Achan by the name of son Iosh 7.19 Now sonne by way of relation implyes a Father as even in the termes of Logick is apparent where both the relative and correlative answer to one another David also in the first booke of Samuel spake thus unto the King and said 1 Sam. 24.11 My father see yea see the skirt of thy robe in my hand So also in the second booke of the Chronicles the cheife rulers are called the chiefe fathers of Israel 2 Chron. 23.2 Neither doe the scriptures but affirme that king Hezekiah was a father over the fathers of his people even over the Priests and therfore much more over the rest of his subjects as it is in 2 Chron. 29.11 And againe Kings and Queenes are stiled by the prophet Esay Esay 49.23 nursing fathers and nursing mothers of the Church and are therefore the nursing fathers and mothers of the Common-weale these two societies having such a mutuall dependance that the welfare of the one is the prosperity of the other For as mine authour speaketh tam arcto inter se nenu colligatae funt Dâ—â—s et Reâ— pag 〈◊〉 ut altera ab alterius salute et incolumitate pendere quodammodo videatur Whereto agreeth that exquisite saying of Gulielmus Occam to the Emperour Lewis the fift Domine Imperator defende me gladio et ego te defendam calamo Protect thou mee with thy sword Lord Emperour and I will defend thee with my Pen. So also when the government was in the hands of awoman The inhabitants of the villages ceased they ceased saith shee in Israel untill that I deborah arose that I arose a Mother in Israel Iudg. 5.7 And of Ioseph it is againe recorded that God made him a father with Pharaoh as Iunius readeth it Gen. 45.8 A father with him although not above him for in this both he and all the other governours must be inferiour A King is the primum mobile and from him it is that the other moove A King is like the sun in the firmament from whom the other starres receiue their light He may have many fathers with him but none at all above him for this is that one of which Sr. Peter speaketh 1 Pet. 2.13 who is supereminent and high aboue the rest to which even all the rest either as they are powers subordinate Rom. 13.1.5 or as they are men and so members of some society must out of dutie and for conscience sake be subject and obedient Here then the fierce frenzie of Anabaptisticall Doctrine knowes not how to abolish Magistiacie as abhominable Nor may the Consistorian tenets of dangerous puritans be granted as authenticall Kings hold their crownes of God and are not to bee limited at the peoples pleasure they erre who thinke they may correct or punish them Nor may the bloody practise of Pope and Puritane-papists be allowed The Miter may not trample on the neckes of Princes and dispose of kingdomes when and where it pleaseth no not in ordine ad spiritualia Not in defence of Christs spouse the Church because there is no firme warrant for such a practise as by degrees shall bee further shewed both out of the Scriptures and the Fathers But before I make myful encounter with these adversaries severally and apart I have to tell them in the generall that they are mischievous miscreants and doe but give their right hands of fellowship to that wicked generation here mentioned who curse their father and doe not blesse their Mother If it were otherwise the scriptures would not teach that we may not curse the King no not in our thoughts Eccles 10.20 Nor that it were unlawfull to revile or curse the ruler of the people Mat. 15.4 Prov. 20.20 30.11 Exod. 22.28 Nor that we should honour our fathers and blesse our mothers Deut. 27.16 Nor that every soule should bee subject to the higher powers Rom. 13.1 Nor that the birds of prey should be our punishers For as hath been said The eye that mocketh at his Father Prov. 30.17 and dispiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the vallie shall picke it out and the young Eagles shall eate it Where againe observe that the blessing or duty which is pertinent to the Mother who is the weaker vessell may in this place stand to signifie that not the meanest officer which the King our supreame governour here on earth shall constitute may bee cursed or despised For know that such honour and dutie as is proportionable to the places wherein they are must be conferred nay rather must be rendred as a thing which of right belongeth to them For this in some sort is that exequation formerly mentioned wherein the mother is blessed as well as the Father and wherein the children are taught the full extent of their duties not finding all to bee fully done untill the Mother and the Father bee proportionably honoured The Mother then as herein doth well appeare stands not for a meere cypher and therefore secondly shee also must see that shee bee more then a cypher to fill up roome in the place wherein shee is Scar-crowes and no more are to little purpose They be but as David speaketh of the heathen Images who have eyes and see not mouths