Astraea Redeunt Saturnia regna progenies caelo Demittitur alto Bishops the Coâ—on prâ—â—ier Booke â—ewarded Sectaries reiected SALMASIUS HIS BUCKLER OR A Royal Apology FOR King CHARLES the MARTYR Dedicated to CHARLES the Second King of Great Brittain Salus Populi Salus Regis LONDON Printed for H.B. and are to be sold in Westminster-hall and at the Royal Exchange 1662. The Epistle to the Reader THere have been so many Wolves in sheeps-cloathing and so many Innocents by the reviling tongues of their Enemies robbing them of their good names as well as of their good estates made Malignants in this our worse than iron age that I know not what Epithite to give thee If thou art an Honest man Rara avis in terris I invoke thee to be my Patron If thou art not Noli me tangere But since St. Austin once perhaps as zealous a Reprobate as thy self was converted by looking on the Bible by chance I will not prohibit thee from eating of this fruit Though I believe to think that thy view of my Book will work the like conversion on thee is to have a better opinion of thee and the Book than both will deserve For though an Angel should come from heaven or a man arise from the dead yet could he not perswade our hot-headed Zealots but that they did God good service even when they rebell against his own Ordinance transgress his Commandements murther their Father the KING and pollute their once flourishing Mother the CHURCH Before this prodigious off-spring like Vipers destroyed the Mother by their birth The Jews indeed murthered the Lord of life because they did not know him and therefore thought it was pleasing to God But wo be to them who did not only with Ham see their Fathers nakedness and reproach him but commit Paricide see his heart naked and call the multitude to laugh at it En quo discordia Cives produxit miseros O the miserable effects of seditious men Who shall now cure the Kings evil Or who shall cure the evil of the People O purblind City how long will you enslave yourselves to ravenous woolves who by their often changing of their feigned Governments do but change the thief and still your Store-houses must be the Magazine to furnish them with plunder You must never look to enjoy your lives estates or Gods blessing with the fruition of your Wives and Children before your lawfull King and Soveraign CHARLS the II. unjustly banished by Rebells be restored to his Crown and Kingdom For what Comfort can any honest or conscientious man take in any thing so long as he seeth his own native Prince like King David driven from his own natural inheritance by the unjust force of a multitude of Traytors both to God and their King Who Judas-like acknowledging his Master with a kiss so they swore with their mouthes that King CHARLS the I. was their only lawfull King and Soveraign and had the Supreme power over them all and then delivered him to the Sword-men who came out with Clubbs and Staves against their Soveraign as against a Thief and as the Jews did the Lord our Saviour whom they did not acknowledge to be their King otherwise they would not have done it These men murthered their dread Soveraign whom they all acknowledged and vowed to be their only King Excelling the Jewes only in wickednesse Therefore since by the Laws of the Land there can be no Parliament without the King what difference is there between a Protector and one of their Parliaments but only number For their Protectors are but the head thieves and their Parliaments but a headless multitude of thieves For so long as the Royal Progenie of CHARLS the I. which God long preserve remain alive all other our Governours besides them will be but Rebells Traytors and Tyrants let them call themselves a Free State or by what names they please continue until the worlds end Therfore rouze up Citizens and take courage How long will you be the common Hackney to be ridden by every one that will stride you How long shall your Sanctuary be made a Stable and Den for Thieves Shall your Streets blush with the blood of Prophets and with the blood of your Citâ—zens and will not you change your colour where is the reverend Doctor Hewyt that Glory of your City that Glory of all Christians that Glory of the whole World whose fame shall out-live the Sun and his renown shine longer and brighter than the Moon or the lesser Stars Caesar the Usurper was wont to say Si violandum est jus regnandi causa esse violandum That if it is lawfull to forswear one self for any Cause the Cause of gaining a Kingdom is the most lawfull But there are those amongst us who have turned the Supposition into a Proposition and confidently by their practice affirm that it is lawfull to forswear one self for any thing and most sacred to be forsworn if by the perjury a Kingdom may be gained But I will not touch the Soars which lye raw before every mans eyes only this will I say which every one knoweth to be true that no Kingdom in the World was so happy both for peace and plenty law and religion and all other good things as our Kingdom of England was whilest due obedience was lawfully paid to our Soveraign Lord the King but now the King being murthered and all goodness with him no Nation under the Sun is more miserable and so it will continue untill King Charles the second be restored to his Crown The Sword of Gods word ought only to fight for Religion the Iron sword of Rebels did never establish Christian Religion nor ever will set up Christs Kingdom especially if it be unsheathed against Kings by their Subjects And to satisfie all Objections whatsoever against my writing I answer Si natura negat facit indignatio versum It was not to shew my self to the world for as in Tempests so in our daies he is best who is seen least abroad But it was to shew and prefer the Truth which hath been laid asleep by the Charmes of our Sins For to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnes to the truth every one that is of the Truth will hear the voice of the truth when I saw the many revolutions turnings of men like Weathercocks being presented almost every day with new strange and various shapes and forms of Government it caused me more diligently to search after the true reason of our changings which I found to be our Sins and the absence of our King also which was the best kind of Government which I found to be Monarchy and that all trayterous Tyrants sine titulo might most lawfully be killed by any privat hand but Kings only by God Truth often getteth hatred and it is the doom of serious books to be hooted at by those who have nothing
