Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	david_n	king_n	saul_n	6,232	5	10.0779	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62103	A vindication of King Charles: or, A loyal subjects duty Manifested in vindicating his soveraigne from those aspersions cast upon him by certaine persons, in a scandalous libel, entituled, The Kings cabinet opened: and published (as they say) by authority of Parliament. Whereunto is added, a true parallel betwixt the sufferings of our Saviour and our soveraign, in divers particulars, &c. By Edw: Symmons, a minister, not of the late confused new, but of the ancient, orderly, and true Church of England.	Symmons, Edward.; Symmons, Edward. True parallel betwixt the sufferings of our Saviour and our Soveraign, in divers particulars.	1648 (1648)	Wing S6350A; ESTC R204509	281,464	363

purpose do stil detain it from him Our observation of them hath been this They wanting matter to make their King odious to the world as they desire he should be did labour all they could to disable him from doing as he had said and purposed that so they might upon his failing have some pretence to tel the people he was perfidious and a Promise-breaker 2. Whether the Kings promises when first made were not intended performable only upon the Condition of their Faith and Obedience who now tax him and whether they have performed their duties in those particulars we conceive that as Gods promises so the Kings are made upon such supposals If ye be willing and obedient saies God ye shal eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shal be devoured by the sword and again The Lord wil be with you while you be with him but if ye forsake him and walk contrary unto him He wil forsake you and walk contrary unto you If the Kings promises should be more absolute then Gods they might be sinful and so a sin to keep them though he had power beside faith and obedience doth not only make people capable of the thing promised but doth also inable the party promising to make his intended goodness manifest It is said that Christ could do no mighty works in a certain place because of the peoples unbelief Did mens unbelief weaken Christs hands and can it strengthen those of the King I conceive no man can justly tax the King of any breaches in this kind unless they can shew that his promises were absolute and notwithstanding their continuation in Rebellion and opposition against him or at least can name some one particular of them for which they took his word and waited on him in the way of obedience which he did not perform to the uttermost of his power 3. Whether those men who take such pains to have the King accounted it in the world a Promise-breaker be themselves free from the same crime whether they have been precise and punctual in keeping all their Oaths Promises and Protestations made unto the King If not it may be suspected that their Policy is greater then their Honesty and that they hope to cloud their own fault by means of this dust which they raise against the King as conceiving that men wil not be so uncivil as to think them guilty of that which with so much mouth and fieriness of Spirit they censure in the King And yet verily many are of opinion that it cannot be shewn from any story that there was ever a like pack of perfidious wretches under the cope of Heaven professing the Christian Protestant Religion that have broken more Oaths of Allegeance Bonds of obedience and Protestations of Loyalty then these have done Again I do further advise the Readers that if from any passages in these Letters they shal conceive they see in the King some failing concerning his trust and dependance on God that he doth not so totally cast himself upon his strength and providence as in their thoughts it be seemeth the Anointed of the Lord and as at the beginning of his troubles he resolved to do but seems to look out for other helps as of Forreiners and people of another Religion which in their apprehensions is not so proper for him a Protestant Prince to make use of Yet before they passe a rigorous censure against him after the manner of these men Let them also consider of these three particulars 1. That the King is in the state of Mortality and so hath frailties in him as wel as others Nor was it ever known that Faith was at all times alike strong and lively in the best believers somtime they have relied wholy upon God but somtimes again they have been ful of doubtings specially when afflictions have bin hard upon them and God seemed to stand afar off David at some time thought that God had quite cast him off and forgotten him though somtime again he could say that God was his salvation and when Peter that great Apostle felt himself sinking his Faith failed him Now considering how tedious bitter and heavy the Kings afflictions have bin we who are more frail should rather magnifie and admire the strength of Gods grace in him that hath supported him so far and so long then condemn him for his weakness the best of us perhaps had despaired and bin distracted or dead long ere this under the like continuance of a far lesse burden 2. That necessity is a Tyrant and forceth men beyond their wils and purposed inclinations and therfore Seneca wel Magnum imbecillitatis nostrae patrocinium necessitas quae omnem legem frangit it breaks all laws and resolutions and thrusts a man with a kind of Authority into by-paths it did David when notwithstanding Gods particular promise to settle him in the Throne of the Kingdom and after a large and frequent experience of Gods delivering him from Sauls rage he said I shal one day perish by the hand of Saul and thereupon used that which is now counted an indirect mean for his preservation the help of Forreiners