they are sworne to acknowledge as their onely supream Governour Rom. 13. The Law of God teacheth us that we must not resist the higher powers and shews us that they that do so shall receive to themselves damnation They set up resistance and Rebellion for a vertue and slander that holy Law with the opprobrious title of Malignancy wherewith this brand those that submit thereunto Mat. 26.52 The Law of Christ is that whosoever takes the Sword against the power of the Magistrate shall perish by the Sword But they teach men and practice it themselves to take the Sword and ravish it from the supreame power and to use it not only without him but against him to maintaine their wicked Doctrines their Schismaticall designes and unjust oppressions and to beate down both truth and righteousnesse The Law of God tels us in the judgement of David that men ought to fighâ—â—â— defence of the Kings Person insomuch that David in 1 Sam. 26.16 tells Abner and binds it with an oath That he was worthy to dye because he had not kept the Lords annointed though so wicked Tyrant as was Saul And our blessed Saviour the Sonne of David tells Pylate Iohn 18.36 That if his Kingdome had been of this world then his Servants would have fought that he should not have beene delivered to the Iewes But they teach men not only to hold the contrary but bind them by wicked oathes never to interest themselves nor to assist any in the defence of the King and punish those that have followed this rule of the Scripture with imprisonment death and confiscation of goods The Word of God teacheth us to performe our oaths and to keep the Kings commandement and that in regard of the oath of God and designed a heavy judgment unto Zedekiah for breaking the oath wherewith he had sworne unto Nebuchadnezzar But they teach and practice not only the breaking of the sacred oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance but doe also compell men to sweare down those oaths and to vow perjury unto Sathan by the name of the great and holy God making it the instrument of wickednesse and using it for a seale to confirm their obligations unto the Prince of disobedience The Word of God teacheth people to study to be quiet and to do their owne businesse They teach them to forsake the businesse to raise tumults and disturbances in the Church and State The Law of God commands the Ministers of the Gospell to preach the Gospell They forbid men to preach the Gospell unlesse they will countenance their seditious practices The Word of God teacheth that men should be allowed and approved and ordained by imposition of hands that are to undertake the Ministery in the Church But now alas the Priests of Ieroboam of the meanest of the people intrude into the exercise of the Sacred Function in the Church without any allowance from just authority or competent furniture of solid knowledge And what is all this and much more of the like but to say of Christ Nolumus hunc regnare super nos we will not have this man raigne over us The symplicity of the Gospell is of too low a pitch to sort with the deep plots wise contrivements of our politicke braines it is much too plaine to serve the turne of those great designs which we have in hand Good God vindicate the Glory and Authority of thy truth But I must hasten The Judgement of God me thinkes is riding so post upon us that I am afraid it will prevent my admonition it will scarce give me leave to pursue my purposed intention My meditations are even overwhelmed with the flouds and deluges of those various calamities that have broken forth upon us in this wretched Nation we may justly crie out of them in the voice of the Psalmist The flouds are risen O Lord the flouds are risen the flouds have lift up their voice the waves of the Sea are mighty and rage horribly all our comfort is that the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier and as the same Psalmist telleth us in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 29.10 The Lord sitteth upon the floud or deluge to rule and moderate it for the good of his people and his owne glory and the Lord remaineth a King for ever were it not for this we could have no hope to escape the swallow of those devouring surges that do assault us Do but open your eyes and looke about you and you may see your selves encompassed with deepe and threatning waters on every side miscarriages in the manner and mannage of the work of instruction whilst the people and the Ministers both joyne together to seduce one another The one kindling the wasting flames of seditious Factions corrupt Doctrines clawing the itch of scabbed and putrified eares and the other blowing those fires and encouraging those evill performances in their Teachers by their applauses and bribing the poisonous tongues of those that love the reward of unrighteousnesse keeping up the market and commerce of destruction betwixt them The one buying and the other selling wicked deceits and spirituall impostures and the mutuall ruine of one another and the Truth So that as Learned Graser speaketh Neque facile dici potest utra pars alteram fortius ducat aut ducatur It is hard to determine whether the people be more guilty of corrupting the Ministers by their acclamations and bribery or the Ministers of the deceiving of the peole by their pernitious and sophisticated Doctrines And of those that are not for this evill Traffique yet there are too many as the evill effect thereof seemes to demonstrate that for want of the right gage of Christian prudence to steere and regulate their unguided zeale which they have indeed toward God but not according to knowledge runne from one errour into another and sometimes perhaps leape out of the pan into the fire that I say not out of Gods blessing into the warme sun that like the foolish horse that hath no understanding blench into the pit to flie from the fluttering of a bird in the hedge who may well be compared with Dionysius Alexandrinus unto an unskilfull Gardiner or dresser of an Orchard who when he findes a crooked plant instead of straitening it bends it as much cleane on the other side or unto some unexperienced Physitians who to cure the patient of an Ague or some cold disease by over-strong Physick begetteth a feaver in the stead of it and doth not somuch remedy as change the malady They are very much for Reformation and it is not to be denyed but they light upon some things that are fit for animadversions but whilst they pull up the teares they plucke up the wheate with them They abhominate superstition and therein they do well but in the overmuch abandoning that they fall into the opposite mischiefe and run into profanesse They are much they say for the clearing of the Truth for the purity of Worship for the
