〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the living Images of God and derives their power from him And this I could prove from the consent of most Authors both antient and modern but St Chrysostome hath said enough alone in these words Rom. xiii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be Englished out of St. Paul the Powers that be are ordained of God to which also Tertullian bears witness a Christian saith he is no mans enemy much less the Emperours whom he knows to be appointed by his God Psal xlvii 9. The shields of the earth are the Lords they bear his arms and inscription and he holds them up over all the world The Kingdom is the Lords Psal xxii 28. and he is the governour among all Nations And this truth is the grand supporter of Monarchs Thrones by me Kings Reign (c) Divisim imperium cum Jove Caesar habet which per denotes not a bare permission but by his commission not by Gods sufferance only but by his ordinance also their Charter is granted from heaven and may not be revoked at the peoples pleasure Magnificent Titles triumphant Arches honourable Attendants Crowns Thrones and Scepters are all requisite and suitable to the grandeur of a King and apt to beget awe and reverence in the hearts of the Vulgar but Alas this is but the outside and Ceremony of the Sacred Majesty whose representative the King is this is that which renders him truly sacred to all religious and judicious men and minds that he is placed in the throne to rule and govern us by the appointment of God whose King he is and whose judgment he pronounceth Away then with that dangerous Tenent that so frequently and maliciously falls from the mouths and pens of the seditious Rabble that all Power is from the people interpreting dei Minister the peoples Servant and if he comply not with their giddy humours which in Prudence and Conscience he is not bound to doe then they may assert their native right and reassume the trust reposed in him this monstrous opinion flies in the face of God Almighty by pretending to a law of nature for the violation of all the laws both of God and man And reproacheth the wisdom of the most high for appointing no better government over them And to their other objection I answer that sovereign powers have their imployment from God and by his Authority and so are his servants only and the end of their employment is to be beneficial to the good of others but not in Subjection to their powers Now this truth rightly improved will be matter of Comfort to us that the government we live under is of Gods Institution and that God may bless his own ordinance and continue it in the right Line to the glory of his Name and the good of this Nation Let us pray God save the King the Queen the Illustrious Prince James Duke of York and all the Royal Family The excellency of Kingly dignity appears in this Jus Sangain nullo Jure dâ—rimi potest that even God himself hath among his own honorary titles taken to himself the name of King his title runs thus King of Kings and Lord of Lords and his goverment over the whole world is Monarchical for tho' there be three persons in the sacred Trinity yet there is but one God and confequently but one King everlasting Let then those Scriblers and Pamphlereers who of late have scattered their poyson through the Nation to the disparagement of Kingly government and ruin of unwary Subjects Let them I say blush for shame and tremble to consider how through the side of their lawful Soveraign they have struck at God's own Monarchy over the world as far as their power or malice could extend The dignity of Kings is seen in their Supremacy which is the most express character of himself which God can put upon a man 1 Pet. ii 13. and such a supremacy St. Peter tells us is only in God and the King for God is the supreme ruler of Kings and Kings are the supreme rulers of men therefore God himself the better to oblige our obedience to them Psal lxxxii 7. as well as to himself stiles them Gods That God who by an omnipotent fiat first called the passible world into act and hath ever since laid out the same power for preserving what he first created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath indued Kings with Prerogative more than humane for though they be shrouded under the Veil of mortality yet their power bears no small Resemblance with the Deity and to make the Supreme power accountable to any Inferior Jurisdiction or the will of the people were to set up an authority over him to whom our subjection is due Illa dicitur summa potestas cujus actus alterius juri non sâ—beunt ita ut alterius voluntatis humanae arbitrio irriti possint reddi Grotius which is a down right contradiction in terms For Supreme power is not nor cannot be subject to anothers law and this great truth