that the Civil were lost then I mean that while we contest with one another and with our Rulers about little things we lose the main and by the opportunity of our divisions and sub-divisions a common Enemy break in upon us And therefore unless we could be so fond as to persuade our selves we have no Enemies or so mad as to think them as supine as our selves it must be unreasonable presumption to think our selves safe in this distracted condition Now further to illustrate the dangerous principles of the Presbyterians and other Dissenters from the Church of England let us consider what King James in the Conference at Hampton Court did first declare That of all the Translations of the Bible into the English tongue that of Geneva was the worst and that the Notes upon it were partial untrue seditious and savouring too much of dangerous and traâ—â—erous conceits Dr. Heylin his Animadversions on the Church-History of Brittain pag. 178. his Majesty instanced in two places the one in Exod. 1.19 when disobedience to Kings is allowed of The other 2 Chron. 15.16 Where Asa is taxed for deposing his Mother and not killing her a Note whereof as the Author of the said relation speaks the Scottish Presbyterians made special use of not only deposing Mary their lawful Queen but persecuting her openly and under hand till they had taken away her life Again the Geneva notes upon Matth. 2.12 promise ought not to be kept where Gods honour and preaching of his Truth is hindered or else it ought not to be broken Now what a wide gap as the said Author further observes doth this open to the breach of all Promises Oaths Covenants Contracts and Agreements not only betwixt man and man but between Kings and their Subjects what Tumults Rebellions have been raised in all parts of Christendom in England Scotland Ireland France the Netherlands Germany under colour that Gods honour and the preaching of the Truth is hindered If this once pass for good Doctrine neither the King nor any of his good Subjects in whatsoever Realm can live in safety And as to dangerous practices it is set out by Mr. James Howel in the Life of Lewis the 13th K. of France There were thirteen Rebellions that King supprest most if not all by the Presbyterian Protestants of that Kingdom They being Enemies within doors were made use of by discontented Princes upon all occasions In the 4th lustre of his said book And to testifie what their principles were the said Historian further relates the speech of the Duke of Rohan the Head and Leader of them all to an Assembly of the chiefest of them Saying Gentlemen I pray do not ye think that since our cause is conjoyned with that of God but that I continue as strong a zeal and inclination as ever towards it Can we doubt but our defence though ☞ lawful as being for Religion and liberty of Conscience For although our Parsons cry out daily in their Chairs that we ought not to despair of Heavenly succour yet receiving every day proofs of the Wrath of the Eternal there is more appearance to expect punishment for our sins than miracles for the re-establishment of our affairs If your wisdoms find it to purpose that it be more expedient to seek our Conservation with the exercise of our Religion and liberty of Consciences within the obedience which we owe to our lawful Prince than in Resistance which though just in it self is held by the Enemies of our faith no other than Rebellion and High ☞ Treason To which may be added the Testimony of the famous Grotius who saith If we inquire into the causes of the Wars which have so long wasted Europe we shall find the flame to have been kindled principally by them that should have been the Preachers of Peace That the Civil Wars of France most of them were raised by them that stile themselves Ministers of the Gospel needs no stronger witnesses than the fresh memory of Kings Peers and People together with very many Letters both of the Duke of Bouillon and Plessis complaining thereof And also the very Comentaries which the Duke of Rohan hath written of the last Wars Yet I except Camero who was ever of another mind and fared much the worse for it if there were any more like him I would not deprive them of their due praise We have seen a prodigious thing Troops and Companies mustered Arms and Ammunition gathered under the name of the Reformed Churches Whence is this power Grotius his Vote for the Churches Peace from Heaven or from Earth For my part being one who do not only dissuade Subjects from taking Arms but intreat Kings also to make a sparing use of their Prerogatives who think them to be less miserable that are Condemned to the Galleys than such as are devoted to an everlasting War And the said Author in another place treating of some dangerous opinions speaketh thus Some opinions there be that will not permit any State longer to be safe than force is wanting Many think that there is every where a certain Contract or Covenant between God the King and the People upon such terms that if the King depart from God the people also may desert