power or priviledge to our Parliament as to make orders and ordinanees without the consent and contrary to the will of our King much lesse to leavy monies and raise armes against our King for I conceive the Priviledges of Parliament to be Privatae leges Parliamenti Priviledges of Parliament what they are a proceeding according to certain rules and private customes and laws of Parliament which no member of the Houses ought to transcend whereas the other is privatio legum a proceeding without Law contrary to all rules as if our Parliament had an omnipotent power were more infallible then the Pope to make all their Votes just and their sayings truth I but to make this assertion good that the Parliament in some cases may justly take armes and make warre upon their justest King if they conceive him to be unjust it is alledged that although the King be Singulis major greater then any one yet he is Vniversis minor lesse then all therefore all may oppose him if he refuse to consent unto them I answer that the weaknesse of this argument is singularly well shewed in the Answer to the Observations upon some of his Majesties late answers and expresses Pag. 11. 38 39 40. and I will briefly contract the answer to say the King is better then any one doth not prove him to be better then two and if his Supremacy be no more then many others may challenge as much for the Prince is Singulis major a Lord above all Knights and a Knight above all Esquires he is singulis major though universis minor and if the King be universis minor then the people have placed a King not over 1 Pet. 2.23 but under them And Saint Peter doth much mistake in calling the King Supreme and they doe ill to petition when they might command and I am confident that no records except of such Parliaments as have most unjustly deposed their Kings can shew us one example As Ed. Carnarvon and Richard the second that the Parliament should have a power which must of necessity over-rule the King or make their Votes Law without and against the will of the King for if their Votes be Law without his consent what need they seek and sollicite his consent But the clause in the Law made 2. Hen. 5. cited by his Majesty that it is of the Kings regality to grant or deny such of their Petitions as pleaseth himselfe That the King is universe major greater then all proved and the power which the Law gives the King to dissolve the Parliament and especially the words in the Preface of cap. 12. Vices to Hen. 8. where the Kings Supremacy not over single persons but over all the body politique is clearely delivered God having given and the people having yeelded their power to their King they can never challenge any power but what they have derived from their King doth sufficiently shew the simplicity of this Sophistry and prove that the King being invested with all the power of the people which is due to him as their King he is the onely fountaine of all power and justice so that now they can justly claime no power but what is derived from him and therefore it is the more intolerable that any man should usurpe the power of the King to destroy the King 2. They will say that Salus populi est suprema lex the good of the people is the chiefest thing that is aymed at in all government Reason 2 and the Parliament is the representative body of all the people therefore if any thing be intended contrary to the good of the people they may and ought lawfully to resist the same I answer and confesse Sol. that there is no wise King but will carefully provide for the safety of his people because his honour is included therein and his ruine is involved in their destruction but it is certaine that this principle hath been used as one of our Irish mantles to hide the rebellion of many Traytors and so abused to the confusion of many Nations for there is not scarce any thing more facile 2 Sam. 15.4 then to perswade a people that they are not well governed as you may see in the example of Absolon who by abusing this very axiome How easie it is to perswade the people to rebell hath stollen away the hearts of many of his fathers subjects for as Lipsius saith Proprium est aegri nihil diu pati it is incident to sick men and so to distempered minds to indure nothing long but foolishly to thinke every change to be a remedy therefore the people that are soon perswaded to beleeve the lightest burthen to be too heavy are easily led away by every seducing Absolon who promise them deliverance from all their evils so they may have their assistance to effect their ends and then the people swelled up with hopes cry up those men as the reformers of the State and so the craft and subtilty of the one prevailing over the weaknesse and simplicity of the other every Peere and Officer that they like not must with Teramines be condemned and themselves must have all preferments or the King and Kingdome must be lyable to be ruined But you will say Repl. the whole Parliament cannot be thought to be thus envious against the officers of State or thus carelesse of the common good as for any sinister end to destroy the happinesse of the whole I answer Sol. that Parliaments are not alwaies guided by an unerring spirit but as Generall Councels so whole Parliaments have been repealed and declared null by succeeding Parliaments How a faction many times prevaileth to sway whole Councels and Parliaments as 21 Rich. 2. c. 12. all the Statutes made 11 Rich. 2. are disanulled and this in the 21 Rich. 2. is totally repealed in 1. Hen. 4. c. 3. and 39. Hen. 6. we find a totall repeale of a Parliament held at Coventry the yeare before and the like and the reason is because many times by the hypocritical craft of some faction working upon the weakenesse of some and the discontent of others the worse part procuring most unto their party prevaileth against the better Besides all this The originall of Parliaments why they were at first ordained I conceive the originall of Parliaments was as it is expressed in the Kings Writ to consult with the King De quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis regni they being collected from all the parts of the Kingdome can best informe His Majesty what grievances are sprung and what reparations may be made and what other things may be concluded for the good of his Subjects in every part And his Majesty to informe them of his occasions and necessities which by their free and voluntary Subsidies they are to supply both for his honour and their owne defence In all this they have no power to command their King So Io. Bodin de repub l.
Tyrants never implored the aide of the inferionr Magistrates or superiour Nobility either by force to escape their hands Why the holy Saints obeyed the unjust Tyrants or by violence to resist their Power for they thought it more Honour unto God and far better to themselves that the just should unjustly suffer for righteousnes sake then under the colour of justice undutifully to resist and unjustly to rebell against these unjust Persecuters And yet some men are not ashamed to averre A strange Position that meere private men and inferiour Subjects if their King as a Tyrant should invade them like a Robber or Ravisher may defend themselves and oppose the Tyrant as well and as violently as they may resist a private Thiefe or a high-way Robber But how untruely they do avouch this thing will plainly appeare if you consider how disjunctive these things are and how unjustly they are aleadged for this purpose Confuted for a Chirurgion launceth a man and draweth his bloud and so doth the thiefe or a robber but hee deserveth a reward this a rope The Tyrant hath a just power though he useth the same unjustly so hath not the thiefe nor the robber So the Prince sometimes doth in some sort the same thing and it may be after the like manner as a thiefe or a robber doth as often as with a strong hand he taketh the goods of his subjects and forceth the rebellious unto obedience But will you say that both of them doe it by the same right I hope not for God gave the power and the sword unto the Prince and he as the Judge of our actions useth the same advindictam for the punishment of our offence but the thiefe or the robber usurpeth the sword and abuseth the same ad rapinam to our destruction and therefore whosoever saith that a subject hath the same reason to rise against his Prince that punisheth him as a traveller hath against a robber that stealeth from him may wel be ashamed of such doctrine that carrieth so little shew of any truth But you will say Ob. the Prince that is a Tyrant punisheth for no fault without any just cause nay although unjustly and against all truth as Saul persecuted David and put to death the harmlesse Priests and David did the like to Vrias Achab to Naboth Ioash to Zachary Manasses to Esay Pilate to Christ Nero to Peter and perhaps Theodosius to the Thessalonivns may they not resist insuch a case when they are thus punished and persecuted without cause I answer that under Saul David Achab Sol. Ioash and Manasses there lived many faithfull Priests and Prophets How the Saints at all times suffered never resisted their Kings that were both upright for life and excellent for knowledge and in the dayes of Christ Zaccheus Nicodemus and Gamaliel were inferiour Magistrates and were also pious men and skilfull in the understanding as well of Politique as of Divine affaires and we are sure that no age brought forth either more learned Bishops or holy Saints then the Apostles and Disciples of Christ that lived under Nero and those excellent Fathers that were in the time of Theodosius and yet never any of these not one of them all shewed us this resisting way to escape the force of tyrannie but it hath beene always the doctrine of Christ and his Church that Kings and Princes offending the laws and transcending the bounds of their duties have onely God for their revenger and ought not to be resisted by any man or any kinde of men though they should never so much abuse that power which they have received from God And therefore Christ himselfe and all his Saints Christ and his Apostles perswede all men obediently to suffer not onely suffered their greatest rage but also exhibited all honour and shewed all reverence unto their most cruell Persecuters and they perswaded all others both by their precepts and examples to doe the like and that not onely for feare of wrath but also for conscience sake because the King is Gods Steward which Christ hath set over his whole family and if the Steward like the evill servant in the Gospel shall begin to despise his master neglect his dutie smite his fellows and dissolutely goe on to eate and drinke and to be drunken yet not all the whole family not the Priests nor the Nobles nor the Commons nor yet all together have any power or right to displace that Steward which the Lord hath appointed over them but they with patience must expect and wait for the comming of their master which onely hath authority to call him to his account and to displace him and dispose of him at his pleasure Besides 3. Degrees of men we know that among men every one is either superiour inferiour or equall And 1. The superiour is no way subject to his inferior 2. The inferiour is every way subject to his superiour But 3. An equall hath no power nor authority against his equall As for example Exod. 18.21 in the Common-wealth of Israel there were Rulers of thousands and Rulers of hundreds Rulers of fifties and Rulers of tens Tostatus in Num. 25.9 and those of tens were over the people those of fifties were over the tens those of hundreds over the fifties those of thousands over the hundreds the 70. Elders over them and Moses as the King over all and hee was subject neither to any of them apart nor to all of them together but onely unto God himselfe Ambros in Ps 50. and therefore as S. Ambrose saith he was obliged by no Laws because Kings are free from the bonds of offences and cannot be called to their punishment by any Statute Tuti imperii potestate being safe from men by the power of their Dominion But then you will object Ob. If the Tyrant may thus do what he will without resistance then he may destroy the whole Society of men and especially the Church of Christ when the worse part that is the Tyrant and his Flatterers shall take and roote away the better that is the true servants of God I answer that the society of men and the communion of Saints Sol. the Church of Christ and the Common-wealth are continued and preserved not by any humane policie but by the divine providence which useth the power and policie of men to doe it and yet contrary to their power and beyond all their policies God preserveth his Church suffereth not the same to be destroyed by the subtilty or cruelty of any Tyrant whom he can bridle when he will and either put a hooke in his nostrills or cut him off at his pleasure and though this our God when he will and as long as he will suffereth wicked Kings and Tyrants to reigne and rage over his people and disposeth the Ministery of those evill Governours for the punishment of ungodlinesse or the tryall of our faith yet he is no lesse mercifull and good unto
every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King c. whereas he might well understand that the same act is oftentimes ascribed aswell to the mediate as to the immediate agent as Samuels anointing of Saul and David Kings denyeth not but that God was the immediate giver of their Kingdomes and the Author of that Regall power for God anointing Saul Captain over his inheritance 1 Sam. 10. and by the mouth of Nathan he telleth David 2 Sam. 12. that he anointed him King over Israel and Solomon acknowledgeth 1 Reg. 2. that the Lord had set him on the seat of his father David 1 Reg. 11. and Abija in the person of God saith unto Ieroboam I will give the Kingdome unto thee and yet it is said that all the people went to Gilgal 1 Sam. 11.15 and made Saul King before the Lord and the men of Iuda annointed David King of Iuda 2 Sam. 5. and Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet annointed Solomon King that is God annointed them as Master of the substance and gave unto them Regall power in whom is all power primario perse and the Prophets anointing them as Masters of the Ceremony and declared that God had given them that power Constituere regem est facere ut regiam potestatem exerceret Pineda de reb Solom c. 2. And therefore the power and authority of Kings is originally and primarily as S. Paul saith the ordinance of God and secondarily or demonstratively it is as S. Peter calleth it the ordinance of man when the people whose power is onely derivatively makes them Kings not by giving unto them the right of their Kingdoms but by receiving them into the possession of their right and admitting them to exercise their royall authority over them which is given them of God and therefore ought not to be withstood by any man And this Anti-Cavalier might further see that Saint Peter meaneth not that the King is the creature of man or his office of mans Creation but that the Laws and commands of Kings though they be but the commands and ordinances of man yet are we to obey the same for the Lords sake because the Lord commandeth that Every soule should be subject to the higher powers Or if this will not satisfie him because the Greeke word is not so plaine for this as the English yet let him looke into Pareus that was no friend to Monarchie Pareus in Rom. c. 13. p. 1327. and he shall find that he doth by seven speciall reasons prove that the authority of Kings is primarily the ordinance of God and he quoteth these places of Scripture to confirme it Prov. 8.15 2 Chron. 19.6 Psal 81.6 Ioh. 10.34 Gen. 9.6 1 Sam. 15. 1 Kings 12. 