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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96595	Vindiciæ regum; or, The grand rebellion that is, a looking-glasse for rebels, whereby they may see, how by ten severall degrees they shall ascend to the height of their designe, and so throughly rebell, and utterly destroy themselves thereby. And, wherin is clearly proued by holy Scripturs, ancient fathers, constant martyrs, and our best modern writers, that it is no wayes lawfull for any private man, or any sort or degree of men, inferior magistrates, peeres of the kingdom, greatest nobility, lo. of the councel, senate, Parliament or Pope, for any cause, compelling to idolatry, exercising cruelty, prastizing [sic] tyranny, or any other pretext, how fair and specious soever it seems to be, to rebell, take armes, and resist the authority of their lawfull king; whom God will protect, and require all the blood that shall be spilt at the hands of the head rebels. And all the maine objections to the contrary are clearly answered. / By Gr. Williams, L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2675; Thomason E88_1; ESTC R204121	92,613	114

Magistrates doe extoll themselves above him they have now exceeded the bounds of men that they might esteeme themselves as God Non verendo eum qui post Deum ab hominibus timebatur in not fearing him which men ought to feare next to God But the words of Saint Peter are plaine enough Submit your selves unto every ordinance of man for the Lords sake 1 Pet. 2.13 whether it be unto the King as supreame or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evill doers and for the prayse of them that doe well Wherein you may see not onely the subordination which God hath placed betwixt the King and his Subjects but also that different station which is betwixt the supreame and the inferiour powers for the words sent of him doe most clearely conclude that the inferiour Magistrates have no power to command but by the vertue power and force which they receive from the supreame and that the inferiour Magistrates opposed to the supreame power are but as private men and therefore that as they are rulers of the people so being but instruments unto the King they are subjects unto him to be moved and ruled by him which is inferiour to none but God and their authority which they have received from him Inferiour Magistrates in respect of the King are but private men can have no power upon him or to mannage the sword without him and especially against him upon any pretence whatsoever how then can any or all these Magistrates make a just warre against their King when as none of them can make any just warre without him 2. Reason 2 Because as Bodinus saith most truly the best and greatest not onely of the inferiour Magistrates but also of all these Peeres Nobles Counsellors or what you please to call them have neither honour power nor authority but what they have given them from him which is the King or supreame Magistrate as you see God made Moses the chiefe Governour and Moses made whom he pleased his Peers and his inferiour Magistrates and as they have all their power derived from him that is the chiefe so he that is the King or chiefe can draw it away from them that are his inferiours when he pleaseth and as he made them so he can unmake them when he will and none can unmake him but he that made him that is God himselfe and therefore David that was Ex optimatibus regni the greatest Peere in Israel being powerfull in war famous in peace the Kings sonne in law and divinely destinated unto the Kingdom yet would he not lay his hand upon his King when he was delivered into his hands And this Buchanan cannot deny but confesseth that the Kings of the Iews were not to be punished or resisted by their Subjects because that from the beginning they were not created by the people but given to them by God Buchanans absurdity and therefore saith he jureoptimo qui fuit honoris autor idem fuit poenarum exactor it is great reason that he which gives the honour should impose the punishment But for the Kings of Scotland Buchan de jure Regni apud Scotos they were saith Buchanan not given them of God but created by the people which gave them all the right that they can challenge Ideoque jus idem habere in reges multitudinem quod illi in singulos è multitudine habent which is most false for Moses tels us that immediately after the deluge God the Creator of all the world ordained the revenging sword of bloudshed and the slavish servitude of paternall derision wherein all the parts of civill jurisdiction and regall power are Synecdochically set downe and Iob saith that there is one God which looseneth the bond of Kings Job 12.18 and girdeth about their reines which must be understood of the Gentile Kings because that in his time the Common-wealth of Israel was not in being and God himselfe universally saith By me Kings doe reigne that is all Kings not onely of the Iewes but also of the Gentiles and Christ doth positively affirme that the power of Pilate was given him from Heaven And Saint Paul saith There is no power but what is appointed of God And Tertullian saith Inde Imperator unde homo inde illi potestas unde spiritus he that made him a man made him Emperour and he that gave him his spirit gave him his power That God is the ordainer of all Kings And Ireneus saith God ordained earthly Kingdomes for the benefit of the Gentiles Et cujus jussu homines nascuntur illius jussu Reges constituuntur and by whose command men are borne by his command Kings are made And S. Augustine more plainly and more fully saith Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 4. c. 33. God alone is the giver of all earthly Kingdomes which hee 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 knowne unto himselfe and whosoever looketh back to the originall of all Governments God the immediate author of Monarchie he shall find that God was the immediate Author of the Regall power and but the allower and confirmer of the Aristocraeticall 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer odyss α And Aristotle tels us Arist Pol. l. 1. c. 8. that the Regall power belonged to the father of the family who in the infancie of the world was so grandevous and long-lived that he begat such a numerous posterity as might well people a whole Nation as Cain for his owne Colonie built a Citie and was aswell the King as the father of all the Inhabitants and therefore Iustin saith very wel that Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes reges erat Justin l. 1. the rule of all 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 appeare unto all Nations that not onely the Kings of Israel but all other Heathen Kings are acknowledged by God himselfe to be of divine institution Jer. 43.10 Esay 45.1 he calleth Nebuchadnezzar his servant and Cyrus his anointed And therefore though I doe not wonder that ignorant fellowes should be so impudent Jo. Good win in his Pamphlet of Anti-Cavalierisme p. 5. as to affirme 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