speakes of in the Character that he gives too truly of the common devotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where mens profit is there is their Religion If any here shall urge the practice of ancient times after the Apostles wherein the Bishops were sometimes chosen by the people I answer first that it was not constantly so Secondly that the practice doth not so much convince the legallity of that course as the evills that it produced doth demonstrate the inconveniency for as one saith Vt eligeret excitavit tumult us Commisit varias caedes infinitis prapè malis turbavit Christianam remp as Tumult was the leader on to those elections so they were the occasions of divers murders and of disturbing the Christian Common-wealth with almost infinite mischiefes Thirdly A facto ad jus non valet argumentum it doth not follow that it was just because they did it for examples are to be examined and corrected by rules and as the same Authour of whom I last spake hath well determined Non quid aliquando factum fuit sed quid perpetuò ficri debet perquirendum est We ought not so much to enquire what hath sometimes been done as what ought in all times to be done But alas nothing is well done now unlesse the franticke people have the conduct and manage of it Omnes nempè imperatores in hac mundisenect â natura gignit nullos milites as he also goes on Nature is growne so strong in this old age of the world that shee brings forth all Emperours no Souldiers in these daies But as Lycurgus once answered a certaine man that would needs perswade him to leave the Government of Sparta to the people Go thou saith he first and leave the mannage of thy house to them and if that course shall please thee well then come and make it thy request that the multitude may have the rule and regiment of all things So say I unto those that would have the matters of the Church or of the State in these daies left unto the people let them first go and resigne up the rule of their private Families and estates unto them and indeed perhaps they had almost as good do it before hand for it is most likely to follow after with speed for where there are so many Masters of all things no man is like long to be Master of any thing ex pede herculem wee may make a pretty guesse at it by what the motions towards such a Government have already given us a taste of But were it so that the right of Election were in the people yet if the right of Ordination be not in them likewise there will be a maime and failing in that Commission which is pretended for an universall Ministry and will any say that this is needlesse or this also belongeth unto the people Indeed they have gotten great promotions of late since the old plea of Korah and his company that was once buried alive with the Authors hath gotten above ground againe among us in these daies and men of any ranke dare tell both Moses and Aaron both King and Minister that they take too much upon them seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord Both Royall and Ministerial power for it seems it is their fate to suffer together are made a scatter among the people It was shrewdly spoken by Tertullian in his Book de praescriptione adversus Hereticos c. 41. Nusquam faciliùs proficitur quam in castris rebellium ubi ipsum esse illic promereri est There is no readier way to preferment then to be in the Rebels Tents where the very presence of men is meritorious How easie is it to get up from hence both into the Pulpit and into the Throne Alphonsus a Castro I confesse ascribes it unto Luther as if it were his Doctrine how justly I have neither oportunity nor lust now to examine That all Christians are Priests and that they are consecrated to this Office in their Baptisme and that they have all equall power without distinction either of Sexe or Condition but yet so that it is not lawfull for any to exercise this power Nisi per consensum communitatis But by the consent of the Community Quia quod est omniū communiter nullussingulariter potest usurpare nisi vocetur because no man cansingly usurp that power which belongeth unto all in common unlesse he be called as if the power of Ministry or Priesthood were derived first to the Community and then from the Community to him that doth exercise the Ministry or Priesthood A fancy that may well contend for the prize in point of wisdome and commodiousnesse to Gods people with that which our State-Levellers have taken upon them to vent that will have the multitude to be the originary King as it were put them both together and make them a Melchisedech a King and a Priest and then they will be well contented and live in peace if we can but perswade them to admit of one condition that there may bee but one head and one heart amongst them all and that all the rest may be cut off and ripped out otherwise we may conjecture without the helpe of an Ephemerides or consulting with the Starres what excellent Grapes are like to grow upon such Thornes In the meane time I cannot but wonder me thinks that either of these Pleas for civill or Church power should be so Authenticall with some in these daies and yet that Korah and his followers had such ill luck as to speed no better then they did in their suit for the like especially for the latter since they had not only the same privileges of nature with these but seeme to have altogether as seemely a title from the Scripture had they but had the skill of our moderne interpretation for what these men find for their purpose in our daies from Saint Peter and Saint Iohn That God hath made us Kings and Priests or a Royall Priesthood c. The like they might have urged for ought I know for themselves Exod. 19.6 where God promiseth the people upon their obedience that they should be a kingdome of Priests unto him And yet however it came to passe the calling of Aaron and his Sons and their Successours and of their Brethren the Levites was their enclosure without the Election or Consecration of the multitude It might suffice to discover the folly of these pretenders to tell them what exception one hath made against the force of that argument which they would draw from the named places Si nihil est Sacerdotis officium quia omnes vocaniur Sacerdotes oportebit eadem ratione te fateri ut Christus nihil sit supra quemquam corum de quibus dictum est nolite tangere Christos meos If the office of a Priest or Minister shall be nothing because all are
