Rites which were such a burthen that neither we nor our fathers could undergo and also from the curse and malediction of the moral law would under this pretence of Christian liberty be freed from the obligation of all lawes and give themselves the freedom to do what they pleased for this would prove to be not the liberty but the bondage and the base slavery of a people that are not governed by lawes but suffered to do what they please because that neither God nor good lawes confine us but for our own good and he that forbids us to obey impious commands bids us to obey all righteous lawes and rather to suffer then to resist the most unrighteous Governours But I fear that under the name of the liberty of the subjects What is often aimed at under the name of theâ— liberty of the â—ubjects the licentiousnesse of the flesh is aymed at because you may see by what is already come to passe our civil dissention hath procured to many men such a liberty that few men are sure either of their life or estate and God blesse me from such a liberty and send me rather to be the slave of Christ then such a libertine of the world Whether for the preservation of our Religion we can be warranted to rebell And if religion be the cause that moveth you here hereunto I confesse this should be dearer to us then our lives but this title is like a velvet mask that is often used to cover a deformed face decipimur specie recti for as that worthy and learned Knight Sir John Cheek that was Tutor to King Edward the sixth saith If you were offered Persecution for Religion you ought to flye and yet you intend to fight if you would stand in the truth ye ought to suffer like Martyrs and you would slay like Tyrants Thus for Religion you keep no Religion and neither will follow the Counsel of Christ nor the constancie of Martyrs And a little after he demands why the people should not like that Religion which Gods Word established the Primitive Church hath authorized the greatest learned men of this Realm and the whole consent of the Parliament have confirmed and the Kings Majesty hath set forth is it not truly set out Sir John Cheek in The true subject to the rebell p. 4 6. Dare you Commons take upon you more learning then the chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realm have This was the judgement of that judicious man And I must tell you that Religion never taught Rebellion neither was it the will of Christ that Faith should be compelled by fighting but perswaded by preaching for the Lord sharply reproveth them that built up Sion with blood Micah 3.18 and Hierusalem with iniquitie and the practice of Christ and his Apostles was to reform the Church by prayers and preaching and not with fire and sword and they presse obedience unto our Governours yea though they were impious infidels and idolatrous True religion never rebelleth with arguments fetched from Gods ordinance from mans conscience from wrath and vengeance and from the terrible sentence of damnation And this truth is so solid that it hath the clear testimony of holy Writ the perpetual practice of all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs and I dare boldly say it the unanimous consent of all the orthodox Bishops and Catholick Writers both in England and Ireland and in all the world That Christian Religion teacheth us never with any violence to resist or with arms to withstand the authority of our lawful Kings If you say The Laws of our Land Whether the Laws of our Land do warrant us to rebell and the Constitutions of this our Kingdom give us leave to stand upon our libertie and to withstand all tyrannie that shall be offered unto us especially when our estates lives and religion are in danger to be destroyed To this I say with Laelius that Nulla lex valeat contra jus divinum Laelâ—â—s de privileg Eccles 112. Mans lawes can exact no further obedience then may stand with the observance of the divine precepts and therefore we must not so preferre them or relye upon them so much as to prejudice the other and for our fear of the losse of estate life or religion I wish it may not be setled upon groundlesse suspitions for I know and all the world may believe that our King is a most clement and religious Prince that never did give cause unto any of his subjects to foster such feares and jealousies within his breast and you know what the Psalmist saith of many men They were afraid where no fear was And Job tells you whom terrours shall make afraid on every side Job 18.11 12. and shall drive him to his feet that is to runne away as you see the Rebels do from the Kings Army in every place and in whose Tabernacle shall dwell the King of fear for though the ungodly fleeth when no man pursueth him yet they that trust in God are confident as Lyons without fear they know that the heart of the King is not in his own hand but in the hand of the Lord Prov 21.1 Bonav ad secundam dist 35. art 2. qu. 1. as the rivers of waters and he turneth it whithersoever it pleaseth him either to save them or destroy them even as it pleaseth God He ordereth the King how to rule the people And therefore in the name of God and for Christ Jesus sake let me perswade you to put away all causelesse fears and groundlesse jealousies and trust your King if not trust your God and let your will which is so unhappy in it self become right and equall by receiving direction from the will of God and remember what Vlpian the great Civilian saith that Rebellion and disobedience unto your King is proximum sacrilegio crimen and that it is in Samuel's judgement as the sinne of witchcraft whereby men forsake God and cleave unto the Devil and above all The remembrance of his Oath should be a terrour to the conscience of every Rebel remember the oath that many of you have taken to be true and faithful unto your King and to reveal whatsoever evils or plots that you shall know or hear to be contrived against his Person Crown or Dignity and defend him from them Pro posse tuo to the uttermost of your power So help you God Which Oath how they that are any wayes assistant in a warre against their King can dispence with I cannot with all my wit and learning understand and therefore return O Shulamite 〈◊〉 lay down thine arms submit thy self unto thy Soveraign and know that as the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings 1 Kings 20.31 so is the King of England thou shalt find grace in the time of need but delay not this duty â—est as Demades saith the Athenians never sate upon treaties of peace but in mourning weeds when by the losse of
though approved by God for the welfare of the Common-wealth 1 Sam. 8 4 20. but as the Israelites desired a King to judge them like all the Nations that is such a King as Aristotle describeth such as the Nations had intrusted with an absolute and full regal power as Sigonius sheweth so the Kings of the Nations if they be not like the Spartan Kings were and are like the Kings of Israel both in respect of their ordination from God by whom all Kings as wel of other Nations as of Israel do reign and of their full power and inviolable authority over the people which have no more dispensation to resist their Kings then the Jews had to resist theirs And therefore Valentinian though an elected Emperour yet when he was requested by his Electours to admit of an associate Sozom. histor l 6. c. 6. Niceph hist l. 11. c 1. answered it was in your power to chuse me to be an Emperour but now after you have chosen me what you require is in my power not in you Vòbis tanquam subditis competit parere mihi verò quae facienda sunt cogitare it becomes you to obey as Subjects and I am to consider what is fittest to be done And when the wife takes an husband there is a compact agreement and a solemn vow past in the presence of God that he shall love cherish and maintain her The wife may not forsake her husband though he break his vow and neglect his duty yet if he breaks this vow and neglects both to love and to cherish her she cannot renounce him she must not forsake him she may not follow after another and there is a greater marriage betwixt the King and his people therefore though as a wife they might have power to chuse him and in their choice to tye him to some conditions yet though he breaks them they have no more power to abdicate their King then the wife hath to renounce her husband nor so much because she may complain and call her husband before a competent Judge and produce witnesses against him whereas there can be no Judge betwixt the King and his people but onely God and no witnesses can be found on earth because it is against all Lawes and against all Reason that they which rise against their king should be both the witnesses against him and the Judges to condemn him or were it so that all other Kings have not the like constitution which the Scripture setteth down for the Kings of Israel yet I say that excepting some circumstantial Ceremonies in all real points the Laws of our Land are so far as men could make them in all things agreeable to the Scriptures in the constituting of our Kings according to the livelyest pattern of the Kings of Israel as it is well observed by the Authour of the Appeal to thy conscience An Appeal to thy conscience pag 30. Our Kings of the like Institution to the kings of Israel in these four special respects 1. In his Right to the Crown 2. In his Power and Authority 3. In his Charge and Duty 4. In the rendring of his Account For 1. As the Kings of Israel were hereditary by succession and not elective Respect 1 unless there were an extraordinary and divine designation as in David Kings of England are kings by birth Proved Salomon Jehu so do the Kings of England obtain their Kingdoms by birth or hereditary succession as it appeareth 1. By the Oath of Allegiance used in every Leete that you shall be true Reason 1 and faithful to our Soveraign Lord King Charles and to his Heires 2. Because we owe our legeance to the King in his natural capacity that is Reason 2 as he is Charles the Son and Heir apparent of King James when as homage cannot be done to any King in his politique capacity Coke l. 7. Calvin's case the body of the King being invisible in that sence 3. Because in that case it is expresly affirmed that the King holds the Kingdom Reason 3 of England by birth-right inherent by descent from the bloud-royal therefore to shew how inseperable this right is from the next in bloud Hen. the 4. though he was of the bloud-royal being first cozen unto the King and had the Crown resigned unto him by Rich. the 2. and confirmed unto him by Act of Parliament yet upon his death-bed confessed he had no right thereunto Speed l. 9. c. 16. as Speed writeth 4. Because it was determined by all the Judges at the Arraignment of Watson Reason 4 and Clerke 1. Jacobi that immediately by descent his Majesty was compleatly and absolutely King without the Ceremony of Coronation which was but a Royal Ornament and outward Solemnization of the descent And it is illustrated by Hen. 6. that was not crowned till the ninth year of his Reign Speed l. 9. c. 16. and yet divers were attainted of High Treason before that time which could not have been done had he not been King And we know that upon the death of any of our Kings The right heir to the Kingdom is King before he is crowned Why the peoples consent is asked his Successor is immediately proclaimed King to shew that he hath his Kingdom by descent and not by the people at his Coronation whose consent is then asked not because they have any power to deny their consent or refuse him for their King but that the King having their assent may with greater security and confidence rely upon their loyalty 2 As the Kings of Israel had full power and authority to make war and Respect 2 conclude peace to call the greatest Assemblies as Moses Joshua David Jehosaphat and the rest of the Kings did to place and displace the greatest Officers of State as Solomon placed Abiathar in Sadoc's room and Jehosaphat appointed Amariah and Zebaediah rulers of the greatest Affaires 2 Chron. 19.11 The absolute authority of the kings of England Coke 7 rep fol. 25. 6. Polyd. Virgil. lib 11. Speed Stow c. and had all the Militia of the Kingdom in their hands so the Kings of England have the like for 1. He onely can lawfully proclaim war as I shewed before and he onely can conclude peace 2. There is no Assembly that can lawfully meet but by his Authority and as the Parliament was first devised and instituted by the king as all our Historians write in the life of Henry the first so they cannot meet but by the king's Writ 3. All Laws Customs and Franchises are granted and confirmed unto the people by the King Rot. Claus 1. R. 2. n. 44. 4. All the Officers of the Realm whether Spiritual or Temporal Smith de repub Angl. l. 2. c. 4. c. 5. are chosen and established by him as the highest immediately by himself and the inferiour by an authority derived from him The absurdiâ—ies of them that deny the Militia to the King 5. He hath the
sole power of ordering and disposing all the Castles Forts and strong Holds and all the Ports Havens and all other parts of the Militia of this kingdom or otherwise it would follow that the king had power to proclaime war but not to be able to maintain it and that he is bound to defend his subjects but is denied the meanes to protect them which is such an absurdity as cannot be answered by all the House of Commons 6. The kings of Israel were unto their people their honour their Soveraigns their life and the very breath of their nostrils as themselves acknowledge and so the kings of England are the life the head and the authority of all things that be done in the Realm of England supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habentes Smith de Repub l. 2. Cambden Britan p. 132. nec in Imperii clientela sunt nec investituram ab alio accipientes nec praeter Deum superiorem agnoscentes and their Subjects are bound by Oath to maintain the kings Soveraignty in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that not onely as they are singularly considered but overall collectively represented in the body politick for by sundry divers old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world In the Preface to a Stat. 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12 governed by one supream head and king having the dignity and royal estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a body politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of spiritualty and temporalty have been bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience Respect 3 3. As the duty of every one of the kings of Israel was to be custos utriusque tabulae to keep the Law of God and to have a special care of his Religion and then to do justice and judgment according to the Law of nature and to observe all the judicial Laws of that kingdom so are the kings of England obliged to discharge the same duties The duty of the kings of England 1. To have the chiefest care to defend the faith of Christ and to preserve the honour of Gods Church as I shewed before 2. To maintain common right according to the rules and dictates of Nature And. 3. To see the particular Laws and Statutes of his own kingdom well observed amongst his people To all which the king is bound not onely virtute officii in respect of his office but also vinculo juramenti in respect of his Oath which enjoyneth him to guide his actions not according to the desires of an unbridled will but according to the tyes of these estabâ—ished Laws neither do our Divines give any further liberty to any king but if he failes in these he doth offend in his duty Respect 4 4. As the kings of Israel were accountable for their actions unto none but onely unto God Psal 51.4 and therefore king David after he had committed both murder and adultery saith unto God Tibi soli peccavi as if he had said none can call me to any account for what I have done but thou alone and we never read that either the people did call or the Prophets perswaded them to call any of their most idolatrous The kings of England accountable for their actions only to God tyrannical or wicked kings to any account for their idolatry tyranny or wickedness even so the kings of England are accountable to none but to God Reason 1 1. Because they have their Crown immediately from God who first gave it to the Conquerour through his sword and since to the succeeding kings by the ordinary means of hereditary succession Smith de repub l. 1. c. 9. Reason 2 2. Because the Oath which he takes at his Coronation binds him onely before God who alone can both judge him and punish him if he forgets it Reason 3 3. Because there is neither condition promise or limitation either in that Oath or in any other Covenant or compact that the king makes with the people either at his Coronation or at any other time that he should be accomptable or that they should question and censure him for any thing that he should do Reason 4 4. Because the Testimony of many famous Lawyers justify the same truth for Bracton saith if the king refuse to do what is just satis erit ei ad poenam quòd Dominum expectet ultorem The Lord will be his avenger which will be punishment enough for him but of the kings grants and actions nec privatae personae nec justiciarii debent disputare And Walsingham maketh mention of a Letter written from the Parliament to the Bishop of Rome wherein they say Bracton fol. 34. 2. b. apud Lincol anno 1301. that certum directum Dominium à prima institutione regni Angliae ad Regem pertinuit the certain and direct Dominion of this Kingdom from the very first institution thereof hath belonged unto the King who by reason of the arbitrary or free preeminence of the royal dignity and custome observed in all ages ought not to answer before any Judge either Ecclesiastical or Secular Ex libera praeeminentia Ergo neither before the Pope nor Parliament nor Presbytery Reason 5 5. Because the constant custome and practice of this kingdom was ever such that no Parliament at any time sought to censure their king and either to depose him or to punish him for any of all his actions save onely those that were called in the troublesome and irregular times of our unfortunate Princes No legitimate and just Parliment did ever question the kings of England for their actions and were swayed by those that were the heads of the most powerful Faction to conclude most horrid and unjustifiable Acts to the very shame of their Judicial authorities as those factious Parliaments in the times of Hen. 3. king John Rich. 2. and Hen. 4. and others whose acts in the judgment of all good authors are not to be drawn into examples when as they deposed their king for those pretended faults whereof not the worst of them but is fairly answered and all thirty three of them proved to be no way sufficient to depose him Heningus c. 4. p. 93. by that excellent Civilian Heningus Arnisaeus And therefore seeing the Institution of our kings is not onely by Gods Law but also by our own Laws Customs and practice thus agreeable to the Scripture kings they ought to be as sacred and as inviolable to us as the kings of Israel were to the Jews and as reverently honoured and obeyed by us as both the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul advise us to honour and obey the king CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto
true religion and to suppress all Heresies and Schismes And so accordingly we finde the good Emperours and Kings have ever done The good Emperours have made Laws for the government of the Church Euseb in vita Constant l. 2. 3. for Constantine caused the idolatrous religions to be suppressed and the true knowledge of Christ to be preached and planted amongst his people and made many wholsome Lawes and godly Constitutions to restrain the sacrificing unto Idols and all other devillish and superstitious south-sayings and to cause the true service of God to be rightly administred in every place saith Eusebius And in another place he saith that the same Constantine gave injunctions to the chiefe Ministers of the Churches that they should make speciall supplication to God for him and he enjoyned all his Subjects that they should keep holy certain dayes dedicated to Christ and the Sabboth or Saturday which was then wont to be kept holy and as yet not abrogated by any Law among the Christians he gave a Law to the Ruler of every Nation that they should celebrate the Sunday or the Lords day in like sort Idem de vita Constant l. 1. 3. 4. c. 18. and so for the dayes that were dedicated to the memory of the Martyrs and other festival times and all such things were done according to the ordinance of the Emperour Nicephorus writing of the excellent virtues of Andronicus son to Immanuel Palaeologus and comparing him to Constantine the Great saith Niceph. in prafation Eccles hist thou hast restored the Catholique Church being troubled with new opinions to the old State thou hast banished all unlawfull and impure doctrine thou hast established the truth and hast made Lawes and Constitutions for the same Sozomen speaking of Constantines sons saith Sozomenus l 3. c. 17. the Princes also concurred to the increase of these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewing their good affections to the Churches no less then their father did and honouring the Clergy their servants with singular promotions and immunities both confirming their fathers Lawes and making also new Lawes of their own against such as went about to sacrifice and to worship Idols or by any other means fell to the Greekish or Heathenish superstitions Theodoret tells us that Valentinian at the Synod in Illirico did not onely confirme the true faith by his Royall assent but made also many godly and sharpe Lawes as well for the maintenance of the truth of Christ his doctrine as also touching many other causes Ecclesiastical and as ratifying those things that were done by the Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodor. l. c. 5 6 7. he sent abroad to them that doubted thereof Honorius at the request of Boniface the first made a Law whereby it might appear what was to be done Distinct 79. siduo when two Popes were chosen at once by the indiscretion of the Electors Martianus also made a Statute to cut off and put away all manner of contention about the true faith and Religion in the Councell of Calcedon The Emperour Justinus made a Law that the Churches of Heretiques should be consecrated to the Catholique Religion saith Martinus Poenitentiarius And who knowes not of the many Laws and Decrees that Justinian made in Ecclesiasticall causes for the furtherance of the true Religion for in the beginning of the Constitutions collected in the Code of Iustinian the first 13 titles are all filled with Laws for to rule the Church where it forbiddeth the Bishops to reiterate baptisme to paint L. 1. tit 5. L. 1. tit 7. Novel 123. c. 10. Novel 58. Novel 137. c. 6. or grave on earth the Image of our Saviour And in the Novels the Emperour ordaineth Lawes of the creation and consecration of Bishops that Synods should be annually held that the holy mysteries should not be celebrated in private houses that the Bishops should speak alond when they celebrate the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Eucharist and that the holy Bible should be translated into the vulgar tongue and the like And not onely these and the rest of the godly Emperours that succeeded them but also Ariamirus Wambanus Richaredus and divers other Kings of Spaine did in like manner And Charlemaigne who approved not the decisions of the Greekish Synod wrote a book against the same * Intituled A Treatise of Charlemaigne against the Greekish Synod touching Images whereby the King maintained himself in possession to make Lawes for the Church saith Johannes Beda of which Lawes there are many in a book called The capitulary Decrees of Charles the Great who as Popin his predecessour had done in the City of Bourges so did he also assemble many Councils in divers places of his Kingdoms as at Mayns at Tours at Reines at Chaalons at Arles and the sixt most famous of all at Francfort where himself was present in person and condemned the errour of Felician and so other Kings of France and the Kings of our own Kingdom of England both before and after the Conquest as Master Fox plentifully recordeth did make many Lawes and Constitutions for the government of God's Church The saying of Dioclesian But as Dioclesian that was neither the best nor the happiest governour said most truly of the civil government that there was nothing haraer th n to rule well * That is to rule the Common-wealth so it is much harder to govern the Church of Christ therefore as there cannot be an argument of greater wisdome in a Prince nor any thing of greater safety and felicity to the Common-wealth then for him to make choice of a wise Council to assist him in his most weighty affaires Tacitus Annal. lib. 12. saith Cornelius Tacitus So all religious Kings must do the like in the government of the Church and the making of their Lawes for that government for God out of his great mercy to them and no less desire to have his people religiously governed left such men to be their supporters their helpers and advisers in the performance of these duties and I pray you whom did Kings chuse for this business but whom God had ordained for that purpose for you may observe that although those Christian Kings and Emperours made their Lawes as having the supremacy and the chieâ—est câ—re of God's religion committed by God into their hands yet they did never make them that ever I could read with the advice counsel or direction of any of their Peers or Lay Subjects but as David had Nathan and God The good Kings Emperours made their Lawes for the government of the Church onely by the adv ce of their Clergy A good Law of Instinian Constit 123. Nâ—buâ—hadnezzar had Daniel and the rest of the Jewish Kings and Heathens had their Prophets onely and Priests to direct them in all matters of religion so those Chr stian Kings and Princes took their Bishops and their Clergie onely to be their counsellors and
