A WORD TO THE OFFICERS of the ARMY.  
Unto You who at first were raised up by a mighty Spirit, to go forth with the Sword in your hands, to recover some long lost Liberties of the good People of England, from under the tyrannical powers of Kings and Bishops; unto whom was truly given the Title of the Lords Host, because you went forth in his Name, and for his People, and therefore were crowned with wonderful Successes, and Victories, over your enemies, unto a perfect Conquest, even unto You is this W●●d of Truth. 
 nouemb: 23 1657  
YOU have been weighed in the balance of Justice by the Spirit of the Lord in many of his Servants, and are found too light; having not been faithful to the end, to effect those great things, which were written in your hearts to do, your righteousness hath proved like the morning dew, it is now vanished, your light is gone out like the snuff of a candle: you who once were as a sweet savour unto the good people of the Nation, are now become like salt that hath lost its first savour and is fit for nought, having neglected to carry on the work of the Lord, have ended in yourselves, feathered your own nests, and lie down at ease, and hereby have exposed yourselves, your names, your professions, prayers, fastings, promises and engagements, to the scorn and reproach of your very enemies, and the worst of men through the Nation, and to the great grief of the best, whose hearts have mourned for you, and this because you stand not and abide in that Counsel and Spirit of God, in which you first went forth, to be servants unto him in carrying on the great work of Reformation; but have united yourselves and complied with the old corrupt powers and Interests of the Nation, and thereby caused the great Work of God put into your hands to go backward; and now stand wholly in your own powers and wills, and therefore hath there been a rent among you, that those who were most faithful departed from you, and are as Witnesses of God against you.  
Pray consider with yourselves a little, whether the great Ends be effected, for which you took up the Sword? if you say they be, That our Enemies are conquered, and the grand Enemy received justice, and that Antichristian power of Bishops laid flat, and the pride and glory of our Nobles stained.  
Answ. It is true, and by a mighty power was this done, but was it persons you contended with only, or the corrupt state of things? there was indeed a deep wound given by you, but it was not deadly, for you yourselves are curing that wound, which once you made: you conquered persons, and took possession of their spirits, and entered into their power, and if any corruption were destroyed with them, is it not revived in you? and hath not the Spirit of Kings and Nobles a great resurrection in you? and your conquest outwardly over them, could not be more complete, than their conquest over you, through the help and power of the God of this world, who hath made you even drunk with their spirit, and hath alured you to follow their steps.  
If we consider a little the original and ground of the late War, was it not, that the King and Bishops did take too much upon them, the King he illegally imposing Ship-money upon his Subjects, and some other things. And the other imposing Laws upon the consciences of men, which were grounds of suffering to many, and did breed a general discontent in the good people of the Land, which grew so high, that it broke forth into public speeches, and at length unto open War. But the principal ground of the War was, not so much from the King apart, or any Acts of his, which tended to the oppression of his Subjects; it would be a strange thing so to imagine, for it could never have quit cost, but the remedy would be manifest to be a thousand times worse than the disease. Therefore we must lay it upon the King as in Conjunction with that Antichristian Clergy the state of Bishops, and all their body of Hirelings, his giving power to them, to Lord it over the minds and consciences of men; And this power, growing to a height of corruption, and being swollen big with pride and designs of evil unto any that stood up against them, and could not conform to them, even than did the special providence of God put a period and stop to that Spirit.  
Now the But of Malice of King, Court, Bishops, and Nobles, with all their Officers under them in conjunction with the ignorant, profane, and superstitious people of the Land, was the poor People of God dissenting from them, and therefore were persecuted in their Courts as Schismatics and Heretics, who rend from the Church; and these than bore the names of Puritans, Separates, Brownists, Anabaptists, etc. then a very contemptible generation of men, generally poor and despised, yet even these were witnesses of God in that, and against that corrupt generation, and were then accounted the troublers of England, when they meddled not with matters of state or power but were quiet in their several places, praying for a Change, till God opened a door for their liberty upon other occasions.  
Now behold your original, and where your true Interest lies, and where it is l●st: It lies in the broken, poor despised People of God dissenting from the world's worship and ways: while you were true to th●m, and their liberties, you did abide in your first Principles faithfulness; but in as much as you have quit that Interest, you have forgotten yourselves and your own original; and are fallen from the truth, by making a league and friendship with this world, which always stood directly opposite to Christian liberty.  
Again, mind where the witness of truth lies; it generally is under the Cr●sse and Sufferings. God hath his Witnesses for himself in every generation, even in that generation which once appeared to have passed away, were many of you witnesses for him against that corrupt state of things; and therefore did you with many more in the Nation, lie under shame and reproach and suffered from that power several ways. Now while the witness lives, there is no compliance or friendship with this world, because it is the great matter witnessed against, for the world is a state by itself, and is that which stands apart and distinct from the Spirit and Kingdom of Christ, and is in direct opposition thereunto, and therefore can never be owned by the true Spirit, because it would swallow up all into itself, and bring the Kingdom of Christ under it, assuming all power and Authority over the minds and consciences of men, and commonly and outwardly expresses itself in pride and pomp, thrones and dominions, which is evermore attended with oppression and cruelty, and the God of this world rules in it as the very soul of it.  
Now in as much as you have entered into union and compliance with this spirit of the world, you have quit your old Interest, and lost the witness of God, which is too too manifest among you, that you are back sliders from the truth, grown proud and lofty and swollen big with honours and greatness, having drunk deep of the Spirit of this world, which you once in your low estate witnessed against.  
If I may compare you with the former power that you fought against, will there appear much difference, or will you in the least be gainers by it? surely not, but great losers', for to speak of the Nation in general what the advantages are by your Conquest, that is so plain it needs not be mentioned; that the burdens, Taxes, Excise, and Customs extraordinary, do plainly render us in a far worse condition, then in any late King's reign.  
