and Prophets submitted their persons to those wicked Princes whose Idolatry they reproved with the loss of their lives P. 359. If the Prince wilfully maintain Heresie and open Impiety the Bishops are to reprove admonish c. but still they must serve him honor him pray for him and teach the People to do the like ☜ and with meekness enduring what the wrath of the Prince shall lay upon them without annoying his person resisting his power discharging his Subjects or removing him from his Throne Which says he to the Jesuit is your way of censuring Princes P. 366. P. 382. The Church of Christ offers not any Example of resisting and deposing Princes for a thousand years ☜ It is not enough for you to have Laws of your own making to license you to bear Arms against your Prince you must have God's Law for your Warrant or else you may come within the compass of heinous and horrible Rebellion Theoph. P. 384. that is the Protestant Interlocutor That 's the Case which you take in hand that the People may punish the Prince offending as the Prince may the People Phil. i. e. the Jesuit Either the people or none must do it Theoph. And seeing the people may not do it it is evident that God hath reserved the Magistrate to be punished by himself and not given the people power over their Prince P. 502. Do not with violence restrain them but in patience possess your own souls This is the way for all Christian Subjects to conquer Tyrants and this is the Remedy provided in the New Testament against all Persecutions not to resist Powers which God has ordain'd lest we be damn'd but with all meekness to suffer that we may be crowned P. 512. If Princes presume to violate the Dominion which God hath reserved to himself we may not rebel that 's your Jesuitical Doctrine but disobey them in that or any point that is prescribed by man against the will of God and submit our selves to endure persecution for righteousness sake P. 541. If Princes embrace the Truth you must obey them if they pursue Truth you must abide them And these Passages with what hath been formerly cited out of the said Book will I think sufficiently vindicate both the Author and his Doctrine from all that is usually objected against them Especially if we consider that when the Jesuit had quoted Goodman's Book of Obedience as applauding Wyat's Rebellion the Protestant answers It is much that you measure the whole Realm by one man's merit Par. 3. p. 273 274. and more that you draw the words which he spake from the meaning which he had to warrant your Rebellions The party ☞ which you name at the same time took Queen Mary for no lawful Prince which particular and false supposal beguiled him and made him think the better of Wyat's War but our Question is of lawful Princes not of violent Intruders and therefore Goodman's Opinion which himself hath long since disliked is no way serviceable to your Seditions or as it is in the Margin Goodman's private Opinion long since corrected by himself cannot prejudice the whole Realm Goodman did not hold that lawful Princes might be thrust from their Crowns but that Queen Mary was no lawful Magistrate One of his great Arguments against her being taken from her Sex which was made by God as he dreamed uncapable of Government this being one of his and Knox's beloved Paradoxes but he lived to repent and retract them SECT III. To give the King at his entry into England a Specimen of the temper of the Zealots they tender'd him a Petition called the Mille manus Petition as if they would have intermixed their desires with threatnings by telling the King that 1000 Ministers An. 1603. as they loved to be called had influence enough on many thousands of People to incline them to give disturbance to his Government if he did not comply with their requests to which the University of Oxford wrote a full and satisfactory answer wherein they affirm that the Presbyterians allow the King not potestatem Juris p. 29. but only facti while they make him a maintainer of their proceedings but no commander in them and all the while the King submits his Scepter unto the Scepter of Christ and licks the dust of the Churches feet for which they Quote T. C. lib. 1. p. 180. This assertion they condemn together with the other Antimonarchical Antiepiscopal Doctrins of that Petition nor was this the sole judgment of that Famous University but of her Famous Sister at Cambridge whose Epistle is published at the end of that answer and wherein they aver Quicunque Ecclesiae Anglicanae doctrinam vel disciplinam vel ejus partem aliquam legibus publicis stabilitam c. that whosoever shall by writing speaking or any other way publickly oppose the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England or any part thereof established by publick Laws shall be uncapable of taking any Degree and suspended from any Degrees he hath formerly taken Dated Octob. 7. 1603. Dr. Anthony Rudd Bishop of St. pr. at Lond. 1604. Davids Preach'd before the King May 13. 