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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96595	Vindiciæ regum; or, The grand rebellion that is, a looking-glasse for rebels, whereby they may see, how by ten severall degrees they shall ascend to the height of their designe, and so throughly rebell, and utterly destroy themselves thereby. And, wherin is clearly proued by holy Scripturs, ancient fathers, constant martyrs, and our best modern writers, that it is no wayes lawfull for any private man, or any sort or degree of men, inferior magistrates, peeres of the kingdom, greatest nobility, lo. of the councel, senate, Parliament or Pope, for any cause, compelling to idolatry, exercising cruelty, prastizing [sic] tyranny, or any other pretext, how fair and specious soever it seems to be, to rebell, take armes, and resist the authority of their lawfull king; whom God will protect, and require all the blood that shall be spilt at the hands of the head rebels. And all the maine objections to the contrary are clearly answered. / By Gr. Williams, L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2675; Thomason E88_1; ESTC R204121	92,613	114

Magistrates Peeres The Conclusion of the whol Parliaments Popes or whatsoever you please to cal them to give so much liberty unto their misguided consciences so far to follow the desires of their unruly affections as for any cause or under any pretence to withstand Gods Vice-gerent and with violence to make warre against their lawfull King or indeed in the least degree and lowest manner to offer any indignity either in thought word or deed either to Moses our King or to Aaron our High Priest that hath the care and charge of our soules or to any other of those subordinate callings that are lawfully sent by them to discharge those offices wherewith they are intrusted This is the truth of God and so acknowledged by all good men And what Preachers teach the contrary I dare boldly affirme it in the name of God that they are the incendiaries of Hell and deserve rather with Corah to be consumed with fire from Heaven then to be beleeved by any man on Earth CHAP. X. Sheweth the impudency of the Anti-Cavalier How the Rebels deny they warre against the King An unanswerable Argument to presse obedience A further discussion whether for our Liberty Religion or Lawes we may resist our Kings and a patheticall disswasion from Rebellion I Could insert here abundant more both of the Ancient and Moderne Writers that doe with invincible Arguments confirme this truth Anti-Cavalier p. 17.18 c. but the Anti-Cavalier would perswade the world that all those learned Fathers and those constant Martyrs that spent their purest blood to preserve the purity of religion unto us did either belye their owne strength * Yet Tertul. Cypr. whom I quoted before and Ruffin hist Eccles l. 2. c. 1. and S. August in Psal 124. and others avouch the Christians were far stronger then their enemies and the greatest part of Iulians army were Christians or befoole themselves with the undue desire of overvalued Martyrdome but now they are instructed by a better spirit they have clearer illuminations to informe them to resist if they have strength the best and most lawfull authority that shall either oppose or not consent unto them thus they throw dirt in the Fathers face and dishonour that glorious company and noble army of Martyrs which our Church confesseth prayseth God and therefore no wonder that they will warre against Gods annointed here on Earth when they dare thus dishonour and abuse his Saints that raigne in Heaven but I hope the world will beleeve that those holy Saints were as honest men and those worthy Martyrs that so willingly sacrificed their lives in defence of truth could as well testifie the truth and be as well informed of the truth as these seditious spirits that spend all their breath to raise armes against their Prince and to spill so much bloud of the most faithfull Subjects But though the authority of the best authors is of no authority with them that will beleeve none but themselves yet I would wish all other men to read that Homilie of the Church of England where it is said that God did never long prosper rebellious subjects against their Prince were they never so great in authority or so many in number yea were they never so noble so many so stout so witty and politique but allwaies they came by the overthrow and to a shamefull end Yea though they pretend the redresse of the Common-wealth which rebellion of all other mischiefes doth most destroy or reformation of religion whereas rebellion is most against all true religion yet the speedy overthrow of all Rebels sheweth The Homily against rebellion p. 300 301. that God alloweth neither the dignity of any person nor the multitude of any people nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for the which the subjects may move rebellion against their Princes and I would to God that every subject would read over all the six parts of the Homilie against willfull rebellion for there are many excellent passages in it which being diligently read and seriously weighed would worke upon every honest heart never to rebell against their lawfull Prince And therefore the Lawes of all Lands being so plaine to pronounce them Traytors that take armes against their Kings as you may see in the Statutes of England 25. Edw. 3. c. 2. And as you know it was one of the greatest Articles for which the Earle of Strafford was beheaded that he had actually leavied warre against the King The Nobles and Gentry Lords and Commons of both Houses of Parliament in all Kingdomes being convicted in their consciences with the truth of this Doctrine doe in all their Votes and Declarations conlude and protest and I must believe them that all the leavies monies and other provision of Horse and Men that they raise and arm are for the safety of the Kings person