called Priests by the same reason thou wilt be compelled to confesse which God forbid that Christ is nothing above any of those of whom it is said in the 105. Psalm Touch not my Christs for so the Originall will well beare and so both the Septuagint and the Vulgar translate it but if what hath been said already will not suffice to weane them from so fond a mistake of those places before mentioned of the Revelation and St Peter let them take their choice of wiser Commentaries upon those Texts and be perswaded either to embrace that of Beda that the faithfull or people of God are called Priests because they are united unto Christ who is the great and eternall Priest or that of St Augustine not much unlike it remembred by Fevardentius in his notes upon Irenaeus Sicut omnes Christianos dicimus propter misticum chrisma sic omnes Sacer dotes quentam sunt membra unius Sacerdotis As we call all Christians because of the mysticall anointing so all are called Priests because they are the members of that one Priest which is Christ Iesus Indeed that Priesthood of Gods people is no more but their Christianity and I pray God make all to be Priests in that sence that is to say good and humble and faithfull Christians and upon that conditition I should wish them Kings too that they may moderate and keepe under their unruly affections with the Scepter of our Royalty which is the grace of Gods Spirit and the power of his Word not excluding but actuating sound reason therein as an usefull and commodious Minister They would bee the better Subjects for being such Kings But we have before our eyes too numerous a brood of mischiefs from that womb to wish that it should teeme any more either to justifie the multitude in taking upon them the holy Functions in the Church themselves or to allow them to have power to ordaine others thereunto Could St Paul have found in his heart to have given it unto them we should not have been against the claime that they make unto it But then hee needed not to have left Titus at Crete for that purpose or let them tell me if they can better than St Paul How and from whom Timothy received his ordination it was not sure from the people but from Paul and the Presbytery from Paul the Prelate for so we may well call him and I would to God we could leave snarling at harmelesse names assisted or attended envy not the honour of this terme unto the Apostle with a company of Presbyters or Ministers of the Church in which we have me thinkes a cleare and excellent patterne of the Primitive and genuine course of Ordination which God of his mercy restore amongst us in this Church and Nation See the first of Timothy 4. ver 14. Neglect not the gift which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery And 2 Tim. 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I put thee in remembrance to stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the pitting on of my hands Compare the places together and see how sweetly they are argued to make up our differences had we moderate spirits and did wee not seeke our selves more then Christ Iesw to make good our owne humours actions and interests yea I would to God I might not say our Covetousnesse our Pride and other things as bad or worse perhaps then these more than to procure peace in the Church there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both the gift and in both there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imposition or laying on of hands St Paul and his Assistant-Ministers both joyning in Ordination and Ministeriall Collation of that gift if any shall straine the word Presbytery to make it a foundation for their skewed Synedrion consisting of Lay and Clergy Elders together ipsi viderint let them be sure they can justifie it for my part I confesse I cannot But then me thinkes there is some difference remarkeable in the first place it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the latter it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery But by the laying on of my hands whereby if I be not mistaken in the Criticismes of that Language the Apostle may seeme to intimate by the variety of the phrase the inequality of concurrence betweene himselfe and the Presbytery in the act of Ordination which was conferred by him as a more principall agent or at least as an instrumentall one in an higher degree as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by being a causall may import but with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery as his Assistants and subordinate concurrents therein which may helpe to cleare us in the discovery of the right and exact manner of the performance of this worke and of the true Apostolicall Government in the Church which is then most exactly framed and most authentically mannaged when it is administred by one of supereminent power as succeeding the Apostle therein in his part and with the Assistance of other Ministers as subordinate helpers unto him therein which as it hath this and divers other arguments to convince it to be the true and Primitive Forme of Government so the admission thereof amongst us If private Interests interpose not might satisfie all reasonable parties amongst us and be a great meanes to recollect the scattered Members of this poore distracted Church unto one another againe in unity and order and to soder up those sad breaches and divisions of our Ministery which have been much fomented and encreased whilst the Competitours for Government and their adherents I meane the Episcopall party and the Presbyterian have been so farre affected with their severall extreames and each to the setting up of themselves in a kind of solitarinesse of power I speak of some not of them all that nothing can serve their turnes but the exclusion of one another whereas if they could be content as they ought to live and dwell together with their severall due portions in the administration of Church-matters the Lord might be much glorified in a happy and sweet compliance and each might yeeld comfort and encouragement to one another for want whereof their mutuall quarrels and contentions whereby they have throwne durt upon one another have had no better effect for ought appeares then to render both sides even the whole Ministery contemptible to the people and given occasion to a third party of utter enemies to all kind of order to lift themselves up and trample upon them both let me not be thought presumptuous if I offer this earnestly unto the timely consideration of all our Fathers and Brethren in this Kingdome least the continuance of their divisions prove the ruine of them both and of this poore Church betwixt them and beseech them in the bowels of Christ Jesus that they would ponder it seriously whether there have not been