fortunam fremere Pelli potes capi caedi perimi vinci autem nisi manum extuleris non potes neque ornamentis tuis spoliari cum quibus quocunque ieris civis patriae Principum unus eris Sorrow I am unjustly driven into banishment Reason What hadst thou rather than be justly banished For as touching the heap of injuries whereof thou speakest it is taken in the contrary part and now thou hast justice to be thy companion which shall be a comfort unto thee in thy unjust banishment which forsaking thy unjust Countrymen hath chosen rather to follow thee into exile Sorrow I am banished unjustly Reason Hath the King banished thee or a Tyrant or the people or an enemy or thou thy self If the King either thy banishment is not unjust or he himself is not just and so by consequence no King If a Tyrant rejoyce that thou arâ— banished by him under whom good men are exiled and Theeves are set in authority If the people they use their old manner they hate the virtuous among whom if this many-headed Tyrant had found any like themselves they would never have banished him Think not therefore that thou art expulsed thy Country but removed from the fellowship of wicked persons and that thou art not driven into exile but received into the Country of good Citizens If an Enemy acknowledge the lightness of the injury for he hath not dealt extreamly with thee he that could take from a man all that he hath and hath taken but his Country hath left him hope But if thou thy self the cause is that falling into misliking of the people or Tyrant thou hast chosen to depart not only because thou wouldest not be sorry but also vaunt thy self for preferring the honour of thy Country So that now thou hast not a miserable but an honest cause not of exile but of absence hateful to the wicked and grateful to the virtuous Pythagoras voluntarily forsook Samos and Solon Athens and Lycurgus Lacedemon and Scipio Rome Sorrow I am driven from my Country Reason Being driven away of the worst insinuate thy self into the Company of the best sort and make it evident by good proofs that thy Country was unworthy of thee and not thou of thy Country Let it perceive what it hath lost and know thou how that thou hast lost nothing Let the evil Citizens want the wearisomness and also the hatred and suspition of thy presence and let the good persecute thine absence with love and desire and with their eyes and minds follow after thy departure let them be sorry for that thou hast forsaken them Sorrow I am sent into exile Reason Nay rather to try thy self Beware how thou behave thy self in thy exile if thou faint then art thou a very banished wight if thou stand stoutly thy banishment will ennoble thee as it hath done many other before thee who passed invincibly honourably through difficulties to the end they might shew the right way to them that came after Let Tyrants rage let the people chafe let thine Enemies and Fortune fret and fume thou maist be driven away taken beaten slain but thou canst not be overcome unless thou yield up thine hands nor yet be despoiled of thine Ornaments by means whereof whithersoever thou goest thou shalt be a Citizen and one of the Princes of thy Country The Certain incertainty of Fortune who crowns Coblers and beheads Kings Advice to the prosperous to beware Insolency and to take heed lest they fall Comfort to the miserable to keep them from despair with several remedies to cure the maladies of a troubled minde being Physick for both Fortunes good or bad HAving sheltered the banished from the tempests of a forraign exile Let us arme him against the Changeling Fortune Constant only in inconstancy according to mellifluous Ovid. Passiâ—us ambiguis Fortuna volubilis errat Et manet in nullo certa tenaxque loco Sed modo lecta manet vultus modo sumit acerbos Et tantum constans in levitate sua est She wandereth about the Earth making all men Tenants at will of their possessions and as a whirlwind bloweth up dust on heaps then scattereth it about so she puffeth riches to a man then puffeth both man riches away together Quem dies vidit veniens superbum hunc dies vidit fugiens jacentem Whom the rising Sun saw as glorious as himself in the morning the setting Sun often seeth as low as himself in the evening Therefore let not them glory in their prosperity who raign in the palace of Fortune triumph over their enemies and have success to crown their actions whether they be just or unjust Nempe dat quodcunque libet Fortuna rapitque Irus est subito Qui modo Craesus erat Fortune dealeth with men as a wheele with its spoaks turneth those lowest which even now were highest She throweth down Kings and setteth up Beggars he who even now was but a servile Cobler is by and by metamorphosed and translated into his Soveraign Master Ex humili magna ad fastigia rerum Extollit quoties voluit Fortuna jocari It is her sport to promote fools to lift the Peasant from the plough to the Throne to set the frogg upon the washing block and elevate him to the highest point of honour that she may break his neck down again Tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruunt They are lifted up for no other cause but that their fall might be the greater Therefore my advice is to all those if advice may have the honour to look upon them who have their hearts desire in all things and want nothing of this world to make themselves compleatly happy to remember in the midst of their prosperity King Craesus if they will vouchsafe to let a King come into their thoughts Who when he was esteemed the most happy of all mortals both for riches and peace was admonished by Solon Neminem ante cineres beatum dicendum quod quoad vivimus periculum sit ne instabilis hujus mundi foelicitas dolore aliquo contaminetur That no man before death could be said to be happy because whilest we live it is a chance but that the foelicity of this unstable world will be blotted out with the black pen of misery which sentence of Sclons the Calamity of Croesus did afterwards declare most true For he being conquered by Cyrus and chained to the stake to be burned remembring the wholesome saying of his friend Solon did cry out Solon Solon Solon at which Cyrus much wondering asked him which of the Gods or men he did invoke and what was his meaning Cyrus being informed of the whole matter and put in minde of humane vicissitudes delivered Craesus from the flame and ever afterwards had him in great esteem fearing lest the like calamity might fall upon himself so when Sesostris King of Egypt being drunk with good fortune and lifted too high with his great successes against his
