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
Imprimatur Ex Aed Sab. 30. Jun. 1662. Geo Stradling S. Th. P. Rev. in Christo Patri D no GILBERT Episc Lond. Ã Sac. Domest TRUTH VINDICATED AGAINST Sacriledge Atheism and Prophaneness And likewise against the Common Invaders OF THE RIGHTS of KINGS AND DEMONSTRATING THE VANITY of MAN in General By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS now Lord Bishop of OSSORY LONDON Printed for Randall Taylor at the Three Crowns in Little-Britain and in Westminster-Hall M.DC.LXVI TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAJESTY Most Gracious Sovereign I Do most humbly beseech your Majesty to give leave unto your Father's most faithful servant and Your most Loyal Subject to tell you of what you cannot choose but know and what I assure thy self you do most thankfully remember that besides the many-many great blessings which the great and good God hath often shewed unto your Majesty He hath conferred and fastened two Extraordinary signal Favours upon you 1. To preserve your life after Worster-fight from those Vulturs that did so greedily thirst after your blood 2. To render unto Caesar what was Caesar's that is by taking away from those many potent and tenacious Tyrants and Vsurpers what they unjustly held and restoring your Kingdoms and setting your Crown upon your Majestie 's head where our daily prayers are that it may long and long flourish And as the Prophet David that had received the like blessings and favours from God saith Quid retribuam Domino So let me as the Embassador of God most humbly supplicate your Majesty To render unto God what is God's And as your Majesty beyond example to the exceeding comfort of us all hath most graciously and Religiously like the Son of your most pious and now most glorious Father so freely and so bountifully rendered the Revenues of Jesus Christ vested in your Majesty to his Church So by your Royal Edicts to do what in you lieth to cause all others to do the like that is To render unto God what is Gods which is but the duty of all and is now neglected almost of all for besides the other things which we owe and render not to God Manus auferendi the Sacrilegious hands have laid fast hold upon Gods right And not only so but the great Leviathan maketh it his pastime to cause his whelps to swallow up whole Churches and as it were Lege agraria to take away the Lands and Houses of the Lord into their possessions and to make the poor Levite that serveth at Gods Altar to lye in the streets or to lodge in an Irish Cabbin like the Israelites in the Wilderness when they dwelt in booths covered over with a few boughs I know your Majesty knoweth what the Prophet saith of many that speak friendly unto their neighbours but imagine mischief in their hearts so many Gentlemen Souldiers and others will speak very fair and say to your Majesty and to us God forbid that they should wrong the Church of God or take any thing from the Church and yet the mischief that they will do if they may have their minds is more than I can divine For their Covetousness and greedy desire of the Ecclesiastical Revenues projecteth no less then that this your Kingdom of Ireland should be full of darkness and that the poor people should cry for bread even the Bread of Life and there should be none as now we have but few or few able to give it them when they that should give it them have scarce bread enough to put into their own mouths and less shall have if the nefarious Violators of Holy things shall have the least countenance from your Majesty to effect their Sacrilegious wils But to let your Majesty see how earnestly and eagerly your Commissioned-Officers in 49. do strive to take away the Houses and Lands of the Church and Prebends I thought good to insert their Letters in this place To our very good Friends the Commissioners appointed for Setting the forfeited-Houses c. in the City of KILKENNY Gentlemen YOurs of the 16 th Instant we have Received acquainting us that the Corporations in your Commission mentioned do persist to Claim more then their right And propounding that for better distinguishing our Interest therein you may be by us Impowered to set the same to such a number of your selves as you shall think fittest in order to the due Trial and Ascertaining our said Interest and as are best able to manage that Affair As also signifying that the Clergy in the said Corporations do equally refuse and disappear and therefore desiring our Resolves and like Order concerning both which having duely considered We do hereby acquaint you that it is our Vnanimous Resolve and Direction both for the Corporation and Clergy-part wherein you are Concerned That you forthwith give notice to the Inhabitants and Tenants respectively That if they will not Treat with you and take out Leases of their several Holdings at moderate Rents to be by you imposed within two daies after such your notice that then you have And we do hereby give and grant unto you or such a fitting number of you as shall be amongst your selves agreed upon full power to become Tenants to such Holdings and to enter upon and possess the same or otherwise dispose thereof agreeable to your Instructions and as may be for our best advantage And as to the Clergy-part refusing or opposing as aforesaid you are to Sett and Lett all Fee-farms And we must believe them what Houses were set in Fee-farm by the Church formerly granted of any the premises or to Impose a Considerable Rent as you see fittest reserving to the Church the chief Rents payable thereout respectively And of the Rents by you reserved and other particulars relating to the premises you are to give an exact and speedy Account unto Your very loving Friends Hen. Tichburn Joh. Stephens Hans Hamilton Ran. Clayton Alex. Piggot According to the purport of the above Letter We do hereby give notice unto all persons Concerned that Fryday next being the 30 th of this Instant May We do intend to sett and dispose of all such Houses c. Which Letter we have thought fit to publish that so none might plead Ignorance Dated the 26 th of May. 1662. Tho. Evans Rob. Lloyd Ol. Wheeler Will. Hamilton Hen. Brenn. Whereby all men may see how the Church and poor Bishop of Ossory do seem to stand in the hands of Scyron and Procrustes The Souldiers of the Vsurpers that fought against their King and do still detain the Church-land from the Bishop And now like that in the Canticles wounded in the house of our friends the Souldiers in 49. that were most faithful unto your Majesty do still seek to take away our Houses from the Church And if we lose both House and Land we may go to live in the Church and lie with the Levite in the Streets But as your Majesty hath been most Gracious to the Bishops and to all the Clergy so bountifull as to grant
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
Church 1. Thing impar congressus A hilli Infoelix puer too weak every way to contest with so many magnanimous men of Arms that are incompassed with so many heroick friends I must 1. Appeal to thee O my God and sweet Saviour Jesus Christ and desire thee with the words of the Psalmist Arise O God maintain thine own cause or as our last Translation hath it plead thine own cause Psal 74.23 for I am not able to maintain it unless thou wilt arise to plead the cause of the helpless and pluck thy right hand out of thy bosom to consume the enemy and let not man have the upper hand but do thou to them as thou didst unto the Midianites unto Sisera and unto Jabin at the brook of Kison which perished at Endor and became as the dung of the earth which say Let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession and especially to them that not only say but also do violently and sacrilegiously mis-inform good and pious Princes and take both the houses of God and the lands of the Church into their possessions O my God make them like a wheel that is alwaies tottering and turning and as the stubble before the wind Psal 83.12 that is ever shaking and never at rest and like as the fire that burneth up the wood and as the flame that consumeth the mountains persecute them even so with thy tempest and make them affraid with thy storms that they may understand what a heynous sin it is to commit Sacriledge and to rob the living God by hindering and disinabling his servants to do him service and to ascribe the honour due unto his name 2 I must and will to the uttermost of mine ability 2. Thing demonstrate unto all Church-robbers the heynousness of this sin and the fearfull punishment thereof and to that end 1. I will here set down what I have written above 45 years agone concerning sacriledge and what you may find in the True Church l. 3. c. 2. pag. 429. with some amplification and explication thereof 2d Thing 2. I will upon the resolution and religious intention of the good and godly King David to build God an House for his servants to meet in it to worship him shew unto you the necessity and use of Cathedrals and Churches for Gods Worship and the duty of all Christian Kings and Princes therein and the full description and detestation of this horrible and most odious sin of Sacriledge And I will do my best to enlarge this point unto the full that so my Reader may reap the full benefit of this my Discourse and the easier retain in his memory what he readeth in it and that the same good Doctrines and Instructions the oftner and the more usually they are published and in the more large Volums they are printed may the more likely have their fate to continue when as small Treatises especially not methodically digested are the sooner neglected and do suffer through the iniquity of time to be buried in oblivion 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 Sacriledge what it is Râ—i sacrae violatio aut usurpatio 1. SAcriledge which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the sacrilegious person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the usurpation or the violation of any sacred thing and this violation of it is to be understood for any kind of irreverence or dishonouring of it Sacrilegium dicitur qua si sacrilaedium saith Innocentius Thom. primae secundae q 99. Prov. 20.25 and as Aquinas saith All that is sacriledge which is done to the irreverence of any sacred thing And Solomon saith It is an abomination to the Lord to devour things that are sanctified Et non omne quod displicet dicitur abominatio And not all things that displease God are said to be abominations sed quod valde dâ—splicet but the things which do most highly and exceedingly displease the Lord Peraldus Summa Vitiorum is said to be an abomination saith Peraldus 2. You may observe that this high displeasing sin of Sacriledge is manifold Sacriledge threefold and committed 3. wayes 1. Way against sacred persons but especially it consisteth in these three things 1. The violation and abuse offered to Sacred persons such as are Kings and Queens that are called and appointed by God to be nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers unto the Church of Christ and the Bishops Priests and other Ministers that are consecrated to serve God at his Altar Whosoever doth irreverently abuse any of them either in word or deed committeth sacriledge because they are sacred persons And so Agesilaus was wont to say That he did greatly wonder why any man should think that they are not worthily accounted in the number of sacrilegious persons qui laederent eos qui diis supplicarent vel Deos venerarentur which did any wayes hurt or wrong those which did supplicate or intercede for us and worshipped God whereby that most prudent Prince signified Eos non tantum sacrilegos esse Aemilius Probus qui Deos ipsos aut Templorum ornatum spoliarent sed eos maxime qui Deorum miniâ—tros praeâ—ones contumeliis affiâ—erent saith Aeâ—iliâ—â— Probus Luke 10.16 because that as our Saviour saith He that despiseth you despiseth me and be that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me 2. Way against sacred places 2. The prophaning of the Church or the abuse of any places consecrated for to be the places of Gods service is no lesse than sacriledge 3. That is sacriledge and he is a sacrilegious person 3. Way against sacred things 1. Sacraments 2. Vessels 3 Ornaments 4. Goods 1 Lands Houses c. which not only disâ—onoureth and irreverently useth the sacred persons or prophaneth the holy places but doth take away any sacred thing or any other thing feloniously by way of stealth from any sacred place Quia tale furtum Sacrilegium est Because such a theft is termed sacriledge which every other stealth or unjust taking or detaining of our neighbours goods is not so Nam undecunque tollere non est Sacrilegium committere for all stealth and every unjust taking away of goods is not sacriledge but he that taketh away any thing that is sacred or consecrated and dedicated for the service of God is a robber of God and a sacrilegious person saith S. Augustine and so S. Hierom saith Amico rapere furtum est Augustine super Johan habetur 23. q. 4. Sacriledge how different from Theft Hierom. Ep. 34. sed Ecclesiam fraudare Sacrilegium est To steal and take away the goods of our friend or neighbour is theft but to take away the goods or to defraud or cheat the Church of Christ of any thing that belongs unto the Church is Sacriledge Yea voluntas sola quoad ecclesiam punitur As he that
things abused and to distinguish betwixt that fault which proceedeth ex natura facti out of the nature of the fact and that which springeth ex abusu boni from the abuse of that which is good for if the thing be simply evil no circumstance no dispensation can make it good and therefore it should be wholly rejected and abolished because as Aristotle saith Cujus usus simpliciter malus est Arist Topic. 1. Si usus principalis alicujus rei sit mortifer mortiferam quoque rem ipsam efficiet ipsum quodque malum esse necesse est that thing whose use is simply evil must needs be likewise evil of it self but if the fault be not in the thing it self but adventitious in usu agentis in the use or rather in the abuse of the agent then certainly the thing it self as being good ought to be retained and the abuse only is to be removed or amended And therefore the endowing of Gods Church with means to maintain Gods service or the giving of our goods to the use of Gods Worship whether it be praying to him or preaching to his people Navar. Enchiâ—id c. 14. or relieving his members being not only simply good but also most excellently good both commanded and commended by God himself it is a Maxime Things once dedicated to God may not at any time by any body be alienated from the Church even in nature and confirmed by meer reason that Semel Deo dicatum non est ad usus humanos ulterius transferendum that which is once given and dedicated for and to Gods service which is a service acceptable to God ought not afterwards by any means be any more transferred to mans uses because as Plato saith Quae rectè data sunt eripi non licet those things that are well given ought not to be taken back again and because as the Fathers say Bis Dei sunt quae sic Dei sunt God hath in all dedicated things that are given to uphold his service a double right and interest 1. As his own Creatures and gift given to man And 2. As in a thankfull acknowledgment of Gods goodness the gift of man back again to God which twofold cord tieth them so strong that this sin deserves no less than the heavy curse of Anathema for any one not consecrated to do the service of God to challenge them and to take them away from Gods service and the donors first institution whereupon not only the Divines but also the Philosophers and Canonists have concluded 6. Decret de reg juris Plato Phileb 1 Chron. 29.14 Plin. 2. Ep. l. 10. Epist 74 75. that Si facta aedes sit licet collapsa sit jam religio tamen ejus occupavit locum If an house be once dedicated to God though afterwards it should fall down and be utterly demolished so that the ruines of it could scarce be seen yet the soil and ground of it is still holy and religious and not to be imployed to any civill or prophane uses And therefore I say that those men which have or do or shall under the colour of Reforming the Church and the pretence of any law rob the Church and deprive either the Bishops or Ministers of their houses lands or tythes or any other portion which hath been given to the Church and for the service of God are Thieves and Sacrilegious thieves be they who you will and their pretences what they will Two sorts of men guilty of Sacriledge under pretence of law And here I must tell you that I find two sorts of men that may be questioned for being guilty of this sin of Sacriledge 1. The Spirituall-men the Bishops and other Priests the Ministers of Gods Church that have made away the lands houses and goods of the Church 2. The Lay-Princes Lords and Gentlemen and others that take away the goods lands and houses of the Church and all as both these sorts of men pretend by the right and benefit of the Law and therefore no waies offending and so not to be taxed for any Sacriledge But to discuss these points and to find out the truth I say that although the Pope be not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist that was expected to come into the Church as I have fully shewed in my book de Antichristo yet I doubt not but that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Sacrilegus and the chiefest Sacrilegious person that ever these Kingdoms saw as hereafter I shall more fully declare unto you 1 Spirituall men Sacrilegious and how Next I say that others Bishops and Priests especially of his Church may be as indeed many of them have been very Sacrilegious and robbers of the Church of Christ as when they let out either by Lease or fee-farm to their children friends or for fine the lands houses or any other goods and possessions of the Church to the loss and prejudice of the Church and to disinable their successors to discharge their duties and the service of God as they ought to do Obj. But they will say with St. Paul that Where no Law is there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 and there was no Law to inhibite them to lease out their lands to whom they would nay the Law gave them leave and impowred them to do it and therefore no Sacriledge nor offence in them in all that they did when they did nothing but according to Law Sol. I answer that the Human law must not intrench nor can infringe the law of God nor any waies allow the thing that should prejudice the service of God neither do I believe that the laws of our Christian Kings and Princes ever intended so to do for it is an old rule in law that Praelatus ecclesiae statum possessiones meliorare potest sed deteriorare non potest nec debet But when it was alledged and manifested in Parliaments that the houses belonging to the Church being ruined or far out of reparation and the lands either wast or not well managed could not be improved to the best advantage and benefit of the Church without the Tenants and present Occupiers thereof had some competent time therein therefore the pious Kings enacted their laws not to force but to licence Cathedrals and Colledges to lease out their lands and possessions Why Bishope and Clergy-men weâ—e permitted to grant leâ—ses of the lands and revenues of the Church not to make their children and friends Knights and Ladies or to fill their own coffers with fines to the great prejudice of their successors and the neglect and treading down of Gods service but that the revenue and the inheritance of the Church might be improved and the best advantage made of it for the glory of God and the furtherance of Gods service by the instruction of his people and relieving his poor members for which ends it was first dedicated unto God Therefore when either Bishop or any other
