Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A20838
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The practise of princes. Published by A. Ar
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Ar., A.
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1630
(1630)
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STC 722; ESTC S100204
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18,364
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24
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more reverenced or lesse Surely lesse witnes the generall murmurs of his subjects throughout the whole Land and divers bold outrages of Sailors and unpaide Souldiers Would it not greive any true Subject to see how the Kings authority was of late despised in that outrage in Fleetestreete backed by the Templers wherin som observed a just judgment of God that as the King suffered divines who are or should be Gods lawiers and Souldiers to tread Gods authority law under foote by slighting som proofs of Scripture and sophisticating others so God suffered Souldiers Templers and other Innes of court men to spurn against his lawes and authority God that oft payes by retaliatiō suffers people to deale so with Princes as they deale with him and theire Servants to bee alike faithfull to them in theire service as they are to him in his If people see theire Princes cast away the word of the Lord in divers things they wickedly grow as careles of Gods word which enjoines subjection to Princes and which otherwise stilleth the madnes of the people and keepes them in aw God causeth the Prince that feares him and sincerely furthers his word preached to be by his people reverenced loved feared and enriched with presents and gifts as Jehoshaphat was He therefore that doth it not but rather the contrary he must needes finde the contrary him he suffers to be molested with enemies and the rebellions of his owne vassals as were Salomon Rehoboam Jeroboam Ioram and others wherein that is fulfilled which the Lord saith Those that honour me I will honour and those that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Looke then on the dishonours and losses of the State abroade the troubles divisions and outrages at home and confesse them to be the fruits of theire councels who stand for connivance at poperie favouring of Arminians and protection honouring of delinquents temporall spirituall But though I should reckon up all the fruits of theire counsailes some men would yet commend them for wise counsellors as our Arminians and ambitious temporisers and popelings doe who have all thriven by them for as wisdom saith They that forsake the law praise the wicked but they that keepe the law set themselves against them Wicked men understand not judgment but they that seeke the Lord understand all things It is fit indeede that Kings should have theire counsell for where no counsell is the people fall but where many counsellors are there is health that is if they be honest men and true as the old men that counsailed Rehoboā faithfully divers greate matters of state may be better carried by such privy counsellors then by a Parliament which is more publick open but if they be Achitophels and as the yong men that gave wicked counsell temporisers or false to the religion and State they seeme to serve then the more they are and the more wit they have by so much the worse they beeing such as Wisdom describeth When the wickid are increased transgression is increased but the righteous shall see theire fall Such as neither Feare the Lord nor the King but meddle with them that are given to change religion and government for such while they rule theire King are all Princes to his hurt and so wisdom saith For the transgression of the Land many are the Princes thereof They are the sinnes of the Land which raigne in the light of the Gospell as drunkennes adulterie prophanenes oppression and the like that provoke God to suffer them to be intruded to prevaile against the zeale and care of so many Parliaments Not all the base trecherie of delinquents nor the wisdom of so many hundred men oft set in Parliament to discover them suffice to make the King see theire practises and the danger of defending them much lesse the necessity of expelling them when the sinnes of the nation hold them up If our sins had not supported them to plague us God that maketh men to be of one minde in a howse would have made our Kings as our Parliaments to heare see and abhor them and not have suffered them to be so deafe and blinde on that side to the breeding of such longe and dangerous divisions betweene the head and members of the Parliament but for sinne He taketh away the speech from the faithfull counsellors and judgment from the ancient Hence it was that God suffered the Duke to get so many to be created and made Earles Vicounts Barons and Bishops them to be brought into the parliament to uphold his faction and carrie out his partie in the upper howse by multitude of voices after the Popes example in the counsell of Trent A strange way and merit to atcheive honour if I miscall it not beeing so attained by them that justifie the wicked for a reward what true honour have such men It is ◠greate honour indeede to a mā to be made a Peere of the Realme and by virtue thereof to sit as a Iudge in Parliament to heare causes and to stablish and ordaine lawes matters so greatly concerning a nation but that is if it be for the right furtherance of Gods kingdom true religion and justice and the manifest good of the common wealth herein they are Gods in a laudable sense and worthy reverence but if by them these things shall goe backward and the contrary be brought forward If a man shall attaine and hold honours for favouring poperie Arminianisme or neutralitie or for conniving at such practises as those of the Duke or for justifying delinquents and getting Parliaments for theire sakes dissolved or for overthrowing theire lawes and priviledges is there true honour in such a one It is indeede as if one attained or held honours by murders treasons adulteries thefts lies and the like or by slobering them over as som write of the smothered murder of Marques Hambleton and others and as if a man should get the honour to be a Iudge by overthrowing the lawes And they that get or hould honours and offices by getting Parliaments thus dissolved and providing that there may be no more or at least not free to touch all ill practises and persons it is as if one should get the honour of a Iudge for overthrowing the court of justice or for providing that no causes might be heard or at least that divers might not come to true judgment but either be smothered and throwen out or carried by corrupted voices What poore ploughman haveing the knowledge and feare of God is not much happier then such greate ones with theire thus bought offices and honours And yet who sees not that those who for such services to the Duke and his faction have beene made Earles Vicounts and Barons are exceding many and three fould more then the ancient nobilitie at least then those of them that have constantly distasted such vile practises and all communion with them the like might be saide of Bishops Deanes
