JVRA MAJESTATIS THE RIGHTS OF KINGS BOTH In CHVRCH and STATE 1. Granted by God 2. Violated by the Rebels 3. Vindicated by the Truth AND The wickednesses of the Faction of this pretended PARLIAMENT at VVestminster 1. Manifested by their Actions 1. Perjury 2. Rebellion 3. Oppression 4. Murder 5. Robberie 6. Sacriledge and the like 2. Proved by their Ordinances 1. Against Law 2. Against Equity 3. Against Conscience PUBLISHED 1. To the eternall honour of our just God 2. The indeleble shame of the wicked Rebels And 3. To procure the happy peace of this distressed Land Which many feare we shall never obtaine untill 1. The Rebels be destroyed or reduced to the obedience of our King And 2. The breaches of the Church be repaired 1. By the restauration of Gods now much prophaned service And 2. The reparation of the many injuries done to Christ his now dis-esteemed servants By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS Lord Bishop of OSSORY Impij homines qui dum volunt esse mali nolunt esse veritatem qua condemnantur mali Augustinus Printed at Oxford Ann. Dom. 1644. Carolus D G Mag Brittaniae Fra et Hiberniae Rex â—â—r TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE Most gracious Soveraigne WIth no small paines and the more for want of my books and of any setled place being multùm terris jactatus alto frighted out of mine house and tost betwixt two distracted Kingdomes I have collected out of the sacred Scripture explained by the ancient Fathers and the best Writers of Gods Church these few Rights our of many that God and nature and Nations and the Lawes of this Land have fully and undeniably granted unto our Sveraigne Kings My witnesse is in Heaven that as my conscience directed me without any squint aspect so I have with all sincerity and freely traced and expressed the truth as I shall answer to the contrary at the dreadfull judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore with all fervency I humbly supplicate the divine Majestie still to assist Your Highnesse that as in Your lowest ebbe You have put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and with an heroick resolution withstood the proudest waves of the raging Seas and the violent attempts of so many imaginary Kings so now in Your acquired strength You may still ride on with Your honour and for the glory of God the preservation of Christ his Church and the happinesse of this Kingdom not for the greatest storme that can be threatned suffer these Rights to be snatched away nor Your Crowne to be throwne to the dust nor the sword that God hath given You to be wrested out of Your hand by these uncircumcised Philistines these ungracious rebels and the vessels of Gods wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse they do most speedily repent for if the unrighteous will be unrighteous still and our wickednesse provoke God to bring our Land to desolation Your Majestie standing in the truth and for the right for the honour of God and the Church of his Sonne is absolved from all blame and all the bloud that shall be spilt and the oppressions insolencies and abhominations that are perpetrated shall be required at the hands and revenged upon the heads of these detested rebels You are and ought in the truth of cases of conscience to be informed by Your Divines and I am confident that herein they will all subscribe that God will undoubtedly assist You and arise in his good time to maintaine his owne cause and by this warre that is so undutifully so unjustly made against Your Majestie so Giant like fought against Heaven to overthrow the true Church You shall be glorious like King David that was a man of warre whose deare sonne raised a dangerous rebellion against him and in whose reigne so much bloud was spilt and yet notwithstanding these distempers in his Dominion he was a man according to Gods owne heart especially because that from α to ω * As in the beginning by reducing the Arke from the Philistines throughout the midst by setling the service of the Tabernacle in the ending by his resolution to build and leaving such a treasure for the erecting of the Temple the beginning of his raigne to the end of his life his chiefest endeavour was to promote the service and protect the servants of the Tabernacle the Ministers of Gods Church God Almighty so continue Your Majestie blesse You and protect You in all Your wayes Your vertuous pious Queene and all Your royall Progenie Which is the daily prayer of The most faithfull to Your Majestie GRYFFITH OSSORY The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this TREATISE CHAP. I. Sheweth who are the fittest to set downe the Rights which God granted unto Kings what causeth men to rebell the parts considerable in S. Peter's words 1. Pet. 2.17 in fine How Kings honoured the Clergy the faire but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefely ayme at and their malice to Episcopacie and Royaltie Pag. 1 CHAP. II. Sheweth what Kings are to be honoured the institution of Kings to be immediately from God the first Kings the three chiefest rights to Kingdomes the best of the three rights how Kings came to be elected and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracie and Democracie issued out of Monarchie Pag. 12 CHAP. III. Sheweth the Monarchicall Government to be the best forme the first Government that ever was agreeable to Nature wherein God founded it consonant to Gods owne Government the most universally received throughout the world the immediate and proper Ordinance of God c. Pag. 20 CHAP. IV. Sheweth what we should not do and what we should do for the King the Rebels transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themselves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their own Kings of Israel c. Pag. 29 CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himselfe before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecuting Emperours Pag. 41 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 Pag. 48 CHAP. VII Sheweth the three things necessary for all Kings that would preserve true Religion how the King may attaine to the knowledge of things that pertaine to Religion by His Bishops and Chaplains and the calling of Synods c. Pag. 62 CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Lawes by the advice of their Bishops and Clergy
of them have belebed forth against the Divine Truth of God's Word and the sacred Majesty of Kings Calvin in Amos cap. 7. Master Calvin a man otherwise of much worth and worthy to be honoured yet in this point transported with his own passion calleth those Blasphemers that did call King Henry the Eighth the Supreme Head of this Church of England Stapâ—â— cont â—â—dorn l 1. p. 22. and Stapleton saith that he handled the King himselfe with such villany and with so spitefull words as he never handled the Pope more spitefully and all for this Title of Supremacy in Church causes and in his 54. Epist to Myconius he termeth them prophane spirits and mad men that perswaded the Magistrates of Geneva not to deprive themselves of that authority which God had given them Viretus is more virulent for he 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 cloak of the Gospell How Viretus would prove the temporall Pope as he calleth the King vvorse then the spirituall Pope affirming that the putting of all authority and power into the Civill Magistrates hands and making them Masters of the Church is nothing else but the changing of the Popedome from the Spirituall Pope into a Temporall Pope who as it is to be feared will prove worse and more tyrannous than the Spirituall Pope which he laboureth to confirme by these three reasons Reason 1 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 Spirituall Popes had some regard in their Reason 2 dealings of Councels Synods and ancient Canons but the new Secular Popes will do what they list without respect of any Ecclesiasticall Order be it right or wrong 3. Because the Romish Popes were most commonly very Reason 3 learned but it happeneth oftentimes that the Regall Popes have neither learning nor knowledge in divine matters and yet these shall be they that shall command Ministers 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 10 or 20 yeares usurped more tyrannie over the Churches in their Dominions then ever the Pope and his adherents did in 600 yeares All which reasons are but meere fopperies Viretus his scandalous reasons answered blowne up by the blacke Devill to blast the beauty of this truth for we speake not of the abuse of any Prince to 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 Lawes which through his royall 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 hide the light from the eyes of the simple So Cartwright also T. C. l. 2. p. 411 that was our English firebrand and his Disciples teach as Harding had done before that Kings and Princes doe hold their Kingdomes and Dominions under Christ as he is the Sonne of God onely before all worlds coequall with the father and not as he is Mediator and Governour of the Church and therefore the Christian Kings have no more to doe with the Church government then the Heathen Princes so Travers saith that the Heathen Princes being converted to the faith receive no more nor any further increase of their power whereby they may deale in Church causes then they had before so the whole packe of the Disciplinarians are all of the same minde and do hold that all Kings aswell Heathen as Christian receiving but one Commission and equall authority immediately from God have no more to doe with Church causes the one sort then the other And I am ashamed to set downe the rayling and the scurrilous speeches of Anthony Gilby against Hen. 8. Gilby in his admonition p. 69. Knox in his exhâ—ta iâ—n to the Nobility of Scotland fol. 77. and of Knox Whittingham and others against the truth of the Kings lawfull right and authority in all Ecclesiasticall causes For were it so as Cartwright Travers and the rest of that crew doe 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 appeare most evident to all understanding men that all Kings aswell 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 The Gentile Kings preservers of religion For it cannot be denyed but that all Kings ought to preserve their Kingdomes and all Kingdomes are preserved by the same meanes by which they were first established and they 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 Synes ep 126. Vide Amis part 2. pag. 14. Ad magnas râ—spubl utilitates retinetur religio in civitatibus Cicero de divin l. 2. and as Synesius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priest and a Prince was all one with them when the Kings to preserve their Lawes inviolable and to keepe 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 as all were not Law-makers yet all of them preserved Religion as the onely preservation of their Lawes and the happinesse of their Kingdomes which they saw could not continue without Religion But 2. In the Parliament 2. The wisedome of our grave Prelates and the learning of our religious Clergie having stopped the course of this violent streame and hindered the translation of this right of Kings unto their new-borne Presbyterie and late erected Synods There sprang up another generation out of the dregs of the former that because they would be sure to be bad enough out of their envy unto Kings and malice unto the Church that the one doth not advance their unworthinesse and the other doth not beare with their
undutifulnesse will needs transferre this right of ruling Gods Church unto a Parliament of Lay-men the King shall be denuded of what God hath given him and the people shall be indued with what God and all good men have ever denyed them I deny not but the Parliament men as they are most noble and worthy Gentlemen so many of them may be very learned and not a few of them most religious and I honour the Parliament rightly discharging their duties Hugo de Sancto Vict. lib. 2. de sacr fid par 2. cap. 3. Laicis Christianis fidelibus terrena possidere conceditur clericis verò tantùm spiritualiâ— committuntur quae autem illâ— spiritualia sunt subjicit c. 5. dicent omnis ecclesiastica administratio in tribus consistit in sacramentis in ordinibus in praeceptis Ergo Laici nihil juris habent in legibus praeceptis condendis ecclesiasticit as much as their modesty can desire or their merit deserve neither doe I gain-say but as they are pious men and the greatest Councell of our King so they may propose things and request such and such Lawes to be enacted such abuses to be redressed and such a reformation to be effected as they thinke befitting for Gods Church but for Aarons seed and the Tribe of Levi to be directed and commanded out of the Parliament chaire how to performe the service of the Tabernacle and for Lay men to determine the Articles of faith to make Canons for Church-men to condemne heresies and define verities and to have the chiefe power for the government of Gods Church as our Faction now challengeth and their Preachers ascribe unto them is such a violation of the right of Kings such a derogation to the Clergy and so prejudiciall to the Church of Christ as I never found the like usurpation of this right to the eradication of the true religion in any age for seeing that as the Proverb goeth Quod medicorum est promittunt medici tractant fabrilia fabri what Papist or Athiest will be ever converted to professe that religion which shall be truly what now they alleadge falsely unto us a Parliamentary religion or a religion made by Lay men with the advice of a few that they choose è faece Cleri I must seriously professe what I have often bewayled to see Nadab and Abihu offering strange fires upon Gods Altar to see the sacred offices of the Priests so presumptuously usurped by the Laity and to see the children of the Church nay the servants of the Church to prescribe Lawes unto their Masters and I did ever feare it to be an argument not onely of a corrupted but also of a decaying State when Moses chaire should be set in the Parliament House and the Doctors of the Church should never sit thereon therefore I wish that the Arke may be brought backe from the Philistines and restored to the Priests to be placed in Shilo where it should be and that the care of the Arke which King David undertooke may not be taken out of his hands by his people but that he may have the honour of that service which God hath imposed upon him For 3. Opinion Of the Oâ—thodox Quia religio est ex potioribus reipublica partibus ut aâ—t Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. ipsa sola custodit hominum inter se societateâ— ut ait Lâ—ctant de ira Dei cap. 12. Veritura Troia perdidit primum Deos. 3. As nothing is dearer to understanding righteous and religious Kings then the increase and maintenance of true religion and the inlargement of the Church of Christ throughout all their Dominions so they have at all times imployed their studies to this end because it is an infallible maxime even among the Politicians that the prosperity of any Kingdome flourisheth for no longer time then the care of religion and the prosperity of the Church is maintained by them among their people as we see Troy was soone lost when they lost their Palladium so it is the truest signe of a declining and a decaying State to see the Clergy despised and Religion disgraced and therefore the provision for the safety of the Church the publique injoying of the Word of God the forme of Service the manner of Government and the honour and maintenance of the Clergie are all the duties of a most Christian King which the King of Heaven hath imposed upon him for the happinesse and prosperity of his Kingdome and whosoever derive the authority of this charge either in a blinde obedience to the See of Rome as the Jesuites doe or out of their too much zeale and affection to a new Consistory as the late Presbyterians did or to a Lay Parliament as our upstart Anabaptists and Brownists doe are most unjust usurpers of the Kings right which is not onely ascribed unto him and warranted by the Word of God but is also confirmed to the Princes of this Land by severall Acts of Parliament Therefore the Tyrians châ—yâ—â—d their gods lest if they fled thâ—y should be destroyed to have the supremacie in all causes and over all persons as well in the Ecclesiasticall as in the Civill governement which being so they are exempted thereby from all inforcement of any domesticall or forraigne power and freed from the penalties of all those Lawes both Ecclesiasticall and Civill whereunto all their Subjects Clergy and Laity Q. Curtius de rebus Alexand. Joh. Beda p. 22 23. and all inferiour Persons and the superiour Nobility within their Kingdomes are obliged by our Lawes and Statutes as hereafter I shall more fully declare Therefore it behoveth all Kings and especially our King at this time seriously to consider what prejudice they shall create unto themselves and their just authority if they should yeild themselves inferiour to their Subjects aggregativè or repraesentativè or how you will or liable to the penall Lawes for so they may be soone dethroned by the unstable affection and weake judgement of discontented people or subject to the jurisdiction of Lay Elders and the excommunication of a tyrannous Consistory who denounceing him tanquam Ethnicum Matth. 18.17 may soone adde a stranger shall not raigne over thee Deut. 17.15 and so depose him from all government For seeing all attempts are most violent that have their beginning and strength from zeale 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 warre under Spartacus was most pernicious unto the Romans there can be nothing of greater use or more profitable either for the safety of the King How necessary it is for Kings to retaine their just rights in their hands the peace of the Church and the quiet state of the Kingdome then for the Prince the King to retaine the Militia and to keepe that power and authority which the Lawes of God and of our Land have granted
Martyn Travers Throgmorton Philips Nicholls and the rest of those introducers of Out-landish and Genevian Discipline first broached these uncouth and unsufferable tenets in our Land in the Realme of England and Scotland and truely if their opinions had not dispersed themselves like poyson throughout all the veines of this Kingdome and infected many of our Nobility and as many of the greatest Cities of this Kingdome as it appeareth by this late unparallâ—'d rebellion these and the rest of the trayterous authors of those unsavory bookes 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 memoriall should have perished with them But seeing as Saint Chrysostome saith of the Heretiques of his time that although in age they were younger yet in malice they were equall to the ancient Heretiques and as the brood of Serpents though they are of lesse stature Our rebellious Sectaries farre worse then all the former Disciplinarians yet in their poyson no lesse dangerous then their dammes so no more have our new Sectaries our upstart Anabaptists any lesse wickednesse then their first begetters nay we finde it true that as the Poët saith Aetas parentum pejor avis Tulit nos nequiores These young cubbes prove worse then the old foxes for if you compare the whelpes with the wolves our latter Schismatickes with their former Masters I doubt not but you shall finde lesse learning and more villany lesse honesty and more subtilty hypocrisie and treachery in Doctor Burges Master Marshall â—â—se Goodwin Burrowes Calamy Perne Hill Cheynell 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 doe not onely as Sidonius saith of the like apertè invidere 〈…〉 â—pâ—sâ— abjectè fingere serviliter superbiro openly envy the state of the Bishops basely forge lyes against them and servilely swell with the pride of their owne conceited sanctity and appâ—â—â—ut ignorance but they have also most impudently even 〈◊〉 their Pulpits slandered the footsteps of Gods Annointed and to brought the abhomination of their transgression to stand in the holy place they have 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 discontented and seditious Sectaries For which their intolerable villanies if I be not deceived in my judgement they of all others and above all the Rebels in the Kingdome deserve the greatest and severest punishment God of Heaven give them the grace to repent to be Rebels and Traytors against their owne 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 Iudas himselfe in many circumstances not excepted and that which makes their doings the more evill and the more exceedingly wicked is that they make religion to be the warrant for their evill doings the packe-horse to carry and the cloake 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 onely in regard of enemies abroad but also in respect of those farre 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 What Gods faithfull servants and the Kings loyall Subjects must doe in these times 1. To justifie the Kings right never so able for his knowledge and understanding yet without strength and power to effect what he desires cannot defend the faith and maintaine the true religion from the violence of Sectaries and Traytors within his Kingdome it behoves us all to doe these two things 1. To justifie the Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his authority and right to be the supreame governour and defender of the Church 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 derivatively from him which I hope we have sufficiently proved 2. 2 To assist Him against the Rebels To submit our selves unto our King and to adde our strength force and 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 happinesse 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 heroicke vertue 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 joyne 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 questionlesse whatsoever mischiefe idolatry barbarity or superstition shall take root in the Church and whatsoever oppression and wickednesse shall impaire the Common-wealth Heaven will free His Majestie and the wrath of God in no small 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 Judg. 5.23 curse bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not forth to helpe the Lord against the mighty CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Lawes by the advice of their Bishops and Clergie and not of their Lay Counsellors how our late Canons came to be annulled that it is the Kings right to admit his Bishops and Prelates to be of his Councell and to delegate secular authority or civill jurisdiction unto them proved by the examples of the Heathens Jewes and Christians OUt of all this that hath been spoken it is more then manifest that the King ought to have the supreme power over Gods Church and the government thereof and the greatest care to preserve true religion throughout all his Dominions this is his duty and this is his honour that God hath committed not a people but his people and the members of his Son under his charge For the performance of which charge it is
requisite for us to know that God hath granted unto him among other rights Two speciall rights and prerogatives of the King for the government of the Church these two speciall prerogatives 1. That he may and ought to make Lawes Orders Canons and Decrees for the well governing of Gods Church 2. That he may when he seeth cause lawfully and justly grant tolerations and dispensations of his owne Lawes and Decrees as he pleaseth For 1. To make Lawes and Canons 1. Not onely Solomon and Jehosaphat gave commandement and prescribed unto the chiefe Priests and Levites what forme and order they should observe in their Ecclesiasticall causes and method of serving God but also Constantine Theodosius Justinian and all the Christian Emperours that were carefull of Gods service did the like and therefore when the Donatists alleadged that secular Princes had nothing to doe to meddle in matters of religion and in causes Ecclesiasticall S. Augustine in his second Epistle against Gaudentius saith Aug. l. 2. c. 26 I have already proved that it appertained to the Kings charge that the Ninivites should pacifie Gods wrath and therefore the Kings that are of Christ's Church do judge most truly that it belongeth to their charge to see that men rebell not without punishment against the same Idem ep 48. ep 50. and Bonifaâ— because God doth inspire it into the mindes of Kings that they should procure the Commandements of the Lord to be performed in all their Kingdomes for they are commanded to serve the Lord in feare and how doe they serve the Lord as Kings but in making Lawes for Christ as man he serveth him by living faithfully So they are called the Kings Ecclesiasticall Lawes but as King he serveth him in making Lawes that shall command just things and forbid the contrary which they could not doe if they were not Kings And by the example of the King of Ninive Darius Nebuchadnezzar and others which were but figures and prophesies that fore-shewed the power duty and service that Christian Kings should owe and performe in like sort to the furtherance of Christs religion in the time of the New Testament when all Kings shall fall downe and worship Christ Psal 72.11 and all Nations shall doe him service he proveth Aug. cont lit Petil. l. 2. c. 92. that the Christian Kings and Princes should make Lawes and Decrees for the furtherance of Gods service Idem in l. de 12 abus grad grad 2. even as Nebuchadnezzar had done in his time And upon the words of the Apostle that the King beareth not the sword in vaine he proveth against Petilian that the power and authority of the Princes which the Apostle treateth of in that place is given unto them to make sharpe penall Lawes to further true religion and to suppresse all Heresies and Schismes And so accordingly we finde the good Emperours and Kings have ever done The good Emperours have made Lawes for the government of the Church for Constantine caused the idolatrous religions to be suppressed and the true knowledge of Christ to be preached and planted amongst his people and made many wholesome Lawes and godly Constitutions to restraine the sacrificing unto Idols and all other devillish and superstitious south-sayings and to cause the true service of God to be rightly administred in every place saith Eusebius Euseb in vita Const l. 2. 3. And in another place he saith that the same Constantine gave injunctions to the chiefe Ministers of the Churches that they should make speciall supplication to God for him and he injoyned all his Subjects that they should keepe holy certaine dayes dedicated to Christ and the Sabboth or Saturday which was then wont to be kept holy and as yet not abrogated by any Law among the Christians he gave a Law to the Ruler of every Nation that they should celebrate the Sunday Idem de vita Constant l. 1. 3. 4. c. 18. or the Lords day in like sort and so for the dayes that were dedicated to the memory of the Martyrs and other festivall times and all such things were done according to the ordinance of the Emperour Niceph. in prafation Eccles hist Nicephorus writing of the excellent vertues of Andronicus sonne to Immanuel Palaeologus and comparing him to Constantine the Great saith thou hast restored the Catholique Church being troubled with new opinions to the old State thou hast banished all unlawfull and impure doctrine thou hast established the truth and hast made Lawes and Constitutions for the same Sozomenus l. 3. c. 17. Sozomen speaking of Constantines sonnes saith the Princes also concurred to the increase of these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewing their good affections to the Churches no lesse then their father did and honouring the Clergy their servants with singular promotions and immunities both confirming their fathers Lawes and making also new Lawes of their owne against such as went about to sacrifice and to worship Idols or by any other meanes fell to the Greekish or Heathenish superstitions Theodoret tells us that Valentinian at the Synod in Illirico did not onely confirme the true faith by his royall assent but made also many godly and sharpe Lawes as well for the maintenance of the truth of Christ his doctrine as also touching many other causes Ecclesiasticall Theodor. l. 4. c. 5 6 7. and as ratifying those things that were done by the Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sent abroad to them that doubted thereof Distinct 79. 〈◊〉 dâ—â— Honorius at the request of Boniface the first made a Law whereby it might appeare what was to be done when two Popes were chosen at once by the indiscretion of the Electors Martianus also made a Statute to cut off and put away all manner of contention about the true faith and religion in the Councell of Calcedon The Emperour Justinus made a Law that the Churches of Heretiques should be consecrated to the Catholique religion saith Martinus Poenitentiarius And who knowes not of the many Lawes and Decrees that Iustinian made in Ecclesiasticall causes for the furtherance of the true religion for in the beginning of the Constitutions collected in the Code of Iustinian the first 13 titles are all filled with Lawes for to rule the Church where it forbiddeth the Bishops to reiterate baptisme L. 1. tit 5. L. 1. tit 7. Novel 123. c. 10. Novel 58. Novel 137 c. 6. to paint or grave on earth the Image of our Saviour And in the Novels the Emperour ordaineth Lawes of the creation and consecration of Bishops that Synods shall be annually held that the holy mysteries should not be celebrated in private houses that the Bishops should speake 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 Charlemaine who approved not the decisions of the Greekish Synod wrote a booke against the same * Intituled A Treatise of Charlemaigne against the Greekish Synod touching Images whereby the King maintained himselfe in possession to make Lawes for the Church saith Iohannes Beda of which Lawes there are many in a booke called The capitulary Decrees of Charles the Great who as Pepin his predecessor had done in the Citie of Bourges so did he also assemble many Councels in divers places of his Kingdomes as at Mayens at Tours at Reines at Chaalons at Arles and the sixt most famous of all at Francfort where himselfe was present in person and condemned the errour of Felician and so other Kings of France and the Kings of our owne Kingdome of England both before and after the Conquest as Master Fox plentifully recordeth did make many Lawes and Constitutions for the government of Gods Church But as Dioclesian The saying of Dioclesian that was neither the best nor the happiest governour said most truly of the civill government that there was nothing harder then to rule well * That is to rule the Common-wealth so it is much harder to governe the Church of Christ therefore as there cannot be an argument of greater wisedome in a Prince nor any thing of greater safety and felicity to the Common-wealth then for him to make choice of a wise Councell to assist him in his most weighty affaires Tacitus Annal. lib. 12. saith Cornelius Tacitus So all religious Kings must do the like in the government of the Church and the making of their Lawes for that government for God out of his great mercy to them and no lesse desire to have his people religiously governed left such men to be their supporters their helpers and advicers in the performance of these duties and I pray you whom did Kings choose for this businesse but whom God had ordained for that purpose for you may observe that although those Christian Kings and Emperours made their Laws as having the supremacy and the chiefest care of Gods religion committed by God into their hands yet they did never make them that ever I could reade with the advice counsell or direction of any of their Peeres or Lay Subjects but as David had Nathan and Gad The good Kings and Emperours made their Lavves for the government of the Church onely by the advice of their Clergy Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel and the rest of the Jewish Kings and Heathens had their Prophets onely and Priests to direct them in all matters of religion so those Christian Kings and Princes tooke their Bishops and their Clergie onely to be their counsellors and directors in all Church causes as it appeareth out of all the fore-cited Authors and all the Histories that doe write thereof and Justinian published this Law that when any Ecclesiasticall cause or matter was moved his Lay officers should not intermeddle with it A good Law of Iustinian but should suffer the Bishops to end the same according to the Canons the words are Si Ecclesiasticum negotium sit nullam communionem habento civiles magistratus cum ea disceptatione Constit 123. sed religiosissimi Episcopi secundum sacros canones negotio finem imponunto For the good Emperours knew full well that the Lay Senate neither understood what to determine in the points of faith and the government of Christ's Church nor was ever willing to doe any great good or any speciall favour unto the Shepherds of Christ's flocke and the teachers of the true religion because the Sonne of God had fore-told it that the world should hate us John 15.19 that secular men and Lay Senators should commonly oppose crosse and shew all the spite they can unto the Clergy of whom our Saviour saith Matth. 10.16 Behold I send you forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sheepe 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 How the Laity love the Clergie And Doctor Meriton in a Sermon before King James observed this as one of the good favours the 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 A very memorable act Anno 39. Eliz. cap. 4. and 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 Parish to have their names registred in a booke 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 doe it the Statute saith he should be punished 5 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 usurpe this authority to be the composers contrivers or assistants in concluding of any Ecclesiasticall Law That the Laity should have no interest in making Lawes for the Church untill the fences of Gods vineyard were pulled downe and the wilde Boare out of the forrest the audacious presumption of the unruly Commonalty ventured either to governe 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 gaine herein the lesse glory shall Christ have from the service of his Church and therefore Be wise ô ye Kings And consider how any new Canons are to be made by our Statute 25. Hen. 8. Ob. Ob. But then it may be demanded if this be so that the Laity hath no right in making Lawes and Decrees for the government of Gods Church but that it belongs wholly unto the King to doe it with the advice of his Bishops and the rest of his Clergy then how came the Parliament to annull those Canons that were so made by the King and Clergy because they had no vote nor consent in confirming of them Sol. Sol. Truely I cannot answer to this Objection unlesse I should tell you what the Poet saith Dum furor in cursu currenti cede furori Difficiles aditus impetus omnis