the shame of this impiety Providence bestoweth her blessings with blinde hands Prosperity doth not alwayes joyn hands with goodness neither is Adversity a true sign of illegality Good Kings may perish whilest wicked Rebels flourish David was forced by ungodly Traytors to flee from his Country Therefore our King may be a man after Gods own heart yet wrongfully driven from his own HAving given the unfortunate an Antidote Let us apply this Cordial That goodness is not an unseparable incident to prosperity success is no invincible argument that the cause is good Goodness and greatness are not alwayes companions Though Foxes have holes and Birds of the air have nests yet our Saviour the King of Kings had not where to lay his head King David though a man after Gods own heart was not without his troubles but had many infoelicities Though the subtile Foxes with their deceitful wiles banish our King from his Sacra Patrimonia his sacred Patrimony for so the possessions of Kings are called and make him wander up and down like a Pelican in the wilderness yet this is but like Jobs afflictions to make him the more glorious The top which is most scourged spinneth the better and the blustering windes make the Tree take the deeper root The Camomile the more it is trodden on the better it groweth and the Palm depressed riseth the higher so the afflictions of our Soveraign shall extol his renown the higher and like a ball thrown against the ground shall rebound and fly with more lofty Majesty For why his goodness doth increase by his misery and his Royal virtue like grass after a shower shall florish more gloriously God let Daniel be thrown into the Den to encrease his honour and chasteneth the Children which he loveth onely for their good What though cross gales drive us from our intended Haven And our hearts fail of all our desired injoyments so that blinde Fortune only striveth to make us miserable in prohibiting us from all our pleasing wishes Yet is this no argument that we are sinfull or that our desires are prophane What though a man be born blinde and so continue from his birth to his death Yet neither may this man have sinned nor his parents But that the John 29 works of God might be made manifest Can any one have the impudence to say that the King is wicked and that his cause is naught because the multitude of reprobates prevail and through the mightiness of their villanies subdue all that is good So may they argue that the Jews were Saints when they murthered our Saviour and that the Devil was an Holy Angel when he spoiled Job No God correcteth the pious that he may preserve them and permitteth the designs of the wicked to coach them to their own destructions He letteth Rebels dethrone their Soveraign and pull the earthly Crown from off his head that he may crown him in Heaven with everlasting glory The meanness of the case doth not diminish the lustre of the Jewel and Christ was a King though in the manger Seneca in Hyppolito Res humanas ordine nullo Fortuna regit spargitque manu Numera caeca pejora fovens Fortune doth not alwayes signally attest the design of such a party or the justnes of such an action to be righteous by permitting it to prosper and taper up into the world the Sun shines upon the bad aswell as the good and the rain makes their corn to grow oftentimes more plentiful than the righteous mens which makes the wicked glory in their actions and scorn all those as Atheists who will not Canonize them for Saints Honesta quaedam scelera successus facit If success doth but attend their enterprises let them be never so impiously wicked all the Logick and Rhetorick in the world cannot perswade them but that they are most sacred and righteous such is their profound ignorance and blind zeal That if the Devil put it into their hearts to murder their lawful King and Soveraign and likewise assist them to effect it they think they do God good service and punish all those with an Egyptian slavery who will not be of their opinion although expresly against God his Commandments viz. Fear God honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 They make God to be even altogether such a one as they are in crying that it is Gods cause even when they commit the greatest Sacriledge Persperum ac faelix scelus virtus vocatur a mischief neatly effected is one of their chiefest virtues This indeed made King David to stagger nay his steps had wellnigh slipt when he saw the prosperity of the wicked when he considered that they were not in trouble as other men nor plagued like other men Their Eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish This made him cry out Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence But when he went into the Sanctuary of God Then understood he their end For Surely thou didst set them in slipery places Thou castedst them down in destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors as a dream when one awaketh So O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image was his next vote Prov. 1.30 They would none of my Counsell they despised all my reproof Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices for the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of Fools shall destroy them Thus you see that prosperity is sometimes a curse and no blessing To those beasts we intend to kill we commonly allow the best pasture And surely those men are better acquainted with Mahomets Alchoran than our Saviours Gospel who will not be convinced but that temporal happiness is the true index of Divine favour God scattereth his outward blessings upon the wicked aswell as on the good because if Virtue and Religion should only appropriate riches more men would become virtuous and religious for the love of mony and wealth than out of any love they did bear either to Virtue or Religion Maro O fortuna potens quam variabilis Tantum juris atrox quae tibi vindicas Evertisque bonos erigis improbos Nec servare potes muneribus fidem Fortua immeritos auget honoribus Fortuna innocuos cladibus afficit Justos illa viros pauperie gravat Indignos eadem divitiis beat Haec aufert juvenes retinet senes Injusto arbitrio tempora dividens Quod dignis adimit transit ad impios Nec discrimen habet rectaque judicat Inconstans fragilis perfida lubrica Nec quos deseruit perpetuo premit Therefore let not those despair whom blind Fortune hath kicked into any mishap nor measure the justness of their actions by the quantity of success Though the voyce of the world censure it For it is not the event which makes it good or bad Careat successibus opto Quisquis
neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Therefore he who getteth a kingdom by the breach of Gods Commandements hath no cause to bragg of his gettings For what will it profit a man to lose his own soul and to gain the whole world Let every one be subject unto the higher powers For there is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive damnation saith St. Paul Rom. 13.1 Behold here the duty of a Subject and the reward of a Rebel There is no power hut of God saith the Text Therefore he that resisteth the King resisteth the Ordinance of God for which he shall receive damnation What then if an unjust King robb us of all we have ravish our wives before our eyes dash out our Childrens brains against the wall set up Idolls and command us to worship them May we not resist him Nonne oportet Deo magis obedire quam hominibus Ought we not to obey God rather than man I answer That ye ought to obey God rather than man Yet may you not with violence resist your King We must not do evil that good might come thereon God hath in many places commanded us to obey and pray even for the worst of Kings Yet you cannot finde so much as a spark of warranty for any subject either Magistrate or private man to rise against his Soveraign in the whole Bible or to call him to an account for any of his actions God hath reserved that to himself as his own peculiar prerogative Magistratus de privatis Principes de Magistratibus Deum de Principibus judicare saith M. Aurelius Magistrates are to judge private men Kings are to judge Magistrates but none are to judge Kings but God The only means which subjects have to reform Kingdoms is that which the Apostle prescribeth 1 Tim. 2.1 Let prayers saith he and supplications be made for Kings and all that are in authority that we may lead a Godly life Prayers must be the only weapons of Subjects against their Kings Let them look into their own breasts and reform their own hearts which many times are the only causes of a Judgement on the Nation Let them amend their own lives and with fervent supplications implore him who hath the Kings heart in his hand and turneth it whithersoever he will to reform the King according to his desire Christiani hominis esse patienter ferre potius quicquid injuriarum ac molestiarum infertur quam ut adigi se sinat ad peccandum contra Deum It is the part of a Christian rather to suffer patiently what injury or persecution soever is laid upon him than to offend God saith Stephanus Szegedinus Interea tamen non esse illicitum si quis vim injustam vel avertere vel fugere vel aliquousque mitigare possit modo id fiat rationibus haud illicitis Quod si id fieri non potest Cavebit Christianus ne illatam vim contrariâ violentiâ retundere conetur sed tolerabit potius omnia nec de vindicando se cogitanit sed vindictam jâ—sto Judici permittet saith the same Author Yet it is not unlawfull if a man can to avert an unlawfull violence to flie from it or otherwise mitigate it so he doth not doe it by unlawful means But if he cannot do it by lawful means a Christian will take heed and not endeavour to repell an unjust violence offered with an unjust force No he will rather suffer all things first neither will he so much as think of revenge but will leave that to God the just Judge to whom vengeance belongeth O vocem verè Christianam O speech most worthy of a Christian If Herod be wroth and send forth and slay all the Children that are in Bethlehem and in all the coasâ—s thereof so that there be lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and will not be comforted because they are not yet will he flie into Egypt with our Saviour and stay there until Herod be dead rather than he will rebell against his Soveraign resist Gods Ordinance so damn his own soul If Saul send messengers to bring him up to him in the bed that he may slay him or pursue him with 3000. chosen men of Israel yet will not he put forth his hand against his Soveraign for he is the Lords anointed Nay if it be in his power and he is counseled to kill him yet with holy David he will cry out The Lord forbid that I should doe this thing unto my master the Lords anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. His heart will smite him if he cut off his skirts but he will suffer all things before he will cut off his Kings head for who can do that and be guiltless If the King persecute him in this City he will flie into another Hee hath learned of his Master to be subject to his Soveraign not only for wrath but also for conscience sake He is good and the rulers are not a terror to him The evil and wicked will murder their Soveraign for fear his justice should reward them with death according to their deserts But he will not like those filthy dreamers speak evil of dignities and despise Dominion his tears are his arms and patience his revenger Levius fit patientia Quicquid corrigi est nefas Though it be unlawfull for him to gather Soldiers with force arms to correct and take his Soveraign from his evil Counsellors yet patience shall both assist and give him the victory St. Ambrose and he are alwaies in one time saying I have not learned to resist but I can grieve and weep and sigh and against the weapons of the Soldiers and the Gothes my tears and my prayers are my weapons otherwise neither ought I neither can I resist If the King saith God do so and more also to me if the head of this follow shall stand on him this day and likewise send a Messenger to cut it off yet with Elisha he will only shut the door against him and offer no other violence though it lie in his power If a multitude come out with swords and staves against him lay hold on him and lead him away to the Rulers who condemn him and deliver him to the wicked soldiers to be crucified yet in imitation of his Lord and Master he will say nothing rather than revile them though they spit upon him he will meekly wipe it off If they crown him with thorns hee will patiently suffer it If they give him Vinegar mingled with gall to drink hee will tast it If they crucifie him he will voluntarily spread forth his humble hands to be nailed on the Crosse and will not resist the higher Powers for the Lords sake If they saw him in pieces he will
