our which masked vnder the name of Martin a certaine Booke-seller who was knowne to haue dispersed many of them being examined vpon oath by some which were then of greatest place and authority within this Kingdome how many hee had sold made answere vpon his oath that within the space of eight or ten weekes hee had sold two thousand of them adding further that hee could haue vttered in the same space two thousand more if he had had them and that there was neuer any booke that pleased the people so well Good people you must thinke they were the while the true brood of Cham which could take such pleasure in a very scurrilous and dul booke a booke wherein in I will not say as one doth that wounds were ript vp with a laughing countenance but a booke wherein wounds were inflicted vpon the persons of reuerend and renowned Prelates by the pen of the libeller where indeede there were none at all That people should shew themselues so willing to behold the nakednesse of their spirituall fathers and that the reproches which were layd vpon them in that Libell which they should haue lamented and bewailed with many teares if they had beene true should reioyce their hearts and tickle them with delight and pleasure being false and faigned this shewes that they were led by the same spirit that was in Cham and brought the curse vpon him Let vs therefore take heede how wee vnloose our tongues and set them at liberty to speake euill of them that are in authority or lend our eares to them that doe it for hee that speaketh someth out his owne shame and hee that loues to heare it loues to see the nakednesse of his owne father and both shall be in danger of wrath and iudgement for it 3. The last point of dutie that we owe to the Magistrate goes downe into the heart and there requires a reuerent conceit and estimation of him They that haue scanned the nature of those passions that God hath put into the heart of man obserue that reuerence is a mixt affection and is compounded of these two Loue and Feare which are the two affections that God requires of vs. The one as a Father the other as a Lord. If I bee your Father where is my loue If I be your Lord where is my feare So then we rouerence the Magistrate when wee loue him for his goodnesse and for his greatnesse and power doe feare and stand in awe of him being desirous to keepe our credit and reputation with him and to be held in his good opinion and fearing to giue any the least occasion to be brought before him as euill doers If this affection this reuerend conceit of the Magistrates person were as it ought to bee truely imprinted in the hearts of men who sees not what good it would doe and what a singular holpe and furtherance it would be to all order and gouernement both in the Church and Common-wealth For although it bee true that the feare of God is the true Fountayne of all vertue yet as Saint Austen saith of slauish feare that it is vnto Charitie as a needle to the threed it is many times a meanes to bring in Charitie so we may say of the reuerence of man That though it be not the true Fountayne of vertue yet it is many times a meanes to bring vs to the true Fountayne They that stand in feare of Men may easily bee led on further to the feare of God Againe the feare of Men though it be not able to breed true godlinesse yet it is a bridle to sinne For Qui malè agere non verentur videri tamen verecundantur Men that are not afraid to sinne are yet afraid and ashamed that the world should see them sinne Now of such there is some hope But when men haue lost modesty which as Bernard truly saith is not only Gemma in vita vultu adolescentis a jewell of great price in the life of a young man but Omnium ornatus aetatum a beautie to old men and an ornament to euery age Cum non verecundantur when they are past all shame and cannot blush when they haue not only paued their hearts with adamant but also couered their faces with brasse when they declare their sinnes as Sodom and care not to hide them no not from the face of the Magistrate himselfe when they haue proceeded so farre in sinne that not only the feare of God but also the shame and reuerence of the world are fled together and departed from them such men are in a very dangerous estate if not wholly desperate there is little hope of such or none at all Whereby we may perceiue what a great mischiefe it is in a Common-wealth when the faces of those men are made vile which should be honourable amongst the people and when contempt is by Libellers and Raylers cast vpon them For when the feare of God and feare of Man are both taken away then all the pales that should keepe men within the compasse of order and obedience are vtterly broken downe and a wide gap is laid open to all manner of sinne and libertie And therefore they which haue the charge of this Common-wealth as they loue the beating downe of sinne and the growth of vertue amongst vs so