2 King 9. Dan. 2.21 Iob 34.30 Eccles 10.8 and to this very objection he answereth that the Apostle calleth the Magistrate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an humane ordination or creation not causally because it is invented by man and brought up onely by the will of men but subjectively because it is borne and executed by men and objectively because it is used about the government of humane society and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of the end because it is ordained of God for the good and conservation of humane kind and he saith further that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellatio the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Deum primum autorem nos revocat sheweth plainly that God is the first Author of it for though the Magistrate in some sense as I shewed may be said to be created that is ordained by men yet God alone is the first Creator of them as Aaron though he was ordained the high Priest by Moses yet the Apostle tels us None taketh this office upon him but he that is called of God as Aaron was Yet I doe admire that Buchanan or any other man of learning to satisfie the people or his owne peevish opinion will so absurdly deny so divine and so well known verity and say that any Kings have their Kingdomes and not from God so flatly contrary to all Scripture CHAP. VII Sheweth the reasons and the examples that are alleadged to justifie Rebellion and a full answer to each of them God the immediate Author of Monarchie inferiour Magistrats have no power but what is derived from the superiour and the ill successe of all rebellious resisting of our Kings BUt to prove their absurdities they still alledge The allegation to justifie Rebellion That the inferiour Magistrates as the Peeres and Counsellors of Kings and the chiefe heads of all the people which are flos medulla regni 1. By reason are therefore added unto the superiour Magistrate both to be his helpers in the Government and also to refraine his licentiousnesse and to hinder his impieties if he degenerate to be an Idolater or a Tyrant And to confirme this tenet 2. By examples they produce many examples both out of the Sacred and Profane Histories as the Iudges that that rose up against their neighbour Tyrants Ezechias against the King of Assyria the people withstanding Saul that he should not slay Ionathan Ahikam defending the Prophet Ieremy against King Iehoiakim Jer. 26.24 the revolting of the ten Tribes in the time of Rehoboam the Priests and Princes of Iuda taking away Athalia the Macchabees arming themselves against Antiochus and others of the Macedonian Tyrants Thrasibulus driving the thirty Tyrants out of Athens the Romans expelling their flagitious Kings Consuls and other Tyrants that behaved themselves most wickedly out of Rome and so many Peeres and Potentates of other Kingdomes that in the like cases did the like To all which I answer 1. That it is most false that any Peere Sol. or inferiour Potentate Magistrate or other 1. Their reasons answered is appointed by God to be the Associate of the King or supreame Governour for the government of the people for as God and not the people appointed Moses Ioshua Gideon and the other supreame Judges of Israel so Moses and not God immediately as he did the others appointed the Rulers of tens To what end Kings doe choose their inferiour Magistrates fifties hundreds and thousands which alwayes acknowledged themselves his subjects and not his associates in the government of the people And so other Kings and Princes have alwayes chosen whom they pleased to be their Peeres Counsellors and inferiour Magistrates as well to beare some part of their burthen as Iethro saith unto Moses and to lessen their care as also to afford them their best assistance and counsell in the discussion and determination of great and difficult affaires but not for them to prescribe and set down lawes orders and ordinances that should either moderate their royall liberty or bridle and revenge what they conceive to be Idolatry or Tyranny I am sure no King that did intend to be a Tyrant would choose Counsellours
have thrust it into my heart or as one saith if I convey my estate in trust to any friend to the use of me and mine the person intrusted falsifie the faith reposed in him by conveying the profits of my estate to other ends to the prejudice of me and mine no man wil think it unlawfull for me to annihilate if I can possibly do it such a deed of trust And therefore Noble Peeres and Gentlemen of this ancient Kingdome of Ireland that your Parliament may prove successefull to the benefit of the Common-wealth let me that have some interest and charge over all the Inhabitants and Sojourners of Kilkenny perswade you to thinke your selves no Parliament without your King and that your Votes and Ordinances carrying with them the power though not the name of Acts of Parliament to oblige both King and Subjects to obey them are the most absolute subversion of our fundamentall Lawes the destructive invasion of our rightfull Liberties and that by an usurped power of an arbitrary rule to dispose of our estates or any part thereof as you please to make us Delinquents when you will and to punish us as Malignants at your pleasure and through your discontent to dispossesse your rightfull King though it were to set the Crown upon the head of your greatest Oneale is such a priviledge that never any Parliament hath yet claimed Or if you still goe on for the enlargement of your own usurped power under the title of the priviledge of Parliament to Vote the diminution of the Kings just prerogative that your Progenitors never denied to any of his Ancestors to exclude us Bishops out of your Assemblies without whom your determinations can never be so wel concluded in the feare of God and to invade the Liberties of your fellow subjects under the pretences of religion and the publique good I will say no more but turne my selfe to God and put it in my Lyturgy From Parasites Puritans Popes and such Parliaments Good Lord deliver us CHAP. IX Sheweth the unanimous consent and testimonies of many famous learned men and Martyrs both ancient and moderne that have confirmed and justified the truth of the former Doctrine ANd so you see that as for no cause so for no kind or degree of men be they what you will Peeres Magistrates Heads of Families Darlings of the people or any other Patriots whom the Commons shall elect it is lawfull to rebell against or any waies to resist our chiefe Princes and soveraigne Governours This point is as cleare as the Sunne and yet to make it still more cleare unto them that will not beleeve that truth which they like not but as Tertullian saith Credunt Scripturis ut credant adversus Scripturas doe alleadge Scriptures to justifie their owne wilfull opinions against all Scripture I will here adde a few testimonies of most famous men to confirme the same Testimonies of famous men Henry de Bracton Lord Chiefe Justice of the Kings Bench under Hen. 3. saith as he is quoted by the Lord Elismer L. Elismer in orat habita in Camera Fiscali anno 1609. pag. 108. that under the King there are free men and servants and every man is under him and he is under none but onely God if any thing be demanded of the King seeing no Writ can issue forth against the King there is a place for Petition that he would correct and amend his fact and if he shall refuse to doe it he shall have punishment enough when the Lord shall come to be his revenger for otherwise touching the Charters and deeds of Kings neither private persons nor Iusticiaries ought to dispute this was the Law of that time what new Lawes our young Lawyers have found since I know not I am not so good a Lawyer The Civill Lawyers do far surpasse the Common Law herein for Corsetus Siculus saith Rex in suo regno potest omnia Corsetus Sic. tract de potestat reg part 5. num 66. imo de plenitudine potestatis And Marginista saith Qui disputat de potestate Principis utrum benè fecerit est infamis Hostiensis saith Princeps solutus est legibus id est quoad vim coactivam Marginista in Angelum Perusinum c. l. 9. tit 29. De crimine sacrilegii l. 2. Hostiens sum l. 1. rubr 32. de offic ligati non quoad vim directivam Thom. 1. 2 ae q. 96. ar 5. ad 3. quia nulli subest nec ab aliis judicatur And to omit all the rest Gulielmus Barclaius out of Bartolus Baldus Castrensis Romanus Alexander Felinus Albericus and others doth infer Principem ex certâ scientiâ supra jus extrajus contrajus omnia posse Principem solum legem constituere universalem Princeps soli Deo rationem debet Princeps solutus est legibus temerarium est velle Majestatem Regiam ullis terminis limitare Barclaius contra Monarchomach l. 3. c. 14. which things if I should English seditious heads would thinke my head not sufficient to pay for this but I onely repeat their words and not justifie their sayings and therefore to proceed to more familiar things Pasquerius writeth Pasquer de Antiquit Gallican l. 1. that Lewis the 11th did urge his Senators and Counsellours to set forth a certaine edict which they refused to doe because it seemed to them very unjust Sicut olim Lacedaemonii victoribus responderum si duriora morte imperetis potius moriemur and the King being very angry threatned death unto them all whereupon Vacarius President of the Councell and all the Senate in their purple robes came unto the King and the King astonished therewith damanded whence they came and what they would have Vacarius answered for all we come to undergoe that death which you have threatned unto us for you must know O King that we wil rather suffer death then doe any thing against our conscience towards God or our duty towards you Wherein we see the Nobility of this King like Noble Christians doe more willingly offer to lay down their lives at the command of their Liege Lord then unchristian-like rebell and take Armes against their delinquent Soveraigne And so Colmannus a godly Bishop did hinder the Scottish Nobility to rise against Fercardus that was their most wicked King Tertullian writing unto Scapula the President of Carthage Tertull. ad Scapul saith we are defamed when the Christian is found to be the enemy of no man no not of the Emperour whom because he knoweth him to be appointed by God he must needs love and reverence and wish him safe with all the Romane Empire for we honour and worship the Emperour as a man second from God Et solo Deo minorem and inferiour onely to God And in his Apologetico Tertull. in Apologet he saith Deus est solus in cujus solius potestate sunt reges à quo sunt secundi post quem primi super omnes homines ante
you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And as he said unto Saul when he persecuted the servants of Christ Act. 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me when as hee was then in Heaven farre above the reach of Saul yet because there is such a mysticall union betwixt Christ and his Church the head and members as is betwixt man and wife no man can be said to injure the one but he must wrong the other so whosoever resisteth the Kings Lieutenant Deputy or any other Magistrate or Officer that he sendeth with Commission to execute his commands resisteth the King himselfe and all the indignities that are offered to the Kings Embassador or servant that he thus sendeth 2 Sam. 10. are deemed as indignities offered to the King himselfe as we see the base usage of Davids servants by King Hanun David revenged as an abuse offered unto himselfe because the Kings person cannot be in all places where justice and judgement Whatsoever is done to any Messenger is deemed as dont to him that sent him and many other offices and actions are necessarily to be done throughout the latitude of his Dominions but his power and his authority deputed to those his servants and officers that he sendeth are as the lively representatives of the King in every part of his Kingdome and whatsoever favour payment neglect or abuse is shewed unto any of them the same in all Nations is accounted and therefore punished or rewarded as a service done unto the King himselfe as our Saviour when but the Tole-gatherer came for the Tribute money saith Give unto Caesar what belongeth unto Caesar And therefore it is but an idle simple and most foolish frivolous distinction of men to deceive children and fooles to say they love and honour their King and they fight not against their King but against such and such whom notwithstanding they know to be the Kings chiefest officers and to be sent with the Kings Power Commission and Authority to doe those things that they doe this is such a foppery that I know not what to say to undeceive those that are so desirous to be deceived when the Devill * S. Paul saith God sendeth them strong delusions 2 Thess 2.11 But what God sendeth justly as the punisher of their sin the Devill sendeth maliciously as the guider of them to Hell which knoweth how neare their destruction hangeth over their heads sends them strong delusions that they should so easily and so sillyly believe such palpable lyes as to make them thinke they love him dearely whom they murder most barbarously Barnesius Barnesius in tract de humanis constitut a very godly and learned man treating of the same Argument saith in a manner the same thing that the servants of Christ rather then either commit any evill or resist any Magistrate ought patiently to suffer the losse of their goods and the tearing of their members nay the Christian after the example of his Master Christ ought to suffer the bitterest death for truth and righteousnesse sake and therefore saith he whosoever shall rebell under pretence of Religion aeternae damnationis reus erit he shall be found guilty of eternall damnation Master Dod saith Master Dod upō the Commandements that where the Prince commandeth a lawfull act the subjects must obey and if he injoynes unlawfull commands we must not rebell but we must be content to beare any punishment that shall be laid upon us even unto death it self and we should suffer our punishment without grudging even in heart and this he presseth by the example of the Three Children and of Daniel that was a mighty man and of very great power in Babylon yet never went about to gather any power against his King though it were in his own defence Master Byfield expounding the words of S. Peter Master Byfield upon 1 Pet. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Supreame saith this should confirme every good subject to acknowledge and maintaine the Kings supremacy and willingly to binde himselfe thereto by oath for the oath of supremacy is the bond of this subjection and this oath men must take without equivocation mentall evasion or secret reservation yea it should binde in them the same resolution that was in Saint Bernard who saith if all the world should conspire against me to make me complot any thing against the Kings Majesty yet I would feare God and not dare to offend the King ordained of God I might fill a volume if I would collect the testimonies of our best Writers I will adde but one of a most excellent King our late King Iames of ever blessed memory for he saith The improbity or fault of the governour ought not to subject the King to them over whom he is appointed Judge by God Serenissimus Rex Jacobus de vera lege liberae Monarchiae for if it be not lawfull for a private man to prosecute the injury that is offered unto him against his private adversary when God hath committed the sword of vengeance onely to the Magistrate how much lesse lawfull is it thinke you either for all the people or for some of them to usurpe the sword whereof they have no right against the publike Magistrate to whom alone it is committed by God This hath beene the Doctrine of all the Learned of all the Saints of God of all the Martyrs of Jesus Christ The obedient example of the Martyrs in the time of Queene Mary and therefore not only they that suffered in the first Persecutions under Heathen Tyrants but also they that now of late lived under Queene Mary and were compelled to undergoe most exquisite torments without Number and beyond Measure yet none of them either in his former life or when he was brought to his execution did either despise her cruell Majesty or yet curse this Tyrant Queene that made such havock of the Church of Christ and causelesly spilt so much innocent bloud but being true Saints they feared God and honoured her and in all obedience to her authority they yielded their estates and goods to he spoyled their liberties to be infringed and their bodies to be imprisoned abused and burned as oblations unto God rather then contrary to the command of their Master Christ they would give so much allowance unto their consciences as for the preservation of their lives to make any shew of resistance against their most bloudy Persecuters whom they knew to have their authority from that bloudy yet their lawfull Queene And therefore I hope it is apparent unto all men that have their eyes open Numb 24.15 Gen. 19.11 and will not with Baalam most wilfully deceive themselves or with the Sodomites grope for the wall at noone day that by the Law of God by the example of all Saints by the rule of honesty and by all other equitable considerations it is not lawfull for any man or any degree or sort of men
TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE Most Gracious Soveraigne I Have beene long ashamed to see the Aegyptian loacusts the emissaries of Apollyon and the sonnes of perdition under the name of Christ so much to abuse His sacred truth as to send forth so impudently and most ignorantly such lying Pamphlets so stuffed with Treason to animate Rebellion and to poyson the dutifull affections and the obliged loyalty of your Majesties seduced Subjects and seeing we ought not to be sleeping when the Traytors are betraying our Master I have been not a little grieved to see so many able men the faithfull servants of Christ In publicos hostes quilibet homo miles and most loyall to Your Majesty either over-awed with fear or distempered with their calamities or I know not for what els to be so long silent from publishing the necessity of obedience and the abomination of Rebellion in this time of need when the tongue and pen of the Divine should aswell strengthen the weak hands of faithfull subjects as the sword musket of the souldier should weaken the strength of faithlesse Rebels therfore not presuming of mine ability to eqalize my brethren but as conscious of my fidelity both to God and to your Majesty as in my yonger yeers I fearlesly published The resolution of Pilate Non sine meo magno malo so in my latter age though as much perplexed and persecuted as any man driven out of all my fortunes in Ireland hunted out of my house and poore family in England and after I had been causelesly imprisoned and most barbarously handled then threatned beyond measure yet I resolvedly set forth this Tract of The Grand Rebellion and though it be plaine without curiosity Qualem decet exulis esse Yet I doe it in all truth and sincerity without any sinister aspect for my witnesse is in Heaven I had rather have all the estate I have plundred and pillaged my wife and children left desolate and destitute of all reliefe and my selfe deprived of liberty life by the Rebels for speaking truth in defence of whom myconscience knoweth to be in the right then to have al the praise and preferment that either people Parliament or Pope can heap upon me for sowing pillows under their elbows and with idle distinctions false interpretations and wicked applications of holy Writ hypocritically to flatter and most sediriously to instigate the discontented and seduced spirits and others of most desperate fortunes to rebell against the Lords annionted I presume to present the same into your sacred hands God Almighty which delivereth your Majesty from the contradiction of sinners and subdueth your people that are under You blesse protect and prosper You in all Your waies Your royall Queen and all Your Royall progeny Thus prayeth Your Majesties most loyall devored subject and most faithfully obliged servant GR. OSSORY TO THE READER CHristian Reader being here at Dublin attending the affaires of the Kingdome and seeing the manifold miseries and almost insupportable calamities of us the poore Protestants of this Kingdome and the not much lesse misfortuns that are fallen or falling upon the Rebels and perhaps upon many innocents of the Popish Natives I much deplored this most lamentable estate and sad face of things and weighing with my selfe the causes of these distresses which I find to be the Rebellion of some proud some simple and some discontented Peeres and Gentlemen fomented by those Jesuiticall and parasiticall trencher-Priests the Seminaries of all wickednesse that are amongst our people as thicke as the Anti-Episcopall and Anabaptisticall non conformist of England or Caterpillers in the Land of Egipt I lighted upon some few notes that about 25. yeares agone I had collected upon the Rebellion of Corah which I see now and never till now risen and revived out of the pit wherein those grand Rebels were swallowed and having some leisure I thought good though I had not my bookes about me which perhaps may shew me the lesse exact in some quotations to reduce them into some order and among them I have transferred not in a little out of D. O. his Anti-Paraeus yet with such explanations abreviations and translocations of them as might best fit mine own method and matter I ayme at no body in thesi but onely as a Divine I set downe the truth in hipothesi if any man be aggrieved let him blame himselfe not me for in all this I speake the truth in Christ Jesus and lye not and as I have lived so I will dye in this truth and will daily expect that death if God should deliver my life in to the Rebels hands and not rather preserve me from their mercilesse cruelty And therefore my prayer shall ever be for all that our good God would blesse us and give us obedience while we live and patience whensoever we shall be brought to suffer death and so both in life and death I rest Thy faithfull and affectionate brother GR. OSSORY The Contents of the severall Chapters in this TREATISE CHAP. I. Sheweth who these Rebels were how much they were obliged to their Governours and yet how ungratefully they rebelled against them Page 1. CHAP. II. Sheweth against whom these men rebelled that God is the giver of our Governours the severall offices of Kings and Priests how they should assist each other and how the people laboureth to destroy them both Page 8 CHAP. III. Sheweth the assured testimonies of a good and lawfull Governour their qualifications our duties to them and wherein our obedience to them consisteth Page 14 CHAP. IV. Sheweth the objection of the Rebels to justifie their Rebellion the first part of it answered that neither our compulsion to Idolatry nor any other injury or tyranny should move us to rebell Page 19 CHAP. V. Sheweth by Scripture the doctrine of the Ckurch humaine reason and the welfare of the weale publique that we ought by no meanes to rebell A threefold power of every Tyrant Three kinds of tyrannies The doubtfull and dangerous events of Warre Why many men rebell Jehu's example not to be followed Page 29 CHAP. VI. Sheweth that neither private men nor the subordinate Magistrates nor the greatest Peeres of the Kingdom may take armes and make Warre against their King Buchanans mistake discovered and the Anti-Cavalier confuted Page 39 CHAP. VII Sheweth the reasons and the examples that are alleaged to justifie Rebellion and a full answere to each of them God the immediate author of Monarchy inferiour Magistrates have no power but what is derived from the superiour and the ill successe of all rebellious resisting of our Kings Page 51 CHAP. VIII Sheweth that our Parliament hath no power to make Warre against our King Two maine Objections answered The originall of Parliaments The power of the King to call a Parliament to deny what he will and to dissolve it when he will Why our King suffereth Page 62 CHAP. IX Sheweth the unanimous consent and testimonies of many famous learned men and Martyrs
this should reverentiam inducere worke in Moses a respect unto his brothers age and place And truly there is great reason why these two should doe their best to support and protect each other for the government of the people is as we may now see a very difficult and a miraculous thing no lesse then the appeasing of the Surges of the raging Seas as the Prophet sheweth when he saith That God ruleth the rage of the Sea and the noyse of his waves and the madnesse of his people And the Rod of government is a miracolous Rod as well that of Aaron as that of Moses for as Moses rod turned into a Serpent and the Serpent into a rod againe so the rod of Aaron of a dry stick did blossome and beare ripe Almonds to shew how strange and wonderfull a thing it is either for Prince or Priest to rule an unruly multirude too much for any one of them to doe and therefore God doth alwayes joyne both of them together as the Psalmist sheweth Thou leadest thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron And besides if these two doe not assist and protect each other they shall be soon suppressed one after another of their owne people for if the Prince which is to be our nursing rather be once subdued then presently the Priest shall be destroyed and when he hath lost his power our power shall never be able to doe any good and if the Priest which prayeth and preacheth to direct the King be trampled under foot As soone as men have overthrowne their Priests they will presently labour to destroy their King it hath been found most certaine that after they have thrown away the Miter they have not long retained the Scepter And therefore King James of ever blessed memory of a sharp conception and sound judgement was wont to say No Bishop no King unlesse you meane such a King as Christ was when the Iewes crowned him with Thornes and bowing their knees said Hayle King of the Iewes that is Rex sine Regno a King without power like a man of straw that is onely made to fright away the birds For the people are alwayes prone to pull out their neeks from the yoke of their obedience and would soone rebell if the Priest did not continually preach that Every soule should be subject to the higher powers as wee see now by experience how apt they are to rebell when factious Preachers give them the least encouragement And therefore as this rebellion of Corah so every other though they begin with one yet they ayme at both and strive to overthrow aswell the one as the other for my Text saith They angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. And therefore these two should be as Hippocrates twyns or indeed like man and wife indissolubly coupled and coherent together without distraction and cursed be they that strive to make the division for whom God hath thus united together no man should put asunder And here you may observe the method of their Rebellion The methode of their rebellion the Text saith Moses and Aaron yet Moses sheweth they began with Aaron for when their Rebellion was first discovered Moses doth not say What have I done against you but What is Aaron that you should murmure against him to shew unto us that although Moses was the first they aymed at in their intention yet he was the last they purposed to overthrow in the execution Quia progrediendum à facilioribus as the Devil began with the woman the weaker vessell that he might the easier overthrow the strougen so the enemies of God and his Church doe alwayes seeke first to overthrow the Priest and then presently they will set upon the Prince And therefore as Moses here so all Magistrates every where should remember Virgil. Aeneid lib. 2. that Jam tua res agitur through our sides they may smart and our wounds may prove dangerous unto them because you shall never reade they began to shake us but they fully intended to root out them for if the feare of God and the honour of the King must goe together as St Peter sheweth it must needs follow that they will but dishonour and disobey their King that have cast away the feare of God and it is most certaine that when they drive God out of their hearts as the Gergezites drove Christ out of their coasts Little feare of God in them that expell their Priests out of their societies when they expell Aaron the chiefe Priest or Bishop out of their Assemblies there is but little feare of God before their eyes for if Seneca that was but Natures Scholler could tell us that when we goe about any wicked act a grave Cato or severe Aristides standing by us would make us blush and stop the doing thereof then certainly the Christian that hath any grace will be ashamed of his evill intent and be afraid to offend God when he seeth a man of God so neare him who doth often times ponere obicem make a stop to stay the proceedings of the wicked that would not seldome be farre worse and doe more unjustice if it were not for the company and perswasions of the Priest and Preacher And therefore the former ages that feared God more then we and were wiser to use this meanes The wisedome of the former age that they might feare him desired that in their greatest Assemblies of greatest affaires as Sessions Councels Parliaments and the like the Bishops and Preachers might be as the chiefe members of their consultations as well to witnesse the uprightnesse of their actions and to direct them in cases of conscience what is most agreeable to the divine constitution And wheresoever you see the expulsion of these men The expulsion of Bishops the cause of many subsequent mischiefes and the rejection of these helpes and furtherances unto godlinesse you shall finde no good successe nor better fruit of their greatest Councels then Sedition Oppression Confusion and Rebellion For it is not the least part of the Bishops office and the duty of all Preachers not onely in the Pulpit where what they say is of many men soone forgotten but also in all other meotings and assemblies and in the very instances when occasions shall be offered to doe as Christ and his Apostles did perswade peace righteousnesse and obedience unto the people and the want of their association hath beene the opening of many gaps to let in much injustice and impiety in many places because their present perswasion may doe as much if not more good with men when they are in action then their preaching can doe when they come to contemplation And therefore if any assembly hath like Corah rebelled against Aaron and cast their Bishops and Preachers out of doores I would advise them to follow the Councell of S. Ambrose in the like case Quod inconsultò fecerunt consultiùs revocetur what
maintaine that Idoll as they terme it And this false pretext might be a dissembled cloake for all Rebels to say they doe it in defence of their Religion because they are affraid to be compelled unto Idolatry And therefore the truth is if any Tyrant like Julian should endeavour to compell men unto the Idols Temple or to worship my true God with false service I will rather die then doe it but I may not resist when I am compelled by any meanes for so I sinde that Shadrac Meshac and Abednego Elias the Prophets and the Apostles and all the Christians of the Primitive Church did use to doe in the like case And I had rather imitate the obedience of those good Saints to those wicked Kings that would have compelled them to Idolatry then the insolencie of those proud Rebels that under these false pretences will rebell against their lawfull Princes 2. 2. Not for any injury that is done unto us If we may not rebell when we are compelled to Idolatry much lesse may we do it for any other injury for what injury can be greater then to be inforced to Idolatry when as to be robbed of my faith and religion is more intolerable then to be spoyled of all my goods and possessions And therefore No injury greater then compulsion to Idolatry when Christ suffered as great an injury as could bee offered unto his person when the Souldiers came with Swords and Staves to take him as if he had been a thiefe and a murderer and Saint Peter then like a hot-headed Puritane was very desirous to revenge this indignity our Saviour reprehended his rashnesse because he knew what the other as yet knew not that he ought not to resist when the Magistrate doth send to apprehend and so the Christians of the Primitive Church were extreamely injured by their Persecuters And the Catholique faith it selfe suffered no small oppression under Constantius the Arian Emperour and yet that purer age wherein the better Christians lived did not so much as once thinke of any revenge or resistance saith Baronius When and who did first resist and what moved them Baron ad annum Christi 350. But about the yeare of Christ 350. then first saith he alas the Christian Souldiers being swell'd with pride and taken up with a cruell desire of bearing rule have conspired against the Christian Emperours when as before Ne gregarius quidem miles inveniri quidem posset qui adversus Imperatores licet Ethnicos Christianorum quoque persecutores à partibus aliquando steterit insurgentium tyrannicorum not a Christian could be found that stood up against the Heathen Emperours that were the persecuters of the Christians But to make it yet more plaine that no grievance should move good Christians to make resistance no injury should cause them to rebell against their Magistrates our Saviour saith authoritativè with authority enough I say unto you that ye resist not evill Matth. 5.39 but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheeke turne to him the other also and if by our Saviours rule we may not resist any one what thinke you that we may resist our King our Priest or any other Magistrate that correcteth or reproveth us 2 Pet. 2.19 And Saint Peter saith This is thanke-worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure griefe suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when yee suffer for your faults yee take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God where you see still the rule of piety is none other but suffering though it be never so unjustly And therefore the Fathers are most plentifull in the explanation and confirmation of this point How patherically the Fathers perswade us to suffer and not to resist for Tertullian that was no babe in the Schoole of Divinity nor any coward in the Army of Christ speaking of those faithfull Christians that suffered no small measure of miseries in his time saith that one short night with a few little torches might have wrought their deliverance and revenged all their wrongs if it had beene lawfull for them to blot out or expell evill with evill but God forbid saith he Vr aut igne humano vindicetur divina secta Tertull in Apologet aut doleat pati in quo probatur that either the divine sect that is the Christian Region should be revenged with humane fire or that it should grieve us to suffer wherein we are commended for suffering Nazianzen that for his soundnesse of judgment and profoundnesse of knowledge was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 termed Theologus the Divine Nazian Orat. 1. saith that the tury of Julian that great Apostata was repressed onely with the teares of the Christians which many of them did most plentifully powre forth to God when they had no other remedy against their Persecuter Marke that they say it is unlawfull to resist because they knew it unlawfull for them to use any other meanes thâ—n sufferance or else they might having so much strength as they had have repelled their wrongs with violence Saint Ambrose saith as much Ambros op 33. and Prosper in like manner saith the present evils should be suffered untill the promised happinesse doth come the Infidels should be permitted among the faithfull and the plucking of the tares should be deferred and let the wicked rage against the godly as much as they will yet the case of the righteous is farre better because that Quantò acriùs impetuntur tantò gloriosiùs coronantur Prosper in sen 99. by how much the more sharply they are tormented by so much the more gloriously they shall be crowned And Saint Bernard saith if all the world should conspire against me and coniure me Bernard Ep. 170. that I should plot any thing against the royall majestie yet I would fear God and would not dare to offend the King that is appointed of him over me because I am not ignorant of the place where I read Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God And yet he speaketh this of King Lodovicus that offered a monstrous wrong to all the Clergy when he robbed them and took away all their goods without cause and which is worse would hear of no perswasions to make restitution or to give them any satisfaction as Gaguinus testifieth Gaguin li. 6. Thus the Fathers whereof I could heap many more do testifie of this truth The Schoolmen of the same judgement and the Schoolmen tread in the same steps and differ not a nails bredth from them herein For Alexander Hales saith wicked and evill men ought to suffer for the fault of their irrationability and good men ought to suffer Propter debitum divinae ordinationis for the duty that they owe to the divine ordinance Ambrosius in Rom. 13. and the benefit of their own purgation Whereupon Saint Ambrose saith if the Prince
