erre but as he is Pope his judgment is infallible If he be sitting in his Chaire in the Consistory if hee back the whole Church then he is like Apollo in tripode he can speak nothing but Gospel Marry if he be walking or riding or sitting at Table he will talk as madly as any of his Cardinals Now because I know not what the Popes were doing how their behaviour was when they did thus and thus determine whether they were sitting in their Chaires as Plato was wont when he did dictate or walking with the Peripateticks or which is most likely lying with the Epicures the Popes authority is not sufficient of it selfe to prove this or that to be the doctrine of the Romish Church Whither must I now goe to their Councils confirmed by the Pope Indeed these be the Church representative or branch of the unwritten word which is to be received with no lesse reverence and authority then the books of the Old and New Testament Well then I will go no higher then the Councell of Trent it was called by a Pope continued by a Pope confirmed by a Pope and shall I take this for an undoubted truth that whatsoever is there decreed is universally received amongst Papists Oh but the very Councell it selfe though it hath been sundry times attempted yet could it not be received into the Kingdome of France nor is as I suppose to this day Yea and in Italie and Spaine too both private Doctors yea and Popes too have crossed the determinations of that Conventicle I will instance in one particular the Councel of Trent commands that the old and vulgar edition shall be received for authenticall and that no man under any pretence whatsoever shall once dare or presume to reject it And yet Bellarmine a great Champion of that Synagogue holds that in foure cases it is lawfull to appeale from it to the Original Languages and Azorius Vega Sixtus Sinansis Canus Lindanus and divers others since that Councell do aver that in that edition there are many grosse errours and ridiculous Soloecismes not only by the negligence of Writers and Printers which the Lovanianists and Colonianists have noted in the Margent but by the negligence and ignorance of the Interpreter himselfe yea and Popes themselves contrary to the Precept and Decree of that Synod have revised and corrected the same For about 43. years after the first publication of this Decree Sixtus 5. did review and correct the whole Bible and publishing it in the last yeare of his Popedome did command that that of his should for evermore stand in force upon paine of the great Curse and yet within three years after this comes Clement 8. with a new Edition in many hundred of places different from that of Sixtus the diversities whereof being gathered together by a painful Antiquary into a Book which he intituleth Bellum Papale doe make a pretty volume and this latter must I trow upon no lesse penalty be received for authenticall These be they that boast of unity and make Consent a mark of the Church But let us grant that unto the Papists which they are never able to make good that Rome is at Peace with her selfe will it hence presently follow that that Church is this little Flock Theeves and Robbers are at peace amongst themselves and true men may goe to Law one with another The Scribes and Pharisees yea Herod and Pilate agreed in crucifying Christ The the Kings of the earth stood up and the Rulers took counsell together against the Lord and against his Christ Psal 2. 2. They have cast their heads together with one consent and are confederate against thee O God the Tabernacles of the Edomites and Ismaelites the Moabites and Hagarens Geball and Ammon and Amaleck the Philistims with them that dwell at Tyre Ashur is also joyned unto them Psalm 83. The Nobles and Princes and Dukes and Judges and all agreed in the dedication of the Image which Nebuchadnezzar bad set up they must either be at peace with God or their braggs are winde There is no true peace amongst men when they warr with God there is no truth in unity when there is no unity in truth Now how they agree with the Spirit of God speaking unto us in the holy Scriptures he that will heare them 〈◊〉 speak shall quickly discerne God forbids that any Image be made to any religious use or being made to be worshipped the Church of Rome commands both God commands that the Sacrament shall be ministred in both kinds the Church of Rome commands that the greatest part of Christians have it but under one kinde God teacheth us that howsoever before men we are justified by works yet before him we are justified by Faith without the works of the Law the Church of Rome teacheth that we are not justified before God by faith without the works of the Law God tells us that we must pray with the understanding the Church of Rome maintaineth praying in a strange tongue God saith that Marriage is honourable amongst all men the Church of Rome denies it God calls the prohibition of marriage a Doctrine of Devills the Church of Rome makes the prohibition of marriage equall to Canonicall Scripture God hath taken away all legall distinction of meats and tells us that every creature of God is good c. they the Church of Rome puts more religion in abstinence from meats then in the observation of Gods precepts Briefly whereas the summ of the whole Bible is comprehended in the Decalogue and Creed and both these included in the Lords prayer there is not a Commandement in the Decalogue scarce an Article in the Creed or petition in the Lords prayer against which if not directly yet indirectly and by consequence they doe not offend they ascribe an inward religious worship to Saints against the first Commandement they adore Images against the second they maintaine swearing by the creatures invocation of Saints they dispence with Oaths against the third with greater strictnesse they observe their owne holidayes and fasting dayes then the Lords day against the fourth they extoll the Pope above all Emperours and secular Princes they admit Children into religious Orders without consent of Parents against the fifth they teach and practise rebellions murthers and massacres of such as be opposite unto them in matters of Religion against the sixth they prohibite marriage and allow the Stews against the seventh they hold that in extreame necessity it is lawfull to take another mans goods against the eighth they maintaine equivocation and mentall reservation against the ninth they hold that concupiscence unto wich the will doth not yeeld consent is not properly a sin and so overthrow the tenth that concupiscence unto which the will yeelds her consent being forbidden in the former precepts Not to trouble you further the summ of all is this Such is the unity of the Romish Church as neither old Papists agree with new nor old
especially in tempering the spirits received from the heart I mean in using those spiritual admonitions and instructions which he shall receive from the minister of the Gospel for the good and benefit of all those that are under him As the body is in best estate when all these are well disposed so it is most miserable when there is a dyscrasie and distemperature in any of them So in the state likewise Wo unto that Common-wealth where the Physitian for wholsome physick ministreth hemlock and the Divine for sound doctrine broacheth heresie and the Magistrate turneth justice into wormwood Of all these three the brain is subject to most diseases and of all these three the Magistrate is most obnoxious to fals both because he hath many ineitements unto sin which others want and because he is deprived of a benefit which others have that is he is not so freely reproved for his offences as commonly others are And lastly because of those Cubiculares consiliarij as Lipsius cals them tinea sorices Palatij as Constantine tearmed them the very mothes and rats of a court which live by other mens harmes à quibus bonus prudens cautus venditur imperator as Dioclesian an ill Emperour said well which sell the magistrates favours as if one would sell smoak as did Zoticus the faire promises of Heliogabalus and are alwayes ready for their own advantage to give an applause unto his worst actions By these he is ledde whithersoever they will have him Ducitur ut nervis alienis mobile lignum Even as an arrow is led by the bow-string Therefore David in this Psalm maketh a sharp sermon against the corruption of Magistrates out of which I have made choyce of this one branch I have said yee are Gods but ye shall die like men As if he had said truth it is your authority is great your power extraordinary ye are Gods yet set not up your horns on high and speak not with a stiffe neck ye are no transcendents ye have no more reason to boast of your superiority then the moon hath to bragge of the light which she borroweth from the sunne or the wall of the beam which it receives in at the window ye have it only from me I have said and though ye be Gods yet ye are but earthly Gods ye are Gods in office not Gods in essence ye are made of the same metal that others are and your end shall be like other mens you shall die like men In which words not to stand upon the divers acceptions of any of them may it please you to observe these three points 1. The party from whom Magistrates receive their authority it is from God I have said and Gods saying is his doing 2. Their preheminence above others in that they are called Gods ye are Gods 3. The limitation of their dignity ye shall die as men Out of which I collect these three propositions 1. Magistrates and Judges of the earth do receive their authority from God 2. They are Gods deputies to minister justice and to judge between party and party 3. Though they be extolled above their brethren according to their office yet they must die as other men where is implied this general conclusion that it is the lot of all men once to die These are the pillars of my intended discourse of which while I shall plainly entreat in the same order that I have now proposed them I beseech you all to afford me your Christian attention 2. Of all the corporeal creatures that God made none is more exorbitant then man The highest moveable is constant in his motion He doth not hasten nor neglect his course The Sunne is precise in his course under the Ecliptick line and turneth not an hair breadth unto the right hand or unto the left but cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a gyant to run his race The rest of the Planets though they turn to both sides of the Zodiacke and are the most