reconciliation after a just censure but suffered a rash and vniust Interdict to bee revoked by a verball declaration The Cardinall Ioyeous sent by the Pope declared that the Pope revoked his interdict and they gaue him an Act of the revocation of their Protestation Hee keeped no order in giving out an Interdict and as little in revoking of it the pronouncing was in splene and passion and the retreate was in shame and confusion This was against their owne Lawes for the interdicted persons should not bee received vnlesse first they satisfie for their fault or that they giue their oath for fulfilling of the commandements of the Church But the late â—asuists helpe the Pope in this straite Avila sayeth that that the Pope may relaxe an Interdict by his inward Act alone Papa potest solo actu interiori relaxare Interdictum And Fernandes affirmeth that the Pope may absolue albeit the cause cease not and a Rodrikez sayth That one who is absent or vnwilling may bee absolved All these cases serue to cure the Popes folie His intention is good enough to vndoe that whereby he had plondered the world two yeares And while the Venetians held at the point of their innocencie and would not bee absolved by him he was forced abruptlie to declare them free But Becanus telleth vs That they are ashamed of the matter for when it is obiected hee frets and fumes saying That since the matter is setled it ought not to bee wakened againe because such doing is the worke of seditious men Ais venetos sed bis peccas 1. quia cum lis illa sopita sit tu illam tuo flabello resuscitare non debes Hoc seditiosorum hominum est But I will serue him with his owne dilemmes Either the Pope had a good cause in hand or a badde If a good cause why did hee quyte it so shamefullie Where was his omnipotencie that hee could not double out the defence of the great and maine Article of his faith If hee had an evill cause where was his omniscience and infallibitie that they suffered him to enter in such a quarrell But the trueth is it was the witlesse impotencie of his proude spirit By their fretting they testifie they are ashamed of the cause contest and event But if they had prevailed in this contest they would haue put it in the Catalogue of the Popes victories over Princes and gloried in it as they did of Dandalus subiection to Clemens the fifth Thus was the Question cariage of it vulgarlie takeÌ„ vp but God had a secreit in it to giue the Pope a foile at his owne doores and that not so much in the opposition and event as in the cause which was not onely avarice and pride but most of all the defence of sorcerie and villante Heere in GOD would haue the world looking on the Whoore in her owne colours Sathan also blinded the Pope that hee saw no more but to pouse his power and smyled in his sleeue when hee brought Sanctissimus on the Stage to patronize Villanie It is their custome to act and maintaine villanies and though they confesse Iohn the tweluth to haue beene a monstruous adulterer yet they damne the Councell that condemned him Lastlie God was heerein teaching the possibilitie of the Popes curbing when a petite state in comparison of great Kings at his Elbow gaue him an irrecoverable blow for his folie CHAP. XXXIX Their cruell attempts in great BRITAINE THeir other attempt was in great Britaine They assayed it with all sorts of weapons First by the wind of cursing Henrie the eight and Elizabeth But that proved evill wind to the blower Next by VVater and Sea by their great Armado wherein Sixtus the fifth a had his hand but God scattered them and made the winds Seas fight for this Yland Therafter they pressed to barre K. Iames entrie by Brieues perindiciall to his Succession but when they saw they prevailed not they pressed to flatter him at least to feede themselues with hope of toleration And when that failed they turned to their wonted practice of treason and laboured to kill him before his Coronation And when God disappointed them therein and all hope of toleration was lost they went to extremitie and fetched from hell the devyce of the powder-plot Some thing lik was attemped in Florence and Lisbone latelie in Genua but they are nothing to this for these were Papists against Papists their grouÌ„d was civill miscontentments but heere Religion was the cause that against a King a Queene Prince and flower of all the Estates of a Kingdome and many Papists also These were against some few foes onelie but this was to blow vp friends with foes and not to giue them leaue to thinke of God at their death but in one instant to bee Breathing dead and evanished without Buriall But GOD turned this Mine vpon the Miners to discover and overthrow the depths of Rome This brought the matter of vsurpation againe on the Stage with a new and singular sort of acting Before it was disputed by Divines and Lawyers but then by the pen of a King and while other Kings were either killed in the question or beeing aliue durst not or could not debate it God set vp a living and learned King on a throne to plead his cause Strangers acknowledged his furnishing with wisedome and learning as farre as any King since Solomon Iacobus 1. Mag. Brit. Rex omni laude maior eminet adeo ut cum Solomone sapientissimo certare posse videatur And that our Age hath seene him onelie among Princes plenished with all knowledge beloved of them for his most learned works Cum autem nostra aetas te solum augustissime Princeps incomparabili felicitate sortiatur qui excelsamente doctissi mis lucubrationibus omnium Principum animos tibi conciliasti And himselfe professeth that God had raised him from an obscure Kingdome to a greater that from so eminent a place the world might heare him pleading for the trueth Two glorious Titles concurred in him First the title of Defender of the Church from the Crowne of Scotland And the title of Defender of the Faith from the Crowne of England And God gaue him a double measure amongst Kings to bee one of his Worthies and to lift vp his penne against many hundreth Papists That royall Premonition dedicate to Princes was easilie vshered comming from a Prince but it cast the Iesuited Papists in a plunge Manie of them railed against it as Bellarmine Becane Suarez Cofteau Schioppius and others to the number of fourtie fiue But it stands yet vnanswereable because they brought nothing against it but their owne preiudicate and ranâ—ide Paradoxes And the worthy Divines of England vnder such a Chiftane haue so tortured them in that argument that they haue left the field And whereas the Parliament and Sorbone censured some Bookes written
Chaire it must bee either in Apostleship or Doctrine But the first dyed with the Apostles as a personall Priviledge and the second is lost because they haue not the Chaire of S. Peter who hold not his Doctrine This their opinion of not erring is a Capitall errour thereby they tye God to them and theirseate while they loose them selues to sin But God hath confuted their folie and shewed to the world that that seate is but a seate of scorners for their is no Lyne of Christian Princes or Prelates that hath moe monsters in it than the Succession of Popes For the space of an hundreth and fiftie yeares some fiftie Popes fell close away from the vertue of their Predecessors and were rather inordinate and Apostaticke than Apostolicke and in a word they were â—lagitious Monsters as I said before from their owne confession Indifferent men would think that where truth forceth their Conscience to confesse so matchlesse wickednesse in their Popes they would grant also a possibility of erring the interrupting of Succession at least in Doctrine and so the Apostacie of their Church c. But they inferre the contrare conclusion That not witstanding the wickednesse of Popes who both neglected to guide the Shippe of the Church and did rather what they could to drowne it yet God had a care to keepe a Church amongst them These are the conclusions of hardened hearts who take the worke of their owne sin and Gods punishment to bee a worke of mercie Wee grant they haue a Church but an whorish and hereticall one not an Apostolicke as they pretend but an Apostaticke as they confesse 2. The worke of the royall Gift Iust Governement That hee may judge thy people in righteousnesse THis is the second thing hee prayeth for the worke and vse of the gift the governing of Gods people aright Everie gift of God is his blessing to mankinde and that both to the possessour and others It maketh the possessour idonous and fit for to doe some good to mankind And the want in other it respectes as a remeedie to worke such a good as they neede Therefore there is required a worke of the gift to proue the liuelinesse of it in the possessour and to produce the worke of helping others A gift without its owne proper worke is but liuelesse and a Talent digged in the earth The gift it selfe is a sort of Gods presence with the possessour but the right vse of it is a greater degree of his presence And for this cause a gift even in a Mechanicke calling is called a Spirit I will powre my Spirit on Bezaleel c. To testifie it is all in action a vigorous and actuous power in man setting him on worke The end also of all gifts is for action whither it bee a gift of common providence the possession is personall but the vse is common or whither it bee a gift of grace for edification the possession is also personall but for a common vse Wee shall consider this worke in the rule the Practise the Difficultie and Remeedes The rule is the Law As all gifts are for worke so the gift of Kinglie governement and that both to make good Lawes by common consent and governe according to them In the beginning Societies had no enacted Lawes but a power committed to one But when they saw that one to abuse his power GOD by that same Law of Nature that led them first to Governement tooke them a steppe further to make Lawes that both Ruler and people might haue a standing and set Directorie by common consent So that as tediousnesse of solitarinesse drew them to Societies and iniuries of Societies drew them to Governement so the tyrannie of Governours drew them to Lawes for the good of the whole Bodie Lawes doe not onelie teach what should bee done but also enjoyne that it bee done and that with respects of rewarding obedience and punishing disobedience so God gaue his Law hedged with promises to allure and threatnings to terrifie for hee knoweth our slownesse to good hath neede to be allured by rewards and our forwardnes to evill to bee bridled with punishment These respects are proper to man for other creatures as naturall Agents worke according to the Law that God hath given them They haue no more but a common assistance of God as the first cause neither hath the worke the morall respect of vertue or vice or of reward or punishment But man commeth in another estate hee hath a minde to consider the equitie of the Law a Conscience to bee sensible of the obligement and a will to incline to doe And therefore his obedience hath the Name of righteousensse looking to the promised reward and his disobedience the name of sinne looking to the threatned punishment Good Lawes are the sinewes of Societies though they direct vs in outward things yet they sticke fast on our Reason which beeing in kind but one in all men maketh a great sibnesse of Notions in all so that reason in everie man can easilie conceiue or condescend to that equitie which vniversall reason the extract of the eternall Law of God directeth vs to doe All Lawes haue a binding notion and vse though in diverse respects The eternall Law is in God his will the fountaine and rule of all Lawes And amongst men the Noetick Law of Nature writteÌ„ in the hearts of all people in principles The laws of nations Dianoetick or discursiue in conclusions drawn out of these principles which are divers in sundrie places because of the diversitie of circumstances The greatest perfection of humane Lawes is in their conformitie to that prime and eternall Law in God and in their vigour when they are put in execution like the effectuall providence that executeth the prime Law Written Lawes are for direction and the living Law that is a King is for actions to see that direction obeyed As their calling prescryveth this so the people craue it For Iustice is an habite dwelling in the Soules of Kings and cannot be seene but in the worke and people are not so subtile as to consider royall Iustice in an habite but as they see it in practice When they see sinne punished and vertue honoured that is more forcible to perswade them of the gift of governement in Kings than a thousand subtile demonstrations This is plaine in the end of Solomons desire hee craved a wise heart not for that end to dwell in pleasant theorie but for practice that I may goe out and in before thy people No King abounded more in profound speculations yet â—ee made them not his end but vsed them as meanes to fit him for a practike Governement and to giue the world a proofe of his habilitie for his calling It was not the habite of wisedome in his heart but the practice that made him famous to the world The words that hee spake the order of his house and wise dispatch of