incendiary of warre and an enemy unto peace whereas the messengers of Christ have this Elogie given them Quam speciosi pedes Evangelizantium pacem And the Scripture saith Blessed are the Peace-makers and we continually pray Give peace in our dayes O Lords and therefore I can hardly beleeve 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 when as Ahab was dead long before it was his ghost therfore and not he but it was his son and what then what did the Prophet he shut the door and desired the Elders to handle the Messenger roughly or hold him fast at the doore Thus saith the text 2 Kings 6 32. and the Prophet in my judgment doth herein but little more then what God and nature alloweth every man to doe If any thing more not to lay down his life if he can lawfully preserve it but as the Prophet did to shut the doore or as our Saviour saith When we are persecuted in one Citie to flie into another to save our lives as long as we can and in all this I find no violent resistance But 2. the Objector telleth 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 Iohn Baptish would not do so nor S. Paul nor any other of Gods Saints that I have read of but these men are sure of every thing even of Gods secret counsell 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 doe except hee bee sure of the like inspiration for God who is justice it self can command by word as he did to Abraham to kill his sonne 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 doe it And we must distinguish betwixt rare and extraordinary cases that were managed by special commission from God and those paternes that are confirmed by knowne and generall rules which passe through the whole course of Scripture and take heed that we make not obscure commentaries of humane wisedome upon the cleare Text of holy Writ Quia maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum But indeed the place is plain that Elisha made no other resistance but what every man may lawfully doe to keep the messenger out of doors so long as he could and yet this man would infer hence that we may lawfully with a strong hand and open warre resist the authority of our lawfull Kings a Doctrine I am sure that was never taught in the Schoole of Christ He makes some other objections which I have already answered in this treatise and then he spends almost two leaves in six severall 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 bee Arcana imperii and there must be privie Counsellors every Peasant must not examine all the Edicts of his Prince The commands of Kings may not only 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 armes against them I would he understood there is a great deale of difference betwixt examining their commands and resisting their authority the one in some cases we may the other by no meanes we may doe CHAP. VIII Sheweth that our Parliament hath no power to make warre against our King Two maine Objections answered The originall 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 resugium best strength and strongest fort that although all others should want sufficient right to crosse the commands and resist the violence of an unjust and tyrannicall Prince yet the Parliament that is the representative body of all his Kingdom are intrusted with the goods estates and lives of all his people may lawfully resist and when necessity requireth take armes and subdue their most lawfull King and this they labour to confirme by many arguments I answer that for the Parliament of England it is beyond my sphere and I being a transmarine member of this Parliament of Ireland And whatsoever I speak of Parliament in all this Discourse I mean of Parliaments disjoyned frō their King understand only the prev●lent fact●●n that ingrosseth and captivateth the Votes of many of the plain honest minded party which hath been often seen both in generall counsells and the greatest Parliaments I wil only direct my speech to that whereof I am a Peer I hope I may the more boldly speak my mind to them whereof I am a member and I dare maintain it that it shall be a benefit and no prejudice both to King and Kingdom that the spirituall Lords have Votes in this our Parliament For besides the equity of our sitting in Parliament and our indubitable right to vote therein and his Majesty as I conceive under favour be it spoken is obliged by the very first act in Magna Charta to preserve that right unto us when as in the Summons of Ed. 1. it is inserted in the writ * Claus 7. m. 3. dort that Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari or tractari debet whatsoever affair is of publick concernment ought to receive publicke approbation and therefore with what equity can so considerable a party of this Kingdome as are the Clergy who certainly cannot deserve to forfeit the priviledge of the meanest subjects and of common men because they are more immediately the servants of the living God be denyed the benefit of that which in all mens judgement is so reasonable a law and they only be excluded from that interest which is common unto al I cannot see yet I say that besides this our right while we sit in Parliament this fruit shall alwaies follow that our knowledge conscience shall never suffer us to vote such things against the truth as to allow that

Magistrates Peeres The Conclusion of the whol Parliaments Popes or whatsoever you please to cal them to give so much liberty unto their misguided consciences so far to follow the desires of their unruly affections as for any cause or under any pretence to withstand Gods Vice-gerent and with violence to make warre against their lawfull King or indeed in the least degree and lowest manner to offer any indignity either in thought word or deed either to Moses our King or to Aaron our High Priest that hath the care and charge of our soules or to any other of those subordinate callings that are lawfully sent by them to discharge those offices wherewith they are intrusted This is the truth of God and so acknowledged by all good men And what Preachers teach the contrary I dare boldly affirme it in the name of God that they are the incendiaries of Hell and deserve rather with Corah to be consumed with fire from Heaven then to be beleeved by any man on Earth CHAP. X. Sheweth the impudency of the Anti-Cavalier How the Rebels deny they warre against the King An unanswerable Argument to presse obedience A further discussion whether for our Liberty Religion or Lawes we may resist our Kings and a patheticall disswasion from Rebellion I Could insert here abundant more both of the Ancient and Moderne Writers that doe with invincible Arguments confirme this truth Anti-Cavalier p. 17.18 c. but the Anti-Cavalier would perswade the world that all those