and men of another Religion He sought protection from Achish king of Gath and indeed behaved himself in his court being there also put to his shifts somwhat unseemly And so Abraham notwithstanding God had promised him his special guard wherupon he had the more reason to be confident and to depend upon him yet being in a strait to save his life used an undirect mean two several times and hazarded the loss of his Wives Honour Our King hath had no such personal and special promises of Gods preservation as those holy men had therfore if he had bin so weak in faith as some wil happily apprehend him yet had he shewn himself therein but the son of David the son of Abraham It would doubtless better become the best of us to pray with the Psalmist Let not the rod of the wicked lie alway upon the back of the Righteous lest the righteous put forth his hand unto wickedness then to condemn or censure a righteous Prince for his putting forth his hand for forrein help in a cause of this nature when he is in danger to be deprived both of life and Kingdom but more of this hereafter 3. Let it be remembred how highly guilty of hiring and impolying forrein aid these his Accusers with their faction are who oppose his Majesty notwithstanding that great strength of ships arms wealth and men which are at home under their Command they have the aid of all men whomsoever they can get or hire to help them in spoyling the King they called in the Scottish Nation to this purpose and it is wel known by divers where neer thirty of their men being at once taken together Prisoners were found upon examination to be of six several Nations and all Papists wherfore then may

second had neglected to observe his Fathers Testament and therefore as one under Gods curse ought meritoriously to be dealt withall as Edward the second was first deposed and then put to death and so would they make use of that Act of his in fortifying themselves another way to do him a further mischief but God we trust will prevent them and guide him And thus we have seen the true reasons of their first Proposition concerning Abolition of Episcopacy And we hope if His Majesty be forced as Henry the third was to subscribe to any thing against his will he will do as some of the Martyrs have don in a like straite first of all require of them that urge these unreasonable propositions upon him before he signes them to imprecate publikely and in a solemn manner upon themselves and posterities all the demerit of guilt and sin which shall be incurred at Gods Hand by such a subscription If their Consciences think there be no sinne in the matter they will easily doe it but if they refuse it will manifestly appear to the whole world that they are most devillishly minded thus to presse the King to things unlawfull In the next place they require the settling of the Militia of the three Kingdomes in good hands by advise of Parliament SECT XIIII 1. Their unreasonablenesse in desiring the Militia to be in their sole disposall Four weak and dangerous pretences for it 2. Four true Grounds of this their demand 3. How sinfull and dangerous a thing it would be to the Church People and Kingdome if the King should grant it IT is to be noted the Militia not of one but of three Kingdomes they must have all or none as Moses would not leave an H●ofe behinde with King Pharoah so these will not leave a weapon with the King They will have the whole Militia of the 3. whole Kingdomes settled say they in good hands But what Hands are those If gentle peaceable and Religious hands are such then was the Militia of the Kingdome in good hands before untill by the fraud and violence of these demanders it was wrested thence But if by good Hands they mean such as have now griped the same into their possession God forbid that the King should ever willingly yeild it should be setled there or that the people of the Kingdome should ever consent thereto for so they might pull the guilt of that Innocent bloud which hath already and is still likely to be shed by it while so setled upon their owne heads It was alwayes till now without scruple beleeved for an undoubted truth that those hands were the best which Gods Word and the Law of the Land so judged and committed the Militia into and those were only the Kings no law Common or Statute can be shewed whereby it was ever setled elsewhere And in Gods Word Kings though Heathens are intituled Gods sword-bearers in respect of their office to execute punishment upon evil doers In the story of Israels Government we read of King Sauls selected band which himselfe alone made choice of and of Davids Worthies and of his appointing Captaines over hundreds and over thousands the Militia it seemes was in his sole hands then Himselfe made Joab the Generall of his Hoste and displaced him again at his own pleasure Indeed we know that the forme of Government in the Jewish Common-wealth is much slighted and scorned at by our new State-mongers as weak unperfect and unfit for this Nation the Government of Heathen Rome is in their Judgements the most absolute and this is that say they which they aspire after But we are of opinion that God Almighties wisdome is better then theirs is or then that of the Heathens was and we believe that those State-Governments are the only best and most fit for Christians that come neerest unto that which God himself contrived and prescribed unto his own people and we well remember when ours here held a neer conformity unto that we best flourished Nor can we conceive why the same we had should be more unsuteable to the Nation now all upon the suddain then heretofore but only because these Innovators have at the present unfitted people for Gods Yoak by making them Rebellious And for this