all good subjects are obliged to defend with their lives and fortunes For yield up the enemy but this one flower the Kings Prerogative and their incroaching fingers will be reaching after all their malice being so unreasonable that a dear-bought experience hath told us It is easier to deny them all than having gratified them in part to prescribe them a measure And now methinks I hear our Antimonarchists say the doctrine of the Kings Supremacy is urged by none but those that by Court-flattery seek their own preferment and promote Arbitrary Government To which I Answer If to preach obedience to Authority does brand men with the name of flatterers they cannot excuse God almighty the blessed Jesus the Patriarks Prophets Apostles Saints and Martyrs from being guilty of it For this is the Doctrine of the Bible and the language of good men in all ages and if this be a scandall God grant that all the Sons of the Church of England may live under this disgrace and dye under this Ignominy Neither is this the way to promote arbitrary government but the contrary for the Kings Supremacy is the Subjects safety t is that Palladium which whilst preserved Inviolable stands as a bulwark about the Nation to protect us in our rights both Civil and Religious For by this Trust reposed in the Prince Each single Person is fortified with the strength of a Nation And this is attested by the every days Experience of all our fellow Subjects who live quiet obedient and peaceable Lives and opposed by none but those that think his Majesties Guards a grievance his Laws an oppression and the benefit of his Life and Reign a check to their disobedience and rebellions Come we now in the third place to speak of the Person supplicated to God and indeed to whom should Persons address their Prayers for their King but unto their God who is King of Kings who hath both Authority
first of all Supplications and Prayers be made for all men for Kings and all that are in Authority and however the Author of the Life of Julian raking up some passionate Expressions in one of the Fathers hath falsly maliciously and scandalously represented the whole this is agreeable to the Practice of the Primitive Christians as we may read in Tertullian Oramus pro omnibus Imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam Imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes Senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque hominis Caesaris vota sunt We pray for a long Life for our Emperours a secure Empire a safe House valiant Armies a faithful Senate a good People a quiet World and whatsoever Caesar or any man can wish for or desire Thus have I shew'd you that it is the duty of all good Christians and all good Subjects to Pray for the Safety and Preservation of the King I come to the reasons inforcing this duty and the first is we have need to pray for the King 1. Because his Safety is fiercely opposed and his Life in danger upon the account of Policy and under the pretence of Religion Upon the account of Policy Monarchy it self is undermined by the Republicans to lay a foundation for such an Anarchy as they are pleased to call a Common-Wealth but this being wholly out of my Sphere I shall not invade the States-man's Province any further than to tell you besides being Subjects to the King in our Parents Loins and so under Obligations to Obedience by the Law of Nature we are in the bonds of Religion and Conscience tyed to Subjection by many solemn Oaths wherein we have lifted up our hands to the most high and sworn not to indeavour any alteration and change in the Government And I hope we are none of us so fond of a Common Woe as to go to the Devil by wilful Perjury to set up the Tyranny of our Fellow-Subjects and for your fuller Satisfaction give me leave to repeat the words of the Learned Bishop Sanderson whose single judgement is of greater value than the whole rout of those that would unhinge our Government Lib. de Oblig Consc p. 350. I think saith he an Hereditary Kingdom may not lawfully be changed for an Elective nor for any other sort of Government either by the People alone nor by the People and Nobles joyntly nor by the whole Body of the People in their greatest latitude that is the People Nobles and the King consenting together unless perhaps the whole Royal Progeny should so totally fail that there is not one surviving who may claim it as his due by Right of Inheritance all which considered it amounts to this That unless we will violate the Law of Nature and Religion and incur the heavy guilt of Perjury we must behave our selves like dutiful and obedient Subjects praying always God Save the King Again the Safety of Kings is impugned under the pretence of Religion by the several sorts of Dissenters whom I cannot being under one denomination