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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70765	Anti-Paræus, or, A treatise in the defence of the royall right of kings against Paræus and the rest of the anti-monarchians, whether Presbyterians or Jesuits. Wherein is maintained the unlawfulnesse of opposing and taking up arms against the Prince, either by any private subject, inferiour magistrate, the states of the Kingdom, or the Pope of Rome. Confirm'd from the dictate of nature, the law of nations, the civill and canon law, the sacred scriptures, ancient fathers, and Protestant divines. Delivered formerly in a determination in the divinity schooles in Cambridge, April the 9th. 1619. And afterwards enlarged for the presse by learned Dr. Owen. Now translated and published to confirme men in their loyalty to their king, by R.M. Master in Arts.	Owen, David, d. 1623.; Mossom, Robert, d. 1679.	1642 (1642)	Wing O703; ESTC R6219	56,080	108

A King in his Kingdom is not subject to the Episcopall Jurisdiction as it is penall and coercive How the King is not subject to the power of the Keyes but is superiour in Order of Power as Augustine affirm's expresly Moses was in the midst betwixt Aaron and God Aaron in the midst betwixt Moses and the people c. In Exod. quest 10. Those Bishops therfore and Supercilious Pastors who send out their citation or put forth their accusation against their Prince are impious against God whose Ordinance they resist seditious against the King ouer whose soueraignty they insult Traytors against the Common wealth whose Peace they disturbe I beleive Paraeus can neuer shew where any one of the Apostles sate Judge of Princes I read the Æpostles stood to be Judged but I never read they stood Judging saith Saint Bernard de considerat l. 1. c. 6. The consent of the Church not required in the act of excommunication Whereas he saith upon consent of the Church without doubt he doth but catch at popular Applause by subjecting Princes to the censure of the Pastors and the Pastors to the Judgement of the People The Apostles had the power of the Keyes from Christ and the Bishops have it from the Apostles without reservation of the Churches consent Augustine cals this power the Episcopall judgment de corrept grat c. 15. and Beza himselfe hath exploded this Consent out of a well constituted Church as wicked dangerous and dissonant to the Word of God in Epist 83. To deliver unto Satan which he improperly attributes to excommunication was an extraordinary power granted to the Apostles for a time What is meant by delivering unto Sathan according to the more commonly received opinion of Ancient and Moderne Divines Consult S. Ambrose upon that 1. Tim. c. 1. S. Chrysostome upon 1 Corinth 5. hom 15. S. Aug against the letters of Petilian l. 2. c. 10. S. Hierome Bede Theodoret Occumenius Theophylact and Sedulius all upon that 1 Cor. c. 5. of the Apostles to deliver to Satan which all of them doe understand to be meant of that corporall affliction which the Apostles did inflict not by the power of the Keyes but by the power of working Miracles To which I adde the Divines of later times and those of better note and sounder judgement Thomas Bilson lately Bishop of Winchester Peter Martyr Thomas Erastus and Benedict Aretius I am fully perswaded saith that Reverend Bishop that S. Paul in revenging that wickednes would have some footstep remaine of that wonderfull power and virtue which he received from Christ to revenge impiety whereby the imitation of so great a wickednes might hereafter seem dangerous to the rest c. in his perpetuall government of the Church c. 8. The Apostles saith Peter Martyr had the Devills subject to them and by them they might sometimes punish offendors to the furtherance of their salvation therefore to whom this gift is not imparted they ought wholy to abstaine from the exercise thereof locor com clas 1. c. 8. sect 9. The power of delivering unto Sathan as Erastus hath it which was given to S. Paul was not so necessary for the Church that it should become an ordinary power Confirm Thes lib. 41. cap. 7. To deliver unto Sathan was a power delivered unto the Apostles saith Aretius of punishing the notoriously contumacious which afterwards ceased Upon the 1 Tim. c. 1. From the miraculous power of the Apostles to the ordinary jurisdiction of Pastors is a most frivolous consequence for what did extraordinarily belong to the Apostles had its end with the Apostles but grant we that this delivering unto Satan has no other signification but that of Excommunication it will not from hence follow That it is lawfull for Pastors to exclude the Supreame Magistrates from converse with their Subjects The prescripts of the Gospell of making the wicked ashamed avoyding the company of the Scandalous and rebuking the obstinate whilst there was no Man in the Church intrusted with the Sword to the revenge of evill doers are not rashly to be applyed to the disgracing deserting or rebuking the Magistrate Note For the rule is Those things which by the Prophets and Apostles are set down in Generall ought not to be pressed to the everting those things which are commanded by them in particular God in the Law and in the Gospell hath given especiall and expresse commands for Subjection and Reverence to Magistrates yea though fouly polluted with vices with tyranny and impieties as that such were those of whom our Saviour and his Apostles spake cannot be denied Therefore no consequence of a generall Precept ought to be wrested against the expresse and speciall Command of honouring the Magistrates least we make the divine will changeable or repugnant to it's selfe which to say were horrible wickednes and blasphemy and to beleive it a grand impiety heresie Gregory the 7th by an unheard of example