to the Father by attempting an Index expurgatorius upon the very Commandments of God by rasing out the second to Christ by setting up a company of miserable saints for mediatours and joyning works to his all-sufficient sacrifice to the Holy Spirit by making the Popes lewd holinesse to be Christ his unerring vicar upon earth as if Christ were Non-resident from his Church when he hath said he will be with it to the end by his Spirit It is also against the Kings law and honour for it reacheth at his Crown and if the Catholick cause requires at his life too by setting some base villain for an Assassinate to change his miscreant life for the sacred life of Gods Anointed and a King thus dead by them dies an excommunicate and accursed person and the other an allowed and canonized Martyr Now the professours of this religion among us be among the obstinate offenders for few of them will conferre to be informed they who will conferre will not be convicted or if they be by Scriptures and arguments convicted yet will they not be convinced and if I had them to speak too I should have little hope to do them good yet they shall give me leave to bemone their condition Poore souls I speak of our common seduced ones they have no religion but that which is in Feofees hands and in whose hands is it The Italian proverb tells us The worst of Catholicks are Priests the worst of Priests are made Cardinals the worst of Cardinals made Pope And the Pope thus bred is the Feoffee in whom they betrust all their religion for they have no Faith but that of the Church to beleeve as the Church beleeves a short cut to heaven indeed And who is this Church is it not the Pope vertually and that upon this conceit that he cannot erre and yet some nay most of these Popes have been Sodomites and yet he cannot erre all of them have been ambitious Symonists and yet he cannot erre Some have mixt poison with the Sacrament and so if there were any such thing as transubstantiation had poisoned Christ himself and yet he cannot erre Some have been Hereticks condemned by their successours and yet he cannot erre Some have been Sorcerers and Necromancers and yet he cannot erre He must not be reproved though he should carry millions of souls to hell and yet he cannot erre One was a woman and yet he cannot erre sometimes there have been Popes and Antipopes together and yet he cannot erre sometime none at all for divers yeares together then onely he could not erre Behold your Religion your Faith your Church your God in this your Pope O Catholicks Poore souls who bear so great adventure in so leaking a bottom If these things be so and many here present know them undoubtedly to be so may we not wonder that so many are seduced upon these grounds but more that this heresie should dayly gather strength and number and what the reason should be of the increase of Popery We have good laws against them but they like our arms lie up and rust What do we not still smell the gunpowder beyond which is Terra incognita no man knowing what is between it and hell do we not know that for these sixtie yeares and more they have laboured of nothing so much as the undoing of their dearest countrey which bred and bare them Blessed be God we have the law in our hands for had they it in theirs their little finger would be heavier upon us then our whole body is upon them Judges complain for want of information what have the Justices none in their divisions or do their lands lie too neare together some others complain they have promoted and nothing done Well I beseech you all joyn to put those laws in execution but alas they are put rather to execution like those excellent proclamations against Priests and Jesuites which once proclaimed no more is done but to nail them to a post and there they hang like malefactours But remember I beseech you all that Sarah and her sonne can have no securitie unlesse Hagar and her brat be beaten out of doores Superstitious Papists will not obey the law of God nor the Kings law therefore Let them have judgement without delay Secondly Gods law and the Kings is violated by blasphemous swearing Our land hath mourned by plague pestilence and famine and why not for oaths is there any thing dearer to God then his name hath he not set a penalty upon the breach of this commandment more then upon any other and yet how savagely and barbarously is it kicked spurned tossed and blasphemed by all sorts from Nobles to Peasants I see and observe that Noblemen and Gentlemen give over any fashion when it grows common oh that they would give over swearing seeing every clown and carter every hostler and tapster will swear compleatly We know also the Kings law against this sinne but men will not see it executed but will suffer that infamy put upon Gods name that they will not endure in their own What my good name saith every one oh you touch my free-hold nay men will not endure their Father Master or Friend to be touched in his name but will draw their swords in the quarrell and is not Gods name as deare to him as thine to thee or is not God more to thee then Friend Master or Father Suffer not then so great dishonour done to his name but carry every oath to the Justice and let him pay his twelve pence a petty penalty indeed for so great a sinne but yet if duely executed I presume by this time many great men had been reformed or else sworn out of all their living But alas say some the Justices themselves will swear sometimes Oh! say not so what the keepers of the vines not to keep their own vines to be the guardians of the Kings law and themselves to be