not the Kingdom so happy as ye could wish it to be then leave accusing of Governours and prescribing of rules and prosecuting your seditious bents and settle the Nation upon the first foundation stone upon which it was called a Reformed Church I believe those blessed Martyis had in them more purity then all the Saints that have come after them it is no good manners to say that the fore-Fathers wanted a little of the childrens wit or integrity Had men past through their flames I would think they might equal them in fervour and sincerity but I cannot endure whole skins to rectify that which their Ancestours bequeathed to after-ages with such a flaming sacrifice Those Martyrs stakes are more precious to me then all the holocausts of zeal which I have seen upon the Altar since I would wish no other Heaven then they do enjoy nor desire any purer Religion then they preached to succession out of that flagrant pulpit give me Elias mantle which he left behind him when he was carried a way in the fiery Chariot I would think to see a prime Kingdom if I could see the primitive Protestant There were never such fervent Preachers since neither can we find such Zelots Away then with the language of Ashdod and let us speak the true language of Canaan away with passion against innocent Ceremonies and let us double this indignation against branded hypocrisy and cursed impiety Let us renew the Martyrs sanctity and this Land may be the joy of the whole earth Virtue would adorn the Nation grace would beautify it let us be beautifull Saints and God hath beautifull blessings for us even a King in his beauty Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty Thirdly this doth shew that there is no Governour amiable which doth want Beauty There is no ill face like to an ill Governour there is no deformed Morian or Monster like unto a wicked Ruler When the wicked are in authority the people sigh Prov. 29.2 oh it is a wofull thing when Princes are rebellions and companions of thieves Is 1.23 for then They hunt every man his brother with a net Micah 7.2 and The wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then himself Hab. 1.13 They pant after the dust of the earth over the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the meek Amos 2.7 They drink up the deep waters and fowle the rest with their feet Ezech. 34.18 In their skirts is found the Bloud of the souls of poor Innocents Jer. 2.34 When wicked men rise up men hide themselves Prov. 28.28 There is a lamentation upon the house-tops Jer. 48.38 All faces gather blackness Jocl 2.8 They eat their bread with quaking and drink their water with trembling Ezek. 12.28 Their nights of pleasure are turned into fear Is 21.4 and well may they for not man seemeth then to be the Ruler but some savage Beast a Leopard watcheth over the Cities Jer. 5.6 A Lion teareth in pieces for his whelps and strangleth for his Lionnesse and filleth his holes with prey and his dens with ravine Nah. 2.12 Then nihil absurdum quod utile nothing is absurd Thucyd. l. 6. Polyb. hist l. 8. Appian l. 2. de bel civ Iornand de red Get. Herod l. 3. Xiphil in vit Ant. Carac Plutarch Val. M. l. 9. c. 2. Sueton. in Vitel. that is profitable and inimicissimi sunp qui libertati patrocinantur They are counted most spightfull against authority which do defend their liberty Satellites sunt commune maleficium The soldiery are then a common bane Such a Ruler ambitum suum brachio metitur doth measure his ambition by his arm if he doth not want force he will want neither title nor treasure Optimis invidet deterrimis delectatur He is ever envious against the worthyes and delighted most with Miscreants Then with Caracalla their sword is their Rent-gatherer and with Simonides they had rather want friends then mony then they sprinkle with Mithridates their hospital gods with bloud and with Vitellius they think no odour upon earth so sweet as the smell of an enemies carkasse Have not we had triall sufficient of this yes men which stroked us till they got upon our backs then gave us enough of the spur which cried up the Gospel and made Trades-men Preachers which talked much of the purity of faith and brought in blasphemy which would set up Christianity by pulling down Churches and fill the Nation with wisdome by destroying the Universities which would help the people to freedome by free quarter and administer justice by taking away the lawes which would take Tyranny out of the Land by multiplying Taxes and confirm inheritances by sequestration which would convert men without a conference and draw people out of darknesse by a light within them which a horred coremonies and brought in imaginations and reformed a Church by plucking out her heart which would settle us in peace by laying us in prison and send us to Heaven by climing Gibbets Now is thereany Beauty in this Government as much as there is in a viper and a Crocodilt Whensoever ye