Case like This The Cardinals Election of the Pope Electores non habent Authoritatem in quem eligunt Sed Authoritatem Applicandi istam Dignitatem Those who Elect have not Authority over him whom they have Elected but only an Authority to Apply that Dignity So sure and irrevocable is the Right of an Elective Prince But when the Right of Succession brings a King to his Throne This is of all others the Noblest the Firmest and Carry's the greatest mark of Gods favour both to the Present Prince and to Those from whom he was Derived Succession to the Crown of Israel is by God promised to David as one of the Richest Temporal blessings He could give He bids Nathan the Prophet tell him When thy dayes be fulfilled and Thou shalt sleep with thy Fathers I will set up Thy seed after Thee which shall proceed out of Thy bowels And I will establish his Kingdome When God is angry with a Land he cuts off the Line of Succession Write this man Childless He quencheth his Light and the Lustre of his Name sending him to his last Bed like a despised Lamp inglorious and in the Dark without any Heir to preserve either his Power or his Name When this Successive Right was interrupted though by persons of the same Regal Line what Tragedies ensued and what Blood was spilt let our own Chronicles resolve from Richard the 2. to Henry 6. It is the goodnesse of God to us that we enjoy a Successive King And it is the Kings Glory that He comes to us derived to His Crown through a Succession of Numerous Monarchs To what Votes soever Elective Rulers ow their Scepters Succession is the Vote of God who both declares the Right and then Confirms it as his Donation It follows in the last place And I will give it Crowns conferr'd by other hands sit loose and tottering upon the Head of such as wear them I will give it keeps Them fast This is the Magna Charta for Princes The Great Charter by which Kings hold the Right to their Kingdoms By Me Kings Rule It is God who sets up and pulls down Giving the Kingdome unto whom He pleaseth Tertullian said well Inde est Imperator unde Homo antequam Imperator The Emperour is made by Him who made him Man before Even Heathens joyn'd in the confession of this Truth The Greek Poet tells you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Tacitus more like a Christian than a Heathen Principes Imperium à Deo habent eosque instar Dei esse Princes receive their Ruling Power from God and are in His Stead Where are Those then who place the Right to Dispose Kingdoms in the Pope As do his Sycophants the Canonists who blush not to bestow the Style of God upon him Dominus Deus noster Papa That so He may have better colour to bestow the Other Or Those in another Extreme who entitle the People to this Power Populo jus est ut Imperium cui vult deferat A strange Prodigy in opinion not heard of until Those Men came into the World who as was falsly alleg'd of the Apostles at Thessalonica Turn'd the World upside down placing the Feet above the Head and Subjecting the Higher Powers contrary to the Rule of God to the People who by His Command ought to be subject unto Them I may apply Nazianzens question to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what madnesse is this to leave the Head and take Rules from the Feet He goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is praeposterous to the Order of Nature when the Fountain is obstructed and the Stream which borrows being from it holds full Course when the Sun loseth his luster and a dimme Star enlightned by it governs the VVorld Malè imperatur cum regit vulgus Duces cryes the Tragedian It is a pittifull Kingdom where the People Rule the Prince Chymists will tell you nothing can make Gold but the Great Elixar which Turns all it Toucheth Doubtlesse the Peoples Power is a Metall of too low and Coarse Allay to produce a Crown Thou shalt set a Crown of Pure Gold upon His Head is God's Peculiar VVhen the rebellious Israelites in Moses absence would needs make a God That is a Leader or Ruler to go before them They contributed their Earings to the carrying on that design But the Effect and Issue of that Contribution was only a Calf I beseech you remember from all our Contributary Plate from the silver Basin even to the smallest Bodkin whether we had any Productions amongst us better than This. Certainly before Knox and Buchanan and Junius Brutus These Doctrines to Diminish Princes were never broached One tells you The King hath no Propriety either in his Kingdome or His Revenue Non Proprietarius sanè nè usufructuarius Regni Another quarrels Him for the upper-hand scarcely grants him Precedence If he do 't is all And unlesse in Private will not allow Him the Better Man when he comes in Publick Populus Rege praestanâ—ior Major The People are his better and much above him Again Though the King be Greater than any Particular Subject Yet he is Lesse than the whole People Populum