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
a greater than Solomon Christ himself not refusing the censure of Pilate though for no fault Saint Paul appealing unto Caesar Caecilian judged by the Delegates of Constantine Flavianus by Theodosius and all the Martyrs and godly Bishops never pleading exemption from their persecutors do make this point beyond all question 3. Governours well agreeing in their government 3. These two Governours were not onely consanguinei two brethren for so were Cain and Abel to whom totus non sufficit orbis but they were also consentanei like the soul and body of man of the same sympathy and affection for the performance of every action For the Church and Common-wealth are like Hippocrates twins so linked together as the Ivie intwisteth it self about the Oak that the one cannot happily subsist without the other but as the Secretary of nature well observeth That the Marygold opens with the Sun and shuts with the shade even so when the Sun-beams of peace and prosperity shine upon the Common-wealth then by the reflection of those beams the Church dilates and spreads it self the better as you may see in Acts 9.31 and on the other side when any Kingdom groaneth under civill dissention the Church of Christ must needs suffer persecution And therefore to this end that the Prince and Priest might as the two feet of a man help each other to support the weight of the whole body and to bear the burthen of so great a charge God at the first severing of these offices which before were united in one person as the Poet saith of Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos and as the Apostle saith of Melchisedech that he was both a King and the Priest of the most high God did chuse two natural brethren to be the Governours of his people and that quod non caret mysterio Aaron was the eldest and yet Moses was the chiefest to signifie as I take it that they should rather help and further each other then any wayes rule and domineer one over the other because that although Aaron was the eldest brother and chief Priest yet Moses was the chief Magistrate and his brother's god as God himself doth stile him and therefore this should terrorem incutere and teach him how to behave himself towards his brother and though Moses was the chief Magistrate yet Aaron was the chief Priest and his eldest brother which had not lost like Reuben the prerogative of his birth-right and this should reverentiam inducere work in Moses a respect unto his brother's age and place And truly there is great reason why these two should do their best to support and protect each other for the government of the people is as we may now see a very difficult and miraculous thing no lesse then the appeasing of the Surges of the raging Sea as the Prophet sheweth when he saith That God ruleth the rage of the Sea and the noyse of his waves and the madness of his people And the Rod of government is a miraculous Rod as well that of Aaron as that of Moses for as Moses Rod turned into a Serpent and the Serpent into a Rod again so the Rod of Aaron of a dry stick did blossome and bear ripe Almonds to shew how strange and wonderful a thing it is either for Prince or Priest to rule an unruly multitude too much for any one of them to do and therefore God doth alwayes joyn both of them together as the Psalmist sheweth Thou leddest thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron And besides if these two do not assist and protect each other they shall be soon suppressed one after another of their own people for if the Prince which is to be our Nursing-Father be once subdued then presently the Priest shall be destroyed and when he hath lost his power our power shall never be able to do any good and if the Priest which prayeth and preacheth to direct the King be trampled under foot As soon as men have overthrown their Priests they will presently labour to destroy their king it hath been found most certain that after they have thrown away the Miter they have not long retained the Scepter And therefore King James of ever blessed memory of a sharp conception and sound judgement was wont to say No Bishop no King unlesse you mean such a King as Christ was when the Jewes crowned him with Thorns and bowing their knees said Hail King of the Jews that is Rex sine Regno a King without power like a man of straw that is onely made to fright away the birds For the people are alwayes prone to pull out their necks from the yoke of their obedience and would soon rebell if the Priests did not continually preach that Every soul should be subject to the higher powers as we see now by experience how apt they are to rebell when factious Preachers give them the least incouragement And therefore as this rebellion of Corah so every other though they begin with one yet they aym at both and strive to overthrow aswell the one as the other for so my Text saith They angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. And therefore these two should be as Hippocrates twins or indeed like man and wife indissolubly coupled and coherent together without distraction and cursed be they that strive to make the division for whom God hath thus united together no man should put asunder And here you may observe the method of their Rebellion The method of their Rebellion the Text saith Moses and Aaron yet Moses sheweth they began with Aaron for when their Rebellion was first discovered Moses doth not say What have I done against you but What is Aaron that you should murmure against him