the rule whereby God doth governe the best patterne of a Kings government and the reason is this Wee are to bee subject to our King in the performance of all due services by that bond or tye which not onely Gods Law and Ordinance but also the Kings Law doth put upon us You may remember I showed you before how Gods Law is the rule of our feare and service which wee performe unto his Majesty and to goe beside or transgresse this rule brings us under the guilt and penalty of rebellion I showed you also how wee are bound to serve God as our King by vertue of mutuall stipulation which God makes with us and we with him Semblably our subjection unto the King is to be regulated as by Gods Law the rule of universall obedience to God and man so by the good Lawes of the King And note the completenesse of this correspondence It stayes not here but holds also in that mutuall stipulation or Covenant which the King and his Subjects make at his Coronation Where the King taking an explicit solemne oath to maintaine the ancient Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome and so to rule and governe all his people according to those Lawes established So consequently and implicitly all the people of the Land doe sweare fealty allegiance subjection and obedience to their King and that according to his just Lawes To this purpose it is that his excellent Majesty in the Petition of Right which he subscribed with his owne royall hand hath these words worthy to be written in golden characters The King willeth that right be done according to the Lawes and Customes of the Realme and that the Statutes be put in due execution and His Subjects may have no cause to complaine of any wrong or oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties To the preservation whereof hee holds himselfe in Conscience as well obliged as of his Prerogative And after that in full Parliament he concluded with these words Soit droit fait come est desire Let right be done as is desired And then in his Majesties speech following And I assure you my Maxime is that the Peoples Libertie strengthens the Kings Prerogative that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties O blessed King ever may'st Thou live crowned with all blessings in Thy Royall selfe and Posterity being knit unto Thy people in this indissoluble bond And herein His Sacred Majestie shewed himselfe a Peereles Sonne to His Peerelesse Father who in his speech to the Parliament 1609. besides sundry other rare passages to the same purpose hath these words The King bindes himselfe by a double oath to the observation of the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Tacitly as being a King and so bound as well to protect the People as the Lawes of his Kingdome and expresly by his Oath at His Coronation So as every Just King in a setled Kingdome is bound to observe that paction made to his people by his Lawes in framing his government agreeable thereunto according to that paction which God made with Noah after the deluge c. And therefore a King governing in a setled Kingdome leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soone as hee leaves off to rule according to his lawes And a little after Therefore all Kings that are not Tyrants or perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their Lawes and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common Wealth Which words beseeming a just King I have heere set downe as an honourable testimony of such a Father of such a Sonne and all to be for the stronger reason to all subjects to performe all due obedience to their Soveraigne For if your Gracious King doe so solemnly by Sacred oath ratified againe in Parliament under His Royall hand bind himselfe to maintaine the Lawes of his Kingdome and therein the Rights and Liberties of His Subjects then how much are the people bound to yeeld all subjection and obedience to the King according to his just Laws So much of the proofe of the point Now to the Uses Here 1. Not onely Papists but the religion of Popery it selfe come under the guilt and condemnation of Rebellion forasmuch as the maine Principle of Popery is to exalt and acknowledge the Pope as supreme over all Powers as Emperors Kings Princes States c. And therefore not unworthily is their Religion branded for Rebellion and their faith for Faction and their practise murdering of soules and bodies And though some Papists will take the Oath of Allegiance as subjects to their King yet they refuse the Oath of Supremacy as acknowledging their subjection to the King upon no other termes but as subordinate to the Pope as Supreme And so the Pope and not the King is the Papists King and Soveraigne And yet how is their rebellious religion nay which is rebellion it selfe fostered and fomented in our Land to the infinite dishonour not onely of God but of the King and His Supremacy and danger of the Kingdom if God in mercy doe not prevent it The ancient Church before Antichrist the great usurper mounted aloft acknowledged no Supreme above the Emperour or every absolute Prince in his Kingdome but onely God 2. For Exhortation Heere let all good Christians and royall subjects learne to yeeld all feare honour obedience to their Soveraigne following the direction and exhortation of the Apostle Let every soule be subject to the higher powers And render to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Feare to whom feare Honour to whom honour And for the better stirring up of all those duties which subjects owe to their Soveraigne Let us often meditate of these reasons and motives fore-mentioned by the Apostle and especially considering That the King is Gods Minister to doe Iustice to punish the evill and to countenance and reward the good as also because hee attends continually upon this great office And lastly