that it was fit it should be so in respect of a double comparison 1. Of himself with God 2. Of his Court with God's Ark. Reason 1 1. I that am but a poor creature have an house to dwell in and God that is the Creator of all the World hath not an House to put his Ark in and for his servants to meet in to hear his Laws and to ' do him service Reason 2 2. My Court is stately covered over with Cedars but the Ark of God is but very meanly and basely covered over with a Canopie of skins to shelter it from the wind and the weather And therefore conceiving this to be very preposterous and a far unbeseeming thing for him to be better provided for than his God he conferreth with the Prophet and tells him he intends to rectifie this obliquity and to build God an House more agreeable to his Majesty These are the parts and parcels of the Kings deliberation and conference with the Prophet and his Bishop Nathan And 1. The time of this deliberation How Sitting Standing are commonly interpreted 1. For the time It is said when the King sate in his house and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies So you see 1. It was when the King sate in his house and these relative words sitting and standing are noted by Divines to have some difference of sense and acceptation As standing being commonly taken in good part and sitting in the evil and worser sense as in these places where standing is well spoken of Ezech. 3.24 1 Cor. 10.12 2 Cor. 1.24 Ephes 6.14 1 Pet. 5.12 Ps 135.1 2. Ps 122.2 2 Reg. 3.14 The Spirit entred into me and set me upon my feet and he that thinketh he standeth let him take heed lest he fall and stand in the Lord as dear children and by faith ye stand and stand having your loynes girt about with truth and this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand and praise the Lord all ye his servants ye that stand in the courts of the Lords House and our feet shall stand in thy gates O Hierusalem and the Lord of Hosts liveth before whom I stand In all which quotations and the like the word standing hath reference unto good and is taken in the better sense and so to be interpreted And in these places and the like where the name of sitting runneth into obloquie and is attributed to iniquity Iniquity sitteth on a talent of lead Zach 5.7 Ps 119. Ps 1. and Princes sit and speak against me and Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornful and the ungodly person sitteth lurking in the theevish corners of the streets and so in may other places it is interpreted in the worse sense How the word sate is here takeâ— But here the word sate in his house is of a milder meaning and of indifferent acceptation and rather to be interpreted in the better sense as betokening the government of the King for so the King sate in his house signifieth that he sate in his Seat of Government and this sense hath been ancient and obvious in our reading as where the Poet saith Celsa sedet Aeolus arce King Aeolus fitteth in his high Tower and manageth his State-matters and in the Germane speech they say that to sit signifieth to reign as the Emperour sate that is reigned so many years And this is the moderne meaning of this phrase even amongst us for when we would shew how long any one hath exercised the Office and discharged the Place of a Bishop Judge or Prefect amongst us we are wont to say he sate in that place so long And to sit commonly signifieth to be in rest and quiet and is opposite to affairs and businesse As where it is said Shall your brethren go to battle and you sit still And where the Poet saith Sedeant spectentque Latini Let the Latines sit still and look on And in both these sences King David may be said to sit in his house without any great matter in which sense we understand the word though I rather take it in the later way because that 2. The next adjunct of the time is 2. When waâ— the time that David had rest from all his enemies when the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies for this varieth little or nothing from the former when he sate in his house And therefore we may very well compose them and confound them together and put than to signifie the same thing But about this rest that is here spoken of the Expositors cannot all agree when it was whilest they do consider the many Battels that he fought after this conference that he had with Nathan and therefore though some take it for the peace he had at this present time yet others of a quicker sight do assign it after the second Victory he had against the Philistines when he was such an hammer so terrible to all the neighbour-Nations as that the very name of David and his doings made them afraid and glad to sue unto him for peace and to take bands of resolution with themselves to be of good behaviour towards him and never to provoke him any more And of this we read in 1 Chron. 14.11 when the Philistines came up to Baal-Perazim and David smote them and said God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters and afterward when they spread themselves abroad in the valley 1 Chron. 14. v. 16 17. and David smote them from Gibeon even to Gazer and the fame of David went out into all Lands and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all Nations 2. For the persons that are here conferring together 2. The persons deliberating and conferring together they are said to be David and Nathan the King and the Prophet two great Persons and high Offices that formerly were contained in one Person as Melchisedech was the Priest of the Most High GOD and King of Salem And as the Poet saith Rex Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos Virgil. l. 3. And when God divided and distributed these several Offices to several persons he conferred them upon two brothers that is Moses and Aaron that so the King and the Priest might live and love one another like brethren as I have more amply shewed in my Treatise of The Grand Rebellion And so King David here dischargeth that his duty accordingly And so likewise not only the Heathen Kings but also the Jewish Kings the Kings of Israel and all good Christian Kings disdained not the friendly familiarity and conference with their Bishops and Priests The greatest Kâ—ngs and Pâ—inces were most familiar with the Priests Oâ—â—tors and Philosophers especially when they consult and deliberate of Religion or any point that concerns the Worship and Service of God For as King Croesus conferred with Solon the Philosopher and
the proper place of it and was obscured and hemmed and as it were imprisoned in private houses so that the people had no publique place of Assembly to here the law and to offer Sacrifice unto God but every one had his Chappell of ease and his private Oratory by himself to serve God as he listed as now of late it hath been with us David assoon as ever he was chosen to be King in Hebron the first work he did was to consult with his Captains and all the Congregations of Israel to cite and summon the Priests and Levites and all the Clergy that were for the service of the Tabernacle to appear before him 1 Chron. 13.1 3. and to cause the Ark of God to be brought again unto them that they might inquire at it which they did not nor could do in the daies of Saul and when he had assembled the Children of Aaron and the Levites 1 Chron. 15.4 12. Vers 11. he shewed them the abuses that Religion had sustained in the daies of Saul and he caused the Ark to be carried upon the shoulders of the Levites unto the place that he had prepared for it and when he had called for Zaedok and Abiathar the Priests and for the Levites for Vriel Asaiah and Joel Shemaiah and Eliol and Aminidab he did set down which of the Levites should serve and in what order they should Minister before the Ark 1 Chron. 16.39.41 42. and he injoyned the sons of Aaron that were Priests how they should go forward every one in their course And so according to this Practice of King David King Solomon his son and all the succeeding Kings that were good and godly did the like for of Sâ—lomon it is recorded that he appointed according to the order of David his father the courses of the Priests to their service and the Levites to their charges to praise and Minister before the Priests 2 Chron. 8.14 as the duty of every day required the Porters also by their courses at every gate for so David the man of God commanded And it is further Chronicled of King Solomon that what his father here projected and consulted about the building of an House to the Lord he really performed 2 Chron c. 5. c. 6. c. 7. and when he had built it he made a very godly speech and a most excellent Oration unto the people touching the Worship of God and his Religion and he deposed Abiathar and set up Sadoc in his place and Sanctified the Temple and placed the Ark of God therein and offered burnt offerings and Sacrifices and directed the Priests and Levites in all their proceedings even as his father David had done before him and that which is very observeable it is said that the Priests and Levites left nothing unobserved but did all things according as they had received in commandment from the King So likewise King Jehosophat is highly commended for his piety and Religious care of Gods Worship for it is recorded of him that he appointed and disposed the Priests and Levites to do the service of the Tabernacle and that by order of his Authority the Woods and Groves and High places which were the lets and hinderances of the true Religion were quite removed and taken away because the people by their private Meetings and Conventicles in those places to serve God as they now adayes do with us wholly neglected the Cathedral and Mother-Church which â—as at Hierusalem 2 Chron. 17.7 8 9. and to which they were from every corner of the Kingdom yearly to repair And when the Service of God was corrupted and the Temple most filthily defiled through the negligence and sinfulness of the Priests King Ezechias commanded it to be purged 2 Chron. 29. per totum and he caused lights to be set up incense to be burned Sacrifices to be performed and the Brazen Serpent that was become an Idol and worshipped by the people to be broken down and consumed to ashes So King Joas reproved the Priests of his time for their excessive abuses and the insolent behaviour that was seen in them for he sequestred the oblations of the people which the Priests had unjustly and wantonly taken and appropriated to themselves 2 Reg. 12.7 and by his Royal Authority caused them to be converted for the reparation of the Temple And King Josias to his everlasting praise shewed himself most careful to suppresse the Idolatrous Priests to purge the Church from all Idolatry and Superstition and to put the Priests and Levites in mind of their duties as you may see in 2 Reg. 23. 2 Reg. 23. Obj. per totum And if our adversaries of the Roman Church do object and say Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperour or any lay-Prince to do with the Church let him rule the Common wealth and leave Religion and what belongs to God's Worship to be ordered and observed by the Pope Bishops and Priests whose Office and Calling is to take care and to see the Church of God should be sufficiently served and all holy duties holily performed And the examples alleaged infringe not the force of this Objection because David was a Prophet even as Moses was and his ordering the affairs of the Temple and setling the Service of the Church was done by vertue of his Prophetical and not of his Princely-Office And Solomon was Divinely inspired by God's holy Spirit both for the building of the Temple and the ordering of the Priests and Levites for the Service of the Temple And as Jehu had the direction of the Prophet Elisha for the suppression of the Priests of Baal so had Ezechias the prophet Esay to direct him in the purging of the Temple and Reformation of those abuses that had crept in into the Service of God Sol. To this we answer That as Joshua the Prince was required to go in and out at the word of Eleazar the Priest so we yield that the King ought to hearken to the counsel and direction of his Bishop and Priest as David here did consult with Nathan and Ezechias with the Prophet Esay And while Religion is purely maintained the people truly instructed and the Church rightly and orderly governed by the Bishops and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Governours the Prince needs not to trouble himself with any Reformation or to meddle with the matters of Religion But the King Prince and Supreme Magistrate ought to see that all the aforesaid things are so and if they be not to correct the Priest when he is careless and to cause all the abuses that he seeth in the Church and in Religion to be Reformed Augustin contra Cresconium l. 3 c. 51. Because as S. Augustine saith In hoc reges Deo serviunt sicut iis divinitùs praecipitur in quantum sunt reges si in suis regnis bonae jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam
be heartily sorry that these unjust Acts and Ordinances were ever done and more sorry that they were not sooner undone and then God will turne his face towards us he will heale the bleeding wounds of our Land and he will powre down his benefits upon us but till we do these things I do assure my selfe and I beleive you shall finde it that his wrath shall not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still and still untill we either do these things or be destroyed for not doing them King James his speech made true by the Rebells Thus it is manifest to all the World that as it was often spoken by our sharpe and eagle-sighted Soveraigne King James of ever blessed memory no Bishop no King so now I hope the dull-ey'd owle that lodgeth in the desart seeth it verifyed by this Parliament for they had no sooner got out the Bishops but presently they laid violent hands upon the Crowne seized upon the Kings Castles How the Rebells have unking'd our King shut him out of all his Townes dispossest him of his owne houses took away all his sâ—ips detained all his revenues vilified all his Declarations nullified his Proclamations hindered his Commissions imprisoned his faithfull Subjects killed his servants and at Edge-hill and Newbury did all that ever they could to take away his life and now by their last great ordinance for their counterfeit Seale they pronounce all honours pardons grants commissions and whatsoever else His Majesty passeth under his Seale to be invalid void and of none effect and if this be not to make King Charles no King I know not what it is to be a King Hos 8.4 so they have unking'd him sine strepitu and as the Prophet saith they have set up Kings but not by me they have made Princes and I knew it not What kings they would have to rule us but whom have they made Kings even themselves who in one word do and have now exercised all or most of the regall power and their Ordinances shall be as firm as any Statutes and what are they that have thus dis-robed King Charles and exalted themselves like the Pope as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist above all that are called Gods truly none other then king Pym king Say king Faction or to say the truth most truly and to call a spade a spade king perjurers king murderers king traytors * Whâ—ch S. Peter never bade us honour The Rebells brave exchange Psal 146.20 and I am sorry that I should joyne so high an office so sacred a thing as King to such wicked persons as I have shewed them to be And what a royal exchange would the Rebels of this Kingdome make just such as the Israelites made when they turned their glory into the similitude of a Calfe that cateth hay and said these be thy Gods Psal 146.20 O Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt for now after they have changed their lawful King for unlawful Tyrants and taken Jothams bramble for the cedar of Lebanon the Devils instruments for Gods Anointed Judg. 9.15 they may justly say these be thy Kings O Londoners O Rebels that brought thee out of a Land that flowed with milke and hony out of those houses that were filled with all manner of store into a land of misery into houses of sorrow that are filled with wailings lamentations and woes when we see the faithful City is become an harlot our gold drosse and our happinesse turned to continual heavinesse But as the Rutilians considering what fruit they should reape by that miserable war wherein they were so far ingaged cried out at last Virgil Aeneid l. 12. Scilicet ut Turno contingat regiae conjux Nos animae viles inhumata infletáque turba Sternamur campis We undo our selves our wives and our children to gain a wife for Turnus so our seduced men may say we ingage our selves to dye like doggs that these rebels may live like Kings who themselves sit at ease while others endure all woes and do grow rich by making all the Kingdome poore and therefore O England quae tanta est licentia ferri lugebit patria multos when as the Apostle saith evill men and seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived for God is not mocked but whatsoever a man soweth 2 Tim. 3.13 Gal. 6.7 that shall he also reape for though we for our sins may justly suffer these and many other more miseries we do confesse it yet the whole world may be assured that these Rebels the generation of vipers being but the Rod of Gods fury The Rebels sure to be destroyed Contemptrix superûm sevaeque avidissima caedis violenta fuit scires è sanguine natam 2 Sam. 7.1 to correct the offences of his children such seeds of wickedness as they sow can produce none other harvest then ruine and destruction to all these usurping Kings and Traytors who thinke to please God by doing good service unto the Devil and to go to Heaven for their good intention after they are carried into Hell for their horrid Rebellion God Almighty grant them more grace and our King more care to beware of them and when God doth grant him rest with David on every side round about him to restore his Bishops and Clergy to their pristine station that when these bramble rods are burnt and these rebels fallen the King and the Bishops may still stand like Moses and Aaron to guide and gouerne Gods people committed to their charge And thus I have shewed thee O man some of the sacred rights of royal Majesty granted by God in his holy Scriptures practised by Kings from the beginning of the world yeilded by all nations that had none other guide but the light of nature to direct them I have also shewed thee how the people greedy of liberty and licentiousnesse have like the true children of old Adam that could not long endure the sweet yoke of his Creator strived and strugled to withdraw their necks from that subjection which their condition required and their frowardnesse necessitated to be imposed upon them and thereby have either graciously gained such love and fauour from many pious and most clement Princes as for the sweetning of their well merited subjection to grant them many immunities and priviledges or have most rebelliously incroached upon these rights of Kings wresting many liberties out of the hands of Government and forcibly retaining them to their own advantage sometimes to the overthrow of the royal government as Junius Brutus and his associates did the Kings of Rome sometimes to the diminution of the dimidium if not more then halfe his right as the Ephori did to the kings of Lacedemon but alwayes to the great prejudice of the king and the greater mischief to the Common-wealth because both reason and experience hath found it alwayes true that the regal
the occasion of this Treatise and what the Author doth therein Page 1. Chap. II. Of Sacriledge what it is how manifold it is and how it hath been alwayes punished and never escaped the Hand of the Divine Vengeance p. 4. Chap. III. The divers sorts and kinds of Sacrilegious persons And first of those that do it under colour of Law and upon the pretence of Reformation whereby they suppose their Sacriledge to be no Sacriledge at all p. 15. Chap. IV. Of two sorts of Sacrilegious persons that rob the Church of Christ without any colour or pretence of Law but indeed contrary to all Law p. 21. Chap. V. The words of King David in the 2 Sam. 7.1 2. and their divisions When they were spoken And how or in what sense Sitting and Standing are commonly taken in the Scriptures And of the two Persons that are here conferring together p. 27. Chap. VI. What the Rest and peaceable times of King David wrought The Prince's authority in causes Ecclesiastical and how they should be zealous to see that God should be justly and religiously served p. 31. Chap. VII The Objections of the Divines of Lovain and other Jesuites against the former Doctrine of the Prince his Authority over the Bishops and Priests in Causes Ecclesiastical answered And the foresaid truth sufficiently proved by the clear testimony of the Fathers and Councils and divers of the Popes and Papists themselves p. 37. Chap. VIII That it is the Office and Duty of Kings and Princes though not to execute the Function and to do the Office of the Bishops and Priests yet to have a special care of Religion and the true Worship of God and to cause both the Priests and Bishops and all others to discharge the duties of God's Service And how the good and godly Emperours and Kings have formerly done the same from time to time p. 41. Chap. IX Of the â—â—iefest Parts and Duties of Kings and Princes which they are to discharge for the maintenance of Gods Service and the True Religion and the necessity of Cathedral-Churches and Chappels for the people of God to meet in for the Worship and Service of God p. 46. Chap. X. The Answer to the Two Objections that the Fanatick-Sectaries do make 1. Against the necessity And 2ly against the Sanctity or Holiness of our Material Churches which in derision and contemptuously they call Steeple-houses p. 53. Chap. XI The Answer to another Objection that our Fanatick-Sectaries do make against the Beauty and Glorious Adorning of our Churches which we say should be done with such decent Ornaments and Implements as are befitting the House and Service of God The Reasons why we should Honour God with our goods and how liberal and bountiful both the Fathers of the Old Testament and the Christians of the New Testament were to the Church of God p. 58. Chap. XII The Answer to another Objection that our brain-sick Sectaries do make for the utter overthrow of our Cathedrals and Churches as being so fowly stained and profaned with Popish Superstitions and therefore being no better than the Temples of Baal they should rather be quite demolished than any wayes adorned and beautified p. 63. Chap. XIII That it is a part of the Office and Duty of Pious Kings and Princes as they are God's Substitutes to have a care of his Church to see that when such Cathedrals and Churches are built and beautified as is fitting for his Service there be Able Religious and Honest painful and faithful Bishops placed in those Cathedrals that should likewise see Able and Religious Ministers placed in all Parochial Churches and all negligent unworthy and dissolute men Bishops or Priests reproved corrected and amended or removed and excluded from their places and dignities if they amend not p. 67. Chap. XIV Of the maintenance due to the Bishops and Ministers of God's Church how large and liberal it ought to be p. 75. Chap. XV. That the payment of Tythes unto the Church is not a case of Custom but of Conscience Whenas the tenth by a Divine right is the Teacher's tribute and the very first part of the wages that God appointed to be paid unto his Workmen and therefore that it is as heynous a sin and as foul an offence to defraud the Ministers of this due as it is to detain the meat or money of the labouring-man which is one of the four Crying-sins p. 82. Chap. XVI The Answer to the choisest and chiefest Objections that the School of Anabaptists have made and do urge against the payment of Tythes now in the time of the Gospel p. 91. Chap. XVII What the ancient Fathers of the Church and the Councils collected of most Learned and Pious Bishops have left written concerning Tythes And of the three-fold cause that detains them from the Church p. 98. Chap. XVIII Of the second part of the Stipend Wages and Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel which is the Oblation Donation or Free-wil-offering of the people for to uphold and continue the true service of God and to obtain the blessings of God upon themselves and upon their labours which Donations ought not to be impropriated and alienated from the Church by any means p. 105. Chap. XIX That it is the duty of all Christian Kings and Princes to do their best endevours to have all the Impropriations restored to their former Institution to hinder the taking away and the alienation of the Lands Houses and other the Religious Donations of our Ancestors from the Church of Christ and to suppress and root out all the Vnjust and Covetous suttle customs and frauds that are so generally used and are so derogatory to the service of God from amongst the people and especially from this Kingdom of Ireland where most corruption is used and most need of Instruction unto the people p. 114. Chap. XX. The Authour's supplication to Jesus Christ that he would arise and maintain his own cause which we his weak servants cannot do against so many rich powerful and many-friended adversaries of his Church p. 117. A DECLARATION Against SACRILEDGE CHAP. I. The Declaration of the Bishop of Ossory exhibited to the High Court of Justice before Jesus Christ the righteous Judge against the most horrible sin of Sacriledge and all sacrilegious persons that detain the Tythes rob the Church and take the Lands and Houses of God into their own possessions Together with his most humble Petition to the Eternall and Almighty God his most gratious Redeemer and his most loving Master Jesus Christ that he would arise and maintain his own cause and smite all his Enemies upon their cheek-bone and put them to perpetual shame and root out their memorial from off the earth Sheweth THAT by Your most glorious Martyr the strenuous defender of the true Christian Faith and his most gratious Master Charles the I. of ever blessed memory he was called and appointed to be the Bishop of Ossory and to inable him the better to discharge his
the Churches goods for he shall find that this gain doth ever bring a rod at its back When as Zophar saith God shall cause him to vomit up that which he hath devoured Job 20.15 and shall cast them out of his belly and render vengeance to him for the detriment and injury that he hath done to his Church and servants The punishment of Sacriledge greater then the punishment of Idolatry Exod 20. 2 Reg. 5.27 And this vengeance Saint Augustine noteth to be more grievous than the punishment of Idolatry for whereas God threateneth to punish Idolaters but to the third and fourth Generation we find that the Sacriledge of Jeroboam in selling the Priests Office provoked God to root out his house and all his posterity from off the earth and the simony of Gehezi was punished with such a Leprosy as stuck both upon himself and upon all his whole seed for ever Why Sacriledge is so odious to God and so prejudiciall and infestuous to man And no marvell that this sin of Sacriledge should be so odious unto God and so infestuous and pernitious unto man because that although other sins as Idolatry Murder Adultery Theft and the like may be be said to be but as it were private and particular sins that infect none or but few besides the doers of them yet this sin of Sacriledge is a publick and a far-spreading sin not only against some particular persons but against a multitude of men and against the whole body of Religion when by defrauding and taking away the maintenance of the Ministers the whole Ministry of Gods service is impaired and suffered nay caused to be neglected and decayed How Sacriledge bringeth forth â—theism Idolatry and all Wickedness whereby not only Idolatry and false worship hath an open gap and a broad way of entrance into Gods Church but also Atheism and no worship of God but all corruption and lewdness must be the chiefest fruit that can grow upon this accursed tree of Sacriledge when either the Souldiers or any others of the Lords or Gentry take the lands and houses of God into their possessions or the covetous Patrons do sell and make Merchandize of any Ecclesiastical preferment 2. The Sacriledge of the people 2. As the irreligious Patrons do offend in selling the Ministers living that he should freely bestow upon him so the Parishioners are as ready and as greedy to detain and keep back that right which is due to the Priest by Gods law and the Minister hath also bought from his Patron as the Patron was to sell what he should give And it is strange to think how witty they are to go to Hell if God be not the more mercifull unto them to hold them from it What shifts and tricks they have to hold back their hands from paying their Tythes and how loath they are to set out their Tythes and think all that lost that is laid out for the Priest But alas they should know that herein they deceive not us alone that are the Priests but their own souls also that are more damnified by this their Sacriledge then the Priests can be by the loss of their Tythes because that hereby they rob not men but God himself for that the Priests 〈◊〉 but the Lords Receivers and his Rent gatherers The Ministers are Gods Rent gatherers of that small acknowlâ—dgment which he requires from us his Tenants at will for all the great things he gives to us to be repaid to him again as the testimony of our duty and thankfulness and the stipend that he hath allotted to them that are to serve him at his Altar And therefore when the Israelites gave unto their Levites as our people in many places do give unto their Preachers the blind the lame and the maymed the leanest Lamb and the leightest Sheave the Lord complaineth Mal. 3.8 10. Lev. 27.30 that they robbed and spoiled him in Tythes and Offerings because the Lord saith directly that all the Tythe of the Land is the Lâ—rds and all that is Holy unto the Lord. But seeing that this Sacrilegious Age hath produced and brought forth tot manus auferendi so many hands to take away the rights of the Church and so many tongues to speak against and adversaries to oppose the truth of the Doctrine of Tythes and to take away the Lands Houses and Possessions of the Church I shall leave it to be more fully handled towards the latter end of this discourse and Declaration against Sacriledge CHAP. V. The words of King David in the 2 Sam. 7.1 2. and their division when they were spoken And how or in what sense Sitting and Standing are commonly taken in the Scriptures And of the two persons that are here conferring together IF you look into the 2 of Sam. 7.1 2. verses you shall find it thus written Afterward When the King sate in his House and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies The King said unto Nathan the Prophet Behold now I dwell in a house of Cedar trees and the Ark of God remaeineth in the Curtains and so forth For the better understanding of which words you may observe that the sum of this whole Chapter is 3. fold and containeth these 3. parts 1. Davids deliberation The summ of the Chapter 3. fold 2. Nathans replication 3. Davids gratulation 1. The Deliberation is about an Oratory and Temple 1. The Deliberation or House to be Erected and Dedicaâ—â—d to God for his servants to meet in to worship him and this is delivered unto us in the two first verses here set down 2. The Replication of the Prophet is two fold 1. Affirmative and erronious or mistaken vers 3. 2. The Replication 2. Negative and right from the 3. vers to the 18. 3. The gratulation is in an humble acknowledgement 3. The Gratulation and a grateful remembrance of the fore-passed benefits of God with an earnest and hearty prayer put up to God for the continuance of his favour unto him from the 18. verse to the end of the Chapter And I shall here treat of no more than of the deliberation or the Pâ—â—phets consideration what he intended to do touching which we are to observe these three things The 3. things observable in the deliberation 1. The time which hath a twofold manifestation of it 1. When he sate in his house 2. When he was safe from his enemies 2. The Persons deliberating and they are 2. 1. David the King 2. Nathan the Prophet 3. The matter deliberated and considered of betwixt the Prince and the Prophet and that was the meanness and baseness of the then House of God and therefore he would be at the cost and charges to make it beautiful and to erect him an House befitting the Majesty and greatness of God And this his good intention he justifieth and confirmeth the same to be both honest and good by the consequent of Congruity
ponunt in esse and are no apodictical proofs for any weighty matters especially the examples of the oâ—d Testament to confirm the doing of the like things under the new Testament because that for us to be guided and directed by the examples of the old Law is the high-way to lead us to infinite inconveniences Therefore it followeth not that because the Kings of Israel and Juda did such things as are fore-shewed unto the Priests and Levites and the setling of the Service in the Temple therefore our Moderne Princes should have the like Authority to do the like things unto the Bishops and Priests of the new Testament about the Worship of God and the Government of his Church and especially in the censuring of them that are appointed by Christ to be the Prime Governours of the same Sol. To this I answer 1. That this is as the Schooles say Petitio principii and a begging of the Question for we say that although for the perfecting of the Saints Ephes 4.12 for the work of the Ministery for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ that is the Church God hath set in his Church first Apostles 1 Cor. 12.28 secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers and so Bishops and Priests primarily and principally to discharge the aforesaid Offices and Duties yet this proveth not that they are simply and absolutely the Prime Governours and Chief Rulers of the Church but that the Kings and Princes In what sense the Bishops Priests and in what sense Kings Princes may be said to be the prime Governours of the Church Esay 49.23 in the other respect aforenamed may be justly said to be the Prime and Supreme Governours as well in all causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal for the Prophet Esay speaking of the Church of the Gospel saith That Kings should be her nursing fathers and Queens her nursing mothers And I hope you will yield that the fathers and mothers are the Prime and Supremest Governours of their children rather than their School-masters and Teachers But though the progeny of the Pope and our frantick Sectaries would fain thrust out the eyes of the politick Prince and make him just like Polyphemus that had a body of vast dimensions but of a single sight scarce able to see his wayes and to govern himself yet I shall by God's assistance make it most apparent unto you by the testimony of the Fathers Councils and some Popish Authors that the Soveraign Prince hath and ought to have alwayes a peremptory Supreme power as well over the Ecclesiastical persons and causes of the Church as over the Civil persons and causes of the Temporal State and Common-wealth For 1. S. Augustine writing against Parmenian the Donatist that would 1. The testimony of the Fathers Aug. p. 1. Cont. Epistolam Parmon with our Disciplinarians that are the very brood of those Donatists unarme the King of his Spiritual Sword saith An forte de Religione fas non est ut dicat Imperator vel quos miserit Imperator Cur ergo ad Imperatorem vestri venerunt legati Cur eum fecerunt causae suae judicem Is it not lawful for the Emperour and so the Prince or whomsoever he shall send to treat and determine matters of Religion If you think it is not Why did your Messengers then come unto the Emperour And why did they make him thy Judge of their cause Whereby you see S. Augustine judgeth the Emperour or any other Supreme Prince to have a lawful power to hear and to determine the points and matters controverted among the Bishops and so to have a Spiritual jurisdiction as well as a Temporal Nicephorus also in his Preface to the Emperour Immanuel saith Nicephorus in praefatione ad Immanuel Imperat Tu es Dux professionis fidei nostrae tu restituisti Catholicam Ecclesiam reformasti Ecclesiam Dei à mercatoribus coelestis Doctrinae ab haereticis per verbum veritatis Thou art the Captain of our Profession and of the Christian Faith and thou hast Restored or Reformed the Catholick Church and cleansed it from those Merchants of the heavenly Doctrine and from all the Hereticks by the word of Truth And I think nothing can be said fuller and clearer than this to justifie the Spiritual jurisdiction of the Prince and Supreme Magistrate in causes Ecclesiastical Theodoretus l. 1 c. 7. Yet Theodoret and Eusebius say as much of Constantine the Great 2. You may read in the Council of Chalcedon 2. The testimony of the Councils That all the Bishops and Clergy that were gathered together to that place as the Members of our Parliament use to do were wont to lay down the Canons they had agreed upon in the Council until the Emperour should come to confirm them with his Royal assent and when the Emperour came they said These Decrees seem good unto us if they seem so to your Sacred Majesty And the Bishops of the Council of Constantinople that was after the first Council of Ephesus Concil Chalcedon Artic. 1. pag. 831. wrote thus submissively unto the Emperour Theodosius We humbly beseech your Clemency that as you have honoured the Church with your Letters by which you have called us together Ita finalem conclusionem decretorum nostrorum corrobores sententia tua sigillo So you would be pleased to strengthen and confirm the last conclusion of our Decrees by your Royal Sentence and Seal 3. 3. The testimony of Popes and Papists As the Fathers and Councils do thus acknowledge the Emperours right in the Spiritual jurisdiction So many of the Popes and Papists themselves have confest the same truth and yielded the same right unto the Emperour and other Soveraign Magistrate in the Church and Church-matters and over all the parsoâ—s belonâ—ing unto the Church for Platina that was Library-keeper unto the Pope Iâ—aira in severino papa saith that Without the Letters pattents of the Emperour to confirm him the Pope is no lawfull Pope and Zabarel a great Scholar saith The Pope may be accused before the Emperour of and for any notorious crime Zâ—barella de Schismate Concilus and publick scandalous offence Imperator potest à papa requirere rationem fidei and the Emperour may inquire and call the Pope to yield an account of his faith and Religion And so many of the better Popes were not ashamed to confess the same for Saint Gregory who for his great learning and piety was sirnamed the Great writing unto Mauritius the Emperour saith Imperatori obedientiam praebui Theodoret l. 2. c. 16. pro Deo quod sensi minimè tacui I have yielded all obedience unto the Emperour and what I conceived to be truth and for God I concealed it not 2 q. 4. Mandastis and before Saint Gregories time Pope Liberius being convented to appear before Constantius denied not most readily to obey his summons So did Pope Sixtus upon the like complaint appear
