26.8 God hath delivered thine Enemy into thine hand what then therefore let me smite him no such matter David denies the consequence as if he should have said God hath delivered him into my hand but â— will make no such bad use of his deliverance I had rather hereby shew him hiâ— own errour and my innocency then any way stretch forth my hand against him for he is the Lords anointed and when sleep had betrayed Saul to Davids power in the trench and made the King a subject for Davids innocence he esteemed himself but as a Partridge in the wildernesse when he might have caught the Eagle in the nest he passified Sauls Anger by inabling his power to hurt sent him his speare it seems he did not think it fit to keep the Kings Militia in â—â—s hands and humbly begs Let not my â—ud fall to the earth when if it had not â—â—en for David Abishai would have smiâ—â—n Saul unto the earth at once so that 〈◊〉 needed not to have smiten him the â—â—cond time but David would not deâ—â—â—oy him not saith he and his reason â—as Quis potest Who can stretch forth â—â—s hand against the Lords Anointed â—â—d be guiltlesse Another most notable demonstration 〈◊〉 Davids innocency and subjection â—â—to a hard Master a most tyrannicall â—â—ing cruell Saul we have 1 Sam. 24. â—hen in the Cave of Engiddi Davidâ—ight have cut off Sauls head like preâ—â—ous oyntment he descends only to 〈◊〉 skirts of his garment and with a â—uid feci checks himself and beshrews â—s heart that he had done so much and â—pon a little looking back of Saul as 〈◊〉 he had put on rayes of Majesty Daâ—â—d bows and stoops with his face to 〈◊〉 earth to him when he might have â—id his honour in the dust call'd him 〈◊〉 Father when that father came to â—â—crifice him upon the mountaines and â—Isaac-like nothing but See my Father â—hen he could see nothing but fire and sword and himself also the Lamb ready for the sacrifice A true Isaac though many young men staid behind with the Asse will after his Father though he have fire in the one hand and a knife in the other ready for to sacrifice his follower A right David and he that is a man after Gods own heart though he could bite to death and gnaw into the very bowels of his Soveraign yet he will assume no further power to hurt then to the biting of a Flea after whome is the King of Israel come out after a Flea after whom doth Saul pursue after a dead Dog when he might have caught the Lion in the toyle I could easily be endlesse in instances of the like nature as our Saviour Christ's obedience to the death under the reigne of Tiberius his Disciples under Nero Claudius and Caligula whose governments were as opposite to the propagation of the Gospel as themselves were enemies to the propagators of it yet we see they neither attempted the alteration of the one or the destruction of the other yet Christ could do much if he pleased and if the Napkins of Saint Paul and the shadow of Saint Peter could cure diseases if a word out of their mouthes could strike men and women dead in the place if an oration at the Bar could make a King tremble on the Bench then surely you will confesse that his Disciples could do something Yet nothing was done or attempted against those wicked cruell and pagan Emperours one instance shal suffice for all what mischief or injury could be done more to a people then Mebuchadonozer King of Babylon did unto the Jewes who slew their King their Nobles their Parents their Children and kinsefolkes burn'd their Country their Cities their Jerusalem their Temple and carried the reâ—idue who were left alive Captives with him to Babylon And now behold then Nebuchadonozers good subjects will you hear wat advice the Prophet Daniel gives them for all this Baruch 1.11 Pray you for the life of Nebuchadonozer King of Babilon and for the life of Balthasor his son that their dayes may be upon earth as the dayes of heaven and the Lord will give us strength what to do to wage war against him and lighten our eyes what with new revelations how they may be reveng'd O no that we may live under the shadow of Nebuchadonozer King of Babylon and under the shadow of Balthasor his son and that we may serve them many dayes and find favour in their sight truely shewing that a King is Alkum Prov. 30.31 one against whom there is no rising up that is not upon any pretences whatsoever there can be no pretences whatsoever more faire and specious then those of defending the Church and redâ—essing the Common-wealth For the first if Religion be any thing push'd at think you that Rebellion will keep it up or that it ever stood in need of such hands when God refus'd to have his Temple built by David because he was a fighter of the Lords Battailes thinke you that he will have his Church defended by fighters against the Lords Anointed to defend Religion by Rebellion were to defend it by meanes condemned by the same Religion we would defend and to reforme or redresse the Common-wealth by insurrection and Rebellion were