Clergy man from the letter of the law doth pervert the end and abuse the meaning of the law I make it a case of Conscience and demand Whether such men as do let out the lands and houses of the Church for their own private gain and not for the benefit of Gods Church and the advancement of Gods service do not commit this horrible sin of Sacriledge For my part I conceive them to be the worst and most Sacrilegious persons of all others that should know the truth and not give such ill examples both of Covetousness and Sacriledge unto their neighbours How the Bishops and other Clergy-men may lease their Lands without Sacriledge but let them lease what they will for the benefit of Gods Church the furtherance of Religion and the no-prejudice of their successors and they shall never find me to oppose them But otherwise to lease the lands of the Church that is better worth then a 100 l. per annum for less then a 100 s. for to make our children great and the Church poor to benefit our selves and to prejudice Gods service and to say We have a law that warrants us to do it We have Acts of Parliament that allow it and have the practice and presidents of other Bishops Deans and Chapters that have done it is but to say as the Jews said to Pilate We have a law and by our law he ought to die And ought he therefore to die think you because these Jews had such a law I verily think not so and I think likewise that though you have or should have a law to take away and alienate the rights of the Church yet you should not do it if you love the Church or do any waies fear God And for the practice of some other Bishops Deans and Chapters I confess heretofore many of them have done bad enough and worse in my mind then the worst of lay men for them to sell the rights of the Church and so with Judas to betray their Master Christ but Vivitur praeceptis non exemplis if the practice and presidents of others would or could excuse our faults then Drunkards Whore-masters and Murderers might easily find presidents enough to excuse their wickedness and so I know the Sacrilegious persons may as easily find the like But I shall hereafter shew you how and by whose power and by what means these our Laws and Acts of Parliament for the alienating By whose power the laws for leasing and passing away the Church-lands came to be made Consider that leasing and selling of the revenues of the Church came to be made and leave it to any pious mind and conscientious man to consider Whether they ought in the strictness thereof to be observed or not and not rather commend the care and great piety of our late most gratious King and now glorious Martyr Charles the I. Who a little to curb the extravagancies and large extent of our laws by his regall Authority wrote his letters to all Bishops Deans and Chapters that they should lease out their lands for no longer term then 21 years as it appeareth by this his most gratious and pious Letter directed unto my self the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedrall Church of Bangor which for the honour and praise and our thankfulness to so pious and so Religious a King for his care and love to the Church and service of God I thought it my duty to insert it in this place To our Trusty and wel-beloved the Dean of Bangor Charles Rex TRusty and welbeloved We greet you well We have lately taken the State of our Cathedral and Collegiat Churches into our Princely Consideration that We may be the better able to preserve that livelyhood which as yet is left unto them Vpon this deliberation We find that of later times there hath not risen a greater inconvenience then by turning Leases of one and twenty years into Lives for by that means the present Dean and Chapter put great Fines into their Purses to enrich themselves their wives and children and leave their Successors of what deserts soever to Vs and the Church destitute of that growing means which else would come in to help them By which course should it continue scarce any of them could be able to live and keep house according to their Place and Callings We know the Statute makes it alike lawful for a Dean and Chapter to let their Leases for the Term of one and twenty years or three Lives but time and experience have made it apparent that there is a great deal of difference between them especially in Church-Leases where men are commonly in years before they come to those Places These are therefore to will and command you upon peril of Our utmost displeasure and what shall follow thereon that notwithstanding any Statute or any other pretence whatsoever you presume not to let and Lease belonging to your Church into Lives that is not in Lives already And further where any fair opportunity is offered you if any such be you fail not to reduce such as are in Lives into Years And We do likewise will and require that these our Letters may remain upon Record in your own Register-Books and in the Register of the Lord Bishop of that Dioces that he may take notice of these our Commands unto you and give Vs and our Royal Successors knowledge if you presume in any sort to disobey them O that the mind and piety of this most godly King expressed in this Letter had bin observed by all our Predecessors Bishops Deanes and Chapters the which I will do and punctually observe it by the grace of God And further whereas in Our late Instructions We have commanded all our Bishops respectively not to lett any Lease after We have named any of them to a better Bishoprick but did not in those Instructions name the Deans who yet were intended by Vs These are therefore to declare unto you that no Dean shall presume to renew any Lease either into Lives or Years after such time as We have nominated him either to a better Denary or a Bishoprick having observed that at such times of remove many men care not what or how they lett to the prejudice of the Church and their Successors And this is Our expresse Command to you your Chapter and your Successors which in any case We require both you and them strictly to observe upon pain of Our high displeasure and as you and they will answer the contrary at your and their utmost perils Given under Our Signet at Our Mannor of Greenwich the Two and Twentieth day of June in the Tenth year of our Reign Whereby you may perceive that the same holy Spirit that led this blessed King to be of this mind doth now likewise lead me to be of the same mind that no Bishop Dean or Chapter ought to Lease ouâ— the Lands and Revenues of the Church for any longer Term than 21. years For
sight of other mens honour as Alcibiades with the glory and honour given to Miltiades was spurred forward to the like atchievements that he might attain unto the like glory whereas otherwise as it is a Maxime in warlike Affairs that exprobrata militia creditur Take away the reward and learning perisheth quae irremunerata transitur that service is thought base and that warfare not worth the following which is unworthy of any reward so it is true in Academical sciences and all other Arts whatsoever that Inhonorata virtus languescit Virtue despised and left unrewarded will soon faint and languish and all good Arts even of themselves without pressure will speedily decay which was the only course and the most spitefull that Julian took to root out Christianity to take away the maintenance of the Ministers for he knew that as both Seneca and Tacitus saith Sublatis studiorum praemiis ipsa studia pereunt 3. The buying and selling of Church livings will be the decay of all hospitality 3. I say that this buying and selling of spiritual promotions in the Church of God will be as it is indeed and hath been of a long time ever since the birth of this bastard brat the extirpation of all hospitality among the Clergy The Apostle tells us that a Bishop should be given to hospitality and Saint Augustine to inforce this duty the sooner to be observed saith Aug. de verbis Domini sermone 25. Foecundus est ager pauperum citò reddit dominantibus fructum Dei est pro parvis magna pensare the field of the poor is very profitable and yieldeth his fruit very quickly and that plentifully because it is the property of God How our gâ—od works do further Faith in others to render great things to us for the small things that we give to him And Saint Gregory saith Egentis mentem doctrinae sermo non penetrat si hunc vel illum sermonem apud ejus animum manus m sericordiae non commendat the Word of God Preached doth not pierce the heart of a needy man If they take away our lands and sell our livings how can we relieve the poor unless the hand of mercy doth commend that Word and reach it home unto him which is a very excellent true and most worthy saying worthy to be remembred and to be practised of all Divines And yet now in these times and amongst us that I fear is true which the poor complain of That there is but small hospitality among the Clergy But they ought to consider what the Philosopher saith Nihil dat quod non habet he that hath but scarce enough to maintain himself can spare but very little to relieve others and therefore seeing a Minister must not get his living by any other means then by the means of his Ministry and that by his calling to be a Minister and all his pains and diligence in his calling he can get no means unless he buyes his living and when he buyes it he is commonly set so far in debt that in haste The poor are not able to relieve the poor he shall not be able to recover himself out of his creditors books How is it possible that a Minister Parson or Vicar should be able to be hospitable unto others when as the Popish Priests were wont to say dirge's for their dinners So these poor Preachers must read Lectures for their maintenance which is many times as I have seen it in some places made up out of the poor mens box and the Lecturer must preach placentia lest his voluntary benefactors if he be too bold in their reproofs should substract the pittance of their contribution A most lamentable thing that a Preacher of Gods Word that ought freely to speak the truth must be thus fettered for want of means and that they Ministers in some places and at some times relieved out of the poor mens box which should have plenty that they might be inabled to relieve the poor should be brought to that scantling and penury as to be forced to be relieved themselves out of the portion of the poor O consider this all ye Sacrilegious patrons that sell your livings and forget God lest he remember you and tear you to pieces while there is none to help you 4. If the observation of precedent things may presage any future thing 4. The buying and sâ—lling of Church livings is the presage of some great evil unto thâ— Church I say that this buying and selling of Church-livings doth portend and fore-signify some great and imminent evil both to the Church and state for Socrates in his Eccles Hist tell us that when some wicked Souldiers had prophaned the Church and had Sacrilegiously robbed her Priests as now our souldiers strive and study how to do the like one standing by said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This abuse of Gods house fore-sheweth no good thing to come and Socrates saith he was not deceived because that in a very short time after it happened according as he feared and Alphonsus de castro saith as he is cited by the Bishop of Oxford that the flourishing Churches of Greece and Armenia were forsaken of God and had their Candle-sticks that upheld the light of the Gospel removed when they began to maintain that it Was lawfull to buy and sell the lands goods and revenues of the Church And therefore I advise and wish all that hunger and thirst after the Church lands houses and goods and all covetous Patrons to take heed of this sin of buying and selling what belongs unto the Church or to take away the lands or houses of the Church which is a sin so dangerous to themselves so prejudiciall to the Church and so ominous to the Common-wealth And let them remember what I said before that if Pharaoh in the time of that great famine which was in Aegypt Gen. 47. made such provision for the Priests that although all the other his subjects were constrained to sell their lands for sustenance yet the lands of the Priests were not sold neither had any of them any need to sell them and if Popish Priests that either preached not at all or preached their own traditions or some fabulous narrations and fictions out of their legends were so richly kept and still are in France Spaine and Italy on Saint Peters patrimony Why should they deal so hardly and so niggardly with the Ministers of the Gospel that do sincerely Preach the truth of Jesus Christ unto their people as to sell unto them or take away from them that little which is left and is most due unto them Or if all this will not serve to withdraw them from this sin let them take heed of the Prophets woe that crieth out against all such dealers saying Vae accumulanti non sua Woe be to him that heapeth together those things that are none of his own Hab. 2.6 and especially those things that are
the proper place of it and was obscured and hemmed and as it were imprisoned in private houses so that the people had no publique place of Assembly to here the law and to offer Sacrifice unto God but every one had his Chappell of ease and his private Oratory by himself to serve God as he listed as now of late it hath been with us David assoon as ever he was chosen to be King in Hebron the first work he did was to consult with his Captains and all the Congregations of Israel to cite and summon the Priests and Levites and all the Clergy that were for the service of the Tabernacle to appear before him 1 Chron. 13.1 3. and to cause the Ark of God to be brought again unto them that they might inquire at it which they did not nor could do in the daies of Saul and when he had assembled the Children of Aaron and the Levites 1 Chron. 15.4 12. Vers 11. he shewed them the abuses that Religion had sustained in the daies of Saul and he caused the Ark to be carried upon the shoulders of the Levites unto the place that he had prepared for it and when he had called for Zaedok and Abiathar the Priests and for the Levites for Vriel Asaiah and Joel Shemaiah and Eliol and Aminidab he did set down which of the Levites should serve and in what order they should Minister before the Ark 1 Chron. 16.39.41 42. and he injoyned the sons of Aaron that were Priests how they should go forward every one in their course And so according to this Practice of King David King Solomon his son and all the succeeding Kings that were good and godly did the like for of Sâ—lomon it is recorded that he appointed according to the order of David his father the courses of the Priests to their service and the Levites to their charges to praise and Minister before the Priests 2 Chron. 8.14 as the duty of every day required the Porters also by their courses at every gate for so David the man of God commanded And it is further Chronicled of King Solomon that what his father here projected and consulted about the building of an House to the Lord he really performed 2 Chron c. 5. c. 6. c. 7. and when he had built it he made a very godly speech and a most excellent Oration unto the people touching the Worship of God and his Religion and he deposed Abiathar and set up Sadoc in his place and Sanctified the Temple and placed the Ark of God therein and offered burnt offerings and Sacrifices and directed the Priests and Levites in all their proceedings even as his father David had done before him and that which is very observeable it is said that the Priests and Levites left nothing unobserved but did all things according as they had received in commandment from the King So likewise King Jehosophat is highly commended for his piety and Religious care of Gods Worship for it is recorded of him that he appointed and disposed the Priests and Levites to do the service of the Tabernacle and that by order of his Authority the Woods and Groves and High places which were the lets and hinderances of the true Religion were quite removed and taken away because the people by their private Meetings and Conventicles in those places to serve God as they now adayes do with us wholly neglected the Cathedral and Mother-Church which â—as at Hierusalem 2 Chron. 17.7 8 9. and to which they were from every corner of the Kingdom yearly to repair And when the Service of God was corrupted and the Temple most filthily defiled through the negligence and sinfulness of the Priests King Ezechias commanded it to be purged 2 Chron. 29. per totum and he caused lights to be set up incense to be burned Sacrifices to be performed and the Brazen Serpent that was become an Idol and worshipped by the people to be broken down and consumed to ashes So King Joas reproved the Priests of his time for their excessive abuses and the insolent behaviour that was seen in them for he sequestred the oblations of the people which the Priests had unjustly and wantonly taken and appropriated to themselves 2 Reg. 12.7 and by his Royal Authority caused them to be converted for the reparation of the Temple And King Josias to his everlasting praise shewed himself most careful to suppresse the Idolatrous Priests to purge the Church from all Idolatry and Superstition and to put the Priests and Levites in mind of their duties as you may see in 2 Reg. 23. 2 Reg. 23. Obj. per totum And if our adversaries of the Roman Church do object and say Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperour or any lay-Prince to do with the Church let him rule the Common wealth and leave Religion and what belongs to God's Worship to be ordered and observed by the Pope Bishops and Priests whose Office and Calling is to take care and to see the Church of God should be sufficiently served and all holy duties holily performed And the examples alleaged infringe not the force of this Objection because David was a Prophet even as Moses was and his ordering the affairs of the Temple and setling the Service of the Church was done by vertue of his Prophetical and not of his Princely-Office And Solomon was Divinely inspired by God's holy Spirit both for the building of the Temple and the ordering of the Priests and Levites for the Service of the Temple And as Jehu had the direction of the Prophet Elisha for the suppression of the Priests of Baal so had Ezechias the prophet Esay to direct him in the purging of the Temple and Reformation of those abuses that had crept in into the Service of God Sol. To this we answer That as Joshua the Prince was required to go in and out at the word of Eleazar the Priest so we yield that the King ought to hearken to the counsel and direction of his Bishop and Priest as David here did consult with Nathan and Ezechias with the Prophet Esay And while Religion is purely maintained the people truly instructed and the Church rightly and orderly governed by the Bishops and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Governours the Prince needs not to trouble himself with any Reformation or to meddle with the matters of Religion But the King Prince and Supreme Magistrate ought to see that all the aforesaid things are so and if they be not to correct the Priest when he is careless and to cause all the abuses that he seeth in the Church and in Religion to be Reformed Augustin contra Cresconium l. 3 c. 51. Because as S. Augustine saith In hoc reges Deo serviunt sicut iis divinitùs praecipitur in quantum sunt reges si in suis regnis bonae jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam
ponunt in esse and are no apodictical proofs for any weighty matters especially the examples of the oâ—d Testament to confirm the doing of the like things under the new Testament because that for us to be guided and directed by the examples of the old Law is the high-way to lead us to infinite inconveniences Therefore it followeth not that because the Kings of Israel and Juda did such things as are fore-shewed unto the Priests and Levites and the setling of the Service in the Temple therefore our Moderne Princes should have the like Authority to do the like things unto the Bishops and Priests of the new Testament about the Worship of God and the Government of his Church and especially in the censuring of them that are appointed by Christ to be the Prime Governours of the same Sol. To this I answer 1. That this is as the Schooles say Petitio principii and a begging of the Question for we say that although for the perfecting of the Saints Ephes 4.12 for the work of the Ministery for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ that is the Church God hath set in his Church first Apostles 1 Cor. 12.28 secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers and so Bishops and Priests primarily and principally to discharge the aforesaid Offices and Duties yet this proveth not that they are simply and absolutely the Prime Governours and Chief Rulers of the Church but that the Kings and Princes In what sense the Bishops Priests and in what sense Kings Princes may be said to be the prime Governours of the Church Esay 49.23 in the other respect aforenamed may be justly said to be the Prime and Supreme Governours as well in all causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal for the Prophet Esay speaking of the Church of the Gospel saith That Kings should be her nursing fathers and Queens her nursing mothers And I hope you will yield that the fathers and mothers are the Prime and Supremest Governours of their children rather than their School-masters and Teachers But though the progeny of the Pope and our frantick Sectaries would fain thrust out the eyes of the politick Prince and make him just like Polyphemus that had a body of vast dimensions but of a single sight scarce able to see his wayes and to govern himself yet I shall by God's assistance make it most apparent unto you by the testimony of the Fathers Councils and some Popish Authors that the Soveraign Prince hath and ought to have alwayes a peremptory Supreme power as well over the Ecclesiastical persons and causes of the Church as over the Civil persons and causes of the Temporal State and Common-wealth For 1. S. Augustine writing against Parmenian the Donatist that would 1. The testimony of the Fathers Aug. p. 1. Cont. Epistolam Parmon with our Disciplinarians that are the very brood of those Donatists unarme the King of his Spiritual Sword saith An forte de Religione fas non est ut dicat Imperator vel quos miserit Imperator Cur ergo ad Imperatorem vestri venerunt legati Cur eum fecerunt causae suae judicem Is it not lawful for the Emperour and so the Prince or whomsoever he shall send to treat and determine matters of Religion If you think it is not Why did your Messengers then come unto the Emperour And why did they make him thy Judge of their cause Whereby you see S. Augustine judgeth the Emperour or any other Supreme Prince to have a lawful power to hear and to determine the points and matters controverted among the Bishops and so to have a Spiritual jurisdiction as well as a Temporal Nicephorus also in his Preface to the Emperour Immanuel saith Nicephorus in praefatione ad Immanuel Imperat Tu es Dux professionis fidei nostrae tu restituisti Catholicam Ecclesiam reformasti Ecclesiam Dei à mercatoribus coelestis Doctrinae ab haereticis per verbum veritatis Thou art the Captain of our Profession and of the Christian Faith and thou hast Restored or Reformed the Catholick Church and cleansed it from those Merchants of the heavenly Doctrine and from all the Hereticks by the word of Truth And I think nothing can be said fuller and clearer than this to justifie the Spiritual jurisdiction of the Prince and Supreme Magistrate in causes Ecclesiastical Theodoretus l. 1 c. 7. Yet Theodoret and Eusebius say as much of Constantine the Great 2. You may read in the Council of Chalcedon 2. The testimony of the Councils That all the Bishops and Clergy that were gathered together to that place as the Members of our Parliament use to do were wont to lay down the Canons they had agreed upon in the Council until the Emperour should come to confirm them with his Royal assent and when the Emperour came they said These Decrees seem good unto us if they seem so to your Sacred Majesty And the Bishops of the Council of Constantinople that was after the first Council of Ephesus Concil Chalcedon Artic. 1. pag. 831. wrote thus submissively unto the Emperour Theodosius We humbly beseech your Clemency that as you have honoured the Church with your Letters by which you have called us together Ita finalem conclusionem decretorum nostrorum corrobores sententia tua sigillo So you would be pleased to strengthen and confirm the last conclusion of our Decrees by your Royal Sentence and Seal 3. 3. The testimony of Popes and Papists As the Fathers and Councils do thus acknowledge the Emperours right in the Spiritual jurisdiction So many of the Popes and Papists themselves have confest the same truth and yielded the same right unto the Emperour and other Soveraign Magistrate in the Church and Church-matters and over all the parsoâ—s belonâ—ing unto the Church for Platina that was Library-keeper unto the Pope Iâ—aira in severino papa saith that Without the Letters pattents of the Emperour to confirm him the Pope is no lawfull Pope and Zabarel a great Scholar saith The Pope may be accused before the Emperour of and for any notorious crime Zâ—barella de Schismate Concilus and publick scandalous offence Imperator potest à papa requirere rationem fidei and the Emperour may inquire and call the Pope to yield an account of his faith and Religion And so many of the better Popes were not ashamed to confess the same for Saint Gregory who for his great learning and piety was sirnamed the Great writing unto Mauritius the Emperour saith Imperatori obedientiam praebui Theodoret l. 2. c. 16. pro Deo quod sensi minimè tacui I have yielded all obedience unto the Emperour and what I conceived to be truth and for God I concealed it not 2 q. 4. Mandastis and before Saint Gregories time Pope Liberius being convented to appear before Constantius denied not most readily to obey his summons So did Pope Sixtus upon the like complaint appear
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
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
that it might be admired for the beauty and majesty of it Josephus Antiq. l. 15. c. ult especially after that Herod sirnamed the Great had repaired inlarged and so magnificently beautified the same Mark 13.1 so that one of his disciples in admiration of the work saith to Christ Master See what manner of stones and what buildings are here Matth. 24.1 And the Jews tell him that it was forty six years in building Joh. 2.20 before it was brought to that perfection which Zorobabel did unto it Joseph Antiq. l. 11. c. 4. Cum inchoatum erat in secundo anno Cyri qui regnavit annis 30. Et post eum Cambyses regnavit annis 8. Et absolutum erat Darii Histaspis anno 9. Et sic dempto primo anno Cyri remanent anni sicut Judaei dicunt 46. For of this Temple the Jewes here do speak as Theophlact Tolet and Calvin do observe Exod. 23.17 34.23 24. To this Temple and Metropolitan-Church the Jews were all required to meet and to appear before the Lord to do him service three times every year and because these times were too seldom and the waies too far for them to come from all the parts of Jury any oftner they had from time to time many Synagogues and Chappels Act. 13.27 c. 15.21 like our Parochiall Churches wherein they might publickly meet as they did every Sabbath to serve the Lord and because this Cathedrall Church the Temple of the High Priest though very large and spacious Origo earum tempore captivitatis Babylonicae cepit Sigon de rep l. â— c. 8. yet was not sufficient to contain the many thousands of people that were in the great City of Jerusalem they had very many Synagogues set up in this City and Paulus Phagius recounteth no less then 400 of them And Sigonius saith there were 480. And out of Jerusalem they had many Synagogues in other Cities and Provinces as there were Synagogues in Galilee Matth. 4.23 Synagogues in Damascus Sigon de repuh Heb l. 2. c. 8. Maimon in Typhil c. 11. Sect. 1. ex Goodw. Act. 9.2 Synagogues at Salamis Act. 13.5 Synagogues at Antioch Act. 13.14 And their Tradition is saith Maimonides that wheresoever ten men of Israel were there ought to be built a Synagogue and the Jews acknowledged it a great favour and were very thankfull to any man that built them any of these Synagogues as the Elders of the Jews besought Christ to heal the servant of the Centurion Luk. 7.5 because He loved their Nation and had built them a Synagogue And I would our men would be as glad and as desirous to have our decayed Churches built and not to make such havock to destroy them as they do and that without any cause in the World For You may see how Christ himself and his Apostles came and taught very often not only in the Temple but also in these lâ—sser Synagogues of the Jews and it is admirable to consider how the primitive Christians Euseb l. 10. c. 3. 4. as Eusebius recordeth erected such Oratories and Basilicaes that is Royall-houses and Churches as stately as any Kings Palace and beautified the same with excessive charges to make them fit places for the publick meetings of the Christians to serve their God and so the Church of Saint Paul in London and of Saint Peter in Westminster and the rest of the Cathedrall Churches throughout England and Ireland to pass no further can bear sufficient witness of the zeal and devotion of our Christian predecessors to erect such Great and adorn such Beautifull Houses unto God Magnos magna decent as became so great and so glorious a God as our God is to have And as the number of the Christians waxed daily beyond number and increased more and more as you may conceive by the increase which a few weeks time hath wrought after the ascention of Christ when St. Peter's sermon converted 3000. souls in one day so it caused the distinction of Assemblies and the number of Churches to be increased and multiplied in all Countreys and Cities more and more So that in Rome about a hundred year after Christ the Congregation of the Christians became so huge great that Evaristus then Bishop of Rome for the avoiding of confusion and the easier and better instruction of them caused them to be distributed and parted into fifteen particular Parishes and assigned fifteen severall Presbyters to instruct and govern them the Presbyters then being honest men and no waies contradicting Evaristus And to prove that the first Christians who lived under persecutions The fiâ—st Christians had some kind of Churches even from the Apostles time had some kind of Churches though as then not so magnificent you may see in 1 Cor. 12.18 22. c. 14.19 23. And so the most ancient of the Fathers do bear witness as Clemens Tertullian Socrates and Eusebius proves the same out of the book of Philo Judaeus lib. 2. cap. 17. And Lactantius In carminibus de passione Domini saith Quisquis ades mediusque subis in limina Templi Siste parum Whosoever thou art that comest to the House of God stay a white that is to consider whither thou goest and as Salomon saith To keep and look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God which is as God himself expoundeth the meaning thereof unto Moses saying Exod. 3. Put off thy shooes from thy feet that is to make clean thy waies and bring no filth nor any carnall affections nor worldly desires into the House of God because The place whereon thou standest is Holy ground that is by reason of Gods gracious and speciall presence in that place where Moses stood and where God is prayed unto and praised by the Minister and Worshipped by the rest of his faithfull servants And if any man desires fuller proofs of this truth I refer him to Cardinall Bellarmin and to that excellent and Learned Sermon of Master Mede upon the 1 Cor. 11.22 Yet I deny not but the prime Primitive Christians The prime primitive Christians had no stately Churches and why and the Church which was at Jerusalem and received that Religion that is the Faith of Christ which the Scribes and Pharisees and their laws did not allow of were constrained many times to hide their heads in desolate places and were inforced by stealth to exercise and discharge the duties of their profession in vaults and private houses where they might be most safe though the places were not sutable to their service the swords of their enemies were so sore against them But at length between times by sufferance and connivency and sometimes through favour and protection they began to be imboldened and to reare up Oratories and Churches though but simple and of mean aspect because the estates of most of them were but mean and very low as S. Paul sheweth 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many Rich
not many Noble are called which was indeed a good way to suppress the danger of malignity that looks not so much after poor estates and a good way to increase their number and propagate their design with more safety And as by this means the Church began to take root and to grow stronger and the wealthier nobler and wiser men began to be in love with the Christian Religion So then they loved nothing more than to build Churches answerable for their beauty How zealously the fi st Christians were affected how bountifully they contributed towards the building of their Churches to the dignity of their Religion and for their greatness to the number of their Professors And the devotion of these Christians was so large and did so liberally contribute towards the erecting of their Churches as the Israelites in the dayes of Bezaliel did chearfully present their Gifts and Free-will-offerings towards the setting up of the Tabernacle no man was backward and no man a niggard in this work which they conceived to be so profitable and so necessary for them to do and that in two special respects 1. The good that is effected 2. The evils that are prevented by the publick meeting of the people in these Churches The double benefit that we reap by our coming to the Publick meeting in the Church 1. The meeting of the Congregation publickly in a lawful place and a consecrated Church assures them they offend not the Laws either of God or man and so secures them from all blame and prevents the occasion to traduce and to suspect the lawfulnesse of the holy Duties that we perform when as Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth and the performance of just things and holy actions need not run and hide themselves in private hidden 1. Benefit and unlawful places but may shew themselves and appear so publickly as they might not be subject to any the least unjust imputation 2. Benefit 2. The meeting in a publick consecrated Church and not in a private Conventicle escapes those dangerous plots and machinations that are very often invented and contrived in those Conventicles that are vailed for that purpose under the mantle and pretence of Religion And it freeth the comers unto the Church from those seditious Doctrines and damnable Divinity which the Sectaries and Hereticks do scatter and broach in those unlawful Conventicles which are the fittest places for them to effect their wicked purpose and must needs be sinful and offend both God and man because they are contrary to the Laws both of God and man Whenas the coming unto the Church quits my conscience from all fear of offending because that herein I do obey and do agreeable to the Laws both of God and man And who then that hath any dram of wit would not avoid private and forbidden meetings and go to serve God unto the publick Church which is the House of God erected and dedicated for his Service 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 ANd yet for all this and all that we can say for the Church of God I find Four sorts of Objections 4 Sorts of Objections against our Material Churches that are made by our Fanaticks and Skenimastices against our Material Churches As 1. Against the Necessity 2. Against the Sanctity 3. Against the Beauty Glory 4. Against the impurity Impiety of them 1. They do object 1. Objection against the necessity that we have no need of Churches there is no Necessity of any Material House or Church of God for his servants to meet in to serve God because the woman of Samaria discoursing with Christ about the place where God would be worshipped Whether in that Mountain where the Fathers worshipped or in Hierusalem which as the Jews said was the place where men ought to worship Our Saviour tells her plainly They worshipped they knew not what for the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet in Hierusalem worship the Father but the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth because God is a Spirit John 4.20 23. and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth and such worshippers the Father seeks and such he loves And therefore so we have clean hearts and pure consciences and worship God with our souls and spirits faithfully to pray unto him and to praise his Name it is no matter for the place where we do it in a Church or in a Barn because God looks rather to the inward heart than to the outward place where we stand To this I answer Maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum Sol. and our Saviours words gives them no colour to extort such consequences and to draw such conclusions from them for the words are plain enough that although formerly before Moses his time Jacob had a Well near Sichar and he with the other Fathers worshipped God in that Mountain and afterwards God required them to worship him in the place that he should chuse to put his Name there which after the time of David and the building of his Temple by Solomon was to be Hierusalem and no where else to perform the commanded Publick Service of God under the punishment of cutting off that soul from his people that should do otherwise Yet the hour cometh and now is that is coming or beginning to come that the partition-Wall betwixt the Jews and the Gentiles shall be broken down and the bounds and borders of Gods Church and the true worshippers of God shall be inlarged and they may lawfully without offence worship God not only in Jury where God was only formerly known aright but also in all the Nations and in any Kingdom of the World so they worship him in spirit and in truth as they ought to do But here is not one syllable intimating that they should not or needed not to meet to serve God in the Publick Church but that whensoever and wheresoever in any Kingdom of the Earth they should gather themselves together in the Publick Church to worship God they should worship him in spirit and in truth otherwise their worship is to no purpose and will avail them nothing though they should do it publickly in the Church This is the true meaning of our Saviours words Obj. 2 2. We have another sort of Sectaries that yield it requisite and convenient for the Saints and servants of God to meet and gather themselves together for the Service of God and do acknowledg the great benefits that may accrew and be obtained in a Congregation rather than by any single person but they think there is no necessity of their meeting in a Material Church or a Steeple-house as they call it rather than in a house or a chamber or a