considering in speciall how our Gracious Soveraigne hath entered into Solemne and sacred Covenant with all his people to bee their King and Protector and to governe them according to his good and just lawes and to maintaine all their just Rights and Liberties and according to the Patterne of God himselfe whose vicegerent hee is to demaund of them no other obedience but what the good lawes of the Kingdome prescribe and require With what alacrity then and readinesse ought all Subjects to expresse their loyalty to their Prince and with all adde their dayly and fervent prayers and supplications for the life of our gracious King that under the shadow of his righteous and religious government wee may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty It followeth Feare the King that is with a filiall feare as the feare of the Lord is only keeping the difference that the one is a religious filiall
reports especially of Gods people who where ever they be are the Kings best subjects What a faire tale could Haman tell the King concerning the Iewes that they were a people scattered over his Provinces had their Lawes divers from other people so as they might hereby trouble the peace of his Kingdome and that they were factious for they observed not the Kings Lawes and therefore that it was not for the Kings profit to suffer them Hereupon seducing the King by his sycophants tōgue he procures a Decree for their utter extirpation It is observed by the Centurists in their Preface before the 5. and 6. Centurie that this arte of satan̄ was much practised in those times against those that were most religious and pious and that it prevayled much to the corrupting and overthrowing of Religion And herein were the Arrians the chiefe sticklers in Princes Courts I will set downe one passage for many Et hoc quoque c. This also is remarkable in this present Century that it presents before our eyes those artes whereby false teachers doe mount on high and afterwards obtaining their desire they domineere as they list For they creep into Courts and by their hypocrisy false tales and detractions of sincere teachers and by a kind of collusion with Courtiers they doe surprise the mindes of the great ones and Magistrates For there is no office or service that they promise not unto them For commonly grave constant faithfull Ministers Professors of the Word of God are hated in Courts and great mens houses because they defend the truth more stisfely and taxe sins more freely to which Courts and great ones are more obnoxious than to them seemes fit Parasites and Court Gnathoes interpret these things to redound to the reproach and diminution of the Magistrates authority and to tend to tumults and seditions And they speake pleasing and plausible things being blind watchmen dumbe dogs plagues of soules false Prophets ravening wolves the eves and robbers of soules c. Therefore with no great adoe they make havocke of the most able Ministers such as teach truly seriously gravely and savingly in the Church of God and such as are of their owne Sect they preferre and place them in the Chaires So there and much more to this purpose But what need wee turne over antiquity Have wee not examples enow neerer home What then 's more common in Amasiahses mouthes then declamations against the good Ministers of the Land the Kings most loyall loving dutifull faithfull obedient peaceable subjects How do they heare of such Declamers Factious Seditious Turbulent Disafected to the present goverment enemies of the Kings Prerogative and what not By this meanes oftē inculcated they seeke to ingratiate themselves and to bring into disgrace the true servants of Iesus Christ. Nor are they content to abuse our pious Princes eares in the Pulpit but also on the Stage O pyous holy reverend grave gracious Prelates whose Academicall Entertainment of pious and religious Kings and Princes in stead of learned and Scholasticall disputations or exercises intable to the condition of a learned Academy is a scurrilous Enterlude and this in disgrace of that which is the greatest beauty of our religion to wit true piety and vertue O blush at this ye Prelates and in your shrift confesse how unseemly this was for YOV that pretend to succeede the Apoles Eyther for shame mend your manners or never more imprison any man for denying that title of succession which you so bely by your vnapostolicall practise And may not that be applied to you which Bernard taxed Pope Eugenius with where telling him of his pompe Oves quid capiunt Si auderem dicere Demonum magis quam ovium passcua haec What good do the sheep receive If I durst speake these are the pastures rather of Devils then of the sheep Scilicet sic factitabat Petrus Sic Paulus ludebat Did Peter thus I pray you Did Paul play such play Surely for my part I am ashamed of you that ever it should be sayd I haue lived a Minister under such a Prelacy Nay as if this had not been sufficient this is done in the very heat and height of Gods Tragedy still in Acting in the Imperiall City when we were all mourning yea and every moment as dying men Was this a time then of Entertaining the Court and poysoning their eares with Enterludes and thereby provoking the Lord further to plague the Kings good people when you should rather have mooved his Majesty whō you wee al know to be forward enough to hearken to such a motion to have called a true Fast with Prayer and Preaching over the Land And was that a time of Enterludes Why did you not feare some Plague to grow in such a mighty assembly When notwithstanding Preaching is made dangerous by you for feare of the plague which should be a meanes as it hath beene formerly to drive away the plague by bringing the people to true humiliation and reformation Whereas your guelded Fast-book contrary to the Proclamation