119. 3. The Law of God which is an undefiled Law and doth infallibly set downe what duties are to be performed and what Rights are to be yielded to every King for whatsoever things are written of the Kings of Israel and Judah in the holy Scriptures are not only written for those Kings and the government of that one Nation To what end the stories of the kings of Israel and Iudah were written Rom. 15.4 but as the Apostle saith They are written for our learning that all Kings and Princes might know thereby how to governe and all Subjects might in like manner by this impartiall and most perfect rule understand how to behave themselves in all obedience and loyalty towards their Kings and governours for he that made man knew he had been better unmade than left without a Government therefore as he ordained those Lawes whereby we should live and set down those truths that we should believe The ordination of our government as beneficiall as our creation so he settled and ordained that Government whereby all men in all Nations should be guided and governed as knowing full well that we neither would nor could do any of these things right unlesse he himselfe did set down the same for us therefore though the frowardnesse of our Nature will neither yield to live according to that Law nor believe according to that rule nor be governed according to that divine Ordinance which God hath prescribed for us in his Word yet it is most certain that he left us not without a perfect rule and direction for each one of these our faith our life and our government without which government we could neither enjoy the benefits of our life nor scarce reape the fruits of our faith and because it were as good to leave us without Rules and without Lawes Unwritten things most uncertain as to live by unwritten Lawes which in the vastnesse of this world would be soon altered corrupted and obliterated therefore God hath written down all these things in the holy Scriptures which though they were delivered to the People of the Jewes for the government both of their Church and Kingdome yet were they left with them to be communicated for the use and benefit of all other Nations God being not the God of the Jewes onely Rom. 3 2◠but of the Gentiles also because the Scripture in all morall and perpetuall precepts that are not meerly judicialia Judaica or secundae classis which the royall government was not because this was ordained from the beginning of the world to be observed among all Nations and to be continued to the end of the world nor the types and shadowes that were to vanish when the true substance approached was left as a perfect paterne and platforme for all Kings and People Pastours and Flockes Churches and Kingdomes throughout the whole world to be directed how to live to governe and to be governed thereby Such was the love and care of God for the Government of them that love and care as little to be governed by his government Every Government the better by how much nearer it is to the Government of the Scripture kings And therefore the dimme and dusky light of bleare eye'd Nature and the darke distracted inventions of the subtillest politickes must stoope and yield place in all things wherein they swerve from that strict rule of justice and the right order of government which is expressed necessarily to be observed in the holy Scripture either of the Kings part towards his People or of the Peoples duty towards their King And though each one of these faculties or the understanding of each one of these three Lawes requireth more than the whole man our life being too short to make us perfect in any one yet seeing that of all three the Law of God is abyssus magna like the bottomlesse sea and the supreme Lady to whom all other Lawes and Sciences are but as Penelopes handmaids to attend her service the Divine may farre better and much sooner understand what is naturall right The Divine is better able to understand Law than the Lawyer to understand Divinitie Psal 1.2 and what ought to be a just nationall Law and thereby what is the Right of Kings and what the duty of Subjects than any either Philosopher or Lawyer can finde the same by any other art especially to understand the same so fully by the Law of God as the Divine that exerciseth himselfe therein day and night may do it unlesse you thinke as our Enthusiasts dreame that every illiterate Tradesman or at least a Lawyers Latine I speak of the generality when I know many of them of much worth in all learning may easily wade with the reading of our English Bibles into the depth of all Divinity and that the greatest Doctour that spent all his dayes in studies can hardly understand the mysteries of these Camelion-like Lawes which may change sense as often as the Case shall be changed either by the subtlety of the Pleader or the ignorance or corruption of the Judges But we know their deepest Lawes discreetest Statutes and subtillest Cases cannot exceed the reach of sound reason and therefore no Reason can be