Daventry Brimidghani The most Illustrious and High borne PRINCE RUPERT, PRINCE ELECTOR, Second Son to FREDERICK KING of BOHEMIA, GENERAL of the HORSE of His MAJESTY'S ARMY, KNIGHT of the Noble Order of the GARTER.    

THE BLOODY PRINCE, OR A DECLARATION OF THE Most cruel Practices of PRINCE RUPERT, and the rest of the CAVALIERS, in fight against GOD, and the true MEMBERS of His CHURCH.  
By I. W.  
For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity to practise hypocrisy,  Esay 32.6. 
It is a pastime to fools to do mischief,  Prov. 10.23. 
The transgressors shall be destroyed together, the end of the wicked shall be cut off,  Psal. 37.38. 
Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the ward of the Lord may have free course, and he glorified even as it is with you, that us may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith,  2 Thes. 3.1, 2. 
LONDON, Printed MDCXLIII.   

To the Bloody PRINCE, the PRINCE RUPERT, and all the bloody Prelates and Cavaliers, now in a posture of War against God and all good men, the Author wisheth either speedy conversion, or sudden confusion.  
MOst Bloody Prince, and all your bloody Prelates and Cavaliers: I have as you may see by this ensuing Discourse, taken a little pains, to set that before your eyes in words, which by your actions you will not take notice of: namely, your unreasonable wickedness, and the doom that will follow: Advising you to take heed of persisting in such distractive ways, as now you are in; which counsel of mine, if you shall take, you will find it the best piece of work that ever you took in hand; but if you refuse and reject it, you will, I am sure, repent one day, when it is too late.  
Farewell.   

 men's practices declare them to be wicked.  Psalm 52. 
And part of the first, and part of the fifth verses: Or as the Hebrew and Latin read it, part of the third and part of the seventh verses.  
Why boastest thou in evil, or in mischief, O mighty man? God shall destroy thee for ever, or, to perpetuity.  
THIS Psalm, as the Title tells us, was penned upon the occasion of saul's and Doegs cruelty against the Priests and people of God: the one commanding, & the other acting that wicked and mischievous exploit. A wicked King commands a wicked work, and as wicked a servant obeys him. And commonly it is so, that when there are wicked commanders, there wants not one ill instrument or other to execute their wicked desires. Such a one was this man Dorg, an Edomite, or an Idumean, as the Greek here translateth it, or a man of Adamah, a City of the tribe of Nepthalie, Josua 19.36. And he it is to whom David here speaks, Why dost thou boast thyself to do mischief, or, in doing mischief (as it is in the first verse) God shill destroy thee for ever, as it is in the fifth verse. God speaks not only to him, but to all other Doegs in the world, even to those of our times, which do act their mischievous designs daily against God, his truth, and people, and all that they think stand in any relation to God, or do engage themselves in any service for him; whose practice I shall here lay open, and the doom that will follow: and therefore I have chosen part of these two verses, in the unfolding of which, you may see the great Doeg of our Kingdom, Prince Rupert and all his bloody followers, with their mischievous practices, and also their woeful doom that will follow.  
And first, I shall speak of part of the first verse, Why dost thou boast thyself in evil, or in mischief, O mighty man? And first, here you may observe a charge laid upon Doeg, and all such bloody ones that do kill the Ministers and people of God, they are charged with doing evil, or mischief. Secondly, the manner of laying this charge upon them, it is by way of interrogation: Whey do you do it? The same expression is used Psal. 2.1. which shows, that there is no reason to be given for such wicked actions, much less for boasting in them.  
Or if you will, here is set forth the practice of Dug, and all wicked men like him:  
First, they do evil.  
Secondly, they do it boastingly or joyfully.  
Thirdly, here is set forth the unreasonableness of it, Why dost thou boast thyself, O mighty man?  
And first of their practice, and from thence observe this point of Doctrine: That,  
It is the practice of evil men to do, evil things, of mischievous men to do mischievous things.  
