Idolatry nor any other injury or tyranny should move us to rebell 196 CHAP. V. Sheweth by Scripture the Doctrine of the Church humane reason and the welfare of the Weale publique that we ought by no means to rebell A three fold power of every Tyrant Three kinds of Tyrannies The doubtful and dangerous events of Warre Why many men rebell Jehu's example not to be followed 201 CHAP. VI. Sheweth that neither private men nor the subordinate Magistrates nor the greatest Peers of the Kingdom may take arms and make War against their King Buchanan's Mistake discovered and the Anti-Cavalier confuted 207 CHAP. VII Sheweth the reasons and the examples that are alledged to justifie Rebellion and a full Answer to each of them God the immediate Authour of Monarchy inferiour Magistrates have no power but what is derived from the superrour and the ill successe of all rebellious resisting of our Kings 214 CHAP. VIII Sheweth that the Parliament hath no power to make War against our King Two main Objections answered The original of Parliaments The power of the King to call a Parliament to deny what he will and to dissolve it when he will Why our King suffereth 220 CHAP. IX Sheweth the unanimous consent and testimonies of many famous learned men and Martyrs both ancient and modern that have confirmed and justified the truth of the former Doctrine 225 CHAP. X. Sheweth the impudency of the Anti-Cavalier How the Rebels deny they war against the King An unanswerable Argument to presse obedience A further discussion whether for our Liberty Religion or Laws we may resist our Kings and a pathetical Disswasion from Rebellion 230 CHAP. XI Sheweth what these Rebels did How by ten several steps and degrees 1. Pride 2. Discontent 3. Envying 4. Murmuring 5. Hypocrisie 6. Lying 7. Slandering 8. Rayling 9. Disobedience 10. Resistance they ascended to the height of their Rebellion and how these are the steps and the ways to all Râ—bellion and the reasons which move them to rebell 235 CHAP. XII Sheweth where the Rebels do batch their Rebellion The heavy and just deserved punishments of Rebels The application and conclusion of the whole 242 The particular Books that the Authour hath formerly Published and are sold by Phil. Stephens the elder and Phil. Stephens the younger at their Shops in Saint Pauls Church-yard and Fleet-street 1. A Large Book in Folio Intituled The best Religion Comprehending 1. The Resolution of Pilate touching the Super-scription on Christ his Crosse 2. The delights of the Saints which are Grace and Peace 3. The 7. golden Candlesticks holding the 7. greatest lights of Christian Religion videlicet 1. The miseries of man 2. The knowledg of God 3. The Incarnation 4. The Passion 5. The Resurrection 6. The Ascension 7. The duty of Christians of Christ And the Donation or Mission of the holy Ghost 15. Sermons preached before King James and King Charles and at Pauls Crosse and upon several occasions 2. Another large book in Folio Intituled The true Church and divided into six Books 1. Treating of the visibility quality and unity of the Church 2. and 3. Expounding the ten Commandements 4. Shewing the Intention of the Prophets to expound the Law to prophesy of the Gospeâ— 2. The summe of the Gospel which is 1. Justification 2. Sanctification 5. Shewing the sincerity of the Scriptures the uncertainty of Traditions the fruits of Christianity good works the calling of the Gentiles and the gathering of the Jewes 6. Shewing 1. the Governours of Gods Church the Magistrates and Ministers 2. the task of Church-governours and 3. the quality of Christians 3. The great Antichrist revealed never till now discovered and proved to be neither Pope nor Turk but a multitude of most wicked men that have killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ Moses and Aaron Magistrate and Minister King and Priest 4. Seven Treatises to prevent the seven last Vials of Gods wrath that are to be powred down upon the earth 1. The monstrous murder of the most righteous King 2. The Tragedy of Zimri that slew his King and his Master 3. Gods warre with the wicked Traytors Rebels c. 4. The lively picture of these lewd times 5. The properties and Prerogatives of Gods Saints 6. The chiefest duties of every Christian man 7. The true cause why we should love God THE DISCOVERY OF MYSTERIES OR The Plots and Practices of a prevalent Faction in the Long PARLIAMENT To overthrow the established Religion and the well-setled Government of this glorious Church and to introduce a new framed Discipline not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be to set up a new-invented Religion patched together of Anabaptistical and Brownistical Tenets and many other new and old Errors And also To subvert the fundamental Laws of this famous Kingdom by devesting our King of His just Rights and unquestionable Royall Prerogatives and depriving the Subjects of the propriety of their goods and the Liberty of their persons and under the name of the Priviledge of Parliament to exchange that excellent Monarchial Government of this Nation into the Tyrannical Government of a Faction prevailing over the major part of their well-meaning Brethren to Vote and Order things full of all injustice oppression and cruelty as may appear out of many by these few subsequent collections of their Proceedings By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS Lord Bishop of Ossory London Printed for Phil. Stephens the younger 1663. TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAJESTY Most Gracious Sovereign THough the wisest man in all the Kingdom of Persia saith Great is the truth and stronger then all things Yeâ— the father of lies hath now plaid his part so well that as the Prophet saith Truth is fallen in the Street and Equity cannot enter in And your Majesty whom the God of Truth hath anointed his sole Vicegerent to be the Supreme Protector of them both in all your Dominions hath accordingly lifted up your Standard against their Enemies and I may truly say of you as Menevensis saith of that most Noble King Alfred Si modò victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modò victus erat ad crastina bella parabat Neither do I believe that Lucan's Verse can be applied to any man better than to your Majesty Non te vidère superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum adversa videbunt As the height of your glory and prosperity never swelled your Pious heart so your greatest crosses and adversities never dejected your Royal spirit But as the Prophet saith of the Captain of the hoast of the Lord so I say to you that are his Lieftenant Ride on with your honor or ride prosperously Because of the word of truth of meekness and righteousness the people shall be subdued unto you and because the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in the mercy of the most Highest he shall not miscarry especially while he fighteth as he doth the battail of the Lord in defence of the Church of Christ who hath promised to be his
themselves to the observation of the established Laws for seeing Christ biddeth that the tares should grow Matth. 13. 30. And the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there must be heresies therefore there must be a toleration of divers Sects 1 Cor. 11. 19. Four special sorts of false Professors 1. Jewes Whitak against Campian translated by Master Stoke p. 311. With what cautions the Jewes are to be suffered all men are not of the same faith nor do profess the same Religion and it is the nature of all men to dislike that which themselves will not profess and if opportunity serve to root out that which they dislike it is requisite it should be shewed how far a prudent and a pious Prince may grant a toleration the Law in terminis not forbidding it unto any of these Sects that may be commorant within his Kingdomes Touching which I say that besides dissembling hypocrites and prophane worldlings that have no faith nor any other Religion but the shadow of that Religion whatsoever it is which is profest wheresoever they are there may be in any Kingdome Jewes Turkes Papists Puritans and the like or to call them otherwise Idolaters Hereticks Schismatickes c. And 1. For the Jewes though they have many things in their Religion which will ever alienate them from the Papists yet they have free leave to use their ancient Ceremonies in Rome saith Doctor Whitaker and it is well known that many pious Princes have permitted them to dwell and to exercise their own Religion in this kingdome the old Jury in London is so called because it was allotted for their abode and the Lawes of many Christian Emperours have in like sort permitted them to do the like in their Dominions but with those cautions and limitations that Moses prescribed unto the Jewes to be observed with the Heathens and Idolaters that dwelt amongst them that is neither to make marriages with them nor to communicate with them in their Religion And Saint Augustine is reported to be so favourable towards them that he alleadgeth several reasons for their toleration As 1. That above and before others they had the promise of salvation and Deut. 7. 3. Exod. 23. 32. Doctor Covel c. 14. p. 199. 1 Reason for their toleration Rom. 11. 24 25. 2 Reason Psal 59. 11. therefore though some of the branches be cut off and the case of the rest be most lamentable yet not altogether desperate and incurable if we consider what the Apostle sotteth down of their conversion and re-unition unto the good right olive tree 2. That the Prophet David speaking of them made that prayer unto God Slay them not O Lord lest my people forget it but scatter them abroad among the Heathen and put them down O Lord our defence for many excellent ends as first that their being scattered among the Christians might shew both the clemency and severity of God towards us mercy and clemency and towards them justice and severity which may likewise happen unto us if we take not heed as the Apostle bids us Be not high minded but fear and secondly that being among Rom. 11. 