derived their being from him though now like cursed Vipers they endeavour to gnaw out the way to their resolved upon Democracy through the Bowels of their Father Monarchy But what ever we heare or see such Traitors Vote or Act let the remembrance of the Blessings both spirituall and temporall which under eighteen yeares of his Majesties good and happy Reigne we did enjoy and might stil have enjoyed if we would have beene content and could have knowne when we were well and undoubted hopes of what blessings his future Gouernment may bring upon this Land yea all his three Kingdoms Let I say the remembrance of the one and hopes of the other move all Loyall Subjects to lift up their hearts and hands to the King of Kings to multiply his dayes as the dayes of Heaven to deliver him out of his present thralcome and restraint to restore him to his rightfull Crowne and Dignity and us his Subjects thereby to the right profession of true Religion and an once more enjoyment of Peace and Plenty yea I am confident 〈◊〉 doe move all true hearted Nobility Gentry and Commonalty to pray for him as the Christians prayed in old time for their Kings though Heathens God of his infinite mercy grant him a Tertul. in Apolog c. 30. a long life a quiet Kingdome a safe Court strong and victorious Armies a faithfull Counsell yea with David b Psal 132.18 that God would cloath all his enemies with shame but set him at Liberty restore him his Scepter and on him and his to cause his Crown hereafter to flourish That so as on the day of his re-inauguration into all the hearts of his Subjects and re-establishment in his Throne the united voyces of his Majesties populous Kingdomes may annually send up to heaven their cordiall and continuall acclamations God save the King that the eccho thereof may resound in heaven as fervently as the noise of the Romans did in applause of Flaminius generally calling him Saviour Saviour the noise whereof was so violent and vehement that as c Plut. in vita Flaminii Plutarch writes it made the Fowles of the aire fall downe dead or that as the d 1 King 1. people of Israel did to Solomon when hee was created King in Gihon and anointed there by Zadock with an horne of Oyle taken out of the Sanctuary the e 1 King 1.40 people piped with pipes and rejoyced with great joy so that the earth rang with the sound of it f 39. blowing their Trumpets and saying God save King Solomon So may all the people within his Highnesse Dominions lift up their hearts and hands blow their Trumpets ring their Bells frequent their Churches and pray God save the King Corporally in Body God save the King Spiritually in Spirit God save the King Politically in Government And excite one another to say This is the day of our King we do not well then this day is a day of good tidings we doe not well to hold our peace And indeed we can never have greater cause to speake of and pray for our King then now in these Rebellious times upon which we are unhappily fallen For these are the times wherin by those that call themselves a Parliament Rebellion is countenanced yea counted Devotion and holy Reformation and the most desperate Traytors entitled Saints and Martyrs Wherein not onely in the Popes Conclave but also in the Sectaries Conventicles shall I say nay in the grand Counsell of the best reformed Protestant Kingdome nothing is more rife than the slandering rebelling against and Imprisoning shall I say Yea the Theorick and practicke of deposing nay it is to be feared which God prevent it will proceed to murthering Princes Wherein as Mariana that insolent Iesuite prescribes to Traitors rules and cautions for poisoning Kings and highly commends King-killers So Marten that impudent Rebell publisheth with the approbation of a Parliament too to the encouragement of Sectaries and Traitors grounds and reasons to proceed in Kings resisting and deposing and highly applauds that cursed crue of King catchers eclipped Saints of the Army Wherein those Traiterous assertions of Suarez and other Iesuites are the constant Positions of those who would be thought to abhorre and beate downe Poperie Subditos posse de privare Reges a Papa excommunicatos vitâ Regno That is to say the Sectaries of England Subjects may deprive Kings if Voted against by the Parliament not onely of their Liberty Crownes and Kingdomes as appeares by the present sad condition of King Charles but also of life it selfe