let them endeauour to maintayne to the vtmost of all their power that reuerence which is due to the Princes seate and let them also be carefull of their owne credit and reputation For by that meanes I am out of doubt if not the heart of the wicked yet his colour and his custome will be somewhat changed and one of the pales of obedience at the least shall bee maintayned amongst vs and kept standing And let this suffice for the first part of my Text concerning the dignitie and high calling of the Magistrate and our duties that depend vpon it 2. I am now at length come vnto the second part concerning the dutie of the Magistrate vpon which part you shall not need to feare so long a discourse as you had vpon the former As the time will not beare it so I hope there be not the like need of it The people you see had need to bee taught their dutie to the Magistrates and therefore I haue stood the longer vpon that point but I hope I may presume that the Magistrates to whom I speake in such abundance of knowledge wherewith God hath endued them and after so long experience are not now to learne their dutie And therefore it may suffice to put them in mind of it It consisteth you see on two parts whereof 1. The first is the protection of the iust and innocent For he is the Minister of God saith the Apostle for thy good How for thy good Not to promote thee to honour not to giue thee land or liuing or money out of his purse except he will himselfe For in these matters of bountie and charitie the Magistrate hath the same
say of these great and eminent places in the Common-wealth Non est facile stare loco Dauidis It is not an easy matter to sit in one of Dauids thrones the bramble perhaps may thinke it a thing of nothing but the Fig-tree the Oliue and the Vine will bee afraid to venter on it And why Because they know what a burden and a charge belongs vnto it and what accounts depend vpon it For vnto whomsoeuer much is giuen of him shall much bee required saith our Sauiour God when he hath once aduanced men to places of honour and authority when hee hath taken them out of the dust and set them among Princes to inherit the seate of Glory as Hanna speaketh when hee hath made them Pillars of the earth and set the world vpon them he lookes that they should serue him more strictly then common and ordinary men he lookes for more exact obedience from them then any other There is no kind of benefit in the world but brings a kind of bondage with it And much more this the greatest of all earthly blessings And therefore of all men the Magistrate may best say Beneficium accepi libertatem amisi God hath aduanced me to this height hee hath made me a Ruler and a commander ouer others and therefor I haue lost a great deale of that liberty that is left to others Caesari cui omnia licent propter hoc ipsum multa non licent Euen Caesar himselfe because hee is aboue law because he may doe all things for this very cause may not doe many things saith the wise Seneca many things that other men may lawfully doe And as the respect of their high aduancement doth abridge their liberty so doth it agrauate their sinne For what was it else that made the sinne of Saul so haynous and vnpardonable in sparing Agag and the best things but only this circumstance of his aduancement For when thou wast little in thine owne eyes saith Samuel thou wast made the head of all the tribes of Israel And so Nathan to Dauid God hath annointed thee King ouer Israel and deliuered thee out of the hands of Saul and thou hast slaine Vriah the Hittite with the sword euen thou which wast so much bound vnto God for his loue vnto thee thou which wast taken from the Sheep-fold and from following the Ewes to be made King ouer Israel thou hast done this wickednesle Heare therefore O yee Kings and vnderstand learne yee that bee Iudges of the earth Your places are high and honourable your power is giuen you of the Lord. But if you that bee the Ministers of his Kingdome shall not iudge aright nor keepe the Law nor walke after the counsaile of God horribly and fearefully shall he come vpon you For a sharpe iudgement shall bee to them that are in high places mercy will soone pardon the meanest but mighty men shall be mightily tormented saith the Author of the booke of Wisedome Let no man therefore bee so idle to thinke that where the dignitie high calling of the Magistrate is treated of there is or can be any intent or meaning in the speaker to puffe vp his heart with the breath of vanity or that any wise Magistrate will suffer his heart to rise with it There is another end and purpose in it which is our instruction that we seing the height and excellency of his calling and being assured that it is of God might learne thereby what honour and duty and seruice we owe vnto him This is a point of duty which the dignity and high calling of the Magistrate doth plainely teach vs and as the times now are