nec pro Christo itaque nec pro Christi Religione est adversus principes machinandi locus Baronius to the yeare of Christ 350. saith that in the purer times of Christians non cogitaverunt de vindicta for saith Tertul. If malum malo dispungi were lawfull in Christians Nos implevimus castra urbes oppida c. wee had all the Garrisons and fortes of the kingdome una nox pauculis faculis wee could have lighted our cruell Tyrants to their graves Saint Basil gave up the Towne to Iulian the Apostate even when they might have defended themselves against him he rather by teares and prayers beseecheth him to spare the Christians Famous is Saint Ambrose in his obedience to Theodosius Suadeo rogo hortor admoneo no more to a King Ego in te contumaciae animam non habeo sed habeo timoris and when Valentine demanded his Church he answers the King that by right thou canst not take away the house of a private man neither can be and thinke you by your power to take away the House of God yet marke imperatori non done sed non nego tradere basilicant possum sed pugnare non debeo volens nunquam jus deseram coactus repugnare non novi dolere potero potero gemire aliter nec debeo nec possum resistere But excelling all these is the practice of holy Samuel towards Saul who was neither Priest nor Christian I Sam. 15. when Sauls kingdome was rent from him decreto divino hee requested Samuel to stay and intreat God for him No Perjecisti Sermonem domini projecit te dominus ne sis Rex super Israel Saul catcheth at him and rent his mantle Samuel replies The Lord hath rent the kingdome of Israel from thee this day Then saith Saul I have sinned honour me I pray thee before the Elders of my people Here Samuel stayed and returned and followed after Saul The vices of Idolatrie of a King may not be remonstrated or declared down to the people by any member of the Church of God we must honour him before the people and Elders in Israel Yea though he rend off our mantles from our backes although hee deprive us of all our revenewes we must with St. Bernard say if all the world should importune me to dishonour the person of Lodovicus for his sacriledge Ego tamen Deum timerem Oh that our popular Clergie either would or could looke beyond Luther They might then learn more manners towards Kings from Irenaeus Tertullian Chrysostome Basil and to qualifie their ignorant zeales or their malicious knowledge Let them take one rule for all to speake honourably of the persons of KINGS from Nazianzen in his discourse with Constans the Arrian He doth not proclaime him Pharaoh or an Idolater or quod quidam fecit That Tophet is prepared of old and for the King I dare not begin to reckon opus erit viatico But benignifica natura tua Domine Auguste intelligit singularis admirabilis sapientia tua aequum videri debet sanctitati tuae gloriosissime Auguste dignantissime imperator sancte Rex loquuturus sum tecum cum honore regni fideitus and these honourable termes to an Arrian And 4. hundred Fathers of the Church spake no other language at Ariminum to an Arrian But the Church of God is as the Jewish Temple twice built And as at the latter raising of it the old men who had seene the glory of the former wept in memory of it for I doubt not but the grave Divines in this and other Churches who have seene the glory of the former part of the Church in the writings of the fathers doe weepe to see it in this latter age built up indeed of specious names and outsides of Religion but all operative faith devotion Chastity Temperance Patience Obedience even to Kings is made a question The Pope he lead is in the front of the latter part of the Church against the right of the Kings Hee that in former times sware in eo per quem reges regnant He whom the Florentine History can informe that his supremacie was not derived from an obscure place of Scripture or two But from the Emperours removing his Court from Ravenna since which time not Kings but Popes are Gods and the Societie of Jesus that slaughter-House of Kings can change a Text for his holinesse My sone feare thou God and the Pope Church-men are exempt from the power of Kings saith Samuel Sa. A Iesuite A Roman Catholike rebelling is no traytor saith the same Samuel Sa. Sexcentis versibus eorum impuritas traloqu nemo potest in so much as t is a proverb in Quiccardine it is the propertie of the Church to hate the King There is in these latter times another faction against the King who cry but with the Donatists Quid nobis imperatori And as the Papists Dominus Deus noster papa so these Dominus Deus noster consistorium presbyâ—erianum But that you ever sufficiently detest that kind of government I will give you one of their phrases from the Bishop of Winchester their Church say they is the house or rather their private houses the Church and