to rectifie an errour with the greatest of all mischiefs no government worse then a Civill War and the worst Governour is alwayes better then the best Rebell Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and stubbornnesse is as Idolatry and how perilous a thing it is for the Feet to judge the Head the subjects to choose what government and governours they will have to condemne what and whom they please to make what pretences and surmises they have a mind to this Kingdome by wofull experience hath had sad resentments Imbecilities and weaknesses in Princes are no arguments for the chastisements deposing or murdering of Kings for then giddy heads will never want matter or pretences to cloak their Rebellion Shall Moses because Pharaoh was an oppressour of Gods people and had hardned his heart and would not let the Israelites depart therefore inflict punishments upon Pharaoh or so much as depart without his leave though Moses could inflict punishments upon the whole Land yet his Commission never went so far as to touch Pharaoh in the least degree though swarmes of flies came into the house of Pharaoh and Frogs entred into the Kings chamber yet we read not that they seized on Pharaohs person there were Lice in all their quarters saith the Psalmist and there became Lice in man and beast upon the smiting on the dust but none were smitten of the person of the King Boyles and blaines were upon all the Egyptians and upon the Magicians so sore as they could not stand in the presence of Pharaoh but they were not on Pharaoh that he could not stand himself Pharaoh his eldest son may die but Vivat Rex Pharaoh must not be touch'd Did Absolon doe well to conspire against his Father
Diadema Regis in manu Dej Esaj 60.3 DIEV ET MON DROIT Ps. 36.6 FLOS Jesse Iudaeque Leo sacra quem LYRA Laudat FLORES atque LYRAM CAROLIQUEtuere LEONES THE ROYAL CHARTER GRANTED UNTO KINGS BY GOD HIMSELF And collected out of his holy Word in both Testaments By T.B. Dr. in Divinitie Whereunto is added by the same Author a short Treatise wherein Episcopacy is proved to be Jure Divino Matt. 22.21 Da Caesari quae sunt Caesaris Job 14.7 There is hopes of a Tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again c. Sublato Episcopo tollitur Rex King Jame's Bas. Dor. LONDON Printed in the Year 1649. Chara dei Soboles magnum Jovis incrementum THe Of-spring of so many Loyal showers of blood and tears and Heir apparent to all the love and affection that Your royall Father had first purchased and then intail'd upon You by a deed of Martyrdome The Anchor of hope which we expect daily to be cast upon Englands shore by the hand of providence Hope hath for a long time brought up the rear but now shee 's in the van of all Your squadrons and when the Sun is once set in an Island how can it rise again but out of the water may the sighs of Your People fill Your sailes with such a prosperous gale as may land You safely upon English ground and seat You in Your Fathers Throne â—ay the flower of Jesse and the true Lion of the Tribe of Judah whom the sacred Harp so often praised defend all Your Lyons Harp and Lillies Never was there a Prince whose People were all Prophets and whose Prophets did all center in their Princes future happinesse before whilst the Enemy stands like the every-where wounded man in the Almanack pointed at by all the caelestiall signs never was their an Army who gloried so much in their strength when they are not able to stand by reason of the slipperinesse of the ground undar their feet made so by the tears of the People and the Bloud of their Soveraign Nothing but Your Majesties Royall Fathers sufferings could have made Him so famous and them so imfamous Nothing but that could have made the People know the difference between a Golden Cepter and an Iron Rod Your Father had been now living had He been lesse wise and he had not been put to death had not His People loved him too well Was ever Prince put to death by two such hands They forced the Laws to take away their own life they made Wisdome to sley her own children by whom shee should be justified and the love of the People the murderer of their own darling who can help it to cure the Kings evil requires a royall hand I doe not teach my pen so high ambition as to undertake such cures but it may be Inke will serve to cure a tetter or a wring-worm if it doe but so I shall think my pains well bestowed and my duty highly approved of if when I have presented this Royall Charter to Your Royall hand it may be graced with Your Princely Eie being it proceeds from as loyall a heart as can direct a pen how to subscribe the pen-man Your Majesties most faithfull and loyall Subject T.B. To the Reader Reader THis wretched Kingdome lately the envy of other Nations and now the object of pitty to all but to her selfe upon whom Peace had long doted and dandled their Kingdomes in her lap whose natives as though they had clipt the wings of Peace so that she could not flie