A COPY OF A LETTER AGAINST THE ENGAGEMENT. As it was sent to a MINISTER, who persuaded his Neighbour that he might SUBSCRIBE.  
Printed in the Year, 1650.   

A COPY OF A LETTER Against the ENGAGEMENT.  
SIR,  
THough my knowledge and acquaintance with you be not overmuch, yet neither am I so very a stranger as to be wholly unconcerned in what you do; for beside that Civil respect I bear you as a Friend, I am so doubly a kin to you, both as a Christian and a Minister, that in whatsoever you behave yourself contrary to those Professions, I cannot but resent it as a Taint and Blemish upon our Blood: As for those who have cut themselves off long ago from our Family, and, I fear, at last from the Body of Christ, They shall bear their own shame: But a blush is the least we can be put to, to hear of a Member and Minister of our Church, and a Subject of the same Kingdom (for such I conceive you profess yourself still to be) helping on, and persuading to this State-Engagement: Though Christ must be wounded in the house of his friends, yet I am sorry any of his Apostles should give the Blow.  
For, I beseech you Sir to consider, what it can be other than a spear in the side of Christ, to encorporate and plight one's Faith to that Power which have slaughtered his Anointed, and raised themselves merely upon the Bones and Ruins and of his Vicegerent. The King is, without peradventure, the greatest Image, and clearest Representation of God amongst us; and if there be such a Sin possible now to be committed as the Crucifying our Saviour, they are certainly not overfar from it who have killed their Sovereign.  
But here you wash your hands, I believe, and protest your own Innocency and abhorrence from so foul a wickedness; you know what S. Paul says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, you know what our Law says, There are no accessaries in Treason, a little finger brings one within the compass of having a hand in the business: And though the fact be past and done, yet à parte post, will still entitle one to the Dolebit that belongs unto it. 'Twas our Saviour's Argument against the Jews in his time, That they had killed the Prophets, in that they allowed the deeds of their Fathers; yet, which is very observable, not by any plain or explicit allowance, nor very far from this: If we had been in the days of our Fathers, say they, we would not have been partakers with them in the Blood of the Prophets: And therefore to Subscribe, or set ones Hand to those words in the Engagement, [Without a King] for so I remember it runs, will be a louder and more open allowance, and so consequently bring a greater guilt upon us, in the Blood of the King, and pulling down of Monarchy, than could be charged upon the Jews in Abel or Zacharias. Touch nothing of these men's, is Moses' charge to the Congregation in the case of Corah, Lest ye be consumed in all their sins; a Touch only, and we may be consumed in All their sins. And truly, where God has set so manifest a Brand upon'em, by giving them over to such a deep incarnate Sin, unheard of among all Christians, and exalted many degrees beyond the designs, and modest attempts of Corah and his Covenanters; 'tis to a true Believer, who does not fancy with Epicurus, that God is an Idle spectator of what is done here below, as importunate a Call, and warning to Touch nothing of these men's, nothing especially of their Contracts and Engagements, as if the Earth should immediately open and swallow them up.  
Sir, if there be any Aguments to salve this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now, and make firm ground and footing of the Engagement for all this, they must be of another manner and mould than any I have yet met with; however, leaving this with you, such as they are, I shall not think it altogether lost labour to examine them.  
1. And first by True and Faithful, say some, we only promise that we will sit still and be quiet: I Answer, this is first an interpretation barely of our own, and may not therefore be relied upon as the sense of the Engagement; which, in that it is put in the same words to us, and their whole Army seems to require, something, at least, of Acting for them, else 'twould be no security for 'em at all, if the Soldiers, as being engaged, only, by this, not to fight against them, might lawfully sit still, and suffer the King to enter without striking a Blow. But than secondly, to be Faithful here, and sit still when the King may, perhaps, Summon us to show ourselves for him, is a breach doubtless of our Faith and Truth in the Oath of Allegiance, where those words are explained, not to mean only a sitting still, a not rising up against the King and his Heirs, but that we will defend and preserve them with the utmost hazard of our Lives.  