the Common-wealth but the hangings now the hangings must be made fit for the house not the house for the hangings And if the King and his Princes be too high for their holy house they must cut them shorter and with the help of an Anabaptist lay them even with the ground But we have as yet no such rebellious custome nor I hope ever shall nor the Churches to God Let the Clergie for their obedience imitate holy Samuel to Saul Eliah to Ahab who by speciall commission told him not his people of his sinnes Imitate Jeremie in the prison Daniel in the denne Amos strucke through the Temples Zacharias murthered betweene the porch and the Altar Christ our Master under Herod Tiberius suffering under Pontius Pilate the Apostles under Caligula Claudius Nero Domitian Saint John in a Tubbe of Oyle Christian Bishops for many hundred yeares under Tyrants Idolaters Atheists none of all these reviled their Princes while they were alive Last of all remember that Saint Bernard Fidem â—onorum amissione exilio morte non prodam terramincolo quasi semper migraturus And Saint Chrysost In Epistola ad Cyrac will the King or the Queene banish me The earth is the Loras and the fulnesse thereof will hee cutt me in peeces I can remember Esay will hee cast me into the Sea Ionas If into the furnance The three Children If to the Lions Daniel If stone me Saint Stephen If behead mee Saint John Lastly for I dare not rebell will hee take away my whole estate and substance from mee that of Iob nudus exivi ex utero matris meae nudus revertar This for the Church Quis e clero if like the Primitive Fathers may say unto the King Quid agis What doest thou 2. Quis ex optimatibus regni May say unto
as if hee could not bu blaspheme God that spake ill of his King though of Ahab Nequissimus regum They are much mistaken who think that God was offended with the Jewes for chosing royall government in opposition to the judâ—ciall or the Shawhedrim established by God under Moses for Royall government hath beene most ancient and universall in the world in the Law of nature before the Taâ—les Saint Chrisostome saith therefore Eve was taken out of man not out of the earth that mankinde might acknowledge one head one Superiour one King and Sir Wal. Raleigh in his second book of the Hist of the world Royall Government from Paternall which indeed are or ought to bee both in one effect and so we reade of Abraham the Patrarch is termed a Prince Genesis 23.6 And David the KING is named a Patriarch let mee speake boldly to you of David the Patriarch jus regum comes from jus paternum both have one commandement Honour thy Father as God alone rules the whole world and as the Sunne gives light to all creatures so the people of one Land doe most naturally yeeld obedience to one head one King All Nations were first governed by this forme Assyrians Gresians Aegyptians Iewes Percians Scythians Turkes Tartares English French Spaniards Poles Danes and in the Iudges Neither doth sacred Scripture make mention of other Rulers then Kings He that will know more in so cleere a case may if he please read Plato Herodotus Zenâ—phon Saint Cyprian Saint Ierome Soveraignty in one person is most naturall most reasonable most honourable most necessary most divine So that God was not angry at the choyce of the kinde of government but that he thereby was cast forth from being King of the Iewes whom hee in the place of a King had governed for above three hundred and fiftie yeares for neither Moses nor the Sawhedrim nor any Judge in Israel had in themselves jus imperatorium the Right of a King but onely jus hortatorium punitivum if they transgressed the written Law of God God only was their King who faine would still besides the generall protection of the world have ruled as an earthly King among the rest and a patterne to them but they would no longer live by faith and expectation of his wonted direction in government and deliverance but rather to be as the Nations round about them they chose a man and refused the living GOD Hee is ejected from his immediate Royalty This the ground of Gods displeasure at the Iewes for choosing them a KING Ancient and universall hath beene the government of the world by Kings Saint Ieromâ— in one of his Epistles saith that two Governours in a Common-wealth are like Esau and Iacob two Princes in the wombe of Rebecca so they in one Kingdome rend and teare in peeces Rome would not endure two brothers In navi unus guberrator in Ecclesia unus Episcopus in Domo unus Dominus in exercitu unum signum in imperio unus imperator The onely way to recover and preserve unity and peace among us is one King This for the Originall and antiquitie of Kings whence they are and when Now secondly what they are which is best knowne by that whereby they are formaliter or finaliter tales their