their just Title Sacra Vestigia without Scruple and that humble confession of the Prodigal Luke 15.18 Implyes that Heaven was offended with his disobedience to his Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee that is in thy sight but against Heaven against God is the Sin Committed When therefore a Temptation to Rebellion or disloyalty to the King our Sovereign Master does assault thee as Joseph's Mistress did him to disloyalty against his Master quash it in the same Heavenly Language that Joseph did Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great Wickedness and Sin against God Reas 2. The second Reason is because the Punishment of Disloyalty and Rebellion against the King is as horrid and grievous as the Punishment of Disloyalty and Rebellion against God himself Immediately namely Eternall Damnation Rom. 13.2 1. Sam. 26.9 They that resist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in plain English shall be damn'd For who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be Guiltless that is no Jury empanell'd on this Inquest can acquit him or however he may escape by an Act of Grace or Oblivion at the Bar in foro civili yet cast he must be in Foro Coeli at God's Tribunal into utter Darkness except he repent unfeignedly of that Hellish deed of Darkness All which Justifies from bold Censures that just decree of the King Ezra 7.26 Whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and the Law of the King let Judgment be Executed speedily upon him whether it be unto death or to Banishment or to confiscation of goods or to Imprisonment But in case the Sovereign Happen to be a Child as was King Josiah may some well say or a Mad-man as was Charles the 6. the French King or a Tyrant as was King Rehoboam or an Heretick an Infidel or an Apostate as was Julian to obey and help such a Sovereign Magistrate Is that to help the Lord as the Text Phrases it or is it not rather to Fight against God In such cases how ought Subjects to demean themselves in their Obedience This is a Question and a case of Conscience so naturally arising from the Text that no discourse upon it can be pertinent and home to the purpose that does not give a full and plain answer to the same And yet I am sensible it is a question as carefully as necessarily to be answered nor is he fit to come in a Pulpit that through Ignorance knows not how or through Pusillanimity dares not or through flattery will not or through carelessness neglects to direct the People in their obedience in this Particular As for Arbitrary Government and Popery though we have all the reasons in the World to believe that it is morally impossible that ever any English Magistrate had any such design in our days of setting them up and promoting them yet that 's not material Fears and Jealousies of Popery and Arbitrary Government shall as effectually do the business of those Boutifeau's and Demagogues that love to scare the People out of their Wits till they run a Madding to Tumult Mutiny and Rebellion to their Ruine like those that in danger of having the Ship Founder under them leap Overboard for fear of Drowning Hence come all the mischiefs of Tumults Treason and Rebellion The People are either not taught their due Obedience as Christians and English-men or mis-taught as they have been Fatally and from this Text. And therefore I answer plainly and with all due Submission that I would sooner have my Tongue pull'd out than perswade the Subjects of England to active Obedience to such a Word as Constantius the Emperor threatned his Bishops with saying quod ego volo pro Canone sit my Will is my Law A King of England whatever Opinion he is of in his Private Sentiments cannot speak but in the Voice of the Law of England and he is therefore called our Liege-Lord and we his Liege People And whoever urges any other obedience but according to Law or payes any other Obedience than according to Law both of them are Criminals and shall be punisht for the same by the Kings Laws and the Kings Ministers and Justices And yet I say in the Words of Tertullian and his odd Latin Tertul. ad Scapul as he usually expresses himself Colimus Imperatorem ut à Deo Secundum quicquid est à Deo consecutum solo Deo minorem The King himself is accountable for his Errors to none but God his Personal errors but as King and in his Politick capacity it is impossible he should have any Errors for a King of England can do no wrong why because he cannot speak but in the Voyce of the Law and if any Injunction come out contrary to Law both they that obey and they that promote shall be punish't by the King by the Kings Law And therefore it is impossible as our Laws are that any King of England can be a Popish King for whatever opinion prevails in his private sentiments He speaks and Acts only in and by the Laws of the Land And our Laws and Religion are so incorporated that Prayers and Sacraments and Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons c. are all Divine and all Statute-Law And he that goes to separate and put asunder the same which God and the Law-makers have thus joyn'd together may if he be a Sampson possibly pull down the Fabrick but it will fall upon his own head and bury himself in the Rubbish And therefore that God that preserv'd the Reform'd Religion in France in despight of all the Massacres and Bloody designs of Charles 9. and Hen. 3. the former Brother dying