for all that can onely be introduced by force and compulsion in the Service of God wherefore the severall ends of Magistracy and of the Ministry are different but not contrary but the severall meanes by which they attaine their ends are not onely different but contrary and those meanes which are effectuall to the one are not only ineffectuall but uselesse to the other for the Magistrate can never attaine that end to which his Authority conduceth by no perswation nor information onely nor can the Minister subdue the will nor informe the understanding by any Authority from or in himselfe and both of them have their Commission immediately from God and each of them are subject to the other without any subordination of offices from the one to the other for the Magistrate is no lesse subject to the operation of the word from the mouth of the Minister then any other man whatsoever and the Minister againe is as much subject to the Authority of the Magistrate as any other Subject whatsoever and therefore though there be no subordination of offices yet is there of Persons the Person of the Minister remaining a Subject but not the function of the Ministry but there needes not two Tribunalls nor Independent Courts be erected to provide for their severall ends and dutyes required of them for the Minister can never attaine the end of his labours by no Judiciall processe nor legall proceedings whatsoever and therefore all Judiciall courts are needelesse and uselesse to his ends yet are they not so to himselfe having other ends then what are required of him for the discharge of his duty and function but it is essentiall to the Magistrate to have a tribunall and judiciall Courts for the attaining of his ends and duties required of him without which he can never discharge his dutie as he ought but whensoever the like Tribunall is erected in the Church as is necessary in the State they must be Independent one of another in regard the severall offices governing Church and State are so but all that is to be got by Independant Tribunalls is either dissention and discord which is the usuall fruite that devision of Authority beareth or by compliance to provide for one anothers Interests or particular ends differing from their publick dutyes with the manifest losse of true religion on both sides which many times drawes downe the Judgment of God upon one or both as being a third person no lesse interressed in Justice and Honour then either and many times the Justice of God is most greeveous when least apprehended as suffering men to wallow in their sins to dye in security nor is it a small Judgment to leave men to the necessary effects which division of Authority produceth for the end of all government is the preservation of humane society the meanes of doing whereof is by union and unity and Authority is the effectuall meanes of producing and propagating unity and therefore whensoever Authority is divided Vnitie may alwaies and sometimes must admit of division which destroyes it for unity and division are destructive one of another and when two Tribunalls are erected for the determining of severall and different causes and crimes both armed with a forcible Authority weilding swords of a different nature agreable to their different constitutions and without any dependency and subordination the one to the other what lasting concord and agreement can there be beweene these two they that mannage them must be juster then men are knowne to be or advantages will be taken when given by the one as no sublunary substances which are subject to change can remaine long in an equall ballance for subjecting the other and therefore it was when the Christian world did by a generall consent beleeve that the Church having a sword though invisible for the cutting off of all schismaticall and refractory Members no lesse really and truly then the State hath a visible materiall sword which for the preservation of union and unity was esteemed necessary to be put into the hands of one and therefore willingly submitted their necks under the Imaginary stroake thereof from the sentence of Popes or Bishops of Rome How easie was it for them by reason therof to subject all Christian Princes and Magistrates unto a dependency and subordination unto them and their Authority and how did they trouble the Christian world by transferring of rights and stirring up of rebellion whensoever any of those Princes did oppose them or contradict their wills by a supposed Intrenching upon their pretended Prerogatives though usurped but when the Popes right began to be questioned by some whereby his reputation did decline even amongst those who adhearing still to the doctrine of the Church of Rome as to that in which they had beene educated and bred yet did not beleeve his censures to be so dreadfull as before they apprehended them to be but the edge of his sword being thereby blunted and the edge of the temporall sword being not onely visible but sharpe the advantage returned to Princes whereby those Princes who continued in union with the Church of Rome professing subjection and obedience to the spirituall Authority thereof doe notwithstanding now reduce that power and Authority to which they professe subjection unto a subordination of them and their Authority to be directed by them which will be of no longer permanency then that Church can insnare the world againe to an apprehension and beleife of the reality of their power to beget which they continually indeavour and aspire and have no small hopes from the differences and divisions amongst Protestants for the increasing and fomenting whereof it