have such Usurpers enter your houses look to have your keyes wrung out of your hands whensoever such Executioners come expect nothing but the losse of your necks Oh meddle not with them then that are given to change be not Confederates with them which would set up an unlawfull Governour for ye had as good bring into the Nation a Tormentour or an Headsman an unjust Ruler can never be amiable no the true Beauty is in the legitimate Magistrate the King Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty Fourthly this doth shew that a right King is a rare Beauty For can the eye of man behold a more choice Object upon earth then a lawfull and righteous King no when the righteous are in authority the people rejoyce Prov. 29.2 for such an one is the Minister of God for good Rom. 13.4 when a King doth reign in justice and Princes rule in judgement that man shall be an hiding place from the wind and a refuge from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place and as the shadow of a rock in a weary Land the eyes of the seeing shall not be shut and the eares of them that hear shall hearken the heart of the foolish shall understand knowledge and the tongue of the stutterers shall speak distinctly Is 32.1 2 3 4. yea and it followeth in the 16 17 18. v. of that chapter that in such a Kings dayes judgement shall dwell in the desart and justice shall remaine in the fruitfull field the work of justice shall be peace even the work of justice and quietnesse and assurance for ever yea the people shall dwell in the tabernacle of peace and in sure dwellings and safe resting-places Now these words though they be spoken mystically of Christ yet literally they are meant of any good King for a good King how beneficial is he A King by
his Beauty Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty Fifthly this doth reprove the blind rage of a Conspiratour in opposing such a King he doth strike at the Beauty of the Land For is there a King in his Beauty then why do such an one endeavour to pluck away from the eyes of a Nation the most glorious sight that can be beheld What would such people have when will they be contented wherein shall they find satisfaction is there any thing upon earth which can keep them long quiet for except they would have their own wills be Lords of all Titles Procuratours for all general affairs Dictatours to rule all by themselves hold the helm of States in their hands order Gods Providence hold no Crown fit to be worn but that which their well-guiding hands shall set on be Supreme and Kings themselves can they desire to be more happy Do they contest with God because he hath made a people so blessed may not God say to them as he doth in the Gospel Is thine eye evil because mine is good For if they had not evil eyes and evil heads and evil hearts and evil hands they would never thus quarrel with Gods will and wisdome and goodnesse What are they weary of a Banquet doth a calm offend them is Sun-shine grievous to them is a gemme troublesome to them to enjoy is a King in his Beauty vexations to them to see alas poor sick eyes and litigious refractary spirits it is pity that ye were not all Secretaries of State and that God did not send his Decrees to you to have your pregnant approbation But this is mans turbulent murmuring nature that the best things are divers times the greatest grievances and that they which cannot govern themselves must be continually querulous against Rulers Ye take too much upon you said Corah and his complices Num. 16.3 Why hast served us thus said the men of Ephraim to Gideon and they chode with him sharply Judges 8.1 How shall he save us and they despised him and brought him no presents 1 Sam. 10.27 See thy matters are good and righteous but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee oh that I were made a Judge in the Land that every man which hath any matter or controversy might come to me and I might do him Justice said Absalon of Davids Government 2. Sam. 15.3 4. So that there is no Government or Governour will please many men Plut. in Apoph Thus Aristodemus liked not the Government of Antigonus King of Macedonia because he was too liberal and the Court of Lysimachus must be found fault with because there were none but disyllabic men with two syllables in their names as Bythes Athen. l. 14. c. 3. Paris c. which had all the authority under him Augustus Caesar because he would never call the Praetorian bands fellow-soldiers but soldiers he never desiring to make use of them but when he was constrained and because he was so liberal to the Citizens Macrob. l. 2. c. 5. and respective to the Senatours and delighted much in singing he was by Timagenes Labeo and Pollio and some others not thought fit to govern So we have a generation of men still left amongst us that are apt to asperse the most meriting Prince and not onely to stretch out their slanderous tongues but their barbarous