Wolves against them but only for the name that they are said to be built by Roman Catholicks and that Popish Priests have served in them but it is nothing to us who built them or who served in them so we serve God aright in them this is all that we are to look unto For so we find that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles in their time frequented the Temple not that which Solomon built nor that which Zorobabel erected â—â—â—â—ph Antiq. l. 15. c. 14. but that which Herod that sought our Saviours life build d and beautifiâ—d and that which the Scribes and Pharisees had as much as in them lay defiled with their false-glâ—sses and the other Jews had made it a den of Thieves Matth 21.13 and though Castor and Pollux were become Idols and worshipped as gods among the Heathens yet Saint Paul refused not to sail in a Ship whose badge was Castor and Pollux and Saint Luke is not affraid to set down those â—itles of the Paganish Idols â—ocrat Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 33. And therefore as Eunomius was most foolish for refusing to enter into the Temples of thâ— Martyrs lest he should be thought to worship the dead and Eâ—stathius was most fantastical for detesting all publick Churches and leading his Schollers to private Conventicles in ordinary houses for fear they should be defiled with the memorial of the Saints that were mentioned in the Churches so these our brethren of the Separation are most simple for disclaiming our Churches Prayers and Ministry and like the Elder brother in the Parable hearing afar off the melody of our prayers and understanding of our intertainment into our Fathers House are very angry and will not come into Gods House for fear of infection but will convene in private houses and run abroad into the fields like Esan to hunt there for the blessing which with Jaâ—â—b they might get nearer home in their Fathers House and when we would according to our injâ—nction seek to compel them to come out of the High-waies and Hedges to the marriage of the Kings son they will waste their wealth leave their mansions and like Heliodorus the fool of Athens sail beyond the Straights of Gibraltar and make Ship-rack before the Tempest rather then they will come into Gods House whereby they might fit still under their own Vâ—nes injoy the food of their Fathers House the safe-gard of their wealth and the safety of their soules which they do hazard by their own simplicity in being like the Jews zealous but not according to knowledge CHAP. XIII That it is a part of the Office and Duty of Pious Kings and Princes as they are God's Substitutes to have a care of his Church to see that when such Cathedralls and Churches are built and beautified as is fitting for his service there be Able Religious and Honest painful and faithful Bishops placed in those Cathedrals that should likewise see able and Religious Ministers placed in all Parochiall Churches and all negligent unworthy and dissolute men Bishops or Priests reproved corrected and amended or removed and excluded from their places and dignities if they amend not IT is well and truly observed as the holy Scripture sheweth That although the wise God hath most mercifully decreed and accordingly exhibited and gave a Saviour in himself altogether sufficient for the saying of all Man-kind and all the lost sons of Adam and he hath most wisely and graciously taken a course on his own part and in it self also fully sufficient and appointed a course and order on mans part that being duly observed might make the same sufficiently effectuall unto all yet it so fals out Mens destruction that very many men attain not to that end for which God did send his Son to save them but are seized on by Gods Justice and cast to eternal condemnation And that chiefly by mans own default and partly in some respects through the default of his Rulers and Teachers yet so that he dies and suffers only for his own sins 1. Through their own default when Kings and Princes 1. By their own fault whom God hath appointed and set to be their Governors and Rulers do by their under-Magistrates and their just laws prohibite them from all evil and wickedness and require them to imbrace all virtues and godliness of life and to this end do appoint their substitutes the Bish ps and other Teachers to guide them and to instruct them to let them know what is good and what is evil and so what they ought to believe and what not and these do faithfully discharge these Offices as Moses and Aaron David and Nathan and many other godly Kings and Bishops did yet men will not obey their Governors but Rebel like Corah Dathan and Abiram and as of late we have done Jer. 11.21 they will not hearken to the voyce of their Teachers but say to the Prophets Prophesy not unto us and say to God himself Depart from us Job 21.14 for we desire not the knowledge of thy Laws or they relye upon their own wisdom and account the Preaching of the Gospel of the cross of Christ foolishness 1 Cor. 1.18 or they follow the ill examples of their Fathers and do worse than their Fathers Jer. 18.12 c. 16.12 or they do addict themselves to the pleasures and vanities of this World that do choak the seed of Gods Word in them or when crosses afflictions and persecution come they are offended Matth. 13. â—2 and start aside like a broken bow Then God seeing these courses that they take contrary to the course that he had set down for their Salvation he complaineth of them that His people would not hear his voyce and Israel would not obey him therefore He gave them up unto their own hearts lusts Ps 81.12 15. and let them follow their own imaginations 2. Mens destruction much furthered by the default of their Governours 2. Though all wicked men do thus chiefly work their own destruction yet many times their fall and ruine is much furthered by the default and apostasie of their Prime-Governours or at least through their neglect and the neglect of their subordinate Magistrates and Ministers the Bishops and Preachers that are under the Kings and Princes the Governours of God's Church For God having set these Rulers the Supreme and subordinate to be the Watchmen and Shepherds over his people to govern them and teach them how to live justly and holily that they might attain to eternal life if by their default their misleading of them out of the way or neglect to shew them the right way the people do miscarry the men so misguided and not instructed Ezech. 33.8 shall die in their iniquity and God will require their blood at the Shepherds and Watchmens bands And yet Cain a principal Ruler of and over his Posterity misleading and not teaching them the right Worship of God perished himself and
most generally found that the Children of the precedent Bishops that have most wronged the Church and their Successors Why the sons of Bishops are most spitefull unto the Succeeding Bishops are in all things most contrariant and opposites I will not say spiteful or envious to the succeeding Bishops because as I conceive their hearts tell them what injuries their Fathers did them for their sakes and themselves continue therein and therefore do conceive that the present Bishops cannot think well nor love them that have so much wronged both them and the Church of God and to requite them according to their own thoughts with hate for hate they are of all others most spiteful crossing and prejudiciall unto them or else because they do imagine that the present and succeeding Bishops will be as wicked and as unjust as their Fathers and their predecessors were and therefore deserve neither love nor favour from them As Alexander the Copper-smith withstood S. Paul So the last Bishops son withstandeth me to recover the rights of the Church And I heard many Parliament men say that in the Long Anti-Christian Parliament none were more violent against the Bishops then the sons and posterity of Precedent Bishops I found it so And I have espied another fault in some of our former Bishops not a little prejudiciall to the Honor of God and the good of the Church of Christ and that is not only to give Orders to unworthy men but also to bestow livings upon unworthy Priests for as the old saying was Rector eris praesto de sanguine praesulis esto Or as another saith Quatuor ecclesias portis intratur in omnes Prima patet magnis nummatis altera tertia charis Sed paucis solet quarta patere Dei So it was their practice to bestow Livings Rectories Prebends and other Preferments not on them that best deserved them but either upon their Children friends or servants or on them that could as the story goeth tell them And so to the lessor and to the lessee of the Church-Lands to the prejudice of the Church the like curse and Anathema is due who was Melchisedecks Father that is to say St. Peters lesson Aurum argentum non est mihi in the affirmative way which is a fault worthy to be punished by the Judges For as it is most truely said Qâ—icunque sacra vel sacros ordines vendunt aut emunt sacerdotes esse non possunt whosoever do buy or sell holy orders or any holy things cannot be Priests Vnde scriptum est Anathema danti Anathema accipienti whence it is written Let Gods curse be to the buyer and the curse of God to the receiver because this buying and selling of Holy things and things dedicated for the service of God is the Simoniacal Heresie or Heresie of Simon Mâ—gus Qâ—omodo ergo si Anathematizati sunt sancti non sunt sanctificare alios possunt Habetur 1. q. 1. Can. Quicunque How then if they be accursed and no Saints can they make others Saints or sanctify them Et cum in corpore Christi non sint quomodo Christi corpus tradere vel accipere possunt Et qui maledictus est benedicere quomodo potest And seeing such men are not in the body of Christ how can they deliver or receive the body of Christ and how can he that is accursed himself bless any other And therefore seeing the Word of God requireth the Bishops and Ministers of Christ should be so Holy in their lives and so qualified with knowledge and learning for the instruction of the people as I shewed to you before and is typified by those Golden Bels and the Pomegranats that were to be set in the skirts of Aarons robes round about the Bels signifying the teaching of the people and the Pomegranats the sweet smelling fruits of a good and godly life It behoves the Kings and Princes to whom God hath given the prime Soveraignty and commandeth them to have a care of his Honor and the service of his Church to see so far as they can that the Bishops and Prelates which they place over Gods people be so qualified as God requireth and to injoyn these their prime Substitutes to look that those Priests and Deacons which they make and place in the Church be likewise such as I have fore-shewed for this God requireth at their hands and this David Jehosaphat Ezechias Josias and all the good and godly Kings of Israel and Juda and all the pious Christian Kings and Emperors did and I do know how zealously and carefully our late most gracious King Charles the I. was to place Able Religious and Godly Bishops over Gods Church which is a special duty of every King And because also the Prelates and Bishops are not all or may not all be no more then the Apostles were all such as they should be but some of them may be such as I have shewed to you before either like Simon Magus selling what they should freely give or like Demas imbracing this present World or like Baalam loving the wages of unrighteousness or perhaps doing worse then those Apostatizing like Julian and starting aside like Ecebolius or devising wicked Heresies like Arius or renting the unity of the Church like Donatus then as Solomon deposed Abiathar and divers of the good Emperours deposed wicked Popes and the godly Kings have pull'd down ungodly Bishops as our late Queen Elizabeth did degrade Bishop Bonner and divers other Popish Prelates so should all good and godly Kings reprove and correct and if they amend not expel and remove all scandalous and ungodly Bishops and the Bishops do the like to all deboyst and dissolute Ministers that so the old and sowre leaven may be purged out of Gods Church and the builders of Gods Tabernacle be like Bezaliel and Aholiab such as can and will do the work of the Lord carefully and Religiously CHAP. XIV Of the maintenance due to the Bishops and Ministers of Gods Church how large and liberal it ought to be THirdly When the Kings and Princes 3. To provide sufficient means for the Church-men which are the Supreme Magistrates and as Tertullian saith Homines à Deo secundi solo Deo minores are the men that are next to God in power and Authority and therefore ought to have the prime and chiefest care of Gods Honour and his worship in the Church of Christ have as I have formerly shewed with King David and Solomon Colimus imperatorem ut hominem à Deo secundum so lo Deâ— minorem Tertul. ad Scapulam provided that Temples and Churches be erected and beautified as fit houses of God for his people and servants to convene and meet in them to Worship God and have likewise taken care in the next place to see that good men and godly Bishops be appointed over those Churches as their substitutes to Rule Govern and Teach the people of God how to live and
tythes that the Priests and Levites were to have without any diminution you may 3. Note that the Priests and Levites were to have a special share of all the first fruits of their Cattel of all kinds as of Bullocks Sheep Goats and the Fruits of their Trees and of their Corn both the Therumoth and Thenuphoth Exod. 13. their Heave-offering and Wave-offering and the firstlings or first-born of every man the Lord challenged as his own and they were to be redeemed for five silver shekels of the Sanctuary which were to be paid unto the Priests for each of them Num. 18.15 16. And so you see how God would be Honored and how great was the portion of the Priests which received Gods part by the firstlings of men and of Cattel and by the first fruits of the Trees and of the Earth in the Sheafe in the Threshing-floor in the Dough and in the Loaves which should teach us to Consecrate the prime of our years and of all that is good unto the service of the Lord. 3. The divers kinds of Sacrifices and Oblations of the Jews whereof the Priests had their part 3. Besides all this you must observe that the Jews had divers kinds of Sacrifices and Ceremoniall oblations instituted by God and administred by the Priests which were either 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prâ—pitiatory and Piacular that was also two fold 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reconciling which the Grecians called Holocaust because it was wholly burnt 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redeeming 1. Pro peccato 2. Pro delicto The 1. A sin-offering The 2. A trespass offering 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratulatory for the manifold benefits that they had received from God and this their thankfulness they attested three manner of waies 1. By their Peace-offering 2. By their Oblations 3. By their Sacrifice of praise And out of all these things and whatsoever things were devoted to God in any waies by Oblations or Vowes for their sin-offering Numb 18.9 10 11 12. or trespass-offering and all the gifts of the Children of Israel which were heaved waved or shaken and the Shew bread Ezech. 44.29 30. and all that was sacred and sequestred from the Common use the portion of the Priests must indispensably be laid out for them Because God had given it unto them by a Covenant of Salt for ever and so out of every Eucharistical Sacrifice Levit. 24.9 the breast and the right shoulder were the Levites fees and from every Holocaust or whole-burnt Sacrifice they had the skin And whensoever they detained any of these either in whole or in part Levit. 7 8. Levit. 5.15 the Lord required them to make a plenary satisfaction and to offer up a Ram for that detention Out of all which it is most evident that the maintenance of these Ministers of the law was both liberal and honorable and so much the better because it was perpetual and entailed to their posterity whereas our means is transient and dieth from our children when we die Yet you know how Saint Paul reasoneth if the Ministration of death written and ingraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses 2 Cor. 3.7 for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away How shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious For if the Ministration of Condemnation be glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in glory So if their Ministry which was the Ministration of the Law and of Death had such glorious allowance for their service I wonder how our Ministry which is the Ministration of the Gospel should be so meanly rewarded and our maintenance so far short of theirs when in respect of our more glorious service and far more beneficial unto our people it should exceed theirs in all glory CHAP. XV. That the payment of Tythes unto the Church is not a case of custome but of Conscience When as the tenth by a Divine right is the Teacher's tribute and the very first part of the wages that God appointed to be paid unto his Work men and therefore that it is as haynous a sin and as foul an offence to defraud the Minister of this due as it is to detain the meat or money of the Labouring-man which is one of the four crying sins HAving seen that it is a part of the duty and charge of all Christian Kings and Princes to have a special care to uphold Gods service and the true Religion and to that end 1. To cause Churches to be built and Beautified for the people to meet in them to serve God And 2. To appoint Worthy men Bishops and Priests to supply those Churches and to instruct the people And then 3. To see that those servants of God should have that allowance and wages which God himself hath appointed and commanded to be paid unto them for their pains and service of his Church We are now to examine what their means and maintenance should be that God appointed for their wages And I say that he is a most bountiful Master that takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants as King David speaketh The two speciall portions of the Clergy 1. Tythes 2. Donations and therefore gives them a very large reward which doth chiefly consist in these two things 1. The Tythes or tenth part of his peoples goods 2. The Free-will-offerings Oblations and Donations of the people The 1. He commandeth to be paid them And the 2. He alloweth to be given them and being given he requireth that they should not be alienated and taken from them no not by the givers themselves therefore much less by any other 1. That tythes are due to our Ministers 1. That Tythes or the tenth part of our goods and substance are due to them that discharge the service of God by the instruction of his people to Worship God as well under the New Testament as the Old it may be manifested by these Reasons Reason 1 1. Whatsoever nature and Humane Reason teacheth to be justly due to any man or society of men Antâ— legem datam â—acrificiorum impensis rebus aliis ad exâ—ernum Dei cultum conservandum pertinentibus decimae applicaban uâ— Fran. Sylvius the same doth the Scripture both the Law and Gospel teach to be due and ought to be paid unto them Nam sicut Deus est Scripturae it a Deus est Naturae for as God is the Author of the Scripture so he is the God of nature and whatsoever is true in nature I speak not of defiled nature but of pure nature the same is true in Scripture And therefore Saint Augustine saith that as Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus contra Ecclesiam nemo Catholicus No Christian will speak against the Scripture and no Catholick will gain-say the Church so Contra rationem nemo sobrius No sober man will
no otherwise by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made like unto the Son of God but that he was indeed the Son of God Hebr. 7 3. Even as Nebuchadnezzar saith The fourth man that walked with the three children in the fiery-Furnace was like unto the Son of God Dan. 3.25 whereby he meant that he was none other than the Son of God that came there to preserve his servants So here the Apostle in saying that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made like unto the Son of God meaneth without question that this Melchisedec or this Christ that met Abraham assumed now a body of the same likeness habit and countenance as afterward he meant to unite personally unto himself for that it is un usual thing in Scripture to say that he which is is like unto himself as that Saint Paul is like Saint Paul as where the Apostle saith that Christ Was found in shape or fashion Phil. 2.7 8. as a man and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men that is he was made indeed a true perfect and a natural man 5. Reason 5. Because Abraham did give unto this Melchisedec the Tythe of all that was taken from four Kings a great booty as perceiving under that visible shape and form of man an invisible deity to subsist to whom the tythe of all things is only due and everlastingly due to him and to none but to him as the Lord saith himself Levit. 27.30 All the tythe of the land is the Lords that is the Lord Christ's because he is the everlasting Priest which Melchisedec if he was a mortal man and not Christ could not be 6. Reason 6. Because Saint Paul confirmeth the perpetuity and eternity of Christ his Priest-hood with the testimony of the Prophet David who speaking of Christ saith Thou art a Priest forever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the order of Melchisedec saith the Greek copy Petrus Cunaeus de Repub Heb. l. 3. c. 3. pag. 402. but Sicut vel quemad modum Melchisedecus even as or in like manner as Melchisedec is a Priest forever saith the Hebrew text as Aben Ezra doth expound it and so makes it clear that that Melchisedec was Jesus Christ 7. Reason 7. And lastly Because all they which do affirm this Melchisedec to be either Shem the son of Noah or any other King of Salem and a Mortal man Fateri coguntur ea omnia quae de illo Apostolus dixit etiam Mâ—ssiae convenire saith Cunaeus are compell'd to confess that all those things which the Apostle speaks of Melchisededec do very well and literally agree with Christ but cannot agree with any other mortal man without admitting many mystical and figurative interpretations thereof And therefore I do say that this Melchisedec which received these tythes was no mortal man but the immortal son of God to whom all tythes are due and he assuming a visible shape did appear unto Abraham after his great victory which he had over his enemies and is the first victory that we read of in the Holy Scripture and may typifie the spiritual Conquest of our enemies by our Saviour Christ who offered unto Abraham bread and wine as the type of our blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper and it is probable that our Saviour had respect hereunto when he said unto the Jews that Abraham saw his day and rejoyced Joh. 8.15 that is not only with the eyes of faith as all the rest of the Patriarchs and Prophets did see him but also in a visible shape This point is more fully handled in my book of The best Religion in the Treatise of the Incarnation of Christ which he assumed like unto that whereunto he was afterward to be united and which many Prophets and just men desired to see and have not seen God yielding not such a special favour unto them as herein he did unto faithful Abraham And so you see the first point sufficiently cleared that Christ was alwaies and continually an eternal Priest as well before as after his Incarnation And 2. Point that Christ received tythes as he was Priest 2. For the other point that he alwaies received the Tythes as he was this eternal Priest the Scriptures make it plain for here you see this Melchisedec which is Christ receiveth the tythes of Abraham and Saint Paâ—l saith that he whose descent is not counted from them that is from the posterity of Aaron that is Christ received tythes of Abraham and all the Levitical Priests that were as then in the loyns of Abraham paid tythes to Him to whom only all tythes are due and the Levites to whom Moses under the law commanded the tythes to be paid were but his substitutâ—s and Tytheâ— gatherers and receiving what is due to him unto themselves for his service And seeing Christ himself received tythes as due to him before the law and received them by his servants the Levites under the law More reason to pay Tythes now to Châ—ist then in the time of the Law proved at large Why should he now be deprived of them and not receive them also by his Ministers under the Gospel Especially considering he hath now accomplished fulfilled and wholly discharged the Office of his Priest-hood which was to offer that propitiatory Sacrifice unto God which should fully satisfy and appease his wrath for the sins of the people which as then he had but only promised and shadowed out the same in types and figures unto the fathers Or is it possible to imagin that they which paid him their tythes under the law were more obliged to him for those shadows and the expectation of accomplishing his promises than we should be for having already obtained the real substance Or shall we believe the whole generation of men to be such as will promise any thing and do any thing that they can to obtain what they desire and when they have obtained their desires will do and perform just nothing So while Christ was desired and expected to come men duely paid their tythes unto him but now being come and having done his work and discharged his Priestly Office they will pay him no tythes at all which is the propertie of ill natures To promise any thing while they seek and to do nothing when they obtain their desires But the consideration of the persons that paid their tythes to Christ before his Incarnation is an unanswerable argument to prove that all Christians should much rather now pay their Tythes to Him after his Incarnation for if they that had all things more imperfect then we have them and but in shadows under a vail and curtains that were drawn over them did then so fully and so readily pay their Tythes to Christ and to his servants that gathered them How can we now when the night is past and the Curtains of those Types are drawn aside and the substance of
profoundnesse of knowledge Nazian Orat. 1. was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 termed Theologus the Divine saith that the fury of Julian that great Apostata was repressed onely with the tears of the Christians which many of them did most plentifully powre forth to God when they had no other remedy against their Persecutor Mark that they say It is unlawful to resist because they knew it unlawful for them to use any other means then sufferance or else they might having so much strength as they had have repelled their wrongs with violence Saint Ambrose saith as much and Prosper in like manner saith Ambros ep 33. The present evils should be suffered untill the promised happinesse doth come the Infidels should be permitted among the faithful and the plucking of the tares should be deferred and let the wicked rage against the godly as much as they will yet the case of the righteous is far better because that Quantò acriùs impetuntur tantò gloriosiùs coronantur Prosper in sent 99. by how much the more sharply they are tormented by so much the more gloriously they shall be crowned And Saint Bernard saith If all the world should conspire against me and conjure me that I should plot any thing against the royal Majesty yet I would fear God and would not dare to offend the King Bernard Ep. 170. that is appointed of him over me because I am not ignorant of the place where I read Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And yet he speaketh this of King Lodovicus that offered a monstrous wrong to all the Clergy when he robbed them and took away all their goods without cause and which is worse would hear of no perswasions to make restitution or to give them any satisfaction Gaguin lib 6. as Gaguinus testifieth Thus the Fathers whereof I could heap many more do testifie of this truth and the School-men tread in the same steps The School-men of the same judgement and differ not a nails breadth from them herein For Alexander Hales saith wicked and evill men ought to suffer for the fault of their irrationability and good men ought to suffer Propter debitum divinae ordinationis for the duty that they owe to the divine ordinance and the benefit of their own purgation Whereupon Saint Ambrose saith Ambrosius in Rom. 13. If the Prince be good he doth not punish the well-doer but loveth him because he doth well but if the Prince be evill and punisheth the well-doer he hurteth him not but purgeth him Alex. Hales p. 3. q. 48. memb 2. art 1. de offic subd erga Princ. and therefore he is not a terrour to him that doth well but the wicked ought to fear because Princes are appointed that they should punish evill Aquinas saith The faith of Christ is the beginning and the cause of righteousnesse and therefore by the faith of Christ the order of Justice is not taken away but rather setled and strengthened because as our Saviour saith It became him to fulfill all righteousnesse But the order of justice doth require that all inferiours should obey their superiours otherwise the estate of humane affairs could no ways be preserved Tham. secunda secundae q. 104. art 6. and therefore by the faith of Christ the godly and the faithful Christians are neither exempted nor excused but that they are tyed and bound by the Law of Christ to obey their secular Princes Where you see the Christian faith doth not submit the superiour to the inferiour contrary to the rule of justice neither doth it any wayes for any cause permit the power of the sword to any subject to be used against his Prince because this inordinate power would turn to the ruine of man-kind and the destruction of all humane affairs which can no otherwise be preserved but through the preservation of the order of justice Indeed many times there may happen some just causes Wherein we may disobey and how for which we are not bound to obey the commands of our Magistrates as when they command any thing contrary to the commandements of God and yet then there can be no cause why we should withstand him that executeth the unjust sentence of our condemnation or requireth the punishment that an unjust malitious Magistrate under the colour of his power and authority hath most unjustly laid upon us because he hath as our Saviour saith unto Pilate this ordinary power from God which if he doth abuse he is to be refrained not by the preparation of arms and the insurrection of his subjects to make impressions upon their Soveraign but by those lawful means which are appointed for them that is Petitions unto him and prayers and tears unto God for him because nothing else remaineth to him that is guilty or condemned as guilty for any fault but to commit his cause to the knowledge of the omnipotent God and to expect the judgement of him which is the King of Kings and the Judge of all Judges and will undoubtedly chastize and correct the iniquity of any unjust sentence with the severity of eternal justice Barcl l. 3. c. 10. as Barclay saith These testimonies are clear enough and yet to all these I will adde this one memorable example Berchetus in explicat controvers Galli cana cap. 7. which you may read in Berchetus and Joh. Servinus which tells us that in France after the great Massacre ut Paris when the reformed Religion did seem as it were forsaken and almost extinguished a certain King powerful in strength rich in wealth and terrible for his Ships and navall Force which was at enmity and hatred with the King of France dispatched a solemn Embassie and Message unto Henry King of Navarre and other Protestant Lords and commanded his Embassadors to do their best to set the Protestants against the Papists and to arm Henry the Prince of Navarre which then lived at Bearn under the Dominion of the most Christian King against his Soveraign the French King which thing the Embassadours endeavoured to do with all their art and skill An example of a faithful and excellent subject but all in vain for Henry being a good subject as it were another David to become a most excellent King would not prevent the day of his Lord yet the Embassadours offered him many ample fair and magnificent conditions among the rest abundance of money the summe of three hundred thousand Aureorum Scutatorum French Crowns which were ready to be told for the preparation of the warre and for the continuation of the same there should be paid every moneth so much as was necessary but Henry being a faithful Christian a good Prince a Widower and though he was displaced from the publique government of the Common-wealth and for his sake for the dislike the King bare towards him the King had banished many Protestants from his Country and had killed many faithful Pastours yet would not he
felt before as you may find in Appian those infinite miseries that succeeded in severall fields and battels which could never end untill the overthrow of Anthony by Augustus Caesar And when Nero perished it fell out with no good successe but the next year that followed after his death felt more oppression and spilt more blood then was spilt in all those * nine years wherein he had so tyrannically reigned His first Quin quennium was good So when the Athenians had expelled one Tyrant they brought in thirty And when the Romans had abandoned their Kings they did not put away the tyranny but changed the Tyrants for wicked Kings they chose more wicked Consuls which is nothing else but as the Proverb goeth Antigonum effâ—dere to go out of Gods blessing into the warm Sun or rather to change a bad Master for a worse A fable worth the observing And this is contrary to the judgement of that ulcerated wretch in the fable who when the traveller saw him full of flies swarming in his sores and pitying his miseries would have swept them off prayed him to let them alone for that these being now well filled would suck the lesse but if these were gone more hungry flies would come which would most miserably suck his blood And so Histories tell us of many other Kings that by Heathens and rebellious subjects were for their injustice cruelty and tyranny either expelled or murdered but very seldom or never with any publick benefit when the chiefest plotters of any rebellion do most chiefly aym at their own private revenge Who do many times rebell and why or profit Yea many times those very Parasitical Lords that have most perswaded the King to do things which he knew not to be illegall and made benefit of those Monopolies and exactions to their own advantage to fill their own purses and then upon either discontent with the King or to content the people and to escape their own due deserved punishment will be the chiefest upbraiders of their King the greatest sticklers of rebellion and the head leaders of all the disloyal Faction What fools then are the people upon the false pretence of publique good to take up arms to destroy themselves when this name of publique good is nothing else but a vain shadow to hide their private ends Or were it granted that it might happen for the publique good yet it is not good to do it because it can never stand with a good conscience because it is contrary to the Commandement of God A threefold power in every Tyrant for in every Tyrant there is a three-fold power and authority that doth concurre 1. Paternal 2. Conjugal 3. Herile and you know the law of God doth not permit the children to renounce their father nor which is lesse to laugh at their fathers nakednesse nor doth it suffer the wife to forsake her husband nor the servant to chastise his Lord and Master and therefore much lesse may the Subjects deprive their King from his Dominion and take from him what God hath given him or any wayes chastize him for his ill government whereof he is accomptable to God and not to them or if they might depose him or reduce him by their correction when he doth degenerate into a Tyrant yet seeing there are many kinds of Tyrannies I demand if the same reason shall serve to proceed against all kinds of Tyranny Punishment should be proportionable to the fault to the like condemnation of all tyrannous Kings and this every Sophister will deny for where the punishment is not proportionable to the fault the sentence is most unjust and the suppressors of the Tyrant do shew the signs of a worse tyranny and if there must be an adaequation of the punishment to the sin I would know how they would distinguish to impose the just measure that is due to each kind of tyranny Three kinds 1. Kind But to leave the Rebels in this Labyrinth till they be better able to evade I say that there are three speciall kinds of tyrannies 1. Is against all humane right for his own private commodity to the publique Kind 1 losse and dammage of his subjects as was the tyranny of Achab when he took away Naboths vineyard 1 Sam 8. and of those Kings which Samuel doth describe 2. Violateth the divine Law to the contumelie of the Creatour as was Kind 2 the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar when he would have forced the three children to adore his golden Image and of Jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin because he compelled them to go to Dan and Bethel to adore his Calves and hindred them to go to Hierusalem for to worship the true God 3. Treadeth and trampleth under foot both the divine and humane Kind 3 right to the utter overthrow of all piety and justice as was the tyranny of Manâ—sses Julian and others that regarded neither the worship of God nor the good of men And I do confidently affirm that each one of these tyrannies apart or all of them coupled in one Tyrant as well that which offereth violence unto God as that which bringeth calamity and cruelty unto man ought to be suffered and not abolished untill he doth abrogate the same which alone looseth the belts of Kings and girdeth about their loyns as Job speaketh For you know the fore-named Tyrants and many more as bad or worse then they as Solomon himself that by his Oppression Polygamy and Idolatry had most grievously sinned both against God and man and yet all of them went on without either the diminution of their glory These should be our patterns unlesse we have some new revelations or the losse of their dominions and Achab did most tyrannically kill Naboth and took away his Inheritance without law as David did before kill Vrias a most innocent man and took away his wife contrary to all law which was death by their law to any other man and he exiled the Prophets and was the death of many of them and he trampled down the true Religion under his feet and by publique authority established the Idolatrous worship of Baal in every place and yet neither the inferiour Magistrates nor the greatest Peers nor the consent of all the people durst presume contrary to the Ordinance of God to depose or suppresse any of these tyrannous men If you alleadge Jehu I confesse indeed he did it Object 2 Reg. 2. Sol. when he conspired against Joram his own Lord and Master But how did he this By a power extraordinarily given him from Heaven as you may see in the 6. and 7. verses of that Chapter when the same was not permitted him by any lawes as Jezabel her self could tell him Had Zimri peace which slew his Master to whom he might have answered He breaks no Law that obeyeth the commands of the Law-maker no more then the Israelites could be accused of theft when they did rob the
all kings Ang. de Civit. Dei l. 4. c 33. illius jussu reges constituuntur And by whose command men are born by his command Kings are made And S. Augustine more plainly and more fully saith God alone is the giver of all earthly Kingdomes which he giveth both to the good and to the bad neither doth he the same rashly and as it were by chance because he is God but as he seeth good Pro rerum ordine ac tempore in respect of the order of things and times which are hid from us but best known unto himself and whosoever looketh back to the original of all governments he shall find that God was the immediate authour of the Regal power God the immediate authour of Monarchy and but the allower and confirmer of the Aristocratical and all other forms of government which the people erected and the Lord permitted lest the execution of judgement should become a transgression of justice for as Homer saith Hom. Odyss α. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Aristotle tells us Aristot Polit. l. 1. c. 8. that the Regal power belonged to the father of the family who in the infancy of the world was so grandevous and long-liv'd that he begat such a numerous posterity as might well people a whole Nation as Cain for his own Colony built a City and was as well the King as the father of all the Inhabitants and therefore Justin saith very well that Principio rerum Justin l. 1. Gentium nationúmque imperium penes reges erat The rule of Nations was in the hands of Kings from the beginning and the Kingly right pertaining to the father of the family the people had no more possibility in right to choose their Kings then to choose their Fathers and to make it appear unto all Nations that not onely the Kings of Israel but all other Heathen Kings are acknowledged by God himself to be of divine institution Jerem. 43.10 Esay 45.1 he calleth Nebuchadnezzar his servant and Cyrus his annointed And therefore though I do not wonder that ignorant fellows should be so impudent Jo. Goodwin in his Pamphlet of Anti-Cavalierism p. 5. as to affirm The King or kingly government to be the Ordinance or Creation or creature of man and to say that the Apostle supposeth the same because he saith Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King c. whereas he might well understand that the same act is oftentimes ascribed aswel to the mediate as to the immediate agent as Samuel's annointing of Saul and David Kings denieth not but that God was the immediate giver of their Kingdomes and the Authour of that regal power 1 Sam. 10. for God annointed Saul Captain over his inheritance and by the mouth of Nathan he telleth David that he annointed him King over Israel 2 Sam. 12. and Solomon acknowledgeth that the Lord had set him on the Seat of his Father David 1 Reg. 2. and Abijah in the person of God saith unto Jeroboam 1 Reg. 11. I will give the Kingdome unto thee 1 Sam. 11.15 and yet it is said that all the people went to Gilgal and made Saul King before the Lord and the men of Juda annointed David King of Juda 2 Sam. 5. and Zadock the Priest and Nathan the Prophet annointed Solomon King that is God annointed them as Master of the substance and gave unto them regal power in whom is all power primariò per se and the Prophets annointed them as Masters of the Ceremony and declared that God had given them that power And therefore the power and authority of Kings is originally Constituere regem est facere ut regiam potestatem exerceret Pinedas de reb Solom c. 2. and primarily as Saint Paul saith the Ordinance of God and secondarily or demonstratively it is as Saint Peter calleth it the ordinance of man when the people whose power is onely derivatively makes them Kings not by giving unto them the right of their Kingdomes but by receiving them into the possession of their right and admitting them to exercise their royal authority over them which is given them of God and therefore ought not to be withstood by any man And this Anti-Cavalier might further see that Saint Peter meaneth not that the King is the creature of man or his Office of mans Creation but that the Lawes and Commands of Kings though they be but the Commands and Ordinances of man yet are we to obey the same for the Lords sake because the Lord commandeth that Every soul should be subject to the higher powers Or if this will not satisfie him because the Greeks word is not so plain for this as the English yet let him look into Pareus that was no friend to Monarchy and he shall find that he doth by seven speciall reasons prove Pareus in Rom. c. 13. p. 13. 27. that the authority of Kings is primarily the Ordinance of God and he quoteth these places of Scripture to confirm it Proverbs 8.15 2 Chron. 19.6 Psalm 81.6 Joh. 10.34 Genes 9.6 1 Sam. 15. 1 Kings 12. 2 Kings 9. Dan. 2.21 Job 34.30 Eccles 10.8 And to this very objection he answereth that the Apostle calleth the Magistrate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an humane Ordination or Creation not causally because it is invented by man and brought up onely by the will of men but subjectively because it is born and executed by men and objectively because it is used about the government of humane society and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of the end because it is ordained of God for the good and conservation of humane kind and he saith further that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellatio the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Deum primum autorem nos revocat sheweth plainly that God is the first author of it for though the Magistrate in some sense as I shewed may be said to be created that is ordained by men yet God alone is the first Creatour of them as Aaron though he was ordained the high-Priest by Moses yet the Apostle tells us None taketh this office upon him but he that is called of God as Aaron was Yet I do admire that Buchanan or any other man of learning to satisfie the people or his own peevish opinion will so absurdly deny so divine and so well known a verity and say that any Kings have their Kingdomes and not from God so flatly contrary to all Scripture CHAP. VII Sheweth the Reasons and Examples that are alledged to justifie Rebellion and a full answer to each of them God the immediate Authour of Monarchy Inferiour Magistrates have no power but what is derived from the superiour And the ill successe of all rebellious Resisting of our Kings The allegation to justifie Rebellion BUt to prove their absurdities they still alledge that the inferiour Magistrates as the Peers and Counsellours of Kings