shewed but that a rationall man meanly understanding Languages may sooner understand them and with lesse danger mistake them than that Law which as the Psalmist saith is exceeding broad Psal 119.96 and exceedeth all humane sense and the most exquisite naturall understanding 1 Cor. 2.14 when as the Apostle saith The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnes unto him neither can he know them because they ar◠spiritually discerned and being not discerned or misunderstood they make all such mistakers liable to no small punishment if God should be extreme to marke what is done amisse and this not understanding of God's Law is the errour of other Lawes and the cause of much mischiefe What causeth many men to rebell The Scriptures say more for the right of kings than any booke in the world D wning in his d scourse of the Ecclesiasticall State p. 91. for if men understood the Law of God or would believe us that do understand it I assure my selfe many of the Rebels such as rebell not out of pride disobedience or discontent are so conscientious that they would not so rebell as they do being seduced through their ignorance by the subtletie of the most crafty children of disobedience And therefore letting the usuall impatience of the furious fire-brands of sedition and the malicious incendiaries of Rebellion together with those treacherous Judasses that insensibly lurke in the King's Court and are more dangerous both to the Church and State than those open Rebels that are in the Parliament House to lay on me what reproach they please as some of them being galled and now gone have already done August Ego in bonâ conscientiâ teneo quisquis volens
both governe his Episcopacie and his Principality And therefore we reade of divers men that were both the Princes and the Bishops of the same Cities as the Archbishop of Collen Ments Theod. l. 2. c. 30. Triers and other German Princes Henr. of Huntington Hist Angl. that are both Ecclesiasticall Pastors and great secular Princes And Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury was for a long while Viceroy of this Kingdome And so Leo 9. Julius 2. Philip Archbishop of Yorke Adelboldus Innocent 2. Collenutius and Blondus and many others famous and most worthy Bishops both of this Iland and of other Kingdomes have undertaken and exercised both the Functions And Saint Paul recommendeth secular businesses and judgements unto the Pastors of the Church Aug. tom 3. de operib Monach c. 29. as S. Augustine testifieth at large where he saith I call the Lord Iesus a witnesse to my soule that for so much as concerneth my commodity I had rather worke every day with my hands and to reserve the other houres free to reade pray and exercise my selfe in Scriptures then to sustaine the tumultuous perplexities of other mens causes in determining secular controversies by judgement or taking them up by arbitrement to which troubles the Apostle hath appointed us not of his owne will but of his that spake in him And as this excellent Father that wrote so many worthy volumes did notwithstanding imploy no small part of his time in these troublesome affaires so S. Ambrose twice undertooke an honourable Embassie for Valentinian the Emperour unto the Tyrant Maximus Socrat. Eccl. hist lib. 7. And Marutha Bishop of Mesopotamia was sent by the Roman Emperour an Ambassadour to the King of Persia in which imployment he hath abundantly benefited both the Church and the Emperour And we reade of divers famous men that undertooke divers functions and yet neither confounded their offices nor neglected their duties for Spiridion was an husbandman and a Bishop of the Church a Pastor of sheepe and a feeder of soules and yet none of the ancient Fathers that we reade of either envyed his Farme or blamed his neglect in his Bishopricke but they admired his simplicity and commended his sanctity they were not of the spirit of our hypocriticall Saints Theodor. lib. 4. ◠13 And Theodoret writeth that one Iames Bishop of Nisib was both a Bishop and a Captaine of the same Citie which by the helpe of his God he manfully preserved against Sapor King of Persia And Eusebius Bishop of Samosis managing himselfe with all warlike abiliments ranged along throughout all Syria Phaenicia and Palaestina and as he passed erected Churches and ordained Priests and Deacons and performed such other Ecclesiasticall pensions as pertained to his office in all places and I feare me the iniquity of our time will now call upon all Bishops that are able to doe the like to preach unto our people and to fight against Gods enemies that have long laboured to overthrow his Church as we reade of some Bishops of this Kingdome that have beene driven to do the like and if these men might doe these things without blame as they did why may not the same man be both a Bishop and the Kings Counsellor both a Preacher in the Pulpit and a Justice of the Peace on the Bench and yet the callings not confounded though the same man be called to both offices for you know the