hands to pull him down what savage wars have we had in this Nation waged in a blind rage and not onely till the Land hath been sprinkled with the bloud of her Natives but the Scaffold died with the Bloud of a most Innocent King and this King-killing will be a Trade if God from Heaven do not strike an horrour and dread of such an impious act into their hearts Oh ye wild Furies then consider what ye have done consider what ye are about to do Christians ye are not are ye men what ye live in a Country to appal a Country to trouble her peace wa st her treasure to deprive her of the light of her eyes what is a family without a Master what is a Kingdom without a King Repent then for what ye have done and do not think that a pardon is easily gotten an Act of Indemnity may save your necks but it must be an high expiatory Act that must save your souls If David wept so bitterly for the murther of one Uriah ye had need have Davids penitential teares and his penitential Psalm for the thousands that ye have slaine and especially for the murther of that one King that was worth ten thousand of us Ye have immodest cheekes if they have no shame ye have flinty hearts if they have no remorse as stupidly as ye passe over such a guilt it is well if eighteen years repentance nay a strict penance of your whole lives can procure you a reconciliation in Heaven there is a great difference between a dispensation of your partial Prophets and justification at the white Throne of the Judge of quick and dead What then have ye still dry eyes and will ye shed no tears yes springs might gush out of the rocks hearts of adamant might cleave asunder Ahab might go softly and Judas out of horrour of conscience might cry out I have sinned in betraying Innocent Blood If ye have not Ahabs consternations and Judas ' s cryes ye will have frights and stings and yelles enough in Hell There is yet a means of attonement an opportunity of healing if ye be not of the number of them which have hearts that cannot repent Rom. 2.5 try what Suppliants and penitents ye can be ye had need go water every Camp where ye have fought your bloody Battles and to moisten the ground of that Scaffold where that execrable murther was committed with showres of salt water And if ye can work out your peace raise not another war in your consciences if ye can be made whole sin no more Your swords are sheathed draw them not again ye are sent home quietly hang not out a new flag of defiance What have ye to do to be States-men follow your callings and look to take the enormities out of your own lives what are ye to meddle with errours of Government no leave politicks to others neither ye nor your great Masters have any thing to doe with a Kings actions except it be by way of humble advise For Where the word of a King is there is power and who shall say to him what dost thou Eccles 8.3 What have Subjects then to descant upon a Kings Government as if they were his Supra-visours and Guardians The Lawes of God allow no such authority and it is but a State inchantment to say that the fundamental Lawes of this Kingdome have impowred any to call a King to a violent account He hath onely God for his Judge and all the people under him as Liege-men Beware therefore of those puling groanes oh here is a sick State come along with us to administer physick
if the King will not frame up such a Government as we desire we will teach him how to rule by the edge of our swords These are not Physicians but cut-throats God hath allowed no such Paracelsians in a Kingdom to cure a Kings distempers For if a King may not be provoked to wrath he may not be so far provoked as to fight for his life if he may not be spoken evil of or cursed his maladies are not to be remedied by cutting off his head This is rather to be Executioners then State-Doctours I never yet read that there could be a Lictor or a Spiculator or a Carnisex for a King Let the greatest Subjects then busy themselves in preparing Lawes for the Commonwealth and not in prescribing rules to a King in remedying the grievances of the Country and not in avenging grievances which may be suspected by a King in binding the people to obedience and not in bringing a King to account For they are but Subjects and they cannot adde to themselves one cubit above their stature If ye comply with such politicians ye do but please a company of seditious persons and incense the Nation in general for ye cannot do a greater injury to your Country nor offer a greater indignity and violence to true Patriots then to disturb the peace of the Land and to strike at a King For the Kings safety is the Kingdomes Triumph The Nation hath no greater joy then to see the King in his Beauty Thine eyes shall set the King in his Beauty Sixthly this serves to exhort all good Subjects not to disfigure the face of Majesty for if the Beauty of a King be the brightest thing that a Nations eyes can be