things so far as I can finde the King never parted with them unto his Subjects and therefore whosoever pretendeth to an inderived power to do any of these and exempteth himself from the King 's right herein resisteth Ioh Beda 26. the ordinance of God and is guilty of High-Treason what pretext soever he brings saith the Advocate of Paris And there be some things which our Kings have granted unto their Subjects Ita etiam Reget Aegypti quibus voluntas pro lege est legum tamen institâ—ta in cogendis pecuniis quotidianoque victu sequebantur Aubanus What things Kings have granted and restrained themselves from their full right as the use of that power which makes new Lawes or repeals the old or layeth any tax or sums of monies upon his Subjects without the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and it may be some other particulars which the Lawyers know better then I. And all these Priviledges of the Subjects are but limitations and restrictions of the King 's right made by themselves unto their people and therefore where the Law cannot be produced to confirm such and such Liberties and Priviledges granted unto them I say there the King's power is absolute and the Subject ought not in such cases to determine any thing to the disadvantage of the King because all these Liberties that we have are injoyed by vertue of the King's grant as you may see in the ratification of Magna Charta where the King saith We have granted and given all these Liberties But I could never see it produced where the King granted unto his Subjects that 9 Hen. 3. they might force him and compel him with a strong hand by an Army of Souldiers to do what they will or else to take away either his Crown or his Life this Friviledge was never granted because this deprives the King of his supremacy and puts him in the condition of a Subject and would ever prove an occasion of rebellion when the people upon every discontent would take Arms against their King And therefore this present resistance is a meer usurpation of the King 's right a rebellion against his Lawes an High Treason against his Person and a resistance of the ordinance of God which heap of deadly sins can bring none other fruit then damnation saith the Apostle CHAP. XIV Sheweth the Kings grants unto his people to be of three sorts Which ought to be observed the Act of excluding the Bishops oâ—t of Parliament discussed the King's Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have been procured and repealed 2. WE are to consider how far the King is obliged to observe his promise 2. The Kings obligation to observe his grants Peter de la Primandas saith Laws annexed to the Crown the Prince cannot so abrogate them but his Successor may disannul whatsoever he hath doneâ—â— prejudice of them p. 597. and to make good these Liberties and Priviledges unto his Subjects where I speak not how far the father's grant may oblige the son or the predecessor his successor who cannot be deprived of his right dominion by any act of his predecessors but for the rights of his dominion how far precedent grants and the custom of their continuance with the desuetude and non-claim of his right may strengthen them unto the Subject and oblige the successors to observe them I leave it unto the Lawyers and Civilians to dispute but I am here to discusse how far the King that hath promised and taken his oath to observe his Lawes and make good all priviledges granted to his Subjects is bound in conscience to keep and observe them Touching which you must understand that these grants of immunities and favours are of three special kindes For 1. Of grace 2. By fraud 3. Through fear 1. The King that hath his full right either by conquest or succession over his people to govern them as a most absolute Monarch and out of his meer 1. All grants of grace ought to be observed grace and favour to sweeten the subjection of his people and to binde them with the greater love and affection to his obedience doth minuere sua jura restrain his absolute right bestow liberties upon his people and take his oath for their security that he will observe them is bound in all conscience to perform them and can never be freed from injustice before God and man if he transgresse them Quia volenti fit non injuria because they do him no injury The true Law of free Monarchs p. 203. when he doth voluntarily either totally resign or in some particularity diminish his own right but after he hath thus firmely done it he can never iustly go from it and therefore King James saith that a King which governeth not by his Lawes can neither be accountable to God for his administration nor have a happy and established Raign because it cannot be but that the people seeing their King failing of his duty will be always murmuring and defective in their fidelity And Yet the King's breach of oath doth neither forfeit his right nor warrant their disloyalty because another mans sin doth no way lessen mine offence and neither God nor the King granted this priviledge unto Subjects to rebel and take Armes against their Soveraign when they pretend he hath broken his promise 2. When the King through the subtile perswasions of his people that pretend 2. Grants obtained through fraud which to be observed one thing and intend another shall be seduced to grant those things that are full of inconveniencies as our King was over-reached and no better then meerly cheated by the faction of this Parliament to grant the continuance of it till it should be dissolved with the consent of both Houses and the like Lawes that are procured by meer fraud that soonest over-reacheth the best meaning Kings I answer with the old Proverb Caveat emptor he ought to have been as wise to prevent them as they were subtile to circumvent him and therefore as Joshua being deceived by the Gibeonites could not alter his promise Josh 9. 20. nor break his league with them lest wrath should fall upon him so no more should any other King break promise in the like case But you must observe that the Psalmist saith The good man which shall Psal 15. 5. dwell in the Tabernacle of the Lord is he that sweareth unto his neighbour and disappointeth him not though it were to his own hinderance mark though it were Quicquid fit dolo malo annullat factum imponit poenam summa Angel to his own hinderance never so much he must perform it but what if he hath promised and sworn that which will be to the great dishonour of God to the hinderance of thousands of others and it may be to the ruine of a whole Kingdom which is a great deal more then his own hinderance is a King bound or is any man else
examples they teach them to offend 2. As they are in these respects to have a special care of their own lives 2. How careful the Bishops Priests ought to be to teach the people Ezech. 3. 17. c. 33. 7. and conversations to live justly and holily as the servants of Christ ought to do so they are likewise obliged to be sedulous and diligent in the instruction and tuition of the people committed under their charge for they are made the Watchmen and Shepherds over God's people to teach them and instruct them what they should do and what they should believe even as our Saviour saith unto his Apostles Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Matth. ult 19. 20. Ghost and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And therefore S. Paul chargeth Bishop Timothy before God and before Jesus Christ that he preach the word and be instant in season and out 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. 1 Cor. 9. 16. of season reprove rebuke and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine and he saith Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel And S. Gregory saith Oportet ut praedicatores sint fortes in praeceptis compatientes infirmis terribiles Greg. in Mor. 30. super Job 39. in minis in exhortationibus blandi in ostendendo magisterio humiles in rerum temporalium contemptu dominantes in tolerandis adversitatibus rigidi It behoves that Preachers should be strong and strict in their precepts compassionate and pitiful to the weak terrible in their threatnings to the impenitent smooth and gentle in their exhortations in shewing their power and authority humble in despising the world and all worldly things stout and domineering and in suffering and bearing adversities firm and constant And the same S. Gregory saith also that Non debet praedicator Idem Moral l. 17. infirmis insinuare cuncta quae sentit nec debet praedicare rudibus quanta cognoscit which is a very good lesson And so you see partly what the Bishops and Ministers of Christ ought to do and how to behave themselves in the Church of God Yet I must confesse we and our Predecessors the Bishops of God's Dan 9. 5. Church have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from God's Precepts and neglecting the performance of our duties for whereas Exemplar vitae populis est vita regentis And as S. Gregory saith Lux gregis est flamma doctoris The light whereby the flock walketh is the shining flame of the Shepherds life Yet many of our Predecessors I am sure and I pray God that none of our present Prelates may do the like have given very evil examples unto the people if the example of covetousness injustice and the obstructing and neglect of Gods Service and the furtherance of mens salvation be evil examples for letting passe what we find written of Pope Sixtus the Fourth of whom this Epitaph was made Sixte jaces tandem fidei contemptor aequi Pacis ut hostis eras pace peremptus obis And of Alexander the sixth that made a league with the Devil as Balaeus saith to obtain his Papacy and of whom it was said as I shewed before Vendit Alexander cruces altaria Christum Emerat ille prius vendere jure potest And of Boniface the eighth and divers others wicked Popes that pretended to be the Bishops and Vicars of Christ but were indeed the limbs of Anti-Christ We find nearer home that what pious men and good Christians had formerly most zealously bestowed upon the Church and Churchmen for the Honor of God the relieving of the poor and the promoting of the Christian faith many of our own Bishops most wickedly and Sacrilegiously either through Covetousness for some fine or for love and affection to their Children friends or servants have alienated and made away the same from their Successors in Fee-farm or long leases some for one thousand some for one hundred years and some for other longer term reserving only some small rent for the succeeding Bishops as in my Diocess of Ossory that Lordship was set for ten pound yearly that is well-nigh worth two hundred pound and that was set for â—our pound which is better worth then fifty pound with many others in the like sort whereby we that come after them and they that shall come after us are neither able to keep Hospitality nor to feed the poor nor scarce our selves and our own families nor indeed to do any other work of piety and service of God which the Scripture requireth us to do And if these things be not wickedness and a high degree of abominable Sacriledge mine understanding fails me and this being Sacriledge I know not what laws can make it good Let them have what Laws and what Acts of Parliament soever they please to justify their doings I know not how those Laws and Acts of Parliament will or can justify them before the Throne of the just God And therefore not to do my self what I blame in others lest God should condemn me out of mine own mouth as my good God hath hitherto preserved me and kept my hands clean from all Corruption and from taking any the least bribe or gift from any man or any service but what I paid for even in my poorest state and meanest condition when I had not for many years together twenty pound per annum to maintain me so I have resolved and do pray to God continually to give his grace to perform it and do hope that God will grant it me that I will never take either bribe for any thing or gift from any man or fine for any House Land or Lordship that belongs either to my Deanery or Bishoprick while I live if I should live a thousand years but what shall be for the repaire of the Church And besides all this and many other faults in their own lives of less moment I have often bemoaned one offence of some of my brethren above all the rest when I considered how they not following the Counsel of St. Paul in the Ordination of Priests and Deacons To lay hands on no man rashly but to see that the persons that are to be admitted to holy Orders should be no novices that is no young Divines because as Saint Gregory saith Nequaquam debent homines in aetate infirma praedicare Men ought not to Preach in their young and tender years Quia juxta rationis usum sermo doctrinae non suppetit nisi in perfecta aetate because that according to the use of Reason Learning and Wisdom is not attained unto but in perfect age Et Redemptor noster cum Caelâ— siâ—conditor Angelorum Doctor ante tricennale Greg. sup Ezech. Ho. 2. in Pastor tempus in terra magister noluit fieri hominum ut videlicet praecipitatis vim