unless it be in calling them all Amalekites and truly it will concern them to consider if they do not deserve the Name and I pray God give them grace to consider whether the Curse of Amaleck be not justly their portion I say this Truth is opposed by the Rebellious and Bloody Tenents of the Jesuits Anabaptists and Presbyterians I rank them all together for tho' like Sampson's Foxes their heads part yet their tails are joyned to put the Kingdom in a Combustion It is the constant Tenent of the Jesuits that King-killing is not only Lawfull but Meritorious if he be an Heretical King that is to say if he be not a Roman-Catholick And to this devilish Doctrine are they so wedded however some of their Church are pleased to obscure it that they leave no ways unattempted to put 'em into practice as the woful Tragedies they have Acted on the Theatre of the World is too sad a proof And that these are their Principles I refer you to Azor Bellarmine and Mariana who have wrote printed and published to the world Tracts of the Lawfulness of Regicide of whom I shall add no more here Cause and Cure of Scandal Pag. 11. having done it fully in another Treatise The Safety of Kings is opposed by the bloody principles of the Independents Anabaptists and Fift-Monarchists for what else were the publick Preachments of all these men in our late days of Rebellion but what tended to the ruine of our Monarchy Evangelium Armatum pag. 26. as you may read in the Parliamentary Sermons of Burton Marshal Nye Caryl Bridges Saltmarsh c. And of the same stamp were the harangues of Muncer in Germany as you may read at large in the first of Sleidan's Commentaries God that cannot lye saith he hath warn'd me face to face to attempt the Change of the Government by killing the Magistrates and Phipher his Brother in Iniquity did but dream of Killing Rats and Mice and Expounds his Dream of Murthering the Nobles and did not those Fift-Monarchists the English Rebels in Venner's Rebellion having laid their Accursed Designs the Sunday before in their Conventicle in Coleman-street proceed in the same manner and justifie their Principles with their Arms till the hand of Justice overtook them It was an Observation of old Regnabit Sanguine multo Ad Regnum quisquis venit ab Exilio The King that returns after Exile will Reign for the future in Blood and Revenge but our Gracious Sovereign resembling God in one of his noblest Attributes that of his Mercy had at the same instant given Life to them who were indeavouring to take away his Odiorum causae acriores quia iniquiores Their Hatred was the sharper because it was the unjuster and so stain'd themselves with the black Guilt not only of Rebellion but of an ungrateful Rebellion whereas an ordinary stock of Ingenuity and Religion upon the receipt of so great a Mercy as Pardon and Property would have silenced their Murmurings and made them loud in Applauses and Thanks for the felicity of his Reign but on the contrary we see that when men are inclin'd to Mischief upon the account of their Religion they prove the greatest Villains in the world and notwithstanding all obligations that Heaven and Earth can bestow upon them Hell gets the upper hand Nor have the Sons of the Presbyterian Kirk less opposed the safety and wellfare of Kings by those dangerous positions they have published to the world Doctrines that will make you blush sweat and tremble if you have any fear of God or any honour for the King And that I may not be supposed to do them wrong I will Cite their Names and Books from whence I have collected them Pag. 30. Goodman saith in his Book of Obedience That it is unlawful in any case to resist the Superior pnwers is a dangerous Doctrine taught by some by the Permission of God for
one that by cruel artifices prâ—â—oâ—ed Idolatry and persecuted the people of God with the Fiery furnace and Sentenced the Prophet Daniel to be Devoured of Lyons And yet we find the good Prophet so far from upbraiding him with Tyranny or threatning him with vengeance and Judgments from God that he owns his Sovereignty and Rightfull Power over him and prays for his Health Prosperity and Eternal felicity in these words O King live for ever Dan. vi 21. The next Example I shall urge is that of the Holy and blessed Jesus John xix â—â— who acknowledges Subjection to Pilate and that his power over him was from Heaven Gloriosum est sequi dominum and tho' he had the whole host of Angells at his command neither made Resistance himself nor would permit it in his followers And St. Paul also who lived in the times of Heathen persecutors enjoyns every Soul to be subject to them though they were Heathens For Christianity is so far from giving immunity from Obedience that it inforceth the duty from our Obligations to God whose Authority they bare