dead Sea where presently they dye and know Jordan no more What 's become of those gallant Grandees roaring Roisters with their glittering Giâ—ls and mad Mates the wanton Wagâ—ails of our English Courts who fleared when they should have feared and laughed when they should have lamented how soon are they put out as the fire of thorns Psal. 118. 12. Did not our English Courts swarm with these lustful Locusts almost in all Ages and the chiefest therein commonly chief in these sins Edward the Fourth had his holy Whore as he was used to call her that came out of a Nunnery at his bâ—ck to satisfie his lust May not large volumes be fil'd with the historical Narrations and that according to truth of the pride gluttony drunkenness wantonness luxury lasciviousness of the Kings and Courts of this Nation in their constant succession one after another until the hand of Vengeance did put a full stop hereunto by that fatal Blow at White-hall Gate 1648. They are extinct dead and buried and I wish such an immoveable stone may be layd upon the mouth of their Sepulchres by our present and successive Governors that they may never rise again that as their names so their sin may rot and consume away and the eyes of this English Nation may never behold such vanity at Court any more where lasciviousness and luxury were accounted meer peccadilloes not worthy repentance or remorse 12. He commonly wades through blood to his bloody Throne and having once scared his conscience by spilling the blood of a Father or Brother to attain the Crown he can eat the flesh and drink the blood of millions of his people to satisfie his lusts without reluctance and judgeth it his right to wrong whom he will Tyrants are men of blood fierce fiery furious spirits cross curst and cruel dispositions the world is fill'd with volumes of their viâ—lanies in this kind all Ages and Countries without exception have wofully felt the truth hereof in so much as if men had the use of their mental ears as they have of their corporal the cries of the thousands and ten thousands millions and tens of millions of the slain and murthered by the hands of Tyrants would be so great that they would hardly hear the living for the dâ—â—d The Turkish Spanish Roman French Scottish English Histories are they not stufft and cram'd with innumerable Instances of the cruelty of Tyrants and their pleasure therein No sight pleased Hannibal better then a ditch running over with mans blood Châ—rls the nineth of France Author of that bloody Mâ—ssâ—cre in France looking upon the dead carkass of the Admiral that stank by long keeping unburied uttered this wretched saying Quam suaviter olet cadaver inimici How sweet is the smell of an enemies carkass And the Queen Mother of Scotland beholding the dead bodies of her Protestant Subjects whom she had slain in Battel said that she never saw a finer piece of Tapistry in all her life To spend time on this were to waste a candle before the Sun Englands Chronicles the Books of Martyrs the late bloody Massacres and Wars in Ireland England Scotland are fresh and bleeding evidences of the bloodiness of Tyrants I shall not here speak of the death of Prince Henry King James the bloody Massacres of the Protestants in Ireland by whose Commissions and Commands how cruelly and deceitfully they have been carried on God hath made inquisition for blood he hath remembered and not forgotten the complaint of the poor he hath cut off Saul and his bloody house according to his word Psal. 55. 23. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days They are cut off before their time their branches shall not be green but shaken off as the unripe Grape from the Vine and cast off as the flower of the Olive Job 15. 32 33. 13. Prerogative Pleaders are his Orthodox Preachers that make his mouth their Oracle his Dictates their Doctrines all Scriptural Precepts of the Subjects duties the only Canonical but the duty of Princes Apocryphal writings Tyrants have their Chaplains according to their Religions who rather preach from their Masters mouths then to their ears and principle the people according to their humors to maintain their Prerogative Hence we shall find in Scripture that wicked Kings had their Priests and Prophets of their own tempers who did always charm the people into base slavery by their base preachings Zeph. 3. 3. When the Princes in Jerusalem were rearing Lions and her Judges evening Wolves her Prophets were treacherous betraying the poor people by their cheating charmings into a stupid â—ordid and silly subjection Wicked Kings Princes Priests and Prophets are chain'd together Jer. 2. 26. they commonly keep one Court and one Councel and as they live together in sin so perish together commonly in punishment Jer. 4 9. You may see how these wicked Priests and Prophets did cling together against Jeremiah who protested against their flatteries and â—alsities Jer. 26. 7 8 10 11. See again their cursed Conâ—ederacy in doing evil in the sight of the Lord Jer. 32. 