learned Fathers and those constant Martyrs that spent their purest blood to preserve the purity of religion unto us did either belye their owne strength * Yet Tertul. Cypr. whom I quoted before and Ruffin hist Eccles l. 2. c. 1. and S. August in Psal 124. and others avouch the Christians were far stronger then their enemies and the greatest part of Iulians army were Christians or befoole themselves with the undue desire of overvalued Martyrdome but now they are instructed by a better spirit they have clearer illuminations to informe them to resist if they have strength the best and most lawfull authority that shall either oppose or not consent unto them thus they throw dirt in the Fathers face and dishonour that glorious company and noble army of Martyrs which our Church confesseth prayseth God and therefore no wonder that they will warre against Gods annointed here on Earth when they dare thus dishonour and abuse his Saints that raigne in Heaven but I hope the world will beleeve that those holy Saints were as honest men and those worthy Martyrs that so willingly sacrificed their lives in defence of truth could as well testifie the truth and be as well informed of the truth as these seditious spirits that spend all their breath to raise armes against their Prince and to spill so much bloud of the most faithfull Subjects But though the authority of the best authors is of no authority with them that will beleeve none but themselves yet I would wish all other men to read that Homilie of the Church of England where it is said that God did never long prosper rebellious subjects against their Prince were they never so great in authority or so many in number yea were they never so noble so many so stout so witty and politique but allwaies they came by the overthrow and to a shamefull end Yea though they pretend the redresse of the Common-wealth which rebellion of all other mischiefes doth most destroy or reformation of religion whereas rebellion is most against all true religion yet the speedy overthrow of all Rebels sheweth The Homily against rebellion p. 300 301. that God alloweth neither the dignity of any person nor the multitude of any people nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for the which the subjects may move rebellion against their Princes and I would to God that every subject would read over all the six parts of the Homilie against willfull rebellion for there are many excellent passages in it which being diligently read and seriously weighed would worke upon every honest heart never to rebell against their lawfull Prince And therefore the Lawes of all Lands being so plaine to pronounce them Traytors that take armes against their Kings as you may see in the Statutes of England 25. Edw. 3. c. 2. And as you know it was one of the greatest Articles for which the Earle of Strafford was beheaded that he had actually leavied warre against the King The Nobles and Gentry Lords and Commons of both Houses of Parliament in all Kingdomes being convicted in their consciences with the truth of this Doctrine doe in all their Votes and Declarations conlude and protest and I must believe them that all the leavies monies and other provision of Horse and Men that they raise and arm are for the safety of the Kings person and for the maintenance of his Crowne and Dignity Nay more then this the very Rebels in this our Kingdome of Ireland knowing how odious it is before God and man for subjects to rebell and take armes against their lawfull King do protest if you will believe them that they are the Kings Souldiers and doe fight and suffer for their King and in the defence of his Prerogatives But you know the old saying Tuta frequensque via est sub amici fallere nomen the Devill deceiveth us soonest when he comes like an Angel of light and you shall ever know the true subjects best by their actions farre better then by their Votes Declarations or Protestations for Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta When men doe come in sheepes cloathing and inwardly are ravening wolves when they come with honey in their mouthes and gall in their hearts and like Joab with peace in their tongue and a sword in their hand a petition to intreat and a weapon to compell I am told by my Saviour that I shall know them by their works not their words And therefore as our Saviour saith Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven So I say not he that cryeth peace peace is the sonne of peace but he that doth obey his Prince and doth most willingly whatsoever hee commandeth or suffereth most patiently for refusing to doe what hee commandeth amisse This is the true Subject Well to draw towards the end of this point That is when the Commonalty guide the Nobility and the Subjects rule their King of our obedience to our Soveraigne Governour I desire you to remember a double story the one of Plutarch which tels us how the tayle of the Serpent rebelled against the head because that did guide the whole body and drew the tayle after it whithersoever it would therefore the head yeelded that the tayle should rule and then it being small and wanting eyes drew the whole body head and all through such narrow crevises clefts and

TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE Most Gracious Soveraigne I Have beene long ashamed to see the Aegyptian loacusts the emissaries of Apollyon and the sonnes of perdition under the name of Christ so much to abuse His sacred truth as to send forth so impudently and most ignorantly such lying Pamphlets so stuffed with Treason to animate Rebellion and to poyson the dutifull affections and the obliged loyalty of your Majesties seduced Subjects and seeing we ought not to be sleeping when the Traytors are betraying our Master I have been not a little grieved to see so many able men the faithfull servants of Christ In publicos hostes quilibet homo miles and most loyall to Your Majesty either over-awed with fear or distempered with their calamities or I know not for what els to be so long silent from publishing the necessity of obedience and the abomination of Rebellion in this time of need when the tongue and pen of the Divine should aswell strengthen the weak hands of faithfull subjects as the sword musket of the souldier should weaken the strength of faithlesse Rebels therfore not presuming of mine ability to eqalize my brethren but as conscious of my fidelity both to God and to your Majesty as in my yonger yeers I fearlesly published The resolution of Pilate Non sine meo magno malo so in my latter age though as much perplexed and persecuted as any man driven out of all my fortunes in Ireland hunted out of my house and poore family in England and after I had been causelesly imprisoned and most barbarously handled then threatned beyond measure yet I resolvedly set forth this Tract of The Grand Rebellion and though it be plaine without curiosity Qualem decet exulis