20. We may not force the Jews to beleive the Christians they might the sooner at all times by their charity and prayers be reduced the more willingly to imbrace the faith of Christ when as unwillingly we may neither compel them nor take their children to be baptized from them And therefore as the Princes of this Realm for divers causes hurtful to their State have banished them out of their Dominions so if they see good cause to permit them as time may change the condition of things they may do as by their counsel they shall be advised either the one or the other to receive them or reject them without offence because we finde no special precept or direction in Gods Word either to banish or to cherish them in any kingdome 2 Turkes 2. For the Turks the reasons are not much unlike though something different and in my judgement no less tolerable then the other because somewhat nearer to the Christian faith therefore I leave them to the Laws of each kingdome to do as the wisedome of the Prince shall think fit 3 Papists 3. For the Papists the case is far otherwise with them then either with the Turks or Jews because 1. They profess the same faith quoad essentialia the same Creeds the same Gospel and the same Christ as we do 2. It is not denyed by the best of our Divines but that they together with us do constitute the same Catholick Church of Christ though they be sick and corrupted yet not dead and we strong and sound yet not unspotted members of the same as I have more fully shewed in my book of the true Church 3. It is not agreed upon by all our Divines that they are Idolaters though they be in great errours and implunged in many superstitions because every Church in errour though never so dangerous is not so desperate as that Church which is Idolatrous or be it granted which some of our Protestants will not admit that they were Idolaters yet seeing not onely seaven speciall sorts of Carol. Sigon l. 5. c. 11. p. 274. heresies as 1. the Sadducees 2. the Scribes 3. the Pharisees The Hemero-baptists such as baptized themselves every day 5. The Esseni which Josephus calleth Essaei 6. The Nazarites And 7. the Herodians whereof some demed the resurrection and the being of Angels and spirits but also Idolaters and heathens that knew not God but worshipped the Devill instead of God were not inhibited to dwell and inhabit among the Jewes of whose Religion notwithstanding God was as carefull to preserve the purity of it and as jealous to keep them from Idolatry as of any Nation that then or ever after lived upon the earth it is no question but if it please the King permission may be granted them to exercise their own Religion not publickely and authoritativè equally with the Protestant but quietly and so as I have shewed in my Grand Rebellion for I Grand Rebell c. 1. p. 5. 6. am not of their faith which hold it more safe and less dangerous to be conversant with the Turkes or Jewes and to have more neerness with them then with an Idolatrous Church that professeth Christ because that where the greater distance is from the true Religion there the lesser samiliarity and neerenesse should be in conversation and the greater distance in communion therefore as the wrath of God was kindled against the Israelites because they had the Jewes their own brethren in greater detestation then the Idumeans or the Egyptians whose idolatry must needs be far greater and their Religion far The least familiarity in conversation where there is greatest distance from truth worse in their own judgement then that of the Jewes so we may feare the like anger from God if we will be so partiall in our judgement and so
and all other Kings and Princes would do the like 2 How Christ dealt with the Temple when it was prophaned Matth. 21. 12 13. 2. When our Saviour found such gross abuses in the Temple so that they had made the House of God a den of thieves yea Sacrilegious thieves yet he doth not offer to pull down the Temple and to turn it to Prophane uses though they had prophaned it or transfer it to build them houses as our men do with the ruines of Gods House or to take away the lands tythes and revenues of those Priests by whose neglect and default the Holy Temple became thus grossly abused either to maintain their lawfull Wars or to continue their unlawfull delights but he dealeth better and taketh away the abuse by driving away the buyers and sellers out of the Temple and out of the Courts of the Lords House and overthrowing the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold Doves and so he restored the House of Prayer to its old use and Pristine Dignity to be a fit House for Gods service and so should we restore things abused to their old and good former use and not take them to our selves or give them away to others 3. Reason it self teacheth us to take this course and to distinguish betwixt 3. What Reason teacheth us in this case of good things abused that fault which proceedeth ex natura facti out of the nature of the fact and that which springeth ex abusu boni from the abuse of that which is good for if the thing be simply evil no circumstance no dispensation can make it good and therefore it should be wholly rejected and abolished because as Aristotle saith Cujus usus simpliciter malus est ipsum Arist Topic. 1. Siusus principalis alicujus rei sit mortifer mortiferam quoque rem ipsam efficiet quodque malum esse necesse est that thing whose use is simply evil must needs be likewise evil of it self but if the fault be not in the thing it self but advenâ—iâ—ioâ—s in usu agentis in the use or rather in the abuse of the agent then certainly the thing it self as being good ought to be retained and the abuse only is to be removed or amended And therefore the endowing of Gods Church with means to maintain Gods service or the giving of our goods to the use of Gods Worship whether it be praying to him or preaching to his people or relieving his Navar. Enchiâ—id c. 14. members being not only simply good but also most excellently good both commanded and commended by God himself it is a Maxime even in nature Things once dedicated to God may not at any time by any body be aliâ—nated from the Church and confirmed by meer reason that Semel Deo dicatum non est ad usus humanos ulterius transferendum that which is once given and dedicated for and to Gods service which is a service acceptable to God ought not afterwards by any means be any more transferred to mans uses because as Plato saith Quae rectè data sunt â—ripi non licet those things that are well given ought not to be taken back again and because as the Fathers say Bis Dei sunt quae sic Dei sunt God hath in all dedicated things that are given to uphold his service a double right and interest 1. As his own Creatures and gift given to man And 2. As in a thankfull acknowledgment of Gods goodness the gift of man back again to God which twofold cord tieth them so strong that this sin deserves no less than the heavy curse of Anathema for any one not consecrated to do the service of God to challenge them and to take them away from Gods service and the donors first institution whereupon not only 6. Decret de reg juris Plato Phileb 1 Chron. 29. 14. Plin. 2. Ep. l. 10. Epist 74 75. the Divines but also the Philosophers and Canonists have concluded that Si facta aedes sit licet collapsa sit jam religio tamen ejus occupavit locum If an house be once dedicated to God though afterwards it should fall down and be utterly demolished so that the ruines of it could scarce be seen yet the soil and ground of it is still holy and religious and not to be imployed to any civill or prophane uses And therefore I say that those men which have or do or shall under the colour of Reforming the Church and the pretence of any law rob the Church and deprive either the Bishops or Ministers of their houses lands or tythes or any other portion which hath been given to the Church and for the service of God are Thieves and Sacrilegious thieves be they who you will and their pretences what they will And here I must tell you that I find two sorts of men that may be questioned Two sorts of men guilty of Sacriledge under pretence of law for being guilty of this sin of Sacriledge 1. The Spirituall-men the Bishops and other Priests the Ministers of Gods Church that have made away the lands houses and goods of the Church 2. The Lay-Princes Lords and Gentlemen and others that take away the goods lands and houses of the Church and all as both these sorts of men pretend by the right and benefit of the Law and therefore no waies offending and so not to be taxed for any Sacriledge But to discuss these points and to find out the truth I say that although the Pope be not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist that was expected to come into the Church as I have fully shewed in my book de Antichristo yet I doubt not but that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Sacrilegus and the chiefest Sacrilegious person that ever these Kingdoms saw as hereafter I shall more fully declare unto you Next I say that others Bishops and Priests especially of his Church 1 Spirituall men Sacrilegious and how may be as indeed many of them have been very Sacrilegious and robbers of the Church of Christ as when they let out either by Lease or fee-farm to their children friends or for fine the lands houses or any other goods and possessions of the Church to the loss and prejudice of the Church and to disinable their successors to discharge their duties and the service of God as they ought to do But they will say with St. Paul that Where no Law is there is no transgression Obj. Rom. 4. 15. and there was no Law to inhibite them to lease out their lands to whom they would nay the Law gave them leave and impowred them to do it and therefore no Sacriledge nor offence in them in all that they did when they did nothing but according to Law I answer that the Human law must not intrench nor can infringe the Sol. law of God nor any waies allow the thing that should prejudice the service of