breakers of it I dare not entertain such a thought of many of them but if any do break this law I charge him upon his oath to execute the law upon himself seeing he never sweares but in the hearing of a Justice of peace To end this point I can never sufficiently bewail the misery of the present and succeeding generation seeing now oaths do even strive for number with words and children in the streets can no sooner speak then swear To all swearers therefore I say Why will ye hazard Gods threatned displeasure for a sinne so needlesse and yet so dangerous To others I say suffer none to vomit and belch out oaths in thy hearing without penaltie of the Kings law Blasphemous swearers do violate Gods law and the Kings therefore Let them have judgement without delay In the next place Gods and the Kings law is broken by profane sabbath-breaking for God hath placed this commandment between the first and second table like the common sense between the exteriour and interiour senses as being usefull to both
GOD and the KING In a sermon preached at the Assises holden at BURY S. EDMONDS June 13. 1631. BY THOMAS SCOT Bachelour in Divinitie and Minister of the word at S. CLEMENTS in Ipswich Printed by the Printers to the Vniversitie of Cambridge 1633. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE S r THOMAS JERMYN Knight Vicechamberlain of his Majesties houshold and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Counsel SIR your renowned father was the first Patron of all my studies whereby he might justly have challenged the harvest of all mine endeavours all his rights are hereditarily descended to your self among which I humbly crave my duteous respect may be reckoned for one as an evidence whereof I do most lowly present to your Honour this little piece humbly praying it may be valued not by it's own worth but the minde of the giver who professeth himself bound to live and die in dutie to your house and will not cease daily to pray for your felicitie temporall and eternall nor to be Your Honours most obliged and truely devoted THOMAS SCOT EZRA 7.26 And whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the Kings law let him have judgement without delay WHat Almighty God is in his great monarchy of the world that in his proportion is every absolute King in his own dominion for he is in Gods place unto his people to nourish and protect them Now because no one man can do Gods office who is all eye and all eare and all in every place Kings are inforced to use the ministry of inferiour helps to be eyes eares and hands for them that as the sunne whose office it is to enlighten all the world which by it's own beams it cannot do at one instant is therefore inforced to communicate himself to other starres who in his absence may give light and influence so Kings it being impossible that they should be present at all affairs of their kingdome do lend some of their own authority to lesser lights who do heare and see and do for them among which lights the Judges of a land to whom sacred justice is committed are not the least This was not unknown to that great King Artaxerxes who intending the full restauration of the people citie and temple of the God of heaven gave order in the verse before for Judges to be set over them and though himself an heathen King made Ezra his Chancellour to give them this divine charge that Whosoever will not c. Out of which charge that I may neither slovenly chop it into gobbits nor curiously mince it to a gallamafrie these particulars God assisting shall be insisted upon First That in judgement there must be no partiality Secondly That obstinate offenders are chiefly to be looked unto Thirdly That Gods honour is first to be provided for Fourthly That the Kings law must also be freed from violation Fifthly That judgement must in these cases take her due course And lastly That execution must be speedy And this is the treasure of the Text now see the mine where I dig it Partiality is prevented in that generall Whosoever Obstinacy noted in these words Will not Gods honour is first provided for in the precedency of Gods law The Kings in the next place by subjoyning the Law of the King Justice is brought in for her part Let him have judgement Speedy execution commanded Without delay WHOSOEVER WILL NOT c. Of all which while I speak in my Masters name I boldly call for audience in mine own name I most lowly crave your Christian and favourable patience First There must be no partiality in judgement Whosoever as if he should have said How great or mean soever noble or ignoble rich or poore friend or enemy the one not to be feared the other not to be pitied I confesse all offenders are not alike but this difference ariseth not from the quality of the offender but of the offence Jehoshaphat told his Judges that their judgement was Gods not mans intimating that they ought to judge as God himself would who accepts no persons And he whose Dixit was his Fecit hath said they are and therefore hath made them to be gods wherefore as in other things so in impartiality their judgements must be little types of Gods great assises where sinne shall be judged in all persons alike saving that the greatnes of the person shall adde to the punishment for the mighty shall be mightily tormented Wis 6.6 Viri sublimis culpa grave peccatum est saith S. Austin The greater the man the greater is the sinne Varnish is no colour of it self but yet it addes lustre to every colour so greatnesse and eminencie of person is of it self neither vertue nor vice but yet it gives a great addition to either So then