with their Tradatur Satanae and we know not though we feare what event that may in time produce Wherein that horred saying of that foule mouth'd Guignard concerning the murther of one of the Henries of France committed by two Jacobine Friers Heroicum factum donum spiritus sancti is become the oft incultated Doctrine out of Protestant Pulpits and re-resolved Votes of the grand Committee Chaire to resist fight against imprison Depose yea kill and slay the King and all his adherents is a most Heroicall act and the gift of the Holy Ghost Lastly these are the times wherein that knowne bloudy practice of the Spanish Inquisition is parallel'd shall I say nay out-practized by the action of the English Parliament As in the Spanish Inquisition their arguing is this whosoever is an Heretick ought to â—ee burnt but whosoever will not submit to our Canons and Decretalls is an Hereticke therefore whosoever will not submit to our Canons and Decretalls ought to be burnt He that is under the Inquisition denyeth that every one that will not submit to their Canons and Decretalls are Herereticks and consequently not to be burnt and offer to dispute it They of the Inquisition prove it thus They command him to withdraw decree his death dragge him to the stake bind him to it put Faggots about him set them on fire and burn him a most invincible argument So the Vote of this Parliament is whosoever will not doe the Law of God and the Law of the King ought to have judgement specâ—â—â—y executed upon him either by death or by banishment or by confiscation of goods or by imprisonment But whosoever will not obey the Orders or Ordinances of one or both Houses of Parliament doth not doe the Law of God and the Law of the King Therefore whosoever doth not obey the Orders or Ordinances bee they never so opposite to reason and justice of one or both Houses ought to have judgement speedily exâ—cuted upon him either by death or banishment or confiscation of goods or imprisonment Those men that are brought before them as guilty in this point Deny that whosoever will not obey the Orders or Ordinances of one or both Houses of Parliament therfore do not do the Law of God and of the King and consequently ought not to have judgement executed upon them without a legall Triall Hereupon they command them to retire resolve upon the
tidings wee should not doe well should wee hold our peace the very stones in the streets will reprove us and the timber out of the wall upbraid our silence by their acclamations exciting our dull affections to shoute for joy and pray God save King Charles CHAP. IV. ANd truly there are five things to name no more which all good subjects owe unto their Soveraigne â—â—is Prayer 2 Obedience 3. Honour 4. Service 5. Tribute And if any Subject deny any one of these the King may take him by the throat and say a Matth. 18.28 Solve quod debes Pay that thou owest 1. First is Prayer to pray for the Kings preservation on earth and salvation in Heaven The heathen Chaldeans may learn Christians this lesson who cryed to their King b Dan. 3.9 Nebuchadrezar O King live for ever As King c 1 Kin. 8.34.36 Solomon prayed for his people so ought his people to pray for him s ying of their Lord the King as King David speakes of the Lord of Israel Blessed d Psal 106.48 be the Lord God of Jsrael for ever and ever and let all the people say Amen saying to the King as Amasa and his company said to David e 1 Chron. 12.18 Thine are we O David and with thee O son of Ishai peace peace be unto thee and peace be unto thy helpers and the Lord thy God in his good time be thy helper That tongue that will not pray for his Majesties present liberty from prison and honourable re-establishment in his lawfull Throne and Kingdome and for the future Peace Prosperity and preservation of so vertuous a Prince and their anointed Soveraigne is such a tongue as the Apostle Iames f Iam. 3.6 speakes of fire and a world of wickednesse and is set on fire of hell for saith Austin the just man never ceases to pray unlesse he cease to be just much lesse should he cease to poure forth fervent and faithfull supplications for the King that under him wee may lead a peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty Such ungodly and undutifull subjects as will not unloose the strings of their tongues to pray for the safety and felicity of the King we wish that they were like the men at the river Ganges who