might be possest of that fear qui cadit in fortem constantem virum for mine eyes did see them and mine ears did hear it said What Bishop soever they met they would be his death and I thanked God they knew not me to be a Bishop Then they set upon Saint Peters Church of Westminster Their furious assault upon Saint Peters Church in Westminster burst part of the door to pieces and had they not been most manfully withstood by the Arch-Bishop of York his Gentlemen and the Prebends Servants together with the Officers of the Church they had entred and likely ransacked spoyled and defaced all the Monuments of the Ancient Kings broken down the Organs and committed such Sacriledge and prophanation of that Holy place as their fellow Rebels have done since in Canterbury Winchester Worcester and other places whereof I shall speak hereafter the like was never seen among the Turks and Pagans and after these things what rage cruelty and barbarity they would have shewed to the Dean and Prebends we might well fear but not easily judge I am sure the Dean was forced to hire Armed Souldiers to preserve the Church for many daies after for seeing these riotous Tumults could not as yet obtain their ends they came nay they were brought again and again and they justled and offered some violence unto the Arch-Bishop's Grace as he went with the Earl of Dover into the Parliament House which made him and the rest of his brethren justly to fear what might be the issue of these sad beginnings which they conceived must needs be very lamentable if timely remedy were not applied to prevent these untimely frights and unchristian tumults Therefore when no Complaints either to the House of Lords or Commons could produce any safe effects but rather a frivolous excuse than a serious redress that they came to petition against the Government and not to seek the destruction of the Governours the Bishops were inforced and in my judgment flesh and blood could take no better course in such a case in such distress and I believe it will be found wisdom hereafter to make their Petition for their security and Protestation against all Acts as null they might have added to them and whom they represented that should be enacted in their unwilling absence while they were so violently hindered from the House and it may be some word might pass in this Protestation that might be bettered or explained by another word yet on such a suddain in such a fright when they scarce had time to take Counsel of their pillows or to advise with their second thoughts quae semper sunt saniores To watch for iniquity to turn aside the Esay 29. 20 21. just for a thing of nought to take advantage of a word or to catch men for one syllable to charge them with High Treason to bring them unto death so many Reverend Bishops to such a shameful end was more heavy than ever I find the Jews were to the old Prophets or the Pagan Tyrants unto the Primitive Fathers nor do I believe you can Parallel the same charge in any History yet 3. For this one necessitated Act of the Bishops the House of Commons 3. How they were committed to Prison do suddainly upon the first sight thereof charge twelv of them with High Treason they were not so long Condemning it as the Bishops in Composing it and accordingly the Lords commit them unto Prison And if this was Treason I demand why could they not prove it so to be Or if it was not why should such an House Flos Medulla regni the greatest and the Highest Court of Justice from which the King consenting with them there lieth none appeal but only to the Court of Heaven accuse them of High Treason I would not have that Court to charge a man with any thing that were not most true for certainly whosoever unjustly compasseth my death is justly guilty of death himself when as the Poet saith Lex non justior ulla Quà m necis artifices arte perire suâ It may be they would have us to believe this Treason was not proved nor the charge so fully followed as they intended out of some mercy to save their lives but I could sooner believe they rejâ—yced to see them fear and were glad of their mistake that they might charge them and by such a charge cast them into prison that so they might the more easily work their Design to cast them out of the Parliament which now they have soon effected and procured an Act for their exclusion And you must know that to cast out from doing good or serving God is a work of the Divel and not of God so the wicked Husbandmen did cast out the right Heir of the Vine-yard out of his own inheritance so the The consquentes of this Act. Jews did cast out the blind man and all that professed Christ out of their Synagogue But you may better judge of this good Act by these consequences which are like to be the fruits thereof 1. Hereby they are all made incapable to do any good either for Gods 1. Made incapable of doing any good honour or their neighbours benefit by executing justice or pronouncing judgment in any cause in any temporal Court and justice which long agon hath fled to Heaven and wanders as a stranger here on earth must be countenanced and entertained only by the sons of men by secular Lords and Gentlemen and the Spiritual Lords the Servants of God and messengers of Heaven must have nothing to do with her not because they are not as well able as any other to do justice but because the others cannot endure to let them see it for fear they should hinder their injustice and therefore justice and judgment are like to speed well on earth when their chiefest friends are banished from them and it may be worldlings oppressours or most ignorant youths rather than any just understanders of their natures must be their Judges 2. Hereby they are made unable to defend themselves or their calling 2. Made unable to defend themselves from any wrong their respect was little enough before and their indignities were great enough and yet now we are exposed to far greater miseries and to 〈◊〉 injuries when a Bishop hath not so much Authority as a Constable â—â— withstand his greatest affronts But hoc Ithacus est this is that which the Devil and his great Atreides's his prime Champions to enlarge his Kingdom would fain have our Souls to remain among Lions and all the means or defence to be taken from us our enemies to be our Judges and our selves to be murdered with our own weapons In the time of Popery there were many Laws de immunitate Clericorum whereby we were so protected that the greatest Prince could not oppress us as you may find in the Reign of King John and almost in all our Histories and when we renounced the Pope
speak it though I should die for it and if some did not speak it I think the stones would cry against it and proclaim it Better for the Clergy were their hope only in this world never to have been born or at least never to have seen a Book then to fall into the hands and to be put under the censure of these men that do thus love Christ by hating his Ministers who as I said This Act more pâ—ejudâ—ciall to the future times than now before by this one Act are made liable to undergo all kind of evils which shall not only fall upon the present Clergy for were it so our patience should teach us to be silent but also to the increase of all prejudices to the Gospel more than my fore-sight can expresse in all succeeding Ages And therefore I may well say with Jeremy Shall not my soul be avenged Jer. 5. 9 29. on such a nation as this And we need not wonder that such plagues calamities and distresses have so much increased in this Kingdom ever since the passing of this Act and yet the anger of the Lord is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still and I fear his wrath will not be appâ—ased till we have blotted this and wiped away all other our great sins and transgressions with the truest tears of unfained repentance These are like to be the consequences of this Act And yet our good King who we know loved our Nation and built us a Synagogue and was as I assure my self most unwilling to passe it was notwithstanding over-perswaded considering where thirteen of the Bishops were even in prison and in what condition all the rest of them stood in question whether all they should stand or be cut down root and branch to yield His assent unto the Act though if the case in truth were rightly weighed not much lesse prejudicial to his Majesty than injurious to us to be thus deprived of our right and exposed to all miseries by excluding us from all Civil Judicature And I would to God the King and all the Kingdom did continually consider how his Majesty was used ever since the confirmation of this Act for they How the King hath been used ever since this Act passed no sooner had excluded the Bishops and Clergy out of their right but presently they proceeded and prosecuted the Design ever since to thrust out the King from all those just Rights and Prerogatives which God and Nature and the Laws of our Land have put into his hands for the Government of this Kingdom neither was it likely to succeed any otherwise as I have fully shewed and I would all Kings would read it in the Grand Rebellion But I see no reason why it may not and why it should not be reâ—racted That the Act should be annulled and annulled when the Houses shall be purged of that Anabaptistical and Rebellious Faction that contrived and procured the same to Passe for these three special Reasons 1. Because that contrary to all former Precedents that Bill for their 1. Reason exclusion was as it is reported at the first refused and after a full hearing among the Lords it was by most Votes by more than a dozen voices rejected And yet to shew unto the World that the Faction's malice against the Bishops had no end and their rage was still implacable at the same Session and which is very considerable immediately assoon as ever they understood it was rejected the House of Commons revived it and so pressed it unto the Lords that if I may have leave to speak the truth contrary to all right * For I conceive this to be â—â— approved Maxim That no Right no. proved forfited by some offence can be taken away without wrong 2. Reason In his Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16. of July p. 8. it must be again received and while the Bishops were in prison it was with what honour I know not strangely confirmed 2. Because this Bill had the Royall assent after that a most riâ—tous tumult and many thousands of men with all sorts of Warlike weapons both on land and water most disloyally had driven His Majesty to flie from London that most Rebellious City not without fear for his own safety even for the safety of his life as himself professeth And when they had so cunningly contrived their Plot as to get some of the Kings servants and friends that were about him and imployed in the Queens affairs to perswade Her Majesty to use all her power with the King for the passing of this Bill or else Her journey should be stayed as formerly they had altered Her resolution for the Spaw and at Rochester she should understand the sense of the House to stop Her passage unto Holland whereas the passing of