esse Yet I doe it in all truth and sincerity without any sinister aspect for my witnesse is in Heaven I had rather have all the estate I have plundred and pillaged my wife and children left desolate and destitute of all reliefe and my selfe deprived of liberty life by the Rebels for speaking truth in defence of whom myconscience knoweth to be in the right then to have al the praise and preferment that either people Parliament or Pope can heap upon me for sowing pillows under their elbows and with idle distinctions false interpretations and wicked applications of holy Writ hypocritically to flatter and most sediriously to instigate the discontented and seduced spirits and others of most desperate fortunes to rebell against the Lords annionted I presume to present the same into your sacred hands God Almighty which delivereth your Majesty from the contradiction of sinners and subdueth your people that are under You blesse protect and prosper You in all Your waies Your royall Queen and all Your Royall progeny Thus prayeth Your Majesties most loyall devored subject and most faithfully obliged servant GR. OSSORY TO THE READER CHristian Reader being here at Dublin attending the affaires of the Kingdome and seeing the manifold miseries and almost insupportable calamities of us the poore Protestants of this Kingdome and the not much lesse misfortuns that are fallen or falling upon the Rebels and perhaps upon many innocents of the Popish Natives I much deplored this most lamentable estate and sad face of things and weighing with my selfe the causes of these distresses which I find to be the Rebellion of some proud some simple and some discontented Peeres and Gentlemen fomented by those Jesuiticall and parasiticall trencher-Priests the Seminaries of all wickednesse that are amongst our people as thicke as the Anti-Episcopall and Anabaptisticall non conformist of England or Caterpillers in the Land of Egipt I lighted upon some few notes that about 25. yeares agone I had collected upon the Rebellion of Corah which I see now and never till now risen and revived out of the pit wherein those grand Rebels were swallowed and having some leisure I thought good though I had not my bookes about me which perhaps may shew me the lesse exact in some quotations to reduce them into some order and among them I have transferred not in a little out of D. O. his Anti-Paraeus yet with such explanations abreviations and translocations of them as might best fit mine own method and matter I ayme at no body in thesi but onely as a Divine I set downe the truth in hipothesi if any man be aggrieved let him blame himselfe not me for in all this I speake the truth in Christ Jesus and lye not and as I have lived so I will dye in this truth and will daily expect that death if God should deliver my life in to the Rebels hands and not rather preserve me from their mercilesse cruelty And therefore my prayer shall ever be for all that our good God would blesse us and give us obedience while we live and patience whensoever we shall be brought to suffer death and so both in life and death I rest Thy faithfull and affectionate brother GR. OSSORY The Contents of the severall Chapters in this TREATISE CHAP. I. Sheweth who these Rebels were how much they were obliged to their Governours and yet how ungratefully they rebelled against them Page 1. CHAP. II. Sheweth against whom these men rebelled that God is the giver of our Governours the severall offices of Kings and Priests how they should assist each other and how the people laboureth to destroy them both Page 8 CHAP. III. Sheweth the assured testimonies of a good and lawfull Governour their qualifications our duties to them and wherein our obedience to them consisteth Page 14 CHAP. IV. Sheweth the objection of the Rebels to justifie their Rebellion the first part of it answered that neither our compulsion to Idolatry nor any other injury or tyranny should move us to rebell Page 19 CHAP. V. Sheweth by Scripture the doctrine of the Ckurch humaine reason and the welfare of the weale publique that we ought by no meanes to rebell A threefold power of every Tyrant Three kinds of tyrannies The doubtfull and dangerous events of Warre Why many men rebell Jehu's example not to be followed Page 29 CHAP. VI. Sheweth that neither private men nor the subordinate Magistrates nor the greatest Peeres of the Kingdom may take armes and make Warre against their King Buchanans mistake discovered and the Anti-Cavalier confuted Page 39 CHAP. VII Sheweth the reasons and the examples that are alleaged to justifie Rebellion and a full answere to each of them God the immediate author 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 Page 51 CHAP. VIII Sheweth that our Parliament hath no power to make Warre against our King Two maine Objections answered The originall 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 Page 62 CHAP. IX Sheweth the unanimous consent and testimonies of many famous learned men and Martyrs

and Societies doe cease and are even then reduced into him from whom before they were derived But we finde it many times that not the fault of the Prince The true causes that move many men to disturbe the State and to rebell nor the good of the Common-wealth but either the hiding of their owne shame or the hope of some private gaine induceth many men to kindle and blow up the flames of civill discord for as Paterculus saith Itase res habet ut republicâ ruinâ quisque malit quàm suâ proteri It so falls out that men of desperate conditions that with Catiline have out-runne their fortunes and quite spent their estates had rather perish in a common calamstie which may hide the blemish of their sinking then to be exposed to the shame of a private misery and we know that many men are of such base behaviour that they care not what losse or calamity befalls others so they may inrich themselves Paterculus in Histor Roman so it was in the civill warres of Rome Bella non causis inita sed prout merce corum fuit they undertooke the same not upon the goodnesse of the cause but upon the hope of prey and so it is in most warres that avarice and desire of gaine makes way for all kinde of crueltie and oppression and then it is as it was among the Romans a fault enough to be wealthy and they shall be plundred that is in plaine English robbed of their goods and possessions without any shew of legall proceedings But they that build their owne houses out of the ruine of the State and make themselves rich by the impoverishing of their neighbours are like to have but small profit and lesse comfort in such rapine because there is a hidden curse that lurketh in it and their account shall be great which they must render for it Therefore I conclude this point that for no cause and upon no pretext it is lawfull for any Subject to rebell against his Soveraigne Governour for Moses had a cause of justice and a seeming equitie