of it in this place If these Counsellours Magistrates Parliament call them what you will have any power and authority it must be either subordinate coordinate or supreme 1 Subordinate officers can have no power over their superiors 1. If subordinate I told you before they can have no power over their superiour because all inferiour Magistrates are Magistrates onely in respect of those that are under their jurisdiction because to them they represent the King and supply the office of the King but in reference to the King they are but private persons and Subjects that can challenge no jurisdiction over him 2. that neither Peers not Parliament can have the supremacy None above the king at any time 2. If they be supreme then Saint Peter is much mistaken to say the King is supreme and they do ill to disclaime this supremacy when in all their Petitions not disjunctively but as they are an united body they say Your Majesties humble Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament and besides they are perjur'd that deny it after they have taken the Oath of supremacy where every one saith I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highness is the onely supreme Governour of this Realme c. But this is further and so fully proved out of Bracton the nature of all the Subjects tenures and the constitution of this government by the Authour of The unlawfulness of Subjects taking up armes against their Soveraigne that more needs not be spoken to any rational man Yet because this point is of such great concernment and the chiefest argument they have out of Bracton is that he saith Rex habet superiorem The Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton fully answered legem curiam suam comites Barones quia comites dicuntur quasi socii Regis qui habet socium habet magistrum ideò si Rex fuerit sine frano id est sine lege debent ei fraenum ponere nisi ipsimet fuerint cum rege sine fraeno and all this makes just nothing in the World for them if they had the honesty or the learning to understand it right for what is above the King the Law and the Court of Earles and Barons but how are they above him as the Preacher is above the King when he preacheth unto him or the Physician when he gives him Physick or the Pilot when he sayleth by Sea that is quoad rationem consulendi How the Law and the Court of Barons is above the King non cogendi they have superioritatem directivam non coactivam for so the teacher is above him that is taught and the Counsellor above him that is counselled that is by way-of advice but not by way of command and to shew you that this is Bractons true meaning I pray you consider his words Comites dicuntur quasi socii they are as his fellows or Peeres not simply but quasi and if they were simply so yet they are but socii not superiours and what can socii do not command for par in parem non habet potestatem that is praecipiendi otherwise you must confesse habet potestatem consulendi therefore Bracton addes qui habet socium habet magistrum that is a teacher not a commander and to make this yet moâ—e plain he addes Si Rex fuerit sine fraeno id est lege if the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he meanes by the bridle and thinke he meanes force and armes the Law they ought to put this bridle unto him that is to presse him with this Law and still to shew him his duty even as we do both to King and people saying this is the Law this should bridle you but here is not a word of commanding much lesse of forcing the King not a word of superiority nor yet simply of equality and therefore I must say hoc argumentum nihil ad rhombum these do abuse every author 3 That neither Peers nor Parliament are co-ordinate with the King If their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their natural strength and power but of their right and authority be coordinate and equal with the Kings authority then whether given by God which they cannot prove or by the people there must be duo summa imperia two supreme powers which the Philosophers say cannot be nam quod summum est unum est Ommesque Philosoph jurisconsulti ponunt summum in eo rerum genere quod dividi non possit Lactant. l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. 3.14 from whence they prove the unity of the God-head that there can be but one God and if this supreme power be divided betwixt King and Parliament you know what the Poet saith Omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit Or you may remember what our Saviour saith If a Kingdome be divided against it selfe it cannot stand and therefore when Tiberius out of his wonted subtilty desired the Senate to appoint a colleague and partner with him for the better administration of the Empire Asinius Gallus that was desirous enough of their Pristine liberty yet understanding well with what minde the subtle fox spake onely to descry his ill willers after some jests answered seriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that government must not be divided because you can never have any happiness where the power is equally divided in two parts when according to the well known axiome to every one Par in parem non habet potestatem But to make the matter cleare The Case of our Affaires p. 19.20 The Lawes of our Land acknowledge all Soveraignty in the King and to shew that the Soveraignty is inseperably inherent in the person of His Majesty we have the whole current of our very Acts of Parliament acknowledging it in these very termes Our Soveraigne Lord the King and the Parliament 25. Hen. 8. saith This your Graces Realme recognizing no superiour under God but your Grace c. And the Parliament 16. Rich. 2.5 affirmeth the Crown of England to have been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the regality of the said Crown and to none other and in the 25. of Hen. 5. the Parliament declareth that it belongeth to the Kings regality to grant or deny what Petitions in Parliament he pleaseth and so indeed whatsoever authority is in the constant practice of the Kingdom or in the known and published Laws and Statutes it concludeth the Soveraignty to be fixed in the King and all the Subjects virtually united in the representative body of the Parliament to be obliged in obedience allegeance to the individual person of the King and I doubt not but our learned Lawyers can finde much more proofe then I do out of their Law to this purpose And therefore seeing divers supreme
to defend the rights of the Clergy by his oath then the rest of the Lawes formerly enacted whereof any may be abrogated without perjury when they are desired to be annulled by the Kingdome Sol. His Majesties answer to the remonstrance or declaration of the Lords and Commons 26. of May 1642. To which I say that as His Majesty confesseth there are two speciall questions demanded of the king at His Coronation 1. Sir Will you grant and keep and by your oath confirm to the people of England the Lawes and Customes to them granted by the Kings of England your lawfull and religious predecessors And the king answereth I grant and promise to keep them 2. After such questions as concerne all the commonalty of this kingdome both Clergy and Laity as they are his Subjects one of the Bishops reads this admonition to the king before the people with a loud voice Our Lord and King we beseech you to pardon and to grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to our charge all Canonicall priviledges and due law and justice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in His Kingdome ought to be the protector and defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government And the king answereth With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my pardon and that I will preserve and maintaine to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonicall Priviledges and due law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good king in His kingdome in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government The Kings Oath at His Coronation two-fold Then the king laying his hand upon the book saith the things which I have before promised I shall performe and keep so helpe me God and the contents of this Book Where I beseech all men to observe that here is a two-fold promise and so a two-fold oath The first part of the Oath Populo Anglicano Vide D. p. 165. 1. The one to all the Commonalty and people of England Clergy and Laity and so whatsoever he promiseth may by the consent of the parties to whom the right was transferred be remitted and altered by the representative body in Parliament quia volenti non fit injuria and the rule holds good quibus medis contrahitur contractus iisdem dissolvitur and therefore as any compact or contract is made good and binding so it may be made void and dissolved mutuo contrahentium assensu by the mutuall assent of both parties that is any compact where God hath not a speciall interest in the contract as he hath in the conjugall contract betwixt man and wife and the politicke covenant betwixt the King and His Subjects Contracts wherein God is interessed cannot be dissolved without God which therefore cannot be dissolved by the consent of the parties untill God who hath the cheifest hand in the contract gives his assent to the dissolution and so when things are dedicated for the service of God or Priviledges granted for his honour neither donor nor receiver can alienate the gift or annull that Priviledge without the leave and consent of God that was the principal party in the concession as it appeareth in the example of Ananias and is confirmed by all Casuists The second part of the oath Clericls Ecclesiasticis D. p. 165. 2. The other part of the oath is made to the Clergy in particular and so also with their consent some things I confess may perhaps be revoked but without their consent not any thing can be altered in my understanding without injustice for with what equity can the Laity vote away the rights of the Clergy when the Clergy do absolutely deny their assent just as if the Clergy should give away the lands of the Laity or as if I had lent the king ten thousand pounds upon the publique assurance of King and both Houses to be repaid again and they without mine assent shall vote the remission of this debt for some great benefit The party to whom the bond is made must release the bonds that they conceive redounding to the Common-Wealth by which vote I should beleive my selfe to be no better then meerely cheated or as if the Parliament without the assent of the Londoners should pass an act that all the money which they lent should be remitted for the releiving of the State I doubt not but they would conclude that act very unjust and so is this act against the Bishops because the Kings obligation to a particular body personall or politique cannot be dispensed with by the representative Kingdome without the releasement of that body to whom the King is obliged For I find that all the Casuists will tell you that juramentum promissorium ita obligat ut invito creditore non potest in melius commutari quia aliter justitia veritas non servarentur inter homines and it is their common tenet Suarez de juramento promiss l. 2. c. 12. n. 14. that it cannot be dispensed with quia per promissum acquiritur jus ei cui fit promissio utilitas unius non sufficit ut alter suo jure privetur the benefit of others must not deprive me of my right This point is so cleare that neither Scholer nor any man of reason or conscience will deny it Therefore to perswade the king that is bound by his oath to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Church and Clergy to cast out the Bishops out of their rights or to take away their Lands without their own consent whom the king by his oath hath obliged himself to protect I cannot see how they can do it without great iniquity or His Majesty consent to it and be innocent when he is fully informed of the Rights of his Clergy whereas otherwise the most religious Prince may be subject to mistakings and so nesciently admit that which willingly he would never have granted And if they can not perswade him to do this without iniquity how dare they goe about to force and compell him against conscience to commit this and such other horrible impiety but I assure my self that God who hath blessed our king and preserved him hitherto without blame as being forced to what he did or not throughly understanding what was our right the Bishops being imprisoned and not suffered to informe him nor to answer for themselves will still arme His Majesty with that resolution as shall never yeild to their impetuousnesse to transcend the limits of his own most upright conscience Yet still it is urged they were excluded by act of Parliament Ob. therefore their exclusion cannot be unjust as being done by the wisdome of the whole State and the king should not desire it to be altered I answer that all Parliaments are not alwayes guided by an unerring spirit Sol. but
for all this lift up his hand against the Lords annointed but refused their gold Jâ—h Servinus pro libertat Ecclesiae statu Regni tom 3. Monarchia Rom. p 202. rejected their conditions and dismissed the Embassadours as witnesses of his faith to God his fidelity and allegiance to his King and peaceable mind towards his Country Where you see this prudent and good Prince had rather patiently suffer these intolerable injuries that were offered both to himself to the inferiour Magistrates and to many other good Christians for his sake then any wayes undutifully resist the Ordinance of God And surely this Example is most acceptable unto God most wholesome for any Common-wealth and most honourable for any subordinate Prince for I am certain this is the faith of Christ and the religion of the true Protestants Not to offer but suffer all kind of injuries and to render good for evill and rather with patience love and obedience to study to gain the favour of their Persecutors then any ways with force and arms to withstand those that God hath placed in authority which must needs be not onely offensive unto God whose Ordinance they do resist but also destructive to the Common-wealth which can never receive any benefit by any insurrection against the Prince 3. Not for any tyranny that shall be offered unto us 3. Though the King should prove to be Nerone Neronior worse then Phalaris and degenerating from all humanity should prove a Tyrant to all his people yet his subjects may not rebell against him upon this pretence for if any cause should be admitted for which subjects might rebell that cause would be allwayes alledged by the Rebels whensoever they did rebell and whom I and many others should deem a good Prince and most pious the Rebels would proclaim him tyrannical and idolatrous And therefore in such a case The difference betwixt king and people to be determined onely by God when some men think their King most gracious and others think him vitious some believe him to be good others believe him to be evil shall we think it fit that the disaffected party shall presently with arms decide the controversie and not rather have the accused the accuser and the witnesses before a competent Judge to determine the truth of this question Surely this seems more reasonable and more agreeable unto the rules of justice when as The Law condemneth no man much lesse the King before his cause be heard And seeing such a competent Judge as can justly determine this controversie betwixt the King and his People or rather betwixt one part of his people and the other cannot be found under Heaven therefore to avoid civil warres and the effusion of humane and Christian blood and the prevention of abundance of other mischiefs both the Scripture teacheth That we ought not by any means to resist our kings Proved and the Church believeth and Reason it self sheweth and the publique safety requireth that we should transmit this question to be decided onely by him which is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and will when he seeth good bind evil Kings in fetters and their Nobles with links of iron CHAP. V. Sheweth by Scripture the Doctrine of the Church humane Reason and the Welfare of the weale publique that we ought by no means to rebell A threefold power of every Tyrant Three kinds of tyrannies The doubtful and dangerous events of Warre Why many men rebell Jehu's example not to be followed 1. THe Scripture saith I counsell thee to keep the Kings commandement 1 By the Scriptures and that in regard of the oath of God that is the oath whereby thou hast sworn before God and by God to obey him Be not hasty to go out of his sight that is not out of his presence but out of his rule and government and stand not in an evill thing that is in opposition or rebellion against thy King which must needs be evill and the worst of all evils to thy King for He doth whatsoever pleaseth him that is Ecclesiast 8.2 3 4. he hath power and authority to do what he pleaseth Where the Word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him What dost thou or Why dost thou so And Solomon saith A Grey-hound an Hee-Goat and a King Prov. 30.31 against whom there is no rising up there ought not to be indeed I will not set down what Samuel saith but desire you to read the place 1 Sam. chapter 8. verse 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. where you shall see what the King will doe and what remedy the Prophet prescribeth against him Not to rebell and take up arms but to cry unto the Lord that he would help them And Saint Paul saith Whosoever resisteth the power Rom. 13.1 resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation And S. Peter saith that they which despise government 2 Pet. 2.10.12 and are not afraid to speak evil of dignities are presumptuous and do walk after the flesh in the lusts of uncleannesse and as natural brute beasts that are made to be taken and destroyed they speak evil of the things they understand not and therefore they shall utterly perish in their own corruption And Saint Jude in like manner calleth those that despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities the very phrase of Saint Peter filthy dreamers Jude 8.10 11. that defile the flesh and therefore shall perish in the gainsaying of Corah This is the doctrine of God therefore Saint Paul exhorteth us not to rebell nor to speak evil of our Kings be they what they will but first of all 1 Tim 2.2 or before all things to make prayers and supplications for our Kings and for all that are in authority And I wonder what spirit except it were the spirit of hell it self durst ever presume to answer and evade such plain and pregnant places of Scripture to countenance disobedience and to justifie their rebellion And therefore 2. By the Doctrine of the Church 2. The Church of Christ believeth this Doctrine to be the truth of God for no man saith Saint Cyril without punishment resisteth the Laws of Kings but Kings themselves in whom the fault of prevarication hath no place because it is wisely said It is impiety therefore against the will of God to say unto the King Cyrill in Jâ—han l. 14. c 56 Iniquè agis Thou dost amisse for as God is the supream Lord of all which judgeth all and is judged of none so the Kings and Princes of the earth which do correct and judge others are to be corrected and judged of none but onely of God to whose power and authority they are onely subject and therefore King David understanding his own station well enough when he was both an adulterer and a murderer and prayeth to God for mercy saith Against thee onely have I sinned because