of them sometimes direct and sometimes stationarie and sometimes retrograde as Astronomers speak by reason of their motion in their imaginary Epicicles yet they have their constancie in this inconstancie Thou O God hast given them a law that shall not be broken The elements keep themselves within their bounds The beasts of the forrest in their kinde have their policie and society The raging sea goes not beyond his limits God hath bound it to use Jobs words as a child in swadling bands he hath given it doores and barres and said unto it hither shalt thou go and thou shalt go no further here shalt thou stay thy proud waves But man is more exorbitant then all these no bounds can keep him in Therefore God hath written in the heart and conscience of every man that comes into the world a law which we call the law of nature as that God is to be worshipped good is to be embraced evil is to be avoided That which thou wouldest not another man should do unto thee thou must not do to another man And according to these general notions hee would have every person to direct his actions But this law like an old inscription upon a stone is written in the stony heart of man in such blind characters that he is put to his shifts before he can spell it And howsoever he understand it in Thesi yet in Hypothesi in the particular he makes many soloecismes and oftentimes calls good evil and evil good Therefore God hath written with his own finger a paraphrase upon it which we cal the moral law and added a large commentary of judiciall lawes by the hand of Moses Which benefit though not the same numero he hath not onely granted unto Christian Common-wealths but even to the heathen also amongst whom in all ages he hath stirred up men of excellent spirit to make lawes for the better government of their several states The best of which did acknowledge that they had them from God Howbeit after the custome of nations which held a plurality of Gods they did not all agree in one name Lycurgs affirming that he received his lawes from Apollo Minos from Jupiter Solon and Draco from Minerva Numa from the Nymph Egeria Anacharsis from Zamolxis the Scythian God 3. But all this will not confine man within his bounds for it is true of him which was spoken of the Athenians that they knew what was to be done and yet did it not And which was objected by the Cynick against the old Philosophers of Greece that they gave good rules but put none in practise video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor said Medea when she was overcome with passion It is true of most men though they know the law how that they which commit sinne are worthy of death yet they do not only the same themselves but also favour them that do it The law of it self is but
is naught in respect of that which followeth For whereas God challengeth this as a prerogative unto himself to bestow kingdomes on whomsoever he wil and placeth the Princes of the earth in authority next unto himselfe this they have perforce taken from God and bestowed it upon him that sitteth in the temple of God and advanceth himself above all that are called Gods It is he to whom if ye will believe him and his parasites all power is committed both in heaven and in earth He is that King of Kings and Lord of Lords by whom Princes rule and on whom the right of Kings dependeth all nations must fall down before him and all kingdomes must do him homage The greatest Monarch of the earth must prostrat himselfe before him and kisse his holy feet The Emperour if he be present when he taketh horse must hold the bridle when he lighteth he must hold the right stirrup when he walketh he must bear up his train when he washeth he must hold the bason when he would be born he must be one of the four that must carry him upon their shoulders in a golden chair 7. And as he takes upon him to give kingdomes to whomsoever he will like the Devil who told our Saviour Christ that all the kingdomes of the world were his and he gave them to whomsoever he would whereupon saith an ancient father mentitur diabolus quia cujus jussu homines creantur hujus jussu reges constituuntur the devil is a liar for by whose authority men were created by his are kings appointed as he takes upon him I say to give kingdomes at his pleasure so will he take them away when he listeth So farre is he from that obedience and reverence which every soul should give to the higher power Who knoweth not that Leo Isaurus for putting in execution a decree of a Councill held at Constantinople in his time touching the taking away of Images was first excommunicated and then deprived of all his revenues in Italy That Pope Zacharie deposed Childerick the French king that he might gratifie Carolus Mertellus and his son Pipin That the proud Venetian pedler Paul the second by a publike edict deprived of crown and kingdome George the king of Bohemia because he was an Hâ—ssite and stirred up Mathias the king of Hungary his son in law to warre against him What shall I tell you of the indignities offered in our own land against Henry the second and John king of England or of the buls of Pius Quintus sent against Queen Elizabeth of never dying memory whereby he hath excommunicated her absolved her subjects from their