THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND Established by PARLIAMENT against Disobedience and wilfull Rebellion Published by G. I. for satisfaction to his Parishioners of WATTON in the County of Hartford Printed for William Sheares at the signe of the Bible in Coven Garden 1642. TO His loving Neighbours of WATTON in the County of Hartford Brethren BE loved in the bloud of JESUS for preaching obedience to God and the King I am and have beene more then a mouth a prisoner and cannot get my liberty unlesse I would promise to forbeare preaching to you as I have done and yet I have promised to preach nothing to you but what I shall prove plainely from the word of God the doctrine of the Church of England the oath of Supremacy the oath of Allegiance and our late Protestation all which I have published for your satisfaction If you will read those oaths and these Sermons in my absence you shall find that I have dealt faithfully with you and am ready to seale my doctrine with my dearest bloud if God shall call so great a sinner to so great an honour Neither Living nor Liberty nor Life is precious to mee when I should sacrifice them all to the glory of my great good God the service of my gracious Soveraigne and the discharge of a good conscience towards my selfe and you I told you before how sensible I was of danger for this my fidelity but for Zions sake I could not I cannot hold my peace God will imprison mee to Hell if I imprison his truths Feare God Honour the King is both Law and Gospell and my prayer is that you all may live and dye good Christians and good Subjects and as the Church prayed for Saint Peter in prison so doe you for your affectionate Pastour in prison for his God his King his Conscience regulated by the word of God the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND and his Oaths G. I. Decemb. 3. 1642. A SERMON against Disobedience and wilfull Rebellion The first SERMON AS GOD the Creatour and Lord of all things appointed his Angels and Heavenly Creatures in all obedience to serve and honour his Majesty so was it his will that man his chiefe creature upon the earth should live under the obedience of his Creatour and Lord. And for that cause God assoone as hee had created man give unto him a certaine Precept and Law which hee being yet in the state of innocency and remaining in Paradise should observe as a pledge and token of his due and bounden obedlence which denunciation of death if hee did transgresse and breake the said Law and Commandement And as God would have man to be his obedient subject so did hee make all earthly creatures subject unto man who kept their due obedience unto man so long as man remained in his obedience unto God in which obedience if man had continued still there had beene no poverty no diseases no sicknesse no death nor other miseries where with mankind is now infinitely and most miserably afflicted and oppressed so here appeareth the originall Kingdome of God over Angels and Man and universally over all things and of Man over earthly Creatures which God had made subject unto him and withall all the felicity and blessed estate which Angels Man and Creatures had remained in had they continued in due obedience unto God their King For as long as in this first Kingdome the Subjects continued in due obedience to God their King so long did God embrace all his Subjects with his love favour and grace which to enjoy is perfect felicity whereby it is evident that obedience is the principall vertue of all vertues and indeed the very Root of all vertues and the cause of all felicity But as all felicity and blessednesse should have continued with the continuance of obedience so with the breach of obedience and breaking in of rebellion all vices and miseries did withall breake in and over-whelme the World The first Authour of which rebellion the Roote of all vices and Mother of all mischeifes was Lucifer First Gods most excellent creature and most bounden subject who by rebelling against the Majesty of God of the Brightest and most glorious Angell is become the blackest and most foule fiend and Devill and from the height of Heaven is fallen into the pit and bottome of Hell Here you may see the first authour and founder of rebellion and the reward thereof Here you may see the grand Captaine and Father of rebels who perswading the following of his rebellion against God their Creatour Lord unto our first Parents Adam and Eve brought them in high displeasure with God wrought their exile and banishment out of Paradise a place of all pleasure and goodnesse into this wretched earth and vale of misery procured unto them sorrowes of minds mischeifes sicknes diseases death of their bodies and which is farre more horrible then all worldly and bodily mischiefes hee had wrought thereby their eternall and everlasting death and damnation had not God by the obedience of his Sonne IESUS CHRIST repaired that which man by disobedience and rebellion had destroyed and so of his mercy had pardoned and forgiven him of which all and singular the premises the Holy Scriptures doe beare record in sundry places Thus doe you see that neither