Example answered it is most impertinently alledged for Ezechias was the lawful King of Juda and the King of Assyria had no right at all in his Dominions An impertinent example but being greedily desirous to enlarge his territories he incroached upon the others right and for his injustice was overcome by the sword in a just battell and therefore to conclude from hence that because the King of Juda refused to obey the King of Assyria therefore the inferiour Magistrates or Peers of any Kingdome may resist and remove their lawful Prince for his tyranny or impiety surely this deserves rather fustibus retundi quà m rationibus refelli to be beaten with rods then confuted with reasons as Saint Bernard speaketh of the like Argument And whereas they reply that it skilleth not whether the Tyrant be forreign as Eglon and the King of Assyria were or domestique as Saul Achab and Manasses were The ubsurdity of their replication because the domestique is worse then the forreign and therefore the rather to be suppressed I will shew you the validity of this argument by the like The seditious Preachers are the generation of vipers nay farre worse then vipers because they hurt but the body onely and these are pernicious both to body and soul therefore as a man may lawfully kill a viper so he may more lawfully kill any seditious Preacher Quia Dare absurdum non est solvere argumentum But to omit their absurdity let us look into the comparison betwixt domestique and extranean Tyrants and we shall find that domestique Tyrants are lawfully placed over us by God who commandeth us to obey them and forbiddeth us to resist them in every place for the Scripture makes no distinction betwixt a good Prince and a Tyrant in respect of the honour reverence and obedience that we owe unto our superiours as you see the Lord doth not say Touch not a good King and Obey righteous Princes but as God saith Honour thy father and thy mother be they good or bad so he saith Touch not the King resist not your Governours speak not evil of the Rulers be they good or be they bad and therefore Saint Paul when he was strict y charged for reviling the wicked high-Priest answered wisely I wist not brethren that he was Gods High-Priest for if I had known him 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 Bad kings to be obeyed as well as the good be he good or bad for it is Gods institution and not the Governours condition that tyeth me to mine obedience So you see the mind of the Apostle he knew the Priest-hood was abolished and that he was not the lawful High-Priest therefore he saith God shall smite thee thou whited wall But if he had known and believed him to be the true and lawful High-Priest which God had placed over him he would never have said so had the Priest been never so wicked because the Law saith Thou shalt not revile thy Ruler But for private robbers or forreign 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 yield 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 Example answered 3 3. For the peoples hindring of King Saul to put his son Jonathan to death I say that they freed him from his fathers vow non armis sed precibus not with their weapons Saul was contented to be perswaded to spare his son but by their prayers when they appealed unto himself and his own conscience before the living God and perswaded him that setting aside his rash vow he would have regard unto justice and consider whether it was right that he should suffer the least damage who following God had wrought so great a deliverance unto the peohle as Tremelius and Junius in their Annotations do observe Gregor in 1 Reg. 4. And Saint Gregory saith The people freed Jonathan that he should not die when the King overcome by the instance of the people spared his life which no doubt he was not very earnest to take away from so good a son Example answered 4 4. Touching Ahikam that was a prime Magistrate under King Jehoiakim I say that he defended the Prophet not from the Tyranny of the King but from the fury of the people for so the Text saith The hand of Ahikam Jerem. 26.24 that is saith Tremelius the authority and the help of Ahikam was with Jeremy 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 been a long while Counsellour unto the King and was therefore very powerful in credit and 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 faithful Magistrate as Ahâ—kam did this of an enemy and a false Traytor as the opposer of Kings use to do 5. For the defection and revolting of the ten Tribes from Rehoboam Example answered 5 their own natural lawful King unto a fugitive and a man of a servile condition and for the Edomites Lybnites and others that revolted against King Joram 2 Chron. 21. 2 Reg. 14.19 and that Conspiracy which was made in Jerusalem against Amazia I answer briefly That the Scriptures do herein as they do in many other places set down rei gestae veritatem non facti aequitem the truth of things how they were done not the equity of the things that they were rightly done and therefore Actions commanded to be done are not to be imitated by us unl sse we be suâ—e of the like commandement Non ideò quia factum legimus faciendum credamus ne violemus praeceptum dum sectamur exemplum We must not believe it ought to be done because we read that it was done lest we violate the Commandement of God by following the example of men as Saint Augustine speaketh for though Joseph sware by the life of Pharaoh the Midwives lyed unto the King and the Israelites robbed the Aegyptians and sinned not therein yet we have no warrant without sinne to follow their examples Besides God himself had foretold 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 God is the right owner of all things and therefore may justly dispose any Kingdom on
gracious King and I believe the best Protestant King that ever England or Ireland saw neither Popishly affected nor Schismatically led to disaffect but most constantly resolved to be a true Defender of that true Protestant Faith which is established by Law in the Church of England and he is such a King of so unblameable a life so spotlesse in all his actions so clement and so meek towards all men and so merciful towards his very enemies that the mouth of Envy cannot truly taxe him nor malice it self disprove him in any thing Yet we know that as Moses the meekest among men and David the best of Kings were sore afflicted slandered and persecuted not a little by many of their own obliged subjects yea and the best Kings have had the greatest troubles so this good King hath had for his trial a great part of the like usage I know not by whom neither do I intend here to accuse others but to instruct you and by what I shewed out of this Text to teach you above all to take heed of disobedience and Rebellion towards your King and to let you understand that what priviledges in the New Testament are acknowledged to be due to Heathen Princes and what prerogatives the spirit of God hath in the Old Testament warranted unto the Jewish Kings and what the universal Law of Nature hath established upon all the supreme Governours do all of them appertain by unquestionable right unto his most sacred Majesty and yet His Majesty out of His incomparable goodnesse insisteth not to challenge all these but vouchsafeth to accept of those Rights and Prerogatives which are undoubtedly afforded him by the Lawes of His own Lands and these come farre short scarce the moity of the other because we know if our Historians have not deceived me how many of them were obtained by little better then by force and violence compelling Kings to consent unto them whereas Lawes should be of a freer nature And therefore of all the Nations round about us besides that God hath intrusted Him with us all we have most reason to intrust him and to give credit unto his Majesties many Protestations too high to be forgotten by him or misdoubted by us for his resolution to maintain the Liberty of his Subjects the just Priviledges of Parliaments and the true established Religion in the Kingdome of England and likewise to rule over us according to our Laws in this Realm of Ireland And we have least reason to rebell and take arms against him and therefore let us not be perswaded by any means by any man to do it because God will preserve his annointed and will as you see plague the Rebels but let us pray for our King and praise God night and day that he which might have given us a bramble not only to tear our flesh but also to set us all on fire hath given us such a Cedar such a gracious and a pious King and if either forreign foes or domestique Rebels do presse him so that he hath need of us let us adde our help and hazard our lives to defend and protect him that protecteth us and suffereth all for the protection of Gods service as it was established in the purest time of Reformation and for the preservation of our Laws from any corrupt interpretation or arbitrary invasion upon them by those factious men that under fair yet false pretences have with wondrous subtilty and with most subtle hypocrisie seduced so many simple men to partake with them not onely to overthrow the true Religion to imbase the Church of Christ that hitherto hath continued glorious in this Nation and by trampling the most learned under feet to reduce Popery into this Kingdom and to bring in Atheism or Barbarism into our Pulpits when they make their Coach-men and Trades-men like Jeroboam's Priests the basest of the people to become their Trencher-Chaplains and the teachers of those poor sheep for whom the Son of God hath shed his precious blood but also to change the well-setled government and to subvert the whole fabrick of this famous Common-wealth either by their tyranny or bringing all into an Anarchie for if we have any regard of any of these things either true Religion or ancient Government a gracious King and a learned Clergy a glorious Church and a flourishing Kingdom we ought not to spare our goods or be niggards in our contributions to help his Majesty yea as Debora saith To help the Lord against the mighty Or if we be cold and carelesse herein penurious and tenacious of our worldly pelfe preferring our gold before our God or fearing gracelesse Rebels more then we love our gracious King It may fall out as Saint Augustine saith Quod non capit Christus rapit fiscus or as it did with the Carthaginians who because they would not assist Hanniball with some reasonable proportion of their estates they lost all unto the Romans and with the Constantinopolitans that for denying a little to Paleologus lost all unto the Turkes so we may be robbed and pillaged of all because we would not part with some and I had rather the King should have all I have then that the Rebels should have any part thereof Therefore I hope I shall perswade all good men to honour God with their riches and to assist His Majesty to the uttermost of their powers even to the hazard and to the losse both of liberty and life And doing this our God which is the King of Kings will blesse us and defend us from all evill and make us Kings and Priests to live with him for ever and ever through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all praise and glory and dominion from henceforth for evermore Amen Amen Hester 4.16 If I perish I perish Yet Esdras 4.41 The truth is great and will prevail Jehovae Liberatori TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAJESTY Most Gracious Sovereign THough the wisest man in all the Kingdom of Persia saith Great is the truth and stronger then all things Yet the father of lies hath now plaid his part so well that as the Prophet saith Truth is fallen in the Street and Equity cannot enter in And your Majesty whom the God of Truth hath anointed his sole Vicegerent to be the Supreme Protector of them both in all your Dominions hath accordingly lifted up your Standard against their Enemies and I may truly say of you as Menevensis saith of that most Noble King Alfred Si modò victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modò victus erat ad crastina bella parabat Neither do I believe that Lucan's Verse can be applied to any man better than to your Majesty Non te videre superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum adversa videbunt As the height of your glory and prosperity never swelled your Pious heart so your greatest crosses and adversities never dejected your Royal spirit But as the Prophet saith of
contrary to the practice of all former Parliaments and contrary to the Honour of any Parliament things were herein debated and carried not by strength of argument but by the most voices and the greater number were so far from understanding the validity of the alleadged Reasons that after the Votes passed they scarce conceived the state of the Question but thought it enough to be Clerks to Master Pym and to say Amen to Master Hampden by an implicite faith 3. When they deny the Members of their House or any other imployed by them in this horrid Rebellion should be questioned for Felony Treason 3. Denying their Members to be legally tried for any capital Crime Vide Dyer p. 59. 60. Crompton 8. b. 9 10 11. Elism post-nati 20 21. The viewer p. 43. Murder or the like capital Crimes but only in Parliament or at least by the leave of that House whereof they are Members or which doth imploy them for by this means any Member of their House may be a Traitor or a Murderer or a Robber whensoever he please and may easily escape before the party wronged or complainant can obtain this leave of the House of Commons and therefore this is as unreasonable and as sensless a Priviledge as ever was challenged and was never heard of till this Parliament For why should any man refuse his Tryal or the House deny their Members to the justice of the Law when as the deniall of them to be tryed by the Law implyeth a doubt in us of the innocency of those whom we will not submit to justice and their Tryal would make them live gloriously hereafter if they were found innocent and move the King to deliver those men that had so wickedly conspired their destruction to the like censure of the Law But for them to cry out The King is mis-informed and we dare not trust our selves upon a Tryal may be a way to preserve their safety but with the losse of their reputation and perhaps the destruction of many thousands of people If they say They are contented to be tried but by their own House which in the time of Parliament is the highest Court of justice It may be answered said a plain Rustick with the old Proverb Ask my fellow if I be a Thief For mine own part I reverence the justice of a Parliament in all other judgements betwixt party and party yea betwixt the King and any other Subject yet when the party accused shall be judged by his own Society his Brethren and his own Faction I believe any indifferent Judge would see this to be too great partiality against the King that he shall not have those whom he accuseth to be tried by the Laws already established and the ordinary course of Justice and if the Judges offend in their Sentence the Parliament hath full power undenied them by his Majesty to question and to punish those Judges as they did for that too palpable in justice as they conceived in the case of the Ship money but they will be judged by themselves and all that dissent from them must be at their mercy or destruction And yet it is said to be evident That no Priviledge can have its ground or commencement unlesse it be by Statute Grant or Prescription And by the Stat. 26. Hen. 8. cap. 13. it is enacted That no offender in any kind of high Treason shall have the priviledge of any manner of Sanctuary So all the Grants of such a priviledge if any such should be made are meerly void 1 Hen. 7. Staffords case and not one Instance could hitherto be produced whereby such a Priviledge was either allowed or claimed but the contrary most clearly proved by his Majesty out of Wentworths case And therefore seeing your own Law-books tell us That the Priviledge of Parliament doth not extend to Treason the breach of the Peace and as some think against the Kings debt it is apparent how grossely they do abuse the People by this claim of the Priviledge of Parliament 4. 4. Conniving with their Faction for any fault When they connive with their own compeers for any breach of priviledge as with Master Whitakers for searching Master Hampdens pockets and taking away his papers immediately after the abrupt breaking up of the last unhappy Parliament and those that discovered the names of them that differed in opinion from the rest of the Faction in the business of the Earl of Straffords and specially with that rabble of Brownists and Anabaptists which with unheard-of impudency durst ask that question publickly at the Bar Who they were that opposed the well-affected party in that House as if they meant to be eeven with them whosoever they were And likewise that unruly multitude of zealous Sectaries that were sent as I find it by Captain Ven and Isaac Pennington to cry Justice Justice Justice and No Bishops no Bishops and this to terrifie some of the Lords from the House and to awe the rest that should remain in the House as they had formerly done in the case of the Earl of Strafford and when others that they like not are for the least breach of pretended Priviledge either imprisoned or expelled for I assure my self there cannot be higher breaches of Priviledges than these be nor greater stains to obscure the Honour and vilifie the repute of this Parliament 5. The ingaging one another in civil causes 5. When there is such siding and ingaging one another in civil causes that they may be conglutinated together for their great Design to do things not according unto Justice but for their own ends contrary to all right and their favour is scarce worth the charge of attendance to them that speed best by their Ordinances but the complaint is that m n have the greatest injuries done them in this that themselves call the highest Court of Justice which others say hath now justified all other inferiour Courts and made all unrighteous Judges most just 6. The surreptitious carrying of businesses 6. When as we have been informed a matter of the greatest importance hath been debated and put unto the question and upon the question determined and the Bill once and again rejected yet at another time even the third time when the Faction had prepared the House for their own purpose and knew they could carry it by most voices the same question hath been resumed and determined quite contrary to the former determination when the House was more orderly convened as it is said they did to passe the Ordinance for the Militia which many men dare avouch to their faces to be no Priviledge of Parliament but a great abuse of their fellow-Members and a greater injury unto all their fellow-Subjects 7. Their partiall questioning of some men and no questioning of some others 7. When the elections of some of their Members have been questioned and others have been accused for no lesse than capital Crimes as Master Griffith was yet if these men
incline and conspire with this Faction to confirm those Positions which they proposed to themselves to overthrow the Church and State and to uphold their usurped Government and tyrannical Ordinances they will pretend twenty excuses as The great Affairs of the State The multiplicity of their businesses The necessity of procuring monies The shortnesse of their time though they sate almost three years already that they have no leisure to determine these questions which in truth they do purposely put off lest they should leese such a friend unto their party but when any other which dissenteth from their humours doth but any thing contrary to the straitest Rules of the House they do presently notwithstanding all their greatest affairs call that matter into question The L Digby in his Apolog. and it must be examined and followed with that eagernesse as in my Lord Digby's case that he must be forthwith condemned and excluded for we say This cannot be any just Priuiledge but an unjust proceeding of this Parliament 8. The delegating of their power to particular men 8. When they delegate their power to some men to do some things of themselves without the rest as it seems they did unto Master Pym when an Order passed under his sole test for taking away the Rails from the Communion Table for this is a course we never heard of in former time 9. The multiplying of their Priviledges 9. When their Priviledges are so infinitely grown and inlarged more than ever they were in former Parliaments and so swelled that they have now swallowed up almost all the Priviledges of other men so that they alone must do what they please and where they will in all Cities and in all Courts because they have the Priviledge of Parliament 10. When according to the great liberty of language 10. Their speaking and sitting in other Courts which we deny them not within their own wall they take the Priviledge to speak what they list in other places and to govern other Courts as they please where as they did in Dublin and do commonly in London they sit as Assistants with them that are priviledged by their Charters to be freed from such Controllers 11. When above all that hath been or can be spoken 11. Their close Committee they have made a close Committee of Safety as they call it which in the apprehension of all wise and honest men is not only a course most absurd and illegall but also most destructive to all true Priviledges and contrary to the equitable practice of all publick meetings that any one should be excluded from that which concerneth him as well as any of the rest And this Committee only which consisteth of a very few of the most pragmatical Members of their House must have all intelligences and privy counsels received and reserved among themselves and what they conclude upon must be reported to the House which must take all that they deliver upon trust and with an implicite Roman faith believe all that they say and assent to all that they do only because these forsooth are men to be confided in upon their bare word The greatnesse of this abuse when their House hath no power to administer an Oath unto any man in the greatest affairs happiness or destruction of the whole Kingdom for this is in a manner to make these men Kings more than the Roman Consuls and so as great a breach of Priviledge and abuse of Parliament as derogatory to his Majesty that called them to consult together and as injurious to all the people as can be named or imagined CHAP. XIV Sheweth how they have transgressed the publike Laws of the Land three wayes and of four miserable Consequences of their wicked doings 2. FOr those publike written and better known Laws of this Land 2. Against the publick laws of the Land they have no lesse violated and transgressed the same than the other and that as well in their execution and exposition as in their composition For 1. When they had caused the Archbishop of Canterbury to be committed to the Tower Judge Berkeley to the Sheriff of London 1. In the execution of the old Laws Sir George Ratcliffe to the Gate-house for no lesse crimes than high Treason and many other men to some other prisons for some other faults yet all the World seeth how long most of them have been kept in prison some a year some two some almost three and God only knoweth when these men intend to bring them to their legal tryal which delay of justice is not only an intolerable abuse to the present Subjects of this Kingdom to be so long deprived of their liberty upon a bare surmise but also a far greater injury to all posterity when this President shall be produced to be imitated by the succeeding Parliaments and to justifie the delayes of all inferiour Judges 2. Whereas we believe what Judge Bracton saith and Judge Britton likewise which lived in the time of Edward the first 2. In expounding the Laws Si disputatio oriatur justiciarii non possunt eam interpretari sed in dubiis obscuris Domini regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas Citatur à Domino Elism in post-nati p. 108. cùm ejus sit interpretari cujus est condere If any Dispute doth arise the Judges canot interpret the same but in all obscure and doubtful questions the interpretation and the will of the King is to be expected when as he that makes the Law is to be the expounder and interpreter of the Law Yet they have challenged and assumed to themselves such a power that their bare Vote without any Act of Parliament may expound or alter a known Law which if it were so they might make the Law as Pighius saith of the Scripture hke a nose of wax that may be fashioned and bended as they pleased but we do constantly maintain That the House of Commons hath no power to adjudge of any point or matter but to inform the Lords what they conceive and the House of Peers hath the power of Judicature which they are bound to do according to the Rules of the known established Laws and to that end they have the Judges to inform them of those cases and to explain those Laws wherein themselves are not so well experienced though now they sit in the House for cyphers even as some Clergy did many times in the Convocation and if any former Statute be so intricate and obscure that the Judges cannot well agree upon the right interpretation thereof then as in explaining Poynings Act and the like either in England or Ireland the makers of the Act that is the King and the major part of both Houses must explain the same 3. In composeing and setting forth new laws 3. Whereas we never knew that the House had any power to make Orders and Ordinances to bind any besides their own Members to observe them as Laws
