under a Civill sword these men would surely hold you off from comming to God that urge it so odiously as an intolerable insolency to petition the King against those grievances that arise from their false suggestions whereby the wisest of Princes may be misinformed though they cannot be mistaken as I heard his Majesty say in the Case who graciously invites to petition T is a most prodigious course to deny that to the best which was never denied to the worst of men in the worst times which is leave to petition That wee should undergo the worst of government under the best of Princes is the depth of misery and therefore pray that God would remember their iniquities that have thus reacht to Heaven Secondly Consider if you doe not contradict and crosse your own prayers by presuming to save some of the fattest for a sacrifice to comply withall Mercy to these upon affection is cruelty to your selves upon judgment David gave a command upon private paternall affection to spare Absolom and grieved beyond measure upon the same grounds when he was cut off and therefore Ioab did well and wisely and David had reason to take it well in coole blood as to take off an evill instrument so also respectively to remember the King that he was mistaken in his passion when the State had lost so great an Enemy Samuel was no cruell man and yet he was resolved to hew Agag in pieces If wee shew pity because they come with halters about their necks they will soon shift them and strangle us Thirdly Consider what you positively performe against them to second and give successe to your prayers I speake not that meere private men should upon meer personall malice prosecute the particular persons of any Romish Recusants that are otherwise Civill subjects and disturbe not the State or that a Prince should publikely and solemnly invade only to settle Religion or extirpate Heresie without the mixture of Civill Titles that is the Iesuits Divinity and I wish them enough of it but this is it I would have you doe Take care that Apostates be severely punished those that seduce them or lay grounds for it for if these Amalekites that were external Enemies far from home were to be remembred and ruined how are ours to be regarded that are in the Common-wealth but not of it but fully and fouly against it knotted into a great party tied in dependance to the greatest forrein Enemy These men strike at Church and State at a blow being the anchor of the State is Religion which if shaken the State will float and for fundamentall Laws they pull them up that they may pull us down and that against the originall of all Civill government For when by common consent men fell upon a Regiment and at first permitted all to the wisdome and discretion of Governours chosen by themselves and after by experience found the remedy in this Course worse then the disease they saw I say to live by one mans will was the ground of all mens misery then they were constrained to Come to Laws not only admit a Councell for assistance and whosoever infringes such Laws is an absolute insolent Enemy of the Common good But you will still demand of me what you must doe I can better tell you what you must not suffer them to do And let no insolent obnoxious Disturber or Innovatour in Church or State say that these Discourses must not be brookt I must tell them t is true that in peaceable times when all passe calmely along the Locrians Law was of force but in statu perturbato quasi in maligno posito in a Common and Calling Calamity as Religion is a Calling Cause advice is welcome from any hand being there is a tacit consent of States in extraordinary times to allow extraordinary undertakings witness on the wrong side their Quotidian double-tertian distemperd projects which depend like sickmens Dreams they that like not this I wish they mean no worse for that State that can bear a Civill War may very well away with Civill Memento's to prevent it Take therefore these Considerations which I desire to lay down with Cautions restrictive and directive to keep within the compasse of obedience and the peace of Church and State which I leave to wise and active men to accommodate First consider that in an Exigent and unexpected turn of State perniciously procured by these British malekites there are Certain ways to come to the King for relief and redress which at other times are not allowable see it in Hesters Case Though it be not according to Law says shee yet if you will fast and pray I will go to the King whatever come of it Indicious Bishop Bilson speaks close in the Case and I dare not condemne him neither need I being allowed by the State when this Monarchie was in a most Majestick height Secondly consider that when a party by power breaks the Laws of the Land that they may break the Laws of God and thereby force you to goe along as their friends or put you to make a stand and so conclude you the States Enemies where the Laws of the Land are thus by them made too short for your security the Laws of Nations come in for reliefe till it can be otherwise provided for t was never intended by Law-makers to lay them on with so rigid a will but that still salus populi should be sola suprema lex and no State did ever intend to cast it selfe into a desperate Case by good Laws so that as for the good of the person of a Prince there are not only