32. Ahab had a mind to make War against Ramath Gilead for the enlargement of his Territories he had no sooner signified his royal pleasure herein but his whole Kingdom of Priests and Prophets allarms the people to War and promise them success in the Name of the Lord yea one of them viz. Zâ—dekiah the son of Chenaanah like an Ape did imitate the custom of the Prophets of the Lord and makes himself Iron horns carries them unto the King as if sent by a very special Commission and tells him Thus saith the Lord With these horns shalt thou push the Syrians until thou hast consumâ—d them but you know they all told lyes in the Name of the Lord and one Michaiah that spake the truth they buffeted and imprisoned And was it not thus in Englands Courts during the Rule of Tyrants amongst us No sooner had the late King a resolution to war with the Scots his native Countrymen but all the Pulpits from White-hall round the Nation did allarm the people to rise up with him promising them success in the Name of the Lord Were not those wicked Kings Priests and Prophets of the English Nation link'd together as with chains of Adamant in so much that if the one be destroyed the other must fall hence grew that ominous Proverb No Bishop no King which fell out accordingly How hath God destroyed those dens of Lions those Magpyes nests those black Ravens that deceived the people with their rough garments I am no adversary to the lawful Ministry and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and my pen drop from my withered right hand rather then I should willingly speak or write against the Lords true Messengers but meer pretenders of the Lords message when they utter only visions of their own hearts are the abomination of my Soul 14. The greatness of his height causeth giddiness in his
and plenarily betrayed the people are ipso facto dischaâ—gâ—d from their allâ—geance The affiâ—mation that the wholâ— peopâ—e in one body is inferior to onâ— single man who ever he be is high Treaâ—on against the Dignity of Mankind It was the saying of a Heathâ—n King I rule not my people by Tyranny as if they were Barbarians but am my self liable if I do unjustly to suffer justly And Trajan the Emperor giving a naked sword to one whom he made General of his Praetorian Forces said Take this drawn sword to use for me if I raign well if not to use it against me But a Tyrant what is he but carnivorum animal a ravenous creature a devourer of the people 9. He makes no more conscience of killing men then Moles of burning their Houses then Wasps nests of destroying whole Families then Litters of Rots As Methridates did slay fourscore thousand Citizens of Rome what need we instance the large volumes of cruel Tyrants of their heading hanging burning frying roasting scalding wracking cuting choppâ—ng flaying their poor innocent subjects at their pleasure making pastime with their pains sports with their spoils witness also the rapes robberies murthers burning and destroying of so many thousand persons Cities Towns and Families by the late Tyrant in England Scotland and Ireland in his late bloody Wars and Massacres raised for the utter ruine of all those that in the least withstood his tyrannical principles and usurpations 10. He holds himself accountable to none but God alone though he believes no more God in the Heavens then man in the moon pretending most to that which his Soul most abhors Religion and Righteousness the Glory of God and the good of the people are most in his mouth when his heart loaths them and his conscience serves him to say and unsay to swear and forswear advance and abase principles and persons to satisfie his lusts Tyrants know no God but themselves Who is the Lord said Pharaoh Wâ—o can deliver out of my hands said Nebuchadnezzar Alexander the Great commanded himself to be held a God and Apelles pictured him with a thunder-bolt Lypsius with this posie Jupiter asserui terram mihi tu assere coelum Let Jove take Heaven so the Earth be minâ— With which pictures Alexander was so delighted that he commanded that none should take his pictures but Lypsius and Apelles Caligula braved his god Jupiter and threatned him though at every clap of thunder or flash of lightning he would run hastily and hide himself under his bed like a wrigling worm Tullius Hostilius said That Religion did but â—ffeminate mens minds and unfit them for noble imployments but one witneseth that even this Roman King fained to himself two new gods viz. Pavorem Pallorem whom he carried about with him in hâ—s own bosom such wretches not fearing him that made all things are sometimes affrighted with nothing As Ahaz that trembled at the shaking of a leaf and Manasseh who hid his head among thorns and thence was taken and bound in setters 2 Chron. 33. 11. A Tyrant wants not Parasites that say to him as one said to the Pope Tu meritò in terris diceris esse Deus Thou well deservest here to be stiled a god How did the peoplâ—sâ—-blow Herod with their flatteries crying him up for a god and God makes those worms to devour him the voice of a Tyrants heart is like that of Ninive I am and there is none besides me or as Babylon I will ascend unto Heaven and set my Nest above the Stars My râ—of receives me not 't is ayr I tread At every step I feel my advanc'd head Knock out a Star in Heaven said Sejanus Attilas King of Hunnes arrogantly vaunted that the Stars fell before him that the Earth trembled at his presence Caligula by certain Engines thundred and lightned as another Jupiter I will ascâ—nâ— above the height of the clouds I will be like the Most High said the King of Babel Cyrus caused this to be writ over his Sepulchre I could do all things