holynes The other is given to helpe others to salvation and holinesse and this is common both to good and evill and of this kind is that holinesse wee acknowledge in the Pope And when Gardius objected to him that some Popes were ignorant and flagitious hee answereth that that did not stay the assistance of the holie Spirit in those things that was necessar to the Popes holines because Balaam was a flagitious maÌ„ these workers of iniquitie to whom Christ will say I know you not depart from me This is true indeed we hold him at his word for it is a poore pleading to sure no more holines for their Pope than to Balaam or false prophets Thirdlie A titular holinesse given for a title and made passant through long custome a As the Emperours were called Augusti from Augustus and Optimi from Traian though they were infortunat and dissâ—lute as Nero Heliogabalus and Galien c. So because some Popes were holie that â—aâ—e passed as a Title to their Successoures without any respect of their personal qualification This Azoâ—ius confesseth that it is an â—lâ—e custoâ—e that the Pope beâ—alled most holie and most blessed c. So hee contenteth him with a custome Fourthlie A putatiue or presumed holinesse when men thinke him to be holie though he â—e a monster indeede So Hildebrand in his owne cause If the Pope bee Canonicallie ordained vndoubâ—dlie he is made holy by the merites of S. Peter And who can doubt sâ—id Symmachus â—ut hee is holy whom the toppe of so great dignitie extolleth In whom if they lacke merites of their owne the merites furnished by their Predecessours will suffice For this place either exalteth them who are excellent or maketh them excellent who are exalted Let the World judge whither they or wee put pillowes of seâ—uritie vnder menâ— head since they come so easilie to merite But their Councel of Basile is more cleare giveth vs three sorts of this putatiâ—e holinesse The first is of his State that hee be reputted holie so that holinesse is not referred to him but to the estimation of people as honour is in honoranâ—e non in honorato The second holinesse is religious The third is the holinesse of publicke Iustice. But the Pope as Pope is the highest degree of all these sorts therefore hee may be called most holy albeit he be of a wicked life so long as he is not iudged to be so but tolerate by the holy Church This like their State-sanctitie or holinesse of their religious orders which is contrair distinguished to true holines For a man may be truelie perfect and not in a religious state and in a religious state but not perfect I admitte their distinction but why tye they Evangelicke perfection to that state except they meane such a perfection as is their holinesse and that is but a fansie They moâ—ke the Imputation of Christs righteousnesse when the godlie applie it by â—â—ith Christ alloweth it and the Father imputeth it And â—et they content themselues with a putatiue holinesse borrowed of man and iâ—puted by â—an So in their Priests absolution of the penitâ—1nts and in this their holinesse of Popes It argueth an evill cause in so great a clame to bee content with so base a portion in the strife for a Monarchie they outrack all the notions of the words that signifie power Supremacie c. But in the clame of holinesse they decline the proper Notion and retrinches all to a Titular and putatiue sense This maketh their Patrone when hee disputs his eight note of the Church to wit holinesse to shift it from persons and applie it to doctrine And in another place to craue no more respect to their Pope than Caiaphas had though hee was a false Priest and wicked and such respect as Iudas had among the Disciples This is a great change that hee who tâ—rusteth himselfe aboue Kings yet among the Cleargie is content to bee ranked among Caiaphas and Iudas This their not our wickednesse seemeth to bee the secret cause of the change of their Name wheÌ„ they enter the Popedome The most part beginneth at Sergius the second who beeing ashamed of his name Swynes-mouth called himselfe Sergius But Baronius ascriveth it to Sergius the third Who beeing first called Peter would not retaine that name for the reverence hee bare to S. Peter But here is the mysterie they haue no part of the holinesse of S. Peter therefore tak not his name And moreover among all who tooke other names as of Paul Iohn c. yet never one tooke the name of Peter albeit some had that name before their Papalizing as Innocent the fourth formerlie called Petrus of Tarentasia and Paul the fist formerlie called Petrus Carafa This is not of humilitie but of conviction of conscience not taking his name to whom they are opposite So long as Sancta Catholica stood in the Creede there was some holinesse amongst them but since they thrust Romana on it they haue lost holinesse Romane holinesse is but by Equivocation and in end resolues in monstruous profainnesse for at Rome it is all one to bee called a Christian as in other places to bee called an Asse The head of their Church may be a Monster to be a member of that Church faith inward vertue is not required but onelie a Subiection to the Pope So their Church in the head members are by Equivocation their holines by Equivocation all of them in the Church but secundum apparentiam exteriorem putative Campian needed nâ—t boast vs ad Ecclesiae nomâ—n rostis expalluit As though it were to vs as Gâ—rgons head to make vs astonished but if they haue any remnant ingenuitie they should bee ashamed of their excrementitious Church for they craue none other place for it but as haires and nailes and evill humours in the bodie and their excommnnication is not a curse but a blessing to bee separate from such a Synagogue All heere agree such an head such members And this was the fruite of their Monarchie when the Romanes wanted Carthage and other emulous Republickes they ranne head-long to all â—vices stantibus maenibus mores ruebaÌ„t while their wals stood strong their liues weâ—e dissâ—lute So when the Popes had trod downe all competitours they loosed themselues to all profainesse Heerein they seeme to walke in an evill Conscience both in plunging ignorant men and flattering the Pope They plunge the ignorant while they affirme that the salvation of all Christians dependeth on the holinesse vertue and example of the Popes And Salianus an Iesuite writting to Paul the fiâ—t saith Ut per unum te in communione tantum tua vis omnis ac vigor gratiarum sanctâ—â—atis in omnia membra diffundatur That Christ hath thee for his Vicar and as the necke vnder such an Head that by thee alone and in thy communion onelie all
his affaires made the hearers beholders astonished Lawes are not made for Theorie but for Practice and the best practice on the part of the people is Obedience and on the part of the Magistrate execution And the best execution is when rewards and punishments the pases of the worlds Clocke are applyed as men deserue the god lie rewarded the wicked punished It hath bene an olde coÌ„plaint that Lawes haue bene well made but evill observed And he cannot be innocent who either spareth him that should bee punished or punisheth him that should bee spared By just punishment three things are procured First the amendement of the offender for so the evill of punishment layde vpon the evill of his disobedience will curbe that corrupâ—ion in him since it bringeth vpon him a worse evill in his account Next a bettering of other who seeing iniquitie punished will feâ—re to doe the like least they incurre the like punishment Thirdlie the peace of the whole Bodie when such as trouble it with their wrongous dealing are condignelie punished for their wrongâ— On the other part when righteousnesse is rewarded three answerable fruites doe follow First the righteous are made better when the good of their righteousnes is augmented by the good of their reward Next others are provoked to righteousnesse when they see it rewarded Thirdlie the whole body is reioyced to see the good honoured for when the godly are exalted the people reioyce and so publicke peace is keeped by the vniversall care and study of well-doing But when the application of these things goe contrare both to the meaning of the Law and the deserving of the persons then fearefull confusions follow All men are discouraged from righteousnesse which they see neglected and punished And none sleeth from evill but rather followeth it when they see it honoured with the reward of good The wicked are both imboldened to committe sinne and proud of their reward The godly are grieved that matters goe so crosse and lament to see good men cled in the liveray of the wicked and the wicked in the liveray of the godly It is a shame for the sonnes of men when the wicked are exalted In such a case Lawes are without life their execution is contrare to their direction and their direction serveth for no other end but as a shining light to discover the iniquitie of such application Impyres and Kingdomes are no lesse mortall than a man they haue their owne Infancie Adolescence and Vigour and from that their inclination decay death and others arise of their fall Their greatest high is in Pietie and Iustice and their deadlie disease is in profainesse and vnrighteousnesse As the heate decaying in the heart so is profainnesse in a Kingdome and injustice is as a palsie that dissolveth the whole Bodie It was one of Solomons remarkes of vanitie I saw vnder the Sunne the place of Iudgement that wickednesse was there and the place of righteousnesse that iniquitie was there It is grievous to see iniquitie any where but most in the seate of Iustice and it is great boldnesse in iniquitie to out-face Iustice in her owne seate and great presumption in the vnrighteous when they darre either prosecute or defend iniquitie in Iudgement The case of that â—and is lamentable where Iustice â—eats are â—ade seates of injustice and the remeede of inquitie turned in the disease there is no hope that Iustice can reigne where iniquitie vsurpeth so vpon her as to thrust her out of her place and from thence vnder her name maintaineth wrong That case seemeth so desperate to Solomon that hee putteth it amongst these cases reserved to Gods owne cure and the great appellations to be discussed at the last day I said in mine heart God shall