this Bill might make way for Her passage over And many other such frights and fears they put both upon the King and Queen to inforce Him full sore against his will as we believe to passe this harsh Bill for the exclusion of the spiritual Lords out of the House of Peers and of all the Clergy from all Secular Judicature But Master Pym will tell us as he did that it was the opinion of both Houses There was no occasion given by any tumults that might justly cause His Majesties departure To whom I answer with the words of Alderman Garraway If the Houses Ald. Oar. speech at Guild-hall had declared that it had been lawful to beat the King out of Town I must have sate still with wonder though I should never believe it but when they declare matters of Fact which is equally within our own knowledge and wherein we cannot be deceived as in the things we have seen with our eyes if they dissent from truth they must give me leave to differ from them As if they should declare They have paid all the money that they owe unto the City or that there * For now I understanâ— it is pulled down was no Crosse standing in Cheapside we shall hardly believe them And therefore seeing we all remember when the Alarm was given that there was an attempt from Whitehall upon the City how hardly it was appeased and how no Babies thought the Design of those subtile heads that gave that false Alarm was no lesse than to have caused Whitehall to be pulled down and they that loved the King and saw the Army both by land and water which accompanied the persons accused to Westminster the next day after His Majesties departure as if they had passed in a Roman Triumph conceived the danger to be so great that I call Heaven to witness they blessed God that so graciously put in the Kings heart rather to passe away over-night though very late than â—azard the danger that might have ensued the day following The meaning therefore of both Houses may be That there was nothing done which they confessed to
all Eternity yet Sin brought forth death into the world and Death went over all and so all are become nothing but meer vanity And truly there cannot be a greater contrariety betwixt light and darkness or The difference betwixt Vanity and Eternity seen a further distance betwixt East and West Heaven and Hell than is betwixt Vanity and Eternity as you may see by the Names of the one and the Nature of the other For 1. Vanity which the Greeks and the Septuagint here call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrews 1. By the names of Vanity to shew the nature of it do express the same by many very significant words as the Learned in that language do declare and especially by these four words 1. By Elil which they say signifieth nothing or a thing of no moment in 1. Elil 1 Cor. 8. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sense St. Paul saith That an Idol is nothing in the world as if he had said An Idol is Al-el not God because the Idols are not Elohim Gods that shall continue but Elilim that is things of nothing and things which shall be reduced into nothing And the Hebricians say that this word Elil hath great affinity with the verb Ialal which signifieth to howl because the following after Vanities and the vain things of this world or the serving of Idols and worshipping of Images which is the vainest thing in the world can bring nothing unto us but weeping What the following after Vanities doth bring to us and howling which the Latines call Vlulatus and Vlulatus is derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifieth Perire in nihilum redigere to perish and be utterly undone or to be reduced into nothing even as the Psalmist saith of all Idolaters Confounded be all they that worship carved Images and Psal 97. 7. that delight in vain gods and as St. James saith of those rich Worldlings that follow after the vanities of this world Weep and howl for your miseries that shall James 5. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Hebel come upon you 2. By Hebel which in Eccles 1. 1. is written Habel from the verb Habal which signifieth to vanish as a thing Quae non est quidpiam aut quae citò desinit which either is not any thing at all or which suddenly perisheth like unto a blast either is nothing or is of such a short continuance as though it were nothing at all Sic enim Infantem Haebraei halitum appellant for so the Hebrews do call their Infants blasts saith Sanctes Pagninus and such a blast was Habel whose righteous soul by an unexpected death was suddenly blown up to heaven to cry against the unnatural cruelty of his brother And accordingly to this signification of Hebel the Greeks express the same thing by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vilescere to grow vile and to be of no validity or no worth in the world as are all the things of this world in comparison of the Philip. 3. 8. heavenly things no better than dung and dross as the Apostle speaketh 3. By Caza which signifieth a lie and hath great affinity with the verb Caschaph 3. Caza to bewitch as they are as it were bewitched that are seduced to believe lies instead of truth even as St. Paul saith unto the Galathians Who hath bewitched you That is deceived and seduced you from the truth of the Gospel Gal. 3. 1. to believe the lies and false doctrine of the Hereticks and the new-sprung Preachers that are amongst you And so the Prophet David calleth all the vain things of this world Lying vanities saying O ye sons of men how long will ye blasphâ—me Psal 4. 2. mine honour and have such pleasure in vanity and seek after leasing That is such lying things as do bewitch men to love them and to hunt after them like those little children that run up and down all day long to câ—tch Butterflyes or Feathers and when they have catched them they have noâ—hing but such fruitless things as are of no value but like the Spiders web that will be no garment for them 4. By Rik which signifieth inanity or vacinity from whence the word 4. Rik Raka that our Saviour useth in the Gospel and is taken for a fool whose head is empty and void of all understanding is derived for as when Kings are deprived of their Soveraignty disrobed of their power dis-joyned from their Regality they are as no bodies I am sure no Kings and as Bishops silenced from preaching and secluded from their Offices are no Bishops but as when Cyphers are separated from their Figures they do make just nothing at all though they should be never so many even so the creature dis-joyned from God and opposed to the Creator and so likewise shadows opposed to the substance darkness to the light lies unto the truth and all finite things to eternity they are inania most vain and nothing but privations or things that do suddenly vanish into nothing Out of all which words and the like that are used to explain this Vanity that Aristot Phisic l. 2. Definition of Aristotle may well stand Vanum id esse quod ordinatum est ad aliquid sicut ad finem non potest attingere that is vanity which cannot attain unto the end for which it was appointed for so the Prophet Esay after he had preached a Isa 49 4â— long time and had made many Sermons for the amendment of the Jews and yet could no more recal that stiffenecked people from their abominations than we can reclaim our hearers from their transgressions crieth out In vacuum laboravi I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for naught and so man by his sin and disobedience unto his God not attaining unto his end that is his Vnion and communion with God for which he was created and by which he should have enjoyed an everlasting happy Being is now become vain and liable to be reduced to an eternal miserable Being and to a far worser condition than an everlafting nothing And so you see what is Vanity But 2. The opposite thereof which is Verity and is derived a verâ— from that 2. The nature of Verity and Eternity which is a thing real and not fained or else a vere from the Spring-time because the Truth is alwaies fresh and springeth and is sufficient to subsist of it self and will prevail as Zorobabel saith against all affaults and such a thing is Eternity which is diametrically opposed unto Vanity and is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bâ—â—tius de consolat Philosop l. 5. that is Interminabilis vit aesimul tota perfecta possessio an infinite boundless gulph of time which no line can fathom no tongue can express saith Bâ—â—tius because not only if you do retrospect and look backward
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
in their case for all the lands and houses that they have For as when Antigonus asked the Philosopher Cleanthes that was Zeno's Scholler and had learnedly written of the Sun and Moon and Stars and other points of Astronomy Why he carried water in the night and did grinde at the Quern or Mill Cleanthes answered He was inforced to be thus occupied to get his living when he had no other means to maintain himself So when God shall demand of the Bishops and Ministers Why they do not study to teach his people and bestow alms on his poor creatures but look after their husbandry and follow after the affairs of the world and to do as many times my self have been inforced to do many base and servile works for want of means to hire other labourers and we shall answer as Cleanthes did This strange indignity is done unto us that we have no money to buy Books to study and to relieve the poor and to repair thy ruinous House nor scarce meanes to maintain our selves but by these unworthy wayes to get some small means of subsistance lest otherwise we should be forced with the Levite and his wife to lodge in the streets And when God shall reply again and demand How cometh this to passe when as the Kings Princes and other Noble men of the World the more excellent powerful and illustrious they are the more excellent and beneficial are the Places and Offices of their servants from whence it became a Proverb That no fishing to the Sea and no service to the Court. And I that am the Great and Almighty God of Heaven and the King of all Kings that do take pleasure in the prosperity of my servants and have promised riches and Psal 35. 27. Prov. 3. 16. c. 22. 4. honour to them that serve me and accordingly have allowed and commanded my Tythes and Oblations and the free gifts and will-offerings of my people to be inviolably set out and preserved for them that serve at mine Altar and yet notwithstanding all this that my Servants and Embassadors that are legati à latere should be in a poorer and a sadder condition than the servants of many mean Gentlemen and we shall answer It is true O Lord that thou art the Best Master in the World thy service is the most Honourable and the allowance that thou hast appointed for them is very ample and large and a most pentiful Royal Reward and we know that they which will faithfully serve thee shall want no manner of thing that Psal 34. 