The Warnings of the LORD To the Men of this GENERATION PARTICULARLY, To those in Power, who are lately passed away, ere they so passed; and to Them that Remain, who are 
* 17th. of the 10th. Mon. 1659.  ready to pass except They speedily Repent.  
AS They were given forth in sundry Letters, and sent TO 



OLIVER CROMWELL,  
RICHARD his Son,   Late Protectors.  
The PARRLIAMENT succeeding.  
The Council of Officers of the ARMY.  
The COUNCIL of STATE.  
A Member of the Parliament and Council of State, and Committee of Safety.  
The General Council of the Officers of the Army  
A Citizen of London and One of the Commissioners of the Militia there.    
By His Servant GEORGE BISHOP.  
Who is moved, of the Lord (now) to Publish them, to the end, That all may see that He hath given to every sort of these men, a Day, who gives to Nations, Kingdoms, States, a Day wherein to know, and to do the Things that appertain unto their Peace, which they not heeding, and the hour of their Visitation passing Over, they fall irrecoverably, and are left without excuse.  
ALSO, As a Testimony to the Approaching, Great, and Terrible Day of the Lord, wherein he will Reward every Man according to his Works.  
Whereunto is added, The Burden of Dumah upon occasion of this Query, sent in a LETTER by One related to the ARMY, Viz.  
— Watchman! What of the Night? Watchman! What of the Night?  
O jerusalem, jerusalem! thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto Thee, how often would I have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her Chicken under her wings, but ye would not? Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not henceforth see my face, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord.  
London, Printed by M. Inman, and are to be sold a the Three Bibles in Paul's Churchyard, and by Richard Moon, Bookseller in Windstreet in Bristol. 1660.   

THE Warnings of the Lord To the Men of this GENERATION.  

To OLIVER CROMWELL Protector, THESE. Friend, The Burden of the Lord upon me, for thee, is great, and the weight thereof heavy: Therefore in the Fear of God hear and consider, for it doth concern thee.  
ART thou still asleep? Are thine eyes yet closed? and thine ears stopped? Will nothing awaken thee? Perceivest thou not that the presence of the Lord is departed from thee, and Wisdom from thy Counsels, and Spirit from thy men of War, and success from thine undertake; and the fear of thee (that was once) from of the Nations? and the Magnificence and State of England, which whilst the Lord was with it, stood with dread & terror over the Kingdoms round about, sinking down, and falling, languishing, and crumbling into the Dust? How have the Men of England, who have been as strong and fierce as Lions, as swift as Leopards, whom nothing could overcome whilst their Rock was with them, 
* Hispaniola. See the brief and perfect Journal. etc. by I S. an Eye witness, where it is related how the English Army consisting of some thousands, fled before Fifty poor Spaniards, and could not be made to stand, not not so much as with their Major Gen. Heane, though he besought them for God sake; but left him alone to sacrifice his life among the thickest of his Enemies, which he than did, who slew him, and six hundred of the English, (besides two hundred which crept into Bushes, and were left behind in the woods, whom the Negroes and Mulattoes soon after dispatched) and wounded near Three hundred, most of the executions being done in the back parts; and so returned weary with their slaughtering, and laden with their Victory, to their Town of Domingo, of which, seven English Colours which they carried with them, were the sure Trophies. A plain demonstration what men are when God forsakes them.  fallen in the Day of Battle? At the rebuke of one, (as it were) how have a Thousand of them fled? And at the rebuke of a few, how have Thousands been put to flight, and the Carcases of many hundreds fallen to the ground? The children of Ephraim being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of Battle? How heavily drives on thy expensive and great expeditions at Sea? How vain and fruitless are they in their enterprises upon a 
† Spain.  Nation whom thou hast disdained, who were in a manner at the soles of thy feet, whom thou thoughtst to have swallowed up quick, and their power and glory to have weighed down in One day, who now defy thee, and thy strength, and with no charge (in comparison) walk up and down smiling, and as secure in their habitations, whilst thou emptiest thy Treasures, and weariest out thy Fleets, without effecting upon them any considerable damage? How are the People of this Nation, who were want to run readily under thy Conduct, & even rejoiced to hear of a Foreign Expedition, especially against the Spaniard, whom they always chastised, as they did of late Master down the Mightiest 
* The United Provinces Fleets.  Powers of the world at Sea, even than when they were but newly come out of a long and sore intestine War, now become dead at the heart, lumps of flesh, and averse to War? How are the robbings and spoilings of the Merchants at their own doors, by an inconsiderable people crawled out of a 
* Dunkirk.  Hole of the Earth, from whom thy Fleets have not secured them, exceeded in a short time all that they suffered throughout the Dutch Engagements; and when some of thine have attached them, how have those uncircumcised come of with advantage, and over the English Captives have they not insulted and vaunted, Of what Nation are ye? Ye are not English men; ye are not the People who fought with the Dutch. The 
* See the King of Spain's Declaration of the War.  Subjects of the King of Spain beaten them of. How doth this once contemned Enemy distress thy Counsels, provoke thee to anger, and put thee to it, how to engage them? How do thy Taxes continued, and Trade decay, and the hearts of thy old Friends draw from thee, and thine Enemy's hate and watch thee mischief, and thirst after thy destruction? And of what sort of people can thy calm and most weighty thoughts give thee assurance of their standing by thee, should affliction from the Lord arise up against thee? Than thou wilt see the Guard gone, the Fence removed, the Presence withdrawn, thy Horse's flesh, and not spirit; thy men shadows, thy strength to sit still.  
Was it want thus to be with thee? Did thy Sword (till of late) ever return empty from the blood of the slain, and the spoil of the Mighty? Can the spirit that was risen up against the Lord in these three Nations, and the Dominions thereunto appertaining, stand before thee? Was ever any thing too hard for thee? Missedst thou in thy Counsels at any time? What ever thou didst put forth thine hand to do, was it not brought to pass? Was not Wisdom with thee, and Counsel as the Oracles of God? Of a little despised one, becamest thou not as the Army of God? At thy feet did not the proudest enemy fall down and bow? Didst not thou come upon Princes as upon Mortar, and as the Petter treadeth the Clay? Were not the hearts of honest men knit to thee as one man? Was any thing so great that they could not entrust thee with? Was any thing so dear that they were not ready to lay down for thy sake? did they sigh at any time at the remembrance of thee? Did their faces wax pale, confounded, or covered? Or, was not the remembrance of thee to them sweet and pleasant, as the dew upon the tender Herb, as life from the dead, as of him that took of the yoke on their Jaws, that removed the burden from of the shoulder, that relieved the oppressed, that delivered the poor from him that was too strong for him? Wast not thou a dread and terror to the world abroad? Was it ever so with man in these later Generations, as it was with thee whilst God was with thee, whilst the Rock had not forsaken thee? Is it not time for thee to consider, and lay to heart? How canst thou sleep? How canst thou suffer thine eyelids to give thee any slumber, whilst it is thus with thee? Be still therefore, and cool, and let the witness of God in thee, search and try thee, and hear thou what it saith in this thing.  
Did not the Lord hear the groans of those who suffered because of their Consciences in the days of the Bishops? Pulled he not up that generation in his anger? Swept he not away the Powers that supported them, in his sore displeasure, though of many hundred years standing? And when the same spirit arose more exceeding fierce in another form, viz. of Presbytery, thereby taking in to the former the Nation of Scotland, and the multitudes of the same Faction in England and Ireland, who suffered by, and opposed it in Episcopacy, and fought against it in Monarchy? Lopped he not down those lofty Boughs with terror? Became he not terrible to the men of high stature? And when at length he had drawn them together as into a pit, braked he not in upon them with a furious blow of horror and amazement? And did he not smite them with a wound incurable, they & their King, and their Nobles; their mighty men of war, their Captains and Counsellors, their Priests and their Officers, their Horses, with those that sat thereon, and their whole strength, leaving their Name an astonishment and a wonder, and a curse unto posterity; giving this later generation in which this spirit appeared, only so much time as to show what they would do to Us for our consciences, could they have but gotten power in their hands to have brought it to pass.  
Was't not Thou one who suffered and groaned in those days? waste not Thou principally hated, despised, and sought to be cut of with the rest of us, than whom, never was a generation more contemned, and scorned, and reproached, and maligned, and thirsted after, to be rooted up from of the face of the Earth, nor more unlikely (as to men) to carry the Day against such Powers of three such Nations? Wast not thou the man who didst bear, as on a common shoulder, the sufferings of the oppressed for conscience sake, who with thee were appointed to the same destruction? Went not than every such suffering to thine own heart? Felt not th●u every one of them on thine own shoulder? Couldst not thou have laid down thy life for one of them? How tender was (than) thine heart? How sounding thy bowels? Therefore flowed not in the hearts of them all to thee? In them and thee, was there not one Spirit, and one heart? For th●s cause did not the Lord call thee, and raise thee up to head his Armies? Made he not thee his Sword? Did he not execute by thee, his vengeance upon those Generations? And as thou returnedst laden with Victories in England, Ireland, and Scotland, was not this the burden of thy Letters and Declarations to the Parliament and Nation, LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE? Were not thy Speeches in Parliament and Council, and where ever thou camest, in the behalf of tender Consciences? Came not it from thee in thy Letters, Declarations, and speeches, with such weight and heaviness, as manifested thee a man pained at the very heart, and in a continued travel of soul for it, and bitterness of spirit, and as one whose very life was oppressed? Wadedst thou not through the Blo●d and War, the difficulties and temptation, the hardships and dangers of three such Nations, so divided, and in Factions, with a restless and an unwearied spirit, till it was eased in the total overthrow of the conjoined strength of all those in whom that spirit appeared and acted.  