office of a Lawyer is different from the office of a Physitian and the office of a Physitian as different from the duty of a Divine and yet as Saint Luke was an excellent Physitian and a heavenly Evangelist and S. Paul as good a Lawyer as he was a Preacher for he was bred at the feet of Gamaliel as was Master Calvin too as good a Civilian as he was a Divine for that was his first profession so the same man may as in many places they doe and that without blame both play the part of a Physitian to cure the body and of a Divine to instruct the soule and therefore why not of a Lawyer when as the Preachers duty next to the teaching of the faith in Christ is to perswade men to live according to the rules of Iustice and Iustice we cannot understand without the knowledge of the Lawes both of God and man and if he be obliged to know the Law why should he be thought an unfit man to judge according to the Law But CHAP. IX Sheweth a full answer to foure speciall Objections that are made against the Civill jurisdictions of Ecclesiasticall persons their abilities to discharge these offices and desire to benefit the Common-wealth why some Councels inhibited these offices unto Bishops that the King may give titles of honour unto his Clergy of this title Lord not unfitly given to the Bishops proved the objections against it answered six speciall reasons why the King should conferre honours and favours upon his Bishops and Clergy Ob. 1 1. IF you say the office of a Preacher requireth the whole man and where the whole man is not sufficient to discharge one duty 2. Cor. 2.16 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then certainly one man is never able to supply two charges Sol. I answer that this indefinite censure is uncertainly true and most certainly false as I have proved unto you before by many examples of most holy men that discharged two offices with great applause and no very great difficulty to themselves for though S. Matthew could not returne to his trade of Publican because that a continued attendance on a secular businesse would have taken him from his Apostolate and prove an impediment to his Evangelique ministration yet S. Peter might returne to his nets as he did without blame because that a temporary imployment and no constant secession can be no hinderance to our Clericall office No man is alwayes able to doe the same thing when there is no man that can so wholly addict himselfe to any kinde of art trade or faculty but that he must sometimes interchangeably afford himselfe leisure either for his recreation Vt quemvis animo possit sufferre laborem or the recollection of strength and abilities to discharge his office by the undertaking of some other exercise which is to many men their chiefest recreation as you see the husband-mans change of labour doth still inable him to continue in labour and the Courtier cannot alwayes wait in the same posture nor the Scribe alwayes write nor the Divine alwayes study but there must be an exchange of his actions Change of labour is a kinde of recreation for the better performance of his chiefest imployment and that time which either some Gentlemen Citizens or Courtiers spend in playing hawking or hunting onely for their recreation the better to inable them to discharge their offices why may not the Divine imploy it in the performance of any other duty different but not destructive or contradictory to his more speciall function
proud favorite had wickedly decreed and most tyrannically destined all the Nation of the Jewes to a sudden death yet this dutifull people did not undutifully rebell and plead the King was seduced by evill counsell and misguided by proud Haman therefore nature teaching them vim vi pellere to stand upon their owne defence they would not submit their necks to his unjust Decree but being versed in Gods Lawes and unacquainted with these new devices they returne to God and betake themselves to their prayers Hester 8.11 untill God had put it into the Kings heart to grant them leave to defend themselves and to sheath their swords in the bowels of their adversaries which is a most memorable example of most dutifull unresisting Subjects an example of such piety as would make our Land happy if our zealous generation were but acquainted with the like Religion But here I know what our Anabaptist Brownist and Puritane will say that I build Castles in the aire The author of the Treatise of Monarchie p. 33. and lay downe my frame without foundation because all Kings are not such as the Kings of Israel and Judah were as the Kings that God gave unto the Jewes and prescribed speciall Lawes both for the Kings to governe and the people to obey them but all other Nations have their owne different and severall Lawes and Constitutions according to which Lawes their Kings are tyed to rule and the Subjects bound to obey and no otherwise I answer Henric. Stephan in libello de hac re contendit in omneâ— respull debere leges Hebraerum tanquam ab ipso Deo profectas per consequens