and displace his most faithful servants only because others cannot confide in them when no criminal charge is laid against them And therefore for the Lords and Commons to make Orders and Ordinances without the King and in opposition to the King is a meer usurpation of the Regal power a nullifying of the Kings power and a making of the Royal assent which heretofore gave life to every Law to be an empty piece of formality which is indeed an intolerable arrogancy in the contrivers of these Orders and the makers of these Ordinances a monstrous abuse of the Subjects and a plain making of our good King to be somewhat like him in the Comedy A King and no King And whereas no Subject yea under favour be it spoken nor the King himself after he hath taken his Oath at his Coronation is free from the observation of the established Laws yet they make themselves so far above the reach of Law that they freed him which the Lord chief Justice Bramston had committed to Newgate for felony in stealing the Countess of Rivers goods they hindered all men as we found in their journal from proceeding against Sir Thomas Dawes they injoyned the Judges by their Orders to forbear to proceed in their ordinary courses in the Courts of Justice contrary to the Oathes of those Judges and some Parliament men came to the Bench to forbid the Judges to grant Habeas Corpus's which is as great an iniquity and as apparent an injustice as ever was done by any Parliament The most abominable wickedness of these factious Rebels And that which is a Note above Ela above all that could be spoken whereas the Law of God and man the bonds and obligations of Civility and Christianity tye us all to be dutiful and obedient unto our King in all things either Actively or Passively and no wayes for no cause violently to resist him under the greatest penalties that can be devised here and damnation hereafter yet these men contrary to all Laws do injoyn us and compell us as much against our Consciences as if they should compell us with the Pagan Tyrants to offer sacrifice unto Idols to war against our most gracious Soveraign whom we from our hearts do both love and honour and they proscribe us as malignants and as enemies to the Common-Wealth if we contribute not Money Horse and Arms to maintain this Ps 50. 22. Augu. contra Faâ—st l. 22. c. 75. 76. ungodly War and so become deadly enemies unto our own souls O consider this yee that forget God lest for tearing us He tear you in pieces while there is none to help you for considering what the Apostle saith Rom. 13. 1 2. and what Saint Augustine saith Ordo naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli Autoritas atque consilium penes principem sit and lest men should think they ought by force of Armes to resist their King for Religion he answereth that objection by the example of the Apostles Isti non resistendo interfecti sunt ut potiorem esse docerent victoriam pro fide veritatis occidi We conceive this to be so execrable an Act and so odious to God and man that we are made thus miserable and abused beyond measure to have our Religion which is most glorious our The miserable consequences of their wicked doings Laws that in their own nature are most excellent and our Liberties that make us as free as any Subjects in the World under false pretences and the shadows of Religion Laws and Liberties to be â—radicated and fundamentally destroyed whereby 1. We are made a spectacle of scorn and the object of derision to our 1. Mischief neighbour-Nations that formerly have envied at our happiness and we are become the Subject of all pitty and lamentation to all them that love us 2. As in the Roman Civil Wars in the time of Metellus the Son did kill 2. Mâ—schief his own Father so now by the subtilty of this faction we are cast into such a War as is 1. A mâ—st unnatural War the Son against the Father and the Father against the Son The Earl of Warwick fighteth for the Parliament and my Lord Rich his Son with the King The Earl of Dover is with the King and my Lord Rochsord his Son with the Parliament So one brother against another as the Earl of Northumberland with the Parliament and his brother with the King The Earl of Bedford with the Parliament and his brother with the King Master Perpoint with the Parliament and the Earl of Newark with the King Devoreux Farmer with the Parliament and his brother Richard Farmer together with his brother in law my Lord Cokain with the King and the like and of Cosens without number the one part with the King and the other with the Parliament And if they do this in subtilty to preserve their Estates I say it is a wicked policy to undo the Kingdom which all wise men should consider 2. A most irreligious War when one Christian of the same professed Religion shall bathe his Sword and wash his Hands in the blood of his fellow Christian and his fellow Protestant that shall be coheir with him of the same Kingdom 3. A most unnatural irreligious and barbarous War when the Subject shall take Arms to destroy or unthrone their own Liege a Religious and most gracious King 3. The Service of God in most Churches is neglected when almost all 3. Mischief the ablest gravest and most Orthodox Divines and Preachers are persecuted plundered imprisoned and driven to flie as in the time of the Arian or Donatist which was worse than the Heathen persecution from City to City and to wander in Desarts from place to place to save themselves from the hands of these Rebels against the King and Persecuters of Gods Church which is a most grievous and a most cruel persecution far more general than that of the Anabaptists in Germany or of Queen Mary here in England The Lord of Heaven make us constant and give us patience to indure it 4. The whole Kingdom is and shall be yet more by the continuance 4. Mischief hereof unspeakably impoverished and plunged into all kind of miseries when the travailer cannot pass without fear nec hospes ab hospite tutus the Carrier cannot transport his commodity but it shall be intercepted the Husbandman cannot till his ground but his Horses as my self saw it shall be taken from the Plough and his Corn shall be destroyed when it is ready for the Sickle which must be the fore-runner of a Famine that is ever the Usher to introduce the Plague and Pestilence and all other kind of grievous diseases and these things put together do set wide our Gates and open our Ports to bring forraign foes into our Coasts to possess that good Land whereof we are unworthy because with the Israelites we loathed Manna we were weary of our peace and
Donatists possessed were not destroyd but they were taken from them as we took ours from the Roman-Priests and were given to the Catholick Bishops And therefore why should not we use those Churches that were Religiously dedicated and Holily Consecrated for Gods service and could not themselves commit any offence nor be so Prophaned as the accursed things of Jericho or the Bullock and groves of Baal or the Churches of the Arians and Donatists to be the Temples and Sanctified Houses wherein our people should meet to hear Gods Word to pray unto him and to receive his Holy Sacrament But I remember Plutarch and Titus Livius tell us how that the Romans Plutarch in viâ— Publicolae pag. 113. Tit. Livius l. 2. pag. 57. after they had expelled Tarquinius Superbus when his son Sextus Tarquinius had most shamefully ravished Lucretia they all took a Solemn oath they would never suffer any King to Reign over them and because this was not sufficient to free them from the fear of a Regal Government the Consul Brutus in the behalf of the people makes a solemn Oration to his fellow Consul Tarquinius Collatinus to give over his Consul-ship and to depart the City to free the people from that fear because that although â—â— was a very honest man and was a principal actor in expelling Tarquinius Superbus and they could lay nothing to his charge that ever he did or said against the liberty of the people or for the Government of Kings yet seeing his name was Tarquinius the freedom of the City could not be fully secured nor the men free from the fear of Tyranny so long as a person of that name how just and innocent so ever he were continued within the City So I believe it is not for any evil that these men can or could ever espy in our Churches they cry so much and yell like Wolves against them but only for the name that they are said to be built by Roman Catholicks and that Popish Priests have served in them but it is nothing to us who built them or who served in them so we serve God aright in them this is all that we are to look unto For so we find that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles in their time frequented the Temple not that which Solomon built nor that which Zorobabel erected but that which Herod that sought our Saviours life builded Joseph Antiq. l. 15. c. 14. and beautified and that which the Scribes and Pharisees had as much as in them lay defiled with their false-glosses and the other Jews had made it a den of Thieves and though Castor and Pollux were become Idols and Matth. 21. 13. worshipped as gods among the Heathens yet Saint Paul refused not to sail in a Ship whose badge was Castor and Pollux and Saint Luke is not affraid to set down those Titles of the Paganish Idols And therefore as Eunomius was most foolish for refusing to enter into Socrat. Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 33. the Temples of the Martyrs lest he should be thought to worship the dead and Eustathius was most fantastical for detesting all publick Churches and leading his Schollers to private Conventicles in ordinary houses for fear they should be defiled with the memorial of the Saints that were mentioned in the Churches so these our brethren of the Separation are most simple for disclaiming our Churches Prayers and Ministry and like the Elder brother in the Parable hearing afar off the melody of our prayers and understanding of our intertainment into our Fathers House are very angry and will not come into Gods House for fear of infection but will convene in private houses and run abroad into the fields like Esau to hunt there for the blessing which with Jacob they might get nearer home in their Fathers House and when we would according to our injunction seek to compel them to come out of the High-waies and Hedges to the marriage of the Kings son they will waste their wealth leave their mansions and like Heliodorus the fool of Athens sail beyond the Straights of Gibraltar and make Ship-rack before the Tempest rather then they will come into Gods House whereby they might sit still under their own Vines injoy the food of their Fathers House the safe-gard of their wealth and the safety of their soules which they do hazard by their own simplicity in being like the Jews zealous but not according to knowledge CHAP. XIII That it is a part of the Office and Duty of Pious Kings and Princes as they are God's Substitutes to have a care of his Church to see that when such Cathedralls and Churches are built and beautified as is fitting for his service there be Able Religious and Honest painful and faithful Bishops placed in those Cathedrals that should likewise see able and Religious Ministers placed in all Parochiall Churches and all negligent unworthy and dissolute men Bishops or Priests reproved corrected and amended or removed and excluded from their places and dignities if they amend not IT is well and truly observed as the holy Scripture sheweth That although the wise God hath most mercifully decreed and accordingly exhibited and gave a Saviour in himself altogether sufficient for the saving of all Man-kind and all the lost sons of Adam and he hath most wisely and graciously taken a course on his own part and in it self also fully sufficient and appointed a course and order on mans part that being duly observed might make the same sufficiently effectuall unto all yet it so fals out that Mens destruction very many men attain not to that end for which God did send his Son to save them but are seized on by Gods Justice and cast to eternal condemnation And that chiefly by mans own default and partly in some respects through the default of his Rulers and Teachers yet so that he dies and suffers only for his own sins 1. Through their own default when Kings and Princes whom God hath 1. By their own fault appointed and set to be their Governors and Rulers do by their under-Magistrates and their just laws prohibite them from all evil and wickedness and require them to imbrace all virtues and godliness of life and to this end do appoint their substitutes the Bishops and other Teachers to guide them and to instruct them to let them know what is good and what is evil and so what they ought to believe and what not and these do faithfully discharge these Offices as Moses and Aaron David and Nathan and many other godly Kings and Bishops did yet men will not obey their Governors but Rebel like Corah Dathan and Abiram and as of late we have done Jer. 11. 21. they will not hearken to the voyce of their Teachers but say to the Prophets Prophesy not unto us and say to God himself Depart from us for we Job 21. 14. desire not the knowledge of thy Laws or they relye upon their own wisdom and