And whilst it was thus with thee, did the Lord ever fail or forsake thee? Or wantedst thou the hearts and hands of the honest men of these Nations? Needed what thou declaredst and spakest (thou) an Interpreter? Was it to them in an unknown Language? Can the generations that are past, produce the like, of the Lords and his people being with a man, as with Thee? Was it not thus with thee whilst thy heart was tender, pleading the cause of the Lords Oppressed? and of his Kingdom in the consciences of men, which thou looked it upon as near at hand, and often hast expressed it in word, Declaration, and Letter, to be the design and end of the Lord in the wars, to set it up? Was ever man's words in that day, like thine, in relation hereunto? And was it not thine own observation often, That as any party of men in the Parliament risen up to make Laws against it, and so to limit the spirit of the Lord, it was a sure and certain symptom and forerunner of their being broken in pieces, and of all that were with them in spirit and assistance. And did not the observing and seeing of this, become strength in thee to oppose them? Did it not carry thee through the difficulties that thou knewest thou shouldst meet withal therein, which to outward consideration seemed impossible to be encountered with and overcome? And become it not the overthrown of ●ll that attempted it? Hast not Thou seen this with thine eye, and compassed it in thine heart, and effected it with Thine hand? Call to mind the former days, and let the things that are past, come into thy remembrance? And since all power was in thine hand, hast thou not 
* See O. C. Speech to the little Parliament in the Council-Chamber at , july 4. 1653. Page 25.  expressed thy self that thou thoughtest something was at the door of that good we waited for, that we were at the edge of the promises and prophecies; not vainly looking on that prophecy in Daniel, And the Kingdom shall not be delivered to another people; and saidst, thou didst thank God thou hadst thy hopes exercised in these things: And to make way for that, didst thou not place the ground of the alterations and changes thou hast made? And hast thou not said, That 
* See O P. Speech to the Parliament in the Painted Chamber, Sep. 12. 1654. Pag. 30, 31. Pag. 36, 37.  Liberty of Conscience is a natural Right? That it is one of the four Fundamentals of the Government thou hadst set up, as the issue of all these Wars, for which things sake the Powers of the Government were taken up; and might that be secure, thou couldst be contented to lay them down again: But rather than to give thy consent to the wilful throwing away thereof, and that in relation to the good of these Nations and Posterity, thou couldst sooner be willing to be rolled into thy Grave, and buried with Infamy: That, had it not been for the hopes of Liberty of Conscience, 
Pag 31.  all the Money in the Nation would not have tempted men to fight upon such an account as they have engaged; and otherwise to do, was no part of the Contest with the Common Adversary: With much more of the like nature contained in thy Speeches to the short, and the late Parliament, and to others upon occasion, as full and significant as need to be in such a thing, or can be well expressed.  
But hath it proved according to what thou hast so said to those who are come to witness the Seed of the Eternal God raised, & raising up in them, (which is come to, and must reign for ever & ever; to make way for the reign of which, was all the late Wars and battles of Blood?) Hath thine heart and thine actions, (since all Power hath been in thine hand) been towards such as it was before the Wars were ended, or as thou hast since expressed? Are there any that have, and do groan for Liberty of Conscience that suffer because of it in these Dominions? Let the Prisons in most parts of the Nation, the cruel mockings and stonings, and whip, and beat, and stockings; the tumults and insurrections, the finings, and long and sore imprisonments in heat and cold, in hunger and nakedness, shut up from Friends and Relations, and the wholesome air, and conveniences of Livelihood; the inhuman and barbarous usages, without regard to ages or sexes, young or old, children, or the hoary-headed men or women, some of which not fit to be related to modest ears, without mercy, reason, or compassion, declare and speak: together with the filthy dungeons, & noisome holes, & close vaults, and the spoiling of their goods, with many more sore and cruel sufferings undergone by many hundreds for conscience sake, since, and within the time of thy Rule and Government, who have been as faithful as any, to the Commonwealth, and as much (in their places) have undergone, and fought for it and Thee; Some for reproving of sin and iniquity in the Streets and Market-places; some for bidding people fear the Lord; some for giving out a Paper in compassion to the ignorant, directing them the way to Salvation in the words of the Scripture: Some for declaring against Deceit, and witnessing against the changeable Priesthood, (against whom thou hast had a Testimony) as they have been moved of the Lord: Some for that in Conscience they cannot respect the persons of men, nor swear, nor pay Tithes, (which Thou & the Army have so often & long complained of, even to the Parliament, as a sore Grievance, reminding them thereof, with other things, by a Petition according (as Thou 
* See O. C. speech to the little Parliament in the Council-Chamber at , july 4. 1653. Pag. 7.  saidst) ye thought it was your Duty, who had many desires and thirstings in your Spirits, to found out ways and means upon your return from the Wars, being fully bend to found out ways & means for the Nation to reap the fruit of all the Blood and Treasure that had been expended in this Cause. And because nothing was done as to the particulars in that Petition, but words, thou reckonedst that up against the Long to the Little Parliament.) Nor pay the unreasonable Fees of Jailers, where they have not offended, nor acknowledge themselves transgressors where they are innocent, nor bring themselves under Engagements, who are not their own, nor guided by their own, but by the Spirit of the Lord; nor conform to the Fashions and Customs of the world: Some for coming to visit their Friends and Relations in Prison. Some have been taken out of their peaceable Meetings waiting on the Lord, and cast into Prison; some for having such Meetings in their Houses; some taken up in the Streets as they have passed quietly along, neither saying, nor doing any thing; some out of their Inns and Chambers; some for refusing to take the Oath of Abjuration, out of Conscience to an Oath; some for going about doing good, (as did Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, who so went about all the Cities and Villages) at his Command. The time would fail to instance all the Cases and the Sufferings as to each, a Volume would not contain them: The Precedents of all the Records in this Nation (all things considered) will not parallel them: The ears will tingle of all that hear all that hath been inflicted herein by Judges, Justices, Officer's, the rude multitude, Jailers, Thiefs and Murderers, amongst whom they have been numbered and cast, contrary unto, and in the overthrow of Law and Government, wherein, and whereby divers of them have suffered the loss of their lives; and many more had perished, but that the life of the Son of God, which they witnessed, and for which they suffered, preserved them alive beyond the possibility of Creature-expectations, having lain in prison after the manner aforesaid, some many Months, some a Year, some above two years; yea 
* At a Meeting near Northampton, where this was done by order (as was said) of Mayor Butler, than called a Maj. Gen. & the man whose ground it was where the Meeting was kept, imprisoned notwithstanding this Trespass upon gim, and outrae.  thy Troopers have rod in with their horses upon men and women, as they have been praying on their knees to the Lord in their peaceable Meetings, and violently have pulled 
† William Deusbury, a Minister of the everlasting Gospel.  him away, who was speaking to the Lord in Prayer upon his knees amongst them, (a cruel unmanliness, never heard of before this thy Day; and on others who are innocent, have thy Soldiers been 
* Miles Malhead, and Thomas Salthouse, at Exeter, etc.  long and inhuman Guards, keeping them close Prisoners, and imprisoning those who come to visit them, contrary to all Law, Equity, Justice, and common Humanity; yea, some have had 
† In the North  Pistols presented to their mouths, by the Troopers, hall'd out of their Meetings, and with blasphemous damming have the Troopers sworn that there they should dye if they did not deity their Religion, and some have they 
* The Lord healed the wound miraculously, as it was made barbarously.  run through the Arm for refusing to deny the Lord that bought them.  
And of many of these things thou hast not been ignorant, for the Lord, (who delivered thee out of all thy troubles and difficulties, and was thine Arm and Counsellor when thou wast the instrument of his indignation on those who did and would have done some such things as these) hath rising early, moved and sent many of his Servants and Handmaids from most parts of the Nation to thee, Messenger upon Messenger, and Testimony upon Testimony, who in his fear and dread have laid many of these things before thee, some in Writings, others by Verbal Declaration; and from his mouth hath he by them often warned thee of his displeasure, and the fury of his jealousy, which is waxing hot against thee, because thereof; yea, thy warnings have exceeded whatever man had before thee, as have thy mercies; And to that of God in thee have some of them reached, and the burdens many of them have born for thee, have been great, and the sounding of their bowels that thou mightest hear, and be deliverered from the wrath which is coming, and hasteneth apace; and the long-suffering and patience of the Lord and his people, hath been much to thee, and his compassion not willing that thou shouldest die, but hear and live.  
But hast thou heard? Hast thou delivered the poor out of the hands of him who is too strong for him? Hast thou broken the unrighteous bonds? Hast thou delivered the prisoner, and eased the oppressed? Hast thou been the sword of God upon their oppressors? Or, a Protector of them, who for witnessing of his name suffer wrong? Are the prisons clear? Hath care been taken that the innocent suffer not for conscience sake; as there hath been of speaking and declaring thereof in the Government? Hath one offender in these cases been made exemplary by thee? Or, hath so much as one cruel Jailor been by thy order punished? Or, are not these things done, and continued to be done in thy Name, and by thy Authority, and under thy Government? And for thy use are not those Fines imposed? Hath not thy Proclamations given encouragement for what is done? Hast not thou been told that those who do these things, have said, they have done them by authority from thee and thy Officers? Hast thou taken notice thereof, when it hath been so told thee? Were't thou clear, wouldst thou let it lie upon thee? Do not understanding men know, that if it were not thus with thee, such things dare not to be done in these Nations? Is it not plain to all that are reasonable, that thou, who carriedst it through so many years' wars and difficulties even against some of the Powers that ruled, canst surely preserve it now thou hast all Power, and art in peace within these Dominions, did that spirit rule thee now, which, for it, carried thee through such wars and difficulties? Charles Stuart could have put of from himself the sufferings of the Puritans on the Bishops, and have alleged that they were a nonconformable, factious Generation, who disturbed uniformity in the Nation, & did contrary to the Law; But that would not excuse him, nor his standing still, and looking on, whilst he had power to remedy it, but did not, nor that those Laws were of long standing; nor the disaffection of the Great men, and Nobles, and Rulers, and Bishops, and Priests, and the generality of the Nation to that way from the Judgement of God, which hath taken hold on Him, and his Children, and his Party, whom he hath made a dreadful example of his vengeance, and that by thy sword as an instrument. But the case between thee and us is otherwise; no Law have we transgressed, except thou wilt have mary's Law, which was made for, and guarded the Priests and Jesuits, to stand, and that for triple damages for Tithes. The righteous ends of the Wars, in which we have born our part in the heat of the day, and thy Speeches and Government, (as hath been said) say otherwise; We have been experienced sufficiently the Commonwealths and thy friends whom no temptation, nor difficulty, nor danger could turn us from; nor for it and thee were our lives, or any thing we had dear; which Charles Stuart had never opportunity to understand by the Puritans, but through the glass of prejudice he always beheld, thought, and judged them his real enemies: nor were they and he ever one in principle, spirit, and action, espcially in such a one, and in such action as thou and we have been, being the highest on which men were ever engaged in the field; the nearest, and in the greatest engagements: Yet do we (thus) suffer at thine hands, whom we have loved above any man; whose, with all that is dear to us have we become, and thy lot and portion have we chosen, to stand or fall, as it should be unto thee; and so have we stood by thee against all thine opposers, whether in field or Council. Thine enemies we have accounted and made our own, and never left thee, till thou wast brought through all. And under thy Government, though speaking as aforesaid, in the behalf of Liberty of Conscience, are we (who through the unspeakable love of the Father are come to witness the end of the Wars, the Son of God made manifest in our mortal flesh, whose is the Kingdom, and the glory and the Dominion for ever; even his immortal seed raised, & raising up in us, by which we are brought to testify against the world, and all the Deceivers therein; and against the Fashions and Customs, and works and deeds thereof, that they are evil as by his Light we have been shown, and by his blood redeemed therefrom in our own particulars) made the scorn and prey of all men; and have we suffered as aforesaid, by the spirit of this world ruling in them, and now risen up against the Lord and his anointed, who by the brightness of his coming it knows doth, and is come to destroy it. And delivered up are we into the wills, and lusts, and hands of our Enemies, of Malignant, Neutral, Impeached, Secluded, and other Judges, Justices, and Officers, and of the rude multitude, even of the most unreasonable and basest of men, whom we have fought against, and overcome in the field, and totally overthrown, who now disgorge themselves of the deadly malice and enmity they contracted than against us in the illegal and cruel usages aforesaid, for, and upon occasion of the exercise of our Conscience, who when the wars were ended for Liberty of Conscience, had little reason to expect such dealing as we now receive from such a Generation, who by the Sword sought to have cut thee and us of for our Consciences, But were overthrown, and this after that for these things sake we were over them Victors and Conquerors; Or such a Day as this had we 'cause to look for, especially at thy hands, and under thy Government, whom the Lord of Hosts, the jealous God, the God of these his suffering People, hath now tried and proved, to see what a one thou wouldst be, and what thou wouldst do, who didst so vow and promise' to him in the Day of thy distress, when He should have delivered thee: And therefore hath He let thee remove all out of the way, whether Enemy or Powers, that thou mightest be without excuse; No Parliament or Government hast thou now to wrestle withal, or to complain of as thy hindrance in this particular; or Faction therein, or Council of State, or Nation of Scotland, or City of London, or Dominion of Ireland: And in his mighty Power hath he made strong his Witnesses, and armed hath he them with invincible and unheard of patience, to bear, endure, and suffer so, and in such a manner, and by such hands, and in such a season as hath been said; some of whom now suffering, have a witness in thee, that they are dear and precious to the Lord, and innocent: And now art thou proved, art thou tried and weighed in the balance; behold the fruits thou hast brought forth, which the day doth make manifest, according unto which canst thou otherwise expect than to have thy reward from the Just and Righteous God, whom in requital of all his Love and Mercy, and Long-suffering to thee, thou hast (thus) dealt withal in his seed, unto whom whatsoever hath been done, hath been done unto him, who will reward every man according to his deeds. Remember what thou saidst to me at the Cockpit, about six Months before the Long Parliament was broken, viz. What ever men think and say of me, yet the end will make it to appear, That I have nothing in mine eye but the glory of God, and the good of these Nations: And if in mine old Age through my folly, I shall spill all these Mercies on the ground the Lord hath shown me, know this, God will not bless me— Now to that of God in thy Conscience, the measure of him which thou hast, in his fear and dread consider, and let it search and try thee; Hast thou spilt on the ground (now in the time that grey hairs are coming upon thee) the Mercies the Lord hath shown thee in thy former days, yea or nay? Doth God bless thee? Let his Witness in thee be heard to speak and answer. Art thou (whose heart all the Sufferings aforesaid do not now melt) in the same spirit as thou wast in 1645. wherein thou wast ready to have hazarded thy life and thine interests, on such a case for to have remedied, such was than thy tenderness, and sense, and bowels? (And yet what were the sufferings by the Bishops in comparison of these?) Or art not thou gone out of that which made and preserved thee so; and whilst so, caused thee to prospero, into that spirit which caused thee and honest men to suffer, against which thou wast made so prosperous and successful? And being so, Canst thou expect it otherwise to be with thee, than at this day it is, or look to prospero.  