it wee credit the report of Strabe have no tongues g Mâ—â—â—â— 2â— better is it to enter into the kingdome of Heaven losing a member then having such an ungodly member to be cast into hell fiâ—â— But herein many times the tongue is mâ—re officiâ—us then the heart with tongue they cry Hosanna h but in heart like Iewes wish crucifige with a verbâ—â— service many abound crying and â—ringing vivat Rex but withall store it hoc Parliamentum and that will never make a good prayer A King had need call to his subjects as God to his servants i 〈◊〉 2â— â—â— give me thy heart the world is full of faire tongues but false hearts none but the great searcher of the heart hath a window in the heart to see who honour with lippes and their hearts farre from him So that Kings had need examine their subjects as k 〈◊〉 2â— â—5 Christ did Peter thrice dost thou love me The world hath bred so many protestors of the Romish and so many professors of the Sectaries doctrine of devillish equivocation and Parliamentiz'd creatures profound in the art of dissâ—mulation that many men are like Godâ— in Sands in dubio pelagi terâ—â—ve doubtfull whether to belong to sea or land tempoâ—â—â—ers or neuters like the l Râ—â— 3.15 Church of Laodicea neither hot â—â—r cold either Prince or Pope Parliament or Levellers please them Monarchy Aristocracy Democracy yea Anâ—â—chy all alike to them As for Religion Protestanisme â—opâ—ry Put iâ—aâ—â—sme Anabaptisme Turkisme Heathenisme Atheisme oâ— whâ—tever the grand Councell shall countenaâ—ce is equally received by them These like the Camelâ—on assume any shape fashionable to the time to whom yet I doubt not but God will one day say Because ye are luke-warm professâ—â—s neither hot nor cold I will spue ye out of my moâ—th Rev 3.16 Such as these study Machiavell more then the Gospel m Mâ—â—◠〈…〉 c. 3. â—ashion themselves to the favourâ—ble fortune of the time and thinke themselves happy as n Maâ—◠〈…〉 he counts those Princes happy whose counsels are successively correspondent to the condition of the times The prayers of such temporizers whose tongues may flame but their hearts are as cold as a stone are abhominable in the sight of God Esto religiosu in Deum quiâ—â—ir ilâ—um Imperatoriâ—sse propitium saith Tertullian n Tâ—â—t Aâ—oc c. 34. The Lord is far off the wicked but hee neareth the prayers of the righteous saith o 〈◊〉 v. 15. â—â— Salâ—mâ—n God will not beâ—â—e the prayers of these Church-neaâ—ers yea Chuâ—â—h-haters nâ— more then the idolatrâ—â—us Iâ—wes p Ezech. 8.18 Thâ—ugh they cry in any eares with a loud voice yet will not I heare them And therefore that we may performe our first bounden duty unto the King acceptable to the King of Kings in making hearty and humble prayers for the freedome restauration protection and preservatiâ—n of his Majesty let all the people in his Realm from â—igh to low from great to small doe this comfortable and Christian service fervently feelingly and â—aithfully unto the Lord night and day crying and craving God save the King The Lord hath commanded this duty to pray not onâ—â—r good Kings but even for bad Kings When Paul gave that Apostolicall counsell 1 Timothy 2.1 2. to pray for for Kings Caligula Claudius or Nero most bloody Pagan Emperours then raigned q Baruc. 1. â—â—â— Ier. 29.7 So Abraham prayed for K. Abâ—mâ—lech Gen. 20.27 So â—â—ob Hâ—ssâ—d Kinâ— Pharoah Gen. 47.10 Pray for the life of Nebuchadnezar King of Babylon and for the life of Balthasar his sonne that their dayes might bee on earth as the dayes of heaven So the Lord commanded the Iewes to pray for the peace of the City of Babylon where Nebuchadnezar raigned If then the Lord charg and command to pray for such Governours as were Pagans Persecutors Idolaters Infidels how devoutely and deeply are all loyall subjects â—ound to pray and to praise God for the blessed government of Zealous and Christian Kings Especially how more ought we to pray for so religious and gracious a King and to beseech God with prostrate soules to visit and set him at liberty now after the time he hath afflicted him and permitted his restraint and comfort him with joy and gladnesse for the yeares wherein hee hath suffered adversity and for the future to defend him and his from all the treacherous traines and rebellious plots whether of forraine foes or home hatcht parricides whether corner creeping Iesuits of the Romish party or house-preaching Iudasses of Schismaticall faction To deliver from and strengthen him against whom let us we doe implore the hand of heaven to Sentinell ovâ—â— him
