that it was fit it should be so in respect of a double comparison 1. Of himself with God 2. Of his Court with God's Ark. Reason 1 1. I that am but a poor creature have an house to dwell in and God that is the Creator of all the World hath not an House to put his Ark in and for his servants to meet in to hear his Laws and to ' do him service Reason 2 2. My Court is stately covered over with Cedars but the Ark of God is but very meanly and basely covered over with a Canopie of skins to shelter it from the wind and the weather And therefore conceiving this to be very preposterous and a far unbeseeming thing for him to be better provided for than his God he conferreth with the Prophet and tells him he intends to rectifie this obliquity and to build God an House more agreeable to his Majesty These are the parts and parcels of the Kings deliberation and conference with the Prophet and his Bishop Nathan And 1. The time of this deliberation How Sitting Standing are commonly interpreted 1. For the time It is said when the King sate in his house and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies So you see 1. It was when the King sate in his house and these relative words sitting and standing are noted by Divines to have some difference of sense and acceptation As standing being commonly taken in good part and sitting in the evil and worser sense as in these places where standing is well spoken of Ezech. 3.24 1 Cor. 10.12 2 Cor. 1.24 Ephes 6.14 1 Pet. 5.12 Ps 135.1 2. Ps 122.2 2 Reg. 3.14 The Spirit entred into me and set me upon my feet and he that thinketh he standeth let him take heed lest he fall and stand in the Lord as dear children and by faith ye stand and stand having your loynes girt about with truth and this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand and praise the Lord all ye his servants ye that stand in the courts of the Lords House and our feet shall stand in thy gates O Hierusalem and the Lord of Hosts liveth before whom I stand In all which quotations and the like the word standing hath reference unto good and is taken in the better sense and so to be interpreted And in these places and the like where the name of sitting runneth into obloquie and is attributed to iniquity Iniquity sitteth on a talent of lead Zach 5.7 Ps 119. Ps 1. and Princes sit and speak against me and Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornful and the ungodly person sitteth lurking in the theevish corners of the streets and so in may other places it is interpreted in the worse sense How the word sate is here takeâ— But here the word sate in his house is of a milder meaning and of indifferent acceptation and rather to be interpreted in the better sense as betokening the government of the King for so the King sate in his house signifieth that he sate in his Seat of Government and this sense hath been ancient and obvious in our reading as where the Poet saith Celsa sedet Aeolus arce King Aeolus fitteth in his high Tower and manageth his State-matters and in the Germane speech they say that to sit signifieth to reign as the Emperour sate that is reigned so many years And this is the moderne meaning of this phrase even amongst us for when we would shew how long any one hath exercised the Office and discharged the Place of a Bishop Judge or Prefect amongst us we are wont to say he sate in that place so long And to sit commonly signifieth to be in rest and quiet and is opposite to affairs and businesse As where it is said Shall your brethren go to battle and you sit still And where the Poet saith Sedeant spectentque Latini Let the Latines sit still and look on And in both these sences King David may be said to sit in his house without any great matter in which sense we understand the word though I rather take it in the later way because that 2. The next adjunct of the time is 2. When waâ— the time that David had rest from all his enemies when the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies for this varieth little or nothing from the former when he sate in his house And therefore we may very well compose them and confound them together and put than to signifie the same thing But about this rest that is here spoken of the Expositors cannot all agree when it was whilest they do consider the many Battels that he fought after this conference that he had with Nathan and therefore though some take it for the peace he had at this present time yet others of a quicker sight do assign it after the second Victory he had against the Philistines when he was such an hammer so terrible to all the neighbour-Nations as that the very name of David and his doings made them afraid and glad to sue unto him for peace and to take bands of resolution with themselves to be of good behaviour towards him and never to provoke him any more And of this we read in 1 Chron. 14.11 when the Philistines came up to Baal-Perazim and David smote them and said God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters and afterward when they spread themselves abroad in the valley 1 Chron. 14. v. 16 17. and David smote them from Gibeon even to Gazer and the fame of David went out into all Lands and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all Nations 2. For the persons that are here conferring together 2. The persons deliberating and conferring together they are said to be David and Nathan the King and the Prophet two great Persons and high Offices that formerly were contained in one Person as Melchisedech was the Priest of the Most High GOD and King of Salem And as the Poet saith Rex Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos Virgil. l. 3. And when God divided and distributed these several Offices to several persons he conferred them upon two brothers that is Moses and Aaron that so the King and the Priest might live and love one another like brethren as I have more amply shewed in my Treatise of The Grand Rebellion And so King David here dischargeth that his duty accordingly And so likewise not only the Heathen Kings but also the Jewish Kings the Kings of Israel and all good Christian Kings disdained not the friendly familiarity and conference with their Bishops and Priests The greatest Kâ—ngs and Pâ—inces were most familiar with the Priests Oâ—â—tors and Philosophers especially when they consult and deliberate of Religion or any point that concerns the Worship and Service of God For as King Croesus conferred with Solon the Philosopher and
the proper place of it and was obscured and hemmed and as it were imprisoned in private houses so that the people had no publique place of Assembly to here the law and to offer Sacrifice unto God but every one had his Chappell of ease and his private Oratory by himself to serve God as he listed as now of late it hath been with us David assoon as ever he was chosen to be King in Hebron the first work he did was to consult with his Captains and all the Congregations of Israel to cite and summon the Priests and Levites and all the Clergy that were for the service of the Tabernacle to appear before him 1 Chron. 13.1 3. and to cause the Ark of God to be brought again unto them that they might inquire at it which they did not nor could do in the daies of Saul and when he had assembled the Children of Aaron and the Levites 1 Chron. 15.4 12. Vers 11. he shewed them the abuses that Religion had sustained in the daies of Saul and he caused the Ark to be carried upon the shoulders of the Levites unto the place that he had prepared for it and when he had called for Zaedok and Abiathar the Priests and for the Levites for Vriel Asaiah and Joel Shemaiah and Eliol and Aminidab he did set down which of the Levites should serve and in what order they should Minister before the Ark 1 Chron. 16.39.41 42. and he injoyned the sons of Aaron that were Priests how they should go forward every one in their course And so according to this Practice of King David King Solomon his son and all the succeeding Kings that were good and godly did the like for of Sâ—lomon it is recorded that he appointed according to the order of David his father the courses of the Priests to their service and the Levites to their charges to praise and Minister before the Priests 2 Chron. 8.14 as the duty of every day required the Porters also by their courses at every gate for so David the man of God commanded And it is further Chronicled of King Solomon that what his father here projected and consulted about the building of an House to the Lord he really performed 2 Chron c. 5. c. 6. c. 7. and when he had built it he made a very godly speech and a most excellent Oration unto the people touching the Worship of God and his Religion and he deposed Abiathar and set up Sadoc in his place and Sanctified the Temple and placed the Ark of God therein and offered burnt offerings and Sacrifices and directed the Priests and Levites in all their proceedings even as his father David had done before him and that which is very observeable it is said that the Priests and Levites left nothing unobserved but did all things according as they had received in commandment from the King So likewise King Jehosophat is highly commended for his piety and Religious care of Gods Worship for it is recorded of him that he appointed and disposed the Priests and Levites to do the service of the Tabernacle and that by order of his Authority the Woods and Groves and High places which were the lets and hinderances of the true Religion were quite removed and taken away because the people by their private Meetings and Conventicles in those places to serve God as they now adayes do with us wholly neglected the Cathedral and Mother-Church which â—as at Hierusalem 2 Chron. 17.7 8 9. and to which they were from every corner of the Kingdom yearly to repair And when the Service of God was corrupted and the Temple most filthily defiled through the negligence and sinfulness of the Priests King Ezechias commanded it to be purged 2 Chron. 29. per totum and he caused lights to be set up incense to be burned Sacrifices to be performed and the Brazen Serpent that was become an Idol and worshipped by the people to be broken down and consumed to ashes So King Joas reproved the Priests of his time for their excessive abuses and the insolent behaviour that was seen in them for he sequestred the oblations of the people which the Priests had unjustly and wantonly taken and appropriated to themselves 2 Reg. 12.7 and by his Royal Authority caused them to be converted for the reparation of the Temple And King Josias to his everlasting praise shewed himself most careful to suppresse the Idolatrous Priests to purge the Church from all Idolatry and Superstition and to put the Priests and Levites in mind of their duties as you may see in 2 Reg. 23. 2 Reg. 23. Obj. per totum And if our adversaries of the Roman Church do object and say Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperour or any lay-Prince to do with the Church let him rule the Common wealth and leave Religion and what belongs to God's Worship to be ordered and observed by the Pope Bishops and Priests whose Office and Calling is to take care and to see the Church of God should be sufficiently served and all holy duties holily performed And the examples alleaged infringe not the force of this Objection because David was a Prophet even as Moses was and his ordering the affairs of the Temple and setling the Service of the Church was done by vertue of his Prophetical and not of his Princely-Office And Solomon was Divinely inspired by God's holy Spirit both for the building of the Temple and the ordering of the Priests and Levites for the Service of the Temple And as Jehu had the direction of the Prophet Elisha for the suppression of the Priests of Baal so had Ezechias the prophet Esay to direct him in the purging of the Temple and Reformation of those abuses that had crept in into the Service of God Sol. To this we answer That as Joshua the Prince was required to go in and out at the word of Eleazar the Priest so we yield that the King ought to hearken to the counsel and direction of his Bishop and Priest as David here did consult with Nathan and Ezechias with the Prophet Esay And while Religion is purely maintained the people truly instructed and the Church rightly and orderly governed by the Bishops and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Governours the Prince needs not to trouble himself with any Reformation or to meddle with the matters of Religion But the King Prince and Supreme Magistrate ought to see that all the aforesaid things are so and if they be not to correct the Priest when he is careless and to cause all the abuses that he seeth in the Church and in Religion to be Reformed Augustin contra Cresconium l. 3 c. 51. Because as S. Augustine saith In hoc reges Deo serviunt sicut iis divinitùs praecipitur in quantum sunt reges si in suis regnis bonae jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam
a greater than Solomon Christ himself not refusing the censure of Pilate though for no fault Saint Paul appealing unto Caesar Caecilian judged by the Delegates of Constantine Flavianus by Theodosius and all the Martyrs and godly Bishops never pleading exemption from their persecutors do make this point beyond all question 3. Governours well agreeing in their government 3. These two Governours were not onely consanguinei two brethren for so were Cain and Abel to whom totus non sufficit orbis but they were also consentanei like the soul and body of man of the same sympathy and affection for the performance of every action For the Church and Common-wealth are like Hippocrates twins so linked together as the Ivie intwisteth it self about the Oak that the one cannot happily subsist without the other but as the Secretary of nature well observeth That the Marygold opens with the Sun and shuts with the shade even so when the Sun-beams of peace and prosperity shine upon the Common-wealth then by the reflection of those beams the Church dilates and spreads it self the better as you may see in Acts 9.31 and on the other side when any Kingdom groaneth under civill dissention the Church of Christ must needs suffer persecution And therefore to this end that the Prince and Priest might as the two feet of a man help each other to support the weight of the whole body and to bear the burthen of so great a charge God at the first severing of these offices which before were united in one person as the Poet saith of Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos and as the Apostle saith of Melchisedech that he was both a King and the Priest of the most high God did chuse two natural brethren to be the Governours of his people and that quod non caret mysterio Aaron was the eldest and yet Moses was the chiefest to signifie as I take it that they should rather help and further each other then any wayes rule and domineer one over the other because that although Aaron was the eldest brother and chief Priest yet Moses was the chief Magistrate and his brother's god as God himself doth stile him and therefore this should terrorem incutere and teach him how to behave himself towards his brother and though Moses was the chief Magistrate yet Aaron was the chief Priest and his eldest brother which had not lost like Reuben the prerogative of his birth-right and this should reverentiam inducere work in Moses a respect unto his brother's age and place And truly there is great reason why these two should do their best to support and protect each other for the government of the people is as we may now see a very difficult and miraculous thing no lesse then the appeasing of the Surges of the raging Sea as the Prophet sheweth when he saith That God ruleth the rage of the Sea and the noyse of his waves and the madness of his people And the Rod of government is a miraculous Rod as well that of Aaron as that of Moses for as Moses Rod turned into a Serpent and the Serpent into a Rod again so the Rod of Aaron of a dry stick did blossome and bear ripe Almonds