the ninth King of that name in France as for wayfairing men to resist and repell theeves cut-throats and wolves nay further I am saith hee of opinion with the old people of Rome that of all good actions the murther of a Tyrant is most commendable Thus farre hee 1577. Came forth the Vindiciae contra Tyrannos Pag. 206. with this resolution That Princes are chosen by God established by the people every private man is subject to the Prince the Multitude and the Officers of State which represent the Multitude are Superiours to the Prince yea they may judge his actions and if hee make resistance punish him by forcible meanes So farre hee 1584. Danaeus finished his booke of Christian policy wherein among many other hee propoundeth and answereth a Noble question Lib. 3. cap. 6. as hee termeth it Nobilis quaestio sequitur A noble question followeth whether it bee lawfull for subjects to change and alter their Government Yea whether it may bee done by godly men with a good conscience his answer is The chiefe Magistrate that notoriously and wilfully violateth the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome may bee displaced by godly subjects with a good conscience And this is his reason Reges summique Magistratus Kings and chiefe Magistrates are the Vassals of the Kingdome and of the Common-wealth where they rule Wherefore they may bee dispossessed and dejected when they shall obstinatly attempt any thing against the feudall Lawes of the Kingdome where they governe as Kings and chiefe Magistrates And it is truly said that as a generall Councell is above the Pope so the Kingdome or the Peeres of the Land are above the King Thus farre Danaeus 1585 De jure Reg. pag. 31. George Buchanan proclaimed Rewards as well for murthering Kings as killing Tygers If I saith hee had power to make a Law I would command Tyrants to bee transported from the society of men into some solitary place or else to bee drowned in the bottome of the Sea that the evill savour of dead Tyrants should not annoy living men Further more I would award recompence to bee given for the slaughter of Tyrants not onely of all in generall but of every one in particular as men use to reward them for their paines which kill Wolves or Beares and destroy their young ones Haec ille The same yeare Thomas Cartwright commended Dudley Fenners his Sacra Theologia as they call his booke to the World wherein men are warranted by sundry Texts of Scripture most miserably abused to destroy Tyrants Therein hee following the Common opinion of the Puritans maketh two sorts of Tyrants Tirannus sine titulo Lib. 5. cap. 13. pag. 185. and Tirannus exercitio For the Tyrant without title Hee is confident that any man may cut his throat Huic quisque privatus resistet etiam si potest è medio tollat Let every private man resist him and if hee can take away his life For the Tyrant exercent having described him to bee a Prince that doth wilfully dissolve all or the chiefest compacts of the Common-wealth hee concludeth against him Hunc tollant vel Pacifice vel cum Bello qui ea potestate donati sunt ut Regni Ephori vel omnium ordinum conventus publicus The Peeres of the Kingdome or the publique assembly of States ought to destroy him either by peaceable practises or open warre Haecille Anno. 1588. Hermanus Renecherus published observations upon the first Psalme wherein hee investeth the Presbitery with all the Popes Prerogatives Concerning the Presbiterian power over Kings this is his notable annotation God saith hee hath ordained the Civill Magistrate for the good of the Ecclesiasticall order Pag. 72. therefore the Ecclesiasticall State is the highest throne of Gods earthly Kingdome the supreame seate of all excellency and the chiefest Court wherein God himselfe is president to distribute eternall gifts to his servants Whereas the politicall Empire is but as it were an inferiour bench wherein justice is administred according to the prescription of the Ecclesiasticall soveraignty Thus farre Renecherus Robert Rollocke a man otherwise very learned is carried with the current of this errour and borrowed his affertion of Master Fenner whose words hee expoundeth by way of paraphrasis In Daniel cap. 5. pag. 150. in his commentaries on Daniel printed at Edenborough 1591. Though the chiefe lawfull Magistrate saith Master Rollock doe many things unjustly and tyrannously hee may not rashly bee violated by them especially which have not authority but the Nobles or the publike assembly of States must reduce him to his duty by reproofe and all other lawfull meanes 1 Sam. 14.46 If hee doe still persist in open and desperate tyranny wilfully dissolving all or the chiefest compacts of the Common-wealth private men must not yet meddle with him onely the Peeres or the publike assembly of all States to whom that charge belongeth must provide that the Church and Common-wealth come not to desolation though it cannot otherwise bee done then by the death and destruction of the tyrant Better it is that an evill King bee destroyed then the Church and State together ruined Thus farre Rollock For proofe hee referreth his Reader first to the 1 Sam. 14.46 