the occasion of this Treatise and what the Author doth therein Page 1. Chap. II. Of Sacriledge what it is how manifold it is and how it hath been alwayes punished and never escaped the Hand of the Divine Vengeance p. 4. Chap. III. The divers sorts and kinds of Sacrilegious persons And first of those that do it under colour of Law and upon the pretence of Reformation whereby they suppose their Sacriledge to be no Sacriledge at all p. 15. Chap. IV. Of two sorts of Sacrilegious persons that rob the Church of Christ without any colour or pretence of Law but indeed contrary to all Law p. 21. Chap. V. The words of King David in the 2 Sam. 7.1 2. and their divisions When they were spoken And how or in what sense Sitting and Standing are commonly taken in the Scriptures And of the two Persons that are here conferring together p. 27. Chap. VI. What the Rest and peaceable times of King David wrought The Prince's authority in causes Ecclesiastical and how they should be zealous to see that God should be justly and religiously served p. 31. Chap. VII The Objections of the Divines of Lovain and other Jesuites against the former Doctrine of the Prince his Authority over the Bishops and Priests in Causes Ecclesiastical answered And the foresaid truth sufficiently proved by the clear testimony of the Fathers and Councils and divers of the Popes and Papists themselves p. 37. Chap. VIII That it is the Office and Duty of Kings and Princes though not to execute the Function and to do the Office of the Bishops and Priests yet to have a special care of Religion and the true Worship of God and to cause both the Priests and Bishops and all others to discharge the duties of God's Service And how the good and godly Emperours and Kings have formerly done the same from time to time p. 41. Chap. IX Of the â—â—iefest Parts and Duties of Kings and Princes which they are to discharge for the maintenance of Gods Service and the True Religion and the necessity of Cathedral-Churches and Chappels for the people of God to meet in for the Worship and Service of God p. 46. Chap. X. The Answer to the Two Objections that the Fanatick-Sectaries do make 1. Against the necessity And 2ly against the Sanctity or Holiness of our Material Churches which in derision and contemptuously they call Steeple-houses p. 53. Chap. XI The Answer to another Objection that our Fanatick-Sectaries do make against the Beauty and Glorious Adorning of our Churches which we say should be done with such decent Ornaments and Implements as are befitting the House and Service of God The Reasons why we should Honour God with our goods and how liberal and bountiful both the Fathers of the Old Testament and the Christians of the New Testament were to the Church of God p. 58. Chap. XII The Answer to another Objection that our brain-sick Sectaries do make for the utter overthrow of our Cathedrals and Churches as being so fowly stained and profaned with Popish Superstitions and therefore being no better than the Temples of Baal they should rather be quite demolished than any wayes adorned and beautified p. 63. Chap. XIII That it is a part of the Office and Duty of Pious Kings and Princes as they are God's Substitutes to have a care of his Church to see that when such Cathedrals and Churches are built and beautified as is fitting for his Service there be Able Religious and Honest painful and faithful Bishops placed in those Cathedrals that should likewise see Able and Religious Ministers placed in all Parochial Churches and all negligent unworthy and dissolute men Bishops or Priests reproved corrected and amended or removed and excluded from their places and dignities if they amend not p. 67. Chap. XIV Of the maintenance due to the Bishops and Ministers of God's Church how large and liberal it ought to be p. 75. Chap. XV. That the payment of Tythes unto the Church is not a case of Custom but of Conscience Whenas the tenth by a Divine right is the Teacher's tribute and the very first part of the wages that God appointed to be paid unto his Workmen and therefore that it is as heynous a sin and as foul an offence to defraud the Ministers of this due as it is to detain the meat or money of the labouring-man which is one of the four Crying-sins p. 82. Chap. XVI The Answer to the choisest and chiefest Objections that the School of Anabaptists have made and do urge against the payment of Tythes now in the time of the Gospel p. 91. Chap. XVII What the ancient Fathers of the Church and the Councils collected of most Learned and Pious Bishops have left written concerning Tythes And of the three-fold cause that detains them from the Church p. 98. Chap. XVIII Of the second part of the Stipend Wages and Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel which is the Oblation Donation or Free-wil-offering of the people for to uphold and continue the true service of God and to obtain the blessings of God upon themselves and upon their labours which Donations ought not to be impropriated and alienated from the Church by any means p. 105. Chap. XIX That it is the duty of all Christian Kings and Princes to do their best endevours to have all the Impropriations restored to their former Institution to hinder the taking away and the alienation of the Lands Houses and other the Religious Donations of our Ancestors from the Church of Christ and to suppress and root out all the Vnjust and Covetous suttle customs and frauds that are so generally used and are so derogatory to the service of God from amongst the people and especially from this Kingdom of Ireland where most corruption is used and most need of Instruction unto the people p. 114. Chap. XX. The Authour's supplication to Jesus Christ that he would arise and maintain his own cause which we his weak servants cannot do against so many rich powerful and many-friended adversaries of his Church p. 117. A DECLARATION Against SACRILEDGE CHAP. I. The Declaration of the Bishop of Ossory exhibited to the High Court of Justice before Jesus Christ the righteous Judge against the most horrible sin of Sacriledge and all sacrilegious persons that detain the Tythes rob the Church and take the Lands and Houses of God into their own possessions Together with his most humble Petition to the Eternall and Almighty God his most gratious Redeemer and his most loving Master Jesus Christ that he would arise and maintain his own cause and smite all his Enemies upon their cheek-bone and put them to perpetual shame and root out their memorial from off the earth Sheweth THAT by Your most glorious Martyr the strenuous defender of the true Christian Faith and his most gratious Master Charles the I. of ever blessed memory he was called and appointed to be the Bishop of Ossory and to inable him the better to discharge his duty in
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
subjection with a good and free will although they were Infidels Ob. Ob. But against this patience of the Saints and the wisdome of these good Christians it is objected by Goodwin and oters of his Sect that ei her 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. Sol. This unchristian censure and this false imputation laid upon these holy Fathers by these stubborn 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 which say they are Jewes Revel 2 9. and are not in stead of honouring transcendently to hate and most violently to persecute their own most Christian and most gracious King a sin so infinitely sinfull that I do not wonder to see the greatness of Gods anger to powre all the plagues that we suffer upon this Nation but I do 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 to consume them Gen. 19.24 Num 16.31 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 down far greater plagues and more miserable calamities then hitherto we have suffered because we have suffered these Antichristian Rebels to proceed so far and have with the Merozites neglected all this while to add our strength to assist the Lords Anointed to reduce his seduced Subjects to their obedience Judges 5.23 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 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 2. Christian Kings are to have double honour in reshect of their double duty 1. Duty 2. Duty 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 Christ against all Atheists Hereticks Schismaticks and all other adversaries of the Gospel within their Territories and Dominions 2. To preserve their Subjects from all forraigne adversaries and to prevent civill dissentions to govern them according to the rules of justice and equity which all other Kings are bound to do but neither did nor can do it so fully and so faithfully as the Christian Kings because no Law either Solons Lycurgus Pompilius or any other Greek or Latine nor any Politique Plato Aristotle Machievle or whom you will old or new can so perfectly set down and so fairly declare quid justum quid honestum as the Law of Christ hath done and theâ—efore seeing omnis honos praesupponit onus the honour is but the reward of labour and that this labour or duty of Kings to maintain 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. Religion saith a learned Divine without authority is no Religion for 1. Care of Kings to preserve true Religion Aug. de utilitate credendi cap. 9. as Saint Augustine saith no true Religion can can be received by any means without some weighty force of authority therefore if that Religion whereby thou hopest to be saved hath no authority to ground it self upon or if that authority whereby thy Religion is settled 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 and therefore now the question is To whom the charge of preserving religion is committed 3 Opinions and it is very much questioned to whom the supreme government of our Religion ought rightly to be attributed whereof I finde three several resolutions 1. Papistical which leaneth too much on the right hand 2. Anabaptistical which bendeth twice as much on the left hand 3. Orthodoxal of the Protestants that ascribe the same to him on whom God himself hath conferred it Opinion 1 1. That the Church of Rome maketh the Pope solely to have the supreme government of our Christian Religion Vnde saepe objiciunt dictum Hosii ad Constantium Tibi Deus imperium commisit nobis quae sunt ecclesiastica concredidit Sed hic intelligitur de executione officii non de gubernatione ecclesiae Sicut ibi manifestum est cùm dicitur neque fas est nobis in terris imperium tenere neque tibi thymiamatum sacrorum potestatem hâ—bere i. e. in praedicatione Evangelii administratione Sacramentorum similibus is most apparent out of all their writeings and you may see what a large book our Country-man Stapleton wâ—ote against Master Horn 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 Christiani sed quia sunt homines episcopis etiam ex ea
if they do offend he will binde Kings in fetters Rom. 2.11 Psal 149.8 and their Nobles with linkes of iron and we dare not flatter you to give you the least liberty to neglect the strict service of the great God 2. As they are Christian king and that is twofold In the second respect the service of all Christian kings and princes hath as I told you before these two parts 1. To protect the true religion and to govern the Church of Christ 2. To preserve peace and to govern the Common-wealth For 1. To protect the Church Aug. cont lit petil l. 2. Optat. Milivit lib. 3. 1. It is true indeed that the Donatists of old the grand fathers of our new Sectaries were wont to say Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What have we to do with the Emperour or what hath the Emperour to do with the Church but to this Optatus answereth that Ille solito furore acceusus in haec verba prorupit Donatus out of his accustomed madness burst forth into these mad termes Prima omnium in republ functionum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 7. c. 8. Arist Polit. l. 3. c. 10. for it is a duty that lyeth upon all Princes because all both Christians and Pagans ought to be religious as I shewed to you before not onely to be devout but also to be the means to make all their Subjects so far as they can to become devoted to Gods service as the practice of those Heathens that had no other guide of their actions then the light of nature doth make it plain for Aristotle saith that Quâ—â— ad Deorum cultum pertinent commissa sunt regibus magistratibus those things that pertain unto the worship of the Gods are committed to the care of Kings and civil Magistrates and whatsoever their religion was as indeed it was but meere superstition yet because Superstition and Religion hoc habent commune do this in common Vt faciant animos humiles formidine divûm Therefore to make men better the more humble and more dutiful the transgression thereof was deemed worthy to receive punishment among the Pagans and that punishment was appointed by them that had the principal authority to govern the Common-wealth as the Athenian Magistrates condemned Socrates though he was a man wiser then themselves yet as they conceived very faulty for his irreligion and derision of their adored gods The chief Magistrates of the Heathens had the charge of Religion And Tiberius would set up Christ among the Romane gods though the act added no honour unto Christ without the authority and against the will of the Senate to shew that the care of religion belonged unto the Emperour or chief Magistrate and therefore as the Lord commanded the kings of Israel to write a copy of his Law in a booke and to take heed to all the words of that Law for to do them that is not onely as a private person for so every man was not to write it Deut. 17.18 19. but as King to reduce others to the obedience thereof so the examples of the best kings both of Israel and Juda and of the best Christian Emperours do make this plain unto us for Joshua caused all Israel to put away the strange gods that were among them Josh 24.23 The care of the good kings of the Jews to preserve the true religion and to incline their hearts unto the Lord God of Israel Manasses after his return from Babylon tooke away the strange Gods and the Idols out of the house of the Lord and cast them all out of the City and repaired the Altar of the Lord and commanded Juda to serve the Lord God of Israel And what shall I say of David whose whole study was to further the service of God and of Jehosaphat Asa Josias Ezechias and others that were rare patternes for other kings for the well government of Gods Church and in the time of the Gospel Quod non tollit praecepta legis sed perficit which takes not away the rules of nature nor the precepts of the Law but rather establisheth the one and perfecteth the other because Christ came into the world non ut tolleret jura saeculi sed ut deâ—eret peccata mundi not to take away the rights of the Nations but to satisfie for the sins of the World the best Christian Emperours discharged the same duty reformed the Church abolished Idolatry punished Heresy and maintained Piety The care of the good Emperours to preserve the true religion Esay 49.23 especially Constantine and Theodosius that were most pious Princes and of much virtues and became as the Prophet foretold us 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 fear from the hand of the Magistrate that is able to restrain those men from many outward evils whom neither conscience nor religion could make honest therefore God committed the principal care of his Church to the Prince and principal Magistrate And this is confirmed and throughly maintained by sundry notable men who defended this truth The Papists unawares confess this truth Osorius de relig p. 21. as Brentius against Asoto Bishop Horne against Fekenham Jewel against Harding and many other learned men that have written against such other Papists and Puritans Anabaptists and Brownists that have taken upon them to impugne it yea many of the Papists themselves at unawares do confess as much for Osorius saith Omne regis officium in religionis sanctissimae rationem conferendum munus ejus est beare rempubl religione pietate all the office of a King is to be conferred or imployed for the regard of the most holy Religion and his whole duty is to bless 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 egregia pietatis religionis sanctitate perficitur For though we confess 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 Whit. resp Camp p. 302. as Whitaker saith 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 Kingdom of Heaven and the like The Kings authority over Bishops 1 Chron. 28.13 2 Chron. 29. 1 Reg. 2.26 matters of great weight and exceeding the Kings authority yet Kings are above Bishops in wealth honour power government and majesty and though they may not do any of the Episcopall duties yet they may and ought lawfully to admonish them of their duties and restrain them from evill and command them diligently to execute their office and if they neglect the same they
ought to reprove and punish them as we read the good Kings of the Jewish Church and the godly Emperours * As Martian apud Binium l. 2. p. 178. Iustinian novel 10. tit 6. Theodos jun. Evagr. l. 1. c. 12. Basil in Council Constant 8. act 1. Binius tom 8. p. 880. Reason confirmeth that Kings should take care of religion of the Christian Church have ever done and the Bishops themselves in sundry Councils 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 do preach false Doctrine This truth is likewise apparent not only by the the testimony of Scripture and Fathers but also by the evidence of plain reason because the prosperity of that Land which any King doth govern without a principal care of Religion decayeth and degenerateth into Wars Dearths 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 beleive is no small cause of these great troubles which 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 attain to the knowledge of things that pertain to Religion by his Bishops and Chaplains and the calling of Synods the unlawfulness of the new Synod the Kings power and authority to govern 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 preferre the Church and the Religion 1. A will to performe it 2. An understanding to go about it 3. A power to effect it And these three must be inseperable 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 special 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 througout all his Kingdom 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 God's Word and the inward inspiration of Gods Spirit The second is knowledge which is not much less necessaâ—y then the former 2. Understanding to know what is to be reformed and what to be retained because not to run right is no better then not to run at all and men were as good to do nothing as to do amiss and therefore true knowledge is most requisite for that King that will maintain 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 special means to beatifie or make happy both the Church and Common-Wealth As the neglect thereof brought ignorance unto the Church The kings neglect of religion and the Church is the destruction of the Common-wealth and ruine to the Romane Empire for as in Augustus time learning flourished and in Constantines time piety was much embraced because these Emperours were such themselves so when the Kings whose examples most men are apt to follow either busied with secular affairs or neglecting to understand the truth of things and the state of the Church do leave this care unto others then others imitating their neglect do rule all things with great corruption and as little truth whereby errours and blindness will over-spread the Church and pride covetousness and ambition will replenish the Common-Wealth and these vices like the tares that grow up in Gods field to suffocate the pure Wheat will at last choake up all virtue and piety both in Church and State Therefore to prevent this mischiefe the King on whom God hath laid the care of these things ought himselfe what he can to learn and finde out the true state of things and because it is far unbefitting the honour and inconsistent with the charge of great Princes whose other affairs will not permit them to be alwayes poring at their books as if they were such critiques How kings may attaine unto the knowledge of religion and understand the state of the Church and how to govern the same 1. To call able Clergy-men about them as intended to exceed all others in the theâ—rick learning like Archimedes that was in his study drawing forth his Mathematicall figures when the City was sackt and his enemies pulling down the house about his eares therefore it is wisdome in them to imitate the discreet examples of other wise Kings and religious Emperours in following the means that God hath left and using the power and authority that he hath given them to attain unto more knowledge and to be better instructed in any religious matter then themselves could possibly attaine unto by their own greatest study and that is 1. As Alexander had his Aristotle ready to inform him in any Philosophicall doubt and Augustus his prime Orators Poets and Historians to instruct him in all affairs so God hath granted this power unto his Kings to call those Bishops and command such Chaplaines to reside about them as shall be able to informe them in any truth of Divinity and so direct them in the best forme of Government of Gods Church and these Chaplains should be well approved both for their learning and their honesty for to be learned without honesty as many are is to be witty to do evill which is most pernitious and doth often times make a private gaine by a publique loss How they should be qualified or an advantage to themselves by the detriment of the Church
