Bentivolyo, OR Good Will to all that are Called UNCONFORMISTS, OR To all the PEOPLE of GOD.  
Printed in the Year MDCLXVII.   

To the Reader.  
Reader,  
THat you may not expect more than you are like to find here; expect nothing but good will, which I hope you will find; but I will promise you here is neither Courtship nor Bhetorick, but so far from it, that it is scarce orderly and methodical; but as the unbred Countryman which can say but little, only wish you well, and say Good be with you: even such are these undressed naked lines: It may be you will say it is a shame to send so undressed▪ and naked a thing abroad; but it is young and little, therefore the less shame, and besides, the Mother is poor, and hath not fine  to dress it with, therefore begs of all that shall meet it, to use it favourably, and think the best of it, because it is but young and little; and the greatest kindness you can do it or its Mother, is to take it home and dress it (the Face is good) and send it abroad again: I have nothing to give it but the Name, which is Bentivolyo.   
Psal. 92. verse, 1. 2. 
It is a good thing to give praise unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy Name, O most High.  
To show forth thy Loving kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,  
MY intent and purpose is only to speak (though poorly and weakly) that little sense I have of the faithfulness and loving kindness of God, to myself and these people called fanatics, and to persuade them (if I may do it) to consider the faithfulness of God in the Day or Night of thick darkness, and not only to repine and murmur at our sufferings tho●gh they be great; but to remember the faithfulness of the Lord, that he hath not left us, nor given us over to destruction; but we have yet a place of Repentance, and a time to consider why we are thus afflicted; and in loving kindness and faithfulness to us he hath born long, he hath been a God of long▪ suffering toward us; truly we may see him waiting to be gracious, and that he doth not afflict willingly if we will but observe his do: How gently did the sufferings of the people begin, with some particular Families, and some particular persons there, timing of others; and then to the Nation in general Wars was threatened first (to see what that would do) then brought upon it; then the Sickness, still as if the Lord waited to see if we would leave the evil of our ways; then the Fire, which was a heavy Judgement upon all, but fell heaviest upon those which are called, and call themselves the people of God; and now the Lord seems to wait, to see whether they will yet return or no: It is now very near twelve months since the Fire; not one of these twelve but we have feared, and been in expectation of very great and sudden destruction; and if the mercies of God had not overruled merciless and cruel men, we might not now have been left to have given thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness and faithfulness to poor man▪ which is the first thing you ought to do, to give thanks to the Lord, and to show forth his loving kindness in the morning, and his faithfulness every night; and let me tell you, He is faithful in Judgement as well as in Mercy, and if Mercy will not do, Judgement must, and in great faithfulness too, for if you be his, he will not lose you: Therefore that we may turn to him while he is waiting to be gracious; before he brings more and further Judgement upon us, while his wrath is kindled but a little, that he may turn in mercy, and heal our backslidings.  
First the great and general cry is against wickedness in general, and the evil of the times we now live in; but few or none consider their own evil, why, or for what iniquity was my Family visited, or for what sin was my Estate or my Relation lost in the War, or was mine or mine consumed in the Fire; not that these were Sinners on whom these Judgements came, more than those on whom they did not come, but unless you all repent, ye shall likewise perish; ●t is a warning to those on whom they have not come, as well as to those on whom they have, and if they do not take warning by you they may look for greater judgements than hath yet come; you are yet in houses, and most of you have enough, though n●t t●e abundance as before it may be you had, yet the same hand wh●ch took part could have taken all, and have suffered that hand to have taken our l●ves too; Our Saviour learned obedience by the thin●s which he suffered; it may be, if you seriously consider, you may learn by these things which you suffer, though you may s●ffer them justly too; did not some of you set your hearts more upon the created than upon the Creator? did you not delight more in your wealth than in the Lord thy God? is it not then just you should lose it? learn then by it to see the vanity of things which perish in the using, and lay up that which perisheth not, so may you keep off what is further threatened, and appease thy God for what is past; was not some of you even swallowed up with covetousness, which is Idolatry; is it not just then that your Idols should be taken away, yes and mercy too? learn therefore to covet nothing but the best gifts: may it not be said of most of us? ye have lived in pleasure on the Earth, and have been wanton; have not too many spent most of their time in rioting, and feasting, taking care what you shall eat, and what you shall drink, and wherewith you shall be clothed; and I fear there is too too much of this still amongst us; but there is certainly a great evil in it, and if it be not forsaken, the latter end will be worse than the beginning, and these things to be done by those that are called the people of God, are an abomination unto him; therefore leave off to do evil, and do good: The second cry is against the abominations which are allowed of in the nation, viz. drunkenness, swearing, and whoring, and persecution, and all manner of evils which are publicly acted, these are abominable indeed; but for all these things they must come to judgement; we have nothing to do with them, till we have judged ourselves.  