Two Replies may may be started, I foresee, against these two Answers. To the first, it will be said, what obligation soever, these words True and Faithful may lay upon the Army to be active and fight for them, in that they are Soldiers, and 'tis their Profession; yet to others it must be understood only, and by the same Reason within the limits of their own Calling; which is, not to be Soldiers, or Fight Men, but Farmers, Tradesmen, Lawyers, Ministers, and the like. And therefore not fight, or sitting still; as to such, is all that is imposed, or can be pretended to be imposed upon them by this Engagement.  
1. Sir, whatsoever may be said of Ministers, whose hands seem tied up indeed by the Apostle from being strikers, and very expressly by the Laws and Canons of the Church, yet for Laymen, all Laymen whatsoever, it is very consistent with their Vocation, and within the limits of their Calling to be Soldiers: Soldiery and Fight being not any particular Trade to be ingross'd, or taken up by such or such a Company, but the general calling of all under Authority, in relation, and for the defence of that Authorivy they are under, when they are so summoned to it. A Soldier of Fortune is, I confess, as unfortunate a piece as any the Christian world groans under; and to think, because I have skill and dexterity to slay Men, I may therefore lawfully, as by my Calling, draw my Sword, and engage in the wars and quarrels of other Princes, on that side, at least, that seems fair and just unto me; is beyond the bounds of my Christian Calling to run before I am sent, for who hath made me a Judge or a Divider? and not having, as all this while, 'tis supposed, I have not, any Grant or Commission from that Authority, which only under God has lawful power over my Life, not I myself; if I am killed, thus fight, I am foully accessary to my own Death; and if I kill, whatever the Enemy be, (for sure 'tis possible to commit murder upon a Jew or Turk) I am dangerously guilty of Murder: Authority is the only Call that can make Fight to any man a lawful Calling; and having that, no particular Calling whatsoever (the Ministry only excepted) does so exempt, or free a Man, as he may not lawfully, and in some cases ought to Fight. But say it should never come to this, yet True and Faithful will oblige us, in the mean time in our particular Callings and Professions, to govern ourselves by their Laws, and in all things to acknowledge and promote their Authority; the Lawyer at the Bar, the Judge on the Bench, to make their Acts the Standard for Aequum and Iniquum, and all of us to serve at their Courts and Assizes, to submit with cheerfulness to their Award, and Sentence, as of Right and Justice, to be aiding and assisting to them in our several places, if need be, for the execution of it upon others: And so the Minister in his Calling to observe their Fasts, to rejoice with them before the Lord, on their Victories and Days of Thanksgiving, to pray for their Success; and being sent into the Desk or Pulpit by them, upon Balaams' errand, Come curse me Jacob, and come defy me Israel, to Curse and Pray against the King from thence, and all that take part with him.  
To the second, wherein we urge it, even in that first qualified sense, of sitting still, if True and Faithful, should mean no more than so, to be a Breach; however, of our Faith and true Allegiance sworn to the King and his Heirs; your neighbour possibly has never taken that Oath, and so has no obligation upon him, by that it may be said against this Engagement.  
2. It is very clear, that by the Law, he ought to have taken it, and 'twill be then as clear, among all Casuists, that no man acquires any privilege by his own failing and default: And therefore, though he have not taken the Oath, he is not exempted or execused, by this (because he ought to have taken it) from that Duty and Allegiance required by it. But, I answer further, every man is brought forth into the world by the Providence of God, in the same terms of freedom or subjection wherein their Father that begat them then actually stood. Thus the son of a Bond-servant, of old, was born a Bond-servant, and S. Paul tells us of himself, that he was Freeborn; not absolutely free he does not mean, so as to be absolved from all Obedience and Subjection to Authority; for he makes his appeal to Caesar, and so we have him standing afterwards at Caesar's Judgement seat, where says he, I ought to be judged; but freeborn, as to some certain Privileges and Immunities, in which, that he was a Citizen of Rome, above the Bond-servants. Whence it appears evidently, that our Actual, Personal assent is not at all necessary to make us Subjects, for that we are born so; and withal, that we are bond or free, born subject; that is to say, in the same degree, with the same burden of duty and obligations upon us, greater or less, as lies upon our Parents when they beget us. And therefore our Father's taking the Oath of Allegiance does make the duty and burden of it descend upon us, though we do not take it, or were not obliged by the Law to take it in our own persons: So Livi is said to pay tithes in the Loins of his Father Abraham: And Saul is accounted to have made that Oath to the Gibeonites, as is plain by God's avenging his breach of it on seven of his Posterity, which yet was made by his Forefathers the Israelites, and their leader Joshua many years before he was borne.  
