2 Sam 15 vers the 32 Behold Hushai the Archite came to meet the King with his coat rent and earth upon his head Loyalty amongst REBELS The True ROYALIST Or HUSHAY the Archite A happy Counsellour in King's DAVID'S Greatest Danger Say unto Absalon I will be thy servant O King 2 Sam. 15.34 I Counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandement and that in Regard of the Oath of God Eccles 8.2 Written by EDWARD WOLLEY D.D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Sacred Majesty King CHARLES the II. LONDON Printed for Iohn Williams at the signe of the Crown in S. Paul's Churchyard 1662. To the Right Honourable JOHN Baron Grenvil of Kilkhampton and Biddiford Viscount Grenvil of Lands-Down and Earle of Bathe Groome of the Stool and first Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber Lord Warden of the Stanneryes Lord Lieutenant of the County of Cornwall and High Steward of the Dutchy and Governour of his Majesties Town Island Fort and Castle of the Garrison of Plimouth MY LORD I Have had the honour and happines to know you from your tender years and have discerned your cordial affections and endeavours to serve the Church as an obedient Sonne your Prince as a most Loyal Subject your Countrey as a most faithful Patriot And as Pompey when but a youth to experience your Fortitude fidelity to the Crown and without injury or flattery it may in some degree be said of you as Plutarch writes of that Noble Roman Is etiamnum adolescens totum se factioni Syllanae addixit cumque nec Magistratus nec Senator esset magnum ex Italiâ contraxit exercitum That you were a very early Commander in your youth and those four terrible wounds which you received in the fight at Newberry three in your head and one in your arm Continue those marks and cicatrices which as honourable badges of loyalty will bear you company to your Grave It was a question once started about Ascanius by Andromache whether he was like his Father Aeneas or his Vncle Hector Ecquid in antiquam virtutem animosque viriles Et Pater Aeneas a vunculus excitat Hector Andromache in Virgil Aeneid de Ascanio But there is not any need of such a question concerning your Lordship in whom the varietie of your Noble Ancestors seem to concenter So that the pietie of Richardus de Granâ Villâ who founded the Abbey of Neath in Glamorgan-shire in the fourth year of the raigne of King William Rufus liveth in you The courage of Sir Richard Grenvil your great Grandfather who commanded the Rear-Admiral a Ship called the Revenge wherein he so gallantly behaved himself that in a desperate fight at Sea with the Spaniards he sunk destroyed infinite numbers of Qu. Elizabeths enemies when others made all the sail they could to avoid the danger And the loyalty and great worth of Sir Bevill Grenvill seem as thriving seeds to grow up and flourish in you And it will be an honour and happiness to your Lordship to be not onely a Son and Heire of his Name loynes but of his virtues who so loved the Church of England that in person he guarded the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury against the fury of the tumultuous Rabbles in all commotions and Rebellions either of England and Scotland in the late blessed Kings Raign he manifested the dutie of a Loyal Subject and of a noble Commander at the fight at Stratton he was successful against the enemie with a handful of men And at the fight at Lands-downe like another Epaminondas though he lost his life he got the Victory Et cum sentiret vulnus esse lethale non prius ferrum eduxit quam audisset Thebanos vicisse tum satis inquit vixi invictus enim morior To encourage his Souldiers he fought with bleeding wounds and finding that his countrey men like Gallant Thebans won the day animam efflavit he fell gloriously into the bosome of true honour renown These exemplars of virtue have doubtless attracted your Resolutions to imitation of your Ancestors and have enflamed your affections with true and right principles of Nobleness and honour But that which renders you most lovely to all who know your Lordship is that incomparable service which by your prudence fidelity secrecy and courage was transacted effected together with the Duke of Albemarle and his brother the Lord Bishop of Hereford in order to his Majesties Restauration which maketh three Kingdomes happy This is the chiefest loadstone motive that makes me address to your Lordship for patronage and protection in this argument wherein I endeavour to prove that truth may be in company with Traitors and Loyalty amongst Rebels as Hushai the Archite who was King Davids best friend and most faithful subject in his greatest danger It is true many worthyes did attend his Majesties Person in pinching extremityes abroad for many years and many thousand loyal Subjects of the three Kingdomes indured insupportable miseries from usurping bloody Wolves at home and the stings of a sort of Trepanning creeping Serpants as equally venemous as dangerous hardly to be avoided These true Royalists were on all occasions active in their persons in their counsels in their relations their friends in their purses and their prayers and by all wayes and interests to promote his Majesties Restauration But your Lordship as a more signal instrument of much happiness hath received gracious markes of Noble trust honour and favour from his Majesty the thanks of all England in the Kingdomes Representative the Parliament which will prove a happy record of your honour to posterity and blessed for ever be those hands and hearts who have contributed much or cast in if but a mite to that blessed work There is another