or some part of the Tythes of an impropriate Church for the inlarging of their Larder-house And that you need not doubt of this I must here set down what you may find in Mr. Crashaws Epistle to Mr. Pâ—rkins second Treatise of the Duties of the Ministry that in one County of the Kingdom of England the East riding of the County of York there are contained one hundred and five Parishes whereof nigh an hundred or the full number of an hundred are of this hateful name and bastardly title of Impropriations and some of them are of yearly value of four hundred pounds others worth three hundred pounds per annum others two hundred pounds and almost all worth one hundred pound a year and yet the Minister's part is ten pound stipend yea some have but eight pounds and some but six pounds and some but four pounds to live upon for the whole year and out of the Great Benefice of four hundred pounds a year the Minister had but eight pound per annum until of late with much labour ten pounds yearly for a Dr. Gardiner in his Scourge of Sacriledge Preacher And saith mine Author the most of the Churches in the properest Market-Towns of this Kingdom are thus held and retained by our Nobility and Gentry And so I found it in my Diocess of Ossory in the Kingdom of Ireland that the Impropriations had so swallowed up the Tythes and the Revenues of the Churches that as I shewed it in my Remonstrance to his Majesty six or seven Vicaridges united together will scarce make twenty pound a year for the Preacher Et durus est hic sermo for hereby the people perish and as the Prophet saith The poor Children cry for Bread and for want of means to maintain the Ministers there is none that is able to give it them I know King Henry the 8th that could cause his Parliaments as I ever understood from the old Parliament men of those times to make what Laws and to conclude what Acts of Parliament he pleased got many Laws to be made and many Acts to pass to justify and to make good and Lawful the Taking away Leasing Selling and Alienating the Tythes Lands Houses and Possessions of the Church and of our High Priest Jesus Christ from his servants to be inherited by lay persons and many other Acts of Parliaments have been made since that time to the same purpose which very thing we conceive as I have shewed to be very High Sacriledge and a robbing of Jesus Christ and the obstructing of his service and we fear the cause of the perishing of many souls And therefore how the Shield of the Pope's Authority that was the first Foster-Father of this execrable and accursed title of Impropriation or the power of King Henry the 8th that would expunge the Pope's Sacriledge with a greater Sacriledge and be the second Patron of this Bastard brood or all the pretences of the now detainers of the Tythes and portion of Christ and the Lands Houses and Possessions of the Church by these Humane Laws can bear off the blow of Gods wrath and turn aside the fierceness of his vengeance when in the day of his fury he shall powre out the full vial of his indignation upon the head of all Sacrilegious persons and upon the children and posterity of them that have devoured the Lords inheritance and laid wast his dwelling place I can no waies understand neither do I know how to give them any comfort or counsel but to advise them to a full and timely Restitution of that which otherwise will be their utter destruction Quia non remittitur peccatum donec restituatur August ad Maced Epist 54. oblatum cum restitui potest The sin shall never be remitted and blotted out of Gods book until the Tythes and goods of Gods Church be restored when men can restore them and will not do it CHAP. XVIII Of the second part of the Stipend Wages and Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel which is the Oblation Donation or Free-wil-offering of the people for to uphold and continue the true service of God and to obtain the blessings of God upon themselves and upon their labours which Donations ought not to be impropriated and alienated from the Church by any means YOu have heard of the first part of the Ministers maintenance the second part consisteth in the voluntary Oblations or Free-wil-offerings of the people which the Lord requireth should be done according as every one in his own heart thought good to bestow upon the service of God and what they did offer in this kind was most acceptable in the sight of God For this is a Principal Branch of that Honor which we yield unto God by and with our substance which we are injoyned to do Prov. 3. 9. Because what we relieve the poor with is not so much our alms as their exigence which as necessity exacts it so it is soon passed and as quickly perisheth but those Donations that were given for the service of God as they savour of a more inward and deeper piety so they are of a more lasting substance and besides the eternal Treasures which men do thereby lay up for themselves they do provide for the perpetuity of Religion unto the after-ages of men and may be justly said to Honour God not only in themselves but in all those likewise which they gain by their Donations to Honor him And it is strange and marvellous to consider how liberal and how free the people of old time were in their Donations and Free-wil-offerings to maintain the Worship of God and to do any thing that did any wayes appertain to his service for if you look into the 36. Chapt. of Exod. vers 5. you shall find how Bezaleel and Aholiab spake unto Moses saying The people bring much more then enough for the service of the work which the Lord hath commanded to be made and Moses gave commandment and caused Exod. 36. 5 6 7. it to be Proclaimed through the Camp that they should bring no more for that they had already brought enough and too much So they that returned out of Babylon were as ready and as willing to offer up their gifts and free-wil-offerings for the service of the Temple as their Forefathers were for the erecting of the Tabernacle as you may see it in the books of Ezra and of Neh 7. 70. c. 10. 33. Nehemiah But the Christians of the Primitive Church were so zealous herein that they exceeded all that went before them in their Donations and Free-wil-offerings for the service of God and the increase of the Christian Religion for they sold their Lands and Possessions and laid the prizes thereof at the Apostles feet and had all things in common among themselves And Pope Vrban the I. instituted Vt eâ—clesias praedia ac fundos fidelibus oblatos Platin. in Vrban â—piscopus recipereâ— partireturque proventus clericis omnibus viritim
be a tumult And no marvel Because they received incouragement as we believed from their defence and no reproof that we found was made for this indignity offered unto the King But if I be constrained and in danger it is not enough for me that I am voted free and safe For if that which looks as like a tumult as that did or as the representation of my face in the truest Glasse is like my face doth come against me and incompasse me about though I may be perhaps in more safety yet I shall think my self in great fear and in no more security than His Majesty was at Edge-hill 3. Because as the viewer of the Observat hath very well exprest it No Act 3. Reason p. 7. of Parliament can prevail to deprive the King of His Right and Authority as an Attainder by Parliament could not bar the Title to the Crown from descending on King Hen. 7. Nor was an Act of Parliament disabling King Hen. 6. to re-assume the Government of his people of any force but without any repeal in it self frustrate and void 7. Rep. 14. Calvins case an Act of Parliament cannot take away the protection or the Subjects service which is due by the Law of Nature 11. rep Sur de la Wares case William de la Ware although disabled by Act of Parliament was neverthelesse called by Queen Elizabeth to sit as a Peer in Parliament for that it seems the Queen could not be barred of the service and counsel of any of Her Subjects 2. H. 7. 6. a Statute that the King by no non obstante shall dispence with it is void because it would take a necessary part of Government out of the Kings hand And therefore I see not how this Act can deprive the King of the service and counsel of all his Bishops and Clergy but that it is void of it self and needeth no repeal or if otherwise yet seeing that besides all this 13. of the Bishops were shut in prison when this Act passed and their protestation was made long before this time and it was so unduly framed so illegally prosecuted and with such compulsive threats and terrours procured to be passed I hope the wisdom of the next Parliament together with their love and respect to the Church and Church-men will nullifie the same CHAP. VI. Sheweth the Plots of the Faction to gain unto themselves the friendship and assistance of the Scots And to what end they framed their new Protestation How they provoked the Irish to rebell and what other things they gained thereby ANd thus the Sectaries of this Kingdom and the Faction in this Parliament have by their craft and subtilty prevailed to have all the chiefest impediments of their Design to be removed So now the hedge is broken down and all the Boars of the Forrest may now come into the vineyard to destroy the vine and to undermine the City of God But into their counsels let not my soul come 2. When they had taken away these stops and hinderances of their projects they were to recollect and make up the furtherances that might help 2. The furtherances of their Design were five to advance their Cause for the founding of their new Church and the establishing of their famous Democratical Government and popular Common-wealth And these I find to be principally five 1. The gaining of their Brethren of Scotland to become their fast and faithful friends 2. The framing of a Protestation to frighten the Papists and to insnare the simple to be led as they listed to prosecute their Design 3. The condemning of our late Canons as abominable in their judgement and inconsistent with their Religion 4. The appointing of a new Synod the like whereof was never heard in the Church since Adam to compose such Articles as they liked and to frame such Discipline as should be most agreeable to their own dispositions 5. The setling of a Militia a word that the vulgar knew not what it was for to secure the Kingdom as they pretended from those dangers that they feared that is from those Jacks of Lent and men of Clouts which themselves set up as deadly enemies unto the Church and State but indeed insensibly to get all the strength of the Realm into their own hands and their Confederates that so they might like the Ephori bridle the King and bring him as they pleased to abolish and establish what Laws and Government they should propose whereby perhaps he might continue King in Name but they in Deed. These were the things they aimed at and they effected the first three before they could be discryed and their Plots discovered but in the other two they were prevented when God said unto them as he doth unto the Sea Hitherto shalt thou go and no further here shalt thou stay thy proud waves And therefore I am confident and I wish all good Christians were so that their purposes shall never succeed nor themselves prosper therein while the World lasteth because God hath so mercifully revealed so much so graciously assisted our King and so miraculously not only delivered him from them but also strengthened him against them contrary to all appearing likely-hood to this very day which is a sufficient argument to secure our faith that we shall by the help of our God escape all the rest of their destructive Designs But to display their Banners to discover their Projects and to let the World see what they are and how closely and yet cunningly they went about to effect their work I will in a plain manner set down what I know and what I have collected from other Writings and from men that are fide digni for one mans eyes cannot see all things nor infallibly perceive the Mysteries of all particulars for to confirm the faithful Subjects in their due obedience both to God and their King and to undeceive the poor seduced people that they perish not in the contradiction of Corah 1. It is believed not without cause with far greater probabilities than a 1 The indeering of themselves unto the Scots Our Sectâ—â—ies the inviters of the Scots to England bare suspicion that our own Anabaptistical Sectaries and this Faction were the first inviters of those angry spirits that conceived some cause to be discontented and were glad of secret entertainers to enter into the bosom of this Kingdom Whatsoever those our Brethren of Scotland did I will bury it according to their Act in oblivion neither approving nor yet blameing them for any thing But for any Subject of England to enterchange Messages and to keep private intelligence with any that seem to be in Arms against their King and the invaders of his Dominions to animate them to come and advance forward to refuse their Soveraigns Service and the Oath of their fidelity which was tendered unto them and to hinder the Kings Souldiers to do their duties either by denying to go with him or refusing to fight for him when