Prov. 1.16. You shall find Solomon speaking of such, giving warning to his son to take heed of them, saying: Cohibe pedem tuum à samit a illorum, quia pedibus suis ad malu●● concurrunt & festinant ad effundendum sanguinem. They do evil, and they make haste to do it; they shed blond, and fill themselves with the spoil of the shine. Such you shall find also Psalm 10.7.8.9.10. and 11. verses: Execratione os ejus plenum est, frandibusque & dolo, subest lingue ej●s malestia & v●nit as: desidet in specu villarum in latebr is occ●sur is innocentem, ●cuh ejus contr i defectum viribus delitescunt. His practice is to kill, and the wickedness of his practice is, that he kills the innocent. Likewise Psalm 94.6. Viduam & peregrinum interficient, ac pupillos occident dicent●s non respicit jah, neque animadvertit Deus jahakcbi. They kill the father less and widow. And see their wicked carriage in it; God, say they, sees not, the God of jacob regards not. There is a pregnant place for this purpose, Esay 32.6.7. verses. Sed flagitiosns dicetur flagitium eloquens, cujus animus efficit iniquitatem; exercendo by pocrisi & proloquendo in Deum err orem exhauriendo animam famelic●, & potum sitientis subtrahendo: & tenacis instrumenta mala dicentur, qui scelerat a consilia init ad perdendum humiles sermonibus falsitatis etiam quum egens eloquitur jus. I might multiply many more places, but the point is so clear and obvious, that it needs not.  
The reasons of the point are these: First, Reason 1 
Ephes. 2.3.  it is natural to wicked men to do wickedly: if men are not restrained by an overruling power, they run into all manner of wickedness as the Horse rusheth into the battle.  
Secondly, wicked men do wickedly, because they love it, Psal. 52.7. There is a suitableness between sin and their souls, and so the acting of it is very easy to them, even the vilest abominations that can be wrought, as murdering the Saints, idolatry, blasphemy, and what ever else comes under the name of evil.  
Thirdly, the Devil doth instigate and stir them up thereunto; he rules in their hearts, 2 Cor. 4.4. He carries them with all swiftness and violence to accomplish his own will.  
The first use may serve to inform us, that it is no wonder to see wicked men follow their wicked courses so eagerly and so constantly as they do: their own hearts carry them on thereunto, and the Devil seconding them with his temptations, they are carried on vehemently, God also giving them up to their own wills, they can do not otherwise. If you look into the Scrißtures, you may find wicked Cain killing Abel, a wicked Nimrod mightily hunting and persecuting the Saints, and a wicked Saul, and many others doing the like.  
And now you see wicked men enraged against God, his truth and his people, even a wicked army of Cavaliets, led forth by a wicked Prince, fight against religion, imprisoning and killing faithful Ministers, shedding the blood of the Saints of God with all outrage and cruelty. It is no wonder to see them so doing; all wicked men would do the like if God should not restrain them, they do but what their own hearts carry them unto, God having given them up to their own wills and affections: therefore think it not strange, seeing they are carried by such a power that they cannot resist of themselves.  
The second use may be a use of instruction, to teach every one to take notice of the natural bent of his own heart, and where God hath wrought a change, to acknowledge the freeness of his grace, and the mightiness of his power.  
The third use may be to reach all wicked men that are carried on with such violence in wicked ways, to take notice by their actions what they themselves are, even wicked persons, you are wicked, but you will not acknowledge yourselves to be so; but look upon your actions, and they will tell you to your faces, that you are wicked wretches.  
But you will say, What actions?  
I answer, your swearing, blaspheming, drunkenness, with other outrages, which your own hearts tell you of. All you wicked Cavaliers, look upon your cursed and devilish actions, and they will cry to you with a loud voice, that you are a company of wicked wretches, risen up against the Lord, and against his people, even company of wicked Doegs, to whom the Prophet speaks, Why do you boast yourselves in evil?  
But you will say, our actions are not wicked, neither are we ourselves so.  
No: Are not your action; wicked? Then there were never wicked actions wrought in the world: take but a view of your actions. Is it not a wicked action to murder godly and faithful Ministers, and to imprison them? Then Herod's action was not wicked in imprisoning and killing john the Baptist, not the Jews in imprisoning and killing the Apostles: but they are charged upon them as wicked actions, even by God himself, and so shall your actions be changed upon you; even this of imprisoning and killing the Ministers of God.  
Again, what think you? Is it not an evil action to kill the Saints, and to shed their blood that are as the apple of God's eye, and the signet on his right hand, that are his precious ones, Esay 43.4. of whom God hath said, he will contend with those that contend with them? And yet these you kill and imprison; nay, you aim at them above all others, Psal. 37.14. Gladtum eduxerint improbi & adduxerint arcum suum, ad dejiciendu pauperem & egentem ad mact andum rectos via: here is a wicked crew charged not only with killing the godly in common with others, but for aiming at them above all others: and is not this your practice? Do not you bend your force most against them that are most godly? And yet, O ye wicked ones, you will not yield that your actions are wicked; but let your hearts speak, and they will tell you, that your actions are wicked, and that Cain-like you seek to kill the Saints, because their works are good, and your own bad; and God will one day tell you so to your endless woe if you repent not.  