publick places to 3 Our devotion and zeal are more and more strengthned in the publick Congregation serve God doth sharpen the edge and as it were give life and strength to every particular mans devotion for when through the frailty of our flesh our spirit waxeth dull and our zeal beginneth to grow slâ—ggish to perform these Holy duties the fervor that we see in the rest of the Congregation will mightily serve to stir up our thoughts and to quicken our devotion to sail along with our brethren to the conclusion of those godly exercises 4. As every particular man is bettered and much furthered in his devotion 4. They are helped by the good examples of others and service of God by the good examples that all the Congregation doth shew unto him so the whole company that considereth it is not a litle damnified and offended at the way wardness and neglect of those particular persons that come not unto the publick service of God and so whereas the neglect of our private devotion is only hurtfull to our selves our refusall or remissness to come to the publick exercises of our Religion doth prejudice many and gives offence to the whole Church and you know what our Saviour saith Woe to that man by whom offence cometh and therefore Matth 18. 7. woe to him that despiseth the publick exercises of Gods Church and refuseth to come unto them And for the preventing of this woe and the rest of the reasons formerly shewed the Prophet David did so earnestly desire to praise the Lord in the Psal 26. 12. Congregations yea in the great Congregations and among much people and so affectionately to say One thing have I desired of the Lord which I Psal 3â— 18. will require even that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the Psal 27. 4. daies of my life to behold 〈◊〉 fair beauty of the Lord and to visite his Temple And therefore seeing it is so necessary that the people of God should publickly meet and be gathered together to serve God it is most requisite and necessary there should be Cathedralls and Parochiall Churches for them to meet in for to do the publick service of God But against this it may be objected that the necessity of publick meetings Obj. and the benefits that may be reaped from those Assemblies rather then from any private serving of God doth no waies prove the necessity of having Cathedralls and materiall Churches because the presence of a company of Christian people wheresoever Assembled and the offices of Religion as Preaching Prayer and Administring the Sacraments performed makes the meeting publick and the peoples exercising these duties makes them to be a Church of God As the presence of the Prince and his followers maketh any mans private house to be the Kings Court. To this Objection I have fully and very largely answered in my second Sol. book of the Great Anti-Christ revealed pag. 84. deinceps And therefore I shall referr my Reader thither to be fully satisfied yet here I say that it is not the Assembly or the popular conflux of a multitude of men or the duties that they do though they be the very duties of Religion that makes the meeting lawfully publick or the place of Gods publick service but it must be a Convention and a gathering together of the people into such a place that is assigned and Consecrated for Gods publick service which makes the publick meeting justifiable and lawfull otherwise it is but a private conventicle altogether unlawfull though it should consist of never so great a company of men unless it be as it was in the Apostles time in the daies of persecution or that the people have such lawfull lets and hinderances to come to the Consecrated place of Gods service as I have set down in the book afore-cited At all other times the publick service of God must be performed in a publick Consecrated place as it is meet the Holy service should be done in a Holy place and you must know that the ubiquity of Gods presence in every place makes not all places alike sacred even as the Lord sheweth unto Moses when he bids him to pull off Exod. 3. 15. his shoes from his feet because the place where thou standest is Holy ground for the presence of God is either 1. Ordinary or The presence of God twofold 2. Extraordinary And as the extraordinary works of God have distinguished the times to make some times more Holy then other so the extraordinary presence of God hath sanctified some places more then others and the place that he Sanctifieth with his most speciall presence is the place which he appointeth to his servants for their publick meeting to do his service and he hath not left it in the liberty of every man to run at random to serve the Lord where he pleased but as he designed the time when they should serve him so he appointed the place where they should come to serve him And so Adam in that short time which he had in Paradise wanted not a place appointed no doubt and usuall to stand before the Lord and to Communicate with him and the sons of Adam being out of Paradise knew the Gen. 3. 8. place where God appointed and expected they should repair to offer their Sacrifices and oblations unto him and so the Lord tells the Children of Israel that they should not discharge their duties and perform his service in any place that they pleased but they should seek the place which the Lord Deut. 12. 5. 14. their God should choose out of all their Tribes to put his name there to dwell and there they should come with their oblations and offerings to serve him And so when the Israelites had quite vanquished the Canaanites and subdued the Philistines and the other their enemies round about and as the Text saith given rest unto his people the time was come that the Lord God thought fit to choose the place to put his name there and where all the people should publickly meet to do him service and the Lord marked out Jerusalem for himself and in Jerusalem he chose Mount Moriah the very 2 Chron. 6. 7. place where Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac to be a standing and a permanent place for his name saying This shall be my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have a delight therein and there David now resolveth to build his Temple to be a Cathedrall and the Metropolitan Church for the High Priest to offer Sacrifice and burnt Offerings unto God and for the rest of the people there publickly to meet to serve the Lord and his heart was mightily inflamed with zeal and desire to do it but the Lord accepted of his resolution and by Nathan his Prophet told him that because he was a man of War and had shed much blood and his Church must not have her foundation
benefit so he will be as graciously pleased we shall forgoe them and exchange them when we find it for our benefit and the benefit of his Church and Service which in all our bargains and commerce we ought chiefely to regard because we are but Gods Stewards for the service of his Church and so whatsoever our Religion and our Ancestors have honoured God withal we must imploy not so much for our own best advantage as for that which maketh most for Gods honor And therefore we that are instructed with the inheritance of the Church and portion of Jesus Christ must not make such bargains for our Master as Glaucus made for himself when he changed his golden Armour for brazen furniture neither must we deal with the Church of Christ as Rehoboam did with the Temple of Solomon when he took away all the shields of 1 Reg. 14. 26 27. gold and made in their steed shields of brass but what bargain or covenant soever we make without sin for the greater glory unto God and greater good unto the Church we hold it good with whomsoever the same is made CHAP. XIX That it is the duty of all Christian Kings and Princes to do their best endevours to have all the Impropriations restored to their former Institution to hinder the taking away and the alienation of the Lands Houses and other the Religious Donations of our Ancestors from the Church of Christ and to suppress and root out all the Vnjust and Covetous suttle customs and frauds that are so generally used and are so derogatory to the service of God from amongst the people and especially from this Kingdom of Ireland where most corruption is used and most need of Instruction unto the people THus you have heard how that Cathedrals and other Parochial Churches should be built and beautified for the Honor of God Godly Bishops and Preachers should be placed in them for the Service of God and then the allowance that God hath appointed should be given and yielded unto them for their maintenance And now because the Lands Houses Tythes and Hereditaments of the Church which the Lord God hath granted and the godly Emperours pious Kings and zealous Professors have given and dedicate for Gods service are in these dismal daies snatched away by the hands of Hacksters and haters of Religion and alâ—enated by the Souldiers that divide Christ his garments amongst them from the true servants and Ministers of Christ who should be very thankful unto these Souldiers as they often say that we have any thing left unto us For as the Orator â—elleth the grave Senators of Rome of an audacious fellow called Fimbria that stabbed Quintus Scaevola an honest man at the funerals of Caius Marius and then boasted of the great favour Cicerâ— in Orat pro Roscio â—merino that he shewed to him Quòd non totum telum in ejus corporâ— absconderat That he had not thrust his dagger wholly to the Hilt into his body but only gave him a slight stab that was sufficient to kill him So these brood of Fimbria having seized upon a great part of the Houses Lands and Patrimony of the Church and still detayning them Per fas nefas in their own hands do labour to get more and think the favour that they have done us deserveth no small thanks that they brought or left to us what we have and have not deprived us of all together Therefore Covetousness Injustice and the love of this World being so deeply grounded and setled in the hearts of our Demas's and this Epidemical disease of taking and detaining the Churches right being as one saith just like the Kings-evil which no Physitian but the King himself will serve to heal it Our address must be unto his Majesty to supplicate that he would be graciously pleased to interpose his Royal Command to stop the current of these intruders into Gods right and to cause the Restitution of the Church-goods to be made unto the Church And among the rest of the injuries done by these Mâ—litary * I speak of the Souldiers because either the Souldiers of that Parliament or of Crumwel oâ— his Majesty have almost all the Kingdom of Ireland and â—o fill the House of Lords and the House of Commons and are the chief men in every place So that nothing can be done either in Parliament City or Countrey but what they will have done because they are the Major Party and so can Out-vote all the rest and therefore Ireland being now Regnum Militum This my discourse cannot be Gratum opus agricolis but Ingratum miliâ—ibus which is all one to me if you consider what I say in the latter end of this book and that I fear not what they say of me Quia nec mâ—lior sum si laudaverâ—nt nec deterior si vituperaverint