1604. on Ps 101. v. 2. and in it gives an account of David's demeanor both before and after he attained the Crown of Israel and among other things he commends him for his patient waiting on God till Saul's Death p. 26 27. David had given proof of his rare patience in his distressed Estate during the expectancy of the Kingdom of Israel for though in that Interim of sundry years attendance after that Samuel had Anointed him ☜ before the Crown fell unto him by the death of King Saul he sustain'd many grievous troubles inconveniences and dangers yet he still possessed his Soul in patience without seeking unlawful means to hasten his own advancement by the making away of his Sovereign Insomuch as though Saul who deadly pursued him was twice by the Providence of God offer'd into his hands that he might have dâ—ne his pleasure with him first in the Wilderness of Engedi and secondly in the desert of Zâ—ph yet he spared his life and did no violence to his Person leaving him to God's Judgment and referring his own cause to God's merciful providence patiently attending the Lord's leisure till he should vouchsafe to come and put him in possession of the Kingdom To King James at his first coming to the English Throne the Learned Dr. Feild was a Chaplain as he was also an eminent Champion for the Church against her adversaries of Rome and his arguments against the Usurpations of the Popes are equally cogent against the Republicans * of the Church l. 5. c 45. p. 610. If they shall say that Sovereign Princes are subject to none while they use their authority well but that if they abuse it they lose the independent absoluteness thereof their saying will be found to be Heretical
follow the murder of Kings is lawful and honorable Consider with your self P. 254. what a gap you open to popular Licentiousness when you praise those Men who magnifie the parricides of Princes The same Author in his Epphata to F. T. being a Vindication in English of the same Prelate vindicates the same Doctrin Cambr. 1617. in his Epistle Dedicatory he says That tho Kings die like men i. e. Quatenus homines non quatenus Reges yet we are to remember that they fall like one of the Principes i. e. one of the Angels says the Cardinal himself among others on that Psalm who we know are not judged till God judges them though no doubt but that aggravates their Judgment so much the sooner It were worth the considering what correspondence such Grounds have with the ancient Doctrine which the Cardinal and his Followers would seem so close to follow Of Chrysostome ☜ that a Sovereign King is accountable to none not only to his Subjects but not so much as to his Successor as David said that he is to be judged by God only The same Chrysostom noting that whereas the Psalmist passes over other miracles of the Wilderness in deep silence he insists only on the Death of Og and Sehon two mighty Monarchs because Kings lives are so wholly in God's Hands and the Disposition of them is alway miraculous reserved and appropriated to God himself Of S. Basil that a King is subject to no Judge Of Ambrose that nullis tenetur Legibus not only the King of Israel but not the King of Egypt Of the Pope in Theodoret who told Theodosius that it was not lawful to implead a King not only in his person but not personating another not fictione juris as the Lawyers say ‖ Ch. 1. p. 58 59. Now Obedience is become among the Ceremonies and the honoring of our Parents i. e. in truth of our Princes Patres Patriae by ancient stile ☜ and so Ezechias called the Priests his children 2 Chron. 29.11 is as subject to alteration as the Sabbath Day And because the Jewish Ceremonies may not only be omitted but may not be retain'd without heinous crime therefore it shall be Conscience to wax wanton against Princes to shake off their Yoke yea merit virtue and what not as if the Precept of honoring Parents which is the primum in promissione Ephes 6. were now secundum in omissione after that against Images P. 60 61 62. which is usually cancelled in the Popish Catechisms Against the Emperors under the Old Testament there was no rising up and as for the Emperors in the New Testament tho as they were Heathen they were neither by Christ nor his Apostles obey'd I hope Sir 't is enough that they were not resisted Kings when transported by Error they forsake their Duty Pag. 75. yet forfeit not their Supremacy We yield no Abdication of our King ☞ tho his Fault be Heresie remembring that Deus defendit oleum suum as Optatus says and Caesar non desinit esse Caesar even in Alto Gentilisino as our Saviour acknowledg'd of him Matt 22. So beinous is the Heresie of Deposing Magistrates for moral Misdemeanours A bad Head I should think which the Body will be the better for the cutting off No Iniquity can abolish Authority And if it be objected Pag. 94. P. 137. 