first Samuel chose Saul King then the people and Benaiah Nathan and Zadok first chose Salomon King the generality of the people freely suffering the choyse afterwards the rest of the people came in approved the choyse and renewed the Kingdome 1 Sam. 11 12. But the people of Israel gave not their approbation of their Kings chosen by the better sort untill the persons chosen had given them some singular proofe of their valour as Saul did or of their wisdome as Solomon did when Nahash the Ammonite was destroyed and the City of Jabesh Gilead delivered by the hand of Saul then the people cried Who is he that said Saul shall not reigne over us bring the men that we may slay them and all the people went with Samuel to Gilgal and there they made Saul King 1 Sam. 11. 14 15. Likewise when Salomon had given Judgement between the two women both claiming the living childe they feared the King for they saw the wisdome of God was in him to doe Justice So Salomon was King over all Israel 1 King 3. 28. 4. 1. Thus here in England when the Peoples Trustees by Counsels in Parliament had often delivered this Common-wealth from their enemies hand and had from among their Brethren of the same Nation and Religion set up Keepers of the Liberties of the people by Authority of Parliament approving the choyse made have liberally laid out their persons and estates for the safety of their Rulers and of themselves People may not chuse new Governours without a cause Governours being chosen the power lyeth in them effectually provided they rule well and their people may not chuse new Governours without the consent or death of the old or without the Male administration of Justice in the old Rulers for in case the old Governours chosen continue to rule well the people may not force their consent but it must be a Free Act of the good Rulers to desire the people to chuse a New else if the people causelesly reject well ruling Governours they reject the Lord that he should not rule over them 1 Sam. 8. 6 7 8. The people may not without imputation of Treason cry What portion have we in David while David liveth and ruleth well nor have they at such a time any cause to follow a rebellious and flattering Absalom to doe them Justice Indeed on just reason declared Governours may remit their power to the people that chose them and people thus re-impowred may with the same Liberty set up other Governours over themselves as Nathan Zadok and Benaiah made choyse of Salomon for King when David grew old sick Bed-rid unserviceable and bad them make Salomon King 1 King 1. 33 34 35. otherwise the people may not change without a cause and the Governour or Governours are to use his or their power for the Common good that they give no just occasion to dis-engage the people and to make them change The occasion of chusing Governours The occasion of people's chusing Governours was the Countries danger and the end of that choyse was the peoples safety which Samuel implyed when he faulted the Israelites for desiring a King so unseasonably at a time when they dwelled safely and were delivered from their enemies on every side 1 Sam. 12. 11. Indeed Israel were without Rulers sometimes when all things were in peace and every man went to his owne inheritance Judg. 21. 25. but when Famine appeared or when War approached then they chose them Governours to feed them Esa. 3. 5. 8. or to judge them and to fight their Battels 1 Sam. 8. 20. when Judges ruled Ruth 1. 1. Elders Kings or Captaines and the Governours chosen performing the peoples trust did thereby oblige the people to stand by their Trustees and some by the Word preached for them some by the Sword fought for them some by their Pen wrote for them and some with heart and tongue prayed for them accordingly Againe when Kings and Rulers did faile their trust reposed in them they dissolved the bands of the peoples Allegiance towards them and the people failing of performing their fealty to such Trust-breakers were spared by Gods appointment Thus when the ten Tribes fell from King Rehoboam for his roughnesse towards them and the people set up Jeroboam for their King Judah was from God by the Prophet forbid to fight against them for the thing was of the Lord 1 King 12. 16. 20. 24. Thus the old Romans cast off Tarquin and all Kingly Government for the pride and cruelty of that King and for the unchastity of his lecherous Sons and chose them Consuls who might better consult and provide for the Countries good Also it is said of Brutus who was one of their Consuls That he scourged and beheaded his owne Sons for attempting to bring in Kings againe Florus lib. 1. cap. 9. Just Governours to be upheld by the people To the Free People of England Epist. DEare Fellow Commoners it hath been declared already that the best way to settle the Common-wealth in a firme and lasting peace is to looke backe to rules of equity and justice to principles of Nature and right-Reason to Gods Law and good Conscience and every one of you must contribute your utmost hereunto That power lyeth in you and there is now recovered your right to use it Your Liberties have been redeemed to you at a deare rate and