the cause and not the person must be judged for Whosoever c. I would willingly before I leave this point disgrace this sinne of partiality in judgement by shewing the pedegree of it and what house it comes of namely either from bribes favour rash anger or cowardise evil egges all for neither barrell better herring First from bribes as is to be seen Exod. 23.8 as also Deut. 16.19 where we heare that A reward blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of the just two dangerous effects upon two principall parts in doing justice making the receiver first to have a mist before his eyes and to be stricken with deceptio visûs and then not discerning the cause must of necessitie pervert his words yea casts him into a fit of convulsion and draws his mouth clean awry and then how can he give right judgement Ah! fie upon this stinking wages of unrighteousnesse 2. Pet. 2.15 2. Next from favour procured by letters friends favorites servants and the like for all these will stickle now and then in bad causes and Judges do too often listen to such motions thereby making others indebted to them against such an occasion But letters of this nature are best answered with silence as for friends and favorites a Judge in his robes upon the seat of judgement should be no man of this world but like the Angels in heaven where they neither marry nor are given in marriage that is all earthly relations do cease As for your servants if they move in a cause suspect those lesser wheels to be newly oyled or else they would not go so round yea of all these say Magìs amica veritas I will lose you all for justice sake 3. Sometime from anger No passion but is an evil guide in execution of justice even too much compassion for there is a cruel mercy but there is none so impetuous and dangerous as this of anger for if there be an angry prejudice against the person even slender probabilities will seem vehement presumptions and presumptions will appeare pregnant evidence Anger is the drunkennesse of the minde which robs a man of himself nay it is a short madnesse differing
hath his principall strength in things of their own nature indifferent for these be neither commanded nor forbidden in Gods law To conclude this point The Kings law is the sinew of all government which to cut is to ham-string Church and Common-wealth for it is better to live where nothing then where every thing is lawfull In the next place Justice in these cases must have her due course Let him have judgement c. By this time Justice calls out to all her retinue Judges Justices Jurours c. Is there any who will not obey c I charge you let him have judgement whosoever he be and saith in Gods words Thine eye shall not spare in judgement And heare your charge O ye Ministers of justice she hath made you executours of her will and hath bound you all by oath well and truely to perform it so farre as Gods and the Kings law shall binde you See then ye discharge and not deceive the trust reposed in you lest Church and Commonwealth the orphanes whose guardians ye be do lose religion and peace the legacies which she hath bequeathed them Judex saith Isidore is jus-dicens for the Judge is a speaking law and the law is a silent Judge Verily the law is a dead letter till the Judge breaths the breath of life into it by execution which is the edge and life of it The law sees nothing but by the eyes of the Judge and Judges are the eyes of the Commonwealth which if they be by any means put out a State though never so potent is but like big-limbed Polyphemus ready for ruine or mighty Sampson pulling down all upon their heads to their own and the ruine of all ingaged with them in the same condition Cicero could say that Impunitie is the greatest breeder and nurse of transgression that may be For to let malefactours go without judgement either not at all or condignly punishing them is but to stroke the offenders on the head as Eli did with a Do no more so my sonnes and so to give them and other after them a kinde of commission to do the like Take heed of a weak affectation of mercifull Judges or mercifull Juries take heed I say ye do not thereby encourage sinne and clap it on the back Can that be mercy which is unjust The greatest and most admired mercy that ever the world saw even that whereby we must all live for ever was it with neglect of justice No for Ecce benignitatem severitatem Dei may also to this great work be applied it being hard to determine whether Gods adopted sonnes found more mercy or his naturall sonne more severitie Bonis nocet qui malis parcit saith Seneca By sparing one ye are injurious to many for Chrysostom saith well Dum parcebatur lupo mactabatur grex Spare the wolf and the flock goes to wrack What though the vulgar account you hard Judges remember the answer of a King of Thrace to one telling him that in regard of his severitie he played the mad-man and not the King Oh saith the King this my madnesse makes my subjects sound and wise Execution must be speedy Without delay Yet no more haste then good speed mature deliberation must go before execution nothing must be judged before the time for that were not speedy but rash judgement an evil in our private and petty carriages severely forbidden therefore much more in publique and weighty affairs But when the way is made and the offender convicted then Judges must like Almighty God be swift witnesses for sinne and punishment must ride both on one horse let him that hath done the work have his wages for in criminall causes it is as crying a sinne to detein it as from the honest labourer And this hath