to shew how strange and wonderful a thing it is either for Prince or Priest to rule an unruly multitude too much for any one of them to do and therefore God doth alwayes joyn both of them together as the Psalmist sheweth Thou leddest thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron And besides if these two do not assist and protect each other they shall be soon suppressed one after another of their own people for if the Prince which is to be our Nursing-Father be once subdued then presently the Priest shall be destroyed and when he hath lost his power our power shall never be able to do any good and if the Priest which prayeth and preacheth to direct the King be trampled under foot As soon as men have overthrown their Priests they will presently labour to destroy their king it hath been found most certain that after they have thrown away the Miter they have not long retained the Scepter And therefore King James of ever blessed memory of a sharp conception and sound judgement was wont to say No Bishop no King unlesse you mean such a King as Christ was when the Jewes crowned him with Thorns and bowing their knees said Hail King of the Jews that is Rex sine Regno a King without power like a man of straw that is onely made to fright away the birds For the people are alwayes prone to pull out their necks from the yoke of their obedience and would soon rebell if the Priests did not continually preach that Every soul should be subject to the higher powers as we see now by experience how apt they are to rebell when factious Preachers give them the least incouragement And therefore as this rebellion of Corah so every other though they begin with one yet they aym at both and strive to overthrow aswell the one as the other for so my Text saith They angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. And therefore these two should be as Hippocrates twins or indeed like man and wife indissolubly coupled and coherent together without distraction and cursed be they that strive to make the division for whom God hath thus united together no man should put asunder And here you may observe the method of their Rebellion The method of their Rebellion the Text saith Moses and Aaron yet Moses sheweth they began with Aaron for when their Rebellion was first discovered Moses doth not say What have I done against you but What is Aaron that you should murmure against him to shew unto us that although Moses was the first they aymed at in their intention yet he was the last they purposed to overthrow in the execution Quia progrediendum à facilioribus as the Devil began with the woman the weaker vessel that he might the easier overthrow the stronger so the enemies of God and his Church do alwayes seek first to overthrow the Priest and then presently they will set upon the Prince And therefore as Moses here Virgil. Aeneid lib. 2. so all Magistrates every where should remember that Jam tua res agitur through our sides they may smart and our wounds may prove dangerous unto them because you shall never read they began to shake us but they fully intended to root out them for if the fear of God and the honour of the King must go together as Saint Peter sheweth it must needs follow that they will but dishonour and disobey their King that have cast away the fear of God and it is most certain that when they drive God out of their hearts as the Gergezites drove Christ out of their Coasts Little fear of God in them that expell their Priests out of their societies
sinne being thus conceived in the womb of the heart Private meetings do often produce mischief 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 mutter 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 are all holy 2 Sam. 15.3 4. 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 The wisdom of Moses And here I do observe the care and wisdom of the Prophet that at 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 able 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 them The witty tale of Demosthenes to save the Oratâ—urs 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. 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 sparâ—d 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 nubi b 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 Chaos 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 1. Pride and will be the destruction of any Church of any Common-wealth was the first seed of their rebelllion 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 2. Discontent for though contentation is a rare blessing because it ariseth either from a fruition of all comforts as it is in the glorious in Heaven The poyson of discontent or a not desiring of 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 discontent makes its weary of our lives as the Israelites that loved their lives as well as any yet for want of a little water say O that we had dyed in Aegypt And Haman tells his wife Hester 5.13 that all the honour which the King and Queen shewed unto him availed him nothing so long as Mordecai refused to
but a little lesse For which application of Gods glorious name and abusing the holy Scriptures to such abominable transgression of Gods holy Precepts to instigate the subjects to warre against their Soveraign and to involve a whole Kingdom into a detestable distraction I do much admire that they are not apprehended and transferred to the Kings Bench Barre to be there arraigned and condemned to be punished according to their deserts 10. When these Rebels had proceeded thus far 10. Rebellion See the place Jâ—shua 1.16 17 18. then contrary to the loyal obedience which they owed unto their Prince and which the people promise unto Joshua they ascended to the height of that odious rebellion which may not unfitly be called Monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum and is as Thucydides saith All kind of evill Et qui facit peccatum non facit sed ipse totus est peccatum and therefore Samuel saith that Rebellion is as the sinne of Witchcraft when men do confederate to give their souls unto the Devill for now these Rebels are ready to take arms against Moses and they had reduced all civill order to a confused paritie deposed and destroyed their Governours if the Governour of all the world by whom Kings do reign and who hath promised to defend them had not prevented the same from Heaven And the reason why they did all this The reason of their rebellion and proceeded thus farre against Moses and Aaron is intimated in the words of my Text Aemulati sunt because they would emulate or imitate Moses that is to play the Moses or play the King and play the part of the chief Priest themselves for this is certain that none will envy murmure at slander and disobey his King so farre as to make an open rebellion against him but they that in some sort would rule and be Kings themselves especially when they shall seek so farre to debilitate their Prince as that he shall be no wayes able to make resistance for they think If Treason prosper 't is no Treason what 's the reason if it prosper who dares call it Treason and none would disobey their Bishops or chief Priests but they that would and cannot be Bishops themselves because pride and ambition are the two sides of that bellowes which blowes up disobedience and rebellion But they that are bad servants will prove worse Masters they that will not learn how to obey can never tell how to rule and if Moses were as these Rebels suggested a Tyrant yet the Philosopher tells us we had better endure one Tyrant then as they were 250. Tyrants And the Homily of the Church tells us that contrary to their hopes God never suffers the greatest treasons or rebellions for any long time to prosper Therefore when under loyal pretences we see nothing but studied mischiefs and most crafty endeavours to innovate our government or to imbroyle the Kingdom in a civil warre that so they may fish in a troubled water let us never be so stupid as to secure them in these actions to produce our discredit for our simplicity and destruction for our disloyalty but rather let us leave them as Delinquents to the justice of our Lawes and the mercy of the King and this will be the readiest way to effect peace and happinesse to our Nation CHAP. XII Sheweth where the Rebels do hatch their Rebellion The heavy and just deserved punishments of Rebels The application and conclusion of the whole 4. Part. Where they did laâ— this 4. WE are to consider Vbi fecerunt where they did all this in castris non in templis that is in their own houses not in the house of God for in Gods house we teach obedience to our Kings and beat down rebellion in every Kingdom this is the Doctrine of the Church But in our houses in our cabins and corners in private Coventicles they teach rebellion Our houses are our Castles which is the doctrine of those Schools And these Schools are called Castra Tents or Castles because indeed every man's house is his Castle or his Fort where he thinks himselfe sure enough so did these Rebels and they would not come out of them neither Moses the King could compell them nor Aaron the Priest could perswade them to come out of their Castles and forsake their strong holds which their guilty consciences would not permit them to do and so all other rebels will never be perswaded to forsake their places of strength untill God pulleth them as he did these Rebels out of their holes for were it not for these Castra the Cities and Castles that they possesse they could not so like subtle Foxes run out and in to nullifie the property and to captivate the liberty of the Kings faithful subjects as they do for though they do all this under those fair pretences for the defence of the true religion the maintenance of our liberties and the property of our estates yet for our Religion it is now amongst us as it was in the days of Saint Basil Basilius de Spiritu Sancto cap. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every one is a Divine and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All the bounds of our forefathers are transgressed foundation of doctrine and fortification of discipline is rooted up and the innovators which never had any other imposition of hands but what they laid upon themselves have matter enough to set forward their sedition And for the other pretences I dare procaim it to all the world that mine own experience believeth the liberty of the subjects and the property of our goods and the true Protestant Religion could not possibly be more abused then it hath been by them that came in the name and for the service of the Parliament and therefore I would to God that all the oppressions injustice and imprisonments that have been made since the beginning of this Parliament were collected and recorded in a Book of remembrance that all the world might see and read the justice and equity of our Parliament and the iniquity oppression and rapine of them that to enrich themselves How the Parliament Rebeâ—s have inriched themselves in Ireland deprive us of our estates and liberties and that under the Parliaments name For I hear that as many have been impoverished so many both the Lords and Commons in this Kingdom of Ireland that before the conjunction of these malevolent martial Planets were very low at an ebbe and their names very deep in many Citizens books have now wiped off all scores paid all their debts and clad themselves in Silks and Scarlet but with the extorted moneys and the plundered goods of the loyal subjects I hope it is not so in England Yet as Platina tells us that when the Guelphes and the Gibilines Platina's story of the Guelphs and Gibelines in the City of Papia were at civil discord and the Gibilines promised to one Facinus Caius all
it is most lamentable to consider how many thousands they have murdered 7. How they loosened the reins to all lust hoc fonte derivata clades in patriam populumque fluxit Horat. car l. 3. 8 How they are like Argivi fares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ps 94.12 9. How they belyed all sorts of good men Quomodo Deus pater genuis filium veritatem nempe sic diabolus lapsus genuit quasi filium mendacium Aug. super Ioh. Habac. 2.9 Gildas de exci dio Britan. and how they are thought worthy of the greatest honour and the best reward that have killed most of God's faithfull servants and the King 's loyal Subjects 7. For adulteries Fornications and all Uncleannesse they may now freely do it lust may flow like the river whose bankes are broken down when they have overthrown those courts of Justice and were never at rest till they had most violently suppressed the power and execution of all Ecclesiastical censures that were the chiefest bars and hindrances of these unlawful lusts 8. For stealing they have changed the name but not the nature of it for under the pretence of preserving to us the propriety of our goods they have not stolne but plundered away that is robbed us of all our goods and carried them into those Rebellious Townes that are now the dens of these thieves and are stronger in their wickednesse then the hils of the robbers and that which makes this sin most sinful is that it is established by a Law 9. They have justified the Cretans and proved themselves the right bastard sons of the father of lyes filling all and every corner of this Kingdome with palpable intolerable and incredible lyes slanders and false witnesse-bearing against God against his Anointed against the Church and against all the reverend governours of the Church all religious Protestants all the loyal Subjects of this Nation that the Angels do now blush and the Devils do laugh and rejoyce to see they are so fruitful in begetting so many Children so perfectly formed and so compleately perfected in their own image and likenesse and if ever the saying of Gildas was true they have proved it now Moris continui gentis erat sicut nunc est ut infirma esset ad retundenda hostium tela fortis ad civilia bella infirma inquam ad exequenda pacis ac veritatis insignia fortis ad scelera mendacia 10. They have coveted an evil covetousnesse 10. The extent of their covetousnesse when they coveted all evil unto themselves not onely their neighbours houses goods and lands and all that are theirs but also the patrimony of the Church the revenues of the Clergy and all the rights and prerogatives of the King to be entayled upon themselves 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 How they transgressed the new commandment of the Gospel Gen. 4.9 so 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 sell 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 How they have committed the 7 deadly sins Rom. 6.23 as the Apostle saith in general 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 factious Rebels For 1. Pride which is an high conceit of a mans own worth 1 Their Pride Quid juvat O homines tanto turgescere fastu Nam ut ait Comicus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 far beyond his 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 destroy 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 it and I shewed you before how covetous these Rebels are not of any good 2. Their Covetousnesse Sacrilegia minuta puniuntur magna jam in triumphis feruntur Senec. ep 87. 3. Their luxury Certa quidem tantis causa est manifesta ruinit Luxuriae nimium libera facta via est Propert. eleg 11. l. 3. 4. Their envy 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 wantonnesse 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 themseves 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. If Epicurus were now living or Sardanapalus came to these mens feasts 5. Their Gluttony and drunkennesse 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
