A SHARP ARROW Darted against THE Anabaptists, etc.  
Being an Apology, or Defence of the Visible Church upon Earth.  
And an Objection to all such Persons as do Rebaptize Men and Women.  
And against being covered at the Divine Exercise of Preaching the Word of God to the People.  
As also against those that deny to say the Lords Prayer.  
BY DAVID edmond's, Gent.  Prove all things: hold fast that which is good, 1. Thes. 5. 21. 
LONDON, Printed by T. H. 1652.   

To the Right Honourable, the Lady Anne Beauchamp, and to the Right Worshipful William Lewis, Esquire.  
HOnourable Lady, and most Noble Esquire, He that had not a Lamb to bring to the Altar, there was a Turtle Dove, or two young Pigeons, well accepted of: though this weak and unworthy Labour of mine, be not worthy to be read by your Honours, yet I shall entreat you to read it, and accept of my good will in stead of perfect action: the Widow's mite, was as well accepted in God's Treasury, as the superfluity of the Rich and Wealthy: and I shall entreat your Honours the sooner to read it, in regard that it was penned in Prison, myself, groaning under the Oppression of Cavaliers and Parliamentarians, and that in a high nature: withal I would they would agree as well in all other matters, though I should perish. Thus committing your Honours in these tumultuous times, to the tuition of the Lord God of Hosts, who is that great man of War, and his Name is Jehovah. I humbly take leave, craving pardon for this great presumption, and rest  
The humblest of your Servants, David edmond's.   

A sharp Arrow darted against Anabaptists, etc.  
IN the first place King David, although he was a man after Gods own heart, yet he should not build the Lords Temple, because he was a bloud-shedder; yet the Lord permitted him to make a preparation to his son Solomon; so many talents of gold, and so many talents of silver, to undergo the great work commanded of God. The work being finished, you shall read Salomons Prayer: And Solomon stood before the Altar of the Lord, in the presence of the Congregation of Israel, and did spread out his hands towards heaven, and said; Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above nor in the earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee, with all their hearts; who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him; thou spakest it with thy mouth and hast fulfilled with thy hand, as it is to this day. I shall omit to write what follows in that Chapter, in regard Solomon, and his son Rehoboam fell off from the command of the Lord; for God did not promise the Kingdom unto David, but upon condition, of the sanctity of his posterity; saying, If thy children will keep my statutes, and observe my laws, that I shall learn them, their children also shall sit upon thy seat for evermore. Will God dwell on earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him: how much less this house that I have built, saith Solomon, 1. King. 8. 22. yet have thou respect unto the prayers and the supplications which thy servants shall make unto thee in this place: and harken thou unto the supplications of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray towards this place, and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and when thou hearest, forgive.  
To prove that it is more commodious unto the sons and daughters of men, to pray to the Lord in the full Congregation, then privately, to be by ones self, or with a few company.  
Suppose I were in the public Church, and have, as I have great need, to ask forgiveness of my sins at the hands of my God, or to make my supplication to his Majesty, for some necessaries, either spiritual graces, or temporal benefits that I stand in great need of, it may be it will be God's pleasure to hear another for me, and I for him, and through that respect, God to commiserate the present condition of us all.  
For the answer of God to the last request of Abraham concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, was, If there, says God, be ten righteous men within those two Cities, I will not destroy it for ten sake: yet let no man conjecture, that I by no means do debar private prayers, for why, the word of God says, pray continually. And again says, and Phineas prayed, and so the plague ceased: for prayer is the very Key that opens heaven gate: nay withal it is such a dart, the more a man or a woman doth use it, it further drives the Devil off from them; so is preaching necessary withal, as we have an old Proverb in the Welsh, Good is the staff with the crouch; they should like man and wife go hand in hand together, rather than to be separated one from the other.  
Now to prove the Church to be honoured before any other private place, according as the New Testament doth describe it, I cannot find that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, not in all the New Testament, that he did eat but natural food, like other children, until he was twelve years of age; then his father and his mother found him in the Temple, in the midst of the Doctors, hearing them, and ask of them questions. Assuredly if the Church were not to be honoured before any other private place, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ would aswell begun the good action or the great message of his Father in private places, assoon as the Church: but it is evidently seen, he began it in the Temple, saying unto his Mother; Knew ye not that I must go about my Father's business?  
Some men of the world will tell me, that our Lord and Saviour Preached upon the Mount, and I do in no wise contradict them, for the word says so likewise: but when did he preach upon the mountain, but the time that he durst not come into the Temple? for a while before did the Jews hurl stones at him, that his sacred person was driven to fly out of the Temple.  