no lesse place in personall causes between man and man which if they hang long before a Judge it is as a sore long under a chirurgians hand or a quartane ague which is opprobrium medicorum Thus have I with your Honourable and Christian an patience passed through the points propounded I have washed and searched the wounds and also prepared the plaister Now give me leave I beseech you to lay it on as tenderly as I can in a few words of Application wherein I intend healing not exasperating but if any sore smart it is because it 's festred or ranckled not by any corrosive in the balm And now what shall I do shall I be silent and give in a verdict of Omnia bene that 's indeed the shortest cut and safest way but so should I make all your sinnes mine own No we must review every piece of the Text and charge the same upon all the Ministers of justice great and small upon Judges the Kings eyes in their circuits upon Justices the Judges eyes in their divisions upon Jurours who are the scales of justice to weigh all actions and upon witnesses who put these weights into the scales But oh hard task to rake in this kennell to speak of the many-headed vice in all these particulars without dislike from you or check from mine own conscience so that I may say in Persius his words Oh si fas dicere Sed fas Shall the stage in a play and the Poet in a peal of Satyres deride your sinnes with a prophane spirit and shall the Spirit of God in the pulpit be confin'd or must the Preacher stoop at pulpit-doore to take measure of his hearers feet God forbid I am sent this day on Gods errand to you all which if it should not please remember I beseech you that I am but a poore messenger and must do my message at mine own perill First there must be no partiality in judgement And give me leave most Honoured Lords lest I should commit a sinne of partiality while I speak against it in the first place to addresse my self to your Honours I have an awfull and reverend respect of your places and persons yet remember I beseech you that humilitie in eminency is a singular vertue if like the soaring eagle or towring hawk the higher ye be the lesse ye seem and I do well know your labours pains are great for magna fortuna magna servitus your difficulties also are more then we can imagine you have the winde and storms in your faces when we be under the lee and being fathers of the Commonwealth do wake for us when we do sleep I meddle not with your employments of state they are out of my reach I am no eaves-dreeper of state it is for me to observe the ground-winde not the rack-winde I keep me therefore within the compasse of my Text and desire your Honours seriously to ponder that acceptation of persons in judgement is a stinking abomination in the nostrils of the Almighty whether it be for reward favour passion or cowardise For the first mine own breast doth clear your selves that ye be not as those Judges in Plutarch who ever came to the judgement-seat as
to a golden harvest and I hope ye will as well look to the fingers of those about you Let it not be with you as with many great ones who are said to allot no other wages or reward to their servants but their avales of this nature partiality for favour findes easier entrance then the former but I beseech you remember that publick places afford not means of pleasuring private friends but follow that memorable example of Cleon who being called to the government of the Commonwealth assembled all his intimate friends and disclaimed all inward amity with them And most truly saith Tully He deprives himself of the office of a friend who takes upon him the person of a Judge Yet also take heed of the contrary of being transported with anger we use not troubled water till it be setled we bring not a rough and unmannaged horse to the turney no more should you unbridled affections to the judgement-seat but when ye robe your bodies ye should also apparrell your mindes with calmed affections I confesse there is an anger becoming a Judge for one saith Qui caret irâ caret justitiâ He who cannot be angry cannot be just but this is to be understood of that anger which whets courage not of that which blindeth wisedome As for fear it 's too base an humour to trapper justice the over-fearfull man is but a piece of a man Claudius the first of the Cesars his mother was wont to say of him for his faint-heartednesse that nature had begun but not perfected him The Egyptians had a law that if great men should command Judges against law they should refuse it and Trajan when he invested any Praetour by giving him the sword would command him to use it even against himself in case he violated law or equity Plutarch worthily reproves Agesilaus for writing thus to one of his Judges in favour of an offender Si insons est dimitte sin minùs meâ causà dimitte utcunque dimitte If he be guiltlesse good reason he should be discharged if he be guilty for my sake discharge him but guilty or not guilty see he be discharged But let your judgement-seats be like Solomons throne supported on both sides with lions Oh let Judges be absolute and independent not having their scantlings given them and their sentences moulded to their hands for this is to be an apprentise and not a master in the art In the next place I turn my speech to the worshipfull Justices who are also Minores Dii and the second sonnes of justice Carry an even hand among your neighbours help not to smother drunkennesse basterdy or any wickednesse in any though allied or linked in any relation prosecute not a small errour over eagerly in one whereat ye connive