Is not the Cause of the suffering people of God become a despised thing? Is not the Interest of those his people grown very cheap, and not laid to heart? Art not thou, instead of hearing the loud cry of their Oppressions, and clothing thy self with Zeal for their deliverance, become exceeding jealous of them, that they are designing against thee, and against thy Kingdom? Doth not this make thee to deal subtly with them, to keep Bonds and Sufferings upon them, to stop thine ears at their sufferings, and to permit those violent, cruel and barbarous usages of them, to go unpunished, thereby (as thou thinkest) to keep them low, and under, and to depress their spirits, and by rendering them the prey and scorn of all, to secure thy self of them, as to what thou fearest they may attempt against thee? Hence cometh it not to pass, that a bore suggestion of those who thus evil entreat them, as that they are listing of men; or that their meetings are great; or they are designing, with such like, proves enough to turn thee from harkening to the voice of Justice, which calls upon thee to punish such evil doers, and to 'cause thee to listen to the Enemy of thy soul, who seeks upon all occasions to persuade that those are conspiring against thee; who are so far from any such thing, that they have not to thee so much as an ill thought, but in secret mourn and weep for thee, (knowing the condition in which thou art) and are pained at the very heart, that thou mightest once hear and return from whence thou art fallen, that so the Indignation of the Lord, which is coming like a Whirlwind, may be turned away from thee, and so thou mayest come to enjoy the mercies for which thou hast so long, and so sorely traveled, the Eternal God is our witness that it is so, and our innocency herein shall be made clear as the light, and our upright dealing towards thee as the noonday; and here do not they who watch for, and contrive, and act iniquity, escape and found encouragement from thee, and protection? And are not the innocent sought to be cut of, for, against, and upon whom iniquity is watched, contrived and acted, as aforesaid? And this manner of dealing found not the Seed of God from the Spirit that is of this world, from the beginning? This Michaiah never prophesieth good of me, I hate him, said that spirit in Ahab; Art thou he that troubleth Israel, said he to Elijah? The Land is not able to bear all his words, for thus he saith, Jereboam shall dye by the Sword, and Israel shall surely be led away capture out of their own Land; sent the High Priest at Bethel to King Jeroboam concerning Amos, who spoke these words from the mouth of the Lord, There is a certain People scattered abroad, and dispersed amongst the people in all the Provinces of the Kingdom, and their Laws are divers from all people, neither keep they the King's Laws, therefore it is not for the King's profit to suffer them; If it please the King, let it be written that they be destroyed &c. Said Haman to Ahashuerus of the Jews. There are certain Jew's whom thou hast set over the Affairs of the Province of Babylon; these men O King, have not regarded thee, they serve not thy Gods, nor worship the Golden Image which thou hast set up. Said certain Chaldeans which came near and accused the Jews to Nabuchadnezzar That Daniel which is of the Children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee O King, nor the Decree which thou hast signed, but maketh his Petition three times a day, said the Precedents of the Kingdom, the Governors and the Princes, the Counsellors and the Captains, concerning Daniel to King Darius. We have found this fellow perverting the Nation, and forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King, said the Elders of the People, and the chief Priests, and the Scribes, and the whole multitude of them in their accusation of Jesus unto Pilate. Those who have turned the world up-side-down are come hither also, whom Jason hath received, and those all do contrary to the Decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another King, one Jesus, cried the Jews who believed not, and were moved with envy, who took unto them certain lewd fellows of the base sort, and gathered a company, and set all the City an Uproare, and assaulted the House of Jason, & drew him out, and certain Brethrens, unto the Rulers of the City. W have found this man a pestilent Fellow, and a mover of Sedition amone all the Jews throughout the world, said Turtullus of Paul to Foelix. This is what that spirit suggested throughout all Ages, on Record in the Scriptures of Truth; and with this that spirit blinded the Kings, Princes and Rulers, and set them against the Lord, and against his anointed, which proved in the issue, their destruction. This is that the Bishops said of the Puritans, to the late King. This is that which brought forth the law in those days against their Meetings to seek the Lord upon pretence of Conventicles; and with this the late King they blinded, and set him against these people, which became the overthrow of him, his Posterity and followers, and of that generation, and of those that joined with them. And this is that spirit that is now blinding of thee, who wast the Lords Battle-axe, and weapon of war, to the cutting down of him, and those whom after this manner it blinded, & set against the Lord and his people, and which is now setting of thee against the Seed of God, which in this fullness of the dispensation of times he is raising up to reign for ever and ever; Unto which spirit if thou continued to harken, and to follow, and to be guided by, thou shalt be 
* The 11 of the 5th Mon 1656 came this word of the Lord to me, and it was fulfilled the 3d. of the 7. Mon. 1658. the day on which he had his two great Victories at Dunbar and Worcester.  cut of, the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it.  
Therefore doth my heart mourn, & my bowels are even turned within me, lest thou shouldst not know in this thy Day, the things that belong unto thy Peace, and so they be quite hid from thine eyes; lest thou shouldst not embrace the tender visitation of the Lord, whose Arms are yet open to thee, and his long suffering, and patience, and love towards thee, calling thee to return and live, that thou mayest see the felicity of his chosen, and instead of setting against, come into that Kingdom, and be made a partaker of that glory which thou hast been long looking, and sighing, and travelling for, and which was in thine eye to be designed of God, as the end and issue of all the wars, though it thou knowest not, but is now come and coming to be made manifest, and to be set up, of which there shall be no end, which thousands of his Saints in this Nation are come to see and witness, which is not of this world, nor can be comprehended by the Wisdom of the Princes thereof, which it is come to cause to perish, and to bring to naught; therefore it is that in this mighty day of his appearance, his Visage is to them more marred than any man's; in him they see no comeliness nor beauty whereby they should desire him; therefore it is that with one consent they are confederate; all Forms and Professions, Judgements and Opinions without the life, with the more gross and rude, and vile people of the world, and drawn together, and mustered unto Battle in, by, & under that spirit, where they are one, and which is one in them all, as the Day doth now manifest, and their fruits do make to appear, with a rage reaching up to heaven, against the Lamb and his followers, who is lowly and meek; not resisting evil, nor lifting up its voice in the street because of violence and oppression, nor seeking deliverance, but laying down its body as the ground, and as the street to them that go over, who have said, Bow down, that we may go over, who have no kindred upon Earth, nor none to inquire after their blood, or that pleadeth their cause, or that is their helper and deliverer amongst the men thereof, in this hour of its sufferings, wherein its testimony is finishing, and the measure of Iniquity filling up. Nevertheless, Conquering, and to conquer he rides on, having the Armies of Heaven following him; and through the blood of his Cross, through sufferings overcoming; and yet a little while, and to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the Nation abhorreth, to a servant of Rulers, Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship; for the time is come, and coming, wherein the Lords Plant of Renown shall be exalted, unto whom every knee shall bow, and every Tongue confess; and the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve it, shall perish; yea, those Nations shall be utterly wasted; every Battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and Garments rolled in Blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of Fire.  