Wolves against them but only for the name that they are said to be built by Roman Catholicks and that Popish Priests have served in them but it is nothing to us who built them or who served in them so we serve God aright in them this is all that we are to look unto For so we find that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles in their time frequented the Temple not that which Solomon built nor that which Zorobabel erected â—â—â—â—ph Antiq. l. 15. c. 14. but that which Herod that sought our Saviours life build d and beautifiâ—d and that which the Scribes and Pharisees had as much as in them lay defiled with their false-glâ—sses and the other Jews had made it a den of Thieves Matth 21.13 and though Castor and Pollux were become Idols and worshipped as gods among the Heathens yet Saint Paul refused not to sail in a Ship whose badge was Castor and Pollux and Saint Luke is not affraid to set down those â—itles of the Paganish Idols â—ocrat Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 33. And therefore as Eunomius was most foolish for refusing to enter into the Temples of thâ— Martyrs lest he should be thought to worship the dead and Eâ—stathius was most fantastical for detesting all publick Churches and leading his Schollers to private Conventicles in ordinary houses for fear they should be defiled with the memorial of the Saints that were mentioned in the Churches so these our brethren of the Separation are most simple for disclaiming our Churches Prayers and Ministry and like the Elder brother in the Parable hearing afar off the melody of our prayers and understanding of our intertainment into our Fathers House are very angry and will not come into Gods House for fear of infection but will convene in private houses and run abroad into the fields like Esan to hunt there for the blessing which with Jaâ—â—b they might get nearer home in their Fathers House and when we would according to our injâ—nction seek to compel them to come out of the High-waies and Hedges to the marriage of the Kings son they will waste their wealth leave their mansions and like Heliodorus the fool of Athens sail beyond the Straights of Gibraltar and make Ship-rack before the Tempest rather then they will come into Gods House whereby they might fit still under their own Vâ—nes injoy the food of their Fathers House the safe-gard of their wealth and the safety of their soules which they do hazard by their own simplicity in being like the Jews zealous but not according to knowledge CHAP. XIII That it is a part of the Office and Duty of Pious Kings and Princes as they are God's Substitutes to have a care of his Church to see that when such Cathedralls and Churches are built and beautified as is fitting for his service there be Able Religious and Honest painful and faithful Bishops placed in those Cathedrals that should likewise see able and Religious Ministers placed in all Parochiall Churches and all negligent unworthy and dissolute men Bishops or Priests reproved corrected and amended or removed and excluded from their places and dignities if they amend not IT is well and truly observed as the holy Scripture sheweth That although the wise God hath most mercifully decreed and accordingly exhibited and gave a Saviour in himself altogether sufficient for the saying of all Man-kind and all the lost sons of Adam and he hath most wisely and graciously taken a course on his own part and in it self also fully sufficient and appointed a course and order on mans part that being duly observed might make the same sufficiently effectuall unto all yet it so fals out Mens destruction that very many men attain not to that end for which God did send his Son to save them but are seized on by Gods Justice and cast to eternal condemnation And that chiefly by mans own default and partly in some respects through the default of his Rulers and Teachers yet so that he dies and suffers only for his own sins 1. Through their own default when Kings and Princes 1. By their own fault whom God hath appointed and set to be their Governors and Rulers do by their under-Magistrates and their just laws prohibite them from all evil and wickedness and require them to imbrace all virtues and godliness of life and to this end do appoint their substitutes the Bish ps and other Teachers to guide them and to instruct them to let them know what is good and what is evil and so what they ought to believe and what not and these do faithfully discharge these Offices as Moses and Aaron David and Nathan and many other godly Kings and Bishops did yet men will not obey their Governors but Rebel like Corah Dathan and Abiram and as of late we have done Jer. 11.21 they will not hearken to the voyce of their Teachers but say to the Prophets Prophesy not unto us and say to God himself Depart from us Job 21.14 for we desire not the knowledge of thy Laws or they relye upon their own wisdom and account the Preaching of the Gospel of the cross of Christ foolishness 1 Cor. 1.18 or they follow the ill examples of their Fathers and do worse than their Fathers Jer. 18.12 c. 16.12 or they do addict themselves to the pleasures and vanities of this World that do choak the seed of Gods Word in them or when crosses afflictions and persecution come they are offended Matth. 13. â—2 and start aside like a broken bow Then God seeing these courses that they take contrary to the course that he had set down for their Salvation he complaineth of them that His people would not hear his voyce and Israel would not obey him therefore He gave them up unto their own hearts lusts Ps 81.12 15. and let them follow their own imaginations 2. Mens destruction much furthered by the default of their Governours 2. Though all wicked men do thus chiefly work their own destruction yet many times their fall and ruine is much furthered by the default and apostasie of their Prime-Governours or at least through their neglect and the neglect of their subordinate Magistrates and Ministers the Bishops and Preachers that are under the Kings and Princes the Governours of God's Church For God having set these Rulers the Supreme and subordinate to be the Watchmen and Shepherds over his people to govern them and teach them how to live justly and holily that they might attain to eternal life if by their default their misleading of them out of the way or neglect to shew them the right way the people do miscarry the men so misguided and not instructed Ezech. 33.8 shall die in their iniquity and God will require their blood at the Shepherds and Watchmens bands And yet Cain a principal Ruler of and over his Posterity misleading and not teaching them the right Worship of God perished himself and
most generally found that the Children of the precedent Bishops that have most wronged the Church and their Successors Why the sons of Bishops are most spitefull unto the Succeeding Bishops are in all things most contrariant and opposites I will not say spiteful or envious to the succeeding Bishops because as I conceive their hearts tell them what injuries their Fathers did them for their sakes and themselves continue therein and therefore do conceive that the present Bishops cannot think well nor love them that have so much wronged both them and the Church of God and to requite them according to their own thoughts with hate for hate they are of all others most spiteful crossing and prejudiciall unto them or else because they do imagine that the present and succeeding Bishops will be as wicked and as unjust as their Fathers and their predecessors were and therefore deserve neither love nor favour from them As Alexander the Copper-smith withstood S. Paul So the last Bishops son withstandeth me to recover the rights of the Church And I heard many Parliament men say that in the Long Anti-Christian Parliament none were more violent against the Bishops then the sons and posterity of Precedent Bishops I found it so And I have espied another fault in some of our former Bishops not a little prejudiciall to the Honor of God and the good of the Church of Christ and that is not only to give Orders to unworthy men but also to bestow livings upon unworthy Priests for as the old saying was Rector eris praesto de sanguine praesulis esto Or as another saith Quatuor ecclesias portis intratur in omnes Prima patet magnis nummatis altera tertia charis Sed paucis solet quarta patere Dei So it was their practice to bestow Livings Rectories Prebends and other Preferments not on them that best deserved them but either upon their Children friends or servants or on them that could as the story goeth tell them And so to the lessor and to the lessee of the Church-Lands to the prejudice of the Church the like curse and Anathema is due who was Melchisedecks Father that is to say St. Peters lesson Aurum argentum non est mihi in the affirmative way which is a fault worthy to be punished by the Judges For as it is most truely said Qâ—icunque sacra vel sacros ordines vendunt aut emunt sacerdotes esse non possunt whosoever do buy or sell holy orders or any holy things cannot be Priests Vnde scriptum est Anathema danti Anathema accipienti whence it is written Let Gods curse be to the buyer and the curse of God to the receiver because this buying and selling of Holy things and things dedicated for the service of God is the Simoniacal Heresie or Heresie of Simon Mâ—gus Qâ—omodo ergo si Anathematizati sunt sancti non sunt sanctificare alios possunt Habetur 1. q. 1. Can. Quicunque How then if they be accursed and no Saints can they make others Saints or sanctify them Et cum in corpore Christi non sint quomodo Christi corpus tradere vel accipere possunt Et qui maledictus est benedicere quomodo potest And seeing such men are not in the body of Christ how can they deliver or receive the body of Christ and how can he that is accursed himself bless any other And therefore seeing the Word of God requireth the Bishops and Ministers of Christ should be so Holy in their lives and so qualified with knowledge and learning for the instruction of the people as I shewed to you before and is typified by those Golden Bels and the Pomegranats that were to be set in the skirts of Aarons robes round about the Bels signifying the teaching of the people and the Pomegranats the sweet smelling fruits of a good and godly life It behoves the Kings and Princes to whom God hath given the prime Soveraignty and commandeth them to have a care of his Honor and the service of his Church to see so far as they can that the Bishops and Prelates which they place over Gods people be so qualified as God requireth and to injoyn these their prime Substitutes to look that those Priests and Deacons which they make and place in the Church be likewise such as I have fore-shewed for this God requireth at their hands and this David Jehosaphat Ezechias Josias and all the good and godly Kings of Israel and Juda and all the pious Christian Kings and Emperors did and I do know how zealously and carefully our late most gracious King Charles the I. was to place Able Religious and Godly Bishops over Gods Church which is a special duty of every King And because also the Prelates and Bishops are not all or may not all be no more then the Apostles were all such as they should be but some of them may be such as I have shewed to you before either like Simon Magus selling what they should freely give or like Demas imbracing this present World or like Baalam loving the wages of unrighteousness or perhaps doing worse then those Apostatizing like Julian and starting aside like Ecebolius or devising wicked Heresies like Arius or renting the unity of the Church like Donatus then as Solomon deposed Abiathar and divers of the good Emperours deposed wicked Popes and the godly Kings have pull'd down ungodly Bishops as our late Queen Elizabeth did degrade Bishop Bonner and divers other Popish Prelates so should all good and godly Kings reprove and correct and if they amend not expel and remove all scandalous and ungodly Bishops and the Bishops do the like to all deboyst and dissolute Ministers that so the old and sowre leaven may be purged out of Gods Church and the builders of Gods Tabernacle be like Bezaliel and Aholiab such as can and will do the work of the Lord carefully and Religiously CHAP. XIV Of the maintenance due to the Bishops and Ministers of Gods Church how large and liberal it ought to be THirdly When the Kings and Princes 3. To provide sufficient means for the Church-men which are the Supreme Magistrates and as Tertullian saith Homines à Deo secundi solo Deo minores are the men that are next to God in power and Authority and therefore ought to have the prime and chiefest care of Gods Honour and his worship in the Church of Christ have as I have formerly shewed with King David and Solomon Colimus imperatorem ut hominem à Deo secundum so lo Deâ— minorem Tertul. ad Scapulam provided that Temples and Churches be erected and beautified as fit houses of God for his people and servants to convene and meet in them to Worship God and have likewise taken care in the next place to see that good men and godly Bishops be appointed over those Churches as their substitutes to Rule Govern and Teach the people of God how to live and
all kings Ang. de Civit. Dei l. 4. c 33. illius jussu reges constituuntur And by whose command men are born by his command Kings are made And S. Augustine more plainly and more fully saith God alone is the giver of all earthly Kingdomes which he giveth both to the good and to the bad neither doth he the same rashly and as it were by chance because he is God but as he seeth good Pro rerum ordine ac tempore in respect of the order of things and times which are hid from us but best known unto himself and whosoever looketh back to the original of all governments he shall find that God was the immediate authour of the Regal power God the immediate authour of Monarchy and but the allower and confirmer of the Aristocratical and all other forms of government which the people erected and the Lord permitted lest the execution of judgement should become a transgression of justice for as Homer saith Hom. Odyss α. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Aristotle tells us Aristot Polit. l. 1. c. 8. that the Regal power belonged to the father of the family who in the infancy of the world was so grandevous and long-liv'd that he begat such a numerous posterity as might well people a whole Nation as Cain for his own Colony built a City and was as well the King as the father of all the Inhabitants and therefore Justin saith very well that Principio rerum Justin l. 1. Gentium nationúmque imperium penes reges erat The rule of Nations was in the hands of Kings from the beginning and the Kingly right pertaining to the father of the family the people had no more possibility in right to choose their Kings then to choose their Fathers and to make it appear unto all Nations that not onely the Kings of Israel but all other Heathen Kings are acknowledged by God himself to be of divine institution Jerem. 