in his obedience and a patterne of Loyalty to all generations adventuring his body and blood for the service of Saul in defence against his enemies the Muster-roll of whose battailes for Sauls well-fare is recordded in holy Scripture from the xvii Chapter of the first of Samuel almost to the end of that Booke the glorious Trophy of the fidelity of an obedient Subject But all the counsels and practises of the Lords and Commons now sitting at Westminster have wholy tended to advance disobedience and manifest themselves the Presidents of disloyalty and rebellion to all other nations and future ages engaging not many of their own bodyes I confesse or much of their own blood but many thousand of bodyes and an ocean of the blood of poore seduced and deluded Christians their fellow subjects for the pulling downe their religious King a David and utter ruine and destruction of all his faithfull freinds and loyall subjects the Muster-roll of whose battails for King Charles his subversion and deposing is hung out at most Pamphlet-sellers stalles the glaring Trophy of the disloyalty of such impudent unmatchable Rebels So that I well say with Toxaris to Anacharses Å¿ Lucianus in Sâ—â—tina viso Solone vidisti omnia here I can shew you the two wonders of the world at once Looke upon David and you shall see the wonder and pattern of Loyalty and Obedience Looke upon that thing at Westminster which calls it selfe a Parliament compassed round with their Army of Sts. as they tearm them and there behold the wonder and president of Disloyalty and Rebellion In their Declarations and Remonstrances read principles fit to direct Traytors in his Precepts and Practice read Doctrines sufficient to instruct faithfull subjects and if that be not sufficient nothing will suffice Object But the enemies of Charles reply and say We ought to be obedient and subject to good Kings but if they bee bad wee may resist and deny our obedience to him yea good men may send him to his grave and indeed this Doctrine to depose a King dispose of his Kingdome and deprive him of his life if he be not as the Iesuites count Catholique as this Parliament counts Protestant the treacherous Iesuites at Rome and our Rebellious new-lighted Saints at Westminster doe with an equall heightned fury of blind zeale labour to maintaine by their published seditious Papers and where their Pens faile their Pikes prisons yea poysons make good as you may read Page the seventh both their wayes of proving their Arguments are Answ Answer It is an easie task to shew that loyall obedience is to be performed to wicked Kings as our former Instances of the best note Christs obedience and Davids obedience to Saul make it manifest it is due to them omni jure naturali civili morali municipali divino By the Law of nature civill morall municipall divine wee will only prove it due by the last by divine Law if that prove it who dare deny it The Apostle Rom. 13.1 makes the matter plaine Let every soule be subject to the higher Powers for there is no power but of God c. From which place I argue thus Aâ—l Powers that are ordained of God must be obeyed The higher Powers be they good or bad are ordayned of God Ergo to be obeyed We may corroborate these two propositions by manifold places as Proverbs 8.15 By mee Kings Reigne c. Iob 36.7 He placeth them as Kings in their Thrones for ever Sometimes God suffers the hypocrite to reigne Iob 34.30 I gave thee a King in my anger and tooke him away in my wrath faith the Lord to Israel Hosea 13.11 Thou couldest have no power except it were given thee from above said Christ to â—il te Iohn 19 11. Give care all you that rule the people all your power is given of the most High Wisd 6.3 Touch not â—ine anointed 1 Chr. 16.22 be they good be they bad touch them not a 〈◊〉 12.19 vengeance is the Lords not mans Mâ—n must not meddle in Gods matters Wâ— b can lay hi haâ—ds on the Lords Anointed and be guiltlesse Though they grow defective in their high office yet still remain Kingâ— because eâ—throned by God By whose command men are borne by his command doe Princes reigne c Iraeâ—◠〈…〉 saith Iraeneus Thence have Princes their power whence they have their breath d Tâ—â—â—ul 〈…〉 saith Tertullian The Kings Commission is sealed â—y the hand of God and though