of Eâ—tyches Constantine the Fiâ—th called the sixth Synod against the Monothelites and so did many others in the like cases God having fully granted this right and autho ity unto them for their better information in any point of religion and the goverment of the Church And therefore they that deny this power unto Kings or assume this authority unto themselves whether Popes or Parliament out of the Kings hand they may as well take his eyes out of his head because this is one of the best helps that God hath left unto Kings to assist and direct them in the chiefest part of The unparallel'd presumption of the Faction to call a Synod without the king their royal government how presumptuous then and injurious unto our King and prejudicial to the Church of Christ was the factiâ—n of this Parliament without the Kings leave and contrary to his command to undertake the nomination of such a pack of Schismatical Divines for such a Synod as might finally determine such points of faith and discipline as themselves best liked of let all the Christian world that as yet never saw the like president be the Judge and tell us what shall be the religion of that Church where the Devil shall have the power to prompt worldlings to nominate his prime Chaplains Socinians Brownists Anabaptists and the refuse of all the refractory Clergy that seem The quality of the Synodical men learned in nothing but in the contradiction of learning and justifying Rebellion against their King and the Church to compose the Articles of our saith and to frame a new government of our Church I am even ashamed that so glorious a Kingdom should ever breed so base a Faction that durst ever presume to be so audacious and I am sorry that I should be so unhappy to live to see such an unparallel'd boldness in any Clergy that the like cannot be found in any Ecclesiastical History from the first birth of Christ's Church to this very day unless our Sectaries can produce it from some of the Vtopian Kingdoms that are so far South ward In terra incognita beyond the Torrid Zone that we whose zeal is not so fiery but are of the colder spirits could not yet perfectly learn the true method of their Anarchical government or if our Lawyers can shew us the like president that ever Parliament called a Synod contrary to the King's Proclamation I shall rest beholding to them produce it if they can Credat Judaeus apella non ego The third thing requisite to a King for the preservation of true religion and 3. An authority and power to guide the Church and to uphold the true religion the government of God's Church is power and authority to defent it for though the Prince should be never so religious never so desirous to defend the faith and never so well able in his understanding and so well furnished with knowledge to set down what Service and Ceremonies should be used yet if he hath not power and ability which do arise from his right and just authority to do it and to put the same in execution all the rest are but fruitless embryoes like those potentials that are never reduced into actions or like the grass upon Ps 1â—9 6. the house top that withereth before it be plucked up But to let you see that Kings and Princes should have this power and authority in all Ecclesiastical causes and over all Ecclesiastical persons we finde that all Ages and all Lawes have warranted them to do the same for Solomon displaced Abiathar and placed Sadoâ— in his room Jeremy's case was heard by the King 1. Reg. 2. 27. 35. Jerem. 26. How all kings and Emperors exercised this power oâ—er the Church of Israel Theodoâ—â—â—s and Valentâ—nian made a Decree that all those should be deposed which were infected with the impiâ—ty of Nestorius and Justinian deposed Sylverius and Vigilius and many oâ—her Kings and Emperours did the like and not onely the Law of God whereof the King is the prime keeper and the keeper of both Tables but also the Statutes of our Land do give unto our King the nomination of Bishops and some other elective dignities in the Church the â—ustody of the Bishops Temporalties during the vacation the Patronage Paramount or right to present by the last lapse and many other furtherances and preservatives of religion are in terminis terminantibus deputed by our Lawes unto the King and for his care and charge thereof they have setled upon him our first Fruits Tenths Subsidies and all other contributions of the Ecclesiastical persons which the Pope received while he usurped the government of this Church these things being due to him that had the supreme power for the government And therefore seeing the examples of all good Kings in the Old Testament and of the Christian Kings and Emperours in the New Testament and all Lawes both of God and man excepting those Lawes of the Pontificials that are made against the Law of God and all Divines excepting the Cassian de Incarn l. 1. c. 6. Jesuites and their sworn Brethren the Presbyterians do most justly ascribe this right and power unto Kings I may truly say with Cassianus that there is no place of audience left for them by whom obedience is not yielded to that which all have agreed upon nor any excuse for those Subjects that assist not their Soveraign to inable him to discharge this great charge that is laid upon him What then shall we say to them that pull this power and tear this prerogative out of the King's hand and place it in the hands of mad men as the Prophet epithets the madness of the people I or that furious Knox belched forth Psal 65. 7. How the Disciplinarians rob the king of this right Knox to the Commonalty fol. 49. 50 55. this unsavory Doctrine That the Commonalty may lawfully require of their King to have true Preachers and if he be negligent they themselves may justly provide them maintain them defend them against all that oppose them and detain the profits of the Church Livings from the other sort of Ministers a point fully practised by the English Scotizers of these dayes and as if this Doctrine were not seditious enough and abundantly sufficient to move Rebellion Goodman publisheth that horrible tenet unto the world that it is lawful to kill wicked Kings which most dangerous and more damnable Doctrine Dean Whittingham affirmeth to be the tenet of the best and most learned of them that were our Disciplinarians But when as true Religion doth command us to obey our Kings whatsoever their Religion is aut agendo aut patiendo either in suffering with patience whatsoever What true religion teacheth us they do impose or in doing with obedience whatsoever they do command Religion can be no warrant for those actions which must remain as the everlasting blemishes of that Religion which either commanded or approved of
Sentence and Seal 3. As the Fathers and Councils do thus acknowledge the Emperours 3. The testimony of Popes and Papists right in the Spiritual jurisdiction So many of the Popes and Papists themselves have confest the same truth and yielded the same right unto the Empâ—rour and other Soveraign Magistrate in the Church and Church-matters and over all the parsons belonging unto the Church for Platina that 〈◊〉 Plâ—tina in sâ—verino papa Library-keeper unto the Pope saith that Without the Letters 〈◊〉 the Emperour to confirm him the Pope is no lawfull Pope and 〈◊〉 great Scholar saith The Pope may be accused before the Emperour of and Zabarella de Schismaie Conciliis for any notorious crime and publick scandalous offence Imperator potest à papa requirere rationem fidei and the Emperour may inquire and call the Pope to yield an account of his faith and Religion And so many of the better Popes were not ashamed to confess the same for Saint Gregory who for his great learning and piety was sirnamed the Great writing unto Mauritius the Emperour saith Imperatori obedientiam Theodoret l. 2. c. 16. praebui pro Deo quod sensi minimè tacui I have yielded all obedience unto the Emperour and what I conceived to be truth and for God I concealed it not and before Saint Gregâ—ries time Pope Liberius being convented 2 q. 4. Mandastis to appear before Constantius denied not most readily to obey his summons So did Pope Sixtus upon the like complaint appear to purge himself before Valentinian and Pope Leo the third before Charles the Great And 2. q. 7. Nos si it is registred that Pope Leo the 4th wrote unto the Emperour Lodouick saying Si incompetenter aliquid egimus justae legis tramitem non conservavimus Epist Eleâ—th inter leges Edovard admissorum nostrorum cuncta vestro judicio volumus emendare If we have done any thing unseemly and amiss and have not observed and walked in the right path of the just law we are most ready and willing to amend all our admissions or whatsoever we have done amiss according to your judgment and Pope Eleutherius saith to Edward the â— of England Theodoretus l. 2. c. 1. Vos est is Vicarius Dei in Regno vestro that he and so every other King is Gods Vicar in his Kingdom This was the mind and sense of these Popes and many other Popes in former ages were of the same mind until pride avarice and ambition corrupted them to be as now they are And as God hath given this power and required this duty of Kings and How the Emperour and Kings executed the power that God had given them Princes to have a care of his Church and to reform Religion and the Fathers and Councels have confirmed this truth and divers of the very Popes themselves and Papists have yielded and submitted themselves unto their spiritual jurisdiction even in the Ecclesiastical causes so the Emperours and Kings omitted not to execute the same from time to time especially those that had the master power and ability to discharge their duties for Theodoret writes that Constantine was wont to say Si episcopus Idem l. 1. c. 7. turbas det mea manu coercebitur If any Bishop shall be turbulent and troublesome he shall be refrained and censured by my hands and both Theodoret and Eusebius tels us how he came in his own person unto the Councell of Sozom. l. 4. c. 16. Nice Et omnibus exsurgentibus ipse ingressus est medius tanquam aliquis Dei coelestis Angelus the whole company of the Bishops and all the rest arising he came into the midst amongst them as it were an Heavenly Angel of God And Sozomen writeth how that ten Bishops of the East and ten others of the West were required by Constantine to be chosen out by the Convocation Conciliorum Tom 2. In vita Sylvani vigâ—â—i and to be sent to his Court to declare unto him the decrees and canons of the Councell that he might examine them and consider whether they were consonant to the Holy Scriptures And the Emperour Constantius deposed Pope Liberius of his Bishoprick and then again he deprived Pope Foelix and restored Liberius unto the Popedom and in the third Councell at Costantinople he did not only sit among the Bishops but also subscribed Concil Bonâ— 3. c. 2. with the Bishops to such bills as passed in that Councell saying Vidimus Subscripsimus we have seen these canons and have subscribed our approbation of them And King Odoacer touching the Affairs of the Church saith Miramur quicquam tentatum fuisse sine nobis We do admire that you should attempt to do any thing without us for while our Bishop lived that is the Pope sine Nobis nihil tentari oportuit Nothing ought to be done without us much less ought it to be done now when he is dead And the Emperour Justinian doth very often in Ecclesiastical causes use Authent Collat. â—â—it 6. to say Definimus jâ—bemus We determine and command and we will and require that none of the Bishops be absent from his Church above the Quomodo oportet Episcop space of a year and he saith further Nullum genus rerum est quod non sit penitus quaerendum Authoritate Imperatoris there is no kind of matter that may Authent Collat. Tit. 133. not or is not to be inquired into by the Authority of the Emperour because he hath received from the hands of God the common government and principality over all men And the same Emperour as Balsamon saith Balsamon de Peccat Tit. 9. Idem in Calced Concil c. 12. Idem de fide Tit. 1. gave power to the Bishop to absolve a Priest from pennance and to restore him to his Church And the same Author saith that the Emperours disposed of Patriarchal seats and that this power was given them from above and he saith further that the Emperour Michael that ruled in the East made a law against the order of the Church that no Monk should serve in the Ministry in any Church whatsoever And we read further how that divers of the Emperours have put down Evodius inter decreta Bonifacii 1. Vâ—sbergen anno 1045. and deposed divers Popes as Otho deposed John 13. Honorius deposed Boniface Theodoricus deposed Symma hus and Henry removed three Popes that had been all unlawfully chosen and in the Councel of Chalcedon the Supreme Civil Magistrate adjudged Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassus three Bishops of Heresie and therefore to be degraded and to be thrust out of the Church And so you see how the Emperours Kings and Civil Magistrates behaved themselves in the Church of God and used their power and the Authority that God had given them as well in the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Affairs of the Church and points of Faith as in the Civil
Where the Puritans place the authority to maintain religion 1 In the Presbytery which have neither right to own it nor discretion to use it and that is either 1. A Consistory of Presbyters or 2. A Parliament of Lay men For 1. These new Adversaries of this Truth that would most impudently take away from Christian Princes the supreamo and immediate authority under Christ in all Ecclesiastical Callings and Causes will needs place the same in themselves and a Consistorian company of their own Faction a whole Volume would not contain their absurdities falsities and blasphemies that they have uttered about this point I will onely give you a taste of what some of the chief of them have belched forth against the Divine Truth of God's Word and the sacred Majesty of Kings Master Calvin a man otherwise of much worth and Calvin in Amos cap. 7. worthy to be honoured yet in this point transported with his own passion calleth those Blasphemers that did call King Henry the eight the supreme Head of this Church of England and Stapleton saith that he handled the King himself Stapl. cont Horn. l. 1. p. 22. with such villany and with so spiteful words as he never handled the Pope more spitefully and all for this Title of Supremacy in Church causes and in his fifty fourth Epistle to Myconius he termed them prophane spirits and mad men that perswaded the Magistrates of Geneva not to deâ—rive themselves of that authority which God hath given them Viretus is more virulent for he How Viretus would prove the temporal Pope as he calleth the King worse then the spiritual Pope resembleth them not to mad men as Calvin did but to white Devils because they stand in defence of the Kings authority and he saith they are false Christians though they cover themselves with the clâ—ke of the Gospel affirming that the putting of all authority and power into the Civil Magistrates hands and making them masters of the Church is nothing else but the changing of the Popedome from the Spiritual Pope into a Temporal Pope who as it is to be feared will prove worss and more tyrannous then the Spirituall Pope which he laboureth to confirme by these three reasons 1 Reason 1. Because the Spiritual Pope had not the Sword in his own hand to punish men with death but was fain to crave the aid of the Secular power which the Temporal Pope needs not do 2. Because the old spiritual Popes had some regard in their dealings of Councils 2 Reason Synods and ancient Canons but the new Secular Popes will do what they list without respect of any Eâ—clesiastical