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
quae sentit nec debet praedicare rudibus quanta cognoscit which is a very good lesson And so you see partly what the Bishops and Ministers of Christ ought to do and how to behave themselves in the Church of God Yet I must confesse we and our Predecessors Dan 9.5 the Bishops of God's Church have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from God's Precepts and neglecting the performance of our duties for whereas Exemplar vitae populis est vita regentis And as S. Gregory saith Lux gregis est flamma doctoris The light whereby the flock walketh is the shining flame of the Shepherds life Yet many of our Predecess rs I am sure and I pray God that none of our present Prelates may do the like have given very evil examples unto the people if the example of covetousness in justice and the obstructing and neglect of Gods Service and the furtherance of mens salvation be evil examples for letting passe what we find written of Pope Sixtus the Fourth of whom this Epitaph was made Sixte jaces tandem fidei contemptor aequi Pacis ut hostis eras pace peremptus obis And of Alexander the sixth that made a league with the Devil as Balaeus saith to obtain his Papacy and of whom it was said as I shewed before Vendit Alexander cruces altaria Christum Emerat ille prius vendere jure potest And of Boniface the eighth and divers others wicked Popes that pretended to be the Bishops and Vicars of Christ but were indeed the limbs of Anti-Christ We find nearer home that what pious men and good Christians had formerly most zealously bestowed upon the Church and Churchmen for the Honor of God the relieving of the poor and the promoting of the Christian faith many of our own Bishops most wickedly and Sacrilegiously either through Covetousness for some fine or for love and affection to their Children friends or servants have alienated and made away the same from their Successors in Fee-farm or long leases some for one thousand some for one hundred years and some for other longer term reserving only some small rent for the succeeding Bishops as in my Diocess of Ossory that Lordship was set for ten pound yearly that is well nigh worth two hundred pound and that was set for four pound which is better worth then fifty pound with many others in the like sort whereby we that come after them and they that shall come after us are neither able to keep Hospitality nor to feed the poor nor scarce our selves and our own families nor indeed to do any other work of piety and service of God which the Scripture requireth us to do And if these things be not wickedness and a high degree of abominable Sacriledge mine understanding fails me and this being Sacriledge I know not what laws can make it good Let them have what Laws and what Acts of Parliament soever they please to justify their doings I know not how those Laws and Acts of Parliament will or can justify them before the Throne of the just God And therefore not to do my self what I blame in others lest God should condemn me out of mine own mouth as my good God hath hitherto preserved me and kept my hands clean from all Corruption and from taking any the least bribe or gift from any man or any service but what I paid for even in my poorest state and meanest condition when I had not for many years together twenty pound per annum to maintain me so I have resolved and do pray to God continually to give his grace to perform it and do hope that God will grant it me that I will never take either bribe for any thing or gift from any man or fine for any House Land or Lordship that belongs either to my Deanery or Bishoprick while I live if I should live a thousand years but what shall be for the repaire of the Church And besides all this and many other faults in their own lives of less moment I have often bemoaned one offence of some of my brethren above all the rest when I considered how they not following the Counsel of St. Paul in the Ordination of Priests and Deacons To lay hands on no man rashly but to see that the persons that are to be admitted to holy Orders should be no novices that is no young Divines because as Saint Gregory saith Nequaquam debent homines in aetate infirma praedicare Men ought not to Preach in their young and tender years Quia juxta rationis usum sermo doctrinae non suppetit nisi in perfecta aetate because that according to the use of Reason Learning and Wisdom is not attained unto but in perfect age Et Redemptor noster Greg. sup Ezech. Ho. 2. in Pastor cum Coeli sit conditor Angelorum Doctor ante tricennale tempus in terra magister noluit fieri hominum ut videlicet praecipitatis vim saluberrimi timoris infunderet cum ipse etiam qui labi non posset perfectae vitae gratiam non nisi perfecta aetate praedicaret And our Redeemer that is the Creator of the Heavens and Teacher of Angels would not be made the Teacher of men here on Earth before he was thirty years of age that so he might powre forth the force and fruit of wholesome fâ—â—r to them that are fallen when as he also that could not fall did not preach the grace and waies of a perfect life but in a perfect age and to see likewise that they should be no waies unworthy of so high a calling but every way qualified both for life and doctrine so as the Word of God doth require have notwithstanding either by the solicitation of friends or for some other respects and perhaps worser Corruption many times made young novices illiterate men and which is far worse men of corrupt minds and of bad lives of loose dissolute carriage the Priests of the most High God to wait at his Altar that were not worthy to wait on our Table And therefore as those Bishops that did thus did herein falsify their Faith to God and betrayed his service to these unworthy men So the just God hath most justly suffered these perfidious men to betray their makers to spit in their Fathers faces and to combine themselves with the enemies of Christ to destroy the Bishops of Gods Church and so as the Poet saith in another kind Ignavum fucos pecus à praesepibus arcent This wicked brood that we our selves begat and made would drive their Sires from their hives and from our offices And I know not by what fatality unless it be by the just wrath of God to intail the wickedness of the Fathers like the Leprosy of Gehezi unto the Children for the sins and injustice of the Fathers that are so well known and ingraven in the consciences of the Children yet so it is
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
Benefices and Tythes to lay persons as the Council of Lateran held under Pope Alexander the 3d decreed That Qui decimas laico Câ—ncil Lateran part 26. c. 8. Causa 16. q. 7. c. 3. Greg. 7. Causa 19 q 7. c. 1. Periculum animae in seculo manenti concesserit deponendus est The Priest which shall passe away the Tythes to any secular lay man is to be deposed And the Canon Si quia à modo Episcopus c. saith That if any Bishop hereafter do passe away the Tythes and Oblations to lay men let them be numbred amongst the greatest Hereticks And the lay men that receive the Tythes as to be their own proper inheritance either from the Bishops or Kings do run into the danger of their souls saith another Canon Yet as if all these were but tela aranea a Spider's web nothing would avail with the Pope to make him to desist his wicked practice of making these impropriations to whom he pleased Therefore the wrath of God being exceedingly kindled against the abominations of these wicked houses that were thus maintained with the Revenues of the Church and upheld in their wickedness by the usurped power of the Pope the good God that could bring light out of darknesse could likewise punish and destroy wickedness by wicked men As he did prophane Saul by the uncircumcised Philistines and Idolatrous Manasses by the idolatrous Babylonians So now he stirreth up a King bad enough Henry the Eighth to be as Nebuchadnezzar was unto the Jews the Rod of his fury to whip and scourge these idle loose and lewd wantons for when the King began to be weary of the same dish and to satisfie his palate desired licence of the Pope to change meat and to be divorced from his old Wife and the Pope rather for fear of offending the King of Spain than any true fear of God as some conceive knew not how to yield to his unlawful lust the King to be revenged deviseth to overthrow the Pope's former wickedness by a greater wickedness even as Physitians sometimes do allay poyson with a stronger poyson And because wickedness can never want Counsellors and Abettors the King had a Cromwell at his elbow a name as fatal unto the Church as Tarquin was to Rome and many others to please their Master gave their Vote to the same purpose That the only way to be throughly revenged was not to stand triffling about small matters that might soon have an end but to give such a perpetual wound as might not be cured and that was utterly to destroy the delights of the Pope by taking away and rooting out all the Abbies Monasteries Nunries and Religious houses within his Dominions so far as he could possibly reach and it is strange If the Lord himself had not been on our side that the Cathedrals and Bishops had not been destroyed likewise And lest the Pope by the perswasions slights and eloquence of his Emissaries and Clergy should gain them to be reduced and restored either to these Houses or to the Church again the only sure way to keep out the Popes fingers from them is to bestow both their Lands and all these impropriations upon his Nobility and Gentry and so he shall not only perpetually be revenged upon the Pope but he shall also most infinitely oblige his friends and his servants who will be tenacious enough to detain them and keep them ad Graecas calendas from returning unto their proper sphere any more and this Counsel pleased the King and his Master and though Arch-Bishop Craumer did what ever he could to get these impropriations restored unto the Church The Holy Table name and thing pag. 148. by his manifold perswasions unto the King and especially by a message purposely sent to Mr. John Calvin by one Mr. Nicholas to intreat Mr. Calvin likewise most earnestly to write to King Henry the 8th and to perswade him by all means to restore these impropriations unto the Church of God And so Mr. Bucer and all the godly Protestants of that time did their best to perswade him to restore them yet all could not prevaile to have them restored For that now 3. Covetousness and the greedy desire of wealth and love unto this present World hath seized upon the hearts and filled the souls of those Lords Knights and Gentlemen and the posterity of them likewise which had taken hold of these impropriations that they cannot endure to part with them any more But as Kites and Cormorants do seize upon a Carrion so do they engross unto themselves the portion of their God and the inheritance of the Church of Christ and such a sweet savour and pleasant taste of Tythes and Church goods hath been taken ever since the birth of this monstrous Sacriledge as that now many Noble men and almost every Knight and Gentleman of any note hath got to themselves the Tythes or some part of the Tythes of an impropriate Church for the inlarging of their Larder-house And that you need not doubt of this I must here set down what you may find in Mr. Crashaws Epistle to Mr. Perkins second Treatise of the Duties of the Ministry that in one County of the Kingdom of England the East riding of the County of York there are contained one hundred and five Parishes whereof nigh an hundred or the full number of an hundred are of this hateful name and bastardly title of Impropriations and some of them are of yearly value of four hundred pounds others worth three hundred pounds per annum others two hundred pounds and almost all worth one hundred pound a year and yet the Minister's part is ten pound stipend yea some have but eight pounds and some but six pounds and some but four pounds to live upon for the whole year and out of the Great Benefice of four hundred pounds a year the Minister had but eight pound per annum Dr. Gardiner in his Scourge of Sacriledge until of late with much labour ten pounds yearly for a Preacher And saith mine Author the most of the Churches in the properest Market-Towns of this Kingdom are thus held and retained by our Nobility and Gentry And so I found it in my Diocess of Ossory in the Kingdom of Ireland that the Impropriations had so swallowed up the Tythes and the Revenues of the Churches that as I shewed it in my Remonstrance to his Majesty six or seven Vicaridges united together will scarce make twenty pound a year for the Preacher Et durus est hic sermo for hereby the people perish and as the Prophet saith The poor Children cry for Bread and for want of means to maintain the Ministers there is none that is able to give it them I know King Henry the 8th that could cause his Parliaments as I ever understood from the old Parliament men of those times to make what Laws and to conclude what Acts of Parliament he pleased got many Laws to be made
be made But though it be an Axiom infallible not liable to controulment and a truth as clear as the Sun that Impropriations of Tythes and the alienation of Lands Houses and other things that were given to God and for the service of God ought not to be done nor cannot be injoyed as their own proper goods by any lay person be he Lord Knight or what you will contrary to the mind and will of the donors without committing that horrible sin of Sacriledge yet you must not so understand me How the tythes lands and houses of the Church may be let and set to lay persons as if I conceived that Ministers might not set their Tythes or let their Lands and their Livings to any lay-person or that it must be generally understood that no commerce or bargain can be made of the goods and endowments of the Church because that as God is willing we should use those goods alwaies for our benefit so he will be as graciously pleased we shall forgoe them and exchange them when we find it for our benefit and the benefit of his Church and Service which in all our bargains and commerce we ought chiefely to regard because we are but Gods Stewards for the service of his Church and so whatsoever our Religion and our Ancestors have honoured God withal we must imploy not so much for our own best advantage as for that which maketh most for Gods honor And therefore we that are instructed with the inheritance of the Church and portion of Jesus Christ must not make such bargains for our Master as Glaucus made for himself when he changed his golden Armour for brazen furniture neither must we deal with the Church of Christ as Rehoboam did with the Temple of Solomon 1 Reg. 14.26 27. when he took away all the shields of gold and made in their steed shields of brass but what bargain or covenant soever we make without sin for the greater glory unto God and grâ—â—â—ter good unto the Church we hold it good with whomsoever the same is made 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 THus you have heard how that Cathedrals and other Parochial Churches should be built and beautified for the Honor of God Godly Bishops and Preachers should be placed in them for the Service of God and then the allowance that God hath appointed should be given and yielded unto them for their maintenance And now because the Lands Houses Tythes and Hereditaments of the Church which the Lord God hath granted and the godly Emperours pious Kings and zealous Professors have given and dedicate for Gods service are in these dismal daies snatched away by the hands of Haâ—ksters and haters of Religion and alienated by the Souldiers that divide Christ his garments amongst them from the true servants and Ministers of Christ who should be very thankful unto these Souldiers as they often say that we have any thing left unto us For as the Orator telleth the grave Senators of Rome of an audacious fellow called Fimbria that stabbed Quintus Scaevola an honest man Cicero in Orat. pro Roscio Amerino at the funerals of Caius Marius and then boasted of the great favour that he shewed to him Quòd non totum telum in ejus corpore absconderat That he had not thrust his dagger wholly to the Hilt into his body but only gave him a slight stab that was sufficient to kill him So these brood of Fimbria having seized upon a great part of the Houses Lands and Patrimony of the Church and still detayning them Per fas nefas in their own hands do labour to get more and think the favour that they have done us deserveth no small thanks that they brought or left to us what we have and have not deprived us of all together Therefore Covetousness Injustice and the love of this World being so deeply grounded and setled in the hearts of our Demas's and this Epidemical disease of taking and detaining the Churches right being as one saith just like the Kings-evil which no Physitian but the King himself will serve to heal it Our address must be unto his Majesty to supplicate that he would be graciously pleased to interpose his Royal Command to stop the current of these intruders into Gods right and to cause the Restitution of the Church-goods to be made unto the Church And among the rest of the injuries done by these Military * I speak of the Souldiers because either the Souldiers of that Parliament or of Crumwel or his Majesty have almost all the Kingdom of Ireland and do fill the House of Lords and the House of Commons and are the chief men in every place So that nothing can be done either in Parliament City or Countrey but what they will have done because they are the Major Party and so can Out-vote all the rest and therefore Ireland being now Regnum Militum This my discourse cannot be Gratum opus agricolis but Ingratum militibus which is all one to me if you consider what I say in the latter end of this book and that I fear not what they say of me Quia nec melior sum si laudeverint nec deterior si vituperaverint men to the Church of God there is one great Abuse which is generally used and practised here in Ireland by the rich proprietors and possessors of Lands and Town-ships to the abundant detriment and loss of the Ministers and to the hazard and danger if not the destruction of many I know not how many souls and that is when the Gentleman proprietor that holds all or most of the Parish in his own hands if he be offended with his Minister and cannot have the Tythes as he pleaseth himself he can make the Rectory or Vicaridge that might be well worth fifty or sixty pounds per annum to be scarce worth ten pound a year or nothing for he will leave all his ground unplowed and turne it to pasture and so bring a dearth through the scarcity of Corn in the Common-Wealth and then he will buy young Bullocks and fils his Lands with dry Cattle whereof their Religious Lawyers of whom Dr. Gardiner †Dr. Gardiner in his Scourge of Sacriledge saith that he never heard yet at any hand of any good that they have Prophesied unto the Church tels them their custome will preserve them from the payment of any
