2 Sam 15 vers the 32 Behold Hushai the Archite came to meet the King with his coat rent and earth upon his head Loyalty amongst REBELS The True ROYALIST Or HUSHAY the Archite A happy Counsellour in King's DAVID'S Greatest Danger Say unto Absalon I will be thy servant O King 2 Sam. 15.34 I Counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandement and that in Regard of the Oath of God Eccles 8.2 Written by EDWARD WOLLEY D.D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Sacred Majesty King CHARLES the II. LONDON Printed for Iohn Williams at the signe of the Crown in S. Paul's Churchyard 1662. To the Right Honourable JOHN Baron Grenvil of Kilkhampton and Biddiford Viscount Grenvil of Lands-Down and Earle of Bathe Groome of the Stool and first Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber Lord Warden of the Stanneryes Lord Lieutenant of the County of Cornwall and High Steward of the Dutchy and Governour of his Majesties Town Island Fort and Castle of the Garrison of Plimouth MY LORD I Have had the honour and happines to know you from your tender years and have discerned your cordial affections and endeavours to serve the Church as an obedient Sonne your Prince as a most Loyal Subject your Countrey as a most faithful Patriot And as Pompey when but a youth to experience your Fortitude fidelity to the Crown and without injury or flattery it may in some degree be said of you as Plutarch writes of that Noble Roman Is etiamnum adolescens totum se factioni Syllanae addixit cumque nec Magistratus nec Senator esset magnum ex Italiâ contraxit exercitum That you were a very early Commander in your youth and those four terrible wounds which you received in the fight at Newberry three in your head and one in your arm Continue those marks and cicatrices which as honourable badges of loyalty will bear you company to your Grave It was a question once started about Ascanius by Andromache whether he was like his Father Aeneas or his Vncle Hector Ecquid in antiquam virtutem animosque viriles Et Pater Aeneas a vunculus excitat Hector Andromache in Virgil Aeneid de Ascanio But there is not any need of such a question concerning your Lordship in whom the varietie of your Noble Ancestors seem to concenter So that the pietie of Richardus de Granâ Villâ who founded the Abbey of Neath in Glamorgan-shire in the fourth year of the raigne of King William Rufus liveth in you The courage of Sir Richard Grenvil your great Grandfather who commanded the Rear-Admiral a Ship called the Revenge wherein he so gallantly behaved himself that in a desperate fight at Sea with the Spaniards he sunk destroyed infinite numbers of Qu. Elizabeths enemies when others made all the sail they could to avoid the danger And the loyalty and great worth of Sir Bevill Grenvill seem as thriving seeds to grow up and flourish in you And it will be an honour and happiness to your Lordship to be not onely a Son and Heire of his Name loynes but of his virtues who so loved the Church of England that in person he guarded the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury against the fury of the tumultuous Rabbles in all commotions and Rebellions either of England and Scotland in the late blessed Kings Raign he manifested the dutie of a Loyal Subject and of a noble Commander at the fight at Stratton he was successful against the enemie with a handful of men And at the fight at Lands-downe like another Epaminondas though he lost his life he got the Victory Et cum sentiret vulnus esse lethale non prius ferrum eduxit quam audisset Thebanos vicisse tum satis inquit vixi invictus enim morior To encourage his Souldiers he fought with bleeding wounds and finding that his countrey men like Gallant Thebans won the day animam efflavit he fell gloriously into the bosome of true honour renown These exemplars of virtue have doubtless attracted your Resolutions to imitation of your Ancestors and have enflamed your affections with true and right principles of Nobleness and honour But that which renders you most lovely to all who know your Lordship is that incomparable service which by your prudence fidelity secrecy and courage was transacted effected together with the Duke of Albemarle and his brother the Lord Bishop of Hereford in order to his Majesties Restauration which maketh three Kingdomes happy This is the chiefest loadstone motive that makes me address to your Lordship for patronage and protection in this argument wherein I endeavour to prove that truth may be in company with Traitors and Loyalty amongst Rebels as Hushai the Archite who was King Davids best friend and most faithful subject in his greatest danger It is true many worthyes did attend his Majesties Person in pinching extremityes abroad for many years and many thousand loyal Subjects of the three Kingdomes indured insupportable miseries from usurping bloody Wolves at home and the stings of a sort of Trepanning creeping Serpants as equally venemous as dangerous hardly to be avoided These true Royalists were on all occasions active