WE are here devoutly met together in this our sanctified and religious Meeting-place, to exercise our spiritual Gifts, in the hold­ing forth a little portion of scripture, as you will find it in the 37. Psalm and the first part of the 17. verse, in these words: The Arms of the wicked shall be broken.

In the further holding forth of which words, give me leave to tell you, that I shall discover and disclose unto you a notable Mystery of Iniquity before I have done: And therefore, I shall impart unto you, how the words are rendred in an old Authentick Transla­tion, albeit, that it be in the language of the Beast of Rome. The arms (Brachia.) It is not said ( insignia, or the States-arms, as the Cross and the Fiddle, beloved) but the Arms; that is, by a figurative speech, the Strength, Policy, Confidence, and all the carnall se­curity, being as the Arms of the Bodies: (improborum) of the wicked, or (as the word holds forth more pro­perly, of professed Knaves, or cheating and dishonest men) Rump entur, shall be broken, confounded dis­solved, or brought to nought. The arms of the wicked shall be broken. Out of which words, we may hold forth one principal Doctrine, which is this, that al­though [Page 2] wicked men or cunning crafty, subtile, de­ceiptfull, perjured, rebellious, banckrupt, lying and dishonest knaves, whether they be Parliament men or others, do put their carnal confidence & assurance in the Arms of flesh, or in the strength and valour of an Army by land, or Navy by sea, yet Rump-entur, be­loved, they shall be broken; confounded, dissolved, and brought to nought. The very Text it self, is an affirmative proposition, The arms of the wicked, Rump-entur. Scripture is so universally plain and positive for proof of our Doctrine, that we shall not need to vouch any Texts in particular, you know it well e­nough, beloved. But I shall hold forth unto you some Reasons, and produce unto you several ex­amples, aswell ancient as modern, that will more ea­sily perswade you of the truth of our Proposition.

First, It is so, Because wicked men are hated of God, and odious and abhominable to all good men; being perverted and corrupted in their Principles and Practice of Religion and honesty; and therefore whatsoever their strength, Policy, or carnal confi­dences are, or their wicked and devillish machina­tions, and hellish inventions can contrive and project against good and godly men, Rump entur, they shall be broken all in pieces, and dissolved, or Vane ish away, like a mist before the sun in his power at noon-tide; as the word holds forth in a late translation.

But secondly, beloved, it is so, because the Arms of the wicked, are wicked arms, and therefore destru­ctive to the Saints; and therefore Rump-entur, they shall be broken. They shall be broken, not onely for Gods sake, but for his Saints sake The text is a Pro­mise, and a very comfortable one too to the Saints, [Page 3] that although wicked men, and politick knaves shall by strength and power of Arms tyrannize and domi­neere, and swagger, and lord it, beloved, over the Saints for a long season, for almost twenty years to­gether (as I may say) or longer; yet in the end this shall be certain; and therefore of great Consolation to us, Rump-entur, they shall be broken and confoun­ded. As it is in the 15. verse before my text, their Bows Rump entur shall be broken. By Bows, Sy-noc-doc-chically, all sorts of Arms and Ammunition (whether great or small Guns, great or small shot, Gunpowder, Swords, Halberds, and so forth) are meant and intended in that place, beloved: And not onely their Arms, but by a Metonymie, their armed men too (whether they be horse or foot) Rump-entur, they shall be routed or broken & brought to nought.

There is a great deale of emphasis and significancy in the word Rump-entur, and it is very well and pro­perly translated from the Original; and all the weight of my following Discourse must rest upon it. Oh! Rump-entur, they shall be broken in pieces, like a potters vessel: Their snares, as it is in another Psalm, Rump-entur, shall be broken. And (oh the Comfort is there) we shall be delivered, like a bird from the snares of the fouler, from these wicked men, whether they be Parliament-men, Committee-men, Excise men, Great-men, Little-men, Horse-men, Foot-men, Head-men, Rump men; from all these in time we shall be delivered.

But then thirdly, beloved, an other reason of our Doctrine is, that it is so, because the Power and Au­thority (as well in the foundation, as in the exercise and use of it) of wicked men, is a wicked and ungod­ly [Page 4] power: And although they may be permitted for a time by the Almighty to tyranize, and usurp, and reign, and be a plague and scourge to his people, the better to try their faith and other graces; yet at the last, these wicked men Rump-entur shall be broken, I say, they shall be broken, as a knavish, cheating bank­rupt is broken.

