the Law when the King took that Oath This may be one Golden Nail more to fasten the Clergies Title and to Rivet it more and more into your own Law 6. For by this Juratory Obligation of the Kings special Promissory Oath unto God for the Clergy in particular some of your own good Lawyers teach us to say That the Clergies supposed tacite Consent in a general Act is not remissory at all of the Kings Conscience from this particular Clause of his Oath without the Clergies particular Consent first obtained and clearly expressed by a particular Body Representative of their own of the Clergy quatenus Clergy and not involved with the general Body of the People Their Act to free the Kings Conscience must in Reason and Equity be proportionable and adaequate to the Kings Act or Bond that is full out as particular 7. For else this bundle of Absurdities would follow that the Clergy obtains no more by the Kings Special Oath in their particular behalf then if the King had Sworn only in general which is as much to say that in this little short draught Oaths that should be spared are multiplied without Necessity or so much as Signification or that they must pass for meer Tautologies 8. If therefore the case be so that the King after such a solemn particular Oath may not consent to the Bishop's Deprivation c. without Injustice nay Impiety then sure I am that no man ought to counsel the King so to do for that Subject whoever he be that will go about to perswade the King to so impious an Act perswades the King to do that which were most palpable Injury to his fellow Subjects and most damnable wickedness against the Soul of the King himself for whom contrariwise every Loyal Subject is bound in Conscience to pray that rather then His Royal Soul should be so loose it may for ever be h 1 Sam. xxv 29. bound in the bundle of Life with the Lord his God but that the souls of His and the Churches Enemies may for ever and ever be slung out as out of the middle of a sling This must be their Destiny at last for Malum consilium consultori pessimum you never knew it prove otherwise in the end We say no more but conceive this enough to confute one necessity with a greater the pretended Necessity of State with the real Necessity of Conscience so many wayes ingaged in this publick Cause of God and the Church which Church as it rationally and clearly appears from the premises the King is obliged to defend in point of Conscience as the King is a Christian CHAP. X. The Confutation of the fourth Politick Pretence of a Legislative Power FOllows now the Fourth and last Politick Pretence of a Legislative Power to dispose of the Clergies Revenues and consequently of all mens Estates as they see Cause 1. This pretended Plea of a Legislative Power is mainly pressed by the chief Advocates both for Sacriledge and Rebellion for those Diabolical twins are still bred and born and grow up together and the same is also made the very Basis and Foundation of all the late Sacrilegious Vsurpations by that notorious i No Sacriledge nor Sin to alien or purchase the Lands of Bishops c. by Cornelius Burges D. D. This Sacrilegious Book in those Rebellious times had the licentiousness of a second Edition Anno 1659. Doctor of Sacriledge CORNELIVS BURGES who not content to * Matth. v. 19. break one of the greatest Commandements of God by practising Sacriledge in his own person Usurping for many years both the Mannor and Demesnes of the Bishoprick of Wells from the just owner that Learned and Venerable and most ancient Bishop Dr. William Pierce but had also the impudence to teach men so by Preaching and Printing the lawfulness of Sacriledge which at first was but only intended or pretended by his Rebellious Complices but as it was ex signis causis in a manner foretold by us three years before the event in the first Edition of this very Book it was afterwards acted in earnest k This Torrent brake out first against the Prelates the Lords Spiritual whom having once burried out of the way it soon overtook also the Lords Temporal and never stopt till at last it swallowed up the King himself Therefore principiis obsta is good counsel and very seasonable and also legitimated by that Sacrilegious Act of their pretended Parliament and which is worst of all aggravated by immediate Sacriledge against God himself blasphemously making God the principal Author of their Sin and with a complication of Blasphemies making the late Gracious King now a Glorious Martyr the Instrumental Cause of it for he worse than cursed Cham having begun his Libel with down-right railing at the Bishops and Pastors of Gods Flock to whom this ungrateful wight owed his Ordination over whose unjust persecution and illegal Abolition drawing out his arrow from the Popish or Mahometan Bow that is arguing from their Cross against their Cause he there doth most barbarously insult telling the world of the sad Providence on the Cathedral Prelacy of England * C. B. ch 1. though since another happy providence hath most visibly confuted him by a gracious and almost miraculous Restauration both of King and Bishop then he dares affirm expresly that it was God who did put it into the hearts of the late Long Parliament by an Ordinance of both Houses dated Octob. 