the King And the said Author instanceth in divers particulars Those first as they imagin depart from God that acknowledg the Popes primacy in the Church for in all reason they must lose that power which they have delivered up unto the Beast Those next who attempt any Reconcilement with that Church that co-heres to the Roman Church that is with the synagogue of Satan as they please to speak Lastly those who retain any of the Rites and Ceremonies ☜ used in the Roman Church such as are retained not in England only but in the Northern Kingdoms they are all Papistical and therefore Idolatrous And the same Author concludes thus These are in truth things somewhat ridiculous but of a very sad consequence And further speaking of obedience to Governours I inculcate into Subjects obedience towards them all according to the precept of Christ and his Apostles Let them desire the best give God thanks for the middle sort bear with the worst for the doctrin and example of Christ let them suffer even crafty Foxes such as Herod cruel Lyons such as Nero. And when I speak of Subjects under that name I comprehend also inferiour Magistrates ☜ who in respect of the highest power are but Subjects sent by the King as St. Peter saith I preach not Evangelium armatum an armed Gospel not Obedience only but Honour also and Reverence are due unto them even to the froward what else saith Sophocles they are Princes But St. Paul with Apostolical gravity They are Gods Ministers And if the doubtful actions even of private men are according to the rule of Charity to be interpreted on the better part how much more of Kings who are not bound to render an account of their actions to any
nor can they somtimes do it without peril of the Common-wealth Also as a worthy Divine heretofore of the Church of England speaking of the duty of Subjects saith thus We must look to our place where God hath set us Dr. Sibs in Souls conflict if we be in subjection to others their Authority ought to sway with us neither is it the calling of those that are Subjects to enquire over-curiously into the mysteries of Government ☞ for that both in Peace and War breeds much disturbance and would trouble all designs And the late Learned and Judicious Doctor Hamond delivers himself thus Practical Catechism You may discern saith he how far from the practice and Gospel of Christ are those doctrins of Ambitious men which have made Christian Religion a ground or excuse of moving and disquieting of States and shaking if not dissolving of Kingdoms All that will be useful to learn from thence saith that worthy Author is the Vnchristianness of those actions in Subjects which are built on such Antichristian principles as these such are Rebellions Treasons Sedition attempting the Commotion of States on colour of Religion I shall put you in ☞ mind of this great Truth That Christ and his Disciples were of all the Doctors that ever were in the world the most careful to preserve the doctrin and practice of Allegiance even when Emperors were the greatest opposers of the Christian Religion And if we mean to be accounted followers of them we must go and do likewise In the Primitive times as Lactantius speaks believing was not an excuse for disobedience or a commutation for a holy life but a foundation of obedience to all the Laws of God and man then all the professors of Christianity had one heart and one lip Defendenda Religio est non occidendo sed moriendo non saevitia sed patientia non scelere sed fide illa enim bonorum sunt haec malorum Lactantius his Admonition And further as a late Author speaks It is by Gods special appointment and designation that Kings are his Vicegerents in the world It is by his peculiar care and protection that their Authority is preserved and that their persons are at any time fenced from the malicious designs or the outragious violences of wicked and unreasonable men The nature of Government in the world is such that it requires a divine wisdom and an uncontroulable power to sustain it and to maintain its interests To the same purpose the worthy Grotius afore-mentioned speaks in his excellent discourse of God and his Providence That God permitteth not the effects of malice to range whither they would but restrains them so that Government might never be overthrown nor the knowledg of divine Laws utterly extinguisht And 't is a known wise saying of Tacitus as a late Author also hath it Bonos Principes expeâ—ere debemus qualescunque pati Et quomodo sterilitatem aut nimios imbres caetera naturae mala sic luxum avaritiam dominantium tolerare The world must be governed as it may be not by Angels but by men And there never was any lawful Magistrate so bad whose Laws and Government were not more conducive to the preservation of the common good than his oppression was to subver it And 't is wise to suffer a less evil rather than lose a greater good Now how dangerous and destructive the Presbyterian and Phanatick Principles and Practices before mentioned are How subversive of all Government Order and Peace in