and from which divine commission it is directly consequent that he makes any violent Resistance or opposition to the supreme Magistrate to be an affront offered to God himself In talibus non obedientes mortaliter peccant nisi foret illud quod praecipitur contra praeceptum dei vel in Salutis dispendium Angel Sum. verb. obed for which they shall receive that punishment which belongs to so Sacrilegious a contumacy Eternal Damnation St. Peter likewise preaches the same Doctrine and urgeth our Obedience to Claudius or Nero upon the account of giving Credit and Reputation to our Religion Obedience to Authority being one of the prime characteristicks whereby a Christian is to be known and when Subjects are Rebellious although they are so to Heathen Magistrates they draw disgrace upon the Gospel and tempt the Infidels to believe that men are the worse for being Christians that the Doctrine of Christ is corruptive of Principles as well as Manners and Christian Liberty but a Cloak for Rebellious Practices Now to Antidote this Venom and to wipe off this Disparagement St. Peter Commands us to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords Sake 1 Pet. ii 13. for so is the will of God that by well-doing ye put to silence the ignorance of foolish men And having thus from plain Scripture shewed that no pretence whatsoever can warrant disobedience to our Lawful Sovereign it will necessarily follow that either the Texts alledged are not Scripture or the men that taught the contrary are not Christians but such a generation of men Non opus vos habere civem qui parere nesciret Marc. Cur. as give the Princes of the world a just occasion to be jealous of them and to root those Principles out of their Dominions for what Prince can be Safe whilst such men abide and multiply in their Territories that profess it to be a Principle of their Religion to make Resistance against them And agreeable to this Doctrine of the Blessed Jesus which secured Obedience to the worst of Kings was the Practice of the Primitive Christians towards their Persecuting Emperours Propter dominum aeternum domino temporali Serviebant Aug. Psal cxxiv that spilt their Blood and made havock of them for tho' they were able to wage War with their Emperors yet Conscience and Christianity forbad them to resist but commanded them to Pray for them And since thanks be to God our Case is otherwise and we have a Merciful and Gracious King Animatam Dei â—maginem Cypr who is our lawful natural liege Lord a just possessor of his Crown a worshipper of the Living God a defender of the true Antient Catholick and Apostolick Faith a maker of good Laws and an Executor of the same I hope all true Israelites in whose mouths are no Guile in whose hearts is no Privy Conspiracy nor in whose hands there is no Rebellion will never forget in their publick and private Devotion to say God save the King And for vindicating our holy and excellent Religion from any imputation of being accessary to Treasonable conspiracies I shall most readily grant that were it any way chargeable with these practices there needed no other thing to be pleaded against it this alone would bar all its pretences of being Christians for ever and therefore there cannot be a greater mischief done to it than to give any just cause to suspect it for it must then never expect Kings to be its Nursing fathers more but rather that they should all combine to banish it out of the world now as they did to prevent its coming into it at first upon the same prejudice But it always was the honour of Christian Religion that it clear'd it self fully of all these unjust imputations and commended it self to Kings and became dear to them was nursed in their royal breasts and was adopted into their laws as being the greatest security of their Government and of Subjection to them and what ever Religion doth contrary to this is by that only argument detected to be perfectly Anti-Christian I confess that few Rebellions have been raised but by the warmth of a pretended zeal for Religion which Fears and Jealousies have animated and given growth and strength to but it was only the Pretence Religion was made a mask to hide the ugly face of Rebellion which without so fine a Cover would have affrighted those deluded souls that were cheated with the beautifull paint that was laid over horrid designs consider beloved what hath Religion to do in designs of this black nature Religion is made up of purity piety peace and holyness and there is nothing of these in cruel treacheries in bloody Massacres and tragicall murthers What Religion can there be in mens pursuing violent paths on the pretence of Gods glory in a direct opposition to his holy Laws if the Ark of the Lord be shaken and our Religion in danger yet we must not support it by