139. that Kings must be hamper'd with a coercive Power or all must run to nothing and the Church be clean extinguishâ—d It is answered The Church gains by Patience in Persecution therefore she loses by Resistance and Opposition SECT VIII Among these domestick Champions of the King and the Truth it may not be amiss to reckon an eminent Foreigner if I may call Isaac Casaubon so who lived some Years in this Kingdom and dyed here one of the Glories of his Age before he came into England he just after the Quarrel between the Pope and the Republick of Venice An. 1607. printed a Discourse De Libertate Ecclesiastica or rather but a part of a Discourse for whereas he promises Eleven Chapters the first three are not entirely printed the rest being stopt at the Press by Order of the French King tho as imperfect as the Book is Goldastus hath thought it worth a place in his Collections and in it he shews that the true Church of God never usurp'd the Rights of Kings * Ad Lect. p. 6. Pag. 12.13 while the Popes spoil Kings of their Liberty and their Majesty too for under them it sometimes happens that Kings may be safe but they can never be secure for they so value this Liberty that to defend it they tumble all things upside down mingle Heaven and Earth things sacred and profane And whereas our holy Master's Precepts ought not to be contradicted since he hath joyned his Example to his Commands and recommended to us the Love of our Enemies Subjection to the Powers ordained of God ☞ and Obedience to them for Conscience sake they to build up and to confirm this Liberty unknown to the Primitive times do every where inkindle Wars become a Terror to Kings and Princes dispense with their Subjects Allegiance and arm them against their own Sovereigns and pretend that to violate all Laws divine and human is a holy undertaking and most acceptable unto God. As ifby an ill management of supreme Authority Pag. 17. the Authority were forfeited And if once Princes shall suffer the Foundations of their Government to be shaken in the minds of their Subjects their Government and Empire must of necessity reel and totter and fall into the dust God commands all orders of Men to render to Cesar the things that are Cesar 's Pag. 69. and let every soul be subject to the higher powers c. therefore Gregory Nazianzen says that the Civil Magistrate doth reign together with Christ nor does it make any difference that some Kings arrive to the Throne by hereditary Succession others by Election a third sort by Conquest for tho God in the establishment of a King as in the Ordination of a Priest uses the Ministry of men yet it is impious not to acknowledg that the Dominion and Power is received originally from God By God Kings reign as the holy Scriptures in almost infinite places do testifie P. 102 103. The Primitive Christians did so use the World as those that used it not as S. Paul advises for while their Zeal for Piety was flagrant while the Innocency of their Manners their mutual Love and Affection their unfeigned Humility ☜ their constant Meditation on the Joys of Heaven their Fidelity and Obedience to their Princes as far as their Conscience would give them leave lastly their incomparable Constancy in suffering all manner of Torments for the true Religion made them every day a Spectacle to the whole World they ravish'd their very Enemies to admire them and their Virtues these were the beginnings of Christianity this the
Christ provided for his own safety by flight the Martyrs by patience offered their Souls to God and the prayers of the Church have always prevailed over its Tyrannical Persecutors SECT XII Anno 1613. Dr. John Downham's sum of Sacred Divinity was publish'd in * Commen on the 5th Command P. 177. which starting the usual objection what must be done if Princes command things unlawful such as with a good conscience we cannot yield unto he answers in such cases we are patiently to abide the punishment in which doing we no way violate the obedience due to them as the Apostle directs 1 Pet. 2.19 20. Anno 1614. Printed at Oxford 1614. P. 86. Lancelot Dawes sometime Fellow of Queens College Preach'd two Sermons at the Assizes held at Carlile the second of which had for its subject Psalm 82.6 7. I have said ye are Gods c. and in it we are informed that Princes have their Authority only from God for ‖ Ja. 1.17 if every good and perfect Gift be from above even from the Father of Lights much more this excellent and supereminent gift of governing God's People must proceed from the fountain the reason of all the sins that were committed in Israel is often in the Book of Judges ascribed unto this Judg. 17.6 18. c. P. 99. that they wanted a Magistrate there was at that time no King in Israel by me Kings reign c. it is not for a Magistrate to debase himself neither is it for others of what reputation soever to equalize themselves with the Judge whom God hath placed over them and this is not only meant of Godly and Religious Magistrates P. 100 101. 