expresseth the same to be Tribute that is Imposts Subsidies Gifts or the like call it by what name you will we are commanded by God to the uttermost of our abilitie to supply their occasion and necessities even as the children are bound to relieve their parents in their extremities And if we see our Moses our King or chief Governour any wayes 3. To hazard our lives for them impugned or like to be oppressed either by forraign Aegyptians or domestick Israelites though they should be Datqan and Abiram the most prime and popular men in all the Congregation that could draw thousands after them yet are we bound to the hazard of our lives to preserve the Life Crown and Dignity of our Prince as the subjects of King David hazarded themselves to save him harmlesse And if we will not do this 2 Sam. 18. 3. Hester 4. 14. then as Mordecai in the like case said to Hester If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall there inlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place but thou and thy fathers house shall be destroyed So I say with King David the Lord will help his Annointed and deliver him from the strivings of his people and if we still be silent and do nothing yet the Starres in their order shall fight against Sisera Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti and as the Angell of the Lord said of the Merozites Curse ye The punishment of them that will not assist their Governours Meroz curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to help Barack against the Canaanites So let them fear a bitter curse and a curse from God that will not help their Prince against his enemies especially such enemies as have least reason to be enemies unto him So you see what obedience we owe unto our Governours and therefore their rebellion was the more intolerable that thus spurned against their Magistrates CHAP. IV. Sheweth the objection of the Rebels to justifie their Rebellion the first part of it answered that neither our compulsion to Idolatry nor any other injury or tyranny should move us to Rebell BUt we must not condemn them before their cause be heard and therefore Corah shall have his Counsell to object what he can for himself And I find but one Objection of any moment though the same consisteth of many branches As What if Moses the King or chief Governour being so much affected The objection of the Rebels and addicted unto Aaron the chief Priest or Bishop and to others his prime Councell should be led by evill advice to set up Idolatry and to play the Tyrant to take away the goods destroy the lives and bring most of his people to most miserable conditions may neither private men nor the subordinate Magistrates nor the prime Nobility of the people nor any other Court or Assembly of men restrain his fury or remove this mischief from Gods inheritance from the Church and Common-wealth This is that Gordian knot which is so hard to be untied But if I might in the School of Divinity have leave to resolve this question Solutio and not to be confuted as Saint Steven was with stony arguments I would soon answer that 1. In neither of these cases 2. Neither of these Two Parts of their objection men may do it and I could make this good by very good authority for Si Magistratus est bonus nutritor est tuus if our Governour be good he is our Nursing-Father and we should receive our nourishment with thanks and no thanks to us for our obedience to such a one And if our Governour be evill he is so for our transgression and we should receive our punishment with patience and therefore no resistance but either obey the good willingly or endure the evill patiently But to proceed to break this Gordian knot in pieces and to answer each part of this Objection 1. I say that many wicked Kings and cruel Emperours have set up 1. Part of their objection answered Not to rebell for any cause 1. Not for our compulsion to Idolatry Idolatry and blasphemy against God and yet I do not find that any of Gods servants did ever rebell against them for you know Jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin did set up golden Calves to be worshipped Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon made an Image of gold and commanded all his people to fall down to worship it And what shall I say of those Idolatrous Kings Achab Manasses Julian and abundance more that most impiously compelled their subjects unto Idolatry and yet you shall not find that either the faithfull Jews under Jeroboam or the Prophet Daniel in Babylon or Elias the man of God in the time of Achab or any of all the good Christians that were under Julian either did themselves or perswaded others of the servants of God at any time to rebell against those Idolatrous Kings for they considered how far the Law of God that prohibiteth Idolatry and instigateth us against the allurers and perswaders of us to Idolatry and blasphemy extendeth and that is If thy brother Deut. 13 6. How far the Law of God extendeth to resist Idolaters the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosom or thy friend which is as thine own soul shall intice thee to Idolatry and to serve strange Gods thine eye shall not spare him neither shalt thou have any pitty upon him but for the sonne to rise up against the father the wife against her husband the servant against his Lord the subject against his King here is not a word and therefore by this Law they are not obliged but rather forbidden to do it for though the son is not expressely prohibited to accuse his father nor the wife her husband nor the servant his Lord nor the subject his King yet because Gods Law is absolute and perfect to which we must neither adde nor detract nor construe it as we please the Divines conceive those things forbidden which are not expressed especially in penall precepts which are to be restrained and not extended any further then they are set down as Tostatus doth most truly conclude Tostatus in Deut 13. q. 3. And what the sonne may not do against his father nor the wife against her husband nor the servant against his Lord that certainly no man may do against his King which is the father of his Country the husband of the Common wealth and the supreme Lord over all his subjects And therefore Christ himself that came to fulfill the Law and knew best how farre it reached living under the Empire of Tiberius the Principality of Herod and the Government of Pilate that were all wicked and idolatrous did notwithstanding submit himself in all things which the Law of God forbad him not unto them and though for strength policy and power he might easily have resisted them yet
lawfully do it not with swords speares and shields but with our prayers and teares to God And it would be too tedious for me to set down all that I might collect of this kind most excellent sayings of those worthy men which never hoped for any glory in the Kingdome of Heaven but by suffering patiently in the Kingdom of the Earth and when they could did faithfully discharge the duties of their places and when they could not did willingly undergo the bitternesse of death and were alwayes faithfull both to their good God and their evil Kings to God rather by suffering Martyrdom then offend his Majesty and to their Kings not in committing that evil which they commanded but in suffering that punishment which they inflicted upon them 2. As no private men of what rank or condition soever they be so 2. Not the Nobility or Peers Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. Sect. 31. Beza in confess c. 5. p. 171. Autor vindic q. 3. pag. 203. Althus de polit c. 14 pag. 142. 161. Danaeus de polit Christiana l. 6. â— â— p. 413. 1. Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither Magistratus populares the peoples Magistrates as some term them nor Junius Brutus his Optimates regni the prime Noble-men of the Kigdom nor Althusius his Ephori the Kings assistants in the government of the people nor his great Councel of Estate nor any other kind calling or degree of men may any wayes resist or at any time rebell for any cause or colour whatsoever against their lawful Kings and supreme Governours 1. Because they are not as Althusius doth most falsely suggest Magistratus summo Superiores but they are inferiours to the supreme and chief Magistrate otherwise how can he be Summus if he be not Supremus or how can Saint Peter call the King supereminent 1 Pet. 2. 13. if the inferiour Magistrates be superiour unto him and it is contra ordinem justitiae contrary to the rules of justice as I told you before out of Aquinas that the inferiours should rise up against their superiours which hath the rule and command over them as the husband hath over the The Inferiour should never rise against his Superiour Optat. de schis Donat. l. 3. p. 85 wife the father over the sonne the Lord over his servants and the King over his subjects and therefore Jâ—zabel might truly say Had Ziâ—â—i peace which slew his Master And I may as truly say of these men as Optatus saith of the Donatists when as none is above the King or the Emperour but onely God which made him Emperour while the inferiour Magistrates do extoll themselves above him they have now exceeded the bounds of men that they might esteem themselves as God Non verendo eum qui post Deum ab hominibus timebatur in not fearing him which men ought to fear next to God But the words of Saint Peter are plain enough Submit your selves unto 1 Pet 2. 15. every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King as supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well Wherein you may see not onely the subordination which God hath placed betwixt the King and his Subjects but also that different station which is betwixt the Supreme and the inferiour powers for the words sent of him do most clearly conclude that the inferiour Magistrates have no power to command but by the vertue power and force which they receive from the supreme and that the inferiour Magistrates opposed to the supreme power are but as private men and therefore that as they are rulers of the people so being but instruments unto the King they are subjects unto him to be moved and ruled by him which is inferiour to none but God and their authority which they have received from him Inferiour Magistrates in respect of the king are but private men can have no power upon him or to manage the sword without him and especially against him upon any pretence whatsoever how then can any or all these Magistrates make a just war against their King when as none of them can make any just warre without him 2. Because as Bodinus saith most truly the best and greatest not onely 2. Reason of the inferiour Magistrates but also of all these Peers Nobles Counsellors or what you please to call them have neither honour power nor authority but what they have given them from him which is the King or supreme Magistrate as you see God made Moses the chief Governour and Moses made whom he pleased his Peers and his inferiour Magistrates and as they have all their power derived from him that is the chief so he that is the King or chief can draw it away from them that are his inferiours when he pleaseth and as he made them so he can unmake them when he will and none can unmake him but he that made him that is God himself and therefore David that was ex Optimatibus regni the greatest Peer in Israel being powerful in warre famous in peace the Kings Son-in-law and divinely destinated unto the Kingdome yet would he not lay his â—and upon his King when he was delivered into his hands And this Buchanan cannot deny but confesseth that the Kings of the Jews were not to be punished or resisted by their subjects because that from the beginning they were not created by the people but given to them by God and therefore saith Buchanan's absuâ—dity he jure optimâ— qui fuit honoris autor idem fuit poenarum exactor it is great reason that â—e which gives the honour should impose the punishment But for the Kings of Scotland they were saith Buchanan not given Buchan de juâ—â— Regni apud Scotoâ— them of God but created by the people which gave them all the right that they can challenge Ideoque jus idem habere in reges Multitudinem quod illi in singulos è multitudine habent which is most false for Moses tells us that immediately after the deluge God the Creatour of all the world ordained the revenging sword of blood-shed and the slavish servitude of paternal derision wherein all the parts of civil jurisdiction and regâ—l power are Synecdochically set down and Job saith that there is one God which looseneth the bond of Kings and girdeth about their reines which must Job 12. 18. be understood of the Gentile-Kings because that in his time the Commong-wealth of Israel was not in being and God himself universally saith By me Kings do reign that is all Kings not onely of the Jews but also of the Gentiles and Christ doth positively affirm that the power of Pilate was given him from Heaven and Saint Paul saith There is no power but what is appointed of God And Tertullian saith Inde Imperator unde homo inde illi potestas unde spiritus he that