43.10 Esay 45.1 he calleth Nebuchadnezzar his servant and Cyrus his annointed And therefore though I do not wonder that ignorant fellows should be so impudent Jo. Goodwin in his Pamphlet of Anti-Cavalierism p. 5. as to affirm The King or kingly government to be the Ordinance or Creation or creature of man and to say that the Apostle supposeth the same because he saith Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King c. whereas he might well understand that the same act is oftentimes ascribed aswel to the mediate as to the immediate agent as Samuel's annointing of Saul and David Kings denieth not but that God was the immediate giver of their Kingdomes and the Authour of that regal power 1 Sam. 10. for God annointed Saul Captain over his inheritance and by the mouth of Nathan he telleth David that he annointed him King over Israel 2 Sam. 12. and Solomon acknowledgeth that the Lord had set him on the Seat of his Father David 1 Reg. 2. and Abijah in the person of God saith unto Jeroboam 1 Reg. 11. I will give the Kingdome unto thee 1 Sam. 11.15 and yet it is said that all the people went to Gilgal and made Saul King before the Lord and the men of Juda annointed David King of Juda 2 Sam. 5. and Zadock the Priest and Nathan the Prophet annointed Solomon King that is God annointed them as Master of the substance and gave unto them regal power in whom is all power primariò per se and the Prophets annointed them as Masters of the Ceremony and declared that God had given them that power And therefore the power and authority of Kings is originally Constituere regem est facere ut regiam potestatem exerceret Pinedas de reb Solom c. 2. and primarily as Saint Paul saith the Ordinance of God and secondarily or demonstratively it is as Saint Peter calleth it the ordinance of man when the people whose power is onely derivatively makes them Kings not by giving unto them the right of their Kingdomes but by receiving them into the possession of their right and admitting them to exercise their royal authority over them which is given them of God and therefore ought not to be withstood by any man And this Anti-Cavalier might further see that Saint Peter meaneth not that the King is the creature of man or his Office of mans Creation but that the Lawes and Commands of Kings though they be but the Commands and Ordinances of man yet are we to obey the same for the Lords sake because the Lord commandeth that Every soul should be subject to the higher powers Or if this will not satisfie him because the Greeks word is not so plain for this as the English yet let him look into Pareus that was no friend to Monarchy and he shall find that he doth by seven speciall reasons prove Pareus in Rom. c. 13. p. 13. 27. that the authority of Kings is primarily the Ordinance of God and he quoteth these places of Scripture to confirm it Proverbs 8.15 2 Chron. 19.6 Psalm 81.6 Joh. 10.34 Genes 9.6 1 Sam. 15. 1 Kings 12. 2 Kings 9. Dan. 2.21 Job 34.30 Eccles 10.8 And to this very objection he answereth that the Apostle calleth the Magistrate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an humane Ordination or Creation not causally because it is invented by man and brought up onely by the will of men but subjectively because it is born and executed by men and objectively because it is used about the government of humane society and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of the end because it is ordained of God for the good and conservation of humane kind and he saith further that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellatio the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Deum primum autorem nos revocat sheweth plainly that God is the first author of it for though the Magistrate in some sense as I shewed may be said to be created that is ordained by men yet God alone is the first Creatour of them as Aaron though he was ordained the high-Priest by Moses yet the Apostle tells us None taketh this office upon him but he that is called of God as Aaron was Yet I do admire that Buchanan or any other man of learning to satisfie the people or his own peevish opinion will so absurdly deny so divine and so well known a verity and say that any Kings have their Kingdomes and not from God so flatly contrary to all Scripture CHAP. VII Sheweth the Reasons and Examples that are alledged to justifie Rebellion and a full answer to each of them God the immediate Authour of Monarchy Inferiour Magistrates have no power but what is derived from the superiour And the ill successe of all rebellious Resisting of our Kings The allegation to justifie Rebellion BUt to prove their absurdities they still alledge that the inferiour Magistrates as the Peers and Counsellours of Kings
incline and conspire with this Faction to confirm those Positions which they proposed to themselves to overthrow the Church and State and to uphold their usurped Government and tyrannical Ordinances they will pretend twenty excuses as The great Affairs of the State The multiplicity of their businesses The necessity of procuring monies The shortnesse of their time though they sate almost three years already that they have no leisure to determine these questions which in truth they do purposely put off lest they should leese such a friend unto their party but when any other which dissenteth from their humours doth but any thing contrary to the straitest Rules of the House they do presently notwithstanding all their greatest affairs call that matter into question The L Digby in his Apolog. and it must be examined and followed with that eagernesse as in my Lord Digby's case that he must be forthwith condemned and excluded for we say This cannot be any just Priuiledge but an unjust proceeding of this Parliament 8. The delegating of their power to particular men 8. When they delegate their power to some men to do some things of themselves without the rest as it seems they did unto Master Pym when an Order passed under his sole test for taking away the Rails from the Communion Table for this is a course we never heard of in former time 9. The multiplying of their Priviledges 9. When their Priviledges are so infinitely grown and inlarged more than ever they were in former Parliaments and so swelled that they have now swallowed up almost all the Priviledges of other men so that they alone must do what they please and where they will in all Cities and in all Courts because they have the Priviledge of Parliament 10. When according to the great liberty of language 10. Their speaking and sitting in other Courts which we deny them not within their own wall they take the Priviledge to speak what they list in other places and to govern other Courts as they please where as they did in Dublin and do commonly in London they sit as Assistants with them that are priviledged by their Charters to be freed from such Controllers 11. When above all that hath been or can be spoken 11. Their close Committee they have made a close Committee of Safety as they call it which in the apprehension of all wise and honest men is not only a course most absurd and illegall but also most destructive to all true Priviledges and contrary to the equitable practice of all publick meetings that any one should be excluded from that which concerneth him as well as any of the rest And this Committee only which consisteth of a very few of the most pragmatical Members of their House must have all intelligences and privy counsels received and reserved among themselves and what they conclude upon must be reported to the House which must take all that they deliver upon trust and with an implicite Roman faith believe all that they say and assent to all that they do only because these forsooth are men to be confided in upon their bare word The greatnesse of this abuse when their House hath no power to administer an Oath unto any man in the greatest affairs happiness or destruction of the whole Kingdom for this is in a manner to make these men Kings more than the Roman Consuls and so as great a breach of Priviledge and abuse of Parliament as derogatory to his Majesty that called them to consult together and as injurious to all the people as can be named or imagined CHAP. XIV Sheweth how they have transgressed the publike Laws of the Land three wayes and of four miserable Consequences of their wicked doings 2. FOr those publike written and better known Laws of this Land 2. Against the publick laws of the Land they have no lesse violated and transgressed the same than the other and that as well in their execution and exposition as in their composition For 1. When they had caused the Archbishop of Canterbury to be committed to the Tower Judge Berkeley to the Sheriff of London 1. In the execution of the old Laws Sir George Ratcliffe to the Gate-house for no lesse crimes than high Treason and many other men to some other prisons for some other faults yet all the World seeth how long most of them have been kept in prison some a year some two some almost three and God only knoweth when these men intend to bring them to their legal tryal which delay of justice is not only an intolerable abuse to the present Subjects of this Kingdom to be so long deprived of their liberty upon a bare surmise but also a far greater injury to all posterity when this President shall be produced to be imitated by the succeeding Parliaments and to justifie the delayes of all inferiour Judges 2. Whereas we believe what Judge Bracton saith and Judge Britton likewise which lived in the time of Edward the first 2. In expounding the Laws Si disputatio oriatur justiciarii non possunt eam interpretari sed in dubiis obscuris Domini regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas Citatur à Domino Elism in post-nati p. 108. cùm ejus sit interpretari cujus est condere If any Dispute doth arise the Judges canot interpret the same but in all obscure and doubtful questions the interpretation and the will of the King is to be expected when as he that makes the Law is to be the expounder and interpreter of the Law Yet they have challenged and assumed to themselves such a power that their bare Vote without any Act of Parliament may expound or alter a known Law which if it were so they might make the Law as Pighius saith of the Scripture hke a nose of wax that may be fashioned and bended as they pleased but we do constantly maintain That the House of Commons hath no power to adjudge of any point or matter but to inform the Lords what they conceive and the House of Peers hath the power of Judicature which they are bound to do according to the Rules of the known established Laws and to that end they have the Judges to inform them of those cases and to explain those Laws wherein themselves are not so well experienced though now they sit in the House for cyphers even as some Clergy did many times in the Convocation and if any former Statute be so intricate and obscure that the Judges cannot well agree upon the right interpretation thereof then as in explaining Poynings Act and the like either in England or Ireland the makers of the Act that is the King and the major part of both Houses must explain the same 3. In composeing and setting forth new laws 3. Whereas we never knew that the House had any power to make Orders and Ordinances to bind any besides their own Members to observe them as Laws
People for Nimrod got his kingdom by his strength Ninus enlarged the same by his sword and left the same unto his heirs from the Assyrians the Monarchy was translated to the Medes and Persians and I pray you how by the consent of the people or by the edg of the sword From the Persians it was conferred to Alexander but the same way and it continued among his successours by the same right and Romulus Ad sua qui domitos deduxit stagra Quirites Did not obtain his power by the suffrage of his people and if you look over the States of Grece we shall finde one Timondas which obtained the Scepter of the Corinthians and Pittacus the Government of the Mytilenians by the suffrage of the people but for the Athenians Laecedemonians Sicyoni Thebanes Epirots and Macedons among whom the Regal Dignity flourished a far longer time then the popular rule Idem pag. 63. Non optione populi sed nascendi conditione regnatum est their kings reigned not by the election of the people but by the condition of their birth and what shall we say of the Parthians Indians Africans Tartars Arabians Aethiopians Numidians Muscovites Celtans Spaniards French English and of many other kingdoms that were obtained either by gift Quintus Curtius as Abdolonimus received his kingdom of Alexander Juba the kingdom of Numidia from Augustus and the French king got the kingdoms of the Naples and Sicily or by will as the Romans had the kingdoms of Aegypt Bithinia Pergamus and Asia or by Arms Claud. de 4. cons Honorii as many of the aforesaid kingdoms were first gotten and were always transmitted afterwards to posterity by the hereditary right of bloud And the Poet could say terrae dominos pelagique futuros Immenso decuit rerum de principe nasci It behoved the Kings of the earth to be born of Kings Besides we must all confess that the King is the Father of people the Husband of the Common-wealth and the Master of all his subjects and can you shew me that God ever appointed that the Children should make choice of their fathers Children and servants not allowed to choose what fathers and masters they please then surely all would be the sons of Princes but though fathers may adopt their sons as the King may make a Turke or any other stranger a free Denizon yet Children may not choose whom they please for their Fathers but they are bound to honour those fathers that God hath appointed or suffered to beget them though the same should be never so poor never so wicked so the wives though while they are free they may have the power to refuse whom they dislike yet they have no such prerogative to choose what husbands they please or if they had I am sure no woman would be less then a Lady and the like may be said of all servants Therefore the election of Kings by the People seemes to me no prime Ordinance of God but as our sectaries say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A humane Ordination indeed and the corruption of our Nature a meere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and an imitation of what the Poet saith Optat Ephippia bos niger optat arare caballus Just as if the women would fain have that Law of liberty to choose what husbands they please and the servants to make choice of what Masters they like best so the People never contented with whom God sendeth never satisfied with his Ordinance would fain pull their necks out of God's yoke and become their own chosers both of their Kings and of their Priests and indeed of all things else when as nothing doth please them but what they do and none can content them The People are in all things greedy to have their own wllls but whom themselves will choose and their choice cannot long satisfie their mindes but as the Jews received Christ into Jerusalem with the joyfull acclamation of Hosanna and yet the next day had the malicious cry of Crucifige so the least distaste makes them greedy of a new change such is the nature of the People But though I said before the election of our chiefe Governours may for many respects be approved of God among some States yet I hope by this that I have set down it is most apparent unto all men contrary to the tenet of our Anabaptisticall Sectaries that the hereditary succession of Kings to govern God's People is their indubitable right and the immediate prime principal Ordinance of God therefore it concerns every man as much as his soul is worth to examine seriously whether to fight against their own King be not to resist the Ordinance of God for which God threatneth no less punishment then damnation from which Machiavel cannot preserve us nor any policy of State procure a dispensation CHAP. IV. Sheweth what we should not do and what we should do for the King the Rebels transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themselves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their own Kings of Israel and how our Kings are of the like institution with the Kings of Israel proved in the chiefest respects at large and therefore to have the like honour and obedience 2. AS every lawfull King is to be truly honoured in regard of God's Ordinance so likewise in respect of God's precept 2. All kings are to be honoured in respect of God's precept considered two wayes 1. What we should not do which commandeth us to honour the King and this duty is so often inculcated and so fully laid upon us in the holy Scripture that I scarce know any duty towards man so much pressed and so plainly expressed as this is 1. Negatively what we should not do to deprive him of his Honour 2. Affirmatively what we should do to manifest and magnifie this Honour towards him for 1. Our very thoughts words and works are imprisoned and chained up in the linkes of God's strictest prohibition that they should no wayes peeep forth to produce the least dishonour unto our King for 1. The Spirit of God by the mouth of the wisest of men commands us to think no ill of the King let the King be what he will 1. To think no ill of the King Curse not the King no not in thy thought Eccles 10.30 the precept is without restriction you must think no ill that is you must not intend or purpose in your thoughts to do the least ill office or disparagement to the King that ruleth over you be the same King virtuous or vitious milde or cruell good or bad this is the sense of the Holy Ghost For as the childe with Cham shall become accursed if he doth but dishonour and despise his wicked father or his father in his wickedness whom in all duty he ought to reverence so the Subject shall be liable to Gods vengeance if his heart shall intend the least ill to his most