iudge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time for everie purpose and for everie worke God hath established Iustice amongst men to doe them right but when shee is so oppressed as to bee displaced and her name borrowed to colour iniquitie then of a Iudge shee turned a Plaintiue compleaning to God of that violence Though Lawes were wrong exponed in their meaning and their rewards wrong applyed yet supreme reason the life of the law liueth with God and will vindicate the owne true sense and apply rewards aright This is the law of Lawes abyding in God which wee may know and ought to follow â—ut may not iudge so that wee may say THAT THE LAVV OF THE COVRT OF HEAVEN AND OF REPVBLICKS IS THE VVILL OF GOD. Hee hath appointed Indicatories to keepe men in order but when they are abused to maintaine wrong and oppresse right hee hath the last Iudgement for a remeede to call all proceedings to a new tryall and to discusse the appeales of the distressed Kings indeede haue long eares to heare and long hands to doe many things yet they cannot heare and doe all by themselues Therefore Iethroes counsell to Moses was good to divide his burthen and set vp Iudges and Magistrates with authoritie vnder him But that work is full of difficulty that in respect of the Lawes the parties Witnesses Lawes are many yet short for all incident and daylie emergent causes Iustinian thought hee had put out a perfect bodie of the Lawes when hee caused digest the Roman Lawes for twelue hundreth yeare and yet these many Volumes may be called short for so vniversall a purpose and the matter appointed to end Pleas is turned a seminarie of pleas because of briefnesse Though all Lawes and Decisions were gathered together they cannot meete with everie new circumstance Mans corruption is ever devysing new wrongs and new colours to colour them withall â—he diverse interpretation of Lawes increaseth this difficultie and that Emperour misseth his end of the hastie decision of pleas when after long disputing the question is more doubtfull than when it was first stated albeit the small brookes of Lawes before Lotharius time are turned since in Mare magnum a great ocean of Lawes The parties vsuallie whither of simplicitie or purpose are bold to bring the evill cause to Iudgement they are confident of their cause and oft times the worst cause hath most diligence to supplie the want of equitie by the excesse of businesse If righteousnesse ruled men Iudges would haue little to doe and if Truth were in their words questions were soone decided But the Clients information to their Advocats is so badde that it is hard either for them to know or the Iudge to discerne where the Truth is Witnesses also helpe this difficultie They are subiect to their own corruptions and may deceiue the best Iudges who by their office are bound to judge according to things alledged and proven If the religion of one Oath had force the matter were easie for God hath ordained it to put an end to controversies but mans wickednesse hath turned it in a
meanes to hyde the truth If Aequivocation had place in Iudgement God had never ordained Oathes for ending of questions though the Iesuits haue perfected that coloured periurie in our time yet it is naturall to man who is a liar It confounded all Iudgement so that neither the oath of calumnie in the parties nor the oath of veritie in the Witnesses wants the owne suspicion But possiblie betime Iudges will bee forced to invent a third sort of oath occasioned by Aequivocation to make parties and Witnesses sweare that they sweare truelie Moreover though Knowledge and Experience in Iudges overcome these difficulties yet their frailtie of affection is inclinable to the Parties Therefore it was a good devyce to pleade causes without designing the names of the parties but vnder the fained names of Seius and Titius c. And that suffrages should not bee given by Word but by Notes on a Table or by White-stones for assenting or blacke-stones for dissenting So a way was provyded for libertie in votting and for securitie from challeng for that libertie But the absolute best remeede for Parties Pleaders Witnesses and Iudges is to set God the supreme Iudge before them and to remember that God sitteh in the assemblie of gods and to proceed as in his sight When cause is simplie compared with cause and reason with reason the sentence will easilie ryse according to right and equitie But this difficultie is greatest in criminall causes and hath brought on the necessitie of torture which is a sort of torment to a pittifull Iudge It is a miserable supplie of the want of probation and so insufficient that the vrgers of it permit the sufferer after torture to goe from his deposition or byde at it It was first devysed by Pagans and is iustlie called a Tarquinian crueltie They had not spirituall and divine motiues taken from GOD or Heaven or Hell c. to presse the Consciences of the guiltie therefore they tooke them to that brutish motiue of a bodilie paine Man is reasonable and truth should bee sought out of him by reasonable motiues which choppe on his reason and Conscience and that in the respects of eternall reward or punishment But the way by bodilie paines is more fleshlie and the order is preposterous by the bruising of the flesh to open the minde An extorted confession is but a bastard confession as fire forced out of the flint It is lamentable that among Christians there is as great necessitie of torture and as small fruite of it as among Pagans What ever bee the lawfulnesse of it the minde of he Iudge is tortured Hee would know the Truth and must vse such a meanes to search it Hee knoweth not whither the sufferer bee guiltie or not yet must hee suffer as suspected of obstinacie in denying lest hee die as guiltie and in avoyding death hee suffereth death in torments hee suffereth not because hee hath done the crime but because it is vncertaine if hee haue done it And so the vnavoydable ignorance of the Iudge is the calamitie of the Innocent and the more hee presse to helpe his ignorance hee hurteth the innocent the more This is lamentable and to bee washeth with floodes of teares that while the Iudge tortures the suspâ—ct person least hee kill an innocent hee killeth that innocent whom hee tortureth lest hee should kill him And when their paine maketh them chuse to die rather than to bee tortured they confesse the cryme that they did not and so are innocent both in torture and in death And yet when they are execute the Iudge knoweth not whither they be guiltie or innocent And so oftimes both tortureth and killeth an innocent while hee laboureth to eschew it By these things a wise Iudge is drawen on not by desire of hurt but by necessitie of ignorance and yet since humane Societie craveth it by necessitie of Iudgement This is contrare to the tortures of the olde persecutors they tortured confessing Christians and let them goe free if they denyed but the criminals torture that they may confesse and destroyeth them for their confession On the other part how oft doe the guiltie endure torture with obstinacie and harden their hearts to conceale the truth Such obstinacie at the first is resolved but if it turne iudiciall by a wilfull denying with cursings and execrations then it worketh either a stupifying senselesnes in their flesh or else by way of diversion fasteneth the minde so vpon losse or shame that followeth a confession that it lets not the flesh feele paine Sathan can stupifie his martyres in maintaining lies that hee may play the Ape to GOD who mitigateth the paines of his martyrs by spirituall comforts It is not therfore for nought that God tooke of the Spirit of Moses and put vpon the Elders because they had a Calling full of difficultie In all which cases it is best for a Iudge to looke to God and that eternall Law in him and withall to craue his direction that hee erre not in Iudgement and cry Deliver mee O Lord out of all my necessities But there is no better spur than Iehosaphaâ—s exhortation to Iudges Take heede what yee doc for yee iudge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the Iudgement Wherefore now let the feare of the Lord bee vpon you take heede and doe it For there is no iniquitie with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts Of Princes difficulties dangers IT lyeth then on Princes to exercise their Gift as they would proue the liuelinesse of it and this brings on them a world of difficulties There is none in their Kingdome of a more laborious life The Head that moveth all must haue action in it and the heart is in a continuall motion to furnish fresh Spirits to the bodie Great is their taske to know the state of their Subjects to heare the plaints of the poore to represse the insolencies of the proude by causing minister Iustice to all God hath set them aboue their Subiects but that same exalting in some sort putteth them vnder because they are servants to their Subiects in that they watch for their weall and safty I herefore the Apostle in that same place where hee calleth them supereminent powers calleth them also the Ministers of God to minister Iustice for hee is the Minister of God to thee for thy good They are Gods Ministers attending continuallie vpon this verie thing They haue supreme power bowing downe to a Ministeriall worke and a Ministerie cloathed with supreme power Many are quicke-sighted to see the defects of Governement who will not see the difficulties and dangers of it for beside the weight of such a Calling the most lawfull vse of their coactiue power beareth them on many dangers either in punishing the vniust or affraying them that would bee so Every curbed humour by feare of punishment
fretteth against them God hath fenced them indeede against briares and thornes with their supreme authoritie and yet sometime they feele their sharpnesse It is impossible to them to please all yea not to curbe many in execuâ—ing Iustice and their danger is not so much from open Enemies and secret male-contents as from their friends and Attendants The force of the one is not so fearefull as the treason of the other Their guards are to keepe them safe and yet are they often in greatest danger in the midst of them So both solitarinesse and Societie are dangerous to Princes They reigne over the multitude wherein are moe vniust than iust and moe that will bee offended than pleased And in every Kingdome the mightie and the people are as two factions and Princes saile betwixt them as two extreames but the vpright ministration of Iustice is the best waâ— Private men can hardlie please both parties but Princes cled with authority neede not sticke in these straiâ—es but to giue everie man his due This is the great benefite of Iustice that beside the natiue intrinsecall goodnesse it hath also this accessorie good to make a safe way for Princes betwixt contrarie factions When a Iudge inflicteth punishment the cause of punishment is not the Iustice of the Iudge but the merite of the Crime a Greatest Princes haue greatest cares and the largenesse of their Dominion enlargeth their labour as great hollow Statues overlayed with gold are full of wormes and Spiders so the greatest Monarchs vnder show of worldly glorie are full of noysome cares All these cares should indeere them in the hearts of their people because they are not for themselues but for their people A good Princes wakerifenesse keepes the sleepe of his Subiects His labour their idlenesse His businesse their vacancie and his care maketh them carelesse The greatnesse of a Prince is as much for his peoples good as it is aboue them Great businesse with dangers and difficulties are their ordinarie dyet vnder which they would succumbe if God supported them not with as great