weltring in his own Blood and the latter after one of his Bloody Fryars had given him his Death's Wound and Mortal Stab confessing and saying in his dying Pangs and last words learn of me that Piety is a Duty of man unto God over which worldly force hath no power And shall not the same God more probably defend and protect the Reformed Religion in England already become our established Law as well as our Religion Oh ye of little Faith And note that as the Persecutors of the reformed Religion in France never got any thing thereby but Punishment and mischief so neither did the Protestants there ever get any thing by Arms but Blood and Ruin Tyranny always ruins Tyrants and Rebellion always ruins Rebells read all Histories Sacred and Prophane and you will find that all Rebell 's like Sheba and Absalom come at long run to the Block or the Gallows or to Repentance King Rehoboam had so little wit as to threaten to be a Tyrant and what got he by it He lost Ten of his Twelve Tribes Those Ten Rebell Tribes what got they a new Tyrant and an Usurper a new Religion and a false Fanatical Non-sensical Religion by that wicked Jeroboam that made Israel to sin and then within a little while they were all carried away captive the Lord knows whither
cry of the Rabble Crucifie him Crucifie him Why What evil hath he done They could tell none but cryed out the more Crucifie him Crucifie him I should be as Foolish and Irrational if I should decry and silence these Preachers if I could not Answer that Question What Evil have they done I 'le Answer it with another What Evil have they not done Did the People Rise in Rebellion till these Phanatick Preachers Rowz'd them from such Texts as this Alas People generally would be glad to be quiet and follow their business till Sunday come and then these Preachers set them agog and fright them out of their Wits with Fears and Jealousies of Popery and Arbitrary Government and I know not what Forgeries of their own making If there was not a Papist in England as I wish there were not yet they would fright the People with Fears of Popery From whence From France If there were not one Papist in France yet still these Boutifeau's would affright the Rabble with Fears from Italy or Spain or if not from thence with Fears and Jealousies of some Popishly affected amongst our selves that the Sheet Anchor that 's an Engine Popishly affected allways ready to do the business at a dead lift and Low Water when all other hopes are frustrate and desperate Let any Mutinous Contrivance or Petition be to strike terror to the Government to be Subscribed by Numbers though these Preachers and these Conventiclers differ and dissent from one another one Sect against the other even to Death yet like Herod and Pilate they shall joyn in Mischief and unanimously as one man Confederate against the Peace and tranquillity of Christ and his Church the Common Enemy If there be but Two or Three Phanaticks in a Parish observe it they shall make more a noise more a Disturbance more a do in the same then all the Rest they would do all and always do ill Let the Magistrate restrain their daring Conventicles here and there for it is but here and there if any be restrain'd Oh how the Country Rings of Persecution Persecution Let the Magistrate connive and wink at them and look through his Fingers and make as if he did not see them Why What then Why then they should be humbly Thankful No No Humility and Thankfulness are Graces not to be found in the Holy League and Covenant no they grow more Petulant and say of this merciful Magistrate God has put a Hook in his Nose Is 37.39 as he did in Senacherib's and a Bridle in his Lips So that a man knows not how to please them but we must say of them as Solomon sayes of his Fool Prov. 29.9 If a Wise Magistrate contend with a Foolish man whether he rage or Laugh there is no rest For whether they rage at the Magistrate for putting the Laws in Execution or whether they Laugh at him for neglecting still they are restless and unquiet They are a Plague and Disquiet to themselves and all the Kingdome which they have all most ruin'd once and themselves too which had not now been remembred but that the same men the same Principles the same Methods to embroyl us are again on Foot Bless us Good God! What is Religion if this be Religion And what is Religion good for if these be the Fruits What Shall Religion be good for nothing but to make us like Cocks of the Game which are good for nothing but to Fight Or like Salamanders to live no where so well as in the Fire of Contention Or Pirrhus like to delight in War If these be the secrets and Mysteries of their Religion let every good man say Gen. 49.6 5 7. as Jacob of his Bloody Sons Oh my Soul come not thou into their secrets unto their Assembly mine Honor be not thou united Instruments of Cruelty are in their Habitations Cursed be their anger Rex bominum Hispanus Asinorum Gallus Diabolorū Anglus Regū ego Max Imp. Dor. in Syn. for it was fierce and their Wrath for it was Cruel Time was when Regnum Angliae was called Regnum Angelorum but these Disturbers would verifie the Diverb of the Emperor Maximilian the Second and make it Regnum Diabolorum Omnium Provinciarum prima publicitus Christi nomen Recêpit Anglia saith Sabellicus Regnante Lucio saith Eusebius England received the Christian Faith Anno 44. by Simon Zelotes saith Dorothaeus Octob. 