reason it seemes we must now forsake the direction of Gods Word and of Law established to listen after a certain new advise from these few men who call themselves the Parliament who as if all wisdom were lodged in them must take upon them to Nominate some New good hands to settle the Militia of the Kingdoms in for after-times But we are confident before-hand they wil like him that chose himself Pope determine only for themselves and judge their own hands the best of all others though alas the whole Kingdom hath felt the Contrary by smarting experience But may it not be imagined that men so excessively wise are ful of reason what therfore may the grounds be of this unreasonable demand the like to which I never met with in any story and doubtless should it be granted the King as himself says wel should remain But the outside but the picture but the sign of a King For in the Militia of the Kingdom consists the Kings power his Authority and to yeild to the setling of this in any hands but his own were to yeild up his Crown it self his very Kingdom Now therfore by what right or reason they should claim the Kings Crown I cannot imagine unless perhaps they have bargained for that right which the Pope had therunto by King Johns resignation The story saies that the King received it back of the Pope to hold from thenceforth in fee farm of Him and his Successours for the yearly rent of a 1000 Marks Now perhaps upon the Kings non-payment of the said rent they have gotten the Popes right conveyed to them and do bottom this their demand upon it and that strict intelligence which Lenthall the Speaker brags that himself keeps with the Cardinall Mazarine may peradventure be about the setling of the said conveyance but this is a secret which the people must not know of or wil not believe nor wil I press it upon them and therfore they have other pretences and say they demand it 1. Because those good Hands which the Parliament wil make choice of to settle the Militia in are sure hands that is hands that may be trusted which wil never part again with what they have once griped or laid hold upon never a pack of Knaves in the world shal be able to cheat them of their Magazines their Ships their Towns and Castles if once the whole power of the Kingdom be at their disposing they wil not take mens words nor believe their Oaths nor credit their Honesties as the King hath done nor wil they be so scrupulous as he hath bin of giving occasions of suspicion to his inferior Subjects Besides themselves being as themselves say Gods Children have

that truth and Loyalty which themselves also once professed and we stil maintain truly we have had such an ample experience already of their goodness in our preservation that we publickly profess to all the world we daily find in England what our poor captive Brethren do feel at Argier that there is no such cruel Turk as the Renegado Christian. When the sole power of the Sword or Militia was in the Kings Hand the poor Country-men as wel as the rich and Noble lived in peace slept securely under his own roof and without any fear did eat his bread with gladness he could say that what he had bought and payed for was his own and if any did injure or oppress him the Law was open to do him right But since these new Preservatours as they call themselves are risen up those Golden days are vanished and Iron times are come upon us Judgment is turned away backward and Justice standeth a far off Truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter Yea truth faileth and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey Esay 59. 14. 15. Our Nobles and Gentry are debased our Rich-men are beggered and many thousands of all sorts are killed or starved the whole Commonalty of the Kingdom in the General are in the same Condition with the Asses of France thought fit for nothing but blows and burdens no man can now command the use of his proper goods or the service of his own Children we hear daily of rapes and robberies burning of houses depopulation of Towns violence and oppression reigns in all places and confusion is poured out in ful measure among us insomuch that our wel-ordered Common-wealth that was is translated into a very Conjuration of Tyrannies by the means of these men whose aims and endevours are only to keep us in perpetual slavery Militari Jure by the Militia which yet forsooth they desire may be setled in their good hands for the peoples security and preservation 'T is true the people at first chose them and now they feel them and have cause to know them and to confess of them that they are very Scorpions to them and that their little finger is ten times heavier then the Kings Loynes The people chose them to be Arbytratours on their side against their King to comprimize as it were on their behalf some matter between the King and them for under that notion do the people commonly chuse their Parliament men and such shal only be carried on their shoulders whom they apprehend wil be most stiffe against their Soveraign as if he were the only great Enemy to their welfare and prosperity But by this time the greatest part of them we believe are otherwise instructed and as some of them have confessed their apprehensions of the King and Parliament as they stand now in the tearms contradistinct and opposite is like that which the Heathens have of God and the Devil as those adore the Devil with gifts and sacrifices for fear of mischief from him so do these the Parliament but God say the Heathens is good and wil do us no harm so say these is the King and therfore they neglect to do him service And doubtless might people have but liberty now to speak their minds freely they would utterly renounce the preservation of those their Arbitratours