especially considering that the discharging of those good duties to give counsell to doe justice to relieve the distressed and the like are more acceptable recreations unto them as it was meate and drinke to Christ to doe his fathers will then the other fore-named exercises are or can be to any others and considering also John 4.34 that where the Bishop or Pastor hath great affaires and much charge he may have great helpes and much aid to assist him You will allow us an houre for our recreation why will you not allow us that houre to doe justice 2. If you say they are spirituall men and therefore cannot Ob. 2 have so great a care of the temporall State and Common-wealth I answer that as now the Common-wealth is the Church Sol. 1 The ability of thâ— Clergy to manage civill affaires and the Church is the Common-wealth and have as good interest therein and better we hope then many of the Common-wealth have in the Church and they should be as able to understand what is beneficiall to the Common-wealth as any other for Ignatius saith Ignat. epist ad Ephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Kings ought to be served by wise men and by those that are of great understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to be attended upon by weake and simple men and if Kings must be served by such men then certainly the service of God is not to be performed by Weavers and Taylors and others like Jeroboams Priests but it will require men of great abilities learning and understanding in all businesses whatsoever such as are indeed well able to discourse De quolibet ente And they have very unprofitably consumed themselves with their time in their head pain vigils and heart-breaking studies in traversing over all the Common-wealths of the world The Clergy of better ab lities to benefit the Common-wealth thâ—n many others that now swâ—y it if they have learned nothing whereby they may benefit their owne Common-wealth or doe understand lesse what belongeth unto the good of their Countrey especially in matters of equity and right then illiterate Burgesses and meere Chapmen for if you reade but the bookes of the Prophets you shall finde how plentifull they are in the precepts of peace in the policies of warre and in the best counsels for all things which concerne the good of the Common-wealth and doe not the Divines reade the Histories of all or most other Common-wealths how else shall they be inabled to propose unto their people the example of Gods justice upon the wicked and his bounty and favour unto the observers of his Lawes throughout all ages and in all places of this world and will you deprive the King of the assistance of such instruments for the government of his people The imployment of the Bishops in civill affaires is the good of the Common-wealth that are stronger then any one man can rule and would quickly despise Heaven and destroy the earth if their consciences were not awed with religion or would you damme up the channels of those benefits that should flow from them to the Common-wealth for it is not the addition of any honour to the calling of a Bishop but the Kings interest and the peoples good that is aymed at when we assert the capacity of the Clergy to discharge the offices of the most publique affaires Petrus Blesensis ep 84. because as Petrus Blesensis saith it is the office of the Bishops to instruct the King to righteousnesse to be a rule of Sanctity and sobriety unto the Court to mixe the influences of Religion with the designes of State and to restraine the malignity of the ill-disposed people and all histories doe relate unto us that when pious Bishops were imployed in the Kings Counsells the rigor of the lawes was abated equity introduced the cry of the poore respected their necessities releived the liberties of the Church preserved pride depressed religion increased the devotion of the Laity multiplied the peace of the Kingdome flourished and the tribunals were made more just and mercifull then now they be And therefore the sacred histories doe record of purpose how the people of God never adventured upon any action of waight and moment before they had well consulted with the Preists and Prophets as you see in the example of Ahab No Nation attempted any great matter without the advice of their Priests that was none of the best Kings yet would not omit this good duty and such was the custome of all other Countries wheresoever there was any religion or reverence of God Quae enim est respub ubi ecclesiastici primum non habeant locum in comitiis publicis de salute reipub deliberationibus for which is that Common-wealth where the Ecclesiasticall persons had not the first place in all meetings and publique consultations about the welfare of the Common-wealth as in Germany the three spirituall Electors are the first in France the three Ecclesiasticall persons were the first of all the Peeres in England till this unhappy time the two Archbishops and in Poland as many were wont to have the chiefest place and not unworthily quia aequum est Apud Euseb Paphilum l. 11. antestent in concilio qui antestant prudentia nec videtur novisse res humanas nisi qui divinas cognitas habet Strabo l. 4. Caesar de bello Gallico lib. 6. as the Indian said unto Socrates and therefore the Chaldeans the Egyptians the Grecians the Romanes the French and the Britons thought it alwayes ominous to attempt any notable thing in the Common-wealth without the sad and sage advice of their Priests and Prophets for they knew the neglect of God was never left without due revenge and though their false gods were no gods yet the true God was found to have beene a sharpe revenger of the contempt of the false gods because that to them they were proposed for the true gods and they believed them so to be as Lactantius sheweth and therefore all antiquity that bare any reverence to any Deity shewed all reverence and respect unto the teachers of his religion but now men desire to throw learning over the Barre because it should not discover the ignorance of the Bench or rather piety is excluded because it should not reprove their iniquity And the Clergy must not sit on the seat of judgement that the Laity may doe injustice without controule or perhaps revenge themselves upon their Ministers on the Bench for reproving their vices in the Church so the Devill gaineth whatsoever piety looseth by their depression 2. As the Clergy-men are as able 2. The desire of the Clergy to do good to the State so they are as willing and as carefull to provide for the good of the State as any other for themselves are members of the Common-wealth and they are appointed by God to be watchmen and over-seers to fore tell what mischiefes or felicities are like to
undutifulnesse will needs transferre this right of ruling Gods Church unto a Parliament of Lay-men the King shall be denuded of what God hath given him and the people shall be indued with what God and all good men have ever denyed them I deny not but the Parliament men as they are most noble and worthy Gentlemen so many of them may be very learned and not a few of them most religious and I honour the Parliament rightly discharging their duties Hugo de Sancto Vict. lib. 2. de sacr fid par 2. cap. 3. Laicis Christianis fidelibus terrena possidere conceditur clericis verò tantùm spiritualiâ— committuntur quae autem illâ— spiritualia sunt subjicit c. 5. dicent omnis ecclesiastica administratio in tribus consistit in sacramentis in ordinibus in praeceptis Ergo Laici nihil juris habent in legibus praeceptis condendis ecclesiasticit as much as their modesty can desire or their merit deserve neither doe I gain-say but as they are pious men and the greatest Councell of our King so they may propose things and request such and such Lawes to be enacted such abuses to be redressed and such a reformation to be effected as they thinke befitting for Gods Church but for Aarons seed and the Tribe of Levi to be directed and commanded out of the Parliament chaire how to performe the service of the Tabernacle and for Lay men to determine the Articles of faith to make Canons for Church-men to condemne heresies and define verities and to have the chiefe power for the government of Gods Church as our Faction now challengeth and their Preachers ascribe unto them is such a violation of the right of Kings such a derogation to the Clergy and so prejudiciall to the Church of Christ as I never found the like usurpation of this right to the eradication of the true religion in any age for seeing that as the Proverb goeth Quod medicorum est promittunt medici tractant fabrilia fabri what Papist or Athiest will be ever converted to professe that religion which shall be truly what now they alleadge falsely unto us a Parliamentary religion or a religion made by Lay men with the advice of a few that they choose è faece Cleri I must seriously professe what I have often bewayled to see Nadab and Abihu offering strange fires upon Gods Altar to see the sacred offices of the Priests so presumptuously usurped by the Laity and to see the children of the Church nay the servants of the Church to prescribe Lawes unto their Masters and I did ever feare it to be an argument not onely of a corrupted but also of a decaying State when Moses chaire should be set in the Parliament House and the Doctors of the Church should never sit thereon therefore I wish that the Arke may be brought backe from the Philistines and restored to the Priests to be placed in Shilo where it should be and that the care of the Arke which King David undertooke 