least I should offer both violence and wrong with my vnskilfull pensil to limme out more largely this most beautifull and well proportioned Image of a Princes vertuous mynd But I dare say which I referre to the best judgement of Your Majestie ablest to judge of Your owne noble sayings it is an exquisite Aphorisme or Abstract of that divine Rule prescribed to Kings by the Lord and Iudge of Kings It shall be when the King sitteth vpon the throne of his Kingdome that he shall write him h copy of this Law in a Booke out of that which is before the Priests and Leuites and it shall bee with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that hee may learne to serue the Lord his God to keepe all the words of this Law and these Statutes to doe them that his heart be not lift vp aboue his brethren and that hee turne not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdome hee and his children in the midst of Israell Now what is the summe of all this but Honesty is the best Pollicy From this Root to wit Honesty the heathen deriued all the branches of vertue As those foure Cardinall vertues Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance the subiect of those three bookes of Offices Tully draweth from the force and nature of Honestie as himselfe expresseth And those foure also Iethro Moses father in law in his direction to his Sonne requireth to bee in all Magistrates saying Thou shalt prouide out of all the people men of Courage such as feare God men of truth and hating Couetousnesse Still the summe totall is Honestie is the best Policy Thus neede wee goe no further then Your Maiesty to learne the rule of all good policy whereof Honestie is the ground as containing all duties both to God and man in Prince or people Thus haue I though slenderly for the which I most humbly craue Your Maiesties generall pardon discharged my faithfull dutie in discovering so great a danger towards Your Maiestie It pertaines to the wisdome of Your Maiestie to provide speedy meanes for the prevention that Your Kingdomes may not become a prey to the enemie nor Your sacred Person exposed to the perill of beeing forsaken by Your owne Subiects whom the Pope instigateth by the authority of his Bull and by the incessant industrie of his Iesuites to stand closse to his Holinesse against Your Maiestie when occasion serveth His Breeue also mentioneth what anxious prayers the Church of Rome now maketh for hir Catholicke Sonnes in England There is some waighty cause in hand sure Wee poore Ministers hope that Your Maiestie will bee pleased to call a generall Fast to frustrate all Romes prayers Wee haue all fared the better for the last publicke Fast which Your Maiestie proclaimed for the averting of vnseasonable weather against the last harvest And it is memorable that on the same day wherein the Fast was kept generally over all England began the heavens to cleare vp their clowdy countenance and so continued till they had brought vs in a plentifull harvest in stead of a feared famine Not that wee place any vertue in a Fast but because a Fast with humble prayer preuaileth much with God not onely as being commanded by him and hauing a promise annexed but for the necessity of it to bee joyned with true repentance and reformation not onely of mens manners and all raigning sinnes publicke and private but also of the worship of God being purged from all the pollutions of Idolatry and superstition which are an abomination in Gods sight and especially a clearing the Coast of all Romish Iesuites and Idolatrous Priests whose religion is treason against Your Majesty and God himselfe When the good King Hezechiah had received the blasphemous letter of Senacherib King of Assyria he went into the Temple of the Lord humbled himselfe and prayed spreading the Letter for the Lord to read and revenge all the blasphemies contained in it both against God and the King perswading his subjects to defection from him But loe here a letter sent into England from the King of the spirituall Babylon full of most impious blasphemies against Your Maiesty most Antichristianly vsurping a power over Your subiects charging them to disavowe their fidelity vnto Your Maiesty shall not this iustly provoke Your Maiesty with Hezechiah to go into the Lords Temple and there publickly intreat the Lord to take revenge on such blasphemies and to turne the mischiefe which Rome and her confederates now intend and machinate against Your Person and Crowne vpon their owne head as Ezechias obtained of the Lord yea Your Maiestie thus doing all Gods faithfull Ministers as so many Esayes to King Ezechiah as so many Azariahs to King Asa dare promise Your Maiestie both certaine victory ouer Your enemies and a constant peace with prosperity while You constantly follow the worthy examples of those religious Kings of Juda which grace the Lord giue vnto Your Maiestie in abundance Amen Your Maiesties most loyall subiect though vnworthy servant HENRY BVRTON TO THE LORD DVKE OF BVCKINGHAM his Grace Right Honorable THE Dutifull zeale I beare to the safety of my dread Soueraigne and deare Country inforceth mee otherwise loth to put my finger into the fire in the second place to sollicite Your Grace to bee the more carefull to preuent the danger When King Saul and Abner with the whole guard were in a dead sleepe so that Dauid had the opportunity to take away the Kings speare