Kingdomes or Dominions or to authorise any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance and obedience to his Majesty or to give license or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise Tumults or to offer any violence or hurt to his Majesties Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesties Subjects within his Majesties Dominions Also I do swear from my heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successours or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs or Successours or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successours and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successours all Treasons and Trayterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do further swear That I do from my heart abhor detest and abjure as impious and heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully administred unto me and do renounce all pardons and dispensations to the contrary And all these things I doe plainly and sincerely acknowledge swear according to these expresse words by me spoken and according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And I do make this Recognition and acknowledement heartily willingly and truly upon the true faith of a Christian So help me God c. The Oath of Supremacy I A. B. Do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the King 's Highnesse is the onely Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other his Highnesse's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal And that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Forraign Jurisdictions Powrs Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King's Highnesse his Heirs and lawfull Successours and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preeminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and successours or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the contents of this book These Platforms and models of Oathes as they are of holy use to unite our fidedelity to God and Man so they are of Divine Authority and seem to be influential from Heaven from whence we have the Sacred example so the Scriptures testifie Exod 33.1 Depart hence unto the Land which I swear unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Thus divine usage is very frequent with God Deut 1.8.34.35 Psal 95.9 Luk. 1.73 Heb. 6.13 Heb. 7.21 And as God pleased to confirm his promise with an Oath So King David Gods annointed voweth and sweareth calling on God and praying Lord remember David and all his Afflictions how he swear unto the Lord and vowed to the mighty God of Jacob. Psal 132.1 2. And Solomon his royal Son gave Counsel to all his subjects and all the world I counsel thee to keep the Kings commandement and that in regard of the Oath of God Eccles 8.2 Having now set fourth the sacred ☜ Oaths and obligations of the Kings and Queens of England and of some of the cheif Officers and Ministers of State together with the Homage of the Ecclesiastical Hirarchy and temporal Nobility and of the three great Officers of Court the Lord high Steward the Master of the Horse and the Lord Chamberlain by their Oathes as privy counsellors under whose immediate command and power all servants at Court are sworn to fidelity and obedience in their respective relations and ranks of order degrees and subordinations It is plain and easie to every rational subject to discern and see the most excellent form of Government that the prudence and piety of former ages hath conveyed to the English to this present time and we cannot do less then admire and magnifie the gracious providence and riches of Gods favours to the Kingdome of England who hath with the golden chain of harmonious Government so lincked Kings and Queens to himself and all their subjects and people to their soveraign Princes that no Kingdome under the canopy of Heaven hath a better frame of Government either for Church or State or the transaction of Ecclesiastick or civil concernments and affaires in which there is such an incementing concatenation by wholesome laws and customes for justice and the happy preservation of all the peoples Rights that as the King may sit as happily and securely on his Throne as any Monarch on earth so his people may as prosperously thrive under his gracious Government and reposing themselves under their own vines and figtrees as cheerfully enjoy the inestimable blessings of their own just rights and labours Milk and Hony with the overflowing favours of Peace and Plenty How great a crime must it then be to wrest or break one of the invaluable lincks of this golden concatenation which Soveraign Princes graciously please to strengthen and consolidate if possible by their sacred Oathes to God which cannot but indear and more oblige ingenuous subjects to greater exactness of duty and fidelity considering that these pious proceeding are more acts of Grace and voluntary and Princely condescentions flowing from the fountaines of their own royal goodness being methods of high degrees of kindness and love where words or promises and those at their royal wills and pleasure are to be looked on not only as certainties and assurances but as deeds and compleat performances The civil Law expecteth as much from Noble men and Persons of Honour that there words be equally esteemed as their deeds m Promissa nobilinm pro factis habentur And Iser c. 1. Tantum fidei legalitatis presumitur in Nobilibus ut si quicquam promiserint id per equesit certum ac indubitatum ac si jam factum esset And Iser c 1.