1 Sam. 8. but of Wicked and Ungodly Governors too such as are described by Samuel which take Mens Sons and Fields and Vineyards c. the reason is because the bad as well as the good are of God the one he gives in his love the other in his anger and be they good or bad we have no commandment from him but parendi patiendi of obeying them when their Precepts are not repugnant to God's Statutes and of suffering with patience whatsoever they shall lay upon us it was a worthy saying of the Mother of the two Garacs when they kept Sigismond in Prison Bentin â—er Hung. â—ec 3. l 2. that a Crowned King if he were worse than a beast could not be hurt without great injury done to God himself a lesson which she learn'd from David whose heart smote him when he had out the lap of Saul 's garment because he was the Anointed of the Lord altho he himself was before that time Anointed to be King over Israel and was without cause hunted by Saul like a Pelican in the wilderness and an Owl in the desert Then to draw thy sword and to seek perforce to depose such as God hath placed over thee either because they are not suitable to thy affections or not faithful in their places what is it but with the old Gyants to fight with God the weapons of a Christian in this case when such a case doth happen must be preces lacrymae prayers that either God would turn the heart of an evil Magistrate or set in his room a Man David like after his own heart and tears for his sins which as they are the cause of War Famine Pestilence and all other calamities so are they also of Wicked and Ungodly Magistrates P. 102. SECT XIII To what hath been cited out of Dr. Bois in the first part of this History may be added In Holy Bible we read Bois on Ps 47. P. 936. that David would not suffer his Enemy Saul tho a wicked King to be slain when he was in his hands for that he was the Lord's Anointed he had sanctitatem unctionis albeit he had not sanctitatem Vitae i. e. he had an holy calling tho not an holy carriage wherefore David said who can lay hands on the Lord 's Anointed and be guiltless and if Heathen Emperors in the Primitive times and ungodly Kings in all Ages ought to be thus obeved how much more a Christian and Virtuous Prince c. After the death of Robert Abbot Bishop of Salisbury were his Academick exercitations against Bellarmine Lon. 1619. and Suarez concerning the supreme power of Kings printed a work as it is called in the Epistle dedicatory agreeable to the Laws of Nature and Religion and very seasonable the Author of which having been the King's Professor of Divinity at Oxford * Prelec 1. Sect. 4. p. 4. vindicates the power of Kings and affirms * Prelec 1. Sect. 4. p. 4 that Pope Hildebrand Hellbrand Luther calls him that the first who assumed to himself the Power of Deposing Princes and absolving their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance which Doctrine Sigebert a Writer of that Age calls Novelty and Heresie Sect. 5. p. 6 7. and when he treats of Rom. 13.1 be subject to the higher powers c. he says by Powers are meant Kings and Monarchs as the Word is used Luc. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that exercise authority c. in which words Kings by a certain circumscription are defined because power belongs only and properly to them thus Origen Ambrose and Aquinas understood the words and Kings are not only called powers but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter 1. ep 2. supereminent powers because in their Kingdoms they have power over all Persons being constituted the supreme and over all and to whom it is given to exercise that power over all for Kingly Majesty is absolutely eminent and above all being so constituted by a supreme right for as * in Rom. 13. St. Ambrose says it hath the Image of God that all others might be under one to whom because he is God's Vicegerent every Soul ought to be subject as unto God. This Sentence of St. ☞ Ambrose lays the unquestionable foundation of Kingly Power for it expresses that in the Power of a Monarch the Image of the Divine Majesty appears and that Kings exercise a Power over Men delegated unto them in God's stead and therefore must be superior to all Men because nothing can be higher than God whose Deputies Kings are P. 12. this also is the Doctrine of Optatus St. John Chrysostom Agapetus and other Fathers and so destructive have the Romanists thought it to their pretensions ☞ that the Spanish Index Expurgatorius hath ordered this sentence to be blotted out of Antonius his Melissae tho the sentence be in two other Fathers viz. Agapetus and Maximus A King hath no superior on Earth Prelec 2. Sect. 4. p. 19. and tho Kings may be made by Men yet their Power is from God by whose Providence and Conduct they are advanc'd to those dignities by Men and whom God either in Mercy Job 34. Prelect 3. Sect. 1. p. 25. or in anger decrees to rule even that God who