with great expence of Bloud and of Treasure maintaine it then as Free-men and use your Liberty not against your selves but for your selves Cease mourning for Saul the King and his Traines the Body is not destroyed by removing bad humours let your hearts be towards the Governours of England who have willingly offered themselves among the people and to their Servants who have jeoparded their lives for your sakes I meane to the Commons in Parliament the Councell of State and their Armies who have not designed upon you for their owne worldly advantage but have scoped at your welfare who by no sensible feares have suffered themselves to be perverted from impartiall Justice but have bound up your safety and theirs in one With what reason should they receive the benefits of Law who deny obedience to the Law What priviledge can a proprietary possesse by Law of the Land who denies to doe that which even the Law of Nature calls for of him The non-engaging does not strip him of his priviledge of the Law but the standing by himselfe without Law who engages not brings him into danger and certainly he deserves no advantage by a Garrison who refuses to help in time of a Siedge And having performed their trust they have declared themselves willing to lay downe their power not Lording it over you but leaving the power free to you for chusing a new Representative and being set free chuse for your selves for yee need Counsellours but Nunquam consilium suit in populo nunquam certa constans vitae ratio and where no counsell is the
their fields their vineyards their seeds their Servants their sheep after his pleasure 1 Sam. 8. 11 13 14 15 16 17. which sheweth what Tyrants will doe not what good Rulers ought to doe How many other waies a man may be put out of possession of his goods as by stealth robbery c. I now forbeare Onely let me admonish that having liberty of our persons and estates and religion which is the greatest use it not as a cloak of maliciousnesse but as the Servants of God 1 Pet. 2. 16. For who is he that will harme you if yee be followers of that which is good 1 Pet. 3. 17. Obstinate Offenders forfeit their Liberty Obstinate offenders make themselves Bond-men Such as will not be reclaimed doe forfeit their Liberty Some men there be like the unjust Judge they neither feare God nor care for men These neither chuse Rulers nor obey them being unruly and disorderly the law is to try them and Rulers that rule by Law are a terror to evill-doers as they are Ministers of God for the praise of them that doe well Rom. 13. 3 4 6. Rulers are by the law of the Land to judge rotten members in order to the peace of sound members who did chuse or approve them For they are Gods Ministers attending continually on this very thing and for this cause pay yee Tribute to doe them Honour and the Magistrate accepting their place and power doe thereby ingage to doe the people justice Provided alwayes that yee continue to do well Such persons then as will not honour the Magistrate by keeping order and observing Law must bear the punishment of their disorder against the Law the Magistrate beareth not the sword in vaine Although unjust men know no shame Zeph. 3. 5. yet just governours cannot but countenance them that doe well even for very respect of Nature and to safe-guard mankinde against persons unnaturall for the judgement is the Lords and they judge for the Lord with whom is no respect of persons 2 Chron. 19. 8. The Emperour Trajan is said to give a Sword to the President of the Pretorium with these mandates Hoc ense utaris pro me justè faciente contra me utaris si injusta fecero i. e. in defensione proprii Corporis Nationis If the Emperour himselfe should doe unjust things he allowed the Judge to doe justice if it were against himselfe when he should doe evil No Liberty to the Lawlesse Freedome is to them that doe well the Law is a defence to them that keep the Law and it is given to punish them that breake the Law the Law is for the Lawlesse neither Nature Nation nor Religion allowes man any Freedome to doe evill Praise is to them that doe well not to the evil doer Christians in Rome living as a conquered people under persons in power who were unchristian were directed by Paul to pay their tribute to them Rom. 13. 6. and well if so doing they might live in peace It is the goodnesse of any Government to protect the good and such as are quiet in the land but evill-doers shall be rooted out Prov. 2. 22. Yee that will yet know no Law nor be in subjection where is there a Land or Nation which hath Lawes and yet evill men may live as they lust without rebuke Pay your tribute here then as did the conquered Christians in Rome and the captive Israelites in Babylon of old who were bid to submit to the yoke of their Government and to pray for the peace of that City for in the peace thereof yee shall have peace Jerem. 29. 7. There is no way to Liberty in England but in well doing Doe that is good and thou shalt have praise of the same Rom. 13. 3. never strive to recover to your selves a Freedome to doe evill here If thou doest evill be afraid Rom. 13. 