a Spirit to dispatch businesse contemne dangers and expede difficulties So that though their Crownes bee of Gold yet they may bee called Crownes of thornes and their just â—mbleme is a man sitting in a Chaire of state with a naked Sword hinging by a small haire over his head But God the King of kings hath a speciall care over them and guardeth their persons by a particular providence lâ—st his sacred image in supreme authoritie should bee violat by everie miscontent humour These are their seene dangers but they haue another enemie lesse hated but more hurtfull and that is Flatterie the bane of greatnesse it followeth it as the shadow doth the bodie and lookes not to truth but to acceptance and putteth a visorne on the natiue face Sathan durst thereby assault Christ though hee despaired of successe how much more will he assault sinfull man where he is sure of victorie Hee knoweth that even they who overcome vice are often corrupted with praise Scarcelie is there one who giveth not patent cares to flattery and as they will not patiently suffer evill to be spoken of them so if they liue well they would bee counted of And who is hee whole vertues breaking foorth desireth not to bee commended Or that contemneth the praise of men Princes therefore are most exposed to the praises of mankind both for their eminencie as an obiect and for their power to requyte with reward Flatterers haue suggested that poyson to Princes as to make them thinke their will is a law their power the measure of their will and that supreme Reason and their pleasure are all one They labour to possesse them with the opinion of compleate absolutenesse from dependance on any Author from limitation by any Law from errour in their doing and from reckoning for their doings to God All men by nature like to bee rubbed with this Combe and with a deceiving delight admitte that praise which their Reason and Conscience refuseth But the angrie countenance of a wise King will scatter these flies For expeding these difficulties some Princes haue vsed the faint remeede to lay downe their Governement Diocletian re signed his dignitie to Galerâ—us and turned privat It was not so much for saâ—ietie of honour as impatiencie of disappointment Hee had for eighteene yeares cruellie persecuted the Christians and not beeing able to roote them out as hee desired hee satisfied his miscontentment by retirednesse and privacie The Martyres courage made him a Coward and hee brake his owne spirit in despite because hee could not breake them the Name of Iesus was more glorious by his persecution and in end hee dyed miserablie This was the hand of God throwing him downe from the toppe of honour which he abused Hee would bee worshipped as a god but fell low from the Throne to a Garden and from the Scepter to a Spade more from an affected Godhead to a male-contentment but indeede that swelling conceate of a Godhead was a worse fall than when he turned private Lotharius also resigned his Kingdome to his Sonnes and beeing wearie of the imperiall Crowne hee would take on him the Monkish shaven Crown and render himselfe to a Monasterie This last age also saw some of it in Charles the fist so long as hee was zealous for God and earnestlie sought Reformation God blessed many great things in his hand But when the Pope fedde his ambition with the baite of the Impyre of Germanie and he had devoured it by hope a conceate where with his house is drunke vntill this day then hee persecuted the Protestants with an vniust and civill war After that never thing prospered in his hand but God cast him in such disastures as suffered him not to brooke the publicke and therefore choosing retearednesse to digest them hee was digested and overcome by them Such a dispositioÌ„ in Princes is a deserting of their place their gift themselues and on Gods part a just desertion dryving them in the straits of a private spirit who haue prevaricat in his publicke service The largenesse of the heart is the vprightnesse of it When it dilateth it selfe on God by Faith and affection but when men close their Heart vpon God by seeking themselues they are both separate from him and excluded from themselues in that selfe-respecting But the best remeede to overcome all these difficulties are Pietie and Prudence Pietie directeth them in all actions towards God maks them in their adoes to depend on him it holdeth them daylie with him to seeke both the gift and the vse of it in his assisting and blessing of their labours Though hee be high he must day lie doe homage to God who is higher than the highest as he wold haue his presence with his Governement The more hee pray ardently and looke on God he shall the more finde wisedome in that Fountaine haue a
righteousnesse amongst themselues and yet for all this they haue neede of civill Governement The best man hath some remanent Corruption and in the best particular Churches are some who haue not the power of Religion nor are disposed for righteousnes Herein appeareth mans vnrulines Gods mercy supplying it with Governement And the happinesse of such Kings as rule the people of God This is mans vnrulinesse that though hee bee reasonable and of one stocke in Adam and of one condition in sinne which should make him to loue his Neighbour yet wee are most vnreasonable and inhumane to other Neither the bands of common nature nor common miserie no not of Religion can make vs liue in righteousnesse It was truelie said That the necessitis of many Physitians in a Citie argued great intemperance in a people So the necessity of Magistrates argueth great vnrighteousnes amoÌ„gst men If we had stood in Innocency as wee were created wee had beene to others as harmelesse Lambes and gallesse Doues our pure minde tooke light of God fully our Will followed that Light freelie and our Affections and the whole man went one way to obey him But by our fall that furnishing is lost and that harmonie broken our mynde taketh not Gods Light our will and affections miscarie the whole man violently wee breake to God and so cannot doe a duety to man That fansie of some Schoole-men of a meere and pure Nature is a pernitious errour that ignorance and concupiscence were the conditions of that Nature and that man in his first estate would haue beene caried to the desire of sinfull things This obseureth the integritie of our creation the miserie of our fall and Gods mercie restoring vs In our innocencie we had no disposition to sin our originall righteousnesse was a sweete applying of everie power in vs to another and all of them to God But now beeing voyde of that originall iustice and full of iniquitie wee are like vnreasonable creatures Man is in honour and vnderstandeth not hee is like a beast that perisheth As the greater Beastes devour the smaller and ravening fowles prey vpon the weaker and greater fishes eat vp the lesser So everie man as hee hath a gift aboue his Neighbours vseth it to their hurt The wise man turneth his wisedome to intrappe the simple the mightie man his power to oppresse the weaker and the rich man maketh his riches as feete and hands to fulfill his evill purpose against the poore So though it would seeme an easie thing for a King to rule a multitude of reasonable men brought vp in civilitie and Religion yet it is a matter of great difficultie Therefore one said right That Kings ought to bee Pastours and that because they rule men who are led by brutâ—sh affections This is a Glasse for mans infirmitie That hee is the most disobedient creature the will of God is an eternall Law the cause and rule of all equitie and reason thereby hee disposeth his owne actions and giveth the extract of it respectiuely to creatures and all of them except man obey that Law according to their power This power is specified in their essentiall formes and these formes are the immediate cause of their working and Character of their worke Mans disobedience is the greater because he hath the most excellent forme is best obliged and best furnished he hath a reasonable Soule and the greatest extract of Gods eternall Law both wriâ—en in his heart and revealed to him in Scripture Hee alone hath a Conscience to charge him with obedience in the Name of God As a Center hee is compassed with obedient creatures If he looke aboue hee seeth the Angels keepe their celestiall Law in loving adoring and imitating God if beneath hee seeth all creatures keepe their Law the fruite of their obedience is his comfort and if they altered their course but a short space hee would perish And yet notwithstanding of the excellencie of his forme the riches of his furniture and his compassing with a cloud of so many obedient witnesses hee remaineth still vntractabâ—e Secondly herein is Gods great mercie to man that hee leaveth him not in this disorder Hee knoweth that hee would be as a beast pushing and goaring other therefore he hath set vp Magistracie as a soveraigne remeede of that furie and given it power to secure the weake from the injuries of the mightie wisedome to saue the simple from the snares of the craftie That if the great sort will abuse their power in tyrannizing over the weake they may finde in Kings a power to controll them The greatnesse of Kings aboue their Subjects is both a staffe to the weaker to leane to and a bridle to restraine the outrages of the mightie as the Prophet expresseth Defend the poore and fatherlesse doe Iustice to the afflicted and needie deliver the poore and needie ridde them out of the hand of the wicked This vindicating power of Princes is as great a blessing to the oppressours whom it restraineth as to the poore who are rescued Thirdly this is the happinesse of Kings that rule over Gods people that their lotte is fallen pleasantly in Gods inheritance They who reigne over Barbarians are Kings over beastes rather than men and they who rule over civill Countries where true Religion is not are Kings but of men but they whose Kingdome is a particular Church to God are Kings over Kings or Christians more than men and their common Subjects by grace haue more true worth than such Kings as are over Barbarians because wee are a royall Priest-hood The one reignâ—th in a Paradise the other as in a barren Wildernesse This excellencie hath also an easinesse with it to overcome mans natiue vnrulinesse for Gods Scepter bringeth people to obedience as this Prophet acknowledgeth It is God that subdueth my people vnder mee When mans rudenesse is broken with a true Religion it is most plyable to authoritie as to the ordinance of God hee both commands and alloweth that obedience and disposeth people thereto willinglie Numa by Religion plyed his rude Romans more to the offices of Warre and peace than Romulus austere governement If a false Religion did this in Pagans what shall the true Religion and the grace that accompanieth it worke in Christians It is farre more easie to rule good people than badde because there is none so rebellious to Authoritie as those who rebell against their own reason a good man is more obsequious to Princes than a Russian The godly doe feare Princes more than they are to bee feared of Princes but no bands can keepe the wicked in order True Religion binds vs to God and the grace of it is our greatest perfection in this life and that partaking of the divine Nature maketh vs the more respectuous to Gods ordinance Where that is not Lawes Rewards and Punishments are but weake motiues but where it is they neede not a Law The