allowed jura dominationis but also arcana dominationis so for the safety of the body of the State there are arcana Latitudes allowed for security especially when the Enemies who are not true Instruments but Tools of State Dominationum Provisores Purveyers of usurpation that worke through Alps or Conscience have concluded they lose not reputation nor abuse Religion if they get their Ends In such a Case Rationall Grotius is cleer that in gravissimo certissimo discrimine lex de non resistendo non obligat but I hope he meant it tenderly Thirdly consider that the States of a Kingdome either actually assembled in a representative body or virtually concurring in a common resolution for the common good and only hindred from assembling by the common Enemy it is affirmed by the greatest Assertors of Regall Royalty that they may goe very far before they can be counted Rebels or be mistaken 'T was foolish churlish Nabals judgment that cald David his Company Runnagates when wise Abigail tho shee submitted to Saul as her King yet acknowledged David to fight the Lords battails Fourthly Consider and make a reall difference betwixt the Christians suffering with prayers and tears in the Primitive Church under Heathenish Emperours when their Religion was not so much as tolerated but condemned by the Laws of the Empire and the sufferings of State where the Religion is Lex terrae setled and protected by the Civil Laws and power and all caution that can be given to assure it and affronted by a schismatical faction not so much tolerated but protested and condemned Idolatrous and Antichristian and cannot consist with the standing of the state The thus appearing not for a popular but a politick liberty must be interpreted by clemencie a vertue of as much policie as piety in a Prince as serious Seneca Clementia hostes dimittit salvos aliquando laudatos si honestis causis pro fide pro foedere vel pro libertate Be wise be resolute for you have Amalekites amongst you At a Committee of the Honourable the Commons House of Parliament It is ordered that this Sermon be published in print Sir Edward Dering Knight and Baronet Exod. 17. Gen. 36. Gen. 28. Ezeck. 25. Thess. 22. Exod. 17. 1 Sam. 30. Psal. 83. Hest. 3. 2 Chro. 20. See how they reward us for sparing of them Briston de Regn. Persicoâ— 1 Psal. 109. Amos 16. 1 Sam. 15. Numb 13. 29. 1 Sam. 1 8. 1 Sam 30. 1 Chron. 4. Counsell Paniâ—ral de 〈◊〉 Occid. nalis Impâ—â— c. 20. 〈◊〉 1610 〈◊〉 p. 11. His Speech in Parliament 16â—9 Hest. 3. Rev. 18. Hooker l. 1. Numb. 10. This was delivered the day after the Lords Petition 〈…〉 belli 〈…〉 40. Consiliarii nati ratione nobilitatis licet non ratione officii Ordinari 1 Sam. 25. Bishop of Durham Sermon before the King 1639. Senec de Clement l. 2. c. 7.
Proviso this Law of diffidation or defiance concerning Amaleck was most reasonably made The Jesuites that are the Novell Colledge of Austrian Augurs but too perfidious to be Feciales and yet have given to themselves a faculty to determine all cases in ordine ad spiritualia never measuring truths or titles by the line of equity but the last of ambition these creatures that have more of the diviners in them than of the divine will be content to hold Amaleck a type of Antichrist and so this proceeding plausible if we will but hold the great Turke or the Puritans to be the Antichrist but they must excuse us and Arminius shall judge for mee in his publique determinations before he went to Rome who is cleare and conclusive that the Pope is that man of sinne that servant of servants that began to beate his fellow servants But whether these men and their politike party conceive it reason or not none but an Amalekite would require the disusage or repealing of it or charge it as a bloody Law Moses did conceive it justifiable who was no cruell Law-giver and yet hee sets it home by all meanes to preserve the memory as see the originall relation at large Exod. 17. which he drew up not by private or onely ordinary discretion or assistance but by the cleare immediate word and warrant of the Lord of hoasts as the expresse was to write it in a Booke not to trust tradition in the case but it was a Bookt record past in terminis to posterity and further he built an Altar upon the place of victory with the Lords name and power exercised in the cause that it might be a remembrancer and the times to come admonished by this monument of Gods mercy and the Amalekites cruelty and here laies it fully and close home in a most pat particular precept as a manifest of the Lords mind for the future in this businesse First consider it must needs be without peradventure right because the Judge of all the World hath so declared it and that in most expresse words leaving no roome for any mitigation restriction limitation or interpretation favourable gave no ground for quarter that the Lord of grace mercy peace should thus bind up this businesse of a perpetuall warre you must needs conceive and conclude there was great reason for it and that will appeare if you doe but consider the grievance that gave ground for it There is in their injurious usage all the justifiable causes of a legall warre I doe not say that it was just or reasonable for a private Israelite upon home bred hatred to prosecute a private Amalekite to the death or to reserve revenge upon personall injuries but to use