it runne During the good will and pleasure of God yet man yea a * 2 〈…〉 4. Parliament cannot nay must not cancell it for that were to warre with God The wise e Bâ—acâ—oâ— sive 〈…〉 sineâ—te deo Aug conte Faust Manich 〈◊〉 22. c. 7. Heathen saith the power of good Kings is by the speciall ordinance of God of evill by his permission the first are badges and pledges of his mercy the second are the scourges of his furie So f Esay 10.5 God called Ashur the rod of his wrath and Attyla called himselfe the scourge of God and Tamberlaine in his time termed the revenge of God and terror of the World Saul was a Tyrant King yet David g 1 Sam. 24 6 trembled to touch the skirts of his garment What greater Tyrant than King Pharaoh yet Moses neither had nor gave any Commission to the Israelites to rebell he makes no Law or Booke either to dispose or depose him from his Kingdome Nebuchaanezzar a wicked and Idolatrous King yet God h Jerem. 25.9 calls him his Servant and though he commands the three children to be put into the fiery i Dâ—â—â— 3.21 Aâ—â—ud esâ—â—ervaâ—â—◠〈◊〉 me aliud 〈…〉 Oveâ— they offer no violence or resistance but commend their soules to God and commit their bodies to the King Saint k 〈…〉 Peter who wrot his Epistle in the time of the raigne of that wicked Emperour Clandius as l 〈…〉 Baronius conjectured exhorts all people to feare God and 〈…〉 the King 1 Pet. 2 17. and that for 〈…〉 v. 13. yet this Claudius was a most wicked Emperour maintaining many Ethnick superstitions and the worship of Idols he was as Suetonius * Sueton. c. 34. writes of him by nature cruel bloody libidinous yet to this Emperour a tyrant and an infidell S. Peter exhorts the faithfull Iews to obedience S. Paul who lived under the same Emperour as a Rhemist in tab Paul some doe thinke writes to the Romans the Emperours subjects exhorts all to submit themselves not in any colourable or dissembled obedience but ver 4. for conscience sake Let us heere a voyce or two of the ancient Fathers that lived in old time Tertullian who as b In Catal scriptor Eccles Jerome saith flourished under the raigne of Severus the Emperor who was a great Tyrant an Infidell and an enemy to Christianity who in the fift persecution after Nero troubled the Christian world with most cruell persecution as c Baron An.
that particular we cannot but inferre that all that you want of evidence against him lyeth against your selves and doth convince you to have committed as high an offence against the duty of Subjects as against the candour of Christians But secondly in case it could be proved and so fully so demonstratively proved as is requisite to overcome that larg portion of Charity which is due unto a King above all other sorts of men and to him for ought wee know above all other Kings much the more for the sad condition wherein you keep him proved so clearly as to bee victorious over so many and so disswasive improbabilities that present themselves in array against it we should indeed even then admit it with great reluctancy as a truth that it might bee thought a kind of impiety to understand wee should then when we must needs looke upon it as a sad and great affliction unto our Nation and as a great cause of humiliation not of triumph or insulting unto us That God should suffer our King to fall into such a depth of impiety for the sins of the Magistrate as of the Minister are usually the iudgements of a people for their sins But yet neverthelesse we should hold it our duty even in that case to cry out with the holy Prophet Micha 7.9 We will beare the indignation of the Lord because wee ha e sinned against him c. And to set our selves to the duties of Fasting and Prayers and Fears for the lamentation and expiation of so horrid an iniquity from his Maiesty and the Kingdome But we could not be perswaded that it were a Christian course for us to make his iniquity the countenance or excuse of ours or admit it as a supersedeas or discharge of the bond of our allegeance though it should render it indeed much discomfortable unto us for as a child owes his filiall honour and obedience not to a good father but to a father be he good or bad as servants owe subjection with all feare not to a good master but to a master be he good or froward 1 Pet 2.18 if that be scriptu e with them and wives subjection nâ—t to a believing husband but to a husband he be a beleever or an unbeleever 1 Pet 3.1 compared with 