Majestie and so much trust reposed in him and would notwithstanding prove so unthankfull 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 robb'd of his understanding would make a remora to retaine him from rebellion and what are the other heads but a company either of poore needy Who the Rebells are and what manner of persons they be and meane condition'd Lords and Gentlemen or discontented Peeres that are misled or such factious Sectaries whose blind zeale and furious malice are able to hurry them headlong to perpetrate any mischeife for their Captaines and their Officers I beleeve they fight neither for the Anabaptists creed nor against the Roman 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 rebell 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 selfe 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 wills 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 poore soules shall be driven unto the Devill by Preachers and Parliament against their wills 4. The supreme authority 4. If you consider qua authoritate by what authority they wage this warre 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 warre is not publique nor can it be justified for a warre is then justifiable when there is no legall way to end the controversie by prohibiting farther appeales which cannot be but onely betwixt independent States and severall Princes Albericus Gentilis de jure belli l 1. c. 2. that have the supreme power in their owne hands and are not liable to the censure of any Court which power the Parliament cannot challenge because they are or should be the Kings lawfull Subjects and therefore cannot be his lawfull enemies but they will say Master Goodwin Burroughes and all the rest of our good men zealous brethren Subjects can never make a lawfull warre against their king and powerfull Preachers doe continually cry out in our eares it is bellum sanctum a most just and holy warre a warre for the Gospell and for our Lawes and Liberties wherein whosoever dies he shall he 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 be indicted at the barre of Gods justice for a felo de se a Malefactor guilty of his owne untimely death Res dura ac plena pericli est regale occidisse genus and for their good Orators that perswade them to this wickednesse I pray you consider well what they are men of no worth rebellious against the Church rebells against the King factious Schismatiques of no faith of no learning In what condition their Preachers are and of what worth that have already forfeited their estates if they have any and their lives unto the Kingâ— and will any man that is wise hazard his estate his life and his soule to follow the perswasions of these men my life is as deere to mee as the Earle of Essex his head is to him and my soule deerer and I dare ingage them both that if all the Doctors in both Universities and all the Divines within the Kingdome of England were gathered together to give their judgement of this warre there could not be found one of ten it may be as I beleeve not one of twenty that durst upon his conscience say this warre is lawfull upon the Parliament side It is contrary to the doctrine of all the Protestant Church for Subjects to resist their king for though these Locusts that is the German Scottish 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 plainely this doctrine of Subjects taking up armes against their lawfull King is point blanke and directly against the received doctrine of the Church of England and against the tenet of all true Protestants Paraeus in Rom. 13. Boucher l. 2. c. 2. Keckerm Syst pol. c. 32 â—un Brut. q. 2. p. 56. Bellar. de lâ—â—c c. 6 Suar. dâ—f fid cathol c. 3. and therefore Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuite 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 maintaine that damnable doctrine and that rashnesse of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto Juell and Bilson and all the Doctors of our 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 Feild saith â—ichfield l. 4. c â—9 § 19 â—ield l. 5. c. 30 that all the worthy fathers and Bishops of the Church perswaded themselves that they owed all duty unto their Kings though they were Heretiques and Infidells and the Homilies of the Church of England allowed by authority do plainely and peremptorily condemne all Subjects warring against their King for Rebells and Traitors that doe resist the ordinance of God and procure unto themselves damnation and truly I beleeve most of their own consciences tell them so they that think otherwise I would have them to consider that if they were at a banquet where twenty should averre 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 justnesse of the warre on the Parliament side But 1. On the Kings side it cannot be denied but his cause is most just for his owne defence for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion that is established by our Lawes and for the rights of the Church and the just liberties and property of all his loyall Subjects this he testifieth in all his Declarations and this we know in our owne consciences to be true and therefore 2. As His Majestie professeth so we beleeve him that he never intended otherwise by this warre but to protect us and our Religion and to maintaine his owne just and unquestionable rights which these Rebells would
to make it yet more cleare that the Kings power to rule his people was arbitrary Sigonius saith most truly that the power of governing the people was given by God unto Moses before the Law was given and therefore he called the people to counsell and without either Judges or Magistrates jura eisdem reddidit he administred justice and did right to every one of them So Joshua exercised the same right and the Judges after him and after the Judges succeeded the Kings quorum potestas atque autoritas multo major ut quae non tam à legibus quà m ab arbitrio voluntate regis profecta sit Sigon de rep Heb. l. 7. c. 3. Hoc arbitrarium impertum expressit Deus 1. Sam. 8. David Ps 11. Reges eos in vâ—rga ferrea whose power and authority was farre greater as proceeding not so much from the Lawes as from the arbitrement and the will of the King saith Sigonius for they understood the power of a King in Aristotles sence Qui solutus legibus plenissimo jure regnaret who being freed from the Lawes or not tyed to Lawes might governe with a plenary right And so Saul judged Israel and had altogether the arbitrary power both of life and death Idem ibidem quodam modo superior legibus fuit and was after a sort above the Law undertaking and making warre pro arbitratu suo according to his owne will And in his sixth booke he saith the Jewes had three great Courts or Assemblies Cap. 2. 1. Their Councell which contained that company that handled those things especially which concerned the State of the whole Common-wealth as warre peace provision institution of Lawes creation of Magistrates and the like Cap. 3. 2. Their Synagogue or the meeting of the whole Congregation or people which no man might convocate but he which had the chiefe rule as Moses Joshua the Judges and the Kings Cap. 4. Numb 15. Plenum regnum vocatur quo cuncta rex sua voluntate gerit Idem 3. Their standing Senate which was appointed of God to be of the 70 Elders whereof he saith that although this was alwayes standing for consultation yet we must understand that the Kings which had the Common-wealth in their owne power and were not obnoxious to the Lawes made Decrees of themselves without the authority of the Senate ut qui cum summo imperio essent as men that were indued with the chiefest rule and command And we finde that the King judged the people two manner of wayes 1. Alone 2. Together with the Elders and Priests For it is said that Absolon when any man came to the King for judgement wished that he were made Judge in the Land 2. Sam. 15.2 6 and he did in this manner to all Israel that came to the King for judgement and when the people demanded a King instead of Samuel to reigne over them and God said 1. Sam. 8.7 They had cast him off from being their King he signifieth most plainly that while the Judges ruled which had their chiefest authority from the Law God raigned over them because his Law did rule them but the rule and government being translated unto Kings God raigned no longer over them Quia non penes legem Dei sed penes voluntatem unius hominis summa rerum autoritas esset futura because now all authority and all things were not in the power of the Law but in the power of one mans arbitrary will But seeing we are fallen upon the peoples desire of a King let us examine what right God saith belongeth unto him and because that place 1. Sam. 8. is contradicted by another Deut. 17. as it seemeth we will examine both places and see if Moses doth any wayes crosse Samuel Deut. 17.14 usque ad finem and truly I may say of these two places that as S. Aug. saith in the like case alii atque alii aliud atque aliud opinati sunt for some learned men say that Moses setteth downe to the King legem regendi the Law by which he should governe the people without wronging them and Samuel setteth downe to the people legem parendi the Law by which they should obey the King without resisting him whatsoever he should doe to them And other Divines say Haec est potestas legitima non tyrannica nec violenta Spalat tom 2. fol. 251. ideo quando rex propria negotia non possit expedire per proprias res ac servos G. Ocham tract 2. l. 2. c. 25. possit pro negotiis propriis tollere res servos aliorum isto modo dicebat Deus quod pertinebat ad jus regis this is the lawfull and just right of the King Therefore to finde out the truth let us a little more narrowly discusse both places And 1. In the words of Moses there I observe two speciall things 1. The charge of the people 2. The charge of the King 1. Popular election utterly forbidden 1. The people are commanded very strictly in any wise saith the Text to make choice of no King of their owne heads but to accept of him whom the Lord did chuse 2. The Kings charge 2. The King is commanded to write out the Law to study it and to practice it and he is forbidden to doe foure speciall things which are 1. Not to bring the people backe into Egypt nor to provide the means to bring them by multiplying his horses 2. Not to marry many wives that might intice him as they did Solomon unto Idolatry 3. Not to hoord up too much riches 4. Not to tyrannize over his Brethren Ioseph Anti. quit l. 4. And Josephus to the same purpose saith Si regis cupiditas vos incesserit is ex eadem gente sit curam omnino goraâ— justitiae allarum virtutum caveat vero ne plus legibus aut Deo sapiat nihil autem agat sine Pontificis Senator úmque sententia which Moses hath not neque nuptiis multis utatur nec copiam pecuniarum equorúmque sectetur quibus partis superleges superbia efferatur that is to be a Tyrant 2. The words of Samuel are set downe 1. Sam. 8.11 to the 18. Rex Iacobus in his true Law of free Monarchs verse whereof I confesse there are severall expositions some making the same a propheticall prediction of what some of their Kings would doe contrary to what they should doe as it was expressed by Moses So King James himselfe takes it others take it Grammatically for the true right of a King that may do all this and yet no way contradict those precepts forecited by Moses to confirme which supposition they say 1. The phrase here used must beare it out for as the Hebrew word signifieth as Pagninus noteth Morem aut modum aut consuetudinem and many other things as the place and the matter to be expressed doe require because every equivocall word of various signification
maker hath appoynted 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 reproofe 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 only because their weake heads or false hearts doe account the commandement of the King to be against right and what themselves doe to be most holy and just Ob. Diverse kinds of Monarchies But our City Prophets will say that although the King be the supream Monarch whom we are commanded to obey yet there are diverse kinds of Monarchies or Regall governments as usurped lawfull by conquest by inheritance by election and these are either absolute as were the Easterne Kings and the Roman Emperours or limited and mixed which they terme a Politicall Monarchie where the King or Monarch can do nothing alone but with the assistance direction of his Nobility 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 compell him to the other to which I answer 1. As God himselfe which is most absolute Sol. Absolute Monarchs may limit themselves liberrimum agens may notwithstanding limit himselfe and his own power as he doth when he promiseth and sweareth that he will not fail David and that the unrepentant Rebells should never enter into his rest so the Monarch may limit himselfe 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 I cannot devise words to expresse this new devised government that cannot distinguish the poynt of a needle just like the Papist that saith he is a Roman Catholike that is a particular universall a black white a polumonarcha a many one governour when we say he is a Monarch joyned in his government with the Parliament for he can be no Monarch or supream King Soveraign that hath any sharers with him or above him in the governmeÌ„t 2. There is no Monarch that can be said to be simply absolute but only God yet where there is no superior but the soveraignty residing in the King he may be said to be an absolute Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. because there is none on earth that can controule him 2 Because he is free absolute in all such things wherein he is not expresly limited and therefore 3. Seeing no Monarch or Soveraigne is so absolute No Monarch so Absolute but some way limited but that he is some way limited either by the Law of God or 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 Kingdome there is no reason they should resist their King for transgressing the limitations of one kinde more then the other or if any no doubt but he that transcendeth the limits of Gods 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 doe confesse 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 No Monarch ought to be resisted Vlpian de constit Principis therefore indeed no Monarch ought to be resisted whatsoever limitations he hath granted unto his Subjects And the resisters of authority might understand if their more malitious then blind leaders would give them leave that this virtue of obedience to the supream power maketh good things unlawfull when we are forbidden to doe them as the eating of the forbidden tree was to Adam and the holding up of the Arke was to Vzza and it maketh evill things to be good and lawfull 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 doe it and therefore Adam and Vzza were punished with death because they did those lawfull good things which they were forbidden to doe Rebels should well consider these things and the others were recompenced with blessings because they did and were ready to doe those evill things that they were commanded to doe when as he that refused to smite the Prophet 1. Reg. 20.38 being commanded to doe it was destroyed by a Lion because he did it not whereby you see that things forbidden when they are commanded è contra cannot be omitted without sinne Ob. Mandatum imperantis â—ollit peccatum obedientis Aug. Sol. You will say it is true when it is done by God whose injunction or prohibition his precept or his forbidding to doe it or not to doe it maketh all things lawfull or unlawfull I answer that we cannot think 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 fit quod praecipitur sed hoc solo contentus quia praecipitur he that is truly obedient to him whom God commanded us to obey never regardeth what it is that is commanded so it be not simply evill 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 Bernard in l. de praecept dispensat and therefore doth it saith St Bernard in l. de praecept dispensat CHAP. XVI Sheweth the answer to some objections against the obeying of our Soveraigne Magistrate all actions of three kinds how our Consciences may be reformed of our passive obedience to the Magistrates and of the Kings concessions how to be taken BVt against this our sectaries and Rebells will object Ob. that their conscience which is vinculum accusator testis judex their bond their accuser their witnesse and their judge against whom they can say nothing and from whom they cannot appeale unlesse it be to a severer Iudge will not give them leave to obey to doe many things that the King requireth to be done and
power Legally placed in the two houses more then sufficient to prevent and restrain the power of Tyranny I answer first when it pleased the King of His grace to restrain His own power of making Laws to the consent of Peeres Commons that by this Regulating of the same it might be purged from all destructive exorbitances the very Law it self being tender of the legitimate rights of the King and considering the Person of the Soveraign to be single his power counterpoysed by the opposite wisdom of the two Houses allowed him to sweare unto himselfe a body of Councell of State and Counsellors at Law the Iudges also to advise him informe him so that as he should not doe any wrong by reason of the restraining Votes of the Houses so he might not receive any wrong by the incroachment of the Parliament upon his right The Kings concessions very large and the King being driven away from his learned Councell and forced to make the defence of his rights by writing it is no wonder if his concessions and Promises as well in this poynt as in other things especially in that concerning the Act of excluding the Clergy were more then was due to them or then he needed to grant or then he ought to observe being to the dishonour of God and the prejudice of his Church when as nothing in Parliament where the wrong may be perpetuall should be extracted from him but what he should well consider of with the advice of his Counsell and what he should freely grant and whatsoever is otherwise done is ill done to the great disadvantage of the King and his Posterity and the unjust inlarging of their power more then is due unto them yet 2. I say D. Ferne in his reply to sever treat p. 32 if these words of His Majesties be rightly weighed they give no colour of resisting Tyranny by any forcible armes but as D. Ferne saith most truly of Legall Morall and Parliamentary restraint for the words are there is a power legally placed in the Houses that is the Law hath placed a power in them but you shall never find any Law that any King hath granted whereby himselfe might be resisted and subdued by open force and violence Roffensis de potest Papae 291. Eophan to â—ythag l. De Regno apud stabaeum fol. 335. for as Roffensis saith Regis suo solius judicio reservavit Deus qui stans in Synagogâ deorum dijudicat eos God hath reserved Kings to his own judgement and the Heathen man could say as Stobaeus testifieth primum Dei deinde Regis est ut nulli subjiciatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first it is the priviledge of God next of the King to be subject unto none because the Regall power properly is unaccountable to any man A principle tenet of the Essaei And some think that the Common-wealth is happier under a Tyrant that will keep theÌ„ in awe then under too mild a Prince upon whose clemency they will presume to Rebell Iere. 27.5 6. A memorable place against resisting Tyrants as Suidas saith and Iosephus saith that the holiest men that ever were among the Hebrews called essaei or esseni that is the true practisers of the Law of God maintained that soveraigne Princes whatsoever they were ought to be inviolable to their Subiects for they saw there was scarce any thing more usuall in the holy Scripture then the prohibition of resistance or refusall of obedience to the Prince whether he were Iew or Pagan milde or tyrannicall good or bad as to instance one place for all where the Lord saith J have made the earth the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and have given it to whom it seemed meet unto me and now I have given all those Lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant and he was both a Heathen an Idolater and a mighty Tyrant and all Nations shall serve him and his sonne and his sonnes sonne and it shall come to passe that the Nation and Kingdome which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and that will not put their necks under the yoake of the King of Babylon that Nation will I punish saith the Lord with the Sword and with the Famine and with the Pestilence untill I have consumed them by his hands therefore hearken not ye unto your Prophets nor to your Diviners which speak unto you saying you shall not serve the King of Babylon for they prophesy a lye unto you which he repeateth again and again they prophesy a lye unto you that you should perish and may not I apply these words to our very time God saith I have given this Kingdome unto King Charles which is a mild just and most pious King and they that will say nolumus hunc regnare super nos I will destroy them by his hand therefore ô ye seduced Londoners believe not your false Prophets nay hearken not to your diviners your Anabaptists and Brownists that preach lies and lies upon lies unto you that you should perish for God hath not sent them though they multiply their lies in his name therefore why will you dye why will you destroy your selves and your posterity by refusing to submit your selves to mine ordinance and what should God say more unto you to hinder your destruction and it was concluded by a whole Councell that si quis potestati regiae quae non est teste Apostolo nisi à deo Concil Meldens apud Roffen l. 2. c. 5. de potest papae Ob. contumaci afflato spiritu obtemperare irre fragabiliter noluerit anathematizetur Whosoever resisteth the Kings Power and with a proud spirit will not obey him let him be accursed But then you will say this is strange doctrine that wholly takes away the liberty of the Subject if they may not resist regall tyranny I think there is no good Subject Sol. that loves his Soveraigne that will speake against a iust and lawfull liberty when it is a farre greater honour unto any King to rule over a free and gentile Subjects then over base and turkish slaves but as under the shadow and pretence of Christian liberty Many evills to lurk under fair shewes many carnall men have rooted out of their hearts all christianity so many Rebellious aspiring minds have under these colourable titles of the liberty of the Subjects and suppressing tyranny shaked of the yoke of all true obedience and dashed the rights of government all to pieces therefore as the law of God and the rules of his owne conscience should keep every Christian King from exercising any uniust tyranny over his Subjects so if men will transcend the rules of due obedience the Kings Power and Authority should keep them from transgressing the limits of their iust liberty but this unlawfulnesse of resisting our lawfull King I have fully proved in my Grand Rebellion
and not of their Lay Counsellors how our late Canons came to be annulled c. Pag. 72 CHAP. IX Sheweth a full answer to foure speciall Objections that are made against the Civill jurisdictions of Ecclesiasticall persons their abilities to discharge these offices and desire to benefit the Common-wealth why some Councels inhibited these offices unto Bishops c. Pag. 86 CHAP. X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensation is reasons for it to tolerate divers Sects or sorts of Religions the foure speciall sorts of false Professors S. Augustines reasons for the toleration of the Jewes toleration of Papists and of Puritans and which of them deserve best to be tolerated among the Protestants and how any Sect is to be tolerated Pag. 101 CHAP. XI Sheweth where the Protestants Papists and Puritans do place Soveraignty who first taught the deposing of Kings the Puritans tenet worse then the Jesuites Kings authority immediately from God the twofold royalty in a King the words of the Apostle vindicated from false glosses c. Pag. 116 CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their government to whom the choyce of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peeres nor Parliament can have supremacy the Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton answered our Lawes prove all Soveraignty to be in the King Pag. 127 § The two chiefest parts of the regall government the foure properties of a just warre and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property Pag. 134 CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first government of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deut. 17. and of Samuel 1. Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of government came up Pag. 142 § The extent of the grants of Kings what they may and what they may not grant what our Kings have not granted in seven speciall prerogatives and what they have granâ—â—◠〈…〉 Pag. â—47 CHAP. XIV Sheweth the Kings grants unto his people to be of three sorts Which ought to be observed the Act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament discussed the Kings Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have beene procured and repealed Pag. 155 § Certaine quaeres discussed but not resolved the end for which God ordained Kings the prayse of a just rule Kings ought to be more just then all others in three respects and what should most especially move them to rule their people justly Pag. 163 CHAP. XV. Sheweth the honour due to the King 1. Feare 2. An high esteem of our King how highly the Heathens esteemed of their Kings the Marriage of obedience and authority the Rebellion of the Nobility how haynous 3. Obedience fourefold divers kindes of Monarchs and how an absolute Monarch may limit himselfe Pag. 169 CHAP. XVI Sheweth the answer to some objections against the obeying of our Soveraigne Magistrate all actions of three kindes how our consciences may be reformed of our passive obedience to the Magistrates and of the Kings concessions how to be taken Pag. 181 CHAP. XVII Sheweth how tribute is due to the King for six speciall reasons to be paid the condition of a lawfull tribute that we should not be niggards to assist the King that we should defend the Kings Person the wealth and pride of London the cause of all the miseries of this Kingdome and how we ought to pray for our King Pag. 190 CHAP. XVIII The persons that ought to honour the King and the recapitulation of 21 wickednesses of the Rebels and the faction of the pretended Parliament Pag. 203 CHAP. XIX Sheweth how the Rebellious faction have transgressed all the ten Commandements of the Law and the new Commandement of the Gospell how they have committed the seven deadly sinnes and the foure crying sinnes and the three most destructive sinnes to the soule of man and how their Ordinances are made against all Lawes equity and conscience Pag. 212 CHAP. XX. Sheweth how the rebellious Faction forswore themselves what trust is to be given to them how we may recover our peace and prosperity how they have unking'd the Lords Annointed and for whom they have exchanged him and the conclusion of the whole Pag. 223 The Rights of Kings both in CHURCH and STATE And The Wickednesses of this pretended PARLIAMENT manifested and proved CHAP. I. Sheweth who are the fittest to set down the Rights which God granted unto Kings what causeth men to rebell the parts considerable in S. Peter's words 1 Pet. 2.17 in fine How Kings honoured the Clergie the faire but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefly aime at and their malice to Episcopacie and Royaltie IT was not unwisely said by Ocham that great Schoolman to a great Emperour which M. Luther said also to the Duke of Saxonie Tu protege me gladio ego defendam te calamo Guliel Ocham Ludov. 4. do you defend me with your Sword and I will maintain your right with my pen for God hath committed the Sword into the hand of the King and his hand which beareth not the Sword in vain knoweth how to use Rom. 13. v. 4. the Sword better than the Preacher and the King may better make good his Rights by the Sword than by the pen which having once blotted his papers with mistakes and concessions more than due though they should be never so small if granted further than the truth would permit as I feare some have done in some particulars yet they cannot so easily be scraped away by the sharpest sword and God ordered the divine tongue and learned Scribe to be the pennes of a ready Writer and thereby to display the duties and to justifie the Rights of Kings and if they faile in either part the King needeth neither to performe what undue Offices they impose upon him The Divine best to s t down the Righ s of k ngs nor to let passe those just honours they omit to yield unto him but he may justly claime his due Rights and either retaine them or regain them by his Sword which the Scribe either wilfully omitted or ignorantly neglected to ascribe unto him or else maliciously endeavoured as the most impudent and rebellious Sectaries of our time have most virulently done to abstract them from him And seeing the Crown is set upon the head of every Christian King and the Scepter of government is put into his hand by a threefold Law 1. Of Nature that is common to all 2. Of the Nation that he ruleth over 3. Of God that is over all As Every Christian king established by a threefold Law 1. Nature teaching every King to governe his People according to the common rules of honesty and justice 2. The politique constitution of every severall State and particular Kingdome shewing how they would have their government to be administred Psal