forbiden methods for it never proves well when men forsake Gods directions to follow their own devices Religion desires none to be its Champions till first they are its disciples Let us therefore study to be quiet and do our own business practise the duties of Religion and God Almighty will assert its interest 'T is not Religion then is the cause of these bloody attempts but the men whose preaching is of Cursing and lies to whom we owe all our miseries in this kind and indeed what else can be expected but that such as have cast off obedience to Laws should put themselves under the Devils yoke And if their former actions are the best interpreters of their present designs what can we expect from these Amalekites but ruine and Confusion look backwards as far as the days of their first entrance among us and you will find them to be men made up of the worst of
while they Cry out against Popery they mean Episcopacy and do but amuse us with the Romish Wolf that we may be made a prey to the Northern-Bear Were not the late instances of Tumultuary Proposals and Applications Tricks of the Old Trade Addresses in the nature of Remonstrances Arbitrary Orders for Imprisoning Subjects and Votes suspending Penal Statutes and rendring the King uncapable of making use of his Own Revenue for the Publick Safety and putting him into a worse condition than the meanest of his Subjects did not they court the King to have the Militia and all Offices and Places of Trust at their disposal and were not these the very things that begat the War and ruin'd us all Did not the Parliament in Forty One c. Protest their Duty and Allegiance to his Majesty in the fairest terms imaginable and confirm'd the same by Oaths and Covenants that they had no intentions to offer Violence to his Majesties Person to Hurt his Power or Destroy his Monarchy and yet did not the same Persons against their own Remonstrances Declarations Protestations Promises Vows and Oaths in cold Blood Murther their Lawful Sovereign Did they not in a Declaration publish'd in 42. say they intended nothing but a Reformation of some Abuses crept into the Church and yet did not the same men pull down Churches to set up an Enthusiastick Devotion seize the Churches Patrimony to inrich themselves and at last abolish its Government to gratifie the Phanatick Zeal of a distracted multitude and shall we be ruined by them a second time God forbid One would think there needed no other Argument amongst us against Rebillion or Sedition in the State or against Schism or Division in the Church than the bare remembrance of what this Nation hath already suffer'd by them we have felt to our Costs what it was to want our Lawful Government and what was the Effect of resisting Authority for our Enemies having by a vast Expence of Blood and Treasute wrested the Power into their own hands they threw down the Nobles from their Honours and Estates and set up the very Scum and Dregs of the People in stead of One King of a Glorious Race we had a whole Army of Vsurpers who sent their Horses to Church and went themselves to Conventicles and a great part of their Devotion there was to Curse Loyal Subjects under the Name of Meroz and contrive to Murther their King in the Name of Jesus Two things they promis'd the abus'd Nation viz. Religion and Liberty and made good their promises by bringing in all the Religons in the world except the Orthodox and to be of that was to be an Enemy to the Gate men might pray without sense so they prayed without a Booke but to say the Lords Prayer was to be called a Malignant and to pray for the King was to be accounted a Traytor And as they dealt with us in the affairs of Religion so did they in respect of our Priveledgs allowing no other share to us than what might confirm our Vassalage and uphold there Tyranny they had the Liberty to Plunder and Oppress and we had the Liberty to Beg or Starve they had the Liberty to be Cruel and Savage and we had Liberty to be Dishonest or be Hang'd which I think is sufficient to perswade us by all lawfull means to prevent the designs of those persons which but lately were so mischievous and deadly to the King and his three Kingdoms But say some is it not unreasonable and unjust to charge the sins of the former Age upon this No but on the contrary t is both rational and equitable so to do since the same principles will upon the same occasion eternally act the same things unless prevented by the greatest care and circumspection And for those who are displeased at the rehearsal of former Wickedness if they would lay aside their Prejudice have cause to thank us for our design is to Reform and not Ruine them to shew them the Danger and not draw them into the Snare and to tell them the naked truth of things which they hear not at all in Conventiâ—lâ—s