is not to be imagined that they are idle but whatsoever their hopes and practises are their greatest strength remaineth in this that it is generally beleeved that the Church hath a spirituall Authority for the cutting off of all schismaticall Members and that this Authority is to be preserved in some one forme or other without any derivation thereof from any humane power for then it cleerely and undoubtedly followeth that whosoever by such principles of reason taken from the end of government doth incline to Monarchy and that this spirituall Authority can best be preserved by the Supremacy of one man then the Bishops of Rome having had for a long time and for a long succession and still having the possession besides other advantages of greatnesse and power which begetteth strength and reputation must and will be acknowledged by all those to be the onely spirituall Monarch in the Church armed with spirituall Authority and whosoever out of prejudice against the Church of Rome taken against her by reason of either her errours or abuses or both doth seperate themselves from the Communion of that Church and by consequence onely free themselves from her subjection but doe notwithstand adheare to and retaine the grounds of those errours and abuses by acknowledging and beleeving that the same spirituall Authority which was presupposed to have beene
hath been judged already by the unappealable judgement of God to be an evidence of want of faith in him who commits it and doth take pleasure and delight into it which is made manifest and apparent to men by a perseverance in it onely and therefore it is the sentence of God and not of the Minister the Minister being onely Gods Herauld or messenger to declare to others the revealed will of God and for doing thereof he hath an expresse warrant from God recorded in Scripture nor must it be any part of the Ministers purpose to send any man to hell but purpose and intention of doing execution upon the offender is essentiall to authority and inseparable from it but onely to prevent what in him lieth his going thither for albeit that the Ministers sentence being rightly pronounced be ratified in heaven which is undenyable yet may it be recalled again but never at the Ministers will and pleasure which at sometimes is incident to authority but by the contrition and repentance of the obstinate party publikely promising and vowing his amendment upon which evidence the Minister may pronounce his absolution receiving him again into the bosome of the Church and admitt him againe into the Communion of Saints and this sentance is likewise ratifyed in Heaven If the parties repentance be unfained and sincere which notwithstanding may be hypocriticall and dissembled in him albeit he doth refraine and forbeare from the performance of that wherein he gave the offence and scandall and doth moreover proceede to amendment of his life not onely in that particular but doth walke unblameably and without any deserved reproofe from the judgment of men in all other howsoever upon a visible purpose of amendment the Minister not onely may but must receive him againe into the bosome of the Church and admit him againe into the holy Communion with others so that nothing is left to the will of the Minister nor to the finall judgement of the Minister but all is referred to the will and knowledge of God and where will and knowledge are excluded their Authority is wanting and though much may be effected and brought to passe by them yet whatsoever is effected deserves not the name as differing from the nature of Authority and the Ministers of Christ having no Authority in those things wherein they cannot ere so long as they follow the cleare light revealed in Scripture they can much lesse have any Authority for such things which flow from their owne Invention nor can they inforce obedience by any spirituall meanes or censures of the Church unto any thing whereof they themselves are Authors when no spirituall meanes are compulsive in regard of the Instrument that must apply them and whatsoever efficacy or vertue they have yet may they never be applyed for the inforcing of any thing whereof man is Author for then it would follow that the will of man or something proceeding from the will of man would be a rule to the Justice of God when one man must be as a Publican or Heathen and consequently uncapable of the fruits of Christs death for disobeying onely the will or something depending upon the will of another which no man dares to affirme and having no compulsive meanes to inforce obedience they can have no legislative power of making of cannons and constitutions binding to the conscience for a law without a penalty or power sufficient to inforce it is no law nor neede they have any such power for such a power is not conducible at all to that end of Religion which is committed to them to their care and paines but is destructive to the end of government for Religion hath a two fold end the one respecteth God the other man the end of religion in respect of God is to glorify God that man who was therefore created to glorify his Maker should by a true knowledge of the true God glorify him aright and the end of religion in respect of man is to bring a man from all confidence in himselfe or the creature to rely upon the Providence and goodnesse of God who is the Creator to the end he may renounce his own righteousnesse to be made partaker of the merits and Righteousnesse of the Sonne of God the Redeemer of Mankinde that by faith in him he may obtaine grace and some measure of sanctification in this life for the remission of sinnes and