that had been too little thou wouldest moreover have given unto me such and such things Against thee who hast made me Judge over all and loaded me with so many prerogatives above my brethren have I sinned and for the Judge to offend makes the offence so much the more grievous The people did not call David in question for his wicked acts but only God Deus suam omnem in reges authoritatem contulit caelum sibi retinuit terram agendam ferendamque pro libito tradidit All the whole Heavens are the Lords the Earth hath he given to Kings to dispose of as they please Therefore saith Solomon Prov. 30.31 A King is he against whom there is no rising up And therefore Job might well ask that question 34.18 Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly For presumptuous are they and self-willed who are not afraid to speak evil of dignities 2 Pet. 10. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars Mark 12.17 Render therefore to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour For Rulers are not a Terrour to good works but to the evil wilt thou then not be afraid of the power Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same For he is the Minister of God to thee for good But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake For for this cause pay you Tribute also For they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing Rom. 13. Submit your self to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men As free and not using your liberty for a Cloak of maliciousness but as the servant of God Honour all men love the brother-hood Fear God honour the King We are commanded to obey the King whether he be good or evil Propter Deum for the Lords sake Not only because it is the will of the King but because it is the will of God that we should do so he hath commanded it and therefore for his sake we must do it If we resist the King we resist God and he that resisteth God shall receive damnation For when we pretend that we are free born Subjects that the Kings commands intrench upon our liberty and that for the freedom of our liberties we may rebel against him This is to make Liberty a Cloak to cover our maliciousness and wicked designs against the King Which is forbidden by the Apostle for not to serve the King is bondage and to rise up against him to preserve and keep our liberties is to enslave our selves to the Devil and to make us his servants to perform all wicked actions For we must needs be Subject to the Kings precepts not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Et si plures sunt quos corrigit timor tamen meliores sunt quos ducit amor Although they be most whom fear makes obedient Yet they are best who out of true love obey their Soveraign We must not obey the King only that we may avoid giving of him offence and so not incurr punishment But it is a duty laid upon our Consciences so to do and if we love God we must love as faithful Servants to be obedient unto the King not as eye servants who only do their duty when their Master looketh over them But all our actions either publick or private must savour of obedience to him For he is our Master and we are his Servants and the Servant is not greater than his Master but ought alwayes to be diligent in his Masters service And although the King do recompense good with evil and punish them who like faithful Servants have not deserved it Yet they being good even in their sufferings shall receive praise from the power as did our Saviour and the Apostles when they were most wickedly murthered For do we not until this day praise and honour their Martyrdom Although the power which destroyed them did not give them praise yet by their obedience and patience in their unjust punishments did they receive a Crown of everlasting glory and renown from God and men Who can sufficiently celebrate the fame of those worthy Martyrs who unjustly suffered for Religion under the Government of Queen Mary Have not they by their unjust punishments received greater rewards of praise than if they had unjustly rebelled Surely yea for if they had rebelled although it was to save their Religion their Epitaphs would have been Rebels and Traytors instead of pious and Godly Martyrs The wicked only are afraid of the Kings power and punishments to whom he is a Terrour But a conscience voyd of offence towards God and towards man maketh the courage of the righteous like Lyons to contemn all earthly misery Hic Murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi nulla pallescere culpa Be this a wall of Brass to have within No black accuser barbour no pale sin Non est fas Christianis armis ac vi tueri se adversus impetum persecutorum saith Cyprian Epist 1. It is not lawfull for Christians by violence to defend themselves against Persecutors Therefore surely they ought not to murther their King and again Cyprian Epist 56. Incumbamus gemitibus assiduis deprecationibus crebris haec enim sunt munimenta spiritualia tela divina quae protegunt Let us apply our selves to daily sighes and continual prayers for these are the spiritual bulwarks and divine weapons with which Christians should only fight These not guns and swords will only defend us Ambrosius adversus reginae Justinae Arianae furorem non se manu defensabat aut telo sed jejuniis continuatisque vigiliis sub altari positus Ruffinus li. 2. c. 6. Ambrose did not defend himself against the fury of the Queen by the force of the hand and of the sword but by fastings continual watchings and prayers And shall we offend our gracious Soveraign with clubbs and axes Who by his sufferings shewed us the example of a true Christian whiles we like Jews triumph in his murther crying out crucify him crucify him Tertulian Apolog. c. 37. saith expresly that the Christians might for strength and number have defended themselves against their Persecutors but thought it unlawful Yet we because by our wicked plots and devices we have got a numberless company of those who like our selves will do any thing for gain think it a sin if we do not