à quo Reges nostri habent quicquid Juris sibi vendicant Regibus esse Potentiorem Again Populus eandem Potestatem habet in Regem quam Rex in Singulum The People have the same Power over their King as the King hath over any single Man And again take him for all when the People call their King in question before them Minor ad Majorem in Jus vocatur the Lesser is Convented Arraigned Condemned by the Greater Excellent stuff From whence you may discern what hands lay'd the first foundation of our High Courts of Justice Indeed after all the Arts and Labour to assert this pretended Power of the People after all the distorted Scriptures and Miss-apply'd Texts by Those Sons of Bichri who blew the First Trumpets of Sedition in our Israel Curse ye Meroz c. And cursed be he that withholds his Sword from shedding Blood And To your Tents O Israel we have no part in the son of Jesse with many like these There was but one speeding un-controlable Text to do Their Bloudy Business This is the Heir come let us kill Him and then the Inheritance the Right to dispose the Kingdom is ours I cannot without horrour mention it And I pray God There be not too many amongst us who yet hold an Obedience not out of Conscience but Constraint or Outward Complyance because They want opportunity to Resist This is the sense of a great Leader in his time who by occasion of that Text Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities replyes It was good Politick advise St. Paul gave for that time The Christians were few and poor had no power to do otherwise Nor were Ripe for
which bid Cut down the Tree in Nebuchadnezzar's vision Take off the Crown dethrone the Usurper and when He says the word who can resist or countermand One wo is past Our first Overturn hath cast down this aspiring Lucifer causing his Image and remembrance to vanish out of the City like a Night vision So that we may ask Quomodo cecidisti How ar't Thou fallen O how suddenly do'st Thou cast them down such slippery footing hath all Greatness which is not warranted by the true Doner but built on a Foundation of Blood The next Overturn is against a Monster of more heads A Complicated Tyranny under that Bed of Snakes which Cut asunder formerly Closed again in 59. Renewing their Cast skins with the old Practice to Tyrannise over their fellow Subjects According to the Trust reposed in them which was the word in fashion That Aggregate of Rulers to whom no Name is proper but his who was the President of their Assembly Legion For they were many A Medly compounded of all Trades of all Professions from the Soldier to the Mechanick Artizan which in their Mixture resemble the Feet of Nebuchadnezzar's Image Their whole design being supported like That with Iron and Clay The Miry Clay to shew the abject dirty Instruments engag'd in their new modell'd Rule The Iron to enforce Obedience to it At the Building of Babel all sorts of workmen were joyn'd It was the same in this work of Confusion begun upon the Kingdom and the Church In so Destructive a work these Operators were needful 'T was fit that such men who had before understood the use of the Hammer and the Ax should be employ'd when Churches were to be demolished and the Carved work of our Temples as the Prophet complain'd Broken down with Axes and Hammers But this unequal mixture overthrew the whole Frame of their design The Sword which for a time strengthned this lome building deserting them caus'd it to crumble into dust As Cramps of Iron with-draw'n from a Rotten House make the ill-built Fabrick sink And those examples of Insolence which like the Tail of the Dragon had cast down all our Stars both Those of the First Magnitude the Peers and Those who were Equal to Themselves yet joyn'd not in their horrid sense were by the blessing of God and by His second Overturn Cast down themselves becomming spectacles of reproach to all the world in those punishments which they deservedly suffered There is but one Overturn more and that like the last breath and blast of a Storm when the violence is spent ushers in a Calm This I look on as bent against that Rising little more than a year since whose Spring and Head appeared in these parts but the Stream was to be encreased in every County as they passed from this our Metropolis whence their frantick Leaders set out to the other Metropolis in the North An attempt to hinder His Arrival who was expected when His Foot was even upon the threshold ready to enter into his own by an Army Collected from all Quarters of the Kingdom Which design look'd at first with a dreadful aspect like the Ramm in Daniels vision Pushing Westward and Northward and Southward in each Part whereof some scatterings of the storm fell until the Clouds which bare this Tympany vanished almost without Noise at the farewel of it This the prudent Counsailes of some Renowned Patriots industrious to vindicate their oppressed Countries