fruition of Glory hereafter and for this end of religion no humane lawes do contribute any thing at all for unto this the Scriptures are sufficient being compleate in themselves and the chiefe duty of the Ministers of the Gospell is to explaine and expound the true meaning of scripture to others for doing whereof they should be learned in all necessary learning and skilfull as also have a lawfull Calling by a lawfull Ordination and for which it is very fit that they be set apart from all other imployment and have a sufficient maintenance that they may the better attend that to which they are called but for the other end to glorify God humane lawes doe contribute much but they are required of Christian Kings and Magistrates and not of Christian Ministers for God did from the begining put Authority into the hands of the Magistrate and endowed them with effectuall meanes for inforcing of obedience to what should be commanded by them so did he never in the hands of the Priests and Levites under the Law nor of the Apostles under the Gospell and by consequence into the hands of no Ministers whatsoever succeeding them and God doth require of the Magistrate to improve his Authority which is the talent that God hath given him for the gaining of others by force and compulsion when no other meanes will prevaile to the performance of those dutyes that are required of them as he requires of all who are called to labour in the Ministeriall function and office to imploy their gifts and graces which are the talents bestowed upon them painfully and dilligently for the enlightning of the understanding of others whereby every exalted thought and imagination may be brought downe which the Magistrates Power and Authority can never reach for the Power of the Magistrate reacheth no further then to the outward life conversation when the operation of the Ministry subdueth the will and therefore the principall care of the Magistrate is and ought to be to enforce men to live uprightly and justly as they ought to doe for by so doing men glorify God but this is not all the glory that is to be performed by man to God for besides there must be a ready submission to the Will of God springing from a perfect love to God and grounded upon an assured confidence of Gods love to us which may be begotten and kindled in a man but can never be inforced and to this duty tendeth the Ministers paines and labour but it is and ought to be the Christian Magistrates care to provide
Congregations so long as it is entertained and received in the beleef as a sufficient ground or warrant for obedience to what shall be ordained by it and the exercising of spirituall authority under a different form of externall government onely being a difference rather in form then substance all of them may divide unity in the ends and consequences of government by dividing of Authority which is the preserver of unity but each of them doth admit of degrees of more and lesse according as the form imbraced is more or lesse absolute The superiority therefore of Bishops over the rest of the Clergie which may be as Independent as any other form but can never be so absolute as the supremacy of the Pope in regard it can never beget nor inforce so generall a dependencie and subjection of all men unto it wherin union and strength consisteth is never so dangerous to that State which entertains it as when it declares its Independencie and aspires to be absolute And albeit that Episcopacy doth continually endeavour and aspire to be united by the Supremacy of one of their own order because thereby they arise to a further degree of strength and perfection to which all sublunary creatures have a naturall propension inclination and desire yet can they not at all times nor whensoever they please attaine to their desires And the Archbishop of Canterbury having discovered and manifested unto the world how independent the authority of Church-men here in England was grown and how absolute they coveted to be did give a clear evidence at the same time how farre the progresse to the Popes Supremacy was advanced which is made more manifest by the concurrence and joynt endeavours of Papists of all sorts not onely agreeing with but labouring in the same designe with some of our Clergy-men and others For their indefatigable labours and renewed pains with so much blood and danger to the undertakers ever since the Reformation have all tended to that end chiefly as to the onely mark at which they have ever aymed The threatning Bals and many dangerous conspiracies and invasions in Queen Elizabeths time and the most damnable Gunpowder Treason in King James his time are clear proofs how implacable their malice hath been against all Reformation that did depose the Pope from his pretended right of Supremacy and how violently they have been transported to reinthrone him again which is but the ultimate end of all such dangerous and desperate undertakings but the immediate is alwayes and ever hath been for some particular ends to the undertakers springing from their own ambition and covetous desire of dominion and rule from which Papists are excluded by the Laws of this Land establishing the Reformation for the desire of authority and to have a command over others is a naturall desire to all ambitious men and ambition is an inherent quality in all men flowing from the operation and effectuall working of the spirituall substance of the soul which coveteth to mount and aspire continually but is predominant onely in some And no man that may choose doth hazard his own life for restitution of another to his right being lost but he that hopes