in another in a word let there be no one sit on our bench in whom the countrey may observe that the baskets not walking not giving worship cap knee enough not coming in upon your carting daies not saluting you on Newyeares day morning or any such mean respect or other disrespect will incense you to whet the sword of justice and so to avenge your private conceits Now a word to the Jurours and witnesses let it be spoken not onely to them who are so at this assises but to all that have been before or that may be hereafter for I would fain for this short Christmas keep open house and give every one something Let me therefore tell you Jurours There must be no partiality in judgement but when ye have heard the case opened counsel speak on both sides ye know the issue to be tried ye have heard the proof on both sides then when ye go together ye have the scales of justice put into your hands to weigh the evidence ye cannot but see which carries most weight which scale goes up and which goes down Now let not reward liberall charges or expectation of future kindenesses let not favour alliance or neighbourhood or any such respect let not anger or malice let not fear or cowardise make the verdict but for love of God for love of justice for love of your countrey for love of your own souls do that is right without partiality But have all Jurours done thus or will all do thus Oh no for how frequent is it for a Jurour to be prepossessed of a cause and to resolve not to go against his neighbour neighbours friend his kinsman his old masters sonne his Lords tenant and the like thinking it but a small courtesie and not to be denied to lend one another an oath in such cases and so against all right do bring in a verdict which makes the Judge amazed the whole Court astonished and justice clean overturned and all this by a Suffolk Jury a place not civilized only but noted for religion But what doth such a Jury First it tells a loud lie for it 's before all the County next they call God to witnesse this lie by falsifying their oath and as much as lies in them they make him a partie besides they justifie the wicked and condemne the just fourthly they rob and perhaps undo the party against whom they go lastly without Gods wonderfull mercy they cast away their own souls Oh! what heart bleeds not to see souls thus thronging to hell by the dozens As for witnesses whose testimony makes the cause weighty or light and who also binde themselves solemnly by oath to speak the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth here 's no evasion yet how common is it with some to be Knights of the post for a small reward to be able to frame an oath of any size yea some will do it for a meales meat and thus deeply transgresse for a morsell of bread yea for a need a man may finde some who will swear to things done before they were born Others for favour and their friends will desperately stretch their consciences but if there be malice one would wonder at their sound tales against witches and other offenders and how again they will mince the truth for fear of greatnesse but remember a false witnesse shall not go unpunisht for God either payes them at the stub by shewing some speciall judgement upon them or if it be deferred without deep repentance they have it with interest in hell for ever Gods honour and the Kings must be freed from violation for I finde them together in the Text and so I 'le keep them in the Application The sturdy sinnes and obstinate vices of the times against Gods law and the Kings are those for whom justice at all hands calls for judgement I pitch onely upon foure which I take to be the bleeding wounds and running sores of this Kingdome all forbidden by the law of God and the King These are Superstitious Popery Blasphemous Swearing Profane Sabbath-breaking and Beastly drunkennesse A word of each First Popery violates the honour of God it being inglorious to each Person in the Trinitie
for without it pietie to God and charitie to man cannot be such as they should Hence it is that God accounts the profaning his day the eversion of all religion as appeares in many places We may conjecture what care man ought to have in the keeping by the Lords care in the deliverie of it for he sent it not abroad naked like many of the other commandments but clothed it as Joseph with a garment of divers colours it is in words larger in reasons fuller then any of the rest First there is a Memento for fear of forgetfullnesse Remember Next the bounty of God for fear of repining Six daies shalt thou c. Thirdly the soveraignty of it for fear of contemning It is the sabbath of the Lord c. Fourthly the generality of it for fear of misapplication Thou and thy sonne c. Fifthly the Lords example and benediction for fear of exception Thus you see it fortified with an high fence that it might be made strong for his own self like mount Zion not to be moved We are not ignorant also of the Kings pious laws in force for the observation of it yet in despite of both in many places how do people grudge to give God the seventh part of their life at least they will incroach a little having some odde job or other to do on that day nay alas what marketting what drinking and bowsing what fidling and dauncing and generally what profaning this day almost every where is to be seen in somuch that this day brings forth more sinne then any I think I may say then all the dayes of the week and if any Turk or Pagan should come into many places among us ask the reason why we leave our work and wear our best clothes on that day and answer should be