particular men as David did the single cashiered servant of an Amalekite fed him well to discover his master No the Lord is not like Molech that loves to have blood in the unsavory sacrifices of cruell private duels let them singly subsist as civill men according to the lawes of nature and humanity Non obstante the Nationall quarrell This I propose not either as justifiable or plausible to bee practised but this is the point that wee shall speake to That states that move not neither upon anger nor haupon hatred but upon judgement and interest necessity publique utility universall safety may move for ever to those points and cannot be mistaken in those affaires Consider to what the wisest statists politicks and Civillians reduce the reasons of a justifiable war and you will finde them all in this cause A war in it selfe is an appeale to heaven by asword when otherwaies of justice upon earth either by witnesses oaths or leagus are made void and invalid that being forelaid we wil reduce these grounds to 3. heads The first ground of a lawfull war is in a way of just defence which may lawfully in the progresse and processe of the worke be driven into an offensive yea so farre that so they may satisfie and quiet future feares of being offended and have active enemies bound to good behaviour and give sufficient caution that they will not injuâ—e and where this is not to be had or is not truely tendered but all truces treaties and pacifications have treachery under them force is the safest way to assure it but these Israelites had this reason For they did purposely passe by without any shew of hostility and exprest a command for their resolution Therefore their first war was a defensive driven the next day into an offensive when they were not to let their just anger set with the sun without they meant to give place to these divellish men for they would have fallen in with any side to molest them as after they did in the lives of the Judges so that it was not wisdome to forget them that were resolved to make the name of Israel no more in remembrance If they were aware of such deepe designes fixt as foundations of their ruine they had reason by way of prevention to anticipate future ruine by present revenge for feare of a great neighbour a just ground of war if it be a legal feare wch may fall in constantem Societatem senatum raised not onely from present preparations but also from pregnant intentions and pretentions as well assured as a morall matter may be of a profest protested enemy whose minde and will is to injure for ever and has begun to doe it and not from a floating resolution that may be conjectured to be better towards us but from malignant malice but this was the case of the Israelites having to doe with these enemies therefore they had reason to provide for future security wch could not be had so long as these men subsisted in any strength to hurt The second ground of a lawful war is for reparation of losse and dammage either in person or goods that with relation to damnum emergens in prosecution or lucrum Cessans if they had not bin molested But these Amalekites cut off those persons that the Lord valued at a great rate and ransome and they could not recompence the Lord his dammage by one daies victory And it may be they being the hindmost whoÌ„ they smote in the reare were laden with the riches of Egypt So that the succeeding generation of Amalekites were to make satisfaction especially coÌ„sidering that their posterity would inherit their bloody hearts and thirst to destroy vex Israel upon old grounds and grudges as see an instance in the last of that cursed devoted stocke hauty Haman the Agagite his anger upon a fancie soone rankled into a nationall hatred and broke out into an universall practise of his resolution of revenge the reserving of Agags race had like to have cost deere and therefore Mordecai did wisely to follow the blow to ruine and root out all the faction that were his dependants distributed into all Provinces to trouble Israel had got all trust into
their owne hands for the execution of his cruell conspiracy against the Jewish Nation and his wife well foretold him when hee began to fall that he should fall flat being Mordecai was a Jew and the quarrell admitted no medium worke Mordecai did well to heave him high and lay him low because all must downe because not bowe and be so base as to fall flat in a Persian prostituting prostration with his hands behind him to execution He would not so far forget himselfe who was of the Jewish seed â—ovall whose place was to stand not to fall in the Kings gate to bow before the base remaines of a conquered people and a perfidious Traitor to the Persians Monarchy The third reason of a just warre allowed by the laws of Nature Nations Armes leagues is in a way of just revenge that they may be proportionably punisht to their prodigious perfidious injustice yea it was such an intollerable illegall irregularity to persecute the poore and needy man that they might even slay the broken in heart that if Israel had not beene able and resolved to revenge and make this people passive in a penall way their neighbour Nations specially had it been in these or the times of the Grecian or Roman Monarchs had been ingaged though not cald for by the tacit common consent of Nations concurring for the good of