Example answered it is most impertinently alledged for Ezechias was the lawful King of Juda and the King of Assyria had no right at all in his Dominions An impertinent example but being greedily desirous to enlarge his territories he incroached upon the others right and for his injustice was overcome by the sword in a just battell and therefore to conclude from hence that because the King of Juda refused to obey the King of Assyria therefore the inferiour Magistrates or Peers of any Kingdome may resist and remove their lawful Prince for his tyranny or impiety surely this deserves rather fustibus retundi quà m rationibus refelli to be beaten with rods then confuted with reasons as Saint Bernard speaketh of the like Argument And whereas they reply that it skilleth not whether the Tyrant be forreign as Eglon and the King of Assyria were or domestique as Saul Achab and Manasses were The ubsurdity of their replication because the domestique is worse then the forreign and therefore the rather to be suppressed I will shew you the validity of this argument by the like The seditious Preachers are the generation of vipers nay farre worse then vipers because they hurt but the body onely and these are pernicious both to body and soul therefore as a man may lawfully kill a viper so he may more lawfully kill any seditious Preacher Quia Dare absurdum non est solvere argumentum But to omit their absurdity let us look into the comparison betwixt domestique and extranean Tyrants and we shall find that domestique Tyrants are lawfully placed over us by God who commandeth us to obey them and forbiddeth us to resist them in every place for the Scripture makes no distinction betwixt a good Prince and a Tyrant in respect of the honour reverence and obedience that we owe unto our superiours as you see the Lord doth not say Touch not a good King and Obey righteous Princes but as God saith Honour thy father and thy mother be they good or bad so he saith Touch not the King resist not your Governours speak not evil of the Rulers be they good or be they bad and therefore Saint Paul when he was strict y charged for reviling the wicked high-Priest answered wisely I wist not brethren that he was Gods High-Priest for if I had known him to be the true High-Priest I would not have spoken what I did because I know the Law of God obligeth me to be obedient to him that God hath placed over me Bad kings to be obeyed as well as the good be he good or bad for it is Gods institution and not the Governours condition that tyeth me to mine obedience So you see the mind of the Apostle he knew the Priest-hood was abolished and that he was not the lawful High-Priest therefore he saith God shall smite thee thou whited wall But if he had known and believed him to be the true and lawful High-Priest which God had placed over him he would never have said so had the Priest been never so wicked because the Law saith Thou shalt not revile thy Ruler But for private robbers or forreign Tyrants God hath not placed them over us nor commanded us to obey them neither have they any right by any Law but the Law of strength to exact any thing from us and therefore we are obliged by no law to yield obedience unto them neither are we hindred by any necessity either of rule or subjection but that we may lawfully repell all the injuries that they offer unto us Example answered 3 3. For the peoples hindring of King Saul to put his son Jonathan to death I say that they freed him from his fathers vow non armis sed precibus not with their weapons Saul was contented to be perswaded to spare his son but by their prayers when they appealed unto himself and his own conscience before the living God and perswaded him that setting aside his rash vow he would have regard unto justice and consider whether it was right that he should suffer the least damage who following God had wrought so great a deliverance unto the peohle as Tremelius and Junius in their Annotations do observe Gregor in 1 Reg. 4. And Saint Gregory saith The people freed Jonathan that he should not die when the King overcome by the instance of the people spared his life which no doubt he was not very earnest to take away from so good a son Example answered 4 4. Touching Ahikam that was a prime Magistrate under King Jehoiakim I say that he defended the Prophet not from the Tyranny of the King but from the fury of the people for so the Text saith The hand of Ahikam Jerem. 26.24 that is saith Tremelius the authority and the help of Ahikam was with Jeremy that They that is his enemies should not give him into the hands of the people which sought his life to put him to death because Ahikam had been a long while Counsellour unto the King and was therefore very powerful in credit and authority with him The act of Ahikam no colour for Rebellion And you know there is a great deal of difference betwixt the refraining of a tumultuous people by the authority of the King and a tumultuous insurrection against the King That was the part of a good man and a faithful Magistrate as Ahâ—kam did this of an enemy and a false Traytor as the opposer of Kings use to do 5. For the defection and revolting of the ten Tribes from Rehoboam Example answered 5 their own natural lawful King unto a fugitive and a man of a servile condition and for the Edomites Lybnites and others that revolted against King Joram 2 Chron. 21. 2 Reg. 14.19 and that Conspiracy which was made in Jerusalem against Amazia I answer briefly That the Scriptures do herein as they do in many other places set down rei gestae veritatem non facti aequitem the truth of things how they were done not the equity of the things that they were rightly done and therefore Actions commanded to be done are not to be imitated by us unl sse we be suâ—e of the like commandement Non ideò quia factum legimus faciendum credamus ne violemus praeceptum dum sectamur exemplum We must not believe it ought to be done because we read that it was done lest we violate the Commandement of God by following the example of men as Saint Augustine speaketh for though Joseph sware by the life of Pharaoh the Midwives lyed unto the King and the Israelites robbed the Aegyptians and sinned not therein yet we have no warrant without sinne to follow their examples Besides God himself had foretold the defection of the ten Tribes for the sinne of Solomon and he being Lord proprietary of all his donation transferreth a full right to him God is the right owner of all things and therefore may justly dispose any Kingdom on
whom he bestowes it and this made Shemaiah the man of God to warn Rehoboam not to fight against his brethren for as when God commanded Abraham to kill his sonne it was a laudable obedience and no murther to have done it and when he commanded the Israelites to rob the Aegyptians it was no breach of the eighth Commandement so this revolt of these Tribes if done in obedience unto God could be no offence against the Law of God but because they regarded not so much the fulfilling of Gods will as their not being eased of their grievances and the fear of the weight of Rehoboam's finger which moved them to this Rebellion I can no ways justifie their action and though God by this Rent did most justly revenge the sinne of Solomon and paid for the folly of Rehoboam yet this doth no wayes excuse them for this rebellion because they revolted not with any right aspect and therefore it is worth our observation that the consequences which attended this defection was a present falling away from the true God into Idolatry and not long after to be led into an endlesse Captivity Which is a fearful example to see how suddenly men do fall away from God and from their true religion after they have rebelled against their lawful King and how to avoid imaginary grievance they do often fall into a real bondage and so leap out of the Frying-pan into the fire And for the Edomites they were not Israelites that led their lives by the law of God neither can any man excuse the conspirators against Amazia from the transgression of the Law of God 6. For Vzziah that was taken with a grievous sicknesse so that he Example answered 6 could not be present at the publique affaires of the Kingdom I say that according to the law by reason of the contagion of his disease he was rightly removed from the Court and concourse of people and his sonne in the mean time placed in his fathers stead to administer and dispose the Common-wealth but he in all that while like a good sonne did neither affect the name nor assume the title of a King 7. For the deposing of Athalia I see nothing contrary to equity because Example answered 7 she was not the right Prince but an unjust Vsurper of the Crown and therefore Jehoida the chief Priest having gathered together the principal Peers of the Kingdome and the Centurions and the rest of the people shewed them the Kings sonne whom for six yeares space he had preserved alive from the rage and fury of Athalia which had slain all the rest of the Kings seed and when they saw him they did all acknowledge him for the Kings sonne they crowned him King and he being crowned they joyfully cryed God save the King and then by the authority of the new crowned King that was the right heir unto the Kingdom they put to death the cruel Queen that had so tyrannically slain the Kings children and so unjustly usurped the Crown all that while And therefore to alledge this example so justly done to justifie an insurrection contrary to justice doth carry but a little shew of reason And I say the like of the Macchabees and Antiochus that neither he nor any other Macedonian Tyrant had any right over them but they were unjust Vsurpers that held the Jewes under them in ore gladii with the edge of their swords and were not their lawful Kings whom they ought to obey and therefore no reason but that they might justly free themselves with their swords that were kept in bondage by no other right then the strength of the sword Example answered 8 8. For the example of Thrasibulus Juniuâ— Brutus and other Romans or whosoever that for their faults have deposed their Kings I answer with Saint Augustine Examples not to be imitated that Exempla paucorum non sunt trahenda in legem universorum we have no warrant to imitate these examples for though these things were done yet we say they were done by Heathens that knew not God and unjustly done contrary to the law of God and therefore with no blessing from God with no good successe unto themselves and with lesse happinesse unto others but it happened to them as to all others that do the like to expell a mischief and to admit a greater as besides what I have shewed you before this one most memorable example out of our own Histories doth make it plain The ill successâ— of resisting our superiours In the time of Richard the second the Nobility and Gentry murmured much against his government in brief they deposed him and set the Crown upon the head of the Duke of Lancaster whom they created King Henry the fourth The good Bishop of Carlile made a bold and excellent Speech to prove that they could not by any law of God or man depose and dispossesse their lawful King or if they deposed him that they had no right to make the Duke of Lancaster to succeed him but he good man for his pains was served as Saint Paul and others were many times for speaking the truth committed to prison and there was an end of him but not an end of the story for the many battels and blood-shed the miseries and mischiefs that this one unjust and unfaithful act produced had never any period never an end till that well nigh a hundred thousand English men were slain in civil warres whereof two were Kings one Prince ten Dukes two Marquesses 21. Trussel in his supplement to Daniel's History Earles 27. Lords two Viscounts one Lord Prior one Judge 139. Knights 421. Esquires and Gentlemen of great and ancient Families a farre greater number a just revenge for an unjust extrusion of their lawful King whose greatest misery came from his great mildnesse And therefore these things being well weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary All the pressures that we have suffered since the first year of our king are not comparable to the miseries that one years civil warre hath brought upon us in the scales of true wisdom it had been better for them as it will be for us and all others patiently to suffer the crosse that shall be laid upon us untill that by our prayers we can prevail with God that for our sinnes hath sent it in mercy to remove it then for our selves to pluck our necks out of the coller and in a froward disobedience to pull the house as Sampson did upon our own heads and like impatient fishes to leap out of the Frying-pan into the fire from hard usage that we impatiently conceived to most base cruel bondage that we have deservedly merited or at the best to bring many men to many miseries before we can attain unto any happinesse and so as the Poet saith in this very case among the Romans when for their liberty and priviledges as they termed it in Pompey's time Excessit medicina modum The remedy that they procured hath proved
farre worse then the disease they suffered And I doubt not but ere long the Rebels in this Kingdom will feelingly confesse this to be too true when they shall more deeply taste of the like miseries as they have brought as well upon many of their own friends as others If you alledge the time of Richard the third how soon he was removed and how happily it câ—me to passe that Henry the seventh succeeded I answer briefly that Richard the third was not onely a cruel bloody Tyrant but he was also an unjust Usurper of the Crown and not the right King of England and that there is a great deal of difference betwixt rebelling against our lawful Kings which God hath justly placed over us and expelling an usurping Tyrant which hath unjustly intruded himself into the royal Throne This God often hath blessed as in the case of Eglon Athalia Henry the seventh and many more which you may obviously find both in the Greek and Roman stories and the other he alwayes cursed and will plague it whensoever it is attempted After I had answered these Objections I lighted upon one more Object Goodwin in his Anti-Cavalierisme p. 8 which is taken out of 2 Kings 6.32 where the Objector saith When Ahab sent a Cavalier a man of blood to take away the Prophet Elisha's head as he sate in his house among the Elders did Elisha open his dore for him and sit still till he took off his head in obedience to the King No he bestirred himself for the safeguard of his life and called upon others to stand by him to assist him And a little after he saith Surely he that went thus farre for the safety of his life when he was but in danger to be assaulted would have gone further if occasion had been and in case the Kings Butcher had got in to him before the dore had been shut if he had been able and had had no other means to have saved his own head but by taking away the others there is little question to be made but he would rather have taken then given a head in this case I answer that who this Goodwin is I know not Sol. The Ministers of Christ should not be the incendiaries of war I could wish he were none oâ— the Tribe of Levi 1. Because I find him such an incendiary of warre and an enemy unto peace whereas the messengers of Christ have this Elogie given them Qâ—Ã m speciosi pedes Evangelizantium pacem And the Scripture saith Blessed are the Peace-makers and we continually pray Give peace in our dayes O Lord and therefore I can hardly believe these incendiaries of warre to be the sonnes of the God of peace 2. Because his objection is full of falshoods and false grounds as 1. He saith that Ahab sent to take Elisha's head The first mistake in the front of his Speech 2 Kings 6.32 If any thing more when as Ahab was dead long before it was his ghost therefore and not he But it was his son and what then what did the Prophet he shut the dore and desired the Elders to handle the messenger roughly or hold him fast at the dore Thus saith the Text and the Prophet in my judgement doth herein but little more then what God and nature alloweth every man to do not to lay down his life if he can lawfully preserve it but as the Prophet did to shut the dore or as our Saviour saith When we are persecuted in one City to flye into another to save our lives as long as we can and in all this I find no violent resistance But 2. the Objector tells us Surely if the messenger had got in Elisha had taken off his head rather then given his own I demand What inspiration he hath from God to be sure of this for I am sure John Baptist would not do so nor Saint Paul nor any other of Gods Saints that I have read of but these men are sure of every thing even of Gods secret Counsel and that is more then the thoughts of mens hearts or if this be sure which I am not sure of I answer that Elisha was a great Prophet that had the spirit of Eliah doubled upon him and those actions which he did or might have done through the inspiration of Gods spirit this man may not do except he be sure of the like inspiration for God who is justice it self can command by wâ—rd as he did to Abraham to kill his son or by inspiration as he did to Elias to call fire from Heaven and it is a sin to disobey it whereas without this it were an horrible sin to do it And we must distinguish betwixt rare and extraordinary cases that were managed by special commission from God and those patterns that are confirmed by known and general Rules which passe through the whole course of Scripture and take heed that we make not obscure Commentaries of humane wisdom upon the clear Text of holy Writ Quia maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum Cursed be the gloss that corrupts the Text. But indeed the place is plain that Elisha made no other resistance but what every man may lawfully do to keep the messenger out of dores so long as he could and yet this man would inferre hence that we may lawfully with a strong hand and open warre resist the authority of our lawful Kings a Doctrine I am sure that was never taught in the School of Christ He makes some other Objections which I have already answered in this Treatise and then he spends almost two leaves in six several answers that he maketh to an objection against the examining the equity or iniquity of the Kings commands but to no purpose because we never deny but that in some cases though not in all for there must be Arcana Imperii and there must be Privie Counsellours and every Peasant must not examine all the Edicts of his Prince The commands of Kings may not onely be examined but also disobeyed as the three Children did the commands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Apostles the commands of the High-Priests but though we may examine their commands and disobey them too when they are contrary to the commands of God yet I would fain know where we have leave to resist them and to take arms against them I would he understood There is a great deal of difference betwixt examining their commands and resisting their authority the one in some cases we may the other by no means we may do CHAP. VIII Sheweth that our Parliament hath no power to make warre against our King Two main Objections answered The original of Parliaments The power of the King to call a Parliament to deny what he will and to dissolve it when he will Why our King suffereth BUt when all that hath been spoken cannot satisfie their indignation against true obedience and allay the heat of their rebellious spirits they come to their ultimum refugium best strength
and strongest fort that although all others should want sufficient right to crosse the commands and resist the violence of an unjust and tyrannical Prince yet the Parliament that is the representative body of all his Kingdom and are intrusted with the goods estates and lives of all his people may lawfully resist and when necessity requireth take arms and subdue their most lawful King and this they labour to confirm by many arguments I answer that for the Parliament of England it is beyond my sphere and I being a transmarine member of this Parliament of Ireland And whatsoever I â—pâ—ak of Parliaments in all this Discourse I mean of Parliaments disjâ—yned from their King and understand only the prevalent faction that ingrosseth and captivateth the Votes of many of the plain honest minded party which hath been often seen both in general Councels and the greatest Parl aments I will only direct my speech to that whereof I am a Peer and I hope I may the more boldly speak my mind to them whereof I am a member and I dare maintain it that it shall be a benefit and no prejudice both to King and Kingdome that the Spiritual Lords have their Votes in this our Parliament For besides the equity of our sitting in Parliament and our indubitable right to vote therein and his Majesty as I conceive under favour be it spoken is obliged by the very first act in Magna Charta to preserve that right unto us when as in the Summons of Edw. 1. it is inserted in the Writ that * Claus 7. m. 3. dors Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari or tractari debet whatsoever affair is of publique concernment ought to receive publique approbation and therefore with what equity can so considerable a party of this Kingdom as are the Clergy who certainly cannot deserve to forfeit the priviledge of the meanest subjects and of Common men because they are more immediately the servants of the living God be denied the benefit of that which in all mens judgements is so reasonable a law and they onely be excluded from that interest which is common unto all I cannot see yet I say that besides this our right while we sit in Parliament this fruit shall alwayes follow that our knowledge and conscience shall never suffer us to vote such things against the truth as to allow that power or priviledge to our Parliament as to make Orders and Ordinances without the consent and contrary to the will of our King much lesse to leavie moneys and raise armes against our King Priviledges of Parliament what they are for I conceive the Priviledges of Parliament to be Privatae leges Parliamenti a proceeding according to certain rules and private customes and lawes of Parliament which no member of the Houses ought to transcend whereas the other is Privatio legum a proceeding without Law contrary to all rules as if our Parliament had an omnipotent power and were more infallible than the Pope to make all their Votes just and their sayings truth I but to make this assertion good that the Parliament in some cases may justly take arms and make warre upon their justest King if they conceive him to be unjust it is alledged that although the King be Singulis major greater then any one yet he is Vniversis minor lesse then all therefore all may oppose him if he refuse to consent unto them I answer that the weaknesse of this argument Pag. 11. 38 39 40. is singularly well shewed in the Answer to the Observations upon some of his Majesties late Answers and Expresses and I will briefly contract the Answer to say the King is better than any one doth not prove him to be better then two and if his Supremacy be no more then many others may challenge as much for the Prince is Singulis major a Lord above all Knights and a Knight above all Esquires he is singulis major though universis minor And if the King be universis minor then the people have placed a King not over but under them And Saint Peter doth much mistake in calling the King Supreme 2 Pet. 2.13 and they do ill to petition when they might command and I am confident that no records except of such Parliaments as have most unjustly deposed their Kings can shew us one example that the Parliament should have a power As Edw. Carnarvan and Richard the second which must of necessity over-rule the King or make their Votes Law without and against the will of the King for if their Votes be Law without his consent what need they seek and sollicit his consent But the clause in the Law made 2. Hen 5. cited by his Majesty that it is of the Kings regality to grant or deny such of their Petitions as pleaseth himself That the King is universis major greater then all proved and the power which the Law gives the King to dissolve the Parliament and especially the words in the Preface of cap. 12. Vices to Hen. 8. where the Kings Supremacy not over single persons but over all the body politique is clearly delivered doth sufficiently shew the simplicity of this Sophistry God having given and the people having yielded their power to th it King they can never challenge any power but what they have derived from their king 2. Reason Sol. and prove that the King being invested with all the powâ—â— of the people which is due to him as their King he is the onely fountain of all power and justice so that now they can justly claim no power but what is derived from him and therefore it is the more intolerable that any man should usurp the power of the King to destroy the King 2. They will say that Salus populi est suprema a lex The good of the people is the chiefest thing that is aymed at in all government and the Parliament is the representative body of all the people therefore if any thing be intended contrary to the good of the people they may and ought lawfully to resist the same I answer and confesse that there is no wise King but will carefully provide for the safety of his people because his honour is included therein and his ruine is involved in their destruction but it is certain that this principle hath been used as one of our Irish mantles to hide the rebellion of many Traytors and so abused to the confusion of many Nations for there is not scarce any thing more facile 2 Sam. 15.4 then to perswade a people that they are not well governed as you may see in the example of Absolon who by abusing this very Axiome hath stollen away the hearts of many of his fathers subj cts How easie it is to perswade the people to rebell for as Lipsius saith Proprium est aegri nihil diu pati It is incident to sick men and so to distempered minds to indure nothing long but foolishly to
truth of this Doctrine do in all their Votes and Declarations conclude and protest and I must believe them that all the leavies moneys and other provision of horse and men that they raise and arm are for the safety of the Kings person and for the maintenance of his Crown and Dignity Nay more then this the very Rebels in this our Kingdom of Ireland knowing how odious it is before God and man for subjects to rebell and take armes against their lawful King do protest if you will believe them that they are the Kings souldiers and do fight and suffer for their King and in defence of his Prerogatives But you know the old saying Tuta frequensque via est per amici fallere nomen The Devil deceiveth us soonest when he comes like an Angel of light and you shall ever know the true subjects best by their actions farre better then by their Votes Declarations or Protestations for Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta When men do come in sheeps cloathing and inwardly are ravening wolves when they come with honey in their mouths and gall in their hearts and like Joab with peace in their tongue and a sword in their hand a petition to intreat and a weapon to compell I am told by my Saviour that I shall know them by their works not their words And therefore as our Saviour saith Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven So I say not he that cryeth peace peace is the son of peace but he that doth obey his Prince and doth most willingly whatsoever he commandeth or suffereth most patiently for refusing to do what he commandeth amisse This is the true subject Well to draw towards the end of this point That is when the Commonalty guide the Nobility and the Subjects rule their King of our obedience to our Soveraign Governour I desire you to remember a double story The one of Plutarch which tells us how the tayle of the Serpent rebelled against the head because that did guide the whole body and drew the tayle after it whithersoever it would therefore the head yielded that the tayle should rule and then it being small and wanting eyes drew the whole body head and all through such narrow crevises clefts and thickets that it soon brought the Serpent to confusion The other is of Titus Livius Titus Livius Decad. 1. l. 2â— who tells us that when the people of Rome made a factious combination to rebell against their Governours Menenius Agrippa went unto them and said that on a time all the members conspired against the stomack and alledged that she devoured with ease and pleasure what they had purchased with great labour and pain therefore the feet would walk no more the hands would work no more the tongue would plead no more for it and so within a while the long fast of the stomack made weak knees feeble hands dimme eyes a faltering tongue and a heavie heart and then presently seeing their former folly they were glad to be reconciled to the Stomack again and this reconciled the people unto their Governours I need not make any other application but to wish and to advise us all with the people of Rome to submit our selves unto our Heads that are our Governours lest if we be guided by the tayle we shall bring our selves with the Serpent unto destruction And to remember that excellent speech of S. Basil The people through ambition are fallen into grievous Anarchie whence it happeneth that all the exhortations of their rulers do no good no man hath any list to obey but every man would reign being swelled up with pride that springeth out of his ignorance And a little after he saith Basilius de Spiritu Sancto c. ult scii 30. An argument of obedience drawn from the fifth Commandement that some sit no lesse implacable and bitter examiners of things amisse then unjust and malevolent Judges of things well done so that we are more brutish then the very beasts because they are quiet among themselves but we wage cruel and bloody warres against each other And let us never forget that the Lord saith Honour thy father and thy mother and I must tell you that by father in this precept you must not onely understand your natural father but also the King who is your political father and the father of all his subjects and the Priest your spiritual father 1 Chron. 2.24 and those likewise that in loco patris do breed and bring you up and though natural affection produceth more love and honour unto those fathers that begat us yet reason and religion oblige us more unto the King that is the common father of all and to the Priest that begat us unto Christ then unto him that begat us into the world for that without our new birth which is ordinarily done by the office of the Priest we were no Christians What we are and should be without King or Priest and as good unborn as unchristened that is unregenerated and without the King that is Custos utriusque tabulae the preserver both of the publick justice and of the pure religion our fathers can neither bring us up in peace nor teach us in the faith of Christ and therefore if my father should plot any treason against the King or prove a Rebel against him I am bound in all duty and conscience to preferre the publick before the private and if I cannot otherwise avert the same to reveal the plot to preserve the King though it were to the losse of my father's life and therefore certainly they that curse that is speak evil of their King are cursed and they that rebel against him shall never have their dayes long in the land but shall through their own rebellion be soon cut off from the land of the living Whether for the liberty of Subjects we can be warranted to rebell In the discourse of the differences betwixt King and Parliament For mine own part I have often admired why the subjects of King CHARLES should raise any civil warre and especially turn their spleen against him If any say it is for their liberties I answer that I am confident His Majesty never thought to bring any the meanest of his subjects into bondage nor by an arbitrary government to reduce them into the like condition as the Peasants of France or the Boores of Germany or the Pickroes of Spain are as some do most falsely suggest but that they should continue as they have been in the dayes of his Father of blessed memory and of all other his most noble Progenitors the freest subjects under Heaven And I hope they desire not to be such Libertines as those in the Primitive Church The Libertines of the Primitive Church what they thought who because Christian liberty freed us from all Jewish Ceremonies and all typical
sinne being thus conceived in the womb of the heart Private meetings do often produce mischief at last it commeth forth to birth at the mouth for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and they begin to murmure and mutter among themselves and as Rebels use to have they have many private meetings and conventicles among themselves where they say We are all good we are all holy 2 Sam. 15.3 4. and They are no better then we and as Absolon depraved his fathers government and promised justice and judgement and golden mountains unto the people if he were King so do they traduce the present government with all scandalous imputations and professe such a reformation as would make all people happy if they were but in Moses place or made over him or with him the Guardians and Protectors of Common-wealth And so now you see this ugly monster the son of Pride and Discontentment is born into the world and spreads it self from the inward thought to open words Then Moses hears the voyce of this infant which was not like the voyce of Jacob but of the Serpent which spitteth fire and poyson out of his mouth And therefore lest this fire should consume them and these mutterers prove their murderers Moses now begins to look unto himself and to answer for his brother he calleth these rebels and he telleth them that neither he nor his brother had ambitiously usurped but were lawfully called into those places and to make this apparent to all Israel he bad these rebels come out of their Castles to some other place where he might safely treat and conferre with them and that was to the Tabernacle of the Lord that is to the place where wisdom and truth resided and was from thence published and spread to all the people and there the Lord should shew them whom he had chosen The wisdom of Moses And here I do observe the care and wisdom of the Prophet that at the first appearance of their design would presently begin to protect his brother before their rebellion had increased to any strength for had he then delivered Aaron into their hands his hands had been so weakened that he had never been able afterwards to defend himself to teach all Kings to beware that they yield not their Bishops and Priests unto the desires of the people which is the fore-runner of rebellion against themselves for as King Philip told the Athenians that he had no dislike to them The witty tale of Demosthenes to save the Oratâ—urs and to assure all Kings that if Aarons tongue and the Prophets pen perswade not the conscience to yield obedience Moses's power and Joshua's sword may subdue the people to subjection but never retain them long without rebellion Evil men grow worse worse Vers 12. Vers 13. but would admit them into his protection so they would deliver to him their Orators which were the fomenters of all mischief and the people were mad to do it till Demosthenes told them how the Wolf made the same Proposition unto the Sheep to become their friends and protectors so they would deliver their Dogs which were the cause of all discontent betwixt them and the Shee being already weary of their Dogs delivered them all unto the Wolves and then immediately the Wolves sparâ—d neither Sheep nor Lambs but tore them in pieces without resistance even so when any King yieldeth his Bishops unto the peoples Votes he may fear ere long to feel the smart of this great mistake Therefore Moses wisely delivereth not his brother but stoutly defendeth him who he knew had no wayes offended them and offered if they came to a convenient place to make this plain to all the people But as evil weeds grow apace and lewd sons will not be kept under so the more Moses sought to suppresse this sinne the faster it grew and spread it self to many branches from secret muttering to open rayling from inward discontent to outward disobedience They tell them plainly to their faces they will not come è Castris from their strong holds they accuse them falsely that Moses their Prince aymed at nothing but their destruction and to that end had brought them out of a good land to be killed in the wildernesse and contemning them most scornfully in the face of all the people whatsoever Moses bids them do they resolve to do the contrary So now Moses well might say with the Poet Moses is in a strait Fluctibus hic tumidus nubi b bus ille minax Quocunque aspicio nihil est nisi pontus aether And therefore it was high time this evil Weed should be rooted out or else the good corn shall be choaked these Rebels must be destroyed or they will destroy the Governours of Gods people and Moses now must wax angry Nam debet amor laesus irasci otherwise his meeknesse had been stupidnesse and his mercy had proved little better then cruelty when as to spare the Wolfe is to spoile the Sheep and because these great Rebels had with Absolon by their false accusations of their Governours and their subtle insinuations into the affections of the people stole away the hearts of many men therefore Moses must call for aid from Heaven and say Exsurgat Deus And let him that hath sent me now defend me So God must be the decider of this dissention as you may see he was in the next verse And by this you find Quid fecerunt what these Rebels did and how their sin was not Simplex peccatum but Morbus cumulatus a very Chaos and an heap of confused iniquity for here is 1. Pride 2. Discontent 3. Envy 4. Murmuring 5. Hypocrisie 6. Lying 7. Slandering The ten fold sin of rebels 8. Rayling 9. Disobedience 10. Rebellion A Monster indeed that is a ten-headed or ten-horned beast 1. Pride which bred the distraction in the Primitive Church 1. Pride and will be the destruction of any Church of any Common-wealth was the first seed of their rebelllion for the humble man will easily be governed but the proud heart like a sturdy Oak will rather break then bend 2. Discontent was the second step and that is a most vexatious vice 2. Discontent for though contentation is a rare blessing because it ariseth either from a fruition of all comforts as it is in the glorious in Heaven The poyson of discontent or a not desiring of that which they have not as it is in the Saints on earth yet discontent is that which annointeth all our joyes with Aloes for though life be naturally sweet yet a little discontent makes its weary of our lives as the Israelites that loved their lives as well as any yet for want of a little water say O that we had dyed in Aegypt And Haman tells his wife Hester 5.13 that all the honour which the King and Queen shewed unto him availed him nothing so long as Mordecai refused to