Sacriledge and especially the Sacriledge of this Climate and more particularly of this Diocesse of Ossory where the Irish behind me the English before me the Citizens of the Corporation of Kilkeny and Crumwells Captains on the one hand and your Majestie 's faithful Souldiers and Subjects in Anno 1649. on the other hand do all seem to me to become faithless unto Christ and to fight against God to take away the Inheritance of his Church from us that are his weak servants And it hath imboldned me likewise most humbly to supplicate your Majesty to take notice of these wrongs done unto us which you do not know and to assist me to gain that right unto the Church which I without your Majesties assistance cannot do and to pardon me for my boldness and whatsoever else I have done amisse 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 ANd now sweet Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ having made mine humble addresse according to my bounden duty to thine Annointed thy Livetenant and my Sacred Soveraign to assist thy servants to maintain thy right Thy right I say as thou art a Priest and a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec and I know that his Majesty being the son of so pious and so gracious a Father as is now so glorious with thee in Heaven will stretch forth his Royal hand as thou didst unto S. Peter to preserve us from sinking I must now with fear and reverence and in all humility crave leave to return my speech unto thy Self and as thou hast commanded us to hear thy voice so thou hast promised to hear our prayers And therefore I pray thee let not my Lord be angry but suffer thy servant to speak unto thee And we confess that we are not worthy to sit with the dogs of thy flock yet thou hast called us to a most high and honourable place to be thine Embassadours to thy chosen people and unto Kings and Princes to be thy Stewards and the Dispensers of thy manifold graces And according to our places thou hast commanded us to behave and carry our selves as may be most agreeable for thine Honour to preach thy word to relieve the poor to keep hospitality to build thine House and to do other the like works of piety and charity Matth. 21 33. Matth. 25 14. Luke 19 13. And we know that thou art not like Pharaoh a cruel Master that taketh away the straw and yet will require the whole tale of bricks for thou didst deliver thy Vineyard unto the Husbandmen before thou didst expect the fruits of it and thou gavest thy Talents unto thy servants before thou didst look for any gain from them But now O Lord God our straw is kept from us our vineyard is taken away It was all taken from us and now still much is detained from us and we have scarce any one talent left unto us for O God the Heathen have come into thine Inheritance and as of old they made Hierusalem so now of late they have made the famous Church of S. Keny and many other Churches in Ireland an heap of stones the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the air and the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the field And as the Prophet David said The Tabernacles of the Edomites and Ismaelites the Moabites and the Hagareus Gebal and Ammon and Amalec the Philistines with them that dwell at Tyre Assure also is joyned with them and have holpen the children of Lot to devour Jacob and to lay waste his dwelling place So the Independents the Arminians the Brownists the Anabaptists Luther and Calvin and Cartwright the Hugonots with them that are called Quakers and the Jesuites also have joyned with them and have to the uttermost of their power holpen our Grand Opposers the Presbyterians if not to devour the seed of Jacob to destroy the Church and thy Service which they now deny to desire to do it yet I am sure to be confederate against thee and to lay waste thy dwelling place to imagin craftily against thy people the true Royalists and to take counsel against the secret ones the Bishops and Governours of the Church 1 Reg. 19.10 And as Elias said of the children of Israel They have forsaken thy Covenant they have thrown down thine Altars and they have killed thy Prophets So I may say of the children of Belial they have forsaken the true Protestant Religion they threw down thy Churches they killed many of thy servants and they said Come and let us root out the Bishops that they be no more a people and that the name of Episcopacy may be no more in remembrance and to that end at the Prophet saith They brake down all our carved and curious works with axes and hammers they have set fire upon thy holy places and have defiled the dwelling place of thy Name Psal 74.7 8. even to the ground Yea and they said in their hearts Let us make havock of them altogether And by taking away all our lands houses Psal 80.5 and possessions they fed us with the bread of tears and gave us plenteousness of tears to drink and so they made us a very strife unto our neighbours and our enemies laughed us to scorn when they saw us made as the filth of the world 1 Cor. 4.13 and as the off-scouring of all things And though thou hast brought unto us a most gracious King to our unspeakable joy and comfort yet to this very day they and their associates and that which troubles us most of all they that come in thy Name and under pretence of thy Service and for service done unto thee and thy Church do by the example of those thine enemies and the haters of thy Church either through ignorance or covetousness labour by all means and with great friends to blind the eyes of our good King that he should not understand the truth of the Churches Right that so they might the easier and the sooner carry away the lands houses and possessions of the Church from thee and from thy servants whereby they shall be made invalid and unable to discharge the duties and the works that thou requirest at their hands if thou dost not help them to their instruments and means wherewith they may do their work And therefore because we are weak and friendless and far unable to deal and to prevail against so many powerful armed men we lift up our eyes and hands to thee O Lord God and pray thee to arise and maintain thine own Cause and let not man have the upper-hand for they have rebelled against thee and have robbed thee as the Prophet testifieth and be not angry with us for ever but be gracious unto thy servants and lay not that to
men Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 20. Sect. 31. Beza Confess c. 5. p. 171. J. Brutus q. 3. pag. 203. Dan. de Polit. Christ l. 6. c. 3. Bucan loc com 49. Sect. 76. The examples of obedience to kings and make Warre against their King Buchanan's mistake discovered and the Anti-Cavalier confuted 2. AS it is not lawful for any cause so no more is it lawful for any one or for any degree calling or kind of men to rebell against their lawful Governours For 1. Touching private men we find that Calvin Beza Jun. Brutus Danaeus Bucanus and most others yield that meer private men ought not to rebell at any hand and no wonder for the Scriptures forbid it flatly as Exod. 22.28 Revile not the Gods curse not the Ruler 1 Chron. 16.22 Touch not mine annoynted Prov. 30.31 Rise not up against the King that is to resist him Eccles 8.3 Let no man say to the King Why doest thou so Eccles 10.17 Curse not the King in thy thought And the examples of obedience in this kind are innumerable and most remarkable for David when he had Saul a wicked King guilty of all impiety and cruelty in his own hand yet would he not lay his hand upon the Lords annointed but was troubled in conscience when he did but cut the lap of his garment Elias could call for fire from Heaven to burn the two Captains and their men a hundred in number onely for desiring him to come down unto the King as you may see 2 Reg. 1.10 12. and yet he would not resist Achab his King that sought his life and was an enemy to all religion but he rather fled than desired any revenge or perswaded any man to rebell against him Esaias was sawed in pieces by Manasses Jeremy was cast into the dungeon Daniel exposed to the Lyons the Three Children thrown into the fiery Furnace Amos thrust thorough the temples Zacharias slain in the porch of the Temple James killed with the sword Peter fastened to the Crosse with his head downward Bartholomew beaten to death with clubs Matthew beheaded Paul slain with the sword and all the glorious company of the Martyrs which have ennobled the Church with their innocent life and inlarged the same by their precious death never resisted any of their Persecutors never perswaded any man to rebell against them Why the holy Saints obeyed the unjust Tyrant never cursed the Tyrants never implored the aid of the inferiour Magistrates or superiour Nobility either by force to escape their hands or by violence to resist their power for they thought it more honour unto God and farre better to themselves that the just should unjustly suffer for righteousnesse sake than under the colour of justice undutifully to resist and unjustly to rebell against these unjust Persecutors A strange Position And yet some men are not ashamed to averre that meer private men and inferiour subjects if their King as a Tyrant should invade them like a robber or ravisher may defend themselves and oppose the Tyrant as well and as violently as they may resist a private thief or a high-way robber But how untruly they do avouch this thing will plainly appear if you consider how disjunctive these things are and how unjustly they are alledged for this purpose Confuted for a Chirurgion launceth a man and draweth his blood and so doth the thief or a robber but he deserveth a reward this a rope The Tyrant hath a just power though he useth the same unjustly so hath not the thief or the robber So the Prince sometimes doth in some sort the same thing and it may be after the like manner as a thief or a robber doth as often as with a strong hand he taketh the goods of his subjects and forceth the rebellious unto obedience But will you say that both of them do it by the same right I hope not for God gave the power and the sword unto the Prince and he as the Judge of our actions useth the same ad vindictam for the punishment of our offence but the thief or the robber usurpeth the sword and abuseth the same ad rapinam to our destruction and therefore whosoever saith that a subject hath the same reason to rise against his Prince that punisheth him as a traveller hath against a robber that stealeth from him may well be ashamed of such doctrine that carrieth so little shew of any truth Object But you will say the Prince that is a Tyrant punisheth for no fault without any just cause nay altogether unjustly and against all truth as Saul persecuted David and put to death the harmlesse Priests and David did the like to Vrias Achab to Naboth Joash to Zachary Manasses to Esay Pilate to Christ Nero to Peter and perhaps Theodosius to the Thessalonians may they not resist in such a case when they are thus punished and persecuted without cause Sol. I answer that under Saul David Achab Joash and Manasses there lived many faithful Priests and Prophets that were both upright for life and excellent for knowledge How the Saints at all times suffered and never resisted their kings and in the days of Christ Zacheus Nicodemus and Gamaliel were inferiour Magistrates and were also pious men and skilful in the understanding as well of Politique as of Divine affairs and we are sure that no age brought forth either more learned Bishops or holyer Saints than the Apostles and Disciples of Christ that lived under Nero and those excellent Fathers that were in the time of Theodosius and yet never any of these not one of them all shewed us this resisting way to escape the force of tyranny but it hath been alwayes the doctrine of Christ and his Church that Kings and Princes offending the Lawes and transcending the bounds of their duties have onely God for their revenger and ought not to be resisted by any man or any kind of men though they should never so much abuse that power which they have received from God Christ and his Apostles perswade all men obediently to suffer And therefore Christ himself and all his Saints not onely suffered their greatest rage but also exhibited all honour and shewed all reverence unto their most cruel Persecutors and they perswaded all others both by their precepts and examples to do the like and that not onely for fear of wrath but also for conscience sake because the King is Gods Steward which Christ hath set over his whole family and if the Steward like the evil servant in the Gospel shall begin to despise his Master neglect his duty smite his fellows and dissolutely go on to eat and drink and be drunken yet not all the whole family not the Priests not the Nobles not the Commons nor yet all together have any power or right to displace that Steward which their Lord hath appointed over them but they with patience must expect and wait for the coming of their Master which onely hath
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
God and my fidelity to my King I have undertaken this hard and to the Rebels unpleasant labour The Rebels for the punishment of our sins may prosper for a time but at last they shall be most surely destroyed Prov. 8.15 Psal 68.30 Joshua 9 16. Psal 91.16 to set down the Rights of Kings wherein I shall not be afraid of the Rebels power neither would I have any man to fear them for however Victores victique cadunt here may be a vicissitude of good success many times on both sides to prolong the war for our sins and they may prosper in some places yet that is but nubecula quaedam a transient cloud or summer storm that will soon pass away for we may assure our selves they shall not prevaile because God hath said it By me Kings do raigne and He will give strength unto his King and exalt the horn of his Annointed He will scatter the people that delight in war and make the hearts of the cursed Canaanites to melt and their joynts to tremble but He will satisfie the King with long life and shew him his salvation CHAP. II. Sheweth what Kings are to be honoured the institution of Kings to be immediately from God the first Kings the three chiefest rights to Kingdoms the best of the three rights how Kings came to be electted and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracie and Democracie issued out of Monarchie TO proceed then you see the person that by Saint Peters precept is to be honoured to be the King and what King was that but as you may see in the beginning of this epistle the King of Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bythinia and what manner of Kings were they I pray you I presume you will confess they were no Christians but it may be as bad as Nero who was then their Emperour and most cruelly tyrannizing over the Saints of God What Kings are to be honoured gave a very bad example to all other his substitute Kings and Princes to do the like and yet these holy Christians are commanded to honour them And therefore 1. Heathen Pagan wicked and tyrannical Kings are to be truely honoured by God's precept 2. Religious just and Christian Kings are to have a double honour because there is a double charge imposed upon them as The double charge of all Christian Kings 1. To preserve peace 1. To execute justice and judgement among their people to preserve equity and peace both from intestine broyles and foreign Foes which careful government bringeth plenty and prosperity in all external affaires unto the whole Kingdom and this they do as Kings which is the common duty of all the Kings of the earth 2. To protect the Church 2. To maintaine true Religion to promote the faith of Christ and to be the guardians and foster-fathers unto the Church and Church-men which tye their people unto God to make them spiritually and everlastingly happy and this duty is laid upon them as they are Christian Kings and therefore in regard of this accession of charge they ought to have an accession of honour more then all other Kings whatsoever 1. Then I say that the Heathen Pagan wicked and tyrannical Kings such as were Nero Dioclesian and Julian among the Christians or Ahab and Manasses among the Jews or Antiochus Dionysius and the rest of the Sicilian Tyrants