liberty , and at his own house at coxwell , alwayes an enemy to the king and kingdome , made himselfe appear so really now , by raising both horse and foot , as many , as by his power he could draw together , either for love , or fear , and made his house a garrison to oppose the county ( as much in him lay ) in their proceedings in that designe ; but his party proved so inconsiderable then , as it could doe but little injury . the businesse comming to this height , his excellence the lord norwich sent his orders to sir william compton , to march away towards chelmsford ; so we marched away from stratford with our whole party , which by this time was well recruited by many of our men that came up , and divers prentices from london , who came daily in and listed themselves ; and about wensday night we met the generall at rumford , but the enemy marching after us , so obstructed our march by alaruming us in the reare , that the whole body could not get up till the next morning ; though the enemy durst not adventure in all the march to fall on upon the reare guard . the next day being the eight of june , we marched on towards burntwood , whither sir charles lucas was advanced with a party both of horse , and foot , to joyne with us : and having intelligence , how the enemy followed us with alarums in our reare , commanded forth all the horse that were then in the towne to assist us ; so we marched up , and quartered that night at brentwood ; and the next day being the ninth , we marched on to chelmsford , where the lord capell , the lord loughborow and divers gentlemen of quality 〈◊〉 hartfordshire , and other counties , came in to joyn also with us ; which gave a great encouragement to our army . there came in a party also of gentlemen consisting of about fifty , who entering their combination in london made their rendevouze at hideparke corner , and marching all night , the night before intended to beate up a quarter of the enemies at epping ( being in their way ) but the party was drawne out by chance hard by the towne , upon some other designe , so they were disappointed of their strategem ; but though they found them ready drawne up in order , yet unexpecting any affront ( not thinking of any enemy ) they marched up , and being well horst charged through them , and the next day came up to us , having lost only one man , and one horse ; but the horse being a gallant one and taken by a country-man , was recovered againe , the gentleman that lost him comming off afterwards , went out with a party and fetcht that man in , and so regained him . that afternoone both parties of kentish , and essex , were drawne out to a rendevouze in newhall parke neere the towne , belonging to the duke of buckingham , which generall meeting gave much encouragement to both parties . where the generall and sir charles lucas joyning in consultation the gentlemen of both counties also , that by a unity in the engagement , as well as the interest , there might be greater hopes of prosperous successe . at which councell it was once a generall result to have marched away immediately , and fallen upon the party of sir tho : honywoods at coxwell ; but upon a more serious deliberation otherwise resolved on , and orders given out for the quartering in the towne that night ; but this party of coxwell disincouraged the country that they began now to be very slack in their apearance to joyne , in relation to what they were before ; not only by reason of sir thomas honywoods activenesse , but because of the enemies entring also into the country with their whole body . saturday the tenth we marched on towards brantree , but tooke leeds house in our march , belonging to the earle of warwick , where we were like to have beene opposed by some people who were purposely placed there , and upon the quartermastergeneralls comming thither to secure it from the violence of the soldiers , refused to open their gates , being about twelve or more men with fire-armes and two drakes , saying that they were placed there for the securing that house , and they would rather die , then deliver it up to be plundered tamely . but being afterwards by some parley informed that the generall himself was coming , and that the quartermaster generall was commanded before to secure them from injury ; they gave him entrance with some other gentlemen , believing it was but little boote for them to dispute with an army : about noone the generall and sir charles lucas came , and haviug first dined there , ceised on the armory , where they found a good magazineboth of armes and ammunition of all sorts ; so we carried from thence the two brasse field peeces , and about two or three hundred muskets , and as many pikes , with about . great sadles , and body armes proportionable to them , and some pistols and carbines ; and a good proportion of match and ball , with divers other instruments and furniture of warre ; but many of the sadles we left behinde for want of carriages for them . here we rendevouzed all the afternoone , till towards night in the parke beyond the house ; the enemy of rendevouzing also with a party of theirs very neer the other side , and that night in the parke ; but adventured not to appeare all that day in sight of our army . there was a party of horse also came in to us upon the march , ( which along time we supposed an enemy ) from hartfordshire and bedfordshire consisting of about sixe score . from thence we marched forwards , and quartered that night at braintree . where the next day being sunday , both parties were drawne into the field in the forenoone to rendevouze : and after prayers all the gentlemen that were in the army , were drawne into troopes , under the command of the lord norwich , lord capell , and the lord loughborow , and sir charles lucas ; that they might not only know to dispose of themselves upon any occasion of alarum ; but being in order it would be a great conveniencie , for disposing them into quarters upon every remove . about nine of the clock at night we marched from thence ; and continued our march all that night , making onely one halt about daybreake , till the next day about fower of the clock in the afternoone ; about which time we drew neere colchester , whither at a councell the night before , upon sir charles lucas his desire , and beliefe of recruiting very much there , they concluded to march , but not to stay above one night or two at the most , and therefore moved in the night to amuse the enemy that they might not to sodainly follow us ; and being within five or six miles of the towne , a party was sent before towards it , for sir charles lucas had received intellithat they would not receive him in armes ; then himself , with some other gentlemen , marched onwards before the army , after that party was marched away : but ere the quarter-master generall left them to goe to the town , came intelligence from the party , that the towne stood upon their guard , and were so far from giving entrance to our party , as that they opposed them , and were too strong for them : at which newes sir charles , and the gentlemen with him , set spur to their horses , and hasted on with a full speed till they came within sight of the towne , and comming neere , they found that they had shut their gates , and drawn out about sixty horse in a very formall troop , well arm'd and accoutred ; some of their scouts being without the turn-pike by the almes houses , then sir charles made a stop to send back a messenger to the army to hasten their march ; but some four or five gentlemen keeping on their speed , drew their swords onely , and charged up to them , and forc'd them within their turn-pike ; so they retreated on the head gate , where their whole troop was drawne up in order ; and the gentlemen retreated againe towards the turn-pike , but some of them , as they retreated , fell in amongst the gentlemen , yet never fired a pistoll till they came out of the turn-pike againe , then one of the gentlemen turning quick about shot one of them , and he fell from his horse . but when they perceived the body of the army comming , and that sir charles lucas had drawn up two or three troopes of horse very neer them , they sent out to treat with him ; and upon his engagement that the town should not be plundred , nor any injury offered them for what they had done , they submitted themselves , and engaged to deliver up their horse , and armes , with the towne ; so the gates were opened , and the army quartered that night in the town . the next day being tuesday , june . about noone we received a very strong alarum , and that the enemy was advanced within a mile of the town ; and indeed by that time we could provide parties to send forth , their forlornes were engaged with our out-guards in the suburbs ; which guardes were immediately doubled , and it was not long ere we were as ready to receive them , as they to assault us : our men being drawne up to their colours , fresh parties were sent out to assist the guards , both of horse and foot ; and the enemy came on as strongly on all parts of that side the town next lexden , and fir'd up to the very hedges and guards of our foot , but were as furiously opposed , till at the last some of the guardes wanting ammunition to maintain the heat of the service , about the almes houses , and the house called grimstones house , were over-powred with the number of men that threw in their shot like haile upon them , and so forc'd to retreat , and gave the enemy the liberty of all that ground . which retreat gave them also advantage of falling upon our other guards neer sheere-gate ; whereupon the out-guards were ordered to retreat within the town ; it being the best policy to take the greatest advantage in opposing an enemy , were an army double the enemies strength : but ere this retreate could be made ; and the guards drawne within the gates , that dispute grew close , and very hot ; the enemy comming on so violently , that it was much difficulty to maintaine any ground against them , yet were they still as resolutely opposed , so that it was as hard a matter to judge whether shewed more courage , the enemy in assailing , or our party in defending . now we being forc't to a retreat , although as much out of policy , as danger , gave an enencouragement to the enemy to prosecute their charge upon us , as thinking themselves more then halfe victors already , and that they should in short time make themselves masters both of the town and us . but this new and scarcely flesht army of country men , added fire to the heat of the service , in such a height , and with so undaunted a resolution , far contrary to the enemies expectation , although they had received an experimentall knowledge of them at maidestone , that many of them could not digest it , but left their bodies in the streets , and hedges , as infallible witnesses of what was done ; yauning out their soules to receive their arreares , in another world , for their so religious rebellion in this . many of their dead bodies they threw into wells , some they buried in ditches , many they carried off ; yet left so many behind , upon the place , that by some relations we received from the country , of the condition of their army the next day , and the account we had of many of their soldiers , that came voluntarily in to us ; we could not believe that they lost lesse then seven hundred men ; col. needham and diverse others of their prime officers being also kild , besides many which were wounded , and above one hundred and thirty prisoners , taken and brought into the towne ; for having retired within the walls , our shot fell so thick in amongst them , they could not long abide it ; but after a seven or eight howers fight were so gauld , that they were forc't to a dishonourable retreate , leaving behind them one brasse peice of ordnance ( which they brought to force the gate ) twelve of their traine horses being shot within twenty yards space of ground , and about five hundred armes , which the next morning were brought into the towne . their retreat was in such distraction , that had we sallyed out with a fresh party upon them , as was once intended , we had cut their whole army off , or the greatest part , as many of their own acknowledged . i must confesse i never yet saw any men fight with a more gallant resolution , and courage , then those men did , although raw country men , as they could not but do indeed , having so rare presidents , in so honourable personages , as those lords and gentlemen under whose conduct they were brought thither , and under whose command they then fought , who ceased not themselves to act the duty of the meanest and most inferiour officers , or run the hazard of the privatest souldier ; but took pikes in their hands , when their horses were not of immediate service , as well for the maintenance of their ground , as to give encouragement to the more inferiour sort lest by unusuall heat of the service they might grow slow , and dull in the performance of their duty to the utmost : the lord capell charging at head-gate ( where the enemy was most pressing ) with a pike , till the gate could be shut , which at the last was but pind with his cane . the enemy still gallantly enough too , ( to give them their due ) endeavouring to force their entrance in upon us , adventured on so farre as to fire under the gate , and oft times to throw stones over . in this service we lost sir william campion and col. cooke , men of incomparable and unblemisht honor , both receiving mortall shots upon the first charge in the suburbs , and one lieftenant , and about thirty or forty private souldiers , though many more were wounded sir william layton , though not interested in any immediate command in the army , yet of so high and noble a soul , as could not admit of a private ingagement , in so generall a designe , took the charge of an out-guard , and endeavouring to make his retreat , when he perceived the enemy possest of so much of our ground as to get between him and home , was unfortunately shot in the foot ; so that ere he could recover the gate , it was shut , and the enemy intermixt with his party ; so that he could by no means escape being taken ; but by chance , by a souldier that had formerly served four year under him , in the kings service , and in his own company ; who upon the service , knowing him , came to him , and would have carried him off , but was forc'd by reason of the shot that came so thick in upon them from the town , to run away and leave him ; but though he were very neer , yet had lost so much blood , and was grown so stiff , he could not shift for himself : after a while , the souldier coming again , carried him off , and rescued him from the most inhumane usage of other souldiers ; which souldier afterwards proved very officious also to him , and upon the receipt of the next pay to conduct him home , left the army upon the unchristian demeanours he observed amongst them . lievtenant colonell george rawlins , commanding another out-guard on that part of the town , was also surprised ere he could make his retreat , and about forty foot souldiers ; so that in all were taken of ours about fourscore prisoners ; but many of them that were taken , upon their distracted retreat got from them again , and came safe into the town . but night coming on , and it proving very dark , was an oportunity for them to steal a retreat ; but ere they drew off , set fire on some houses neer to head gate ; hoping therby that the wind would so force the fire inwards , that it should burn the whole town ; but the diligence of the souldiers proved as great in defending it from fire , as before from plunder and the sword , guarding it from an enemy mercilesse in the one , and insatiable in the other , as the suburbs in the town can well witnesse ; where although poor people were so little indamaging them , or assisting us , that they rather seemed to oppose us , not only in our coming thither , but in all we did there ; yet the next morning we found scarce one house unplundered , from the one end to the other , and many poor men dead in their houses , and women and children fled . amongst the rest my self by chance recevied this account the next morning by break of day : just over against the almes-houses lived a poor weaver , where i chanc'd to ride by , and finding a poor woman very heavily 〈◊〉 her self , and in so lamentable a nature , could not but demand the cause of so much grief ; whereupon she answered me , that the last night , some of the souldiers that fought against the town came violently into her house , and took what they pleased ; and that they were no sooner gone , but more came in , and not finding any thing in the house left that pleased them , came to her husband in the loom at work , and demanded money of him , who told them , that he had been worth but a little before in the house , and what he had , the souldiers that came before them had taken from him , excepting only some small sum he had in his purse , which he would willingly give them if they would be fatisfied with it ; but it not answering their expectations , no more would they answer his desires , but told him he was a cavalier rogue , and had more money , which they would have or kill him ; both which he denying , one of them shot him through the body , so that he immediately died ; at which noise his son coming in , they fell to cutting of him , and had so cruelly wounded him , that he lay more likely to die then live . now having thus made their retreat in the night , the next morning they drew back to lexden , a village about a mile from the town , where they fell immediatly to work , and cast up a fort just upon the high-way to secure the head-quarters , and barricado's crosse all the high-way ; here they lay about two dayes still ; then approaching neerer , in the night cast up another fort in that road towards the town , where they placed a guard ; and the next night they entred ground upon the hill called the warren , and placed a strong guard there the night following , and so every night broke up fresh ground in severall places , which they thought most advantagious , running their line by degrees from one redoubt and fort to another . this gave us just occasion to believe that they intended to plant themselves before us for a longer continuance then before we had imagined , and to block us up ; by which we were invited to consider of our own future security , which then consisted in the greatest care of victualling and fortifying ; the only two things to be first thought on in such a case ; especially in a town so much defective in the one and the other . a place , i suppose , as little ever supposed , as before by us intended , for what it was afterward ordered to ; no man , i think , that had surveyed it with the judicious eye of an experienced souldier , could be so weak as to suppose it a place fitting to be mantled , or maintained for a garrison ; it was our intentions only to take it as a present quarter for a night or two . but this ingagement having forc'd us to it , enlivened every man with an active and cheerfull diligence to forward an advancement of all requisites . to march away now we could not , for we had no way to march , but that we must within a day fall into a champian country , where the enemy being so very strong ( as we were weak ) in horse , would have cut us off at an instant ; our foot being no such experienced souldiers as to maintain a charge of themselves , both against horse , and foot , where there were no hedges to guard and shelter them from horse ; though some have judged otherwise of the design , and the conduct of it . now by this incomparable diligence on all parties ( no man at the first knowing where to find provision of any sort , more then belonged to every private family for ordinary sustenance ) we found in a short time , in severall places of the town , and a place called the heyth adjacent , many private stores of corn , and wine of all sorts , with much salt , and some fish , and a good quantity of powder , the want whereof would suddenly have thrown us into absolute ruine , having very much exhausted our magazine by the last dayes businesse . it is said , that he that will picture war , must first begin with the belly : so we ( according to that policy ) having many bellies to feed ; and not knowing how long it should please god to continue us there , were the more inquisitive after provision ; by which means at the hieve ( for so it is more vulgarly called ) we found a greater assistance then indeed we could have hoped for , which was conveyed into the town as conveniently , as time would permit , the enemy being so favourable as never to endeavounto cut us off from that place , till we had almost dreyned the honey from the comb : which they might easily have done , had they ever enterprised it . a providence almost as great as that of the israelites in the wildernesse : for , it is reported , that in the memory of man there never was known such plenty of all things in that place , as accidentally then . whilest we were thus active for prevention of all dangers that might happen , by strengthening the walls of the town , and fortifying where no wall was , by casting up rampires and counterfcarfs , as a very great part of the town required , the enemy was as busie without , in running their trenches , making their approaches , and casting up forts and batteries against us , still earthing themselves , and we as diligent and laborious within , as in truth not without much necessity on our part , the towne being in all places very weak , neither had it any more then one flanker about it , and that very bad too , which was called the old-fort . now if it shall be objected , why in this time , not being certain of any timely reliefe , we did not draw out and fight with them , as it hath been often urged : they that will judge discreetly of our condition , will easily be satisfied of it : had we had no hopes at all of relief , which we then had , both from the scots , and divers other places , at the same time in action ; besides it was conceived the greatest piece of policy , by keeping the enemy in a lingering action , to give a remora to their designes , and so ruine them by delaies ; by which meanes especially we should give liberty , and all opportunity to others that intended any action , to work their designes without interruption , and not to run the hazard of an immediate ruine , by giving them battell : for had we fought with them , it must have been upon infinite disadvantages , ( as i said before ) first in the inequality of the number of infantry : and secondly in that we had no considerable party of cavalrie in respect of theirs , whose greatest strength consisted in horse . and it was not a rash or fond supposition to think that could we hold what we had , till the rest of the kingdome should rise , we should then do as good service , as in the immediate victory : we supposed we might possibly hold out a moneth , and were resolved on it , though it concluded in our own ruine ; yet by that time , if not sooner , we could not but expect ( in all probability ) a relief . by this design also we were 〈◊〉 to give liberty to the scots to march 〈◊〉 into the kingdome , being then as we most assuredly understood , upon their march , and neer the borders . neither was this all the hopes we cherisht by this resolution ; but there remained a possibility of a victory over that army , by delaying to fight with them , till some more fit opportunity should offer it self , or the tediousnesse of the service weaken them by hard duty , constant action , & unseasonable lying in the field , in respect of the weather ; & we have many gallant examples in this kind . pompey was well advised for a while when he refused to fight and gave caesar ground : but when by the importunity of his captains he adventured the battell at pharsalia , he lost the battell , the freedome of rome , and by it his own life . the constable of france made frustrate the mighty preparation of charles the fifth , when he invaded provence , by wasting the countrey , and forbearing to fight ; so the duke of alvaria , by that policy wearied the french king in naples , and dissolved the boysterous army of the prince of orange in the low countries . one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i shall insert , to touch more 〈◊〉 upon those hot-spur politicians that shall so violently criticize upon that point , and accordingly refer the application , by looking into that battell of pavy , as tragicall as fatall to france , where the king was taken prisoner , and the french frustrated of their main hopes of italy . the day before this overthrow , the king summoned a generall councell of war , and desired the opinion of his officers , whether he should give a field to the enemy or not : whereat an old captain began exceedingly to perswade the king to stay , and delay ingaging till supplies ( which were already levied ) should come up and strengthen his army : desiring him not to throw into hazzard unnecessarily , the welfare of france ; urging , that the consultation was not only for the kings honor , but his safety : at which time there was at the councel a young hot-spur , fitter to begin , then continue a charge , who alleaged , that nothing was more honorable then that the victory should be gained by fight , &c. taunting the old captain , it was no marvell though an old man and fearfull sought delayes , whose mind was disturbed with his usuall fears , and now was seeking a passage through his guts : the old man could not indure this his scurrility , but replied , seeing the king will have us fight , i will die to morrow an honorable death before his face ; when thou , forgetfull of thy brags , and rashnesse , shalt by a base flight forsake the field : which prophesie in all respects was fulfilled , the field desperately lost , and the king taken prisoner . many more examples in this nature i could insert , but i think it as unnecessary , as tedious . now although we gave them not a field-battel , yet suffered them not to lie idle from fighting constantly almost in one place or other , both night and day . neither were they so weak 〈◊〉 some suppose , after our shattering them , but that they were in their foot still above , or equall our number before the suffolk foot joyned with them , who lay upon the bridges of the river so strong before the enemy drew them over , that we could not have forced our passage , in case we had attempted it , but that we had been fallen on by the enemy in the rear , and been engaged both waies , to the hazard of an immediate destruction of our whole army . about the twentieth day of the moneth , divers gentlemen were sent forth privately with commissions to raise men in norfolk , suffolk , & cambridge shire : but the country forces having broken up the bridges , and guarded the passes , and the enemy taken the fort called mersey fort , that commanded the passage into the island , there was no passage left open for them , so they were forc't to return again , which they did secure , although through the enemies quarters , not a man being taken . the next night a party of horse , and foot was commanded forth into the hundred of tendring , for the bringing in of provision , which returned the day following safe , with about one hundred sheep , and sixty beeves ; which were all delivered into the commissary for the generall store , and so everynight fo far as our bounds would reach till the enemy begirt us closer , provision was brought in to the publike store . two or three daies after that part of the countrey rise , to joyn with us : but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who by commission from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lucas was to levy and command them , would have betrayed them to the enemy in their rising , to ingratiate himselfe with the prevailing power , ( an epidemicall disease in this kingdom ) but was discovered , having not so much policy as villany ; and seiz'd on by the countrimen , till sir charls lucas : his pleasure might dispose of him ; and them : to whom they sent two sufficient men of their party , to give him an account , making it their earnest suit , that he would send a party of horse and foot to assist them in their rising , and conduct them , safe into the town , which according to their request was done ; a party was drawn out and sent in the night , who stayed there about a week , and afterwards returned safe with those they had raised through the quarters of the suffolk foot , who were drawn over the river , and incamped betwixt them & the town . then was another party commanded forth in the night , which marching out at the north-gate , forced through their quarters , and in the morning returned safe , losing not above two men , for which losse they gained livelihood for many more ; for they brought in with them about fifty oxen , and cowes , besides sheep , and some corn and other provisions , and might have brought more : but sir charls lucas being tender of his countrey , would not permit them to drive from any , but those they should know to be actuall enemies ; which proved afterwards a very great inconveniency , and prejudice to the towne , for after that we never obtain the like opportunity , the enemy drawing immediately down neerer upon us , came within lesse compasse , and begirt us more straight ; for they were indeed much 〈◊〉 with anger amongst themselves , that they should fuffer us to march through their quarters upon a sally , and return again safe . yet we secured the heith , as a finall refuge for provision , from whence we conveyed daily , such provisions as it would afford , keeping a constant guard there ; which the enemy endeavoured not to hinder us of , till we had left very little there . july . the councell of warre published a proclamation , for the calling in all such townes-men , as would serve upon the line for the security of the town , to list themselves for the service under severall captains and officers , being deputed by sir charls lucas to command them , and all others , to bring in their arms to be delivered up into the magazine ; and that none , who should refuse to list themselves , should keep any arms in their houses , upon pain of death , and the forfeiture of their goods , to the benefit , and use of the town . about this time the enemy incroach't so neer upon us with their approaches , notwithstanding our daily sallies , and skirmishes with them on all parts , as that they fell down into east-street , and seized on the mill on the river , and placed a strong guard there ; which guard , ( out of hopes to have fired all that part of the street hetwixt them and the town , because many of our men both quartered and guarded there also ) set fire to a tanners house and barn , with all the goods , leather and corn in it ; the house being the next house to the inner-side over against them , and bringing downe two drakes began to be something busie , and troublesome to our guards ; whereupon at the next councell of war upon the dispute , a result was made for a grand sally on that part of the town , which was accordingly performed , and sir charls lucas commanding in chief , marched in the head of the horse , and sir george lisle commanded the foot ; the whole party consisted of five hundred foot , and two hundred horse , out of which a forlorn party being drawn out , they first marched down towards the river , where the enemies guard was on both sides the street , and a barricado crosse , from whence with their case shot from their drakes , and small shot from the barricadoe and guard-houses , they play'd very thick upon them , having no other passage over 〈◊〉 river then a foot bridge , the end wherof reach'd within five foot of the enemies barricado . but as if it had been but a sporting skirmish amongst tame souldiers at a generall muster , they regarded it not ; but running on in a single file over the bridge , & some for hast through the river , mounted their barricado , and beat the enemy off in an instant ; and having once gained that , overturned the drakes , and charged on upon other parties that still fired on them in the street , and pass'd by the guard-houses till they had cleered a great part of the street ; then surrounding them , charged in upon them , who having neither possibility of reliefe , nor indeed of retreat , or escape , yeelded upon quarter ; so they took the captain , lieutenant , and ensigne , and about foure score private soldiers , with all the other inferiour officers . many were also kill'd in the adjacent houses , the whole street almost being full of soldiers . the drakes they over turned , and one of them they threw into the river , but not having teames ready , could not bring them off . now the whole party being marched up , and having thus surpriz'd the guard , they marched on , and made good the charge till they had cleared the whole street ; which gave so great an alarum into all their leager , that they immediately rallyed together all the foot and horse on that side the river , and marched down the hill from behind the windmill , on the top of another hill in a very full and orderly body , onely they left their colours and pikes with a reserve behind the wind-mill . but our party having gained almost the top of the first hill , followed their charge so smartly upon them , that they soon forc'd them to a disorderly retreat , and quickly made them strive to take their leave of their ground : but the fields were over-spread with distractedly disperst soldiers both of horse and foot , some from houses out at back-doores and windows , and others from hedges in a great disorder . our party being thereby encouraged , prosecured their successe , till they had beat them up beyond the wind mill , and forc'd reserve and colours , and all they had , or could rally , to quit their ground , and so to disperse themselves , that they were forc'd to divide their horse into three squadrons or bodies , one division to keep the field against ours , having now made a stand to draw into better order ; and the other two constantly 〈◊〉 up and down , beating their foot up as they ran away : which course , had they not taken , their foot would never have disputed a hedge , ( for that was