power Where the Word of a King is there is power c. Salomon the wisest of men as well as Kings Proverbs 8.15 placeth Kings before the Creation of the world better not to bee at all then under no Governement which is none without power and that power if to any purpose must bee such as with which no earthly power may contest the owner of it is evermore Alkum one against whom there ought to bee no rising nor any rebellion at all Darius his three servants in Esdras wrote their wise sentences 1. Forte est vinum 2. Fortis est Rex 3. Fortiores surt mulieres sed supra omnia est veritas I am somewhat afeard it was a Prophesie they are indeed at this day stronger then our Darius Their fond Pharasaicall and seditious religions are as ridiculous and as changeable as their fashions and attires their ungrounded zeales their nourishing and feeding of the vulgar and rebellious of the Clergie those illiterate talkers in the Pulpit will nisi supra omnia sit veritas if the God of truth doe not speedily offend be stronger then either King or Church David although a man of valour and pietie yet complaines he that the sonnes of Zervia were to hard for him But our Kings and Church may both complaine of the daughters of this Land That they are and will be to hard for us nisi supra omnia veritas unlesse God support the integrity of our King and the sincerity of the Protestant Religion A more pregnant place for the power of Kings is in Wisdome 26 2. speaking of the extreme vengeance which God will bring upon the heads of evill Kings at the last day he proves the certainty thereof by an argument which will seeme very strange in these rebellious dayes Quoniam Dominus non vevebitur faciem cujusque unto you O Kings doe I speake hee is not afraid of the persons of Kings hee dares call them to account A very vaine idle argument to prove his unmastered deity and power in that he is not afraid of Kings Who is afraid of them Doth God indeed say Ego dixi Dij estis Wee can take up the next verse and be even with him he shall fall when we please like one of the Princes No such great matter of feare is the person or power of a King now a dayes when every poore ignorant pesant or shop-man can define confine and pinch up the prerogative of the King when the vulgar Clergie those Gibeanites not fit to draw water for learned men can pricke and gird the person of the King for the space of three or foure houres When every petty but insolent Towne can neglect if not contemne his presence when be vouchsafes to come and see us So that if God will prove his securitie to us hee must quit the old argument of feare due unto Kings from all but himselfe and fetch one sutable to our late religions and governments in Church and Common-Wealth As that he is not afraid of the Popes holinesse or of a presbysteriall discipline or a popular discipline Thus Scripture and reason the arguments of the wise must bee turned to and fro to follow the unconstant humour of this present world But we in feare of God and honour of his King will lay the ground of our allegiance fast and such as whereupon wee may build up a peece of obedience that may procure us a Crowne of immortality at the last day by Saint Gregories rule arcessemus Rivum fidelitatis de fonte pietatis not only from customes and fundamentall lawes in a private land who are most-what both imperfect and obscure but from the plaine and easie Text of Gods owne Law which as it
is still their forme is it lawfull to give Tribute unto Caesar They are resolved not to doe it before and these Sectaries proved the ruine of the Iewish Government with whom Docter Iackson compares the Schismaticks of his and these times growing on so fast that both he and Sir Walter Ral. 2. Hist spake out of propheticke wisdome that they would hazard the ruine both of this Church and State and they would force it into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and confusion For indeed what else can bee expected when every one may assume his owne Religion and such a one as may encourage him to contradict the established government of the Church on the one hand and the fundamentall Lawes of the Land bee obscured on the other and the Majestie and power of the Kings person contemned what remaines but we may say over this Church as Iugurtha over Rome O urbem venalem lite perituram si emptorem invenerit 2. For Civill Government As the people for Religion may not question the King so neither for the policie and civill affaires may they say unto him what doest thou And here the people are furnished I know not whence with as many questions to molest the quiet of the state as they have beene of late to disturbe the peace of the Church And first may not his own Lawes say unto him Quid agis Directive they may coactive they neither may nor can if