detrahit famae meae nolens addit mercedi mea I shall believe it in a good conscience that whosoever shall wittingly detract from my repute and unjustly load me with unâ—uâ— disgrace shall unwillingly adde to my reward neither shall I ever thinke Ambrosâ— Plus ponderis esse in alieno convicio quà m in testimonio meo that there is more account to be had in the foule slander of another mans malice than in the spotlesse testimonie of mine own conscience but considering as Saint Hierome saith that Apud Christianos non qui patitur sed qui facit contumeliam miser est among Christians not he that suffereth but he that offereth injuries and reproaches is wretched Osor in Epist Regina Elizâ— pag 7. though as Osorius saith Multa insidiae principibus à suis domesticis intenduntur multae fraudes in aulâ Regiâ quaestus compendii gratiâ suscipiuntur multa partim adulatione perfidia partim offensionis periculosâ formidine dissimulantur ita ut rarò inveniantur qui Regibus liberè loqui audeant many snares are laid for Princes by their own domestique servants many deceitfull trickes and cunning plots are undertaker in the King's Court for gain and honours sake How kings are deluded by their owne Courtiers and the truth concealed from them and many things partly for feare of offending and partly through a perfidious and false flatterie are dissembled and the truth of things is imprisoned from the sight of the King so that he that seeth with these Courtiers eyes and heareth with their eares can hardly know the certain state of his own affaires especially when these flattering Parasites shall beare so heavie a hand over the faithfull servants that few of them shall dare freely to declare the Truth yet I am resolved to set downe the plaine face of Truth The Authours resolution with Gods assistance without either flattering of my royall Master or fear either of the Court flatterers hatred or the Parliamentarie Factions crueltie and though my eldest Brethren that are abler than my selfe should reprove me and say unto me as Eliab said unto David 1 Sam. 17.28 yet I will take my staffe in my hand mine own integritie to uphold me and my fidelity to my King and to the King of kings to protect me and I will gather a few stones out of the Brook of living waters out of the Book of holy Scriptures and I hope with one of them to smite the Philistine The Adversaries of regall right the three-headed Gerion the Anabaptist Brownist and Puritan Rebell in the forehead that he shall fall to the earth his head shall be cut off with his owne sword and the whole army of the uncircumcised Philistines that is all the rest of the wilfully seduced Rebels that refuse to be un-deceived and to accept of his Majesties grace and pardon shall flâ—e away and be destroyed And The first stone that comes into my hand which I believe will hit the Bird in the eye and be abundantly sufficient to do the deed is a stone taken out of the Rocke that appeares highest in the Brook that is Saint Peter which our Saviour in the judgement of some Fathers which I quoted in my True Church calleth a Rocke and in the judgement of most of the Fathers and the sober Protestants is the Prince of Apostles for he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.17 Honour the King and this one short sentence truly understood though I confesse many others may seeme more full is absolutely sufficient to overthrow all the Anti-royalists and to silence all the Basileu-Mastices all the opposers of their own Kings throughout all the world especially if we consider 1. Who saith this S. Peter 2. What is said Honour the King 3. To whom he saith this to every Soule First the words are the words of Saint Peter 1. The Authour of these words the first in order the chiefest for authority and the greatest for resolution of all the Apostles of Christ 2 Pet. 1.21 and he spake them as he was inspired by the holy Ghost therefore we may believe them and we should obey them or we should feare the judgements of God Hebr. 12 27 for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turne away from him that speaketh from heaven Secondly 2. The substance of the precept the substance of this precept containeth as many parts as there be words 1. Who is to be honoured the King 2. What is that honour that is due unto him Which two points rightly understood and duely observed as they are injoyned would make a peaceable Common-wealth and a most flourishing Kingdome without any Civill broiles or intestine Rebellion which is the greatest plague and heaviest curse that God hath ever laid upon any Nation Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos Lucan l. 1. I have therefore resolved to prevent this evill and to disswade us from this miserable mischiefe to say something of these two points as may best heale the bleeding wounds of these unhappy and distracted times First It is the most Gratious promise of our good God to all them that will faithfully serve him 1 Sam. 2.30 I will honour them that honour me and Saint Augustine saith that Sicut verax est in punitione malorum ita in retributione bonorum as he is most certaine in his threatnings for the punishment of the wicked so he is most faithfull in his promises for rewarding of the Godly and that not onely for the future but also in these present times 1 Tim. 4.8 because Godlinesse hath the promise both of the life that now is and of that which is to come Therefore pious Princes How kings have honoured those that honoured God that are God's Vicegerents here on earth and his Deputies to discharge his promise have accordingly honoured them that have by their upright life and indefatigable paines honoured God in his Church with double honour 1. With Dignities 1. With titular Dignities honourable Places and considerable eminencies in the Common-wealth as conceiving it not unworthy to make the greater lights of the Church to be not of least esteem in the Civil State but judging it most convenient that they whom God had intrusted with the soules of men should with all confidence be intrusted with their personall actions and with the imployments of the greatest trust 2. With maintenance 2. With competent meanes in some sort answerable to support their Dignities without which meanes as the Poet saith Virtus nisi cum re vilior algâ so honourable Titles without any subsistence is more contemptible than plaine beggery therefore out of their piety to God and bounty to the Church they have conferred many faire Lordships and other large endowments upon the best deserving Members of Christs Ministers Matth. 13.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as
Sectaries to make the royall Dignity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a humane ordinance therefore I must goe before Herodotus and looke further then blinde Homer could see and from the first King that ever was I will truly lay downe the first institution and succession of Kings and how times have wrought by corruption the alteration of their right and diminution of their power which both God and nature had first granted unto them God the first King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.17 Apoc. 19.16 And I hope no Basileu-mastix no hater of Kings nor opposer of the royall government can deny but that God himselfe was the first King that ever the world saw that was the King of ages before all worlds and the King of Kings ever since there were any created Kings The next King that I reade of was Adam whom Cedrenus stiles the Catholique Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mighty King of a large Territorie of great Dominion and of unquestionable right unto his Kingdome which was the whole world the earth the Seas and all that were therein For the great King of all Kings said unto him Be fruitfull and multiply and replenish the earth Gen. 1.28 and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the Sea Adam the first King of all men and over the fowle of the aire and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth Which is a very large Commission when dominare is more then regere and therefore his royalty is so plaine that none but wilfull ignorants will deny it to be divinum institutum a divine institution and affirme it as they doe to be humanum inventum a humane ordination when you know there were no men to chuse him and you see God himselfe doth appoint him Iohan. Beda de jure regum p. 4. and after the flood the Empire of Noah was divided betwixt his 3 sonnes Japhet raigned in Europe Sem in Asia and Cham in Africa Yet I must confesse the first Kingdome that is spoken of by that name is the Kingdome of Nimrod Gen. 10.9 who notwithstanding is not himselfe termed King but in the Scripture phrase a mighty hunter because he was not onely a great King but also a mighty Tyrant or oppressour of his people in all his Kingdome or as I rather conceive it because he was the first usurper that incroached upon his neighbours rights to inlarge his owne dominions and the first King that I finde by that name in the Scripture was Amraphell King of Shinar Gen. 14.1 with whom we finde 8 other Kings named in the same chapter But we are not to contest about words or to strive about the winde when the Scripture doth first give this name unto them the plaine truth is that which we are to enquire after and so it is manifest there were Kings ever since Adam and so named ever since Noahs floud for Melchizedech which in the judgement of Master Selden Broughton and others was Sem the eldest sonne of Noah though mine owne minde is set downe otherwise was King of Salem and Justin tells us that long before Ninus which was the sonne of Nimrod there were many other Kings as Vexores King of Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripides de Cyclop and Tanais King of Scythia and the like and as reason sheweth us that every one qui regit alios rex est so every master of a family that ruleth his owne houshold is a petite King as we commonly say to this very day every man is a King in his owne house and as their families were the greater so were they the greater Kings so Abraham had 300 and 18 servants Gen. 14.14 that were able men for the warre in his owne house and therefore the inhabitants of the Land tell him Princeps Dei es inter nos thou art a Prince of God that is a great ruler amongst us and yet the greatest of these rulers were rather reguli then reges Kings of some Cities or small Territories and of no large dominion Josh 12.14 as those 31 Kings which Joshua vanquished doth make it plaine Selden in his Titles of honour cap. 1. But Master Selden confesseth that civill societies beginning in particular families the heads thereof ruled as Kings and as the world increased or these Kings incroached upon their neighbours so their Kingdomes were inlarged Kings therefore they were and they were Kings from the beginning But how they came to be Kings or what right they had to that regall power from whence their authority is derived 1. Whether God ordained it or 2. Themselves assumed it or 3. The people conferred it upon them herein lyeth all the question The chiefest rights to Kingdomes either of three wayes To which I must briefly answer that the right of all Kings which have any right unto their Kingdomes is principally either 1. By birth or 2. By the sword or 3. By choice whereof The last is and may be just and good The second is so without question but The first is most just so best of all For 1. The best right wiâ—hout contradiction is by inheritance 1. The best right whereby the Patriarches and all the rest of the posterity of Adam injoyed their royalty was that which God hath appointed that is the right of primogeniture whereby the elder was by the law of nature to raigne and rule over the younger as God saith unto Cain though he was never so wicked an hypocrite Gen. 4.7 unto thee shall be the desire of thy brother and thou shalt rule over him though he was never so godly and syncere a server of God Gen. 25.31 which made Jacob so earnestly desirous to purchase the birth-right or the right of primogeniture from his brother And 2. The right by conquest is a just and a good right 2. When the rightfull Kings became with Nimrod to be unjust Tyrants then God that is not tyed to his Vicegerant any longer then he pleaseth but hath right and power Paramount to translate the rule and transferre the dominion of his people to whom he will Psal 89 44. So the Israelites enjoyed the kingdome of Canaan and David the territories of them that he subdued c. Esdras 1.2 Esay 45.1 2. Dan. 2. c. 4. hath oftentimes throwne downe the mighty from their seat and given away their crownes and kingdomes unto others that were more humble and meeke or some other way fitter to effect his divine purpose as he did the kingdome of Saul unto David and Belshazzar's unto Cyrus and this he doth most commonly by the power of the sword when the Conquerour shall make his strength to become the Law of justice and his ability to hold it to become his right of enjoying it for so he gave the Kingdomes of the earth to Cyrus Alexander Augustus and the like Kings and Emperours that had no â—â—her right to their Dominions but
Monarchicall Government to be the best forme the first Government that ever was agreeable to Nature wherein God founded it consonant to God's own Government the most universally received throughout the world the immediate and proper Ordinance of God when the other Governments began how allowed by God the quality of elective Kingdomes not primarily the institution of God and the nature of the People The Monarchicall government best THerefore it is apparent that of all sorts of Government the Monarchie is absolutely the best and of all Monarchs the best right is that which is hereditary because it is 1. The first in Nature 2. The prime and principall Ordinance of God For 1. Reason Selden in his Titles of Honour lib. 1. 2. Though Master Selden saith that naturally all men in oeconomicke rule being equally free and equally possest of superioty in those ancient propagations of mankinde even out of Nature it selfe and that inbred sociablenesse which every man hath as his character of civility a popular state first raised it selfe which by its owne judgement afterward was converted into a Monarchie and in the fourth page of his Book rejecteth the opinion of great Philosophers that affirme with Saint Austin the first of the three Governments to be a Monarchy and affirmeth positively that the Monarchy hath its originall out of a Democracy as Aristocracie likewise had yet I say that this contradicteth his first Thesis where he asserteth that the husband father and master of the house ruled as a King and therefore the Monarchie must needs be before either Aristocracy or Democracy and where civing Pausanias that In Boceticorum initio saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Monarchy ancienter than any other government All Greece was anciently under Kings and no Democracies he is driven to confesse pag. 5. that a family being in Nature before a publike Society or Common-wealth was an exemplary Monarchie and in that regard Monarchie is to be acknowledged ancienter than any other state and so not onely the Orthodoxall people but the Pagans also had this notion thereof by the instinct of Nature for the Cappadocians being vanquished by the Romans Monarchicall government most agreeable to Nature did instantly request them to give them a King protesting that they were not otherwise able to maintain themselves and so most other Nations esteemed that true which Herodian saith that as Jupiter hath command over all the gods so in imitation of him it is his pleasure that the Empire of men should be Monarchicall And indeed it is concluded by the common consent of the best Philosophers that the Lawes of Nature lead us to a Monarchie Monarchy founded in Nature as when among all Creatures both animate and inanimate we do alwayes finde one that hath the preheminence above all the rest of his kinde as among the Beasts the Lion among Fowles the Eagle among Graines the Wheat among Drinkes the Wine among Spices the Baulme among Metalls the Gold among the Elements the Fire among the Planets the Sun and all the best Divines conclude the Monarchicall government to be the most lively image and representation of the divine regiment and government of God Consonant to the Divine government who as sole Monarch ruleth and guideth all things and therefore we finde all the Nations of greatest renown lived under the Royall Government as the Scythians Aethiopians Indians Assyrians Medes Aegyptians Bactrians Armenians Macedonians Jewes and Romans first and last and at this day the most famous people live under this forme as the English French Spaniards Polonians The government of the most famous Nations Monarchicall Danes Muscovites Tartars Turkes Abissines Moores Agiamesques Zagathinians Cathaians yea and the Salvage people lately discovered in the West Indies as being guided thereto onely by the rules of Nature do all of them in a manner live under the Government of Kings and I believe the Apostle doth specially meane the Regall Government Summo dul eius unum stare loco sâ—â—â—isâ—ue con e discordia regnis Statius Thebaid 1. though he speaketh plurally of powers as understanding the same of many Kings because he speaketh but of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sword which being wrested out of the hand of the King and put amongst many would make them all like mad men fall out and fight which of them should beare it when one Sword can never be well guided by many hands and therefore I thinke it is a madnesse indeed for any people to be weary of that government which God first ordained which is most agreeable unto Nature most consonant to God's government most acceptable to God himselfe and most profitable unto men and to affect a late new invented government full of all dangers and inconveniences Therefore it is apparent that Monarchie is the first Ordinance of all governments a family being nothing else but a small Kingdome A family is a small kingdom and a kingdom a great family wherein the paterfamilias had Regall power potestatem vita necis even over his own children as I have elsewhere shewed in the example of Abraham and of other Heathens that justly executed their own sonnes and a Kingdom being nothing else but a great family where the King hath paternall power and more than fathers now have because of the great abuse that divers fathers committed while they had their plenary authority therefore it was thought fit to abridge them of that pristine power and to place it all in the hands of the more publique father And to make this yet more plaine unto the world I would fain know of these Democraticall men 1. When 2. How their Democracy and Aristocracy had their being and came first in use I have shewed the age of Monarchie to be from Adam primaque ab origine mundi Ad mea perpetuum deduxi tempora Regem And I cannot remember that any Democracie or Aristocracy was in all the Assyrian Monarchy When Aristocracies and Democracies began which notwithstanding lasted above a thousand yeares for the Aristocracies of Greece alas they are but of yesterday of no age long after Homers time which yet lived but about the time of Jephte Judge of Israel and besides I will not believe Quicquid Graecia mendax Audet in historjis And for the Democracy of Rome Titus Livius sheweth when it was first hatched after the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus if therefore you will believe Tertullian that Id verius quod prius you must needs give the precedencie of all governments unto Monarchy But that which is more considerable is to understand how these birds flitted out of the nest of Monarchy Our Saviour saith Matth. 15 13â— Every plant which my father planted not shall be rooted up that he planted Monarchie I have made it plaine but when this Vine began to grow wilde What caused the change of Monarchy and instead of grapes to bring forth bitter clusters that is oppression instead of justice
〈◊〉 cause of anger 3. The wisest of all Kings but the King of Kings saith The feare of a King is as the roaring of a Lion Prov. 2.2 who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his owne soule And I beleeve that the taking up of Armes by the Subjects against their owne King that never wronged them The Rebels have given him cause enough to be provoked and the seeking to take away his life and the life of his most faithfull servants is cause enough to provoke any King to anger if he be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too Stoically given to abandon all passions and that anger should be like the roaring of a Lion to them that would pull out the Lions eyes and take away the Lions life 4. To speake reverently to the King and of the King Eccles 8.4 4. The King of Heaven saith of these earthly Kings That where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what doest thou And Elihu demands Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes you are ungodly Truly if Elihu were now here he might heare many unfitter things said to our King by his own people and which is more strange by some Preachers for some of them have said but most maliciously and more falsely that he is a Papist he is the Traytor unworthy to raigne unfit to live good God! doe these men thinke God saith truth Where the word of a King is there is power that is to blast the conspiracies and to confound the spirits of all Rebels who shall one day finde it because the wrath of God at last will be awaked against their treachery and to revenge their perjury by inabling the King to accomplish the same upon all that resist him Jerem. 27.8 as he promised to doe in the like case 5. To pray for the King Ezra 6.10 5. The Israelites being in captivity under the King of Babylon were commanded to pray for the life of that Heathen King and for the life of his sonnes And Saint Paul exhorteth Timothy to make supplications 1. Tim. 2.1 2. prayers intercessions and giving of thankes for Kings and for all that are in authority and how doe our men pray for our King in many Pulpits not at all and in some places for his overthrow for the shortning of his life and the finishing of his dayes nullum sit in omine pondus and they give thankes indeed not for his good but for their owne supposed good successe against him thus they prevaricate and pervert the words of the Apostle to their owne destruction Psal 109.6 when as the Prophet saith Their prayers shall be turned into sinne 6. 6. To render all his duâ—s unto him Christ commandeth us to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars that is as I shall more fully shew hereafter your inward duties of honour love reverence and the like and your outward debts toll tribute custome c. and the Rebels render none unto him but take all from him and returne his Armes to his destruction I might produce many other places and precepts of Holy Scripture to inforce this duty to honour the King but what will suffice him cui Roma parum est if they beleeve not Moses neither will they beleeve if one should arise from the dead Luke 16.31 and if these things cannot move them then certainly all the world cannot remove them from their wickednesse Yet 3. Quia exempla movent plus quà m praecepta docent 3. All Kings should be honoured by the example of all Nations 1. The Israelites 1. In Egypt you shall finde this doctrine practised by the perpetuall demeanour of all Nations For 1. If you looke upon the children of Israel in the Land of Egypt it cannot be denyed but Pharoah was a wicked King and exercised great cruelty and exceeding tyranny against Gods people yet Moses did not incite the Israelites to take armes against him though they were more in number Exod 12.37 Exod. 1.9 being six hundred thousand men and abler for strength to make their party good then Pharoah was as the King himselfe confesseth but they contained themselves within the bounds of their obedience and waited Gods leisure for their deliverance because they knew their patient suffering would more manifest their owne piety and aggravate King Pharaohs obstinacie and especially magnifie Gods glory then their undutifull rebelling could any wayes illustrate the least of these 2. Davids demeanour towards Saul is most memorable 2. Under Saul The loyall Subjects beliefe p. 55. for though as one saith King Saul discovered in part the described manner of such a King as Samuel had fore-shewed yet David and all his followers performed and observed the prescribed conditions that are approved by God in true Subjects never resisting never rebelling against his King though his King most unjustly persecuted him Samuel also when he had pronounced Sauls rejection 1. Sam. 15. yet did he never incite the people to Rebellion but wept and prayed for him and discharged all other duties which formerly he had shewed to be due unto him 3. Under Ahab and Elias that had as good repute with the people and could as easily have stirred up sedition as any of the seditious Preachers of this time yet did he never perswade the Subjects to withstand the illegall commands of a most wicked King 1. Reg 21.25 that as the Scripture testifieth had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse and became the more exceedingly sinfull by the provocation of Jezabell his most wicked wife and harlot but he honoured his Soveraignty and feared his Majestie when he fled away from his cruelty Two examples of the whole Nation under Heathen kâ—ngs 1. Under Arâ—â—xerxes Ezrâ— 1.1 c. And because these are but particular presidents I will name you two observable examples of the whole Nation 1. When Cyrus made a Decree and his Decree according to the Lawes of the Medes and Persians should be unalterable that the Temple of Jerusalem should be re-edified and the adversaries of the Jewes obtained a Letter from Artaxerxes to prohibit them the people of God submitting themselves to the personall command of the King contrary to that unalterable Law of Cyrus pleaded neither the goodnesse of the worke nor the justnesse of the cause but yeilded to the Kings will and ceased from their worke untill they obtained a new Licence in the second yeare of King Darius and if it be objected that they built the Temple in despite of those that hindered them with their sword in one hand and a trowell in the other it is rightly answered that having the Kings leave to build it they might justly resist their enemies that did therein not onely shew their malice unto them but also resisted the will of the King 2. Under Ahashuerus Hester 3.10 2. When Ahashuerus to satisfie the unjust desire of his
proud favorite had wickedly decreed and most tyrannically destined all the Nation of the Jewes to a sudden death yet this dutifull people did not undutifully rebell and plead the King was seduced by evill counsell and misguided by proud Haman therefore nature teaching them vim vi pellere to stand upon their owne defence they would not submit their necks to his unjust Decree but being versed in Gods Lawes and unacquainted with these new devices they returne to God and betake themselves to their prayers Hester 8.11 untill God had put it into the Kings heart to grant them leave to defend themselves and to sheath their swords in the bowels of their adversaries which is a most memorable example of most dutifull unresisting Subjects an example of such piety as would make our Land happy if our zealous generation were but acquainted with the like Religion But here I know what our Anabaptist Brownist and Puritane will say that I build Castles in the aire The author of the Treatise of Monarchie p. 33. and lay downe my frame without foundation because all Kings are not such as the Kings of Israel and Judah were as the Kings that God gave unto the Jewes and prescribed speciall Lawes both for the Kings to governe and the people to obey them but all other Nations have their owne different and severall Lawes and Constitutions according to which Lawes their Kings are tyed to rule and the Subjects bound to obey and no otherwise I answer Henric. Stephan in libello de hac re contendit in omneâ— respull debere leges Hebraerum tanquam ab ipso Deo profectas per consequens omnium optemas â—educi that indeed it is granted there are severall constitutions of Royalties in severall Nations and there may be Regna Laconica conditionall and provisionall Kingdomes wherein perhaps upon a reall breach of some exprest conditions some Magistrates like the Ephori may pronounce a forfeiture aswell in the successive as in the elective Kingdomes because as one saith succession is not a new title to more right but a legall continuance of what was first gotten which I can no wayes yeild unto if you meane it of any Soveraigne King because the name of a King doth not alwayes denotate the Soveraigne power as the Kings of Lacedamon though so called yet had no regall authority and the Dictator for the time being and the Emperours afterwards had an absolute power though not the name of Kings for I say that such a government is not properly a regall government ordained by God but either an Aristocraticall or Democraticall governement instituted by the people though approved by God for the welfare of the Common-wealth 1. Sam. 8.4.20 but as the Israelites desired a King to judge them like all the Nations that is such a King as Aristotle describeth such as the Nations had intrusted with an absolute and full regall power as Sigonius sheweth so the Kings of the Nations if they be not like the Spartan Kings were and are like the Kings of Israel both in respect of their ordination from God by whom all Kings as well of other Nations as of Israel doe raigne and of their full power and inviolable authority over the people which have no more dispensation to resist their Kings then the Iewes had to resist theirs And therefore Valentinian though an elected Emperour yet when he was requested by his Electors to admit of an associate answered Sâ—zom hâ—stor l. 6. c. 6. Niceph. hist l. 11. c. 1. it was in your power to chuse me to be an Emperour but now after you have chosen me what you require is in my power not in you Vobis tanquam subditis competit parere mihi verò quae facienda sunt cogitare it becomes you to obey as Subjects and I am to consider what is fittest to be done And when the wife takes an husband there is a compact agreement and a solemne vow past in the presence of God that he shall love cherish and maintaine her yet if he breakes this vow The wife may not forsake her husband though hee break hâ—s vow and neglect his duty and neglects both to love and to cherish her she cannot renounce him she must not forsake him she may not follow after another and there is a greater marriage betwixt the King and his people therefore though as a wife they might have power to chuse him and in their choice to tye him to some conditions yet though he breakes them they have no more power to abdicate their King then the wife hath to renounce her husband nor so much because she may complaine and call her husband before a competent Judge and produce witnesses against him whereas there can be no Iudge betwixt the King and his people but onely God and no witnesses can be found on earth because it is against all lawes and against all reason that they which rise against their King should be both the witnesses against him and the Iudges to condemne him or were it so that all other Kings have not the like constitution which the Scripture setteth downe for the Kings of Israel yet I say that excepting some circumstantiall Ceremonies in all reall points the Lawes of our Land are so farre as men could make them in all things agreeable to the Scriptures in the constituting of our Kings An Appeale to thy conscience pag. 30. according to the livelyest patterne of the Kings of Israel as it is well observed by the Author of the Appeale to thy conscience in these 4 speciall respects 1. In his Right to the Crowne 2. In his Power and Authority Our kings of the like Institution to the kings of Israeâ— 3. In his Charge and Duty 4. In the rendering of his Account For 1. As the Kings of Israel were hereditary by succession and Respect 1 not elective unlesse there were an extraordinary and divine designation as in David Salomon Iohn Kings of England are kings by birth Proved so doe the Kings of England obtaine their Kingdomes by birth or hereditary succession as it appeareth 1. By the Oath of Allegeance used in every Leete that you Reason 1 shall be true and faithfull to our Soveraigne Lord King Charles and to his Heires 2. Because we owe our legeance to the King in his naturall Reason 2 capacity that is as he is Charles the Sonne and Heire apparent of King Iames Coke l. 7. Calvins case when as homage cannot be done to any King in his politique capacity the body of the King being invisible in that sense 3. Because in that case it is expresly affirmed that the King Reason 3 holds the Kingdome of England by birth-right inherent by descent from the bloud-royall therefore to shew how inseperable this right is from the next in bloud Hen. 4. though he was of the bloud-royall being first cozen unto the King and had the Crowne resigned unto him by Rich. 2d Speed l. 9.