men to the Church of God there is one great Abuse which is generally used and practised here in Ireland by the rich proprietors and possessors of Lands and Town-ships to the abundant detriment and loss of the Ministers and to the hazard and danger if not the destruction of many I know not how many souls and that is when the Gentleman proprietor that holds all or most of the Parish in his own hands if he be offended with his Minister and cannot have the Tythes as he pleaseth himself he can make the Rectory or Vicaridge that might be well worth fifty or sixty pounds per annum to be scarce worth ten pound a year or nothing for he will leave all his ground unplowed and turne it to pasture and so bring a dearth through the scarcity of Corn in the Common-Wealth and then he will buy young Bullocks and fils his Lands with dry Cattle whereof their Religious Lawyers of whom Dr. Gardiner †Dr. Gardiner in his Scourge of Sacâ—â—ledge saith that he never heard yet at any hand of any good that they have Prophesied unto the Church tels them their custome will preserve them from the payment of any Tythes and so they bring a spiritual dearth and a famine of Gods Word unto the rest of the poor parishioners when for want of sufficient maintenance they shall want a sufficient Minister that is able to give them any Instruction because as the Poet saith Nulla illis captetur gloria quaequâ— Ovid. trist lib. 5. Ingenii stimulos subdere fama solet And the benefit that these worldlings reap by this lawless impious and wicked Custome to pay no Tythes for their dry Bullocks nor any thing to God for the fruits of their ground is one main reason why the Minister's part of six or seven Parishes doth scarce amount to twenty pounds per annum as I have formerly shewed in my Reâ—onstrance to his Majesty and I conceive it likewise to be a special Reason why the poor simple Iâ—ish Papists have so many Popish Priests amongst them for want of Protestant Priests for that want of sufficient maintenance
Recusants and Papists and such as may be for the Glory of God and the peace of our Church which was our sole intention in the last Synod But seeing their Plot was rather to establish a new Church than to redress the defects of the old and to countenance and advance those boute-fues that schismatically rent our Church in pieces and most wickedly deâ—ile the pure Doctrine of the same by degrading and displacing the grave Governours thereof I will to give you a taste of what fruit you are like to reap from them very briefly set down the sum of these two points 1. What they have already done Two points handled 1. What they have already done in the Affairs of our Church 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. 1. Opened a gap ta all licenciousness 2. What Discipline and Doctrine are like to ensue if they should be enabled or permitted to erect their new Church for as you may find it in the Remonstrance of the Commons of England to the House of Commons 1. Under colour of Regulating the Ecclesiastical Courts Courts that have been founded by the Apostles and had alwaies their Authority and Reverence among Christians even before the Secular power when the Emperours became Christians had confirmed them they have taken away in respect of the coercive part thereof which is the life of the Law and without which the other part is fruitless all the Spiritual jurisdiction of Gods Church they have taken away Aarons rod and would have only Manna left in Gods Ark so that now the crimes inquirable and censurable by those Courts though never so heinous as Adultery Incest and the like cannot be punished Heresies and Schisms which now of late have abounded in all places can no waies be Reformed and the neglect of Gods service can as hardly be repaired when as the Ministers cannot be enforced to attend their Cures the Church-officers cannot be compelled to perform their duty and the Parishioners cannot be brought by our Law to pay their Tythes and other necessary Duties which things are all so considerable that all Christians ought to â—ear how lamentable will be the end of these sad beginnings for my self have seen the House of God most unchristianly prophaned the Church-yard and the dead bodies of the Saints so rooted and miserably abused by Hogs and Swine that it would grieve meer men that scarce ever heard of God to see such a barbarous usage of any holy place and when the Ministers have given a seven-nights warning to prepare for the blessed Eucharist and the Communicants came to partake of those holy mysteries they were fain to return home without it for want of Bread and Wine to administer it and yet now the Church Governours have not any power to redress any of these abominable abuses 2. Under shew of Reforming the Church Discipline and bettering the 2. Voted down all the Governours of Gods Church Government thereof they have voted down those very Governours the Bishops and their Assistants the Deans and Chapters whose function was constituted by the Apostles and hath from that time continued to this very day As the most Learned Arch-Bishop of Armagh Bishop Hall Master Mason Master Tayler and that worthy Gentleman Master Theyer and others have sufficiently shewed to all the World 3. Under the pretence of expunging Popery which Bishop Jewel Bishop 3. Vilified out Service-book Parry Bishop Babington Bishop Bilson Bishop Morton Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall and abundance more of the Reverend Bishops have confuted expelled and kept out of our Church more than any yea than all their schismatical Disciples whose Learning was no waies able to answer the weakest Arguments of our Adversaries the Service Book that is established by Act of Parliament and was by those holy Martyrs that lost their lives and spilt their blood in defence of the protestant Religion and defiance of Erroneous Popery so Divinely and devoutly composed as all the Reformation can bear witness and I am well assured the whole flock of these Convocants shall never be able without this to make any neer so pious must be totally cried down and hath been in many places burned used to the uncleanest use and teared all to pieces And to let you see their abomination herein I must crave patience to transcribe that it may the more generally pass the Speech of Alderman Garraway Aldâ—rman Garraway p. 7. where he saith pag. 7. Did not my Lord Maior that is Pennington first enter upon his Office with a Speech against the Book of Common Prayer Hath the Common Prayer ever been read before him Hath not Captain Ven said that his Wife could make prayers worth three of any in that Book O Masters There have been times that he which should speak against the Book of Common-Prayer in this City should not have been put to the patience of a Legal-Trial we were wont to look upon it as the greatest treasure and the Jewel of our Religion and he that should have told us he wished well to our Religion and yet would have taken away the Book of Common-Prayer would never have gotten credit I have been in all the parts of Christendome and have conversed with Christians in Turkey why in all the Reformed Churches there is not any thing of more Reverence than the English Liturgy not our Royal Exchange nor the Navy of Queen Elizabeth is so famous as this in Geneva it self I have heard it extolled to the skies I have been three months together by Sea and not a day without hearing it read twice the honest Mariners then How the Mariners esteem the Liturgy despised all the World but the King and the Common-Prayer Book he that should be suspected to wish ill to either of them should have made but an ill voyage and let me tell you they are shrewd Youths those Sea-men if they once discern that the person of the King is in danger or the Protestant professed Religion they will shew themselves mad bodies before you are aware of it I would not be a Brownist or an Anabaptist in their way for And yet these men have so basely abused and are so violent to abolish this excellent Book and Divine Liturgy that Many will not believe it though it should be told unto them I would they did but read that Act of Parliament which is prefixed unto the same to see if they regarded either the Law of God or Man the Religion of the Clergy that composed it or the Wisdom of the Parliament that confirmed it 4. Under colours to shew their hatred to Idolatry they have broken 4. Abused the images and pictures of the Saints and other holy things down the glass Windows of many Churches shot off the heads of the Images of the Blessed Virgin and of our dear Saviour represented in her lap upon the porch of Saint Maries in Oxford thrown away the Pictures of Christ and of other his Holy Apostles and Gods blessed Saints
Saint Augustine saith that if they who do bear Rule in Democracy do corrupt justice a good powerfull man may lawfully change that Democraticall government into an Aristocraticall or Monarchical but you shall never finde it in any Christian Authour that any man be he never so good never so powerfull may lawfully upon any occasion or pretence change the Monarchy into an Aristocracy or Democracy because it is lawfull for us to reduce things from the worst and remotest state to the better and the nearer to the original forme but not from the better to a worser and remoter from its original institution which is then soundest when it is nearest to its first ordination 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 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 Kingdoms 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 Monarchy 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 principal Ordinance of God For 1. Though Master Selden saith that naturally all men in oeconomick rule 1. Reason Selden in his Titles of Honour lib. 1. being equally free and equally possest of superiority in those ancient propagations of mankinde even out of Nature it selfe and that inbred sociableness which every man hath as his character of civility a popular sâ—ate first raised it selfe which by its own judgement afterward was converted into a Monarchy and in the fourth page of his Book rejecteth the opinion of great Philosophers that affirm with Saint Austin the first of the three Governments to be a Monarchy and affirmeth possitively that the Monarchy hath its original out of a Democracy as Aristocracy 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 