10. is good But the sons of Belial the off-spring of Baalam that loved the wages of unrighteousnesse have violated the covenant of Levi and rose up against him and being too strong for him have taken away the Tythes and Oblations the lands and the houses of thee our God into their possession and left the Church of Christ bare and naked to cry out Pellis ossa sum miser and that is the reason why we do not and cannot perform and do the service that thou requirest and we desire to do And then let the sacrilegious persons and the violaters of holy things The Souldiers that take away the goods and lands of the Church see what the Prophet saith of Levi and of his enemies for of Levi he saith Blesse O Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands And of his enemies he saith Smite thorough the loynes of them that rise up against him and of them that hate him smite them Deut. 33. 11. thorough and thorow that they rise not again And I do wonder that this prayer of Moses doth not make the hearts of all Church-robbers to shake and tremble when they do consider it But the enemies of God's Church that care not how much they pill and pluck from the Patrimony thereof and would have the Ministers and Bishops that are like fixed Stars in God's right hand to be like the Planets in the Zodiack that have no setled place but are carried about by an erratical and uncertain motion Yet cannot they endure to be termed sacrilegious but they cry out and say No and God forbid that they should take away any thing from the Church that belongs unto the Church So like the Jews that cried Templum Domini Templum Domini when they prophaned the same most of all their words are smoother than oil when in very deed they are very swords and will not be kept back from piercing us and Christ himself through our sides Therefore I will endeavour to shew unto them the truth and the equity The equity of the large and liberal maintenance of the Clergy of that large and liberal maintenance that God alloweth and is therefore due and not to be denied to the Bishops and the Ministers of the Gospel and this truth the Holy Scripture confirmeth many wayes As 1. That they should have maintenance it is manifest and few but mad men will deny it because the labourer is worthy of his hire and the Apostle Luke 10. 7. demandeth Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof or Who feedeth a flock and doth not taste of the milk thereof And no man 1 Cor. 5. 7. can deny but the Bishops and Ministers of God's Word are the Husbandmen and the Dressers of God's Vineyard and the Shepherds of his Flock And the same Apostle saith That they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple and they which wait at the Altar are partakers with the Aâ—tar Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach 1 Cor. 9. 13. 14. the Gospel should live of the Gospel And the other reasons that this our Apostle produceth are 1. A minori the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the corn is not to be muzled 2. A majori the Preachers of God's Word do minister unto the people spiritual graces therefore the people should not muzzle the mouths of their Preachers and keep back their carnal things from them They are so plain and so pregnant to prove that Ministers should have maintenance that our very adversaries cannot contradict it Yet for all this some fanatick spirits void of all reason do object That Obj. as Nehemiah because he feared God spared the people from those exactions of money and corn and wine which other Governours had taken from them and prayed the Nobility that they should exact no such things from Nehem 5. 15 16. v. 10 12. their brethren and called the Priests also and took an oath of them that they should do accordingly So the Bishops and Ministers of Christ should much rather spare their people and not exact such parts and portions from them as they do To this I answer That Nehemiah was a potent and a powerful man that Sol was able to maintain at his Table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and Rulers besides those that came unto him from among the Heathen
doth cause them to leave their Parishes and charge unlooked unto and their flock untaught and then the superstitious mendicant Friar cometh to instruct and lead the silly ignorant Irish as he pleaseth And truly to say what I think though I am far enough from Popery and from all Popish errors and superstitions as I hope all the Sermons that I have Preached and the Books that I have Printed can bear witness unto the World yet as Alexander Severus told an unruly Victualler that would not suffer the Christians to erect a Church in a place which he thought more convenient and fit for him to sell Ale in it That it was better God should be served in any place and in any way then that he should have his way and God not served in any place nor any way as I shewed to you before so I conceive it better to be Superstitious then Prophane better to be a Papist then an Atheist and better to have a Popish Priest to give some light to them that sit in darkness and some knowledge of Christ to them that otherwise would know nothing then not to have any Priest at all And therefore if you would abandon Popery and suppress all popish Priests out of Ireland which is my heart's desire then I desire withal that this and all other lewd and wicked customes be taken away the lands houses â—nd possessions of the Church be restored and all impropriations reduced to their first institution that so a sufficient Ministery may be maintained here in Ireland as they are in England and that the poor ignorant Irish may have honest and able Protestant Ministers and as many as may be of And to that end the natives according to the institution of the Colledge should be placed in the Colledge at Dublin the which thing hitherto they say hath been too much neglected their own Nation to live amongst them and to instruct them and then God will blesse this Nation and the true Protestant Religion will prosper and flourish and both we and they shall live happily together which otherwise will very hardly if ever come to pass Because that now we have not our knowledge by inspiration we cannot in an instant understand and speak all Tongues and we cannot work miracles but we must buy many Books to learn Languages and to get knowledge which the Apostles had without any Book and we must spend our time in reading writing studying and praying to God to assist us and to inable us to instruct our people and all this cannot be done without maintenance and means to do it And therefore where there is no sufficient maintenance there can be no sufficient Ministery no instructing of the people no true serving of God as it ought to be And what a heap of unspeakable mischiefs and miseries do these evil customes impropriations and taking away the land houses and pâ—ssessions of the Church bring amongst us And therefore seeing the Souldiers Captains and others of the Military rank that have gotten the lands of the Irish Rebels which for their service they have justly deserved have likewise unjustly seized upon Godâ— part and the lands houses and possessions of the Church and are as fast wedded to these evils as to their wives so that we can more easily overcome Golias or pull the club out of Hercules hands than our lands out of these mens fingers It is high time and I hope no good man will be offended with us for it to implore and most humbly to beg and beseech the help and assistance of our Most gracious King to redress these intolerable abuses and to drive away this three-headed Cerberus or rather this many-headed Hidra the manifold Sacriledge and the great oppression of the Church of Christ that is used in these dayes and especially in this Kingdom of Ireland at this time For I call Heaven and Earth to witness that ever since the monstrous undutiful and unnatural murder of that Most glorious Martyâ— your Majestie 's most dear Father my Most gracious Master Charles the First until the happy Arrival of your gâ—acious Majesty I lived more quietly and contentedly when all my Ecclesiastical Preferments were taken from me and not 20 pound per annum left me in all the world to maintain me than now I do when by your gracious goodnâ—sse all the Church Rights and Inheritances are commanded unresistably to be yielded unto us for your Majesty may be well assured that they which neither for love of Gods favour nor fear of his vengeance will observe Gods Commandments will never regard to obey your commandments And therefore many of our Military men Colonels Captains and others that fought for the Long-Parliament and Crumwell do with some of your Commanders that herein imitate them divide and teare the Revenues and Garment of the Church the Spouse of Christ worse than the Souldiers of Pilate did with the Coat of Christ And therefore now in mine old age well-nigh 80. years I am forced to bestow all my labour and take pains and many journeys which an old man can hardly do and spend all my means in Law which were better bestowed upon the poor to wring the Church-means out of their hands or suffer the same through my remisness to be swallowed down into the belly of Hell and leave my self to be liable to that great account which I must render for my neglect of doing mine uttermost endeavour to recover it at the last Day the which wonderful streight that I am put to doth wonderfully discontent and trouble me continually which makes me oftentimes to think that I were better to resign my Bishoprick if I knew it were no offence to God to some younger man that could better combate with these Golias's than for me to agonize as I do to recover my right who may well cry out with the Poet Impar congressas Achilli But the nearness of the time that I must render mine account of my Stewardship unto God hath strengthned me to write this Treatise against Sacriledge and especially the Sacriledge of this Climate and more particularly of this Diocesse of Ossory where the Irish behind me the English before me the Citizens of the Corporation of Kilkeny and Crumwells Captains on the one hand and your Majestie 's faithful Souldiers and Subjects in Anno 1649. on the other hand do all seem to me to become faithless unto Christ and to fight against God to take away the Inheritance of his Church from us that are his weak servants And it hath imboldned me likewise most humbly to supplicate your Majesty to take notice of these wrongs done unto us which you do not know and to assâ—â—t me to gain that right unto the Church which I without your Majesties assistance cannot do and to pardon me for my boldness and whatsoever else I have done amisse CHAP. XX. The Autheâ—r's supplication to Jesus Christ that he would arise and maintain his own cause which we his weak servants
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