Fourthly, It is so, because Divine Promises never are defeated for want of performances, either in re­spect of power or good will in the Almighty, in his own due time. And therefore (as we have lately seen by good and happy experience, even amongst our selves in this Nation) the Arms of our wicked Rump-men, and their wicked Army-men, rump-untur they are broken: Their credit is banckrupt, and their confidence confounded.

Objection, But some perhaps will object, That all our Parliament men were not, nor are not wicked men? And therefore that our honest secluded mem­bers and some others non Rump untur, are not broken; nor their honest Religious and truly Conscientious Arms and Forces Rump-untur are broken.

By way of Answer, I say, that it is very true, non Rump untur, they are not broken, beloved, because they are Religious, Loyall and Honest Gentlemen, and men of sound principles, and unspotted Reputa­tions, and such as have nobly asserted the just Rights and Prerogative of our King, and the lawfull privi­ledges of Parliament. But they that are the wicked men in my Text, qui Rump-untur, who are broken, are such, as, according to the exquisite method held forth by a learned Author in his Metaphor of Mali, viz. Much Ale Little Thrift; I shall discover and reveale to [Page 5] you, (I say, in that manner and form) by dichotomi­zing, dissecting, dividing and taking in pieces the Letters contained in the first syllable of the Verb Rump-entur (in my Text, being four in number) and ranging them (as in several Columns) whereby you shall, beloved, more plainly and easily understand and distinguish, who those wicked Rump-men, are,

Beloved, as the Letters of this syllable Rump, have denoted and described unto you, the persons, pro­perties and qualities of our wicked and ungodly Rump-men: So in the like manner, they will de­monstrate unto you the Characters of Religious, Ho­nourable, and honest men; as for one example in­stead of many:

I might be voluminous, beloved, if I would, in such Characters and descriptions; but I shall content my self with what I have held forth unto you, and con­fine my self in as much brevity as I can.

But as I have proved my Doctrine, by modern ex­amples, in our own knowledge and remembrance, as well as by sollid and substantiall Reasons and Ar­guments; give me leave, I pray, to vouch a few of more antient Authority; and I shall then draw my self and you (beloved) to a speedy Conclusion.

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And his Arms were broken at Bosworth field (be­fore he had tyranized two years and three moneths) by Henry the seventh.

Oliver Cromwell (his wicked successor) was a Rebellious, Ʋsurping, Murderous Protector.

And what are become of his Arms, I pray you, are they not all broken? Yea, as well his material arms in the field, as his ficticious arms in his Shield, Rump-untur, they are all broken: And why? Was he not (I beseech you)

A Renowned Runnagate; Voracious Vultur; Me­morable Martyr-Monger, Prodigious plot-maker.

Reproach to Religion, Van-guard to Violence, Mon­ster to Majesty, Pest to Parliaments.

I might instance also in some other memorable ex­amples, as,

Ravilliac the Regicide, Ʋatinius the Vicious, Masia­niello the Mortiferous, and Parson Peters.

But let the last suffice, if you please, insteed of a thousand: Parson Peters, I say, beloved, he that is a

And thus have I done with Examples; a presi­dent or two more, I might have cited, but being they were so impious and infamous (as Bradshaw, Lisle, and the like) and to all the world so publickly noto­rious, [Page 8] I pray let us acquiesce in the goodnesse and providence of the Almighty, who hath broken them all in pieces; Rump-unter, they are broken: Those bloody Regicides and Murderers of Royallists, Rump-untur.

Having thus (beloved) fully proved unto you and holden forth the truth of my doctrine, I shall twist up all together like a Rump-us or Trail of Vines, in the French Rump-otineta, and dismiss you hence after a word or two of Use and Application.

1. Is it so, the Armes of the wicked Rump-entur, shall be broken. Then this serves for a use of Con­viction and reproof of all the wicked men in the world, that since it is true that wicked Rump-men, Army-men, Committee-men, Excise-men, and so forth, Rump-untur are broken, confounded and brought to nought; The wicked also notwithstand­ing their great strength and policy, confidences and confederacies, Rump-entur, shall be broken.

2. As it serves for conviction and reproof of wic­ked men, it may also serve for information and in­struction of others that are good men, that onely the Armes of the wicked Rump-entur shall be broken, Rebellious Armes, Anabaptists Armes, Lambert's Armes, Desboroughs Arms, Hewsons Armes, and his neck too, Rump-entur all shall be broken. Not Ge­nerall Monck his Armes, nor Generall Mountague his Armes, beloved, but the Armes of the wicked, Rump entur shall be broken.

3. It serves for an excellent use of Consolation to the Saints, that since it is so that the Armes of the wicked Rump-entur, shall be broken.