I am sure brought us for a hansell a double increase of the Plague that weeke to any weeke since the Plague began and most terrible weather withall to the Kings great losse and the Mercheants the angry countenāce of heaven ever since pouring Gods wrath upon this your hypocritical Mockfast But by the way take this with you As when the Lord calls to Fasting you fall a Feasting So there is a hand writing over you on the wall the Prophet Esay will tell you from the Lord Surely this iniquity shall never be purged away from you till ye dye sayth the Lord. But now do not exclame as if I spake against such intertainment of our Gracious Soveraigne his noble Court as is indeed honorable grave and sutable to such a Majesty Traine for whom I am ready to Sacrifice my deerest blood if need were Let not malice sucke poyson out of the sweet flower of candid sincerity But this by the way Secondly as Iesuites and their Faction the Popes Factors doe labour to divide the King from his good Subjects by poysoning his gentle eares with their Serpentine breath in their malicious detractions So on the other side they so carry the matter with the Subjects as to cause disunion of affection betwene them and their Soveraigne As first the Iesuites and Priests by seducing the people to their Superstition and Idolatry which of it selfe is a drawing of their hearts away as from their God so from their King Secondly the Prelates who do so interpret and presse the Kings Acts which his Majesty intendend for good as if hee prohibited the Ministers to preach of the saying Doctrines of grace Salvation without which the very Gospel is destroyed For example I my selfe was convented by a Pursivant to London house and there by his Lordship charged for preaching of the Goulden Chaine of Salvation Rom. 8. 29. 30. as it lay in
the pranks that they play in many places of the Kingdome are by speciall warrant from the King or whither the King by some generall warrant dormant hath given them this unlimited power which they at their pleasure doe exercise For instance Will Mathew Lord Bishop of Norwich say that hee hath any warrant from the King speciall or generall for making such havocks and hurliburlies in those two great Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke to the intollerable dishonour of God injury to his Ministers and people and tending to most dangerous consequences If hee have not any warrant but doth it of his owne head or by the instigation of any other Arch-Prelate then let him looke to it least he come to suffer as an usurper a bringer in of a forraigne power an Innovator Oppressor Persecutor and troubler of the peace of the Church and Kingdome If he say he hath warrant for 〈◊〉 let him 〈◊〉 it But I hope hee will not father his desperate courses upon the King What will hee say that the King gives him a power to exercise such unheard of tyranny and injustice upon the Kings peaceable Subjects and Christs faithfull Ministers and that against the Kings Lawes and peoples Rights all which the King hath sworne againe and againe and solemnly protested to maintaine inviolable as his owne Crowne Never therefore let any man dare to pretend any such thing so dishonourable to his Majesty Againe suppose which yet is not to bee supposed that the Prelates should so farre prevaile as to procure a grant from the King to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of the Religion by Law established Yet whatsoever colour pretext or â—ow could they make for this the King to speake with all humble reverence cannot give that power to others which hee hath not himselfe For the Power that is in the King is given unto him by God and confirmed by the Lawes of the Kingdome Now neither God in his Law nor the Lawes of the Land doe allow the King a power to alter the State of Religion or to oppresse and Suppresse the faithfull Ministers of the Gospell against both Law and Conscience For Kings are the Ministers of God for the good of his people as wee shewed before But what doe I speake of this If all the Prelates in England did never so boldly affirme that what they doe in these extravagant courses of theirs it is by warrant from the King I would be so fat from giving any credit unto them herein that I should be the first that should addresse my humble complaint to his Majesty of such dishonour done unto him and humbly petition his Majesty to vindicate his honour from the least suspition of his giving way to or countenancing the Prelates in such their practises as cry up to heaven for vengeance upon their heads This I have urged the more both in reverence to his Sacred Majesty whose honour I cannot indure should receive the least blemish and also in reference to the point in hand because such usurpation of the Prelates cendeth directly to make a division betweene the King and his subjects cantrary to that which we teach here that good Subjects must cleave to their God and King without separation and defection which is by the ligaments of good Lawes which being broken they are as the resolution of the nerves in the naturall body or the cutting in sunder of the sinewes whereby the head and members are united and compacted in one intire body And therefore this claime which the Prelates make of their Prelation and Iurisdiction over Christs Ministers jure divino being repugnant not only to the cleare Scripture forbidding all such domination as they practise as Math. 20. 25. c. Marke 10. 