9. 1646. after the King saith that Shimei had deserted his Parliament Corn. Burges chap. 1. raised his Standard against them whereby he put both them and the whole Kingdom out of his Protection and none but those two Houses of Parliament remained to take care of the Publick Interest in a Legal Way wholly to abolish the Name Title Style Dignity and Offices of all Arch-Bishops and Bishops within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and to vest and settle their Lands and Possessions in Trustees to the use of the Commonwealth c. and soon after he proceeds farther avowing that on the 13. of April 1649. the Commons of England being then the only persons remaining having then after the Bishops thrusted also the Temporal Lords out of doors in Parliament Assembled were necessitated forsooth to sell the Lands of Deans and Chapters whom he rails at with a full mouth as at the former and so to enact an utter abolition of these also reserved for the last to satisfie the Bulimia of those cruel and unsatiable Polyplemus's and so to make good their so long designed extirpation of both Root and Branch It were a Crime of Participation to be patient or silent in this cause which is Causa Dei Religionis Ecclesiae Regis all these at once and Sacriledge in special being expresly excepted in the Act of Oblivion We must therefore be mindeful to proceed against it This pretended Legislative Power of that illegal Assembly and their Sacrilegious Act
appear they were more than bare Bug-bear-words even Fatal Predictions of God's real and visible Judgments which without Repentance and Restitution the Offenders could never claw off for indeed the more immediate the offence is against God himself the sorer and the closer the Curse sticks to the Offender (g) 1 Sam. 2.25 if one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him for finiti ad infinitum nulla proportio 8. Enough to make it appear that the Curse rightly applied is more than a meer humane Curse that it is for Authority Divine and therefore indeed rather an Approbation or but applicative Declaration in particular of God's own Curse already denounced in the general against all sacrilegious Offenders than a new Curse of their own being Copied as I may say into their several Books of particular Donations out of the Original in God's own Book wherein you may read those Curses written on both sides I mean in the New as well as in the Old Testament 9. Take one or two proofs of each The first Curse we read of in this kind is as old as Moses (h) Deut. 33.11 whom we may observe in the very Act of blessing the Tribe of Levy suddenly to shift his foot from Mount Gerizzim to Mount Ebal where he fals a cursing all those that shall attempt to hinder Levi in his substance or to impeach him in the Work of his hands saying Bless O Lord the Substance of Levi and accept the Work of his hands but smite through the LOYNES of them that rise against Levi and of them that hate him that they rise not again A full and fatal Curse this wherein you may clearly observe 10. First of all that in the Enumeration of all the other Tribes there is no mention of Enemies to any but to these two (i) Verse 7. Be thou an help to Judah from his Enemies to the Royal Tribe of Judah and to the sacred Tribe of Levi It seems Moses and Aaron the King and the Priest must still be (k) Lam. 3.6 Fellow Patients pardon the word for so God himself joyns them in the Lamentation and so the Devil and his Agents too match them in the Persecution also It was against Moses and against Aaron that seditious * Num. 16.3 Corah and his Company gathered themselves together not against Moses alone nor against Aaron alone but against both at once He very well knew what belonged to his King-craft that said it (l) King James in the Confer at H. C. NO BISHOP NO KING for the self same in effect was the Oracle of another wise Emperour above a thousand years afore King James spake it (m) Maxima quidem in omnibus sunt Dona Dei superna collata Clementia SACERDOTIUM ET IMPERIUM illud quidem Divinis Ministrans hoc autem humanis praesidens Inter haec duo Consonantia omne quicquid est utile humano confert generi c. Authent Coll. 1. Tit. 6. Novel 6. in praef ad Epiphan Archiep. Patriarch Constantinop It seems those ancient Sages did conceive That the Influence of good Success upon a Nation Prince and People mainly depends upon the good Correspondence and bappy conjunction of all the Estates with the Priesthood A Maxime very memorable as full of Policy as of Religion and in experience as full of