not simply Subjects unto their king but deny civil obedience unto their Prince where canonical obedience commands the contrary and you see how the Presbytery not only 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 unlawful all resistance against our lawful Soveraigne and in this hearty adherence to His Majesty as they are wholly his so they do exspect favour from none but onely from His Highness and yet Philip the second of Spaine notwithstanding he had but half the obedience of his Clergy advised his son Philip the third to stick fast unto his Bishops even as he had done before him therefore our king that hath his Bishops so totally faithful unto him hath more reason to succour them that they be not no◠the object of contempt unto the vulgar Reason 3 3. The state of the Clergy is constantly and most really to their power the most beneficial state to the Crown both in ordinary and extraordinary revenues of all others for though their meanes is much impaired and their charges encreased in many things yet if you consider their first fruits the first year their Tenths every year Subsidies most years 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 half their payments and now in the kings necessity for the defence of Church and Crown Or else they are much to blame and far unworthy to be Bishops I hope my Brethren the Bishops and all the rest of the loyal 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 Majesty 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 and to defend the faith that we preach Esay 49.33 which cannot be done when the Bishops and Prelates are not protected and God hath promised to bless 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 Gospel Reason 6 6. Our king hath like a pious and a gracious King at his Coronation promised and engaged himself to do all this that is desired of him And as for these and other reasons His Majesty should so we do acknowledge with all thankefulness that he hath and doth His best endeavour to discharge this whole duty Quia non plus valet ad dejiciendumterrena mala◠quà m ad erigendum divina tutela Cypr. and do beleive with all confidence that maugre 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 powerful 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 Gospel which we are confident all their malice cannot do because the God of Heaven that hath built his Church upon a rock and will not turn away his face from his Anointed will so bless 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 do any thing against you yet as Mordecai said to Hester God will send enlargement and deliverance unto his Church Hester 4.14 and they and their fathers houses that are against it shall be destroyed because as Saint Peter saith we have forsaken all to become his servants that otherwise might have served Kings with the like honour that they do and we have lest the world to build up his Church we put our trust under the shadow of his wings and being in trouble we do cry unto the Lord and therefore he will hear our cry and will helpe us and we shall never be confounded Amen CHAP. X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensatious for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensation is reasons for it to tolerate divers Sects or sorts of Religions the foure special sorts of false professors S. Augustines reasons for the toleration of the Jewes toleration of Papists and of Puritans and which of them deserve best to be tolerated among the Protestants and how any Sect is to be tolerated 2. That the King may lawfully grant his dispensation for Pluralities and Non-residency 2. WHereas the Anabaptists and Brownists of our time with what conscience I know not cry out that our Kings by their Lawes do unreasonably and unconscionably grant dispensations both for Pluralities and Non-residency onely to further the corrupt desire of some few aspiring Prelates to the infinite wrong of the whole Clergy the intolerable dishonour of our Religion the exceeding prejudice of Gods Church and the lamentable hazard of many thousand soules I say that the Pluralities and Non-residency granted by the King and warranted by the Lawes of this Land In Anno 112. may finde sufficient reasons to justifie them for In Anno 636. if you consider the first limitation of Benefices that either Euaristus Bishop of Rome or Dionysius as others thinke did first assigne the precincts of Parishes The first distribution of Parishes and appointed a certain compass to every Presbyter and in this Kingdome Honorius Arch-bishop of Canterbury was the first that did the like appointed the Pastorall charge and the portion of meanes accrewing from that compass to this or that particular person whereas before for many years they had no particular charge assigned nor any Benefice allotted them but had their Canonicall pensions and dividents given them by the Bishop out of the common stock of the Church according as the Bishop saw their severall deserts for at first the greater Cities onely had their standing Pastors and then the Countrey Villages imitating the Cities to allow maintenance according to the abilities of the inhabitants had men of lesser learning appointed for those places Pluralities and Non-residency no transgression of Gods Law Therefore this limitation of particular Parishes being meerly positive and an humane constitution it cannot be the transgression of a divine ordinance to have more Parishes then one or to be absent from that one which is allotted to him when he is dispenced with by the Law-maker to do the same for as it is not lawfull without a dispensation to do either because we are to obey
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery and as the intention of Treason against the King is Treason So he that hath a will and a sacrilegious intent or but an itching desire to defraud the Church is a sacrilegious person and shall no wayes escape unpunished And here I will briefly examine Doctor Burges his Description of Sacriledge whereby he would fain prove That the taking away Doctor Burges his Description of Sacriledge and his inference thereupon discussed and the iniquity thereof plainly shewed or selling of the Donations of holy men unto Christ and his Church is neither Sacriledge nor Sin especially the Lands of the Cathedral Churches because saith he Sacriledge is the robbing of God either by alienating detaining purloyning diverting or perverting that which is Gods own by Divine râ—ght and therefore due to Christ and thereby to his Ministers whether the things be set apart by express Command or voluntarily given according to Gods special Warrant and Direction But saith he The Lands given to the Bishop and Cathedrals are not Commanded by God to be given Page 8. neither had the Givers any special Warrant or Direction from God to bestow them therefore no Sacriledge nor sin to take them away Where I beseech you to observe 1. The errour and mistake of the man 1. The ignorance of Doctor Burges for I need not have any special Warrant to do that which God gives a Generall allowance for any man to do 2. Mark the malice and the madnesse of the man against the Bishops 2. The malice of the Doctor agâ—inst the Bishops and the Cathedral Lands for he would perswade you to believe that these were not given according to Gods will but without his Warrant and Direction But I have and shall shew unto you That those holy men which vowed and dedicated them to God The speciall ends for which the lands were given to the Bishops and Cathedrals which being taken away alienated and sold these services of God cannot be performed Wherby you may perceive the great dishonor that is done to God by this Sacriledge gave them not only for the proper use of the Bishops to make themselves like Dives to be cloathed in Scarlet and to fare deliciously every day and to make their wives like Ladies and their children great in this world but they bestowed them for these four special ends 1. To maintain the Bishops and their families in a fair and competent manner and to furnish themselves with those necessaries whereby they might be inabled to preach and publish the Gospel of Christ every way by words writing and printing it unto his people 2. To edifie repair and beautifie Synagogues Temples and Churches for the people of God to meet in to serve God and to be instructed in the Faith and Doctrine of Christ 3. To relieve the poor clothe the naked feed the hungry help the fatherlesse and widows and the like 4. To keep hospitality to relieve Strangers to redeem Captives and to do other works of piety and charity which the Bishops in their wisdoms shall think fit and requisite to be done according to the will and good pleasure of God And the Bishops are but intrusted as Gods Stewards to see these things faithfully discharged And I would gladly understand Was it ignorance or malice in this fellow to amuse and stagger the simple Readers of his Pamphlet and to make them doubt whether Lands given to Cathedrals to these ends and for these purposes have any allowance from God and Warrant to be agreeable to his will when as all men know how often and how earnestly God commandeth all and every one of these things to be done especially considering that his Grand Master Cartwright confesseth That now in the time of the Gospel whatsoever is either established by Law or conferred by man's liberality for the uses of Gods service is all to be accounted sacred or holy and for this cause both the taking away of the whole or the diminishing of any part of such holy things is sacriledge condemned in Deut. 23.21 22 23. and never any honest man said otherwise And this sin of Sacriledge being so abominable and so hateful in the sight of God Distinct. 19. Q. Curtius l. 7. it must needs be plagued with intolerable punishments and no marvel for as Q. Curtius saith Cum diis pugnant sacrilegi The sacrilegious persons do fight and wage war with God himself and by all means seek to deprive him of his honour and service Lucan Phars l. 3. And as Lucan saith Quis enim laesos impunè putaret Esse deos Who can imagine that sacrilegious persons shall escape unpunished For if the gods should not revenge their own wrongs Who should do it saith the Heathen Poet but they that were the Idols of the Heathens have done it among the Gentiles and the true God will do it among the Christians For as Juvenal saith Juvenal â—atyra 4. Nemo malus foelix minime corruptor idem Incestus cum quo nuper vittata jacebat Sanguine adhuc vivo terram subitura sacerdos The sacrilegious Nuns were to be interr'd and thrown alive into the pit Gods usuall dealing with men And this is the usual course and practice of God to cause those that by the sweet promises of his mercies cannot be allured to pay their duties unto his Church and to use a good conscience to be frighted from robbing and abusing his Church by the terrour of his most fearful vengeance executed upon the like offenders that such as will not be led by his mercies might be drawn by his judgements Because that as Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore Good men will not wrong the Church for the love of God So many times Oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae Many evil men at least not very good will forbear to rob and destroy the Church for fear of the punishment of Church-robbers And therefore as Absolom 2 Sam. 10. when he could not by promises and perswasions win Joah to be of his side by firing his barly-fields he forced him to do what he pleased So when the still and sweet voice of God can do no good to make Jonah to obey the Lord's command a tempestuous whirl-wind tumbling him to the bottom of the Sea will bring him back to his obedience So it may be when the promising of Gods blessings can work no Reformation nor get any satisfaction for wrongs done unto the Church Gods coming to visit them with the Rod and to whip their sacriledge with scourges to fill their faces with shaeme and confusion and to give them fine and brimstone stormes and tempest to be their portion to drink may a little frighten the sacrilegious Souldiers from laying an insupportable weight of miseries or committing a most intolerable Sacriledge against the Church of Christ Therefore I thought good to shew unto all sacrilegious persons That as the Lords mouth
if they could not Lease them for three Lives though set to the utmost value without a great deal of wrong and prejudice to their Successors as this Blessed and most Pious King did most rightly conceive then certainly they might not Set and Lease those Lands for a 100. shillings that were well worth a 100 pounds per annum and that for a 100. or a 1000. years without much more wrong and prejudice done unto their Successors and a very ill example of covetousness and injustice unto all others 2. 2. The lay sacrilegious persons and why The other sort of sacrilegious persons that do commit this horrible sin and yet shelter themselves under the shadow of Law are those lay Lords Knights and Gentlemen that have received these Ecclesiastical Rights and Revenues from the former sacrilegious persons and these think themselves most innocent because they have both Law to countenance them and the Church-men to confirm them in what they do Yet you know that if the Thief which stealeth the goods cannot be freed the Receiver of those stolen goods cannot be justified But I shall by Gods help hereafter more fully shew the Sacriledge of these men that have so unjustly received these goods and possessions of the Church from those that were far more unjust than themselves and are therefore like Simeon and Levi brethren in this evil and so liable to the like punishment CHAP. IV. Of two sorts of sacrilegious persons that rob the Church of Christ without any colour or pretence of Law but indeed contrary to all Law SEcondly for the other sort of Thieves and Sacrilegious persons 2. The sacrilegious persons contrary to all Law of two kinds that rob the Church of God without any the least pretence of Right or Law but apparently contrary to the Law both of God and man I find them to be of two special kinds That is 1. Impious Patrons whether Clergy or Laity that do sell the Ecclesiastical Dignities or any wages sinisterly bestow them 2. Vnjâ—st Parishioners that do fraudulently detain or most maliciously deny the Tythes and other just Duties of the Church 1. In former times Patrons were appointed to be 1. Patrons as their names import Fathers and Guardians unto the Church of Christ to see good men and able schollers placed and planted in all Parishes Impious Patrons to whom likened to teach the people of God and so they were as the Ecclesiastical Stories do record unto us But now such is the corruption of our times that our Patrons for the most part I fear cannot be said to be like Augustus Caesar that found Rome a City of Bricks and left it of Marble to cause their Parishes to be supplied with better abler men than they were But they are rather like Rehâ—boam 1 Reg. 14.27 the son of Solomon that found in the Temple of God Shields of Gold but left in it Shields of Brasse So do many Patrons present men worse and worse What they do for when any golden-mouthed Chrysostome is banished or any learned Augustine is dead or pious Bernard removed they will presently name Priests of Brasse and brazen-faced Priests unto the Churches that deserve no better than Brasse for their Ministery and the Gâ—ld they will reserve for themselves Numbers 22. And Balaams asse if he can but speak and come laden with Coin shall be preferred And as the Poet saith Si nihil attuleris ibis Homere foras Though Homer comes to seek the Place that shall be void if he comes with nothing to give he shall get nothing of them For who knows not the practice of our times to be The usual practice in these times for the Priest that seeks the Living either to pay some good sum of money for it or to compound for the greater or some part of the Tythes or to marry either kinswoman or servant before the poor Clerk or rather simple Clerk can be presented to any Church Exod. 5.11 The Aegyptians took away the straw from the Israelites and yet required of them the whole tale of Bricks as formerly which was a hard task and a great tyranny But these Patrons take away the corn and leave for the poor Priests nothing but the straw They will have all the Gleab-lands and the Priests shall glean for their maintenance and these Grand Masters commonly must have the greater Tythes or at least some part or parcel thereof Virgil. Aeneid l. 2. and the Priest shall have but Reliquias Danaûm atque immitis Achillis what these Canker-worms shall leave them a cloud for Juno and a shadow instead of a Water-Nymph And yet they must exceed in the tale of their Bricks and bring far more than their Predecessors brought they must study more and preach oftner than ever was done in former times which is a hard case and yet as true a case as any that you shall find in all Sir Edward Cook 's Reports But though like Jeroboam the son of Nebat that erected an Altar against the Altar of God and made Priests to serve at that Altar of the lowest the meanest and basest of the people that the greatest gain might redound into his own hands because none buyes deerer and gives larger than the greater dunse So our Patrons of Ecclesiastical preferments in many I dare not say in most places are resolved to sell their Churches as Judas sold his Christ and his Saviour to them that will give most for them yet because Gregor habetur 1. q. 1. Qâ—isquis as S. Gregory saith Partem habebit cum Simone qui contra Simonaicos pro officii sui loco vehementer non exarserit He shall have his portion with Simon Magus the Proto-Simonist the first unlawful buyer of holy graces which according to his place doth not do his best to suppresse the sin of Simonie that is the buying and selling of spiritual graces and promotions I will a little unfold the heynousness of this sin that as many of them I fear are settled in their resolutions to continue the doing of it so they may the better know hereby what they do and what a horrible sin they do commit to the great dishonour of God and the damage of the Church of Christ Simonie usually practised in Rome and by former Popes And I say that the Pope is the prime and principal father of this Bastard-brood and that nothing was wont to be rifer at Rome than this sin of Simonie which did therefore seem the lesse sinful because it was acted by the more powerful Patron And though we read it in their own Decrees that Tolerabilior est Macedonii haeresis qui asserit Spiritum Sanctum esse servum patris filii quà m haec Symonaica pactio quia isti faciunt Spiritum Sanctum servum suum ut ait Terasius Patriarcha Constantinopolitanus This selling of Church-Livings is more intolerable than the heresie of Macedonius who said That the Holy Ghost was