unto the rules of justice when as The Law condemneth no man much lesse the King before his cause be heard And seeing such a competent Judge as can justly determine this controversie betwixt the King and his People or rather betwixt one part of his people and the other cannot be found under Heaven therefore to avoid civill warres and the effusion of humane and Christian blood and the prevention of abundance of other mischiefs That we ought not by any means to resist our Kings Proved both the Scripture teacheth and the Church beleeveth and Reason it self sheweth and the publique safetie requireth that we should transmit this question to be decided onely by him which is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and will when he seeth good bind evill Kings in fetters and their Nobles with links of iron CHAP. V. Sheweth by Scripture the Doctrine of the Church humane reason and the welfare of the weale publique that we ought by no means to rebell A threefold power of every Tyrant Three kinds of tyraunies The doubtfull and dangerous events of Warre Why many men rebell Jehu's example not to be followed 1. THe Scripture saith 1. By the Scriptures I counsell thee to keep the Kings commandement and that in regard of the oath of God that is the oath whereby thou hast sworne before God and by God to obey him Be not hastie to go out of his sight that is not out of his presence but out of his rule and government and stand not in an evill thing that is in opposition or rebellion against thy King which must needs be evill and the worst of all evils to thy King for He doth whatsoever pleaseth him that is Ecclesiast 8.2 3 4. he hath power and authority to do what he pleaseth Where the Word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him What doest thou or Why doest thou so And Solomon saith A Greyhound an Hee-Goat and a King Prov. 30.31 against whom there is no rising up there ought not to be indeed I will not set down what Samuel saith but desire you to read the place 1. Sam. 8.11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. where you shall see what the King will do and what remedy the Prophet prescribeth against him not to rebell and take up armes but to cry unto the Lord that he would help them And Saint Paul saith Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God Rom. 13.2 and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation And Saint Peter saith that they which despise government 2. Pet. 2.10.12 and are not afraid to spoake evill of dignities are presumptuous and doe walke after the flesh in the lusts of uncleannesse and as naturall bruit beasts that are made to be taken and destroyed they speake evill of the things they understand not and therefore they shall utterly perish in their own corruption And Saint Jude in like manner calleth those that despise Dominion and speak evill of Dignities the very phrase of Saint Peter filthy dreamers Iude 8.10 11. that defile the flesh and therefore shall perish in the gainsaying of Corah This is the doctrine of God therefore Saint Paul exhorteth us not to rebell nor to speak evill of our Kings 1 Tim 2.2 be they what they will but first of all or before all things to make prayers and supplications for our Kings and for all that are in authoritie And I wonder what spirit except it were the spirit of hell it selfe durst ever presume to answer and evade such plain and pregnant places of Scripture to countenance disobedience and to justifie their rebellion And therefore 2. 2. By the Doctrine of the Church The Church of Christ beleeveth this Doctrine to be the truth of God for no man saith Saint Cyril without punishment resisteth the Laws of Kings but Kings themselves in whom the fault of prevarication hath no place because it is wisely said it is impiety therefore against the will of God to say unto the King Cyril in Iohan. l. 12. c. 56. Iniquè agis thou dost amisse for as God is the supreame Lord of all which judgeth all and is judged of none so the Kings and Princes of the earth which do correct and judge others are to be corrected and judged of none but onely of God to whose power and authority they are onely subject and therfore King David understanding his own station well enough when he was both an adulterer and a murderer and prayeth to God for mercy saith Against thee onely have I sinned because I acknowledge none other my superiour on earth besides thee alone and I have no judge besides thee which can call me to examination or inflict any punishment on me for my transgression And so the Poet saith Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis But you will object against Saint Cyril Obiect if it be impiety to say unto the King Thou doest amisse how shall we excuse Samuel that told King Saul he did foolishly and Nathan that reproved King David and Elias that said to King Ahab it was he and his fathers house that made Israel to sinne and John Baptist that told Herod It was not lawfull for him to have his brothers wife I answer 1. Sol. That by the mouth of these men God himself reproved them because these men were no private persons What the Priest or Prophet may do private men may not do but extraordinarily inspired with the Spirit of God to perform the extraordinary messages of God 2. I say as I said before that as Moses may correct and punish Aaron if he doth amisse so Aaron the Priest inregard of his calling may reprove and admonish Moses the chief Magistrate when he doth offend but so that he do it wisely and with that love and reverence which he oweth unto Moses as to his God not publiquely to disgrace and vilifie his Prince unto his people but modestly and privately to amend his fault and reconcile him to God and this is the work of his office which he ought to do as he is a Priest and not of his person which ought not to do it as he is his subject 3. Reason it self confirmeth this truth 3. By humane reason because the King is the head of the body politique and the members can neither judge the head because they are subject unto it nor cut it off because then they kill themselves and cease to be the members of that head and therefore the subjects with no reason can either judge or depose their King 4. 4. From the welware of every Common-wealth The event of every warre is doubtfull The publique safety and welfare of any Common-wealth requireth that the Subjects should never rebell against their King 1. Because the event of a rebellious warre is both dubious and dangerous for who can divine in whose ruine it shall end or which
the publique good yet it is not good to do it because it can never stand with a good conscience because it is contrarie to the Commandement of God A threefold power in every Tyrant for in every Tyrant there is a threefold power and authority that doth concurre 1. Paternall 2 Conjugall 3 Herile and you know the law of God doth not permit the children to renounce their father nor which is lesse to laugh at their fathers nakednesse nor doth it suffer the wife to forsake her husband nor the servant to chastise his Lord and Master and therefore much lesse may the Subjects deprive their King from his Dominion and take from him what God hath given him or any wayes chastise him for his ill government whereof he is accomptable to God and not to them or if they might depose him or reduce him by their correction when he doth degenerate into a Tyrant yet seeing there are many kinds of Tyrannies I demand if the same reason shall serve to proceed against all kinds of tyrannie Punishment should be proportionable to the fault to the like condemnation of all tyrannous Kings and this every Sophister will deny for where the punishment is not preportionable to the fault the sentence is most unjust and the suppressours of the Tyrant doe shew the signes of a worse tyrannie and if there must be an adaequation of the punishment to the sinne I would know how they would distinguish to impose the just measure that is due to each kinde of tyranny But to leave the Rebels in this Labyrinth till they be better able to evade I say 3. Kindes or tyrannies that there are three speciall kindes of tyrannies 1. 1. Kinde Is against all humane right for his owne private commoditie to the publique losse and dammage of his Subjects as was the tyranny of Achab when he tooke away Naboths vineyard 1 Sam. 8. and of those Kings which Samuel doth describe 2. Violateth the divine Law 2. Kinde to the contumelie of the Creator as was the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar when he would have forced the three children to adore his golden Image and of Jeroboam the sonne of Nebat that made Israel to sinne because he compelled them to goe to Dan and Bethel to adore his Calves and hindred them to goe to Hierusalem for to worship the true God 3. 3. Kinde Treadeth and trampleth under-foot both the divine and humane right to the utter overthrow of all pietie and justice as was the tyranny of Manasses Julian and others that regarded neither the worship of God nor the good of men And I doe confidently affirme that each one of these tyrannies apart or all of them coupled in one tyrant as well that which offereth violence unto God as that which bringeth calamitie and cruelty unto man ought to be suffered and not abolished antill he doth abrogate the same which alone looseth the belts of Kings and girdeth about their loynes as Job speaketh for you know the forenamed Tyrants and many more as bad or worse then they as Solomon himselfe that by his Oppression Polygamie and Idolatry had most grievously sinned both against God and man and yet all of them went on without either the diminution of their glory or the losse of their dominions These should be our patterns uulesse we have some new Revelations And Achab did most tyrannically kill Naboth and tooke away his Inheritance without Law as David did before kill Vrias a most innocent man and tooke away his Wife contrary to all Law which was death by their law to any other man and he exiled the Prophets was the death of many of them and he trampled downe the true Religion under his feete and by publique authority established the Idolatrous worship of Baal in every place and yet neither the inferiour Magistrates nor the greatest Peeres nor the consent of all the people durst presume contrary to the ordinance of God to depose or suppresse any of these tyrannous men If you alleadge Jehu Ob. I confesse indeed he did it when he conspired against Joram 2 Reg. 9. his own Lord and Master But how did he this Sol. By a power extraordinarily given him from Heaven as you may see in the 6. and 7. verses of that Chapter when the same was not permitted him by any lawes as Iezabell her self could tell him Had Zimripeace which slew his Master To whom he might have answered He breakes no Law that obeyeth the Commands of the Law-maker no more then the Israelites could be accused of Theft when they did rob the Aegyptians or Abraham of Murder if hee had killed Isaac but without this speciall command hee could not have done this extraordinary worke without sinne and therefore that which He could not doe then without the warrant of the heavenly Oracle cannot be done now by any other without the contempt of the Deitie Jebu's example not to be imitated the reproach of Majestie and aboundance of dammage to the Common-wealth And so not onely I but also Peter Martyr commenteth upon the place where he saith God stirred up and armed one onely Jehu against his Lord which fact as it is peculiar and singular so it is not to be drawne for any example for certainly if it might bee Lawsull for the people upon any pretence to expell their Kings and Governours though never so wicked and unjust from their Kingdomes and government no Kings or Princes could be safe in any place Pettus Martyr loc com class 4. loc 20. for though they should reigne never so justly and holily yet they should never satisfie the people but they would still accuse them of injustice and impietie that they might depose them And Bodinus in his Policie differeth not at all from this Divinity for he saith If the Prince be an absolute Soveraigne as are the Kings of France Spaine England Scotland Ethiopia Turkie Persia Muscovie and the like true Monarchs whose authoritie cannot be doubted and their chiese rule and governement cannot be imparted with their Subjects in this case it is not lawfull for any one apart nor for all together to conspire and attempt any thing either of fact or under the colour of right against the life or the honour of his Prince or Monarch yea though his Prince should commit all kinde of impietie and crueltie which the tongue of any man could expresse For as concerning the order of right the Subject hath no kinde of jurisdiction against his Prince from whom dependeth and proceedeth all the power and authoritie of commanding as they that rise against their King doe notwithstanding send out their warrants and commands in the Kings name and who not onely can recall all the facultie of judging and governing from his inferiour Magistrates whensoever he please Iohan Bodinus de repub l. 2. c. 5 but also being present all the power and jurisdiction of all his under Magistrates Corporations Colledges Orders