bow unto him And discontent may as well invade the highest as the lowest for as none is so bare but he hath some benefits so none is so full The commâ—n condition of man to be ever wanting something but he wanteth something as the Israelites had Manna but they wanted water and when they had water they wanted flesh and this want made them discontented so these Rebels had the dignity to be Levites and to be Peers of high places and heads of all their families which was more then they deserved but they wanted the honour to be Priests and to be Kings the chief Governours of Gods people which they desired and therefore were discontented because their conceit was unsatiable and their desires unsatisfied 3. As Pride makes men discontented to be inferiour unto any 3 Envy so Discontent makes them alwayes to envy their superiours and therefore Envy is the third head of this monster and the third step unto rebellion How monstrous a sin is Envy a most hateful vice before God and man That I should pine away with grief because God is gracious unto another and I must be angry with God because he will not be guided by me in the disposing of his favâ—urs and therefore Saint Augustine calleth this a devillish vice which caused Cain to kill Abel Gen 4.8 Acts 7.9 the Patriarchs to sell Joseph the Medes to molest Daniel and the Nobility of Jury to persecute good King David Cyprian in Serm. de Livors and to crucifie the sonne of David Christ himself Et ideo periêre quia malucrunt Christo invidere quà m credere And yet herein I must commend Envy that as the Poet saith Sit licèt injustus Livor Though it be unjust to others yet is it very just to destroy them first that would destroy others as the envy of these rebels did Sampson-like pull down the house upon their own heads and will most likely bring destruction unto those that follow them in rebellion 4. Murmuring 4. Murmuring is a secret discontented muttering one to another of things that we dislike or persons that we distaste and the very word in all languages seems as harsh unto our ears as the sinne is hateful unto our souls for in Greek it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latin Murmurare in English to Murmure in Brittish Grwgnach a sad word and a sowre sinne Exod. c. 15. c. 16. c. 17. therefore the wise man saith Beware of murmuring which is nothing worth and yet this sinne was frequent among the Israelites three times in three Chapters that they could never leave it till as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 10. they were destroyed of the destroyer 5. Hypocrisie 5. Hypocrisie is when a man seems to be what he is not for as Saint Hierom saith Qâ—i foris Cato intus Nero hypocrita est he that talks of peace and prepares for warre that protesteth loyalty and yet hates his King that in his words will advance the Church but in his actions will overthrow the Church-men that commends all piety but commits all iniquity that will not swear for a Kingdom but deceipe for a penny that pretends the safety of the Kings person but purloyneth away all his power that will bend his knee and say Hayle King but will spit in his face and crown him with thorns he is an hypocrite So these rebels say they are all holy they love all their brethren they hate usurpation and cannot endure the tyranny of these Governours but indeed though they cryed Templum Domini Templum Domini all for the King and all for the Church all for Moses and all for Aaron yet notwithstanding this voyce of Jacob they had the hands of Esau and they would have brought Moses and Aaron to confusion as they brought themselves to destruction This is the property of an Hypocrite and therefore Job speaking of an hypocrite saith and it is excedingly well worth the observing Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him that is they which came out to see his pomp and his greatnesse and have admired at the greatnesse of his glory shall say Where is he or How chance he doth not ride on with his honour Job 20.6 7 8 9. Job answereth The eye which saw him shall see him no more that is in the like Majesty neither shall his place any more behold him for He shall flee away as a dream and shall not be found yea he shall be chased away as a vision in the night And our Saviour knowing as well the cruelty as the subtlety of hypocrites biddeth us to beware of hypocrites Matth. 7.15 as the Poet saith ut atri limina Ditis Shun hypocrites as the gates of Hell Hypocrisie how odious it is and believe their actions rather then their protestations for as in the Old Testament Sodom and Gomorrah are the patterns of all beastlinesse so in the New Testament the greatest sinners are threatned to have their portion with the hypocrites 6. Lying 6. Lying must follow Hypocrisie at the heels for were it not for the heaps of lyes that hypocrites spread abroad the world could not possibly be so easily seduced by their hypocrisie and I read it in a Sermon of a learned Divine That now adayes some phanatique Sectaries of desperate opinions and despicable fortunes whom the Church and State find to be a malignant party having little else to do make it their trade to lye both by whole sale and retayle they invent lyes and vent lyes they tell lyes and write lyes and print lyes yea I may adde and more palpable lyes and more abominable then either Bourn or Butter ever published of the affairs of Germany and this they do as confidently and impudently as if they were informed by that lying spirit which entred as a Voluntier into Ahab's Prophets and by lying and raising false rumours they beget jealousies and feares in the people and by blowing the coales which themselves kindled and inlarging the difference betwixt King and Parliament they set all in a combustion and bring all into confusion and that which grieves me most he saith that they are Preachers which in the exuberancie of their mis-grounded and mis-guided zeal do both preach and pray against publique peace as inconsistent with the Independencie or rather Anarchie that they ayme at 7. Slandering may be coupled unto their Lying 7. Slandering because we can slander none with that which is truth therefore these Rebels say All the Congregation is holy and that is a lye when there can be no holinesse in the Rebels and The Lord is among them which is another lye for he will forsake all those that forsake him then they say Moses and Aaron take too much upon them which is an apparent slander and they adde that they lifted up themselves
but a little lesse For which application of Gods glorious name and abusing the holy Scriptures to such abominable transgression of Gods holy Precepts to instigate the subjects to warre against their Soveraign and to involve a whole Kingdom into a detestable distraction I do much admire that they are not apprehended and transferred to the Kings Bench Barre to be there arraigned and condemned to be punished according to their deserts 10. When these Rebels had proceeded thus far 10. Rebellion See the place Jâ—shua 1.16 17 18. then contrary to the loyal obedience which they owed unto their Prince and which the people promise unto Joshua they ascended to the height of that odious rebellion which may not unfitly be called Monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum and is as Thucydides saith All kind of evill Et qui facit peccatum non facit sed ipse totus est peccatum and therefore Samuel saith that Rebellion is as the sinne of Witchcraft when men do confederate to give their souls unto the Devill for now these Rebels are ready to take arms against Moses and they had reduced all civill order to a confused paritie deposed and destroyed their Governours if the Governour of all the world by whom Kings do reign and who hath promised to defend them had not prevented the same from Heaven And the reason why they did all this The reason of their rebellion and proceeded thus farre against Moses and Aaron is intimated in the words of my Text Aemulati sunt because they would emulate or imitate Moses that is to play the Moses or play the King and play the part of the chief Priest themselves for this is certain that none will envy murmure at slander and disobey his King so farre as to make an open rebellion against him but they that in some sort would rule and be Kings themselves especially when they shall seek so farre to debilitate their Prince as that he shall be no wayes able to make resistance for they think If Treason prosper 't is no Treason what 's the reason if it prosper who dares call it Treason and none would disobey their Bishops or chief Priests but they that would and cannot be Bishops themselves because pride and ambition are the two sides of that bellowes which blowes up disobedience and rebellion But they that are bad servants will prove worse Masters they that will not learn how to obey can never tell how to rule and if Moses were as these Rebels suggested a Tyrant yet the Philosopher tells us we had better endure one Tyrant then as they were 250. Tyrants And the Homily of the Church tells us that contrary to their hopes God never suffers the greatest treasons or rebellions for any long time to prosper Therefore when under loyal pretences we see nothing but studied mischiefs and most crafty endeavours to innovate our government or to imbroyle the Kingdom in a civil warre that so they may fish in a troubled water let us never be so stupid as to secure them in these actions to produce our discredit for our simplicity and destruction for our disloyalty but rather let us leave them as Delinquents to the justice of our Lawes and the mercy of the King and this will be the readiest way to effect peace and happinesse to our Nation CHAP. XII Sheweth where the Rebels do hatch their Rebellion The heavy and just deserved punishments of Rebels The application and conclusion of the whole 4. Part. Where they did laâ— this 4. WE are to consider Vbi fecerunt where they did all this in castris non in templis that is in their own houses not in the house of God for in Gods house we teach obedience to our Kings and beat down rebellion in every Kingdom this is the Doctrine of the Church But in our houses in our cabins and corners in private Coventicles they teach rebellion Our houses are our Castles which is the doctrine of those Schools And these Schools are called Castra Tents or Castles because indeed every man's house is his Castle or his Fort where he thinks himselfe sure enough so did these Rebels and they would not come out of them neither Moses the King could compell them nor Aaron the Priest could perswade them to come out of their Castles and forsake their strong holds which their guilty consciences would not permit them to do and so all other rebels will never be perswaded to forsake their places of strength untill God pulleth them as he did these Rebels out of their holes for were it not for these Castra the Cities and Castles that they possesse they could not so like subtle Foxes run out and in to nullifie the property and to captivate the liberty of the Kings faithful subjects as they do for though they do all this under those fair pretences for the defence of the true religion the maintenance of our liberties and the property of our estates yet for our Religion it is now amongst us as it was in the days of Saint Basil Basilius de Spiritu Sancto cap. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every one is a Divine and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All the bounds of our forefathers are transgressed foundation of doctrine and fortification of discipline is rooted up and the innovators which never had any other imposition of hands but what they laid upon themselves have matter enough to set forward their sedition And for the other pretences I dare procaim it to all the world that mine own experience believeth the liberty of the subjects and the property of our goods and the true Protestant Religion could not possibly be more abused then it hath been by them that came in the name and for the service of the Parliament and therefore I would to God that all the oppressions injustice and imprisonments that have been made since the beginning of this Parliament were collected and recorded in a Book of remembrance that all the world might see and read the justice and equity of our Parliament and the iniquity oppression and rapine of them that to enrich themselves How the Parliament Rebeâ—s have inriched themselves in Ireland deprive us of our estates and liberties and that under the Parliaments name For I hear that as many have been impoverished so many both the Lords and Commons in this Kingdom of Ireland that before the conjunction of these malevolent martial Planets were very low at an ebbe and their names very deep in many Citizens books have now wiped off all scores paid all their debts and clad themselves in Silks and Scarlet but with the extorted moneys and the plundered goods of the loyal subjects I hope it is not so in England Yet as Platina tells us that when the Guelphes and the Gibilines Platina's story of the Guelphs and Gibelines in the City of Papia were at civil discord and the Gibilines promised to one Facinus Caius all
the goods of the Guelphes if he assisted them to get the victory which he did and after he had subdued the Guelphes he seized upon the goods of both and when the Gibilines complained that he brake his Covenant to pillage their goods Caius answered that Themselves were Gibilines but their goods were Guelphs and so belonged unto him So both in England and Ireland I see the Parliament Forces and the Rebels I hope contrary to the will of the Parliament make little difference betwixt Papist and Protestant the well-affected and disaffected for they cannot judge of their affections but they can discern their estates and that is the thing which they thirst after Haud ignota cano But you will say These are miseries unavoidable accidents common to all warre when neither side can excuse all their followers I answer Woe be to them therefore that were the first suggesters and procurers of this warre and cursed be they that are still the incendiaries and blow the coales for the continuance of these miserable distractions I am sure his Majesty was neither the cause nor doth he desire the prolonging thereof for the least moment but as his royal Father was a most peaceable Prince so hath he shewed himself in all his life to follow him passibus aequis and to be a Prince of peace though as the God of peace is likewise a man of warre and the Lord of Hosts so this peaceable Prince when his patience is too much provoked can as you see change his pen for a sword and turn the mildnesse of a Lamb into the stoutnesse of a Lyon and you know what Solomon saith that The wrath of a King is the messenger of death especially when he is so justly moved to wrath And so much for the particulars of this Text. 2. Having fully seen the uglinesse of this sin 2. The punishment of these rebels you may a little view the greatnesse of the punishment for Although I must confesse we should be slow to anger slow to wrath yet when the Magistrate is disobeyed the Minister despised and God himself disclaimed it makes our hearts to bleed and our spirits angry within us yea though the King were as gentle and as meek as Moses the meekest man on earth and the Bishops as holy as Aaron Tirinus in ◠Psal the Saint of the Lord yet such disobedience and rebellion would anger Saints for so Tirinus faith Irritaverunt They angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord Nay more then this they angred God himself so farre that fire was kindled in his wrath and it burned to the bottom of hell And as these rebels were Lords and Levites Clergy and Laity so God did proportion their punishments according to their sinnes for the Levites that were to kindle fire upon Gods Altar and should have been more heavenly and those two hundred and fifty men which usurped the Office of the Priests He sent fire from heaven to devour them and the Nobility that were Lay-Lords the Prophet tells you The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the Congregation of Abiram A most fearful example of a just judgement for to have seen them dead upon the earth as the Aegyptians upon the shore had been very lamentable but to see the earth opening and the graves devouring them quick was most lamentable and so strange that we never read of such revenge taken of Israel never any better deserved and which is more Saint Basil saith Basilius hom 9. quòd descenderunt in infernum damnatorum they fell into the very pit of the damned which doleful judgement though they well deserved it yet I will leave that undetermined And if these rebels proceeding not so farre whatsoever they intended as to offer violence and to make an open warre against Moses were so heavily plagued for the Embrio of their rebellion what tongue shall be able to expresse the detestation of that sin and the deserts of those Rebels that by their subtilty and cruelty would bring a greater persecution upon the Church then any that we read since the time of Christ and by a desperate disobedience to a most Gracious King would utterly overthrow a most flourishing State A rebellion and persecution the one against the King the other against the Church that in all respects can scarce be parallel'd from the beginning of the world to this very day And therefore except they do speedily repent with that measure of repentance as shall be in some sort proportionable to the measure of their transgression I fear God in justice will deal with them as he did with the Jews deliver them into the hand of their Enemies that will have no compassion upon young man or maiden 2 Chron. 36 17. old man or him that stoopeth for age or rather as he did with Pharaoh King of Aegypt deliver them up to a reprobate sense and harden their hearts that they cannot repent but in their folly and obstinacy still to fight against Heaven untill the God of heaven shall overthrow them with a most fearful destruction the which I pray God they may foresee in time and repent that they may prevent it that God may be still merciful unto us as he useth to be to those that love his Name And so much for the words of this Text. The application of all Now to Apply all in brief if God shall say to any Nation I will send them a King in my wrath and give them Lawes not good let them take heed they say not We will take him away by our strength for we have read that He hath authority to give us a King in his displeasure but you shall never read that we have authority to disobey him at our pleasure and to say Nolumus hunc regnare super nos or if any do let them know that he which set him up and setled him over them is able to protec◠him against them and they that struggle against him do but strive against God and therefore they have no better remedy then to pray to God which hath the hearts of all Kings in his hand that he would as the Psalmist saith Give the King his judgements and his righteousnesse unto the King's Son that he would either guide his heart aright and direct his feet to the way of peace or as he hath sent him in his fury so he would take him away in his mercy But for our selves of these Islands we have a King and I speak it here in the sight of God and as I shall answer for what I say at the dreadful judgement not to flatter him that hears me not but to inform those of you that know him not so well as I that had the happinesse to live with my ever honoured Lord the Noble Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery 16 or 17. years in the Kings house and of them 6 or 7. years in the Kings service He is a most just pious and
his head was off this new manner of proceeding should end and be no Law for any other that came after And a Deâ—laration must be made That the course prosecuted for his punishment shall not afterward be drawn into an Example it must be produced for no Pattern but for him alone and none other lest perhaps Complaint to the House of Commons p. 6. if the same course should be still practised the contrivers of this Plot might have the like payment to fall ere long upon their own heads Therefore some say this may well draw a suspicion upon the justice of the Sentence though I will not censure any man for any injustice therein The Earle's words at his death But as the Earl said at his death which he undertook like a good Christian full of Charity and no less Piety it was an ill Omen to this Nation that they should write the Frontispiece of this Parliament with letters of Blood which if unjustly done or unduly prosecuted I fear may with Abels blood cry for vengeance in the ears of God against the Contrivers of this mischief to produce our miseries And the God of Heaven doth only know how much of the blood of this Kingdom must be squeezed out to expiate all the mis-proceedings and the fearfull projects of our people God Almighty turn his anger from us and let not the righteous perish with the wicked not the sins of some few be laid upon us all This was the first impediment that was to be removed before they could proceed any further in this Tragedy and thus it was most artificially acted And I say He was a great and a very great impediment of their design which made me the larger in the prosecution thereof because he was a person of that great ability and so great fidelity both to the Church and State and the taking off of his head made a very wide gap for our enemies to enter into the Vineyard of Christ and a large breach into the City of God to deface the Church and to destroy this Kingdom CHAP. III. Sheweth how they stopped the free judgment of the Judges procured the perpetuity of the Parliament the consequences thereof and the subtle device of Semiramis 2. THe next Let that might hinder their design was the great learning The second impediment of their design long experience and free judgment of the grave Judges to declare what is Truth and what is Law in every point for these men being skilful in the Laws and Statutes of our Land knew how contrary to the same and how repugnant to the fundamental Constitutions of our Government the erecting of a new Church and the framing of a new Common-Wealth would be and their judgment being to be inquired in any emergent Doubt might prove very prejudicial unto their plots and a hinderance of their Desin except it were diverted by some course Therefore to stop this stream to put a gagg in their mouthes How they stopped the free judgment of the Judges to imprison all truths that might make against them and to make these Judges yield to whatsoever they do or at least not to contradict any thing they say they get many of them to be accused of High-Treason and they do but accuse them and not proceed to any trial against them which was a pretty plot of their policy because that hereby they kept them and the rest of their fellow-Judges that had any finger in the mis-sentencing of the Ship money and were therefore in the same predicament and to be under the same Censure under the last and to be still silent for very fear of their proceeding against them for they saw by many presidents that those men which favoured their design or contradicted not their waies were winked at by this Faction though they were the greatest Delinquents and therefore redimere se captos to free themselves out of the hands of these men they might conceive it their safest course to gain-say none of their conclusions which was a Plot of no small value to further their design by this removal of this second impediment 3. The third impediment of their design The third Let that stood in their way to make stop of their impious design was the Royal power to dissolve the present Parliament as formerly to dissolve any other which they knew to be an inseparable flower of the Crown Timor undique nostris this brought them in fear on every side lest if they were too soon discovered they might suddenly be prevented and their plot might prove abortive Like the untimely fruit of a woman that perisheth before it seeth the Sun or as the apples of Sodome vanishing when they are touched into Nothing or at the best but to stinking blasts Therefore to escape this rock they sail about and like cunning Water-men they look towards you when they â—ow from you their eyes and mouthes are one way when their hearts and minds are another way for they tell the King that the discontinuance of Parliaments hath produced abundance of distempers in this State and a world of grievances both in the Church and Common-wealth besides they say what the King and every man else saw to be true That the Scots were entred into our Land The fair pretences for the continuance of the Parliament and setled in the bosom of this Kingdom and though perhaps if some things had been better looked into we mought at first most easily have kept them out yet now duriùs ejicitur quà m non admittitur hostis it was too late to shut the door and it is not so easy to expel and drive them out except we made them a bride of gold to pass over the river and so to go homewards again And this cannot be done without a great deal of money which moneys though the Parliament should grant them as we are most willing to do to free your Majesty from these guests and to prevent the dangers of an intestine war yet they cannot suddenly be levied and collected as the times and occasions now required therefore it must be borrowed to supply our present necessities and lenders we shall find none except we can shew them a way how they shall be repaid again and the expeperience we have lately had in these latter years of so many Parliaments so unhappily and suddenly dissolved puts us out of all hope to find any way to secure their debts except your Majesty will pass an Act for as yet they durst not say they needed not His assent to what they did that this Parliament shall not be dissolved until it be agreed upon by the consent of both houses How the King was seduced by their pretences This and the like were their fair pretences like the Syrens voyces very sweet and very good and the good King that ever spake as he thought could not think that His great Councel whom He trusted with all the Affairs of His Kingdom meant
and staves and other unfashionable though not inconsiderable weapons to cry No Papists no Bishops and if they had added No God no Devil no Heaven no Hell then surely these men had obtained if the Parliament could have granted their requests the summ of their desires and they would have thought themselves better than either King or Bishop but as yet they go no farther than No Papist no Bishop and by this they put the good Bishops in great fear and well they might be possest of that fear qui cadit in fortem constantem virum for mine eyes did see them and mine ears did hear it said What Bishop soever they met they would be his death and I thanked God they knew not me to be a Bishop Their furious assault upon Saint Peters Church in Westminster Then they set upon Saint Peters Church of Westminster burst part of the door to pieces and had they not been most manfully withstood by the Arch-Bishop of York his Gentlemen and the Prebends Servants together with the Officers of the Church they had entred and likely ransacked spoyled and defaced all the Monuments of the Ancient Kings broken down the Organs and committed such Sacriledge and prophanation of that Holy place as their fellow Rebels have done since in Canterbury Winchester Worcester and other places whereof I shall speak hereafter the like was never seen among the Turks and Pagans and after these things what rage cruelty and barbarity they would have shewed to the Dean and Prebends we might well fear but not easily judge I am sure the Dean was forced to hire Armed Souldiers to preserve the Church for many daies after for seeing these riotous Tumults could not as yet obtain their ends they came nay they were brought again and again and they justled and offered some violence unto the Arch-Bishop's Grace as he went with the Earl of Dover into the Parliament House which made him and the rest of his brethren justly to fear what might be the issue of these sad beginnings which they conceived must needs be very lamentable if timely remedy were not applied to prevent these untimely frights and unchristian tumults Therefore when no Complaints either to the House of Lords or Commons could produce any safe effects but rather a frivolous excuse than a serious redress that they came to petition against the Government and not to seek the destruction of the Governours the Bishops were inforced and in my judgment flesh and blood could take no better course in such a case in such distress and I believe it will be found wisdom hereafter to make their Petition for their security and Protestation against all Acts as null they might have added to them and whom they represented that should be enacted in their unwilling absence while they were so violently hindered from the House and it may be some word might pass in this Protestation that might be bettered or explained by another word yet on such a suddain in such a fright when they scarce had time to take Counsel of their pillows or to advise with their second thoughts quae semper sunt saniores To watch for iniquity Esay 29.20 21. to turn aside the just for a thing of nought to take advantage of a word or to catch men for one syllable to charge them with High Treason to bring them unto death so many Reverend Bishops to such a shameful end was more heavy than ever I find the Jews were to the old Prophets or the Pagan Tyrants unto the Primitive Fathers nor do I believe you can Parallel the same charge in any History yet 3. For this one necessitated Act of the Bishops 3. How they were committed to Prison the House of Commons do suddainly upon the first sight thereof charge twelv of them with High Treason they were not so long in Condemning it as the Bishops in Composing it and accordingly the Lords commit them unto Prison And if this was Treason I demand why could they not prove it so to be Or if it was not why should such an House Flos Medulla regni the greatest and the Highest Court of Justice from which the King consenting with them there lieth none appeal but only to the Court of Heaven accuse them of High Treason I would not have that Court to charge a man with any thing that were not most true for certainly whosoever unjustly compasseth my death is justly guilty of death himself when as the Poet saith Lex non justior ulla Quà m necis artifices arte perire suâ It may be they would have us to believe this Treason was not proved nor the charge so fully followed as they intended out of some mercy to save their lives but I could sooner believe they rejoyced to see them fear and were glad of their mistake that they might charge them and by such a charge cast them into prison that so they might the more easily work their Design to cast them out of the Parliament which now they have soon effected and procured an Act for their exclusion And you must know that to cast out from doing good or serving God is a work of the Divel and not of God so the wicked Husbandmen did cast out the right Heir of the Vine-yard out of his own inheritance The consequences of this Act. so the Jews did cast out the blind man and all that professed Christ out of their Synagogue But you may better judge of this good Act by these consequences which are like to be the fruits thereof 1. Hereby they are all made incapable to do any good 1. Made incapable of doing any good either for Gods honour or their neighbours benefit by executing justice or pronouncing judgment in any cause in any temporal Court and justice which long agon hath fled to Heaven and wanders as a stranger here on earth must be countenanced and entertained only by the sons of men by secular Lords and Gentlemen and the Spiritual Lords the Servants of God and messengers of Heaven must have nothing to do with her not because they are not as well able as any other to do justice but because the others cannot endure to let them see it for fear they should hinder their injustice and therefore justice and judgment are like to speed well on earth when their chiefest friends are banished from them and it may be worldlings oppressours or most ignorant youths rather than any just understanders of their natures must be their Judges 2. 2. Made unable to defend themselves Hereby they are made unable to defend themselves or their calling from any wrong their respect was little enough before and their indignities were great enough and yet now we are exposed to far greater miseries and to unresistable injuries when a Bishop hath not so much Authority as a Constable to withstand his greatest affronts But hoc Iâ—hacus est this is that which the Devil and his great Atreides's his prime
thousand pound and it is more than probable that this proceeding is but the praeludium of the like exaction to be extended when their need requireth to all the other parts of the Kingdom which is a most miserable course and injustice not to be paralleld to cast themselves into a necessity of getting money to maintain an impious War against their King and then out of that necessity to compel their fellow-Subjects and those peaceable men that do abominate this War to maintain the same yea and to fight in the same to kill men against their consciences in despite of their teeth or if they refuse to do it to send or at least to permit a party of Horse Dragooneers and other strength to go to fetch their Money Plate or other goods as if they were the goods of the deadly enemies of the Common-wealth and this for none other reason but for that the owners thereof are good Subjects to the King and not well-affected to their unjust and ungodly proceedings But let me perswade all men that do fear God still to suffer any thing which they cannot avoid from the violence of these wicked men rather than to contribute any thing unto them to further such abominable courses as they prosecute against the Law of God and man Because the Lord commandeth us to fear none of those things that we shall suffer Rev. 2.10 but to stand in our integrity unto death and we shall be crowned with the crown of life 3. 3. How they discharged the Apprentices compelled them to fight They have discharged the Apprentices and servants from their Masters services and have either compelled or perswaded them to serve in their Army against the King and that without the consent and against the will of their Masters and Dames yea sometimes against the commands of their own Parents which I speak from their own months 4. They have imprisoned very many hundreds of most able 4. How they imprisoned our men without cause and most honest men even so many that the Prisons are not able to contain them but they are fain to consecrate the greatest houses in London to become Prisons as the Bishop of London's house Ely-house Winchester-house Lambeth-house Crosby-house the Savoy and the like And this they do for none other cause but either for performing the duties of their places and discharging their obedience to his Majesty as the last Lord Maior Gurney which deserved rather to be commended than committed if we believe many that were present at his Tryal or petitioning unto them as Sir George Bynion and Captain Richard Lovelace and Sir William Boteler of Kent because they did not therein flatter Complaint p. 8 and approve their present wicked courses or intending to petition unto the King for relief of these lamentable distresses as those Gentlemen of Hertford-shire and Westminsters or for being as they conceived disaffected unto their disloyall Orders A strange thing and injustice beyond president not the like to found among the Pagans That where no Law can condemn a man for his affections when no action is committed against Law men shall be robbed of their estates and adjudged for Malignants which is also a crime most general and without the compasse of any Statute and then for this new-created sin to be condemned and imprisoned and therein to remain without Tryal of his offence perhaps as long as the Archbishop of Canterbury And this wonder is the rather to be wondered at because it is the sense of both Houses M. Pym in his Speech at the Guild hall if we may believe Master Pym That it is against the Rules of Justice that any man should be imprisoned upon a general Charge when no particulars are proved against him For never Charge can be more general than to be ill-affected or a Malignant or a man not to be confided in whereof you find ten thousand in the City of London and many hundred thousands in the Kingdom and therefore when we find so many persons of Honour and Reputation imprisoned only upon this surmise without any other particular Charge so much as once suggested against them as was the Lord of Middlesex the Lord of Portland and abundance more and detained in prison because they were ill-affected in that they have not contributed to the maintenance of this War we see how insensibly they have accused themselves to have laid this insupportable punishment beyond the desert of the transgressors and against the Rules of all Justice and how they have forgotten their Protestation and exceedingly infringed the liberty of the Subjects whereof they promised to be such faithful Procurators CHAP. XIII Sheweth the proceedings of this Faction against the Laws of the Land the Priviledges of Parliament transgressed eleven special wayes 3. Their proceedings against the Laws 3. FOr the Laws of our Land which are either private as those chiefly which belong unto the Parliament and are called the Priviledges of Parliament or Publick which are the Inheritance of every Subject you shall find how they have invaded and violated each one of these For 1. Against the Priviledges of Parliament 1. Touching the Priviledges of Parliament We confess that former Kings have graciously yielded many just Priviledges unto them for the freedom of their persons and the liberty of their speeches so they be free from Blasphemy or Treason or the like unpardonable offence but such a freedom as they challenge though for my self I confess my skill in Law to be unable to distinguish the legitimate from the usurped yet in these subsequent particulars I find wise men utterly denying it them As 1. Denying us to dispute of them L. Elismer in post-nati 1. When they forbid us to dispute of their Priviledges and say That themselves alone are the sole Judges of them when as in former Ages they have been adjudged by the Laws of the Kingdom when Thorpe the Speaker of the House of Commons hath been committed and detained Prisoner upon an Execution and the House confirmed that Act. 2. Committing and putting out their Members 2. When the Members of the House of whose elections and transgressions against the House or any of their fellow-Members or the like the House is the proper Judge which ought to have as free liberty as any of the rest upon any emergent occasion are committed as Master Palmer and others were Complaint p. 11. or put out of the House as Sir Edward Deering the Lord Faulkland Sir John Culpepper Sir John Strangwayes and others have been voted hand over head for speaking more reason than the more violent party could answer or in very deed for speaking their minds freely against the sense of the House or rather against some of the prevalent Faction of the House which we say is no Priviledge but the pravity of the House to deny this just Priviledge unto those Members that were thus committed or expelled For hereby it doth manifestly appear that
yet they compell us to obey their Orders in a stricter manner than usually we are injoyned by Law and this course to make such binding Ordinances as they do to carry the force though not the name of an Act of Parliament or a Law is a mighty abuse of our Laws and Liberties for Sir Edward Cook tells us plainly That as the constitution of our Government now standeth neither the House of Commons and King L. Cook in the Preface of the Stat. of Westminster the second Lamberts Archeion 271. can make any binding Law when the Peers dissent nor the Lords and King when the Commonalty dissenteth nor yet both Houses without the Kings consent but all three King Peers and Commons must agree before any coactive Law can be composed Nay more it is sufficiently proved that Dare jus populo or the legislative power being one principall end of Regall Authority was in Kings by the Law of Nature while they governed the people by naturall equity long before municipall Laws or Parliaments had any beeing For as the Poet saith Remo cum fratre Quirinus Jura dabat populo Hoc Priami gestamen erat cum jura vocatis More daret populis Because this was the custom of the Kings of Scythia Assyria Aegypt c. long before Moses and Pharonaeus when Municipall Laws first began to give Laws unto their people according to the Rules of Naturall equity which by the Law of Nature they were all bound to observe And though some Kings did graciously yield and by their voluntary oathes for themselves and their successors bind themselves may times to stricter limits than were absolutely requisite as William Rufus King Stephen Henry the fourth Richard the third and the like granted many Priviledges perhaps to gain the favour of their Subjects against those which likely had a better Title to the Crown than themselves or it may be to satisfie their people as the guerdon or compensation for the sufferance of some fore-passed grievances as Henry the first Edward the second Richard the second and the like yet these limitations being agreeable to equity and consistent with Royalty and not forcibly extracted ought in all truth and reason to be observed by them And hence it is that the Kings of this Realm according to the oathes and promises which they made at their Coronation can never give nor repeal any Law but with the assent of the Peers and People But though they have thus yielded to make no Laws nor to repeal any Laws without them yet this voluntary concession of so much grace unto the people doth no waies translate the legislative power from the King unto his assistants but that it is formaliter and subjectivè still in the King and not in them else would the government of this Kingdom be an Aristocracy or Democracy and not a Monarchy because the Supreme power of making and repealing Laws and Governing or judging decisively according to those Laws are two of those three things that give being to each one of these three sorts of Government Therefore the King of England Cassan in cata◠gloria mundi 2 2 Ed. 3. 3. pl. 25. Vid. The view of a Printed book intituled Observations c. Where this point is proved at large p. 18 19 21 22. being an absolute Monarch in his own Kingdom as Cassaneus saith and no man can deny it the Legislative power must needs reside solely in the King ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that power but only a condition yielded to be observed by the King in the use of that power and so both the Oath of Supremacy and the form of all our ancient Statutes wherein the King speaks as the Law-maker do most evidently prove the same unto us Le Roy voit Neither durst any Subjects in former times either assume such a power unto themselves or deny the same unto their King for you may find how the House of Commons denying to pass the Bill for the Pardon of the Clergy which Henry the 8th granted them when they were all charged to be in a Premunire unless themselves also might be included within the pardon received this answer from the King that He was their Soveraign Lord and would not be compelled to shew his mercy nor indeed could they compel him to any thing else but seeing they went about to restrain him of his Liberty he would grant a pardon unto his Clergy by his great Seal without them though afterwards of his own accord he signed their pardon also which brought great commendation to his judgment Sir Rich. Baker in vita Hen. 8. to deny it at first when it was demanded as a right and to grant it afterward when it was received as of grace And yet the denyal of their assent unto the King is more equitable to them and less derogatory to him then to make orders without him And this manner of compulsion to shew grace unto themselves is more tolerable than to force him to disgrace and displace his most faithful servants only because others cannot confide in them when no criminal charge is laid against them And therefore for the Lords and Commons to make Orders and Ordinances without the King and in opposition to the King is a meer usurpation of the Regal power a nullifying of the Kings power and a making of the Royal assent which heretofore gave life to every Law to be an empty piece of formality which is indeed an intolerable arrogancy in the contrivers of these Orders and the makers of these Ordinances a monstrous abuse of the Subjects and a plain making of our good King to be somewhat like him in the Comedy A King and no King And whereas no Subject yea under favour be it spoken nor the King himself after he hath taken his Oath at his Coronation is free from the observation of the established Laws yet they make themselves so far above the reach of Law that they freed him which the Lord chief Justice Bramston had committed to Newgate for felony in stealing the Countess of Rivers goods they hindered all men as we found in their journal from proceeding against Sir Thomas Dawes they injoyned the Judges by their Orders to forbear to proceed in their ordinary courses in the Courts of Justice contrary to the Oathes of those Judges and some Parliament-men came to the Bench to forbid the Judges to grant Habeas Corpus's which is as great an iniquity and as apparent an injustice as ever was done by any Parliament The most abominable wickedness of these factious Rebels And that which is a Note above Ela above all that could be spoken whereas the Law of God and man the bonds and obligations of Civility and Christianity tye us all to be dutiful and obedient unto our King in all things either Actively or Passively and no wayes for no cause violently to resist him under the greatest penalties that can be