the servant of the Father and of the Son Bern. in Convers Pauli Sermone 1. because they make the Holy Ghost to become their servant as Terasius saith to Pope Adrian Yet S. Bernard that saw much but not all saith Sacri gradus dati sunt in occasionem turpis lucri quaestum aestimant pietatem Holy Orders are now become the occasion of filthy lucre and gain is counted godliness And this Simonie is Sacriledge indeed and not only Musculus citeth these Verses that were made of Pope Alexander Musculus in cap. 6. Johan Vendit Alexander claves altaria Christum Vendere jure potest emerat ille prius but Durandus also saith That Simonie doth so reign in the Church of Rome Durand de modo celebrandi Concilii Extra de officio judicis delegati ex parte N. in Glossâ as if it were no sin at all And their Canonists as Bartolus Felinus Theodoricus and some others of the Pope's parasites are so impudent as to averr that the selling of these things and taking monie for Ecclesiastical promotions can be neither Sacriledge nor Simonie in the Pope because he is the Lord of them all and accounteth them all his own But since we have bidden Adieu to him and his corruptions his Simonie and his Sacriledge blessed be God for it doth not so much prejudice us and therefore letting him to do what he will with his own and either to stand or fall to his own Master I will address my self to shew the manifold evils and wickednesse of our own Sacrilegious and Simonaical Patrons that sell those Benefices which they should freely bestow And I say 1. The selling of Ecclesiastical-Livings against all Laws 1. Of Moses Gen. 47.22 That this buying and selling of Church-goods for both these acts are relatives and to be put in the same predicament when as nothing is sold that is not bought è contra is a thing contrary to all Laws and to the judgement of all good men for 1. The Laws of Moses provided so liberally for the Priests and Levites that the buying and selling of Priests places was never known nor heard of among the Jews until Jeroboam's time who as he sold them so he sold himself to do evil and to commit wickedness 2. Pharaoh was so religious that when in the great Dearth 2. Of the Gentiles all the land of Aegypt was sold the Priests had such a portion of Corn allotted them that they needed not to sell one foot of their land and therefore I doubt not but Pharaoh will rise in judgement against all those that take away the lands of the Priests as our Gentlemen and Souldiers strive to do or do sell the Spiritual promotions unto the Priests as our Simonaical Patrons do 3. The Law of Grace saith Freely have you received that is 3 Of grace all the graces and gifts of God therefore freely give Math. 10.8 especially what you give to God and for the Service of God and sell it not 4. The Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws forbid nothing more 4. Of the Civil and Canon-Law and with greater care than the buying and selling Of Spiritual Offices And the ancient Fathers learned Schoolmen and all the later Classes of Casuists Jesuites and of our zealous purest Protestant Writers together with the wisest Princes and Statesmen that have established many Statute-Laws against this sin are all infinitely deceived if this buying and selling of Ecclesiastical preferments be not infinitely prejudicial to the Church of God and therefore a most heynous and a horrible sin against the Law of God 2. I say that this buying and selling of Church-Livings 2. This selling and buying of Church-Livings will be the decay of Learning and Religion will be the diminution of all Learning and the lessening of the number of Learned men for when the world seeth that after a man hath spent his time first in School where he suffereth a great deal of sorrows and thinks no creature more miserable than himself when he seeth all others free and himself only as he supposeth bound under the rod then in the Vniversity where most of the Schollers are as Phalaris saith to Leontides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 needy of all things but of hunger and fear How difficult it is to become a Scholar or else if they escape these rocks the better part do with continuall watching and studying wear their bodies and tyre their spirits and spend all the means they can procure from their friends for many years together and in the end after all this cannot get a poor Parsonage or Vicarage unless they pay for the lease of their wearied and almost worn out life to the hazarding of their soules and all other Preferments when the truth of their buying is made known What Fathers will be so â—â—provident I had almost said so irreligious I may truly say so unworldly wise or so little prudent in managing of their estates as to cast away their means and their sons upon such sourges I think I may say with the Poet Invitatus ad haec aliquis de ponte negabit A beggars brat knowing these inconveniencies would scarce accept these Offices and discharge those duties they do owe upon these conditions Obj. But you will say that we must not and ought not to respect our own gain and look after our own profit but as the Apostles and servants of Christ our chiefest care should be for the peoples good because our reward shall be great in Heaven Sol. I answer that as in the Common-wealth we owe our selves and our service wholly unto our Prince and to our Countrey yet some convenient reward will make us the more willing to serve So in the Church of God though I must preach willingly and wo is me being called to that office if I preach not so and discharge all other Priestly offices cheerfully rather for the gain of Souls then for any other the greatest gain in the World yet necessary maintenance will inable me or any other to do my duty the more cheerfully and with the more incouragement no man can deny the same Luk. 10.17 Matth. 10.10 and our Saviour tels us The workman is worthy of his hire and therefore as the Ministers of Christ do give unto you spirituall things so reason sheweth what the Apostle setteth down that you should give unto them and not sell unto them these temporall things that so not only we which are already entred into this calling may discharge our duties the more joyfully The reward of learning is the best means to increase and to continue learning but also others which as yet are not of this calling may by the reward of learning be induced to undertake the Ministry that otherwise is despicable enough in the world the more willingly because as Symmachus saith Virtus aemula alitur exemplo honoris alieni virtue is cherished and set forward with the example and
that it was fit it should be so in respect of a double comparison 1. Of himself with God 2. Of his Court with God's Ark. Reason 1 1. I that am but a poor creature have an house to dwell in and God that is the Creator of all the World hath not an House to put his Ark in and for his servants to meet in to hear his Laws and to ' do him service Reason 2 2. My Court is stately covered over with Cedars but the Ark of God is but very meanly and basely covered over with a Canopie of skins to shelter it from the wind and the weather And therefore conceiving this to be very preposterous and a far unbeseeming thing for him to be better provided for than his God he conferreth with the Prophet and tells him he intends to rectifie this obliquity and to build God an House more agreeable to his Majesty These are the parts and parcels of the Kings deliberation and conference with the Prophet and his Bishop Nathan And 1. The time of this deliberation How Sitting Standing are commonly interpreted 1. For the time It is said when the King sate in his house and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies So you see 1. It was when the King sate in his house and these relative words sitting and standing are noted by Divines to have some difference of sense and acceptation As standing being commonly taken in good part and sitting in the evil and worser sense as in these places where standing is well spoken of Ezech. 3.24 1 Cor. 10.12 2 Cor. 1.24 Ephes 6.14 1 Pet. 5.12 Ps 135.1 2. Ps 122.2 2 Reg. 3.14 The Spirit entred into me and set me upon my feet and he that thinketh he standeth let him take heed lest he fall and stand in the Lord as dear children and by faith ye stand and stand having your loynes girt about with truth and this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand and praise the Lord all ye his servants ye that stand in the courts of the Lords House and our feet shall stand in thy gates O Hierusalem and the Lord of Hosts liveth before whom I stand In all which quotations and the like the word standing hath reference unto good and is taken in the better sense and so to be interpreted And in these places and the like where the name of sitting runneth into obloquie and is attributed to iniquity Iniquity sitteth on a talent of lead Zach 5.7 Ps 119. Ps 1. and Princes sit and speak against me and Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornful and the ungodly person sitteth lurking in the theevish corners of the streets and so in may other places it is interpreted in the worse sense How the word sate is here takeâ— But here the word sate in his house is of a milder meaning and of indifferent acceptation and rather to be interpreted in the better sense as betokening the government of the King for so the King sate in his house signifieth that he sate in his Seat of Government and this sense hath been ancient and obvious in our reading as where the Poet saith Celsa sedet Aeolus arce King Aeolus fitteth in his high Tower and manageth his State-matters and in the Germane speech they say that to sit signifieth to reign as the Emperour sate that is reigned so many years And this is the moderne meaning of this phrase even amongst us for when we would shew how long any one hath exercised the Office and discharged the Place of a Bishop Judge or Prefect amongst us we are wont to say he sate in that place so long And to sit commonly signifieth to be in rest and quiet and is opposite to affairs and businesse As where it is said Shall your brethren go to battle and you sit still And where the Poet saith Sedeant spectentque Latini Let the Latines sit still and look on And in both these sences King David may be said to sit in his house without any great matter in which sense we understand the word though I rather take it in the later way because that 2. The next adjunct of the time is 2. When waâ— the time that David had rest from all his enemies when the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies for this varieth little or nothing from the former when he sate in his house And therefore we may very well compose them and confound them together and put than to signifie the same thing But about this rest that is here spoken of the Expositors cannot all agree when it was whilest they do consider the many Battels that he fought after this conference that he had with Nathan and therefore though some take it for the peace he had at this present time yet others of a quicker sight do assign it after the second Victory he had against the Philistines when he was such an hammer so terrible to all the neighbour-Nations as that the very name of David and his doings made them afraid and glad to sue unto him for peace and to take bands of resolution with themselves to be of good behaviour towards him and never to provoke him any more And of this we read in 1 Chron. 14.11 when the Philistines came up to Baal-Perazim and David smote them and said God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters and afterward when they spread themselves abroad in the valley 1 Chron. 14. v. 16 17. and David smote them from Gibeon even to Gazer and the fame of David went out into all Lands and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all Nations 2. For the persons that are here conferring together 2. The persons deliberating and conferring together they are said to be David and Nathan the King and the Prophet two great Persons and high Offices that formerly were contained in one Person as Melchisedech was the Priest of the Most High GOD and King of Salem And as the Poet saith Rex Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos Virgil. l. 3. And when God divided and distributed these several Offices to several persons he conferred them upon two brothers that is Moses and Aaron that so the King and the Priest might live and love one another like brethren as I have more amply shewed in my Treatise of The Grand Rebellion And so King David here dischargeth that his duty accordingly And so likewise not only the Heathen Kings but also the Jewish Kings the Kings of Israel and all good Christian Kings disdained not the friendly familiarity and conference with their Bishops and Priests The greatest Kâ—ngs and Pâ—inces were most familiar with the Priests Oâ—â—tors and Philosophers especially when they consult and deliberate of Religion or any point that concerns the Worship and Service of God For as King Croesus conferred with Solon the Philosopher and
King And as Theodosius and Valentinian very Christian like called themselves the â—assâ—ls of Christ so Constantine was wont to say That he gloried more to be the servant of Christ than in being the Emperour of the World And as those pious Kings and godly Emperours were thus zealous to maintain the Christian Religion which bare up the Pillars of their Dominions and makes their names now to live glorious though they are dead So the Throne of this Empire and Kingdom of Great Britaine That this our kingdom had many zealous and most godly Kings hath not wanted devout Princes and most worthy Kings that have trod in the steps of King David to provide Houses for God's Service and to imitate the examples of the best of the aforesaid pious Princes to see the Religion of Christ and the True Faith purely maintained within their Kingdoms as you may find it in our Chronicles and the Statutes of King Inas King Alfred King Edward that for his devotion and zeal to the Christian Religion was rightly called Saint Edward King Ethelstane Vide Speed lib. 8. c. 3. and King Canutus the Dane that laid the foundation of his Building to compose the differences of Religion and to rectifie whatsoever he found amisse therein before he entred upon the causes of the Common-wealth For I read it Registred that after sundry Laws inacted touching our Religion and the Faith of Christ as the celebration of certain Holy-dayes the right form of Baptism the duty of Fasting the teaching of the Lords Prayer unto the people the administration of the Câ—mmon-prayer and the celebration of the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ thrice every year and some other Duties of our Religion this Title followeth Jam sequitur institutio legum saecularium which as Speed sheweth Speed quo supra pag. 384. are most excellent for the execution of Justice And it is Recorded that William the Conqueror in one of his Parliaments said That he being Vice-gerent to the King of kings holdeth his Kingdom to this end to defend his people and especially the people of God and his holy Church that is the Bishops and Priests to teach the people and to performe the Worship and Service of God in his Church And even in our own dayes the Holy Name of God be for ever blessed and praised for it we have had such pious Kings as I believe I may justly say The Christian World for Piety and Religion for love to God's Ministers and the care of God's Worship could shew but very few like them and none to precede them therein and that is King James and King Charles the First whose glorious name above all other Kings since Christ The rare and just commendation of King Charles the First I shall ever honour and extoll as the most constant Defender of the Christian Faith the most loving Patron of God's Ministers the Bishops and Preachers of his Word and the most faithful Witness and Martyr that lost his life for the preservation of God's Church and the Religion of Jesus Christ with whom I do alwayes when I think of him behold and see him Crowned with Eternal Glory The most Blessed of all our Kings and the Best of all our Saints CHAP. IX Of the chiefest Parts and Duties of Kings and Princes which they are to discharge for the maintenance of God's Service and the True Religion and the necessity of Cathedral-Churches and Chappels for the people of God to meet in for the Worship and Service of God YOu have heard how that God hath given the Power and Authority unto Kings and Princes to be the Supervisors Directors and Reprovers of things amiss as well in the Church as in the Common-wealth And how he requireth and commandeth them to discharge those Duties accordingly and to have a care to preserve his Religion as they do regard their own Salvation You have likewise heard how all Kings both Heathens Jews and Christians did execute that power and according to their ability discharged their Duties as well in the Spiritual jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical causes as in the decision of Civil causes It resteth that I should shew unto you the chiefest Parts and Duties that they owe to God and are to discharge for the promoting of his Service and the Religion of Jesus Christ And I conceive them principally to consist in these Four Points The four chiefest things that Kings Princes ought to do for the upholding of God's Religion and the Service of Jesus Christ which may be like the four Rivers of Paradise to water the Garden of God's Church to make it to bring forth plenty of fruits to the glory of God and the salvation of mens souls And they are 1. To take care and to cause that there should be Cathedral-Churches and Chappels fairly built and decently trimmed and adorned as befits the Houses of God for his people to meet in for the Worship and Service of God 2. To see that able honest and religious Bishops be placed in those Cathedrals and others the like pious and painful Ministers be appointed in all the Parochial Churches and Chappels to perform the true Service of God as they ought to do and to see those Drones that neglect it and those factious Sectaries and Hereticks that defile and corrupt it and those scandalous livers that do much prejudice unto their holy Calling to be punished and removed if they amend not for their negligence and transgressions 3. To provide by their good Laws such maintenance revenues and means for the Reverend and godly Bishops and the rest of the worthy Clergy whereby they may be inabled with joy and comfort to discharge their duties in God's Service to his glory and the good of his people 4. To put a bar and to hinder by their Regal power and authority all the sacrilegious violaters of holy things to rob the Church of Christ and his servants and to commit the horrible sin of Sacriledge which is so transcendently abominable in the sight of God and so infinitely destructive to the souls of men 1. The necessity of Cathedral-Churches and other Parochial Chappels for the Sâ—rvice of God These things ought to be done as I conceive by all good and godly Kings and Princes and whoso doth these things shall never fail And. 1. In defence of Cathedral-Churches we have to alleadge that till the time of Euaristus and Dionysius Popes of Rome no other kind of ministerial Church was ever heard of from the beginning of the World for from Adam unto Moses men did call upon the Name of the Lord and offered Sacrifices but without any ministerial Church at all And in Moses time Platina de vitis Pontif. Carrion annal Monarch Exod. 25.46 Acts 7.44 2 Sam. 7.6 Acts 7.47 God commanded him to erect a Tabernacle which stood instead of a Church for all the Land of Judea and that was Templum portatile as Josephus calls it to be carried up and
down until the dayes of Solomon But Solomon erected a Temple as a standing Church at Hierusalem to be in the place of the Tabernacle And then until the time of the Gospel there was no other Church for God's people I speak not of the Gentiles idolatrous Temples throughout the whole World And that Metropolitan Church of Hierusalem was more than Diocesan or Provincial for it was National for the whole Kingdom of Jury And after the Gospel was preached unto the Gentiles and all Nations began to be converted then sundry ministerial Churches were erected according to the number of their Bishops so that every particular Bishop had his particular Church after the manner and in imitation of the Jews which having but one Bishoprick and one High Priest or Bishop had likewise but one Cathedral-Church for that whole Nation And afterwards when the Bishops saw the multitude of Christians exceedingly increasing Evaristus first Titulos seu Paraesias in urbe Roma presbyteris divisit post eum Dionysius idem fecit And after him Dionysius the Pope devised Parochial Congregations and divided every Bishoprick into particular constant Congregations which were but Members and their Churches but the Chappels of the Diocesan and Provincial Churches And the use for which both the Cathedral and Parochial Churches do serve was and is for the servaâ—â—s of God to meet in them for to worship God and this besides the practice of all times ab origine to this very day do sufficiently conclude the necessity of them 1. For as the body politick or the whole multitude of the Common-wealth is to be divided into his several Limits Provinces Counties 1. Publick prayers are more prevalent with God than the private prayers Baronies and the like so the collective and mystical body of God's Church is to be distributed into several Congregations as the body natural is to be distinguished by the several parts and parcells thereof and though as we are private and particular men the place and time and form of prayer and service of God are in the choice of every particular man according to the condition of his necessity and private occasion yet as every particular man is a member of the publick State either Temporal or Ecclesiastical Church or Common-wealth so the service that he oweth and ought to perform either to the King or to God must needs be publick and together with the rest of the members of the State and so the publick Service is so much worthier than the private and excelleth the same as much as a Society or Congregation of men is worthier and excelleth one particular man And S. Chrysostom to shew the excellency of the publick Service of God S. Chrysostomes example to shew the benefit of publick prayer and how it excelleth the private and Common-prayer before and above any private prayer or service saith That as the coals of fire being scattered do yield but little heat and will soon die but when they are close heaped together they 'l yield much heat and the fire continueth long So a multitude of devout and faithful men gathered together and with one heart and one soul pouring forth their prayers and petitions unto God their prayers are a great deal more prevalent and more likely to obtain their request from God then when they are severed and offered up by every single person as a twisted thred like a threefold cord is far stronger than any two single ones So though the prayers of one man be but weak yet the supplications of many men are very mighty and like unto the loud sound of thunder or the noise of many waters as S. Basil saith and the consent of desires the concord betwixt them and the united love of joynt Assemblies are so well-pleasing unto God that as a hoâ—y Father saith Impossibile est multorum preces non exaudiri It is almost impossible but that the prayers of such associated Congregations should be heard because as S. Ambrose saith The publick meeting of Gods people hath a special promise of Gods presence to be with them as where Christ saith Matth. 