to shew unto us that although Moses was the first they aymed at in their intention yet he was the last they purposed to overthrow in the execution Quia progrediendum à facilioribus as the Devil began with the woman the weaker vessel that he might the easier overthrow the stronger so the enemies of God and his Church do alwayes seek first to overthrow the Priest and then presently they will set upon the Prince And therefore as Moses here Virgil. Aeneid lib. 2. so all Magistrates every where should remember that Jam tua res agitur through our sides they may smart and our wounds may prove dangerous unto them because you shall never read they began to shake us but they fully intended to root out them for if the fear of God and the honour of the King must go together as Saint Peter sheweth it must needs follow that they will but dishonour and disobey their King that have cast away the fear of God and it is most certain that when they drive God out of their hearts as the Gergezites drove Christ out of their Coasts Little fear of God in them that expell their Priests out of their societies
barn or any other place where they shall appoint to meet because God hath made all places and there is no reall Sanctity in any one place more than in any other but the sanctity or holiness must be in the hearts of the men and not in the place which is not capable of any sanctity and therefore it is rather our superstition than Gods injunction to require and command men to come to such Material Churches as to the more sanctified places rather than to such private houses where these Saints do publickly meet to serve God Sol. To make a full Answer to this their Objection you must understand that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy is derived from the privative particle α and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the Earth as if to be holy were nothing else but to be pure and clean and separated from all earthly touch And it is taken two wayes Holiness taken two wayes 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simply 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In some respects And Way 1 1. Way God only is Holy and the Author of all Holiness and as the Blessed Virgin saith Holy is his Name And therefore those Seraphims which Esaias saw Esay 6.3 and those wonderous creatures which S. John saw did cry Apoc. 4.8 Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts three times together which we do not read of any other Attribute of God And the Lord himself in that golden Plate that was to be on Aarons forehead caused these words to be ingraven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness is of the Lord as Tremellius reads it or Sanctum Domino Holiness belongeth to the Lord as the Vulgar hath it Way 2 2. Way Many other things are stiled holy by communication of holiness and receiving their holiness from this Fountain of Holiness And so 1. The Man Christ Jesus 2. The faithful Members of Christ 3. The Outward Professors of the Christian Religion 4. All things Dedicated and that have relation to Gods Service as Times Persons Places and Things are termed holy sanctitate relativa 1. The Man Christ is perfectly and singularly Holy as Beda saith And that 1. By reason of his Hypostatical union with the Godhead 2. By reason of the most perfect qualtity of Holiness impressed by the Holy Ghost into his Humanity 2. The true Members of Christ are truly styled holy by reason of that holiness which the Holy Spirit of God worketh in them and they practise in their lives and conversations 3. All those that do outwardly profess the holy Religion of Jesus Christ are called Saints by the holy Apostles Rom. 1. and so they are in respect of all others that either do prophane abuse or neglect the same 4. All the things that are Consecrated by the prayers of the Bishop for the Service of God and those things that are Dedicated and given for the furtherance and maintenance of God's Worship as Lands Houses and the like are by a relative sanctity rightly termed holy things because they are separated and set apart as S. Paul saith of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for holy uses to bring men to holiness to honour serve and worship God that is Holiness it self And in this respect we say that the very ground walls windows and timber of the Material Church that are set forth Dedicated and Consecrated for God's Service are holy things not by any inherent reall sanctity infused into them but by a relative holiness ascribed and appropriated unto them by their Dedication and Consecration for God's Worship which makes them more holy and so to be deemed than all other earthly things whatsoever And though I will not lose my time and waste my paper to shew the folly and vanity of that ridiculous deduction of the Confuter of Will. Apollonius in the 29. page of his Grallae Grallae pag 29. against secondary or dependent holiness yet I will justifie the holiness and religious reverence that we owe and should render unto all the Material Churches that are Consecrated for Divine-Service against all prophaners of them Independents and Fanaticks whatsoever And for the satisfaction of every good and sober man that is not drunk with a prejudicate conceit against God's House I shall desire him to look into 2 Chron. 