presumed to attempt this Paraeus has trod in Hildebrands steps and hath conveyd that to the Pastors of the reformed Church which was most vile in the Pontifician Kingdome which an Ambrose would never have done nor any holy and Orthodox Bishop in the Church of Christ hath ever done David Paraeus The first Proposition proved by exemples By the Examples of the Prophets of Elijah who in Word resisted wicked Ahab Jeremiah wicked Joachim John Baptist wicked Herod and Ambrose Theodosius for unjust slaughter c. Doctor Owen The Examples cleared Elijah did recall the King from his errour and confirmed the People in the Truth both by Word and Miracles he shut not out the King from the Company of his People for his impiety he withdrew not the People from their Subjection to the King he delivered him not as contumacious unto Satan he commanded not Obadiah that good man nor any other to refraine Communion with that wicked King Jeremiah reproved the impious King I neither read nor beleive that in Word he resisted the King of whose Peaceable Doctrine and no way seditious Life Calvin speaks in these words Jeremiah saith he doth not onely command the Jews to bear patiently the punishment inflicted upon them but will have them to be subject to Nebuchadnezzar and not onely forbids them to be seditious but will have them to be so Obedient from their Hearts that God may be witnesse of their free subjection and obedience these are the Words upon the 29. of Ieremy verse 7. Herod the Adulterer at the request of the Damosell Dancing before him beheaded Iohn The Innocency of the Prophet or the cruelty of the Tyrant was not unknown to Christ yet did He not revenge the Prophet by force of Arms He did not deprive the Persecutors of His Kingdom He did not deliver him unto Satan He did not animate the People against the Tyrant being an example unto us that we strive not against perverse Kings and such as are wickedly opinioned concerning God Ambrose did

not it selfe to them therefore the Son is not bound to appeach his Father nor the Wife her Husband nor the Servant his Master secretly inticing or forcibly compelling him to Idolatry and although the appeachment of Father Husband or Master is not expresly forbidden yet because God gave an absolute and perfect Law to which nothing may be added and from which nothing may be detracted that is understood to be forbidden which is not exprest but especially because Penall Laws are to be restrained as Tostatus hath it upon Deut. 13. q. 3. That which is not lawfull to do or at least which God requires not to be done against a Father an Husband or Master we may by no means do against the King who as is before said is the Father of His Country the Husband of the Common-wealth and the supreame Lord of all His Subjects Lastly this Condition is repugnant to the Evangelicall precepts for if they be Blessed Note who do suffer Persecution for Righteousnesse sake then are they not Blessed who will not suffer Persecution for Righteousnesse sake because in that they doe nor suffer but rise up against their Persecutors they are convinced of sinne and by sinning get to themselves Damnation The Third Moderating Condition David Paraeus When some horrible injury is offered them Doctor Owen Christ himselfe suffered horrible injury which Peter willing to Vindicate he was repressed by our Lord. The Persecutors in the times of the Primitive Church did afflict the Christians with horrible injuries and under Constantius the Arrian Emperor the Catholique Faith did suffer the most Horrible of Injuries which in the former and purer age of the Church did not so much as think of Revenge Baronius himselfe will witnesse it who writing about the Yeare 350. saith When Christians first began to be Antimonarchians Hee first the Christians Captain enraged with a cursed desire of reigning conspired against the Christian Emperors whereas in times past not so much as a Common souldier could be found who sided with the rebelling tyrants against the Emperors although they were Heathens and Persecutors of Christians From Christ those Christians and true Catholiks did the Faithfull learn their patience under the Turkish cruelty and the Protestants under the Popish Tyranny which I think Pareus I will speak freely The evils which follow upon the Doctrine of Antimonarchians You do horrible injury to Christ himself all good Christians yea even to mankinde by this your Doctrine which now rageth throughout the Christian World to the conspiracies of Citizens slaughters of Princes and proscriptions of Kings to the ruine of the Faith and almost utter destruction of Christianity it selfe Paraeus condemned by King James the Bishop of London and his Clergy and by the whole Universitie of Oxford From whence it was that the most Soveraign King Head under Christ of the Church of England the true Defendor of the Catholique Faith and assertor of the Christian Truth purged your Commentaries with sire The Bishop of London a Man greater than praise can make him born to the good of the Church of the Country and of Learning it selfe together with his whole Clergy condemned this your fourth question concerning the Civill Power of Heresie and Sedition Your foure Propositions brought to strict Examination the Universitie of Oxford did not weigh in a Popular Scale but corrected them by the Gold-Smiths Ballance and that by a Publike Decree of the whole Universitie Why might not our Soveraign King commit to the revenging Flames why might not the Orthodox Bishop passe sentence and condemne why might not the Academian Muses altogether banish what Christ the Apostles Fathers Schoolemen Protestants and more moderate Papists have all at all times in all places utterly rejected Of so great an heap I will give you a small handfull Antimonarchians opposed by