Sir, from our former instance of S. Paul, give me leave to observe unto you one main fallacy that has been put upon us; for, because we are in some records and passages of our Law, acknowledged by the name of Freeborn Englishmen, and the Freeborn people of England, hence divers pregnant apprehensions have taken advantage to tell us, because Freeborn, Ergo, the Dominion and Authority is doubtless in ourselves, and our Govornours no longer to be looked upon as such; but while they proceed according to our Law and Dictates, and to be accountable and punishable by us therefore, in case they shall transgress. Whereas S. Paul greater in Power, as freeborn as M. Lilburne himself, thought not himself privileged by this to bring against them a railing Accusation, much less to rise up against the Ruler of the People, though Ananias, an inferior Magistrate, sitting to Judge him according to Law, he commanded him to be smitten (and sure if any thing could have made it lawful, Blows would have done it, and from an inferior Magistrate, and in his own defence, and in a case of Religion) contrary to Law. But to return to the Engagement.  
2. The second Argument is, we may Subscribe, so it be without a purpose to be obliged by it. He that shall urge this, acquits himself fairly, I must needs say, to be no Heathen: Poor ignorant men, they lived in mere darkness from this new Light, so absolutely destructive indeed, to all society and commerce, so directly opposite to the Being and Creation of Man, who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that unless we can believe, Christ took not on him the nature of Man, but of some other thing which I dare not mention; and that he came to destroy the Law of Nature, and common Honesty, to condemn and abrogate all that was praiseworthy, or of good report among us, unless we can take Machiavels writings for Quintum Evangelium in opposition to the other four, we cannot hope to be Christians upon these terms: But then, it would be considered withal, how glibly so ever a Lie would go down with us, a solemn and deliberate Lie; yet to enter into this Engagement, does necessarily involve us in Perjury, whether we perform it, or no; if we keep it, 'tis then a Breach, to be sure, of our Oath of Allegiance, or, though we do not, but resolve against it: Yet the very Subscribing to the Commonwealth of England as 'tis established without a King, is a plain denying and going against that Sovereignty, in the King and his Heirs, over this Realm, which we swore, and acknowledged in the Oath of Supremacy; and we are ipsissimis Verbis, though it should never come to ipso facto, formally and directly perjured. An assertory Oath, for such is the Oath of Supremacy, (if it can be broken at all a part post) being violated, doubtless, by saying, or subscribing against it, as a promissory Oath; for example, the Oath of Allegiance, by not doing it, or doing against it, though we should not the novo, Swear against either of them.  
Sir, my Answer to the second Reply in the former Argument will, if you please to apply it, ease me of all Consideration here, whether your Neighbour have taken this Oath of Supremacy, or no.  
3. But than thirdly, 'tis said the King is not able to protect us, and therefore we are freed from our Allegiance and Subjection to him. We know what they were who said, Can this Man save us? And the doom that followed upon, Nolumus hunc Regnare, because their Lord was gone (not driven, which will make our Sin, and our Doom, much the heavier) into a far Country. To lay the absurdity therefore at their own doors, if their servants should rise up against them, and cast them out of the Family, would they suppose it reasonable, or lawful, in their Wife to engage herself to be True and Faithful to another Man? Truly this Objection might yet carry some seeming force with it, if we were to be subject, namely, for wrath; which, God knows, we have no great occasion to fear, and not also for Conscience sake if our obedience were terminated in the King, and not directed further by the Apostle, as to the Lord, and not to Man; Or, if we could say, this Lord is not able to protect us, will it be lawful for us to deny or forswear Christ because he shows himself to us in much weakness, and under the Cross? Or, is not a Son to Honour, and acknowledge his Father because he is poor and impotent? And sure 'twould be full out as strange, that our natural and sworn Duty of helping the King should be avoided by this Reason, because he has no power to help himself.  
