deleret peccata mundi not to take away the rights of the Nations but to satisfie for the sinnes of the world the best Christian Emperours discharged the same duty The care of the good Emperours to preserve the true religion reformed the Church abolished Idolatry punished Heresie and maintained Piety especially Constantine and Theodosius that were most pious Princes and of much vertues and became as the Prophet foretold us Esay 49.23 nursing fathers unto Gods Church for though they are most religious and best in their religion that are religious for conscience sake yet there is a feare from the hand of the Magistrate that is able to restraine those men from many outward evils whom neither conscience nor religion could make honest therefore God committed the principall care of his Church to the Prince and principall Magistrate Who defended thâ—s truth And this is confirmed and throughly maintained by sundry notable men as Brentius against Asoto Bishop Horne against Fekenham Jewell against Harding and many other learned men that have written against such other Papists and Puritans Anabaptists and Brownists The Papists unawares confesse this truth that have taken upon them to impugne it yea many of the Papists themselves at unawares doe confesse as much for Osorius saith Omne regis officium in religionis sanctissimae rationem conferendum Osortus de relig p. 21. munus ejus est beare rempubl religione pietate all the office of a King is to be conferred or imployed for the regard and benefit of the most holy religion and his whole duty is to blesse or make happy the Common-wealth with religion and piety Quod enim est aliud reipublicae principi munus assignatum quà m ut rempubl florentem atque beatam faciat quod quidem nullo modo sine egregiâ pietatis religionis sanctitate perficitur For though we confesse with Ignatius that no man is equall to the Bishop in causes Ecclesiasticall no not the King himselfe that is in such things as belong to his office as Whitaker saith Whitak resp Camp p. 302. because he onely ought to see to holy things that is the instruction of the people the administration of the Sacraments the use of the keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and the like matters of great weight and exceeding the Kings authority The Kings authority over Bishops yet Kings are above Bishops in wealth honour power government and majestie and though they may not doe any of the Episcopall duties yet they may and ought lawfully to admonish them of their duties and restraine them from evill 1. Chron. 28.13 2. Chron. 29. 1. Reg. 2.26 and command them diligently to execute their office and if they neglect the same they ought to reprove and punish them as we reade the good Kings of the Jewish Church and the godly Emperours * As Martian apud Binium l. 2. p. 178. Iustinian novil 10. tit 6. Theodos jun. Evagr. l. 1. c. 12. Basil in Concil Constant 8. act 1. Binius tom 3. p. 880. of the Christian Church have ever done and the Bishops themselves in sundry Councels have acknowledged the same power and authority to be due and of right belonging unto them as at Mentz anno 814. and anno 847. apud Binium tom 3. p. 462. 631. At Emerita in Portugall anno 705. Bin. tom 2. p. 1183. and therefore it is an ill consequent to say Princes have no authority to preach Ergo they have no authority to punish those that will not preach or that doe preach false Doctrine This truth is likewise apparent not onely by the testimony of Scripture and Fathers but also by the evidence of plaine reason because the prosperity of that Land which any King doth governe Reason confirmeth that Kings should take care of religion without a principall care of religion decayeth and degenerateth into Warres Dearthes Plagues and Pestilence and abundance of other miseries that are the lamentable effects and consequences of the neglect of religion and contempt of the Ministers of Gods Church which I beleeve is no small cause of these great troubles that we now suffer because our God Psal 35.27 that taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants cannot endure that either his service should be neglected or his servants abused CHAP. VII Sheweth the three things necessary for all Kings that would preserve true Religion how the King may attaine to the knowledge of things that pertaine to Religion by his Bishops and Chaplaines and the calling of Synods the unlawfulnesse of the new Synod the Kings power and authority to governe the Church and how both the old and new Disciplinarians and Sectaries rob the King of this power THerefore seeing this should be the greatest care that brings the greatest honour to a Christian Prince to promote the true religion it is requisite that we should consider those things that are most necessary to a Christian King for the religious performance of this duty And they are Three things necessary for a King to preserve the Church and true Religion 1. A will to performe it 2. An understanding to goe about it 3. A power to effect it And these three must be inseparable in the Prince that maintaineth true religion For 1. Our knowledge and our power without a willing minde doth want motion 2. Our will and power without knowledge shall never be able to move right And 3. Our will and knowledge without ability can never prevaile to produce any effect Therefore Kings and Princes ought to labour to be furnished with these three speciall graces The first is a good will to preserve the purity of Gods service 1. A willing minde to do it not onely in his House but also throughout all his Kingdome and this as all other graces are must be acquired by our faithfull prayers and that in a more speciall manner for Kings and Princes then for any other and it is wrought in them by outward instruction and the often predication of Gods Word and the inward inspiration of Gods Spirit The second is knowledge 2. Understanding to knâ—w what is to be reformed and what to be retained which is not much lesse necessary then the former because not to runne right is no better then not to runne at all and men were as good to doe nothing as to doe amisse and therefore true knowledge is most requisite for that King that will maintaine true religion and this should be not onely in generall and by others but as much as possible he can in particulars and of himselfe that himselfe might be assured what were fit to be reformed and what warranted to be maintained in Gods service for so Moses commandeth the chiefe Princes to be exercised in Gods Law day and night because this would be a speciall meanes to beatifie or make happy both the Church and Common-wealth The Kings neglect of religion and the Church is the