or else are represented to them under more favourable Expressions than they ought be for who that sees Rebellion in its ugly hue and Murther in its own shape would not fly from it with Horror and Amazement and therefore hath it been a man Artifice amongst the Non-Conformist Preachers to disuade their Admirers from frequenting those places where the Doctrine of Obedience is Taught lest their Eyes should be opened and their Consciences convinced and they lose both their Pension and their Proâ—â—lâ—te And therefore if there be any in this great Congregation who have frequented such Plaâ—â—s where People are alienated from their Duty to God and the King let me intreat them by a Religious Conformity to the Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil to seek their own Peace and Safety and by a true Repentance prevent the Ruine of Soul and Body For they that Resist Lawful Authority shall receive to themselves Damnation To which give me leave to add the Advise of a great Lawyer Peruse all Books Records and Histories and you shall find a Principle in Law a Rule in Reason and a Tryal in Experience that Treason doth ever produce fatal and final destruction to the offender and never attains the desired End two incidents inseparable thereunto and therefore let all Men abandon it as the Poysonous Bait of the Devil and follow the Precept in Holy Scripture Serve God and Honour the King and have no Company with the Seditious Lastly Pro quibus orandum pro tis laborandum Let an honest indeavour inforce your Prayers and Seeing we Live among those that are Enemies to Peace a Race of Cruel and Blood-Thirsty Men let it be your greatest Care to Discover and Prevent their Treacherous Designs that we may have no more Rebellions hatched among us Suffer not Ambitious Men to purchase their own Advancement with the Price of your Blood and Treasure for they may Contrive with their Hâ—ads till they drop from their Shoulders unless they have more Hands to Assist them And since I have the Honour to speak to the Magistracy of this Famous City of whose Fidelity to the King I come not to Doubt but rather Congratulate Suffer me to intreat you not to let any Man or Thing divide you from his Majesty for none can do it but with a design to destroy you The Safety of the King is in the Welfare of his People and the Prosperity of this City depends upon the King's Safety and if Men would look into the Truth of things they would soon perceive that their Interests are complicated and indeed the same for it is true in Experience as well as Speculation and whoever will trace either the Ruine of the Late King of Blessed Memory or the subsequent Misery of this City to their first Origins will soon find the Artifice of some Men in Separating them from each
VIVAT REX A SERMON Preached before the Right Worshipful THE MAYOR ALDERMEN Council and Citizens of BRISTOL Upon the Discovery of the Late Treasonable Phanatick Plot. At St. James's Church July 25. 1683. being Sunday in the Fair-Week By R. KINGSTON M.A. One of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary 1 Sam. xv 23. Rebellion is as the Sin of Witchcraft and Stubbornness is as Iniquity and Idolatry LONDON Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh Bookseller to his Royal Highness at the Black Bull in Corn-Hill against the Royal-Exchange 1683. To the Right Worshipful THOMAS ESTON Esq Mayor And to the Right and Worshipful Sir Robert Ganne Knight and Baronet Sir Robert Yeomans Knight and Baronet Sir Richard Crump Knight Sir John Knight jun. Knight John Lawford Esq John Hicks Esq Ralph Olliffe Esq Aldermen To Mr. George Hart and Mr. John Combes Sheriffs And to all the rest of the Loyal Aldermen Common-Council and Citizens of BRISTOL Right Worshipful THO' I am too conscious of my own weakness and inability to perform any thing worthy of your Acceptance who are bless'd with many Learned and Loyal Clergy-men that entertain you with more polite Discourses yet I dare not say but that I did most chearfully comply with the Commands of many Considerable Persons for publishing this Discourse not only because it will be a Testimony of your Respects to so mean an Orator but because it will be an Evidence of this Cities Duty and Affection to the King of which no City in England hath given more chearful and ample demonstrations It is but a while since as your Worships all sorrowfully remember that Loyal and Conscientious Subjects had like to have been overborn by the inundation of Popular Clamours and the rancorous breaths of the Factious Mobile but tho' this Disease had spread its Contagion into too many great Bodies of this Kingdom and the Tyde of Rebellion grew very high and threatning in this City also yet did your Extraordinary Care and Vigilance Antitode the Infection Stem the impetuous Torrent and maugre all the Designs of an Antimonarchical Faction preserve this City in Loyalty and Obedience Which that you may always do to the Honour of God that Commands it to the Safety of the King that Deserves it and your own Eternal Felicity that Endeavour it is the Prayer of Right Worshipful Your most humble Servant Richard Kingston July 26. 