Again, to prove that the Church is to be honoured before any other private place; if our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had come up street or down street, and there to see folks sell away Doves, our Lord and Saviour would have said no kind of thing unto them, but let them attend their market in the name of God; but assoon as he espied them to sell away Doves in the Temple, he scourged them out, and told them, that his House was called the House of Prayer, and that they had made it a den of thiefs.  
Then thirdly, to prove it to be more virtuous than private places▪ read but 1. Cor. 11. 22. there the Apostle says, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in, why despise ye then the Church of God? will you have me to praise you for this? I say unto you▪ I praise you not. And in the last of the Colossians the same Apostle says, Let this Epistle be read in all the Churches of the Laodiceans.  
And to prove the Church to be honoured before any private place, if a man can believe historical writings; Titus Vespasian that great Emperor, forty years after the crucifying of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, did race the Temple at Jerusalem; and at the racing of it, when he came to one Room there, called Sanctum Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies, where none but the Priest once a year did enter into, he fell flat upon his face, and said, This place could not choose otherwise to be, than the place where the most high God did dwell.  
If any other do think to make it appear unto me, that private places are as virtuous, let them proceed: for that chosen vessel Saint Paul says, He that is filthy, let him be filthy still: I know they cannot prove it by Scripture, which is the glass of God's will, and the very pathway to salvation, and the direct way which the sons of men ought to teach, preach, and walk by. For further satisfaction to tender consciences, I refer myself to the Learned to describe it. Provided always, that such Learned men do detest Popery on the one side, and shun Heresy on the other side: for there be abundance of people in this age, did pretend to avoid Popery, and fell into the gulf of Heresy; so that it may be well said of such people, with the words of the Poet, Incidit in Sillam qui vult vitare Charybdim. I do not gainsay but that there is a private Church withal to be allowed of: for S. Paul writes, Coloss. 4. 15. Salute the Brethren which are in Laodicea, and to Nymphas and the Church which is in his house. So that private serving of God is necessary, but not so commodious as the public service in the Congregation; for in the time of that divine exercise, we should all repair thither, to pray for ourselves, and one for another, and God for us all. For we read of that godly woman Sarah, that she did wear all her best array, and did put on all her rich jewels, when she did go to worship the Lord in the Tabernacle. Was it the pride of Sarah that made her so to do? no, no it was to grace and beautify the Lords house: she was pure within, and clean without: I would women in this age would imitate bu● part of her ways and actions, if they could not perform the whole.  
Now I will proceed to treat of the necessity of Baptising of Infants, and the unlawfulness of Rebaptising of men or women either. Some men in this Country I hear there be, that say, that Baptism is not requisite at all. I answer such men: That if our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ were to be obliged unto mortal men, that he is more bound unto the very Turk, then to such persons as do deny Baptism: for why the Turk himself doth acknowledge that there was failings in his Prophet Mahomet, his great head; and that there was no failings in that Prophet Jesus Christ, as he terms him. If Baptism be not necessary, there were failings in Christ: for why? because he suffered himself to be Baptised of john in jordan. That is not only to show the necessity of Baptism, but the obedience of Baptism also.  
But concerning the Rebaptising of persons, I shall confute such men as hold it necessary, in the self same Chapter as they themselves do ground it upon to be needful or lawful, or else I will be sure to confute them with the words of the same Apostle they ground it lawful on▪ the words out of the Apostle that say, 19 of the Acts and the 2. verse: Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed, and they said unto him▪ we have not heard so much whether there be any H. Ghost or no: and he said unto them, unto what were ye then Baptised? and they said, Unto John's Baptism: then said Paul, John verily Baptised with the Baptism of Repentance, saying unto the People that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is one Jesus Christ: when that they heard this they were Baptised in the Name of the Lord Jesus: And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Ghost descended on them, and they spoke with Tongues, and Prophesied, and all their men were about twelve in number.  