Printed and imprison if they can catch them all that publish them as they did many worthy Ministers in the City of London and in many other places of this Kingdom 6. They have publickly voted in their House and accordingly indeavoured 6. Wrong by Mâ—ssages to perswade our brethren of Scotland to joyn in their assistance with these grand Rebels to rebel against their Soveraign but I perswade my self as I said before that the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland are more Religious in themselves more Lâ—yal to their liege Lord and indeed wiser in all their actions then while they may live quietly at home in a happy peace to undertake upon the perswasions of Rebellious Subjects such an unhappy war abroad 7. It is remonstrated and related publickly that as if they had shaken 7. Wrong off all subjection and were become already a State Independent they have Treated by their agents with forraign States and do still proceed in that course which if true is such an usurpation upon Soveraignty as was never before attempted in this Kingdom and such a Presumption as few men know the secret mischiefs that may luâ—k therein 8. They suffer and licence their Pamphleters Pryn Goodwin Burges 8. Wrong Marshal Sedgwick and other emissaries of wickedness to publish such Treasons and Blasphemies and abominable Aphorisms As that thâ— negative vote of the King is no more then the dissent of one man the Affirmative vote of the King makes not a Law ergo the Negative cannot destroy it and the like absurd and sensless things that are in those Aphorisms and in Prins book of the Soveraign power of Parliament whereby they would deny the Kings power to hinder any Act that both the Houses shall conclude and so taking away those just prerogatives from him that are as Hereditary to him as his Kingdom compell him to assent to their conclusions for which things our Histories tell us that other Parliaments Why the two Spencers died have banished and upon their returns they were hanged both the Spencers the Father and the Son for the like presumption as among other Articles for denying this Prerogative unto their King and affirming Per aspertevid Ebsmere postnaâ—i p. 99. that if he neglected his duty and would not do what he ought for the good of the Kingdom he might be compelled by force to perform iâ— which very thing divesteth the King of all Soveraignty overthroweth Monarchy and maketh our government a meer Aristocracy contrary to the constitution of our first Kings and the judgment of all ages for we know full well from the Practise of all former Parliaments that seeing the three Pag. 48. States are subordinate unto the King in making Laws wherein the chiefest power consisteth they may propound and consent but it is still in the Kings power to refuse or raâ—ify and I never read that any Parliament man till now did ever say the contrary but that if there be no concurrence of the King in whom formally the power of making of any Law resideth ut in subjecto to make the Law the two Houses whose consent is but a requisite condition to compleat the Kings power are but a liveless convention like two Cyphers without a figure that of themselves are of no value or power but joyned unto their figures have the full strength of their places which is confirmed by the Viewer of the Observations out of 11. Hen. 7. 23. per Davers Polydore 185. Cowel inter verbo Praerog Sir Pag. 19 20 21. Thomas Smyth de republ Angl. l. 2. c. 3. Bodin l. 1. c. 8. For if the Kings consent were not necessary for the perfecting of every Act then certainly as The Letter to a Gentleman in Gloucestershire p. 3. another saith all those Bils that heretofore have passed both Houses and for want of the Royal assent have slept and been buried all this while would now rise up as so many Laws and Statutes and would make as great confusion as these new orders and ordinances have done And as the Lawyers tell us that the necessity of the assent of all three States in Parliament is such as without any one of them the rest do but Lamberts Archeion 271. Vid. the Viewer p. 21. lose their labour so Le Roy est assentus ceo faict un Act de Parliament and as another saith Nihil ratum habetur nisi quod Rex comprobarit Nothing is perfected but what the King confirmeth But here in the naming of the three States I must tell you that I find in most of our Writers about this new-born question of the Kings power a very great omission that they are not particularly set down that the whole Kingdom might know which is every one of them and upon this omission I conceive as great mistake in them that say the three States are 1. The King 2. The House of Peers Which be the three States of England 3. The House of Commons For I am informed by no mean Lawyer that you may find it upon the Rowls of Henry the fifth as I remember and I am sure you may find it Speed l 9. c. 19. p. 712. Anno. 1 Ric. 3. in the first year of Richard the third where the three States are particularly named and the King is none of them For it is said That at the request and by the assent of the three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and Commons of the Land Assembled it is declared that our said Soveraign Lord the King is the very undoubted King of this Realm Wherein you may plainly see the King that is acknowledged their Soveraign by all three can be none of the three but is the head of all three as the Dean is none of the Chapter but is Caput capituli and as in France and Spain so in England I conceive the three Estates to be 1. The Lords Spiritual that are if not representing yet in loco in the behalf of all the Clergy of England that till these Anabaptistical tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field were thought so considerable a party as might deserve as well a representation in Parliament as old Sarum or the like Borough of scarce twenty Houses 2. The Lords Temporal in the right of their Honor and their Posterity 3. The Commons that are elected in the behalf of the Conntrey Cities and Butroughs and what these three States consult and conclude upon for the good of the Church and Kingdom the King as the head of all was either to apprâ—ve or reject what he pleased And Joh. Beda advocate in the Court of Parliament of Paris saith p. 42. De jure Regum The Church is within the State made a part of the same and is subject to the Soveraign of the whole Territory being in France and England one of the three estates of the Kingdom whereof the King is head and superior aswel of the Clergy
the Church where it forbiddeth the Bishops to reiterate baptisme to paint or grave on earth the Image of our Saviour L. 1. tit 5. L. 1. tit 7. Novel 123. c. 10. Novel 58. Novel 137. c. 6. And in the Novels the Emperour ordaineth Lawes of the creation and consecration of Bishops that Synods should be annually held that the holy mysteries should not be celebrated in private houses that the Bishops should speak aloud when they celebrate the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Eucharist and that the holy Bible should be translated into the vulgar tongue and the like And not onely these and the rest of the godly Emperours that succeeded them but also Ariamirus Wambanus Richaredus and divers other Kings of Spaine did in like manner And Charlemaigne who approved not the decisions of the Greekish Synod wrote a book against the same * Intituled A Treatise of Charlemaigne against the Greekish Synod touching Images whereby the King maintained himself in possession to make Lawes for the Church saith Johannes Beda of which Lawes there are many in a book called The capitulary Decrees of Charles the Great who as Pepin his predecessour had done in the City of Bourges so did he also assemble many Councils in divers places of his Kingdoms as at Mayns at Tours at Reines at Chaalons at Arles and the sixt most famous of all at Francfort where himself was present in person and condemned the errour of Felician and so other Kings of France and the Kings of our own Kingdom of England both before and after the Conquest as Master Fox plentifully recordeth did make many Lawes and Constitutions for the government of God's Church But as Dioclesian that was neither the best nor the happiest governour said The saying of â—â—oclesian most truly of the civil government that there was nothing harder then to râ—le well * That is to rule the Common-wealth so it is much harder to govern the Church of Christ therefore â—s there cannot be an argument of greater wisdome in a Prince nor any â—hiâ—g of greater safety and felicity to the Common-wealth then for him to make â—hâ—ice of a wise Council to assist him in his most weighty affaires saith Cornâ—lius Tacitus Tacitus Annâ— lib. 12. So all religious Kings must do the like in the government of the Church and the making of their Lawes foâ— that government foâ— God ouâ— of his great mercy to them and no less desire to have his people religiously governed left such men to be theiâ— supporters their helpers and advisers in the performance of these 〈◊〉 and â— pray you whom did Kings chuse for this business but whom Gâ—â— â—ad oâ—dâ—ned for that purpose for you may observe that although those Christian King and Emperours made their Lawes as having the supremacy and the 〈◊〉 â—â—r of 〈◊〉 â—eligion committed by God into their hands yet they dâ—d never make them that ever I could read with the advice counsel or direction of any of â—heir Peers or Lay Subjects but as David had Nathan and Gâ—◠〈◊〉 had Daniel and the rest of the Jâ—wish Kings and The good Kings Emperours made their Lawes for the government of the Church onely by the advâ—ce of their Clergy A good Law of Iâ—stinian Constit 123. Heathens had their Prophets onely and Priests to direct them in all matters of religion so those Chrâ—stian Kings and Princes took their Bishops and their Clergâ—e â—nâ—ly to be their counsellors and directors in all Church causes as it appeareth out of all the 〈◊〉 Authors and all the Histories that do write thereof and Justinian pâ—blishâ—d this Law that when any Ecclesiastical cause or matter was moved his Lay officers should not intermeddle with it but should suffer the Bishops to end the same according to the Canons the words are Si Ecclesiastâ—â—â—m negotium sit nullam communionem habento â—iviles magistratus cum â—a disceptatione sed religiosâ—ssimi Episcopi secundum sacros canones negotio finem imp nuntâ— â—or the good Emperour knew sull well that the Lay Senate neither â—nderstood what to determine in the points of faith and the government of Christ's Church nor was ever willing to do any great good or any special favour unto the Shepherds of Christ's flock and the â—eachers of the true religion because the Son of God had foâ—e-told it that the world should hate us that secular men and Lay Senatours should commonly oppose cross and shew all the John 15 19. Matth. 10. 16. spite they can unto the Clergy of whom our Saviour saith Behold I send you forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sheep in the midst of wolves Whence this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great distance between their dispositions being observed it grew into a Proverb that Laici semper infesti sunt Clericis And Doctour Meriton In a Sermon before King James observed this as one of the good savours the How the Laity love the Clergy A very memorable act Anno 39 Eliz. cap. 4. Clergie of England found from our Parliaments since the reformation when many men first began to be translated from the seat of the scornefull to sit in Moses chaire aâ—d to prescribe Lawes for Christ his Spouse to make an Act that all wandering beggars after their correction by the Constable should be brought to the Minister of the Paâ—ish to have their names registred in a Book and the Constable used to give to the Minister 2d for his paines for every one so registred but if he refused or neglected to do it the Statute saith he should be punished sive shillings for every one that should be so omitted where besides the honourable office I will not say to make the Minister of Christ a Bedle of the Beggars but a Register of the vagrants you see the punishment of one neglect amounteth to the reward of thirty labours therefore all the Christian Emperours and the wisest Kings considering this great charge that God had laid upon them to make wholesome Lawes and Constitutions for the government of his Church and seeing the inclinations of the Laity would never permit any of these Lay Elders and the Citizens of the world to usurp this authority to be the composers contrivers or assistants in concluding of any Ecclesiastical Law until the fences of God's vineyard were pulled down and the That the Laity should have no interest in making Laws for the Church wilde Boar out of the forrest the audacious presumption of the unruly Commonalty ventured either to govern the Church or to subdue their Prince since which incroachment upon the rights of Kings it hath never succeeded well with the Church of Christ and I dare boldly say it fidenter quia fideliter and the more boldly because most truly the more authority they shall gain herein the less glory shall Christ have from the service of his Church and the efore Be wise ô ye Kings And consider how any new Canons are to be made by our
justly belong quia non jam haereditas est sed proprium adeuntis patrimonium cujus ei pleno jure dominium acquiritur non à Patre non à populo sed à lege Because he hath this right unto the Crown not from his Father nor from the people but from the Law of the Land and from God himself which appointed him for the same saith the Civilian and therefore that vulgar saying is not absurd nunquam mori Regem That the King never dyeth for as soone as ever the one parteth with this life the other immediately without exspecting the consent either of Peeres or people doth by a just and plenary right succeed not onely as his fathers heir but as the lawful governour of the people and as the Lord of the whole kingdome not by any option of any men but by the condition of his birth and the donation of his God and therefore the resignation of the Crown by King John unto the Pope was but a fiction that could infer no diminution of the right of his successour because no King can give away this right from him whom God hath designed for it And there be some things which no Christian King should grant away as any of those things that being granted may prejudice the Church of God things that the King should not grant and depresse the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the giving way for the diminution of the just revenues of the Church the prophanation of things consecrated to Gods service and the suppression of any of the divine callings of the Gospel which are Bishops Priests and Deacons because all kings are bound to honour God and to hinder all those things whereby he is dishonoured either in respect of things persons or places And there be some things which the Kings of this realm have never granted Things that kings have not granted away away but have still retained them in their own hands as inviolable prerogatives and characteristical Symboles and Properties of their Supremacy and the relicks of their pristine right as in the time of peace those two special parts of the gouernment of the Common-wealth which do consist 1. About the Laws 1. About the Lawes 2. About the Magistrates The first whereof saith Arnisaeus containeth these particulars that is to make Lawes to create Nobility and give titles of dignity to legitimate the ill begotten to grant Priviledges to restore Offenders to their lost repute to pardon the transgressors and the like 1. Then it is the right of the King jura dare to give Laws unto his people for though as I said before the Subjects in Parliament may treat of Lawes 1. Jus Legislativum Johan Beda pag. 25. The power of making Lawes is in the King and intreat the King to approve of them that they propose unto him yet they are no Laws and carry with them no binding force till the King gives his consent and therefore out of Parliament you see the Kings Proclamation hath vim vigorem legis the full force and strength of a Law to shew unto us that the power of making Lawes was never yeilded out of Kings hands nor can it indeed be parted with except he part with His Majesty and Soveraignty for the The case of our affaires pag. 11. limiting of his own power by his voluntary concession of such favours unto his people not to make any Lawes without their consent doth no way diminish his Soveraignty or lessen his own right and authority but as a man that yeildeth Stat. West 1. 