Christ Christ I say unto you that ye resist not evill but whosoever shall smite thee on the one Cheeke turn to him the other also Math. 5.39 Apostles Peter This is thankworthy if a Man for Conscience towards God endure griefe suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults you take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God 1 Pet. c. 2. v. 19. Ancient Fathers Tertullian One Night could worke our revenge abundantly with a few fire-brands were it a thing lawfull with us to render evill for evill far be it that the Divine Sect should either seek revenge by humane fire or grieve to suffer that whereby it is approved So he in his Apology Tell me Paraeus how could Tertullian live under the Sword of Persecutors without horrible injury Nazianzen Julian was repressed by the Tears of Christians which many abundantly shed having that onely remedy against the Persecutors in Julian orat 1. They had other remedy Paraeus being Judge If Julian the Apostate the vilest of Emperours had offered some hainous injury to the Christians Ambrose It was required of me that I should appease the People I answered It was my part and Duty not to stir them up it was in the hand of God to appease them Epist 33. It had been here your part Paraeus to have stirted up a Popular Revenge for the hainous injury offered by the Arrian Emperor Prosper of Aquitania Let present evils be endured till the promised blisse be obtained let the unfaithfull be born with by the faithfull and the plucking up the Tares differed although the wicked rage yet is the cause of the just even in this time the better who by how much they are assaulted the more fiercely by so much they are Crowned the more gloriously Sent. 99. Declare to us Paraeus what shall be the violence of the wicked against the Righteous without horrible injury my dulnesse cannot apprehend it Bernard If all the World should conspire against me to force me to attempt any thing against the Royall Majesty yet would I fear God and not dare rashly to offend the King ordain'd by him for I am not ignorant how I have Read he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God Epist 170. to King Lewis Darest thou not Bernard to remove the horrible injury offered even to the whole Clergy all whose goods King Lewis had invaded and which was worse he would heare no admonitions for Amendment or Restitution as Robert Gaguinus hath it lib. 6. without doubt either Bernard err'd or Paraeus dotes School-men Let us turn aside if you please into the Schooles where presently will meet us our Countryman Alexander de Hales who concerning the Duty of Subjects towards their Princes has these words The evill ought to be subject for the fault of their unreasonablenesse but the good f●r that Duty they owe to the Divine Ordinance and the benefit of purging themselves From whence Ambrose upon that Princes are not a terrour c. If the Prince be good he

with the Sword Moses Gods Vicar He numbers the Heads of the Tribes constituted the Seventy Elders appointed the Tribunes Centurians Quinquagenarians and Decurians who ever acknowledged themselve nor Companions to Moses in Government but his Subjects And all the rest of the Kings alwaies chose to themselves Councellors and Inferiour Magistrates both to lessen their care and carefulnes and that they might have Helpers in handling dispatching their more difficult matters not that those Magistrates may make any Law to moderate the Royall Liberty or to revenge their Tyranny he affirms but proves not that the Inferiour Power is added to the Superiour for revenge and wrath If it be commanded it is presumption and shall procure punishment not reward because it redounds to the disgrace of the Creator saith Augustine that the Servants should be honoured the Head being despised and that the followers should be reverenced the Emperour being contemned This Addition therefore is point blank against the opinion of the Fathers and Protestants of whom we shall speak in due place as also the most Learned Men who have in this our Age illustrated the Civill Polity with their writings consult Bodine de Repub. lib. 2. cap. 5. the Apology for Kings cap. 27. Barclay against the Monarchom lib. 3. cap. 6. Berchet in explic controver Gallic cap. 2. Saravia de imper author lib. 2. cap. 36. Sigonius de Repub. Judaeor lib. 7. cap. 3. Note The Magistrates which are above the People are below the King whence it is that neither the People may resist the Magistrate nor the Magistrate resist the King without Sacriledge Christ himselfe hath taught and so the Apostles and the Disciples of the Apostles and all Interpreters of Divine and Humane Laws have taught us That the greater neither ought to he judged nor condemned by the lesser Neither was it ever lawfull for the Pope Nobility or People to chastise the King till Hildebrands firebrands were kindled to the setting on fire all Christendom This Doctrine therefore is novell and Insolent whereof there is not extant in either the Old or New Testament any Precept or probable Example If there be any let it be produced and I will yeeld my selfe conquered and become slave to the Fathers the Jesuits and to the Brethren the Puritans We have this truth cleared and confirmed in Writings which shall remain committed to Posterity by Thomas Bilson late Bishop of Winchester in the seventh Chapter of his Perpetuall Government of the Church and Peter Greg. Tholos de Repub. lib. 5. cap. 3. num 14.15.16 David Paraeus In whose power it is to constitute in their power it is to restrain or take away those who rage in a disorderly violence but they are constituted either by the consent of the People or by the Senate or by the Electors or by other Magistrates Therefore these doe well when they either restrain or take them away Doctor Owen This