3.1 and chap. 6. where he may find the Consecration of God's House and the prayer that Solomon made at the Consecration of it and the benefits the manifold benefits that they should reap which served God in that House And if he reads over that Chapter at his leisure and read it often and then seriously consider it and withal remember that of this House and the like Consecrated places that are Dedicated for God's Worship the Lord himself saith Esay 56.7 Matth. 21.13 Jerem. 7.10 Psal 132.15 My House shall be called the House of prayer for all people and our Saviour Christ confirmeth the same that the Church which is the Publick place or place of Publick Prayers is rightly called the House of God and the House which is called by his Name and of which he saith This shall be my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have a delight therein Will he not confess that Gods House and the Place where he dwelleth is Holy The Confuter of Apollonius confesseth That so long as a Prince is Grallae pag. 26. and remaineth in his house because of his Majesty and pompe there is nothing in the house which derives not thence some dignitie and splendor and will you deny that priviledge to Gods House which you will yield to the Palace of an earthly Prince No certainly it is an holy place Vide the Great â—ntichrist Revealed l. 2. c. 5. pag. 88. Therefore as God will be served in the time that he appointeth and by the persons that he chuseth and after the manner that himself prescribeth so he will be worshipped not where every one pleaseth but in the place which is Consecrated and Sanctified for our Holy God to come and to be present with us as you may see in Levit. 17 8. Exod. 23.19 and chap. 25. 8. where the Lord chargeth his people to make him a Sanctuarie Exod. 25.8 or a Tabernacle that is an holy House or Temple that he might dwell among them And therefore the Prophet David desired that he might dwell in Gods Tabernacle and was glad when the people said Psal 27.4 Psal 122.1 Joh. 18.20 We will go into the House of the Lord. And Christ saith I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple that is for the most part and ordinarily and alwayes when he came to the Temple and opportunitie offered him occasion so to do And S. Matthew saith The blind and the lame came unto him in the Temple Matth. 21.14 and he healed them And so must we come unto him into his Temple if we desire to be healed of our infirmities And so the Apostles and Disciples of Christ after his
new thing but a true saying and therefore our Saviour biddeth us to Take heed of false Prophets and of rebellious spirits that as Saint John saith went from us but were not of us but are indeed the poyson and Incediaries both of Church and Common-wealth 4. Much obliged for many favours unto their Governours 4. These Rebels had received many favours and great benefits from their Governours for they were delivered è lutulentis manuum operibus as Saint Augustine speaketh and as the Prophet saith They had eased their shoulders from their burthens and their hands from making of pots they had broken the Rod of their oppressors and as Moses tells them they had separated them from the rest of the multitude of Israel Numb 16.9 and set them near to God himself to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and therefore the light of nature tells us that they were most ungrateful and as inhumane as the brood of Serpents that would sting him to death which to preserve his life would bring him home in his bosome And it seems this was the transcendencie of Judas his sin and that which grieved our Saviour most of all that he whom he had called to be one of his twelve Apostles whom he had made his Steward and Treasurer of all his wealth and for whom he had done more then for thousands of others should betray him into the hands of sinners for if it had been another saith the Psalmist that had done me this dishonour I could well have born it but seeing it was thou my familiar friend which didst eat and drink at my table it must needs trouble me for though in others it might be pardonable yet in thee it is intolerable and therefore of all others he saith of Judas Vae illi homini woe be unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed it had been better for him he had never been born as if his sin were greater then the sin of Annas Caâ—aphas or Plate But the old saying is most true Improbus à nullo flectitur obsequio no service can satisfie a froward soul no favour no benefit no preferment can appease the rebellious thoughts of discontented spirits And therefore notwithstanding Mâ—ses had done all this for Corah yet Corah must rebell against Moses So many times though Kings have given great honours unto their subjects made them their Peers their Chamberlains their Treasurers and their servants of nearest place and greatest trust And though Aaron the High-Priest or Bishop doth impose his hands on others and admit them into Sacred Orders above their brethren to be near the Lord and bestow all the preferment they can upon them yet with Corah these unquiet and ungratefull spirits must rebell against their Governours For I think I may well demand Which of all them that now rebell against their King have not had either Grand fathers Fathers or themselves promoted to all or most of their fortunes and honours from that Crown which now they would trample under their feet Who more against their King then those that received most from their King Just like Judas or here like Corah Dathan and Abiram I could instance the particulars but I passe So you see who were the Rebels most ungrateful most unworthy men CHAP. II. Sheweth against whom these men rebelled that God is the giver of our Governours the severall