to desend and revenge his brother upon the Aegyptian And Saint Peter had the zeale of true Religion and as a man might thinke as great a reason as could be to defend his Master that was most innocent from most vile and base indignities and to free him from the hands of his most cruell persecutors August contra Faustum Man l. 22. c. 70. and yet as S. Augustine saith Vterque justitiae regulam excessit ille fraterno iste Dominico amore peccavit both of them exceeded the rule of justice and Moses out of his love to his brother and Saint Peter out of his respect to his Master have transgressed the commandement of God And therefore I hope all men will yeeld that what Moses could not doe for his brother nor Saint Peter for his Master and the Religion of his Master Christ that is to strike any one without lawfull authoritie ought not to be done by any other man for what cause or religion soever it be especially to make insurrection against his King contrary to all divine authoritie for the true Religion hath beene alwayes humble patient and the preserver of peace and quietnesse Pro temporali salute non pugnavit sed potius ut obtineret aeternam non repugnavit Aug. de Civit. l. 22. c. 6. and as S. Augustine saith the Citie of God though it wandered never so much on earth and had many troopes of mighty people yet for their temporall safety they would not fight against their impious persecuters but rather suffered without resistance that they might attain unto eternall health And so I end this first part of the objection with that Decree of the Councell of Eliberis if any man shall break the Idols to pieces and shall be there killed for the doing of it because it is not written in the Gospel Concil Eliber Can. 60. and the like fact is not found to be done at any time by the Apostles it pleased the Councell that he shall not be received into the number of Martyrs because contrary to the practise of our dayes when every base mechanick runs to the Church to break down not Heathen Idols but the Pictures of the blessed Saints out of the windows they conceived it unlawfull for any man to pull down Idolatry except he had a lawfull authority CHAP. VI. Sheweth that neither private men nor the subordinate Magistrates 2. Part of the objection answered No kinde of men ought to rebell 1. Not private men Calv Inst l. 4 c. 20. Sect. 31. Beza Confess c. 5. p. 171. I. Brutus q 3. pa. 203. Dan. de Polit. Christ. l. 6. c. 3. Bucan loc com 49. Sect. 76. nor the greatest Peeres of the Kingdome may take armes and make Warre against their King Buchanans mistake discovered and the Anti-Cavalier confuted 2. AS it is not lawfull for any cause so no more is it lawfull for any one or for any degree calling or kind of men to rebell against their lawfull Governours For 1. Touching private men we finde that Calvin Beza Junius Brutus Danaeus Buchanus and most others yeeld that meere private men ought not to rebell at any hand and no wonder for the Scriptures forbid it flatly as Exod. 22.28 Revile not the Gods curse not the Ruler 1 Chron. 16.22 Touch not mine anointed Proverb 30.31 Rise not up against the King that is to resist him Eccles 8.3 Let no man say to the King Why doest thou so Eccles 10.17 Curse not the King in thy thought The examples of obedience to Kings And the examples of obedience in this kinde are innumerable and most remarkable for David when he had Saul a wicked King guilty of all impiety and cruelty in his owne hand yet would he not lay his hand upon the Lords annoynted but was troubled in conscience when he did but cut the lap of his garment Elias could call for fire from Heaven to burne the two Captains and their men a hundred in number onely for desiring him to come down unto the King as you may see 2. Reg. 1.10.12 and yet he would not resist Achab his King that sought his life and was an enemy to all Religion but he rather fled then desired any revenge or perswaded any man to rebell against him Esayas was sawed in pieces by Manasses Jeremy was cast into the Dungeon Daniel exposed to the Lyons the Three Children thrown into the Fiery Furnace Amos thrust through the temples Zacharias slaine in the porch of the Temple James killed with the sword Peter fastened to the Crosse with his head downward Bartholomew beaten to death with Clubs Matthew beheaded Paul slaine with the Sword and all the glorious company of the Martyrs which have ennobled the Church with their innocent life and inlarged the same by their pretious death never resisted any of their Persecuters never perswaded any man to rebell against them never cursed the

us when either for the proofe of our sidelity or the scourging of our sinnes by cruell Tyrants for the healing of our dying and perishing soules he punisheth us then when he heapeth his blessings upon us by most meeke and clement Princes for the comfort and consolation of this present life Neither may we thinke that by this sufferance of God the worse part can take away the better or that the Devill by this means shall be able to overthrow the Church of Christ against which the gates of hell shall never be able to prevail because hee doth not cast his vessel into the furnace of tribulation Vtfrangatur sed ut conquatur and as the Goldsmith doth not cast his gold into the fire to consume it but to purge it so God never did Why God punisheth his servants nor ever will in the greatest persecutions deliver up his inheritance as a prey unto the Tyrants teeth nor submit his people unto the hands of their adversaries that they might be oppressed to destruction but onely that they might be pressed and reduced to amendment or delivered from their miseries to salvation And therefore when the Saints of God lye under the hands of a cruell Tyrant The best means to escape our punishments Christ hath prescribed them farre better meanes both for his glory and their owne comfort to escape his tyranny then by resisting his power And these meanes I finde to be amendment to life teares for our sinnes prayers to God Theodor. Orat. 7. de Providentia flight from them and patience to suffer when we cannot escape For so Theodoret saith as often as Tyrants fit at the sterne of the Common-wealth or cruell masters doe rule over us the wrath of God is to be pacified and the mitigation of these miseries is to be sought for by earnest prayers and serious amendment of our lives And Christ when he was sought to be murdred by Herod fled into Egypt and he adviseth us When we are persecuted in one Citie to flee into another and when by flight we cannot escape then as the Martyrs and godly Confessors did so must we doe either mollifie the Tyrants by our humble prayers Ambrusius in Orat. contra Auxent tom 5. Ep. 32. similia habet or offer up our soules to God by true pattence For so Saint Ambrose saith I have not learnrd to resist but I can grieve and weepe and sigh and against the weapons of the Souldiers and the Gothes my teares