yet they compell us to obey their Orders in a stricter manner than usually we are injoyned by Law and this course to make such binding Ordinances as they do to carry the force though not the name of an Act of Parliament or a Law is a mighty abuse of our Laws and Liberties for Sir Edward Cook tells us plainly That as the constitution of our Government now standeth neither the House of Commons and King L. Cook in the Preface of the Stat. of Westminster the second Lamberts Archeion 271. can make any binding Law when the Peers dissent nor the Lords and King when the Commonalty dissenteth nor yet both Houses without the Kings consent but all three King Peers and Commons must agree before any coactive Law can be composed Nay more it is sufficiently proved that Dare jus populo or the legislative power being one principall end of Regall Authority was in Kings by the Law of Nature while they governed the people by naturall equity long before municipall Laws or Parliaments had any beeing For as the Poet saith Remo cum fratre Quirinus Jura dabat populo Hoc Priami gestamen erat cum jura vocatis More daret populis Because this was the custom of the Kings of Scythia Assyria Aegypt c. long before Moses and Pharonaeus when Municipall Laws first began to give Laws unto their people according to the Rules of Naturall equity which by the Law of Nature they were all bound to observe And though some Kings did graciously yield and by their voluntary oathes for themselves and their successors bind themselves may times to stricter limits than were absolutely requisite as William Rufus King Stephen Henry the fourth Richard the third and the like granted many Priviledges perhaps to gain the favour of their Subjects against those which likely had a better Title to the Crown than themselves or it may be to satisfie their people as the guerdon or compensation for the sufferance of some fore-passed grievances as Henry the first Edward the second Richard the second and the like yet these limitations being agreeable to equity and consistent with Royalty and not forcibly extracted ought in all truth and reason to be observed by them And hence it is that the Kings of this Realm according to the oathes and promises which they made at their Coronation can never give nor repeal any Law but with the assent of the Peers and People But though they have thus yielded to make no Laws nor to repeal any Laws without them yet this voluntary concession of so much grace unto the people doth no waies translate the legislative power from the King unto his assistants but that it is formaliter and subjectivè still in the King and not in them else would the government of this Kingdom be an Aristocracy or Democracy and not a Monarchy because the Supreme power of making and repealing Laws and Governing or judging decisively according to those Laws are two of those three things that give being to each one of these three sorts of Government Therefore the King of England Cassan in cata◠gloria mundi 2 2 Ed. 3. 3. pl. 25. Vid. The view of a Printed book intituled Observations c. Where this point is proved at large p. 18 19 21 22. being an absolute Monarch in his own Kingdom as Cassaneus saith and no man can deny it the Legislative power must needs reside solely in the King ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that power but only a condition yielded to be observed by the King in the use of that power and so both the Oath of Supremacy and the form of all our ancient Statutes wherein the King speaks as the Law-maker do most evidently prove the same unto us Le Roy voit Neither durst any Subjects in former times either assume such a power unto themselves or deny the same unto their King for you may find how the House of Commons denying to pass the Bill for the Pardon of the Clergy which Henry the 8th granted them when they were all charged to be in a Premunire unless themselves also might be included within the pardon received this answer from the King that He was their Soveraign Lord and would not be compelled to shew his mercy nor indeed could they compel him to any thing else but seeing they went about to restrain him of his Liberty he would grant a pardon unto his Clergy by his great Seal without them though afterwards of his own accord he signed their pardon also which brought great commendation to his judgment Sir Rich. Baker in vita Hen. 8. to deny it at first when it was demanded as a right and to grant it afterward when it was received as of grace And yet the denyal of their assent unto the King is more equitable to them and less derogatory to him then to make orders without him And this manner of compulsion to shew grace unto themselves is more tolerable than to force him to disgrace and displace his most faithful servants only because others cannot confide in them when no criminal charge is laid against them And therefore for the Lords and Commons to make Orders and Ordinances without the King and in opposition to the King is a meer usurpation of the Regal power a nullifying of the Kings power and a making of the Royal assent which heretofore gave life to every Law to be an empty piece of formality which is indeed an intolerable arrogancy in the contrivers of these Orders and the makers of these Ordinances a monstrous abuse of the Subjects and a plain making of our good King to be somewhat like him in the Comedy A King and no King And whereas no Subject yea under favour be it spoken nor the King himself after he hath taken his Oath at his Coronation is free from the observation of the established Laws yet they make themselves so far above the reach of Law that they freed him which the Lord chief Justice Bramston had committed to Newgate for felony in stealing the Countess of Rivers goods they hindered all men as we found in their journal from proceeding against Sir Thomas Dawes they injoyned the Judges by their Orders to forbear to proceed in their ordinary courses in the Courts of Justice contrary to the Oathes of those Judges and some Parliament-men came to the Bench to forbid the Judges to grant Habeas Corpus's which is as great an iniquity and as apparent an injustice as ever was done by any Parliament The most abominable wickedness of these factious Rebels And that which is a Note above Ela above all that could be spoken whereas the Law of God and man the bonds and obligations of Civility and Christianity tye us all to be dutiful and obedient unto our King in all things either Actively or Passively and no wayes for no cause violently to resist him under the greatest penalties that can be
You to be wrested out of Your hand by these uncircumcised Philistines these ungracious Rebels and the Vessels of God's wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse they do most speedily repent for if the unrighteous will be unrighteous still and our wickednesse provoke God to bring our Land to Desolation Your Majesty standing in the truth and for the right for the honour of God and the Church of his Son is absolved from all blame and all the bloud that shall be spilt and the oppressions insolencies and abhominations that are perpetrated shall be required at the hands and revenged upon the heads of these detested Rebels You are and ought in the truth of cases of conscience to be informed by Your Divines and I am confident that herein they will all subscribe that God will undoubtedly assist You and arise in his good time to maintain his own cause and by this war that is so undutifully so unjustly made against Your Majesty so Giant-like fought against Heaven to overthrow the true Church You shall be glorious like King David that was a man of War whose dear son raised a dangerous rebellion against him and in whose reign so much bloud was spilt and yet notwithstanding these distempers in his Dominion he was a man according to God's own heart especially because that from α to ω * As in the beginning by reducing the Ark from the Philistins throughout the midst by setling the service of the Tabernacle in the ending by his resolution to build leaving such a treasure for the erecting of the Temple the beginning of his reign to the end of his life his chiefest endeavour was to promote the service and protect the servants of the Tabernacle the Ministers of God's Church God Almighty so continue Your Majesty bless You and protect You in all Your wayes Your vertuous pious Queen and all Your royal Progeny Which is the dayly prayer of The most faithful to Your Majesty GRYFFITH OSSORY THE RIGHTS OF KINGS Both in CHURCH STATE And The Wickednesses of this Pretended PARLIAMENT Manifested and Proved CHAP. I. Sheweth who are the fittest to set down the Rights which God granted unto Kings what causeth men to rebell the parts considerable in S. Peter's words 1 Pet. ii 17. in fine How Kings honoured the Clergie the fair but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefly aime at and their malice to Episcopacie and Royaltie IT was not unwisely said by Ocham that great Scholeman to a great Emperour which M. Luther said also to the Duke of Saxonie Tu protege me gladio Guliel Ocham Ludov. 4. ego defendam te calamo do you defend me with your Sword and I will maintain your Right with my Pen for God hath committed the Sword into the hand of the King and His hand which beareth not the Sword in vain Rom. 13. v. 4 knoweth how to use the Sword better than the Preacher and the King may better make good His Rights by the Sword then by the Pen which having once blotted His papers with mistakes and concessions more then due though they should be never so small if granted further than the truth would permit as I fear some have done in some particulars yet they cannot so easily be scraped away by the sharpest sword and God ordered the divine tongue and learned Scribe to be the pens of a ready Writer and thereby to display the duties and to justifie the Rights of Kings and if they fail in either part The Divine best to set down the Rights of kings the King needeth neither to performe what undue Offices they impose upon him nor to let pass those just honours they omit to yield unto him but he may justly claime his due Rights and either retain them or regain them by his Sword which the Scribe either wilfully omitted or ignorantly neglected to ascribe unto him or else maliciously endeavoured as the most impudent and rebellious Sectaries of our time have most virulently done to abstract them from him And seeing the Crown is set upon the head of every Christian King and the Scepter of Government is put into his hand by a threefold Law 1. Of Nature that is common to all 2. Of the Nation that he ruleth over 3. Of God that is over all As Every Christian king established by a threefold Law Psal 119. 1. Nature teaching every King to governe his People according to the common rules of honesty and justice 2. The politique constitution of every several State and particular Kingdom shewing how they would have their government to be administred 3. The Law of God which is an undefiled Law and doth infallibly set down what duties are to be performed and what Rights are to be yielded to every King To what end the stories of the kings of Israel and Judah were written Rom. 15.4 for whatsoever things are written of the Kings of Israel and Judah in the holy Scriptures are not onely written for those Kings and the Government of that one Nation but as the Apostle saith They are written for our learning that all Kings and Princes might know thereby how to govern and all Subjects might in like manner by this impartial and most perfect rule understand how to behave themselves in all obedience and loyalty towards their Kings and Governours for he that made man knew he had been better unmade than left without a Government therefore as he ordained those Laws whereby we should live and set down those truths that we should beleive so he settled The ordination of our government as beneficial as our creation and ordained that Government whereby all men in all Nations should be guided and governed as knowing full well that we neither would or could do any of these things right unless he himselfe did set down the same for us therefore though the frowardness of our Nature will neither yield to live according to that Law nor beleive according to that rule nor be governed according to that divine Ordinance which God hath prescribed for us in his Word yet it is most certain that he left us not without a perfect rule and direction for each one of these our faith our life and our government without which government we could neither enjoy the benefits of our life nor scarce reap the fruits of our faith and because it were as good to leave us without Rules Unwritten things most uncertain and without Laws as to live by unwritten Laws which in the vastness of this world would be soon altered corrupted and obliterated therefore God hath written down all these things in the holy Scriptures which though they were delivered to the People of the Jews for the government both of their Church and Kingdom yet were they left with them to be communicated for the use and benefit of all other Nations God being not the God of the Jews onely Rom. 3 29. but of the Gentiles also
People for Nimrod got his kingdom by his strength Ninus enlarged the same by his sword and left the same unto his heirs from the Assyrians the Monarchy was translated to the Medes and Persians and I pray you how by the consent of the people or by the edg of the sword From the Persians it was conferred to Alexander but the same way and it continued among his successours by the same right and Romulus Ad sua qui domitos deduxit stagra Quirites Did not obtain his power by the suffrage of his people and if you look over the States of Grece we shall finde one Timondas which obtained the Scepter of the Corinthians and Pittacus the Government of the Mytilenians by the suffrage of the people but for the Athenians Laecedemonians Sicyoni Thebanes Epirots and Macedons among whom the Regal Dignity flourished a far longer time then the popular rule Idem pag. 63. Non optione populi sed nascendi conditione regnatum est their kings reigned not by the election of the people but by the condition of their birth and what shall we say of the Parthians Indians Africans Tartars Arabians Aethiopians Numidians Muscovites Celtans Spaniards French English and of many other kingdoms that were obtained either by gift Quintus Curtius as Abdolonimus received his kingdom of Alexander Juba the kingdom of Numidia from Augustus and the French king got the kingdoms of the Naples and Sicily or by will as the Romans had the kingdoms of Aegypt Bithinia Pergamus and Asia or by Arms Claud. de 4. cons Honorii as many of the aforesaid kingdoms were first gotten and were always transmitted afterwards to posterity by the hereditary right of bloud And the Poet could say terrae dominos pelagique futuros Immenso decuit rerum de principe nasci It behoved the Kings of the earth to be born of Kings Besides we must all confess that the King is the Father of people the Husband of the Common-wealth and the Master of all his subjects and can you shew me that God ever appointed that the Children should make choice of their fathers Children and servants not allowed to choose what fathers and masters they please then surely all would be the sons of Princes but though fathers may adopt their sons as the King may make a Turke or any other stranger a free Denizon yet Children may not choose whom they please for their Fathers but they are bound to honour those fathers that God hath appointed or suffered to beget them though the same should be never so poor never so wicked so the wives though while they are free they may have the power to refuse whom they dislike yet they have no such prerogative to choose what husbands they please or if they had I am sure no woman would be less then a Lady and the like may be said of all servants Therefore the election of Kings by the People seemes to me no prime Ordinance of God but as our sectaries say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A humane Ordination indeed and the corruption of our Nature a meere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and an imitation of what the Poet saith Optat Ephippia bos niger optat arare caballus Just as if the women would fain have that Law of liberty to choose what husbands they please and the servants to make choice of what Masters they like best so the People never contented with whom God sendeth never satisfied with his Ordinance would fain pull their necks out of God's yoke and become their own chosers both of their Kings and of their Priests and indeed of all things else when as nothing doth please them but what they do and none can content them The People are in all things greedy to have their own wllls but whom themselves will choose and their choice cannot long satisfie their mindes but as the Jews received Christ into Jerusalem with the joyfull acclamation of Hosanna and yet the next day had the malicious cry of Crucifige so the least distaste makes them greedy of a new change such is the nature of the People But though I said before the election of our chiefe Governours may for many respects be approved of God among some States yet I hope by this that I have set down it is most apparent unto all men contrary to the tenet of our Anabaptisticall Sectaries that the hereditary succession of Kings to govern God's People is their indubitable right and the immediate prime principal Ordinance of God therefore it concerns every man as much as his soul is worth to examine seriously whether to fight against their own King be not to resist the Ordinance of God for which God threatneth no less punishment then damnation from which Machiavel cannot preserve us nor any policy of State procure a dispensation CHAP. IV. Sheweth what we should not do and what we should do for the King the Rebels transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themselves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their own Kings of Israel and how our Kings are of the like institution with the Kings of Israel proved in the chiefest respects at large and therefore to have the like honour and obedience 2. AS every lawfull King is to be truly honoured in regard of God's Ordinance so likewise in respect of God's precept 2. All kings are to be honoured in respect of God's precept considered two wayes 1. What we should not do which commandeth us to honour the King and this duty is so often inculcated and so fully laid upon us in the holy Scripture that I scarce know any duty towards man so much pressed and so plainly expressed as this is 1. Negatively what we should not do to deprive him of his Honour 2. Affirmatively what we should do to manifest and magnifie this Honour towards him for 1. Our very thoughts words and works are imprisoned and chained up in the linkes of God's strictest prohibition that they should no wayes peeep forth to produce the least dishonour unto our King for 1. The Spirit of God by the mouth of the wisest of men commands us to think no ill of the King let the King be what he will 1. To think no ill of the King Curse not the King no not in thy thought Eccles 10.30 the precept is without restriction you must think no ill that is you must not intend or purpose in your thoughts to do the least ill office or disparagement to the King that ruleth over you be the same King virtuous or vitious milde or cruell good or bad this is the sense of the Holy Ghost For as the childe with Cham shall become accursed if he doth but dishonour and despise his wicked father or his father in his wickedness whom in all duty he ought to reverence so the Subject shall be liable to Gods vengeance if his heart shall intend the least ill to his most
Apostle to their own destruction Psal 109 6. when as the Prophet saith Their prayers shall be turned into sin 6. Christ commandeth us to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars that is 6. To render all his dues unto him as I shall more fully shew hereafter your inward duties of honour love reverence and the like and your outward debts tolls tribute custome c. and the Rebels render none unto him but take all from him and return His Arms to his destruction I might produce many other places and precepts of Holy Scripture to inforce this duty to honour the king but what will suffice him cui Roma parùm est Luke 16.31 if they beleive not Moses neither will they believe if one should arise from the dead and if these things cannot move them then certainly all the world cannot remove them from their Wickedness Yet 3. Quia exempla movent plus quà m praecepta docent 3. All kings should be honoured by the example of all Nations 1 The Israelites 1 In Egypt Exod. 12.37 Exod. 1.9 you shall finde this doctrine practised by the perpetual demeanour of all Nations For 1. If you looke upon the Children of Israel in the Land of Egypt it cannot be denyed but Pharaoh was a wicked king and exercised great cruelty and exceeding tyranny against Gods people yet Moses did not excite the Israelites to take arms against him though they were more in number being six hundred thousand men and abler for strength to make their party good then Pharoah was as the king himself confesseth but they contained themselves within the bounds of their Obedience and waited Gods leisure for their deliverance because they knew their patient suffering would more manifest their own piety and aggravate king Pharoah's obstinacy and especially magnify Gods glory then their undutiful rebelling could any ways illustrate the least of these 2. Davids demeanour towards Saul is most memorable 2. Under Saul The loyal Subjects belief p. 55. for though as one saith king Saul discovered in part the described manner of such a king as Samuel had foreshewed yet David and all his followers performed and observed the prescribed conditions that are approved by God in true Subjects never resisting never rebelling against his king though his king most unjustly persecuted him Samuel also when he had pronounced Sauls rejection 1 Sam. 15. yet did he never incite the people to Rebellion but wept and prayed for him and discharged all other duties which formerly he had shewed to be due unto him and Elias that had as good repute with the people 3. Under Ahab and could as easily have stirred up sedition as any of the seditious Preachers of this time yet did he never perswade the Subjects to withstand the illegal commands of a most wicked king 1 Reg. 21.25 that as the Scripture testifieth had sold himself to work wickedness and became the more exceedingly sinful by the provocation of Jezabel his most wicked wife and harlot but he honoured his Soveraignty and feared his Majesty when he fled away from his cruelty And because these are but particular presidents Two examples of the whole Nation under Heathen kings 1. Under Artaxerxes Ezra 1.1 I will name you two observeable examples of the whole Nation 1. When Cyrus made a Decree and his Decree according to the Laws of the Medes and Persians should be unalterable that the Temple of Jerusalem should be re-edified and the adversaries of the Jews obtained a letter from Artaxerxes to prohibit them the people of God submitting themselves to the personal command of the king contrary to that unalterable Law of Cyrus pleaded neither the goodness of the work nor the justness of the cause but yeilded to the kings will and ceased from their work until they obtained a new Licence in the second year of king Darius and if it be objected that they built the Temple in despite of those that hindered them with their sword in one hand and a trowel in the other it is rightly answered that having the kings leave to build it they might justly resist their enemies that did therein not onely shew their malice unto them but also resisted the will of the King 2. When Ahashuerus to satisfie the unjust desire of his proud favorite 2. Under Ahashuerus Hester 3.10 had wickedly decreed and most tyrannically destined all the Nation of the Jewes to a sudden death yet this dutiful people did not undutifully rebel and plead the King was seduced by evil counsel and misguided by proud Haman therefore nature teaching them vim vi pellere to stand upon their own defence they would not submit their necks to his unjust Decree but being versed in God's Lawes and unacquainted with these new devices they return to God and betake themselves to their prayers Hester 8.11 until God had put it into the Kings heart to grant them leave to defend themselves and to sheath their swords in the bowels of their adversaries which is a most memorable example of most dutiful unresisting Subjects an example of such piety as would make our Land happy if our zealous generation were but acquainted with the like Religion The author of the Treatise of Monarchy p. 32. But here I know what our Anabaptists Brownist and Puritan will say that I build Castles in the air and lay down my frame without foundation because all Kings are not such as the Kings of Israel and Judah weâ—e as the Kings that God gave unto the Jews and prescribed special Laws both for the Kings to govern and the people to obey them but all other Nations have their own different and several Laws and Constitutions according to which Laws their Kings are tyed to rule and the Subjects bound to obey and no otherwise Henric. Stephaâ— in libello de hac re contendit in omnes respub debere leges Hebraeorum tanquam ab ipso Deo profectas per consequens omnium optimas reduci I answer that indeed it is granted there are several Constitutions of Royalties in several Nations and there may be Regna Laconica conditional and provisional Kingdoms wherein perhaps upon a real breach of some exprest conditions some Magistrates like the Ephori may pronounce a forfeiture as well in the successive as in the elective Kingdoms because as one saith succession is not a new title to more right but a legal continuance of what was first gotten which I can no ways yield unto if you mean it of any Soveraign King because the name of a King doth not always denotate the Soveraign power as the Kings of Lacedaemon though so called yet had no regal authority and the Dictator for the time being and the Emperours afterwards had an absolute power though not the name of Kings for I say that such a government is not properly a regal government ordained by God but either an Aristocratical or Democratical government instituted by the people