their examples Besides God himself had foretold the defection of the ten Tribes for the sinne of Solomon and he being Lord proprietary of all his donation transferreth a full right to him on God is the right owner of all things and therefore may justly dispose any Kingdom whom he bestowes it and this made Shemaiah the man of God to warâ— Rehoboam not to fight against his brethren for as when God commanded Abraham to kill his sonne it was a laudable obedience and no murther to have done it and when he commanded the Israelites to rob the Aegyptians it was no breach of the eighth Commandement so this revolt of these Tribes if done in obedience unto God could be no offence against the Law of God but because they regarded not so much the fulfilling of Gods will as their not being eased of their grievances and the fear of the weight of Rehoboam's finger which moved them to this Rebellion I can no ways justifie their action and though God by this stent did most justly revenge the sinne of Solomon and paid for the folly of Rehoboam yet this doth no wayes excuse them for this rebellion because they revolted not with any right aspect and therefore it is worth our observation that the consequences which attended this defection was a present falling away from the true God into Idolatry and not long after to be led into an endlesse Captivity Which is a fearful example to see how suddenly men do fall away from God and from their true religion after they have rebelled against their lawful King and how to avoid imaginary grievance they do often fall into a real bondage and so leap out of the Frying pan into the fire And for the Edomitâ—â— they were not Israelites that led their lives by the law of God neither can any man excuse the conspirators against Amazia from the transgression of the Law of God 6. For Vzziah that was taken with a grievous sicknesse so that he 6. Example answered could not be present at the publique affaires of the Kingdom I say that according to the law by reason of the contagion of his disease he was rightly removed from the Court and concourse of people and his sonne in the mean time placed in his fathers stead to administer and dispose the Common-wealth but he in all that while like a good sonne did neither affect the name nor assume the title of a King 7. For the deposing of Athalia I see nothing contrary to equity because 7 Example answered she was not the right Prince but an unjust Vsurper of the Crown and therefore Jehoida the chief Priest having gathered together the principal Peers of the Kingdome and the Centurions and the rest of the people shewed them the Kings sonne whom for six yeares space he had preserved alive from the rage and fury of Athalia which had slain all the rest of the Kings seed and when they saw him they did all acknowledge him for the Kings sonne they crowned him King and he being crowned they joyfully cryed God save the King and then by the authority of the new crowned King that was the right heir unto the Kingdom they put to death the cruel Queen that had so tyrannically slain the Kings children and so unjustly usurped the Crown all that while And therefore to alledge this example so justly done to justifie an insurrection contrary to justice doth carry but a little shew of reason And I say the like of the Macchabees and Antiochus that neither he nor any other Macedonian Tyrant had any right over them but they were unjust Vsurpers that held the Jewes under them in ore gladii with the edge of their swords and were not their lawful Kings whom they ought to obey and therefore no reason but that they might justly free themselves with their swords that were kept in bondage by no other right then the strength of the sword 8. For the example of Thrasibulus Junius Brutus and other Romans or 8. Example answered whosoever that for their faults have deposed their Kings I answer with Saint Augustine that Exempla paucorum non sunt trahenda in legem universorum Examples not to be imitated we have no warrant to imitate these examples for though these things were done yet we say they were done by Heathens that knew not God and unjustly done contrary to the law of God and therefore with no blessing from God with no good successe unto themselves and with lesse happinesse unto others but it happened to them as to all others that do the like to expell a mischief and to admit a greater as besides what I have shewed you before this one most memorable example out of our own Histories doth make it plain In the time of Richard the second the Nobility and Gentry murmured The ill successe of resisting our superiours much against his government in brief they deposed him and set the Crown upon the head of the Duke of Lancaster whom they created King Henry the fourth The good Bishop of Carlile made a bold and excellent Speech to prove that they could not by any law of God or man depose and dispossesse their lawful King or if they deposed him that they had no right to make the Duke of Lancaster to succeed him but he good man for his pains was served as Saint Paul and others were many times for speaking the truth committed to prison and there was an end of him but not an end of the story for the many battels and blood-shed the miseries and mischiefs that this one unjust and unfaithful act produced had never any period never an end till that well nigh a hundred thousand English men were slain in civil warres whereof two were Kings one Prince ten Dukes two Marquesses 21. Earles 27. Lords two Viscounts one Lord Prior one Judge 139. Trâ—ssel in his supplement to Daniel's History Knights 421. Esquires and Gâ—ntlemen of great and ancient Families a farre greater number a just revenge for an unjust extrusion of their lawful King whose greatest misery came from his great mildnesse And therefore these things being well weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary in the scales of true wisdom it had been better for them All the pressures that we have suffered since the first year of our king are not comparable to the miseries that one years civil warre hath brought upon us as it will be for us and all others patiently to suffer the crosse that shall be laid upon us untill that by our prayers we can prevail with God that for our sinnes hath sent it in mercy to remove it then for our selves to pluck ouâ— necks out of the coller and in a froward disobedience to pull the house as Sampson did upon our own heads and like impatient fishes to leap out of the Frying-pan into the fire from hard usage that we impatiently conceived to most base cruel bondage that we have deservedly merited
Printed and imprison if they can catch them all that publish them as they did many worthy Ministers in the City of London and in many other places of this Kingdom 6. They have publickly voted in their House and accordingly indeavoured 6. Wrong by Mâ—ssages to perswade our brethren of Scotland to joyn in their assistance with these grand Rebels to rebel against their Soveraign but I perswade my self as I said before that the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland are more Religious in themselves more Lâ—yal to their liege Lord and indeed wiser in all their actions then while they may live quietly at home in a happy peace to undertake upon the perswasions of Rebellious Subjects such an unhappy war abroad 7. It is remonstrated and related publickly that as if they had shaken 7. Wrong off all subjection and were become already a State Independent they have Treated by their agents with forraign States and do still proceed in that course which if true is such an usurpation upon Soveraignty as was never before attempted in this Kingdom and such a Presumption as few men know the secret mischiefs that may luâ—k therein 8. They suffer and licence their Pamphleters Pryn Goodwin Burges 8. Wrong Marshal Sedgwick and other emissaries of wickedness to publish such Treasons and Blasphemies and abominable Aphorisms As that thâ— negative vote of the King is no more then the dissent of one man the Affirmative vote of the King makes not a Law ergo the Negative cannot destroy it and the like absurd and sensless things that are in those Aphorisms and in Prins book of the Soveraign power of Parliament whereby they would deny the Kings power to hinder any Act that both the Houses shall conclude and so taking away those just prerogatives from him that are as Hereditary to him as his Kingdom compell him to assent to their conclusions for which things our Histories tell us that other Parliaments Why the two Spencers died have banished and upon their returns they were hanged both the Spencers the Father and the Son for the like presumption as among other Articles for denying this Prerogative unto their King and affirming Per aspertevid Ebsmere postnaâ—i p. 99. that if he neglected his duty and would not do what he ought for the good of the Kingdom he might be compelled by force to perform iâ— which very thing divesteth the King of all Soveraignty overthroweth Monarchy and maketh our government a meer Aristocracy contrary to the constitution of our first Kings and the judgment of all ages for we know full well from the Practise of all former Parliaments that seeing the three Pag. 48. States are subordinate unto the King in making Laws wherein the chiefest power consisteth they may propound and consent but it is still in the Kings power to refuse or raâ—ify and I never read that any Parliament man till now did ever say the contrary but that if there be no concurrence of the King in whom formally the power of making of any Law resideth ut in subjecto to make the Law the two Houses whose consent is but a requisite condition to compleat the Kings power are but a liveless convention like two Cyphers without a figure that of themselves are of no value or power but joyned unto their figures have the full strength of their places which is confirmed by the Viewer of the Observations out of 11. Hen. 7. 23. per Davers Polydore 185. Cowel inter verbo Praerog Sir Pag. 19 20 21. Thomas Smyth de republ Angl. l. 2. c. 3. Bodin l. 1. c. 8. For if the Kings consent were not necessary for the perfecting of every Act then certainly as The Letter to a Gentleman in Gloucestershire p. 3. another saith all those Bils that heretofore have passed both Houses and for want of the Royal assent have slept and been buried all this while would now rise up as so many Laws and Statutes and would make as great confusion as these new orders and ordinances have done And as the Lawyers tell us that the necessity of the assent of all three States in Parliament is such as without any one of them the rest do but Lamberts Archeion 271. Vid. the Viewer p. 21. lose their labour so Le Roy est assentus ceo faict un Act de Parliament and as another saith Nihil ratum habetur nisi quod Rex comprobarit Nothing is perfected but what the King confirmeth But here in the naming of the three States I must tell you that I find in most of our Writers about this new-born question of the Kings power a very great omission that they are not particularly set down that the whole Kingdom might know which is every one of them and upon this omission I conceive as great mistake in them that say the three States are 1. The King 2. The House of Peers Which be the three States of England 3. The House of Commons For I am informed by no mean Lawyer that you may find it upon the Rowls of Henry the fifth as I remember and I am sure you may find it Speed l 9. c. 19. p. 712. Anno. 1 Ric. 3. in the first year of Richard the third where the three States are particularly named and the King is none of them For it is said That at the request and by the assent of the three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and Commons of the Land Assembled it is declared that our said Soveraign Lord the King is the very undoubted King of this Realm Wherein you may plainly see the King that is acknowledged their Soveraign by all three can be none of the three but is the head of all three as the Dean is none of the Chapter but is Caput capituli and as in France and Spain so in England I conceive the three Estates to be 1. The Lords Spiritual that are if not representing yet in loco in the behalf of all the Clergy of England that till these Anabaptistical tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field were thought so considerable a party as might deserve as well a representation in Parliament as old Sarum or the like Borough of scarce twenty Houses 2. The Lords Temporal in the right of their Honor and their Posterity 3. The Commons that are elected in the behalf of the Conntrey Cities and Butroughs and what these three States consult and conclude upon for the good of the Church and Kingdom the King as the head of all was either to apprâ—ve or reject what he pleased And Joh. Beda advocate in the Court of Parliament of Paris saith p. 42. De jure Regum The Church is within the State made a part of the same and is subject to the Soveraign of the whole Territory being in France and England one of the three estates of the Kingdom whereof the King is head and superior aswel of the Clergy
by God's special designation But I cannot finde it in all the Scripture or in any other Writings authentical where God appointed or commanded any people to be the choosers of their kings but rather to accept of him and submit themselves to him whom the Lord had placed over them â—or I would very fain know as Roffensis speaketh Roffen de potest Papae 282 An potest as Adami in silios ac nepotes adeóque omnes ubique homines ex consensu silior um ac nep tum dependet an à solo Deo ac naturâ profluit And if this Authority of the Father be from God without the consent of his Children then certainly the authority of Kings is both natural and divine immediately from God and not from any consent or allowance of men and Pineda saith Nusquam invenio Pineda de rebus Solo l. 2. c. 2 Regem â—liquem Juda orum populi suffragiis creatum quin si primus ille erat qui designaretur à Deo vel à Propheta ex Dei jussu vel sorte vel aliâ ratione quà m Deus indic âsset Neither do I remember any one that was chosen king by the Children of Israel but onely Abimelâ—ch the bastard son of Gedeon and as some say Jerâ—boam that made Israel to sin and the Scripture tells you how unjustly they entered how wickedly they reigned and how lamentably the Strange that the People should bestow the greatest savour or dignity on earth Esay 41. 