offices of Kings and Priests how they should assist each other and how the people laboureth to destroy them both SEcondly we are to consider against whom they rebelled 2. Part against whom they rebelled 2. Points discussed and the Text saith Moses and Aaron and therefore We must discusse 1. Qui fuére who they were in regard of their places 2. Quales fuére what they were in regard of their qualities 1. In regard of their places we find that these men were 1. The chief Governours of Gods people 2. Governours both in temporal and in spiritual things 3. Agreeing and consenting together in all their Government 1. They were the prime Governours of the people Moses the King or Prince to rule the people and Aaron the High-Priest to instruct and offer Sacrifice to make attonement unto God for the sins of the people and these have their authority from God for though it sometimes happeneth that Potens the Ruler is not of God as the Prophet saith Hos 8.4 They have reigned and not by me and likewise modus assumendi the manner of getting authority is not alwayes of God but sometimes by usurpation cruelty subtlety or some other sinful means yet Potestas the power it self whosoever hath it is ever from God for the Philosopher saith Magistra ûs originem Aristot Pâ—lit lib. 1. c 1. Ambros Ser. 7. esse à natura ipsa And Saint Ambrose saith Datus à Deo Magistratus non modo malorum coercendorum causâ sed etiam bonorum fovendorum in vera animi pie aete honestate gratiâ And others say the Sun is not more necessary in Heaven then the Magistrate is on Earth for alas how is it possible for any Society to live on earth cùm vivitur ex rapto when men live by rapine and shall say Let our strength be to us the law of justice therefore God is the giver of our Governours and he professeth Per me regnant Reges And Danâ—el told Nebuchadnezzar Vide etiam c. 2. v. 37. That the most high ruleth in the Kingdome of men and he giveth it to whomsoever he will Dan 4.25 2. These two men were Governours both in all temporal and in all spiritual things as Moses in the things that pertained to the Common-wealth and Aaron in things pertaining unto God And these two sorts of Government are in some sort subordinate each to other and yet each one intire in it self so that the one may not usurp the office of the other for 1. The spiritual Priest is to instruct the Magistrates 2 Governours both in temporal and spirituall things and to reprove them too if they do amisse as they are members of their charge and the sheep of their sheep-fold And so we have the examples of David reproved by Nathan Achab by Elias Herod by John Baptist and in the Primitive Church Euseb l 6. c. 34. Sozomen lib. 7. of Philip the Emperour repenting at the perswasion of Fabian and Theodosius senior by the writings of S. Ambrose 2. The temporal Magistrate is to command and if they offend to correct and condemn the Priests as they are members of their Common-wealth Rom. 13. Bernard ad Archiepis Senonensem for Saint Paul saith Let every soul be subject to the higher powers and if every soul then the soul of the Priest as well as the souls of the People or otherwise Quis eum excepit ab universitate as Saint Bernard saith and so Theodoret Theophylact and Oecumenius are of the same mind And the examples of Abiathar deposed by Solomon and
above the Congregation of the Lord which is another slander as false as the Father of lyes could lay upon them for I shewed unto you before how truly they were called and how justly they behaved themselves in their places but as Absolon knew well enough that to traduce his Father's Government was the readiest way to insinuate and to winde himselfe into a good opinion among the people and to make the King odious unto his subjects so these and all other Rebels will be sure to lay load enough of lyes and slanders upon their Governours and so the namelesse Authour of the Soveraign Antidote Goodwin Goodwin in his Anti-Caval Buâ—roughs in his Sermon upon The glorious name of the Lord of Hosts Burroughs and abundance more such scandalous impudent lying libels have not blushed which a man would think the brazen face of Satan could not chuse but do so maliciously and reproachfully to lay to his Majesty's charge the things which as the Prophet saith he never knew and which all they that know the King do know to be apparent lyes and most abominable slanders against the Lord's Vicegerent but Quid domini facient audent cum talia fures You know the meaning of the Poet and you may know the reason why these grand Lyars these impudent slanderers do so impudently bely so good a King so pious and so gracious a Majesty for Lay on enough Et aliquid adhaerebit and throw dust enough in their faces and let the Governours be never so good the King as milde and as unreproveable as Moses and the Bishops like Aaron the Saints of the Lord yet some thing will stick in the opinion of the simple that are not able to discern the subtilty of those distractors And as they diminish and undermine the credit and reputation of the best Governours by no other engine then a lying tongue and a false pen so with the same instruments they do magnifie their own repute and further their unjust proceedings by deceiving the most simple with such equivocal lyes as any sensible man might well wonder A strange equivocation that they should be so insensibly swallowed down as when they say They fight for him whom they shoot at and they are for the King when with all their might and main they strive to take away his power to pull