the Church and are ascribed unto the Bishops by the same Majestie that honoured them and for some by-respect and private ends to perswade the King to desert the Church to leave the Prelates in the suds their honour to be laid and buried in the dust and their revenues to be devoured by the enemies of all godlinesse But doe these men thinke that blessings come from God or that this is the way for God to blesse the King or themselves or this Kingdome to vilifie those that honour God and of whom Christ directly saith He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me for alas who were more favoured protected and blessed by God then Constantine Theodosius and the rest of those good Emperours and Kings that gave most immunities and conferred most dignities upon the Bishops and Prelates of Gods Church because that hereby they testified their love to Christ himselfe and did not God withdraw his favour and protection from those Kings and potentates that neglected to protect his servants therefore they cannot wish well unto the King Six speciall reasons way the King should conferre his favoâ—â—s and honour upon the Biâ—hops that wish him to give way to denude the Church and to desert the defence of the Bishops For besides many other reasons we finde six speciall arguments proving that our King rather then any King in Europe should uphold his Clergy and confer his favours and honours upon them I say nâ—◠〈◊〉 then upon his nobility for that would procure hatred unto the King envy unto them and ruine unto all but as well as upon any other State in this Kingdome As 1. Not onely the relation betwixt them and â—â—eiâ— Prince as Reason 1 they are his faithfull Subjects and be their Soveraigne King but as he is the Lords Annointed and the Defender of that faith which they teach and publish unto his people for this annointing of him by God for this and superinduceth a brother-hood betwixt the King and the Bishops Rex inunctus non est merus Laicus Gutmerus tit 12. §. 9. and makes him quasi unus ex nobis and the chiefe guide and guardian of the Clergy because that hereby he is mixta personae more then a meere Lay-man and hath an Ecclesiasticall supreme government as well as the civill and ut oleo sancto uncti sunt spiritualis jurisdictionis caepaces sunt as it was said in the time of Edw. 3. 33. Edw. 3. tit Aide le Roy. and therefore as in relation to the temporalty the King is supremus justitiarius totius Angliae so in respect to the spiritualty he is as Constantine stiled himselfe in the Councell of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the chiefe Christian Bishop among his Bishops 2. Our Bishops and Clergy are truer and faithfuller Subjects Reason 2 to their Prince then any other Clergy in Christendome because the Clergy of France and Spaine and other Popish States and Dominions are not simply Subjects unto their Kings but deny civill obedience unto their Prince where canonicall obedience commands the contrary and you see how the Presbyterie not onely deny their just allegeance but incite the people to unjust rebellion but the Bishops and their Clergy renounce all obedience to any other Potentate and anathematize as utterly unlawfull all resistance against our lawfull Soveraigne and in this hearty adherence to His Majestie as they are wholly his so they doe expect favour from none but onely from his Highnesse and yet Philip the second of Spaine notwithstanding he had but halfe the obedience of his Clergy adviced his sonne Philip the third to sticke fast unto his Bishops even aâ— he had done before him therefore our King that hath his Bishops so totally faithfull unto him hath more reason to succour them that they be not made the object of contemps unto the vulgar Reason 3 3. The state of the Clergy is constantly and most really to their power the most beneficiall state to the Crowne both in ordinary and extraordinary revenues of all others for though their meanes is much impaired and their charges increased in many things yet if you consider their first fruits the first yeare their Tenths every yeare Subsidies most yeares and all other due and necessary payments to the King I may boldly say that computatis computandis no state in England of double their revenue scarce renders halfâ— their payments and now in the Kings necessity for the defence of Church and Crown Or else they are much too blame and fâ—rie unworthy to be B shops I hope my Brethren the Bishops and all the rest of the loyall Clergy will rather empty themselves of all they have and put it to His Majesties hands then suffer him to want what lyeth in them during all the time of these occasions Reason 4 4. They bestow all their labours in Gods service continually praying for blessings upon the head of His Majestie and his posterity and next under God relying onely upon His favour and protection Reason 5 5. God hath laid this charge upon all Christian Kings to be our nursing fathers Esay 49.33 and to defend the