Assertion is Capitall which the Emperour will not admit the King will not suffer which Bellarmine himselfe doth affirme to be rejected by the consent of all Divines that it is not necessary for me to refute it David Paraeus A Magistrate that is mad is justly removed by Publique Authority as Nebuchadnezzer being turn'd into a furious Beast was driven out from the Company of Men Dan. 4.31 Doctor Owen The casting out of Nebuchadnezzar was extraordinary as there are many things by Divine command in the Sacred Scriptures How Nebuchadnezzar was driven out is uncertain which without Sacriledge cannot be drawn into example Howsoever the manner of his casting out is doubtfull and uncertain Calvin being Witnesse It is uncertain whether God smote this King with fury so as that he fled away and lay hid for some time they are the words of Calvin or that he was cast out by a Tumult and Conspiracy of his Nobles or else by the consent of the whole People This is doubtfull because the Histories of those times are unknown to us and that indeed he was not turned into a wilde Beast the same Calvin will tell us It is probable saith he that he was so astonisht that God left him the Forme of a Man but took away his reason This Calvin upon Dan. 4.32 From a Miraculou Act and from doubtfull and uncertain Circumstances to gather a sure and certain rule is the part of him who hath little Brains in his Head David Paraeus A raging and cruell Tyrant is like to a mad Man Doctor Owen All these are very ill compared together Every private Man is Armed by the Divine Law the instinct of Nature and publique Authority against Robbers and violent spoilers a Tyrant being seated in an higher Power is liable to punishment by no Humane Laws being safe in the height of his Empire Whence it was that David not ignorant of the Divine Ordinance in the Office of the Regall Order he honoured Saul a Tyrant and defiled with all kinde of wickednesse as yet placed in that same Divine Ordinance least he might seem to do injury to God who hath decreed honour to those Orders For the King hath the Image of God as the Bishop the Image of Christ So long then as he is in that Divine Ordinance he is to be honoured if not for himself yet for the Orders sake as Saint Augustine hath it The Reason not the same for a tyrant and a mad King in queast out of the Old Testament qu. 35. Neither in all things is the reason the same for a Tyrant and for a mad Man Tyranny doth proceed from Pride Covetousnesse Cruelty Wickednesse and innate Malice Madnesse doth not proceed but from ill affected Nature and the Laws do not punish Disseases but Impieties A Magistrate that is Mad saith Paraeus is justly removed justly good Sir that is just which agrees with the Rule of Justice this opposeth all Rule The Law of Christ deprives no Man of his Right by the Law of Nations Kingdoms are not possest by Vertue or Wisdom but descent The Civill Laws do not permit any defect in the mind to be any hinderance whereby Kings may be accounted Legitimate to whom they prescribe a Protector an Assistant or Minister of State to be appointed least the welfare of the Subjects and safety of the Common-wealth be put to hazard concerning whom consult the Apology for Kings cav 20. Barclay contra Monarch lib. 5. cap. 9. and Saravia de imperandi authorit lib. 4. cap. 39. David Paraeus The same is confirmed by worthy Examples both Sacred and Prophane The Israelites oftentimes by their Judges made Insurrection against the Neighbouring Tyrants by whom they were cruelly handled Doctor Owen There is nothing that can be produced so wicked so absurd or so foolish whereof an Example may not be drawn out of Sacred and Profane History but these examples Paraeus prove nothing Why the examples of Paraeus prove nothing because they are all either unlike or false or onely of Fact or unjust in

speaketh concerning the Kings of the Gentiles the Polity of the Jewes was not as yet constituted by the hand of Moses by me Kings raigne and Princes decree justice saith the Holy Ghost Prov. 8. Christ witnesseth that Pilat's power was given him from Heaven Saint Paul hath writ that there is no power but of God From him is the Emperour from whom he is Man before he be Emperour saith Tertullian From him he hath his power from whom he hath his spirit And as Irenius hath it The Earthly Kingdome is appointed by God for the benefit of the Gentiles and by whose command Men are borne by his command Kings are made Augustine is yet more plain and more full It is God alone who gives earthly Kingdomes both to the good and to the bad and this not rashly or as it were by chance because he is God but according to the order of things and of the times hidden from us but most open to himselfe Thus Augustine de Civ Dei lib. 4. cap. 33. Yet do the Papists and Puritans devise many things out of the Scriptures a thing usuall with Hereticks contrary to the genuine meaning thereof with which I will not detaine you they are so unsound and unsavory that they will deceive no man but such an one as is voyde of Reason or altogether ignorant of ancient History I have already spoken of Paraeus Bellarmine and Danaeus do most of all insist upon Examples of the tenne Tribes who revolted from their naturall King to a man of servile condition of the Men of Libnah and the Edomites who rebel'd against Joram And of the Kings Amaziah Vzziah and of the Queeen Athaliah to which I answer The defection of the tenne Tribes from their naturall King to Jeroboam the Rebellion of the Edomites and of the men of Libnah and the slaughter of Amaziah by the men of Jerusalem doe containe the Truth of the thing done but not the equity of the fact as Augustine most truly We may not therefore believe a thing must be done because we reade that it hath been done least we violate the Precept