tyrannicall King 2. The same Spirit saith Thou shalt not revile the Gods that is 2. To say no ill of the King Exod. 22.28 Act 23.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. To do no hurt to the King Psal 10â— 15 1 Sam. 24 4 5. the Judges of the Land nor curse that is in Saint Pauls phrase speak evill of the Ruler of the people and what can be more evill then to bely his Religion to traduce his Government and to make so faithfull a Christian King as faithless as a Cretan which is commonly broached by the Rebels and Preached by their seditious Teachers 3. The great Jehovah gives this peremptory charge to all Subjects saying Touch not mine Anointed which is the least indignity that may be and therefore Davids heart smote him when he did but cut off the lap of Sauls garment What then can be said for them that draw their swords and shoot their Cannons to take away the life of Gods Anointed which is the greatest mischiefe they can do I beleive no distinction can blinde the judgment of Almighty God but his revengefull hand will finde them out 2. What we should do to honour the King Eccles 8.2 1. To observe the kings commands that so maliâ—iously transgress his precepts and think by their subtilty to escape his punishments 2. The Scriptures do positively and plainly command us to shew all honour unto our King For 1. Solomon saith I counsell thee to keep the Kings commandment or as the phrase imports to observe the mouth of the King that is not onely his written law but also his verball commands and that in regard of the oath of God that is in respect of thy Religion or the solemne vow which thou madest at thine initiation and incorporation into Gods Church to obey all the precepts of God Et si religio tollitur nulla no bis cum coelo ratio est Lactant Iust l. 3. c. 10. whereof this is one to honour and obey the King or else that oath of allegiance and fidelity which thou hast sworn unto thy King in the presence and with the approbation of thy God which certainly will plague all perjurers and take revenge on them that take his name in vain which is the infallible and therefore most miserable condition of all the perjured Rebels of this Kingdom For if moral honesty teacheth us to keep our promises yea though it were to our own hindrance then much more should Christianity teach us to observe our deliberate and solemn oathes whose violation can bear none other fruit then the heavy censure of God's fearful indignation But when the prevalent faction took a solemn Oath and Protestation to defend all the Privileges of Parliament and the Rights of the Subjects and then presently forgetting their oath and forsaking their faith by throwing the Bishops out of the House of Peers which all men knew to be a singular Priviledge How the prevalent Faction of the Parliament forswore themselves 2. To obey the kings commandements Josh 1.18 and the House of Lords acknowledged to be the indubitable right of the Bishops and their doctrine being to dispence with all oaths for the furtherance of the cause it is no wonder they falsifie all oaths that they have made unto the King 2. The people said unto Joshua Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandment and will not hearken to the words of thy mouth in all that thou commandest he shall be put to death surely this was an absolute government and though martial yet most excellent to keep the people within the bounds of their obedience for they knew that where rebellion is permitted there can be no good performance of any duty and it may be a good lesson for all the higher powers not to be too clement which is the incouragement of Rebels to most obstinate trayterous and rebellious Subjects who daring not to stir under rigid Tyrants do kick with their heeles against the most pious Princes and therefore my soul wisheth not out of any desire of bloud but from my love to peace that this rule were well observed Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandment he shall be put to death * Quia in talibus non obedientes mortaliter peccant nisi foret illud quod praecipitur contra praeceptum Dei vel in salutis dispendiâ—m Angel summa verb. obedientia 3 To give the king no just cause of anger Prov. 2.2 The Rebels have given him cause enough to be provoked 4. To speak reverently to the king and of the king Eccles 8.4 3. The wisest of all Kings but the King of Kings saith The fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lion who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul And I believe that the taking up of Armes by the Subjects against their own King that never wronged them and the seeking to take away his life and the life of his most faithful servants is cause enough to provoke any King to anger if he be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too Stoically given to abandon all passions and that anger should be like the roaring of a Lion to them that would pull out the Lions eyes and take away the Lions life 4. The King of Heaven saith of these earthly Kings That where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou And Elihu demands Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes you are ungodly Truely if Elihu were now here he might hear many unfitter things said to our King by his own people and which is more strange by some Preachers for some of them have said but most maliciously and more falsely that he is a Papist he is the Traytor unworthy to reign unfit to live good God! do these men think God saith truth Where the word of a King is there is power that is to blast the conspiracies and to confound the spirits of all Rebels who shall one day finde it because the wrath of God at last will be awaked against their treachery Jerem. 27.8 and to revenge their perjury by inabling the King to accomplish the same upon all that resist him as he promised to doe in the like case 5. To pray for the king Ezra 6.10 1 Tim. 2.1 2. 5. The Israelites being in captivity under the King of Babylon were commanded to pray for the life of that Heathen King and for the life of his sons And Saint Paul exhorteth Timothy to make supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks for Kings and for all that are in authority and how do our men pray for our King in many Pulpits not at all and in some places for his overthrow for the shortning of his life and the finishing of his dayes nullum sit in omine pondus and they give thanks indeed not for his good but for their own supposed good success against him thus they praevaricate and pervert the words of the
duty of a King to cut off all haynous offences with just punishments the unbridled people desires to be free from all fear of punishment the King is the Minister of the Law the Keeper of it and the auenger of the transgression thereof the people as much as possibly they can with an impetuous temerity pulleth down all Laws the King laboureth to preserve peace and quietness the people with an untamcable lust turmoileth and troubleth the peace of all men lastly the King thinkes not fit to distribute rewards and compensations indifferently to all men alike but the people desire to have all difference of worth and dignity taken away infima summis permisceri and to make the basest equal with the best whence it happeneth so that they hate all Princes and especially all Kings quos immani odio persequuntur whom they persecute with a deadly hate for they cannot endure any excellency or dignity and to that end they use all endeavour ut principes interimant vel saltem in turbam conjiciant either utterly to take away and destroy their Princes or to implunge them into a World of troubles which thing at first doth not appeare but when the multitude of furious men hath gathered strength then at last their impudent boldness being confirmed by daily impunity breaketh forth to the destruction of the royal Majesty And a little after he saith Osoriu in ep Reginae Elizabethae praefix l. de relig add to these things the abolition of Laws the contempt of Rule the hatred of royal Majesty and the cruel lying in wait which they most impiously and nefariously do endeavour for their Princes add also their clandestine and secret discourses where their confederacies are made for the extirpation of their Kings and to plot with unspeakable mischief the death of them whose health and safety they ought most heartily to pray to God for and then he addeth Pagina 24. 25. cum immodica libertatis cupiditate rapiantur leges oderunt judicia detestantur regum majestatem extinctam cupiunt ut licentiùs impuniùs queant per omnia libidinum genera vagari and this is most manifest saith he all their endeavours ayme at this end that Princes being taken away they may have an uncontroulable leave and liberty to commit all kinde of villanies and to that purpose they have poysoned some kings Revera mihi videtur esse ars artium hominem regere qui certè est inter omnes animantes maximè moribus varius voluntate diversas Nazian in Apol. and killed others with the sword and to root out all rule Consilia plena sceleris inierunt they are full of all wicked counsels And therefore this being the condition of the people as the Scripture sheweth plainly in the Jews by their continual Rebellions and murmurings against Moses and Aaron and we see it as plainly in our own time when our people hath confirmed all that this Bishop said it is not an easie matter to govern such an unruly people But we finde that the rod of Government is a miraculous rod that being in Moses hand was a fair wand but cast unto the ground turned to be an ungly and a poysonous Serpent to shew that the people being subject to the hand of Government is a goodly thing and a glorious society but let loose out of the Princes hands they are as Serpents crooked wriggled versipelles A people well governed very glorious and as full as may be of all deadly poyson and the Prophet David makes the ruling of the people to be as great a miracle as to appease the raging of the Seas and therefore he ascribes this Government to be the proper work of God psal 65.7 God is the governour and Kings are but Gods instruments psal 77.20 when speaking unto God he saith Thou rulest the rage of the Seas the noyse of his waves and the madness of the people for Kings are but Gods instruments and God himself is the ruler of his people even as the same King David sheweth saying still to God Tu duxisti populum tuum Thou leadest thy people like sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron God was the leader and they were but the hands by which he led them for where God hath not a hand in the government of the people it is impossible for the best and most politick heads to do it and this Solomon knew full well when God bade him aske what he should give him and he said Thou hast made me King he doth not say the people hath made me and I know not how to go out or in that is to govern them 1 Reg. 3.7 9. therefore I pray the give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great a people that is what one man is able to govern an innumerable multitude of men Thou therefore must be the Governour and I am but thine instrument and that I may be a fit instrument to do thy work I desire thee to give me a docible heart They that reject their King reject God Wherefore O you Subjects without obedience and you Divines without Divinity how dare you put any instruments into Gods hands and refuse nay reject the instrument that he chuseth for the performance of his own work to rule the people you may as well refuse God himself even as God saith unto Samuel 1 Sam. 8.7 They have not reiected thee but they have reiected me so you that do rebel and cast away your King that God hath chosen as his hand to guide you and his instrument to govern you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 10.16 I pronounce it to all the World you have rebelled against God and you have cast away your God for the rule of Christ must stand infallible he that rejecteth or despiseth him that is sent rejecteth him that sent him CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their government to whom the choice of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peers nor Parliament can have supremacy the Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton answered our Lawes prove all Soveraignty to be in the King the two chief parts of the regal government the four properties of a just War and how the Parliamentary Faction transgress in every property 3. The assistance that God alloweth unto Kings to help them in their government of two sorts 3. SEeing it is so hard and difficult a matter ars artium gubernare populum the Mistresse of all Sciences and the most dangerous of all faculties to govern the people that Saturninus said truly to them that put on his Kingly ornaments they knew not what an evil it was to rule because of the many dangers that hang over the rulers heads which under the seeming shew of a Crown of gold do wear indeed a Crown of thornes therefore Vt
voluntary and not extorted obedience is that which is better then sacrifice 2. Blinde obedience 2. The second is a blinde obedience such as the young youths that being commanded by their Abbat to carry a basket of figs and other Juncates unto a solitary Monke or Hermite that lived in his cave and loosing their way in that unfrequented wilderness chose rather to dye in the desert then taste of those acates that they had in their Basket and such obedience is most frequent in the proselites of Rome who will do whatsoever they are commanded by their superiors though both they and their superiors do thereby commit never so great a wickednesse where notwithstanding I must confesse that this blinde obedience is far better both for Church and State then a proud resistance when as the one produceth nothing but some particular inconveniencies and the other proceedeth to an universall destruction 3. Hypocriticall obedience 3. The third is an hypocriticall and dissembled obedience that is an obedience for a time till they see their time to do mischiefe which is the worst of all obedience and therefore most hatefull both to God and Man because it is but catenus usque dum vires suppetunt untill they have the opportunity and have gotten sufficient strength to shake off their subjection and to maintain their Rebellion The obedience of our Rebells and this was the obedience of all our Rebells our Sectaries and Puritans here in England who would also face us down but most falsely that it was the obedience of the Primitive Christians for so the grand impostor John Goodwin in his Anticavalierisme saith they were onely obedient to those persecuting Tyrants because as yet they wanted strength and were not able to resist them but O thou enemy of all goodness that so hatest to become a Martyr for thy God that was martyred for thee is it not enough for thee to play the dissembling hypocrite thy selfe but thou must taxe those holy Martyrs those true Saints The Authour more out of patience for the wrong offered to the Martyrs then for his own abuse that raigne with Christ in Heaven of hypocrisie and disobedience in their hearts to the Ordinance of God I could willingly beare with any aspersion thou shouldest cast in my face but I am out of patience though sorry that I am so transported to see such false and scandalous imputations so unjustly laid upon such holy Saints yet this you must do to