faith that we preach which cannot be done when the Bishops and Prelates are not protected and God hath promised to blesse them so long as they discharge this duty and hath threatned to forsake them when they forsake his Church and leave the same as a prey to the adversaries of the Gospell Reason 6 6. Our King hath like a pious and a gracious King at his Coronation promised and engaged himselfe to doe all this that is desired of him And as for these and other reasons His Majestie should so we doe acknowledge with all thankefulnesse that He hath and doth His best endeavour to discharge this whole duty Quia non plus valeÌ„t ad dejiciendum terrena mala quà m ad erigendum divina tutela Cypr. and doe beleeve with all confidence that maugâ—e all open opposition and all secret insinuation against us He will in like manner continue His grace and favour unto the Church and Church governours unto the end And if any whosoever they be how great or how powerfull soever either in Kingdome or in Court shall seeke to alienate the Kings heart or diminish His affection and furtherance to protect and promote the publishers of the Gospell which we are confident all their malice cannot doe because the God of Heaven that hath built his Church upon a rocke and will not turne away his face from his Annointed will so blesse our King that it shall never be with Him as it was with Zedechia when it was not in his power to save Gods Prophet but said unto his Princes Jerem. 28.5 Behold he is in your hand for the King is not he that can doe any thing against you yet as Mordecai said to Hester God will send inlargement and deliverance unto his Church Hester 4.14 and they and their fathers
Blacvod Apolog pro regibus pag. 13. and in France saith he the same men were enemies unto the King that were adversaries unto the Priests quia politicam dominationem nunquam ferent qui principatum ecclesia sustulerunt nec mirum si regibus obloquantur The haters of the Bishops ever enemies unto Kings qui sacerdotes flamma ferro persequuntur because as I have shewed at large in my Grand Rebellion they will never endure the Politicall Magistrate to have any rule when they have shaken off the Ecclesiasticall government neither is it any wonder that they should flander rage against and reject their King when they persecutâ— their Bishops with fire and sword And I thinke the sad aspect of this distracted Kingdome at this time makes this point so cleare that I need not adde any more proofe to beget faith in any sober man for doth not all the world see that assoone as the seditious and trayterous faction in this unhappy Parliament had cast most of the Bishops How soone the Faction fell upon the King after th y had cast off their Bishops the gravest and the greatest of all with Joseph into the dungeon a thing that no story can shew the like president in any age and had voted them all contrary to all right out of their indubitable right to sit in the House of Peeres â—n act indeed so full of incivility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 8.34 as hath no small affinity with that of the Gergesites who for love of their swine drave not out but desired Christ to depart out of their coasts they presently began to plucke the sword out of the Kings hand and endeavoured to make their Soveraigne in many things more servile then any of his owne Subjects so that he should be gloriosissimè servilis as Saint Augustine saith that Homer was suavissimè â—anus and to effect this you see how they have torne in pieces all his Rights they have trampled his Prerogatives under foot they have as much as they could laid his honour in the dust and they have with violent warre and virulent malice sought to vanquish and subdue their owne most gracious Soveraigne which cannot chuse but make any Christian heart to bleed to see such unchristian and such horrid unheard of things attempted to be done by any that would take upon him the name of a Christian Therefore to manifest my duty to God and my fidelity to my King I have undertaken this hard and to the Rebels unpleasant labour to set downe the Rights of Kings wherein I shall not be affraid of the Rebels power neither would I have any man to feare them for however Victores victique cadunt The Rebels for the punishment of our sins may prosper for a time but at last they shall be most surely destroyed Prov. 8.15 Psal 68.30 Joshua 9.16 Psal 91.16 there may be a vicissitude of good successe many times on both sides to prolong the warre for our sinnes and they may prosper in some places yet that is but nubecula quaedam a transient cloud or a summer storme that will soone passe away for we may assure our selves they shall not prevaile because God hath said it By me Kings doe raigne and He will give strength unto his King and exalt the horne of his Annointed He will scatter the people that delight in warre and make the hearts of the cursed Canaanites to melt and their joynts to tremble but He will satisfie the King with long life and shâ—w him his salvation CHAP. II. Sheweth what Kings are to be honoured the institution of Kings to be immediately from God the first Kings the three chiefest rights to Kingdomes the best of the three rights how Kings came to be elected and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracie and Democracie issued out of Monarchie TO proceed then you see the person that by Saint Peters precept is to be honoured to be the King and what King was that but as you may see in the beginning of this epistle the King of Pontus Galatia Cuppadocia Asia and Bythinia and what manner of Kings were they I pray you I presume you will confesse they were no Christians but it may be as bad as Nero who was then their Emperour and most cruelly tyrannizing over the Saints of God gave a very bad example to all other his substitute