whilst we follow the Example In the History of Vzziah and Athaliah I see no difficulty nothing is there done which is not according to the equity of Reason and the prescript of the Law Vzziah being diseased could not be conversant in the affaires of the Kingdome by reason of the contagiousnesse of his disease he is removed from the company of the Courtiers and assembly of the People In the mean while his Sonne govern's the Common-wealth in his Fathers stead yet before the death of Vzziah he neither affected the name nor assumed the title of King And as for Athaliah Jehoida the Chiefe Preist shewed the surviving Sonne of the deceased King whom he had six yeares hid from the fury of Athaliah the Murderesse of the Royal ofspring to the Princes and Centurions whom he had gathered together at Jerusalem They all acknowledge the Child their true King being so acknowledged they crown him being crowned they salute him with joyfull acclamations God save the King after that neither by their own nor by the Priestly Authority but in the name of the lately crown'd King they deposed Athaliah as guilty of Treason and Murder by force and arms Jehoiada acted the chiefe part but not as chiefe Priest but as chiefe of the Tribe of Levi being ancient in yeares expert in the divine Law provident against the dangers which are imminent the Preserver of the young King and the next Kinsman The law of God doth not permit to touch Kings with a violent hand to revile them with a rayling tongue or to thinke of them with a malicious heart The Gospell of Christ forbids resisting Tyrants Peter and Paul forbid resisting Persecutors and Slayers of Christians Bellarmine answers that Laicks of what order or dignity soever they are are thus bound by the Law Gospell and Apostolicall Precepts but not the Roman Bishop the Vicar of Christ and the universall Lord of the whole World for which he is stiled by Danaeus the grand Impostor a flatterer of Capitoline Jove a Lyor a Blasphemer and a Mad-Man But saith Paraeus in his foresaid book pag. 49. The Pope and the Church have not power to depose a King that is an Infidell because deposing ought to be according to the Laws But the Laws do not grant this power to the Pope and to the Church but to the Brethren of the Kingdome and as Danaeus hath it it belongs to the godly States in every Common-wealth to chastise those Kings which offend and depose those which are obstinate The Pontificians againe cry out a Puritan by whom he is stiled an Atheist a Politician and Seditious and affirme that this power of chastising Kings and deposing them doth no wayes properly belong to the Barons or Peeres of the Kingdome or to the Multitude for the defect of coactive Jurisdiction which Vassalls for so they speak have not against their Lords So Jaco Anthon. Marta de jurisdict lib. 1. c. 23. num 18. and Carerius de potest Pontif. lib. 2. cap. 3. num 6. Whether Learned Sirs will you have the Pope or the Popular State the Avenger and Judge of wicked Kings Neither I confesse ingeniously doth please me But that I may ingratiate my selfe into their favour whom I so lately provoked I suppose both opinions to be true that all Kings Emperours and supreame Magistrates are obnoxious to the Pontifician and to the Tribunitian Power Yet that any man be justly condemned the course of the Court it selfe doth require these two things the desert of the Crime and the order of Power I would have those Puritan-Papists to tell us from whence this Pontificiall and Popular power is Without doubt it is not from Christ who yeilded both obedience and tribute to Tyberius Caesar no good Emperour who reproved Peter smiting with the sword and commanded him to put it up Not from Paul who will have every soule subject to the higher Powers Not from Peter who subjecteth all without difference to the King and to those not Tribunes which are constituted by the People not Legates which are sent out from the Pope but Magistrates which are appointed by the King from whence it necessarily followes that all coactive power and secular dignity doth issue from the King whose sacred Majesty he that violates shall be guilty of treason not so much against the humane as against the divine Majesty and what Bernard long since said ad Archiepiscop Senonens may I now say to the Commonalty and Nobility Let every Soul be subject if every soule then yours who hath exempted you from the generallity the that endeavours to exempt attempts to deceive rest not upon their councells who though they be Christians yet thinke it a disgrace either to follow the example or obey the precepts of Christ Epist 24. The sixth Reason from the Authority of the Fathers In the primitive Church of an unspotted faith

Great Brittain France and Ireland against the Papall Usurpation against Bellarmine Becanus and other Popish Parasites of the same mold The Printer Dedicated that Tract to the same Soveraigne in which the foundation of that Pontifician Tower is rased the sophisticall disputes of Bellarmine are confuted the vain Arguments of Becanus refell'd and the cunning Impostures of the Canonists forcibly retorted Yet as if he had drunke deep of the * A Lake that Watereth the Borders of Genevah and Lausama Lemanian Lake he brandishes the inferiour Magistrates Sword against Kings and greatest Emperours and affords no lesse dangerous than impious Arms to the confused and incomposed multitude and this in many parts of that Tract out of which receive these few selected The violence and tyranny of the Superiour Magistrate ought to be restrained by the Ordinary Power which in every Polity is either the inferiour Magistrate or the consent of the People This David Paraeus has quaest 4. Tract de potest civ rat 1. Against Bellarmine Becanus Danaeus Paraeus and the rest so devoutly addicted to the