3. E. 1. 3. 6. 42. Stat. of Merch. 13. E. 1. West 3. 18. E. 1. 1. Stat. of Waste 20. E. 1. of appeale 28. E. 1. 1. E. 2. 1. and all the titles and acts of our Parliaments himself to be bound by some others hath the use of his strength taken from him but none of his naturall strength it self is lessened and much lesse is any part of it transferred to them that bound him but that whensoever his bonds are loosened he can work again by vertue of his own naturall strength and not by any received strength from his loosers so the naturall right and interest of the Soveraignty being solely in the King and the Peeres and Commons by the Kings voluntary concession being onely interessed in the office of restraining his power for the more regular working of the true legitimate Soveraignty it cannot be denyed but in whatsoever the Peeres and Commons do remit the restraint by yeilding their consent to the point proposed thâ— King worketh and acteth therein absolutely by the power of his own inherent Soveraignty and all acts and lawes so passing doe virtually proceed from the King as from the true How the same acts may be said to be the acts of the King and of the Parliament and proper efficient author thereof and may notwithstanding be said to be the acts of the whole Court because the three estates contribute their power of remitting the restraint and yeilding their assent as well as the King useth his unrestrained power And therefore Suarez saith that as condere legem unus est ex praecipuis actibus gubernationis reipublicae ita praecipuam superiorem requirit potestatem to make Lawes is one of the chiefest acts of the government of a Common-wealth so it Suarez l. 1. c. 8 n. 8. requireth the cheifest and supremest power and authority quae quidem potestas legislativa primariò in Deo est which legislative power is primarily in God and is communicated unto Kings saith he per quandam participationem according to the saying of the wise man Heare O ye Kings because power is given Sap. 6. unto you of the Lord. And Saint Augustine calleth Jura humana jura imperatorum quia ipsa jura humana per imperatores all humane lawes are the lawes Aug. in Joan. tract 6. of Emperors or Kings because they are made by them and the Holy Ghost speaking of the Kings of Judah saith The Scepter shall not depart Gen. 49. 10. from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet to teach us that whosoever swayeth the Scepter hath the right to be the Law-maker which is one of the prime prerogatives of Soveraignty 2. Jus nobilitandi the right of appointing the principall Officers of State 2. Ius nobilitandi to cry up any of all his Subjects whom the King will honour as Pharaoh did Joseph and Ahasuerus did Haman and Mordecai and to give them titles of honour per codicillos honorarios aut per dâ—plomata sua as to make Dukes Marquesses Barons Knights c. doth belong onely unto the King that hath onely the supreme Majesty But if the Dukes Earles and Barons be so plyable to the Puritan faction to It is the Doctrine of the Anabaptists and Puritans that there should be no Degrees of Schooles nor titles of honour among men put down the spiritual Lords I doubt
was made the same year reciting the former matter that was enacted in these words It seemed to the said Earls Statutes unwillingly procured from the king repealed Barons and otherwise men that since the Statute did not of our free will proceed the same to be void and ought not to have the name nor strength of a Statute and therefore by their counsell and assent we have decreed the said Statute to be void c. So I hope our Earles and Baron and the rest will be so wise and so just both to the king and to the Church that seeing this Statute proceeded not of the kings free will as I beleeve their own conscience knoweth and do presume His Majesty will acknowledge they likewise will consent that the king may make it void again §. Certaine Quaeres discussed but not resolved the end for which God ordained Kings the prayse of a just rule Kings ought to be more just then all others in three respects and what should most especially move them to rule their people justly AND here I must further craue leave to be resolved in certain Quaeres and doubts wherein I would very gladly be satisfied for seeing as I told you before there are some rights of royalty which are inseperabilia â— majestate which the king ought not and which indeed he cannot grant away as there be some things which he may forgoe though he need not I demand 1. Whether any positive Act Statute or Law that is either ex diametro or ex 1. Quaere obliquo either directly or by consequent or any other way contradictory or transgressive to the Law of God ought to be kept and observed wherein I beleive and constantly maintain that it ought not and I say further that by the Word of God not any Lay men be they never so noble never so learned and never so many but the Clergy be they never so poore and never so much dis-esteemed ought to be the resolvers of this point what is repugnant and what consonant to the Law of God because the Priests lips must preserve knowledge and the people must Malach. 2. 7. seek the Law at his mouth therefore it may be conceived no Statute can be rightly made that is not assented to and approved as all our former Statutes were by the Bishops that are the chiefest of the Clergy to be no wayes contrary to the Law of God 2. Whether the king that is an absolute Monarch to whom God hath committed 2. Quaere the charge and government of his people can without offence to God change this forme of government from a Monarchicall to an Aristocraticall or a Democraticall forme of government which may be beleived he cannot because though as I shewed out of Saint Augustine the worser forme invented by man may lawfully be changed into a better yet the best which is onely and primarily ordained by God cannot be changed into a worser without offence 3. Whether the king can passe away that power authority and right which 3. Quaere God hath given him and without which he cannot govern and protect his people that God hath committed under his charge wherein it may be conceived he cannot because God must discharge him from the charge that he imposed upon him before he can be freed and excused from it but as the Bishop on whom the Lord hath laid the charge of soules cannot lay aside this charge when he pleaseth so no more can the King lay aside the charge of the Government nor paâ—t with that power and right * Otherwise then by substitution Rege absente durante beneplacito or quamdiu se benè gesserinâ— substituti whereby he is inabled to govern them and without which he cannot governe them untill God that laid this charge upon him and gave him full power and authority to do it by some undeniable dispensation gives him his Writ of ease to dischaâ—ge him 4. Whether such an Act or Statute which disinableth any King to dissolve his Dyet Councill Assembly or Parliament and inableth some subtle faction of his Subjects in some sort to countermand their King be not derogatory to the inseperable right of Majesty destructive to the power of government and 4. Quaere prejudicial to all the loyall Subjects and therefore void of it selfe and not to be observed because such an act ought not to have been concluded wherein I The Act for the indissolubility of any Parliament beleived by many to be of it selfe void 1. Reason leave the resolution to be dete mined by the Judges and Bishops of this Land and I will onely crave leave to set down what may be thought herein viz. that such an Act or Statute is clearly and absolutely void 1. Because that hereby the King may be said after a sort and in some kinde to change the fundamentall constitution and Government of his Kingdome from an absolute Monarchy to another spâ—cies and forme of Government either Aristocratiâ—all or Democraticall or some other forme emergent out of all these such as we know not how to terme it and such as was never known from the beginning of the world a mixture indeed which I told you before no absolute King can be thought to do without offence unless he can prove his licence from God to do the same 2. Because that hereby he may be said to denude himselfe of his Right and 2. Reason by depriving himselfe of this power to disinable himselfe to discharge that duty which God doth necessarily require at his hands that is to govern his people by pâ—â—tecting the innocent and punishing the wrong doer and when God shall call the King to an account why he did not thus governe his people and defâ—nd those poore Subjects that were loyal and faithful both to God and their King according to the charge that he laid upon him and the right and power which he gave him to discharge it It may be feared it will be no sufficient answer for any King to say but I have so laid away that power and parted with that right unto my Lords and Commons that I could not do it for it may be asked where doth God require him or when did he authorize him to devest himselfe of that authority wherewith he indued him how then can he do it to the undoing of many people without an assured leave from God therefore as that Act which was made unrepealable was adjudged no Act but immediately void because it was destructive to the very power of Parliament * Which may repeale their owne Acts but noâ— destroy their just power nor themselves as it seemes the Act of excluding the Bishops doth and takes away as it were the soule of the Parliament 3. Reason and if any act should be made to destroy common right or to hinder the publique service of God or to disinable the right heire to injoy the Crowne or the like those Acts are void
with us to the comfort of our King and the glory of our God through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with his Father and the Holy Spirit be all honour thanks prayse and dominion for ever and ever Amen Amen Jehovae liberatori FINIS Errata PAge â— lin 35. dele not p. 5. l. 50. for make r. made p. 9. l. 23. for hand r. had p. 27. l. 53. dele can p. 39. l. 25. r. right to be p. 51. l. 54. r. this day p. 54. l. 37. dele and p. 61. l. 21. r. that denyed repentance p. 62. l. â—â— r. the same hope p. â—5 l. 18. for justice r. injustice p. 106. l. 49. for ye r. yet The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in the RIGHTS of KINGS CHAP. I. Sheweth who are the fittest to set down the Rights which God granted unto Kings what causeth men to rebell the parts considerable in S. Peter's words 1 Pet. 2. 17. in fine How Kings honoured the Clergy the faire but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefly ayme at and their malice to Episcopacy and Royalty Pag. 1 CHAP. II. Sheweth what Kings are to be honoured the institution of Kings to be immediately from God the first Kings the three chiefest rights to kingdoms the best of the three Rights how Kings came to be elected and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracy and Democracy issued out of Monarchy 7 CHAP. III. Sheweth the Monarchicall Government to be the best forme the first Government that ever was agreeable to Nature wherein God founded it consonant to Gods own Government the most universally received throughout the world the immediate and proper Ordinance of God c. 11 CHAP. IV. Sheweth what we should not do and what we should do for the King the Rebels transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themseves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their own Kings of Israel c. 17 CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himself before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen Persecuting Emperours 23 CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three several opinions the strange speeches of the Disciplinarians against Kings are shewed and Viretus his scandalous reasons are answered the double service of all Christian Kings and how the Heathen Kings and Emperours had the charge of Religion 27 CHAP. VII Sheweth the three things necessary for all Kings that would preserve true Religion how the King may attain to the knowledge of things that pertain to Religion by His Bishops and Chaplains and the calling of Synods c. 34 CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Lawes by the advice of of their Bishops and Clergy and not of their Lay-Counsellors how our late Canons came to be annulled c. 40 CHAP. IX Sheweth a full answer to four speciall Objections that are made against the Civill jurisdictions of Ecclesiasticall persons their abilities to discharge these offices and desire to benefit the Common-wealth why some Councels inhibited these Offices unto Bishops c. 47 CHAP. X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensation is reasons for it to tolerate divers Sects or sorts of Religions the foure speciall sorts of false Professors S. Augustines reasons for the toleration of the Jewes toleration of Papists and of Puritans and which of them deserve best to be tolerated among the Protestants and how any Sect is to be tolerated 56 CHAP. XI Sheweth where the Protestants Papists and Puritans do place Soveraignty who first taught the deposing of Kings the Puritans tenet worse then the Jesuites Kings authority immediately from God the twofold royalty in a King the words of the Apostle vindicated from false glosses c. 64 CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their Government to whom the choice