But you will say, you fight not against the godly, but against rebels and traitors that will not yield obedience to their King.  
To which I answer: First, that they refuse not to obey the King, so far as his commands agree with Gods, and more ready they are to obey him in such things, than any of you which do hate, and openly oppose all such persons, and things, and commands, as have any stamp of God upon them.  
Secondly, they do not disobey the King, but stand up in a defensive way, to defend themselves and their posterity, from Popery, tyranny and slavery, which you labour to bring us all unto. Do not some of you remember, how you gave the first onset against the Parliament, endeavouring to destroy that honourable Assembly before they ever took up arms, or did any thing in a hostile way? And therefore your first rising was not to suppress disobedient subjects, but to destroy such as were obedient and loyal.  
And both the Parliament, and all that stand up with them, do what they do in defence of the King, and that religion, and those laws which the King himself is sworn to maintain; and therefore that cavil will no way free you, being you are wicked persons, nor free your actions from being wicked actions.  
But you may say, Have we shed more blood than the Parliament, or imprisoned more than they? We may charge them with the same crimes that we are charged withal.  
I answer as before, they are necessitated to what they do, in defence of themselves, of religion and liberties. Besides their aim is not to shed blood, their endeavours have been, and still are, for peace; but you are still for war and bloodshed. Besides all this, there is a great difference betwixt your shedding of blood, and theirs: for they are exceeding tender and careful of the faithful Ministers of God, and of his servants, and would, if it were possible, preserve them above all other, from prison and sword: but your aim is altogether against such whom you are pleased out of your devilish malice to call Round heads, which term shows what you are, even such whose tongues are set on fire of hell, which do speak worst of those of whom God speaks best. The holy God loves holiness, and commands it, but you hate it and condemn it: you are contrary to God, and all his ways, and yet in your opinion you are not a company of wicked wretches. But if all this will not convince you of your wickedness, what think you of all your blasphemies, and cursed oaths, which daily (Rabshakeh-like) you belch out against God, saying with those, Psalm. 42. Vbi est Deus tuus?  
In a wood, do but look upon the cursed practices of all the wicked wretches that ever you read or heard of, and see what villainy was ever done by them to declare them to be wicked ones, that you are not guilty of, and then you will without doubt be of my mind, that you are a company of wicked ones indeed.  
And so I come to the fourth use, which is a use of exhortation, to all you that stand up thus wickedly against God, to cease from all your cursed and wicked designs which you have so violently pursued so long. Go no further on in your wicked ways; hear what the Prophet David saith to you, Psal. 75.5. O ye vainglorious fools, be not so vaingloriously foolish, and you that are wicked, lift not up your horn on high, and speak not with a stiff neck, march not so madly against God: for job saith: Never did any harden themselves against him and prosper. So Psal. 11. Depluet super improbos prunas ignem & sulphur, ventusque procellosissimus portio calicis corum futurus est. Therefore take heed, it is hard for you to kick against pricks. Acts 9.6. Then even thou, bloody Prince Rupert and all thy company, shall find one day, that all the threaten of God are against you, and that the way wherein you walk, is exosus Deo, and you will speed accordingly; which I will speak of in its place.  
And so I have done with the first point: I now come to a second, which will arise from this word boasting, or glorying, they not do evil, but they also boast in it, it is their glory: whence the point is this:  
That wicked men do not only do wickedly, but also boast and glory in the doing of it. So saith Solomon, It is a pastime to a fool to do wickedly, Prov. 10.23. And again, Fools make a mock of sin.  
What are those fools but wicked men? for there is nothing properly folly but wickedness. So the Prophet Hosea tells us, they make the King glad with their wickedness, and the Princes with their lies, Hosea 7.3. 〈◊〉 Surely they were first glad themselves, and then they made others so too.  
The first reason is, because all their joy depends upon the satis faction of their wicked desires: their wickkednesse is the fountain from which they fetch all their comforts. Now whatsoever a man makes the fountain and store-house of his joy, the more that is opened unto him, the more he doth rejoice: the wicked have no other fountain of joy, but the bringing about of their evil devices; and when they have success in them, than they most rejoice.  
The second reason is, because when they do wickedly, they have what they would: and we know in a natural way; every on rejoiceth when he hath what he would; wicked men's wills are setupon wickedness, and when they have most opportunity to practise it, than they most rejoice, because their wills are fulfilled.  
Thirdly, when wicked men are doing wickedness, they are in their proper element, where they cannot choose but sport themselves, even as the fowls in the air, and the fishes in the sea, and so every exeature else after its kind.  