8. first that was without question the Creature of the people ended both his life and his reign to teach us how unsuccesful it is to have other makers of kings then he that is the King of kings and saith He will not give his glory unto another nor hold them gâ—iltless that intrude into his Throne to bestow Soveraignty and create kings at their pleasures when as he professeth it belongeth unto him not to the People to say Yee are Gods and to place his own Viceroy to govern his own People And therefore though I do not wonder to finde Aristotel of that opinion Vt râ—ges populi suffragio constarent That Kings should be elected by the People Arâ—st pol l. 3. and that it was the manner of the Barbarians to accept of their kings by succession Quales sors tulerit non virtutis opinione probatos such as nature gave The nature of the people Blaâ—â—â—d p. 61. and as T. Lâ—v. saith Aut servit humiliter aut dominatur superbâ— them and not those which were approved by the people for their virtues because he was ignorant of the divine Oracles yet me thinkes it is very strange that men continually versed in God's Word and knowing the nature of the people which as one saith Semper aeger est semper insanus semper furore intemperiis agitur and specially reading the story of times should be transported with such dreames and sopperies that the people should have any hand in the election of their kings for if you briefly run over most of the kings of this World you shall scare finde one of a thousand to be made by the suffrage of the people Of all the kings of the world very sew made by the suffâ—age of the People for Nimrod got his kingdom by his strength Ninus enlarged the same by his sword and left the same unto his heirs from the Assyrians the Monarchy was translated to the Medes and Persians and I pray you how by the câ—nsent of the people or by the edg of the sword From the Persians it was conferred to Alexander but the same way and it continued among his successours by the same right and Româ—lus Ad sua qui domitos deduxit slâ—gra Quirites Did not obtain his power by the suffrage of his people and if you look over the States of Grece we shall finde one Timondas which obtained the Scepter of the Corinthians and Pittacus the Government of the Mytilenians by the saffrage of the people but for the Athenians Lacedemonians Sicyoni Thebanes Epirots and Macedons among whom the Regal Dignity flourished a â—ar longer Idem pag. 63. time then the popular rule Non optione populi sed nascendi conditione regnatum est their kings reigned noâ— by the election of the people but by the condition of their birth and what shall we say of the Parthians Indians Africans Tartars Arabians Aethiopians Numidians Muscovites Celtans Spaniards Frenâ—h English and of many other kingdoms that were obtained either by gift as Abdolonimus Quintus Curtius received his kingdom of Alexander Juba the kingdom of Numidia from Augustus and the French kiâ—g got the kingdoms of the Naples and Sicily or by will as the Romans had the kingdoms of Aegypt Bithinto Pergamus and Asia or by Arms as many of the aforesaid kingdoms were first gotten and were always Claud. de 4. cons Honorii transmitted afterwards to posterity by the hereditary right of bloud And the Poet could say terrae dominos pelagique futuros Immenso decuit rerum de principe nasci It behoved the Kings of the earth to be born of Kings Besides we must all confess that the King is the Father of people the Husband of the Common-wealth and the Master of all his subjects and can you shew me that God ever appointed that the Children should make choice of Children and servants not allowed to choose what fathers and masters they please their fathers then surely all would be the sons of Princes but though fathers may adopt their sons as the King may make a Turke or any other stranger a free Denizon yet Children may not choose whom they please for their Fathers but they are bound to honour those fathers that God hath appointed or suffered to beget them though the same should be never so poor never so wicked so the wives though while they are free they may have the power to refuse whom they dislike yet they have no such prerogative to choose what husbands they please or if they had I am sure no woman would be less then a Lady and the like may be said of all servants Therefore the election of Kings by the People seemes me no prime Ordinance of God but as our sectaries say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A humane Ordination indeed and the corruption of our Nature a meere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and an imitation of what the Poet saith Optat Ephippia bos niger optat arare caballus Just as if the women would fain have that Law of liberty to choose what husbands they please and the servants to make choice of what Masters they like best so the People never contented with whom God sendeth never satisfied with his Ordinance would fain pull their necks out of God's yoke and become their own chosers both of their Kings and of their Priests and indeed of all things else when as nothing doth please them but what they do and none can content The People are in all things greedy
discharge it 1. Kings are called Gods and all the Royal Ensigns and Acts of Kings are ascribed 1. Feare to God as their Crown is of God whereupon they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crowned Psal 21. 3. Psal 18. 39. Judg. 7. 17. Exod. 4. 20. 17. 9. 1 Chron. 19. 21. 2 Chron. 19. 6. Sap. 17. 12. of God their sword is of God whereupon the Psalmist saith thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle their Scepter is the Scepter of God for so Moses rod which signifieth a Scepter as well as a rod is called the rod of God their throm is the throne of God and their judgment is the judgment of God and you know how often we are commanded in the Scripture to feare God and the Poet saith primus in orbe Deos fecit timor and where there is no feare of God there is no beleife that there is a God for feare is the betraying of the succours which reason offereth and when we have no reason to expect succour our reason tells us that we should feare that is the punishment which we deserved for those evils which deprived us of our suâ—cours and therefore this feare of the punishment The want of feare the cause of all mischiefe doth often times keep us from those evils even as the Scripture saith timor Domini expellit peccatum and the want of this feare is the cause of all mischief as the Prophet David sheweth when after he enumerated the most horrible sins of the wicked that their throat was an open sepulâ—her the poyson of aspes under their Rom. 3. 13. lips their mouth full of cursing and bitternesse and their feet swift to shed blood he addeth this as the cause of all that there was no feare of God before their eyes P. 14. V. 7. And truly this is the cause of all our calamities that we feare not our King for if we feared him we durst not Rebell and revile him as we do But what is the reason that we do so little fear either God or the king the Why men do so little sear God and the king Eccles 5. 6. son of Sirach sheweth it is their great mercy and clemency this which worketh love in all good natures produceth boldnesse impudency and Rebellion in all froward dispositions who therefore sin because God is merciful and will Rebel against their king because they know he is pitiful and milde and will grant them pardon as they beleive if they cannot prevaile which is nothing else but like spideâ—s to suck poyson out of those sweet flowers from whence the bees do gather hony but let them not deceive themselves for debet amor laesus irasci love too much provoked will wax most angry laesa patientia sit furor and therefore the son of Syrach saith concerning propitiation be not without Eccles 55 6. fear and say not his mercy is great for mercy and wrath come from him and his indignation resteth upon sinners so though our king be as the kings of Israel a merciful minded man most mild and clement yet now when he seeth how these Rebels have abused his goodnesse and his patience to the great sufferance of his best Subjects he can draw his sword and make it drunk in the bloud of the ungodly that have so transcendently abused both the mercies of God and the goodnesse of the King When diverse people had Rebelled against Tarquin and his son had surprised many of their chief leaders he sent unto his father to know what he should do with them the King being in his field paused a while and then summa Papavera carpsit with his staffe chopt off the heads of diverse weeds and thistles and gave the messenger none other answer but go and tell my son what I am doing and his Son understanding his meaning did with What Tarquin did to Rebels them as Tarquin did with the Poppies so many Kings would have done with these Rebels not out of any love to shed bloud but out of a desire to preserve Peace not for any natural inclination to diminish their Nobility by their decollation but from an earnest endeavour to suppresse the community from unnatural Rebellion ut poena in paucos metus adomnes that the punishment of some What effects the Kings clemency wrought might have bred fear in the rest and that fear of the King in them might keep his good Subjects from fear of being undone by them But all the World seeth our King is more merciful and hath sought all this while to draw them with the cords of love which hath bred more troubles to himself more afflictions to us and made them the more cruel and by their Oaths and Protestations Leagues and Covenants to do their best to bring the King and all his loyal Subjects into fear if they may not have their own desires But we are not afraid of these Bug-beares because we know this hath been the practice of all Rebels to linke themselves together with Leagues and Covenants as in the conjuration of Cateline and the holy league in France and the like and many such Covenants and Leagues have been made with Hell to the utter destruction of the makers as when more then forty men vowed solemnly and they intended to do it very cunningly that they would neither eat nor drinke until they had killed Act. 23. 12. Paul for so they might be without meat until the day of judgement if they would keep their Oath and so these Covenanters may undo themselves by such hardening their faces in their wickednesse because this sheweth they are grown The Rebels Covenants shew they are grown desperate desperate and are come to that pass that they have little hope to preserve their lives but by the hazarding of their soules as if they thought the Devil for the good service they desire to do him to overthrow the Church to destroy thousand souls may perchance do them this favour to preserve their lives for a time to bring to passe so great a worke whereas we know the Church is built upon a Rock and God hath promised to defend his Anoynted so that all the power of hell shall never prevail against any of these Wherefore to conclude this point seeing God hath put a sword into the hand of the king and the King bears not the sword in vain but though it be long Rom. 13. 4. in the sheath he can draw it out when He will and recompence the abuse of His lenity with the sharpnesse of severity let us fear or if you would not fear do well saith the Apostle return from your Rebellion and from all V. 3. your wicked wayes and you may yet finde grace because you have both a merciful God and a gracious king 2. As we are to feare so we are to reverence our King that is to have an 2. To have an high and good esteeme of our
I said vanity and misery for though the old man be never so Glorious and never so honourable the Off-spring of Kings and Princes and though outwardly it appears never so beautiful without blemish yet if the Inner man of the heart that is begotten by Gods Spirit be not found out the other is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flesh as the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 3. termeth it and flesh is an Epithete given to Beasts by the Prophet and that by way of disparagement too where he saith their horses are but flesh and which is Esa 31. 3. viler all flesh is grass that soon withereth and rotteth and becometh the Dung of the earth and the Apostle saith that flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdom 1 Cor. 15. of Heaven because that as I shewed you before flesh and bloud being but meer vanity which is the most opposite to Eternity they can inherit nothing but eternal misery 3. As totus homo so omnis homo vanitas every man is vanity that is not only 3 Point the Fool but also the wise man for there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever but as the fool dieth so dieth the wise man therefore the wise man concluded that this also is vanity Eccl. 2. 15 16. And so likewise the young man as well as the old man the rich as well as the poor and the strong as well as the weak the heroick Achilles as well as base Thersites may soon die and vanish away to nothing And to be brief you see how the gallant Courtier and the Royal Majesty are How all the world is round and all things in the world in a perpetual â—otion no more exempted from vanity than the poorest Clown and meanest Subject for as Eternity is said to be an intelligible sphaere whose Center is every where and his circumference no where but in it self as I shewed to you before out of Trismegistus so the form of the whole world is sphaerical and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or little world which is man in state and condition is also sphaerical and round even as round as a hoop or rather indeed a meer circular center without any circumference at all and as the primum mobile the first wheel of all the Sphaeres of this whole frame is ever in motion and by that motion we see that part which is now the highest within a dozen hours to become the lowermost so suddenly is the change of the highest things even so it is in all things that are under the Sun there is a perpetual motion and that motion changeth all things which made holy Job to say a Saying worthy to be remembred that although man is but of few dayes few indeed God knoweth and those few dayes are full of troubles and that we all know yet in those few dayes he cometh forth like a Flower that is by little and little and he is cut down that is in a moment he flieth also as a shadow that is very swiftly and never continueth in one stay but is still divolved from one condition Job 14. 