Pannus said one King throwing down his Royal Diadem Were it but known how many miseries and molestations do attend thee Nemo foret qui te vellere tollet humo No man would stoop to take thee up Antonius the Philosopher Emperor of Rome was wont to say That an Empire was malorum Oceanus an Ocean of miseries and surely the time will come that every one of you with him will say Felix si non imperassem Happie had I been if I had never reigned but suppose the Crown to be your own and you everie day to sit upon the Throne of Majestle triumphing over all perils and dangers fare deliciously every day and with those wicked men which King David speaks of have what your heart could wish or desire Yet Hor. Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres Death knocks as boldly at the Rulers door As at the Cottage of the poor When you think your selves most secure then destruction may be nearest at hand and when you feast your pampered bodies crying seria cras then may the sword which must be your executioner hang over your head but by a hair Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam The shortnesse of our lives forbids us to expect Eternitie here Where is Alexander the great Where is Julius Caesar the Usurper Or where is Oliver the Tyrant is he not gone out like the snuff of a Candle even loathsom to his own Parasites Juvenal Et cui non totus sufficit orbis Sarchophago contentus erat Mors sola fatetur Quantula sint hominum corpuscula And him whom a whole world of villanies could not satisfie was at length overcome with a little Coffin and contented with a span of ground Death onely making him stand to his Principles And although you like mistie fogs going against the Sun which raised them rebell against him from whom you have your being making Hoc volo sic jubeâ— stat pro ratione voluntas Your will 's the onely reason of your Laws and your Laws like traps only to catch honest men yet Nemo malus felix There is no wicked man happy Facilis descensus averni Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras Hâ—c opus â—ic labor est It is easie for you nay it is very pleasant to plunge your selves into Hell but if you should join all your heads together nay unite all your hearts and forces into one intire body which it seems is a hard matter for you to do yet by all your strength and juggling tricks ye cannot juggle your selves out again nay the Devil himself cannot get you from thence but there you shall burn like wisps which have done scouring the better vessels or like the rods which have chastised Gods children Your rejoycing shall be turned into mourning and your deceitfull prating into gnashing of teeth O curas hominum O quantum est rebus inaâ—e How men are taken with their own shadows and Narcissus-like grope after that which is not What will it profit a man to enjoy the whole world to day and lose his own soul to morrow David taxed them with foolerie whose inward thought was that their houses should continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations and call their lands after their own names How much more then may they be taxed with foolery who call other mens Lands after their own names and think they shall enjoy them for ever This their way is their folly yet their posterity approve their sayings yet this night shall their souls be taken from them they shall be laid in the grave death shall â—eed on them and the upright shall have Dominion over them in the morning and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling though while they lived they blessed themselves yet when they die they shall carry nothing away neither shall any thing but their villanies descend with them The same voice which came to Nebuchadnezzar whilest he was boasting of his great Babel shall come from heaven to these Babylonians saying To you be it spoken your Kingdome is departed from you And Pompey-like you shall die and have no mold to cover your carcases Nudut pascit aves jacet en qui possidet orbem Exiguae telluris inops They who living made men run from them through fear shall now make men run from them by reason of their stink And I pray God that I may not have cause to say of this City of London as once Seneca said of a City which was burnt to ashes Vna dies interest inter magnam Civitatem nullam There is but one dayes difference betwixt a great City and no City for what Citie in the world so full fraught with sinnes and villanies as ours Horace Eheu cicatricum sceleris pudet Fratrumque Quid nos dura refugimus Aetas quid intactum nefasti Linquimus unde manus juvenâ—us Metu Deorum continuit quibus Pepercitaris O utinam nova Incude diffindas retusum in Massagetas Arabesque ferrum We blush at scars receiv'd sinne brothers fall Vile age what mischief do we shun at all What youth his hands for fear of gods contains Or who from sacred Altars spoil refrains Ah rather our dull sword new forge and whet Against the Arabian and the Massaget How do our houses burn with lust and our Chambers with pride and wantonnesse whilest the streets blush with the blood of Prophets to see the Children murther their great yet loving Father before his own door O Almighty God pardon our infamous Paticides and Regicides and cloze up those wounds which our sins have made so wide that none but thy right hand can cure them Miserere laborum Tantorum miserere animi non digna ferentis Relieve the distresses of thy Saints and take pity upon those who are wrongfully persecuted turn rather than confound the hearts of all men and open the casements of our ignorant yet zealous minds that by the true light of the Gospel we may walk in faithful obedience towards thee our God and towards our lawful King and Soveraign whom thou not men and Satan have placed over us and let all men learn that which a Divine and honourable Poet hath left us The world 's a bubble and the life of man lesse than a span In his conception wretched from the womb so to the tomb Curst from the cradle and brought up to years with cares and fears Who then to frail Mortality shall trust Buâ— limnes the water or but writes in dust Yet since with sorrow here we live opprest What life is best Courts are but onely superficial Schools to dandle fools The Rural parts are turn'd into a den of savage men And where 's a City from all vice so free But may be term'd the worst of all the three Domestick cares afflict the husbands bed or pain his head Those that live single