Man was for the Lady Jane but besides his Temper I have this to say for him that the several and contrary Acts of Parliament limiting and changing the Succession according to the King's Pleasure in the latter end of Henry the Eighth's Reign might very well in such a juncture of Affairs as happen'd on the Death of Edward the Sixth stagger a wise Man and incline him to believe that the Son had the same Right that his Father had as unquestionably he had if it were a Right of the Crown especially while that Right was recogniz'd and confirm'd in Parliament To this excellent Prince was Sir John Cheek a Tutor as he also was the Restorer of the Greek Tongue in England he in his Advice of the True Subject to the Rebel Ed. Oxon. 1641. p. 2 3 4. or the hurt of Sedition thus bespeaks the Rebels of that Age For our selves we have great cause to thank God by whose Religion and holy Word daily taught us we learn not only to fear him truly but also to obey our King faithfully and to serve in our own Vocation like Subjects honestly ye which be bound by God's Word not to obey for fear like Men-pleasers but for conscience sake like Christians have contrary to God's holy will whose Offence is everlasting Death and contrary to the godly Order of Quietness set out by the King's Majesty's Laws the breach whereof is not unknown to you taken in hand uncalled of God unsent by Men unfit by reason to cast away your bounden Duties of Obedience c. yet ye pretend that partly for God's sake partly for the Commonwealth's sake ye do rise How do you take in hand to reform Be you Kings by what Authority or by what Succession Be you the King's Officers by what Commission Be you called by God by what Tokens declare you that Ye rise for Religion what Religion taught you that If you were offer'd Persecution for Religion you ought to fly so Christ teacheth you and yet you intend to fight if you would stand in the truth you ought to suffer like Martyrs and you slay like Tyrants thus for Religion you keep no Religion and neither will follow the Counsel of Christ nor the constancy of Martyrs whatever the Causes be that have moved your wicked Affections herein Pag. 11. as they be unjust Causes and increase your Faults much the thing it self the Rising I mean must needs be wicked and horrible before God and the usurping of Authority and taking in hand rule which is the sitting in God's Seat of Justice a proud climbing up into God's high Throne must needs be not only cursed newly by him but also hath been often punished afore of him and that which is done to God's Officers Pag. 12. God accounteth it done to him Ye be bound in God's Word to obey your King and is it no Breach of Duty to withstand your King See also Bishop Hooper's Comment on the Fifth Commandment SECT III. But the outward Felicity of the Church as it was very great under Edward the Sixth so it was short-lived a black Storm gathering under Queen Mary and at last falling severely upon her Protestant Subjects who dealt with her as they were in duty bound they assisted her chearfully till she got her Crown and when contrary to her Duty and her Promises she persecuted them some of them resolutely suffered Martyrdom others as our Saviour advises fled into Foreign Countries for Protection the great Men of that Party solemnly disowning the Principle of taking up Arms against their Sovereign even when she had falsified her promises to them And this is attested by more than a few of the greatest Men of that Reign ‖ Burn. Hist Res part l. 2. p. 285. the Bishops of Exeter S. Davids and Glocester Taylor Philpot Bradford Crome Sanders Rogers Laurence and others who having given an account of their Principles conclude thus as the Historian says These things they declared that they were ready to defend as they often had before offered and concluded charging all People to enter into no Rebellion against the Queen but to obey her in all points except where her Commands were contrary to the Law of God. But their own words will most properly give us their meaning as * Tom. 3. p. 100 c. Fox records Because we hear that it is determined to send us speedily out of the Prisons of the King's Bench c. where at present we are and of a long time some of us have been not as Rebels Traitors seditious persons Thieves or Transgressors of any Laws of this Realm Inhibitions Proclamations or Commandments of the Queen's Highness or of any of the Councils God's Name be praised therefore but only for the Conscience we have to God and to his most holy Word and Truth to one of the Universities there to dispute We write and send abroad this our Faith humbly requiring and in the Bowels of our Saviour Christ beseeching all that fear God to behave themselves as obedient Subjects to the Queen's Highness and the superior Powers which are ordained of God under her rather after our Example to give their Heads to the Block than in any point to rebel or