their refuge now ) and we had immediately cleared all that part of the leager . but now having gotten a very thick hedge for their shelter , and being thus forced up , began againe to stand : and our foot out of more heat of courage indeed then mature policy , having engaged thus farre , some of them still ran on , till they gained an old thin hedge , opposite to the enemy , beyond the wind-mill , where they still fir'd upon the enemy , maintaining the opposite hedge , a party of the enemies horse still wheeling about in the field between them ; which party by chance discovered that they had spent all their ammunition by hearing a soldier foolishly ●●●ing out for some , and thereupon suddenly clapt spurs to their horse , and made a full charge in upon them through that hedge , ( as they might easily doe any part of it ) who not having ammunition , nor time to retreat , were most of them kill'd and taken . till when we had lost very few in all the charge , though many were wounded in it , as could not otherwise choose in so smart a service : althrough i confesse the saints of our times have found out such a way of fighting , as to kill thousands , with the losse of very few ●nites : but t is onely tongue-charmes that guard their armies , and not any providence , that conducts them to such miracles . now the body of our party being upon their retreat , and perceiving of this , faced about againe , and received their charge with such an undaunted retort , they forced them againe to as speedy a retreat ; and so marched easily off into the towne 〈◊〉 and in very good order . in this action sir george lisle was once taken prisoner , but immediately rescued ; and in all we lost one captaine , and one lieutenant , and about , private soldien which were taken at the broken hedge , 〈◊〉 very few kill'd . mr. weston , a gentleman of the generalls troop , being shot in the belly , was also taken prisoner . of the 〈◊〉 . and odde were brought into the towne prisoners , and between two and three hundred kill'd ; amongst which was the colonell that succeeded colonell needham , in the command of his regiment , who was kill'd the first nights on-slaught , and many of them wounded ; of which very few escaped , but dyed within a very short time , as their party confessed themselves to our prisoners : either through neglect of their surgeons , ( in which we suffered very much also within the town ) or through the unseasonablenesse of the weather , 〈◊〉 that divers that came into the town afterwards , and these men too that had been formerly in the kings service , affirmed that the businesse was at the least , men 〈◊〉 to them ; besides many that left the leagure upon it , some comming into the towne , three or four in a day , and often more for a long time together , and others stealing away to their own homes . after which sally the countrymen began to disgust the service , and thought it hard duty to lie so long in the trenches , and were glad to entertain all commers that would undergo their duty for them , allowing them . s. a week constant pay to be excused themselves : by which meanes many that came up from london and other places to have joyned with us , not being able to come into the towne , entred themselves in their armes ; by which meanes they might more advantageously come to us , if it had been our fortunes to march out into the field ; but heaven had otherwise ordained , having a farther judgement for this wretched nation . the next night the enemy strengthning their leager on that part of the towne , fell into the street againe , with a stronger party then before , and possess'd themselves of their former guards and ground , and again fell to firing the houses on that side of the river next the town , supposing thereby to fire our 〈◊〉 which we had now placed in the face of them , being but a river 〈◊〉 , which much end 〈◊〉 them , and kept the fire still from doing any harme : then they set fire to all the windmills neer the town , to hinder us from grinding our corne , but we soon salved that sore ; for finding at the heith by the river side many milstones , lying for transportation , some of them were brought into the town , and diverse horse mills set up , which proved very serviceable all the seidge . then they raised two or three horne works and redoubts on the north side of the leagure , running their trench up to them from the river side over against the warren , where they placed diverse great peeces , which they played violently at 〈◊〉 mill called the middle mill upon the 〈◊〉 the only mill they supposed we had left and indeed was , excepting those horse-mils , but did little hurt to 〈◊〉 for they thought , if they dis-inabled us to grind corn for the soldiers , that they would mutiny for bread which was probable enough , and might have been , having such poysonous 〈◊〉 to set them on as they had ( i am confident ) privately 〈◊〉 amongst them , and 〈◊〉 towns people to second them ; but this was happily prevented by the dilligent care of the lo : loughborow , who made the most laborious toile as pleasing as the lightest recreation , by undertaking , and continuing the generall charge of providing all necessary provisions to be daily ordered and distributed by the commissaries to the whole town ; insomuch that he would many times half a day together continue his strict eye over both mills and bakers , lest by their indiscreet ( or it might be 〈◊〉 ) neglect , very great inconveniences might happen . the same care was also ordered to be taken by the mayor for the peeple of the town , who was commanded by the councell of war to make supplies of provision for the inhabitants of the towne , and to set up mills for the grinding their corne , who by this time began to be in want , the town very full of them , and many of them indigent peeple , who were not in a capacity to provide for themselves , nor had scarce been when the town was open : but the mayor ( whether out of a rebellious wilfulnesse , or sottish simplicity , i leave others that know him to judge ) but as i guesse my self , rather desiring to hazard the starving them , that so by the violent instigation of unmercifull hunger they should be urged to a mutiny in the towne , by which meanes the enemy might take hold of our confusion amongst our selves , and over-whelme us in a suddain and generall destruction ; for , notwithstanding all 〈◊〉 and dayly urgencies from the lord loughborow , and sir charles lucas , he still neglected all care to provide corne for those who had none , or mills to grind for those who had yet some left . whereupon the poor of the town having quite exhausted their provision , began to throng together , making great clamours and exclamations of their ill usage , and the necessities they were fallen into , their bellies sounding alarums to their mouthers , made their mouthes instruments to thunder them forth to the ears of the officers of the army , now not at all reflecting upon the duty of the mayor and officers of the town : then sir charles lucas at the next councell of war ( commisserating them as his own towns-born people ) made his desire to the lords , that they might have some corn delivered them out of the generall store , which was as easily granted as motioned , and an order immediatly drawne ; by which order the comissaries were appointed to deliver to every family according to the number of people in it , such a proportion of bread-corn , which amounted in grosse to . quarter of wheat and rye ; the want whereof proved afterwards so great an inconyeniency to our selves , as that half that quantity would have supported us til we had obtained better conditions from the enemy . at a councell of war the . by a generall consent , the earl of norwich caused this ensuing declaration to be dispers'd , as well in the enemies leager , as in the country : a declaration of his excellency , george lo : goring , earle of norwich : with the gentlemen and freeholders of the county of kent and essex , in arms for the presecution of their generall petition , and solemne engagement : and their offer unto all such officers & soldiers as shal repair unto them . could prosperity make us insolent , this overture should be the story of our present fortunes : how numerous , how unanimous , how associated , how associated , or ( in a word ) how heaven and earth conspire to our deliverance . consider with what assurance we have managed our very despaires , and raised our selves to this height out of nothing . consider withall , that we move still by the same resolves , as we are favoured and encouraged by that hand of providence , which at first raised us . from this posture ( gentlemen and fellow-subjects ) we salute you in a temper of love , and christianity , disingaged ( we assure you ) from any interest , or mixture of revenge or feare . peace is the end we aime at , and by peace , if it be possible , we propound to accomplish that end . to which purpose , upon a sad and 〈◊〉 thought , how many innocent soules are seduced by the imposture of a pretended liberty , and how many more corrupted , by their owne importune necessity , into an erroneous , and unfortunate engagement ; all which must in probability perish , except they may be recovered by the offer of this , and this onely expedient : what officer , or soldier soever , now in armes against us , shall before the . of this gresent july , make his repaire unto us , or any part of our forces , and there enter into an ingagement , not to act any thing against us for the future , shall have his arreares audited and paid : and we doe further oblige our selves , to interpose unto his most sacred majestie , for an act of indemnity ; the successe whereof from our gracious soveraigne the king , we at all doubt not . and for the performance on our parts , we 〈◊〉 our honours and the faith of the county ; avowing with all , that we designe nothing of alteration either in church or common-wealth , but what this present parliament hath declared to be the duty of good christians , and loyall subjects . july the the enemy drew downe upon the heith , where we had a guard placed in the church , but the officer ( cap. horsmander by name ) who then commanded the guard no sooner saw the enemy , but delivered up his guard , himselfe , and soldiers , without so much opposition as the firing of one musquet ; which had he disputed he might in a very short time been relieyed and drawn off ; though the place could not have beene maintained . but that place proved very little benefit to them for by that time we had scarce left any thing of provision or ammunition there , onely this benefit they might receive , they might understand what a neglect they had committed , in permitting us so long to keep it within our quarters , when with so much ease they might have surprised it from us , for it lay so opportune to them to have fallen on , that had they made an attempt upon it we could not have maintained it without engaging our whole body , and quitting the towne ; and indeed had they surprised that place in any convenient time , as they might easily enough have done , before we drained it , we could not have kept the town ten dayes , there lying the greatest part of our provision , by which we afterward subsisted . the next day having drawne the line very neere the lord lucas his house , they planted to demy cannons , against st. maries church , from whence they fir'd threescore and odd great shot at st. maries church steeple , but did very little hurt , for with as much speed as could be a battery was raised against them upon the curtain , from whence we had not playd above four shot , but one of their best cannonneers fell , and about six men more , whereupon theydrew off their guns from that place , finding it too hot for their continuance . now the cause that made them so envious at that steeple , was because we alwaies kept a sentinell there , which discovered their motion both night , and day ; besides we had made a platforme in the frame of the bells , and planted a brasse sakar there , which flanking their trench did them much injury . the . day the enemy drawing their line neerer the lord lucas his house , under the shelter of an old wall , and some buildings , brought up two demy cannons , and battering upon the gate-house ( wherein was a guard of a hundred musketteers ) beat one side of it to the ground , which falling into their worke ( that was but a small halfe moone drawne from one side of the great house to the other ) anoyed them very much ; then fired two or three granadoes immediately with it , which buried many in the stones and dust , the rest not able to stand the shock ; betaking themselves to their swords , and the but ends of their muskets , disputed it very hard from one place to another , after they had lost their line , till most of them got away , some out of the wicket of the gate , and some out of the windowes , and broken places of the house . the officers also forcing their liberty with the points of their swords , came all off safe . neither could the enemy much boast of this surprise , although it were some advantage to them ; for they purchased it with the losse of many stout men , and of their oldest soldiers , who they quickly found by the wall and trench sides , some dead , and others speaking their enemies valour , in their owne miserable dying grones , whilest of the whole guard consisting of a hundred men , not above ten were taken prisoners , and some foure or five kill'd , many i confesse were wounded , but came off and recovered . and having thus 〈◊〉 themselves of this house , ( as it is their custome in all other places , the first thing thought on is plunder ) they fell to searching the house , and those things that were in it 〈◊〉 though little of worth , or conveniency they tooke away ; which could be little more then bedsteeds , and 〈◊〉 , and the like . that house having beene 〈◊〉 times before , and indeed the 〈◊〉 in the kingdom , as is believed plundred : but finding themselves no better rewarded for their service , that they might be more notorious in their villany , broke up the vault wherein the ancesters of that family were usually interred , under the pretence of searching for money , and finding them not yet quit dissolved , the corps of the lady lucas , and the lady killigrew , ( as i received it from eye witnesses ) wrapt in lead ; they tore open that coffine , beyond what ever was known or read of before , or amongst the most unhumane barbarous thoughts , dismembred their trunks , throwing a legge in one corner of the vault , and arme in another , and were so impudent in this so and worse then 〈◊〉 act , as to beare away the haire of their heads in their hats as a triumphant 〈◊〉 in honour to their villanie . in which posture the vault continued , till the corps of sir c. lucas , that loyall martyr , was brought to possesse it . is not that common-wealth happy that must receive a reformation from such saints ? who have these ten yeares been practising acts , absolutely monstrous to even nature it selfe : beyond parallel , president , or politicall complotment of the most subtill machavillian , or bloudy tyrants in the world . by this time our magazeens began to be very empty , all our flesh being spent , whereupon the next businesse that was concluded on and ordered , was the searching what private stores there were in the towne , but they proved as weake as the other , then the councel of warre , ( receiving a returne of the searches what the condition of the towne was , for matter of provision , who had now examined every private family . ) ordered that all the horse excepting two hundred , should in the night 〈◊〉 forth , and breake through the leager , and if they could get through with that convenience they wished , to march northward towards our supposed relife ; for at that time we had received very great assurance by private letters , that reliefe was intended , and hasting towards us from duke hamilton , under the command of sir marmaduke langdale : so the horse were allidrawne to a rendevouz in the castle yard late in the night , and a party of foot with them for their assistance in forcing the enemies line with pioneers , to levell a way for them to let the horse in , when the foot should have 〈◊〉 the enemy from their line , which was supposed would easily have beene performed , and thus they marched over the river by the middle-mill , and came within the enemies centinells e're they were discovered , or any part of their guards alarmed ; but their guides , and pioneers ( being for the most part townsmen ) as out of a plotted combination amongst them , ran away from them , the night being dark . so they were forc'd to retreat againe into the towne which they did , without the losse of a man but it gave the enemy so much notice , as 〈◊〉 made an absolute discovery , together 〈◊〉 their intelligence from the towne : so it 〈◊〉 ( though afterwards ) but bootlesse to 〈◊〉 a second attempt . at the next councell of warre , considering that the stores were so exhausted , and all the stesh , or very near the matter , spent , it was thought most convenient to keep those horse , which were fitting , for the souldiers to eat ; so they were againe drawn into the castle yard , with order that not any officer whatsoever should conceale his horses , but cause them to be brought into the field , upon the forfeiture of them to immediate slaughter ; & the dpart of every troop drawn out and disposed to the commissary to be kill'd , and some to be immediately distributed , and the rest powdred ; which the soldiers very willingly submitted to , and as cheerfully fed upon them , rather than deliver themselves to their enemies , upon any base or dishonourable terms , which expressions of theirs were so common and publique , as that the enemy hearing of our falling to horse-flesh , heard also of that resolution of the souldiery , which did something startle them ; for before they hoped for , and expected , our da yly submission to a treaty for rendidion . now upon the last search that was made in the townsmens houses and shops for all things edible , there was very little corne found , as in some houses not above a peck , and in some two , some none , or any flesh hardly , yet was there a good quantity of spice and oyle ; which so far as it would hold out , proved very usefull with the horse-slesh ; some starch also was found , which was preserved , and made very good puddings . it hath been reported , as i understand that at this time we had some reliefe brought into us by water , from the 〈◊〉 at sea , but it was nothing at all true , for although there were a river that came up to the town , yet the sea was not 〈◊〉 by seven miles of the town and upwards ; and besides the enemy had possest themselves of the blockhouse against the island of mersey that commanded the passe into it , so that no boat could stir by them to the hieth , which was the neerest place that any could come . and it hath also been esteemed a very great ruine to the engagement , that the 〈◊〉 was neglected and lost , for want of first possessing that fort. as for my part i believe no such thing , for indeed had we taken it , as it was once intended , and col. tuke ( though to late the enemy being pre-possest ) appointed for the same designe , i cannot understand any way possible that it could have been any thing beneficiall , as the constitution of our interest then was ; for it lay above seven miles then from us , so that the enemy falling about the town and begirting us , as we might without any prospective of extraordinary policy discover , would possesse themselves of all parts of the river betwixt them and home , and soon hinder all recourse betwixtus , the river being not above twelve foot broad in most places ; then had it been the same thing in respect of the river , and those men in the fort left to worke out an improbable safety for themselves . neither was it such an island as some fancy it to be , that is not capable of releiving halfe such a body as we then were , had we endeavoured to seek any sanctuary there , as some would beleive would have been our best course , when we saw we could not keep the field ; and to thinke to strengthen our power by dividing it , is a stratagem beyond my shallow capacity , and i am certaine no policy of machiavils , unlesse our number had been compleat to have engarison'd both places and if they shall think that had we marched intire thither we might have been relieved by sea , they are easily answered , that though we knew of the submission of the ships to the royall authority , yet we did not understand the condition they were in , which had we , i suppose was such , as not to be able to furnish us with a months provision , much less more , when they could hardly victual themselves , and i would faine have those politick men informe me , which way we could expect reliefe there , when five hundred men at the passe would have kept us in till we should be starved , and the army at liberty to march whither they pleased to obstruct all parties from rising to our assistance . but let men dispute and censure what they please ; the enemy ( having possest themselves of the lord lucas his house , and the hieth ) began to draw their line more streight about us , and now lay absolutely round us , so that we were soddainly begirt within a very little distance ; then they brought their biggest pieces of battery , as demi-cannon , & whole culverins , neer st. johns house , and again fell to battering st. maryes steeple , and after some time beat down one side of it , and a great part of the church , & broke the saker that was planted in it , but kill'd not on man , only bruised one of the matrosses . the five and twentieth , in the night , the enemy alarum'd us round the line , and fell on upon the guard in the middle mill , against ryegate , and getting over the river at a fordable place came in upon them , and beat them off to a retreat into the town , and set fire of the mill ( colonell rainsborow commanding in chiefe ) but a party of fresh men with halberts and sithes ( most of them gentlemen ) 〈◊〉 drawn down upon them , gave them so desperate a welcome as made them soon betake themselvs to their legs , & throwing down their arms run disorderly off , and mistaking the ford of the river , many of them were drowned , and about twelve kill'd , and some five or six taken prisoners , and the mill soddainly quenched , by the souldiers throwing water into the fire with their hats ; so that little harm was done , and the enemies storm prevented , which we were informed they had intended that night . it will not be much out of the way in this progress to look into an accident that happned at this guard , neither do i think it any whit unworthy to be taken especiall notice of . an ensigne of col. tills regiment , being shot through the body , in at one side , and out at the other , with a five pound bullet , went from the guard to his quarters in the heart of the town by the help of one souldier only leading him , the bullet hanging by his side in the skin , and being laid on his bed , the bullet 〈◊〉 out and carried with it his last spirits of life ; onely giving him time to breath out this expression ; oh that i had been shot with my colours in my hand , that furling my self in them , i might have so dyed ; my friends might then have believed , i really loved my king , and that i 〈◊〉 , and cheerfully dyed in his , and my countryes service . an expression as gallant as the 〈◊〉 of the shot by which he dyed ; & pitty it were the memory of so great a loyalty should sleep in security , but be rather erected an everlasting trophee in the hearts of all true christian royalists , and consciencious subjects to his never dying fame , and it much grievs me , that i am unfortunate in the ignorance of his name . the seven and twentieth day the enemy lying in maudlin-street , began to cast up two or three redoubts in the field , betwixt it and the town , over against berry fields , ( for so were they called next east-gate ) and beginning to expresse their unwelcomnesse by their turbulent behaviour , we supposed they intended to be ill neighbours , whereupon a party was drawn forth , which made a smart sally upon them , and beat them off from their works , and followed them into the street , and houses , and kill'd many of them , still maintaining their ground ( although it were about noon-day ) till the enemy began to draw great bodyes of horse and foot upon them , then they made an orderly and fair retreat , bringing off some 〈◊〉 or more prisoners , with the losse of one man and two more hurt ; and afterwards that they grew thus near , daily sallyes were made in one place of their leaguer or other , to the end of that 〈◊〉 . on the sunday following sir william massam , one of the committees that were prisoners in the town , was sent forth in exchange for mr. 〈◊〉 ; whose man was permitted to come to the walls ( but not within the town ) where he received him ; joyfull enough of his liberty from that imprisonment ; though some have boldly asperst the gentlemen to whom they were prisoners , and avoucht that they were placed just upon the line , because they should be kill'd by the impartiall shot of their friends ; which is false enough , they being lodged there at our first comming to towne , not suspecting any such service , but as the best , and most convenient inne , and afterwards the towne being so full , would not admit any better conveniency for them , and i think , let them acknowledge only the truth , and they must needs confesse civility enough was shewed them to the end , being allowed to receive any provisions of fresh and hot meats , as venison pasties and the like into the town , without any the least opposition or affront , whilst the lords and gentlemen themselves fed generally on horse flesh . i must confesse that once or twice the top of their house was shot through with great shot from the leaguer , ( i know not what house could be assured free in the town ) whereupon they sent a speciall message to the lord fairfax , to let him know what house they lay in , and desired him that he would not shoot that way ; they should have gotten an order of parliament that the bullets should not have dared to molest them , if he did shoot that way , they might then have fedsecure . now the enemy thus proceeding in their siedge in a very formall order , crept still with their approaches neerer and neerer to us ; yet many of their men paid dearly for their boldnesse , for though by reason of the scarcity of our ammunition we could not make very great sallies upon them , nor constantly fire from the line , yet sallies were made almost every day in one part or other , and our shot so warily disposed of , that many of them fell dayly ; some of our men they often killed going out to 〈◊〉 and bring in grasse for the horse ; for we had no horse-meat left in the town , but what they first fought for , and brought in and sold ; going in parties , and some firing at the enemy whilst the others cut grasse , all the thatch from the houses , and boughes from the trees being eat up , but very few else did we lose in all the time of the siedge . august the tenth , the lady kath : scot , accompanied with some other ladies , desiring leave of the l. fairfax that she might have the liberty of going to the l. norwich her father ( the lady norwich being newly dead ) could not procure so much liberty as to goe into the towne to him , but only to come to the sally port ; and not 〈◊〉 neither but accompanied with a guard , that might hear all discourse that should passe between them ; there came with them the quarter-master generall gravener , and some other officers , and were entertained with a collation of horse-flesh , and a bottle or two of wine ; the best accommodation we could treat them with , which they eat heartily on , and liked . and now began horse-flesh to be as precious to us as the choicest meat before , the souldiers in generall , and all officers and gentlemen from the lords to the lowest degree or quality , eating nothing else , unlesse cats and doggs , which the enemy disgusted very much , expecting a dayly rendition by us , by the assurance whereof , they constantly encouraged their souldiers on , to the continuance of the hard duty they then underwent , who else would have been hardly kept together being often upon the march , either away into the country , or else to us into the town . it was so hansome a diet grown by this time amongst the souldiers to eat such food , that we could harely secure our horses in the stables , but every morning one stable or other was rob'd , and our horses knock'd o' th head , and sold in the shambles by the pound ; nor was there in a short time a dog left , for it was the custome of the souldier to reserve halfe his ammunition loafe , and in a morning walke the streets , and if he discovered a dog , to drop a peice of bread , and so drill him on , till within his reach , then with the but end of his musket knock his brains out , and away with him to his quarters ; i have known there six shillings given for the side of a dog , and yet but a small one neither . then the enemy perceiving they could work nothing upon us by summons , threats , nor force of armes , betook them to petty stratagems , sometimes sending false fires of strange improbable news of great victories over the scots , long before they ever met with them ; and lists of prisoners taken , never in arms , and such like whimsies , hoping thereby to terrifie the inferiour sort of souldiers to such a timorous apprehension of their condition , as to force their officers by their mutinous resolutions , to treat for conditions , orleave them in the lurch , which of the two this enemy rather wished , that so many gentlemen might fall a prey to their unsatiable malice . then they sent private papers into the town amongst the souldiers by women , incensing the souldiers against their officers , reproaching them with that odious name of rebels ( which they knew to whom more properly due ) and men acting against the peace of the kingdome without commission , which still they hoped would so poyson the braines of the souldiers , that if they would not mutiny , yet at least the greatest party would be incenst against their officers & quit their line , by whose loss we should have been so weak , as to be easily stormed & taken . but instead of receiving any benefit by these sucking stratagems , they wrought nothing more than an injury to themselves ; for it engaged the souldiers to higher resolutions . then they shot arrows into the town at severall places , with papers fastned to them , promising our souldiers , that if they would desert the town , they should have fair quarter , pardon for what they had done , and liberty to go to their own homes , with passes from the generall , without being plundred , or suffering the least prejudice or injury : but this neither proved any benefit to them , or injury to us , but still rather exanimated and enlivened the souldiers , who were so couragious in their resolutions as very often to expresse that they would either live with liberty , or dye with honour , neither of which could arise by a poor submission to an ignoble enemy . and now the enemy had possest themselves of al places of conveniency and advantage round about the town , and began to annoy us very much in divers places about the line , from the opposite and flanking houses , and our magazines began to grow very low of powder , so that order was given out , that the souldiers should be careful not to wast their ammunition by firing without a very reall occasion , and that no gunner should fire a cannon without the command of a field officer of his post , or a general officer of the field . but these houses under the line proved so obnoxious , that by degrees they made that line to hot for any almost to abide it ; & the enemy having found this advantage drew thicker down into the suburbs , under the shelter of the houses ; which the officers being very sensible of , knew there remained no securer remedy , sallyed out amongst them , & beat them out of the streets , & some houses they set fire to , having given order to those inhabitants 〈◊〉 , to secure and convey away their goods first ; and those which lay immediately under the line , & wall they first pull'd down by carpenters , and other workemen , that the materials might be preserved , and the lesse 〈◊〉 done to the town , and owners ; which should they have let stand , would have proved so miserable an inconveniency , that we could not have maintained the town one halfe hour , i am confident , had the enemy ever attempted a resolute storm , when once they had begirt us so close ; by reason that in many places the st airs came up to the top of the wall , in the highest places of it , so large that two or three men might haue come up a breast , and some rooms equalled the height of the wall in a perfect diameter . and if the enemy should have taken no other benefit but the opportunity of a wind , and set fire to them , they might probably have set fire of the whole town ; which they attempted the first night , and once after had effected , had not the wind been very calme , and the soldiers as extraordinary diligent in quenching still as they fired . the eleventh day more arrows were again shot into the towne to entice the souldiers by alluring charms , 〈◊〉 with as severe threats , to quit the service ; intimating , that if they came not away before the next monday ( it being then friday ) that not a man which came after should have any quarter ; which messages the soldiers still resented so well , as that they resolved to answer it by the same messengers , and took some of their own arrowes annointing them with a 〈◊〉 and wrapping the same in paper fastned it to the heads of the arrowes , and writ on the papers this superscription , an answer from colchester august the th . 