and my prayers are my weapons otherwise neither ought I neither can I resist Basilius ut est apud Lonicerum in Theatro Historico pag. 154. And Saint Basil saith I will not betray my faith for feare of the losse of my goods or of banishment or of death it selfe for I have no wealth besides a torne garment and a few books I remaine on earth as one that is alwayes going away and my feeble body shall overcome all sence of paine and torments Vná acceptâ plagà when I shall receive but one stroke And Saint Chrysostrme Chrysost in Epist ad Cyriacum when he was driven from Constantinople said unto himselfe if the Empresse will banish me let her banish me for the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse of it If she cut me in pieces let her cut me Esayas suffered the same punishment If she will have me throwne into the Sea I will remember Ionas If she will throw me into the siery furnace the three Children suffered the like doome If she will cast me to wilde beasts let her doe it I shall call to minde how Daniel was cast into the Lyons den If she will stone me to death let her stone me I have Steven the Protomartyr my companion If she will take away my head let her take it I have Iohn Baptist for my fellow If she will take away my goods and substance let her take it for I came naked out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne againe Bernard Epist 221. And Saint Bernard saith whatsoever it pleaseth you to do concerning your Kingdome your Crowne and your Soule we that are the children of the Church cannot any wayes dissemble the injuries and contempt of our mother and therefore truely we will stand and fight unto death if needs be for our mother but with those weapons wherewith we may lawfully doe not with swords speares and shields but with our prayers and teares to God And it would be too tedious for me to set down all that I might collect of this kinde most excellent sayings of those worthy men which never hoped for any glory in the Kingdome of Heaven but by suffering patiently in the Kingdom of the Earth and when they could did faithfully discharge the duties of their places and when they could not did willingly undergoe the bitternesse of death and were alwayes faithfull both to their good God and their evill Kings to God rather by suffering Martyrdome then offend his Majesty and to their Kings not in committing that evill which they commanded but in suffering that punishment which they inflicted upon them 2. As no private men 2. Not the Nobility or Peeres Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20 §. 31. Beza in confess c. 5. p. 171. Autor vindic q. 3. pag. 203. Althus de poli c. 14. pag. 142. 161. Danaeus depolit Christiana l. 6. c. 3. p. 413. 1. Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of what ranke or condition soever they be so neither Magistratus populares the peoples Magistrates as some terme them nor Iunius Brutus his Optimates regni the prime Noblemen of the Kingdome nor Althusius his Ephori the Kings assistants in the government of the people nor his great Councell of Estate nor any other kinde calling or degree of men may any wayes resist or at any time rebell for any cause or colour whatsoever against their lawfull Kings and supreame Governours 1. Because they are not as Althusius doth most falsly suggest Magistratu summo superiores but they are inferiours to the supreame and chiefe Magistrate otherwise how can hee be Summus if he be not Supremus or how can Saint Peter call the King supereminent 1 Pet. 2.23 if the inferiour Magistrates be superiours unto him and it is Contra ordinem justitiae contrary to the rules of justice as I told you before out of Aquinas that the inferiours should rise up against the superiour which hath the rule and command over them as the husband hath over the wife The inferiour should never rise against his superiour Optat. de schis Donat. l. 3. p. 85 the father over the sonne the Lord over his servants and the King over his subjects and therefore Iezabel might truely say Had Zimri peace which slew his Master And I may as truly say of these men as Optatus saith of the Donatists when as none is above the King or the Emperour but onely God which made him Emperour while the inferiour

to be the true high Priest I would not have spoken what I did because I know the Law of God obligeth me to be obedient to him that God hath placed over me be he good or bad for it is Gods institution Bad Kings to be obeyed as well as the good and not the Governours condition that tyeth me to mine obedience so you see the minde of the Apostle he knew the Priesthood was abolished and that he was not the lawfull high Priest therefore he saith God shall smite thee thou whited wall But if hee had knowne and beleeved him to be the true and lawfull high Priest which God had placed over him he would never have said so had the Priest beene never so wicked because the Law saith Thou shalt not revile thy Ruler but for private robbers or forreigne Tyrants God hath not placed them over us nor commanded us to obey them neither have they any right by any law but the law of strength to exact any thing from us and therefore we are obliged by no law to yeeld obedience unto them neither are we hindred by any necessity either of rule or subjection but that we may lawfully repell all the injuries that they offer unto us 3. 3. Example answered For the peoples hindering of King Saul to put his sonne Ionathan to death I say that they freed him from his fathers vow non armis sed precibus not with their weapons but by their prayers Saul was contented to bee perswaded to spare his sonne when they appealed unto himselfe and his own conscience before the living God and perswaded him that setting aside his rash vow he would have regnard unto justice and consider whether it was right that hee should suffer the least dammage who following God had wrought so great a deliverance unto the people as Tremelius and Iunius in their Annotations doe observe And Saint Gregory saith Gregor in 1 Reg. 4. The people freed Ionathan that he should not die when the King overcome by the instance of the people spared his life which no doubt hee was not very earnest to take away from so good a sonne 4. 4. Example answered Touching Ahikam that was a prime Magistrate under King Iehoiakim I say that he defended the Prophet not from the tyrannie of the King but from the fury of the people for so the Text saith Jer. 26.4 The hand of Ahikam that is saith Tremelius the authority and the helpe of Ahikam was with Ieremy that They that is his enemies should not give him into the hands of the people which sought his life to put him to death because Ahikam had beene a long while Councellour unto the King and was therefore very powerfull in credit authority with him The act of Ahikam no colour for Rebellion And you know there is a great deal of difference betwixt the refraining of a tumultuous people by the authority of the King and a tumultuous insurrection against the King that was the part of a good man and a faithfull Magistrate as Ahikam did this of an enemy and a false Traytor as the opposers of Kings use to doe 5. 