mankind as a sociable creature they had been bound I say to come in and assist to their uttermost For it is in the power and is the worke of supreame States and Princes not onely to defend and revenge injuries done to their owne subjects but even to resist those that violate the Laws of Nature or Nations that not as they are over others but as they are under none and it seemes and sounds better to vindicate others injuries then their own Now they did come upon them against the Laws of Nations being they fell upon such as were weake sick strangers unarmed unable men that were newly delivered out of cruell bondage almost famished before Manna came and if it had not beene miraculously sutable it may be accidentally weakned with a new kind of diet paid for all as they past and professed they meant it These and such like as deal injuriously against the law and light of Nature and the common good of Nations are out-lawed and de jure proscribed by these Laws especially these men that were the Banditi of the God of Heaven that had banished his feare and so they were to be punished for a manifest Nationall contempt of God as those that teach treachery perfidiously practised perjury permit piracy to the destroying of Civill society and such like Enemies of Mankinde a processe punitive is to bee executed upon them Bellum cum belluis bonum est Yea when the Lord himselfe commanded Saul upon this service 1 Sam. 15. Hee does not barely say Do you remember what Amalek did but I remember what Amaleck did therefore doe you execute to the uttermost and destroy and spare not and the revenge of this wrong may most rightly be proportioned not only to what they did but what they would intended and were prepared to doe and drive upon designe that is to be considered future possible probable mischiefe to prevent a pernicious unpleasing president For if these men had bin flesht with successe that first invaded Israel or had procured past and paid for their peace at an easie rate it would have invited others to invasive violence yet what they did made such an impression of fear that the Spies used the name of Amaleck as an argument that they dwelt in the South when they aimed to disparage the Land of Promise and discourage them from entring And therefore the Lord by Moses had reason to raise their spirits by hopes of their ruine who had shaken their confidence by feare of being ruined by them See what it cost the Israelites in hard measure whensoever they faild in the execution of this command God was reveng'd upon them when ever they faild to take his vengeance See what Saul lost by saving some of Amaleck upon pious peaceable pretentions as if hee so long after as a King had power to give pardon and relaxation from that penall Law hee that would not cut off their posterity from the Earth deprived his own of succession though he was not put out of personall possession that forgetting neglecting cast him out and cut him off and an Amalekite had a hand in his death or hee braggingly belyed himselfe yea if he had done it fully he had saved the burning of Ziglag avoided much mischief and misery spared Davids pains in the Case and what hee faild in is recorded as a good worke of the sons of Simeon that they kild the rest of the Amalekites and dwelt in their rooms and fat pastures did not leave a good land to them and seek subsistence in the Wildernesse but beat them out as intrenching incroching intruders Well the Prophet Samuel from God and the Witch of Endor from the Devil did both tell Saul that this was his ruine The advice and Counsell that I would give to you upon this practick Conclusion is that being you ex professo are the guard of good Laws have the permission and approbation of the State for a school of war are the Chief Legionaries of this royall City have or ought to have all privileges and accommodations for exercise of arms as the old ruling Romans when they were in statu pacato their Empire at the highest pitch and had done with enlargment of Dominion they gave more privileges to the armed schools then to the schools of Peace Let me desire you to make these inquiries First see if you have not such condition'd Enemies Secondly Whether there be not such Records and Acts of State entred against them Thirdly if there be not reason to petition the execution of them Fourthly whether you be not to be blamed for forgetting Amaleck Deal clearly and lay these considerations close it will be your wisdom and your safety First consider if you and all that are Israelites in whom is no guile have not such blood-thirsty and deceitfull Enemies that should not live out halfe their dayes Let us speake out they are the Iesuites and the Iesuited faction with their adherents for they are of our kindred in Religion by extraction a Bastard brood that when wee came out of Egypt mysticall they smote the hindmost yea they have tryed all wayes to ruine Church and State by Treasons Rebellions Invasions Divisions Civill wars at this time are a fruit of their faction fomeÌ„ted from cunning and mysticall hatred they have been the Abettors and plotters the great Sticklers in all the Disturbances of the Westerne World Ever since the Spanish sword-man Loiola left the Leaguer clapt himselfe up in a Cloyster lapt in a gowne all the destructive designes that have cast Christendome into confusion have