Kings and Princes to doe the like What Kings are to be honoured and yet these holy Christians are commanded to honour them And therefore 1. Heathen Pagan wicked and tyrannicall Kings are to be truly honoured by Gods precept 2. Religious just and Christian Kings are to have a double honour because there is a double charge imposed upon them as 1. To execute justice and judgement among their people The double charge of all Christian Kings 1. To preserve peace to preserve equity and peace both from intestine broyles and ferraigâ—â— foes which carefull government bringeth plenty and prosperity in all externall affaires unto the whole Kingdome and this they doe as Kings which is the common duty of all the Kings of the earth 2. To maintaine true Religion 2. To protect the Church to promote the faith of Christ and to be the guardians and foster-fathers unto the Church and Church-men which tye their people unto God to make them spiritually and everlastingly happy and this duty is laid upon them as they are Christian Kings and therefore in regard of this accession of charge they ought to have an â—â—â—ession of honour more then all other Kings whatsoever 1. Then I say that the Heathen Pagan wicked and tyrannicall Kings such as were Nero Dioclesian and Julian among the Christians or Ahab and Manasses among the Jewes or Antiochus Dionysius and the rest of the Sicilian Tyranâ—â— among the Gentiles are to be honoured served and obeyed of all their Subjects and that in three speciall respects 1. Of their institution 1. All Kings to be honoured in three respects which is the immediate ordinance of God 2. Of Gods precept which enjoyneth us to honour them 3. Of all good mens practice whether they be 1. Jewes 2. Gentiles 3. Christians 1. The institution of Kings is immediately from God Iustin lib. 1. 1. Justin tells us that Principio rerum gentium nationuÌ„mque imperium penes reges erat from the beginning of things that is the beginning of the world the rule and government of the people of all nations was in the hands of Kings Quâ—s ad honoris fastigium non ambitio popularis sed spectata inter bonos moderatio provehebat Herodot lib. 1. Clio. And Herodotus setteth downe how Deioces the first King of the Medes had his beginning And Homer also nameth the Kings that were in and before the warres of Troy But the choice of Deioces and some others about that time and after Cicero in Officus whereof Cicero speaketh may give some colour unto our rebellious
proud favorite had wickedly decreed and most tyrannically destined all the Nation of the Jewes to a sudden death yet this dutifull people did not undutifully rebell and plead the King was seduced by evill counsell and misguided by proud Haman therefore nature teaching them vim vi pellere to stand upon their owne defence they would not submit their necks to his unjust Decree but being versed in Gods Lawes and unacquainted with these new devices they returne to God and betake themselves to their prayers Hester 8.11 untill God had put it into the Kings heart to grant them leave to defend themselves and to sheath their swords in the bowels of their adversaries which is a most memorable example of most dutifull unresisting Subjects an example of such piety as would make our Land happy if our zealous generation were but acquainted with the like Religion But here I know what our Anabaptist Brownist and Puritane will say that I build Castles in the aire The author of the Treatise of Monarchie p. 33. and lay downe my frame without foundation because all Kings are not such as the Kings of Israel and Judah were as the Kings that God gave unto the Jewes and prescribed speciall Lawes both for the Kings to governe and the people to obey them but all other Nations have their owne different and severall Lawes and Constitutions according to which Lawes their Kings are tyed to rule and the Subjects bound to obey and no otherwise I answer Henric. Stephan in libello de hac re contendit in omneâ— respull debere leges Hebraerum tanquam ab ipso Deo profectas per consequens omnium optemas â—educi that indeed it is granted there are severall constitutions of Royalties in severall Nations and there may be Regna Laconica conditionall and provisionall Kingdomes wherein perhaps upon a reall breach of some exprest conditions some Magistrates like the Ephori may pronounce a forfeiture aswell in the successive as in the elective Kingdomes because as one saith succession is not a new title to more right but a legall continuance of what was first gotten which I can no wayes yeild unto if you meane it of any Soveraigne King because the name of a King doth not alwayes denotate the Soveraigne power as the Kings of Lacedamon though so called yet had no regall authority and the Dictator for the time being and the Emperours afterwards had an absolute power though not the name of Kings for I say that such a government is not properly a regall government ordained by God but either an Aristocraticall or Democraticall governement instituted by the people though approved by God for the welfare of the Common-wealth 1. Sam. 8.4.20 but as the Israelites desired a King to judge them like all the Nations that is such a King as Aristotle describeth such as the Nations had intrusted with an absolute and full regall power as Sigonius sheweth so the Kings of the Nations if they be not like the Spartan Kings were and are like the Kings of Israel both in respect of their ordination from God by whom all Kings as well of other Nations as of Israel doe raigne and of their full power and inviolable authority over the people which have no more dispensation to resist their Kings then the Iewes had to resist theirs And therefore Valentinian though an elected Emperour yet when he was requested by his Electors to admit of an associate answered Sâ—zom hâ—stor