blasphemiam then heretofore this Kingdom hath ever been by any Civil War for if you will consider the Treasons and Rebellions the Injustice Cruelty and Inhumanity the Subtilty Hypocrisie Lying Swearing Blasphemy Prophaneness and Sacriledge in the highest pitch and many other the like fearful sins that have been committed since the beginning of this Parliament by the sole means of this Faction and observe the ill Acts that have been used by them to compass things lawful the wicked Acts that have been daily practised to procure things unlawful when by blood and rapine and the curses of many Fatherless and Widdows they have gotten the Treasure of the Kingdom and the Wealth of the Kings loyal Subjects into their hands and wasted it so that their wants are still as notorious as their crimes we may admire the miracles of Gods mercy and the bottomless depth of his goodness that the stones in the streets have not risen against them or the fire from Heaven had not consumed these Rebels that thus far and thus insolently had tempted Gods patience and provoked him to anger with such horrible abominations Mischief 5 5. As Jerusalem justified Samaria so this Faction hath justified all the Romanists and shewed themselves worse Christians less Subjects and viler Traytors than all the Papists are for these factious Rebels justify their Rebellion and to the indelible shame of their Profession they maintain that it is not only lawful but that it is their duty to bear Arms and to wage War against their King when the King doth abuse his Power whereas the Doctrine of the Church of Rome * Christopherson tract contr rebell Rhemist in Nov. Test p. â—01 Goldastus de Monarchia S. Imp. Rom. tom 3. Dr. Kellison in his Survey Aquin. de Regim Princip c. 6. Concil Constan Sess 15. Stephan Cantuar anno 8. H. 3. Tolet. in summa l 5. c 6. Gr. Valentia p. 2. q 64. Bellar. Apol. c. 13 Lessiâ—â— l. 2 c. 9. Serrarius Azorius c. utterly denieth the same and concludes them no Children of the Church that do it and Doctor Kellison giveth this reason for it because Faith is not necessarily required to Jurisdiction or Government neither is Authority lost by the loss of Faith therefore it is not lawful for any Subjects to Rebel against their King though their King should prove a Tyrant or should Apostate from the Faith of Christ so that now the Papists boast they are better Subjects than these Rebellious Protestants and thefore I fear that this Faction Defendens Christum verso mucrone cecidit by their unjust Design to propagate the Gospel have most grievously wounded the Faith of Christ and given a more deadly blow to the Protestant Religion than ever it had since the Reformation when it is impossible that the true Religion should produce Rebellion And therefore seeing we are free-born Subjects and persons interessed in the good and safety of this Kingdom as well as any of them we must crave liberty to express our grievances and to crave redresses and seeing my self am called to be a Preacher of Gods Word and a Bishop over many of the souls of my Brethren for which I must render an account to my God both for my silence when I should speak and speaking any thing that should not be spoken I resolved to fear my God and neither out of flattery to the King and his party nor out of hatred or malice to those factious men but as I am perswaded in my Conscience fully satisfied and guided by Gods Truth to set forth this Discovery of these Mysteries what danger soever I shall undergo and if I shall become their Enemy for speaking Truth I shall fare no worse than Saint Paul did and it shall be with them if they do not repent as it was with the Israelites When their destruction cometh Ezech. 7.25 27. they shall seek peace and shall not have it but calamity shall come upon calamity CHAP. XV. Sheweth a particular recapitulation of the Reasons whereby their Design to alter the Government of the Church and State is evinced And a pathetical disswasion from Rebellion ANd thus I have set down not any thing to render these men more odious than they are or to abuse my Reader with falshood If I have been misinformed of any thing that shall appear false I shall not blush to retract it by an ingenuous confession or uncertainties but to report what I knew and what I collected out of the present writings of best credit and attested by men of known truth and integrity whereby it is most apparent to any discerning eye That the Faction of Anabaptists and Brownists and some other of the subtilest heads in the House of Commons had from the first Convention of this Parliament secretly projected this Design and insensible to the rest of their well-meaning Brethren prosecuted the same to alter and change the ancient Government both of the Church and Kingdom Sober Sadnesse p. 44 45 46. which the Author of Sober-Sadness proveth by these subsequent Reasons as for the first 1. By suspending all Ecelesiasticall Laws and Censures Their Design to change the Church Government proved 4. wayes which indulgence of all Vices hath drawn all Offenders to comply with them 2. By setting the people on work to petition against the present Government and the Service of the Church 3. By the Bill concluded for the abolishing of our Government 4. By the chief persons countenanced and imployed by them in that businesse who are Anabaptists and Brownists and all sorts of Sectaries he evinceth their Design to change our Church-Government and to convert the Patrimony of the Church which our religious Ancestors dedicated for the advancement of God's Worship not to establish Learning and a preaching Ministery as they pretended but to dis-ingage their Publick-faith which otherwise would never prove a saving faith And I wish there might be none about His Majesty that pretending great loyalty unto him do comply with them herein and either to raise or to secure their own Fortunes would perswade Saint Paul to part with Saint Peters keyes so he may still hold the sword in his hand or to speak more plainly to purchase the peace of the Common-wealth with the ruine of God's Church But for this let me be bold 1. To crave leave to tell His Majesty It was not His sword that hath brought him from a flying Prince out of Westminster and as yet unsecured at Nottingham to be a victorious King at Edge hill and immediately to be the terrour of all the Rebels in London But it was God whose Church and Church Service he defended that protected him hitherto and gave him the Victory in Battel And let him be assured that He which is Yea and Amen will be his Shield and Buckler still to defend him from the strivings of his people and to subdue them that rise against him while he defendeth them whose eyes next under God are only
Kingdom but that a Faction it may be very few at first have insensibly seduced the rest to effect their own Design and thia Faction is all that I mean by the name of Parliament throughut this whole Treatise because their subtilty hath prevailed over the plain Integrity of the other well-minded men to make up the major part of the House both of the Lords and Commons which thing hath often happened both in General Councils and great Parliaments as in the Council of Constans and Trent and many others and that Parliament which was branded with the name of Parliamentum insanum and the other somewhat like this in quo jugulum ecclesiae atrocius petebatur and the like Tempore Hen. 3. for otherwise I do both honour and reverence this Parliament rightly understood and every Member of the same as much as any discreet Member can desire And therefore having thus discovered and displayed the Plots and practices of these infernal instruments to insinuate their assistance unto the Scots and their allurements of them to invade our Kings Dominions to ensnare the Irish and to provoke the Papists to such a Rebellion as hath been the utter ruine and destruction of many millions of men to obscure the Glory of this noble Kingdom to alter the Discipline and corrupt the Doctrine of the most glorious and the purest Church that professeth the name of Christ and to bring us all and all our Posterity to extream miseries to suffer yet more than we have endured or that can be hitherto imagined And considering those bloody Treasons that have been publickly uttered and openly practised against the Sacred Person of our Soveraign I may justly say that as the sins of the Israelites and their impetuous calling for a King moved the Lord to send them a King in his anger so our sins and our impatient crying for a Parliament made our God to send us a Parliament in his Wrath that will never turn for our Blessing till we return to God from our sinnes for when I consider on the one side the Piety and goodness of our King the justness of his cause and the most ready and cordial valour as well in the Common Souldiers as the Commanders of a full and sufficient Army and on the other side the multitude of disloyal and seduced Subjects the vigilancy and subtilty of their Commanders with their unlimited waies to get Monies and on both sides the desire of too many not for the honour of the King nor the Peace of the Kingdom to end the War but to continue the same for their own advantage until the wealth of Lawyers Clergy and Gentry be transplanted to the possession of other Masters I am affraid it will prove an heavy Judgment And therefore lest our obstinacy in our sins should procure the continuance of Gods anger which being removed will soon remove all our miseries let me perswade all conscientious men especially the Gentry and all other understanding men howsoever the Citizens that deceive the Kingdom of their Wealth delight to be deceived in their Faith that would not be cheated of their Religion by these factious Mountebanks and that would not provoke God to say I have no pleasure in them to turn from their Rebellious courses to listen no longer to those furious fire brands that out of their new Divinity contrary to the Doctrine of all the ancient Fathers and all the Orthodox and grave Preachers of this Kingdom do incite the People unto this unnatural bloody War and to slander the footsteps of Gods Anointed because they know him not and to remember the Oathes of their Allegeance and Supremacy together with their late Protestation whereby they stand obliged to their uttermost power to maintain his Majesties Royal Person Crown and Dignity against all treacherous practices that may any waies dishonour or impair them and then I presume their consciences will disavow the proceedings of these Projectours protest against all their Ordinances that are made against or without the Kings consent advise all the Knights and Burgesses to Vote no more against their Soveraign and to make no further use of the trust they reposed in them to Murder us and our fellow Subjects under the pretence of shedding the blood of the ungodly or if they still go on to abuse that trust to make us yet more miserable to withdraw themselves and their trust and power of the representation from them and to joyn their uttermost assistance unto his Majesty to Protect him that he may be enabled to protect us and to overwhelm these Rebels into the same pit which they have made for us And this may be by dissolving the knot of factious members wherein we see our miseries involved and to make elections of new members into their places who with the rest of the Lords and Commons which were faithful both to the Church King and Kingdom shall call them to a strict account for betraying our Trust interrupting our Peace opposing his Majesty and violating all our ancient liberties Or if a better way may be found let us follow the same to God's glory and to produce the peace and happinesse of this Kingdom lest if we persist obstinately in this wilfull Rebellion to withstand God's Ordinance to oppose his Anointed and to shed so much innocent blood we shall thus fighting against Heaven so far provoke the wrath of the God of Heaven as that the Glory of Israel shall be darkned the Honour of this Nation shall be troden under-foot and be made the scorn of all other Nations round about us and the light of our Candlestick shall be extinguished and we shall all become most miserable because we would not hearken to the voice of the Lord our God Which I hope we will do and do most earnestly pray that we may do it to the Glory of God the Honour of our King and the Happinesse of this whole Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be Praise and Dominion both now and for ever Amen Jehovae Liberatori AN APPENDIX THe man of God speaking of transcendent wickednesse saith Their Vine is of the Vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah Deut. 32.32 their grapes are grapes of gall their clusters are bitter their wine is the poison of Dragons and the cruel vemon of Aspes And I believe never any wickednesse deserved better to be clad with this elegant expression than that threefold iniquity 1. The unparallel'd Vote 2. The intolerable Ordinance 3. The damnable Covenant which the rebellious Faction in Parliament have most impiously contrived to make up the full measure of their impiety since the writing of my Discoveries For 1. Omitting that horrible practice of those rebellious blood thirsty Souldiers that did their best to murder their own most gracious Queen this Faction seeing how God prevented that plot voted this most loving and most loyal Wife to be impeached of High Treason for being faithful to do her uttermost endeavour which will be
waters out of the Book of holy Scriptures and I hope with one of them to smite the Philistine The Adversaries of regal Right the three-headed Gerion the Anabaptist Brownist and Puritan Rebel in the forehead that he fall to the earth his head shall be cut off with his own sword and the whole army of the uncircumcised Philistines that is all the rest of the wilfully seduced Rebels that refuse to be un-deceived and to accept of his Majesties grace and pardon shall flie away and be destroyed And The first stone that comes into my hand which I believe will hit the Bird in the eye and be abundantly sufficient to do the deed is a stone taken out of the Rock that appears highest in the Brook that is Saint Peter which our Saviour in the judgement of some Fathers which I quoted in my true Church calleth a Rock and in the judgement of most of the Fathers and the sober Protestants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.17 is the Prince of Apostles for he saith Honour the King and this one short sentence truly understood though I confess many other may seem more full is absolutely sufficient to overthrow all the Anti-Royalists and to silence all the Basileu-Mastices all the opposers of their own Kings throughout all the world especially if we consider 1. Who saith this S. Peter 2. What is said Honour the King 3. To whom he saith thus to every Soul 1. The Author of these words First The words are the words of Saint Peter the first in order the chiefest for authority and the greatest for resolution of all the Apostles of Christ and he spake them as he was inspired by the holy Ghost therefore we may believe them 2 Pet. 1.21 and we should obey them or we should fear the judgements of God for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape Hebr 12.27 if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven 2. The Substance of the Precept Secondly The Substance of this precept containeth as many parts as there be words 1. Who is to be honoured the King 2. What is that Honour that is due unto him Which two Points rightly understood and duely observed as they are enjoined would make a peaceable Common-wealth and a most flourishing Kingdom without any civil Broiles or intestine Rebellion which is the greatest Plague and heaviest Curse that God hath ever laid upon any Nation Lucan l. 1. Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos I have therefore resolved to preuent this evil and to diswade us from this miserable mischief to say something of these two Points as may best heal the bleeding Wounds of these unhappy and distracted times First It is the most Gratious Promise of our good God to all them that will faithfully serve him I will honour them that honour me 1 Sam. 2.30 and Saint Augustine saith that Sicut verax est in punitione malorum ità in retributione honorum as he is most certain in his threatnings for the punishment of the wicked so he is most faithful in his Promises for rewarding of the Godly and that not onely for the future but also in these present times 1 Tim. 4.8 because Godliness hath the Promise both of the life that now is and of that which is to come Therefore pious Princes that are God's Vicegerents here on earth How kings have honoured those that honoured God 1. With Dignities and his Deputies to discharge his Promise have accordingly honoured them that have by their upright life and indefatigable pains honoured God in his Church with double honour 1. With titular Dignities honourable Places and considerable Eminencies in the Common-wealth as conceiving it not unworthy to make the greater lights of the Church to be not of least esteem in the Civil State but judging it most convenient that they whom God had intrusted with the Soules of men should with all confidence be intrusted with their personal Actions and with the Imployments of the greatest trust 2. With competent means 2. With Maintenance in some sort answerable to support their Dignities without which means as the Poët saith Virtus nisi cum re vilior algâ so honourable Titles without any subsistence is more contemptible then plain Beggery therefore out of their piety to God and bounty to the Church they have conferred many faire Lordships and other large Endowments upon the best deserving Members of Christ's Ministers But as the good Husbandman had no sooner sown his pure Wheat Matth. 13.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but immediately Inimicus homo the evil and envious man superseminavit zizania sowed his poysonous Tares amongst them so God had no sooner thus honoured his Servants but presently the Devil which is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4.4 the God of this World began to throw dirt in their faces and to deprive them of both these honours for 1. He stirred up ignorant men of small learning but of great spirits of no fidelity but of much hypocrisie that as Pope Leo wrote unto Theodosius Leo Papa Epist 23. What the factious Preachers pretended Privatas causas pietatis agunt obtentu and under a faire pretext did play the part of Aesop's Fox who being ashamed that his taile was cut off began to inveigh against the unseemly burthensome tailes of all the other Foxes and to perswade them to cut theirs off that so by the common calamity he might be the better excused for his obscenity for so they cryed down all Learning as prophane they railed at the Scholemen they scorned the Fathers and esteemed nothing but that nothing which they had themselves and although they professed to the Vulgar that they aimed at no end but the purity of the Gospel they desired nothing but the amendment of life and reformation of Ecclesiastical Discipline and hated nothing but the pride and covetousness of the Bishops and the other dignified Prelates which stopped their mouthes and imprisoned the liberty of their Conscience yet the truth is that because their worth was not answerable to their ambition to enable them to climbe up to some height of honour their envy was so great that they would fain pull down all those that had ascended and exceeded them And therefore with open mouthes that would not be silenced they exclaimed against Episcopacy and as the Apostle saith spake evil of Dignities imploying all their strength like wicked birds to defile their own nests to disrobe us of all honour and to leave us naked yea and as much as in them lay What the Factious aim at to make us odious and to stinke as the Israelites said to Moses in the eyes of the people Then 2. As Plutarch tells us that a certain Sicilian Gnatho Plutarch in lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Philoxenus the son of Erixis that were slaves unto their gutts and make a
God and my fidelity to my King I have undertaken this hard and to the Rebels unpleasant labour The Rebels for the punishment of our sins may prosper for a time but at last they shall be most surely destroyed Prov. 8.15 Psal 68.30 Joshua 9 16. Psal 91.16 to set down the Rights of Kings wherein I shall not be afraid of the Rebels power neither would I have any man to fear them for however Victores victique cadunt here may be a vicissitude of good success many times on both sides to prolong the war for our sins and they may prosper in some places yet that is but nubecula quaedam a transient cloud or summer storm that will soon pass away for we may assure our selves they shall not prevaile because God hath said it By me Kings do raigne and He will give strength unto his King and exalt the horn of his Annointed He will scatter the people that delight in war and make the hearts of the cursed Canaanites to melt and their joynts to tremble but He will satisfie the King with long life and shew him his salvation CHAP. II. Sheweth what Kings are to be honoured the institution of Kings to be immediately from God the first Kings the three chiefest rights to Kingdoms the best of the three rights how Kings came to be electted and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracie and Democracie issued out of Monarchie TO proceed then you see the person that by Saint Peters precept is to be honoured to be the King and what King was that but as you may see in the beginning of this epistle the King of Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bythinia and what manner of Kings were they I pray you I presume you will confess they were no Christians but it may be as bad as Nero who was then their Emperour and most cruelly tyrannizing over the Saints of God What Kings are to be honoured gave a very bad example to all other his substitute Kings and Princes to do the like and yet these holy Christians are commanded to honour them And therefore 1. Heathen Pagan wicked and tyrannical Kings are to be truely honoured by God's precept 2. Religious just and Christian Kings are to have a double honour because there is a double charge imposed upon them as The double charge of all Christian Kings 1. To preserve peace 1. To execute justice and judgement among their people to preserve equity and peace both from intestine broyles and foreign Foes which careful government bringeth plenty and prosperity in all external affaires unto the whole Kingdom and this they do as Kings which is the common duty of all the Kings of the earth 2. To protect the Church 2. To maintaine true Religion to promote the faith of Christ and to be the guardians and foster-fathers unto the Church and Church-men which tye their people unto God to make them spiritually and everlastingly happy and this duty is laid upon them as they are Christian Kings and therefore in regard of this accession of charge they ought to have an accession of honour more then all other Kings whatsoever 1. Then I say that the Heathen Pagan wicked and tyrannical Kings such as were Nero Dioclesian and Julian among the Christians or Ahab and Manasses among the Jews or Antiochus Dionysius and the rest of the Sicilian Tyrants among the Gentiles are to be honoured served and obeyed of all their Subjects and that in three especial respects 1. All Kings to be honoured in three respects 1. Of their institution which is the immediate ordinance of God 2. Of God's precept which enjoineth us to honour them 3. Of all good mens practice whether they be 1. Jewes 2. Gentiles 3. Christians 1. The institution of Kings is immediately from God Justin lib. 1. Herodot lib. 1. Clio. 1. Justin tells us that Principio rerum gentium nationúmque imperium penes reges erat from the beginning of things that is the beginning of the world the rule and government of the people of all Nations was in the hands of Kings Quos ad honoris fastigium non ambitio popularis sed spectata inter bonos moderatio provehebat And Herodotus setteth down how Deioces the first King of the Medes had his beginning And Homer also nameth the Kings that were in and before the wars of Troy But the choice of Deioces and some others about that time and after Cicero in Officiis whereof Cicero speaketh may give some colour unto our rebellious Sectaries to make the royal Dignity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a humane ordinance therefore I must go before Herodotus and look further then blind Homer could see and from the first King that ever was I will truly lay down the first institution and succession of Kings and how times have wrought by corruption the alteration of their right and diminution of their power which both God and nature had first granted unto them God the first King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.17 Apoc. 19.16 And I hope no Basileu-mastix no hater of Kings nor opposer of the royal government can deny but that God himself was the first King that ever the world saw that was the King of ages before all worlds and the King of Kings ever since there were any created Kings The next King that I read of was Adam whom Cedrenus stiles the Catholique Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mighty King of a large Territory of great Dominion and of unquestionable right unto his Kingdom which was the whole World the Earth the Seas and all that were therein For the great King of all Kings said unto him Gen. 1.28 Adam the first King of all men Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth Which is a very large Commission when dominare is more then regere and therefore his royalty is so plain that none but wilful ignorants will deny it to be divinum institutum a divine institution and affirm it as they do to be humanum inventum a humane ordination when you know there were no men to chuse him and you see God himself doth appoint him and after the flood the Empire of Noah was divided betwixt his three sons Japheth reigned in Europe Johan Beda de jure Regum p. 4. Sem in Asia and Cham in Africa Yet I must confess the first Kingdom that is spoken of by that name is the Kingdom of Nimrod who notwithstanding is not himself termed King Gen. 10.9 but in the Scripture phrase a mighty hunter because he was not onely a great King but also a mighty Tyrant or oppressour of his people in all his Kingdom or as I rather conceive it because he was the first usurper that incroached upon his neighbours rights to enlarge his own dominions
Empire of men should be Monarchicall And indeed it is concluded by the common consent of the best Philosophers that the Laws of Nature lead us to a Monarchy Monarchy founded in Nature as when among all Creatures both animate and inanimate we do always finde one that hath the preheminence above all the rest of his kinde as among the Beasts the Lion among the Fowls the Eagle among Grains the Wheat among Drink◠the Wine among Spices the Baulme among the Planets the Sun and all the best Divines conclude the Monarchicall government to be the most lively image and representation of the divine regiment and government of God Consonant to the Divine government who as sole Monarch ruleth and guideth all things and therefore we finde all the Nations of greatest renown lived under the Royal Government as the Scythians Aethiopians Indians Assyrians Medes Aegyptians Bactrians Armenians Macedonians Jews and Romans first and last and at this day the most famous people live under this forme as the English French Spaniards Polonians Danes Muscovites The Government of the most famous Nations Monarchicall Summo dulcius unum stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis Statius Thebaid 1. Tartars Turks Abissines Moores Agiamesques Zagathinians Cathaians yea and the Salvage people lately discovered in the West Indies as being guided thereto by the rules of Nature do all of them in a manner live under the Government of Kings and I beleive the Apostle doth specially mean the Regal Government though he speaketh plurally of powers as understanding the same of many Kings because he speaketh but of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sword which being wrested out of the hand of the King and put amongst many would make them all like mad men fall out and fight which of them should bear it when one Sword can never be well guided by many hands and therefore I think it is a madness indeed for any people to be weary of that government which God first ordained which is most agreeable unto Nature most consonant to God's government most acceptable to God himself and most profitable unto men and to affect a late new invented government full of all dangers and inconveniences A family is a small kingdom and a kingdom a great family Therefore it is apparent that Monarchie is the first Ordinance of all governments a family being nothing else but a small Kingdome wherein the paterfamilias had Regal power potestatem vitae necis even over his own children as I have elsewhere shewed in the example of Abraham and of other Heathens that justly executed their own sons and a Kingdom being nothing else but a great family where the King hath paternal power and more then fathers now have because of the great abuse that divers fathers committed while they had their plenary authority therefore it was thought fit to abridge them of that pristine power and to place it all in the hands of the more publique father And to make this yet more plain unto the World I would fain know of these Democratical men 1. When 2. How their Democracy and Aristocracy had their being and came first in use I have shewed the age of Monarchy to be from Adam primáque ab origine mundi Ad mea perpetuum deduxi tempora Regem And I cannot remember that any Democracy or Aristocracy was in all the Assyrian Monarchy which notwithstanding lasted above a thousand years When Aristocracies and Democracies began for the Aristocracies of Greece alas they are but of yesterday of no age long after Homers time which yet lived but about the time of Jephte Judge of Israel and besides I will not believe Quicquid Graecia mendax Audet in historiis And for the Democracy of Rome Titus Livius sheweth when it was first hatched after the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus◠if therefore you will believe Tertullian that Id verius quod prius you must needs give the precedency of all governments unto Monarchy But that which is more considerable is to understand how these birds flitted out of the nest of Monarchy Our Saviour saith Every plant which my Father planted not shall be rooted up that he planted Monarchy I have made it plain Matth. 15.13 but when this Vine began to grow wilde and instead of grapes to bring forth bitter clusters that is oppression instead of justice What caused the change of Monarchy the people grew weary of God's Ordinance and loath to be contained within the bounds of obedience when they found strength and opportunity they withstood their lawful but degenerated Kings and then they deposed them from their estates and deprived them of their lives so that as the Poet saith Ad generum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Juvenal Satyr 10. Descendunt reges siccâ morte tyranni And thinking to finde a better way then that which they found so thorny and a better government then that which formerly they found so bad they elected those men whom they thought would make them happy The unconstancy of the people in the choice of their Governours sometimes more and sometimes fewer as their disposition was to be their Governours so after the expulsion of Tarquinius the Romanes chose two Consuls and these giving not a plenary content unto the People they added the Tribunes to bridle the disorders of the Consuls and when all this would not satisfie their unsatiable expectation they must have their Decemviros and in great dangers their Dictator then comes the Triumvirat of Antony Lepidus and Augustus The Government never settled till it came as all things in nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Monarchy who at last takes upon him the name of an Emperour but the full power of a King and governs all as the sole Monarch thus they ran in a maze and turned round like a wheel and I should but weary my Reader to trace the Greek Histories to set down the state of Athens under the thirty Tyrants or of the Lacedaemonians under those Ephori that bore a fair shew to restrain their Kings Lacedaemoniorum aristocratia ex duobus Regibus quinque Ephoris octo viginti senatoribus composita 1 Sam. 2.14.15 Chap. 8.11 but were indeed a scourge and plague unto the people so that in truth the remedy proved far worse then the disease excessit medicina modum and the change of Government never brought any other good but an exchange of miseries the greater for the lesser unto the people as for that one rape of Lucrece by Tarquinius to undergo a thousand greater insolencies under the new erected Government of the Consuls and Tribunes and the Israelites for preventing the snatching of the flesh out of their pots by the sons of Eli and growing weary of the sons of Samuel to have a Saul that shall tear their own flesh in pieces and take their sons and their daughters for his vassals 2. Reason that Monarchy
is the best form of Government 2. As the hereditary Monarch is the first kinde of Government so it is the principal and best government because it is the immediate Ordinance of God that he set down for the Government of his People for this was ordained by God himself and so continued among his people even in an hereditary way unless the same God designed another person by those Prophets that he inspired for that purpose as it was in the case of David Solomon and Jehu and it is certain that the wisests of men cannot devise a better Form of Government then God ordained therefore the choice of one or more made by the People to be their King or Governour cannot be if not without sin yet I am sure without folly but seeing as our Saviour saith a Sparrow cannot light upon the ground without the providence of our heavenly Father so I must confess Matth. 10.29 haec non sine numine divûm Eveniunt This election of Kings and change of the first Ordinance happend not without God's providence either for the Tyranny of the evil Kings or the punishment of the rebellious people and therefore as Moses for the hardness of those mens hearts that hated their Wives to prevent a greater mischief either continual fighting or secret murdering one another suffered them to give their Wives a bill of divorcement Deut. 24.1 Matth. 19.8 but as our Saviour saith Non erat sic ab initio it was not any primary Ordinance of God but a permissive toleration of the lesser evil so when the people out of their froward disposition to God's first Institution of the Regal right How God allowed the Aristocratical and Democratical Government and why and presuming to like better of their own choice do alter this hereditary Right and divine Ordinance into the election of one or more Governours either annual as among the ancient Romans or vital as it is in the present state of the Venetians God out of his infinite lenity to our humane frailty rather then his people should be without Government and so many heynous sins should go unpunished doth permit and it may be allow and approve the same though sometimes not without great anger and indignation for our contempt and distaste of his heavenly institution Deut. 33 5 as when the Israelites weary of the Judges that succeeded Moses who was a king in Jesurun and that God raised still to rule as Kings amongst them to make War against their enemies and to judge them according to the Law in the time of peace which are the two chiefest Offices of all kings 1 Sam. 8 5. desired to have a king to judg them like all the Nations not a king simply for so they had indeed though not in name but a king like all the Nations that is a king of a more absolute power then the Judges had as Samuel sheweth and they seem contented therewith God sent them a King in his wrath because they had rejected him that he should not reign over them that is vers 7. they had refused to submit themselves to his Ordinance and to obey the Kings that he appointed over them but they must needs be their own Carvers and have a King of their own election or such a king invested with a more absolute power as they desired though notwithstanding they did most hypocritically seem to desire none but whom God appointed over them and therefore perceiving their own errour and seeing their own offence by the anger that God shewed they confessed their fault and did always thereafter accept of their kings by succession The lamentable success of the first elective kings but onely when their Prophets by the sacred Ointment had ordained another by God's special designation But I cannot finde it in all the Scripture or in any other Writings authentical where God appointed or commanded any people to be the â—hâ—esers of their kings but rather to accept of him and submit themselves to him whom the Lord had placed over them For I would very fain know as Roffensis speaketh Roffen de potest Papae 282 An potestas Adami in filios ac nepotes adeóque omnes ubique homines ex consensu filior um ac nepotum dependet an à solo Deo ac naturâ— prostuitâ— And if this Authority of the Father be from God without the consent of his Children then certainly the authority of Kings is both natural and divine immediately from God and not from any consent or allowance of men and Pineda saith Pineda de rebus Solo l. 2. c. 2 Nusquam invenio Regem aliquem Judaeorum populi suffragiis creatum quin si primus ille erat qui designaretur à Deo vel à Propheta eâ—t Dei jussus vel sorte vel aliâ ratione quà m Deus indicâsset Neither do I remember any one that was chosen king by the Children of Israel but onely Abimelâ—â—h the bastard son of Gedeon and as some say Jeroboam that made Israel to sin and the Scripture tells you how unjustly they entered how wickedly they reigned Strange that the People should bestow the greatest favour or dignity on earth Esay 42.8 and how lamentably the first that was without question the Creature of the people ended both his life and his reign to teach us how unsuccesful it is to have other makers of kings then he that is the King of kings and saith He will not give his glory unto another nor hold them guiltless that intrude into his Throne to bestow Soveraignty and create kings at their pleasures when as he professeth it belongeth unto him not to the People to say Yee are Gods and to place his own Viceroy to govern his own People And therefore though I do not wonder to finde Aristotel of that opinion Vt reges populi suffragio constarent That Kings should be elected by the People Arâ—st pol l. 3. and that it was the manner of the Barbarians to accept of their kings by succession Quales sors tulerit non virtutis opinione probatos The nature of the people Blaovod p. 61. and as T. Liv. saith Aut servit humiliter aut dominatur superbè such as nature gave them and not those which were approved by the people for their virtues because he was ignorant of the divine Oracles yet me thinkes it is very strange that men continually versed in God's Word and knowing the nature of the people which as one saith Semper ager est semper insanus semper furore intemperiis agitur and specially reading the story of times should be transported with such dreames and fopperies that the people should have any hand in the election of their kings for if you briefly run over most of the kings of this World you shall scare finde one of a thousand to be made by the suffrage of the people Of all the kings of the world very few made by the suffrage of the