station but would fain be promoted to higher dignity and because Moses and Aaron were setled in the government befâ—re them and they knew not how either to be adjoyned with them or advanced above them therefore discontent begat Envy and they began to pine away at their felicity and so our last English reads it They envied Moses Private meetings do often produce mischief 2. This sinne being thus conceived in the womb of the heart at last it commeth forth to birth at the mouth for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and they begin to murmure and mâ—tter among themselves and as Rebels use to have they have many private meetings and conventicles among themselves where they say We are all good we 2 Sam. 15. 3 4 are all holy and They are no better then we and as Absolon depraved his fathers government and promised justice and judgement and golden mountains unto the people if he were King so do they traduce the present government with all scandalous imputations and professe such a reformation as would make all people happy if they were but in Moses place or made over him or with him the Guardians and Protectors of Common-wealth And so now you see this ugly monster the son of Pride and Discontentment is born into the world and spreads it self from the inward thought to open words Then Moses hears the voyce of this infant which was not like the voyce of Jacob but of the Serpent which spitteth fire and poyson out of his mouth And therefore lest this fire should consume them and these mutterers prove their murderers Moses now begins to look unto himself and to answer for his brother he calleth these rebels and he telleth them that neither he nor his brother had ambitiously usurped but were lawfully called into those places and to make this apparent to all Israel he bad these rebels come out of their Castles to some other place where he might safely treat and conferre with them and that was to the Tabernacle of the Lord that is to the place where wisdom and truth resided and was from thence published and spread to all the people and there the Lord should shew them whom he had chosen And here I do observe the care and wisdom of the Prophet that at The wisdom of Moses the first appearance of their design would presently begin to protect his brother before their rebellion had increased to any strength for had he then delivered Aaron into their hands his hands had been so weakened that he had never been â—ble afterwards to defend himself to teach all Kings to beware that they yield not their Bishops and Priests unto the desires of the people which is the fore-runner of rebellion against themselves for as King Philip told the Athenians that he had no dislike to The witty tale of Demosthenes to save the Oratours and to assure all Kings that if Aarons tongue and the Prophets pen perswade not the conscience to yield obedience Moses's power and Joshua's sword may subdue the people to subjection but never retain them long without rebellion Evil men grow worse worse Vers 12. Vers 13. them but would admit them into his protection so they would deliver to him their Orators which were the fomenters of all mischief and the people were mad to do it till Demosthenes told them how the Wolf made the same Proposition unto the Sheep to become their friends and protectors so they would deliver their Dogs which were the cause of all discontent betwixt them and the Shee being already weary of their Dogs delivered them all unto the Wolves and then immediately the Wolves spared neither Sheep nor Lambs but tore them in pieces without resistance even so when any King yieldeth his Bishops unto the peoples Votes he may fear ere long to feel the smart of this great mistake Therefore Moses wisely delivereth not his brother but stoutly defendeth him who he knew had no wayes offended them and offered if they came to a convenient place to make this plain to all the people But as evil weeds grow apace and lewd sons will not be kept under so the more Moses sought to suppresse this sinne the faster it grew and spread it self to many branches from secret muttering to open rayling from inward discontent to outward disobedience They tell them plainly to their faces they will not come è Castris from their strong holds they accuse them falsely that Moses their Prince aymed at nothing but their destruction and to that end had brought them out of a good land to be killed in the wildernesse and contemning them most scornfully in the face of all the people whatsoever Moses bids them do they resolve to do the contrary So now Moses well might say with the Poet Moses is in a strait Fluctibus hic tumidus â—ubibâ—bus ille minax Quocunque aspicio nihil est nisi pontus aether And therefore it was high time this evil Weed should be rooted out or else the good corn shall be choaked these Rebels must be destroyed or they will destroy the Governours of Gods people and Moses now must wax angry Nam debet amor laesus irasci otherwise his meeknesse had been stupidnesse and his mercy had proved little better then cruelty when as to spare the Wolfe is to spoile the Sheep and because these great Rebels had with Absolon by their false accusations of their Governours and their subtle insinuations into the affections of the people stole away the hearts of many men therefore Moses must call for aid from Heaven and say Exsurgat Deus And let him that hath sent me now defend me So God must be the decider of this dissention as you may see he was in the next verse And by this you find Quid fecerunt what these Rebels did and how their sin was not Simplex peccatum but Morbus cumulatus a very Chaoâ— and an heap of confused iniquity for here is 1. Pride 2. Discontent 3. Envy 4. Murmuring 5. Hypocrisie 6. Lying 7. Slandering The ten fold sin of rebels 8. Rayling 9. Disobedience 10. Rebellion A Monster indeed that is a ten-headed or ten-horned beast 1. Pride which bred the distraction in the Primitive Church and will 1. Pride be the destruction of any Church of any Common-wealth was the first seed of their rebellion for the humble man will easily be governed but the proud heart like a sturdy Oak will rather break then bend 2. Discontent was the second step and that is a most vexatious vice for 2. Discontent though contentation is a rare blessing because it ariseth either from a frâ—ition of all comforts as it is in the glorious in Heaven or a not desiring of The poyson â—f discontent that which they have not as it is in the Saints on earth yet discontent is that which annointeth all our joyes with Aloes for though life be naturally sweet yet a little
Bowling and visiting Black-Friars Play-house or perhaps in worser exerciâ—es doth sufficiently shew how weak their judgment must needs be in great Affairs and how imperfect their conscience is as yet in holy things I hope not to be preferred before these grave and Reverend men And therefore lest these grave men should prove great hinderances of their unjust proceedings before any of their worst intentions be well perceived there must be an exclusion of them from Parliament and from those Lords whose consciences and knowledge they may then the better captivate and bring them the sooner to side with them for to effect their great Design And it is a world of wonders to see with what subtilty and industry with what Policy and Villany this one work must be effected It would fill a volume to collect the particulars of their Devices I will reduce them to these three heads A threefold practice against the Bishâ—ps 1. They used all means to render them odious in the eyes of all people 2. They brought the basest and the reffuse of all men water-men porters and the worst of all the apprentices with threats and menaces to thunder forth the death and destruction of these men 3. Upon a pretended treason they caused twelve of them besides the Arch-Bishop that was in the Tower before to be clapt up at once into prison where they kept them in that strong house until they got it Enacted that they should be excluded from the Vpper House and both they and their Clergy should be debarred from the Administration of any secular act of Justice in the Common-Wealth 1. To make them odious two waies 1. They endeavoured to make them odious unto the people two waies 1. In making that Order or giving that notice unto the people that 1. Way any man might exhibit his complaint against Scandalous Ministers and he should be heard which invitation of all discontented sheep to throw dirt in their Pastor's faces was too palpably malicious for our Saviour told us We should be sent as sheep into the midst of Woolvs but here is a sending for the Wolves to destroy the Shepheards and it came to pass hereby that no less then 900 complaints and petitions were brought in a very short space as I was informed by some of their own House that feelingly misliked these undue proceedings against many Learned and most faithful Servants of Jesus Christ that were therefore hated because they were not wicked and persecuted because they were conformable to the Laws of the King and the Church And the rest of our calling that were factious and Seditious The Ministers why persecuted were both countenanced and applauded in all their Seditious courses and the more they railed against our Church-Government the more they were favoured by these enemies of the Church-Governours As to instance in both particulars as you may find in the Author of the Sober Sadness p. 33. Master Squire Master Stone and Master Swadlin whom they have imprisoned and scarce allowed them straw to lye on Master Reading Master Griffith Master Ingoldsby Master Wilcocks and many others having done nothing worthy of death or of bonds are inserted into the black bill of Scandalous and superstitious Ministers only for Preaching Obedience to Soveraign-Authority and other points consonant to the Holy Scriptures and those that are scandalous indeed as Doctor Burgesse the ring-leader of all Sedition Doctor Downing that is reputed as variable as was Doctor Pern Master Calamy that is little better Master Harding a most vicious man Master Bridge a Socinian and Master Marshall not free from the suspicion of some unjust perswasions of the weaker Sex and many more such factious men are not only dispensed with for all faults but also rewarded and advanced for their inâ—idelity to God and disloyalty to His Vice gerent This the Author of the Sober Sadness affirmeth of them 2. By framing Petitions themselves as it is conceived in the name of 2. Way thousands of people from Cities and Countries that either never saw or never knew what was in them against Episcopacy and Episcopal men and then exhibiting the said petitions unto themselves and the rest of their seduced brethren to instigate others of their own faction that affected not Episcopacy and those offendors that by their Ecclesiastical censure were justly punished and yet thereby unjustly provoked to hate them to frame Petitions against Episcopacy how unjustly procured the like petitions against this Apostolical function and to make the World beâ—ieve how odious these Reverend men were in the judgment of so many millions of men which were indeed most ignorant and simple and which God knows and themselves afterwards confessed knew not what they did nor to what end their hands were purloyned from them under fair pretences that were alleadged for the Reformation of some abuses but were subscribed to most scandalous Petitions which the poor men utterly renounced when they understood