1 Cor 7 13. So subjects owe their allegiance not to a good King but to a King And though wee deny not but Potentates may forfeit their Crownes by their impieties yet the holy Word of God leades us to beleeve that none is thereby enabled to take that forfeiture but God Saul forfâ—ited his Crown by his Sacrilegious intrusion into the Office and Function of the Priesthood 1 Sam. 13.8 c. and doubled that forfeiture by his disobedience unto the command of God concerning Agag and the spoyle 1 Sam. 15.9 c. And God both times proceeds to sentence against him but yet none must take the forfeiture nor put the sentence in execution till God himselfe was pleased to do it And therefore notwithstanding all that David durst not lift up his hand against him 1 Sam. 24 26. David himselfe afterwards though an holy man yet was so far left unto himselfe for a time by God that hee fell into two horrid and unworthy sinnes base in the eyes of men as well as hainous in the sight of God First committing adultery with Bathsheba at such a time when her husband whom hee so vilely wronged therein was imployed in the hazarding of his life to doe his service and then to cover that treacherously contriving and procuring his murther and yet this was no good plea to justifie Absalom or the sonne of Bichrâ— in their rebellions no nor yet Shimei in his foule-mouthed railing against him for it But all of them in their times were overtaken with their rewards and David yet ended his dayes in peace being reconciled to God by his repentance Nero was as it were a Devil incarnate so bad that his wickednesse added glory to the persecutions of those that suffered by him And Tertullian useth it as an argument to prove Christianity to be good because Nero opposed it He made it his sport to see his owne Imperiall City set on fire before his face and when he had done caused it most falsly and wickedly to be laid upon the Christians And embrued his hands in the blood of his own Mother and yet it is observed this very Nero was then Emperour and Governour of the Romanes at that very time when Saint Paul wrote unto them to be subject unto the higher powers and tels them withall that whoever resists shall receive to himselfe damnation Let not any think that in this we plead for the wickednes of Kings but for their impunity from men for the preservation of Government the good of the people Nor would we wish any to imagine that we think these patterns of wickednesse have any such paralells in his sacred Majestyes story if it may be truly set downe as some would perswade but only to shew the unforciblenesse of such kind of deductions as our dayes have produced and if it may be to prevent the like hereafter And to satisfie all men who will be satisfied that for all your conclusions that you draw so hard for that you have even broken your Geeres we are yet to seek for a sound reason why the King should be secluded from his Government or from the addresse of a Parliament unto him but only upon your bare averrements Si satis est accusasse quis tandem innocens God himselfe should not be innocnt if to be accused were to be convicted we hold it therefore most unjust and unreasonable for us to admit any of those aspersions which you have laid upon his Majesty into our beleife or to make any results at all upon them in the least degree prejudiciall to his Majesty in our opinions untill we shall see as well what his Majesty can answer as what you have objected against him for since it is a justice not to bee denied to the meanest of Subjects nay to the greatest slaves that they have liberty to speake for themselves before iudgement be given upon their accusation we must tell you that we hold it a thing against all equity and right for you to take the freedome to say what you please against his Maiesty and in the mean time to keepe him in that restraint that hee can neither know what you have objected nor hath liberty to make his answer thereunto All which and much more that might be said proves substantially that the resisting not a good King but a King be he good or bad though by the Ordinance of them who call themselves a Parliament is a resisting the Ordinance of God that the imprisoning of King under what specious pretences soever couched is unlawfull and the deposing him and disposing his kingdome without him damnable according to the law of God what they are according to the law of this land