Magistrates doe extoll themselves above him they have now exceeded the bounds of men that they might esteeme themselves as God Non verendo eum qui post Deum ab hominibus timebatur in not fearing him which men ought to feare next to God But the words of Saint Peter are plaine enough Submit your selves unto every ordinance of man for the Lords sake 1 Pet. 2.13 whether it be unto the King as supreame or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evill doers and for the prayse of them that doe well Wherein you may see not onely the subordination which God hath placed betwixt the King and his Subjects but also that different station which is betwixt the supreame and the inferiour powers for the words sent of him doe most clearely conclude that the inferiour Magistrates have no power to command but by the vertue power and force which they receive from the supreame and that the inferiour Magistrates opposed to the supreame power are but as private men and therefore that as they are rulers of the people so being but instruments unto the King they are subjects unto him to be moved and ruled by him which is inferiour to none but God and their authority which they have received from him Inferiour Magistrates in respect of the King are but private men can have no power upon him or to mannage the sword without him and especially against him upon any pretence whatsoever how then can any or all these Magistrates make a just warre against their King when as none of them can make any just warre without him 2. Reason 2 Because as Bodinus saith most truly the best and greatest not onely of the inferiour Magistrates but also of all these Peeres Nobles Counsellors or what you please to call them have neither honour power nor authority but what they have given them from him which is the King or supreame Magistrate as you see God made Moses the chiefe Governour and Moses made whom he pleased his Peers and his inferiour Magistrates and as they have all their power derived from him that is the chiefe so he that is the King or chiefe can draw it away from them that are his inferiours when he pleaseth and as he made them so he can unmake them when he will and none can unmake him but he that made him that is God himselfe and therefore David that was Ex optimatibus regni the greatest Peere in Israel being powerfull in war famous in peace the Kings sonne in law and divinely destinated unto the Kingdom yet would he not lay his hand upon his King when he was delivered into his hands And this Buchanan cannot deny but confesseth that the Kings of the Iews were not to be punished or resisted by their Subjects because that from the beginning they were not created by the people but given to them by God Buchanans absurdity and therefore saith he jureoptimo qui fuit honoris autor idem fuit poenarum exactor it is great reason that he which gives the honour should impose the punishment But for the Kings of Scotland Buchan de jure Regni apud Scotos they were saith Buchanan not given them of God but created by the people which gave them all the right that they can challenge Ideoque jus idem habere in reges multitudinem quod illi in singulos è multitudine habent which is most false for Moses tels us that immediately after the deluge God the Creator of all the world ordained the revenging sword of bloudshed and the slavish servitude of paternall derision wherein all the parts of civill jurisdiction and regall power are Synecdochically set downe and Iob saith that there is one God which looseneth the bond of Kings Job 12.18 and girdeth about their reines which must be understood of the Gentile Kings because that in his time the Common-wealth of Israel was not in being and God himselfe universally saith By me Kings doe reigne that is all Kings not onely of the Iewes but also of the Gentiles and Christ doth positively affirme that the power of Pilate was given him from Heaven And Saint Paul saith There is no power but what is appointed of God And Tertullian saith Inde Imperator unde homo inde illi potestas unde spiritus he that made him a man made him Emperour and he that gave him his spirit gave him his power That God is the ordainer of all Kings And Ireneus saith God ordained earthly Kingdomes for the benefit of the Gentiles Et cujus jussu homines nascuntur illius jussu Reges constituuntur and by whose command men are borne by his command Kings are made And S. Augustine more plainly and more fully saith Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 4. c. 33. God alone is the giver of all earthly Kingdomes which hee giveth both to the good and to the bad neither doth he the same rashly and as it were by chance because he is God but as he seeth good Pro rerum ordine ac tempore in respect of the order of things and times which are hid from us but best knowne unto himselfe and whosoever looketh back to the originall of all Governments God the immediate author of Monarchie he shall find that God was the immediate Author of the Regall power and but the allower and confirmer of the Aristocraeticall and all other forms of Government which the people erected and the Lord permitted lest the execution of judgement should become a transgression of justice for as Homer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer odyss α And Aristotle tels us Arist Pol. l. 1. c. 8. that the Regall power belonged to the father of the family who in the infancie of the world was so grandevous and long-lived that he begat such a numerous posterity as might well people a whole Nation as Cain for his owne Colonie built a Citie and was aswell the King as the father of all the Inhabitants and therefore Iustin saith very wel that Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes reges erat Justin l. 1. the rule of all Nations was in the hands of Kings from the beginning and the Kingly right pertaining to the father of the family the people had no more possibility in right to choose their Kings then to choose their Fathers and to make it appeare unto all Nations that not onely the Kings of Israel but all other Heathen Kings are acknowledged by God himselfe to be of divine institution Jer. 43.10 Esay 45.1 he calleth Nebuchadnezzar his servant and Cyrus his anointed And therefore though I doe not wonder that ignorant fellowes should be so impudent Jo. Good win in his Pamphlet of Anti-Cavalierisme p. 5. as to affirme The King or kingly Government to be the ordinance or creation or creature of man and to say that the Apostle supposeth the same because he saith Submit your selves to
or make Magistrates to that end but they make choyce of them as I said to further them and not to hinder them to effect those things which they conceive to be most fit and just for the Magistrates that are over the people are under the King and doe all as you see in the name of the King All the inferiour Magistrates must doe all in the name of the superiour from whom they derive all the power that they have whereby it followeth that neither the people can resist the Magistrates whom the King appointeth nor those Magistrates resist their King without apparent sacriledge against God because the greater can never be judged nor condemned by the lesser but as the Apostle saith of Abraham and Melchisedech Heb. 7.7 that without contradiction the lesse is blessed of the better so I say that without all controversie the inferiour must be alwayes judged of the superiour and therefore if these Peeres Nobles or inferiour Magistrates have any wayes any power or authority over their Kings we must conclude against S. Peter that these are above the King and so they and not the King are the supereminent power But we finde no such power nor commandement that they have frow God to refraine Kings in all the holy Scriptures Et si mandatum non est presumptio est ad poenam proficiet non ad praemium and if there be no commandment for it it is presumption to doe it which deserveth punishment and not praise because it is to the reproach of the Creator that contemning the Lord we should worship the Servant and neglecting the Emperour we should adore or magnifie his Peeres as Saint Augustine saith And therefore both the learned and religious Fathers And the Homilie of the Church of England against wilfull rebellion and the best of our later Writers are flat against this Doctrine that any sort of men have any power over Kings but he that is the King of Kings as you may see what would be too tedious for me to set down in Iohan. Bodinus Apol. pro Regibus c. 27. de Repub. l. 2. c. 5. Barclaius contra Monarchom l. 3. c. 6. Berchetus in explicat controvers Gallicar c. 2. Saravia de imperator autorit l. 2. c. 36. Sigon de repub Hebraeor l. 7 c. 3. Bilson de perpet Eccles gubernat c. 7. Pet. Gregor Tholos de republ l. 5. c. 3. num 14 15 16. and many more 2. 2. Their examples answered For the examples that are produced to countenance Rebels against their Kings I answer that they are unlike or of some peculiar fact or unjust and therefore no warrant for any other to doe the like when as we are to live by the lawes and precept of God and not by the examples of men which many times contrary to equity do induce us to transgresse the divine verity but to runne over the particulars of their examples as briefe as I can 1. I say 1. Example answered that to conclude an ordinary rule from the doings of the Judges which were extraordinarily commanded by God to be done is no more lawfull for us to doe then it is for us to rob our neighbours because the Israelite robbed the Egyptians August in Jud c. 20. as Saint Augustine sheweth And therefore Aquinas if Aquinas be the Author of that booke De Regimine Princip saith excellent well Quibusdam visum est it seemes to some men that it pertaineth to the honour of valiant and heroicall men to take away a Tyrant and to expose themselves to the perill and danger of death for the liberty and freedome of the multitude whereof they have an example in the Old Testament where Ehud killed Eglon Judg. 3.21 But this agreeth not with the Apostolicall Doctrine for Saint Peter teacheth us to be subject not onely to the good but also to the froward because this is thanke worthy with God if for conscience sake we patiently suffer wrongs therefore when many of the Romane Emperours did most tyrannically persecute the faith of Christ Thom. de Regiminae Princip la. 1. c. 6. and a great and mighty multitude both of the Nobility Gentry and Commons were converted unto Christianity they are praised not for resisting but for suffering death A great deale of disterence betwixt a lawfull King and an Usurper Besides Eglon was not the lawfull King of Israel but an alien an usurper and a scourge to punish them for their sin and therefore no patterne for others to rebell against their lawfull King 2. 2. Example answered For the example of Ezechias rebelling against the King of Assyria it is most impertinently alleadged for Ezechias was the lawfull King of Iudah and the King of Assyria had no right at all in his Dominions An impertinent example but being greedily desirous to enlarge his territories he incroached upon the others right and for his injustice was overcome by the sword in a just battell and therefore to conclude from hence that because the King of Iudah trefused to obey the King of Assyria therefore the inferiour Magistrates or Peeres of any Kingdome may resist and remove their lawfull Prince for his tyranny or impiety surely this deserves rather Fustibus tutundi quà m rationibus refellt to be beaten with rods then confuted with reasons as Saint Bernard speaketh of the like Argument And whereas they reply that it skilleth not whether the Tyrant be forreine as Eglon and the King of Assyria wero or domestique Saul Achab and Manasses were because the domestique is worse then the forreigne The absurdity of their replication and there fore the rather to be suppressed I will shew you the validity of this argument by the like the seditious Preachers are the generation of vipers nay far worse then vipers because they hurt but the body onely and these are pernitious both to body and soule therefore as a man may lawfully kill a viper so he may more lawfully kill a seditious Preacher But to omit their absurdity let us looke into the comparison betwixt domestique and extranean Tyrants Quia dare absurdam non est solvere argumentum and we shall finde that domestique Tyrants are lawfully placed over us by God who cōmandeth us to obey them forbiddeth us to refist them in every place for the Scripture makes no distinction betwixt a good Prince and a Tyrant in respect of the honour reverence and obediecce that we owe unto our superiors as you see the Lord doth not say touch not a good King and obey righteous Princes but as God saith Honour thy father and thy mother be they good or bad so he saith Touch not the King resist not your Governours speake not evill of the Rulers be they good or be they bad and therefore Saint Paul when he was strictly charged for reviling the wicked high Priest answered wisely I wist not brethren that he was Gods high Priest for if I had knowne him
incendiary of warre and an enemy unto peace whereas the messengers of Christ have this Elogie given them Quam speciosi pedes Evangelizantium pacem And the Scripture saith Blessed are the Peace-makers and we continually pray Give peace in our dayes O Lords and therefore I can hardly beleeve these incendiaries of warre to be the sonnes of the God of peace 2. Because his objection is full of falshoods and false grounds as 1. He saith that Ahab sent to take Elisha's head The first mistake in the front of his speech when as Ahab was dead long before it was his ghost therfore and not he but it was his son and what then what did the Prophet he shut the door and desired the Elders to handle the Messenger roughly or hold him fast at the doore Thus saith the text 2 Kings 6 32. and the Prophet in my judgment doth herein but little more then what God and nature alloweth every man to doe If any thing more not to lay down his life if he can lawfully preserve it but as the Prophet did to shut the doore or as our Saviour saith When we are persecuted in one Citie to flie into another to save our lives as long as we can and in all this I find no violent resistance But 2. the Objector telleth us Surely if the messenger had got in Elisha had taken off his head rather then given his own I demand what inspiration he hath from God to be sure of this for I am sure Iohn Baptish would not do so nor S. Paul nor any other of Gods Saints that I have read of but these men are sure of every thing even of Gods secret counsell and that is more then the thoughts of mens hearts or if this be sure which I am not sure of I answer that Elisha was a great Prophet that had the spirit of Eliah doubled upon him and those actions which he did or might have done through the inspiration of Gods spirit this man may not doe except hee bee sure of the like inspiration for God who is justice it self can command by word as he did to Abraham to kill his sonne or by inspiration as he did to Elias to call fire from heaven and it is a sin to disobey it whereas without this it were an horrible sin to doe it And we must distinguish betwixt rare and extraordinary cases that were managed by special commission from God and those paternes that are confirmed by knowne and generall rules which passe through the whole course of Scripture and take heed that we make not obscure commentaries of humane wisedome upon the cleare Text of holy Writ Quia maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum But indeed the place is plain that Elisha made no other resistance but what every man may lawfully doe to keep the messenger out of doors so long as he could and yet this man would infer hence that we may lawfully with a strong hand and open warre resist the authority of our lawfull Kings a Doctrine I am sure that was never taught in the Schoole of Christ He makes some other objections which I have already answered in this treatise and then he spends almost two leaves in six severall answers that he maketh to an objection against the examining the equity or iniquity of the Kings commands but to no purpose because we never deny but that in some cases though not in all for there must bee Arcana imperii and there must be privie Counsellors every Peasant must not examine all the Edicts of his Prince The commands of Kings may not only be examined but also disobeyed as the three children did the commands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Apostles the commands of the high Priests but though we may examine their commands and disobey them too when they are contrary to the commands of God yet I would fain know where we have leave to resist them and to take armes against them I would he understood there is a great deale of difference betwixt examining their commands and resisting their authority the one in some cases we may the other by no meanes we may doe CHAP. VIII Sheweth that our Parliament hath no power to make warre against our King Two maine Objections answered The originall of Parliaments The power of the King to call a Parliament to deny what he will and to dissolve it when he will Why our King suffereth BUt when all that hath been spoken cannot satisfie their indignation against true obedience and allay the heat of their rebellious spirits they come to their ultimum resugium best strength and strongest fort that although all others should want sufficient right to crosse the commands and resist the violence of an unjust and tyrannicall Prince yet the Parliament that is the representative body of all his Kingdom are intrusted with the goods estates and lives of all his people may lawfully resist and when necessity requireth take armes and subdue their most lawfull King and this they labour to confirme by many arguments I answer that for the Parliament of England it is beyond my sphere and I being a transmarine member of this Parliament of Ireland And whatsoever I speak of Parliament in all this Discourse I mean of Parliaments disjoyned froÌ„ their King understand only the prevâ—lent factâ—â—n that ingrosseth and captivateth the Votes of many of the plain honest minded party which hath been often seen both in generall counsells and the greatest Parliaments I wil only direct my speech to that whereof I am a Peer I hope I may the more boldly speak my mind to them whereof I am a member and I dare maintain it that it shall be a benefit and no prejudice both to King and Kingdom that the spirituall Lords have Votes in this our Parliament For besides the equity of our sitting in Parliament and our indubitable right to vote therein and his Majesty as I conceive under favour be it spoken is obliged by the very first act in Magna Charta to preserve that right unto us when as in the Summons of Ed. 1. it is inserted in the writ * Claus 7. m. 3. dort that Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari or tractari debet whatsoever affair is of publick concernment ought to receive publicke approbation and therefore with what equity can so considerable a party of this Kingdome as are the Clergy who certainly cannot deserve to forfeit the priviledge of the meanest subjects and of common men because they are more immediately the servants of the living God be denyed the benefit of that which in all mens judgement is so reasonable a law and they only be excluded from that interest which is common unto al I cannot see yet I say that besides this our right while we sit in Parliament this fruit shall alwaies follow that our knowledge conscience shall never suffer us to vote such things against the truth as to allow that