Order be it right or wrong 2 Reason 3. Because the Romish Popes were most commonly very learned but it happeneth oftentimes that the Regal Popes have neither learning nor knowledg in divine matters and yet these shall be they that shall command Ministers and and Preachers what they list and to make this assertion good he affirmeth that he saw in some places some Christian Princes under the title of Reformation to have in ten or twenty years usurped more tyranny over the Churches in their Dominions then ever the Pope and his adherents did in six hundred years All which reasons are but meere fopâ—eries blown up by the black Devil to blast the beauty of this truth for we speak not of the abuse of any Prince to Viretus his scandalous reasons answered justifie the same against any one but of his right that cannot be the cause of any wrong and it cannot be denyed but an illiterate Prince may prove a singular advancer of all learning as Bishop Wickham was no great Scholler yet was he a most excellent instrument to produce abundance of famous Clerks in this Church and the King ruleth his Church by those Laws which through his royal authority are made with the advice of his greatest Divines as hereafter I shall shew unto you yet these spurious and specious pretexts may serve like clouds to T. C. l. 2. p. 411. hide the light from the eyes of the simple So Cartwright also that was our English firebrand and his Disciples teach as Harding had done before that Kings and Princes do hold their Kingdoms and Dominions under Christ as he is the Son of God onely before all Worlds coequal with the Father and not as he is Mediator and Governour of the Church and therefore the Christian Kings have no more to do with the Church government then the Heathen Princes so Travers saith that the Heathen Princes being converted to the saith receive no more nor any further encrease of their power whereby they may deale in Church causes then they had before so the whole pack of the Disciplinarians are all of the same minde and do hold that all Kings as well Heathen as Christian receiving but one Commission and equal Authority immediately from God have no more to do with Church causes the one sort then the other And I am ashamed to set down the railing and the scurrilous speeches of Anthony Gilby Gilby in his admonition p. 69 Knox in his exhortation to the Nobility of Scotland fol. 77. against Hen. 8. and of Knox Whittingham and others against the truth of the King 's lawful right and authority in all Ecclesiastical causes For were it so as Cartwright Travers and the rest of that crew do avouch that Kings by being Christians receive no more authority over Christ his Church then they had before * Which is most false yet this will appear most evident to all understanding men that all Kings as well the Heathens as the Christians are in the first place to see that their people do religiously observe the worship of that God which they adore and therefore much more should Christian Princes have a care to preserve the religion of Jesus Christ For it cannot be denyed but that all Kings ought to preserve their Kingdoms The Gentilee Kings preâ—ervers of religion and all Kingdoms are preserved by the same means by which they were first established and tâ—â—y are established by obedience and good manners neither shall you finde any thing that can beget obedience and good manners but Lawes and Religion and Religion doth naturally beget obedience unto the Lawes therefore most of those Kings that gave Lawes were originally Priests and as Synes ep 126. Vide Arnis part 2. pag. 14. Ad magnas reipubl utilitates retinetur religio in civitatibus Cicero de divin l. 2. Synesius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priest and a Prince was all one with them when the Kings to preserve their Laws inviolable and to keep their people in obedience that they might be happy became Priests and exercised the duties of Religion offering sacrifices unto their Gods and discharging the other offices of the Priestly Function as our factious Priests could willingly take upon them the offices of the King or if some of them were not Priests
government For seeing all attempts are most violent that have their beginning and strength from zeal unto Religion be the same true or false and from the false most of all and those are ever the most dangerous whose ringleaders are most base as the servile War under Spartacus was most pernicious unto How necessary it is for Kings to retain their just rights in their hands the Romans there can be nothing of greater use or more profitable either for the safety of the King the peace of the Church and the quiet state of the Kingdome then for the Prince the King to retain the Militia and to keep that power and authority which the Laws of God and of our Land have granted to and intailed upon him in his own hands unclipped and unshaken for when the multitude shall be unbridled and the rights of the Kings are brandished in their hands we shall assuredly taste and I fear in too great a measure as experience now sheweth of those miserable evils which uncontrouled ignorance furious zeal false hypocricy and the merciless cruelty of the giddy-headed people and discontented Peeres shall bring upon us and our Prince But to make it manifest unto the World what power and authority God hath granted unto Kings for the government of the Church and the preservation of his true Religion we finde them the worst men at all times and in all places that mislike their Government and reject their authority and we see those Churches most happy and those Kingdoms most flourishing which God hath The Kings that maintain true religion make their Kingdoms happy blessed with religious Kings as the State of the Church of Judaea makes it plain when David Ezechias Jâ—sias and the other virtuous Kings restored the Religion and purified that Service which the idolatry of others their predeâ—â—ssours had corrupted and we know that as Moses * Exod. 14 31. Num. 12. 7 8 Deut. 34. 5 Josh 1. 1 2. so kings are called the servants of God in a more special manner then all others are that is not onely because they serve the Lord in the Government of the Common wealth but especially because he vouchsafeth to use their service for the advancement of his Church and the honour of his Son Christ here on earth or to distribute their duties more particularly we know the Lord exspecteth and so requireth a double service from every Christian king 1. The one common with all others to serve him as they are his creatures and Christians and therefore to serve him as all other The double service of all Christian kings Christians are bound to do 2. The other proper and peculiar to them alone to serve him as they are Kings and Princes In the first respect they are no more priviledged to offend then other men 1. As they are Christians but they are tyed to the same obedience of Gods â—aws and are obliged to performe as many virtuous actions and to abstain from all vices as well as any other of their Subjects and if they fail in either point they shall be called to the same account and shall be judged with the same severity as the meanest of their people and therefore Be wise O ye Kings be learned ye that are Judges of the earth Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce unto him with reverenâ—e Psal 2. 10. for with God there is no respect of persons but if they do offend he will binde Kings in fetters and their Nobles with linkes of irâ—n and we dare Rom. 2. 11. Psal 149. 8. not flatter you to give you the least liberty to neglecâ—â—â— strict service of the great God 2. As they are Christian king and that is twofold In the second respect the service of all Christian kings and princes hath as I told you before these two parts For 1. To protect the true religion and to govern the Church of Christ 2. To preserve peace and to govern the Common wealth 1. To protect the Church Aug cont lit petil l. 2. Opâ—at Mâ—livit lib. 3. 1. It is true indeed that the Donatists of old the grand fathers of our new Sectaries were wont to say Qâ—id Imperatori cum Ecclesia What have we to do with the Emperour or what hath the Emperour to do with the Church but to this Optatus answereth that Ille solito furore accensâ—s in haec verba prorupit Donatus out of his accustomed madness burst forth into these mad termes for Prima â—mnium in republ functionum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 7. c. 8. Arist Polit. l. 3. c. 10. it is a duty that lyeth upon all Princes because all both Christians and Pagans ought to be religious as I shewed to you before not onely to be devout but also to be the means to make all their Subjects so far as they can to become devoted to Gods service as the practice of those Heathens that had no other guide of their actions then the light of nature doth make it plain for Aristotle saith that Quae ad Deorum cultum pertinent commissa sunt regibus magistratibus those things that pertain unto the worship of the Gods are committed to the care of Kings and civil Magistrates and whatsoever their religion was as indeed it was but meere superstition yet because Superstition and Religion hoâ— habent commune do this in common Vt faciant animos humiles formidiâ—e divûm Therefore to make men better the more humble and more dutiful the transgression thereof was deemed worthy to receive punishment among the Pagans and that punishment was appointed by them that had the principal authority to govern the Common-wealth as the Athenian Magistrates condemned Socrates though he was a man wiser then themselves yet as they conceived very faulty for his irreligion and derision of their adored gods And Tiberius The chief Magistrates of the Heathens had the charge of Religion would set up Christ among the Romane gods though the act added no honour unto Christ without the authority and against the will of the Senate to shew that the care of religion belonged unto the Emperour or chief Magistrate and therefore as the Lord commanded the kings of Israel to write a copy of his Law in a boâ—ke and to take heed to all the words of that Law for to do them that is not onely as a private person for so every man was not to write it but Deut. 17. 18 19. as King to reduce others to the obedience thereof so the examples of the best kings both of Israel and Juda and of the best Christian Emperours do make this plain unto us for Joshâ—a caused all Israel to put away the strange gods Josh 24. 23. The care of the good kings of the Jews to preserve the true religion that were among them and to incline their hearts unto the Lord God of Israel Manasses after his return from Babylon tooke away the strange Gods
and the Idols out of the house of the Lord and cast them all out of the City and repaired the Altar of the Lord and commanded Juda to serve the Lord God of Israel And what shall I say of David whose whole study was to further the service of God and of Jehosaphat Asa Josias Ezeâ—h as and others that were rare patternes for other kings for the well government of Gods Church and in the time of the Gospel Quod non toâ—lit prâ—cepta legis sed perficit which takes not away the rules of nature nor the precepts of the Law but rather establisheth the one and perfecteth the other because Christ came into the world non ut tolleret jura saeculi sed ut deleret peccata mundi not to take away the rights of the Nations but to satisfie for the sins of the World the best Christian Emperours discharged the same duty reformed The care of the good Emperours topreserve the true religion Esay 49. 23. the Church abolished Idolatry punished Heresy and maintained Piety especially Constantine and Theodosius that were most pious Princes and of much virtues and became as the Prophet foretold us nursing fathers unto Gods Church for though they are most religious and best in their religion that are religious for conscience sake yet there is a fear from the hand of the Magistrate that is able to râ—strain those men from many outward evils whom neither conscience nor religion could make honest therefore God committed the principal care of his Church to the Prince and principal Magistrate And this is confirmed and throughly maintained by sundry notable men as who deâ—ended this truth The Papists unawares confess this truth Osorius de relig p. 21. Breâ—tius against Asoto Bishop Hâ—rne against Fâ—kenham Jewel against Harding and many other learned men that have written against such other Papists and Puritans Anabaptists and Brownists that have taken upon them to impugne it yea many of the Papists themselves at unawares do coâ—fess as much for Osorius saith Omne regis officium in religionis sanctissimae rationem conferendum mâ—nus ejus est beare rempâ—bl religione piâ—tate all the office of a King is to be conferred or imployed for the regard of the most holy Religion and his whole duty is to bless or make happy the Common-wealth with Religion and piety Quod enim est aliud reipublica principi munus assignatum quà m ut rempâ—bl florâ—ntem atque beatam faciat quod quidem nullo modo sine egregia piâ—tatis religionis sanctitate perficitur For though we confess with Ignatius that no man is equall to the Bishop in causes Ecclesiasticall no not the King himselfe that is in such things as belong to his office as Whitaker saith because he onely Whit. resp Camp p. 302. ought to see to holy things that is the instruction of the people the administration of the Sacraments the use of the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and the like matters of great weight and exceeding the Kings authority yet The Kings authority over Bishops 1 Chron 28. 13. 2 Chron. 29. 1 Reg. 2. 26. Kings are above Bishops in wealth honour power government and majesty and though they may not do any of the Episcopall duties yet they may and ought lawfully to admonish them of their duties and restrain them from evill and command them diligently to execute their office and if they neglect the same they ought to reprove and punish them as we read the good Kings of the Jewish Church and the godly Emperours * As Martian apud Binium l. 2. p. 178. Iustinian novel 10. tit 6. Theodos jun. Evagr. l. 1 c. 12. Basil in Council Constant 8. act 1. Binius tom 8. p. 880. Reason confirmeth that Kings should take care of religion of the Christian Church have ever done and the Bishops themselves in sundry Councils have acknowledged the same power and Authority to be due and of right belonging unto them as at Mentz Anno 814. and Anno 847. apud Binium tom 3. p. 462. 631. At Emerita in Portugall Anno 705. Bin. tom 2. p. 1183. and therefore it is an ill consequent to say Princes have no Authority to preach Ergo they have no authority to punish those that will not preach or that do preach false Doctrine This truth is likewise apparent not only by the the testimony of Scripture and Fathers but also by the evidence of plain reason because the prosperity of that Land which any King doth govern without a principal care of Religion decayeth and degenerateth into Wars Dearths Plagues and Pestilence and abundance of other miseries that are the lamentable effects and consequerces of the neglect of Religion and contempt of the Ministers of Gods Church which I beleive is no small cause of these great troubles which we now suffer because our God that taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants cannot endure Psal 35. 27. that either his service should be neglected or his servants abused 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 the unlawfulness of the new Synod the Kings power and authority to govern the Church and how both the old and new Disciplinarians and Sectaries rob the King of this power THerefore seeing this should be the greatest care that brings the greatest honour to a Christian Prince to promote the true Religion it is requisite that we should consider those things that are most necessary to a Christian King for the Religious performance of this duty And they are And these three must be inseperable in the Prince that maintaineth true Religion For 1. A will to performe it Three things necessary for a king to preserve the Church and the Religion 2. An understanding to go about it 3. A power to effect it 1. Our knowledge and our power without a willing minde doth want motion 2. Our will and power without knowledge shall never be able to move right And 3. Our will and knowledge without ability can never prevaile to produce any effect Therefore Kings and Princes ought to labour to be furnished with these three special graces The first is a good will to preserve the purity of Gods service not onely in 1. A willing minde to do it his House but also througout all his Kingdom and this as all other graces are must be acquired by our faithfull prayers and that in a more speciall manner for Kings and Princes then for any other and it is wrought in them by outward instruction and the often predication of God's Word and the inward inspiration of Gods Spirit The second is knowledge which is not much less necessary then the former 2. Understanding to know what is to be reformed and what to be retained because not to run right is