how unchristianly they were seduced So strange were their plots to make the Bishops odioâ—s And yet you must not think that these courses are more strange than true for our Saviour tells his Apostles that were men beyond exceptions full of inspirations and abundantly indued with the gifts of sanctification They should be hated of all men for his names sake and if you look into the sufferings of Saint Paul and the most horrible imputations that were so scandalously raised against the Holy Fathers you need not admire so much to see these men suffering such things at the hands of sinners to be made the scorn of men and as the off scouring of the people as they were not long since when the Bishops and the most learned Preachers might pass with more honour and less contempt at Constantinople among the Turks or in Jerusalem among the Jews than in the City of London among this brood of Anabaptists 2. After they had thus brought them upon the Stage and used them 2. How the scum of the people threaten them thus strangely without cause they get Ven and Manwaring and others of the same Sect to gather together the scum of all the Prophanest rout the vilest of all men and the out-cast of the people such as Job saith are not worthy to eat with the dogs of the flock and as they came before for the Earl of Straffords head so now again they must come in great numbers without order without honesty against all Law and beyond all Religion with swords and staves and other unfashionable though not inconsiderable weapons to cry No Papists no Bishops and if they had added No God no Devil no Heaven no Hell then surely these men had obtained if the Parliament could have granted their requests the summ of their desires and they would have thought themselves better than either King or Bishop but as yet they go no farther than No Papist no Bishop and by this they put the good Bishops in great fear and well they
Sheweth the unjust proceedings of this Faction against their fellow-Subjects set down in four particular things p. 2â—9 Chap. XIII Sheweth the proceedings of this Faction against the Laws of the Land The Priviledges of Parliament transgressed eleven special wayes p. 292. Chap. XIV Sheweth how they have transgressed the publike Laws of the Land three wayes and of four miserable Consequences of their wicked doings p. 295. Chap. XV. Sheweth a particular recapitulation of the Reasons whereby their Design to alter the Government both of Church and State is evinced And a pathetical disswasion from Rebellion p. 301. JVRA MAJESTATIS THE RIGHTS OF KINGS BOTH IN CHURCH and STATE 1. Granted by God 2. Violated by the Rebels 3. Vindicated by the Truth AND The Wickednesses of the Faction of this pretended PARLIAMENT at Westminster 1. Manifested by their Actions 1. Perjury 2. Rebellion 3. Oppression 4. Murder 5. Robbery 6. Sacriledge and the like 2. Proved by their Ordinances 1. Against Law 2. Against Equity 3. Against Conscience PUBLISHED 1. To the eternal honour of our just God 2. The indeleble shame of the wicked Rebels And 3. To procure the happy peace of this distressed Land Which many fear we shall never obtain until 1. The Rebels be destroyed or reduced to the obedience of our King And 2. The breaches of the Church be repaired 1. By the restauration of God's now much prophaned service And 2. The reparation of the many injuries done to Christ his now dis-esteemed servants By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS Lord Bishop of OSSORY Impii homines qui dum volunt esse mali nolunt esse veritatem quâ condemnantur mali Augustinus Printed at LONDON Ann. Dom. 1662. TO THE KING'S most Excellent MAJESTY Most gracious Soveraign WITH no smal paines and the more for want of my books and of any setled place being multum terris jactatus alto frighted out of mine house and tost betwixt two distracted Kingdoms I have collected out of the sacred Scripture explained by the ancient Fathers and the best Writers of God's Church these few Rights out of many that God and Nature and Nations and the Lawes of this Land have fully and undeniably granted unto our Soveraign Kings My witness is in Heaven that as my conscience directed me without any squint aspect so I have with all sincerity and freely traced and expressed the truth as I shall answer to the contrary at the dreadful judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore with all fervency I humbly supplicate the divine Majesty still to assist Your Highness that as in Your lowest ebb You have put on Righteousness as a breast plate and with an heroick Resolution withstood the proudest waves of the raging Seas and the violent Attempts of so many imaginary Kings so now in Your acquired strength You may still ride on with Your honour and for the glory of God the preservation of Christ his Church and the happiness of this Kingdom not for the greatest storm that can be threatned suffer these Rights to be snatched away nor Your Crown to be thrown to the dust nor the Sword that God hath given You to be wrested out of Your hand by these uncircumcised Philistines these ungracious Rebels and the Vessels of God's wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse they do most speedily repent for if the unrighteous will be unrighteous still and our wickednesse provoke God to bring our Land to Desolation Your Majesty standing in the truth and for the right for the honour of God and the Church of his Son is absolved from all blame and all the bloud that shall be spilt and the oppressions insolencies and abhominations that are perpetrated shall be required at the hands and revenged upon the heads of these detested Rebels You are and ought in the truth of cases of conscience to be informed by Your Divines and I am confident that herein they will all subscribe that God will undoubtedly assist You and arise in his good time to maintain his own cause and by this war that is so undutifully so unjustly made against Your Majesty so Giant-like fought against Heaven to overthrow the true Church You shall be glorious like King David that was a man of War whose dear son raised a dangerous rebellion against him and in whose reign so much bloud was spilt and yet notwithstanding these distempers in his Dominion he was a man according to God's own heart especially because that from α to ω * As in the beginning by reducing the Ark from the Philistins throughout the midst by setling the service of the Tabernacle in the ending by his resolution to build leaving such a treasure for the erecting of the Temple the beginning of his reign to the end of his life his chiefest endeavour was to promote the service and protect the servants of the Tabernacle the Ministers of God's Church God Almighty so continue Your Majesty bless You and protect You in all Your wayes Your vertuous pious Queen and all Your royal Progeny Which is the dayly prayer of The most faithful to Your Majesty GRYFFITH OSSORY THE RIGHTS OF KINGS Both in CHURCH STATE And The Wickednesses of this Pretended PARLIAMENT Manifested and Proved CHAP. I. Sheweth who are the fittest to set down the Rights which God granted unto Kings what causeth men to rebell the parts considerable in S. Peters words 1 Pet. ii 17. in fine How Kings honoured the Clergie the â—aâ— but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefly aâ—me at and their malice to Episcopacie and Royaltie IT was not unwisely said by Ocham that great Scholeman Guliel Ocham Ludov. 4. to a great Emperour which M. Luther said also to the Duke of Saxâ—nie Tu protege me gladio ego defendam tâ— calamo do you defend me with your Sword and I will maintain your Right with my Pen for God hath committed the Sword into the hand of the King Rom. 13. v. 4 and His hand which beareth not the Sword in vain knoweth how to use the Sword better than the Preacher and the King may better make good His Rights by the Sword then by the Pen which having once 〈◊〉 His papers with mistakes and concessions more then due though they should be never so small if granted further than the truth would 〈◊〉 as I fear some have done in some particulars yet they cannot so easily be scraped away by the sharpest sword and God ordered the divine tongue and learned Scribe to be the pens of a ready Writer and thereby to display the duties and to justifie the Rights of Kings and if they fail in either part the King needeth neither to performe what undue Offices they impose The Divine best to set down the Rights of Kings upon him nor to let pass those just honours they omit to yield unto him but he may justly claime his due Rights and either retain them or regain them by his Sword which the Scribe either wilfully omitted
their doing I am sure all wise men wil detest these Doctrines of Devils and seeing it is an infallible rule that good deserveth then to be accounted evil when it ceaseth to be well done it is apparent that it is no more lawful for private and inferiour persons to usurp the Princes power and violently to remove Idolatry or to cause any Reformation then it is for the Church of Rome by invasion or treason to establish the Doctrine of that See in this or any other forraign kingdome because both are performed by the like usurped authority Yet these were the opinions and practises of former times when Buchanan The old Disciplinarians Knox Cartwright Goodman Gilby Penry Fenner Martin Travers Throgmorton Philips Nichols and the rest of those introducers of Outlandish and Genevian Discipline first broached these uncouth and unsufferable tenets in our Land in the Realm of England and Scotland and truely if their opinions had not dispersed themselves like poison throughout all the veines of this Kingdom and infected many of our Nobility and as many of the greatest Cities of this Kingdome as it appeareth by this late unparallel'd rebellion these and the rest of the trayterous authours of those unsavory books which they published and those damnable tenets which they most ignorantly held and maliciously taught unto the people should have slept in silence their hallowed and sanctified Treason should have remained untouched and their memorial should have perished with them But seeing as Saint Chrysostome saith of the Hereticks of his time that although in age they were younger yet in malice they were equal to the antient Our rebellious Sectaries far worse then all the former Disciplinarians Hereticks and as the brood of Serpents though they are of less stature yet in their poyson no less dangerous then their dammes so no more have our new Sectaries our upstart Anabaptists any less wickedness then their first begetters nay we finde it true that as the Poet saith Aetas parentum pejor avis Tulit nos nequiores These young cubbs prove worse then the old foxes for if you compare the Wheles with the wolves our latter Schismaticks with their former Masters I doubt not but you shall finde less learning and more villany less honesty and more subtilty hypocrisy and treachery in Doctor Burges Master Marshal Case Goodwin Burrowes Calamy Perne Hill Cheynel and the rest of our giddy-headed Incendiaries then can be found in all the