8. Saint yet I hope he holds himselfe subject unto him by the Law of GOD though no expresse word faith this or that King rules by me yet know therefore that that Scripture which faith By me Kings raigne saith also by me King Iames raignes that precept which bids us honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 Binds us also to honour King Iames. For generall rules in GODs Booke whether about precepts prohibitions or promises bind and belong to particular persons without naming them and particulars are necessarily and personally conteined in the universals First Now this false foundation being thus laid in the disgrace and abasement of secular Soveraignty as they call it marke the progresse and bloody gradation Secondly Hence they have proceeded and dared to rob and bereave Imperiall thrones and the crowned Majesty of Kings of that native reverence due attributions and obligations of State which divine ordinance and purest times appropriated unto them Thirdly They have beene heartned to flye even in the face of Majesty and with unhallowed hands to decrowne the Princely heads of the LORDS annointed That great Abaddon in this streine of rage and pride See hist. of the Councell of Trent p. 314. hath set his foot upon the very necke of Emperours and spurned off their Crownes with his shooe Fourthly Lastly they are hardned prodigious and execrable villany even to kill and cut the throats of Kings upon this bloody staire they now stand having lately revealed it in the royall blood of the two last Henries of France I have discovered and already done with the foundation which they have laid for a Babell of confusion and blood Now for their second affront upon Soveraignty see a selected Catalogue of unworthy and base aspersions cast upon Kings Crownes by Cardinall Bellarmine Pag. 131 and purposely collected by his Majesty towards the latter end of his most Royall Apology Let me also here in a world tell you how that late famous Casuist Azorius P. 2. Inst. Mor. lib. 10 in his treatise de Imperatore Romanorum hath handled the Emperour in this kind This fellow teaches that the jurisdiction and power of the Emperour Ibid. cap. 2. pag. 1551. sect propterhec Et hec sentencia Et propter hec jura decreta hath its being existence and dependance they are his owne words from the Pope of Rome And upon this occasion tell us de facto how many Emperours the Pope hath deposed * Sect. hec sententia Ibid pa. 1155. sect adea vero omnia That the Pope is he who first gives right and power to the Electors to choose him and then himselfe annoints consecrates and crownes him so elected That the Emperour is but the Popes minister Cap. 3. sect Quinto quaeritur elected by him for the defence of the Church So that in another place he saith the Pope if it pleased him might create two Emperours in the Church equall in power Pag. 2. lib. 3. ca. 29 pag. 475 sect Deindeobjicies one to governe in the East part of the Church the other in the West And therefore having proposed this question Whether the power of the Emperour be from GOD the Bishop of Rome or the people he concludes But certainely saith he by the common consent Ibid cap. 2. of most of the Doctors of the Law Ibid. sect Propter especially Pontificall it is the received opinions that the Iurisdiction and power of the Emperour depends immediatly upon the Bishop of Rome and how proves he that thinke you even thus It was said to Peter sayes he Feed my sheep not these or other but absolutely and simply my sheepe and therefore all but the Emperour is a Sheepe Ergo c. And in the same place he makes also Kings and Princes amongst the number of sheepe and by consequent concludes their subjection to the triple Crowne Now these are strange passages against the Emperour considering that * Dalingron p. 27. Ad sinem Guicciardine the Popes creature in his Digression now effaced out of the Originall by the Inquisition Tells us that aforetimes the election of the Pope did not stand good without the confirmation of the Emperour nay saies he the Popes in all their Bulls priviledges and Grants expressed the date in these formall words such an one our Lord the Emperour raigning Neither hinders it saith he that thou say The Empire hath his being from the Romish Bishop in respect of those things onely which are Spirituall For it is contrary the Bishop of Rome hath received the keyes of both Kingdomes both terrene and celestiall and it is conformable to the Popes owne words Sixtus the fifth I meane in his Bull against Henry the third of France For he there affirmes that he hath obtained supreme power over all the Kings Princes of the whole earth and all people and Countries and Nations given him not by humane but divine Institution See Barclay de potestlate Papae cap. 13 pa 101. cap 3 p 31. See Barclay de potestate Papae cap. 1 pag. 6 7. They are the words of the Bull. And to the Doctrine of Thomas Bozius one of the most execrable flatterers that ever the Pope had who teaceth Omnem vim Regiam c. Vpon this point and principle Alexander the sixth gave the West-Indies to the Spaniards and the East-Indies to the Portugals placing the meridian which passeth by the Azores for their limits See Moulins book of Faith pag. 544 out of Barclaius loco citato col 2. lib. 2 pag. 670. And upon the same ground Pius the fifth deprived Queene Elizabeth of England of her Kingdome and gave it to Philip the second of Spaine as Azorius tells us But of all in this point for a true Iesuiticall straine Father Binet shall take it to him for sayes he marke it well It were better that all Kings were killed then to reveale a confession and he takes his ground from that rotten foundation so derogatory to Kingly power refuted before Because saith he the power of Kings is ordained by humane lawes but Confession by divine law You have it in Causaubons Epistle to Fronte Ducaus the Iesuite Now here is a sweet piece of worke Eudaemon in Apol Garnetti ca. 13 Suarez tracta de panit speakes to the same purpose See Moulins booke of Faith p. 547. It were better that all the Kings in Christendome had their throats cut then that a knavish secret or a traiterous plot of a Faux or Ravillacke confessed to a Sodomiticall shaveling should be disclosed Here is a true brat of the bloody whore a fellow of the right Ignatian stampe Thirdly Now the third violence and villany they offer to Kingly power and Princely Thrones is the decrowning and dethroning of Majesty And to this end the Pope doth pestilently abuse that noble and glorious Engine of the Church Excommunication which in it native vse ought to be discharged upon the hairy pate of
of all professions and stations as for depth and variety of learning gravity and unswendnesse upon Seates of Iustice height of military valour largest comprehensions of State-wisedome excellency in all other kindes of worth as admirable and renowned as ever trod upon English mould Onely take an estimate and scantling of spirituall happinesse more properly incident to religious governments by that speech of a great man in our State 2. lib. pag. 116. of advancement of learning to the King If the choise and best saith he of those observations upon Texts of Scripture which have beene made dispersedly in Sermons within this your Majesties Iland of great Britaine by the space of these forty yeares and more had beene set downe in a continuance it had beene the best worke in Divinity which had beene written since the Apostles time And thence conclude that happy consequent the crowne and excellency of all trully worthy States How many blessed soules have beene sent to heaven and what a number of crowned Saints have beene created by such a conscionable ministry in all that time and of both temporall and spirituall felicity from King Iames his noble pen Greater blessings of GOD saith he greater outward peace and plenty greater inward peace with spirituall and celestiall treasures were never heaped upon my grea Britaine then have beene since my greate Britaine beame great in the greatest and chiefest respect of all to wit since my great Britaine hath shaken off the Popes yoke Against Person pag. 282. c. You see in short what a goodly thing Government is Now let us come to the Vses of this Doctrine and in the first place it serves for confuration Vse 1. First Confutation and confusion of all opposites to government especially the underminers and under prizers of Regall Authority the fountaine of subordinate and inferiour Magistracy Now to nullifie the nothingnesse of the phranticke bedlam Anabaptists Arguments they are fitter to be out of the number of men and driven out of the border of humane nature then to be disputed with for abolishing Magistracy under I know not what Christian perfection as a transient Mosaicall ceremony would not be worth the while I rather choose at this time to deale with the Papist a more subtile and plausible adversary in the point and in that regard more pestilent And here in the first place let me point you to the fountaine of those Popish fulminations and fire workes See Sâ—lateâ—â— Assize Sermon pag. 30. which have most unworthily beaten upon and blasted the Imperiall and Regall Throne of Christendome and the first mover as it were of that bloody Sphere See Bellarmine lib. â— de 〈◊〉 cap 1 c. 〈…〉 art Praeâ—eâ—ea Prinâ—ipatus 〈◊〉 ris institut usest â—b hominibus est q de jure gentium which the man of sinne hath turned upon the face of Europe and torne and rent it in a rufull maner It is this That the power of Kings Princes and Magistrates is not ordained by the divine Law of GOD but an humane ordinance This teacheth Bellarmine And they all hand over head And in his booke against Barkly Arnoux upon the 30. Article of the French Confession calls the power of Magistrates an humane law Greg de Valendisp 1. â— 10 de infidelitate p. 8. art Si autem Namut rectè ratiocinatur hic D Thomas jus Dominij vet prelatoinis introductiiest jure humano gentium Bell. lib. 1. de Clericis cap. 28. art ad confirmationem draw this cunning and cut-throate conclusion for so it proves in the consequents out of the empoysoned fountaine of * In his 22. â— 10. art 1. Dominium prelatio sunt introductaeâ—â—urchumano â— 12 art 2. DominiuÌ„ introducâ—um de jure gentium quodest est ius humanum Aquinas Their reasons for this point are as weake as water and flie but with one wing Those of best shew are these which I refute in a word First He that was first King in the world to wit Nimrod made himselfe King by force not by the ordinance of GOD. Ergo c. So. The Antecedent is false before Nimrod fathers and heads of families were Kings Priests and soveraigne Princes of their families For after the floud men lived five or six hundred yeares Then it was an easie matter for a man to see fifty yea a hundred thousand persons of his posterity over whom he exercised paternall power and by consequence soveraigne power then when there was no other forme of a Realme upon the earth to which children their servants being added one family alone made a great Common-wealth Likewise in Abrahams time when mans life was much shortened he was called by the Hethites a mighty Prince Gen. 23.6 and he tooke out of his family 318. Souldiers to the warre Gen. 14.14 Againe how could mankind be maintained and the world stand for 1656. yeares without Soveraignty and Authority of the Magistrate Then to the consequent I say thus much if a strange Prince should invade a Kingdome they doe well to defend themselves and if the usurper be slaine he is justly punished but if he conquer and the ancient professours be quite extinguished and then the whole State concurre upon him and sweare fidelity to the new King then we must thinke that GOD hath established such a Prince in that Kingdome Then I say that the people ought to yeeld to the will of GOD who for the sinnes of Kings and of their people transposeth Kingdomes and disposeth of the issues of warre Object 2. Secondly But Saint Peter calls obedience to Kings an humane ordinance 1 Pet. 2.13 Ergo c. Sol. Sol. It is so called not in respect of â—he substance of government and institution and Causaliter as the Schooles speake but in respect of first the subject wherein it is seated secondly or the object whereupon it is seated thirdly to the end to which it is directed or fourthly the severall formes or meanes by which it is attained The question is not by what meanes whether by hereditary succession or election or any other humane forme a Prince comes into his Kingdome but whether by the ordinance of GOD we ought to obey him when he is established I hope the Pope is hoisted into his chaire of pestilence by the election of the Cardinals or worse meanes See Azorius 2. col pag. 1551 and yet that hinders not our adversaries from holding it a divine ordinance Object 3. Thirdly Yea but there is no expresse commandement set downe by GOD to obey Henry or Lewis or Iames or Charles or to acknowledge this or that man more then another to be King Sol. Most besotted and infatuated Sophistry By the same reason Bellarmine is not bound to be an honest man because there is no particular and expresse commandement in GODs Booke that R. B. ought to be an honest man Neither is there any speciall charge from GOD that Bellarmine must obey Paul the
holes with confusion and rottennesse before they see that day They would questionlesse lay hold upon Veronensis woolvish and bloody * If publicke meanes be waÌ„ting of making away hereticks by the ordinary Magistrate he gives allowance leave to every private man to murder the hereticke as he meetes him Franciscas de Verone Constantinus in Apology for Iohn Chastell History of the Counsell of Trent p. â—48 conclusion especially being animated thereunto by the example of the Massacre Resolution of Pope Vrbane Cau. 23.9 5. Can. Excommunicatorum We esteeme them saith he not to be murtherers who being possessed with zeale of their mother the Catholique Church against those that are excommunicated shall happen to kill any of them and by the edge of their owne Popish blood thirstinesse really eneagerd by fained conceits of their pretended persecution Decree of the Parliament of Paris That it should be lawfull to slay all the Hugonots which by publicke order was read every Sunday in every Parish And therefore to tell you in one word the end why at this time I have stood so long upon this point It is to aske you this question at close whether it be not now true and honourable mercy for GOD forbid that I should perswade any cruell thing nay and the contrary extreme cruelty to the State to execute exactly just and holy lawes upon such a generation and let every one be judge that heares me this day if he be not a party in that bloody faction or hanker that way And yet one word more and I have done I know Parsons in his miserable shifting booke about Equivocation against Doctour Morton Cardinall Perronius Beltarmine in his Apology against the Kings Monitory Preface See the Kings Answer p. 273. See Eliensis his answer to it pag. 299. and others upon whose foreheads the whore of Rome hath stamped her marke of Popish impudency charge the Protestants and Reformed Churches with these bloody passages but in so doing they deale with us as an impudent strumpet with an honest woman See how we are cleared Anticoton pa 63. Answer to certaine scandalous papers pault and as Verres dealt with Tully Verres himselfe was a very notorious theese and knew that Tully had much against him in that kind and therefore he very knavishly and impudently calls Tully a true man and that noble Oratour theese first Eliensis in his answer to Bell. Apolog. p. 299. Answer to Perron pag. 279. It is just so in this case But above all heare King Iames in the point we glory and well we may that our Religion affords no rules of rebellion nor allowes and grants any dipensation to subjects for the oath of their Alleageance and that none of our Churches give entertainement unto such monstrous and abominable principles of disloyalty And as concerning Iunius Brutus Ibid. pa. 277. whom they object his Majesty answers That he is an Author unknowne and perhaps of purpose patched up by some Romanist with a tricke of wily deceit to draw the reformed Religion into hatred with Christian Princes If we were in the same predicament with the Papists this way how comes it to passe that our English Popelings have made so many bloody assaults against the sacred persons of Queene Elizabeth and King Iames and the Protestants of France having farre better opportunity and more power have never stird rebelliously against their Kings Kings Answer to Perron pag. â—73 of whom King Iames thus speakes I could never yet learne by any good and true intelligence that in France those of the Religion tooke armes at any time against their King much lesse then offered they to butcher or blow him up with gun-powder I have thus farre discovered in the first Use the most pestilent opposites and cut-throates of Government and Kingly Majesty at this day in Christendome I now come to a second Use. Vse 2. If Government be such a goodly thing as hath beene proved before then all that heare me this day and every mothers child in this Land I say we are all bound to blesse GOD upon our knees and to put it as a sweet perfume into our daily sacrifice of thankesgiving for being bred brought up under so blessed and happy a Government in the Sun-shine of the Gospell and under the wings of IEHOVAH What staid or restrained the Omnipotent arme of GOD from creating any of us and planting us upon earth in the unhappy dayes of Queene Mary when we might either have beene damned or burned or in the bloody times of Lancaster and Yorke or when the mists of Popery and insolent domineering of that man of sinne enthrald under the most grievous yoke of miserable bondage both the Crowne and consciences of this Kingdome or under some Pagan Turkish or Tyrannicall Government or neighbouring Popish Country or which also had not beene so comfortable in the persecuted or Schismaticall parts of the Church it was nothing but GODs owne meere mercy respiting and remitting our being upon earth to better and more blessed times and place It was that and that alone which ordered and appointed our lot of living here in that golden knot of time as it were and the very Diamond of the ring of that happier revolution since CHRISTS dayes I meane in the most orient and comfortable breaking out of GODs holy truth from under the cloudes of Antichristian darkenesse and in this little nooke of the world where the Gospell shines with such glory truth and peace and under the kindly warmth and influence of two the most glorious Queene Elizabeth King Iames. Starres that ever moved or gaue light in Englands Hemisphere What beasts are they then that daily doe their utmost to bereave and rob us both of GODs blessing and this warme Sunne and hale downe all they can with strong cart-ropes of iniquity the vengeance of GOD upon the face of this noble and famous Kingdome and such are all the wicked amongst us and those that hate to be reformed Ale-house-hunters pot-companions good-fellowes drunkards are the most pestilent and cursed canker-wormes that gnaw at the very-heart and sinew of the glory and strength of the State And like audacious and outragious Giants even wrastle with heaven and by powring in of strong drinke labour might and maine to pull downe the full viols of GODs fiercest wrath See Isa. 28.1 2 3. upon our heads And therefore if there be any Iustice of Peace which is a secret supporter of any rotten Ale-house he is a great plague to the place where he dwells whether it be Towne or City The cruell Usurer is the cut-throate of the Country where he kennels See what a deale of compassionlesse miseries and confusion a company of such caterpillers brought upon the infant Replantation of the new returned Iewes Neh. 5. 2 7. The swearer and tearer of GODs glorious Name by his blasphemous breath gives wings to the flying booke of GODs curse Zach. 5.2 3. and is able to
and fire-works which have most unworthily at one time or other beaten upon and blasted all the Imperiall and Regall Thrones of Christendome Nay a fellow in the Counsell of trent did fiercely labour to confute that passage of de Ferrieres Oration That Kings were given by GOD as hereticall and condemned by the Extravagant of Boniface the eight Vnam sanctam if he did not distinguish See Hist. of the Coun of Trent pag. 275. and Spalat pa. â—25 that they are for GOD but by mediation of his Vicar Thus it was in that Conventiele of scarlet Fathers The Romish Locusts did very furiously * Ibid pâ— 766. as appeares obtrude 13. Articles for the reformation of Princes all pâ—ring from Imperiall Crownes to patch up the most unjust usurpations of their shavelings I will trouble you with one or two As you may see Ibid. p. 769 770. that you may take notice how justly King Iames out of a pang of Royall indignation after a survay of that most grievous yoke of miserable bondage to which the Crownes of Christian Kings are made to stoope by that man of sinne That GOD in whose hands the heart of Kings are poysed and at his pleasure turned as the water-courses that mighty GOD alone in his good time is able to rouse them out of so deep a slumber to take order their drowsie fits once over and shaken off with heroicall spirits Against 〈◊〉 pag. 289. that Popes hereafter shall play no more upon their Princely patience nor presume to put bits and snafles in their noble mouthes to the binding up of their mighty power with weake cords of scruples like mighty Bulls led about by little children with a small twisted thred Thus speakes his Majesty in his Answer to the French Cardinall for which booke and that other premonition to all Christian Princes especially the ages to come shall call him blessed I say the childe unborne shall blesse King Iames his golden pen which hath given such a blow to that beast of Rome that howsoever they may have some lightning before their small ruine by the mercies of GOD he shall never be able to stand upright upon his foure legges againe One of the Articles is this that the Ecclesiastikes shall not be forced to pay taxes gabels tiths passages subsidies though in the name of gift or loane either in respect of the Church goods or of their Patrimoniall c. Another is this Hist. of the Counsell of Trent p. 77â— that neither the Emperour Kings or any Prince whatsover shall make Edicts or Constitutions in what manner soever concerning Ecclesiasticall causes or persons nor meddle with their persons Causes Iurisdictions or Tribunals c. The rest also sound the same way and all tend to the * Ibid. p. 237. shaving of Imperiall Crowne but these two are sufficient to represent to the weakest understanding the unsufferable indignity and villany offered to Regall Soveraignty by these Antichristians sith in those Kingdomes where the Pope doth tyrannise and domineere almost the * Kings Premonit p. 21. third part of subjects and Territories is Church-men and Church-livings Porrò uâ—esse Romano Pontifici omni humane creature declaraâ—us dicimus definimus pronunciamus omninoesse de necessitate salutis Extra cap. vnam sanctam de major Obel See also Bâ—ll de Eccl milit lib. 3. ca. 2. sect Nostra autem sentencia pag. 195. Nay more then this from the ground of that fellowes reply to the fore-named passage of de Ferrieres Oration concerning the Articles for the reformation of Princes I doe not see how any true Papist either Ecclesiasticke or Laicke can possibly be a true subject to any monarchicall Soveraigne my reason is this at this time Boniface the eight guided as they dreame and damnably lie by an infallible spirit pronounceth peremptorily in the fore-cited Extravag unam sanctam that it is altogether of the necessity of salvation to be subject to the Pope of Rome How then is it possible that any one of those mighty swarmes of stinging * Against Pâ—â—son pag. 255. Locusts and busie waspes which lye at ease in the bowels of this Kingdome ready and addrest when time serves to cut the very heart strings of it should be a sound subject to King Charles sith upon paine of damnation and as they would be saved in the Romish Church they must be absolutely subject to a forraine Antichristian and sometimes Sodomiticall and Atheisticall Priest of whom as they * Hist. of the Councell pag. 775. See Mortons dissert adversus Bell pa. 84. say he immediatly holds his Crowne and who may for many causes depose and butcher him Bellarmine names six De officio Chr. Principis One of them is If he offer injury to the Pope who many times will complaine without cause so that if King Charles perhaps should refuse to kisse his cursed toe a thousand times more worthy to trample upon his triple Crowne he might lye open to the bloody stroke of some Clement or Ravillac Nay and had not CHRIST IESUS given this power to that holy father saith the Glossator upon the fore-named Extravagant prodigious blasphemy he should have beene undiscreet Nam non videretur Dijs discretus suisse ut cum reverentia loquar nisi unicum post se talem vicarium reliquisset qui haec omnia posset These are the words for he would not seeme to have beene discreet to the Gods that I may speake with reverence unlesse he had left one onely such Vicar behind himselfe who could have done all these things Besides the Romish Locusts falling foule upon Government upon all Imperiall Royall and Princely power by debasing the originall of it by disroabing it of that native reverence due attributions and obligations of State which divine ordination and purest times appropriated unto it by teaching acting and approving the bloody killing of crowned Potentates as appears before There is another monstrous engine of Popish imposture hammerd in the heads of those hellish firebrands which if it were generally entertained were able in short time to cut in pieces and dissolve the sinewes and ciment of all humane society I meane Equivocation and mentall reservation Many cunning shifts and evasions have they coined from time to time to cousen the State and delude the Magistrate in their oaths and answers before our just Tribunals They have vainely laboured to dawbe over and still their consciences against their lyes and perjuries sometimes first by the supposed benefit of popish dispensation 2. Somtimes by a wicked conceit of our Magistrates incompetency 3. Or pretended unauthenticalnesse of our Bibles in English upon which they sweare Fourthly but at this day they rest most upon this last Iesuiticall strategem which was wont to be confined to Courts of Iustice and more publike cases but now the Popish Casuists by their Conclusions begin to convey this damnable Doctrine and accursed poyson of mentall reservation into the common passages of
for heaven the world shall stand no longer but the heavens shall shrivell together like a scrole and passe away with a noise the whole frame of this inferiour world shall be turned into a ball of fire the Imperiall Crownes of the greatest Monarchs upon earth shall flame about their eares you that carry now all before you and wallow impenitently in the glory pleasure applause and wealth of the world shall tire the rockes and mountaines with bootlesse cries and intreaties to fall upon you the Trumpet will sound and we shall all come to the Iudgement of that great and last day This serviceablenesse and subordination of all Imperiall Regall and inferiour power whatsoever to the Kingdome of CHRIST King Iames of famous memory clearely intimates and acknowledgeth in his Royall remonstrance when he speakes thus To that GOD that King of Kings I devote my Scepter at his feeete in all humblenesse of spirit I lay downe my Crowne to whose service as a most humble homager and vassall I consecrate all the glory honour splendor and lustre of my earthly Kingdome And what will become of all the power pollicy that opposeth the people of GOD we may see in the second of Daniel ver 34 35 44 45. Those foure strongest Monarchies and mightiest States that ever the Sunne saw shaddowed by Nabuchadnezars great Image setting themselves against the servants of GOD were beaten upon and blasted by the curse of divine wrath and so sunke in their severall times into the jawes of ruine and irrecoverable desolation They blustered a while like mighty winds with much threatning and impetuous rage but presently breathed out into naught and vanished for ever That stone saith the Text which was cut out without hands smote the Image upon his feete that were of yron and clay and brake them to peeces Then was the yron clay the brasse and silver and the gold broken to pieces together and become like the chaffe of the Summer threshing flower and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them And so let all the implacable enemies of IESUS CHRIST perish to the worlds end Selah Thus you see what is the maine end of Magistracy which necessarily requires righteousnes in Rulers For A wicked Magistrate or Minister entering into this place not by GODS doore but by the Devils window as they say which is ordinary with men of ill conscience if they be of a medling and malignant humour sense of his guiltinesse in comming in basely and at a backe-doore enraging him or the curse of GOD for his Symony or bribery justly hardning his heart it is his wont to vexe and fall soule upon honest men to stand for rotten causes to take the worse part without repentance all the dayes of his domineering But if he be of a duller and more unactive spirit and given to the world he is resolved to medle as little as he may to live reservedly make a shew grow rich and there is an end of what temper soever they be if they feare not GOD they are so farre from seeking his Kingdome and righteousnesse in the first place that it is least and lowest in their thoughts Nay doth not every spirituall eye see that they are upon the matter close Agents or publicke acto urs against the power and holy precisenesse of it Their seeking is themselves their serving is the time their heaven is their high place But now give me a godly man indeed and as he would rather lye in the dust all the dayes of his life and dye in obscurity then be advanced by any wicked or unworthy meanes So being pulled into any place of publicke employment his holiest and highest desire ambition is to be as a refreshing comfortable shower in a great drought to every honest man but as a terrible tempest upon the face of every sonne of Belial and hairy-pate of every one that hates to be reformed to stand no longer in his slipery place then he may continue an upright industrious instrument to advance GODs glory promote good causes protect good men ever most willing rather to part with the highest promotion in the world were it crowned with the riches and revenewes of all the Kingdomes upon earth then with a good conscience It was aright noble worthy answer and exemplary of Benevolus to Iustina an Arrian Empres Dike of Cons. pag. 140. offering him preferment to be an instrument in some vile service what saith he do ye promising me a higher place for a reward of iniquity Take this away and welcome which I have already so that I may keepe a good conscience and thereupon threw at her feete his girdle the ensigne of his honour Thus undoubtedly will a good conscience trample under foote the highest preferment to preserve its owne integrity Secondly The righteous man onely will be thorowly and universally resolute for he knowes full well and feeles that he cannot possibly have any higher preferment then IESVS CHRIST whom he already happily possesseth in the armes of his faith nor any greater crosse then a wounded conscience and therefore he dare by no meanes either hurt the one or hazard the other Hence it was that Moses casting the eye of his faith upon the recompense of reward refused to be a favourite in Pharohs Court and that Ioseph did so invincibly withstand the impure and impudent sollicitations of his wicked and wanton Mistresse he clearely foresaw what horrour was like to scaze upon his heart by so sinning against his GOD. Now the reason that the righteous man is so resolute is the sense of his reconcilement to GOD and the clearenesse of his conscience and the cause that every wicked man is a coward and will so conforme to the current of the time is his ill conscience The wicked flee saith Salomon when no man pursueth but the righteous are bold as a Lion Prov. 28.1 The word in the originall signifies a young Lion which as a Lion feares neither man nor beast great nor small he turneth not away for any Prov. 30. But as young by the fresh and furious boyling of his abundant native heat is more audacious and undaunted for any adventure then other Lions so lion-like bold should every Magistrate be for he must pull the prey out of the Lions mouth and rescue the oppressed from the man that is too mighty for him he must not be afraid either of mortall or immortall adversaries he must not feare the face of man or frownes of greatnesse the losse of preferment present or promised he must hold to the death such principles as these Let Iustice be done and let the heavens fall if I perish I perish Should such a man as I flee and bee faint-hearted lively-hood liberty life and all for a good conscience c. And so bold can a Ruler never be unlesse he be righteous and reconciled unto GOD. It is the comfort of a good conscience alone which is able by a secret and