Truth as of both those That Harmony being indeed the onely ordinary way to maintain Correspondence with God himself namely to correspond with God's Priest because God's immediate Agent in spiritualibus in all matters 'twixt God and man Did this Nation ever thrive since it began to strive with the Priest Hosee iv 4. Justinian I mean These two the King and the Priest as they were of old Twins of Oyl as the Rabbins style them so are they still Twins of Destiny too they stand or fall together Therefore and it were but in Policy in point of Mutual Interest they had need support and assist each other against the common Enemy 11. But although Judah and Levi the King and the Priest have both their Enemies yet doth not Moses curse the Enemies of Judah neither so directly nor so vehemently as he doth the Enemies of Levi as if they were more or more full of Animosity against the Tribe of Levi than against any other Tribe whatsoever That we may all prepare my Brethren for Nil novum sub sole whether it be for Aaron's Rod the Priest's Power or for the flourishing of that Rod the Priest's Portion it seems 't is an old Grudge the mad World hath still to the (n) Laici semper sunt Infesti Clericis Covarruvias Clergy 'T is strange that of (o) 1. Thrice for water Exod. 15.24 and 17.2 Num. 20.2 2. Twice for the way Num. 11.1 Sol Jarchi and 21.4 3. Once for bread Exod. 16.2 4. Once for flesh Num. 11.4 5. Once at the News Num. 14.2 6. Twice at the Priest especially Num. 16.11.41 ten several popular Mutinies in that stiff-necked Jewish Nation upon six several occasions of the Persecution the Priest had more than his share twice over far above his Tenth of that to be sure that none will grudge him 12. Secondly Sacriledge whether personal or real 't is no matter either way 't is the sin cursed here must needs be an hainous Offence that moves meek (p) Num. 12.3 The man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth Moses that Mirrour of Lenity upon God's own Record 1. To fall a Cursing 2ly To extend his Curse through the very Loyns of the Enemies of Levi that is as it were to Intail the Curse upon their Posterity 3ly To aggravate this Curse with the Doom of a final Destruction praying unto God that such of all others may never rise again 13. And as if the Curse upon Sacriledge were always so fatal and final so runs King Darius his Curse also annexed to his Charter of Donation to the Temple (q) Esdr 6.12 1 Esdr 6.33 The God that hath caused his Name to dwell there destroy utterly destroy all Kings and People that shall put to their hands to alter and to destroy the house of God Here is utter destruction again and that to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To all Kings saith our Translation To all Kingdoms saith the Vulgar No respect of persons for Magnitude or Multitude all is one with God To whom in point of Revenge The Nations are but as a drop of a Bucket Isa 40.15.17 and are counted as the small dust of the Ballance behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing Hear this Isle of Great Britain All Nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity 14. Goe to prophane World and mock on think as slightly of the Priest's Curse as you usually do of his Blessing To
Matth. vii 26. is the sandy Foundation upon which this foolish Builder like a down-right Sophister wilfully declining the Question of Right doth build his house of Sacriledge Subrue fulturam patitur structura Ruinam To batter which we could say more both ad Hominem and also ad Rem but that as for the Man we purposely blunt our Pen because we hear he is dead and gone and so past his Accounts here and for a terror to all surviving Usurpers except he did Repent and Restore also he hath already received his sentence according to his works God knows where he is now and there we leave him But as to the matter it self That pretended Legislative Power of his counterfeit Parliament is sufficiently abolished mark the Divine Talio of Abolition for Abolition by the Legal Power of that Loyal Parliament * 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. for Repeal of the Parliament begun 3. Nov. 1640. See Sir Robert Wiseman's notes touching the Long Parliament that had declared all such Orders and Ordinances made by that disloyal Parliament to be null and void and further determined That there is no Legislative Power in either or both Houses of Parliament without the King This being the main Fundamental Law of this Realm might suffice for a full Confutation of what ever hath been said in his whole Book by that infamous Patron of Sacriledge But admitting an impossibility that such an unlawful Assembly had been a lawful Parliament yet can that prove it therefore to be infallible but that it may do wrong may not one be Tyrannus Exercitio though not Titulo if his Decrees or Ordinances fall upon indebitam materiam what else can such a manner