the King be in an errour he can make new lawes to defend his errour saith Saint Augustine and Sir Walter Ralleigh reprehends Bracton though a Philachrist for saying that a King is King by the Law Me ito debet res tribuere regi quod lex attribuit ei nam lex facit ut ipse sit Rex Whereas saith Sir Walter Bracton ascribes this power to humane Law hee is mist ken for Kings are made by God and Lawes Divine and by humane Lawes are only declared to be King But is he not a King by our election Election doth not make him King although unlesse he had beene chosen he had not beene such As they are to say of good worke they are via ad regnum non causa regnandi so may wee of election t is not the cause but the way to the kingdome and so we find in Scripture where the people chose God made the King it is not nos but Ego posui regem super Israel and it was Gods admirable wisdome when the world could no longer subsist under paternall Government in that men and malice increasing in the world paternall indulgences would not doe right respectively every mans injuries both expresly in the Iewish government and in other States by the Law of reason doe prompt them to elect one man as their common Father that this one man this common Father this King not interested in private respects might distribute Iustice impartially and punish offences in equitie and also that the people by their owne act of election might bee obliged the more to obey him although he proved rigid and austere as they would and ought to obey their naturall Father which act God evermore confirmes in Heaven this may appeare better in a similitude Originall sinne is remitted in Baptisme but not ex opere operato yet if there bee no opus operatum there is by vertue of the covenant ordinario no remission of the sinne and after opus operatum it is impossible for the Priest to revoake the sin againe remitted in heaven So is it in elective kingdomes and all are such naturally the opus operatum of the people sc there election doth not make the King neither is he made King without it and after election he is so made and confirmed in Heaven that their act cannot ex jure be reversed againe For election according to Gods Lawes right reason is not a conditionall of tying of Kings downe to the peoples ends so as if he answer not their ends he shall be no longer King but it is a resignation of our naturall and private interest of revenge of all our paritie which wee have with him by the Law of nature into the hands of God that he would place him super nos It might have been said as to Ananias and Saphira was it not your owne before such election and resignation of your rights If now you shall demand your right againe and question his Prerogative and immunitie it may be said as to them why have yee lyed to the Holy Ghost Secondly what if hee breake the fundamentall Lawes of the Land to which he is sworne It is an old principle Perjurium iure non solvit regnum Salomon answers Eccles 10. Rex insipiens prodet populum not populus insipiens prodet regem as it is now this day Now a King by changing the Lawes and antient government doth civilly destroy the kind of his people But what if bee be not of capacitie to understand the Lawes As if the lawes bee not to be understood such there be in the world But if they bee the Prophet Hosea 13. tells you Vâ—â— ibi terracujus Rex puer est not 〈◊〉 ubi Rex cuius terra c. Thirdly what if a Tyrant may we not question him then for that injuria Tyranni est in facto usurpation of a Kingdome not his own Ius regis est in facti impunitate God will reckon with Kings one day for abusing his Image in the meanest of his subjects But if touch him you may Athenian like expell one Tyrant and gaine thirtie if not more Peritt Nero sed nullo successu one yeare after his death proved worse than foureteene of his Tyrannte And it was the Country-mans proverbe I wish they had it againe Antigonum effodio wee shall have a worse master a worse King when this is gone The Iewish Government was more subject to tyrannie then any Nation then in the world or since in that they lyed under a spec all forme of punishment to keepe them in more perfect obedience As if a private man offended many of the people suffered death either meritory in themselves for their sinnes though occasionaliter from the sinne of another person or else from Gods absolute dominion over the temporall life of man But if a King transgressed many thousands perished 70. thousands dyed for Davids sinne in numbring the Souldiers here is a strange tyrannie over the lives of the subject and yet David was not chased too and fro in his kingdome and the power of calling his souldiers taken out of his hand And yet as David spake I have sinned let me be punished as for this people quid fecit So the people may invert the words wee have sinned and one wickedly but for this righteous King quid ille fecit Daniel under the names of beasts foretells certaine Kings degenerating into tyrannie according to the severall qualities and kindes of tyrannie In the New Testament Tell Herod the Fox But we read not that they were deposed of