But why then did he not preserve himself from death Zerxes was angry with the Mountains Winds Rivers the Elements if any of them crost him as if they were men under his pay At Hellespont he caused two millions of men to be w 〈…〉 d over into Greece where a suddain Tempest battering and bâ—ating his Boatâ— he caused the Sea to be stâ—nck with three hundred stripes and câ—st a pair of setters into it to make it know to whom it was subject I have heard of a story of an English King or rather a King of England of very late dayes a great Hunter that was his worthy Character who being at Newmarket for his pleasure sake hindered in his sport by a long rain for many days together with very little or no fair weather began at last to be so really fretted thereat that he was heard to say That no King in the world was so little beholding to God Almighty as he in that he should wait a whole month together for a day of fair weather for his recreation and could not procure it or words to the like wicked purpose that one day falling fair great joy was at Court all his Troop of Courtiers mounting upon their hunting Horses and he with them and being about their game the clouds frowned upon them and at last a very great soaking shower of rain fell at which the said Kâ—â—g being in a mad fretting and frenzy fit cryed out with cursing and sweating that the world should be drowned and therefore in a scorn rode up upon the brow of a Knap upon New-market Heath if my memory fail me not in my information where he said Give me a Bible I 'le prove the world must be drowned crying out again and again Why do you not give me a Bible at last a Bible was brought him when he had it in his hands he opened it and turned and tossed it at last making a scornful mouth he threw it over his left shoulder in derision and so rodâ— away As for Promises Vows and Covenants these are nothing with a Tyrant he oftentimes promiseth in the word of a King and thinks his heart unsworn his solemn Oaths Vows and Covenants Protestations Imprecations and Execrations he slips as easily as Monkies do their Collers making election of those only that serve his turn and reprobates the rest So a Tyrants Maxim is out of Lucian Sceptrorum vis tota perit si poedere justâ— incipit Scepters are vain that do on justice stand That Principi nihil est injustum quod fructuosum a Prince ought to account nothing unjust which is profitable that it is lawful Regni causâ sceleratum esse to do any wicked thing to procure absolute Soveraignty Again that Regni causa jus violendum esse That all Laws may be violated to make way for Domination That Vbi honesta tantum dominanti licâ—â—â— praecario râ—gnatur where it is warrantable
me an empty vessel he hath swallowed me up like a Dragon he hath filled his belly with my delicates he hath cast me out It is said that the Roman Tyrants in the first Persecutions did destroy twenty seven millions of people and that with such cruelties as were never heard of before One mentions a cruel Tyrant who to get monies of his miserable Subjects used to send for them first to the Court as Charls ultimus Angliae did use to send for the Citizens of London and others that refused to pay Ship monies c. and if they did deny to pay according to his pleasure he would first knock out one of their tâ—eth and then another until they did yield to pay the same as Charls aforesaid by himself or Agâ—nts did send persons that would not pay his illegal and unjust demands to New-gate 2. A Tyrants Regiment is without Righteousnesâ— he lives by Robbery with Authority making his Will his Warrant and his Lust his Law He is not a Magistrate but a Malefactor not a Preserver but a Persecutor of Law and Equity Righteousness is a raâ—iâ—y in the Court of Tyrants except unconcerned in their own interest where golden Angels especially if their name be Legion are their sacred Oracles from whose mouth they receive and so give sentence accordingly be it right or wrong to the wresting of Judgment the Bribe prospereth which way soever it turneth making even wise men mad by their unrighteous sentence Their right hand is full of bribes Psal. 26. 10. Solomon saith such personâ—trouble their own houses Prov. 15. 27. fire their nests while they think to feather them Fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery Job 15. 34. It was an Oath taken by the very Heathen Judges Audiam accusatorem reum sine affâ—ctibus personarum respectione I will hear the Plaintiff and Difendant with an equal mind without affâ—ction or respect of persons It is â—â—corded that Olanes sat upon the fleyd skin of his father Sâ—lanes naâ—led by Chambises on the Tribunal There are more thâ—n whispers of very sad stories of the bribery and baseness of our laâ—e English Court and the greatest therein taking mony on both sides and doing Justâ—ce on neither side but as I said before â—iâ—e consumes the tabernacles of bribery wiâ—ness the woful desolations of that wretched Family the Husband hunted out of the world by the hand of Justice and driven from light to darkness the Wife banished from the Land of her pleasures the Children in their several dispersions in several places unwelcome to all being a burthen to all The Word of the Lord is tryed The house of the wicked shall be overthrown Prov. 14 11. Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation Job 18. 