publicke interest and were not demolished by the perpetuall and daily battery of Ordinances Then we were like an health full body wherein the bumours and qualities keeping their due proportions with one another Breake not the preservative League of nature Then we were like an entire fortresse strengthned by the cement of solid unity against the assaults of invading enemies Then we were like a well walled City without breach yeelding security to the inhabitāts therof and defying the attempts of the most potent adversaries Then we were like a Beautifull Body wherein the parts being fitted with an amiable proportion unto one another with out Convulsions Distortions or Dislocations and contributing joyntly unto the generall comlinesse by the tribute of their particular features enjoyed the mutuall sweetnesse of one another under the splendor of a royall and Princely head from whom they received life and orderly motion under God The severall faculties exercising their proper and vitall operations to the good and preservation of the whole and answering the visible musicke of the outward beauty with another more active and intellectuall harmony Then we were like a specious and well-composed Building erected upon the foundation of solid well-framed and well-established constitutions and covered with the Golden roofe of a glorious Monarchy the one to support it and the other to protect it and the Corner-stones thereof were all of Unity We were like the Scythidns Sheffe of Speares or Arowes bound up together which neither Spaine nor France could breake nor all the force of sorraigne enemies burst untill the devill and our owne pride and faction broke the Band asunder and so robbed us at once both of our unity and strength and rendered us a prey to a more contemptible people than either We were once like a sound and untoitered Vessell sailing upon the Main in a pleasant and faire season But now alas Quantum distamus ab illis How are wee changed from what wee were The health of our body languisheth through the Warres and Quarrells of the contrary humours and qualities The strength of our Fortresse is broken and demolished by breaches and divisions The Walls of our City are Battered and beaten downe by the Hellish Engines of our bitter strifes and contentions The foundations of our building are cast downe and the golden roofe thereof is broken up and hath left us open to the stormes and tempests to perpetuall ruine and confusion and the cement of peace being broken and dissolved the parts of our Edifice moulder away from one another and in stead of a faire structure we are become a heap Our sheffe of Arrowes are divided from one another Our poore Vessell is become tottered and broken splitted upon the Rocks of our owne Discords beaten with the surges and billowes of these unhappy divisions which are still amongst us So that wee are now become like the Ship wherein the Dissciples were in the eighth of Matth. The stormes are risen upon us and wee are even covevered and overwhelmed with the waves and too few there are that will wake our Iesus by their earnest and hearty prayers and supplications that hee may rebuke these Windes and these Seas and restore us unto a calme The judgement of the Midianites and of the Philistines is fallen upon us Wee goe on madly Beating one another that our enemies may make a prey of us all The flames of our intestine Broyles have seized upon us and we are wasted and consumed in the raging heat thereof Thus is our peace vanished and gone And when Peace is gone liberty is not like to stay behinde Heretofore wee enjoyed the happy freedome of Subjects and of Christians no Bonds for the most part upon the Body of this Nation but the Golden Chaines of those wholsome Lawes which were framed by the Authority of his Majesty with the generall consent of the people of the Land in the representative Body thereof which were unto us Chaines rather of Ornament than Slavery and did not so much limit as preserve our Freedome nor restraine us from using it so much as others from hurting it for though the blindnesse of our minds together with the inordinatenesse of our affections hath heretofore so bew itched us that wee could not see our owne happinesse Yet me-thinks by this time our sad Experience which is the Mistresse of Fooles may informe us that the Power and prerogative of the Magistrate and the ready subjection of the people therunto is the surest guard of the liberty of the people under God The removall and violation whereof hath not rendred us as wee soolishly dream't so much masters of our selves as those that promised it us absolute Tyrants at their pleasure over us and us the Vassals unto their irregular and unsatiable appetites who having ravished the Sword out of the lawfull Magistrates hand and gotten too much of the strength of the Kingdome into their owne use them both after all their faire protestations and pollicitations to the contrary to compell the poore abused people of the Land to prostrate their Estates Possessions and their personall services to the maintainance of that bondage which they have brought upon them and to the strengthning of that intollerable yoke which they have forced upon their necks and it were well yet that they had gotten but so much wisedome into so sad a bargaine as to discover and acknowledge their folly and how at length to seeke a remedy thereof by endeavouring the restitution of Law and Monarchy that they would but now at length see the palpable difference betweene one Lord and many betweene one gracious and pious King and thirty thousand Tyrants whose variety of designes and inclinations renders the obedience of the people as perplexed and impossible as the rigorousnesse of their Commands and infinity as it were of their exactions makes the burden oft their oppression intollerable And whilst we mistooke Anarchy for Liberty wee have found that true that was spoken by an accute Politician of this nation Qui propter libertatem suam omnia agit arbitrio suo propter libertatem alienam omnia patitur arbitrio alieno Hee that for want of a lawfull Government by reason of his owne Liberty is left to doe all things at his owne Will By reason of the liberty of others is exposed to suffer all things at their Will But wee would not bee perswaded of these Truths not yet will wee though wee have bought the knowledge of them so deare Wee would not believe we were free enough in our possessions or persons untill by dismissing those guards which the Law and the excellent Government of this nation had set upon them we had set others free to enslave them both at their owne wills as the whole Kingdome hath found by many heavy evidences Thus whilst they vvould not live in an orderly subjection to their Superiours for their good and preservation it is most just in God to make them live in villany under their equalls and