Monarchy must needs be before either Aristocracy or Democracy and where citing Pausanias that In Booeticorum initio saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Monarchy an cienter then any other Government All Greece was anciently under Kings and no Democracies he is driven to confess pag. 5. that a family being in Nature before a publick ociety or Common-Wealth was an exemplary Monarchy and in that regard Monarchy is to be acknowledged ancienter then ary other state and so noâ— oâ—ey the Orthodoxal people but the Pagan also had this notion thereof by the instinct of Monarchicall government most agreeable to Nature Nature for the Cappadocians being vanquished by the Romans did instantly request them to give them a King protesting that they were not otherwise able to maintain themselves and so most otheâ— 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 Monarchy founded in Nature that the Laws of Nature lead us to a Monarchy as when among all Creatures both animate and inanimate we do always finde one that hath the preheminence above all the rest of his kinde as among the Beasts the Lion among the Fowls the Eagle among Grains the Wheat among Drink the Wine among Spices the Baulme among the Planets the Sun and all the best Divines conclude the Monarchicall government to be the most lively image and representation Consonant to the Divine government of the divine regiment and government of God who as sâ—le Monarch ruleth and guideth all things and therefore we finde all the Nations of greatest renown lived under the Royal Government as the Sâ—ythians Aethiopians Indians Assyrians Medes Aegyptians Bactrians Armâ—nians Macedonians Jews and Romans first and last and at this day the most famous people live under this forme as the English French Spaniards Pâ—lonians Danâ—s The Government of the most famous Nations Monarchicall Summo dulcius unum stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis Statius Thebaid 1. Muscovites Tartars Turks Abissines Moores Agiamesques Zagathinians Cathaians yea and the Salvage people lately discovered in the West Indies as being guided thereto by the rules of Nature do all of them in a manner live under the Government of Kings and I beleive the Apostle doth specially mean the Regal Government though he speaketh plurally of poweâ—s 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 â—all out and fight which of them should bear it when one Sword can never be well guided by many hands and therefore I think it is a madness 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 himself and most profitable unto men and to affect a late new invented government full of all dangers and inconveniences A family is a small kingdom and a kingdom a great family Therefore it is apparent that Monarchie is the first Ordinance of all governments a family being nothing else but a small Kingdome wherein the patâ—rfamilias had Regal power potestatem vitae 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 sons and a Kingdom being nothing else but a great family where the King hath paternal power and more then 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 plain unto the World I would fain know of these Democratical men their Democracy and Aristocracy had their being and came first in use 1. When 2. How I have shewed the age of Monarchy to be from Adam primâ—que ab origine mundi Ad mea perpetuum deduxi tempora Regem And I cannot remember that any Democracy or Aristocracy was in all the Assyrian When Aristocracies and Democracies began Monarchy which notwithstanding lasted above a thousand years 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 historiis And for the Democracy of Rome Titus Livius sheweth
the Church where it forbiddeth the Bishops to reiterate baptisme to paint or grave on earth the Image of our Saviour L. 1. tit 5. L. 1. tit 7. Novel 123. c. 10. Novel 58. Novel 137. c. 6. And in the Novels the Emperour ordaineth Lawes of the creation and consecration of Bishops that Synods should be annually held that the holy mysteries should not be celebrated in private houses that the Bishops should speak aloud when they celebrate the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Eucharist and that the holy Bible should be translated into the vulgar tongue and the like And not onely these and the rest of the godly Emperours that succeeded them but also Ariamirus Wambanus Richaredus and divers other Kings of Spaine did in like manner And Charlemaigne who approved not the decisions of the Greekish Synod wrote a book against the same * Intituled A Treatise of Charlemaigne against the Greekish Synod touching Images whereby the King maintained himself in possession to make Lawes for the Church saith Johannes Beda of which Lawes there are many in a book called The capitulary Decrees of Charles the Great who as Pepin his predecessour had done in the City of Bourges so did he also assemble many Councils in divers places of his Kingdoms as at Mayns at Tours at Reines at Chaalons at Arles and the sixt most famous of all at Francfort where himself was present in person and condemned the errour of Felician and so other Kings of France and the Kings of our own Kingdom of England both before and after the Conquest as Master Fox plentifully recordeth did make many Lawes and Constitutions for the government of God's Church But as Dioclesian that was neither the best nor the happiest governour said The saying of â—â—oclesian most truly of the civil government that there was nothing harder then to râ—le well * That is to rule the Common-wealth so it is much harder to govern the Church of Christ therefore â—s there cannot be an argument of greater wisdome in a Prince nor any â—hiâ—g of greater safety and felicity to the Common-wealth then for him to make â—hâ—ice of a wise Council to assist him in his most weighty affaires saith Cornâ—lius Tacitus Tacitus Annâ— lib. 12. So all religious Kings must do the like in the government of the Church and the making of their Lawes foâ— that government foâ— God ouâ— of his great mercy to them and no less desire to have his people religiously governed left such men to be theiâ— supporters their helpers and advisers in the performance of these 〈◊〉 and â— pray you whom did Kings chuse for this business but whom Gâ—â— â—ad oâ—dâ—ned for that purpose for you may observe that although those Christian King and Emperours made their Lawes as having the supremacy and the 〈◊〉 â—â—r of 〈◊〉 â—eligion committed by God into their hands yet they dâ—d never make them that ever I could read with the advice counsel or direction of any of â—heir Peers or Lay Subjects but as David had Nathan and Gâ—◠〈◊〉 had Daniel and the rest of the Jâ—wish Kings and The good Kings Emperours made their Lawes for the government of the Church onely by the advâ—ce of their Clergy A good Law of Iâ—stinian Constit 123. Heathens had their Prophets onely and Priests to direct them in all matters of religion so those Chrâ—stian Kings and Princes took their Bishops and their Clergâ—e â—nâ—ly to be their counsellors and directors in all Church causes as it appeareth out of all the 〈◊〉 Authors and all the Histories that do write thereof and Justinian pâ—blishâ—d this Law that when any Ecclesiastical cause or matter was moved his Lay officers should not intermeddle with it but should suffer the Bishops to end the same according to the Canons the words are Si Ecclesiastâ—â—â—m negotium sit nullam communionem habento â—iviles magistratus cum â—a disceptatione sed religiosâ—ssimi Episcopi secundum sacros canones negotio finem imp nuntâ— â—or the good Emperour knew sull well that the Lay Senate neither â—nderstood what to determine in the points of faith and the government of Christ's Church nor was ever willing to do any great good or any special favour unto the Shepherds of Christ's flock and the â—eachers of the true religion because the Son of God had foâ—e-told it that the world should hate us that secular men and Lay Senatours should commonly oppose cross and shew all the John 15 19. Matth. 10. 16. spite they can unto the Clergy of whom our Saviour saith Behold I send you forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sheep in the midst of wolves Whence this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great distance between their dispositions being observed it grew into a Proverb that Laici semper infesti sunt Clericis And Doctour Meriton In a Sermon before King James observed this as one of the good savours the How the Laity love the Clergy A very memorable act Anno 39 Eliz. cap. 4. Clergie of England found from our Parliaments since the reformation when many men first began to be translated from the seat of the scornefull to sit in Moses chaire aâ—d to prescribe Lawes for Christ his Spouse to make an Act that all wandering beggars after their correction by the Constable should be brought to the Minister of the Paâ—ish to have their names registred in a Book and the Constable used to give to the Minister 2d for his paines for every one so registred but if he refused or neglected to do it the Statute saith he should be punished sive shillings for every one that should be so omitted where besides the honourable office I will not say to make the Minister of Christ a Bedle of the Beggars but a Register of the vagrants you see the punishment of one neglect amounteth to the reward of thirty labours therefore all the Christian Emperours and the wisest Kings considering this great charge that God had laid upon them to make wholesome Lawes and Constitutions for the government of his Church and seeing the inclinations of the Laity would never permit any of these Lay Elders and the Citizens of the world to usurp this authority to be the composers contrivers or assistants in concluding of any Ecclesiastical Law until the fences of God's vineyard were pulled down and the That the Laity should have no interest in making Laws for the Church wilde Boar out of the forrest the audacious presumption of the unruly Commonalty ventured either to govern the Church or to subdue their Prince since which incroachment upon the rights of Kings it hath never succeeded well with the Church of Christ and I dare boldly say it fidenter quia fideliter and the more boldly because most truly the more authority they shall gain herein the less glory shall Christ have from the service of his Church and the efore Be wise ô ye Kings And consider how any new Canons are to be made by our