and Pot of water by him onely to testifie his fidelity to the King hee called alowd to Abner and awakening him said Art not thou a valiant man and who is like to thee in Israell wherefore hast thou not kept thy Lord the King surely yee are worthy to dye c. But neither can I say so altogether nor neede I cry so loud to your Grace vnlesse these many businesses which will scarce suffer you to sleepe so soundly as did Abner will neither suffer such a dwarfe as my selfe easily to bee heard But speaking for the King I hope I shall not be denied Audience Nor are they good subiects persecuted as Dauid of whom the King is in danger but such as though they haue small cause to complaine of persecution yet are instigated to deny vnto their Soueraigne that loyalty and Allegiance which all true subiects owe vnto their lawfull Prince Doth not your Grace erect your most earnest attention to this But who dare thus instigate the Kings subiects against him No lesse then the Pope and that by a Breeue or Bull lately sent ouer into England wherein he straitly chargeth his Catholique Sonnes as hee termes them vpon no termes to take the Oath of fidelity to the King inciting and animating them as against their Enemy as the Breeue can testify Nor had I I confesse beene thus bold to meddle in such a matter if
if his Master had conquered England in 88. the English should haue had the fauour to be transported to digge in his Indian Mines and by the way sâ—w you vp close in the old Romaine Culleus a leather sack the ancient reward of 〈◊〉 casting you into the Sea as vnworthy to touch any Element that would vnnaturally betray that sweet Country wherein you first receiued your Being and breath The Spaniard 〈◊〉 his lesson ad vnguem Amo proditionem odi Proditorem I loue the Treason but hate the Traytor Or say that necessity may inforce him for the present to allow you to breath still in England to be his Drudges and Vassals as it was with 〈◊〉 at the Captiuity in Babilon to till the ground for him to carry him in prouision for the warres in his conquest of the rest of Christendome and to feed his hungry pround Spaniards sucking the sweet of your swâ—â—t continually yet 〈◊〉 whither you will account this a condign recompense for such a foule treason yea consider also what yee haue now purchased in comparison of that which yee were before when yee liued like free English men euery man vnder his owne Vine and vnder his owne Figtree But why do I so much as suppose or imagine the least probabilitie of the comming to passe of any such prodigious 〈◊〉 God forbid I assure my selfe none of you will euer 〈◊〉 such vnnatural Miscreants to betray your natiue Country to the Spaniard neither if any would be so mad will our good God ever forsake this his inheritance wherein he hath so many thousands of his faithfull and vowed seruants who haue not bowed the knee to Bâ—â—l or kissed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And you cannot but know so much as little acquaintance as is allowed 〈◊〉 to haue with the Scriptures that so long as but one 〈◊〉 was in wicked Sodome euen the power of the Omnipotent himselfe was suspended from taking reuenge vpon it till Lot was safely provided fir and if but one righteous had beene found in the Citie God had spared it for their sakes Therefore neuer let any Romish or Spanish hopes feed themselues with such a vaine conceit of Englands Conquest vnlesse the conniuence at your innumerable 〈◊〉 Idols may indanger 〈…〉 place your chiefe confidence 〈…〉 more zealous then wise and 〈…〉 alleadge the Catholicke cause and the libertie of conscience as preponderating all other mischiefes the freedome of Religion and of the soule being to be preferred before the thraldome of the body yea and the betraying of your earthly Country not to be forborne for the meriting of an heauenly this indeed may seeme a waighty point and therefore not vnworthy altogether in this place of our deepest considerations for the discussing of such a difficulty To begin then at the head-spring of this our discourse it is no newes vnto you that the Pope of late hath sent his Bull or Brieue into England recommended to all his Catholicke sonnes of England wherein he chargeth you by no meanes to take the Oath of Allegeance or fidelity to your King but rather that you should account him for your Enemy the summe is that you should bee armed with the spirit of rebellion against your King and Country when occasion of the Catholicks cause should serue to show your valour in the open field as ye may all more plainely see in this briefâ— vnfolding of the Brieue How to charge subiects to disauow their fidelity to their Prince by what authority who hath such power ouer men to dispense to dissolue to absolue from the bonds of duty and obedience which naturall subiects owe to their King By what lawe or example God in his word hath taught the contrary But Christ Vicar hath this power but Christ practised the contrary But the Apostolicke successour of Peter may doe it but Peter Paul both preached practised the contrary so all the Patriarckes and Prophets Yet Christs Vicar Peters successor are titles not lightly to be regarded to which is added also Head of the Church Oracle of the world to whom is committed all power in heauen and earth who cannot erre to whom all must be subiect vnder paine of damnation and much more then I can tell Huge titles