〈◊〉 as you may smell ; informiug by that how little they regarded their baits , or esteemed their threatnings . and now by this time the greatest part of our horse had changed their stables for slaughter houses , and their riders being willingly dismounted took up foot arms , the gentlemen halberts , and the private troopers sithes , ready fitted with long staves for the service , which were very terrible for execution ; and there were many sithes found in the towne upon a search for arms , more than ever was known to be in the town before ; and many brown bills were also made in the town ; so that no man might be idle for want of arms ; these men were all listed both gentlemen and private troopers ( for more orderly disposing them in duty and service ) in particular companies , under the lord generall , the lord capell , and sir charls lucas ; the lord capell marching himselfe a foot , with a halbert on his shoulder , in the head of his company to the guard , that none might make any scruple or acception against it ; which company lay constantly upon reserve at severall places of the line at some distance in tents built purposely for them ; which point of warre must of necessity arise from as high a conveniency as any , and indeed was a course constantly practised amongst the best and most judicious conquerours of the world , and they have left us arguments for it in the chronologie of divers victories obtained , and lost fields recovered by fortune and resolute reserves , although but of small numbers , of which i shall instance one of serverus the emperour , who in a battle against albinus , generall of the britains , before lugdunum was himselfe put to 〈◊〉 , beaten off his horse , and hid himselfe , whilst the britains followed the chase , chanting out their prayse as victors ; till latus , one of serverus his officers , staying behind with some fresh troops , and making a fresh charge , the serverians took heart againe , and mounting serverus , put on his purple * 〈◊〉 , when the albinians thinking themselves masters of the field , being disordered , and furiously charged by fresh troops , after a short resistance fled , the severians following them with great execution to the city gates . now these companies must not be understood neither , for the only reserves we had , for it was the constant method of the armies duty in generall ( for i cannot willingly , nor i thinke rationally , tearm it a garrison , but a quarter ) to lie every regiment on their severall post , the one halfe upon guard , and the other all night very neere , at the most convenient place upon reserve . and having maintained and held it out in defiance of a proud , succesfull , and imperious enemy ( this being the of august ) still cherishing our resolutions with hopes of reliefe , and having yet no certaine intelligence of the state of affairs in the other parts of the kingdom , nor reliefe approaching , and our stores very much-wasted , insomuch that all our corn was welnigh spent , and very little ammunition left to maintaine our guards only with ; by a generall result of the councell of warre , his excellency the lord norwich , the lord 〈◊〉 , and sir charles lucas , signed letters to the lord fairfax , to desire him to grant them twenty dayes respite , and a passe through his quarters , for them to send some gentlemen to sir marmaduke langdale , that they might receive a reall information of his condition , and if they found him as they had given him out , and not advancing towards us , and that in that time there was no hopes of reliefe , that then they would treat for surrender . other hopes we had none left ( and indeed but little reason for these ) the duke of buckinghams , and the earle of hollands parties were already dissolved into nothing ( indeed without doing any thing ) and no other parties risen , or expressing any inclinations , much lesse intentions , to it . but this would not be granted ; then they were forced to send away private spies and messengers , and concluded in a generall resolution , to maintaine and defend it to the last ; and in that time not to be idle with them , but as active as the want of ammunition would admit ; and according to those resolutions , send out a party every day or night at the sally port ( they went voluntarily upon it ) and sallying upon them were troublesome enough to them , and kept them upon constant and hard duty ; but ultra posse , non est esse ; and our ammunition was so exhausted , that we could not send out great parties often ; yet found out a way with what materials could be gotten to make some match , which though it were not so good as what we had before , yet served our present necessity ; and some powder also we made , but it was not much , for we were forced to resigne ere we could bring it to prefection . then our commissaries began to complain their stores which were almost empty , the people generally much necessitated for bread ( the true staffe of life ) and the poorer sort meerly for want of corne neer starving , we being not able to relieve them againe . then the poore people petitioned the l. fairfax by the mayor and aldermen , that they might have liberty to leave the town and disperse themselves into the country amongst their friends , that would keep them from famishing . but he thought it not policy to grant it , but on the contrary gave order to his whole army round the leaguer , that if any should be turned forth , by us , they should fire at them ; but at that time they considered by their privat friends ( our bosome enemies ) their town intelligence , that we had made proclamation at that time , that whosoever had not twenty dayes provision in their houses , should depart the town , as well rich as poore ; at which time search being made againe , very few were found to have provision for above two or three dayes , and then the enemy having given this unchristianlike , though politick , order , it would have been a very difficult thing , to have forc'd so many people through a sally port , and dangerous to attempt , who of themselves were apt enough to a mutiny , and as inhumane a policy ( though policy it would have been ) to have forced them from their own houses upon the swords of a most cruell and mercilesse enemy . then the stores were again reviewed , and the magazine also , and the stores found to be so empty as not to yeeld two dayes provision of bread in them , for the whole army ; and the magazine not to maintain two hours fight , if a storme should happen : then a councell of warr was again summoned , where this want being considered , it was agreed , that it was the best course to treat with the enemy in time ; and by the major part by voices it was carried ; and letters accordingly were drawn up , and doctor 〈◊〉 a phisician then living in the town employed in the message . and now too sad it was to understand , we had done our utmost , and as much that was , i think , as was possible for men to doe in our condition ; having engaged so potent and conquering an enemy so long , with so inconsiderable a party , and now at the last destitute of any hopes remaining of a possible relief in so short a time as our condition would enable us to hold out . the next morning the doctor returned again with this answer from the generall ; that we had held it out so long against him , and to the utmost denyed his summons , that the best conditions wee must expect from him , must be to submit to merey , only that the inferiour officers and souldiers should have liberty to go to their owne homes . which was so much beyond the honour of our actions , that it was thought as unhonourable to be accepted . tuesday the two and twentieth , early in the morning more arrowes were shot into the town at severall places of the line , with papers fastned to them , wherein was written as followeth . august . . vvhereas on sunday last , in a letter to the lord goring , lord capel , and sir charles lucas , conditions were offered to all private souldiers , and inferiour officers under 〈◊〉 , to have liberty to go to their severall homes , without injury or violence ; and all superiour officers , lords and gentlemen to submit to mercy . and whereas the same hath been concealed from the souldiers and inferiour officers aforesaid , neverthelesse if they will before thursday next lay hold on the said conditions , and come away in a body from the enemy , the same conditions shall be performed to them which have been offered ; but in case they shall suffer the 〈◊〉 - people ( whom we shall not receive ) to be turned out of the town , and suffer them to perish under the walls , they must expect no mercy ; and if the towns-men in armes shall joyne with the soldiery in coming forth in a body as aforesaid , they shall also be free from violence . this prety little stratagem they thought would have infused such a wild-fire in the mutinous brains of the rout , as would in an instant have blown our interest into ayr , and invited the soldiery to have delivered their officers up as a sacrifice to obtein their own liberty : but their hopes were laid flat in this , for instead of a compliant acceptance of these propositions , they resolved to accept of no conditions , wherein their officers should not receive a benefit . the councell of warre having also the day before permitted doctor glyston to go out again , with one master sheffield ( one of the committee then prisoner in the town , brought from ( helmsford ) to mediate with the generall for the people of the town , sent also by him other letters concerning the souldiery , for condiditions of rendition , but answer was returned , that they had given us a former account of what conditions they would give us , and those they would stand to , and no other we must expect . and now being drawn to a sad exigency , and plunged into a very great extremity , it was not for us to protract time , but to adde wing to our resolutions , and close up our mis-fortunes as neer as we could , with an honourable conclusion , and with the best contrivancy of speed that might be ; for we had scarce left uneaten , one cat or dogge in the towne , some horses we had yet alive , but not many , for there were at that time in the commissaryes account a list of seven hundred nnd thirty horse , that had been kil'd by him , and orderly distributed out ; besides those that the soldiers had stoln out of the stables and kill'd , and others that gentlemen flaughtred for their privat tables , which i am consident made the number above eight hundred ; and for bread there was not corne left for one dayes provision , and many mouths to feed , for we had made all kind of corne the town would afford , as mault , barley , oates , wheat , rye , pease , and all we could recover into bread , for eight weeks togegether , to lengthen our store , still contented to undergoe any thing in particular that we might advance the generall service ; but our hopes were now quite dissolved in absolute feare of unavoidable ruine . yet this gastly visage of our interest could not exile that incomparable courage that generally inspired this gallant party with lively actions and patient sufferance , as if it had been equally indifferent to them , contentedly to undergoe prosperity or misfortune ; all mens resolutions were set on fire to desperate designs and by some unpresidented attempt to ruine their enemy , or to perish nobly in the enterprize , since it is much better to die honourably , than live basely . the meanest of the soldiers as yet held a conformable obedience to the commands of their officers , undaunted in their courages , and couragious in their actions , notwithstanding the many defigns and politick engines the enemy had imployed to alienate them from their duty , and dishearten them in their service . but least there might be any mis-apprehension betwixt the soldiers and officers upon the putting any designe in execution , this engagement was drawn , and generally signed by the officers , and gentlemen through the quarters . wee whose names are here under written , doe in the presence of almighty god , protest against all conditions that are or shall be sent from the 〈◊〉 , by which our libertyes may be infringed , and our honours blemisht . and we doe upon our honours solemnly engage our selves , not to desert one another , nor the foot , till by gods assistance we have forced our passage through all that shall oppose us , or to perish in the act , which we 〈◊〉 this three and twentieth of august , one thousand six hundred forty eight . then the town was againe searched what provisions was left , a severe account given , and all private stores taken , and brought into the commissaries , leaving but to every family that had most but one peck of corne , of all or any sorts , yet all would hardly amount to one dayes provision of bread . the next day being thursday the foure and twentieth , the enemy sent in a paper kite to the towne , which hovering a good while over , that the souldiers might take notice of it , at last they let drop in the midest of it , with many papers fixt to it , to the same purpose as those before shot in with the arrowes , and with them a book also of the relation of a great victory over the scots , and their generall rout ; and within two howers after made a generall triumph through the whole leaguer , giving a volley both of small and great shot , round the town in all quarters ; and some of their shot playing thick into the town gave us a very strong alarum , and as great hopes that it was but the forerunner of a storme , or the beginning of one , till we perceived it at so great a distance , as beyond and about the windmill beyond the east-street . but now their assurances were so great of gaining a victory without blowes , that they thought ( as indeed it was ) the best policy to forbeare , although they had drawn their approaches so near the line under berry fields , by the shelter of a wall which was yet standing , as that their souldiers from the trenches , and ours from the line might talke together , and throw stones at one another , and did frequently . friday the five and twentieth , the councell of war met againe early in the morning , where they resolved to send the lord fairfax word into the leaguer , that since he denied to treat upon any conditions that were honourable , notwithstanding our actions and demeanours in the 〈◊〉 had been nothing but what became our honoursand fidelity , if he were pleased to make an attempt of attaking us , he should not need to spring any mine ( as he boasted he had ready , ) but that any gate 〈◊〉 the town , that he should 〈◊〉 . choice of , should be set open , and his enterance disputed afterwards . but he was now sure ( as he thought ) of having us at an easier rate than the losse of so much blood as such a surprize must cost him if he had carried it , which he would hardly have doue . and indeed it was his best policy not at all to storme us , since he had leisure enough to wait our doome , the kingdome in generall being so dull & sluggish , as not to act any thing that might require his remove ; which had but any parts done by rising , though with small parties , at that time , might have easily forced him to ; so that he must either attempted a surprize by storm , or fairly retreated with a hazard ' of his honour , if not his army ; and 〈◊〉 he storm'd we had endangered the shattering of his whole body , the edge of whose fury was by this time much taken off , and somthing startled both at our resolutions and courses for defence , and much frighted at our sithes , and scalding pitch , which was kept boyling in iron pots and caldrons , every night round the line , with long ladles to cast it over the rampire upon their storming . wherefore considering the condition we were so sadly plunged in , through the defeat of the scots , the disloyalty of the whole kingdom , and the want we were in of provision to subsist any longer , not having any hopes that we could possibly hold out two dayes longer , unlesse without bread , which we must do , or not 〈◊〉 all ; it was the finall result of the councell of warre , to draw out the whole party that night , to their arms , both horse and foot , with what ammunition was lest , which was not much , and as many short scaling ladders as could be procured in the interim , and in the deadest time when we might be least expected , to set open two of the gates , and march out and storme their line , and so falling into their head quarters , beat up their whole army , and relieve our selves , or force our march through all oppositions that they should endeavour to obstruct us with , or perish in the attempt ; and if the private souldiers should entertaine any suspicion that the gentlemen , and officers , who had yet horses , should seeke out their safety by flight , and leave them engaged every man ( excepting only the general and the major general ) to pistol his own horse in the head of them ; which design being agreed on , and secrecy enjoyned , and every one taken his orders according to his duty in it , the councel broke up , & every man betook himself with the utmost of his endeavours to the making preparation in the day for the nights service . the enemy having this day planted four great pieces for battery against berry field ; fired about sevenscore great shot in the foorenoon against the old wall , but did very little hurt , only beat off the tops of two old ruined towers upon it , and kill'd some three men . this was taken as an opportune alarm to call the souldiers generally to the line , whereby they might unexpectedly be in a readinesse for the intended sally without bag or baggage , which was concluded generaly to be left behind ; for if we gained our hoped victory , we should command both them again , & our enemies to boot ; if we failed , we resolved to have no need of them . this i confesse would have been a desperate enterprise , but as noble , and had it proceeded to action , it might ( for ought i know ) to as honourable success , by a glorious victory ; and turned not only to our own liberty , but the whole kingdomes freedom , and peace ; as it hapned in paris once , when the duke of 〈◊〉 being besieged , and so distrest , that his soldiers called out to him to yeild rather then starve , made a resolute sally upon the french army , destroyed the whole body , and took the king prisoner ; and from 〈◊〉 marched against rome , where , although he was killed , yet the army took the city , and besieged the pope in the castle of 〈◊〉 . now all things were almost in a redinesse before night , and the ammunition and scaling ladders brought to a particular place , ready to be carried to the line ; but long ere night there was some officers that ( although i am so charitable as to think not dissenting from the designe ) alleged many arguments , that it might be better deferred till the next night , because they thought that then they should be in a far better readinesse ; by which means it was put off . but that night , by a most desperate misfortune , though by what means i know not , but before morning , some mutinous spirit had insinuated , into the private souldiers , that the officers and the rest of the gentlemen were resolved that night , or very sodenly to break away through the leaguer , and escape , and leave them all engaged . which sparke role to such a flame , as indeed proved a prefating comet to our succeeding ruine , and those souldiers so remarkeably gallant before , gave a curbe to that couragious spirit that guided their actions in the honourable obedience ; and poysoned their disturbed brains , into a frenzy of desperate mutiny round the line ; in fome places threatning to cast their officers over the line : so high a mutiny indeed it was grown before day , that it was rather likely to end in an immediate ruine to themselves and officers too , than a 〈◊〉 ; for the enemy never wanted their incendiaries amongst us , to agravate any mischiefe that mightpost forward our destruction , and wee might be assured would not only ( and did ) adde 〈◊〉 to this unnaturall combustion , but give the 〈◊〉 notice thereof , that they might make the best use of it . then the lords , and sir charls 〈◊〉 , sir william 〈◊〉 , and sir george lisle , expressed themselves indeed in all the proceedings , men as active as honourable , and beyond expression in both ; but never more than in the managing of this businesse , the rest of the officers as diligently bestirring themselves also as could be expected , and indeed to admiration , so that at the last they had wrought a little mildnesse amongst them , by endeavouring to give them all the satisfaction that could be in this their misapprehension . yet notwithstanding all endeavours to pacifie and allay this strangly conjured devill , it proceeded so on till it grew to such a height , that many left their guards and got in crouds about the line , and at the last , whilst the councell of war was sitting , selected about thirty , which they sent to the councell , to know what their intentions were , saying , that if they would not make conditions for them , and such as they should 〈◊〉 of , they 〈◊〉 article for themselves over the line , and leave their officers to shift for themselves as they understood their officers would have done by them . this put the councell of war into a great distraction , the souldiers , till then , never having acted any thing dishonourable , or unlike the most gallant souldiers that ever defended town ; and had suffered the greatest inconveniencies that ever , i think , men did , with as extraordinary 〈◊〉 , never shewing the least discontent at any thing . these comming to the house where the councell sate , sent in two , which they supposed to be most able speakers , who being called in , the lord norwich assured them of the falsity of their allegation ; to confirme which , he also gave them a true understanding of the designe ; telling them-also , hat they were so far fro 〈◊〉 them , or seeking any good , that should not extend in as great a measure to the meanest souldier amongst them , as to themselves ; that they were resolved to give themselves a prey to their enemies mercy , ( as it proved indeed ) and cast 〈◊〉 into the greatest inconveniencies that cruelty of a bloody enemy could 〈◊〉 them with , if thereby they might 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 souldiery from suffering ; and that it was their desires to deliver themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the enemy , to purchase them an honourable liberty ; to which end , they were commissioning gentlemen to the lord fairfax to treat for it . to which the souldiers returned this answer , that they desired not any liberty that should be purchased at fo dear a rate , with many affectionate expressions of their resolutions to serve their officers again then , or at any time , when they should be commanded , and departed very much satisfied : which for the present appeased the mutiny , and so well indeed , that through their own folly their misery was like to arise , and began to examine how this jealousie began , but now it was unseasonable . and now it was as much too late to thinke of any thing but the worst of adverse fortune for the superiours , and present delivery ; the enemy already knowing as much of our condition in every respect as we our selves . so the souldiers being thus pacified and and 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was generally resolved as most convenient in that condition , to 〈◊〉 a gentleman from the councell to 〈◊〉 with the enemy for conditions , being frustrate of all hopes of longer subsistance or security , or possibility of further attempting any designe . whereupon col. sam. 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 in honour and ingenuity ) was immediately sent forth , with full power to accept of any conditions he could obtein , and to conclude before he came back , who returned not till very late that night , yet time enough to let us know the sad conclusion we were like to have . for the general ( by the instigation ofhis councel of war ) was fallen from those conditions which formerly he had offered , and now they began to insult over our miseries , and the best that could be obtained , were to deliver our selves up , the souldiers prisoners at war with all officers under captains , and the lords , and other officers and gentlemen , to submit to mercy ; and that we should send the 〈◊〉 forth ( that were prisoners with us ) the next morning , if we would have any thing at all with him . see a just judgment for disobedience , in this reward these souldiers gained to themselvs , for their so tumultuous & mutinous disorder : their own thraldom ( 〈◊〉 proved ruine to many of them ) their 〈◊〉 destruction , and ( for ought i know the ruine of a design , that might else have been so prosperous , as to give redemption to the whole kingdome from that vassalage it is unhappily plunged into . the next morning , being sunday the of august , the councell of warre meeting again , and this account given , inthere was no refuge , nor remedy left , nor any thing to trust to , but what conditions the enemy would give us ; the committee was therefore immediately dispatched , and col. tuke with five other officers sent forth again to the enemy , to confirm and signe articles for rendition , and manner of delivery . the soldiers of the enemies army and ours being already mixt on many places of the line , no fire given on either side , as if we had been absolute prisoners , long 〈◊〉 any conclusion was made . towards night they came back , and brought with them the articles , which were to be put in execution the next morning . the severall regiments to lay down their arms at their severall posts , and there to 〈◊〉 with their officers under captains , till they should be disposed of . the lords , with the rest of the officers and gentlemen to be by eight of the clock in the morning at the kings-head , and 〈◊〉 horses and arms without any imbezilment , in saint maries church-yard . all the ordnance to be 〈◊〉 on the 〈◊〉 as they were planted ; all the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , match and ball , to be left in the 〈◊〉 at the town hall which was easily don , for there was but one barrell and a halfe of powder left ; many great shot were indeed left , in the lord capels quarters , which the enemy had shot into the town , and the souldiers gathering up , sold to him for six pence a bullet . but many of our horses were taken violently out of their stables by the souldiers of the leagure , who flockt into the town before the gates were opened , contrary to the articles , and plundred every thing they could lay their hands on . and now began the last sceene of this tragedy ; the lords and gentlemen according to the articles met at the kings head , & the rest of the army at their appointed places , and all things ordered according to conditions ; & about two of the clock in the afternoon , the lord fairfax entered the town , and rid it round to view our line and shew himselfe in triumph to the inferior souldiers , but camenot near the lords ; where he found a just cause for his admiration , how it was possible we could maintaine it so long against him , whose very name was as he thought enough to conquer . then he went to his quarters in the town , where a councell of war immediately met according to his appointment to luxuriate their unsaciable mallice , in a collation of loyall blood , and raise their trophees in ruine of incomparable virtue . and after they had insulted upon our conditions , 〈◊〉 sported away some votes of contempt upon us , then lying at their unmercifull mercy , they concluded their 〈◊〉 , and decreed a barbarous sacrifice of innocent virtue , and of some prey . then they sent colonel 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to visit , as we thought the lords and gentlemen , but he brought a sentence of death in his heart , though not 〈◊〉 in his mouth , which easily discovered it selfe in his death-like 〈◊〉 . comming up into the chamber , first 〈◊〉 the lords , and afterwards came to sir charls lucas , and with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 told him , that the generall 〈◊〉 to speake with him at the 〈◊〉 of war , with sir george lisle , sir 〈◊〉 gasquoine , and colonell 〈◊〉 if he were there , but he was not there ; so sir charls 〈◊〉 as presaging what indeed did afterwards follow , took his 〈◊〉 leave of the lords and the rest of his fellow prisoners that were neer him , and calling sir george lisle ( who was in discourse , and heard not what was spoke ) and sir bernard 〈◊〉 went 〈◊〉 with him , leaving the rest of the 〈◊〉 with sympathizing souls , sighing prayers for them , for well they might imagin what evill was intended 〈◊〉 them ; though they knew them guiltlesse of any thing that might justly bring their lives in question , though 〈◊〉 the mercy of the enemy , it being a generall rule , that the greatest expression of noble valour appears in the highest civility to an enemy subjected to 〈◊〉 , and was alwaies the practice of the most gallant enemies in the world. so 〈◊〉 caesar , having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the field ( his most implacable enemy ) pursued him into 〈◊〉 , where , when he came , his head was presented to him ( treacherously taken off ) by theodotus , who thought 〈◊〉 that means to ingratiate himselfe into 〈◊〉 extraordinary favour with 〈◊〉 ; but he no sooner beheld it , but 〈◊〉 of rejoycing at the 〈◊〉 of such an enemy , turned away his head , and wept ; and understanding the actors of that 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 an 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 , immediately 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be put to 〈◊〉 , and had given the 〈◊〉 reward to the other , had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the army and opposed him . many examples in 〈◊〉 kind 〈◊〉 i 〈◊〉 with , but never any for men to murder with mercy . but what should we expect in a kingdom , so heathenishly reformed , but loyall obedience by pretended law to be made rebellion , and horrid t : placed iudg of the court ; whilst innocent allegiance receives its deadly doome at the bar. the lords and gentlemen sitting thus expostulating with their discontents , and still revolving in their distracted minds what would be the event ; about an hower after came a messenger from sir charls 〈◊〉 , to desire a chaplaine to be immediately sent to him ; which strook a dead sorrow in to the hearts of all . whereat the lords ( desiring that no man might be a particular sufferer in so generall a cause ) called up one captain 〈◊〉 an officer of the enemies , and intreated him to hasten to the councell of 〈◊〉 , and desire them in the behalfe of the prisoners , that they would not make those gentlemen they had taken from them any greater sufferers then they intended to all ; who being all 〈◊〉 concerned in condition , desire also to be so in suffering . but all this could take no effect in them , having past their doom without ever calling the convicted to the court , or bar. a new unheard of way , of condemning men in our nation . the condemned , though not convicted knights , were immediately conducted to the castle ; which was nothing now but a dungeon and the county goale ; then col. 〈◊〉 comming to them , said they must prepare themselves for death ; then sir 〈◊〉 . lucas asked him , by what law they were to dye , or whether by an ordinance of parliament , by the councell of warre , or by command of the generall ? to which ireton made this answer ; that it was by the vote of the councell of war according to an order of parliament ; by which order all that were found in arms were to be 〈◊〉 against as traytirs . then sir charls lucas replyed , alas ! you deceive your selves , me , you cannot , but we are conquered and must be what you please to make us : with a countenance cheerfull as one going to a banquet rather than death , not shewing the least symptome of feare ; but as it were scorning death as much as he did the instruments that gave it ; only he desired time till the next morning , as to settle some things in this world , so especially to prepare and fit his soul for another , but that could not be granted , then he went on again , sir , doe 〈◊〉 think i make this request 〈◊〉 of any desir : i have to live , or escape the death you have doom'd me to , for i scorn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life at your 〈◊〉 ; but that i might have time to make 〈◊〉 addresses to god above , and settle some things below , that i might not be thrown 〈◊〉 of this world with all my sins 〈◊〉 me ; but since it will not be by 〈◊〉 charity , i must submit to the mercy of 〈◊〉 whose holy will be done ; do your worst i shall soon be readyfor 〈◊〉 . sir george 〈◊〉 said very little , only in the like manner desired a little respite , that he might have time to write to his father and mother ; but was also denyed . true servants of their old master , and good practitioners in his doctrine , thought it not enough to destroy the body , but as much as in them lay to kill the soule also . but colonel 〈◊〉 having taken his leave of them , they took an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that poyson , and went immediately to prayers ; sir charls lucas first praying and breathing forth such zealous expressions and heavenly ejaculations that 〈◊〉 seemed translated already into another world while he was yet alive , they afterwards prayed with the chaplain , and received the blessed sacrament . this religious devotion being finished they were hastned , forth into the castle-yard to be executed ; but sir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( whom they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ere they understood what conntry-man he was , and after they had again considered of him ) was reprieved out of the consideration that he was a stranger to the kingdome . when these two true english worthies came to the place appointed for execution ( scarce to be believed amongst christians or men of humanity ) there came col. 