Heaven nor Paradise could suffer any rebellion in them neither bee places for any Rebels to remaine in Thus became rebellion as you see both the first and the greatest and the very roote of all other sinnes and the first and principall cause both of all worldly and bodily miseries sorrowes diseases sicknesses and deaths And which is infinitely worse then all these as is said the very cause of death and damnation eternall also After this breach of obedience to God and rebellion against his Majesty all mischeifes and miseries breaking in therewith and overslowing the World least all things should come to confusion and utter ruine God forthwith by lawes given to mankind repayred againe the rule and order of obedience thus by rebellion overthrowne and besides the obedience due to his Majesty hee not onely ordained that in Families and Househoulds the Wife should bee obedient to her Husband the Children unto their Parents the Servants unto their Masters but also when mankind inceased and spread it selfe more largely over the World hee by his holy word did constitute and ordaine in Citties and Countries severall and speciall Governours and Rulers unto whom the residue of his people should be obedient As in reading of holy Scriptures wee shall find in very many and almost infinite places as well of the old Testament as of the new that Kings and Princes as well the evill as the good doe raigne by Gods ordinance and that Subjects are bounden to obey them that God doth give Princes wisedome great power and authority that God defendeth them against their enemies and destroyeth their enemies horribly that the anger and displeasure of the Prince is as the
doe take care and paines and to bee at great cost and charges and universally instead of all quietnesse joy and felicity which doe follow blessed peace and due obedience to bring in all trouble sorrow disquietnesse of minds and bodies and all mischiefe and calamity to turne all good order upside downe to bring all good lawes in contempt and to tread them under feet to oppresse all vertue and honesty and all vertuous and honest persons and to set all vice and wickednesse and all vicious and wicked men at liberty to worke their wicked wils which were before bridled by wholesome lawes to weaken to overthrow and to consume the strength of the Realme their naturall Countrey as well by the spending and wasting of money and treasure of the Prince and Realme as by murthering the people of the same their owne Countrey-men who should defend the honour of their Prince Prov. 14. and liberty of their Countrey against the invasion of forraigne enemies and so finally to make their Countrey thus by their mischiefe weakened ready to bee a prey and spoile to all outward enemies that will invade it to the utter and perpetuall captivity slavery and destruction of all their Countrey-men their children their friends their kinsfolkes left alive whom by their wicked rebellion they procure to bee delivered into the hands of the forraigne enemies as much as in them doth lye In forraigne warres our Countrey-men in obtaining the victory winne the prayse of valiantnesse yea and though they were overcome and slaine yet winne they an honest commendation in this World and dye in a good conscience for serving God their Prince and their Countrey and bee children of eternall salvation But the Rebels how desperate and strong soever they bee yet winne they shame here in fighting against God their Prince and Countrey and therefore justly doe fall headlong into Hell if they dye and live in shame and with a fearefull conscience though they escape But commonly they be rewarded with shamefull deaths their hands and carkasses set upon poles and hanged in chaynes eaten with Kites and Crowes judged unworthy the honour of buriall and so their soules if they repent not as commonly they doe not the Devill hurrieth them into Hell in the middest of their mischiefe Rom. 13. For which dreadfull execution Saint Paul sheweth the cause of obedience not onely for feare of death but also in conscience to God-ward for feare of eternall damnation in the World to come Wherefore good people let us as the children of obedience feare the dreadfull execution of God and live in quiet obedience to bee the children of everlasting Salvation For as Heaven is a place of good obedient subjects and Hell the prison and dungeon of Rebels against God and their Prince so is that Realme happy where most obedience of subjects doth appeare being the very figure of Heaven and contrariwise where most rebellions and Rebels bee there is the expresse similitude of Hell and the Rebels themselves are the very figures of fiends and Devils and their Captaine the ungracious patterne of Lucifer and Sathan the Prince of darknesse of whose rebellion as they bee followers so shall they of his damnation in Hell undoubtedly bee partakers and as undoubtedly shall the Children of peace bee Inheritours of Heaven with God the Father God the Sonne and God the Holy Ghost To whom bee all honour and glory for ever and ever Amen The fourth SERMON FOr your further instruction good people to shew unto you how much