wicked idolaters and of Iudah onlie two were exceeding good Ezekiah and Iosiah sixe were praised in part and reprooved in part as Asa Iosaphat Ioaz Amasah Vzzah and Iotham And all the rest were idolaters as the Kings of Israel The praise of good Kings is that they know the Truth and serued God accordinglie They were zealous for his glorie destroying idolatrie and holding it out of their Kingdomes they maintained the worship of God according to his Truth and gaue neither toleration nor libertie of false Religions to their Subiects but astricted them by Lawes to worship him aright went before them in a royall example They sought not themselues but Gods glorie and he recompenced them againe by his blessing on their persons and government and making their Names to flowrish in benediction But the idolatrous Kings were contrare they forsooke the true God themselues and permitted a miscellanie Religion to their people Therefore his curse was on them and their government Hee wrote their Names in the dust and made them vyle to the posteritie as may be seene in Histories Heere is a looking Glasse for Christian Princes Popish Kings though they bee in the Church yet they are like the Kings of Israel in idolatrie as Ieroboam with the Calues at Bethel But Kings in reformed Churches are like the Kings of Iudah who haue God among them in the Arke of his testimonie and true Religion and it is their safetie to follow David Ezekiah and Iosiah in the maintenance and practise of true Religion This is a better exemplar than the Cardinals When for a fashion he hath set downe the example of some good Iewish and Christian Princes hee subioynes the Legend of some canonized Kings who got that honour when Ignorance and Idolatrie prevailed in the Church That looking to that Glasse of the Popes forging hee may steale the hearts of Princes from God to superstition I would aske if Ioseph Moses David c. before Christ and Theodosius Tiberius the younger c. were not as holy as Vencesâ—aus Leopoldus and other canonized Kings If they were wherefore are these canonized and not the other A good King setteth God before him as his end and true happinesse in his fauour hee counteth his earthlie Kingdome neither his eâ—d nor a way to the right end but seeketh the Kingdome of Heauen aboue the other and that by the way of godlinesse and righteousnesse It is a well grounded Throne that standeth on these two pillers Godlinesse maketh men eternall it is his Image that never dyeth and maketh their persons and workes acceptable to him without it as no man can see him so with it vndoubtedlie they shall enjoy him for euer No Iewell nor Dyamount shineth brighter in the Crownes of Kings than true godlinesse Righteousnesse is another Pillar the proper worke of the Throne and Gods worke in Kings who sit in it for the heart of the King is in the Lords hand and hee sweyeth it whither hee will It is a just thing with GOD to maintaine the Throne his owne ordinance when righteousnesse his will and work doe both liue in it and issue from it And what are good Kings on Thrones but God in them iudging the World God standeth in the Congregation of the mightie and hee iudgeth among Gods Hee delighteth to rest where hee reigneth and ruleth with delight A righteous King sitting on his Throne is a more pleasant sight than Solomons that more for his invisible Attendants than for his visible Before him standeth Affabilitie as a Porter to giue accesse to the plaints of the afflicted Injuries choppe the hearts of the oppressed and they runne to Princes for helpe And they are set vp in their greatnesse not to neglect the oppressed but to heare their complaints It was a fault in the Kings of Persia not to admitte any to their presence but such as were called vpon it made oppressours bolde and the oppression of the poore incurable But it was commended in another King who gaue justice to an oppressed woman who told him freelie That if hee had not leasure to iudge he should not reigne And Traian was honoured with a Statue because beeing on horse and going to battell hee stayed till hee did Iustice to an oppressed Widow When affabilitie as a Porter hath made way to the oppressed then loue of the people in the Kings heart as a Master of requeasts taketh the complaint in hand and calling Wisedome and Prudence to counsell they consult to doe right according to the cause Before his Throne stand Courage Clemencie Courage to proceede according to Iustice and Clemencie to temper some times the strictnesse of Iustice Clemencie remoueth Severitie least it turne to Crueltie and Courage remoueth too great Indulgence least it breed in People a libertie to sinne and contempt of Princes Clemencie can pardon small faultes but great sinnes and effronts of Authoritie would bee punished else it is not Clemencie but Crueltie On either side of the Throne two Sergents stand Power and Diligence Power to execute the sentence pronounced which careth as little the difficulties that may follow execution as Iustice did the respect of persons And Diligence doth all with such convenient speed as the nature of the matter and the honour of the Prince requireth At the backe of this Throne leaneth Peace and Prosperitie Peace among the whole Bodie while everie one getteth his right and is secured in it And Prosperitie as Gods blessing following that his own worke of a wife and righteous government As a good King seeketh Gods favour aboue all so nixt therevnto the loue of his people The heart is the Man and among all affections loue caries the heart and captiues man Hatred and Feare are troubling passions and separate the heart from their object but loue applies it selfe ioy fullie and draweth the whole Man to that it loueth The best conquest of their loue is by goodnesse Loues proper obiect and there is no heart so hard as to hold it selfe from these in whom true goodnesse shineth Wee may compell men to feare but cannot moue them to loue vs but by sweete motiues the bond that commeth by compulsion is vnpleasant to the parties it is soone broken and when it leaveth off is turned in hatred but the band of loue is both pleasant and firme Fatherlie loue in a King to his people and loue in them to him againe is a sweete relation and maketh their mutuall dueties both easie and pleasant Moses preferred the people to himselfe Spare them O Lord but raze my name out of the Booke of life And David offered himselfe to bee punished for the people I haue sinned but these sheepe what haue they done Next to the loue they send vp to GOD this descending loue to their people maketh them carefull of their peoples good When hee loueth his people he hath conqueshed their heart absolutelie
tastlesse hee delighteth in his lame and pithlesse dilemmes and like a Con in a Cage moveth much but promoveth nothing c. If a man shall cast over their Volumes with Martiall hee shall offend at Homers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing but triviall iuffâ—ing a thousand tymes refuted by Protestants and as oft reponed by Papists Some new quirk of humane Invention and some new forme or lustre put vpon olde damned heresies and exsibilate Paradoxes Ther Expurging Indices are Evidencies of their evill conscience in an evill cause they distrust all and adde delete change in bookes what maketh against them They destroy genuine bookes as Bertrame calling it Oecolampadius forgerie And set out supposititious Treatises without number and rase Scripturall sentences out of the Indices of all Wryters Yet they stand not at these Purgations Sixtus did it with more iudgement Possevine with more diligence and yet they are not content with them The purging of Doway and Spaine are not enough but the Vaticane must bee added And when Angelus Rocha hath revised all Ioannes Maria must purge out more But Bellarmine latelie vrged a further purgation of Bookes against the Iesuits Their new faith is so ambulatorie that it knoweth not where to consist They are convicted by the testimonies of their owne writers and therefore reject them as Tertullian said of the Pagans But let them purge Bookes as they will their faith is damned and stobbed by so manie testimonies as they in revenge doe pearce with the Popes obeliske It were good service to God and his Church to gather in one all these sentences which they haue purged And a worke worthie of the Church of England who is most able for it How ever they deale with Authours wee say as S. Austine did to Donatists Constantinus quidem defunctus est sed eius Testimonium contra vos vivit These men are dead yet their Testimonie is quicke against you Men would thinke that with all this furniture they would bee bold to dispute But they are come now to shift disputs So Salmeron condemneth disputing with Protestants So Becan and Scioppius in the foundations of peace Iansenius giveth vs a floorish out of Tertullian Wee neede not to bee curious after Christ nor to inquire after the Gospel And Baronius before him abusing Ambrose That wee neede not accuse the Apostolicke faith of noveltie But this wee craue is not a curious inquiring after Christ but a tryall of their faith if it bee that Faith that Christ delivered to his Apostles They confesse reallie that it is not that same faith while they eschew the try all of Scripture This their shifting of Disputs is contrare to the auncients practice as may bee seene in Athanasius against the Arrians Cyrillus against the Nestorians Augustine against the Pelagians and Donatistis c. And most against their owne Practice for first when the Iesuits arose they made disputs their sacrum Asylum or sacram Anchoram and for this cause glutted themselues with humane learning But now in end they finde their furniture as stubble before the fire For one place of Scripture rightlie vrged against them burneth vp all their baggage This shift commeth first of experienced weaknesse in disputes and next of a confidence in bloodie massacring So Austine noted these two The first in the Donatists e Sed quia bonam causam c. Because they knew they had not a good cause they first did what they could that there should bee no Dispute and that their cause should not bee handled all The confidence in other meanes hee noteth in the Manicheans g Non enim disputare amant for they loue not to dispute but pertinatioustie to overcome any wayes In like manner Mahomet discharged all disputing in his Religion And the Iconolaters the Papists fathers refused to dispute with Orthodoxes But if they bee forced to dispute they fill all with clamours as Cyprian noteth of the Pagans and boast of victorie though they bee overcome as Pascentius and Maximus two Arrian Bishops did boast that they overcame Augustine in disputs Yet they like some sort of disputs such as they had with Iohn Hus and Ierome of Prage whom they burnt at Constance and the like latelie with Padre Fulgentio and Abbas Sylvius at Rome thogh incoÌ„stant Spalato could not be wise by their example This they haue learned of the Arrians For when King Hunnericus called a dispute at Carthage hee began it with burning an Orthodoxe Bishop Lactance shall close this point and lead mee to their last refuge Novi hominum pertinaciam I know the mens pertinacie They feare least they be convicted and forced to yeeld vn to vs Therefore they close their eyes least they should see the light wee offer to them Wherein they shew the diffidence of their damned reason while they will neither vnderstand neither dar dispute because they know they will bee easilie over-come Their seventh and last refuge is crueltie The Ignatian fierie temper of the Iesuits This Lactance a noteth Disceptatione sublatâ pelliturè medio sapieÌ„tia vigeriturres They lay aside all reasonable dealing and take them to violence And that because sententiam quam defendere nequeunt mutare erubâ—scunt they thinke shame to change that opinion which they cannot defend This they haue oâ— Mahumet and Cusane objecteth that the sword was his greatest argument wherein hee resolved all d And Baronius Macta and Manduca kill and eate So Paul the fifth at his death recommended the inquisition to the Cardinals quo vno niti affirmabat Apostolicae sedis authoritatem a bloody pillar of a bloodie Kingdome and not content to kill vs by Inquisitions they draw on Princes to be their Burrioes This is the fruite of their fornication with the whoore in giving their power to the beast against the Lambe France serveth them at turnes but when shee openeth her eyes to see the Butcheries of her owne to bee the vantage of Spaine shee relenteth till a new deceite set her on againe And yet because the trueth shineth greatlie in her they incline more to the Bigotisme of Austria and the wilfulnesse of Spaine as bloodie in zeale as pertinatious in errour Their rysing at the least in the Ambition of a fifth Monarchie is a fitte support for staggering Rome The Pertinacie of Heresie and furie of blind zeale can haue no other arguments of defence but Ureseca burne and cut as an absurde man wanting reason turneth to passion and furie This proues the Pope to bee his first-borne who was a lyar and murtherer from the beginning The credulitie of his pretended Omniscience hath long misled the world Now when they see and would refuse his lyes hee vseth the crueltie of his pretended Omnipotence to destroy them Hee is now Abaddon the authour of bloodshed in Europe for many ages Thus wee haue traced them in their degrees