fixed upon then what a dark Kingdom is there when a King does not shine out in Royal Splendour If every one would have his right that the Cotrager and Commoner would not lose his Country tenure nor the man of noble bloud and honourable family would not lose his peerage then why should not the King have his Jura regalia his Crown-rights I confesse the Propriety of the Subject and plead for it but I find likewise and am an Advocate that there may be Hammelech Melech The Right of a King 1 Sam. 8.11 it is a Right of great antiquity no fundamental Law can vy Seniority with it no multorum festorum Jovis glandes comedit it doth derive the pedigree 4. Nannaso there are antiquiores dipththerae to be brought for it indeed it is as ancient as the Institution now the word do naturally signify Right it is but Metaphorically translated Manner as Buxtorfius and Pagnine declare if it be a Right then it must continue as long as the original Hebrew hold The Text will not perish nor the Title It is the Kings Right but it is Gods Designation and Charter for the Crown I do not say the King should have all I know to the contrary but I say that the King should have his own none ought to say to the contrary especially when it is Jus divinum a Gods-right The Kings Right being setled upon Scripture it is firmer then if it were bottomed upon the best State-groundsel Some say that this is onely meant when God doth give a King in his wrath but I say then that they are in wrath for there is a great distance of time between Samuel and Hosee and between Saul and Jeroboam Kingdomes may have their particular Constitutions in accidental things which do belong to a King but not in the essence of a King especially not against the essence of a divine Institution Let all the just reverence that may be be given to humane Lawes but still let Scripture be sacred and inviolable or else what have we left that is stable infallible The handmaid must not rule the Lady or the star out-shine the Sun all the Sages of a Land must not be wiser then the Oracles of God Virg. 3. Aeneid Parcius istis Cedamus Phoebo moniti meliora sequamur A Prophet that hath understanding in the visions of God is not to be believed in this no If an Angel from Heaven should come and preach otherwise let him be accursed Galath 1.8 Well then what is the Beauty of a King what but his power Take a King without power and what is he but a Ghost without life a meer Phantasme and Apparition How can he do any thing that is Kingly either in setling Religion protecting the Church administring justice making leagues drawing his people to Humiliation for their sins in maintaining the liberties of his people at home or propulsing the violences and affronts of Adversaries abroad no he must sit by with tears in his eyes and deplore all exorbitancies and sad accidents but not be able to remedy them he hath a sympathy but he hath no Soveraignty he hath a will but he hath no power he hath a face but he hath no Beauty in it A Kings authority then is the true Majesty of a King till he can command like a King he doth but personate a King Oh then that the policy of many men is but to designe against the power that their chiefest drift is not in honouring and obeying a King but in restraining and regulating a King that when their purses are empty then they fill them by a Crown-quarrel that when their high parts are not considered then they will be observed to be Master-wits in seeking to master authority and to silence such a Mutiner a Challenger by many a good King must be preferred when many a loyal Champion of as good endowments and better worth must stand upon low ground and this popular Eare-wig creep to his desired height But away with these new dogmatizing principles of State-magick whereby Kings are conjured into politicians Circles or confined to their august limits This may be a Science but I am sure it is none of the liberal Sciences It is a pitiful thing when a King come to be tutoured under such Pedagogues he is then rather a Disciple a pupil then a King for he must do nothing but what is prescribed him nor order any thing but according to commensurations And this is rather Geometry then Monarchy or to make a Mathematical rather then a Majestical King Let the people have their birth-rights Liberties Priviledges but let not liberty eat up Royalty nor birth-right Crown-right nor priviledge Prerogative for then the judgement in Aegypt is fallen upon the Land that the lean kine have eaten up the fat and what then but a famine can be expected The people may be amiable but the King hath no Beauty or the soul of the Kings power is defunct and by a Pythagorean transmigration is past into the body of the people And how will Natives then disregard such a King and how will Forreigners insult over him he shall be able to act nothing neither at home nor abroad The thick smoak in the form of a cloud which was raised by one