and speake not eares and heare not and therefore such as are unfit to beare an office For the life of the law is the execution thereof whilst on the contrary through ignorance floth briberie feare or favour it is either dead or lives a languishing life to all offenders I hold it therefore requisite that an officer be endued chiefly with two things Knowledge and Practice The Knowledge requires Cor sapiens a wise heart Kin. 3.9 such a one as Solomon prayed for shadowes will not serve the turne where substance is required Nor scarre-crowes frey but where the birds are foolish perhaps at the first they may affright but afterwards being knowne to be what they are vices grow impudent and like unto the fearelesse birds boldly take their swindg without any regard at all to those who are set to looke at what is done And next for the execution of this knowledg there must be Cor magnanimum a magnanimous heart Not an heart of waxe which will meltinto feare nor an heart of lead which will bend into favour but a coutagious stout and valiant heart Kin. 10 20. To which purpose let Solomons throne be looked on view well the manner or fashion thereof and it will so one appeare that it was not for nothing that every of those stept unto his throue of judgement were supported by Lyons because it fitly served to teach Kings and all Magistrates that a Lyon-like courage and resolution was to be of no meane importance or regard among them Beside which that the execution may be just as well as fearelesse there must be also Cor honestum An honest upright and religious heart Such an heart as will not suffer envie or malicious
the text wil beare it as well as that of the 5. Commandement Give mee leave therefore in as plaine a method as I can to set before your eyes not onely these but even the severall sorts of other parents which in a peevish perverse and crooked Generation are rather cursed then blessed dishonoured then honoured despised then cherished contemned then obeyed with a thousand other such desperate dealings which a wicked generation casts upon them And indeed to take up the matter aright it must needs be a true conclusion that it can be but a lame and a disobedient dutie to acknowledge none to be our parents but those who begat and brought us forth For although I speake nothing of masters who are Patres familias 2 Kin. 5.13 Fathers of a family or although I speake nothing of the Aged who are Elders and must bee honoured as fathers 1 Tim. 5.1.2 Although I say nothing be spoken of these or of some others which by way of eminency have a prerogative that pleads for their honour we have besides them yea and besides our Natural parents also even fathers of the Church and of the common wealth And therefore they are not onely our parents who give us a beeing but such also as give vs a safe and well-being Our naturall parents give us the first Our politicall parents give us the second And from our spirituall parents we receive the third or last which is the perfection of all the rest Now if to give the first bee something then something sure it needs must be to give or uphold the second and if the second then the next That is If hee who gives the first being must have honour and the like then hee who gives the second And if this be due to the first and second then also to the third Neither secondly can I thinke that a mans first being is as any thing to him if he wants the next that is if he bee oppressed by the mighty and finds no comforter For what a poore thing it is to bee without a deliverer from the hard usage of wicked men Solomon declareth in the fourth chapter of Ecclesiastes at the first second and third verses Or thirdly having both these and wanting that which is the instrumentall cause of the best or last is to bee without the happinesse of that which is sure to crowne even the second and first For saith our Saviour concerning Iudas Woe be to that man by whom the Sonne of man is betrayed Math. 26.24 it had beene good for that man if hee had never beene borne Intimating that the not being of a creature is farre better then the ill being especially when the end which should crowne the act must abide for ever in the never ending sadnesse of a sad catastrophe And therefore as wee may not curse revile harme contemne or despise those from whom wee have our first being So neither may wee revile harme curse contemne or despise those from whom we have either our safe or our well-being For as thou art a man it is that thou honourest thy naturall father and as a member of a politicall bodie or societie thou canst not but honour thy civill father yea and as a Christian which is more then a man thou must likewise see that thou honour thy Spirituall Ecclesiasticall or Ghostly father Thy naturall parent is Gods instrument for thy naturall being Thy prince Gods instrument for thy safe quiet civill being and thy pastor Gods instrument for thy spiritual well and holy being Without