made confederacies and conspiracies against the truth and thereby they have at all times drawn after them many mulâ—itudes of ignorant soules unto perdition This is no new thing but a true saying and therefore our Saviour biddeth us to Take heed of false Prophets and of rebellions spirits that as Saint John saith went from us but were not of us but are indeed the poyson and Incediaries both of Church and Common-wealth 4. These Rebels had received many favours and great benâ—fits from 4. Much obliged for many favours unto their Governours their Governours for they were delivered è lutulentis manâ—um operibus as Saint Augustine speaketh and as the Prophet saith They had â—ased their shoulders from their burthens and their hands from making of pots they had broken the Rod of their opprâ—ssâ—rs and as Moses tells them they haâ— separated them from the rest of thâ— multitude of Israel and set them near to God Numb 16. 9. himself to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and therefore the light of nature tells us that they were most ungrateful and as inhumane as the brood of Serpents that would sting him to death which to preserve his life would bring him home in his bosome And it seems this was the transcendencie of Judas his sin and that which grieved our Saviour most of all that he whom he had called to be one of his twelve Apostles whom he had made his Steward and Treasurer of all his wealth and for whom he had done more then for thousands of others should betray him into the hands of sinners for if it had been another saith the Psalmist that had done me this dishonour I could well have born it but seeing it was thou my familiar friend which didst eat and drink at my table it must needs trouble me for thought in others it might be pardonable yet in thee it is intolerable and therefore of all others he saith of Judas Vâ— illi homini woe be unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed it had been better for him he had never been born as if his sin were greater then the sin of Annas Caâ—aphas or Pâ—late But the old saying is most true Improbus à nullo flâ—ctitur obsequio no service can satisfie a froward soul no favour no benefit no preferment can appease the rebellious thoughts of diâ—contented spirits And therefore notwithstanding Mâ—ses had done all this for Corah yet Corah must rebell against Moses So many times though Kings have given great honours unto their subjects made them their Peers their Chamberlains their Treasurers and their servants of nearest place and greatest trust And though Aaron the High-Priest or Bishop doth impose his hands on others and aâ—miâ— them into Sacred Orders above their brethren to be near the Lord and bestow all the pâ—â—ferment they can upon them yet with Corah these unquiet and ungratefull spirits must rebell against their Governours For I think I may well demand Which of all them that now rebell against their King have not had either Grand-fathers Fathers or themselves promoted to all or most of their fortunes and honours from that Crown which now they would trample under their feet Who more against their King then those that received most from their King Just like Judas or here like Corah Dathan and Abiram I could instance the particulars but I passe So you see who were the Rebels most ungrateful most unworthy men 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 SEcondly we are to consider against whom they rebelled and the Text 2. Part against whom they rebelled 2. â—oints discussed saith Moses and Aaron and therefore We must discusse 1. Qui fuére who they were in regard of their places 2. Qâ—ales fuére what they were in regard of their qualities 1. In regard of their places we find that these men were 1. The chief Governours of Gods people 2. Governours both in temporal and in spiritual things 3. Agreeing and consenting together in all their Government 1. They were the prime Governours of the people Moses the King or Prince to rule the people and Aaron the High-Priest to instruct and offer Sacrifice to make attonement unto God for the sins of the people and these have their authority from God for though it sometimes happeneth that Potens the Ruler is not of God as the Prophet saith They have reigned Hos 8. 4. and not by me and likewise modus assumendi the manner of getting authority is not alwayes of God but sometimes by usurpation cruelty subtlety or some other sinful means yet Potestas the power it self whosoever hath it is ever from God for the Philosopher saith Magistraâ—ûs originem esse Aristoâ— Pâ—lit lib 1. c 1. Ambros Ser. 7. à natura ipsa And Saint Aâ—brâ—sâ— saith Dâ—tus à Deo Magistratus nâ—n modo malorum coercendorum causâ sâ—d etiam honorum sovâ—â—dorum in vera animi pieâ—atâ— honestate gratiâ And others say the Sun is not more necessary in Heaven then the Magistrate is on Earth for alas how is it possible for any Society to live on earth cùm vivitur ex rapto when men live by rapine and shall say Let our strength be to us the law of justice therefore God is the giver of our Governours and he professeth Per me regnant Reges And Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar That the most high ruleth in the Kingdome of Vide etiam â— 2. v. 37. men and he giveth it to whomsoever he will Dan 4. 