42. c. 1. Pet. 5. i. c. for which they have neither the example of Christ nor of his Apostles nor of any ancient Bishops but principally of Diotrephes 3 Iohn 10. whom they imitate in affecting of preeminence in opposing Iohn the Apostle in exommunicating the Preachers in prating against them with malicious words and the like but also to the Kings Crowne to the Lawes of the Land and consequently to the Liberties of the Subjects I know not with what warrant or Conscience any Minister of Christ can submit to the Practises of these men tending to the ruine of the Kingdome of Christ in this Land and consequently of the whole Kingdome and State Now all these instances alledged are so notorious some of them fresh in memory and many witnesses of them yet living being done but the other day and others yet present before our eyes that they cannot bee denyed and their notoriousnesse makes them the more pernicious as teÌ„ding to corrupt the Kings good peoples hearts by casting into them feares and jealousies with sinister affections towards their King as if hee were the prime cause of all those grievances which the Prelates in his name doe oppresse the Kings good Subjects withall But Trust in the Lord as it is my dayly prayer that hee will preserve the hearts and affections of his people closse and intire to their King and that he will discover both to the King and his people these treacherous practises of the usurping Prelates that so neither the King may thinke evill of his good people nor they have the least jealousy that his Maiesty approveth and countenanceth much lesse willeth and commaundeth his Prelates to coÌ„mit these their intollerable outrages Well come weenow to a second use which is of Exhortation and admonition to all good Subjects above all things to beware of those that cunningly insinuate themselves betweene the barke and the tree that labour to divide the head from the body and the body from the head by casting bones betweene the King and his good Subjects And here Beloued let me in the name of the Lord admonish you that whatsoever passages or outrages you see to bee done by the Prelates although they doe never so boldly pretend the Kings name for it yee believe them not Let never any Sinister opinion concerning his Sacred Majesty creepe into the closset of your brests and as a Snake either sting or poyson your true loyal hearts towards him And therfore beware of all those Factors for Antichrist whose practise is to divide Kings froÌ„ their Subjects subjects from their King that so betweene both they may fairely erect Antichrists throne againe where it had beene in a good measure throwne downe and cast out yea by this time utterly rooted out of this Land if he had not had such strong Sticklers as his Iesuites and Priests yea the Prelates themselves as their practises plainly show to keep him in life and to set him upon his feet againe But yee Beloved abhorre these Factors And if ever they should so farre prevaile as to open a wide breach to let in a forraigne enemy which these their practises and proceedings pretend and tend unto then
not abandon the Priviledges thereof from himselfe seeing hee conferres onely the exercise of ruling Seeing the direct dominion of the Empire is resident in God and consequently in the Pope And Iohn à Capistrano or of the halter saith It is for humility sake that the Pope is moved to say that he will not usurpe the regall dignitie nor the Imperiall authority Let every knee bow to the Pope as unto Christ. And Hee the Pope may excommunicate deprive the Emperor and absolve any man from his allegiance which he oweth to man by the plenitude of power which hee hath And Angelus Rocca in his Vaticana Bibliotheca pag. 5. The Chiefe Pontife or Pope is crowned with a Tiara or round bonnet which they call the Kingdome of the World and his 3. Crownes doe represent the Imperiall Regall and Sacerdotall that is the plenary and universall authority of the whole world By the round Bonnet the Imperiall power is signified by the Miter the Pontificall spirituall So hee Thus wee see this great Antichrist exalts himselfe above all that is called God or that is worshipped Thus hee intercepts from the King that feare and obedience which is due vnto him from the Subjects and takes it to himselfe And thus hee not onely separates the feare of God and of the King but destroyes them both in assuming and usurping them both to himselfe as being both God and the King Secondly They separate Gods feare from the King in this that they altogether free all their Votaries and infinit Orders from the terrene power of Kings and Princes As the Pharisees did nose-wipe Parents of the obedience of their Children by their device of Corban And as our Prelates right chips of the old blocke doe labour tooth and nayle to withdraw their necks from under the yoake of the Kings Lawes which their practise plainly prooveth as we touched before A second sort come here to be reprooved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if hee were God Almighty himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that Omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his Holinesse And this these Parasites and paramours of Kings Courts doe not for any true love or reverence they beare to the King but in speciall for these ends 1. That they may by this meanes nourish a heart-burning betweene the King and his good Subjects that so they may never meet together in Parliament for the redressing of those many enormities and grievances both in the Church and commonweale whereof these make-baites are the principall causes and so least they might bee brought Coram Secondly that so they may by their intoxicating flattery so indeere the King unto them as to his most intire and intimate friends and the onely Supporters of the Prerogative royall for as much as they have justly incurred the hatred of the whole Land and so lye open to all the hazards which envy may bring them into Thirdly by this meanes they are bold tousurpe a lawlesse and unlimited power over the Kings good Subjects as if their advancing of Kingly power above its limites were but to serve their owne turne in executing their