à seipso cogi possit lâ—ges à superiore tantùm sciscantur dentúrque inferioribus And so Arnisaeus saith and proveth at large Majestatis â—ssentiam consistere in summa absoluta potestate that the being of Majesty and Soveraignty consisteth in the highest and most absolute power And Irvinus alleadgeth many testimonies out of Aristotle Cicero Vlpian Dio Constant Harmâ—nopolus and others to prove that Rex legibus non subjicitur And to make it yet more cleare that the kings power to rule his people was arbâ—trary 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 Sigon de rep Heb. l. 7. c. 3. Hoc arbitrarium imperium expressit Deus 1 Sam. 8. David Ps 11. Reges â—os in virga ferrâ—a Idem Ibidem Joshua exercised the same right and the Judges after him and after the Judges succeeded the Kings quorum potestas atque aâ—toritas multò major ut quae non tam à legibus quà m ab arbitrio voluntate regis profecta sit whose power and authority was far greater as proceeding not so much from the Lawes as from the arbitrement and the will of the King saith Sigâ—nius 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 quodam modo superior legibus fuit and was after a sort above the Law undertaking and making Warr pro arbitratu suo according to his own will And in his sixth book he saith the Jewes had three great Courts or Assemblies 1. Their Councell which contained that company that handled those things Cap. 2. especially which concerned the State of the whole Common-wealth as warre peace provision institution of Lawes creation of Magistrates and the like 2. Their Synagogue or the meeting of the whole Congregation or people Cap. 3. 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 geriâ— Idem 3. Their standing Senate which was appointed of God to be of the seventy 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 own 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 find 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 judgment wished 2 Sam. 15. 2 6. that he were made Judge in the Land 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 They had cast him off from 1 Sam. 8. 7. being their King he signifieth most plainly that while the Judges ruled which had their chiefest authority from the Law God reigned over them because his Law did rule them but the rule and government being translated unto Kings God reigned no longer over them Quia non pâ—â—ts legem Dei sed penes voluntatem unius hominis summa rerum autoritas â—sset 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 Deut. 17. 14. usque ad finem and see if Moses doth any wayes crosse Samuel 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 down to the king legem regendi the Law by which he should governe the people without wronging them and Samuel setteth down to the people legem paâ—â—â—di 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 Spalat tom 2. fol 251. nec violenta ideò quando rex propria negotia non possit expedire per proprias res ac servos possit pro negotiis propriis tollere res servos aliorum isto modo dicebat G. Ochâ—m tract 2. l. 2. c. 25. Deus quod pertinebat adjus regis this is the lawfull and just right of the king Therefore to find 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. The people are commanded very strictly in any wise saith the Text to 1. Popular election utterly forbidden 2. The Kings charge make choice of no king of their own heads but to accept of him whom the Lord did chuse 2. The king is commanded to write out the Law to study it and to practice it and he is forbidden to do foure speciall things which are 1. Not to bring the people back 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 And Josephus to the same purpose saith Si regis câ—piditas vos incesserit is ex Joseph Antiquit l. 4. â—adem gente sit curam omnino gerat justitiae aliarum virtutum caveat verò ne plus legibus aut Deo sapiat nihil autem agat sine Pontisicis Senatorúmque sententia which Moses hath not neque nuptiis multis â—tatur nec copiam pecuniarum equorúmque sectetur quibus partis super leges superbiâ efferatur that is to be a Tyrant 2. The words of Samuel are set down 1 Sam. viii 11. to the 18. verse Rex Jacobus in his true Law of free Monarchs 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 himself takes it others take it
of their doings 12. They averre that the King hath no negative voice in making Lawes but they may conclude them and make them obligatory without the Kings approbation or ratification and that they may do any thing conducible to the good of the Church and Common-wealth any Law Statute or provision made to the contrary notwithstanding 13. They are not ashamed to teach as they do practice that it is lawfull for What they say of their Covenants them to make Covenants Combinations and Confederacies of mutuall defence and offence against any person whatsoever whom themselves judge malignant not excepting the King himselfe and they say that it were better for them to renounce their Baptisme then to forsake their Covenant which they believe will be more advantageous to the Kingdome then all the Priviledges that are granted in Magna Charta or the Statutes that have been made ever since 14. They jeered at the Kings Proclamations trampled his Declarations under feet and incountred the same with rebellious Protestations 15. They perswade the people to give no eare to any discourse of Accommodation To what they liken the kings pardons or conclusion for any peace and say that the King is not to be trusted that he will performe no promise that he maketh either in his Proclamations or Declarations and therefore that the Kings Pardons may be likened to a buckler of glasse or a staffe of reede on which there is no trust no committing themselves to the defence of any such pardon So we may say with the Poet Nos juvat alma quies gens haec fera bella minatur Et quoties pacem poscimus arma crepat 16. They teach the Doctrine of coercion dedignifying degrading and decapitating Whence they learned their Divinity of Kings when they deeme them unworthy of that dignity and their arguments and reasons they collect and produce out of Dâ—lman Bellarm. Suarez and the Magazine of the most rigid Jesuites 17. They have so barbarously so irreverently and so prophanely abused our Service-Bâ—â—k that it would â—ath your â—ares to heare transcend modesty to tell you how they have dealt with it and they threatned that if the Ministers would read it they should never read book again 18. They do agree with the worst of Papists the Jesuites in a great many of How contrary to 〈◊〉 doctrine Matth. 13. 19. they would root out all Papists the worst points of doctrine that they teach and yet being not well able to understand their tenets they hate Papists so much that they would root them out of their very being they would destroy all the Irish that are Papists and dâ—ive all Papists out of England out of the world that the name of Papists should be no more in remembrance and contrary to all reason diâ—inity and humanity they would force and compell every man to profess the Religion that they are of though some of them as their independents are far on the other side would have every man to have liberty to profess what Religion himselfe liketh best 19. They have most ingratefully and disloyally injured a most loving wife How they have wronged the Queen the Nobility Clergy Gentâ—y and Commons of this Land and their owne most gracious Queen for shewing Her love and discharging Her duty to Her husband They have imprisoned and barbarously used some of the Nobility most of the Clergy and abundance of the Gentry and others of the best account of the common Subjects of this Kingdom they have plundered and robbed many thousands of men they have killed and murdered as many they have made our Cities dens of theeves our Churches prisons and all the Land Aâ—heldama's fields of blood they multiplyed the number of Widowes Orphanes and Theeves without number throughtout the Land and they filled the whole Kingdome with miseries lamentations and woes and they have done so many mischiefes as if I should set them all down would fill up another volume And 20. As if all this were not enough to fill up the measure of their iniquity they How they laboured to call in the Scots spared neither pains nor cost to call in the Scots to assist them to perpetuate the War to fill our Kingdome with strangers and to make our calamities everlasting so they fell from evil to worse from discontent to schisme from schisme to open Rebellion and their Rebellion more wicked then any Rebels that we can reade of in any History which is the just judgment of God upon them that they which rebelliously run out of the Communion of Gods Church should most dâ—sperately run out of their own wits and refusing to be guarded by the Heavenly Angels should give themselves to be guided by the infernall Divels which made a merry fellow at the enumeration of their abhominable and indeed innumerable wickednesses to say Hell was never better then it is now because he thought the Divels were all in London or otherwise it were impossible that the The speech of a merry companion Citâ—zâ—ns which have received so many gracious offers of pardons from His Majesty and promises of other favours should still continue so wicked as they are so gulled and seduced by this Parliament faction that non suadâ—biâ— etiam si persuaseris because as S. Augustine saith impiamens nolit intellectum and they love to câ—zâ—n and cheat their own souls by new painting these old sins and calling their faction faith their madnesse zeale and their horrid Rebellion fighting for Religion but as the Poët saith Non tantiest civilia bella movere Whatsoever pretences move them to it this remedy will increase their miseries for if God be no more mercifull to us then their sin deserves it may end here in an universal destruction and hereafter in their eternall damnation for both not all the world see how God scourgeth us with the rod of our own furious madnesse and like as it befell the Ammonites and Moabites that fighting against the 2 Chron 20. 23. Israelites did help to destroy one another so we striving not against Israel but as we pretend both against the Edomites against falshood doe utterly destroy our selves Exempióque pari ruit Anglica turba suóque Marte cadunt coesi per mutua vulnera fratres And we that did keep our enemies in awe shall be now destroyed by the sons of our own mother but I confesse our Land abounds with sâ—ns and our sins have justly deserved this heavy punishment to light upon us yet I beseech our God to chastise us with his own hands and let us not â—all under the swords of the uncircumcised Philistines that are a people much more wicked then our selves and if he will let our soules live we shall praise his name 21. When they had most fraudulently gotten His Majesty to pâ—sse an Act which though really intended yet to many men seems a very strange Act to How they intended to get all Ireland to themselves refer the managing