and for the maintenance of his Crowne and Dignity Nay more then this the very Rebels in this our Kingdome of Ireland knowing how odious it is before God and man for subjects to rebell and take armes against their lawfull King do protest if you will believe them that they are the Kings Souldiers and doe fight and suffer for their King and in the defence of his Prerogatives But you know the old saying Tuta frequensque via est sub amici fallere nomen the Devill deceiveth us soonest when he comes like an Angel of light and you shall ever know the true subjects best by their actions farre better then by their Votes Declarations or Protestations for Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta When men doe come in sheepes cloathing and inwardly are ravening wolves when they come with honey in their mouthes and gall in their hearts and like Joab with peace in their tongue and a sword in their hand a petition to intreat and a weapon to compell I am told by my Saviour that I shall know them by their works not their words And therefore as our Saviour saith Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven So I say not he that cryeth peace peace is the sonne of peace but he that doth obey his Prince and doth most willingly whatsoever hee commandeth or suffereth most patiently for refusing to doe what hee commandeth amisse This is the true Subject Well to draw towards the end of this point That is when the Commonalty guide the Nobility and the Subjects rule their King of our obedience to our Soveraigne Governour I desire you to remember a double story the one of Plutarch which tels us how the tayle of the Serpent rebelled against the head because that did guide the whole body and drew the tayle after it whithersoever it would therefore the head yeelded that the tayle should rule and then it being small and wanting eyes drew the whole body head and all through such narrow crevises clefts and

Crown and therefore Jehoida the chiefe Priest having gathered together the principall Peers of the Kingdome and the Centurions and the rest of the people shewed them the Kings son whom for six yeares space he had preserved alive from the rage and fury of Athalia which had slain all the rest of the Kings seed and when they saw him they did all acknowledge him for the Kings son they crowned him King and he being crowned they joyfully cryed God save the King and then by the authority of the new crowned king that was the right heire unto the Kingdome they put to death the cruell Queen that had so tyrannically slain the Kings children and so unjustly usurped the Crowne all that while And therefore to alledge this example so justly done to justifie an insurrection contrary to justice doth carry but a little shew of reason And I say the like of the Macchabees and Antiochus that neither he nor any other Macedonian Tyrant had any right over them but they were unjust usurpers that held the Jewes under them in ore gladii with the edge of their swords and were not their lawfull Kings whom they ought to obey and therefore no reason but that they might justly free themselves with their swords that were kept in bondage by no other right then the strength of the sword 8. 8. Example answered For the example of Thrasibulus Junius Brutus and other Romans or whosoever that for their faults have deposed their Kings Examples not to be imitated I answer with Saint Augustine that Exemplo paucorum not sunt trahenda in legem universorum we have no warrant to imitate these examples for though these things were done yet we say they were done by Heathens that knew not God and unjustly done contrary to the law of God and therefore with no blessing from God with no good successe unto themselves and with lesse happinesse unto others but it happened to them as to all others that do the like to expelle mischiefe and to admit a greater as besides what I have shewed you before this one most memorable example out of our owne Histories doth make it plaine In the time of Richard the second the Nobility and Gentry murmured much against his government in brief they deposed him The ill successe of resisting our superiours and set the Crown upon the head of the Duke of Lancasher whom they created King Henry the fourth The good Bishop of Carlile made a bold and excellent speech to prove that they could not by any law of God or man depose or dispossesse their lawfull King or if they deposed him that they had no right to make the Duke of Lancaster to succeed him but he good man for his paines was served as S. Paul and others were many times for speaking the truth committed to prison and there was an end of him but not an end of the story for the many battels and bloodshed the miseries and mischiefes that this one unjust and unfaithfull act produced had never any period never an end till that well nigh an hundred thousand English men were slaine in civill warres Trussel in his supplement to Damels History whereof 2 were Kings 1 Prince 10 Dukes 2 Marquesses 21 Earles 27 Lords 2 Viscounts 1 Lord Prior 1 Judge 139 Knights 421 Esquires and Gentlemen of great and ancient Families a far greater number a just revenge for an unjust extrusion of their lawfull King whose greatest misery came from his great mildnesse And therefore these things being well weighed in the the ballance of the Sanctuary in the scales of true wisedome it had been better for them as it wil be for us all others patiently to suffer the crosse that shall be laid upon us untill that by our prayers we can prevail with God that for our sins hath sent it in mercy to remove it then for our selves to pluck our necks out of the coller and in a froward disobedience to pull the house as Sampson did upon our own heads and like impatient fishes to leap out of the frying-pan into the fire All the pressures that wee have suffered since the first yeare of our King are not comparable to the miseries that