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
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
destroyed the Prince and his People or if there can be any thing worse there is a brood and generation of pretenders to the best and most loyal services because they attended in the Navie that wafted refluctuated the King into England that they had adventured to Breda to Brussels to Holland to France to Germany that they had been active at home and dutiful abroad and had contrived and contributed most both in their persons and purses towards his Majesties Restauration And it were an unkindnesse if not a crime to derogate from such pretensive merits but the sting that causeth a sore swelling is that these new brooms returned to loyalty sweep all so clean that they leave no work not the least Atome of honour in this high concern to those nobler spirits who never forfeited their fidelity to their King but as Hushai ever walked by the influence of his Majesties commission or commands and in all conditions whether active or passive in the concerns of their Faith and Allegiance never swerved nor so much as warped from their Native obedience or from the rules and dictates of Honour and a good Conscience This great Hero and exemplar of his fidelity to his Prince is recorded in the Sacred book of God and thence recommended to all subjects of all ages of all Kingdomes as a lively pattern to direct them in their duty and service towards their Soveraign and in many excellencies he is hardly imitable for the holy Historian tells the world 2 Sam. 15. that this loyal Israelite unsummon'd unsent for no sooner heard the news of the Kings sad condition that Absolon was unnaturally turn'd Traitor against his Father and the people in Rebellion against their King but instantly this great worthy marcheth after his Prince and finding him on the top of the Mount where he worshiped God he attended his Soveraign Lord with diligence and haste though his sad posture presented the Affliction and sorrow of his soul for his coat was rent and his head was covered with earth and what posture could better become a loyal heart then what cleerly expressed grief or indignation to see or hear of a disobedient Son persecuting a loving Father or a stubborn deluded people infatuated into a high and horrid Rebellion but Hushai was neither startled at his Princes dangerous condition nor consulted for his own safety nor was catched with flattery and the large promises of the Traitors oyle and smooth tongue nor did he dread or stand amazed at the oraculous Counsells of Achitophel the grand politician but his Native duty conducts him speedily to wait on his Prince and true and unspoted loyallty allegiance directing him in his march without any doubts or disputes laying his life at his Masters feet he in an instant bespeaks himself a perfect Royalist and so with his life friends and fortune ready to obey whatever commands the King thinks fit to impose upon him Some noble Heathens have left to the world famous examples of their love and loyalty to their Princes and to the shame and dishonour of many infamous Christians have exceeded them for their fidelity and true allegiance Plutarch * Hephaestion unut ex Alex. magni ducibus quem ille cum Cratero ita conterebaiut hunc quidem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hephastionem vero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellaret Plutarch in vita Alexandri hath recorded Hephaestion to the memory of his immortal honour that he passionately loved and esteemed the person of Alexander the great and in his discourse with Craterus the Conquerour told him that Hephaestion did not only love him as a King but did most affectionately honour him as Alexander And it was a royal mark and distinction of Alexanders own creating to stile Craterus a lover of the King but Hephaeston a lover and admirer of Alexander and it seems his duty to his Prince as it received bounty from his Soveraign whiles he lived was rewarded with high honour when he was dead for the same Author affirmes that this noble Emperour in a grateful memory to so faithful a subject and so couragious a commander magnificently expended more then twelve thousand Talents upon his exequies and Funerals There is such another passage of Clitus * Clitus inter pracipuos Alexan. Maced familiares eidemque charissimus quod filius essetnutricis illi us tum quod ab illo in vitae discrimine fuisset servatus hunc in convivio liberius in Persicos mores invectum Rex temulentus spiculo trajecit cujus facti postridie tanta cepit paenitentia discussa jam ebrietate ut totum triduum à cibo abstinuerit decreveritque omuino inedia sibi mortem concissere ac amicum optime de se meritum ad inferos persequi sumptuoso cumfunere sepelivit Plutarc in vita Alexandri who having been Alexanders nurcesson and in his person and Relations most serviceable to the King in many of his greatest dangers The Emperour advanced him to great favours and enriched him with Princely munificency and when a Persian