18.20 When two or three are gathered together in his Name he will be there in the midst of them And therefore the King of Niniveh called his people together to joyn with him in prayer to God that they might not be destroyed and so besetting God Jonas 4.11 or besieging God as Tertullian saith like an Hoste of men their prayer was heard and they were received into grace And S. Paul though he might have confidence his prayer should speed with God assoon and obtain as much as any other yet doth he confess that the prayers of the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. 1.11 together with his own prayers did much help and further his deliverance from those great troubles that he suffered in Asia 2. Publick prayers more justifiab e then the private 2. The publick prayers and service of God hath this prerogative above the private that they do assure us they are more lawfull and shall sooner be heard of God because the things prayed for and deprecated are judged to be good and needfull and are so approved of by the general judgment of the whole Congregation when we hear them deprecated or desired by the common consent of all the people 3 Our devotion and zeal are more and more strengthned in the publick Congregation 3. The convention or meeting of the people in such publick places to serve God doth sharpen the edge and as it were give life and strength to every particular mans devotion for when through the frailty of our flesh our spirit waxeth dull and our zeal beginneth to grow sloggish to perform these Holy duties the fervor that we see in the rest of the Congregation will mightily serve to stir up our thoughts and to quicken our devotion to sail along with our brethren to the conclusion of those godly exercises 4. They are helped by the good examples of others 4. As every particular man is bettered and much furthered in his devotion and service of God by the good examples that all the Congregation doth shew unto him so the whole company that considereth it is not a litle damnified and offended at the waywardness and neglect of those particular persons that come not unto the publick service of God and so whereas the neglect of our private devotion is only hurtfull to our selves our refusall or remissness to come to the publick exercises of our Religion doth prejudice many and gives offence to the whole Church and you know what our Saviour saith Matth. 18.7 Woe to that man by whom offence cometh and therefore woe to him that despiseth the publick exercises of Gods Church and refuseth to come unto them And for the preventing of this woe and the rest of the reasons formerly shewed Psal 26.12 the Prophet David did so earnestly desire to praise the Lord in the Congregations yea
in the great Congregations and among much people and so affectionately to say Psal 35.18 One thing have I desired of the Lord which I will require Psal 27.4 even that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the fair beauty of the Lord and to visite his Temple And therefore seeing it is so necessary that the people of God should publickly meet and be gathered together to serve God it is most requisite and necessary there should be Cathedralls and Parochiall Churches for them to meet in for to do the publick service of God Obj. But against this it may be objected that the necessity of publick meetings and the benefits that may be reaped from those Assemblies rather then from any private serving of God doth no waies prove the necessity of having Cathedralls and materiall Churches because the presence of a company of Christian people wheresoever Assembled and the offices of Religion as Preaching Prayer and Administring the Sacraments performed makes the meeting publick and the peoples exercising these duties makes them to be a Church of God As the presence of the Prince and his followers maketh any mans private house to be the Kings Court. To this Objection I have fully and very largely answered Sol. in my second book of the Great Anti-Christ revealed pag. 84. deinceps And therefore I shall referr my Reader thither to be fully satisfied yet here I say that it is not the Assembly or the popular conflux of a multitude of men or the duties that they do though they be the very duties of Religion that makes the meeting lawfully publick or the place of Gods publick service but it must be a Convention and a gathering together of the people into such a place that is assigned and Consecrated for Gods publick service which makes the publick meeting justifiable and lawfull otherwise it is but a private conventicle altogether unlawfull though it should consist of never so great a company of men unless it be as it was in the Apostles time in the daies of persecution or that the people have such lawfull lets and hinderances to come to the Consecrated place of Gods service as I have set down in the book afore-cited At all other times the publick service of God must be performed in a publick Consecrated place as it is meet the Holy service should be done in a Holy place and you must know that the ubiquity of Gods presence in every place makes not all places alike sacred even as the Lord sheweth unto Moses when he bids him to pull off his shâ—es from his feet because the place where thou standest is Holy ground Exod. 3.15 for the presence of God is either 1. Ordinary The presence of God twofold or 2. Extraordinary And as the extraordinary works of God have distinguished the times to make some times more Holy then other so the extraordinary presence of God hath sanctified some places more then others and the place that he Sanctifieth with his most speciall presence is the place which he appointeth to his servants for their publick meeting to do his service and he hath not left it in the liberty of every man to run at random to serve the Lord where he pleased but as he designed the time when they should serve him so he appointed the place where they should come to serve him And so Adam in that short time which he had in Paradise wanted not a place appointed no doubt and usuall to stand before the Lord and to Communicate with him and the sons of Adam being out of Paradise Gen. 3.8 knew the place where God appointed and expected they should repair to offer their Sacrifices and oblations unto him and so the Lord tells the Children of Israel that they should not discharge their duties and perform his service in any place that they pleased Deut. 12.5 14. but they should seek the place which the Lord their God should choose out of all their Tribes to put his name there to dwell and there they should come with their oblations and offerings to serve him And so when the Israelites had quite vanquished the Canaanites and subdued the Philistines and the other their enemies round about and as the Text saith given rest unto his people the time was come that the Lord God thought fit to choose the place to put his name there and where all the people should publickly meet to do him service and the Lord marked out Jerusalem for himself and in Jerusalem he chose Mount Moriah 2 Chron. 6.7 the very place where Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac to be a standing and a permanent place for his name saying This shall be my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have a delight therein and there David now resolveth to build his Temple to be a Cathedrall and the Metropolitan Church for the High Priest to offer Sacrifice and burnt Offerings unto God and for the rest of the people there publickly to meet to serve the Lord and his heart was mightily inflamed with zeal and desire to do it but the Lord accepted of his resolution and by Nathan his Prophet told him that because he was a man of War and had shed much blood and his Church must not have her foundation laid nor her walls erected in blood he should not build his Temple but Solomon his son that was a Prince of Peace should erect it in the Place that he appointed and with the materialls that he had provided and so he did as you may see 2 Chron. c. 3. 4 5. And when this Temple was destroyed and the people for their sins and neglect of Gods service and prophanation of this House of God were led Captives into Babylon and when after the time of their Captivity was expired that is the full space of 70. years they were permitted to return into their own Land the Lord did put it into the heart of Cyrus King of Persia as the Prophet Esay fore-shewed he should do long before the birth of Cyrus to cause Ezra Zerubbabel Nehemiah and the rest of the Elders of the Jews to build another House and Temple unto God in the same place where Salomons Temple did stand and when the enemies of Gods people and the prophaners of Gods House like our malignants sought to hinder the building of it the Lord put it in the heart of Darius and his son Artaxerxes to cause it to be finished Ezra 6.15 according to the decree of King Cyrus And the Jews were so zealous to do it that they made an end of the work in five years and so by reason of their enemies and their haste it was far disproportionable and different from the former which made the old men that had seen the glory and beauty of the first to weep and lament at the mean aspect of the second And yet it was not so mean but
most generally found that the Children of the precedent Bishops that have most wronged the Church and their Successors Why the sons of Bishops are most spitefull unto the Succeeding Bishops are in all things most contrariant and opposites I will not say spiteful or envious to the succeeding Bishops because as I conceive their hearts tell them what injuries their Fathers did them for their sakes and themselves continue therein and therefore do conceive that the present Bishops cannot think well nor love them that have so much wronged both them and the Church of God and to requite them according to their own thoughts with hate for hate they are of all others most spiteful crossing and prejudiciall unto them or else because they do imagine that the present and succeeding Bishops will be as wicked and as unjust as their Fathers and their predecessors were and therefore deserve neither love nor favour from them As Alexander the Copper-smith withstood S. Paul So the last Bishops son withstandeth me to recover the rights of the Church And I heard many Parliament men say that in the Long Anti-Christian Parliament none were more violent against the Bishops then the sons and posterity of Precedent Bishops I found it so And I have espied another fault in some of our former Bishops not a little prejudiciall to the Honor of God and the good of the Church of Christ and that is not only to give Orders to unworthy men but also to bestow livings upon unworthy Priests for as the old saying was Rector eris praesto de sanguine praesulis esto Or as another saith Quatuor ecclesias portis intratur in omnes Prima patet magnis nummatis altera tertia charis Sed paucis solet quarta patere Dei So it was their practice to bestow Livings Rectories Prebends and other Preferments not on them that best deserved them but either upon their Children friends or servants or on them that could as the story goeth tell them And so to the lessor and to the lessee of the Church-Lands to the prejudice of the Church the like curse and Anathema is due who was Melchisedecks Father that is to say St. Peters lesson Aurum argentum non est mihi in the affirmative way which is a fault worthy to be punished by the Judges For as it is most truely said Qâ—icunque sacra vel sacros ordines vendunt aut emunt sacerdotes esse non possunt whosoever do buy or sell holy orders or any holy things cannot be Priests Vnde scriptum est Anathema danti Anathema accipienti whence it is written Let Gods curse be to the buyer and the curse of God to the receiver because this buying and selling of Holy things and things dedicated for the service of God is the Simoniacal Heresie or Heresie of Simon Mâ—gus Qâ—omodo ergo si Anathematizati sunt sancti non sunt sanctificare alios possunt Habetur 1. q. 1. Can. Quicunque How then if they be accursed and no Saints can they make others Saints or sanctify them Et cum in corpore Christi non sint quomodo Christi corpus tradere vel accipere possunt Et qui maledictus est benedicere quomodo potest And seeing such men are not in the body of Christ how can they deliver or receive the body of Christ and how can he that is accursed himself bless any other And therefore seeing the Word of God requireth the Bishops and Ministers of Christ should be so Holy in their lives and so qualified with knowledge and learning for the instruction of the people as I shewed to you before and is typified by those Golden Bels and the Pomegranats that were to be set in the skirts of Aarons robes round about the Bels signifying the teaching of the people and the Pomegranats the sweet smelling fruits of a good and godly life It behoves the Kings and Princes to whom God hath given the prime Soveraignty and commandeth them to have a care of his Honor and the service of his Church to see so far as they can that the Bishops and Prelates which they place over Gods people be so qualified as God requireth and to injoyn these their prime Substitutes to look that those Priests and Deacons which they make and place in the Church be likewise such as I have fore-shewed for this God requireth at their hands and this David Jehosaphat Ezechias Josias and all the good and godly Kings of Israel and Juda and all the pious Christian Kings and Emperors did and I do know how zealously and carefully our late most gracious King Charles the I. was to place Able Religious and Godly Bishops over Gods Church which is a special duty of every King And because also the Prelates and Bishops are not all or may not all be no more then the Apostles were all such as they should be but some of them may be such as I have shewed to you before either like Simon Magus selling what they should freely give or like Demas imbracing this present World or like Baalam loving the wages of unrighteousness or perhaps doing worse then those Apostatizing like Julian and starting aside like Ecebolius or devising wicked Heresies like Arius or renting the unity of the Church like Donatus then as Solomon deposed Abiathar and divers of the good Emperours deposed wicked Popes and the godly Kings have pull'd down ungodly Bishops as our late Queen Elizabeth did degrade Bishop Bonner and divers other Popish Prelates so should all good and godly Kings reprove and correct and if they amend not expel and remove all scandalous and ungodly Bishops and the Bishops do the like to all deboyst and dissolute Ministers that so the old and sowre leaven may be purged out of Gods Church and the builders of Gods Tabernacle be like Bezaliel and Aholiab such as can and will do the work of the Lord carefully and Religiously CHAP. XIV Of the maintenance due to the Bishops and Ministers of Gods Church how large and liberal it ought to be THirdly When the Kings and Princes 3. To provide sufficient means for the Church-men which are the Supreme Magistrates and as Tertullian saith Homines à Deo secundi solo Deo minores are the men that are next to God in power and Authority and therefore ought to have the prime and chiefest care of Gods Honour and his worship in the Church of Christ have as I have formerly shewed with King David and Solomon Colimus imperatorem ut hominem à Deo secundum so lo Deâ— minorem Tertul. ad Scapulam provided that Temples and Churches be erected and beautified as fit houses of God for his people and servants to convene and meet in them to Worship God and have likewise taken care in the next place to see that good men and godly Bishops be appointed over those Churches as their substitutes to Rule Govern and Teach the people of God how to live and
profoundnesse of knowledge Nazian Orat. 1. was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 termed Theologus the Divine saith that the fury of Julian that great Apostata was repressed onely with the tears of the Christians which many of them did most plentifully powre forth to God when they had no other remedy against their Persecutor Mark that they say It is unlawful to resist because they knew it unlawful for them to use any other means then sufferance or else they might having so much strength as they had have repelled their wrongs with violence Saint Ambrose saith as much and Prosper in like manner saith Ambros ep 33. The present evils should be suffered untill the promised happinesse doth come the Infidels should be permitted among the faithful and the plucking of the tares should be deferred and let the wicked rage against the godly as much as they will yet the case of the righteous is far better because that Quantò acriùs impetuntur tantò gloriosiùs coronantur Prosper in sent 99. by how much the more sharply they are tormented by so much the more gloriously they shall be crowned And Saint Bernard saith If all the world should conspire against me and conjure me that I should plot any thing against the royal Majesty yet I would fear God and would not dare to offend the King Bernard Ep. 170. that is appointed of him over me because I am not ignorant of the place where I read Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And yet he speaketh this of King Lodovicus that offered a monstrous wrong to all the Clergy when he robbed them and took away all their goods without cause and which is worse would hear of no perswasions to make restitution or to give them any satisfaction Gaguin lib 6. as Gaguinus testifieth Thus the Fathers whereof I could heap many more do testifie of this truth and the School-men tread in the same steps The School-men of the same judgement and differ not a nails breadth from them herein For Alexander Hales saith wicked and evill men ought to suffer for the fault of their irrationability and good men ought to suffer Propter debitum divinae ordinationis for the duty that they owe to the divine ordinance and the benefit of their own purgation Whereupon Saint Ambrose saith Ambrosius in Rom. 13. If the Prince be good he doth not punish the well-doer but loveth him because he doth well but if the Prince be evill and punisheth the well-doer he hurteth him not but purgeth him Alex. Hales p. 3. q. 48. memb 2. art 1. de offic subd erga Princ. and therefore he is not a terrour to him that doth well but the wicked ought to fear because Princes are appointed that they should punish evill Aquinas saith The faith of Christ is the beginning and the cause of righteousnesse and therefore by the faith of Christ the order of Justice is not taken away but rather setled and strengthened because as our Saviour saith It became him to fulfill all righteousnesse But the order of justice doth require that all inferiours should obey their superiours otherwise the estate of humane affairs could no ways be preserved Tham. secunda secundae q. 104. art 6. and therefore by the faith of Christ the godly and the faithful Christians are neither exempted nor excused but that they are tyed and bound by the Law of Christ to obey their secular Princes Where you see the Christian faith doth not submit the superiour to the inferiour contrary to the rule of justice neither doth it any wayes for any cause permit the power of the sword to any subject to be used against his Prince because this inordinate power would turn to the ruine of man-kind and the destruction of all humane affairs which can no otherwise be preserved but through the preservation of the order of justice Indeed many times there may happen some just causes Wherein we may disobey and how for which we are not bound to obey the commands of our Magistrates as when they command any thing contrary to the commandements of God and yet then there can be no cause why we should withstand him that executeth the unjust sentence of our condemnation or requireth the punishment that an unjust malitious Magistrate under the colour of his power and authority hath most unjustly laid upon us because he hath as our Saviour saith unto Pilate this ordinary power from God which if he doth abuse he is to be refrained not by the preparation of arms and the insurrection of his subjects to make impressions upon their Soveraign but by those lawful means which are appointed for them that is Petitions unto him and prayers and tears unto God for him because nothing else remaineth to him that is guilty or condemned as guilty for any fault but to commit his cause to the knowledge of the omnipotent God and to expect the judgement of him which is the King of Kings and the Judge of all Judges and will undoubtedly chastize and correct the iniquity of any unjust sentence with the severity of eternal justice Barcl l. 3. c. 10. as Barclay saith These testimonies are clear enough and yet to all these I will adde this one memorable example Berchetus in explicat controvers Galli cana cap. 7. which you may read in Berchetus and Joh. Servinus which tells us that in France after the great Massacre ut Paris when the reformed Religion did seem as it were forsaken and almost extinguished a certain King powerful in strength rich in wealth and terrible for his Ships and navall Force which was at enmity and hatred with the King of France dispatched a solemn Embassie and Message unto Henry King of Navarre and other Protestant Lords and commanded his Embassadors to do their best to set the Protestants against the Papists and to arm Henry the Prince of Navarre which then lived at Bearn under the Dominion of the most Christian King against his Soveraign the French King which thing the Embassadours endeavoured to do with all their art and skill An example of a faithful and excellent subject but all in vain for Henry being a good subject as it were another David to become a most excellent King would not prevent the day of his Lord yet the Embassadours offered him many ample fair and magnificent conditions among the rest abundance of money the summe of three hundred thousand Aureorum Scutatorum French Crowns which were ready to be told for the preparation of the warre and for the continuation of the same there should be paid every moneth so much as was necessary but Henry being a faithful Christian a good Prince a Widower and though he was displaced from the publique government of the Common-wealth and for his sake for the dislike the King bare towards him the King had banished many Protestants from his Country and had killed many faithful Pastours yet would not he