omnium optemas â—educi that indeed it is granted there are severall constitutions of Royalties in severall Nations and there may be Regna Laconica conditionall and provisionall Kingdomes wherein perhaps upon a reall breach of some exprest conditions some Magistrates like the Ephori may pronounce a forfeiture aswell in the successive as in the elective Kingdomes because as one saith succession is not a new title to more right but a legall continuance of what was first gotten which I can no wayes yeild unto if you meane it of any Soveraigne King because the name of a King doth not alwayes denotate the Soveraigne power as the Kings of Lacedamon though so called yet had no regall authority and the Dictator for the time being and the Emperours afterwards had an absolute power though not the name of Kings for I say that such a government is not properly a regall government ordained by God but either an Aristocraticall or Democraticall governement instituted by the people though approved by God for the welfare of the Common-wealth 1. Sam. 8.4.20 but as the Israelites desired a King to judge them like all the Nations that is such a King as Aristotle describeth such as the Nations had intrusted with an absolute and full regall power as Sigonius sheweth so the Kings of the Nations if they be not like the Spartan Kings were and are like the Kings of Israel both in respect of their ordination from God by whom all Kings as well of other Nations as of Israel doe raigne and of their full power and inviolable authority over the people which have no more dispensation to resist their Kings then the Iewes had to resist theirs And therefore Valentinian though an elected Emperour yet when he was requested by his Electors to admit of an associate answered Sâ—zom hâ—stor l. 6. c. 6. Niceph. hist l. 11. c. 1. it was in your power to chuse me to be an Emperour but now after you have chosen me what you require is in my power not in you Vobis tanquam subditis competit parere mihi verò quae facienda sunt cogitare it becomes you to obey as Subjects and I am to consider what is fittest to be done And when the wife takes an husband there is a compact agreement and a solemne vow past in the presence of God that he shall love cherish and maintaine her yet if he breakes this vow The wife may not forsake her husband though hee break hâ—s vow and neglect his duty and neglects both to love and to cherish her she cannot renounce him she must not forsake him she may not follow after another and there is a greater marriage betwixt the King and his people therefore though as a wife they might have power to chuse him and in their choice to tye him to some conditions yet though he breakes them they have no more power to abdicate their King then the wife hath to renounce her husband nor so much because she may complaine and call her husband before a competent Judge and produce witnesses against him whereas there can be no Iudge betwixt the King and his people but onely God and no witnesses can be found on earth because it is against all lawes and against all reason that they which rise against their King should be both the witnesses against him and the Iudges to condemne him or were it so that all other Kings have not the like constitution which the Scripture setteth downe for the Kings of Israel yet I say that excepting some circumstantiall Ceremonies in all reall points the Lawes of our Land are so farre as men could make them in all things agreeable to the Scriptures in the constituting of our Kings An Appeale to thy conscience pag. 30. according to the livelyest patterne of the Kings of Israel as it is well observed by the Author of the Appeale to thy conscience in these 4 speciall respects 1. In his Right to the Crowne 2. In his Power and Authority Our kings of the like Institution to the kings of Israeâ— 3. In his Charge and Duty 4. In the rendering of his Account For 1. As the Kings of Israel were hereditary by succession and Respect 1 not elective unlesse there were an extraordinary and divine designation as in David Salomon Iohn Kings of England are kings by birth Proved so doe the Kings of England obtaine their Kingdomes by birth or hereditary succession as it appeareth 1. By the Oath of Allegeance used in every Leete that you Reason 1 shall be true and faithfull to our Soveraigne Lord King Charles and to his Heires 2. Because we owe our legeance to the King in his naturall Reason 2 capacity that is as he is Charles the Sonne and Heire apparent of King Iames Coke l. 7. Calvins case when as homage cannot be done to any King in his politique capacity the body of the King being invisible in that sense 3. Because in that case it is expresly affirmed that the King Reason 3 holds the Kingdome of England by birth-right inherent by descent from the bloud-royall therefore to shew how inseperable this right is from the next in bloud Hen. 4. though he was of the bloud-royall being first cozen unto the King and had the Crowne resigned unto him by Rich. 2d Speed l. 9.