Popedome or the Presbytery I confidently aver That neither the Roman Bishop the States of a Kingdome nor the Tumultuous Commons have any power over Kings which offend or violate the Laws which they call Fundamentall and this I shall manifest and evince by many strong Reasons that I may give some light to the weaker sort of Men distracted with variety of Opinions that as Men placed in a Watch-Tower they may a far off discover or as Men sayling in the Haven they may without danger escape those gulfes of errors and Whirle-Pooles of Falshoods with which the Writings of Papists and Puritans do plentifully abound But in the first place to the taking away all ambiguity I will explain the Terms of the Question The Terms of the question explained I call him King who hath a Supreame Power subject to none In the Word Resist I comprehend all Power of gainsaying all commotion or confederacy against the Royall Majesty a Violator of the Fundamentall Laws is according to the Theologicall Politicks such an one as doth overthrow either all or the chiefest establisht Laws of the Common-wealth The Puritan-Papists tell us the Fundamentall Laws are I know not what contracts or conditionall Covenants betwixt the King and the People entred and establisht by Oath at the Kings first Inauguration which being broken they will have the People free and loose from all Bonds of Allegiance and Religion to their Soveraignes the Kings being ipso factor null and devested of all authority As if that Sacred Majesty given by God were confer'd by the People and that upon certain conditionall Laws at whose pleasure it is to be resigned Which madnesse I will clearly refute from the Dictate of Nature the Law of Nations the Civill Law Canon Law from Sacred Scripture Orthodox Fathers and the most famous Pastors of the reformed Church who as they have bid adieu to the Popedome so have they not sworn to the Dictates of the novell Presbytery But first give me leave to shew the seditious agreement of Papists and Puritans against the Majesty of Kings The agreement of Papists and Puritās against the Majesty of Kings Robert Bellarmine an excellently Learned Cardinal most accurately skilfull in unloosing the Knots of Controversies yet Lib. 5. de Pontif. he doth so involve this power of restraining Kings with so many subtilties that he receives no better stile from Carerius than Atheist and Politician Yet under the Maske of Mathaeus Tortus doth he impose the same upon the English Papists as the foundation of the Catholique Faith And in a Tract concerning the Temporall Power of the Pope against Barclay he concludes the same clearly and briefly from many Arguments reduced to foure heads First from the authority of some Writers Italian French Spanish German and English of whom Gregory the seventh is the first Nicholas Sanders the last he the Head this the Tayle of that Beast in the Revelations Secondly from good Scripture but bad interpretation Thirdly from politicall Reasons Lastly from Examples Of all them which stand on the Presbyterian side Lambertus Danaeus is the most Learned and in resolving controversies the most perspicacious After those many and wearisome labours against the Pontificians and Lutherans when he was now grown old he put forth his Christian Politie as his last work and in lib. 3. c. 6. he propounds as he calls it this noble question whether Christian Men and Pious Subjects may with a good Conscience change and abrogate a constituted Polity and chuse to themselves another He answers That the Supream Magistrate violating the Fandameutall Laws of the Kingdom may be deposed by godly Subjects and that with a good Conscience And lib. 3. c. 6. he affirmes That Judgement upon the Superiour Magistrate who exceeds the bounds of his duty or performs not his duty as he ought belongs to the States of the Kingdome And this he endeavours to fortifie with a soure square Army like to the Macedonian Phalans First from Politicall Reasons Secondly from the authority of Gods Word Thirdly from the Opinions of the Prudent namely John Calvin Brutus Junius and George Bucanan Lastly from Examples and those of the Ancients namely the People of Israel the Lacedemonians Athenians and Romans also those of later times namely French Spanish Germans English and Scotch And against Bellarmine Controvers 3. lib. 3. c. 7. he confesseth plainly That the King which is an Hereticke ought to be depesed but that not by the Bishop of Rome but by the States of the Kingdeme Those things which have been occasionally here and there toucht upon by others are all collected into one summe and digested into Method by David Paraeus which he concludes in foure Propositions each of which I will set down least I should seem to let any thing escape The first Proposition David Paraeus The Bishops and Pastors may and ought upon the consent of the Church deliver up the contumacious Magistrates unto Satan untill they do repent Doctor Owen first Propesition of Paraeus confuted In these few words do lurke not a few errors Contumacy is a Law Terme which the Lawyers define to be a Disobedience against the Superiour as often as the Subject being cited in a due course of Law doth not appeare doth not obey or depart without Licence The Supreame Magistrate being inferiour to God alone is not subject to Man and therefore neither can nor ought to iucur the guilt of Contumacy Some speak with good reason saith John of Paris that not every offendor is a fit matter upon which or can work with effect but that offendor whe is a Subject Kings cannot properly be sayd to be contumacious and therefore the foresaid power has not effection the Offender unlesse when subjection is presupposed which makes a Man to be a fit matter upon which the Keyes may have their Act with effect de potest Regia Papasi c. 13.