among the Gentiles are to be honoured served and obeyed of all their Subjects and that in three especial respects 1. All Kings to be honoured in three respects 1. Of their institution which is the immediate ordinance of God 2. Of God's precept which enjoineth us to honour them 3. Of all good mens practice whether they be 1. Jewes 2. Gentiles 3. Christians 1. The institution of Kings is immediately from God Justin lib. 1. Herodot lib. 1. Clio. 1. Justin tells us that Principio rerum gentium nationúmque imperium penes reges erat from the beginning of things that is the beginning of the world the rule and government of the people of all Nations was in the hands of Kings Quos ad honoris fastigium non ambitio popularis sed spectata inter bonos moderatio provehebat And Herodotus setteth down how Deioces the first King of the Medes had his beginning And Homer also nameth the Kings that were in and before the wars of Troy But the choice of Deioces and some others about that time and after Cicero in Officiis whereof Cicero speaketh may give some colour unto our rebellious Sectaries to make the royal Dignity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a humane ordinance therefore I must go before Herodotus and look further then blind Homer could see and from the first King that ever was I will truly lay down the first institution and succession of Kings and how times have wrought by corruption the alteration of their right and diminution of their power which both God and nature had first granted unto them God the first King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.17 Apoc. 19.16 And I hope no Basileu-mastix no hater of Kings nor opposer of the royal government can deny but that God himself was the first King that ever the world saw that was the King of ages before all worlds and the King of Kings ever since there were any created Kings The next King that I read of was Adam whom Cedrenus stiles the Catholique Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mighty King of a large Territory of great Dominion and of unquestionable right unto his Kingdom which was the whole World the Earth the Seas and all that were therein For the great King of all Kings said unto him Gen. 1.28 Adam the first King of all men Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth Which is a very large Commission when dominare is more then regere and therefore his royalty is so plain that none but wilful ignorants will deny it to be divinum institutum a divine institution and affirm it as they do to be humanum inventum a humane ordination when you know there were no men to chuse him and you see God himself doth appoint him and after the flood the Empire of Noah was divided betwixt his three sons Japheth reigned in Europe Johan Beda de jure Regum p. 4. Sem in Asia and Cham in Africa Yet I must confess the first Kingdom that is spoken of by that name is the Kingdom of Nimrod who notwithstanding is not himself termed King Gen. 10.9 but in the Scripture phrase a mighty hunter because he was not onely a great King but also a mighty Tyrant or oppressour of his people in all his Kingdom or as I rather conceive it because he was the first usurper that incroached upon his neighbours rights to enlarge his own dominions
decaying State when Moses chaire should be set in the Parliament House and the Doctours of the Church should never sit thereon therefore I wish that the Ark may be brought back from the Philistines and restored to the Priests to be placed in Shilo where it should be and that the care of the Ark which king David undertook may not be taken out of his hands by his people but that he may have the honour of that service which God hath imposed upon him For Opinion 3 3. As nothing is dearer to understanding righteous and religious Kings then the encrease and maintenance of true religion Of the Orthodox Quia religio est ex potioribus reipublicae partibus ut ait Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. ipsa sola custodit hominum inter se societates ut ait Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 12. Peritura Troja perdidit primùm Deos. Therefore the Tyrians chayned their gods lest if they fled they should be destroyed and the inlargement of the Church of Christ throughout all their Dominions so they have at all times imployed their studies to this end because it is an infallible maxime even among the Politicians that the prosperity of any Kingdome flourisheth for no longer time then the care of Religion and the prosperity of the Church is maintained by them among their people as we see Troy was soon lost when they lost their Palladium so it is the truest sign of a declining and a decaying State to see the Clergy despised and religion disgraced and therefore the provision for the safety of the Church the publick injoying of the word of God the form of Service the manner of Government and the honour and maintenance of the Clergy are all the duties of a most Christian King which the King of Heaven hath imposed upon him for the happiness and prosperity of his Kingdom and whosoever derive the authority of this charge either in a blinde obedience to the See of Rome as the Jesuites do or out of their too much zeal and affection to a new Consistory as the late Presbyterians did or to a Lay Parliament as our upstart Anabaptists aad Brownists do are most unjust usurpers of the Kings Right which is not onely ascribed unto him and warranted by the Word of God but is also confirmed to the Princes of this Land by several Acts of Parliament to have the supremacy in all causes and over all persons as well in the Ecclesiastical as in the Civil government which being so they are exempted thereby from all inforcement of any domestical or forraign power and freed from the penalties of all those Laws both Ecclesiastical and civil whereunto all their Subjects Clergy and Laity Q. Curtius de rebus Alexand. Joh. Beda p. 22 23. and all inferiour persons and the superiour Nobility within their Kingdomes are obliged by our Laws and Statutes as hereafter I shall more fully declare Therefore it behoveth all Kings and especially our King at this time seriously to consider what prejudice they shall create unto themselves and their just authority if they should yeild themselves inferiour to their Subjects aggregativè or repraesentativè or how you will or liable to the penal Laws for so they may be soon dethroned by the unstable affection and weak judgment of discontented people or subject to the jurisdiction of Lay Elders and the excommunication of a tyrannous Consistory who denouncing him Matth. 18.17 tanquam Ethnicum may soon add Deut. 17.15 a stranger shall not raign over thee and so depose him from all government For seeing all attempts are most violent that have their beginning and strength from zeal unto Religion be the same true or false and from the false most of all and those are ever the most dangerous whose ringleaders are most base as the servile War under Spartacus was most pernicious unto the Romans there can be nothing of greater use How necessary it is for Kings to retain their just rights in their hands or more profitable either for the safety of the King the peace of the Church and the quiet state of the Kingdome then for the Prince the King to retain the Militia and to keep that power and authority which the Laws of God and of our Land have granted to and intailed upon him in his own hands unclipped and unshaken for when the multitude shall be unbridled and the rights of the Kings are brandished in their hands we shall assuredly taste and I fear in too great a measure as experience now sheweth of those miserable evils which uncontrouled ignorance furious zeal false hypocricy and the merciless cruelty of the giddy-headed people and discontented Peeres shall bring upon us and our Prince But to make it manifest unto the World what power and authority God hath granted unto Kings for the government of the Church and the preservation of his true Religion we finde them the worst men at all times and in all places that mislike their Government and reject their authority and we see those Churches most happy The Kings that maintain true religion make their Kingdoms happy and those Kingdoms most flourishing which God hath blessed with religious Kings as the State of the Church of Judaea makes it plain when David Ezechias Josias and the other virtuous Kings restored the Religion and purified that Service which the idolatry of others their predecessours had corrupted and we know that as Moses * Exod. 14 31 Num. 12.7 8 Deut. 34.5 Josh 1.1 2. so kings are called the servants of God in a more special manner then all others are that is not onely because they serve the Lord in the Government of the Common wealth but especially because he vouchsafeth to use their service for the advancement of his Church and the honour of his Son Christ here on earth or to distribute their duties more particularly we know the Lord exspecteth and so requireth a double service from every Christian king 1. The one common with all others to serve him as they are his creatures and Christians The double service of all Christian kings and therefore to serve him as all other Christians are bound to do 2. The other proper and peculiar to them alone to serve him as they are Kings and Princes 1. As they are Christians In the first respect they are no more priviledged to offend then other men but they are tyed to the same obedience of Gods Laws and are obliged to performe as many virtuous actions and to abstain from all vices as well as any other of their Subjects and if they fail in either point they shall be called to the same account and shall be judged with the same severity as the meanest of their people and therefore Be wise O ye Kings be learned ye that are Judges of the earth Psal 2.10 Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce unto him with reverence for with God there is no respect of persons but
be Rebels and Traytors against their own most gracious King they have not onely with Jerusalem justified Samaria Sodome and Gomorrah but they have justified all the Samaritanes all the Sodomites all the Schismaticks Hereticks Rebels and Traytors Papists and Atheists and all that went before them Judas himself in many circumstances not excepted and that which makes their doings the more evil and the more exceedingly wicked is that they make Religion to be the warrant for their evil doings the pack-horse to carry and the clokt to cover all their treacheries and thereby they drew the greater multitudes of poore Zelots to be their followers And therefore seeing it is not onely the honour but also the duty as of all other Kings so likewise of our King to be as the Princes of our Land are justly stiled the Defenders of the Faith and that not only in regard of enemies abroad but also in respect of those far worse enemies which desire alteration at home it behoves the King to looke to these home-bred enemies of the Church and seeing the king though never so willing for his piety and religion never so able for his knowledge and understanding What Gods faithful servants and the kings loyal Subjects must do in these times 1. To justifie the kings right yet without strength and power to effect what he desires cannot defend the faith and maintain the true Religion from the violence of Sectaries and Traytors within his kingdome it hehoves us all to do these two things 2. To justifie the kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his authority and right to the supreme Governour and defender of the Chuch and of Gods true religion and service both in respect of Doctrine and Discipline and that none else Pope or Parliament hath any power at all herein but what they have derivately from him which I hope we have sufficiently proved 2. To submit our selves unto our king and to add our strength force 2. To assist Him against the Rebels and power to inable his power to discharge this duty against all the Innovators of our Religion and the enemies of our peace for the honour of God and the happiness of this Church and Common-wealth for that power which is called the Kings power and is granted and given to him of God is not onely that Heroick virtue of fortitude which God planteth in the hearts of most noble Princes as he hath most grasiously done it in abundant measure in our most gracious king but it is the collected and united power and strength of all his Subjects which the Lord hath commanded us to joyn and submit it for the assistance of the kings power against all those that shall oppose it and if we refuse or neglect the same then questionless whatsoever mischief idolatry barbarity or superstition shall take root in the Church and whatsoeuer oppression and wickedness shall impair the Common-wealth Heaven will free His Majesty and the wrath of God in no smal measure must undoubtedly light upon us and our posterity even as Debora saith of them that refused to assist Barac against his enemies Curse ye Meroz curse bitterly the Inhabitants thereof Jud. 5.23 because they came not forth to helpe the Lord against the mighty CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiastical Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Laws by the advice of their Bishops and Clergy and not of their Lay Counsellours how our late Canons came to be annulled that it is the Kings right to admit his Bishops and Prelates to be of his Council and to delegate secular authority or civil jurisdiction unto them proved by the examples of the Heathens Jewes and Christians OUt of all this that hath been spoken it is more then manifest that the king ought to have the supreme power over Gods Church and the Government thereof and the greatest care to preserve true Religion throughout all his Dominions this is his duty and this is his honour that God hath committed not a people but his people and the members of his Son under his charge For the performance of which charge it is requisite for us to know that God hath granted unto him among other rights these two special prerogatives Two special rights and prerogatives of the King for the government of the Church 1. To make Laws and Canons 1. That he may and ought to make Lawes Orders Canons and Decrees for the well governing of Gods Church 2. That he may when he seeth cause lawfully and justly grant tolerations and dispensations of his own Laws and Decrees as he pleaseth 1. Not onely Solomon and Jehosaphat gave commandment and prescribed unto the chief Priests and Levites what form and order they should observe in their Ecclesiastical causes and methode of serving God but also Constantine Theodosius Justinian and all the Christian Emperours that were careful of Gods service did the like and therefore when the Donatists alleadged that secular Princes had nothing to do to meddle in matters of Religion and in causes Ecclesiastical Aug. l. 2. c. 26. Saint Augustine in his second Epistle against Gaudentius saith I have already proved that it appertaineth to the Kings charge that the Ninivites should pacifie Gods wrath and therefore the Kings that are of Christs Church do judge most truely that it belongeth to their charge to see that men Rebel not Idom ep 48. ep 50. ad Bonifac without punishment against the same because God doth inspire it is to the mindes of Kings that they should procure the Commandments of the Lord to be performed in al their Kingdomes for they are commanded to serve the Lord in fear and how do they serve the Lord as Kings but in making Laws for Christ So they are called the kings Ecclesiastical Lawes as man he serveth him by living faithfully but as King he serveth him in making Laws that shal command just things and forbid the contrary which they could not do if they were not kings And by the example of the king of Ninive Darius Nebuchadnezzar and others which were but figures and prophesies that foreshewed the power duty and service that Christian kings should owe and performe in like sort to the furtherance of Christs Religion in the time of the New Testament when al kings shall fall down and Worship Christ Psal 72.11 Arg. cont lit Peul l. 2. c 92 and all Nations shall do him service he proveth that the Christian kings and Princes should make Laws and Decrees for the furtherance of Gods service even as Nebuchadnezzar had done in his time And upon the words of the Apostle Idem in l. de 12. abus grad grad 2. that the king beareth not the sword in vain he proveth against Petilian that the power and authority of the Princes which the Apostle treateth of in that place is given unto them to make sharpe penall Lawes to further