l. 6. c. 6. Niceph. hist l. 11. c. 1. it was in your power to chuse me to be an Emperour but now after you have chosen me what you require is in my power not in you Vobis tanquam subditis competit parere mihi verò quae facienda sunt cogitare it becomes you to obey as Subjects and I am to consider what is fittest to be done And when the wife takes an husband there is a compact agreement and a solemne vow past in the presence of God that he shall love cherish and maintaine her yet if he breakes this vow The wife may not forsake her husband though hee break hâ—s vow and neglect his duty and neglects both to love and to cherish her she cannot renounce him she must not forsake him she may not follow after another and there is a greater marriage betwixt the King and his people therefore though as a wife they might have power to chuse him and in their choice to tye him to some conditions yet though he breakes them they have no more power to abdicate their King then the wife hath to renounce her husband nor so much because she may complaine and call her husband before a competent Judge and produce witnesses against him whereas there can be no Iudge betwixt the King and his people but onely God and no witnesses can be found on earth because it is against all lawes and against all reason that they which rise against their King should be both the witnesses against him and the Iudges to condemne him or were it so that all other Kings have not the like constitution which the Scripture setteth downe for the Kings of Israel yet I say that excepting some circumstantiall Ceremonies in all reall points the Lawes of our Land are so farre as men could make them in all things agreeable to the Scriptures in the constituting of our Kings An Appeale to thy conscience pag. 30. according to the livelyest patterne of the Kings of Israel as it is well observed by the Author of the Appeale to thy conscience in these 4 speciall respects 1. In his Right to the Crowne 2. In his Power and Authority Our kings of the like Institution to the kings of Israeâ— 3. In his Charge and Duty 4. In the rendering of his Account For 1. As the Kings of Israel were hereditary by succession and Respect 1 not elective unlesse there were an extraordinary and divine designation as in David Salomon Iohn Kings of England are kings by birth Proved so doe the Kings of England obtaine their Kingdomes by birth or hereditary succession as it appeareth 1. By the Oath of Allegeance used in every Leete that you Reason 1 shall be true and faithfull to our Soveraigne Lord King Charles and to his Heires 2. Because we owe our legeance to the King in his naturall Reason 2 capacity that is as he is Charles the Sonne and Heire apparent of King Iames Coke l. 7. Calvins case when as homage cannot be done to any King in his politique capacity the body of the King being invisible in that sense 3. Because in that case it is expresly affirmed that the King Reason 3 holds the Kingdome of England by birth-right inherent by descent from the bloud-royall therefore to shew how inseperable this right is from the next in bloud Hen. 4. though he was of the bloud-royall being first cozen unto the King and had the Crowne resigned unto him by Rich. 2d Speed l. 9.
Omnis Christi actio debet esse nostra instructio we ought to follow his example And therefore not onely Christ but also all good Christians have imitated him in this point for the Apostles prayed for their persecuting Tyrants exhorted all their followers to honour even the Pagan Kings and most sharplâ— reproved all that spake evill of authority much more would they say against them that commit evill and proceed in all wickednesse against authority How the Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecutors And Tertullian speaking of the behaviour of the Primitive Christians towards the Heathen Emperours and their cruell persecutors saith that because they knew them to be appointed by God they did love and reverence them and wish them safe with all the Romane Empire yea they honoured the Emperour and worshipped him as a man second from God solo Deo minorem and inferiour onely unto God and in his Apologetico he saith Deus est solus in cujus solius potestate sunt reges à quo sunt secundi post quem primi super omnes homines ante omnes Deos God alone is he by whose power Kings are preserved which are second from him first after him above all men and before all gods that is all other Magistrates that the Scripture calleth Gods So Justin Martyr Minutius Felix Nazianzen which also wrote against the vices of Julian S. Augustine and others of the prime Fathers of the Church have set downe how the Primitive Christians and godly Martyrs that suffered all kinde of most barbarous cruelty at the hands of their Heathen Magistrates did notwithstanding pray for them and honour them and neither derogated from their authority nor any wayes resisted their insolencie Beda p. 15. And Iohannes Beda Advocate in the Court of Parliament of Paris saith that the Protestants of France in the midst of torments have blessed their King by whom they were so severely intreated and in the midst of fires and massacres have published their confession in these words Artic. 39. 