25. 2. These two men were Governours both in all temporal and in all spiritual things as Mosâ—s in the things that pertained to the Common-wealth and Aaron in things pertaining unto God And these two sorts of Government are in some sort subordinate each to other and yet each one intire in it self so that the one may not usurp the office of the other for 1. The spiritual Priest is to instruct the Magistrates and to reprove them 2 Governours both in temporal and spirituall things too if they do amisse as they are members of their charge and the sheep of their sheep-fold And so we have the examples of David reproved by Nathan Achab by Elias Herod by John Baptist and in the Primitive Church of Philip the Emperour repenting at the perswasion of Fabian Euseb l 6. c. 34. Sozomen lib. 7. and Theodosius senior by the writings of S. Ambrose 2. The temporal Magistrate is to command and if they offend to correct and condemn the Priests as they are members of their Common-wealth for Saint Paul saith Let every soul be subject to the higher powers Rom. 13. Bernard ad Archiepis Senonensem and if every soul then the soul of the Priest as well as the souls of the People or otherwise Quis eum excepit ab
unto us in the two first verses here set down 2. The Replication of the Prophet is two fold 1. Affirmative and erronious or mistaken vers 3. 2. The Replication 2. Negative and right from the 3. vers to the 18. 3. The gratulation is in an humble acknowledgement and a grateful remembrance 3. The Gratulation of the fore-passed benefits of God with an earnest and hearty prayer put up to God for the continuance of his favour unto him from the 18. verse to the end of the Chapter And I shall here treat of no more than of the deliberation or the Prophets consideration what he intended to do touching which we are to observe these three things 1. The time which hath a twofold manifestation of it 1. When he sate in his house The 3. things observable in the deliberation 2. When he was safe from his enemies 2. The Persons deliberating and they are 2. 1. David the King 2. Nathan the Prophet 3. The matter deliberated and considered of betwixt the Prince and the Prophet and that was the meanness and baseness of the then House of God and therefore he would be at the cost and charges to make it beautiful and to erect him an House befitting the Majesty and greatness of God And this his good intention he justifieth and confirmeth the same to be both honest and good by the consequent of Congruity that it was fit it should be so in respect of a double comparison 1. Of himself with God 2. Of his Court with God's Ark. 1. I that am but a poor creature have an house to dwell in and God 1. Reason that is the Creator of all the World hath not an House to put his Ark in and for his servants to meet in to hear his Laws and to do him service 2. My Court is stately covered over with Cedars but the Ark of God 2. Reason is but very meanly and basely covered over with a Canopie of skins to shelter it from the wind and the weather And therefore conceiving this to be very preposterous and a far unbeseeming thing for him to be better provided for than his God he conferreth with the Prophet and tells him he intends to rectifie this obliquity and to build God an House more agreeable to his Majesty These are the parts and parcels of the Kings deliberation and conference with the Prophet and his Bishop Nathan And 1. For the time It is said when the King sate in his house and the Lord had 1 The time of this deliberation How Sitting Standing are commonly interpreted Ezech. 3. 24. 1 Cor. 10. 12. 2 Cor. â—â— 24. Ephes 6. 14. 1 Pet. 5. 12. Ps 135. 1 2. Ps 122. 2. 2 Reg. 3. 14. given him rest round about from all his enemies So you see 1. It was when the King sate in his house and these relative words sitting and standing are noted by Divines to have some difference of sense and acceptation As standing being commonly taken in good part and sitting in the evil and worser sense as in these places where standing is well spoken of The Spirit entred into me and set me upon my feet and he that thinketh he standeth let him take heed lest he fall and stand in the Lord as dear children and by faith ye stand and stand having your loynes girt about with truth and this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand and praise the Lord all ye his servants ye that stand in the courts of the Lords House and our feet shall stand in thy gates O Hierâ—salem and the Lord of Hosts liveth before whom I stand In all which quotations and the like the word standing hath reference unto good and is taken in the better sense and so to be interpreted And in these places and the like where the name of sitting runneth into obloquie and is attributed to iniquity Iniquity sitteth on a talent of lead and Princes sit and speak against me Zach 5. 