to participate and share with him or under him after the recovery in some proportion and measure though not in an equal degree And since the Gunpowder Treason they having not onely forborn all forcible attempts against either the life and safety of the King or the publick peace and tranquillity of the Kingdome untill the present Rebellion in Ireland did break out upon which the warre against the Parliament ensued but seeming extraordinarily and strangely converted in their dispositions and desires and of deadly and implacable enemies appearing the most dutifull Subjects of all others pretending to be the most zealous instruments for the inlargement and promotion of that power and authority which was bound by speciall interest to suppresse them is an argument of some well studied and close followed designe rather then any symptome of change of disposition for they can never change their dispositions so long as they retain their wicked principles and false doctrines which principally gives life and motion to the wickednesse of their dispositions and the desire of dominion and rule is impetuous and incessant to which they can never have a legall right in this Kingdom untill all those Laws be repealed which disable them the doing whereof and not the Kings Prerogative is a principall motive with them in all their undertakings and designes and the great potencie and prevalencie of Papists about His Majestie in all his consultations and actions do manifest and declare what their purposes and intentions are that this Independent authority of Bishops coveting to be so absolute which hath been set up of late in the Church of England and confirmed by the King and by his Prerogative Royall shall acknowledge the Pope for their Head and not the King for Popes were never so munificent rewarders of any mans deserts or duties as to part with that which they accounted their right to give it away to another and Papists were never so undutifull sons as to labour for the setting up of an Arbitrary power and unlimited Prerogative to an hereticall King when his Holinesse hath given sentence that no Heretick is capable of any Authority at all and that all men are to be accounted for Hereticks who deny the Popes Supremacy wherfore in the conclusion His Majestie must either part with that Supremacy which the Law hath given him and submit to the Popes or be deprived of all Authority whatsoever which is all he must expect from them or by their aid and assistance And the great favours which hath been alwayes shewed to Papists since the beginning of His Majesties Reigne but more especially now the partiall indulgence towards the bloodiest and cruellest of all Rebellions and to the most perfideous of all Nations the Irish accounting them for good Subjects after so many barbarous massacres and horrid executions of an infinite number of English Scottish Protestants rather then the King shall agree with his Parliament in England for the saving of the lives of his Protestant Subjects here and choosing to continue the warre in England at the expence of his English Subjects lives by whom his Majestie hath ever and must still if ever subsist in power dignity and honour and to the great perill and manifest hazard of His Majesties own life rather then break off that Cessation which His Majestie had not power to make with the Irish from whom His Majestie never received better fruits then at a great expence of treasure and of his other Subjects lives to reduce and keep them to a forced duty and allegiance and the over-ruling of His Majesties reason and judgement to approve and consent to the Popes Supremacy in Ireland which is known and acknowledged to be destructive to His Majesties Supremacy and just Prerogative rather then an extirpation of Episcopacy which is the
and his next words demonstrate clearly what opinion he had of his Judges whom he compareth to the Danes when Heathens to the fury of Wat Tyler and his fellows to the malice of a lewd woman to a persecuting Sword and lastly to Herod and to the persecuting Jews and maketh the charge against himself to look like that against St. Paul in the 25. of the Acts and against St. Stephen in the 6. of the Acts To whose cases his had no more resemblance then it had to the 3. Childrens for St. Paul and St. Stephen were persecuted for opening the kingdome of heaven by shewing a clear way to enter therein by a true and lively faith grounded upon the death and mediation of Jesus Christ onely without any reference to our selves and our own merits But he on the contrary did what in him lay to shut the kingdome of heaven to such as was desirous to enter directing them into false wayes such as could never bring a man thither For if the old Israelites by following after the Lavv of righteousnesse attained not into the Law of righteousnesse because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9. 