This is he in whom Abel and Noah, and the Fathers believed, with whom Enoch walked, and was translated; whose Day Abraham saw, and rejoiced; of whom Moses and the Prophets spoke that he should come; this is He who was in the Church in the Wilderness; with the Angel that spoke to him in Mount Sinai; and with the Fathers who received the lively Oracles: This is He who was manifested in time; the holy Thing that was born of the Virgin; who by the eternal Spirit offered up himself once for all; and by one offering perfected for ever those that are sanctified. This is He whom the Apostles witnessed to be risen and ascended far above all Principalities and Powers, and every Name this is named both in Heaven and Earth, that he might fill all things; who is the Head of his Church; the fullness of him who filleth all in all; the Mystery hid from ages and generations, Christ in us the hope of glory: The making known of which is the Richeses of the Glory to the Gentiles: This is He that was with thee in thy streights, thy strength, thy Counsellor, thy Deliverer; to whom thou didst promise', to whom thou didst vow, and who requireth thee now to perform; this is He, a measure from whom thou hast, which hath shown thee evil, and reproved and judged thee for sin, and caused thee to breath after God; and after Justice, and after Righteousness, which sometimes did refresh thee, and warmed thine heart, strengthened thee, and gave thee many and large openings: This is He, the making way for the setting up of whose Kingdom was the design and end of the Lord in the Wars: This is He who was to come, so earnestly looked for, who is come the second time without sin unto salvation; and whom to be come, Thousands of his Saints do witness; Eternal living praises be unto him who hath loved us, and visited us with the Dayspring from on high, and washed away our sins in his Blood. This is he that calleth thee to lay down th● Sceptre at his feet, whose Sceptre is a Sceptre of Righteousness; by it to be guided and acted, that so thine Enemies may be confounded, and thine House established. This is He who is the Heir of all things, by whom the worlds were made; the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express Image of his Person; the upholder of all things by the Word of his Power; the Light of the World; the Covenant of Light to the Gentiles; the Life of Men; the true Light, that lighteth every one that cometh into the world; who is come into the world, but the world knows him not; who hath suffered, and still suffers at thy hands, and by the people under thy Government; who preserved thee when thou wast a sufferer, and exalted thee when thou wast little in thine own eyes, despised and contemned; and when thou didst pled the Cause of his innocent people, who suffered without cause; who because thou hast hardened thy heart, and turned against him, hath turned from thee his presence, Wisdom from thy Counsels, Spirit from thy Men of War, and Success from thine undertake, and is stripping of thee of thy Fence & Guard, and making thee naked and bore, and is coming against thee; therefore prepare to meet him whilst he is in the way, who showeth thee where thou hast been, and where thou art; and what thou hast done, and what thou art doing, and the way to return, which is yet open. His tender Visitation of Love this is to thee, who hath long waited to be gracious, and born and suffered through him who is a lover of thy soul, known unto thee by the Name of  
GEORGE BISHOPE. Bristol, the 16. of the 5. Mon. 1656.   

To RICHARD, Protector of these Nations These Present.  
R. Protector,  
SEeing thy Father is fallen asleep, and thou his Son art set upon the Throne of the Government of these Nations, I am moved of the Lord to counsel thee, To heed him by whom Kings reign, and Princes decree Justice, the Principle of God in thee, which moves to Justice, and to Mercy, and the fear of the Lord; and discovers and judges the contrary; which if thou dost, and givest up to be governed by it, the Lord will dash in pieces all the consultations against thee and thy Father's house, and will settle the Throne under thee, and make thee a dread and a terror to all the Nations round about, as he made thy Father: But if thou shalt refuse to harken unto, and to be guided by it, the Lord will 
* This was fulfilled the later end of the Month called April, and the beginning of the Month called May, following, when the Army caused him to dissolve his Parliament, and the session of Parliament succeeding, to resign bis Protectorship; as was also fulfilled, what I had seen in the Eternal, in the Month called June preceding, as I was walking in the great Court in Whitehall, and weighing in that which is not of this World, O. Protector, his Council, (which was than sitting) his Family and Government, viz. The earth rising, and as it were, opening on the right hand, and the left, and overturning him and his Government, his Council, and Family— With which, as soon as I came out of Whitehall Gate, I acquainted a Friend of mine whom I met by the Banqueting-house, and which I again saw as I was on my way to Bristol, a mile or two out of London, as I was turned about by the moving of the Lord, and the direction of his spirit, sitting on my Horse, and looking on  By which doubling of the Vision, I knew that it should (as it quickly hath) assuredly come to pass.  overturn thee; for he hath overturned, over-turned, overturned, that he may reign whose right it is, and he is come to reign whose right it is, of the increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end; upon the Throne of David, and upon his Kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with Judgement and Justice, henceforth, even for ever. Thus in bowels of love & tenderness, in obedience to the Lord, as I am moved of him, that it may be well with thee and thy Posterity after thee, have I written, who am known to thee by the name of  
GEO. BISHOPE. Bristol 9 of the 7. Mo. 1658.   

To the General Council of the Army, in whom is risen the Spirit of the Good old Cause, these following Particulars are tendered, in order to the carrying thorough of what is by them begun, for the good of the Nation, and all honest men in it. By a Friend, who though remote in person, yet wishes well to the Cause and them, and to both on that foot, thus contributes, Viz.  
HEed the Principle of Righteousness in you all, which shows your go astray; and reform what it shows you to be amiss in your selves, as to God or Man.  
2. Purge the Army of every Branch that springs not from the Root of the Good old Cause; and see that the degenerate plant be plucked up.  
3. Call back every honest man that was cashiered for the Cause.  
4. Make some of Parliament, Court, Council, Army, examples, who acted in the late hateful degeneration, and would have betrayed and destroyed you and the Cause.  
5. Read over, consider, and stand to your Virgin Declarations, and do your first works.  
6. Declare in what ye understand the good old Cause to consist, and your resolutions to adhere thereunto, and never again to deviate therefrom.  
7. Entrust such every where with places of Power and Command, in whom doth live, and is the Spirit of the Cause.  
8. Summon the surviving Members of the famous Long Parliament (who managed and carried through the Good old Cause) and Council of State, in Statu quo. Declare that the obstruction is removed: That the People obey them, as before that obstruction, to all intents and purposes. And a General Indemnity of all that hath been done, whether in the making of that obstruction, or pursuance of the same.  
9 Protect the (now) Protector, and let him enjoy his Personal and Paternal Estate.  
10. Vex the Midianites, (i.e. the Lawyers) and smite them, for they vex you with their wiles wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peer and Cosby, (i.e. the King and Protector.) Reform the Laws, and the Administration of them; and severely punish the perverters of the Righteousness of each.  
11. Remember Amalek (i.e. the soul-murthering, and Conscience-binding Clrgy-man and what he did unto you by the way when ye were come out of Egypt, how he met you by the way, and smote the hindmost of you, even all that were feeble behind you, when ye were faint and weary, and he feared not God. Therefore blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, (i.e. the principle that is against Liberty of Conscience) ye shall not forget it.  
12: Set at liberty forthwith all the Conscientious People called Quakers, now in Bonds because of their conscience to God, (the good old Cause) on whose sufferings presented the late Parliament, the said Parliament instead of enquiring into the matter, set their foot (as they had done a little before) on the good old Cause, viz. In asserting a coercive Power in Religion, Worship, etc. and would have done on you once for all, and have destroyed You All; yea after all your Conquests of them all, had not the Spirit of the Good Old Cause lifted up your foot upon them All.  
April 27. 1659.   

A Copy of another LETTER sent shortly after to the said Council of Officers.  
Friends,  
SEeing the Lord hath heard you in your distress, and the voice of your Cry hath entered into his ears, when ye were near swallowing up by your proud Enemy, and hath delivered you when there was scarce a step betwixt you, and the destruction of you and your friends, and the Public Cause of these Nations, and hath spared and given you (once more) space and time to recover strength, and your dying reputation amongst honest men, before ye go hence, and be not more. It lies upon me (as a sometime fellow-labourer with you in the work of the Nation; yea, as moved of the Lord) to warn you, That ye bring forth fruits meet for repentance; for, verily friends, it is your day of trial from the Lord, wherein He is trying you, proving you, to see whether there be such an heart in you, to do according to all ye have said in your late 
April 6. 1659.  Representation (even that ye would fear him, and keep all his Commandments always, that it may be well with you and your children for ever.) And for this purpose he hath (once more) overthrown your Enemies, and in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, hath shown himself above them, and put the Power of these Nations into your hands, to try You, and prove You, and to see whether ye will do as ye speak. If therefore the Good old Cause against Tyranny and intolerable Oppression, in matters Civil and Religious, (as ye expressed it in your said Representation) whereupon ye first engaged, and unto which the Lord hath in such a continual Series of Providence given so signal a Testimony; and for the carrying on whereof, there hath been such a plentiful pouring forth of Treasure, Prayers, Tears and Blood, during the late War; (in the difficulties and dangers whereof, ye also (the living Monuments (as ye say; and truly ye are so, and 'tis good for you ever to mind it) of Patience & Mercy (have had your shares) be not throughly asserted & vindicated. If in very deed & good earnest ye appear not now as ever, equally endeared to the Good old Cause, and utter Enemies to all Tyranny, Oppression, and disturbance; of the public Peace, under what pretences soever. If whilst your Lives and present Capacities are continued to you, ye pluck not the wicked out of their Places wheresoever they may be discovered, either among yourselves, or in any other Places of Trust. If Law and Manners so frequently declared for, and so earnestly expected by all sober  men, be not reform. If the Course of Justice and Bowels of Mercy be not opened. If the ways of holiness he not encouraged. If a stop be not put to the inundation of malignancy and Profaneness: If there be not such a public asserting of the Good Old Cause, and a justification and confirmation of all proceed in prosecution and maintenance thereof, and Declaration against its Enemies, as may (for the future) deter all persons from speaking or attempting any thing to the prejudice thereof, and of the Persons that have acted in the prosecution of it, and afford present Security to the Civil and Religious Right and Liberties of these Nations, and the Peace thereof. It the Liberty of good and well affected People in repairing with freedom to their Meetings for the Worship of God (of late much violated by indicting and imprsoning 
* Yea, cruel whipping.  their Persons) be not still asserted. If whereinsoever ye have back sudden, ye do not take shame to yourselves, as (in your said Representation ye confess) ye have Cause; and say, you desire to take frame and further, that ye cannot but bewail your own great failings and turning aside: And if (by the doing of these things) ye do not receive the ●earts of your faithful friends, and vindicate your own integrity against all censures and jealousies, & make it to appear, that ye did indeed engage in judgement and conscience for the just rights and liberties civil and religious, of your Country, and not as a mercenary Army, as in your, said Representation ye say and affirm (and as hath been before rehearsed) ye have as members of the Army, often solemnly declared, not without appeals to God say ye) for your sincerity therein. If from henceforth the people of the Lord shall suffer, or be continued in their sufferings, because of their conscience to God (the Good-old-Cause). Hear O heavens, and give ear O earth, and be ye witnesses, and all good men; ye shall not 
* All are witnesses of the fulfilling of this.  prospero, the Lord hath spoken it. Therefore up and be doing; fear not, nor be dismayed, the presence of the Lord will be with you in these things (as heretofore) and his arm stretched out for you (as in former days) against your Adversaries. That which touched and awakened the honesty in you, and brought you into sensibleness, and to confess, and to act hitherto (viz. the grace of God, the light of Christ in you) will carry you through, ye abiding and believing therein. This is your day, a day ye thought not of, nor could scarce hope for; viz. to have the public Interest saved utterly from sinking, during the late desperate wrecks and dashings on the rocks, and your selus in it delivered into a capacity to save and secure it, and your own particulars, who were first designed to be sunk. If a man should have told you this, ye could not have believed it. This is your hour of trial, wherein, as I said, the Lord is trying you, to see whether, being delivered, and having power in your hands, ye will stand by, and secure your selves and it. Nothing (now) but integrity, uprightness of heart, truth in the inward parts, and proportionable actings will serve If ye 
* Notwithstanding this close and peremptory Warning from the Lord so enforced and obrested, yet May (so called) the 12. following, being the eighth day after the date of this warning, and the 20. after their Deliverance, and the 36 after the Date of their said Representation; in which they so much complained, and confessed, and bewailed, and Resolved, and Declared to the contrary (as hath be●n said) They started aside pointblank, in changing the Cause of Liberty of Conscience in the 6th. Article of their Address, which by some of them was that Day, viz. May 12. Presented to the Parliament, and the 27. of the 10th. Month following, (called December) they were gone; those men whom they shut our, flowing over their Heads, (whilst the Officers lay under) that day into the Parliament, by the hand of those very Soldiers who were chief instrumental in the keeping them out, and had declared for the Officers, which is remarkable; but that which makes it the more observable, is, That the Hand is fallen First on those very Officers that presented the said Address, who were looked upon, and were in their day, the chiefest among them for Conscience Liberty. Here's starting aside, and a Farewell indeed; the Lord is righteous, let men tremble before him.  start aside again, farewell; ye have confessed against your selves, and your Representation is witness against you; Deliverance shall come another way, but ye and your House shall perish. A warning from the Lord God it is unto you all, by and through him who is,  
Your friend, and tenderly desires it may be well with you, both now, and for ever. GEO. BISHOPE. Bristol the 4. of 3. Mo. 1659.   