their doing I am sure all wise men wil detest these Doctrines of Devils and seeing it is an infallible rule that good deserveth then to be accounted evil when it ceaseth to be well done it is apparent that it is no more lawful for private and inferiour persons to usurp the Princes power and violently to remove Idolatry or to cause any Reformation then it is for the Church of Rome by invasion or treason to establish the Doctrine of that See in this or any other forraign kingdome because both are performed by the like usurped authority Yet these were the opinions and practises of former times when Buchanan The old Disciplinarians Knox Cartwright Goodman Gilby Penry Fenner Martin Travers Throgmorton Philips Nichols and the rest of those introducers of Outlandish and Genevian Discipline first broached these uncouth and unsufferable tenets in our Land in the Realm of England and Scotland and truely if their opinions had not dispersed themselves like poison throughout all the veines of this Kingdom and infected many of our Nobility and as many of the greatest Cities of this Kingdome as it appeareth by this late unparallel'd rebellion these and the rest of the trayterous authours of those unsavory books which they published and those damnable tenets which they most ignorantly held and maliciously taught unto the people should have slept in silence their hallowed and sanctified Treason should have remained untouched and their memorial should have perished with them But seeing as Saint Chrysostome saith of the Hereticks of his time that although in age they were younger yet in malice they were equal to the antient Our rebellious Sectaries far worse then all the former Disciplinarians Hereticks and as the brood of Serpents though they are of less stature yet in their poyson no less dangerous then their dammes so no more have our new Sectaries our upstart Anabaptists any less wickedness then their first begetters nay we finde it true that as the Poet saith Aetas parentum pejor avis Tulit nos nequiores These young cubbs prove worse then the old foxes for if you compare the Wheles with the wolves our latter Schismaticks with their former Masters I doubt not but you shall finde less learning and more villany less honesty and more subtilty hypocrisy and treachery in Doctor Burges Master Marshal Case Goodwin Burrowes Calamy Perne Hill Cheynel and the rest of our giddy-headed Incendiaries then can be found in all the seditious Pamphlets of the former Disciplinarians or of them that were hanged as Penry for their treasons for these men do not onely as Sidonius saith of the like apertè invidere abjectè Sidon lib. epist fingere serviliter superbire openly envy the state of the Bishops basely forge lyes against them and servilely swel with the pride of their own conceited sanctity and apparent ignorance but they have also most impudently even in their pulpits slandered the footsteps of Gods Anointed and so brought the abomination of their transgression to stand in the holy place they haue with Achan troubled Israel and tormented the whole Land yea these three Kingdomes England Scotland and Ireland and for inciting provoking and incouraging simple ignorant poore For which their intolerable villanies If I be not deceived in my judgement they of all others above all the Rebels in the kingdom deserve the greatest and severest punishment God of Heaven give them the grace to repent discontented and seditious Secturies to be Rebels and Traytors against their own most gracious King they have not onely with Jerusalem justified Samaria Sodome and Gomorrah but they have justified all the Samaritanes all the Sodomites all the Schismaticks Hereticks Rebels and Traytors Papists and Atheists and all that went before them Judas himself in many circumstances not excepted and that which makes their doings the more evil and the more exceedingly wicked is that they make Religion to be the warrant for their evil doings the pack-horse to carry and the 〈◊〉 to cover all their treacheries and thereby they drew the greater multitudes of poore Zelots to be their followers And therefore seeing it is not onely the honour but also the duty as of all other Kings so likewise of our King to be as the Princes of our Land are justly stiled the Defenders of the Faith and that not only in regard of enemies abroad but also in respect of those far worse enemies which desire alteration at home it behoves the King to looke to these home-bred enemies of the Church and seeing the king though never so willing for his piety and religion never so What Gods faithful servants and the kings loyal Subjects must do in these times 1. To justifie the kings right able for his knowledge and understanding yet without strength and power to effect what he desires cannot defend the faith and maintain the true Religion from the violence of Sectaries and Traytors within his kingdome it hehoves us all to do these two things 2. To justifie the kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his authority and right to the supreme Governour and defender of the Chuch and of Gods true religion and service both in respect of Doctrine and Discipline and that none else Pope or Parliament hath any power at all herein but what they have derivately from him which I hope we have sufficiently proved 2. To submit our selves unto our king and to add our strength force and 2. To assist Him against the Rebels power to inable his power to discharge this duty against all the Innovators of our Religion and the enemies of our peace for the honour of God and the happiness of this Church and Common-wealth for that power which is called the Kings power and is granted and given to him of God is not onely that Heroick virtue of fortitude which God planteth in the hearts of most noble Princes as he hath most graciously done it in abundant measure in our most gracious king but it is the collected and united power and strength of all his Subjects which the Lord hath commanded us to joyn and submit it for the assistance of the kings power against all those that shall oppose it and if we refuse or neglect the same then questionless whatsoever mischief idolatry barbarity or superstition shall take root in the Church and whatsoeuer oppression and wickedness shall impair the Common-wealth Heaven will free His Majesty and the wrath of God in no smal measure must undoubtedly light upon us and our posterity even as Debora saith of them that refused to assist Barac against his enemies Curse ye Meroz curse bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they Jud. 5. 23. came not forth to helpe the Lord against the mighty CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiastical Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Laws by the advice of their Bishops and Clergy and not of their Lay
Statute 25 Hen. 8. Ob. But then it may be demanded if this be so that the Laity hath no right Ob. in making Lawes and Decrees for the government of God's Church but that it belongs whâ—lly unâ—o the King to do it with the advice of his Bishops and the rest of his Clergy then how came the Parliament to annul those Canons that were so made by the King and Clergy because they had no vote nor consent in confirming of them Sol. Truely I cannot answer to this Objection unless I should tell you what Sol. the Poet saith Dum furor in cursu currenti cede furori Dâ—fficiles aditus impetus omnis habet They weâ—e furiously bent against them and you know furor arma ministrat dum regnant arma â—lent leges all Lawes must sleeâ— while Armes prevaile besides you may finde those Canons as if they had been prophetically made fore-saw the increasing strength of Anabaptisme Brownisme Puritanisme most likely to subvert true Protestantisme and therefore were as equally directed against these Sectaries of the left hand as against the Papists on the right hand and I think the whole Kingdom now findes and feels the strength of that virulent â—action and therefore what wonder that they should seek to break all those Canons to pieces and batter them down with their mighty Ordinances for seeking to â—ubdue their invincible errours or else because as they say the Eâ—clesiâ—stical State is not an independent society but a member of the whole the Parliament â—â—s not so to be excluded as that their advice and approbation should not be required to make them obligatory to the rest of the Subjects of the whole Kingdom which claim this priviledge to be tyed to the observation of no humane Lawes that themselves by their representatives have not consented unto 2. As the King is intrusted by God to make Lawes for the government of 2. To grant dispensations of his own Lawes the Church of Christ so it is a rule without question that ejus est dispensare absolvere â—njus est condere he hath the like power to dispense with whom he pleaseth and to absolve him that transgresseth as he hath to oblige them therefore our Church being for reformation the most famous throughout all the parts of the Christian world and our King having so just an authority to do the same it is a most impudent scandal full of all malice and ignorance not to be endured by any well affected Christian that the new brood of the old Anabaptists do lay upon our Church and State that they did veâ—y unreasonably and unconscionably by their Lawes grant Dispensations both for Pluralities and Non-residency onely to further the corrupt desires of some few to the The scandals of the malicious ignorants against the worthier clergy infinite wrong of the whole Clergy besides the hazard of many thousands of souls the intolerable dishonour of Gods truth and the exceeding disadvantage of Christ his Church for seeing God hath principally committed and primarily commended the care of his Church and service unto Kings who are therefore to make Laws and Orders for the well governing of the same I shall make it most evident that they may as they have ever done most lawfully and more beneficially both for Gods Church and also for the Common wealth do these three things 1. To grant that grace and favour unto their Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Three special points handled persons as to admit them of their counsel and to undertake secular authority and civil jurisdiction 2. To allow dispensations of Pluralities and Non-residency which they may most justly and most wisely do without any transgression of the Law of God 3. To give tolerations where they see cause of many things prohibited by their Law to dispence with the transgressions and to remit the fault of the transgressours For 1. Though the world relapsed from the true light and declined from the sincere 1 Point Religion to most detestable superstition yet there remained in the people certain impressions of the divine truth that there was a GOD and that this The great respect of the Clergy in former ages Saravia l. 2. c. 2. p. 103. 1. Among the Gentiles Osor p. 231. De tota Syria Palestina refert Dion l. 37. quòd rex summi Pontificis nomen habeat Strabolib 2 Apud Tertul. advers Valent. Hermetem legimus appellari Mâ—x sacerdotem maximum regem Cicero l. 2. de legibus Diotogenes apud Sâ—obâ—d cit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aethiopeâ— reges suos del gebant er numero sacerdotum Diodor l 3. c. 1. Titus Vespas Pontificatum maximum iâ—ed sese professus est accipere ut puras servaret manus Sueton iâ— Tito cap. 9. In Aritia regnum erat concretum cum sicerdotio Dâ—anae ut innâ—it Ovid De arte amandi lib. 1. Ecce suburbanae templum nemorale Dianae Parâ—áqâ—e per gâ—adios regna nocente manu Strabo lib. 5. God was religiously to be worshipped and those men that taught the worship of that God how fowly soever they did mistake it were had in singular account and supereminent authority among all Nations and as Saravia saith they were compeers with Kings in their Government so that nothing was done without their counsel and consent and as Theseus was the first that Cives Atticos è pagis in uâ—bem compulit and put the difference betwixt Nobles Husbandmen and Artificers so the Priests were always selected out of the noblest families and were ever in all their publick counsels as the Divines sate among the Athenians and the South-sayers sate with the King among the Lacedemonians in all their weightiest consultations and Strabo tells us that the Priests of Bellona which were in Pontus and Cappadocia for that Goddess was honoured in both places were regarded with the greatest honour next to the King himself and the Romans that were both wealthy warlike and wise did almost nothing without the advice and counsel of their Priests I will omit what Valerius Maximus setteth down of their care of Religion and their great respect unto their Priests and religious persons and I will refer you onely to what Tully writeth of this point where he saith that the greatest and worthiest thing in their Common-wealth was the priviledge and preheminence of the Divines which was joyned with the greatest authority for they dismissed the companies and the Councels of the chiefest Empires and the greatest Potentates when they were proposed they restrayned them when they were concluded they ceased from the affaires which they had in hand if but one Divine did say the contrary they appointed that the Consuls should depose themselves from their Magistracy and it was in their intire power either to give leave or not to give leave to deale with the people or not to deal to repeal Laws not lawfully made and to suffer nothing to be done by the Magistrate in peace or war without
