of the Puritanical Assembly or Classis which puts the People between God and the King and therefore I call the one a Papal and the other a Phanatical Jesuite for I believe them both to be Roman Pensioners two Parties commanded by one General because in all times when the Government hath been charging one of them in the front the other hath always treacherously attack'd it in the rear and as much of late as ever and both prov'd themselves in the end Abhorrers of Monarchy under-hand Contrivers and restless Opposers of it as they always pretend for Conscience sake out of a joynt design to make the King a Property and his Government Precarious Their Names are different but their Nature is the same in point of Disobedience And the third viz. The Prophane Liver who pretends to Loyalty by making no Conscience of his Duty towards God is also a false Traytor to the King notwithstanding the many good words he gives him and the great Honour he vainly boasts in all Companies to bear towards Him 1. Give me leave to set first to the Bar the Papal Jesuite who is all for the fear of God the Propagation of the Catholick Religion and of the Apostolical See of Rome but tell him of the fear of the King and then he leaves you as if the Pope and He were the Real Defenders of the Faith and the King only the Nominal and Titular one and accordingly he teaches his Profelytes to weigh out their Obedience to him by Drams and Scruples in a Pair of Jesuitical Scales makes the Prince stand to the Popes Allowance for Authority and takeâ— his leavings who of course exempts all the Clergy from their Obedience to their Natural Sovereign and makes them pay their Suit and Service to him as their Lord Paramount as if his Tribunal and Gods were but one and the Civil Magistrate by becoming the Son of the Church had lost his Secular Power An excellent Doctrine to convert Pagan Princes to the Christian Religion or Protestants to the Popish The fatal and pernicious Consequences of which Popish Principles our Parliaments have in all Ages as well before the Reformation as since expressed their just detestation of as appears by the Statute of Carlisle made 35 Edw. 1. and by that of Proviso's made 25 Edw. 3. and by many more in King Henry the Eighth's Reign who was both Parliamentarily and Synodically invested with the Supremacy in all Causes as well Spiritual as Temporal which was legally and essentially inherent in the Crown before the King of England being Supreme Ordinary by the Antient Common Law of this Kingdom of which those Statutes were not Introductory but Declarative And 't is a great wonder to me that every Prince in Christendom is not as much possess'd with an Anti-Papal Spirit at this day as ever King Henry the Eighth was considering what an Implacable Enemy the Pope hath been to the Dignity and Security to the Powers and Lives of all Princes especially such as he calls Heretical ones 2. The Protestant or Fanatical Jesuites if they would be content to be civil Subjects yet they will be Ecclesiastical Superiors they would have a King under them not over them The King must Command as they will have him or he is no King for them nor will they fear him but make him fear them if they can compass their ends He must do things against his Conscience Oath and Honour against the Fundamental Laws of the Land and the very being of the Government or else though they speak him as fair as they did his Roayl Father of blessed memory in the Covenant and so hide the Cloven Foot for a while with their broad Pharisaical Phylacteries and intrench themselves in the sure retreat of those popular and plausible Pretences of preserving His Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion yet they watch but for a fair opportunity to put off their Hypocritical Vizards and to make him feel the smart effects of their Implacable Enmity against him and let him see by woful experience how little they do either love or fear him as they did his Royal Father before him David was a Man after Gods own heart and had a Conscience truly tender I would to God all that are call'd so in our days were like it which made him so sensible of his fault in snipping off a small shred of the Skirt of Saul's Coat But our Dissenters Itching Fingers long to be tampering with the Prerogative and will cut off as much as they can get into their hands and throw it to the People as the Men of God did in the late â—â— Rebellion for so the deluded Multitude call'd them though they prov'd Men of War fir'd with Phanatical Zeal against the Most Christian Magistrate in the World our Martyr'd Sovereign The Black Coats of their Schism in stead of being Messengers of Peace sounded the Treasonable Alarms from such places as these though the Red Coats fought the Battles they taught their Congregations to construe the Singulis Major and Vniversis Minor after Buchanan's Translation and made them believe That the People which begins to