15. 3. He carries death at his tongues end the peoples welfare is at his mâ—er pleasure where his word is there is power and be his doings right or wrong who dares say unto him What dost thou Hiâ— heart is hard his hands are heavy and wo be to him thaâ—â—eels their stroke He hath long arms and can strike at a distance he wants not a heart to conceive a head to conâ—â—ive nor hands to execute his bloody Commands It is said that Methridates with one Letter did slay fourscore thousand Citizens of Rome none must cross them in their devilish cruelty except he will take a Bear by the tooth or a Lyon by the beard I dare not dispute said a Philosopher to Adrian the Emperor with him that hath thirty Legions at his command neque in eum scribere qui potest proscribere nor write against him that can easily undo me Against his word there must be no rising up Prov 30. 31. They will ride without reins until unhors'd with Haman and their honour of all becomes the hatred and scorn of all His wrath is as a roaring Lyon Prov. 19. 12. amazing al that are about them as a late King of England who though he had more of the nature of a Fox then a Lâ—on yet would make hâ— Courtiers tremble with his sparkling countenance fierce fiery furious and phâ—enzylike cursing and swearing Nebuchadnâ—zzars rage against those three Worthies in Daniel was hotâ—er then his Oven for he had destroyed them in his heart when his Oven could not hurt them for refusing to obey his idolatrous Commands and Herod by the word of his mouâ—h hath bloody Executioners to murther poor innocent childâ—en in a barbarous manner Now cursed be the anger ofâ—yrants for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel by means whereof they live undesired they dye unlamented as Nerva Valentinian yea their ruine is the rejoycing of the people as was that of Nero Cum mors crudelem rapuissâ—t saeva Neronem Credibile est mulâ—os Romam agitasse jocos When the wicked perish the City shouts for joy Prov. 11. 11. Absolute Power tickâ—es Tyrants to destroy with a word a nod this is their glory Caesar told Metâ—llus he could as easily destroy him as bid it to be done And Caligula speaking to his Consuls I laugh said he to think that I can kill you with a nod of my head and that this fair throat of my Wives shall be presently cut if I but speak the word To have power to crucifie and power to save was Pilates pleasure and delight 4. He makes his people tremble before him he kills and saves puts down and sets up in the haughtiness of his heart and pride of his power persons and principles at his meer discretion It is said of Nebuchadnezzar that having a Kingdom Majesty glory and honour in so much that all people Nations and Languages feared and trembled before him his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride that whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive and whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down You may judg of their disposition by his own and of his by his cruel decree against Daniel who did him no wrong like King like Courtiers like Prince like Priest for whom will they advance but either those that are their likes or whom they hope to make their likes When Princes are roaring Lions Zeph. 3. 3. they that are advanced Judges are evening Wolves vers. 3. The Prophets are light and treacherous and the Priests do violence to the Law vers. 4. What a cursed crew is here He doth not scatter but gather the wicked about him for they love their image Regis ad exemplum c. Hence it is that Kings Courts in Cities and Countries as they remove from place to place are little other ways then a moving Hell on Earth where the Elect of Satan the most cursing swearing blaspheming lascivious proud wanton effeminate base and beastly persons are gathered together from all the Nation people and families of the whole Country infecting all places where ever they come rendring them as it were the very suburbs of Hell Hence it was that
where the Prince and the Prophet Anglicè the * Civil and Ecclesiastical Tyrants had their Seats and their Seas the Cities Towns Countries were the most debauch'd parts of the whole Nation 5. He will rule all and be ruled by none he throws away the bonds of Nature Reason and Religion and acts by his pride pleasure and passion No not by God Nature Reason Law Exod. 5. 2. Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce and let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Pride compasseth them about like a chain violence covereth them as a garment Psal. 73 6. Taking pleasure in their pride and cruelty until their pride bring them low Prov. 29. 23. Their greatness and gallantry makes them swell and look loftily Is not this great Babel that I have built for the house of my Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty said proud Nebuchadnezzar but God pluckt down his plumes and stain'd all his glory and sent him to school amongst wilde beasts that he might learn better manners then to vye it thus with the great God of Heaven Earth Sea the Râ—ign and Ruine the pride and punishment of Tyrus Eze. 28. 