the sword out of his hand and to throw his Crown down to the dust which is so strange a kind of equivocation as might well move men with Pilate to ask What is truth which we can never understand if any of these things can be true which as one saith most truly is one of the absurdest gulleries that ever was put upon any Nation much like that Anabaptist which I knew that beat his wife almost to death The tale of an Anabaptist and said He beat not her but that evill spirit that was in her Therefore the Lord hateth this abominable sinne because it is unpossible the people should be so soon drawn into rebellion if they did not credit these defamations But the wise man tells us that Stultus credit omni verbo therefore no wise man will believe those false and wicked slanders that such malicious Rebels do spread abroad against their King Prince or Priest or any other Governour of Gods people 8. Rayling 8. After they had thus slandered these good men they fell to open rayling against them as you may see Num. 16.13 14. For now they had eaten shame and drunk after it and therefore they cared not what they said and so now we find how the Rebels deal with our King and with our Bishops too with our Moses and with our Aaron for here in Ireland they rebell against their Soveraign because he is no Papist and will not countenance the Papists as they desire And in England they rayle at him and rebell against him because they say He is a Papist and doth connive at Popery and hath a design to bring in Popery into the Kingdome which is as flat a lye as the father of lyes hath ever invented So the Bishops here are driven out of all as my self am expelled aedibus sedibus and left destitute of all relief because we are no Papists but do both preach and write against their errours as much as any and more learnedly then many others And in England we are persecuted and driven to flee from place to place or to take our place in a hard prison as my self have been often forced to flee and to wander in the cold and dark long nights because we are Papists and Popishly given Good God! what shall we do whither shall we go or what shall we say for Nusquam tuta fides nec hospes ab hospite tutus We cannot confide in the confiders to whom we are become malignant enemies for speaking truth neither dare we trust in the followers of the publique faith nor in the professors of the Catholique faith whereof men maliciously rejecting their godly Bishops rebelliously fighting against their lawful King and mortally wounding their own souls have made a shipwrack But If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub if they said he was a glutton and a drunkard what wonder if they say these things of us and if Christ the King of Kings was crucified between two Thieves what marvel if this servant of Christ our King be thus pressed opposed and abused betwixt two rebellious factions And when we see our Saviour and our King thus handled it is lesse strange to find the Bishops and the Priests persecuted and crucified betwixt two heretical and tyrannical parties Well Jerusalem Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee take heed lest the King of peace shall say unto thee Verily thou shalt see me no more till thou sayest Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. 9 Disobedience 9. When they were grown thus impudent from bad to worse both over shooes and over boots then Disobedience must needs follow and therefore now putting on their brazen foreheads they tell Moses plainly We will not come to thee we will do nothing that thou willest but will crosse thee in all that thou intendest this is our most peremptory resolution And so we see that Nemo repentè fit pessimus but the wicked grow worse and worse first you must lend then you must give if not we will take or if you deny your goods we will have your bodies so at first what soever we do it is for the King and because this is so palpable a mockery that as every man knoweth they that fight against the Earl of Essex and his Army do warre against the Parliament so they that fight against the Kings Army do as certainly war against the King then we grow so impudent as to justifie any rebellion against our King as in England Goodwin and that seditious Pamphleter in opening The glorious name of the Lord of Host do
now alive to dispose of their beneficence 2. They are most injurious to the King who is wise as an Angel of God and therefore holdeth this sacriledge odious to his Princely heart that would seek to enrich his Crown with that which will shake it on his head and endanger all his Posterity to such fearful judgements as his Progenitours have denounced and God hath executed upon many Kings and Princes for the like sinnes for as Moses prayeth against the sacrilegious enemies of Levi Deut. 33.11 Smite through the loines of them that rise aginst him and of them that hate him that they rise not again so we find that many ancient families having by the Statute of Dissolution taken some of the Lands and Tithes of the Church into their possessions have found the same like the Gold of Tholous Pierius in Hier glyph or the Eagles feathers pernitiosa potentia that will consume all the feathers where they shall be mingled Who so is wise will consider these things and will not to satisfie these Anabaptistical dregges of the people Aelian lib. 5. cap 15. Var. Hist and the enimies of all Christian Religion sacrilegiously take away with Aelian's boy the golden plate from Diana's Crown the Lands and Revenues of the Church but