4. but be true and faithfull to the Common-wealth of England and the Government thereof and the Powers here shall be ministers of God to thee for good in common humanity we are to love all men in Nationall community to love the Brother-hood and in Religion we are to feare God which three Lawes laid the foundation to that which followes Honour the King for Kings themselves were to use their power for the good of all men of the Brotherhood and of them that feared God punishing evill doers and praising them that did well and good people were not to malice their Kings under pretence of a liberty to doe well without them provided their Governours rule well reproving Malefactours for the sake of wel-affected persons men may doe well with out Rulers over them yet well-doers need Rulers over them both to incourage men in well doing and to safe-guard them that doe well against evill doers who have evill will at the good of Sion wherefore use yee your liberty as the servants of God 1 Pet. 2. 16 17. Where no Law is the intent of the Law is to be followed The Law of Nations is Lex non scripta as Mr. Coulse out of Hollinshed citing the Lord Hungerford executed for Buggery when yet there was no positive Law to punish it where the written Law comes short what wanteth must be supplyed out of the Law of God and Nature out of the Laws of rightreason and common equity for a terrour of them that doe evill and in defence of them that doe well New sins require new lawes as for the Ranters Lawes have been lately made by this State I grant we are much bound to our Ancestors for Magna Charta and other Lawes of common right and Justice but we need more lawes still to be made as occasion serveth necessity made David eate the Shew Bread to preserve his life otherwise not lawfull for any man to eate but for the Priests alone Here David transgressed the letter of the Law yet following the intent of the Law he was blamelesse Matth. 12. 3 4 5. See from the beginning the grounds hereof the Gentiles had not the Law i. e. the written Law but they were a Law unto themselves for they had {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the worke of the Law in their hearts their consciences or their thoughts accusing or excusing one another as they did well or ill Rom. 2. 14 15. for God had shewed them his power and God-head in things that are made Chap. 1. 20. so that they are without excuse who vanish away in their imaginations from that they know of God and from that light of God which shewes men what is suitable to the nature of God But seeing that where no Law is there is no transgression Rom. 5. 13. That is men are slow to impute transgression to themselves where there is no Law therefore the Law entred that sinne might abound and that sinne might become exceeding sinfull Rom. 7. 13. howbeit when men were instructed out of the Law and knew the directive power of the Law they
State still In the want of Bishops here is a Church still And in the want of the Statutes of Omri the Bishops Lawes I mean their lacks not Lawes to Rule and Governe the people by even now though lawlesse persons grudge and acknowledge them not for even the Souldiers or some of them have by law suffered for their own evill doing Wherefore if men doe onely that is right in their own eyes it is not for want of Rulers nor with the toleration of the Magistrate let not our State beare blame for that But why may not he meaning the King of Scots desire his owne objection 5 his owne inheritance No man can be right Heire to any earthly Kingdome since Christ the Heire of all things was deprived and Crucified Duke William got his power over this Kingdome not by inheritance but by Conquest and the Heire was in this Family put besides the Crowne and many more since that as Eleutherus Philodemus largely sheweth Now the King of Scots for whom you plead must either plead Conquest from the Conquerour or succession from his Father because you say this Common-wealth is his owne whereas indeed neither Victory nor Succession gives any man right to reigne over a people only Reddit idoneos it makes men fit Vti Rex Jac. Moreover the Kings of England were formerly such as the people did chuse as Mr. Cooke in his Appeale hath observed from the forme of their Oath for when King of England were Crowned they bound themselves by Oath to rule the people according to the Lawes of this Nation also the people either chose or accepted them for their Kings hereupon engaging their Allegiance to them The old King Charles by his Hostile Breaches of his Oath dissolved the people from their Bond and from their Obedience too he forfeited his Kingdome and ceased to be King As for the King of Scots he had neither election nor approbation from this Common-wealth nor from the Representative thereof the Commons in Parliament and his claime without the peoples consent gives him no more title to reigne here then Absalom had to rule Israel who designed to be King while David was King there and ruled well also for so the People of England have chosen or accepted other Governours according to their Liberty their Liberty being as theirs was in the Common-wealth of Israel who desired Elders Judg. 8. 22. Chap. 11. 