countenance your Rebellion to get the Rhetorick of the Divell to bely Heaven it selfe and therefore what wonder is it that you should bely your King on earth when you dare thus bely the martyrs that are in Heaven 4. The obedience of the Saints two-fold 4. The fourth is a voluntary hearty and well ordered obedience which is the obedience of the Saints and is also Two-fold 1. Active 2. Passive For 1. The Saints knowing the will of God that they should obey their King 1. Active obedience and those that are sent ot him they do willingly yield obedience to their superiours and no marvel because there cannot be a surer argument of an evil man then in a Church reformed and a Kingdom lawfully governed to resist authority and to disobey them that should rule over us especially him whom God immediately hath appointed to be his vice-gerent his substitute and the supreme Monarch of his Dominions here on earth for all other things both in heaven and earth do obsere that Law which their maker hath appointed for them when as the Psalmist saith he hath given them a Law which shall not be broken therefore this must needs be a great reproof and a mighty shame to those men that being Subjects unto their King and to be ruled by his Lawes will notwithstanding disobey the King and transgresse those Lawes that are made for their safety and resist that authority which they are bound to obey onely because their weak heads or false hearts do account the commandment of the King to be against right and what themselves doe to be most holy and just But our City Prophets will say Ob. Diverse kinds of Monarchie◠that although the King be the supreme Monarch whom we are commanded to obey yet there are diverse kinds of Monarchies or Regal governments as usurped lawful by conquest by inheritance by election and these are either absolute as were the Eastern Kings and the Roman Emperours or limited and mixed which they term a Political Monarchy where the King or Monarch can do nothing alone but with the assistance and direction of his Nobility and Parliament or if he doth attempt to bring any exorbitancies to the Common-wealth or deny those things that are necessary for the preservation thereof they may lawfully resist him in the one and compel him to the other to which I answer 1. As God himself which is most absolute liberrimum agens Sol. Absolute Monarchs may limit themselves may notwithstanding limit himself and his own power as he doth when he promiseth and sweareth that he will not fail David and that the unrepentant Rebels should never enter into his rest so the Monarch may limit himself in some points of his administration and yet this limitation neither transferreth any power of Soveraignty unto the Parliament nor denieth the Monarch to be absolute nor admitteth of any resistance against him for 1. This is a meer gull to seduce the people I cannot devise words to expresse this new devised government that cannot distinguish the point of a needle just like the Papist that saith he is a Roman Catholick that is a particular universal a black white a polumonarcha a many one governor when we say he is a Monarch joined in his government with the Parliament for he can be no Monarch or supreme King and Soveraign that hath any sharers with him or above him in the government 2. There is no Monarch that can be said to be simply absolute but onely God yet where there is no superiour but the soveraignty residing in the King he may he said to be an absolute Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Because there is none on earth that can controul him 2. Because he is free and absolute in all such things wherein he is not expresly limited and therefore 3. Seeing no Monarch or Soveraign is so absolute No Monarch so absolute but someway limited but that he is some way limited either by the Law of God or by the Rules of nature or of his own concessions and grants unto his people or else by the compact that he maketh with them if he be an elective King and so admitted unto his Kingdom there is no reason they should resist their King for transgressing the limitations of one kind more then the other or if any no doubt but he that transcendeth the limits of God's Law or goeth against the common rules of nature ought rather to be resisted then he
or refusal of obedience to the Prince whether he were Jew or Pagan milde or tyrannical good or bad as to instance one place for all where the Lord saith I have made the earth the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and have given it to whom it seemed meet unto me and now I have given all those Lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my servant and he was both a Heathen an Idolater and a mighty Tyrant and all Nations shall serve him and his son and his sons son and it shall come to passe that the Nation and Kingdome which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and that will not put their necks under the yoke of the King of Babylon that Nation will I punish saith the Lord with the Sword and with the Famine and with the Pestilence until I have consumed them by his hands therefore hearken not ye unto your Prophets nor to your Diviners whiâ—h speak unto you saying you shall not serve the King of Babylon for they prophesy a lye unto you which he repeateth again and again they prophesy a lye unto you that you should perish and may not I apply these words to our very time God saith I have given this Kingdome unto King Charles which is a mild just and most pious king and they that will say nolumus hunc regnare super nos I will destroy them by his hand therefore o ye seduced Londoners beleive not your false Prophets nay hearken not to your diuiners your Anabaptists and Brownists that preach lies and lies upon lies unto you that you should perish for God hath not sent them though they multiply their lyes in his name therefore why will you dye why will you destroy your selves and your Posterity by refusing to submit your selves to mine ordinance and what should God say more unto you to hinder your destruction and it was concluded by a whole Council that si quis potestati regia Concil Meldens apud Roffen l. 2. c. 5. de potest papa quae non est teste Apostolo nisi a Deo contumaci afflato spiritu obtemperare irrefragabiliter nolnerit anathematizetur Whosoever resisteth the Kings Power and with a proud spirit will not obey him let him be accursed But then you will say this is strange doctrine that wholly takes away the liberty of the Subject if they may not resist regal tyranny Ob. I thinke there is no good Subject Sol. that loves his Soveraigne that will speake against a just and lawful liberty when it is a far greater honour unto any king to rule over free and gentile Subjects then over base and turkish slaves but as under the shadow and pretence of Christian liberty many carnal men have rooted out of their hearts all Christianity Many evils do lurk under fair shewes so many Rebellious and aspiring mindes have under these colourable titles of the liberty of the Subjects and suppressing tyranny shaked of the yoke of all true Obedience and dashed the rights of government all to pieces therefore as the law of God and the rules of his own conscience should keep every Christian King from exercising any unjust tyranny over his Subjects so if men will transcend the rules of true obedience the Kings Power and authority should keep them from transgressing the limits of their just liberty but this unlawfulnesse of resisting our lawful King I have fully proved in my Grand Rebellion and it is so excellently well done by many others that I shall but acta agere to say any more of it CHAP. XVII Sheweth how tribute is due to the King for six special reasons to be paid the condition of a lawful tribute that we should not be niggards to assist the King that we should defend the Kings Person the wealth and Pride of London the cause of all the miseries of this Kingdome and how we ought to pray for our King 4. TRibute is another right and part of that honour which we owe unto our King Negotia enim infinita sustinet The great charge of Princes equabile jus omnibus administrat periculum à republica cùm necessitas postulat armis virtute propulsat bonis praemia pro dignitate constituit improbos suppliciorum acerbitate coercet patriam denique universam ab externis hostibus ab intestinis fraudibus tutam vigilantia sua praestat haec quidem munera aut opere tuetur aut quoties opus fuerit tuenda suscipit qui autem existimat haec tam multa munera sint maximis sumptibus sustineri posse mentis expers est atque vitae communis ignarus idcirco hoc quod communi more receptum est ut reges populi sumptibus alantur non est humano tantùm jure sed etiam diuino vallatum Osorius de rebus Emanuel lib. 12 p. 386. saith eloquent Osorius For he undergoeth infinite affaires he administreth equal right to all his people he expelleth and keepeth away from the Common-wealth all dangers when necessity requireth both with armes and prowesse he appointeth rewards to the good and faithful according to their deserts he restraineth the wiâ—ked with the sharpnesse and severity of punishments and he preserveth his Country and Kingdome safe by his care and watchfulnesse both from Forraigne foes and intestine frauds and these offices he dischargeth indeed and undertaketh taketh to discharge them as often as any need requireth And he that thinketh that all these things so many and so great affaires can be discharged without g eat cest and charge is void of understanding and ignorant of the common course of life and therefore this thing which is received by a common custom that Kings should be assisted and their royalty maintained by the publick charge of the people is not onely allowed by humane law but is also confirmed by the divine right Men should therefore consider that the occasions of Kings are very great abroad for intelligence and correspondency with Foreign States that we may reap the fruit of other Nations vent our own commodities to our best advantage and be guarded secured and preserved from all our outward enemies and at home to support a due State answerable to his place to maintain the publique justice and judgements of the whole Kingdom and an hundred such like occasions that every private man cannot perceive and think you that these things can be done without meanes without money If you still pour out and not pour in your bottle will be soon empty and the Ocean sea would be soon dried up if the Rivers did not still supply the same and therefore not onely Deioces that I speak of before when he was elected King of the Medes caused them to build him a most stately Palace and the famous City of Ecbatana and to give him a goodly band of select men for the safeguard of his Person and to provide all other
devoure in delicates and how the Sisters teachers eat more good meat and drink better wines then the gravest Bishops 6. Their wrath and malices 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 tamen esse 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 devoure 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 beds 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 slow 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. How they have grievously committed the foure crying sins 1. How they have shed abundance of innocent bloud 24. The Scripture maketh mention of foure crying sins that do continually cry to God for vengeance against the sinners Clamitat 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 poscimus omnes Psal 9.12 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 never left crying for vengeance untill it was expiated by bloud even by the bloud of seven of his sons so I feare me the much bloud that these Rebels spilt and the bloud of so many innocents that they caused to be slain can never be expiated and the wrath of God appeased untill an attonement be made by bloud even a judiciarie sentence of death against some of the head Rebels for it is the voice of God that whosoever sheddeth mans bloud that is without due authority by man shall his bloud be shed that is by the due course of Law and the power of the Magistrate that beareth not the sword in vaine but is bound to punish murders and the unlawfull putting of innocents to death with the sentence of a just death Ob. If you say Why may not this Rebellion be concluded with the like peace by a generall pardon as the other in Ireland is like to be Sol. I answer the case is not alike because they had some shew of reason and were provoked by the faction and emissaries of this Parliament but our Rebels had not the least colourable cause nor were provoked by any but their own bloudy desire to root out Gods service and servants when they had almost all things that they desired I am sure more then should have been granted unto them and therefore in these and in many other respects that I could but am ashamed to set down I deem this Rebellion of our English and the invasion of the Scots ten times more odious then the insurrection of the Irish Ezech. 16.49 2. The sins of Sodom among them 3. Their oppression 2. The iniquity of Sodome was Pride fullnesse of bread abundance of idleness and contempt of the poor and I have already shewed how all these do rule and reign in them 3. For oppression let their ordinances to take away our goods without any colour of justice and their actions to make good their ordinances to take away our states and deprive us of our liberties be well examined and the world shall then see whether they be oppressors or I a transgressor for affirming it 4. For retaining of wages letting passe their Souldiers that deserve not pay for fighting so disloyally against their King 4. The detaining of the wages of God's servants and transgressing so undutifully the Commandment of God which so precisely biddeth them to honour the King I would fain know by what authority or law excepting their own lawless Ordinances have they detained and alienated the wages means and maintenance of those faithful Pastors whom they sent away and caused them to fly and wander like Pilgrims from place to place without any means or subsistence O let them never think that these things can be buried in oblivion but that the sighes and groans of those faithful servants of Christ do continually cry 25. How they are filled with the most destructive sins against their soules And if I should parallel the wickednesses of this pretendâ—d Parliament with the Sicilian Vespers the Massacre of Paris and the Gun-powder Treason it would exceed them all 2. The wicked Ordinances of the pretended Parliament 1. Their bloudy ordinance 2. Their sacrilegious ordinance and cry aloud in the eares of God for vengeance to be poured down upon the heads of these their persecutors which cannot escape Cùm surrexerit ad iudicandum Deus 25. As there be three Theological graces that build up and compleat a Christian soul Faith Hope and Charity so there be three main vices that do poyson and kill every soul Infidelity Presumption Philauty and three others that are destructive to all Christianity Prophaneness Impudency and Sacriledge The time will not give me leave to tell you how they are chained about with these links of sin and how indeed they are as the Apostle saith filled with all unrighteousness The works that they do can sufficiently testifie what they are God forgive them the evil that they have done and give them grace to repent in time that they may not perish everlastingly Amen 2. Having treated a little of the wicked practices and abominable actions of the Puritan Faction of this Parliament I should according as I intended