1. c. 8. pag. 95. in English and the place is worth the noting no power to make Lawes without their King no right to meet without his Writ no liberty to stay any longer then he gives leave how then can you meet as you doe now in my Episcopall See at Kilkenny and continue your Parliament there to make warre against your lawfull King What colour of reason have you to doe the same you cannot pretend to be above your King you have with lies and falshoods most wickedly seduced the whole Kingdome and involved the same in a most unnaturall civill warre you are the actives the King is passive you make the offensive He the defensive war for you began and when he like a gracious King still cried for peace you still made ready for battell And I doubt not but your selves know all this to be true for you know that all Parliament men must have their elections warranted by the Kings especiall Writ you will say The letter sent from a Gentleman to his friend that so you were well and you were chosen but by subjects and intrusted by them to represent the affections and to act the duties of subjects and subjects cannot impose a rule upon their Soveraigne nor make any ordinance against their King and therefore if the representative body of subjects transcend the limits of their trust and doe in the name of the Subjects that which all subjects cannot doe That men intrusted should not go beyond their trust and assume that power which the subjects neither have nor can conferre upon them I see no reason that any subject in the world should any wayes approve of their actions for how can your priviledge of being Parliament men priviledge you from being Murderers Theeves or Traytors if you doe those things that the Law adjudgeth to be murders thefts and treasons Your elections cannot quit you and your places cannot excuse you because he that is intrusted cannot doe more then all they that doe intrust him and therefore all subjects should desert them that exceed the conditions and falsifie the trust which their fellow subjects have reposed in them Besides The King must needs be a part of every Parliament you know the King must needs be reputed part of every Parliament when as the selected company of Knights and Burgesses together with the Spirituall and Temporall Peeres are the representative body and the King is the reall head of the whole Kingdome and therefore if the body separates it selfe from the head it can be but an uselesse trunke that can produce no act which pertaineth to the good of the body because the spirits that give life and motion to the whole body are all derived from the head as the Philosopher teacheth And further you doe all know The power of dissolving the Parliament greater then the power of denying any thing that as the King hath a power to call so he hath a power to dissolve all Parliaments and having a power of dissolving it when he will he must needs haue a power of denying what he pleaseth because the other is farre greater then this And therefore all these premises well considered it is apparent that your sitting in Kilkenny without your King or his Lieutenant which is to the same purpose and your Votes without his assent are all invalid to exact obedience from any subject and for my part I deeme them fooles that will obey them and rebels that will take armes against their King at your commands and if you persist in this your rebellious obstinacy I wish your judgements may light onely upon your owne heads and that those which like the followers of Absolon are simply led by you may have the mist taken from their eyes that they may be able to discerne the duty they owe unto their King that they be not involved and so perish in your sin For though you be never so many and thinke that all the Kingdome Townes and Cities be for you yet take heed lest you imagine such a mischievous device which you are not able to performe Psal 21.11 for the involving of well-mearing men into your bad businesses 1. Reg. 22.29 as Jehoshaphat was misled to warre against Ramoth Gilead doth not onely bring a punishment upon them that are seduced but a farre greater plague upon you that doe seduce them and God who hath at all times so exceeding graciously defended His Majesty and contrary to your hopes and expectation from almost nothing in the beginning of this rebellion hath increased his power to I hope an invincible Army will be a rock of defence unto his anointed For what causes the King suffereth because it is well known to all the world that whatsoever this good King hath suffered at the hands of his subjects it is for the preservation of the true Protestant Religion of the established Lawes of his Kingdoms and of those Reverend Bishops Grave Doctors and all the rest of the Learned and Religious Clergy that have ever maintained and will to the spilling of the last drop of their blood defend this truth against all Papists and other Anabaptisticall Brownists and Sectaries whatsoever And therefore if you that are his Parliament What a shame it is to use the power we have received against him that gave it us should like unthankefull vapours that cloud the Sunne which raised them or like the Moone in her interposition that obscures the glorious ' lampe which enlightens her in the least manner imploy that strength which you have received from His Majesty when he called you together against His Majesty it will be an ugly spot and a foule blemish both for your selves and all your posterities and if not suddenly prevented you may raise such spirits that your selves cannot lay downe and sow such deeds of discord and discontent betwixt the King and his people as may derive through the whole Race of all succeeding Kings such a disaffection to Parliaments as may prove a plague and poyson to the whole Kingdome For if the King out of his favour and grace call you together and intrust you with a power either of continuing concluding or enacting such things as may be for the good of the Commonwealth you abuse that power against him that gave it you I must needs confesse that I am of his mind who saith That it is lawfull to recall a power given when it is abused that the King were freed before God and man from all blame though he should use all possible lawfull means to withdraw that power into his owne hands which being but lent them hath bin so misapplyed against him for if my servant desireth to hold my sword and when I intrust him with it he seekes to thrust the same into my breast will not every man judge it lawfull for me to gaine my sword if it be possible out of his hand and with that sword to cut off his head that would
omnes Deos it is God alone in whose power Kings are kept which are second from him first after him above all men and before all Gods that is all other Magistrates that are called Gods Athanasius saith Athanasius de summo regum imperio q. 55. that as God is the King and Emperour in all the world that doth exercise his power and authority over all things that are in Heaven and in Earth so the Prince and King is appointed by God over all earthly things Et ille libera suâ voluntate facit quod vult sicut ipse Deus and the King by His own free will doth whatsoever he pleaseth even as God himselfe and the Civilians could say but little more Saint Augustine saith Simulachrum à similitudine dictum Isidot Videtis simulachrorum templa you see the temples of our Images partly fallen for want of reparation partly destroyed partly shut up partly changed to some other uses ipsaque simulachra and those Images either broken to pieces or burned and destroyed and those Powers and Potentates of this world which sometimes persecuted the Christians Aug. ad frat Maduar â—p 42. pro istis simulachris for those Images to be overcome and tamed non à repugnantibus sed à morientibus Christianis not of resisting but of dying Christians See the duty of Subjects or a perswasion 〈◊〉 Loyalty which is a full collection of the Fathers to this purpose and the rest of the Fathers are most plentifull in this theam and therefore to the later Writers Cardinall Alan saith but herein most untruly that the Protestants are desperate men and most factious for as long as they have their Princes and Lawes indulgent to thier owne wills they know well enough how to use the prosperous blasts of fortune but if the Princes should withstand their desires Card. Alan in rep ad Iustit Britannicam c. 4. or the Lawes should be contrary to their mindes then presently they break asunder the bonds of their fidelity they despise Majesty and with fire and sword slaughters and destructions they rage in every place and do runne headlong into the contempt of all divine and humane things which accusation if it were true then I confesse the Pretestants were to be blamed more then all the people of the World but howsoever some factious seditious Anabaptisticall and rebellious spirits amongst us not deserving the name of Protestants may be justly taxed for this intolerable vice yet to let you see how falsly he doth accuse us that are true Protestants and how fully we doe agree with the Scriptures and the Fathers of the purest age of the Church in the Doctrine of our obedience to our Kings and Princes I will only give you a taste of what we teach and to begin with the first reformer Luther saith no man which stirreth up the multitude to any tumult can be excused from his fault though he should have never so just a cause but he must goe to the Magistrate and attempt nothing privately Sleidan Commentar l. 5. because all sedition and insurrection is against the Commandement of God which forbiddeth and detesteth the same Philip Melancthon saith though it be the Law of Nature to expell force with force yet it is no wayes lawfull for us to withstand the wrong done us by the Magistrate with any force yea Melanctgon apud Luther to 1 p. 463. though we seeme to promise our obedience upon this condition if the Magistrate should command lawfull things yet it is not therefore lawfull for us to withstand his unjust force with force for though their Empires should be gotten and possest by wicked men yet the worke of their government is from God and it is the good creature of God and therefore whatsoever the Magistrate doth no force ought to be taken up against the Magistrate Brentius saith The rule of a Prince may be evil two waies that the rule and government of a Prince may be evill two wayes 1. When hee commandeth any thing against the faith of Christ as to deny our God to worship Idols and the like and herein we must give place to the saying of the Apostle It is better to obey God then men but in this case the subiect must in no way rage or rise against his Magistrate but he should rather patiently suffer any evill then any way strike againe and rather endure any inconveniences and discommodities then any wayes obey those ungodly commands 2. The Prince his government may be evill when hee doth or commandeth any thing against the publique Justice of which kinde are the exaction of our goods or the vexation of our bodies Brentius in re spon-ad artie rusticorum and in these kindes of injuries the subject ought rather then in the former to be obedient to his Magistrate for if hee steps forth to armes God hath pronounced of such men He that smiteth with the sword shall perish with the sword Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury together with the rest of the bishops and most famous Divines of this Kingdome saith if Princes shall doe any thing contrary to their duties God hath not appointed any superiour Judge over them in this world but they are to render their account to God which hath reserved their judgement to himselfe alone and therefore it is not lawfull for any subjects how wicked soever their Princes shall be to take armes or raise sedition against them but they are to powre forth their prayers to God Cranmer in lib. de Christiani hominis institut in whose hand Kings hearts are that he would inlighten them with his spirit whereby they might rightly to the glory of God use that sword which he hath delivered unto them Gulielmus Tindall a godly Martyr of Christ when Cardinall Lanio's sonne did leade the Lambes of Christ by troopes unto the slaughter doth then describe the duty of subjects according to the straight rule of the Gospell saying David spared Saul and if he had killed him he had sinned against God for in every Kingdome the King which hath no superiour judgeth of all things and therefore he that endeavoureth or intendeth any mischiefe or calamity against the Prince that is a Tyrant or a Persecuter or whosoever with a froward hand doth but touch the Lords anointed he is a rebell against God and resisteth the ordinance of God as often as a private man sinneth he is held obnoxious to his King that can punish him for his offence but when the King offendeth he ought to be reserved to the divine examination and vengeance of God and as it is not lawfull upon any pretence to resist the King Tindall l. de Christiani bominis obedient so it is not lawfull to rise up against the Kings Officer or Magistrate that is sent by the King for the execution of those things which are commanded by the King for as our Saviour saith Hee that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth
take upon you more learning then the chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realme have this was the judgement of that judicious man and I must tell you that Religion never taught Rebellion neither was it the will of Christ that faith should bee compelled by fighting but perswaded by preaching for the Lord sharply reproveth them that built up Sion with bloud Micah 3.10 and Hierusalem with iniquity and the practice of Christ and his Apostles was to reforme the Church by prayers and preaching and not with fire and sword and they presse obedience unto our Governours yea though they were impious infidels True religion never rebelleth and idolatrous with arguments fetched from Gods ordinance from mans conscience from wrath and vengeance and from the terrible sentence of damnation and this truth is so solid that it hath the cleare testimony of holy Writ the perpetuall practice of all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs and I dare boldly say it the unanimous consent of all the Orthodox Bishops and Catholique Writers both in England and Ireland and in all the World that Christian Religion teacheth us never with any violence to resist or with armes to withstand the authority of our lawfull Kings If you say the Lawes of our Land Whether the Lawes of our Land doe warrant us to rebell and the Constitutions of this our Kingdome doe give us leave to stand upon our liberty and to withstand all tyranny that shall bee offered unto us especially when our estates lives and religion are in danger to bee destroyed To this I say with Laelius Laelius de privileg Eccl. 112. that Nulla lex valeat contra jus divinam mans laws can exact no further obedience then may stand with the observance of the divine precepts and therefore wee must not so prefer them or rely upon them so much as to prejudice the other and for our feare of the losse of estate life or religion I wish it may not be setled upon groundlesse suspitions for I know and all the World may beleeve that our King is a most clement and religious Prince that never did give cause unto any of his subjects to foster such feares and jealousies within his breast and you know what the Psalmist saith of many men They were affraid where no feare was And Iob tels you whom terrours shall make affraid on every side Iob 18.11 12 and shall drive him to his feet that is to runne away as you see the Rebels doe from the Kings Army in every place and in whose Tabernacle shall dwell the King of feare for though the ungodly fleeth when no man pursueth him yet they that trust in God are confident as Lyons without feare they know that the heart of the King is not in his owne hand but in the hand of the Lord Prov. 21.1 as the rivers of waters he turneth it whithersoever it pleaseth him either to save them or destroy them even as it pleaseth God hee ordereth the King how to rule the people Bonav ad secundam dist 35. art 2. q. 1. And therefore in the name of God and for Christ Iesus sake let me perswade you to put away all causles feares and groundlesse jealousies and trust your King if not trust your God and let your will which is so unhappy in it selfe