in their persons in their counsels in their relations their friends in their purses and their prayers and by all wayes and interests to promote his Majesties Restauration But your Lordship as a more signal instrument of much happiness hath received gracious markes of Noble trust honour and favour from his Majesty the thanks of all England in the Kingdomes Representative the Parliament which will prove a happy record of your honour to posterity and blessed for ever be those hands and hearts who have contributed much or cast in if but a mite to that blessed work There is another small tender branch which budded seasonably about seven years since and appeared in the Kingdom under the complexion and colour of a Translation in the case and Parallel of Lewis the fourth the French King This first went abroad to keep alive those loyal sparks which lay-under the ashes of Cruelty and Persecution in the year 1654. meeting with curteous tinder it took fire and inflamed many affections towards the King This small piece was reprinted eight moneths before his Majesties return to England and it proved so prosperous that some thousand copies were dispersed vented in fourty houres And then it grew suddenly a publick discourse in the City and Countrey videlicet the Kings Case in the Parallel of Lewis the fourth of France This Branch leans on your Lordships Patronage and favour is added to this discourse to perpetuate all Subjects resolutions in their allegiance to their Princes and as a part of justice and merit that his endeavours nay be discerned who gave it life first fixed and planted it in England and so not to be any longer fathered on adopted authors * Tulit alter honores Virgil. My Lord I shall not afflict your Lordship with any further present trouble but wishing
thus Homer honorably mentions Agamemnon n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Iliad 18. the word was no sooner out of that great worthies mouth but it was his act and deed but Princes are of more sublime and higher qualities as being earthly Gods their words are more Sacred and Soveraign Thus Pylat though an inferiour Potentate toul'd the Jews quod scripsi scripsi And Servius commenting on those words of the Poet o Virgil. lib. 12. Aeneid Do quod vis bene inquit presenti usus est tempore nam promissio in Diis pro facto est I give what thou wilt the God did well to use the present tense as if the will and words of Princes were very Acts and Deeds but if any knot can binde faster then words or promises see the gracious dispositions and customes of the Kings of England offering up as in the beauty of holiness the sacrifice of pious resolutions to God Almighty in sacred oathes for their most Princely government And as Kings thus unite themselves by these most Sacred bonds to the King of Kings so their Officers and Ministers of State and servants of their Courts are engaged by special Oathes of Obedience and Fidelity and all their subjects are obliged by a national Law to swear to the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy no rank being to be excused at the age of Eighteen from these just and rational obligations unless the Lords and Peers of the Realm whose refined Honour being as equivalent if not more superlative doth as powerfully indear them to loyalty and true allegiance to their Princes it cannot then but be justly censured a crime of the highest nature to violate sacred bonds with treachery and infidelity and yet that soul sin may be presented more ugly when any in greater and neerer trust about the King as a Minister of his royal affairs or a sworn servant of his Court shall perfidiously or timorously forfeit his Faith which by duplicated Oathes being sealed on his Soul as a door more secure under a double lock ought to be more firm and not to be forced by any Art or Engine and if single perjury be so notorious a crime how horrid and hellish will it appear in the multiplication of false illegal perjurous and damnable Oathes The link and jonts of government thus reaching from Heaven to Eatth from God to Man and from the King of Kings to Kings and Princes on earth they thence graciously descend from royal thrones to the meanest and lowest of all their people who in a community participate of the blessings of Monarchy under the protection and Grace of their Prince and the benefit and provision of most excellent and wholesom laws against whose sacred Person as being Gods annointed or rules of government if any should be so traitterous or seditious as to dare to contrive or conspire they merit the severest degrees of punishment and though they be as near to the Crown in blood as Absalon to King David or as near in trust and Counsels as the grand oraculous politician Achitophel yet no relation or employment can so palliat the blaknesse of their offences but that all good subjects are obliged as Hushai the Archite to preserve their Prince in his royal Crown and dignity and to detect and discover dissipate and destroy all treacherous conspiraces and rebellious Treasons