more without number do likewise most peremptorily affirme that the Kings power is the supreme power on earth and as the mirror of our time the Bishop of Winchester observeth the Scripture testifieth that their Throne their Crowne their Sword their Scepter their Judgement their Royalty their power their Charge their Person and all in them are of God from God and by God to shew how sacred they are and ought to be unto us all and so the very Heathens teaching sounder Divinity then our Sectaries thought Homer Plutarch Ovid Fast l. 5. Quia a love nutriti ab eo regnum adeptisunt Scapula in verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and said that Kings were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministers of God and not the servants of the people Good God! what shall we say then to those children of Adam that will not onely with Adam be content to be like God but with Antichrist this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Many headed beast as Plato calleth them will exalt themselves above all that is called God They will divest the King and invest themselves with his right and therefore 2. The difficulty of governement 2. This sheweth how difficult a thing it is to rule and governe this unruly aspiring and ambitious multitude for the fuller understanding of which difficult duty Osorius saith that two things are to be considered 2 Things shewing the difficulty of governement 1. Suscepti muneris amplitudo the greatnesse of the charge which is of that weight that we can scarce thinke of a greater in all our life the care of Church and Common-wealth and to rule millions of men farre and neare 2. Gubernandorum qualitas the quality and conditions of those men that are to be governed which if there were nothing else to prove it will sufficiently shew the difficulty of their government for if it be a very hard thing to governe a mans selfe how much harder is it to governe such a multitude of mad men Cicero Tusc 3. de sinibus lib. 2. Plutarch in Alcâ—biad for Cicero saith the multitude is the greatest teacher of errour the unjustest judge of dignity being without counsell without reason without judgement and Plutarch calleth them possimam veritatis interpretem whereunto agreeth the answer of that Pope who being demanded what was furthest from truth answered populi sententia the opinion of the people and as they are the weakest for judgement so they are most instable in their resolutions to day crying Hosanna and to morrow Crucifige this is the nature of the people of whom these our Sectaries are the very dregs Osorius his description of the factious Puritans most plainly seene verified in our Rebels the worst and the basest of all I must crave leave to set downe what Osorius saith of them long agoe and you may finde that this rebellion proves his words most true for he saith the desire and end of this faction is too much liberty then which nothing can be more averse to the office and government of Kings for it is the duty of a King to cut off all haynous offences with just punishments the unbridled people desires to be free from all feare of punishment the King is the Minister of the Law the Keeper of it and the avenger of the transgression thereof the people as much as possibly they can with an impetuous temerity pulleth downe all Lawes the King laboureth to preserve peace and quietnesse the people with an untameable lust turmoileth and troubleth the peace of all men lastly the King thinkes not fit to distribute rewards and compensations indifferently to all men alike but the people desire to have all difference of worth and dignity taken away infima summis permisceri and to make the basest equall with the best whence it happeneth so that they hate all Princes and especially all Kings quos immani odio persequuntur whom they persecute with a deadly hate for they cannot endure any excellency or dignity and to that end they use all endeavour ut principes interimant vel saltem in turbam conjiciant either utterly to take away and destroy their Princes or to implunge them into a world of troubles which thing at first doth not appeare but when the multitude of furious men hath gathered strength then at last their impudent boldnesse being confirmed by daily impunity breaketh forth to the destruction of the royall Majestie Osorius in op Regina Elizabethae prafin l. de relig And a little after he saith adde to these things the abolition of Lawes the contempt of Rule the hatred of royall Majestie and the cruell lying in wait which they most impiously and nefariously do endeavour for their Princes adde also their clandestine and secret discourses where their confederacies are made for the extirpation of their Kings and to plot with unspeakable mischiefe the death of them whose health and safety they ought most heartily to pray to God for and then he addeth cum immodica libertatis cupiditate rapiantur leges oderunt judicia detestantur regum majestatem extinctam cupiunt Pagina 24. 