lawlesse tyranny by a kind of borrowed and abused regall power And lastly that they may by this meanes trample the Lawes and Liberties of the Subjects under their feet and in fine bring the whole State of the Kingdome King and all under their gâ—â—dle For they must be true to their Principles whereof this is one principall Episcopus non debet subesse Principibus sed praeesse A Bishop ought not to be subject to Princes but to rule over them And this they have sufficiently proved by their late practises wherein they exercise a transcendent power over all Lawes both of God and man but whence they have it I suppose themselves want good evidence and I hope will be afraid to say the King hath given them that Power which himselfe would never either practise or yet challenge as which God never dispensed to any humain Creature and which his Majesty hath so often solemnly protested against as we showed before And thus I say these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his throne downe to the ground Let this then in the least place teach men how to keep this knot of the feare of the Lord and of the King inviolable For to separate them destroyeth both And this is both the doctrine practise of true Christians and that of old For Tertullian saith that though the Christians were traduced to the Emperour as if they were enemies to the State yet those traducers as the Albiniani Nigrani c. Were found to be those enemies But a Christian saith hee is enemy to none much lesse to the Emperour whom knowing to be ordayned of his God hee must of necessity both love and feare and honour and wish him safe Wee therefore love the Emperour so farre as it is both lawfull for us and expedient for Him as a man next under God And whatsoever he is he hath it of God being lesse then God alone And this hee himselfe willeth For hee is so greater then all while hee is lesse then the onely true God Therefore we Sacrifice for the safety of the Emperor but to our God and his but as God hath commanded by pure prayer For the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Masse was not knowne in those primitive times And againe the same Author in another place speaketh to this purpose thus Placing the Majesty of Casar beneath God I doe the more commend him to God to whom alone I subject him and I doe subject him to whom I doe not equall him For I will not call the Emperor God either because I know not how to lie or because I dare not deride him or because neither himselfe will bee called God if hee bee a man It behooves man to give place to God Let it suffice him to bee called Emperour This also is a great name which is given of God Hee denyes him to bee Emperor that calls him God Vnlesse he be man he is no Emperor But saith he what need I speake more of Christian Religion and Piety towards the Emperour Quem necesse est suspiciamus c. Whom wee must of necessity honour as Him whom our Lord hath chosen that I may truely say he is the more our Caesar as hee is appointed of our God therefore as being mine I doe the more labour for his safety So Tertullian So wee also And herein may all true Christians triumph and make a holy boast against all Iesuiticall Sycophants that doe traduce them to Kings and Princes as enemies to their goverment What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason
for they feare not the King they honour him not they love him not they obey him not How Doe not these novellers honour love feare the King Who seeme more True Yet as was shewed before these are the most dangerous enemies of the King who under a pretence of honor and love doe machinate the overthrow of his Kingdome and State as by altering the State of religion and by that meanes alienating and unsettling the hearts of his Subjects by filling them with feares and suspicions as if the King gave these novellers authority so to doe which farre bee it from every good Subjects heart once to imagine For the King and Novellers here doe stand in opposition one against the other Can those be the Kings friends that goe about to divide betweene him and his good Subjects Or to expose his Kingdome to Gods displeasure by corrupting his worship and oppressing his truth It s impossible Therefore to joyne with such is to partake with the Kings false friends and fawning enemies Now for the close of all with application to this present occasion in the thankefull memory of this dayes deliverance from the Gunpowder plot a deliverance never to bee cancelled out of the Calender but to bee written in every mans heart for ever this serveth first for caution to all to take heed how they any way partake with those that bee given to change And to the end wee may the better take heed I will propose onely two examples which it concernes us most at this present to take notice of The first of the Gun-powder Plotters who if their plot had taken effect had prooved notorious Changers For as Popery it selfe is a religion of Changes as from antiquity of truth to novelty of error though they falsely pretend the contrary like the Gibeonites with their old shooes and mouldy bread as if they had come from farre when they dwelt hard by so it can rest no where but is a Mother pregnant in plotting and producing of changes in States Kingdomes Common-weales only unchangeable in this that she makes her selfe Supreme and Sole Mistresse where ever the cometh Accordingly those her Sons whom she had fostered as fit sparkes for such a combustion were set on worke to produce the most monstrous Change that ever the world saw on such a suddaine if it had taken place But our God though he winked at them and suffered them to come to the very upshot of their hope strikes in on a suddaine and in the very nick puts a divine sentence in the lippes of the King who by a strange interpretation of a word in