had it we did not prize it nor esteeme it as we ought to have done neither did we walke worthy in any measure of so great a favour from thee our God But under the covert and shadow of this thine holy Ordinance we have conspired against thee and have committed great impieties to the dishonour of thy Name And by these our sins we have most wickedly forfeited our title and interest in such thy goodnesse which forfeiture of our sins thou hast most justly taken by letting loose the spirits of sedition and Rebellion of division and faction like tempestuous whirlewinds upon the face of these Nations which have overturned the frame of rule and order amongst us and have battered downe the Throne of thine Annointed and changed our happy Monarchy into Anarchie and confusion and in the ruines of this thine excellent Ordinance the wastes and decaies of all other blessings are befallen us the purity the order and beauty of Religion the equall and upright administration of justice Innocency of life and honesty of conversation All the obligations of naturall civill and Christian endearements the offices of love neighbourhood and charity and together with these our outward peace our safety our security our plenty our Trade and Traffique our liberty and what not have received their great and deplorable impairements by that great eclipse of Soveraignty in these Kingdoms and now we are become as the fishes of the sea as the creeping things that have no ruler over them spoyling and devouring and destroying one another raging and madding and suming against one another thrusting one another out of their rights and possessions reproaching and defaming and worrying one another with such monstrous and mercilesse cruelty as is not to be found amongst the most savage and wildest Creatures in the world much lesse is answerable in any degree either to the meeknesse of Christians or the sobriety and equanimity of reasonable men and Christians This O Lord is the sad and wretched condition that we are in And unlesse there be some timely remedy our house that is thus divided must needs fall and our Kingdome that is thus set against it selfe must needs be brought unto utter desolation But Lord who is it that can cure us of this our great and manifold malady Who is it that can water the dying root of this our Tree That can repaire the mouldered foundation of this our Building It is thou only O Lord our God that canst do it unlesse thou help us nothing can helpe us unlesse thou be mercifull unto us we shall have no mercy upon our selves Lord we are falling into the precipice of destruction if thou catch us not with the Armes of thy mercy we shall be broken and dashed in peeces we are overwbelmed in the floud of our fins and miseries if thou hold us not by thy heavenly hand we must needs be drowned and choaked in the deluge send downe thine hand from above and deliver us out of the deep waters Thou canst whensoever it shall please thee put a stop unto our raging calamities and snatch us out of the jawes of that ruine which hath seized us Let it be thy heavenly pleasure we beseech thee to looke downe in thy tender pitty upon the great confusions and desolations of this Kingdome and to command some deliverances for us we are here before thee O Lord God as a company of poore weatherbeaten sheepe scattered upon the mountaines without a Sheepheard ready to become the prey unto every wilde and savage beast Oh thou great Shepheard of the sheep seek thy flock and gather them unto thy selfe we are before thee like a poore tossed and tottered Vessell without a Pilot ready to dash in peeces upon every wave and to split upon every Rocke to be made the mockery the game and the pastime of these violent and contrary winds that are risen amongst us Lord save us or else we perish O restore our Shepheard unto us and enfold us againe within the defence of that happy Monarchy which thou hadst placed over us Yea Lord be thou both our Shepheard and our fold to keep us safe under the guarde of thy providence that the evening Wolves and the ranging Bears may no more ravish and devoure the poore people raise up againe the Throne re-embellish the Crowne and cement and strengthen the broken Scepter of this Kingdome that Piety and Justice may be revived and Peace and Prosperity with all other blessings may be restored unto this Nation re-enforce we beseech thee those wholsome Laws and constitutions which have been heretofore the Conduits of so much security and happinesse unto this Land A bolish we beseech thee all unlawfull and usurped power and cancell all Arbitrary unjust and Tyrannicall Ordinances and set up that true and legitimate Government againe in this Nation which hath heretofore been so fruitfull in blessings unto our Land Give wisdome and fortitude and the spirit of Government unto thine Annointed and all those that shall be sent of him that they may be able to weild this thy great Ordinance and to mannage it to thy glory and the good of thy people to the punishment of evill doers and to the praise of them that do well And put the spirit of subjection and obedience into the hearts of the people of this Land that they may yeeld a willing a conscionable and cheerefull submission thereunto as unto the Lord and not unto men looking upon the Authority of the Magistrate as upon a sacred streame flowing unto them from the heavenly fountain of thy divine power that they may reverence it and as an instrument of thy mercy and great goodnesse unto them that they may embrace it that no unquiet or distempered motions may hereafter be raised amongst us in this Nation from private and wicked interests or from ambitious turbulent spirits to disturbe the happy peace and tranquility of thy people through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the King O Lord thou righteous Judge of heaven and earth who hast committed all power unto thy Son Christ Jesus both in heaven and earth and hast revived the rayes of his supreame Authority and Majestie unto Kings and Princes whom thou hast ordained to be the Rulers and Governours of thy people to the end that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty We beseech thee looke downe in mercy upon the Person of thine Annointed our gracious King the light of our eyes and the breath of our nostrils who suffereth at this time for the sins of us and these Nations under the cruelty and oppression of seditious and wicked men Consider his Enemies how many they are and what a tyrannous hatred they beare against him Consider O Lord how low they have brought him what great bondage and affliction they have laid upon him how they have imprisoned his Person robbed him of his revenue killed and massacred his Loyall and faithfull People bereaved him