Let all true professed Christians but mark the false ground of Anabaptism; John's Baptism, was, but as it were a Type of the Baptism of Jesus Christ, for mark the words of the Apostle, in the fourth verse of the same Chapter, that John's Baptism was the Baptism of Repentance only, and that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on jesus Christ, in whom is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and the fullness of God's Spirit, and the fullness of Baptism through God's Spirit, and the fullness of Grace, and the fullness of all spiritual goodness whatsoever; so that the then Baptism of John, which was the Baptism of Repentance, and no more, and the now Baptism of Jesus Christ, was, or is like two ways upon a Hill, and at the foot of the Hill meet into one: so that the then Baptism of john is as it were dissolved, and now included into the Baptism of jesus Christ, which is altogether perfect and sufficient: And therefore not to be wrought upon the Sons and Daughters of men, but at the very time, or few days after that Children be borne into the World, as before the number that were Baptised of Paul after they were formerly Baptised with the Baptism of Repentance, as the Text says were about twelve in number.  
And presently as soon as Paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Ghost descended on them, and they spoke all manner of Languages, and withal prophesied. I wonder whether these young Schismatical Gamesters at Lanhazan, or elsewhere, in this Country, can do the like: I believe their Leaders, Mr. DAVIS and Mr. MILES can scarce do it; 'tis great pity but that the Noble Estates of the Land, to the intent that the souls of men and women should not be ensnared and deluded in this kind any further, should be made acquainted of so great an abuse to Church, State, and Commonwealth: For if the Estates did allow of it, they would send a Command for all to do it in general, thorough out the whole Land; therefore these abuses are acted unknown unto them. Circumcision as a type of Baptism, S. Paul in the 7. Cor. verse 18. says, Is any called being Circumcised, let him not become Uncircumcised: as much as if the Apostle had said, Is any Baptised, let him not seek to be Rebaptised: for if a man or woman do suffer themselves to be Rebaptised, they do deny the Baptism which they formerly received, and the first principles of the true Christian Religion.  
Mark the words of the Apostle, 1. Cor. 7. 20. Let every man, says he, abide in the same calling wherein he was called; so that men or women being called by their first Baptism, as they are to be Christians, and incorporated to be members of Gods true Church they should so remain, until their souls were dissolved from their bodies, and their bodies from their souls, only by virtue of the words of the Apostle in the said 20. verse as before, Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.  
Unless the sons and daughters of men will altogether follow the false doctrine of these young Seducers, and make frustrate the words of that chosen vessel S. Paul, that wrote the very marrow of all the New Testament, the words of our Saviour only excepted.  
The Anabaptists, it may be, will allege to me, that a Child ought not to be Baptised until he be of age, and possessed with faith: Alas, poor men! I answer them thus▪ That as soon as the Midwife doth receive the Child into the World, that very instant the Child hath faith: what faith hath he? the faith that the father and mother that begat him▪ have or had.  
Because I did write so much of Circumcision to be a type of Baptism, I know some particular men will allege and urge unto me the 1. Cor. ●1. that Circumcision is nothing, and Uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments: 'tis true, every thing in the old Moral Law was abolished at Christ's coming; but the Apostle doth not say Baptising is nothing; but he might well enough say▪ Rebaptising is nothing; though we were absolved from the curse of the Law at the coming of Christ, yet we are still bound to the obedience of the Law, and the Law stands still as a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ: for our Saviour saith in one place, I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets, I came rather to fulfil them.  
Though other Ceremonies were abolished at the coming of Christ, yet Circumcision was not quite abolished then: why? Christ himself was Circumcised the eight day, it might be abolished after; for our Saviour took no Celestial Discipline upon him until he was twelve years of age, posing of the Doctors in the Temple: yea then was Circumcision abolished, and Baptism to stand in the stead of it ever after.  
See in what a dangerous condition those people are, that leave their Children Unbaptised until they be of age: let them read Exodus 4. 24. how that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses because he left his Child so long a time Uncircumcised: And it came to pass by the way, in the Inn, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him, verse 24.  
Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and did cut off the foreskin of her son, and said, surely a bloody husband thou art unto me, v. 25.  
And she said again, a bloody husband thou art to me, because of the Circumcision, verse 26.  
Concerning the performance of our first Baptism, we are in a dangerous condition, unless God will look more upon the wounds of his dear son Jesus Christ, than any merits of our own. For men and women at our Baptism have entered into a Covenant to God for us, that we should be such and such, and we for the most part of us, are such and such, clean contrary to this Covenant, so that if we will seriously consider, we have enough to do to perform the Covenant of our first Baptism, without provoking the Lord to anger to take upon us the second Baptism, which is clean contrary to the word of God. But it is nothing in this age, with the sons and daughters of men▪ to abridge Covenants, seldom or never at all do they think upon them.  