To the Supreme Authority of these Nations, the PARLIAMENT of the Commonwealth of England, am I moved of the LORD to writ.  
Friends,  
THis Day to have seen, was lately beyond the thoughts, of any, He that should have told you but a very few days before the late Parliaments dissolution, that the Power which was so near the swallowing up of all, should be so soon scattered: That those who were made instrumental (through a wrong pilotage) to waste this Commonwealth on such desperate Rocks, during these last six years (the interval of your steerage) should be awakened to see their danger, and to set (yea pray you) to the Helm again; that they and you together, should be put into such a capacity (the like was never) to assert and settle the Commonwealth, (preserved in and after all) and to secure it themselves and you. That the hopes of England's enemies should so suddenly be dashed, when at the highest pitch and confidence to have prevailed against it, and their designs struck backwards, who were ready to cry Aha! she is broken, which was the Gates of the people, she is turned unto us; we shall be replenished, when she is laid waste: she is given us to consume (when as the Lord was there) this is the day we have looked for. That your friends who (seeing such things) for very anguish and vexation of spirit, were even giving up the ghost, should be (as it were in the twinkling of an eye) revived and brought back again from the gates of the grave, I say, He that should have told you, but a little while since, that so it should be, could ye have believed it? Would ye not have said, he dreamt? Or, are ye not like them that dream? now that the Lord hath (thus) turned back the captivity of the Commonwealth; yea, whilst ye are told of it, whilst your eyes are seeing, and your hands exercised in the work thereof. What man could have seen this day through the late thick clouds, what arm could have brought about such an act? What Counsel have designed it? But this the Lord hath done, that he may bring to pass His Act, His strange Act. This wonder hath he wrought (beyond all his mighty works of wonder done before your eyes) that it may appear that his own arm hath brought salvation, and that his fury hath upheld him, when he looked, and there was none to help, and wondered that there was none to uphold These are his do, who is come to reward every man according to his works: And thus it becomed him to do, who is come from Edom with died Garments, from Bozrah glorious in his Apparel, travelling in the Greatness of his Strength, who speaks in Righteousness, mighty to save. And wherefore hath he done it? Friends, let me deal plainly with you, and suffer me a little whilst I am speaking to you from God. Ye were wronged, ye were slandered, ye were abused, ye were cast out (and the Commonwealth with you) as abominable; you (and what the Lord had done for, and by you, were made the scorn and the derision of the Nations, whom his dread on you had made to tremble, (I have seen it, saith the Lord, and am witness) and he is come (who is a God of Faithfulness and Truth, the Judge of the whole Earth, who will Judge the World with Righteousness, and the People Earth, who will Judge the World with Righteousness, and the People with Equity) to do you Right, and this Right hath he done you (in a wonder) before the face of all People, and proportioned your healing to your wound; yea your reparation hath he caused to exceed your Sufferings; Friends, fear not, for God is with you. And this He hath done that He may try you, and prove you, and see whether ye will do according to all that ye have said and declared; according to all that the Nation hath bled for, and suffered; according to all ye have vowed and promised to God in secret, in the day of your distress, if ever he should give Power again into your hands: According to all that ye aught to do, and to what is the end of the Lord in this his late wondered and astonishing dispensation: And verily (Friends) this is your Day of Trial from the Lord, wherein he hath given you the Day ye desired, (a full opportunity, the fullest that was ever: Look not for such another) to do as ye have said, and to perform what he requireth of you, and with you he will be (therein) as heretofore, and greater things ye shall do, ye abiding with him. Moved of the Lord God Almighty I am, to tell you so, who hath given all Nations, Kingdoms, and People, a Day, and to those who have gone before you, a Day; and to him that came after you, a Day; and this is your Day; therefore in this your Day, know the things that belong unto your peace: Be liberal to God in suffering no man to suffer for his Conscience, as he hath been liberal to you in suffering none to injure you and go unpunished, what ever were their Conscience. Be liberal to the Nation in giving it its Right, as it hath been liberal unto you, in hazarding its all in your service for the recovery of its Rights. Repeal the Laws against Conscience, and the Liberties of the Nation; and make no Laws but what may answer that of God in the Conscience, and the Nations Liberties. Reform the Laws, and the evil administration of them. Check the Licentiousness of the Clergy. Take away the cruel oppression of Tithes, and compulsive Maintenance; and let them who pretend to be Gospel-Ministers, be content with Gospel-Maintenance. Join not with them, nor consult, whom God hath cursed, (whether Ministers (so called) or People, or both joined together) nor fear them, lest God 
* How this hath been fulfilled, is manifest.  confounded you before them. Make no Laws against the Truth of God in the Conscience. Come into a sensibleness (in common) of the sufferings and welfare of the People, so as the People by your tenderness, may feel you touched with the sense of their sufferings. Be not lifted up, because God hath pleaded your Cause, and executed Judgement for you; but be ye therefore laid low, to execute Judgement for God, and to pled the Cause of his People. Think not your Mountain so strong that ye shall never be moved, but rather be in expectation 
† It was but the 12th. of the Month called October following, and the door was again shut against them.  every day, (not knowing what shall be to morrow) that it may be moved and ready, because it may be moved to give a good account to God and man when it shall be moved. Take heed of taking liberty to do and speak as ye please, because ye are Judges of the Law; but so speak, and so do, as those who shall be judged by the Law of Liberty. Finally, Let 
* What a tender Visitation was this of the Lords love? and how will it leave them without excuse in the day that is at hand, (yea that already is begun upon them) wherein he that searcheth the heart, and tryeth the Reinss, will tender to every man according to his work, as in the end of this Letter I have spoken from the Lor●  my Truth, mine Outcasts, devil with you, saith the Lord know it in your own particulars, the Light which makes manifest; the Christ which shows you all ye have done; Be ye a Covert to them from the face of the spoiler; For, yet a little while, and the Extortioner is at an end, the Spoiler ceaseth, and the Oppressors are consumed out of the Land: And in Mercy shall the Throne be established, and he shall sit upon it in Truth, whose Right it is, in the Tabernacle of David, judging and seeking Judgement, and hastening Righteousness. The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this; Of whom I am moved in much love, and bowels, and tenderness, thus to writ; and from whose mouth I have written, that it may be well with you, if ye heed and do it: If otherwise, ye will be left without excuse in that Day that is at hand, wherein he that searcheth the heart, and trieth the Keins, will tender to every man according to his work.  
GEO. BISHOPE. Bristol, the 12. of the third Mon. (called May, 1659.   

This following LETTER was for the Council of State, directed and sent to a Member thereof, and of the Parliament.  
My Friend,  
MAjor Dawbone returned yesterday in the evening, with his Party, having visited , and Lambsdown, and Bassets-House, and Freshford in Somerset, and Bradford in Wilts, and crossed the Country again to Stroudwater, and Painswick in Glocestershire, and Malmsbury, which was much to the terrifying of the Enemy, who dispersed themselves, and dared not to stand or appear, and the reviving of your Friends in those parts in this his March, which was about one hundred Miles to and again, he neither saw nor left any Party of them (as he could hear of, for he sought them diligently, and marching by night) in those countries', but found not the spirits of men so subdued, as that they were not ready to rise, if the bond of the Lord were taken of them, and there should appear a reasonable encouragement, which speaks a necessity of the expeditious and continual marching of your Horse up and down in all parts, especially where these insurrections have been, and that ye give orders for that purposes, lest (as I have wrote) these scattered parties get time to draw together (the most desperate of them) and lay the foundation of another War, into which the rest may flow, and so put ye to extremity for Force and Money, ere ye have time to breath for the security of the Commonwealth: And this let me tell you, that had not the Lord confounded them by his Power before, and persecuted them by his Tempests that Night, the wind and rain fight against them, and caused Massey to be taken, of which they had notice, (though he was suffered to escape) and given timely discovery, and broken their spirits, in which the Lord only is seen) the Country had generally flowed in as one man from all parts, on this place, and those here had generally risen with them, and your Interest here by this time, had (in all probabil ty) been extinct, if not totally hazarded by reason thereof, throughout this Nation, and (as I have said) should the Lord but withdraw his band upon them, (so wondered it is to see how they are chained and tormented) would be suddenly in the same resolution. Therefore it concerns you whilst ye have time, to bear down this enemy, and so to secure places necessary for defence, and the Country, that this spirit get not up again, and put you to new diversions. And seeing that the Arm of the Lord hath thus inexpressibly delivered you, and given your enemies once more into your hands for his despised people's sake, see that ye improve it for, and not against him and those his people; and the doing Justice on those whom he hath given into your hands, lest out of this Serpent's egg do come a Cockatrice, and his fruit he a fiery-flying Serpent, and the Lord deliver you and your Forces into the Power of those who seek the destruction of you and your Interest. And beware of falling under this spirit, or of thinking that the Breach between you can be healed: For I declare it to you from the Lord, That it is irreconcilable; it cannot, it will not be healed; yea, the Day will come, and now is, wherein it will be said, We would have healed Babylon, but she would not be healed; Let us departed every one to his own place. Therefore in the Power and Dread or the Almighty, stand, and bear over it, crush it to pieces, stamp it to powder; so ye will found it to crumble as the Clay, and fall before you as the Mire of the Streets: But if ye fear it, and because of its afflicting you, and that it may not afflict you, ye sacrifice to their Gods, and a1fflict the People of the Lord, and offer up his Sons and his Daughters in Sacrifice, causing them to pass through the fire, through sufferings for the pacifying of it. Be it known unto you from the Lord, it shall prospero against you, and leave you neither 
* 
What is become of those in Parliament, Council, and Army, to whom this was principally intended? what Place or Interest is now left them? I speak not to upbraid them in the lest, or to insult over them, the Lord is my witness, I mourn for them, but that the Lord may be glorified, whose word he hath fulfilled.  