25. ut licentiùs impuniùs queant per omnia libidinum genera vagari and this is most manifest saith he all their endeavours ayme at this end that Princes being taken away they may have an uncontroulable leave and liberty to commit all kinde of villanies and to that purpose they have poysoned some Kings and killed others with the sword Revera mihi videtur esse arâ— artium hominem regere qui certè est inter omnes animantes maximè moribus vartus voluntate diversus Nazian in Apol. and to root out all rule Consilia plena sceleris inierunt they are full of all wicked counsels And therefore this being the condition of the people as the Scripture sheweth plainly in the Jewes by their continuall rebellions and murmurings against Moses and Aaron and we see it as plainly in our owne time when our people hath confirmed all that this Bishop said it is not an easie matter to governe such an unruly people But we finde that the rod of government is a miraculous rod that being in Moses hand was a faire wand but cast unto the ground turned to be an ugly and a poysonous Serpent to shew that the people being subject to the hand of government is a goodly thing and a glorious society A people well governed very glorious but let loose out of the Princes hands they are as Serpents crooked wriggled versipellis and as full as may be of all deadly poyson and the Prophet David makes the ruling of the people to be as great a miracle as to appease the raging of the Seas and therefore he ascribes this government to be the proper worke of God Psal 65.7 when speaking unto God he saith Thou rulest the rage of the Seas the noyse of his waves and the madnesse of the
Omnis Christi actio debet esse nostra instructio we ought to follow his example And therefore not onely Christ but also all good Christians have imitated him in this point for the Apostles prayed for their persecuting Tyrants exhorted all their followers to honour even the Pagan Kings and most sharplâ— reproved all that spake evill of authority much more would they say against them that commit evill and proceed in all wickednesse against authority How the Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecutors And Tertullian speaking of the behaviour of the Primitive Christians towards the Heathen Emperours and their cruell persecutors saith that because they knew them to be appointed by God they did love and reverence them and wish them safe with all the Romane Empire yea they honoured the Emperour and worshipped him as a man second from God solo Deo minorem and inferiour onely unto God and in his Apologetico he saith Deus est solus in cujus solius potestate sunt reges à quo sunt secundi post quem primi super omnes homines ante omnes Deos God alone is he by whose power Kings are preserved which are second from him first after him above all men and before all gods that is all other Magistrates that the Scripture calleth Gods So Justin Martyr Minutius Felix Nazianzen which also wrote against the vices of Julian S. Augustine and others of the prime Fathers of the Church have set downe how the Primitive Christians and godly Martyrs that suffered all kinde of most barbarous cruelty at the hands of their Heathen Magistrates did notwithstanding pray for them and honour them and neither derogated from their authority nor any wayes resisted their insolencie Beda p. 15. And Iohannes Beda Advocate in the Court of Parliament of Paris saith that the Protestants of France in the midst of torments have blessed their King by whom they were so severely intreated and in the midst of fires and massacres have published their confession in these words Artic. 39. 40. confess eccles Gal. refor For this cause he that is God put the sword into the Magistrates hand that he may represse the sinnes committed not onely against the second table of Gods Commandements but also against the first We must therefore for his sake not onely endure that Superiours rule over us but also honour and esteeme of them with all reverence holding them for his Lieutenants and Officers to whom he hath given in commission to execute a lawfull and a holy function We therefore hold that we must obey their Lawes and Statutes pay Tributes Imposts and other duties and beare the yoke of subjection with a good and free will although they were Infidels Ob. But against this patience of the Saints Ob. and the wisedome of these good Christians it is objected by Goodwin and others of his Sect that either they wanted strength to resist or wanted knowledge of their strength or of their priviledge and power which God granted them to defend themselves and their religion or were over-much transported with an ambitious desire of Martyrdome or by some other misguiding spirit were utterly mis-led to an unnecessary patience and therefore we having strength enough as we conceive to subdue the King and all his strength and being wiser in our generation then all the generation of those fathers as being guided by a more unerring spirit we have no reason to pray for patience but rather to render