First then, let us take notice how the sons of men are bewitched by Satan and their own wicked hearts, to sport themselves in that which is their mischief and undoing, seeding their senses with the delights of wickedness, and walking on merrily in the path that leads to the chambers of death, from whence there is no returning.  
Let all wicked men take notice in what a woeful estate they are in, whilst they glory in their shame, as the Apostle saith, Phil. 3.17. Nay, in that which without repentance will hold them in everlasting chains of death and darkness: For the subject matter of your joy, is nothing but your wickedness, worse than a thing of nought, as the Prophet speaks, Amos 6.  
And especially you which do daily bring upon yourselves blood-guiltiness, by plotting the death and undoing of all that have any resemblance of God in their words or actions, you take pleasure in nothing but in unrighteousness, Rom. 1.21. in robbing, stealing, whoring, and above all, killing the people of God when your Devilish paws can fasten upon them, than you think you have cause to rejoice more than ordinary; you are never so full of shoutings, as when your heats and hands are most full of theft and blood shed; you make yourselves drunk with blood as with sweet wine, and make joyful acclamations at the accomplishment of your most inhuman devites: there is nothing so delightful you, as that which is most hateful to God and all good men. O let not my soul, not the souls of any that think to come to life, come into the secrets of your rejoicing, which do by your joy, your present wicked joy, work out your eternal sorrow: for God in the midst of all your cursed delights, laughs at you; for he sees the day of your everlasting downfall coming, that take up Arms against the Lord Jesus Christ, his truth and people.  
To inform us what will deprive a wicked man of his joy, namely to deprive him of his wickedness. And alas! that cannot hold long itself, it will wear you out, even your drunkenness, your whoring, and the rest of your wickedness. It may be the sword shall devour you, there will be ere long the end of your wickedness, or your end, or both, and then where will be your joy, when the matter and ground of your joy shall be taken away? Nay, which is worse, there will be a sting stinging in your souls to all eternity; which remembrance of your wicked pleasures will dally renew, that you shall hever be able to withstand it. Why then wilt thou let the refreshments of thy soul depend upon so woeful a foundation as the satisfaction of thy wicked and beastly lusts, which can be but for a season, Heb. 11.26. The fountains of thy joy will quickly be drawn dry, and then all thy joys will bid thee an eternal farewell; nay, it may be, before thou are ware of it, even suddenly all you cursed lighters against God, may be met withal and destroyed. However, it will not be long before the foundation of your joys and delights (namely your spoiling of the Saints, and robbing of the Lords dear once) shall be taken away from you, and then your joys will perish. And so I have done with this second point, and come to the third, which will arise from the interrogation, Why dost then boast thyself in evil? The point is this: That  
Wicked men have no good reason to commit evil, nor to boast in it: sin is an unreasonable thing, no man can lay down any good reason for the defence of it, Psal. 2.1. Quare tumultuantur gentes & nationes meditantur inane? They can give no reason for what they do: and therefore when our Lord Christ laid a charge of wickedness upon him that had not on the wedding garment, he was even speechless, he could give no reason for the way he was in. But I will be brief in this point.  
The first reason is, because God never commanded sin, and nothing can be reasonable but what he commands; no, though it have a show of good in it: who required these things at you hands? Esay 1.12.  
Secondly, because God hath absolutely forbidden sin, therefore it is unreasonable.  
Thirdly, because it tends to the destruction of him that commits it, and there is no reason why any one should destroy himself; nor is there any reason why it should be rejoiced or boasted in, because there is in eve-very sin a kind of poison that eats out all joy, and overthrows all peace and comfort, and there can be no cause of rejoicing in that which overthrows and spoils our joy, nay, it is the cause of eternal woe and sorrow.  
The first use may be a use of information to inform us, that every wicked man is an unreasonable man, he is not guided by reason, unless it be reason fetched from beneath, even from the Devil or their own darkened minds, and carnal hearts, which are opposite to that divine reason by which we should be guided in all our ways. And the truth is, no man walks safely any longer than he is guided by this divine and pure reason, namely God and his truth. Indeed man is a reasonable creature, and endued with a reasonable soul, the powers of which carry him to actions reasonable, as they respect his outward being, and way of converse amongst men, so a wicked man may do many actions in themselves reasonable; but in regard of the manner of them, not being guided in them and to them (as was said before) by that divine reason which should guide every man in all his actions, they are against God, and so most unreasonable. But I will not insist upon his: for we are not here to show, that an action in itself good, being done in an evil manner, may be evil to a man, the text speaks here of actions every way evil, both materially and formally, and to do such actions is an unreasonable thing, but more unreasonable to rejoice and boast in them.  