their kingdomes by their subjects Pharoah suffered ten plagues for his tyrannie God suffers not rebellion to be one but Frogs Locust Caterpillars Famine sc Herod is destroyed not by subjects but by Lice It seemes God would not doe them the honour as to perish by the hands of men not by women Abimelechs feare not by enemies Sauls feare much lesse by subjects but in simili as they lived like beasts so must they be consumed Rebell not then doe not Tyrants that to much honour expect a while Gods potent and just revenge he is best skild how to suit and proportion punishments to the persons of Kings hee can take them away by some contumelious death and can send Arm es of Locusts Frogs and such base Vermin to destroy them You see how easie it is for God to take vengeance of his owne Kings No neede of deepe plots of many yeares contrivance no neede of hearing of incumbrance and distractions of your owne making and the wrath of God to the rest when Flies and Lice and Frogges in Pharaohs Chamber may serve the turne When as God not the people saith Calvin may turne Nebuchadnezzar to grasse among the beasts or the fielde And also that if notwithstanding this you will destroy your Kings remember whose places you supply of the most contemptible vermin living you who remaining in obedience are men not Iewes but Christians one day not men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings in Gods owne kingdome by rebellion yee make your selves not Angels not Christians not Iewes no not men no not beasts of the better sort but Locusts but Frogs but starved Kine and Lice Nay yee shall bee as the dust of which God made the Lice and the Angell of the Lord scattering you It was an evill custome among the Goths to destroy their Kings upon any small displeasure and Barclay tells us of a custome in Burguney if they yeare brought forth no Corne they removed their King contrary to the proverb In Tacitus malum regem sterâ—lem annum aequo feramus Kings ruled with Burgandians by a prophetique Almanacke I pray God we in this Land prove not Burgundians If our luxurious and earthly pleasures and profits be crossd by the doctrines of the learned and pious Clergie or by the commands of the King though for our owne securitie and peace if we misse any of our former delights then Burgundian like Terra non peperit hoc anno nos ilaque pariamus what novum clerum novum Kegem noves leges new nothing but new confusion new distractions new schismes new incests new for number adulteries and when after lamentable experience you shall compare the old and new government together ye will say as our Saviour did of wine no man drinketh new Wine but faith the old is better I doe not here reprehend the whole people I have learned more Rhetorick from Quintiliâ—n I know many went along with Absalon to the paying of his vow who were not in the rebellion many both menand women are like the Disciples going to Emaus whose hearts are warme within zealous for the truth but their eyes are holden by the seditious ignorant Ministers of the times that they cannot see the true face of Christianitie No I speake not to these but I speake to Burgundian Subjects Almanacke subjects who would faine change their King with their Religion and that once a yeare at least I speake to men ingaged to this earth to their covetousnesse to their lusts drunkennesse swearing gluttonie not in the Vniversitie onely but in the Towne and Country where not who when any rate or subsedie for the publike good either curb their customes in expensive vâ—ces or crosse their tenacious humours then Burgundian like Terra non poperit hoc anno Etevestigio there arise under thoughts of the King they expound his actions with disadvantage to his honour at length come up to him boldly to him with impudent questions Quid agis why are wee governed otherwise then we have a mind to be governd our selves Hard to hard is the condition of Kings if so much libertie be allowed to the Subjects if they at their unbounded pleasure may report a religious King to be superstitious a devout King a hypocrite if grave and serious austere and sullen if pleasant dissolute if mercifull to be defective in spirit and valour if severe against rebellion tyrannicall if bountifull though in policie profuse if provident for his Royal posteritie covetous if such insolent disgraces may passe uncensurd on the persons of Kings then actum est de regibus down with Kings and kingdomes Church and State and all union among the