40. confess eccles Gal. refor For this cause he that is God put the sword into the Magistrates hand that he may represse the sinnes committed not onely against the second table of Gods Commandements but also against the first We must therefore for his sake not onely endure that Superiours rule over us but also honour and esteeme of them with all reverence holding them for his Lieutenants and Officers to whom he hath given in commission to execute a lawfull and a holy function We therefore hold that we must obey their Lawes and Statutes pay Tributes Imposts and other duties and beare the yoke of subjection with a good and free will although they were Infidels Ob. But against this patience of the Saints Ob. and the wisedome of these good Christians it is objected by Goodwin and others of his Sect that either they wanted strength to resist or wanted knowledge of their strength or of their priviledge and power which God granted them to defend themselves and their religion or were over-much transported with an ambitious desire of Martyrdome or by some other misguiding spirit were utterly mis-led to an unnecessary patience and therefore we having strength enough as we conceive to subdue the King and all his strength and being wiser in our generation then all the generation of those fathers as being guided by a more unerring spirit we have no reason to pray for patience but rather to render vengeance both to the King and to all his adherents Sol. This unchristian censure Sol. and this false imputation laid upon these holy Fathers by these stabborne Rebels and proud Enthusiasts are so mildly and so learnedly answered by the Author of resisting the lawfull Magistrate upon colour of religion Where they are fully answered that more need not be said to stop the mouthes of all ignorant gain-sayers Therefore seeing that by the institution of Kings by the precept of God and by the practice of all wise men and good Christians Heathen Kings and wicked Tyrants are to be loved honoured and obeyed it is a most hatefull thing to God and man to see men professing themselves Christians but are indeed like those in the Revel Revel 2 9. which say they are Jewes and are not in steed of honouring transcendently to hate and most violently to persecute their owne most Chrâ—stian and most gracious King a sinne so infinitely sinfull that I doe not wonder to see the greatnesse of Gods anger to powre all the plagues that we suffer upon this Nation but I doe rather admire and adore his wonted clemency and patience that he hath not all this while either sent forth his fire and lightning from Heaven as he did upon Sodome and Gomorrah Gen. 19.24 Numb 16.31 to consume them or cause the earth to swallow them as it did Corah Dathan and Abiram for this their rebellion against their King or that he hath not showred downe farre greater plagues and more miserable calamities then hitherto we have suffered because we have suffered these Antichristian Rebels to proceed so farre and have with the Merozites neglected all this while to adde our strength to assist the Lords Annointed Judges 5.23 to reduce his seduced Subjects to their obedience and to impose condigne punishments upon the seducers and the ringleaders of this unnaturall and most horrible Rebellion CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three severall opinions the strange speeches of the Disciplinarians against Kings are shewed and Viretus his scandalous reasons are answered the double service of all Christian Kings 2. Christian Kings are to have double honour in respect of their double duty and how the Heathen Kings and Emperours had the charge of Religion 2. AS all Kings are to be honoured in the fore-said respects so all Christian Kings are to have a double honour in respect of the double charge and duty that is laid upon them As 1. To preserve true religion and to defend the faith of Dutie 1 Christ against all Atheists Hereticks Schismaticks and all other adversaries of the Gospell within their Territories and Dominions 2. To preserve their Subjects from all forraigne adversaries Dutie 2 and to prevent civill dissentions to governe them according to the rules of justice and equity which all other Kings are bound to doe but neither did nor can doe it so fully and so faithfully as the Christian Kings because no Law either Solons Lycurgus Pompilius or any other Greeke or Latine nor any Politique Plato Aristotle Machiavil or whom you will old or new can so perfectly set downe and so fairely declare quid justum quid honestum as the Law of Christ hath done and therefore seeing omnis honos praesupponit onus the honour is but the reward of labour and that this labour or duty of Kings to maintaine true religion well performed
and faithfully discharged brings most glory unto God and the greatest honour to all Kings when it is more to be with Constantine a nursing father to Gods Church then it is to be with Alexander the sole Monarch of the known world I will first treat of their charge and care and the power that God hath given them to defend the faith and to preserve true religion And 1. 1. Care of Kings to preserve true Religion Aug. de utilitate credendi cap. 9. Religion faith a learned Divine without authority is no Religion for as Saint Augustine saith no true Religion can be received by any meanes without some weighty force of authority therefore if that Religion whereby thou hopest to be saved hath no authority to ground it selfe upon or if that authority whereby thy Religion is setled be mis-placed in him that hath no authority at all what hope of salvation remaining in that Religion canst thou conceive but it is concluded on all sides that the right authority of preserving true religion must reside in him and proceed from him by whose supreme power and government it is to be enacted and forced upon us To whom the charge of preserving religion is commited and therefore now the question is and it is very much questioned to whom the supreame government of our Religion ought rightly to be attributed 3 Opinions whereof I finde three severall resolutions 1. Papisticall which leaneth too much on the right hand 2. Anabaptisticall which bendeth twice as much on the left hand 3. Orthodoxall of the Protestants that ascribe the same to him on whom God himselfe hath conferred it Opinion 1 1. That the Church of Rome maketh the Pope solely to have the supreme government of our Christian Religion