it is a point of duty then which there is nothing more needefull to be taught and learned That I may speake therefore briefly and distinctly of it As God requires at our hands not onely outward obedience in our deeds and actions but also that wee honour him with our words and that our hearts be vpright in his sight so the Magistrate that sits in Gods Seate and hath his authority in his hands may iustly challenge all these things from vs. The very height and excellency of his calling doth enforce them all For he is the Minister of God saith the Apostle therefore wee ought to obey him Hee is the Minister of God therefore wee ought not to reproch him or reuile him but to speake all good of him He is the Minister of God therefore we ought not to hate him or despise him but to carry a reuerent conceit and estimation of him 1. Now for the first of these You must vnderstand that when wee speake of obedience to humane Lawes we doe not meane obedience without exception but obedience vnder condition and limitation So long as the Magistrate commands nothing by his Lawes that is preiudiciall to our duety towards God so long we must obey But if he command vs to doe those things that are vnlawfull in that case in stead of obedience we bring subiection We must not be obedient then but euen then we must bee subiect In all other cases in matters that are apparently good in ciuill offices in affaires of the Common-wealth in matters of iustice and in all such things as are in their owne nature indifferent and those are such as are neither cōmanded nor forbidden in the Word of God we must not only be subiect but obedient also Giue vnto Caesar the things that are Caesars saith Christ. Submit your selues to all manner of ordinance saith Peter Let euery soule bee subiect to the higher powers saith Paul in the beginning of this Chapter And in the third to Titus Put them in remembrance that they be subiect to Principalities and Powers and that they be obedient to euery good worke So then wee must bee subiect simply and without exception obedient only in those things that are good Good for our selues good for the Church or good for the Common-wealth wherein we liue And we must not our selues bee Iudges what is good but submit our owne iudgement to the iudgement of our Gouernours except we find that the things commanded bee plainly and directly forbidden in the Word in which case wee must bee subiect still though not obedient This was you see the Doctrine of Christ this was the Doctrine of Peter and Paul no other Doctrine taught or thought of in the Christian world for sixe hundred yeares after Christ as may appeare not onely by the Books and Writings of all the Fathers of those seuerall ages but specially by the practice and example of all those noble and renowned Martyrs which liued in the very heate of the Furnace in those long and bloudie times contayning the succession of ten seuerall Persecutions vnder the most cruell Heathen Emperours Against whom they neuer offered to make head neuer went about to practise treason neuer attempted to take vp armes notwithstanding that they were as Tertullian witnesseth both more in number and greater in strength then any other Nation or
Kingdome in the whole world yet because they were otherwise instructed where they could not yeeld obedience they yeelded their subicction neuer drawing any other sword against their enemies but onely the sword of the Spirit neuer putting on any other armour for their defence but onely the armour of Patience neuer thinking of any other siege but onely how they might besiedge God with their teares and prayers How hath the pride and tyrannie of that Romish Antichrist despised this Doctrine and trod it vnder foote while sitting in the Temple of God as God and exalting himselfe aboue all that is called God he is not afraid to tell the World that all power is giuen him both in earth and heauen and to say with Satan in the fourth of Luke All the Kingdomes of the world are mine and I giue them to whom I will In the height of which presumption what reuell hath hee kept in the World What Tragedies hath hee brought vpon the Stage What sport hath hee made with the Scepters and Crownes of Princes setting his feet vpon their necks roring against them in his Bulls discharging their Subiects of their allegeance exposing their Persons to all hazards and proclayming it not onely lawfull but meritorious when the Trumpet is once blowne and the signe giuen out of Peters Chaire for euery priuate man to lay violent hands vpon them and to kill them For so Mariana the Spanish Iesuite tells vs that it is a glorious thing to roote out euill Princes from the societie of men and that it is salutaris cogitatio a wholsome thought for Princes in a morning next their hearts to thinke they liue vpon these termes that if they doe not gouerne as they ought they may not onely lawfully but with a great