In the next place, this will lay a heavy charge of unreasonable nosse and spiritual madness upon those who, like Ahab, have sold themselves to work wickedness, that devise mischief upon their beds, and when they come abroad, they practise it and tell it, that like Doeg murder the Ministers and people of God. O ye unreasonable ones, why do you do thus? O ye bloody Prelates which have (not long since) shed the blood of many godly Ministers and people, whipping some, starving some, and stigmatising others, nay, you have shed the blood of souls by taking away the powerful preaching of the Word from them, as much as is you lay. And now being by the force of a Parliament for the present restrained, you thirst after the blood of godly Ministers and people, more than after wine: and now, whilst your hands are bound, you send abroad your hellish devices, which like an cating gangrene, have gone thorough the land; you must one day be brought before the great Judge, who will demand a reason of you why you have done all these things, when you will not be able to render a reason for the least of you wicked ways.  
And all you roaring and revelling Cavaliers, why do you kill, steal, and follow such vile and rebellious courses? Can you tell why? What hath God done to you? Or what fault can you find with his ways, that you so stand up against him? You would have his true worship down, and false and Popish worship let up. Why do you rise now, and gather on heaps, to pull down and hinder that true spirltuall way of worship of the Lord Jesus, which he himself hath constituted by his apostles and Teachers in the primitive times? Sure you can give no reason for it. And why do you kill the Saints, and imprison them above all others? What have they done to you? Sure they have not hurt you. I know you have nothing to say unto them, unless it be● in matters of their God, as those wicked ones had against Daniel. 
Daniel 6.  And I am sure you will find that but an unreasonable reason, if you do but consider it: if there be no reason for any thing that God commands not, as sure there is not, than this your do will prove unreasonable, for I am sure God never commanded you to spoil his people, whom he loves there all other: therefore do but consider what you do, and you will find that all your actions in this bloody war against the Saints of Jesus Christ, have been all this while, and still are against the highest and purest reason, even against God himself, the spring and fountain of all good reason.  
You most barbarously profane the Lord's day in buying and selling, playing and sporting, and if you solemnly perform any service to God it consists in nothing for the most part, but reading a Popish Service book, and surely God will ask you also why you do this, when you shall never be able to answer him, but shall be written dumb before him, though now you will not fear him, not regard his counsels to be guided by them: and so I have doom with this point also, and with these words, Why be stest thou thyself in mischief.  
I now come to speak of the woeful destiny of these wicked unreasonable men, which is set before their and our eyes, in part of the fifth verse, God shall destroy thee for eves. In which words, you may observe these two general things:  
First, the certainty of the destruction of wicked men, They shall be destroyed.  
Secondly, the irrecoverableness of their condition, being once destroyed, It shall be for ever.  
In the first, we may take notice of the person that shall undertake this work, and that is one which can go through with it, & do it to purpose, even God himself.  
Secondly, the manner of their overthrow, They shall be destroyed, which word hath a great force in it, and so I might make divisions of the two general things, but I will handle them as they lie in the lump, because I shall not have time to unfold every word according to the extent of it. And therefore I will fall first upon the first general, the certainty of the destruction and overthrow of all wicked men, and bloody persecutors, God shall destroy them; whence the point is this, Doctrine 4 That all bloody persecutors; and plotters, and workers of mischief against the Saints and people of God shall certainly be destroyed, Psal. 9.18. Retreagentur improbi ad sepulcrum usque omnes gentes oblita Dei. Psal. 37.2. The Lord there doth encourage his people to a patiented abiding the malice and mischief of wicked men: for saith he, they shall be soon cut off as the grass, and whither as the green herb; and so verso 20. saith he, The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of Lambs, they shall consume into smoke: and so also, verse 15. Glad●●● corum intrabit in cor corum, & arcus corum confringentur: Here in all these expressions as you may see in the whole Psalm, he aims as at all wicked men, so especially at such as aim most at the ruin and overthrow of his people, they above all shall be met withal; the heat of God's judgements shall melt them even as the fire melteth the wax, their prosperity shall vanish away even like smoke, and the very remembrance of all their wicked persecuting the Saints, shall like a sharp sword pierce their souls for ever.  
The first reason is, because God hath decreed the destruction of such. So jude tells us, jude 4. verse, and Psalm 33.11. Consil●um vero Ichova in seculum consistit, cogitationes animi ejus in at a●es singula●● ●o who can hinder what he hath decreed, all the world cannot do it. Have I said it, and shall I not do it, saith he by that wicked Prophet Balam, Numb. 23.18. therefore it must be so that you must be destroyed all the root of you that stand up against God and his people.  