of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peeres nor Parliament can have Supâ—emacy the Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton answered our Lawes prove all Soveraignty to be in the King 70 § The two chiefest parts of the Regall Government the foure properties of â— just war and how the Parliamentary Faction transgress in every property 74 CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first Gouernment of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deut. 17. and of Samuel 1 Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of Gouernment came up 78 § The extent of the grants of Kings what they may and what they may not grant what our Kings have not granted in seven speciall prerogatives and what they have granted unto their people 83 CHAP. XIV Sheweth the Kings grants unto His People to be of three sorts Which ought to be observed the Act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament discussed the Kings Oath at His Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have been procured and repealed 88 § Certain quaeries discussed but not resolved the end for which God ordained Kings the praise of a just rule Kings ought to be more just then all others in three respects and what should most especially move them to rule their people justly 92 CHAP. XV. Sheweth the honour due to the king 1. Feare 2. An high â—steem of our king how highly the Heathens esteemed of their kings the Marriage of obedience and authority the Rebellion of the Nobility how haynous 3. Obedience foure-fold divers kindes of Monarchs and how an absolute Monarch may limit himselfe 98 CHAP. XVI Sheweth the answer to some objections against the obeying of our Soveraigne Magistrate all actions of three kindes how our consciences may be reformed of our passive obedience to the Magistrates and of the kings concessions how to be taken 104 CHAP. XVII Sheweth how tribute is due to the king for six speciall reasons to be paid the condition of a lawfull tribute that we should not be niggards to assist the king that we should defend the Kings Person the wealth and pride of London the cause of all the miseries of this Kingdome and how we ought to pray for our king 116 CHAP. XVIII The persons that ought to honour the king and the recapitulation of 21 wickednesses of the Rebells and the faction of the pretended Parliament 121 CHAP. XIX Sheweth how the Rebellious faction have transgressed all the ten Commandments of the Law and the new Commandment of the Gospell how they have committed the seaven deadly sins and the foure crying sins and the three most destructive sins to the soul of man and how their
Rents by you reserved and other particulars relating to the premises you are to give an exact and speedy Account unto Your very loving Friends Hen. Tichburn Joh. Stephens Hans Hamilton Ran. Clayton Alex. Piggot According to the purport of the above Letter We do hereby give notice unto all persons Concerned that Fryday next being the 30th of this Instant May We do intend to sett and dispose of all such Houses c. Which Letter we have thought fit to publish that so none might plead Ignorance Dated the 26th of May. 1662. Tho. Evans Rob. Lloyd Ol. Wheeler Will. Hamilton Hen. Brenn. Whereby all men may see how the Church and poor Bishop of Ossory do seem to stand in the hands of Scyron and Procrustes The Souldiers of the Vsurpers that fought against their King and do still detain the Church-land from the Bishop And now like that in the Canticles wounded in the house of our friends the Souldiers in 49. that were most faithful unto your Majesty do still seek to take away our Houses from the Church And if we lose both House and Land we may go to live in the Church and lie with the Levite in the Streets But as your Majesty hath been most Gracious to the Bishops and to all the Clergy so bountifull as to grant them almost as much as we could desire so our hope and humble Request is that you will not suffer these men to take from us so much as they desire For the preventing of which desire of theirs if it may be I have endeavoured to arm my self with a resolution neither to fear nor flatter any man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they that fear the smoak may fall into the fire Et qui timet pruinam opprimetur à nive that is as S. Gregory moralizeth it He that fears the frost of mans anger which he may tread under his feet may be overwhelmed with the hail and snow of God's wrath which shall fall upon his head so that he can not escape it And I have studied not to prepare sweet and savory meat unto my Readers but salubria medicamenta those medicines that shall be most wholesome for their Souls And because the ears of all Church-robbers are like the ears of the deaf Adder that will not be charmed and the walls of this sin of Sacriledge are like the walls of Jericho that cannot be tumbled down without the shrill sound of Trumpets and Rams horns I have sharpned my Pen and in the bitterness of my soul for the havock that I see made of the Patrimony of God's Church I have indeavoured to speak not in the mild voice of Eli to his sons but with the rough speeches of Joseph unto his brethren that had slept so many years in their sins as our people have done in their Sacriledge and yet think it to be no sin And I doubt not but that this my Discourse will prove as the waters of gall and as bitter as wormwood unto those mens stomacks that are so greedy as we see men are to get away the lands and possessions of the Church and my self to be maligned and envyed to the full But I assure them Non flocci facio I weigh it not a rush for I have hardened my face like an Adamant and as the Lord saith to Ezechiel Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear I will speak what I conceive to be truth and nothing but what my Conscience tells me is truth And if in any thing I shall mistake it is not amor erroris the love of error or the hatred of any of those Sacrilegious persons that rob the Church but it is error amoris the error of my love to the Church of Christ and unfaigned desire to promote the service of God and the good of the poor and honest Irish of this Kingdom and so if I have offended I shall humbly crave your Majesties pardon and most willingly submit my self to the censure of the Church and with my morning evening and noon-daies prayers for your Majestie 's long-life and much happiness I rest Your Majestie 's most humble devoted and most faithful Loyal Subject Gryffith Ossory To all the COMMISSIONED OFFICERS of the KINGS ARMY in the year 1649. Noble and Worthy Gentlemen WHose true faithfulness to your King and great Valour in the Wars undertaken to defend the beâ—t King on And to say the truth I blame not all the Souldiers and Commissionâ—d Officers when I found very many of them very honest very religious men and some of them have told me they would not medle and wished that the rest of the Souldiers would not meddle with the lands or housesof the Church Earth and to preserve his undubitable Right unsnatched from him by wicked Rebels doth undoubtedly merit in the judgement of all wise and honest men no small Reward far more than the reach of my understanding can express Yet ye must give me leave to tell you That I should be heartily sorry that any man could justly say That your great Deserts were any wayes stained with the tincture of Sacriledge which I assure my self you would never permit if you conceived any thing that you do to have the least affinity with that ugly Bastard-Brat Therefore I have undertaken in the sincerity of my Conscience and according to the best and uttermost of my knowledge without the least ill thought of any of you all or the least covetous desire to take any thing from you that is inoffensively your due but to discharge the duty that Iowe to God and his Church to compose this subsequent Treatise concerning Sacriledge and to shew how horrible how odious a sin it is in the sight of God how derogatory and prejudicial it is to the Honour and Service of Jesus Christ and how dangerous and how it damnifieth those that commit it the same being a Canker that will eat and consume all that they have before many Generations pass away a sword that will cut down their posterity from off the earth and a sin that obligeth them to eternal damnation without the great mercy of God to accept their great and unfeigned repentance for the same And what you imagin I do herein against you I do assure you if you will believe me it is not so much to get either lands or houses from you as to hinder you as I conceive so deeply to wound your own selves For Better is a little that is duly gotten without blame and brings a blessing with it than a great deal that is unjustly obtained with a curse at the heels of it But you will say That you do nothing but what you justly may do by the Laws of our Land and what others do and have done before you And truly I do think so too But I have fully answered this Allegation and as I suppose whatsoever else can be said in this Treatise And I ask of you Whether you conceive that Humane Laws and Acts
God neither do I believe that the laws of our Christian Kings and Princes ever intended so to do for it is an old rule in law that Praelatus ecclesiae statum possessiones meliorare potest sed deteriorare non potest nec debet But when it was alledged and manifested in Parliaments that the houses belonging to the Church being ruined or far out of reparation and the lands either wast or not well managed could not be improved to the best advantage and benefit of the Church without the Tenants and present Occâ—piers thereof had some competent time therein therefore the pious Kings enacted their laws not to force but to licence Cathedrals and Colledges to lease out their lands and possessions not to make their children Why Bishopâ— and Clergy-men were permiâ—â—ed to granâ— leâ—seâ— of the lands and revenues of the Church and friends Knights and Ladies or to fill their own â—ossers with sines to the great prejudice of their successors and the neglect and treading down of Gods serviâ—e but that the revenue and the inheriâ—ance of the Church might be improved and the best advantage made of it for the glory of God and the furtherance of Gods service by the instruction of his people and relieving his poor members for which ends it was first dedicated unto God Therefore when either Bishop or any other Clergy man from the letter of the law doth pervert the end and abuse the meaning of the law I make it a case of Conscience and demand Whether such men as do let out the lands and houses of the Church for their own private gain and not for the benefit of Gods Church and the advancement of Gods service do not commit this horrible sin of Sacriledge For my part I conceive them to be the worst and most Sacrilegious persons of all others that should know the truth and not give such ill examples both of Covetousness and Sacriledge unto their neighbours but let them lease what they will for the benefit of How the Bishops and other Clergy-men may lease their Lands without Sacriledge Gods Church the furtherance of Religion and the no-prejudice of their successors and they shall never find me to oppose them But otherwise to lease the lands of the Church that is better worth then a 100 l. per annum for less then a 100 s. for to make our children great and the Church poor to benefit our selves and to prejudice Gods service and to say We have a law that warrants us to do it We have Acts of Parliament that allow it and have the practice and presidents of other Bishops Deans and Chapters that have done it is but to say as the Jews said to Pilate We have a law and by our law he ought to die And ought he therefore to die think you because these Jews had such a law I verily think not so and I think likewise that though you have or should have a law to take away and alienate the rights of the Church yet you should not do it if you love the Church or do any waies fear God And for the practice of some other Bishops Deans and Chapters I confess heretofore many of them have done bad enough and worse in my mind then the worst of lay men for them to sell the rights of the Church and so with Judas to betray their Master Christ but Vivitur praeceptis non exemplis if the practice and presidents of others would or could excuse our faults then Drunkards Whore masters and Murderers might easily find presidents enough to excuse their wickedness and so I know the Sacrilegious persons may as easily find the like But I shall hereafter shew you how and by whose power and by what By whole power the laws for leasing and passing away the Church-lands came to be made Consider that means these our Laws and Acts of Parliament for the alienating leasing and selling of the revenues of the Church came to be made and leave it to any pious mind and conscientious man to consider Whether they ought in the strictness thereof to be observed or not and not rather commend the care and great piety of our late most gratious King and now glorious Martyr Charles the I. Who a little to curb the extravagancies and large extent of our laws by his regall Authority wrote his letters to all Bishops Deans and Chapters that they should lease out their lands for no longer term then 21 years as it appeareth by this his most gratious and pious Letter directed unto my self the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedrall Church of Bangor which for the honour and praise and our thankfulness to so pious and so Religious a King for his care and love to the Church and service of God I thought it my duty to insert it in this place To our Trusty and wel-beloved the Dean of Bangor Charles Rex TRusty and welbeloved We greet you well We have lately tâ—ken the State of our Cathedral and Collegiat Churches into our Princely Consideration that We may be the better ablâ— to preserve that livelyhood which as yet is left unto them Vpon this deliberation We find that of later times there hath not risen a greater inconvenience then by turning Leases of one and twenty years into Lives for by that means the present Dean and Chapter put great Fines into their Purses to enrich themselves their wives and children and leave their Successors of what deserts soever to Vs and the Church destitute of that growing means which else would come in to help them By which course should it continue scarce any of them could be able to live and keep house according to their Place and Callings We know the Statute makes it alike lawful for a Dean and Chapter to let their Leases for the Term of one and twenty years or three Lives but time and experience have made it apparent that there is a great deal of difference between them especially in Church-Leases where men are commonly in years before they come to those Places These are therefore to will and command you upon peril of Our utmost displeasure and what shall follow thereon that notwithstanding any Statute or any other pretence whatsoever you presume not to let any Lease belonging to your Church into Lives that is not in Lives already And further where any fair opportunity is offered you if any such be you fail not to reduce such as are in Lives into Years And We do likewise will and require that these our Letters may remain upon Record in your own Register-Books and in the Register of the Lord Bishop of that Dioces that he may take notice of these our Commands unto you and give Vs and our Royal Successors knowledge if you presume in any sort to disobey them And further whereas in Our late Instructions O that the mind and piety of this most godly King expressed in this Letter had bin observed by all our Predecessors Bishops