small tender branch which budded seasonably about seven years since and appeared in the Kingdom under the complexion and colour of a Translation in the case and Parallel of Lewis the fourth the French King This first went abroad to keep alive those loyal sparks which lay-under the ashes of Cruelty and Persecution in the year 1654. meeting with curteous tinder it took fire and inflamed many affections towards the King This small piece was reprinted eight moneths before his Majesties return to England and it proved so prosperous that some thousand copies were dispersed vented in fourty houres And then it grew suddenly a publick discourse in the City and Countrey videlicet the Kings Case in the Parallel of Lewis the fourth of France This Branch leans on your Lordships Patronage and favour is added to this discourse to perpetuate all Subjects resolutions in their allegiance to their Princes and as a part of justice and merit that his endeavours nay be discerned who gave it life first fixed and planted it in England and so not to be any longer fathered on adopted authors * Tulit alter honores Virgil. My Lord I shall not afflict your Lordship with any further present trouble but wishing
serious consultation and of more sacred restriction n Votum à voluntate dictum quasi deliberatione propositio profectum Buca instit Theo. l. 45. promises are commonly made to men but o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sic Eustath Vowes seem to mount a step higher and being offered to the Deity are observed with a more divine and dreadfull attestation of God and to violate vowes is much more dangerous the votaries may plead but in this point it will appear that an unlawful vow is as easily and justly to be broken as a rash and undiscreet or disloyal promise the rather because a vow properly is an p Votum est actus latriae Religionis Tho. Aqui. 22 ae q 88. a 5. Votum promissio Deo facta de meliori bono idem Votum testificatio quaedam promissionis spontanea qua debet fieri Deo de iis quae Dei sunt Aqui. 22ae quest 88. Ad Votum tria requirunt deliberatio Propositum promissio idem act of religious worship It is a promise to God of the intention resolution to some better good because it is a solemn testification of a deliberated voluntary promise made and offered unto God to perfect and compleat which are a resolute purpose and a certain or constant promise Now these circumstances and requisites are such as the votary need nor err unless he will be affectely ignorant or rashly and willfully sinful Now for a subject to vow to that which is unlawful to signe to that which is sinful to offer such a sacrifice to God which is odious and unacceptable is an aggravation of the crime and therefore not to be kept but to be broken off with more bitter repenrance and more zealous detestation q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Votum temerarium illegitimum quod de rebus illcitis malo fine ae personis etiam non ui juris suscipitur Bucan The. Instit I. 45. quest 4. And if every perty sin be offensive before the eternal God how abominable must those sins appear which like scarlet and crimson are of a double dye aggravated with sollemn vows and promisses and yet so much the more sinful because attempted and perpetrated by those who in the case of loyalty as subjects cannot be absolved from their oaths of allegiance to their King and so not being sui juris at liberty have no power to make illicit vows of this kind and are not to give so much as consent to their illegallity The subjects in This case of allegiance being as strictly restrained and durifully obliged to their Prince in his power and pleasure and the justnesse of the laws as children under the power of their Parents as a Wife during the life of her Husband as servants are obliged to their Masters until they are at liberty r Num 30.4.5.7 Votum animae vinculum Vota eorum infringi poterant If a vow though lawful were by Gods word thus stated in the power of the Parent the Husband the Master a minore ad majus much more are illicit vows to be abrogated and broken in subjects vowing not only against their Princes consent but against the houour and safety of their sacred persons and their royal Crown and dignity by these arguments it plainly appears that neither rash and unvised advised promises nor serious sinful and deliberated vows are to be kept or observed no more then that Anathema under which some desperate zealous bloudy Iews bound themselves neither to eat nor drink till they had slain St. Paul ſ Act. 23.12.14 Stulto zelo correpti mentiri occidere quidvis denique tibi licere arbitrabantur T. Beza in loc There is a third bond or obligation that some tender curiosities lay hold on The 3. protestation and that is the protestation which though never formed nor forced into the nature of a municipal and binding law yet was cunningly devised by some state politicians and sent and dispersed over the Kingdomes to taste the inclinations of the people or at least as Shiboleth to distinguish who were really and truly Royalists and who were not which form of obliging a party very probably took its example from Germany where the Lutherans solemnly protested against some doctrinal and practical proceeding of the Church of Rome And from this root sprang the distraction that those reformed Christians who deserted the communion of the Roman Church were commonly called Protestants but the protestation of a later and parliamentary conception and birth was not so much to distinguish Christians of several Churches as to discern persons how they stood affected to the King or to his great Councel