Then let us triumph and rejoyce in the late pro­vidences [Page 9] and dispensations amongst us, that since it hath mercifully pleas'd the divine Justice and Good­nesse to break the Armes of our wicked Rump-men, who were such, as I have before characterised under the Letters of that infamous Syllable; So for our Comfort, all other wicked Men, and their wicked Armes and forces in due time Rump-entur, shall be booken, dissolved and confounded, and brought to nought.

4. It may also serve for a Use of Triall and Exa­mination, that we should examine and scrutinize our selves, whether any of us in this Meeting-house be of that wicked kind of men, that are described in the holding forth of my Text unto you, for if we be, assuredly then we may conclude, that in the end Rump-emur, we shall be broken.

5. It may also serve for Caution and Warning to us, that since the Armes of the wicked Rump-entur, shall be broken, We our selves be warned to take heed, either of being such wicked men, or joyning our selves with any wicked mens Armes, for in the end Rump-entur, they shall be broken.

6. It may very well hold forth unto us also an Use of Exhortation, that we should labour and endea­vour so to comport and behave our selves in a religi­ous & conscionable way in the affairs of this world, as that if we should be necessitated to take up Armes for our just defence against Usurpation and Oppres­sion, we may not fall under the curse and judgement of the wicked in my Text, The Arms of the wicked Rump-entur shall be broken.

And for our better encouragement to practise the [Page 10] wayes of Religion, let us be excited and stirred up in our duty by a few Motives.

1. Consider (beloved) that a little that is honestly gotten with Gods blessing, is better than all the gold in Hispaniola, Jamaica and the West Indies, which our late Usurper would have gotten in the Devil's name, if he could, with the losse of twenty thousand Souls and the honour of the Nation to boot.

2. Consider, That wickednesse and wicked men shall surely receive the guerdon of their Iniquity: as certainly as Lambert was in the Tower, and Sir George Booth at liberty and acquitted for Treason.

3. Consider, That good men are allways hono­red of the righteous; and their Names are lovely, as a sweet smelling savour, as General Monck is to the City of London, and the good people of these nations; whereas our wicked and abhominable rump-men stink worse in the Organs of all honest men, than the pollution of the defiled and contaminated Alderman's Posteriors.

4. Consider, That the Armes of good men are very strong Armes, and are fortified strongly with divine benediction and security; whereas the Armes of the wicked are always a compact & a company of rotten Members; and how easy a thing it is to break a rotten Member, or limbe of a corrupt and degene­ted person, our dayly experience will fully evidence and evince to us.

5. Consider the good Condition of good men (such as fear God and honour the King) as our Christian duty is (beloved) their Armes non Rump-entur, they shall not be broken, they are the Armes of the wicked that are and shall be broken. Such [Page 11] wicked men, as break all the Laws of God without fear, and all the Laws of the Realm without shame, and all the Laws of Nations without comparison; That pull down the Church to set up their States, murder their King to reign in his stead, keep out his Son to keep his Inheritance; These wicked men ex necesse Rump-entur they must be broken.

A word onely to tell you how they must be bro­ken, and I conclude.

Rump-antur, let them be broken, in the very same manner, as they have broken others, but with a dif­ferent respect. As they murthered their King, let them have the execution of rebellious Traytors. As they sold his Lands and revenues amongst themselves, let them be reinvested in the Crown, as forfeited for Treason and so forth. This Law of Retaliation is an equitable and most excellent Law. Is it not better for the good of their souls, that they should be hangd by the hand of Justice, than be felones de se, and hang up themselves as Alderman Hoyle did, or to runne stark mad and die in despair upon the bare convicti­on of a parrat, as young Rowland Wilson did? or be so hard put to it by the Devil for security, as to give Bond 3 or 4 dayes before for their appearance in the Tartarian Court, as old Oliver did?

These are sad Truths (Beloved) I confesse,

But now to conclude, let me seriously request you to consider seriously what hath been held forth unto you at this Season: Remember the Text, The Armes of the wicked Rump-entur: recollect the Doctrine, the Reasons, the Examples, the Uses with the Mo­tives, the Method that you are to take. Sit not wic­kedly downe on your Rumps, as the Rump-men did [Page 12] contemning and proudly disdaining all Christian admonition an reproof. No (beloved) go home and do as you would be done unto: Deal honestly, justly, religiously, that the cries of the fatherless and widows ascend not up to heaven against you for vengeance; and what you do, do it seasonably, se­riously, speedily, Give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars, and unto God the things that are Gods, and then in spight of all opposition, strength, policy, combination and confederacy, the words of my Text shall be fully verifyed, The Armes of the wicked RUMP-ENTUR.