parte rex praeesset So Master Harding saith that the office of a King in it self is all one every where not onley among the Christian Princes but also among the Heathen so that a Christian King hath no more to do in deciding Church matters or medling with any point of Religion then a Heathen And so Fekenham and all the brood of Jesuites do with all violence and virulency labour to disprove the Prince's authority and supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes and the points of our Religion and to transfer the same wholly unto the Pope and his Cardinals Neither do I wonder so much that the Pope having so universally gained and so long continued this power and retained this government from the right owners should imploy all his Hierarchy to maintain that usurped authority which he held with so much advantage to his Episcopal See though with no small prejudice to the Church of Christ when the Emperours being busied with other affairs and leaving this care of religion and government of the Church to the Pope the Pope to the Bishops the Bishops to their Suffragans and the Suffragans to the Monkes whose authority being little their knowledg less and their honesty least of all all things were ruled with greater corruption and less truth then they ought to be so long as possibly he should be able to possesse it But at last when the light of the Gospel shined and Christian Princes had the leisure to look and the heart to take hold upon their right the learned men opposing themselves against the Pope's usurped jurisdiction have soundly proved the Soveraign authority of Christian Kings in the government of the Church that not onely in other Kingdoms but also here in England this power was annexed by divers Laws unto the interest of the Crown and the lawful right of the King and I am perswaded saith that Reverend ArchBishop Bancroft had it not been that new adversaries did arise Survey of Discip c. 22. p. 251. and opposed themselves in this matter the Papists before this time had been utterly subdued for the Devil seeing himself so like to lose the field stirred up in the bosom of Reformation a flock of violent and seditious men How the Devil raised instruments to hinder the reformation that pretending a great deal of hate to Popery have notwithstanding joined themselves like Sampson's Foxes with the worst of Papists in the worst and most pernicious Doctrines that ever Papist taught to rob Kings of their sacred and divine right and to deprive the Church of Christ of the truth of all those points that do most specially concern her government and governours and though in the fury of their wilde zeal they do no less maliciously then falsly cast upon the soundest Protestants the aspersion of Popery and Malignancy yet I hope to make it plain unto my reader that themselves are the Papists indeed or worse then Papists both to the Church and State For Opinion 2 2. As the whole Colledge of Cardinals and all the Scholes of the Jesuites do most stâ—fly defend this usurped authority of the Pope which as I said Of the Anabaptists and Puritans may be with the less admiration because of the Princes concession and their own long possesion of it so on the other side there are sprung up of late a certain generation of Vipers the brood of Anabaptists and Brownists that do most violently strive not to detain what they have unjustly obtained but a degree far worse to pull the sword out of their Prince his hand and to place authority on them which have neither right to own it nor discretion to use it and that is Where the Puritans place the authority to maintain religion 1 In the Presbytery either 1. A Consistory of Presbyters 2. A Parliament of Lay men For 1. These new Adversaries of this Truth that would most impudently take away from Christian Princes the supreame and immediate authority under Christ in all Ecclesiastical Callings and Causes will needs place the same in themselves and a Consistorian company of their own Faction a whole Volume would not contain their absurdities falsities and blasphemies that they have uttered about this point I will onely give you a taste of what some of the chief of them have belched forth against the Divine Truth of God's Word and the sacred Majesty of Kings Master Calvin a man otherwise of much worth Calvin in Amos cap. 7. and worthy to be honoured yet in this point transported with his own passion calleth those Blasphemers that did call King Henry the eight the supreme Head of this Church of England and Stapleton saith that he handled the King himself with such villany and with so spiteful words Stapl. cont Horn. l. 1. p. 22. as he never handled the Pope more spitefully and all for this Title of Supremacy in Church causes and in his fifty fourth Epistle to Myconius he termed them prophane spirits and mad men that perswaded the Magistrates of Geneva not to deprive themselves of that authority which God hath given them Viretus is more virulent How Viretus would prove the temporal Pope as he calleth the King worse then the spiritual Pope for he resembleth them not to mad men as Calvin did but to white Devils because they stand in defence of the Kings authority and he saith they are false Christians though they cover themselves with the cloke of the Gospel affirming that the putting of all authority and power into the Civil Magistrates hands and making them masters of the Church is nothing else but the changing of the Popedome from the Spiritual Pope into a Temporal Pope who as it is to be feared will prove worss and more tyrannous then the Spirituall Pope which he laboureth to confirme by these three reasons Reason 1 1. Because the Spiritual Pope had not the Sword in his own hand to punish men with death but was fain to crave the aid of the Secular power which the Temporal Pope needs not do Reason 2 2. Because the old spiritual Popes had some regard in their dealings of Councils Synods and ancient Canons but the new Secular Popes will do what they list without respect of any Ecclesiastical Order be it right or wrong Reason 3 3. Because the Romish Popes were most commonly very learned but it happeneth oftentimes that the Regal Popes have neither learning nor knowledg in divine matters and yet these shall be they that shall command Ministers and and Preachers what they list and to make this assertion good he affirmeth that he saw in some places some Christian Princes under the title of Reformation to have in ten or twenty years usurped more tyranny over the Churches in their Dominions then ever the Pope and his adherents did in six hundred years All which reasons are but meere fopperies blown up by the black Devil to blast the beauty of this truth for we speak not of the abuse of any Prince
Viretus his scandalous reasons answered to justifie the same against any one but of his right that cannot be the cause of any wrong and it cannot be denyed but an illiterate Prince may prove a singular advancer of all learning as Bishop Wickham was no great Scholler yet was he a most excellent instrument to produce abundance of famous Clerks in this Church and the King ruleth his Church by those Laws which through his royal authority are made with the advice of his greatest Divines as hereafter I shall shew unto you yet these spurious and specious pretexts may serve like clouds to hide the light from the eyes of the simple T. C. l. 2. p. 411. So Cartwright also that was our English firebrand and his Disciples teach as Harding had done before that Kings and Princes do hold their Kingdoms and Dominions under Christ as he is the Son of God onely before all Worlds coequal with the Father and not as he is Mediator and Governour of the Church and therefore the Christian Kings have no more to do with the Church government then the Heathen Princes so Travers saith that the Heathen Princes being converted to the faith receive no more nor any further encrease of their power whereby they may deale in Church causes then they had before so the whole pack of the Disciplinarians are all of the same minde and do hold that all Kings as well Heathen as Christian receiving but one Commission and equal Authority immediately from God have no more to do with Church causes the one sort then the other And I am ashamed to set down the railing and the scurrilous speeches of Anthony Gilby against Hen. 8. and of Knox Gilby in his admonition p. 69 Knox in his exhortation to the Nobility of Scotland fol. 77. Whittingham and others against the truth of the King 's lawful right and authority in all Ecclesiastical causes For were it so as Cartwright Travers and the rest of that crew do avouch that Kings by being Christians receive no more authority over Christ his Church then they had before * Which is most false yet this will appear most evident to all understanding men that all Kings as well the Heathens as the Christians are in the first place to see that their people do religiously observe the worship of that God which they adore and therefore much more should Christian Princes have a care to preserve the religion of Jesus Christ The Gentilee Kings preservers of religion For it cannot be denyed but that all Kings ought to preserve their Kingdoms and all Kingdoms are preserved by the same means by which they were first established and they are established by obedience and good manners neither shall you finde any thing that can beget obedience and good manners but Lawes and Religion and Religion doth naturally beget obedience unto the Lawes therefore most of those Kings that gave Lawes were originally Priests and as Synesius saith Synes ep 126. Vide Arnis part 2. pag. 14. Ad magnas reipubl utilitates retinetur religio in civitatibus Cicero de divin l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priest and a Prince was all one with them when the Kings to preserve their Laws inviolable and to keep their people in obedience that they might be happy became Priests and exercised the duties of Religion offering sacrifices unto their Gods and discha ging the other offices of the Priestly Function as our factious Priests could willingly take upon them the offices of the King or if some of them were not Priests as all were not Law-makers yet all of them preserved Religion as the onely preservation of their Lawes and the happinesse of their Kingdomes which thye saw could not continue without Religion But 2. The wisedom of our grave Prelates and the learning of our religious Clergie having stopped the course of this violent stream 2. In the Parliament and hindred the translation of this right of Kings unto their new-born Presbytery and late erected Synods There sprang up another generation out of the dregs of the former that because they would be sure to be bad enough out of their envy unto Kings and malice unto the Church that the one doth not advance their unworthyness and the other doth not bear with undutifullness will needs transfer this right of ruling God's Church unto a Parliament of Lay-men the King shall be denuded of what God hath given him and the people shall be endued with what God and all good men have ever denyed them I deny not but the Parliament men as they are most noble and worthy Gentlemen so many of them may be very learned and not a few of them most religious and I honour the Parliament rightly discharging their duties as much as their modesty can desire or their merit deserve neither do I gain-say but as they are pious men and the greatest Council of our King so they may propose things and request such and such Lawes to be enacted such abuses to be redressed and such a reformation to be effected as they think befitting for Gods Church but for Aaron's feed and the Tribe of Levi Hugo de Sancto Vict. l b 2. de sacr fid par 2. cap 3. Laicis Christianis fidelibus terrena possidere conceditur clericis verò tantum spiritualia committuntur quae aâ—tem illa spiritualia sunt subjicit c. 5. dicens omnis ecclesiastica administratio in tribus consistit in sacramentis in ordinibus in praeceptis Ergo Laici nihil juris habent in legibus praeceptis condendis ecclesiastâ—cis to be directed and commanded out of the Parliament chair how to perform the service of the Tabernacle and for Lay men to determine the Articles of faith to make Canons for Church-men to condemn heresies and define verities and to have the chief power for the government of Gods Church as our Faction now challengeth and their Preachers ascribe unto them is such a violation of the right of Kings such a derogation to the Clergy and so prejudicial to the Church of Christ as I never found the like usurpation of this right to the eradication of the true Religion in any age for seeing that as the Proverb goeth Quod medicorum est promittunt medici practant fabrilia fabri what Papist or Atheist will be ever converted to profess that religion which shall be truly what now they alleadge falsly unto us a Parliamentary religion or a religion made by Lay-men with the advice of a few that they choose è faece Cleri I must seriously profess what I have often bewayled to see Nadab and Abihu offering strange fires upon God's Altar to see the sacred offices of the Priests so presumptuously usurped by the Laity and to see the children of the Church nay the servants of the Church to prescribe Lawes unto their Masters and I did ever fear it to be an argument not onely of a corrupted but also of a
our people and to fight against God's enemies that have long laboured to overthow his Church as we read of some Bishops of this Kingdom that have been driven to do the like and if these men might do these things without blame as they did why may not the same man be both a Bishop and the Kings Counsellour both a Preacher in the pulpit and a Justice of the peace on the Bench and yet the callings not confounded though the same man be called to both offices for you know the office of a Lawyer is different from the office of a Physitian and the office of a Physitian as different from the duty of a Divine and yet as Saint Luke was an excellent Physitian and a heavenly Evangelist and S. Paul as good a Lawyer as he was a Preacher for he was bred at the feet of Gamaliel as was Master Calvin too as good a Civilian as he was a Divine for that was his first profession so the same man may as in many places they do and that without blame both play the part of a Physitian to cure the body and of a Divine to instruct the soul and therefore why not of a Lawyer when as the Preachers duty next to the teaching of the faith in Christ is to perswade men to live according to the rules of Justice and Justice we cannot understand without the knowledge of the Laws both of God and men and if he be obliged to know the Law why should he be thought an unfit man to judge according to the Law But. CHAP. IX Sheweth a full answer to four special Objections that are made against the Civil jurisd ctions of Ecclesiastical persons their abilities to discharge these offices and desire to benefit the Common-wealth why some Councils inhibited these offices unto Bishops that the King may give titles of honour unto his Clergy of this title LORD not unfitly given to the Bishops proved the objections against it answered six special reasons why the King should confer honours and favours upon his Bishops and Clergy 1. IF you say the office of a Preacher requireth the whole man and where the whole man is not sufficient to one duty for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ob. 1 2 Cor. 2.16 then certainly one man is never able to supply two charges I answer that this indefinite censure is uncertainly true Sol. and most certainly false as I have proved unto you before by many examples of most holy men that discharged two offices with great applause and no very great difficulty to themseves for though Saint Matthew could not return to his trade of Publican because that a continued attendance on a secular business would have taken him from his Apostolate and prove an impediment to his Evangelick ministration yet Saint Peter might return to his nets as he did without blame because that a temporary imployment and no constant secession can be no hinderance to our Clericall office No man is alwayes able to do the same thing when there is no man that can so wholly addict himselfe to any kinde of art trade or faculâ—y but that he must sometimes interchangeably afford himselfe leisure either for his recreation Vt quemvis animo possit sufferre laborem or the recollection of strength and abilities to discharge his office by the undertaking of some other exercise which is to many men their chiefest recreation as you see the husband-mans change of labour doth still inable him to continue in labour and the Courtier cannot alwayes wait in the same posture nor the Scribe alwayes write nor the Divine alwayes study Change of labour is a kinde of recreation but there must be an exchange of his actions for the better performance of his chiefest imployment and that time which either some Gentlemen Citizens or Courtiers spend in playing hawking or hunting onely for their recreation the better to inable them to discharge their offices why may not the Divine imploy it in the performance of any other duty different but not destructive or contradictory to his more special function especially considering that the discharging of those good duties to give counsell to do justice to releive the distressed and the like are more acceptable recreations unto them as it was meate and drink to Christ to do his fathers will then the other fore-named exercises are or can be to any others John 4.34 and considering also that where the Bishop or Pastor hath great affairs and much charge he may have great helpes and much aid to assist him You will allow us an hour for our recreation why will you not allow us that hour to do justice Ob. 2. 2. If you say they are spirituall men and therefore cannot have so great a care of the temporall State and Common-wealth Sol. 1. The ability of the Clergy to manage civil affaires Ignat. Epist ad Ephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I answer that as now the Common-wealth is the Church and the Church is the Common wealth and have as good interest therein and better we hope then many of the Common-wealth have in the Church and they should be as able to unde stand what is beneficiall to the Common-wealth as any other for Ignatius saith that Kings ought to be served by wise men and by those that are of great understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to be attended upon by weak and simple men and if Kings must be served by such men then certainly the service of God is not to be performed by Weavers and Taylors and others like Jeroboams Priests but it will require men of great abilities learning and understanding in all businesses whatsoever such as are indeed well able to discourse De quolibet ente And they have very unprefitably consumed themselves with their time in their head-pain vigils and heart-breaking studies in traversing over all the Common-wealths of the world if they have learned nothing The Clergy of better abilities to benefit the Common-wealth then many others that now sway it whereby they may benefit their own Common-wealth or do understand less what belongeth unto the good of their Countrey especially in matters of equity and right then illiterate Burgesses and meere Chapmen for if you read but the bookes of the Prophets you shall finde how plentifull they are in the precepts of peace in the policies of war and in the best counsels for all things which concern the good of the Common-wealth and do not the Divines read the Histories of all or most other Common-wealths how else shall they be inabled to propose unto their people the example of Gods justice upon the wicked and his bounty and favour unto the observers of his Lawes throughout all ages and in all places of this world and will you deprive the King of the assistance of such instruments for the government of his people The imployment of the Bishops in civil affaires is the good of the Common wealth that are stronger
