new thing but a true saying and therefore our Saviour biddeth us to Take heed of false Prophets and of rebellious 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. Much obliged for many favours unto their Governours 4. These Rebels had received many favours and great benefits from their Governours for they were delivered è lutulentis manuum operibus as Saint Augustine speaketh and as the Prophet saith They had eased their shoulders from their burthens and their hands from making of pots they had broken the Rod of their oppressors and as Moses tells them they had separated them from the rest of the multitude of Israel Numb 16.9 and set them near to God 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 though in others it might be pardonable yet in thee it is intolerable and therefore of all others he saith of Judas Vae 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 Plate But the old saying is most true Improbus à nullo flectitur obsequio no service can satisfie a froward soul no favour no benefit no preferment can appease the rebellious thoughts of discontented 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 admit them into Sacred Orders above their brethren to be near the Lord and bestow all the preferment 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 2. Part against whom they rebelled 2. Points discussed and the Text saith Moses and Aaron and therefore We must discusse 1. Qui fuére who they were in regard of their places 2. Quales 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 Hos 8.4 They have reigned 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 Magistra ûs originem Aristot Pâ—lit lib. 1. c 1. Ambros Ser. 7. esse à natura ipsa And Saint Ambrose saith Datus à Deo Magistratus non modo malorum coercendorum causâ sed etiam bonorum fovendorum in vera animi pie aete 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 Danâ—el told Nebuchadnezzar Vide etiam c. 2. v. 37. That the most high ruleth in the Kingdome of 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 Moses 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 2 Governours both in temporal and spirituall things and to reprove them 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 Euseb l 6. c. 34. Sozomen lib. 7. of Philip the Emperour repenting at the perswasion of Fabian 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 Rom. 13. Bernard ad Archiepis Senonensem for Saint Paul saith Let every soul be subject to the higher powers and if every soul then the soul of the Priest as well as the souls of the People or otherwise Quis eum excepit ab universitate as Saint Bernard saith and so Theodoret Theophylact and Oecumenius are of the same mind And the examples of Abiathar deposed by Solomon and
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. Reason 1 1. I that am but a poor creature have an house to dwell in and God 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 Reason 2 2. My Court is stately covered over with Cedars but the Ark of God 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. The time of this deliberation How Sitting Standing are commonly interpreted 1. For the time It is said when the King sate in his house and the Lord had 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 Ezech. 3.24 1 Cor. 10.12 2 Cor. 1.24 Ephes 6.14 1 Pet. 5.12 Ps 135.1 2. Ps 122.2 2 Reg. 3.14 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 Hierusalem 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 Zach 5.7 Ps 119. Ps 1. and Princes sit and speak against me 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 How the word sate is here takeâ— But here the word sate in his house is of a milder meaning and of indifferent 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 fitteth 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 sences 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 2. When waâ— the time that David had rest from all his enemies when the Lord had given him rest 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 than 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 valley 1 Chron. 14. v. 16 17. and David smote them from Gibeon even to Gazer and the fame of David went out into all Lands and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all Nations 2. For the persons that are here conferring together 2. The persons deliberating and conferring together they are said to be David and Nathan the King and the Prophet two great Persons and high Offices that formerly were contained in one Person as Melchisedech was the Priest of the Most High GOD and King of Salem And as the Poet saith Rex Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos Virgil. l. 3. And when God divided and distributed these several Offices to several persons he conferred them upon two brothers that is Moses and Aaron that so the King and the Priest might live and love one another like brethren as I have more amply shewed in my Treatise of The Grand Rebellion And so King David here dischargeth that his duty accordingly And so likewise not only the Heathen Kings but also the Jewish Kings the Kings of Israel and all good Christian Kings disdained not the friendly familiarity and conference with their Bishops and Priests The greatest Kâ—ngs and Pâ—inces were most familiar with the Priests Oâ—â—tors and Philosophers especially when they consult and deliberate of Religion or any point that concerns the Worship and Service of God For as King Croesus conferred with Solon the Philosopher and
our charge which we cannot help when we have done our very best to preserve thy Right and to uphold thy Service but let the sin lie upon the heads of them that commit it Hear us O Lord our God and grant our request for Jesus Christ's sake thy dear Son and our only Saviour to whom with thee and the Holy Spirit our blessed Comforter be all Glory and Dominion and Thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Jehovae Liberatori 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 malo 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. I. 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 to the day of Judgement is fully set down in the 16. of Numbers 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. 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 fuêre 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 Horat. Citò dicta Percipiunt dociles animi retinéntque fideles Few words do best hold memory and a short taste doth breed the more eager appetite therefore as all the precepts of Christ were 3. Properties of Christs precepts 1. Brevia 2. Levia 3. Vtilia so my desire shall be to do herein 1. Part who the Rebels were First then Aemulati sunt they angred and who were they the Prophet answereth Vers 7. Patres nostri in Aegypto Our Fathers regarded not thy wonders in Aegypt And therfore they were Described by four notions 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 the same true and ever living God as the others did 4. Such as had obtained multa mâ—gna many great favours and benefits yea Beneficia nimis copiosa 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. Of the same Country 1. They were their own Country-men of their own Tribe the seed of Abraham 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 Schollers but also the Divine verity of Gods elected servants doth teach us that partem patria partem parentes vendicant the love of our Countrey and to our