intemperate excesse and debauchery had drown'd the Kings reason and had raised a tempest in his passions so that in his fury with a javelin he had slain his favourite yet this sad accident so deeply affected the Emperour when he had recovered his confounded reason that he appeared to be overwhelmed in a gulf of shame and sorrow and so giving rules for his own pennance obliged himself to a hard duty hence determining and decreeing that his intemperance should be rewarded with penury and that he who had so ignobly abused plenty and in such extravagant luxury slain his friend should justly dye and perish for want of food hereby the King proposed a more speedy death to himself that he might more suddenly follow the Ghost of Clytus to the imagined shades below Such a character of true worth and loyalty Darius gave of his dear Zophyrus who waging warr and besieging the vast City of Babylon but without successe or victory trusted the possibilities of the effecting of that design to the fidelity courage and wisdome of faithfull Zophyrus who the better to disguise himself and to accomplish the conquest with greater safety to his person and more secure successe to his Soveraign disfigured his face to a high deformity and having permitted his ears his †Nobilis Persa ipse sibi nasum aures labia amputavit ita Babylonas quasi transfuga se contulit conquerens de crudelitate sui Regis receptus egitur a Babyloniis dux belli constitutus urbem Dario tradidit unde Darius solebat dicere se Zophyrum malle integrum quam viginti capere Babylonas Herod lib. 4. lips and his nose to be cut off as pretended by a Persian barbarous cruelty in this posture he adressed to the Babylonians as an abused and tortured Persian fugitive where being received and advanced to great trust and command as a General of their Army by his prudence and
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
of twenty thousand men and Absolon as neither worthy of favour from Heaven or Earth riding on a mule his head was caught hold on by the thick boughes of the Oak and the Mule the very beast whereon he rode forsook him and went away and left him to be pierced through with the darts of vengance and the weapons of death The Traitors thus dispersed and routed good news of a happy victory 2 Sam. 18.31 and tidings of Salvation was posted to King David in the mouth of Chushi n so the Prophet Samuel relates that Chushi came and Chushi said tidings my Lord the King for the Lord hath avenged thee this day on all those that rose up against thee The Enemies discomfited and the victory proclaimed Israel as well as Iudah fell into a zealous emulation and contention for loyalty and King Davids Enemies strive to manifest themselves chearsul and obedient subjects this is evident in the sacred passages of this royal story Israel fled every man to his tent and as at an instant in the next verse saith the Prophet and all the people were at strife through all the tribes of Israel saying The King saved us out of the hands of our Enemies 2 Sam. 19.6 and he delivered us out of the Philistines and now he is fled out of the Land for Absolon and Absolon whom we have anointed over us is dead in battel Now therefore why speak ye not a word of bringing the King back Thus the Kings greatest Enemies in his suddain prosperity became his friends but as for Iudah his loyal party the King returning towards Hierusalem in triumph had an eye principally on them And King David sent to Zadock and to Abiathar saying speak unto the Elders of Judah saying why are ye the last to bring back the King to his house 2 Sam. 19.10.11 seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the King even to his house ye are my brethren ye are my bones and ye are my flesh wherefore then are ye the last to bring back the King Thus at King Davids return and restauration towards Hierusalem Iudah and Israel 2 Sam. 19.15 friends and foes all being King Davids subjects 1 Vnanimi consensu Tremel in loc united their acclamations in this happy occasion of solemn joy 2 Sam 19.41.42 43. and as rivals seemed to contend whether Tribes should appear more absolute and perfect royalists the Prophets expressions are most emphatical And behold all the men of Israel came to the King Tribules Iehudae qui pro Davide militarant quibus copiis freti audaciores erant in sua responsione Iunius and said unto the King why have our brethren the men of Iudah stolen thee away and brought the King and his houshould all Davids men with him over Jordan And all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel because the King is near of kin to us Wherefore then be ye angry for this matter have we eaten at all of the Kings cost Refellendo rationes Israelitarū ludifican do co insolentius adhuc locuti sunt quam Israelitae Tremel in loc or hath he given us any gift And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said we have ten parts in the King we have also more right in David then ye why then did ye despise us that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our King and