every ordinance of the higher power for the Lords sake so for the higher power to dispence with both Gods Law admitteth an interpretation not a dispensation of it is most agreeable to reason and Gods truth for all our Lawes are either divine or humane and in the divine Law though we allow of interpretation quia non sermoni res sed rei sermo debet esse subjectus because the words must be applyed to the matter else we may fall into the heresie of those that as Alfonsus de Castro saith held it unlawfull upon any occasion to sweare because our Saviour saith sweare not at all yet no man King nor Pope hath power to grant any dispensation for the least breach of the least precept of Gods Law he cannot dispence with the doing of that which God forbiddeth to be done nor with the omitting of that which God commandeth but in all humane Lawes Mans Law may be dispensed with so far as they are meerly positive and humane it is in the power of their makers to dispence with them and so quicquid fit dispensatione superioris non fit contra praeceptum superioris and he sinneth neither against the Law nor against his own conscience because he is delivered from the obligation of that Law by the same authority whereby he stood bound unto it And as he that is dispensed with is free from all sin so the King which is the dispenser is as free from all fault as having full right and power to grant His dispensations For seeing that all humane Lawes are the conclusions of the Law of nature or the evidences of humane reason shewing what things are most beneficiall to any society either the Church or Common-wealth and that experience teacheth us our reason groweth often from an imperfection to be more perfect when time produceth more light unto us we cannot in reason deny an abrogation and dispensation to all humane Lawes which therefore ought not to be like the Lawes of the Medes and Persians that might not be changed Aug. de libero arbit l. 1. and so Saint Augustine saith Lex humana quamvis justa sit commutari tamen pro tempore juste potest any humane Law though it be never so just yet for the time as occasion requireth may be justly changed dispensatio est juris communis relaxatio facta cum causâ— cognitione ab eo Dispensation what it is qui jus habet dispensandi and as the Civilians say a dispensation is the relaxation of common right granted upon the knowledge of the cause by him that hath the power of dispensing or as the etymologie of the word beareth dispensare est diversa pensare The reward of learning and vertue how to be rendered to dispense is to render different rewards and the reward of learning or of any other virtue either in the civill or the ecclesiasticall person being to be rendered as one saith not by an Arithmeticall but a Geometricall proportion and the division of Parishes being as I said before a positive humane Law it cannot be denyed but the giver of honour and the bestower of rewards which is the King hath the sole power and right to dispose how much shall be given to this or that particular person If you say the Law of the King Ob. which is made by the advice of his whole Parliament hath already determined what portion is fit for every one and what service is required from him I answer that the voice of equity and justice tells us Sol. that a generall Law doth never derogate from a speciall priviledge or that a priviledge is not opposite to the principles of common right and where the Law it selfe gives this priviledge as our Law doth it yet envy it selfe can never deny this right unto the King to grant his dispensation whensoever he seeth occasion and where the Law is tacite and faith nothing of any priviledge yet seeing in all Lawes The end of every Law is chiefly to be respected as in all other actions the end is the marke that is aimed at and this end is no other then the publique good of any society for which the Law is made if the King which is the sole Law-maker so as I shewed in my Discovery of Mysteries seeth this publique good better procured by granting dispensations to some particular men doth he not performe thereby what the Law intendeth and no wayes breake the Law of common right as if a mans absence from his proper Cure should be more beneficiall to the whole Church Reasons of dispensations then his residence upon his Charge could possibly be as when his absence may be either for the recovery of his health or to discharge the Kings Embassage or to do his best to confute Heretiques or to pacifie Schismes or to consult about the Church affaires or some other urgent cause that the Law never dreamt of when it was in making shall not the King whom the Lawes have intrusted with the examination of these things and to whom the principal care of Religion and the charge of all the People is committed by God himselfe and the power of executing his own Lawes have power to grant his dispensations for the same Certainly they that would perswade the world that all Lawes must have such force that all dispensations are transgressions of them as if generall rules should have no exceptions would manacle the Kings hands and binde his power in the chaines of their crooked wills that he should not be able to do that good which God and Right and Law it selfe do give him leave and their envy towards other mens grace How God doth diversly bestow his gifts Matth. 25.15 Gen. 43.34 is a great deale more then either the grace of humility or the love of truth in them for doth not God give five talents to some of his servants when he gives but one to some others and did not Joseph make Benjamins messe five times so much as any of his brethren's and have not some Lords six or eight or ten thousand pounds a year and some very good men in the Common-wealth and perhaps higher in God's favour not ten pounds a year and shall not the King double the reward of them that deserve it in the Church of God or shall he be so curbed and manacled that he shall neither alter nor dispense with his own Law though it be for the greater glory unto God and the greater benefit both to the Church and Common-wealth Besides who can deny but that some mens merits virtue paines and learning are more worthy of two Benefices then many others are of one and when in his younger time he is possessed of a small Benefice he may perchance afterwards when his years deserve better far easier obtain another little one to keep with it then get what I dare assure you he would desire much rather * For who would not rather chuse one Living of an
duty of a King to cut off all haynous offences with just punishments the unbridled people desires to be free from all fear of punishment the King is the Minister of the Law the Keeper of it and the auenger of the transgression thereof the people as much as possibly they can with an impetuous temerity pulleth down all Laws the King laboureth to preserve peace and quietness the people with an untamcable lust turmoileth and troubleth the peace of all men lastly the King thinkes not fit to distribute rewards and compensations indifferently to all men alike but the people desire to have all difference of worth and dignity taken away infima summis permisceri and to make the basest equal with the best whence it happeneth so that they hate all Princes and especially all Kings quos immani odio persequuntur whom they persecute with a deadly hate for they cannot endure any excellency or dignity and to that end they use all endeavour ut principes interimant vel saltem in turbam conjiciant either utterly to take away and destroy their Princes or to implunge them into a World of troubles which thing at first doth not appeare but when the multitude of furious men hath gathered strength then at last their impudent boldness being confirmed by daily impunity breaketh forth to the destruction of the royal Majesty And a little after he saith Osoriu in ep Reginae Elizabethae praefix l. de relig add to these things the abolition of Laws the contempt of Rule the hatred of royal Majesty and the cruel lying in wait which they most impiously and nefariously do endeavour for their Princes add also their clandestine and secret discourses where their confederacies are made for the extirpation of their Kings and to plot with unspeakable mischief the death of them whose health and safety they ought most heartily to pray to God for and then he addeth Pagina 24. 25. cum immodica libertatis cupiditate rapiantur leges oderunt judicia detestantur regum majestatem extinctam cupiunt ut licentiùs impuniùs queant per omnia libidinum genera vagari and this is most manifest saith he all their endeavours ayme at this end that Princes being taken away they may have an uncontroulable leave and liberty to commit all kinde of villanies and to that purpose they have poysoned some kings Revera mihi videtur esse ars artium hominem regere qui certè est inter omnes animantes maximè moribus varius voluntate diversas Nazian in Apol. and killed others with the sword and to root out all rule Consilia plena sceleris inierunt they are full of all wicked counsels And therefore this being the condition of the people as the Scripture sheweth plainly in the Jews by their continual Rebellions and murmurings against Moses and Aaron and we see it as plainly in our own time when our people hath confirmed all that this Bishop said it is not an easie matter to govern such an unruly people But we finde that the rod of Government is a miraculous rod that being in Moses hand was a fair wand but cast unto the ground turned to be an ungly and a poysonous Serpent to shew that the people being subject to the hand of Government is a goodly thing and a glorious society but let loose out of the Princes hands they are as Serpents crooked wriggled versipelles A people well governed very glorious and as full as may be of all deadly poyson and the Prophet David makes the ruling of the people to be as great a miracle as to appease the raging of the Seas and therefore he ascribes this Government to be the proper work of God psal 65.7 God is the governour and Kings are but Gods instruments psal 77.20 when speaking unto God he saith Thou rulest the rage of the Seas the noyse of his waves and the madness of the people for Kings are but Gods instruments and God himself is the ruler of his people even as the same King David sheweth saying still to God Tu duxisti populum tuum Thou leadest thy people like sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron God was the leader and they were but the hands by which he led them for where God hath not a hand in the government of the people it is impossible for the best and most politick heads to do it and this Solomon knew full well when God bade him aske what he should give him and he said Thou hast made me King he doth not say the people hath made me and I know not how to go out or in that is to govern them 1 Reg. 3.7 9. therefore I pray the give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great a people that is what one man is able to govern an innumerable multitude of men Thou therefore must be the Governour and I am but thine instrument and that I may be a fit instrument to do thy work I desire thee to give me a docible heart They that reject their King reject God Wherefore O you Subjects without obedience and you Divines without Divinity how dare you put any instruments into Gods hands and refuse nay reject the instrument that he chuseth for the performance of his own work to rule the people you may as well refuse God himself even as God saith unto Samuel 1 Sam. 8.7 They have not reiected thee but they have reiected me so you that do rebel and cast away your King that God hath chosen as his hand to guide you and his instrument to govern you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 10.16 I pronounce it to all the World you have rebelled against God and you have cast away your God for the rule of Christ must stand infallible he that rejecteth or despiseth him that is sent rejecteth him that sent him CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their government to whom the choice of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peers nor Parliament can have supremacy the Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton answered our Lawes prove all Soveraignty to be in the King the two chief parts of the regal government the four properties of a just War and how the Parliamentary Faction transgress in every property 3. The assistance that God alloweth unto Kings to help them in their government of two sorts 3. SEeing it is so hard and difficult a matter ars artium gubernare populum the Mistresse of all Sciences and the most dangerous of all faculties to govern the people that Saturninus said truly to them that put on his Kingly ornaments they knew not what an evil it was to rule because of the many dangers that hang over the rulers heads which under the seeming shew of a Crown of gold do wear indeed a Crown of thornes therefore Vt
as ridiculous the testimony of Justine which saith Populus nullis legibus tenebatur sed arbitria regum pro legibus erant the people were kept under by no Lawes but the will of their Kings was all the Law they had but as oportet mendacem esse memorem so it behoves him that opposeth the truth to be very subtile and very mindful of his own discourse otherwise a meaner Scholler having such advantage as the truth to assist him may easily get the victory for though he goeth about to confute the reason that some alleadge for the denyal of those times to be governed by any Law because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be found in all Homer but wheresoeuer he speakes of Justice Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hymnis ad Apoll. he expresseth the same by the word Themis and saith that this is false which he proveth from Homers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sheweth that there were Lawes before Homers time from Talus his Lawes that were written in brasse in the Isle of Crete yet all this may be answered and Justines opinion prove most true Joseph advers Appion l. 51 Plutarch in lib. de Hero for Talus his time must needs be uncertain and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer means the just measure of riming but never useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the set Law of living besides there were many ages and many Kings before Homers time and before Talus Minos Radamanthus or any other Law-maker that you read of Moses was the first that I finde either giving Lawes or inventing Letters and yet there were many Kings before Moses nine Kings named in one Chapter Gen. 14.1 2. and what Lawes had they to govern their people besides their own wils and therefore Master Selden vi veritatis victus confesseth that in the first times in the beginning of States there were no Lawes but the arbitrements of Princes as Pomponius speaketh Pompon de origine juris ff l. 1. sect 2. Josephus regnū appellat imperium summum unius hominis non ex lege sed ex arbitrio imperantis Antiquit l. 4. Saravia de imperand autor l. 2. c. 3. Barclaius l. 3. c. 16. Arnis l. 1. c. 3. p. 49. 50. Irvinus cap. 4. p. 64 65. and pag. 4. he saith the people seeing the inconveniences of popular rule chose one Monarch under whose arbitrary rule their happy quiet should be preserved where also you may observe his great mistake in making the Monarchy to spring out of the Democracy when as I have proved before the Monarchicall government was many hundred of years before we heare mention of any other forme of government but in any government Doctor Saravia saith and he saith most truly Quisquis summum obtinet imperium sive is sit unus rex sive pauci nobiles vel ipse populus universus supra omnes leges sunt ratio haec est quòd nemo sibi ferat legem sed subditis suis se legibus nemo adstringit huc accedit illa ratio quòd neque suis legibus teneri possit scil rex cum nemo sit seipso superior nemo à seipso cogi possit leges à superiore tantùm sciscantur dentúrque inferioribus And so Arnisaeus saith and proveth at large Majestatis essentiam consistere in summa absoluta potestate that the being of Majesty and Soveraignty consisteth in the highest and most absolute power And Irvinus alleadgeth many testimonies out of Aristotle Cicero Vlpian Dio Constant Harmenopolus and others to p ove that Rex legibus non subjicitur And to make it yet more cleare that the kings power to rule his people was arbitrary Sigonius saith most truly that the power of governing the people was given by God unto Moses before the Law was given and therefore he called the people to counsell and without either Judges or Magistrates jura eisdem reddidit he administred Justice and did right to every one of them So Joshua exercised the same right and the Judges after him Sigon de rep Heb. l. 7. c. 3. Hoc arbitrarium imperium expressit Deus 1 Sam. 8. David Ps 11. Reges eos in virga serrea Idem Ibidem and after the Judges succeeded the Kings quorum potestai atque autoritas multò major ut quae non tam à legibus quà m ab arbitrio voluntate regis profecta sit whose power and authority was far greater as proceeding not so much from the Lawes as from the arbitrement and the will of the King saith Sigonius for they understood the power of a King in Aristotles sence Qui solutus legibus plenissimo jure regnaret who being freed from the Lawes or not tyed to Lawes might governe with a plenary right And so Saul judged Israel and had altogether the arbitrary power both of life and death quodam modo superior legibus fuit and was after a sort above the Law undertaking and making Warr pro arbitratu suo according to his own will And in his sixth book he saith the Jewes had three great Courts or Assemblies 1. Their Councell which contained that company Cap. 2. that handled those things especially which concerned the State of the whole Common-wealth as warre peace provision institution of Lawes creation of Magistrates and the like 2. Their Synagogue or the meeting of the whole Congregation or people Cap. 3. which no man might convocate but he which had the chiefe rule as Moses Joshua the Judges and the Kings 3. Their standing Senate Cap. 4. Numb 15. Plenum regnum vocatur quo cuncta rex sua voluntate gerit Idem which was appointed of God to be of the seventy Elders whereof he saith that although this was alwayes standing for consultation yet we must understand that the kings which had the Common-wealth in their own power and were not obnoxious to the Lawes made Decrees of themselves without the authority of the Senate ut qui cum summo imperio essent as men that were indued with the chiefest rule and command And we find that the king judged the people two manner of wayes 1. Alone 2. Together with the Elders and Priests 2 Sam. 15 2 6. For it is said that Absolon when any man came to the king for judgment wished that he were made Judge in the Land and he did in this manner to all Israel that came to the king for judgement and when the people demanded a King instead of Samuel to reigne over them 1 Sam. 8,7 and God said They had cast him off from being their King he signifieth most plainly that while the Judges ruled which had their chiefest authority from the Law God reigned over them because his Law did rule them but the rule and government being translated unto Kings God reigned no longer over them Quia non penes legem Dei sed penes voluntatem unius
hominis summa rerum autoritas esset futura because now all authority and all things were not in the power of the Law but in the power of one mans arbitrary will But seeing we are fallen upon the peoples desire of a king let us examine what right God saith belongeth unto him and because that place 1 Sam. 8. is contradicted by another Deut. 17. as it seemeth we will examine both places and see if Moses doth any wayes crosse Samuel Deut. 17.14 usque ad finem and truly I may say of these two places that as S. Aug. saith in the like case Alii atque alii aliud atque aliud opinati sunt for some learned men say that Moses setteth down to the king legem regendi the Law by which he should governe the people without wronging them and Samuel setteth down to the people legem parâ—â—di the Law by which they should obey the king without resisting him whatsoever he should doe to them Spalat tom 2. fol 251. And other Divines say Haec est potestas legitima non tyrannica nec violenta ideò quando rex propria negotia non possit expedire per proprias res ac servos possit pro negotiis propriis tollere res servos aliorum isto modo dicebat Deus quod pertinebat ad jus regis G. Ocham tract 2. l. 2. c. 25. this is the lawfull and just right of the king Therefore to find out the truth let us a little more narrowly discusse both places And 1. In the words of Moses there I observe two speciall things 1. The charge of the people 2. The charge of the king 1. Popular election utterly forbidden 1. The people are commanded very strictly in any wise saith the Text to make choice of no king of their own heads but to accept of him whom the Lord did chuse 2. The Kings charge 2. The king is commanded to write out the Law to study it and to practice it and he is forbidden to do foure speciall things which are 1. Not to bring the people back into Egypt nor to provide the means to bring them by multiplying his horses 2. Not to marry many wives that might intice him as they did Solomon unto Idolatry 3. Not to hoord up too much riches 4. Not to tyrannize over his Brethren Joseph Antiquit l. 4. And Josephus to the same purpose saith Si regis cupiditas vos incesserit is ex eadem gente sit curam omnino gerat justitiae aliarum virtutum caveat verò ne plus legibus aut Deo sapiat nihil autem agat sine Pontificis Senatorúmque sententia which Moses hath not neque nuptiis multis utatur nec copiam pecuniarum equorúmque sectetur quibus partis super leges superbiâ efferatur that is to be a Tyrant Rex Jacobus in his true Law of free Monarchs 2. The words of Samuel are set down 1 Sam. viii 11. to the 18. verse whereof I confesse there are severall expositions some making the same a propheticall prediction of what some of their Kings would doe contrary to what they should doe as it was expressed by Moses So King James himself takes it others take it Grammatically for the true right of a King that may do all this and yet no way contradict those precepts forecited by Moses to confirme which supposition they say 1. The phrase here used must beare it out for as the Hebrew word signifieth as Pagninus noteth Morem aut modum aut consuetudinem and many other things as the place and the matter to be expressed do require because every equivocall word of various signification is not to be taken alike in all places but is to be interpreted secundum materiam subjectam yet the Septuagint that should know both the propriety of the word and the meaning of the Holy Ghost in that place as well as any other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apparet nomen juris significare hic potestatem jure soncessam Arnisaeus c. 1. p. 216. translate the word to signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we know the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint useth and jus which the Latine useth is never taken in the worser sence the Scripture never using to call vices by the names of vertues or to give a right to any one to exercise tyranny which then might be better termed jus latronis because an unjust tyrant is no better then an open thiefe 2. There is nothing here set downe by Samuel that is simply forbidden by the Law of God but that any the very best Kings may do as the occasions shall requi e for being a King he must have the royalty of his house supported and the necessities of his war supplied and you may read in Herodotus how Dioces after he was chosen King had all things granted unto him that were needfull to express his royall state and magnificence and here is nothing else in the text for if you marke it the Prophet saith not he should kill their sons nor ravish their wives nor yet take their daughters to be his Concubines which are the properties of a tyrant * Instat terribilis vivis morientibus haeres Virginibus raptor thalamis obscaenus adulter Divit busque dies nox metuenda maritis Quisquis vel locuples pulchra vel conjuge notus Crimini pulsatur falso si crimina desunt Accitus conviva perit mors nulla refugit Artificem Claudian de bello Gildon Bilson diff fol. 356. but he should take them to support his State and to maintain his war which as his necessities require is lawfull for him to do so that it is not the doing of those things but the motives that cause the King to do them or the manner of doing them that do make it either an unjust tyranny or the just right of a King for as Doctor Bilson saith kings may justly command the goods and bodies of all their Subjects in the time both of war and peace for any publique necessity or utility And Hugo de Sancto Victore saith Nunquam possessiones à regia potestate ita elongari possunt quin si ratio postulaverit necessitas illis ipsa potestas debeat patrocinium illis ipsae possessiones debeant in necessitate obsequium And so most Authors say the Subjects ought to supply the kings necessities and he may justly demand what is requisite and necessary for his publique occasions and who shall judge of that necessity but his own conscience and God shall judge that conscience which doth unjustly demand what he hath no reason to require because the greatness of his authority gives him no right to transcend the rules of equity whereof both God and his conscience will be the impartiall Judges And therefore in Deut. Modus describitur res non prohibetur and in Samuel Jus ponitur ratio subintelligitur for many things may be prohibited in