and desire again the Kings protection after the manner of former times And wheras these new Governours desire to have the Militia of three Kingdoms setled in their own hands for our greater security we must needs apprehend from the proof they have given us of what they promised us that this their pretence is but one of those bitter flouts which in scorn at our simplicities for thinking them to be honest men they cast upon us Sed Deus vindex God shal one day sit in judgment on them 4. They have said It would be to the Kings great glory to let them have the whole and perpetual managing of the Militia for then they should be fully able to make him the most glorious Prince in Christendome which thing they have a long time promised purposed and endevoured and all this fighting must be bel●eved to be to that very end for had the King but tamely at first delivered up into their hands what God committed into his trusted them for ever with that Power and Authority wherwith God hath trusted him Had he but for their sakes denied God to be the only Ruler of Princes and acknowledged them his Governours and Guardians Had he but resigned unto them what King John his Predecessour once did unto the Pope they would have made the Pope their President in this as wel as they do in many other things and have returned it back again to him as he did to King John and so the King holding his Kingdom from thenceforth immediately of them they would have done more for him I that they would then ever his old Land-lord God Almighty either did or meant to do For wheras God made him King but only of England Scotland and Ireland they would have given him moreover all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them so that had not the King stood in his own light they had Conquered for him long ere this the Kingdoms of France and Spain and the Empire of Germany yea and the last year they had pulled out old Antichrist by the ears and burnt the whore Babylon with fire together with all of her Trinkets and at this very instant they had bin stepping over unto Constantinople for to ding down the great Turk and in the next half year the Mogull of Persia had bin taught to submit himself and then also the King of China had bin summoned to an account for his usurping the Title of Filius Coeli which is proper to no man living but only to those of their faction and by that time the Grand Chams of Tartary would have learned so much wit as to forbear calling themselves Domini Dominantium and to leave that stile wholly unto these superlative Abamocchoes And now who wil not say it had bin a Glorious thing to the King for the world to take notice that so great a brood of such mighty Alexanders should like that Cadmeyan Progeny start up on the sodain at one time in his Kingdom But it seems the King wanted faith and thought such great Acts might be sooner purposed then performed or else was jealous of these his Worthies that in their subduing of these Kingdoms they would not have dealt with him as Joab did with David at the taking of Rabbah and yeilded to him the glory of the Conquest Now whether the King were too blame or no in so thinking let wise men judge But let me reason a little with these men about this their reason Suppose the King should settle as they would have him the Militia of the Kingdom in their hands and then they should chance to Vote Bonum est

their surprisal together with that bitter Preface and perverse Notes upon them was to weaken the Kings reputation among his people to take from him the affections of those that still remaine constant and Loyal and to stir up some already poysoned to act Raviliacks part upon him and yet these men would have us beleeve that it would have been a sin in them forsooth yea a great sin a sin against the mercies of God if they had concealed them Nay further they would have us think that God himself did graciously and even miraculously put them into their hands on purpose yea on set purpose that they might doe with them as they have done We doe confess if God should so far have forgot himself his holy Nature his Word and all his former doings as to put these Papers into their hands to that very end for which they publish them he should have done very miraculously indeed and what he never did since the beginning of the world before But we the Seduced Brethren as we are called should prove our selves Seduced indeed if in this we should beleeve them for we could never finde throughout the whole History of the Bible that God did ever yet allow any man to defame his Brother his equall his inferiour much lesse his Father the Father of his Countrey and Supreamest Magistrate in the Kingdome we finde there a strict precept to the contrary Thou shalt not speak evill of the Ruler of thy People But that God should be partaker also with the Calumniator as these men would have him that he should be chief in the sinne and help the ill disposed with occasions on purpose to render that Person infamous whom himself hath commanded in speciall to be honoured and to whom Allegeance hath been sworn and obedience protested truly the Authours of this Libell must not be angry with us whom they call Seduced if for this their assertion we think them guilty of most high Blasphemy for we suppose that Doeg might as lawfully have pretended that Gods mercy gave him advantage by being at Nob to exasperate Saul against the Priests of the Lord and Shimei might as well have said that Gods grace did adminster unto him the occasion of Davids passing by his house on purpose that he might curse him and raile upon him The Papists have often taxed us that we made God the Authour of evill and now these men as we conceive would faine draw us into that Heresie with