oaths of allegiance stirred up rebellions in these middle parts of Britain and taken upon him to bestow the regal diademe upon strangers God be thanked he that dwels in heaven and of right challengeth the authority of disposing the kingdomes of this world to himselfe laughed all their devises to scorn So that his Canons though they made a terrible noise yet no bullet was felt And his Buls which sometimes had such a terrible aspect that a whole provincial Synod durst scarse venture to bait them proved such cowardly dastards that every single adversary hath been ready to tugge them Much resembling the counterfeit shews of Semiramis when she warred against the king of India which a farre off seemed to be Elephants and Dromedaries but when they were throughly tried proved nothing but Oxen hides stuffed with straw Even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy judgements That I may cut off this first branch of my Text my third and last inference shall concerne you R. H. whom the Lord hath placed at the seate of judgement Have Magistrates their authothority from God this concerns you in your places as well as the greatest potentate of the earth And therefore as on the one side it should be incouragement unto you to hold on in all godly courses ye have begun so on the other side it should worke in you an humble and thankfull acknowledgment of so rare a benefit Say not then within your selves that it was not your owne deserts the excellency of your wits the ripenesse of your judgements of so rare a benefit Say not then within your selves that it was your own deserts the excellency of your wits the ripeness of your judgements the deepnesse of your knowledge in the lawes the integrity of your persons that did advance you unto those roomes If these were meanes of your preferment yet have yee nothing whereof ye can justly boast because ye have all from him For Dei dona sunt quaecunque bona sunt Use then your places as received from him acknowledge God to be authour of your advancement and say with Mary in her Song he that is mighty hath done great things for us and holy is his name And so much of the first proposition The second followeth Magistrates are Gods Deputies 8 God as he is jealous of his honour so is he of his name too He will not give it unto any other but only so far as hath he some resemblance with him I find onely three in Gods booke to say nothing of that eternall essence to which it principally agreeth which have this name given them The first is Satan who by reason of his great and almost unlimited power which he hath for a time here on earth by ruling raigning in the hearts of the children of disobedience is called a God The God of this world 2 Cor. 2. 4. The second are the blessed Angels those yeomen of the guard in the Court of Heaven which wait about the throne of God These by reason of their supereminent offices are called Gods Thou hast made him a little inferiour to the Gods Psalm 8. 5. which the Apostle following the Septuagint transâ—â—teth Angels Heb. 2. 7 The third is the Magistrate who both in this Psalm and sundry other places of Scripture is called a God His master shall bring him to the Gods Exod. 21. 6. Thou shalt not rayle upon the Gods Exod. 22. 28. that is the Judges implying thus much that as they have a commandment and authority from God so they have in some sense the authority of God and do supply his room Therefore said Moses unto the Judges which he appointed in every city ye shall not fear the face of man for the judgement is Gods And Jehosaphat to those Judges which which he had set in the strong cities of Judah take heed what you do for ye execute not the judgement of man but of the Lord. 9. Now then if Magistrates be Gods deputies what reverence it behoveth each private person to exhibit unto them I appeal to the conscience of every particular There be many at this day who howsoever in common civility they will seem to give an outward reverence unto the Magistrate yet in heart they scorn and contemn sundry of them as perchance
done great things for them so he requireth much at their hands But alas it often falleth out that those which owe God the most pay him the least and those who of all others should be most careful of their places of all others make the least conscience of their wayes Tacitus reporteth of Claudius that he was a good subject but an ill Emperour of Titus that he was an ill subject but a good Emperour Where one proves like Titus two prove like Claudius Honours change manners And those goodly blossomes which did appear in many when they were private men when they come in Gods-place like frost-eaten buds wither away and prove like thunder-blasted fruit not worth the touching much lesse the tasting It is noted of Aeneas Sylvius that when once he became Pope and got his name changed into Pius secundus he condemned divers of those things which he had written when he was a private man Whereupon upon one came over him with this quippe quod Aeneas probavit Pius damnavit that which Aeneas commended Pius condemned A fault to which men of eminent place are too much subject to condemne and dislike those good things when they are in authority which they approved when they were privat men Quod Aeneas