Shall not God avenge for these things?  
But it is not those which I spoke to, it is to the people of God, to those which are called 
Isaiah 5. & 29 v. Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord, shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this.  by his name (but every one which nameth the name of the Lord depart from evil, which I hearty wish that all would do) not that I would exclude the other (nor do I) from being his too; but my more present concern is for you, which calling the Lord to be your God, and yourselves to be his people; to you is this good will that you would turn to the Lord withal your heart, and withal your strenngth, and put a stop to this hand of Judgement which is upon the Nation; God takes more notice of your sins than he doth of theirs; they pretend no more service to him then that they may be saved by ●●m, you profess to love him, and to be beloved by him, to whom much was given, much was required; you have had a greater talon; theirs are sins of commission, yours sins of omission you omit what you know you should do; they cry Lord have mercy upon us miserable sinners, and think they have done enough: You know that in a Princes or a nobles Man's house there are many offices, some are inferior, viz. grooms, sculians etc. and some superior, as those that attend his 
John 14, & 2. In my father's house are many Mansions.  own person; now the inferior, as the groom, or the scullion, if they commit a fault it may be it is not taken notice of by their Lord and Master, he doth not take notice to correct his inferior officers as he doth the other; yet if they continue to be faulty, and do not refrain, but be stuborn and rebellious, so that complaint be made and their Lord hear, they will be severely punished, if not turned off: But those which are superior if they commit a fault it is seen presently, because they attend the presence, and so if they are faulty, or if they neglect their duty, it is a greater dishonour to their Lord then if the groom or the like did a fault; and so it is with all you that are called the servants of God, if you be found faulty; though it be a lesser fault than theirs as you may think, yet it is a greater because you did it, and a greater dishonour to God: Therefore to all that are, and desire to be the servants or the children of the true God, they must give a constant attendance on the Lord, and not run a gading after the things of the world, after pride vanity etc. and though we see others before us that do so, and so, which may be a temptation, yet resist the Devil and he will fly from you, examine thyself when you are dressing and tricking, or curling yourself, whether you are serving the Lord▪ or whether you are serving thy lust and thy pride; if thy God you may go on; but if thy lust leave it off though you be one by thyself, and so in all thy life and conversation; examine thyself whether you are now or now attending upon thy God; sometimes you will, it may be, be in great swelling words of vanity, sometimes lying and flattering one with another in courtship and complimenting, as you call it, and if so know that you are out of your place, and not serving your Lord; wherefore make haste to repent, and humble yourself, and beg of the Lord to forgive you, and to receive you again.  