31 32. and therefore were excluded from the promises what must become of them who going about to establish not the righteousnesse of the Law which once was the ordinance of God but a righteousnesse of their own prescription consisting for the most part in externall rites and ceremonies commanding the observation of them as the principall part of Gods worship and of mans duty when in the mean time they neglect the ordinance of God which is their Ministeriall office consisting chiefly in reforming of the will and informing the understanding by the operation of the Word preached which may be performed by Information and Instruction but can never by any authority or command for there is a vast difference between him who endeavoureth the production of desired effects by the operation of necessarie and appointed means and him who commands onely the performance of the like effects without the application of such means as are necessary for the one requireth an omnipotent power the other may be performed by a creature of a finite capacity What affinity or resemblance then can my Lord of Canterburies case have with St. Pauls or St. Stephens who suffered under the rage of the people for offering their pains to shew them onely a clear and infallible way for purchasing the kingdom of heaven which was left to their own choice to beleeve or not beleeve But my Lord of Cant. neglecting the wayes of St. Paul and St. Stephen consisting onely in demonstration and in the efficacy of perswasion for the obtaining of their purposes and ends was legally processed and condemned for making use of externall force and compulsion for the obtaining of his which St. Paul nor St. Stephen never did and moreover he having screwed himself into the favour of the King did make the Regall Power instrumentall to his ends and which among other things is inexcusable did endeavour to lay the odium and obloquy of all upon the King when it could not otherwayes be defended as if that had been sufficient that he was onely instrumentall to the Kings commands when it was too well known that he was the director of those commands And as his case differed from theirs in the means so must it differ likewise in the ends for the end of all their labour and pains was to bring men in subjection to the will of God by declaring unto them the power of God and of the Deity and manifesting the inexpressible love of God to mankind in sending his onely begotten Son into the world to take upon him our humane nature and expounding unto them the vertue and efficacy of Christs death and resurrection but the end of his labour and pains was to bring men in subjection to his own will by making them sensible how dangerous it was to offend him For he took more pains to inflict punishment on such as offended him then to instruct such as were ignorant But odious is his next comparison comparing himself with Christ and his accusers to the Pharises who having accused Christ for fear that if they did let him alone all men would beleeve on him and the Romans would come and take away both their place and Nation Concluding from thence with a prayer to God that God would not reward this people as then he did the Jews for their causlesse fears and unjust sentence but the cases being so different and the comparisons so odious it were a superfluous labour to go about to inform any mans understanding in the discovery Nor needs any time be spent in detecting his vain presumption and arrogant boasting in applying that deserved triumph of Saint Paul to himselfe as if he could no lesse truely then Saint Paul did say by honour and dishonour by good report and evill report as a deceiver and yet true he was now passing out of this world for it is manifest that he coveted and courted that honour which Saint Paul accompted but losse and dung and did runne a cleer contrary course to Saint Paul for Saint Paul accompted it no shame To the weake to become as weak that he might gaine the weake nor to be made all things to all men that he might by all meanes save some but hee accompted it not onely a shame but an indignity to condiscend one jot to the weaknesse of any man and rather then hee should bee crossed in his purpose and will those gifts and abilities which God had bestowed upon him for other purposes and ends and that credit and esteeme which he had purchased with his Majesty by those gifts and abilities and in reverence of the holinesse of his calling should bee all imployed to ingage King and Kingdome in a War as was evident by the Warre with Scotland especially after the first pacification at the camp neer Barwicke But having taken all this paines in a generall justification of himself to the people who were his Auditors at length he thinkes of it not amisse to speak of some particulars and first is he bold to speake of the King who he saith hath bin much traduced by some for labouring to bring in Popery which he might truely affirme If any such affirmation had been made of His Majesty but the truth hereof is prevaricated as other truths are by him and made useof for his own justification rather then for the Kings the King being rather aspersed then justified by such manner of justification for no man did ever affirme that the King was a Papist as is here implyed nor that His Majestie did labour to bring in Popery as is here affirmed but that he was overreached by the subtilty and fraud of some and he himselfe esteemed the principall deceiver and undermyner of the King and it alwayes hath been one of his chiefest subtilties so to confound