probavit Pius damnabit Thus those whom God cals Elohim change their natures and prove Elilim idols and vanities The heathen persecuters as some writers have recorded in the place where Christ was crucified had placed the image of Venus a heathen idol that if any should worship Christ he might seem to adore Venus This is the devils practise to set an idol in Gods room sometimes a Venus or a Cupid that use their authority for the enjoying of their own carnal pleasures sometimes a Mars using his power to bloud and revenge fometâ—mes a â—aturn that eateth up his children that is his inferiours which he should affect as a father doth his own children as if they weâ—e bread sometimes a Mercurie who is eloquent in speaking but withall nimble in fingring having a smooth tongue lie Jacob but rough hands like Esau nay Eagle clawes like Nabuchadnezzar to scrape and scratch together whatsoever comes in his way using his place only for his own advantage Here is the undoing of all for besides that Gods place is polluted and the people wronged there is an evil president given to privat men to follow the wicked example of their Governours For as the lower spheres follow the motion of the higher so in the common-wealth those that are of an inferiour ranke are ready to follow the practise of those that are set over them When a shrub or bramble falleth they hurt none but themselves but when a Cedar of Lebanon or an oake of Basan falleth down goes all the underwood that growes about them It is the nature of the plague to infect upwards from a lower to a higher room but the plague of sinne is more forcible in effecting downwards from an higher to a lower room It descends from the top to the toe and from the head to the skirts of the clothing If Herod be troubled about the birth of Christ all Jerusalem will be in an uproar with him And if Jeroboam be an idolater componitur orbis Regis ad exemplum all Israel will go a whoring after him And hereupon it is that ye shall seldome meet with his name in the book of kings but you shall find him branded in the forehead with this mark that he made Israel to sinne 13. God be thanked we have no great occasion of complaint at this day especially in our chief Magistrates and I wish I might without check of conscience say as much of those that are of an inferiour ranke The Lord hath set over us his name for ever be blessed for it a most godly and religious King of whom as Tacitus saith of Trajane and Cocceius Nerva a man may think what he will and speak what he thinks God hath given him as he did unto a Solomon a large heart as the sand that is upon the sea shoar to judge his people according to right and to b discern beween good and bad Whose princely care is to observe the practise of the old Romanes c to set Honours temple close on the backside of Vertues temple and not wittingly to suffer any to come into the Temple of Honour which have not first done their devotion in the Temple of Vertue not to make his Judges and chiefe Magistrates like Jeroboams Priests of the basest and lowest of the people but such as Moses at Jethro's perswasion made Judges over Israel men of courage fearing God men dealing truly and hating covetousnesse 14. And such R. H. you have by good demonstrations evidently proved your selves to be So that to make any large discourse before you of your particular duties may peradventure seem unto some as needlesse a piece of work as it was for Phormio to make a military discourse before Annibal or for Plotin to read a lecture in Philosophie in the presence of Origen Yet because it comes within the limits of my text I beseech you that you will with patience hear me while I shall say somewhat of that dutie which God requires at your hands in that he hath seated you in those high rooms Many will tell you of the greatnesse of your places but not so many will truly acquaint you with that which God requires for the discharging of those places For my part me thinks I may say unto you as Lucius Posthumius sometimes said unto the Senatours of Rome Noâ— sum Patres-conscripti adeò vestrae dignitatis memor ut obliviscar me esse Consulem I am not so mindful of the greatnesse of your places that I should in the mean time forget mine own how that God hath made me his Ambassadour and commanded me to acquaint you with some part of his will 15. It is our parts and duties to give you that reverence and honour which is due unto men of your place But yet as the people said unto the Asse that carried the image of Isis when the beast seemed to be proud because the people bowed as it went along the streets as if the honour had been given unto it and not unto the image religioni non tibi said they it is not thee but the goddesse whom we worship So it is not to you as ye are men but as you are in Gods place and do bear and resemble his person that we exhibit this reverence You are Gods but ye are Gods on earth and Gods of earth as we shall hear anon Mathematitians tell us that the whole earth is but a point in respect of the highest moveable it is no more in respect of that heaven which is Gods throne then Alcibiades his lands were in that mappe of Greece that Socrates shewed unto him The greatest Judge in the world if his circuit should extend