the words of the men of Judath were fiercer then the words of the men of Israel as justly despising their pretences to merits and thanks who had so lately co-assisted in such a bloody rebellion The storm thus over of King Davids troubles and the confusions so calmed and allayed by the Kings incomparable wisdome his Generals courage and conduct in the Army and the unparaleld counsel and fidelity of Hushai the King was gloriously restored to his throne the Priests admitted peaceably to attend at the Altar and all the subjects both Iudah and Israel contended for more exact precedency in the duty of loyalty and allegiance These were the effects of these noble endeavours conferring much advantage to the King and Kingdomes happinesse these examples of Fidelity and Loyalty may direct all subjects of future ages to intimate to their utmost power the sincere and faithful Israelite and that none may over admire or too much flatter themselves or services Observations on Hnshai Obs I it may prove pertinent and to the purpose to remember that Hushai was first passionately afflicted when he heard of the Kings distresse and danger and dutifully attended his royal person and commands secondly he sturred not from the King until David commanded him Ob. II thirdly Ob. III that he waited on Absolon in his counsels but not without the Kings privity and instruction fourthly Ob. IV that he exceeded not his commission but from point to point obeyed the Kings pleasure fiftly Ob. V that his confidence and the persons to whom he was recommended for the more happy transactions of the great trust reposed in him were Zadock and Abiathar the Priests and their two sons Ionathan and Ahimaaz men of piety fidelity and sobernesse sixtly Ob. VI that Hushai was so high in esteem with King David that he was both by the King and his Enemies owned as King Davids friend seventhly Ob. VII that the hand of God did signally appear at this time in the Kings great deliverance and readvancement to his Throne for God had appointed and Commanded it should be so These circumstances premised It will be the safest way and most honourable for all subjects who as deluded Israelites have offended their Soveraign and yielded either to Absolons flattery or Achitophels Counsels and so defiled their souls with Treason and Rebellion to become cordial and true converts to their Prince and laying fast hold on his mercy and clemency to repent them truly for their crimes and errours For this is the plain Path to true Content and high way and passage to Heaven The Parallel betwixt King CHARLES the II. King of ENGLAND And LEWIS the IV. the FRENCH King THe Father of King Lewis the fourth of France was deposed and dead in Prison his Subjects in Rebellion and at the same time he an Exile in England but the success of time changed the face of all affairs and strook a deep sence into the Rebels thoughts so that they who so evil entreated the Father recalled the Son to elevate him to the Royal Throne Behold here that Gallant young Prince at the Sea-side and in the view of those Vessels wherein he sailed from Dover to Calis Thus Congratulating his Subjects before he accepted the present of his Scepter Published first 1654. Reprinted again 1659. LEWIS the IV. To his Revolted Subjects BEfore I shall receive your Oath of Fidelity which I may justly demand and you ought dutifully to take I shall let you know you have recalled this day a Prince who during his Exile had
pleasure In a word I find it far more glorious to be a loyal Subject then to be a King disobeyed Prepare then your selves to render me all that obedience which you owe me and without farther informing you whether you are to hope more for Clemency or Iustice resolve your selves to an absolute submission I know well some peevish Polititians will censure that I act not as I ought in this conjuncture and that I should reflect on former passages with some sweetness and gratifie you with Presents to encourage you with future hopes but I presume my Policy is more generous and more secure then theirs for if I had so perswaded you perhaps you would have believed me to have been more fit to wear my Fathers Irons then his Crown and would have more suspected me of weakness and dissimulation this excessive indulgence would give you more of fear and me less of honour and estimation I being then so far from following such Maximes tell you once more that I declare my self to be your King And without farther capitulation with you I ascend the Throne by the steps of mine own Authority as Soveraignly as if not recalled by you at all Hitherto I have let you know I am not ignorant how far the duty of Subjects ought to bend But moreover I judge it fit to acquaint you to what degree Soveraign Clemency may extend it self to this end that by that resentment you may reasonably know what to fear and what to hope Know then that although a Prince may justly punish Traytors he may likewise pardon penitent offenders principally then when he discerns his pardon shall reclaim insolency to obedience