Is not the life of him and his People gone for its life, whom he and they let go out of their hand? Is not the King of Israel gone home to his House heavy and displeased? As I wrote to them in the Name of the Lord, telling him and them, that it should be so, and that is was Faithfulness in me to tell them or him so, and that we would be to me if I should not, being required of the Lord, of whom I had received it, however the King of Israel might take it, and go home to his House heavy and displeased; yea, that they knew the story, and that they should read and apply it to themselves in the case, they who were concerned, who had done that thing; for it was their portion, and should assuredly come upon them from the Lord. See Mene Tekel, pag. 39, 40  
Again, are they not bowed down, and humbled? Is not their last done? Are not their Locks of? Are they not bound? and have not they bound themselves? Can they work any more such deliverance in the earth for themselves or their Country, as hath been through their hands? Must it not (now) come from another place? Are they not submitted? and have they not submitted themselves? Are they not loured, and have they not brought themselves low, and their friends, and the Cause of liberty of Conscience, even to the ground, to the dust? Do not their Masters put them to grinned at their pleasure? Do they not dishand and do with them as they will? And when they have gone forth, when affliction is on them, and sh●ck themselves as heretofore; have they not found the Cause, (which whensoever they brought it in their hand, & could say of a truth, Lord here is the Cause, he never failed to deliver them, what ever were their streights and difficulties.) I say, have they not found their Cause, their Locks, their Power gone, & themselves bound as with Fetters of Brass? Is any strength left in them. Yea, is not their Kingdom rend from them, and given to a Neighbour of theirs that is better than they, even to David, according as I spoke to, and warned them from the Lord, that so it was, and so they should found it. Me. Tek. p. 40, 41, 42, 43. Let God be glorified, and all men fear and tremble before him. Righteous art thou O Lord, just and true are thy ways, O thou King of Saints; who would not fear and tremble before thee, because thy judgements are made manifest?   place nor Interest. From the Lord God Almighty (whose power wrought, and yet works through me for the confounding of the Enemy in this his bloody design against innocent People and the Commonwealth, (for it's laid all on them, as if they had designed the shedding of the blood of these) who watched over you when ye slept, & had regard to your safety for his People's sake, when ye knew not the depth and nearness of your danger) am I moved thus to writ, that ye may be warned and left without excuse in the day when these things shall befall you, which will not be long if ye shall so turn it; for verily I see them (in that which is not of this world) all desperately bend against you, and ready to overrun you, should He but withdraw his hand which yet restrains them, even (some of them) almost to distraction: And withdraw he will, if ye turn this great Deliverance (which was for) against his People: Which that it may never be by you, O how are my bowels turned within me. My dear Friends, for your sake, that so the Lord may never have cause to reckon with you on this account. But if it so be, the will of the Lord be done, He will be a City of Refuge for His People, and those amongst you who in faithfulness discharge your own souls upright to him against such proceed, will found a hiding place in the day of his fierce wrath, which is hastening upon the heal of the wicked. The time draweth nigh; Blessed are all they who in that day shall be found written in the Lamb's Book of Life. In Bowels of love, and truth or heart, as foreseeing the things that are at hand, yea at the door, and in obedience to the Lord have I thus written.  
George Bishope. Bristol, the 6th. of the 6th. Mon. 1659.   

Another Letter sent to a Member of the Parliament, and Council of State.  
Dear Friend,  
I Have formerly writ to thee concerning the Affairs of the Commonwealth, as opportunity presented: The occasion of this is in reference to these our New-English Friends, the Bearers hereof, late of, and near the Town of Salem in New-England, who having passed through the rigorous execution of their cruel Laws, as to Imprisonments, Whip, Scourge, Confiscation, and Sale of their Goods and Estates, are at length banished upon pain of death, which is their state at this present, having not above four day's time to transport themselves for England, whither to come, and to spread the merciless sufferings of them and their Friends before those in Authority, it lay upon them from the Lord, for which purpose they are arrived here, and are now passing for London, to unload themselves of their heavy burden before the Parliament, to whom, or to such as they shall appoint, they (with their friends and fellow-sufferers in England) are able and ready? what by Copies of their Laws, and the Order of Banishment (which they have under the Secretaries own hand, and the manner of prosecutions, as to apprehensions, imprisonments, fines, distresses, scourge, whip, beat, cutting of of ears, burn, selling for Bondmen and Bondwomen in other Plantations, to make appear such Monstrous cruelties as England hath not known before this day to have proceeded out of it, much lesle from such as once suffered, and quitted their Native Country because of Conscience, which makes it the more to be admired; and all this for no other cause but their Conscience to God, because they cannot come to their Worships, and eat the sacrifices of such men of Blood; because they meet together to wait upon the Lord, and speak to one another to fear God: Because they entertain strangers, and receive the servants of the Lord into their Houses: Because they are such as are called Quakers, whom without warrant to apprehended, even upon suspicion that they are such, and imprison, power is given to their Officers; and against whom in reference to all their barbarous executions, they have not so much as with one of them proceeded according to due order or process in Law, but with rage and cruelty, and with a high and strong hand endeavour and determine (as themselves have said) yea, in open Court have not been ashamed to declare) because they have power in their hands to wear out, cut of from, and expel the Country this whole Generation.  
The consideration whereof, and what may be the consequence of this, as to the body of friends there, (in whose 
* On the 27. of the 8. Month, 1659. the Government of Massathusets' Bay in New England, murdered at Boston viz William Robinson, and Marmaduke Stevenson, two servants of the Lord, whom they slew, and hung upon a Tree, for no other cause but for their conscience to God, being legally convicted of no one Opinion or Practice, but were put to death barely for being such as the world calls Quakers, and coming into their Jurisdiction, whose innocent Blood cries aloud to the Lord for Vengeance, who will assuredly bring it upon them, and it hastens: For such a Barbarous piece of murderous cruelty, (throughly circumstantiated) was never ●eard of, being from men who stead their Native Country because of Conscience, on their Country men for their conscience, who stood it out to the death, (glory to the Lord for ever, who was near them) but their bloody persecuters (when in old England) could not look so much as a Prison in the face But of this a particular Relation may shortly be made public.  blood ere this time they may have imbrued their hands) and this Nation, and as to you who are in Authority, should such Bloodsheds, Murders, Rapines and Cruelties be suffered in your Dominions, hath filled my heart with grief and sorrow; and in the depth of my spirit am I moved of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, in whom is the breath of all men, to writ to thee about it, who hast been sometime Governor of that Country, and knowest their manners and powers, and the cruelty of their spirits, and art eminent in Authority in this Commonwealth, that thou mayest consider and lay it to heart, and be zealous for the deliverance of those who have no helper; for which purpose I have enclosed to thee their Address to the Parliament, which thou art desired to help into the House, and by such ways and means, and with such Members to proceed and work, as thou shalt think fit, for the more speedy and effectual accomplishing of what therein is justly desired, and is requisite in the case. I am not unsensible of the multitude of business which throngs in upon thee for the Public in this hour, nor of the burdens thou bearest in reference to that, and the spirit amongst you that hinders the doing of what ye would for honest men, and the Commonwealth: Nor of the Cross that is to be endured in undertaking a thing of this nature; but when I consider that it is the Eternal Truth of God in them, for, and because of which they suffer; which Truth must (and the time is at hand, when the measure of sufferings is full, which hastens) reign over all; (the Zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform it.) And when I consider how the Lord tenders his Truth and suffering-people, even as the apple of his Eye, and will not suffer a Cup of cold water given to a Disciple in the Name of a Disciple, to go without a Disciples reward: Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the lest of these my Brethrens, will the Son of man say, (and the hour is near) when he shall reign in his Glory, and sit on the Throne of his Glory, and all the holy Angels with him:) ye did it unto me. And when I consider what need every man will have of the Mercy of the King, in the day when he shall separate the sheep from the Goats, and say to the sheep on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world. And to the Goats on his left hand, Departed from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels, which is at the door. And when I mind the movings of God that is upon me, I am pressed in spirit to tender this unto thee, that thou mayest have thy reward in the day which is nigh, wherein the Righteous God shall tender to every man according to his works.  
Therefore dear Friend, let this my Request be acceptable unto thee, and what in thee lies, do in the behalf of these poor, despised, suffering People, the Lord's Banished, who are appointed as Sheep for the slaughter, and for God's sake are killed all the day long; and are beaten, and made to cry by Reason of the Oppressor: That so the Blessing of the God of Abraham may rest upon thee and thy Posterity for ever. For this I know, That the Day is at hand wherein if man shall not, yet the Lord will thoroughly pled the Cause of his People; and than those who have shut their ears at the cry of the poor and needy; when they cry in their calamity, the Lord 
* The Case of these suffering friends, was presented to the Council of State by that Member of the Council and Parliament to whom it was wrote, it being judged that so to do, was the quickest expedient in a matter of such weight and consequence as the Estates, Liberties, & Lives of so many Families of people who fear the Lord; which they took into consideration, but passed away, re infecta, without doing any thing, as also did the Parliament, (who were shut out of their house the 12th. of the Month following) to the Speaker of which, and many of the Members, several Abstracts of the cruel whip, imprisonments, beat, confiscation of Estates, Burning, and cutting of of the Ears of many innocent persons, were delivered sometime before by the hands of some of the chiefest sufferers. There is yet a little time for them that remain in Power, to hear the Cry of the poor and needy, and to deliver them who are appointed to dye, lest the Lord refuse to hear them in the Day of their calamity, and so this his Word be fulfilled upon them.  will not hear them. So to that of God in thee which mourns with them that mourn, and weeps with those who weep, and suffers with them that are in adversity, as being in the body, I commend, and leave this thing, and remain  
Thy Friend in the Bowels and Compassion of Christ Jesus, GEO. BISHOPE. Bristol, the 20. of the 7th. Mon. 1659.   

To the General Council of the Officers of the ARMY, and those with them who are now consulting the good of the COMMONWEALTH.  