The third cry is against the wickedness of the Papists, and Popery, and it may be just too, and we may justly pray as David did to be delivered from the wicked, but let us also consider what David saith in that place in the 17 Psalms, and part of the 13 and 14 verses▪ Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is the word; the 14 from men which are thy hand, O Lord from men of the world; therefore when judgement comes upon you, or upon a Nation by the wicked, not to fret at the wicked, but to look on it as it is the sword of the Lord, and his sword never comes but where there is need of it; men are the hand of God, and men of the world too; sometimes he makes use of them to punish us, sometimes to try us, and when he will he can stay his hand, and men can do nothing: Now we have these two things before us to stop this hand too, hear the word, and whose it is; not to stop our ears and go on, but to hear and turn; then we have like David to pray, pray to be delivered, not that our bodies only may be delivered from their cruelty, but our souls from their snare; and I am persuaded that God hath yet mercy for this people, and might be yet entreated for this Nation, if there were any that could ask aright; O strive all of you that if it may be we may all with one hand, and one heart, put up a petition to the great King of Kings in the behalf of the Nation, and lay aside all private interest of your own: when you petition your earthly King, or any great Person, you are all agreed together, and one doth it in the name of all, and all give their consent to it; but here to our heavenly King (which I think is a great evil amongst you) one would have one thing, and another would have another thing, and you are not all agreed of your petition how you would have it, or what you would have; How then can you expect any thing that know not what you would have? if you could all have what you would have, sure there would then be great confusion, as there is now: I hope you all serve one Master, and are one family (and do believe that some of all do so) how is it then that you are displeased, that all are not in the same place one of another: The Presbyterians would have all to be as they be, and the Independent as they be, and the Baptist as they be, and the Quakers as they be; this is the reason why you cannot joy all with one consent; it may be God is ready (and waits) for your prayer, or your petition, and you are not ready to give it up▪ for shame then leave off interest of private parties, and the interest of persons and joy with one consent for the good of the whole, and for the honour of the Lord, and that judgement may run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream, and that there is no stopping of, it will run do what you can▪ you need not be concerned for this or that, all will have part then; you meet together, and ask what you think to be best, and it may be you would be all glad to see this; but you cannot all agree to come together to ask it; if you could all meet together to humble yourselves before the Lord, & beg this thing of him it may be he would hear, Jonah 3, 9 Who can still it, God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not: We have in many places in Scripture, that God forgetteth not the humble; and David in the 10 Psalm makes a prayer to God, that he would not forget the humble; and the Lord himself often takes notice of a people that humble them as often as we read of any that humbled themselves; we read also that God was merciful to them.  
Chro. 2, 12. And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, they have humbled themselves, therefore I will not destroy them. My thinks these be great encouragements for all to come together, and humble themselves; but it may be you will say I am not in the way, and there is but one way true, I say so too, there is but one way which is Christ, he is the way, the Truth, and the Life, John 14, 6. The way of righteousness is the way: Well than you all own one God (done't you) the God of Heaven; What ails you then that you cannot all pray to that God for righteousness and truth; we be all Sinners, w●y can't we all hum●le ourselves ●efore him? Can't you that are a Presbyterian be righteous in your wa●? and you that are an Independent be righteous in your way? and you Baptist in your way? and you Quaker in your way? and if you all are righteous, than you all are in one way, the way of righteousness, and that is the right way, Rom. 14. 8. 5. Let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind, and walk uprightly in his wa●, and make good use of what ●ight he has, and God will give him more; though there is a sort of people that presume to say, the●e never was nor never shall be a greater light than what they have, but to them I say they be mistaken; there is a light, which when it shall appear, will dazzle their eyes and make their light appear da●k; but walk up to what you have as children of the light, and let us agree in this to do the works of righteousness and to love one another, for love is the fulfilling of the Law and with thus doing, and being reconciled to one another; I hope God will be reconciled to us. Only this one thing more and I have done, That it is not meetings only, and abundance of Sacrifices that the Lord will accept of, but read Micah 6. 6 7, 8, and 9th. verses, and there you shall have in plain what the Lord will be pleased with.  
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with  offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams, or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil; shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. The Lord's voice crieth unto the City, and the man of wisdom shall see thy Name: hear ye the Rod, and who hath appointed it.  
That you would consider of this, and practise it, is all I would advise, and so farewell.   
FINIS.