Concerning the breach of this Covenant, I have read in History, that Vladislaus King of Hungaria, and Prince of Transylvania, how he waged war with the Great Turk, and in process of time being weary on both sides waging of war, both parties agreed to compose the differences betwixt them to a peace; the King of Hungaria being a Christian, the Turk a Mahometan: they both entered into a solemn Oath and Covenant, to dissolve both Armies, and to observe a League between them for so many years; the King of Hungaria took his Oath in Christ his Name, the Turk in Mahemets: after that both Armies were dissolved, and every man went home to his own house in peace. A while after, Julian the Cardinal, an incendiary, (even as incendiaries have fomented these unnatural wars in this Land) persuades the King of Hungaria to abridge this Covenant, and again to rise up in Arms against the Turk, telling the King of Hungaria that it was no sin against God to break that Covenant with the Turk, because he was a Pagan; so he prevay●ed with the King of Hungaria that he risen up in Arms presently: so the Turk in defence of his Territories and Kingdoms, risen up in Arms withal; and in the Brunt and heat of the War, the Turk espying the Crucifix in the Banner of the King of Hungaria, takes the Covenant out of his Pocket, and throws it up towards Heaven, and says, O Christ, if thou be'st the Living God, revenge not thyself upon me, for I never took any Covenant in thy Name, for I did always deny thee to be an Eternal God; but revenge thyself upon the King of Hungaria, that hath taken a Covenant in thy Name, and is not ashamed before thy face to break it.  
Assuredly, our not performing of the Covenant of our first Baptism, Covenant of our Marriages, and other ties that we have taken upon us in this Land, 'tis to be feared that by reason we have so oft times abridged them, that Turks, Pagans, and Infidels, will rise up in judgement against us.  
In part of this weak and unworthy Labour of mine, as far as God hath given me a talon, I shall declare unto the World the unlawfulness of being covered in the Church, at the Divine exercise of Preaching the word of God to the people.  
I will begin with the words of God himself Exod. 13. 5. Pluck off thy shoes from of thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground: by virtue of those words, the words of the most High God▪ I tell, O proud Belteshazzar, pluck off thy Hat from of thy head, for the words thou hearest are holy words. I do not say but an old man may do it, or a sick man may be covered at that Divine exercise, for 'tis a case of necessity; for King David did eat the Shewbread, that was not lawful for any to eat, but the Priest alone: God never sent any Prophet to reprehend him for it: why? because David was necessitated so to do at that time; but as soon as he took the wife of Uriah, the Lord presently sent the Prophet Nathan to attaint him of High Treason, against the great God of Heaven and Earth, and to judge and condemn him in one word, Thou art the man.  
There were fifty thousand of the Bethshemites slain for looking unreverently upon the Ark of the Covenant; and Uzzah was strucken dead by the hand of the Lord, for but touching the Ark, as you may read Chron. 13. 9 10. And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put forth his hand to hold the Ark, for the Oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he smote him because he put his hand to the Ark, and there he died before God.  
The Preacher is the Ark of the Covenant of the New Testament, and when he preaches unto us of God's judgements, we should then pray in our hearts to divert those judgements from us; and when he treats and speaks of God's mercies, we should then pray in our hearts to participate of those mercies: you shall find it in one place that S. Paul writes, that it is a shame for a woman to be uncovered in the Church; as much as if the same Apostle had said, that it is a shame for a man to be covered in the Church: therefore I beseech all those that love God, and the true Reformation of the Church of God, to reform this enormous abuse, lest we should any further be evil spoken of and derided by Turks, Papists, Pagans, and Infidels, that are not inspired to make recognition of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; lest that their blind ways should at the last day rise up in judgement against us; for assuredly unless that this and other abuses that are now committed in the Church of God be amended, we shall be in great danger to be those, (or like those) that the Apostle Peter writes of, 1. Pet. 5. the two last verses, It had been better for you never to have known the way of truth, then to know it and turn from it. For ye shall be like a dog that turns again to his own vomit, or like a sow that is washed in the River, and goes wallowing again in the mire.  
I can in no wise bridle my tongue from speaking, nor withhold my hand from writing of the wrongs that are now done unto certain Clergy men, that taught and preached the Gospel in precedent times; yet let no man conjecture that I by no means do write of their sides in general; for I know, abundance of them would not be contented to walk upon the Battlements of the Church, but did mount themselves up to the turrets of civil policy that did nothing belong unto them.  