there remaineth nothing of us to be any waies prejudiced nor any thing any waies at all and the Doctrine of the Stoicks is nothing different when as Seneca though he seemed to be a friend to that Principle of the Immortality of the Soul yet this is one of his proper Aphorismes that non potest esse miser qui nullus est he cannot be a wretched man that is no man and to shew that after death there is no more tidings of any man he writes unto Martia quod How many men denied the immortality of the soul and the life that is to come mors omnium est solutio ultra quam mala nostra non exeunt that death is the resolution and period of all things beyond which our evils cannot extend and Cicero tels us that his friend Atticus was hardly perswaded to believe the immortality of the Soul and before him Cebes in Plato was of the same mind and Dicâ—archus that as Cicero saith wrote three Books of the mortality of the soul and Panetius whom Cicero in all his Offices doth so much commend and so often imitate and divers Philosophers as Epicurus and Democritus that lived in the time of Alexander the Great were in like manner so blinded by the devil as not only to doubt but also to believe this damnable Doctrine and Pliny judgeth this Doctrine to Plin. Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 7. Arnob. in Oâ—t be puerile deliramentum a childish simplicity and so likewise Cecilius as Arnobius â—estifieth calleth these Tenets of the Christians Anniles Christianorum Fabulas old wives Fables and Nicephorus writeth that Synesius the Platonist quoad Nicephorus l. 14. c. 55. alia quae Christiani proâ—itentur promptum se facilem praebuit approved well of all other points that the Christians professed sed Resurrectionis doctrinam nefandam ac detestandam judicavit but the Doctrine of the Resurrection he liked not and the Poets cried out with Theocritus Non est Spes ulla sepultis But as Catullus saith though Soles occidere redire possunt the Sun and Moon may Catul. ad Lesâ— p. 3. lie down and rise again yet nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux nox est perpetua una dormienda when once our short life is fallen down we shall have one perpetual night to sleep and so Lucretinus and Enninus and many more were of the same faith And which is wonderfull in the School of Christ we finde some of the same minde as of old time Hymenaeus and Philetus with whom joyned the Valentinians Carpocratians Cerdonians Gnosticks Marcionites Selucians Manichees Hieracliâ—â—s Priscillianists and the rest of that litter as Saturninus Basilides Secundus Marcus Appelles and some of the Popes themselves with John the 23 and Leo the 10. that as they were transcendently wicked so they were wickedly tainted with this errour and liked not of this truth and many more of their associates in these our own dayes that following Hobbs his Leviathan have fallen away from the faith and as if per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animarum the souls of these Hereticks had entred into their bodies they will neither believe the resurrection of the body nor the immortality of their souls and therefore they labour not for their union with this Eternity Yea and that which is more to be admired such is the corruption of our nature and the madness of our mindes that although the continual sight and most sensible apprehension of our vanity and the shortness of our lives in this world mingles all our best wine with most bitter waters and puts a stop unto our pleasures and many sad thoughts into our heads and perplexities into our hearts yea though it seemeth that there is in a man a kinde of inclination and disposition of nature and an earnest desire to continue and perpetuate his being and that it is a thing universally religiously because it is the principal foundation of all Religion and peaceably received and concluded throughout all the Christian world especially by an outward and publick profession that the soul of man is immortal and shall so continue for ever and that there shall be a resurrection of the body and another life after this yet seriously and inwardly in their hearts not onely the Epicures and the Hereticks aforenamed and the Sadduces the That many worldly professours of the Christian Religion do believe neither the immortality of the soul nor the resurrection of their bodies nor any other life after this life greatest Lords of the Jews that did not stick with open mouth to deny it but also the greatest part of these our Christian Professours as I fear do believe neither the immortality of the soul nor the resurrection of the dead nor any other life after this the short life of their vanity For is it possible that men should be so haughty and so proud so covetous and such oppressours of their Neighbours so sacrilegious and such robbers and spoylers of God himself as we see men are so as the Poet saith Vnde habent curaest pancis sed oportet habere Is it possible I say they should be such if they did believe that their souls are immortal that after this momentary life of their vanity their bodies shall awake and rise out of their graves and that Christ shall come to judge them according to the works they have done in this life and as he saith himself To render unto every one as his deeds shall be No surely it cannot be that they do believe these things but as the Fool whatsoever he profest with his mouth to deceive the world yet said in his heart There is no God so they whatsoever they say in words yet factis negant their deeds tell us to their faces that they do but dissemble and deceive themselves but they cannot deceive God nor all wise men that will rather believe their own eyes in what they see them do than their words in what they say they do believe And therefore as when Carbo swore any thing in the Senate the Senators and What a persidious fellow Carbo was the people of Rome presently sware they did not believe him So when these sacrilegious persons and these grievous oppressours of the poor and the roorers out of the innocent from their possessions do profess that they believe these things I do profess unto you that I believe them not But as Apollodorus the What Apollodorus dreamed Tyrant dreamed that he was taken and flead by the Scythians and his heart thrown into a boyling Caldron should say unto him I am the cause of all this mischief so I say The hearts of these men deceive them for as the Wise man saith The heart is deceitfull above all things and for a man to deceive himself is the worse deceit in the world for excepting the worst of thoughts which is the thought of the Fool that said in his heart There is no God there cannot be a more
fearful judgements as his Progenitours have denounced and God hath executed upon many Kings and Princes for the like sinnes for as Moses prayeth against the sacrilegious enemies of Levi Smite through the loines of them that rise against him Deut. 33. 11. and of them that hate him that they rise not again so we find that many ancient families having by the Statute of Dissolution taken some of the Lands and Tithes of the Church into their possessions have found the same like the Gold of Tholous or the Eagles feathers pernitiosa potentia that Pierius in Hieroglyph will consume all the feathers where they shall be mingled Who so is wise will consider these things and will not to satisfie these Anabaptistical dregges of the people and the enimies of all Christian Religion Aelian lib. 5. cap 15. Var Hist sacrilegiously take away with Aelian's boy the golden plate from Diana's Crown the Lands and Revenues of the Church but having not so learned Christ they will do that which becommeth Saints and suffer the dead to enjoy their own will in that wherein they put them to to no charge and if they do intend to promote Gods service they will not rob Saint Peter to pay Saint Paul but will rather say with holy David God forbid that I should offer sacrifice to God of that which cost me nothing 15. As any wooden Preachers like Jeroboam's Priests de foece plebiâ— scarce worthy to be compared with the Grooms of their stable or such humi serpentes poor abjects as Job speaks of The sonnes of villains and Job 30 8. bond-men more vile than the earth they crawle upon are fit enough to be their teachers and beggarly pensioners so any place a thatched Barn a littered Stable or an ample Cow house is thought by these to be very What prayers and Sâ—â—mons please these men fair and fit to be the House of Him that was born in a Stable and laid in a Manger and any service prayers without sense such as our Savâ—our blames and preaching without learning without truth such as their Enthusiasts conceive in illa horâ quicquid in buccam venerit without any further study or meditation is justified to be most acceptable to God witnesse the Authour of One argument more against the Cavaliers where that great Schollar in his own opinion rails against our grave Bishops and most impudently reproacheth a very reverend man of known worth and great learning by the scandalous Epithete of The ceremonâ—ous Master of Balliol Colledge Doctor Laurence whom for a most learned and pious Sermon preached before the King upon these words of Exodus Put off thy shooes from thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground he doth just like the eldest son of his dear father the devill as Tertulâ—ian calâ—eth Hermogenâ—s primogenitum dâ—aboli most fasely and shamelesly charge him with the wearing of consecrated slippers which was never done but is one of those scurrilous invented imputations of this malicious Accuser of his brethren now thrown at him whose shooes either for learning or piety I am sure this rambling A guist and railing Rabshâ—ka is not worthy to bear and for the service of God in our Churches though the holy Prophet which was a man according to Gods own heart Musick ever used in the Church Psal 147. 