to Charles the fifth by the Pope and the Grant afterwards ratified to his Son Philip and the Natives of this Country were told in Bulls and Breves that the English ought to be as much opposed as the Turks they were promised Victory and the same Rewards which they should have had in a Holy War against Saracens And was not a Plenary Indulgence and Pardon of Sins granted by Vrban the Eighth to all who would joyn in the late Rebellion I could name other Jesuits and Popes who are of these bloody Principles but I fear I am already irregular in this long Collection which is extorted from me by the late Jesuit's forgetfulness at his death who out of politick Charity to others yet untryed and to prevent Scandal could think of none that held this Opinion but Mariana And now do you judge what sort of Religion this is which allows and enjoyns such open violations of the Laws of God and Nature which reconciles Treason to the fith and Murther to the sixth Commandment which saints Men for Rebellion and damns them for Allegiance such Tenets are surely scandalous to Christianity most dangerous and destructive to Princes and highly against this Text and have and will much hinder the Propagation of the Gospel in Infidel and Pagan Countries where the Light of Nature the Practice and Tradition of their Forefathers and the moral Instructions of their Priests teach men to be more Humane and Loyal than are many Votaries of the Roman Church And would to God I could accuse no others for the Violation of my Text but alas O grief and shame to speak it Is not this Doctrine countenanced by many Bigots of Geneva and our neighboring Kirk who would manacle our free-born Princes invade their Prerogative and strip them of those Honours which their Royal Ancestors have always enjoyed who would reduce these three Kingdoms into a Seigniory and make our Imperial Crown as narrow as the Duke of Venice his Cap They would allow the King a kind of Regal but dependant Authority He should have the Robes of the British Monarch but nothing of his antient Power and in short if their Instructions were followed he should be only a Noble Servant to the People whom they might call to an account and punish when they please For does not Buchanan say the People may give the Crown to whom they will that if Princes do not excel in virtue De Jure Reg. they are not to be deemed Kings but should want the benefit of all humane Society and if they wont walk according to the Laws made by the People they are Enemies to God and Man and should be reckoned among Wolves and other destructive Beasts he would have the People carry them into some remote parts or drown them in the Sea as the Romans did their Monsters he says Major pars Populi de Magistratu judicare judices ei forre queat aut si Trib. plebis Romani Ephori Lacedemonii ad leviendam vim imperii quesiti sunt c. which surely he took from Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. s 31. who says If there be popular Magisirates to moderate the unruliness of Kings such as the Ephori were to the Lacedemonian Kings the Tribunes to the Roman Consuls or the Demarchi to the Athenian Senate which Power it may be the three Estates have in every Kingdom they are perfidious if they connive at them which very words Bradshaw used when he condemned our late gracious Soveraign or from Beza who affirms 24 Epsi that Inferiour Magistrates are bound to protect the People from domestick Tyrants or from Bucanus de Magistratu who speaks much to the same purpose but he far exceeds them all in most subtle and bitter instigations to rebel against the King and tells them how some have been perpetually imprisoned and others banished and the Actors not censur'd for it and instanceth in James the Third whose Death says he was not revenged but here he forgot what horrour of Conscience seized on his Son whom they forced with them into the Field that he lamented it all his life after and wore an Iron Chain about him in token of his great grief and sorrow of heart And how remarkably God punished him his Nobles and Commons at the Battel of Flowden where many of those Parricides or their Children were signally vanquished and destroyed as their-own Books witness He runs on in that rebellious strain and commends Thebe for killing her Husband Timolean his Brother and Cassius his Son and Fulvius and Brutus for murthering their Sons and near Kinsmen for consulting how to restore the Emperour and says Honours and Rewards were given by many of the Grecian Cities to the Killers of Tyranical Princes and blames Domitius Corbulo for not deposing Nero when he might c. His whole Book is full of such traiterous Incentives and is indeed the Quiver whence showrs of barbed and empoysoned Arrows have been shot at Monarchs by all the Pamphleteers in the late times which makes me quote him so largely Thus did he honour the King in broaching such rebellious