seditious Pamphlets of the former Disciplinarians or of them that were hanged as Penry for their treasons for these men do not onely as Sidonius saith of the like apertè invidere abjectè Sidon lib. epist fingere serviliter superbire openly envy the state of the Bishops basely forge lyes against them and servilely swel with the pride of their own conceited sanctity and apparent ignorance but they have also most impudently even in their pulpits slandered the footsteps of Gods Anointed and so brought the abomination of their transgression to stand in the holy place they haue with Achan troubled Israel and tormented the whole Land yea these three Kingdomes England Scotland and Ireland and for inciting provoking and incouraging simple ignorant poore For which their intolerable villanies If I be not deceived in my judgement they of all others above all the Rebels in the kingdom deserve the greatest and severest punishment God of Heaven give them the grace to repent discontented and seditious Secturies to be Rebels and Traytors against their own most gracious King they have not onely with Jerusalem justified Samaria Sodome and Gomorrah but they have justified all the Samaritanes all the Sodomites all the Schismaticks Hereticks Rebels and Traytors Papists and Atheists and all that went before them Judas himself in many circumstances not excepted and that which makes their doings the more evil and the more exceedingly wicked is that they make Religion to be the warrant for their evil doings the pack-horse to carry and the 〈◊〉 to cover all their treacheries and thereby they drew the greater multitudes of poore Zelots to be their followers And therefore seeing it is not onely the honour but also the duty as of all other Kings so likewise of our King to be as the Princes of our Land are justly stiled the Defenders of the Faith and that not only in regard of enemies abroad but also in respect of those far worse enemies which desire alteration at home it behoves the King to looke to these home-bred enemies of the Church and seeing the king though never so willing for his piety and religion never so What Gods faithful servants and the kings loyal Subjects must do in these times 1. To justifie the kings right able for his knowledge and understanding yet without strength and power to effect what he desires cannot defend the faith and maintain the true Religion from the violence of Sectaries and Traytors within his kingdome it hehoves us all to do these two things 2. To justifie the kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his authority and right to the supreme Governour and defender of the Chuch and of Gods true religion and service both in respect of Doctrine and Discipline and that none else Pope or Parliament hath any power at all herein but what they have derivately from him which I hope we have sufficiently proved 2. To submit our selves unto our king and to add our strength force and 2. To assist Him against the Rebels power to inable his power to discharge this duty against all the Innovators of our Religion and the enemies of our peace for the honour of God and the happiness of this Church and Common-wealth for that power which is called the Kings power and is granted and given to him of God is not onely that Heroick virtue of fortitude which God planteth in the hearts of most noble Princes as he hath most graciously done it in abundant measure in our most gracious king but it is the collected and united power and strength of all his Subjects which the Lord hath commanded us to joyn and submit it for the assistance of the kings power against all those that shall oppose it and if we refuse or neglect the same then questionless whatsoever mischief idolatry barbarity or superstition shall take root in the Church and whatsoeuer oppression and wickedness shall impair the Common-wealth Heaven will free His Majesty and the wrath of God in no smal measure must undoubtedly light upon us and our posterity even as Debora saith of them that refused to assist Barac against his enemies Curse ye Meroz curse bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they Jud. 5. 23. came not forth to helpe the Lord against the mighty CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiastical Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Laws by the advice of their Bishops and Clergy and not of their Lay
and collationem potestatis the designation of the person which is sometimes done by men and that is where the King is elective and the donation of the power which is proper onely unto God for so the Psalmist saith God hath spoken once and twice I have also heard the same Psal 62. 11. â— that power belongeth unto God and the Apostle saith the powers that are are ordained of God which is to be understood of the regall or Monarchicall power Rom. 13. 2. because Saint Paules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 higher powers are interpreted by Saint 2 Pet 2. 13. Saint Peters description betwixt the King and the inferiour Magistrates A twofold royalty in a King 1 Merum imperium Peter to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings that are supreme where Saint Peter makes an excellent distinction betwixt the superiour and the inferiour Magistrates the superiour is that which Saint Paul saith is ordained of God and the inferiours are they which Saint Peter calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are sent by the King for the better explanation of which place you must know that in every King or supreme Magistrate we may conceive a double royalty The â— is merum imperium or regni potestas summa plenissima and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this fulnesse of power and independent of any creature and immediately received of God which the Civilians call jus regis or munus regni is in the person of the King indivisible not to be imparted by the King to any creature because he cannot devest himself divide this power or alienate the same to any subject no not to his own son without renouncing or dividing his Kingdome How the King cannot do unjustly and by this the Civilians say the King may governe sine certa lege sine certo jure sed non sine aequitate justitia without Law but not without equity whereupon it is a rule in the Common Law hoc unum rex potest sacere quod non potest injustè agere which is to be applyed to this inseperable regality of the King 2 Imperium dispositivum and hath been often alleadged by other Parliaments to justifie the King from all blame The 2 is imperium dispositivum or jus gubernandi vel jurisdictio the right of governing or jurisdiction and distribution of justice and this may be derived and delegated from the King legatis vitalitiis either for terme of life or during the Kings pleasure But how not privativè when the King doth not denude himself thereof but cumulativè and executivè to execute the same as the Kings Instruments for the preservation of peace and the administration of How the King delegates his power to his inferiour Magistrates justice as it appeareth in their patent and this subordinate power is not inherent in their persons but onely committed unto them for the execution of some office because that when the supreame power is present the power of the inferiour officers is silent it is in nubibus fled into the clouds and like the light of the Moon and Stars vanishing whensoever the Sun appeareth for Kings when they do transfâ—â— any actuall power to the subalternate Officers retain the habituall power still in their own hands which upon any emergent occasion they may actually resume to themselves again which they could not do if they parted with the habite and forme of this despâ—ticall power of government that they The words of the Apostles vindicated from the false glosses of the Sectaries Rom. 13. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13. The testimony of the Fathers or the Soveraignty of Kings Tertul. ad Scap. in apologet c. 30. Iren advers haeres Valent l. 5. c. 20. Optat. contr Parmen l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost tom 6. orat 40. orat 2. Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 21. have immediately received from God And as the Scriptures make it plain that the Kings right and power to govern is immediately from God so they make it as plain that it is the greatest right and most eminent highest power that is on earth for though the cavilleâ—â— at this power translate the words of Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not potestatibus sublimioribus or sutremis but potestatibus superexcellentibus and say that the word or particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where S. Peter bids us submit our selves to the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the cheif intends a resemblance onely and not a reall demonstration to prove the King to be the chief Yet the malice of these men and the falshood of these glosses will appear if you consider that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habens se super alios or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the powers that are ordained of God must needs signify not any subordinate power but the supremâ—st power on earth because the other powers are directly said by Saint Peter to be sent by the King and the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as really expresse the matter there as in John 1. 14. where the Evangelist saith and we beheld his glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God And I hope our Sectaries will not be so impudent as to say that this signifieth but a resemblance of the Son of God But to make this point more plain you shall heare what the Fathers and the learned say for I told you before Tertullian saith of Kings and Emperours inde potâ—stas unde spiritus and he is sâ—lo Deo minor inferiour to none but God Saint Chrysostome saith he hath no peer on Earth but is the top of all men living Athanasius saith there is none above the Emperour but onely God that made the Emperour Saint Cyrill in a Sermon upon that text I am the vine commendeth Q. Curtius l. 9 the answer of a King whom Quintus Curtius affirmeth to be Alexander that being shot and his Subjects would have him bound to pull out the arrow said non decet vinciri Regem Bern. Tractat. de pass Dom. c. 4. it becomes not Kings to be bound because none is superiour unto them Agapetus a Deacon of Constantine saith as much and because it is a rule in the Civill Law testem quem quis inducit pro se tenetur recipere contra sese the testimony of our adversaries is most convictive therefore I beseech you hear what they say for Rosellus a great Catholique saith it is heretical to affirm that the universal administration of the temporall affaires is or must be in the Pope when the King hath no superiour on earth but the Creator of heaven and earth Caninus also saith that the Apostle Rom. 13. spake of the Regall and secular Power and not of the Ecclesiasticall and Cassanaeus Cassan Catal. glor mundi p. 8 consider 2 S. Card. Cusan concord Cathol l. 3. c. 5. Vide Arnis p.