7. Ps 119. Ps 1. and Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornful and the ungodly person sitteth lurking in the theevish corners of the streets and so in may other places it is interpreted in the worse sense But here the word sate in his house is of a milder meaning and of indifferent How the word sate is here taken acceptation and rather to be interpreted in the better sense as betokening the government of the King for so the King sate in his house signifieth that he sate in his Seat of Government and this sense hath been ancient and obvious in our reading as where the Poet saith Celsa sedet Aeolus arce King Aeolus sitteth in his high Tower and manageth his State-matters and in the Germane speech they say that to sit signifieth to reign as the Emperour sate that is reigned so many years And this is the moderne meaning of this phrase even amongst us for when we would shew how long any one hath exercised the Office and discharged the Place of a Bishop Judge or Prefect amongst us we are wont to say he sate in that place so long And to sit commonly signifieth to be in rest and quiet and is opposite to affairs and businesse As where it is said Shall your brethren go to battle and you sit still And where the Poet saith Sedeant spectentque Latini Let the Latines sit still and look on And in both these senses King David may be said to sit in his house without any great matter in which sense we understand the word though I rather take it in the later way because that 2. The next adjunct of the time is when the Lord had given him rest 2. When was the time that David had rest from all his enemies from all his enemies for this varieth little or nothing from the former when he sate in his house And therefore we may very well compose them and confound them together and put them to signifie the same thing But about this rest that is here spoken of the Expositors cannot all agree when it was whilest they do consider the many Battels that he fought after this conference that he had with Nathan and therefore though some take it for the peace he had at this present time yet others of a quicker sight do assign it after the second Victory he had against the Philistines when he was such an hammer so terrible to all the neighbour-Nations as that the very name of David and his doings made them afraid and glad to sue unto him for peace and to take bands of resolution with themselves to be of good behaviour towards him and never to provoke him any more And of this we read in 1 Chron. 14. 11. when the Philistines came up to Baal-Perazim and David smote them and said God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters and afterward when they spread themselves abroad in the
greatest Nobility Lords of the Council Senate Parliament or Pope for any cause compelling to Idolatry exercising Cruelty practising Tyranny or any other Pretext how fair and specious soever it seems to be to Rebell take Arms and resist the Authority of their lawfull King whom God will protect and require all the blood that shall be spilt at the hands of the head-Rebels And all the main Objections to the contrary are clearly answered By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS Lord Bishop of Ossory London Printed for Phil. Stephens the younger 1663. TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAJESTY Most Gracious Sovereign I Have been long ashamed to see the Aegyptian locusts the emissaries of Apollyon and the sons 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 dutiful 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 faithful servants of Christ and most loyal to Your Majesty either over-awed with fear or distempered with their calamities or I know not for what else 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 faithful subjects as the Sword and Musket of the Souldier should weaken the strength of faithlesse Rebels Therefore not presuming of mine ability to equalize my brethren but as conscious of my fidelity both to God and to Your Majesty as in my younger years I * Non sine meo magno mâ—lo fearlesly published The resolution of Pilate 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 poor 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 plain without curiosity Qualem decet exulis esse Yet I do 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 relief and my self deprived of liberty and life by the Rebels for speaking truth in defence of whom my conscience knoweth to be in the right than to have all the praise and preferment that either People Parliament or Pope can heap upon me for sewing pillowes under their elbows and with idle distinctions false interpretations and wicked applications of holy Writ hypocritically to flatter and most seditiously to instigate the discontented and seduced spirits and others of most desperate fortunes to rebell against the Lord's annointed 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 bless protect and prosper You in all Your wayes Your Royal Queen and all Your Royal Progeny Thus prayeth Your Majesties most loyally devoted Subject and most faithfully obliged servant Gryffith Ossory THE GRAND REBELLION PSAL. 106. 