true religion and to suppress all Heresies and Schismes And so accordingly we finde the good Emperours and Kings have ever done The good Emperours have made Laws for the government of the Church Euseb in vita Constant l. 2. 3. for Constantine caused the idolatrous religions to be suppressed and the true knowledge of Christ to be preached and planted amongst his people and made many wholsome Lawes and godly Constitutions to restrain the sacrificing unto Idols and all other devillish and superstitious south-sayings and to cause the true service of God to be rightly administred in every place saith Eusebius And in another place he saith that the same Constantine gave injunctions to the chiefe Ministers of the Churches that they should make speciall supplication to God for him and he enjoyned all his Subjects that they should keep holy certain dayes dedicated to Christ and the Sabboth or Saturday which was then wont to be kept holy and as yet not abrogated by any Law among the Christians he gave a Law to the Ruler of every Nation that they should celebrate the Sunday or the Lords day in like sort Idem de vita Constant l. 1. 3. 4. c. 18. and so for the dayes that were dedicated to the memory of the Martyrs and other festival times and all such things were done according to the ordinance of the Emperour Nicephorus writing of the excellent virtues of Andronicus son to Immanuel Palaeologus and comparing him to Constantine the Great saith Niceph. in prafation Eccles hist thou hast restored the Catholique Church being troubled with new opinions to the old State thou hast banished all unlawfull and impure doctrine thou hast established the truth and hast made Lawes and Constitutions for the same Sozomen speaking of Constantines sons saith Sozomenus l 3. c. 17. the Princes also concurred to the increase of these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewing their good affections to the Churches no less then their father did and honouring the Clergy their servants with singular promotions and immunities both confirming their fathers Lawes and making also new Lawes of their own against such as went about to sacrifice and to worship Idols or by any other means fell to the Greekish or Heathenish superstitions Theodoret tells us that Valentinian at the Synod in Illirico did not onely confirme the true faith by his Royall assent but made also many godly and sharpe Lawes as well for the maintenance of the truth of Christ his doctrine as also touching many other causes Ecclesiastical and as ratifying those things that were done by the Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodor. l. c. 5 6 7. he sent abroad to them that doubted thereof Honorius at the request of Boniface the first made a Law whereby it might appear what was to be done Distinct 79. siduo when two Popes were chosen at once by the indiscretion of the Electors Martianus also made a Statute to cut off and put away all manner of contention about the true faith and Religion in the Councell of Calcedon The Emperour Justinus made a Law that the Churches of Heretiques should be consecrated to the Catholique Religion saith Martinus Poenitentiarius And who knowes not of the many Laws and Decrees that Justinian made in Ecclesiasticall causes for the furtherance of the true Religion for in the beginning of the Constitutions collected in the Code of Iustinian the first 13 titles are all filled with Laws for to rule the Church where it forbiddeth the Bishops to reiterate baptisme to paint L. 1. tit 5. L. 1. tit 7. Novel 123. c. 10. Novel 58. Novel 137. c. 6. or grave on earth the Image of our Saviour And in the Novels the Emperour ordaineth Lawes of the creation and consecration of Bishops that Synods should be annually held that the holy mysteries should not be celebrated in private houses that the Bishops should speak alond when they celebrate the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Eucharist and that the holy Bible should be translated into the vulgar tongue and the like And not onely these and the rest of the godly Emperours that succeeded them but also Ariamirus Wambanus Richaredus and divers other Kings of Spaine did in like manner And Charlemaigne who approved not the decisions of the Greekish Synod wrote a book against the same * Intituled A Treatise of Charlemaigne against the Greekish Synod touching Images whereby the King maintained himself in possession to make Lawes for the Church saith Johannes Beda of which Lawes there are many in a book called The capitulary Decrees of Charles the Great who as Popin his predecessour had done in the City of Bourges so did he also assemble many Councils in divers places of his Kingdoms as at Mayns at Tours at Reines at Chaalons at Arles and the sixt most famous of all at Francfort where himself was present in person and condemned the errour of Felician and so other Kings of France and the Kings of our own Kingdom of England both before and after the Conquest as Master Fox plentifully recordeth did make many Lawes and Constitutions for the government of God's Church The saying of Dioclesian But as Dioclesian that was neither the best nor the happiest governour said most truly of the civil government that there was nothing haraer th n to rule well * That is to rule the Common-wealth so it is much harder to govern the Church of Christ therefore as there cannot be an argument of greater wisdome in a Prince nor any thing of greater safety and felicity to the Common-wealth then for him to make choice of a wise Council to assist him in his most weighty affaires Tacitus Annal. lib. 12. saith Cornelius Tacitus So all religious Kings must do the like in the government of the Church and the making of their Lawes for that government for God out of his great mercy to them and no less desire to have his people religiously governed left such men to be their supporters their helpers and advisers in the performance of these duties and I pray you whom did Kings chuse for this business but whom God had ordained for that purpose for you may observe that although those Christian Kings and Emperours made their Lawes as having the supremacy and the chieâ—est câ—re of God's religion committed by God into their hands yet they did never make them that ever I could read with the advice counsel or direction of any of their Peers or Lay Subjects but as David had Nathan and God The good Kings Emperours made their Lawes for the government of the Church onely by the adv ce of their Clergy A good Law of Instinian Constit 123. Nâ—buâ—hadnezzar had Daniel and the rest of the Jewish Kings and Heathens had their Prophets onely and Priests to direct them in all matters of religion so those Chr stian Kings and Princes took their Bishops and their Clergie onely to be their counsellors and
the testimony and the practice of many godly Bishops and Fathers of the Church of Christ under the New Testament to justifie this truth For 1. Not onely Moses and Aaron that were both the Priests of the most high God and the chiefe Judges in all secular causes but also Joseph had his jurisdiction over the Aegyptians Daniel had his Lieutenancie over the Babylonians and Nehemias was a great Courtier among the Persians and yet these secular imployments were no hinderance to them in the divine worship and service of God So Ely and Samuel both were both Judges and Priests together and the most religious Princes David Solomon Jehosaephat and others used the Priests and Levites at their command in the civill government of their Dominions for when David caused all the Levites to be numbered from 30 years old and upward and that they were found to be 38 thousand he appointed 24 thousand of them to he over-seers of the works of the house of the Lord and he ordained the other six thousand to be Judges and Rulers in all Israel 1 Chron. 23.4 and so did Jehosaphat likewise * 2 Chron. 19.11 The place explained for though the last verse of the said chapter seems to put a difference betwixt the Civil matters and the Ecclesiastical affaires yet it is rightly answered by Saravia that this errour riseth from a misconceived opinion of their government as if it were the same with the government of some of our reformed Churches which was nothing less for if you compare this place with the 26. chap. Sigonius legit super opera quae ad regis officia pertinent l. 6. p. 315. 1 Sam. c. 8. of the 1. Chron vers the 29 30 and 32. you may easily finde that the Kings service or the affairs of the King doth not signifie the civil matters or the politique affairs of the Kingdom over which Amarias here and Hashabia and his brethren there 1 Chron. 26.30 were appointed the chief Rulers but it signifieth those things which pertained to the King 's right betwixt him and his subjects as those things that were described by Samuel and were retained and perhaps augmented either by the consent of the people or the incroachment of the succeeding Kings as the special rights of the Kings over which Zebadias the son of Ismael was appointed by Jehosaphat to be the Ruler and the business of the Lord is fully set down vers 10. to be not onely the Church affairs but all the affairs of the Kingdom between bloud and bloud Versu 10. between Law and Commandment Statutes and Judgements over which the Priests and Levites were appointed the ordinary Judges and the Interpreters of the Law as well Civil as Ecclesiastical for the Lord saith plainly Ezech 44 23. Vide locum Sigon ait circa judicium sanguinis ipsi insistent 2. In the Primitive Church Salmer tract 18. in parabol hominis divitis lo. 16. num 1. that every question and controversie shall be determined according to the censure of the Priests which certainly he would never have so prescribed nor these holy men have thus executed them if these two Functions had been so averse and contrary the one to the other that they could never be exercised together by the same man 2. In the Primitive times under the Gospel Salmeron saith that in the time of S. Augustine as himself teacheth Episcopi litibus Christianorum vacare solebant the Bishops had so much leisure that they were wont to judge of the quarrels of Christians yet they did not so spend their time in judging their contentions that they neglected their Preaching and Episcopal function and now that they do judge in civil causes consuetudine Ecclesiae introductum est ut peccata caverentur Bellar. de Rom. Pont. l. 5. c. 9. And Bellarmine saith Non pugnat cum verbo Dei ut unus homo sit Princeps Ecclesiasticus politicus simul it is not against the Word of God that the same man should be an Ecclesiastical and a Secular Prince together when as the same man may both govern his Episcopacy and his Principality And therefore we read of divers men Theod. l. 2. c. 30. that were both the Princes and the Bishops of the same Cities as the Archbishop of Collen Mentz Triers and other German Princes Henr. of Huntingson Hist Angl. that are both Ecclesiastical Pastours and great secular Princes And Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury was for a long while Viceroy of this Kingdom And so Leo. 9. Julius 2. Philip Archbishop of York Adelboldus Innocâ—nt 2. Collenutius and Blondus and many others famous and most worthy Bishops both of this Island and of other Kingdoms have undertaken and exercised both the Functions And Saint Paul recommendeth secular businesses and judgements unto the Pastours of the Church Aug. tom 3. de aâ—erib Menach c. 29. as S. Augustine testifieth at large where he saith I call the Lord Jesus a witness to my soul that for so much as concerneth my commodity I had rather work every day with my hands and to reserve the other houres free to read pray and exercise my self in Scriptures then to sustain the tumultuous perplexities of other mens causes in determining secular Controveâ—sies by judgement or taking them up by arbitrement to which troubles the Apostle hath appointed us not of his own will but of his that spake in him And as this excellent Father that wrote so many worthy volumes did notwithstanding imploy no small part of his time in these troublesome affairs so S. Ambrose twice undertook an honourable Embassie so Valentinian the Emperour unto the Tyrant Maximus Socrat. Eccl hist lib 7. And Marutha Bishop of Mesopotamia was sent by the Romane Emperour an Ambassadour to the King of Persia in which imployment he hath abundantly benefitted both the Church and the Emperour and we read of divers famous men that undertook divers Functions and yet neither confounded their offices nor neglected their duties for Spiridion was an husbandman and a Bishop of the Church a Pastour of sheep and a feeder of soules and yet none of the ancient Fathers that we read of either envyed his Farm or blamed his neglect in his Bishoprick but they admired his simplicity and commended his sanctity they were not of the spirit of our hypocritical Saints And Theodoret writeth Theodor. lib. 4. c. 13. that one James Bishop of Nisib was both a Bishop and a Captain of the same City which by the help of his God he manfully preserved against Sapor King of Persia And Ensebius Bishop of Samosis managing himself with all warlike habiliments ranged along throughout all Syria Phaenicia and Palaestina and as he passed erected Churches and ordained Priests and Deacons and peâ—formed such other Ecclesiastical pensions as pertained to his office in all places and I fear me the iniquity of our time will now call upon all Bishops that are able to do the like to preach unto
Christ nor reformed from their sins and so now when the Puritan faction prevailed in our Parliament Good to be excluded from the counsel of the wicked and our Sectaries disdained in their counsels to take the counsel of Religion and resolved to banish GOD from their assemblies to make the Church and Church-men a publick scorn unto the wicked and the Common-wealth a private gain to every broken Citizen and every needy Varlet I say happy are those Bishops that are excluded and well it is for those Ministers that are furthest off from such godless and irreligious not Parliament but Parricides even as the Psalmist testifieth Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornful Psal 1.1 and therefore if they had not been excluded I am sure that as the case now standeth they would have seceded themselves But when the civil Magistrates became Christians and the Christians consulted with God in all their actions then it was no indecorum for the servants of Christ to be seen in the Congregation of Saints and to sit as Judges among gods where the judgement shall pass for the glory of God neither is it any prejudice to our holy calling The giving of Caesar's due doth not hinder us to give to god his due to give unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's and that we owe unto him as our service and our counsel and whatsoever else lyeth in us to do for the good of the Common-wealth as we are his Subjects and the Tenants of the Common-wealth nor do the rendering of these things to Caesar any wayes hinder us to give unto God the things that are God's and that we owe to God as our prayers and our care over God's flock as we are Christians and Bishops over the Church of Christ but the same man if he will be faithful may justly perfoâ—m both duties without giving over or neglecting either And when our men shall return to God and take him along with them into their counsels and desire the assistance of his servants as I hope they will have grace to do I assure my self the Reverend Bishops will not refuse to do them service Ob. 4 But you will say the Emperours were good Christians when the Council of Calcedon put out their Canons Sol. I answer the Emperours were but all Kings were not besides that Canon cleares it self for it sheweth that Clergymen did at that time undertake secular imployments Propter lucra turpia ministerium Dei parvi pendentes for gaine neglecting their duty and therefore the Council forbade all Clergy-men negotiis secularibus se immiscere because the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 2.4 no man that warreth intangleth or insnareth himself with the affairs of this life and so neither the Apostle nor the Council doth absolutely forbid all secular affairs as inconsistent with this function but as the Council of Arles saith Concil Arelai Caâ— 14. The words of the Canon explained Clericus turpis lucri gratia aliquod genus negotiationis non exerceat so they forbid all Clerks to meddle with any business for the love of gain and filthy lucre that might insnare him to neglect his duty or as the Canon of the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishop should not assume unto himself or seeke after worldly cares but if either necessity or authority impose them on him I see not how he can refuse them because there is no absolute prohibition of such imployments in any place but as it might be a hinderance to discharge his office or otherwise Saint Paul's Tent-making was as much against the calling of an Apostle as the sitting in a secular tribunal is against the office of a Bishop because there is no reason we should deny that benefit to a publick necessitated community which we will yeeld to a private personal necessity And so indeed these very men that cry out against our Bishops The Presbyterians will be the directors of all affaires and other grave Prelates of the Church for the least medling in these civil affaires do not onely suffer their own Preachers to strain at a gnat but also to swallow a Camel when M. Henderson Marshal Case and the rest of their new inspired Prophets shall sit as Presidents in all their Counsels and Committees of their chiefest affaires and consultations either about War or Peace or of any other civil cognizance how these things can be answered to deny that to us which they themselves do practise I cannot understand when as the light of Nature tells us Quod tibi vis fieri mihi fac quod non mihi noli Sic potes in terris vivere jure poli * Vnde Baldus jubet ut quis in alios non aliter judicet quà m in se judicari vellet And therefore when as there is no politick Philosophy no imperial constitution nor any humane invention that doth or can so strictly binde the consciences of men unto subjection and true obedience as the Doctrine of the Gospel and no man can perswade the people so much unto it as the Preachers of Gods word as it appeareth by this Rebellion perswaded by the false Preachers because the Principles of Philosophy and the Laws of many nations do permit many things to be done against tyrants which the Religion of Christ and the true Bishops of Gods Church do flatly inhibit How requisite it is for Kings to delegate civil affaires unto their Clergie it is very requisite and necessary for all Christian Kings both for the glory of God their own safety and the happiness of the Common-wealth to defend this their own right and the right of the Clergy to call them into their Parliaments and Counsels and to demise certain civil causes and affairs to the gravest Bishops and the wisest of the Ministers and not suffer those Rebellious Anabaptists and Brownists that have so disloyally laboured to pull off the Crown from their Kings head to bury all the glory of the Church in the dust to bring the true Religion into a scorn and to deprive the King of the right which is so necessary for his safety and so useful for the Government of his people that is the service of his Clergy in all civil Courts and Councils And as it is the Kings right to call whom he pleaseth into his Parliaments and Councils That it is the Kings right to give titles of honour to whom he pleaseth and to delegate whom he will to discharge the office of a civil or Ecclesiastical magistrate or both wheresoever he appoints within his Realms and Dominions so it is primarily in his power and authority and his regal right to give titles of honour and dignity to those officers and magistrates whom he chooseth for though the Barbarians acknowledge no other distinction of Persons but of Master and Servants which was the first punishment for the first contempt of our Superiors Gen. 9.25