and every one of us did make when we entred into holy Orders 3. These false Prophets saith the Apostle do lead simple or silly women 3. Noâ—â— 2 Tim 3. 6. Gen. 3. 1. 6. captives just as their Master first seduced Eve and she Adam so do these and because they have lesse worth than can attain to the height of their ambition you may see most of them by women raised to great fortunes that their pride disdaineth to be obedient or if they fail of such wives yet are they swelled with envie which is as rebellious in these as pride is in the other 6. Under the pretence of making our Clergie more spiritual and Apostolique 6 Ordered to take away all the revenues of the most worthy Clergy they have voted away most of our temporal estates the Lands and Lordships of the Bishops Deans and Prebends and the Pluralities of those persons that possessed double Benefices and made their Order that no man should pay any rent or any dues unto any of the forenamed persons And by this taking away the free-hold of the Clergy now in present which they hold with as good right and by the same Law as the best Lord in England holdeth his Inheritance and by this discouragement of Learning for the time to come they thought to make our Clergy Angelical but have proved themselves I will not say diabolical but most injurious unto the Church of Christ by committing an Act of as great injustice and as prejudicial to the Common-wealth as can be found among the Pagans For what can be more unjust or more inhumane than to take away my Lively-hood which is my very life in mine old age without any offence of mine for which I had laboured all the dayes of my life And what consequence can this produce than that which succeeded in the like case in Jeroboam's time when he robbed the Priests and Sublatis studiâ—rum prâ—miis ipsa studia pereunt C. Tacit. 1. Reg. 1â— 31. Matth. 15. 14. Levites of their Inheritance ignorance and barbarity and the basest of the people to be the Preachers of Gods Word whereby the blind do lead the blind untill both do fall into the ditch as I can testifie some of our greatest Nobility intended to make their sonnes Priests and Bishops while the glory of Israel and the beauty of our Church remained un-obscured and now contempt and poverty being enacted and ordered to be their portion those resolutions are vanished and the Vniversities can bear me witnesse the lowest Gentrie are not so well contented to undertake this highest calling These and many other things â—jusdem farinâ— of the same mold they have already done to overwhelm the ship of Christ under the waves of this turbulent Faction And these prophanations of Gods divine Service and the violations of the Sepulchres of the dead whose ashes and bones like canes sepulchrales they have disturbed in their graves and those unheard-of sacriledges on Gods Priests and portion are so equally practised that it is almost hard to judge which are greater either their impiety towards God their inhumanity towards the dead or their injustice towards the living CHAP. VIII Sheweth what Discipline or Church-government our factioâ—s Schismaticks do like best And twelve principal points of Doctrine which they hold as twelve Articles of their faith and we are to believe the same or suffer if this faction should prevail 2. FOr the discipline and the doctrine that they would establish they 2. What discipline and doctrine the new Synod is like to set up have not yet and I believe they can never fully agree what they shall be their desire is first to overthrow the old and then they will take care and consult how to devise a new but I could wish they would let the old alone till they could agree to produce a better Yet because their blind zeal is so violent to have their own unjust desires to destroy the vine-yard of Christ root and branch I that have served seven years a Lecturer among them in the heart of London and was conversant with the purest of these holy brethren and thereby understood most of their Anabaptistical and ridiculous tenets and what discipline they best liked will here draw you a model of their Vtopian or New England Church which they would transport hither to obscure the glory of old England 1. For their discipline and government Some would have the Scottish 1. Their discipline Synods and that form of Government which old furious Knox hath first brought among them and is fully described by that Reverend Arch-Bishop Bancroft in lib English â—cottizing Bancroft Others like better of the Geneva Assemblies instituted by M. Calvin and continued by Theodore Beza two worthy members of that Church or the discipline of the Hugonots in the new French Reformation which differeth but a little from the other But most of them like better of the manner of Amsterdam where every Church is independent and every Pastour is a Pope in his own Parish and to that purpose you may remember how vehemently they have lately most foolishly written * As Smith Best Davenport Canne Robinson and Mris. Childley and many other anonyms Sober Sadnesse p. 22. for this Independent Government and how the Lord Say and the Lord Brooks two leading Captains of that faction have often protested they would dispense with all sorts of Religions so they might freely exercise their own and that such a toleration ought to be granted to all others because their Independencie cannot otherwise consist for he that is accountable to none will use what Religion he pleaseth without controule and therefore they support their own Army by men of all Nations and Religions not their grand Adversaries the Papists excepted but of fifty or sixty Souldiers that billeted in Adthrop there were no less than three or four Papists amongst them But how unsutable these Governments would prove to stand with our How unsutable their government would be to our Gentric English Nobility and Gentry besides the novelty of them and how farre dissonant they are to the Apostolique discipline I will appeal to their own judgement when every undiscreet Parson and poor Vicar shall be able upon every discontent to excommunicate the best man in his Parish and as we have seen some of them debarring whom they pleased from the holy Table because their great anger or little judgement conceived them to be unworthy When as the Church deemed it fitter that none of her children should undergo the least indignity for any personal distaste but upon due examination of witnesses a full hearing and a just censure in open Court which course if it be neglected should be rather punished in the offenders than the discipline dissolved the Governours removed and a new fantastical fancie erected 2. For the Doctrines of these men they are like the poetical fiction of 2. The Doctrines of the faction that are like to
Edward the first Si disputatio oriatur justiciarii non possunt cam interpretari sed in dubiis obscuris Domini regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas câ—m ejus sit interpretari Citatur à Domino Elism in post-nati p. 108. cujus est condere If any Dispute doth arise the Judges cannot interpret the same but in all obscure and doubtful questions the interpretation and the will of the King is to be expected when as he that makes the Law is to be the expounder and interpreter of the Law Yet they have challenged and assumed to themselves such a power that their bare Vote without any Act of Parliament may expound or alter a known Law which if it were so they might make the Law as Pighius saith of the Scripture like a nose of wax that may be fashioned and bended as they pleased but we do constantly maintain That the House of Commons hath no power to adjudge of any point or matter but to inform the Lords what they conceive and the House of Peers hath the power of Judicature which they are bound to do according to the Rules of the known established Laws and to that end they have the Judges to inform them of those cases and to explain those Laws wherein themselves are not so well experienced though now they sit in the House for cyphers even as some Clergy did many times in the Convocation and if any former Statute be so intricate and obscure that the Judges cannot well agree upon the right interpretation thereof then as in explaining Poynings Act and the like either in England or Ireland the makers of the Act that is the King and the major part of both Houses must explain the same 3 In composeing and setting forth new laws 3. Whereas we never knew that the House had any power to make Orders and Ordinances to bind any besides their own Members to observe them as Laws yet they compell us to obey their Orders in a stricter manner than usually we are injoyned by Law and this course to make such binding Ordinances as they do to carry the force though not the name of an Act of Parliament or a Law is a mighty abuse of our Laws and Liberties for Sir Edward Cook tells us plainly That as the constitution of our Government now standeth neither the House of Commons and King can make any binding Law when the Peers dissent nor â— Cook in the Preface of the Stat. of Westminster the second Lamberts Archeion 271. the Lords and King when the Commonalty dissenteth nor yet both Houses without the Kings consent but all three King Peers and Commons must agree before any coactive Law can be composed Nay more it is sufficiently proved that Dare â—us populâ— or the legislative power being one principall end of Regall Authority was in Kings by the Law of Nature while they governed the people by naturall equity long before municipall Laws or Parliaments had any beeing For as the Poet saith Remo cum fratre Quirinus Jura dabat populo Hoc Priami gestamen erat cum jura vocatis More daret populis Because this was the custom of the Kings of Scythia Assyria Aegypt c. long before Moses and Pharonaeus when Municipall Laws first began to give Laws unto their people according to the Rules of Naturall equity which by the Law of Nature they were all bound to observe And though some Kings did graciously yield and by their voluntary oathes for themselves and their successors bind themselves may times to stricter limits than were absolutely requisite as William Rufus King Stephen Henry the fourth Richard the third and the like granted many Priviledges perhaps to gain the favour of their Subjects against those which likely had a better Title to the Crown than themselves or it may be to satisfie their people as the guerdon or compensation for the sufferance of some fore-passed grievances as Henry the first Edward the second Richard the second and the like yet these limitations being agreeable to equity and consistent with Royalty and not forcibly extracted ought in all truth and reason to be observed by them And hence it is that the Kings of this Realm according to the oathes and promises which they made at their Coronation can never give nor repeal any Law but with the assent of the Peers and People But though they have thus yielded to make no Laws nor to repeal any Laws without them yet this voluntary concession of so much grace unto the people doth no waies translate the legislative power from the King unto his assistants but that it is formaliter and subjectivè still in the King and not in them else would the government of this Kingdom be an Aristocracy or Democracy and not a Monarchy because the Supreme power of making and repealing Laws and Governing or judging decisively according to those Laws are two of those three things that give being to each one of these three sorts of Government Therefore the King of England being an absolute Monarch in his own Cassan in catal gloria mundi 2 2 Ed. 3. 3 pl. 25. Vid. The view of a Printed book intituled Observations c. Where this point is proved at large p. 18 19 21 22. Kingdom as â—assaneus saith and no man can deny it the Legislâ—tive power must needs reside solely in the King ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that power but only a condition yielded to be observed by King in the use of that power and so both the Oath of Supremacy and the form of all our ancient Statutes wherein the King speaks as the Law-maker do most evidently prove the same unto us Le Roy voit Neither durst any Subjects in former times either assume such a power unto themselves or deny the same unto their King for you may find how the House of Commons denying to pass the Bill for the Pardon of the Clergy which Henry the 8th granted them when they were all charged to be in a Premunire unless themselves also might be included within the pardon received this answer from the King that He was their Soveraign Lord and would not be compelled to shew his mercy nor indeed could they compel him to any thing else but seeing they went about to restrain him of his Liberty he would grant a pardon unto his Clergy by his great Seal without them though afterwards of his own accord he signed their pardon also which broughâ— great commendation to his judgment Sir Rich. Bakâ—r in viâ—a Hen. 8. to deny it at first when it was demanded as a right and to grant it afterward when it was received as of grace And yet the denyal of their assent unto the King is more equitable to them and less derogatory to him then to make orders without him And this manner of compulsion to shew grace unto themselves is more tolerable than to force him to disgrace