be as fashionable a word now as it was Forty years since were as much above the King as the King is above the meanest of his Subjects The King say they and other Magistrates are but our Servants to protect us from Violence and Mene Tekel pag. 41. Oppression and if they break their Trust the Law of God and Nature allows us to call our Servants to account and to punish them according to their Demerits and to turn them out of our Service In good time and out of the World too as they did the Hist of In dep Part 2. Sect. 80 81 82. Royal Martyr as a Traytor to the Sovereignty of the People as that Insolent Judge Bradshaw then Impudently styl'd it which corrupt and false Principle of placing the Original of Government in our Sovereign Lords the People is not only derogatory to God whose Written Word it gives the lye to but is also destructive to the very being of Humane Society For if the Power be radically in them and only pass'd over by the Conveyance of a Common Consent with a Power of Revocation upon equitable Conditions express'd or imply'd of which the People shall be Judges it is but their recalling of that Power to which the Vnwary Mobile may be easily tempted for 't is Neutrum modo mas modo Vulgus and the Government is dissolv'd and so all our Happiness lies at the Mercy and Will of the Crowd which will make us a reproach to our Neighbours and Psal 79. 4. a scorn and derision as it hath already done in a great measure to all that are round about us We live in an Age wherein Men seem to call themselves Protestants not from that solemn and Honourable Protestation which was made by several Princes against the Errours and Superstitions of Rome and an Edict made in prejudice of
our first Parents for had they fear'd they had not fell but this their Guardian Angel being departed from them they quickly lost their Innocence and Paradise The only care must be that it be plac'd upon its right objects and these in Solomons Judgment are only two God and the King 1. He counsels us to fear God with a Filial Fear of Reverence and Circumspection a Consciencious Fear in Worshipping him and a Careful Fear of offending him such as becomes all ingenuous and dutiful Children who out of love to their Parents are afraid of displeasing them and of falling short of their duty to them which Filial Fear he who is born of God cannot put off but he will be fearful of any stone of stumbling in the whole course of his life which may make him fall into Sin and will make it his principal care and design to approve the sincerity of his heart to the piercing eye of a jealous God which Fear discovers it self not in a trembling amazement but in a chearful and uniform Obedience to all his Commandments which is such a divine fear as never damps his Spirits or robs him of those succours which Reason would afford him but makes him as bold as a Lyon and may Prov. 28. 1. therefore be justly termed the beginning or principal Prov. 9. 10. part of Wisdom And indeed what greater folly and madness can the most desperate Malefactor be guilty of than to commit Capital Crimes in the sight of his Judge And yet how easily are we tempted to offend the dreadful Majesty of the Omnipresent and Almighty Judge who observes our closest Actions and will infallibly call us to account for them and reward us according to what we have done in the flesh whether it have been good or evil When you walk in the ways of Math. 16. 27. Eccl. 11. 9. your own hearts and in the sight of your eyes remember that for all these things God will bring you to Judgment And knowing this terrour of the Lord let me perswade 2 Cor. 5. 11. you not to let your Lives give your Lips the lye when you say that you fear him but consider that you naturally fix your eyes upon that which you fear and cannot easily get that out of your minds which doth affright you If therefore you pretend to be afraid of Gods displeasure where is your tenderness of his Honour Your care to please him your zeal for his Cause and Service your delight in his Commands and your rejoycing to do his Will You cannot fear his Name and blaspheme it If against the clear evidence of his Word and your own Consciences you entertain any rebellious thoughts against the Lord whom you should fear you can neither escape his sight in this life nor his vengeance in the next Be not deceiv'd God is not mock'd by wearing his Livery and doing the Devil Service by talking as if you were inspir'd and had Cloven Tongues and yet acting as if you were possess'd as some Cloven Footed Protestants have of late done There is no way to please God 2 Cor. 10. 5. Jam. 1. 