which never hoped for any glory in the Kingdome of Heaven but by suffering patiently in the Kingdom of the Earth and when they could did faithfully discharge the duties of their places and when they could not did willingly undergo the bitternesse of death and were alwayes faithfull both to their good God and their evil Kings to God rather by suffering Martyrdom then offend his Majesty and to their Kings not in committing that evil which they commanded but in suffering that punishment which they inflicted upon them 2. Not the Nobility or Peers Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. Sect. 31. Beza in confess c. 5. p. 171. Autor vindic q. 3 pag. â—03 Alchus de polit c. 14 pag. 142. 161. Danaeus de polit Christiana l. 6. c. 3. p. 413. 2. As no private men of what rank or condition soever they be so neither Magistratus populares the peoples Magistrates as some term them nor Junius Brutus his Optimates regni the prime Noble-men of the Kigdom nor Althusius his Ephori the Kings assistants in the government of the people nor his great Councel of Estate nor any other kind calling or degree of men may any wayes resist or at any time rebell for any cause or colour whatsoever against their lawful Kings and supreme Governours 1. Because they are not as Althusius doth most falsely suggest Magistratus summo Superiores but they are inferiours to the supreme and chief Magistrate otherwise how can he be Summus if he be not Supremus or how can Saint Peter call the King supereminent 1 Pet 2.13 if the inferiour Magistrates be superiour unto him and it is Reason 1 contra ordinem justitiae contrary to the rules of justice as I told you before out of Aquinas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the inferiours should rise up against their superiours which hath the rule and command over them The Inferiour should never rise against his Superiour Optat. de schis Donat. l. 3. p. 85 as the husband hath over the wife the father over the sonne the Lord over his servants and the King over his subjects and therefore Jezabel might truly say Had Zimri peace which slew his Master And I may as truly say of these men as Optatus saith of the Donatists when as none is above the King or the Emperour but onely God which made him Emperour while the inferiour Magistrates do extoll themselves above him they have now exceeded the bounds of men that they might esteem themselves as God Non verendo eum qui post Deum ab hominibus timebatur in not fearing him which men ought to fear next to God But the words of Saint Peter are plain enough 1 Pet. 2.15 Submit your selves unto every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King as supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well Wherein you may see not onely the subordination which God hath placed betwixt the King and his Subjects but also that different station which is betwixt the Supreme and the inferiour powers for the words sent of him do most clearly conclude that the inferiour Magistrates have no power to command but by the vertue power and force which they receive from the supreme and that the inferiour Magistrates opposed to the supreme power are but as private men and therefore that as they are rulers of the people so being but instruments unto the King they are subjects unto him to be moved and ruled by him which is inferiour to none but God and their authority which they have received from him Inferiour Magistrates in respect of the king are but private men can have no power upon him or to manage the sword without him and especially against him upon any pretence whatsoever how then can any or all these Magistrates make a just war against their King when as none of them can make any just warre without him 2. Because as Bodinus saith most truly the best and greatest not onely Reason 2 of the inferiour Magistrates but also of all these Peers Nobles Counsellors or what you please to call them have neither honour power nor authority but what they have given them from him which is the King or supreme Magistrate as you see God made Moses the chief Governour and Moses made whom he pleased his Peers and his inferiour Magistrates and as they have all their power derived from him that is the chief so he that is the King or chief can draw it away from them that are his inferiours when he pleaseth and as he made them so he can unmake them when he will and none can unmake him but he that made him that is God himself and therefore David that was ex Optimatibus regni the greatest Peer in Israel being powerful in warre famous in peace the Kings Son-in-law and divinely destinated unto the Kingdome yet would he not lay his hand upon his King when he was delivered into his hands And this Buchanan cannot deny but confesseth that the Kings of the Jews were not to be punished or resisted by their subjects because that from the beginning they were not created by the people but given to them by God Buchanan's absurdity and therefore saith he jure optimo qui fuit honoris autor idem fuit poenarum exactor it is great reason that he which gives the honour should impose the punishment But for the Kings of Scotland Buchan de jure Regni apud Scotos they were saith Buchanan not given them of God but created by the people which gave them all the right that they can challenge Ideoque jus idem habere in reges Multitudinem quod illi in singulos è multitudine habent which is most false for Moses tells us that immediately after the deluge God the Creatour of all the world ordained the revenging sword of blood-shed and the slavish servitude of paternal derision wherein all the parts of civil jurisdiction and regal power are Synecdochically set down and Job saith that there is one God which looseneth the bond of Kings Job 12.18 and girdeth about their reines which must be understood of the Gentile-Kings because that in his time the Commong-wealth of Israel was not in being and God himself universally saith By me Kings do reign that is all Kings not onely of the Jews but also of the Gentiles and Christ doth positively affirm that the power of Pilate was given him from Heaven and Saint Paul saith There is no power but what is appointed of God And Tertullian saith Inde Imperator unde homo iude illi potestas unde spiritus he that made him a man made him Emperour and he that gave him his spirit gave him his power And Irenaeus saith God ordained earthly Kingdomes for the benefit of the Gentiles Et cujus jussu homines nascuntur That God is the ordainer of
to passe them and though not for any offence that we saw in them yet for the scandall that might be taken at them we heartily wished they had never been so zealously propounded at that time But the Sectaries of London and the prevalent Faction in Parliament did with open mouth spend much time to the no small prejudice of the whole Kingdom and made many long Speeches to exclaim against them as against a Bundle of superstitions that obscured the purity of our Religion an introduction unto Popery and an intolerable unheard of the like invasion upon the liberty of the Subjects that revived again the Papal Tyranny which contrary to our Fundamental Laws have incroached to make Canons and Constitutions to bind our Consciences whereupon they canvas them and condemn them out of their house and the House of God out of the Church and Common-wealth and not only so but also the Contrivers of them and Consenters to them they terrifie and threaten to adjudge them sometimes with a praemunire to have forfeited all their goods and possessions and sometimes to be fin'd as we were at last with such a heavy Mulct as in all other mens judgement did far exceed the pretended offence especially of us that never consented to them And yet we find not only in Lindwood and others of our Canonists but also in the book of Martyrs and the rest of our English Histories that the Arch-Bishops within their Provinces have at several times made Canons and Constitutions for the Regulating of all the people committed to their charge without any suspicion of the least violation of our laws but the Faction say Sic volumus and the Houses of Parliament understand what is Law better then I do and therefore accordingly before the makers of them were called to make their answers by what Authority they made them or by what Law they could justify them they reject the Canons and censure their makers Yet notwithstanding their distast of them it is conceived by some that the Clergy having His Majesties writ to be convocated and leave to compose such Canons as they thought fit to be observed for the Honor of God the discharge of their duty and the good of the Church and having the Royal assent and approbation to all that they concluded which is all that I find the Statute provided in this case requireth though they should be defective or perhaps offensive in some circumstances yet if they be not legally abrogated after a full hearing of all parties and the Kings consent to reject them as it was to approve them they are still as binding and in as full force as ever they were though for mine own part I will not undertake the task to make that good when as both the Houses have condemned them but I say 4. This Scandal taken against these Canons 4. The appointing of a new framed Synod made way for the faction to call for a new Synod or Assembly of Divines for the rectifying of things amiss as well in Discipline as in Doctrine And in this new intended Synod the Divines are nominated not according to the rules and Canons of the Church and the Customs of all Nations Lay-men choosers of the Clergy as if a shepheard did choose pretious stones since the first Synod or Council of the Apostles by Divines that can best judg of their own abilities as when the spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets but fearing the Clergy would have sent men that were too Orthodoxal for their faith they deprived them of their rights and forgetting their Protestation to defend the right of the Subject the choice is made by themselves that are Lay men and Young men and many of them perhaps Prophane men or at least not so religious nor so judicious as they ought to be for a business of this nature of so great concernment as the direction of our souls to their eternal bliss And now they being nominated we know most of them what they are men not only justly suspected to be ill disposed to the peace of our Church and too much addicted to innovation to alter the Government What manner of men they have chosen to reject and cast away the Book of Common-Prayer to oppose Episcopacy and to displcae the grave and godly Governours of Gods Church but also apparently fashioned to the humours of these their own Disciples who are to be the only judges of their determinations that although some few Canonical men and most Reverend Learned and Religious Bishops and others for fashion sake to blind the World are named amongst them yet when as in a Parliament so in a Synod the most desperate faction if they prove prevalent to be the major part will carry any thing in despite of the better part they shall stand but as Cyphers able to do nothing they might abolish our old established Government erect their own new invented Discipline and propagate their well affected Doctrine in all Churches for you may judge of them by their compeers Goodwin Burrows Arrow-Smith and the rest of their ignorant factious and schismatical Ministers that together with those intruding Mechanicks who without any calling either from God or man do step from the Botchers boord or their Horses stable into the Preachers Pulpit are the bellows which blow up this fire that threateneth the destruction of our Land like Shebah's trumpet to summon the people unto Rebellion and like the red Dragon in the Revelation which gave them all his poyson and made them eloquent to disgorge their malice and to cast forth floods of slanders after those that keep Loyalty to their Soveraign and to belch forth their unsavory reproaches against those that discover their affected ignorance and Seditious wickedness in defence of truth and are the Instruments of this faction to seduce the poor people to the desolation of the whole Kingdom if not timely prevented by their repentance and assistance to enable him whom God hath made our Protector to defend us against all such transcendent wickedness And these are the main ends for which they summoned such a new Synod of their furious and Fanatick teachers upon whose temper and fidelity I believe no wise man that knows them would lay the least weight of his souls felicity Whar Synod they should have chosen Whereas if they desired a Reformation of things amiss and not rather an alteration of our Religion and the abolition of our now setled Government they would have called for such a Synod as was in Queen Elizabeths time when the 39 Articles of our Religion were composed and such as they needed not to be ashamed to own in future times nor the best refuse to associate the rest for the illegality of their election for if there be any scandalous Governours as we deny not but there may be a Cham in the Ark a Judas amongst the Apostles and perhaps an unjustifiable Prelate among the Bishops as there was a proud
design How they strengthened themselves to make their orders fi m without the King Whereupon these men put their heads together to consult how they might strengthen themselves and make their ordinances firm and binding without the King and to that purpose having by their former doings gotten too great an interest as well in the faith as in the affections of the people in confidence of their own strength they came roundly to the businesse and what they knew was not their right as their former Petitions can sufficiently witnesse they resolve to effect the same by force but as insensibly as they can devise as 1. To seize upon the Kings Navie to secure the Seas 2. To lay hold upon all the Kings Magazine Forts Towns and Castles 3. To with-hold his moneys and revenues and all other means from the King 4. To withdraw the affections and to poyson the loyalty of all his Majesties Subjects from him And hereby they thought and it must have been so indeed except the Lord had been on his side they had made their hill so strong that it could not be moved and the King so weak and destitute of all means that he could no wayes subsist or relieve himself as a member of their own House did tell me for 1. Earl of Warwick made Vice-Admiral 1. They get the Earl of Warwick to be appointed Vice-Admiral of the Sea and to commit all the Kings Navie into his hand and to take away that charge from Sir John Pennington whom most men believed to be far the better Sea-man but more faithful to his King and the other purer to the Parliament 2. Sir John Hotham put into Hull for the Magazine 2. They send Sir John Hotham a most insolent man that most uncivilly contemned the King to his face to seize upon the Kings Magazine that he bought with his own money when they might as well take away my horse that I paid for and to keep the King out of Hull which was his own proper Town and therefore might as well have kept him out of White-Hall and was an Act so full of injustice as that I scarce know a greater 3. They detained the Kings moneys Esay 1.23 3. Because moneys are great means to effect any worldly affaire and the sinews of every warre when as men and arms and all other necessaries may be had for money some of them and their followers shew themselves to be just as the Peers of Israel companions of thieves meer robbers which forcibly take away a mans mony from him they take all the Kings treasure they intercept detain and convert all the Kings revenues and customes to strengthen themselves against the King 4. They labour to render the King odious by lyes 4. Because their former Remonstrances framed by this faction of the ill government of this kingdom though in some things true which the King ingenuously acknowledgeth and most graciously promiseth to redresse them yet in all things full of gall and bitternesse against the King could not so fully poyson the love and loyalty of the Kings Subjects as they desired especially the love of those that knew his Majesty who the better they knew him did the more affectionately love him and the more faithfully serve him they thought to do it another and a surer way with apparent lyes palpable slanders and abominable accusations invented printed and scattered over all the parts of this kingdom by their Trencher Chaplains and parasitical Preachers and other Pamphleters some busie Lawyers and Pettifoggers to bring the King into an odium disliked and deserted of all his loving Subjects And what created power under heaven was able to dissolve that wickednesse which subtilty and malice had thus treacherously combined to bring to passe Hereupon after many threatning votes 1. Lye that he intended to war against the Parliament and actual hostility exercised against his Royall person the King is forced to raise a guard for the defence of himself and those his good Subjects that attended him then presently that small guard that consisted but of the chief gentry of the Countrey was declared to be an Army raised for the subversion of the Parliament and the destruction of our native liberties an invincible Army is voted to be raised the Earl of Essex is chosen to be their Generall with whom they promise both to live and die the Earl of Bedford General of the Horse moneys are provided and all things are prepared to fetch the King and all delinquents or to be the death of all withstanders and that nothing might hinder this design though the King in many gracious Messages attested by the subscription of many noble Lords that were upon the place assured them he never intended any warre against his Parliament yet they proceed with all eagernesse and declare all those that shall assist the King either with Horse money or men to be malignants and enemies unto the King and Kingdome and such delinquents as shall be sure to receive condigne punishment by the Parliament Hoc mirum est hoc magnum And among the rest of their impudent slanders this was their Master-piece which they ever harped upon that he countenanced Papists and intended to bring Popery into this Kingdgm and to that end had an Army of Papists to assist him But to satisfie any sensible man in this point I would crave the resolution of these two Questions 1. Whether every Papist that is subject to his Majesty Two questions to be resolved is not bound to assist and defend his King in all his dangers 2. Whether the King should not protect his Subjects that are Papists in all their dangers so far as by the Law he ought to do it and accept of their service when he himself is invironed with dangers For first 1. All Papists bound to assist their King I believe there is no Law that inhibiteth a Papist to serve his King against a Rebellion or to ride Post to tell the King of a Design to murder Him or any other intended Treason against Him or being present to take away a weapon from that man that attempted to kill the King because his not coming to Church doth not exempt him from his Allegiance or discharge him of his duty and service unto the King and therefore if a Fleet from France or Spain or any other forreign part should invade us or any Rebellion at home should rise against his Soveraign and seek to destroy those Lawes and Liberties whereof himself and his Posterity hath as good an interest to as any other Subject I say he is bound by all Laws to assist his King and to do his best endeavour both with his purse and in his person not only to oppose that external Invasion but also to subdue as well that home-bred Rebellion as the forreign Invasion 2. If a Papist should be injured his estate seized upon 2. The King bound to protect dutiful Papists his house