is most apparent out of all their writings Vnde saepè objiciunt dictum â—lâ—su ad Constantium Tibì Deus impertum commisit nobis quâ— sunt ecclesiastica concredidit Sed hâ—c intelligitur de executione officij non de gubernatione ecclesiae Sicut ibi manifestum est cum dicitur ne que fai est nobis in terris imperium tenere neque tibi thymiamatum soâ—rorum potestatem habere i e. in pradicatione Evangelij administratione Sacramentorum similibus and you may see what a large book our Countrey-man Stapleton wrote against Master Horne Bishop of Winchester to justifie the same And Sanders to disprove the right of Kings saith Fatemur personas Episcoporum qui in toto orbe fuerunt Romano Imperatori subjectas fuisse quoniam Rex praeest hominibus Christianis verùm non quia sunt Chrstiani sed quia sunt homines episcopis etiam ea ex parte rex praeesset So Master Harding saith that the office of a King in it selfe is all one every where not onely among the Christian Princes but also among the Heathen so that a Christian King hath no more to doe in deciding Church matters or medling with any point of Religion then a Heathen And so Fekenham and all the brood of Jesuites doe with all violence and virulencie labour to disprove the Princes authority and supremacy in Ecclesiasticall causes and the points of our Religion and to transferre the same wholly unto the Pope and his Cardinals Neither doe I wonder so much that the Pope having so universally gained and so long continued this power and retained this government from the right owners should imploy all his Hierarchie to maintaine that usurped authority which he held with so much advantage to his Episcopall See though with no small prejudice to the Church of Christ when the Emperours being busied with other affaires leaving this care of religion and government of the Church to the Pope the Pope to the Bishops the Bishops to their Suffragans and the Suffragans to the Monkes whose authority being little their knowledge lesse and their honesty least of all all things were ruled with greater corruption lesse truth then they ought to be so long as possibly he should be able to possesse it But at last when the light of the Gospell shined and Christian Princes had the leisure to looke and the heart to take hold upon their right the learned men opposing themselves against the Popes usurped jurisdiction have soundly proved the Soveraigne authority of Christian Kings in the government of the Church that not onely in other Kingdomes but also here in England this power was annexed by divers Lawes unto the interest of the Crowne and the lawfull right of the King and I am perswaded saith that Reverend Archbishop Bancroft had it not beene that new adversaries did arise Survey of Discip c. 22. p. 2â—1 and opposed themselves in this matter the Papists before this time had been utterly subdued for the Devill seeing himselfe so like to lose the field How the Devill raised instruments to hinder the reformation stirred up in the bosome of Reformation a flocke of violent and seditious men that pretending a great deale of hate to Popery have notwithstanding joyned themselves like Sampsons Foxes with the worst of Papists in the worst and most pernicious Doctrines that ever Papist taught to rob Kings of their sacred and divine right and to deprive the Church of Christ of the truth of all those points that doe most specially concerne her government and governours and though in the fury of their wilde â—eale they do no lesse maliciously then falsly cast upon the soundest Protestants the aspersion of Popery and Malignancie yet I hope to make it plaine unto my reader that themselves are the Papists indeed or worse then Papists both to the Church and State For 2. As the whole Colledge of Cardinals Of the Anabaptists and Puritans and all the Schooles Opinion 2 of the Jesuites doe most stiffely defend this usurped authority of the Pope which as I said may be with the lesse admiration because of the Princes concession and their owne long possession of it so on the other side there are sprung up of late a certaine generation of Vipers the brood of Anabaptists and Brownists that doe most violently strive not to detaine what they have unjustly obtained but a degree farre worse to pull the sword out of their Prince his hand and to place authority on them which have neither right to owne it Where the Pâ—ritans place the authority to maintaine religion 1. In the Presbyterie nor discretion to use it and that is either 1. A Consistory of Presbyters or 2. A Parliament of Lay men For 1. These new Adversaries of this Truth that would most impudently take away from Christian Princes the supreme and immediate authority under Christ in all Ecclesiasticall Callings and Causes will needs place the same in themselves and a Consistorian company of their own Faction a whole Volume would not contain their absurdities falsities and blasphemies that they have uttered about this point I will onely give you a taste of what some of the chiefe