vengeance both to the King and to all his adherents Sol. This unchristian censure Sol. and this false imputation laid upon these holy Fathers by these stabborne Rebels and proud Enthusiasts are so mildly and so learnedly answered by the Author of resisting the lawfull Magistrate upon colour of religion Where they are fully answered that more need not be said to stop the mouthes of all ignorant gain-sayers Therefore seeing that by the institution of Kings by the precept of God and by the practice of all wise men and good Christians Heathen Kings and wicked Tyrants are to be loved honoured and obeyed it is a most hatefull thing to God and man to see men professing themselves Christians but are indeed like those in the Revel Revel 2 9. which say they are Jewes and are not in steed of honouring transcendently to hate and most violently to persecute their owne most Chrâ—stian and most gracious King a sinne so infinitely sinfull that I doe not wonder to see the greatnesse of Gods anger to powre all the plagues that we suffer upon this Nation but I doe rather admire and adore his wonted clemency and patience that he hath not all this while either sent forth his fire and lightning from Heaven as he did upon Sodome and Gomorrah Gen. 19.24 Numb 16.31 to consume them or cause the earth to swallow them as it did Corah Dathan and Abiram for this their rebellion against their King or that he hath not showred downe farre greater plagues and more miserable calamities then hitherto we have suffered because we have suffered these Antichristian Rebels to proceed so farre and have with the Merozites neglected all this while to adde our strength to assist the Lords Annointed Judges 5.23 to reduce his seduced Subjects to their obedience and to impose condigne punishments upon the seducers and the ringleaders of this unnaturall and most horrible Rebellion CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three severall opinions the strange speeches of the Disciplinarians against Kings are shewed and Viretus his scandalous reasons are answered the double service of all Christian Kings 2. Christian Kings are to have double honour in respect of their double duty and how the Heathen Kings and Emperours had the charge of Religion 2. AS all Kings are to be honoured in the fore-said respects so all Christian Kings are to have a double honour in respect of the double charge and duty that is laid upon them As 1. To preserve true religion and to defend the faith of Dutie 1 Christ against all Atheists Hereticks Schismaticks and all other adversaries of the Gospell within their Territories and Dominions 2. To preserve their Subjects from all forraigne adversaries Dutie 2 and to prevent civill dissentions to governe them according to the rules of justice and equity which all other Kings are bound to doe but neither did nor can doe it so fully and so faithfully as the Christian Kings because no Law either Solons Lycurgus Pompilius or any other Greeke or Latine nor any Politique Plato Aristotle Machiavil or whom you will old or new can so perfectly set downe and so fairely declare quid justum quid honestum as the Law of Christ hath done and therefore seeing omnis honos praesupponit onus the honour is but the reward of labour and that this labour or duty of Kings to maintaine true religion well performed
and faithfully discharged brings most glory unto God and the greatest honour to all Kings when it is more to be with Constantine a nursing father to Gods Church then it is to be with Alexander the sole Monarch of the known world I will first treat of their charge and care and the power that God hath given them to defend the faith and to preserve true religion And 1. 1. Care of Kings to preserve true Religion Aug. de utilitate credendi cap. 9. Religion faith a learned Divine without authority is no Religion for as Saint Augustine saith no true Religion can be received by any meanes without some weighty force of authority therefore if that Religion whereby thou hopest to be saved hath no authority to ground it selfe upon or if that authority whereby thy Religion is setled be mis-placed in him that hath no authority at all what hope of salvation remaining in that Religion canst thou conceive but it is concluded on all sides that the right authority of preserving true religion must reside in him and proceed from him by whose supreme power and government it is to be enacted and forced upon us To whom the charge of preserving religion is commited and therefore now the question is and it is very much questioned to whom the supreame government of our Religion ought rightly to be attributed 3 Opinions whereof I finde three severall resolutions 1. Papisticall which leaneth too much on the right hand 2. Anabaptisticall which bendeth twice as much on the left hand 3. Orthodoxall of the Protestants that ascribe the same to him on whom God himselfe hath conferred it Opinion 1 1. That the Church of Rome maketh the Pope solely to have the supreme government of our Christian