ce enough to second
with the Sword all their Demands against the present Laws and
Governours; which can never be such as some side or other will not
find fault with, so as to urge what they call a Reformation of them to
a Rebellion against them: some parasitick Preachers have dared to call
those Martyrs, who died fighting against Me, the Laws, their Oaths,
and the Religion established.

But sober Christians know, That glorious Title can with truth be
applied onely to those, who sincerely preferred Gods Truth and their
duty in all these particulars before their lives, and all that was
dear to them in this world; who having no advantageous Designes by
any Innovasion, were Religiously sensible of those ties to God, the
Church, and my Self, which lay upon their souls, both for obedience,
and just assistance.

God could, and I doubt not but hee did through his mercy, crown many
of them with eternall life, whose lives were lost in so just a Cause;
the destruction of their bodies being sanctified as a means to save
their souls.

Their Wounds and temporal Ruine serving as a gracious opportunity for
their eternall Health and Happinesse; while the evident approach of
death, through Gods grace, effectually dispose their hearts to such
Humilitie, Faith, and Repentance, which together with the Rectitude of
their present Engagement, would fully prepare them for a better life
then that which their enemies brutish and disloyall fiercenesse could
deprive them of; or without repentance hope to enjoy.

They have often, indeed, had the better against my side in the
Field, but never, I beleeve at the Bar of Gods Tribunal, or their
own Consciences; where they are more afraid to encounter those many
pregnant Reasons, both for Law, Allegiance, and all true Christian
grounds, which conflicts _with_, and accuse them _in_ their own
thoughts, then they oft were in a desperate bravery to fight against
those Forces which sometimes God gave me.

Whose condition conquered, and dying, I make no question, but is
infinitely more to be chosen by a sober man (that duly values his
duty, his soul and eternity, beyond the enjoyment of this present
life) then the most triumphant glory, wherein their and mine Enemies
supervive; who can hardly avoid to be daily tormented by that horrid
guilt, wherewith their suspicious, or now convicted Consciences do
pursue them, especially since they and all the world have seen, how
false and unintended those pretension