5. Example answered For the defection and revolting of the ten Tribes from Rehoboam their own naturall lawfull King unto a fugitive and a man of servile condition and for the Edomites Libnites and others 2 Chron. 21. that revolted against King Ioram and that conspiracie which was made in Ierusalem against Amazia 2 Reg. 14.19 I answer briefely that the Scriptures doe herein as they doe in many other places set downe Rei geste veritatem non facti aequitatem the truth of things how they were done not the equity of things that they were rightly done Actions commanded to bee done are not to bee imitated by us unlesse wee bee sure of the like commandement and therefore Non ideo quia factum legimus faciendum credamus ne violemus praeceptam dum sectamur exemplum we must not beleeve it ought to be done because we reade that it was done lest we violate the commandement of God by following the example of men as Saint Augustine speaketh for though Ioseph sware by the life of Pharaoh the Midwives lyed unto the King and the Israelites robbed the Egyptians and sinned not therein yet we have no warrant without sinne to follow their examples Besides God himselfe had fore-told the defection of the ten Tribes for the sinne of Solomon and he being Lord proprietary of all his donation transferreth a full right to him on whom he bestowes it and this made Shemaiah the man of God God is the right owner of all things and therefore may justly dispose any Kingdom 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 murder to have done it and when he commanded the Israelites to rob the Egyptians it was no breach of the eight Commandment 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 Rohoboams finger which moved them to this rebellion I can no waies justifie their action and though God by this rent did most justly revenge the sinne of Salomon and paid for the folly of Rehoboam yet this doth no waies excuse them from 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 a way from the true God into Idolatry and not long after to be led into an endlesse captivity which is a fearfull example to see how suddenly men do fall away from God and from their true Religion after they have rebelled against their lawfull King and how to avoid imaginary grievance they do often fall into a reall 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 tranlgression of the law of God 6. For Vzziah that was taken with a grievous sicknesse 6. Example answered so that he could not be present at the publick affaires of the Kingdome 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 son 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 son did neither affect the name nor assume the title of a King 7. For the deposing of Athalia 7. Example answered I see nothing contrary to equity because she was not the right Prince but an unjust Vsurper of the

Crown and therefore Jehoida the chiefe Priest having gathered together the principall Peers of the Kingdome and the Centurions and the rest of the people shewed them the Kings son 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 son 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 heire unto the Kingdome they put to death the cruell Queen that had so tyrannically slain the Kings children and so unjustly usurped the Crowne 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 usurpers that held the Jewes under them in ore gladii with the edge of their swords and were not their lawfull 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 8. 8. Example answered For the example of Thrasibulus Junius Brutus and other Romans or whosoever that for their faults have deposed their Kings Examples not to be imitated I answer with Saint Augustine that Exemplo paucorum not 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 expelle mischiefe and to admit a greater as besides what I have shewed you before this one most memorable example out of our owne Histories doth make it plaine In the time of Richard the second the Nobility and Gentry murmured much against his government in brief they deposed him The ill successe of resisting our superiours and set the Crown upon the head of the Duke of Lancasher 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 or dispossesse their lawfull 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 paines was served as S. 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 bloodshed the miseries and mischiefes that this one unjust and unfaithfull act produced had never any period never an end till that well nigh an hundred thousand English men were slaine in civill warres Trussel in his supplement to Damels History whereof 2 were Kings 1 Prince 10 Dukes 2 Marquesses 21 Earles 27 Lords 2 Viscounts 1 Lord Prior 1 Judge 139 Knights 421 Esquires and Gentlemen of great and ancient Families a far greater number a just revenge for an unjust extrusion of their lawfull King whose greatest misery came from his great mildnesse And therefore these things being well weighed in the the ballance of the Sanctuary in the scales of true wisedome it had been better for them as it wil be for us 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 sins 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 All the pressures that wee have suffered since the first yeare of our King are not comparable to the miseries that this one yeares civill warre hath brought upon us from hard usage that we impatiently conceived to most base and cruell 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 Romanes when for their liberty and priviledges as they termed it in Pompeyes 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 Kingdome will feelingly confesse this to bee too true when they shal 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 soone he was removed and how happily it came to passe that Henry the seventh succeeded I answer briefly that Richard the third was not only 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 lawfull Kings which God hath justly placed over us and expelling an usurping tyrant which hath unjustly intruded himselfe into the royall throne This God often hath blessed as in the case of Eglon Athalia Henry the seventh and many more which you may obviously finde both in the Greek and Romane stories and the other he alwayes cursed and will plague it whensoever it is attempted Object After I had answered these objections I lighted upon one more which is taken out of 2 King 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 doore for him sit still til he took off his head in obedience to the King No he bestirred himselfe 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 into him before the doore 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 Sol. that who this Goodwin is I know not I could wish he were none of the Tribe of Levi The Ministers of Chist should not be incendiaries of waite 1. Because I finde him such an