1. 149. 3. Ps 150. 3 4 5. praised God in the beauty of holinesse upon all the best instruments of musick and commanded us as well in the grammatical sense as in the mystical sense to sing praises unto our God with Tabret and Harp to praise him in the sound of the Trumpet in the Cymbals and dances upon the well-tuned Cymbals and upon the loud Cymbals yet this zealous Organo-mastix gives us none other Title than Cathedral Roarers and Squeakers and good reason it is he should be very angry with roaring and squeaking in Pag. 14. Churches for that having been possest of a very competent Living with cure of soules these four or five years together if I am not mistaken in the Authour he never yet either read or preached in that or any other Church so necessary is Non-residenâ—e and so usefuâ— I are dumb dogges when they are willing to sâ—arle and bark against Government and Religion but it is strange to me that such a divine harmony which Musick hoâ— useful Theodoric Epist l. 2. Pluâ—aâ—ch de Musica hath made others sober should make this spawn of the red Dragon mad for we know some Law-givers commanded children to be taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the grave composed tones of the Dorick way ad corda fera demulcenda to soften the fiercenesse of their dispositions and ad mentis fervorem temperandum to cool and allay the heat and distempers of their minds as Achilles was appeased in Homer and Theodosius was drawn to Niceph. lib. 12 cap. 43. commiseration luctuoso carmine by a sad Poem sung to him at supper when he intended the utter destruction of Antioch and the Scripture testifieth the like effect of Davids harp in King Saul yet all this sweet and hallowed air which ravisheth devout souls hath onely filled this envious malignant with nasty winds and stinking expressions So contrary to the words of God himself Exod. 3. 5. and against the judgement of all Divines and the practice of all Saints à primordiis Ecclesiae from the first birth of Gods Church he most ignorantly denieth any place to Pag. 15. 18. be holier than another which makes me afraid that Heaven with this man and his faction is deemed no holier than Hell or the Lords day no holier than Monday no more than they hold the Church holier than their Bâ—rns or the holiest Priest though he were Aaron himself the Saint of the Lord holier than the prophanest worldling for I find no difference that they make either of persons times or places but such a commixtion of all things as if they intended to reduce and bring the whole world into that confused Chaos which God first created before he disposed the parts thereof into their several stations But I am loth to spend any more time about this ignorant Argument that is as all the rest of their Writings are as full of railing and unsavoury speeches as any mortall pen can diffuse therefore I leave him to do with his heart and mouth as that Morussian Cabares whereof he speaketh did with those Churches which the Goths and Vandals had defiled Thus you have some and I might adde here abundance more of their absurd and impious Doctrines which their ignorant simplicity produced and their furious zeal published out of mis-interpreted Scriptures not that all these points are taught by every one of their Teachers but that all these and many more are taught and maintained by some one or other of them as I could easily expresse it if it were not too tediâ—us for my Reader but the bulk of my Book swells too
big and their fancies are but Dreams fit for laughter and I brought these onely as Vinegar to be tasted and then to be spit out again CHAP. X. Sheweth the great Bug-bears that affrighted this Faction the four speciall means they used to secure themselves the manifold lyes they raised against the King and the two speciall Questions that are discussed about Papists 5. FOr the setling of the Militia and putting the whole Kingdom in a 5. The setling of the Militia posture of Defence as they termed it 1. They dreamed of a desperate Disease and 2. They devised an Emperical way to cure it 1. The Disease was a monstrous fear of Popery and the re-establishment 2. The disease of abolished superstitions in our Church to invade their consciences and of the Papists with fire and sword to waste their estaâ—es and to take away their lives and liberties and through that groundâ—â—sse fear they looked on the innocent Ceremonies that were established in the Church as dangerous Innovations and introductions to Idolatry And in the State they feared the practised wayes and endeavours to produce an arbitrary government by our advancing of a boundlâ—sse Prerogative even to the dispoyling of the Subject of his property and robbing him of the benefit of the laws these were their fears And the grounds of these fears were lying fictions and most scandalous detractions and defamations for their invented Letters that should come from Holland and from Denmark and some other places beyond the Seas where we were better believe them then go try whether they were true which informed them sometimes of a Fleet of Danes sometimes of another Nation that should come to assist the King for the setting up of Popery and the securing of himself in a tyrannical and arbitrary government over them and every day almost produced a discovery What terrible things frighted them of new treacheries against the Parliament what terrible things frighted them as the stable of Horses under ground for indeed they were invisible Horses such as Elisha's servant saw terrifying their guilty consciences and that of the Taylâ—rs in Moor-fields and the like horrid machinations that were to come against them I know not from whom and God knowes from whence which things how false they were time which is the mother of truth hath long agone made manifest and ridiculous to any man that is not bewitched with these lying fancies therefore lest these dreams of their distempered brains should be too soon descryed and so prove defective to produce their intended project they alledge The Queen is a Papist and I would to God they were so truly religious and void of â—ypocrisie in their profession as she most gracious Queen is in her religion then they say The Bishops are all Papists Deans and Prebends are of the same stamp and all the Kings Chapleins that were preferred by the Arch-Bishop were either close Papists or profest Arminians which are but Cosen-germans unto the other Arminianisâ—â— being but a Bridge to passe over unto Popery And with these and the like false slanders against the King Queen and Clergy they so bewitched most of their well meaning brethren of the same house and amazed all the simpler sort of people of this Kingdom with these fears and filled them with such jealousies with those Pamphlets that they caused to be printed and dispersed every where that they were at their wits end for fear of this lamentable alteration of their religion and deprivation of their liberties 2. The disease being thus spread like a Gangrene over all the parts of 2. The Cure the body of this Kingdom they like skilful Physitians devise the cure and that is the preparation of a Militia and this Militia they would have put into such hands as they pleased such as they might confide in and I wish the whole Kingdom knew who those men were and who they are that they do confide in for I know 1. Some of them are poor men of most desperate fortunes if Bank-rupters may be termed such 2. Others to be most factious and schimatical men addicted to Anabaptism and Brownism and other worser Sects as amongst the London Commanders Ven Manwaring Fowke Norington Bradly Best and the rest whereof there are twice as many schismatical and as it is conceived beggarly Sectaries as are right honest men among them and if we looked among their Lords and all the rest of their nomination throughout the Kingdom I doubt we shall find some of them to be just of the same condition And because the King to whose care and trust God had committed all the people of this Kingdom and not to them that are called by the King and chosen onely by men and that onely for this time and of whom he will require an account of the laws and religion whereof he made him keeper and defender and not of them thought most rightly that this Militia should be committed rather to such men as he might confide in as it was in the raign of Queen Elizabeth and His Father of ever blessed memory rather than to any that they should name which was to disâ—robe himself of all his regal power of the chiefest garland of his royal Prerogatives without which he could hold his Crown by no better a tenure then durante beneplacito and to put the sword out of his own hand into the hands of them that could not love him because they could not trust him as they alledged and what reason had he to trust them that were causelesly so distrustful of him they startled at this deniall And because the King of heaven had by this time opened the Kings eys God openeth the Kings eyes to let him see what hitherto he could hardly imagine that these men to whom he had granted for the good of his Kingdom so many Acts of grace and favour as never any King of England did before and had very graciously offered to commit to the hands of their own choosing so large a share of the Militia as might have rendred the whole kingdom most secure if security in a just and legall way had been all that they sought for had their intentions far otherwise then they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that not onely the government of the Church was intended to be alâ—eâ—ed and the Governours thereof destroyed but himself also waâ— hereby dis-robed of those rights which God and the Lawes of the Land had put into his hands and the Kingdom brought either into a base Tyranny or confused Anarchy when all things shall be done according to the arbitrary power of these factious and schismatical men therefore he utterly refused to grant their desires and most wisely withstood their design Whereupon these men put their heads together to consult how they How they strengthened themselves to make their orders fiâ—m without the King might strengthen themselves and make their ordinances firm and binding without the King and to that purpose having by their former doings gotten