whether they would as loyal subjects adhere to the Soveraignty of their Prince or in case his Majesty dissented from his two houses whether they would adventure all and to live and dye with a Parliamentary party of their fellow subjects and be subservient to their ends and interests this protestation was an early cunning bait and like Manna it pleased most pallats because it contained in it a variety of lawful good things and what could be more acceptable to a true Son of the Church of England then to defend her doctrine what duty more agreeable to a subject then to defend the prerogatives of his Soveraigns crown and what endeavour more honourable then to preserve the priviledges of Parliament and the laws of the land These four dishes seasonably served might relish well and find a good digestion being duties in themselves rightly understood fit for a good resolutition in any subject who honoured his King loved his Country or had a care of his soul yet the branches of that protestation did spread into so great a latitude in respect of the variety of the definitive points of the doctrine of the Church the unlimitted prerogatives of the Crown undetermined priviledges of Parliament and the difficulty of understanding the multitude and body of the learned laws that after the protestation was licked into a form as a golden pill quickly swallowed by about t weny members of the Commons House The pill being tasted by a more judicious pallate was disrelished and had stopt there if these words viz. as far as lawfully I may had not as a more safe ingredient been added to it there as if a warrantable dispensation had been given to every mans conscience sense and reason it was clearly swallowed without chawing or the least dispute The protestation then was at most but a conditional asseveration stuffed with great variety of dificulties and obscurityes And though the doctrine of the Church of England the Kings prerogative and the laws of the land had elbow-room in those few lines yet the priviledges of that Parliament which in time destroyed the King the Church and the laws under a specious name deluded the bewitched people into a horrid rebellion which caused great misery devastation to three flourishing Kingdomes now when those who took the
the first and of Scotland the 37. in the Synod begun at London No person shall hereafter be received into the Ministry nor either by institution or collation admitted to any Ecclesiastical living or by the Arch-Bishop or Bishop of the Diocess except he shall first subscribe to these three Articles in such sort and manner as we have here appointed Article I. That the Kings Majestie under God is the only supream Governour of this Realm and of all other his Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal and that noforrain Prince Person Prelat or Potentate have or ought to have any jurisdiction power superiority preheminence or authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within his Majesties said Realmes Dominions and Countries Article II. That the book of Common-prayer and of ordering of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth nothing in it contrary to the word of God and that it may lawfully be used and that he himself will use the form in the said book prescribed in publick prayer and administration of the Sacraments and none other Article III. That he alloweth the book of Articles of Religion agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the convocation held at London in the year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred sixty and two and that he acknowledgeth all and every the Articles therein contained being in number nine an thirty besides the Ratification to be agreable to the word of God The form of words to avoid all ambiguities followeth viz. Setting down his Christian and Surname I N. N. do willingly and ex Animo subscribe to these three Articles above mentioned and to all things contained in them An Oath against Symony at institution into Benifices I N. N. do swear that I have made no symonical payment Can. 40. contract or promise directly or indirectly by my self or any other to my knowledge or with my consent to any person or persons whatsoever for concerning and obtaining this ecclefiastical dignity place preferment office or living respectively and particularly naming the same whereunto he is to be admitted instituted collated installed or confirmed nor will at any time hereafter perform or satisfie any such kind of payment contract or promise made by any other without my knowledg or consent So help me God through Iesus Christ And as the Clergy are obliged to subscribe ex Animo to the three Articles contained in the 37 canon so are they when they receive holy orders and are made Deacons or Priests at their ordination or when they receive institution to any Ecclesiastical Living or Promotion and Installation to any Dignity in the Church obliged to canonical obedience to their respective Diocesans and the Bishops likewise are at their consecrations obliged to promise Canonical obedience to their Metropolitans and the respective Arch-Bishops of either Provinces and Sees of Canterbury and York and the Arch-Bishops likewise promise and vow the dutyes of Faith and true Allegiance to the King when at their homage kneeling before the King they take an Oath of Fealty and Obedience to the King and his lawful heirs and successors These are most holy and sacred d d Iuramentum est confirmatio verbi dequo juratur Orig. bonds more fit for all the Sonnes of Aaron and the Tribe of Levy and These do breed keep and cherish Peace unity in the Church