his Common-Counsell they are but only Ministerial Servants and by the Writ it is clear that they are no part of the great Counsel of the Kingdom they are but the grand Inquest and general Inquisitors of the Realm to find out the grievances of the people and Petition to the King for redress the Burgesses and Citizens to present the defects in their Trade and the Knights of the Shires the burthens and Sores of their Counties they ought not nor are not admitted into the House before they have sworn that the Kings Majesty is the only and supreme Governour over all persons in all causes This oath did every Member of the long Parliament take before they set foot into the House of Charls the Martyr whom they afterwards murthered and took possession themselves of all that he or his royal progeny had or should have let the world judge how faithfully these Keepers kept their Oathes and Covenants Now forsooth none must come into the House but those who first swear that the King who is is not but that they who are not are the only supreme Governours over all persons in all causes And will these oaths be kept 'T is perjury to keep them Thus they joyn hand in hand and oath to oath but it is but to do wickedness for like King Davids Rebels they make a Covenant against their King and would murther him as they did his Father if they could catch him but nulla pax malis the wicked cannot hold together long though they unite their forces into one intire body yet it is but like Samsons Foxes by the tailes only to set the world on fire When the Commons have taken the oath of Supremacy and met together in a body collective in the house they have not so much power as a Steward in his Leet or a Sheriff in his Tourn for they cannot minister an oath imprison any body but themselves nor try any offence whatsoever much less try their King and assume the Legislative power At a conference the Commons are always uncovered and stand when the Lords sit surely these are no marks of Soveraignity They indeed chuse their Speaker but after their choice the King may refuse him at his pleasure and make them chuse another and Lenthal himself as all other Speakers do did when he was presented to the King disable himself as a person unworthy to speak before the King yet now he is styled the Father of our Country How the world is turned up-side down These Parliamentiers heretofore were wont to be arrested by any common Person and lyable to all Sutes and punishments as other men untill the King graciously passed an Act for their indemnity 4 H. 8. ea 8. So that they are nothing but what the King made them nor have nothing but by his grant and all that the King did make them appeareth by the Writ which is to do and consent to such things as the King with his Common-Counsell should ordain Then stay Reader and behold stand still with thy head and hands lift up to the heavens and admire with what impudence and oppression tyranny and usurpation the long Parliamentiers are fraught with who never had any other legal power than by the Kings Writ and have lost that by the Kings death yet tyrannize over three kingdoms calling themselves the Representatives of the whole Kingdom and that they were intrusted by the People with the Supreme and Legislative power which God and all the world knoweth is as false as the Almighty is true For first they do not represent the King the head nor the Peers who are the higher and nobler part of the kingdom therefore they are not the Representatives of the whole kingdom neither were they ever entrusted by the People with the Supreme and Legislative power Nay the people did never confer any power on them at all for by their Election the people did but design the person all the power the Commons have proceeded from the King which is contained in the Writ by which they were called As Free-holders worth forty shillings a year and free-men of Cities and Borroughs would make very unfit Electors of Supreme Magistrates so never did they they cannot make any Election of their Commons untill the King commandeth and giveth them power they have no power so to do of their own much less to authorize supreme Legislators The King giveth liberty to Towns and Cities to make choice of Burgesses which had no such power before the Kings grant so that all the power which the Commons have floweth from the King not a drop of it from the people Therefore if the Commons exceed their commission to wit the power given them by the Kings Writ it is illegal and their actings void in Law and since the power given them by the Writ is extinguished by the Kings death the Long Parliament is by Law dissolved and all the power which they take upon them since is usurped illegal and Tyrannical and contrary to the Lawes both of God and man And to make their Tyranny the greatest under the Heavens they protest to the world that the Representatives of the people ought to have the Legislative power yet they give Lawes as they call them to Scotland and Ireland not having so much as one Member from both Kingdomes in their representative body nor the eighth part of the Representatives chosen by the Counties Cities and Burroughs in England So that no Tyrants since the Creation of the world did ever equallize these either in cruelty or absurdity wickednesse or foolishnesse yet forsooth in 1649 they made an Act that it should be High Treason for any one to affirm the present Government to be Tyrannical Usurped or Unlawfull or that these Commons are not the supreme Authority of the Nation So thieves may murther the Father and take away the inheritance from his Children and then make a Law that it shall be high Treason for any one to call them thieves or usurpers or to say they had not the supreme Authority Thus they defend Tyranny with Tyranny and one sin with another Unumquodque conservatur eodem modo quo fit Things impiously got must be impiously kept They got their authority by blood and by blood it must be kept they juggled themselves by lyes into the supreme self-created authority and we must lye and say they are the supreme authority only because they do otherwise we shall be executed for high Treason against this infamous conventicle So that of necessity we must displease God if we please them and live no longer than we sin for they have made it a capital offence to speak truth I must confesse most men amongst us are frighted with this scarr-Crow not only to lye and affirm the long called Parliament to be the legal supreme authority but also with St. Peter forswear and deny their persecuted Lord and Master the King accounting no weather ill so they be by their warm fire