the whole Kingdom into my hands then they do all answer We are willing to do all this And then he saith again Therefore from hence-forth oris mei sermo gladius meus erit the word of my mouth shall be the sword of my power then all the people do applaud him And a little after he saith in ejus manibus seu potestate omnia sunt all things are in his hands and power no Aubarus l. 8. p. 141. man dare say this is mine or that is his no one man may dwell in any part of the Land but in that which is assigned unto him by the King Nomini licèt imperatoris verba mutare nomini latae ab illo sententiae qualicunque modo contraire and no man dares alter the Kings words nor gain say his sentence whatsoever it is And we read that the Turk is as absolute in his Dominions and as readily obeyed in his commands as the Tartar and yet these Subjects learn this duty of honour and obedience unto their Kings onely by the light of nature and if grace and the Gospel hath made us free from this slavish subjection should we not be thankful unto our God and be contented with that liberty which he hath given us but because we have so much we will have more * And as the Poet saith Like Subjects arm'd the more their Princes gave They this advantage took the more to crave Lucan lib. 1. and seeing God hath delivered us from the rage of tyrannous Kings we will free our selves from all government and disobey the commands of the most â—lâ—ment Princes We may remember the fable of the Frogs where they prayed unto Jupiter to haue a King and what was the success thereof omnia dat qui just a negat and he that undutifully denyeth his due obedience may unwillingly be forced to undue subjection as the Israelites not contented with just Samuel shall be put under an unjust Saul So God may justly deal with us for our injustice towards our King to deny that honour unto him which God commanded to be given and the very Heathens have not detained from their Kings But 3. â—est with Saint Paul we should be blamed though unjustly for bringing 3. Christians the uncircumcised Greeks into the Temple for alleadging the disorderly practice of blinde Heathens to be a pattern for these zealous Christians which thing notwithstanding our Saviour did when he preferred Sodom and Gomorrha before Capernaum yea Tyrus and Sidon before Corazin and Bethsaida we Matth. 11. 21. cannot want the example of good Christians and a multitude of most holy Martyrs 1. Christ himself exhibited all due honour unto wicked kings to shame the practice of these prophane hypocrites For 1. Christ himself the authour and the finisher of our faith never left any plainer mark of his religion then to propagate the same by patience as on the other side there cannot be a more suspitious sign of a false Religion then to enlarge it and protect it by violence and therefore when the Inhabitants of a certain Samaritane village refused to admit Christ and his Disciples into their Luke 9. 54. 1 Reg. 18. 2 Reg. 1. Town and so renounced him and his Religion James and John two principal members of his Court remembring what Elias did in the like case asked if they should not command fire to consume them as Elias did that is if they should not use their best endeavours and be confident of Gods assistance to destroy those prophane rejecters of Christ and refusers of his religion Our Saviour though ever meeke yet now moved at this their unchristian thought rebuked them with that sharpness as he did Saint Peter when he committed the like errour and said You know not what manner of spirit you are of as if he had said Matth. 16. 23. you understand not the difference betwixt the profession of Elias and my religion for he was such a Zelot that jure zelotarum and the extraordinary instinct of Gods spirit that was in him might at that time when the Jews were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus saith and God presiding as it were their King amongst them and interposing rules by his Oracles and other particular directions that should oblige and warrant them as well as their standing Law do this or the like act though not authorized by any ordinary Law and those actions thus performed are as just and as legal as any other that proceed from the authority of the supreame Magistrate but that dispensation of the Prophets is now ended and the profession of my Disciples must be far otherwise for I do not authorize my servants to pretend to the spirit of Elias or to do as Phineas and others extraordinary men among the Jews have done but they must learn of me to be meeke and lowly in heart and rather to suffer wrong of Matth. 11. 29. others then to offer the least injury unto their meanest neighbour much less to resist their supreame Magistrate And when Christ was apprehended not by any legal power of the supreme How Christ carried himself before Pilate and the High-Priests Magistrate but by the rude servants of the High Priests and Saint Peter as zealous for his Master as our Zealots are for their Religion drew his sword and smote off Malchus ear a most justifiable and commendable act a man would think to defend Christ and in him all Christianity our Saviour bids him put up his sword and he adds a reason most considerable to all Christians for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword that is all they that without lawful authority take the sword to defend me and my religion with the sword they deserve to suffer by the sword and it is very well observed by the Author of resisting the lawful Magistrate upon colour of religion that the two parallel places Pag. 6. quoted in the margent of our Bibles are very pertinent to this purpose for that Law concerning the effusion of bloud being not any prohibition to the legal Gen. 9. 6 cutting off of Malefactors is notwithstanding urged against S. Peter to shew that his shedding of bloud in defence of religion was altogether illegal and prohibited by that Law and the other place where immediately after these words He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword the Holy Revel 13. 10. Ghost adjoyneth here is the patience and the faith of the Saints doth most clearly shew that all forcible resistance is inconsistent with the religion of the Saints because their faith must be ever accompanied with their patience and it is contrary to their profession to save themselves by any violent opposition of them that have the lawful authority But that example which is unparallel'd is the suffering of Christ under Pontius Pilate for the whole course of their proceeding against Christ was illegal when as no Law can be
to make this yet more plain he addes Si Rex fuerit sine fraeno id est lege if the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he meanes by the bridle and thinke he meanes force and armes the Law they ought to put this bridle unto him that is to presse him with this Law and still to shew him his duty even as we do both to King and people saying this is the Law this should bridle you but here is not a word of commanding much lesse of forcing the King not a word of superiority nor yet simply of equality and therefore I must say hoc argumentum nihil ad rhombum 3 That neither Peers nor Parliament are co-ordinate with the King these do abuse every author If their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their natural strength and power but of their right and authority be coordinate and equal with the Kings authority then whether given by God which they cannot prove or by the people there must be duo summa imperia two supreme powers which the Philosophers say cannot be nam quod summum est unum est from whence they prove Omnâ—sque Philosoph jâ—riâ—consalti ponunt summum in eo rerum genere quod dicâ—di non possit Lâ—ctanâ— l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maâ—c 3. 24 the unity of the God-head that there can be but one God and if this supreme power be divided betwixt King and Parliament you know what the Poet saith Omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit Or you may remember what our Saviour saith If a Kingdome be divided against it selfe it cannot stand and therefore when Tiberius out of his wonted subtilty desired the Senate to appoint a colleague and partner with him for the better administration of the Empire Asinius Gallus that was desirous enough of their Pristine liberty yet understanding well with what minde the subtle fox spake onely to descry his ill willers after some jests answered seriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that government must not be divided because you can never have any happiness where the power is equally divided in two parts when according to the well known axiome to every one Par in parem non habet potestatem But to make the matter cleare and to shew that the Soveraignty The Case of our Affaires p. 19. 20. The Lawes of our Land acknowledge all Soveraignty in the King is inseperably inherent in the person of His Majesty we have the whole current of our very Acts of Parliament acknowledging it in these very termes Our Soveraigne Lord the King and the Parliament 25. Hen. 8. saith This your Graces Realme recognizing no superiour under God but your Grace c. And the Parliament 16. Rich. 2. 5. affirmeth the Crown of England to have been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the regality of the said Crown and to none other and in the 25. of Hen. 5. the Parliament declareth that it belongeth to the Kings regality to grant or deny what Petitions in Parliament he pleaseth and so indeed whatsoever authority is in the constant practice of the Kingdom or in the known and published Laws and Statutes it concludeth the Soveraignty to be fixed in the King and all the Subjects virtually united in the representative body of the Parliament to be obliged in obedience allegeance to the individual person of the King and I doubt not but our learned Lawyers can finde much more proofe then I do out of their Law to this purpose And therefore seeing divers supreme powers are not compatible in one State nor allowable in our State the conceit of a mixed Monarchy is but a foppery to prove the distribution of the supreme power into two sorts of governours equally indued with the same power because the supreme power being but one must be placed in one sort of governours either in one numericall man as it is in Monarchy or in one specificall kinde of men as the optimates as it is in Aristocracie or in the people as in Democracie but if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a mixed Monarchy you meane that this supreme power is not simply absolute quoad omnia but a government limited and regulated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we will not much quarrell with our Sectaries because His Majesty hath promised and we are sure he will performe it to govern his people according to the Lawes of this Land And therefore they that would rob the King of this right and give any part They deserve not to live in the Kingdom that diminish the supremacy of the King of his supreme power to the Parliament or to any of all his inferiour Magistrates deserve as well to be expelled the Kingdome as Plato would have Homer to be banished for bringing in the Gods fighting and disagreeing among themselves when as Ovid out of him saith Jupiter in Trojam pro Troja stabat Apollo Because as the Civilians say Naturale vitium est negligi quod communiter possidetur útque se nihil habere putet qui totum non habeat suam partem corrumpi patiatur dum invidet alienae and therefore the same Homer treating of our humane Government saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec multos regnare bonum rex unicus esto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle doth so infinitely commend where he disputeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Metaph. lib. 1. Statius Thebaid lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth Plato and all the wise Philosophers that followed after because as the Poâ—t saith Summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociâ—sque comes discordia regnis And as our own most lamentable experience sheweth what abundance of miseries happened unto our selves by this renting of the King's power and placing it in the hands of the Parliament and his own inferiour officers and as those sad Tragedies of Etheocles and Polynices Numitor and Amulius Romulus and Remus Antoninus and Geta and almost infinite more do make it manifest to all the world §. The two chiefest parts of the regal Government the four properties of a just war and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property 4. HAving spoken of those assistants that should further and not hinder 4 The chiefest parts of the Regal government which are two Exod. 2. 14. the King in the Common-wealth it resteth that I should now speak of the chiefest parts of this goâ—ernment when Moses killed the Aegyptian that wronged the Israelite and the next day said unto the Hebrew that did injure his fellow Wherefore smitest thou him the oppressor answered Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us and the people say unto Samuel we will have a King over us that our King may judge us and go out before us and 1 Sam. 8. 20. 2 Sam. 5. 2.