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 3. Opinion Of the Oâ—thodox Quia religio est ex potioribus reipublica partibus ut aâ—t Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. ipsa sola custodit hominum inter se societateâ— ut ait Lâ—ctant de ira Dei cap. 12. Veritura Troia perdidit primum Deos. 3. As nothing is dearer to understanding righteous and religious Kings then the increase and maintenance of true religion 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 soone lost when they lost their Palladium so it is the truest signe 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 publique injoying of the Word of God the forme of Service the manner of Government and the honour and maintenance of the Clergie are all the duties of a most Christian King which the King of Heaven hath imposed upon him for the happinesse and prosperity of his Kingdome and whosoever derive the authority of this charge either in a blinde obedience to the See of Rome as the Jesuites doe or out of their too much zeale and affection to a new Consistory as the late Presbyterians did or to a Lay Parliament as our upstart Anabaptists and Brownists doe 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 severall Acts of Parliament Therefore the Tyrians châ—yâ—â—d their gods lest if they fled thâ—y should be destroyed to have the supremacie in all causes and over all persons as well in the Ecclesiasticall as in the Civill governement which being so they are exempted thereby from all inforcement of any domesticall or forraigne power and freed from the penalties of all those Lawes both Ecclesiasticall and Civill 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 Lawes 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 penall Lawes for so they may be soone dethroned by the unstable affection and weake judgement of discontented people or subject to the jurisdiction of Lay Elders and the excommunication of a tyrannous Consistory who denounceing him tanquam Ethnicum Matth. 18.17 may soone adde a stranger shall not raigne over thee Deut. 17.15 and so depose him from all government For seeing all attempts are most violent that have their beginning and strength from zeale 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 warre under Spartacus was most pernicious unto the Romans there can be nothing of greater use or more profitable either for the safety of the King How necessary it is for Kings to retaine their just rights in their hands the peace of the Church and the quiet state of the Kingdome then for the Prince the King to retaine the Militia and to keepe that power and authority which the Lawes of God and of our Land have granted
JVRA MAJESTATIS THE RIGHTS OF KINGS BOTH In CHVRCH and STATE 1. Granted by God 2. Violated by the Rebels 3. Vindicated by the Truth AND The wickednesses of the Faction of this pretended PARLIAMENT at VVestminster 1. Manifested by their Actions 1. Perjury 2. Rebellion 3. Oppression 4. Murder 5. Robberie 6. Sacriledge and the like 2. Proved by their Ordinances 1. Against Law 2. Against Equity 3. Against Conscience PUBLISHED 1. To the eternall honour of our just God 2. The indeleble shame of the wicked Rebels And 3. To procure the happy peace of this distressed Land Which many feare we shall never obtaine untill 1. The Rebels be destroyed or reduced to the obedience of our King And 2. The breaches of the Church be repaired 1. By the restauration of Gods now much prophaned service And 2. The reparation of the many injuries done to Christ his now dis-esteemed servants By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS Lord Bishop of OSSORY Impij homines qui dum volunt esse mali nolunt esse veritatem qua condemnantur mali Augustinus Printed at Oxford Ann. Dom. 1644. Carolus D G Mag Brittaniae Fra et Hiberniae Rex â—â—r TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE Most gracious Soveraigne WIth no small paines and the more for want of my books and of any setled place being multùm terris jactatus alto frighted out of mine house and tost betwixt two distracted Kingdomes I have collected out of the sacred Scripture explained by the ancient Fathers and the best Writers of Gods Church these few Rights our of many that God and nature and Nations and the Lawes of this Land have fully and undeniably granted unto our Sveraigne Kings My witnesse is in Heaven that as my conscience directed me without any squint aspect so I have with all sincerity and freely traced and expressed the truth as I shall answer to the contrary at the dreadfull judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore with all fervency I humbly supplicate the divine Majestie still to assist Your Highnesse that as in Your lowest ebbe You have put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and with an heroick resolution withstood the proudest waves of the raging Seas and the violent attempts of so many imaginary Kings so now in Your acquired strength You may still ride on with Your honour and for the glory of God the preservation of Christ his Church and the happinesse of this Kingdom not for the greatest storme that can be threatned suffer these Rights to be snatched away nor Your Crowne to be throwne to the dust nor the sword that God hath given You to be wrested out of Your hand by these uncircumcised Philistines these ungracious rebels and the vessels of Gods wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse they do most speedily repent for if the unrighteous will be unrighteous still and our wickednesse provoke God to bring our Land to desolation Your Majestie standing in the truth and for the right for the honour of God and the Church of his Sonne is absolved from all blame and all the bloud that shall be spilt and the oppressions insolencies and abhominations that are perpetrated shall be required at the hands and revenged upon the heads of these detested rebels You are and ought in the truth of cases of conscience to be informed by Your Divines and I am confident that herein they will all subscribe that God will undoubtedly assist You and arise in his good time to maintaine his owne cause and by this warre that is so undutifully so unjustly made against Your Majestie so Giant like fought against Heaven to overthrow the true Church You shall be glorious like King David that was a man of warre whose deare sonne raised a dangerous rebellion against him and in whose reigne so much bloud was spilt and yet notwithstanding these distempers in his Dominion he was a man according to Gods owne heart especially because that from α to ω * As in the beginning by reducing the Arke from the Philistines throughout the midst by setling the service of the Tabernacle in the ending by his resolution to build and leaving such a treasure for the erecting of the Temple the beginning of his raigne to the end of his life his chiefest endeavour was to promote the service and protect the servants of the Tabernacle the Ministers of Gods Church God Almighty so continue Your Majestie blesse You and protect You in all Your wayes Your vertuous pious Queene and all Your royall Progenie Which is the daily prayer of The most faithfull to Your Majestie GRYFFITH OSSORY The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this TREATISE CHAP. I. Sheweth who are the fittest to set downe the Rights which God granted unto Kings what causeth men to rebell the parts considerable in S. Peter's words 1. Pet. 2.17 in fine How Kings honoured the Clergy the faire but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefely ayme at and their malice to Episcopacie and Royaltie Pag. 1 CHAP. II. Sheweth what Kings are to be honoured the institution of Kings to be immediately from God the first Kings the three chiefest rights to Kingdomes the best of the three rights how Kings came to be elected and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracie and Democracie issued out of Monarchie Pag. 12 CHAP. III. Sheweth the Monarchicall Government to be the best forme the first Government that ever was agreeable to Nature wherein God founded it consonant to Gods owne Government the most universally received throughout the world the immediate and proper Ordinance of God c. Pag. 20 CHAP. IV. Sheweth what we should not do and what we should do for the King the Rebels transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themselves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their own Kings of Israel c. Pag. 29 CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himselfe before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecuting Emperours Pag. 41 CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three severall opinions the strange speeches of the Disciplinarians against Kings are shewed and Viretus his scandalous reasons are answered the double service of all Christian Kings and how the Heathen Kings and Emperours had the charge of Religion Pag. 48 CHAP. VII Sheweth the three things necessary for all Kings that would preserve true Religion how the King may attaine to the knowledge of things that pertaine to Religion by His Bishops and Chaplains and the calling of Synods c. Pag. 62 CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Lawes by the advice of their Bishops and Clergy