c. 16. and confirmed unto him by Act of Parliament yet upon his death-bed confessed he had no right thereunto as Speed writeth 4. Because it was determined by all the Judges at the Arraignment Reason 4 of Watson and Clerke 1. Jacobs that immediately by descent his Majestie was compleatly and absolutely King without the Ceremony of Coronation which was but a royall ornament and outward solemnization of the descent And it is illustrated by Hen. 6. Speed l. 9. c. 16. that was not crowned till the ninth yeare of his reigne and yet divers were attainted of High Treason before that time which could not have beene done had he not beene King And we know that upon the death of any of our Kings The right heire to the Kingdome is King before he is crowned his Successor iâ— immediately proclaimed King to shew that he hath his Kingdome by descent and not by the people at his Coronation whose consent is then asked Why the peoples consent is asked not because they have any power to deny their consent or refuse him for their King but that the King having their assent may with greater security and confidence rely upon their loyalty Respect 2 2. As the Kings of Israel had full power and authority to make warre and conclude peace to call the greatest Assemblies as Moses Joshua David Iehosaphat and the rest of the Kings did to place and displace the greatest Officers of State as Solomon placed Abiathar in Sadoc's roome 2. Chron 19.11 and Iehosaphat appointed Amariah and Zebadiah rulers of the greatest affaires and had all the Militia of the Kingdome in their hands The absolute authority of the Kings of England Coke 7. rep fol 25. 6. Pâ—lyd Virgil. lib. 11. Speed Stâ—w c. so the Kings of England have the like for 1. He onely can lawfully proclaime warre as I shewed before and he onely can conclude peace 2. There is no Assembly that can lawfully meet but by his Authority and as the Parliament was first devised and instituted by the King as all our Historians write in the life of Hen. 1. so they cannot meet but by the Kings Writ 3. All Lawes Customes and Franchises are granted and confirmed unto the people by the King Rot. Claus 1. R. 2. n. 44. Smith de repub Angl. l. 2. c. 4. c. 5. 4. All the Officers of the Realme whether Spirituall or Temporall are chosen and established by him as the highest immediately by himselfe and the inferiour by an authority derived from him The absurdities of them that deny the Militia to the King 5. He hath the sole power of ordering and disposing all the Castles Forts and strong Holds and all the Ports Havens and all other parts of the Militia of this Kingdome or otherwise it would follow that the King had power to proclaime warre but not to be able to maintaine it and that he is bound to defend his Subjects but is denied the meanes to protect them which is such an absurdity as cannot be answered by all the House of Commons 6. The Kings of Israel were unto their people their honour their Soveraignes their life and the very breath of their nostrils as themselves acknowledge and so the Kings of England are the life the head and the authority of all things that be done in the Realme of England Smith de Repub. l. 2. Cambden Britan p. 132. supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habentes nec in Imperii clientelâ sunt nec investituram ab alio accipientes nec praeter Deum superiorem agnoscentes and their Subjects are bound by oath to maintaine the Kings Soveraignty in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill and that not onely as they are singularly considered but over all collectively represented in the body politique for by sundry divers old authentique Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realme of England is an Empire and so hath beene accepted in the world In the Pâ—eface to a Staâ— 24. Hen. 8. c. 12. governed by one supreame Head and King having the dignity and royall estate of the Imperiall Crowne of the same unto whom a body politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in termes and by names of spiritualty and temporalty have beene bounden and owen to beare next to God a naturall and humble obedience 3. As the duty of every one of the Kings of Israel was to be Respect 3 Custos utriusque tabulae to keepe the Law of God and to have a speciall care of his Religion and then to doe justice and judgement according to the Law of nature and to observe all the judiciall Lawes of that Kingdome so are the Kings of England obliged to discharge the same duties 1. To have the chiefest care to defend the faith of Christ The duty of the Kings of England and to preserve the honour of Gods Church as I shewed before 2. To maintaine common right according to the rules and dictates of nature And 3. To see the particular Lawes and Statutes of his owne Kingdome well observed amongst his people To all which the King is bound not onely virtute officii in respect of his office but also vinculo juramenti in respect of his oath which enjoyneth him to guide his actions not according to the desires of an unbridled will but according to the tyes of these established Lawes neither doe our Divines give any further liberty to any King but if he failes in these he doth offend in his duty 4. As the Kings of Israel were accountable for their actions Respect 4 unto none but onely unto God and therefore King David after he had committed both murder and adultery saith unto God Psal 51.4 Tibi soli peccavi as if he had said none can call me to any account for what I have done but thou alone and we never read that either the people did call or that the Prophets perswaded them to call any of their most idolatrous tyrannicall or wicked Kings to any account for their idolatrie The kings of England accountable for their actions onely to God tyrannie or wickednesse even so the Kings of England are accountable to none but to God 1. Because they have their Crowne immediately from God Reason 1 who first gave it to the Conquerour through his sword and since to the succeding Kings Smith de repub l. 1. c. 9. by the ordinary meanes of hereditary succession Reason 2 2. Because the oath which he takes at his Coronation binds him onely before God who alone can both judge him and punish him if he forgets it Reason 3 3. Because there is neither condition promise or limitation either in that Oath or in any other Covenant or compact that the King makes with the people either at his Coronation or at any other time that he should be accomptable or that they should question
and censure him for any thing that he should doe Reason 4 4. Because the testimony of many famous Lawyers justifie the same truth for Bracton saith if the King refuse to do what is just satis erit ei ad paenam quòd Dominum expectet ultonem the Lord will be his avenger which will be punishment enough for him Bracton fol 34. a. b. apud Lincol anno 1301. but of the Kings grants and actions nec privatae personae nec justiciarii debent disputare And Walsingham maketh mention of a Letter written from the Parliament to the Bishop of Rome wherein they say that certum directum Dominium à prima institutione regni Angliae ad Regem pertinuit the certaine and direct Dominion of this Kingdome from the very first institution thereof hath belonged unto the King who by reason of the arbitrary or free preeminence of the royall dignity and custome observed in all ages Ex liberâ praeminentiâ ought not to answer before any Judge either Ecclesiasticall or Secular Ergo neither before the Pope nor Parliament nor Presbyterie 5. Because the constant custome and practice of this Kingdome Reason 5 was ever such that no Parliament at any time sought to censure their King and either to depose him or to punish him for any of all his actions save onely those that were called in the troublesome and irregular times of our unfortunate Princes No legitimate and just Parliament did ever question the Kings of England for their actions and were swayed by those that were the heads of the most powerfull Faction to conclude most horrid and unjustifiable Acts to the very shame of their judiciall authorities as those factious Parliaments in the times of Hen. 3. King John Rich. 2. and Hen. 4. and others whose acts in the judgement of all good authors are not to be drawne into examples when as they deposed their King for those pretended faults whereof not the worst of them but is fairely answered and all 33 of them proved to be no way sufficient to depose him by that excellent Civilian Heningus Arnisaeus Heningus c. 4. p. 93. And therefore seeing the institution of our Kings is not onely by Gods Law but also by our owne Lawes Customes and practice thus agreeable to the Scripture Kings they ought to be as sacred and as inviolable to us as the Kings of Israel were to the Jewes and as reverently honoured and obeyed by us as both the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul advise us to honour and obey the King CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himselfe before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecuting Emperours 2. The Heathens Persa quidem olim aliquid coeleste atque divinum in regilus inesse statuebant Osor de Instit regis l. 4. p. 106. 2. WE finde that not onely the Jewes that were the people of God a royall Priesthood that had the Oracles of God and therefore no wonder that they were so conformable in their obedience to the will of God but the Gentiles also that knew not God knew this by the light of nature that they were bound to yeild all honour unto their Kings For Quintus Curtius tells us that the Persians had such a divine estimation and love unto their King that Alexander could not perswade them either for feare or reward to tell him where their King was gone or to reveale any of his intentions or to doe any other thing that might any wayes prejudice the life Justin l. 4. or the affaires of their King And Justin tells us that the Sicilians did beare so great a respect unto the last Will and Testament of Anaxilaus their deceased King that they disdained not to obey a slave whom he had appointed Regent during the minority of his sonne Herodet l. 8. And Herodotus saith that when Xerxes fled from Greece in a vessell that was so full of men of warre What great respect men in former times did beare unto their kings that it was impossible for him to be saved without casting some part of them into the Sea he said unto them O ye men of Persia let some among you testifie that he hath care of his King whose safety is in your disposition then the Nobility which accompanied him having adored him did cast themselves into the Sea till the vessell was unburthened and the King preserved And I feare these Pagans will rise in judgement to condemne our Nobility that seeke the destruction of their King And the Macedonians had such a reverent opinion of their King that being foyled in warre before they returned againe to the battaile they fetched their cradle wherein their young King lay and set him in the midst of the Campe as supposing that their former misfortune proceeded Justin l. 7. because they neglected to take with them the good augure of their Kings presence And Boemus Aubanus speaking of the Egyptian Kings saith that they have so much good will and love from all men Aubanus de Africa l 1. p. 39. Reges divinos Iove genitos à Iove nutritos Homerus â—esiâ—dus appellarunt ut non solùm sacerdotibus sed etiam singulis Aegyptiis major regis quà m uxorum filiorúmque aut aliorum principum salutis inesset cura that not onely the Priests but also all the Egyptians have a greater care of the safety of their King then of their wives or children or any other Princes of the Land And the same Author describing the manner how the Tartars create their King saith the Princes Dukes Barons and all the people meet then they place him that is to be their King on a Throne of gold and prostrating themselves upon the ground they cry with an unanimous and loud voyce Rogamus volumus praecipimus ut domineris nobis We entreat you and beseech you to raigne over us and he answereth if you would have this of me it is necessary that you should be obedient to doe whatsoever I shall command you when I call you to come whethersoever I shall send you to goe whomsoever I shall command you to kill to do it immediately without feare and to commit the whole Kingdome into my hands then they doe all answer we are willing to doe all this And then he saith againe therefore from hence-forth oris mei sermo gladius meus erit the word of my mouth shall be the sword of my power then all the people doe applaud him And a little after he saith in ejus manibus seu potestate omnia sunt Aubanus l. 2. p. 141. all things are in his hands and power no man dare say this is mine or that is his no one man may dwell in any part of the Land but in that which is assigned unto him by the King Nomini licet imperatoris
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 sharplâ— reproved all that spake evill of authority much more would they say against them that commit evill and proceed in all wickednesse against authority How the Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecutors And 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 minorem and inferiour onely unto God and in his Apologetico he saith Deus est solus in cujus 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 Martyr Minutius Felix Nazianzen which also wrote against the vices of Julian S. Augustine and others of the prime Fathers of the Church have set downe 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 derogated from their authority nor any wayes resisted their insolencie Beda p. 15. And Iohannes Beda Advocate 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 Artic. 39. 40. confess eccles Gal. refor For this cause he that is God put the sword into the Magistrates hand that he may represse the sinnes committed not onely against the second table of Gods Commandements but also against the first We must therefore for his sake not onely endure that Superiours rule over us but also honour and esteeme 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 beare the yoke of subjection with a good and free will although they were Infidels Ob. But against this patience of the Saints Ob. and the wisedome of these good 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 ambitious desire of Martyrdome or by some other misguiding spirit were utterly mis-led 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 Sol. and this false imputation laid upon these holy Fathers by these stabborne Rebels and proud Enthusiasts are so mildly and so learnedly answered by the Author of resisting the lawfull Magistrate upon colour of religion Where they are fully answered that more need not be said to stop the mouthes of all ignorant gain-sayers 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 Revel 2 9. which say they are Jewes and are not in steed of honouring transcendently to hate and most violently to persecute their owne most Chrâ—stian and most gracious King a sinne so infinitely sinfull that I doe not wonder to see the greatnesse of Gods anger to powre all the plagues that we suffer upon this Nation but I doe rather admire and adore his wonted clemency and patience that he hath not all this while either sent forth his fire and lightning from Heaven as he did upon Sodome and Gomorrah Gen. 19.24 Numb 16.31 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 downe farre greater plagues and more miserable calamities then hitherto we have suffered because we have suffered these Antichristian Rebels to proceed so farre and have with the Merozites neglected all this while to adde our strength to assist the Lords Annointed Judges 5.23 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 2. Christian Kings are to have double honour in respect of their double duty and how the Heathen Kings and Emperours had the charge of Religion 2. AS all Kings are to be honoured in the fore-said respects so all Christian 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 Dutie 1 Christ against all Atheists Hereticks Schismaticks and all other adversaries of the Gospell within their Territories and Dominions 2. To preserve their Subjects from all forraigne adversaries Dutie 2 and to prevent civill dissentions to governe them according to the rules of justice and equity which all other Kings are bound to doe but neither did nor can doe it so fully and so faithfully as the Christian Kings because no Law either Solons Lycurgus Pompilius or any other Greeke or Latine nor any Politique Plato Aristotle Machiavil or whom you will old or new can so perfectly set downe and so fairely 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 maintaine 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. 1. Care of Kings to preserve true Religion Aug. de utilitate credendi cap. 9. Religion faith a learned Divine without authority is no Religion for as Saint Augustine saith no true Religion can be received by any meanes without some weighty force of authority therefore if that Religion whereby thou hopest to be saved hath no authority to ground it selfe upon or if that authority whereby thy Religion is setled 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 To whom the charge of preserving religion is commited and therefore now the question is and it is very much questioned to whom the supreame government of our Religion ought rightly to be attributed 3 Opinions whereof I finde three severall resolutions 1. Papisticall which leaneth too much on the right hand 2. Anabaptisticall which bendeth twice as much on the left hand 3. Orthodoxall of the Protestants that ascribe the same to him on whom God himselfe hath conferred it Opinion 1 1. That the Church of Rome maketh the Pope solely to have the supreme government of our Christian Religion is most apparent out of all their writings Vnde saepè objiciunt dictum â—lâ—su ad Constantium Tibì Deus impertum commisit nobis quâ— sunt ecclesiastica concredidit Sed hâ—c intelligitur de executione officij non de gubernatione ecclesiae Sicut ibi manifestum est cum dicitur ne que fai est nobis in terris imperium tenere neque tibi thymiamatum soâ—rorum potestatem habere i e. in pradicatione Evangelij administratione Sacramentorum similibus and you may see what a large book our Countrey-man Stapleton wrote against Master Horne 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 subjectas fuisse quoniam Rex praeest hominibus Christianis verùm non quia sunt Chrstiani sed quia sunt homines episcopis etiam ea ex parte rex praeesset So Master Harding saith that the office of a King in it selfe 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 doe in deciding Church matters or medling with any point of Religion then a Heathen And so Fekenham and all the brood of Jesuites doe with all violence and virulencie labour to disprove the Princes authority and supremacy in Ecclesiasticall causes and the points of our Religion and to transferre the same wholly unto the Pope and his Cardinals Neither doe 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 Hierarchie to maintaine that usurped authority which he held with so much advantage to his Episcopall See though with no small prejudice to the Church of Christ when the Emperours being busied with other affaires 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 knowledge lesse and their honesty least of all all things were ruled with greater corruption lesse 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 Gospell shined and Christian Princes had the leisure to looke and the heart to take hold upon their right the learned men opposing themselves against the Popes usurped jurisdiction have soundly proved the Soveraigne authority of Christian Kings in the government of the Church that not onely in other Kingdomes but also here in England this power was annexed by divers Lawes unto the interest of the Crowne and the lawfull right of the King and I am perswaded saith that Reverend Archbishop Bancroft had it not beene that new adversaries did arise Survey of Discip c. 22. p. 2â—1 and opposed themselves in this matter the Papists before this time had been utterly subdued for the Devill seeing himselfe so like to lose the field How the Devill raised instruments to hinder the reformation stirred up in the bosome of Reformation a flocke of violent and seditious men that pretending a great deale of hate to Popery have notwithstanding joyned themselves like Sampsons Foxes 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 doe most specially concerne her government and governours and though in the fury of their wilde â—eale they do no lesse maliciously then falsly cast upon the soundest Protestants the aspersion of Popery and Malignancie yet I hope to make it plaine 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 Of the Anabaptists and Puritans and all the Schooles Opinion 2 of the Jesuites doe most stiffely defend this usurped authority of the Pope which as I said may be with the lesse admiration because of the Princes concession and their owne long possession of it so on the other side there are sprung up of late a certaine generation of Vipers the brood of Anabaptists and Brownists that doe most violently strive not to detaine what they have unjustly obtained but a degree farre worse to pull the sword out of their Prince his hand and to place authority on them which have neither right to owne it Where the Pâ—ritans place the authority to maintaine religion 1. In the Presbyterie 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 supreme and immediate authority under Christ in all Ecclesiasticall 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 chiefe
to and intayled 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 tast and I feare in too great a measure as experience now sheweth of those miserable evils which uncontrouled ignorance furious zeale false hypocrisie and the mercilesse 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 find them the worst men at all times and in all places that mislike their government The Kings that maintaine true religion make their Kingdoms happy and reject their authority and we see those Churches most happy and those Kingdomes most flourishing which God hath blessed with religious Kings as the State of the Church of Judaea makes it plaine when David Ezechias Josias and the other virtuous Kings restored the religion and purified that service which the idolatry of others their predecessours had corrupted and we know that as Moses * Exod. 14.31 Numb 12.7 8 Deut. 34.5 Josh 1.1 2. so Kings are called the servants of God in a more speciall 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 sonne Christ here on earth or to distribute their duties more particularly we know the Lord expecteth The double service of all Christian Kings 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 Christians are bound to doe 2. The other proper and peculiar to them alone to serve him as they are Kings and Princes 1. As they are Christians In the first respect they are no more priviledged to offend then other men but they are tyed to the same obedience of Gods Lawes and are obliged to performe as many virtuous actions and to abstaine from all vices as well as any other of their Subjects and if they faile 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 Psal 2.10 be learned ye that are Judges of the earth Serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce unto him with reverence for with God there is no respect of persons Rom. 2.11 Psal 149.8 but if they doe offend he will binde Kings in fetters and their Nobles with linkes of iron and we dare not flatter you to give you the least liberty to neglect the strict service of the great God In the second respect 2. As they are Christian Kings and that is twofold the service of all Christian Kings and Princes hath as I told you before these two parts 1. To protect the true religion and to governe the Church of Christ 2. To preserve peace and to governe the Common-wealth For 1. It is true indeed that the Donatists of old 1. To protect the Church the grand fathers of our new Sectaries were wont to say Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia what have we to doe with the Emperour Aug. cont lit petil l. 2. or what hath the Emperour to doe with the Church but to this Optatus answereth that Optat. Melivet lib. 3. Ille solito furore accensus in haec verba prorupit Donatus out of his accustomed madnesse burst forth into these mad termes Prima omnium in republ functionum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 7. c. 8. for 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 meanes to make all their Subjects so farre 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 plaine for Aristotle saith Aristot Polit. l. 3. c. 10. that Quae ad Deorum cultum pertinent commissa sunt regibus magistratibus those things that pertaine unto the worship of the gods are committed to the care of Kings and civill Magistrates and whatsoever their religion was as indeed it was but meere Superstition yet because Superstition and Religion hoc habent commune doe this in common Vt faciant animos humiles formidine divum Therefore to make men better the more humble and more dutifull the transgression thereof was deemed worthy to receive punishment among the Pagans and that punishment was appointed by them that had the principall authority to governe the Common-wealth The chiefâ— Mâ—gistrates of the Heathens had the charge of religion 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 would set up Christ among the Roman 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 chiefe Magistrate and therefore as the Lord commanded the Kings of Israel to write a copie of his Law in a booke Deut. 17 18 19. and to take heed to all the words of that Law for to doe them that is not onely as a private person for so every man was not to write it but 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 doe make this plaine unto us Josh 24 23. for Ioshua caused all Israel to put away the strange gods that were among them The care of the good Kings of the Iewes to preserve the true religion and to incline their hearts unto the Lord God of Israel Manasses after his returne from Babylon tooke away the strange gods and the Idols out of the house of the Lord and cast them all out of the Citie and repaired the Altar of the Lord and commanded Iuda to serve the Lord God of Israel And what shall I say of David whose whole studie was to further the service of God and of Iehosaphat Asa Iosias Ezechias and others that were rare patternes for other Kings for the well government of Gods Church and in the time of the Gospell Quod non tollit praecepta legis sed perficit which takes not away the rules of nature nor the precepts of the Law but rather establisheth the one perfecteth the other because Christ came into the world non ut tolleret jura seculi sed ut