themselves because pride and ambition are the two sides of that bellowes which blowes up disobedienee and rebellion But they that are ill servants will prove worse masters they that will not learne how to obey can never tell how to rule and if Moses were as these Rebels suggested a Tyrant yet the Philosopher tels us we had better endure one Tyrant then as they were 250 Tyrants And the Humilie of the Church tels us that contrary to their hopes God never suffers the greatest treasons or rebellion for any long time to prosper Therefore when under loyall pretences we see nothing but studied mischiefes and most crafty endeavours to innovate our government or to imbroyle the Kingdome in a civill war that so they may fish in a troubled water let us never be so stupid as to secure them in these actions to produce our discredit for our simplicity and destruction for our disloyalty but rather let us leave them as Delinquents to the justice of our Lawes and the mercy of the King and this will be the rediest way to effect peace and happinesse to our Nation CHAP. XII Sheweth where the Rebels do hatch their Rebellion The heavy and just deserved punishments of Rebels The application and conclusion of the whole 4. WE are to consider Vbi facerunt 4. Part. Where they did all this where they did all this in castris non in templis that is in their owne houses not in the house of God for in Gods house we teach obedience to our Kings and beat downe rebellion in every Kingdome this is the Doctrine of the Church But in our houses in our cabines and corners in private conventicles they teach rebellion which is the Doctrine of those Schoolcs Our houses are our castles And these Schooles are called Castra Tents or Castles because indeed every mans house is his castle or his fort where he thinkes himselfe sure enough so did those rebels and they would not come out of them neither Moses the King could compell them nor Aaron the Priest could perswade them to come out of their castles and forsake their strong holds which their guilty consciences would not permit them to doe and so all other rebels will never be perswaded to forsake their places of strength untill God pulleth them as he did these Rebels out of their holes for were it not for these Castra the Citties and Castles that they possede they could not so like subtle Foxes runne out and in to nullisie the property and to captivate the liberty of the Kings faithfull subjects as they doe for though they doe all this under those faire pretences for the defence of the true religion the maintainance of our liberties and the property of our estates yet for our religion it is now amongst us as it was in the dayes of S. Basil Basilius de Spiritus Sancto c. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one is a Divine and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. all the bounds of our fore-fathers are transgressed the foundation of doctrine and fortification of disciplin was rooted up and the innovators which never had any other imposition of hands but what they laid upon themselves have matter enough to set forward their sedition and for the other pretences I dare proclaime it to all the world that mine owne experience beleeveth the liberty of the subjects and the property of our goods and the true Procestant Religion could not possibly be more abused then it hath beene by them that came in the name and for the service of the Parliament and therefore I would to God that all the oppressions injustice and imprisonments that have beene made since the beginning of this Parliament were collected and recorded in a booke of remembrance that all the world might see and read the justice and equity of our Parliament and the iniquity oppression and rapine of them that to enrich themseves deprive us of our estates and liberties How the Paliament Rebels have inriched themselves in Ireland and that under the Parliaments name for I heare that as many have beene impoverished so many both of the Lords and Commons in this Kingdome of Ireland that before the Conjunction of these malevolent martiall Planets were very low at an ebbe and their names very deep in many Citizens books have now wiped off all scores paid all their debts and clad themselves in Silkes and Scarlet but with the extorted moneys and the plundered goods of the loyall subjects I hope it is not so in England Yet as Platina tels us Platinas story of the Guelphes and Gibilines that when the Guelphes and the Gibilines in the Citie of Papia were at civill discord and the Gibilines promised to one Fecinus Caius all the goods of the Guelphes if he assisted them to get the victory which he did and after he had subdued the Guelphes he seized upon the goods of both and when the Gibilines complained that he brake his Covenant to pillage their goods Catus answered that themselves were Gibilines but their goods were Guelphs and so belonged unto him So both in England and Ireland I see the Parliament Forces and the Kebels I hope contrary to the will of the Parliament make little difference betwixt Papist and Protestant the well affected and disaffected for they cannot judge of their affections but they can discerne their estates and that is the thing which they thirst after Haud ignota cano But you will say these are miseries unavoidable accidents common to all warre when neither side can excuse all their followers I answer Woe be to them therefore that were the first suggesters and procurers of this warre and cursed be they that are still the incendiaries and blow the coales for the continuance of these miserable distractions I am sure his Majesty was neither the cause nor doth he desire the prolonging thereof for the least moment but as his royall father was a most peaceable Prince so hath he shewed himselfe in all his life to follow him passibus aequis and to be a Prince of peace though as the God of peace is likewise a man of warre and the Lord of Hosts so this peaceable Prince when his patience is too much provoked can as you see change his pen for a sword and turne the mildenesse of a Lambe into the stoutnesse of a Lyon and you know what Solomon saith that The wrath of a King is the messenger of death especially when he is so justly moved to wrath And so much for the particulars of this Text. 2 Having fully seene the uglinesse of this sinne 2. The punishment of these rebels you may a little view the greatnesse of the punishment for Although I must confesse we should be slow to anger slow to wrath yet when the Magistrate is disobeyed the Minister despised and God himselfe disclaimed it makes our hearts to bleed and our spirits angry within us yea though the King were as gentle and as meek