made We keep this day holy to our God it were enough to make him forswear Christianity or giving their names to that God who is content to be served on such a fashion But ye know your charge Let then profane sabbath-breakers also have judgement without delay Lastly beastly drunkennesse is also against Gods and the Kings law Gods law every where pronounces woes against this sinne denouncing ruine to bodie goods and good name yea by name excluding drunkards out of his kingdome The truth is a drunkard puts himself in the ready way to break every commandment for when he ceaseth to be himself he is in a fair possibilitie to be any thing for drunkennesse never goes alone but is attended by the black guard of other sinnes as oaths railings mutinies quarrells fightings murders chambering wantonnesse ribaldrie adulteries and what not so that in mine opinion a man must first hood-winck his charitie before it can lead him to beleeve a drunkard not to be every way vitious and is it not a common plea with men of this rank to excuse these and other great sinnes by saying they were not themselves Thus is it against Gods law The Kings law hath also wholesomely provided against this overflowing sinne as we know but yet maugre them both with what a deluge of drunkennesse is this land overflown It is grown a sicknesse Epidemicall in court and countrey city and town yea our people are grown artificiall and exquisite in this sinne to drink the three Ou ts to drink by the dozen by the yard and by the bushell oh monstrous even in name how much more in practise insomuch that it seems to me the Germanes are like to lose their charter In Rome there was a street called vicus sobrius because there was never an alehouse in it I think there is scarce such a street to be found in England There is a story in Athenaeus which gives us a lively picture of the behaviour of drunkards at their meetings The roaring boyes meeting at an alehouse sat by it drinking so long till their brains were so steeped that they imagined the room wherein they were to be a ship tossed in the sea the fancied storm still increasing as the cups emptied so that at last they begin to fear shipwrack wherefore to make the ship lighter they heave the pots plate furniture and all that comes to hand out at the windows as if it were over board And thus do good-fellows at these meetings throw the house out at windows and keep quarter to the dishonour of Gods and the Kings law and yet the Justice is every where milde the drunkard merry I beseech your Honours therefore charge the Justices to abridge the excessive number of alehouses the shops of drunkennesse and that they charge the Constables better to look to the demeanour of the rest And if I may not be heard let Justice speak she saith thus I have heard Popery swearing sabbath-breaking and drunkennesse all convicted as dishonourable to Gods and the Kings law I charge you then Let them have judgement otherwise I take you all guilty of the same offences though not by committing yet by conniving It 's true indeed Every fat shall stand on its own bottom that is every one shall answer for his own sinnes yet take heed lest we mistake the account of our own sinnes seeing those are not to be reckoned our own onely which are so by perpetration but those also which are ours by participation Justice calls also for expedition in judgement and desires that poore mens causes might first be heard and not put off to the last for they can worst bear the charge of longer delay but she complains that the poore mans cause lies like the palsie-man at the pool of Bethesda where the motion is not made but by an Angel and so the stronger step in before them I end with one word for my self in the nineteenth of Deuteronomie at the fifth verse the Lord appointing cities of refuge for such to flee unto who had unawares killed his neighbour doth instance in the hewer of wood who if while he is felling the tree the head of the ax slippeth from the helve and striketh his neighbour so that he dieth shall flee to the next citie of refuge and live I have been hewing for the Lords sanctuary and felling down the huge trees of the sinnes forenamed if the head hath slipt from the helve and hurt any my next citie of refuge is your charitable construction and favourable interpretation And even so I commit you to God to whose Majestie let us all pray that this Assises may be much advantage to the honour of Gods law and the Kings Amen FINIS 2. Chron. 19.6 Psal 82.6 Matt. 22.30 Nah. 2.3 Galat. 4.18 Rom. 1.30 Acts 5.39 Exod. 5.2 Job 21.14 Psal 73.9 Psal 12.4 See Isa 28.18 Rom. 1. â—8 Rom. 13.1 Matt. 22.21 Prov. 24.21 2. Thes 2.4
The third point is Gods honour must first be provided for The law of thy God c. It 's true the charge proceeded from an heathen King but not from an heathen spirit and is recorded by the Spirit of God to be a moving president and authentick copy for all Kings to write after Blessed be God our King when he gives this charge alters the terms and saith for Thy God My God and doth so charge it upon his Judges and all inferiour ministers of justice in their severall orbs that Whosoever will not obey the law of My God c. Now if heathen Artaxerxes could stoop so low as to let the law of Ezra's God go before his own how much more by a binding argument from the lesse to the greater will it be expected from all Kings who own him for their God So that the naming Gods law before the Kings is not bare complement and for manners sake onely but for the naturall precedency thereof And verily when God made all this world and brought man