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
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
prodigiously to destroy the roots and branches of the royal stemm and though it was hatcht and contriv'd by a cunning hypocritical Crocodile and his bloudy Sycophants Cromwel yet as if Heaven and Earth God and man did abhor such an odious oath and combination how suddenly did it please God that his arme of providence should appear and incline the hearts not only of his loyal subjects but even of those who had been bitter Enemies to the royal throne to endeavour and cooperate for his Majesties restauration And now all these Withes and new Cords being broken by a Samsonian strength and influence from true Soveraignty are untwisted and unravel'd to an odium and a scorn And the Parliament hath judiciously and nobly determined and damn'd the covenant the Engagement and the oath of Abjuration to be illegal factious and seditious papers and all rational subjects may securely acquiess in their judgement and determination u Malum quod juramus facere non debemus implâ—â—â— D. Ber. de perjur ser 32. If this Collyrium clear not the eyes of all Protesters Covenanters Engagers and abjurators nor all these reasons reduce the phanatically deluded to their fidelity and allegiance to their King let them beware least the judgement as well as the sins of detestable perjury follow or fall upon them This is a horrid crime which the Schoolmen lay open to the world in this dress that x Perjurium est mondacium juramento firmatum Aurey Thes Eccles lib. 4. dist 39. perjury is a ly confirm'd and ratified by an oath and this is a most fearful aggravation And it is St. Hieroms resolution y Ius jurandum tres habet comites veritatem judicium justitiam Hieron super Hieremi 22. q. 2. that no oath is lawful unless it be attended with three indispensable concomitants viz. Truth Iudgement and Righteousnesse and where all or any of these three faile an oath is perjury St. Austin is more strict claring plainly z Cum sit vel putat falsum esse tamen pro vero jurat D. Aug. de ver Apost ser 28. that he is perjured that sweareth voluntarily what he knoweth to be false with a deceitful design or if he perfectly know it not thinketh it to be false The Fathers make an out-cry and declaim severely against this crime and call it Bellua detestanda a most detestable beast and filthy sin The schoolmen seem yet more severe then the Fathers a Iurans rerum quod putat esse falsum vel jurans falsum quod putat esse verum est perjurus T. Aquin. 22. ae q. 98 1.3 Aquinas determins that he who sweareth the truth which he thinketh to be false or swearing that which is false thinketh it to be truth is a perjured person Where the sin is so notorious the infamy and obloquies so odious and the judgements of the Eternal revenger so terrible and dangerous against perjured persons how careful should subjects be to recover themselves to the duty of loyalty and thereby to repair their credit and to vindicate themselves from eternal plagues and infamy The clouds thus dispersed by the beams of truth and rational arguments It is most evident that those subjects who started from their allegiance loyalty can neither plead excuse or merit for their tergiversation Apostacy as to any unlawful oaths wherewith their soules were insnared or intangled they are by the supream laws of God the laws of men discharghed absolved from them unless hardned with obstinacy they will as 't is in the Greek proverb b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. malum malo meditatur sophocles Aeneas Platonicus ad sin unto sin force one nail with driving another and to perjury adde wilful impenitency but better things may be hoped from all subjects who as men look on themselves as born for rational society or as Christians professing the truths of sacred religion and not longer adhering to self opinion or seditious faction be perfectly converted to be true cordial royalists remembring the caution and counsel the late royal c Εικον Βασιλικε cont 19. pag. 174. Martyr gave not to pretend a reformation and to force a rebellion nor to hearken or give credit to those parasitick preachers who dared to call those Martyrs who dyed fighting against their King the laws their oathes and the religion established But sober Christians know that glorious title of Martyrs can with truth be applied to those who sincerely preferred Gods truth and their duty in all particulars before their lives and all that was dear to them in this world who where religiously sensible of those tyes to God the Church and the King which lay on their souls both for obedience and just assistance By this time apostatiz'd and deluded subjects their eyes being as well opened with sad experience as bright beames of reason and truth may cleerly see their errours and more securely avoid their dangers But least as those who behold their faces in a glass they may upon aremoval utterly forget their features or complexions It may not prove improper to set before us those pure Christals of Piety Wisdome Religion Honour and Government which the customes and laws of former ages have conveyed to this present generation engaging both the King and people to their respective dutyes whereby the soveraign and all his subjects are comprehended under â—â—mental obligationds d Fidelis sermo retinet locum sacramenti Iuramento non egit veritas D. Ber. Serm. 32. This difference and distinction only admitted that glorious Princes of the imperial Crown of England have in their royal grace and voluntary condescention accustomed themselves to solemn oathes at their coronation but the Kings subjects are obliged by oaths setled formed and confirmed by laws to exhibit and perform their homage Fealty allegiance and Fidelity to their Kings as Gods annointed and in these high priviledges and prerogatives the Kings of England seem to have a more legal tye and soveraignty over their subjects then either the Crown of France or Spain whose subjects are commanded in greater vassalage and as brighter and leading stars that sacred oathes obligations are here presented which pious Kings and Queens have accustomed to take at their coronation when they sealed to their sacred vows in the communion and sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ and then as better fitted have laid their hands on the blessed Evangelists bowing their heads have kissed the book the best eternal evidence of the affection of the heart and thus prepared they have usually received the Imperial Crown and Scepter with other Regalia and Emblems of royal Majestie from Gods altar as holding all their power and soveraignty from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that God Angels and Men Heaven and Earth and the whole world and all ages to come may behold the pious integrity of Sacred Princes The Kings Oath at his Coronation L. Bishop of London