Liberty and the valour of a Faithful General who deservedly wears an Honor no man hath cause to envy by crushing the New threatning dangers aswell as by suppressing the Old opened so fair a way for His Arrival who was to come that not a dropp of Blood was spilt to stain the Glory of His entrance nor did any visible Face of danger appear to disturb his Peace being Come For God sayes He will Overturn whatsoever might withstand Him And it shall be no more Such an Approach as this discovers the hand which guided him to us and deserves our loudest Hosanna to welcome Him Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord Those Others who went before Came in their own Name meer Properties Counterfaiting such State as Actors on the Stage whose Reign lasts no longer than the Scean We had not for many years beheld the True Face of Majesty untill He came who appears in the next circumstance of my Text. You may please to note He is a single Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here 's no Plurality of Rulers Many Counsaillours are the strength of a Kingdom but more Princes than one like many Suns in the Firmament the certain ostents of destruction This He stands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a note of Eminence upon His Person and Excellence upon His Endowments We find the First King of Israel was designed from the Goodliness of his Person Saul was so of whom I may say as Virgil of Turnus Et totô vertice supra est He was higher by the head than the rest of the People See saith Samuel when he presented Him whom the Lord hath Chosen that there is none like to Him amongst all the People Tam excellens statura consona erat Regiae dignitati such a Stature and such a Person became a King Petrus Cunaeus writes Nâ—n jam Barbarorum duntaxat sed hominum excultissimorum est Majestatem corporis venerari Magnorum operum illos capaces putare quos eximiâ specie Natura donavit Not only Barbarous people but the most Civilized attributed very much to the Presence and Stature and Majestick deportment of the Body Thinking Those Capable of the highest atchievements who were endued with the best and Goodliest Shape Hieron gives the reason Quia velut pulchro indumento pulchritudo Animae vestiebatur The beauty of the Soul is consider'd by the features of the Body which is the Souls outward Garment This made Samuel sent to Annoint a King out of Jesse's house when he saw Eliab to beleeve him the man for the Bravery of his Person until God rectified his error and pointed out David who though not of the same Size and Pitch with his brother was a Goodly Person You will easily judge that because intending to combate Goliah Saul put his own Armour upon him which in a small Stature had been ridiculous to attempt In all the Histories I have read I find not any Nation but one who best liked Persons ill-graced in their Bodies lineaments for their Princes Pedro Mexia puts this difference between the Gothes and the Saracens That the Gothes desired a Prince of Tall Stature The Saracens better approved one bedwarfed and of mean Features Generally the Rule for Princes was the same which God appointed for the Priests where Blemishes and Imperfections of the Body made the One incapable to serve at the Altar The Other not so welcome to the Throne Our Third Richard's deformed Body and
ill aspect made him look'd on as that Prodigy whom all fear'd none lov'd Therefore Socrates beleeved those could portend nothing but Mischief on whose Bodies Nature had set her Brand and whose Aspect she had mark'd with cross ill-boding lines Now as the Outward Form of the Body makes a Candidate for a Kingdom according to Aristotle Forma digna Imperio So the Endowments of the Mind compleat the Choice As Wisdom This was the Cause of Joseph 's advancement over Aegypt Can we find saith Pharaoh such a Man as this in whom is the Spirit of God And it was Hiram 's gratulation to Solomon Blessed be the Lord this day who hath given unto David a wise son to rule over this great People Deliberation Not rash in Action nor unwilling to hear advise but weighing each enterprise in the Scale of Counsail and Reason Vt illud in principatu beatissimum est non Cogi ita miserrimum non Suaderi As it is a Princes Prerogative that he cannot be Compell'd so 't is his Misery not to be Counsaill'd Temperance Happy art thou O Land when thy Princes eat in due season for strength not admitting Disorder in their Meales Then Mildness and Sweetness and Affability in disposition This made Titus the Emperour stil'd the Delight of Mankind admir'd whilst he liv'd and lamented in his death as the only darling of his Empire born to oblige his whole People Personal valour This mov'd Israel to elect Gideon for their Prince Come thou and Rule over us Both Thou and thy Son and thy sons Son for thou ha'st delivered us from the hand of Midian Above all Piety and Religion towards