Almighty God doth abhor disobedience and wilfull rebellion specially when Rebels advance themselves so high that they arme themselves with weapons and stand in the field to fight against God their Prince and their Countrey it shall not bee out of the way to shew some examples set out in Scriptures written for our eternall erudition Wee may soone know good people how haynous an oftence the treachery of rebellion is if wee call to remembrance the heavy wrath and dreadfull indignation of Almighty God against subjects as doe onely but inwardly grudge mutter and murmur against their Governours though their inward treason so privily hatched in their breasts come not to open declaration of their doings as hard it is whom the Devill hath so farre entised against Gods word to keepe themselves there No hee meaneth still to blow the coale to kindle their rebellious hearts to flame into open deeds if hee bee not with grace speedily withstood Some of the children of Israel being murmurers against their Magistrates appointed over them by God were stricken with foule leprosie many were burnt up with fire suddenly sent from the Lord sometime a great sort of thousands were consumed with the pestilence sometime they were stinged to death with a strange kind of fiery Serpents and which is most horrible some of the Captaines with their band of murmurers not dying by any usuall or naturall death of men but the carth opening they with their wives children and families were swallowed quick downe into Hell Which horrible destructions of such Israelites as were murmurers against Moses appointed by God to bee their head and chiefe Magistrate are recorded in the booke of Numbers and other places of the Scriptures for perpetuall memory and warning to all subjects how highly God is displeased with the murmuring and evill speaking of subjects against their Princes for that as the Scripture recordeth their murmure was not against their Prince onely being a mortall creature but against God himselfe also Now if such strange and horrible plagues did fall upon such subjects as did onely murmure and speake evill against their heads what shall become of those most wicked impes of the Devill that doe conspire arme themselves assemble great numbers of armed Rebels and lead them with them against their Prince and Countrey spoyling and robbing killing and murthering all good subjects that doe withstand them as many as they may prevaile against But those examples are written to stay us not onely from such mischiefes but also from murmuring and speaking once an evill word against our Prince which though any should doe never so secretly yet doe the holy Scriptures shew that the very birds of the ayre will bewray them and those so many examples before noted out of the holy Scriptures doe declare that they shall not escape horrible punishment therefore Now concerning actuall rebellion amongst many examples thereof set forth in the holy Scriptures the example of Absolom is notable who entring into conspiracy against King David his Father both used the advice of very witty men and assembled a very great and huge company of Rebels the which Absolom though he were most goodly of Person of great Nobility being the Kings Sonne in great favour of the people and so dearely beloved of the King himselfe so much that hee gave commandement that notwithstanding his rebellion his life should bee saved when for these considerations most men were afraid to lay hands upon him a great
whom we yet account the worst of all people But no example ought to be of more force with us Christians Mat. 17.2 then the example of Christ our Master and Saviour who though he were the Sonne of God yet did alwayes behave himselfe most reverently to such men as were in Authority in the world in his time and he not rebelliously behaved himselfe but openly did teach the Iewes to pay tribute unto the Roman Emperour though a forraigne and Pagan Prince yea himself with his Apostles paid tribute unto him and finally being brought before Pontius Pilate a stranger born and an heathen man being Lord President of Iury he acknowledged his authority and power to be given him from God and obeyed patiently the sentence of most painefull and shamefull death which the said Iudge pronounced and gave most unjustly against him without any grudge murmuring or evill word once giving There be many and divers other examples of the obedience to Princes even such as be evill in the New Testament to the utter confusion of disobedient and rebellious people but this one may be an eternall example which the Sonne of God and so the Lord of all Iesus Christ hath given unto us Christians and servants and such as may serve for all to teach us to obey Princes though strangers wicked and wrongfuli when God for our sinnes shall place such over us Whereby it followeth unavoydably that such as doe disobey or rebell against their owne naturall and gracious Soveraignes how soever they call themselves or be named of others yet are they indeede no true Christians but worse then Iewes worse then heathens and such as shall never injoy the Kingdome of heaven which Christ by his obedience