28. Imperatore Claudio c. Baronius All agree that England was the first Christian Kingdom and happy might we yet be if not disquieted by this Man of Sin and Sons of Perdition the Spirit of Antichrist namely the Spirit of Popery and the Spirit of Foppery And both of them have seen their best days because though both of them yet set in the Temple of God both Papist and Fanatick the spawn of a Jesuit yet the Cloven-foot is discovered by the most of Mankind that have any eyes or understanding A Man might in the days of Yore with a Knapsack full of Pardon 's and Indulgences under the Seal of the Fisher have fill'd it in one day with good Money for them But now a Pardon-seller may walk over all Italy and cry Indulgences Indulgences Pardon 's come buy and scarce get Money to pay for his Supper and if into Germany or France he Travels over the Alpes 't is not worth the while all his Pack will scarce buy him a pair of new Shooes why I told you the cheat is discover'd the Cloven-foot is apparent though this Anti-christian and Devillish Spirit sit in the Temple of God What did this Spirit of Anti-Christ do then what but that Satan always does when he appears as an Angel of Light if he be discovered he shifts himself and appears in another shape but still with the same Black Hellish and Devillish Design seeking whom he may devour So that from the Spirit of Popery he Metamorphos'd himself into the Spirit of Foppery and instead of the old Cheat of Popery he Plays the same game with the new cheat of Sects and Foppery and gain'd wonderfully at first thereby Rebellion and Murder and Treason and Mischief that 's the Principle Foundation and Main Design of Hell but how to make Mortals so much against Nature and humane kind to perpetrate such Hellish Facts there 's the craft Why Religion not true Religion but the Hypocrisie the Face of Religion the Ape of Religion shall Play the Beast and make Men Play the Beasts nay be more Brutish than the Beasts to one another Cain had never kill'd Abel as I said before but for this Devillish Religion Absalom could never have Rebell'd nor got a party against his Father and King but for this Devillish pretence of Religion and Justice Jeroboam could never have usurp't the Crown but for his Devillish new Religion an easie and cheap Religion that would save the Peoples Purses and their Legs too from a tedious and chargeable long Journey to Jerusalem when the business was done more cleverly
Man was a Son of Belial in English a Son unyoak't unbridled unrestrained his lusts had their full Scope If any Man lusted after his Neighbors Wife his Neighbors Daughter his Neighbors House his Neighbors Land it was but cutting his Throat and the business was done till another stronger then he or many others combin'd serv'd the Murderer in his kind in the like Kind till another or others did the like for them and so for want of Law lust was a law and revenge was a Law and Ambition and Covetousness hurryed Men Captive to confusion and ruin for want of a Righteous Law and Yoak to restrain and protect them No wonder then that the Text says in those times there was no peace to him that went out or to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants man against man and City against City for God did vex them and they vext one another with all Adversity And this is the fruit of liberty liberty But understand a little ye brutish among the People Psalm 94.8 And ye Fools when will ye be Wise Never alas never till taught too late by the Fools Mistress woful experience And if Men should have but for one day the Tryal of an Inter regnum or Interval of Government as the Turks usually have at the Death of an Emperor and that every Man has liberty they that wish for it would find it the most dismal and Tragical day for Rapines and Massacres that ever they had if happily it prove not their Last Day So Fatal it is to want Government so Fatal to England to want Kingly Government and so Fatal to Rebel 's by Fighting against it to Fight against God and therefore do justly incurr the Curse of God as Cursed Meroz disloyal Meroz in this Text. Whence I conclude that as he that will not venture his Body can never be Valiant and he that will not venture his Soul can never be Rich so he that will not venture both Body Soul and Estate can never be a Rebel There is but one Question more to be Answered and then I have done And that is Q. 4. Why the Angel of the Lord does Curse at this Rate Surely the Debaucht and prophane Ranters of this Age does not from this Scripture learn to Curse and Damme after the Example of the Angel of the Lord here and yet the Lawfulness of Cursing is more plainly prov'd than the Lawfulness of Rebellion from this Text. And though it be a Devillish thing to Curse and Damme as well as to Rebel yet our Debauches seldom aggravate their sins by adding Hypocrisie to them and the Cloak of Religion the Common habit of Rebels in our Age Yet both of them are alike in sinning impudently with a High hand and a Brazen Face Do they Blush when they Swear and Curse and Damme And are Men asham'd when by stubbornness and Nonconformity they dare Confront as well as Transgress the Laws He that hides his Sin shall not Prosper faith Solomon Well this I 'le say for both the said Malignants both the bold Cursers and the bold Conventiclers they are so far from hiding their sin that they boast of it and Glory in it The one by Cursing Swearing and