4. The fourth Plea therefore is, that what we do, is in Loyalty and pure affection to the King, that we may preserve ourselves and our Estates for his Service: To do evil that good may come of it will be so far from justifying us, as it does justify our Damnation, for what is this, but to be wiser than God? and to seek out the seeming failings of his Providence, with our own Prudence? He has no end, says the son of Syrach, of a wicked Man, and can doubtless, bring about his Ends, and work out his Glory, though we should keep ourselves within the bounds that he has set us: Better the Ark should totter to the ground than Vzzah stretch forth an unlawful hand to hold it up.  
The sum of the whole Argument is briefly this: It is more probable and we are better able to restore the King without God, than God without us.  
5. In the fifth place it is objected, that by taking this Engagement we do but the same thing, as in paying Contribution: Truly I am not overforward to be a party or stickler, so as to contribute, in the least, for Contribution: And to him that makes this Objection, and shall apprehend the same unlawfulness in submitting to Taxes, as is evident in Subscribing the Engagement. I shall advise, and propound it, as the only safe way to keep himself from both, and not from that sinfulness he has indulged to himself, perhaps in one, if he think, or doubt it to be Sin, frame an Argument from thence to engage himself in a second. But, I must confess, there is, to my apprehension, a very manifest difference between these two: My paying of Contribution being but Actus simplex, a bare single Act, without any Tie or Obligation upon me, as in the Engagement for hereafter: And you know many things be lawfully and commendably done, pro high & nunc, here, and at this time, which by change of the Circumstances, and at another time, will be utterly unlawful; and I may not therefore, be engaged, or oblige myself unto them. But than Secondly, paying of Taxes or Contribution is none of mine own Act; and I cannot be thought to be any more accssary to the assisting and maintaining the present Usurpation, by this, than I might be thought Accessary, to the robbery of myself, and the enriching and strengthening of Thiefs, against Honest men, when being assaulted by a strong Force for my Purse upon the Highway, I put my hand in my Pocket and deliver it: This will not be the case now in the Engagement, which however I am under a strong Temptation indeed, must yet be interpreted my own Act, if I take it since no Force could put it upon me; they could not have my promise unless I gave it them, nor could I possibly be engaged but by myself; whereas in the case of Taxes, as in that of being robbed on the Highway, my Money would have been taken from me, and the Thiefs enriched and made strong by this means, do I what I could: And therefore I may be allowed here it, as a piece of sinless Prudence, not to enrage them needlessely against me; and for the saving my Life, and the rest of my Estate; as suppose a little parcel of Gold about me, which by not provoking the Thiefs to strip me I go clear away with, when as the very same considerations will make nothing at all for the Engagement; since, they are not, or cannot be urged, this saving my Life, or Estate, to make the assisting and enriching of Rebels by my contribution lawful, but only Prudent: the lawfulness, or sinlessness rather, being first supposed, in this, (which can by no means be said of the Engagement) that it is not in my power to prevent it, or keep my Money from them.  
6. From hence we shall be readily able to draw out an Answer to the Objection of Force, whereby our subscription is pretended lawful, and excusable, in respect to the great Fear, and strong Temptation that is upon us: for, we fall not here, God be thanked, within the reach, or power of Force: And, as to Force, I can no more be forced to promise my fidelity to these Men, than I can be forced to deny, or renounce my Saviour; which, if a strong fear might be interpreted force, for force I shall grant does excuse; S. Peter lavished away abundance of Tears to no purpose. The unequalness of these two sins comes not within the case; for, as to force, they are the same: and supposing them both unlawful, and in genere mali, I am, without peradventure, to lay down my life, rather than be guilty of either. To commit a Venial sin, say the Romish Doctors, thinking it to be Venial it becomes Mortal: And let the Engagement be supposed as diminutive, and minute a Transgression, as Art can make it, or your own heart could wish it, it will be no longer so when it is presumptuous. He that is unjust in the least, our Saviour tells us, is unjust also in much: And truly, they that upon these terms and qualifications only, think fit to take the Engagement, acknowledging it otherwise, and of itself sinful, I should very much wonder at their niceness, to find them stick at Nebuchanezzars Image, when the force is greater, the Furnace heated seven times hotter; and, while their Bodies bow down to Worship, their Souls may be as upright in them, as their hearts are firm to the King, and their former sacred Oaths, and Obligations, while they set their hands to the Engagement. Fear, though it should be of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, even of death itself, will no more excuse me from Sin, than that other passion of Love, which is stronger than death, would excuse one from all the adultery and fornication he should commit, where he were so in Love. And as to a strong temptation, if there be any virtue in that, 'tis the only best Argument I have heard, I must needs say, for giving over the Lord's Prayer; for 'twould be a very inconsiderate and ill advised Petition to pray against Temptation, as we do there, Led us not into Temptation, if the Temptation, the very being led into this temptation, be the same thing which we Pray for; so immediately in the next words, But deliver us from evil.  
