and fall like other Princes Wherefore Nathan the man of God must reprove David i 2 Sam. 12.7 that hee may repent and bee saved And the Sages Iudges and Nobles without feare or flattery must advise and direct Roboam k 1 Reg. 12.7 Other attempts against Kings the King of Kings hath neither commanded in his law Apolog. David cap. 10. nor permitted in his Gospell David saith Ambrose nullis legibus tenebatur c. David though hee were an adulterer and an homicide was tied to no law for Kings are free from bonds and can by no compulsion of law bee drawne to punishment being freed by the power of Government Thus farre Ambr. Saul the first King of Israel was rather a monster then a man after the Spirit of God had forsaken him and the evill Spirit was come upon him m 1 Sam. 16.14 There were not many sinnes against God Man or Nature wherein hee trangressed not yet his excesse was punished neither by the Sacerdotall Synod nor the secular Senate Who can lay his hand on the Lords annointed and bee guiltlesse n 1 Sam. 16.9 The very Annointment was the cause of Sauls immunity from all humane coercion as Augustine affirmeth Aug. contr lit Petil. l. 2. 〈◊〉 48. Quaero si non habebat Saul sacramenti sanctitatem quid in eo David venerabatur If Saul had not the holinesse of the Sacrament I aske what it was that David reverenced in him hee honoured Saul for the sacred and holy unction while hee lived and revenged his death Yea hee was troubled and trembled at the heart because hee had cut off a lap of Sauls garment Loe Saul had no innocency and yet hee had holinesse not of life but of unction So farre Augustine Who questioned David for his murther and adultery who censured Solomon for his idolatry though their crimes were capitall by the law of God After that Kingdome was divided all the Kings of Israel and most of the Kings of Iudah were notorious Idolaters yet during those Kingdomes which endured above 200. yeares no Priest did chalenge no States-men did claime power from the highest to punish or depose their Princes And the Prophets perswaded all men to obey and endure those idolatrous Princes whose impiety they reproved with the losse of their lives Christ fled when the people would have made him a King a Joh. 6.15 Hee payed tribute for himselfe and Peter b Matth. 17.27 When the question was propounded concerning the Emperours subsidy hee concluded for Caesar c Matth. 22.21 And standing to receive the judgement of death before Pilate hee acknowledged his power to be of God d Ioh. 19.15 This Saviour of Mankind whose actions should bee our instruction did never attempt to change that Government or to displace those Governours which were directly repugnant to the scope of Information that hee aimed at Iohn Baptist did indeed reprove King Herod with a Non licet e Mark 6.18 but he taught not the souldiers to leave his service or by strife and impatience to wind themselves out of the band of allegiance wherein the law had left them and the Gospell found them f Luk. 3.14 The Apostle delivered unto the Church the doctrine of obedience and patience which they had learned by the precept and observed by the practise of our Lord CHRIST Peter commandeth obedience to all manner of men in authority g 1 Pet. 2.15 Paul forbiddeth resistance against any power h Rom. 13.1.2.3.4 Iudc 8. And Saint Jude maketh it blasphemy to revile government or to speake evill of Governours i. If therefore an Angell from heaven preach otherwise then they have delivered let him bee accursed k Gal. 1.8 The second Chapter proveth the same by the Fathers of the first 300. yeares THe true Church which had the Spirit of understanding to discerne the voice of Christ from the voice of a stranger never taught never practised never used or approved other weapons then salt teares and humble prayers against the Paganisme Heresie Apostacy and Tyranny of earthly Kings Iustinus Martyr Tertullian and Cyprian shall beare witnesse for 300. yeares wherein the Kings and Potentates of the earth bathed themselves in the bloud of innocents and professed enmity against Christ and his servants Ad inquisitionem vestram Christianos nos esse profitemur c. At your inquisition we professe our selves to be Christians though wee know death to bee the guerdon of our profession saith Iustine Martyr to the Emperour Antoninus Secund. Apolog ad Ant. Imp. p. 113. did wee expect an earthly Kingdome wee would deny our religion that escaping death wee might in time attaine our expectation But we feare not persecution which have not our hope fixed on the things of this life because we are certainely perswaded that wee must die As for the preservation of publike peace we Christians yeeld to you O Emperour more helpe and assistance then other men For wee teach that no evill doer no covetous man nor seditious that lieth in wait for bloud can have accesse to God And that every man doth passe to life or death according to the merit of his deeds Thus farre hee We saith Tertullian tō Scapula the Viceroy of Carthage are defamed Tertull. lib. ad Scap. for seditious against the Imperiall Majesty Yet were the Christians never found to be Albinians Nigrians or Cassians Albinus Niger and Cassius were Traytours against Marcus Antonius Commodus Pertinax and Severus the Emperours but they that sware by the Emperours diety the very day before they that vowed and offered sacrifice for the Emperours health are found to be the Emperours enemies A Christian is enemy to no man much lesse to the Emperour knowing that the Emperiall Majesty is ordained of God and therefore necessarily to bee loved reverenced and honoured whose prosperity together with the welfare of al the Roman Empire they desire so long as the world standeth We doe therefore honour the Emperour in such sort as is lawfull for us and expedient for him wee reverence him as a mortall man next unto God of whom hee holdeth all his authority onely subject to God and so wee make him soveraigne overall in that wee make him subject but to God alone So farre Tertullian Saint Cyprian sheweth many good reasons for the patience of the Saints in his booke against Demetrianus God saith hee is the revenger of his servants when they are annoyed Wherefore no Christian when hee is apprehended doth resist or revenge himselfe against your unjust violence though the number of our people bee very great The confidence wee have that God will reward doth confirme our Patience the guiltlesse give way to the guilty the innocent rest content with their undeserved punishment and tortures being certainly assured that the wrong done to us shall not bee unrewarded The more injury we suffer the more just and grievous shall Gods vengeance be on them that persecute us
sacrifices of the Church Thus farre Hosius You see the grounds that this good Bishop stood upon rather resolved to suffer any death or torture then by his consent to betray the truth or to condemne the guiltlesse He admonisheth freely and reproveth sharply hee offreth his life to the Princes pleasure It was farre from his meaning to revile the sacred Majesty or to stirre up any rebellion against this Hereticall Emperour which infringed the Canons of the Church without all regard of truth or equity to serve the humours of the Arrians and to wreck his anger on them all which yeelded not to that heresie Liberius a Bishop of Rome did neither excommunicate nor depose this wicked Emperour Constantius but appeared at his command and endured his pleasure to the admiration of the Arrians and the confirmation of the Christians as wee find in Athanasius Trahitur Liberius ad Imperatorem c. Liberius was haled to the Emperour when hee came to his presence hee spake freely Cease said hee O Emperour to persecute the Christians goe not about Liberius quo supra apud Athanas by any meanes to bring Hereticall impiety into the Church of God Wee are ready rather to endure any torture then to bee called Arrians Compell us not to become enemies unto Christ Eight not against him wee beseech you that hath bestowed the Empire upon you Render not impiety to him for his grace persecute them not which beleeve in him least you heare It is hard for thee to kick against the prick Act. 9.5 Oh would to God you did so heare it that you might as Paul did beleeve it Loe wee are at hand and come to your presence before our enemies the Arrians can invent any thing to informe against us wee hastened to come at your command though wee were assured of banishment that wee might abide our punishment before any crime could bee objected much lesse proved against us Whereby it may appeare that all Christians are as wee now bee undeservedly punished and the crimes laid to their charge not true but fained by sycophancy or deceitfull subtilty Thus spake Liberius and every man admired his resolution but the Emperour for answer commanded him to banishment Thus â—â—e he Pope Liberius had not learned the language of his Suceesfour Pins Quintus when hee bellowed against our late Queene nor that principle of the Puritans that the inscriour Officer may use force of armes against the chiefe Magistrate that shall become a Tyrant Whereof every seditious Sectary will hee judge and not onely defend himselfe and his owne people but also any other that shall fly unto him Which opinion Lambertus Danaus avoucheth Polit. Christ l. 6. c. 3. contrary to the Law the Gospell and the generall consent of all Orthodoxall Fathers Hilarius a Bishop of France wrote the same time to this same Emperour in most humble manner Hilarius ad Imper. Constant Banefica natura tua Domine beatissime Auguste Your mild nature most blessed Emperour agreeing with your gracious disposition and the mercy which floweth aboundantly from the fountaine of your Fatherly godlinesse doe assure us that wee shall obtaine our desire Wee beseech you not onely with words but also with teares that the Catholique Churches bee no longer oppressed with grievous injuries and endure intollerable persecutions and contumelies and that which is most shamefull even of our brethren Let your Clemency provide c. Surely if it had then beene knowne that the Pope by his absolute power or indirect authority could have punished or deposed Kings which the Papists avouch or for the Peeres or the people to have done it which the Puritans affirme some of these old Bishops would have pressed that point against this Hereticall Prince which abused his sword to the blaspheming of Christ the murthering of the Saints the seducing of many thousand soules by strengthening maintaining and establishing the Arrian errour But they tooke it to bee no Christian mans part to beare armour no not desensive against his Prince though never so wicked cruell or ungodly Holy Athanasius confesseth the power of Kings to bee of God and their impiety not to bee punished by man Sicut in toto mundo Deus Rex est Imperator potestatent exercet in omnibus As God is King and Emperour over all the World and exerciseth his power in all creatures so the King and Prince is over all earthly men and doth by his absolute power what hee will even as God himselfe Ad Antioch quest 55. Haec ille When it was objected against this reverend Father Athanasius that hee had incensed Constance the Religious Emperour of the West against Constantius Apolog. Athan ad Constant in the behalfe of the persecuted Christians hee cleared himselfe from that accusation in an Apologie to the said Emperour Constantius The Lord saith hee is my record and his annointed your brother that I never made mention of your Majesty for any evill before your brother of blessed memory that religious Emperour Constance I did never incite him against you as these Arrians doe stander mee but whensoever I had accesse unto him I recounted your gracious inclination God knoweth what mention I made of your godly disposition Give mee leave and pardon most courteous Emperour to speake the truth The servant of God Constance was not easily drawne to give care to any man in this kind I was never in such credit with him that I durst speake of any such matter or derogate from one brother before another or talke reprochfully of one Emperour in the hearing of another I am not so mad neither have I forgotten the voice of God which saith Carse not the King in thine heart and backbite not the mighty in the secrets of thy Chamber for the birds of the aire shall tell it and the winged foule shall bewray thee If then the things that bee spoken in secret against Princes cannot bee hid is there any likelihood that I in the Emperours presence and before so many as continually attended his person would say any thing otherwise then well of your Majesty Thus farre Athanasius This is sounder and seemelier doctrine for subjects then that which Henry Garnet and Robert Tesmond caught some Romish Catholike Gentlemen of England who imployed Thomas Winter into Spaine in the Moneth of December Ann. Dom. 1601. to make request to the Spanish King in the behalfe and names of the English Pope-catholikes L. Cooke in his speech at Garnets arraignment that hee would send an army hither into England for the advancement of their Catholique cause and to promise that the forces of the Papists here should bee ready to doe him service against the late Queene The selfe same Doctrine of sedition was published in the yeare after viz. Ann. Dom. 1602. by Gulielmus Bucauus a man of no meane esteeme among the Puritans and that at the earnest request of Beza and Goulartius the chiefest Ministers of the Church of Geneva if
Christian men then that which the holy Ghost this day spake in you Wee beseech O Emperour wee offer not to fight wee feare not to die wee intreat your clemency Oh it was seemely for Christian souldiers to desire the tranquility of peace and faith and to bee constant in truth even unto death Thus farre Ambrose Saint Augustine relateth the same of the Christian souldiers under Iulian the Apoâ—tate-Emperour Iulianus extitit Imperator infidelis Iulian was an unbeleeving Emperour was hee not an Apostata an Oppressour and an Idolater Christian souldiers served that unbeleeving Emperour When they came to the cause of Christ they would acknowledge no Lord but him that was in Heaven when they were commanded to adore Idoles and to offer sacrifice they preferred God before their Prince But when hee called upon them to warre and bad them invade any nation they presently obeyed They did distinguish their eternall Lord from the temporall King yet they submitted themselves to their temporall Lord August in Psal 124. for his sake that was their eternall King So farre hee Optatus Milevitanus is another pregnant witnesse Cum super Imperatorem nemo sit nisi solus Deus Seing there is no man above the Emperour beside God alone which made the Emperour De schism Donatist l. 3. Donatus by advancing himselfe above the Emperour doth exceed the bounds of humanity and makeeh himselfe a God rather then man in that hee feareth and reverenceth him not whom all men should honour next after God So farre Optatus Saint Cyril is of the same judgement Com. in Evang Ioh l. 12. c. 36. Cuilegis prevaricatores liberare licet nisi legis ipsius authori Who can acquit them that breake the law from transgression beside the Law-giver as wee see by experience in all humane states no man can without danger breake the law but Kings themselves in whom the crime of prevarication hath no place For it was wisely said of one that it is a wicked presumption to say to a King Thou doest amisse So farre hee And also Saint Chrysostome In 1. epist ad Timoth. c. 2 v. 1. What meaneth the Apostle saith hee to require prayers and supplications inter cessions and thansgiving to bee made for all men hee requireth this to bee done in the dayly service of the Church and the perpetuall rite of Divine religion For all the faithfull doe know in what manner prayers are powred out before the Lord morning and evening for all the world even for Kings and every man in authority Some man will peradventure say that for all must bee understood of all the faithfull Which cannot bee the Apostles meaning as may appeare by the words following viz. for Kings seeing that Kings neither did then nor in many ages after serve the living God but continued obstinately in infidelity which by course of succession they had received Thus farre Chrysostome Our Moderne Reformers teach us that which Paul and Chrysostome neither knew nor beleeved See the preface before Basilic Dor. that wicked Princes are not to bee prayed for but to be resisted c. When the faction of Eutiches had prevailed against the Catholikes Leo the first had no other remedy then prayers to God sighes teares and Petitions to the Emperour Epist 24. ad Theod. Imper. Omnes partium nostrarum Ecclesiae c. All the Churches of these parts all wee Priests even with sighs and teares beseech your Majesty to command a generall Synod to bee held in Italy that all offences being removed there may remaine neither errour in faith nor division in love Favour the Catholiques grant liberty to protect the faith against Heretiques defend the state of the Church from ruine that Christ his right hand may support your Empire Thus farre Leo. When Gregory the great was accused for the Murther of a Bishop in prison hee wrote to one Sabinianus to cleare him to the Emperour and Empresse Epist lib. 7. epist 1. Breviter suggeras serenissimis Dominis meis You may briefly enforme my soveraigne Lord and Lady that if I their servant would have busied my selfe with the death of the Lombards that nation would by this time have had neither Kings nor Dukes nor Earles and should have beene in great confusion and division but because I stood in aw of God I was ever afraid to meddle with the shedding of any mans bloud so farre Gregory These Lombards were Pagans Invaders of the Countrey Ransackers of the City Persecutours of the Saints Robbers of the Church Oppressours of the poore whom Gregory the first might and would not destroy Quia Deum timuit because hee feared God It is very like that his Successour Gregory the seventh feared either God nor man when hee erected the Papall Croisier against the regall scepter and read the sentence of deprivation against the Emperour Henry Ego authoritate Apostelica c. I by my power Apostolicall doe bereave Henry of the Germane Kingdome and doe deprive him of all subjection of Christian men absolving all men from the allegiance which they have sworne unto him And that Rodolph whom the Peeres of the Empire have elected may governe the Kingdome I grant all men that shall serve him against the Emperour Carol. Sigon de Regno Ital. lib. 9. in vita Hen. 3. forgivenesse of their sinnes in this life and in the life to come As I have for his pride dejected Henry from the Royall dignity so I doe exalt Rodolph for his humility to that place of authority Thus farre Gregory the seaventh It is no wonder Benno Card. in vit Gregor 7. that Gregory his chaire clave asunder as some Writers affirme at the giving of this sentence because the proud Pope and his wicked sentence were too heavy a burthen for Peters stoole of humility to beare The fourth Chapter proveth the Immunity of Kings by the Fathers of the third 300. yeares AFter the death of Gregory the great which was about the yeare of our Lord 604. Sabinianus did succeed him who lived but one yeare after whom came Boniface the third which obtained of Phocas to bee called Vniversall Bishop since that time Periit virtus Imperatorum pietas Pontificum the Emperours waxed weake and the Bishops wicked What the judgement of those Fathers then was concerning subjection to wicked Kings I will make evident by the testimony of Gregorius Turonensis Isidorus Damascenus Beda Fulgentius Leo 4. and the Fathers assembled in a Councell at Toledo in Spaine Gregory Turonensis acknowledgeth such an absolute power in Childerick a most wicked King of France as was free from all controll of man Histor l. 5. c. 1. Si quis de nobis Rex justitiae limites transcendere volâ—erit c. If any one of us O King doe passe the bounds of justice you have power to correct him but if you exceed your limit who shall chastice you Wee may speake unto you if you list not to hearken who can condemne you
but that Great God who hath pronounced himselfe to bee righteousnesse Hactenus ille Isidorus saith no lesse for the immunity of the Kings of Spaine Let all earthly Princes know that they shall give account of the Church which Christ hath committed to their protection Yea whether the peace and discipline Ecclesiasticall bee advanced by faithfull Kings or dissolved by the unfaithfull hee will require a reckoning at their hands which hath left his Church in their power So farre Isidorus John Damascene pleadeth not onely for the exemption of wicked Kings themselves but also of their Deputies The Governours saith hee which Kings create Parallel l. 1. c. 21. though they bee wicked though they bee theeves though they bee unjust or otherwise tainted with any crime must bee regarded Wee may not contemne them for their impiety but must reverence them because of their authority by whom they were appointed our Governours So farre hee Fulgentius saith that no kind of sedition can stand with religion Cum pro nostra fide libere respondemus c. When wee answer freely for our profession wee ought not to bee taxed with the least suspition of disobedience or contumely seeing wee are not unmindfull of the Regall dignity and doe know that wee must feare God and honour the King according to the Doctrine of the Apostle Fulgent ad Thrasim reg Give to each one his due feare to whom feare honour to whom honour appertaineth Of the which feare and honour 1 Pet. 2.17 Saint Peter hath delivered unto us the manifest knowledge saying As the servants of God honour all men love brotherly fellowship feare God honour the King Thus farre Fulgentius Our Countreyman Beda for his great learning called Venerable Lib 4. exposit in Samuel is of the same mind David saith hee for two causes spared Saul who had persecuted him most malitiously First 1 Sam. 21.6 for that hee was his Lord annointed with holy oile And secondly to instruct us by morall precepts that wee ought not to strike our Governours though they unjustly oppresse us with the sword of our lips nor presume slanderously to teare the hemme of their superfluous actions So farre hee Leo the fourth about the yeare 846. agnised all subjection to Lotharius the Emperour I doe professe and promise saith Leo to observe and keepe unviolably Cap. de capit dist 15. as much as lieth in me for the time present and to come your Imperiall ordinances and commandments together with the decrees of your Bishops my Predecessours If any man informe your Majesty otherwise know certainely that hee is a lier So farre Leo. The Bishops of Spaine assembled in a nationall Councell at Toledo Concil Tol. 5. Can. 2. circa annum Dom. 636. made this decree against perjury and treason Quicunque amodo ex nobis Whosoever among us shall from this time forward violate the oath which hee hath taken for the safegard of this Country the state of the Gothish nation and the preservation of the Kings Majesty whosoever shall attempt the Kings death or deposition whosoever shall by tyrannicall presumption aspire to the regall throne let him bee accursed before the holy Spirit before the blessed Saints let him bee cast out of the Catholique Church which hee hath polluted by perjury let him have no communion with Christian men nor portion with the just but let him be condemned with the Devill and his Angels eternally together with his complices that they may bee tied in the bond of damnation which were joyned in the society of sedition Thus farre the Fathers in that Synod I conclude therefore with these learned Fathers that it is not for the people otherwise then with humility and obedience to controll the actions of their Governours but their duty is onely to call upon the God of Heaven and so submit themselves to his mercy by whose ordinance the Scepter is fallen into his hand and power that enjoyeth the Crowne whether hee bee good or bad A right of deposing must bee either in him that hath an higher power which is onely God or in him that hath better right to the Crowne which the Pope cannot have because hee is a stranger nor the Peeres or people because they are subjects Bee the King for his Religion impious for his Government unjust for his life licentious the subject must endure him the Bishop must reprove him the Councellour must advise him all must pray for him and no mortall man hath authority to disturbe or displace him as may evidently bee seene by the Chapter following The fifth Chapter confirmeth this Doctrine by the Fathers of the fourth 300. yeares IN this age of the Church the Popes exalted themselves above all that is called God and upon private displeasures and quarrels did curse and banne Princes incensing their Neighbour-nations and perswading their owne subjects to make warre against them as if Christ had ordained his Sacraments not to bee seales of grace and helps of our faith but hookes to catch Kingdomes and rods to scourge such Potentates as would not or could not procure the Popes favour How farre these Popish practises did displease the godly and learned I will shew by Saint Bernard Walthramus Bishop of Nanumberg the Epistle Apolegeticall of the Church of Leige against Paschalis the Pope and the Authour of Henry the fourth his life Saint Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the words of CHRIST I am the vine commendeth the answer of a certaine King Bene quidam Rex cum percussus humana sagitta c. It was well said of a King when hee was shot into the body with an arrow and they that were about him desired him to bee bound untill the arrowes head were cut out for that the least motion of his body would endanger his life no quoth hee it doth not beseeme a King to bee bound let the Kings power bee ever safe and at liberty And the same Father in an Epistle to Ludovicus Crassus the King of France teacheth subjects how to rebell and fight against their Princes Quicquid vobis de Regno vestro de Anima Corona vestra facere placuerit Whatsoever you please to doe with your Kingdome Bernard Epist 221. your Soule or your Crowne wee that are the Children of the Church cannot endure or dissemble the injuries contempt and conculcation of our Mother Questionlesse wee will stand and fight even unto death in our Mothers behalfe and use such weapons as wee may lawfully I meane not swords and speares but prayers and teares to God When Gregory the seaventh had deposed Henry the fourth hee gave away the Empire to one Rodolphus Duke of Saxony that was a sworne subject to that distressed Emperour which Rodolp in a battaile against his Soveraigne Lord lost his right-hand and gained a deadly wound After his death the Pope made one Hermanus King of Germany who enjoyed his Kingdome but a little time for hee was slaine with a stone which
Franco Gallia hath a long Chapter to prove that this might bee done lawfully by the Peeres or the People but in no case by the Pope or the Clergy Men cannot say as it is in the proverbe Nimium altercando veritas amittitur seing that in this opposition the truth is not lost but divided among them For their premisses brought together will unadvoidably conclude that this deposing power is neither in the Pope the Peeres nor the People Though it were the reason of the seditious Papists and Puritans à facto ad jus is sophisticall in the Schooles where nothing can bee concluded Ex meris particularibus of meere particular instances Absurd in law Quia legibus non exemplis vivitur for men must doe as the law requireth not as other men practise Erroneous in Divinity Non ideo quia factum credimus faciendū credamus ne violemus praeceptū dum sectamur exemplum We may not do that August ad Consen de mendac cap. 9. which hath bin done by other men least we break the law of God in following the example of man And dangerous in policy as my Lord of Northampton the ornament of learning observeth The flie saith that noble Earle setting on the cart wheele might as well wonder at the dust raised in the way as Gregory or Zachary draw counsell to power and make that fact their owne which was hammered in the forge of ambition countenanced with the colour of necessity and executed by Pipin a Minister that being weary of subordination resolved by this trick when the meanes were fitted and prepared to the plot to make himself absolute The case of Kings were pitifull if Ex factis singularibus it were lawfull to draw leaden rules in their disgrace Thus farre the Earle The eight Chapter sheweth the danger of this Doctrine and the originall of the Puritan position concerning the power of Statesmen to punish and depose Princes in Monarchies THese desperate attempts suggested by the Devill executed by the people encouraged by the state and approved by the Pope must serve as admonitions to Princes to humble themselves before God Qui non dabit sanctos suos in captionent dentibus corum Who will not give his Saints for a prey to their teeth For it is not heard as our great King remembreth That any Prince forgeteth himselfe in his duty to God Law of Monarch p. 60 or in his vocation But God with the greatnesse of the plague revengeth the greatnesse of his ingratitude These practises therefore must bee no president for Peeres or People to follow because God hath forbidden Christian subjects to resist though Kings raigne as Tyrants and commanded them to endure with patience though they suffer as Innocents And also because that in stead of relecving the Common-wealth out of distresse which is ever the pretence of seditious practitioners they shall heape mischeefe on it and desolation on themselves as Aquinas if hee bee the Authour of the Booke De Regimine Principum sheweth manifestly Esset multitudini periculosum ejus rectoribus De reg Princ. lib. 1. cap. 6. It were dangerous to Subjects and Governours that any should attempt to take away the life of Princes though they were Tyrants for commonly not the well disposed but the ill affected men doe thrust themselves into that danger And the Government of good Kings is as odious to bad men as the rule of Tyrants to good people Wherefore the Kingdome by this presumption would bee rather in danger to forgoe a good Prince then a wicked Tyrant So farre Thomas They that are the Authours or abettors of sedition can neither avoid shame in earth nor escape eternall damnation Though God the great Iudge doe sometime permit rebels in his Iustice to prevaile against Kings for their contempt of the law of the highest and the neglect of their owne duty The reward of rebellion shall bee no better then the recompence of Sathan who is the instrument of the Lords wrath for the punishment of all disobedience Chrysostome It is most true that as sick men neere their death have many idle fancies so the World before the end thereof shall bee troubled with many errours In these declining dayes of the World many Countreyes Cities and Cantons renounced their old Government and submitted themselves to such a new regiment as they best liked for confirmation of which practises there wanted not politike Divines what wine is so sourc that some hedge grapes will not yeeld to invest the people and Nobles with the power over Kings to dispose of their Kingdomes The Heathen Politicians from whom this politike Divinity is derived knowing not the true God and having no rule to direct them but naturall reason thought him no murtherer but a Defender of his Countrey that killed Tyrants But this pagan principle being a plant that CHRIST hath not planted must bee plucked up by the rootes I can find no ground of this lend learning beyond 220. yeares in the Christian World The first Authours of it being Johannes de Parisiis Iacobus Almain Job de Paris de potest Regia Papali cap. 14. and Marsilius Patavinus Vbi peccat Rex in temporalibus saith Iohannes de Parisiis Papa non habet ipsum corrigere When the King offended in the temporall Government the Pope hath no authority to correct him but the Barons or Peeres of the Realme and if they either cannot or dare not meddle with him they may crave the Churches aid to suppresse him so farre Iohn of Paris Tota communitas saith Iacob Almain potestatem habet Principem deponere Iacob Almain de potest Eccl. cap. 1. All the communalty hath power to depose their Prince which power the communalty of France used when they deprived their King not so much for his impiety as for his disability to mannage so great a charge so farre Almain Regis depositio alterius institutio saith Marsilius Patavinus the deposition of a King Marsil Patave de transl Imperii cap 6. and the institution of another in his place belongeth not to the Bishop of Rome to any Priest or to the Colledge of Priests but to the universall multitude of the Subjects So farre hee From these the Puritans have learned their errour of the power of States-men over Kings then which no opinion can bee more dangerous where the Nobility are as ready to practise as the Puritan Preachers are to prescribe What presumption is it in men to passe the bounds which God hath set them to controll the wisedome of the Lord and his unspeakable goodnesse when hee maketh triall of the patience of his Saints by the outrage and tyranny of cruell Kings that they which are found patient in trouble constant in truth and loyall in subjection may bee crowned with glory Were wee perswaded that the hearts of Kings are in Gods hand that the haires of our head are numbred and that no affliction can befall us which God doth not