enough to intoxicate and infatuate silly and simple soules yea and to dazzle the eyes euen of the acutest wits with their glorious luster where they are attended or entertained but with credulity But if there be any truth at all in these things concerning the Pope whence in the name of God hath he these titles From what ground of truth He dare plead from Scripture From Scripture Hold you there we desire no better euidence or vmpire in this cause you will graunt then that the Scripture is of authority in it selfe to challenge our faith to rest vpon it as a most sure rule Yes but with condition as you are taught if it haue authority from the Church From what Church What Church Of Rome From whose mouth who must pronounce the verdict The Pope forsooth if so then the Popes power is not built primarily vpon the Scriptures but vpon himselfe and so he is Iudge in his owne cause The Pope belike lendeth authority to the Scriptures and they againe repay him with his owne minted coyne by confirming his supremacy This is pretty Iust as Boniface confirmed Phocas in his vsurped Empire and Phocas reciprocally settled him in his Papall supremacy Or as the Pope makes Saints who by that meanes receiuing a power and merit are by their Canonization qualified to become intercessors for their Canonizer his Holinesse What a coniuration-circle is here but pitch we vpon the center If the Pope giue the authority to the Scriptures prescribing and limiting them their sence whence then hath the Pope this authority From Christ as his Vicar How proues he that From Scripture But what authority hath the Scripture for this till first it receiue it from the Popes brest Come come let such popish jugglings impose vpon fooles and such turn-sicke windings cause the braines of young children to runne round and to conceit that the whole earth runnes round when it standeth still vnmoued But let men be guided by reason vnderstanding iudgement He that denyeth principles is to be detested not disputed with It is a Principle in Divinity that the Scripture is and euer hath beene the rule of Faith Yes say your Pontificians a Partiall rule but not Totall the vnwritten word is to be added What is that Apostolicke traditions Apostolicke That sounds well Well let not Apostolicke Traditions crosse Apostolicke writings and haue with you But otherwise looke not that your penny of Traditions should passe for current siluer with vs for waight and purenesse as the Scriptures in point of rule of Faith for all the Pope stampeth them with the Image and Superscription of Apostolicke Abrahams wells are now digged so deepe so large as not all your Philistian rubbidge can stop them vp not Apostolicke not all Romes holy
of God secure themselues from all Devills and Devills incarnate as the bloudy Iesuites His Promise is which is specially made to Christian Princes Hee hath giuen his Angells charge ouer thee and they shall keepe thee in all thy wayes which In all thy wayes teacheth vs how necessary it is to haue the wisdome of the Serpent combined with the Doues simplicity in the vse of due meanes to prevent dangers For if Iesuiticall malice will not spare the lowly shrubb how much lesse the lofty Cedar If a poore subiect may bee the obiect of Popish revenge for standing for the truth much more a noble King the Defender of the Faith Which hath possessed me with the greater iealousie and feare for your Maiesties safety Nor is it a Panicke or causelesse feare If I did but dreame of any danger towards Your Maiesty how should I feare it waking But here is neither Dreame nor Diuination but plaine demonstration of imminent if not rather present danger such as is worthy to possesse Your Naiestie with a most prudent and vigilant feare such as the learned Bishop in his Tortura wished to abound in your royall Father of famous memory and wee no lesse in Your Maiestie The cause I say of all is the Popes Bull or Breeue even now perswading and straightly charging his Catholique Sonnes in Enland as hee calls them vpon no termes to take the Oath of Allegiance to Your Maiestie as being not their King but their enemie Such Breeues never come but they betoken some notable mischiefe not farre off Like the Coote which flying to the shore crying prognosticates a sharpe storme at hand or as the Owle which being seene in the City portends destruction to it or as a prodigious Comete presaging the fatall periods of Princes or States specially where they exercise theyr maliguant influence Yet howsoeuer these may proue vncertaine as being Signes only but no causes of future euents yet the Popes Bull being not only a Signe but a cawse conducing to and producing mischiefe and that even exprofesso ought not slightly to be regarded Omne malum à Breuibus Breuia a Pontifice sayde the foresayd Bishop vpon the same occasion A Breeue was sent from the Pope to prepare the way for the Spanish Inuasion in 88. Another for the Gunpowder Treason Remarkable instances sufficeent if any to admonish England euer to looke for a terrible thunderclap vpon such a flash of Lightning Nor euer came Bull from Rome more cunningly couched and fuller of subtill insinuations then this as being the expresse Image and Modell of the Mistery of iniquity Formerly in the darker night of ignoraÌ„ce the Owle of Rome durst fly and flutter about seasing pluÌ„me vpon the prey but here where the Gospell shineth she is