Religion is most apparent out of all their writings Vnde saepè objiciunt dictum â—lâ—su ad Constantium Tibì Deus impertum commisit nobis quâ— sunt ecclesiastica concredidit Sed hâ—c intelligitur de executione officij non de gubernatione ecclesiae Sicut ibi manifestum est cum dicitur ne que fai est nobis in terris imperium tenere neque tibi thymiamatum soâ—rorum potestatem habere i e. in pradicatione Evangelij administratione Sacramentorum similibus and you may see what a large book our Countrey-man Stapleton wrote against Master Horne Bishop of Winchester to justifie the same And Sanders to disprove the right of Kings saith Fatemur personas Episcoporum qui in toto orbe fuerunt Romano Imperatori subjectas fuisse quoniam Rex praeest hominibus Christianis verùm non quia sunt Chrstiani sed quia sunt homines episcopis etiam ea ex parte rex praeesset So Master Harding saith that the office of a King in it selfe is all one every where not onely among the Christian Princes but also among the Heathen so that a Christian King hath no more to doe in deciding Church matters or medling with any point of Religion then a Heathen And so Fekenham and all the brood of Jesuites doe with all violence and virulencie labour to disprove the Princes authority and supremacy in Ecclesiasticall causes and the points of our Religion and to transferre the same wholly unto the Pope and his Cardinals Neither doe I wonder so much that the Pope having so universally gained and so long continued this power and retained this government from the right owners should imploy all his Hierarchie to maintaine that usurped authority which he held with so much advantage to his Episcopall See though with no small prejudice to the Church of Christ when the Emperours being busied with other affaires leaving this care of religion and government of the Church to the Pope the Pope to the Bishops the Bishops to their Suffragans and the Suffragans to the Monkes whose authority being little their knowledge lesse and their honesty least of all all things were ruled with greater corruption lesse truth then they ought to be so long as possibly he should be able to possesse it But at last when the light of the Gospell shined and Christian Princes had the leisure to looke and the heart to take hold upon their right the learned men opposing themselves against the Popes usurped jurisdiction have soundly proved the Soveraigne authority of Christian Kings in the government of the Church that not onely in other Kingdomes but also here in England this power was annexed by divers Lawes unto the interest of the Crowne and the lawfull right of the King and I am perswaded saith that Reverend Archbishop Bancroft had it not beene that new adversaries did arise Survey of Discip c. 22. p. 2â—1 and opposed themselves in this matter the Papists before this time had been utterly subdued for the Devill seeing himselfe so like to lose the field How the Devill raised instruments to hinder the reformation stirred up in the bosome of Reformation a flocke of violent and seditious men that pretending a great deale of hate to Popery have notwithstanding joyned themselves like Sampsons Foxes with the worst of Papists in the worst and most pernicious Doctrines that ever Papist taught to rob Kings of their sacred and divine right and to deprive the Church of Christ of the truth of all those points that doe most specially concerne her government and governours and though in the fury of their wilde â—eale they do no lesse maliciously then falsly cast upon the soundest Protestants the aspersion of Popery and Malignancie yet I hope to make it plaine unto my reader that themselves are the Papists indeed or worse then Papists both to the Church and State For 2. As the whole Colledge of Cardinals Of the Anabaptists and Puritans and all the Schooles Opinion 2 of the Jesuites doe most stiffely defend this usurped authority of the Pope which as I said may be with the lesse admiration because of the Princes concession and their owne long possession of it so on the other side there are sprung up of late a certaine generation of Vipers the brood of Anabaptists and Brownists that doe most violently strive not to detaine what they have unjustly obtained but a degree farre worse to pull the sword out of their Prince his hand and to place authority on them which have neither right to owne it Where the Pâ—ritans place the authority to maintaine religion 1. In the Presbyterie nor discretion to use it and that is either 1. A Consistory of Presbyters or 2. A Parliament of Lay men For 1. These new Adversaries of this Truth that would most impudently take away from Christian Princes the supreme and immediate authority under Christ in all Ecclesiasticall Callings and Causes will needs place the same in themselves and a Consistorian company of their own Faction a whole Volume would not contain their absurdities falsities and blasphemies that they have uttered about this point I will onely give you a taste of what some of the chiefe