esteemed and expelled as deadly enemies but to be suffered and respected as weake friends if they proceed not to be turbulent and malicious who then may prove to be more dangerous both to Church and State then any of the former sort that profess their religion with Peace and quietness for it is not the Profession of this or that religion but the malice and wickedness of the professor What wrong Professors are chiefly to be suffered that is the bane and poyson of the Church wherein it resteth for what is diversity of opinions in the Church of God but tares among the wheat and our Saviour sheweth that the tares should not be plucked up but suffered to grow with the wheat to teach us Matth. 13.29 that in respect of external communion and civil conversation all sorts of Professors may live together though in respect of our spiritual communion and exercise of our religion the Heretique shall be cast forth Why to be suffered either for the exercise of the godly or in hope to convert the ungodly and be unto me tanquam Ethnicus Publicanus with whom notwithstanding I may converse as our Saviour did with hope that I may convert them unto him which could never be done if they should be quite excluded our company and banished from all holy society And therefore as the prudent Prince seeth the disposition and observeth the conversation of any Faction and the turbulency of any Sect so he knoweth best how to advise with his Council to grant his toleration to them that best deserve it not so much in respect of the meliority of their religion as their peaceable and harmless habitation among their neighbours without railing against their faith or rebelling against their Prince And thus as the case now standeth I see not any Sect or any sort of Professors that for turbulency of spirit madness of zeal and violency of hatred and persecution to the true Protestants are more dangerous to the true religion and deserve less favour from their pious Prince then these Anabaptists Brownists and Puritans that have so maliciously plotted and so rebelliously prosecuted their damnable designs to the utter ruine both of Church and State Doctor Covell cap. 15. p. 2 â—â— His description of the Puritans Doctor Covell long ago when they were not half so bad as they be now saith they pretend gravity reprehend severely speak gloriously and all in hypocrisie they daily invent new opinions and run from errour to errour their wilfulnesse they account constancy their deserved punishment persecution their mouthes are ever open to speak evil they give neither reverence nor titles to any in place above them And to confirme this description read what King JAMES writeth of them in his Basilicon Doron p. 160. 161 and in the History of the conference at Hampton-Court in anno 603. p. 81 82. in one word the Church cannot fear a more dangerous and fatal enemy to her peace and happinesse a greater cloud to the light of the Gospel a stronger hand to pull in barbarisme and poverty into all our Land a more furious monster to breed contempt and disobedience in all estates a more fretting canker to the very marrow and sinewes of this Church and kingdome then this beast who is proud without learning presumptuous without authority zealous without knowledge holy without Religion and in brief a most dangerous and malicious hypocrite and were therefore banished from amongst us in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth but now deserve it far better being more dangerous because far more numerous * Huc usque Our factious Puritans bitterer against Kings then the Jesuites and therefore I cannot say with Saint Bernard Aut corrigendi nè pereant aut coercendi nè perimant for in my judgement they are incorrigible and in their own opinion they are invincible having by lyes and frauds gathered so much wealth and united such strength together that except the Lord himself had been on our side and made our very enemies the Papists to become our friends and to hazard their lives and fortunes according to their duty to preserve the Crown and Dignity of their king as God most wisely disposeth of things when he produceth light out of darkness and against their wills support our true Protestant Religion from being quite defaced by these mercilesse enemies we might well fear what destruction would have come upon us And therefore considering the bitter writings of their Prophets old and new being fuller of gall and venome against Christian Kings then can be found in the bookes of the Jesuites and considering the wicked practices and this unparallel'd rebellion of these new Proselytes and the loyalty of those that heretofore received least favour from the Church and not much from the State Tell me I pray you which of these deserve best to be suffered in a Protestant Church they that maliciously seeke her ruine or they that unwillingly support her from falling for my self I will ever be of the true Protestant faith yet for this loyalty of the Papists unto their King I will ever be in charity and rest in hope though not in the same faith with them and I doubt not but His Majesty will thinke well of their fidelity But as Saint Bernard saith Non est meae humilitatis dictitare vobis it is not for me to prescribe who are most capable of Grace or who best deserveth the Kings favour when his Princely Grace presupposeth a sufficient merit but in humility to set down mine own opinion in this point of toleration with submission to the judgement of this Church wherein also I humbly desire my reader not to mistake me as if I meant such a publick and legal toleration as might breed a greater distraction in a kingdome then the wisedome of the State could well master and raise more spirits then they could lay down but such as I have exprest in my Grand Rebellion Grand Rebellion p. 5 6. that is a favourable connivence to enjoy their own consciences so long as they live in peace and amity with their neighbours but without any publick exercise of their Religion which can produce nothing else but discord distraction and destruction to that Kingdome where two religions are profest in Aequilibrio with the same priviledges and authority These and many more are the rights of Kings granted them by God for the Government of his Church which they are to looke unto and to protect in all her rights service maintenance ordinances governours and the like if they looke that God should bless and protect them in their ways dignities and dues because it is their duties and the first charge that God layeth upon them to be nursing Fathers unto his Church for God knew the Church should have many enemies intus est equus Trojanus and they are the worst that are nearest unto kings and do with Judas kiss with fair words and Machiavilian counsels betray both
Church and King and in the end destroy themselves for who deceived Absolon though rightly but his own Counsellour who betrayed Ahab and that most wickedly but his lying Parasites and who overthrew Rehoboam and that foolishly but his young favourites * Which thing is purposely set down in the holy Scripture to be a caveat for all Kings not to rely too much upon young Counsellors not that wisedome and prudence are intailed to old age and inseperable from gray-haires or divorced from green heads but because commonly experience is the fruitfull mother of these faire issues and the multitude of yeares teacheth wisdom for otherwise there may be delirium senectutis the dotage of old age as well as vanitas juventutis the folly of youth and as Elihu saith Great men are not alwayes wise neither do the aged understand judgement but as Solomon saith ◠isdem even in youth is the gray haires and an undefiled life is the old age as we see young Ioseph was the wisest in all Egypt Solomon Daniel and Titus how wise how learned and how religious were they in their younger yeares So Alexander Hà nniball Scipio in the feates of war Lucan Mirandula Keckerman and abundance more in all humane learning that were but Neophyti annis yet were egregii virtutibus young in years yet very admirable for their worth And Princes do most wisely when they make such election especially when they are inforced to call men to places of labour and industry they must have some regard to the bodies as well as to the mindes of their servants and chuse men of younger yeares though not to be their favourites but their confidents according to the French distinction as His Majesty hath lately made choice of one noble servant who is a◠Nazianzen speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gray in the minde though yellow in the head and supplying in all manner of excellent parts what may be conceived wanting in years whose name so much already catched at by envy I shall ever reverence though now I purposely passe it over in silence and whom may the Church fear most of all but her dissembling friends that are in most favour with Kings and therefore seduce them soonest insensibly to wound the Care and neglect the Charge that is laid upon them because as St. Bernard saith Longè plus nocet falsus Catholicus quà m si apertus appareret haereticus those eare-wigs are most pernicious whose counsels seeme to be most specious when they are but as the spirit of darkness appearing like an Angel of light when they say God indeed must be served and the Word must be preached but whether Bishop or no Bishop whether in a sumptuous Church or private house whether by an esteemed Clergy or a poore meane Ministrie in this manner or in another fashion it skilleth not much Kings may well enough give way to spare that cost to lessen that Revenue and to pull down these Cathedrals especially to give content unto the People and to defray the expensive charge of the Common-wealth But these counsels will not excuse Kings in the day of their account therefore let them take heed of such Counsellors and when they hear them begin to speak against the Church though they be-guild their beginnings never so slily let them either stop their eares with the Cockatrice Psal 58.5 that will not heare the voice of the charmer charme he never so wisely or let them answer as our Saviour answered their grand instructor Vade Satana non tentabis Matth. 4.10 for it is most true that Qui deliberat jam desivit he that listens to them is halfe corrupted by them and so they may prove destructive both to themselves and to their posterity for as nothing establisheth the Throne of Kings surer then obedience to God so nothing is more dangerous then rebellion against God with whom there is no respect of persons for he expecteth Rom. 2.11 that as he made Kings his Vice-gerents so they should feare him preserve the right of his Church uphold his service defend his servants and do all that he commands them intirely without taking the least liberty for feare of the people to dispense with any omission of his honour or suffering the hedges of his Vineyard the Governours of his Church to be trodden down and torne in pieces that the beasts of the field may destroy the grapes and defile the service of our God Therefore to conclude this point let all Kings do their best to hinder their People to corrupt the Covenant of Levi which is a Covenant of Salt that is Malach. 2.8 Deut. 33.11 to indure for ever let them remember Moses prayer Blesse Lord his substance and accept the worke of his hands smite through the loynes of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again and let them alwayes consider that God taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants Psal 35.27 CHAP. XI Sheweth where the Protestants Papists and Puritans do place Soveraignty who first taught the deposing of Kings the Puritans tenet worse then the Jesuites Kings authority immediately from God the twofold royalty in a King the words of the Apostle vindicated from false glosses the testimony of the Fathers and Romanists for the Soveraignty of Kings the two things that shew the difficulty of government what a miraculous thing it is and that God himself is the governour of the people 2 The duty of the King in the government of the Common-wealth HAving set down some particulars of the Kings right in the Government of Gods Church it resteth that I should shew some part of his right and duty to serve God as he is a King in the government of the Common-wealth touching which for our more orderly proceeding I will distribute my whole discourse into these five heads Five points handled 1. To justifie his right to govern the people 2. To shew the difficulty of this government 3. To set down the assistants that are to helpe him in the performance of this duty 4. To distinguish the chiefest parts of this Government 5. To declare the end for which this Government is ordained of God 1. Point 1. Where the Protestants place Soveraignty 1. We say that the Kings Soveraignty or royal power to govern the people is independent from all creatures solely from God who hath immediately conferred the same upon him and this we are able to make good with abundance both of divine and humane proofes and yet we finde the same adversaries of this truth though with a far less shew of reason that we met withall about Government of Gods Church For 2. In whom the Papists do place Soveraignty The Pope's sad Message to Hen. 3. Imp. Quem meritum investivimus quare immeritum non devestiamus quia ad quem pertinet institutio ad eundem pertinet destitutio 2 They that are infatuated with the cup of Babylon the
condition their Preachers are and of what worth of no faith of no learning that have already forfeited their estates if they have any and their lives unto the king and will any man that is wise hazard his estate his life and his soul to follow the perswasions of these men my life is as deare to me as the Earle of Essex his head is to him and my soul dearer and I dare ingage them both that if all the Doctors in both Vniversities and all the Divines within the kingdome of England were gathered together to give their judgement of this War there could not be found one of ten it may be as I beleive not one of twenty that durst upon his conscience say this war is lawful upon the Parliament side for though these Locusts that is the German It is contrary to the doctrine of all the Protestant Church for Subjects to resist their king Scottish and the English Puritane agreeing with the Romane Jesuite ever since the reformation harped upon this string and retained this serpentine poison within their bosome still spitting it forth against all States as you may see by their bookes Yet I must tell you plainly this doctrine of Subjects taking up armes against their lawful King is point blanck and directly against the received doctrine of the Church of England and against the tenet of all true Protestants and therefore Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuite Paraeus in Rom. 13. Boucher l. 2. c 2. Keckerm Syst pol. c. 32. Jun. Brut. q. 2. p. 56. Bellar. de laic c. 6. Suar. de fid cathol c. 3. Lichfield l. 4. 19. sect 19. Field l. 5. c. 30. that cast this aspersion upon the Protestants that they jumpe with them in this doctrine of warring against and deposing kings saith that no Protestant doth maintain that damnable doctrine and that rashness of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto Juel and Bilson and all the Doctors of the Church are of the same minde and Lichfield saith no Orthodox father did by word or writing teach any resistance for the space of a thousand yeares and Doctor Field saith that all the worthy fathers and Bishops of the Church perswaded themselves that they owed all duty unto their kings though they were Hereticks and Infidels and the Homilies of the Church of England allowed by authority do plainly and peremptorily condemne all Subjects warring against their King for Rebels and Traytors that do resist the ordinance of God and procure unto themselves damnation and truely I beleive most of their own consciences tell them so and they that thinke otherwise I would have them to consider that if they were at a banquet where twenty should aver such a dish to be full of poyson for every one that would warrant it good would'st thou venture to eate it and hazard thy life in such a case O then consider what it is to hazard thy soule upon the like termes So you see the justness of the War on the Parliament side But. 1. On the Kings side it cannot be denied but his cause is most just for his own defence for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion that is established by our Laws and for the rights of the Church and the just liberties and property of all his loyal Subjects this he testifieth in all his Declarations and this we know in our own consciences to be true and therefore 2. As his Majesty professeth so we beleive him that he never intended otherwise by this war but to protect us and our Religion and to maintain his own just and unquestionable rights which these Rebels would most unjustly wrest out of his hands and under the shew of humble Petitioners to become at last proud Commanders for as one saith They whom no denial can withstand Seeme but to aske while they indeed command 3. For the persons that war with him they are the chiefest of the Nobility 3 His assistants learned honest and religious all the best Gentry that hazard their lives not for filthy lucre for the Kings Revenues being so unjustly detained from him they are fain to supply his necessities and to bear their own charges and the poor common Soldiers are nothing wanting to do their best endeavours neither need they to fear any thing because 4 His authority sacred and unquestionable What the pretended Parliament is 4. The King hath a just right to give them full power and authority to do execution upon these Rebels as I have proved unto you before And therefore the result of all is that the Parliament side under the pretence of Religion fighting if not for the Crown yet certainly for the full power and authority of the King who shall have the ordering of the Militia that is who shall have the government of this Kingdome which is all one as who shall be the King they or King CHARLES and which is the very question that they would now decide by the sword in taking away our goods are theeves and robbers in killing their brethren are bloudy murderers and in resisting their King are rebellious traytors that as the Apostle saith purchase to themselves damnation when as the Prophet Esay speaketh of the like Rebels being hardly bestead and hungry Esay 8.21 22. as I believe thousands of them are in London and other Rebellious Cities they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and looke upward as I fear many of them do curse the King with their tongues and God in their hearts and they shall looke unto the earth Matth. 8.12 and behold trouble and darknesse dimnesse and anguish and they shall be driven to darknesse even to utter darknesse where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth if by a true repentance they do not betimes rent their hearts and forsake their fearful sinns And the Kings side in this war doing no further then the king gives Commission do no more then what God commandeth and therefore living they shall be accounted loyal Subjects worthy of honour and dying they shall be sure to be everlastingly rewarded CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first Government of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deu. 17. and of Samuel 1 Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of Government came up 2 part of the regal government in the time of peace Master Selden in his titles of Honour p. 15. That the first government of Kings was arbitrary 2. HAving thus shewed you potestatem ducendi the Kings right and power of making War it resteth that I should speake De potestate judicandi of his power and right of judging and governing his people in the time of peace touching which we finde none denying his right but all the difference is about the manner where 1. I finde Master Selden rejecting