be heartily sorry that these unjust Acts and Ordinances were ever done and more sorry that they were not sooner undone and then God will turne his face towards us he will heale the bleeding wounds of our Land and he will powre down his benefits upon us but till we do these things I do assure my selfe and I beleive you shall finde it that his wrath shall not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still and still untill we either do these things or be destroyed for not doing them King James his speech made true by the Rebells Thus it is manifest to all the World that as it was often spoken by our sharpe and eagle-sighted Soveraigne King James of ever blessed memory no Bishop no King so now I hope the dull-ey'd owle that lodgeth in the desart seeth it verifyed by this Parliament for they had no sooner got out the Bishops but presently they laid violent hands upon the Crowne seized upon the Kings Castles How the Rebells have unking'd our King shut him out of all his Townes dispossest him of his owne houses took away all his sâ—ips detained all his revenues vilified all his Declarations nullified his Proclamations hindered his Commissions imprisoned his faithfull Subjects killed his servants and at Edge-hill and Newbury did all that ever they could to take away his life and now by their last great ordinance for their counterfeit Seale they pronounce all honours pardons grants commissions and whatsoever else His Majesty passeth under his Seale to be invalid void and of none effect and if this be not to make King Charles no King I know not what it is to be a King Hos 8.4 so they have unking'd him sine strepitu and as the Prophet saith they have set up Kings but not by me they have made Princes and I knew it not What kings they would have to rule us but whom have they made Kings even themselves who in one word do and have now exercised all or most of the regall power and their Ordinances shall be as firm as any Statutes and what are they that have thus dis-robed King Charles and exalted themselves like the Pope as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist above all that are called Gods truly none other then king Pym king Say king Faction or to say the truth most truly and to call a spade a spade king perjurers king murderers king traytors * Whâ—ch S. Peter never bade us honour The Rebells brave exchange Psal 146.20 and I am sorry that I should joyne so high an office so sacred a thing as King to such wicked persons as I have shewed them to be And what a royal exchange would the Rebels of this Kingdome make just such as the Israelites made when they turned their glory into the similitude of a Calfe that cateth hay and said these be thy Gods Psal 146.20 O Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt for now after they have changed their lawful King for unlawful Tyrants and taken Jothams bramble for the cedar of Lebanon the Devils instruments for Gods Anointed Judg. 9.15 they may justly say these be thy Kings O Londoners O Rebels that brought thee out of a Land that flowed with milke and hony out of those houses that were filled with all manner of store into a land of misery into houses of sorrow that are filled with wailings lamentations and woes when we see the faithful City is become an harlot our gold drosse and our happinesse turned to continual heavinesse But as the Rutilians considering what fruit they should reape by that miserable war wherein they were so far ingaged cried out at last Virgil Aeneid l. 12. Scilicet ut Turno contingat regiae conjux Nos animae viles inhumata infletáque turba Sternamur campis We undo our selves our wives and our children to gain a wife for Turnus so our seduced men may say we ingage our selves to dye like doggs that these rebels may live like Kings who themselves sit at ease while others endure all woes and do grow rich by making all the Kingdome poore and therefore O England quae tanta est licentia ferri lugebit patria multos when as the Apostle saith evill men and seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived for God is not mocked but whatsoever a man soweth 2 Tim. 3.13 Gal. 6.7 that shall he also reape for though we for our sins may justly suffer these and many other more miseries we do confesse it yet the whole world may be assured that these Rebels the generation of vipers being but the Rod of Gods fury The Rebels sure to be destroyed Contemptrix superûm sevaeque avidissima caedis violenta fuit scires è sanguine natam 2 Sam. 7.1 to correct the offences of his children such seeds of wickedness as they sow can produce none other harvest then ruine and destruction to all these usurping Kings and Traytors who thinke to please God by doing good service unto the Devil and to go to Heaven for their good intention after they are carried into Hell for their horrid Rebellion God Almighty grant them more grace and our King more care to beware of them and when God doth grant him rest with David on every side round about him to restore his Bishops and Clergy to their pristine station that when these bramble rods are burnt and these rebels fallen the King and the Bishops may still stand like Moses and Aaron to guide and gouerne Gods people committed to their charge And thus I have shewed thee O man some of the sacred rights of royal Majesty granted by God in his holy Scriptures practised by Kings from the beginning of the world yeilded by all nations that had none other guide but the light of nature to direct them I have also shewed thee how the people greedy of liberty and licentiousnesse have like the true children of old Adam that could not long endure the sweet yoke of his Creator strived and strugled to withdraw their necks from that subjection which their condition required and their frowardnesse necessitated to be imposed upon them and thereby have either graciously gained such love and fauour from many pious and most clement Princes as for the sweetning of their well merited subjection to grant them many immunities and priviledges or have most rebelliously incroached upon these rights of Kings wresting many liberties out of the hands of Government and forcibly retaining them to their own advantage sometimes to the overthrow of the royal government as Junius Brutus and his associates did the Kings of Rome sometimes to the diminution of the dimidium if not more then halfe his right as the Ephori did to the kings of Lacedemon but alwayes to the great prejudice of the king and the greater mischief to the Common-wealth because both reason and experience hath found it alwayes true that the regal
Government or Monarchical State though it might sometimes happen to prove tyrannical is far more acceptable unto God as being his own prime and proper ordinance most agreeable unto nature and more profitable unto all men then either the Aristocratical or Popular Government either hath or possibly can be for as it is most true that praestat sub malo principe esse quà m sub nullo it is better to live under an ill Governour then where there is no Gove nment so praestat sub uno tyranno vivere quà m sub mille it is better to be under the command of one tyrant then of a thousand as we are now under these Rebels who being not faex Romuli the worst of the Nobilty but faex populi the dregs of the people indigent Mechanicks and their Wives captivated Citizens together with the rabble of seduced Sectaries have so disloyally incroached upon the rights of our King and so rebelliously usurped the same to the utter subversion both of Church and Kingdom if God himself who hath the hearts of all Kings in his hand and turneth the same wheresoever he pleaseth had not most graciously strengthned his Majesty with a most singular and heroick resolution assisted with perfect health from the beginning of their insurrection to this very day to the admiration of his enemies and the exceeding joy and comfort of his faithfull Subjects and with the best aide and furtherance of his chiefest Nobility of all his learned and religious Clergy his grave and honest Lawyers and the truly worthy Gentry of his whole Kingdom to withstand their most treacherous impious barbarous and I know not how to expresse the wickednesse of their most horrid attempts so thou hast before thee life and death fire and water good and evil And therefore I hope that this will move us which have our eyes open to behold the great blessings and the many almost miraculous deliverances and favours of God unto his Majesty and to consider the most horrible destruction that this war hath brought upon us to fear God and to honour our King to hate the Rebels and to love all loyal Subjects to do our uttermost endeavour to quench this devouring flame and to that end with hand and heart and with our fortunes and with the hazard of our lives which as our Saviour saith shall be saved if they be lost to assist his Majesty to subdue these Rebels Luk. 9.24 to reduce the Kingdom to its pristine government and the Church to her former dignity that so we may have through the mercy of God peace and plenty love and unity so we may have through the mercy of God peace and plenty love and unity faith and true religion and all other happinesse remaining with us to the comfort of our King and the glory of our God through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with his Father and the Holy Spirit be all honour thanks prayse and dominion for ever and ever Amen Amen Jehovae liberatori FINIS Errata PAge â— lin 3.5 dele not p. 5. l. 50. for make r. made p. 9. l. 23. for hand r. had p. 27. l. 53. dele can p. 39. l. 25. r. right to be p. 51. l. 54. r. this day p. 54 l. 37. dele and p. 61. l. 21. r. that denyed repentance p. 62. l. â—â— r. the same hope p. 95. l. 18. for justice r. injustice p. 100. l. 49. for ye r. yet The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in the RIGHTS of KINGS 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. Peter's words 1 Pet. 2.17 in fine How Kings honoured the Clergy the faire but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefly ayme at and their malice to Episcopacy and Royalty Pag. 1 CHAP. II. Sheweth what Kings are to be honoured the institution of Kings to be immediately from God the first Kings the three chiefest rights to kingdoms the best of the three Rights how Kings came to be elected and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracy and Democracy issued out of Monarchy Pag. 7 CHAP. III. Sheweth the Monarchicall Government to be the best forme the first Government that ever was agreeable to Nature wherein God founded it consonant to Gods own Government the most universally received throughout the world the immediate and proper Ordinance of God c. Pag. 11 CHAP. IV. Sheweth what we should not do and what we should do for the King the Rebels transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themseves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their own Kings of Israel c. Pag. 17 CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himself before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen Persecuting Emperours Pag. 23 CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three several opinions the strange speeches of the Disciplinarians against Kings are shewed and Viretus his scandalous reasons are answered the double service of all Christian Kings and how the Heathen Kings and Emperours had the charge of Religion Pag. 27 CHAP. VII Sheweth the three things necessary for all Kings that would preserve true Religion how the King may attain to the knowledge of this that pertain to Religion by His Bishops and Chaplains and the calling of Synods c. Pag. 34 CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Lawes by the advice of of their Bishops and Clergy and not of their Lay-Counsellors how our late Canons came to be annulled c. Pag. 40 CHAP. IX Sheweth a full answer to four speciall Objections that are made against the Civill jurisdictions of Ecclesiasticall persons their abilities to discharge these offices and desire to benefit the Common-wealth why some Councels inhibited these Offices unto Bishops c. Pag. 47 CHAP. X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensations is reasons for it to tolerate divers Sects or sorts of Religions the foure speciall 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 CHAP. XI Sheweth where the Protestants Papists and Puritans do place Soveraignty who first taught the deposing of Kings the Puritans tenet worse then the Jesuites Kings authority immediately from God the twofold royalty in a King the words of the Apostle vindicated from false glosses c. Pag. 64 CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their Government to
whom the choice of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peeres nor Parliament can have Supremacy the Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton answered our Lawes prove all Soveraignty to be in the King Pag. 70 § The two chiefest parts of the Regall Government the foure properties of a just war and how the Parliamentary Faction transgress in every property Pag. 74 CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first Gouernment of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deut. 17. and of Samuel 1 Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of Gouernment came up Pag. 78 § The extent of the grants of Kings what they may and what they may not grant what our Kings have not granted in seven speciall prerogatives and what they have granted unto their people Pag. 83 CHAP. XIV Sheweth the Kings grants unto His People to be of three sorts Which ought to be observed the Act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament discussed the Kings Oath at His Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have been procured and repealed Pag. 88 § Certain quaeries discussed but not resolved the end for which God ordained Kings the praise of a just rule Kings ought to be more just then all others in three respects and what should most especially move them to rule their people justly Pag. 92 CHAP. XV. Sheweth the honour due to the king 1. Feare 2. An high esteem of our king how highly the Heathens esteemed of their kings the Marriage of obedience and authority the Rebellion of the Nobility how haynous 3. Obedience foure-fold divers kindes of Monarchs and how an absolute Monarch may limit himselfe Pag. 98 CHAP. XVI Sheweth the answer to some objections against the obeying of our Soveraigne Magistrate all actions of three kindes how our consciences may be reformed of our passive obedience to the Magistrates and of the kings concessions how to be taken CHAP. XVII Sheweth how tribute is due to the king for six speciall reasons to be paid the condition of a lawfull tribute that we should not be niggards to assist the king that we should defend the Kings Person the wealth and pride of London the cause of all the miseries of this Kingdome and how we ought to pray for our king Pag. 116 CHAP. XVIII The persons that ought to honour the king and the recapitulation of 21 wickednesses of the Rebells and the faction of the pretended Parliament Pag. 121 CHAP. XIX Sheweth how the Rebellious faction have transgressed all the ten Commandments of the Law and the new Commandement of the Gospell how they have committed the seaven deadly sins and the foure crying sins and the three most destructive sins to the soul of man and how their Ordinances are made against all Lawes equity and conscience Pag. 213 CHAP. XX. Sheweth how the rebellious Faction forswore themselves what trust is to be given to them how we may recover our peace and prosperity how they have un-king'd the Lords Annointed and for whom they have exchanged him and the conclusion of the whole Pag. 127 PSAL. 39.