abused by the Popes and Bishops of Rome as Vsurpers onely over the rest of the Clergy or too great a power and consequently dangerous in the hands of any one man is not onely lawfull but necessary as being Inherent in the function and essentiall for the preservation of union and unity to be preserved in some other forme which they agree upon and like better then the incontrollable Supremacie of one man then this doth necessarily follow that albeit they free themselves from all the errours and abuses which were introduced by the Supreamicie of one man yet so long as they acknowledge that the same power and Authority is resident in others they can never free themselves of all errours and abuses which are introducible by Authority but that the property and condition of things in themselves indifferent will be changed from being indifferent and converted into the nature and necessity of absolute duties which ever begets bondage and subjection and sense of bondage doth ever beget desire of liberty which can never be obtained so long as the opinion of a necessity of Authority in some forme or other is retained and experience hath now taught us what could not be foreseene by reason alone without some additionall helpe from divine illumination that in the Church of England which did not onely shake off the Supreamicie of the Pope but had purged her selfe of all those errours which had either crept in or were introduced by the power of that Supreamicie by retaining of Bishops and giving them a part onely of that spirituall Authority which formerly was acknowledged to Popes and though quallifying that part by restraining it from all legislative power or a power to inact any thing but allowing it a Power of Iudicature the effectuall operation and proper working of that part of spirituall Authority hath now fully manifested it selfe to tend to propogate superstition and errour rather then the sincerity and truth of Religion and as the naturall motions of different bodies differing in quality and substance tend to different centers the naturall motion of Episcopacy hath now discovered it selfe to indeavour continually to unite it selfe to such a head to which it is capable to aspire rather then to be in subjection under such a head to which it hath no capacity to aspyre and that received principle of State that Episcopacy is a support to Monarchy is now likewise discovered to be fraudulent and deceitefull for it is true that it is a support to a spirituall Monarchy or Monarchy in the Church as being the basis and foundation thereof but doth undermine and destroy Monarchy in the State especially in that State which doth trust unto it as to a supporter and the reason is cleere for all supporters which have no solid foundation doe ruinate those buildings which are erected upon them being of greater weight and substance then the foundation can beare and the foundation of Episcopacy being layed in the engrossing of spirituall Authority or Ecclesiasticall censures Spirituall Authority it selfe hath no other existence nor being but what it hath in the Imagination and beleefe which is too slippery a ground to support a solid substance such as temporall Monarchy is but may be sufficient to support an aery and imaginary bulk such as spirituall Monarchy is which Episcopacy not only supports but continually tends towards as to its proper center and my Lord of Cant. when he obtained the Kings good will to confirme by his Letters Patents the late Canons did put a direct cheate upon his Majesty for thereby the Kings Supreamicy in causes Ecclesiasticall was cut off and from thence forth his Supreamicy over Ecclesiasticall persons should have been rather titular then reall If the consent of Parliament could as easily have been obtained as his Majesties own But to conclud this part of my Lord of Cant. Speech he might safely protest upon his conscience that his Majesty was a sound Protestant according to the Religion by law established yet did it not thereupon follow that he himself was guiltles from the sentence of the law because his actions being all warranted by his Majesties consent they could not be divided from the Kings which is the cheife thing implied by this particular His second particular is concerning thâ—… great and populous City to which he is very kind and prayeth God to blesse it but all his prayers for those who he conceiveth had done him injury have a sting in them and this prayer ends reproaching those he prayes for as if some had subordned witnesses against his life by gathering of hands which he affirmeth to be a way that might endanger many an innocent man and may plucks innocent blood upon their own heads and perhaps upon this City also which before he prayed God to blesse and now again to forbid this Judgement but his prayers are mixed with threates and all tending to justify himself to his Auditours whereof he is never unmindefull upon all occasions and having here occasion to mention the Parliament he bestowes glorious and honourable Titles and epithrates upon it as if that were sufficient to testify his respects thereof but he doth contradict his owne testimony by his Inferences and Applications for by Inference he applyeth the gathering of hands which he affirmeth to have been practised against himself to the stirring up of the people against Saint Stephen and to Herods lying in waite for Saint Peters death by observing how the people tooke the death of Saint James By which Instance he must meane that great honourable and wise Court of the Kingdome the Parliament those be the titles he bestowes upon them for it was they that gave sentence against him as Herod did against Saint James and would have done agaynst Saint Peter which no Christian thinkes was either honourably or wisely done of him and therefore what opininion he had of that great honourable and wise Court for sentencing of him may be collected and that his esteeme of them was not so honourable as his expressions but whatsoever his esteeme of them was they were his Judges so will he never be theirs which he here apprehended when he did put the City in mind of the Justice of God and how fearfull a thing it was to fall into the Hands of the living God because God remembers and forgets not the complaynts of the poore a lesson which he never remembred when he himselfe did sit upon the Tribunall but is of speciall comfort unto him upon the Scaffold for his blood was innocent blood and not onely innocent blood in his owne esteeme but he had a speciall Commission from God to tell them so as Jeremiah had in the 26. Chap. of Jeremiah ver. 15. the words were not expressed by him but directions given to the place the words be these But know ye for certaine that if ye put me to death you shall surely bring innocent blood upon your selves and upon this City and upon the Inhabitants thereof for of a