Dear Friends,  
IF ye mean to prospero, or that the Lord be with you as heretofore; with his presence to help you out of all your streights and Difficulties, Purge out from amongst you the spirit of the sixth Article of your late 
* Here lies the bottom of their miscarriage, and the very ground and cause of all their misery; For having by the sixth Article of their Address presented the Parliament May 12. 1659. Point blank changed the Cause of Liberty of Conscience, Viz From the Good Old one, to a New Bad One; from that which at first, and all along they engaged in, and for, and declared to that which they engaged against; which whilst they engaged against in the behalf of Liberty of Conscience, (the Dominion of God) he never failed to deliver them, what ever were their straits and difficulties; and so having drawn forth their Address, after so wondered a Deliverance, against their Declarations, (as I lately shown them from the Lord in the hand-writing, Mene Tek●l, which he caused me to draw against them, wherein they were weighed in the Balance, and found wanting) their Kingdom became divided against itself, and was numbered, and is finished. Nevertheless the Lord gave them therein time and space of Repentance, and this other Day also, wherein he warned them, as in this letter, being loathe to give them up, who had been the Sword of his Excellency and th● hel● of his strength, by whom he had wrought such wondered Deliverances, in which he was glorified, but they not heeding, this their day passed over also in such a manner, as is b●yond the wonders of the twenty years preceding, which made the earth to tremble: And although some of them when they saw the waters flowing over their heads, came again to the Cause, and placed liberty of Conscience in the 7th. Head of the ten Particulars, agreed on by them as the things in whi●h (it is said) they were Resolved to live and dye; in the very words of the third Ar●icl● ●f t●● settlement which I produced against the sixth Article of their Address, in proof of my cha●g● upon ●h●m, that they had Point-blank changed the Cause, thereby justifying the Lord and me in what I had so charged upon them from his mouth, and condemning themselves; yet it ●as 〈…〉, ●heir ●●ur was over. And so he who led into captivity is ●ed into c●p●●v●●● 〈◊〉 ●he who k●●l●d with t●e sword is killed by the sword; He●e ●s the pa●ience and faith of ●h● S●●●●s.  Address to the Parliament, and whatsoever is against Liberty of Conscience, the Dominion of God, which he hath owned, and will own, and set over all; so shall ye prospero, the Lord hath spoken it. If otherwise, and that upon Political, or other ends, ye cherish that spirit, or suffer it to live, or act, or be in you, or oppress the People of the Lord, or of the Land, and so by an evil or an heart of unbelief, ye again departed from the living God who hath once more delivered you, know this from the Lord, Ye cannot prospero 
† This concluded them, (they not heeding in this their hour) and than was no remedy; the word of the Lord is fulfilled upon them ; for he is come to reign whose Right it is, of the increase of whose Government and Peace, there shall be no end; Upon the Throne of David, to order it, and to establish it with Judgement, and with Justice, from henceforth even for ever: The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this, and the hour is at hand: Therefore my dear friends, let this my Counsel be acceptable unto you, and break of your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of your tranquillity: For from the Lord God Almighty, (the Angel of whose presence went before you, and hath been your Rereguard) am I moved thus to writ; who am known to you by the Name of  
Geo. Bishope. Bristol, the 16th. of the 8th. Month, 1659. in the Morning.   

Another Letter sent to a Citizen of LONDON, and a Commissioner of the MILITIA there.  
Dear Friend,  
I Received thy Letter, and thy Love; by this time (I suppose) thou hast an answer in thy self, as to the desire of my coming up; seeing that the General Council of Officers have not laid the Basis of their Government in Justice and Righteousness; but in the mixtures of corrupt and bad Interests, and the men of each, which God hath cursed, and not only so, but have quickened their strange composition with the 
* Their declaring for the Priests, & courting, or falling under the spirit that risen up against them, was that which slew them.  black spirit of that generation, who from the beginning 
† Time hath, & doth, and will make this most manifest.  hitherto hath been, and from henceforth will be the destruction of all who are swayed by it. So this gives rather a reason of my silence, than that I have (as yet) any thing upon me to move to you-ward, Indeed I must say, This last turn was also of the Lord, and at the very time of it when I had heard nothing by the hearing of the ear; I bore and went thorough as of them that went before) the travel thereof, and, the Power of the Lord, wrought in, and through me, to the accomplishing of this thing, Which 
* For being so closely pursued, presently upon their Return from defeating G. Booth, what other thing could be expected but their utmost endeavours for the preservation of themselves; and how otherwise could that be done but by the laying aside of those who gave the Prosecution.  desperate necessity on the Officers part, and the just † hand of the Lord on the Parliament, who had their Day, and misused it, hath constrained. But what? was it that they might take up, and Court the accursed thing, and close with the Men and Interests, whom God had spewed out, 
* In particular, the business of Tithes, with which they never before yoked the Commonwealth, (I say the Commonwealth) but left it hanging on the pendant Twig of the Statute for treble damages, which was ready to fall with its own weight, the weight whereof, and of the cruel sufferings of the Generality of the People of these Nations, (except the Interested, and their creatures) by reason of Tithes, particularly the People of the Lord, in their Persons, Estates, and lives, was so great, and the cry so loud, that the Parliament upon their very first sitting after their interruption, as a Retribution to the Lord for their wondered return, did appoint among their first things, a Committee of their own Members to sand for the Sufferers than in Prison, to examine their respective Cases, and to make report of them to the Parliament, which upon examination appeared so hard and foul, and consequently the laws by which they suffered, the witness of the Lord in them answering to the cry of these sufferings, that they though fit to set them at liberty, and not to remand them to their old captivities, which is a witness against themselves in the case, unto which answereth the witness of God in them, which is greater than all, and will be their great condemnation. Now for the Parliament to exact the payment of Tithes in such a time and season as by these their own proceed, gave honest men every where reasonable cause to expect their utter taking away; for them to establish those very Laws for Tithes by which those conscientious men suffered, which laws they so judged in appointing a Committee of their own to sand for the prisoners, and examine their cases, who suffered by those laws; which Prisoners so suffering by those laws, thei● Committee so set at liberty as aforesaid, and to or oer the Judges to 'cause such their Order to be read in the Courts at the several assiz Sin this Nation by which the same People were rendered into a capacity of sufferring a new by these very ●aws which by their former proceed the Parliament had judged so grievous, and this in the behalf of a generation of men who had been even than designing against them throughout this Naion, by Plot and Force to have overturned them, against another generation who had stood by th●m in that great hour, and were very much instrumental in the overturning of those designs, who also had been always ●heir sure, tried, and constant Friends, which the others were not, (most of them) but the contrary. This was that which displeased the Lord, being an ill requital of that their wondered deliverance for the sake of those his people, and caused (among other things) his just hand to bring that Turn upon them, of which I am a witness, even of the curse of the Lord, which passed through me against them, upon that their Resolution.  and pointed at with the most legible Characters of overturning and Blood, as those, and that which he abhorred; and so lay a bottom for their station, in that unto which is his sore displeasure; That the Lord hath given them the great deliverance: Or, that they should have observed the direction of his providence in laying aside of such Men and things, and the narrowing of All to Truth and Righteousness, the end of his workings, and unto that have taken heed, and on that Basis to have raised in Honesty and Justice, such a Government of the Commmwealth as God would bless. Surely these men, the last and best of them who remain, have had their Day wherein to know, and to do the things that belong unto their Peace, and the good of the Commonwealth, which the Lord hath given them for that purpose, and to try them also, and to prove them, and to leave them without excuse, who upon proof and trial having already brought forth the Grapes of Sodom, and the Clusters of Gomorrha; what now remaineth but a fearful expectation of the speedy and final overthrow of the things that are, which already 
* This the Lord shown me, even that the Parliament, Council of State, Commissioners of Sequestrations, and the things that than were, were waxing old, and ready to Vanish; and that this generation of men, (the men than in power) were but as the last blinch of a Candle, and as a little lightning before death; and it is but a very little time, and they are waxen old, and vanished, (the men than in power and conduct:) And so what he shown me, hath the Lord soon fulfilled; to whom be glory for ever: The rest he will assuredly accomplish in its season, and the hour is at hand; for it is that which will follow the Revolution of all these things, as certainly as are the Revolutions; which Revolutions he makes for the accomplishing of it, and the things make haste.  was old, and are ready to vanish, that he may reign whose Right it is; and he is come to reign whose is the Right, of the increase of whose Government and Peace there shall be no end, upon the Throne of David, and upon his Kingdom, to order it, & to establish it with Justice and with Judgement, from henceforth even for ever: For He hath tried all men, and found them wanting: He hath given a Day to every sort of men; but they have proved faulty, and have turned against Him; Therefore his own Arm will bring to himself Salvation, and his Fury shall sustain him; and none but him, on whose shoulders the Government is laid, who is King of Righteousness, and Prince of Peace, will he trust to rule the Earth, after He hath brought man low, & made him to appear as a thing of naught: For this purpose is he shaking not only the Earth, but the Heavens also, and bringing great distress, tribulation and anguish, Clouds and thick darkness, even that the desire of all Nations may come and take to himself the Dominion: And he is come, and is taking to himself the Dominion, whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom; and the Sceptre of whose Kingdom is a Sceptre of Righteousness: On whom we wait; in whom we trust; who will be unto us a City of Refuge in the Day wherein he will punish the Host of the high ones of the earth, and the Kings of the Earth, upon the earth, and will gather them into a Pit: And the Sun shall be confounded, and the Moon abashed; than shall the Lord reign before his Ancients gloriously: And the Day is at hand, even the Day wherein the Lord will come in ten thousands of his Saints, and will execute vengeance upon all, and convince all that are ungodly among men, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed; and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him; and every eye shall see him they also which have pierced him; and all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of him: Even so Amen.  
Thus my Friend, thou hast some account of my spirit in this thing, to the end that thou, and the Honourable Woman from whom thou wrotest, and her Husband, (my dear Friends, to whom is my Love) may see that I slight ye not, but that your kindness is accepted by  
Your Friend in the Truth of God (now) made mamanifest, George Bishope. Bristol, the 2d. of the 9th. Mon. 1659.   

To those in the Army and else where, who under the Burden of the Night that is come upon them, do cry out, Watchman! What of the Night? Watchman! What of the night? Am I moved of the Lord to writ, and it is to them the tender Visitation of his Love. The BURDEN of DUMAH.  
DUmah was one of the Cities of the Mountains, in the Land of Canaan, which fell by lot to the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah, situate among the uttermost Cities towards the coast of Edom, (which is Esau, Jacob's elder Brother) and bearing the Name of Ismaels' sixth Son, who was the Son of Hagar the bondwoman. In the night of the burden of Babylon, when the Watchman was set by the Commandment of the Lord to declare what he saw, after that he had seen a Chariot with a couple of Horsemen; a Chariot of Asses, and a Chariot of Camels, and had harkened diligently with much heed, and had cried like a Lion, My Lord! I stand continually upon the watch in the day time, and I am set in my ward whole Nights, and behold there cometh a Chariot of Men with a couple of Horsemen. And after he had answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven Images of her Gods he hath broken to the ground. O my Threshing, and the Corn of my Floor! That which I have heard of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. He called to me out of Seir, (which is Edom, whither he was gone) Watchman! What of the Night? Watchman! What of the Night? (This in the Letter without, but read in the Spirit within.)  
Friend!  