Some of them have been responsal for it before men already, and suffered, and therefore I shall conclude of such persons with the old Proverb, which says, de mortibus nil nisi bonum; of the dead nothing but good. I take God to Reco●d, my Lord General CROMWELL, as his Excellency was going for Ireland, upon the walls of Tenbigh, told the Gentlemen there about him, I cannot perceive (says he) but this man is of the self same Religion as myself is of; meaning myself.  
For my own part, I shall soothe no man, be he ever so great; if his Excellency do agree to extirp out of the Vineyard all the Clergy in times past, his Excellency is as wide from my tenants in Religion, as the East is from the West, but methinks as many of them should be thrust out of the Vineyard, as had evil will at Zion, and none of the rest: for to put them all out, we have no such warrant, neither out of the Old nor the New Testament; for in the Old Testament we read, that in the last request of Abraham to God, for Sodom and Gomorrah▪ if there (says God) be ten righteous persons in those two Cities, I will not destroy it for the ten sake: But there was found there but one righteous Lot, and for that one righteous man, God had provided a Zoar a City of refuge, during the time that the Lords anger was kindled against those two great Cities in destroying of them with fire and Brimstone from his Celestial habitation: And now it should seem that in a small measure his Majesty is offended with certain men that he called to be his Ministers and especial Members of his Church; but it cannot be that all the Clergy in times past could be culpable of adhering to Popery or the like, and in this fire from Heaven, which is the Lords small anger, or his small deluge emerging the former Clergy men; if there (I say) be but one amongst them, that can say and prove himself not guilty, where is his Zoar, or any City of refuge.  
Elias a great Prophet and a chosen of the Lord, desired of the Lord, that he might be taken away from amongst the children of men, saying, they have killed thy Prophets, etc. and I only am left, and they seek my life also: in answer to Elias, God says, I have reserved, seven thousand chosen men in Israel, that have not bended their knees to Baal.  
It should seem by those words though Eliah had the inspiration of God's spirit in him, in a high nature, yet he did not know the mental reservations of all men and women towards their God in Israel. And so according to moral reason, that the noble Estates of the Land do not know of every particular wrong that is now done to some of the former Clergy men; every vessel should stand upon its own bottom: why? because there is so much Drunkenness, must there be no wine nor strong drink? and because there is so much Lechery, must there be no women? God forbidden. Now I prove that those Clergy men heretofore, that had not a hand to bring in Popery into the Church of God, neither did in no wise intent to quench or put out the light of the Gospel, but behaved themselves reverently, and prudently in their vocations, ought not to be put out of their Benefices: nay if they had committed some faults, yet they ought not to be put and thrust out of the Vineyard in this kind, for one particular fault: for why? let some of the sons and daughters of men but think with themselves, ●hat if God in the dreadful day of judgement, should deal with us as we deal here below one with another, what would become of us? assuredly we should go on the left hand with the Goats▪ Go ye cursed etc.  
Concerning the remission that many of the former Clergy men should have to prove it. We read that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when he came into the Vineyard, and there found a Tree that bore no fruit, he bade the Vineyard dresser cut it down, why cumbreth it the ground? Nay says the Vineyard dresser, I will entrench and dig about it one year more: we do not read that our Saviour did contradict the Vineyard dresser in that business  
For one particular man a Clergy man▪ one Mr. FRANCIS DAVIES of Llangaine, in the County of Glamorgane in Wales a man that would never hear of Marriage his reason was, lest the care of a wife and children should in part take him off from the service of his God, and the duty that he was to perform to the great charge under him: then his second reason was, if he should marry, he could not be a supporter to many of his friends, which he was to divers of them: nay he took more pains in his Calling to Preach the word of God in his two Parishes, than any two Clergy men in the County of Glamorgan: and for this man to be thrust out of his Benefices, and still to be kept from them, 'tis great pity indeed: for the rest of the former Clergy of the County of Glamorgan, they be of age, let them speak for themselves.  