away from them nor make the happinesse of peace once common to all the world now an inclosure within the broad ditch of their narrow Seas and the strong fence of their innumerable Ships having attain'd to all the prosperity and happinesse that such Sun-shine daies could ripen Shee fell from thence into the most bitter War that the greatest plenty could uphold and thence into the greatest miseries that the highest pride could cast her downe and now lies plunged in all the miseries of a Civill War whose direfull effects are as remedilesse as those whose causes are not to be found and as far from redressing as is the malady for which no reason is to be given though we cannot fathome the depth of these our unserchable miseries nor dive into the bottom of this Ocean of calamities yet let us wonder a little how we could squander away so great a share of that felicity which we once enjoyed out our selves of possessions so full stockt with blessings trifle away not sell our birth-rights of Peace for a messe of pottage that hath death in the pot If for Religion we have fought all this while when did the Church change her weapons must prayers and tears be turned into pike and musket did God refuse to have his Temple built by David a man after his own heart because only his hands were bloudy and will he now be contented to have his Church repaired and her breaches made up with skuls and carkasses must bloud be tempered with morter that must bind the stones of his Temple in Vnity or are the smitings of brethren strokes fit to pollish her stones withall Hath God refused the soft voice to remaine in thunder or hath his spirit left the gentle posture of descending downe upon his Apostles to the approaching of a mighty and rushing winde To go about the reforming of a Church by humane strength is as quite opposite to the nature of Reformation as is the going about the repairing of a Castle wall with a needle and thred He that looks for such inestimable goodnesse within Iron sides may as well looke to find a Pearle in a Lopster No no the Church must not be defended with Helmets the risisters of blows but with Miters which have received the cleft already not by broken pates but by cloven tongues not by men clad in Buffe but by Priests cloathed in righteousnesse Decitions in matters of faith must not be determined by armour of proof nor did the sword of the spirit ever make way to the conscience by cutting through the flesh He therefore who takes up Armes against his Soveraigne with pretenses of defending his Religion doth but take such courses as are condemned by the same Religion he would defend and indeed he doth but make Religion his stalking-horse to blind him whilst he aimes at that which he would have least suspect him which when he hath effected he meanes to get up upon the horse and ride him at his pleasure they pretend the good of the Church when you may be assured they intend nothing more then the goods thereof and like dissembling Lapwings make a shew of being nearest the nest when they are furthest of it If we Fight for our Liberties what Liberties are they that we Fight for if for Liberty of Conscience what doe you meane thereby if by Liberty of Conscience you mean that it shall be lawfull for every one to chuse
child insomuch that it made the Prophet weep to fore-see all the miseries that should happen 2 Kings 8.12 insomuch that it made Hasaell himself when he was told thereof cry out is thy servant a Dogge that he should do all these things â— vers. 13. yet for all this God will have him to be King and it be but to scurge his people the Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be King over Syria vers. 13. Julian when from his Christianity he fell to flat Paganisme yet this Anointing held no Christian ever sought no Preacher ever taught to touch him or resist him in the least degree for whilst the cruell and bloudy Emperours were persecuting the poor Christians they were fitting their necks for the Yoke and teaching on another postures how they might stand fairest for the strok of Death Anâ— this was not Quia deer ant vires because they could not help it for the greatest part of Julians Army and the most part of his Empire were Christians For saith Tertullian in his appologeticall defence of the Christians of those times una nox pauculis faculis c. One night with a few firebrands will yeild us â—ufficient revenge if we durst by reason of â—ur Christian obligation and shewes how they neither wanted forces nor numbers and that neither the Moors or the Persians or any other Nation whatsoever were more mighty or more populous then they and how they filled all places Townes Cities Emperiaâ—l Pallaces Senats and Seats of Judgement and that they could do any thing in their revenge if it were any thing lawfull but this Anointing was the thing that kept the swelling down and hindred the corrupt humours from gathering to a head And therefore it is not as Stephanus Junius