become right and equall by receiving direction from the will of God and remember what Vlpian the great Civilian saith that rebellion and disobedience unto your King is proximum sacrilegio crimen and that it is in Samuels judgement as the sin of witchcraft The remembrance of his oath should be a terrour to the conscience of every rebell whereby men forsake God and cleave unto the Devill and above all remember the oath that many of you have taken to bee true and faithfull unto your King and to reveale whatsoever evils or plots that you shall know or heare to bee contrived against his Person Crowne or Dignity and defend him from them Pro posse tuo to the uttermost of your power So helpe you God Which oath how they that are any wayes assistant in a warre against their King can dispence with I cannot with all my wit and learning understand and therefore returne O Shulamite returne lay downe thine armes submit thy selfe unto thy Soveraigne and know that as the Kings of Israel were mercifull Kings so is the King of England 1 King 20.32 thou shalt find grace in the time of need but delay not this duty lest as Demades saith the Athenians never sate upon treaties of peace but in mourning weeds when by the losse of their nearest friends they had paid too deare for their quarrels so thou be driven to doe the like for except the sinnes of the people require no lesse satisfaction then the ruine of the Kingdome I am confident and am ready to hazard life and fortunes in this confidence that the goodnesse of our King The Authors confidence of the Kings victory the justnesse of his cause and the prayers of all honest and faithfull Ministers for him and our Church will in the end give him the victory over all those his rebellious enemies that with lyes slanders and false imputations have seduced the Kings subjects to strengthen themselves against their Soveraigne and all the World shall see that as Christ so in Sensu modificato this Vicegerent of Christ shall rule in the midst of these his enemies and shall raigne untill hee puts them all under his feet And because we never read of any rebellion not this of Corah here A rebellion that the like was never seen which of above six hundred thousand men had not many more then 250. Rebels nor that of Absolon against David who had all the Priests and Levites and the best Counsellours and a mighty Army with him such as was able to overthrow Absolon and twenty thousand men in the plaine field nor Israel against Rehoboam because they did but revolt from him and not with any hostile Armes invade him nor the Senate of Rome against Caesar though hee was the first that intrenched upon their liberty and intended to exchange their Aristodemocracy into a Monarchy nor any other that I can remember except that Councell which condemned Christ to death that was growne to that height to bee so absolute and so perfect a rebellion in all respects as that a whole Parliament in a manner and the major part of the Plebeians of a whole Kingdome should make a Covenant with Hell it selfe yea and which is most considerable that as I understand the beginning of this rebellion in this Kingdome of Ireland was the Commenalty therein should so fascinate the Nobility as to allure them so long to confirme their Votes till at last they must bee compelled in all thhings to adhere unto their conclusions that they whose power was formerly most absolute without them must now bee subordinate unto them that the strength of the people may defend
the weakenesse of the Nobility from that desert which they merited by their simplicity to bee seduced to joyne with them to rebell against their King Therefore if any faction in any Parliament should thus combine against the Lord and against his annointed there is no question but their reducement to obedience will make that Majesty which shall effect it more glorious to posterity then were any of all his Predecessours And therefore I say againe Returne O Shulamite returne and remember I pray thee remember lest my words shall accuse thy conscience in the day of judgement that wee are often commanded in many places of the Scriptures to obey our Kings but in no place bidden nor permitted to rise up and assist any Parliament against our King if thou sayest thou dost not doe it against thy King but against such and such that doe abuse the King I told you before that whosoever resisteth him that hath the Kings authority resisteth the King and therefore the whole World of intelligible men laugheth at this gullery and hee that dwelleth in the Heavens shall laugh it to scorne when with such aequivocation men shall thinke to justifie their rebellion and I hope the people will not still remaine so simple as to thinke that all the Canon and the Musket shot which the enemies of a King should make at him must bee understood to bee for the safety of his person And as neither private men nor any Senate nor Magistrate That the Pope hath no power to licence any man to make warre against the King nor Peeres nor Parliament can lawfully resist and take armes against their King so neither Synod nor Counsell nor Pope have any power to depose excommunicate or abdicate or to give immunities to Clergy or absolution to subjects thereby to free them from their duty and due allegeance and to give them any colour of allowance to rebell and make warre against their lawfull King And this point I should the more largely prosecute because the natives of this Kingdome are more addicted to the Pope and his Decrees then any others of all the Kings Dominion Pareus in Rom. 13. Iohan. Bede in the right and prerogatives of Kings and the Treatise intituled God and the King but the bulke of this Treatise is already too much swelled and I hope I may have hereafter a fitter opportunity to inlarge this Chapter and therefore till then I will onely referre my Reader unto Pareus John Bede and abundance more that have most plentifully written of this Argumenh And so much for the persons against whom they rebelled Mosec their King and Aaron their High Priest or chiefe Bishop and both these the prime Governours of Gods people whom they ought by all lawes to have obeyed and for no cause to have rebelled against them CHAP. XI Sheweth what these Rebels did How by tenue severall steps and degrees 1. Pride 2. Discontent 3. Envy 4. Murmuring 5. Hypocrisie 6. Lying 7. Slandering 8. Rayling 9. Disobedience 10. Resistance they ascended to the height of their Rebellion and how these are the steps and the wayes to all Rebellions and the reason which moved men to Rebell VVEe are to consider Quid fecerunt 3. Part. What these Rebels did what these Rebels did Cajetan saith Zelati sunt Tirinus saith Irritaverunt The vulgar Latine saith Aemulati sunt Our vulgar English saith They angred Moses and our last English saith They envyed Moses And indeed the large extent of the Originall word and the diversity of the Translation of it sheweth the greatnesse of their iniquity and the multi-formity or multiplicity of their sinne And therefore that you may truly understand it you must looke into the History * Numb 16. and there you shall see the whole matter the conception birth strength and progresse of their sinne for 1. This sinne was begotten by the seed of Pride they conceived an opinion of their owne excellency excellency that bewitched men to rebell thinking that they are inferiour to none equall to the best if not superiour unto all and therefore they disdained to bee governed and aspired to the government of Gods people Pride the beginning of rebellion And then Pride as the father begat Discontentment as his eldest Sonne they liked not their owne station but would faine bee promoted to higher dignity and because Moses and Aaron were setled in the government before them and they knew not how either to be adjoyned with them or advanced above them therefore discontent begat Envie and they began to pine away at their felicity and so our last English reades it They envied Moses 2. Private meetings do often produce mischiefes This sinne being thus conceived in the wombe of the heart at last it commeth forth to birth at the mouth for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and they begin to murmure and mutter among themselves and as Rebels use to have they have many private meetings and conventicles among themselves where they say we are all good 2 Sam. 15.3 4. we are all holy and they are no better than we and as Absalon depraved his fathers government and promised justice and judgement and golden mountaines unto the people if he were King so doe they traduce the present government with all scandalous imputations and professe such a reformation as would make all people happie if they were but in Moses place or made over him or with him the Guardians and Protectors of the Common-wealth And so now you see this ugly monster the sonne of Pride and Discontentment is borne into the world and spreads it selfe from the inward thought to open words Then Moses heares the voyce of this infant which was not like the voyce of Jacob but of the Serpent which spitteth fire and poyson out of his mouth And therefore lest this fire should consume them and these mutterers prove their murderers Moses now begins to look unto himselfe and to answer for his brother he calleth these rebels and he telleth them that neither he nor his brother had ambitiously usurped but were lawfully called into those places and to make this apparent to all Israel he bade these Rebels come out of their Castles to some other place where he might safely treate and conferre with them and that was to the Tabernacle of the Lord that is to the place where wisedome and truth resided and was from thence published and spread to all the people and there the Lord should shew them whom he had chosen And here I doe observe the care and wisedome of the Prophet that at the first appearance of their designe The wisdome of Moses would presently begin to protect his brother before their rebellion had increased to any strength for had he then delivered Aaron into their hands his hands had beene so weakened that he had never beene able afterwards to defend himselfe to teach all Kings to beware that they yeeld not their Bishops and Priests
unto the desires of the people which is the fore-runner of rebellion against themselves for as King Philip told the Athenians that he had no dislike to them but would admit them into his protection so they would deliver to him their Orators which were the fomentors of all mischiefe and the people were mad to doe it The witty tale of Demosthenes to saue the Orators and to assureal Kings that if Aarons tongue the Prophets pen perswade not the conscience to yeeld obedience Moses power and Ioshuas sword may subdue the people to subjection but never retaine them long without rebellion till Demosthenes told them how the Wolfe made the same proposition unto the Sheepe to become their friends and protectors so they would deliver their Dogs which were the cause of all discontent betwixt them and the Sheepe being already weary of their Dogs delivered them all unto the Wolves and then immediately the Wolves spared neither Sheepe nor Lambe but tore them in pieces without resistance even so when any King yeeldeth his Bishops unto the poples Votes he may feare ere long to feele the smart of this great mastake Therefore Moses wisely delivereth not his brother but stoutly defendeth him who he knew had no wayes offended them and offered if they came to a convenient place to make this plaine to all the people But as evill weeds grow apace and lewd sonnes will not be kept under so the more Moses sought to suppresse this sinne the faster it grew and spread it selfe to many branches from secret muttering to open rayling from inward discontent to outward disobedience they tell them plainely to their faces they will not come Evil mengrow worse wors Vers 12. è Castris from their strong holds they accuse them falsly that Moses their Prince aymed at nothing but their destruction and to that end had brought them out of a good land to be killed in the wildernesse Vers 13. Moses is in a strait and contemning them most scornefully in the face of all the people whatsoever Moses bids them doe they resolve to doe the contrary So now Moses might well say with the Poet Quocunque aspicio nihil est nisi pontus Fluctibus hic enmidus nubibus ille minax aether And therefore it was high time this evill weed should be rooted out or else the good corne shall be choaked these Rebells must be destroyed or they will destroy the Governours of Gods people and Moses now must waxe angry Nam debet amor laesus irasci otherwise his meekenesse had beene stupidnesse and his mercy had proved little better then cruelty when as to spare the Wolfe is to spoyle the Sheepe and because these great Rebels had with Absolon by their falfe accusations of their Governours and their subtle insinuations into the affections of the people stole away the hearts of many men therefore Moses must call for aide from Heaven and say Exurgat Deus and let him that hath sent me now defend me So God must be the decider of this dissention as you may see he was in the next verse And by this you finde Quid fecerunt what these Rebels did and how their sinne was not Simplex peccatum but Morbus cumulatus a very Chaos and an heape of confused iniquity for here is 1. Pride 2. Discontent 3. Envie 4. Murmuring 5. Hypocrisie 6. Lying 7. Slandring The tenfold sin of rebels 8. Rayling 9. Disobedience 10. Rebellion A monster indeed that is a ten headed or ten horned beast 1. Pride 1 Pride which bred the distraction in the Primitive Church and will be the destruction of any Church of any Common-wealth was the first seede of their rebellion for the humble man will easily be governed but the proud heart like a sturdy oake will rather breake then bend 2. Discontent was the second step 2. Discontent and that is a most vexatious vice for though contentation is a rare blessing because it ariseth either from a fruition of all comforts as it is in the glorious in Heaven The poyson of discontent or a not desiring of that which they have not as it is in the Saints on earth yet discontent is that which annointeth all our joyes with Aloes for though life be naturally sweete yet a little discontent makes us weary of our lives as the Israelites that loved their lives as well as any yet for want of a little water say O that we had dyed in Egypt And Haman tels his wife Hester 5 1◠that all the honour which the King and Queene shewed unto him availeth him nothing so long as Mordecai refused to bow unto him And discontent may as well invade the highest as the lowest for as none is so bare but he hath some benefits so none is so The common condition of man to be ever wanting something full but he wanteth something as the Israelites had Manna but they wanted water and when they had water they wanted flesh and this want made them discontented so these Rebels had the dignity to the Levites and to be Peeres of high places and heads of all their families which was more than they deserved but they wanted the honour to be Priests and to be Kings the chiefe Governours of Gods people which they desired and therefore were discontented because their conceit was unsatiable and their desires unsatisfied 3. 3. Envie As Pride makes men disconted to bee inferiour unto any so Discontent makes them alwayes to envie their superiors and therefore Envie is the third head of this monster and the third step unto rebellion How monstrous a sinne is Envie a most hatefull vice before God and man that I should pine away with griefe because God is gracious unto another and I must be angry with God because he will not be guided by me in the disposing of his favours and therefore Saint Augustine calleth this a devillish vice Gen. 4.8 Act. 7.9 which caused Cain to kill Abell the Patriarchs to sell Joseph the Medes to molest Daniel and the Nobility of Iury to persecute good King David Cyprian in Serm. de Livore and to crucifie the sonne of David Christ himselfe Et ideo periere quia maluerunt Christo invidere quà m credere And yet herein I must commend Envie that as the Poet saith Sit licet injustus livor though it be unjust to others yet it is very just to destroy them first that would destroy others as the envie of these rebels did Sampson-like pull down the house upon their owne heads and will most likely bring destruction unto those that follow them in rebellion 4. 4. Murmuring Murmuring is a secret discontented muttering one to another of things that we dislike or persons that we distaste and the very word in all languages seemes as harsh unto our eares as the sinne is hatefull unto our soules for in Greeke it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Murmurare in