I should have made the fourth part of this weak and unworthy work which I have already penned, that is, concerning the Lord's Prayer, and against such persons as do deny the saying of it: loathe I was to make description of it, in regard that it is, as it were, the master piece of Christ Jesus his own words, lest that God should be so offended with me, as he did strike Uzzah for touching the Ark of the Covenant. But upon a Sabbath day being the 19 of Sept. 1651. to hear one Mr. ELLIS make an Exposition on part of the Lords Prayer, in the Church of Cardiff, the words thus: Hallowed be thy Name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven: where he said, that people did tempt God to say the Lords Prayer: why said he? because the Angels and Saints in Heaven do pray and serve God perfect, and we unperfect: that is most true: but I hold his and others coverture and debarment in it to be to think it as it were a certain imbecility or weakness in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to command his Apostles to say it, and that we should not imitate them to say it likewise. Doth he or any other of the sons of men think that our Saviour Jesus Christ when he said, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, did mean that mortal men, that are conceived and borne in sin▪ and all their days live in sin, and altogether polluted with corruption and uncleanness, can execute the good will of the Father as well as those celestial Saints and Seraphins that do daily and hourly reap the fruition of the heavenly Deity, and habitual society with Almighty God? no, no, the meaning of our Saviour Jesus Christ, was, that the sons and daughters of men should do their best endeavour to execute his will and pleasure upon earth, and that which they should be defective in, the rest should be supplied out of his blessed merits; for Zacharias and Elizabeth were said to walk in all the Commandments of the Lord; no question but they both one time or other had abridged the Lords Commandments, but such lapses were not attributed unto them: why? because they did their best endeavour to execute the will of their God; for God requires no more at our hands, but to do our best to serve him in uprightness of hearts and willingness of spirits, and the defects as be, are to be supplied out of the blessed merits of Jesus Christ: and withal, I shall conclude this sentence with the words of that sweet singer of Israel, David the King; he knoweth whereof we are made, he remembreth we are but dust.  
'Tis true, the both Evangelists do not concur or agree in the writing of the Lords prayer; the one hath it, when ye pray, pray ye thus, verbatim, word by word: the other hath it, when ye pray, pray ye as thus: and in these times those that debar it, follow neither: for why? we should either say it word by word, as the one hath it, or else take it as a model, or as it were a Text to pray by it; for assuredly, our Saviour did not speak it vainly, but that either of the both should be followed in it: nay, he much disdained the vain babble and long prayers of the Scribes and Pharisees, and comprehended the prayers of his servants in this short prayer, Our Father, etc. and did compose it to six Petitions; the first three for the glory of God, the other three for the necessity of man; and the best Divine in this Land may preach a whole twelvemonth, twice every Sabbath day, and perhaps not consummate or end all the Doctrine of this good and godly Prayer.  
I could have made this Book three times as long, but as far as I am called to be a Christian, though a great sinner, I hope I have declared myself to God and the world of and concerning the principles of my tenants in Religion, in these four things, and whoso will question me for it. for I shall think myself happy to sacrifice my blood in the quarrel of my Lord and Master Jesus Christ, that spared not his sacred heart's blood for my redemption from the thraldom of Satan, that old enemy of mankind, that still goeth about the world like a roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour. Great bloodshedding (the more the pity) hath been in this Land, of, and concerning such differences, as are now between Mr. ELLIS and myself: Counsel what we may, fight about it as long as we please, we are all proclaimed in the word of God to be unprofitable servants, the proudest of us all: and it will be one day said unto us, give account of your Stewardships, you shall be no longer Stewards; who shall end this controversy, between Mr. ELLIS and myself? shall the Commissioners of Array end it? no, I challenge them, for they did imprison me for nineteen weeks and four days in Cardiffes' Goal for my affection to the noble Parliament and the Army, and gave away my means, 100ls. per annum to one Major WINDSOR, a rank Papist: shall the Gentlemen that bear the rule, and the sway now in the County of Glamorgan end it? no, I challenge some of them likewise: for they did me greater wrongs than the Commissioners of Array have done me formerly: but for my own part, I shall rest myself contented about such injuries, until my Redeemer comes in the air, in the very Clouds themselves, to judge both quick and dead, and then if I shall not obtain mercy at the sweet hands of my Saviour, I shall be sure to have justice administered to this my tired soul upon earth; I have had neither of them both here below, I am sure of it.  
Then there will be no Bishop favouring Popery, no Mechanic Trades-man preaching Heresy, no Lawyer pleading, nor no Attorney prating, for the dissolution of the vast world, and all that is therein, willbe like the unrowling of an Exchequer Writ: when that it is fully opened it rolls itself up again, and the Judiciary Sentence is ready for us all. Come ye Blessed, and go ye cursed; yea, and happy will that servant be, when that his Master cometh, he shall find to be watchful; for he shall receive that comfortable Benediction, Euge bone serve, well done good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful in a little, be thou ruler over much: enter thou into thy Master's joy: To the which joy of our Lord and Master jesus Christ, make us all to be partakers; To whom, as is most meet, be ascribed all Honour, Glory, Might, Majesty, Dominion, and Thanksgiving, both now and for evermore, Amen.  
FINIS.