Franciscus Hottomanus Georgius Buchananus Ficklerus and Renecherus with the rest of the pillars of the Puritan Anarchy do answer being gravel'd at the practice of the primitive Christianâ— and those precepts of the holy Apostle that the Church then as it were swathed in the bonds of weaknesse had not strength enough to make powerfull resistance and therefore so the one taught and the other obeyed but if this doctrine were allowable then would inevitably follow these two grosse absurdities 1. That the pen of the holy Ghost which taught submission even to the worst of Kings was not directed according to the equity of the thing but the necessity of the times 2. That either the holy Ghost must turne politician and become a timeserver or else the Church must lose the meanes of its being and subsistance Whereas we know the contrary so well that when Acies Ecclesiae was so far from its bene ordinata that when al the Souldiers fled and the Life-guard routed the Lord of Hoast the Generall himself taken Prisoner yet then like the Sun looking biggest in lowest estate so the son of righteousnesse thinke ye not that I can pray unto my Father and he will send Lâ—gions of Angels and raâ—her thâ—n Gods children shall be oppressed by a company of Egiptians if it be his pleasure to deliver them he can without the drawing of one Sword turne Rivers into bloud produce an Army of Froggs to destroy them and rather then they should be necessitated for lack of means â—end swarms of Flies that may serve â—hem in the stead of so many rescuing Angelâ— and therefore it was not any â—ecessity that the Church was or could â—e in that procured in the Apostles or the first Christians either that doctrine â—r that use it was not dis-ability but duty not want of strength but a reveâ—end regard of the Lords Anointed that wrought these effects in both Let the people be never so many and mighty and the Princes of the people never so wicked and cruell mos gerendus est we must obey them not in the performance of their unjust commands but in submission to their just authority if not by our active yet by our passive obedience if not for their own sakes yet propter Dominum for the Lords sake if not for wrath yet for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 if it goeth against thy conscience say â—s the people were wont to say when they fell down before the Asse that carried the Image of the Goddesse Isis upon his back non tibi sed Reâ—igioni if thy conscience condemns thee God is greater then thy conscience and we must look what he commands as well as what she dictates the one may be mislead the other cannot mislead sacrifice may be either pleasing or displeasing to the Lord but obedience was never faulty thou maist offer the sacrifice of Fools when thou thinkest thou doest well but upon how sure grounds goes he who can say with the Prophet in all his actions If I have gone a stray O Lord thou hast caused me to erre never deviating from the expresse of his word Now God gives us expresse command that we should not touch his Anointed what condition soever they are of Nâ—lite tangere Christos meos touch not mine Anointed and where Gods rules are generall we must not put in exceptions of our own for the wickednesse of a King can no more make void Gods ordinance of our orbedience unto him then mans unbelief can frustrate Gods decree in us Rom. 3.3 Let Saul be wicked and let wicked Saul be hut once Anointedd David states the question neither concerning Saul nor his wickednesse but whether he being the Lords Annointed there 's the businesse it is lawfull to stretch forth a hand against him who can stretch his hand against the Lordâ— Anointed and be guiltless 1 Sam. 26.9 CHAP. VII Whether upon any pretences whatsoever it be lawfull to depose murder or so much as touch the Lords Anointed THere was the first time that ever it was put to the Vote â—hether a King might be put to death â—r not but it was resolved upon the â—uestion in that Parliament Ne perdas â—estroy him not it is well that Davidâ—ad a negative voice or else it had been â—ut a bad president for Kings it is wel â—hat the men with whom David had this â—arley would hearken unto reason and â—et that sway them otherwise Davidâ—ight have been forced to flie as fast â—way from his own men as he did first â—rom Saul for there wanted no Layâ—reachers then to preach the destruction â—nd slaughter of Princes under the preâ—ences of wicked government and tyranâ—y who had the trick then as well as â—ow to couch their foul meaning in â—ood words and Scripture phrase with a dixit dominus when the Lord said no such thing as Davids Zealots 1 Sam. 24 5â—This is the day wherof the Lord said unto thee I will delivâ—r thine Enemy into thine hand anâ— thou shalt doe unto him what as shalâ— seem good unto thee that is thou shall murder him that was their meaning though the word was a good word and we doâ— not read where the Lord said any such thing at all So Abishai 1 Sam.