7. But, must we be Martyrs, say some, for the King and Government? if it were for Christ, we knew what we had to do, rather suffer many deaths than Subscribe, or set so much as a little finger against him. Here is the mistake which runs through every Argument, remember what our Saviour says; In as much as ye have not done it unto these, ye have not done it unto me. For obedience to the King, in that he is the Minister of God, is to be interpreted as direct an obedience to Christ our King, as our Charity to the Poor, in that they are his Members, will be interpreted, and rewarded, as done unto himself; which, yet, will not give me a liberty of obeying the King in unlawful things, no more than in Alms to the Poor, (for so unlawful things are none of mine) I may take liberty to steal from another. And therefore, though the King should be willing, and desire we would subscribe the Engagement, we may not do it for all that, because I am commanded by a higher Law, which therefore the King cannot dispense with; not to dissemble with a double heart, not to let my mouth speak guile, much less my hand attest it. Or if (to answer that exception with a wild supposal) he should be willing that we should perform it too; Really abdicate his right of Sovereignty over us, accept of a place in the Council of State, and be one of the Commonwealth; yet when that is done, if it could be so done, there is still a Noli me tangere, upon the Engagement, in as much as the Right of the Crown, and the Sovereignty of a Monarch, reverts immediately upon his abdication of it to the Duke of York; and so, as long as there are any of the Blood to lay claim unto it, for that is the nature of an Hereditary Kingdom; and that this is such, appears most demonstrably to any man, by our Oaths taken to the King, and his Heirs: 'Tis not therefore that we are Martyrs for the King, or Government; for supposing we were free, & at liberty to choose, though we should infinitely prefer Monarchy before a Commonwealth, and this King by what we have heard of him, and for that he comes of so good a Breed, before any other, yet not perhaps at the price of our Lives. A King and Monarchy are but by accident in our Case, 'tis to free ourselves from Blood and Perjury, and in regard of the Oath of God, to avoid Sin, that we think it fit to embrace sufferings, and submit our Heads to the Axe, rather than set our Hands to this Engagement.  