once to mutter against the Lord's anointed we mean our Sovereign Lady Queen Mary into whose Heart we beseech the Lord of Mercy plentifully to pour the Wisdom and Grace of his Holy Spirit now and for ever Amen First we confess and believe all the Canonical Books of the Old Testament c. And having reckoned up what Doctrines they owned and what they condemned they go on thus And we doubt not but we shall be able to prove all our Confessions here to be most true by the Verity of God's Word and Consent of the Catholick Church In the mean season as obedient Subjects we shall behave our selves towards all that be in Authority and not cease to pray to God for them that he would govern them all generally and particularly with the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace and so we heartily desire and humbly pray all Men to do ☞ in no point consenting to any kind of Rebellion or Sedition against our Sovereign Lady the Queen's Highness but where they cannot obey but they must disobey God then to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer as the will and pleasure of the highest powers shall adjudge as we are ready through the goodness of the Lord to suffer whatsoever they shall adjudge us unto rather than we will consent to any Doctrine contrary to this which we here confess unless we shall be convinced thereof either by Writing or by Word c. and the Lord of Mercy endue us all with the Spirit of his Truth and Grace of Perseverance therein unto the end Amen May 8 Anno Dom. 1554. This Letter was subscribed by Bishop Ferrar Bishop Hooper and Bishop Coverdale and by nine others who were the Flower of Confessors at that time
far as they command lawful things but if it so fall out that the Prince or any in Authority under him command things unlawful against the Commandment of God then it is better to obey God than Man yet so that we be content to bear any punishment that shall be laid upon us even to death it self as Daniel when the King made a wicked Edict would not yield unto it but yet was content to yield unto the punishment with patience and never went about to gather a Power against the King in his own Defence c. so that if the Magistrates Command be lawful the Subject must obey if he require an unlawful Obedience he must not rebel but suffer the punishment without grudging ☜ even in heart Eccl. 10.20 If the King be unjust and wicked we must pray God to convert him that as our Sins have brought an ill Governor over us so our Prayers may either remove or better him Bishop Hall's Contemplations The Inauguration of Saul 1 Vol. fol. p. 1029. Earthly Monarchs must walk by a Rule which if they transgress they shall be accountable to him that is higher than the highest who hath deputed them Not out of care of Civility so much as Conscience must every Samuel labour to keep eaven terms betwixt Kings and Subjects prescribing just moderation to the one to the other Obedience and Loyalty which whoever endeavours to trouble is none of the Friends of God or his Church The Death of Saul Lib. 14. p. 1084. Saul was none of the best Kings yet so impatient are his Subjects of the Indignity offered to his dead Corps that they will rather leave their own bones amongst the Philistins than the Carcass of Saul Such a close Relation there is betwixt a Prince and Subject that the dishonour of either is inseparable from both but how unnatural is the Villany of those Miscreants that can be content to be Actors in the Capital Wrong offered to Sovereign Authority Page 1085. Every drop of Royal Bloud is Sacred for a Man to say that he hath shed it is mortal The Death of Absalom Lib. 16. 1128. Strangers shall relieve him whom his own Son persecutes Page 1129. O holy David what means this ill-placed love this unjust mercy deal gently with a Traytor but of all Trayors with a Son Who can want courage to fight for a righteous Sovereign and Father against the Conspiracy of a wicked Son The God of Hosts with whom it is all one to save with many or with few takes part with Justice and lets Israel feel what it is to bear Arms for a traiterous Usurper Let no Man look to prosper by Rebellion the very thickets and stakes and pits and wild Beasts of the Wood shall conspire to the punishment of Traytors Page 1131. Even at this day very Pagans and Pilgrims that pass that way cast each man a stone into that heap and are wont to say in a solemn Execution Cursed be the Parricide Absalom and cursed be all unjust persecutors of their Parents for ever Fasten your Eyes upon this woful Spectacle O all ye rebellious and ungracious Children which rise up against the loins and thighs from which you fell and know that it is the least part of your punishment that your Carcasses rot on the Earth and your Name in Ignominy these do but shadow out those Eternal sufferings of your Souls for your full and unnatural disobedience Sheba's Rebellion Page 1132. That a lewd Conspirator