be chased away as a vision of the night The eye also which saw him shall see him no more neither shall his place any more behold him because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not Job 20. ENGLANDS REDEMPTION OR The Peoples rejoicing for their great deliverance from the Tyranny of the long called Parliament and their growing hopes for the restauration of Charls the second whose absence hath been the cause of all our miseries whose presence will be the cause of all our happinesse The prosperity of Rebels and Traytors is but momentary As Monarchy is the best of all Governments so the Monarchy of England is the best of all Monarchies Therfore God save King Charls the second and grant that the proud Presbyterians do not strive to make themselves Kings over him as they did over his Father by straining from him Antimonarchical Concessions and by Covenanting to extirpate his Bishops c. that they might set up themselves which was the primary cause of our late unnatural and inhumane wars Mr. Prynne commended Episcopacy is the best form of Church Government The Votes of the Clergy in Parliament The Arrogance of the Presbyterian faction who stand upon their Terms with Princes and make Kings bend unto them as unto the Pope OH the inscrutable judgments of God! Oh the wonderful mercy of the Almighty Oh â—he Justice of our Jehovah No sooner had I written these last words of the momentary prosperity of the wicked out immediately the same hour news was brought me that General Monck and the City were agreeed and resolved to declare for a free Parliament and decline the Rump Obstupui stetteruntque comae vox faucibus haesit I was strucken with amazement joy made me tremble and the goodnesse of the news would scarce permit me to believe it when I considered the crying sins of our Nation which deserved showers of vengeance not such sprinklings of mercy then all such conceipts seemed to me as vain and empty delusions but when I considered the infinite mercy of the Almighty then why might not God spare our Nineveh and send joyfull tydings into our discorsolate City Surely his mercies are greater than our great Sins Therefore to resolve this doubt I went up into the City where instead of Tears as formerly I had like to have been drowned with the Streams of joy and rejoycing The Bell rung merrily the Streets were paved with mirth and every house resounded with joyful acclamations I had do need then to ask whether the newâ— I heard in my Chamber were true or no both Men Women and Children Old and Young Rich and Poor all sung forth the destruction oâ— the Long called Parliament the whole City was as it were on fire with Bonfires for joy And now those who formerly threatned the firing of the City were burnt at every door for all the people cryed out let us Burn the Rump let us roast the Rump A suddain change History cannot tell us of its parallel No lesse than thirty eight Bonfires were made between Pleet-Conduit and Temple-Barre To be short there was scarce so much as one Alley in the whole City wherein there were not many Bonfires so that so great and general joyfulnesse never entred into the Walls of the City since it was built neither will again untill Charls the second be restored to his Crown The hopes whereof only caused the fervency of those joyes The Pulpits on the morrow being Sunday and all the Churches ecchoed forth Praises and Thanks to God and private devotion was not wanting neither was this joy confined only within the walls of the City but being a publique mischief was removed a publique rejoycing overspread the whole Kingdom and all the people with one heart and voyce shouted clapped hands and poured out joyful thanks for this great deliverance So the wearyed Hare is delighted and cheereth her self when she hath shook off the bloody Hounds and so a Flock of Sheep are at rest and ease when the Ravenous Wolves have newly left them Oh therefore let our distracted England be a warnin-gpiece to all Nations that they never attempt to Try and Judge their King for what cause soever And let all Traytors and Tyrants in the World learn by the example of our English Rebels that their Prosperity and Dominion though it seemeth never so perpetual is but momentary and as the wind which no man seeth For who so much applauded and look'd upon as the Long Parliament when they first took upon then to correct and question the King and who now so Ridiculous and Scorned They were them admired by the People as the Patrons Vindicators Redeemers and Keepers of their Liberty Nay I may most truly say that the people did worship and adore them more than they did God But now although they were as wicked then and did as much destroy our Laws and Liberties as they do now they are become a by-word the Scorn and Derision both of Men Women and Children and hooted at by every one as the greatest and most shameful laughing-stock in the World Who then can think upon our late most graciour King Charls the Martyr without Tears in his Eyes and contrition in his heart who can remember his patient Suffrings without Amazement and mourning who can look upon his Prophetical and Incomparable Book without Admiration and Weeping Rejoycings especially upon that Text in the 26 Chapter of his book viz. Vulgar complyance with any illegal and extravagant wayes like violent motions in nature soon grows weary of it self and ends in a refractory sullennesse Peoples rebounds are oft in their faces who first put them upon those violent strokes This needs no Commentary for every one knoweth with what zeal the Rabel of the people did at first stick to the Trayterous House of Commons in their Grand Rebellion and how they are now weary of them and with refractory sullennesse rise up against them and are ready to fly in their Faces who first taught them to Rebel and fight against their King Nay the Apprentices of London whom formerly these Rebels made instrumental to carry on their wicked designs against the King are now most vehement against them For why a noysome House is most obnoxious to the nearest Neigbours and the stinking House of Commons that sentina malorum doth most annoy this neighbouring City It is the nature of foxes to prey furthest from their holes but these unnatural foxes in sheeps clothing make all their prey both at home and abroad All is fish which comes to their net And that these Rebels may still have freedom to persevere in their villanies they cry up a free-State as the best of all Governments yet mark the nature of the beast a free-State say they is most beneficial for the people yet not so free but that they may and will qualifie and engage the persons chosen by the people according to