The second reason why God will destroy them is, because they are his enemies, Those mine enemies, saith he, that would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me. Such as are enemies to God's people, are enemies to God himself, because there is such a near relation between God and them, they are his Spouse, his betrothed ones, Hos. 2.19. they are his children, 2 Cor. 6. ult. and therefore those that fight against them, fight against him, their enemies are his enemies, and therefore he will destroy them.  
Thirdly, God will destroy wicked men and bloody persecuters, to declare his justice. So the Apostle saith, Rom. 9.22. Those that do oppose him to his face, and blaspheme his name, and do that which he hath forbidden, and will not be reform, he will declare his justice upon them to their destruction: he will even tear them to pieces, and none shall deliver them, Psal. 50.22.  
But it will be demanded, who are these wicked men that shall be destroyed?  
I answer first in general, that all may be said to be wicked men that have not interest in the Lord Jesus, and all such must be destroyed. To such he will say at that great day, Depart from me ye wicked, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not, that is, I approve you not, you have no interest in me, you shall be destroyed, you are workers of iniquity, Matth. 7.23.  
But secondly, I answer more particularly, that this Text which I am now upon, doth not aim especially at these, neither do I aim at them in my discourse; but especially at such as do (as I may say) constitute themselves in a posture of open war against God and his people.  
You will say, Who are they?  
I answer, they are the wicked Bishops, and all the wicked Cavaliers which are now gathered together into an Army, under the command of the grand Captain of wickedness, the Devil, which like a Captain goes about daily to see how many of the Saints of God he can devour.  
First, I say, the Bishops, because I do believe, that they have been the great incendiaries and blowers up of all this mischief, partly by introducing so many base and wicked innovations in the worship of God, which godly Ministers and godly Men could not endure: and partly by working out so many Monopolies and unlawful taxes upon the State, that men were not able to bear. And in the defect of the observation of their Canons and inventions, what miseries were men brought into? They were persecuted even to strange Cities and Countries, kept in dungeons and darkness, in hunger and solitariness, spoiled of their goods and enjoyments; and what ever those bloody villains could say or do, was in a manner made law; so that your cursed and irregular wills, almost ruled the Land. How many godly Ministers have you silenced? And the blood of how many souls have you shed, O ye blood-guilty wretches: therefore you are worthy to go in the first rank of persecuters, whose sins are gone before hand to judgement, 1 Tim. 5.24. You have openly declared sins before hand, and therefore surely the Lord aims at you in special, at at a generation whom he will destroy.  
And the next to you are those men whose hearts your cursed Canons have taken such impression upon, that they are carried out to practise that which you first began: and surely your hands and hearts are still in the business, and many of them are held and led on in the work by your subtle persuasions, and the force of your deceitful arguments, but this cannot excuse them. For seeing they follow your wicked steps, they must also partake of your woeful destruction: so now I have told you who I mean by wicked and bloody men, that must be destroyed, even the whole Army that standeth up in this wicked war: I say all, both head and tail, without repentance, must fall under the revenging hand of the Almighty God, and feel the weight of his just judgements.  
But it will be demanded who I mean by the faithful Ministers and faithful people of God, whom I say are imprisoned, persecuted, and killed?  
I answer: I mean such as the Scriptures set forth to us to be such, even such as are in their hearts and lives a holy people unto God, 1 Peter 2.9. You are a holy Nation, saith the Apostle: and do you not hate these, and ●●o●●●● and revile at these, even because they are holy? Do you not seek to kill these? Your very soul 〈◊〉 you th● you do, and you do it in despig●… God, because it is against his express word, who hath said, Sancti estote: nam ego sanctus sum, 1 Peter 1.16. And yet you would destroy them for their holiness: God commands them to be holy, you deride them for it: whose word shall stand, Gods or yours? God saith they are a holy people, you say they are Roundheads, Sectaries and schismatics, and what you please. These are the Saints, which as strangers and Pilgrims, Abstineatis à carnis cupiditatibus, 1. Peter 2.11. Such as desire to walk with their God, though it be in a way which men call Heresy, Acts 24.14. Such as desire to have, Conscientiam sine offensa apud Deum, & apu● homines semper. Acts 24.16. Such as cannot, nor dare not, to follow the ways of Popery, and other like courses which the world will follow to save their liberties and outward estates. Such a one Moses was, that forsook the pleasures of sin to follow his God, Hebrews 11.26. Such were those which you may read of at large in the same Chapter, that suffered with joy the spoiling of their goods for the Lord Jesus sake.  