with those wicked and seditious designes that the devill and their carnall interests commend unto them for the ruine of the publike one while corrupting them by false interpretations another while depraving them with impious additions of their owne pretended visions and revelations either fained by themselves or inspired into them by the spirit of errour God having given them up to strong delusions that they should beleeve a lye because they have not received the love of Truth that they might be saved Yea least there should be left any impediment to crosse them in their waies and to hinder the spreading of their hellish errours it is thought there are some that have taken the boldnesse to pull the Scriptures downe from the Throne of excellency and infallibility wherein God hath placed them as being the dictates of his owne infallible Spirit and to equall with them or preferre before them their owne wicked fancies and the very witchcrafts of Sathan Hence it is come to passe amongst us that the light of true Christian knowledge is so eclipsed amongst us like the Sun in caudâ draconis in the Dragons taile as the Astronomers speake for what else are these wicked Sophisters these bold disturbers of the Church of God than the taile as it were of the great red Dragon sweeping downe the starres of heaven the true and genuine lights of the Church and of Divine knowledge Hence it is that humane interests have gotten so much the start of sincere piety and are become so impudent as to take upon them to give rules unto the Spirit to silence the preaching of he pure Word of God to build sanctuaries and asylum's unto the grossest sinnes whereby they are become incurable Gangrenes and noli me tangeries in the ulcered body of this Church and state Hence it is that there are so many supersedeases countermands and inhibitions served upon the Scripture from the Chancery of the corrupt judgments or rather affections of wicked politicians to reverse or silence the Edicts decrees of the most high God to embezill and invalidate the Records of heaven making them subordinate to the impious and unsanctified ordinances of men and allowing the sacred and unchangeable Oracles of the Almighty to be of no force any farther than they can be wrested to a seeming and forced compliance with those wicked principles and ends that worldly minded men have entertained and proposed for the consummating of that worke of ruine and confusion that they have undertaken which must be asserted and made good with a non obstante to all that the spirit of God hath declared to the contrary whereby they seem to deale in some sort with Christ Jesus as with his substitute under the colours and faire promises to render him glorious not only attempting to make void the authority of his Propheticall office by disallowing his directions to be an infallible and all-sufficient guide into all truth but also to depose him from the Throne of his Royalty by repealing and abolishing the force of his divine Lawes which he hath made for the rule and government of his people whensoever they lye opposite to their seditious and pernitious judgements as if no act were high enough to shew the absolutenesse of that supremacie which they challenge unto themselves unlesse the Precepts of God as well as the Lawes of men be made the Pavement for them to trample on at their pleasure in the passes and repasses that they make for the carrying on of the bold adventures of their awlesse and Lawlesse tyranny Would you not thinke them the heires if not the Ghosts of that inso lent Romane Senate in the time of Tiberius And that as they refused to admit of our Saviour for God because he was consecrited a God before he was so decrecd and approved by the Senate so these had determined to reject him from being God because he was not deified by their ordinance and received not has Godhead from them What is it else for them to take upon them as they do to set up their owne rules in oppostion to the cleare dictates of his Law and Gospell The Word of God teacheth us to celebrate the memorialls of the great blessings of God and to solemnize his praise for them in the Congregations of his people Psal 103.1 c. Psalm 42.4 They teach men to abolish the memorials of the great blessings of Salvation wrought for us by Christ and forbid by their command and hinder by force the Ministers of God from assisting the People therein Psal 2. Psal 95. The Law of God teacheth us to serve the Lord with feare and to reioyce unto him with trembling to bow downe and kneele before the Lord our maker They teach men or at least allow them to abolish outward reverened from the Divine service 6. Com. The Law of God teacheth us that we shall do no murder They teach men and engage them to murder their Brethren and to destroy the lives of those that are innocent for the compassing of their wicked purposes and to make good the usurpation of their unjust power and greatnesse 8. Com. The Law of God teacheth us that we shall not steale They justifie the robbing and plundering of their Brethren the good and peaceable Subjects and even the King Himselfe without any colour of Law or conscience and without so much as allowing many of them a hearing The Law of God teacheth us that we must be mercifull as our Father which is in heaven is mercifull They teach men to be cruell and bloudy as their father in hell is cruel bloudy who was a murderer from the begining 9. Com. The Law of God teacheth us that we must not beare false witnes against our neighbour But now men are encouraged and it is thought suborned too to beare false witnesse against their Brethren that they may get Naboths Vineyard into their possession 1 Cor. 9.13 14. The Law of God teacheth us that the Ministers of the Gospell ought to live of the Gospell as they that waited at the Altar were partakers with the Alear But now men are taught to deprive the Ministers of God of their lawfull supportance and livelihood neither allowing them to enjoy their portions nor to exercise their callings The Law of God forbids men under the danger of damnation to doe evill that good may come These teach men to do manifest evils under the pretence of holy purposes but indeed for the procurement of greater evils making one wickednesse the scale to get up to another Acts 23.5 The Law of God tells us that wee must not speake evill of the Ruler of the people They do not only speak evill of him themselves but countenance the same teach others to do so 1 Pet. 4. 2 Pet. 13.14 The Law of God teachethus that me must submit to the King as Supreame and to Governors as unto those that are sent of him They teach the people to despise and disobey the King whom
inferiours to their ruine and destruction And now what is become of our Liberty surely there is scarce any other Liberty now left us but such a liberty as the poore Sheep have that are deprived of the Shepherd and are free to be devoured by every ravenous and savage beast We tooke our fold for a prison our Castle of defence for a Dungeon our Guardian for a Iaylor and our Security for Restraint We have broken down these Fences and now we rejoice much in our liberty Such a kinde of liberty indeed as the Lord threatned to the people Ierem. 34.17 wherewith he rewarded their Oppression of their Brethren A Liberty to the Sword and to the Famine and to the Pestilence A Liberty to the Oppressour and to the Plunderer and to the Thiefe A Liberty to the Murderer and to the Waster and to the Devourer Liberty to Desolation and liberty to destruction Heretofore no man could bee deprived of his estate or ejected from his possessions without a legall triall according to the knowne and established Lawes of the Kingdome No man could be adjudged unto death but according to the same established Lawes and that upon evidence and conviction by the triall of 12. men It was then no usuall course to imprison men at pleasure without any crimes laid unto their charge nor to keep them in prison six or seven yeares together without affording them a hearing and tryall being desired If there were some miscarriages of this Nature in the Government heretofore yet they were but rare like Comets and wonders as there are some extravagances even in the worke of nature it selfe and must be expected sometimes in the best Government by reason of the infirmities of men the miscarriages of Instruments the fallacies and deceitfulnesse of Representations and the manifold difficulties and impediments of Government which hath been too little considered heretofore and should have beene cured with medicines and not worse Maladies But now our Estates are ravished from us by violence by those new orders of Theeves called Committy-men and Sequestrators without so much as any Charge objected against some of us And if others have had some Charge laid against them yet how often have they beene charged with their Duties in stead of Crimes and condemned not for breaking but for observing the Lawes of God and of the Land and that without any due hearing or any the least shew of any legal Conviction witnesse those numerous multitudes of Loyall and Orthodox Ministers that have been whifled out of their livings and charges by the illegall storms of a Committee-tempest upon no other ground but a sic volo sic jubeo or because their Consciences would not stretch unto disloyalty upon the tenter-hooks of their oppression and that without so much as a forme of any legitimate triall and eviction Our Bodies are hurryed away to Iayles and Prisons without so much as any Cause declared or a Summons premised to come in to our Answer or the least Colour of Law to countenance it and both these clearely against the Petition of Right and the great Charter of England When some have been kept for divers years and have never so much as heard either why or wherefore but only to satisfie the pleasures of our new Lords The lives of the honest and loyall people of the land have beene sacrificed to the lust of cruelty and oppression by arbitrary Sentence and without any regular proceeding for committing Duties against their ungodly Designes for offences against no law either of God or man that allotted any capitall punishment thereunto but such as were made by an invalid power and that after the Facts conmitted which if allowed who can tell what to doe or when hee does well or ill or who can be secure of his life Witnesse the bloud that yet still cryes and speaks no better things it may bee feared than the bloud of Abel of Strafford Laud of Yeomans and Bowcher of Tomkins and Chaloner and many others in Coole bloud and deliberately massacred besides those many thousands destroyed by the lawlesse sword of Rebellion And witnesse that bloud now lately shed not by Lawes but by false glosses upon the Lawes rather the bloud of loyall Captaine BURLY And that this mischiefe may be secured if possible from all remedy it is become an high offence so much as to aske the Restitution of our freedome witnesse the barbarous massacring of the late Surrey Petitioners at Westminster And what freedome is left where wee may not so much as petition for our freedome Or what security remaines unto any either of life or liberty under them who take away mens lives but for asking their Liberties But what doe we talke of the Liberty of Subjects looke upon your King Yea let mee say unto you in Pilat's words unto the Jewes but in a better sense and with a better affection Behold your King and see the very Grave and Tombe of your Liberty in his base and unworthy Captivity and Bondage The Lord grant it a resurrection by his speedy deliverance and restitution But this is a subject both for the horrid impiety of the Actors and the Glorious and Christian patience of the Royall Sufferer now made nothing but a Royall slave by their wickednesse too full of Emphasis for mee to venture it upon the poverty of my Pen in that haste that I am in Consider it and let it divide your hearts at once into an abomination of their wickednesse an admiration of his courage and tolerancy and a lamentation of your owne wretchednesse and slaverie The Crowne whereof is the Captivity of the Crowne and your gracious King for though it bee true indeed that this is the just reward of the unthankfull murmurings and discontents of the people who were weary of their owne happinesse and have thereby betrayed themselves to misery and ruine and of that too much fondnesse of outward and mistaken liberty which whilst wee held at too great a rate and preferred inordinately before Peace and greater blessings and esteeming it above that true liberty and freedome of spirit which consisteth in an ingenuons and unservile Dominion over our selves our passions and affections which if we had not betrayed in our selves no man could have taken from us it being such as a noble Christian heart may enjoy in the greatest outward slavery and bondage in the closest Prisons the deepest Dungeons and under the tyranny of the most wicked oppressors Yet the visible fountaine of this Calamity is the desolation of just and lawfull Government amongst us And I need not labour much to tell you of the sad impairements and dissolutions of that amongst us You have the sad spectacle thereof daily and hourely before your eyes You may yet remember the time though it hath had a long interruption when the Crown of Majesty was the Ornament of this Nation and upon that glory was a defence when agracious and pious King was the Crowne of his Crowne and