to their present hight in the hight of their Apostafie and crueltie they seeke the quenching of the light and destruction of the Church that caries it But in vaine For their malice shall stay them and their mischiefe shall fall on their owne head Their Apostafie killeth themselues for everie errour craveth another errour to confirme it And everie invention of a new errour worketh in the inventer a new impression of falshood and a further degree of departing from the trueth Aristotle most properlie calleth the parts of time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostasies or distances from the present instant So they with time depart more more from God the primitiue truth This is the proper notion of their Apostasie But thogh they both desert and impugne the truth they shall never destroy it for sayth Hilarie Quid ad Deum humana perversitas For what is humane perversnesse to God And going on What can the ingyne doe against the Authour of it Albeit they seeke the ruine of the truth omnibus argumentationis quaestunculis yet their falshood shall faile by the clearnesse of the trueth And thereafter Let them search the secrets of Nature yet in the intention of their work they shall faile being refuted by spirituall Doctrines And Cyprian giveth like reason on the passiue part that a false and deceived minde is confounded by sincere truth And Hilarie in another part The force of the trueth is great and is daylie the stronger the more it is assaulted For this is proper to the Church that it overcommeth when it is hurt Hoc enim Ecclesiae proprium est ut tum vincat cum laeditur And wee say to them as Theophilus did to the Appollinarists Tendant quantumlibet syllogismoruÌ„ suorum retia sophismatù decipulas Let them bend as much as they wil the nets of their Syllogismes and grines of their Sophismes they but insnare themselues And we advise them with him in that same place Tandem desinant dialecticae artis strophis simplicia Eccliasticae fidei decreta evertere That they would at least desist to pervert the simplicitie of faith by their Sophistrie Sathan knowes their approaching destruction and least the thoughts of it cast them in the dumps either to repent or relent hee hardeneth them against it by 4. speciall meanes The first is by delaying to the last day as Vega Ribera Suarez Next by a simple denying as Malvenda who reproveth the former for their opinion Thirdlie by an odde conceat of Alcaser the â—esuite turning their destruction in her conversion to Christ that she is Christs Bride to be espoused to him at the last day Fourthlie by a fleshlie policie which was suggested by Cardinall Soderinus to Hadrian the sixt They resolute to hold all fast as it stands both in heresie and tyrannie and to waite vpon the end So they are gone on in duritiem cordis as Bernard speaketh and whereas the dolour of their felt decay should bring out sanitatem as he calleth it yet it bringeth out nothing but insensibilitatem a senselessenesse For as Aponius sayeth Victi convicti ad salutem non redeunt And as was said of old Apollinarists they wil not amend after manie admonitions but coÌ„temne the medicens of Scripture and dow not open their eyes to the cleare light This is like their proxima dispositio ad ruinam If any doe aske How can they abide in darknesse in the aboundance of so great a light Let him know they are not taught of God but of men They haue wedded them to their prejudices and hold the Tenets of their erring Church as divine Conclusions God hath given them over to a reprobat minde because willfullie they will winke and not receiue the loue of the trueth All religious adoration conâ— formeth the worshipper to that hee worshippeth They haue gotten the fruite of their idolatrie in conformitie to their idoles They haue eyes and see not c. Even so are all that worship them They haue purposelie multiplied controversies to make simple wits stand gazing at them as the people did at Amazaes corps But wiser spirits petunt rei iugulum they goe through their questions to their policie They see falshood in their tenets sillie evasions in their answeres And Crambe repetita in their proponing Vnder all these is a fleshlie policie which their deepe Politickes hide from their controversers They set them ever to worke to dispute and write c. And in the meane time laugh in their bosome to see them so earnest in that which they know is but a cousening of the world They haue turned Religion in a policie and themselues in Politickes Olde Heretickes stroue onelie for opinions but they haue a worldlie state to defend They hate the true Religion as darkenesse doth light and are irreligious in their own superstition They vse it not as a Religion but as a worldlie state wherein if they can be secured they care not what Religion prevaile To take vp their present state otherwise is to bee blind with them These are their graduall shifts which an evill cause and consceince finding want of reason and wanting will of repentance hath driven them to They are drunke with the blood of the Saints and thirst more till God destroy them Hee hath some Elect lurking among them whom hee calleth Come out of her my people And in due time they will obey As for others let them alone they are blind guides of the blind And everie plant that my Father hath not planted shall bee plucked vp Antichrist is planted by Sathan in the efficacie of delusion and God will plucke him vp in his finall destruction AMEN FINIS The Table of the Vindication THe Praeface of the State of Now-Rome and her seven miserable shiftings 1 Scripture 2. Traditions 3. Fathers 4. Councels 5. Popes 6. Philosophie 7. Crueltie 1. 2 Ch. 1. Of her fiue periodicall estates Pura Ambitiosa Insidiosa seditiosa Pernitiosa Ch. 2. The first part of this Treatise Usurpation it selfe 1. The matter of it 1. At Kings entrie 4. Ch. 3. 2. In their administration 1. In vile stiles 9. Ch. 4. 2. In Base offices Of kissing the Popes feete 10 Ch. 5. 3. In their Lawes 14 Ch. 6 4. In their censures and excommunications depositions c. 17. Ch. 7. This Vsurpation is the head Article of their Faith 22. Ch. 8. Their end is a Monarchie 25 The second part of the Treatise The noveltie of Vsurpation Ch. 9 1. The Negatiue proofe of it not of Christ. 29. Nor the Apostles nor Fathers nor first Popes c. 30. Ch. 10. Their exceptions against primitiue obedience 34 Ch. 11. 2. The Positiue proofe of Noveltie Hildebrands contention 39 Vsurpation is Hildebrandine doctrine 46 Ch. 12. Eight causes of this Vsurpation 48 Popes holinesse is profainnesse 51 Ch. 13. The third part Of their colours and defences 59 Professions
in loue they were comfortable to other as in Constantine and Sylvester Maurice and Gregorie c. But when they rubbed one other both Churches and Policie smarted They had sundrie other rubbes in former times but never one like that The Emperour thought that the question was no lesse than the standing or ruine of the Impire And Gregorie thought lykewise of the standing or ruine of the Church The Emperour pleaded Prescription because from the dayes of Charles the great vnder threescore Popes and moe it was in vse And Necessitie because by loosing the Investures hee would lose a great of the Impyre for when Charles the great gote that priviledge the Pope and Prelats were poore But thereafter both Kings and Emperours enriched the Church because they had the investiture in their owne hands Besides when Princes had investitures scarcely could Prelates be keeped in Subjection but if they were put in the Popes hands they would make many Enemyes in the Impire so Onuphrius stateth the question But in the multitude of so many Historians affected to one of the parties this much may bee gathered That the Emperour beside his personall faults gaue occasion to Hildebrand to make some sturre Hee abused the power of investiture in passing by the voice of the Church and giving Prelacies and Dignities to the vnworthie whom flatterie or bryberie or such by respects commended vnto him Hee gaue them as rewards for bygone service or ingagements for service to come And at his Court Church benefites were either saleable or exposed to prey Heereof Hildebrand tooke occasion to worke that hee had long desired hee made a strong faction both of Church men and Politicks against the Emperour and draue him in that strait to make such a foule agreement at Canusium as no man can patiently reade of and thereafter put all Europe in dissention and blood They divyded the trueth and each of them had both right and wrong on his side The Emperour had right to the Investitures but erred foully in their abuse and brought in ignorant and fleshlie men in the chiefe places of the Church who overthrew both Religion and State The Pope had iust cause to quarrell that abuse but no right to clame the investitures and farre lesse to oppose seditiously and trode downe the Emperour This was a consequent of too large dotations The Dotars were Patrons of the Church rent and some abusing the Patronage did marre the spiritualitie of the entrie of the Pastours So the Benefice drew the office after it and the Investiture the Daughter of Donations bred this strife and corrupt entrie in some But wise Princes haue made some provision against such corruption in giving the Church her place in election and it is best when Church and Patrons goe together The mysterie of iniquitie was then comming to rypenesse and Sathan had provyded one to hatch that egge of Antichrist whose seedes were layed in the Apostles times and that omnious accident in Rome of a Bird that layed an egge with a Serpent was so expounded by many that the Apostolicke Sea had hatched the Cokatrice egge and brought out a Serpent to destroy the Impyre Wee may passe the things imputed to him by his enemies As his fornication with Mathildis the great vrger of Chastitie to bee familiar with that Countesse lik Cremensis the Popes Legate vrging Chastity in a Synode at London was found at night in a Borthell Or his impietie in casting the Hostie in the fire Or his Nacromancie whereof hee gaue a proofe in that Response That an vnjust King would bee killed that yeare hee tooke this to be Henrie the Emperour but it fell on Rudolph the Vsurper But even his friends charge him with great sinnes As his dissimulation stirring vp Rudolph in Germanie while Henrie the Emperour was at Rome