8. There are some you may meet with perhaps, have a fine way yet to mince the matter, and make it lawful enough, as being but a Paroll, which no body therefore needs to Scruple at. I answer, a Paroll may be drawn, doubtless, in such a Form, and upon such Terms, as 'twill be unlawful to sign it or oblige myself by it; And therefore the liker it is to such a Paroll, it is but the more like to be unlawful. Yet every Paroll I conceive, will differ mainly from the Engagement, in that Eo Nomine as it is a Paroll, it presumes and necessarily supposes we are Enemies between whom such a Paroll is given and received, for there is no Paroll passes between friends: Whereas the Engagement has no such distinguishing note upon it, but being taken by themselves and put to all men, promiscuously, and indifferently, in the same terms it must be looked upon, not as a Paroll to Enemies, but as our absolute Matriculation and employing ourselves with them; and I am as very a Commonwealth's man by it, if I take it as Mr. Martin, or the greatest Republican of them all. But than Secondly, giving my Paroll to the Enemy, is therefore lawful, because by giving of it, I give nothing, give nothing to his Authority, nor Secondly, give myself at all out of my own Power; since by rendering myself again, at any time a Prisoner, (which is always in my Power, and which 'tis supposed I would do, when it were better and honester, and therefore more Eligible for me to do so) I am, where I was, before my Paroll, and under no Tie or Obligation, not to do 'em the utmost disservice I am able, whereas the Engagement, being limited to no time, and entered into upon no Conditions, or Capitulations, (I wonder what there is in it now like a Parol) is in the mildest sense of it, a public disclaiming and denying the good Cause for which I suffered, and a disavowing my Allegiance for ever. For no man can suppose, that if I should bring them their Engagement, the next day after I have taken it, professing not to be Engaged by it, I were any more discharged from the Obligation of it by so doing, than I could be free of my Bond which I Sealed yesterday, by saying to day I would not be Bound by it, or, that they were to take such a discharge for good payment: Ipse videris, would be the Answer, as from the Jewish Council to Judas, so to us, from the Council of State, what is that to us? See thou to that. But than Thirdly, however we could dispense with the time, yet that it be mutual and Conditional, is so necessary to the Nature of a Paroll, that after it be given and accepted on both sides, the Obligation on either side holds no longer, then while the other side performs the Conditions. As for example, if I should be let out of the Tower to walk in London, upon my Paroll of doing no differvice to the State, and be then seized on as a Spy, and clapped up in Newgate, My Paroll lays no Tie upon me that I shall not break Prison now, as soon as I can, and do what lies in my power against them: So on the other side, they allow me the Liberty of the Town, upon my Peroll, as before, of doing no disservice to the State: if I should make use of this Liberty, to lay a Train for the blowing up of the Council of State, I could not plead my Paroll, or suppose they were Engaged by virtue of that to save me harmless. I can see nothing of this now in the Engagement, but if they should clap me close Prisoner, tie me neck and heels together, Sequester and sell my whole Estate, as soon as ever I have taken it, or use any extremity upon me, This would not quit me at all from having the same Obligation, of being True and Faithful to them, as if they did not so use me, or impose any hardships upon me, that the Cavaliers by their taking it, may be unbewitched, perhaps out of their five Miles Circle, will be nothing to this purpose; for so perhaps they may not, sub Judice lis est, Their Cause comes, but then to scanning, and they have little reason to assume over hastily, since their Judges are so sufficiently bribed against them; However it should far with them, they could accuse no body of dealing falsely with them in relation to this Engagement any more, then because the Law says, he that has an Estate of forty pounds a year, above the degree of a Yeoman, may be chosen Knight of the Shire, for that Country where he lives, a Gentleman of such an Estate should complain, he had Injury done him; and it were against the Law, if he were not sent up to serve in Parliament at the next Session.  
9 A pretty Sullen kind of Argument there is, in the Mouths of some men, 'tis a Snare, a trap merely intended say they, to catch our Estates, and therefore whatever becomes of us, as long as we can help it, they shall not have their Ends upon us, or gain any thing by the Bargain: Here I am put to turn the Tables indeed, and prove Advocate, for the Council of State; they had no such design, good Men, I dare promise, to wrong you of a Farthing, for if Money or Estates had been the english of the Engagement, it would without peradventure, have been put into an Oath, drawn up in such gross, open, and Notorious Terms, (which they have endeavoured we see by True and Faithful, to disguise and sweeten what they could) as like a Gorgon's head might affright and appall every one at the sight of it, and that no Man might any way be deluded or deceived into it. Nor secondly, could they hope any would be, or think themselves greatly obliged by This, to be a whit more True, or more Faithful to them. And therefore to unfold the Riddle, 'tis a draught and Copy of the same Policy, which Balaam advised the King of Moab against Israel, and while they can Engage the Cavaliers with the rest of the Kingdom to their Sin, to Commit Whoredom as it were, with the Daughters of Moab, prevail with 'em to worship their Gods, and the Common-wealth which they have set up, 'tis the only sure weapon that can prosper against so good a Cause, or secure and prolong these Men in their unjust possession.  