foundation and assent to the Popes Supremacy shall be consented to in England upon a bare presupposall that it is a necessarie support to Monarchy when it hath never been yet examined what Monarchy it supports whether spirituall or temporall and whether that which is a necessary supporter to the one is compatible with the other having shaken off the yoke of spirituall Monarchy and renounced not onely all subjection to it but all communion with it and trusting of Papists upon their bare words and deceitfull professions against their known unsound tenets and doctrines rather then the Parliament and Protestant Subjects shall be beleeved upon their solemne Vow and Covenant for the preservation and defence of His Majesties person and Authority And lastly imploying of known and profest Reeusants trusting them with Arms and Authority without any caution or consideration how they may be disarmed again rather then that the Parliament shall be suffered to dispose of the Militia of the Kingdom for the safety and security thereof for some limited time are all clear and manifest proofs what their power and prevalence with the King is And do all conclude that an Arbitrary power and unlimited Prerogative pretending for the King having been made use of and exercised by them yet was never intended for the King nor for the improving nor advancing of the Kings Prerogative but onely to make use of it for erecting and setting up of an Independent Authority in the Church to Ecclesiasticall persons and by means thereof to introduce the Popes Supremacy as the chief and ultimate end of their designe And that His Majestie hath been grosly abused and craftily over-reached by disguised Impostors and deceitfull parasites pretending one thing when intending the contrary Whereof amongst other things my Lord of Canterbury his equivocall expressions at the houre of his death giveth some light at what time being desirous to justifie himself publickly to the world of his endeavours for changing the Religion he expresseth himself of endeavouring onely to change the Protestant Religion to Popish superstition as if there had been no other danger from Popery but of introducing of grosse and absurd Superstition to many of which imbraced by them and set up by Papall Authority it may be granted him and beleeved that he was no reall friend but might condemne them in his own opinion and judgement when notwithstanding it was certain and clear that he not onely befriended but courted and ambitiously coveted that honour and authority which did establish that superstition and which must of necessitie still produce some superstition or other in the worship of God and hath now sufficiently discovered it self to endeavour continually to introduce Superstition and Ignorance as the principall means to induce men by a blind devotion to submit to an implicit obedience of what shall be required of them and imposed upon them But that was passed over by him as a thing wherein he was not concerned yet his practises tending thither was the chief thing concerning Religion whereof he was accused and for which he was condemned and possibly he might be deceived himself by the fallacy of deceitfull grounds and false principles the consequences whereof might not appear so clearly to himself as to others which might be the cause why he did endeavour to justifie himself of his intentions onely when the charge against him was for his practises and actions chiefly which he acknowledged to have been proved against him by acquitting his Judges as having proceeded secundum allegata probata For he might flatter himself with an opinion of good intentions thinking all was necessarie and good which he went about but thinking so he did but deceive himself as well as others which is the best charity that can be allowed him by the most charitable Christians that are not misled by the same principles and grounds that did deceive him and the most favourable construction that can be made of him is that albeit he was a great Doctor and Statesman also yet was he to learn the true principles of the Christian Religion when he went out of the world and that his principles of government were no better then his principles of Religion By the result of all which two things are demonstrated and declared The first is that they who do beleeve and are of opinion that they are the onely assertors and defenders of the Kings Prerogative and of the Regall power by fighting against the Parliament for the maintaining and defending of all that is established and approved by the King in this difference between King and Parliament do but contribute their help and assistance for the undermining and destroying of the Regall power and of the Kings just Prerogative The second is that the King is not resisted because his will is opposed by his Parliament which is the Kings great Councell and the representative body of his Kingdom and the reason of both is because by the constitution and frame of this Government Kings of this Kingdom may never give away their rights and that power and authority which they themselves have over the Subjects nor transferre the same upon any other without the generall consent of the Subjects