119. 3. The Law of God which is an undefiled Law and doth infallibly set downe what duties are to be performed and what Rights are to be yielded to every King for whatsoever things are written of the Kings of Israel and Judah in the holy Scriptures are not only written for those Kings and the government of that one Nation To what end the stories of the kings of Israel and Iudah were written Rom. 15.4 but as the Apostle saith They are written for our learning that all Kings and Princes might know thereby how to governe and all Subjects might in like manner by this impartiall and most perfect rule understand how to behave themselves in all obedience and loyalty towards their Kings and governours for he that made man knew he had been better unmade than left without a Government therefore as he ordained those Lawes whereby we should live and set down those truths that we should believe The ordination of our government as beneficiall as our creation so he settled and ordained that Government whereby all men in all Nations should be guided and governed as knowing full well that we neither would nor could do any of these things right unlesse he himselfe did set down the same for us therefore though the frowardnesse of our Nature will neither yield to live according to that Law nor believe according to that rule nor be governed according to that divine Ordinance which God hath prescribed for us in his Word yet it is most certain that he left us not without a perfect rule and direction for each one of these our faith our life and our government without which government we could neither enjoy the benefits of our life nor scarce reape the fruits of our faith and because it were as good to leave us without Rules and without Lawes Unwritten things most uncertain as to live by unwritten Lawes which in the vastnesse of this world would be soon altered corrupted and obliterated therefore God hath written down all these things in the holy Scriptures which though they were delivered to the People of the Jewes for the government both of their Church and Kingdome yet were they left with them to be communicated for the use and benefit of all other Nations God being not the God of the Jewes onely Rom. 3 2◠but of the Gentiles also because the Scripture in all morall and perpetuall precepts that are not meerly judicialia Judaica or secundae classis which the royall government was not because this was ordained from the beginning of the world to be observed among all Nations and to be continued to the end of the world nor the types and shadowes that were to vanish when the true substance approached was left as a perfect paterne and platforme for all Kings and People Pastours and Flockes Churches and Kingdomes throughout the whole world to be directed how to live to governe and to be governed thereby Such was the love and care of God for the Government of them that love and care as little to be governed by his government Every Government the better by how much nearer it is to the Government of the Scripture kings And therefore the dimme and dusky light of bleare eye'd Nature and the darke distracted inventions of the subtillest politickes must stoope and yield place in all things wherein they swerve from that strict rule of justice and the right order of government which is expressed necessarily to be observed in the holy Scripture either of the Kings part towards his People or of the Peoples duty towards their King And though each one of these faculties or the understanding of each one of these three Lawes requireth more than the whole man our life being too short to make us perfect in any one yet seeing that of all three the Law of God is abyssus magna like the bottomlesse sea and the supreme Lady to whom all other Lawes and Sciences are but as Penelopes handmaids to attend her service the Divine may farre better and much sooner understand what is naturall right The Divine is better able to understand Law than the Lawyer to understand Divinitie Psal 1.2 and what ought to be a just nationall Law and thereby what is the Right of Kings and what the duty of Subjects than any either Philosopher or Lawyer can finde the same by any other art especially to understand the same so fully by the Law of God as the Divine that exerciseth himselfe therein day and night may do it unlesse you thinke as our Enthusiasts dreame that every illiterate Tradesman or at least a Lawyers Latine I speak of the generality when I know many of them of much worth in all learning may easily wade with the reading of our English Bibles into the depth of all Divinity and that the greatest Doctour that spent all his dayes in studies can hardly understand the mysteries of these Camelion-like Lawes which may change sense as often as the Case shall be changed either by the subtlety of the Pleader or the ignorance or corruption of the Judges But we know their deepest Lawes discreetest Statutes and subtillest Cases cannot exceed the reach of sound reason and therefore no Reason can be shewed but that a rationall man meanly understanding Languages may sooner understand them and with lesse danger mistake them than that Law which as the Psalmist saith is exceeding broad Psal 119.96 and exceedeth all humane sense and the most exquisite naturall understanding 1 Cor. 2.14 when as the Apostle saith The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnes unto him neither can he know them because they ar◠spiritually discerned and being not discerned or misunderstood they make all such mistakers liable to no small punishment if God should be extreme to marke what is done amisse and this not understanding of God's Law is the errour of other Lawes and the cause of much mischiefe What causeth many men to rebell The Scriptures say more for the right of kings than any booke in the world D wning in his d scourse of the Ecclesiasticall State p. 91. for if men understood the Law of God or would believe us that do understand it I assure my selfe many of the Rebels such as rebell not out of pride disobedience or discontent are so conscientious that they would not so rebell as they do being seduced through their ignorance by the subtletie of the most crafty children of disobedience And therefore letting the usuall impatience of the furious fire-brands of sedition and the malicious incendiaries of Rebellion together with those treacherous Judasses that insensibly lurke in the King's Court and are more dangerous both to the Church and State than those open Rebels that are in the Parliament House to lay on me what reproach they please as some of them being galled and now gone have already done August Ego in bonâ conscientiâ teneo quisquis volens
to governe God's People is their indubitable right and the immediate prime principall Ordinance of God therefore it concernes every man as much as his soule is worth to examine seriously whether to fight against their owne King be not to resist the Ordinance of God for which God threatneth no lesse punishment than damnation from which Machiavel cannot preserve us nor any policy of State procure a dispensation CHAP. IV. Sheweth what we should not do and what we should do for the King the Rebells transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themselves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their owne Kings of Israel and how our Kings are of the like institution with the Kings of Israel proved in the chiefest respects at large and therefore to have the like honour and obedience 2. AS every lawfull King is to be truly honoured in regard of God's Ordinance 2. All Kings are to be honoured in respect of God's precept considered two wayes so likewise in respect of God's precept which commandeth us to honour the King and this duty is so often inculcated and so fully laid upon us in the holy Scripture that I scarce know any duty towards man so much pressed and so plainly expressed as this is 1. Negatively what we should not do 1. What we should not do to deprive him of his Honour 2. Affirmatively what we should do to manifest and magnifie this Honour towards him for 1. Our very thoughts words 1. To thinke no â—ll of the King Curse not the King no not in thy thought Eccles 10.30 and workes are imprisoned and chained up in the linkes of God's strictest prohibition that they should no wayes peepe forth to produce the least dishonour unto our King for 1. The Spirit of God by the mouth of the wisest of men commands us to thinke no ill of the King let the King be what he will the precept is without restriction you must thinke no ill that is you must not intend and purpose in your thoughts to doe the least ill office or disparagement unto the King that â—â—leth over you be the same King virtuous or vitious milde or cruell good or bad this is the sense of the Holy Ghost For as the childe with Cham shall become accursed if he doth but dishonour and despise his wicked father or his father in his wickednesse whom in all duty he ought to reverence so the Subject shall be liable to Gods vengeance if his heart shall intend the least ill to his most tyrannicall King To saâ— no â—ll of thâ— King â—xod 22.28 Act. 23. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The same Spirit saith Thou shalt not revile the Gods that is the Judges of the Land nor curse that is in Saint Pauls phrase speake evill of the Ruler of the people and what can be more evill then to bely his Religion to traduce his Government and to make so faithfull a Christian King as faithlesse as a Cretan which is commonly broached by the Rebels and preached by their seditious teachers 3. To doe no hurt to the King â—â—al 105.15 1 â—am 24.4 5. 