1 2. to another For our blessed Lord God and loving Father out of his wise Providence and secret love to man hath so tempered all the Accidents and the whole course of mans life with such proportion and equal counterpoyze of occurrents that ever and anon Joyes and Sorrows are mixt together good haps and sad tidings succeed one another as for example David as it were to day is a poor Shepherd The vicissitude of King Davids condition keeping his Fathers Flock and pulling away his sheep out of the Lions Claws and as it were to morrow he is magnified in the Court of Saul he is matched with the Kings Daughter and saluted for the Kings Son in Law and his epithalamium is Saul killed his thousands and David his â—ten thousands yet presently he sleeth as t banished man and he is prosecuted and persecuted as a Partridge is hunted upon the Mountains but within a while he is crowned King and reigneth in a short space over all Israel even from Dan to Beersheba and as a gallant Conqueror overcometh all his enemies round about him yet that Glory must not last long but his own not only undutiful Subjects but also his ungracious and unnatural Son Absalon must drive him once again to flee not to preserve his Kingdom but to save his Life and because the Wheel turns round this Cloud suddenly vanisheth Absalon is hanged and the King is joyfully received and honourably restored to his Royal Throne anâ— after all this he had many the like changes of sundry kinds of Accidents somtimes gladsom and somtimes doleful while he lived So the Son of David and the Son of God Jesus Christ in the second of Math. And of the condition of Jesus Christ is presented with Gifts and worshipped as a God by the Kings and wise men of the East and in the same Chapter he is persecuted by King Herod that he was fain to flee into Egypt to save his life yet afterwards he was so magnified by the people that he was fain to hide himself to prevent his being crowned King and upon Mount Tabor he he was so transfigured in Glory that his Face did shine as the Sun and not long after upon Mount Calvary he was so disfigured with sorrow that confusion went over his face so far that as the Prophet saith in him there was neither form nor beauty so upon Mount Olivet even now there was an Angel comforting him and by and by an Agony affrighting him and so upon the Cross even now he crieth as one destitute of all help My God My God why hast thou forsaken me and by and by after as a man full of comfort and confidence in Gods favour he saith Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And if the time and your patience would give me leave I could amplifie to you this Point in the like revolution of this wheel I dare not call it of Fortune as the Heathens did but of Gods Providence as the Scripture sheweth it is in Abraham in Joseph in Moses in C. Marius in Alcibiades and in abundance more of those Worthies whose lives you may read in the holy Scripture in Plutarch and in many other Authors and which were variarum for tunarum viri men that had tasted of all conditions and had experience of all kind of Life being tossed up and down and up again and so still turn and turn again and again from a good condition to a bad and from a bad to a good again But I had rather perswade you all to make that use of this variable vanity which Sesostris King of Egypt did of the sad condition of those Kings that horses-like he compelled to draw about his Caroach for he having four captive Kings set them like horses to draw his Caroach even as King Edgar is reported to
Quisquis pro officii sui loco vehementer non exarserit He shall have his portion with Simon Magus the Proto-Simonist the first unlawful buyer of holy graces which according to his place doth not do his best to suppresse the sin of Simonie that is the buying and selling of spiritual graces and promotions I will a little unfold the heynousness of this sin that as many of them I fear are settled in their resolutions to continue the doing of it so they may the better know hereby what they do and what a horrible sin they do commit to the great dishonour of God and the damage of the Church of Christ And I say that the Pope is the prime and principal father of this Bastard-brood Simonie usually practised in Rome and by former Popes and that nothing was wont to be rifer at Rome than this sin of Simonie which did therefore seem the lesse sinful because it was acted by the more powerful Patron And though we read it in their own Decrees that Tolerabilior est Macedonii haeresis qui â—sserit Spiritum Sanctum esse servum patris filii quà m haec Symonaica pactio quia isti faciunt Spiritum Sanctum servum suum ut ait Terasius Patriarcha Constantinopolitanus This selling of Church-Livings is more intolerable than the heresie of Macedonius who said That the Holy Ghost was the servant of the Father and of the Son because they make the Holy Ghost to become their servant as Bern. in Convers Pauli Sermâ—ne 1. Terasius saith to Pope Adrian Yet S. Bernard that saw much but not all saith Sacrigradus dati sunt in occasionem turpis lucri quaestum aestimant pietatem Holy Orders are now become the occasion of filthy lucre and gain is counted godliness And this Simonie is Sacriledge indeed and not only Musculus citeth these Verses that were made of Pope Musculus in cap. 6. Johan Alexander Vendit Alexander claves altaria Christum Vendere jure potest emer at ille prius but Durandus also saith That Simonie doth so reign in the Church of Rome Durand de mo do celebrandi Câ—ncilii Extra de officio judicis delegati ex parte N. in Olâ—ssâ— as if it were no sin at all And their Canonists as Bartolus Felinus Theodoricus and some others of the Pope's parasites are so impudent as to averr that the selling of these things and taking monie for Ecclesiastical promotions can be neither Sacriledge nor Simonie in the Pope because he is the Lord of them all and accounteth them all his own But since we have bidden Adieu to him and his corruptions his Simonie and his Sacriledge blessed be God for it doth not so much prejudice us and therefore letting him to do what he will with his own and either to stand or fall to his own Master I will address my self to shew the manifold evils and wickednesse of our own Sacrilegious and Simonaical Pâ—trons that sell those Benefices which they should freely bestow And I say 1. That this buying and selling of Church-goods for both these acts are The selling of Ecclesiastical-Livings against all Laws 1. Of Moses Gen. 47. 22. relatives and to be put in the same predicament when as nothing is sold that is not bought è contra is a thing contrary to all Laws and to the judgement of all good men for 1. The Laws of Moses provided so liberally for the Priests and Levites that the buying and selling of Priests places was never known nor heard of among the Jews until Jeroboam's time who as he sold them so he sold himself to do evil and to commit wickedness 2. Pharaoh was so religious that when in the great Dearth all the land 2. Of the Gentiles of Aegypt was sold the Priests had such a portion of Corn allotted them that they needed not to sell one foot of their land and therefore I doubt not but Pharaoh will rise in judgement against all those that take away the lands of the Priests as our Gentlemen and Souldiers strive to do or do sell the Spiritual promotions unto the Priests as our Simonaical Patrons do 3. The Law of Grace saith Freely have you received that is all the 3 Of grace graces and gifts of God therefore freely give especially what you give Math. 10. 8. to God and for the Service of God and sell it not 4. The Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws forbid nothing more and with 4. Of the Civil and Canon-Law greater care than the buying and selling of Spiritual Offices And the ancient Fathers learned Schoolmen and all the later Classes of Casuists Jesuites and of our zealous purest Protestant Writers together with the wisest Princes and Statesmen that have established many Statute-Laws against this sin are all infinitely deceived if this buying and selling of Ecclesiastical preferments be not infinitely prejudicial to the Church of God and therefore a most heynous and a horrible sin against the Law of God 2. I say that this buying and selling of Church-Livings will be the diminution 2. This selling and buying of Church-Livings will be the decay of Learning and Religion of all Learning and the lessening of the number of Learned men for when the world seeth that after a man hath spent his time first in School where he suffereth a great deal of sorrows and thinks no creature more miserable than himself when he seeth all others free and himself only as he supposeth bound under the rod then in the Vniversity where most of the Schollers are as Phalaris saith to Leontides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 needy of all things but of hunger and How difficult it is to become a Scholar fear or else if they escape these rocks the better part do with continuall watching and studying wear their bodies and tyre their spirits and spend all the means they can procure from their friends for many years together and in the end after all this cannot get a poor Parsonage or Vicarage unless they pay for the lease of their wearied and almost worn out life to the hazarding of their soules and all other Preferments when the truth of their buying is made known What Fathers will be so improvident I had almost said so irreligious I may truly say so unworldly wise or so little prudent in managing of their estates as to cast away their means and their sons upon such sourges I think I may say with the Poet Invitatus ad haec aliquis de ponte negabit A beggars brat knowing these inconveniencies would scarce accept these Offices and discharge those duties they do owe upon these conditions But you will say that we must not and ought not to respect our own Obj. gain and look after our own profit but as the Apostles and servants of Christ our chiefest care should be for the peoples good because our reward shall be great in Heaven I answer that as in the Common-wealth we owe our selves and our
the longer sort as he intituled them of six handfull the shorter of three and a hand breadth in thickness amounting to the number of an hundred and seventeen Whereof four were of fined Gold weighing two Talents and a half and the rest of whiter Gold that weighed two Talents likewise he gave also the similitude of a Lion in tried and purged Gold and two Books very fair and stately to see to the one framed of Gold weighing eight Talents and a half with the additionall of twenty four pounds and the other of Silver And he presented likewise four silver Tunns two drinking Cups the one of Gold and the other of Silver and silver Rings with the shape and form of a woman three Cubits high and withall he offered the Chains Girdles and Wastâ—ands of the Queen his wife and to the Priests of Amphiaraus he gave a shield and a speare of solid Gold and a quiver of the same metall all which saith mine Author he offered in hope to purchase thereby unto himself the gracious favour and good-will of that god and if he was so magnificent and bountifull to the Priests and Herodotus l. â— clio Temple of that god which was no god how Royall think you would he have been if he had known the true God and our Saviour Jesus Christ So Cyrus and Darius Kings of Persia and of Babylon made such royall decrees for the re-edifying of the Temple at Jerusalem and the Worshipping Ezra 1. 7. c. 6. 5. c. 8. 9. of the God of Daniel and his three companions Sidrac Misach and Abednego which was the true God that they are registred in the Book for their perpetuall honour and praise to this very day and shall continue longer then the stately Piramides of Egypt even to the end of the World when as most others of their laws and actions are shut up in silence and buried in the grave of forgetfulness So Artoxerxes Mnemon the son of Dariut Nothus formerly called Ochus or Achus that in the Persian language signifieth a Prince was very zealous for the building of Gods House and the inabling of the builders thereof with all things necessary for the work and as his father Darius said Let the work of this House of God alone and let the Governour of the Jews and the elders of them build this House of God in his place Moreover I make a decree and it was a most Royall decree what you shall do to the Elders of these Jews for the building of this House of God that of the Kings goods even of the tribute beyond the River forthwith expences be given to these men that they be not hindered and that which they have need of both young Bullocks Here is a glorious zeal and a brave Resolution for the honour and service of God and Rams and Lambs for the burnt offerings of the God of Heaven Wheat Salt Wine and Oyl according to the appointment of the Priests let it be given them day by day without faile that they may offer Sacrifices of sweet savours unto the God of Heaven and pray for the life of the King and of his Sons that were four 1. Artaxerxes 2. Cyrus the younger 3. Atossa called also Arsacas 4. Oxendra And I have also made a decree that Whosoever shall alter this word let Ezra 6. 7 8 9 10 11. Timber be pulled down from his house and being set up let him be hanged thereon and his house be made a dunghill for this So the son following the steps of his father as our Most gracious King doth in like manner made a Decree to all the Treasurers that were beyond the River That whatsoever Ezra the Priest shall require of you it be done speedily Also we certifie you that touching any of the Priests and Levites Singers Porters Nethinims or Ezra c. 7. 21. 