10. There is yet one way more of taking the Engagement, which may seem to be untouched in all we have hitherto said, and that in Seeming to take it, procuring and producing a Ticket as if we had Subscribed. Sir, I need not tell you how much this seemingness and dissimulation is opposed, to that pious simplicity which becometh Christians. Without Guile, being a main necessary qualification, to denominate us True Israelites. Nor secondly, how besides the certainty bringing guilt upon him whom we tempt to this Ticket, we cannot dissemble it so well, but it will lay us open to the sin of Scandal in respect to our Brother, and give the Adversary occasion to blaspheme and cast out our Religion to pride, and harden themselves in all their Impieties, while they shall see the design of their Souls accomplished by this Means, and their Bramble Government set up. And whereby they shall be better able, and upon more reasonable Terms to justify all those after Injuries, and Oppressions, and Persecutions, they shall think fit to bring upon us, if we should not rise up with them hereafter in every thing. Since we shall now seem to be under some Tie and Obligation to them, and our plead of Conscience, with good show of Conscience, may be rejected by them, in that we have given them just Cause to believe, it is not Conscience, when we so hold off, but Stomach, a perverseness only and stubbornness in our Spirits; nothing being supposeable of a more Camel Temper, in relation to our Oaths and Duties, (if such had indeed any True power with us) than this Engagement, which now we shall seem, & that is the same thing to whom we shall so seem to have taken down and swallowed. Ecclesiastical Story tells us what severe penance was inflicted on the Libellatici in the primitive Church, and we have a famous example you may remember, in the 2 of Macchab. of old Eleazar a Jew, when being Commanded by Antiochus, to eat Swine's flesh, which was against their Law, he refused; and his friends and acquaintance, in much favour to him, bringing him other Lawful Meat, only, that by eating of this, he might seem to Antiochus to have eaten of the unlawful, and so save himself from Death. He willed them straightway to send him to the Grave, (which they accordingly did with extreme Torments) rather than he would stain the Holy Law, and the Excellency of his Ancient years, or lay a stumbling Block in the way of his Brethren through his Hypocrisy. But there is a further and much stronger Argument in our Case, against this artificial Daubing and Dissimulation, for that there is a Dissimulation in our very Dissimulation; and it does not really as it does pretend, deliver us from the Engagement. For, the formality and essence of being Engaged, does not stand in writing my Name, or having my Name written in a Paper, (a Eleazar indeed could not be defiled with Swine's flesh, but by eating it) but in my assent and owning it, my taking it upon me, before those to whom I am required to Engage, by any way of expression whatsoever, though but with a Nod of my Head (whence annuere to nod, signifies to assent) if they should tell me before hand, this should be interpreted, and taken by them, as the sign and assurance that I were Engaged with them. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: And therefore the producing, and showing a Ticket, which way soever we come by it, is in figures at least the same thing, as writing my Name is in words at Length, really and in good Earnest taking the Engagement.  
11. But then in the last place, these may, for aught we know, say some, be set in Authority over us by God, having outed the King, and gained the Dominion by strange and admirable successes. I answer, a wrong can never beget a Right, and when there cannot be a lawful War, as in Subjects against their Sovereign, there can never be a Rightful Conquest. Jus Victoriae, in those that are the stiffest Assertors of it, does always suppose, Justos Adversarios, as between England and Spain, Spain and France, and the like: But then, to conclude from that success wherewith God has been pleased to harden, and give them up to this height of Impiety, that he does thereby invest them with any Just power or Authority over us, were to overthrow the whole Oeconomy under the Gospel, and to fight for Mahomet against Christ. Nothing can go beyond his Majesties own words, in his Divine, and most incomparable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The wind which fills the Pirates sails (when there is nothing at all of Man in it, and so more immediately the hand of Heaven) does not at all justify their Piracy, or give 'em a right to those illgotten goods they are possessed of, though it bring 'em save into the Harbour. If it be not of God, says Gamaliel, it will come to nought: But because we cannot promise ourselves so long a time to make the experiment, and may not girt up God to our short moment; our Saviour has given us a much surer rule in his, ab initio: if it were unlawful in the beginning if they came not in by the door, by lawful and just ways, but have Climbed up some other way, by Perjury, Treason, Rebellion and Regicide, though they are got in, and seized upon the Regalia, the Sheephook and the Scrip, pretending by these Ensigns to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they are yet no other than Thiefs and Robbers; and the Sheep own them neither Audience, nor Obedience,, neither to hear, nor follow them. I need not be told this was meant by our Saviour, especially in relation to False Teachers; for, however it serves to prove what I only urge it for, that a violent, and forcible, and injurious Entry; however it succeeds, is not to be looked upon as God's Providence, for then climbing up would be the same thing as coming in by the door. God only can be said to transfer, or translate a Kingdom (since he Rules not immediately among us, as among the Jews) when his Providence so disposes and orders, that by the Laws and Rights among Men, it is removed to another.  