not to the bare walls of it but as the bee to the hive even readie stockt and stored with variety of creatures both for necessitie and delight and placed order therein by his providence to keep the same in reparation that as men have dominion over creatures so some men are made Gods deputies to rule over men all this was not to part with his glory to another or to stand to the curtesie of others to be at their carving and allowance for his honour but that all men even Kings should hold all of him in Capite and do him homage for his goodnesse the Lord granting us indeed the good and sweet of his favours but as a rent or tribute by way of acknowledgement reserving the honour of them to himself Hence it is that in Scripture wheresoever the Kings power is spoken of there is also expressed or at least intimated Gods supremacy If Paul saith Be obedient to higher powers he addeth For they are of God If Christ saith Give unto Cesar that which is Cesars he also saith Give to God that which is Gods If Solomon saith Honour the King he hath first said Fear God And so here Artaxerxes premiseth the law of God before the law of the King Nay if this be not so what do ye here do ye not come to heare Gods charge before ye shew the Kings commission as if that could not take place till this had made way for it Hence is it also that all good Kings and Magistrates in Scripture began their reigne and government with doing something for God and religion as is evident in Moses Joshua David Solomon and the rest and of famous memory was that of blessed Queen Elisabeth who first bound up that tender-babe the Church of England in the swathing band of reformation before she provided any thing for the establishment of her own throne by the subjects recognition of her title to the imperiall Crown And for shame let not us give lesse to God then the heathen to their Idols with whom A Jove principâ—um was a perpetuall rule ever beginning all their solemne actions with sacrifice to their gods The Lord reserved in the Old law as sacred to himself the first-fruits and firstlings in every kinde teaching us in all things to serve God of the first and best And what is the Kings law without Gods what is the Kings peace without Gods peace outward prosperitie without religion nay peace is no peace without religion unity without verity breeds not peace but conspiracie Oh then let God be the Alpha and Omega of this sacred action let the beginning be with God by his assistance the ending for God by providing for his honour Fourthly The law of the King must also be freed from violation And the Kings law c. There be two sorts offended with this clause First the Anabaptists who cannot endure any law of magistracy accounting all compelling and restraining government plain tyrannie shewing thereby their mutinous mindes desiring omnia complanare to beat down all inclosure of magistracy and to lay all levell and common and then what could follow but that every one would do what seemed good in his eyes if there were no law of the King in Israel Secondly the Papists who though they can brook Kings many of their laws yet they cannot endure them so neare God and his law but there must be room left between God and the King for the Pope whom his flatterers call Vice-god Monarch of the Christian world Defender of the Papall omnipotency oh blasphemie And as for Emperours and Kings they be but as the Moon borrowing their light from him their Sunne and are nothing but his vassals to hold his stirrop to lead his horse to carry his canopie to hold his bason when he washeth to be deposed or exalted at his pleasure But then let him take it with the appurtenances He is Antichrist for his labour exalting himself according to S. Pauls prophesie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all that is called God as Kings are by God himself Psal 82.6 But ask Tertullian he tells us that Kings are homines a Deo secundi solo Deo minores Next to God and second to none but God and as Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings have no peer upon earth but are the top and head of all men And so for all Anabaptists and Papists we affirm the fourth point That next to Gods the Kings law must also be freed from violation Those whom God hath joyned together let no man put asunder such are every where God and the King God and Cesar Gods law and the Kings law and indeed they be twins to laugh and mourn to live and in some sense to die together The Kings law doth clap a shore to Gods law not that Gods law is in it self weak and needs it but because men are not so well bred as for conscience or love of goodnesse to obey but are much swayed by temporall reward or punishment by mans law distributed or inflicted If any ask whether the Kings law doth binde conscience as Gods law doth I answer That Gods law is immediately seated upon the conscience mans law is seated upon the conscience too but mediately and as it hath authority from Gods law for God doth permit Kings to make laws as Kings do Corporations and Colledges to make Constitutions provided alwayes that they contain in them nothing contrary to a statute law So that though the Kings law doth challenge obedience as Gods law doth and gives as it were the same arms yet like a younger brother it must be with distinction If any ask further in what things the law of man hath power to command with strictest tie I answer That as Merchants sometime suffer their servants in the time of their apprentishood to trade for themselves in some commodities wherein they themselves do not deal So properly the law of man