1683. A SERMON ON 1 SAM X. 24. And all the People shouted and said God Save the King WHen the dumb Son of Craesus saw an Assassin about to Murther his Father tho' he never spake before opened his Mouth with this passionate Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O wretched Man do not Kill my Father Now if the Murther of a Natural Parent was a Crime of that horrid nature and strange resentment as to work a Miracle for its prevention then certainly the Murther of a King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is Pater Patriae a the Father of his Countrey hath so much of Horror and Villany in it that if we should hold our Tongues from a detestation of the Impious Fact and imploring the Aid of Heaven for our Sovereign's Preservation the stones of the Street would cry out against such an Irreligious Silence Tim. iii. 1 3 4. St. Paul tells us that in the last days perilous times should come the men whose indeavours should contribute to make them such were persons whose character was made up of the following vices viz lovers of themselves covetous proud boasters blasphemers without natural affection truce breakers false accusers dispisers of those that are good traytors heady high minded c. and if our lot be fallen in an Age which exactly agrees with the Character of the last we must make no disingenious reflections on the providence of God but lay it at their dores who by copying out the faults of the worst men provoke the Almighty to make their lives somewhat more then the transcript of their miseries And that we do live in such days and among such persons as trully deserves the aggravating Epithits of unnatural heady high minded Traytors needs no further proofe than the discovery of the late damnable and hellish Plot aginst the life of our Soveraign the subversion of our Laws and the destruction of Loyal Subjects A Plot that would have extinguish'd the light of our Israel Stopt the breath of our Nostrils murdered the Lords Anoynted and given a bloody Bill of Exclusion to both root and branch of a glorious Monarchy a Plot that would have turn'd our Streets into shambles and fill'd our houses with Bloody Tragedies a Plot wherein transcendent villany hath left no room for pardon but cries aloud to heaven for Vengance and calls his Majesties Loyal Subjects to fall on their Knees in prayer Saying God save the King And Since I am for many weighty reasons confirm'd in my belief that no sort of people question the truth of this damnable conspiracy but such whose interests obliges them to stifle it or want demonstration from the accursed deed from which good Lord deliver us and that the great discourse is what should cause such men from whom all the world might expect better to conspire against the Life of their Sovereign and to involve the Kingdom in blood and ruine I hope it will be thought no impertinent digression to assign three things as the cause thereof The first of which is that men of unstable heads but strong passions are subject to believe that a good End doth legitimate and sanctify the worst means and now being secured of the goodness and worthiness of their End their thoughts are always in such a hurry about it their minds so intent upon it and they are so violently hot and eager in the prosecution of it that they will not allow themselves leisure and patience to consider the Lawfulness and Expediency of the means they use for the compassing of it and by this means court their own Ruine and by doing Evil that Good may come thereby assert the justice of their condemnation 1 Sam. xv 22. Or else it is for that reason given by the Prophet Samuel That Rebellion is as the Sin of Witchcraft as well in its facination as in its guilt for none but men under the power of so great a delusion could be guilty of so barbarous an impiety unless men had offered violence to themselves martyr'd their own Consciences chased all remains of honesty and compassion out of their own breasts they could not have entred into such an Hellish Conspiracy and cease wholly to be Men that they might commence Devils hence then I say is the cause of this infatuation that men lying under the Inchantment of Rebellion want the genuine exercise of their Reason and must return to their Allegiance and so be converted from Beasts to Men before they can be Masters of their Wit and Senses And if these will not be allowed the cause of such inhuman miscarriages I know not