TO thy Call, Watchman! What of the night? Watchman? What of the night? I answer from the lord— The morning cometh, and also the night: If ye will inquire, Inquire ye:— Return,— Come—  
The Most High GOD, who changes times and seasons, and doth whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven, and in the Earth; the Watchman of Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleepeth; who giveth unto all men a Day; to Nations, Kingdoms, States a Day, wherein to know and do the things that appertain unto their peace, hath given to the Army a Day; yea, a Day, and a Day, and hath raised them up from a Little one, a Despised one, into a Great Host; and in blessing hath blessed them, and in multiplying hath multiplied them, and hath prospered them whithersoever they went, and in whatsoever their hand found them to do, and hath laden them with victories, and gave to their 
* O. Cromwell.  General a Kingdom, and Majesty, and Glory and Honor. And for the Majesty that he gave him, all Nations trembled and feared before him; whom he would he slew, and whom he would, he kept alive: whom he would, he set up; and whom he would, he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, the Lord cut him of, according to † his word which he hath spoken by me. 
* See Letter to O. P. pag. 14.  And when his Son risen up in his stead, and a Power under him seeking to do that, for which the Lord had cut of his father before him, He soon overturned him, 
* See Letter to R. P. pag. 18.  as I had writ to him in the name of the Lord, and deliver all Power into your hands, whom he and his Power sought to over-turn. And having delivered all Power into your hands, whom he and his Power sought to over-turn, he moved me to 
(a) See letter to the Gen. Coun. of Officers, pag. 18.19.  writ to you what ye should do, and again 
(b) See a second Letter to the said Council, pag. 80, 21, 22  warned you by me a few days following. And when notwithstanding his warning ye had started aside, and changed the Cause of Liberty of Conscience, the Dominion of God, in your 
(c) May 12. 1659.  Address to the Parliament, He caused the 
(d) See Mene Te. throughout.  hand-writing MENE TEKEL to be drawn against you, and moved me to sand it you, leaving unto you therein yet space and time of Repentance. And afterwards, when ye had Power again in your hands, He moved me 
(e) See Let. to the General Count of Officers. p. 33. 34.  to writ unto you, which you not heeding, the hour of your visitation passed over, and your Day closed into Night. And now darkness is over you, and the Word of the Lord which he spoke by me to you, through all, hath taken hold on you, and ye are delivered into the will of your enemies. And as ye have profaned the Holiness of God, which he loved, and married the daughter of a strange God; he hath profaned the Sanctuary of pour strength, and given you into the power of a strange King, and now your sorrows are multiplied, and your hope is cut of: and under the deep sense of the burden of the Night which is come upon you, the honesty in you cries out; Watchman! What of the Night? Watchman! What of the Night?  
To which I answer in the Name, of the Lord The Morning cometh (and it is not long first) wherein the Lord shall rise up, as in Mount Perazim; and be wrath, as in the Valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his Strange work; that he may bring to pass his Act, his strange Act; wherein he will make bore his Arm in the sight of the Heathen, and put on Righteousness as a Breastplate, and a Helmet of Salvation on his head, and the Garments of Vengeance for clothing, and Zeal as a Cloak, and according to their deeds, accordingly will he repay fury to his Adversaries, recompense to his Enemies, and will save his afflicted People: For the Day of Vengeance is in his heart, and the [Year] of his Redeemed is come; and the Son hath said, God Almighty is with me, God eternal is my Refuge, who liveth for ever: I live for ever; I stand and lift up my Hand to Heaven, and say, I live for ever; I come, and my reward is with me; and every eye shall see me, and the eyes also of them who have pierced me; and all Nations shall wall because of me; even so Amen. I am ever ye, all ye Powers of Darkness; I trample ye under me from mine High Places: I who was dead, and am alive, and behold, I live for evermore, and have the keys of Hell and of Death: I am he who shaketh Heaven and Earth; I have overcome, and shall inherit all things, and will subdue all mine Enemies under me: I will come up on Princes as Mortar, and as the Potter treadeth Clay: I will rule them with a Rod of Iron, and break them to pieces as a Potter's Vessel: I will tread the people in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their Blood shall be sprinkled upon my Garments, and I will slain all my Raiment; for the day of Vengeance is in mine heart, and the [year] of my Redeemed is come: O Death! I will be thy Death; O Gravel! I will be thy destruction, Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. O thou Enemy! Destruction is come to a perpetual end; and I will reward every man according to his works. Be wise therefore, O ye Kings, and be instructed ye Judges of the Earth; kiss the Son jest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that trust in him.  
Therefore my dear friends, be not ye troubled, neither let your hearts faint within you, nor be ye offended nor stumbled because that your hope is cut of from among men; because the proud are counted happy, and they that tempt God are delivered; because that Iniquity seems to have the Day, and corrupt Interests the price of the Blood of these Nations; because your body is laid down as the ground, and as the street to them that go over, who say to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over: Because that since the time of these twenty years, wherein ye hoped that God had arisen to save all the meek of the earth, and that he would not slack his hand until he had brought forth Judgement into Victory; the Day of trouble (as ye complain) seems to gather so dark, that none hath been like unto it: I say, Be not ye troubled because of these things that are already, or that may, and shall yet come before this night be over; of which the things that have been, are but the approaches; for these things must be, that man may be shown what he is, that man may see what he hath done that man may eat of the fruit of his do, and all who have leaned upon him, whose breath is in his Nostrils, and have departed from the living God; that man may be stripped, and brought low, and humbled even to the dust, and that his haughtiness may be bowed down, and the Lord alone exalted; that Iniquity may have its Day wherein to fill up its measure, and it is its last (can't ye suffer it than?) And the higher it grows, the nearer it is to its end; and its measure must be filled up, ere deliverance can arise, and refreshing from the presence of the Lord; who is come to do (himself) what Man promised, and had his Day to do, and should have done, yet did it not, but trifled away time long, and at length shamefully quitted and betrayed it, and left the Nation more overgrown with wickedness than before, and Judgement further of than ever, and Equity it cannot enter; and he is cutting short the work in Righteousness, and making a speedy end in the Earth; and for this purpose is letting Iniquity lose, that it may have its swing, its full career, (the Hedge is up, the Fence is down, the Wall is broke; that which letted, is taken out of the way) that it may fill up its measure quick and finish its course, to try a People in whom He will be glorified, that so He may make of it an utter end at once; that He may devour and destroy at once; that he may consume the Briars and the Thorns, Branch and Root, Head and Tail, Soul and Body in one day; and place salvation in Zion for Israel his glory: And when Iniquity seems to mount highest, than is its end nearest; and when it seems to caress it most, than is its destruction nighest, even at the very door. It must be fully ripe ere the stroke come that will swinge it to the Pit. It must cry peace and safety, ere sudden destruction come upon it, as pangs upon a woman in travel, and it shall not escape. And let me tell you for your comfort, it's already bundling up, and making ready for the fire. And though a Consumption be determined even upon the whole Earth, and from the Lord of Hosts I have heard it; yet the Consumption determined shall overflow with Righteousness, and England shall be the glory of all Lands, and a Blessing to all the Nations-round about her; and from her shall go forth Salvation, even to the ends of the Earth; and of her it shall be said after her captivity is returned, Blessed be thou O habitation of Justice! O Mountain of Holiness! The Eternal God hath spoken it, and the Lord will avenge the Blood of his Elect which cries day and night unto him; I tell you he will avenge it speedily, yea speedily: But what? even now? The time is come, yea the set time is come; the Lord hath spoken it. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he found faith in the Earth? But who shall live when God doth this? Is it said already, and it will seem 
* Mene Tekel, pag. 47.  impossible as to man (〈◊〉 I have said) But than it will be, that the Lord may be known in the earth by the Judgements that he executes. These things may seem strange (as I 
* Mene Tekel, pag. 47.  said) but the time is at hand; blessed is he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved: And Judgement must begin at the House of God and the time is come; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? And if the Righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the wicked and the ungodly appear?  
Therefore I say again to you, Be not ye troubled, neither faint in your minds, nor be offended nor stumbled; but turn in hither, Return— come to the Immortal in you which witnesseth for God, which gives you the sense of these things, and shows unto you all that ye have done, (Is not this the Christ?) and reproves you, and searcheth your hearts, and tryeth your reinss; heed it, believe in it, obey it whilst ye have time, a little time: This is that which is come to reign over all for ever; and God is come to set it over all, even for ever and ever; and all these shake are in order thereunto: Man's day is done; but the Lords day is come: Man's hope is cut of, because his day is done; but because his day is come, there is hope in the Lord. I say, Turn in hither; Return— come to the Immortal (our City of Refuge, and there is no other, you'll found it so in the end; I have seen you as a poor desolate man in the middle of a field, whom I met (in my spirit) distressed in spirit, and broken down with sorrow, not knowing whither to go, or what to do; and the Lord bade me say to you, Turn in hither) that so ye may find a hiding place in the day of the Lords fierce wrath, (which is even hastening on the head of the wicked) and see the Morning of the Eternal Day, which cometh, yea (as I have said) it is not long first, yea it hath been seen already, and also the Night— after it, which will be eternal to those that are not gathered into it. The Night is far spent, the day is at hand; if ye will inquire, inquire ye, Return, come; The Word of the Lord it is to you, and his tender Visitation of Love,  
By his Servant (who hath born your burden, and suffered that which ye are not able to bear) G. Bishope. Bristol, 21. of the 11th. Month 1659.  
BUt as for you who shall not return to the Lord, nor come to the immortal in you which witnesseth for God, but shall continued to go on in the stoutness of your hearts, and the stubborness of your spirits, in Rebellion against the Lord; know this, not only what is already, but what is yet to come to pass, of that which I have spoken to you in the Name of the Lord, in the 
* Mene Tekel.  Handwriting sent against you, shall assuredly come upon you, and ye s●all know that there hath been a Prophet amongst you; For, our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: A fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the Heavens from above, and to the Earth, that he may judge his People. Gather my Saints together to me, those who have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice. And the Heavens shall declare his Righteousness, for God is judge himself: Selah. Consider this ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. And the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy Angels with him, and shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory; and before him shall be gathered all Nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on his left; and the King shall say to them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: And unto them on the left hand, Departed from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels: And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. And so I am clear of your blood.  
G. Bishope.  
I beheld till the Thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did fit, whose garment was white as Snow, and the Hairs of his Head like the Pure Wool: His Throne was like the fiery flame, and his Wheels as burning fire: A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; Thousand Thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the Judgement was set, and the Books were opened; and another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life; and the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books, according to their Works. I beheld than, because of the Voice of the great words that the Horn spoke; I beheld even till the Beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame▪ And behold, One like the Son of man came in the Clouds of Heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him next before him, and there was given him Dominion and Glory, and a Kingdom, that all People, Nations, and Languages should serve him; His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion, which shall not pass away, and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed; and the Kingdom, and Dominion, and greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven, shall be given to the People of the Saint of the Most High, whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and all Dominions shall serve and obey him. Amen: Hallelujah, the time is at hand.  
G. B.   
The End.