more without number do likewise most peremptorily affirme that the Kings power is the supreme power on earth and as the mirror of our time the Bishop of Winchester observeth the Scripture testifieth that their Throne their Crowne their Sword their Scepter their Judgement their Royalty their power their Charge their Person and all in them are of God from God and by God to shew how sacred they are and ought to be unto us all and so the very Heathens teaching sounder Divinity then our Sectaries thought Homer Plutarch Ovid Fast l. 5. Quia a love nutriti ab eo regnum adeptisunt Scapula in verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and said that Kings were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministers of God and not the servants of the people Good God! what shall we say then to those children of Adam that will not onely with Adam be content to be like God but with Antichrist this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Many headed beast as Plato calleth them will exalt themselves above all that is called God They will divest the King and invest themselves with his right and therefore 2. The difficulty of governement 2. This sheweth how difficult a thing it is to rule and governe this unruly aspiring and ambitious multitude for the fuller understanding of which difficult duty Osorius saith that two things are to be considered 2 Things shewing the difficulty of governement 1. Suscepti muneris amplitudo the greatnesse of the charge which is of that weight that we can scarce thinke of a greater in all our life the care of Church and Common-wealth and to rule millions of men farre and neare 2. Gubernandorum qualitas the quality and conditions of those men that are to be governed which if there were nothing else to prove it will sufficiently shew the difficulty of their government for if it be a very hard thing to governe a mans selfe how much harder is it to governe such a multitude of mad men Cicero Tusc 3. de sinibus lib. 2. Plutarch in Alcâ—biad for Cicero saith the multitude is the greatest teacher of errour the unjustest judge of dignity being without counsell without reason without judgement and Plutarch calleth them possimam veritatis interpretem whereunto agreeth the answer of that Pope who being demanded what was furthest from truth answered populi sententia the opinion of the people and as they are the weakest for judgement so they are most instable in their resolutions to day crying Hosanna and to morrow Crucifige this is the nature of the people of whom these our Sectaries are the very dregs Osorius his description of the factious Puritans most plainly seene verified in our Rebels the worst and the basest of all I must crave leave to set downe what Osorius saith of them long agoe and you may finde that this rebellion proves his words most true for he saith the desire and end of this faction is too much liberty then which nothing can be more averse to the office and government of Kings for it is the duty of a King to cut off all haynous offences with just punishments the unbridled people desires to be free from all feare of punishment the King is the Minister of the Law the Keeper of it and the avenger of the transgression thereof the people as much as possibly they can with an impetuous temerity pulleth downe all Lawes the King laboureth to preserve peace and quietnesse the people with an untameable lust turmoileth and troubleth the peace of all men lastly the King thinkes not fit to distribute rewards and compensations indifferently to all men alike but the people desire to have all difference of worth and dignity taken away infima summis permisceri and to make the basest equall with the best whence it happeneth so that they hate all Princes and especially all Kings quos immani odio persequuntur whom they persecute with a deadly hate for they cannot endure any excellency or dignity and to that end they use all endeavour ut principes interimant vel saltem in turbam conjiciant either utterly to take away and destroy their Princes or to implunge them into a world of troubles which thing at first doth not appeare but when the multitude of furious men hath gathered strength then at last their impudent boldnesse being confirmed by daily impunity breaketh forth to the destruction of the royall Majestie Osorius in op Regina Elizabethae prafin l. de relig And a little after he saith adde to these things the abolition of Lawes the contempt of Rule the hatred of royall Majestie and the cruell lying in wait which they most impiously and nefariously do endeavour for their Princes adde also their clandestine and secret discourses where their confederacies are made for the extirpation of their Kings and to plot with unspeakable mischiefe the death of them whose health and safety they ought most heartily to pray to God for and then he addeth cum immodica libertatis cupiditate rapiantur leges oderunt judicia detestantur regum majestatem extinctam cupiunt Pagina 24. 25. ut licentiùs impuniùs queant per omnia libidinum genera vagari and this is most manifest saith he all their endeavours ayme at this end that Princes being taken away they may have an uncontroulable leave and liberty to commit all kinde of villanies and to that purpose they have poysoned some Kings and killed others with the sword Revera mihi videtur esse arâ— artium hominem regere qui certè est inter omnes animantes maximè moribus vartus voluntate diversus Nazian in Apol. and to root out all rule Consilia plena sceleris inierunt they are full of all wicked counsels And therefore this being the condition of the people as the Scripture sheweth plainly in the Jewes by their continuall rebellions and murmurings against Moses and Aaron and we see it as plainly in our owne time when our people hath confirmed all that this Bishop said it is not an easie matter to governe such an unruly people But we finde that the rod of government is a miraculous rod that being in Moses hand was a faire wand but cast unto the ground turned to be an ugly and a poysonous Serpent to shew that the people being subject to the hand of government is a goodly thing and a glorious society A people well governed very glorious but let loose out of the Princes hands they are as Serpents crooked wriggled versipellis and as full as may be of all deadly poyson and the Prophet David makes the ruling of the people to be as great a miracle as to appease the raging of the Seas and therefore he ascribes this government to be the proper worke of God Psal 65.7 when speaking unto God he saith Thou rulest the rage of the Seas the noyse of his waves and the madnesse of the