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 Goodwin in his Anti-Caval Buâ—roughs in his Sermon upon The glorious name of the Lord of Hosts Burroughs 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 magnifie their own repute and further their unjust proceedings by deceiving the most simple with such equivocal lyes as any sensible man might well wonder A strange equivocation 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 The tale of an Anabaptist and said He beat not her but that evill 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. Rayling 8. After they had thus slandered these good men they fell to open 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 aedibus 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 Disobedience 9. When they were grown thus impudent from bad to worse both over 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 give 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 that fight against the Earl of Essex and his Army do warre against the Parliament so they that fight against the Kings Army do as certainly war 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 do
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 2. The punishment of these rebels you may a little view the 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 meekest man on earth and the Bishops as holy as Aaron Tirinus in ◠Psal the Saint of the Lord yet such disobedience and rebellion would anger Saints for so Tirinus faith 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 Basilius hom 9. quòd 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 heavily 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 2 Chron. 36 17. old man or him that stoopeth for age or rather 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. The application of all Now to Apply all in brief if God shall say to any Nation I will send 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 protec◠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 which 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 not to flatter him that hears me not but to inform those of you that know him not so well as I that had the happinesse to live with my ever honoured Lord the Noble Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery 16 or 17. years in the Kings house and of them 6 or 7. years in the Kings service He is a most just pious and
gracious King and I believe the best Protestant King that ever England or Ireland saw neither Popishly affected nor Schismatically led to disaffect but most constantly resolved to be a true Defender of that true Protestant Faith which is established by Law in the Church of England and he is such a King of so unblameable a life so spotlesse in all his actions so clement and so meek towards all men and so merciful towards his very enemies that the mouth of Envy cannot truly taxe him nor malice it self disprove him in any thing Yet we know that as Moses the meekest among men and David the best of Kings were sore afflicted slandered and persecuted not a little by many of their own obliged subjects yea and the best Kings have had the greatest troubles so this good King hath had for his trial a great part of the like usage I know not by whom neither do I intend here to accuse others but to instruct you and by what I shewed out of this Text to teach you above all to take heed of disobedience and Rebellion towards your King and to let you understand that what priviledges in the New Testament are acknowledged to be due to Heathen Princes and what prerogatives the spirit of God hath in the Old Testament warranted unto the Jewish Kings and what the universal Law of Nature hath established upon all the supreme Governours do all of them appertain by unquestionable right unto his most sacred Majesty and yet His Majesty out of His incomparable goodnesse insisteth not to challenge all these but vouchsafeth to accept of those Rights and Prerogatives which are undoubtedly afforded him by the Lawes of His own Lands and these come farre short scarce the moity of the other because we know if our Historians have not deceived me how many of them were obtained by little better then by force and violence compelling Kings to consent unto them whereas Lawes should be of a freer nature And therefore of all the Nations round about us besides that God hath intrusted Him with us all we have most reason to intrust him and to give credit unto his Majesties many Protestations too high to be forgotten by him or misdoubted by us for his resolution to maintain 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 Laws in this Realm of Ireland And we have least reason to rebell and take arms against him and therefore let us not be perswaded by any means by any man to do 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 only to tear 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 forreign foes or domestique Rebels do presse him so that he hath need of us let us adde our help 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 Laws from any corrupt interpretation or arbitrary invasion upon them by those factious men that under fair yet false pretences have with wondrous subtilty and with most subtle hypocrisie seduced so many simple men to partake 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 Kingdom and to bring in Atheism or Barbarism into our Pulpits when they make their Coach-men and Trades-men like Jeroboam's Priests the basest of the people to become their Trencher-Chaplains and the teachers of those poor sheep for whom the Son of God hath shed his precious blood but also to change the well-setled government and to subvert the whole fabrick 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 Kingdom we ought not to spare our goods or be niggards in our contributions to help his Majesty yea as