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily every man living or in his best estate is altogether Vanity Sela. OUR Blessed Lord and Saviour saith the night cometh John 9.4 when no man can work therefore I must work the Works of him that sent me whilst it is day and S. Paul tels us the time will come when men will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves Teachers that is 2 Tim. 4.3 Teachers enough in every place and every time so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth but what kind of Teachers shall they heap unto themselves the Apostle tels you they shall be teachers after their own lusts that is such Tub-teachers of the new Order as will study rather to satisfie their lusts and to preach what they please best than to edifie their soules And I believe all wise men see that time is now and not till now fully come therefore it behoves all the true Teachers to bestir themselves to work the works of him that sent them while it is day while they have any time and while there is any true Light yet remaining before the sad night and darksom clouds of Errours and Heresies be grown so far and to prevail so much against the Truth that you shall scarce find any place or person where or by whom the new lights may be confronted and the old Truth confirmed unto us So it behoveth me and it is my duty to employ my Talent to the uttermost of my power against these false Prophets of the Great Antichrist that is now come into the world and by these heaps of his Emissaries laboureth quite to overthrow the Church of Christ And as Clement recordeth that when Barnabas came to Rome to preach the Gospel of Christ and divers rejected it he briefly said In vestra potestate est vel recipere quae annuntiamus vel speruere It is in your choice either to receive what we teach or to reject it but we may not be silent and not speak quod vobis expedire novimus what we know to be expedient and necessary for you quia nobis si taceamus damnum est vobis quae dicimus si non recipiatis pernicies est Ciem Recog l. 1. p. 6. so say I. And therefore that you may be somthing and so happy I beseech you listen to these words that testifie that in your selves you are nothing but Vanity For verily every man And the nearest way to exchange this Vanity for Eternity and so to make us happy that are in misery is to know our own vanity and to understand our own misery For Knowledge saith Hugo Card. is the way to God and understanding saith the Prophet David Psal 49.12 20. is that which distinguisheth and differenceth man from beast for man though he be never so great in honour never so powerful in place and never so rich in wealth yet if he hath no understanding he is compared to the beasts that perish And the two chiefest parts which are like the Body and Soul of all the Knowledge that makes us happy are these two Precepts so much commended and so often urged unto us even by the Heathens themselves that yet notwithstanding were destitute of all true Knowledge that could make them happy because they knew rightly neither of those two things that they so much commended which were 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know God 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self For John 17.3.1 to know God the only way to make us happy 1. Our Saviour tels us this is eternal Life to know God i.e. to know the Father to be the only true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ For the Heathens knew that God alone is the summum bonum and the only true
design How they strengthened themselves to make their orders fi m without the King Whereupon these men put their heads together to consult how they might strengthen themselves and make their ordinances firm and binding without the King and to that purpose having by their former doings gotten too great an interest as well in the faith as in the affections of the people in confidence of their own strength they came roundly to the businesse and what they knew was not their right as their former Petitions can sufficiently witnesse they resolve to effect the same by force but as insensibly as they can devise as 1. To seize upon the Kings Navie to secure the Seas 2. To lay hold upon all the Kings Magazine Forts Towns and Castles 3. To with-hold his moneys and revenues and all other means from the King 4. To withdraw the affections and to poyson the loyalty of all his Majesties Subjects from him And hereby they thought and it must have been so indeed except the Lord had been on his side they had made their hill so strong that it could not be moved and the King so weak and destitute of all means that he could no wayes subsist or relieve himself as a member of their own House did tell me for 1. Earl of Warwick made Vice-Admiral 1. They get the Earl of Warwick to be appointed Vice-Admiral of the Sea and to commit all the Kings Navie into his hand and to take away that charge from Sir John Pennington whom most men believed to be far the better Sea-man but more faithful to his King and the other purer to the Parliament 2. Sir John Hotham put into Hull for the Magazine 2. They send Sir John Hotham a most insolent man that most uncivilly contemned the King to his face to seize upon the Kings Magazine that he bought with his own money when they might as well take away my horse that I paid for and to keep the King out of Hull which was his own proper Town and therefore might as well have kept him out of White-Hall and was an Act so full of injustice as that I scarce know a greater 3. They detained the Kings moneys Esay 1.23 3. Because moneys are great means to effect any worldly affaire and the sinews of every warre when as men and arms and all other necessaries may be had for money some of them and their followers shew themselves to be just as the Peers of Israel companions of thieves meer robbers which forcibly take away a mans mony from him they take all the Kings treasure they intercept detain and convert all the Kings revenues and customes to strengthen themselves against the King 4. They labour to render the King odious by lyes 4. Because their former Remonstrances framed by this faction of the ill government of this kingdom though in some things true which the King ingenuously acknowledgeth and most graciously promiseth to redresse them yet in all things full of gall and bitternesse against the King could not so fully poyson the love and loyalty of the Kings Subjects as they desired especially the love of those that knew his Majesty who the better they knew him did the more affectionately love him and the more faithfully serve him they thought to do it another and a surer way with apparent lyes palpable slanders and abominable accusations invented printed and scattered over all the parts of this kingdom by their Trencher Chaplains and parasitical Preachers and other Pamphleters some busie Lawyers and Pettifoggers to bring the King into an odium disliked and deserted of all his loving Subjects And what created power under heaven was able to dissolve that wickednesse which subtilty and malice had thus treacherously combined to bring to passe Hereupon after many threatning votes 1. Lye that he intended to war against the Parliament and actual hostility exercised against his Royall person the King is forced to raise a guard for the defence of himself and those his good Subjects that attended him then presently that small guard that consisted but of the chief gentry of the Countrey was declared to be an Army raised for the subversion of the Parliament and the destruction of our native liberties an invincible Army is voted to be raised the Earl of Essex is chosen to be their Generall with whom they promise both to live and die the Earl of Bedford General of the Horse moneys are provided and all things are prepared to fetch the King and all delinquents or to be the death of all withstanders and that nothing might hinder this design though the King in many gracious Messages attested by the subscription of many noble Lords that were upon the place assured them he never intended any warre against his Parliament yet they proceed with all eagernesse and declare all those that shall assist the King either with Horse money or men to be malignants and enemies unto the King and Kingdome and such delinquents as shall be sure to receive condigne punishment by the Parliament Hoc mirum est hoc magnum And among the rest of their impudent slanders this was their Master-piece which they ever harped upon that he countenanced Papists and intended to bring Popery into this Kingdgm and to that end had an Army of Papists to assist him But to satisfie any sensible man in this point I would crave the resolution of these two Questions 1. Whether every Papist that is subject to his Majesty Two questions to be resolved is not bound to assist and defend his King in all his dangers 2. Whether the King should not protect his Subjects that are Papists in all their dangers so far as by the Law he ought to do it and accept of their service when he himself is invironed with dangers For first 1. All Papists bound to assist their King I believe there is no Law that inhibiteth a Papist to serve his King against a Rebellion or to ride Post to tell the King of a Design to murder Him or any other intended Treason against Him or being present to take away a weapon from that man that attempted to kill the King because his not coming to Church doth not exempt him from his Allegiance or discharge him of his duty and service unto the King and therefore if a Fleet from France or Spain or any other forreign part should invade us or any Rebellion at home should rise against his Soveraign and seek to destroy those Lawes and Liberties whereof himself and his Posterity hath as good an interest to as any other Subject I say he is bound by all Laws to assist his King and to do his best endeavour both with his purse and in his person not only to oppose that external Invasion but also to subdue as well that home-bred Rebellion as the forreign Invasion 2. If a Papist should be injured his estate seized upon 2. The King bound to protect dutiful Papists his house
plundered and his person if taken imprisoned not because he transgressed any other Law but that he dispenceth not with the Law of his conscience to be no Papist and being thus injured should come unto his King and say I am your Subject and have lived dutifully I did nothing which the Law gives me not leave I have truly paid all duties and humbly submitted my self to all penalties and yet I know not why I am thus used and abused by my neighbours I am driven from my house by force of Arms and I have no place to breathe but under your Majesties wings and the shelter of your power therefore I beseech you as you are my King and are obliged to do your best for the safety of your true Subjects let me have your protection and you shall have my service unto death I would fain know what the King should do in such a case deny his protection or refuse his service The one is injustice the other not the best wisdom especially if he needed service for as the Law of nature and of nations requireth all Subjects to obey their Kings and faithfully to serve them of what Religion soever their Kings shall be so Lege relationis every King is bound to protect every faithfull Subject that observeth his Laws or submitteth to their penalties without corrupting of his fellow Subjects of what Religion soever he is because they are his Subjects not as they are faithfull Christians but as obedient men and he is to rule not over the faith of their souls but the actions of their bodies and it is an Axiom in Divinity that Fides non est cogenda and if Kings cannot perswade their subjects to embrace the true Faith they ought not to cut them off so long as they are true Subjects And therefore with what reason can any man blame the King either for protecting them in their distresses or accepting their service in his own extremities I cannot understand And yet for the goodly company of Papists which his Majesty entertaineth in all his Armies they cannot all make up so much as one good Regiment as an Officer in his Majesties Army confidently affirmeth but it will serve their turn to taxe the King to lay imputations upon him even the very things that belong unto themselves as the whole summe of those things that are expressed in Englands Petition to their King mutaetis mutandis might truly be presented to the two Houses that have now almost destroyed us all and to make them mighty faults in him which are no faults at all in themselves because there is no fear of their favouring Popery though as they have very many so they should have never so many more in their Army 3. Lye that he caused the Rebellion in Ireland 3. Another Slander they not onely whispered but also dispersed the same farre and near among the people to make the King still the more odious unto his Subjects that he was the cause of the Rebellion in Ireland and that the Rebels there had his Commission under the Broad Seal to plunder the Protestants and to expell them thence that so the Gospel being rooted out of Ireland Popery might the easier be transported and planted here in England whereas themselves in very deed were the sole causers of this Rebellion as I have shewed unto you before and the colour of this slander was The cause of this slander that the Rebellion being raised the Ring leaders of those Rebels the sooner to gain the simple to adhere unto them perswaded them to believe that they had the Kings command to do the same and to that purpose shewed them the Broad Seal which they had taken from Ministers and Clerks of the Peace and others whom formerly they had plundered and taken their Seales from them which they cunningly affixed to certain Commissions of their own framing as M. Sherman assured me he saw the Broad Seal that was taken from one M. Hart that was Clerk of the Peace in the County of Tumond and was found in the pocket of one of the chief Leaders of the Rebels when he was killed by the Kings Souldiers yet this false and lewd practice of these Rebels in Ireland was a most welcom news to this Faction in England to lay this imputation upon the King that he was the cause of this Rebellion which themselves had kindled and were glad to find such a colour to impute it unto him that it might not be suspected to be raised by them Many other such falsehoods Lyes and impudent slanders hath the father of lyes caused these his Children most impudently to father upon the King but as the Philosopher saith Non quia affirmatur aut negatur res erit How things are indeed aut non erit Things are not so and so because they are said to be so neither can they be no such things onely because they are denied to be such as Gold is not Copper because ignorant men affirm it to be so nor a drunken man sober or a vitious man vertuous because they deny him to be good and blazon him abroad for one of the sonnes of Belial but as Gold is Gold and Brasse is Brasse so godly men are good wicked men are evill and Rebels are none other then Rebels let men call them what they will and so our King is not such a man as they say because they affirm it but he is indeed a most just vertuous and most pious Prince let them say what they will Their tongues are their own and we cannot rule them and so all his followers are better Protestants indeed and less Papists in all points of faith than the best of them that term us so by false names God forgive them these slanderous accusations CHAP. XI Sheweth the unjust proceedings of these factious Sectaries against the King eight special wrongs and injuries that they have offered him Which are the three States And that our Kings are not Kings by election or Covenants with the People ANd yet for all these strange courses contrary to all humane thoughts Psal 118.23 Esay 46.10 which is marvellous in our eyes the Lord of Heaven whose counsell shall stand and whose will shall be done hath them all in derision dissipates all these devices and turns all the counsell of Achitophel against his own head when he opened the eyes of many millions of the Kings true Subjects to behold and detest these unfaithful dealings and dis-loyall proceedings against so gracious a King and therefore petitioned and subscribed that his Majesty standing upon his Guard and defending himself from such indignities as might follow they would hazard their lives and fortunes to assist him to repell those more than barbarous injuries that were offered unto Him Therefore now Memoriae proditum est I find it written that without fear of God without regard of Majesty without justice without honesty they are resolved rather than to repent of their former wickednesse to involve