3. The great Iehovah gives this peremptory charge to all Subjects saying Touch not mine Annointed which is the least indignity that may be and therefore Davids heart smote him when he did but cut off the lap of Saules garment What then can be said for them that draw their swords and shoot their Canons to take away the life of Gods Annointed which is the greatest mischiefe they can doe I believe no distinction can blind the judgement of Almighty God but his revengefull hand will finde them out that so maliciously transgresse his precepts and thinke by their subtilty to escape his punishments 2. What we should doe to honour the King Eccles 8 2. 1. To observe the Kings commands 2. The Scriptures doe positively and plainly command us to shew all honour unto our King For 1. Salomon saith I counsell thee to keepe the Kings commandement or as the phrase imports to observe the mouth of the King that is not onely his written law but also his verball commands and that in regard of the oath of God that is in respect of thy religion or the solemne vow which thou madest at thine initiation and incorporation into Gods Church to obey all the precepts of God whereof this is one to honour and obey the King or else that oath of allegiance and fidelity Et si religio to â—â—â—litur nullà nâ—beâ— cum coelo ratio est Lactant Inst l. 3. c. 10. which thou hast sworne unto thy King in the presence and with the approbation of thy God which certainly will plague all perjurers and take revenge on them that take his name in vaine which is the infallible and therefore most miserable condition of all the perjurod Rebels of this Kingdome For if morall honesty teacheth us to keepe our promises yea though it were to our owne hinderance then much more should Christianity teach us to observe our deliberate and solemne oathes whose violation can beare none other fruit then the heavy censure of Gods fearefull indignation But when the prevalent faction tooke a solemne Oath and Protestation to defend all the Priviledges of Parliament and the Rights of the Subjects How the prevalent Faction of the Parliament forswore themselves and then presently forgetting their oath and forsaking their faith by throwing the Bishops out of the House of Peeres which all men knew to be a singular Priviledge and the House of Lords acknowledged to be the indubitable right of the Bishops and their doctrine being to dispense with all oathes for the furtherance of the cause it is no wonder they falsifie all oathes that they have made unto the King 2. The people said unto Joshuah 2. To obey the Kings commandements Josh 1.18 Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandement and will not hearken to the words of thy mouth in all that thou commandest he shall be put to death surely this was an absolute government and though martiall yet most excellent to keepe the people within the bounds of their obedience for they knew that where rebellion is permitted there can be no good performance of any duty and it may be a good lesson for all the higher powers not to be too clement which is the incouragement of Rebels to most obstinate Trayterous and rebellious Subjects who daring not to stirre under rigid Tyrants doe kicke with their heeles against the most pious Princes and therefore my soule wisheth not out of any desire of bloud but from my love to peace that this rule were well observed Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandement he shall be put to death * Quia in talibus non chedientes mortaliter peccant nisi foret illud quod praecipitur contra praceptum Dei vel in salutis dispendium Angel summa verb. obedientia 3. To give the King no just
c. 16. and confirmed unto him by Act of Parliament yet upon his death-bed confessed he had no right thereunto as Speed writeth 4. Because it was determined by all the Judges at the Arraignment Reason 4 of Watson and Clerke 1. Jacobs that immediately by descent his Majestie was compleatly and absolutely King without the Ceremony of Coronation which was but a royall ornament and outward solemnization of the descent And it is illustrated by Hen. 6. Speed l. 9. c. 16. that was not crowned till the ninth yeare of his reigne and yet divers were attainted of High Treason before that time which could not have beene done had he not beene King And we know that upon the death of any of our Kings The right heire to the Kingdome is King before he is crowned his Successor iâ— immediately proclaimed King to shew that he hath his Kingdome by descent and not by the people at his Coronation whose consent is then asked Why the peoples consent is asked not because they have any power to deny their consent or refuse him for their King but that the King having their assent may with greater security and confidence rely upon their loyalty Respect 2 2. As the Kings of Israel had full power and authority to make warre and conclude peace to call the greatest Assemblies as Moses Joshua David Iehosaphat and the rest of the Kings did to place and displace the greatest Officers of State as Solomon placed Abiathar in Sadoc's roome 2. Chron 19.11 and Iehosaphat appointed Amariah and Zebadiah rulers of the greatest affaires and had all the Militia of the Kingdome in their hands The absolute authority of the Kings of England Coke 7. rep fol 25. 6. Pâ—lyd Virgil. lib. 11. Speed Stâ—w c. so the Kings of England have the like for 1. He onely can lawfully proclaime warre as I shewed before and he onely can conclude peace 2. There is no Assembly that can lawfully meet but by his Authority and as the Parliament was first devised and instituted by the King as all our Historians write in the life of Hen. 1. so they cannot meet but by the Kings Writ 3. All Lawes Customes and Franchises are granted and confirmed unto the people by the King Rot. Claus 1. R. 2. n. 44. Smith de repub Angl. l. 2. c. 4. c. 5. 4. All the Officers of the Realme whether Spirituall or Temporall are chosen and established by him as the highest immediately by himselfe and the inferiour by an authority derived from him The absurdities of them that deny the Militia to the King 5. He hath the sole power of ordering and disposing all the Castles Forts and strong Holds and all the Ports Havens and all other parts of the Militia of this Kingdome or otherwise it would follow that the King had power to proclaime warre but not to be able to maintaine it and that he is bound to defend his Subjects but is denied the meanes to protect them which is such an absurdity as cannot be answered by all the House of Commons 6. The Kings of Israel were unto their people their honour their Soveraignes their life and the very breath of their nostrils as themselves acknowledge and so the Kings of England are the life the head and the authority of all things that be done in the Realme of England Smith de Repub. l. 2. Cambden Britan p. 132. supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habentes nec in Imperii clientelâ sunt nec investituram ab alio accipientes nec praeter Deum superiorem agnoscentes and their Subjects are bound by oath to maintaine the Kings Soveraignty in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill and that not onely as they are singularly considered but over all collectively represented in the body politique for by sundry divers old authentique Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realme of England is an Empire and so hath beene accepted in the world In the Pâ—eface to a Staâ— 24. Hen. 8. c. 12. governed by one supreame Head and King having the dignity and royall estate of the Imperiall Crowne of the same unto whom a body politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in termes and by names of spiritualty and temporalty have beene bounden and owen to beare next to God a naturall and humble obedience 3. As the duty of every one of the Kings of Israel was to be Respect 3 Custos utriusque tabulae to keepe the Law of God and to have a speciall care of his Religion and then to doe justice and judgement according to the Law of nature and to observe all the judiciall Lawes of that Kingdome so are the Kings of England obliged to discharge the same duties 1. To have the chiefest care to defend the faith of Christ The duty of the Kings of England and to preserve the honour of Gods Church as I shewed before 2. To maintaine common right according to the rules and dictates of nature And 3. To see the particular Lawes and Statutes of his owne Kingdome well observed amongst his people To all which the King is bound not onely virtute officii in respect of his office but also vinculo juramenti in respect of his oath which enjoyneth him to guide his actions not according to the desires of an unbridled will but according to the tyes of these established Lawes neither doe our Divines give any further liberty to any King but if he failes in these he doth offend in his duty 4. As the Kings of Israel were accountable for their actions Respect 4 unto none but onely unto God and therefore King David after he had committed both murder and adultery saith unto God Psal 51.4 Tibi soli peccavi as if he had said none can call me to any account for what I have done but thou alone and we never read that either the people did call or that the Prophets perswaded them to call any of their most idolatrous tyrannicall or wicked Kings to any account for their idolatrie The kings of England accountable for their actions onely to God tyrannie or wickednesse even so the Kings of England are accountable to none but to God 1. Because they have their Crowne immediately from God Reason 1 who first gave it to the Conquerour through his sword and since to the succeding Kings Smith de repub l. 1. c. 9. by the ordinary meanes of hereditary succession Reason 2 2. Because the oath which he takes at his Coronation binds him onely before God who alone can both judge him and punish him if he forgets it Reason 3 3. Because there is neither condition promise or limitation either in that Oath or in any other Covenant or compact that the King makes with the people either at his Coronation or at any other time that he should be accomptable or that they should question