which can never be obtained but by their representative Body assembled in Parliament And the obtaining of His Majesties will in this would be of more dangerous consequence to himself and to the Regall Authority then ever yet appeared to himself or can ever appear so long as he is separated and divided from his great Councell where by a free debate of all consequences and by a clear discovery of all sinister ends and fraudulent practises the truth of all can onely appear and without whom His Majestie can determine nothing by himself nor by his own judgement therein The question being of exposing himself his Successors all his Subjects and their posterity to a bondage and subjection under a heavie yoke and forraigne Head usurping a spirituall Authority and claiming homage and universall obedience thereunto by Divine right as being Christs Vicar generall and the supreme Head of the Church upon earth And the consequences of which being that the acknowledgement of this claime and a generall beleef thereof onely doth necessarily subject all other power and Authority unto it by reason that the faculties of the soul upon which this spirituall authority hath the chiefest influence and operation do easily subject and subdue all the powers of the body And it is now experimentally known that men being once subdued to the apprehension and beleef of this spirituall Authority by their intellectuals and rationall parts chiefly they are kept in obedience as to their duty by their sensitive parts and by all manner of forcible means which makes it a reall power and authority that before was onely imaginary and by means thereof becomes a power superior to all humane power and cannot be contradicted nor controlled by no power nor authority that is in man and can neither be limited
nor confined within any certain bounds nor be directed by no rule nor Law whatsoever But notwithstanding would suddenly vanish if the grounds and ends of all spirituall authority to be exercised under any form of Ecclesiasticall government were fully examined and discovered to be nothing but the imagination of man which would infallibly follow if nothing were taken for granted without evidence and proof which is the end of all Councels and Consultations and the principall duty of every rationall man and reason is in nature before all the other faculties of the soul and is the foundation of all other gifts and graces whatsoever but not the perfection and therefore is it given to all men as a difference and distinction between man and beast when other gifts and abilities are given onely to some And the end of Government is discovered to man by the light of reason and conduceth to the very being of man which must be provided for before any thought or consideration can be had of well being or of any other perfection And therefore unity which is the preserver of humane society must be provided for before any other duty that is required of man For the preservation of humane society tendeth to the propagation of mankind in which the being of man consisteth as from which it is derived without recourse to a new creation and all Authority which is the preserver of Unity must be derived from one head or fountain which in this Kingdom is from the Regall Power For no man denieth that the King is the Head of his people and all men know and acknowledge that He is never in his Supremacy nor absolute but by his Parliament Which as it is the representative Body of the people so is it the Supreme Councell of the King And therefore without it He is neither the head of a compleat body but of a Faction nor a compleat head For the Parliament being the representative of the people becomes thereby their living soul including the will and desires of all the people as comprehending them all But being the Kings great Councell who is the head of the people it doth supply the office and nature of all the externall senses which are placed in the head for the use of the body and especially to inform and assist the intellectuall faculties inhabiting the head for the giving of due influence upon the body without which a body politick doth languish and consume being fed and nourished by the vigorous operation of the intellectuals descending from the head as a body natural doth by sustenance and meat Wherefore what God hath conjoyned let no man separate and whosoever wisheth well to the prosperity of this Kingdom let him endeavour the conjunction of King and Parliament And whosoever nourisheth division between them let them be esteemed as the betrayers of their Countrey and enemies to mankind and let God arise and his enemies will be scattered But as my Lord of Canterbury had a legall triall and just sentence so may all such disguised Traitors to the Kingdom and fraudulent deceivers of the King in going about to steal from him his reall right and Authority by a counterfeit shew of making it better perish and be confounded in their own craft as publick Enemies to King and Parliament where onely the Supremacy of all Authority in England doth rest with the King and in the King but not in the Kings will but in his reason which as it rendreth him most absolute so doth it appear most eminent by concurring with the desires of all his people when exhibited to him by them who represents them all and are likewise his supreme Councel to which all other Councels and Courts whatsoever are subordinate and accountable by doing whereof onely he is united with his people and his people with him wherein the strength of both consisteth and then may he confidently say If God be with us who can be against us FINIS 1 Cor. 9. 28.