27. because his heart was liftâ—d up he said I am a God but God threatened to darken his brâ—ghâ—ness to shame his glory and to bring him to the pit I might instance likewise in Herod who glittering in his shining garb as Josephus hath it assuming the honour of God was ungodded yea unman'd by the basest of vermin The time would fail to speak to Bâ—nâ—adad Rabshecha Zenacherib Antiochus Nicanor of Alexander the Great of Nero of Bajazet the great Turkish Emperor with many others whose pride insolency and haughtiness brought the wheel oâ— Gods wrath so exemplaâ—lry upon them that they are made some in sacred and others in other Histories perpetual monuments of Gods most fearful indignation amongst whom may we not bring the late King of England of bleeding memory whose stubbornness resoluteness and unruleableness by Parliaments Councels or the wisest of his people brought him to ruine because they would not suffer him to command like a God without contradiction He acted so like a Devil murthâ—ring and massacring his people with fire and sword until the wrath of the Lord broke out upon him like a Lion from the thickeâ—s devouring him by the hands of his own people to the hâ—rror and amazement of all the Princes round about his Will was his Reason and his Reason his Will and both his downfall 6. His Commonwealth is a common woe where his pâ—or Subjects as in a great Bridewell receive their work and their wages their labour and their lashes their stripes and stipends as his meer discretion and the will of his Beadles Where a Tyrant rules the Estates Lives and Liberties of the People are not theirs but his not at theirs but at his commands Cato calls them Fures publicos pâ—blâ—qâ—e Tâ—ieves another Latrones cum privilegio Râ—bbâ—s by authority the very Scabs of a Nation Isai. 5. 7. He looked for Judgment but behold Oppression or a Scab for Righteousness but behold a Cry Like that of the poor Subjects of Phalaris whose delight it was to see and hear their tortures and screeches as John Maria Duke of Millane who took pleasure to throw his people to be torn in pieces by fierce Mastives With the Spaniard it is sin to enquire into Religion and punishable by a perpetual cruel Inquisition With the French it is crime enough in the poor Husbandman to wear good clothes of his own getting eat good meat of his own breeding it is meat for his Master and his Attendants too good for him The great Turk hath his Bow strings to strangle his Subjâ—cts at their pleasure whose commands must be obeyed though they be to require whom he pleaseth to throw themselves headlong and break them into pieces down steep Rocks and Clifts lest a worse thing if worse may be should befall them 7. In stead of punishing offences he arms Offenders whereby he becomes the greatest Traytor Murtherer and Thief violating the greatest Trusts of the Liberties Lives and Livelyhoods of the People As God hath his good Angels to do his Will viz. secure and defend protect and preserve his people and the Devil his evil Angels for contrary service even so Tyrants which are Satans first-born have their Angels or Messengers viz. whole Troops Regiments and Armies to execute their cursed Commands as Herod had his armed men sent out to destroy poor Innocents all Histories recording the cruelty of Tyrants mention their numerous and armed Agents their swift Mâ—ssengers and Executioners of fury who are commonly the scum filth and froth of the Nation hence it was that when the late King set up his Standard against his Parliament and People the vilest basest and worst of the Nation did flow in unto him whereof God made a great Sacrifice unto his Justice and Indignation by their utter ruine and destruction 8. He eats up the people like bread and drinks their blood like sweet wine commanding all as if he made all though he mars all making his Creators his creatures his Makers his meat his Lords his Loons All men naturally are born free made at first to command and not to obey and so lived until from the Spring of Adams transgression they fell among themselves to do violence and wrong and foreseeing that such courses must needs tend to common destruction they agreed by common consent to bind each other from mutual injury and because a mutual faith was not sufficient unto mutual peace therefore they ordained Authority by mutual consent and betrusted some therewith to restrain by force and punishment the violation of common right which Trustees were not so made to bâ— their Lords and Masters but Dâ—puâ—ies and Commissioners to execute that Justice which else every man by the bâ—nd of Nature and Covenant must have executed for himself and for another and why any man should have lordship or authority over others but for this common end is not imaginable Rulers were made by the people not the people by them they were made for the people not the people for them they are each particular mans Lord by their own consent for each mans peace but they are servants to the whole for the good of all no manâ—s bound to the Ruler in any matter of common prejudice but he iâ— bound to them all in common preservation the whole owe not their lives to any though never â—o great on Earth the greatest oweth his liâ—e to the whole and is made great by God and man for service and not for Lordship sake whâ—n such Trustees turn Tyrants what are thâ—y but the greaâ—est Traytors Is not Treason the betraying of just Trustâ— the greater the Tâ—ust the greater the Treason the worse the Tâ—aytor What greater Trust then that of Governmenâ— which being once voâ—unâ—â—râ—ly