ensue and to admonish as well the Prince as the people of such things as are to be avoided and to be performed which they cannot doe if they be strangers from the conscience and excluded from the conference of such things that are to be done in the Common-wealth The Church of Christ and a Chrisitan common-wealth sayle together Therefore seeing the good of the Common-wealth is their owne good and the good of the Church is the good of the Common wealth when a Christian Common-wealth and the Church of Christ are imbarked in the same vessell and do sayle together with the same successe ayming both at the same Port and God hath commanded his Ministers to be no lesse solicitous for the one then the other it is incredible to thinke that a godly Minister should have lesse care of the Common-wealth then the best of our common Burgo-masters and it is impossible to conceive any true reason why the Bishops and Pastors above all others should be excommunicated out of their assemblies and excluded from their Parliaments and other civill Courts when it doth most chiefly concerne them to see unto the welfare of their flocke not onely in such things as concerne the safety of their soules A miserable thing that the Ministers of the Gospell should be made more slaves then the basest calling in the world but also in all other things that may pertaine either to the security of their bodies or the quietnesse of their estates because this is a thing utterly against the equall right of all Subjects that the Ministers of the Gospell being Subjects unto the King and Citizens of the Common-wealth should have nothing to do in the government thereof but must be governed not as strangers that may have admission but as slaves with an impossibility to be received into the civill administration of any matter and their exclusion is as prejudiciall to the King and Kingdome as it is injurious unto the Clergy when they must be deprived of the grave advice and faithfull service of so learned and religious assistants for the governement of the people as the reverend Bishops and devout Doctors have ever beene Ob. 3 3. If you say the sixth Canon of the Apostles the seventh Canon of the Councell of Calcedon Act. 15. S. Cyprian punished Geminius Faustinus for undertaking the Executorship of Geminius Victor ep 66. Sol. and S. Cyprian in his Epistle to the Priests of Furnam doe forbid these things in Ecclesiasticall persons and so many Fathers have accordingly refused these civill imployments and jurisdictions I answer briefly that while the Emperours were Heathens and neither the Kings nor their Kingdomes Christian but their counsels were often held for wicked ends private gaine or privie deceit for bloudy murders or horrid treasons the Clergie were inhibited and the godly Bishops were ashamed to sit in such ungodly assemblies that would neither be converted to Christ nor reformed from their sinnes and so now when the Puritan faction prevailed in our Parliament and our Sectaries disdained in their counsels to take the councell of Religion and resolved to banish God from their assemblies Good to be excluded from the counsell of th◠wicked to make the Church and Church-men a publique scorne unto the wicked and the Common-wealth a private gaine 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 godlesse and irreligious not Parliament but Parracides even as the Psalmist testifieth Psal 1.1 Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornefull and therefore if they had not beene excluded I am sure that as the case now standeth they would have seceded themselves But when the civill 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 seene in the Congregation of Saints and to sit as Judges among gods where the judgement shall passe for the glory of God The giving of Caesar's due doth not hinder us to give to God his due neither is it any prejudice to our holy calling to give unto Caesar those things that are Caesars's and that we owe unto him as our service and our counsell 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 doe 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 Gods flocke as we are Christians and Bishops over the Church of Christ but the same man if he will be faithfull may justly performe both dutyes without giving over or neglecting either And when our men shall returne to God and take him along with them into their counsels and desire the assistance of his servants as I hope they will have the grace to doe I assure my selfe the Reverend Bishops will not refuse to doe them service Ob. 4 But you will say the Emperours were good Christians when the Councell of Calcedon put out their Canons Sol. I answer the Emperours were but all Kings were not besides that Canon cleares it selfe for it sheweth that Clergy-men did at that time undertake secular imployments Propter luera turpia ministerium Dei parvi pendentes for gaine neglecting their duty and therefore the Councell forbade all Clergy-men negotiis secularibus se immiscere because the Apostle saith 2. Tim. 2.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no man that warreth intangleth or insnareth himselfe with the affaires of this life and so neither the Apostle nor the Councell doth absolutely forbid all secular affaires as inconsistent with this function Concil Arelat Can. 14. The words of the Canon explained but as the Councell of Arles saith Clericus turpis lucri gratià aliquod genus negotiationis non exerceat so they forbid all Clerkes to meddle with any businesse for the love of gaine 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 himselfe 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 S. Paul's Tent-making was as much against the calling of an Apostle as the sitting in a secular tribunall is against the office of a Bishop because there is no reason we should deny that benefit to a publique necessitated community which we will yeeld to a private personall necessity The Presbyterians will be the directors of all affaires And so indeed these very men that crie out against our Bishops and other grave Prelates of the Church
and deporment in it yet it may be so with you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is with the sonne of man whom no man can exceed in humility and yet in his greatest humility he saith ye call me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master and Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ye say well for so I am Iohn 13.13 And therefore he forbad not this title no otherwise then he forbad them to be called Fathers Doctors and Masters and I hope you will confesse he doth not inhibit the Children to call them Fathers that begat them nor forbid us to call them Doctors unto whom the Lord himselfe hath given the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Doctors in his Church Ephe. 4.11 otherwise we must know why S. Paul doth call himselfe the Doctor of the Gentiles 1 Tim. 2.7 and why doth the Law command us to honour our Father and our Mother if we may call no man Father But Christ comming not to diminish the power of Princes nor to make it unlawfull for Christian Kings to honour his servants which the heathen Princes did to the servants of God as Nebucchadnezzar preferred Daniel among the Babylonians and Darius advanced Mordecai among the Persians nor to deny that honour unto his sevants which their owne honest demerits and the bounty of their gracious Princes do confer upon them What Christ forbiddeth to his Ministers it is apparent that it is not the condition of these names but the ambition of these titles and the abuse of their authourity is forbidden by our Saviour Christ For as Elias and Elizaeus in the old Test suffered themselves with no breach of humility to be called Lords 3. Reg. 18.1 as where Abdias a great officer of King Ahab sayeth art not thou my Lord Elias the Shunamite called Elizaeus Lord. 4. Reg. 4.16 So in the new Test Paul and Barnabas that rent their cloathes when the people ascribed unto them more then humane honour yet refused not the name of Lords Act. 16.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it was given them by the keeper of the prison that said Lords what shall I do to be saved which title certainly they would never have indured if this honour might not be yeelded and this title received by the Ministers of the Gospell S. Peter tels us that Christian women if they imitate Sarah that obeyed Abraham * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he propoundeth to them as a patterne may and should call their husbands though meane mechanicks Lords or else he proposeth this example to no purpose and therefore me thinkes they should be ashamed to thinke this honour may be afforded to poore Trades-men and to deny it to those eminent pillars and cheife governours of Gods Church And as the Script gives not onely others the like eminent and more significant titles of honour unto the governours of the Church as when it saith they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 presidents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rulers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princes as where the Psalmist sayth in steed of thy Fathers thou shalt have children whom thou mayest make Princes in all lands Origen ho. 19. in Math Hier. in Psal 45.16 which the best interpreters do expound of the Apostles and Bishops that are called the Princes of Gods Church but also giveth and alloweth this very title of Lord unto them as I shewed before so the fathers of the Primitive Church did usually ascribe the same one to another as S. Hierome writing to S. Aug. saith Domine verè sancte Sozom. lib. 3. c. 23. and the Letters sent to Julius Bishop of Rome had their superscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to our most blessed Lord. And Nazian sayeth Nazian in ep ad gr Nyssen let no man speak any untruth of me nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Lords the Bishops and in all antiquity as Theodoret sheweth Theodor. l. 1. c. 4. 