〈◊〉 , rainsborow , and 〈◊〉 to be as well spectators as actors , in this inhumane tragedy ; to make their eyes witnesses ( though not their soules sensible ) of their unchristianity . where they found the loyal 〈◊〉 , ready to be sacrific'd , & with as undanted resolutions to receive death there ; as ever before they had dared it in the field , where the boldest rebell never gained honour by questioning their gallantry . sir charls being the first that was to receive this honour of martyrdome told them that he had often looked death in the face in the field , and now they should see he durst dye ; then having a little while retired himselfe upon his knees , he rose upwith a chearfull countenance and opening his doublet , shewed them his breast and setting his hands to his sides calls out to them , see i am ready for you , now rebells do your worst ; so they immediatly fired at him and shot him in foure places ; so that he was suddainly dead . then sir george lisle his turne being next , ( being before carried a little aside , that he might not see his friend fall ) was brought to the place to perform the conclusive part of this bloody scene ; and viewing the body of his dear friend and fellow martyr dead and bleeding on the ground , kneled down and kist it sobbing forth a funerall elegie in many sweet characters of his peerlesse and unspotted honour . then standing up , took out of his pocket five pieces of gold ( the whole stock he had about him ) and gave one of them to his executioners , and the rest to a gentleman then standing by ( who formerly had been his servant ) to deliver as his last legacy to some friends in london , with some filial expressions of duty to his father and mother , and recommendations to some other friends . then turning to the spectators said , oh! how many of your lives here have i saved in hot blood , and must now my self be most barbarously 〈◊〉 in cold ? but what dare not they doe that would willingly cut 〈◊〉 throat of my dear king , whom they have already imprisoned ; and for whose deliverance , and peace to this unfortunate nation , i dedicate my last prayers to heaven , and now traytors do your worst . then standing regardless of them with many invocations on the name of iesus , was suddenly also thrown dead on the ground ; which place lest there should want a monument of that cruell 〈◊〉 to all eternity , i am informed ( by those , and they divers , who have since viewed it ) is yet bare of grasse , & cannot be forced by any art to bear any . and since i have endeavoured to erect . a monument to their immortall fames , though but their very names alone were enough to adorn it , yet shall adventure ( though with a hazard of many a heavy censure for my audacity ) to imprint this epitaph upon it's cloudy front . though heer 's no calpe , nor arbyla nigh , yet here two pillars with non ultra lye ; and those herculean too whose red 〈◊〉 st ands ( as t'other ) crusht betwixt . mighty lands . measure their lives by their brave images in death ( as by the foot was hercules ) each a colosse of honor was , and strid or'e 〈◊〉 higher than a pyramid . their foes ( more 〈◊〉 than what affrick bred ) insulted when these noble victimes bled ; whilst they were glad their souls were vshers made to march in glory 〈◊〉 the royall 〈◊〉 . malice thy work is done , while this sad isle new 〈◊〉 surround for lucas and for lisle . thus fell these matchlesse twins of valour , and payre of glorious martyrs , posting to receive the inheritance of that never-dying honour in the other world ; being thrust headlong out of this for having too much here . night being come , and the chaplaine being returned , and this being related to the lords and gentlemen , every man expected that his own turn might be next , looking one upon another with clouded faces , that dictated to each other a noble sympathy of their troubled hearts , not out of any consideration or fears of what they expected to suffer , but for the untimely loss 〈◊〉 those gentlemen so untimely by a barbarous mercy murdered . thus they were al thrust into one room , from whence if any but stept to another , he was immediatly stript stark naked ; thus continued the rest of the prisoners till about candlelighting , then in came commissary generall ireton , col. whaley , and col. ewers , and saluting the lords , told them , they were sent from the generall , to them , and the rest of the gentlemen , to tell them that now ( for they supposed it was not unknown what had been done ) he did by them give an assurance of what before they held doubtfull : faire quarter as prisoners of warre . but the lord capel , instead of returning thanks , told them , they should have given the generall 〈◊〉 thanks if he had saved the lives of those two knights , whom they had already executed , then for the grant of their own ; saying also , that their conditions in relation to the service , and their owne yet alive , were alike , and all equally concern'd in the managing of that designe , and it was their desire to have run all one hazard ; which seem'd much to displease the messengers ; after this these gallants made an exit , the lords , with some other gentlemen , were drawn out and conducted to mr. 〈◊〉 house over against the kings head . colonell farre having escaped for the present , escaped also the iudgment the other two underwent ; but was afterwards taken , and sent with a guard , to his owne quarters , and there kept close prisoner till the remove of the rest . after the generall had kept us thus up three or foure days , he found out a new stratagem , both for disposing the prisoners , and paying his army ; first he layes a fine of l. upon the towne , with which money he intended to pay the private souldiers ; and for the officers , he distributed to every regiment a certaine number of gentlemen that were prisoners , as slaves to the gallyes , or to ransome themselves . the officers whereof came to the pound ( as the manner of grasiers is by their cattell ) and cald them first out of that into another , and then drove them away for the market , to make the most of them ; so most of them afterwards as they were able , and according to the civility of those they were distributed to , bought their liberties , and returned home ; in which manner they disposed of the greatest part excepting those who in that designe were in principall command . the private souldiers and inferior officers were drawn from their line , and shut in the churches , where they immediately placed guards over them , and gave free liberty to their foot soldiers , to goe in and pillage them ; so that in a very short time there was very few or none left with any cloathes on them , hardly shirts , and afterwards they having thus pillaged and stript them , some changing for their raggs , & some giving them nothing , they march't them away , in a day when it rained so violently , as ( had we not had gods engagement to the contrary ) we might have feared a second deluge ; how they disposed of them afterwards i know not , but there are divers in the kingdom that will tell you how they marched them from place to place 〈◊〉 the country , lodging them in churches and such places till many of them starved , and divers that could not march by reason of their 〈◊〉 , they pistold in the high waies , and some they sold ( as before they did the scots ) to be transported into foraine countries from their wives and children , no matter whither so they were once gon . the lords , with the rest of the prisoners , were kept in the same places they were at first , till the tuesday following , and then ( that they might be disperst , as neare as possible to their absolute ruine ) they first ( by examining their servants ) having gotten knowledg of each particular mans country , transmitted them to severall prisons , as contrary and far distant from their own homes as they could contrive ; the lords with some of the gentlemen to 〈◊〉 , and the rest to oxford , lynn in norfolke , warwick , 〈◊〉 in cornwall , & st. michaells mount , 〈◊〉 castle in 〈◊〉 , glocester , hereford , cardiff in glamorganshire , and 〈◊〉 other places . what became of them since , is writ in the daily book of their several misfortunes . this unhappy successe waited upon these noble gentlemen and their design , which let no man judge by the event ( a great argument with those whose understandings cannot perpetrate beyond the outward bark or face of things ) for by the same inference they may conclude unrighteousnes in god , who is sometimes pleased to give victory to the enemies of his truth . it is too saucy a thing to confine his providence , or determine his holy will , for my part i am confident had our repentance been as ripe for his favour and mercy , as our sins were before ( and i feare do yet continue ) for his frowns & judgments , this engagement had brought home the ark to israell , our liberty , and his , whose glorious seat is now in heaven , while his memory on earth lives fresh in the martyrdome of the most saintlike man that ever swaid an earthly scepter . it was said by plutarch of those who murdered caesar , ex percussoribus caesaris 〈◊〉 triennium nemo vixerit , of those murderers of caesar , not one survived three years . i am no prophet , but i beleeve god is just , and it not possible , but his vengeance is preparing for so execrable a regicide , that wanteth an equall in story for the malice and barbarity . as i dare not say without blasphemy there is no god in heaven . so i must not say without treason there is no king in our 〈◊〉 , while our hopes bud in the name of charles the second , who may yet succeed his father , both in his throne and virtues . exurgat deus & 〈◊〉 inimici , you that have not hands to help him , may yet take up the arms of the church , 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . for my own part i will not despaire while there is mercy in heaven , and a just title upon earth , but he may fulfill that prophecie that is so authentickly averred concerning his person ; when all these horrid distractions and clouds shal vanish into a calm , and there shall be no more a babel city , carolus , a carolo , major erit carolo magno . to my ingenious friend upon his exact iournall of the kentish forces . vvhat i must say on this ( my very friend ) should rather be to cherish , than commend ; since criticks iury-men ( perhaps ) may grudge that one so partiall should be thy judge : yet i may draw my attestation so , that as a witnesse they may let me go . then on thy commentary ( which in right i cann't call lesse , since thou didst act and write ) i will say this ; thou dost not mercury't in any circumstance , except in wit : for he will know that language understands , thou ' st iacobs voice , as well as esau's hands . thine own heards slaughter too , thou 'st drest so neat , that to the ag'd it will be savory meat : and may they blesse the for 't , that thus doest tell with how much brav'ry lisle and lucas fell . there thou tol'dst thy saints bell , that our eyes to them might pay their annual obsequies . and shew'dst their slaughter-men , that they survive , whom they of life intended to deprive . indeed their mansion they have changed thus ; that is , they live , not in themselves , but us . thus by thy pen , thou givest them what they lost , anticipating their last rise almost : for them ( as then ) we now in glory spie , but i confesse , 't is intellectually . thy language thus givs both a life , & shape to th' martyr'd corpses , as an aesculape . yet for this art none can reward thy pen , since there 's no triumph or'e a citizen ; vnlesse you 'd sav'd ( not rais'd them ) you can't owne , a just pretence unto the grassy crown , thus ( stead of lawrell ) i must now bequeath nought to thy front , except a cypresse wreath . for ( i think ) rightly no man understands a fatall tragedy , that claps his hands . 〈◊〉 ( friend ) thou seest , i can no bayes conferre ; i le be thy vsher not thy trumpetter . thy new born off-spring i will cherish rather , ( as gossips doe ) saying , 't is like the father . your impartiall fidelio , g : w. to the ingenious author of these commentaryes . i 've read thy tract , this is my summ , thou 'st made thy kent , our christendome . roderigoe . to my honoured friend upon his commentary . those able souls who can claim great estates in the large fields of fancy , whose conceits free , high , & virgin in each golden-line , like gems set in that glistering metall shine , may chance go neer to cloath their muse ( my friend ) in a fit equipage for to attend thy triumph , when a poor , and needy braine must be a blot in thy more pompeous train . when such as i endeavoure thee to praise , we do but bring thee thorns instead of bayes , and by an indiscreet affection wound , those temples we intended to have crown'd . yet must i on , and so with what i doe thee injury , must crave thee pardon too ; for should i see thee thus engag'd among an hoast of enemies , fcourg'd by thy tongue , and like a true-borne coward , nor strike a blow in thy behalfe , nor dare to face the foe , as well might these great spirits who there dy'd condemn my cowardice , as now my pride . th' hast greater art than d●dalus ere knew to twist ev'n inke it selfe into a clew . more power than the highest fates afford , makes paper fighting , and a pen a sword. then lead the way , and we will learn of thee anew to spell our mis-lead loyalty . thou who could'st guide us thorow the wild maze of error , and teach truth those narrow waies shee 's often lost in , learn confused fame in her mixt dialect for to speak plain , taught by what thou 'st observd , and done before , and now hast said wee 'l act , and erre no more . no more shall kent hang down her drooping head , and sadly tell the number of her dead ; but blesse her overthrow , as proud that thou hast taught her thus the way to conquest now . lucas , and lisle , shall start amaz'd that words should have a pow'r to vindicate their swords . and charls himselfe confesse his wain to be a great deal fitter to be driv'n by thee . nay which is more , he shall at length confesse his wain full mooned by thy brains increase . e. p. finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e h. i. h. * a military mantle . eben-ezer a memoriall of the deliverance of essex, county, and committee, being an exposition on the first ten verses of the third chapter of the prophesie of habakkuk in two sermons. the first preached at colchester before his excellency on a day of thanksgiving for the surrender thereof. the other at rumford unto the committee who were imprisoned by the enemy sep. . a day set apart unto thanksgiving for their deliverance. / by john ovven pastor of the church of god which is at coggeshall. owen, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing o thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) eben-ezer a memoriall of the deliverance of essex, county, and committee, being an exposition on the first ten verses of the third chapter of the prophesie of habakkuk in two sermons. the first preached at colchester before his excellency on a day of thanksgiving for the surrender thereof. the other at rumford unto the committee who were imprisoned by the enemy sep. . a day set apart unto thanksgiving for their deliverance. / by john ovven pastor of the church of god which is at coggeshall. owen, john, - . [ ], p. printed by w. wilson, for the authour, london : . running title reads: a memoriall of the deliverance of essex, county, and committee. annotation on thomason copy: "decemb:". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng bible. -- o.t. -- habakkuk iii, - -- sermons -- early works to . sermons, english -- th century. colchester (england) -- history -- siege, -- sermons -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no eben-ezer: a memoriall of the deliverance of essex, county, and committee, being an exposition on the first ten verses of the third chapter owen, john d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion eben-ezer a memoriall of the deliverance of essex , county , and committee , being an exposition on the first ten verses of the third chapter of the prophesie of habakkvk in two sermons . the first preached at colchester before his excellency on a day of thanksgiving for the surrender thereof . the other at rumford unto the committee who were imprisoned by the enemy sep. . a day set apart unto thanksgiving for their deliverance . the righteous man is delivered out of trouble , and the wicked commeth in his stead , prov. . . by john ovven pastor of the church of god which is at coggeshall . london , printed by w. wilson , for the authour , . to his excellency thomas lord fairfax , &c. sir , almighty god having made you the instrument , of that deliverance and peace , which in the county of essex , we do injoy , next to his own goodnesse , the remembrance thereof is due unto your name . those who honour him , he will honour , and those who despise him shall be lighty esteemed . sam. . . part of these ensuing sermons , being preached before your excellency , and now by providence called forth to publick view , i am imboldned to dedicate them unto your name , as a small mite of that abundant thankfulnesse , wherein all peace-loving men of this county stand obliged unto you . it was the custome of former days , in the provinces of the roman empire , to erect statuas and monuments of gratefull remembrance , to those presidents and governours , who in the administration of their authority , behaved themselves , with wisdome courage and fidelity . yea instruments of great deliverances and blessings , through corrupted natures folly , became the pagans deities . there is scarce a county in this kingdome wherein and not one from which , your excellency hath not deserved a more lasting monument , then ever was erected of corinthian brasse : but if the lord be pleased , that your worth shall dwell only in the prayses of his people , it will be your greater glory , that being the place , which himselfe hath chosen to inhabit . now for a testification of this , is this only intended ; beyond this , towards men , god pleading for you , you need nothing but our silence . the issue of the last ingagements , whereunto you were called , and enforced , answering , yea outgoing your former undertakings , giving ample testimony of the continuance of gods presence , with you , in your army , having stopped the mouths of many gain-sayers , and called to the residue in the language of the dumbe speaking aegyptian hieroglyphick , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , men of all sorts know , that god hateth impudence . it was said of the romans in the raysing of their empire , that they were , saepe praelio victi , bello nunquam ; so naked hath the bow of god bin made for your assistance , that you have failed neither in battell nor war . truly had not our eyes beheld the rise , and fall , of this latter storm , we could not have bin perswaded that the former atcheivements of the army under your conduct , could have bin parallell'd . but he who always enabled them to out doe not only others , but themselves , hath in this carried them out , to out-doe , what ever before himselfe had done by them , that they might shew more kindnesse and faithfulnesse , in the latter end , then in the beginning . the weary oxe , treadeth hard . dying bites , are often desperate . halfe ruined carthage , did more perplex rome , then when it was entire . hydras heads ( in the fable ) were increased by their losse ; and every new stroke begot a new opposition . such seemed the late tumultuating of the exasperated party in this nation . in the many undertakings of the enemy , allwhich themselves thought secure , and others esteemed probable , if they had prevailed in any one , too many reasons present themselves , to perswade , they would have done so in all . but to none of those worthies , which went out under your command , to severall places in the kingdome , can you say with augustus to varus , upon the slaughter of his legions by harminius in germany , quintile vare redde legiones , god having carried them all on with successe and victory . one especially in his northern expedition , i cannot passe over with silence , who although he will not , dare not say of his undertakings , as caesar of his asian war , veni , vidi , vici , knowing who workes all his workes for him , nor shall we say of the enemies multitude , what captaine gam , did of the french , being sent to spy out their numbers , before the battell of agin-court , that there were of them , enough to kill , and enough to take , and enough to runne away , yet of him , and them , both he , and we , may freely say , it is nothing with the lord to help , either with many , or with them that have no power . the war being divided , and it being impossible your excellency should be in every place of danger ; according to your desire , the lord was pleased to call you out personally unto two , of the most hazardous , dangerous , and difficult undertakings : where besides the travaile , labour , watching , heat and cold , by day and night , whereunto you were exposed , even the life of the meanest souldier in your army was not in more imminent danger , then oftentimes was your own . and indeed during your abode at the leagure amongst us , in this only were our thoughts burdened with you , that selfe-preservation was of no more weight in your counsells and undertakings . and i bescech you pardon my boldnesse , in laying before you this expostulation of many thousands , ( if wee may say to him , who hath saved a kingdome , what was sometimes said unto a king ) know you not that you are worth ten thousands of us , why should you quench such a light in izrael ? sir , i account it among those blessings of providence , wherewith the days of my pilgrimage have bin seasoned , that i had the happinesse for a short season , to attend your excellency , in the service of my master iesus christ . as also that i have this opportunity , in the name of many , to cast in my {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} into the kingdomes congratulations of your late successes . what thoughts concerning your person , my brestis possessed with all , as in their storehouse they yeeld me delightfull refreshment , so they shall not be drawne out , to the disturbance of your selfe-deniall . the goings forth of my heart , in reference to your excellency , shall be chiefly to the most-high , that being more then conquerour , in your spirituall and temporall warfare , you may be long continued for a blessing , to this nation , and all the people of god . sir , your excellencies most humble and devoted servant , john owen . coggeshall , essex octo. . . to the worthy and honoured sir william masham , sir william rowe with the rest of the gentlemen of the committee lately under imprisonment by the enemie in colchester , as also to the honoured sir henry mildmay of wansted , col. sr. thomas honywood with the rest of the gentlemen and officers lately acting and engaged against the same enemy . sirs : the righteous judgements of god , having brought a disturbance , and noyse of war , for our security , unthankfulnesse , murmuring , and devouring one another , upon our country , those who were intrusted with the power thereof , turned their streames into severall channells . troublous times , are times of triall . many shall be purifyed and made white , and tried , but the wicked shall do wickedly , and none of the wicked shall understand , but the wise shall understand , dan. . . some god called out to suffer , some to doe , leaving treacherous dealers , to deale treacherously . of the two first sorts are you . this honour have you received from god either with patience and constancy to undergoe unvoluntarily a dangerous restraint , or with resolution and courage , voluntarily to undertake , a hazardous ingagement , to give an example , that faith and truth so shamefully despised in these evill days , have not altogether forsaken the sonnes of men . it is not in my thoughts , to relate unto your selves , what some of you suffered , and what some of you did : what difficulties and perplexities you wrestled withall , within , and without , the walls of your enemies , ( the birds in the cage , and the feild , having small cause of mutuall emulation ) for that which remaines of these things , is only a returnall of praise to him , by whom , all your works are wrought . it cannot de denyed , but that providence was eminently exalted , in the work of your protection and delivery : yet truly for my part , i cannot but conceive that it vayles to the efficacy of grace , in preventing you , from putting forth your hands unto iniquity , in any sinfull compliance with the enemies of our peace . the times wherein we live , have found the latter more rare then the former . what god wrought in you , hath the preheminence of what he wrought for you : as much , as to be given up to the sword , is a lesser evill , then to be given up to a treacherous spirit . what god hath done for you all , all men know ; what i desire you should do for god , i know no reason , why i should make alike publick . the generall and particular civilities i have received , from all and every one of you , advantaging me to make it out in another way . i shall adde nothing then to what you will meet withall , in the following discourse , but only my desire that you would seriously ponder the th observation with the deductions from thence . for the rest , i no way feare , but that that god , who hath so appeared with you , and for you , will so indulge to your spirits , the presence and guidance of his grace , in these shaking times , that if any speak evill of you as of evill doers , they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in christ , and glorify god in the day of visitation . for these following sermons , one of them was preached at your desire , and is now published upon your request . the first part of the labour , i willingly and cheerfully under went , the latter merely in obedience to your commands : being acted in it , more by your judgements , then mine own ; you were perswaded , ( meane as it was ) it might be for the glory of god , to have it made publick , where upon my answer was , and is , that , for that , not only it , but my selfe also , should by his assistance be ready for the presse . the faillings and infirmities , attending the preaching and publishing of it , ( which the lord knowes to be very many ) are mine : the inconveniences of publishing such a tractate from so weak a hand , whereof the world is full , must be yours ; the fruit and benefit , both of the one , and other , is his , for whose pardon of infirmities and removeall of inconveniences , shall be , as for you , and all the church of god , the prayer of sirs , your most humble and obliged servant in the work of the lord john owen . coggesh : octob. . . some few literall faults have escaped , viz. wrath for wroth , revelled for levelled ; which the ingenuous reader will amend as well as discerne . a memoriall of the deliverance of essex , county , and committee , in two sermons . habakkuk chap. . vers. , , , , , , , . . a prayer of habakkuk the prophet upon sigionoth . . o lord , i have heard thy speech , and was afraid : o lord , revive thy worke in the midst of the yeers , in the midst of the yeers make known ; in wrath remember mercy . . god came from teman , and the holy one from mount paran , selab . his glory covered the heavens , and the earth was full of his praise . . and his brightnesse was as the light : he had horns comming out of his hand , and there was the hiding of his power . . before him went the pestilence , and burning coals went forth at his feet . . he stood and measured the earth : he beheld , and drove asunder the nations , & the everlasting mountains were scattered , the perpetuall hills did bow : his wayes are everlasting . . i saw the tents of cushan in affliction : and the curtains of the land of midian did tremble . . was the lord displeased against the rivers ? was thine anger against the rivers ? was thy wrath against the sea , that thou didst ride upon thine horses , and thy charets of salvation ? . thy bow was made quite naked , according to the oaths of the tribes , even thy word . selah . thou didst cleave the earth with rivers . of this chapter , there are foure parts . . the title and preface of it , v : . . the prophets maine request in it : v : . . arguments to sustaine his faith in that request from v : . unto the th . . a resignation of himselfe , and the whole issue of his desires unto god : from thence to the end . wee shall treate of them in order . the prophet having had visions from god , and a prediscoveries of many approaching judgements , in the first and second chapters , in this , by faithfull prayer , sets himselfe to obtaine a sure footing , and quiet abode in those nation-destroying stormes . a prayer of habakkuk the prophet , that is the title of it . and an excellent prayer it is , full of arguments to strengthen faith , acknowledgement of gods soveraignty , power , and righteous judgements , with resolutions to a contented , joyfull rolling him upon him under all dispensations . prayer , is the believers constant sure retreate in an evill time , in a time of trouble . it is the righteous mans wings , to the name of the lord , which is his strong tower . a b christian souldiers sure reserve in the day of battell : if all other forces be overthrowne , here he will abide by it : no power under heaven can prevaile upon him , to give one step backwards . hence that title of psalme . a prayer of the afflicted , when he is overwhelmed . 't is the overwhelmed mans refuge , and imployment : when he swooneth with anguish ( as in the originall ) this fetches him to life againe . so for it psal. . , . in our greatest distresses , let neither unbeliefe , nor selfe contrivances , just●e us out of this way to the rock of our salvation . prophets discoveryes of fearfull judgements , must be attended with fervent prayers . that messenger hath done but halfe his businesse , who delivers his errand , but returnes not an answer . he that brings gods message of threats unto his people , must returne his peoples message of intreaties , unto him . some thinke they have fairly discharged their duty , when they have revealed the will of god to man : without labouring to reveale the condition and desires of men unto god . he that is more frequent in the pulpit to his people , then he is in his closet for his people , is but a sorry watchman . moses did not so , exod. . . neither did samuel so , sam. . . neither was it the guize of jeremiah in his days , cap. . if the beginning of the prophecie be , ( as it is ) the burden of habakkuk , the close will be ( as it is ) the prayer of habakkuk . where there is a burden upon the people , there must be prayer for the people . wo to them who have denounced desolations , and not powred out supplications : such men delight in the evill , which the prophet puts far from him : jerem. . . i have not desired the wofull day , ( o lord ) thou knowest . now this prayer , is upon sigionoth : that is , . it is tuned to a song : . such a song . for the first , that it is a song , penned in meeter , and how done so , ( ) to take the deeper impression , ( ) to be the better reteined in memory , ( ) to worke the more upon affections , ( ) to receive the ingredients of poeticall loftinesse for adorning the majesty of god , with ( ) the use of songs in the old church , ( ) and for the present , ( ) their times and seasons , as among the people of god , so all nations of old ; of all , or any of these , being besides my present purpose , i shall not treat . of the second , that it is upon sigionoth , a little may be spoken . the word is once in another place ( and no more ) used in the title of a song : and that is psalme siggaion of david : and it is variously rendred . it seemes to be taken from the word , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} erravit , to erre , or wander variously . prov. . . the word is used for delight , to stray with delight . in her love {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} thou shalt erre with delight , we have translated it , be ravished , noting affections out of order . the word then holds out a delightfull wandring , and variety : and this litterally , because those two songs psal. . and hab. . are not tyed to any one certain kind of meeter , but have various verses for the more delight : which , though it be not proper to them alone , yet in them the holy ghost , would have it especially noted : but now surely the kernell of this shell , is sweeter then so . is not this written also for their instruction , who have no skill in hebrew songs ? the true reason of their meeter , is lost to the most learned . are not then gods variable dispensations towards his , held out under these variable tunes , not all fitted to one string : not all alike pleasant and easy ? are not the severall tunes , of mercy and judgement in these songs ? is not here affliction and deliverance , desertion and recovery , darkenesse and light , in this variously ? doubtlesse it is so . god often cals his people unto songs upon sigionoth : c keepes them under various dispensations , that so drawing out all their affections , their hearts may make the sweeter melody unto him . they shall not have all hony , nor all gall : all judgement , lest they be broken , nor all mercy lest they be proud . thou answeredst them o lord our god , thou wast a god that forgavest them , though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions , psal. : . here is a song upon sigionoth . they are heard in their prayers and forgiven , there is the sweetest of mercies : vengeance is taken of their inventions , there 's a tune of judgement . by terrible things in righteousnesse wilt thou answer us o god of our salvation , psal. . . is a song of the same tune . to be answered in righteousnesse , what sweeter mercy in the world ? nothing more refreshes the panting soule , then an answer of its desires : but to have this answer by terrible things ! that string strikes a humbling , a mournfull note . israel heares of deliverance by moses , d and at the same time have their bondage doubled by pharaoh . there 's a song upon sigionoth . is it not so in our days ? pretious mercies , and dreadfull judgements , joyntly powred out upon the land ! we are cloathed by our father , like ioseph by his , in a party coloured coate : here a piece of unexpected deliverance , and there a piece of deserved correction : at the same houre , we may rejoyce at the conquest of our enemies , and mourne at the losse of our harvest . victories for his own names sake , and showres for our sins sake , both from the same hand , at the same time . the cry of every soule , is like the cry of the multitude of old and