deale of commendation bee killed and murdered See here what a brawle and what a contrariety is growne betwixt the Apostles and the Bishop of Rome Saint Peter and Saint Peters successors as they cal themselues Saint Peter and Saint Paul doe charge and command the people to bee subiect euen to the most wicked Heathen Tyrants that euer liued and that not onely for feare of wrath but euen for conscience sake their successors in these later times labour nothing more then to steale away the hearts of the people and to withdraw their obedience and subiection from their naturall and true Christian Princes and to lay them open to the sword of the wicked if once they refuse to receiue their marke into their right hands and to giue their Kingdomes to them And this they haue not laboured without effect Our owne age hath shewed vs tragicall examples in this kind more then one and former stories tel vs of so many that had they not beene more vnsatiable then the Graue or the Sea they had surely beene glutted long since with the bloud of Princes there being no age since this mysterie began to worke wherein they haue not made hauocke of one or other The time will not suffer me to pursue these miscreants any longer in their bloudy paths and therefore I must leaue them to the iust iudgement of God which hath begun alreadie with them and hath made such a breach vpon that Tower of theirs whose strength and height did but in the former age seeme to terrifie the earth and threaten heauen that it begins you see to totter and is so battered on euery side that wee may easily perceiue it hath but a small time to stand But in the meane season I am sorry that our owne desects and wants in this very point of obedience should call mee froth them Is it possible that in a reformed Church a Church wherein the Romish pride and tyranny is so iustly condemned a Church wherein the Gospell is so plentifully preached a Church which hath not locked vp the Word of God but laid it open and put it into the hands of all her children there should be so little conscience made of yeelding obedience to a most Christian Magistrate commanding honest and lawfull things To speake nothing of the Ceremonies of our Church against which there is such an head and opposition made by factious spirits which being in their owne nature things indifferent when once they be agrred vpon by the State and commanded by authority doe cease to be indifferent to priuate men to take or leaue how are the very Ciuill Lawes of our Land neglected nay despised and scorned amongst vs It was wont to be said of our Lawes as Solon said of his that they were like vnto Spiders webs that great flies brake through them at their pleasure little flies were only taken in them It is not now so well Our Lawes will not hold so much as the little flies The meanest that be will not sticke to breake them Let me giue you but one instance in this kinde by which you may iudge of therest And that is the Law that is in force concerning abstinence from flesh during the time of Lent Which abstinence being enioyned not out of a superstitious conceit of holynesse or merit for as I remember there is another statute that layes a penalty vpon all them which shall broach any such opinion must needs bee acknowledged to be as honest a politique Law as euer was deuised both for the maintenance of Nauigation the preseruation of the young breede of Cattell the encrease of plenty amongst vs yet how is this law contemned and despised and laught at It is not now broken as it was wont to be by a few in corners but it is openly broken by the poore as well as the rich in euery mans house and sight without any shame or feare as if there were no Law at all for it You will say perhaps that this proceedes from the negligence of vnder officers that looke not better to it Pardon me in that I know the Officers may be in fault but this cuill hath a deeper roote It is want of knowledge want of instruction that hath brought the people to this liberty They are not plainely taught out of the Word of God how farre forth they are bound in conscience to yeeld obedience to humane Lawes For although it bee true that municipal Lawes doe not bind eternally nor vniuersally nor vnder paine of damnation and therefore cannot be said to bind the conscience directly but by consequent only yet I hope it will be granted on all hands that the fift Commandement bindeth the conscience by force whereof wee are bound to yeeld obedience to the Magistrate commanding lawfull things and things profitable for the Commonwealth And although in the vse of meates and drinke and all things else that are indifferent wee bee left vnto our Christian liberty yet wee must not thinke that this liberty is a boundlesse liberty For God hath set vnto it foure bounds which we cannot passe without sinne The bound of Piety the bound of Loyalty the bound of Charity the bound of Temperance and Sobriety So that although all