this one yeares civill warre hath brought upon us from hard usage that we impatiently conceived to most base and cruell bondage that we have deservedly merited or at the best to bring many men to many miseries before we can attain unto any happinesse and so as the Poet saith in this very case among the Romanes when for their liberty and priviledges as they termed it in Pompeyes time Excessit medicina modum the remedy that they procured hath proved farre worse then the disease they suffered and I doubt not but ere long the Rebels in this Kingdome will feelingly confesse this to bee too true when they shal more deeply taste of the like miseries as they have brought as well upon many of their own friends as others If you alledge the time of Richard the third how soone he was removed and how happily it came to passe that Henry the seventh succeeded I answer briefly that Richard the third was not only a cruel bloody Tyrant but he was also an unjust Usurper of the crown and not the right King of England and that there is a great deal of difference betwixt rebelling against our lawfull Kings which God hath justly placed over us and expelling an usurping tyrant which hath unjustly intruded himselfe into the royall throne This God often hath blessed as in the case of Eglon Athalia Henry the seventh and many more which you may obviously finde both in the Greek and Romane stories and the other he alwayes cursed and will plague it whensoever it is attempted Object After I had answered these objections I lighted upon one more which is taken out of 2 King 6.32 where the Objector saith when Ahab sent a Cavalier a man of blood to take away the Prophet Elisha's head as he sate in his house among the Elders did Elisha open his doore for him sit still til he took off his head in obedience to the King No he bestirred himselfe for the safeguard of his life and called upon others to stand by him to assist him and a little after he saith surely he that went thus farre for the safety of his life when he was but in danger to be assaulted would have gone further if occasion had been and in case the Kings Butcher had got into him before the doore had been shut if he had been able and had had no other means to have saved his own head but by taking away the others there is little question to be made but he would rather have taken then given a head in this case I answer Sol. that who this Goodwin is I know not I could wish he were none of the Tribe of Levi The Ministers of Chist should not be incendiaries of waite 1. Because I finde him such an

as Moses the meekest man on earth and the Bishops as holy as Aaron the Saint of the Lord yet such disobedience and rebellion would anger Saints Tirinus in h. psal for so Tirinus saith Irritaverunt they angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord Nay more then this they angred God himselfe so farre that fire was kindled in his wrath and it burned to the bottome of hell And as these rebels were Lords and Levites Clergy and Laity so God did proportion their punishments according to their sinnes for the Levites that were to kindle fire upon Gods Altar and should have beene more heavenly and those 250 men which userped the Office of the Priests He sent fire from heaven to devour them and the Nobility that were Lay Lords the Prophet tels you the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the Congregation of Abiram A most fearfull example of a just judgment for to have seene them de ad upon the earth as the Egiptians upon the shore had beene very lamentable but to see the earth opening and the graves devouring them quick was most lamertable and so strange that we never read of such revenge taken of Israel Basiil hom 9. never any better deserved and which is more S. Basil saith quod descenderunt in infernum damnatorum they fell into the very pit of the damned which dolefull judgement though they well deserved it yet I will leave that undetermined And if these rebels proceeding not so farre whatsover they intended to offer violence and to make an open war against Moses were so heavily plagued for the Embrio of their rebellion what tongue shall be able to expresse the detestation of that sinne and the deserts of those rebels that by their subtilty and cruelty would bring a greater persecution upon the Church then any that we read since the time of Christ and by a desperate disobedience to a most Gratious King would utterly overthrow a most flourishing State a rebellion and persecution the one against the King the other against the Church that in all respects can scarce be paralleled from the beginning of the world to this very day And therefore except they doe speedily repent with that measure of repentance as shall be in some sort proportionable to the measure of their transgression I feare God in justice will deale with them as he did with the Jewes 2. Chron. 36.17 deliver them into the hand of their Enemies that will have no compassion upon young man or maiden old man or him that stoopeth for age or rather as he did with Pharaoh King of Egypt deliver them up to a reprobate sense and harden their hearts that they cannot repent but in their folly and obstinacie still to fight against Heaven untill the God of heaven shall overthrow them with a most fearefull destruction the which I pray God they may foresee in time and repent that they may prevent it that God may be still mercifull unto us as he useth to be to those that love his Name And so much for the words of this Text. Now to Apply all in briefe if God shall say to any Nation The application of all I will send them a King in my wrath and give them Lawes not good let them take heed they say not we will take him away by our strength for we have read that hee hath authority to give us a King in his displeasure but you shall never read that we have authority to disobey him at our pleasure and to say Nolumus hunc regnare