deleret peccata mundi not to take away the rights of the Nations but to satisfie for the sinnes of the world the best Christian Emperours discharged the same duty The care of the good Emperours to preserve the true religion reformed the Church abolished Idolatry punished Heresie and maintained Piety especially Constantine and Theodosius that were most pious Princes and of much vertues and became as the Prophet foretold us Esay 49.23 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 feare from the hand of the Magistrate that is able to restraine those men from many outward evils whom neither conscience nor religion could make honest therefore God committed the principall care of his Church to the Prince and principall Magistrate Who defended thâ—s truth And this is confirmed and throughly maintained by sundry notable men as Brentius against Asoto Bishop Horne against Fekenham Jewell against Harding and many other learned men that have written against such other Papists and Puritans Anabaptists and Brownists The Papists unawares confesse this truth that have taken upon them to impugne it yea many of the Papists themselves at unawares doe confesse as much for Osorius saith Omne regis officium in religionis sanctissimae rationem conferendum Osortus de relig p. 21. munus ejus est beare rempubl religione pietate all the office of a King is to be conferred or imployed for the regard and benefit of the most holy religion and his whole duty is to blesse or make happy the Common-wealth with religion and piety Quod enim est aliud reipublicae principi munus assignatum quà m ut rempubl florentem atque beatam faciat quod quidem nullo modo sine egregiâ pietatis religionis sanctitate perficitur For though we confesse 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 Whitak resp Camp p. 302. because he onely 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 Kingdome of Heaven and the like matters of great weight and exceeding the Kings authority The Kings authority over Bishops yet Kings are above Bishops in wealth honour power government and majestie and though they may not doe any of the Episcopall duties yet they may and ought lawfully to admonish them of their duties and restraine them from evill 1. Chron. 28.13 2. Chron. 29. 1. Reg. 2.26 and command them diligently to execute their office and if they neglect the same they ought to reprove and punish them as we reade the good Kings of the Jewish Church and the godly Emperours * As Martian apud Binium l. 2. p. 178. Iustinian novil 10. tit 6. Theodos jun. Evagr. l. 1. c. 12. Basil in Concil Constant 8. act 1. Binius tom 3. p. 880. of the Christian Church have ever done and the Bishops themselves in sundry Councels 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 doe preach false Doctrine This truth is likewise apparent not onely by the testimony of Scripture and Fathers but also by the evidence of plaine reason because the prosperity of that Land which any King doth governe Reason confirmeth that Kings should take care of religion without a principall care of religion decayeth and degenerateth into Warres Dearthes Plagues and Pestilence and abundance of other miseries that are the lamentable effects and consequences of the neglect of religion and contempt of the Ministers of Gods Church which I beleeve is no small cause of these great troubles that we now suffer because our God Psal 35.27 that taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants cannot endure 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 attaine to the knowledge of things that pertaine to Religion by his Bishops and Chaplaines and the calling of Synods the unlawfulnesse of the new Synod the Kings power and authority to governe 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 Three things necessary for a King to preserve the Church and true Religion 1. A will to performe it 2. An understanding to goe about it 3. A power to effect it And these three must be inseparable in the Prince that maintaineth true religion For 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 speciall graces The first is a good will to preserve the purity of Gods service 1. A willing minde to do it not onely in his House but also throughout all his Kingdome 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 Gods Word and the inward inspiration of Gods Spirit The second is knowledge 2. Understanding to knâ—w what is to be reformed and what to be retained which is not much lesse necessary then the former because not to runne right is no better then not to runne at all and men were as good to doe nothing as to doe amisse and therefore true knowledge is most requisite for that King that will maintaine 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 speciall meanes to beatifie or make happy both the Church and Common-wealth The Kings neglect of religion and the Church is the
destruction of the Common-wealth As the neglect thereof brought ignorance unto the Church and ruine 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 affaires 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 doe rule all things with great corruption and as little truth whereby errours and blindnesse will over-spread the Church and pride covetousnesse 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 vertue 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 learne and find out the true state of things and because it is far unbefitting the honour and inconsistent with the charge of great Princes whose other affaires will not permit them to be alwayes poring at their bookes as if they were such critiques as intended to exceed all others in the theorick learning like Archimedes that was in his studie drawing forth his Mathematicall figures when the Citie was sackt and his enemies pulling down the house about his eares How Kings may attaine unto the knowledge of religion and understand the state of the Church and how to governe the same therefore it is wisedome in them to imitate the discreet examples of other wise Kings and religious Emperours in following the meanes that God hath left and using the power and authority that he hath given them to attaine unto more knowledge and to be better instructed in any religious matter then themselves could possibly attaine unto by their owne greatest studie and that is 1. To call able Clergy-men about them 1. As Alexander had his Aristotle ready to informe him in any Philosophicall doubt and Augustus his prime Orators Poëts and Historians to instruct him in all affaires 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 Chaplaines 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 doe evill which is most pernitious and doth often times make a private gaine by a publique losse or an advantage to themselves by the detriment of the Church and to be honest without knowledge How they should be qualified or to have knowledge without experience especially in such places of eminencie and for the affaires of importance may be as dangerous when their want of skill may counsell to doe matters of much hurt but when both are met together in one person that man is a fit Subject to doe 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 Gods Church then the grave advice directions of such instruments as it appeareth by that memorable example of King Ioas left to be remembred by all Kings who whilest 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 2. Reg. 12.1 the King destitute of such a Chaplaine to attend and such a Priest to counsell him all things came speedily to great ruine Therefore I dare boldly avouch it they are enemies unto Kings and the underminers of Gods Church and such instruments as I am not able to expresse their wickednesse that would exclude such Jehoiada's from the Kings counsell 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 aske counsell of Micaiah though he rejected the same to his owne destruction and King David 1. Reg. 22.16 though never so wise and so great a Prophet and Josias and Ezechias and all the rest of the good Kings had alwayes the Priests and the men of God to be their Counsellors and followed their directions especially in Church causes as the oracles of God Mar. 6.20 so wicked Herod disdained not to heare John the Baptist and to be reformed by him in many things and happy had he beene had he done it in all things And if you reade Eusebius which is called Pamphilus for the great love he bare to that his noble Patron and Socrates and the rest of the Ecclesiasticall Historians or the Histories of our owne Land you shall finde that the best Kings and greatest Emperours had the best Divines and the most reverend Bishops to be their chiefest Counsellors and to be imployed by them in their weightiest affaires How then hath the Devill now prevailed to exclude them from all Counsels and as much as in him lyeth from the sight of Princes when he makes it a suspicion of much evill if they do but talke together How hath he bewitched the Nobility to yeild to be deprived of their Chaplaines Is it not to keepe them that have not time to studie and to find 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 2. When the King seeth cause 2. To call Synods to discusse and conclude the harder things God hath given him power and authority to call Synods and Councels 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 Councell of Nice to suppresse the Heresie of Arius Theodosius called the Councell of Ephesus in the case of Nestorius Valentinian and Martian called the Councell of Calcedon against Eutyches Justinian called the Councell of Constantinople against Severus that renewed the Heresie of Eutyches Constantine the Fifth called the sixth Synod against the Monothelites and so did many others in the like cases God having fully granted this right and authority unto them for their better information in any point of religion and the governement 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 helpes that God hath left unto Kings to assist and direct them in the chiefest part of their royall government The unparallel'd presumption of the Faction to call a Synod without
the King how presumptuous then and injurious unto our King and prejudiciall to the Church of Christ was the faction of this Parliament without the Kings leave and contrary to his command to undertake the nomination of such a packe of Schismaticall 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 Devill shall have the power to prompt worldlings to nominate his prime Chaplaines Socinians Brownists Anabaptists and the refuse of all the refractary Clergy The quality of the Synod call men that seeme learned in nothing but in the contradiction of learning and justifying Rebellion against their King and the Church to compose the Articles of our faith and to frame a new government of our Church I am even ashamed that so glorious a Kingdome 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 boldnesse in any Clergy that the like cannot be found in any Ecclesiasticall Historie from the first birth of Christ's Church to this very day unlesse our Sectaries can produce it from some of the Vtopian Kingdomes that are so farre Southward In terra Incognita beyond the Torrid Zone that we whose zeale is not so fiery but are of the colder spirits could not yet perfectly learne the true method of their Anarchicall government or if our Lawyers can shew us the like president that ever Parliament called a Synod contrary to the Kings 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 the government of Gods Church 3 An authority and power to guide the Church and to uphold the true religion is power and authority to defend 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 so well furnished with knowledge to set downe what Service and Ceremonies should be used yet if he hath not power and ability which doe arise from his right and just authority to doe it and to put the same in execution all the rest are but fruitlesse embryoes like those potentials that are never reduced into actions Psal 129.6 or like the grasse upon 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 Ecclesiasticall causes and over all Ecclesiasticall persons we finde that all Ages and all Lawes have warranted them to doe the same 1. Reg. 2.27 35. Jerem. 26. for Solomon displaced Abiathar and placed Zadoc in his roome Jeremy's case was heard by the King of Israel Theodosius and Valentinian made a Decree that all those should be deposed which were infected with the impiety of Nestorius How all Kings and Emperours exercised this power over the Church and Justinian deposed Sylverius and Vigilius and many other 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 doe give unto our King the nomination of Bishops and some other elective dignities in the Church the custody 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 Ecclesiasticall 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 Iesuites and their sworne Brethren the Presbyterians do most justly ascribe this right and power unto Kings Cassâ—â— de â—â—caâ—â— l. 1. â— â— I may truly say with Cassianus that there is no place of audience left for them by whom obedience is not yeilded to that which all have agreed upon nor any excuse for those Subjects that assist not their Soveraigne 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 teare this prerogative out of the Kings hand and place it in the hands of mad men Pâ—l 65.7 How thâ— Disciplir 〈◊〉 the King of this right as the Prophet epithets the madnesse of the people for that furious Knox belcheth forth 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 Knox to the Commonalty fol. 49 50 5â— maintaine them defend them against all that oppose them and detaine 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 lawfull to kill wicked Kings which most dangerous and more damnable Doctrine Deane Whittingham affirmeth to be the tenet of the best and most learned of them that were our Disciplinarians What true religion teacheth us 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 they doe impose or in doing with obedience whatsoever they doe command Religion can be no warrant for those actions which must remaine as the everlasting blemishes of that religion which either commanded or approved of their doing I am sure all wise men will detest these Doctrines of Devils and seeing it is an infallible rule that good deserveth then to be accounted evill when it ceaseth to be well done it is apparent that it is no more lawfull for private and inferiour persons to usurpe 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 forraigne Kingdome because both are performed by the like usurped authority Yet these were the opinions and practises of former times The old Disciplinarians when Buchanan Knox Cartwright Goodman Gilby Penry Fenner
habet They were furiously bent against them and you know furor arma ministrat dum regnant arma silent leges all Lawes must sleepe while Armes prevaile Besides you may finde those Canons as if they had beene prophetically made fore-saw the increasing strength of Anabaptisme Brownisme Puritanisme most likely to subvert true Protestanisme and therefore were as equally directed against these Sectaries of the left hand as against the Papists on the right hand and I thinke the whole Kingdome now findes and feeles the strength of that virulent Faction and therefore what wonder that they should seeke to breake all those Canons to pieces and batter them downe with their mighty Ordinances for seeking to subdue their invincible errours or else because as they say the Ecclesiasticall State is not an independent society but a member of the whole the Parliament was 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 Kingdome which claime this priviledge to be tyed to the observation of no humane Lawes that themselves by their representatives have not consented unto 2. To grant dispensations of his owne Lawes 2. As the King is intrusted by God to make Lawes for the government of the Church of Christ so it is a rule without question that ejus est dispensare absolvere cujus 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 doe the same it is a most impudent scandall full of all malice and ignorance not to be endured by any well-affected Christian that the new brood of the old Anabaptists doe lay upon our Church and State that they did very unreasonably and unconscionably by their Lawes grant Dispensations both for Pluralities and Non-residency The scandall of the malicious ignorants against the worthier Clergy onely to further the corrupt desires of some few to the infinite wrong of the whole Clergy besides the hazard of many thousands of soules the intolerable dishonour of Gods truth and the exceeding disadvantage of Christ his Church for seeing God hath principally committed and primarily commanded the care of his Church and Service unto Kings who are therefore to make Lawes 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 doe these three things 1. Three speciall points handled To grant that grace and favour unto their Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall persons as to admit them of their counsell and to undertake secular authority and civill 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 dispense with the transgressions and to remit the fault of the transgressors For 1. Though the world relapsed from the true light 1. Point and declined from the syncere religion to most detestable superstition yet there remained in the people certaine impressions of the divine truth that there was a God The great respect of the Clergy in former ages and that this God was religiously to be worshipped and those men that taught the worship of that God how fowly soever they did mistake it Sarawa l. 2. c. 2. p. 103. were had in singular account and supereminent authority among all Nations and as Saravia saith 1. Among the Gentiles they were compeeres with Kings in their government so that nothing was done without their counsell and consent and as Theseus was the first that Cives Atticos è pagis in urbem compulit Osor p. 231. and put the difference betwixt Nobles De tota Syria Palestina refert Dion l. 37. quòd rex summi Pontificis nomen habeat Husbandmen and Artificers so the Priests were alwayes selected out of the noblest families and were ever in all their publique 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 Strabo lib. 12. that the Priests of Bellona which were in Pontus and Cappadocia Apud Tertul. advers Valent. Hermetem legimus appellar◠Max. sacerdotem maximum regem for that Goddesse was honoured in both places were regarded with the greatest honour next to the King himselfe and the Romans that were both wealthy warlike and wise did almost nothing without the advice and counsell of their Priests I will omit what Valerius Maximus setteth downe of their care of religion and their great respect unto their Priests and religious persons and I will referre you onely to what Tully writeth of this point Cicero l. 2. de legibus Diotogenes apud Stob. dicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aethiopes reges suos deligebant ex numero sacerdotum Diodor l. 3. c 1. Tòtus Vespas Pontificatum maximum ideo sese professus est accipere ut puras servaret manus Sueton. in Tito c. 9. In Aritia regnum erat concretum cum sacerdotio Diana ut innuit Ovid. Ecce suburbana templum nemorale Dianae Partaque per gladios regna nocente manu De arte amandi lib. 1. Strabo l. 5. where he saith that the greatest and the 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 Magistracie it was in their intire power either to give leave or not to give leave to deale with the people or not to deale to repeale Lawes not lawfully made and to suffer nothing to be done by the Magistrate in peace or warre without their leave or authority this was their Law though I beleeve it was not alwayes observed by their proud Consuls and unruly Magistrates Cicero de nat deorum l. 2. In like manner Caesar writeth of the Gaules and Britons that they had two sorts of men in singular honour the one was their Druides or Divines the other was their Souldiers or men of warre and he faith that their Druides determined of all controversies in a manner both private and publique and if there were any crime committed any murther attempted if any controversie about inheritance or the bounds of lands did arise they also did set downe
for the least medling in these civill affaires doe not onely suffer their owne Preachers to straine at a gnat but also to swallow a Camell when M. Henderson Marshall Case and the rest of their new inspired Prophets shall sit as Presidents in all their Counsels and Committees of their chiefest affaires and consultations either about Warre or Peace or of any other civill cognizance how those things can be answered to deny that to us which they themselves do practice I cannot understand when as the light of nature tels us Quod tibi vis fieri mihi fac quod non mihi noli Sic potes in terris vivere jure poli * Vnde Baldus jubet ut quis in alios non aliter judicet quà m in se judicari vellet And therefore when as there is no politique Philosophy no imperiall constitution nor any humane invention that doth or can so strictly binde the consciences of men unto subjection and true obedience as the Doctrine of the Gospell and no man can perswade the people so much unto it as the Preachers of Gods word as it appeareth by this Rebellion perswaded by the false Preachers because the Principles of Philosophy and the Lawes of many nations do permit many things to be done against tyrants which the Religion of Christ and the true Bishops of Gods Church do flatly inhibit How requisite it is for Kings to delegate civill affaires unto their Clergie it is very requisite and necessary for all Christian Kings both for the glory of God their owne safety and the happinesse of the Common wealth to defend this their owne right and the right of the Clergie to call them into their Parliaments and Counsels and to demise certaine civill causes and affaires to the gravest Bishops and the wisest of the ministers and not to suffer those Rebellions Anabaptists and Brownists that have so disloyally laboured to pull off the Crowne from their Kings head to bury all the glory of the Church in the dust to bring the true Religion into a scorne and to deprive the King of the right which is so necessary for his safety and so usefull for the government of his people that is the service of his Clergie in all civill Courts and Councels And as it is the Kings right to call whom he pleaseth into his Parliaments and Councells That it is the Kings right to give titles of honour to whom he pleaseth and to delegate whom he will to discharge the office of a Civill or Ecclesiasticall magistrate or both wheresoever he appoints within his Realâ—â— and Dominions so it is primarily in his power and authority and his regall right to give titles of honour and dignity to those officers and magistrates whom he chooseth for though the Barbarians acknowledge no other distinction of Persons but of Master and Servants which was the first punishment for the first contempt of our Superiors Gen. 9.25 therefore their Kings do raigne and domineere over their Subjects as Masters do over their servants Saravia c. 28. p. 194. and the Fathers of families have the same authority over their Wives and Children as over their slaves and vassals and the Muscovites at this day do rule after this manner neither is the great Empire of the Turke much unlike this government and generally all the Easterne Kingdomes were ever of this kind and kept this rule over all the Nations whom they Conqâ—ered and many of them do still retain it to these very times Yet our Westerne Kings whom charity hath taught better and made them milder and especially the Kings of this Iland The mild government of our Kings which in the sweetnesse of government exceeded all other Kings as holding it their cheifest glory to have a free people subject unto them and thinking it more Honourable to command over a free then a servile nation have conferred upon their subjects many titles of great honour which the Learned Gentleman M. Selden hath most Learnedly treated of and therefore I might well be silent in this point and not to write Iliads after Homer if this title of Lord given by His Majesty unto our Bishops for none but he hath any right to give it did not require that I should say something thereof Of the title of Lord touching which you must observe that this name dominus is of divers significations and is derived à domo as Zanchius observeth where every man is a Lord of that house and possession which he holdeth and it hath relation also to a servant so that this name is ordinarily given among the Latinists to any man that is able to keep servants and so it must needs appeare how great is the malice I cannot lay the ignorance when every school-boy knowes it of those Sectaries that deny this title to be consistent with the calling of a Bishop which indeed cannot be denyed to any man of any ordinary esteeme But they will say that it signifieth also rule and authority and so as it is a title of rule and Dominion it is the invention of Antichrist the donation of the Devill and forbidden by our Saviour where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 22.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 16.30 that is in effect be not you called gratious Lords or benefactors which is the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore these titles of honour are not fit for the Preachers of the Gospell to puffe them up with pride and to make them swell above their brethren It is answered That there is a double rule or dominion that if our Saviours words be rightly understood and his meaning not maliciously perverted neither the authority of the Bishops nor the title of their honour is forbidden for as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of dominion so it is fit to be ascribed to them unto whom the Lord and author of all rule and dominion hath committed any rule or government over his People and our Saviour forbiddeth not the same because you may find that there is a double rule and dominion the one just and approved the other tyrannicall and disallowed and the tyrannicall rule or as S. Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Peâ— 5.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the domineering authourity over Gods inheritance both Christ and his Apostles do forbid but the just rule and dominion they deny not because they must do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the son of man doth it so the manner of their rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Kings of the nations rule with tyranny he prohibiteth but as the servants of Christ ought to rule with charity not with austerity with humility and not with insolencie he denieth not and so he denyeth not the name of Lord as it is a title of honour and reverence given unto them by the King and ascribed by their people but he forbiddeth an ambitious aspiring to it and a proud carriage
for he expecteth that as he made Kings his Vice-gerents so they should feare him preserve the right of his Church uphold his service defend his servants and do all that he commandes them entirely without taking the least libertâ—â—or feare of the people to dispense with any omission of his hâ—nour or suffering the hedges of his Vineyard the governours of his Church to be troden downe and torne in pieces that the beasts of the field may destroy the grapes and defile the service of our God Therefore to conclude this point let all Kings doe their best to hinder their people to corrupt the Covenant of Levi Malath 2. â— which is a Covenant of Salt that is to indure for ever let them remember Moses prayer Blesse Lord his substance Deut. 33.11 and accept the worke of his hands smite through the loynes of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise not againe and let them alwayes consider Psal 35.27 that God taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants CHAP. XI Sheweth where the Protestants Papists and Puritans doe place Soveraignty who first taught the deposing of Kings the Puritans tenet worse then the Jesuites Kings authority immediately from God the twofold royalty in a King the words of the Apostle vindicated from false glosses the testimony of the Fathers and Romanists for the Soveraignty of Kings the two things that shew the difficulty of government what a miraculous thing it is and that God himselfe is the governour of the people 2. The duty of the King in the government of the Common-wealth 2. HAving set downe some particulars of the Kings right in the government of Gods Church it resteth that I should shew some part of his right and duty to serve God as he is a King in the government of the Common-wealth touching which for our more orderly proceeding I will distribute my whole discourse into these five heads Five points handled 1. To justifie his right to governe the people 2. To shew the difficulty of this government 3. To set downe the assistants that are to helpe him in the performance of this duty 4. To distinguish the chiefest parts of this governement 5. To declare the end for which this government is ordained of God 1. Point 1. Where the Protestants place Soveraignty 1. We say that the Kings Soveraignty or royall power to governe the people is independent from all creatures solely from God who hath immediately conferred the same upon him and this we are able to make good with abundance both of divine and humane proofes and yet we finde the same adversaries of this truth though with a farre lesse shew of reason that we met withall about the government of Gods Church For 2. In whom the Papists do place Soveraignty 2. They that are infatuated with the cup of Babylon the Canonists and some Jesuites doe constantly averre that summum imperium the primary supreame power of this government is in the Pope 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolutely and directly The Pope's sad Message to Hen. 3. Imp. Quem meritum investivimus quare immeritum non devestâ—amus quia ad quem pertinet institutio ad eundem pertinet destitutio as he is the Vicar of Christ who hath all power given him both in Heaven and earth from whom it is immediately derived unto his Vicar and from him to all Kings mediately by subordination unto him so Baronius Carerius and others But Bellarmine and the rest of the more moderate Jesuists say that this imperium in reges the Popes power over all Kings and States is but indirectum dominium a power by consequent and indirectly in ordine ad bonum spirituale as the civill State hath relation to religion and this great Cardinall lest he should seeme sine ratione insanire doth as the Heretiques did in Tertullians time Caedem Scripturarum facere ad materiam suam alleadge 22 places of Scripture mis-interpreted to confirme his indirect Divinity and as Potiphars wife he produceth very honest apparell but to prove a very bad cause and therefore attributing to the Pope by the greatnesse of his learning and the excellency of his wit more then he could justifie with a good conscience he was so farre from satisfying the then Pope that he was well nigh resolved to condemne all his workes for this one opinion and Carerius undertooke his confutation ex professo Carerius lib. 1. cap. 5. and taxeth him so bitterly that he putteth him inter impios haereticos which he needed not to have done because the difference is onely in the expression when the Pope by this indirect power may take occasion to king and unking whom he pleaseth and doe what he will in all Christian States 3. 3. Where the Puritans place the Soveraignty Majestas regia sita est magis in populo quam in persona regis Parsons in Doâ—â— man The Anabaptists and Puritans either deny all governement with the Fratricelli and all superiority by the title of Christianity as the Author of the Tract of Schisme and Schismaticks or doe say that originally it proceedeth and habitually resideth in the people but is cumulatively and communicatively derived from them unto the King and therefore the people not denuding themselves of their first interest but still retaining the same in the collective body that is in themselves suppletivè if the King in their judgement be defective in the administration or neglect the performance of his duty may question their King for his mis-government dethrone him if they see cause and resuming the collated power into their owne hands againe may transferre it to any other whom they please Which opinion if it were true would make miserable the condition of all Kings and I beleeve they first learned it from the Sorbonists The Sorbonists first taught the deposing of Kings and why who to subject the Pope to the community of the faithfull say that the chiefe spirituall power was first committed by Christ unto them and they to preserve the unity of the Church remitted the same communicatively unto the Pope but suppletively not privatively or habitually devesting themselves thereof retaining the same still in themselves if the Pope failed in the faith of the Church and therefore he was not only censurable but also deposable by the Councell if he became an heretique or apostated from the religion of Christ and to make this both the more plausible and probable they alleaged how Kings were thus eligible Buchan de jure regni p. 75. 91. and likewise deposable by the community of the people for out of this Buchanan saith Romani Pontifices longè regum omnium conditione superiores legum tamen poenis haud eximuntur sed eos quanquam sacrosanctos Christianis omnibus semper habitos Synodus Basiliensis communi ordinum consensu senatui sacerdotum obnoxios esse pronunciavit that is in briefe the Popes are
deprivable by the Counsell So are Kings by the community of the people and so both the Papist and the Puritane doe agree to depose their Kings and as the Poet saith Claudian de 4. Consul Honorii Ausus uterque nefas domini respersus uterque Insontis jugulo never a barrell better herring both alike freinds to Kings But to this Blacvodaeus answereth most truly that although the Pope should be deprivable by the counsell which I am sure neither Pope nor Jesuite will allow yet for divers different reasons betwixt the examples Kings are not deposable by their Subjects especially if you coÌ„sider the great difference betwixt the Church of Christ that is guided by the Spirit of God and the representation thereof in the flower of her Clergy Blac v. cap. 23. p. 304. and a giddyheaded multitude that is led by their unruly and unreasonable passions and are represented by those that either basely bought their Votes as the Consulls and other great men did the votes of the people of Rome or that their partiall and most ignorant affection oftentimes without judgement have made choice of ex quo sequitur ut non sit eadem populi potestas in regem quae in pontificem est Ecclesiae So that the reason is farre unlike But though the Sorbonists to justifie their former tenet The Puritans opinion worse then the Jesuites in two respects were the first broachers of this uniust opinion of the deposition of Kings by the people from whence the Iesuites to subject the King unto the Pope suck't it afterward Yet in two maine respects I find this tenet as it is held by the Puritanes far worse then the doctrine of the Jesuites 1. Because some of them say that the people may not restraine Respect 1 the power which they have once transmitted unto the King when the Law of justice doth not permit that Covenants should be repealed or a donation granted should be revoked though it were never so prejudiciall to the donor and Bellarmine makes this good by the example of the soldiers Bellar. in tract cont Pat. Paul that had power to accept or reject their Emperour before he was created but being once elected they had no coactive power over him whereas all the Puritanes will make and unmake promise and breake doe and undoe at their pleasure 2. Because the Iesuites permit not the people nor any Peeres Respect 2 to depose their King untill the Pope as an indifferent judge deputed by Christ shall approve of the cause and our Sectaries depresse Kings so farre as to submit them to the weake judgement and extravagant power of the people who to day cry to Gideon raigne thou and thy sonne over us for ever and to morrow joine with the base sonne of Ierubbaal and the Sichemites to kill 70 of the Children of Gideon Judges 91 and to create Abimilech to be their King But though the Anti-Cavalier takes it ill Our Opinion proved Anti-Cav in Os Ossor p. 25. that I should affirme that the Kings power and right unto his government is immediately from God yet if he would beleeve learned authors he might find enough of this judgement for the sublime power and authority that resideth in earthly Potentates is not a derivation or collection of humane power scattered among many and gathered into one head but a power immediately granted by God to his Vicegerents * So acknowledged by Act of Parliament 25 H. 8. c. 12. 28. c. 10. quam nunquam fuisse populo demandatam legimus which God never communicated to any multitudes of men Dt Sarav fol. 175. Bellar. de Lâ—cis cap. 6. 8. saith Saravia And Bellarmine himselfe against the Anabaptists confuteth their error that denyed the power and authority of Kings to be immediately from God I. From Script Sap. 6. Esay 45. Hierom 27. Dan. 2. Rom. 13. 1. Pet. 2. II. from the Councell of Constans Sess 8. 15. III. from S. Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 21. where he saith non tribuamus dandi regni potestatem nisi Deo vero which giveth felicity in the kingdome of heaven onely to the godly but the earthly Kingdomes he giveth both to the godly and to the wicked nam qui dedit Mario ipse Caesari qui Augusto ipse Neroni Idem de Rom. Pont. l. 5. c. 3. Irvinus de jure regni c. 2. p. 40. qui Vespasianis vel patri vel filio suavissimis imperatoribus ipse Domitiano crudelissimo qui Constantino Christiano ipse Apostatae Iuliano And IV. it is proved from the confession of the Popes of Rome as Leo. ep 38. 43. Gelasius epist ad Anastasium Greg. l. 2. epist 61. Nicholaus epist ad Michaelem out of all which saith Irvinus it is apparent all and every King non multitudini aut hominibus sed Deo soli regum regi quicquid juris habent acceptum ferre And he might consider that a thing may be said to be immediately from God divers wayes as specially 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absque ullo signo creato 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum aliquo actu conjuncto that is 1. Solely from God and no other presupposing nothing praevious to the obtaining of it So Moses and Ioshua had their authority from God Heningus fusè c. 1. p. 4 5. de distinct duplici jurisdict Sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure Princept fiat Principitamen facto divinitus potestaâ—data est Cunerus c. 5. de â—ffic Princip 2. Jointly with an interposed act of some other instrument as the Apostolicall power of Matthias was immediately from God though his constitution was from the Apostles so Kings though some of them be after a sort elected by men yet as our Saviour saith to Pilate that his power was from above though he was deputed by Caesar So may they be said to have their authority immediately from God though they should be some wayes deputed by men for we must distinguish betwixt the soveraignty the Subject and the collation of the Soveraignty to the Subject the Soveraignty is immediately from God the Subject is from it's naturall causes and the unition of the Soveraignty to the Subject is likewise immediately from God not onely approving but appointing the same in all the Kings of his ordination or to speake with the Schooles we must distinguish betwixt deputationem personae and collationem potestatis the designation of the person which is sometimes done by men that is where the King is elective the donation of the power which is proper onely unto God for so the Psalmist saith God hath spoken once and twice Psal 62.11 I have also heard the same that power belongeth unto God and the Apostle saith Rom. 13.2 the powers that are are ordained of God which is to be understood of the regall or Monarchicall power because Saint Paules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 higher powers are
interpreted by Saint Peter 2. Pet. 2.13 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings that are supreme where Saint Peter makes an excellent distinction betwixt the superiour and the inferiour Magistrates Saint Peters description betwixt the King and the inferiour Magistrates A two fold royalty in a King 1 Merum imperium the superiour is that which Saint Paul saith is ordained of God the inferiours are they which St Peter calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are sent by the King for the better explanation of which place you must know that in every King or supreme Magistrate we may conceive a double royalty The 1 is merum imperium or regni potestas summa plenissima and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this fulnesse of power and independent of any creature and immediately received of God which the Civilians call jus regis or munus regni is in the person of the King indivisible not to be imparted by the King to any creature because he cannot divest himselfe divide this power or alienate the same to any subject no not to his owne son How the King cannot doe unjustly without renouncing or dividing his Kingdome and by this the Civilians say the King may governe sine certa lege sine certo jure sed non fine aequitate justitia without Law but not without equity whereupon it is a rule in the Common Law hoc unum rex potest facere quod non potest injustè agere 2 Imperium dispositi vum which is to be applied to this inseperable regality of the King and hath beene often alleadged by other Parliaments to justifie the King from all blame The 2 is imperium dispositivum or jus gubernandi vel jurisdictio the right of governing or jurisdiction and distribution of justice and this may be derived and delegated from the King legatis vitalitiis either for terme of life or during the Kings pleasure But how not privativè when the King doth not denude himselfe thereof but cumulativè and executivè to execute the same How the King delegates his power to his inferiour Magistrates as the Kings Instruments for the preservation of peace and the administration of justice as it appeareth in their patent and this subordinate power is not inherent in their persons but onely committed unto them for the execution of some office because that when the supreame power is present the power of the inferiour officers is silent it is in nubibus fled into the clouds and like the light of the moone and starres vanishing whensoever the Sun appeareth for Kings when they doe transferre any actuall power to the subalternate Officers retaine the habituall power still in their owne hands which upon any emeregent occasion they may actually resume to themselves againe which they could not do if they parted with the habite and forme of this despoticall power of government that they have immediately received from God The words of the Apostles vindicated from the false glosses of the Sâ—ctaries Rom. 13.3 And as the Scriptures make it plaine that the Kings right and power to governe is immediately from God so they make it as plaine that it is the greatest right and most eminent highest power that is on earth for though the cavillers at this power translate the words of Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not potestatibus sublimioribus or supremis but potestatibus superexcellentibus and say that the word or particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where S. Peter bids us submit our selves to the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the cheife intends a resemblance onely and not a reall demonstration to prove the King to be the cheife Yet the malice of these men and the falshood of these glosses will appeare if you consider that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habens se super alios or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the powers that are ordained of God must needs signifie not any subordinate power but the supremest power on earth because the other powers are directly said by Saint Peter to be sent by the King 1 Pet. 2.13 and the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as really expresse the matter there as in John 1.14 where the Evangelist saith and we beheld his glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The testimony of the Fathers for the Soveraignty of Kings as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God And I hope our Sectaries will not be so impudent as to say that this signifieth but a resemblance of the Son of God But to make this point more plaine you shall heare what the fathers and the learned say for I told you before Tertullian saith of Kings and Emperours Tertul. ad Scap. in apologeâ— c. 30. Iâ—en advers haeres Valent l. 5. c. 20. Optat. contr â—armen l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost tom 6. orat 40. orat 2. Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 21. Q Curtinâ— l. 9. inde potestas unde spiritus and he is solo Deo minor inferiour to none but God Saint Chrysostome saith he hath no peere on earth but is the top of all men living Athanasius saith there is none above the Emperour but onely God that made the Emperour Saint Cyrill in a Sermon upon that text I am the vine commendeth the answer of a King whom Quintus Curtius affirmeth to be Alexander that being shot his Subjects would have him bound to pull out the arrow said non decet vinciri Regem Bern. Tractat. de pass Dom. c. 4. it becomes not Kings to be bound because none is superiour unto them Agapetus a Deacon of Constantine saith as much and because it is a rule in the Civill Law testem quem quis inducit pro se tenetur recipere contra sese the testimony of our adversaries is most convictive therefore I beseech you heare what they say for Rosellus a great Catholique saith it is hereticall to affirme that the universall administration of the temporall affaires is or must be in the Pope when the King hath no superiour on earth but the Creator of heaven and earth Caninus also saith that the Apostle Rom. 13. spake of the Regall and secular power Cassani Catal. glor mundi p. 8. considers 28. Card. Cusan concord Cathol l. 3. c. 5. Vide Arnis p. 5. de dist dupl iurisdict and not of the Ecclesiasticall and Cassanaeus saith that Kings are the highest and most paramount secular power and authority that ever God appointed on earth and denies that either the old or the new Testament makes any mention of an Emperour juris utriusque testimonia manifestè declarant imperialem dignitatem potestatem immediatè a filio Dei ab antiquo processisse said Philip King of France in Constit de potest elect Imperat. Irvin p. 33 34 35. quoteth many authors to confirme the same truth Lombard Gratian Melancton Cranmer Tyndall and abundance
forcing the King not a word of superiority nor yet simply of equality and therefore I must say hoc argumentum nihil adrhombum these do abuse every author 3. That neither â—eeres nor Parliament are co-ordinate with the King 3. If their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speake not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their naturall strength and power but of their right and authority be co-ordinate and equall with the Kings authority then whether given by God which they cannot prove or by the people there must be duo summa imperia two supreme powers which the Philosophers say cannot be Omnésque Philosophi jurisconsulit ponunt summum in eo terum genere quod dividi non possit Lactant. l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. 3.24 nam quod summum est unum est from whence they prove the unity of the God-head that there can be but one God and if this supreme power be divided betwixt King and Parliament you know what the Poët saith Omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit Or you may remember what our Saviour saith If a Kingdome be divided against it selfe it cannot stand and therefore when Tiberius out of his wonted subtilty desired the Senate to appoint a colleague and partner with him for the better administration of the Empire Asinius Gallus that was desirous enough of their Pristine liberty yet understanding well with what minde the subtle foxe spake onely to descry his ill willers after some jests answered seriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that government must not be divided because you can never have any happinesse where the power is equally divided in two parts when according to the well knowne axiome to every one Par in parem non habet potestatem The Case of our Affaires p. 19 20. But to make the matter cleare and to shew that the Soveraignty is inseperably inherent in the person of His Majestie we have the whole current of our very Acts of Parliament acknowledging it in these very termes Our Soveraigne Lord the King The Lawes of our Land acknowledge all Soveraignty in the King and the Parliament 25. Hen. 8. saith this your Graces Realme recognizing no superiour under God but your Grace c. And the Parliament 16. Rich. 2.5 affirmeth the Crowne of England to have beene so free at all times that it hath beene in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the regality of the said Crowne and to none other And in the 2â— of Hen. 5. the Parliament declareth that it belongeth to the Kings regality to grant or deny what Petitions in Parliament he pleaseth and so indeed whatsoever authority is in the constant practice of the Kingdome or in the knowne and published Lawes and Statutes it concludeth the Soveraignty to be fixed in the King and all the Subjects virtually united in the representative body of the Parliament to be obliged in obedience and allegeance to the individuall person of the King and I doubt not but our learned Lawyers can finde much more proofe then I doe out of their Law to this purpose And therefore seeing divers supreme powers are not compatible in one State nor allowable in our State the conceit of a mixed Monarchie is but a fopperie to prove the distribution of the supreme power into two sorts of governours equally indued with the same power because the supreme power being but one must be placed in one sort of governours either in one numericall man as it is in Monarchie or in one specificall kinde of men as the optimates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Aristocracie or in the people as in Democracie but if by a mixed Monarchie you meane that this supreme power is not simply absolute quoad omnia but a government limited and regulated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we will not much quarrell with our Sectaries because His Majestie hath promised and we are sure he will performe it to governe his people according to the Lawes of this Land They deserve not to live in thâ— Kingdome that diminish the supremacy of the King And therefore they that would rob the King of this right and give any part of his supreme power to the Parliament or to any of all his inferiour Magistrates deserve as well to be expelled the Kingdome as Plato would have Homer to be banished for bringing in the Gods fighting and disagreeing among themselves when as Ovid out of him saith Jupiter in Trojam pro Troja stabat Apollo Because as the Civilians say Naturale vitium est negligi quod communiter possidetur utque se nihil habere putet qui totum non habeat fuam partem corrumpi patiatur dum invidet alienae and therefore the same Homer treating of our humane government Nec multos regnare bonum rex unicus esto Arist Metaph. lib. 12. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle doth so infinitely commend where he disputeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth Plato and all the wise Philosophers that followed after Statius Thebaid lib. 1. because as the Poët saith Summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis And as our owne most lamentable experience sheweth what abundance of miseries happened unto our selves by this renting of the Kings power and placing it in the hands of the Parliament and his owne inferiour officers and as those sad Tragedies of Etheocles and Polynices Numitor and Amulius Romulus and Remus Antoninus and Geta and almost infinite more do make it manifest to all the world §. The two chiefest parts of the regall governement the foure properties of a just warre and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property 4. The chiefest parts of the Regall governement which are two 4. HAving spoken of those assistants that should further and not hinder the King in the Common-wealth it resteth that I should now speake of the chiefest parts of this government when Moses killed the Egyptian that wronged the Israelite and the next day said unto the Hebrew that did injure his fellow Exod. 2.14 Wherefore smitest thou him the oppressour answered Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us 1. Sam. 8.20 and the people say unto Samuel we will have a King over us that our King may judge us and goe out before us and fight our battailes 2. Sam. 5.2 Out of which two places we finde two speciall parts of the Kings government 1. Principatum bellorum the charge of the warres Sigon l. 7. c. 1. in respect whereof the Kings were called Captaines as the Lord said unto Samuel concerning Saul Vnges eum ducem 1. Sam. 9.16 thou shalt annoint him to be Captaine over my people Israel 2. Curam judiciorum the care of all judgements in respect whereof David and Solomon 1. Reg. 3.9 Psal 72.2 and the other Kings are said to judge the
people So Arnisaeus saith Arnisaeus de jure Majest l. 2. c. 1. p. 214. Majestatis potestas omnis consistit vel in defendenda repub vel in regenda all the power of royalty consisteth either in defending or in governing the Common wealth according as Homer describeth a perfect King Homer Iliad γ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so you see the two principall parts of the Kings government are the Offices 1. Of a Captaine in the time of Warre 1. Ducis in bello gerendo 2. Iudicis in jure reddendo 1. Part. In the time of Warre Ordo ille naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli autoritas atque consilium apud principes sit Aug. cont Faust l 22. Arnis l. 2. c. 5. p. 345. Plato de legib lib. 2. Arnisaus lib. 2. cap. 5. p. 345. Luc. 14.31 Vers 32. 2. Of a Judge in the time of Peace 1. Then it is the proper right of the King and of none but the King or he that hath the regall and supreme power to make warre and to conclude peace for Plato in his Common-wealth ordained that Si quis pacem vel bellum secerit cum aliquibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Julian Law adjudgeth him guilty of High Treason Qui injussu principis bellum gesserit delectúmve habuerit exercitum vel comparaverit that either maketh Warre or raiseth an Army without his Kings command And to this part of the regall government which consisteth in the Militia in Armes for the defence of the Kingdome pertaineth 1. The proclaiming of Warre which our Saviour properly ascribeth unto the right of Kings when he saith not what State or Common-wealth but What King going to warre with another King c 2. The concluding of Peace which our Saviour ascribeth also unto the King in the same place 3. The making of leagues and confederacies with other forraigne States Aristot polit l. 7. c. 8. 4. The sending and receiving of Ambassadors 5. To raise Armes and the like which the Lawes of God and of all Nations justifie to be the proper right of Kings Arnis l. 2. c. 1. and to belong onely unto the supreame Majestie Judges 11.11 But then you will say did not the Judges Moses Joshua Gedion Jephta Barac Sampson and the rest make warre and yet they were no Kings Why then may not the Nobles make warre as well as Kings I answer that they doe indeed make warre and a miserable wretched warre but I speake of a just warre and so I say that none but the King or he that hath the Kings power can doe it for though the Judges assumed not the name of Kings nor Captaines sed à potiore parte vocati sunt judices but from the sweetest part of the royall government were termed Judges yet they had the full power ducendi judicandi populum both of warre and peace saith Sigonius and so the men of Gilead said unto Jephthe veni esto princeps noster and they made him their head by an inviolable covenant Deut. 33.5 And of Moses it is plainly said He was King in Jesurun and when there was no Judge it is said there was no King in Israel Judges 17.6.18.1.19.1 for I stand not about words when some were called Kings for the honour of the people and yet had no more power then Subjects as the Kings of Sparta and others had not the name of Kings and yet had the full power of Kings as the Dictator and the Emperour and the great Duke of Muscovie and the like But when a warre is undertaken by any Prince how shall we know which party is in the right for to make an unjust warre cannot be said to be the right of any King yet as the Poët saith Lucan lib. 1. Quis justius induit arma Scire nefas summo se judice quisque tuetur Every one pretends his cause is just he fights for God for the truth of the Gospell the faith of Christ and the liberty and Lawes of his Countrey how then shall those poore men that hazard their lives and their fortunes yea and soules too if they warre on the wrong side understand the truth of this great doubtfull and dangerous point I answer all the Divines that I reade of speaking of warre Dambo ◠d in praxi criminal cap. 82. doe concurre with what Dumbauderius writeth of this point that there must be foure properties of a just warre 1. A just cause Foure properties of a just Warre 2. A right intention 3. Meet Members 4. The Kings authority Sine qua est laesa Majestas without which authority the Warriours are all Traytors And I would to God our Rebels would lay their hands upon their hearts and seriously examine these foure points in this present Warre 1. What cause have they to take Armes against their King 1. A just causes and to kill and murder so many thousands of their owne Brethren they will answer that they doe it for the defence of their Liberty Lawes and Religion but how truly let God himselfe be the Judge for His Majestie hath promised and protested they shall enjoy all these fully and freely without any manner of diminution and we know that never any rebellion was raised but these very causes were still pretended And therefore 2. Consider with what intent they doe all this 2. A right intention and I doubt not but you shall finde foule weeds under this faire cloake for under the shadow of liberty and property they tooke the liberty to rob all the Kings loyall Subjects that they could reach of all or most of their estates and to keepe them fast in prison because they would not consent to their lawlesse liberty and to be Rebels with them against their conscience And under the pretence of Lawes they aymed not to have the old Lawes well kept which was never denyed them but to have such new ones made as might quite rob the King of all his rights and transferre the same unto themselves and their friends so he should be like the King of Sparta a royall slave What Lawes and Religion the Rebels would faine hav◠and they should be like the Ephori ruling and commanding Subjects And for the religion you may know by their new Synod which are a Synod not of Saints but of Rebels what religion they would faine have not that which was profest in Q. Elizabeths times that was established by the Lawes justified by the paines and confirmed by the bloud of so many worthy men and faithfull Martyrs but a new religion first hatched in Amsterdam then nourished in New England and now to be transplanted into this Kingdome 3. Meete Members 3. Who are the persons that are imployed in this warre he first of all that is the more disloyall because he was a person of honour that had so much honour conferred upon him by His