But that which might have made most for your advantage, and would have been a sufficient return for all outward losses (had you remained faithful) had been the procuring and settling the Spiritual Liberties of the People of God (so far as they be external) under the several administrations of the Spirit in their several and different forms in Religion, wherein they walk peaceably, that no civil power might have mingled itself with the Kingdom of Christ for the bringing in any forceable Reformation therein, and the subjecting of it to any outward and secular power; and herein was a great price put into your hands, to have been as a wall and Bulwark to the People of God, and a protection from the violence of the w●●ked and profane People, that so light and truth might have had a more free, and easy entrance among us. But since your declining and falling from your first love and zeal, and that the Earth hath come over you and choked your witness, you have given up that power once in your hand, and so lost the price having no heart thereto, are grown careless and corrupt in judgement, and so have suffered a great breach to be made upon Christian Liberty by yourselves, and by most in power in the Nation, in permitting and causing so much Persecution of that poor despised and righteous people called Quakers; which most Prisons in the Nation do witness, and it is not possible for you to set free yourselves and the Nation from the guilt of their many and cruel sufferings; and yet many of these were of you, and from you, and are your surviving witnesses, that when and where you left, they came forth, not with your gallant words and lofty notions, to please their hearers, but with brokenness of spirit in humility and self-denial, neglecting and quitting all the honours and profits of this world, that would not consist with a Disciple of Christ, a People just in their deal among men, deceiving none, oppressing none, desiring not man's silver or bread for nought, and yet even these finds as hard measure from you, as they might from Turks. And if inquiry be made of what Laws they have broken? what is their trasgression? the answer commonly is, because they are Quakers, and sometimes because they will not put off their hats, sometimes for coming into your Churches, and making some reply to the Minister for preaching false doctrine to the people, which is their grand crime: And for these and such like Offences as you judge them, are they dragged to Prison, and there often are worse used than the common rogues; so that if strangers should hear of their sufferings only, they might suppose them to be great plotters of mischief against the State, and some notorious and wicked persons: but for a sober, strict, quiet and conscientious people thus to suffer under you, and those in power in the Nation, doth plainly discover you, that you have forgotten that liberty of conscience, which once you professed and practised; for how oft did many of you, when you were in your zeal for truth, go into Congregations, and reprove the Ministers for hirelings, and for the false doctrine they preached, and enter their Pulpits and Preach yourselves? is it a crime now, and was it not then? or did the Ministers then only preach errors, and not now? or do you believe in your consciences that you were of more understanding to know truth and error than these people are? or is it not a plain compliance with them to strengthen your Interest by them? Pray consider, I am sure of this that you would have accounted that Justice of Peace an enemy to the State and to the truth, and a great Persecuter that should then have sent some of you to Prison, or caused you to be whipped, or put to hard labour, for your so doing: but the power was in your own hands, that the pesecuting spirit in Justices which now acts, did not then dare to appear; and as all that zeal for truth in you is slain by the God of this world, so doth the persecuring spirit arise in those that have power in the Nation, as well as yourselves, and you do now by your apostasy give life and spirit to them, who did not dare formerly to manifest themselves. And now things are so turned about, that a man may with much more safety and security go hear an Episcopal Minister and the old Common Prayer again, then go to a meeting of these innocent People, for unto one is safety, but to the other perpetual danger, either by the rude multitude or by corrupt Justices.  
Further, what strange provision is made to make these People transgressors, by Acts of Parliament, the one for disturbing public Preachers, as you esteem it, the other to suppress them as rogues and vagabonds; what plottings and contrivings are there now to spread their nets, to catch and undermine these righteous servants of God: And this may be truly said, that the number of these sufferers have been more under this present power, then of all the Sectaries put together in the whole reign of the late King; And if some special power and providence of God do not step in to stop and allay this Antichristian spirit that is full of enmity and big with persecutions; O' England, England, thou art like to be stained with the blood of the Innocent.  
But do not deceive yourselves, for though you revive Kings and Nobles, Lawyers and Priests, and summon these with the worst of the people to your assistance, that you may hold up a rotten state of things, yet notwithstanding the work of the Lord must go on, and is carried on by a contemptible people whom you despise, though not by might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.  
Therefore, Oh that you might be warned, not to touch any of the Lords anointed one's, for whatsoever you do against them, will be found in his appearing to be against him; and truly there is great cause to believe, that if Christ himself should appear now in person, you would deal as hardly with him, as with other the Servants of God, cast him out of your Synagogues, hale him to Prison, take him up as a rogue or vagabond, to be whipped or set to hard labour; for know, that it is but the same spirit that would do it to the least of his Disciples, as to himself.  
Therefore, you who have the least tenderness left, and the least sense of your back slidings, stand still, and seriously consider what you are doing, whose Interest you serve, and you will then see your work ended, or stuck in the mire; that your locks are cut and strength is gone; that the God of this world hath bribed you, and hired you to his service; that you are posting back again to serve him under Kings, Princes, Nobles, and Bishops; that they (who hated you) may shake hands with you, and say, Are you also become one with us. Even thus are you departing and departed from your old Interest and marring yourselves to a Harlot, that will prove false to you, and deceive you at last.  
But notwithstanding the Confederacy, Combinations, Counsels and designs of all the powers on Earth, to keep Christ out of his Throne, yet will the Lord exalt his Son in the midst of us, and the Scattered dust of Zion shall live and reign with him in the midst of her Enemies.  
T. Z.   

LONDON: Printed for Giles Calvert, at the Black-spread-Eagle, near the West end of Paul's. 1657.