5. l. c. 9. this title of Lord is most frequently ascribed unto the Bishops S. Chrysostome in Psal 13. as he is cited by Baronius Anno 58. n. 2. sayeth that Hereticks have learned of the Devill to deny the due titles of honour unto their Bishops neither is it strange that he which would have no Bishops should deny all honour unto the Bishops but they can be contented to transferre this honour though to cover their hypocrisie in another title that shall be as Emperor instead of King from the Episcopacie to the Presbytery so that indeed it is not the honour which they hate but the Persons of the Bishops that are honoured Therefore though for mine owne perticular I do so much undervalue the vanity of all titles that were it not the duty of the people to give it more then the desire of the Bishops to have it I should have spared all this discourse yet seeing it is the right of Kings to bestow honors and it is an argument of their love to Christ to honour them that honour God to magnifie the order of their Religion and to account the chiefe Ministers of the Gospell among the chiefe States of the Land I could not passe it over in silence but shew you how it belongs to him to give this honour to whom he will and because this dignity cannot be given to all that are in the same order it is wisely provided by the King that the whole order or Ministry should be honoured in those few The whole order honoured in few whose learning and wisedome he hath had most use and experience of or is otherwise well informed thereof and it is no small wonder unto me that any learned man should be so blinded with this error as any wayes to oppose this truth or that any Christian should be like the sons of Jacob so transported with envy when they see any of their brethren made more honourable then themselves for they ought to thinke themselves honoured in the honour of their brethren but that pride is such a beast that thinketh himselfe the most worthy and envy is such a monster that cannot endure any happinesse to any other When the Lord Bishops are downe the Lords Teâ—porâ—ll shall not continue long for as Geneva put away their Bishop thâ—t Prince so the Cantons and Switzers put away all Lords A just judgement of God that they which will have no sâ—irituall Lords should not be any temporall Lords but should be as little regarded by their creatures as thâ—y regard the servâ—nts of their Creator And that which makes me wonder most of all is to see those Lords whose honours scarce saw the age of a man and some pretending great loyalty to His Majestie and wishing happinesse to His Posterity so farre yeilding to the mis-guided Faction to darken the glory of Gods Church and to undervalue Christs Ministers as to obliterate that dignity and rase out those titles which are inherent to the Ministrie from the foundation of
for he expecteth 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 commandes them entirely without taking the least libertâ—â—or feare of the people to dispense with any omission of his hâ—nour or suffering the hedges of his Vineyard the governours of his Church to be troden downe 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 doe their best to hinder their people to corrupt the Covenant of Levi Malath 2. â— which is a Covenant of Salt that is to indure for ever let them remember Moses prayer Blesse Lord his substance Deut. 33.11 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 againe and let them alwayes consider Psal 35.27 that God taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants CHAP. XI Sheweth where the Protestants Papists and Puritans doe 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 himselfe is the governour of the people 2. The duty of the King in the government of the Common-wealth 2. HAving set downe 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 governe the people 2. To shew the difficulty of this government 3. To set downe the assistants that are to helpe him in the performance of this duty 4. To distinguish the chiefest parts of this governement 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 royall power to governe 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 farre lesse shew of reason that we met withall about the government of Gods Church For 2. In whom the Papists do place Soveraignty 2. They that are infatuated with the cup of Babylon the Canonists and some Jesuites doe constantly averre that summum imperium the primary supreame power of this government is in the Pope 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolutely and directly The Pope's sad Message to Hen. 3. Imp. Quem meritum investivimus quare immeritum non devestâ—amus quia ad quem pertinet institutio ad eundem pertinet destitutio as he is the Vicar of Christ who hath all power given him both in Heaven and earth from whom it is immediately derived unto his Vicar and from him to all Kings mediately by subordination unto him so Baronius Carerius and others But Bellarmine and the rest of the more moderate Jesuists say that this imperium in reges the Popes power over all Kings and States is but indirectum dominium a power by consequent and indirectly in ordine ad bonum spirituale as the civill State hath relation to religion and this great Cardinall lest he should seeme sine ratione insanire doth as the Heretiques did in Tertullians time Caedem Scripturarum facere ad materiam suam alleadge 22 places of Scripture mis-interpreted to confirme his indirect Divinity and as Potiphars wife he produceth very honest apparell but to prove a very bad cause and therefore attributing to the Pope by the greatnesse of his learning and the excellency of his wit more then he could justifie with a good conscience he was so farre from satisfying the then Pope that he was well nigh resolved to condemne all his workes for this one opinion and Carerius undertooke his confutation ex professo Carerius lib. 1. cap. 5. and taxeth him so bitterly that he putteth him inter impios haereticos which he needed not to have done because the difference is onely in the expression when the Pope by this indirect power may take occasion to king and unking whom he pleaseth and doe what he will in all Christian States 3. 3. Where the Puritans place the Soveraignty Majestas regia sita est magis in populo quam in persona regis Parsons in Doâ—â— man The Anabaptists and Puritans either deny all governement with the Fratricelli and all superiority by the title of Christianity as the Author of the Tract of Schisme and Schismaticks or doe say that originally it proceedeth and habitually resideth in the people but is cumulatively and communicatively derived from them unto the King and therefore the people not denuding themselves of their first interest but still retaining the same in the collective body that is in themselves suppletivè if the King in their judgement be defective in the administration or neglect the performance of his duty may question their King for his mis-government dethrone him if they see cause and resuming the collated power into their owne hands againe may transferre it to any other whom they please Which opinion if it were true would make miserable the condition of all Kings and I beleeve they first learned it from the Sorbonists The Sorbonists first taught the deposing of Kings and why who to subject the Pope to the community of the faithfull say that the chiefe spirituall power was first committed by Christ unto them and they to preserve the unity of the Church remitted the same communicatively unto the Pope but suppletively not privatively or habitually devesting themselves thereof retaining the same still in themselves if the Pope failed in the faith of the Church and therefore he was not only censurable but also deposable by the Councell if he became an heretique or apostated from the religion of Christ and to make this both the more plausible and probable they alleaged how Kings were thus eligible Buchan de jure regni p. 75. 91. and likewise deposable by the community of the people for out of this Buchanan saith Romani Pontifices longè regum omnium conditione superiores legum tamen poenis haud eximuntur sed eos quanquam sacrosanctos Christianis omnibus semper habitos Synodus Basiliensis communi ordinum consensu senatui sacerdotum obnoxios esse pronunciavit that is in briefe the Popes are