wickednesse with whose helpe he being assisted he cannot forcibly be reduced unto order without bloody Slaughters and the publike Calamity But a Kingdome never becomes so miserable under that King though most cruell as for the most part it happens to be in a civill Warre Gods providence in the order of Superiority So that God seems in nothing more to have provided for the publike good than by setting the Superiour above the Inferiour and subjecting the Inferiour to the Superiour that no man presume to rise up against the King whom God hath placed above all and being so placed he hath not left to humane Tryall but reserved to his divine Judgement He blasphemes therefore against Heaven who attempts evil in heart mouth or hand against a Tyrant justly possest of his Kingdome And thus farre concerning the Propositions of Paraeus and the Reasons of them not good and well applyed Reasons but weake and frivolous framed to the deceiving of the People and ruining of Kings and their Kingdomes I will now returne to the confirming the truth of my Assertion concerning the absolute power of Kings Those men agree well amongst themselves concerning the thing it is concerning the manner that Bellarmino Danaeus and Paraeus do contend neither may we see the contrary in the rest of the Followers of both Sects I insist onely upon these three because they are of so great note amongst their followers that none of the Papists will contradict Bellarmino none of the Puritans gainsay Danaeus and Paraeus Know these and know all The first Reason of the absolute power of Kings from the Dictate of Nature Nature it selfe doth oppose this Puritan-Papisticall Tenet from which fountain the Authority of Rule the Necessity of Obedience the Honesty of Life the filthinesse and punishment of Vice the goodnesse and reward of Vertue do streame forth And those Wise Men whose Prudence in making Laws Antiquity so much admires discerning good from evill just from unjust honest from dishonest have published most wholesome Laws Whence Basil the great The Princes of the whole Earth are sacred even for the propriety of nature it selfe to good who her selfe bestows this Empery upon them in psal 44. In this saith Cyprian whole Nature doth agree there is one King to the Bees one Captaine among the Flocks one Governour among the Herds de vanitate Idol St Ambrose lib. 6. cap. 21. concerning the works of the six Dayes he observes an admirable dispensation of Nature in the hives of Bees Bees defend their Kings with the chiefest protection they think it honourable to dye for the King the King being insafety they alter not their judgement they change not their mind the King being lost they forsake their faith of keeping their offices because he who had the principallity is slaine The same hath Hierome lib. 1 epist 3. Let him that fights against Monarchs goe to the Bees let him consider their wayes that he may learne to feare God and honour the King From the dictate of Nature I hasten to the Law of Nations the Lawyers call that the Law of Nations which is equally observed by all Nations Whence Augustine It is a generall covenant of humane society to obey their Kings confess lib. 3. cap. 8. The second Reason of the immunity of Kings from the Law of Nations Although the Acts of Ancient Kings for a great part of them are lost by the injurie of the Times or sloth of Men yet from them that are extant in the Reliques of Historyes it will evidently appear both that all Nations have obeyed their Kings and that all Kings have excercised an absolute Authority circumscribed with no bounds of conditions Let the Annalls of all Nations be turned over it shall no where be found that such a bridle is cast over Kings that they must submit their scepters to the will of the People or that they should receive from the Nobles a Law to moderate their Royall Jurisdiction Which thing Cicero hath observ'd in his oration for King Deiotarus before Caesar most expert in the Law and History ' s. It is so unusuall a thing saith the Oratour for a King to be guilty of a capitall crime that before this time it was never heard of Artabanus also Vice-Roy of Persia not without a Jeere deriding the lightnesse of the Graecians mocked Themistocles You Grecians saith he care for nothing more than Liberty and Equallity but we Persians do think it most excellent and most sacred of all things to give Honour and Reverence to the King as to the Image of the living God who rules and governs this whole World What Artabanus delivered by the instinct of Nature Augustine and others of the Ancients delivered by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost whose sayings produced in their place will have the more Weight That which those Politicall Divines do so often repeate concerning the Lacedemonians Athenians and Romans is a meere dreame After that Theopompus the last King of the Spartans had joyned to his Sonne and his future Successors the Ephori the name of King became an empty Title amongst the Lacedemonians having altogether lost the authority which before Theopompus all the Kings had absolute and most free The Athenians after that they ceased to be under Kings they endured no kind of Government long being impatient of the present and desirous of new at length they were ruined by an Anarchy The People of Rome bewiched with the sweetnesse of liberty after the example of the Graecians they changed their Kingdome into a Democracy and established a Law never to reduce their Kings But by their forraigne Warres and civill Discords they learnt at last that there was no Remedy for their decaying Country but to be governed by one Therefore they created a dictator of a free Power and Rule free from giving any account of his Words and Actions from whom there should be no appeale and to whom was permitted to imprison punish with bonds or death any man of the Nobles or of the Patrician Order the cause not declared What the Puritans have devised concerning the States of the Kingdom in England France and Scotland I dare not call them old wives fables since that they are shamful lyes so lately broached For how great the Power and how sacred the Majesty of our Kings is I had rather draw from the full fountain of the ancient Parliaments of this Kingdom and of men most expert in the Laws of England living in former ages then from the muddy standing pooles of Modern Politicks There is in Thomas de Walsingham an Epistle in the name of the whole Kingdome from the Parliament held at Lincolne about the Yeare 1301. inscribed to the Romane Bishop wherein the Lords Spirituall and Temporall with all the Commons doe speake to the Bishop concerning the preheminence of the King of England in these words following We know most holy Father and it is a thing notorius from the first institution of the Kingdome of England as