the world And how contrary to the Doctrin of the true Protestant Church of England I leave to all wise sober and ingenious Christians to consider more fit to be abominated and detested and exploded out of the Christian world than cherished and countenanced What more mischievous and wicked principles in the world than these two Antichristian Doctrins First that nothing ought to be practised in and about the worship of God but what we must have an express rule or warrant for out of the Scriptures Secondly that we may do wickedly rebel against our lawful Prince break our Oaths and Promises for the sake of Religion The first of which at one stroak cuts the throat of all Ecclesiastical Government and thereby lays wast the Church The second turns the world into a Shambles brings in nothing but War Blood and Confusion and thereby lays wast the State And when we shall consider as Dr. Stillingfleet hath observed Of the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome p. 372. that the Jesuits furnished the Enemies to Episcopacy and the Church of England with so many Arguments to their hands to manage their bad cause with this way of proceeding makes men wonder at them and ask the question and say What other reason can be imagined why these men of such intolerable and insolent spirits and principles are now so earnest in prosecution of the Romanists from the worst of whom viz. the Jesuits they take their principles and practices but only this That certainly they are emulous of of having the Papists to have a hand in doing that which as the cause of God a noble and worthy atchievement they are resolved to do themselves that is to say to ruinate and destroy the once famous and flourishing Protestant Church of England the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion being resolved she shall fall by no other hand but theirs which in the end will assuredly prove no other than the resolution of Samson to pull that excellent Fabrick down to the ground although they themselves perish also in the ruins thereof As for all such howsoever who have been in integrity of their hearts formerly ingaged against their lawful Prince and Soveraign and the Church of England upon Religious pretences that have since manifested their abhorrence of so great a Crime Et nullus pudor est ad meliora transire so they deserve to be respected by all good Protestants But as for such pretended Protestants for I cannot call all Dissenters from Rome Protestants for then John of Leyden and his Religiously mad Crew were such which I cannot agree to I say therefore as for such pretended Protestants as shall still persist in their said wicked and destructive principles and practices and are ready once more to involve these Nations of England Scotland and Ireland in War and Blood upon the account of Religion I shall say no more but this Quos Jupiter vult perdere dementat prius Let them beware and that whenever they shall appear in action as they will be then certainly doing the works of darkness so the Prince of darkness will assuredly be their General the innocent Blood of the Martyr'd Charles the First of blessed memory will attend them and the Lord of Hosts will be against them and the issue must needs be accordingly assured destruction for Pertinaciae nullum remedium posuit Deus And they whose wickednesses are winked at for a time are wont to pay dearly for the forbearance of their
suspition of any such design of Subverting the Protestant Church of England being Enemies within doors Pretended Protestants It very nearly concerns us Protestants therefore I humbly conceive to have a great care that in avoyding Scylla we be not swallowed up in Charybdis And one would think that the said Phanaticks although they are so zealously bent to the Rigorous prosecution of the Papists upon the account of the late Plot do not certainly believe there was really any such Plot or that the Papists were carrying on such grand designs against the Protestant Religion For if they did surely they would not take that as an opporty to plot mischief also against the Protestant Interest as the Scottish Presbyterians did last Summer who upon discovering of the said Popish Plot most wickedly Murdered the Innocent and after broke forth into open Rebellion For could there be such a Rebellion and yet no Presbyterian Plot in Scotland And did there not at the same time a Party among us here in England so sympathise with them as to make loud clamours against our worthy Bishops branding some of them as Popish yet could not endure to have the Scots styled Rebels but would take their parts And therefore may it not be thought that the said Rebel Scots had many Presbyterian Friends in England And were they not formerly like Simeon and Levi or rather like Samsons Foxes tyed together with fire-brands in their tayls And in that posture did they not set all the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland in such a flame as could not in many years be quenched which was as bad if not worse as the Firing of