our Parliament do the like in case of male-administration I answer that I speake of the right of Kings Sol. 2. Reg. 19.37 and not justifie the wrongs done to Kings Adramelech and Sharezer killed Sennacherib their owne father is it therefore lawfull for other children so to doe Why should we therefore alleadge those things Qua insolentia populari quae vi quae furore non ad imitationem exemplo proponenda sed justo legum supplicio vindicanda sunt which should rather have beene revenged by the just punishment of the Law then proposed to be imitated by the example Therefore I say that whosoever abridgeth the King of this power robbeth him of that right which God and nature hath allowed him whereby you may judge how justly the Parliamentary faction would have dealt herein with our King by forcing Counsellors and great Officers upon him but I hope you see it is the Kings right to chuse his Servants Officers and Counsellors what manner of men he should chuse Jethro setteth downe And I have most fully described the qualities and conditions that they should be indued withall in my True Church True Church lib 6. c. 4. c. 2. Difference about the power of the subordinate Magistrates 2. As our Sectaries differ much from the true Divines about the choyce so they differ much more about the power of these subordinate Officers and inferiour Magistrates for we say they are alwayes to be obedient to the supreme power or otherwise ejus est deponere cujus est constituere he can displace them that hath appointed them or if you say no because I cited you a place out of Bellarmine where he saith the Souldiers had power to refuse their Emperour while he was in fieri to be elected but not when he was in facto fully chosen and made Emperour so the King hath power to chuse them but not to displace them I answer briefly that in creating or constituting our inferiours we may but our superiour we may not because inferiours in the judgement of all men have no jurisdiction over their superiours And therefore elective Kings are not deposeable in a Monarchicall government None can depose him in whom the supreme Majestie resideth where the supreme power resides in the Monarch though perhaps the Kings of Lacedemon might be justly deposed because by the constitution of their Kingdome the supreme power was not in their Kings but in their Ephori But our new Sectaries out of Junius Brutus Burcher Althusius R nox and Cartwright teach very devoutly but most falsely that in case of defailance to doe his duty they may with the Tribunes of Rome or the Demarchi at Athens censure and depose him too if they see just cause for the same Blaâ—vod l. 33. p. 285. To confute which blasphemous doctrine against God and so pernicious and dangerous to this State though others have done it very excellently well already I have formerly shewed the absurdity of it in my Grand Rebellion Grand Rebellion c. 7. p. 52. yet because all books come not to every hand I will say somewhat of it in this place If these Counsellors Magistrates Parliament call them what you will have any power and authority it must be either subordinate coordinate or supreme 1. If subordinate 1. Subordinate officers can have no power over their superiours I told you before they can have no power over their superiour because all inferiour Magistrates are Magistrates onely in respect of those that are under their jurisdiction because to them they represent the King and supply the office of the King but in reference to the King they are but private persons and Subjects that can challenge no jurisdiction over him 2. If they be supreme then S. Peter is much mistaken 2. That neither Peeres nor Parliament can have the supremacy None above the King at any time to say the King is supreme and they doe ill to disclaime this supremacy when in all their Petitions not disjunctively but as they are an united body they say Your Majesties humble Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament and besides they are perjur'd that deny it after they have taken the Oath of supremacy where every one saith I A. B. doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highnesse is the onely supreme Governour of this Realme c. But this is further and so fully proved out of Bracton the nature of all the Subjects tenures and the constitution of this government by the Author of The unlawfulnesse of Subjects taking up Armes against their Soveraigne that more needs not be spoken to any rationall man Yet because this point is of such great concernement and the chiefest argument they have out of Bracton is The Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton fully answered that he saith Rex habet superiorem legem curiam suam comites Barones quia comites dicuntur quasi socii regis qui habet socium habet magistrum ideo si rex fuerit sine fraeno id est sine lege debent ei fraenum ponere nisi ipsimet fuerint cum rege sine fraeno and all this makes just nothing in the world for them if they had the honesty or the learning to understand it right for what is above the King the Law and the Court of Earles and Barons but how are they above him as the Preacher is above the King when he preacheth unto him or the Physician when he gives him Physicke or the Pilot when he sayleth by Sea that is quoad rationem consulendi non cogendi they have superioritatem directivam non coactivam for so the teacher is above him that is taught How the Law and the Court of Barons is above the King and the Counsellor above him that is counselled that is by way of advice but not by way of command and to shew you that this is Bractons true meaning I pray you consider his words Comites dicuntur quasi socâ—i they are as his fellowes or Peeres not simply but quasi and if they were simply so yet they are but socii not superiours and what can socii doe not command for par in parem non habet potestatem that is praecipiendi otherwise you must confesse habet potestatem consulendi therefore Bracton addes qui habet socium habet magistrum that is a teacher not a commander and to make this yet more plaine he addes Si Rex fuerit sini fraeno id est sine lege if the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he means by the bridle and thinke he meanes force and armes the Law they ought to put this bridle unto him that is to presse him with this Law and still to shew him his duty even as we doe both to King and people saying this is the Law this should bridle you but here is not a word of commanding much lesse of
who can blame them for obeying their conscience rather then any King I confesse that it is naturally ingraffed in the hearts of all men that no evill is to be done and reason Sol. according to that measure of knowledge which every man hath tells us what is good and what is evill then conscience concludeth what is to be done and what not to be done quia conscientia est applicatio notitiae nostrae ad actum particularem because our conscience is the application of our knowledge to some particular act saith Aquinas Thom. 2. Sent. dist 14. art 4. Conscience a witnesse And this application of our knowledge to that act considereth 1. De praeteritis of things past whether such a thing be done or not done and so our conscience is a witnesse that cannot erre 2. De praesentibus factis of our present actions Conscience a Iudge whether the fact done be good or evill just or uniust so our conscience is a judge according to the measure of our knowledge 3. De futuris faciendis of future acts that are to be done Conscience a follower of reason whether they ought to be done or left undone But because our conscience springeth from our reason and our reason may be clouded and obscured by a double error Reason obscured two wayes 1. way Iohn 16.2 1. A false assumption when we take those things to be good or true which are indeed evill or false as they that think they doe God good service when they kill his servants even as the Rebells doe at this very day and that they please God when they disobey their King 2. waye The Rebells offend both wayes 2. A false application or a false conclusion from a true assumption as because I am commanded to love God above all things therefore I am to hate all things but God or because it is better to obey God then man therefore I must not obey the commands of any man So our conscience may be poysoned in like manner with the same errors and being so misguided they ought not to bind us but we ought rather to reforme them for that which truly should bind the conscience What should bind our conscience is not our judgement but Gods precept that either commandeth or forbiddeth such and such actions to be done or not done And you know that all actions are either 1. good 2. evill 3. indifferent 1. The good God commandeth us to doe them All actions of three sorts 2. The evill he flatly forbiddeth them to be done and 3. The indifferent he wholy leaveth to the power of the Magistrate to make them either lawfull or vnlawfull good or bad as he pleaseth And therefore for the first two sorts of actions because thy conscience hath Gods precept to direct thee Pride blindeth many men if thy reason either through ignorance or the strength of thine owne fancy which often happeneth to proud Spirits doth not mislead thee to call good evill and evill good it is safer for thee to follow the dictamen of thine owne conscience then the command of the greatest potentate Act. 5.29 for in all such cases it is better to obey God then man We are too inquisitive of many things But in all the other things that are indifferent of themselves the precept of the King or any other our lawfull superiour maketh them to become necessary unto the Subject because the command of the superiour Magistrate doth bind more then the conscience of the inferiour Subject can doe for though the conscience rightly guided by reason is the Iudge of those things which are either directly forbidden or commanded yet in the other things that are indifferent the Magistrate is the more immediate Iudge under God which hath given him power The Magistrate