tyrannicall King 2. The same Spirit saith Thou shalt not revile the Gods that is 2. To say no ill of the King Exod. 22.28 Act 23.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. To do no hurt to the King Psal 10â— 15 1 Sam. 24 4 5. the Judges of the Land nor curse that is in Saint Pauls phrase speak evill of the Ruler of the people and what can be more evill then to bely his Religion to traduce his Government and to make so faithfull a Christian King as faithless as a Cretan which is commonly broached by the Rebels and Preached by their seditious Teachers 3. The great Jehovah gives this peremptory charge to all Subjects saying Touch not mine Anointed which is the least indignity that may be and therefore Davids heart smote him when he did but cut off the lap of Sauls garment What then can be said for them that draw their swords and shoot their Cannons to take away the life of Gods Anointed which is the greatest mischiefe they can do I beleive no distinction can blinde the judgment of Almighty God but his revengefull hand will finde them out 2. What we should do to honour the King Eccles 8.2 1. To observe the kings commands that so maliâ—iously transgress his precepts and think by their subtilty to escape his punishments 2. The Scriptures do positively and plainly command us to shew all honour unto our King For 1. Solomon saith I counsell thee to keep the Kings commandment or as the phrase imports to observe the mouth of the King that is not onely his written law but also his verball commands and that in regard of the oath of God that is in respect of thy Religion or the solemne vow which thou madest at thine initiation and incorporation into Gods Church to obey all the precepts of God Et si religio tollitur nulla no bis cum coelo ratio est Lactant Iust l. 3. c. 10. whereof this is one to honour and obey the King or else that oath of allegiance and fidelity which thou hast sworn unto thy King in the presence and with the approbation of thy God which certainly will plague all perjurers and take revenge on them that take his name in vain which is the infallible and therefore most miserable condition of all the perjured Rebels of this Kingdom For if moral honesty teacheth us to keep our promises yea though it were to our own hindrance then much more should Christianity teach us to observe our deliberate and solemn oathes whose violation can bear none other fruit then the heavy censure of God's fearful indignation But when the prevalent faction took a solemn Oath and Protestation to defend all the Privileges of Parliament and the Rights of the Subjects and then presently forgetting their oath and forsaking their faith by throwing the Bishops out of the House of Peers which all men knew to be a singular Priviledge How the prevalent Faction of the Parliament forswore themselves 2. To obey the kings commandements Josh 1.18 and the House of Lords acknowledged to be the indubitable right of the Bishops and their doctrine being to dispence with all oaths for the furtherance of the cause it is no wonder they falsifie all oaths that they have made unto the King 2. The people said unto Joshua Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandment and will not hearken to the words of thy mouth in all that thou commandest he shall be put to death surely this was an absolute government and though martial yet most excellent to keep the people within the bounds of their obedience for they knew that where rebellion is permitted there can be no good performance of any duty and it may be a good lesson for all the higher powers not to be too clement which is the incouragement of Rebels to most obstinate trayterous and rebellious Subjects who daring not to stir under rigid Tyrants do kick with their heeles against the most pious Princes and therefore my soul wisheth not out of any desire of bloud but from my love to peace that this rule were well observed Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandment he shall be put to death * Quia in talibus non obedientes mortaliter peccant nisi foret illud quod praecipitur contra praeceptum Dei vel in salutis dispendiâ—m Angel summa verb. obedientia 3 To give the king no just cause of anger Prov. 2.2 The Rebels have given him cause enough to be provoked 4. To speak reverently to the king and of the king Eccles 8.4 3. The wisest of all Kings but the King of Kings saith The fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lion who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul And I believe that the taking up of Armes by the Subjects against their own King that never wronged them and the seeking to take away his life and the life of his most faithful servants is cause enough to provoke any King to anger if he be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too Stoically given to abandon all passions and that anger should be like the roaring of a Lion to them that would pull out the Lions eyes and take away the Lions life 4. The King of Heaven saith of these earthly Kings That where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou And Elihu demands Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes you are ungodly Truely if Elihu were now here he might hear many unfitter things said to our King by his own people and which is more strange by some Preachers for some of them have said but most maliciously and more falsely that he is a Papist he is the Traytor unworthy to reign unfit to live good God! do these men think God saith truth Where the word of a King is there is power that is to blast the conspiracies and to confound the spirits of all Rebels who shall one day finde it because the wrath of God at last will be awaked against their treachery Jerem. 27.8 and to revenge their perjury by inabling the King to accomplish the same upon all that resist him as he promised to doe in the like case 5. To pray for the king Ezra 6.10 1 Tim. 2.1 2. 5. The Israelites being in captivity under the King of Babylon were commanded to pray for the life of that Heathen King and for the life of his sons And Saint Paul exhorteth Timothy to make supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks for Kings and for all that are in authority and how do our men pray for our King in many Pulpits not at all and in some places for his overthrow for the shortning of his life and the finishing of his dayes nullum sit in omine pondus and they give thanks indeed not for his good but for their own supposed good success against him thus they praevaricate and pervert the words of the
Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himself before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecuting Emperours 2. WE finde that not onely the Jews that were the people of God a royal Priesthood that had the Oracles of God and therefore no wonder that they were so conformable in their obedience to the will of God 2. The Heathens Persae quidem olim aliquid coeleste atque divinum in regibus inesse statuebant Osor de Instit regis l 4. p. 106. Justin l. 4. Herodot l. 8. What great respect men in former times did bear unto their kings but the Gentiles also that knew not God knew this by the light of nature that they were bound to yield all honour unto their kings For Quintus Curtius tells us that the Persians had such a divine estimation and love unto their king that Alexander could not perswade them either for fear or reward to tell him where their king was gone or to reveale any of his intentions or to do any other thing that might any ways prejudice the life or the affairs of their king And Justin tell us that the Sicilians did bear so great a respect unto the last Will and Testament of Anaxilaus their deceased king that they disdain not to obey a slave whom he had appointed Regent during the minority of his son And Herodotus saith that when Xerxes fled from Greece in a vessel that was so ful of men of war that it was impossible for him to be saved without casting some part of them into the Sea he said O yee men of Persia let some among you testifie that he hath care of his King whose safety is in your disposition then the Nobility which accompanied him having adored him did cast themselves into the Sea till the vessel was unburthened and the King preserved And I fear these Pagans will rise in judgement to condemn our Nobility that seek the destruction of their King And the Macedonians had such a reverent opinion of their King that being foyled in war before they returned again to the battle they fetched their cradle wherein their young King lay and set him in the midst of the Camp as supposing that their former misfortune proceeded Justin l. 7. because they neglected to take with them the good augure of their King's presence And Boëmus Aubanus speaking of the Aegyptian Kings saith that they have so much good will and love from all men ut non solùm sacerdotibus sed etiam singulis Aegyptiis major regis quà m â—xorum filiorúmque Aubanus de Afr ca. l. 1. p. 39. Reges divinos Iove genitos à Iove nutritos Homerus Hesiodus appellarunt aut aliorum principum salutis inesset cura that not onely the Priests but also the Aegyptians have a greater care of the safety of their King then of their wives or children or any other Princes of the Land And the same Author describing the manner how the Tartars create their King saith the Princes Dukes Barons and all the people meet then they place him that is to be their King on a Throne of gold and prostrating themselves upon the ground they cry with an unanimous and loud voice Rogamus volumus praecipimus ut domineris nobis We intreat you and beseech you to reign over us and he answereth If you would have this of me it is necessary that you should be obedient to do whatsoever I shall command you when I call you to come whethersoever I shall send you to go whomsoever I shall command you to kill to do it immediately without fear and to commit the whole Kingdom into my hands then they do all answer We are willing to do all this And then he saith again Therefore from hence-forth oris mei sermo gladius meus erit the word of my mouth shall be the sword of my power then all the people do applaud him And a little after he saith in ejus manibus seu potestate omnia sunt Aubaâ—us l. 8. p. 141. all things are in his hands and power no man dare say this is mine or that is his no one man may dwell in any part of the Land but in that which is assigned unto him by the King Nemini licèt imperatoris verba mutare nemini latae ab illo sententiae qualicunque mede contraire and no man dares alter the Kings words nor gain-say his sentence whatsoever it is And we read that the Turk is as absolute in his Dominions and as readily obeyed in his commands as the Tartar and yet these Subjects learn this duty of honour and obedience unto their Kings onely by the light of nature and if grace and the Gospel hath made us free from this slavish subjection should we not be thankful unto our God and be contented with that liberty which he hath given us but because we have so much we will have more * And as the Poet saith Like Subjects arm'd the more their Princes gave They this advantage tooâ— the more to crave Lucan lib. 1. and seeing God hath delivered us from the rage of tyrannous Kings we will free our selves from all government and disobey the commands of the most clement Princes We may remember the fable of the Frogs where they prayed unto Jupiter to haue a King and what was the success thereof omnia dat qui justa negat an he that undutifully denyeth his due obedience may unwillingly be forced to undue subjection as the Israelites not contented with just Samuel shall be put under an unjust Saul So God may justly deal with us for our injustice towards our King to deny that honour unto him which God commanded to be given and the very Heathens have not detained from their Kings But 3. Christians 3. Lest with Saint Paul we should be blamed though unjustly for bringing the uncircumcised Greeks into the Temple for alleadging the disorderly practice of blinde Heathens to be a pattern for these zealous Ch istians which thing notwithstanding our Saviour did when he preferred Sodom and Gomorrha before Capernaum Matth. 11.21 yea Tyrus and Sidon before Corazin and Bethsaida we cannot want the example of good Christians and a multitude of most holy Martyrs to shame the practice of these prophane hypocrites For 1. Christ him self exhibited all due honour unto wicked kings 1. Christ himself the authour and the finisher of our faith never left any plainer mark of his religion then to propagate the same by patience as on the other side there cannot be a more suspitious sign of a false Religion then to enlarge it and protect it by violence and therefore when the Inhabitants of a certain Samaritane village refused to admit Christ and his Disciples into their Town and so renounced him and his Religion James and John Luke 9.54 two principal members of his Court remembring what Elias did in the like case 1 Reg. 18. 2 Reg. 1.
asked if they should not command fire to consume them as Elias did that is if they should not use their best endeavours and be confident of Gods assistance to destroy those prophane rejecters of Christ and refusers of his religion Our Saviour though ever meeke yet now moved at this their unchristian thought rebuked them with that sharpness as he did Saint Peter when he committed the like â—â—rour and said You know not what manner of spirit you are of as if he had said Matth. 16.23 you understand not the difference betwixt the profession of Elias and my religion for he was such a Zelot that jure zelotarum and the extraordinary instinct of Gods spirit that was in him might at that time when the Jews were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus saith and God presiding as it were their King amongst them and interposing rules by his Oracles and other particular directions that should oblige and warrant them as well as their standing Law do this or the like act though not authorized by any ordinary Law and those actions thus performed are as just and as legal as any other that proceed from the authority of the supreame Magistrate but that dispensation of the Prophets is now ended and the profession of my Disciples must be far otherwise for I do not authorize my servants to pretend to the spirit of Elias or to do as Phineas and others extraordinary men among the Jews have done but they must learn of me to be meeke and lowly in heart and rather to suffer wrong of others then to offer the least injury unto their meanest neighbour Matth. 11.29 much less to resist their supreame Magistrate And when Christ was apprehended not by any legal power of the supreme Magistrate but by the rude servants of the High Priests and Saint Peter How Christ carried himself before Pilate and the High-Priests as zealous for his Master as our Zealots are for their Religion drew his sword and smote off Malchus ear a most justifiable and commendable act a man would think to defend Christ and in him all Christianity our Saviour bids him put up his sword and he adds a reason most considerable to all Christians for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword that is all they that without lawful authority take the sword to defend me and my religion with the sword they deserve to suffer by the sword and it is very well observed by the Author of resisting the lawful Magistrate upon colour of religion that the two parallel places quoted in the margent of our Bibles are very pertinent to this purpose Pag. 6. for that Law concerning the effusion of bloud Gen. 9.6 being not any prohibition to the legal cutting off of Malefactors is notwithstanding urged against S. Peter to shew that his shedding of bloud in defence of religion was altogether illegal and prohibited by that Law and the other place where immediately after these words He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Revel 13.10 the Holy Ghost adjoyneth here is the patience and the faith of the Saints doth most clearly shew that all forcible resistance is inconsistent with the religion of the Saints because their faith must be ever accompanied with their patience and it is contrary to their profession to save themselves by any violent opposition of them that have the lawful authority But that example which is unparallel'd is the suffering of Christ under Pontius Pilate for the whole course of their proceeding gainst Christ was illegal when as no Law can be found to justifie the delivering up of an innocent person to the will of his accusers as Pilate did our Saviour Christ and our Saviour had ability and strength enough to have defended himself John 19.16 for he might have commanded more then twelve Legions of Angels to assist him yet our Saviour acknowledging the legal power of Pilate to proceed against him John 19.12 that it was given him from above makes no resistance either to maintain his doctrine or to preserve his life but in all things submits himself to their illegal proceedings and gives unto the Magistrates all the honour that was due unto their places and you know the rule Omnis Christi actio debet esse nostra instrictio we ought to follow his example And therefore not onely Christ but also all good Christians have imitated him in this point for the Apostles prayed for their persecuting Tyrants exhorted all their followers to honour even the Pagan Kings and most shâ—rply reproved all that spake evill of Authority much more would they say against them that commit evill and proceed in all wickedness against Authority And Tertullian speaking of the behaviour of the Primitive Christians towards the Heathen Emperours How the Primitive Christians hehaved themselves towards their Heathen persecutors and their cruell persecutors saith that because they knew them to be appointed by God they did love and reverence them and wish them safe with all the Romane Empire yea they honoured the Emperour and worshipped him as a man second from God solo Deo minorem and inferiour onely unto God and in his Apologetico he saith Deus est soâ—us in cuâ—us solius potestate sunt reges à quo sunt secundi post quem primi super omnes homines ante omnes Deos God alone is he by whose power Kings are preserved which are second from him first after him above all men and before all gods that is all other Magistrates that the Scripture calleth Gods So Justin Martyr Minut us Felix Nazianzen which also wrote against the vices of Julian S. Augustine and others of the prime Fathers of the Church have set down how the Primitive Christians and godly Martyrs that suffered all k nde of most barbarous cruelty at the hands of their Heathen Magistrates did notwithstanding pray for them and honour them and neither derogated from their authority Beda p. 15. nor any wayes resisted their insolencie And Johannes Beda Advocate in the Court of Parliament of Paris saith that the Protestants of France in the midst of torments have blessed their King by whom they were so severely intreated and in the midst of fires and massacres have published their confession in these words Artic. 39 40 confess eccles Gal. refor For thâ— cause he that is God put the sword into the Magistrates hand that he may repress the sins committed not onely against the second Table of Gods Commandments but also against the first We must therefore for his sake not onely endure that Superiours rule over us but also honour and esteem of them with all reverence holding them for his Lieutenants and Officers to whom he hath given in commission to execute a lawfull and a holy function We therefore hold that we must obey their Lawes and Statutes pay Tributes Imposts and other duties and bear the yoke of
be Rebels and Traytors against their own most gracious King they have not onely with Jerusalem justified Samaria Sodome and Gomorrah but they have justified all the Samaritanes all the Sodomites all the Schismaticks Hereticks Rebels and Traytors Papists and Atheists and all that went before them Judas himself in many circumstances not excepted and that which makes their doings the more evil and the more exceedingly wicked is that they make Religion to be the warrant for their evil doings the pack-horse to carry and the clokt to cover all their treacheries and thereby they drew the greater multitudes of poore Zelots to be their followers And therefore seeing it is not onely the honour but also the duty as of all other Kings so likewise of our King to be as the Princes of our Land are justly stiled the Defenders of the Faith and that not only in regard of enemies abroad but also in respect of those far worse enemies which desire alteration at home it behoves the King to looke to these home-bred enemies of the Church and seeing the king though never so willing for his piety and religion never so able for his knowledge and understanding What Gods faithful servants and the kings loyal Subjects must do in these times 1. To justifie the kings right yet without strength and power to effect what he desires cannot defend the faith and maintain the true Religion from the violence of Sectaries and Traytors within his kingdome it hehoves us all to do these two things 2. To justifie the kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his authority and right to the supreme Governour and defender of the Chuch and of Gods true religion and service both in respect of Doctrine and Discipline and that none else Pope or Parliament hath any power at all herein but what they have derivately from him which I hope we have sufficiently proved 2. To submit our selves unto our king and to add our strength force 2. To assist Him against the Rebels and power to inable his power to discharge this duty against all the Innovators of our Religion and the enemies of our peace for the honour of God and the happiness of this Church and Common-wealth for that power which is called the Kings power and is granted and given to him of God is not onely that Heroick virtue of fortitude which God planteth in the hearts of most noble Princes as he hath most grasiously done it in abundant measure in our most gracious king but it is the collected and united power and strength of all his Subjects which the Lord hath commanded us to joyn and submit it for the assistance of the kings power against all those that shall oppose it and if we refuse or neglect the same then questionless whatsoever mischief idolatry barbarity or superstition shall take root in the Church and whatsoeuer oppression and wickedness shall impair the Common-wealth Heaven will free His Majesty and the wrath of God in no smal measure must undoubtedly light upon us and our posterity even as Debora saith of them that refused to assist Barac against his enemies Curse ye Meroz curse bitterly the Inhabitants thereof Jud. 5.23 because they came not forth to helpe the Lord against the mighty CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiastical Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Laws by the advice of their Bishops and Clergy and not of their Lay Counsellours how our late Canons came to be annulled that it is the Kings right to admit his Bishops and Prelates to be of his Council and to delegate secular authority or civil jurisdiction unto them proved by the examples of the Heathens Jewes and Christians OUt of all this that hath been spoken it is more then manifest that the king ought to have the supreme power over Gods Church and the Government thereof and the greatest care to preserve true Religion throughout all his Dominions this is his duty and this is his honour that God hath committed not a people but his people and the members of his Son under his charge For the performance of which charge it is requisite for us to know that God hath granted unto him among other rights these two special prerogatives Two special rights and prerogatives of the King for the government of the Church 1. To make Laws and Canons 1. That he may and ought to make Lawes Orders Canons and Decrees for the well governing of Gods Church 2. That he may when he seeth cause lawfully and justly grant tolerations and dispensations of his own Laws and Decrees as he pleaseth 1. Not onely Solomon and Jehosaphat gave commandment and prescribed unto the chief Priests and Levites what form and order they should observe in their Ecclesiastical causes and methode of serving God but also Constantine Theodosius Justinian and all the Christian Emperours that were careful of Gods service did the like and therefore when the Donatists alleadged that secular Princes had nothing to do to meddle in matters of Religion and in causes Ecclesiastical Aug. l. 2. c. 26. Saint Augustine in his second Epistle against Gaudentius saith I have already proved that it appertaineth to the Kings charge that the Ninivites should pacifie Gods wrath and therefore the Kings that are of Christs Church do judge most truely that it belongeth to their charge to see that men Rebel not Idom ep 48. ep 50. ad Bonifac without punishment against the same because God doth inspire it is to the mindes of Kings that they should procure the Commandments of the Lord to be performed in al their Kingdomes for they are commanded to serve the Lord in fear and how do they serve the Lord as Kings but in making Laws for Christ So they are called the kings Ecclesiastical Lawes as man he serveth him by living faithfully but as King he serveth him in making Laws that shal command just things and forbid the contrary which they could not do if they were not kings And by the example of the king of Ninive Darius Nebuchadnezzar and others which were but figures and prophesies that foreshewed the power duty and service that Christian kings should owe and performe in like sort to the furtherance of Christs Religion in the time of the New Testament when al kings shall fall down and Worship Christ Psal 72.11 Arg. cont lit Peul l. 2. c 92 and all Nations shall do him service he proveth that the Christian kings and Princes should make Laws and Decrees for the furtherance of Gods service even as Nebuchadnezzar had done in his time And upon the words of the Apostle Idem in l. de 12. abus grad grad 2. that the king beareth not the sword in vain he proveth against Petilian that the power and authority of the Princes which the Apostle treateth of in that place is given unto them to make sharpe penall Lawes to further
100 l. a year then two of 50 l. a piece one Living of equall value to them both and shall the unlearned zeal of an envious minde so far prejudice a worthy man that the King 's lawful right shall be censured and his power questioned and clipped or traduced by this ignorant Zelot I will blesse my self from them and maintain it before all the world that the King's dispensations for Pluralities Non-residency and the like Priviledges not repugnant to common right are not against Law nor the giving or taking of them upon just causes against conscience but what the violence of this viperous brood proclaimeth an intolerable offence we dare warrant both with good reason and true Divinity to be no sin no fault at all but an undoubted portion of the King 's right for the greater benefit both of the Church and State and the greater glory unto God himself The Author's Petition to His Majesty And therefore most gracious King we humbly desire your Majesty suffer not these children of Apollyon to pull this flower out of your Royal Crown to abridge you of your just right of granting dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency which the Lawes of your Land do yet allow you and which they labour to annul to darken the glory of God's Church and to bring your Clergy by depriving them of their meanes and honour into contempt lest that when by one and one they have robbed you of all your rights they will fairly salute you as the Jews did Christ Haile King of the Jewes when God knows they hated him and stript him of all power I speak not of his Divinity either to govern them or to save himself 3. The toleration of divers Sects and sorts of religions 3. As the King hath right and power to grant his dispensations both of grace and of justice of grace when it is merely of the King ' Princely favour as in legitimations and the like and of justice when the King findeth a just cause to grant it so likewise it is in the King's power and right to remit any offence that is the mulct or penalty and to absolve the offender from any or all the transgressions of his own Lawes from the transgression of God's Law neither King nor Pope nor Priest nor any other can formally remit the fault and absolve transgressors but as God is the Law-giver so God alone must be the forgiver of the offence Mar. 2.7 so the Jewes say who can forgive sins but God onely Yet as God which gives the Law can lawfully remit the sin and forgive the breach of the Law As David pardoned Absolon and Solomon Abiathar so the King which makes these positive Lawes cannot be denyed this power to pardon when he seeth cause or is so pleased the offenders of his Lawes as you see they do many times grant their pardons for the most haynous faults and capital crimes as treasons murders felonies and the like and if they may grant their pardons for the breach of the Law and remit the mulct imposed for the transgression thereof it is strange if they should not have right to dispense with whom they please when they see cause from the bond of the Law and therefore we are to discuss how far the King in these Lawes of the Church may give exemptions and tolerations unto them whose consciences cannot submit themselves to the observation of the established Laws Christ biddeth that the â—ares should grow Matth. 13.30 And the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there must be heresies therefore there must be a toleration of divers Sects 1 Cor. 11.19 Four special sorts of false Professors 1. Jewes Whitak against Campian translated by Master Stoke p. 311. With what cautions the Jewes are to be suffered for seeing all men are not of the same faith nor do profess the same Religion and it is the nature of all men to dislike that which themselves will not profess and if opportunity serve to root out that which they dislike it is requisite it should be shewed how far a prudent and a pious Prince may grant a toleration the Law in terminis not forbidding it unto any of these Sects that may be commorant within his Kingdomes Touching which I say that besides dissembling hypocrites and prophane worldlings that have no faith nor any other Religion but the shadow of that Religion whatsoever it is which is profest wheresoever they are there may be in any Kingdome Jewes Turkes Papists Puritans and the like or to call them otherwise Idolaters Hereticks Schismatickes c. And 1. For the Jewes though they have many things in their Religion which will ever alienate them from the Papists yet they have free leave to use their ancient Ceremonies in Rome saith Doctor Whitaker and it is well known that many pious Princes have permitted them to dwell and to exercise their own Religion in this kingdome the old Jury in London is so called because it was allotted for their abode and the Lawes of many Christian Emperours have in like sort permitted them to do the like in their Dominions but with those cautions and limitations that Moses prescribed unto the Jewes to be observed with the Heathens and Idolaters that dwelt amongst them that is neither to make marriages with them nor to communicate with them in their Religion And Saint Augustine is reported to be so favourable towards them that he alleadgeth several reasons for their toleration As 1. That above and before others they had the promise of salvation Deut. 7.3 Exod. 23.32 Doctor Covel c. 14. p. 199. 1 Reason for their toleration Rom. 11.24 25. 2 Reason Psal 59.11 and therefore though some of the branches be cut off and the case of the rest be most lamentable yet not altogether desperate and incurable if we consider what the Apostle setteth down of their conversion and re-unition unto the good right olive tree 2. That the Prophet David speaking of them made that prayer unto God Slay them not O Lord lest my people forget it but scatter them abroad among the Heathen and put them down O Lord our defence for many excellent ends as first that their being scattered among the Christians might shew both the clemency and severity of God towards us mercy and clemency and towards them justice and severity which may likewise happen unto us if we take not heed as the Apostle bids us Be not high minded but fear and secondly Rom. 11.20 We may not force the Jews to beleive that being among the Christians they might the sooner at all times by their charity and prayers be reduced the more willingly to imbrace the faith of Christ when as unwillingly we may neither compel them nor take their children to be baptized from them And therefore as the Princes of this Realm for divers causes hurtful to their State have banished them out of their Dominions so if they see good cause to permit them as time
Church and King and in the end destroy themselves for who deceived Absolon though rightly but his own Counsellour who betrayed Ahab and that most wickedly but his lying Parasites and who overthrew Rehoboam and that foolishly but his young favourites * Which thing is purposely set down in the holy Scripture to be a caveat for all Kings not to rely too much upon young Counsellors not that wisedome and prudence are intailed to old age and inseperable from gray-haires or divorced from green heads but because commonly experience is the fruitfull mother of these faire issues and the multitude of yeares teacheth wisdom for otherwise there may be delirium senectutis the dotage of old age as well as vanitas juventutis the folly of youth and as Elihu saith Great men are not alwayes wise neither do the aged understand judgement but as Solomon saith ◠isdem even in youth is the gray haires and an undefiled life is the old age as we see young Ioseph was the wisest in all Egypt Solomon Daniel and Titus how wise how learned and how religious were they in their younger yeares So Alexander Hà nniball Scipio in the feates of war Lucan Mirandula Keckerman and abundance more in all humane learning that were but Neophyti annis yet were egregii virtutibus young in years yet very admirable for their worth And Princes do most wisely when they make such election especially when they are inforced to call men to places of labour and industry they must have some regard to the bodies as well as to the mindes of their servants and chuse men of younger yeares though not to be their favourites but their confidents according to the French distinction as His Majesty hath lately made choice of one noble servant who is a◠Nazianzen speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gray in the minde though yellow in the head and supplying in all manner of excellent parts what may be conceived wanting in years whose name so much already catched at by envy I shall ever reverence though now I purposely passe it over in silence and whom may the Church fear most of all but her dissembling friends that are in most favour with Kings and therefore seduce them soonest insensibly to wound the Care and neglect the Charge that is laid upon them because as St. Bernard saith Longè plus nocet falsus Catholicus quà m si apertus appareret haereticus those eare-wigs are most pernicious whose counsels seeme to be most specious when they are but as the spirit of darkness appearing like an Angel of light when they say God indeed must be served and the Word must be preached but whether Bishop or no Bishop whether in a sumptuous Church or private house whether by an esteemed Clergy or a poore meane Ministrie in this manner or in another fashion it skilleth not much Kings may well enough give way to spare that cost to lessen that Revenue and to pull down these Cathedrals especially to give content unto the People and to defray the expensive charge of the Common-wealth But these counsels will not excuse Kings in the day of their account therefore let them take heed of such Counsellors and when they hear them begin to speak against the Church though they be-guild their beginnings never so slily let them either stop their eares with the Cockatrice Psal 58.5 that will not heare the voice of the charmer charme he never so wisely or let them answer as our Saviour answered their grand instructor Vade Satana non tentabis Matth. 4.10 for it is most true that Qui deliberat jam desivit he that listens to them is halfe corrupted by them and so they may prove destructive both to themselves and to their posterity for as nothing establisheth the Throne of Kings surer then obedience to God so nothing is more dangerous then rebellion against God with whom there is no respect of persons for he expecteth Rom. 2.11 that as he made Kings his Vice-gerents so they should feare him preserve the right of his Church uphold his service defend his servants and do all that he commands them intirely without taking the least liberty for feare of the people to dispense with any omission of his honour or suffering the hedges of his Vineyard the Governours of his Church to be trodden down and torne in pieces that the beasts of the field may destroy the grapes and defile the service of our God Therefore to conclude this point let all Kings do their best to hinder their People to corrupt the Covenant of Levi which is a Covenant of Salt that is Malach. 2.8 Deut. 33.11 to indure for ever let them remember Moses prayer Blesse Lord his substance and accept the worke of his hands smite through the loynes of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again and let them alwayes consider that God taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants Psal 35.27 CHAP. XI Sheweth where the Protestants Papists and Puritans do place Soveraignty who first taught the deposing of Kings the Puritans tenet worse then the Jesuites Kings authority immediately from God the twofold royalty in a King the words of the Apostle vindicated from false glosses the testimony of the Fathers and Romanists for the Soveraignty of Kings the two things that shew the difficulty of government what a miraculous thing it is and that God himself is the governour of the people 2 The duty of the King in the government of the Common-wealth HAving set down some particulars of the Kings right in the Government of Gods Church it resteth that I should shew some part of his right and duty to serve God as he is a King in the government of the Common-wealth touching which for our more orderly proceeding I will distribute my whole discourse into these five heads Five points handled 1. To justifie his right to govern the people 2. To shew the difficulty of this government 3. To set down the assistants that are to helpe him in the performance of this duty 4. To distinguish the chiefest parts of this Government 5. To declare the end for which this Government is ordained of God 1. Point 1. Where the Protestants place Soveraignty 1. We say that the Kings Soveraignty or royal power to govern the people is independent from all creatures solely from God who hath immediately conferred the same upon him and this we are able to make good with abundance both of divine and humane proofes and yet we finde the same adversaries of this truth though with a far less shew of reason that we met withall about Government of Gods Church For 2. In whom the Papists do place Soveraignty The Pope's sad Message to Hen. 3. Imp. Quem meritum investivimus quare immeritum non devestiamus quia ad quem pertinet institutio ad eundem pertinet destitutio 2 They that are infatuated with the cup of Babylon the