themselves to confirme that slander of the Adversary but we would have all the world to understand that the true Protestant Professours in the English Church were never yet guilty of this Blasphemy they are rather Scabbs then true Members of the same from whence doth issue this Corruption We remember when Rabshakeh being flesh'd with his masters successe railed upon Hezekiah he uttered himself after the fashion of these men as if God had sent him on purpose to vilifie and defame the King Am I come up saith he without the Lord and God observed it and soon after punished him for it So we hope the Lord hath both seen and heard the Blasphemous words of these men whom their masters the Authorizers of their Libel have set on work to defame the Lords Anointed and to reproach the living God and wil in his due time reprove the words which they have spoken we have a ground for our hopes in Psal. 50. where God taxeth some that were great pretenders to Religion though haters of his word in their practice for they were malicious Accusers and Slanderers of others and like these men to the ful they intituled God to all their villanyes saying he was such a one as themselves But the Lord resolves in the following verses that there should come a time that he would reprove them and cal them to a reckoning for all these things yea saith he I will teare you in pieces and none shall deliver you and so doubtlesse he wil deal with these men like forgetters of God as they be unlesse by a timely repentance they consider of these their presumptions and most ungodly doings The Lord in mercy vouchsafe that grace unto them We their Seduced Brethren as we are accounted do in the mean time conceive from this their beginning what we shal have in their following discourse and we shal wonder the lesse when we meet with their unseemly Language of and against their Soveraigne now we have seen such their high boldnesse against the Almighty himselfe But one thing is to be noted further in those first lines they call those Papers which they Publish Evidences of truth their meaning is of what themselves have reported against the King which they onely call truth and would have all men beleeve for truth We know they have often wrested Gods Scriptures to make them appeare as Evidences of such their truths and therefore 't is no marvail if together with their own perverse notes upon them they use the Kings letters to the same purpose Indeed I beleeve that these Papers might have been Evidences of truth and of Loyalty too had the Surprizers of them been guilty of these vertues and so pleased if after their surprizall finding that by sinister construction they might prove blemishes to the Kings reputation should weak mindes but chance to see them they had presently locked them up in the Cabinet again sent them secretly to the King then indeed they might more properly have said in a private letter to their Soveraigne God hath graciously and in mercy to us put into our hands an occasion to Evidence our truth our honest hearts and Loyall Affections to your Majesty I would have these men ask their own Consciences whether they doe not think that David would have done thus had he met with such an advantage in the dayes of Saul surely they cannot conjecture he would have done after their fashion for when he had as large an opportunity of doing his King a displeasure as this was and some did advise him to make use of it to such a purpose telling him in effect that it would be a great sinne in him against the mercies of God who so graciously and miraculously had put the opportunity into his hand if he should balk the same But David being a man after Gods own heart knew Gods minde better then these men do and being as full of truth and Loyalty as ever he had been in his professions of the same rebuked those who thus advised him telling them plainly that never any could go in that way which they councelled him unto but would prove guilty of High Treason and become liable to Gods curse But sayes he by his actions I 'le make another use of this advantage even to Evidence my truth and Loyalty to discover mine honest intentions unto the King who hath conceived an ill opinion of me I 'le take away his speare and the pot of water that stands at

leave you 1. When Humane helps are gone and no power left among men no reserve of succour to be looked for at their hand from whence formerly it was wont to come no second causes to be seen then will God arise and judge for us so we are told The Lord shall judge for his people and repent himself for his servants when he sees their power is gone and trere is none shut up or left and therefore we are advised in another place when we are in darknesse and see no light then to trust in the Name of the Lord and to stay our selves upon our God David did so and found the comfort of it 1 Sam. 30. ● c. God's use is not to reach out his hand till Peter be almost sunke but then he failes not 2. When the wicked that pretended to us but were not of us are scattered and destroyed when they that envyed at us maliced us and abused us because we durst not be so vile as they to run with them into the like excesse of riot but were more affected then they would be with our Kings sorrowes and Gods judgements upon our Nation when these I say are come to nothing and so likely to have no part of the glory of the work when done then will God himselfe appeare for us and this is intimated to us as was noted once before in Esay 26. where speaking of such a prophane and wicked crue who when God's hand was lifted up in judgement would not see it nay they maliced and envye● as it seems those that did see it and layed it to heart but the fire of thine enemies O God shall devoure them for it