6 11. Ah objection 6 they have taken away the life of the former King a vertuous King a Divine King and they will have none of his Race to reigne after him If his life be taken away it was not for his vertue nor for his Divinity neither Where were his vertues seen in his latest governing he proclaimed and waged warre against his best Subjects the Parliament and his good People was this a vertue in a King set up to fight for the People for this the Commons of England in Parliament have declared him a Tyrant now Tyranny is no vertue and when in the face of Death he used a forme of Prayer taken out of Sir Philip Sidny's Arcadia he proved himselfe neither Vertuous nor Divine and if his Sonne walking in his Fathers steps be also cast off from reigning in England it is according to Gods Law If he beget a Sonne that is a shedder of bloud shall he then live he shall not live he hath done all these abominations he shall surely dye his bloud shall be upon him Ezek. 18. 9 13. by which Law he is cast out of this Kingdom and out of the Land of the living too Thus Jehu rooted out murderous Ahab and all his race so Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Iezreel and all his great men and his Kins-folke and his Priests untill he left none remaining 2 King 10. 11. True it is Kings were of old Divine being promised of God to Abraham Kings shall come out of thee Gen. 17. 6. And some were by Gods appointment anoynted Kings as Saul and David but of all Kings since Christs death it may be questioned Whose are all these For after the Scepter departed from Shiloh what man after Christs death was ever Anoynted King by Gods Command After the Jewes had killed the Heire they said So the inheritance shall be ours Mat. 21. 38. It became indeed theirs by force of violence because they seized on it not by course of Nature nor by inheritance nor gift but Conquest made Kings Kings indeed were supreame Vt caeteris hominibus praeirent praelucerent To use King James his phrase that they may excell others in doing service to the people as wel as being in place above the people not to magnifie their Name but to minde Kings of their duty But even Kings with all their supremacie were all but Kings of this World after Christ their Kingdomes Kingdomes of men Dan. 4. 17. being chosen by men as the Kings of the Nations at first Kings of the earth 2 Chron. 9. 22 23 26. Kingdomes of this world Revel. 11. 15. They were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an Ordinance of man 1. Pet. 2. 13. So changeable they are as the people see just reason and cause for it E. Philodem p. 56. altering the forme of Government for the substance sake and preferring the greater before the lesse even Religion towards God and the Liberties of the people afore the Person of the King therein not breaking but keeping the Covenant according to the equity thereof Vide the Declaration of the Army marching into Scotland wherefore The Kingdomes of this world are become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and if the Powers that be doe not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} feed the people by ruling over them their power shall be likewise broken as this of England hath been be the Nations never so angry Revel. 11. 15 17 18. then no marvell if his servants serve him The Brazen Serpent in the Wildernesse was ordained by God but Hezekiah seeing it abus'd to Idolatry beate it to powder threw it into the river and cald it Nehushtan 2 King 18. 4. and if this State have for his pride and tyrany brought this man downe into the dust of death and rooted out all Kingship after him Righteous art thou O Lord and upright are thy Judgements Psal. 119. 137. when King Amaziah turned from following the Lord they conspired against him pursued him to Lachish and slew him there 2 Chron. 25. 27. 28. no man ever was questioned for it Thus that English King lived like Rehoboam following the young mens counsell spake roughly and armed himselfe against his owne people 2 Chron. 10. 13 14. 11. 1. and he dyed like Jehoram who reigned wickedly and dyed without being desired of the people 2 Chro. 21. 19 20. But he hath received that recompence of his errour which was meet and loath should I have been to have raked up the dead-mans bones againe but in defence of
already accepted of another Government For in Christian Commonwealths the right of Rulers lyeth in the vote of the peoâ—â—â—â—husing them as before Sect. 13. according to Hushaâ—'s speech Whom the Lord and this people and all the people of Israel chuse his will I be 2 Sam. 16. 17. There was a Covenant between Benjamin and the rest of the Tribes of Israel and that as strong a Covenant as ever was between England and Scotland for they were brethren but when Benjamin brake the bonds in the matter of Levi's wife her death and banishment they dissolved the bands of brother-hood and Israel being then set free brought the malefactors unto condigne punishment and the men of Giâ—â—â—â— also who after Israels demand to them made kept back the offenders from the tryall of justice as accessaries to Benjamins fact Judg. 20. 