against their Prince This was the resolution and adventure of Noble Hushai who commanded by King David obeyed his royal pleasure and leaving the King in a deplorable sad condition addressed to the usurper and traitor Absalon and seemingly confederated with that unnatural Arch Traitor and Achitophel and his complices but God had so appointed that this loyal subject by his wisdom and fidelity intrapped Absalon to his merited ruine and so infatuated the Councels of Achitophel that the despairing Traitor hanging himself became his own executioner and the rebellious army being routed and totally defeated and Absalon hanged by the head in a tree King David was gloriously restored to the royal City of Hierusalem But least any presume to be loyall Hushites who cannot reasonably merit the opinion or Name of true Royalists and so not prove King Davids friends It is necessary that some characters and distinctions be intermitted for cleerer truth and plainer perspicuiry of what is dross what is sophisticated false and fained mettal and what in this point by the impartial touch stone is judged pure and perfect gold The story of this concernment is a sacred record written by the holy Prophet Samuel p 2 Sam. 15. which describes King Davids danger and deliverance his enemies and his friends presents to the world the undutifulness of an unnatural Son and the rebellious attempts of ambitious and traiterous subjects Absalon was the Arch traitor and Achitophel the cheif Counselour in this foul conspiracy and black Treason and the Prophet as if to forewarn the world from future delusion and infatuation of that kind describes the Traitors and Conspirators Traiterous crimes or marks 1. defamation or detraction First defaming and dishonoring the Kings government sowing sedition and disgracing the royal Courts of Iustice saying 2 Sam. 15.3 See saith Absolon thy matters be good and right but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee This design was countenanced with the pompe and pride of a popular train 2 Sam. 15.1 to amaze or allure the vulgar 2 Popular pompe pride Absolon prepared Charriots and Horses and fifty men to run before him A great pretence to execute judgement 3 A pretence to do justice and execute judgement and do justice promoted this rebellion so the grand Impostor made way to advance his rebellion saying 2 Sam. 15.4 O that I were made Iudge in the land that every man that hath any suite or cause might come unto me as the Supream Magistrate and cheif Iustice And I would do him justice 4 Restless watching day and night vigilancy diligence and indefatigable industry and attendance to caress and court the people were active practises of this popular politician so Samuel sets forth the traitour in the 2 Sam. 15.2 Absolon rose up early and stood beside the way of the Gate 5 Flattery and adulation and when any man that had a controvercy came to the King for judgement then Absolon called unto him and with oily courtship quickly deluded common capacities and simple credulity this venemous and traiterous infatuation that so swelled the people with avarice and ambition was as epidemick and national as infectious and insnaring 6 Traiterous infection is usually epidmical For on this manner did Absolon to all Israel that came to the King for judgement 2 Sam. 15.6 Traitors usually pules every vain try all tempers and incline all humours to augment and corroberate their party and to effectuate their evil contrivances and machinations 7 Traitors are most courty crafty and fullest of dissimulation And as traitors lay their plots and
SIR will you grant and keep and by your Oath confirm to the people of England the Laws and Customes to them granted by the Kings of England your lawful and religious predecessors and namely the Laws Customes Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious KING St. Edward your predecessour according to the Laws of God the true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdome and agreeing to the prerogative of the Kings thereof and the ancient customes of this Realm The King Igrant and promise to keep them Lord Bishop Sir will you keep peace and Godly agreement entirely according to your power both to God the holy Church the Clergy and the people King I will keep it L. Bishop Sir will you to your power cause law and justice and discretion in mercy and truth to be executed in all your judgements King I will L. Bishop Sir will you grant to hold and keep the rightful Customes which the commonalty of this your Kingdome have will you defend and uphold them to the honour of God so much as in you lyeth King Igrant and promise so to do The Petition of the L. Bishops read by the L. Bishop of ROCHESTER O Lord our King we beseech you to grant and preserve unto us and the Churches committed to our charge all Canonical priviledges and due Law and Iustice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in his Kingdome ought to be a Protector and defender of the Bishops and Churches under their Government The King answered With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonical priviledges and due law and justice and that I will be your Protector and Defendor to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdome ought in right protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government Then the King went to the Altar where laying his hand upon the Evangelists he took the Oath following The things which I have here before promised I shall perform keep so God me help and by the contents of this Book and so kissed the Book The Homage of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for himself and all the Bishops he kneeling down and all the Bishops behind him said I William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury shall be faithful true Faith Truth shall bear unto you our Soveraign Lord and your Heirs Kings of England and I shall do and truly acknowledge the service of the Lands which I claim to hold of you as in right of the Church So God me help Then he arose and kissed the Kings left cheek as did the rest of the Bishops The Homage of the Nobility I James Duke of York become your Leigeman of life and limb and of earthly worship and Faith and Truth I shall bear unto you to live and dye against all manner of folk So God me help The Oath of a Lord Chancelour YOu shall swear that well and truly you shall serve our Soveraign Lord the King and his people in the office of Chancelour and you shall do right to all manner of people poor and rich after the laws and usages of this Realm and truly you shall counsel the King and his Counsel you shall layne and keep and you shall not know nor suffer the hurt or disheriting of the King or that the rights of the Crown be deceased by any means as far forth as you may let it and if you may not let it you shall make it cleerly and expresly to be known unto the King with your true advice and councel and that you shall do and purchase the Kings profit in all that you reasonably may As God you help and by the contents of this book The Oath of a privy Counceller YOu shall swear to be a true and faithful servant unto the Kings Majestie as one of his privy counsel you shall not know or understand any manner of thing to be attempted done or spoken against his Majesties Person Honour Crown or Dignity Royal but you shall let and withstand the same to the utmost of your power and either cause it to be revealed to his Majestie himself or to such of his privie Councel as shall advertise his Highness of the same You shall in all things to be moved treated and debated in Councel faithfully and truly declare your mind and opinion according to your heart and conscience and shall keep secret all matters committed and revealed unto you or shall be treated off secretly in Counsel and if any of the same Treaties or Counsels shall touch any of the Councellers you shall not reveale it unto him but shall keep the same until such time as by the consent of his Majesty or of the Councel publication shall be made thereof You shall to your uttermost bear Faith and Allegiance unto the Kings Majestie his Heirs and lawful successours and shall assist and defend all jurisdictions preheminences and authorities granted to his Majestie and annexed to his Crown against all forraign Princes Persons Prelates and Potentates by act of Parliament or otherwise And generally in all things you shall do as a faithful and true servant and Subject ought to do to his Majestie So help you God and by the holy contents of this book The Oath of a Secretary of State YOu shal swear to be a true faithfull Servant unto the Kings Majestie as one of the Principal Secretaries of State to his Majestie you shall not know or understand of any manner of thing to be attempted done or spoken against his Majesties person Honour Crown or Dignity-royal but you shall let and withstand the same to the uttermost of your power and either do or cause it to be revealed either to his Majestie himself or to his privie Counsel you shall keep secret all matters revealed and committed unto you or that shall be secretly treated in Counsel and if any of the said treaties or Counsels shall touch any of the Councellors you shall not reveal the same unto him but shall keep the same until such time as by the consent of his Majestie or the Connsel publication shall be made thereof you shall to your uttermost bear Faith and Allegiance to the Kings Majestie his heirs and lawful successours and shall assist and defende all jurisdictions preheminences and authorities granted to his Majestie and annexed to his Crown against all forraign Princes Persons Prelats or Potentates c. By act of Parliament or otherwise Generally in all things you shall do as a true and faithful servant and subject ought to do to his Majestie So help you God and by the holy contents of this book Subscription of such as are to be made Ministers according to the 37 canon and constitution Anno Dom. 1603. and in the reign of our Soveraign Lord Iames by the grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland