Tythes and so they bring a spiritual dearth and a famine of Gods Word unto the rest of the poor parishioners when for want of sufficient maintenance they shall want a sufficient Minister that is able to give them any Instruction because as the Poet saith Nulla illis captetur gloria Ovid. trist lib. 5. quaeque Ingenii stimulos subdere fama solet And the benefit that these worldlings reap by this lawless impious and wicked Custome to pay no Tythes for their dry Bullocks nor any thing to God for the fruits of their ground is one main reason why the Minister's part of six or seven Parishes doth scarce amount to twenty pounds per annum as I have formerly shewed in my Remonstrance to his Majesty and I conceive it likewise to be a special Reason why the poor simple Irish Papists have so many Popish Priests amongst them for want of Protestant Priests for that want of sufficient maintenance doth cause them to leave their Parishes and charge unlooked unto and their flock untaught and then the superstitious mendicant Friar cometh to instruct and lead the silly ignorant Irish as he pleaseth And truly to say what I think though I am far enough from Popery and from all Popish errors and superstitions as I hope all the Sermons that I have Preached and the Books that I have Printed can bear witness unto the World yet as Alexander Severus told an unruly Victualler that would not suffer the Christians to erect a Church in a place which he thought more convenient and fit for him to sell Ale in it That it was better God should be served in any place and in any way then that he should have his way and God not served in any place nor any way as I shewed to you before so I conceive it better to be Superstitious then Prophane better to be a Papist then an Atheist and better to have a Popish Priest to give some light to them that sit in darkness and some knowledge of Christ to them that otherwise would know nothing then not to have any Priest at all And therefore if you would abandon Popery and suppress all popish Priests out of Ireland which is my heart's desire then I desire withal that this and all other lewd and wicked customes be taken away the lands houses and possessions of the Church be restored and all impropriations reduced to their first institution that so a sufficient Ministery may be maintained here in Ireland as they are in England and that the poor ignorant Irish may have honest and able Protestant Ministers And to that end the natives according to the institution of the Colledge should be placed in the Colledge at Dublin the which thing hitherto they say hath been too much neglected and as many as may be of their own Nation to live amongst them and to instruct them and then God will blesse this Nation and the true Protestant Religion will prosper and flourish and both we and they shall live happily together which otherwise will very hardly if ever come to pass Because that now we have not our knowledge by inspiration we cannot in an instant understand and speak all Tongues and we cannot work miracles but we must buy many Books to learn Languages and to get knowledge which the Apostles had without any Book and we must spend our time in reading writing studying and praying to God to assist us and to inable us to instruct our people and all this cannot be done without maintenance and means to do it And therefore where there is no sufficient maintenance there can be no sufficient Ministery no instructing of the people no true serving of God as it ought to be And what a heap of unspeakable mischiefs and miseries do these evil customes impropriations and taking away the land houses and possessions of the Church bring amongst us And therefore seeing the Souldiers Captains and others of the Military rank that have gotten the lands of the Irish Rebels which for their service they have justly deserved have likewise unjustly seized upon Gods part and the lands houses and possessions of the Church and are as fast wedded to these evils as to their wives so that we can more easily overcome Golias or pull the club out of Hercules hands than our lands out of these mens fingers It is high time and I hope no good man will be offended with us for it to implore and most humbly to beg and beseech the help and assistance of our Most gracious King to redress these intolerable abuses and to drive away this three-headed Cerberus or rather this many-headed Hidra the manifold Sacriledge and the great oppression of the Church of Christ that is used in these dayes and especially in this Kingdom of Ireland at this time For I call Heaven and Earth to witness that ever since the monstrous undutiful and unnatural murder of that Most glorious Martyr your Majestie 's most dear Father my Most gracious Master Charles the First until the happy Arrival of your gracious Majesty I lived more quietly and contentedly when all my Ecclesiastical Preferments were taken from me and not 20 pound per annum left me in all the world to maintain me than now I do when by your gracious goodnesse all the Church Rights and Inheritances are commanded unresistably to be yielded unto us for your Majesty may be well assured that they which neither for love of Gods favour nor fear of his vengeance will observe Gods Commandments will never regard to obey your commandments And therefore many of our Military men Colonels Captains and others that fought for the Long-Parliament and Crumwell do with some of your Commanders that herein imitate them divide and teare the Revenues and Garment of the Church the Spouse of Christ worse than the Souldiers of Pilate did with the Coat of Christ And therefore now in mine old age well-nigh 80. years I am forced to bestow all my labour and take pains and many journeys which an old man can hardly do and spend all my means in Law which were better bestowed upon the poor to wring the Church-means out of their hands or suffer the same through my remisness to be swallowed down into the belly of Hell and leave my self to be liable to that great account which I must render for my neglect of doing mine uttermost endeavour to recover it at the last Day the which wonderful streight that I am put to doth wonderfully discontent and trouble me continually which makes me oftentimes to think that I were better to resign my Bishoprick if I knew it were no offence to God to some younger man that could better combate with these Golias's than for me to agonize as I do to recover my right who may well cry out with the Poet Impar congressus Achilli But the nearness of the time that I must render mine account of my Stewardship unto God hath strengthned me to write this Treatise against
an end of an unhappy life by a miserable death when he was most perfidiously slain by Achillas Or of Ananias and Saphira who because they did secretly withhold some part of thar which they had voluntarily once resolved to dedicate for Gods service and the maintenance of his servants they were presently stricken with sudden death Or if I should speak of many more whose tragicall ends Eusebius Josephus and other writers both Ecclesiasticall and prophane have set down Aulus Gellius l 3. c 9. Sacrum sacróve commendatum qui dempserit rapueâ—itque parricida esto we shall find that whatsoever they got and pillaged from the Church and Temples of the gods it is like aurum Tolossanum the gold of Tolossa the which whosoever touched did most miserably perish as I shewed to you before for it fares with them as it did of old with the Eagle whereof the Christian Poet saith Victima sacra Deo comburitur abripit offam Hinc aquilâ— ad pullos fertque benigna suos Fatali igniculus praedae imperceptus adhaesit Sacrilegaeque sacer devorat ignis opes The which my Countrey-man thus excellently translates The sacred Offering broyles the Eagle spies Roberts in his book of tythos A gobb she lurcht and to her young she flies A spark unseen lurkt in the fatall stealth Befir'd her neast and burnt up all her wealth And so the gain of a little unjustly gotten proved to be the loss of all that she might justly have injoyed Sic metuat quicunque Dei violare ministros Et sacras audet despoliare domos So let him fear who e're he be that dare Purloyn God's tribute and the Churches share And as the best Poet in the best Verse of all his works by the testimony of Apollo his Oracle saith Discite justitiam moniti non temnere divos Virgil. Aeneid l. 6. The sacrilegious persons were best to learn to be just and not to despise the gods and spoile the goods that are dedicated to their service because as Seneca saith Sacrilegi dant poenas Seneca de benefic l. 5. c. 12. quamvis nemo usque ad Deos manus porrigat the sacrilegious persons and robbers of the Church-rights shall never escape unpunished though no man should lift up his hands and cry to the gods against them as it appeareth sufficiently by the examples before cited But it may be some will say Obj. they were no gods whose examples you forecited and their Temples were no Churches nor houses of the true God but of mortall wicked men and women whom the Gentiles that knew not God deified and adored them for gods and therefore that could be no sacriledge to take away things dedicated to Idols and consecrated for the service of Devils and not of God and their punishment for whatsoever it was was not and could not be supposed to be for sacriledge when as the robbing of those Temples and those false gods cannot be said to be sacriledge Which is rei sacrae violatio as I said before I answer That Sol. as St. Paul would not have the Christians to eat of that which is offered in Sacrifice unto Idols 1 Cor. 10.28 because it was consecrated for the Idol and so dedicated to the false god The Temples of the false gods not to be violated and why which the Apostle saith was none other then the Devil vers 20. whom notwithstanding they deemed and worshipped for the true God So Lactantius saith that the true God would not have those things that belonged any waies to any taken for a deity though they were but false gods and no gods but only supposed deities as all those aforenamed were supposed and believed to be by the Gentiles to be any waies prophaned and abused by wicked men especially by those that took those idols to be gods as all those sacrilegious persons afore-named Tydides Vlysses Philomenes Fulvius Appius Cepio and the rest took Pallas Venus Juno Jupiter Apollo and the like for their gods and goddesses to be worshipped therefore whatsoever the robbing of those Temples had been unto the Christians that knew them to be the houses of Devils and not of God yet to these men and to all others that believed them to be gods the robbing of them and their Temples could be judged no less then Sacriledge and therefore that they ought to suffer the just and severe punishment of Sacriledge And besides God would not suffer these men to escape the hands of justice for their Sacriledge and the spoiling of these false gods lest that by the like robbers his own Church and servants might be oppressed and spoiled as they are in many places under this pretence that our Churches are not the Houses of God nor we the true servants of Jesus Christ But let these men take heed lest the like judgments fall on them as have befallen on the like Sacrilegious persons for God is still the same and hath still the same care of his service and servants and I have heard his name A true story very remarkable that riding through Saint Pauls Church yard in the daies of King Henry the 8th looked up towards the top of the Church and said I hope I shall see that lead turned into silver and gold into my purse ere it be long And a poor woman said I hope I shall see thee hanged first A rash speech and a harsh hope yet it happened right for within a few years after the gentleman was executed and ended his life at Tiburn and Saint Pauls Church stands yet unbestript of her cloathing Sic pereant inimici tui Domine So let all thine enemies perish O God that say unto themselves let us take the Houses of God in possession make them O Lord like Oreb and Zeb Ps 74.10 11. and like unto the dung of the earth as the Holy Prophet speaketh In the life of St. Elzear p. 26. And I say to these Sacrilegious persons as the holy woman Delphina said to her husband Saint Elzear Count of Sabran Take heed that you attempt not to lay your hands on that which is vowed to God or dedicated to his service because God will not be mocked he cannot endure to be robbed or suffer his service to be prejudiced and abated by taking away the means that should maintain it but he will punish them and powre down vengeance upon the heads both of them and of their posterity that take away the Lands Houses and Possessions of the Church that were vowed and dedicated to Jesus Christ to relieve his members and to uphold his service as you may well understand if you do but consider it by that memorable example of * As I remember William Earl Marshall of this Kingdom of Ireland Dr. Hanmer in the History of Ireland who when he had appeased the Rebellion that then rose in his time took a great deal of the lands of the Church into his own hands and the Bishop
about us And so indeed it fell out with our selves in these Kingdoms now of late our peace and our plenty hath undone us by making us too wanton to rebell against our King to provoke our God to scourge us for that our Wantonness and Rebellion And therefore S. Augustine saith most truly Magnae virtutis est cum faelicitate luctari ne illiciat ne corrumpat ne ipsa subvertat foelicitas it is a point of great virtue to strive with felicity lest it inticeth us corrupteth us and overthroweth us and so it is a great felicity and happiness not to be overcome with felicity or not to be undone with prosperity as many Men Towns and Kingdoms have been many times for as the said Poet saith Tum cum tristis erat defensa est Ilion armis Troy in her adversity was well defended but alas Militibus gravidum laeta recepit equum Quam facile tadunt splendidae fortunae But sitting and jocond she was destroyed And so it is with many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their fair fortunes makes them to fall How king Davids peace and plenty increased his Piety But it was not thus now with King David for his Rest begat Religion in him and his peace plenty and prosperity increased his Piety and as he delighteth to recount Gods benefits so he considereth how he may show his thankfulness for them and therefore he thus museth and meditateth on the matter Thâ— summ and substance of Davids deliberation God hath given me a Kingdom and a Royall stately House built of Cedars in that Kingdom Therefore I will build an House for him and he hath given me rest round about therefore I will prepare a place for his Ark which he ordained to be the sign and symbole of his presence and which hitherto hath had no resting place but many a sad and wearisome perambulations that now at last it may rest and be more forced to be transported and carried from place to place For though Enter praesenter Deus est ubique potenter God himself hath an ubiquity of presence being essentially full and filling all places Supra coelos non elatus subter terram non depressus non exclusus nec circumscriptus yet because his gratious and his powerfull presence is promised to be 2 Chron. 6.41 and to be shewed and extended in a speciall manner in some places more and rather then in other places and that place specially is Exod. 30.26 where his Ark resideth and which is called the Ark of his strength and the Ark of his Covenant and the Ark of the Testimony because he Covenanted and promised by the tables of that Covenant Hebr. 9.4 and the other symbols of his presence that were kept in that Ark to be present and assistant and most powerfully to bless and protect all those that kept the Covenant and observed those Testimonies that were preserved in that Ark therefore saith David In requital of Gods favours shewed unto me I will build a House for Gods Ark that so the tables of the Covenant betwixt God and his people and the Manna and the rod of Aaron which were to be kept in the Ark might be the more safely preserved and rest in one place without any more wandering and the people and servants of God which are obliged and commanded to come to serve God and to bring their offerings and oblations to offer unto God before the Ark where it should be might be the more certain of the place of its residence and might with the more conveniency and in a far better manner perform their duties and discharge their service unto God then while the Ark wandered from place to place And this was the result and summ of Davids deliberation and conference with the Prophet Nathan The excellency of Religion which is the preserver of all happiness And it is no wounder that King David was so Religious and so punctual in all particulars appertaining to Religion and the service of God because Religion as one truly saith is as the Poles of the World the Arctick and Antarctick or that Mount Atlas which the Poets say holds up Heaven for it stands on earth and it reacheth to God in Heaven and it is that which poyseth all Societies and all states here below for without the faith and belief of Gods Providence to oversee our actions and then to reckon for our transgressions and to punish the delinquents might craft and falshood would sway in the World alike with men as it is with the Beasts of the field and the Fishes of the Sea and the Conscience of good and evil would be all one and Religion is that which enâ—bleth the noblest man erects his affections and estates him in a state of happiness far above nature and in a word this procures all blessings to light upon us So that whether you aime at the spiritual true and eternal felicity or the civill-Weale and temporall happiness only yet Religion is and ought mainly to be magnified and preserved and therfore the King did most wisely and Religiously call the Prophet to consult about the building of an House for the Ark and for the service of God What Davids example should teach all other Princes And this practice of King David is a pattern and a looking-glass for all Kings and Princes whereby they may see how to spend the times of peace and prosperity to their best profit and advantage and that is 1. Not to spend their whole time either in idleness or vain pastimes because as Hesiod saith Illi pariter indignantur dii homines quisquis otiosus Lesson 1 est both the gods and men detest him that is idle Matth. 20.6 and therefore Christ demandeth of them that did nothing Why stand ye here all day idle and for pastimes and recreations Ludendi modus retinendus est a mean or measure and certain ends and rules ought to be observed therein Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere virtus Horat. For so do we read of the Roman Scevola he used to recreate his spirits Valer. Max. l. 8. c. 8. after he had wearied himself in the weighty Affairs of the Common-wealth but as it is said of Scipio Africanus that he was Not to spend all their time in pleasures Non minus otiosus quà m cum otiosus never less idle then when he was idle Quia semper in otio de negotio cogitavit because that when he had nothing to do he was stil thinking and considering what he should do even as King David here When he sate in his house and was at rest and took his ease and was quiet from all Wars he bethinks himself of building Gods House So should all other Kinâ—s and Princes do to give unto the very times of tranquillity their proner task and share of their Affairs because as Homer bringeth in God telling Agamemnon that Non decet principem solidam dormire
societatem verumetiam quae ad Divinam religionem In this Kings and Princes do serve God as they are commanded by God if they do command as they are Kings in their Kingdoms those things that are good and honest and prohibit the things that are evil not only in causes that do properly appertain to civil society but also in such thâ—ngs as belong and have reference to Religion and Piety And when they do so the Bishops and Priests be they whom you will should observe their Commands That the Bishops Priests ought to submit themselves to the lawful commands diâ—ections of their Kings civil Governours and submitt themselves in all obedience to their Determinations and censures For Moses was the civil Magistrate and the Governour of the people and as he received them from God so he delivered unto the people all the Laws Statutes and Ordinances that appertained to Religion and to the Service of God And when Aaron erected and set up the golden Calf to be worshipped and so violated the true Religion and Service of God Moses reproved and censured him and Aaron though he was the High Priest of God and the Bishop of the people yet as a good example for all other Priests and Bishops he submitted himself most submissively unto Moses the chief Magistrate and said Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot Exod. 32.22 And I would the Pope would do so likewise And therefore though we say the Judge is to be preferred before the Prince in the knowledge of the Laws and the Doctor of Physick in prescribing potions for our health and the Pilot in guiding his Ship which the King perhaps cannot do Yet it cannot be denied but the King hath the commanding power to cause all these to do their duties and to punish them if they neglect it So though the King cannot preach and may not administer the holy Sacraments nor intrude himself with Saul and Vzzia to execute the Office of the Priest or Bishop yet he may and ought to require and command both Priests and Bishops to do their duties and to uphold the true Religion and the Service of God as they ought to do and both to censure them as Moses did Aaron and also to punish them as Solomon did Abiathar if their offence so deserve when they neglect to do it and both Priests and Bishops ought like Aaron and Abiathar to submit themselves unto their censures CHAP. VII The Objections of the Divines of Lovaine and other Jesuites against the former Doctrine of the Prince his authority over the Bishops and Priests in causes Ecclesiastical answered And the foresaid truth sufficiently proved by the clear testimony of the Fathers and Councils and divers of the Popes and Papists themselves BUt against this Doctrine of the Prince his authority to rectifie the things that are amisse and out of order in the Church of God Obj. the Jesuites and their followers tell us Spirituales dignitates praestantiores essâ— secularibus seu mundanis dignitatibus That the Spiritual Dignities are more excellent than those that are worldly When as these two Governments Gen. 1.16 Rom. 13 1â— And though the light of the Church be the greater yet that proves nor but that the King should be the prime and chief Governor of the Church the one of the Church and the other of the Common-wealth are like the two great Lights that God hath made the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the Government of the Church must needs be acknowledged to be the Day and to have the greater light to guide and to direct it The Apostle telling us plainly that now the Gospel being come and the Church of Christ established the night is past or far spent and the day is at hand and come amongst us And the Government of the Secular State is like the Moon that ruleth the Night and receiveth her cleerest light from the Sun as all Christian Kingdoms do receive their best light and surest Rules of Government from the Church of God which is the pillar and the ground of truth But To these that thus make the Civil Government subordinate to that which is Spiritual as both the Papists and our Fanatick-Sectaries here amongst us like the old doting Donatists would do and so abridge and deprive the Christian Prince of his just right and jurisdiction over the affairs and persons of the Church I answer Sol. 1. That Symbolical propositions examples parables comparisons and similitudes can prove nothing they may serve for some illustrations but for no infallible demonstrations of truth Isidorus in Glossa in Gen. ut citatur In the Scourge of Sacriledge 2. I say that Isidorus a popish Doctor preferreth the Government of the Kingdom before the Priesthood by comparing the Kingdom unto the Sun and the Priesthood unto the Moon 3. I say that Theodore Balsamon a good School-man saith Nota Canonem Dicit Spirituales dignitates esse praestantiores secularibus sed ne hoc eò traxeris ut Ecclesiasticae dignitates praeferantur Imperatâ—riis quia illis subjiciuntur You must note that when the Canon saith the Spiritual dignities are more excellent than the Secular Balsamon in Sexta Synodo Canone 7. you must not so understand it as to prefer the Ecclesiastical Rule or Dignities before the Imperial State because they are subject unto it and so to be ruled by it 4. And lastly I say that the Regal Government or Temporal State and civil Government of the Common-wealth is not meerly secular and worldly as if Kings and Princes and other civil Magistrates were to take no care of mens souls and future happiness which they are bound to do and not to say with Cain Nunquid ego custos fratris Am I obliged to look what shall become of their souls But they are called Secular States and civil Government because the greatest though not the chiefest part of their time and imployment is spent about Civil affairs and the outward happiness of the Kingdom even as the Ecclesiastical persons are bound to provide for the poor and to procure peace and compose differences among neighbours and the like civil offices though the most and chiefest part of their time and labour is to be spent in the Service of God and for the good of the souls of their people And so Johannes de Parisiis another man of the Roman Church Johannes de Parisiis Can. 18. doth very honestly say Falluntur qui supponunt quod potestas regalis sit Corporalis non Spiritualis quod habeat curam corporum non animarum quod est falsissimum They are deceived which suppose that the Regaâ— power is only corporal and not spiritual and that it hath but the care and charge over the bodies of his Subjects and not of their souls Which is most false Obj. 2. They say as I have said even now that similitudes and examples nihil
Athanasius said unto the Emperour Jovinian Conveniens est pro principe studium amor rerum divinarum It is meet and convenient for a good Prince to study and love Heavenly things because that in so doing his heart shall be alwaies Theodoret l. 4. c. 3. as Solomon saith in manu Dei in the hand of God and Saint Cyrill tells the Emperours Theodosius and Valentinian that Ab ea quae erga Deum est pietate Prov. 21.1 reipublicae vestrae status pendet the state and condition of their Common-wealth doth wholly depend according to that piety and Religion which they bear towards God Cardanus de sapientia lib. 3. Because as Cardan truely saith Summum praesidium Regni est justitia ob apertos tumultus Religio ob occultos Justice is the best defence of a Kingdom and the suppressor of open tumults because righteousness exalteth a Nation and Religion is the only Protector and safely against all secret and privy Machinations Minut. Fael in Oâ—tav because as Minutius Foelix saith What the Civil Magistrate doth with the sword of justice to suppress the nefarious doers and actours of wickedness Religion rooteth out and suppresseth the very thought of evil The want of the fear of God the only thing that maketh Rebells which a Godly and a Religious man feareth as much and more then a wicked and prophane man doth dread the punishment of his offence and so Religion Piety and the fear of God keepeth the very hearts and souls of the subjects from swelling against their Soveraign and from the least evil thought of Rebellion and it is the want of the fear of God and true Religion whatsoever men pretend that makes Rebels and Traytors in every place because the true Religion tels us plainly Rom. 13.1 that every soul that is every man unfainedly from his heart should be subject to the â—â—gher Powers And the true Religion teacheth us as Tertull Tertul. ad Scapul saith Colere Imperatorem ut hominem à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem To acknowledge and to serve the Emperour and so our King and our Prince as the next person to God and inferior to none but to God When as he is Omnibus major solo Deo minor above all men and below none but only God How requisite it is for Kings to have a care to preserve Religion And therefore it is most requisite that all Kings and Princes should have care of the true Religion and the service of God and with the Prophet David to build Temples and Churches for him that hath given their Crowns and Thrones unto them and to provide maintenance for those servants of God that serve at his Temple as they do for those that serve themselves and so both to be Religious themselves and to see that their subjects so far as it lieth in them should be so likewise and this their own piety and goodness in the service of God will make them famous amongst all posterities and their names to shine as the Sun when as Saint Ambrose saith Ambrosius Epist 32. Nihil honorificentius quà m ut Imperator filius Dei dicatur nothing can be more honorable then that the Emperour or King should be named and called the Son of God The fruits and benefits of maintaining true Religion in a kingdom which is a more glorious Eulogie then Homer could give to the best Heroes of all Greece or that Alexander Julius Caesar or the like could atchieve by all their military exploits or the best domestick actions that they have done and their making provision for the Teachers of the true Religion and the promoters of Gods service the Bishops and Ministers of Christ his Church which makes their subjects both Loyall and obedient unto them and also Religious towards God will preserve the peace and procure the happiness of their Kingdoms How many former kings were very zealous to uphold Religion And according as God hath given this Authority and laid this charge upon all Kings and Princes to have a care of his Religion and the Ministers of his Church so we find very very many both in former times and also of latter years and so both of Gentiles Jews and Christians that were exceeding zealous for the Honor of God and the upholding of them that served at his Altar 1. Gentile kings as 1. The Gentile Kings as Pharaoh King of Egypt that in the extremity of that dearth which swallowed the whole Land he made provision for Gods Priests The great bounty of king Croesus to the god Apollo and to his Priests so that they neither wanted means nor were driven to sell their Lands And so Croesus King of Lydia was so wounderfull zealous of the Honor and the worship of the god of Delphos and so bountifull to Apollo's Priests that Herodotus saith that he made oblation of three thousand choice Cattel such as might lawfully be offered and caused a great stack of wood to be made wherein he burnt Bedsteads of Silver and Gold and Golden Maysors with purple rayment and Coats of exceeding value and he laid the like charge upon the Lydians that every man should consecrate those Jewels which he possessed most costly and pretious from which their Sacrifice when as the streams of liquid and molten Gold distrained in great abundance he caused thereof to be framed half flates or sheards the longer sort as he intituled them of six handfull the shorter of three and a hand breadth in thickness amounting to the number of an hundred and seventeen Whereof four were of fined Gold weighing two Talents and a half and the rest of whiter Gold that weighed two Talents likewise he gave also the similitude of a Lion in tried and purged Gold and two Books very fair and stately to see to the one framed of Gold weighing eight Talents and a half with the additionall of twenty four pounds and the other of Silver And he presented likewise four silver Tunns two drinking Cups the one of Gold and the other of Silver and silver Rings with the shape and form of a woman three Cubits high and withall he offered the Chains Girdles and Wastbands of the Queen his wife and to the Priests of Amphiaraus he gave a shield and a speare of solid Gold and a quiver of the same metall all which saith mine Author he offered in hope to purchase thereby unto himself the gracious favour and good-will of that god and Herodotus l. 1 clio if he was so magnificent and bountifull to the Priests and Temple of that god which was no god how Royall think you would he have been if he had known the true God and our Saviour Jesus Christ So Cyrus and Darius KingS of Persia and of Babylon made such royall decrees for the re-edifying of the Temple at Jerusalem Ezra 1.7 c. 6.5 c. 8.9 and the Worshipping of the God of Daniel and his three
truly That many things are of such Nature 1. Answer though I think Tythes are not so as will not be fitting to every place or all places alike but may in some places be well performed and in some other places be prohibited because as Cicero saith Cicero in Orat. pro Balbo the different state of Cities inforceth a necessity of different Laws for as all meats are not alike pleasant to all Palats and every air agreeth not with all Constitutions so all manners belong not to all men but some Laws are sutable to some people and some other Laws are more convenient for some other and all or the same are not expedient for all And as every shooe will not be drawn on every foot We may alter the Ceremonies of the Church as the times and state of the Church do require and one kind of Medicine is not to be Administred to every Stomack but that Physick which may fit the younger age may be unkind for the same disease when old age hath seised upon us So one discipline may be fitting for a City which may not be so fitting either for another City or especially for a Kingdom and one Ceremony may sort with the Church in times of peace and prosperity which holdeth no correspondency with the seasons of War and Persecution Neither should we look that the same uniform regiment is to be observed In ecclesia Constituta as in Ecclesia Constituenda as well in an infant-Church as in a Church of riper age or in a Church persecuted when she flyeth with the woman into the Wilderness or is faign to lie desolate in the caves of the earth and a Church in peace when she sitteth as a Queen in her Throne or in a Church under Hâ—athen Emperours and a Church under Christian Governours when she so journeth as a captive in Bâ—bylon and when she dwelleth at liberty in Jerusalem for as no one garment can fit the Moon It is hard to make a fit coat for the Moon which is subject by nature to an often-change and is sometimes in the Full and afterward in the Wayn and never continuing in one stay So the Church of Christ being like the Moon sometimes high and sometime low often in the Full and as often in the Wayn it cannot be that the same uniform Government should fit the Church in all places and at all times And therefore the Prophet speaking of the Kings Daughter that signifieth the Church of Christ saith That although her chiefest glory is within yet her outward Attire is likewise glorious and it is of divers colours and so are the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of divers sorts as the times and places do admit them And Musculus to the same purpose saith Si illorum temporum mores revocas tum conditiones statum quoque illorum temporum primum revoca If thou wilt call back again the manners customes and practise of those times wherein the Apostles and primitive Christians lived then first call back again the state and conditions of those times that both the times and the manners may agree when as I told you before many things may serve at one time that will not serve at another time Vt musica in luctu est importuna narratio As Musick is unseasonable in the time of mourning saith the Wise-man And indeed what Tertullian saith is beyond all contradiction Regula fidei immobilis irreformabilis est The Rule and Canon of our Faith is and must alwayes be unmoveable and unreformable not to be altered at caetera disciplinae conversationis novâ—tatem correctionis admittunt Tertull. in l. De veland Virgin but all other things that appertain to discipline and government and conversation may admit the newness and change of a Reformation And so the Eucharist the holy Communion being to succeed for our Sacrament in the room of the Passeover it was most convenient that it should be celebrated by Christ at Supper-time in the evening because the P sseover was commanded by the Law to be eaten between the two evenings And yet the Church thought it more convenient to alter that fashion The first Christians did many things that we are not bound to do and we do many â—ood thin s that they did not and to take it in the morning So likewise Christ was baptized in Jordan and the Apostles baptized men in Rivers and Fountains of waters and would you have us to imitate their example to forsake the Christian Assembly in the holy Church and to carry our Infants with the fanatick Anabaptists to be baptized in the Rivers But seeing that in the Apostles time the good Christians sold their lands and possessions and laid down the prices and monies that they received for them at the Apostles feet I demand Why do not our Anabaptists that would have all things reduced to the Primitive time imitate them in this their Devotion and lay the prices of their lands at their Preachers feet I know they will answer That this extraordinary Devotion is not of necessity to be drawn into imitation and I confess it But in the Apostles time there were no Vniversities no Schools of Learning no Hospitals nor Alms-houses no Book of the Holy Scriptures divided into Chapters nor Chapters into Verses no distinction of Parishes and many other good things were not then in being And shall we now cast them all away because the Apostles and the first Christians had them not Or will not the giddy-heads understand that as the Sun in the firmament goeth higher and higher unto the noon and perfect day so the truth and knowledge of the Sun of Righteousness and the perfection of his Service groweth more and more unto the fulness of the knowledge of Christ and even as Christ himself increased in wisdom and knowledge 〈◊〉 â— 52 and in favour with God and men so doth the Church of Christ And so to return and to apply our selves to the case of Tythes though some places as it may be in the Low-Countries and the Reformed Churches in France have their immunities by themselves and are not charged with the payment of Tythes their state and condition not admitting it yet in lieu of their Tythes their Ministers are maintained with as sufficient supplies and necessity excuseth even in greater matters as in not praying and not receiving the Sacraments as well as in not paying Tythes when the case cannot be otherwise As S. Paul for some special exigency took no stipend of some Churches for his labours in the preaching of the Gospel Yet he tells them that by right he might have claimed it and therefore inferreth that what he did for some special causes should not be drawn into an example to prejudice and defraud others of that which was their due So we say That in those Churches which pay not their Tythes in kind there is an allowance equivalent to the Tythes The Ministers of the Reformed
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
whom he bestowes it and this made Shemaiah the man of God to warn Rehoboam not to fight against his brethren for as when God commanded Abraham to kill his sonne it was a laudable obedience and no murther to have done it and when he commanded the Israelites to rob the Aegyptians it was no breach of the eighth Commandement so this revolt of these Tribes if done in obedience unto God could be no offence against the Law of God but because they regarded not so much the fulfilling of Gods will as their not being eased of their grievances and the fear of the weight of Rehoboam's finger which moved them to this Rebellion I can no ways justifie their action and though God by this Rent did most justly revenge the sinne of Solomon and paid for the folly of Rehoboam yet this doth no wayes excuse them for this rebellion because they revolted not with any right aspect and therefore it is worth our observation that the consequences which attended this defection was a present falling away from the true God into Idolatry and not long after to be led into an endlesse Captivity Which is a fearful example to see how suddenly men do fall away from God and from their true religion after they have rebelled against their lawful King and how to avoid imaginary grievance they do often fall into a real bondage and so leap out of the Frying-pan into the fire And for the Edomites they were not Israelites that led their lives by the law of God neither can any man excuse the conspirators against Amazia from the transgression of the Law of God 6. For Vzziah that was taken with a grievous sicknesse so that he Example answered 6 could not be present at the publique affaires of the Kingdom I say that according to the law by reason of the contagion of his disease he was rightly removed from the Court and concourse of people and his sonne in the mean time placed in his fathers stead to administer and dispose the Common-wealth but he in all that while like a good sonne did neither affect the name nor assume the title of a King 7. For the deposing of Athalia I see nothing contrary to equity because Example answered 7 she was not the right Prince but an unjust Vsurper of the Crown and therefore Jehoida the chief Priest having gathered together the principal Peers of the Kingdome and the Centurions and the rest of the people shewed them the Kings sonne whom for six yeares space he had preserved alive from the rage and fury of Athalia which had slain all the rest of the Kings seed and when they saw him they did all acknowledge him for the Kings sonne they crowned him King and he being crowned they joyfully cryed God save the King and then by the authority of the new crowned King that was the right heir unto the Kingdom they put to death the cruel Queen that had so tyrannically slain the Kings children and so unjustly usurped the Crown all that while And therefore to alledge this example so justly done to justifie an insurrection contrary to justice doth carry but a little shew of reason And I say the like of the Macchabees and Antiochus that neither he nor any other Macedonian Tyrant had any right over them but they were unjust Vsurpers that held the Jewes under them in ore gladii with the edge of their swords and were not their lawful Kings whom they ought to obey and therefore no reason but that they might justly free themselves with their swords that were kept in bondage by no other right then the strength of the sword Example answered 8 8. For the example of Thrasibulus Juniuâ— Brutus and other Romans or whosoever that for their faults have deposed their Kings I answer with Saint Augustine Examples not to be imitated that Exempla paucorum non sunt trahenda in legem universorum we have no warrant to imitate these examples for though these things were done yet we say they were done by Heathens that knew not God and unjustly done contrary to the law of God and therefore with no blessing from God with no good successe unto themselves and with lesse happinesse unto others but it happened to them as to all others that do the like to expell a mischief and to admit a greater as besides what I have shewed you before this one most memorable example out of our own Histories doth make it plain The ill successâ— of resisting our superiours In the time of Richard the second the Nobility and Gentry murmured much against his government in brief they deposed him and set the Crown upon the head of the Duke of Lancaster whom they created King Henry the fourth The good Bishop of Carlile made a bold and excellent Speech to prove that they could not by any law of God or man depose and dispossesse their lawful King or if they deposed him that they had no right to make the Duke of Lancaster to succeed him but he good man for his pains was served as Saint Paul and others were many times for speaking the truth committed to prison and there was an end of him but not an end of the story for the many battels and blood-shed the miseries and mischiefs that this one unjust and unfaithful act produced had never any period never an end till that well nigh a hundred thousand English men were slain in civil warres whereof two were Kings one Prince ten Dukes two Marquesses 21. Trussel in his supplement to Daniel's History Earles 27. Lords two Viscounts one Lord Prior one Judge 139. Knights 421. Esquires and Gentlemen of great and ancient Families a farre greater number a just revenge for an unjust extrusion of their lawful King whose greatest misery came from his great mildnesse And therefore these things being well weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary All the pressures that we have suffered since the first year of our king are not comparable to the miseries that one years civil warre hath brought upon us in the scales of true wisdom it had been better for them as it will be for us and all others patiently to suffer the crosse that shall be laid upon us untill that by our prayers we can prevail with God that for our sinnes hath sent it in mercy to remove it then for our selves to pluck our necks out of the coller and in a froward disobedience to pull the house as Sampson did upon our own heads and like impatient fishes to leap out of the Frying-pan into the fire from hard usage that we impatiently conceived to most base cruel bondage that we have deservedly merited or at the best to bring many men to many miseries before we can attain unto any happinesse and so as the Poet saith in this very case among the Romans when for their liberty and priviledges as they termed it in Pompey's time Excessit medicina modum The remedy that they procured hath proved
farre worse then the disease they suffered And I doubt not but ere long the Rebels in this Kingdom will feelingly confesse this to be too true when they shall more deeply taste of the like miseries as they have brought as well upon many of their own friends as others If you alledge the time of Richard the third how soon he was removed and how happily it câ—me to passe that Henry the seventh succeeded I answer briefly that Richard the third was not onely a cruel bloody Tyrant but he was also an unjust Usurper of the Crown and not the right King of England and that there is a great deal of difference betwixt rebelling against our lawful Kings which God hath justly placed over us and expelling an usurping Tyrant which hath unjustly intruded himself into the royal Throne This God often hath blessed as in the case of Eglon Athalia Henry the seventh and many more which you may obviously find both in the Greek and Roman stories and the other he alwayes cursed and will plague it whensoever it is attempted After I had answered these Objections I lighted upon one more Object Goodwin in his Anti-Cavalierisme p. 8 which is taken out of 2 Kings 6.32 where the Objector saith When Ahab sent a Cavalier a man of blood to take away the Prophet Elisha's head as he sate in his house among the Elders did Elisha open his dore for him and sit still till he took off his head in obedience to the King No he bestirred himself for the safeguard of his life and called upon others to stand by him to assist him And a little after he saith Surely he that went thus farre for the safety of his life when he was but in danger to be assaulted would have gone further if occasion had been and in case the Kings Butcher had got in to him before the dore had been shut if he had been able and had had no other means to have saved his own head but by taking away the others there is little question to be made but he would rather have taken then given a head in this case I answer that who this Goodwin is I know not Sol. The Ministers of Christ should not be the incendiaries of war I could wish he were none oâ— the Tribe of Levi 1. Because I find him such an incendiary of warre and an enemy unto peace whereas the messengers of Christ have this Elogie given them Qâ—Ã m speciosi pedes Evangelizantium pacem And the Scripture saith Blessed are the Peace-makers and we continually pray Give peace in our dayes O Lord and therefore I can hardly believe these incendiaries of warre to be the sonnes of the God of peace 2. Because his objection is full of falshoods and false grounds as 1. He saith that Ahab sent to take Elisha's head The first mistake in the front of his Speech 2 Kings 6.32 If any thing more when as Ahab was dead long before it was his ghost therefore and not he But it was his son and what then what did the Prophet he shut the dore and desired the Elders to handle the messenger roughly or hold him fast at the dore Thus saith the Text and the Prophet in my judgement doth herein but little more then what God and nature alloweth every man to do not to lay down his life if he can lawfully preserve it but as the Prophet did to shut the dore or as our Saviour saith When we are persecuted in one City to flye into another to save our lives as long as we can and in all this I find no violent resistance But 2. the Objector tells us Surely if the messenger had got in Elisha had taken off his head rather then given his own I demand What inspiration he hath from God to be sure of this for I am sure John Baptist would not do so nor Saint Paul nor any other of Gods Saints that I have read of but these men are sure of every thing even of Gods secret Counsel and that is more then the thoughts of mens hearts or if this be sure which I am not sure of I answer that Elisha was a great Prophet that had the spirit of Eliah doubled upon him and those actions which he did or might have done through the inspiration of Gods spirit this man may not do except he be sure of the like inspiration for God who is justice it self can command by wâ—rd as he did to Abraham to kill his son or by inspiration as he did to Elias to call fire from Heaven and it is a sin to disobey it whereas without this it were an horrible sin to do it And we must distinguish betwixt rare and extraordinary cases that were managed by special commission from God and those patterns that are confirmed by known and general Rules which passe through the whole course of Scripture and take heed that we make not obscure Commentaries of humane wisdom upon the clear Text of holy Writ Quia maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum Cursed be the gloss that corrupts the Text. But indeed the place is plain that Elisha made no other resistance but what every man may lawfully do to keep the messenger out of dores so long as he could and yet this man would inferre hence that we may lawfully with a strong hand and open warre resist the authority of our lawful Kings a Doctrine I am sure that was never taught in the School of Christ He makes some other Objections which I have already answered in this Treatise and then he spends almost two leaves in six several answers that he maketh to an objection against the examining the equity or iniquity of the Kings commands but to no purpose because we never deny but that in some cases though not in all for there must be Arcana Imperii and there must be Privie Counsellours and every Peasant must not examine all the Edicts of his Prince The commands of Kings may not onely be examined but also disobeyed as the three Children did the commands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Apostles the commands of the High-Priests but though we may examine their commands and disobey them too when they are contrary to the commands of God yet I would fain know where we have leave to resist them and to take arms against them I would he understood There is a great deal of difference betwixt examining their commands and resisting their authority the one in some cases we may the other by no means we may do CHAP. VIII Sheweth that our Parliament hath no power to make warre against our King Two main Objections answered The original of Parliaments The power of the King to call a Parliament to deny what he will and to dissolve it when he will Why our King suffereth BUt when all that hath been spoken cannot satisfie their indignation against true obedience and allay the heat of their rebellious spirits they come to their ultimum refugium best strength
the Captain of the hoast of the Lord so I say to you that are his Lieftenant Ride on with your honor or ride prosperously Because of the word of truth of meekness and righteousness the people shall be subdued unto you and because the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in the mercy of the most Highest he shall not miscarry especially while he fighteth as he doth the battail of the Lord in defence of the Church of Christ who hath promised to be his shield and buckler which is the daily faithful prayer of Your Majestie 's most loyally devoted Subject and most faithfully obliged servant Gryffith Ossory THE DISCOVERY OF MYSTERIES OR The Plots and practices of a prevailing Faction in this present Parliament to overthrow both Church and State CHAP. I. Sheweth the Introduction the greatness of this Rebellion the Original thereof the secret plots of our Brownistical faction and the two chifest things that they aymed at to effect their Plot. I Have long wandered in a region of Rebellion among seduced Subjects and discontented Peers and now at last after I had passed the raging Seas and very hardly escaped the storms and dangers of the surging waves I am arrived in my native soyle where I find my self incompassed with far greater storms and more violent winds then ever I thought could be on any Land for though that Grand Rebellion which you may find lately described was both magna mira very great and very grievous such as I supposed could not be exceeded by any humane malice yet now me thinks I hear the Spirit saying unto me as he did unto Ezâ—kiel Son of man stand up and I will show thee greater abominations and a Rebellion far greater and more odious then either Popish Irish or any other Sect or Nation of the World hath hitherto produced and therefore I may now say with the Poet Barbara Pyraemidum sileat miracula Memphis Let proud Babylon cease to boast Of her Pyramid's stately spires This Rebellion is more strange Surmounting all infernal fires No age the like hath ever bred Nor shall when these Rebels be dead The seed and original of this Rebellion The seed of it was unseasonably sown in the Northern storm and the Original of those Boreal blasts either why or by whom those spirits were raised is not so well known to me therefore how justly the King did undertake the quarrel I will not at this time determine or with what equity the Scots made their approach into England it is not my purpose to discuss yet I must needs say that our English Sectaries and Amsterdam Recusants which hated our Church and loved not our King justum quia justum only because he is so good too good for them did from hence arripere ansam take hold of this opportunity by procuring those to proceed that were coming on and discouraging the others of the Kings side that were Cowardly enough to say no worse of themselves to betray both King and Kingdom into the hands of the Invaders So the good King was now with King David brought into a strait either to take counsel and follow the advice of those secret Sectaries So now I fear more the secret enemies both of Church and State that may luâ—k in Court then those that lie in the Earl of Essex his Camp and the masked enemies both of the Church and State that as yet insensible unto him were such in the bosome of his Court and most slily aymed at a further mischief then his Majesty could have imagined as now it appeareth by the consequences of this Parliament or else to hazard the dangers that his then open foes were like to bring upon his people And I assure my self eyes of flesh that cannot pierce into the mysteries of the hearts and our secret thoughts could see no further nor make any better election then His Majesty did that is to call a Parliament which the hearts of all the Kingdom called and cryed for and which in former times by the wise institution and right prosecution thereof was found to be the Pancreston or as the Weapon salve an antidote to cure all the diseases and to heal all the bleeding wounds of this Kingdom though of late we have sensibly felt the unhappy ending of some of them which perhaps may be some accidental cause of some part of this unhappiness here was His Majesties fair mind and an act of special grace for which all His Subjects ought most thankfully to shew themselves Loyal unto Him when He preferred their safety before the prosecuting of his own resolutions But Decipimur specie recti we are many times deceived by the shadow of the truth and betrayed under the vizard of virtue for as God produceth light out of darkness and good out of evil so wicked men like the spiders do suck poyson from those flowers whence the Bees do extract honey and these subtle-headed Foxes whereof many of them had unduly got themselves elected into the House of Commons and there factiously combined themselves together to do their great exploit to overthrow the Government both of Church and Sate and minded to make the Parliament-House like Vulcans Forge where they intended to contrive their Iron-net that should be able to hold fast all sorts of people from him that sitteth upon the Throne to him that wallowed in dust and ashes turned the hopes of our redresses to our extream miseries when in stead of rectifying our abuses they intended principally to work our ruine in our just apprehension though perhaps our happiness in their own mistaken conception And as the Apostle saith Known unto God are all his works from the beginning and he hath eternally decreed how and by what means to bring them all unto perfection so the Devil being God's Ape and the wicked treading in his steps do first mold their designs and intentions in the Idea of their own brains and conclude the works they would have done in their own conceits and then they frame to themselves the means and wayes whereby they are resolved to produce and perfect all those mis-shapen embryoes that they conceived and so these factious men this brood of vipers that would gnaw through the bowels of their mother from the first convention of this Parliament had resolved upon their plot and contrived among themselves what great good work they would by such and such means bring to passe And that was as I hope this subsequent discourse will make it plain to all The design 〈◊〉 plot of the faction of Seâ—aries that will not be wilfully blind the subversion of the ancient government both of this Church and Kingdom and to introduce a new Ecclesiastical Discipline and to frame a new Common-wealth much like if not worse than that of our neighbours in the Low-Countries Gratum opus agricolis a brave exploit and a great work indeed beyond the adventure of Junius Brutus that expelled the Kings but left the Priests
alone that purged the corruption of the Royal Government but meddled not with the Religion of their Bishops and Prophets and beyond the undertaking of Martin Luther that pulled down the pride of the Pope and all that Romish Hierarchy but ventured not to trample upon the Sâ—epter of Kings and the Imperial Government which he held Sacred and inviolably to be obeyed For these men perceiving how God had so wisely ordered these Governments among his people to assist each other that the one can neither stand nor fall without the other as it is fully and truly shewed in the Grand Rebellion therefore as Caligula wished that the people of Rome had but one neck that so he might dispatch them all uno ictu with one stroke So these men would overthrow both Government and destroy both King and Priest both Church and State at one time with one clap with one thunder-bolt And so they should be famous indeed though it were but like the fame of Herostratus that burnt the Temple of Diana or of Raviliac that killed the King of France of Nero that destroyed his mother or Oedipus that murdered his own father for a man may be as notoriously famous for transcendent villanies and nefarious impieties as another is for his rare vertues and super-eminent deeds of piety As in History Thersites is as well known for his base Cowardice as Achilles for his heroick Valour And in the Scripture Judas for his Treachery is as notoriously known as Saint Peter for his Fidelity Therefore these men go on with this great Design and to effect the same I find that they aimed at these two special things 1. To take away all the lets and impediments that might hinder them They aimed at two things 2. To secure unto themselves all the helps and furtherances that might advantage them For 1. As a Vineyard that is well hedged 1. To remove the impediments of their design or a City strongly fenced with walls and bulwarks cannot easily be laid wast and spoiled before these defences be destroyed so the wilde Boars cannot devour the grapes of God's Church and swallow down the Revenues of her Governours and the Rebels cannot pull the Sword out of their Soveraigns hand and lay his Crown down in the dust so long as the means of their preservations are intire and not removed Therefore these men endeavour to eradicate all the impediments of their Design And they saw four great Blocks that were as four mighty Mountains which their great Faith their publick faith being not yet conceived must remove before they could plant their new Church and subvert the old Government of this Kingdom and those were 1. The Earl of Straffords Head Four impediments of their Design 2. The free judgement of the Judges 3. The power of dissolving the Parliament 4. The Bishops votes in the House of the Lords For as the heavenly Angels could do nothing against Sodom while righteous Lot was in it so these earthly angels the messengers of Abaddon can never effect their ends to overthrow the Church and State to make them as Sodom full of all impurity and villany until these four main stops be taken away And therefore CHAP. II. Sheweth the eager prosecution of our Sectaries to take off the Earl of Straffords head How he answered for himself The Bishops right of voting in his cause His excellent vertues and his death 1. Impediment 1. THey get Master Pym the grand father of all the purer sort and a fit instrument for this Design in the name of the House of Commons The Earl his Charge and thereby of all the Commonalâ—y of England to charge Thomas Earl of Strafford of High-Treason A high charge indeed and yet no lesse a crime could serve the turn to turn him out of their way because nothing else could subdue that spirit by which he was so well able to discover the plots and to frustrate the practices of all the faction of Sectaries for as the Jews were no wayes sufficient to answer Saint Stephen's arguments but only with stones so these men saw themselves unable to confute his reasons and to subdue his power but only by putting him to death and cutting off his head for that fault which Pym alleadged he had committed But then I demand How this great charge of High Treason shall be made good against him How sought to be proved It is answered That England Scotland and Ireland and every corner of these three Kingdoms must be searched and all discontented persons that had at any time any Sentence though never so justly pronounced against them by him that was so great a Judge yet conceited to be otherwise by themselves must now be incouraged and countenanced by the faction and most likely by this grand Accuser to say all that they know and perhaps more than was true against him for what will not envy and malice say or what beast will not trample upon the Lion when they see him grovelling and gasping for life in an unevitable pit and it may be compassed with so many mastiff dogs I mean his enemies and discontented witnesses as were able to tear more than one Lion all to pieces So by this means they are enabled to frame near thirty Articles against him ut cum non prosint singula multa juvent that the number might amazâ— the people and think him a strange creature that was so full of heynous offences and so compassed with transgressions But Si satis accusâsse quis innocens If accusations were sufficient to create offenders not a righteous man could escape on earth therefore the Law condemneth no man before he be heard The Earl his Answer what he can answer for himself And the Earl of Strafford coming to his Answer made all things so clear in the Judgement of the common-hearers and answered to every Article so well that his enemies being Judges they much applauded his abilities and admired at his Dexterity whereby he had so finely untied those Gordian knots that were so fouly contrived against him and as his friends conceived had fairly escaped all those iron-nets which his adversaries had so cunningly laid and my popular country-man with the rest of the more learned Lawyers had so vehemently prosecuted to insnare him in the links and traps of guiltiness and in brief the Lords who as yet were unpoisoned by the leavened subtilty of this bitter Faction could find not any one of all those Articles to be Treason by any Law that was yet established in this Land sic te servavit Apollo So God delivered him as he thought and his friends hoped out of all these troubles Yet as a rivulet stopped will at last prove the more violent The nature of malice viresque acquirit ibidem and recollect a greater strength in the same place so rage and malice hindered of their revengeful desires will turn to be the more implacable Quia malitia corum excaecavit eos
Champions to enlarge his Kingdom would fain have our Souls to remain among Lions and all the means or defence to be taken from us our enemies to be our Judges and our selves to be murdered with our own weapons In the time of Popery there were many Laws de immunitate Clericorum whereby we were so protected that the greatest Prince could not oppress us as you may find in the Reign of King John and almost in all our Histories and when we renounced the Pope God made Kings our nursing Fathers and Queens our nursing Mothers and we putting our selves under their protection have been hitherto most graciously protected but now by this Act we are left naked of all defence and set under the very sword of our Adversaries and as the Psalmist saith They that hated us are made Lords over us to call us to assess us to undo us 3. Debarred of that right that none else are 3. Hereby they are made more slavish than the meanest Subject and deprived of that benefit and priviledge which the poorest Shoomaker Tailer or any other Tradesman or yeoman hath most justly left unto him for to be excluded debarred and altogether made uncapable of any benefit is such an insupportable burden that it is set upon no mans shoulders but upon the Clergy alone as if they alone were either unworthy to receive or unable to do any good 4. Made more contemptible than all others 4. Hereby they are made the unparalleled spectacle of all neglect and scorn to all forraign people for I can hardly believe the like Precedent can be shewed in any Age or any other Nation of the World no not among the very Infidels or Indians for in former times the Bishops and Clergy-men were thought the fittest instruments to be imployed in the best places of greatest truth and highest importance in the Common-Wealth and Kings made them their Embassadours as the Emperour Valentinian did Saint Ambrose And our own Chronicles relate how former times respected the Clergy and how our Kings made them both their Counsellours and their Treasurers Chancellours Keepers of the Great Seal and the like Officers of the chiefest concernment as Ethelbert in the year of Christ 605. Vt refert in tractatu suo de Episcopatu p. 61 62. M. Theyer Sir Henry Spelman p. 118. Idem p. 403. Idem p. 219. saith I Ethelbert King of Kent with the consent of the Reverend Arch Bishop Augustine and of my Princes do give and grant c. And the said Ethelbert with the Queen and his Son Eadbald and the most Reverend Prelate Augustine and with the rest of the Nobility of the Land solemnly kept his Christmass at Canterbury and there assembled a Common Councel tam cleri quà m populi as well of the Clergy as of the People And King Adelstan saith I Adelstan the King do signify unto all the Officers in my Kingdom that by the advice of Wolfelm my Arch-Bishop and of all my Bishops c. In the great Councel of King Ina An. 712. The Edicts were Enacted by the Common Councel and consent omnium Episcoporum Principum Procorum Câ—mitum omnium sapientum seniorum populorum totius regni per praeceptum regis Inae And in the second Charter of King Edward the Confessour How former times respected the Clergy granted to the Church of Saint Peter in Westminster it is said to be Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum Optimatum With the Counsel and Decree of the Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls and other Potentates And so not only the Saxon Kings but the Norman also ever since the Conquest had the Bishops in the like or greater esteem that they never held Parliament or Councel without them And surely these Princes were no Babes that made this choice of them neither was the Common-Wealth neglected nor justice prejudiced by these Governours And whosoever shall read Mores gentium or the pilgrimage of Master Purchas Livy Plutarch Appian and the rest of the Greek and Latin Histories I dare assure him he shall find greater honour given and far less contempt cast upon the Priests and Flamins the Prophets of the Sybils than we find of this Faction left to the Servants of the Living God who are now dâ—it withall worse than Pharaoh dealt with the Israelites that took away their straw and yet required their full tale of Bricks For these men would rob us of all our means and take away all our Lands and all our Rights and yet require not only the full tale of Sermons and Services as was used by our Predecessours but to double our files to multiply our pains How the Clergy are now used and to treble the Sermons and Services that they used to have of our forefathers more than ever was done in any Age since the first Plantation of the Gospel And when we have done with John Baptist the utmost of our endeavours like a shining and a burning lamp that doth waste and consume it self to nothing while it giveth light to others they only deal with us as Carriers use to do with their pack-horses hang bels at their ears to make a melodious noise but with little provender lay heavy loads upon their backs and when they can bear no more burdens take away their Bells withdraw their praises call them Jades exclaim against their laziness and then at last turn them out to feed upon the Commons and to die in a ditch And thus we have now made the Ministers of Christ to be the Emblems of all misery and in pretending to make them more glorious in the sight of God we have made them most base in the eyes of all men And therefore the consequence of this Act is like to prove most lamentable when the people considering how that hereby we are left naked of all comfort and subject to all kind of scorn and distresse and how that this being effected is but the Praeludium of a far greater mischief they will rather with no great cost make their children of some good Trade and their children will chuse so to be than with such great cost and more care and yet little hope to bring them up to worse condition than the meanest of all Trades or the lowest degree of all rusticks When as they can challenge and it shall not be denied them to have the priviledges of the Law The Clergy alone are deprived of Magna Charta and a property in their goods which without their own consent yielded in their persons or their representours cannot be taken from them And the Clergy only of all the people in this Kingdom shall be deprived of the right and benefit of our great Charter which so many famous Kings and pious Princes have confirmed unto us and when we have laboured all the dayes of our lives with great pains and more diligence to instruct our people and to attain to some competency of means to maintain
all these points are taught by every one of their Teachers but that all these and many more are taught and maintained by some one or other of them as I could easily expresse it if it were not too tedious for my Reader but the bulk of my Book swells too big and their fancies are but Dreams fit for laughter and I brought these onely as Vinegar to be tasted and then to be spit out again CHAP. X. Sheweth the great Bug-bears that affrighted this Faction the four speciall means they used to secure themselves the manifold lyes they raised against the King and the two speciall Questions that are discussed about Papists 5. The setling of the Militia 5. FOr the setling of the Militia and putting the whole Kingdom in a posture of Defence as they termed it 1. They dreamed of a desperate Disease 2. They devised an Emperical way to cure it and 1. The disease 1. The Disease was a monstrous fear of Popery and the re-establishment of abolished superstitions in our Church to invade their consciences and of the Papists with fire and sword to waste their estates and to take away their lives and liberties and through that groundlesse fear they looked on the innocent Ceremonies that were established in the Church as dangerous Innovations and introductions to Idolatry And in the State they feared the practised wayes and endeavours to produce an arbitrary government by our advancing of a boundlesse Prerogative even to the dispoyling of the Subject of his property and robbing him of the benefit of the laws these were their fears And the grounds of these fears were lying fictions and most scandalous detractions and defamations for their invented Letters that should come from Holland and from Denmark and some other places beyond the Seas where we were better believe them then go try whether they were true which informed them sometimes of a Fleet of Danes sometimes of another Nation that should come to assist the King for the setting up of Popery and the securing of himself in a tyrannical and arbitrary government over them What terrible things frighted them and every day almost produced a discovery of new treacheries against the Parliament what terrible things frighted them as the stable of Horses under ground for indeed they were invisible Horses such as Elisha's servant saw terrifying their guilty consciences and that of the Taylors in Moor-fields and the like horrid machinations that were to come against them I know not from whom and God knowes from whence which things how false they were time which is the mother of truth hath long agone made manifest and ridiculous to any man that is not bewitched with these lying fancies therefore lest these dreams of their distempered brains should be too soon descryed and so prove defective to produce their intended project they alledge The Queen is a Papist and I would to God they were so truly religious and void of hypocrisie in their profession as she most gracious Queen is in her religion then they say The Bishops are all Papists Deans and Prebends are of the same stamp and all the Kings Chapleins that were preferred by the Arch-Bishop were either close Papists or profest Arminians which are but Cosen-germans unto the other Arminianism being but a Bridge to passe over unto Popery And with these and the like false slanders against the King Queen and Clergy they so bewitched most of their well meaning brethren of the same house and amazed all the simpler sort of people of this Kingdom with these fears and filled them with such jealousies with those Pamphlets that they caused to be printed and dispersed every where that they were at their wits end for fear of this lamentable alteration of their religion and deprivation of their liberties 2. The disease being thus spread like a Gangrene 2. The Cure over all the parts of the body of this Kingdom they like skilful Physitians devise the cure and that is the preparation of a Militia and this Militia they would have put into such hands as they pleased such as they might confide in and I wish the whole Kingdom knew who those men were and who they are that they do confide in for I know 1. Some of them are poor men of most desperate fortunes if Bank-rupters may be termed such 2. Others to be most factious and schismatical men addicted to Anabaptism and Brownism and other worser Sects as amongst the London Commanders Ven Manwaring Fowke Nâ—rington Bradly Best and the rest whereof there are twice as many schismatical and as it is conceived beggarly Sectaries as are right honest men among them and if we looked among their Lords and all the rest of their nomination throughout the Kingdom I doubt we shall find some of them to be just of the same condition And because the King to whose care and trust God had committed all the people of this Kingdom and not to them that are called by the King and chosen onely by men and that onely for this time and of whom he will require an account of the laws and religion whereof he made him keeper and defender and not of them thought most rightly that this Militia should be committed rather to such men as he might confide in as it was in the raign of Queen Elizabeth and His Father of ever blessed memory rather than to any that they should name which was to dis-robe himself of all his regal power of the chiefest garland of his royal Prerogatives without which he could hold his Crown by no better a tenure then durante beneplacito and to put the sword out of his own hand into the hands of them that could not love him because they could not trust him as they alledged and what reason had he to trust them that were causelesly so distrustful of him they startled at this deniall And because the King of heaven had by this time opened the Kings eys God openeth the Kings eyes to let him see what hitherto he could hardly imagine that these men to whom he had granted for the good of his kingdom so many Acts of grace and favour as never any King of England did before and had very graciously offered to commit to the hands of their own choosing so large a share of the Militia as might have rendred the whole kingdom most secure if security in a just and legall way had been all that they sought for had their intentions far otherwise then they pretended and that not onely the government of the Church was intended to be altered and the Governours thereof destroyed but himself also was hereby dis-robed of those rights which God and the Lawes of the Land had put into his hands and the Kingdom brought either into a base Tyranny or confused Anarchy when all things shall be done according to the arbitrary power of these factious and schismatical men therefore he utterly refused to grant their desires and most wisely withstood their
God of their bellies to cause all the other guests to leath their meat that they alone might devour all the dainties did use Narium mucum in catinis emungere so do these men spit all their poyson against the Revenues of the Bishops and that little maintenance that is left unto the Ministers and are as greedy to devour the same themselves as the dogs that gape after every bit they see us put into our mouths for so I heard a whelp of that litter making a bitter invective in the House of Commons against Bishops Deans and Chapters and the greatness of their Revenue Doctor Burges and concluding that all they should be degraded their means should be sequestred and distributed all without any diminution of what they now possessed but with the restitution of all Impropriations unto himselfe and the rest of his factious fellow Preachers which speech as it pleased but few in the latter clause so no doubt it had fauters enough in the former part when we see this little remnant of our fore-fathers bounty this testimony of our Princes piety is the onely mote that sticks in their eye the undigested morsell in their stomacks and the onely bait that they gape after for did our King yeild this garment of Christ to be parted among their Souldiers and this revenue of the Church to be disposed of by the Parliament I doubt not but all quarrels about the Church would soon end and all oâ—her strife about Religion would be soon composed What many men would willingly undergo to procure peace But would this end all our civil Wars would the unbishoping of our Prelates bring rest unto our Prince and the taking away of their estates settle the State of the Common-wealth and bring peace and tranquillity unto this Kingdom If so we could be well contented for our own parts to be sacrificed for the safety of the people for though we dare not say with Saint Paul that we could wish our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separated from Christ for our Country-men yet I can say with a syncere heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.6 that I believe many of us could be well contented our fortunes should be confiscated and our lives ended so that could procure the peace of the Church which is infinitely troubled redeeme His Majesties honour which is so deeply wounded and preserve this our native Country from that destruction The abolishing of Episcopacy would not satisfie the Factious which this unparallel'd Rebellion doth so infallibly threaten but the truth is that the abolishing of Episcopacy root and branch the reducing of the best to the lowest rank and the bringing of the Clergy to the basest condition of servility to be such as should not be worthy to eate with the dogs of their flock as Job speaketh will not do the deed because as the Satyrist saith nemo repentè fit turpissimus but as virtues so vices have their encrease by use and progression Juven Sat. 2. primum quodque flagitium gradus est ad proximum and every heynous offence is as iron chain to draw on another For as Seneca saith nunquam usque adeò temperatae cupiditates sunt Seneca de Clem lib. 1. ut in eo quod contigit desinant sed gradus à magnis ad majora fit spes improbissimas complectuntur insperata assecuti our desires are never so far temperated that they end in that which is obtained but the gaining of one thing is a step to seek another And therefore cùm publicum jus omne positum sit in sacris as Plato saith how can it be that they which have prophaned all sacred things Plato de legibus lib. 12. and have degraded their Ministers should not also proceed to depose their Magistrates if you be diffident to believe the same let the Annals of France Germany England and Scotland be revised and you shall find that Charles the fifth was then troubled with War when the Bishops were turmoyled and tumbled out of their Seas Scoti uno eodémque momento numinis principis jugum excusserunt nec justum magistratum agnoverunt ullum ex quo primùm tempore sacris sacerdotibus bellum indixerunt and the Scots at one and the self-same moment did shake off the yoke of their obedience both unto their God and to their King neither did they acknowledg any for their just Magistrate after they had once warred against Religion and religious men Blacvod Apolog pro regibus pag. â—3 which were their Priests and Bishops saith Blacvodaeus and in Fran e saith he the same men were enemies unto the King that were adversaries unto the Priests quia politicam dominationem nunquam ferent qui principatum Ecclesiae sustulerunt nec mirum si Regibus obloquantur qui sacerdotes flammâ ferro persequuntur because as I have shewed at large in my Grand Rebellion they will never endure the Political Magistrate to have any rule The haters of the Bishops ever enemies unto kings when they have shaken off the Ecclesiastical government neither is it any wonder that they should slander rage against and reject their King when they persecute their Bishops with fire and sword And I think the sad aspect of this distracted Kingdom at this time makes this point so clear that I need not add any more proof to beget faith in any sober man for doth not all the World see that as soon as the seditious and trayterous faction in this unhappy Parliament had cast most of the Bishops How soon the Faction fell upon the King after they had cast off their Bishops the gravest and the greatest of all with Joseph into the dungeon a thing that no story can shew the like president in any age and had voted them all contrary to all right out of their indubitable right to sit in the House of Peers an act indeed so full of incivility as hath no small affinity with that of the Gergesites who for love of their swine drave not out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 8.34 but desired Christ to depart out of their coasts they presently began to pluck the sword out of the Kings hand and endeâ—voured to make their Soveraign in many things more servile then any of his own Subjects so that he should be gloriosissimè servilis as Saint Augustine saith that Homer was suavissimè vanus and to effect this you see how they have torn in peices all his Rights they have trampled his Prerogatives under foot they have as much as they could laid his honour in the dust and they have with violent warr and virulent malice sought to vanquish and subdue their own most gracious Soveraign which cannot chuse but make any Christian heart to bleed to see such unchristian and such horrid unheard of things attempted to be done by any that would take upon him the name of a Christian Therefore to manifest my duty to
sole power of ordering and disposing all the Castles Forts and strong Holds and all the Ports Havens and all other parts of the Militia of this kingdom or otherwise it would follow that the king had power to proclaime war but not to be able to maintain it and that he is bound to defend his subjects but is denied the meanes to protect them which is such an absurdity as cannot be answered by all the House of Commons 6. The kings of Israel were unto their people their honour their Soveraigns their life and the very breath of their nostrils as themselves acknowledge and so the kings of England are the life the head and the authority of all things that be done in the Realm of England supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habentes Smith de Repub l. 2. Cambden Britan p. 132. nec in Imperii clientela sunt nec investituram ab alio accipientes nec praeter Deum superiorem agnoscentes and their Subjects are bound by Oath to maintain the kings Soveraignty in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that not onely as they are singularly considered but overall collectively represented in the body politick for by sundry divers old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world In the Preface to a Stat. 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12 governed by one supream head and king having the dignity and royal estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a body politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of spiritualty and temporalty have been bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience Respect 3 3. As the duty of every one of the kings of Israel was to be custos utriusque tabulae to keep the Law of God and to have a special care of his Religion and then to do justice and judgment according to the Law of nature and to observe all the judicial Laws of that kingdom so are the kings of England obliged to discharge the same duties The duty of the kings of England 1. To have the chiefest care to defend the faith of Christ and to preserve the honour of Gods Church as I shewed before 2. To maintain common right according to the rules and dictates of Nature And. 3. To see the particular Laws and Statutes of his own kingdom well observed amongst his people To all which the king is bound not onely virtute officii in respect of his office but also vinculo juramenti in respect of his Oath which enjoyneth him to guide his actions not according to the desires of an unbridled will but according to the tyes of these estabâ—ished Laws neither do our Divines give any further liberty to any king but if he failes in these he doth offend in his duty Respect 4 4. As the kings of Israel were accountable for their actions unto none but onely unto God Psal 51.4 and therefore king David after he had committed both murder and adultery saith unto God Tibi soli peccavi as if he had said none can call me to any account for what I have done but thou alone and we never read that either the people did call or the Prophets perswaded them to call any of their most idolatrous The kings of England accountable for their actions only to God tyrannical or wicked kings to any account for their idolatry tyranny or wickedness even so the kings of England are accountable to none but to God Reason 1 1. Because they have their Crown immediately from God who first gave it to the Conquerour through his sword and since to the succeeding kings by the ordinary means of hereditary succession Smith de repub l. 1. c. 9. Reason 2 2. Because the Oath which he takes at his Coronation binds him onely before God who alone can both judge him and punish him if he forgets it Reason 3 3. Because there is neither condition promise or limitation either in that Oath or in any other Covenant or compact that the king makes with the people either at his Coronation or at any other time that he should be accomptable or that they should question and censure him for any thing that he should do Reason 4 4. Because the Testimony of many famous Lawyers justify the same truth for Bracton saith if the king refuse to do what is just satis erit ei ad poenam quòd Dominum expectet ultorem The Lord will be his avenger which will be punishment enough for him but of the kings grants and actions nec privatae personae nec justiciarii debent disputare And Walsingham maketh mention of a Letter written from the Parliament to the Bishop of Rome wherein they say Bracton fol. 34. 2. b. apud Lincol anno 1301. that certum directum Dominium à prima institutione regni Angliae ad Regem pertinuit the certain and direct Dominion of this Kingdom from the very first institution thereof hath belonged unto the King who by reason of the arbitrary or free preeminence of the royal dignity and custome observed in all ages ought not to answer before any Judge either Ecclesiastical or Secular Ex libera praeeminentia Ergo neither before the Pope nor Parliament nor Presbytery Reason 5 5. Because the constant custome and practice of this kingdom was ever such that no Parliament at any time sought to censure their king and either to depose him or to punish him for any of all his actions save onely those that were called in the troublesome and irregular times of our unfortunate Princes No legitimate and just Parliment did ever question the kings of England for their actions and were swayed by those that were the heads of the most powerful Faction to conclude most horrid and unjustifiable Acts to the very shame of their Judicial authorities as those factious Parliaments in the times of Hen. 3. king John Rich. 2. and Hen. 4. and others whose acts in the judgment of all good authors are not to be drawn into examples when as they deposed their king for those pretended faults whereof not the worst of them but is fairly answered and all thirty three of them proved to be no way sufficient to depose him Heningus c. 4. p. 93. by that excellent Civilian Heningus Arnisaeus And therefore seeing the Institution of our kings is not onely by Gods Law but also by our own Laws Customs and practice thus agreeable to the Scripture kings they ought to be as sacred and as inviolable to us as the kings of Israel were to the Jews and as reverently honoured and obeyed by us as both the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul advise us to honour and obey the king CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto
decaying State when Moses chaire should be set in the Parliament House and the Doctours of the Church should never sit thereon therefore I wish that the Ark may be brought back from the Philistines and restored to the Priests to be placed in Shilo where it should be and that the care of the Ark which king David undertook may not be taken out of his hands by his people but that he may have the honour of that service which God hath imposed upon him For Opinion 3 3. As nothing is dearer to understanding righteous and religious Kings then the encrease and maintenance of true religion Of the Orthodox Quia religio est ex potioribus reipublicae partibus ut ait Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. ipsa sola custodit hominum inter se societates ut ait Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 12. Peritura Troja perdidit primùm Deos. Therefore the Tyrians chayned their gods lest if they fled they should be destroyed and the inlargement of the Church of Christ throughout all their Dominions so they have at all times imployed their studies to this end because it is an infallible maxime even among the Politicians that the prosperity of any Kingdome flourisheth for no longer time then the care of Religion and the prosperity of the Church is maintained by them among their people as we see Troy was soon lost when they lost their Palladium so it is the truest sign of a declining and a decaying State to see the Clergy despised and religion disgraced and therefore the provision for the safety of the Church the publick injoying of the word of God the form of Service the manner of Government and the honour and maintenance of the Clergy are all the duties of a most Christian King which the King of Heaven hath imposed upon him for the happiness and prosperity of his Kingdom and whosoever derive the authority of this charge either in a blinde obedience to the See of Rome as the Jesuites do or out of their too much zeal and affection to a new Consistory as the late Presbyterians did or to a Lay Parliament as our upstart Anabaptists aad Brownists do are most unjust usurpers of the Kings Right which is not onely ascribed unto him and warranted by the Word of God but is also confirmed to the Princes of this Land by several Acts of Parliament to have the supremacy in all causes and over all persons as well in the Ecclesiastical as in the Civil government which being so they are exempted thereby from all inforcement of any domestical or forraign power and freed from the penalties of all those Laws both Ecclesiastical and civil whereunto all their Subjects Clergy and Laity Q. Curtius de rebus Alexand. Joh. Beda p. 22 23. and all inferiour persons and the superiour Nobility within their Kingdomes are obliged by our Laws and Statutes as hereafter I shall more fully declare Therefore it behoveth all Kings and especially our King at this time seriously to consider what prejudice they shall create unto themselves and their just authority if they should yeild themselves inferiour to their Subjects aggregativè or repraesentativè or how you will or liable to the penal Laws for so they may be soon dethroned by the unstable affection and weak judgment of discontented people or subject to the jurisdiction of Lay Elders and the excommunication of a tyrannous Consistory who denouncing him Matth. 18.17 tanquam Ethnicum may soon add Deut. 17.15 a stranger shall not raign over thee and so depose him from all government For seeing all attempts are most violent that have their beginning and strength from zeal unto Religion be the same true or false and from the false most of all and those are ever the most dangerous whose ringleaders are most base as the servile War under Spartacus was most pernicious unto the Romans there can be nothing of greater use How necessary it is for Kings to retain their just rights in their hands or more profitable either for the safety of the King the peace of the Church and the quiet state of the Kingdome then for the Prince the King to retain the Militia and to keep that power and authority which the Laws of God and of our Land have granted to and intailed upon him in his own hands unclipped and unshaken for when the multitude shall be unbridled and the rights of the Kings are brandished in their hands we shall assuredly taste and I fear in too great a measure as experience now sheweth of those miserable evils which uncontrouled ignorance furious zeal false hypocricy and the merciless cruelty of the giddy-headed people and discontented Peeres shall bring upon us and our Prince But to make it manifest unto the World what power and authority God hath granted unto Kings for the government of the Church and the preservation of his true Religion we finde them the worst men at all times and in all places that mislike their Government and reject their authority and we see those Churches most happy The Kings that maintain true religion make their Kingdoms happy and those Kingdoms most flourishing which God hath blessed with religious Kings as the State of the Church of Judaea makes it plain when David Ezechias Josias and the other virtuous Kings restored the Religion and purified that Service which the idolatry of others their predecessours had corrupted and we know that as Moses * Exod. 14 31 Num. 12.7 8 Deut. 34.5 Josh 1.1 2. so kings are called the servants of God in a more special manner then all others are that is not onely because they serve the Lord in the Government of the Common wealth but especially because he vouchsafeth to use their service for the advancement of his Church and the honour of his Son Christ here on earth or to distribute their duties more particularly we know the Lord exspecteth and so requireth a double service from every Christian king 1. The one common with all others to serve him as they are his creatures and Christians The double service of all Christian kings and therefore to serve him as all other Christians are bound to do 2. The other proper and peculiar to them alone to serve him as they are Kings and Princes 1. As they are Christians In the first respect they are no more priviledged to offend then other men but they are tyed to the same obedience of Gods Laws and are obliged to performe as many virtuous actions and to abstain from all vices as well as any other of their Subjects and if they fail in either point they shall be called to the same account and shall be judged with the same severity as the meanest of their people and therefore Be wise O ye Kings be learned ye that are Judges of the earth Psal 2.10 Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce unto him with reverence for with God there is no respect of persons but
finde that all Ages and all Lawes have warranted them to do the same for Solomon displaced Abiathar and placed Sadoc in his room 1. Reg. 2.27 35. Jerem. 26. How all kings and Emperors exercised this power ouer the Church Jeremy's case was heard by the King of Israel Theodosius and Valentinian made a Decree that all those should be deposed which were infected with the impiety of Nestorius and Justinian deposed Sylverius and Vigilius and many other Kings and Emperours did the like and not onely the Law of God whereof the King is the prime keeper and the keeper of both Tables but also the Statutes of our Land do give unto our King the nomination of Bishops and some other elective dignities in the Church the custody of the Bishops Temporalties during the vacation the Patronage Paramount or right to present by the last lapse and many other furtherances and preservatives of religion are in terminis terminantibus deputed by our Lawes unto the King and for his care and charge thereof they have setled upon him our first Fruits Tenths Subsidies and all other contributions of the Ecclesiastical persons which the Pope received while he usurped the government of this Church these things being due to him that had the supreme power for the government And therefore seeing the examples of all good Kings in the Old Testament and of the Christian Kings and Emperours in the New Testament and all Lawes both of God and man excepting those Lawes of the Pontificials that are made against the Law of God and all Divines Cassian de Incarn l. 1. c. 6. excepting the Jesuites and their sworn Brethren the Presbyterians do most justly ascribe this right and power unto Kings I may truly say with Cassianus that there is no place of audience left for them by whom obedience is not yielded to that which all have agreed upon nor any excuse for those Subjects that assist not their Soveraign to inable him to discharge this great charge that is laid upon him What then shall we say to them that pull this power and tear this prerogative out of the King's hand and place it in the hands of mad men as the Prophet epithets the madness of the people Psal 65.7 How the Disciplinarians rob the king of this right Knox to the Commonalty fol. 49. 50 55. For that furious Knox belched forth this unsavory Doctrine That the Commonalty may lawfully require of their King to have true Preachers and if he be negligent they themselves may justly provide them maintain them defend them against all that oppose them and detain the profits of the Church Livings from the other sort of Ministers a point fully practised by the English Scotizers of these dayes and as if this Doctrine were not seditious enough and abundantly sufficient to move Rebellion Goodman publisheth that horrible tenet unto the world that it is lawful to kill wicked Kings which most dangerous and more damnable Doctrine Dean Whittingham affirmeth to be the tenet of the best and most learned of them that were our Disciplinarians But when as true Religion doth command us to obey our Kings whatsoever their Religion is What true religion teacheth us aut agendo aut patiendo either in suffering with patience whatsoever they do impose or in doing with obedience whatsoever they do command Religion can be no warrant for those actions which must remain as the everlasting blemishes of that Religion which either commanded or approved of their doing I am sure all wise men wil detest these Doctrines of Devils and seeing it is an infallible rule that good deserveth then to be accounted evil when it ceaseth to be well done it is apparent that it is no more lawful for private and inferiour persons to usurp the princes power and violently to remove Idolatry or to cause any Reformation then it is for the Church of Rome by invasion or treason to establish the Doctrine of that See in this or any other forraign kingdome because both are performed by the like usurped authority The old Disciplinarians Yet these were the opinions and practises of former times when Buchanan Knox Cartwright Goodman Gilby Penry Fenner Martin Travers Throgmorton Philips Nichols and the rest of those introducers of Out landish and Genevian Discipline first broached these uncouth and unsufferable tenets in our Land in the Realm of England and Scotland and truely if their opinions had not dispersed themselves like poison throughout all the veines of this Kingdom and infected many of our Nobility and as many of the greatest Cities of this Kingdome as it appeareth by this late unparallel'd rebellion these and the rest of the trayterous authours of those unsavory books which they published and those damnable tenets which they most ignorantly held and maliciously taught unto the people should have slept in silence their hallowed and sanctified Treason should have remained untouched and their memorial should have perished with them But seeing as Saint Chrysostome saith of the Hereticks of his time that although in age they were younger yet in malice they were equal to the antient Hereticks Our rebellious Sectaries far worse then all the former Disciplinarians and as the brood of Serpents though they are of less stature yet in their poyson no less dangerous then their dammes so no more have our new Sectaries our upstart Anabaptists any less wickedness then their first begetters nay we finde it true that as the Poet saith Aetas parentum pejor avis Tulit nos nequiores These young cubbs prove worse then the old foxes for if you compare the Wheles with the wolves our latter Schismaticks with their former Masters I doubt not but you shall finde less learning and more villany less honesty and more subtilty hypocrisy and treachery in Doctor Burges Master Marshal Case Goodwin Burrowes Calamy Perne Hill Cheynel and the rest of our giddy-headed Incendiaries then can be found in all the seditious Pamphlets of the former Disciplinarians or of them that were hanged as Penry for their treasons for these men do not onely as Sidonius saith of the like apertè invidere S idon lib. epist abjectè fingere serviliter superbire openly envy the state of the Bishops basely forge lyes against them and servilely swel with the pride of their own conceited sanctity and apparent ignorance but they have also most impudently even in their pulpits slandered the footsteps of Gods Anointed and so brought the abomination of their transgression to stand in the holy place they haue with Achan troubled Israel and tormented the whole Land yea these three Kingdomes England Scotland and Ireland and for inciting provoking and incouraging simple ignorant poore For which their intolerable villanies If I be not deceived in my judgement they of all others above all the Rebels in the kingdom deserve the greatest and severest punishment God of Heaven give them the grace to repent discontented and seditions Sectaries to
therefore their Kings do raign and domineer over their Subjects as Masters do over their servants and the Fathers of Families have the same authority over their Wives and Children Saravia c. 28. p. 194. as ouer the slaves and vassals and the Muscovites at the day do rule after this manner neither is the great Empire of the Turke much unlike this Government and generally all the Eastern Kingdomes were ever of this kinde and kept this rule over all the Nations whom they Conquered and many of them do still retain it to these very times Yet our Westerne Kings whom charity hath taught better and made them milder and especially the Kings of this Island which in the sweetness of Government exceeded all other Kings The milde government of our Kings as holding it their chiefest glory to have a free people subject unto them and thinking it more Honourable to command over a free then a servile nation have conferred upon their subject many titles of great honour which the Learned Gentleman M. Selden hath most Learnedly treated of and therefore I might well be silent in this point and not to write Iliads after Homer if this title of Lord given by His Majesty unto our Bishops Of the Title of Lord. for none but he hath any right to give it did not require that I should say something thereof touching which you must observe that this name dominus is of divers significations and is derived à domo as Zanchius observeth where every man is a Lord of that house and possession which he holdeth and it hath relation also to a servant so that this name is ordinarily given among the Latinists to any man that is able to keep servants and so it must needs appear how great is the malice I cannot say the ignorance when every school-boy knowes it of those Sectaries that deny this title to be consistent with the calling of a Bishop which indeed cannot be denyed to any man of any ordinary esteeme But they will say that it signifieth also rule and authority and so as it is a title of rule and Dominion it is the invention of Antichrist the donation of the Devill Luke 22.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 16.30 and forbidden by our Saviour where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in effect be not you called gracious Lords or benefactors which is the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore these titles of honour are not fit for the Preachers of the Gospell to puffe them up with pride and to make them swell above their brethren That there is a double rule or dominion It is answered that if our Saviours words be rightly understood and his meaning not maliciously perverted neither the authority of the Bishops nor the title of their honour is forbidden for as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of dominion so it is fit to be ascribed to them unto whom the Lord and author of all rule and dominion hath committed any rule or Government over his People and our Saviour forbiddeth not the same because you may finde that there is a double rule and dominion the one just and approved the other tyrannicall and disallowed 1 Pet. 5.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the tyrannicall rule or as S. Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the domineering authority over Gods inheritance both Christ and his Apostles do forbid but the just rule and dominion they deny not because they must do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the son of man doth it so the manner of their rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Kings of the Nations rule with tyranny he prohibiteth but as the servants of Christ ought to rule with charity not with austerity with humility and not with insolencie he denieth not and so he denieth not the name of Lord as it is a title of honour and reverence given unto them by the King and ascribed by their people but he forbiddeth an ambitious aspiring to it and a proud carriage and deportment in it yet it may be so with you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is with the son of man whom no man can exceed in humility and yet in his greatest humility he saith ye call me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master and Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ye say well for so I am John 13.13 And therefore he forbad not this title no otherwise then he forbad them to be Fathers Doctors and Masters and I hope you will confess he doth not inhibit the Children to call them Fathers that begat them nor forbid us to call them Doctors unto whom the Lord himselfe hath given the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Doctors in his Church Ephes 4.11 otherwise we must know why S. Paul doth call himselfe the Doctor of the Gentiles 1 Tim. 2.7 and why doth the Law command us to honour our Father and our Mother if we may call no man Father But Christ coming not to diminish the power of Princes nor to make it unlawful for Christian Kings to honour his servants which the heathen Princes did to the servants of God as Nebuchadnezzar preferred Daniel among the Babylonians and Darius advanced Mordecai among the Persians nor to deny that honour unto his servants which their own honest demerits and the bounty of their gracious Princes do confer upon them it is apparent What Christ forbiddeth to his Ministers that it is not the condition of these names but the ambition of these titles and the abuse of their authority is forbidden by our Saviour Christ For as Elias and Elizaeus in the old Testament suffered themselves with no breach of humility to be called Lords as where Abdias 3 Reg. 18.1 a great officer of King Ahab saith art not thou my Lord Elias and the Shunamite called Elizaus Lord 4 Reg. 4.16 So in the new Testament Paul and Barnabas that rent their cloaths when the people ascribed unto them more then humane honour yet refused not the name of Lords Act. 16.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it was given them by the keeper of the prison that said Lords what shall I do to be saved which title certainly they would never have endured if this honour might not be yielded and this title received by the Ministers of the Gospel and Saint Peter tells us that Christian women if they imitate Sarah that obeyed Abraham * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he propounded to them as a pattern may and should call their husbands though mean Mechanicks Lords or else he proposeth this example to no purpose and therefore me thinks they should be ashamed to think this honour may be afforded to poor Trades-men and to deny it to those eminent pillars and chief governours of God's Church And as the Scripture gives not onely others the like eminent and more significant titles of honour unto the governours of the Church as when it saith they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
upon him and gave him full power and authority to do it by some undeniable dispensation gives him his Writ of ease to discha ge him Quaere 4 4. Whether such an Act or Statute which disinableth any King to dissolve his Dyet Councill Assembly or Parliament and inableth some subtle faction of his Subjects in some sort to countermand their King be not derogatory to the inseperable right of Majesty destructive to the power of government and prejudicial to all the loyall Subjects and therefore void of it selfe and not to be observed because such an act ought not to have been concluded The Act for the indissolubility of any Parliament beleived by many to be of it selfe void wherein I leave the resolution to be dete mined by the Judges and Bishops of this Land and I will onely crave leave to set down what may be thought herein viz. that such an Act or Statute is clearly and absolutely void Reason 1 1. Because that hereby the King may be said after a sort and in some kinde to change the fundamentall constitution and Government of his Kingdome from an absolute Monarchy to another species and forme of Government either Aristocraticall or Democraticall or some other forme emergent out of all these such as we know not how to terme it and such as was never known from the beginning of the world a mixture indeed which I told you before no absolute King can be thought to do without offence unless he can prove his licence from God to do the same Reason 2 2. Because that hereby he may be said to denude himselfe of his Right and by depriving himselfe of this power to disinable himselfe to discharge that duty which God doth necessarily require at his hands that is to govern his people by protecting the innocent and punishing the wrong doer and when God shall call the King to an account why he did not thus governe his people and defend those poore Subjects that were loyal and faithful both to God and their King according to the charge that he laid upon him and the right and power which he gave him to discharge it It may be feared it will be no sufficient answer for any King to say but I have so laid away that power and parted with that right unto my Lords and Commons that I could not do it for it may be asked where doth God require him or when did he authorize him to devest himselfe of that authority wherewith he indued him how then can he do it to the undoing of many people without an assured leave from God therefore as that Act which was made unrepealable was adjudged no Act but immediately void because it was destructive to the very power of Parliament * Which may repeale their owne Acts but not destroy their just power not themselves as it seemes the Act of excluding the Bishops doth and takes away as it were the soule of the Parliament and if any act should be made to destroy common right or to hinder the publique service of God or to disinable the right heire to injoy the Crowne or the like those Acts are void of themselves so any Statute that disinableth the Kings Government must needs be void ipso facto as I have partly shewed in my Discovery of Mysteries p. 32. Reason 3 3. Because it may be beleived no King would ever grant such an act unless he were either subtilly deceived and seduced or forcibly compelled thereunto for feare of some inavoidable extremity which according to all outward appearance could not otherwise be prevented without the concessions of such unspeakable disadvantages as a man gives away his sword when he seeth his life in danger if he deliver it not Therefore the premises considered Quaere 5 5. The Quaere is whether any King should be bound and obliged to observe such grants and make good such Acts In all these Quaeries I conclude nothing whatsoever I beleive as are thus fraudulently obtained or forcibly wrested from him and are thus contradictory to Gods will thus prejudiciall to the power of Government and thus destructive to his Subjects which for the fore said reasons is by many men beleived he is not but that this right was unduly procured from him so when God inableth him he may justly acquire it and re-assume it without any offence to God or the least reluctancy to his own conscience And if this Act that hath passed in our Parliament makes it immediately to be no Parliament * As I know not whether it doth or not neither will I determine it as being now another forme of government which the Divines hold ought not to be effected then certainly all Acts that passed since are no Acts but are void and invalid of themselves Or be it granted that the Act for the perpetuity of Parliament doth not annul the Parliament yet it is doubted by many whether the Parliament may not themselves without the kings pronouncing it void or dissolved make it no Parliament Quid prodest tibi nomen usurpare alienum vocari quod non es when of Counsellors for the King they become Traytors unto the King and of Patriots that should protect the Common-wealth they become Parricides and Catilines unto the same because these duties being as the soul the life and the end of Parliaments when these are changed to be the bane and death of King and Kingdome it is doubted how it can be a Parliament any more then a dead carkase that is deprived of his soul can be said to be a man for the circumstances and ceremonies of times places and the like are not essentialia Parliamenti but as accidentia quae possunt adesse abesse sine interita subjecti and may be ad benè esse but are as Punctilio's in respect of the end and essence of a Parliament And therefore as God promiseth infallibly to do a thing for example that He will not fail David Psal 89.34 1 Sam. 2.30 his seed shall endure for ever and of Eli he said indeed that his house and the house of his father should walke before him for ever yet this unchangeable God when the change is wrought in David or his seed or in Eli his house David doth immediately say Thou hast abhorred and forsaken thine Anointed Psal 89.37 1 Sam. 2.30 and art displeased at him and of his promise to Eli God saith in the same place now be it far from me so it may be conceived that when any Parliament changeth its nature I should never acknowledge Judas after he betrayed his master and resolved to persist in his wickednesse to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ no more then I should take the Temple of Jerusalem to be the house of God so long as it continued the den of theeves faileth in its very being and of a preservative becomes a poyson both to the King and Kingdome the King and Kingdome may then without any
preserved Licia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through justice and fortitude whereupon the old Scholiast citeth the words of Aeschilus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that virtue and justice are ever coupled together and Dio. Chrysost saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is the best of men that is the most valiant and most just Orat. 2. and Herodian saith of Pertinax Plut. in vit Cicero 2. orat in Anton. Ovid. Met. 6. Suet. de act c. 2 that he was both loved and feared of the Barbarians as well for the remembrance of his virtues in former battels as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that wittingly or willingly he never did injustice to any man at any time Plutarch ascribeth these virtues to Lucullus and to Paulus Aemilius Cicero saith the like of Pompey Ovid. of Erictheus Suetonius of Octavius Augustus his father Virgil of Aeneas Krantius of Fronto king of the Danes and of our late king James of famous and ever blessed memory we may truly say Cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides nudáque veritas Quando ullum invenient parem Horat. lib. 1. Od. 26. Neither need I blush to apply the same to our present King So you see how Justice exalteth a Nation commends the doers of it and crownes them with all honour and as the Poet saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that worketh justly shall have God himself for his Co-adjutor But here you must observe that which indeed is most true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is not a just man that doeth no hurt Who rightly termed just but he that is able to do hurt and will not do it that can be unjust and will not be for it is no great matter to see a poore man that hath no ability to do no wrong but it is hard to use power right even in the meanest office and therefore this is that that is to be urged to be then most just when we have most power to offend which most properly doth belong to all kings and Princes to put them in minde of their duties to what end God hath made them kings for they are but base statterers Tacit. annal l. 3. Plut. in Apotheg Eustath ad Iliad ss Salust in Orat. Cas cont Catil quibus omnia principum honesta atque inhonesta laudare mos est that will commend all the doing of Princes be they good or bad and which say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things are honest and just that kings do as that flattering sycophant said to Antigonus or like those Chirodicai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who thinke justice lyeth not in the Lawes but in their hands because as Caesar saith in maxima fortuna minima licentia est the higher their places are the more righteous they ought to be and the lesse liberty of sinning is left unto them and that in respect 1 of God 2. of others 3. of themselves Kings ought to be more just then all others in 3 respects 1. Where God hath conferred much honour there he exspecteth much equity and the more goodnesse where he bestowed the more grace ideò deteriores estis quia meliores esse debetis and will men therefore be the more sinfull Luke 12.48 Salvian de Pro. vid. l. 4. because they ought to be the more righteous 2. All mens eyes are upon the Prince and as Seneca saith of the royall Pallace Perlucet omne regiae vitium domûs the houses of Kings are like glasses and every man may look through them so their actions can no more be hid then the City that is placed upon an hill but their least and lightest acts are soon seen 3. Their places are as slippery as they are lofty Seneca in Agamemn 2.1 when as one saith height itself maketh mens braines to swimme nunquam solido stetit superba foelicitas and proud insolency never stood sure for any certain space for as God hath made them Gods so he can unmake them at his pleasure and as S. Augustine saith Quod contulit immerentibus tollit malè merentibus Aug. ho. 14. quod illo donante fit nostrum nobis superbientibus fit alienum what God haâ—h freely bestowed upon you without desert he may justly take away from you for your evill deserts and what is ours through Gods gift may be made another mans through our own pride and not onely so but as he hath heaped honours upon their heads that they might honour him so if they neglect him Job 12.21 Job 30.1 he can powre contempt upon Princes and cast dirt in their faces and make them a very scorne to those that formerly they thought unworthy to eate with the dogs of their flock and then Quanto gradus altior tanto casus gravior the higher they were exalted the more will be their greif when they are dejected as it was with those Kings that being wont to be carryed in their royall Charets were forced like horses to draw Sesostris Coach Quia miserrimum est fuisse felicem because it is a most wretched thing to have been happy and not to be or as the Poët saith Qui cadit in plano vix hoc tamen evenit unquam Ovidius Trist l. 3. Eleg. 4. Sic cadit ut tacta surgere possit humo At miser Elpenor tecto dilapsus ab alto Occurrit regi flebilis umbra suo And therefore all Kings should be ever mindfull of the words of King David He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the feare of God 2 Sam. 23.3 and all these things that I have set down should move all Kings and Princes to set their mindes upon righteousnesse to judge the thing that is right and to live Psal 58.1 What should move all kings to rule justly according to Lawes to reigne and rule according to the straight rule of the Law that so carrying them justly and worthily in their places the poore people may truly say of them Certè Deus est in illis they may well be called Gods because God is in them and if these things will not nor cannot move them to be as mindfull of their duty as well as they are mindfull of their excellency then let them remember what the Psalmist saith Psal 149.8 He will bind Kings with fetters and their Nobles with linkes of Iron and let them meditate upon the words of King Solomon where he saith unto them all Heare O ye Kings and understand learne ye that be Judges of the ends of the earth give eare you that rule the people and glory in the multitude of Nations for power is given you of the Lord and soveraignty from the Highest who shall try your works and search out your counsels because being Ministers of his Kingdomes you have not judged aright nor kept the Law nor walked after the counsell of God horribly and speedily shall he come upon you Sap. 6. usque ad vers 9. for a sharpe judgment
perpetuate the War to fill our Kingdome with strangers and to make our calamities everlasting so they fell from evil to worse from discontent to schisme from schisme to open Rebellion and their Rebellion more wicked then any Rebels that we can reade of in any History which is the just judgment of God upon them that they which rebelliously run out of the Communion of Gods Church should most desperately run out of their own wits and refusing to be guarded by the Heavenly Angels should give themselves to be guided by the infernall Divels which made a merry fellow at the enumeration of their abhominable and indeed innumerable wickednesses to say Hell was never better then it is now The speech of a merry companion because he thought the Divels were all in London or otherwise it were impossible that the Citizens which have received so many gracious offers of pardons from His Majesty and promises of other favours should still continue so wicked as they are so gulled and seduced by this Parliament faction that non suadebis etiamsi persuaseris because as S. Augustine saith impia mens nolit intellectum and they love to cozen and cheat their own souls by new painting these old sins and calling their faction faith their madnesse zeale and their horrid Rebellion fighting for Religion but as the Poët saith Non tanti est civilia bella movere Whatsoever pretences move them to it this remedy will increase their miseries for if God be no more mercifull to us then their sin deserves it may end here in an universal destruction and hereafter in their eternall damnation for doth not all the world see how God scourgeth us with the rod of our own furious madnesse and like as it befell the Ammonites and Moabites 2 Chron. 20.23 that fighting against the Israelites did help to destroy one another so we striving not against Israel but as we pretend both against the Edomites against falshood doe utterly destroy our selves Exemplóque pari ruit Anglica turba suóque Marte cadunt coesi per mutua vulnera fratres And we that did keep our enemies in awe shall be now destroyed by the sons of our own mother but I confesse our Land abounds with sins and our sins have justly deserved this heavy punishment to light upon us yet I beseech our God to chastise us with his own hands and let us not fall under the swords of the uncircumcised Philistines that are a people much more wicked then our selves and if he will let our soules live we shall praise his name 21. When they had most fraudulently gotten His Majesty to passe an Act which though really intended How they intended to get all Ireland to themselves yet to many men seems a very strange Act to refer the managing of the affaires of Ireland to the Parliament of England then they took that course to root out all the Papists Irish English Brittish and indeed all the Inhabitants of Ireland except their own brotherhood for they could have soon descried the marke of the beast in all the rest which they thought would be most effectual to further their designe and to bring the whole Kingdom of Ireland to be inherited by their own faction that is to sell all the Lands of the Rebels to themselves for they knew none else would buy it at that time and in that manner as they determined and when they had thus locked the doore and stopped the way of all relief unto the distressed Protestants of that Kingdom they might sing Dimidium toti qui benè coepit habet For they had setled Scotland and they had now grasped Ireland and held it fast in Vulcans net and therefore now it might stay till they could reduce Eâ—gland to make a perfect work in all the three Kingdomes to the same forme of government both in Chu ch and State as they projected for the other and because they would have some places of entrance into Ireland and hinder the Rebels to possesse the whole Kingdome and also blind the eyes of the ignorant not to perceive their plot How they blinded the people by their proceedings but to keep them still in some hope of redresse they sent such a party over and the Scots must be the most considerable part as might keep their own design on foot and yet yield not an inch of any comfort to the spoyled and expelled Protestant for they left that party which they sent thither rather as a prey to their enemies as having neither cloathes meat nor money then inabled by these accoutrements to subdue the Rebels as it is better and more fully declared by the Letter of the State of Ireland to the House of Commons then I can relate unto you What the Author saw in Ireland And I being in Ireland seeing the deplorable state of that Kingdome the miserable distress of the mangled starved and naked Protestants the little children calling and crying for bread and none to give it them many worthy Ministe s begging or dying for want in the streets and the poore bare-footed and hunger-bitten Souldier lamenting his hard fortune to be transplanted out of Gods blessing into the warme sun from plenty and prosperity to be left as the Traveller betwixt Hierusalem and Hierico halfe dead betwixt merciless Rebells and more unmercifull friends neither wholly to be destroyed nor yet to be releived was much troubled and perplexed at these sad aspects and being intrusted by the Bishops my Brethren of that Kingdome to agitate the cause of the Church for our reliefe here in England and to that end having a Letter unto his Majesty and a Remonstrance of our distressed condition though with the great hazard of my life at Sea yet I arrived by Gods great blessing in England How used as soon as ever he came to his House and before I had been two dayes at home my house was surrounded with a Troope of Armed Souldiers they entred in seized upon my person searched every roome and every corner with a candle not leaving the bedstraw whereon my children lay unsearched they took all my papers and all the money they found in my house even my servants money to the summ of 40 and carried all with me their poor Prisoner to Northhampton and now I thought it was but an ill exchange to escape the Sea and to fall into the fire to shun the Lion How a precise Church-warden would have hindred a Bishop to preach and to meeet a Beare to eschew the Rebels in Ireland and to fall into the hands of T aytors in England and I knew not why but onely that I had often Preached at Tâ—wâ—â—ster where being requested by Master Lockwood to supply the place the precise Church-wardens very peremptorily told me I should not do it because I was a royalist and spake against the Parliament to whom I replyed that he had no such authority to hinder a Bishop to Preach and bad him look to
1. The Body which we tread upon Saccus stercorum saith S. Bernard a sack full of dust to say no worse and a Magazine of all Diseases Coughes Agues Feavers Gouts and what not and when these have satisfied and feasted themselves upon our bodies what are our bodies but a feast for Worms And the Soul though it be a pure Spirit as it proceeded from God yet as it is now 2. The Soul traduced from our Parents as many Divines think it is or as it is infused into our flesh as others do believe and remaineth in our bodies all the Faculties thereof are corrupted the Understanding is darkned with ignorance the Memory dulled with forgetfulness and the Will defiled with Misse-affections And so as Earth is good and Water is good yet being mingled together they do make a dirty Puddle and neither of them can be said to be then a pure Element so the body and soul of man though both were good in their Originals and good in their own kind yet now being both coupled together as Mezentius coupled the dead bodies to the living they are both marred and become so deformed by corrupting one another and associating themselves in their desires that now the eyes are the burning-glasses of Concupiscence and lusting after our neighbours Wives Lands and Goods the Tongue is a Razor of detraction to defame and slander our own Mothers Sons the Throat is an open Sepulchre the Hands Engines of violence to rob wound and kill the Heart a Mint of all Villanies the Feet swift to shed bloud and the whole man is become a Beast saith the Psalmist and a Devil Psal 74. John 6.70 saith our Saviour for one of you is a Devil And so you see that all the whole man if he be but meer man as he is begotten of flesh and bloud in his best is but vanity in his next inquity and in his worst consideration a meer misery and so miserable that being but meer man he hath little cause with the Philosopher to thank God that he was made a man when it had been better for him as out Saviour saith of Judas that he had never been made and never born Mark 14.21 And therefore if we labour not to become more than men that is to be like Bacchus That we should labour to become more than meer men bis genitus as the Poets faign of him to be born again of another Mother the spouse of Christ and so to become double men and to consist of the old man begotten of mortal Seed and of the new man that is begotten by the immortal Seed of Gods Spirit we shall never be happy and never otherwise than as I said vanity and misery for though the old man be never so Glorious and never so honourable the Off-spring of Kings and Princes and though outwardly it appears never so beautiful without blemish yet if the Inner man of the heart that is begotten by Gods Spirit be not found out 1 Cor. 3.3 the other is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flesh as the Apostle termeth it and flesh is an Epithere given to Beasts by the Prophet and that by way of disparagement too where he saith their horses are but flesh and which is viler Esa 31.3 all flesh is grass that soon withereth and rotteth and becometh the Dung of the earth 1 Cor. 15. and the Apostle saith that flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven because that as I shewed you before flesh and bloud being but meer vanity which is the most opposite to Eternity they can inherit nothing but eternal misery 3 Point 3. As totus homo so omnis homo vanitas every man is vanity that is not only the Fool but also the wise man for there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever but as the fool dieth so dieth the wise man therefore the wise man concluded Eccl. 2.15 16. that this also is vanity And so likewise the young man as well as the old man the rich as well as the poor and the strong as well as the weak the heroick Achilles as well as base Thersites may soon die and vanish away to nothing How all the world is round and all things in the world in a perpetual motion And to be brief you see how the gallant Courtier and the Royal Majesty are no more exempted from vanity than the poorest Clown and meanest Subject for as Eternity is said to be an intelligible sphaere whose Center is every where and his circumference no where but in it self as I shewed to you before out of Trismegistus so the form of the whole world is sphaerical and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or little world which is man in state and condition is also sphaerical and round even as round as a hoop or rather indeed a meer circular-center without any circumference at all and as the primum mobile the first wheel of all the Sphaeres of this whole frame is ever in motion and by that motion we see that part which is now the highest within a dozen hours to become the lowermost so suddenly is the change of the highest things even so it is in all things than are under the Sun there is a perpetual motion and that motion changeth all things which made holy Job to say a Saying worthy to be remembred that although man is but of few dayes few indeed God knoweth and those few dayes are full of troubles and that we all know yet in those few dayes he cometh forth like a Flower that is by little and little and he is cut down that is in a moment he flieth also as a shadow that is very swiftly and never continueth in one stay but is still divolved from one condition to another For our blessed Lord God and loving Father Job 14.1 2. out of his wise Providence and secret love to man hath so tempered all the Accidents and the whole course of mans life with such proportion and equal counterpoyze of occurrents that ever and anon Joyes and Sorrows are mixt together good haps and sad tidings succeed one another as for example David as it were to day is a poor Shepherd The vicissitude of King Davids condition keeping his Fathers Flock and pulling away his sheep out of the Lions Claws and as it were to morrow he is magnified in the Court of Saul he is matched with the Kings Daughter and saluted for the Kings Son in Law and his epithalamium is Saul killed his thousands and David his ten thousands yet presently he fleeth as a banished man and he is prosecuted and persecuted as a Partridge is hunted upon the Mountains but within a while he is crowned King and reigneth in a short space over all Israel even from Dan to Beersheba and as a gallant Conqueror overcometh all his enemies round about him yet that Glory must not last long but his own not only
undutiful Subjects but also his ungracious and unnatural Son Absalon must drive him once again to flee not to preserve his Kingdom but to save his Life and because the Wheel turns round this Cloud suddenly vanisheth Absalon is hanged and the King is joyfully received and honourably restored to his Royal Throne and after all this he had many the like changes of sundry kinds of Accidents somtimes gladsom and somtimes doleful while he lived So the Son of David and the Son of God Jesus Christ in the second of Math. And of the condition of Jesus Christ is presented with Gifts and worshipped as a God by the Kings and wise men of the East and in the same Chapter he is persecuted by King Herod that he was fain to flee into Egypt to save his life yet afterwards he was so magnified by the people that he was fain to hide himself to prevent his being crowned King and upon Mount Tabor he was to transfigured in Glory that his Face did shine as the Sun and not long after upon Mount Calvary he was so disfigured with sorrow that confusion went over his face so far that as the Prophet saith in him there was neither form nor beauty so upon Mount Olivet even now there was an Angel comforting him and by and by an Agony affrighting him and so upon the Cross even now he crieth as one destitute of all help My God My God why hast thou forsaken me and by and by after as a man full of comfort and confidence in Gods favour he saith Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And if the time and your patience would give me leave I could amplifie to you this Point in the like revolution of this wheel I dare not call it of Fortune as the Heathens did but of Gods Providence as the Scripture sheweth it is in Abraham in Joseph in Moses in C. Marius in Alcibiades and in abundance more of those Worthies whose lives you may read in the holy Scripture in Plutarch and in many other Authors and which were variarum for tunarum viri men that had tasted of all conditions and had experience of all kind of Life being tossed up and down and up again and so still turn and turn again and again from a good condition to a bad and from a bad to a good again But I had rather perswade you all to make that use of this variable vanity which Sesostris King of Egypt did of the sad condition of those Kings that horses-like he compelled to draw about his Caroach for he having four captive Kings set them like horses to draw his Caroach even as King Edgar is reported to have Kennady King of Scots Malcolme King of Cumberland Duffnal and Gruffith Kings of Wales Maxentius the Arch-Pyrat and Huval a great Prince to row his Barge upon the River Dee and Sesostris marking how one of his caroached Kings Speed Chron in the life of Edgar p. 349. still as he drew looked back upon the Wheels of his Chariot demanded of him what he meant so often to look behind him the poor King unaccustomed to such a trade submissively answered it was to see how that part of the Wheel which is now highest becomes presently the lowest and then again immediatly the lowest becometh highest and so still wheeles his round and never continueth in one stay Whereupon the wise Sesostris rightly apprehending that serious Embleme presently commanded the Kings to be set at liberty as well weighing with himself how suddenly God can change the course and turn the Wheel of all mortal things and as he can loose the bonds of Kings and cast them down with Nebuchadnezzar from their stately Palaces to dwell among the Beasts of the field as he did great Bajazet from his Royal Empire Turkish Hist in the life of Bajazet p. 220. to be carried about with Tamerlane in an iron cage so he can bring them again out of prison as he did Joseph Manasses and Henry the Third of this Kingdom he can raise them again out of the dust as he did Job to his former dignity and Nebuchadnezzar from the fields to be re-established in his Royal Throne As now blessed be God he hath most graciously done to out most Gracious King and he can if he please add more Glory unto them than ever they had before This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and this he can easily do and he can suddenly do and we are not worthy to know how soon he will turn our wheel and make the poor men rich and the mean men Lords as he hath lately made the rich men poor and the great Lords to be without their Lordships for there is nothing biding but as my Text saith omnis homo vanitas as well tne commanding Lords that do now reign as Kings in the great Babylon of this world as the poor ejected Bishops and other Servants of Christ that are wandring and perhaps wanting bread in the wilderness of this world What the former Doctrine should teach us 1 Lesson And this Revolution of all men and of all earthly things should teach us all these two special Lessons 1. Never to be exalted or puffed up with pride when we are lifted up to honour and greatness nor to be troubled and discontented when we see them that were Servants Eccl. 10.7 ride upon horses as the wise man speaketh that is when we see such as were Vassals made Lords and many wicked mean men magnified as Princes which now you may behold in many Kingdoms of the world These Sermons were firs preached in the time of the usurping Rebels For though as the Poet saith Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum None is more insolent than the Beggar when he is on horseback none more tyrannical than Servants or women that were made to obey and not to rule when they become to be the Masters of their Masters of which thing the Prophet complaineth that Children and such as should be ruled are the Oppressors of the people Es 3.12 and women do rule over them Yet they may remember that the wheel of such prosperity hath often turned and the Horse hath many times cast his Rider and you know what the Prophet David saith I my self have seen them in great power ruling and domineering over their brethren and flourishing like a green Bay-tree and I went by and perhaps durst say nothing to them but Io within a little while they were gone and I sought after them Psal 36.37 but they could no where be found and we may chance live to see the like Changes and tumbling down of many of such wicked men as the Prophet David hath seen 2. The former Point should teach us never to be dejected or cast down with grief and despair 2 Lesson when we see our selves or our friends that were Lords and Companions of Princes walking alone as servants