one of their own Letters to a Popish Noble-man not according to the Grammaticall sense of the Letter smelling a sent of fire from the mention of burning the Letter and the danger is past thereupon sent the Lord Chamberlaine to search about the Parliament-house and under it Where entring into the Sellar underneath the upper-house hee found a great many Billets and Faggots heaped up not yet suspecting what lurked underneath But the last search was made for more privacy by Sr. Thomas Knevet who first met with Faux and his Lanthorne with his Matches about him ready against the next morning to blow up King Queene Prince Peeres Nobles Knights Burgesses assembled then and there in Parliament and making him sure first entred the Sellar and found no lesse then 36. Barrells of Gun-powder lying Couchant under Billets and Barres of Yron Thus through Gods mercy the change was prevented the change of a Noble Kingdome into an Anarchy and Babilonian tyranny a change of Christs Religion into Antichrists of Tables into Altars of Preaching Ministers of the Gospel into sacrifising Masse-Priests of light into darkenesse of Christ into Belial of the Temple of God into a temple of Idolls of fundamentall just lawes of a Kingdome into Papall Canons of the Liberty of the Subjects into the servitude of slaves of Regall Edifices and Monuments into vast solitude ruinous heapes Yea what tongue can tell or what heart conceive the miserable changes that must have ensued upon that desperate designe if it had beene effected But blessed be God who hath not given us over as a prey unto their teeth but hath turned the Change another way for in stead of taking us in their snare themselues were taken therein in stead of blowing up the heads and bodies of this Kingdome together with the house and all their owne bodies were quartered and their heads set upon the top of the Parliament-house to their perpetuall infamie and in stead of a day of lamentation and woe and crying in the streets wee keep it a day of rejoycing of solemne thankesgiving and of singing of Psalmes ever since till this every day And ever may wee so in all thankfullnesse celebrate the memory of this day that wee may never provoke God to deliver us up into the hands of those mercilesse Philistimes Finally as the Lord hath made our Fifth of November a glorious day by such a deliverance So on the other side Hee hath branded their fifth of November with the note of a perpetuall curse and ignomy as in that fall of the House in the Black-Friers on their fifth of November when one of their Popish Priests or Predicants would presume to Preach like a Roman Fox to the English Geese the house by the speciall judgement of God suddenly falling upon their heads which flew both the Preacher and some hundreds of the hearers So as wee have cause to remember that Fifth of November also to the glory of our God who alone avenged his cause on those Idolaters But notwithstanding all these things so remarkable both Gods great mercy in delivering vs on our fifth of November and also his severe and just judgement in noting the fifth of November in their Calender with purple Letters died in the blood of so many persons Yet doe they relent Are their Consciences convicted Is their malice abated alas no such thing But as the Prophet told the King of Israel when God had given him the Victory over the King of Syria Goe strengthen thy selfe and marke and see what thou dost for at the returne of the yeere the King of Syria Will come up against thee And so it prooved For the servants of the King of Syria said unto him Their Gods are Gods of the hills but let us fight on the plaine and wee shah be stronger than they So the Pontificians not succeeding that way they try another way What is that way Wee cannot better compare it then to that of Baalam who when hee could not by all his Inchantments conjure up from hell one curse upon Gods people then hee goes a politicke way to worke hee giues Balack the King of Moab crafty counsell to cast a stumbling block before the Children of Israel to eate things sacrificed to Idolls and to commit fornication as yee may see Numb 25. 1. 2. c. This indeed was the
little examine what force there is in this Argument Cathedralls are so and so therefore all other Churches must conforme to them I deny the Argument Legibus vivendum est non exemplis We must live by lawes not by examples The rites and ceremonies of all our Churches are prescribed and precisely limited by the Lawes of the Land by Act of Parliament and are not left at large to the Example of Cathedralls Nay how comes it about that Cathedralls have usurped that Lawlesse and boundlesse Liberty of conforming themselves to Rome in all those their ceremonies What law can they show for this Will they plead prescription For how long time What prescription can Durhams Cathedrall-Church plead for her new service new Copâ—s new Images of Saints and Angels new rites on Candlemas day with their hundreds of tapers and candles and instead thereof bringing a Spirituall darkenesse upon mens soules by shutting out the ancient morning Prayers and other meanes of true knowledge and devotion Are not the authors of this innovation yet alive What Prescription of long custome can the Cathedrall Church of Bristow plead which now of late also hath set up new Images of the Apostles and other Saints What Prescription can Pauls Cathedrall bring for those mitred Images and Statues newly erected and for those winged Angels round about the Quire What Prescription can that Cathedrall Church at Woâ—verhampton in Staffordshire plead for her goodly costly new Altar with the Dedication thereof within these 2. or 3. yeares last past in which Dedication all the Romane rites were observed as Censings washings bowings Copes though but borrowed from Lichfeild chantings abusing of Scripture as Iohn 10. 22. to prove dedication of Altars and the like or what custome can the Same Church plead for erecting their new Altar and throwing out of their ancient and painfull Preacher What warrant have they for setting up such Altars for Baal such dumbe gods and casting downe the throne and stopping the mouth of the living God The like may be said of many other Cathedrals if not all which within these few yeares yea but Yesterday have beene strangely metamorphosed into a Curtizan-like garbe and now must be Like Mother Like Daughter Must therefore all Churches conforme to their new Romish Pashions Must therefore the Cathredrals in Oxford I meane these Câ—lledge-Churches as Magdaleâ—s Christs Church Queenes S. Iohns and others as also those Chappels in Cambridge as Peter-house Chappell S. Iohns Kings Queenes become the â—â—rceries and Springs of Superstition and Idolatry to the whole Land because of late dayes they have crested goodly new Altars Images Crucifires and such like ornâ—ments of the Romish where And because they both practise and presse the bowing to those Idols must therefore all Scholars bow unto them To what end then shall men send their Sons to the Universities if there they must be trained up to the Superstition and Idolatrie of Popery Thus we see how unlike our Cathedrals be to that they were formerly being newly set out with a Romish dresse according to those Spirits which rule in the ayre so as their examples ought to be no Lawes to bring in an universall conformity to these yesterday innovations in Mother-Cathedrals Againe by what title doe Cathedrals came to be Mothers to other Churches what Mothers Except Step-Mothers For they never bore nor brought forth those Churches whom they call daughters And right Step-Mothers they be that cheat the children of their Fathers inheritance as these would doe who rob the Spowse of her Iewels and put upon her the cast attyre of the whore But they alledge the Order for St. Gregories by Paules wherein there is an imitation of this conformity of other Churches to their Mother-Cathedrals I answere our gratious King at that as at other times as still likâ— himselfe plainly said that he would have no innovations Nor can we imagine that it was any part of his meanning that all Churches should in all things conforme to Cathedralls much lesse that all Cathedralls should bring in new rites that so other Churches might conforme to them What Must other Churches have Organs Singing Quires Altars Images Crucifixes Tapers Copes and the like because such is the guise of Cathedralls Must long chanting Service goe up and preaching goe downe because it is So in Wolverhampton Durham and other Cathedralls But by what Law By the Popes Canon Doth not our Law exclude out of all Churches all other rites besides those in the Communion Booke Doth not the Homily fore-cited prayse God for the purging of our Parish Churches from piping chanting and the like as wherewith God is so sore displeased and the house of Prayer defiled And doth not another Homily coÌ„demne the setting up of Images Crucifixes and such Reliques in Churches and all for the perill of Idolatry which doth necessarily attend the same And doth not the Queenes Injunctions forbid all skrines and reliques of Idolatry and Superstition And doth not another Homily condemne many Altars Images and Idols as heathenish and Iewish abuses How then will our new Masters our Innovators make good the bringing in of these things afresh into Cathedrals forcing all petty churches to coÌ„forme thereunto would the Prelates thus make the Mother Cathedrals thus by theÌ„selves made adopted Romes daughters their Concubines whereon to beget a new bastard generation of sacrificing Idolatrous Masse-Priests throughout the Land which our good Lawes and all our learned and pious Divines proclaimed illegitimate and abominable So as I cannot but wonder though I hope better that these desperate and all daring Popish Innovators turning off the State of the Kingdome and Church upside downe beating themselves either upon the Popes Canon-Law overtopping the Regall power or upon the evill example of their lately metamorphosed Cathedrals conformed to Rome that so they may finely or furiously inforce all the Churches in England to the like conformity and so reduce England under the Papall yoake againe they being now dead that felt the intollerable pressure of it and a new generation sprung up that affect novelty and to trade with Rome againe and nothing can now stay them but they will either breake all in pieces or their owne neckes that they are not cited before the Royall Tribunalls of Iustice and the Iudges and Iustices in their Circuits and assises doe not take Cogniscance of such perturbers who undermine and overthrow the State of Church and Common weale and mingle heaven and earth together and so condignely punish them for their intolerable usurpations So should my text be here made up My Son feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddainly and who knoweth the ruine of them both But alas have they not got the Lawes under their girdles and doe they not trample them as durt under their feet And therefore with what chaines shall wee bind these men How shall wee