young at the laying the foundation of the second temple : many shouted aloud for joy , and many wept with a loud voyce , so that it was a mixt noyse and the severall noyses could not be distinguished . ezra . . , . a mixed cry is in our spirits , and we know not which is loudest in the day of our visitation . i could instance in sundry particulars , but that every ones observation , will save me that easy labour ▪ and this the lord doth ▪ . to fill e all our sayles towards himselfe at once : to exercise all our affections . i have heard that a full winde behind the ship , drives her not so fast forward , as aside wind , that seemes almost as much against her as with her : and the reason they say is , because a full wind , fills but some of her sayles , which keepe it from the rest , that they are empty : when a side wind fills all her sayles , and sets herspeedily forward . which way ever we go in this world , our affections are our sayles : and according as they are spread and filled , so we passe on , swifter or slower , whither we are steering . now if the lord should give us a full wind , and continuall gale of mercies , it would fill but some of our sayles , some of our affections , joy , delight and the like : but when he comes with a side wind , a dispensation that seemes almost as much against us , as for us , then he fils all our sayles , takes up all our affections , making his works , wide , and broad enough , to entertaine them every one , then are we carried freely and fully , towards the haven where we would be . a song upon sigionoth , leaves not one string of our affections unturned . it is a song that reacheth every line of our hearts , to be framed by the grace and spirit of god . therein , hope , feare , reverence with humility and repentance have a share , as well as joy , delight , and love , with thankfulnesse . enterchangeable dispensations , take up all our affections , with all our graces : for they are gracious affections , exercised and seasoned with grace , of which we speak . the stirring of naturall affections as meerly such , is but the moving of a dunghill to draw out a stinking steame , a thing the lord neither aymeth at , nor delighteth in : their joys , are his provocation , and hee laugheth in the day of their calamity , when their feare commeth , prov. . , . secondly , to keep them in continuall f dependance of himselfe . he hath promised his own dayly bread , not goods laid up for many years . many children have bin undone by their parents giving them too large a stock to trade for themselves : it has made them spend-thrifts , carelesse , and wanton . should the lord entrust his people with a continued stock of mercy , perhaps they would be full and deny him , and say who is the lord ? prov. . . iesurun did so : deut. . , . ephraim was filled according to her pasture and forgot the lord . hos. . . neither on the other side will he be always chiding : his anger shall not burne for ever very sore . it is our infirmity ( at the least ) if we say , god hath forgotten to be gracious , and shut up his tender mercies in displeasure : psal. . . but laying one thing against another , he keepes the heart of his , in an even ballance , in a continuall dependance upon himselfe : that they may neither be wanton through mercy , nor discouraged by too much oppression . our tender father is therefore , neither always feeding , nor alwayes correcting . and it shall come to passe in that day , that the light shall not be cleare nor darke : but it shall be one day which shall bee knowne to the lord : not day nor night , but it shall come to passe that at evening time it shall be light : saith the prophet zech. . , . seeking out gods dispensations towards his , ending in joy and light in the evening . labour to have your hearts right tuned for songs on sigionoth sweetly to answer all gods dispensations in their choice variety . that instrument will make no musick , that hath but some strings in tune . if when god strikes with mercy upon the string of joy and gladnesse , we answer pleasantly , but when he touches upon that of g sorrow and humiliation , we suit it not , we are broken instruments that make no melody unto god . we must know how to receive good and evil at his hand . he hath made every thing beautifull in its time , eccles. . . every thing in that whole variety which his wisdome hath produceed . a well tuned heart must have all its strings , all its affections , ready to answer every touch of gods finger : to improve judgements and mercies both at the same time . sweet harmony ariseth out of some discords . when a soul is in a frame to rejoyce with thankfull obedience for mercy received , and to be humbled with soul-searching amending repentance , for judgements inflicted at the same time , then it sings a song on sigionoth , then it is fit for the dayes wherein we live . indeed both mercies and judgements ayme at the same end , and should be received with the same equall temper of mind . a flint is broken between a hammer and a pillow : an offender is humbled between a prison and a pardon : a hard heart may be mollified , and a proud spirit humbled between those two . in such a season the severall rivolets of our affections flow naturally in the same stream . when hath a gracious soul the soundest joyes , but when it hath the deepest sorrows ! habent & gaudia vulnus . when hath it the humblest meltings but when it hath the most ravishing joyes ! our afflictions , which are naturally at the widest distance , may all swim in the same spirituall channel-rivolets rising from severall heads , are carried in one stream to the ocean . as a mixture of several colours make a beautifull complexion for the body , so a mixture of divers affections under gods various dispensations , gives a comely frame unto the soul . labour then to answer every call , every speaking providence of god , in its right kind , according to the intention thereof : and the lord reveal his mind unto us that so we may do . hauing passed the title , let us look a little on those parts of the prayer it self that follow . the beginning of it in verse . hath two parts : first , the frame of the prophets spirit in his addresse to god : o jehovah i have heard thy speech and was afraid . secondly , his request in this his condition , o lord revive thy work in the middest of the years , in the middest of the years make known , in wrath remember mercy . in the first you have ( ) particularly his frame , he was afraid or trembled ; which he wonderfully sets out ver. . when i heard , my belly trembled , my lips quivered at the voyce : rottennesse entered into my bones , and i trembled in my self . secondly , the cause of this fear and trembling : he heard the speech of god . if you will ask what speech or report this was , that made the prophet himself so exceedingly quake and tremble ! i answer it is particularly that which you have chap. . ver. . , , , , , , . conteining a dreadfull denunciation of the judgements of god against the people of israel , to be executed by the proud cruel insulting caldeans . this voice , this report of god makes the prophet tremble . an appearance of god in anger and threats against a people , should make his choicest secret ones amongst them to fear , to quake , and tremble . trembling of mans heart , must answer the shaking of gods hand . at the delivery of the law with all its attending threats , so terrible was the sight , that moses himself , ( though a mediatour then ) did exceedingly fear and quake : heb. . . god will be acknowledged in all his goings . if men will not bow before him , he will break them . they who fear not his threatnings , shall feel his inflictings . if his word be esteemed light , his hand will be found heavy . for . in point of deserving , who can say i have purged my heart , i am clean from sin ! none ought to be fearlesse , unlesse they be senselesse . gods people are so farre from being alwayes clear of procuring nationall judgements , that sometimes h judgements have come upon nations for the sins of some of gods people amongst them : as the plague in the dayes of david . . in point of i suffering who knows but they may have a deep share ! the prophets book is written within , as well as without , with lamentation , mourning and woe . ezek. . ult. if the lion roars , who can but fear ? amos . . fear to the rooting out of security not the shaking of faith . fear to the pulling down of carsall presidence , not christian confidence . fear to draw out our ouls in prayer , not to swallow them up in despair . fear , to break the arme of flesh , but not to weaken the staffe of the promise . fear , that we may draw nigh to god , with reverence , not to run from him with diffidence : in a word , to overthrow faithlesse presumption , and to increase gracious submission . secondly , here is the prophets request : and in this there are these two things , . the thing he desireth : the reviving gods work , the remembring mercy . . the season he desireth it in , in the midst of the yeares . for the first , that which in the beginning of the verse , he calls gods work , in the close of it , he termeth mercy : and the reviving of his work , is interpreted to be a remembring mercy . these two expressions then are paralell . the reviving of gods work towards his people , is a re-acting of mercy : a bringing forth the fruits therof , and that in the midst of the execution of wrath , as a man in the midst of another , remembring a businesse of more importance , instantly turneth away , and applyeth himself thereunto . acts of mercy are gods proper work towards his people , which he will certainly awake , and keep alive in the saddest times . mercy you see is his work , his proper work , as he calleth judgement his strange act : isaiah . . he retaineth not his anger for ever , because he delighteth in mercy : micah . . this is his proper work ; though it seem to sleep , he will awake it , though it seem to die , he will revive it . can a woman forget her child , that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe ? yea they may forget , yet will i not forget thee : behold , i have graven thee upon the palms of my hands , thy walls are continually before me , isaiah . , . secondly , for the season of this work , he prayes that it may be accomplished , in the middest of the yeares : upon which you may see what weight he layes by his repetition of it in the same verse . it is something doubtfull what may be the peculiar sense of these words : whether the midst of the yeares , do not denote the whole time of the peoples bondage under the caldeans , ( whence junius renders the words , interea temporis , ( noting this maner of expression ( the midst of the yeares ) for an hebraisme ) during which space he intercedes for mercy for them . or whether the middest of the yearrs , do not denote some certain point of times , as the season of their return from captivity , about the middest of the yeares between their first king , and the coming of the messiah , putting a period to their church and state . whether of these is more probable , is not needfull to insist upon ; this is certain , that a certain time is pointed at : which will yield us , the churches mercies and deliverance , have their appointed season : in the middest of the years it shall be accomplished . as there is a decree bringing forth the wickeds destruction , zeph. . . so there is a decree goes forth in its appointed season for the churches deliverance , which cannot be gainsayed : dan. . . every vision is for its appointed season and time , hab. . . then it will surely come , it will not tarry . there is a determination upon the weeks and dayes of the churches sufferings and expectations , dan. : . seventy weeks are determined upon thy people . as there is a three transgressions and a foure of rebells for which god will not turn away their punishment , am. . . so a three afflictions and a foure of the people of god , after which he will not shut out their supplications . hence that confidence of the prophet , psal. . , . thou shalt arise , and have mercy upon sion : for ( saith he ) the time to favour her , yea the set time is come . there is a time , yea a set time for favour to be shewed unto sion . as a time to break down , so a time to build up : an acceptable time , a day of salvation . it came to passe , at the end of years , even the self same day it came to passe , that all the hosts of the lord went out of egypt , exod. . . as a woman with child goes not beyond her appointed moneths , but is pained to be delivered , no more can the fruitfull decree cease from bringing forth the churches deliverance in the season thereof . because there is an appointed period of the churches humiliation , and bearing of her iniquities . israell shall bear their iniquities in the wildernesse , but this is exactly limited to the space of years . when their iniquity is pardoned , their warfare is accomplished . isaiah . . they say some men will give poyson that shall work insensibly and kill at seven years end . the great physician of his church , knows how to give his sin-sick people potions , that shall work by degrecs , and at such an appointed season take away all their iniquity . then they can no longer be detained in trouble . god will not continue his course of physick , unto them one day beyond health recovered . this is all the fruit of their afflictions ; to take away their iniquities , isa . . and when that is done , who shall keep bound what god will loose ? when sin is taken away from within , trouble must depart from without . because the churches sorrows are commensurate unto , and do contemporise with , the joyes and prosperity of gods enemies , and hers . now wicked mens prosperity hath assured bounds . the wickednesse of the wicked shall come to an end . there is a time when the iniquity of the amorites comes to the full : gen : . . it comes up to the brim in the appointed day of slaughter . when their wickednesse hath filled the ephah , a talent of lead is laid upon the mouth thereof , and it is carried away on wings , zech. . , , . swiftly , certainly , irrevocably . if then the churches troubles , contemporise , rise and fall , with their prosperity , and her deliverance , with their destruction ! if the fall of babylon be the rise of sion ; if they be the buckets , which must go down , when the church comes up ; if they be the rod of the churches chastisement , their ruine being set and appointed , so also must be the churches mercies . in every distresse , learn to wait with patience for this appointed time , he that believeth will not make hast . though it tarrywait for it , it will surely come . he that is infinitely good hath appointed the time , and therefore it is the best . he that is infinitely wise , hath determined the season , and therefore it is most suitable . he who is infinitely powerfull , hath set it down , and therefore it shall be accomplished . wait for it believing , wait for it praying , wait for it contending . waiting is not a lazy hope , a sluggish expectation . when daniel knew the time was come , he prayed the more earnestly , dan. . , . you will say perhaps , what need he pray for it when he knew the time was accomplished ! i answer ; the more need . prayer helps the promise bring forth . because a womans time is come , therefore shall she have no midwife ? nay therefore give her one . he that appointed their return , appointed that it should be a fruit of prayer . wait k contending also , in all wayes wherein you shall be called out . and be not discouraged , that you know not the direct season of deliverance . in the morning sow thy seed , and in the evening , withold not thy hand , for thou knowest not which shall prosper , this or that , or whether they shall be both alike good ; eccles. . . but proceed we with the prophets prayer . from verse the . to the . he layeth down severall arguments taken from the majesty , power , providence , and former works of god , for the supporting of his faith , to the obtaining of those good things , and works of mercy , which he was now praying for . we shall look on them , as they ly in our way . god came from teman , the holy one from mount ●aran : selah : his glory covered the heavens , the earth was full of his praise . teman was a city of the edomites , whose land the people of israel compassed in the wildernesse , when they were stung with fiery serpents , and healed by looking on a brazen serpent , set up to be a type of christ . teman is put for the whole land of edom : and the prophet makes mention of it , for the great deliverance & mercy granted there to the people , when they were almost consumed . that 's gods coming from teman . see num. . v. , , , , . when they were destroyed by fiery serpents , he heals them by a type of christ , giving them corporeall , and raising them to a faith of spirituall salvation . paran the next place mentioned , was a mountain in the land of ismael , near which moses repeated the law , and from thence god carried the people immediately to canaan : another eminent act of mercy . unto these he addeth the word selah : as it is a song a note of elevation in singing : as it respects the matter , not the form , a note of admiration and speciall observation : selah , consider them well for they were great works indeed . speciall mercies , must have speciall observation . now by reason of these actions , the prophet affirms that the glory of god covered the heavens , and the earth was full of his praise . lofty expressions of the advancement of gods glory , and the fullnesse of his praise amongst his people of the earth , which attended that mercifull deliverance , and gracious assistance . nothing is higher or greater then that which covers heaven , and fills earth . gods l glory is exceedingly exalted , and his praise increased every where , by acts of favour and kindnesse to his people . that which i shall chuse from amongst many others that present themselves a little to insist upon , is that former mercies with their times and places are to be had in thankfull remembrance unto them who wait for future blessings . faith is to this end separated by them . awake , awake , put on strength o arm of the lord , awake as in the ancient dayes , as in the generations of old : art not thou it that hath cut rahab , and wounded the dragon ? art not thou it that dried the sea , the waters of the great deep , that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to passe over ? isa. . , : the breaking of rahab , that is egypt , so called here , and psal. . . psal. . . for her great strength which the word signifies , and the wounding of the dragon , that great and crooked afflictour pharaoh is remembred , and urged for a motive to a new needed deliverance . so psal. . , . thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces , and gavest him to be meat to the people in the wildernesse . leviathan , the same dragon , oppressing , persecuting pharaoh ; thou brakest his heads , his counsells , armies , power , and gavest him for meat , that the people for forty yeares together might be fed , sustained and nourished , with that wonderfull mercy . out of the eater came forth meat , out of the strong came forth sweetnesse . in this reciprocation god walketh with his people . of free grace he bestoweth mercies and blessings on them : by grace works the returns of remembrance and thankfullnesse unto himself for them : then showres that down again in new mercies . the countries which send up no vapours , receive down no showers . remembrance with thankfullnesse of former mercies , is the matter as it were , which by gods goodnesse , is condensed into following blessings . for mercies have their proper end when thankfully remembred . what more powerfull motive to the obteining of new , then to hold out , that the old were not abused . we are incouraged to cast seed again into that ground , whose last crop witnesseth that it was not altogether barren : that sad spot of good hezekiah , that he rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him , is set down as the opening a doore of wrath against himself , judah and jerusalem , . chron. . . on the other side suitable returns , are a doore of hope for further mercies . the remembrance of them strengthens faith , and keeps our hands from hanging down in the time of waiting for blessings . when faith is supported the promise is engaged , and a mercy at any time more then half obteined , faith is the substance of things hoped for , heb. . . god ( saith the apostle ) hath delivered us from so great a death , and doth deliver , now what conclusion makes he of this experience ? in whom we trust , that he will yet deliver us , cor. . . it was a particular mercy , with it's circumstances , as you may see ver. . which he made the bottome of his dependance . in the favours of men , we cannot do so : they may be weary of helping , or be drawne dry , and grow helpelesse . pond's may be exhausted , but the ocean never . the infinite fountaines of the deity , cannot be sunk one haires bredth by everlastingly-flowing blessings . now circumstances of actions , time , place , and the like , oft-times take deepe impressions : mercies should be remembred with them . so doth the apostle againe , tim. . , . he did deliver me from the mouth of the lyon : ( nero that lion-like tyrant ) and what then ? he will deliver mee from every evill worke . david esteemed it very good logick , to argue from the victory god gave him over the lyon , and the beare , to a confidence of victory over goliah : sam. . . the use of this , we are lead unto , isaiah . , , . thus saith the lord which maketh a way in the sea , and a path in the mighty waters : which bringeth forth the chariot and the horse , the army and the power , they shall lie downe together , they shall not rise , they are extinct , they are quenched as tow : remember yee not the former things , nor consider the things of old . let former mercies be an anchor of hope in time of present distresses . where is the god of marstone-moore , and the god of naseby , is an acceptable expostulation in a gloomy day . o what a catalogue of mercies , hath this nation to plead by in a time of trouble ? god came from naseby , and the holy one from the west : selah : his glory covered the heavens , and the earth was full of his prayse . he went forth in the north , and in the east he did not withhold his hand . i hope the poore towne wherein n i live , is more inriched with a store mercy of a few moneths , then with a full trade of many years . the snares of death compassed us , and the flouds of ungodly men made us afraid : psal. . . but the lord thundred from heaven , the highest gave his voyce , hailestones and coals of fire : yea he sent out his arrowes and scattered them , and he shot out lightning and discomfited them : he sent from above , he tooke us , he drew us out of many waters , hee delivered us from our strong enemy , and from them which hated us , for they were to strong for us , v. , , , . how may we say with the same psalmist in any other distresse , o my god my soule is cast downe within mee , therefore will i remember thee from the land of jordan , and of the hennomites from the hill missar , psal. . . where is the god of elijah , divides a new the waters of jordan , kings . . the following verses set forth the glory and power of god , in the accomplishment of that great worke of bringing his people into the promised land : with those mighty things he performed in the wildernesse . verse . if i mistake not sets out his glorious appearance on mount sinai : of which the prophet affirmes two things : . that his brightnesse was the light : . that , he had hornes comming out of his hand , and there was the hiding of his power . for the first : is it not that brightnesse which appeared , when the mountaine burnt with fire to the middest of heaven : deut. . . a glorious fire in the middest of clouds and thick darknesse . the like description you have of gods presence , psal. . , . hee made darkenesse his secret place , and brightnesse was before him . as the light , the sun , the fountaine and cause of it : called light iob. . . now this glorious appearance holds out the kingly power and majesty of god in governing the world , which appeareth but unto few . the lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce , clouds and darkenesse are round about him a fire goeth before him , his lightnings inlightened the world , psa. . , , . secondly , he had hornes comming out of his hand . so the words most properly , though by some , otherwise rendred . that o hornes in scripture are taken for strength and power needs no proving . the mighty power of god which he made appear to his people , in that glorious representation of his majesty on mount sinai , is by this phrase expressed . there his chariots were seene to be twenty thousands , even many thousands of angels , and the lord among them in that holy place , psal. . . there they perceived that he had hornes in his hand : an almighty power to do what he pleased . whence it is added , and there was the hiding of his power . though the appearance of it was very great and glorious , yet it was but small to the everlastingly hidden depths of his omnipotency : ( the most glorious appearance of god comes infinitly short of his own eternall majesty as he is in himselfe : it is but a discovery , that there is the hiding of infinite perfection . ) or , there his power appeared to us , which was hidden from the rest of world . when god is doing great things , he gives glorious manifestations of his excellencies to his secret ones . the appearance on sinai , goes before his passage into canaan . surely the lord god will do nothing , but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the prophets . amos . . when he is to send moses for the deliverance of his people , he appeares to him in a burning unconsumed bush , exod. . . a signe manifesting the presence of his power , to preserve his church unconsumed in the middest of burning fiery afflictions . vnto this very end , were all the visions , that are recorded in the scripture ; all of them accommodated to the things which god was presently doing . and this he doth : that they may thereby be prepared to follow him , and serve him in the great works he hath for them to do . great works are to be done without great incouragements . if god appeares not in light , who can expect he should appeare in operation ? he that is called to serve providence in high things , without some especiall discovery of god , works in the darke , and knowes not whither he goes , nor what hee doth . such a one travailes in the wildernesse , without a directing cloud . cleare shining from god , must be at the bottome of deepe labouring with god . what is the reason , that so many in our days , set their hands to the plow , and looke back againe ? begin to serve providence in great things , but cannot finish ? give over in the heat of the day ! they never had any such revelation of the mind of god upon their spirits , such a discovery of his excellencies , as might serve for a bottome of such undertakings . men must know that if god hath not appeared to them in brightnesse , and shewed them the hornes in his hand , hid from others , though they thinke highly of themselves , they 'l deny god twice and thrice , before the close of the work of this age . if you have no great discoveries , you will wex vaine in great undertakings . now workings on old bottomes , are like new wine in old bottels , both are spoyled and lost . the day is the time of work , and that because of the light thereof : those who have not light may be spared to go to bed . that they may be the better enabled to give him glory , when they shall see the sweet harmony that is between his manifestations and his operations . when they can say with the psalmist , as we have heard , so have we seene , psal. . . as he revealeth himselfe , so he worketh . when his power and mercy answer his appearance in the bush , it is a foundation to a prayer , the good will of him that dwelt in the bush , blesse thee . when a soule shall finde god calling him forth to employments , perhaps great and high , yet every way suiting that light and gracious discovery which he hath given of himselfe , one thing answering another , it sets him in a frame of honouring god aright . this might be of rich consideration could we attend it : for hence . as i said before , is apostasy from gods work . he appeares not unto me , how can they go upon his imployment ? men that have no vision of god , are in the darke , and know not what to doe . i speak not of visions beyond the word , answers of prayers , gratious applications of providences , with wise considerations of times and seasons . some drop off every day , some hang by the ey-lids , and know not what to do ; the light of god is not sent forth to lead and guide them : psal. . . wonder not at the strange backslidings of our days , many acted upon by-ingagements , and for want of light , know not to the last what they were adoing . . hence also is the suiting of great light , and great worke , in our days . let new light be derided whilest men please , he will never serve the will of god in this generation , who sees not beyond the line of foregoing ages . . and this thirdly , may put all those , whom god is pleased to imploy in his service , upon a diligent inquiry into his mind . can a servant do his masters work , without knowing his pleasure ? we live for the most part from hand to mouth , and do what comes next : few are acquainted with the designes of god . the going forth of the lord with his people towards their rest , with reference to his harbingers is described v. . before him went the pestilence , and burning coales went forth at his feete . before him , at his face . the pestilence , this is l often reckoned amongst the weapons wherewith god fighteth with any people to consume them : and as speeding an instrument of destruction it is , as any the lord ever used towards the children of men . at his feet went forth a burning coale . a redoubling say some of the same stroke : burning coals , for burning diseases . when one blow will not do the work appointed , god redoubles the stroak of his hand : levit. . , , , . or burning coals , dreadfull judgements , mortall weapons , as fire and flames are often taken in other descriptions of god's dealing with his enemies : psal. . . . . prevailing fire is the most dreadfull meanes of destruction , heb. . . isa. . . exod. . . god threatneth to send the hornet upon the canaanites , before the children of israel : some stinging judgements , either on their consciences , or bodies , or both . something of the same kind is doubtlesse here held out : he sent plagues and diseases among them to weaken and consume them , before his peoples entrance . his presence was with israel , and the pestilence consuming the canaanites before their entrance is said to be {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} at his faces , or appearances , before him , before the entrance of the presence of his holinesse . and the following judgements that quite devoured them , were the coals going out at his feet , which he sent abroad , when he entred their land , with his own inheritance , into theirs , to cast out those malae fidei possessores . . sicknesses , diseases and all sorts of judgements are wholly at gods disposall . affliction commeth not forth of the dust , neither doth trouble spring out of the ground , yet man is borne to trouble , as the sons of the burning coale lift up in flying , job . . , . . when god intends the totall destruction of a people , he commonly weakens them by some previous judgements . let the truth of this , be found upon them that hate us , and the interpretation therof , be to the enemies , of this nation : but the lord knows , all our hearts may well tremble , at what will be the issue of the visitations of the last years . god never wants instruments , to execute his anger , and ruine his enemies . his treasury of judgements , can never be exhausted . if israel be too weake for the amorites , he will call in the pestilence and burning diseases to their assistance . what creature hath not this mighty god used against his enemies ? an angell destroyes senacheribs host , isa. . . and smites herod with wormes : acts . . heaven above sends downe a hell of fire and brimstone on sodome and gomorah , gen. . . the starres in their courses fought against sisera . judg. . . devils do his will herein , he sent evill angels among the aegyptians , psal. . . fire consumes persecuting ahaziah's companies , kings . , . the water drownes pharaoh and his chariots , exod. . . earth swallows up korah , with his fellow rebels , numb. . . beares rend the children that mocked elisha , kings , . . lyons destroy the strange nations in samaria , kings . . froggs , lice , boyles , hayle , rayne , thunder , lightning , destroy the land of aegypt : exod. , , . locusts are his mighty army to punish israel joel . . . hailstones destroy the canaanites , josh. . . stones of the wall slay the syrians , kings . . pestilence and burning diseases are his ordinary messengers . in a word , all creatures , serve his providence , and await his commands , for the execution of his righteous judgements . neither the beasts of the field , nor the stones of the earth , will bee any longer quiet then hee causeth them to hold a league with the sons of men . to teach us all to tremble before this mighty god . who can stand before him , qui tot imperat legionibus ? if hee will strike hee wants no weapons : if he will fight he wants no armies . all things serve his will . he saith , to one come , and it commeth , to another go , and it goeth , to a third , do this , and it doth it . he can make use of our selves , our friends , our enemies , heaven , earth , fire , water , &c. any thing , for what end he pleaseth . there is no standing before his armies ; for they are all things , and himselfe to make them effectuall . there is no flying from his armies , for they are every where , and himselfe with them . who would not feare this king of nations ? he that contends with him , shall find it , as if a man did flee from a lyon , and a beare met him ▪ or went into