obliged to perform such a promise or to keep such an oath to tell you mine own judgement I think he ought not to perform it and our own Law tels us what grants soever are obtained from the King under the broad Seal by fraud and deceit those grants are void in Law therefore seeing the Act for the perpetuity of this Parliament was obtained dolâ— pessimo to the great dishonour of God and the ruine both of Church and State when their pretence was very good though the goodness of his Majesty in the tenderness of his conscience was still loath to allow himself the liberty to dissolve it until he had other juster and more clear causes to pronounce it no Parliament as the abusing of his grant to the raising of an Army and the upholding of a Rebellion against their Soveraign yet I believe he might safely have done it long agone without the least violation of God's Law when their evil intentions were openly discovered by those Armies which they raised For I doubt not to affirm it with the Authour of The sacred Prerogative of Christian Kings p. 144. if any good Prince or his royal Ancestors have been cheated out of their sacred right by fraud or force he may at the fittest opportunity when God in his wise providence offereth the occasion resume it especially when the Subjects do abuse the King's concessions to the dammage of Soveraignty so that it redounds also to the prejudice either of the Church or Common-wealth 3. When the King through fear not such as the Parliaments fear is who 3. Grants gotten by force not to be observed were afraid where no fear was and were frighted with dreames and causelesse jealousies but that fear which is real and not little but such as may fall in fortem constantem virum doth passe any Law especially that is prejudicial to the Church and injurious to many of his Subjects I say that when he shall be freed from that fear he is not onely freed from the obligation of that Law but he is also obliged to do his uttermost endeavour to annul the same it is true that his fear may justly free him from all blame at the passing of it as the fear of the thief may clear me from all fault in delivering my purse unto him because these are no voluntary acts and all acts are adjudged good or evil according to the disposition of the will the same being like the golden bridle The will must never consent to forced acts that are unlawful His Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16. Julii p. 8. that Minerva was said to put upon Pegasus to guide him and to turn him as she pleased but when his fear is past and God hath delivered him from the insurrection of wicked doers if his will gives consent to what before he did unwilling who can free the greatest Monarch from this fault Therefore His Majesty confessing which we that saw the whole proceedings of those tumultuous routs that affrighted all the good Protestants and the Loyal Subjects do know that it could not be otherwise that he was driven out of London for fear of his life I conclude that the act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament being past after his flight out of London can be no free nor just nor lawful act and the King when he is more fully informed of many particulars about this act that is so prejudicial to the Church of Christ and so injurious to all his servants the Clergy whose rights and priviledges the King promised and sware at His Coronation to maintain cannot continue it in my judgement and be innocent But this is answered by the answerer to Doctour Ferne that he is no more Ob. Pag. 31. bound to defend the rights of the Clergy by his oath then the râ—st of the Lawes formerly enacted whereof any may be abrogated without perjury when they are desired to be annulled by the Kingdome To which I say that as His Majesty confesseth there are two speciall questions Sol. His Majesties answer to the â—eâ—onstrance or declaration of the Lords and Commons 26. of May 1642. demanded of the king at His Coronation 1. Sir Will you grant and keep and by your oath confirm to the people of England the Lawes and Customes to them granted by the Kings of England your lawfull and religious predecessors And the king answereth I grant and promise to keep them 2. After such questions as concerne all the commonalty of this kingdome both Clergy and Laity as they are his Subjects one of the Bishops reads this admonition to the king before the people with a loud voice Our Lord and King we beseech you to pardon and to grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to our charge all Canonicall priviledges and due law and justice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in His Kingdome ought to be the protector and defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government And the king answereth With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my pardon and that I will preserve and maintaine to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonicall Priviledges and due law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good king in His kingdome in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government The Kings Oath at His Coronation two-fold Then the king laying his hand upon the book saith the things which I have before promised I shall performe and keep so helpe me God and the contents of this Book Where I beseech all men to observe that here is a two-fold promise and so a two-fold oath 1. The one to all the Commonalty and people of England Clergy and Laity The first part of the Oath Populâ— Anglicaâ—o Vide D. p. 165. and so whatsoever he promiseth may by the consent of the parties to whom the right was transferred be remitted and altered by the representative body in Parliament quia volenti non fit injuria and the rule holds good quibus modis contrahitur contractus iiâ—dem dissolvitur and therefore as any compact or contract is made good and binding so it may be made void and dissolved mutuo contrahentium â—ssensu by the mutuall assent of both parties that is any compact where God hath not a speciall interest in the contract as he hath in the conjugall contract betwixt man and wife and the politicke covenant betwixt the Contracts wherein God is interessed cannot be dissolved without God King and His Subjects which therefore cannot be dissolved by the consent of the parties untill God who hath the cheifest hand in the contract gâ—ves his assent to the dissolution and so when things are dedicated for the service of God or Priviledges granted for his honour neither donor nor receiver can alienate
13. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13. How the Rebels swore and forswore themselves Kings at their admittance to any office to beare faith and true alleagiance to His Majesty at the beginning of this last Parliament to maintain the Kings just rights and all the priviledges of Parliament together with the liberty and property of the Subjects and yet immediately to forget their faith to break all these oathes and to make ship wrack of their conscience to drive the Bishops out of their House which is one of the first and most fundamentall priviledges of the Parliament they being the first of the three Estates of this Kingdome to take away not some but all the Kings rights out of his hands and to make him no King indeed to take away all our goods our liberties and our lives at their pleasure Holland and Bedford shew'd what trust is to be given them and then to assure the Divel they would be faithfull unto him which were thus faithlesse unto God to sweare again and make a solemne Covenant with Hell they would never repent them of their wickednesse but continue constant in his service till they have rooted out whom they deemed to be Malignants though Proverb 21. the King who is wise as the Angel of God that hath the Kings heart in his hand and turneth it like the Rivers of waters where he pleaseth knoweth best what to No trust to be given to lyars and perjurers 2 Sam. 20. 20. 16. do as God directeth him yet for mine own part either in Peace or War I I would never trust such faithlesse perjured creatures for a straw and seeing that to spare transcendent wickedness is to encrease wickednesse and to incourage others to the like Rebellion upon the like hope of pardon if they failed of their intention if our great Metropolis of London partake not rather of the wise spirit of the men of Abel then of the obstinacy of the men of Gibeah and delivered not unto the King the chiefe of those Rebells that rose up against him I feare that Judg. 20. Gods wrath will not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still until he hath fullfilled his determined visitation upon this Land and consummated all with their deplorable destruction even as he did those obstinate men of Gibeah and Benjamin for though the King beyond the clemency of a man and the How the King desired the good of the Rebels expectation of any Rebell hath most Christianly laboured that they would accept of their pardon and save themselves and their posterity yet their wickednesse being so exceedingly great beyond all that I can finde in any history Rebellion it selfe being like the sin of witchcraft the Rebellion of Christians far worse and a Rebellion against a most Christian pious Prince worst of all and such a Rebellion ingendered by pride fostered by lyes augmented by perjury continued by cruelty reâ—using all clemency despisâ—â—â— all piety and contemning The unspeakable greatness of their sins God their Saviour when they make him with reverence be it spoken which is so irreverently done by them the very pack-horse to beare all their wickedness being a degree beyond all degrees of comparison hath so provoked the wrath of God against this Nation that I feare his justice will not suffer their hearts that can not repent accept and imbrace their own happiness till they be purged with the floods of repentant teares or destroyed with the streames of Gods fearefull vengeance which I heartily beseech Almighty God may by the grace of Christ working true repentance in them for themselves and reducing them to the right way be averted from them And the best way that I conceive to avert it to appease Gods wrath and to turne away his judgements from us is to returne back the same way as we proceeded hitherto to make up the breaches How we may recover the peace and prosperity of this Land of the Church to restore the Liturgie and the service of our God to its former purity to repeale that Act which is made to the prejudice of the Bishops and Servants of God that they may be reduced to their pristine dignity to recall all Ordinances that are made contrary to Law and derogatory to the Kings right and to be heartily sorry that these unjust Acts and Ordinances were ever done and more sorry that they were not sooner undone and then God will turne his face towards us he will heale the bleeding wounds of our Land and he will powre down his benefits upon us but till we do these things I do assure my selfe and I beleive you shall finde it that his wrath shall not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still and still untill we either do these things or be destroyed for not doing them King James his speech made true by the Rebells Thus it is manifest to all the World that as it was often spoken by our sharpe and eagle-sighted Soveraigne King James of ever blessed memory no Bishop no King so now I hope the dull-ey'd owle that lodgeth in the desart seeth it verifyed by this Parliament for they had no sooner got out the Bishops but presently they laid violent hands upon the Crowne seized upon the Kings Castles shut him out of all his Townes dispossest him of his owne houses took How the Rebells have unking'd our King away all his sâ—ips detained all his revenues vilified all his Declarations nullified his Proclamations hindered his Commissions imprisoned his faithful Subjects killed his servants and at Edge-hill and Newbury did all that ever they could to take away his life and now by their last great ordinance for their counterfeit Seale they pronounce all honours pardons grants commissions and whatsoever else His Majesty passeth under his Seale to be invalid void and of none effect and if this be not to make King Charles no King I know not what it is to be a King so they have unking'd him sine strepitâ— and as the Prophet saith Hos 8. 4. they have set up Kings but not by me they have made Princes and I knew it not but whom have they made Kings even themselves who in one word do What kings they would have to rule us and have now exercised all or most of the regall power and their Ordinances shall be as firm as any Statutes and what are they that have thus dis-robed King Charles and exalted themselves like the Pope as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist above all that are called Gods truly none other then king Pym king Say king Faction or to say the truth most truly and to call a spade a spade king perjurers king murderers king traytors * Which S. Peter never bade us honour The Rebells brave exchange Psal 146. 20. and I am sorry that I should joyne so high an office so sacred a thing as King to such wicked persons as I