and their faction that so they and theirs might be both Kings and Priests and all not to God but to themselves and their fellow Rebels in the government of this Kingdome And as they have thus transgressed all the old Commandments of the Law so How they transgressed the new commandment of the Gospel Gen. 4. 9. they come no wayes short in transgressing the new Commandment of the Gospel for their love to their brethren is now turned to perfect hatred when they say not with Cain am I my brothers keeper but with Apollyon I will be the destroyer of my brethren neither will I fell them as the brethren of Joseph did him unto the Egyptians but I will send them if I can possibly quick to hell let those Lâ—yal subjects that have been unexspectedly murdered and those many thousands that have beene plundered of all their Estates testifie to the World the love of these men unto their brethren who have felt more cruelty and barbarity and less charity from these holy Saints then could be expected from Jews Turkes and Pagans 23. Though every sin deserves the wrath of God as the Apostle saith in general How they have committed the 7 deadly sins Rom. 6. 23. the reward of sin is death be it little or be it great yet because some sins do more provoke the wrath of God and do sooner produce this deadly fruit then other sins the Divines have observed seaven special sins which they terme the seaven deadly sins and these also you may finde committed in the highest degree by these â—actious Rebels For 1. Pride which is an high conceit of a mans own worth far beyond his 1 Their Pride Quid juvat O homines tanto turgescere sastu Nam ut ait Comicus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just deserts and therefore believing himself to be inferiour to none scorns to be subject unto any is the Father that produceth and the nurse that cherisheth all rebellion and our Parliamentary faction together with the Assembly of their Divines thinking themselves holyer then the Saints and wiser then their Brethren have therefore made this unnatural war to destâ—oy us all because we will not subscribe with them to destroy both Church and State this is the fruit of pride but the punishment is to be resisted by God who throweth damnation upon their heads because they resist the ordinance of God 2. Pride cannot subsist without meanes therefore covetousnesse must support 2. Their Covetousnesse Sacrilegia minuta puniuntur magna jam in triumphis feruntur Senec. ep 87. 3. Their luxury Certa quidem tantis causa est manâ—sesta ruinis Luxuriae nimium libera facta via est Propert. eleg 11. l. 3. 4. Their envy it and I shewed you before how covetous these Rebels are not of any good but of our goods and of our lives that they may enjoy our lands even the lands of the Church that they may take the houses of God in possession which may prove to them like Aurum Tholosanum or as Midas gold that was the destruction of that covetous wretch 3. Their luxury and lust must needs proceede from fulnesse and pride and I beleive it is not unknown to many how these Rebels spend their time in revelling and feasting chambering and wantâ—nnesse which though never so secretly done by them in the night yet are they publickly seene in the day and seene to their shame if they could be ashamed of any thing 4. How envy hath possest their souls it is almost beyond all sence to consider it they envy that any man should be king and themselves subjects that any man should be a Bishop and themselves Priests or that any man should be rich and themselves not so wealthy therefore they will needs pull down what themselves cannot reach unto 5. Their Gluttony and drunkennesse 5. If Epicurus were now living or Sardanapalus came to these mens feasts they might think themselves the teachers of sobriety and the masters of abstinency in comparison of these new gulists who make a God of their bellies and fare deliciously every day that they can get it more deliciously then Dives it is incredible to consider what they devoure in delicates and how the Sisters teachers eat more good meat and drink better wines then the gravest Bishops 6 Their wrath and malice 6. They are as the Psalmist saith wrathfully displeased at us and I know not whether their envy at our happinesse or their wrath and anger that we do live is the greater yet thanks be to God Vivere nos dices salvos tamenesse negamus And God I hope will preserve us still notwithstanding all their malice 7. Their Sloath. 7. For their sloath I was a while musing how these factious Rebels could any wayes be guilty of this lazie sin for as the Divel is never at rest but goeth about continually like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may dâ—voure and he saith Job 1. he compasseth the earth to and fro so these children of this world being wiser in their generation then the children of light are as diligent as their Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they imagine mischiefe upon their bedâ— and are a great deale more watchfull and more painfull to do evil to serve the Divel to goe to Hell then the faithfull servants of God are to goe to Heaven witnesse all the victories and successes that they had by this War in the night not by any manhood but by taking the Kings Souldiers carelesse in their beds yet notwithstanding all this diligence to do wickednesse they are as lazie as any sluggard and as â—low as the snayle to any goodnesse they are asleep in evil and are dead in trespasses and sins and cannot be awakened to any service of God 24. The Scripture maketh mention of foure crying sins that do continually 24. How they have grievously committed the foure crying sins 1. How they have shed abundance of innocent bloud cry to God for vengeance against the sinners Clamiat ad coelum vox sanguinis Sodomorum Vox oppressorum merces retenta laborum And they are not free from any of these For 1. As the Psalmist speaketh Psal 79. 2. 3. so they have done and the streames of bloud that since the beginning of this unnaturall War they have most unjustly caused to be spilt and do flow like the Rivers of waters over the face of this now unhappy Land do with Abels bloud continually cry against them and cannot chuse but pull down vengeance upon their heads when God shall come to make inquisition for bloud and therefore though Pacem nos posâ—imus Psal 9. 12. omnes we all cry for peace and the Kings clemency still proclaimeth pardon yet seeing it is God that maketh Wars to cease and the Prophet saith how can the sword be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon Jer. 47. 7. as the bloudy sin of Saul upon the poor Gibeonites
of Darius do glister in their Gold and Scarlet and yet many times to save their heads betake themselves like Dromedaries unto their heels and the poor ejected Bishop in his bare Coat may make as heavenly a Sermon and convert many more souls than the hundreth pound Independent or the false Presbyterian tone in his long Cloak and velvet Jacket Which makes me never to be much troubled or moved at the revolution of this Wheel or the loss of these vanities but to say with that Heroick Pompey when after he had been crowned with the greatest honours of Rome and now fallen into the greatest calamities he cheerfully said as Lucan witnesseth Non me videre superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum adversa videbunt His prosperity never made him proud and adversity should never cast down his courage and my witness is in Heaven that I am a thousand times more grieved to see the prophanation of Gods service and the poor worship of him now used in very many places that is how meanly sluttishly negligently and disorderly our good God is served than of mine own losses how great soever they are For we brought nothing with us into the world neither shall we carry any thing out of this world and I know not whether I shall live till to morrow when as the Tragedian saith Quem veniens dies vidit superbum Hunc fugiens dies vidit jacentem Whom the Sun rising hath seen strong and lusty the Sun setting saw him dead upon the ground because as my Text saith Every man is vanity Yea 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man living or every man in his best estate is vanity 4. Point And you know there be but two states of every man 1. Living A twofold state of man 2. Dead And when a man is dead he soon becometh vanity indeed he is reduced to nothing he knoweth nothing and he can do nothing And therefore let us have but a little patieâ—ce and within a very little little while those mighty men that now oppress their neighbours and tyrannizâ— over Gods servants shall return to nothing and be able to do just nothing against us and then as Solomon saith A living Dog is better and can do more then these dead Lions I but you will say Interim ego riâ—gor and we may suffer very much before these Lions become dead therefore it were well for us that they were dead before we suffer and that as Caracalla said of his brother Geta Sint divi modo non sint vivi they were Saints in heaven so they might not be such Devils as they are here now on earth I answer 1. To thee that art thus troubled as the Prophet saith unto the Jews The Vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie and though it tarry yet wait thou for it because it will surely come and not tarry that is â—ab 2. 2. any long time or longer than the appointed time so tarry thou the Lords leasure and thy deliverance will come in his appointed time and if thou thinkest it tarrieth long then pray thou to God that it may come the sooner and though the young teachers of the new way to heaven have obliterate it yet do not thou forget that good old Prayer of our Liturgy but say O God make speed to save us O Lord make haste to help us and God will hear thy prayers and will help thee because as the Poet saith Offendunt nunquam thura precesque Jovem How powerfull prayer is Sed dominum mundi flectere vota valent Prayers and Supplications are the most powerfull prevailers to obtain any thing at the hands of God 2. For those that wrong thee and trouble thee I pray thee remember but what my Text saith Every man living or in his best estate while he liveth is altogether vanity And therefore the greatest men can never be able to do what they would do either for themselves or against others And this will the more plainly appear if we take but a little view of all the estates that are accounted the best estates of men for though there be many states and kindes of life that are deemed very good yet there be four Estates of men that I finde by the worldly wise to be judged best and The 1. Is of them that excel all others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in health and strength of The four states of men that are accounted the best body 2. Is of them that abound in wealth in riches in prosperity 3. Is of them that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most eminent in fame glory and honour 4. Is of them that have plenitudinem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulness of Power and Authority to rule and govern the rest of the people These are accounted the best estates of men and yet man in all and in every one of these four estates is a poor vain thing and altogether vanity For 1. Health and strength of body are but vanity and though the Tyrants and 1. State Oppressours say come Let our strength be the law of Justice for that which is Sap. 2. 11. feeble is found to be nothing worth therefore let us crush the righteous and banish all those honest men that are not for our turn but do upbraid us with our offending Vers 12. 16. the Law and do abstain from our wayes as from filthiness yet we see that a little sickness can bring down the greatest strength and waste the health of the strongest and the stouâ—est men And besides we know that as the Lion which is the strongest upon earth and the Whale which is strongest in the Sea and the Serpent or the Eagle which are the strongest in the Air are of more strength than is in any man were he as strong as Hercules or were they as strong as all these yet their great strength cannot preserve them from death nor keep them without sickness And if you will compare them unto other creatures you shall finde that the Peacocks train is more beautifull than all the trimmings of the proudest Galland and as the Dromedary is swifeer than any Foot-post so the Nightingal hath a sweeter voice than the best Muâ—tian And in a word the basest creatures have been found able enough to be the death of the strongest men for a little Steeleâ—â—o killed Eglon King of Moab Judg. 3. 21. 1 Sam. Goliah the great Giant was strucken down with a peble stone Anacreon was choaked with the stone of a Raison Fabius strangled with a hair Herod the Proud eaten with Lice and Antiochus the Cruel destroyed with Worms and Hatto the Traytor pursued to death by an Army of Rats These were but poor things and weak instruments to destroy strong men and to dispatch great Monarchs and yet we see how they have done it And therefore thou that thinkest thy self a brave strong and stout Souldier remember what good