sons of men Fourthly May we not by natures principles question and remove evill Kings from us as wee doe evill beasts for the securitie of our estates and lives An answer from nature shal consure the question Drinke naturally quencheth thirst but if you take it in a feaver it will more inflame you then you may not consult with the inferiour appetite but with reason let bloud purge and potion directed by the direction of the Physitian not your own sense so in a Common-wealth diseased by Tyrannie the people may not use the inferiour right of private nature for in a Common-wealth private persons have given up their private right of punishing they cannot punish a private person for certaine not the King to whom their right is resignd what then if the disease be hot upon us we wee must be let bloud purge our luxuriant passions our inflamed rebellious humour remove each man his particular sinnes consult with the Physition of States by prayers and teares beseech the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who hath the hearts of Kings in his own hand and can upon submission to himselfe and his King either remove him or amend him Haec est expedissima via reprimendi tyrannidem saith Salibur Peccata enim delinquentium sunt vires tyrannorum Fifthly may not the people say unto the King what dost thou Or what art thou without the people Are not we the strength of a King Did not Pyrrhus say to his Souldiers they were his wings and he but the body I desire no greater honour to be given to the King then to be thought the body to a paire of wings goe see if he can flye without that body so it may be said next unto God in the King your body yee live and move and have your being and for your strength it is true yee have enough but for what even to eate up one another alive as it is in the Jewish proverb Sixthly But if the people have not those rights and priviledges which they enjoyd under his predecessors may they not come then to him with quid agis First all Kings in an elective kingdome by successionare pares they enter naturally upon jus integrum so that if any rights have passed from former Kings pejudiciall to the Crowne jure regni they returne againe yet Secondly if any right
of the subjects for rights they have have passed from them to former Kings in consideration of such priviledges it is both honourable and just that they be recompenced or restored back again Seventhly what if he violate the conditions propounded to him and his predecessors upon his entrance to the Crown may not the people question him for that Not so far I believe as is commonly thought summum imperium conditionatum may very well bee conseniasanea and not opposites In the Persian kingdome hee is sworne to the laws of the Persians which ought not to alter and yet none may question him if he violate these lawes In the Jewish government wherein Kings were absolute and uncontroleable by their subjects there were some cases conditions in which jure he had no power to Iudge as de Tribu de pontifice de propheta as is plain Ier. 38.5 yet although these conditions were delivered by God Himselfe if the K. as appeares in many places of the book of Kings and Chron. did intermeddle it was not in the power of the Iewes to question or derrive him of his government But what if it be a condition that if he breake these laws he shall ipso facto void his kingdom as it hath bin in some States This will be found a most prejudiciall condition both to King and people for wee living in this world not by mathematicall demonstrations where there is no medium between rectum â—â—rium but by morall rules where there are many formae interjectae between rectum curvum vice and vertue Some vertuous actions comming neere vice are deemed vitious and some vicious comming mere vertue are reckoned vertuous it will bee very hard to know what when a King punctually keeps al his conditions but at the pleasure of a prevailing faction in the people he will be judged either directly or by consequence to have broken the conditions on which his kingdome depends this kinde of government must be very doubtfull and destructive to a Common-wealth Lastly may not the people come unto the King with quid agis if he intend and threaten to destroy the whole State as Nero and Caligula or if he intend to give up himselfe and his kingdome without the subjects consent not only in Patrocinium but in ditionem to another Prince In both these cases ex hypothesi that there hath been no rebellion in the subject and then the cases are morally impossible Grotius Barclay and Abbas Winzelus are of opinion that the Law of nature doth return unto the people again both for to defend themselves and elect againe But the holy Abbat is of a better opinion that the Law of Nature is not alwayes to be resumd by