the house and leaned upon a wall , and a serpent bitte him : amos . , . no flying , no hiding , no contending . wormes kill herod ; a flie choak'd adrian , &c. to be a bottome of confidence and dependence in an evill day . he that hath god on his side , hath also all things , that are seene and that are not seene . the mountaine is full of fiery chariots for elisha's defence , when outwardly there was no appearance , kings . . all things waite their masters beck , to do him service , as for the destruction of enemies , so for the deliverance of his . what though wee had no army in the time of war ? god hath millions , many thousands of angels , psal. . . one whereof can destroy so many thousands of men in a night : isa. . . hee can choose ( when few others will appeare with him against the mighty , as in our late troubles ) foolish things to confound the wise , and weak things , to confound the strong . senacheribs angell is yet alive , and the destroyer of sodom is not dead . and all those things are at our command , if their help may be for our good : judah ruleth with god , hos. . . hath a rule by faithfull supplications over all those mighty hosts . make god our friend , and wee are not onely of the best , but also the strongest side . you that would be on the safest side , be sure to choose that which god is on . had not this mighty all-commanding god been with us , where had we been in the late tumults ? so many thousands in kent , so many in wales , so many in the north , so many in essex , shall they not speed ? shall they not divide the prey ? is not the day of those factious independents come ? was the language of our very neighbours : the snare is broken , and we are delivered . the lord having sent messengrs before him into canaan , stands himself as it were upon the borders and takes a view of the land . he stood and measured the earth , he beheld and drove asunder the nations , and the everlasting mountaines were scattered , the perpetuall hills did bow : his wayes are everlasting . two things are here considerable ▪ . the lords exact fore-view of the promised land : he stood and measured the earth , and beheld the nations . . his operation at that time , he drave asunder the nations , and the , &c. . hee stood and measured . the prophet here representeth the lord on the frontire of canaan , as one taking view of a piece of land , and exactly measuring it out , as intending it for his own , weighing and considering the bounds and limits of it , to see if it will answer the end for which he purposeth it . gods exact notice and knowledge of his peoples possession is in those words held out . he views where the lines of every tribe shall run . nothing happens or is made out to any of gods people , without his own carefull providentiall predisposition . he views the circuit of the whole , where , and how , divided , and separated from the dwellings of the unclean , and habitations of the uncircumcised . fixed bounds , measured limits of habitation is a necessary ingredient , to the making up of a nat●●all church . . what he did : which is two wayes expressed , . in reference to the inhabitants , . to the land it selfe : . for the inhabitants , he drove them asunder : {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} and he made to leape out of their old chanels . those nations knit and linked together amongst themselves , by leagues and civill society , he separated , disturbed , divided in counsels and armes , ( as in the case of the gibeonites , ) persecuted by the sword , that they suddenly leaped out of their habitations , the residue wandering as no people . gods justly nation-disturbing purposes , are the bottome of their deserved ruine . . for the land , the everlasting mountaines , &c. those strong firme lasting mountaines of canaan , not like the mountaines of sand in the desart where the people were , but to continue firme to the worlds end , as both the words here used {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} and {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , perpetuity , and everlasting , do in the scripture frequently signify . now these are said to be scattered and to bow , because of the destruction of the inhabitants of those lasting hills , being many of them high and mighty ones like perpetuall mountaines : they being given in possession to the sons of israel , even the cheife things of the antient mountaines , and the pretious things of the lasting hills : deut. . . god takes an exact foreview of his peoples portion and inheritance . like a carefull father , he knows before hand , what he intends to bestow upon them . hee views it , measures it , prepares it to the utmost bounds . they shall not have a hayrs bredth which hee hath not alotted them : nor want the least jot of their designed portion . learne to be contented with your lot . he is wise also , who took a view of it , and measured it , and found it just commensurate to your good : had he known that a footes bredth more had bin needfull , you should have had it . had he seen it good ; you had had no thornes in your lands , no afflictions in your lives . o how carefull , how solicitous are many of gods people ! how full of desires ! oh that it were with me thus or thus ! possesse your soules in patience : as you cannot adde too , no more shall any take from your proportion . he took the measure of your wants , and his own supplies long since . that which he hath measured out , he will cut off for you . he knows how to suit all his children . it is dangerous incroaching for any of the sons of men upon gods peoples portion , lot , priviledges or inheritance . god hath measured it out for them , and he will looke that they injoy it . g shall men remove his bounds , and land-markes , and be free ? will it be safe trespassing upon the lands of the almighty ? will it be easy and cheape ? will he not plead his action with power ? especially seeing he hath given them their portion . if he hath given seir to edom , what doth he vexing and wasting jacob ? shall they not possesse what the lord their god gives them to possesse ? jud. . . he hath cautioned all the world ; kings and others in this kind : touch not mine annointed , do my prophets no harme : psal. . , . touch them not , nor any thing that is theirs : harme them not in any thing i bestow on them . they have nothing but what their father gives them , and christ hath bought for them . will a tender father thinke you , contentedly looke on , and see a slave snatch away his childrens bread ? if a man hath ingaged himselfe to give a jewell to a deare friend , will he take it patiently to have an enemy come and snatch it away before his face ? god is ingaged to his people for all their injoyments , and will he quietly suffer himselfe to be robbed and his people spoyled ? shall others dwell quietly in the land which he hath measured for his own ? see whence the great destructions of people and nations in these latter ages have come . is it not for touching these forbidden things ? the holy vessels of the temple at hierusalem , ruined babylon . is not the wasting of the westerne nations , at this day from hence , that they have served the whore to deck her selfe , with the spoyles of the spouse ? helped to trim her with the portion of gods people : taking away their liberties , ordinances , priviledges , lives , to lay at her feet . doubtlesse god is pleading with all these kingdomes for their incroaching . they who will not let him be at peace with his , shall have little quiet with their own . the eagle that stole a coale from the altar , fired her nest . i know how this hath been abused to countenance the holding of babylonish wedges . god will preserve to his people his own allowance , not romes supplyment . this nation hath yet itching singers , and a hankering minde after the inheritance of gods people : let them take heed , he hath knocked off their hands an hundred times , and sent them away with bloudy fingers . o that we were wise , that we be not quite consumed . of you i hope better things , and such as accompany salvation , yet give me leave to cautionate you a little . . as to priviledges and liberties of this life . their liberties and estates , are not as other mens : but more exactly measured for their good , and sanctifyed to them in the bloud of christ . if in these things god hath called you to the defence and protection of his , he will expect a reall account . you had better give away a kingdome that belongs to others , then the least of that which god hath made for his saints . think not any thing small , which god accounts worthy to bestow on his . if he hath meted out liberty for them , and you give them slavery , you will have a sad reckoning . . in point of ordinances , and christ purchased priviledges : r here 't is dangerous incroaching indeed . god exactly measured canaan because it was to be the seat of a nationall church . if you love your lives , if you love your souls , be tender in this point . here if you meddle with that which belong not unto you , were you kings , all your glory would be laid in the dust . chr. . . woe to them who cut short the saints of god in the least jot , of what he hath allotted to them in spiritualls . is it for any of you , o ye sons of men , to measure out gods childrens portion , long since bequeathed them by christ ? let them alone with what is given them . if god call israel out of egypt to serve him , shall pharaoh assigne who , and how they shall go , first men onely , then all without their cattel ? nay sayes moses , we will go as god calls , exod. . . was not one main end of the late tumults , to rob gods people of their priviledges , to bring them again under the yoke of superstition ? what god brake in warre , do not think he will prosper in peace ? if you desire to thrive , do not the same , nor any thing like it . take they any thing of yours , that belongs to cesar , the civil magistrate , restraine them , keep them within bounds . but if they take onely what christ hath given them , o touch them not , harm them not . the heap is provided for them , let them take for themselves . thinke it not strange , that every one should gather his own manna . the lord forbid that i should oversee the magistrates of england , taking away liberties , priviledges , ordinances or wayes of worship , from them to whom the almighty hath made a free grant of them . if in taking what god hath measured out for them , they should not all comply with you , in the manner and measure of what they take , do them no harm , impoverish not their families , banish them not , slay them not . s alas your judgements , were you kings , and emperours , is not a rule to them . they must be tryed by their own faith . are their souls think you more precicious to you then themselves ? you say they take amisse : they say no : t and appeal to the word . should you now smite them ? speak blood , is that the way of jesus christ ? should it be as you affirm , you would be puzled for your warrant . to run when you are not sent , surely in this case is not safe . but what if it should prove in the close , that they have followed divine directions ? do you not then fight against god , wound jesus christ , and prosecute him as an evil doer ? i know the usual colours , the common pleas , that are used for the instigation of authority to the contrary . they are the very same and no other , that have slain the saints of god , this years . arguments for persecution are died in the blood of christians , for a long season , ever since the dragon gave his power to the false prophet , they have all died as hereticks and schismaticks . suppose you saw in one view all the blood of the witnesses of christ , which hath been let out of their veins , by vain pretences , that you heard in one noyse the dolefull cry of all pastorlesse churches , dying martyrs , harbourlesse children of parents inheriting the promise , wildernessewandring saints , dungeoned believers , wrested out by pretended zeal to peace and truth , and perhaps it may make your spirits tender as to this point . see the warrantablenesse of our contests for gods peoples rights . it was jephthaes onely argument against the incroaching ammonites . judg. . by gods assistance they would possesse what the lord their god should give them . if a grant from heaven will not make a firm title , i know not what will . being called by lawfull authority , certainly , there is not a more glorious employment , then to serve the lord , in helping to uphold the portion he hath given his people . if your hearts be upright , and it is the liberties , the priviledges of gods saints , conveied from the father , purchased by christ , you contend for , go on and prosper , the lord , is with you . . from what god did . the works and labours of gods people are transacted from them in heaven , before they once undertake them . the israelites were now going to canaan , god doth their work for them before hand they did but go up and take possession ; joshua and caleb tell the people not onely that their enemies defence was departed from them , but that they were but bread for them : num. . . not corn that might be prepared , but bread , ground , made up , ready baked , ready to eat . their work was done in heaven . known unto god are all his works from the beginning of the world , acts . . all that is done here below , is but the writing of a visible copy for the sons of men to read , out of the etenall lines of his own purpose . up and be doing , you that are about the work of the lord . your enemies are bread ready to be eaten , and yield you refreshment . do you think if our armies had not walked in a troden path they could have made such journeys as they have done of late ? had not god marched before them , and traced out their way from kent to essex , from wales to the north , their carcasses had long ere this , been cast into the field . their work was done in heaven before they begun it . god was gone over the mulberry trees ; the worke might have been done by children , though he was pleased to employ such worthy instruments . they see i doubt not their own nothingnesse , in his all-sufficiency . go on then , but with this caution , search by all wayes and means to find the footsteps of the mighty god , going before you . the trembling condition of the opposing nations round about when god appeared so gloriously for his people , is held out verse . i saw the tents of cushan in affliction : the curtayns of the land of midian did tremble . you have here three things considerable . . the mention of two nations enemies of the church , cushan and midian . . the state and condition of those nations , the tents of the one in affliction , and the curtains of the other in trembling . . the view the prophet had of this , i saw it saith he , i saw , &c. for the first , these two nations , cushan and midian , were the neigbouring people to the israelites , being in the wildernesse when god did such great things for them . first cushan , that is the tentdwelling arabians on the south side towards ethiopia , being as the ethiopians of the posterity of cush ( thence called cushan ) the eldest son of scoffing ham , gen. . . enemies and opposers of the church ( doubtlesse ) all the way down from their profane ancestors . these now beheld the israelites , going to root out their allies , and kindred the amorites of canaan , the posterity of canaan , the younger brother of their progenitor cush , gen. . . midian were a people inhabiting on the east-side jordan , on the borders of moab : so called from their forefather , midian the son of abraham by keturah , gen. . , . these obtained a temporall blessing for a season , from the love borne to their faithfull progenitor . in the days of jacob , they were great merchants , gen. . . at this time in lesse then years , they were so multiplyed , that they had five kings of their nation : num. . . some knowledge of the true god , was retained as it should seeme untill now amongst some of them , being received by tradition from their fathers . moses father in law , was a priest of this country , exod. . , . not altogether unacquainted with jehovah , exod. and was himselfe , or his son perswaded to take up his portion in canaan , num. . , . but for the generality of the nation , being not heirs of the promise , they were fallen off to superstition and idolatry . exceeding enemies they were to the people in the wildernesse , vexing them with their wiles , and provoking them to abominations , that the lord might consume them , num. . . none so vile enemies to the church as superstitious apostates . these two nations then set out all manner of opposers , grosse idolators as cushan , and superstitious envious apostates as midian . . their state and condition severally : the tents of cushan were in affliction : the tents , the arabian ethiopians of cush , dwelling in tents : the habitation for the inhabitant , by an hypallage . they were in affliction , under vanity , under iniquity , the place of vanity , so variously are the words rendred : {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} under affliction , vanity , or iniquity . sin , and the punishment of it , are frequently in the scripture of the same name : so nere is the relation . aven is properly and most usually iniquity , but that it is here taken for the consequent of it , a consuming , perplexed , vexed condition can be no doubt . the cushamites then were in affliction , full of anguish , feare , dread , vexation to see what would be the issue of those great and mighty things which god was doing in their borders for his people . u afflicted with israels happinesse and their owne fears , as is the condition of all wicked oppressers . . the curtaines of the land of midian , for the midianites dwelling in curtained tabernacles , by the same figure as before . they trembled , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , moved themselves , were moved , that is shaken with feare and trembling , as though they were ready to run from the appearance of the mighty god with his people . the story of it , you have in the book of numbers : as it was prophetically fore-told by moses concerning other nations , exod. . , , . the people shall heare and be afraid , sorrow shall take hold of the inhabitants of palestina : then the dukes of edom shall be amased , the mighty men of moab , &c. god filled those nations with anguish sorrow and amazement , at the protection he granted his people . . the prophets view of all this : i saw it , or i see it : though it were years before , supposing him to prophesy about the end of josiah , or beginning of jehojakim , yet taking it under the consideration of faith he makes it present to his view . faith looketh backwards and forwards , to what god hath done , and to what he hath promised to do : abraham saw the day of christ , so many ages after , because he found it by faith in the promise : habakkuk saw the terrors of cushan and midian so many ages before , because faith found it recorded among the works of god to support it selfe in seeking the like mercies to be renewed : so that this is the sum of this verse . o lord , faith makes it evident , and presents it before my view , how in former days , when thou wast doing great things for thy people , thou filledst all thine , and their enemies , with fear , vexation , trembling and astonishment . . faith gives a present subsistence , to sorepast works as recorded , and future mercies as promised , to support the soule in an evill day . i saw . i have made the doctrine by analogy look both ways , though the words of the text look but one . . gods dealing with his enemies , in the time of his churches deliverance is of especiall consideration : i saw , &c. . the measuring out of gods peoples portion fills cushan with affliction and midian with trembling . their terrors follow gods measuring , v. . the season of the churches deliverance being come , cushan and midian , opposing enemies , and superstitious revolters shall surely wax vaine and perish . for the first , that faith gives a present , &c. the apostle tels us , that faith is the substance of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen : heb. . . . of things hoped for : it looks forward to the promises , and so gives the substance of them in present possession , so confirming our minds and hearts , that they may have a subsistance as it were within us , though not actually made out unto us . . it is the evidence of things not seene : it extends it selfe not only to things promised , but taking for its object the whole word of god , it makes evident , and present , things that are past also . the faith commended v. . is of things long since done , even the making of the things that are seene of the things that do not appeare . abraham saw my day saith our saviour , joh. . . he saw it as habakkuk the tents of cushan in affliction . faith made it present to him : all the ages between him and his promised seed were as nothing to his keen-sighted faith . hence the apostle puts the mercies of the promise , all in one forme and rank as already wrought , though some of them were injoyed and some of them in this life cannot be . rom. . . whom he hath justifyed , them he hath glorifyed : he hath done it for them already , because he hath made them believe it , and that gives it a present subsistance in their spirits ▪ and for forepast works , they are still mentioned by the saints , as if they had bin done in their days , before their eyes . elisha calls up to remembrance a former miracle , to the effecting the like , kin. . . there be three things , in past , or future mercies , which faith makes present to the soule , giving in the subsistance of them , . their love , . their consolation , . their use and benefit . . the love of them : the love , that was in former works , and the love that is in promised mercies , that faith drawes out , and really makes ours . the love of every recorded deliverance , is given to us by faith . it looks into the good-will , the free-grace , the loving-kindnesse of god , in every work that ever he did for his , and cryes , yet this is mine : this is the kernell of that blessing , and this is mine : for the same good-will , the same kindnesse he hath towards me also . were the same outward actings needfull , i should have them also . the free-love of every mercy is faiths proper object . it makes all joshuah's great victories , present to every one of us . the promise that had the love and grace in it which run through them all , is given him : josh. . . i will be with thee , i will not faile thee nor forsake thee . now the apostle tells us , that the truth and love of this promise is ours , heb. . . faith may , doth assure it selfe , that what good-will soever , was in all the great mercies which joshuah received upon that promise , is all ours . all the good-will and choyse love of , i will never leave thee nor forsake thee , is mine and thine , if we are believers . he that hath this present , hath all joshuas victories present . the very glory of the saints in heaven is ours in the love of it . we enjoy that love , which gave them glory , and will crowne us also in due time . . in their comforts and refreshments . thou gavest leviathan to be meate to the people in the wildernesse , psal. . they fed their souls full of the sweetnesse of that mercy , the destruction of their oppressing tyrant : we chew the cud upon the blessings of former ages . who hath not with joy delight and raysed affections , gone over the old preservations of the church in former years ? how doe's david run them over with admiration , closing every stop with , his mercy endureth for ever ? psal. . and for things to come , as yet in the promise only , whether generall to the whole church , as the calling of the jews , the comming in of the fulnesse of the gentiles , the breaking out of light , beauty and glory upon the churches and saints , the confusion of nations , not subjecting themselves to the standard of the gospell , &c. or in particular , further assurance of love then presently enjoyed , neerer communion with father and son , being with christ , freed from misery and corruption , dwelling with god for ever , how do's faith act over these and the like things in the heart , leaving a savour and relish of their sweetnesse continually upon the soule ? o how sweet also are the things of the world to come unto poor believers ! christ leads the soule by faith , not only into the chambers of presently-enjoyed loves , but also into the foreprepared everlasting mansions in his fathers house . thus it gives poore mortall creatures , a sweet relish of eternall joyes : brings heaven into a dungeon , glory into a prison , a crown into a cottage , christ into a slaughter-house . from the nature of faith : though it do not make the thing believed to be , ( the act cannot create its own object , ) yet applying it , it makes it the believers . it is the bond of union between the soule and the thing promised . he that believes in christ , by that believing receives christ , joh. . . he becomes his . it is a grace uniting its subject and object , the person believing , and the thing believed . there needs no ascending into heaven or descending , the word of faith makes all things nigh , even within us . some glasses will present things of a great distance very neere : faith looking through the glasse of the gospell , makes the most remote mercies to be not onely in a close distance , but in union . it is the subsistence of things hoped for , that which they have not in themselves , it gives them in the full assured minds of believers . from the intendment of all mercies : they are for every believer . all things are theirs , world , life , death , things present , things to come , cor. . . all promises being made to every believer , and all mercies being the fruit of these promises , they must all belong to every believer . now if all these should be kept from us at that distance wherein they fall in their accomplishment in respect of time , what would they availe us ? god therefore hath appointed that they shall have a reall , though not a naturall presence and subsistence at all times , to all believers . see hence what use you may make of past mercies , deliverances , blessings , with promised incommings : carry them about you , by faith , that you may use them at need : where is the god of elijah : awake , awake oh arme of the lord , &c. i saw the tents of cushan : take store mercies along with you in every tryall . use them , or they 'l grow rusty , and not passe in heaven . learne to eat leviathan many yeares after his death . forget not your pearles , scatter not away your treasure , bee rich in a heape of mercies , faith will make you so . the love , the comfort , the benefit of all former and future blessings are yours , if you know how to use them . oh how have we lost our mercies in every hedge and ditch ! have none of us skill to lay up the last eminent deliverance against a rainy day ? . learne how to make the poorest and most afflicted condition , comfortable and full of joy . store thy cottage , thy sick bed , by faith , with all sorts of mercies . they are the richest furniture in the world . gather up what is already cast out , and fetch the rest from heaven . bring the first fruits of glory into thy bosome . see the jewes called , the residue of opposers subdued , the gospel exalted , christ enthroned , all thy sinnes pardoned , corruption conquered , glory enjoyed . roll thy selfe in those golden streames every day . let faith fetch in new and old : ancient mercies , for thy supportment , everlasting mercies , for thy consolation . he that hath faith , hath all things . . gods dealing with his enemies , in the season of his churches deliverance is of especiall consideration ; i saw the tents , &c. so did the israelites , beholding the aegyptians dead on the shore . exod. . , . the heathen raged , the kingdomes were moved , he uttered his voyce , the earth melted , the lord of hosts is with us , the god of jacob is our refuge , selah : come , behold the workes of the lord , what desolations he hath made on the earth : psal. . , , . the enemies undertaking , ver. . gods protection to his people , ver. . a view of the adversaries desolation , ver. . are all orderly held out . the lord tells moses , that he will harden the heart of pharaoh , that he might shew his power , to this very end , that it might be considered , and told to one another , exod. . , . how many psalmes have wee that are taken up in setting forth gods breaking , yoking , befooling , terrifying his adversaries at such a season ? the remembrance of the slaughter of the first borne of egypt , was an ingredient in the chiefest ordinance the antient church enjoyed , exod. . much of the greatnesse and intensenesse of his love to his own , is seene in his enemies ruine . isa. . , . i gave egypt for thy ransome , ethiopia and seba for thee , since thou wast precious in my sight , thou hast been honourable , and i loved thee , therefore i will give men for thee , and people for thy life . when god gives such mighty kingdomes for a small handfull , it appeares they are precious to him . whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake , isa. . . when god will maintaine a quarrell with all the world , sweare that he will never have peace with ameleck , untill he be consumed , breake nations , kings and kingdomes , stretch out his hand in judgement round about , and all to save , preserve , prosper , protect , a small handfull , surely he hath endeared affections for them . in the dayes wherein we live , can we look , and see , wise men befooled , mighty warriours vanquished , men of might become as children , their persons slaine , and trodden downe in the field , can wee but cry ? lord , what are we , and what is our house that thou shouldest doe such things for us ? a serious view of what god hath done in this nation of late , what armies he hath destroyed , what strong holds demolished , what proud haughty spirits defeated , what consultations made vaine , is enough to make us admire the riches of his love all our dayes . wee may know what esteeme a man sets upon a jewell by the price he gives for it . surely god values them , for whom he hath given , the honours , the parts , the polities , the lives , of so many tall cedars , as of late he hath done . the loving kindnes of god to his church is seene , as in a glasse , in the bloud of their persecutors . the manifestation of gods soveraignty , power , and soveraign justice , is as deare to him as the manifestation of his mercy . the properties he layes out in destruction , are equally glorious , with those he laies out in preservation . in the proclamation of his glorious name he omits them not : exod. . , . in these he triumpheth gloriously when he hath overthrowne the horse and his rider in the sea , exod. . let not our eyes in the late deliverance bee alwayes on the light side of the worke , our owne mercies : the darke side of terror and judgement is not without its glory . the folly that was in their counsells , the amazement that was in their armies , the trembling that accompanied all their undertakings , the tympanous products of all their indeavours , doe all cry out digitus dei est hic . had not god shewed infinite wisedome , they had not beene so abundantly foolish ; had not he been infinite in power , the many thousands of enemies had not been so weake . in the late engagement in this country , when god stirred us up , with some others in these parts , to make some opposition to the enemy gathering at chelmsford , what were thinke you the workings of gods providences against them ? how came it to passe that we were not swallowed up by them ? for . they were desirous to ruine us : if we may judge their desires to answer their intetest , or their expressions , with the language of their friends round about us to answer their desires . . they were able to doe it . they had from the beginning and so all along , neere as many thousands , as wee had hundreds , of them very many old experienced souldiers , with us not three men , that had ever seene any fighting . . they were resolved to doe it . vvitnesse their owne confessions , and frequent declarations of their purposes , whilest the businesse was in agitation . . they were provoked to it . the first and onely considerable opposition being made unto them in this place , and thereby first their assistance from colchester hindred , which how much they valued , witnesse the senselesse letter they would have forced the committee to subscribe , to perswade us not to disturbe their levies there . secondly , suppressed and discouraged all those affected to them and their designes in these parts of the county , restraining some , disarming others , awing all . thirdly , hastning the coming of the army , lest their friends should suffer . fourthly , incouraging their coming , by declaring that they had friends here , by which and the like they were abundantly provoked . . that they were also invited to it , though by persons somewhat inconsiderable , with promises of a full party of friends to assist them , which they might have had , and a rich booty from their enemies to support them , which they might have found , is too apparent . now being thus advantaged , thus incouraged , thus provoked , and resolved , why did they not attempt it , why did they not accomplish their desires ? is it not worth the while to consider how they were restrained ? was not much of gods wisedom seen in mixing a spirit of giddinesse and errror in the middest of them , that they knew not well how to determine , nor at all to execute their determinations ? was not his power seene in causing experienced souldiers as they were , with their multitudes , to be afraid of a poore handfull of unskillfull men , running together because they were afraid to abide in their houses ? vvas not his justice exalted , in keeping them onely for the pit which they had digged for others ? doubtlesse the hand of god was lifted up . o that wee could all learne righteousnesse , peculiarly amongst ourselves of this place : is there nothing of god to be discerned , in the vexations , birthlesse consultations , and devices