24. Ministers of the House of God it shall not be lawful to impose Tolle Tribute or Custom upon them a thing clean contrary to the practice of our times when the greatest Tolle Tax and Imposition is usually laid upon the Ministers of the Gospel of Christ to shew unto you how far short our Christians now are in piety and zeal of Gods Worship to these Heathens that knew not Christ and therefore no doubt but that they shall shall rise in judgement against us that profess to honour Christ and yet think we can never take enough from his Church nor lay Taxes and Loads enough upon his Ministers And how this will be answered before Christ at the last Day let the sacrilegious persons that labour so much and strive so eagerly to take our houses from us consider it for I know not how to do it 2. As these Heathen Kings and Monarchs were thus zealously affected 2. The Kings of Israel and Juda. to the House Service of God and thus religiously given to provide maintenance for the Priests and Ministers of the Temple So the Kings of Israel and Juda were no whit inferiour unto them but in a far righter way and to a truer God than most of the Heathens did For here you see King David adjudged it to be as needful to build a Temple for God as to erect an house for himself And so the Books of the Kings and the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and Juda do sufficiently set down how Solomon did most religiously build God's House and offered Royal Sacrifices in that House and most orderly setled the Priests and Levites to do the Service of God in this Temple that he had built And so Jehosophat Ezechias Josias and all the rest of the good Kings of Juda did execute the power that God had given them in the setling and establishing of His Religion and the True Worship of God as you may most amply read in their lives And those Kings that did not care for the preservation of the True Religion and Gods Service and his Houses as Jeroboam Baasha Ahab and the like the wrath of the Lord was kindled against them that he rooted them and their posterity out of their own house because they neglected the Service and the House of God And so he will do to all those Kings and Princes that will imitate them in prophaning his House neglecting his Service and abusing his servants because that with Him there is no respect of persons but Psalm 148. He will bind Kings in fetters and their Nobles with links of iron 3. The Christian Emperours and Kings are not left un-Chronicled for 3. The Christian Kings their great zeal extraordinary care and Royal bounty towards the Bishops and Ministers of Christ to propagated and uphold the Christian Religion For it is Registred in the Writings of those times that Constantius the father of Constantine the Great was wont to say That he respected the Preachers of the Gospel more than the Treasures of his Exchequer And his son Constantine was called Great as well for his Piety that
examples they teach them to offend 2. As they are in these respects to have a special care of their own lives 2. How careful the Bishops Priests ought to be to teach the people Ezech. 3. 17. c. 33. 7. and conversations to live justly and holily as the servants of Christ ought to do so they are likewise obliged to be sedulous and diligent in the instruction and tuition of the people committed under their charge for they are made the Watchmen and Shepherds over God's people to teach them and instruct them what they should do and what they should believe even as our Saviour saith unto his Apostles Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Matth. ult 19. 20. Ghost and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And therefore S. Paul chargeth Bishop Timothy before God and before Jesus Christ that he preach the word and be instant in season and out 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. 1 Cor. 9. 16. of season reprove rebuke and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine and he saith Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel And S. Gregory saith Oportet ut praedicatores sint fortes in praeceptis compatientes infirmis terribiles Greg. in Mor. 30. super Job 39. in minis in exhortationibus blandi in ostendendo magisterio humiles in rerum temporalium contemptu dominantes in tolerandis adversitatibus rigidi It behoves that Preachers should be strong and strict in their precepts compassionate and pitiful to the weak terrible in their threatnings to the impenitent smooth and gentle in their exhortations in shewing their power and authority humble in despising the world and all worldly things stout and domineering and in suffering and bearing adversities firm and constant And the same S. Gregory saith also that Non debet praedicator Idem Moral l. 17. infirmis insinuare cuncta quae sentit nec debet praedicare rudibus quanta cognoscit which is a very good lesson And so you see partly what the Bishops and Ministers of Christ ought to do and how to behave themselves in the Church of God Yet I must confesse we and our Predecessors the Bishops of God's Dan 9. 5. Church have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from God's Precepts and neglecting the performance of our duties for whereas Exemplar vitae populis est vita regentis And as S. Gregory saith Lux gregis est flamma doctoris The light whereby the flock walketh is the shining flame of the Shepherds life Yet many of our Predecessors I am sure and I pray God that none of our present Prelates may do the like have given very evil examples unto the people if the example of covetousness injustice and the obstructing and neglect of Gods Service and the furtherance of mens salvation be evil examples for letting passe what we find written of Pope Sixtus the Fourth of whom this Epitaph was made Sixte jaces tandem fidei contemptor aequi Pacis ut hostis eras pace peremptus obis And of Alexander the sixth that made a league with the Devil as Balaeus saith to obtain his Papacy and of whom it was said as I shewed before Vendit Alexander cruces altaria Christum Emerat ille prius vendere jure potest And of Boniface the eighth and divers others wicked Popes that pretended to be the Bishops and Vicars of Christ but were indeed the limbs of Anti-Christ We find nearer home that what pious men and good Christians had formerly most zealously bestowed upon the Church and Churchmen for the Honor of God the relieving of the poor and the promoting of the Christian faith many of our own Bishops most wickedly and Sacrilegiously either through Covetousness for some fine or for love and affection to their Children friends or servants have alienated and made away the same from their Successors in Fee-farm or long leases some for one thousand some for one hundred years and some for other longer term reserving only some small rent for the succeeding Bishops as in my Diocess of Ossory that Lordship was set for ten pound yearly that is well-nigh worth two hundred pound and that was set for â—our pound which is better worth then fifty pound with many others in the like sort whereby we that come after them and they that shall come after us are neither able to keep Hospitality nor to feed the poor nor scarce our selves and our own families nor indeed to do any other work of piety and service of God which the Scripture requireth us to do And if these things be not wickedness and a high degree of abominable Sacriledge mine understanding fails me and this being Sacriledge I know not what laws can make it good Let them have what Laws and what Acts of Parliament soever they please to justify their doings I know not how those Laws and Acts of Parliament will or can justify them before the Throne of the just God And therefore not to do my self what I blame in others lest God should condemn me out of mine own mouth as my good God hath hitherto preserved me and kept my hands clean from all Corruption and from taking any the least bribe or gift from any man or any service but what I paid for even in my poorest state and meanest condition when I had not for many years together twenty pound per annum to maintain me so I have resolved and do pray to God continually to give his grace to perform it and do hope that God will grant it me that I will never take either bribe for any thing or gift from any man or fine for any House Land or Lordship that belongs either to my Deanery or Bishoprick while I live if I should live a thousand years but what shall be for the repaire of the Church And besides all this and many other faults in their own lives of less moment I have often bemoaned one offence of some of my brethren above all the rest when I considered how they not following the Counsel of St. Paul in the Ordination of Priests and Deacons To lay hands on no man rashly but to see that the persons that are to be admitted to holy Orders should be no novices that is no young Divines because as Saint Gregory saith Nequaquam debent homines in aetate infirma praedicare Men ought not to Preach in their young and tender years Quia juxta rationis usum sermo doctrinae non suppetit nisi in perfecta aetate because that according to the use of Reason Learning and Wisdom is not attained unto but in perfect age Et Redemptor noster cum Caelâ— siâ—conditor Angelorum Doctor ante tricennale Greg. sup Ezech. Ho. 2. in Pastor tempus in terra magister noluit fieri hominum ut videlicet praecipitatis vim
saluberrimi timoris infunderet cum ipse etiam qui labi non posset perfectae vitae gratiam non nisi perfecta aetate praedicaret And our Redeemer that is the Creator of the Heavens and Teacher of Angels would not be made the Teacher of men here on Earth before he was thirty years of age that so he might powre forth the force and fruit of wholesome fear to them that are fallen when as he also that could not fall did not preach the grace and waies of a perfect life but in a perfect age and to see likewise that they should be no waies unworthy of so high a calling but every way qualified both for life and doctrine so as the Word of God doth require have notwithstanding either by the solicitation of friends or for some other respects and perhaps worser Corruption many times made young novices illiterate men and which is far worse men of corrupt minds and of bad lives of loose dissolute carriage the Priests of the most High God to wait at his Altar that were not worthy to wait on our Table And therefore as those Bishops that did thus did herein falsify their Faith to God and betrayed his service to these unworthy men So the just God hath most justly suffered these perfidious men to betray their makers to spit in their Fathers faces and to combine themselves with the enemies of Christ to destroy the Bishops of Gods Church and so as the Poet saith in another kind Ignavum fucos pecus à praesepibus arcent This wicked brood that we our selves begat and made would drive their Sires from their hives and from our offices And I know not by what fatality unless it be by the just wrath of God to intail the wickedness of the Fathers like the Leprosy of Gehezi unto the Children for the sins and injustice of the Fathers that are so well known and ingraven in the consciences of the Children yet so it is most generally found that the Children of the precedent Bishops that have most wronged the Church and their Successors are in all things most contrariant Why the sons of Bishops are most spitefulâ— unto the Succeeding Bishops and opposites I will not say spiteful or envious to the succeeding Bishops because as I conceive their hearts tell them what injuries their Fathers did them for their sakes and themselves continue therein and therefore do conceive that the present Bishops cannot think well nor love them that have so much wronged both them and the Church of God and to requite them according to their own thoughts with hate for hate they are of all others most spiteful crossing and prejudiciall unto them or else because they do imagine that the present and succeeding Bishops will be as wicked and as unjust as their Fathers and their predecessors were and therefore deserve neither love nor favour from them And I heard many As Alexander the Copper-smith with stood S. Paul So the last Bishops son withstandeth me to recover the rights of the Church Parliament men say that in the Long Anti-Christian Parliament none were more violent against the Bishops then the sons and posterity of Precedent Bishops I found it so And I have espied another fault in some of our former Bishops not a little prejudiciall to the Honor of God and the good of the Church of Christ and that is not only to give Orders to unworthy men but also to bestow livings upon unworthy Priests for as the old saying was Rector eris praesto de sanguine praesulis esto Or as another saith Quatuor ecclesias portis intratur in omnes Prima patet magnis nummatis altera tertia charis Sed paucis solet quarta patere Dei So it was their practice to bestow Livings Rectories Prebends and other Preferments not on them that best deserved them but either upon their Children friends or servants or on them that could as the story goeth tell them who was Melchisedeckâ— Faâ—her that is to say St. Peters lesson And so to the lessoâ— and to the lessâ—â— of the Church-Lands to the prejâ—dice of the Church the â—ike curse and Anathema is duâ— Aâ—rum argentum non est mihi in the affirmative way which is a fault worthy to be punished by the Judges For as it is most truely said Quicunque sacra vel sacros ordines vendant aâ—t emunt sacerdotes esse non possunt whosoever do buy or sell holy orders or any holy things cannot be Priests Vnde scriptum est Anathema danti Anathema accipienti whence it is written Let Gods curse be to the buyer and the curse of God to the receiver because this buying and selling of Holy things and things dedicated for the service of God is the Simoniâ—cal Heresie or Heresie of Simon Magus Qâ—omodo ergo si Aâ—athematizati sunt sancti non sunt sanctificare alios possunt How then if they be accursed and no Saints can they make others Habetur 1. q. 1. Can. Qâ—â—cunque Saints or sanctify them Et cum in corpore Christi non sint quomodo Christi corpus tradeâ—e vel accipere possunt Et qui maledictus est benedicere quomodo potest And seeing such men are not in the body of Christ how can they deliver or receive the body of Christ and how can he that is accursed himself bless any other And therefore seeing the Word of God requireth the Bishops and Ministers of Christ should be so Holy in their lives and so qualified with knowledge and learning for the instruction of the people as I shewed to you before and is typified by those Golden Bâ—ls and the Pomegranats that were to be set in the skirts of Aarons robes round about the Bels signifying the teaching of the people and the Pomegranats the sweet smelling fruits of a good and godly life It behoves the Kings and Princes to whom God hath given the prime Soveraignty and commandeth them to have a care of his Honor and the service of his Church to see so far as they can that the Bishops and Prelates which they place over Gods people be so qualified as God requireth and to injoyn these their prime Substitutes to look that those Priests and Deacons which they make and place in the Church be likewise such as I have fore-shewed for this God requireth at their hands and this David Jehosaphat Ezeâ—hias Josias and all the good and godly Kings of Israel and Juda and all the pâ—ous Christian Kings and Emperors did and I do know how zealously and carefully our late most gracious King Charles the I was to place Able Religious and Godly Bishops over Godâ— Church which is a special duty of every King And because also the Prelates and Bishops are not all or may not all be no more then the Apostles were all such as they should be but some of them may be such as I have shewed to you before either like Simon Magus selling what they should freely give or