with the vertues and Clemency of his Person adorned the greatnesse and dignity of his office When the Throne and the Scepter of lawful and just power armed as it were with coelestiall lightning and strengthned with the sinew of the Divine authority from whence it was orderly derived and received as a Ray of that majesty and Authority which is in God himselfe summoning the Consciences of men unto obedience in the vertue and force of the divine Ordinance yeelded protection unto the lives and liberties of the People security unto Religion and divine worship solidity unto the Peace and Vnity of this Church and nation and was like a Cherubim and a flaming sword against the invasions of Violence Injustice and Oppression Iustice was dispensed in the right Channells being derived from the proper Fountaine the Lawes which are it were the life-bloud of a nation ranne freely without such obstructions they now meet with through all the veines and vessels of this lody and yeelded unto each Member its equall and just supply at least in so good a measure and manner as was sufficient to preserve the Body in good liking and prosperity and though the secret Briberies and partiabities of some inferiour instruments of Government caused some smaller distempers in this kinde yet they were such as might have had easie cures and did not at all destroy the constitution of the body Wee were governed by authenticall and certaine Rules and were not subject unto Mushrome Ordinances those abortive issues of the wombe of Sedition those unformed lumps and dead motions of a diseased and dropsie state begotten by no legitimate Father but by the Incubus of a rebellious people and Army There was then no professed and ordinary infliction of punishments without any offences going before them no offences then without their precedent Lawes to give the lye to the Blessed Apostles who tell us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That sinne is the transgression of the Law 1 Iohn 3.4 And againe By the Law is the knowledge of sinne Rom. 3.20 And againe where no law is there is notransgression Rom. 4.15 Then Iustice was administred in the right method there went a faire hearing before cndemnation and the sentence of the law was the Vsher to Execution It was managed by the right and genuine instruments enabled by authentical Commissions from the supreame Magistrate the force and vertue whereof was like a lively sap dispensed from the Royall Root into those severall Branches of Government which made them beare the fruits of Peace and lustice and safety to the people The motion of Rule was like a naturall motion derived from the head unto the members by those legall Officers which were as the Nerves and Sinewes of this body propagated from thence into the severall Regions and parts thereof And the Scales and weights and the mensures of justice were the same unto all sorts without any open or professed inequality when the eyes of the Iudges were fixed not on the Persons but their Causes without such diversification of the sacred inviolable rules of right as now according to the severall inclinations of parties and interests There was not then as now one measure for a Cavalier to yeeld him nothing though his case bee never so cleare and just and another for a Parliamenteer to yeeld any thing he will stand for though his pretences and colours bee never so weake Men were not then wracked and goard between the two horns of that unreasonable Dilemma nor crushed to peeces in the presse of that Pharaohtick and unconscionable oppression under which the poore loyall party many of them suffer at this day and many more would suffer were it not for the mercy of some good men that they have to deale with and such whose hearts God hath made tender towards them in these hard times to bee laid open to have all their debts exacted with all severity by their Creditors and in the mean time to be utterly disabled for the recovery of their owne or the enjoyment of their estates Whereby they should be furnished to pay that which is required of them which is much worse than to require men to make Bricke without straw It was not so with us heretofore But now the Ornament and Defence of the Royall Crowne is cast downe and that gracious and pious Prince that adorned it is now sent away from the Throne of his Majesty to bee the ornament of a Iaile or Prison of whom wee may say more truely than he of Socrates Carolus carcerem intravit ignominiam loco detracturus King Charles by being so long a Prisoner hath taken away the ignorminy and reproach of imprisonment and I might perhaps be pardoned if I should say that it may be lookt upon hereafter rather as a reward than as a punishment and truly it may bee considered by those that are the Authors thereof that it is no good way of Reformation to bring the Prisons into too much credit unlesse they meane to set up their owne trade by it and to encourage men to rob and steale and to murder on purpose that they may have the reward of a Iayle or Prison But to goe on now in stead of a just and legall Authority that awfull Bond that layes hold upon the very soule an illegall and usurped power is set up which a rectified Conscience so farre disclaimes that it accounts it a sin to submit unto it and there is like to be little peace or setled order in that rule where obedience it selfe is a transgression Strength and outward force may prevaile for a while and make slaves mor than subjects of a people it may binde their carkasses but it is Authority that rules the heart and that is none where it is not just The great comfort and encouragement of every duty unto man is when it strikes through them unto God This is it that doth at once secure and sanctifie and sweeten our performances Where Intrusion and usurpation is there all these are wanting unto the soule What hope then is there that an usurped Dominion should either recover or maintaine a setled concord in this Nation where it is opposed by so many branches of just Interests against it and cannot in any likelihood be held up but by great oppressions of the people which must needs make the yoake thereof too irkesome to bee borne either with long Peace or Patience The Laws of the Kingdome are obstructed and intercepted those true conceptions are stifled and destroyed by the adulterate superfaetations of Ordinances The Great and once awfull and venerable Court of Parliament that was the wombe of our wholsome Laws is degenerated into Factions and become the Seminary of Sedition and instead of being the great Counsell of the King is become his enemy and whilst that which was ordained for the Physick of the Kingdome is enforced upon us for a perpetuall Diet as it usually falls out it is become mortall unto the body and in stead