of our observers ? nothing of power in their restraint ? nothing of wisdome in the selfe-punishment of their anxious thoughts ? nothing of goodnesse that after so long waiting for advantage , they begin themselves to think , that neither divination nor inchantment will prevaile ? . the measuring out of gods peoples portion fills cushan with affliction , and midian with trembling . their eye is evill , because god is good . israel's increase is pharaoh's trouble , exod. . . when nehemiah comes to build the walls of jerusalem , it grieved the enemy exceedingly , that one was come to seek the welfare of the children of israel . neh. . . this is the season of that dispensation which you have mentioned , isaiah . , , . thus saith the lord , behold my servauts shall eat , but yee shall bee hungry , behold my servants shall drink but yee shall be thirsty , behold my servants shall rejoyse , but yee shall be ashamed : behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart , but yee shall cry for sorrow of heart , and houle for vexation of spirit . and yee shall &c. the reasons of this are taken , from their envy , from their carnall feare , the two principles whereby they are acted in reference to the saints of god . . their envy : * they have a devouring envy at them , which at length shall shame them and consume them , isa. . . they are of their father the devill , and he ( through envy ) was a murderer from the beginning . joh. . . the portion god measureth out unto his people is in distinguishing mercies , differencing blessings : in such things as the world hath not , giveth not . now this is that , which envy takes for its proper object . that others should have enjoyments above them , beyond them , this envious men cannot beare . god accepts abell , not cain ; presently cain is wrath and his countenance falls , gen. . . jacob gets the blessing , and this fills the heart of esau , with murderous revenge , gen. . . upon all gods appearances with the apostles , how were the jews cut to the heart , vexed , perplexed ? god gives distinguishing mercies to his people , such protections , such deliverances , this cushan and midian cannot bear . . their carnall fear : they have all of them that conclusion in their brests , which haman's wisemen and wife made to him , h●st. . . if they begin to fall before the seed of the jews , utter ruine will follow . when god begins to own his people as they in the acts , chap. . v. . they doubt whither this will grow . their hearts tell them secretly they are usurpers of all they have , and when god ownes any , they instantly fear lest for their sakes they should be called to account . when a distinction begins to be made , in ordinances , priviledges , deliverances , protections , evidently given to some peculiar ones , they tremble within that they are set apart for no good . this picking and chusing of men by the lord psal. . . they cannot bear with . such mighty works attend the israelites , what thinkes midian will be the end of this ? it is true their pride calls on them to act openly more of their malice then their fear : but yet this lies at the bottome : like a boasting atheists nightly thoughts . the chiefe priests and pharisees , having gotten the apostles before them , what big words they use to countenance the businesse ? who gave you this power ? acts . . but when they are by themselves they cry , what shall we do ? and whereunto will this grow ? this lies at the bottome with many at this day , though they boast and lift up their mouthes to heaven , their hearts do tremble as an aspen leafe . learn not to be troubled , at the great tumultuating , which is amongst many against the wayes of god at this day . god is measuring out his childrens portion , giving them their bread in season , viewing for them the lot of their inheritance . men of the world , profane cushanites , superstitious apostaticall midianites , will not , cannot be quiet . vexed they are , envious and afraid , and will act according to those principles . cushanites see religion owned , midianites theirs disclaimed , and both are alike provoked . the lord convert them , or rebuk them , or the one will have the armies , the other their wiles . only judge not their hearts by the outward appearance always : they seeme gallant to you , indeed they are frighted , galled , vexed . i have seen a galled horse under dressing , leap and curvet , as though it had bin out of metall and spirit , when indeed it was paine and smart that made him do it . they pretend to despise us when they envy us . they look like contemners , but are tremblers : be not troubled at their outward appearance , they have inward anguish ; they bite others , but are lashed themselves . . the season of the churches deliverance being come , cushan and midian must wax vaine and perish . that there is such a season i told you before . when years are expired , aegypt must be destoyed , the amorites rooted out , and all the nations round made to tremble . when years of captivity expire , babylon must be ruined , and the caldean monarchy quite wasted , that the jews may returne . the church being to be delivered , haman must be hanged . this you have fully set out , revel. . , , , , , . it is the fall of heathenish tyranny , by the prevailing of the gospell , which you have there described . rome and constantinople , pope and turk , are preserved , for a day and an houre , wherein they shall fall and be no more . if the season of enjoying ordinances and privileges , be come to this nation , that the tabernacle of god , will be here amongst men , wo be to cushanites , wo be to midianites , open opposers and secret apostates . they shall not be able to be quiet , nor to prevaile . god will not let them rest , nor obtain their purposes : the story of haman must be acted over againe ; their hearts shall be stirred up to their own ruin . revel. . . this is the frame of perishing babylonians , in the day of sions-restauration . the reasons are , . because at the deliverance of his people god will plead with their enemies for their oppressions . it is the day of the lords vengeance , the yeare of recompences for the controversy of sion , isa. . . it is the vengeance of the lord and his temple that lights upon them , in that day . jerem. . . the violence done to me and my flesh , be upon babylon shall the inhabitant of zion say , and my blood upon the inhabitants of caldea shall jerusalem say , jerem. . . in this day great babylon must come into remembrance , rev. . , . . the discerning triall , that shall , and doth come along with the churches vindication , will cut off all superfluous false professors , so that they also shall perish : mala. . , . christ comes with a fan to send away the chaffe in the wings of the wind . have we not seen this end of many zelots ? . the amorites live in canaan , and must be removed . oppressors , and hypocrites , enjoy many rights of the church , which must be taken from them : rome and her adherents , shall not have so much left , as the name or title , appearance or shew of a church . the outward court they have troden down and defiled , shall be quite left out , in the measuring of the temple , revel. . bring this observation home to the first from this verse , and it will give you the use of it : proceed we to the next verse . was the lord displeased against the rivers ? was thine anger against the rivers ? was thy wrath against the sea , that thou diddest ride upon thy horses and thy chariots of salvation ? was the lord displeased {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} kindled , did he burne ? that is in wrath : heat is a great ingredient in the commotion of anger , in us , here alluded to , or because the effects of anger are so often compared to fire . against the rivers or flouds ? again was thine anger ? {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} thy nose or face , or thine anger , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} signifies both : the x face is the seate of angers appearance : fury comes up into the face . was thine anger ? thy troubling anger ( so the word ) against the sea ? the red sea , through which thy people passed . that thou diddest ride upon thy horses , thy chariots salvation , or thy chariots were salvation , currus salutares , thy safety-bringing charets . the words are an admiring expostulation , about the mighty works of the lord , for his people , upon the sea , rivers and inanimate creatures . . the rivers : jordan and its driving back is doubtlesse especially intended . the lord shewed his power , in disturbing that antient river in his course , and making his streames run backward . the story of it you have josh. . , . the people being to enter into canaan , the lord divides the waters of that river , making them beneath to sinke away , and those above to stand on an heap . this the prophet magnifyes , psa. . . what aylest thou o jordan that thou wast driven back ? what marvellous , powerfull disturbing thing is happened to thee , that contrary to thy antient naturall course , thy streames should be frighted , and run back to the springs from whence they came ? . the sea : that is the red sea , which in like manner was divided , exod. . . which the prophet also admires in the forecited psalme : the sea saw it and fled : what ayledst thou , o thou sea that thou fledst ? what strong mighty impression of power was on thee , that the multitudes of thy waters should be parted , and thy chanell discovered dry to the bottome ? that thou diddest ride upon thy horses and thy chariots of salvation . this you have againe v. . thou diddest ▪ walke through the sea with thine horses . these were those clouds and windes which the lord sent before the izraelites , to the sea and jordan , to drive them back . he maketh the cloudes his chariots , and walketh upon the wings of the wind psal. . . so psal. . . hee did fly upon the wings of the wind. after the manner of men , god is represented as a mighty conquerour , riding before his armies and making way for them . the power and majesty of god , was with , and upon those clouds and winds , which went before his people , to part those mighty waters , that they might passe dry : and therefore they are called his saving chariots , because by them his people were delivered . or by horses and chariots here , you may understand the angels , who are the host of god . psal. . . the chariots of god are twenty thousands , even thousands of angels , they have appeared as horses and chariots of fire , kings . . and their ministry no doubt the lord used in these mighty works of drying rivers , and dividing seas . either way , the glorious power and majesty of god , in his delivering instruments , is set forth . thus the words severally , now joyntly . this admiring interrogation includes a negation . was the lord kindled against the rivers , was thy face against the rivers , &c. was it that the deep had offended the most high , that by thine angels , winds and clouds , thou diddest so disturbe the flouds in their antient course , and madest naked their hidden channells , untill the hoary deep cryed out for feare , and lifted up his aged hands to the almighty as it were for pity , v. ? no surely , no such thing ; all those keep the order by thee unto them appointed ; it was all for the salvation and deliverance of thy people . god was not angry with jordan when he drove it back , nor with the sea when he divided it , but all was effected for israels deliverance . the very senselesse creatures , are as it were sensible of the wrath and power of the almighty . effects of anger being in and upon the deep , he utters his voyce and lifts up his hands on high , v. . god often in the scripture sets forth his power and majesty , by the trembling of heaven , and the shaking of the earth , the vanishing of mountaines , and the bowing of perpetuall hills , the professed humble subjection of the most eminent parts of the creation . the sea shall fly as afraid , the rocks as weake rend and crumble , the heavens be darkened , the mountaines skip like rams , and the little hills like young sheep , psal. . . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} aeschilus . justin . in apol. the heavens shook , the earth dropped at the presence of god , psal. . . the almighty creator , holds the whole frame of the building in his own hand , and makes what portion he pleaseth , and when he pleaseth , to tremble , consume and vanish before him . though many things are not capable of sense and reason , yet he will make them do such things as sense and reason should prompt the whole subjected creation unto , to teach that part their duty who were indued therewith . a servant is beat , to make a child learne his duty . see hence the stoutnesse of sinfull hearts . more stubborne then the mountaines , more flinty then the rocks , more senselesse then the great deep . friend art thou stronger then horeb , yet that trembled at the presence of this mighty god , whom it never had provoked ? are thy lusts like the streames of jordan , yet they runne back from his chariots of salvation ? are thy corruptions more firmely seated on thy soule , then the mountaines on their bases , yet they leaped like frighted sheepe , before that god against whom they had not sinned : and wilt thou , a small handfull of sinfull dust , that hast ten thousand times provoked the eyes of his glory , not tremble before him , comming on his horses and chariots of salvation , his mighty workes and powerfull word ? shall a lyon tremble and thou not afraid , who art ready to tremble with a thought of that poore creature ? shall the heavens bow , the deepe begge for mercy , and thou be senselesse ? shall all creatures quake for the sin of man , and sinfull man be secure ? know you not that the time is comming wherein such men will desire the trembling rockes , to be a covert to their more affrighted soules ? no creatures , seas nor flouds , greater or lesser waters , shall be able to obstruct or hinder gods peoples deliverance , when he hath undertaken it . is the sea against them ? it shall be parted ; is jordan in the way ? it shall be driven back ; both sea and jordan shall tremble before him : euphrates shall be dried up to give the kings of the east a passage , revel. . . waters in the scriptures are sometimes afflictions , sometimes people and nations . be they seas , kinges and princes , or be they rivers , inferior persons , they shall not be able to oppose . god has decked his house and made it glorious with the spoyles of all opposers . there you have the spoyles of pharaoh , gathered up on the shore of the red-sea , and dedicated in the house of god . exod. . there you have all the armour of senacheribs mighty host with the rest of their spoyles , hung up to shew . ch. . . there you have the glory and throne and dominion of nebuchadnezzar himselfe being turned into a beast . dan. . . there you shall have the carcasses of gog and magog with all their mighty hosts for comming to encampe against the city of god . ezek. . there you have the imperiall robes of v dioclesian and his companion abdicating themselves from the empire for very madnesse that they could not prevaile against the church . kings of armies shall fly apace and shee that taries at home shall divide the spoyle , psal ▪ . . all opposers though nations and kingdomes shall perish and be utterly destroyed , isa. . . revel. . . god will not exalt any creature unto a pitch of opposition to himselfe , or to stand ▪ in the way of his workings . the very end of all things in their severall stations , is to be serviceable to his purposes towards his own . obedience in senslesse creatures , is naturall , even against the course of nature in the season of deliverance . sun stand thou still upon gibeon , and thou moone in the valley of ajalon , josh. . . who art thou , o great mountaine ? before zerubbabel , thou shalt become a plaine , zech. . . the most mountainous opposers shall be levelled , when the spirit of god sets in for that purpose . there is a strength in every promise and ingagement of god unto his people , that is able to carry the whole frame of heaven and earth before it . if they can believe , all things are possible to them that believe . when the decree is to bring forth , the fruit of the promise , it will overturne empires , destroy nations , divide seas , ruine armies , open prisons , break chaines and fetters , and beare down all before it . as the winde shut up in the earth , will shake the pillars as it were of its mighty body , but it will find or make a passage . the least promise of deliverance , if the season thereof be come , though it were shut up under strong and mighty powers , crafty counsells , dungeons and prisons , like the doores and lasting barres of the earth , the truth and power of god shall make them all to tremble , and give birth to his peoples deliverance . have we seene nothing of this in our days ? no seas divided ? no jordans driven back ? no mountaines revelled ? no hills made to tremble ? whence then was the late confusion of armies ? casting down of mighty ones , reviving of dead bones , opening of prison-doores , bringing out the captive appointed to be slaine ? is it not from hence , that nothing can stand against the breakingout of a promise , in its appointed season ? was the lord displeased with the rivers ? was his anger against the walls and houses , that he rode upon his horses and chariots of salvation ? let faith be strengthened in an evill time . poore distressed soule all the difficulty of thy deliverance lies in thine own bosome . if the streames of thy unbeliefe within , be not stronger then all seas of opposition without , all will be easy . o learne to stand still with quietnesse , between an host of aegyptians , and a raging sea , to see the salvation of god . be quiet in prison , between your friends bullets , and your enemies swords , god can , god will make a way . if it were not more hard with us to believe wonders , then it is to the promise to effect wonders for us , they would be no wonders , so dayly , so continually would they be wrought . god can make use of any of his creatures to be chariots of salvation . this is the other side of that doctrine which we gathered from v. . winds and clouds shall obey him . z ravens shall feed elijah that will not feed their own young . the sea shall open for israel , and returne upon the egyptians . and this both in an ordinary way as hos. . , . and in an extraordinary way as before . so many creatures as god hath made so many instruments of good hath he for his people : this is further confirmed , v. . thy bow was made quite naked , according to the oathes of the tribes , thy word : sela : thou diddest cleave the earth with rivers . with nakednesse thy bow was made naked . the rest is elepticall and well supplyed in the translation . the verse hath two parts . a generall proposition , thy bow was made , &c. . a particular confirmation of that proposition by instance , thou diddest cleave the earth with rivers . the proposition holds out two things : . what god did , he made his bow quite naked . . the rule he proceeded by herein , according to the oaths of the tribes , even his word . the assertion of this verse , is not of some particular act , or work , as the former , but a generall head or fountaine of those particular works , which are ennumerated in the following verses . . a bow is a weapon of war , an instrument of death , and being ascribed to god after the manner of men , holds out , his strength , power , might , and efficacy to do what ever he pleaseth . and this is said to be quite naked : when a man goes about to use his bow , he pulls it out of his quiver , and so makes it naked . the exercising of gods power , is the making naked of his bow . this he did in all those wonders , wherein he stretched out his hand , in bringing his people into the promised land , here pointed at . and it is said that with nakednesse it was made naked , because of those very high dispensations and manifestations of his almighty power . this is the making naked of his bow . . for the rule of this , it is the oathes of the tribes , or as afterward his word . the oathes of the tribes , that is the oaths made to them : the word he stood ingaged to them in . the promise god made by oath unto abraham , that he would give him the land of canaan , for an inheritance , even to him , and his posterity , gen. . , , , . is here intimated . this promise was often renewed to him and the following patriarches . hence it is called oathes , though but the same promise often renewed : and it had the nature of an oath , because it was made a covenant . now it was all for the benefit of the severall tribes , in respect of actuall possession , and was lastly renewed to them , exod. . . hence called the oaths of the tribes : not which they sware to the lord , but which the lord sware to them . so afterwards it is called his word . thy word . this then is the purport of this generall proposition . o lord according as thou promisedst , and ingagedst thy selfe by covenant to abraham , isaac , and jacob , with their posterity , that thou wouldest give them the land of canaan to be theirs for an inheritance , so by the dispensation of thy mighty power , thou hast fully accomplished it : and this he layeth down for the supportment of faith in a time of trouble . the words would afford many observations , i shall insist only on one . the lord will certainely make good all his promises , and ingagements , to his people , though it cost him the making of his bow quite naked , the manifestation of his power in the utmost dispensations thereof . gods workings , are squared to his ingagements . this is still the close of all gratious issues of providence , god hath done all according as be promised . josh. . . sam. . . he brought out his people of old , with a mighty hand , with temptations , signes and wonders , and a stretched out arme , and all , because he would keepe the oath which he had sworne , and the ingagement which he had made to their fathers , deut. . . what obstacles soever may lie in the way he hath done it , he will do it . take one instance , particular places are too many to be insisted on . it was the purpose of his heart , to bring his elect home to himselfe , from their forlorne lost condition . this he engageth himselfe to do , gen. . . assuring adam of a recovery from the misery he was involved in by satans prevalency . this surely is no easy work . if the lord will have it done , he must lay out all his attributes in the demonstration of them to the uttermost . his wisdome and power must bow their shoulders ( as it were ) in christ unto it : he was the power of god and the wisdome of god . his ingaged love must be carried along through so many secret mysterious marvels , as the angels themselves desire to looke into , and shall for ever adore . though the effecting of it , required that which man could not do , and god could not suffer , yet his wisedome will find out a way , that he shall both do it , and suffer it , who is both god and man . to make good his engagement to his elect , he spared not his onely son : and in him were hid , and by him layd out , all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge . now this is a president , of gods proceeding in all other engagements whatsoever . what ever it cost him , he will spare nothing to make them good to the uttermost . he is our rock and his worke is perfect . a good man , if he want not power , will go through with his serious promises though he be ingaged to his own hurt , psal. . . the power of the mighty god is serviceable to his will to the utmost . he cannot will , what he cannot do . his will and power are essentially the same . and his power shall not be wanting to execute what his goodnesse hath moved him to engage unto , for his own glory . deut. . . hee is the rock and his worke is perfect , all his wayes are judgement , a god of truth , and without iniquity . here are many attributes of god to make good this one thing , that his worke is perfect . his {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , selfe-sufficiency , perfection , righteousnesse . i will pitch on one , he is a god of truth . so he is againe called psal. . . and in other places . the truth of god in his promises and engagements , requires an accomplishment of them what ever it cost , what power soever is required thereunto . this the saints make their bottome to seeke it . remember thy loving kindnesse , which thou swarest in thy truth , psal. . . it is impossible but that should come to passe which thou hast sworne in thy truth . no stronger plea , then , remember the word wherein thou hast caused thy servants to put their trust . jacob sayes he is lesse then all the mercy and all the truth of god , gen. . . he sees gods truth in all his mercy , by causing all things to come to passe , which he had promised him . it is true , some particular promises have their conditions , whose truth consists not in the relation between the word , and the thing , unlesse the condition intercede . but the great condition under the gospell , being only the good of them , to whom any ingagement is made , we may positively lay down , that gods truth requires the accomplishment of every engagement for his peoples good . it is neither mountaine nor hill , king , kingdome nor nation , hell nor mortality , nor all combined , that can stand in the way to hinder it his people stand in need of all , that god hath engaged himselfe to them for . gods promises are the just measure of his peoples wants . whatever he hath promised , that his people do absolutely want . and whatsoever they want , that he hath promised . our wants , and his promises are every way commensurate . if thou knowest not , what thou standest in need of , search the promises and see . what ever god hath said he will do for thee , that thou hast absolute need should be done . or if thou art not so well acquainted with the promises , search thine own wants , what thou standest absolutely in need of for thy good , that assuredly god hath promised . if then this be the case of engagements , they shall all be made good . thinke you , will god let his people want that which they have absolute necessity of ? by absolute necessity i meane such as is indispensible , as to their present estate and occasions . that may be of necessity in one generation , which is not in another : according to the severall imployments we are called to . does god call forth his saints , to execute vengeance upon the heathen , and punishments upon the people , to bind their kings with chaines , and their nobles with fetters of iron , to execute upon them the judgement written , as psal. . , , ? doth he bring them forth to burne the whore , to fight with the beast and overcome him , and his followers ? it is of indispensable necessity , that he give them glorious assistance in their undertakings . they shall be assisted , protected , carried on , though it cost him the making of his bow quite naked . according to the severall conditions he calls them to , the severall issues of providence , which he will have them serve in , so want they his appearance , in them , with them , for them , and it shall be present . let them be assured they are in his way , and then though some prove false and treacherous , some base and cowardly , though many combine and associate themselves against them , in many places , in all places , though whole kingdomes and mighty armies appeare for their ruine , be they reviled and clamoured , by all round about them , all is one , help they need , and help they shall have , or god will make his bow quite naked . this day is this doctrine fulfilled before us . gods bow made quite naked according to his word . we are lesse then all the truth hee hath shewed unto us . though great working and mighty power hath been required , such as he hath not shewen in our dayes , nor in the dayes of our fathers , yet the lord hath not stood at it , for his words sake , wherein he hath made us put our trust . i speake of the generall mercies we have received . the surrender of colchester the particular celebrated this day , though marching in the reare for time , is for the weight in the van . a mercy of the first magnitude . essex hath seene more power , in a three moneths recovery , then in the protection of six years . that the mouths of men are stopped , and their faces filled with shame , who made it their trade to revile and threaten the saints of god , that the adverse strength , which hath lien hid these seven years , should be drawn forth united and broken to pieces ; that the people of god , divided , and mutually exasperated through their abuse of peace , should by the sword of a common enemy , and the help of a common friend , have their wrath abated , their counsells united , and their persons set in a hopefull way , of closing or forbearance ; that god by their owne counsells should shut up men collected from su dry parts to ruine others , in a city with gates and walls for their own ruine ; that they should deny peace tendred upon such conditions , because of the exigencies of the time , as might have left them power , as well as will for a further mischiefe ; that such salvation should go forth in other parts , as that the proceedings here , should not be interrupted ; that the bitter service which men here underwent , should ever and anon be sweetned with refreshing tidings from other places , to keepe up theie spirits in wet , watching , cold and losse of bloud ; all these i say , and sundry others , such like things as these , are the lords doing , and marvellous in our eyes . especially let us remember how in three things the lord made his bow quite naked in this late deliverance . . in leavening the counsells of the enemy with their own folly . . in ordering all events to his owne prayse . . by controlling with his mighty power the issue of all undertakings . . in leavening their counsels with their own folly . a gods power and the efficacy of his providence , is not more clearely manifested in any thing then in his effectuall working in the debates , advises , consultations and reasonings of his enemies : compassing his ends by their inventions . when god is in none of the thoughts of men by his feare , he is in them all by his providence . the sun is operative with his heate , where he reacheth not with his light , and hath an influence on pretious mineralls , in the depths and darke bottomes of rocks and mountaines . the allpeircing providence of god , dives into the deepe counsells of the hearts of the sons of men , and brings out pretious gold from thence , where the gratious light of his countenance , shines not at all . men freely advise , debate , use and improve their own reasons , wisdome , interests , not once casting an eye to the almighty , and yet all this while do his work , more then their own . all the counsellings , plottings , of josephs brethren , all the transactions of the jewes , herod , and filate about the death of christ , with other the like instances abundantly prove it . take a few instances , wherein god made his bow quite naked in the counsells of his and our enemies . in generall they consult to take armes , wherein god had fully appeared against them , when in all probability their work would have bin done without . had they not fought , by this time they had bin conquerers . one halfe years peace more , which we desired on any termes , & they would on no termes beare , in all likely hood had set them where they would be . their work went on , as if they had hired the kingdome , to serve them in catching weather . what with some mens folly , others treachery , all our divisions , had not their own counsells set them on fighting , i think we should suddainly have chosen them , and theirs , to be umpires of our quarrels . god saw when it was time to deale with them . in their undertaking in our own county , i could give sundry instances , how god mixed a perverse spirit of folly and error in all their counsels . a part of the magistracy of the county is seized on : therein their intentions towards the residue clearly discovered , yet not any attempt made to secure them , which they might easily have accomplished , although they could not but suppose , that there were some gentlemen of publick and active spirits left , that would be industrious in opposition unto them . was not the lord in their counsells also , when they suffered a small inconsiderable party in a little village within a few miles of them , to grow into such a body as at length they durst not attempt , when they might have broken their whole indeavour with halfe an hundred of men ? doubtlesse of innumerable such things as these , we may say with the prophet , the princes of zoan are become fooles , the princes of noph are deceived , they have seduced the people , even they that are the stay of their tribes , the lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the middest of them , they have caused the people to erre in every worke , as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit . isa. . , . doubtlesse the wrath of man shall praise the lord , and the remainder of it will he restraine . . in ordering all events to his own praise . the timing of the enemies eruptions in severall places , is that which fills all hearts with wonder and all mouths with discourse in these dayes . from the first to the last , they had their season . had they come together , to the eyes of flesh , the whole nation had bin swallowed up in that deluge . in particular , let essex take notice of the goodnesse of god ; the high thoughts and threats of men , which made us for divers weeks feare a massacre , were not suffered to break out into open hostility , untill the very next day after their strength was broken , in the neighbour country of kent . as if the lord should have said , i have had you in a chaine all this while : though you have shewed your teeth , you have not devoured : now go out of my chaine , i have a net ready for you . for the armies comming to our assistance , i cannot see how we needed them many dayes sooner , or could have wanted them one day longer . further these homebred eruptions were timely seasoned , to rouse , the discontented souldiery , and divided nation , to be ready to resist the scottish invasion . god also being magnifyed in this , that in this sweet disposall of events , unto his glory , the counsells of many of those , in whom we thought we might confide , run totally crosse to the appearance of god in his providence . what shall wee say to these things , if the lord be for us , who shall be against us ? all these things come forth from the lord of hosts , who is wonderfull in couns●ll , and excellent in operation . isa. . . who so is wise will ponder them , and they shall understand the loving kindnesse of the lord . . in controlling mighty actions . i meane giving successe to his people in all their undertakings . the commander in chief of all the forces in this kingdome since his sitting down before colchester , was proffered a passe to go beyond the seas for his security . whence is it , that he hath now the necks of his enemies , and hath given any of them their lives at their intreaty ? greater armies then this , have bin buried under lesser walles ; did not the number of the besieged at first , exceed the number of the besiegers ? were not their advantages great ? their skill in war amongst men of their own perswasion , famous and renowned ? so that the sitting down before it , was judged an action , meete only for them , who could believe they should see the bow of god , made quite naked . it had bin possible doubtlesse to reasons eye , that many of those fictions , wherewith a faction in the great city fed themselves of the many routings , slaughters , and destructions of the army , might have bin true . some of them i say , for some were as childish as hellish . in briefe , they associated themselves and were broken in peices , they associated themselves and were broken in peices . high walls , towring imaginations , lofty threats all brought down . so let all thine enemies perish o lord , but let them that love him , be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might , and let the land have rest for many years , judg. . . this will discover unto us the bottome and rise of all gods appearances for his people : even the ingaging of his own free grace . he doth not make his bow quite naked , according to their deservings , but his own word not because they of themselves are better then others , but because he loves them more then others . were gods assistances , suited to our walkings , they would be very uneven : but his good-will is constant so are our deliverances . be exhorted to thankfulnesse , not b verball but reall : not the exultation of carnall affections , but the savoury obedience of a sound mind . there are many ingredients in thanks giving : suitable and seasonable obedience to answer the will of god in his mercies , is doubtlesse the crown of all . looke then under the enjoyment of blessings , in generall , to close walking with god in the duties of the covenant , and in particular , to the especiall work of this your generation , and you are in the way to be thankfull . be sedulously carefull to prevent that , which god hath mightily decryed by our late mercies : viz. mutuall animosities , strife , contention , and violence , against one another , c i meane of those that feare his name . god hath interposed in our quarrells from heaven . the language of our late deliverance is , be quiet lest a worse thing happen unto you . our poor brethren of scotland , would not see the hatefulnesse of their animosities towards their friends , untill god suffered that very thing , to be the means to deliver them up to the power of their enemies . the weapons they had formed , were used against themselves . let us learne betimes to agree about our pasture lest the wolves of the wildernesse devour us . persecution and idolatry have ruined all the states of the christian world . of the assertion we have spoken hitherto . come we now to the particular confirmation of it by instance . thou diddest cleave the earth with rivers . cleave the earth , or make channels in the earth , for waters to flow in . another most eminent work of almighty power is here set forth . eminent in it self , and eminent in its typicall signification . and the same thing being twise done , hath a plurall expression ; rivers . the bringing of streames of waters , from the rock , for the thirsty people in the wildernesse , is that which is here celebrated . now this the lord did twise . exod. . when the people were in rephidem , in the first year after their comming from aegypt , they fainted in their journies for want of water , and ( according to the wonted custome of that rebellious people ) complained , with murmuring . so they extorted all their mercies , and therefore they were attended with such sore judgements whil'st the meat was in their mouths , the plague was on their bones . mercies extorted by murmurings , unseasoned with loving kindnesse , though they may be quailes in the mouth will be plagues in the belly . let us take heed lest we r●pine the almighty into a full harvest , and leane soules . get and keepe mercies in gods way , or there is death in the pot. forty years after this , when the first whole evill generation was consumed , the children who were risen up in their fathers stead , fall a murmuring for water in the wildernesse of zin : and with a proffligacy of rebellion wish they had bin consumed with others in the former plagues : num. . . here also the lord gives them water and that in abundance , v. . now of this observe . . the places from whence this water marvellously issued : they were rocks , that in all probability , never had spring from the creation of the world : further they are observed to be rocks of flint , psal. . . which turned the rock into a standing water , the flint into a fountaine of waters , so deut. . . a rock into a poole , and a flint into a stream , is much beyond samsons riddle , of sweetnes from the eater . . the abundance of waters that gushed out ; waters to satisfy that whole congregation , with all their cattell , consisting of some millions . yea and not only they , but all the beasts of that wildernesse were refreshed thereby also . isa. . . the beast of the field shall honour me , the dragon and the owle , because i give water in the wildernesse , rivers in the desert , to give drink to my people , my chosen . ( the very worst of the sons of men , dragons and owles fare the better for gods protecting providence towards his own . ) and all this in such abundance , that it was as plentifull as a sea . he clave the rock in the wildernesse , and gave them drink as out of the great deepe , he brought streames also out of the rocks , and caused waters to run down like rivers , psal. . , . so also it is celebrated , isa. . . chap. . . hos. . : and in many other places . great deliverances call for frequent remembrances . thus were rivers brought out of the rocks : and with , or for these rivers , god did cleave the earth , that is , either he provided channels for those streames to run in , that they might not be wasted on the surface of that sandy wildernesse , but preserved for the use of his people ; or else the streames were so great and strong , that they pierced the earth , and parted channells for themselves . great rivers of water , brought out of flinty rocks , running into prepared channells , to refresh a sinfull thirsty people , in a barren wildernesse , i think is a remarkeable mercy . . as it was eminent in it selfe , so likewise is it exalted in its typicall concernment . is there nothing but flints in this rock ? nothing but water in these streames ? nothing but the rod of moses in the blowes given to it ? did the people receive no other refreshment , but only in respect of their bodily thirst ? yes saith the apostle , they drank of that spirituall rock which followed them , and that rock was christ , cor. . . was not this rock , a signe of that rock of ages on which the church is built ? mat. . . did not moses smiting , hold out his being smitten with the rod of god , isa. . , ? was not the powring out of these plentifull streames , as the powring out of his pretious blood , in a sea of mercy , abundantly sufficient to refresh the whole fainting church in the wildernesse ? latet christus in petra , here is christ in this rock . had rome had wisdom to build on this rock , though she had not had an infallibility , as she vainly now pretends , she might have had an infaillability ( if i may so speak ) yea she had never quite failed . give me leave to take a few observations from hence : as . sinners must be brought to great extremities , to make them desire the bloud of jesus . weary and thirsty , before rock-water come . thirst is a continually galling pressure . when a soule gaspeth like a parched land , and is as far from self-refreshement , as a man from drawing waters out of a flint , then shall the side of christ be opened to him . you that are full of your lusts , drunk with the world , here is not a drop for you . if you never come into the wildernesse , you shall never have rock-water , . mercy to a convinced sinner seems of times as remote , as rivers from a rock of flint . the truth is , he never came neer mercy , who thought not himself far from it . when the izraelites cryed , we are ready to die for thirst , then stood they on the ground , where rivers were to runne . . thirsty souls shall want no water , though it be fetched for them out of a rock . panters after the blood of jesus , shall assuredly have refreshment and pardon , through the most unconquerable difficulties . though grace and mercy seem to be locked up from them , like water in a flint , whence fire is more naturall then water , yet god will not strik the rock of his justice and their flinty hearts together , to make hellsire sparkle about their eares , but with a rod of mercy on christ , that abundance of water may be drawn out for their refreshment . . the most eminent temporall blessings , and suitable refreshment , ( water from a rock for them that are ready to perish ) is but an obscure representation of that love of god , and refreshment of souls , which is in the blood of jesus . carnall things are exceeding short of spirituall , temporall things of eternall . . the blood of christ is abundantly sufficient for his whole church , to refresh themselves ; streames , rivers , a whole sea . these and the like observations flowing from the typicall relation of the blessing intimated , shall not further be insisted on , one only i shall take from the historiall truth . god sometimes bringeth plentifull deliverances and mercies for his people from beyond the ken of sense and reason , yea from above the ordinary reach of much pretious faith . i mean not what it ought to reach , which is all the omnipotency of god ; but what ordinarily it doth , as in this very businesse it was with moses . i say plentifull deliverances , mercies like the waters that gushed out in abundant streames , untill the earth was cloven with rivers : that the people should not only have a tast and away , but drink abundantly , and leave for the beasts of the field . from beyond the ken of sense and reason , by events which a rationally wise man , is no more able to look into , then an eye of flesh is able to see water in a flint : or a man probably suppose that divers millions of creatures should be refreshed with waters out of a rock , where there was never any spring from the foundation of the world . now concerning this observe , . that god hath done it . . that he hath promised he will yet do it . . why he will so doe ? first he hath done it . i might here tire you with presidents . i could lead you from that mother deliverance , the womb of all others , the redemption that is in the bloud of jesus , down through many dispensations of old , and of late , holding out this proposition to the full . one shall suffice me , and if some of you cannot help your selves with another , you are very senselesse . look upon peters deliverance , act. . the night before he was to be slain , he was kept safe in a prison . a prison he had neither wil , nor power to break . he was bound with two-chaines , beyond his skill to unloose , or force asunder ; kept he was by souldiers , doubtlesse men of blood and vigilancy ; having this to keep them waking , that if peter escaped with his head , they were to lose theirs . now that his deliverance was above sense and reason , himselfe intimates , v. . he hath delivered me from the expectation of the jewes . the wise subtile jewes , concluded the matter so secure , that without any doubts or fears , they were in expectation of his execution the next day . that it was also beyond the ready reach of much pretious faith , you have an example in those believers , who were gathered together in the house of mary , v. . calling her mad , who first affirmed it , v. . and being astonished when their eyes beheld it , v. . the whole seeming so impossible to carnall herod , after its accomplishment , that he slayes the keepers as false in their hellish trust . a just recompence for trusty villaines . the time would faile me to speak of isaac and joseph , gidron , noah daniel & job , all presidents worthy your consideration . view them at your leisure , and you wil have leisure , if you inend to live by faith . . he hath said it . it is a truth abounding in promises and performances . i shall hold out one or two , it will be worth yourwhile to search for others your selves . he that digges for a mine , findes many a piece of gold by the way . isa. . , . fear not thou worme jacob , and yee few men of israel , behold i will make thee , a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth , thou shalt thresh the mountaines , and beat them small , and shalt make the hills as chaffe , thou shalt fan them , &c. to make a worm a threshing instrument with teeth , to cause that instrument to beat mountaines and hills into chaffe , that chaffe to be blowne away with the wind , that , that worm may rejoyce in god , to advance a small handfull of despised ones , to the ruine of mountanous empires , and kingdomes , untill they be broken and scattered to nothing , is a mercy that comes from beyond the ken of any ordinary eye . eze. . the prophet professeth that the deliverance promised was beyond his apprehension . son of man can these bones live and i answered o lord god thou knowest . the lord intimates in the following verses , that he will provide a means , for hischurches recovery , when it seemeth as remote therefrom , as ▪ dry bones scattered upon the face of the earth are from a mighty living army . this he calls opening their graves , v. , . because he would have his people wholly wrapt up in his all-sufficiency . not to straighten themselves , with what their faith can ken in a promise : much lesse to what their reason can perceive in appearance . in the application of promises to particular trials and extremities , faith oftentimes is exceedingly disturbed , either in respect of persons , or things , or seasons . but when it wil wholly swallow up it selfe in all-sufficiency , the fountaine of all promises , there is no place for fear or disputing . have your souls in spirituall trials never bin driven from all your outworks , unto this main fort ? hath not all hold of promises in time of triall given place to temptations , untill you have fallen down in all-sufficiency , and their found peace ? god accounts a flight to the strong tower of his name , to be the most excellent valour . this is faiths first , proper , and most immediate object : to particular promises it is drawn out , on particular occasions : here is or should be its constant abode : gen. . . and indeed the soule will never be prepard to all the will of god , untill its whole complacency be taken up in this sufficiency of the almighty . here god delights to have the soule give up it selfe to a contented losing of all its reasonings , even in the infinite unsearchablenesse of his goodnes and power . therefore will he sometimes send forth such streames of blessings , as can flow from no other fountain , that his may know where to lie down in peace . here he would have us secure our shallow bottomes in this quiet sea , this infinit ocean , whither neither wind , nor storme , do once approach . those blustering temptations which rage at the shore , when we were halfe at land , and half at sea , halfe upon the bottome of our own reason , and half upon the ocean of providence , reach not at all unto this deepe . oh if we could in all trials , lay our selves down in these armes of the almighty , his al-sufficiency in power and goodnes , oh how much of the haven should we have in our voyage , how much of home , in our pilgrimage , how much of heaven in this wretched earth ! friends throw away your staves , break the arme of flesh , lie down here quietly in every dispensation , and you shall see the salvation of god . i could lose my selfe in seting out of this , wherein i could desire you would lose your selves in every time of trouble . hast thou not known ? hast thou not heard that the everlasting god , the lord , the creatour of the ends of the earth , fainteth not , neither is weary ? there is no searching of his understanding . he giveth power to the faint and to them who have no might , he increaseth strength . even the youths shall faint and be weary , and the young men shall utterly fall . but they that waite upon the lord shall renew their strength , they shall mount up with wings as eagles , they shall run and not be weary , they shall walk and not be faint . isa. . , , , . to convince the unbelieving world it self of his power , providence , and love to them that put their trust in him : that they may be found to cry , verily there is a reward for the righteous , verily he is a god who ruleth in the earth . when the aegyptian magicians see reall miracles , beyond all their jugling pretences , they cry out this is the finger of god , exo. . . profane nebuchadnezzar beholding the deliverance of those three worthies , from the fiery furnace , he owns them for the servants of the most high god , dan. . . daniel being preserved in the lyons den darius acknowledgeth the power and kingdom of the livinggod , dan. . glorious appearances of god for his people beyond the reach of reason , wrests from the world amazement , or acknowledgement , and in both god is exalted he will appear in such distresses as that he will be seen of his very enemies : they shall not be able with the philistians to question whether it be his hand , or a chance happened to them , but conclude with the egyptians , that fly they must for god fights for his people , ex. . . if god should never give blessings but in such a way , as reason might discover their dependance on secondary causes , men would not see his goings , nor acknowledge his operations . but when he mightily makes bare his arme , in events beyond their imaginations , they must vayle before him . consider whether the mercy celebrated this day , ought not to be placed in this series of deliverances , brought from beyond the ken of sense and reason , from above the reach of much pretious faith . for the latter i leave it to your own experience , to the former let me for the present desire your consideration of these five things . . by whom you were surprised and put under restrant . now these were of two sorts : . the heads and leaders , . the tumultuous multitude . for the first , some of them being dead , and some under durance , i shall not say any thing : nullum cum victis certamen et aethere cassis . i leave the streame from the flint to your own thoughts . . for the multitude , an enraged , headles , lawles , godles multitude , gathered out of innes , taverns , alehouses , stables , highways , and the like nurseries of piety and pitty . such as these having gotten their superiors under their power , their governors under their disposall , their restrainers under their restraint , their opressors , as they thought , under their fury , what was it that kept in their fury & their revenge , which upon the like occasions and advantages , hath almost always bin executed ? seaech your stories , you will not find many that speak of such a deliverance . for a few governors prevailed on , unto durance , by a godlesse rout , in an insurrection , and yet to come off in peace and safety , is surely a work of more then ordinary providence . . consider the season of your surpisall , when all the kingdom was in an uproare , and the arme of flesh almost quite withered as to supply . the north invaded , the south full of insurrections , wales unsubdued , e the great city , at least suffering men to lift up their hands against us ▪ so that to the eye of reason the issue of the whole , was if not lost , yet exceedingly hazardous : and so to the eye of reason your captivity endlesse . had they gone on as was probable they would , whether you had this day bin brought out to execution , or thrust into into a dungean , or carried up and down as a pageant , i know not , but much better condition , i am sure rationally you could not expect . . the end of your surprizall . amongst others , this was apparently one , to be a reserve for their safety , who went on , in all ways of ruine . you were kept to preserve them in those ways , wherein they perished . whether could reason reach this or no ; that you being in their power , kept on purpose for their rescue , if brought to any great straight , with the price of your heads , to redeem their own , that they should be brought to greater distresse , then ever any before in this kingdom , and you be delivered , without the lest help to them in their need , it was beyond your freinds reason , who could not hope it , it was beyond your enemies reason who never feared it , if you believed it , you have the comfort of it . . the refusall of granting an exchange , for such persons , as they accounted more considerable then your selves , and whose enlargement might have advantaged the cause they professed to maintaine , exceedingly more then your restraint , what doth it but proclame your intended ruine ? this was the way of deliverance , which for a long season , reason chiefly rested on , the maine pillar of all its building , which when it was cut in two , what could in it be seen but desolation . . the straights you were at length reduced to , betwen your enemies swords and your friends bullets , which intended for your deliverance , without the safeguard of providence , might havebin your ruin , peircing more then once , the house wherein you were . surely it was then an eminent work of faith to stand still , and see the salvation of god . the many passages of providence evidently working for your preservation , which i have received from some of your selves , i willingly passe over . what i have already said is sufficient to declare that to reasons eye you were as dead bones upon the earth . for our parts who were endangered spectators , at the best , we were but in the prophets frame , and to any question about your enlargement could answer only , the lord alone he knowes . and now behold the lord hath chosen you out , to be examples of his loving kindnesse , in fetching mercy for you , from beyond the ken of reason , yea from above the reach of much pretious faith . he hath brought water for you out of the flint . reckon your deliverance under this head of operations , and i hope you will not be unthankfull . you that have received so great mercy , we that have seen it , and all who have heard the doctrine confirmed , let us learn to live by faith . live above all things that are seene . subject them to the crosse of christ . measure your condition , by your interest in gods all-sufficiency . do not in distresse calculate what such , and such things can effect , but what god hath promised . reckon upon that , for it shall come to passe . if you could get but this one thing , by all your sufferings and dangers , to trust the lord , to the utmost extent of his promises , it would prove a blessed captivity . all carnall feares would then be conquered , all sinfull compliances with wicked men removed , &c. be exhorted to great f thankfulnesse , you that have bin made partakers of great deliverances . in great distresses , very nature prompts the sons of men to great promises . you have heard the ridiculous story of him , who in a storme at sea , promised to dedicate a wax-candle to the blessed virgin , as big as the mast of his ship , which he was resolved when he came on shore to pay with one of in the pound . let not the morall of that fable be found in any of you . come not short of any of your engagements , no greater discovery of an hypocriticall frame , then to flatter the lord in trouble , and to decline upon deliverance in cold bloud . the lord of heaven give you strength to make good all your resolutions : as private persons , in all godlinesse and honesty , following hard after god in every known way of his ; as magistrates , in justice equity and faithfull serving the kingdome of christ : especially let them never beg in vaine for help at your hands , who did not beg help in vaine , for you at the hands of god . consider , if , there be so much g sweetnesse in a temporall deliverance , oh what excellency is there in that eternall redemption , which we have in the blood of jesus ? if we rejoice for being delivered from them , who could have killed the body , what unspeakeable rejoysing is there in that mercy whereby we are freed from the wrath to come . let this possesse your thoughts , let this fill your soules , let this be your haven from all former stormes , and here strik i sayle , in this , to abide with you , and all the saints of god for ever . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- lubens meri toque . ●ut . de iside osir . kent . essex . notes for div a e- serm. . a the time of his prophesie is conceived to be about the end of josiahs raigne , not long before the first caldean invasion . obser. . prov. . . b preces et la chrimae sunt arma ecclesiae . tertul. obser. . verse . c graviter in eum decernitur ●ui etiam ipsa ▪ conectio denegatur . prosp : sent. obser. . d duplicantur lateres quando venit moses . gen. . . e namque bonos non blanda inflant , non aspera frangunt , sed fidei invictae gaudia vera juvant . prosy : epig : in sent : august . reas. . psal. . . hos. . . heb. . , . pet. . . f in caelo non in terramercedem promisit reddendam : quid alibi poscisquod alibi debitur ? ambros. offic. lib. . cap. . reas. . vse . g cum vexamur ac premimur tum maxime gratias agimus indulgentissimo patri , quod corruptelam nostram non pati tur long ius procedere : hinc intelligimus nosesse deo curae . lactan. vse . obs. . iob . . ch. . . . prov. . . chap. . . h sam. . . chron. . i omnes seculi plagae , nobis in admonitionem , vobis in castigationem à deo veniunt . tertul. apol. cap. obs. . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} in the inward of years . obser. . reas. . rea. . vse . k bonum agonum subituri estis in quo . agonothetes deus vivus est : christarchos spiritus sanctus , corona aeternitatis brabium , epithetes jesus christus . tertul. ad mar. verse . cen. . . jer. . . obad. . deut. . l gloria est frequens de aliqua fama cum laude ci. lib. . de inv. . consentiens ●●us bonorum incorrupta vox bene judicantium de excellente virtute . idem tusc l. . obs. . reas. . reas. . vse . n no place in the county so threatned . no place in the county so preserved . small undertakings there blessed : great opposition blasted . non nobis , domine non nobis . verse . o deut : . . psal. . . zech : . . obser. . reason . john . . revel : . . reason . vse verse . l exod. . . levit. . . sam. . . ezek. . . mat. . . obser. . vse . . vse . verse . josh. . . numb. . . obs. . vse . obser. . g vid. tertul. ad scapulamde persecutione . vse . . r nero primus in christianos ferociit : ●ali dedicatore damnation is nostrae etiam gloriamur , qui enim scit illum intelligere potest , non nisi aliquod bonwn grande à nerone damnatum tertul. apol. s nova & inaudita est ista praedicatio quae verberibus exigit fidem grego . ep. . t magistrum neminem habemusmsi solum deum ; hic ante te est , nec abscondi potest , sed cui nihil facere possis . vse . obser. . isa. . . vse sam. . . verse . kings . . jer. . . joseph antiq. chap. . isa. . . u tantos invidus babet paenâ justa tortores , quantos invidiosus habuerit laudat , tores . prosp ▪ vita contempt . num. . ch. . & . obs. . reas. . rom. . , . reas. . vse . . obs. . reas. reas. . vse . gen. . . psal . . obser. . reason * quisfacile potest quale sit hoc malum verbis exprimere , quo invidus odio hominis , persequitur divinū munus in homine : pros. vit cont. invidia est tristitia de bon● proximi prout proprium malum aestimatur , & est diminutivum proprii boni . aqu. . ae . q. . a. . c. noctu dubitant . vse . obser. . reas. . vse verse . x caetera licet abscondere & in abdito alere ; ira se profert et in faciem exit . senec. de ira . obser. . vse . obs. . v euseb. vit. con. const. orat reas. vse . . vse . obs. . z {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} arist. hist anima . . pellant nidis pullos sicut & corvi . plin. nat. hist. verse . serm. . obser. . cor. . . pet. . . col. . . reas. . rom . . mat. . . reas. . revel. . . vse . a quod homines peccant eorum est : quod peccando hoc velillud agant ex virtute dei est , tenebras prout visū est dividentis . august . de praed. oportet haereses esse , sed tamen non ideo bonum , haereses , quia eas esse oportebat : quasi non et malum oportuerit esse , nam et dominum teadi oportebat , sedvae traditori . tertul. praef. ad . haer. cen. . . gen. . . acts . , . vse . deut : . , . b in beneficio reddendo plus animus quam census operatur , ambs . offi . li . c. . vse . vse . . c {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . iraenae . epist. ad vict. apud euseb. lib. . cap. . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} clem ▪ ep. ad cor. psl . . . vir bonus commune bonum . gen. . . obs. . preached at the committee at rumford . gen. . . gen. , &c. reas. . rea. . psal . . . sam . . vse . e idem huic ur ▪ bi dominandi finis erit , qui parendi fuerunt : senec. de ro. vse . vse . . f erunt homicidae , tyranni , fures , adulteri , raptores , sacrilegi proditores , infra ista omnia , ingratus est . senec. benef. l. . gratiarum cessat decursus , ubi recursus non fuerit . bern. serm . g si tanti vitrum quanti margaritum ? tertul. vse . . iulii, at night. a letter from the leaguer before colchester, sent to the honorable committee at derby-house, of the great fight between his excellency the lord fairfax, and the forces in colchester. ordered by the said committee, that this letter be forthwith printed and published. gualther frost, secr' rushworth, john, ?- . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing r thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) iulii, at night. a letter from the leaguer before colchester, sent to the honorable committee at derby-house, of the great fight between his excellency the lord fairfax, and the forces in colchester. ordered by the said committee, that this letter be forthwith printed and published. gualther frost, secr' rushworth, john, ?- . , [ ] p. printed for edward husband, printer to the honorable house of commons, london : july . . signed on a v: j.r., i.e. john rushworth. reproduction of the original in the british library. eng great britain -- history -- civil war, - -- early works to . colchester (england) -- history -- siege, -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no iulii, at night. a letter from the leaguer before colchester, sent to the honorable committee at derby-house, of the great fight betwee rushworth, john a this text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion iulii , at night . a letter from the leaguer before colchester , sent to the honorable committee at derby-house , of the great fight between his excellency the lord fairfax , and the forces in colchester . ordered by the said committee , that this letter be forthwith printed and published . gualther frost secr' london , printed for edward husband , printer to the honorable house of commons , july . . at the leaguer before colchester , july . eleven at night . sir , the enemy sallyed forth at east-bridge about eight in the morning , with one thousand foot and three hundred horse , and fell on our guard very suddenly , and surprised some of them being countrey-men , the rest retreated to the main guard : colonel whaley perceiving what advantage the enemy had got , presently advanced with his horse and got between them and home , whilest the tower regiment advanced towards the front , and routed both horse and foot together , and took about one hundred prisoners , the most of them miserably wounded , the soldiers giving them a payment for their poysoned bullets : about twenty of the enemy was slain on the place , most gentlemen , their good apparel and white skins speak no less : lieutenant colonel weston , eldest son to sir richard weston , and two captains more were taken prisoners , they confess they were one thousand foot , besides horse ; and some of the prisoners say , a colonel was slain on the place , where their foot fell ; the retreat was so hasty , that our two drakes which they surprised at east-bridge , they left behinde , so that we gained them , the house and turnpike , where we formerly were : lieut : colonel shambroke was shot in the body , the bullet since taken out , and we finde it poysoned , boyled in copprice ; our soldiers hope to be revenged of them the next engagement for this poysoned bullet : captain moody who commanded a troop of suffolk horse , was taken prisoner , ingaging the enemy very boldly in person ; one soldier had his leg shot off with a great bullet , and some wounded . the enemy was this day so sufficiently beaten , that unless hunger , which breaks stone walls , inforce them to play their last game , they will no more appear . your servant , j. r. postscript . the colonel or person of quality slain , had rings on his finger , which the soldiers cut off before he was dead ; many of them had two shirts on , which would make one believe they intended an escape . one wood a commander of horse , lately a supermerary reformado , vvas slain on their side . finis .