Damming hopâ—…s to be accounted a Daring Valiant Modish Gen tleman The Angel Cursed Meroz but this Fool dares Curse himself he dare pray to God to Damme him and seldom do these-Davils Incarnate put up any other prayer to God but God Damme them Devils Incarnate did I say Alas that speaks them not enough these dregs of Humanity are worse than Devils for the Devil did pray in St. Luk. 8.28 Lukes Gospel to our Saviour saying I beseech thee torment me not But these worser kind of Devils or Demonaicks pray quite contrary praying at every word God I beseech thee torment me or God Damme me Vpon me be thy Curse my Son sayes a Rash Woman in Scripture But that any Man should say Upon me let my own Curse come is no where to be learnt but from Hell the Devil and the Damned Spirits God Grant that every one of us may hence Learn so to set a Watch before the Door of our Mouths that we may truly say with Holy Job Job 31.30 Neither have I suffered my Soul to Sin by wishing a Curse on another Mans Soul much less upon our own Soul We read indeed of some Devillish Confederates that made a solemn League and Covenant Acts 23. and bound themselves under a grievous Curse to kill St. Paul But never until this unparallel'd Age of prophaneness that any did bind themselves under a great Curse to kill their own Souls Eternally and be Damn'd 'T was Balacks policy to hire Balaam to Curse Come Curse me Jacob his Enemy but 't is these mens policies and all their piety to Curse themselves are their own Enemy The Devil prays they may be Damn'd so pray they Herein seeming to transcend the Blasphemy of those in the Prophet Isaiah Isaiah 8.21 that Curst their King and their God And except they Repent they shall with horror and astonishment hear our Saviour Eccho to them Go ye Cursed into everlasting Burnings prepared for the Devil and his Angels They have often very often pray'd and petition'd Heaven that they might be Damn'd their petition will be answered with a Fiat according to your dayly prayer Amen So be it For them that Honor God God will Honor but those that despise him and all Modesty 1. Sam. 2.30 all Religion all Vertue all that Good is shall be lightly esteemed I know I am and willingly I am in some Transport to meet with this sort of men yet not at all out of my way Only the Wonder in the Text is not yet taken away For though the Devil and Devillish men will Swear and Curse yet why should the Angel of the Lord use his Mouth to this Hectoring Language Though I speak with the Tongue of Men or Angels faith the Apostle Divellish Men and Devillish Angels have Tongues Cursing Tongues and Cursed Tongues But why should the Angel of the Lord Curse Ans Surely not but upon some notorious and strange occasion and for some Damnable and Notorious sin And what is that sin but Disloyalty Many other Scriptures decry and Condemn Rebellion a sin of Commission against the King But this Text Curses and Condemns Disloyalty which is only a sin of Omission not in acting against but in not acting for the Sovereign Magistrate So earnest is Heaven not only to keep the Peace on Earth but to help God I mean as the Text does the Sovereign Magistrate when opprest or in Jeopardy To sit still at such a Time or to be a Neuter is Damnable and lyable to a Curse And why Because above all other Duties peace is recommended in Holy Scripture above all other Legacies our Blessed Saviour Bequeath'd peace to his Disciples and Followers with a Blessing to the peace-maker and the peace-keeper and a Curse on him that breaks the peace Many other are the Blessings of Man-kind but peace includes them all many are the Miseries of Mankind but War Tumult and Rebellion includes them all as being the Mother of Mischief including all Mischief in the Belly of it And therefore the worst of men are thus paraphras'd by the Holy Ghost The way of Peace have they not known Thievâ—…s and Highway-men Murtherers and Bandito's are no doubt of the vilest sort of Wretches but yet not so Vile nor Damnable as Cursed and Tumultuous Rebels the former being but Retail-Rogues to those that Murder and Plunder by Whole-sale Not that all Papists and Phanaticks have nothing but Mischief and Blood in their Eye and Design many of them are like those Four hundred men that Followed Absalom in their simplicity but once engaged with him in Rebellion there was no Retreating Cursed Cursed for ever let them be then well may we say who have seen the Villanies of Rebels acted under the Guize and Vizard of Religion and Liberty Curse them I say or not I so much as the Angel of the Lord faith yea Curse them bitterly for their Dissoyalty that will not come to the help of the Chief Magistrate when in danger of Enemies that will not come to the help of the King the help of the Lord against the Mighty And now I have done And I hope I have done enough to make this Text speak better English then formerly and bespeak better English Subjects though vile Hackney Tongues have abus'd this Text and their own Judgments in spight of all Sence Grammar and the Context by wresting the plain and easie sence thereof to Gull the Blockish English to their Destruction Bees suck Honey from the same Flowers whence Spiders suck their poyson And I doubt not but you will conclude with me that in this Text thus naturally now Explain'd is verify'd Sampson's Riddle Out of the Eater is come forth Meat Judg. 14.14 and out of the Strong Sweetness FINIS