fulfilling his injoyned pennance His idolatrie in incalling the Apostles and blessed Virgine and commanding them speedilie to execute his decreete against the Emperour VVhen hee saw that this made him odious to men he devysed some courses to mitigate their hatred Hee sent Apologeticke Letters to excuse him to all men and pretended the zeale of God in defending the liberties of his Church which was nothing but a fleshlie pride of his owne broyling Nature Hee tooke the lesson from Stephanus who sat a little before him in the Chaire beeing a Brother of the house of Lorraine and offended with the Emperour for hurting of his House hee tooke that Gentilitious enimitie into Peters Chaire and made it Peters quarrell And his Successours finding it there followed it out as the cause of the Church Even as they tooke in the Armes and â—nsignes of their Families Next he pretended great puritie and holinesse and vrged the Chastitie of the Cleargie This was a faire colour both to cover his too â—reat homlinesse with the Countesse Machildis to make the world think that all was good that came from such an one but it was a libertie proclamed to Church men for sundrie of them yeelded to want one wife that they might meddle with many Hereby Europe was filled with troubles and the Sacraments ministred by married Priestes were trod vnder â—â—ote This was to vrge and promone the doctrine of divels But his third and most politick devyce was the holie warre which iustlie may bee called a profaine warre Hee made faire pretexts to recover these places where Christ was borne And lived and wrought our salvation And to make the matter more plausable they fained that Petrus Eremita got a Letter from Heaven written by Iesus Christ to stirre vp Christians to that warre though others are shamed of that fiction and said Hee got it by Revelation The motiues were as powerfull â—o a superstitious Age. They offered to all that would goe to that warre First Securitie from all troubles vnder the Apostolicke protection Secondly Exemption from all pennence Likwise the going to that warre shal be reputed for all Pennance Thirdlie Remâ—ssion of all their sinnes For their wages who are in that warre they shall receiue pardon of all their sinnes Lastlie Life eternall what ever their former life hath beene This hee learned of Mahumet who bade his fellowers defend his Religion by force promising Paradise to good warriours whether they were killed or not In all this businesse of the profaine holy warre they obtained their ends both over Church and Policie Over the Church they sought to establish their Monarchie over the Patriarkes of the East as they had done in the West Over the Policie because they diverted peoples mindes from prying in their tyrrannie over Princes and gaue them another matter of talking They found an errand to send away the most wise and valorous Spirits of whom they feared greatest opposition at home as Gottofred the chiefe Counceller and commander of the Empâ—rours Arâ—ies That emptying the land of such spirits they might securelie encroach on
to the other civillie the other spiritually Pastours are subiect to Princes Let everie soule bee subiect to superiour powers And Princes are subiect to Pastours spirituallie Obey them who haue the over-sight of you and submit your selues And yet not withstanding of the comparision of the callings GOD hath wiselie subiected Pastours to Princes First because the Kingdome of the Church is not in this World But principallitie hath the beginning vse and end in this life and therefore heere must they haue the preheminence or else never Next because of vniversalitie For the Church of God is not in everie place And yet these humane Societies without a Church haue both neede of and are governed by principalitie Thirdlie because of Ancietie for albeit God had a Church ever since hee called on Adam in Paradise yet ere the Church came to any greatnesse in number or conspicuousnesse in the vse and worke of spirituall power Principalitie had the own Governement and eminencie among men For this cause some haue pressed the name of secular power from the Ancietie as though it beganne cum saeculo Though more properlie it bee called a temporall power from the obiect and meanes This great blessing reformation bringeth vnto Kingdomes to ridde merches betweene these powers Amongst other things this inrageâ— Luther b that hee saw Princes mocked and abused as beasts Therefore hee vendicate their honour from the Popes tyrannie Wee teach according to Gods word that Princes and Preachers are mutually sheepe to other Princes to Preachers in respect of their spirituall office informing and counselling them out of the word of God And Preachers to Princes in respect of a temporall coactiue power to protect them or correct them if they offend If wee consider in Mankind a spirituall Sphere Preachers are aboue all In which sense Nazianzen sayeth that the Law of Christ hath subiected the Impire to the Priest But if wee consider it in the Sphere of Temporalitie then Princes are aboue all And so that same Nazianzen Wee are subiect to super eminent powers but they will haue Princes as Sheepe to Preachers simplie and their Priests to bee sheepe to none but to the Pope of whom they will bee ruled not onely in spirituall things but also in temporall When these two Powers keeped them within their boundes they were helpfull to others Pastors by religion wrought the consciences of people to the obedience of Princes and Princes by their coactiue power held people in the obedience of the Gospell And Leo commendeth this concurrance For humane things saith hee can not bee safe vnlesse both the Kingly and Priestly authoritie defend these things that pertaine to religion And our more royall Leo said that these two powers are so straitly conioyned that either of them dependeth vpon the safetie and incolumitie of the other And Isiodore Civile powers were not necessarie in the Church except to fulfill that by terrour which the Priest can not doe by his doctrine Oft-tymes the Kingdome of Heaven is furthered by the earthly Kingdome that such as doe contrare to the faith and discipline of the Church may bee broken by the rigour of Princes c. And Bernard sheweth both the possibilitie and expediencie of their agreement in his peaceable resolution Non veniat anima sayeth hee in concilium eorum non enim viris usque institutor Deus in destructionem ea connexuit sed in aedificationem Let not my Soule come in their counsell who say that the peace and libertie of the Churches will hurt the impyre or that the prosperitie and glorie of the impire will hurt the Churches for God the Author of both hath not conioyned them for destruction but for edification It had beene good for them if they had followed his advice that these two powers would ioyne their myndes together who were ioyned by Gods institution let them mutually cherish other and mutually defend other But where Princes and Pastors passe their boundes and incroached vpon other the exercise of their power was the Apple of strife The matter it selfe was two great powers in their kinde and the respects of mutuall subordination and subiection was a faire colour for ambition to vsurpe and for the rebellious to resist It cannot bee denyed but there were faults on both sides Some Princes haue given too much to Cleargie men as they who gaue homage to Popes This came of Superstition which first playeth the Iugler to blind and then the tyrant to force them to doe as that blindnes leadeth them When they were possessed with Superstition the Popes ambition could exact nothing of them which they thought not reasonable Some Princes againe haue fallen in the defect and given too little respect to Pastours They saw their persons base in worldly things and considered neither their calling nor their worke and so counted them baser than any of their Estats This misreguard was helped by some flatterers of authoritie who either of ignorance or Invy haue spoken and written disdainfullie of Pastours Calling and equalled it to the basest handie craft in Cities To let that passe in respect of personall subiection to outward Governement and of civill censure in case of breaking the common peace yet the comparison of these Callings is odious for both iudicious Princes and auncient Divines without passion or contest haue giuen it greater respect and casting these two powers in the Ballance Nazianzen compared the one to the Soule the other to the Bodie Chrisostome vse the comparison of the Heaven to the Earth And Ambrose the comparison of Gold and Lead We allow not the bad Consequences and Practise which Papists draw out of these popular comparisons yet there is a considerable Trueth in the things for the Pastours calling is only about things spirituall and eternall The Angels would thinke it no disparagement to dispense the mysteries of the bodie and blood of Christ to cleanse men in the Lawer of Regeneration and to stand betweene God and man in delyvering his will to them and presenting their prayers to him Beside that comparison of Callings the person of Pastors haue a great excellencie in respect of Gods chusing them to the worke his furnishing and assisting of them in it Mens greatest excellencie indeede is by the Grace of Christ as they are Christians renewed and sanctified But particular callings giue also some qualification to the persons that are cled with them and the Pastorall calling qualifyeth their persons with a spirituall respect because they are Gods instruments in a spirituall worke Their aptitude to a spirituall worke giveth them a spirituall habitude and Gods imployment therein giveth a sort of transcendent specification Second causes though of one kynde take a diverse respect both from the object and from the imployment of the first cause And it is greatest excellencie to bee Gods instrument in converting renewing and saving men For they that turne Soules shall shine
are alreadie both iudged of GOD and sentenced in his word to consumption and Abolition and the hand of Providence goeth on in the execution of that sentence there is neither ground to treate for reconcliation nor hope to attaine to it Or if wee will treate of it wee accuse the Lords sentence of iniquitie and his execution of rigour Let Babell then bee vnder her sinne and punishment begun and approaching and let all that loue the Lord Iesus separat themselues from these wickedmen A CONCLVSION Exhortatorie to Princes I Turne now that speach which they abuse to you most sacred Princes Bee wise O Kings bee learned yee Iudges of the earth Christ Iesus whom yee haue long pursued by Antichirsts direction when hee might destroy you calleth you to repentance to change both your mindes and course Your Mindes to know that poperie is that foretold Apostasie and that the Religion which yee persecute is the trueth of God And your course that since blind zeale the companion of false Religion hath made you thinke it good service to God to destroy his Saincts you would turne your power for the service of the Lambe of whom yee haue it and both revenge Gods quarrell and your owne vpon the Beast Consider how GOD setteth downe his Dittay and Dâ—ome His Dittay in Idolatrie Filthinesse and aboue all the blood of the Saincts Rome was ever bloodie the Mathematicians observed that when her ground-stone was layed the Moone was in cauda Draconis to tell that all her changes in rysing growing standing would bee in the câ—uâ—ltie of the Dragon And soone after Romulus wet her wals with his Brothers blood Shee turned the earth in a Butcherie by warres abroad And her Ganâ—es at home in the Theater were bloodie Shee shed the blood of the Saints in her persecuting Pagan Emperours And lastlie