Government of the Common-wealth CHAP. VIII That it is the Office and Duty of Kings and Princes though not to execute the function and to do the Offices of the Bishops and Priests yet to have a speciall care of Religion and the true Worship of God and to cause both the Priests and Bishops and all others to discharge their duties of Gods service And how the good and godly Emperours and Kings have formerly done the same from time to time BUt as God hath given unto the Kings and Princes of this world a Power and Authority as well over his Church and Church-men be they Prophets Apostles Bishops Priests or what you will as over the Common wealth and all the lay persons of their Dominions So they ought and are bound to have a special care of Religion and to discharge their duties for the glory of God the good of his Church the promoting of the Christian Faith and the rooting up of all Sects and Heresies that defile and corrupt the same for as Saint Augustine saith and I shewed you before In Aug. contra Crescon l. 3. c. 51. hoc Reges Deo serviunt herein Kings and Princes do serve God if as they are Kings they injoyn the things that are good and inhibit those things that are evil and that Non solum in iis quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem sed etiam ad divinam Religionem and again he saith that Kings do serve Idem Epist 48. Christ here on earth when they do make good laws for Christ and Athanasius said unto the Emperour Jovinian Conveniens est pro principe studium amor rerum divinarum It is meet and convenient for a good Prince to study and love Heavenly things because that in so doing his heart shall be alwaies as Solomon saith in manu Dei in the hand of God and Saint Theodoret l. 4. c. 3. Cyrill tells the Emperours Theodosius and Valentinian that Ab ea quae erga Deum est pietate reipublicae vestrae status pendet the state and condition of Prov. 21. 1. their Common-wealth doth wholly depend according to that piety and Religion which they bear towards God Because as Cardan truely saith Cardanus do sapientia lib. 3. Summum praesidium Regni est justitia ob apertos tumultus Religio ob occultos Justice is the best defence of a Kingdom and the suppressor of open tumults because righteousness exalteth a Nation and Religion is the only Protector and safety against all secret and privy Machinations because as Minutius Minut. Fâ—l in Octav. Foelix saith What the Civil Magistrate doth with the sword of justice to suppress the nefarious doers and actours of wickedness Religion rooteth The want of the fear of God the only thing that maketh Rebells out and suppresseth the very thought of evil which a Godly and a Religious man feareth as much and more then a wicked and prophane man doth dread the punishment of his offence and so Religion Piety and the fear of God keepeth the very hearts and souls of the subjects from swelling against their Soveraign and from the least evil thought of Rebellion and it is the want of the fear of God and true Religion whatsoever men pretend that makes Rebels and Traytors in every place because the true Religion Rom. 13. 1. tels us plainly that every soul that is every man unfainedly from his heart should be subject to the Higher Powers And the true Religion teacheth us as Tertull. saith Colere Imperatorem ut hominem à Deo secundum Tertul. ad Scapul solo Deo minorem To acknowledge and to serve the Emperour and so our King and our Prince as the next person to God and inferior to none but to God When as he is Omnibus major solo Deo minor above all men and below none but only God And therefore it is most requisite that all Kings and Princes should have How requisite it is for Kings to have a care to preserve Religion care of the true Religion and the service of God and with the Prophet David to build Temples and Churches for him that hath given their Crowns and Thrones unto them and to provide maintenance for those servants of God that serve at his Temple as they do for those that serve themselves and so both to be Religious themselves and to see that their subjects so far as it lieth in them should be so likewise and this their own piety and goodness in the service of God will make them famous amongst all posterities and their names to shine as the Sun when as Saint Ambrose saith Nihil honorificentius quà m ut Imperator filius Dei dicatur nothing Ambrosius Epist 32. can be more honorable then that the Emperour or King should be named and called the Son of God which is a more glorious Eâ—logie then Homer The fruits and benefits of maintaining true Religion in a kingdom could give to the best Heroes of all Greece or that Alexander Julius Caesar or the like could atchieve by all their military exploits or the best domestick actions that they have done and their making provision for the Teachers of the true Religion and the promoters of Gods service the Bishops and Ministers of Christ his Church which makes their subjects both Loyall and obedient unto them and also Religious towards God will preserve the peace and procure the happiness of their Kingdoms And according as God hath given this Authority and laid this charge How many former kings were very zealous to uphold Religion upon all Kings and Princes to have a care of his Religion and the Ministers of his Church so we find very very many both in former times and also of latter years and so both of Gentiles Jews and Christians that were exceeding zealous for the Honor of God and the upholding of them that served at his Altar as 1. Gentile kings 1. The Gentile Kings as Pharaoh King of Egypt that in the extremity of that dearth which swallowed the whole Land he made provision for Gods Priests so that they neither wanted means nor were driven to sell The great bounty of king Croesus to the god Apollo and to his Priests their Lands And so Croesus King of Lydia was so wounderfull zealous of the Honor and the worship of the god of Delphos and so bountifull to Apollo's Priests that Herodotus saith that he made oblation of three thousand choice Cattel such as might lawfully be offered and caused a great stack of wood to be made wherein he burnt Bedsteads of Silver and Gold and Golden Maysors with purple rayment and Coats of exceeding value and he laid the like charge upon the Lydians that every man should consecrate those Jewels which he possessed most costly and pretious from which their Sacrifice when as the streams of liquid and molten Gold distrained in great abundance he caused thereof to be framed half slates or sheards
was in Saint Bernard who saith If all the world should conspire against me to make me complet any thing against the Kings Majesty yet I would fear God and not dare to offend the King ordained of God I might fill a Volume if I would collect the testimonies of our best Serenissimus Rex Jacobus de vera lege liberâ— Monarchiae Writers I will adde but one of a most excellent King our late King James of ever blessed memory for he saith The improbity or fault of the Governour ought not to subject the King to them over whom he is appointed Judge by God for if it be not lawful for a private man to prosecute the injury that is offered unto him against his private adversary when God hath committed the sword of vengeance onely to the Magistrate how much lâ—sse lawful is it think you either for all the people or for some of them to usurp the sword whereof they have no right against the publique Magistrate to whom alone it is committed by God This hath been the Doctrine of all the Learned of all the Saints of The obedient example â—f the Martyrs in the time of Queen Mary God of all the Martyrs of Jesus Christ and therefore not onely they that suffered in the first Persecutions under Heathen Tyrants but also they that of late lived under Queen Mary and were compelled to un dergoe most exquisite torments without number and beyond measure yet none of them either in his former life or when he was brought to his execution did either despise her cruell Majesty or yet curse this Tyrant-Queen that made such havock of the Church of Christ and causelesly spilt so much innocent blood but being true Saints they feared God and honoured her and in all obedience to her authâ—rity they yielded their estates and goods to be spoyled their liberties to be infringed and their bodies to be imprisoned abused and burned as oblations unto God rather then contrary to the command of their Master Christ they would give so much allowance unto their consciences as for the preservation of their lives to make any shew of resistance against their most bloody Persecutors whom they knew to have their authority from that bloody yet their lawful Queen And therefore I hope it is apparent unto all men that have their eyes Numb 24. 15. Gen. 19. 11. open and will not with Balaam most wilfully deceive themselves or with the Sodomites grope for the wall at noon-day that by the Law of God by the example of all Saints by the rule of honesty and by all other equitable considerations it is not lawfull for any man or any degree or sort of men Magistrates Peers Parliaments Popes or whatsoever The conclusion of the whole you please to call them to give so much liberty unto their misguided consciences and so farre to follow the desires of their unruly affections as for any cause or under any pretence to withstand Gods Vice-gerent and with violence to make warre against their lawful King or indeed in the least degree and lowest manner to offer any indignity either in thought word or deed either to Moses our King or to Aaron our High Priest that hath the care and charge of our souls or to any other of those subordinate callings that are lawfully sent by them to discharge those offices wherewith they are intrusted This is the truth of God and so acknowledged by all good men And what Preachers teach the contrary I dare boldly affirm it in the name of God that they are the incendiaries of Hell and deserve rather with Corah to be consumed with fire from Heaven then to be believed by any man on Earth CHAP. X. Sheweth the impudencie of the Anti-Cavalier How the Râ—bels deny they warre against the King An unanswerable Argument to presse obedience A further discussion whether for our Liberty Religion or Laws we may resist our Kings and a pathetical disswasion from Rebellion I Could insert here abundant more both of the Ancient and Modern Writers that do with invincible Arguments confirm this truth But the Anti-Cavalier would perswade the world that all those learned Fathers Anti Cavalier p. 17 18 c. and those constant Martyrs that spent their purest blood to preserve the purity of religion unto us did either belye their own strength * Yet Tertul. Cypr. whom I quoted before and Râ—ffiâ— hist Eccles l. 2. c. 1. and S. August in Psal 124. and others avouch the Christians were far stronger then their enemies and the greatest part of Julians army were Christians or befool themselves with the undue desire of over-valued Martyrdome but now they are instructed by a better spirit they have clearer illuminations to inform them to resist if they have strength the best and most lawful authority that shall either oppose or not consent unto them thus they throw dirt in the Fathers face and dishonour that glorious company and noble army of Martyrs which our Church confesseth praiseth God and therefore no wonder that they will warre against Gods annointed here on Earth when they dare thus dishonour and abuse his Saints that raign in Heaven but I hope the world will believe that those holy Saints were as honest men and those worthy Martyrs that so willingly sacrificed their lives in defence of truth could as well testifie the truth and be as well informed of the truth as these seditious spirits that spend all their breath to raise arms against their Prince and to spill so much blood of the most faithful subjects But though the authority of the best Authours is of no authority with them that will believe none but themselves yet I would wish all other men to read that Homily of the Church of England where it is said that God did never long prosper rebellious subjects against their Prince were they never so great in authority or so many in number yea were they never so noble so many so stout so witty and politique but alwayes they came by the overthrow and to a shameful end Yea though they pretend the redresse of the Common wealth which rebellion of all other mischiefs doth most destroy or reformation of religion whereas rebellion is most against The Homily against rebellion p. 390. 301. all true religion yet the speedy overthrow of all Rebels sheweth that God alloweth neither the dignity of any person nor the multitude of any people nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for the which the subjects may move rebellion against their Princes and I would to God that every subject would read over all the six parts of that Homily against wilful rebellion for there are many excellent passages in it which being diligently read and seriously weighed would work upon every honest heart never to rebell against their lawful Prince And therefore the Lawes of all Lands being so plain to pronounce them Traytors that take arms against their Kings as you may see in
Recusants and Papists and such as may be for the Glory of God and the peace of our Church which was our sole intention in the last Synod But seeing their Plot was rather to establish a new Church than to redress the defects of the old and to countenance and advance those boute-fues that schismatically rent our Church in pieces and most wickedly deâ—ile the pure Doctrine of the same by degrading and displacing the grave Governours thereof I will to give you a taste of what fruit you are like to reap from them very briefly set down the sum of these two points 1. What they have already done Two points handled 1. What they have already done in the Affairs of our Church 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. 1. Opened a gap ta all licenciousness 2. What Discipline and Doctrine are like to ensue if they should be enabled or permitted to erect their new Church for as you may find it in the Remonstrance of the Commons of England to the House of Commons 1. Under colour of Regulating the Ecclesiastical Courts Courts that have been founded by the Apostles and had alwaies their Authority and Reverence among Christians even before the Secular power when the Emperours became Christians had confirmed them they have taken away in respect of the coercive part thereof which is the life of the Law and without which the other part is fruitless all the Spiritual jurisdiction of Gods Church they have taken away Aarons rod and would have only Manna left in Gods Ark so that now the crimes inquirable and censurable by those Courts though never so heinous as Adultery Incest and the like cannot be punished Heresies and Schisms which now of late have abounded in all places can no waies be Reformed and the neglect of Gods service can as hardly be repaired when as the Ministers cannot be enforced to attend their Cures the Church-officers cannot be compelled to perform their duty and the Parishioners cannot be brought by our Law to pay their Tythes and other necessary Duties which things are all so considerable that all Christians ought to â—ear how lamentable will be the end of these sad beginnings for my self have seen the House of God most unchristianly prophaned the Church-yard and the dead bodies of the Saints so rooted and miserably abused by Hogs and Swine that it would grieve meer men that scarce ever heard of God to see such a barbarous usage of any holy place and when the Ministers have given a seven-nights warning to prepare for the blessed Eucharist and the Communicants came to partake of those holy mysteries they were fain to return home without it for want of Bread and Wine to administer it and yet now the Church Governours have not any power to redress any of these abominable abuses 2. Under shew of Reforming the Church Discipline and bettering the 2. Voted down all the Governours of Gods Church Government thereof they have voted down those very Governours the Bishops and their Assistants the Deans and Chapters whose function was constituted by the Apostles and hath from that time continued to this very day As the most Learned Arch-Bishop of Armagh Bishop Hall Master Mason Master Tayler and that worthy Gentleman Master Theyer and others have sufficiently shewed to all the World 3. Under the pretence of expunging Popery which Bishop Jewel Bishop 3. Vilified out Service-book Parry Bishop Babington Bishop Bilson Bishop Morton Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall and abundance more of the Reverend Bishops have confuted expelled and kept out of our Church more than any yea than all their schismatical Disciples whose Learning was no waies able to answer the weakest Arguments of our Adversaries the Service Book that is established by Act of Parliament and was by those holy Martyrs that lost their lives and spilt their blood in defence of the protestant Religion and defiance of Erroneous Popery so Divinely and devoutly composed as all the Reformation can bear witness and I am well assured the whole flock of these Convocants shall never be able without this to make any neer so pious must be totally cried down and hath been in many places burned used to the uncleanest use and teared all to pieces And to let you see their abomination herein I must crave patience to transcribe that it may the more generally pass the Speech of Alderman Garraway Aldâ—rman Garraway p. 7. where he saith pag. 7. Did not my Lord Maior that is Pennington first enter upon his Office with a Speech against the Book of Common Prayer Hath the Common Prayer ever been read before him Hath not Captain Ven said that his Wife could make prayers worth three of any in that Book O Masters There have been times that he which should speak against the Book of Common-Prayer in this City should not have been put to the patience of a Legal-Trial we were wont to look upon it as the greatest treasure and the Jewel of our Religion and he that should have told us he wished well to our Religion and yet would have taken away the Book of Common-Prayer would never have gotten credit I have been in all the parts of Christendome and have conversed with Christians in Turkey why in all the Reformed Churches there is not any thing of more Reverence than the English Liturgy not our Royal Exchange nor the Navy of Queen Elizabeth is so famous as this in Geneva it self I have heard it extolled to the skies I have been three months together by Sea and not a day without hearing it read twice the honest Mariners then How the Mariners esteem the Liturgy despised all the World but the King and the Common-Prayer Book he that should be suspected to wish ill to either of them should have made but an ill voyage and let me tell you they are shrewd Youths those Sea-men if they once discern that the person of the King is in danger or the Protestant professed Religion they will shew themselves mad bodies before you are aware of it I would not be a Brownist or an Anabaptist in their way for And yet these men have so basely abused and are so violent to abolish this excellent Book and Divine Liturgy that Many will not believe it though it should be told unto them I would they did but read that Act of Parliament which is prefixed unto the same to see if they regarded either the Law of God or Man the Religion of the Clergy that composed it or the Wisdom of the Parliament that confirmed it 4. Under colours to shew their hatred to Idolatry they have broken 4. Abused the images and pictures of the Saints and other holy things down the glass Windows of many Churches shot off the heads of the Images of the Blessed Virgin and of our dear Saviour represented in her lap upon the porch of Saint Maries in Oxford thrown away the Pictures of Christ and of other his Holy Apostles and Gods blessed Saints
happiness we would buy Arms and be Voluntiers and every Town being too wanton would needs train and put themselves into a posture of defence as they termed it to be secured from their own shadows and though the King told them often there was no cause of their Jealousies and therefore forbade these disloyalties yet just like the Jews they were willing to be deceived by this miserable faction that contrived that Act whereby they have perfidiously over-reached both our good King and the rest of our wel-meaning brethren either to perfect their Design or else to make themselves perpetual Dictators and to betray the felicity of all our people under the name of Parliament which though as I said before I honour and love as much as any of the truest Patriots of either House both in the institution and the right prosecution thereof that is as it was constituted to be the great Council of the Kingdom graciously called by his Majesties-writ confidently to present the grievances of the people and humbly to offer their advice and counsels for their Reformation yet I do abhor those men that would abuse the word Parliament only as a Stalking-Horse to destroy all Acts of Parâ—iament and I hate to see men calling the Fanatick actions of a few desperate seditious persons the proceedings of Parliament and others making an Idol of it as if their power were omnipotent or unlimitted and more than any Regal Power their judgment infallible their Orders irreprehensible and themselves unaccountable for their proceedings to be so besotted with the name of it that this bare shadow without the substance for it is no Parliament without the King and the Major part of both Houses is either banished or imprisoned or compelled to reside with his Majesty should so bewitch us as Master Smyth blushed not to say Nothing could free us Ingeniosus ad blasphemiâ—â— from our dangers but the Divinity of a Parliament out of our own happiness to become more miserable then heretofore this Kingdom hath ever been by any Civil War for if you will consider the Treasons and Rebellions the Injustice Cruelty and Inhumanity the Subtilty Hypocrisie Lying Swearing Blasphemy Prophaneness and Sacriledge in the highest pitch and many other the like fearful sins that have been committed since the beginning of this Parliament by the sole means of this Faction and observe the ill Acts that have been used by them to compass things lawful the wicked Acts that have been daily practised to pâ—ocure things unlawful when by blood and rapine and the curses of many Fatherless and Widdows they have gotten the Treasure of the Kingdom and the Wealth of the Kings loyal Subjects into their hands and wasted it so that their wants are still as notorious as their crimes we may admire the miracles of Gods mercy and the bottomless depth of his goodness that the stones in the streets have not risen against them or the fire from Heaven had not consumed these Rebels that thus far and thus insolently had tempted Gods patience and provoked him to anger with such horrible abominations 5. As Jerusalem justified Samaria so this Faction hath justified all the 5. Mischief Romanists and shewed themselves worse Christians less Subjects and viler Traytors than all the Papists are for these factious Rebels justify their Rebellion and to the indelible shame of their Profession they maintain that it is not only lawful but that it is their duty to bear Arms and to wage War against their King when the King doth abuse his Power whereas the Doctrine of the Church of Rome * Christoâ—herson tract contr rebell Rhemist in Nov. Test p. â—01 Goldastus de Monarchia S. Imp. Rom. tom 3. Dr. Kellison in his Survey Aquin. de Regim Princip â— 6. Concil Constan Sess â—5 Stephan Cantuar anno 8. H. 3. Tolet. in summa l 5. c 6. Gr. Valentia p. 2. q 64. Bellar. Apol. c. 13. Lessius l. â— c. 9. Serrarius Azorius c. utterly denieth the same and concludes them no Children of the Church that do it and Doctor Kellison giveth this reason for it because Faith is not necessarily required to Jurisdiction or Government neither is Authority lost by the loss of Faith therefore it is not lawful for any Subjects to Rebel against their King though their King should prove a Tyrant or should Apostate from the Faith of Christ so that now the Papists boast they are better Subjects than these Rebellious Protestants and thefore I fear that this Faction Defendens Christum verso mucrone cecidit by their unjust Design to propagate the Gospel have most grievously wounded the Faith of Christ and given a more deadly blow to the Protestant Religion than ever it had since the Reformation when it is impossible that the true Religion should produce Rebellion And therefore seeing we are free born Subjects and persons interessed in the good and safety of this Kingdom as well as any of them we must crave liberty to express our grievances and to crave redresses and seeing my self am called to be a Preacher of Gods Word and a Bishâ—p over many of the souls of my Brethren for which I must render an account to my God both for my silence when I should speak and speaking any thing that should not be spoken I resolved to fear my God and neither out of flattery to the King and his party nor out of hatred or malice to those factiâ—us men but as I am perswaded in my Conscience fully satisfied and guided by Gods Truth to set forth this Discovery of these Mysteries what danger soever I shall undergo and if I shall become their Enemy for speaking Truth I shall fare no worse than Saint Paul did and it shall be with them if they do not repent as it was with the Israelites When their destruction cometh they shall seek peace and shall not have it but calamity Ezech. 7. 25 27. shall come upon calamity CHAP. XV. Sheweth a particular recapitulation of the Reasons whereby their Design to alter the Government of the Church and State is evinced And a pathetical disswasion from Rebellion ANd thus I have set down not any thing to render these men more odious If I have been misinâ—oâ—med of any thing that shall appear false I shall not blush to retract it by an ingâ—nuous confession than they are or to abuse my Reader with falshood or uncertainties but to report what I knew and what I collected out of the present writings of best credit and attested by men of known truth and integrity whereby it is most apparent to any discerning eye That the Faction of Anabaptists and Brownists and some other of the subtilest heads in the House of Commons had from the first Convention of this Parliament secretly projected this Design and insensible to the rest of their well-meaning Brethren prosecuted the same to alter and change the ancient Government both of the Church and Kingdom which the Author of Sober-Sadnâ—ss
found to justifie the delivering up of an innocent person to the will of his accusers as Pilate did our Saviour Christ and our Saviour had John 19. 16. ability and strength enough to have defended himself for he might have commanded more then twelve Legions of Angels to assist him yet our Saviour acknowledging the legal power of Pilate to proceed against him that it was given him John 19. 12. from above makes no resistance either to maintain his doctrine or to preserve his life but in all things submits himself to their illegal proceedings and gives unto the Magistrates all the honour that was due unto their places and you know the rule Omnis Christi actio debet esse nostra instructio we ought to follow his example And therefore not onely Christ but also all good Christians have imitated him in this point for the Apostles prayed for their persecuting Tyrants exhorted all their followers to honour even the Pagan Kings and most sharply reproved all that spake evill of Authority much more would they say against them that commit evill and proceed in all wickedness against Authority And How the Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecutors Tertullian speaking of the behaviour of the Primitive Christians towards the Heathen Emperours and their cruell persecutors saith that because they knew them to be appointed by God they did love and reverence them and wish them safe with all the Romane Empire yea they honoured the Emperour and worshipped him as a man second from God solo Deo minorent and inferiour onely unto God and in his Apologetico he saith Deus est soius in cu â—us solius potestate sunt reges à quo sunt secundi post quem primi super omnes homines ante omnes Deos God alone is he by whose power Kings are preserved which are second from him first after him above all men and before all gods that is all other Magistrates that the Scripture calleth Gods So Justin Matyr Minutius Felix Nazianzen which also wrote against the vices of Julian S. Augustine and others of the prime Fathers of the Church have set down how the Primitive Christians and godly Martyrs that suffered all kinde of most barbarous cruelty at the hands of their Heathen Magistrates did notwithstanding pray for them and honour them and neither deregated from their authority nor any wayes resisted their insolence And Johannâ—s Beda Advocate Beda p. 15. in the Court of Parliament of Paris saith that the Protestants of France in the midst of torments have blessed their King by whom they were so severely intreated and in the midst of fires and massacres have published their confession in these words For thâ— cause he that is God put the sword into the Artic. 39 40 confess eccles Gal. refor Magistrates hand that he may repress the sins committed not onely against the second Table of Gods Commandments but also against the first We must therefore for his sake not onely endure that Superiours rule ever us but also honour and esteem of them with all reverence holding them for his Lieutenants and Officers to whom he hath given in commission to execute a lawfull and a holy function We therefore hold that we must obey their Lawes and Statutes pay Tributes Imposts and other duties and bear the yoke of subjection with a good and free will although they were Infidels Ob. But against this patience of the Saints and the wisdome of these good Ob. Christians it is objected by Goodwin and others of his Sect that either they wanted strength to resist or wanted knowledge of their strength or of their priviledge and power which God granted them to defend themselves and their religion or were over-much transported with an ambitions desire of Martyrdome or by some other misguiding spirit were utterly misled to an unnecessary patience and therefore we having strength enough as we conceive to subdue the King and all his strength and being wiser in our generation then all the generation of those fathers as being guided by a more unerring spirit we have no reason to pray for patience but rather to render vengeance both to the King and to all his adherents Sol. This unchristian censure and this false imputation laid upon these holy Sol. Fathers by these stubborn Rebels and proud Enthusiasts are so mildly and so learnedly answered by the Author of resisting the lawfull Magistrate upon colour Where they are fully answered of Religion that more need not be said to stop the mouthes of all ignorant gainsayers Therefore seeing that by the institution of Kings by the precept of God and by the practice of all wise men and good Christians Heathen Kings and wicked Tyrants are to be loved honoured and obeyed it is a most hatefull thing to God and man to see men professing themselves Christians but are indeed like those in the Revel which say they are Jewes and are not in stead of honouring Revel 2 9. transcendently to hate and most violently to persecute their own most Christian and most gracious King a sin so infinitely sinfull that I do not wonder to see the greatness of Gods anger to powre all the plagues that we suffer upon this Nation but I do rather admire and adore his wonted elemency and patience that he hath not all this while either sent forth his fire and lightning Gen. 19. 24. Num 16. 31. from heaven as he did upon Sodome and Gomorrah to consume them or cause the earth to swallow them as it did Corah Dathan and Abiram for this their rebellion against their King or that he hath not showred down far greater plagues and more miserable calamities then hitherto we have suffered because we have suffered these Antichristian Rebels to proceed so far and have with Judges 5. 23. the Merozites neglected all this while to add our strength to assist the Lords Anointed to reduce his seduced Subjects to their obedience and to impose condigne punishments upon the seducers and the ringleaders of this unnaturall and most horrible Rebellion CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three severall 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 AS all Kings are to be honoured in the fore-said respects so all Christian 2. Christian Kings are to have double honour in reshect of their double duty 1. Duty 2. Duty Kings are to have a double honour in respect of the double charge and duty that is laid upon them As 1. To preserve true religion and to defend the faith of Christ against all Atheists Hereticks Schismaticks and all other adversaries of the Gospel within their Territories and Dominions 2. To preserve their Subjects from all forraigne adversaries