the Statutes of England 25 Edw. 3. c 2. And as you know it was one of the greatest Articles for which the Earl of Strafford was beheaded that he had actually leavied warre against the King The Nobles and Gentry Lords and Commons of both Houses of Parliament in all Kingdomes being convicted in their consciences with the truth of this Doctrine do in all their Votes and Declarations conclude and protest and I must believe them that all the leavies moneys and other provision of horse and men that they raise and arm are for the safety of the Kings person and for the maintenance of his Crown and Dignity Nay more then this the very Rebels in this our Kingdom of Ireland knowing how odious it is before God and man for subjects to rebell and take armes against their lawful King do protest if you will believe them that they are the Kings souldiers and do fight and suffer for their King and in defence of his Prerogatives But you know the old saying Tuta frequensque via est per amici fallere nomen The Devil deceiveth us soonest when he comes like an Angel of light and you shall ever know the true subjects best by their actions farre better then by their Votes Declarations or Protestations for Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta When men do come in sheeps cloathing and inwardly are ravening wolves when they come with honey in their mouths and gall in their hearts and like Joab with peace in their tongue and a sword in their hand a petition to intreat and a weapon to compell I am told by my Saviour that I shall know them by their works not their words And therefore as our Saviour saith Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven So I say not he that cryeth peace peace is the son of peace but he that doth obey his Prince and doth most willingly whatsoever he commandeth or suffereth most patiently for refusing to do what he commandeth amisse This is the true subject Well to draw towards the end of this point of our obedience to our Soveraign That is when the Commonalty guide the Nobility and the Subjects rule their King Governour I desire you to remember a double story The one of Plutarch which tells us how the tayle of the Serpent rebelled against the head because that did guide the whole body and drew the tayle after it whithersoever it would therefore the head yielded that the tayle should rule and then it being small and wanting eyes drew the whole body head and all through such narrow crevises clefts and thickets that it soon brought the Serpent to confusion The other is of Titus Livius who Titus Livius Decad. 1. l. 2â— tells us that when the people of Rome made a factious combination to rebell against their Governours Menenius Agrippa went unto them and said that on a time all the members conspired against the stomack and alledged that she devoured with ease and pleasure what they had purchased with great labour and pain therefore the feet would walk no more the hands would work no more the tongue would plead no more for it and so within a while the long fast of the stomack made weak knees feeble hands dimme eyes a faltering tongue and a heavie heart and then presently seeing their former folly they were glad to be reconciled to the Stomack again and this reconciled the people unto their Governours I need not make any other application but to wish and to advise us all with the people of Rome to submit our selves unto our Heads that are our Governours lest if we be guided by the tayle we shall bring our selves with the Serpent unto destruction And to remember that excellent speech of S. Basil The people through ambition are fallen into grievous Anarchie whence it happeneth that all the exhortations of their rulers do no good no man hath any list to obey but every man would reign being swelled up with pride that springeth out of his ignorance And a little after he saith that some sit no lesse implacable Basilius de Spiritu Sancto c. ult scil 30. An argument of obedience drawn from the fifth Commandement and bitter examiners of things amisse then unjust and malevolent Judges of things well done so that we are more brutish then the very beasts because they are quiet among themselves but we wage cruel and bloody warres against each other And let us never forget that the Lord saith Honour thy father and thy mother and I must tell you that by father in this precept you must not onely understand your natural father but also the King who is yâ—â—◠〈◊〉 cal father and the father of all his subjects and the Priest your spiriâ—ual father and those likewise that in loco patris do breed and bring you up 1 Chron. 2. 24. and though natural affection produceth more love and honour uâ—to those fathers that begat us yet reason and religion oblige us more unto the King that is the common father of all and to the Priest that begat us unto Christ then unto him that begat us into the world for that without our new birth which is ordinarily done by the office of the Priest we were no Christians and as good unborn as unâ—hristened that is unregenerated and What we are and should be without King or Priest without the King that is Custos utriusque tabulae the preserver both of the publick justice and of the pure religion our fathers can neither bring us up in peace nor teach us in the faith of Christ and therefore if my father should plot any treason against the King or prove a Rebel against him I am bound in all duty and conscience to preferre the publick before the private and if I cannot otherwise avert the same to reveal the plot to preserve the King though it were to the losse of my father's life and therefore certainly they that curse that is speak evil of their King are cursed and they that rebel against him shall never have their dayes long in the land but shall through their own rebellion be soon cut off from the land of the living For mine own part I have often admired why the subjects of King Whether for the liberty of Subjects we can be warranted to rebell In the dicourse of the differences betâ—ixt King and Parliament CHARLES should raise any civil warre and especially turn their spleen against him If any say it is for their liberties I answer that I am confident His Majesty never thought to bring any the meanest of his subjects into bondage nor by an arbitrary government to reduce them into the like condition as the Peasants of France or the Boores of Germany or the Pickroes of Spain are as some do most fâ—lsely suggest but that they should continue as they have been in the dayes
arms submit thy self unto thy Soveraign and know that as the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings so is the King of England 1 Kings 20. 31. thou shalt find grace in the time of need but delay not this duty lest as Demades saith the Athenians never sate upon treaties of peace but in mourning weeds when by the losse of their nearest friends they had paid too dear for their quarrels so thou be driven to do the like for except the sinnes of the people require no lesse satisfaction then the ruine of the Kingdom I am confident and am ready to hazard life and fortunes The Authours confidence of the kings victory in this confidence that the goodnâ—sse of our King the justnesse of his cause and the prayers of all honest and faithful Ministers for him and our Church will in the end give him the victorie over all those his rebellious enemies that with lyes slanders and false imputations have seduced the Kings subjects to strengthen themselves against their Soveraign and all the world shall see that as Christ so in sensu modificato this Vicegerent of Christ shall rule in the midst of these his enemies and shall reign untill he puts them all under his feet And because we never read of any rebellion not this of Corah here A rebellion that the like was never seen which of above six hundred thousand men had not many more then 250. Rebels nor that of Absolon against David who had all the Priests and Levites and the best Counsellors and a mighty Army with him such as was able to overthrow Absolon and twenty thousand men in the plain field nor Israel against Rehoboam because they did but revolt from him and not with any hostile Arms invade him nor the Senate of Rome against Caesar though he was the first that intrenched upon their libertieâ— and intended to exchange their Aristo-democracie into a Monarchie nor any other that I can remember except that Councel which condemned Christ to death that was grown to that height to be so absolute and so perfect a Rebellion in all respects as that a whole Parliament in a manner and the major part of the Plebeians of a whole Kingdom should make a Covenant with Hell it self yea and which is most considerable that as I understand the beginning of this rebellion in this Kingdom of Ireland was the Commonalty therein should so fascinate the Nobility as to allure them so long to confirm their Votes till at last they must be compelled in all things to adhere unto their conclusions that they whose power was formerly most absolute without them must now be subordinate unto them that the strength of the people may defend the weaknesse of the Nobility from that desert which they merited by their simplicity to be seduced to joyn with them to rebell against their King Therefore if any faction in any Parliament should thus combine against the Lord and against his annointed there is no question but their reducement to obedience will make that Majesty which shall effect it more glorious to posterity than were any of all his Predecessors And therefore I say again Return O Shulamite return and remember I pray thee remember lest my words shall accuse thy conscience in the day of judgement that we are often commanded in many places of the Scriptures to obey our Kings but in no place bidden nor permitted to rise up and assist any Parliament against our King If thou sayest Thou dost not do it against thy King but against such and such that do abuse the King I told you before that whosoever resisteth him that hath the Kings authority resisteth the King and therefore the whole world of intelligible men laugheth at this gullery and he that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh it to scorn when with such equivocation men shall think to justify their rebellion and I hope the people will not still remain so simple as to think that all the Canon and the Musket shot which the enemies of a King should make at him must be understood to be for the safety of his person And as neither private men nor any Senate nor Magistrate nor Peers That the Pope hath no power to licence any man to make war against the King nor Parliament can lawfully resist and take Arms against their King so neither Synod nor Councel nor Pope have any power to depose excommunicate or abdicate or to give immunities to Clergy or absâ—lution to subjects thereby to free them from their duty and due allegiance and to give them any colour of allowance to rebell and make warre against their lawful King And this point I should the more largely prosecute because the natives of this Kingdome are more addicted to the Pope and his Decrees then any others of all the Kings Dominion But the bulk of this Pareus in Rom. 13. Johan Bede in the Right and Prerogatives of Kings And the Treatise intituled Gâ—d and the King Treatise is already too much swelled and I hope I may have hereafter a fitter opportunity to inlarge this Chapter and therefore till then I will onely referre my Reader unto Pareus John Bede and abundance more that have most plentifully written of this Argument And so much for the persons against whom they rebelled Moses their King and Aaron their High-Priest or chief Bishop both these the prime Governours of Gods people whom they ought by all laws to have obeyed and for no cause to have rebelled against them CHAP. XI Sheweth what these Rebels did How by ten several steps and degrees 1. Pride 2. Discontent 3. Envy 4. Murmuring 5. Hypocrisie 5. Lying 7. Slandering 8. Rayling 9. Disobedience 10. Resistance they ascended to the height of their Rebellion and how these are the steps and the wayes to all Rebellions and the reason which moveth men to rebell 3. WE are to consider Quid fecerunt what these Rebels did Cajetan 3 Part. What these Rebels did saith Zelati sunt Tâ—rinus saith Irritaverunt The vulgar Latin saith Aemulati sunt Our vulgar English saith They angred Moses and our last English saith They envied Moses And indeed the large extent of the original word and the diversity of the Translation of it sheweth the greatnesse of their iniquity and the multiformity or multiplicity of their fin And therefore that you may truly understand it you must look into the History * Numb 16. and there you shall see the whole matter the conception birth strength and progresse of their sin for 1. This sinne was begotten by the seed of Pride they conceived an opinion of their own excellency Excellency that bewitcheth men to rebell thinking that they are inferiour to none equall to the best if not superiour unto all and therefore they disdained to be governed and aspired to the government of Gods people And then Pride as the father Pride the beginning of rebellion begat Discontentment as his eldeâ—t sonne they liked not their own