the first thou couldest not be any thing Without the second thou couldest not be safely what thou art And without the next thou couldst not be what thou wouldest For as the sword of the civill Governour keepes thee from the forreigne and domesticke power of such wicked builders and bloody hunters as were Cain and Nimrod So the sword of Gods Minister keepeth thee from the snatching pawes of Sathan that sworn enemy of all mankind 1 Pet. 5.8 who like a roaring Lyon ramps up and downe seeking whom he may devoure These then are the chiefe Fatherhoods of greatest note the one wherof may be no more cursed then the other nor the other lesse blessed then the first Concerning whom I will both resolve the doubtfull and convince the divelish that thus they are yea and thus must they be honoured Aequè but not aequalitèr Iustly and fitly as of right is meet and due but not all of a just and equall portion I. The first which be our naturall parents are called Fathers of our flesh Heb. 12.9 For we have had fathers of the flesh that corrected us and wee gave them reverence saith the Apostle And not without just cause Prov. 20.20 for Who so curseth his father or his Mother shall have his lampe put out in obscure darknesse Looke therefore what it meaneth and perhaps you shall finde that they die the death of the damned Prov. 20.20 Or as it is at the 17th verse of this very Chapter The ravens of the vallies shall picke out their eyes and the young eagles shall eate them Shall pick out the eye saith Iunius Iun. in annot in Prov. 30.17 that is Filium immorigerum aut parentibus iniquum in malam rem condemnabit Deus God saith hee shall condemne he disobedient and wicked child into some great mischeife signified by that phrase of picking out and eating up their eyes To which I cannot but adde a second glosse namely that if the speech be figurative then may these birds of prey by an allegorie bee taken for the damned Divels with whom these desperate sinners shall without repentance have their deserved punishment For he that honoureth not his earthly parents whom he hath seene will scarce honour God as his heavenly father whom he hath not seene and so being obstinately rebellious and wilfully guilty of the breach of both Tables must needs continuing so be damned die and perish everlastingly These are the first II. The second are Patres Patriae Fathers of their countrey as Kings cheife Magistrates and Rulers bearing office in the common-weale Thus was Ioseph stiled even by the Law of nature among the Egyptians For being advanced unto honour by Pharaoh King of Egypt as we read in Genesis chap. 41.43 the people went before him with a joyful acclamation crying out and saying Abrech which as St. Hierome expounds it signifies a young and tender Father Hier. trad 〈◊〉 Genes from Abb Father and rech young or tender Thus also did the ancient Romans call their Senatours They were Patres conscripti Fathers upon record and to attaine to this to be entituled a father of their country they esteemed it the best and the greatest honor For thus I say did even the Law of nature teach them to reverence the persons of their governours and to give them that honourable title and stile of Fathers So also Ioshua the cheife Magistrate after Moses was dead called
read more at large in 1 Sam. 24. and 26. chapters And againe was not Tiberius an heathen and yet Christ living in his time refused not to pay him tribute Also did not the Apostles afterwards teach and maintaine the same doctrine and yet they never saw any other Emperours then such as were still unchristned oftentimes bloody and alwaies wicked St Peter in his first Epistle and second chapter Compare the first verse of the 1. chapt with chapt 2. verse 13. writeth to those of Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bythinia which were Provinces belonging to the Empire that they should not onely feare God but also honour the King And in whose time was it that Saint Peter wrote this Epistle was it not in the * Baron in his Annal. Tom 1. Anno dom 45. dayes of Claudius And what was Claudius but a King or Emperour who for his religion was as fouly bedaubed with the Ethnicke superstition and blockish Idols of his Ancestours as was any before him was he not likewise by nature blood-thirstie cruell and extreamely libidin use Let Suctonius speake and we shall heare him tell no lesse For saith he Claudius upon sight of the least prodigie worshipped the heathen Gods after the custome of the ancient Romans Suet. cap. 22.29 cap. 33.34 He was naturally so mercilesse and given to bloodshed that hee would have tortures used in examinations He had cruell searchers for all those who came but to salute him Hee was greatly delighted to see the faces of Fencers as they lay gasping and yeelding up their latest breath for if it were but their chance to stumble in their prizes or sword-fights he caused their throats to be cut for stumbling Neither was he but