e e Quid est jurare per Deum nifi testis est Deus D. August de verbis Apostoli sermn 28. oblige the inferiour orders to their superiours in fine unite all ecclesiastick subjects in true Allegiance to their King And though the Anabaptists and some squemish Phanaticks cunningly instructed or factiously engaged are shy of such sacred oaths and obligations yet it is warranted from the holy Scripture Thus Abimelech and Phicol required an Oath from Abraham Gen. 21.23 Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsly with me nor with my Son nor with my Sonns Son Thus Moses directeth Israel f f Deut. 6.13.10.12.13.4 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and swear by his name Thus g g Ezra 10.5 Ezra arose and made the cheif Priests the Levites and all Israel to swear that they should do according to this word and they sware And if yet any deluded or factious Curiosity be not satisfied but will object evangelical strict Commands against lawful Oathes because Christ hath preached h h Matt. 5.34 1 Iam. 5.12 Swear not at all and St. Iames advised k k Hanc elimenta jurandi pessimam consuetudinem habere Iudaeinoscuntur D. Hiero. in 5. Mat. above all things my brethren swear not Yet these sacred Cautions and Commands were not to take away the lawful and holy but the unlawful and profane use and custome of Oathes Thus St. Hierom commenteth Our Saviour doth not utterly forbid an Oath sed per coelum terram jurare St. Augustine seems more full and plain saying that Counsel was given to prevent an idle and sinful habit of swearing which from a profane facility might quickly run into custome and so fall into perjury or that no persons should be affected with customary Oathes or swearing k k Dico vobis non jurare omnino ne scil jurando ad facilitatem jurandi Porventatur en facultate jurandi ad conseitudinem à consuetudine in Perjurium decidatur D. August de mendacio cap. 15. or greedily with delight and delectation to seek and hunt after Oathes which on good grounds may be lawful and for a good end and purpose to discern truth and to end all Controversies And thus St. Paul on several occasions hath presented himself an Apostolical exemplar to Gods Church And to all that hath been said it may be further added That it is a Theological determination of the Church of England l l Articles of Religion 39. Article to which every true sonne hath or ought to subscribe and submit That as vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Iesus Christ and Iames his Apoctle so we judge that Christian Religion doth not prohibit but that a man may swear when the Magistrate requireth in a cause of faith and charity So it be done according to the Prophets teaching in Iustice Iudgement and Truth The Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy enjoined by order of Parliament The Oath of Allegiance I A. B. Do truly and sincerely acknowledge professe testifie and declare in my conscience before God and the world that our Soveraign Lord King Charles is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries and that the Pope neither of himself nor by any authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any power or authority to depose the King or to dispose any of his Majesties
Kingdomes or Dominions or to authorise any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance and obedience to his Majesty or to give license or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise Tumults or to offer any violence or hurt to his Majesties Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesties Subjects within his Majesties Dominions Also I do swear from my heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successours or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs or Successours or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successours and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successours all Treasons and Trayterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do further swear That I do from my heart abhor detest and abjure as impious and heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully administred unto me and do renounce all pardons and dispensations to the contrary And all these things I doe plainly and sincerely acknowledge swear according to these expresse words by me spoken and according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And I do make this Recognition and acknowledement heartily willingly and truly upon the true faith of a Christian So help me God c. The Oath of Supremacy I A. B. Do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the King 's Highnesse is the onely Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other his Highnesse's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal And that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Forraign Jurisdictions Powrs Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King's Highnesse his Heirs and lawfull Successours and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preeminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and successours or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the contents of this book These Platforms and models of Oathes as they are of holy use to unite our fidedelity to God and Man so they are of Divine Authority and seem to be influential from Heaven from whence we have the Sacred example so the Scriptures testifie Exod 33.1 Depart hence unto the Land which I swear unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Thus divine usage is very frequent with God Deut 1.8.34.35 Psal 95.9 Luk. 1.73 Heb. 6.13 Heb. 7.21 And as God pleased to