one can neither stand nor fall without the other as it is fully and truly shewed in the Grand Rebellion therefore as Caligula wished that the people of Rome had but one neck that so he might dispatch them all uno iâ—tu with one stroke So these men would overthrow both Government and destroy both King and Priest both Church and State at one time with one clap with one thunder-bolt And so they should be famous indeed though it were but like the â—ame of Herostratus that burnt the Temple of Diana or of Raviliac that killed the King of France of Nero that destroyed his nâ—other or Oedipus that murdered his own father for a man may be as notoriously famous for transcendent villanies and nefarious impieties as another is for his rare vertues and super-eminent deeds of piety As in History Thersites is as well known for his base Cowardice as Achilles for his heroick Valour And in the Scripture Judas for his Treachâ—ry is as notoriously known as Saint Peter for his Fidelity Therefore these men go on with this great Design and to effect the same I find that they aimed at these two special things 1. To take away all the lets and impediments that might hinder them They aimed at two things 2. To secure unto themselves all the helps and furtherances that might advantage them For 1. As a Vineyard that is well hedged or a City strongly senced with walls 1. To remove the impediments of 〈◊〉 design and bulwarks cannot easily be laid wast and spoiled before these defences be destroyed so the wilde Boars cannot devour the grapes of God's Church and swallow down the Revenues of her Governours and the Rebels cannot pull the Sword out of their Soveraigns hand and lay his Crown down in the dust so long as the means of their preservations are intire and not removed Therefore these men endeavour to eradicate all the impediments of their Design And they saw four great Blocks that were as four mighty Mountains which their great Faith their publick faith being not yet conceived must remove before they could plant their new Church and subvert the old Government of this Kingdom and those were 1. The Earl of Straffords Head 2. The free judgement of the Judges Four impediments of their Design 3. The power of dissolving the Parliament 4. The Bishops votes in the House of the Lords For as the heavenly Angels could do nothing against Sodom while righteous Lot was in it so these earthly angels the messengers of Abaddon can never effect their ends to overthrow the Church and State to make them as Sodom full of all impurity and villany until these four main stops be taken away And therefore CHAP. II. Sheweth the eager prosecution of our Sectaries to take off the Earl of Straffords head How he answered for himself The Bishops right of voting in his cause His excellent vertues and his death 1. THey get Master Pym the grand father of all the purer sort and a 1. Impediment fit instrument for this Design in the name of the House of Commons and thereby of all the Commonalâ—y of England to charge Thomas Earl The Earl his Charge of Strafford of High-Treason A high charge indeed and yet no lesse a crime could serve the turn to turn him out of their way because nothing else could subdue that spirit by which he was so well able to discover the plots and to frustrate the practices of all the faction of Sectaries for as the Jews were no wayes sufficient to answer Saint Stephen's arguments but only with stones so these men saw themselves unable to confute his reasons and to subdue his power but only by putting him to death and cutting off his head for that fault which Pym alleadged he had committed But then I demand How this great charge of High Treason shall be made good against him It is answered That England Scotland and Ireland and every corner How sought to be proved of these three Kingdoms must be searched and all discontented persons that had at any time any Sentence though never so justly pronounced against them by him that was so great a Judge yet conceited to be otherwise by themselves must now be incouraged countenanced by the faction and most likely by this grand Accuser to say all that they know and perhaps more than was true against him for what will not envy and malice say or what beast will not trample upon the Lion when they see him grovelling and gasping for life in an unevitable pit and it may be compassed with so many mastiff dogs I mean his enemies and discontented witnesses as were able to tear more than one Lion all to pieces So by this means they are enabled to frame near thirty Articles against him ut cum non prosiâ—t singula multa juvent that the number might amazâ— the people and think him a strange creature that was so full of heynous offences and so compassed with transgressions But Si satis accusasse quis innocens If accusations were sufficient to create offenders not a righteous man could escape on earth therefore the Law condemneth no man before he be heard what he can answer for himself And The Earl his Answer the Earl of Strafford coming to his Answer made all things so clear in the Judgement of the common-hearers and answered to every Article so wâ—ll that his enemies being Judges they much applauded his abilities and admired at his Dexterity whereby he had so finely united those Gordian knots that were so fouly contrived against him and as his friends conceived had fairly escaped all those iron-nets which his adversaries had so cunningly laid and my popular country-man with the rest of the more learned Lawyers had so vehemently prosecuted to insnare him in the links and traps of guiltiness and in brief the Lords who as yet were unpoisoned by the leavened subtilty of this bitter Faction could find not any one of all those Articles to be Treason by any Law that was yet established in this Land sic te servavit Apollo So God delivered him as he thought and his friends hoped out of all these troubles Yet as a rivulet stopped will at last prove the more violent viresque acquirit The nature of malice ibidem and recollect a greater strength in the same place so rage and malice hindered of their revengeful desires will turn to be the more implacable Quia malitia eorum excâ—cavit eos Because the malice of men bewitcheth them and hath no end till it makes an end of its hated foe therefore those men that hated and maligned the Earl like the Jews that because their tongues could make no reply to the just defence of the holy Martyr gnashed upon him with their teeth and stopping their ears ran upon Acts 7. 51. him with one accord all at once because they had no Law nor learning to make those Articles Treason they say with the Poet Hac
things so far as I can finde the King never parted with them unto his Subjects and therefore whosoever pretendeth to an inderived power to do any of these and exempteth himself from the King 's right herein resisteth Ioh Beda 26. the ordinance of God and is guilty of High-Treason what pretext soever he brings saith the Advocate of Paris And there be some things which our Kings have granted unto their Subjects Ita etiam Reget Aegypti quibus voluntas pro lege est legum tamen institâ—ta in cogendis pecuniis quotidianoque victu sequebantur Aubanus What things Kings have granted and restrained themselves from their full right as the use of that power which makes new Lawes or repeals the old or layeth any tax or sums of monies upon his Subjects without the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and it may be some other particulars which the Lawyers know better then I. And all these Priviledges of the Subjects are but limitations and restrictions of the King 's right made by themselves unto their people and therefore where the Law cannot be produced to confirm such and such Liberties and Priviledges granted unto them I say there the King's power is absolute and the Subject ought not in such cases to determine any thing to the disadvantage of the King because all these Liberties that we have are injoyed by vertue of the King's grant as you may see in the ratification of Magna Charta where the King saith We have granted and given all these Liberties But I could never see it produced where the King granted unto his Subjects that 9 Hen. 3. they might force him and compel him with a strong hand by an Army of Souldiers to do what they will or else to take away either his Crown or his Life this Friviledge was never granted because this deprives the King of his supremacy and puts him in the condition of a Subject and would ever prove an occasion of rebellion when the people upon every discontent would take Arms against their King And therefore this present resistance is a meer usurpation of the King 's right a rebellion against his Lawes an High Treason against his Person and a resistance of the ordinance of God which heap of deadly sins can bring none other fruit then damnation saith the Apostle CHAP. XIV Sheweth the Kings grants unto his people to be of three sorts Which ought to be observed the Act of excluding the Bishops oâ—t of Parliament discussed the King's Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have been procured and repealed 2. WE are to consider how far the King is obliged to observe his promise 2. The Kings obligation to observe his grants Peter de la Primandas saith Laws annexed to the Crown the Prince cannot so abrogate them but his Successor may disannul whatsoever he hath doneâ—â— prejudice of them p. 597. and to make good these Liberties and Priviledges unto his Subjects where I speak not how far the father's grant may oblige the son or the predecessor his successor who cannot be deprived of his right dominion by any act of his predecessors but for the rights of his dominion how far precedent grants and the custom of their continuance with the desuetude and non-claim of his right may strengthen them unto the Subject and oblige the successors to observe them I leave it unto the Lawyers and Civilians to dispute but I am here to discusse how far the King that hath promised and taken his oath to observe his Lawes and make good all priviledges granted to his Subjects is bound in conscience to keep and observe them Touching which you must understand that these grants of immunities and favours are of three special kindes For 1. Of grace 2. By fraud 3. Through fear 1. The King that hath his full right either by conquest or succession over his people to govern them as a most absolute Monarch and out of his meer 1. All grants of grace ought to be observed grace and favour to sweeten the subjection of his people and to binde them with the greater love and affection to his obedience doth minuere sua jura restrain his absolute right bestow liberties upon his people and take his oath for their security that he will observe them is bound in all conscience to perform them and can never be freed from injustice before God and man if he transgresse them Quia volenti fit non injuria because they do him no injury The true Law of free Monarchs p. 203. when he doth voluntarily either totally resign or in some particularity diminish his own right but after he hath thus firmely done it he can never iustly go from it and therefore King James saith that a King which governeth not by his Lawes can neither be accountable to God for his administration nor have a happy and established Raign because it cannot be but that the people seeing their King failing of his duty will be always murmuring and defective in their fidelity And Yet the King's breach of oath doth neither forfeit his right nor warrant their disloyalty because another mans sin doth no way lessen mine offence and neither God nor the King granted this priviledge unto Subjects to rebel and take Armes against their Soveraign when they pretend he hath broken his promise 2. When the King through the subtile perswasions of his people that pretend 2. Grants obtained through fraud which to be observed one thing and intend another shall be seduced to grant those things that are full of inconveniencies as our King was over-reached and no better then meerly cheated by the faction of this Parliament to grant the continuance of it till it should be dissolved with the consent of both Houses and the like Lawes that are procured by meer fraud that soonest over-reacheth the best meaning Kings I answer with the old Proverb Caveat emptor he ought to have been as wise to prevent them as they were subtile to circumvent him and therefore as Joshua being deceived by the Gibeonites could not alter his promise Josh 9. 20. nor break his league with them lest wrath should fall upon him so no more should any other King break promise in the like case But you must observe that the Psalmist saith The good man which shall Psal 15. 5. dwell in the Tabernacle of the Lord is he that sweareth unto his neighbour and disappointeth him not though it were to his own hinderance mark though it were Quicquid fit dolo malo annullat factum imponit poenam summa Angel to his own hinderance never so much he must perform it but what if he hath promised and sworn that which will be to the great dishonour of God to the hinderance of thousands of others and it may be to the ruine of a whole Kingdom which is a great deal more then his own hinderance is a King bound or is any man else