purchased for true Christians being obedient to him the King of all Kings and to their Prince whom he hath placed over them to the which Kingdome the peculier place of all such obedient subjects I beseech God our heavenly Father for his Sonne Iesus sake to grant unto us The Third SERMON AS I have in the first Sermon of this Treatise shewed unto you the Doctrine of the holy Scriptures as concerning the obedience of true subjects to their Princes even as well to such as be evill as unto the good and in the second Sermon of the same Treatise confirmed the same Doctrine by notable examples likewise taken out of the holy Scriptures so remaineth it now that I partly do declare unto you in this third Sermon what an abominable sin against God and man rebellion is and how dreadfully the wrath of God is kindled an inflamed against all Rebells and what horrible plagues punishments and deaths and finally eternall damnation doth hang over their heads As how on the contrary part good and obedient subjects are in Gods favour and be pertakers of peace quietnesse and securitie with other Gods manifold blessings in this world and by his mercies through our saviour Christ of life everlasting also in the world to come How horrible a sinne against God and man rebellion is cannot possibly be expressed according to the greatnesse thereof For he that nameth Rebellion nameth not a singular or one onely sinne as is thest robbery murther and such like but he nameth the whole puddle and sinke of all sinnes against God and man against his Prince his Countrey his Countrey-men his parents his children his kinsfolkes his friends and against all men universally all sinnes I say against God and all men heapeth he together that nameth rebellion For concerning the offence of Gods Majestie who seeth not that Rebellion riseth first by contempt of God and of his holy Ordinances and Lawes wherein he so straightly commandeth obedience forbiddeth dis-obedience and rebellion And besides the dishonour done by Rebells unto Gods holy Name by their breaking of their oath made to their Prince with the attestation of Gods Name and calling of his Majestie to witnesse who heareth not the horrible oathes and blasphemies of Gods holy Name that are used dayly amongst Rebells that in either amongst them or heareth the truth of their behaviour Who knoweth not that Rebells doe not onely themselves leave all workes necessary to be done upon worke dayes undone whilst they accomplish their abominable worke of Rebellion and doe compell others that would gladly be well occupied to doe the same but also how Rebells doe not onely leave the Sabbath day of the Lord unsanctified the Temple and Church of the Lord unresorted unto but also doe by their workes of wickednesse most horribly prophane and polute the Sabbath day serving Sathan and by doing of his worke making it the devills day in stead of the Lords day besides that they compell good men that would gladly serve the Lord assembling in his Temple and Church upon his day as becommeth the Lords Servants to assemble and meete Armed in the field to resist the fury of such Rebells yea and many Rebells least they should leave any part of Gods Commandements in the first Table of his Law unbroken or any sinne against God undone doe make Rebellion for the maintenance of their Images and Idolls and of their Idolatry committed or to bee committed by them and in despight of God cut and teare in sunder his holy Word and tread it under their feete as of late ye know was done As concerning the second table of Gods Law and all sinnes that may be committed against man who feeth not that they be contained in Rebellion The fist Commandement For first the Rebells doe not onely dishonour their Prince the Parent of their Countrey but also doe dishonour and shame their naturall parents if they have any doe shame their kindred and friends doe dis-inherit and undoe for ever their children and heires The sixt and eight Commandements Thefts robberies and murthers which of all sinnes are most loathed of most men are in no men so much nor so pernitiously and mischievously as in rebells for the most arrant theeves cruellest murtherers that ever were so long as they refraiue from rebellion as they are not many in number so spreadeth their wickednesses and damnation unto a few they spoyle but a few they shed the blood but of a few in comparison But rebells are the cause of infinite robberies and murthers of great multitudes and of those also whom they should defend from the spoyle and violence of others and as rebells are many in number so doth their wickednesse and damnation spread it selfe unto many The seventh Commandement And if whoredome and adultery amongst such persons as are agreeable to such wickednesse are as indeede they be most damnable what are the forceable oppressions of matrons and mens wives and the violating and deflowring of Virgins and maydes which are most rife with rebells How horrible and damnable thinke you are they Now besides that rebells by breach of their faith given and the oath made to their Prince The ninth Commandement be guilty of most damnable perjurie It is