well in the times of the Brittains as of the English that certaine and direct power of Rule hath belonged to the King and that the Kings of England by the free preheminence of the Royall Dignity and by the custome observed at all times have not answered neither ought to answer any thing before any Ecclesiasticall or Secular Judge c. Henry de Bracton Lord Cheife Justice of the Kings Bench under Henry the third a Man most learned in the English Laws hath these words There are under the King free men and servants and all under him and he under none but God onely If a man be injured by the King since no urit can run against the King there is place left for petition that he would correct and amend his fact if he do not it shall be a sufficient punishment that he may expect God his avenger Concerning Royall Charters or the Acts of Kings neither private persons nor Justices ought to dispute This is cited in that Oration of the most honourable Lord Elismer Viscount Bareley late Chancellour of England most expert in the Laws of England which oration he made in the Exchequer chamber in the yeare 1609. pag. 108. it is cited also by the Lord Bishop of Rochester de usurp pontif potest lib. 1. cap. 8 What was the authority of the States of France in former times over their Kings which offended Pasquerius doth relate lib. 1. antiquit Gallic Lewis the 11. did urge the Senatours and Councellours that they would be the Authours of a certain Edict which they refused to doe because it seemed to be unjust The King full of wrath threatned death to the whole Senate Vacarius the President of the Councell approched the King with the whole Senate clothed in Purple the King astonished at the comming of the Senate all in Purple he asked wherefore they came and what they would Vacarius answered for them all We seek for death which thou so wrathfully threatned us with Know this O King we will assuredly dye rather than do any thing against our Consciences and duties Thus Pasquerius Those States had learned not to punish the King offending but to lay down their lives at the will and command of the King And in their generall Councell held at Paris Anno Domini 1614. it was propounded That there was no earthly power spirituall or temporall which hath any right over the Kings of France to remove the sacred persons of Kings from their dignity or to absolve their Subjects from their Loyalty and Obedience which they for ever owe them upon any cause or pretence whatsoever When the Scotch Nobility had endeavoured Sedition against Ferchardus the most wicked King of the Scots Colmannus the Bishop did restrain them and admonished the King that the divine vengeance would shortly overtake him The King a while after being wounded at a hunting sick of the lousie disease he cryed out That all the evills were befalne him because he hearkned not to the holy Bishop when he so well admonished him Afterwards Colmannus comforting him he repented and quietly departed Well done good and faithfull Bishop Thou recalledst the People and Nobles from Insurrection thou repressedst the Seditious thou didst openly admonish the King and that modestly yet freely too thou didst not doe it privily with raylings to the stirring up the people Thou perswadedst that he is not to be chastised at the pleasure of the States but left to the divine Revenge I will adde some heads of the Royall Law among the Scots out of Hector Boethius lib. 12. In profane matters let no man determine the Law but whom the Royall Majesty shall appoint Let all Law be determined Assemblies cited Councells called in the name of the King alone Let no man obtain the Magistracy by any other than the Kings authority If any man shall sweare Allegiance to any but the King let the crime be Capitall Let no man possesse ground farme or field by any other then the Royall Authority If any man shall enter league with another professing faith and loyalty against any man let him be punished with death If any man without the command of the King shall have men in Arms let him expiate his crime with death If any of the Nobles shall contract affinity with those of another Dominion let him be punished with Death These and more like unto these are to be found in Boethius As for other Kings and Kingdomes let them look to it whom it concerns So that we have the Imperiall highnes of our Lord and King then which the Sunne hath not seen any thing more just more learned or more holy preserved whole and entire against all the machinations of Papists and of Puritans Blessed be the name of the Lord who in these our day's wherein he foresaw so many scandalls of Hereticks and Schismaticks would arise hath placed King James in the height of this Dominion to the comfort of the Christian World the increase of the Catholick Faith and the safety of the Churches Peace that the Royall Power and the Sacerdotall Office may still flourish The third Reason of the Royall Prerogative from the authority of the Civill Law Amongst the Interpreters of the Civill Law doe every where meet us these expressions of the Emperour that he is the a The Emperour doth punish his Subjects wheresoever they offend and the Reason is because he is of Right the Lord of the World So Baldus C. lib. 4. tit 42. de Eunuehis Lord of the World b Although he be the Vicar of God Baldus C. lib. 6. tit 8. de jure aureorum annulorum Gods Vicar on earth c Jacobus Omphalius lib de officio potest princip c. 10 the living Law d The Prince hath the fulnesse of Power Baldus again lib. 4. tit 52. de commun rerum alienat the fulnesse of Power e The Prince is free from the Laws because he is subject to none neither is judged by others Hostiensis Sum. lib. 1. Rubr. 32. de officio legati and he cites ff lib. 1. tit 3. l. 30. where the same words are had the free and f The King in his Kingdome can do all things even out of the fulnesse of power Corsetus Siculus tract de potest Reg. part 5. num 66. absolute Power g He that disputes concerning the power of the Prince whether he hath done well or no he is sacrilegious So the Marginist upon Angelus Perusinus C. lib. 9. tit 29. de crimine sacrilegii l. 2. Disputation concerning the Priviledge of the Prince is sacrilegious h Instit lib. 1. tit 2. de jure natural Gent. civil and Claudius Cantiuncula in the same place that which pleaseth the King hath the force of a Law i To restraine the Supreame Power belongs to them who neither acknowledge the Imperiall Power nor how great a distance their is between a private fortune and the Regall Dignity Doctores in