confirm his promise with an Oath So King David Gods annointed voweth and sweareth calling on God and praying Lord remember David and all his Afflictions how he swear unto the Lord and vowed to the mighty God of Jacob. Psal 132.1 2. And Solomon his royal Son gave Counsel to all his subjects and all the world I counsel thee to keep the Kings commandement and that in regard of the Oath of God Eccles 8.2 Having now set fourth the sacred ☜ Oaths and obligations of the Kings and Queens of England and of some of the cheif Officers and Ministers of State together with the Homage of the Ecclesiastical Hirarchy and temporal Nobility and of the three great Officers of Court the Lord high Steward the Master of the Horse and the Lord Chamberlain by their Oathes as privy counsellors under whose immediate command and power all servants at Court are sworn to fidelity and obedience in their respective relations and ranks of order degrees and subordinations It is plain and easie to every rational subject to discern and see the most excellent form of Government that the prudence and piety of former ages hath conveyed to the English to this present time and we cannot do less then admire and magnifie the gracious providence and riches of Gods favours to the Kingdome of England who hath with the golden chain of harmonious Government so lincked Kings and Queens to himself and all their subjects and people to their soveraign Princes that no Kingdome under the canopy of Heaven hath a better frame of Government either for Church or State or the transaction of Ecclesiastick or civil concernments and affaires in which there is such an incementing concatenation by wholesome laws and customes for justice and the happy preservation of all the peoples Rights that as the King may sit as happily and securely on his Throne as any Monarch on earth so his people may as prosperously thrive under his gracious Government and reposing themselves under their own vines and figtrees as cheerfully enjoy the inestimable blessings of their own just rights and labours Milk and Hony with the overflowing favours of Peace and Plenty How great a crime must it then be to wrest or break one of the invaluable lincks of this golden concatenation which Soveraign Princes graciously please to strengthen and consolidate if possible by their sacred Oathes to God which cannot but indear and more oblige ingenuous subjects to greater exactness of duty and fidelity considering that these pious proceeding are more acts of Grace and voluntary and Princely condescentions flowing from the fountaines of their own royal goodness being methods of high degrees of kindness and love where words or promises and those at their royal wills and pleasure are to be looked on not only as certainties and assurances but as deeds and compleat performances The civil Law expecteth as much from Noble men and Persons of Honour that there words be equally esteemed as their deeds m Promissa nobilinm pro factis habentur And Iser c. 1. Tantum fidei legalitatis presumitur in Nobilibus ut si quicquam promiserint id per equesit certum ac indubitatum ac si jam factum esset And Iser c 1.
or truth Yet in a Thrasonical humour or Pharisaical pride they cry up and justifie all their own proceedings with all the circumstances of their dictates and designes and at the same time are ready to decry and detract from others though never so square in their actions and sincere and candid in all their resolutions Seeing then that Philautia self love and adulation so easily suddenly and pleasingly surpriseth mens phansies corrupteth their judgements captivateth reason and in fine enslaveth the soul it may well become all who are truely enamored with virtue honour justice and the hopes of a good report or to mount a step higher to love the peace and tranquility of a calm and unspotted conscience in this nice point carefully to submit there senses to reason and the strength of reason to the force and power of godlinesse which is the best preservative of the soul in all trials and more refined probations And it is Piety that is the touchstone that discovereth the mettall whether it be true or false It is the scale that ballanceth every word and action and determineth them either weighty or light This as the rudder of the Ship governeth as the anchor it holdeth as the Pilot it directeth and as the keile swimming in the bottom of the angry waves it secureth and supporteth all the superstructure of the floating artificial Castle that overglideth and surmounteth the lofty billowes of the Ocean Conscience is the daughter of Piety which grounded on the principles of truth and a good cause encourageth men to be divinely affected towards God and loyally resolved towards their Prince It is probable in this great revolution and stupendious vicissitude of government the streames of the subjects affections returning passionately to their King and to monarchy that all or at least the greatest number of the people of the three Kingdomes may pleade a co-operation or a concurrency in this miraculous change And as the labourers in the vineyard to boast and proclaim that they have not only suffered and sweat but even born the brunt and bickerment of the day others may perhaps challenge to themselves the merit not only of pardon and amnesty but of thanks grace and favour because they appeared serviceable at the last hour and doubtless royal bounty will not deny them the wages of their loyalty if their return to their Prince be cordial and sincere But the case of Hushai the Archite stated rightly may like a bright Beacon set on fire and flaming on some