Principles among his Subjects in which Knox Cartwright and Goodman three of their great Writers do exactly agree with him in them many more are the Jesuits Principles asserted If Bell says the Ecclesiastical Estate is higher than the Civil L. de Cler. 28. See Rogers 's Preface to the 39 Articles See Cartwrights Reply to the same purpose Mr. Travers will say of the Presbyterian Discipline Omnes orbis Menarchas c. all the Monarchs of the earth ought to submit their Scepters to it I might shew you the like agreement between the Jesuit Parsons and Buchanan between Emmanuel Sa Mr. Melvil and Mr. Gibson and many others but I offend your Ears in naming so many like Herod and Pilate they go hand in hand to destroy the Lords Anointed though they differ in other points and they joyntly violate my Text. The most learned of them declined the Judgment and Authority of K. James and affirmed that what was spoken in the pulpit ought first to be tryed by the Presbytery and that neither he nor his Council might meddle with it in primâ instantiâ though the Words were treasonable they have called him Persecuter in their Sermons said he was possest with a Devil Spotswoods Hist and made the people rise up against him neither the Holiness of the Place nor the Sacredness of his Person could protect him from their rebellious Invectives But least some think these were private and particular persons and what they did ought not to reflect on the whole Kirk pray observe that their general Assemblies and Synods have denied the Regal Power And although in France in Holland in Geneva it self Councils and Synods are still called by the Permission and License of the chief Magistrate yet would the Kirk convene Assemblies and make Acts of the highest Consequence contrary to the Kings express Commands And
not to believe the Popes power of deposing Indeed Emmanuel Sa wont have the King killed Voce Tyran till he be Excommunicated but then latâ sententiâ any one may be his Executioner And Suares says T is lawfull to Resist and kill your own King L. 6. c. 3 6. if you cant defend your selves otherwise from his violence and in another place he says such insurrections are no Treason but a Just war which Doctrine was defended by Dr. Petit upon the Murther of the Duke of Orleance Simanca says an heretical Prince must not only lose his Kingdom but his Children shall be debarred from the succession L. Dict. Philop. sec 2. p. 1.9 And Creswel affirms That if any King desert the Roman Religion all Divines and Canonists agree that by the Law of God Man he immediatly looses all power and dignity before the Pope give Sentence against him his subjects are free from all Oaths of Allegiance which they have taken and they may and ought if they have strength to depose him as an Apostat Heretick And says he This is the most certain Definit and undoubted opinion of the most learned men L. 6. de Reg. p. 59. Mariana says The King must be admonished to own the Popes Supremacy but if he wont they may kill him how highly does he and so does the Jesuit Ribadeneira also defend and extoll that inhuman Monk who murthered H. 3d. and calls that horrid wickedness C. 6. an admirable greatness of spirit and an Act not to be forgotten by which he had raised to himself a great and mighty name There does he Justify the Killing of Kings for the alteration of Religion and in the next chapter directs the manner how he would have them poysoned which very Book was approved of by their General the Visitor and other Grave and Learned men of the Jesuitical order It were endless to name all who maintaine this Opinion read Amphitheatrum Bonarsii and the Book De Abdicatione H. 3 and you 'l find the assassinating of Kings largly justified and in Franciscus Veronas Apology for the wicked Chastel Pars. 2. c. 2. you 'l see the Killing of Kings Vindicated with this Circumstance Non obstante decreto supradicti Concilij Constantiensis Privatis et Singulis licitum sit Reges et Principes Haereseos Tyrannidis condemnatos occidere Tho the Council of Constance decreed the Contrary yet may any Private man kill Kings and Princes condemned for Heresy and Tyranny Gretzer Burgoin Andreas Eudemons Apology for Father Garnet and many more too tedious now to mention are full of such discourses De. Pontif. Rom. Their great oracle Bellarmine cryes out Papa potest mutare Regna uni auferre atque alteri conferre c. The Pope as he is supream spiritual Prince may take a Kingdom from one and give it to another and in another place he says C. 7 if the King be Tyrannical or Heretical all agree that he may and ought to be deposed and pretends the Primitive Christians would have served them so but that they wanted strength though he well knew they abhorred such Doctrines when they were equal to their Adversaries as is fully evident from St. Cypr. Tert. St. Aug. and others which great Truth is confessed by Barclay and Tollanus