faine to winke with her eyes and to retire her selfe in the reserued corners of her ambiguous and twi-light Equiuocations Such is the curious frame of this Breeue being such as Paul 5 said of his written post lâ—ngam et grauem deliberasionem de omnibus quae in illis continentur adhibitam No doubt but this Beere was a long time a licking into this forme it hath But the summe is the Breeue containeth nothing but matter of high Treason against Your Maiesty inciting Your Subiectes to defection from You and erecting their hopes for Trophees and triumphs which the Pope plentifully promiseth to them I haue adventured the weakest of ten thousand to vnty this Gordian knot vnmasking the mystery thereof in a convenient brevety but all is of no force without Your Maiesties sword like that of Alexanders to hew it in sunder The lesuits at this present like Sampsons foxes with their firebrands are busy kindling combustion every where in your Kingdom vsing this Breeue as Bellowes to blow to the fier A man would thinke that seeing the foxes woules are so rife the dogges should be muzzled and tied vp Or when theeues are so briefe and bold the sword of Iustice shouldly rusting in the sheath But howsoeuer wee are sure Your Maiesty hath not beene wanting in publishing Proclamation vpon Proclamation to banish them the Land Only they learne thereby to walke the more invisible hoping by Gyges his Ring to obtaine their desire And when they are taken no ligatures of lawes can long hold them but Proteus like they haue their evasions Something is the reason that our Lawes haue lost their sting and become Drones and the Iesuites proue the waspes to robb vs of our honey It was wittily sayd of Polydor Virgil Regnum Angliae Regnum Dei his meaning was because none seemed to take care of England but God And true it is his diuine Prouidence hath from time to time beene a miraculous preseruer of it Yet some meanes must be vsed In 88 that Masculine Queene slept not At the Powder-plot Your royall Father by commanding dililigent search prevented the blow God gaue a happy successe to both And no doubt but he will be the same God to defend Your Majesty blessing Your pious zeale in the rooting out of his and Your enemies whose prime Article of their faith is treason to Kingdomes and States Salomon sayth How shall a man carry fire in his bosome and not bee burned What should I need to propouud to Your Majesty the examples of those noble and religious Kings of Iuda who setting themselues resolutely to reforme the decayed and disordered state of Gods worshippe proued through Gods speciall blessing miraculously victorious ouer all their enemies Your Majestie knowes them of a childe which imitating now being a Man and a King God shall bee with You as hee was with them and You with him King Ahashuerus setting apart but one night to more sad contemplations and reading ouer the Chronicles a worthy Precedent for a prince sometimes so to breake his sleepe how was it a meanes to cawse the light of Gods people to breake forth from obscure darknesse Wee poore swaines espying the storme comming to whom should we runne but to our Pilot Or being sicke but to the Phisitian Vnder God Your Maiesty is the great Pilot of this Iland which like a goodly shipperides at Anchor in the midst of the Sea now in danger to be tossed with terrible stormes which the leakes will hardly brooke yf they bee not the sooner stopt You are vnder God the great Phisitian who onely can cure as the Kings euill so the inveterate Gangrene of this body whereof Your Maiesty is the head Giue vs leaue dread Soveraigne in our extremity of danger to cry out to Your Maiesty for helpe We know as God hath dignified You with a Diademe so he hath qualified Your Maiesty with most excellent Princely indowments For instance vouschsafe leaue to Your poore old servant to remember a most Princely speach vsed often by Your Highnesse HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY A Motto for a King and worthy to be ingraven in the lasting Monuments of Your Kingly Actes even with Your owne royall hands I may not presume
Conjurers do with the name of Iesus And among others this is not the least that by the hanging out of this signe he blinds the peoples eyes that they cannot so easily espie where the proud Antichrist dwelleâ—h Like as when a Spanish Pyrat hangs out an English flag In briefe this Marke notes that religion whose mother is Ignorance Ignorants write their marke in stead of their names And to know whose Marke this is loe here the name subscribed Pope Vrban 8. POpe is a title signifying father and being appropriated to the Pontise or Bishop of Rome who alone is so intituled it notes the great Antichrist The Pope as much to say as the Antichrist Christ saith Call no man father vpon earth The meaning is call no man on earth such a father as the Pope challengeth to himselfe namely Papa that father who as supreme ouer all other fathers will and must be honoured and obeyed Yea he will be such a Papa or Father as vnto whose becke is subordinated and limited that obedience which all do owe to our heauenly Father They must no further obey God then the Pope alloweth for euen the sacred Scriptures themselues the onely rule of our obedience to our heauenly Father are so locked vp in the Cabinet of the Popes brest that they may yeeld vs no other sense but what his key openeth as is