not take vpon me to iudge and censure that Epistle whether it tend not to too much lenitie and remissenesse yea or no. But if the manner of ancient Bishops was to intreat and begge for pardon it is not meete for vs to call for vengeance and bloud out of the Pulpit Besides I know the old Rule which tells vs It is better to answer God for mercy then for iustice and safer for a Magistrate to saue the liues of many malefactors then to cast away one innocent For if a malefactor chance to scape at one time the Hand of God is able to reach him at another but if an innocent die God may receiue him into his mercy and will if he die as a faithfull Christian ought but it lies not in the power of man to make him satisfaction for the wrong But notwithstanding all this they which are in authority had neede to take heede in what cases they shew mercy For by the example of Ioshua who destroyed Achan and his house for stealing the Babylonish garment contrary to the expresse commandement of God by the example of Moses who caused the men of Israel to take vengeance one of another and euery man to turne his sword into the bosome of his owne brother for their cursed Idolatry by the example of Phinees which slew the adulterer and adulteresse both together and pierced them through with his Iaueline in all which places the wrath of God was appeased towards the people so soone as the execution was done and not before I say by these and many other examples that might be produced it is plaine and euident that in horrible transgressions in haynous and crying sinnes there is no way to remoue the wrath of God and euill from a common State but by remoouing and taking away the euill and wicked persons from among the people Take heede therefore and beware and looke to thy selfe thou that art a transgressor of the Law If thou doe euill feare saith the Apostle for hee beareth not the sword in vaine like the picture of Saint Paul in a glasse-window or like an Image in a stone wall in whose fingers there be no ioynts and whose armes cannot be mooued For he will draw it forth for the punishment of wickednesse and sinne and smite through the loynes of the vngodly For as the great Romane Oratour could say of himselfe Natura me clementem respublica seuerum fecit So truely I make no question of our Magistrates generally through the whole Kingdome but that they haue hearts of flesh that their bowels are full of compassion that nature made them inclineable to mercy and pity Mollissima corda Humano generi aare se Natura fatetur Quae lacrimas dedit Wee see they giue iudgement vpon Malefactors many times with teares in their eyes and therefore no doubt their hearts are made of flesh but the necessitie of the Common-wealth and the zeale of Gods glory in rooting out sinne must make them sometimes seuere And so wee see they are wee cannot iustly charge them that they are any way defectiue in their duty for this point a great number of malefactors are cut off at these two times of Assises within this Kingdome And a great number at euery monethly Sessions in the City of London And yet notwithstanding wee see the Goales are no sooner empty but presently they are filled againe and the number of malefactors is great still though by no meanes any way so great as it would be if Iustice were wanting And therefore I could wish if it were possible that there were some course taken for the better breeding of this kinde of people that they were not suffred to liue in idlenesse nor lurke in Ale-houses which wee may call as well Pesthouses for in my conscience they are the very plague and bane of this Kingdome where all malefactors take their chiefe infection and that there were some course also taken to compell them to come to Church To which purpose because I find that such kind of people are seldome presented to the Ecclesiasticall Courts and because there is nothing of force sufficient to keepe people in order and obedience if the feare of God be wanting my desire and petition is that the Statute which layes a forfeiture of twelue pence a day on euery one that comes not to his Parish Church may bee reuiued and duely executed A matter giuen in charge I see and much talked of but as yet there is nothing done in it I am perswaded it would bee a very great and powerfull meanes to hinder the growth of sinne as S. Austen saith of the Donatists that though they were compelled to come to Church against their wils yet being once there they were many of them taken in the net of Gods Word and made good Christians so many of these idle persons being compelled to come in might also be taken and made profitable members which now for want of breeding and instruction proue nothing else but a burden to the earth that beares them a reproch to their parents that begat them and a plague to the Common-wealth wherein they liue And with this Petition I end FINIS