and other of their writers They own it was not for want of strength the Christians did not Rebell but out of obedience to the Principles of their Religion But that Cardinals judgment prevayled more than all the Primitive Fathers he affirms all agree in it and who will contradict him seeing one Pope says Non eos Homicidas arbitramur Urb. 2 Rescrip de Occis Excom c. quos adversus Excommunicatos zelo Catholicae Matris ardentes eorum quoslibet trucidâsse Contigerit That good Pope counted them no Murtherers who out of zeal to the Catholick Church would kill those whom she Excomunicated Who will doubt this to be the Doctrine of the Roman Church when the infallible head thereof as they call him gives such great encouragement to slay all who are under that sentence or sees another Pope grant a Jubile to all Christendom for the Massacre of Paris or reads the Oration which his Holiness made upon the Murther of H. 3d which is attested by Father Warmington Sixt. Quint. who writ and distributed the copies among the Cardinalls to second which Guinard made a Book in praise of the Monk who did it and in it advised the like to be done to his successour which Ravaillac performed and was also justified in their Publick writings and the Doctrine of Deposing Princes is fully asserted in many other books dedicaed to the Pope and the greatest Cardinals and the Superiors of their Orders carrying their Approbation and Licence in the Front and not only particular persons Conc. Lat. 4. Can. 3. Tom. 28. but above a thousand of their Clergy at once invested the Pope with the Power of Excommunicating and Deposing such Princes as at any time should refuse to extirpate Hereticks And did not another Council ratifie the Deposing of Frederick the Second Conc. Lugd. T. 28. by Innocent the Fourth and their Doctors tell us plainly what may be done with them when the Pope has deprived them for which I might quote Creswell and Windeck and others who say that Subjects are bound in Conscience and by the Command of God to expel their Heretical Princes and that they hazard their Souls if they don't do it and that all Hereticks should be put to death they should be burnt or cut in pieces By which you see 't is not the opinion of one but of many and the Practice of their greatest Church-men hath been agreeable to this Doctrine I could name several of their Bishops who in this Kingdom turned their Mitres into Helmets and their Croziers into Swords and embrued their hands in the blood of the Kings good Subjects and who can tell when they will be of a better mind and more merciful disposition for their Jesuit Campian says He would have all know In Concer Eccl. anno 1583. that their Society which is spread over all the world has made a League a holy and solemn Oath that while any one of them is alive they will go on in using all ways to extirpate and root out Protestants and that they will pursue the Ruine of our Princes Person Religion and Kingdom and we have found his words true hitherto Becan l. 5. c. 16. Comp. Contr. And another of his Brethren says A Catholick Prince ought not to suffer a Heretick to live in his Dominions unless they be too numerous and strong for him or unless he fears some Heretical Prince will invade him for it And in the preceding Chapter he says Hereticks do more disturb the Christian Peace than Murtherers or Thieves but they may justly be put to death much more may Hereticks In order to which these Kingdoms were formerly given
no. Fortasse reum faciat Regem iniquitas imperandi innocentem verò militem ostendat Ordo serviendi The Magistrate may offend in commanding but not he who obeys the Principium actionis is in him and he must answer for it Thus should we behave our selves when what is commanded is only doubtful or indifferent we should have meekness of Judgment complying and condescending Spirits we should distrust and reject our private humours and fancies for the general quiet of the Kingdom and by our Conformity to the Rules imposed shew our Honour to the King and never resist them unless they be clearly against the revealed Law of God In such case only have we liberty to deny but even then we must refuse it with all humility and meekness patiently undergo Imprisonment or Death but never use any open resistance and thus have all Nations understood the Power and Prerogative of Princes for were there Decrees to be opposed with Force and Violence no Order or Government could be in the World And therefore the very Heathens advise Subjects to dye Tacit rather than lift up a hand against their King though he were Tyrannical and did exact unlawful things The Gods have given Princes Power to govern and nothing is left to the Subject but the Glory of Obedience let them be what they will we must obey without resistance Many are the Laws and most severe were the Punishments which they ordained to defend the Majesty and Grandeur of