16. Aemulati sunt Mosen in Castris Aaron sanctum Domini CHAP. 1. Sheweth who these Rebels were how much they were obliged to their Governours and yet how ungratefully they rebelled against them I Am here in this Treatise to shew unto you a Monster more hideous and monstrous than any of those that are described either by the Greek or Latin Poets and more noysome and destructive to humane kinde then any of those that the hottest Regions of Africa have ever bred though this be now most frequently produced in these colder Climates The name of it is Rebellion an ugly beast of many-heads of loathsome aspect of great antiquity and as great vivacity for the whole world could not subdue it to this very day And this Rebellion the like whereof was never seen from the Creation of the World to this very time and I hope shall never be seen hereafter The greatnesse of this sin of Rebellion is seen two ways 1. From the Text. 2. From their punishment 1. Of the Text 4. Parts of the Text. to the day of Judgement is fully set down in the 16. of Numbers and it is briefly repeated in the words of the Psalmist Psal 106. 16. How great a sin it is and how odious unto God will appear if we examine 1. The particulars of the Text in the 16. verse and but view 2. The greatnesse of their punishment in the next verse 1. The Text containeth four special parts 1. Qui fuâ—re who the Rebels were that did this 2. Contra quos against whom they rebelled 3. Quid fecerunt what they did 4. Vbi fecerunt where they did it And in each of these I will endevour brevity for as the Poet saith Citò dicta Percipiunt dociles animi retinâ—ntque fideles Horat. Few words do best hold memory and a short taste doth breed the more eager appetite therefore as all the precepts of Christ were 1. Brevia so my desire shall be to do herein 3. Properties of Christs precepts 2. Levia so my desire shall be to do herein 3. Vtilia so my desire shall be to do herein First then Aemulati sunt they angred and who were they the Prophet 1. Part who the Rebels were Described by four notions answereth Vers 7. Patres nostri in Aegypto Our Fathers regarded not thy wonders in Aegypt And therfore they were 1. Their own Countrey-men the Israelites 2. Of their own Tribe as was Corah and his companions and of the Nobility of Israel as were Dathan and Abiram and their adherents 3. Of their own Religion such as had received the Oracles of God and did professe to serve thâ— same true and â—ver living God as the others did 4. Such as had obtained multa magna many great favours and benefits yea Beneficia â—â—mis â—opâ—â—sa and I may say very precious benefits from them For when God sent Mâ—ses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen these delivered them from bondage and brought them forth with silver and gold and there was not one feeble person among their Tribes saith the Prophet And yet these were the men that rebelled 1. They were their own Country-men of their own Tribe the seed of Abraham 1. Of the same Country and partakers of the same fortunes And therefore they should love and not hate they should further and not hinder rejoyce and not envie at one anothers happinesse for though wicked men of desperate fortunes care for none but for themselves Sibi nati sibi vivunt sibi moriuntur sibi damnantur yet not only the Heathen Philosophy of Natures
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 forsake 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 Father of lyes could lay upon them for I shewed unto you before how truly they were called and how justly they behaved themselves in their places but as Absolon knew well enough that to traduce his Father's Government was the readiest way to insinuate and to winde himselfe into a good opinion among the people and to make the King odious unto his subjects so these and all other Rebels will be sure to lay load enough of lyes and slanders upon their Governours and so the namelesse Authour of the Soveraign Antidote Goodwin Bâ—rroughs Goodwin in his Anti Caval Buâ—roughs in his Sermon upon The glorious name of the Lord of Hosts and abundance more such scandalous impudent lying libels have not blushed which a man would think the brazen face of Satan could not chuse but do so maliciously and reproachfully to lay to his Majesty's charge the things which as the Prophet saith he never knew and which all they that know the King do know to be apparent lyes and most abominable slanders against the Lord's Vicegerent but Quid domini facient audent cum talia fures You know the meaning of the Poet and you may know the reason why these grand Lyars these impudent slanderers do so impudently bely so good a King so pious and so gracious a Majesty for Lay on enough Et aliquid adhaerebit 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 stick in the opinion of the simple that are not able to discern 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 do magniâ—â—e their own repute and further their unjust proceedings by deceiving the most simple with A strange equivâ—cation such equivocal lyes as any sensible man might well wonder that they should be so insensibly swallowed down as when they say They fight for him whom they shoot at and they are for the King when with all their might and main they strive to take away his power to pull the sword out of his hand and to throw his Crown down to the dust which is so strange a kind of equivocation as might well move men with Pilate to ask What is truth which we can never understand if any of these things can be true which as one saith most truly is one of the absurdest gulleries that ever was put upon any Nation much like that Anabaptist which I knew that beat his wife almost to death and said He beat not her but that evill The tale of an Anabaptist spirit that was in her Therefore the Lord hateth this abominable 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 believe those false and wicked slanders that such malicious Rebels do 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 8. Rayling against them as you may see Num. 16. 