viz. Then Saul came up from the Philistims and the Philistims went to their owne place ergo Kings that are wicked may bee reduced to their duty by the Peeres or assembly of States according to the rules of the new Puritan logicke Secondly for the killing and destroying of Kings hee referreth his Readers to the 2. Reg. cap. 11. verse 4.5.6.7 which place I thinke hee never vouchsafed to looke upon but set it downe as hee found it quoted in Fenners Divinity from whom hee hath taken all the rest I will make an end with William Bucanus whose Booke was published at the request and with the approbation of Beza and Goulartius maine pillars of the Church of Geneva 1602. Loco 76. pag. 844. They saith Bucanus which have any part of office in the publike administration of the Common-wealth as the Overseers Senatours Consuls Peeres or Tribunes may restraine the insolency of evill Kings Thus farre hee This Puritan dangerous errour is directly repugnant to the Law the Gospell the Precepts of the Apostles the practise of Martyrs and the Doctrine of the Fathers Cōuncels and other classicall Writers as I have proved in the six former Chapters and will more directly shew by the grace of God in my other Booke wherein the holy texts of Scripture which the Papists and Puritans doe damnably abuse against the Ecclesiasticall and Civill authority of Kings shall bee answered by the godly Protestants whose labour God used to reforme his Church since the yeare of our Lord 1517. and by the ancient Fathers and Orthodoxall Writers in every age of the Church This Puritan position which authoriseth Nobles and assemblies of States against wicked Kings is the very assertion of the most seditious Iesuites that have lived in our age as
PVRITANO-IESVITISMVS THE PURITAN TVRN'D JESUITE OR RATHER OVT-VYING HIM IN those Diabolicall and dangerous Positions of the Deposition of KINGS from the yeare 1536. untill this present time extracted out of the most ancient and authentick Authours By that Reverend Divine Doctour OVVEN Batchelour of Divinity Shewing their concord in the matter their discord in the manner of their sedition August in Psal 36. Conc. 2. Tunc inter se concordant cum in perniciem justi conspirant non quia se amant sed quia cum qui amandus erat simul oderunt Printed for William Sheares at the signe of the Bible in Covent-garden 1643. To the dutifull Subject THe Puritan-Church-Policy and Iesuiticall Society began together a See M. Hockers preface And the preface of Chemnic before his examen against the first part of the Councell of Trent the one in Geneva 1536 and the other in Rome 1537. since their beginning they have bestirred themselvs busily as hee that compasseth the b Iob 1.7 earth or they that coasted c Mat. 23.15 sea and land each one in his order The Puritan to breake down the wall of Sion by disturbing the peace of the reformed Church the Iesuite to build up the ruines of Babylon by maintaining the abomination of the deformed Synagogne These though brethren in sedition and heady are head-severed the one staring to the Presbyterie and the other to the Papacie but they are so fast linked behind and tayle-tied together with firebrands between them that if they bee not quenched by the power of Majesty they cannot those when the meanes are fitted to their plot but set the Church on fire and the state in an uprore Their many and long Prayers their much vehement preaching and stout opposition against orders established their shew of austerity in their conversation and of singular learning in their profession as the evill fiend transformed into an angel of light brought them first to admiration Wherby they have not only robbed widowes houses under pretence of prayer and ransacked their seduced disciples by shew of devotion but also battered the courts of Princes by animating the Peeres against Kings and the people against the Peeres for pretended reformation And whereas God hath inseparably annexed to the crowne of earthly Majesty a supreme ecclesiasticall soveraignty for the protection of pietie and an absolute immunitie from the judiciall sentence and Martiall violence for the preservation of policy These sectaries bereave Kings of both these their Princely prerogatives exalting themselves as the sonne of perdition above all that is called God 2 Thess 3.4 Lest they might seeme sine ratione insanire to sow the seeds of sedition without shew of reason Caedem faciunt scripturarum as the heretikes in Tertullians time were wont to doe in materiam suam they kill the Scripture to serve their turnes and pervert the holy word of the eternall God by strange interpretation and wicked application against the meaning of the Spirit by whom it was penned the doctrine of the Church to whom it was delivered and the practise of all the Godly as well under the Law as the Gospel that did beleeve understand and obey it to maintaine their late and lewd opinions I have in my hand above forty severall places of the old and New Testament which both the brethren of the enraged opposite faction doe indifferently quote and seditiously apply in defence of their dangerous opposition and damnable error against the