is immediately from God yet if he would believe learned Authours he might find enough of this judgment for the sublime power and authority that resideth in earthly Potentates is not a derivation or collection of humane power scattered among many and gathered into one head but a power immediately granted by God to his Vicegerents * So acknowledged by Act of Parliament 25 H. 8. c. 12.28 c. 10. Dr Sarav sol 175. Bellar. de Laicis cap. 6. 8. quam nunquam fuisse populo demandatam legimus which God never communicated to any multitudes of men saith Saravia And Bellarmine himself against the Anabaptists confuteth their error that denyed the power and authority of kings to be immediately from God I. From Script Sap. 6. Esay 45. Hierem. 27. Dan. 2. Rom. 13.1 Pet. 2. II. From the Councill of Constans Sess 8. 15. III. From S. Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 21. where he saith non tribuamus dandi regni potestatem nisi Deo vero which giveth felicity in the kingdome of Heaven onely to the godly but the earthly kingdomes he giveth both to the godly and to the wicked nam qui dedit Mario ipse Caesari qui Augusto ipse Neroni qui Vespasianis vel patri vel filio Idem de Rom. Pont. l. 5. c. 3. Irvinus de jure regni c. 2. p. 40. suavissimis imperatoribus ipse Domitiano crudelissimo qui Constantino Christiano ipse Apostatae Juliano And IV. it is proved from the confession of the Popes of Rome as Leo. ep 38. 43. Gelasius epist ad Anastasium Greg. l. 2. epist 61. Nicholaus epist ad Michaelem out of all which saith Irvinus it is apparent all and every king non multitudini aut hominibus sed Deo soli regum regi quicquid juris habent acceptum ferre And he might consider that a thing may be said to be immediately from God divers wayes as specially 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absque ullo signo creato 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum aliquo actu conjuncto that is 1. Solely from God and no other presupposing nothing praevious to the obtaining of it So Moses and Joshua had their authority from God Heningus fusè c. 1. p. 4 5. de distinct duplici jurisdict Sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure Principi tamen facto divinitùs potestas data est Cunerus c. 5. de offic Princip 2. Joyntly with an interposed act of some other instrument as the Apostolicall power of Matthias was immediately from God though his constitution was from the Apostles so Kings though some of them be after a sort elected by men yet as our Saviour saith to Pilate that his power was from above though he was deputed by Caesar So may they be said to have their authority immediately from God though they should be some wayes deputed by men for we must distinguish betwixt the soveraignty the Subject and the collation of the Soveraignty to the Subject the Soveraignty is immediately from God the Subject is from it's naturall cause and the unition of the Soveraignty to the Subject is likewise immediately from God not onely approving but appointing the same in all the Kings of his ordination or to speak with the Schooles we must distinguish betwixt deputationem personae and collationem potestatis the designation of the person which is sometimes done by men and that is where the King is elective and the donation of the power which is proper onely unto God for so the Psalmist saith Psal 62.11 God hath spoken once and twice I have also heard the same that power belongeth unto God and the Apostle saith the powers that are are ordained of God Rom. 13.2 which is to be understood of the regall or Monarchicall power because Saint Paules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2.13 Saint Peters description betwixt the King and the inferiour Magistrates A twofold royalty in a King 1 Merum imperium higher powers are interpreted by Saint Peter to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings that are supreme where Saint Peter makes an excellent distinction betwixt the superiour and the inferiour Magistrates the superiour is that which Saint Paul saith is ordained of God and the inferiours are they which Saint Peter calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are sent by the King for the better explanation of which place you must know that in every King or supreme Magistrate we may conceive a double royalty The 1 is merum imperium or regni potestas summa plenissima and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this fulnesse of power and independent of any creature and immediately received of God which the Civilians call jus regis or munus regni is in the person of the King indivisible not to be imparted by the King to any creature because he cannot devest himself divide this power or alienate the same to any subject no not to his own son without renouncing or dividing his Kingdome How the King cannot do unjustly and by this the Civilians say the King may governe sine certa lege sine certo jure sed non sine aequitate justitia without Law but not without equity whereupon it is a rule in the Common Law hoc unum rex potest facere quod non potest injustè agere which is to be applyed to this inseperable regality of the King 2 Imperium dispositivum and hath been often alleadged by other Parliaments to justifie the King from all blame The 2 is imperium dispositivum or jus gubernandi vel jurisdictio the right of governing or jurisdiction and distribution of justice and this may be derived and delegated from the King legatis vitalitiis either for terme of life or during the Kings pleasure But how not privativè when the King doth not denude himself thereof but cumulativè and executivè to execute the same as the Kings Instruments for the preservation of peace How the King delegates his power to his inferiour Magistrates and the administration of justice as it appeareth in their patent and this subordinate power is not inherent in their persons but onely committed unto them for the execution of some office because that when the supreame power is present the power of the inferiour officers is silent it is in nubibus fled into the clouds and like the light of the Moon and Stars vanishing whensoever the Sun appeareth for Kings when they do transfer any actuall power to the subalternate Officers retain the habituall power still in their own hands which upon any emergent occasion they may actually resume to themselves again which they could not do if they parted with the habite and forme of this despoticall power of government The words of the Apostles vindicated from the false glosses of the Sectaries Rom. 13.1 1 Pet. 2.13 The testimony of the Fathers for the Soveraignty of Kings Tertul. ad Scap. in apologet
c. 30. Iren. advers baeres Valent l. 5. c. 20. Optat. contr Parmen l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost tom 6. orat 40. orat 2. Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 21. that they have immediately received from God And as the Scriptures make it plain that the Kings right and power to govern is immediately from God so they make it as plain that it is the greatest right and most eminent highest power that is on earth for though the cavillers at this power translate the words of Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not potestatibus sublimioribus or supremis but potestatibus superexcellentibus and say that the word or particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where S. Peter bids us submit our selves to the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the cheif intends a resemblance onely and not a reall demonstration to prove the King to be the chief Yet the malice of these men and the falshood of these glosses will appear if you consider that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habens se super alios or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the powers that are ordained of God must needs signify not any subordinate power but the supremest power on earth because the other powers are directly said by Saint Peter to be sent by the King and the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as really expresse the matter there as in John i. 14. where the Evangelist saith and we beheld his glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God And I hope our Sectaries will not be so impudent as to say that this signifieth but a resemblance of the Son of God But to make this point more plain you shall heare what the Fathers and the learned say for I told you before Tertullian saith of Kings and Emperours inde potestas unde spiritus and he is solo Deo minor inferiour to none but God Saint Chrysostome saith he hath no peer on Earth but is the top of all men living Athanasius saith there is none above the Emperour but onely God that made the Emperour Q. Curtius l. 9. Saint Cyrill in a Sermon upon that text I am the vine commendeth the answer of a King whom Quintus Curtius affirmeth to be Alexander that being shot and his Subjects would have him bound to pull out the arrow said non decet vinciri Regem Bern. Tractat. de pass Dom. c. 4. it becomes not Kings to be bound because none is superiour unto them Agapetus a Deacon of Constantine saith as much and because it is a rule in the Civill Law testem quem quis inducit pro se tenetur recipere contra sese the testimony of our adversaries is most convictive therefore I beseech you hear what they say for Rosellus a great Catholique saith it is heretical to affirm that the universal administration of the temporall affaires is or must be in the Pope when the King hath no superiour on earth but the Creator of heaven and earth Caninus also saith that the Apostle Rom. 13. spake of the Regall and secular Power Cassan Catal. glor mundi p. 8. consider 28. Card. Cusan concord Cathol l. 3. c. 5. Vide Arnis p. 5. de dist dupl jurisdict and not of the Ecclesiasticall and Cassanaeus saith that Kings are the highest and most paramount secular power and authority that ever God appointed on earth and denies that either the old or the new Testament makes any mention of an Emperour juris utriusque testimonia manifestè declarant imperialem dignitatem potestatem immediatè á filio Dei ab antiquo processisse said Philip King of France in Constit de potest elect Imperat. Irvin p. 33 34 35. quoteth many authors to confirme the same truth Lombard Gratian Melancthon Cranmer Tyndall and abundance more without number do likewise most peremptorily affirme that the Kings Power is the supreme power on earth and as the mirror of our time the Bishop of Winchester observeth the Scripture testifieth that their Throne their Crowne their Sword their Scepter their Judgement their Royalty their Power their Charge their Person and all in them are of God from God and by God to shew how sacred they are and ought to be unto us all and so the very Heathens teaching sounder Divinity then our Sectaries thought and said that Kings were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homere Plutarch Ovid. Fast l. 5. Quia à jove nutriti ab eo regnum ade ti sunt Scapula in verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministers of God and not the servants of the people Good God! what shall we say then to those children of Adam that will not onely with Adam be content to be like God but with Antichrist this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Many-headed beast 2. The difficulty of Government 2. Things shewing the difficulty of Government as Plato calleth them wil exalt themselves above all that is called God they will devest the King and invest themselves with his right and therefore 2. This sheweth how difficult a thing it is to rule and govern this unruly aspiring and ambitious multitude for the fuller understanding of which difficult duty Osorius saith that two things are to be considered 1. Suscepti muneris amplitudo the greatness of the charge which is of that weight that we can scarce think of a greater in all our life the care of Church and Common-wealth and to rule millions of men far and neare 2. Gubernandorum qualitas the quality and conditions of those men that are to be governed which if there were nothing else to prove it will sufficiently shew the difficulty of their government for if it be a very hard thing to govern a mans selfe how much harder is it to govern such a multitude of mad men for Cicero saith the multitude is the greatest teacher of errour the unjustest judge of dignity being without counsell without reason without judgement Cicero Tusc 3. de sinibus lib. 2. Plutarch in Alcibiad and Plutarch calleth them pessimam veritatis interpretem whereunto agreeth the answer of that Pope who being demanded what was furthest from truth answered populi sententia the opinion of the People and as they are the weakest for judgement so they are most instable in their resolutions to day crying Hosanna and to morrow Crucifige this is the nature of the People Osorius his description of the factious Puritans most plainly seen verified in our Rebels of whom these our Sectaries are the very dregs the worst and the basest of all I must crave leave to set down what Osorius saith of them long ago and you may finde that this rebellion proves his words most true for he saith the desire and end of this faction is too much liberty then which nothing can be more averse to the office and government of Kings for it is the
duty of a King to cut off all haynous offences with just punishments the unbridled people desires to be free from all fear of punishment the King is the Minister of the Law the Keeper of it and the auenger of the transgression thereof the people as much as possibly they can with an impetuous temerity pulleth down all Laws the King laboureth to preserve peace and quietness the people with an untamcable lust turmoileth and troubleth the peace of all men lastly the King thinkes not fit to distribute rewards and compensations indifferently to all men alike but the people desire to have all difference of worth and dignity taken away infima summis permisceri and to make the basest equal with the best whence it happeneth so that they hate all Princes and especially all Kings quos immani odio persequuntur whom they persecute with a deadly hate for they cannot endure any excellency or dignity and to that end they use all endeavour ut principes interimant vel saltem in turbam conjiciant either utterly to take away and destroy their Princes or to implunge them into a World of troubles which thing at first doth not appeare but when the multitude of furious men hath gathered strength then at last their impudent boldness being confirmed by daily impunity breaketh forth to the destruction of the royal Majesty And a little after he saith Osoriu in ep Reginae Elizabethae praefix l. de relig add to these things the abolition of Laws the contempt of Rule the hatred of royal Majesty and the cruel lying in wait which they most impiously and nefariously do endeavour for their Princes add also their clandestine and secret discourses where their confederacies are made for the extirpation of their Kings and to plot with unspeakable mischief the death of them whose health and safety they ought most heartily to pray to God for and then he addeth Pagina 24. 25. cum immodica libertatis cupiditate rapiantur leges oderunt judicia detestantur regum majestatem extinctam cupiunt ut licentiùs impuniùs queant per omnia libidinum genera vagari and this is most manifest saith he all their endeavours ayme at this end that Princes being taken away they may have an uncontroulable leave and liberty to commit all kinde of villanies and to that purpose they have poysoned some kings Revera mihi videtur esse ars artium hominem regere qui certè est inter omnes animantes maximè moribus varius voluntate diversas Nazian in Apol. and killed others with the sword and to root out all rule Consilia plena sceleris inierunt they are full of all wicked counsels And therefore this being the condition of the people as the Scripture sheweth plainly in the Jews by their continual Rebellions and murmurings against Moses and Aaron and we see it as plainly in our own time when our people hath confirmed all that this Bishop said it is not an easie matter to govern such an unruly people But we finde that the rod of Government is a miraculous rod that being in Moses hand was a fair wand but cast unto the ground turned to be an ungly and a poysonous Serpent to shew that the people being subject to the hand of Government is a goodly thing and a glorious society but let loose out of the Princes hands they are as Serpents crooked wriggled versipelles A people well governed very glorious and as full as may be of all deadly poyson and the Prophet David makes the ruling of the people to be as great a miracle as to appease the raging of the Seas and therefore he ascribes this Government to be the proper work of God psal 65.7 God is the governour and Kings are but Gods instruments psal 77.20 when speaking unto God he saith Thou rulest the rage of the Seas the noyse of his waves and the madness of the people for Kings are but Gods instruments and God himself is the ruler of his people even as the same King David sheweth saying still to God Tu duxisti populum tuum Thou leadest thy people like sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron God was the leader and they were but the hands by which he led them for where God hath not a hand in the government of the people it is impossible for the best and most politick heads to do it and this Solomon knew full well when God bade him aske what he should give him and he said Thou hast made me King he doth not say the people hath made me and I know not how to go out or in that is to govern them 1 Reg. 3.7 9. therefore I pray the give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great a people that is what one man is able to govern an innumerable multitude of men Thou therefore must be the Governour and I am but thine instrument and that I may be a fit instrument to do thy work I desire thee to give me a docible heart They that reject their King reject God Wherefore O you Subjects without obedience and you Divines without Divinity how dare you put any instruments into Gods hands and refuse nay reject the instrument that he chuseth for the performance of his own work to rule the people you may as well refuse God himself even as God saith unto Samuel 1 Sam. 8.7 They have not reiected thee but they have reiected me so you that do rebel and cast away your King that God hath chosen as his hand to guide you and his instrument to govern you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 10.16 I pronounce it to all the World you have rebelled against God and you have cast away your God for the rule of Christ must stand infallible he that rejecteth or despiseth him that is sent rejecteth him that sent him CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their government to whom the choice of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peers nor Parliament can have supremacy the Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton answered our Lawes prove all Soveraignty to be in the King the two chief parts of the regal government the four properties of a just War and how the Parliamentary Faction transgress in every property 3. The assistance that God alloweth unto Kings to help them in their government of two sorts 3. SEeing it is so hard and difficult a matter ars artium gubernare populum the Mistresse of all Sciences and the most dangerous of all faculties to govern the people that Saturninus said truly to them that put on his Kingly ornaments they knew not what an evil it was to rule because of the many dangers that hang over the rulers heads which under the seeming shew of a Crown of gold do wear indeed a Crown of thornes therefore Vt
rarò eminentes viros non magnis adjutoribus ad gubernandam fortunam suam usus invenies saith Paterculus as great men of a wealthy and vast estate are seldome without great counsel to assist them to govern and to dispose of that great fortune so Kings having a great charge laid upon them are not onely permitted but advised and counselled by God to have 1. Wise Counsellors 1. Faithful and wise Counsellors to direct them in the government of the people 2. Subordinate Magistrates to assist them in the government of the people Tacit. annal lib. 2. 1. Tacitus as I said before saith There cannot be an argument of greater wisedome in a Prince nor any thing of greater safety to the Common-wealth then for him to make choice of a wise and religious Counsel because the most weighty labours of the Prince do stand in need of the greatest helpes therefore Agamemnon had his Nestor and Chaleas Dionys Halicar lib. 2. Augustus had Mecoenas and Agrippa two wise Counsellors to direct him in all his affairs David had Nathan Gad Achitophel and Hushai and Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel Shadrach Meshac and Abednego and so all other Kings in all Nations do chuse the wisest men that they conceive to be their Counsellors 1. Subordinate Magistrates 2. For subordinate Magistrates Jethro's counsel unto Moses and Moses hearkning unto him as to a wise and faithful Counsellor makes it plain how necessary it is for the supreme Magistrate to chuse such assistants as may bear with him some part of the great burthen of government Thus far it is agreed upon on all sides but the difference betwixt us and our new State-Divines consisteth in these two points 1. About the choice 2. About the power of these officers A twofold difference For 1. We say that by the Law of nature every master hath right to chuse his own servants this is Lex gentium ever practiced among all Nations 1. About the choice of inferiour Magistrates and Officers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4 5. Exod. 18.11 why then should not the King make choice of his own Counsellors and Servants they will say because he is the servant of the Common-wealth But how is that I hope none otherwise then the Minister is the servant of the Church for Christ his sake and shall he therefore that is your King lose the priviledges of a common Subject Besides hath not God committed the charge of his people into the Kings hand and will he not require an accompt of him of their government how then shall he give an account to God when the government is taken out of his hands and subordinate officers and servants put upon him I am sure when the 70 grand Senators of Israel the great Sanhedrim of the Jewes were to be chosen Jethro saith unto Moses Thou shalt provide out of the people able men mark I pray you thou and not the people shalt provide them neither shall you find it otherwise in any History Pharaoh and not his people Gen. 41.41 made Joseph ruler over all the Land of Egypt Nebuchadnezzar and not his people made Daniel ruler over the whole Province of Babylon Dan. 2.48 Cap. 6.1 2. and Darius set over his Kingdome a hundred and twenty Princes and made Daniel the first of the three Presidents that were over all these And what shall I say of Ahashuerus and all other kings All kings chuse their own Officers Heathens Jewes or Christians that ever kept this power to chuse their own servants Counsellors and Officers except they were infant Kings in their non-age and so not able to chuse them But you will say that our Histories tell you Ob. how Ric. 2. Edw. 2. and others of our Kings had their Officers appointed and themselves committed unto Guardians by the Parliament therefore why may not our Parliament do the like in case of male-administration I answer that I speak of the right of kings Sol. 2 Reg. 19.37 and not justifie the wrongs done to Kings Adramelech and Sharezer killed Sennacherib their own Father is it therefore lawfull for other children so to do Why should we therefore alleadge those things Quae insolentiâ populari quae vi quae furore non ad imitationem exemplo proponenda sed justo legum supplicio vindicanda sunt which should rather have been revenged by the just punishment of the Law then proposed to be imitated by the example Therefore I say that whosoever abridgeth the King of this power robbeth him of that right which God and nature hath allowed him whereby you may judge how justly the Parliamentary faction would have dealt herein with our King by forcing Counsellors and great Officers upon him but I hope you see it is the Kings right to chuse his Servants Officers and Counsellors what manner of men he should chuse Jethro setteth down True Church lib. 6. c. 4. c. And I have most fully described the qualities and conditions that they should be indued withall in my True Church 2. As our Sectaries differ much from the true Divines about the choyce 2. Difference about the power of the subordinate Magistrates so they differ much more about the power of these subordinate officers and inferiour Magistrates for we say they are alwayes to be obedient to the supreme power or otherwise ejus est deponere cujus est constituere he can displace them that hath appointed them or if you say no because I cited you a place out of Bellarmine where he saith the Souldiers had power to refuse their Emperour while he was in fieri to be elected but not when he was in facto fully chosen and made Emperour so the King hath power to chuse them but not to displace them I answer briefly that in creating or constituting our inferiours we may but our superiour we may not because inferiours in the judgment of all men None can depose him in whom the supreme Majesty resideth have no jurisdiction over their superiours And therefore elective Kings are not deposeable in a Monarchicall government where the supreme power resides in the Monarch though perhaps the Kings of Lacedemon might be justly deposed because by the constitution of their Kingdome the supreme power was not in their Kings but in their Ephori But our new Sectaries out of Junius Brutus Burcher Althusius Knox and Cartwright teach very devoutly but most falsely that in case of defailance to do his duty they may with the Tribunes of Rome or the Demarchi at Athens censure and depose him too if they see just cause for the same Blacvod c. 33. p. 285. Grand Rebellion c. 7. p. 52. To confute which blasphemous doctrine against God and so pernicious and dangerous to this State though others have done it very excellently well already and I have formerly shewed the absurdity of it in my Grand Rebellion yet because all books come not to every hand I will say somewhat
of it in this place If these Counsellours Magistrates Parliament call them what you will have any power and authority it must be either subordinate coordinate or supreme 1 Subordinate officers can have no power over their superiors 1. If subordinate I told you before they can have no power over their superiour because all inferiour Magistrates are Magistrates onely in respect of those that are under their jurisdiction because to them they represent the King and supply the office of the King but in reference to the King they are but private persons and Subjects that can challenge no jurisdiction over him 2. that neither Peers not Parliament can have the supremacy None above the king at any time 2. If they be supreme then Saint Peter is much mistaken to say the King is supreme and they do ill to disclaime this supremacy when in all their Petitions not disjunctively but as they are an united body they say Your Majesties humble Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament and besides they are perjur'd that deny it after they have taken the Oath of supremacy where every one saith I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highness is the onely supreme Governour of this Realme c. But this is further and so fully proved out of Bracton the nature of all the Subjects tenures and the constitution of this government by the Authour of The unlawfulness of Subjects taking up armes against their Soveraigne that more needs not be spoken to any rational man Yet because this point is of such great concernment and the chiefest argument they have out of Bracton is that he saith Rex habet superiorem The Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton fully answered legem curiam suam comites Barones quia comites dicuntur quasi socii Regis qui habet socium habet magistrum ideò si Rex fuerit sine frano id est sine lege debent ei fraenum ponere nisi ipsimet fuerint cum rege sine fraeno and all this makes just nothing in the World for them if they had the honesty or the learning to understand it right for what is above the King the Law and the Court of Earles and Barons but how are they above him as the Preacher is above the King when he preacheth unto him or the Physician when he gives him Physick or the Pilot when he sayleth by Sea that is quoad rationem consulendi How the Law and the Court of Barons is above the King non cogendi they have superioritatem directivam non coactivam for so the teacher is above him that is taught and the Counsellor above him that is counselled that is by way-of advice but not by way of command and to shew you that this is Bractons true meaning I pray you consider his words Comites dicuntur quasi socii they are as his fellows or Peeres not simply but quasi and if they were simply so yet they are but socii not superiours and what can socii do not command for par in parem non habet potestatem that is praecipiendi otherwise you must confesse habet potestatem consulendi therefore Bracton addes qui habet socium habet magistrum that is a teacher not a commander and to make this yet moâ—e plain he addes Si Rex fuerit sine fraeno id est lege if the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he meanes by the bridle and thinke he meanes force and armes the Law they ought to put this bridle unto him that is to presse him with this Law and still to shew him his duty even as we do both to King and people saying this is the Law this should bridle you but here is not a word of commanding much lesse of forcing the King not a word of superiority nor yet simply of equality and therefore I must say hoc argumentum nihil ad rhombum these do abuse every author 3 That neither Peers nor Parliament are co-ordinate with the King If their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their natural strength and power but of their right and authority be coordinate and equal with the Kings authority then whether given by God which they cannot prove or by the people there must be duo summa imperia two supreme powers which the Philosophers say cannot be nam quod summum est unum est Ommesque Philosoph jurisconsulti ponunt summum in eo rerum genere quod dividi non possit Lactant. l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. 3.14 from whence they prove the unity of the God-head that there can be but one God and if this supreme power be divided betwixt King and Parliament you know what the Poet saith Omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit Or you may remember what our Saviour saith If a Kingdome be divided against it selfe it cannot stand and therefore when Tiberius out of his wonted subtilty desired the Senate to appoint a colleague and partner with him for the better administration of the Empire Asinius Gallus that was desirous enough of their Pristine liberty yet understanding well with what minde the subtle fox spake onely to descry his ill willers after some jests answered seriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that government must not be divided because you can never have any happiness where the power is equally divided in two parts when according to the well known axiome to every one Par in parem non habet potestatem But to make the matter cleare The Case of our Affaires p. 19.20 The Lawes of our Land acknowledge all Soveraignty in the King and to shew that the Soveraignty is inseperably inherent in the person of His Majesty we have the whole current of our very Acts of Parliament acknowledging it in these very termes Our Soveraigne Lord the King and the Parliament 25. Hen. 8. saith This your Graces Realme recognizing no superiour under God but your Grace c. And the Parliament 16. Rich. 2.5 affirmeth the Crown of England to have been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the regality of the said Crown and to none other and in the 25. of Hen. 5. the Parliament declareth that it belongeth to the Kings regality to grant or deny what Petitions in Parliament he pleaseth and so indeed whatsoever authority is in the constant practice of the Kingdom or in the known and published Laws and Statutes it concludeth the Soveraignty to be fixed in the King and all the Subjects virtually united in the representative body of the Parliament to be obliged in obedience allegeance to the individual person of the King and I doubt not but our learned Lawyers can finde much more proofe then I do out of their Law to this purpose And therefore seeing divers supreme
powers are not compatible in one State nor allowable in our State the conceit of a mixed Monarchy is but a foppery to prove the distribution of the supreme power into two sorts of governours equally indued with the same power because the supreme power being but one must be placed in one sort of governours either in one numericall man as it is in Monarchy or in one specificall kinde of men as the optimates as it is in Aristocracie or in the people as in Democracie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if by a mixed Monarchy you meane that this supreme power is not simply absolute quoad omnia but a government limited and regulated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we will not much quarrell with our Sectaries because His Majesty hath promised and we are sure he will performe it to govern his people according to the Lawes of this Land And therefore they that would rob the King of this right They deserve not to live in the Kingdom that diminish the supremacy of the King and give any part of his supreme power to the Parliament or to any of all his inferiour Magistrates deserve as well to be expelled the Kingdome as Plato would have Homer to be banished for bringing in the Gods fighting and disagreeing among themselves when as Ovid out of him saith Jupiter in Trojam pro Troja stabat Apollo Because as the Civilians say Naturale vitium est negligi quod communiter possidetur útque se nihil habere putet qui totum non habeat suam partem corrumpi patiatur dum invidet alienae and therefore the same Homer treating of our humane Government saith Nec multos regnare bonum rex unicus esto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle doth so infinitely commend Arist Metaph. lib. 1. Statius Thebaid lib. 1. where he disputeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth Plato and all the wise Philosophers that followed after because as the Poët saith Summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociÃsque comes discordia regnis And as our own most lamentable experience sheweth what abundance of miseries happened unto our selves by this renting of the King's power and placing it in the hands of the Parliament and his own inferiour officers and as those sad Tragedies of Etheocles and Polynices Numitor and Amulius Romulus and Remus Antoninus and Geta and almost infinite more do make it manifest to all the world §. The two chiefest parts of the regal Government the four properties of a just war and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property 4. The chiefest parts of the Regal government which are two Exod. 2.14 4. HAving spoken of those assistants that should further and not hinder the King in the Common-wealth it resteth that I should now speak of the chiefest parts of this government when Moses killed the Aegyptian that wronged the Israelite and the next day said unto the Hebrew that did injure his fellow Wherefore smitest thou him the oppressor answered Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us 1 Sam. 8.20 2 Sam. 5.2 and the people say unto Samuel we will have a King over us that our King may judge us and go out before us and fight our battails Out of which two places we finde two special parts of the King's government Sigon l. 7. c. 1. 1. Principatum bellorum the charge of the wars in respect whereof the Kings were called Captains as the Lord said unto Samuel concerning Saul Vnges eum ducem 1 Sam. 9.16 thou shalt anoint him to be Captain over my people Israel 1 Reg. 3.9 Psal 72.2 Araisaeus de jure Majest l. 2. c. 1. p. 214. 2. Curam judiciorum the care of all judgments in respect whereof David and Solomon and the other Kings are said to judge the people So Arnisaeus saith Majestatis potestas omnis consistit vel in defendenda repub vel in regenda all the power of royalty consisteth either in defending or in governing the Common-wealth according as Homer describeth a perfect King Homer Iliad γ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so you see the two principal parts of the King's government are the Offices 1. Ducis in bello gerendo 2. Judicis in jure reddendo 1. Part. In the time of War Ordo ille naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli autoritas atque consilium apud principes sit Aug. cont Faust l. 22. Arnis l. 2. c. 5. p. 345. Plato de legib lib. 2. 1. Of a Captain in the time of War 2. Of a Judge in the time of Peace 1. Then it is the proper right of the King and of none but the King or he that hath the regal and supreme power to make war and to conclude peace for Plato in his Common-wealth ordained that Si quis pacem vel bellum fecerit cum aliquibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Julian Law adjudgeth him guilty of High Treason Qui injussu principis bellum gesserit delectúmve habuerit exercitum vel comparaverit that either maketh War or raiseth an Army without his Kings command And to this part of the regall government Luc. 14.31.32 Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. which consisteth in the Militia in Armes for the defence of the Kingdome pertaineth 1. The proclaiming of War which our Saviour properly ascribeth unto the right of Kings when he saith not what State or Common-wealth Arnis l. 2. c. 1. but What King going to war with another King c. 2. The concluding of Peace which our Saviour ascribeth also unto the King in the same place 3. The making of leagues and confederacies with other forraigne States 4. The sending and receiving of Ambassadors 5. To raise Armes and the like which the Lawes of God and of all Nations justifie to be the proper right of Kings and to belong onely unto the supreame Majesty But then you will say did not the Judges Moses Joshua Gideon Jephta Judges 11.11 Barac Samson and the rest make war and yet they were no Kings Why then may not the Nobles make war as well as Kings I answer that they do indeed make war and a miserable wretched war but I speak of a just war and so I say that none but the King or he that hath the Kings power can do it for though the Judges assumed not the name of Kings nor Captains sed à potiore parte vocati sunt judices but from the sweetest part of the Royall government were termed Judges yet they had the full power ducendi judicandi populum both of war and peace saith Sigenius and so the men of Gilead said unto Jephthe veni esto princeps noster and they made him their head by an inviolable covenant And of Moses it was plainly said He was King in Jesurun Deut. 33.5 and when there was no Judge it is said there was no King in
condition their Preachers are and of what worth of no faith of no learning that have already forfeited their estates if they have any and their lives unto the king and will any man that is wise hazard his estate his life and his soul to follow the perswasions of these men my life is as deare to me as the Earle of Essex his head is to him and my soul dearer and I dare ingage them both that if all the Doctors in both Vniversities and all the Divines within the kingdome of England were gathered together to give their judgement of this War there could not be found one of ten it may be as I beleive not one of twenty that durst upon his conscience say this war is lawful upon the Parliament side for though these Locusts that is the German It is contrary to the doctrine of all the Protestant Church for Subjects to resist their king Scottish and the English Puritane agreeing with the Romane Jesuite ever since the reformation harped upon this string and retained this serpentine poison within their bosome still spitting it forth against all States as you may see by their bookes Yet I must tell you plainly this doctrine of Subjects taking up armes against their lawful King is point blanck and directly against the received doctrine of the Church of England and against the tenet of all true Protestants and therefore Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuite Paraeus in Rom. 13. Boucher l. 2. c 2. Keckerm Syst pol. c. 32. Jun. Brut. q. 2. p. 56. Bellar. de laic c. 6. Suar. de fid cathol c. 3. Lichfield l. 4. 19. sect 19. Field l. 5. c. 30. that cast this aspersion upon the Protestants that they jumpe with them in this doctrine of warring against and deposing kings saith that no Protestant doth maintain that damnable doctrine and that rashness of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto Juel and Bilson and all the Doctors of the Church are of the same minde and Lichfield saith no Orthodox father did by word or writing teach any resistance for the space of a thousand yeares and Doctor Field saith that all the worthy fathers and Bishops of the Church perswaded themselves that they owed all duty unto their kings though they were Hereticks and Infidels and the Homilies of the Church of England allowed by authority do plainly and peremptorily condemne all Subjects warring against their King for Rebels and Traytors that do resist the ordinance of God and procure unto themselves damnation and truely I beleive most of their own consciences tell them so and they that thinke otherwise I would have them to consider that if they were at a banquet where twenty should aver such a dish to be full of poyson for every one that would warrant it good would'st thou venture to eate it and hazard thy life in such a case O then consider what it is to hazard thy soule upon the like termes So you see the justness of the War on the Parliament side But. 1. On the Kings side it cannot be denied but his cause is most just for his own defence for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion that is established by our Laws and for the rights of the Church and the just liberties and property of all his loyal Subjects this he testifieth in all his Declarations and this we know in our own consciences to be true and therefore 2. As his Majesty professeth so we beleive him that he never intended otherwise by this war but to protect us and our Religion and to maintain his own just and unquestionable rights which these Rebels would most unjustly wrest out of his hands and under the shew of humble Petitioners to become at last proud Commanders for as one saith They whom no denial can withstand Seeme but to aske while they indeed command 3. For the persons that war with him they are the chiefest of the Nobility 3 His assistants learned honest and religious all the best Gentry that hazard their lives not for filthy lucre for the Kings Revenues being so unjustly detained from him they are fain to supply his necessities and to bear their own charges and the poor common Soldiers are nothing wanting to do their best endeavours neither need they to fear any thing because 4 His authority sacred and unquestionable What the pretended Parliament is 4. The King hath a just right to give them full power and authority to do execution upon these Rebels as I have proved unto you before And therefore the result of all is that the Parliament side under the pretence of Religion fighting if not for the Crown yet certainly for the full power and authority of the King who shall have the ordering of the Militia that is who shall have the government of this Kingdome which is all one as who shall be the King they or King CHARLES and which is the very question that they would now decide by the sword in taking away our goods are theeves and robbers in killing their brethren are bloudy murderers and in resisting their King are rebellious traytors that as the Apostle saith purchase to themselves damnation when as the Prophet Esay speaketh of the like Rebels being hardly bestead and hungry Esay 8.21 22. as I believe thousands of them are in London and other Rebellious Cities they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and looke upward as I fear many of them do curse the King with their tongues and God in their hearts and they shall looke unto the earth Matth. 8.12 and behold trouble and darknesse dimnesse and anguish and they shall be driven to darknesse even to utter darknesse where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth if by a true repentance they do not betimes rent their hearts and forsake their fearful sinns And the Kings side in this war doing no further then the king gives Commission do no more then what God commandeth and therefore living they shall be accounted loyal Subjects worthy of honour and dying they shall be sure to be everlastingly rewarded CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first Government of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deu. 17. and of Samuel 1 Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of Government came up 2 part of the regal government in the time of peace Master Selden in his titles of Honour p. 15. That the first government of Kings was arbitrary 2. HAving thus shewed you potestatem ducendi the Kings right and power of making War it resteth that I should speake De potestate judicandi of his power and right of judging and governing his people in the time of peace touching which we finde none denying his right but all the difference is about the manner where 1. I finde Master Selden rejecting