13 14. For now they had eaten shame and drunk after it and therefore they cared not what they said and so now we find how the Rebels deal with our King and with our Bishops too with our Moses and with our Aaron for here in Ireland they rebell against their Soveraign 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 He is a Papist and doth connive at Popery and hath a design to bring in Popery into the Kingdome which is as flat a lye as the father of lyes hath ever invented So the Bishops here are driven out of all as my self am expelled â—dibus sedibus and left destitute of all relief because we are no Papists but do both preach and write against their errours as much as any and more learnedly then many others And in England we are persecuted and driven to flee from place to place or to take our place in a hard prison as my self have been often forced to flee and to wander in the cold and dark long nights because we are Papists and Popishly given Good God! what shall we do whither shall we go or what shall we say for Nusquam tuta fides nec hospes ab hospite tutus We cannot confide in the confiders to whom we are become malignant enemies for speaking truth neither 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 lawful King and mortally wounding their own souls have made a shipwrack 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 between two Thieves what marvel 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 find the Bishops and the Priests persecuted and crucified betwixt two heretical and tyrannical 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 cometh in the name of the Lord. 9. When they were grown thus impudent from bad to worse both over 9 Disobedience shooes and over boots then Disobedience must needs follow and therefore now putting on their brazen foreheads they tell Moses plainly We will not come to thee we will do nothing that thou willest but will crosse thee in all that thou intendest this is our most peremptory resolution And so we see that Nemo repentè fit pessimus but the wicked grow worse and worse first you must lend then you must giveâ— if not we will take or if you deny your goods we will have your bodies so at first what soever we do it is for the King and because this is so palpable a mockery that as every man knoweth they
Silks and Scarlet but with the extorted moneys and the plundered goods of the loyal subjects I hope it is not so in England Yet as Platina tells us that when the Guelphes and the Gibilines in the Platina's story of the Guelphs and Gibelines City of Papia were at civil discord and the Gibiliues promised to one Facinus Caius all the goods of the Guelphes if he assisted them to get the victory which he did and after he had subdued the Guelphes he seized upon the goods of both and when the Gibilines complained that he brake his Covenant to pillage their goods Caius answered that Themselves were Gibilines but their goods were Guelphs and so belonged unto him So both in England and Ireland I see the Parliament Forces and the Rebels I hope contrary to the will of the Parliament make little difference betwixt Papist and Protestant the well-affected and disaffected for they cannot judge of their affections but they can discern their estates and that is the thing which they thirst after Haud ignota cano But you will say These are miseries unavoidable accidents common to all warre when neither side can excuse all their followers I answer Woe be to them therefore that were the first suggesters and procurers of this warre and cursed be they that are still the incendiaries and blow the coales for the continuance of these miserable distractions I am sure his Majesty was neither the cause nor doth he desire the prolonging thereof for the least moment but as his royal Father was a most peaceable Prince so hath he shewed himself in all his life to follow him passibus aequis and to be a Prince of peace though as the God of peace is likewise a man of warre and the Lord of Hosts so this peaceable Prince when his patience is too much provoked can as you see change his pen for a sword and turn the mildnesse of a Lamb into the stoutnesse of a Lyon and you know what Solomon saith that The wrath of a King is the messenger of death especially when he is so justly moved to wrath And so much for the particulars of this Text. 2. Having fully seen the uglinesse of this sin you may a little view the 2. The punishment of these rebels greatnesse of the punishment for Although I must confesse we should be slow to anger slow to wrath yet when the Magistrate is disobeyed the Minister despised and God himself disclaimed it makes our hearts to bleed and our spirits angry within us yea though the King were as gentle and as meek as Moses the mâ—ckest man on earth and the Bishops as holy as Aaron the Saint of the Tirinus in â— Psal Lord yet such disobedience and rebellion would anger Saints for so Tirinus saith Irritaverunt They angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord Nay more then this they angred God himself so farre that fire was kindled in his wrath and it burned to the bottom of hell And as these rebels were Lords and Levites Clergy and Laity so God did proportion their punishments according to their sinnes for the Levites that were to kindle fire upon Gods Altar and should have been more heavenly and those two hundred and fifty men which usurped the Office of the Priests He sent fire from heaven to devour them and the Nobility that were Lay-Lords the Prophet tells you The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the Congregation of Abiram A most fearful example of a just judgement for to have seen them dead upon the earth as the Aegyptians upon the shore had been very lamentable but to see the earth opening and the graves devouring them quick was most lamentable and so strange that we never read of such revenge taken of Israel never any better deserved and which is more Saint Basil saith quâ—d Basilius hom 9. descenderunt in infernum damnatorum they fell into the very pit of the damned which doleful judgement though they well deserved it yet I will leave that undetermined And if these rebels proceeding not so farre whatsoever they intended as to offer violence and to make an open warre against Moses were so hâ—avily plagued for the Embrio of their rebellion what tongue shall be able to expresse the detestation of that sin and the deserts of those Rebels that by their subtilty and cruelty would bring a greater persecution upon the Church then any that we read since the time of Christ and by a desperate disobedience to a most Gracious King would utterly overthrow a most flourishing State A rebellion and persecution the one against the King the other against the Church that in all respects can scarce be parallel'd from the beginning of the world to this very day And therefore except they do speedily repent with that measure of repentance as shall be in some sort proportionable to the measure of their transgression I fear God in justice will deal with them as he did with the Jews deliver them into the hand of their Enemies that will have no compassion upon young man or maiden old man or him that stoopeth for age or rather 2 Chron. 36 17. as he did with Pharaoh King of Aegypt deliver them up to a reprobate sense and harden their hearts that they cannot repent but in their folly and obstinacy still to fight against Heaven untill the God of heaven shall overthrow them with a most fearful destruction the which I pray God they may foresee in time and repent that they may prevent it that God may be still merciful unto us as he useth to be to those that love his Name And so much for the words of this Text. Now to Apply all in brief if God shall say to any Nation I will send The application of all them a King in my wrath and give them Lawes not good let them take heed they say not We will take him away by our strength for we have read that He hath authority to give us a King in his displeasure but you shall never read that we have authority to disobey him at our pleasure and to say Nolumus hunc regnare super nos or if any do let them know that he which set him up and setled him over them is able to protect him against them and they that struggle against him do but strive against God and therefore they have no better remedy then to pray to God whiâ—h hath the hearts of all Kings in his hand that he would as the Psalmist saith Give the King his judgements and his righteousnesse unto the King's Son that he would either guide his heart aright and direct his feet to the way of peace or as he hath sent him in his fury so he would take him away in his mercy But for our selves of these Islands we have a King and I speak it here in the sight of God and as I shall answer for what I say at the dreadful judgement
Idolatry nor any other injury or tyranny should move us to rebell 196 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 three fold power of every Tyrant Three kinds of Tyrannies The doubtful and dangerous events of Warre Why many men rebell Jehu's example not to be followed 201 CHAP. VI. Sheweth that neither private men nor the subordinate Magistrates nor the greatest Peers of the Kingdom may take arms and make War against their King Buchanan's Mistake discovered and the Anti-Cavalier confuted 207 CHAP. VII Sheweth the reasons and the examples that are alledged to justifie Rebellion and a full Answer to each of them God the immediate Authour of Monarchy inferiour Magistrates have no power but what is derived from the superrour and the ill successe of all rebellious resisting of our Kings 214 CHAP. VIII Sheweth that the Parliament hath no power to make War against our King Two main Objections answered The original 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 220 CHAP. IX Sheweth the unanimous consent and testimonies of many famous learned men and Martyrs both ancient and modern that have confirmed and justified the truth of the former Doctrine 225 CHAP. X. Sheweth the impudency of the Anti-Cavalier How the Rebels deny they war against the King An unanswerable Argument to presse obedience A further discussion whether for our Liberty Religion or Laws we may resist our Kings and a pathetical