saies the Prophet i. e. rage shall continue powerfull even in their hands whom thou hatest till those other wretches are consumed or blown to nothing and then it follows O Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us yea thou shalt then work all our works for us 3. When the sin of the enemy is high and himselfe higher in his own opinion then ere before when he puffeth at his opposites as too farre below him for to reach him and promising himselfe securitie thinkes the work done dares affront God his Word his Name and Glory and prophane what ever hath his mark upon it then will the Lord rouze up himselfe against him It is time for thee Lord to work for they have made void thy Law sayes David When Balthazar was bold with those Vessels appointed to holy use the hand-writing appeared against him when Rabshakeh and his Master were so bold with Gods name as to entitle that to their villanies the Lord put an Hook into their noses and a bridle into their lipps soon after when the proud Philistine disdained Davids littlenesse his own ruine was nigh at hand when those Amalekites that took Ziglag were eating and drinking and dividing the spoiles and dancing for joy of their great booties they lost all againe upon the suddain and their lives withall and the Apostle speakes it positively of all ungodly and self-promising men that when they shall say peace and safety then suddain destruction commeth on them as travail upon a woman with child which they shall not escape yea the day of the Lord shall come upon them as a Thiefe in the night suddainly unexpectedly when they are at rest and look for quiet 4. When the Stomacks of Gods afflicted people be down and they not only made like mire in the streets but contented with it in as much as they see Gods hand in it Behold saies the Lord I have taken the cup of trembling out of thy hand and thou shalt no more drink of it but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee and they shall drink of the dreggs thereof even they which have said to thy soul bow down that we may go over and thou hast laid thy body as the ground as the street to them that went over when the people of this Land have been content to bow their backs so low as under the name of Delinquents meekly and patiently to buy over at the hands of the Rebels those Lands and Inheritances left them by their Fathers then may the Lord make good his word unto the peeled and oppressed people of this wofull Nation In a word as when the wise Parent hath brought his child to kisse the rod then he gives over beating him and burns that so perhaps will God deale with us beat us with the rod till he hath brought us for to kisse it and this we do when with appeased spirits we can supplicate him to pardon them that have thus abused us when we have layed aside all thoughts of revenge towards them all purposes of crying quit for quit with them if God restore us and bring them into our condition Wherefore friends and fellow-sufferers we now see what we are to doe even to resolve by Gods grace if we live and thrive not to doe to them as they have done to us but to return rather good for evill for thus it becomes us to do as we are Christs members nos pati poenas decet non esse poenas we must be ambitious to be conditioned in this case like that good Archbishop Cranmer of whom it was said Do my Lord of Canterbury a shrewd turn and you shall have him your friend ever after but of all people we must take heed of being like our enemies of whom it may be said on the contrary Doe them a good turn and you shall have them your enemies ever after their custome you know hath been when we have fallen into their power to interpret the same to be by Gods providence to the end that they might torment mischief and abuse us which they or some of them have not failed to doe in full measure and when they on the other side have fallen into ours and fared well to insult thereupon and say no thank to us therefore for we would fain have done them hurt but God would not suffer us but restrained us by holding our hands whether we would or no and delivered them from us to the end they may do God service in punishing us afterward if they can but get us Now perhaps they may be of the same opinion still when hereafter they shall be at our mercy but we must look to God and not to them remembring alwaies though they deserve no favour from us yet God deserves to be obeyed by us and for his sake we must shew mercy we have heard of Josephs kindnesse to his brethren that had evill thoughts to him-ward we must resolve to doe like him and if the conditions of Joseph be in our carriage the blessing of Joseph shall be our portion this must be our resolution if we live And if we die by their despightful hands before God doth turn the wheel upon them we must resolve to conclude our daies as Christ

nobis esse hic 't is better to stay at home and play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to adventure abroad How would the King then appear so abundantly glorious Do they imagine it could be any thing to his glory to have it reported in the Courts of forrein Princes that the Monarch of Great Brittain after twenty years managing his inheritance left him by his predecessours and weilding the Scepter of three Kingdoms to the great prosperity and wealth of his Subjects hath submitted himself to Pupillage under the Command of a few ordinary Gentlemen his own vassals at their requests who think themselves wise enough and therfore take upon them as his Tutors and Guardians to Govern not only himself and his Kingdom but also his very Family and Houshold they appoint him what Servants shal wait upon him and have power to dispose of his Children in marriage without his consent or if