God Josiah's singular Devotion and Zeal to God's service stand as Examples to render his Memory pretious through all Ages To be a Nursing Father of the Church is one of the richest Jewels in a Kings Crown Lastly Nobility in his Extraction and Birth Happy ar't thou O Land when thy King is the son of Nobles so sayes the Preacher But when there are None of These Neither Care of Religion nor Regard of Law Neither Outward form Nor Inward Endowments Neither Birth to dignify the Body Nor Vertue to ennoble the Mind Set thou a wicked man to rule over him This is the highest Calamity the greatest Curse that can befall a Land We have cause to say so having by sad experience too lately felt the Mischief Be it spoken to the Honour of God and the Confession of a just Truth far from any low purpose of Adulation which neither befits my Office nor This Presence we miss none of these Excellencies these Vertues in that Royal Person whom God hath set over us Each ones eye may inform any that doubt in much of what I say And the dayly experience of his scarcely pattern'd Goodness confirm the rest Whether I mention His constant Piety or love of Justice His Active or Passive Fortitude In all probations of a Daring Valour who hath Outdone him let Worcester be the witnesse And I am sure in the Trial of His Patience for many years none Could Out-suffer Him 'T was Jugum portatum à Juventute He hath been yoak'd to Necessities and acquainted with Misfortune from his tender Age. And for the Roaylty of His Extraction were I an Herald and not a Preacher I might blazon It to the full Proclaming to all the World That He who is come to us might Claim the Crown by His proper Merit did it not Descend upon Him as His Undoubted Right It follows in the next words Whose Right it is There be but Two Great Rights which you find mentioned in Scripture 1. Jus Primogeniturae the Right of Primogeniture 2. Jus Regni the Right to a Kingdom In the first of these all Domination was originally founded For the Elder Brother in his Tribe was Princeps Familiae the Prince of his Family And not only the Excellence of Dignity which was his Birth-right But the Inheritance is so fastned to Him as if God intended no separation either by the Hatred or Affection of the Parent The Text is most remarkable and I wish all Parents would lay it to heart If a man have Two wives one Beloved and another Hated and They have born him Children both the Beloved and the Hated And if the First-born son be her's that was Hated Then it shall be when he maketh his sons to Inherit that which he hath That he may not make the son of the Beloved First-born before the son of the Hated which is indeed the First-born But he shall acknowledge the son of the Hated for the First-born by Giving him a double Portion of all that he hath for he is the beginning of his strength the Right of the First-born is his Therefore though the Law hath been overcurious to un-rivet this Birthright by Gods Mans Law entail'd upon the Elder bringing in Feigned Persons False Vouchees and Formal Proclamations to devest it I must only say thus much Sic non fuit ab initio as Christ said of Divorce It was not so from the Beginning but out of the hardness of mens hearts did this Invention spring How ill an Inheritance wrested from the Right heir to be plac'd upon another hath prosper'd let the Example of so many unhappy Families ruin'd upon this Accompt testify The second is Jus Regni the Right to a Kingdom which hath Jus Divinum a Divine Right for it's warrant Omnis civilis Potestas ità Deum habet Authorem ut nec Orbis totius consensu tolli potest This receives such Authority from God that the whole World cannot abrogate it I do not only mean a Successive Right but an Elective I Confesse where Princes are Elected by their Subjects the Government is not so Absolute being oftimes clogg'd with Conditions yet is the Right so firm that it can never be Reversed nor Reassumed by Those who first conferr'd It. Bellarmine is of a contrary Judgment when he saith Populum nunquam suam potestatem ita in Regem transferre quin illam sibi in habitu retineat although the People Actually transfer the Power upon the King Yet Habitually They retein it in Themselves But this is Contradicted by Persons of his own Party eminent for their Learning and famous for their Writings Suarez plainly chargeth him with Falshood Non est simpliciter verum Regem pendere in suâ potestate à Populo etiamsi ab ipso eam acceperit And afterwards he very honestly and fairly Concludes Rex postquam legitimè constitutus est supremam habet potestatem in omnibus ad quae illam acceperit etiam si à Populo illam acceperit When once a King is lawfully constituted He hath Supreme Power over the People Again Royardus Rege constituto non potest Populus jugum subjectionis repellere The People cannot withdraw their subjection from a lawful Prince Lastly Franciscus à Victoria In a