Disswasion from Rebellion 230 CHAP. XI Sheweth what these Rebels did How by ten several steps and degrees 1. Pride 2. Discontent 3. Envying 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 ways to all Râ—bellion and the reasons which move them to rebell 235 CHAP. XII Sheweth where the Rebels do batch their Rebellion The heavy and just deserved punishments of Rebels The application and conclusion of the whole 242 The particular Books that the Authour hath formerly Published and are sold by Phil. Stephens the elder and Phil. Stephens the younger at their Shops in Saint Pauls Church-yard and Fleet-street 1. A Large Book in Folio Intituled The best Religion Comprehending 1. The Resolution of Pilate touching the Super-scription on Christ his Crosse 2. The delights of the Saints which are Grace and Peace 3. The 7. golden Candlesticks holding the 7. greatest lights of Christian Religion videlicet 1. The miseries of man 2. The knowledg of God 3. The Incarnation 4. The Passion 5. The Resurrection 6. The Ascension 7. The duty of Christians of Christ And the Donation or Mission of the holy Ghost 15. Sermons preached before King James and King Charles and at Pauls Crosse and upon several occasions 2. Another large book in Folio Intituled The true Church and divided into six Books 1. Treating of the visibility quality and unity of the Church 2. and 3. Expounding the ten Commandements 4. Shewing the Intention of the Prophets to expound the Law to prophesy of the Gospeâ— 2. The summe of the Gospel which is 1. Justification 2. Sanctification 5. Shewing the sincerity of the Scriptures the uncertainty of Traditions the fruits of Christianity good works the calling of the Gentiles and the gathering of the Jewes 6. Shewing 1. the Governours of Gods Church the Magistrates and Ministers 2. the task of Church-governours and 3. the quality of Christians 3. The great Antichrist revealed never till now discovered and proved to be neither Pope nor Turk but a multitude of most wicked men that have killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ Moses and Aaron Magistrate and Minister King and Priest 4. Seven Treatises to prevent the seven last Vials of Gods wrath that are to be powred down upon the earth 1. The monstrous murder of the most righteous King 2. The Tragedy of Zimri that slew his King and his Master 3. Gods warre with the wicked Traytors Rebels c. 4. The lively picture of these lewd times 5. The properties and Prerogatives of Gods Saints 6. The chiefest duties of every Christian man 7. The true cause why we should love God THE DISCOVERY OF MYSTERIES OR The Plots and Practices of a prevalent Faction in the Long PARLIAMENT To overthrow the established Religion and the well-setled Government of this glorious Church and to introduce a new framed Discipline not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be to set up a new-invented Religion patched together of Anabaptistical and Brownistical Tenets and many other new and old Errors And also To subvert the fundamental Laws of this famous Kingdom by devesting our King of His just Rights and unquestionable Royall Prerogatives and depriving the Subjects of the propriety of their goods and the Liberty of their persons and under the name of the Priviledge of Parliament to exchange that excellent Monarchial Government of this Nation into the Tyrannical Government of a Faction prevailing over the major part of their well-meaning Brethren to Vote and Order things full of all injustice oppression and cruelty as may appear out of many by these few subsequent collections of their Proceedings By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS Lord Bishop of Ossory London Printed for Phil. Stephens the younger 1663. TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAJESTY Most Gracious Sovereign THough the wisest man in all the Kingdom of Persia saith Great is the truth and stronger then all things Yeâ— the father of lies hath now plaid his part so well that as the Prophet saith Truth is fallen in the Street and Equity cannot enter in And your Majesty whom the God of Truth hath anointed his sole Vicegerent to be the Supreme Protector of them both in all your Dominions hath accordingly lifted up your Standard against their Enemies and I may truly say of you as Menevensis saith of that most Noble King Alfred Si modò victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modò victus erat ad crastina bella parabat Neither do I believe that Lucan's Verse can be applied to any man better than to your Majesty Non te vidère superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum adversa videbunt As the height of your glory and prosperity never swelled your Pious heart so your greatest crosses and adversities never dejected your Royal spirit But as the Prophet saith of the Captain of the hoast of the Lord so I say to you that are his Lieftenant Ride on with your honor or ride prosperously Because of the word of truth of meekness and righteousness the people shall be subdued unto you and because the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in the mercy of the most Highest he shall not miscarry especially while he fighteth as he doth the battail of the Lord in defence of the Church of Christ who hath promised to be his