‘And is this your cry for help, against so contemptible a people, (as you count them,) you, like silly women, do but discover your weakness and worthlessness; and if God open the eyes of King Charles, he will see it. What! have you preached and wrestled yourselves out of all hope and faith, that either you must have sudden help from him, or all is lost and overrun? Surely it may be said, you have been bad watchmen, and idle shepherds, who have lost all, if sudden help come not from another hand. Now if any had come against you with carnal weapons, then had you had some excuse in crying to the earthly powers; but in that nothing but spirit comes against spirit, and yet you have lost the day. This doth clearly manifest, that the power of God you have not in you, but have lost the kingdom of the Most High, and so are become unreasonable men, who would have two weapons against one, and another to do your work for you, and yet are unwilling to forego your wages; yea, this advantage you have had divers years, but have not prevailed therewith.
‘And whereas thou sayest thy book is of great consequence; and so thou presumest to make king Charles the patron of it: and then askest pardon for thy presumption, when thou hast done.
‘I say thou hast need: the substance of thy book being made up of false accusations, gathered up out of books formerly written against us, which have been disproved by answers several times over: and to these thou hast added some new accusations, as false as the old, and spied out the failings of some few, who have mourned before God, that ever they should sin, and give occasion to the enemy of God so to blaspheme. And many things which were done and spoken by others, who are not of us, nor ever were: and of this is thy book made up, as any may see who reads it, and our several answers to the charges therein, many of them of several years standing, against these false accusations, which have most of them been printed over and over, and presented to the former powers that have risen, and as often answered: so there needed no more to be said, than hath been, were it not for the sake of some who may yet be strangers to your way of dealing towards us, under every power that hath been. Now discretion will say, that to make another man the father of such a work, to which he is a stranger, (but especially a king,) is presumption indeed, rashness and folly, and needs a pardon.
‘And whereas you now say, that none but a regal authority can stifle; it is true, you have tried parliaments and protectors, (as you called them,) and parliaments again; and to make them then work for you, your priests used these arguments to them, to wit, That in the late wars they had exposed lives, liberties, estates, and relations, with all other personal advantages, in maintaining the just proceedings of parliaments, and from them you then claimed our stifling, as the price of your prayers, purses, hazards, losses, banishment, and blood, as may be read in the Westmoreland petition against us, which thou hast printed in page 197 and 198. And was not this power that which you then called the common enemy, in the same petition, page 200, which you now cry to, and would put him upon that work against us now, as defender of your faith, &c. Ah! a faithless generation have you been to God and man, may you not be ashamed of this work, to print it, and send it to king Charles, and call him to defend it, and patronize it: how hath envy bereaved you of your reasonableness? Shall he who defends this, defend either faith or truth? But this is, that you may cover yourselves with your shame and envy, that both king and people, and parliaments, may see what a generation you are, that will run under any power to get your bloody ends; but indeed true to none; for if it was true, that you were so faithful to that parliament, with your prayers, purses, and blood, as there you plead, then is your faith but new, which now you would have defended; but if not true, then how great deceivers, and how little to be trusted, or defended, in your cruel designs.
‘“The king that faithfully judges the poor, his throne shall be established for ever. But, if a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.” Prov. xxix. 12, 14.
‘And to thee, who hast set forth this book of mischief, I say with the Scriptures, “Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous, spoil not his resting place. For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again; but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” Prov. xxiv. 15, 16. See also Mich. vii. 8.
J. N.’
In answer to the book.
‘The day is come that the Scripture is fulfilled, which the Lord spoke by his prophet, Isa. xliv. 25. That he will make the diviners mad; and that the prophets shall be ashamed, every one of his vision, Zach. xiii. 4. The which doth now evidently appear, and their folly is made manifest unto all, that will see and behold it, according to 2 Tim. iii. 9. And is not this manifest madness and folly in them, called orthodox and divines, to present unto the king their packet of lies, which have been seven years told over, and so long since disproved and confuted, as may be seen in a book called, Saul’s Errand to Damascus, &c. printed in the year 1653, and in several other books since. It already hath been, and is now manifest unto all men of sober understandings, that these men, falsely called orthodox and divines, have had no defence, either to vindicate themselves, or disprove the people called Quakers, but this refuge of lies, which they first presented to the parliament sitting in 1652, and likewise to other parliaments which have been since that time, and to the two protectors, and which now to this present king is directed; and you presumptuously charge him to be the patron of it, requiring him to defend those lies which you falsely call the faith. But this we know, according as it is written, Prov. xxix. 12, 19. that “if a ruler hearken to lies, and his servants are wicked; but a wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.” Chap. xx. 26.