of proceeding be to enact a total deprivation of a whole community of men many of them innocent as hath been shewed above in the case of pretended Delinquency and afterwards to argue à facto ad jus †It is the complaint of a wise man of the Law that the meaning of that Axiome Ex facto jus oritur hath been extreamly rack'd Sir Robert Wiseman 's Note touching the alteration of some Laws our Sophisters chief Medium all over This way of arguing must needs prove of a monstrous of a dangerous consequence for say a man should thus Syllogize Whatsoever the two Houses or but one of the Houses of Parliament do enact or ordain is lawful that must be his Major But the two Houses or at least one of them hath abolished and also deprived all Bishops Deans and Chapters this Minor proved too true Ergo That Abolition and Deprivation was lawful and consequently No Sacriledge nor Sin the presumptuous Title of the Book of this Church-Pyrate Now should the sharp point of this two-edged Argument which we have felt sufficiently through and through be retorted and turned upon the breast of either of those two Estates of the Kingdom what would then become of the Lords Temporal or of the Commons themselves trow we for if they grant the Major they cannot avoid the Conclusion and so they may be turned out of all by the Votes of a Predominant Party and then farewel the Property of the Subject Beware of such Precedents you that are wise for 't is an old say Cras tibi hodie mihi Enough for the Demolition of such an absurd Power that is attended by such palpable injustice But yet ex abundanti upon this occasion of C. B.'s Book for a fuller Conviction and if possible Conversion of which though we have but small hope yet is it both our wish and our main design in this troublesome work it will be worth the pains soberly to examine the full extent of all humane Legislative Power granting the Hypothesis that the Power is lawful In prosecution whereof first of all let this our Protestation be entered That we intend not to question the Justice of the Law or to examine the Power or the Wisdom of the Law-makers or to meddle at all with the Constitution of the State or to discuss this point further then in a direct and necessary Reference to the Vniversal Law the Law of Nature the Law of Nations and the Law of God to which all particular Laws if they be Laws indeed and not Lawless Libertinism or barbarous Tyranny must needs vail and yield their due Subordination If not then by all mens leave the Divine may nay must without any busie-bodiness at all in States-matters taking the Law interminis according to the common sense it bears or should bear carry it l TO THE LAW AND TO THE TESTIMONY If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isa viii 20. Ad Legem ad Testimonium and there wisely warily and impartially weigh the matter of the Law in the Ballance of the Sanctuary or in the Scales of clear Scripture and sound Reason at whose Bar both all the Laws and all the Law-Makers too must one day be tryed at last in Ultimo districtu And if upon Aequilibration as we may say the Humane Law shall prove light then that men may not stumble at it and fall and perish by obeying any unjust Law of man contrary to the just Law of God 't is then the proper work and direct Profession of the Divine as he will answer Soul for Soul to take forth the m Jer. xv 19. Precious from the vile and as becomes him who is to the people as Gods mouth to n Ezek. iii. 17 18. warn other mens Consciences from it and so free his own For thus though the Law of the Land be matter of Policy yet the Peace of Conscience about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of that Law immediately belongs to Divinity the Senior-Law of all from which as we may say all mens Junior-Laws if just must be derived Divinity being indeed no other than the Original Law of God which may suffice once for all to pre-occupate an ignorant or malicious and yet a very ordinary Objection of some that whilst themselves take upon them at every turn to Confront Divinity with Colours of Law yet blame the Divine very much if se defendendo he dare offer to prefer Gods Law to mans Law in case those two Laws should justle as if the Divine in doing but his own proper duty were ipso facto a medlar in another mans Calling 2. Thus much premised the justness of such a pretended Legislative Power will be soon tryed if but compared 1. With some Undeniable Principles it destroyes 2. With some Right Conditions of a just power which it should have and doth want 3. With some gross Absurdities it involves 3. First then such a Legislative Power at pleasure as they call it to vote men Innocent men out of their whole Estates and Livelihoods their Lives may be next is too absolute to be communicable to any Creature and doth trench upon Gods own Prerogative whose will is therefore a Law and Idea Justitiae as they say in