in Publick throughout the whole Kingdom and they are not a little punished that neglect it and whatsoever Message Answer Declaration or Proclamation cometh from the King to inform his Subjects of the Truth of things and to undeceive his much seduced people they streightly forbid those to be Printed and imprison if they can catch them all that publish them as they did many worthy Ministers in the City of London and in many other places of this Kingdom 6. They have publickly voted in their House 6. Wrong and accordingly indeavoured by Messages to perswade our brethren of Scotland to joyn in their assistance with these grand Rebels to rebel against their Soveraign but I perswade my self as I said before that the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland are more Religious in themselves more Loyal to their liege Lord and indeed wiser in all their actions then while they may live quietly at home in a happy peace to undertake upon the perswasions of Rebellious Subjects such an unhappy war abroad 7. It is remonstrated and related publickly that 7. Wrong as if they had shaken off all subjection and were become already a State Independent they have Treated by their agents with forraign States and do still proceed in that course which if true is such an usurpation upon Soveraignty as was never before attempted in this Kingdom and such a Presumption as few men know the secret mischiefs that may lurk therein 8. They suffer and licence their Pamphleters Pryn Goodwin Burges 8. Wrong Marshal Sedgwick and other emissaries of wickedness to publish such Treasons and Blasphemies and abominable Aphorisms As that the negative vote of the King is no more then the dissent of one man the Affirmative vote of the King makes not a Law ergo the Negative cannot destroy it and the like absurd and sensless things that are in those Aphorisms and in Prins book of the Soveraign power of Parliament whereby they would deny the Kings power to hinder any Act that both the Houses shall conclude and so taking away those just prerogatives from him that are as Hereditary to him as his Kingdom compell him to assent to their conclusions for which things our Histories tell us that other Parliaments have banished and upon their returns they were hanged both the Spencers the Father and the Son for the like presumption Why the two Spencers died as among other Articles Per asperte vid. Elismere post-nati p. 99. for denying this Prerogative unto their King and affirming that if he neglected his duty and would not do what he ought for the good of the Kingdom he might be compelled by force to perform it which very thing divesteth the King of all Soveraignty overthroweth Monarchy and maketh our government a meer Aristocracy contrary to the constitution of our first Kings and the judgment of all ages for we know full well Pag. 48. from the Practise of all former Parliaments that seeing the three States are subordinate unto the King in making Laws wherein the chiefest power consisteth they may propound and consent but it is still in the Kings power to refuse or ratify and I never read that any Parliament man till now did ever say the contrary but that if there be no concurrence of the King in whom formally the power of making of any Law resideth ut in subjecto to make the Law the two Houses whose consent is but a requisite condition to compleat the Kings power are but a liveless convention like two Cyphers without a figure that of themselves are of no value or power but joyned unto their figures have the full strength of their places which is confirmed by the Viewer of the Observations out of 11. Pag. 19 20 21. Hen. 7.23 per Davers Polydore 185. Cowel inter verbo Praerog Sir Thomas Smyth de republ Angl. l. 2. c. 3. Bodin l. 1. c. 8. For if the Kings consent were not necessary for the perfecting of every Act The Letter to a Gentleman in Gloucestershire p. 3. then certainly as another saith all those Bils that heretofore have passed both Houses and for want of the Royal assent have slept and been buried all this while would now rise up as so many Laws and Statutes and would make as great confusion as these new orders and ordinances have done And as the Lawyers tell us that the necessity of the assent of all three States in Parliament is such as without any one of them the rest do but lose their labour Lamberts Archeion 271. Vid. the Viewer p. 21. so Le Roy est assentus ceo faict un Act de Parliament and as another saith Nihil ratum habetur nisi quod Rex comprobarit Nothing is perfected but what the King confirmeth But here in the naming of the three States I must tell you that I find in most of our Writers about this new-born question of the Kings power a very great omission that they are not particularly set down that the whole Kingdom might know which is every one of them and upon this omission I conceive as great mistake in them that say the three States are Which be the three States of England 1. The King 2. The House of Peers 3. The House of Commons For I am informed by no mean Lawyer that you may find it upon the Rowls of Henry the fifth Speed l. 9. c. 19. p. 712. Anno. 1 Ric. 3. as I remember and I am sure you may find it in the first year of Richard the third where the three States are particularly named and the King is none of them For it is said That at the request and by the assent of the three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and Commons of the Land Assembled it is declared that our said Soveraign Lord the King is the very undoubted King of this Realm Wherein you may plainly see the King that is acknowledged their Soveraign by all three can be none of the three but is the head of all three as the Dean is none of the Chapter but is Caput capituli and as in France and Spain so in England I conceive the three Estates to be 1. The Lords Spiritual that are if not representing yet in loco in the behalf of all the Clergy of England that till these Anabaptistical tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field were thought so considerable a party as might deserve as well a representation in Parliament as old Sarum or the like Borough of scarce twenty Houses 2. The Lords Temporal in the right of their Honor and their Posterity And to make the World believe how justly and sufficiently legal they could do this they made another Ordinance for the inhabitants of the Counties of Northampton Rutland Derby c. to pay the twentieth part and to be assessed by the Assessors that they name in imitation of the Statute lately made for the four hundred
God of their bellies to cause all the other guests to leath their meat that they alone might devour all the dainties did use Narium mucum in catinis emungere so do these men spit all their poyson against the Revenues of the Bishops and that little maintenance that is left unto the Ministers and are as greedy to devour the same themselves as the dogs that gape after every bit they see us put into our mouths for so I heard a whelp of that litter making a bitter invective in the House of Commons against Bishops Deans and Chapters and the greatness of their Revenue Doctor Burges and concluding that all they should be degraded their means should be sequestred and distributed all without any diminution of what they now possessed but with the restitution of all Impropriations unto himselfe and the rest of his factious fellow Preachers which speech as it pleased but few in the latter clause so no doubt it had fauters enough in the former part when we see this little remnant of our fore-fathers bounty this testimony of our Princes piety is the onely mote that sticks in their eye the undigested morsell in their stomacks and the onely bait that they gape after for did our King yeild this garment of Christ to be parted among their Souldiers and this revenue of the Church to be disposed of by the Parliament I doubt not but all quarrels about the Church would soon end and all oâ—her strife about Religion would be soon composed What many men would willingly undergo to procure peace But would this end all our civil Wars would the unbishoping of our Prelates bring rest unto our Prince and the taking away of their estates settle the State of the Common-wealth and bring peace and tranquillity unto this Kingdom If so we could be well contented for our own parts to be sacrificed for the safety of the people for though we dare not say with Saint Paul that we could wish our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separated from Christ for our Country-men yet I can say with a syncere heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.6 that I believe many of us could be well contented our fortunes should be confiscated and our lives ended so that could procure the peace of the Church which is infinitely troubled redeeme His Majesties honour which is so deeply wounded and preserve this our native Country from that destruction The abolishing of Episcopacy would not satisfie the Factious which this unparallel'd Rebellion doth so infallibly threaten but the truth is that the abolishing of Episcopacy root and branch the reducing of the best to the lowest rank and the bringing of the Clergy to the basest condition of servility to be such as should not be worthy to eate with the dogs of their flock as Job speaketh will not do the deed because as the Satyrist saith nemo repentè fit turpissimus but as virtues so vices have their encrease by use and progression Juven Sat. 2. primum quodque flagitium gradus est ad proximum and every heynous offence is as iron chain to draw on another For as Seneca saith nunquam usque adeò temperatae cupiditates sunt Seneca de Clem lib. 1. ut in eo quod contigit desinant sed gradus à magnis ad majora fit spes improbissimas complectuntur insperata assecuti our desires are never so far temperated that they end in that which is obtained but the gaining of one thing is a step to seek another And therefore cùm publicum jus omne positum sit in sacris as Plato saith how can it be that they which have prophaned all sacred things Plato de legibus lib. 12. and have degraded their Ministers should not also proceed to depose their Magistrates if you be diffident to believe the same let the Annals of France Germany England and Scotland be revised and you shall find that Charles the fifth was then troubled with War when the Bishops were turmoyled and tumbled out of their Seas Scoti uno eodémque momento numinis principis jugum excusserunt nec justum magistratum agnoverunt ullum ex quo primùm tempore sacris sacerdotibus bellum indixerunt and the Scots at one and the self-same moment did shake off the yoke of their obedience both unto their God and to their King neither did they acknowledg any for their just Magistrate after they had once warred against Religion and religious men Blacvod Apolog pro regibus pag. â—3 which were their Priests and Bishops saith Blacvodaeus and in Fran e saith he the same men were enemies unto the King that were adversaries unto the Priests quia politicam dominationem nunquam ferent qui principatum Ecclesiae sustulerunt nec mirum si Regibus obloquantur qui sacerdotes flammâ ferro persequuntur because as I have shewed at large in my Grand Rebellion they will never endure the Political Magistrate to have any rule The haters of the Bishops ever enemies unto kings when they have shaken off the Ecclesiastical government neither is it any wonder that they should slander rage against and reject their King when they persecute their Bishops with fire and sword And I think the sad aspect of this distracted Kingdom at this time makes this point so clear that I need not add any more proof to beget faith in any sober man for doth not all the World see that as soon as the seditious and trayterous faction in this unhappy Parliament had cast most of the Bishops How soon the Faction fell upon the King after they 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 Peers an act indeed so full of incivility as hath no small affinity with that of the Gergesites who for love of their swine drave not out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 8.34 but desired Christ to depart out of their coasts they presently began to pluck the sword out of the Kings hand and endeâ—voured to make their Soveraign in many things more servile then any of his own Subjects so that he should be gloriosissimè servilis as Saint Augustine saith that Homer was suavissimè vanus and to effect this you see how they have torn in peices 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 warr and virulent malice sought to vanquish and subdue their own most gracious Soveraign 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
tyrannicall King 2. The same Spirit saith Thou shalt not revile the Gods that is 2. To say no ill of the King Exod. 22.28 Act 23.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. To do no hurt to the King Psal 10â— 15 1 Sam. 24 4 5. the Judges of the Land nor curse that is in Saint Pauls phrase speak evill of the Ruler of the people and what can be more evill then to bely his Religion to traduce his Government and to make so faithfull a Christian King as faithless as a Cretan which is commonly broached by the Rebels and Preached by their seditious Teachers 3. The great Jehovah gives this peremptory charge to all Subjects saying Touch not mine Anointed which is the least indignity that may be and therefore Davids heart smote him when he did but cut off the lap of Sauls garment What then can be said for them that draw their swords and shoot their Cannons to take away the life of Gods Anointed which is the greatest mischiefe they can do I beleive no distinction can blinde the judgment of Almighty God but his revengefull hand will finde them out 2. What we should do to honour the King Eccles 8.2 1. To observe the kings commands that so maliâ—iously transgress his precepts and think by their subtilty to escape his punishments 2. The Scriptures do positively and plainly command us to shew all honour unto our King For 1. Solomon saith I counsell thee to keep the Kings commandment or as the phrase imports to observe the mouth of the King that is not onely his written law but also his verball commands and that in regard of the oath of God that is in respect of thy Religion or the solemne vow which thou madest at thine initiation and incorporation into Gods Church to obey all the precepts of God Et si religio tollitur nulla no bis cum coelo ratio est Lactant Iust l. 3. c. 10. whereof this is one to honour and obey the King or else that oath of allegiance and fidelity which thou hast sworn unto thy King in the presence and with the approbation of thy God which certainly will plague all perjurers and take revenge on them that take his name in vain which is the infallible and therefore most miserable condition of all the perjured Rebels of this Kingdom For if moral honesty teacheth us to keep our promises yea though it were to our own hindrance then much more should Christianity teach us to observe our deliberate and solemn oathes whose violation can bear none other fruit then the heavy censure of God's fearful indignation But when the prevalent faction took a solemn Oath and Protestation to defend all the Privileges of Parliament and the Rights of the Subjects and then presently forgetting their oath and forsaking their faith by throwing the Bishops out of the House of Peers which all men knew to be a singular Priviledge How the prevalent Faction of the Parliament forswore themselves 2. To obey the kings commandements Josh 1.18 and the House of Lords acknowledged to be the indubitable right of the Bishops and their doctrine being to dispence with all oaths for the furtherance of the cause it is no wonder they falsifie all oaths that they have made unto the King 2. The people said unto Joshua Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandment and will not hearken to the words of thy mouth in all that thou commandest he shall be put to death surely this was an absolute government and though martial yet most excellent to keep the people within the bounds of their obedience for they knew that where rebellion is permitted there can be no good performance of any duty and it may be a good lesson for all the higher powers not to be too clement which is the incouragement of Rebels to most obstinate trayterous and rebellious Subjects who daring not to stir under rigid Tyrants do kick with their heeles against the most pious Princes and therefore my soul wisheth not out of any desire of bloud but from my love to peace that this rule were well observed Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandment he shall be put to death * Quia in talibus non obedientes mortaliter peccant nisi foret illud quod praecipitur contra praeceptum Dei vel in salutis dispendiâ—m Angel summa verb. obedientia 3 To give the king no just cause of anger Prov. 2.2 The Rebels have given him cause enough to be provoked 4. To speak reverently to the king and of the king Eccles 8.4 3. The wisest of all Kings but the King of Kings saith The fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lion who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul And I believe that the taking up of Armes by the Subjects against their own King that never wronged them and the seeking to take away his life and the life of his most faithful servants is cause enough to provoke any King to anger if he be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too Stoically given to abandon all passions and that anger should be like the roaring of a Lion to them that would pull out the Lions eyes and take away the Lions life 4. The King of Heaven saith of these earthly Kings That where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou And Elihu demands Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes you are ungodly Truely if Elihu were now here he might hear many unfitter things said to our King by his own people and which is more strange by some Preachers for some of them have said but most maliciously and more falsely that he is a Papist he is the Traytor unworthy to reign unfit to live good God! do these men think God saith truth Where the word of a King is there is power that is to blast the conspiracies and to confound the spirits of all Rebels who shall one day finde it because the wrath of God at last will be awaked against their treachery Jerem. 27.8 and to revenge their perjury by inabling the King to accomplish the same upon all that resist him as he promised to doe in the like case 5. To pray for the king Ezra 6.10 1 Tim. 2.1 2. 5. The Israelites being in captivity under the King of Babylon were commanded to pray for the life of that Heathen King and for the life of his sons And Saint Paul exhorteth Timothy to make supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks for Kings and for all that are in authority and how do our men pray for our King in many Pulpits not at all and in some places for his overthrow for the shortning of his life and the finishing of his dayes nullum sit in omine pondus and they give thanks indeed not for his good but for their own supposed good success against him thus they praevaricate and pervert the words of the