some respect that in other respects may be allowed and many things lawfull in some wayes which otherwayes may be most sinfull as it is most lawfull to drink ad satietatem but not ad obrietatem and many other the like things so it is lawfull for the king to do all that Samuel saith ad supplendam reipubl necessitatem supportandam regiam majestatem but not ad satisfaciendum suo fastui luxui lucro vanitati aut carnali voluptati which is the thing that Moses forbiddeth So that in briefe the meaning is if the Subjects should be unwilling to do what Samuel saith then the king when just necessity requireth may for these lawfull ends lawfully assume them And if he takes them any other way or for any other end then so habet Deum judicem conscientiae ultorem injustitiae But then it may be said Ob. Ahab did not offend in taking away Naboths vineyard if Samuel did properly describe the right of kings I cannot say that Ahab sinned in desiring Naboths vineyard Ans neither do I finde that the Prophet blames him for that desire there is not a word of that in the text but for killing Naboth and then taking possession for this he might not do the other he might do so he do it to a right end and in the right manner wherein he failed Ahâ—bs sin 1. In being so discontented for his denyal because his conscience telling him that he had no such urgent necessity whereby he could take it and Naboth being unwilling to sell it he should have beene satisfied 2. In suffering his wife whom he knew to be so wicked to proceed in her unjust course against Naboth Naboths fault 3. In going down to take possession when he knew that by his Wifes wicked practice the poore man was unjustly murdered when he should have rather questioned the fact and have punished the murderers Lex posterior derogat priori specialis generali ceremonialia atque forensia cedunt moralibus And yet Ahabs sin doth not excuse Naboths fault both in the denyal of the Kings right if the king had a just necessity to use it and also for his uncivil answer unto the King far unlike the answer of Arauna to King David but nearer like the answer of Nabal which the Holy Ghost seemes to take notice of when after he had said The LORD forbid it me which was rather a prayer and postulation that God would forbid it as we say absit when we hear of any displeasing likelyhood then any declaration of any inhibition of God to sell it who never denyed them leave to sell it until the yeare of redemption the Prophet tells us in the next verse that Naboth said 1 Reg 21.4 Whâ—ch very answer seemes to be the cause why Ahab was so much displeased I will not give thee the inheritance of my father But whether this speech of Samuel sheweth the just right of a King what he might do or his power what he would do what belongs to him of equity or what his practice would be by tyranny I will not determine but I say that although it should not be a just rule for him to command yet it is a certain rule for them to obey and though it should not excuse the king from sin yet it wholly disables and disavowes the peoples resisting their king because in all this the Prophet allowes them none other remedy but to cry unto the Lord for seeing God hath given him directum dominium The kings absolute power not given him to inable him for oppression but to retaine his Subjects from rebellion absolutum imperium though he should fail of his duty which God requireth and do that wrong unto the people which God forbiddeth yet he is solutus legibus free from all Laws quoad coactionem in respect of any coaction from the people but not quoad obligationem in respect of obedience to God by his obligation for though Kings had this plenitudinem potestatis to rule and govern their people as the father of the family rules his houshold or the Pilot directs his Ship secundum liberum arbitrium according to his own arbitrary will yet that will was to rule and to guide all his actions according to the strict Law of common equity and justice as I have often shewed unto you Diodor. Siculus l. 2. c. 3. Boemus Aubanus tamen asserit voluntatem regum Aegypti pro lege esse But though this arbitrary rule continued long and very general for Diodorus Siculus saith that excepting the Kings of Egypt that were indeed very strictly tied to live according to Law all other Kings infinit â licentiâ ac voluntate suâ pro lege regnabant ruled as they listed themselves Yet at last corruption so prevailed that either the Kings abusing their power or the people refusing to yeild their obedience caused this arbitrary rule to be abridged and limited within the bounds of lawes whereby the Kings promised and obliged themselves to govern their people according to the rules of those established lawes for though the supreme Majesty be free from all Lawes spontè tamen iis accomodare potest the king may of his own accord yeild to observe the same and as the German Poet saith German vates de rebus Frid. l. 8. Nihil ut verum fatear magis esse decorum Aut regalt puto quà m legis jure solutum Sponte tamen legisese supponere regem and according to the diversities of those Laws How diversities of government came up so are the diversities of government among the several kingdoms of the earth for I speake not of any Popular or Aristocratical state therefore as some kings are more restrained by their Lawes then some others so are their powers the lesse absolute and yet all of them being absolute Kings and free Monarchs are excepted from any account of their actions to any inferiour jurisdiction because then they had not been Monarchs but of Kings had made themselves Subjects Thus you see that rule which formerly was arbitrary is now become limited but limited by their own lawes and with their own wills and none otherwise for I shewed you else-where that the Legislative power resided alwayes in the King even as Virgil saith Virgil Aeneid l. Gaudet regno Trojanus Acestes Indicitque forum patribus dare jura vocatis And as that mirror of all learned Kings saith Rex Jacobus in the true Law of free Monarchs p. 201. King Fergus came to Scotland before any Statutes or Parliament or Lawes were made and you may easily finde it that Kings were the makers of the Laws and not the Lawes the makers of Kings for the Lawes are but craved by the Subjects and made onely by him at their rogation and with their advice so he gives the Law to them but takes none from them and by their own Lawes Kings have limited and abridged their own Right and Power which God and nature have conferred upon them some more some less according as their grants were unto their people §.
The extent of the grants of Kings what they may and what they may not grant what our Kings have not granted in seven speciall prerogatives and what they have granted unto their people ANd here I would have you to consider these two points Two things considerable about the priviledged grants of Kings 1. The extent of the grants of kings Prov. 30.15 concerning these grants of Kings unto their Subjects 1. Of the extents of these grants 2. Of the Kings obligation to observe them for 1. It is certain that the people alwayes desirous of liberty though that liberty should produce their ruine are notwithstanding like the daughters of the Horse-leech still crying unto their Kings give give give us liberties and priviledges more and more and if they may have their wills they are never satisfied Till Kings by giving give themselves away And even that power which should deny betray For the concessions and giving away of their right to govern That it is to the prejudice of government to grant too many priviledges to the people is the weakning of their government and the more priviledges they give the less power they have to rule and then the more unruly will their Subjects be and therefore the people being herein like the horses the Poets faigne to be in Phaebus chariot proud and stomackfull Kings should remember the grave advice the Father gave unto Phaeton Parce puer stimulis sed fortiùs utere loris Sponte sua properant labor est inhibere volantes Ovid. Met. l. 1 They must be strongly bribled and restrained or they will soone destroy both horse and rider both themselves and their Governours Yet many Kings Constrained gifts not worthy of thanks either forcibly compelled by their unruly Subjects when they might think and therefore not yield that Who gives constrain'd but his own feare reviles Not thank't but scorn'd nor are they gifts but spoiles Or else as some intruding usurping Kings have done to retaine their unjustly gained crownes without opposition or as others out of their Princely clemency and facility What moved Kings to grant so many priviledges to their Subjects to gain the more love and affection and as they conceived the greater obligation from their Subjects have many times to the prejudice of themselves and their posterity to the diminution of the rights of government and often to the great damage of the Common-wealth given away and released the execution of many parts of that right which originally most justly belonged unto them and tyed themselves by promises and oaths to observe those Laws which they made for the exemption of their Subjects Majora jura inseperabilia à Majestue ne queunt indulgeri subditis ita cohaerent ossibus ab illo separari si ne illius destructione non possunt Paris de puteo Arnisaeus l. 2. c. 2. de jure ma. Blacvod c 7. pag. 75. things that the King cannot grant But there be some things which the King cannot grant as to transfer the right of succession to any other then the right heir to whom it doth justly belong quia non jam haereditas est sed proprium adeuntis patrimonium cujus ei pleno jure dominium acquiritur non à Patre non à populo sed à lege Because he hath this right unto the Crown not from his Father nor from the people but from the Law of the Land and from God himself which appointed him for the same saith the Civilian and therefore that vulgar saying is not absurd nunquam mori Regem That the King never dyeth for as soone as ever the one parteth with this life the other immediately without exspecting the consent either of Peeres or people doth by a just and plenary right succeed not onely as his fathers heir but as the lawful governour of the people and as the Lord of the whole kingdome not by any option of any men but by the condition of his birth and the donation of his God and therefore the resignation of the Crown by King John unto the Pope was but a fiction that could infer no diminution of the right of his successour because no King can give away this right from him whom God hath designed for it And there be some things which no Christian King should grant away as any of those things things that the King should not grant that being granted may prejudice the Church of God and depresse the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the giving way for the diminution of the just revenues of the Church the prophanation of things consecrated to Gods service and the suppression of any of the divine callings of the Gospel which are Bishops Priests and Deacons because all kings are bound to honour God and to hinder all those things whereby he is dishonoured either in respect of things persons or places Things that kings have not granted away And there be some things which the Kings of this realm have never granted away but have still retained them in their own hands as inviolable prerogatives and characteristical Symboles and Properties of their Supremacy and the relicks of their pristine right as in the time of peace those two special parts of the gouernment of the Common-wealth which do consist 1. About the Lawes 1. About the Laws 2. About the Magistrates The first whereof saith Arnisaeus containeth these particulars that is to make Lawes to create Nobility and give titles of dignity to legitimate the ill begotten to grant Priviledges to restore Offenders to their lost repute to pardon the transgressors and the like 1. Then it is the right of the King jura dare to give Laws unto his people for though as I said before the Subjects in Parliament may treat of Lawes 1. Jus Legislativum Johan Beda Pag. 25. The power of making Lawes is in the King and intreat the King to approve of them that they propose unto him yet they are no Laws and carry with them no binding force till the King gives his consent and therefore out of Parliament you see the Kings Proclamation hath vim vigorem legis the full force and strength of a Law to shew unto us that the power of making Lawes was never yeilded out of Kings hands nor can it indeed be parted with The case of our affaires pag. 11. except he part with His Majesty and Soveraignty for the limiting of his own power by his voluntary concession of such favours unto his people not to make any Lawes without their consent doth no way diminish his Soveraignty or lessen his own right and authority Stat. West 1. 3. E. 1. 3. 6. 42. Stat. of Merch. 13. E. 1. West 3. 18. E. 1. 1. Stat. of Waste 20. E. 1. of appeale 28. E. 1. 1. E. 2. 1. and all the titles and acts
them the more odious both to God and man and their names the more infamous to all posterity that after they had filled themselves with all kind of wickednesse with incredible transgressions they should be sound contemners of so favourable a pardon But though it be the Kings right to pardon faults and to restore offenders yet herein all Princes should take great heed especially when they have power to take revenge 2. Sam. 3.39 for sometimes the sinners may be like the sons of Zervia too strong for David how they pardon those great crimes that are committed to the dishonour of God and do so far provoke him to anger as to plague both the doers and the sufferers of them because that although they be soluti legibus suis not bound to their own Lawes Arnisaeus l. 1. c. 3. pag. 69. yet they are not soluti ratione praeceptis divinis but they are bound to observe Gods Lawes and to punish the transgressors of his Commandments or if they do not when they can do it they shall render a strict account to God for all their omissions as they may see it in the example of King Saul 1 Sam. 15.9 6. Jus convocandi Synodos Parliamenta c. 6. Jus convecandi the right of calling Synods Parliaments Dyets and the like were the rights of the kings of Israel and are the just Prerogatives of the kings of England howsoever this faction of the Parliament hath sought to wrest it as they do all other rights out of the kings hands by their presumption to call their Schismaticall Synod to which they have no more colour of right then to call a Parliament 7. Jus mone tas excudendi Matth. 22.20 7. Jus excudendi the right of coyning mony to give it value to stampe his armes or his image upon it as our Saviour saith Whose Image and superscription is this and they say to him Caesars is the proper right of Caesar the prerogative of the king The second sort of the King 's right is circa Magistratus 2. About the Magistrates and containeth jurisdiction rule creation of officers appointing of circuits provinces judgements censures institution of Scholes and Colledges collation of dignities receiving of sidelities and abundance more whereof I intend not to speak at this time but refer my Reader to Arnisaeus de jure Majestatis if he desires to be informed of these particulars Arn s l. 2. c. 2. And as these and the like are jura Regalia the rights of Majesty in the time of peace so when peace cannot continue it doth properly belong unto the King and to none else but to him that hath the Sovereignty whose right it is alone to make war either to succour his allyes or to revenge great injuries or for any the like just causes and as he seeth cause to conclude Peace to send Ambassadours to negotiate with foreign States and the like are the rights of Kings and the indeleble Characters of Soveraignty which whosoever violateth and endeavoureth to purloin them from the King doth with Prometheus steal fire from Heaven which the Gods would not suffer as the Poëts feign to go unrevenged And these things so far as I can finde the King never parted with them unto his Subjects and therefore whosoever pretendeth to an inderived power to do any of these and exempteth himself from the King 's right herein resisteth the ordinance of God and is guilty of High-Treason Ioh. Beda 26. what pretext soever he brings saith the Advocate of Paris And there be some things which our Kings have granted unto their Subjects Ita itiam Reges Aegypti quibus voluntas pro lege est legum tamen instituta in cogendis pecuniis quotidianoque victu sequebantur Aubanus What things Kings have granted and restrained themselves from their full right as the use of that power which makes new Lawes or repeals the old or layeth any tax or sums of monies upon his Subjects without the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and it may be some other particulars which the Lawyers know better then I. And all these Priviledges of the Subjects are but limitations and restrictions of the King 's right made by themselves unto their people and therefore where the Law cannot be produced to confirm such and such Liberties and Priviledges granted unto them I say there the King's power is absolute and the Subject ought not in such cases to determine any thing to the disadvantage of the King because all these Liberties that we have are injoyed by vertue of the King's grant as you may see in the ratification of Magna Charta where the King saith We have granted and given all these Liberties But I could never see it produced 9 Hen. 3. where the King granted unto his Subjects that they might force him and compel him with a strong hand by an Army of Souldiers to do what they will or else to take away either his Crown or his Life this Priviledge was never granted because this deprives the King of his supremacy and puts him in the condition of a Subject and would ever prove an occasion of rebellion when the people upon every discontent would take Arms against their King And therefore this present resistance is a meer usurpation of the King 's right a rebellion against his Lawes an High Treason against his Person and a resistance of the ordinance of God which heap of deadly sins can bring none other fruit then damnation saith the Apostle CHAP. XIV Sheweth the Kings grants unto his people to be of three sorts Which ought to be observed the Act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament discussed the King's Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have been procured and repealed 2. The Kings obligation to observe his grants Peter de la Primandas saith Laws annexed to the Crown the Prince cannot so abrogate them but his Successor may disannul whatsoever he hath done in prejudice of them p. 597. 2. WE are to consider how far the King is obliged to observe his promise and to make good these Liberties and Priviledges unto his Subjects where I speak not how far the father's grant may oblige the son or the predecessor his successor who cannot be deprived of his right dominion by any act of his predecessors but for the rights of his dominion how far precedent grants and the custom of their continuance with the desuetude and non-claim of his right may strengthen them unto the Subject and oblige the successors to observe them I leave it unto the Lawyers and Civilians to dispute but I am here to discusse how far the King that hath promised and taken his oath to observe his Lawes and make good all priviledges granted to his Subjects is bound in conscience to keep and observe them Touching which you must understand that these grants of immunities and favours are of three special kindes 1. Of