most unjustly wrest out of his hands and under the shew of humble Petitioners to become at last proud Commanders for as one saith They whom no deniall can withstand Seeme but to aske while they indeed command 3. His Assistants learned honest and religious 3. For the persons that warre with him they are the cheifest of the Nobility all the best Gentry that hazard their lives not for filthy lucre for the Kings Revenues being so unjustly detained from him they are faine to supply his necessities and to beare their owne charges and the poore common Soldiers are nothing wanting to doe their best endeavours neither need they to feare any thing because 4. The King hath a just right to give them full power and authority to doe execution upon these Rebells as I have proved unto you before 4. His authority sacred and unquestionable And therefore the result of all is that the Parliament side under the pretence of Religion fighting if not for the Crowne yet certainely for the full power and authority of the King who shall have the ordering of the Militia that is What the pretended Parliament is who shall have the government of this Kingdome which is all one as who shall be the King they or King CHARLES and which is the very question that they would now decide by the sword in taking away our goods are theeves and robbers in killing their brethren are bloudy murderers and in resisting their King are rebellious traytors that as the Apostle saith purchase to themselves damnation when as the Prophet Esay speaketh of the like Rebells being hardly bestead and hungry Esay 8.21.22 as I beleeve thousands of them are in London and other rebellious Cities they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and looke upward as I feare many of them doe curse the King with their tongues and God in their hearts and they shall looke unto the earth and behold trouble and darknesse dimnesse and anguish and they shall be driven to darkenesse even to utter darkenesse where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 8.12 if by a true repentance they doe not betimes rent their hearts and forsake their fearefull sinnes And the Kings side in this warre doing no further then the King gives Commission do no more then what God commandeth and therefore living they shall be accounted Loyall Subjects worthy of honour and dying they shall be sure to be everlastingly rewarded CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first government of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deut. 17. and of Samuel 1. Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of government came up 2. Part of the regall governement in the time of peace 2. HAving thus shewed you Potestatem ducendi the Kings right and power of making warre it resteth that I should speake De potestate judicandi of his power and right of judgeing and governing his people in the time of peace touching which we finde none denying his right but all the difference is about the manner where Master Selden in his titles of Honour p. 15. 1. I finde Master Selden rejecting as ridiculous the testimony of Justine which saith Populus nullis legibus tenebatur sed arbitria regum pro legibus erant That the first government of Kings was arbitrary the people were kept under by no Lawes but the will of their Kings was all the Law they had but as oportet mendacem esse memorem so it behoves him that opposeth the truth to be very subtle and very mindfull of his owne discourse otherwise a meaner Scholler having such advantage as the truth to assist him may easily get the victory for though he goeth about to consute the reason that some alleadge for the denyall of those times to be governed by any Law because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be found in all Homer Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hymnis ad Apoll. but wheresoever he speakes of Justice he expresseth the same by the word Themis and saith that this is false which he proveth from Homers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sheweth that there were Lawes before Homers time from Talus his Lawes that were written in brasse in the Isle of Crete Ioseph advers Appion l. 5. yet all this may be answered and Justines opinion prove most true for Talus his time must needs be uncertaine Plutarch in lib. de Hero and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer meanes the just measure of riming but never useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the set Law of living besides there were many ages and many Kings before Homers time and before Talus Minos Radamantus or any other Law-maker that you reade of Moses was the first that I finde either giving Lawes or inventing Letters and yet there were many Kings before Moses Gen. 14.1 2. nine Kings named in one Chapter and what Lawes had they to governe their people besides their owne wils and therefore Master Selden vi veritatis victus confesseth that in the first times in the beginning of States there were no Lawes but the arbitrements of Princes as Pomponius speaketh and pag. 4. Pompon de origine juris ff l. 1. § 2. he saith the people seeing the inconveniences of popular rule chose one Monarch under whose arbitrary rule their happy quiet should be preserved Iosephus regnū appellat imperium summum unius hominis non ex lege sed ex arbitrio imperanti◠Antiquit l. 4. where also you may observe his great mistake in making the Monarchie to spring out of the Democracie when as I have proved before the Monarchicall government was many hundred of yeares before we heare mention of any other forme of government but in any governement Doctor Saravia saith and he saith most truly Quisquis summum obtinet imperium sive is sit unus rex sivè pauci nobiles vel ipse populus universus supra omnes leges sunt Saravia de imperand autor l. 2. c. 3. ratio haec est quòd nemo sibi ferat legem sed subditis suis se legibus nemo adstringit huc accedit illa ratio quòd neque suis legibus teneri possit scil rex cum nemo sit scipso superior Barclaius l. 3. c. 16. nemo à seipso cogi possit leges à superiore tantum sciscantur dentūrque inferioribus And so Arnisaeus saith and proveth at large Arnis l. c. c. 3◠p. 49 50. Majestatis essentiam consistere in summa absoluta potestate that the being of Majestie and Soveraignty consisteth in the highest and most absolute power Irvinus cap. 4. p. 64 65 And Irvinus alleadgeth many testimonies out of Aristotle Cicero Vlpian Dio Constant Harmenopolus and others to prove that Rex legibus non subjicitur And
is not to be taken alike in all places but is to be interpreted secundum materiam subjectam yet the Septuagine that should know both the propriety of the word and the meaning of the Holy Ghost in that place as well as any other translate the word to signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we know the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint useth and jus which the Latine useth is never taken in the worser sence Apparet nomen juris significaâ—e hic potestatem jure concessam Arnisaeus c. 1. p. 216. the Scripture never using to call vices by the names of vertues or to give a right to any one to exercise tyranny which then might be better termed jus laironis because an unjust tyrant is no better then an open thiefe 2. There is nothing here set downe by Samuel that is simply forbidden by the Law of God but that any the very best Kings may doe as the occasions shall require for being a King he must have the royalty of his house supported and the necessities of his warre supplied and you may reade in Herodotus how Dioces after he was chosen King had all things granted unto him that were needfull to expresse his royall state and magnificence and here is nothing else in the text for if you marke it the Prophet saith not he should kill their sonnes nor ravish their wives nor yet take their daughters to be his Concubines which are the properties of a tyrant * Instat terribilis vivis mortentibus haeâ—â—â— Virginibus raeptor thalamis obscanus adulter Divitibusque dies nox metuenda narâ—tiâ—â— Quis uis vel locuples pulchrà vel conjuge notus Crimini pulsatur falso si crimina desunt Accitus conviva perit mors nulla refugit Artificem Claudian de bello Gildon Bilson diff fol. 356. but he should take them to support his state and to maintaine his warre which as his necessities require is lawfull for him to doe so that it is not the doing of those things but the motives that cause the King to doe them or the manner of doing them that do make it either an unjust tyranny or the just right of a King for as Doctor Bilson saith Kings may justly command the goods and bodies of all their Subjects in the time both of warre and peace for any publique necessity or utility And Hugo de Sancto Victore saith Nunquam possessiones à regin potestate ita elongari possunt quin si ratio postulaverit necessitas illis ipsa potestas debeat patrocinium illis ipsa possessiones debeant in necessitate obsequium And so most Authors say the Subjects ought to supply the Kings necessities and he may justly demand what is requisite and necessary for his publique occasions and who shall judge of that necessity but his owne conscience and God shall judge that conscience which doth unjustly demand what he hath no reason to require because the greatnesse of his authority gives him no right to transcend the rules of equity whereof both God and his conscience will be the impartiall Judges And therefore in Deut. Modus describitur res non prohibetur and in Samuel Jus ponitur ratio subintelligitur for many things may be prohibited in some respect that in other respects may be allowed and many things lawfull in some wayes which other wayes may be most sinfull as it is most lawfull to drinke ad satietatem but not ad ebrietatem and many other the like things so it is lawfull for the King to doe all that Samuel saith ad supplendam reipubl necessitatem supportandam regiam majestatem but not ad satisfaciendum suo fastui luxui lucro vanitati aut carnali voluptati which is the thing that Moses forbiddeth So that in briefe the meaning is if the Subjects should be unwilling to doe what Samuel saith then the King when just necessity requireth may for these lawfull ends lawfully assume them And if he takes them any other way or for any other end then so habet Deum judicem conscientiae ultorem injustitiae Ob. But then it may be said Ahab did not offend in taking away Naboths vineyard if Samuel did properly describe the right of Kings Ans I cannot say that Ahab sinned in desiring Naboths vineyard neither doe I finde that the Prophet blames him for that desire there is not a word of that in the text but for killing Naboth and then taking possession for this he might not doe the other he might doe so he doe it to a right end and in the right manner wherein he failed Ahabs sinnes 1. In being so discontented for his denyall because his conscience telling him that he had no such urgent necessity whereby he could take it and Naboth being unwilling to sell it he should have beene satisfied 2. In suffering his wife whom he knew to be so wicked to proceed in her unjust course against Naboth 3. In going downe to take possession when he knew that by his wifes wicked practice the poore man was unjustly murdered Naboths fault when he should have rather questioned the fact and have punished the murderers Lex posterior derogat priori specialis generali ceremonialia atque forensia cedunt moralibus And yet Ahabs sinne doth not excuse Naboths fault both in the denyall of the Kings right if the King had a just necessity to use it and also for his uncivill answer unto the King farre unlike the answer of Arauna to King David but nearer like the answer of Naball which the Holy Ghost seemes to take notice of when after he had said The Lord forbid it me which was rather a Prayer and postulation that God would forbid it as we say absit when we heare of any displeasing likelyhood then any declaration of any inhibition of God to sell it who never denyed them leave to sell it untill the yeare of redemption the Prophet tels us in the next verse 1. Reg. 21.4 Which very answer seemes to be the cause why Ahab was so much displeased that Naboth said I will not give thee the inheritance of my father But whether this speech of Samuel sheweth the just right of a King what he might doe or his power what he would do what belongs to him of equity or what his practice would be by tyrannie I will not determine but I say that although it should not be a just rule for him to command yet it is a certaine rule for them to obey and though it should not excuse the King from sinne yet it wholly disables and disavowes the peoples resisting their King because in all this the Prophet allowes them none other remedy but to cry out unto the Lord The Kings absolute power not given him to inable him for oppression but to retaine his Subjects from rebellion for seeing God hath given him directum dominium absolutum imperium
have decreed the said Statute to bee void c. So I hope our Earles and Barons and the rest will be so wise and so just both to the King and to the Church that seeing this Statute proceeded not of the Kings free will as I beleeve their owne conscience knoweth and doe presume His Majestie will acknowledge they likewise will consent that the King may make it void againe §. Certaine quaeres discussed but not resolved the end for which God ordained Kings the prayse of a just rule Kings ought to be more just then all others in three respects and what should most especially move them to rule their people justly ANd here I must further crave leave to be resolved in certaine Quaeres and doubts wherein I would very gladly be satisfied for seeing as I told you before there are some rights of royalty which are inseperabilia à majestate which the King ought not and which indeed he cannot grant away as there be some things which he may forgoe though he need not I demand 1. Whether any positive Act Statute or Law that is either Quare 1 ex diametro or ex obliquo either directly or by consequent or any other way contradictory or transgressive to the Law of God ought to be kept and observed wherein I believe and constantly maintaine that it ought not and I say further that by the Word of God not any Lay men be they never so noble never so learned and never so many but the Clergy be they never so poore and never so much dis-esteemed ought to be the resolvers of this point what is repugnant and what consonant to the Law of God Malach. 2.7 because the Priests lips must preserve knowledge and the people must seeke the Law at his mouth therefore it may be conceived no Statute can be rightly made that is not assented to and approved as all our former Statutes were by the Bishops that are the chiefest of the Clergy to be no wayes contrary to the Law of God 2. Whether the King that is an absolute Monarch to whom Quare 2 God hath committed the charge and government of his people can without offence to God change this forme of government from a Monarchicall to an Aristocraticall or a Democraticall forme of government which may be believed he cannot because though as I shewed out of Saint Augustine the worser forme invented by man may lawfully be changed into a better yet the best which is onely and primarily ordained by God cannot be changed into a worser without offence Quare 3 3. Whether the King can passe away that power authority and right which God hath given him and without which he cannot governe and protect his people that God hath committed under his charge wherein it may be conceived he cannot because God must discharge him from the charge that he imposed upon him before he can be freed and excused from it but as the Bishop on whom the Lord hath laid the charge of soules cannot lay aside this charge when he pleaseth so no more can the King lay aside the charge of the government nor part with that power and right * Otherwise then by substitution Rege absente durante beneplacito or quamdiu se benè gesserâ—nt sub stituti whereby he is inabled to governe them and without which he cannot governe them untill God that laid this charge upon him and gave him full power and authority to doe it by some undenyable dispensation gives him his Writ of ease to discharge him 4. Whether such an Act or Statute which disinableth any King to dissolve his Dyet Councell Assembly or Parliament Quare 4 and inableth some subtle faction of his Subjects in some sort to countermand their King be not derogatory to the inseperable right of Majestie destructive to the power of government and prejudiciall to all the loyall Subjects and therefore void of it selfe The Act for the indissolubility of any Parliament beleeved by many to be of it selfe void and not to be observed because such an act ought not to have beene concluded wherein I leave the resolution to be determined by the Judges and the Bishops of this Land and I will onely crave leave to set downe what may be thought herein viz. that such an Act or Statute is clearely and absolutely void Reason 1 1. Because that hereby the King may be said after a sort and in some kinde to change the fundamentall constitution and government of his Kingdome from an absolute Monarchie to another species and forme of government either Aristocraticall or Democraticall or some other forme emergent out of all these such as we know not how to terme it and such as was never knowne from the beginning of the world a mixture indeed which I told you before no absolute King can be thought to doe without offence unlesse he can prove his licence from God to doe the same 2. Because that hereby he may be said to denude himselfe of Reason 2 his right and by depriving himselfe of this power to disinable himselfe to discharge that duty which God doth necessarily require at his hands that is to governe his people by protecting the innocent and punishing the wrong doer and when God shall call the King to an account why he did not thus governe his people and defend those poore Subjects that were loyall and faithfull both to God and their King according to the charge that he laid upon him and the right and power which he gave him to discharge it It may be feared it will be no sufficient answer for any King to say but I have so laid away that power and parted with that right unto my Lords and Commons that I could not doe it for it may be asked where doth God require him or when did he authorize him to divest himselfe of that authority wherewith he indued him how then can he doe it to the undoing of many people without an assured leave from God therefore as that Act which was made unrepealable was adjudged no Act but immediately void because it was destructive to the very power of Parliament * Which may repeale their owne Acts but not destroy their just power nor themselves as it seemes the the Act of excluding the Bishops doth and takes away as it were the soule of the Parliament and if any act should be made to destroy common right or to hinder the publique service of God or to disinable the right heire to injoy the Crowne or the like those Acts are void of themselves so any Statute that disinableth the Kings government must needs be void ipso facto as I have partly shewed in my Discovery of Mysteries p. 32. 3. Because it may be believed no King would ever grant such an Act unlesse he were either subtilly deceived and seduced or forcibly compelled thereunto for feare of some inavoidable extremity which according to all outward appearance Reason 3 could not otherwise be
the Citie that is placed upon an hill but their least and lightest acts are soone seene 3. Their places are as slippery as they are lofty when as one saith height it selfe maketh mens braines to swimme Seneca in Agamemn 2.1 nunquam solido stetit superba foelicitas and proud insolency never stood sure for any certaine space for as God hath made them gods so he can unmake them at his pleasure Aug. ho. 14. and as S. Augustine saith Quod contulit immerentibus tollit malè merentibus quod illo donante fit nostrum nobis superbientibus fit alienum what God hath freely bestowed upon you without desert he may justly take away from you for your evill deserts and what is ours through Gods gift may be made another mans through our owne pride and not onely so but as he hath heaped honours upon their heads that they might honour him so if they neglect him he can powre contempt upon Princes Job 12.21 and cast dirt in their faces and make them a very scorne to those that formerly they thought unworthy to eate with the dogs of their flocke and then Quanto gradus altior Job 30.1 â—anto casus gravior the higher they were exalted the more will be their griefe when they are dejected as it was with those Kings that being wont to be carried in their royall Charets were forced like horses to draw Sesostris Coach Quia mâ—serrimum est suisse felicem because it is a most wretched thing to have beene happy and not to be or as the Poet saith Ovidius Trist l. 3. Eleg. 4. Qui cadit in plano vix hoc tamen evenit unquam Sic cadit ut tactà surgere possit hâ—mo At miser Elpenor tecto dilapsus ab alto Occurrit regi flebilis umbra suâ— And therefore all Kings should be ever mindfull of the words of King David 2. Sam. 23.3 He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the feare of God and all these things that I have set downe should move all Kings and Princes to set their mindes upon righteousnesse Psal 58.1 to judge the thing that is right and to live to raigne and rule according to the straight rule of the Law What should move all Kings to rule justly according to Lawes that so carrying them justly and worthily in their places the poore people may truly say of them Certè Deus est in illis they may well be called Gods because God is in them and if these things will not nor cannot move them to be as mindfull of their duty as well as they are mindfull of their excellency then let them remember what the Psalmist saith Psal 149.8 He will bind Kings with fetters and their Nobles with linkes of iron and let them meditate upon the words of King Solomon where he saith unto them all Heare O ye Kings and understand learne ye that be Judges of the ends of the earth give eare you that rule the people and glory in the multitude of Nations for power is given you of the Lord and soveraignty from the Highest who shall trie your workes and search out your counsels because being Ministers of his Kingdomes you have not judged aright nor kept the Law nor walked after the counsell of God horribly and speedily shall he come upon you for a sharpe judgement shall be to them that are in high places for mercy will soone pardon the meanest but mighty men shall be mightily tormented Sap. 6. usque ad vers 9. for he that is Lord over all shall feare no mans person neither shall he stand in awe of any mans greatnesse for he hath made the small and the great and careth for all alike but a sore tryall shall come upon the mighty Heb. 10.31 And the Apostle saith It is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God which things should make their eares to tingle and their hearts to tremble whensoever they step aside out of Gods Commandements And thus we set downe the charge of Kings and the strict account that they must render unto God how they have discharged the same whereby you see we flatter them not in their greatnesse but tell them as well what they should be as what they are and presse not onely obedience unto the people but also equity and justice unto the Prince that both doing their duty both may be happy CHAP. XV. Sheweth the honour due to the King 1. Feare 2. An high esteem of our King how highly the Heathens esteemed of their Kings the Marriage of obedience and authority the Rebellion of the Nobility how haynous 3. Obedience fourefold diverse kinds of Monarchs and how an absolute Monarch may limit himselfe 2 I Have shewed you the person that we are commanded to honour the King 2 The honour that is due to the King I am now to shew you the honour that is due unto him not only by the customes of all Nations but also by the Commandement of God himselfe Where first of all you must observe that the Apostle useth the same word here to expresse our duty to our King as the holy Ghost doth to expresse our duty to our father and mother for there it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and here S. Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew indeed that the King urbi pater est urbique maritus is the common Father of us all and therefore is to have the same honour that is due to our father and mother The same that is due to our Father and Mother and I have fully shewed the particulars of that honour upon that fift commandement I will insist upon some few poynts in this place and as the ascent to Solomons throne was per sex gradus by sixe speciall steps so I will set you down six main branches of this honour that are typified in the six ensignes or emblems of Royall Majesty for 1 The Sword exacteth feare Six speciall branches of the honour due to the King and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as much 2 The Crowne importeth honour because it is of pure gold 3 The Scepter requireth obedience because that ruleth us 4 The Throne deserves Tribute that his Royalty may be maintained 5 His Person meriteth defence because he is the Defender of us all 6 His charge calleth for our Prayers that he may be inabled to discharge it 1. Feare 1. Kings are called Gods and all the Royall Ensignes and Acts of Kings are ascribed to God as their Crown is of God whereupon they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 21.3 crowned of God their sword is of God Psal 18.39 Iudg. 7 17. Exod. 4.20.17.9 whereupon the Psalmist saith thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle their Scepter is the Scepter of God for so Moses rod which signifieth a Scepter as well as a rod is called the rod of God their throne is
and the like as too many of our Sectaries most falsely most malitiously have done is rather to vilifie and disgrace him to worke an odium against him and a tediousnesse of him then to procure an honourable esteeme and reverence of him Cassiodorus saith stipendium tyranno penditur praedicatio non nisi bono Principi Tribute is due to Tyrants and ought to be paid unto them but honour and reverence much more to a good Prince the spirit of God bids us blesse them that persecute us and our Saviour saith Rom. 12.14 blesse them that curse you that is speake well of Tyrants that oppresse us Matth. 5.44 and speak not ill of them that speak ill of you especially if they be your Magistrates or your King whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are commanded to honour even with the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore no doubt The fifth Commandement is the most obliging of all the Commandements of the second Table Ephes 6.2 How the heathens honoured their Kings C. Tacitus lib. 14. but with the same honour as we are commanded to honour our Father and our Mother because the King is our Politicall Father and is therefore commanded to be reverenced by this precept which as the Divines observe is of greater moment and more obliging then any of the rest of the Commandements of the second Table not only because it keepeth the first place of all these precepts but is also the first Commandement with promise as the Apostle observeth And not only the Scriptures command us thus to honour and to reverence our King but the very Heathens also did so reverence them that they did adore the Statues and Images of their Kings and Caesars as Tacitus reporteth and it was Treason for any man to pull away or violate them that fled unto them for sanctuary yea it was capitall for a man that had the Image of his Prince stamped in silver or ingraven in a Ring to goe to any uncleane or unseemly place and therefore Seneca saith Seneca de benefic l. 30. that under the Empire of Tiberius a certain Noble man was accused of Treason for moving his hand The reason of their reverence that had on his finger a Ring whereon was ingraven the portraiture of the Prince unto his privie parts when he did Vrine and the reason of this great reverence which they bare unto their Princes was that they beleeved there was in Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some divine thing which above the reach of man was ingraffed in them and could not be derived from them for so Raderus tells us Raderus Comment in Quint. curt that this divine Majesty or celestiall sparke was so eminent in the countenance of Alexander that it did not only terrifie his enemies but also moved his best Commanders and greatest Peeres to obey his commands and the like is reported of Scipio Africanus and I find the Macedonians had a law that besides the Traitors condemned to death five of their next Kinsfolkes A Macedoninian law that were convicted of conspiracy against their King and a Gentleman of Normandy confessing to his Frier how such a thought came once in his mind to have killed King Francis the first A gentleman hanged for his thought but repenting of his intention he resolved never to doe it the Frier absolved him of his sinne but told the King thereof and he sent him to his Parliament who condemned and executed him for his thought Philip the first of Spaine seeing a Falcon killing an Eagle commanded his head to be wrung of saying let none presume above their Soveraigne and in the raigne of Henry fourth of England one was hanged drawne and quartered in Cheapside London for jesting with his sonne that if he did learne well he would make him heire of the Crowne meaning his owne house that had the Signe of the Crowne to prove the Proverbe true non est bonum ludere cum sanctis it is not safe jesting with Kings and Crowns and it is lesse safe to resist them if you will beleeve wise Solomon And I have read of another King that passing over a river his Crowne fell into the water one of his water-men lept in and dived to the bottome and taking up the Crowne put it upon his head that it might not hinder his swimming and so brought it to the King againe who rewarded him well for his paines but caused his head to be chopt of for presuming to weare his Crowne And all this is but an inanswerable argument to condemne our Rebells that neither reverence the Majesty of their King nor respect the commandement of their God 3. Obedience 3. Obedience is another principall part of that honour which we owe unto the King and this obedience of the inferiours joyned with the direction of the superiors The marriage of obedience and authority and the issue doe make any state most successefull but when these are divorced then nothing goeth right in that Common-wealth for so the Sages of Greece exprest it by the marriage that Iupiter made between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aescylus whose child brought forth betwixt them was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All must be obedient to shew unto us that when authority is married to obedience and obedience proves a dutifull and good wife to authority the fruit of that match will be happinesse to the whole Kingdome And therefore if we would be happy we must be obedient and our obedience must be universall in all things in the Lord. Iussa sequi tam velle mihi quà m posse necesse est Lucan l. 1. So the people say unto Ioshua all that thou commandest us Iosh 1.16 we will doe and all must doe it the greater aswell as the lesser the noble man as well as the meane man yea rather then the meane man for though rebellion in any one is as the sinne of witchcraft yet in a vulgar man it may admit of vulgar apologies but in a man of quality in noble men in Courtiers Noble mens Rebellion more abominable to God man then any other bred in the Kings house in the Kings service and raised by the Kings favour it is Morbus complicatus a decompound sinne a transcendent ingratitude and unexpressable iniquity the example more spreading and the infection more contagious because more conspicuous and the giddy attempts of an unguided multitude are but as Cardinall Farnesius saith like the Beech tree without his top soon withered and vanishing into nothing without leaders when they become a burthen unto themselves and a prey unto others therefore the contradiction of Corah Dathan and Abiram that were so eminent in the congregation was a sinne so odious unto God that he would have destroyed all Israell for their sake as now he punisheth all England for the sinnes of those noble men that have rebelled against their King and