and to prevent civill dissentions to govern them according to the rules of justice and equity which all other Kings are bound to do but neither did nor can do it so fully and so faithfully as the Christian Kings because no Law either Solons Lycurgus Pompilius or any other Greek or Latine nor any Politique Plato Aristotle Machievle or whom you will old or new can so perfectly set down and so fairly declare quid justum quid honestum as the Law of Christ hath done and therefore seeing omnis honos praesupponit onus the honour is but the reward of labour and that this labour or duty of Kings to maintain true Religion well performed and faithfully discharged brings most glory unto God and the greatest honour to all Kings when it is more to be with Constantine a nursing father to Gods Church then it is to be with Alexander the sole Monarch of the known world I will first treat of their charge and care and the power that God hath given them to defend the faith and to preserve true Religion And 1. Care of Kings to preserve true Religion Aug. de utilitate credendi cap. 9. 1. Religion saith a learned Divine without authority is no Religion for as Saint Augustine saith no true Religion can can be received by any means without some weighty force of authority therefore if that Religion whereby thou hopest to be saved hath no authority to ground it self upon or if that authority whereby thy Religion is settled be mis-placed in him that hath no authority at all what hope of salvation remaining in that Religion canst thou conceive but it is concluded on all sides that the right authority of preserving true religion must reside in him and proceed from him by whose supreme power and government it is to be enacted and forced upon us and therefore To whom the charge of preserving religion is committed 3 Opinions now the question is and it is very much questioned to whom the supreme government of our Religion ought rightly to be attributed whereof I finde three several resolutions 1. Papistical which leaneth too much on the right hand 2. Anabaptistical which bendeth twice as much on the left hand 3. Orthodoxal of the Protestants that ascribe the same to him on whom God himself hath conferred it 1. That the Church of Rome maketh the Pope solely to have the supreme 1. Opinion government of our Christian Religion is most apparent out of all their writeings Vnde saepe objictunt dictum Hosii ad Constantium Tibi Deus imperium commisit nobis quae sunt ecclesiastica concredidit Sed hic intelligitur de executione officii non de gubernatione ecclesiae Sicut ibi manifestum est eùm dicitur neque sas est nobis in terris imperium tenere neque tibi thymiamatum sacrorum potestatem habere i e. in praedicatione Et an gelii administratione Saâ—ramentorum similibus and you may see what a large book our Country-man Stapleton wrote against Master Horn Bishop of Winchester to justifie the same And Sanders to disprove the right of Kings saith Fatemur personas Episcoporum qui in toto orbe fuerunt Romano Imperatori subject as fuisse quoniam Rex praeest hominibus Christianis ver ùm non quia sunt Christiani sed quia sunt homines episcopis etiam ex ea parte rex praeesset So Master Harding saith that the office of a King in it self is all one every where not onely among the Christian Princes but also among the Heathen so that a Christian King hath no more to do in deciding Church matters or medling with any point of Religion then a Heathen And so Fekenham and all the brood of Jesuites do with all violence and virulency labour to disprove the Prince's authority and supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes and the points of our Religion and to transfer the same wholly unto the Pope and his Cardinals Neither do I wonder so much that the Pope having so universally gained and so long continued this power and retained this government from the right owners should imploy all his Hierarchy to maintain that usurped authority which he held with so much advantage to his Episcopal See though with no small prejudice to the Church of Christ when the Emperours being busied with other affairs and leaving this care of religion and government of the Church to the Pope the Pope to the Bishops the Bishops to their Suffragans and the Suffragans to the Monkes whose authority being little their knowledg less and their honesty least of â—all all things were ruled with greater corruption and less truth then they ought to be so long as possibly he should be able to possesse it But at last when the light of the Gospel shined and Christian Princes had the leisure to look and the heart to take hold upon their right the learned men opposing themselves against the Pepe's usurped jurisdiction have soundly proved the Soveraign authority of Christian Kings in the government of the Church that not onely in other Kingdoms but also here in England this power was annexed by divers Laws unto the interest of the Crown and the lawful right of the King and I am perswaded saith that Reverend ArchBishop Survey of Discip c. 22. p. 251. Bancroft had it not been that new adversaries did arise and opposed themselves in this matter the Papists before this time had been utterly subdued for the Devil seeing himself so like to lose the field stirred up in the bosom of Reformation How the Devil raised instruments to hinder the reformation a flock of violent and seditious men that pretending a greaâ— deal of hate to Popery have notwithstanding joined themselves like Sampson's â—oxes with the worst of Papists in the worst and most pernicious Doctrines that ever Papist taught to rob Kings of their sacred and divine right and to deprive the Church of Christ of the truth of all those points that do most specially concern her government and governours and though in the fury of their wilde zeal they do no less maliciously then falsly cast upon the soundest Protestants the aspersion of Popery and Malignancy yet I hope to make it plain unto my reader that themselves are the Papists indeed or worse then Papists both to the Church and State For 2. As the whole Colledge of Cardinals and all the Scholes of the Jesuites 2 Opinion Of the Anabaptists and Puritans do most stifly defend this usurped authority of the Pope which as I said may be with the less admiration because of the Princes concession and their own long possession of it so on the other side there are sprung up of late a certain generation of Vipers the brood of Anabaptists and Brownists that do most violently strive not to detain what they have unjustly obtained but a degree far worse to pull the sword out of their Prince his hand and to place authority on them
no better then not to run at all and men were as good to do nothing as to do amiss and therefore true knowledge is most requiâ—te for that King that will maintain true religion and this should be not onely in generall and by others but as much as possible he can in particulars and of himselfe that himselfe might be assured what were fit to be reformed and what warranted to be maintained in Gods service for so Moses commandeth the chiefe Princes to be exercised in Gods Law day and night because this would be a special means to beatisie or make happy both the Church and Common-Wealth As the neglect thereof brought ignorance unto the Church and ruine The kings neglect of religion and the Church is the destruction of the Common-wealth to the Romane Empire for as in Augustus time learning flourished and in Constantines time piety was much embraced because these Emperours were such themselves so when the Kings whose examples most men are apt to follow either busied with secular affairs or neglecting to understand the truth of things and the state of the Church do leave this care unto others then others imitating their neglect do rule all things with great corruption and as little truth whereby errours and blindness will over-spread the Church and pride covetousness and ambition will replenish the Common-Wealth and these vices like the tares that grow up in Gods field to suffocate the pure Wheat will at last choake up all virtue and piety both in Church and State Therefore to prevent this mischiefe the King on whom God hath laid the care of these things ought himselfe what he can to learn and finde out the true state of things and because it is â—ar unbefitting the honour and inconsistent with the charge of great Princes whose other affairs will not permit them to be alwayes poring at their books as if they were such critiques as inteâ—ded How kings may attaine unto the knowledge of religion and understand the state of the Church and how to govern the same 1. To call able Clergy-men about them to exceed all others in the theorick learning like Archimedes that was in his study drawing soâ—th his Mathemaâ—icall figures when the City was sackt and his enemies pulling down the house about his eares therefore it is wisdome in them to imitate the disâ—reâ—t examples of other wise Kings and religious Emperours in following the mâ—ans that God hath left and using the power and authority that he hath given them to attain unto more knowledge and to be better instructed in any religious matter then themselves could possibly attaine unto by their own greatest study and that is 1. As Alexander had his Aristotle ready to inform him in any Philosophicall doubt and Augustus his pâ—ime Orators Poets and Historians to instruct him in all affairs so God hath granted this power unto his Kings to call those Bishops and command such Chaplaines to reside about them as shall be able to informe them in any truth of Divinity and so direct them in the best forme of Government of Gods Church and these Chaplains should be well approved both for their learning and their honesty for to be learned without honesty as many are is to be witty to do evill which is most pernitious and doth often times make a private gaine by a publique loss or an advantage to themselves by the detriment How they should be qualified of the Church and to be honest without knowledge or to have knowledge without experience especially in such places of eminency and for the affaires of importance may be as dangerous when their want of skill may counsel to do matters of much hurt but when both are met together in one person that man is a fit Subject to do good service both to God and the King and the King may be assured there cannot be a better furtherance to assist him for the well ordering of God's Church then the grave advice and directions of such instruments as it appeareth by that memoâ—able example of King Ioas left to be remembred by all Kings who whilst the wise and religious Priest Jehoiada assisted and directed him had all things successefull and happy to his whole Kingdome but after Jehoiada's death the King destitute of such a Chaplain 2 Reg. 12. 2. to attend and such a Priest to counsel him all things came speedily to great ruine Therefore I dare boldly avouch it they are enemies unto Kings and the underminers of God's Church and such instruments as I am not able to express their wickedness that would exclude such Jehoiada's from the Kings counsel for was not Saul a wicked King and Ahab little better yet Saul would have Samuel to direct him though he followed not his direction and Ahab would ask counsel of Micaiah though he rejected the same to his own destruction and King David though never so wise and so great a Prophet and Josias and Ezechias 1 Reg. 22. 16. and all the rest of the gooâ— Kings had always the Priests and the men of God to be their Counsellors 〈◊〉 followed their directions especially in Church causes as the oracles of God so wicked Herod disdained not to hear Mar. 6 20. John the Baptist and to be reformed by him in many things and happy had he been had he done it in all things And if you read Eusâ—bius which is called Pamphilus for the great love he bare to that his noble Patronâ— and Sâ—crates and the rest of the Ecclesiastical â—istorians or the Histories of our own Land you shall finde that the best Kings and greatest Empeâ—ours had the best Divinâ—s and the most reverend Bishops to be their chiefest Counsellors and to be imployed by them in their weightiest affairs How then hath the Devil now prevailed to exclude them fâ—om all Counsels and as much as in him lyeth fâ—om the sight of Princes when he makes it a suspicion of much evil if they do but talk â—ogethe How hath he bewitched the Nobility to yield to be deprived of their Chaplains Is it not to keep them that have not time to study and to finde out truth themselves still in the ignorance of things and to none other end then to overthrow the true religion and to bring Kings and Princes to confusion â— When the King seeth cause God hath given him power and authority to 2 To call Synods to discuss and conclude the harder things call Synodâ— and Councils and to assemble the best men the most moderate and most learned to determine of those things together which a fewer number could not so well or at least not so authoritatively conclude upon for so Constantine the Great called the great Council of Nice to suppress the Heresâ—e of Arius Theodosius called the Council of Ephesus in the case of Nâ—storius Valentinian and Martian called the Council of Calcedon against Eâ—tyches Justinian called the Council of Constantinople against Severus that renewed the Heresie
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