22. but by bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Be ye therefore doers of his Word and not hearers only Indent not with him to spare you no not in your darling sins but resist them to the blood because the keeping of some of his Commandments will not expiate for the breach of the rest Make no League with any Gibeonite spare no Agag no ruling sin but crucifie the Old Man with his affections and lusts Dash all those Babylonish Brats against the stones which are Traytors to the Crown and Dignity of the King of Heaven throw them from you with the same indignation that you would do those loathsom things which you cannot behold without great distemper Let Christ be your King on Earth and he will be your Saviour in Heaven Be as ready to be over-ruled by him here as to be rewarded by him hereafter so shall you prove your selves to be Solomon's Sons indeed nay Sons of God and Heirs of Eternal Glory always provided that to this fear of God you add that of the King 2. My Son Fear the King God commands us to subdue our wills to that will of Man on Earth that he may the better subdue us to his own will in Heaven and accordingly our Saviour came into the World to take away the Sins not the Laws of it Nor was the Religion he established designed to loose the Reins of Civil Government but to keep Subjects under the same and greater Obligations than he found them to make sacred the Persons as well as Offices of Princes and to establish their just Prerogatives as being those Visible and Mortal Gods whom the Almighty had honour'd with his Name and to whom he had deligated his Vicegerent power over us and bound us not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake to obey and fear them as ordained of him and to reverence that Divine Character of Soveraignty which that his Ordination had impressed upon them Fear Good Kings as God Bad Ones for him though they should strain the necessary and essential Powers of Government beyond its due pitch and become as very Tyrants as Nero was whose Power was from God in St. Paul's Rom. 13. 1. 2. judgment though the abuse of it were from himself and his way of attaining it not justifiable For the Roman Emperors were not by right but by force then Lords of the World and yet he commands Every Soul Omnis anima quoniam ex animo to be sincerely subject to them and though they were unworthy of that Authority which they usurp'd and abus'd yet were they not in any case to be resisted under peril of Damnation 'T was God made Solomon King over Israel not the Priest or the People and he is said to have set him on 2 Chron. 9. 8. his own Throne to let the People know that he did immediately represent his Person and was in his stead among them as his Vicegerent and Lieutenant under him Inde est Imperator unde homo antequam Imperator Tertul. inde potestas illi unde Spiritus He made him a King who made him a Man and from him had he his Scepter from whom he had his Soul And this was no Court-Complement of Tertullian's None of those Love-Tricks which were plaid between the King and his People in the Honey-Moon of His Majesties Restauration as the Plato Redivivus who is not yet out of love with his Commonwealth Principles styles them nor did he speak it in his own Person but as the Judgment of the whole Catholick Church whose Cause he was then defending So that the King does not Reign it seems in the Judgment of the Primitive Church either by the Commission of the Pope or the Courtesie of the People who can no more chuse their Princes than their Parents and have as much
yield to the Supreme Gods Minister to the Master and Maker of us all and therefore though it may be sometimes necessary not to obey the King actively as it hapned to the Captive Jews under Nebuchadnezzar and to some of the Apostles under the Roman Emperors for they could not obey God and the King too and then the Case of Conscience was easily resolv'd in as much as his Commands were countermanded by an higher and greater Power and the Obligation of such irregular Precepts rescinded by a more indisputable Authority and a more indisputable Law than his even by the clear express word of God which is the Standard of Obedience both to him and the King and yet even then a passive Obedience was and is necessary in the Judgment of the first and best Christians who when they could not obey with Piety did dye with Patience and lay quietly down under the burden which they durst not bear they patiently expected a redress of such unusual Emergencies from the good Providence of God for whose sake they suffer'd them But alas In our Iron-Age a little Loyalty and less Religion serves most Mens turns there is nothing more pretended to nor any thing less practis'd than either and they who are most forward to dispute who is to be fear'd God or the King first or most are usually the Men who for all their tender Consciences which serve for nothing but to mischeif others and themselves seldom fear or obey either for if they did they would observe a little better than they do 2ly The close Connexion between God and the King 't is so near that there is no Disjunctive but a meer Copulative between them My Son fear thou God and the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be