Christians especially here where it cannot be taken but with many inconveniences and uncertainties both from our not knowing what is a full intention and for defect of a lawfull Judge and in regard of appeales to other Nations and beside these a breach of many Lawes of Christianitie His advice is rather than to injure our Christian profession to betake our selves to fasting and prayers and removing from us our particular lusts and wickednesse provided thus for death expect Gods providence who never failes religious men and kingdomes in this generall preparation for death either God may turne him and his armies from us put a hooke in his nostrills or else confound his person with some sudden judgement even Lice may consume his unnaturall bowells or if not non â—â—cet sed purgat Saint Ambrose hee doth but hasten us to a better kingdome an everlasting one in heaven Durus est Sermo sed tulit Iudeus fâ—rat Christianus Now in the name of Religion in the name of the peace of the Common-wealth and the honour of the King let me aske you these questions You that come up so boldly to the face of a King for the Relion who should clamare a facie ejus are yee sure the Religion yee question him for is the right Religion are yee sure your inspirations are not from the Devill are yee sure your Ministers are both for learning and manners such as in whom yee may conside in a matter that so concernes your soules And that they doe not humour you contrary to their owne consciences out of respect to preferment in the Church which at another time either their povertie in parts or poverty in manners could not attaine Are ye sure that those that from your Pulpits declaime so fervently against superstition and Idolatry have not themselves beene leaders in that which they now condemne in others and so cannot bee fitt Iudges what is Idolatry Or else themselves are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Againe are yee all of one Religion that the King may satisfie you all at once If yee be not all of one Religion tell us how many your are of if you can And if you should chance to be one Religion at any time hereafter are yee sure to continue in it That the King may not bee troubled Burgundians like to establish a new Religion once every yeare for you If you be not certaine of all these as I am sure you are not how dare yee certainely confound King Church and State for an uncertaine Religion Again for your Policy and civill government are ye certaine of the fundamentall lawes of the land Are ye sure ye cannot digest an Arbitrary government under the notion and terme of fundementall lawes It is not an impossible thing in nature that are ye sure if the King be not absolute and sole judge of fundamentall lawes to be freed from avarice and ambition in the interiour Iudges and Magistrates two inseprable vices in Aristocracy Both which are satisfied in a King ambition in that he is summu Avarice in large estate Are yee sure of the same Senate alwayes and if you be extreme now time may come when others may be as extreme now time may come when others may be as extreame and so the kingdome hurried betweene two extreames the peoples rule being to run from one extream unto another Lastly are ye sure if ye put any more insolent questions to the king you may not turne a meek and pious King as ever sate upon this Throne into a Tyrant A learned Church as ever any in this Kingdome or else where into ignorance Aflourishing stat as any in the Christian world into a confusion a long and happy peace into as long and unhappy warre a fulnesse into famine your wives to widdowes your children to Orphants your selves into your grave and you leave this nation behind you a Desolation a hissing a reproach a by word to the nations round about us And now God forgive mee if in this discourse I have not intended rather the liberties and rights of the subject then the prerogative of the King I remembred all this while what Saint August saith Tolle Iura Regum et quis potest dicere haec volla mearst take away the Kings sole and absolute government and who can secure his own life and estat they must needs be subject to a thousand alterations I besech you therefore by your deare and many Children by the antient Protestant Religion by the antient and fundamentall lawes in this land for obedience King sit down with prayers and tears for these many distractions Saint Bernards way non scuta sed fletu reparate rempub Amend your lives be charitable and kind on to another fit downe togither in peace under your vines as people who hope hereafter to fit downe in the kingdom of heaven In a word feare God honour the King neither people nor Church nor Nobility nor inferiour Magistrate of the land lay unto the King by the way of rebellious contradiction What doest thou FINIS