their Kings their Prefects and Officers if the Souldier broke the Stick with which the Centurion struck him he was put to death This Nature taught them and there is natural Allegiance due from every Subject to the Prince of the Country where he is born though that Prince did not make him swear he transgresses the Law of Nature if he denies Fealty to him and whether ever he is sworn or no he is bound to be true to his native Prince for the Fidelity of Subjects proceeds originally from the Law of Nature which is eternal and unalterable and not from the obligation of Oaths and he violates this Law who doth not pay all Honour and Subjection to that Prince in whose Country he his born and resides though he never took Oath of Allegiance or Supremacy But if my King require an Oath from me to assure him of my Fidelity I must take it and I am guilty of Perjury as well as Disloyalty if I ever swerve the least tittle from it He is the Head of the Society or Community of which I am a member to him before my Oath I owed homage by nature and no Power under Heaven can discharge me from that natural Allegiance which I owe him nor absolve me from the Oath I have taken without his consent Beside all which the Law of God has in many places enjoyned Obedience to Kings and there are not more positive and plainer Commands for any Duty than for Honour Maintenance and Obedience to Princes and we find no persons exempted from it but both Clergy and Laity are subject to it as I shall fully prove by Scripture and Antiquity and all who derogate from the Honour of their native Prince who lessen his Authority and deny his Supremacy act quite contrary to this Text and in so doing are neither good Christians nor good Subjects But they who walk exactly according to this Rule who honour the King and no way entrench upon his Prerogative but support it in its just height and exaltation they are the best Christians and the truest Subjects and consequently ought to receive all Countenance Incouragement and Protection from Princes and so I hast to the next thing 2. Who are the great Violaters of this Text and their unjust Pretences They who chiefly oppose the true Protestant Doctrine of Obedience to Secular Princes are the Papists and the Separatists in this they agree and their Principles are very destructive to Government quite contrary to the Practice of the Primitive Christians and the indispensable Rules of Scripture for the Law of God requireth all persons to obey their Kings if St. Peters words can have any influence on the Papists I need but name my Text which has no limitation in it but is directed to all men not imagining his Successors would have pretended the contrary but if they won't be concluded by him in this and other Texts let them hear what St. Paul says Ro. 13.1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher Powers if every soul must be subject the Pope and the Clergy are included and all are there commanded to obey under the dreadful penalty of Damnation But the Popes have since through Ambition and Avarice usurped a Power over Princes and the Jesuits the great Pillars of the Papal Throne have wrote much in defence of it though they can't but know that the Popes themselves observed this Rule for many hundreds of years and all the Bishops both of the East and West did exactly conform unto it L. 5. Orat in Aux Repugnare non novi dolere potero potero flere potero gemere lachrymae meae arma sunt c. says St. Amb. They claimed no Authority over them and made no resistance but with their Prayers and Tears Cum nefanda perpetimur ne verbo quidem reluctamur sed Deo remittimus ultionem Lact. l. 5. And Athanasius says Obedience to Magistrates was the universal Doctrine of the Church the antient Councils and Synods were called by the Emperours the Titles of their Acts are Sacra Synodus juxta religiosissimorum Christianissimor úmque Imperatorum nostrorum Praescriptum coacta Sacra Synodus juxta piissimorum nostrorum Imperatorum Decretum per Dei gratia m congregata Sometimes the Acts run Ex Jussu Ex Evocatione Ex Ordinatione Regum nostrorum c. They met by the Emperours Order Appointment and Writs 2 Cone Const as they acknowledge in their Letters to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Acts were made Authentick by their Confirmation The Bishops humble Addresses to the Emperours for Establishing their Canons and Decres and their Ratifications and Orders for Obedience to them are frequently recorded and all the Clergy of Rome as well as other places observed their Edicts and no news then of the Popes Supremacy as is confess'd by the Bishops who met at Bononia to settle the Church in the time of Julius the Third which Power did all along both under the Law and the Gospel belong unto Princes If you look in the Old Testament you 'l find they had power over the Clergy from the first settlement of Government amongst Gods own People Aaron obeyed Moses who was King in Jesurum in the 2 Chr. 23.21 You see both Clergy and Laity entring into a Covenant of Allegiance to young King Joash and then did Kings punish spiritual persons as well as others Abiathar was removed from the high Priesthood by King Solomon and Josiah Jehoshophat and other Kings