should breath Treason is no wonder but is it not wonder and shame that upon every mutinous blast Israel should turn Traytor to God's anointed Contemplations Lib. 18. p. 1171. In the Case of Succession into Kingdoms we may not look into the Qualities of the Person but into the Right No Bond can be surer than the natural Allegiance of Subjects I do not find that the following Kings stood upon the Confirmation of the People but as those that knew the way to their Throne ascended their steps without aid Page 1174. How durst these seditious Mouths mention David in defiance One would have thought that very Name had been bale to have temper'd their fury and to have contained them within the limits off Obedience Blessed be God for lawful Government Even a mutinous Body cannot want a Head If the Rebellious Israelites have cast of their true Sovereign they must chuse a false Jeroboam Page 1175. The Civil defection was soon follow'd by the Spiritual As there are near respects betwixt God and his Anointed so there is great Affinity betwixt Treason and Idolatry They cannot return to God and hold off from their lawful Sovereign They cannot return to Jerusalem and keep off from God from their Loyalty How can they be mine whiles the Priests and Levites shall preach to them the necessity of their due obedience and the abomination of their Sacrifices in their wilful disobedience Bishop Hall's second Vol. Christ and Caesar p. 416. It is Religion that teacheth us that God hath ordained Kingly Sovereignty Rom. 13.1 ordain'd it immediately That Position was worthy of a Red-hat Potestas Principis dimanavit à Populo Pontificis à Deo. Bellar. Recog What need I persuade Christian Kings and Princes that they hold their Crowns and Scepters as in fee from the God of Heaven Cyrus himself had so much Divinity Ezra 1.2 It is Religion that teaches us that the same Power which ordained Caesar enjoins all faithful subjection to Caesar Not for fear but for Conscience Bishop Hall's third Vol. Pag. 118. 3. A promissory Oath which is to the certain prejudice of another Man 's Right cannot be attended with Justice 4. No prejudice of another Man's right can be so dangerous and sinful as that prejudice which is done to the right of publick and Sovereign Authority 5. The right of Sovereign Authority is highly prejudiced when private Subjects encroach upon it and shall upon suspicion of the diavowed intentions or actions of their Princes combine and bind themselves to enact establish or alter any matters concerning Religion without and therefore much more if against the Authority of their Lawful Sovereign 6. A Man is bound in Conscience to reverse and disclaim that which he was induced unlawfully to engage himself by Oath to perform 7. No Oath is or can be of force that is made against a lawful Oath formerly taken so that he that hath sworn Allegiance to his Sovereign and thereby bound himself to maintain the Right Power and Authority of his said Sovereign cannot by any second Oath be tied to do ought that may tend to the infringement thereof and if he have so tied himself the Obligation is ipso facto void and frustrate And according to this Doctrine was Mr. Dod's practice * Sir H. Yelverton's Pref. to Bishop Moreton of Episc for a little before Naseby fight King Charles of blessed memory sent the Earl of Lindsey to Mr. Dod to know his opinion of the War his Lordship found him ill
had been specifyed and annext to the Command Law or Ordinance of Almighty God c. Anno 1643. Dr. Thomas Swadlyn Printed three Sermons intitled the Sovereign's desire and Subjects duty and himself was a Confessor at that time being Imprisoned for his Loyalty as he declares in his Epistle which he dedicates to the World wherein having proved that all Power is from God especially Monarchy he shews that every Soul is to be subject howsoever a King may deal unjustly with them Serm. 2. on Rom. 13 1. p. 25. either 1. By violating the Laws and inforcing their Consciences or 2. By depriving them of their Goods by extortions and imprisoning their Persons and though in the former of these cases he may not be obeyed yet in neither of these cases may he be resisted But what are we to do then Why we may either fly away as David did from Saul if we do not then we must suffer but at no hand may we resist When St. Paul says let every soul be subject he means 1. Let every Soul honour the King. 2. Let every Soul obey the King in things lawful and indifferent 3. Let every Soul be subject to the King in commands unlawful i. e. let every Soul patiently suffer when he cannot actually do If the commands violate the Conscience Id. Ser. 3. p. 29. 