And so now I have told you who I mean by wicked men, and who I mean by the Saints of God.  
Now I come to the use of the point that I delivered, namely, that wicked and bloody persecuters must be destroyed.  
The first use is a use of instruction to the Saints that are persecuted, to teach them to pity the wicked, though they persecuted them: for they must be destroyed, it will be misery enough to them that God will destroy them. So did Stephen Acts 7. towards the end: Positis antem gentbus clamavit voce magna Domine ne statuas ets hoc peceatum. So did our Lord and Master Christ, Father forgive them, they know not what they do: so let us do when they lay their wicked hands upon our bodies, let us pity their miserable souls.  
Secondly, let it teach us patience in all our sufferings, because they cannot be long, the workers of our sorrows shall shortly be destroyed.  
The second use is a use of terror to the wicked themselves that must be destroyed: Take notice of your doom and misery, your future destruction is more certain than your present enjoyments, your sorrows will come certainly and wonderfully upon you, and you shall not escape his hand. All your strength and policy shall not be able to deliver you. It is likely you may think with Senacherib, Isa. 36. that your great multitude will be a means to preserve you; but alas! if you had all the men in the whole Kingdom together on your side, this would not do it, when God shall once arise to fight against you. Know you not that he slew by his Angel in one night, an hundred fourscore and five thousand, Esay 37.30. And are not you an Army much like unto his, that do reproach and blaspheme the living God? Have you not uttered the same language that some of them did to the servants of Hezekiah, saying, Your God whom you serve, shall not be able to deliver you out of our hands. And as the wicked Jews to Christ, Where is the God in whom you prayed? let him deliver if he will have him. Now what is become of these? Are they not destroyed? And shall you escape? No, no, it cannot be, you shall not escape, when the time is once come that God will have you down, even the stars in their comse shall fight against you, as they did against Sisera, Judg. 5.  
But you will say, We have strong horses, and they may be a means to save us.  
I answer, No: they cannot neither, Psal. 33.17. Mendax est equus ad salutem, & multitudine roboris sui nonliberat sessorem. A horse is a lie: For so it is to be read.  
How a lie?  
Why? Because strong horses do in regard of outward strength, promise a great deal of help in time of war, and whosoever shall depend upon this strength, as upon a promise, will find it but a lie; and so shall all you Cavaliers find, not only horses, but all the outward strength upon which you do depend, it will prove but a lie.  
But you may say, We are Princes, and Lords, and great men, our means and titles will bear us out.  
I answer, No: this cannot; for those great Princes we read of, Ezek. 32.24.25.26. The Princes of Elam, Meshek and Tubal, they being great Princes, while they were alive and in prosperity, they caused a terror in the land of the living, even among the people of God; yet now they lie with the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war, and they have laid their swords under their heads, and which is worst of all to them, and shall be to you, their iniquities are upon their bones, and your iniquities shall be upon your bones; and this will be intolerable. They notwithstanding their Princely power, were overcome, and so shall you be. You may now walk in the pride and stubbornness of your own hearts, saying, We have gotten us horns by our strength: but these your horns of strength shall be broken. God himself will fight against you with an outstretched arm, and none can turn him back.  
But you will say, Stay a while, we are not destroyed, yet, it may be yet that you Roundheads may be made quake by us first.  