13 14. Which also was the very case and the first breach between this Parliament and the late King C. position 6 No Treason is to be tolerated without all punishment though lesse punishment be laid on men for the first offence Abiathar the Priest was an evill Counsellor of Adonijah's and helped him forward 1 Kings 1. 6 7 8. Yet King Salomon would not for that fault put him to death because he bare the Arke before David his father and because of his sufferings with David Howbeit Salomon did sequester Abiathar from his place and the profits thereof saying to him Get thee to thy fields at Anathoth vers. 27 and put in his place good Zadok who chose and anoynted Salomon King vers. 35. Neither did Zadok scruple to accept of the place because it was a sequestration but he ministred to King Salomon in the room of Abiathar Which example is a justification of our State in their censures of that sort and of Ministers by them put into sequestrations who in their places do serve the souls of the people faithfully position 7 Judgement on Malefactors and sentence may be given upon silence of the party charged where the fault is palpable Slanderous Shimei was reprived by David in die coronationis 1 Sam. 19. 22 23. And confined by King Salomon three yeares But for treasonous breach of his Oath and Articles King Salomon on his silence to the charge judged him to death without further confession or conviction and Benaiah slew him at Salomons command This was King Charles his case who also was condemned to 〈◊〉 on his silence to his Charge read to him the things charâ—â—◠〈◊〉 him being palpable proveable and deserving death in the eye of the Judges position 8 The execution of justice on evill doers is the peace of them that doe well For hereupon it is said The Kingdome was established in the hands of Salomon There would not have been any stable firme and lasting peace in his Kingdome had hee not executed impartiall justice on the breakers thereof See 1 Kings 3. ult. A fit president for the States of England To the Supreame Authority of the Parliament Councell of State and High Court of Justice Epist. MOst honoured Commons of England Civill Governments are ordered by the Lord The most high ruleth in the Kingdomes of men and giveth them to whomsoever he will The translation of the Rule of this Nation from Kings to your Honours hath received large testimony from heaven giving you the hearts of this people and giving them hearts to jeopard their lives to serve you and giving you so great salvations by the peoples meanes Oh! that all the Lords people might consent in one to render unto your Authority which God hath so signally blessed to this people all chearfull and faithfull obedience in the Lord for conscience sake and that in thankfulnesse to God who hath so blessed your Counsels for our welfare That although for the transgressions of this land many have been the Princes thereof yet by your wisdome and prudence the people may be preserved henceforward I know yee are not given to change unnecessarily and what necessity hath lyen upon you the peoples Judges for the change past yee know My humble request is Now Supream power is by the people intrusted with your Honours Magistatus officium est ut defendat innocentes puniat petulantes P. Martyr It is the Magistrates office to defend the innocent and to punish the wrong doer Let good people who shall have praise of God in their wel-doing have praise of you Let evill doers know your justice without partiality quit your selves like men be strong love them that love the Lord That as good men 〈◊〉 â—ell-doing suffered wrongfully and formerly were made to 〈◊〉 now evil doers may flye before your justice and you may render to them as they have served us For God setteth the poore on high from affliction the righteous shall see it and rejoyce and all iniquity shall stop her mouth Thus the Almighty shall be with you to settle this Commonwealth in peace As sometimes Israels Kingdome was established in the hand of Salomon And knowing the same power lyeth in you I thought it my duty to present your honours with Salomons proceedings in following whose steps The eare that heareth you shall blesse you and the eye that seeth seeth you shall beare witnesse to you when yee deliver the poore that cry the fatherlesse and him that hath no helper the blessing of him that was ready to perish shall come upon you and so yee shall make the widowes heart to leap for joy yee shall put on righteousnesse as a robe to cloath you and judgement as a diadem while yee are eyes to the blinde and feet to the lame while yee shall be fathers to the poore and shall search out the cause that came unto you while yee shall break the jaws of the wicked and take the spoyl out of their teeth Job 29. The powers that be here are your selves the enacting and the executing Lawes for the Common-wealth lyeth in your power the Taxes lately raised have not bin for the private use of your selves or of your Children that is forbidden of God Ezek. 46. 18. but they have been indifferently levyed upon your selves and upon the people in defence of the whole Common-wealth and that but for the present necessity in which case King Saul tooke of the peoples goods for the peoples good and was blamelesse 1 Sam. 12. 6 7. Leagues with Idolaters may yee not make Judg. 2. 2. Deut. 7. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. But if any such among you have made their peace with you they living peaceably by you and paying their tribute to you keep faith with them as Joshua did with the Gibeonites Josh. 9. for if you purposely make Covenant with Idolaters and the people joyne therein yee and they make your selves and them liable to Judgement upon the Nation from the Lord Judg. 2. 11. On the other side if the people joyne not with you in such Covenants your Covenant-making with them will make continuall strife among your selves untill yee all be