high Mountain give an Alarum and luster to the amazement of all spectators In this president of Hushai a loyal subject may see the warrant the reasons the matter the manner and the truths of his duty being such an example in the King who imployed him in the person who was commanded and trusted and for the eminency and concernment of the service wherein he was employed that hardly and humain or holy history can parallel the like and all these circumstances conduce much to guide the Prince to his royal care whom to trust or employ and as equally concerns the the subjects and people how to dispose of themselves even in their greatest dangers of their lives and fortunes towards their King and Soveraign This hath been the condition of many gallant and loyal soules who not only in their personal valour but in all their contrivances and councels have made it their choicest interest as equally near as the saving of their soules to hold up the honour of the crown withall its just rites and prerogatives ever since the first commotions and troubles of the late war or that the late formidable rebellion had so intoxicated and bewitched the giddy humours of the People of his Majesties three kingdomes and as persons of these affections resolutions and principles were led and fixed to their Prince so a zealous duty to the Church of England their mother wrought their perswasions to a careful preservation of that truth and religion which the most learned and most judicious sober Christians hold fourth for both doctrine and discipline to be the purest profession the best form of serving God and to come nearest to the pious practise of the primitive Christians and though in the three Kingdomes it was forced like a Dove to the clefts of the Rocks to fly into upper chambers private Closets or secret corners yet the honour of God the saving of Soules the beauty of Sion was ever during the violence of the persecution so precious that the Church of England found dutiful children and couragious Sons and Daughters in her blackest Afflictions And as the Ark had the protection of a Royal Patron and nursing Father abroad for many years K. Charles the 2. so it was supported and preserved by the dutiful hands and hearts of many thousands of the three Kingdomes whose very soules did pray and long for nothing more then his Majesties joyful Restoration and that the Ark might return happily with him And now not to loose the argument a review may be more Genuinely taken and a stricter examination made in Hushai the Archites great and wise undertakings and his happy and high performances and successes both to the Church the Crown and the Kingdome of Judah and Israel for all who made bonefires caused Bells to ring and with other external circumstances made Heaven and Earth to rejoice with chearful and loud acclamations were not Israelites indeed like Nathaniel or wise and couragious and loyal Hushai it may be believed that many who had wide throats and made loud vociferations at his Majesties return had but narrow affections and t is possible that guilt or fear or danger may force a compliancy where the stream was so strangely turned and ran as a mighty Tide or torrent with such irresistable violence Therefore Hushai's wisdome and loyalty and the conduct of his affaires in so dangerous a Crysis and juncture of extremities may prove a more happy Patern for all ages and like Ariadnes clue of Silk direct all worthy subjects like Theseus more prosperously to encounter the minotaure or monster of Rebellion and having slain that bloudy and savage beast more securely to return out of the labyrinth and interrigues of such Hellish delusion in the company of true honour triumph and victory It is not to be doubted but many pretend to this noble Israelites worth and merits who if rightly reflected on know well as conscious to themselves that either they have forfeited their Faith and Allegiance ever since the original commencement of the late civil warrs or in an over activity in their Rebellious endeavours have done most horrid injuries to their King and Country or in a tepid fit of Newtrality have been luke-warm and basely complacent to both parties or else in a degree yet more ignoble and fordid having animas venales vendible and mercenary spirits have entertained the wages of iniquity and under the guise and pretence of loyal subjects and faithful Patriots have betrayed and
protestation have considered of the contrivances intrigues interests of that cunning trap and popular bait they ought to retreat from the danger of those snares now having recovered their sense and reason by repentance and a better consultation may better know how to perform their duty to God in his Church and to their King and Country The mask of the protestation thus pul'd off and the curtaines drawn the face of loyalty is more clear and visible yet there is another brood and sort of persons who cry out of their peirced and wounded consciences and tell the world they have with hearts and hands lifted up to heaven taken the national and general covenant and they cannot quit fairly with this delight and darling of their soules This as Diana from Iupiter they urge fell from Heaven and though the Covenant was the contrivance of a few confederated seditious heads yet the covenanters hold themselves obliged to keep it as stirctly as if it had been the breath motion and dictates of the sacred spirit of God and many suppose that having lifted up their hands in a pious delusion they cannot nor must not let them fall in a repentant and humble submission to their Soveraign and the laws of their Country but such