sheddeth the bloodie of the Protestants by her Antichristian head Ierusalem was guiltie of the blood of all the Prophets because they succeeded the Murtherers in malice and crueltie And Rome succeeds Ierusalem and exceedeth her in persecuting Christ All blood of the Saints is shedde either in Rome or by Romes authoritie Shee hath shedde more blood than Ninivie Babylon Shusan and Ierusalem it selfe Her Doome is doe to her as she hath done to you And what she hath done to you your Soules Thrones may feele For beside your soules killing the Pope hath overthrowen the Maiestie and dignitie of Impyres Shee denuded you of Kinglie Authoritie when shee exposed your Sacred Persons to the contempt and violence of the basest Villanes Shee ate vp your flesh not so much in catching the riches of your Kingdomes as by nesting in your bosome like a Viper to destroy you Shee burnt your with the fire of excommunication raising such combustions that your Countrie and Courts were divyded The Sonne set against the Father as Henrie the fifth against Henrie the fourth to pursue him to death and after death to deny him Buriall Therefore this is her recompence that you make the Whoore naked eate vp her flesh and burne her with fire God hath sentenced her and there remaineth no more but execution Though wee rest on none but Scripturall Prophecies yet their owne Prophets foretold their ruine For Hildegardis and Catharina Senensis whose contraire visions Delrio laboureth to reconceale Brigitta telleth them of their destruction What ever bee the force of her writ it must be Canonick to them since Boniface the nynth hath cannoized her and Martine the fifth confirmed that canonization and their later writers as Chemensis Capistranus Aytinger c. haue spoken broadlie That Rome shall bee ruined by the Almaines and the French As God calleth and commandeth you to doe it so you are bound to it by these two bonds wherey they presse you most your Baptismall initiation and sacred oath In Baptisme yee were initiate in Christian faith and not in Antichristian perfidie And the substance of your oath is to defend Apostolicke and primitiue trueth and not the yesterday novelties of Rome Their own Patrons graÌ„t that in the middle ages they were Apostaticke and Apotactick but since we never find their reformation or amendement The errour of time confirmed by badde custome hath made men mistake these Notions of Christ and Antichrist trueth and vntrueth and so to misplace their affections and actions about them but open your eyes to the light God offereth in his word and your better informed mindes shall reforme your affections and rectifie your actions least you take darknesse for light night for day and death for life that you may forsake Antichrist and heresies and ioyne your selues to the Lambe and his trueth in the reformed Churches Or if you will not take Gods cause to heart nor bee moved with these bonds let your Life and Crownes moue you Though hee vnder a Iudiciall hardnesse bee senselesse of the guiltinesse of his vsurpation yet be not you senselesse of these indignities He maketh you to fight against your selfe in his quarrell while hee abuseth your power for the maintenance of his greatnesse to the overthrow of your authoritie Remember hee is head of that Court whose Ambassadours boasted in England that they served at that Court which commanded both other Kings and their Courteours It hath ever beene your fault to neglect the commoun cause of Princely authoritie There is nothing more sâ—oothed than that that is pleaded by many When any one Prince was thunder-beaten by Iupiter Capitolinus hee exhorted other Princes that they should not betray the common cause but all in vaine For the ruine of one made a prey to many Therefore they suffered the present storme to passe over and that because by a wicked purchas some accession came to their state This was specially when a great Prince was broken whose greatnesse was fearefull to them all The Emperour was most left in the sturre while smaller Princes thought it their securitie if he were redacted to that state that hee might not rise to the greatnesse of his Ancestors It is tyme for you to awake when their flatterers pittie your injuries and the Iesuits admire your patience Petrus Ferrariensis marking how the Pope insnared you to inlarge his owne iurisdiction cryeth out But alace miserable Emperours and secular Princes who suffer these things and make your selues slaues to the Pope and see the world by infinite cousanages abused and yet you thinke not of a remeede And where the Iesuits please to bee free they wonder fatuos fuisse veteres Imperatores imperij nostri ordines qui sibi tanto cum dedecore ora sublinia Papis sustinuerint that Emperours and the States were so foolish as to bee gulled with Popes Wee haue better cause than Athanasius to say I am Ecclesiae tempora oculatos operosos Principes requirunt that the tymes of the Church require seeing and doing
Princes He had to doe with the Arrians but now the AntichristiaÌ„ Mysterie rages God hath given you power open but your eyes to leade you in the vse of it How long will it be ere yee awake to see how hee hath first led you from God in superstition and now leadeth you against God in persecuting of his Saints Consider how Maximinus the Emperour was stirred vp to persecute the Church by Pagane Priests vnder hope of great successe But when hee saw himselfe overthrowne by Licinius hee destroyed his instigators as deceavers The Pope and his Cleargie haue set you on this last bloody persecution God vvill disappoint you and turne it to your shame It were your wisedome to avenge you of your seducers Looke on other Princes who haue shaken off his yoake as England Scotland Denmark Sweden c. Their Kings know none aboue them vnder GOD They are honoured and obeyed of their Subiects without reflecting vpon any other power on earth You reigne but precario as Titulars and they count you but as Kings of the Chesse Neither dare you rule your Subiects as free Princes Neither dare your people obey you as such The terrour at least the credulitie of the Popes Transcendencie limiteth your p 〈…〉 er and looseth your people to rebell Receaue Christ in his Gospell and set vp his Throne in your lands as they haue done and then you shall finde both the sweetnesse of the Grace of the Gospell and of a free and vndependent governement Gods Trueth amongst vs Protestants maketh vs not onely to congratulate our happinesse in our free Kings and Churches but also to commisâ—rate your estate when wee see Gods image in you great Princes so shamefully abused by a deceaver You cannot be both Popish and free Princes The verie Notion of Poperie subiecteth you necessarly to Hildebrands vsurpation Renounce Antichristian tyrannie and come to Christian libertie and you shall finde both grace for your persons and glorie to your government Angment the Popesplunges and while that Iuglar knoweth not which of you to keepe let him feele the revenging power of you all You gote mâ—â—y exhortations of this kinde from Preachers and Theologues but you haue heard them with close eares Therefore God hath sent you latelie a royall premonition from the Pen of the King of great Britaine The suggestions of Subiects found little accesse and as little regard at your hands But the Counsell of a King to Kings and that in the matter of a Kinglie authoritie is more weightie Trueth is trueth and powerfull who ever speake it But Trueth in the quarrell of Kings proponed by a great and wise King will find more accesse than private suggestions The royall Genius which is one in Kings maketh them to haue a sympathie speciallie where their common cause threateneth a common danger Let none bee so simple as to thinke they will either repent their whole course or relent its extreamitie Though they haue found and ere it bee long may find a great dash yet they will but temporize and suting peace turne to more deepe and deadlie plotting They thought all their own at the Smalcaldicke warre and when God brak their forces they simulat a pacification yet they wâ—â—e ever plotting a new persecution If GOD shall disappoint them of their cruell intentions as in merâ— hee hath begunne to doe yet ere it bee long they would fire Europe with a new and greater combustion Antichrist may bee destroyed but mollified or tamed can hee not bee Their Romish temper is vncapable either of the change of repentance or the mollifying of moderation The curbing of the Popes insolencie is no more iust and necessar in it selfe than faceable to you Romes natiue crueltie caried ever the cause of her ruine in her bosome It was noted as ominous in olde Rome that when they beganne first to execute that Romane censure interdicere igni aqua their Atrium or great Court was burnt with thunder and so since Popes began to play vpon Princes with their ordinance of excommunication their state hath beene broken When Boniface the â—â—ght would take on him the Habite Sword and Ensignes of the Impyre Philip of France compâ—sced that insolencie shortlie and made him die in exile and greiefe And how much their power is broken since Luthers time the world seeth King Henrie of England devorced his Kingdome from the Pope because Clement the seventh impiouslie denyed to devorce him from his incestuous Queene to whom Iulius the second dispensation tyed him Scotland in the minoritie of her Princesse proved both Maior and masculous in shaking off the Popes yoake Denmarke Sweden and manie Princes of Germanie haue cut his wings in their Dominions What an angrie King can doe to him was latelie seene betwixt Philip the second and Sixtus the fifth Cardinall Estensis the ruler of the Consistorie promised to make him Pope if hee would never promoue Hieronymus Mattheus but beeing chosen Pope hee made Hieronymus a Cardinall and so Estensis sent his hand-writ to Philip the second to proue his periurie and Symonie herevpon Philip minded to call a Councell to processe him for these two crymes and declare the nullitie of his Election according to their Lawes But while Sixtus is grieved for the intended processe and devising a revengfull excommunication against Philip hee contracted a fever and dyed If that sturre had gone on possiblie the Pope had beene curbed or Spaine reformed to bee as eminent in true zeale as now pertinax in supperstition But Gods time is comming And seeing the republick of Venice gaue him a wound which hee can not cure What may not you great Princes doe whose glaining is greater than the vintage of Abiezer As Princes and Republickes so his owne Romans haue curbed his pride And God set vp barres to it so soone as it began to overflow for Cincius a Romane compesced Hildebrand in Rome while he was abusing the Emperor in Germanie and when Alexander the third by his Legate was disciplining Henrie the second for Beckets cause the Romans had expelled him out of Rome And Onuphrius marketh that for the space of fiftie yeares from Celestine the second to Clement the third the Romans did so intreate the Popes that some of them died for displeasure others were almost killed in tumults and a third sort were banished and that in their heate of vsurpation over Kings God hereby was both taxing the feeblenesse of Princes and teaching Posteritie the possibilitie of the Popes curbing His Brieves Bulls and Legats did more in Kingdomes farre distant than his owne presence could doe in Rome Hee domnineered absolutelie abroad while hee fought at home for the governement of the Citie and safetie of his owne life Gerson hath made his curbing problematicke and it is your part to turne his probleme in effect The Apostle descryving Antichrist taketh some part of that Description from Nero whose tyrannie hee