the living and of our just State It hath been said objection 7 Pray for your enemies Yea we pray for our enemies in pitty to them yet not to prosper them but that they may be kept from evil-doing Againe we must discerne between our enemies and Christs enemies for we may not bid God speed to Christs enemies who bring not his Doctrine Joh. 10. 11. Jehosaphat had this warning Thou shouldest not love them that hate the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 2. yea David hated them that hate God rightfore as though they were his enemies Psal. 139. 21 22. and he often prayed against them Be not mercifull O Lord to wicked transgressours Psal. 59. 5. or to such as offend of malicious wickednesse Also we must discerne between our owne private enemies and the Common enemies of our Country Omnes omnium Charitates patria complectitur Cicer. 3 Offic. Private interests are all comprehended in the Publick he deserves no pitty who pitties not the Common-wealth although there be a pretence of pitty to the enemies of our Country A publick spirit loves Christ afore his Country and his Country above himselfe and if above himselfe then above the enemies of Christ and of his Country much more alwayes preferring his Country and the welfare of them that love Christ therein above the enemies of his Country who ever they be both in our Prayers and Praises in our Counsels and in all our services of Peace and Warre for the King and the Parliament are Majores singulis yet they are Minores Vniversis see vox militaris and as totum universum est majus suis partibus A rotten member must not be spared in pitty to the whole Ense recidendum est nè pars sincera trahatur True it is in common infirmities the rule is Forgive and it shall be forgiven you Luk. 6. 37. for Love covers a multitude of sins 1 Pet. 4. 8. In crying sins and in criminall cases the Law is Thou shalt smite them thou shalt utterly destroy them and shalt shew them no favour Deut. 7. 2. In case of ignorance we pray for our enemies Father forgive them they know not what they doe Luk. 23. 34. But in case they offend of malice we pray against our enemies Let death seize upon them let them goe downe quicke into hell for wickednesse is in their dwellings and amongst them Psal. 55. 15. You have power on your side objection 8 and your profits by the State and no marvell you speake for them I never received reward from the State to speake for them yet I have cause in duty and thankfulnesse to speake for them in as much as I have received from them and if I speake for them yet I speake the truth of them They put the late King to death 1. Not privily as Zimri slew his Master but they brought him forth to his Triall publikely and legally had he had any thing to say in his owne defence for clearing himselfe of the Crimes charged against him 2. Nor did they this as Zimri slew his Master in his drunkennesse a personall sinne against God and himselfe 1 King 16. 9 10. but they did it for his sins against the Nation and this English people even as King Joash who was slaine on his Bed for cruelty and ingratitude against the Sons of Jehoiada the Priest who had anointed him King 2 Chron. 24 25. And as King Amon who was slaine on his Bed by his Servants for his open Idolatry 2 Chron. 33. 21 22 23 24. 3. They put him not to death pretending a jealousie without cause as Saul would have slaine his Sonne Jonathan for pleading for David and would have killed David for that as long as David liveth nor Jonathan nor his Kingdome should be established 1 Sam. 20. 30. 33. 4. Not for small matters as the Corinthians went to Law 1 Cor. 6 1 2. 5. Not for a seeming cause as Saul for his rash vowes sake would have put Jonathan his Sonne to death had not the people rescued him 1 Sam. 14. 24. 27 43 44 45. but it was for a cause reall great open and manifest a breach of Trust and of his Covenant with his people for setting up his Standard and warring against the Parliament who desired and endeavoured to punish evil-doers whom he favoured A publike Nationall Offence True I doe honour this State and if mine enemy should write a Booke against me for so doing I should binde it to my shoulder for God hath honoured them with many succesfull Victories over their enemies and with much love of persons well-affected to God and Christ who also doe returne their honour to God and to the People that did chuse them making the welfare and common good of the People their supreame Law being true Keepers of the Liberties and peace of the People and needs must I speake write and pray for their peace Let them all prosper that love them Touch not mine Anointed objection 9 and doe my Prophets no harme Psal. 105. 