having not so learned Christ they will do that which becommeth Saints and suffer the dead to enjoy their own will in that wherein they put them to to no charge and if they do intend to promote Gods service they will not rob Saint Peter to pay Saint Paul but will rather say with holy David God forbid that I should offer sacrifice to God of that which cost me nothing 15. As any wooden Preachers like Jeroboam's Priests de foece plebis scarce worthy to be compared with the Grooms of their stable or such humi serpentes poor abjects as Job speaks of Job 30.8 The sonnes of villains and bond-men more vile than the earth they crawle upon are fit enough to be their teachers and beggarly pensioners so any place a thatched Barn a littered Stable or an ample Cow-house What prayers and Sermons please these men is thought by these to be very fair and fit to be the House of Him that was born in a Stable and laid in a Manger and any service prayers without sense such as our Saviour blames and preaching without learning without truth such as their Enthusiasts conceive in illa horâ quicquid in buccam venerit without any further study or meditation is justified to be most acceptable to God witnesse the Authour of One argument more against the Cavaliers where that great Schollar in his own opinion rails against our grave Bishops and most impudently reproacheth a very reverend man of known worth and great learning by the scandalous Epithete of The ceremonious Master of Balliol Colledge Doctor Laurence whom for a most learned and pious Sermon preached before the King upon these words of Exodus Put off thy shooes from thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground he doth just like the eldest son of his dear father the devill as Tertullian calleth Hermogenes primogenitum diaboli most falsely and shamelesly charge him with the wearing of consecrated slippers which was never done but is one of those scurrilous invented imputations of this malicious Accuser of his brethren now thrown at him whose shooes either for learning or piety I am sure this rambling Arguist and railing Rabsheka is not worthy to bear and for the service of God in our Churches though the holy Prophet which was a man according to Gods own heart Musick ever used in the Church Psal 147.1 149.3 Ps 150.3 4 5. praised God in the beauty of holinesse upon all the best instruments of musick and commanded us as well in the grammatical sense as in the mystical sense to sing praises unto our God with Tabret and Harp to praise him in the sound of the Trumpet in the Cymbals and dances upon the well-tuned Cymbals and upon the loud Cymbals yet this zealous Organe-mastix gives us none other Title than Cathedral Roarers and Squeakers and good reason it is he should be very angry with roaring and squeaking in Churches Pag. 14. for that having been possest of a very competent Living with cure of soules these four or five years together if I am not mistaken in the Authour he never yet either read or preached in that or any other Church so necessary is Non-residence and so usefull are dumb dogges when they are willing to snarle and bark against Government and Religion but it is strange to me that such a divine harmony Musick how useful Theodoric Epist l. 2. Plutarch de Musica which hath made others sober should make this spawn of the red Dragon mad for we know some Law-givers commanded children to be taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the grave composed tones of the Dorick way ad corda fera demulcenda to soften the fiercenesse of their dispositions and ad montis fervorem temperandum to cool and allay the heat and distempers of their minds as Achilles was appeased in Homer and Theodosius was drawn to commiseration luctuoso carmine by a sad Poem sung to him at supper Niceph. lib. 12 cap. 43. when he intended the utter destruction of Antioch and the Scripture testifieth the like effect of Davids harp in King Saul yet all this sweet and hallowed air which ravisheth devout souls hath onely filled this envious malignant with nasty winds and stinking expressions So contrary to the words of God himself Exod. 3.5 and against the judgement of all Divines and the practice of all Saints à primordiis Ecclesiae from the first birth of Gods Church Pag. 15.18 he most ignorantly denieth any place to be holier than another which makes me afraid that Heaven with this man and his faction is deemed no holier than Hell or the Lords day no holier than Monday no more than they hold the Church holier than their Bâ—rns or the holiest Priest though he were Aaron himself the Saint of the Lord holier than the prophanest worldling for I find no differnce that they make either of persons times or places but such a commixtion of all things as if they intended to reduce and bring the whole world into that confused Chaos which God first created before he disposed the parts thereof into their several stations But I am loth to spend any more time about this ignorant Argument that is as all the rest of their Writings are as full of railing and unsavoury speeches as any mortall pen can diffuse therefore I leave him to do with his heart and mouth as that Morussian Cabares whereof he speaketh did with those Churches which the Goths and Vandals had defiled Thus you have some and I might adde here abundance more of their absurd and impious Doctrines which their ignorant simplicity produced and their furious zeal published out of mis-interpreted Scriptures not that
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