transported with disaffection as to prefer a blasphemous Turke or an impious Jâ—w before those men though ignorantly idolatrous that do with all feare and reverence worship the same God and adore the name of Christ as we doe And we read that the Emperour Justinus a right Catholique Prince as Bishop Horne calleth him at the request of Theodoricke King of Italy granted Bishop Horne against Fekenham Justinus gave a toleration to the Arians licence that the Arians which denied the Deity of our Saviour Christ and were the worst of Heretiques and therefore worse then any Papist should be restored and suffered to live after their own orders and Pope John for the peace and quietness of the Catholique Church requested him most humbly so to do which he did for foare of Theodoricke that otherwise threatned the Catholiques should not live But you will say the fatall success that befell to King Davids house for Solomons Ob. permission of divers religions to be divided into two parts and the best ten Tribes for two to be given unto a stranger and the principall care of a Deut. 17 17 19. pious Prince being to preserve pure Religion which is soon infected by Idolatrous neighbours do rather disprove all toleration then any wayes connive with them that are of a different Religion and if we read the Oration of the league to the King of France wherein that Orator numbereth their victories and innumerable successes whilest they had but one Religion and their miseries and ill fortunes when they fostered two Religions it will appeare how far they were from allowing a toleration of any more then one Religion in one Kingdome Yet to this it may be easily answered that Solomons Kingdom was not rent Sol. The true cause of renting Solomons Kingdome Ps 106. 35. from his posterity for his permission of idolaters to dwell in his Kingdome which the Law of God did not forbid but for that fault which his father taxed the Jewes with they were mingled among the heathen and learned their works for his commixtion of alliances with strangers and the corruption of true Religion by his marrying of so many idolatrous wives and so becomming idolatrous himself and thereby inducing his subjects the Israëlites to be the like and for the Oration of the league there is in that brave Orator want of Logick ignoratio elenchi non causae ùt causae for you know what the Poët saith Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat and we must not judge of true causes by the various success of things and I may say it was not the professing of one religion but the sincere serving of God in that true religion which brought to them and will bring to others prosperous success against the infidels neither was it the permitting of two religions or to speak more properly the diversity of opinions in the same religion but their emulation and hatred one against another their pride and ambition and many other consequences of private discoâ—ds might be the just causes of their misfortunes 4. For the Puritans Brownists Anabaptists Heretiques and Schismatiques that are deemed neither Infidels nor Idolaters but do obstinately erre 4. Puâ—itans in some points of faith as the Arians that denyed the Divinity of Christ and the Nestorians to them which sinned after baptisme and the like pernicious heresies though not all alike dangerous or do make a Schisme or a rent in the Church of Christ as the Donatists did in Saint Augustin's time and the Anaebaptists and Puritans do in our dayes I say these are not to be esteemed and expelled as deadly enemies but to be suffered and respected as weake friends if they proceed not to be turbulent and malicious who then may prove to be more dangerous both to Church and State then any of the former sort that profess their religion with Peace and quietness for it is not the Profession of What wrong Professors are chiefly to be suffered this or that religion but the malice and wickedness of the professor that is the bane and poyson of the Church wherein it resteth for what is diversity of opinions in the Church of God but tares among the wheat and our Saviour sheweth that the tares should not be plucked up but suffered to grow with the Matth. 13. 29. wheat to teach us that in respect of external communion and civil conversation all sorts of Professors may live together though in respect of our spiritual Why to be suffered either for the exercise of the godly or in hope to convert the ungodly communion and exercise of our religion the Heretique shall be cast forth and be unto me tanquam Ethnicus Publicanus with whom notwithstanding I may converse as our Saviour did with hope that I may convert them unto him which could never be done if they should be quite excluded our company and banished from all holy society And therefore as the prudent Prince seeth the disposition and observeth the conversation of any Faction and the turbulency of any Sect so he knoweth best how to advise with his Council to grant his toleration to them that best deserve it not so much in respect of the meliority of their religion as their peaceable and harmless habitation among their neighbours without railing against their faith or rebelling against their Prince And thus as the case now standeth I see not any Sect or any sort of Professors that for turbulency of spirit madness of zeal and violency of hatred and persecution to the true Protestants are more dangerous to the true religion and deserve less favour from their pious Prince then these Anabaptists Brownists and Puritans that have so maliciously plotted and so rebelliously prosecuted their damnable designs to the utter ruine both of Church and State Doctor Doctor Covell cap. 15. p. 212. His description of the Puritans Covell long ago when they were not half so bad as they be now saith they pretend gravity reprehend severely speak gloriously and all in hypocrisie they daily invent new opinions and run from errour to errour their wilfulnesse they account constancy their deserved punishment persecution their mouthes are ever open to speak evil they give neither reverence nor titles to any in place above them in one word the Church cannot fear a more dangerous and And to confirme this description read what King JAMES writeth of them in his Basilicon Doron p. 160. 161. and in the History of the conference at Hampton-Court in annâ— 603. p. 81 82. fatal enemy to her peace and happinesse a greater cloud to the light of the Gospel a stronger hand to pull in barbarisme and poverty into all our Land a more furious monster to breed contempt and disobedience in all estates a more fretting canker to the very marrow and sinewes of this Church and kingdome then this beast who is proud without learning presumptuous without authority zealous without knowledge holy
professed in Q. Elizabeth's times that was established by the Lawes justified by the paines and confirmed by the bloud of so many worthy men and faithful Martyrs but a new religion first hatched in Amsterdam then nourished in New-England and now to be transplanted into this Kingdom 3. Who are the persons that are imployed in this war he first of all that 3. Meet Members is the more disloyal because he was a person of honour that had so much honour conferred upon him by His Majesty and so much trust reposed in him and would notwithstanding prove so unthankful as to kick with his heeles against his Master and so follow whom you know passibus aequis whose example any other man that were not rob'd of his understanding would make a remora to retain him from rebellion and what are the other heads but a company either of poor needy and mean condition'd Lords and Gentlemen Who the Rebels are and what manner persons they be or discontented Peers that are misled or such factious Sectaries whose blind zeal and furious malice are able to hurry them headlong to perpetrate any mischief for their Captains and their Officers I believe they fight neither for the Anabaptists creed nor against the Romane faith nor to overthrow our Protestant Church but for their pay for which though they cannot be justified to take their hire for such ill service to rebel against their King and to murder their innocent brethren Yet are they not so bad as their grand Masters and for their common Souldiers I assure my self many of them fight against their wills many seduced by their false Prophets others inticed by their factious Masters and most of them compelled to kill their brethren against their wils and therefore in some places though their number trebled the Kings yet they had rather run away then fight and what a miserable and deplorable case is this when so many poor soules shall be driven unto the Devil by Preachers and Parliament against their wills 4. If you consider quâ authoritate by what authority they wage this war 4. The supreme authority they will answer by the Authority of Parliament and that is just none at all because the Parliament hath not the supreme authority without which the war is not publique nor can it be justified for a war is then justifiable when there is no legal way to end the controversie by prohibiting farther appeales which cannot be but onely betwixt independent States and several Princes that Albericus Gentilis de jure belli l. 1. c. 2. Subjects can never make a lawful war against their King have the supreme power in their own hands and are not liable to the censure of any Court which power the Parliament cannot challenge because they are or should be the King 's lawful Subjects and therefore cannot be his lawful enemies but they will say Master Goodwin Burroughs and all the rest of our good men zealous brethren and powerful Preachers do continually cry out in our eares it is bellum sanctum a most just and holy war a war for the Gospel and for our Lawes and Liberties wherein whosoever dies he shall be crowned a Martyr I answer that for their reward they shall be indeed as Saint Augustine saith of the like Martyres stultae Philosophiae when every one of them may Res dura ac plena pericli est regale occidisse genus be indicted at the bar of God's justice for a felo de se a Malefactour guilty of his own untimely death and for their good Oratours that perswade them to this wickednesse I pray you consider well what they are men of no worth rebellious against the Church Rebels against the King factious Schismaticks of In what condition their Preachers are and of what worth no faith of no learning that have already forfeited their estates if they have any and their lives unto the king and will any man that is wise hazard his estate his life and his soul to follow the perswasions of these men my life is as deare to me as the Earle of Essex his head is to him and my soul dearer and I dare ingage them both that if all the Doctors in both Vniversities and all the Divines within the kingdome of England were gathered together to give their judgement of this War there could not be found one of ten it may be as I beleive not one of twenty that durst upon his conscience say this war is lawful upon the Parliament side for though these Locusts that is the German Scottish It is contrary to the doctrine of all the Protestant Church for Subjects to resist their king and the English puritane agreeing with the Romane Jesuite ever since the reformation harped upon this string and retained this serpentine poison within their bosome still spitting it forth against all States as you may see by their bookes Yet I must tell you plainly this doctrine of Subjects taking up armes against their lawful King is point blanck and directly against the received doctrine of the Church of England and against the tenet of all true Protestants and therefore Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuite Paraeus in Rom. 13. Boucher l. 2. c. 2. Kecâ—erm Syst pol. c. 32. Jun. Bruâ— q. 2. p. 56. Bellar. de laic c. 6. Suar. de fid cathol c. 3. Lichfield l. 4. 19. sect 19. Field l. 5. c. 30. that cast this aspersion upon the Protestants that they jumpe with them in this doctrine of warring against and deposing kings saith that no Protestant doth maintain that damnable doctrine and that rashness of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto Juel and Bilson and all the Doctors of the Church are of the same minde and Lichfield saith no Orthodox father did by word or writing teach any resistance for the space of a thousand yeares and Doctor Field saith that all the worthy fathers and Bishops of the Church perswaded themselves that they owed all duty unto their kings though they were Hereticks and Infidels and the Homilies of the Church of England allowed by authority do plainly and peremptorily condemne all Subjects warring against their King for Rebels and Traytors that do resist the ordinance of God and procure unto themselyes damnation and truely I beleive most of their own consciences tell them so and they that thinke otherwise I would have them to consider that if they were at a banquet where twenty should aver such a dish to be full of poyson for every one that would warrant it good would'st thou venture to eate it and hazard thy life in such a case O then consider what it is to hazard thy soule upon the like termes So you see the justness of the War on the Parliament side But. 1. On the Kings side it cannot be denied but his cause is most just for his own defence for the maintenance of the
that they should obey their King 1. Active obedience and those that are sent of him they do willingly yield obedience to their superiours and no marvel because there cannot be a surer argument of an evil man then in a Church reformed and a Kingdom lawfully governed to resist authority and to disobey them that should rule over us especially him whom God immediately hath appointed to be his vice-gerent his substitute and the supreme Monarch of his Dominions here on earth for all other things both in heaven and earth do obsere that Law which their maker hath appointed for them when as the Psalmist saith he hath given them a Law which shall not be broken therefore this must needs be a great reproof and a mighty shame to those men that being Subjects unto their King and to be ruled by his Lawes will notwithstanding disobey the King and transgresse those Lawes that are made for their safety and resist that authority which they are bound to obey onely because their weak heads or false hearts do account the commandment of the King to be against right and what themselves doe to be most holy and just But our City Prophets will say that although the King be the supreme Monarch Ob. Diverse kinds of Monarchies whom we are commanded to obey yet there are diverse kinds of Monarchies or Regal governments as usurped lawful by conquest by inheritance by election and these are either absolute as were the Eastern Kings and the Roman Emperours or limited and mixed which they term a Political Monarchy where the King or Monarch can do nothing alone but with the assistance and direction of his Nobility and Parliament or if he doth attempt to bring any exorbitancies to the Common-wealth or deny those things that are necessary for the preservation thereof they may lawfully resist him in the one and compel him to the other to which I answer 1. As God himself which is most absolute liberrimum agens may notwithstanding Sol. Absolute Monarchs may limit themselves limit himself and his own power as he doth when he promiseth and sweareth that he will not fail David and that the unrepentant Rebels should never enter into his rest so the Monarch may limit himself in some points of his administration and yet this limitation neither transferreth any power of Soveraignty unto the Parliament nor denieth the Monarch to be absolute nor admitteth of any resistance against him for 1. This is a meer gull to seduce the people that cannot distinguish the point I cannot devise words to expresse this new devised government of a needle just like the Papist that saith he is a Roman Catholick that is a particular universal a black white a polumonarcha a many one governor when we say he is a Monarch joined in his government with the Parliament for he can be no Monarch or supreme King and Soveraign that hath any sharers with him or above him in the government 2. There is no Monarch that can be said to be simply absolute but onely God yet where there is no superiour but the soveraignty residing in the King he may he said to be an absolute Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Because there is none on earth that can controul him 2. Because he is free and absolute in all such things wherein he is not expresly limited and therefore 3. Seeing no Monarch or Soveraign is so absolute but that he is some way No Monarch so absolute but someway limited limited either by the Law of God or by the Rules of nature or of his own concessions and grants unto his people or else by the compact that he maketh with them if he be an elective King and so admitted unto his Kingdom there is no reason they should resist their King for transgressing the limitations of one kind more then the other or if any no doubt but he that transcendeth the limits of God's Law or goeth against the common rules of nature ought rather to be resisted then he that observeth not his own voluntary concessions but themselves perceiving how peremptorily the Apostle speaketh against resistance of the Heathen Emperours that then ruled do confess that absolute Monarchs ought not to be resisted wherein also they are mistaken because the histories tell us those Emperours were not so absolute as our Kings till the time of Vespasian when the lex regia transferred all the power of the People upon the Emperour Vlpian de constit Principis therefore indeed no Monarch ought No Monarch ought to be resisted to be resisted whatsoever limitations he hath granted unto his Subjects And the resisters of authority might understand if their more malitious then blinde leaders would give them leave that this virtue of obedience to the supreme power maketh good things unlawful when we are forbidden to do them as the eating the forbidden tree was to Adam and the holding up of the Arke was to Vzza and it maketh evil things to be good and lawful when they are commanded to be done as the killing of Isaack if he had done it had been commendable in Abraham and the smiting of the Prophet was very laudable in him that smote him when the Prophet commanded him to do it and therefore Adam and Vzza were punished with death because they did those lawful good things which they were forbidden to do and the others were recompenced Rebels should well consider these things with blessings because they did and were ready to do those evill things that they were commanded to do when as he that refused to smite the Prophet being commanded to do it was destroyed by a Lyon because he did it 1 Reg. 20. 