when he would have dissolved them they have proclaimed openly that their Assembly was the Supream Judicatory in all Causes Ecclesiastical and that it was their antient Grievance that his Majesty took upon him spiritual Authority and therefore they instigated the Commons to rebel for to give him power in Spirituals was to erect a Popedom in his Person Nay in the year 1582 when K. James did Ass at St. And. by his Royal Letter by express Messengers by his Master of Requests and Herald at Arms prohibit their Assembly they slighted all and did proceed then and afterward they would allow of no Appeals to the King but punished those who did so Print 47. Decret Syn. though Paul was permitted to appeal unto Cesar In their Theorems they say no Power on earth can challenge Command or Dominion upon the Church but that all Estates within that Realm 1 Book Disc 7. Head as well Rulers as others must be subject to the Discipline So that you see the most learned of their Writers their most admired Preachers their General Assemblies which are the Representative Body of the Kirk rob the King of the honour and authority which belong to him diminish his Power and with the Pope raise themselves above all that is called God which the Apostle makes a Mark of Antichrist and they justly urge it so against him but what will they say if he retort it upon the Kirk 2. Bork Disc C. 12. seeing they say their jurisdiction is independent and that all men as well Magistrates as others are subject to their Judgment What dos the Pope say more They both have deposed Princes for not owning this Doctrine and by these fiery Principles have set the world in a flame How miserable then are those Monarchs whose Crown life depend on the pleasure of such men What Protestant King and Country can be long quiet where they are All our late Troubles sprung from these sanguinary Doctrines they ruined both Church State made these three Kingdoms one great Akeldama while there is the same cause may we not fear the same effects What has either party Printed in detestation of these ungodly Tenets Practices which may awaken the Government to fixt their Eyes upon both for tho their Heads look several ways like those of a Spread Eagle yet are they united in heart with their sharp Claws are still grasping to pull down the most Apostolical Church under Heaven Let them for shame renounce these Rebellious opinions be no longer the great violators of this Apostalical Canon let them become good Christians and good Subjects and unite themselves to the true old Protestants who are free from the blood of Kings who have ever been the best observers of this Text and consequently the best Subjects which is the last thing to be discoursed on 3dly And very justly may I call them the best Subjects it being against the Doctrine of our Church any way to dishonour the King she enjoyns obedience to him in spiritual as well as temporal things and gives him the same authority which Godly Kings had among the Jews and Christian Emperours in the primitive Church her Liturgy her Homilies her Canons her Articles do all own his Supremacy while both Papists and Fanaticks deny it pretend a Superiority over him and that by Divine right Where by the way I may note the great Partiality and Injustice of our Separatists who when they exalted their new Discipline above all other Forms of Church Government call it the Scepter of Christs Kingdom and exact obedience from all Monarchs to it enter into a rebellious Covenant to defend it and murther thousands who opposed it even then did they cry out against Episcopacy as intolerable intrenching on the Kings Prerogative and taking away his Power because some had learnedly defended the Order to be Apostolical Divine How great was this Injustice to abolish Episcopacy which had flourished in all ages and all places of the world even in Aethiopia and India where the Popes Supremacy is disowned from the very Apostles days for pretending to stand by the same Authority which their upstart Model had against Scripture and Antiquity most illegally usurped How highly did these men sin against this Text abuse and dishonour the King in urging him with Force and Arms to pull down that holy Order which he and his Ancestors were at their Coronation most solemnly sworn to preserve and which with all the Priviledges and Liberties of the Church more than thirty Parliaments had wisely and maturely confirmed And have they not again attempted by the Sword their only powerful Argument to compel our present Soveraign contrary to all Rules of Justice and Providence