English to Murmure in Brittish Grwgnach a sad word and a sowre sinne therefore the wise man saith Beware of murmuring Exod. c. 15. c. 16. c. 17. which is nothing worth and yet this sinne was frequent among the Israelites three times in three Chapters that they could never leave it till as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 10. They were destroyed of the destroyer 5. Hypocrisie is when a man seemes to be what he is not 5. Hypocrisie for as Saint Hierome saith Qui intus Cato foris Nero hypocrita est he that talkes of peace and prepares for warre that protesteth loyaltie and yet hates his King that in his words will advance the Church but in his actions will overthrow the Church-men that commends all pietie but commits all iniquity that will not sweare for a Kingdome but deceive for a penny that pretends the safety of the Kings Person but purloineth away all his power that will bend his knee and say Hayle King but will spit in his face and crowne him with thornes he is an hypocrite So these rebels say they are all holy they love all their brethren they hate usurpation and cannot endure the tyranny of these Governours but indeede though they cryed Templum Domini Templum Domini all for the King and all for the Church all for Moses and all for Aaron yet notwithstanding this voyce of Iacob they had the hands of Esau and they would have brought Moses and Aaron to confusion as they brought themselves to destruction This is the property of an Hypocrite and therefore Job speaking of an hypocrite saith and it is exceedingly well worth the observing Though his excellencie mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clounds yet he shall perish for ever like his owne dung they which have seene him that is they which came out to see his pompe and his greatnesse and have admired at the greatnesse of his glory shall say where is be or how chance he doth not ride on with his honour Iob answereth The eye which saw him shall see him no more that is Iob 20.6 7 8 9. in the like majestie neither shall his place any more behold him for He shall flee away as a dreame and shall not be found yea hee shall be chased away as a vision in the night And our Saviour knowing aswell the cruelty as the subtilty of hypocrites biddeth us to beware of hypocrites Mat. 7.15 as the Poet saith Hypocritas fugito sicut atri limina ditis Shun hypocrites as the gates of Hell Hypocrisie how odions it is and beleeve their actions rather then their protestations for as in the Old Testament Sodome and Gomorrah are the patternes of all beastlinesse so in the New Testament the greatest sinners are threatned to have their portion with the hypocrites 6. 6. Lying Lying must follow Hypocrisie at the heeles for were it not for the heapes of lyes that kypocrites spread abroad the world could not possibly be so easily seduced by their hypocrisie and I read it in a Sermon of a learned Divine that now adayes some phanatique Sectaries of desperate opinions and dispicable fortunes Master Griffith in his patheticall perswasion to peace p. 28. whom the Church and State finde to be a malignant party having little else to doe make it their trade to lye both by whole sale and retayle they invent lyes and vent lyes they tell lyes and write lyes and print lyes yea I may adde and more palpable lyes and more abominable then either Bourne or Butter ever published of the affaires of Germany and this they doe as confidently and impudently as if they were informed by that lying spirit which entred as a Voluntier into Ahabs Prophets and by lying and raising false rumours they beget jelousies and feares in the people and by blowing the coales which themselves kindled and inlarging the difference betwixt King and Parliament they set all in a cumbustion and bring all into confusion and that which grieves me most he saith that they are Preachers which in the exuberancie of their misgrounded and misguided zeale doe both preach and pray against publique peace as inconsistent with the independencie or rather Anarchie that they ayme at 7. 7. Slandering Slandering may be coupled unto their lying because wee can slander none with that which is truth therefore these Rebells say All the Congregation is holy and that is a lye when there can be no holinesse in the Rebels and the Lord is among them which is another lye for he will forfake all those that forsake him then they say Moses and Aaron take too much upon them which is an apparent slander and they adde that they lifted up themselves above the Congregation of the Lord which is another slander as false as the fathers of lyes could lay upon them for I shewed unto you before how truely they were called and how justly they behaved themselves in their places but as Absolon knew well enough that to traduce his fathers Government was the readiest way to insinuate and to winde himselfe into a good opinion among the people and to make the King odius unto his subjects so these and all other Rebells will be sure to lay load enough of lyes and slanders upon their Governours Goodwin in his Anti. Caval Burroughs in his Sermon upon the glorious name of the Lord of Hosts and so the namelesse Author of the Soveraigne Antidote Goodwin Borroughes and abundance more such scandalous impudent lying libels have not blushed which a man would thinke the brazen face of Satan could not chuse but doe so maliciously and reproachfully to lay to His Majesties charge the things which as the Prophet saith he never knew and which all they that know the King doe know to be apparent lyes and most abominable slanders against the Lords Vicegerent but Quid domini facient audeant cum talia fures You know the meaning of the Poet and you may know the reason why these grand lyers these impudent slanderers doe so impudently belye so good a King so pious and so gracious a Majestie for lay on enough Et aliquid adbaerebit and throw dust enough in their faces and let the Governours be never so good the King as milde and as unreproveable as Moses and the Bishops like Aaron the Saints of the Lord yet some thing will slicke in the opinion of the simple that are not able to discerne the subtilty of those distractors And as they diminish and undermine the credit and reputation of the best Governours by no other engine then a lying tongue and a false pen so with the same instruments they doe magnifie their owne repute and further their unjust proceedings by deceiving the most simple with such equivacall lyes Astrange equivocation as any sensible man might well wonder that they should be so insensibly swallowed downe as when they say they fight for him whom they shoot at and they are for
the King when with all their might and maine they strive to take away his power to pull the sword out of his hand and to throw his Crowne down to the dust which is so strange a kinde of equivocation as might well move men with Pilate to aske what is truth which we can never understand if any of these things can be true which as one saith most truely is one of the absurdest gulleries that ever was put upon any Nation The tale of an Anabaptist much like that Anabaptist which I knew that beat his wife almost to death and said he beat not her but that evill spirit that was in her Therefore the Lord hateth this abhominable sinne because it is unpossible the people should be so soon drawn into rebellion if they did not credit these defamations But the wise man tells us that Stultus credit omni verbo therefore no wise man will beleeve those false and wicked slanders that such malicius Rebels doe spread abroad against their King Prince or Priest or any other Governour of Gods people 8. After they had thus slandered these good men they fell to open rayling against them 8 Rayling as you may see Numb 16.13 14. for now they had eaten shame and drunke after it and therefore they cared not what they sayd and so now we finde how the Rebels deale with our King and with our Bishops too with our Moses and with our Aaron for here in Ireland they rebell against their Soveraigne because he is no Papist and will not countenance the Papists as they desire And in England they rayle at him and rebell against him because they say hee is a Papist and doth connive at Popery and hath a designe to bring in Popery into the Kingdome which is as slat a lye as the father of lyes hath ever invented So the Bishops here are driven out of all as my selfe am expelled aedibus sedibus and left destitute of all reliefe because we are no Papists but doe both preach add write against their errors as much as any and more learnedly then many others And in England we are persecuted and driven to flie from place to place or to take our place in a hard prison as my selfe have beene often forced to flie and to wander in the cold and dark long nights because we are Papists and so Popishly given good God what shall we doe whither shall we goe or what shall we say for Nusquam tutae fides nec hospes ab hospite tutus We cannot confide in the confiders to whom we are become malignant enemies for speaking truth noither dare we trust in the followers of the publique faith nor in the professors of the Catholique faith whereof men maliciously rejecting their godly Bishops rebelliously fighting against their lawfull King and wortally wounding their owne soules have made a shipwracke But If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub if they said he was a glutton and a drunkard what wonder if they say these things of us and if Christ the King of Kings was crucified betwixt two Theeves what marvell if this servant of Christ our King be thus pressed opposed and abused betwixt two rebellious factions and when we see our Saviour and our King thus handled it is lesse strange to finde the Bishops and the Priests persecuted and crucified betwixt two hereticall and tyrannicall parties Well Jerusalem Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee take heed lest the King of peace shall say unto thee Verily thou shalt see me no more till thou sayest Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord. 9. When they were growne thus impudent 9. Disobedience from bad to worse both over shooes and over bootes then disobedience must needs follow and therefore now putting on their brazen foreheads they tell Moses plainly We will not come to thee wee will doe nothing that thou willest but will crosse thee in all that thou intendest this is our most peremtory resolution And so we see that Nemo repente fit pessimus but the wicked grow worse and worse first you must lend then you must give if not we will take or if you deny your goods we will have your bodies so at first what soever we doe it is for the King and because this is so palpable a mockery that as every man knoweth that they fight against the Earle of Essex and his Army doe warre against the Parliament so they that fight against the Kings Army do as certainly warre against the King then we grow so impudent as to justifie any rebellion against our King as in England Goodwin and that seditious Pamphleter in opening the glorious name of the Lord of Host doe but a little lesse for which application of Gods glorious name and abusing the holy Scriptures to such abominable transgression of Gods holy Precepts to instigate the subjects to warre against their Soveraigne and to involue a whole Kingdome into a detestable distraction I doe much admire that they are not apprehended and transferred to the Kings Bench Barre to be there arraigned and condemned to be punished according to their deserts 10. 10. Rebellion See the place Joshua 1.16 17 18. When these Rebels had proceeded thus farre then contrary to the loyall obedience which they owed unto their Prince and which the people promise unto Joshua They ascended to the height of odious rebellion which may not unfitly be called Monstrum borendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum and is as Thucydides saith all kinde of evill Et qui facit pecatum non facit sed ipse totus est peccatum and therefore Samuel saith that Rebellion is as the sinne of Witchcraft when men doe confederate to give their soules unto the Devell for now these Rebells are ready to take armes against Moses and they had reduced all civill order to confused paritie deposed and destroyed their Governours if the Governour of all the world by whom Kings doe reigne and who hath promised to defend them had not prevented the same from Heaven And the reason why they did all this The reason of their rebellion and proceeded thus far against Moses and Aaron is intimated in the words of my Text AEmulati sunt because they would emulate or imulate Moses that is to play the Moses or play the Kings and play the part of the chiefe Priest themselves for this is certaine that none will envy murmure at slander and disobey his King so farre as to make any open rebellion against him but they that in some sort would rule and be Kings themselves especially when they shall seeke so farre to debilitate their Prince as that hee shall be no wayes able to make resistance for they thinke if Treason prosper 't is no Treason what 's the reason if it prosper who dares call it Treason and none would disobey their Bishops or chiefe Priests but they that would and cannot be Bishops
maintaine the Liberty of his Subjects the just Priviledges of Parliaments and the true established Religion in the Kingdome of England and likewise to rule over us according to our Lawes in this Realme of Ireland And we have least reason to rebell and take armes against him and therfore let us not be perswaded by any meanes by any man to doe it because God will preserve his annointed and will as you see plague the Rebels but let us pray for our King and praise God night and day that he which might have given us a bramble not onely to teare our flesh but also to set us all on fire hath given us such a Cedar such a gracious and a pious King and if either forreigne foes or domestique Rebels doe presse him so that he hath need of us let us adde our helpe and hazard our lives to defend and protect Him that protecteth us and suffereth all for the protection of Gods service as it was established in the purest time of Reformation and for the preservation of our Lawes from any corrupt interpretation or arbitrary invasion upon them by those factious men that under faire yet false pretences have with wondrous subtilty and with most subtile hypocrisie seduced so many simple men to pertake with them not onely to overthrow the true Religion to imbase the Church of Christ that hitherto hath continued glorious in this Nation and by trampling the most learned under feet to reduce Popery into this Kingdome and to bring in Atheisme or Barbarisme into our Pulpits when they make their Coach-men and Tradesmen like Jeroboams Priests the basest of the people to become their trencher Chaplaines and the teachers of those poore sheep for whom the Son of God hath shed his precious bloud but also to change the well-setled government and to subvert the whole fabricke of this famous Common-wealth either by their tyranny or bringing all into an Anarchie for if we have any regard of any of these things either true Religion or ancient Government a gracious King and a learned Clergy a glorious Church and a flourishing Kingdome we ought not to spare our goods or be niggards in our contributions to helpe his Majestie yea as Debora saith To helpe the Lord against the mighty Or if we be cold and carelesse herein pinurious and tenacious of our worldly pelfe preferring our gold before our God or fearing gracelesse Rebels more then we love our gracious King It may fall out as Saint Augustine saith Quod non capit Christus vapit fiscus or as it did with the Carthaginians who because they would not assist Hanniball with some reasonable proportion of their estates they lost all unto the Romans and with the Constantinopolitans that for denying a little to Paleologus lost all unto the Turkes so we may be robbed and pillaged of all because we would not part with some and I had rather the King should have all I have then that the Rebels should have any part thereof Therefore I hope I shall perswade all good men to honour God with their riches and to assist His Majesty to the uttermost of their powers even to the hazard and to the losse both of liberty and life And doing this our God which is the King of Kings will blesse us and defend us from all evill and make us Kings and Priests to live with him for ever and ever through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all praise and glory and dominion from henceforth for evermore Amen Amen Hester 4.16 If I perish I perish Yet Esdras 4.41 The truth is great and will prevaile Iehovae liberatori FINIS O Eternall and Almighty God thou Lord of Hoasts that givest victory unto Kings and deliverest David thy Servant from the perill of the sword save and defend our King from all dangers strengthen him that he may vanquish and overcome all his enemies and be with us O Lord that are thy faithfull servants and for thy sake his Loyall Subjects to preserve us from the gathering together of the froward and from the insurrection of the wicked doers that are confederate against thee and against thine Anointed for Iesus Christ his sake in whom we have ever trusted through whom we shall never be confounded and to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen