sole power of ordering and disposing all the Castles Forts and strong Holds and all the Ports Havens and all other parts of the Militia of this kingdom or otherwise it would follow that the king had power to proclaime war but not to be able to maintain it and that he is bound to defend his subjects but is denied the meanes to protect them which is such an absurdity as cannot be answered by all the House of Commons 6. The kings of Israel were unto their people their honour their Soveraigns their life and the very breath of their nostrils as themselves acknowledge and so the kings of England are the life the head and the authority of all things that be done in the Realm of England supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habentes Smith de Repub l. 2. Cambden Britan p. 132. nec in Imperii clientela sunt nec investituram ab alio accipientes nec praeter Deum superiorem agnoscentes and their Subjects are bound by Oath to maintain the kings Soveraignty in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that not onely as they are singularly considered but overall collectively represented in the body politick for by sundry divers old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world In the Preface to a Stat. 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12 governed by one supream head and king having the dignity and royal estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a body politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of spiritualty and temporalty have been bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience Respect 3 3. As the duty of every one of the kings of Israel was to be custos utriusque tabulae to keep the Law of God and to have a special care of his Religion and then to do justice and judgment according to the Law of nature and to observe all the judicial Laws of that kingdom so are the kings of England obliged to discharge the same duties The duty of the kings of England 1. To have the chiefest care to defend the faith of Christ and to preserve the honour of Gods Church as I shewed before 2. To maintain common right according to the rules and dictates of Nature And. 3. To see the particular Laws and Statutes of his own kingdom well observed amongst his people To all which the king is bound not onely virtute officii in respect of his office but also vinculo juramenti in respect of his Oath which enjoyneth him to guide his actions not according to the desires of an unbridled will but according to the tyes of these estabâ—ished Laws neither do our Divines give any further liberty to any king but if he failes in these he doth offend in his duty Respect 4 4. As the kings of Israel were accountable for their actions unto none but onely unto God Psal 51.4 and therefore king David after he had committed both murder and adultery saith unto God Tibi soli peccavi as if he had said none can call me to any account for what I have done but thou alone and we never read that either the people did call or the Prophets perswaded them to call any of their most idolatrous The kings of England accountable for their actions only to God tyrannical or wicked kings to any account for their idolatry tyranny or wickedness even so the kings of England are accountable to none but to God Reason 1 1. Because they have their Crown immediately from God who first gave it to the Conquerour through his sword and since to the succeeding kings by the ordinary means of hereditary succession Smith de repub l. 1. c. 9. Reason 2 2. Because the Oath which he takes at his Coronation binds him onely before God who alone can both judge him and punish him if he forgets it Reason 3 3. Because there is neither condition promise or limitation either in that Oath or in any other Covenant or compact that the king makes with the people either at his Coronation or at any other time that he should be accomptable or that they should question and censure him for any thing that he should do Reason 4 4. Because the Testimony of many famous Lawyers justify the same truth for Bracton saith if the king refuse to do what is just satis erit ei ad poenam quòd Dominum expectet ultorem The Lord will be his avenger which will be punishment enough for him but of the kings grants and actions nec privatae personae nec justiciarii debent disputare And Walsingham maketh mention of a Letter written from the Parliament to the Bishop of Rome wherein they say Bracton fol. 34. 2. b. apud Lincol anno 1301. that certum directum Dominium à prima institutione regni Angliae ad Regem pertinuit the certain and direct Dominion of this Kingdom from the very first institution thereof hath belonged unto the King who by reason of the arbitrary or free preeminence of the royal dignity and custome observed in all ages ought not to answer before any Judge either Ecclesiastical or Secular Ex libera praeeminentia Ergo neither before the Pope nor Parliament nor Presbytery Reason 5 5. Because the constant custome and practice of this kingdom was ever such that no Parliament at any time sought to censure their king and either to depose him or to punish him for any of all his actions save onely those that were called in the troublesome and irregular times of our unfortunate Princes No legitimate and just Parliment did ever question the kings of England for their actions and were swayed by those that were the heads of the most powerful Faction to conclude most horrid and unjustifiable Acts to the very shame of their Judicial authorities as those factious Parliaments in the times of Hen. 3. king John Rich. 2. and Hen. 4. and others whose acts in the judgment of all good authors are not to be drawn into examples when as they deposed their king for those pretended faults whereof not the worst of them but is fairly answered and all thirty three of them proved to be no way sufficient to depose him Heningus c. 4. p. 93. by that excellent Civilian Heningus Arnisaeus And therefore seeing the Institution of our kings is not onely by Gods Law but also by our own Laws Customs and practice thus agreeable to the Scripture kings they ought to be as sacred and as inviolable to us as the kings of Israel were to the Jews and as reverently honoured and obeyed by us as both the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul advise us to honour and obey the king CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto
set down some of their uniust impious and diabolical Ordinances which I finde to be so many as would fill up a whole Volume and the poyson of their wickednesse having swelled my Book to such a bulk already I must therefore crave leave to transmit the displaying of these dismal tragedies to some other scene onely I must remember which I believe will never be forgotten while any wickedness can be remembred and that is 1. Their bloudy Ordinance to kill and slay while we were all in peace and all praying for the Houses of Parliament 2. Their sacrilegious Ordinance of taking away not the twentieth part nor the tenth nor yet nine parts of ten but all and every part of the goods and revenues of the Bishops Deaâ—es and Prebends and let them now in their old-age after they have wasted their strength and consumed their years with toylsome labours and indefatigable paines in the Church of God to save their souls either dig for bread or beg for almes or like out-worn Jades die in a ditch their care for these men was to leave them not one penny to relieve themselves while they lived and I believe the prophanest Pagan it may be the Devil himself could not shew greater malice or inflict a severer censure upon the Clergy then these zealous Christians have ordained because such a miserable life must needs prove far worse then a glorious death when as Jeremiah saith Jerem. Lament 4.5 c. 1. v. 11. They that did feed delicatly must stand desolate in the streets and they that were brought up in scarlet must embrace dunghills they must sigh and seek their bread and give their pleasant things for meat to relieve their soules 3. Their unrighteous Ordinance and ordinances 3. Their unrighteous ordinances to take away what part they pleased of their Neighbours goods and all from them whom they deemed Malignants and I had almost said that God himself which is Lord of all could not more justly take them then these men have unjustly decreed to take them from us 4. Their impious odious and abominable Ordinance 4. Their impious ordinance to compel men by oaths and Covenants to give themselves unto the Devil and to go to Hell in despite of their teeth and that which makes me wonder most of all is that their Synod or Assembly hath prefixed an exhortation to perswade silly souls to take that wicked Covenant and to cast a mist before their eyes that they may not onely let down little gnats but also swallow this great camel they would justifie the doing thereof by a twofold example The first of the Jewes in Ezra's time Ezra 10.5 8. Nehem. 9.38.10.1 that made a Covenant to serve the Lord and to put away their strange Wives according to the Law The second of Christians and indeed of most Christian Kings and Princes that is of Queene Elizabeth's assisting the Hollanders against the King of Spain and of King Charles assisting the Rochellers against the King of France To both which examples and all other things that are conteined either in the Covenant it selfe or the exhortation of the Assembly thereunto annexed I do understand there shall be a full and a perfect answer made by one that hath undertaken the same ex professo yet give me leave in the interim to say this much 1. What vows and covenants are allowable First touching Covenants and Vowes it is plain enough that although the superior may with Ezra cause the inferior to Vow or swear the performance of his duty Gen. 24.3 that he is bound by the law of God and nature to performe so Abraham caused his servant to swear fidelity when he sent him for Isaack's Wife Numb 30. per totum And so the King may cause his Subjects to take the Oath of their Allegiance and the lawful General cause his Souldiers to swear their fidelity unto him yet the inferior subject can not swear or if he swears he ought not to observe it when he doth it contrary to the command of him that hath command over him as you may see in Numb 30. throughout Therefore as children may not vow any thing though it be never so lawful contrary to their Fathers command or if they do they ought not to keepe it so no more may any Subject Vow or make a Covenant contrary to their Kings command or if they do they ought not to observe it and they are as you see absolved by God himself Ob. Sol. If you say Ezra and the Jewes did it contrary to the command of Artaxerxes that was then their King I answer that it is most false for 1. Ezra was the Priest Nehem. 8.2 and 9. and the chief Prince that was then over them and Nehemiah had his authority from the King and he was the Tirshatha that is their governour saith the text Nehem. 10.1 and therefore they might lawfully cause them to take that Covenant 2. They had the leave and a large commission from Artaxerxes to do all that they did as you may see * See Ezra 7.11.22 c. neither can you finde any syllable that Artaxerxes forbad them to do this in any place For so the text saith Let it be done according to the Law Ezra 10.3 3. This Covenant of Ezra and his people and Nehemiah's was to do those things that they had covenanted before to do which God had expresly commanded them to do and which they could not omit though they had not covenanted to do it without great offence so if our covenanters swear they will serve God and be loyal unto their King as they vowed in their baptisme they shall never finde me to speak against them but to propose a lawfull Covenant to do those things that God commandeth and is made with the leave and commission of the supreme Prince to justifie an unlawfull Covenant to do those things that were never done before never commanded by God but forbidden both by God and especially by the King in the expressest termes and most energeticall manner that might be is such a piece of Divinity as I never read the like and such an argument 2. The examples of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles answered 1. By way of Divinity a dissimili that never schollar produced the like 2. For the examples of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles assisting Subjects for their Religion sake against their lawfull princes two things may be said the one in Divinity the other in Policy First for Divinity I say vivendum est praeceptis non exemplis we have the sure word of God to teach us what we should do and no examples unless they be either commended or allowed in Gods word ought to be any infallible patterne for us to follow 2. By way of Policy Secondly for Policy which may be justified to be without iniquity I doubt not but those men which knew the secrets of State and were privy to the causes of
to purge himself before Valentinian 2. q. 7. Nos si and Pope Leo the third before Charles the Great And it is registred that Pope Leo the 4th wrote unto the Emperour Lodouick saying Epist Eleuth inter leges Edovard Si incompetenter aliquid egimus justae legis tramitem non conservavimus admissorum nostrorum cuncta vestro judicio volumus emendare If we have done any thing unseemly and amiss and have not observed and walked in the right path of the just law we are most ready and willing to amend all our admissions or whatsoever we have done amiss according to your judgment Theodoretus l. 2. c. 1. and Pope Eleutherius saith to Edward the I. of England V s est is Vicarius Dei in Regno vestro that he and so every other King is Gods Vicar in his Kingdom This was the mind and sense of these Popes and many other Popes in former ages were of the same mind until pride avarice and ambition corrupted them to be as now they are How the Emperour and Kâ—nâ—â— executed the power that God had given thâ—m And as God hath given this power and required this duty of Kings and Princes to have a care of his Church and to reform Religion and the Fathers and Councels have confirmed this truth and divers of the very Popes themselves and Pâ—pists have yielded and submitted themselves unto their spiritual jurisdiction even in the Ecclesiastical causes so the Emperours and Kings omitted not to execute the same from time to time especially those that had the master power and ability to discharge their duties Idâ—m l. 1. c 7. for Theodoret writes that Constantine was wont to say Si episcopus tâ—rbas det mea manu coercebitur If any Bishop shall be turbulent and troublesome he shall be refrained and censured by my hands and both Theodoret and Eusebius tels us how he came in his own person unto the Councell of Nice Sozâ—m l. 4. c. 16. Et omnibus exsurgentibus ipse ingressus est medius tanquam aliquis Dei coelestis Angelus the whole company of the Bishops and all the rest arising he came into the midst amongst them as it were an Heavenly Angel of God And Sozomen writeth how that ten Bishops of the East and ten others of the West Conciliorum Tom 2. In vita Sylvani vigila were required by Constantine to be chosen out by the Convocation and to be sent to his Court to declare unto him the decrees and canons of the Councell that he might examine them and consider whether they were consonant to the Holy Scriptures And the Emperour Constantius deposed Pope Liberius of his Bishoprick and then again he deprived Pope Foelix and restored Liberius unto the Popedom and in the third Councell at Costantinople he did not only sit among the Bishops but also subscribed Concil Boni 3. c. 2. with the Bishops to such bills as passed in that Councell saying Vidimus Subscripsimus we have seen these canons and have subscribed our approbation of them And King Odoacer touching the Affairs of the Church saith Miramur quicquam tentatum fuisse sine nobis We do admire that you should attempt to do any thing without us for while our Bishop lived that is the Pope sine Nobis nihil tentari oportuit Nothing ought to be done without us much less ought it to be done now when he is dead And the Emperour Justinian doth very often in Ecclesiastical causes Authent Coliat 1 tit 6. use to say Definimus jubemus We determine and command and we will and require that none of the Bishops be absent from his Church Quomodo oportet Episcop above the space of a year and he saith further Nullum genus rerum est quod non sit penitus quaerendum Authoritate Imperatoris there is no kind of matter that may not or is not to be inquired into by the Authority of the Emperour Authent Collat. Tit. 133. because he hath received from the hands of God the common government and principality over all men And the same Emperour as Balsamon saith Balsamon de Peccat Tit. 9. Idem in Calced Concil c. 12. Idem de fide Tit. 1. gave power to the Bishop to absolve a Priest from pennance and to restore him to his Church And the same Author saith that the Emperours disposed of Patriarchal seats and that this power was given them from above and he saith further that the Emperour Michael that ruled in the East made a law against the order of the Church that no Monk should serve in the Ministry in any Church whatsoever And we read further how that divers of the Emperours have put down and deposed divers Popes as Otho deposed John 13. Evodius inter decreta Bonifacâ—â— Vâ—sâ—ergen anno 1045. Honorius deposed Boniface Theodoricus deposed Symmaâ—hus and Henry removed three Popes that had been all unlawfully chosen and in the Councel of Chalcedon the Supreme Civil Magistrate adjudged Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassus three Bishops of Heresie and therefore to be degraded and to be thrust out of the Church And so you see how the Emperours â—ings and Civil Magistrates behaved themselves in the Church of God and used their power and the Authority that God had given them as well in the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Affairs of the Church and points of Faith as in the Civil Government of the Common-wealth CHAP. VIII That it is the Office and Duty of Kings and Princes though not to execute the function and to do the Offices of the Bishops and Priests yet to have a speciall care of Religion and the true Worship of God and to cause both the Priests and Bishops and all others to discharge their duties of Gods service And how the good and godly Emperours and Kings have formerly done the same from time to time BUt as God hath given unto the Kings and Princes of this world a Power and Authority as well over his Church and Church-men be they Prophets Apostles Bishops Priests or what you will as over the Common wealth and all the lay persons of their Dominions So they ought and are bound to have a special care of Religion and to discharge their duties for the glory of God the good of his Church the promoting of the Christian Faith and the rooting up of all Sects and Heresies that defile and corrupt the same for as Saint Augustine saith and I shewed you before In hoc Reges Deo serviunt herein Kings and Princes do serve God if Aug. contra Crescon l. 3. c. 51. as they are Kings they injoyn the things that are good and inhibit those things that are evil and that Non solum in iis quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem sed etiam ad divinam Religionem and again he saith Idem Epist 48. that Kings do serve Christ here on earth when they do make good laws for Christ and
to believe as they ought to do and to require the Bishops and Prelates also to see that all the inferiour Clergy do the like then that they may be inabled with joy and comfort to discharge their duties and to perform Gods service aright they should do their best indevour to see that there should be large and liberal maintenance provided and set out sufficiently for them to sustain and keep themselves and their families to keep Hospitality to relieve the poor and to do all the other works of piety and charity which they are injoyned to do and which without such means and maintenance they are no waies able possibly to discharge For if such liberal maintenance be not provided for them the want thereof will make the whole company of the Clergy men to be contemptible their names in obloquy and their unworthy and poor condition will fright away the better sort of men from imbracing this calling that in it self is so Honorable a function as to be the Embassadours of Jesus Christ for though the name of a Bishop and the Priest or Minister of Jesus Christ be great And Jâ—venal saith Quis enim virtuâ—em amplectitur ipsam Pramia si tâ—llas Juvenal l. 4. Satyr 10. and of great account in Gods book and with the Saints of God yet men are but flesh and blood whose nature is to be inticed and toled on with rewards as the best Sollicitors and mediators to spur them forward to undertake any profession and they are most apt and ready to undertake that which they see most profitable and makes them best able to live in the world And therefore Cicero the best of the Orators said Honos alit artes That Reward and Honor is the nourisher of Arts and Sciences and makes the Schollars to fall to their Study and Aristotle the chiefest of all the Philosophers confirmeth what the Orator said and addeth that Honos est praemium Virtutis Virtue and learning ought to be honored and rewarded and when it is rewarded it will flourish and be increased and Martial the best Epigrammatist justifieth what the others affirmed saying Sint Mecoenates non deerunt Flacce Marones Virgiliumque tibi vel tua rura dabunt Which I may with leave thus Translate Where Patrons well present their Clerks there Preachers will abound In every Town and Village then good Prophets shall be found And therefore the wisest men have alwayes promised great Rewards to all that would attempt any great Service as Caleb said He that smiteth Kiriath sepher Josh 15.16 1 Sam. 17.25 1 Sam. 5.8 and taketh it to him will I give my daughter Achsa to wife And Saul promised to do the like to him that vanquished Gelias And so King David promised no small Reward to him that got up to the gutter and smote the Jebuzites in the siege of Hierusalem because the wages and reward that men expect for their labour are as the spurs that drive and prick them forward to every profession and to every work and great Exploit And on the other side when the World seeth the Ministers of the Gospel rewarded none otherwise now when we have a gracious King than the Levite in the old Testament was when there was no King in Israel with bare meat and drink Judg. 17.10 and a single simple suite of apparel and ten Shekels of Silver which was his yearly pension for all his pains then as Juvenal saith Quis quis virtutem amplectitur ipsam Praemia si tollas Who will be willing to enter into the Ministery and to imbrace this high Calling especially when they do throughly perceive how this inexcusable covetousness the unresistable power of the men of War doth still increase more and more to eat up and like a canker to waste and consume the possessions of the Church and the maintenance of God's Ministers whereby the Honour of God is blemished his Worship obstructed the people deprived of the spiritual food of their souls and the poor of their relief and food of their bodies which the Bishops and Ministers of Christ if they were made able are bound to bestow upon them as the men that best know the duty of charity how acceptable it is in the sight of God Why there were no Physitians in Athens For as when it was demanded Why there were no Professors of Physick in the City of Athens whereby the whole Art and Profession was decayed the answer was made It was because there was no Reward or Stipend set out and allotted for the Teachers of that Science So when the reward and maintenance of the Bishops and Ministers is purloyned and taken away by Souldiers * For they are the men that hold our lands and seek to take our houses from us or any others then certainly the Ministery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will insensibly decay And how the Church-robbers will answer this to God or defend themselves with their swords before him let them look unto it I would not be in their case for all the lands and houses that they have For as when Antigonus asked the Philosopher Cleanthes that was Zeno's Scholler and had learnedly written of the Sun and Moon and Stars and other points of Astronomy Why he carried water in the night and did grinde at the Quern or Mill Cleanthes answered He was inforced to be thus occupied to get his living when he had no other means to maintain himself So when God shall demand of the Bishops and Ministers Why they do not study to teach his people and bestow alms on his poor creatures but look after their husbandry and follow after the affairs of the world and to do as many times my self have been inforced to do many base and servile works for want of means to hire other labourers and we shall answer as Cleanthes did This strange indignity is done unto us that we have no money to buy Books to study and to relieve the poor and to repair thy ruinous House nor scarce meanes to maintain our selves but by these unworthy wayes to get some small means of subsistance lest otherwise we should be forced with the Levite and his wife to lodge in the streets And when God shall reply again and demand How cometh this to passe when as the Kings Princes and other Noble men of the World the more excellent powerful and illustrious they are the more excellent and beneficial are the Places and Offices of their servants from whence it became a Proverb That no fishing to the Sea and no service to the Court. And I that am the Great and Almighty God of Heaven and the King of all Kings that do take pleasure in the prosperity of my servants Psal 35.27 Prov 3.16 c. 22.4 and have promised riches and honour to them that serve me and accordingly have allowed and commanded my Tythes and Oblations and the free gifts and will-offerings of my people to be inviolably set our and preserved
truth of this Doctrine do in all their Votes and Declarations conclude and protest and I must believe them that all the leavies moneys and other provision of horse and men that they raise and arm are for the safety of the Kings person and for the maintenance of his Crown and Dignity Nay more then this the very Rebels in this our Kingdom of Ireland knowing how odious it is before God and man for subjects to rebell and take armes against their lawful King do protest if you will believe them that they are the Kings souldiers and do fight and suffer for their King and in defence of his Prerogatives But you know the old saying Tuta frequensque via est per amici fallere nomen The Devil deceiveth us soonest when he comes like an Angel of light and you shall ever know the true subjects best by their actions farre better then by their Votes Declarations or Protestations for Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta When men do come in sheeps cloathing and inwardly are ravening wolves when they come with honey in their mouths and gall in their hearts and like Joab with peace in their tongue and a sword in their hand a petition to intreat and a weapon to compell I am told by my Saviour that I shall know them by their works not their words And therefore as our Saviour saith Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven So I say not he that cryeth peace peace is the son of peace but he that doth obey his Prince and doth most willingly whatsoever he commandeth or suffereth most patiently for refusing to do what he commandeth amisse This is the true subject Well to draw towards the end of this point That is when the Commonalty guide the Nobility and the Subjects rule their King of our obedience to our Soveraign Governour I desire you to remember a double story The one of Plutarch which tells us how the tayle of the Serpent rebelled against the head because that did guide the whole body and drew the tayle after it whithersoever it would therefore the head yielded that the tayle should rule and then it being small and wanting eyes drew the whole body head and all through such narrow crevises clefts and thickets that it soon brought the Serpent to confusion The other is of Titus Livius Titus Livius Decad. 1. l. 2â— who tells us that when the people of Rome made a factious combination to rebell against their Governours Menenius Agrippa went unto them and said that on a time all the members conspired against the stomack and alledged that she devoured with ease and pleasure what they had purchased with great labour and pain therefore the feet would walk no more the hands would work no more the tongue would plead no more for it and so within a while the long fast of the stomack made weak knees feeble hands dimme eyes a faltering tongue and a heavie heart and then presently seeing their former folly they were glad to be reconciled to the Stomack again and this reconciled the people unto their Governours I need not make any other application but to wish and to advise us all with the people of Rome to submit our selves unto our Heads that are our Governours lest if we be guided by the tayle we shall bring our selves with the Serpent unto destruction And to remember that excellent speech of S. Basil The people through ambition are fallen into grievous Anarchie whence it happeneth that all the exhortations of their rulers do no good no man hath any list to obey but every man would reign being swelled up with pride that springeth out of his ignorance And a little after he saith Basilius de Spiritu Sancto c. ult scii 30. An argument of obedience drawn from the fifth Commandement that some sit no lesse implacable and bitter examiners of things amisse then unjust and malevolent Judges of things well done so that we are more brutish then the very beasts because they are quiet among themselves but we wage cruel and bloody warres against each other And let us never forget that the Lord saith Honour thy father and thy mother and I must tell you that by father in this precept you must not onely understand your natural father but also the King who is your political father and the father of all his subjects and the Priest your spiritual father 1 Chron. 2.24 and those likewise that in loco patris do breed and bring you up and though natural affection produceth more love and honour unto those fathers that begat us yet reason and religion oblige us more unto the King that is the common father of all and to the Priest that begat us unto Christ then unto him that begat us into the world for that without our new birth which is ordinarily done by the office of the Priest we were no Christians What we are and should be without King or Priest and as good unborn as unchristened that is unregenerated and without the King that is Custos utriusque tabulae the preserver both of the publick justice and of the pure religion our fathers can neither bring us up in peace nor teach us in the faith of Christ and therefore if my father should plot any treason against the King or prove a Rebel against him I am bound in all duty and conscience to preferre the publick before the private and if I cannot otherwise avert the same to reveal the plot to preserve the King though it were to the losse of my father's life and therefore certainly they that curse that is speak evil of their King are cursed and they that rebel against him shall never have their dayes long in the land but shall through their own rebellion be soon cut off from the land of the living Whether for the liberty of Subjects we can be warranted to rebell In the discourse of the differences betwixt King and Parliament For mine own part I have often admired why the subjects of King CHARLES should raise any civil warre and especially turn their spleen against him If any say it is for their liberties I answer that I am confident His Majesty never thought to bring any the meanest of his subjects into bondage nor by an arbitrary government to reduce them into the like condition as the Peasants of France or the Boores of Germany or the Pickroes of Spain are as some do most falsely suggest but that they should continue as they have been in the dayes of his Father of blessed memory and of all other his most noble Progenitors the freest subjects under Heaven And I hope they desire not to be such Libertines as those in the Primitive Church The Libertines of the Primitive Church what they thought who because Christian liberty freed us from all Jewish Ceremonies and all typical
Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himself before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecuting Emperours 2. WE finde that not onely the Jews that were the people of God a royal Priesthood that had the Oracles of God and therefore no wonder that they were so conformable in their obedience to the will of God 2. The Heathens Persae quidem olim aliquid coeleste atque divinum in regibus inesse statuebant Osor de Instit regis l 4. p. 106. Justin l. 4. Herodot l. 8. What great respect men in former times did bear unto their kings but the Gentiles also that knew not God knew this by the light of nature that they were bound to yield all honour unto their kings For Quintus Curtius tells us that the Persians had such a divine estimation and love unto their king that Alexander could not perswade them either for fear or reward to tell him where their king was gone or to reveale any of his intentions or to do any other thing that might any ways prejudice the life or the affairs of their king And Justin tell us that the Sicilians did bear so great a respect unto the last Will and Testament of Anaxilaus their deceased king that they disdain not to obey a slave whom he had appointed Regent during the minority of his son And Herodotus saith that when Xerxes fled from Greece in a vessel that was so ful of men of war that it was impossible for him to be saved without casting some part of them into the Sea he said O yee men of Persia let some among you testifie that he hath care of his King whose safety is in your disposition then the Nobility which accompanied him having adored him did cast themselves into the Sea till the vessel was unburthened and the King preserved And I fear these Pagans will rise in judgement to condemn our Nobility that seek the destruction of their King And the Macedonians had such a reverent opinion of their King that being foyled in war before they returned again to the battle they fetched their cradle wherein their young King lay and set him in the midst of the Camp as supposing that their former misfortune proceeded Justin l. 7. because they neglected to take with them the good augure of their King's presence And Boëmus Aubanus speaking of the Aegyptian Kings saith that they have so much good will and love from all men ut non solùm sacerdotibus sed etiam singulis Aegyptiis major regis quà m â—xorum filiorúmque Aubanus de Afr ca. l. 1. p. 39. Reges divinos Iove genitos à Iove nutritos Homerus Hesiodus appellarunt aut aliorum principum salutis inesset cura that not onely the Priests but also the Aegyptians have a greater care of the safety of their King then of their wives or children or any other Princes of the Land And the same Author describing the manner how the Tartars create their King saith the Princes Dukes Barons and all the people meet then they place him that is to be their King on a Throne of gold and prostrating themselves upon the ground they cry with an unanimous and loud voice Rogamus volumus praecipimus ut domineris nobis We intreat you and beseech you to reign over us and he answereth If you would have this of me it is necessary that you should be obedient to do whatsoever I shall command you when I call you to come whethersoever I shall send you to go whomsoever I shall command you to kill to do it immediately without fear and to commit the whole Kingdom into my hands then they do all answer We are willing to do all this And then he saith again Therefore from hence-forth oris mei sermo gladius meus erit the word of my mouth shall be the sword of my power then all the people do applaud him And a little after he saith in ejus manibus seu potestate omnia sunt Aubaâ—us l. 8. p. 141. all things are in his hands and power no man dare say this is mine or that is his no one man may dwell in any part of the Land but in that which is assigned unto him by the King Nemini licèt imperatoris verba mutare nemini latae ab illo sententiae qualicunque mede contraire and no man dares alter the Kings words nor gain-say his sentence whatsoever it is And we read that the Turk is as absolute in his Dominions and as readily obeyed in his commands as the Tartar and yet these Subjects learn this duty of honour and obedience unto their Kings onely by the light of nature and if grace and the Gospel hath made us free from this slavish subjection should we not be thankful unto our God and be contented with that liberty which he hath given us but because we have so much we will have more * And as the Poet saith Like Subjects arm'd the more their Princes gave They this advantage tooâ— the more to crave Lucan lib. 1. and seeing God hath delivered us from the rage of tyrannous Kings we will free our selves from all government and disobey the commands of the most clement Princes We may remember the fable of the Frogs where they prayed unto Jupiter to haue a King and what was the success thereof omnia dat qui justa negat an he that undutifully denyeth his due obedience may unwillingly be forced to undue subjection as the Israelites not contented with just Samuel shall be put under an unjust Saul So God may justly deal with us for our injustice towards our King to deny that honour unto him which God commanded to be given and the very Heathens have not detained from their Kings But 3. Christians 3. Lest with Saint Paul we should be blamed though unjustly for bringing the uncircumcised Greeks into the Temple for alleadging the disorderly practice of blinde Heathens to be a pattern for these zealous Ch istians which thing notwithstanding our Saviour did when he preferred Sodom and Gomorrha before Capernaum Matth. 11.21 yea Tyrus and Sidon before Corazin and Bethsaida we cannot want the example of good Christians and a multitude of most holy Martyrs to shame the practice of these prophane hypocrites For 1. Christ him self exhibited all due honour unto wicked kings 1. Christ himself the authour and the finisher of our faith never left any plainer mark of his religion then to propagate the same by patience as on the other side there cannot be a more suspitious sign of a false Religion then to enlarge it and protect it by violence and therefore when the Inhabitants of a certain Samaritane village refused to admit Christ and his Disciples into their Town and so renounced him and his Religion James and John Luke 9.54 two principal members of his Court remembring what Elias did in the like case 1 Reg. 18. 2 Reg. 1.