they please against his wil. Can any man think that such a report would speak the King in a Glorious Condition Would not Strangers reply and say Is this the Honour of the English King and his great Priviledge above other Princes He may enjoy it sure without Emulation no man wil ever envy him this glory But is this indeed the English mens kindness to their Common Father their gratitude for all their happiness and peace under him Is this the upshot of all their great promises to him Is this that Royal Prerogative that happy freedom which those who stand so much upon their own liberty can in their good nature find in heart to afford unto their Soveraign Would not the meanest of them all disdain to be in that Condition What Neither have Command over his Subjects nor yet over his houshold servants Neither have power to chuse a Wife for his Son nor to bestow his Daughter in marriage Must the Right Worshipful his Tutors and Guardians have the sole disposing of his Children No doubt but they wil have a care to match them into such Haggard stocks that the English Nation shal never more be blessed with any Right-bred Eagles Thus would Forreiners descant upon our Kings Condition should he yeild to the desires of these men and this they would have us believe would be to his great glory Yea and furthermore they have bin teaching the People ever since the Parliament began that the Kings office properly is but only to put in Execution what the Parliament shal Decree to see offenders punished according to the minde and pleasure of his great Councell From whence we learne that there is a preferment waiting for him if he have but a care to please his little Great Masters well and be dilligent to come when they call to go and do as they bid in lieu of his settling the Militia of the three Kingdomes in their hands they will bestow upon him the grand Executionership of the Kingdome which He and His after him shall hold of them and their successours quàm diù se benè gesserint which may be an Office not onely of profit in such Tyrannicall times as we are like to have under their Government but also of pleasure if the King will but put off his mercifull disposition and learne of them to delight in slaughter and shedding of bloud And thus we see what great Dignity and Glory upon his resignation of the Militia is like to be conferred upon Englands King But what man now not void of Reason considering withall the tearmes these Demanders stand in at the present with the King will not conclude this their pretence of making the King Glorious to be onely one of their Flouts which in their pride and bitterness they are pleased to put upon their Soveraigne even for his easiness and goodness in giving credit at first so far to their Oathes and Honesties as to suffer them already to over-reach him truly as a plain scorn we apprehend it for let them Answer us a question or too Would dutifull and loyall Subjects as they call themselves desire any thing in earnest of their Prince and not first lay down their Harness Do not these their weapons speak that by violence or dread they intend to obtain their purpose Have not these very men seized already by fraud and force upon that very thing without the Kings leave which they require of him to grant them Do they not by calling themselves the Militia declare Evidently that they account themselves the everlasting Masters of it Do they intend if the King shall think meet to deny their request to yeeld up presently that possession which they have already of the same We suppose not for they claime in their Tenents all earthly power and Authority to be theirs by right as they are Gods Children They are so bold as to say Gods Providence hath cast into their hands that strength of the Militia which by unjust meanes they have seized upon and they have entred into an Oath and Covenant in effect to keep the same in despight of the King and with it to suppress and destroy all them that shall ayde and assist the King to recover His own again And what is all this but as Micha speakes to oppresse a man and his House Yea a King and his Heritage and to resolve to continue in so doing even because they have gotten a power into their Hands But tell us O you pretenders to Piety where in the meane time is that Subjection to the King for Conscience sake which S. Paul calls for and that obedience for the Lords sake which Saint Peter requireth will you all hold as some of your fellow-members have maintained that these Precepts were onely in date in the Primitive times when the People of God lived under Heathen Persecutors and are of no concernment in these dayes now Gods people have got strength Or do you think the bare calling your selves His Majesties most Dutifull and Loyall Subjects a sufficient observance of those injunctions We beleeve neither of these excuses will satisfie Christ Jesus at the reckoning day But in the interim doth not your desiring the King that the Militia may be setled in your hands plainly infer that in your own Consciences you have done him wrong in seizing already upon it without his leave Surely if the right of settling it be now in him the right of seizing upon it before was not in you but you did a manifest injury to His Majesty in meddling with it against his will and a far greater yet you intend to do him by your resolving still to keep it by force if you may not have it confirmed by his Approbation unlesse you will yeeld that this your demand proceeds from the scorners Chaire you must of necessity grant us thus much But in very deed these men have other reasons for this their unreasonable request though they are ashamed to name them I shall do it for them for mine aymes are like those of Christ my Master in his preaching