it is to see wicked counsellors get such a hand over theire King that he is wholy ruled by them and dares not doe or say any thing but what they like nor favour a good man and his cause further then they admit as it was with Zedekiah who durst not be knowne of the talke he had with Ieremie but was forced to faigne a busines and an answer to stop the mouths of his Princes and Councellors so verie a child they made of him though it be saide woe to thee o Land whose King is a child when with a couragious constant frowne he might have dispersed them all and have saved himselfe and the citie by beeing perswaded by Ieremie 2. Wisdom saith of a true king The pleasure of a King is in a wise servant this wise man is one truly religious not an Achitophel but his wrath shall be toward him that is lewd Such as are our seditious whisperes the seedesmen of division Righteous lips are the delight of Kings and the King loveth him that speaketh right things And againe A King that sitted in the throne of judgment chaseth away all evill with his eyes He lookes with indignation on wicked men as considering that he sits in the throne of the Lord to doe that which is right and best for Gods service and kingdom A wise King scattereth the wicked and causeth the wheele to turne over them And why should wee not pray and hope that God may give our King this grace seeing Wisdom saith The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water he turneth whithersoever it pleaseth him for he saith to Kings Cast out the scorner and strife shall goe out so contention reproch shall ceasse and on the other side He that loveth purenes of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his freind Wisdom also sheweth that it is for a Kings honour and safety to have wicked men sifted out and cut off or expelled saying The glory of God is to conceale a thinge but the Kings honour is to search out a thinge to let such come to triall Take the drosse from the silver and there shall proceede a vessel for the finer Take away the wicked froÌ„ the King and his throne shall be established in righteousnes as if he saide otherwise it must needes totter O but these cunning Achitophels have many goodly pretences shewing that it is wisdom in Kings to keepe downe and suppresse these Puritans as they were ever pleased to call the gentlemen of the lower howse and all that crie out for reformation or trouble themselvs with such matters as the treatie and match with Spaine the increase of poperie and Arminianisme the losse of the Palatinate and of Shipping and honour in the Seas transportation of mumunition and corne the Rochellers or the like and thereby say they taxe the wisdom and government of theire King and his councell wheÌ„ indeede this suggestion the like is but a cloake to cover theire treacherie love to superstition and hate of our religioÌ„ yet want they not a disguise of pretended love to the booke of common praier the hierarchie and such traditions and ceremonies thereof as doe not offend poperie as if that were sufficient to make them protestants and good states men whose hearts and practises are for Rome for as wisdom saith Hatred may be couered by deceite but the malice thereof shall be discovered in the congregation that is in an publick and free assembâ—ie which shewes the good use and necessity of Parlâ—aments which these mens practise could never endure and therefore they have stil got them dissolved by hooke or by crooke let what would follow either at home to the joy and furtherance of the Papists and Arminians the extreame weakning of the King and kingdom or abroade to the undoing of our freinds and religion in Germanie the Palatinate France and Denmarke whereby our Bisshops and theire abettors have shewed they had rather all these should fall then theire owne faction and glorie though poperie and pelagianisme have every where thriven by it what care they that beeing in many of them the maine ende of these theire practises witnes Cosens protected for al his cosening devotions published and palpable superstition erected and theire suffering the Appealers booke to passe two or three yeares and the Author to be rewarded that so schollers in the universities to get promotion might in like manner corrupt and be corrupted and so corruption might spread from these fountains to all parts of the Land watered by them and when they doubted that in Parliament it might be questioned and they for suffering and furthering it to prevent that they get the King to call it in sleigthly not a search to be made for it as for other bookes not left as this to be freely sold in shops by any that would and to forbid all disputes preaching and writing on both sides knowing they could thereby hinder all that should write against those errors and let bookes and disputes passe which defended the same as they after did Dr. Iacksons second part printed before the Parliament but somwhat kept in till it was dissolved whence it appeares that though these were points they durst not maintaine in Parliament and therefore errors yet theire drift was to save and further them and to engage the king further and further in the cause that so the Parliament might not medle with them or if they did it might be pretended the howse tooke the matter out of his hand taxed his government and undervalued his prerogative that so he inceÌ„sed thereby might shew the Arminians more favour And the like ends have they that get Kings in pretended policie to connive at poperie and stay the execution of lawes against Papists suffer ordinaÌ„ce victuals and other provision of war to be daily transported to the enemies of our religion that so if never so litle shew be made of reforming these things before a Parliament and yet Parliaments complaine of them or of theire agents in court church-papists trecherous favourits delinquents straight it might be preteÌ„ded the matter is taken out of the Kings hand and his government and prerogative is taxed and infringed thereby to put off reformation incense his majestie and get them more favour And still to saue these practises from comming to triall and therewithall to put men out of heart in theire trading make them sell theire ships and therein the wals of the land they euer finde the Parliaments other worke in case of customs priviledges and other matters and then informe the king that in those things his prerogative is by them grossly infringed and he obliged to dissolve the assemblie The reasons why the howse of Austria and the French have of late prevailed are cheifely two first because they had care to suffer none to be of theire councell of state Agents abroade nor Generals and