the immediate judg of indifferen things either to command them to be done or to forbid them and therefore the Subiect having the command of his King whom God commandeth us to obey for his warrant in things of this nature either to doe such things or to leave such things undone his duty is not to examine the reason of the command but to performe what he seeth commanded for so S. August saith that although Iulian was an Idolater an Apostata an Infidell yet milites fideles servierunt imperatori infideli but when it came to the cause of Christ they acknowledged none but him that was in Heaven when he would have them to worship Idolls they preferred God before him when he said lead forth your Armies and go against such a Nation August in Psa 124. Camperator 11. q. 1. they presently obeyed him they distinguished betwixt their eternall and their temporall Lord tamen subditi erant propter aeternum etiam domino temporalit and they never examined the Iustnes of the warre because in all such cases mandatum imperantis tollit culpam servientis the fault must only rest upon the commander And therefore Our reason and judgement misguided seven wayes How our conscience may be reformed as our reason and Iudgement may be blinded in all actions either with ignorance negligence pride inordinate affection faintnes perplexity or selfe love so may our conscience too when it erroniously concludeth upon what our reason falsly assumeth and then as I said before our conscience is rather to be reformed then obeyed and if we be desirous we may thus redresse it 1. If it be of ignorance let us say with Iehoshaphat 1. From ignorance 2. Chron. 20.12 2. From negligence Iohn 3.1 we know not what to doe but our eyes are towards thee and let us seek to them that can informe us the Orthodox not the Sectaries which will rather corrupt us then direct us 2. If it be of negligence let us come without partiality or preiudice as Nicodemus did to Christ to those that for knowledge are well able and for honesty are most willing to instruct us 3. From Pride 3. If it be of pride let us pray to God for humility and submit our selves one to another especially to them that have more learning then our selves and have that charge over us for he that praiseth himselfe is not allowed 2. Cor. 10.18 but he whom the Lord praiseth and singularity hath been the originall of all heresies and not the least occasion of the troubles of these times and the rebellion of our Sectaries 4. From inordinate affection 4. If it be from inordinate affection quum id sanctum quod volumus when every one makes what he loves to be lawfull and his owne wayes to be iust let us hearken to sound reason and preferre truth before our owne affections or otherwise perit omne iudicium Seneca cùm res transit in affectum there can be no true judgement of things when we are transported with our partiall affections 5. From faintnesse 5. If it be from faintnesse let us be scrupulous where we have
Clergy will performe no duty unto their King because their function is spirituall but to all these I may truly say as our Saviour doth to the leaud servant ex ore tuo out of the Fathers whom they acknowledge and out of their owne Authors they are confuted for S. Chrysostome saith that whether he be an Apostle or Evangelist or Prophet Seu quisquis tandem fuerit or whosoever else he be Pope Cardinall or Deacon he is commanded to be subject to the higher power and that you may see what power he meanes he pointeth out the same by the symbol that is of him that carryeth the sword which you know must be the secular Prince and not the spirituall Pope and so not onely Euthym. Theophylact. Oecumenius and other Greek Commentators doe avouch but also those Epistles which are recorded by Binius and quoted by the Bishop of Durham as Leo 1. ep 26. 35. Simplicius 1. ep 4. Felix 3. ep 2. Anastasius 1. ep 78. Pelagius 1. ep 16. Martinus 1. ep 3. Agatho 1. ep ad Herac. Hadrian 1. ep ad Constant doe make this most manifest unto us Espens in Tit. 3.1 Digres 10. p. 5. 13. Paris 1568. and therefore Espencaeus convinced by such a cloud of witnesses confesseth very honestly that the Apostle here Docet omnes credentes mundi potestatibus esse subjectos nempe sive Apostolus sive Evangelista c. ut tenet Chrysost Euthym qui non Graeci The wickednesses of the pretended Parliament shewed by their actions And as the Popelings will be free so the Presbyterians and the faction of this Parliament will be as free as they and because every wickednesse laboureth to exceed that which preceded these doe not agree with the Catholiques as Herod and Pilate did to crucifie Christ in the same conclusion and tenet of exemption but they will goe a note beyond Ela and surmount both Jesuite and Pope and therefore they not onely dishonour and disobey their King but they have violated and incroached upon all his rights and assumed the same into their owne hands for to recapitulate some of their choycest wickednesses 1. As the Church of Rome and the Jesuites teach in Aphorismis confessariorum ex Doctorum sententiis collectis p. 249. that Rex potest per rempublicam privari ob tyrannidem si non faciat officium suum cum est causa aliqua justa eligi alius à majore parte populi which falshood their owne Divines confute when Royard saith Rege constituto Royard in dom 1. advent They teach the deposition of Kings non potest populus jugum subjectionis repellere so these men maintaine that diabolicall tenet that the Regall power is primarily in the collective body and derived to the King cumulativè not privativè and therefore upon the Kings neglect or male-administration it comes backe againe to the collective body in whom it resideth suppletivè to discharge the royall duty when the King faileth to doe the same and then the King so falling from his right they may refuse obedience and if they see cause which they can soone do they may depose him from his office which impudent falshood I have fully consuted in this Treatise 2. They say the Regall Majestie is a humane creature or the ordinance of men primarily and therefore may be deposed by men when as Cunerus could say Sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure princeps fiat principi tamen facto divinitus potestas adest and therefore they have no power to take away that which God hath given him 3. They have with Nadab and Abihu adventured to offer strange fire upon Gods Altar and with Vzza to lay their prophane hands upon Gods holy Arke they have rejected the Lawes that the King with the advice and consultation of all his learned Clergy hath made * Though now I reckon not this among their wickednesses and they themselves sit in Moses chaire and have undertaken to reforme the Church to make Lawes and compose Articles of our faith with the advice of a few factious men that were never esteemed otherwise then faex Cleri not worthy to be the Curates of those worthy Divines whose feet they hurt in the stocks and send the iron into their soules 4. They have cast out all the Bishops and all the faithfull Ministers of Christ out of all offices How they persecute the Bishops and the best of the Clergy that might further the Gospell and administer justice unto the people they doe rob them of their meanes and count sacriledge to be no sinne and in very deed they have persecuted the worthiest Clergy in many particulars farre worse then ever Julian that wicked Apostata did the Lord of Heaven give us patience to indure it and suffer us not for feare of any villanie or calamity to be dejected and so fall away from his truth 5. They have called and continued an Assembly which the Pope would not doe without the Emperours leave contrary to the Kings command which is a meere and mighty usurpation of the Regall right 6. They have seized upon the Kings Revenues Castles Forts Townes Ships and all that they could lay hand on and doe in a hostile manner with all violence detaine them from him but what he gaines by his sword to this very day 7. They have fought against him shot at his sacred Person and sought most Barbarously to kill him under the colour to preserve him which is the finest piece of Logicke that ever was read 8. They have rayled at him slandered him and most apparently and falsly belyed him and laid to his charge the things which we his Majesties Subjects and Servants that attend Him doe know that He neither did nor knew 9. They incouraged and countenanced their ignorant brazen-faced Chaplains most uncivilly to rayle at Gods Annointed in the Pulpit and so they brought the abhomination not of desolation but of most horrible transgression into the holy place and made Moses chaire the seat of raylers 10. They taxe the Subjects at their pleasure and have raised infinite summes of money and no man but themselves knowes how they have disposed or what they have done therewith 11. They discharged Apprentices they send out their Warrants and their Edicts without and against the Kings authority which are but nugae and the minims of their doings 12. They averre that the King hath no negative voyce in making Lawes but they may conclude them and make them obligatory without the Kings approbation or ratification and that they may doe any thing conducible to the good of the Church and Common-wealth any Law Statute or provision made to the contrary notwithstanding What they say of their Covenants 13. They are not ashamed to teach as they doe practice that it is lawfull for them to make Covenants Combinations and Confederacies of mutuall defence and offence against any person whatsoever whom themselves judge malignant not