Debora saith To help the Lord against the mighty Or if we be cold and carelesse herein penurious 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 rapit 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 prevail Jehovae Liberatori 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 Yet 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 videre 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 shield and buckler which is the daily faithful prayer of Your Majestie 's most loyally devoted Subject and most faithfully obliged servant Gryffith Ossory THE DISCOVERY OF MYSTERIES OR The Plots and practices of a prevailing Faction in this present Parliament to overthrow both Church and State CHAP. I. Sheweth the Introduction the greatness of this Rebellion the Original thereof the secret plots of our Brownistical faction and the two chifest things that they aymed at to effect their Plot. I Have long wandered in a region of Rebellion among seduced Subjects and discontented Peers and now at last after I had passed the raging Seas and very hardly escaped the storms and dangers of the surging waves I am arrived in my native soyle where I find my self incompassed with far greater storms and more violent winds then ever I thought could be on any Land for though that Grand Rebellion which you may find lately described was both magna mira very great and very grievous such as I supposed could not be exceeded by any humane malice yet now me thinks I hear the Spirit saying unto me as he did unto Ezâ—kiel Son of man stand up and I will show thee greater abominations and a Rebellion far greater and more odious then either Popish Irish or any other Sect or Nation of the World hath hitherto produced and therefore I may now say with the Poet Barbara Pyraemidum sileat miracula Memphis Let proud Babylon cease to boast Of her Pyramid's stately spires This Rebellion is more strange Surmounting all infernal fires No age the like hath ever bred Nor shall when these Rebels be dead The seed and original of this Rebellion The seed of it was unseasonably sown in the Northern storm and the Original of those Boreal blasts either why or by whom those spirits were raised is not so well known to me therefore how justly the King did undertake the quarrel I will not at this time determine or with what equity the Scots made their approach into England it is not my purpose to discuss yet I must needs say that our English Sectaries and Amsterdam Recusants which hated our Church and loved not our King justum quia justum only because he is so good too good for them did from hence arripere ansam take hold of this opportunity by procuring those to proceed that were coming on and discouraging the others of the Kings side that were Cowardly enough to say no worse of themselves to betray both King and Kingdom into the hands of the Invaders So the good King was now with King David brought into a strait either to take counsel and follow the advice of those secret Sectaries So now I fear more the secret enemies both of Church and State that may luâ—k in Court then those that lie in the Earl of Essex his Camp and the masked enemies both of the Church and State that as yet insensible unto him were such in the bosome of his Court and most slily aymed at a further mischief then his Majesty could have imagined as now it appeareth by the consequences of this Parliament or else to hazard the dangers that his then open foes were like to bring upon his people And I assure my self eyes of flesh that cannot pierce into the mysteries of the hearts and our secret thoughts could see no further nor make any better election then His Majesty did that is to call a Parliament which the hearts of all the Kingdom called and cryed for and which in former times by the wise institution and right prosecution thereof was found to be the Pancreston or as the Weapon salve an antidote to cure all the diseases and to heal all the bleeding wounds of this Kingdom though of late we have sensibly felt the unhappy ending of some of them which perhaps may be some accidental cause of some part of this unhappiness here was His Majesties fair mind and an act of special grace for which all His Subjects ought most thankfully to shew themselves Loyal unto Him when He preferred their safety before the prosecuting of his own resolutions But Decipimur specie recti we are many times deceived by the shadow of the truth and betrayed under the vizard of virtue for as God produceth light out of darkness and good out of evil so wicked men like the spiders do suck poyson from those flowers whence the Bees do extract honey and these subtle-headed Foxes whereof many of them had unduly got themselves elected into the House of Commons and there factiously combined themselves together to do their great exploit to overthrow the Government both of Church and Sate and minded to make the Parliament-House like Vulcans Forge where they intended to contrive their Iron-net that should be able to hold fast all sorts of people from him that sitteth upon the Throne to him that wallowed in dust and ashes turned the hopes of our redresses to our extream miseries when in stead of rectifying our abuses they intended principally to work our ruine in our just apprehension though perhaps our happiness in their own mistaken conception And as the Apostle saith Known unto God are all his works from the beginning and he hath eternally decreed how and by what means to bring them all unto perfection so the Devil being God's Ape and the wicked treading in his steps do first mold their designs and intentions in the Idea of their own brains and conclude the works they would have done in their own conceits and then they frame to themselves the means and wayes whereby they are resolved to produce and perfect all those mis-shapen embryoes that they conceived and so these factious men this brood of vipers that would gnaw through the bowels of their mother from the first convention of this Parliament had resolved upon their plot and contrived among themselves what great good work they would by such and such means bring to passe And that was as I hope this subsequent discourse will make it plain to all The design 〈◊〉 plot of the faction of Seâ—aries that will not be wilfully blind the subversion of the ancient government both of this Church and Kingdom and to introduce a new Ecclesiastical Discipline and to frame a new Common-wealth much like if not worse than that of our neighbours in the Low-Countries Gratum opus agricolis a brave exploit and a great work indeed beyond the adventure of Junius Brutus that expelled the Kings but left the Priests