infatuated Zelots are much deceived and ought to see more clearly the scales of their delusion being taken from their eyes but if an irrational sturdy obstinacy still possess their resolutions willfulnesse blind's reason and obduration cauterize their consciences their best cure may be procured by advising with the incomparable reasons of the University of Oxford against the covenant if those reasons prove not a welcome soveraign cordial let such passionate Zelots apply themselves to their Princes remedy and Probatum or for ever hold themselves in their Honour Souls and Consciences to be incurable And the late blessed Royal Martyr t doth most pathetically and powerfully advise and argue Εικον Βασιλικε chap. 14. of the covenant pag. 110. The enjoynings of Oathes upon people must needs in things doubtfull be dangerous as in things unlawfull damnnable no lesse superfluous where former religious legall Engagements bound men sufficiently to all necessary duties nor can I see how they will reconcile such an innovating Oath and Covenant with that former protestation which was so lately taken to maintain the Religion established in the Church of England since they count discipline so great a part of Religion And in the the next page the King saith in the candor and kindness of his spirit I am prone to believe and hope that many who take the covenant are yet firm to this judgement that such later vows oathes or leagues can never blot out those former gravings and characters which by just and lawful Oathes were made upon their Souls And again the blessed King urgeth the third time that which makes such confederations by way of Solemn Leagues and covenants more to be suspected is that they are the common road in all factions and powerful perturbations of State or Church where formalities of extraordinary zeal and piety are ever more studied and elaborate then when Politicians most agitate desperate designs against all that is setled or Sacred in Religion and Laws which by such service are cunningly yet forcibly wrested by secret steps and less sensible degrees from their known rule and wonted practise to comply with the humour of those men who aime to subdue all to their own will and power under the disguises of holy combinations These were the counsels and command of a dying King who sealed these truths with his royal bloud and they may serve as cautions or preventive physick not to be refused as cordials to comfort languishing and fainting spirits as soveraign remedyes to recover relapsed patients to a sound and heathful disposition of both Soul and body and they are not to be neglected or despised by any rational subjects but who doom themselves to discontent or willfully are dementated to a self perdition When the protestation and the covenant 3. Engagement like old and useless Almanacks were laid aside a successive jugling prevailing party found out vicious matter to compose new bird lime and shuffling the cards and then cutting and dealing cuningly devised by an Engagement to catch some credulous and timorous complying inclinations or at least utterly to pack the Presbyterian out of the stock of power and interest This obortive Embrìo and Precocious birth was quickly tumbled out of the body of the bear and by some smooth bloudy tongues licked into a form or rather confusion of words which reduced to neither mood or figure were so illogical that the Engagement was looked on as a factious seditious snare and not strong enough to hold the foot of the lightest Larke The weakest person that complyed to be entangled in it as to the form if any it was a subscribed promise before an illegal Magistrate And as to the matter it was a fancy or dream like that of Vtopia of a common wealth which was no where in England unless in some mens brains who were sick of ambition and pride and long'd for Government This republick they stiled setled when the world saw the-three Kingdomes in disorder and confusion and the Authours and Abettors of this Ridiculous monster panting quaking and sculking under continual suspitions and the pinching torments of fears and jealousies but that which occasioned greatest scorn and laughter of this seditious bug-bear was that it was covetously contrived to be a vendible commodity and so easily gain'd from the justice of Peace or his Clark for half a Crown and in a short time it prov'd a more common contemptible drug and was familiarly bought for twelve pence until at last it was not valuable On which devise all judicious and sober Persons did look as a state cheat or a meer moral promise to things imaginary irrational and impossible under the pressure of tyrannical usurpers and in it self no way legal or binding being like tow in an instant set on fire by some sulphurous sparks and flaming for a moment dyed and was suddenly extinguished Vsus jurandi ducit hominem ad perjurium D Ber. ser 32. de perjurio A fourth but more black traiterous and odious obligation and oath was that of the abjuration which most horridly did conjure the perjured swearers to renounce their lawful King and his royal line and the successors of that imperial and renowned family Sicut mentiri non potest qui non loquitur sic pejerare non poterit qui jurare non appetit D. Bernard ser 32. de perjurio And this potion though dangerous and damnable like viper wine went pleasantly down with two many who if not soundly purged with true repentance may feel the acerbity of this venemous composition attended with pangs and torments in their gauled consciences for ever This was a treason of the highest degree a fin of a great magnitude a daring crime aiming