Sir, these are all the Objections and Evasions my memory could readily supply me with; and though, I believe, some of them might have spared, yet not knowing which was your Achillium whereon you ground your persuasion, I could not tell which to omit: As for my Answers, I have not every where marshaled 'em into that Posture and Array, as to fight 'em at best advantage; for, considering to whom I writ, you would be able to improve 'em in your own thoughts, I knew, to their full force and importance. And, when that is done, and you are convinced of the utter absolute unlawfulness of this Engagement, 'twill be no new task, I trow, to fortify you against the losses and sufferings, may light upon you perhaps in this behalf: For, beside the Reward and Glories of another life, there is so much Epicurism and Voluptuousness: let me mind you in the Feast of a good Conscience, as the whole world and the fullness thereof, cannot be cooked out into any Comparison, or Resemblance with it; and the hundred fold return even in this life with Persecutions, is as particularly and expressly our Saviour's promise, (if we can count him faithful that has promised) as in the world to come Life Everlasting. But I humbly crave pardon for my over-importuning you in this unnecessary length, and beseech you to accept it, with the same Right▪ hand of Charity, and , as 'tis presented to you. I have my Ends, if it may take you off from being any offence, or scandal in this matter: And as not to bring the King's Blood upon you by listing yourself in the Engagement; so nor your People's Blood, by holding your peace when need requires; It is no time to provoke God when his wrath is already in so high and hot displeasure gone out against us. Take thy Censer and go quickly, say Moses, that's our proper Vbi, between the living and the dead, and in Joel between the Proch and the Altar, saying, Spare thy people O Lord, and give not thine Heritrge to this reproach, which I shall no longer divert you from, then to renew my suit for your fair and friendly Interpretation of what is meant, and offered you in this Letter, though you should suppose it from Dead Elijah.   

Postscript.  
SIR,  
HAving been so long in my Letter, I am obliged to be a little longer, and to shoot away one Arrow more to find the rest, in case they should be all lost perhaps, as to the Mark I aim at; and your neighbour, while this is coming to his hands, already engaged. Truly Sir, that there will, then, lie an Engagement upon him, must be granted on all hands: And because I shall suppose, by what has been said, it will be very clear for Repentance; that Repentance is that duty he is, now, so solemnly engaged to by this Subscription. My only next care is, to warn him from splitting twice on the same Rock; and that this Secunda Tabula prove not a worse ruin, and breaking to him than his former Naufragium. And therefore, however, True and Faithful, betrayed him before, as with a Siren's Song, to be interpreted of quietness only, and sitting still; He must remember to sail another way, to turn the quite contrary ear unto it in this Engagement, and duty of Repentance; to be True and Faithful here, must be understood to be Active and Operative, not to sit still only, and be sorry for what he has done. He that sits down here, will never come at True Repentance. No! Sorrow, says the Apostle, worketh Repentance; worketh, as is well observed by Bishop Andrews, and therefore is not it, unless a thing can be said to be the cause of itself: 'tis here as with Faith dead without works, so Repentance without Fruits, a Repentance only to be Repent of: Our Saviour's words are very plain, To whom much is forgiven, he loveth much; and which way soever we expound them, either much forgiveness, upon much Love, or much Love upon much forgiveness, they are not to be parted: And he that does not go much higher after his much Sin, show himself further for the King, and the Laws, than he did, or was obliged to do, before this Engagement; has nothing to do with much Forgiveness, the sin of his Engagement lies still upon him, and he is yet in the Bond of his Iniquity.   
FINIS.