Apostle to their own destruction Psal 109 6. when as the Prophet saith Their prayers shall be turned into sin 6. Christ commandeth us to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars that is 6. To render all his dues unto him as I shall more fully shew hereafter your inward duties of honour love reverence and the like and your outward debts tolls tribute custome c. and the Rebels render none unto him but take all from him and return His Arms to his destruction I might produce many other places and precepts of Holy Scripture to inforce this duty to honour the king but what will suffice him cui Roma parùm est Luke 16.31 if they beleive not Moses neither will they believe if one should arise from the dead and if these things cannot move them then certainly all the world cannot remove them from their Wickedness Yet 3. Quia exempla movent plus quà m praecepta docent 3. All kings should be honoured by the example of all Nations 1 The Israelites 1 In Egypt Exod. 12.37 Exod. 1.9 you shall finde this doctrine practised by the perpetual demeanour of all Nations For 1. If you looke upon the Children of Israel in the Land of Egypt it cannot be denyed but Pharaoh was a wicked king and exercised great cruelty and exceeding tyranny against Gods people yet Moses did not excite the Israelites to take arms against him though they were more in number being six hundred thousand men and abler for strength to make their party good then Pharoah was as the king himself confesseth but they contained themselves within the bounds of their Obedience and waited Gods leisure for their deliverance because they knew their patient suffering would more manifest their own piety and aggravate king Pharoah's obstinacy and especially magnify Gods glory then their undutiful rebelling could any ways illustrate the least of these 2. Davids demeanour towards Saul is most memorable 2. Under Saul The loyal Subjects belief p. 55. for though as one saith king Saul discovered in part the described manner of such a king as Samuel had foreshewed yet David and all his followers performed and observed the prescribed conditions that are approved by God in true Subjects never resisting never rebelling against his king though his king most unjustly persecuted him Samuel also when he had pronounced Sauls rejection 1 Sam. 15. yet did he never incite the people to Rebellion but wept and prayed for him and discharged all other duties which formerly he had shewed to be due unto him and Elias that had as good repute with the people 3. Under Ahab and could as easily have stirred up sedition as any of the seditious Preachers of this time yet did he never perswade the Subjects to withstand the illegal commands of a most wicked king 1 Reg. 21.25 that as the Scripture testifieth had sold himself to work wickedness and became the more exceedingly sinful by the provocation of Jezabel his most wicked wife and harlot but he honoured his Soveraignty and feared his Majesty when he fled away from his cruelty And because these are but particular presidents Two examples of the whole Nation under Heathen kings 1. Under Artaxerxes Ezra 1.1 I will name you two observeable examples of the whole Nation 1. When Cyrus made a Decree and his Decree according to the Laws of the Medes and Persians should be unalterable that the Temple of Jerusalem should be re-edified and the adversaries of the Jews obtained a letter from Artaxerxes to prohibit them the people of God submitting themselves to the personal command of the king contrary to that unalterable Law of Cyrus pleaded neither the goodness of the work nor the justness of the cause but yeilded to the kings will and ceased from their work until they obtained a new Licence in the second year of king Darius and if it be objected that they built the Temple in despite of those that hindered them with their sword in one hand and a trowel in the other it is rightly answered that having the kings leave to build it they might justly resist their enemies that did therein not onely shew their malice unto them but also resisted the will of the King 2. When Ahashuerus to satisfie the unjust desire of his proud favorite 2. Under Ahashuerus Hester 3.10 had wickedly decreed and most tyrannically destined all the Nation of the Jewes to a sudden death yet this dutiful people did not undutifully rebel and plead the King was seduced by evil counsel and misguided by proud Haman therefore nature teaching them vim vi pellere to stand upon their own defence they would not submit their necks to his unjust Decree but being versed in God's Lawes and unacquainted with these new devices they return to God and betake themselves to their prayers Hester 8.11 until 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 dutiful unresisting Subjects an example of such piety as would make our Land happy if our zealous generation were but acquainted with the like Religion The author of the Treatise of Monarchy p. 32. But here I know what our Anabaptists Brownist and Puritan will say that I build Castles in the air and lay down my frame without foundation because all Kings are not such as the Kings of Israel and Judah weâ—e as the Kings that God gave unto the Jews and prescribed special Laws both for the Kings to govern and the people to obey them but all other Nations have their own different and several Laws and Constitutions according to which Laws their Kings are tyed to rule and the Subjects bound to obey and no otherwise Henric. Stephaâ— in libello de hac re contendit in omnes respub debere leges Hebraeorum tanquam ab ipso Deo profectas per consequens omnium optimas reduci I answer that indeed it is granted there are several Constitutions of Royalties in several Nations and there may be Regna Laconica conditional and provisional Kingdoms wherein perhaps upon a real breach of some exprest conditions some Magistrates like the Ephori may pronounce a forfeiture as well in the successive as in the elective Kingdoms because as one saith succession is not a new title to more right but a legal continuance of what was first gotten which I can no ways yield unto if you mean it of any Soveraign King because the name of a King doth not always denotate the Soveraign power as the Kings of Lacedaemon though so called yet had no regal 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 regal government ordained by God but either an Aristocratical or Democratical government instituted by the people
our people and to fight against God's enemies that have long laboured to overthow his Church as we read of some Bishops of this Kingdom that have been driven to do the like and if these men might do these things without blame as they did why may not the same man be both a Bishop and the Kings Counsellour both a Preacher in the pulpit and a Justice of the peace on the Bench and yet the callings not confounded though the same man be called to both offices for you know the office of a Lawyer is different from the office of a Physitian and the office of a Physitian as different from the duty of a Divine and yet as Saint Luke was an excellent Physitian and a heavenly Evangelist and S. Paul as good a Lawyer as he was a Preacher for he was bred at the feet of Gamaliel as was Master Calvin too as good a Civilian as he was a Divine for that was his first profession so the same man may as in many places they do and that without blame both play the part of a Physitian to cure the body and of a Divine to instruct the soul and therefore why not of a Lawyer when as the Preachers duty next to the teaching of the faith in Christ is to perswade men to live according to the rules of Justice and Justice we cannot understand without the knowledge of the Laws both of God and men and if he be obliged to know the Law why should he be thought an unfit man to judge according to the Law But. CHAP. IX Sheweth a full answer to four special Objections that are made against the Civil jurisd ctions of Ecclesiastical persons their abilities to discharge these offices and desire to benefit the Common-wealth why some Councils inhibited these offices unto Bishops that the King may give titles of honour unto his Clergy of this title LORD not unfitly given to the Bishops proved the objections against it answered six special reasons why the King should confer honours and favours upon his Bishops and Clergy 1. IF you say the office of a Preacher requireth the whole man and where the whole man is not sufficient to one duty for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ob. 1 2 Cor. 2.16 then certainly one man is never able to supply two charges I answer that this indefinite censure is uncertainly true Sol. and most certainly false as I have proved unto you before by many examples of most holy men that discharged two offices with great applause and no very great difficulty to themseves for though Saint Matthew could not return to his trade of Publican because that a continued attendance on a secular business would have taken him from his Apostolate and prove an impediment to his Evangelick ministration yet Saint Peter might return to his nets as he did without blame because that a temporary imployment and no constant secession can be no hinderance to our Clericall office No man is alwayes able to do the same thing when there is no man that can so wholly addict himselfe to any kinde of art trade or faculâ—y but that he must sometimes interchangeably afford himselfe leisure either for his recreation Vt quemvis animo possit sufferre laborem or the recollection of strength and abilities to discharge his office by the undertaking of some other exercise which is to many men their chiefest recreation as you see the husband-mans change of labour doth still inable him to continue in labour and the Courtier cannot alwayes wait in the same posture nor the Scribe alwayes write nor the Divine alwayes study Change of labour is a kinde of recreation but there must be an exchange of his actions for the better performance of his chiefest imployment and that time which either some Gentlemen Citizens or Courtiers spend in playing hawking or hunting onely for their recreation the better to inable them to discharge their offices why may not the Divine imploy it in the performance of any other duty different but not destructive or contradictory to his more special function especially considering that the discharging of those good duties to give counsell to do justice to releive the distressed and the like are more acceptable recreations unto them as it was meate and drink to Christ to do his fathers will then the other fore-named exercises are or can be to any others John 4.34 and considering also that where the Bishop or Pastor hath great affairs and much charge he may have great helpes and much aid to assist him You will allow us an hour for our recreation why will you not allow us that hour to do justice Ob. 2. 2. If you say they are spirituall men and therefore cannot have so great a care of the temporall State and Common-wealth Sol. 1. The ability of the Clergy to manage civil affaires Ignat. Epist ad Ephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I answer that as now the Common-wealth is the Church and the Church is the Common wealth and have as good interest therein and better we hope then many of the Common-wealth have in the Church and they should be as able to unde stand what is beneficiall to the Common-wealth as any other for Ignatius saith that Kings ought to be served by wise men and by those that are of great understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to be attended upon by weak and simple men and if Kings must be served by such men then certainly the service of God is not to be performed by Weavers and Taylors and others like Jeroboams Priests but it will require men of great abilities learning and understanding in all businesses whatsoever such as are indeed well able to discourse De quolibet ente And they have very unprefitably consumed themselves with their time in their head-pain vigils and heart-breaking studies in traversing over all the Common-wealths of the world if they have learned nothing The Clergy of better abilities to benefit the Common-wealth then many others that now sway it whereby they may benefit their own Common-wealth or do understand less what belongeth unto the good of their Countrey especially in matters of equity and right then illiterate Burgesses and meere Chapmen for if you read but the bookes of the Prophets you shall finde how plentifull they are in the precepts of peace in the policies of war and in the best counsels for all things which concern the good of the Common-wealth and do not the Divines read the Histories of all or most other Common-wealths how else shall they be inabled to propose unto their people the example of Gods justice upon the wicked and his bounty and favour unto the observers of his Lawes throughout all ages and in all places of this world and will you deprive the King of the assistance of such instruments for the government of his people The imployment of the Bishops in civil affaires is the good of the Common wealth that are stronger
read that when David was assailed by a mighty Giant named Ishibibenob which was of the sons of Rapha the head of whose speare weighed three hundred shekels of brass Abishai the son of Zervia with the danger of his owne life runs in succours the king and kills the Philistim 2 Sam. 21.17 and so all other good Subjects have had a speciall care to preserve the lives of their Kings whom they loved better then their own Parents yea then their wives or children or their own lives as it appeareth by the foresaid examples and abundance of the like that you may find in the Histories of the Heathens for they had not learnt the new divinity of our time to destroy the King for the good of his Subjects but they thought as it is most true that salus regis est salus populi and they beleeved as all good Christians do that Vna salus nobis nullam sperare salut em Principe calcato sublato jure coronae because as S. Chrysostome saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in 1 Tim. 2.2 Aug. to 9. tract 6. in Johan their safety is our security and as S. August saith si tollis jura Imperatorum quis audet dicere mea est illa villa if you take away the government of Kings who dares say haec mea sunt this or that is mine as now God knowes since these Rebels have abused our King we can say nothing is our own our houses goods lives and liberties are at the disposing of them that are strongest what then shall we say of those Subjects that strive with all their wit wealth and strength to destroy their King and if you ask me why I must answer as Aristides was banished out of Athens justus quia justus so must our King be killed if these men could do it with their Cannon Bullets because he is too good to reigne over them who deserved not a pious David nor a wise Solomon to rule over them but a foolish Rehoboam Ps 2.9 that would whip them with Scorpions or such a one as would rule them with a rod of iron and breake them in pieces like a potters vessel for had our King been not Caesar Augustus but Augustus Severus so severe as Henry 8. or some other more unmercifull Princes these Rebels durst as well eate their own flesh as thus to devoure the flesh and bones of the Kings loyall Subjects and seek the death of the King himself For it is most certaine of the vulgar people and of ill bred natures that ungentes pungunt pungentes molliter ungunt and therefore though the manifold offers of Peace and the unparallel'd promising of Pardons to most obstinate Rebels do infinitely commend the piety and declare the mildness of a most clement Prince and the refusall thereof betray the ingratefull stubbornnesse of graceless Subjects to all posterity yet when the hairy scalpe of such as still go on in their wickedness will not so easily be rubbed off I should say to every King put your trust in Gods assistance and as the Holy Ghost saith to the King of Kings Psal 45.3 Gird thee with thy sword upon thy thigh O thou most mighty ride on with thine honour and let thy right hand teach thee terrible things and those thine enemies that would not thou shouldst reigne over them cause them to be brought and let them be slain before thee so shalt thou be a ruler in the midst of thine enemies Luke 19 27. and some think that it were but just if our King though he be never so loath should now at last turn the leafe and follow the example of God himself who when his children regard not his grace and set at naught all his counsels will laugh at their calamity and mock when their destruction cometh as a whirle-winde and should make London as Hierusalem and as other the like rebellious Cities Prov. 1.16 17. that the Lord in his just revenge of their iniquity hath suffered to be destroyed The wealth pride of the City of London have brought this misery and calamity upon all the kingdom of England and to be made an heape of stones because the Londoners have shewed themselves in many things worse then the Jews and for Rebellion have justified all the Cities of the world or if the King will not do this though I dare not say of them as Antoninus after he had heard the confession of a miserable covetous wretch said unto him Deus misereatur tui si vult condonet tibi peccata tua quod non credo perducat te in vitam eternam quod est impossibile yet seeing their sins are so intolerable among men and so abhominable in the sight of God it is much feared that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after their hard hearts Rom. 2.5 which cannot repent they will still proceed to heape upon themselves the heavy wrath of God till there be no remedy to preserve them from utter ruine and destruction though from my heart I wish them more grace and pray to Almighty God that Nullum sit in omine pondus Or if this cannot be that they may escape that damnation which the Apostle threatneth to all them that resist this ordinance of God Rom. 13.2 6. Prayers for the Kings 6. The last but not the least part of that honour which is due to our King is our prayers to God for him and as the other duty was to be performed by the practice of all good Subjects Aenisaeus c 2. p. 38 Tertul ad Scap. Ita Marius Aurelius Christianorum militum orationibus ad Deum factis imbres victoriam in expeditione Germanica impetraâ—it so is this to be observed by the precept of the Apostle who though the Kings were Ethnicks and Tyrants yet commanded us to pray for them and that you may know what manner of prayer the Christians made for their persecuting Kings Tertullian that lived under the Emperour Severus saith in behalf of the Church Omnibus Imperatoribus precamur vitam prolixam imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque hominis Caesaris vota sunt and I fear me our Rebels pray for none of these things to a most Christian King Nam orare pro aliquo in exitium ejus machinari annon haec sunt sibi contraria for to pray for ones health and long life and to do our best to worke his destruction Non benè conveniunt can never proceed from a true heart but as the uncharitable Papists prayed for the successe of the Gun-powder Plot which was a Treason sine exemplo quia crudelis sine modo saying Gentem auferto perfidam Credentium de finibus Vt Christo preces debitas Persolvamus alacriter So the practice of these Rebels makes us believe their prayer is Regem auferto perfidum Credentium de finibus c. * I am ashamed
forth a fiery Serpent to be the destruction of him that hatcheth it and so are the vanities of this world And here I should shew the folly and vanity of those vain men that to purchase unto themselves the reward of their impâ—ety and the wages of their unrighteousness are so greedy to rob the Church of Christ and to snatch away the lands and houses of God into their possessions but that I intend if God lend me life and health to set forth a full and ample Declaration to be exhibited to the high Court of Justice before Jesus Christ the righteous Judge against Sacriledge and all sacrilegious persons * Which I have now published in the beginning of this Book to shew what little reason vain man and proud vanity hath to soyl his God to rob the Church and to destroy himself And therefore this much shall serve at this time to shew unto you that it is most certain That every man in his best estate is altogether vanity And God grant that all my hearers may make the right use of what I have said Amen O Lord my God DIdst not thou save me and deliver me from my most malicious enemies that sought my life and hast thou not snatched me out of the jaws of death And did not I then promise and vow * In the Epistle before the seven Golden Candlesticks to do my best endeavour to serve thee and to honour thee without the fear or flattering of any man And hast thou not since many times delivered me from the mouth and teeth of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit the great Antichrist that was so wrathfully displeased against me Therefore by the grace and assistance of thy blessed Spirit I am resolved and I will continually pray to thee for thy help to perform the promise and vow that I made unto thee and for that cause I will take no Fine for any of the Bishops Land but what shall be given to repair the Church while I live neither will I Lease any of it for any longer terme than 21 Years unless it be for the better improvement thereof unto my Successour nor any otherwise than my conscience shall tell me the same to be most just and indifferent both for my self my Successour and the Tenant and I will do my best and uttermost endeavour to do and to perform all that I say and set down in this Treatise to be the duties of a faithfull and godly Bishop And I wish with all my heart that all my Reverend and Learned Brethren the Bishops would do so likewise yet I blame them no wayes if they see good reasons and just cause to do otherwise Quia plus vident oculi quam oculus and I were too sawcy and peremptory if I thought my self wiser or juster than my Brethren Jehovae Liberatori FINIS The Authour of the foregoing Treatises hath Published another Book Entituled the Best Religion wherein is largely handled the Texts of Scripture following which do contain the Fundamental Points of Christian Religion Sold by Ph. Stephens at the Gilded Lion in S. Pauls Church-Yard 1 THe Mysteries of the Rainbow Preached before the King upon Gen. 9.13 I do set my Bow in the Cloud c. 2 Gods Love to the World Preached before the King upon John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. 3 The worthiest Saying Preached before the King upon 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ c. 4 The Best Helper Preached before the King upon Rom. 8.31 If God be for us who can be against us 5 The Way to happiness Preached at Westminster upon Matth. 11.28 29 30. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden c. 6 The fruitful Knocking Preached at Westminster upon Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voyce c. 7 The Celestial Fire Preached before all the Judges upon Luke 12.49 I came to send fire upon the earth 8 The Necessity of Repentance Preached at White-Hall upon Luke 13.5 I tell you nay but except ye repent c. 9 S. Peters Charge Preached at Westminster upon John 21.21 22. Peter seeing him saith to Jesus Lord what shall this man do c. 10 The Royal Feast Preached at Westminster upon Matth. 22.11 12 13. And when the King came in to see his guests c. 11 The Paschal Sacrifice Preached at Westminster upon 1 Cor. 5.7 For Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us 12 The three chiefest Graces Preached before the King upon 1 Cor. 13.13 Now remain faith hope and charity these three c. 13 the Foolish Builders Preached at White-Hall upon Mat. 7.26 27. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not c. 14 The weeping woman Preached before the King upon John 20.11 But Mary stood without at the Sepulchre weeping 15 The Dove-like Wings Preached before the King upon Psal 55.6 O that I had wings like a Dove then would I flie away and be at rest 16 The Resolution of Pilate first Preached at S. Pauls Cross afterwards enlarged upon John 19.22 What I have written I have written 17 The Delights of the Saints first preached at S. Pauls Cross afterwards enlarged upon Rom. 1.7 To all that be at Rome beloved of God c. 18 The Misery of Man Preached at S. Pauls Cross upon Rom. 6.23 The reward of sin is death 19 The Knowledge of God Preached before K. James upon Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord strong merciful and gracious c. 20 The Incarnation of the Word Preached at S. Maries in Cambridge upon John 1.14 And the Word was made flesh 21 The Passion of the Messias Preached within the Cathedral Church of S. Paul upon Luke 24.46 Thus it behoved Christ to suffer 22 The Resurrection of Christ Preached within the Cathedral Church of S. Paul upon Mat. 28.5 6. He is not here for he is risen c. 23 The Ascention of our Saviour and Donation of the Holy Ghost Preached at S. Maries in Cambridge upon Eph. 4.5 Wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive c. 24 The Duty of Christians Preached before K. James upon 1 Thes 5.28 Brethren pray for us
brought all them that followed him and his wayes to the like perdition And so Nimrod Esau and Ismael falling away from God and Jeroboam setting up his golden gods and many other Kings and Princes neglecting their duties apostatizing from God and misleading their people brought them in like manner to their utter ruine And as many times the people are brought to their ruine by the evil example Scilicet in vulgus manant exemplaregentum utque ducum lituos sic mores castra sequuntur Claud. 1. Stilic and wicked Government of their Prime-Leaders when as the Poet saith Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis And the Souldiers would imitate Alexander in his stoopings and in his vices as well and sooner than in his vertues So many times and oftner too they are brought to the same pass the same pathes of perdition through the lewd examples and neglect of the subordinate Magistrates of the Common-wealth and the Governours and Ministers of the Church of God As when the Princes Esay 1.23 Zephant 3.3 or Nobility are rebellious and companions of Thieves or as Zephany saith like Lions and the Judges are evening-Wolves that judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widdow come unto them And when the Prophets are leight and treacherous persons and the Priests have polluted the Sanctuary and have done violence to the Law either by corrupting it Prov. 29.18 with their false glosses or locking it up in prison and not publishing the same unto the people for where there is no vision the people perish saith the Wise-man And so by their false teaching or no teaching they thrust forward the poor people into perdition And therefore Kings and Princes to whom God in the first place hath committed the Soveraignty and Charge both of Church and Common-wealth Exod. 18.21 ought not only to chuse such Judges and Magistrates as Jethro described unto Moses Able men fearing God men of truth and hating covetousness But when the Cathedrals and Parochial-Churches are built and beautified for God's Worship and for the people of God to meet in them to serve God What manner of Judges and Bishops Kings ought to chuse as they ought to be they should also take care and see that such Bishops and Priests as S. Paul describeth in 1 Tim. 3.2 c. be setled in those Churches to worship God and to bring the people to do their duties that they may attain to eternal life Lest that which S. Hierom complained of in his time should be true in our time That the Altars shined with Gold and pretious Stones Bernard ad Abbat Cluniacen Sed ministrorum nulla erat electio There was no good choice made of good Ministers whereby it was said That they had golden Chalices but woodden Priests as S. Bernard saith it was not much better in his dayes there was not such care taken for good Ministers as they should do For as in Nature we see every thing for its Creation requires a Divine hand and a Miraculous power to produce it but the same being once produced God's hand is not so conspicuous but he leaves it to the soyl as it were to stand and grow by the innate vertue planted in it So it seems to fare with Religion it self which is such a superstructure above Nature that although it be planted by God as both the Jewish and Christian Religion were with signs and wonders and a strong miraculous hand yet men must now conserve it by those ordinary means that God appointed the Church of Christ being like the Garden of God in Eden which the Lord made and then set it to our Parents to keep it and to dress it And though this Religion which at first is thus powerfully planted by God and is the principal Pillar that upholdeth States and makes all Kingdoms happy yet after the inward vertue of the Doctrine of Christ the Bishops and Priests are the main props and the ordinary means that God hath appointed to uphold his Religion and to continue his Service in his Church because Religion can neither plant it self nor sustain it self alone and what support soever it hath from the Prince or the Laws of any Nation yet the Bishâ—ps and Priests are as it were the soul of that power in the execution thereof when as all the substance circumstance and ceremonies have their life from them and our consent and belief in their holy Calling is that which doth and should keep us from the singularity of our own misguided imaginations And therefore that Prince that is truly religious Kings ought to have a special care to chuse good Bishops and hath a special care of God's Service must likewise with King David and as good King Charles ever had have a special care to see that godly and learned Bishops and Priests be appointed in God's Church to instruct his people And you know what S. Paul saith That a Bishop must be blameless the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach not given to wine no striker not greedy of filthy lucre but patient not a brawler not covetous one that ruleth well his own house having his children in subjection with all gravity not a novice or a young new Divine lest being lifted up with pride as young men commonly are he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Moreover 1 Tim 2.1.2.2 4 5 6 7. he must have a good report of them that are without lest be fall into reproach and the snare of the Devil All which large description of those parts and vertues that every Bishop and faithful Minister of God's Church ought to have may for order and method sake be reduced into these two Heads Levit. 8.8 which are the Vrim and the Thummim that Moses put upon the Breast-plate of Aaron and for which he did so earnestly pray that God would grant them unto all the Tribe of Levi saying Let thine Vrim and thy Thummim be with thy holy one or with the man of thy mercy And they signifie The two special vertues that ought to be in every Bishop and Priest 1. The uprightness of his life and conversation 2. The sincerity of his doctrine teaching of his people For so Moses sheweth that Levi did as every Bishop and Priest should do 1. Carry himself most dutifully and obedient in his life and all his actions Vertue 1 towards God as when God proved him at Massa and strove with him at the waters of Meriba he said unto his father and to his mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his brethren nor knew his own children Verse 9. but he observed Gods word and kept his Covenant and preferred the keeping of God's Laws and walking dutifully according to his will before father or mother wife or children which every Christian and especially every Christian Bishop and true Levite ought to do 2. To teâ—ch Jacob the
judgements of God and Israel his Laws to put Vertue 2 incense before the Lord and whole burnt-Sacrifices upon his Altar which is the second duty of every Bishop and every faithful Minister of Christ Verse 10. to teach the people of God and to administer his holy Sacraments For his first care and chiefest duty should be to look to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be blameless 1 Tim. 3.2 And his second care is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be apt and able to teach the people And so S. Paul tells and adviseth all the Clergy of Ephesus that they should first look and take heed unto themselves and then to all the flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers to feed the Church of God Acts 20.28 which he hath purchased with his own blood And therefore 1. How blameless Bishops and Ministers should be Luke 1.6 1. A Bishop and a Minister of Christ must have a special care to carry and behave himself so as that his life and conversation may seem blameless in the World like unto Zacharias the father of John Baptist that walked in all the Commandments of God without reproof And S. Hierom saith That talis tanta debet esse conversatio eruditio Pontificis ut omnes motus egressus universa ejus opera notabilia sint veritatem mente concipiat eam toto habitu resonet ornatu Hierom. in Epist 43. ut quicquid agit quicquid loquitur doctrina sit populorum The life and conversation of a Bishop and so likewise of every Minister of the Gospel should be such so grave and so holy that all his motions and progressions and all other his works should be notable and worthy to be observed he should conceive the truth in his mind and sound out the same by his habit and ornament that whatsoever he doth The mischief that the evil examples of Bishops and Ministers do produce and whatsoever he saith may be a lesson of instruction unto the people who do look more unto the examples that we give them and the actions that we do than to the Precepts that we preach or the Doctrine that we declare unto them And another Father saith that Nemo plus in Ecclesia nocet quà m qui perversè agens nomen vel ordinem sanctitatis habet delinquentem namque hunc redarguere nullus praesumit in exemplum vehementer culpa extenditur cum pro reverentia ordinis peccator honoratur No man doth or indeed can do more hurt in the Church of God than he that doth wickedly and lives dissolutely and hath the name or order of holiness that is holy Orders because no man presumeth or dares to reprove such an one when he offendeth and his fault exceedingly reacheth to the example of others to do the like when for the reverence of his Order they see such a wicked man so honoured And therefore I may say to such a one as Claudian saith to Honorius changing only but one word Hoc te praeterea crebro sermone monebo Claâ—dian de 4. Câ—nsolat Honorii Vt te totius medio telluris in orbe Vivere cognoscas cunctis tua gentibus esse Facta palam nec posse dari praesulibus unquam Secretum vitiis nam lux altissama fati Occultum nil esse sinit latebrasque per omnes Intrat abstrusos implorat fama recessus For such men are like a City that is set upon a Hill and all mens eyes are upon them and therefore their lives and their actions cannot be concealed but their doings are more conspicuous and their danger far greater than any other men And that as Aquinas saith in a threefold respect First because the Dispensers of the holy Sacraments and the holy Word of God which ought not to be handled but by holy men in which respect a holy Father saith Mallem sustinere poenam Caiphae Pilati Herodis quà m Sacerdotis indignè celebrantis That he would rather chuse to suffer the punishment of Caiphas and of Pilate and of Herod than of a wicked Bishop or Priest that doth unworthily administer the Blessed Sacrament Secondly because these men are to render their account more strictly being looked into more narrowly than other men because as S. Bernard saith Those faults and transgressions quae in aliis nugae sunt Cujâ—s vita despicâ—tu restaâ— ut ejus praedicatio contemnatur Gregor super Evangel l. 1. Hom. 6. in Sacerdotibus sunt blasphemiae And those â—iâ—s that in others seem to be but steps and triffles veniâ—â— digna and may easily be pardoned yet in Bishops and the Ministers of God's word they are heynous offences and worthy to be punished heavily with many stripes seeing they knew their Masters will and did it not And thirdly because that by their Places and Offiâ—es they are to teach other men not to offend and to answer for then sins if through their neglect they do offend and yet by their ill lives and examples they teach them to offend 2. As they are in these respects 2. How careful the Bishops Priests ought to be to teach the people Ezech. 3.17 c. 3.7 to have a special care of their own lives and conversations to live justly and holily as the servants of Christ ought to do so they are likewise obliged to be sedulous and diligent in the instruction and tuition of the people committed under their charge for they are made the Watchmen and Shepherds over God's people to teach them and instruct them what they should do and what they should believe even as our Saviour saith unto his Apostles Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son Matth. ult 19.20 and of the Holy Ghost and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commâ—nded you And therefore S. Paul chargeth Bishop Timothy before God and before Jesus Christ that he preach the word and be instant in season 2 Tim. 4 1 2. 1 Cor. 9.16 and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with all long sâ—ffering and doctrine and he saith Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel And S. Gregory saith Oportet ut praedicatores sint fortes in praeceptis compatientes infirmis Greg. in Mor. 30. super Job 39. terribiles in minis in exhortationibus blandi in ostendâ—ndo magisterio bumiles in rerum temporalium contemptu dominantes in tolerandis adversitatibus rigidi It behoves that Preachers should be strong and strict in their precepts compassionate and pitiful to the weak terrible in their threatnings to the impenitent smooth and gentle in their exhortations in shewing their power and authority humble in despising the world and all worldly things stout and domineering and in suffering and bearing adversities firm and constant And the same S. Gregory saith also Idem Moral l. 17. that Non debet praedicator infirmis insinnare cuncta
asked if they should not command fire to consume them as Elias did that is if they should not use their best endeavours and be confident of Gods assistance to destroy those prophane rejecters of Christ and refusers of his religion Our Saviour though ever meeke yet now moved at this their unchristian thought rebuked them with that sharpness as he did Saint Peter when he committed the like â—â—rour and said You know not what manner of spirit you are of as if he had said Matth. 16.23 you understand not the difference betwixt the profession of Elias and my religion for he was such a Zelot that jure zelotarum and the extraordinary instinct of Gods spirit that was in him might at that time when the Jews were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus saith and God presiding as it were their King amongst them and interposing rules by his Oracles and other particular directions that should oblige and warrant them as well as their standing Law do this or the like act though not authorized by any ordinary Law and those actions thus performed are as just and as legal as any other that proceed from the authority of the supreame Magistrate but that dispensation of the Prophets is now ended and the profession of my Disciples must be far otherwise for I do not authorize my servants to pretend to the spirit of Elias or to do as Phineas and others extraordinary men among the Jews have done but they must learn of me to be meeke and lowly in heart and rather to suffer wrong of others then to offer the least injury unto their meanest neighbour Matth. 11.29 much less to resist their supreame Magistrate And when Christ was apprehended not by any legal power of the supreme Magistrate but by the rude servants of the High Priests and Saint Peter How Christ carried himself before Pilate and the High-Priests as zealous for his Master as our Zealots are for their Religion drew his sword and smote off Malchus ear a most justifiable and commendable act a man would think to defend Christ and in him all Christianity our Saviour bids him put up his sword and he adds a reason most considerable to all Christians for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword that is all they that without lawful authority take the sword to defend me and my religion with the sword they deserve to suffer by the sword and it is very well observed by the Author of resisting the lawful Magistrate upon colour of religion that the two parallel places quoted in the margent of our Bibles are very pertinent to this purpose Pag. 6. for that Law concerning the effusion of bloud Gen. 9.6 being not any prohibition to the legal cutting off of Malefactors is notwithstanding urged against S. Peter to shew that his shedding of bloud in defence of religion was altogether illegal and prohibited by that Law and the other place where immediately after these words He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Revel 13.10 the Holy Ghost adjoyneth here is the patience and the faith of the Saints doth most clearly shew that all forcible resistance is inconsistent with the religion of the Saints because their faith must be ever accompanied with their patience and it is contrary to their profession to save themselves by any violent opposition of them that have the lawful authority But that example which is unparallel'd is the suffering of Christ under Pontius Pilate for the whole course of their proceeding gainst Christ was illegal when as no Law can be found to justifie the delivering up of an innocent person to the will of his accusers as Pilate did our Saviour Christ and our Saviour had ability and strength enough to have defended himself John 19.16 for he might have commanded more then twelve Legions of Angels to assist him yet our Saviour acknowledging the legal power of Pilate to proceed against him John 19.12 that it was given him from above makes no resistance either to maintain his doctrine or to preserve his life but in all things submits himself to their illegal proceedings and gives unto the Magistrates all the honour that was due unto their places and you know the rule Omnis Christi actio debet esse nostra instrictio 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 shâ—rply reproved all that spake evill of Authority much more would they say against them that commit evill and proceed in all wickedness against Authority And Tertullian speaking of the behaviour of the Primitive Christians towards the Heathen Emperours How the Primitive Christians hehaved themselves towards their Heathen persecutors 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 soâ—us in cuâ—us 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 Minut us Felix Nazianzen which also wrote against the vices of Julian S. Augustine and others of the prime Fathers of the Church have set down how the Primitive Christians and godly Martyrs that suffered all k nde 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 Beda p. 15. nor any wayes resisted their insolencie And Johannes 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 thâ— cause he that is God put the sword into the Magistrates hand that he may repress the sins committed not onely against the second Table of Gods Commandments but also against the first We must therefore for his sake not onely endure that Superiours rule over us but also honour and esteem 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 bear the yoke of