special reasons why the King should conser his favours and honours upon the Bishops 1. Reason pride is such a beast that thinketh himself the most worthy and envy is such a monster that cannot endure any happiness to any other And that which makes me wonder most of all is to see those Lords whose honours scarce saw the age of a man and some pretending great loyalty to His Majesty and wishing happiness to His posterity so far yeilding to the mis-guided Faction to darken the glory of Gods Church and to undervalue Christs Ministers as to obliterate that dignity and rase out those titles which are inherent to the Ministry from the foundation of the Church and are ascribed unto the Bishops by the same Majesty that honoured them and for some by-respect and private ends to perswade the King to desert the Church to leave the Prelates in the suds their honour to be laâ—ed and buried in the dust and their revenues to be devoured by the enemies of all Godliness But do these men thinke that blessings come from God or that this is the way for God to bless the King or themselves or this Kingdome to vilifie those that honour God and of whom Christ directly saith He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me for alas who were more favoured protected and blessed by God then Constantine Theodosius and the rest of those good Emperours and Kings that gave most immunities and conferred most dignities upon the Bishops and Prelates of Gods Church because that hereby they testified their love to Christ himself and did not God withdraw his favour and protection from those kings and Potentates that neglected to protect his servants therefore they cannot wish well unto the king that wish him to give way to denude the Church and to desert the defence of the Bishops â—or besides many other reasons we finde six special arguments proving that our king rather then any king in Europe should uphold his Clergy and cenfer his favours and honours upon them I say not more then upon his nobility for that would procure hatred unto the king envâ—â—â—to them and ruine unto all but as well as upon any other state in this kingdâ—â— As 1. Not onely the relation betwixt them and their Prince as they are his faithful Subjects and he their Soveraigne King but as he is the Lords Anointed and the Defender of that faith which they teach and publish unto his people for this anointing of him by God for this end superinduceth a brother-hood betwixt the king and the Bishops and makes him quasi unus ex nobis and the chief guide and guardian of the Clergy because that thereby he is mixta persona more then a meere Lay-man and hath an Ecclesiastical supreme Government as well as the Rex inunctus non est mâ—rus Laicus Guimerus tit 12. sect 9. 33. Edw. 3. tit Aide le Roy 2. Reason 1 civil and ùt oleo sancto uncti sunt spiritualis jurisdictionis capaces sunt and as it was said in the time of Edward the third and therefore as in relation to the temporalty the king is supremus jâ—sticiarius totius Angliae so in respect to the spiritualty he is as Constantine stiled himself in the Councel of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the chief Christian Bishop among his Bishops 2. Our Bishops and Clergy are truer and faithfuller Subjects to their Prince then any other Clergy in Christendome because the Clergy of France and Spain and other Popish States and Dominions are not simply Subjects unto their king but deny civil obedience unto their Prince where canonical obedience commands the contrary and you see how the Presbytery not only deny their just allegeance but incite the people to unjust Rebellion but the Bishops and their Clergy renounce all obedience to any other Potentate and anathematize as utterly unlawful all resistance against our lawful Soveraigne and in this hearty adherence to His Majesty as they are wholly his so they do exspect favour from none but onely from His Highness and yet Philip the second of Spaine notwithstanding he had but half the obedience of his Clergy advised his son Philip the third to stick fast unto his Bishops even as he had done before him therefore our king that hath his Bishops so totally faithful unto him hath more reason to succour them that they be not not the object of contempt unto the vulgar 3. The state of the Clergy is constantly and most really to their power the 3. Reason most beneficial state to the Crown both in ordinary and extraordinary revenues of all others for though their meanes is much impaired and their charges encreased in many things yet if you consider their first fruits the first year their Tenths every year Subsidies most years and all other due and necessary payments to the king I may boldly say that computatis computandis no state in England of double their revenue scarce renders half their payments and now in the kings necessity for the defence of Church and Crown I hope my Brethren Or else they are much to blame and far unworthy to be Bishops 4. Reason the Bishops and all the rest of the loyal Clergy will rather empty themselves of all they have and put it to His Majesties hands then suffer him to want what lyeth in them during all the time of these occasions 4. They beslow all their labours in Gods service continually praying for blessings upon the head of His Majesty and his posterity and next under god relying onely upon His favour and protection 5. God hath laid this charge upon all Christian kings to be our nursing fathers 5. Reason Esay 49. 33. and to defend the faith that we preach which cannot be done when the Bishops and Prelates are not protected and God hath promised to bless them so long as they discharge this duty and hath threatned to forsake them when they forsake his Church and leave the same as a prey to the adversaries of the Gospel 6. Our king hath like a pious and a gracious King at his Coronation promised 6. Reason and engaged himself to do all this that is desired of him And as for these and other reasons His Majesty should so we do acknowledge with all thankefulness Quia non plus valet ad dejiciendumterrena mala quà m ad erigendum divina tutela Cypr. that he hath and doth His best endeavour to discharge this whole duty and do beleive with all confidence that maugre all open opposition and all secret insinuation against us He will in like manner continue his grace and favour unto the Church and Church governours unto the end And if any whosoever they be how great or how powerful soever either in kingdome or in Court shall seeke to alienate the Kings heart or diminish His affection and furtherance to protect and promote the publâ—shers of Gospel which we are consident all their malice cannot
do because the God of Heaven that hath built his Church upon a rock and will not turn away his face from his Anointed will so bless our King that it shall never be with him as it was with Zedechia when it was not in hâ—s power to save Gods Prophet but said unto his Princes Behold he is in your Jeâ—em 28. 5. hand for the King is nâ—t he that can do any thing against you yet as Mordecai said to Hester God will send enlargement and deliverance unto his Church and Hester 4. 14. they and their fathers houses that are against it shall be destroyed because as Saint Peter saith we have forsaken all to become his servants that otherwise might have served Kings with the like hâ—nour that they do and we have left the world to build up his Church we put our trust under the shadow of his wings and being in trouble we do cry unto the Lord and therefore he will hear our cry and will helpe us and we sâ—all never be confounded Amen CHAP X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensation is reasons for it to tolerate divers Sects or sorts of Religions the foure special sorts of false professors S. Augustines reasons for the toleration of the Jewes toleration of Papists and of Puritans and which of them deserve best to be tolerated among the Protestants and how any Sect is to be tolerated 2. WHereas the Anabaptists and Brownists of our time with what conscience 2. That the King may lawfully grant his dispensation for Pluralities and Non-residency I know not cry out that our Kings by their Lawes do unreasonably and unconscionably grant dispensations both for Pluralities and Non-residency onely to further the corrupt desire of some few aspiring Prelates to the infinite wrong of the whole Clergy the intolerable dishonour of our Religion the exceeding prejudice of Gods Church and the lamentable hazard of many thousand soules I say that the Pluralities and Non-residency granted by the King and warranted by the Lawes of this Land may finde sufficient reasons to justifie them In Anno 112. for if you consider the first limitation of Benefices that either Euaristus Bishop In Anno 636. of Rome or Dionysius as others thinke did first assigne the precincts of Parishes and appointed a certain compass to every Presbyter and in this Kingdome The first distribution of Parishes Honorius Arch-bishop of Canterbury was the first that did the like appointed the Pastorall charge and the portion of meanes accrewing from that compass to this or that particular person whereas before for many years they had no particular charge assigned nor any Benefice allotted them but had their Canonicall pensions and dividents given them by the Bishop out of the common stock of the Church according as the Bishop saw their severall deserts for at first the greater Cities onely had their standing Pastors and then the Countrey Villages imitating the Cities to allow maintenance according to the abilities of the inhabitants had men of lesser learning appointed for those places Therefore this limitation of particular Parishes being meerly positive and an Pluralities and Non-residency no transgression of Gods Law humane constitution it cannot be the transgression of a divine ordinance to have more Parishes then one or to be absent from that one which is allotted to him when he is dispenced with by the Law-maker to do the same for as it is not lawfull without a dispensation to do either because we are to obey every ordinance of the higher power for the Lords sake so for the higher power to dispence with both is most agreeable to reason and Gods truth for all our Gods Law admitteth an interpretation not a dispensation of it Lawes are either divine or humane and in the divine Law though we allow of interpretation quia non sermoni res sed rei sermo debet esse subjectus because the words must be applyed to the matter else we may fall into the heresie of those that as Alfonsus de Castro saith held it unlawfull upon any occasion to sweare because our Saviour saith sweare not at all yâ—t no man King nor Pope hath power to grant any dispensation for the least breach of the least precept of Gods Law he cannot dispence with the doing of that which God forbiddeth to be done nor with the omitting of that which God commandeth but in all humane Lawes so far as they are meerly positive and humane it is in Mans Law may be dispensed with the power of their makers to dispence with them and so quicquid sit dispensation superioris non sit contra praeceptum superioris and he sinneth neither against the Law noâ— against his own conscience because he is delivered from the obligation of that Law by the same authority whereby he stood bound unto it And as he that is dispensed with is free from all sin so the King which is the dispenser is as free from all fault as having full right and power to grant His dispensations â—or seeing that all humane Lawes are the conclusions of the Law of nature or the evidences of humane reason shewing what things are most benefiâ—iall to any society either the Church or Common-wealth and that experience â—eacheth us our reason groweth often from an imperfection to be more perfect when time produceth more light unto us we cannot in reason deny an abrogation and dispensation to all humane Lawes which therefore ought not to be like the Lawes of the Medes and Persians that might not be changed Aug. de libero arbit l. 1. and so Saint Augustine saith Lex humana quamvis justa sit commutari tamen pro tempore juste potest any humane Law though it be never so just yet for the time as occasion requireth may be justly changed dispensatio est juris communis relaxatio facta cum causae cognitione ab eo qui jus habet dispensandi Dispensation what it is and as the Civilians say a dispensation is the relaxation of common right granted upon the knowledge of the cause by him that hath the power of dispensing or as the â—tymologie of the word beareth dispensare est diversa pensare The reward of learning and vertue how to be rendered to dispense is to render different rewards and the reward of learning or of any other virtue either in the civill or the ecclesiasticall person being to be rendered as one saith not by an Arithmeticall but a Geometricall proportion and the division of Paâ—â—shes being as I said before a positive humane Law it cannot be denyed but the giver of honour and the bestower of rewards which is the King hath the sole power and right to dispose how much shall be given to this or that particular person If you say the Law of the King which is made by the advice of his whole Ob. Parliament hath already determined what