excessively given to the wanton love of foolish women Rom. 13.5 that as they affected honourable dignities were granted conducts of Armies appointed and freedomes from punishment decreed And yet to such a one as this Saint Peter exhorts to yeeld obedience So also doth Saint Paul for when he wrote his Epistle to the Romanes he made it no lesse then a matter of conscience to have every soule bee subject to the higher powers And if at this time Claudius were * It makes no matter whether these Apostles wrote either under Claudius or Nero seeing neither of them both were Christians but cruell wicked Emperours 1 Tim. 2.1.2 dead as some men thinke yet Nero was aliue and of his bloodie practises who is there that hath not heard And againe in his first Epistle to Timothie which was wrote much about the same time as he desired prayers and intercessions to be made for all men so for Kings chiefly and such as be in authority no where at all in any of his writings shewing that either diversity of religion or any hard kind of governing should incourage subjects to take up armes or otherwise to hurt and molest a lawfull Soveraigne Neither did the holy Fathes and good Christians who lighted their candles from these bright burning torches but oftentimes iterate the same divinity For was not Iustine Martyr in the dayes of Marcus Antonius who was an unbeleeving and a persecuting Emperour and yet saith he * Helvic in Chronol Calvis Nos solum Deum adoramus * Iust Mart. Apol. 2. ad Antonin et vobis in rebus alijs laeti inservimus We onely adore God and in all other things cheerefully performe our service unto you meaning to the Emperours God in the first place they in the next And againe did not Tertullian speake to like purpose when in the * Euseb in Chronol dayes of Severus another bloody Infidell he inferred that if it were unlawfull to offer injuries to ordinary men * Tertul. in Apol. 6.36 then much more unlawfull to a King or Emperour Quod in neminem licet eo for sitan magis nec in ipsum qui per Deum tantus est Nor did the Orthodoxe Christians decline in their obedience from the Arrian Emperours Nor did the Christian souldiers refuse to serue that Apostata Iulian but in civill affaires were willingly * Ruffin bist Eccles lib. 2. cap. 1. et Aug. in 124. Psal subject to his royall commands Not that they wanted power to proue rebellious as I shall afterwards shew you but rather as holy Austin observeth upon the 124. Psalme They were subject to him their temporall Lord for his sake that was their eternal Lord. For if the ground of their obedience had not proceeded from that which is the rule of every ones conscience I doe not doubt but that he might have spoken as to men without eares and so have wanted sufficient forces to have fought his battels And now from hence I inferre that if such wicked and bloodie ones as these An inference from the premises shall out of dutie be honoured and obeyed then much more those who are godly and pious Princes in whose Realmes the Gospell is cherished learning advanced wholesome Lawes inacted factions supressed the Bond of vnitie maintained and in a word where things are carefully studied and put in practise for the good and defence both of the Church and state perhaps the successe doth not alwaies answer because the unruly are pestilent lets to good proceedings yet the care and intent remaine still the same Or put the case that in some such kingdome as I now mention the loving subjects of his majestie doe sometimes meet with just grievances yet I dare say it is more then the chiefe head of such a place either knoweth or intendeth I suppose it to be without question that some ill disposed members may sometimes worke their owne ends by grants obtained from their Prince craftily under pretence of common good for things which redound to their owne private profit For though righteous lips as Solo non speaketh in the sixteenth chapter of the Prov rbs at the thirteenth verse be the delight of Kings and they love him that speaketh right things yet the innocencie and goodnesse of Princes doe what they can may sometimes be beguiled And in that when things are thus they suffer surely farre enough although they come not likewise within the gun-shot of their wicked mouths Who curse their Father and doe not blesse their Mother Nor secondly is every thing to be taken as a just grievance at which some one or other will be ever and anon ready to grudge and murmure For who hath not heard that in state affaires there be many misteries And misteries of state appertaine not to private persons What have they to doe to meddle with them or to whet and repine at that the intent or end whereof they know not Quae supra nos nihil ad nos And therefore they that will either in publike as much as they dare or in private as much as they can kicke and spurne at such proceedings and inveigle others to the same faction do without out question deserve the heavie wrath of a King