intimated in the Bull of Pius the 4. affixed to the Trent Councill super formâ Iuramenti professionis fidei ad perpetuam rei memoriam So that not our heauenly Fathers owne commands may be of force where the Popes Counter-mand commeth with a Non obstante This is that Pope forbidden by Christ thus to be called our Father vpon earth Yet euer since Boniface the 3. who obtained of that Parricide Phocas to be the sole vniuersall Bishop and was the first that bore away the title of Pope from all other Patriarches and Bishops which euer since hath beene intailed to all his successors as their proper style quarto modo hath that Antichrist tyrannised vnder this name of Pope by vertue of his vniuersall Father-hood Hereof we cannot haue a more pregnant proofe then this present Bull as will appeare in the further opening of it This Pope is Vrban the 8. a new name customarily assumed with the Popedome And lightly they borrow such names as are contrary to their natures There haue not beene more wicked Popes then the Bonifaces nor more cruell then the Clements nor more impious then the Piuses nor more noxious then the Innocents nor more turbulent then the Vrbans As Vrban the 6. for his implacable furiousnesse was called of the people Turban a troubler And such a Turban I feare we shall finde of this Vrban the 8. as we may easily discerne by the clouen foote of this Bull. The Popes Bull is a prodigious or disastrous blazing starre it neuer appeareth but it portendeth and bodeth some approching fatality to Princes and States Onely the Comet is but a signe no cause of future euents but the Popes Bull is not onely a signe but a cause procuring and producing sad Accidents to ensue To goe no further then home for instances To prepare away for the Spanish Inuasion in 88. as an harbinger to prouide them lodging vpon their arriuall on the English Coast Pope Sixtus the 5 or if you will sice sinque as hauing already cast the Dice for England sends out his Balis declatatory wherein he excommunicateth the good Queen Elizabeth of euer gratefull memory and absolueth her subiects of their allegiance lauishing also out of the bottomlesse bag of his Church treasure plenarie Indulgence to all foraine States and Princes that would joyne their helping hand against England Enough to set the whole Pontifician world about our eares but that our heauenly Father shewed himselfe more potent in blessing vs then the Balaam of Rome in cursing vs. Also about the time of the Gunpowder plot the Pope sent out his Bulls Clement the 8. by name as here Vrban the 8. they agree both in name and number God grant they agree not in the nature of their mischiefesment vs or God grant them al the like euents that formerly Clement the 8. I say his Bull or Breeue being in safe keeping with Father Garnet and by him shewed to Catesby by whom this businesse began to bee brewed while as yet the powder was but a soaking in the salt-peter tubs he was so animated with the sight thereof that he built and founded all his otherwise perplexed and tottering inuentions vpon those Breeues wherein Garnet also was not wanting to obfirme him more and more whereupon the learned Bishop inferreth Ita omne malam à Breuibus Breeuia à Pontifice so that all mischiefe is from Breeues and Breeues from the Pope These two instances may induce vs to take better heed to this new Bull now in hand and to consider whether this Vrbanicall Breeue may not bode at least the like imminent mischiefes to this land that those did And so much the rather if we weigh all the concurring circumstances of the time The Pope knowes best how to make his own benefit of others homebred hurts his forces are the better vnited and strengthened by others diuisions and he well hopes to licke himselfe whole againe by others putrifying sores And so much the more may the force of this Bull bee feared as not hauing so long hornes as strong sinewes clossely compacted like those skales of Leuiathan Or rather lest the impression of feare might bee a preuention of their purpose it comes in like the aspe presented to Cleopatra in a basket of figgs lurking vnder the greene leaues the biting whereof is not so sensible as exceeding mortall The judicious Reader may therein discerne notable artifice in tempering strong poyson as it were in a paire of Italian or Spanish perfumed gloues And were there nothing else but that it comes from Rome can any good thing come from Rome from the Pope Omne malum à Brenibus Breuia à Pontifice As when Iulian the Cardinall was much recommended to Sigismund King of Romanes he answered Tamen Romanus est yet he is a Roman And a pestilent one too witnesse that woefull ouerthrow at Varna by Amurath whereof Iulian was the chiefe cause hauing perswaded Vladislaus vnjustly to breake the truce with the Turke To say nothing of a peace now offered as they say betweene the aduerse parties but onely this that such a Treaty will very well suite and serue this Breeue with occasion as a milde open season helpeth physicke to worke the more effectually But we haue not forgotten their Treaty vpon 88. Nor are we so foolish or weary of our liues I trust as with Cleopatra wittingly and willingly to suffer our selues to be stung with the Popes Aspe in greene leaues whose womanish spirit would otherwise haue fainted to see her owne death Yea rather we know the nature of such Basiliskes which a man espying