London And must the Papists be only guilty and these innocent when as great wickedness and from as bad principles are acted by the one as by the other As if the Phanaticks had a Dispensation from the Almighty to break his Laws and that they might be at once both Saints and Devils Oh horrible And shall that absurd and wicked Doctrin and Principle still find entertainment in the world among Christians yea among the Protestants that we may do wickedly for Gods cause Rom. iil 8. that we may do evil that good may come as if his honour might be advanced by our transgression of his Laws Do not these men miserably debauch and blaspheme the holy Christian Religion and make it resemble the Religion of Mahomet that tolerates the deposing and Murdering of their Princes and that was born in Arms and breaths nothing but Arms and by Arms is propagated And do not their tenents seem to be very much tinctured with that wicked Heresie That Dominio fundatur in Gratia that Princes and Magistrates lose their dignity by great sins and no longer ought to be obeyed But doubtless these cannot be the principles and practices of good men good Christians how then can we give them that appellation except we will make our selves liable to that Curse for calling evil good Isa 3.20 But say we what we will these must be the Godly party for let them do what they will they are of the number of Gods elect and chosen people and that they are sure of because they apprehend that benefit by faith These in truth are sad delusions and of the number of those opinions which although they are ridiculous yet are of a very sad consequence as the excellent Grotius hath observed But I would not be mis-understood I speak not this to disparage true Piety and Vertue which I highly honour and respect but nothing is more hateful to me and I think to all good men than Ahabs Fasts when it was for the destruction of Naboth for doubtless Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas They will nevertheless say of me that I am of a bitter persecuting spirit and cruel towards them But I shall say this for my self Those that have to do with stubborn and inveterate maladies it is cruelty in such to use Lenitives and not Corrosives To which I may further add in the words as I remember of Zuinglius In aliis mansuetus ero in blasphemiis in Christum non ità I dare appeal to the Almighty that I have no ill will against their persons but only their wicked principles I think I could be willing to sacrifice my Life to rescue them all from their sad delusions and my Nation from ruin But however let them go on to style themselves the Godly party c. or what they please this will prove most certain That when this Church and Nation is brought to desolation and destruction they will be as innocent of procuring the same as Nero was of the Firing of Rome when he actually set it on fire And what is more unjust than for single acts of Murder and wickedness to be punished with death and the destruction of whole Nations to be gloryed in as an honourable Atchievement and a Righteous cause But to my purpose to persuade us all if it be possible to Unity and Peace I shall insert a notable story I think it is related in Mr. Stows Chronicle as followeth That upon occasion of a great Inundation and overflowing of the Country near the Severn there was a little Hill compassed about by the waters whither had resorted for safety many Beasts of several kinds and several natures as Horses Cows Sheep Foxes c. who being all incompassed with a common danger laid aside or rather forgot their Antipathies and abode there quietly together not any one offering to prey upon or molest the others and when the waters were gone so parted in peace May we not dear Country-men hence learn of Brutes And shall we not by reason do what they did only by instinct and out of apprehension of danger that is to say lay aside our Prejudices Passions and Animosities in tendency to secure our selves from danger I say again If our disaffected parties did really believe there were such a horrid and destructive Plot would they not follow the common dictates of reason and ingeniously confess and say Alas we now see by experience that our sad divisions have incouraged our Enemies to Plot the ruin of all Protestants but we will for peace and safety sake now lay aside our Animosities and stubborn wills we will come to Church Baptize our Children receive the Sacrament and Conform in all things to our Mother the Church of England at least as far as we can Laws we know must not submit to us but we to them we will do any thing that is required of us if it be not as clearly and plainly forbidden by Gods Word as our obedience is there clearly and fully enjoyned we are willing to do almost any thing for the securing the Protestant interest We now see our Adversaries are Vigilant and Industrious for to procure our destruction but we will be as Vigilant and Industrious for our Union and Preservation But alas all the noise of the horridness of the late Plot hath not awakened us