bind these all-shapeturning Monsters to good behaviour May not this whole State say as that good King Iehâ—shaphat in the straites of Ierusalem Wee know not what to doe but our eyes are towards 〈◊〉 O Lord And besides all this in the last place being pulled away from the hornes of their Cathedrall Altars as not able to shelter them from their pursuers they fly as to their last refuge and most impregnable Fort as they conceive to the Kings Chappell Wherein they doe as the Fish Polypus or many-foot which gets her selfe closse to the rocke and putting on the colour of the rocke so as she seemes to be a part of it when other fishes swimme toward the rock for shelter she catches them unawares in her net-like haires or hornes So our Innovators getting closse to the King as unto the rock assimiling themselves to the manners of the Court when the fishes think to fynd shelter and protection under the Rocke they are ready with their fangs to intangle and devour them Well what say they of the Kings Chappell They plead the whole equipage furniture and fashion thereof as a patterne for all Churches There say they is an Altar there bowing towards it there Crucifixes there Images other guises And why should Subject be wiser then the King Totus componitur orbis Regis ad exemplum To this I answere 1. Why should subjects think to compare with the King in the State of his royall Family or Chappell 2ly there be many things in the Kings Chappell which were presumption to have in ordinary Churches and some things cannot be had or maintained in them as a quire of Gentlemen Singing men other Choristers which dayly sing Service in the Chappell and sundry other 3ly The worship and service of God and of Christ is not to be regulated by humaine examples but by the Divine rule of the Scriptures In vaine they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of men The three children would not bow to the Kings goodly golden Image The old Christians would not so much as offer incense in the presence of Iulian the Emperors Altar and at his commaund though he propounded golden rewards to the doers and menaced fiery punishments to the denyers 4ly The externall rites and ceremonies in the Church are limited by Act of Parliament prefixed to the Communion booke and no more to be added or used in Churches Lastly Suppose which we trust never to see which our hearts abhorre once to imagine Masse were set up in the Kings Cappell is this a good argument why it should be admitted in all the Churches throughout the Realme of England But enough of this And here an end for this time and thus farre of this text which as I began so I will conclude with all My Son feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both FINIS * Golden sentence Invicem cedunt dolor voluptas brevior voluptas Senec. Psal. 42. 11 Psal. 2. 11. * Id est cum variantibus ac perfringentibus Dei suorumque Principum mandata denique deficientibus vita sua immorigera à reverentia Dei Regis Point 〈◊〉 Question Answer Psal. 85. 8. 1. Thess. 2. 13. * 1. King 22 Iohn 8. 39. 41. v. 42. 39. Nec quenquam senem audivi oblâ—tum quo lovo thesâ—urum abruisset Omnia quae curant menunerunt Cre. de Senectute Mal. 1. 6. Poiâ—… 2. Math. 15. 9 Phil. 3. 18. 19. Article 17. * What mâ—râ— jeared by a generation of upstarts in these dayes Galath 6. 1. Rom. 15. 1. Point 3. * Aug. De correptili gratia Cap. 9. quia non habuerunt perseuer antiam sicut non vere discipuli Christi ita nec vere filij De fuerimt etiam quando esse videbantur at itâ— vocabantur * V. 10. Reasons Rom. 8. 38. â—9 Rom. 11. * Examen * Ioh. 6. 39. 2. Ioh. 10. 11. * Dr. Corbet Chancellor to the Bp. of Norwiâ—h Mr. Greenhill an eminent Minister coming to him with another Minister in humble manner to desire absolution from excommunication for the refusall of conformity to their new rites said unto him in a great head of passion that if hee had the power as hee desired he would Pistoll him ‡ As Master Buck in his Sermon at Norwich inveighing against the Puritans said If a cup of cold water had a reward much more a cup of blood As Dr. Corbet said to Mr. Powell a Minister who refused to read the booke for sports That were it not for a point in the common law he deserved to bee hang'd drawne and quartered †Iustum tenacem Propositi virum non civium ardor Pravâ— Iubentium non vultus instantis Tyranni mente quaâ—it solida Horat. * 1. King 18. 18. 2. King 3. 14. ‡ Zozoâ— Hist. l. 5. Cap. 4. * It was in old time when some Bishops were content to bee poorevita S. Wilfredi See Caml Remaines Wisespeeches p. 183. Act. 7. †Bono probari malo quam multis malis Ausonius Lu. 12. 4. 5. Revel 12. 4 * Prosperâ—… ac fâ—…lix scelus virtus vocatur Senec si malâ— res cessit licet optima male tamen audit Rom. Gen. 11. 6. Turpiu◠〈◊〉 grâ—…â—â—icitur quam non admittâ—tur â—espes Virgil. Eglog Sic cantbâ—â— carulos similes sio matribus hoedos Noram sic parvu componere magna solebam * See Shelforts Sermons and Dr. Pockl. Sunday no Sabbath And others * Matt. 13. 25. * See the Homily of the place time of Prayer part 2. Where these words are Finally Gods vengeance hath beene and is dayly provoked because much wicked people passe nothing to resort to the Church either for that they are so sore blinded that they understand nothing of God and godlinesse and care not with divellish example to offend their neighbours or â—ls for that they see the church altogether scoured of such gay gazing sights as their grosse fantasy was greatly delighted with because they see the false religion abandoned the true restored which seemeth an unsavory thing to their unsavorly tast as may appeare by this that a woman sayd to her neighbour Alas Gossip what shall we doe at Church since all the Saints are taken away since all the goodly sights we were wons to have are gone since we cannot heare the like piping singing chanting and playing upon the Organs that wee could before But dearely beloved wee ought greatly to rejoyce and give God thanks that our Churches are delivered out of ALL those things which displeased God so sore and filthily defiled his holy house and his place of prayer for the which hee hath justly destroyed many nations according to the saying of Saint Paul If any man defile the Temple of God God will him destroy And this ought wee greatly to prayse God for that such Superstitious and Idolatrous manners as were utterly