31 â—3 38. yet there the Power may not be resisted for to resist the Power is a sin second to none but Sacrilege the highest crime against Heaven is Sacrilege and the next crime to this is Rebellion against or disobedience unto the Majesty of Earth and whosoever resists the Higher Powers resists both God and the King the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies whosoever contrary orders or orders against the Laws or the Arms of the chief Magistrate he resists the Higher Powers whether it be in subtilty of counsel or obloquy of speech and if so much more a heinous crime is it to take up Arms against the King. I have not spoken this to flatter Kings no they shall dye like Men but to inform you he that presumes sins against the justice of God he that despairs sins against his Mercy but he that resists the Power sins against the Power of God and he that dares take Arms against the King would if he could take Arms against God too and therefore as damnation is due to every sin Sermon at Whitehall March 22 1639. p. 18 19. so especially to this sin the sin of Rebellion Dr. B. Holyday Archdeacon of Oxford to strike one's Father was death by the Law to curse one's Father was death by the Law c. the Law then for the Son and the Subject being the same where is the love where is the fear where is wisdom where is grace where is nature are they not all fled from a rebellious heart had zeal antiently armed it self against Sovereignty we had never heard of a Calendar of Saints P. 28. Salus populi suprema lex includes in it the safety of the head and for the members of the body to rise against the head is it not unnatural is it not frenzy let them remember the breach of Israel P. 30. which did first wilfully depart from their Sovereign and afterwards unwillingly whilest perforce from their Country and that afterwards in two hundred years they had both many more and worse Kings than Judah had and were at last seized on by the divine judgment to the instruction of others but their own ruin we may not do evil Id. Serm. at Oxf. May 21. 1643. p 42 Sermon at St. Mary's May 19. 1644. p. 65 66. that good may come thereof royalty must not down for the advancement of Religion object Rebellion and ye object all crimes it is nearer to a flout than a truth to call a Rebel a Christian they will ask what is the final cause of a King and they will answer the Peoples welfare certainly a true answer and as certain an imperfect one the People's good is an inferior purpose of Majesty the representation of the Divine Majesty is the highest purpose of Humane Majesty when in all causes a King is next under God Supreme Governor how can the People whether single or united P. 91. be the Governor of that Governor a great Council may be the adviser of a Prince but as the Statute Law of our Prayer binds us to confess before God it is God that is the only Ruler of Princes Id. Serm. at Chr. Ch. Nov. 10. 1644. p. 106. a King Absalom would be not of God's making for he had made David not of David's making a King then he could be made only by the People and the Devil whilest by the People and Treason whilst against the consent of God and David Mr. Berkenhead Serm. on Nov. 3. 1644. at Chr. Ch. Oxon. p. 13. However we must perform active Obedience to such Princes only as far as lawfully we may so long as they are not set in competition with God yet we must perform Passive Obedience and absolute subjection even if they should command the most unjust superstitious idolatrous profane and irreligious things which can be imagined yet I say we must not Rebel unless we will renounce Christianity but we must let this be the touchstone of our subjection even our patient and constant sufferings SECT V. Dr. Henry King Lord Bishop of Chichester They Sermon at St. Paul's Mar. 21. 1640. p. 11. that lift up their hands against the King in publick Rebellion or their tongues in murmur against his Commands or their hearts in disobedient and discontented thoughts are as ill Subjects to God as to the King you need not ask whom have they resisted St. Paul tells you Rom. 13. they have resisted the Ordinance of God for he hath his Power from God. Men like the mutinous Israelites P. 36. upon all occasions of pretended discontent cry down Moses and set up an Idol made out of popular votes and contributions Id. Serm. before the King May 29. 1661. p. 22 c. to what Votes soever Elective Rulers owe their Scepters Succession is the Vote of God who both declares the right and then continues it as his donation Crowns conferr'd by other hands sit loose and tottering upon the head of such as wear them I will give it keeps them fast this is the great Charter by which Kings hold the right to their Kingdoms by me Kings rule where are those then who place the right to dispose Kingdoms in the Popes or those in another extreme who intitle the People to this power a strange prodigy in opinion not heard of till those Men came into the World who as was falsly alledged of the Apostles at Thessalonica Act. 17.6 turn'd the World upside down placing the feet above the head and subjecting the Higher Powers contrary to the rule of God to the People who by his command ought to be subject unto