to alter that Government which has ever been obedient to him for that which always rebelled against him and turn out a Clergy who would vindicate his Prerogative and seal their Allegiance with their blood and place those in their Seats who were ever disloyal and yet claim Authority over him to whom as his martyred Father said of them nothing will give content but the alteration of the whole frame of the Government and the total overthrow of Royal Authority Decl. after the Pacif. at Ber. or as his Royal Grandfather wrot of them who will judge and give Law to their King but be controul'd by none whom no deserts can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies Bas Dor. and aspiring without measure c. This and much more was the Character that wise King who had a long and sad experience of them left to his Son and their many Rebellions ever since shew it not only true of them who vexed his righteous Soul but a Prediction of others who would afterward strictly adhere to their Principles and in bloody Letters have they in most places since recorded themselves the great violaters of this Text. But blessed be God the true Episcopal Protestants have always observed it and most conscientiously honoured their King they have adhered to him in the worst of times and have been the greatest presidents of Fidelity in the world they have cheerfully suffered plundering and sequestration imprisonment and exile some were Martyrs at Home and others were Confessors abroad neither Chains nor Gibbets could terrifie them from their Allegiance their Religion and Loyalty were grounded on the same Foundation and they could not be Sons of the Church and Traytors to the King they must lay down old Protestancy when they lift up a hand against the Lords Anointed For their Principles are the same with those of the Primitive Christians and they will on no pretence whatsoever rebel against their Prince though he were a Presbyterian both in Opinion and Government they durst not dishonour or disobey him but would with those of old flere mori weep and dye and never draw a Sword against him They would imitate the Thebean Legion under Maximianus submit to a second Decimation and be cut in pieces before they would strike at their lawful Soveraign This was and is still the Doctrine of our Church in which she may justly triumph over all the World which we should at this juncture of time frequently preach and defend with all true Protestant Courage and Resolution Let us with the brave Mauricius and Exuperius who commanded that Loyal Army call to our Parishioners Mori magis quà m vincere rather to dye and fall innocently than live victorious Rebels let us often shew them the eternal Rewards of Fidelity and the dreadful Punishments of Disobedience 3. Ser. against Rebel let us convince them as 't is in our Homilies which also shews the Doctrine of our Church that as Heaven is the place of good obedient Subjects so is Hell the Prison and Dungeon of Rebels against God and their Prince c. By which allowed President let us with Loyal and Religious Zeal cry aloud against the Breakers of this Text let us assert the Supremacy of Princes in their own Territories against all the Delusions and Impostures of Rome and Geneva let us privately discourse them and publickly preach them into a devout Reverence and Loyal Admiration of the present Government which for the security of Religion and Property is most certainly the best under Heaven t is easie and gentle not Arbitrary and Tyrannical and gives the Subject all the Priviledges he can rationally desire no Sequestrators or Committy-men are seen among us the Cry of Widdows and Orphans is not heard in our streets the Peasant does not groan under Taxes but every man enjoys his own and is protected by the Laws from the Oppressions and Injuries of others for which and all other Blessings we here enjoy perswade we our Auditors to be truly thankful to God and the King and to express it in all Godliness and Honesty in all Loyalty and Affection in unity and uniformity and let us in all respects be burning and shining Lights unto them In a word let us in our Lives and Actions contribute all we can to the Honour of our King who is a most tender indulgent and nursing Father to our Church Let us shew it in our exact Conformity to the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws in our great Honour and Obedience to those whom he hath set over us in Church and State and especially to him who for his vast abilities his great Sufferings and untainted Loyalty is now most deservedly set in the ancient Throne of this Diocess let his Comfort in his Clergy increase with his Honour and let us by the Holiness of our Lives our Constancy in Preaching and other Ministerial Duties on which I have formerly on the like occasion discoursed shew our Obedience to our Metropolitan our Fear to God and Honour to the King FINIS