super nos or if any do let them know that he which set him up and setled him over them is able to protect him against them they that struggle against him do but strive against God and therefore they have no better remedie then to pray to God which hath the hearts of Kings in his hand that he would as the Psalmist saith Give the King his judgements and his righteousnesse unto the Kings Son that he would either guide his heart to right and direct his feete to the way of peace or as he hath sent him in his fury so hee would take him away in his mercy But for our selves of these Ilands we have a King and I speak it here in the sight of God and as I shall answer for what I say at the dreadfull judgement not to flatter him that heares mee not but to informe those of you that know him not so well as I that had the happinesse to live with my ever honoured Lord the Noble Earle of Pembroke and Montgomery 16. or 17. yeares in the Kings house and of them 6. or 7. yeares in the Kings service He is a most just pious and gracious King and I beleeve the best Protestant King that ever England or Ireland saw neither Popishly affected nor Scismatically led to disaffect but most constantly resolved to be a true Defender of that true Protestant Faith which is established by Law in the Church of England and he is such a King of so unblameable life so spotlesse in all his actions so clement and so meeke towards all men and so mercifull towards his very enemies that the mouth of Envie cannot truly tax him nor malice it selfe disprove him in any thing Yet wee know that as Moses the meekest among men and David the best of Kings were sore afflicted slandered and persecuted not a little by many of their owne obliged subjects yea and the best Kings have had the greatest troubles so this good King hath had for his tryall a great part of the like usage I know not by whom neither do I indend here to accuse others but to instruct you and by what I shewed out of this text to teach you above all to take heed of disobedience and Rebellion towards your King and to let you understand that what priviledges in the New Test are acknowledged to be due to Heathen Princes and what prerogatives the spirit of God hath in the Old Testament warranted unto the Jewish Kings and what the universall Law of Nature hath established upon all the supreme Governours do all of them appertaine by unquestionable right unto his most sacred Majesty and yet his Majesty out of His incomparable goodnesse insisteth not to challenge all these but vouchsafeth to accept of these rights and prerogatives which are undoubtedly afforded him by the Lawes of His own Lands and these come far short scarce the moity of the other because we know if our Historians have not deceived mee how many of them were obtained by little better then by force and violence compelling Kings to consent unto them whereas Lawes should be of a freer nature And therefore of all the Nations round about us besides that God hath intrusted Him with us all wee have most reason to entrust him and to give credit unto His Majesties many protestations too high to be forgotten by him or misdoubted by us for His resolution to

or make Magistrates to that end but they make choyce of them as I said to further them and not to hinder them to effect those things which they conceive to be most fit and just for the Magistrates that are over the people are under the King and doe all as you see in the name of the King All the inferiour Magistrates must doe all in the name of the superiour from whom they derive all the power that they have whereby it followeth that neither the people can resist the Magistrates whom the King appointeth nor those Magistrates resist their King without apparent sacriledge against God because the greater can never be judged nor condemned by the lesser but as the Apostle saith of Abraham and Melchisedech Heb. 7.7 that without contradiction the lesse is blessed of the better so I say that without all controversie the inferiour must be alwayes judged of the superiour and therefore if these Peeres Nobles or inferiour Magistrates have any wayes any power or authority over their Kings we must conclude against S. Peter that these are above the King and so they and not the King are the supereminent power But we finde no such power nor commandement that they have frow God to refraine Kings in all the holy Scriptures Et si mandatum non est presumptio est ad poenam proficiet non ad praemium and if there be no commandment for it it is presumption to doe it which deserveth punishment and not praise because it is to the reproach of the Creator that contemning the Lord we should worship the Servant and neglecting the Emperour we should adore or magnifie his Peeres as Saint Augustine saith And therefore both the learned and religious Fathers And the Homilie of the Church of England against wilfull rebellion and the best of our later Writers are flat against this Doctrine that any sort of men have any power over Kings but he that is the King of Kings as you may see what would be too tedious for me to set down in Iohan. Bodinus Apol. pro Regibus c. 27. de Repub. l. 2. c. 5. Barclaius contra Monarchom l. 3. c. 6. Berchetus in explicat controvers Gallicar c. 2. Saravia de imperator autorit l. 2. c. 36. Sigon de repub Hebraeor l. 7 c. 3. Bilson de perpet Eccles gubernat c. 7. Pet. Gregor Tholos de republ l. 5. c. 3. num 14 15 16. and many more 2. 2. Their examples answered For the examples that are produced to countenance Rebels against their Kings I answer that they are unlike or of some peculiar fact or unjust and therefore no warrant for any other to doe the like when as we are to live by the lawes and precept of God and not by the examples of men which many times contrary to equity do induce us to transgresse the divine verity but to runne over the particulars of their examples as briefe as I can 1. I say 1. Example answered that to conclude an ordinary rule from the doings of the Judges which were extraordinarily commanded by God to be done is no more lawfull for us to doe then it is for us to rob our neighbours because the Israelite robbed the Egyptians August in Jud c. 20. as Saint Augustine sheweth And therefore Aquinas if Aquinas be the Author of that booke De Regimine Princip saith excellent well Quibusdam visum est it seemes to some men that it pertaineth to the honour of valiant and heroicall men to take away a Tyrant and to expose themselves to the perill and danger of death for the liberty and freedome of the multitude whereof they have an example in the Old Testament where Ehud killed Eglon Judg. 3.21 But this agreeth not with the Apostolicall Doctrine for Saint Peter teacheth us to be subject not onely to the good but also to the froward because this is thanke worthy with God if for conscience sake we patiently suffer wrongs therefore when many of the Romane Emperours did most tyrannically persecute the faith of Christ Thom. de Regiminae Princip la. 1. c. 6. and a great and mighty multitude both of the Nobility Gentry and Commons were converted unto Christianity they are praised not for resisting but for suffering death A great deale of disterence betwixt a lawfull King and an Usurper Besides Eglon was not the lawfull King of Israel but an alien an usurper and a scourge to punish them for their sin and therefore no patterne for others to rebell against their lawfull King 2. 2. Example answered For the example of Ezechias rebelling against the King of Assyria it is most impertinently alleadged for Ezechias was the lawfull King of Iudah and the King of Assyria had no right at all in his Dominions An impertinent example but being greedily desirous to enlarge his territories he incroached upon the others right and for his injustice was overcome by the sword in a just battell and therefore to conclude from hence that because the King of Iudah trefused to obey the King of Assyria therefore the inferiour Magistrates or Peeres of any Kingdome may resist and remove their lawfull Prince for his tyranny or impiety surely this deserves rather Fustibus tutundi quàm rationibus refellt to be beaten with rods then confuted with reasons as Saint Bernard speaketh of the like Argument And whereas they reply that it skilleth not whether the Tyrant be forreine as Eglon and the King of Assyria wero or domestique Saul Achab and Manasses were because the domestique is worse then the forreigne The absurdity of their replication and there fore the rather to be suppressed I will shew you the validity of this argument by the like the seditious Preachers are the generation of vipers nay far worse then vipers because they hurt but the body onely and these are pernitious both to body and soule therefore as a man may lawfully kill a viper so he may more lawfully kill a seditious Preacher But to omit their absurdity let us looke into the comparison betwixt domestique and extranean Tyrants Quia dare absurdam non est solvere argumentum and we shall finde that domestique Tyrants are lawfully placed over us by God who cōmandeth us to obey them forbiddeth us to refist them in every place for the Scripture makes no distinction betwixt a good Prince and a Tyrant in respect of the honour reverence and obediecce that we owe unto our superiors as you see the Lord doth not say touch not a good King and obey righteous Princes but as God saith Honour thy father and thy mother be they good or bad so he saith Touch not the King resist not your Governours speake not evill of the Rulers be they good or be they bad and therefore Saint Paul when he was strictly charged for reviling the wicked high Priest answered wisely I wist not brethren that he was Gods high Priest for if I had knowne him

incendiary of warre and an enemy unto peace whereas the messengers of Christ have this Elogie given them Quam speciosi pedes Evangelizantium pacem And the Scripture saith Blessed are the Peace-makers and we continually pray Give peace in our dayes O Lords and therefore I can hardly beleeve these incendiaries of warre to be the sonnes of the God of peace 2. Because his objection is full of falshoods and false grounds as 1. He saith that Ahab sent to take Elisha's head The first mistake in the front of his speech when as Ahab was dead long before it was his ghost therfore and not he but it was his son and what then what did the Prophet he shut the door and desired the Elders to handle the Messenger roughly or hold him fast at the doore Thus saith the text 2 Kings 6 32. and the Prophet in my judgment doth herein but little more then what God and nature alloweth every man to doe If any thing more not to lay down his life if he can lawfully preserve it but as the Prophet did to shut the doore or as our Saviour saith When we are persecuted in one Citie to flie into another to save our lives as long as we can and in all this I find no violent resistance But 2. the Objector telleth us Surely if the messenger had got in Elisha had taken off his head rather then given his own I demand what inspiration he hath from God to be sure of this for I am sure Iohn Baptish would not do so nor S. Paul nor any other of Gods Saints that I have read of but these men are sure of every thing even of Gods secret counsell and that is more then the thoughts of mens hearts or if this be sure which I am not sure of I answer that Elisha was a great Prophet that had the spirit of Eliah doubled upon him and those actions which he did or might have done through the inspiration of Gods spirit this man may not doe except hee bee sure of the like inspiration for God who is justice it self can command by word as he did to Abraham to kill his sonne or by inspiration as he did to Elias to call fire from heaven and it is a sin to disobey it whereas without this it were an horrible sin to doe it And we must distinguish betwixt rare and extraordinary cases that were managed by special commission from God and those paternes that are confirmed by knowne and generall rules which passe through the whole course of Scripture and take heed that we make not obscure commentaries of humane wisedome upon the cleare Text of holy Writ Quia maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum But indeed the place is plain that Elisha made no other resistance but what every man may lawfully doe to keep the messenger out of doors so long as he could and yet this man would infer hence that we may lawfully with a strong hand and open warre resist the authority of our lawfull Kings a Doctrine I am sure that was never taught in the Schoole of Christ He makes some other objections which I have already answered in this treatise and then he spends almost two leaves in six severall answers that he maketh to an objection against the examining the equity or iniquity of the Kings commands but to no purpose because we never deny but that in some cases though not in all for there must bee Arcana imperii and there must be privie Counsellors every Peasant must not examine all the Edicts of his Prince The commands of Kings may not only be examined but also disobeyed as the three children did the commands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Apostles the commands of the high Priests but though we may examine their commands and disobey them too when they are contrary to the commands of God yet I would fain know where we have leave to resist them and to take armes against them I would he understood there is a great deale of difference betwixt examining their commands and resisting their authority the one in some cases we may the other by no meanes we may doe CHAP. VIII Sheweth that our Parliament hath no power to make warre against our King Two maine Objections answered The originall of Parliaments The power of the King to call a Parliament to deny what he will and to dissolve it when he will Why our King suffereth BUt when all that hath been spoken cannot satisfie their indignation against true obedience and allay the heat of their rebellious spirits they come to their ultimum resugium best strength and strongest fort that although all others should want sufficient right to crosse the commands and resist the violence of an unjust and tyrannicall Prince yet the Parliament that is the representative body of all his Kingdom are intrusted with the goods estates and lives of all his people may lawfully resist and when necessity requireth take armes and subdue their most lawfull King and this they labour to confirme by many arguments I answer that for the Parliament of England it is beyond my sphere and I being a transmarine member of this Parliament of Ireland And whatsoever I speak of Parliament in all this Discourse I mean of Parliaments disjoyned frō their King understand only the prev●lent fact●●n that ingrosseth and captivateth the Votes of many of the plain honest minded party which hath been often seen both in generall counsells and the greatest Parliaments I wil only direct my speech to that whereof I am a Peer I hope I may the more boldly speak my mind to them whereof I am a member and I dare maintain it that it shall be a benefit and no prejudice both to King and Kingdom that the spirituall Lords have Votes in this our Parliament For besides the equity of our sitting in Parliament and our indubitable right to vote therein and his Majesty as I conceive under favour be it spoken is obliged by the very first act in Magna Charta to preserve that right unto us when as in the Summons of Ed. 1. it is inserted in the writ * Claus 7. m. 3. dort that Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari or tractari debet whatsoever affair is of publick concernment ought to receive publicke approbation and therefore with what equity can so considerable a party of this Kingdome as are the Clergy who certainly cannot deserve to forfeit the priviledge of the meanest subjects and of common men because they are more immediately the servants of the living God be denyed the benefit of that which in all mens judgement is so reasonable a law and they only be excluded from that interest which is common unto al I cannot see yet I say that besides this our right while we sit in Parliament this fruit shall alwaies follow that our knowledge conscience shall never suffer us to vote such things against the truth as to allow that

take upon you more learning then the chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realme have this was the judgement of that judicious man and I must tell you that Religion never taught Rebellion neither was it the will of Christ that faith should bee compelled by fighting but perswaded by preaching for the Lord sharply reproveth them that built up Sion with bloud Micah 3.10 and Hierusalem with iniquity and the practice of Christ and his Apostles was to reforme the Church by prayers and preaching and not with fire and sword and they presse obedience unto our Governours yea though they were impious infidels True religion never rebelleth and idolatrous with arguments fetched from Gods ordinance from mans conscience from wrath and vengeance and from the terrible sentence of damnation and this truth is so solid that it hath the cleare testimony of holy Writ the perpetuall practice of all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs and I dare boldly say it the unanimous consent of all the Orthodox Bishops and Catholique Writers both in England and Ireland and in all the World that Christian Religion teacheth us never with any violence to resist or with armes to withstand the authority of our lawfull Kings If you say the Lawes of our Land Whether the Lawes of our Land doe warrant us to rebell and the Constitutions of this our Kingdome doe give us leave to stand upon our liberty and to withstand all tyranny that shall bee offered unto us especially when our estates lives and religion are in danger to bee destroyed To this I say with Laelius Laelius de privileg Eccl. 112. that Nulla lex valeat contra jus divinam mans laws can exact no further obedience then may stand with the observance of the divine precepts and therefore wee must not so prefer them or rely upon them so much as to prejudice the other and for our feare of the losse of estate life or religion I wish it may not be setled upon groundlesse suspitions for I know and all the World may beleeve that our King is a most clement and religious Prince that never did give cause unto any of his subjects to foster such feares and jealousies within his breast and you know what the Psalmist saith of many men They were affraid where no feare was And Iob tels you whom terrours shall make affraid on every side Iob 18.11 12 and shall drive him to his feet that is to runne away as you see the Rebels doe from the Kings Army in every place and in whose Tabernacle shall dwell the King of feare for though the ungodly fleeth when no man pursueth him yet they that trust in God are confident as Lyons without feare they know that the heart of the King is not in his owne hand but in the hand of the Lord Prov. 21.1 as the rivers of waters he turneth it whithersoever it pleaseth him either to save them or destroy them even as it pleaseth God hee ordereth the King how to rule the people Bonav ad secundam dist 35. art 2. q. 1. And therefore in the name of God and for Christ Iesus sake let me perswade you to put away all causles feares and groundlesse jealousies and trust your King if not trust your God and let your will which is so unhappy in it selfe become right and equall by receiving direction from the will of God and remember what Vlpian the great Civilian saith that rebellion and disobedience unto your King is proximum sacrilegio crimen and that it is in Samuels judgement as the sin of witchcraft The remembrance of his oath should be a terrour to the conscience of every rebell whereby men forsake God and cleave unto the Devill and above all remember the oath that many of you have taken to bee true and faithfull unto your King and to reveale whatsoever evils or plots that you shall know or heare to bee contrived against his Person Crowne or Dignity and defend him from them Pro posse tuo to the uttermost of your power So helpe you God Which oath how they that are any wayes assistant in a warre against their King can dispence with I cannot with all my wit and learning understand and therefore returne O Shulamite returne lay downe thine armes submit thy selfe unto thy Soveraigne and know that as the Kings of Israel were mercifull Kings so is the King of England 1 King 20.32 thou shalt find grace in the time of need but delay not this duty lest as Demades saith the Athenians never sate upon treaties of peace but in mourning weeds when by the losse of their nearest friends they had paid too deare for their quarrels so thou be driven to doe the like for except the sinnes of the people require no lesse satisfaction then the ruine of the Kingdome I am confident and am ready to hazard life and fortunes in this confidence that the goodnesse of our King The Authors confidence of the Kings victory the justnesse of his cause and the prayers of all honest and faithfull Ministers for him and our Church will in the end give him the victory over all those his rebellious enemies that with lyes slanders and false imputations have seduced the Kings subjects to strengthen themselves against their Soveraigne and all the World shall see that as Christ so in Sensu modificato this Vicegerent of Christ shall rule in the midst of these his enemies and shall raigne untill hee puts them all under his feet And because we never read of any rebellion not this of Corah here A rebellion that the like was never seen which of above six hundred thousand men had not many more then 250. Rebels nor that of Absolon against David who had all the Priests and Levites and the best Counsellours and a mighty Army with him such as was able to overthrow Absolon and twenty thousand men in the plaine field nor Israel against Rehoboam because they did but revolt from him and not with any hostile Armes invade him nor the Senate of Rome against Caesar though hee was the first that intrenched upon their liberty and intended to exchange their Aristodemocracy into a Monarchy nor any other that I can remember except that Councell which condemned Christ to death that was growne to that height to bee so absolute and so perfect a rebellion in all respects as that a whole Parliament in a manner and the major part of the Plebeians of a whole Kingdome should make a Covenant with Hell it selfe yea and which is most considerable that as I understand the beginning of this rebellion in this Kingdome of Ireland was the Commenalty therein should so fascinate the Nobility as to allure them so long to confirme their Votes till at last they must bee compelled in all thhings to adhere unto their conclusions that they whose power was formerly most absolute without them must now bee subordinate unto them that the strength of the people may defend

the King when with all their might and maine they strive to take away his power to pull the sword out of his hand and to throw his Crowne down to the dust which is so strange a kinde of equivocation as might well move men with Pilate to aske what is truth which we can never understand if any of these things can be true which as one saith most truely is one of the absurdest gulleries that ever was put upon any Nation The tale of an Anabaptist much like that Anabaptist which I knew that beat his wife almost to death and said he beat not her but that evill spirit that was in her Therefore the Lord hateth this abhominable sinne because it is unpossible the people should be so soon drawn into rebellion if they did not credit these defamations But the wise man tells us that Stultus credit omni verbo therefore no wise man will beleeve those false and wicked slanders that such malicius Rebels doe spread abroad against their King Prince or Priest or any other Governour of Gods people 8. After they had thus slandered these good men they fell to open rayling against them 8 Rayling as you may see Numb 16.13 14. for now they had eaten shame and drunke after it and therefore they cared not what they sayd and so now we finde how the Rebels deale with our King and with our Bishops too with our Moses and with our Aaron for here in Ireland they rebell against their Soveraigne because he is no Papist and will not countenance the Papists as they desire And in England they rayle at him and rebell against him because they say hee is a Papist and doth connive at Popery and hath a designe to bring in Popery into the Kingdome which is as slat a lye as the father of lyes hath ever invented So the Bishops here are driven out of all as my selfe am expelled aedibus sedibus and left destitute of all reliefe because we are no Papists but doe both preach add write against their errors as much as any and more learnedly then many others And in England we are persecuted and driven to flie from place to place or to take our place in a hard prison as my selfe have beene often forced to flie and to wander in the cold and dark long nights because we are Papists and so Popishly given good God what shall we doe whither shall we goe or what shall we say for Nusquam tutae fides nec hospes ab hospite tutus We cannot confide in the confiders to whom we are become malignant enemies for speaking truth noither dare we trust in the followers of the publique faith nor in the professors of the Catholique faith whereof men maliciously rejecting their godly Bishops rebelliously fighting against their lawfull King and wortally wounding their owne soules have made a shipwracke But If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub if they said he was a glutton and a drunkard what wonder if they say these things of us and if Christ the King of Kings was crucified betwixt two Theeves what marvell if this servant of Christ our King be thus pressed opposed and abused betwixt two rebellious factions and when we see our Saviour and our King thus handled it is lesse strange to finde the Bishops and the Priests persecuted and crucified betwixt two hereticall and tyrannicall parties Well Jerusalem Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee take heed lest the King of peace shall say unto thee Verily thou shalt see me no more till thou sayest Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord. 9. When they were growne thus impudent 9. Disobedience from bad to worse both over shooes and over bootes then disobedience must needs follow and therefore now putting on their brazen foreheads they tell Moses plainly We will not come to thee wee will doe nothing that thou willest but will crosse thee in all that thou intendest this is our most peremtory resolution And so we see that Nemo repente fit pessimus but the wicked grow worse and worse first you must lend then you must give if not we will take or if you deny your goods we will have your bodies so at first what soever we doe it is for the King and because this is so palpable a mockery that as every man knoweth that they fight against the Earle of Essex and his Army doe warre against the Parliament so they that fight against the Kings Army do as certainly warre against the King then we grow so impudent as to justifie any rebellion against our King as in England Goodwin and that seditious Pamphleter in opening the glorious name of the Lord of Host doe but a little lesse for which application of Gods glorious name and abusing the holy Scriptures to such abominable transgression of Gods holy Precepts to instigate the subjects to warre against their Soveraigne and to involue a whole Kingdome into a detestable distraction I doe much admire that they are not apprehended and transferred to the Kings Bench Barre to be there arraigned and condemned to be punished according to their deserts 10. 10. Rebellion See the place Joshua 1.16 17 18. When these Rebels had proceeded thus farre then contrary to the loyall obedience which they owed unto their Prince and which the people promise unto Joshua They ascended to the height of odious rebellion which may not unfitly be called Monstrum borendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum and is as Thucydides saith all kinde of evill Et qui facit pecatum non facit sed ipse totus est peccatum and therefore Samuel saith that Rebellion is as the sinne of Witchcraft when men doe confederate to give their soules unto the Devell for now these Rebells are ready to take armes against Moses and they had reduced all civill order to confused paritie deposed and destroyed their Governours if the Governour of all the world by whom Kings doe reigne and who hath promised to defend them had not prevented the same from Heaven And the reason why they did all this The reason of their rebellion and proceeded thus far against Moses and Aaron is intimated in the words of my Text AEmulati sunt because they would emulate or imulate Moses that is to play the Moses or play the Kings and play the part of the chiefe Priest themselves for this is certaine that none will envy murmure at slander and disobey his King so farre as to make any open rebellion against him but they that in some sort would rule and be Kings themselves especially when they shall seeke so farre to debilitate their Prince as that hee shall be no wayes able to make resistance for they thinke if Treason prosper 't is no Treason what 's the reason if it prosper who dares call it Treason and none would disobey their Bishops or chiefe Priests but they that would and cannot be Bishops