Ecclesiasticall supremacy and the indeleble character of Royall inunction Vnto the which places falsly expounded perverted and applyed I haved added the interpretation of the learned Protestants since the time of Martin Luther who began to discover the nakednesse of the Romish Church 1517. More especially insisting in the a K. Henry 8. K. Iames. Th Cranmer Io. Whitgift Ric. Bancroft Arch. of Cant Henry Earle of Northam Robert Earle of Salisbury The L. Burleigh L. Tresurer of England The L. Elsmere Lord Chancellor of England The L. Stafford The L Cook B Iewell B Horne B Pilkington B Elsmere B Couper B Bilson B Babington B Amirewes B Barlow B Bridges D Ackworth D Saravia D Cosens D Sutcliffe D Prythergh D Wilkes D Morton D Tocker M Bekinsaw M Foxe M Nowell M Hooker many others most mighty Kings the most reverend Prelates honourable Lords loyall Clergie and other worthy men that have in the Church of England learnedly defended the Princely right against disloyall and undutifull opponents which by Gods helpe I meane to publish when I have added the exposition of the Fathers to confute the falshood of the Puritan popish-faction and to confirme the truth of the Protestants Doctrine in each particular quotation I protest in all sincerity that I neither have in this treatise nor meane in the other hereafter to be published to detort any thing to make either the cause it selfe or the favourers of it more odious then their owne words published with the generall approbation of their severall favourites doe truly infer and necessarily inforce I hope the loyall subject and Godly affected we accept in good part my endeavour and industry intended for the glory of God the honour of the King and the discoverie of the seditious The displeasure of the male contented factions which can no more abide the truth then the Owles can light or the Franticke the Physician I neither regard nor care for Farewell The Table of the Booke The duty of Prelates Peeres People by Scripture Chap. 1. pag. 1. Fathers of the first 300 yeares cap. 2 pag. 3 second 300 yeares cap. 3 pag. 7 third 300 yeares cap. 4 pag. 18 fourth 300 yeares cap. 5 pag. 21 fifth 300 yeares cap. 6 pag. 26 sedition of Puritans Papists Concord in the matter of sedition cap. 7. p. 31 Discord in the manner of sedition cap. 7. p. 31 Danger of their Doctrine to Prince Peopl cap 8. p. 37. Puritan-Jesuitisme or the generall consent of the principall Puritans and Iesuites against Kings from the yeare 1536. untill the yeare 1602. out of the most authenticke Authors cap 8. p. 40. THE FIRST CHAPTER Proveth by the testimony of Scripture that Kings are not punishable by man but reserved to the judgement of God KIngs have their authority from God a Rom. 13.1 and are his Vicegerents in earth b Prov. 8.15 to execute justice and judgement for him amongst the Sonnes of men c 2 Chron. 19.6 All subjects as well Prelates and Nobles as the inferiour people are forbidden with the tongue to revile Kings d Exod. 22.28 with the heart to thinke ill of them e Eccl. 10.20 or with the hand to resist them f Rom. 13.2 The great King of Heaven doth impart his owne name unto his Lievetenants the Kings of the Earth and calleth them Gods with an ego dixi g Psal 82.6 whose word is Yea and Amen with this onely difference that these Gods shall dye like men h Psal 82.7
and fall like other Princes Wherefore Nathan the man of God must reprove David i 2 Sam. 12.7 that hee may repent and bee saved And the Sages Iudges and Nobles without feare or flattery must advise and direct Roboam k 1 Reg. 12.7 Other attempts against Kings the King of Kings hath neither commanded in his law Apolog. David cap. 10. nor permitted in his Gospell David saith Ambrose nullis legibus tenebatur c. David though hee were an adulterer and an homicide was tied to no law for Kings are free from bonds and can by no compulsion of law bee drawne to punishment being freed by the power of Government Thus farre Ambr. Saul the first King of Israel was rather a monster then a man after the Spirit of God had forsaken him and the evill Spirit was come upon him m 1 Sam. 16.14 There were not many sinnes against God Man or Nature wherein hee trangressed not yet his excesse was punished neither by the Sacerdotall Synod nor the secular Senate Who can lay his hand on the Lords annointed and bee guiltlesse n 1 Sam. 16.9 The very Annointment was the cause of Sauls immunity from all humane coercion as Augustine affirmeth Aug. contr lit Petil. l. 2. 〈◊〉 48. Quaero si non habebat Saul sacramenti sanctitatem quid in eo David venerabatur If Saul had not the holinesse of the Sacrament I aske what it was that David reverenced in him hee honoured Saul for the sacred and holy unction while hee lived and revenged his death Yea hee was troubled and trembled at the heart because hee had cut off a lap of Sauls garment Loe Saul had no innocency and yet hee had holinesse not of life but of unction So farre Augustine Who questioned David for his murther and adultery who censured Solomon for his idolatry though their crimes were capitall by the law of God After that Kingdome was divided all the Kings of Israel and most of the Kings of Iudah were notorious Idolaters yet during those Kingdomes which endured above 200. yeares no Priest did chalenge no States-men did claime power from the highest to punish or depose their Princes And the Prophets perswaded all men to obey and endure those idolatrous Princes whose impiety they reproved with the losse of their lives Christ fled when the people would have made him a King a Joh. 6.15 Hee payed tribute for himselfe and Peter b Matth. 17.27 When the question was propounded concerning the Emperours subsidy hee concluded for Caesar c Matth. 22.21 And standing to receive the judgement of death before Pilate hee acknowledged his power to be of God d Ioh. 19.15 This Saviour of Mankind whose actions should bee our instruction did never attempt to change that Government or to displace those Governours which were directly repugnant to the scope of Information that hee aimed at Iohn Baptist did indeed reprove King Herod with a Non licet e Mark 6.18 but he taught not the souldiers to leave his service or by strife and impatience to wind themselves out of the band of allegiance wherein the law had left them and the Gospell found them f Luk. 3.14 The Apostle delivered unto the Church the doctrine of obedience and patience which they had learned by the precept and observed by the practise of our Lord CHRIST Peter commandeth obedience to all manner of men in authority g 1 Pet. 2.15 Paul forbiddeth resistance against any power h Rom. 13.1.2.3.4 Iudc 8. And Saint Jude maketh it blasphemy to revile government or to speake evill of Governours i. If therefore an Angell from heaven preach otherwise then they have delivered let him bee accursed k Gal. 1.8 The second Chapter proveth the same by the Fathers of the first 300. yeares THe true Church which had the Spirit of understanding to discerne the voice of Christ from the voice of a stranger never taught never practised never used or approved other weapons then salt teares and humble prayers against the Paganisme Heresie Apostacy and Tyranny of earthly Kings Iustinus Martyr Tertullian and Cyprian shall beare witnesse for 300. yeares wherein the Kings and Potentates of the earth bathed themselves in the bloud of innocents and professed enmity against Christ and his servants Ad inquisitionem vestram Christianos nos esse profitemur c. At your inquisition we professe our selves to be Christians though wee know death to bee the guerdon of our profession saith Iustine Martyr to the Emperour Antoninus Secund. Apolog ad Ant. Imp. p. 113. did wee expect an earthly Kingdome wee would deny our religion that escaping death wee might in time attaine our expectation But we feare not persecution which have not our hope fixed on the things of this life because we are certainely perswaded that wee must die As for the preservation of publike peace we Christians yeeld to you O Emperour more helpe and assistance then other men For wee teach that no evill doer no covetous man nor seditious that lieth in wait for bloud can have accesse to God And that every man doth passe to life or death according to the merit of his deeds Thus farre hee We saith Tertullian tō Scapula the Viceroy of Carthage are defamed Tertull. lib. ad Scap. for seditious against the Imperiall Majesty Yet were the Christians never found to be Albinians Nigrians or Cassians Albinus Niger and Cassius were Traytours against Marcus Antonius Commodus Pertinax and Severus the Emperours but they that sware by the Emperours diety the very day before they that vowed and offered sacrifice for the Emperours health are found to be the Emperours enemies A Christian is enemy to no man much lesse to the Emperour knowing that the Emperiall Majesty is ordained of God and therefore necessarily to bee loved reverenced and honoured whose prosperity together with the welfare of al the Roman Empire they desire so long as the world standeth We doe therefore honour the Emperour in such sort as is lawfull for us and expedient for him wee reverence him as a mortall man next unto God of whom hee holdeth all his authority onely subject to God and so wee make him soveraigne overall in that wee make him subject but to God alone So farre Tertullian Saint Cyprian sheweth many good reasons for the patience of the Saints in his booke against Demetrianus God saith hee is the revenger of his servants when they are annoyed Wherefore no Christian when hee is apprehended doth resist or revenge himselfe against your unjust violence though the number of our people bee very great The confidence wee have that God will reward doth confirme our Patience the guiltlesse give way to the guilty the innocent rest content with their undeserved punishment and tortures being certainly assured that the wrong done to us shall not bee unrewarded The more injury we suffer the more just and grievous shall Gods vengeance be on them that persecute us
I will demonstrate by two or three Iohannes Mariana De Regis instit l. 1. c. 6â— whose Booke seemeth to bee written in defence of Clement the Frier who stabbed Henry the third King of France The faults and licentiousnesse of Kings saith Mariana whether they raigne by consent of the people or right of inheritance are to bee borne and endured so long as the Lawes of shamefastnesse and honesty whereto all men bee bound are not violated for Princes should not rashly bee disturbed least the Common-wealth fall into greater misery and calamity But if the Prince make havock of the Common-wealth and expose the private fortunes of his subjects for a pray to other men if hee despise Law and contemne Religion this course must bee taken against him Let him bee admonished and recalled to his duty if hee repent satisfie the Weale-publike and amend his faults there ought as I thinke to bee no further proceeding against him But if there bee no hope of his amendment the Common-wealth may take away his Kingdome And because that cannot bee done in all likelihoode without warre they may levy power brandish their blades against their King and exact money of the people for the maintenance of their warre for when there is no other helpe the Peeres of the Common-wealth having proclaimed their King a publike enemy may take away his life Thus farre Mariana The States-men of the Kingdome saith Franciscus Fevardentius have a soveraigne power over their Kings In Hester c. 1. pag. 88. for Kings are not absolutely established but stand bound to observe lawes conditions and compacts to their subjects the which if they violate they are no lawfull Kings but Theeves and Tyrants punishable by the States Thus farre Fevardentius Inferiour Magistrates saith Iohannes Baptista Ficklerus are the Defenders and Protectours of the Lawes and rights of the State De jure Magist fol. 18. and have authority if need require to correct and punish the supreame King So farre Ficklerus An English fugitive which was the Authour of the booke De justa abdicatione Henrici tertii affirmeth That all the Majesty of the Kingdome is in the assembly of Statesmen to whom it belongeth to make covenants with God to dispose of the affaires of the Kingdome to appoint matters pertaining to warre and peace Lib. 3. cap. 8. to bridle the Kingly power and to settle all things that belong to publique Government So farre hee And the most seditious Dolemon saith Part. 1. cap. 4. pag. 72. that all humane Law and order Naturall Nationall and positive doth teach that the Common-wealth which gave Kings their authority for the Common good may restraine or take the same from them if they abuse it to the Common ill So farre Dolemon and of this opinion are many other as may appeare by Doctor Morton by whom they are discovered and refuted How farre this gangrene will extend I know not The Kings of Christendome are dayly crucisied as CHRIST their Lord was betweene two Theeves I meane the Papist and Puritan which have prepared this deadly poison for Princes whom they in their owne irreligious and trayterous hearts shall condemne for tyranny I hope neither Peeres nor people will bee so fond to beleeve them or wicked to follow them which pretend the Reformation of Religion and defend the subversion of Christian States If inferiour Officers or the publique assembly of all States will claime this power it standeth them upon as they will avoid everlasting damnation not to derive a title from Rome Lacedemon or Athens as Calvin doth whom the rest follow but from the Hill of Sion and to plead their interest from the Law or the Gospell Si mandatum non est praesumptio August in quest mixt ad paenam proficiet non ad praemium quia ad contumeliam pertinet conditoris ut contempto Domino colantur servi spreto Imperatore adorentur Comites If their opposition against Kings bee not commanded of God it is presumption against God for it is a contumely against God the Creatour of all States to despise Lords and honour servants to contemne the soveraigne Emperour and to reverence the Peeres of the Empire So farre Augustine Prov. 24.21 My sonne saith Solomon feare God and the King and meddle not with the seditious for their destruction shall come sodainly and who knoweth the end of them The conclusion of all is That Kings have supreame and absolute authority under God on earth not because all things are subject to their pleasure which were plaine tyranny not Christian soveraignty but because all persons within their Dominions stand bound in Law allegiance and conscience to obey their pleasure or to abide their punishment And Kings themselves are no way subject to the controwle censure or punishment of any earthly man but reserved by speciall prerogative to the most fearefull and righteous judgement of God with whom there is no respect of persons Hee whole servants they are Will beate them with a rod of iron and breake them in peeces like a potters vessell If they abuse that great and soveraign power which God had endued them withall to support error to suppresse truth and to oppresse the innocent God of his great mercy grant us the Spirit of truth to direct us in all loyalty that wee being not seduced by these seditious Sectaries may grow in grace stand fast in obedience embrace love follow peace and encrease more and more in the knowledge of our Lord JESUS CHRIST To whom bee all praise power and dominion now and for ever Amen FINIS