of our Parliaments but as a man that yeildeth himself to be bound by some others hath the use of his strength taken from him but none of his naturall strength it self is lessened and much lesse is any part of it transferred to them that bound him but that whensoever his bonds are loosened he can work again by vertue of his own naturall strength and not by any received strength from his loosers so the naturall right and interest of the Soveraignty being solely in the King and the Peeres and Commons by the Kings voluntary concession being onely interessed in the office of restraining his power for the more regular working of the true legitimate Soveraignty it cannot be denyed but in whatsoever the Peeres and Commons do remit the restraint by yeilding their consent to the point proposed the King worketh and acteth therein absolutely by the power of his own inherent Soveraignty and all acts and lawes so passing doe virtually proceed from the King How the same acts may be said to be the acts of the King and of the Parliament as from the true and proper efficient author thereof and may notwithstanding be said to be the acts of the whole Court because the three estates contribute their power of remitting the restraint and yeilding their assent as well as the King useth his unrestrained power And therefore Suarez saith that as condere legem unus est ex pracipuis actibus gubernationis reipublicae ita praecipuam superiorem requirit potestatem to make Lawes is one of the chiefest acts of the government of a Common-wealth Suarez l. 1. c 8 n. 8. so it requireth the cheifest and supremest power and authority quae quidem potestas legislativa primariò in Deo est which legislative power is primarily in God and is communicated unto Kings saith he per quandam participationem according to the saying of the wise man Heare O ye Kings because power is given unto you of the Lord. Sap. 6. And Saint Augustine calleth Jura humana jura imperatorum quia ipsa jura humana per imperatores Aug. in Joan tract 6. all humane lawes are the lawes of Emperors or Kings because they are made by them and the Holy Ghost speaking of the Kings of Judah saith The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet to teach us Gen. 49.10 that whosoever swayeth the Scepter hath the right to be the Law-maker which is one of the prime prerogatives of Soveraignty 2. Jus nobilitandi the right of appointing the principall Officers of State 2. Ius nobilitandi to cry up any of all his Subjects whom the King will honour as Pharaoh did Joseph and Ahasuerus did Haman and Mordecai and to give them titles of honour per codicillos honorarios aut per diplomata sua as to make Dukes Marquesses Barons Knights c. doth belong onely unto the King that hath onely the supreme Majesty But if the Dukes Earles and Barons be so plyable to the Puritan faction It is the Doctrine of the Anabaptists and Puritans that there should be no Degrees of Schooles nor titles of honour among men to put down the spiritual Lords I doubt that e're long the King shall have but few Nobility when not onely the Mechanicks and Rusticks will all cry out against this Lordlinesse and say as they did in the rebellion of Jack Cade and Wat Tyler When Adam delv'd and Eve span Who was then the Gentleman And why should we now indure so many titles of vanity and so many vain honours to vapour it over us but the Puritan Clergy also seeing themselves deprived of their due honour and made all equall all as base as Jeroboams Priests will be apt enough to blow up this conceit and to put it into the Creed of all the vulgar that God made us all equall and to be Lords is but to be tyrants over their Brethren and the Presbytery whose pride could not obey the authority of their Bishops will not abide the superiority of any Lords but if they cannot Lord it themselves will be sure to take away the Lordship from all others And therefore if the Nobility be not wiser then to lay our honours in the dust as I see some about his Majesty that would faine be the Priests to bury it which meere policy though they wanted piety should prohibit they shall find that Virgil. Aeneid l. 1. Jam tua res agitur paries cùm proximus ardet When our Cottages are burnt their next Palaces shall not escape the fire but through our sides their Honours shall be killed and buried without honour 3. Jus legitimandi 3. Jus legitimandi the right of legitimation belongs unto the King without which legitimation the Lawyers tell us that as the world now standeth a mighty emolument would happen unto the Crown if the King granted not this grace to them that want it 4. Ius appellationes recipiendi Act. 25.11 4. Jus appellationes recipiendi the right of taking notice of causes and of judging the same by the last appeale definitively doth alwayes belong to the supreme Majesty because that as Saint Paul appealed unto Caesar so the last appeale is to the highest Soveraigne from whom there lyeth none appeale but onely to him that shall judge all the Judges of the earth 5. Honores restituendi 5. Jus restituendi in integrum the right to restore men attainted or banished or condemned to death unto their Country wealth and honour is likewise a part of the royall right Osorius de rebus Imman p. 6. So Osorius saith that Immanuel King of Portugall restored James son of Fernandus and his brother Dionysius and others unto their forfeited honours and so not onely the Scripture sheweth how David pardoned Absolon and Shimei 1 Reg. 2.26 two wicked Rebels and Solomon pardoned Abiathar that were all worthy of death Ventam crimiuosis indulgere but also Saint Augustine speaking of other Kings and Emperours saith judicibus statuendum est ne liceat in reum datam sententiam revocare the Judges may not pardon a man condemned to death numquid ipse Imperator sub hac lege erit but shall not the Emperour or King pardon him are they likewise under this Law of restraint by no meanes Nam ipsi soli licet revocare sententiam reum mortis absolvere ipsi ignoscere for he and he alone that is the Emperour or King may revoke the sentence and absolve him that is guilty of death And so our King according to this his undenyable right Our kings unparallel'd clemency and piety towards the Rebels hath most graciously and not seldome offered his pardon unto these intolerable Rebels a pardon not to be parallel'd in any History nor to be beleived unlesse we had seen it that a man could be so far inclined to clemency and mercy as to remit such transcendent impiety which will render
them the more odious both to God and man and their names the more infamous to all posterity that after they had filled themselves with all kind of wickednesse with incredible transgressions they should be sound contemners of so favourable a pardon But though it be the Kings right to pardon faults and to restore offenders yet herein all Princes should take great heed especially when they have power to take revenge 2. Sam. 3.39 for sometimes the sinners may be like the sons of Zervia too strong for David how they pardon those great crimes that are committed to the dishonour of God and do so far provoke him to anger as to plague both the doers and the sufferers of them because that although they be soluti legibus suis not bound to their own Lawes Arnisaeus l. 1. c. 3. pag. 69. yet they are not soluti ratione praeceptis divinis but they are bound to observe Gods Lawes and to punish the transgressors of his Commandments or if they do not when they can do it they shall render a strict account to God for all their omissions as they may see it in the example of King Saul 1 Sam. 15.9 6. Jus convocandi Synodos Parliamenta c. 6. Jus convecandi the right of calling Synods Parliaments Dyets and the like were the rights of the kings of Israel and are the just Prerogatives of the kings of England howsoever this faction of the Parliament hath sought to wrest it as they do all other rights out of the kings hands by their presumption to call their Schismaticall Synod to which they have no more colour of right then to call a Parliament 7. Jus mone tas excudendi Matth. 22.20 7. Jus excudendi the right of coyning mony to give it value to stampe his armes or his image upon it as our Saviour saith Whose Image and superscription is this and they say to him Caesars is the proper right of Caesar the prerogative of the king The second sort of the King 's right is circa Magistratus 2. About the Magistrates and containeth jurisdiction rule creation of officers appointing of circuits provinces judgements censures institution of Scholes and Colledges collation of dignities receiving of sidelities and abundance more whereof I intend not to speak at this time but refer my Reader to Arnisaeus de jure Majestatis if he desires to be informed of these particulars Arn s l. 2. c. 2. And as these and the like are jura Regalia the rights of Majesty in the time of peace so when peace cannot continue it doth properly belong unto the King and to none else but to him that hath the Sovereignty whose right it is alone to make war either to succour his allyes or to revenge great injuries or for any the like just causes and as he seeth cause to conclude Peace to send Ambassadours to negotiate with foreign States and the like are the rights of Kings and the indeleble Characters of Soveraignty which whosoever violateth and endeavoureth to purloin them from the King doth with Prometheus steal fire from Heaven which the Gods would not suffer as the Poëts feign to go unrevenged And these things so far as I can finde the King never parted with them unto his Subjects and therefore whosoever pretendeth to an inderived power to do any of these and exempteth himself from the King 's right herein resisteth the ordinance of God and is guilty of High-Treason Ioh. Beda 26. what pretext soever he brings saith the Advocate of Paris And there be some things which our Kings have granted unto their Subjects Ita itiam Reges Aegypti quibus voluntas pro lege est legum tamen instituta in cogendis pecuniis quotidianoque victu sequebantur Aubanus What things Kings have granted and restrained themselves from their full right as the use of that power which makes new Lawes or repeals the old or layeth any tax or sums of monies upon his Subjects without the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and it may be some other particulars which the Lawyers know better then I. And all these Priviledges of the Subjects are but limitations and restrictions of the King 's right made by themselves unto their people and therefore where the Law cannot be produced to confirm such and such Liberties and Priviledges granted unto them I say there the King's power is absolute and the Subject ought not in such cases to determine any thing to the disadvantage of the King because all these Liberties that we have are injoyed by vertue of the King's grant as you may see in the ratification of Magna Charta where the King saith We have granted and given all these Liberties But I could never see it produced 9 Hen. 3. where the King granted unto his Subjects that they might force him and compel him with a strong hand by an Army of Souldiers to do what they will or else to take away either his Crown or his Life this Priviledge was never granted because this deprives the King of his supremacy and puts him in the condition of a Subject and would ever prove an occasion of rebellion when the people upon every discontent would take Arms against their King And therefore this present resistance is a meer usurpation of the King 's right a rebellion against his Lawes an High Treason against his Person and a resistance of the ordinance of God which heap of deadly sins can bring none other fruit then damnation saith the Apostle CHAP. XIV Sheweth the Kings grants unto his people to be of three sorts Which ought to be observed the Act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament discussed the King's Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have been procured and repealed 2. The Kings obligation to observe his grants Peter de la Primandas saith Laws annexed to the Crown the Prince cannot so abrogate them but his Successor may disannul whatsoever he hath done in prejudice of them p. 597. 2. WE are to consider how far the King is obliged to observe his promise and to make good these Liberties and Priviledges unto his Subjects where I speak not how far the father's grant may oblige the son or the predecessor his successor who cannot be deprived of his right dominion by any act of his predecessors but for the rights of his dominion how far precedent grants and the custom of their continuance with the desuetude and non-claim of his right may strengthen them unto the Subject and oblige the successors to observe them I leave it unto the Lawyers and Civilians to dispute but I am here to discusse how far the King that hath promised and taken his oath to observe his Lawes and make good all priviledges granted to his Subjects is bound in conscience to keep and observe them Touching which you must understand that these grants of immunities and favours are of three special kindes 1. Of
or refusal of obedience to the Prince whether he were Jew or Pagan milde or tyrannical good or bad as to instance one place for all where the Lord saith I have made the earth the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and have given it to whom it seemed meet unto me and now I have given all those Lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my servant and he was both a Heathen an Idolater and a mighty Tyrant and all Nations shall serve him and his son and his sons son and it shall come to passe that the Nation and Kingdome which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and that will not put their necks under the yoke of the King of Babylon that Nation will I punish saith the Lord with the Sword and with the Famine and with the Pestilence until I have consumed them by his hands therefore hearken not ye unto your Prophets nor to your Diviners whiâ—h speak unto you saying you shall not serve the King of Babylon for they prophesy a lye unto you which he repeateth again and again they prophesy a lye unto you that you should perish and may not I apply these words to our very time God saith I have given this Kingdome unto King Charles which is a mild just and most pious king and they that will say nolumus hunc regnare super nos I will destroy them by his hand therefore o ye seduced Londoners beleive not your false Prophets nay hearken not to your diuiners your Anabaptists and Brownists that preach lies and lies upon lies unto you that you should perish for God hath not sent them though they multiply their lyes in his name therefore why will you dye why will you destroy your selves and your Posterity by refusing to submit your selves to mine ordinance and what should God say more unto you to hinder your destruction and it was concluded by a whole Council that si quis potestati regia Concil Meldens apud Roffen l. 2. c. 5. de potest papa quae non est teste Apostolo nisi a Deo contumaci afflato spiritu obtemperare irrefragabiliter nolnerit anathematizetur Whosoever resisteth the Kings Power and with a proud spirit will not obey him let him be accursed But then you will say this is strange doctrine that wholly takes away the liberty of the Subject if they may not resist regal tyranny Ob. I thinke there is no good Subject Sol. that loves his Soveraigne that will speake against a just and lawful liberty when it is a far greater honour unto any king to rule over free and gentile Subjects then over base and turkish slaves but as under the shadow and pretence of Christian liberty many carnal men have rooted out of their hearts all Christianity Many evils do lurk under fair shewes so many Rebellious and aspiring mindes have under these colourable titles of the liberty of the Subjects and suppressing tyranny shaked of the yoke of all true Obedience and dashed the rights of government all to pieces therefore as the law of God and the rules of his own conscience should keep every Christian King from exercising any unjust tyranny over his Subjects so if men will transcend the rules of true obedience the Kings Power and authority should keep them from transgressing the limits of their just liberty but this unlawfulnesse of resisting our lawful King I have fully proved in my Grand Rebellion and it is so excellently well done by many others that I shall but acta agere to say any more of it CHAP. XVII Sheweth how tribute is due to the King for six special reasons to be paid the condition of a lawful tribute that we should not be niggards to assist the King that we should defend the Kings Person the wealth and Pride of London the cause of all the miseries of this Kingdome and how we ought to pray for our King 4. TRibute is another right and part of that honour which we owe unto our King Negotia enim infinita sustinet The great charge of Princes equabile jus omnibus administrat periculum à republica cùm necessitas postulat armis virtute propulsat bonis praemia pro dignitate constituit improbos suppliciorum acerbitate coercet patriam denique universam ab externis hostibus ab intestinis fraudibus tutam vigilantia sua praestat haec quidem munera aut opere tuetur aut quoties opus fuerit tuenda suscipit qui autem existimat haec tam multa munera sint maximis sumptibus sustineri posse mentis expers est atque vitae communis ignarus idcirco hoc quod communi more receptum est ut reges populi sumptibus alantur non est humano tantùm jure sed etiam diuino vallatum Osorius de rebus Emanuel lib. 12 p. 386. saith eloquent Osorius For he undergoeth infinite affaires he administreth equal right to all his people he expelleth and keepeth away from the Common-wealth all dangers when necessity requireth both with armes and prowesse he appointeth rewards to the good and faithful according to their deserts he restraineth the wiâ—ked with the sharpnesse and severity of punishments and he preserveth his Country and Kingdome safe by his care and watchfulnesse both from Forraigne foes and intestine frauds and these offices he dischargeth indeed and undertaketh taketh to discharge them as often as any need requireth And he that thinketh that all these things so many and so great affaires can be discharged without g eat cest and charge is void of understanding and ignorant of the common course of life and therefore this thing which is received by a common custom that Kings should be assisted and their royalty maintained by the publick charge of the people is not onely allowed by humane law but is also confirmed by the divine right Men should therefore consider that the occasions of Kings are very great abroad for intelligence and correspondency with Foreign States that we may reap the fruit of other Nations vent our own commodities to our best advantage and be guarded secured and preserved from all our outward enemies and at home to support a due State answerable to his place to maintain the publique justice and judgements of the whole Kingdom and an hundred such like occasions that every private man cannot perceive and think you that these things can be done without meanes without money If you still pour out and not pour in your bottle will be soon empty and the Ocean sea would be soon dried up if the Rivers did not still supply the same and therefore not onely Deioces that I speak of before when he was elected King of the Medes caused them to build him a most stately Palace and the famous City of Ecbatana and to give him a goodly band of select men for the safeguard of his Person and to provide all other
taxes that whatsoever the stomach received either from the hand or mouth it was all for the benefit of the whole body so whatsoever the King receiveth from the People it is for the benefit of the people and it is like the waters that the Sea receiveth from the Rivers which is visibly seen passing into the Ocean but invisibly runneth through the veines of the earth into the Rivers again so doth all that the King receiveth from the People return some way or other unto the People again And there be six speciall reasons why or to what end we should pay these dues unto the King Six reasons for which we pay Tribute unto the king 1. For the Honour of his Majesty 2. For the security of his Person 3. For the protection of his Kingdome 4. For the succour of his confederates 5. For the securing of our 1. Goods 2. Estates 3. Lives 6. For the propagating of the Gospel and defence of our Religion But for the further clearing of this point you must know that every just and Lawfull tribute must have these three essential conditions that are proprietates constitutivae Three conditions of every lawfull Tribute 1. Legitima potestas that is the Kings power to require it 2. Justa causa an urgent necessity or need of it 3. Debita portio a due proportion according to the Kings necessities and the peoples abilities that he be not left in need nor the people over-charged For As the Subjects are thus bound to supply the necessities of their King so the King is not to over-charge his Subjects for the King should be the Shepheard of his People as David calls himself and Homer tearmeth all good Kings and not the devourer of his people Kings should not over-charge their Subjects as Achilles calleth Agamemnon for the unreasonable taxes that he laid upon them therefore good Kings have been very sparing in this point for Darius inquiring of the Governours of his Provinces whether the tributes imposed upon them were not too excessive and they answering that they thought them very moderate he commanded that they should raise but the one half thereof A worthy speech of Lewis 9. which had Rehoboam bin so wise to do he had not lost ten parts of his Kingdome and Lewis the ninth of France which they say was the first that raised a tax in that Kingdome directing his speech to his Son Philip and causing the words to be left in his Testament which is yet to be sound Registred in the chamber of accounts said be devout in the service of God have a pittifull heart towards the poore and comfort them with thy good deeds observe the good Lawes of thy Kingdome take no taxes nor benevolences of thy Subjects unlesse urgent necessity and evident commodity force thee to it and then upon a just cause and not usually if thou doest otherwise thou shalt not be accounted a king King James his golden apothegme Basilicon doron l. 2. p. 99. but a Tyrant and it is one of the gracious apothegmes of our late noble and never to be forgotten Soveraigne worthy to be written in in letters of gold where speaking to his son he saith inrich not your self with exactions from your Subjects but think the riches of your Subjects your best Treasures and Artaxerxes said it was a great deale more seemlier for the Majesty of a King to give then to take by polling to cloath then to uncloath which belongeth to Theeves not to Princes unlesse they will stain their names for as Apollonius saith that gold which is taken by Tyranny is far baser then any iron because it is wetted with the teares of the poor Subjects and therefore Peter de la Primauday saith they are unworthy of the title of Prince that lending their eares to such as invent new wayes to get monyes from their Subjects and having against all humanity Pet. de la Primauday cap. 60. p. 670. spoyled them of their goods do either miserably consume them upon their pleasures or prodigally bestow them upon undeserving flatterers that fat themselves by the overthrow of others And therefore it behoveth all kings to consider that all mens goods are theirs only quoad tuitionem defensionem and their Subjects quoad possessionem proprietatem as you may see where Joseph bought all the Land of the Egyptians for king Pharaoh Gen. 47.46 and then let it them againe in Fee-farme to give the King the fifth part of the fruit of it and as you may conclude it from the eighth Commandment which saith as well to the King as to the subject thou shalt not steale for if all be his he cannot be said to steale it and if this precept concerns not kings then have they but nine Commandments and therefore be wise O ye Kings and remember what Saint Augustine saith remotâ justitiâ quid sunt Regna nisi Latrocinia for though you may justly demand Tribute and Taxes yet you must have just occasions to use them and you must take but a just proportion or else they may come unjustly unto you But who shall be the Judges of the Kings just occasions in many kingdomes his conscience as the Roman Consuls imposed what taxes they thought meet upon the Provinces they subdued so Marcus Antonius being in Asia doubled their Tax and laid a second charge upon the People which was very unreasonable as Hebreas told him saying The saying of Hebreas to M. Antonius if thou wilt have power to lay upon us two taxes in one year thou must have also power to give us two summers and Autumns two Harvests and two Vintages and yet if our king do thus unreasonably tax us with more then we are able to beare we may reason with him as Hebreas did with Marke Antony refel his arguments Kings herein not to be resisted and repel his oppressions according to the course of Law but we may not in any case with the Sword make any resistance either actual or habitual against him Reason 1 1 Because God hath not made us Judges of the Kings occasions and we know not his necessities and therefore we cannot determine what is just and unjust Reason 2 2. Were it granted that the superior demanded without right yet the inferior not onely may rightly render it without offence unto his conscience but also ought to pay it without resistance unto the Magistrate for if the Jews were not free and the Romans had no right to demand Tribute of them yet by our Saviours question unto Saint Peter and his replication unto the Apostles answer it is apparent that our Saviour was most free and was no way bound to pay any thing unto the Romans not onely quâ Deus as Hesselius saith Hesselius in Matth. 18. Barrad to 2. l. 19. c. 32. but also as he was a man as Barradius more truely proveth yet lest he should offend them as he saith tributum solvit quia voluit he
set down some of their uniust impious and diabolical Ordinances which I finde to be so many as would fill up a whole Volume and the poyson of their wickednesse having swelled my Book to such a bulk already I must therefore crave leave to transmit the displaying of these dismal tragedies to some other scene onely I must remember which I believe will never be forgotten while any wickedness can be remembred and that is 1. Their bloudy Ordinance to kill and slay while we were all in peace and all praying for the Houses of Parliament 2. Their sacrilegious Ordinance of taking away not the twentieth part nor the tenth nor yet nine parts of ten but all and every part of the goods and revenues of the Bishops Deaâ—es and Prebends and let them now in their old-age after they have wasted their strength and consumed their years with toylsome labours and indefatigable paines in the Church of God to save their souls either dig for bread or beg for almes or like out-worn Jades die in a ditch their care for these men was to leave them not one penny to relieve themselves while they lived and I believe the prophanest Pagan it may be the Devil himself could not shew greater malice or inflict a severer censure upon the Clergy then these zealous Christians have ordained because such a miserable life must needs prove far worse then a glorious death when as Jeremiah saith Jerem. Lament 4.5 c. 1. v. 11. They that did feed delicatly must stand desolate in the streets and they that were brought up in scarlet must embrace dunghills they must sigh and seek their bread and give their pleasant things for meat to relieve their soules 3. Their unrighteous Ordinance and ordinances 3. Their unrighteous ordinances to take away what part they pleased of their Neighbours goods and all from them whom they deemed Malignants and I had almost said that God himself which is Lord of all could not more justly take them then these men have unjustly decreed to take them from us 4. Their impious odious and abominable Ordinance 4. Their impious ordinance to compel men by oaths and Covenants to give themselves unto the Devil and to go to Hell in despite of their teeth and that which makes me wonder most of all is that their Synod or Assembly hath prefixed an exhortation to perswade silly souls to take that wicked Covenant and to cast a mist before their eyes that they may not onely let down little gnats but also swallow this great camel they would justifie the doing thereof by a twofold example The first of the Jewes in Ezra's time Ezra 10.5 8. Nehem. 9.38.10.1 that made a Covenant to serve the Lord and to put away their strange Wives according to the Law The second of Christians and indeed of most Christian Kings and Princes that is of Queene Elizabeth's assisting the Hollanders against the King of Spain and of King Charles assisting the Rochellers against the King of France To both which examples and all other things that are conteined either in the Covenant it selfe or the exhortation of the Assembly thereunto annexed I do understand there shall be a full and a perfect answer made by one that hath undertaken the same ex professo yet give me leave in the interim to say this much 1. What vows and covenants are allowable First touching Covenants and Vowes it is plain enough that although the superior may with Ezra cause the inferior to Vow or swear the performance of his duty Gen. 24.3 that he is bound by the law of God and nature to performe so Abraham caused his servant to swear fidelity when he sent him for Isaack's Wife Numb 30. per totum And so the King may cause his Subjects to take the Oath of their Allegiance and the lawful General cause his Souldiers to swear their fidelity unto him yet the inferior subject can not swear or if he swears he ought not to observe it when he doth it contrary to the command of him that hath command over him as you may see in Numb 30. throughout Therefore as children may not vow any thing though it be never so lawful contrary to their Fathers command or if they do they ought not to keepe it so no more may any Subject Vow or make a Covenant contrary to their Kings command or if they do they ought not to observe it and they are as you see absolved by God himself Ob. Sol. If you say Ezra and the Jewes did it contrary to the command of Artaxerxes that was then their King I answer that it is most false for 1. Ezra was the Priest Nehem. 8.2 and 9. and the chief Prince that was then over them and Nehemiah had his authority from the King and he was the Tirshatha that is their governour saith the text Nehem. 10.1 and therefore they might lawfully cause them to take that Covenant 2. They had the leave and a large commission from Artaxerxes to do all that they did as you may see * See Ezra 7.11.22 c. neither can you finde any syllable that Artaxerxes forbad them to do this in any place For so the text saith Let it be done according to the Law Ezra 10.3 3. This Covenant of Ezra and his people and Nehemiah's was to do those things that they had covenanted before to do which God had expresly commanded them to do and which they could not omit though they had not covenanted to do it without great offence so if our covenanters swear they will serve God and be loyal unto their King as they vowed in their baptisme they shall never finde me to speak against them but to propose a lawfull Covenant to do those things that God commandeth and is made with the leave and commission of the supreme Prince to justifie an unlawfull Covenant to do those things that were never done before never commanded by God but forbidden both by God and especially by the King in the expressest termes and most energeticall manner that might be is such a piece of Divinity as I never read the like and such an argument 2. The examples of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles answered 1. By way of Divinity a dissimili that never schollar produced the like 2. For the examples of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles assisting Subjects for their Religion sake against their lawfull princes two things may be said the one in Divinity the other in Policy First for Divinity I say vivendum est praeceptis non exemplis we have the sure word of God to teach us what we should do and no examples unless they be either commended or allowed in Gods word ought to be any infallible patterne for us to follow 2. By way of Policy Secondly for Policy which may be justified to be without iniquity I doubt not but those men which knew the secrets of State and were privy to the causes of
thy servants may seem to prove thee very happy among thy neighbours yet we all do or may know that there is none of these things but at some time or other hath proved to be the destruction of their possessors For as when the poor Passenger may rejoyce and sing before the most ravenous Robber and in the sight of the most barbarous Plunderers so thy wealth and thy Jewels thy pockets full of Gold and thy back full of bravery may make thy heart sad and thy head full of perturbations and in every moment to be afraid to be assailed and slain in all the paths that thou shalt walk And whereas the man that hath none but himself to serve himself need not fear to be betrayed by his Servants the rich man that needeth more and the noble man that keepeth many Servants may well fear there may be a Judas among twelve and a Traytor in his own house and as Humphrey Banister betrayed his Lord and Master Henry Duke of Buckingham that had been too good a Master to him Speed l 9 c. 19. p. 927. so may one of thy chiefest Servants sell thee and betray thee too into the hands of thy greatest Enemies even as we read in Stories of many Kings that have been so likewise dealt withal And therefore Wealth and Riches can afford us no true comfort nor yield us any certain assistance even in this life when by getting them we do oftentimes lose our selves or at least hazard our safety by saving them 3. Our Saviour Christ speaking of the deceitfulness of Riches and S. Paul calling them uncertain riches Mat. 13.22 do sufficiently shew unto us that the wealth and riches of this world do but promise fulness when they intend to bring us nothing but emptiness 1 Tim 6 17. for you see all our Money is as it is called currant and all our riches transient like a torrent stream that floweth apace or as the summer snow that presently melteth somtimes before it falleth and all the wealth in the world is but contingent with one man to day and with another man to morrow as your selves may see how within these few years many men scarce worth a Groat became worth thousands and as many others that were worth thousands became not worth a Groat Aug. Confes l. 6. And therefore S. Aug. speaking of the things of this world saith Si quid arrisisset prosperum taedebat apprehendere quia priusquam pene teneretur avolabat if any worldly prosperity smiled upon me and seemed to offer some happiness unto me yet I was loath to accept it and to lay hold upon it because commonly all the pleasure of this world is fled from us before we can scarce fasten on it and as the wise man saith extrema gaudii luctus occupat Sorrow and sadness do follow both out Profits and our Pleasures hard at the very heels For as the Player appeareth upon the Stage and then presently after few words exit he is gone so the wealth prosperity of this world do but salute us and then immediatly depart from us even while we are most busie about them and when they seem to smile most of all upon us And I could make this plain unto you by more examples than I have time to express For we read of Marcus Attilius Regulus that was a Roman Consul Boetius de consol l. 2. c. 5. and had laid Fetters upon many Africans yet being unhappily taken by the Carthaginians he found himself presently environed and then miserably tied in the Conquerors Chains and it is written of Cheops King of Egypt that erected the Pyraemides which were all built of Theban Marble and were of that huge height and monstrous Magnitude that one of them was 20 years in building though it is reported there were circiter decem hominum miriades about 10 Myriades of men as Herodotus saith or 100000 men Herodoc l. 2 p. â—2 Sandys l. 2. as others write that did continually work upon it the same containing as Sands affirmeth eight Acres of ground at the bottom and ascending by 255 steps to the top and every step being of three foot in height and of a proportionable breadth and yet this great King that was of this great power before his death became so poor that he was compelled to prostitute his own Daughter to relieve his wants So Belisarius that in the dayes of Justinian 1. was one of the bravest Souldiers and of the greatest Commanders of the world to whom the Lady and Empress of the world Rome it self owed her self thrice at the least and who took two mighty Kings Gilimer King of Africa and Vitiges King of the Gothes to be his Prisoners yet within a little while this great man as some writers do report came to that poor pass as he was fain to cry Date obâ—lum Belisario quem virtus exaltavit malitia depressit fortuna caecavit O give one half-peny to Belisarius whom vertue hath honoured envy hated and fortune spoyled and made him now a poor blind Beggar And Pedro Mexia setteth down the miserable ends and other strange traverses endured by divers Kings Emperours Dukes and other great Princes Treasury of times l. 4. c. 37 Pope John whom Mart. 5. succeeded An. 1410. Pope Clement that was imprisoned by Charles 5. 1527. Archbishop of Flor. and four Cardinals butchered 1448. The Bishop of Liege Brother to the great Duke of Burgoyne and 10 Abbats massacred in his presence whereof he accounteth no less than 13. besides 2 Popes 2 Bishops 4 Cardinals and 10 Abbots that within one hundred and fifty years were thrown down from the Pinacle of Prosperity to the lowest Gulf of Adversity as George King of Bohemia Charles Duke of Burgoyne Uladislaus King of Poland Constantinus Paleolagus Emperor of the East Charles 8. King of France James 4. King of Scots John de Albret King of Navarre Lewes Sforza Duke of that rich and goodly Countrey of Millain Francis 1. King of France that was the Patron of all Learning and those three great Kings Muley Mahomet King of Fez and Morocco Abdelmelec his Unkle and Sebastian King of Portugal that came to a miserable end and died all three in one day being Monday the 4th of August 1578. and which is worthy to be remembred above all John Justinian that trayterous Villain who covenanted with Mahomet to betray Constantinople so he would make him King which the great Turk promised and accordingly performed but after three daies struck off his head as his Treason well deserved and so I wish may be the reward of all disloyal Traytors And therefore seeing not only wicked Potentates but also most famous Kings and Princes and most excellent Prelates have been reduced to such ends what wonder is it that many great Scholars and many reverend Bishops whom their worth and learning raised to some height of dignity should be thrown down as they were of late by envy and hatred