I answer, it may be indeed that God may suffer you to do more mischief before he destroy you: he may suffer you to do the Scullions office, to scour his chosen vessels, he may make rods of you, as he did of Cyrus, to whip his people; and then into the fire of his judgement you go without remedy. And what then will you, nay, what can you do, though you cloth yourselves with scarlet, and deck you with ornaments of gold, yet all this will not help you? Jerem. 4.30. Your terrible looks will not fright him that sits upon a glorious throne, and sendeth forth his destroying messengers when he pleaseth: Nor will the glittering of your spears and weapons of war daunt him; neither will he be alured by the costliness of your apparel (though it be golden and shining) to forbear you: But he will come against you with the force of his power; he now speaks against you every day, and you will not hear his voice, he bids you take heed of meddling with his people, for whom he hath engaged himself. Yea, he speaks to you by signs from heaven, foretelling your future destruction, which in its season shall come upon you: therefore give glory to the Lord God of Israel, before he send darkness, and your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it as gross darkness, Jerem. 13.16. light being here taken for prosperity, joy and deliverance, it shall be turned into sorrow, trouble and destruction. Wherefore be not proud, but hear and regard the word of the great God, which now sounds in your ears, that so, if it be possible, you may return and escape that terrible destruction which will be so tedious to you: But if you will still persist in your courses of fight against God, and seeking to set up Popery, and laying heavy burdens upon the consciences of godly men, than 〈◊〉 what God saith further to you, Esay 8.9. Consoci●…ini, o populi, & conterimini, auremque prabete quotquot estis in locis longinquis terra: accengimini & conterimini, accingimini & conterimini. This is spoken to you, even to you the whole Army of Cavaliers. This will be your end though you gather yourselves; nay, though you gird yourselves with all the strength you can, yet you shall be broken in pieces. And so because time calls upon me, I must have done with the first general, namely, the certainty of the destruction of wicked men. I come now briefly to speak of the last, namely, the irrecoverableness of their condition, being once destroyed. Whence the point is this: That  
The condition of wicked men, being once destroyed, is irrecoverable, they can return to their place no more, nor never see light, but must to all eternity endure that which is unsufferable, 2 Thessaly. 1.9. There the Apostle saith, that they shall be punished with eterni exitii, eternal destruction. And Mark. 9.16. our Saviour saith, that the sire of their destruction is never quenched. So saith the Prophet David, speaking of the wicked, they shall arise, saith he, to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12.2. Rev. 20.10.  
And our Saviour himself tells us the reason of it, in that parable, Luke 16.26. There is a great gulse ●…ed between them and life, which they cannot pass nor recover themselves from their miserable condition.  
The second reason is, because they shall be held by the almighty power of God in that destroyed condition; there shall be, as it were, fresh blasts of his powerful wrath to kindle the flame of their torment, Isai. 30. ult. Flasus Ichova quasiterreute Sulphuris, incendit eam. The force of this flame, and the power of this breath, shall for ever over over whelm them, that they shall never recover themselves.  
I might draw another reason from the manner of their destruction: It shall be a destruction that makes them uncapable of recovery, even like the breaking of a Potter's vessel, Psalm 2.9. which you know can never be made whole again.  
Let every one then take notice of the woeful estate of wicked men; when ever the day of their destruction comes, it comes for ever. Indeed it is true, Mors communis onunibus, death is common to all, but there is a secondamors, a second death, which binds up all its prisoners to all eternity. Do but think then what all wicked men will get at last when they come to end their days, when all their forepast happiness will be swallowed up with the thoughts of their endless misery: What good will it do them, like the rich glutton, Luke 16. to far deliciously every day, and to glory in their doing mischief, when at last they must be destroyed for ever.  
Let all the wicked crew of blasphemous wretches see, if they can comfort themselves with hopes of obtaining their ownedesires, their desire is, that God would damn them, and that he would ram them into hell, that they may return no more. See, I say, if you can comfort yourselves with these hopes, you shall have your desires without all question, you shall be so stopped, as it were, into the gulf, that you shall be sure never to get out. Can you cheer your hearts with it? Oh no! rather tremble at it, and be afraid thus wickedly to open your mouths any more: You now glory in your firing houses, and doing all themischiefe your devilish hearts can invent; but you little think (what ever you say) of dwelling with everlasting burn, Isai. 33.14. which will (not withstanding all your pomp and wicked boasting in your present evil courses) be your woeful condition ere long, when you will ourse the day that ever you set your hearts, and tongues, and hands, to fight against God, and against his people.  

An answer to an objection that might be made against this precedent Discourse.  
NAmely, that whereas I change the Prelates and Cavaliers with such vile and wicked actions as do declare them to be wicked persons, and such as God will certainly destroy for their wickedness: it may be said, that the other Army which is for the Parliament, is as vile and wicked as they, and so all that I have said, may be as s●●ly applied to them.  
I answer, That it is true indeed, that some of the Parliaments Army are as had as the Cavaliers, and such as are a very shame to the cause they pretend to stand for & it were to be wished they were all cashiered, although there were but gideon's army left behind. But yet all this doth not prove the army to be as bad as the other: some of the Cavaliers themselves being judges: for some of them, have said, that they did fight against the Roundheads, because they served God better than themselves. And besides, it is very well known to all that will take notice of any thing, that there be many hundreds, if not thousands in the Parliaments army, that do stand up for the true worship of their God, which the whole army of the Cavaliers do oppose: and whereas you shall hardly find one in all the Army of the Cavaliers, that will not blaspheme the name of God by cursed oaths, you shall find many of the other that do fear an oath. And many other things I could say to this purpose, but this may suffice all that are not bend to quarrelling. Farewell.