14 15. and how then dare any man touch or harme a King This question hath been 〈◊〉 moved and as often answered but I say it were rather 〈◊〉 asked How dare any man touch or harme his Prophets and his People which both are his anoynted there not to be touched or harmed no not by Kings themselves for God reprooveth Kings for their sakes ver. 14. For Kings are not therefore the Lords anoynted because outwardly anoynted by men Oleum est tantum signum judicium Ja Rex But the Lords prophets and people were inwardly anoynted and sanctified to be the Lords vide Geneva notes in margin for the Saints in Christ have this honour to execute the judgement written against wicked Rulers with a two edged sword in their hands to bind their Kings in chaines and their Nobles in fetters of iron Psal. 149. 6 7 8. Yea objection 10 but these were Heathen Kings as it is said To execute vengeance on the Heathen and corrections upon the people vers. 7. What difference between heathens by Nationall profession and heathens by un-christian conversation for what do heathens more then they In their works they deny him Tit. 1. 16. They eate up my people as men eate bread Psa. 53. 5. and so do these Kings who cease to be Christian in their deeds Yea and judgements are written against unchristian Kings as against heathen Kings and other sinfull men if yee shall doe wickedly yee shall be consumed both yee and your King 1 Sam. 12. ult. For their thus sining is the case of those circumcised who became uncircumcised forsook the holy Covenant joyned themselves to the Heathen and were sold to doe mischeife In the dayes of Antiochus 1 Macchab. 1. 16. Christian Kings in name turn Heathens when they break asunder all bonds of Nature Nation and Religion too And they become punished as heathen Princes be When Nebuchadnezzar in his pride became a beast his own people turned him out among the beasts untill he should acknowledge the God of heaven that rules in the Kingdome of men and gives it to whomsoever he pleaseth Dan. 4. 17 18 20 34. To the Valiant Commanders and Watchfull Souldiers Epist. GEntle and contentfull Souldiers It was an old Question of one Hetruscus Whether a Christian may in any case go to war It s answered he may for to doe justice and judgement is more acceptable then sacrifice Prov. 2â— 3. And it s answered by Osorius de Nobilit Christian lib. 3. Respublica non possit stabiliri nisi armorum praesidio qui militem â—ollit Rempublicam funditus evertit Christus poliâ—eias non eripuit sed in melius instruit The Common-wealth cannot be stablished unlesse it be guarded with Armes Take away the Souldier and yee overturne the Commonwealth Christ would not abolish Civil Governments but forme them for the better he neither tooke the axe from the Judges nor did Paul deny the sword to the Magistrates nor did John Baptist disarme the Souldiers but prescribed them lawes of innocency and moderation Do violence to no man and be content with your wages Lu. 3. 13. yea Paul cals the Magistrate a Minister of God to thee for good thou doing well and saith he bears the sword to execute wrath upon them that doe evill Rom. 13. 4 5. Indeed it were much to be wished by every Christian that aâ—l men may contain themselves from doing evil that there were not this occasion given for punishment for war for thy people shall be all righteous then thy officers shall be peace thine exactors righteousnesse the Lord will hasten it in his time Isa. 16. 17 21. But since that time is not yet and this cannot yet be yee must remember That Nation and Kingdome that will not serve thee God and his people shall be wasted v. 12. impetus hostium est armis depellendus civium audacia est ferro reprimenda The boldnesse of vice must be reprooved with the couragiousnesse of vertue Our fathers of old were led by the spirit for the rebuking malefactors and we know that vengeance in a private matter becomes valour in the case of a Commonwealth Patience in personall injuryes does in Nationall wrongs assume a magnanimity invincible as Joshua did and it was a fruit of their peace with God When our fathers undertook Sanctissima Bella contra sceleratos most holy wars against notorious offenders for what peace so long as Jezabels whoredoms and her witchcrafts are so many 2 King 9. 22. The end of war upon the wicked should be the quietnesse and peace of those that are godly and honest Humbly acquaint your selves with God and be at peace among your selves Couragiously follow the Captaine of your salvation patiently carry his crosse after him faithfully commit the safe-keeping of your souls in weldoing to him and let us pray also for the peace of Englands Common-wealth Amen FINIS Sect. 1. Sect. 2. August Sect. 3. Destroy Sect. 4. Sect. 5. Sect. 6. Sect. 7. Ames Cas. li 5. cap. 22. Vrsin Sect. 8. Sect. 9. Sect. 10. Sect. 11. Sect. 12. Sect. 13. Sect. 14. Sect. 15. Answ ☞ Ans. Ans. 2. Ans. Ans. Answ Ans. Ans. Ans.