and fidelity For seeing Kings are the Fathers of the people they ought not alwayes to be too severe in justice and seeing that a Prince may afford grace and pardon to his enemies he may without doubt shew pity and mercy to his own Subjects He cannot well punish them all but must in part enfeeble himself nor sluce out their blood without emptying his own veins wherefore he ought to spare as far as Reason and Iustice can make the way passable When then a particular accident grows up against a Prince or State it may suffice that the heads of some chief offendors be sacrificed to a reparation and that by some severe examples others may be instructed with exemplary terrour But seeing that the number of the offendors may prove infinite and if all should be punish't a desolation of entire Provinces might succeed and consequently more men be lost then 15. main Battails could devour so that the piles of dead corps should make mountains and severe execution of revenge cause Rivers of bloud in such considerations I say It may be better to use a great example of Clemencie then of Iustice and hazard something rather then to loose the lives of so many miserable souls and there cannot be a greater Victory then to vanquish ones own passion in such dangerous conjunctures Fear not then that I shall abuse my Authority since if I should punish all who have offended I should reduce my Kingdom to a forlorn Desart For who is there among you that hath not failed of his duty Some have done mischief others have desired it or at least permitted it to be acted some have assisted Robert others have directly fought against their King some have most perfidiously laid their hands upon their Anointed Lord committed a sâcred person into prison and others have at least forsaken him The publick good is pretext of all things but Rebellion alone is the mother of that horrid Monster The Nobles agitated as they did for their own interest and the people by their madness and unavisedness seconded their fury and put in execution the intention of the Parricides Your wives and your children are not exempt from these crimes seeing without doubt they made vowes for their Parents offending and prayers against their Prince Whereas then I cannot punish you all but that I must utterly exterminate you it resteth at my choice whether I would become a King without Subjects or to pardon you out of pure grace and bounty and not by Obligations It may be that during your lives you may repent you of your ancient crimes and become as faithful as you have been disobedient But perhaps you will tell me as to our selves we have repented formerly before we sent to you to come and receive the Scepter which belongs to you 'T is true it may be as you have said and that I have considered your Addresses to me were to make reparation of what formerly passed and that with those hands you would advance to the Throne his Son whose Father you had barbarously removed But after all whosoever can abandon the path of Virtue to make choice of that Vice can again embrace that occasion if presented Wherefore you owe greater obligation to me then I can confidence to you for had I not resolved to shew Grace and Pardon the great number of Nobles which the King of England my Uncle hath presented to me to attend my person had not come without Souldiers each one of these who incircle me have troops at their command and I would not have received my Fathers Crown but in the head of a victorious Army in the midst of a Field covered with dead and dying men bedewed with the blood of ten thousand Rebels I would have been the Conquerour of my Kingdom and not have mounted unto the Throne supported by the same hands who snatcht it from my Fathers head But I call to mind I am your King as you are also my Subjects and in this relation I can love you yet as guilty as you are I can have pitty for your errors and kindness for your obstinacy and I will not put my self into a condition of sadness after the Victory I am then come to you without an Army to receive what is mine This Action without doubt is hardy bold and well deserveth glory and is sufficiently obliging to demerit your acknowledgement in all degrees of fidelity Before that you were criminous the Divine humane right conjured you notto forsake your Prince but this day a new obligation chaineth you to more strict obedience It is not enough alone to be faithful so to satisfie your dutie but it is your part to blot out the memorie of what is past and to justifie what is present you ought not to look on me meerly as your King but as a King of your own choice as a King who hath pardoned you as a King who confideth in you who now is commending his person into your hands and commits the very care of his life to your protection next to Heaven Studie then to gratifie such pressing endearments and provoke not the wrath of Heaven uppon your heads by new rebellions Those who have examined your by past actions approve not doubtless that resolution that I have taken to return into France as I have done for