disobedient Sept. or contumacious to neither of them If there were not a God in Heaven there would be no Gods on Earth nor would Mankind subject themselves to Government but that there is something of the Image of God in it to which they are bound by an Inherent Principle which Religion improves to pay a Natural Homage Our Civil Peace would soon be turn'd into a Civil War if it were not for this and therefore there never was any Nation so Impolitick and Bruitishly Barbarous but that they embrac'd and establish'd some Religion or other among them as knowing how great Influence it had on the Body Politick Religion when pure and undefil'd hath always prov'd a good Friend to Government and that Religion will at last be found to be best which befriends and strengthens it most and the better Christians Men are the better Subjects they will be for the Integrity of Christian Loyalty as Arnobius proves against the Gentiles is greater than that of any other Religion which was ever received in the World Vos Conscios timetis nos Conscientiam You are subject for fear your Disloyalty should rise up in Judgment against you before Men but we for fear our Consciences should accuse us before God 'T is the fear of him which begets in us the fear of the King who represents him and exercises his Authority over us Our Religion allows not the least opposition to be made by any private Man or any Body of Men to their Superiours but strictly and indisponsibly requires our Subjection to the Authority of the Worst Princes and forbids our laying violent hands on them though they were Tyrants and Invaders of the Peoples Liberties the very Worst of Men as well as Kings looks not upon their failings to be any abatement of their Power nor admits any Asylum for their Assassinates or Murderers And I may venture to say in all places without the hazard of a Quarrel That the Principles of the Church of England are as innocent and peaceable and at least as Auxiliary to the Civil Government as the Maxims and Articles of any Church under Heaven and much more than those of the Church of Rome or Geneva in respect of their extravagant Papal or Popular Power of the Conclave or Synod directly or indirectly exercis'd by either of them in Ordine ad Spiritualia and the Exemption of their Clergy from the Coercive Power of Princes Our Principles are and have in all Ages been truly serviceable to the Government of Civil as well as of Religious Societies and our Protestant Religion establish'd by Law hath the promise of this life and that which is to come and may justly be term'd the best Reason of State Nor can any thing be of greater importance to the Security or Ruine of the Kingdom than the well or ill Administration of it Most certain it is that no Society can be upheld without Oaths Promises and Engagements which are the Highest Security of which Mankind is capable nor can any of them hold unless Religion bind us to it and therefore in Machiavel's Judgment who was none of the best Friends to it 't is of great Importance to a State to preserve a worthy esteem of it And wise Princes will both in point of Gratitude and Interest cherish the National Religion which is a part of the Government and being bred up with it will be sure never to give it any disturbance by prohibiting and restraining all strange and new Religions which will only serve to exercise the Kings patience and keep him in breath with the Disturbances they will create among his Subjects of which the late times have been an unhappy instance for the prevention whereof God hath put the Sword into his hands and he must not bear it in vain but use it whilst he has it as a proper Instrument for the preservation of Peace and Piety in his Dominions This is that which makes his Authority so Sovereign and his Person so sacred that the Historian hath placed him next to God himself as well as Solomon Proximus Diis habetur per quem Deorum Majestas Justin 1. vindicatur There is but one fear in my Text which is due both to God and the King the Almighty hath joyn'd them together as well as Solomon and he would have us do so too therefore neither the Popes nor the Speakers Chair must be set between Gods and the Kings Throne no just Interposition of any third Person and Power for our Debt to God and the King commences from our Birth and the Duties of Obedience to God and of Allegiance to the King are of the first and greatest Importance the Obligation whereof must be first paid or else an Everlasting Judgment will be entred against us in this Life and infallibly executed in the next Now there are three sorts of People who do attempt to disjoyn God and the King in this kind The Papal Jesuite the Protestant Jesuite and he who pretends to be a Royalist and yet disgraces so good a Cause by his prophane Life The two first are Fratres in Malo Twins of Rebellion the Elder is of the Ignatian Fraternity and Roman Conclave who puts the Pope the Younger