were alwayes like Sejanus as wayward pleased as opposed And therefore St Paul saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13.1 every soule must be subject to the higher power and he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you must needs be subject or be obedient Rom. 13.5 and he presseth this obedience with many arguments Obedience pressed by a three fold argument as 1. From Gods ordinance because God hath set them over us and commanded us to be obedient unto them and therefore whosoever resisteth them warreth against God 2. From mans Conscience which telleth us that he is the minister of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for good Rom. 13.4 therefore virtutis amore if we have any love to goodnesse we ought to obey our King 3. For feare of vengeance v. 4. because he beareth not the sword in vaine but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill How we ought to behave our selves towards wicked Kings therefore this obedience to our King is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing of indifferency but of necessity for be our King for his religion Impious for his government unjust and for life licentious as cruell as Nero as prophane as Julian and as wicked as Heliogabalus yet the Subjects must obey him the Bishops must admonish him the counsell must advise him and all must pray for him but no mortall man that is his Subject hath either leave to resist him or licence to reject him unlesse they reject the ordinance of God Ardua res homini est mortali vincere numen Why God sendeth evill Kings and so fight against God and you know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is hard to vanquish God It is truly said by a learned Bishop si bonus est Princeps nutritor est tuus if thy King be good he is thy nursing Father and it is a great happinesse to his Subjects sin malus est tentator est tuus but if he be evill he is either for the punishment of thy sinnes or for the triall of thy faith and therefore receive thy punishment with patience or thy triall without resistance and Aquin. saith tollenda est culpa cessabit tyrannorum plaga doe thou take away thy sinnes and God will soon take away thy punishment otherwise as for our sinnes we doe often suffer droughts floods unseasonable weather sicknesses plagues and many other evills of nature ita luxum avaritiam dominantium tolerare debemus so when God setteth up hypocrites or tyrants to reigne over us to be the scourges of his wrath and the rods of his fury we must not struggle against God but rest contented to indure the vices of our rulers as a just punishment of our wickednesse saith Cornelius Tacitus * Et Michael Palatinus Hungariae dicebat rege coronato etiamsi bos esset nobis obtemperandum est Bonsin dec 4. lib. 3. Foure kinds of obedience 1. Rom. 12.1 1. Sam. 15.22 But here you must observe that there are diverse kinds of obedience especially 1. Coacta 2. Caeca 3. Simulata 4. Ordinata 1. Forced 2. Foolish 3. Faigned 4. Well ordered 1. The first is a forced and compelled obedience meerly for feare of wrath as Children learne or Slaves doe their duty for feare of the rod and this is better then resistance though nothing like to that obedience which S. Paul calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because this voluntary and not extorted obedience is that which is better then sacrifice 2. The second is a blind obedience 2. Blind obedience such as the young youths that being commanded by their Abbat to carry a basket of figgs and other Iuncates unto a solitary Monke or Hermite that lived in his cave and loosing their way in that unfrequented wildernesse chose rather to dye in the desert then tast of those acates that they had in their Basket and such obedience is most frequent in the proselites of Rome who will doe whatsoever they are commanded by their superiors though both they and their superiors do thereby commit never so great a wickednesse Where notwithstanding I must confesse that this blind obedience is farre better both for Church and State then a proud resistance when as the one produceth nothing but some particular inconveniences and the other proceedeth to an universall destruction 3. The third is an hypocriticall and dissembled obedience 3 Hypocriticall obedience that is an obedience for a time till they see their time to doe mischiefe which is the worst of all obedience and therefore most hatefull both to God and Man because it is but eatenus usque dum vires suppetunt untill they have the opportunity and have gotten sufficient strength to shake off their subjection and to maintaine their Rebellion The obedience of our Rebells and this was the obedience of all our Rebells our Sectaries and Puritans here in England who would also face us down but most falsely that it was the obedience of the Primitive Christians for so the grand impostor Io. Goodwin in his Anticavalierisme saith they were only obedient to those persecuting Tyrants because as yet they wanted strength and were not able to resist them but O thou enemy of all goodnesse that so hatest to become a Martyr for thy God that was martyred for thee is it not enough for thee to play the dissembling hypocrite thy selfe but thou must taxe those holy Martyrs those true Saints that raigne with Christ in Heaven The Author more out of patience for the wrong offered to the Martyrs then for his own abuse of hypocrisy and disobedience in their hearts to the Ordinance of God I could willingly beare with any aspersion thou shouldest cast in my face but I am out of patience though sory that I am so transported to see such false and scandalous imputations so unjustly layd upon such holy Saints yet this you must do to countenance your Rebellion to get the Rhetorick of the Divell to bely Heaven it selfe and therefore what wonder is it that you should bely your King on earth when you dare thus bely the martyrs that are in Heaven 4. The obedience of the Saints two â—â—ld 4. The fourth is a voluntary hearty and well ordered obedience which is the obedience of the Saints and is also Two fold 1. Active 2. Passive for 1. Active obedience 1. The Saints knowing the will of God that they should obey their King and those that are sent of him they doe willingly yeeld obedience to their superiors and no marvell because there cannot be a surer argument of an evill man then in a Church reformed and a Kingdome lawfully governed to resist authority and to disobey them that should rule over us especially him whom God immediatly hath appoynted to be this vicegerent his substitute and the supreme Monarch of his Dominions here on earth for all other things both in heaven and earth doe observe that Law which their
Clergy will performe no duty unto their King because their function is spirituall but to all these I may truly say as our Saviour doth to the leaud servant ex ore tuo out of the Fathers whom they acknowledge and out of their owne Authors they are confuted for S. Chrysostome saith that whether he be an Apostle or Evangelist or Prophet Seu quisquis tandem fuerit or whosoever else he be Pope Cardinall or Deacon he is commanded to be subject to the higher power and that you may see what power he meanes he pointeth out the same by the symbol that is of him that carryeth the sword which you know must be the secular Prince and not the spirituall Pope and so not onely Euthym. Theophylact. Oecumenius and other Greek Commentators doe avouch but also those Epistles which are recorded by Binius and quoted by the Bishop of Durham as Leo 1. ep 26. 35. Simplicius 1. ep 4. Felix 3. ep 2. Anastasius 1. ep 78. Pelagius 1. ep 16. Martinus 1. ep 3. Agatho 1. ep ad Herac. Hadrian 1. ep ad Constant doe make this most manifest unto us Espens in Tit. 3.1 Digres 10. p. 5. 13. Paris 1568. and therefore Espencaeus convinced by such a cloud of witnesses confesseth very honestly that the Apostle here Docet omnes credentes mundi potestatibus esse subjectos nempe sive Apostolus sive Evangelista c. ut tenet Chrysost Euthym qui non Graeci The wickednesses of the pretended Parliament shewed by their actions And as the Popelings will be free so the Presbyterians and the faction of this Parliament will be as free as they and because every wickednesse laboureth to exceed that which preceded these doe not agree with the Catholiques as Herod and Pilate did to crucifie Christ in the same conclusion and tenet of exemption but they will goe a note beyond Ela and surmount both Jesuite and Pope and therefore they not onely dishonour and disobey their King but they have violated and incroached upon all his rights and assumed the same into their owne hands for to recapitulate some of their choycest wickednesses 1. As the Church of Rome and the Jesuites teach in Aphorismis confessariorum ex Doctorum sententiis collectis p. 249. that Rex potest per rempublicam privari ob tyrannidem si non faciat officium suum cum est causa aliqua justa eligi alius à majore parte populi which falshood their owne Divines confute when Royard saith Rege constituto Royard in dom 1. advent They teach the deposition of Kings non potest populus jugum subjectionis repellere so these men maintaine that diabolicall tenet that the Regall power is primarily in the collective body and derived to the King cumulativè not privativè and therefore upon the Kings neglect or male-administration it comes backe againe to the collective body in whom it resideth suppletivè to discharge the royall duty when the King faileth to doe the same and then the King so falling from his right they may refuse obedience and if they see cause which they can soone do they may depose him from his office which impudent falshood I have fully consuted in this Treatise 2. They say the Regall Majestie is a humane creature or the ordinance of men primarily and therefore may be deposed by men when as Cunerus could say Sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure princeps fiat principi tamen facto divinitus potestas adest and therefore they have no power to take away that which God hath given him 3. They have with Nadab and Abihu adventured to offer strange fire upon Gods Altar and with Vzza to lay their prophane hands upon Gods holy Arke they have rejected the Lawes that the King with the advice and consultation of all his learned Clergy hath made * Though now I reckon not this among their wickednesses and they themselves sit in Moses chaire and have undertaken to reforme the Church to make Lawes and compose Articles of our faith with the advice of a few factious men that were never esteemed otherwise then faex Cleri not worthy to be the Curates of those worthy Divines whose feet they hurt in the stocks and send the iron into their soules 4. They have cast out all the Bishops and all the faithfull Ministers of Christ out of all offices How they persecute the Bishops and the best of the Clergy that might further the Gospell and administer justice unto the people they doe rob them of their meanes and count sacriledge to be no sinne and in very deed they have persecuted the worthiest Clergy in many particulars farre worse then ever Julian that wicked Apostata did the Lord of Heaven give us patience to indure it and suffer us not for feare of any villanie or calamity to be dejected and so fall away from his truth 5. They have called and continued an Assembly which the Pope would not doe without the Emperours leave contrary to the Kings command which is a meere and mighty usurpation of the Regall right 6. They have seized upon the Kings Revenues Castles Forts Townes Ships and all that they could lay hand on and doe in a hostile manner with all violence detaine them from him but what he gaines by his sword to this very day 7. They have fought against him shot at his sacred Person and sought most Barbarously to kill him under the colour to preserve him which is the finest piece of Logicke that ever was read 8. They have rayled at him slandered him and most apparently and falsly belyed him and laid to his charge the things which we his Majesties Subjects and Servants that attend Him doe know that He neither did nor knew 9. They incouraged and countenanced their ignorant brazen-faced Chaplains most uncivilly to rayle at Gods Annointed in the Pulpit and so they brought the abhomination not of desolation but of most horrible transgression into the holy place and made Moses chaire the seat of raylers 10. They taxe the Subjects at their pleasure and have raised infinite summes of money and no man but themselves knowes how they have disposed or what they have done therewith 11. They discharged Apprentices they send out their Warrants and their Edicts without and against the Kings authority which are but nugae and the minims of their doings 12. They averre that the King hath no negative voyce in making Lawes but they may conclude them and make them obligatory without the Kings approbation or ratification and that they may doe any thing conducible to the good of the Church and Common-wealth any Law Statute or provision made to the contrary notwithstanding What they say of their Covenants 13. They are not ashamed to teach as they doe practice that it is lawfull for them to make Covenants Combinations and Confederacies of mutuall defence and offence against any person whatsoever whom themselves judge malignant not
shed that is by the due course of Law and the power of the Magistrate that beareth not the sword in vaine but is bound to punish murders and the unlawfull putting of innocents to death with the sentence of a just death Ob. If you say Why may not this rebellion be concluded with the like peace by a generall pardon as the other in Ireland is like to be Sol. I answer the case is not alike because they had some shew of reason and were provoked by the faction and emissaries of this Parliament but our rebels had not the least colourable cause nor were provoked by any but their owne bloudy desire to root out Gods service and servants when they had almost all things that they desired I am sure more then should have beene granted unto them and therefore in these and in many other respects that I could but am ashamed to set downe I deeme this rebellion of our English and the invasion of the Scots ten times more odious then the insurrection of the Irish 2. The iniquity of Sodome was Pride fulnesse of bread Ezech. 16.49 2. The sinnes of Sodom among them abundance of idlenesse and contempt of the poore and I have already shewed how all these doe rule and raigne in them 3. For oppression 3. Their oppression let their ordinances to take away our goods without any colour of justice and their actions to make good their ordinances to take away our states and deprive us of our liberties be well examined and the world shall then see whether they be oppressors or I a transgressor for affirming it 4. For retaining of wages 4. The detaining of the wages of Gods servants letting passe their Souldiers that deserve not pay for fighting so disloyally aâ—â—inst their King and transgressing so undutifully the Commandement of God which so precisely biddeth them to honour the King I would faine know by what authority or law excepting their owne lawlesse Ordinances have they detained and alienated the wages meanes and maintenance of those faithfull Pastors whom they sent away and caused them to fly and wander like Pilgrims from place to place without any meanes or subsistence O let them never thinke that these things can be buried in oblivion but that the sighes and groanes of those faithfull servants of Christ doe continually cry 25. How they are filled with the most destructive sinnes against their soules And if I should parallel the wickednesses of this pretended Parliament with the Sicilian Vespers the Massacre of Parâ—s and the Gun-powder Treason it would exceed them all and cry aloud in the eares of God for vengeance to be powred downe upon the heads of these their persecutors which cannot escape Cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus 25. As there be three Theologicall graces that build up and compleat a Christian soule Faith Hope and Charity so there be three maine vices that do poyson and kill every soule Infidelity Presumption Philauty and three others that are destructive to all Christianity Prophanenesse Impudency and Sacriledge The time will not give me leave to tell you how they are chayned about with these linkes of sinne and how indeed they are as the Apostle saith filled with all unrighteousnesse The workes that they doe can sufficiently testifie what they are God forgive them the evill that they have done and give them grace to repent in time that they may not perish everlastingly Amen 2. The wicked Ordinances oâ— the pretended Parliament 2. Having treated a little of the wicked practices and abominable actions of the Puritane Faction of this Parliament I should according as I intended set downe some of their unjust impious and diabolicall Ordinances which I finde to be so many as would fill up a whole Volume and the poyson of their wickednesse having swelled my Booke to such a bulke already I must therefore crave leave to transmit the displaying of these dismall tragedies to some other scene onely I must remember which I beleeve will never be forgotten while any wickednesse can be remembred and that is 1. Their bloudy ordinance 1. Their bloudy Ordinance to kill and slay while we were all in peace and all praying for the Houses of Parliament 2. Their sacrilegious ordinance 2. Their sacrâ—â—â—gious Ordinance of taking away not the twentieth part nor the tenth nor yet nine parts of ten but all and every part of the goods and revenues of the Bishops Deanes and Prebends and let them now in their old-age after they have wasted their strength and consumed their years with toylesome labours and indefatigable paines in the Church of God to save their soules either digge for bread or begge for almes or like out-worne jades die in a ditch their care for these men was to leave them not one penny to relieve themselves while they lived and I believe the prophanest Pagan it may be the Devill himselfe could not shew greater malice or inflict a severer censure upon the Clergy then these zealous Christians have ordained because such a miserable life must needs prove far worse then a glorious death Jerem. Lament 4.5 c. 1.11 when as Jeremiah saith they that did feed delicately must stand desolate in the streets and they that were brought up in scarlet must embrace dunghills they must sigh and seeke their bread and give their pleasant things for meate to releeve their soules 3. Their unrighteous ordinances 3. Their unrighteous Ordinance and ordinances to take away what part they pleased of their neighbours goods and all from them whom they deemed Malignants and I had almost said that God him selfe which is Lord of all could not more justly take them then these men have unjustly decreed to take them from us 4. Their impious odious and abominable Ordinance 4. Their impious ordinance to compell men by Oathes and Covenants to give themselves unto the Devill and to go to Hell in despight of their teeth and that which makes me wonder most of all is that their Synod or Assembly hath prefixed an exhortation to perswade sillie soules to take that wicked Covenant and to cast a mist before their eyes that they may not onely let downe little gnats but also swallow this great camell they would justifie the doing thereof by a twofold example The first of the Jewes in Ezra's time Ezra 10.5 8. Nehem. 9.38.10.1 that made a Covenant to serve the Lord and to put away their strange Wives according to the law The second of Christians and indeed of most christian Kings and Princes that is of Queene Elizabeth's assisting the Hollanders against the King of Spaine and of King Charles assisting the Rochellers against the King of France To both which examples and all other things that are conteined either in the Covenant it selfe or the exhortation of the Assembly thereunto annexed I doe understand there shall be a full and a perfect answer made by one that hath undertaken the same ex
professo yet give me leave in the interim to say this much First touching Covenants and Vowes it is plaine enough 1. What Vowes and Covenants are allowable that although the superiour may with Ezra cause the inferior to Vow or sweare the performance of his duty that he is bound by the law of God and nature to performe so Abraham caused his servant to sweare fidelity when he sent him for Isaack's Wife And so the King may cause his Subjects to take the Oath of their Alleageance Gen. 24.3 and the lawfull Generall cause his Soldiers to sweare their fidelity unto him yet the inferior subject can not sweare or if he sweares he ought not to observe it when be doth it contrary to the command of him that hath command over him Numb 30. per totum as you may see in Numb 30. throughout Therefore as children may not vow any thing though it be never so lawfull contrary to their fathers command or if they doe they ought not to keepe it so no more may any Subject Vow or make a Covenant contrary to their Kings command or if they doe they ought not to observe it and they are as you see absolved by God himselfe Ob. If you say Ezra and the Jewes did it contrary to the command of Artaxerxes Sol. that was then their King I answer that it is most false for 1. Ezra was the Priest Nehem. 8.2 9. and the chiefe Prince that was then over them and Nehemiah had his authority from the King and he was the Tirshatha that is their governour saith the Text Nehem. 10.1 and therefore they might lawfully cause them to take that Covenant 2. They had the leave and a large commission from Artaxerxes to doe all that they did as you may see * See Ezra 7.11.22 c. neither can you finde any syllable that Artaxerxes forbad them to doe this in any place 3. This Covenant of Ezra and his people and Nehemiah's was to doe those things that they had covenanted before to doe For so the text saith Let it be done according to the Law Ezra 10.3 which God had expressely commanded them to doe and which they could not omit though they had not covenanted to doe it without great offence so if our covenanters sweare they will serve God and be loyall unto their King as they vowed in their baptisme they shall never finde me to speake against them but to propose a lawfull Covenant to doe those things that God commandeth and is made with the leave and commission of the supreme Prince to justifie an unlawfull Covenant to doe those things that were never done before never commanded by God but forbidden both by God and especially by the King in the expressest termes and most energeticall manner that might be is such a piece of Divinity as I never read the like and such an argument a dissimili that never schollar produced the like 2. The examples of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles answered 2. For the examples of Queen Elizabeth King Charles assisting Subjects for their Religion sake against their lawfull Princes two things may be said the one in Divinity the other in Policy 1. By way of Divinity First for Divinity I say vivendum est praeceptis non exemplis we have the sure word of God to teach us what we should doe and no examples unlesse they be either commended or allowed in Gods word ought to be any infallible patterne for us to follow Secondly for Policy 2. By way of Policy which may be justified to be without iniquity I doubt not but those men which knew the secrets of State and were privie to the causes of their actions are able to justifie the proceedings of these Princes in their assistance which perhaps they did not so much simply in respect of their Religion as of some other State policie which we that are so farre from the helme have no reason to prie unto Besides you may know that neither King Charles nor Queen Elizabeth were Subjects to the other Kings but were every way their equall if not more and independent Princes And to bring the actions of such absolute Monarches the one against the other How wickedly they deceive the simple people to justifie the actions of Subjects against their Soveraigne is such Logicke as the other example was divinity Queen Elizabeth did so against the King of Spaine ergo any Subject may do so against his King or rather Queen Elizabeth did that which for ought we know was most lawfull to be done against the King of Spaine ergo the Earle of Essex may doe that which we doe know to be most unlawfull against King Charles This is the doctrine that they teach their Proselytes but that they give this poyson in a golden cup and hide their falshood under a shew of truth but I hope ere long you shall have these things more fully manifested unto you CAP. XX. Sheweth how the rebellious Faction forswore themselves what trust is to be given to them how we may recover our peace and prosperity how they have unkingd the Lords annointed and for whom they have exchanged him and the conclusion of the whole ANd now having committed all these things and much more wickednesse then I though I had the tongue of Angells can expresse I am perswaded many of them seeing the miraculous mercies of our God in protecting and assisting His Majesty farre beyond their thoughts and imaginations doe begin to thinke on peace and accommodation which they presuming on the Kings lenity made sure to themselves whensoever they pleased and indeed dulce nomen paciâ— and the feet of them that bring tydings of peace are more specious then the fairest countenance of aurora Esay 52.7 then the sweet face of Helen Psal 85.10 Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 3. 2 Cor. 2. c. But seeing righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other and the Apostle joyneth grace and peace alwayes together as two deere friends saith S. Aug. so deere that si amicam pacis non amaveris neque te amabit pax ipsa and these men are filled with all unrighteousnesse and have trampled the grace of God and their King under feet and having sworne forsworn themselves over and over as at their baptisme that they would keep Gods commandements whereof this is one to be obedient unto our Kings at their admittance to any office to beare faith and true alleagiance to His Majesty Rom. 13.1 1 Pet. 2.13 at the beginning of this last Parliament to maintaine the Kings just rights and all the priviledges of Parliament How the Rebels swore and forswore themselves together with the liberty and property of the Subjects and yet immediately to forget their faith to breake all these oathes and to make shipwracke of their conscience to drive the Bishops out of their House which is one of the first and most fundamentall priviledges of the