38. not whereby you see that things forbidden when they are commanded è contrà cannot be omitted without sin You will say it is true when it is done by God whose injunction or prohibition Ob. Mandaâ—um imperantis tollit peccatum obedientis Aug. Sol. his precept or his forbidding to do it or not to do it maketh all things lawful or unlawful I answer that we cannot thinke our selves obedient to God whilest we are disobedient to him whom God hath commanded us to obey and therefore if we will obey God we must obey the King because God hath commanded us to obey him and being to obey him non attendit verus obediens quale sit quod praecipitur sed hoc solo contentus quia praecipitur he that is truely obedient to him whom God commanded us to obey never regardeth what it is that is commanded so it be not simply evil for then as the Apostle saith it is better to obey God then man were he the greatest Monarch in the World but he considereth and is therewith satisfied that it is commanded and therefore doth it saith Saint Bernard in l. de praecept dispensat Bernard in l. de praecept dispensat CHAP. XVI Sheweth the answer to some objections against the obeying
him Had Zimri peace which slew his Master to whom he might have answered He breaks no Law that obeyeth the commands of the Law-maker no more then the Israelites could be accused of theft when they did rob the Aegyptians or Abraham of murder if he had killed Isaac but without this special command he could not have done this extraordinary work without sin and therefore that which he could not do then without the warrant of the heavenly Oracle cannot be done now by any other without Jehu's example not to be imitated the contempt of the Deity the reproach of Majesty and abundance of dammage to the Common-wealth And so not onely I but also Peter Martyr commenteth upon the place where he saith God stirred up and armed one onely Jehu against his Lord which fact as it is peculiar and singular so it is not to be drawn for any example for certainly if it might be lawfull for the people upon any pretence to expell their Kings and Governours though never so wicked and unjust from their Kingdomes and government no Kings or Princes could be safe in any place for though Petrus Martyr loâ— com class â— loc 20. they should raign never so justly and holily yet they should never satisfie the people but they would still accuse them of injustice and impiety that they might depose them And Bodinus in his Policy differeth not at all from this Divinity for he saith If the Prince be an absolute Soveraign as are the Kings of France Spain England Scotland Aethiopia Turkie Persia Muscovie and the like true Monarchs whose authority cannot be doubted and their chief rule and government cannot be imparted with their subjects in this case it is not lawful for any one apart nor for all together to conspire and attempt any thing either of fact or under the colour of right against the life or the honour of his Prince or Monarch yea though his Prince should commit all kind of impiety and cruelty which the tongue of any man could expresse For as concerning the order of right the subject hath no kind of jurisdiction against his Prince from whom dependeth and proceedeth all the power and authority of commanding as they that rise against their King do notwithstanding send out their Warrants and Commands in the Kings name and who not onely can recall all the faculty of judging and governing from his inferiour Magistrates whensoever he please but also Johan Bodinus de repub l. 2. l. 5 being present all the power and jurisdiction of all his under-Magistrates Corporations Colledges Orders and Societies do cease and are even then reduced into him from whom before they were derived But we find it many times that not the fault of the Prince nor the good The true causes that move many men to disturb the State and to rebell of the Common-wealth but either the hiding of their own shame or the hope of some private gain induceth many men to kindle and blow up the flames of civil discord for as Paterculus saith Ita se res habet ut publicâ ruinâ quisque malit quà m suâ proteri It so falls out that men of desperate conditions that with Catiline have out-run their fortunes and quite spent their estates had rather perish in a common calamity which may hide the blemish of their sinking then to be exposed to the shame of a private misery and we know that many men are of such base behaviour that they care not what losse or calamity befalls others so they may inrich themselves so it was in the civil warres of Rome Bella non causis inita sed Paterculus in Histor Roman prout merces eorum fuit they undertook the same not upon the goodnesse of the cause but upon the hope of prey and so it is in most warres that avarice and desire of gain makes way for all kind of cruelty and oppression and then it is as it was among the Romans a fault enough to be wealthy and they shall be plundered that is in plain English robbed of their goods and possessions without any shew of legal proceedings But they that build their own houses out of the ruine of the State and make themselves rich by the impoverishing of their neighbours are like to have but small profit and lesse comfort in such rapine because there is a hidden curse that lurketh in it and their account shall be great which they must render for it Therefore I conclude this point that for no cause and upon no pretext it is lawful for any subject to rebell against his Soveraign governour for Moses had a cause of justice and a seeming equity to defend and revenge his brother upon the Aegyptian And Saint Peter had the zeal of true religion and as a man might think as great a reason as could be to defend his Master that was most innocent from most vile and base indignities and to free him from the hands of his most cruell persecutors and yet as Saint Augustine saith Vterque justitiae regulam excessit ille Fraterno August contra Faustum Man l. 2â— c. 70. iste Dominico amore peccavit both of them exceeded the rule of justice and Moses out of his love to his brother and S. Peter out of his respect to his Master have transgressed the commandement of God And therefore I hope all men will yield that what Moses could not do for his brother nor Saint Peter for his Master and the religion of his Master Christ that is to strike any one without lawful authority ought not to be done by any other man for what cause or religion soever it be especially to make insurrection against his King contrary to all divine authority for the true Religion hath been always humble patient and the preserver of peace and quietnesse and as Saint Augustine saith the City Pro temporall salute non pugnavit sed pâ—tiâ—s ut obtineret â—ternam non repugnavit Aug. de Civit. l. 22. c. 6. of God though it wandred never so much on earth and had many troopes of mighty people yet for their temporal safety they would not fight against their impious persecutors but rather suffered without resistance that they might attain unto eternal health And so I end this first part of the objection with that Decree of the Councell of Eliberis If any man shall break the Idols to pieces and shall be there killed for the doing of it because it is not written in the Gospel and the like fact is not found to be done at any time by the Apostles it pleased Concil Eliber Can 60. the Councel that he shall not be received into the number of Martyrs because contrary to the practice of our dayes when every base mechanick runs to the Church to break down not Heathen Idols but the Pictures of the blessed Saints out of the windows they conceived it unlawful for any man to pull down Idolatry except he had a lawful
authority CHAP. VI. Sheweth that neither private men nor the subordinate Magistrates nor the greatest Peers of the Kingdom may take arms 2. Part of the objection answered No kind of men ought to rebell 1. Not private men Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 20. Sect. 31. Beza Confess â— 5. p. 171. J. Brutus q. 3. pag. 203. Dan. de Polit. Christ l. 6. c. 3. Bucan loc com 49. Sect. 76. The examples of obedience to kings and make Warre against their King Buchanan's mistake discovered and the Anti-Gavalier conâ—uted 2. AS it is not lawful for any cause so no more is it lawful for any one or for any degree calling or kind of men to rebell against their lawful Governours For 1. Touching private men we find that Calvin Beza Jun. Brutus Danaeus Bucanus and most others yield that meer private men ought not to rebell at any hand and no wonder for the Scriptures forbid it flatly as Exod. 22. 28. Revile not the Gods curse not the Ruler 1 Chron. 16. 22. Touch not mine annoynted Prov. 30. 31. Rise not up against the King that is to resist him Eccles 8. 3. Let no man say to the King Why doest thou so Eccles 10. 17. Curse not the King in thy thought And the examples of obedience in this kind are innumerable and most remarkable for David when he had Saul a wiâ—ked King guilty of all impiety and cruelty in his own hand yet would he not lay his hand upon the Lords annointed but was troubled in conscience when he did but cut the lap of his garment Elias could call for fire from Heaven to burn the two Captains and their men a hundred in number onely for desiring him to come down unto the King as you may see 2 Reg. 1. 10 12. and yet he would not resist Achab his King that sought his life and was an enemy to all religion but he rather fled than desired any revenge or perswaded any man to rebell against him Esaias was sawed in pieces by Manasses Jeremy was cast into the dungeon Daniel exposed to the Lyons the Three Children thrown into the fiery Furnace Amos thrust thorough the temples Zacharias slain in the porch of the Temple James killed with the sword Peter fastened to the Crosse with his head downward Bartholomew beaten to death with clubs Matthew beheaded Paul slain with the sword and all the glorious company of the Martyrs which have ennobled the Church with their innocent life and inlarged the same by their precious death never resisted any of their Persecutors never perswaded any man to rebell against them Why the holy Saints obeyed the unjust Tyrant never cursed the Tyrants never implored the aid of the inferiour Magistrates or superiour Nobility either by force to escape their hands or by violence to resist their power for they thought it more honour unto God and farre better to themselves that the just should unjustly suffer for righteousnesse sake than under the colour of justice undutifully to resist and unjustly to rebell against these unjust Persecutors And yet some men are not ashamed to averre that meer private men A strange Position and inferiour subjects if their King as a Tyrant should invade them like a robber or ravisher may defend themselves and oppose the Tyrant as well and as violently as they may resist a private thief or a high-way robber But how untruly they do avouch this thing will plainly appear if you consider how disjunctive these things are and how unjustly they are alledged for this purpose for a Chirurgion launceth a man and draweth his Confuted blood and so doth the thief or a robber but he deserveth a reward this a rope So the Prince sometimes doth in some sort the same thing and it The Tyrant hath a just power though he useth the same unjustly so hath not the thief or the robber may be after the like manner as a thief or a robber doth as often as with a strong hand he taketh the goods of his subjects and forceth the rebellious unto obedience But will you say that both of them do it by the same right I hope not for God gave the power and the sword unto the Prince and he as the Judge of our actions useth the same ad vindictam for the punishment of our offence but the thief or the robber usurpeth the sword and abuseth the same ad rapinam to our destruction and therefore whosoever saith that a subject hath the same reason to rise against his Prince that punisheth him as a traveller hath against a robber that stealeth from him may well be ashamed of such doctrine that carrieth so little shew of any truth But you will say the Prince that is a Tyrant punisheth for no fault without Object any just cause nay altogether unjustly and against all truth as Saul persecuted David and put to death the harmlesse Priests and David did the like to Vrias Achab to Naboth Joash to Zachary Manasses to Esay Pilate to Christ Nero to Peter and perhaps Theodosius to the Thessalonians may they not resist in such a case when they are thus punished and persecuted without cause I answer that under Saul David Achab Joash and Manasses there lived Sol. many faithful Priests and Prophets that were both upright for life and excellent for knowledge and in the days of Christ Zacheus Nicodemus How the Saints at all times suffered and never resisted their kings and Gamaliel were inferiour Magistrates and were also pious men and skilful in the understanding as well of Politique as of Divine affairs and we are sure that no age brought forth either more learned Bishops or holyer Saints than the Apostles and Disciples of â—â—rist that lived under Nero and those excellent Fathers that were in the time of Theodosius and yet never any of these not one of them all shewed us this resisting way to escape the force of tyranny but it hath been alwayes the doctrine of Christ and his Church that Kings and Princes offending the Lawes and transcending the bounds of their duties have onely God for their revenger and ought not to be resisted by any man or any kind of men though they should never so much abuse that power which they have received from God And therefore Christ himself and all his Saints not onely suffered their Christ and his Apostles perswade all men obediently to suffer greatest rage but also exhibited all honour and shewed all reverence unto their most cruel Persecutors and they perswaded all others both by their precepts and examples to do the like and that not onely for fear of wrath but also for conscience sake because the King is Gods Steward which Christ hath set over his whole family and if the Steward like the evil servant in the Gospel shall begin to despise his Master neglect his duty smite his fellows and dissolutely go on to eat and drink and be drunken yet not all the whole family not the Priests not