grace 2. By fraud 3. Through fear For 1. The King that hath his full right either by conquest or succession over his people 1. All grants of grace ought to be observed to govern them as a most absolute Monarch and out of his meer grace and favour to sweeten the subjection of his people and to binde them with the greater love and affection to his obedience doth minuere sua jura restrain his absolute right bestow liberties upon his people and take his oath for their security that he will observe them is bound in all conscience to perform them and can never be freed from injustice before God and man if he transgresse them The true Law of free Monarchs p. 203. Quia volenti fit non injuria because they do him no injury when he doth voluntarily either totally resign or in some particularity diminish his own right but after he hath thus firmely done it he can never iustly go from it and therefore King James saith that a King which governeth not by his Lawes can neither be accountable to God for his administration nor have a happy and established Raign because it cannot be but that the people seeing their King failing of his duty will be always murmuring and defective in their fidelity And Yet the King's breach of oath doth neither forfeit his right nor warrant their distoyalty because another mans sin doth no way lessen mine offence and neither God nor the King granted this priviledge unto Subjects to rebel and take Armes against their Soveraign when they pretend he hath broken his promise 2. Grants obtained through fraud which to be observed 2. When the King through the subtile perswasions of his people that pretend one thing and intend another shall be seduced to grant those things that are full of inconveniencies as our King was over-reached and no better then meerly cheated by the faction of this Parliament to grant the continuance of it till it should be dissolved with the consent of both Houses and the like Lawes that are procured by meer fraud that soonest over-reacheth the best meaning Kings I answer with the old Proverb Caveat emptor he ought to have been as wise to prevent them as they were subtile to circumvent him and therefore as Joshua being deceived by the Gibeonites could not alter his promise Josh 9.20 nor break his league with them lest wrath should fall upon him so no more should any other King break promise in the like case But you must observe that the Psalmist saith Psal 15.5 The good man which shall dwell in the Tabernacle of the Lord is he that sweareth unto his neighbour and disappointeth him not though it were to his own hinderance mark Quicquid fit dolo malo annullat factum imponit poenam summa Angel though it were to his own hinderance never so much he must perform it but what if he hath promised and sworn that which will be to the great dishonour of God to the hinderance of thousands of others and it may be to the ruine of a whole Kingdom which is a great deal more then his own hinderance is a King bound or is any man else obliged to perform such a promise or to keep such an oath to tell you mine own judgement I think he ought not to perform it and our own Law tels us what grants soever are obtained from the King under the broad Seal by fraud and deceit those grants are void in Law therefore seeing the Act for the perpetuity of this Parliament was obtained dolo pessimo to the great dishonour of God and the ruine both of Church and State when their pretence was very good though the goodness of his Majesty in the tenderness of his conscience was still loath to allow himself the liberty to dissolve it until he had other justeâ— and more clear causes to pronounce it no Parliament as the abusing of his grant to the raising of an Army and the upholding of a Rebellion against their Soveraign yet I believe he might safely have done it long agone without the least violation of God's Law when their evil intentions were openly discovered by those Armies which they raised For I doubt not to affirm it with the Authour of The sacred Prerogative of Christian Kings p. 144. if any good Prince or his royal Ancestors have been cheated out of their sacred right by fraud oâ— force he may at the fittest opportunity when God in his wise providence offereth the occasion resume it especially when the Subjects do abuse the King's concessions to the dammage of Soveraignty so that it redounds also to the prejudice either of the Church or Common-wealth 3. When the King through fear not such as the Parliaments fear is 3. Grants gotten by force not to be observed who were afraid where no fear was and were frighted with dreames and causelesse jealousies but that fear which is real and not little but such as may fall in fortem constantem virum doth passe any Law especially that is prejudicial to the Church and injurious to many of his Subjects I say that when he shall be freed from that fear he is not onely freed from the obligation of that Law but he is also obliged to do his uttermost endeavour to annul the same it is true that his fear may justly free him from all blame at the passing of it as the fear of the thief may clear me from all fault in delivering my purse unto him because these are no voluntary acts and all acts are adjudged good or evil according to the disposition of the will the same being like the golden bridle that Minerva was said to put upon Pegasus to guide him and to turn him as she pleased but when his fear is past The will must never consent to forced acts that are unlawful His Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16. Julii p. 8. and God hath delivered him from the insurrection of wicked doers if his will gives consent to what before he did unwilling who can free the greatest Monarch from this fault Therefore His Majesty confessing which we that saw the whole proceedings of those tumultuous routs that affrighted all the good Protestants and the Loyal Subjects do know that it could not be otherwise that he was driven out of London for fear of his life I conclude that the act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament being past after his flight out of London can be no free nor just nor lawful act and the King when he is more fully informed of many particulars about this act that is so prejudicial to the Church of Christ and so injurious to all his servants the Clergy whose rights and priviledges the King promised and sware at His Coronation to maintain cannot continue it in my judgement and be innocent But this is answered by the answerer to Doctour Ferne Ob. Pag. 31. that he is no more bound
were many times swayed by the heads of the most powerfull faction The case of our affairs p. 17. How powerfull factions have procured Parliaments to doe most unjust things Turba tremens sequitur fortunam ut semper odit damnatos Juven Satyra 10. When Kings were most powerfull they could get the Parliaments to yeeld to what Statutes they thought best when the Lords or faction were most powerful they forced their Kings to make what Statutes they liked best which are instances rather of their unsteady weaknesse then of their just power when forsaking the guidance of their lawfull head they suffered themselves to be led by popular pretenders as when Canutus prevailed by his armes he could have a Parliament to resolve that his title to the Crown was the best when Hen. 4. had an army of 60000 men he could have a Parliament to depose Rich. 2. and confer the Crown upon himself when Edw. Duke of Yorke grew powerfull he could have a Parliament to determine the reigne of Hen. 6. and leave him only the name of king for his life but give the very Kingdome unto the Duke under the names of Protector and Regent and then he could procure the Parliament to declare that Hen. 4. Hen. 5. and Hen. 6 were but kings de facto non de jure so Rich. the 3. as meere an Usurper as any could notwithstanding procure a Parliament to declare him a lawfull king and Hen. 7. could procure the forementioned acts that were made in favour of Edw. 4. and Rich. 3. to be annulled and Hen. 8. could have a Parliament to justifie and authorize his divorces and Queen Elizab. could have a Parliament to make it high treason for any man to say that the Queen could not by Act of Parliament bind and dispose the rights and titles which any person whatsoever might have unto the Crown when as we know it was adjudged in Hen. 7. that no Act of Parliament nor yet an Attainder by Parliament can disable the right heire to the Crown because the descent of the Crown upon him purges all disabilityes whatsoever and makes him every way capable thereof Thus as the Parliaments when they were most prevalent caused their kings unwillingly to yeeld many things against right so the kings growing most powerfull prevailed to work the Parliament to consent to very unjust conclusions and therefore it is inconsequent to say this exclusion must be just because it is past by an Act of Parliament The case of our affaires p. 20. And therefore as in the 15 yeare of Edw. 3. the king being unwillingly drawn to consent to certain Articles prejudiciall to the Crown and to promise to seale the Statute thereupon made lest otherwise his affairs in hand might have been ruinated which we conceive to be just in like manner now the king very unwillingly drawn to passe this Act for the exclusion of the Clergy which is most prejudiciall both to the Crown and the Church and a mighty dishonour unto God himself lest otherwise more mischiefe might have followed when he hoped that this would have appeased the fury of that prevalent faction which now the kingdome seeth it did not Another Statute was made the same year reciting the former matter Statutes unwillingly procured from the king repealed that was enacted in these words It seemed to the said Earls Barons and otherwise men that since the Statute did not of our free will proceed the same to be void and ought not to have the name nor strength of a Statute and therefore by their counsell and assent we have decreed the said Statute to be void c. So I hope our Earles and Baron and the rest will be so wise and so just both to the king and to the Church that seeing this Statute proceeded not of the kings free will as I beleeve their own conscience knoweth and do presume His Majesty will acknowledge they likewise will consent that the king may make it void again §. Certaine Quaeres discussed but not resolved the end for which God ordained Kings the prayse of a just rule Kings ought to be more just then all others in three respects and what should most especially move them to rule their people justly AND here I must further craue leave to be resolved in certain Quaeres and doubts wherein I would very gladly be satisfied for seeing as I told you before there are some rights of royalty which are inseperabilia à majestate which the king ought not and which indeed he cannot grant away as there be some things which he may forgoe though he need not I demand Quaere 1 1. Whether any positive Act Statute or Law that is either ex diametro or ex obliquo either directly or by consequent or any other way contradictory or transgressive to the Law of God ought to be kept and observed wherein I beleive and constantly maintain that it ought not and I say further that by the Word of God not any Lay men be they never so noble never so learned and never so many but the Clergy be they never so poore and never so much dis-esteemed ought to be the resolvers of this point what is repugnant and what consonant to the Law of God Malach. 2.7 because the Priests lips must preserve knowledge and the people must seek the Law at his month therefore it may be conceived no Statute can be rightly made that is not assented to and approved as all our former Statutes were by the Bishops that are the chiefest of the Clergy to be no wayes contrary to the Law of God Quaere 2 2. Whether the king that is an absolute Monarch to whom God hath committed the charge and government of his people can without offence to God change this forme of government from a Monarchicall to an Aristocraticall or a Democraticall forme of government which may be beleived he cannot because though as I shewed out of Saint Augustine the worser forme invented by man may lawfully be changed into a better yet the best which is onely and primarily ordained by God cannot be changed into a worser without offence Quaere 3 3. Whether the king can passe away that power authority and right which God hath given him and without which he cannot govern and protect his people that God hath committed under his charge wherein it may be conceived he cannot because God must discharge him from the charge that he imposed upon him before he can be freed and excused from it but as the Bishop on whom the Lord hath laid the charge of soules cannot lay aside this charge when he pleaseth so no more can the King lay aside the charge of the Government nor paâ—t with that power and right * Otherwise then by substitution Rege absente durante beneplacito or quamdiu se benè gesserint substituti whereby he is inabled to govern them and without which he cannot governe them untill God that laid this charge
preserved Licia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through justice and fortitude whereupon the old Scholiast citeth the words of Aeschilus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that virtue and justice are ever coupled together and Dio. Chrysost saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is the best of men that is the most valiant and most just Orat. 2. and Herodian saith of Pertinax Plut. in vit Cicero 2. orat in Anton. Ovid. Met. 6. Suet. de act c. 2 that he was both loved and feared of the Barbarians as well for the remembrance of his virtues in former battels as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that wittingly or willingly he never did injustice to any man at any time Plutarch ascribeth these virtues to Lucullus and to Paulus Aemilius Cicero saith the like of Pompey Ovid. of Erictheus Suetonius of Octavius Augustus his father Virgil of Aeneas Krantius of Fronto king of the Danes and of our late king James of famous and ever blessed memory we may truly say Cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides nudáque veritas Quando ullum invenient parem Horat. lib. 1. Od. 26. Neither need I blush to apply the same to our present King So you see how Justice exalteth a Nation commends the doers of it and crownes them with all honour and as the Poet saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that worketh justly shall have God himself for his Co-adjutor But here you must observe that which indeed is most true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is not a just man that doeth no hurt Who rightly termed just but he that is able to do hurt and will not do it that can be unjust and will not be for it is no great matter to see a poore man that hath no ability to do no wrong but it is hard to use power right even in the meanest office and therefore this is that that is to be urged to be then most just when we have most power to offend which most properly doth belong to all kings and Princes to put them in minde of their duties to what end God hath made them kings for they are but base statterers Tacit. annal l. 3. Plut. in Apotheg Eustath ad Iliad ss Salust in Orat. Cas cont Catil quibus omnia principum honesta atque inhonesta laudare mos est that will commend all the doing of Princes be they good or bad and which say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things are honest and just that kings do as that flattering sycophant said to Antigonus or like those Chirodicai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who thinke justice lyeth not in the Lawes but in their hands because as Caesar saith in maxima fortuna minima licentia est the higher their places are the more righteous they ought to be and the lesse liberty of sinning is left unto them and that in respect 1 of God 2. of others 3. of themselves Kings ought to be more just then all others in 3 respects 1. Where God hath conferred much honour there he exspecteth much equity and the more goodnesse where he bestowed the more grace ideò deteriores estis quia meliores esse debetis and will men therefore be the more sinfull Luke 12.48 Salvian de Pro. vid. l. 4. because they ought to be the more righteous 2. All mens eyes are upon the Prince and as Seneca saith of the royall Pallace Perlucet omne regiae vitium domûs the houses of Kings are like glasses and every man may look through them so their actions can no more be hid then the City that is placed upon an hill but their least and lightest acts are soon seen 3. Their places are as slippery as they are lofty Seneca in Agamemn 2.1 when as one saith height itself maketh mens braines to swimme nunquam solido stetit superba foelicitas and proud insolency never stood sure for any certain space for as God hath made them Gods so he can unmake them at his pleasure and as S. Augustine saith Quod contulit immerentibus tollit malè merentibus Aug. ho. 14. quod illo donante fit nostrum nobis superbientibus fit alienum what God haâ—h freely bestowed upon you without desert he may justly take away from you for your evill deserts and what is ours through Gods gift may be made another mans through our own pride and not onely so but as he hath heaped honours upon their heads that they might honour him so if they neglect him Job 12.21 Job 30.1 he can powre contempt upon Princes and cast dirt in their faces and make them a very scorne to those that formerly they thought unworthy to eate with the dogs of their flock and then Quanto gradus altior tanto casus gravior the higher they were exalted the more will be their greif when they are dejected as it was with those Kings that being wont to be carryed in their royall Charets were forced like horses to draw Sesostris Coach Quia miserrimum est fuisse felicem because it is a most wretched thing to have been happy and not to be or as the Poët saith Qui cadit in plano vix hoc tamen evenit unquam Ovidius Trist l. 3. Eleg. 4. Sic cadit ut tacta surgere possit humo At miser Elpenor tecto dilapsus ab alto Occurrit regi flebilis umbra suo And therefore all Kings should be ever mindfull of the words of King David He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the feare of God 2 Sam. 23.3 and all these things that I have set down should move all Kings and Princes to set their mindes upon righteousnesse to judge the thing that is right and to live Psal 58.1 What should move all kings to rule justly according to Lawes to reigne and rule according to the straight rule of the Law that so carrying them justly and worthily in their places the poore people may truly say of them Certè Deus est in illis they may well be called Gods because God is in them and if these things will not nor cannot move them to be as mindfull of their duty as well as they are mindfull of their excellency then let them remember what the Psalmist saith Psal 149.8 He will bind Kings with fetters and their Nobles with linkes of Iron and let them meditate upon the words of King Solomon where he saith unto them all Heare O ye Kings and understand learne ye that be Judges of the ends of the earth give eare you that rule the people and glory in the multitude of Nations for power is given you of the Lord and soveraignty from the Highest who shall try your works and search out your counsels because being Ministers of his Kingdomes you have not judged aright nor kept the Law nor walked after the counsell of God horribly and speedily shall he come upon you Sap. 6. usque ad vers 9. for a sharpe judgment
voluntary and not extorted obedience is that which is better then sacrifice 2. Blinde obedience 2. The second is a blinde obedience such as the young youths that being commanded by their Abbat to carry a basket of figs and other Juncates unto a solitary Monke or Hermite that lived in his cave and loosing their way in that unfrequented wilderness chose rather to dye in the desert then taste of those acates that they had in their Basket and such obedience is most frequent in the proselites of Rome who will do whatsoever they are commanded by their superiors though both they and their superiors do thereby commit never so great a wickednesse where notwithstanding I must confesse that this blinde obedience is far better both for Church and State then a proud resistance when as the one produceth nothing but some particular inconveniencies and the other proceedeth to an universall destruction 3. Hypocriticall obedience 3. The third is an hypocriticall and dissembled obedience that is an obedience for a time till they see their time to do mischiefe which is the worst of all obedience and therefore most hatefull both to God and Man because it is but catenus usque dum vires suppetunt untill they have the opportunity and have gotten sufficient strength to shake off their subjection and to maintain their Rebellion The obedience of our Rebells and this was the obedience of all our Rebells our Sectaries and Puritans here in England who would also face us down but most falsely that it was the obedience of the Primitive Christians for so the grand impostor John Goodwin in his Anticavalierisme saith they were onely obedient to those persecuting Tyrants because as yet they wanted strength and were not able to resist them but O thou enemy of all goodness that so hatest to become a Martyr for thy God that was martyred for thee is it not enough for thee to play the dissembling hypocrite thy selfe but thou must taxe those holy Martyrs those true Saints The Authour more out of patience for the wrong offered to the Martyrs then for his own abuse that raigne with Christ in Heaven of hypocrisie and disobedience in their hearts to the Ordinance of God I could willingly beare with any aspersion thou shouldest cast in my face but I am out of patience though sorry that I am so transported to see such false and scandalous imputations so unjustly laid upon such holy Saints yet this you must do to countenance your Rebellion to get the Rhetorick of the Divell to bely Heaven it selfe and therefore what wonder is it that you should bely your King on earth when you dare thus bely the martyrs that are in Heaven 4. The obedience of the Saints two-fold 4. The fourth is a voluntary hearty and well ordered obedience which is the obedience of the Saints and is also Two-fold 1. Active 2. Passive For 1. The Saints knowing the will of God that they should obey their King 1. Active obedience and those that are sent ot him they do willingly yield obedience to their superiours and no marvel because there cannot be a surer argument of an evil man then in a Church reformed and a Kingdom lawfully governed to resist authority and to disobey them that should rule over us especially him whom God immediately hath appointed to be his vice-gerent his substitute and the supreme Monarch of his Dominions here on earth for all other things both in heaven and earth do obsere that Law which their maker hath appointed for them when as the Psalmist saith he hath given them a Law which shall not be broken therefore this must needs be a great reproof and a mighty shame to those men that being Subjects unto their King and to be ruled by his Lawes will notwithstanding disobey the King and transgresse those Lawes that are made for their safety and resist that authority which they are bound to obey onely because their weak heads or false hearts do account the commandment of the King to be against right and what themselves doe to be most holy and just But our City Prophets will say Ob. Diverse kinds of Monarchie◠that although the King be the supreme Monarch whom we are commanded to obey yet there are diverse kinds of Monarchies or Regal governments as usurped lawful by conquest by inheritance by election and these are either absolute as were the Eastern Kings and the Roman Emperours or limited and mixed which they term a Political Monarchy where the King or Monarch can do nothing alone but with the assistance and direction of his Nobility and Parliament or if he doth attempt to bring any exorbitancies to the Common-wealth or deny those things that are necessary for the preservation thereof they may lawfully resist him in the one and compel him to the other to which I answer 1. As God himself which is most absolute liberrimum agens Sol. Absolute Monarchs may limit themselves may notwithstanding limit himself and his own power as he doth when he promiseth and sweareth that he will not fail David and that the unrepentant Rebels should never enter into his rest so the Monarch may limit himself in some points of his administration and yet this limitation neither transferreth any power of Soveraignty unto the Parliament nor denieth the Monarch to be absolute nor admitteth of any resistance against him for 1. This is a meer gull to seduce the people I cannot devise words to expresse this new devised government that cannot distinguish the point of a needle just like the Papist that saith he is a Roman Catholick that is a particular universal a black white a polumonarcha a many one governor when we say he is a Monarch joined in his government with the Parliament for he can be no Monarch or supreme King and Soveraign that hath any sharers with him or above him in the government 2. There is no Monarch that can be said to be simply absolute but onely God yet where there is no superiour but the soveraignty residing in the King he may he said to be an absolute Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Because there is none on earth that can controul him 2. Because he is free and absolute in all such things wherein he is not expresly limited and therefore 3. Seeing no Monarch or Soveraign is so absolute No Monarch so absolute but someway limited but that he is some way limited either by the Law of God or by the Rules of nature or of his own concessions and grants unto his people or else by the compact that he maketh with them if he be an elective King and so admitted unto his Kingdom there is no reason they should resist their King for transgressing the limitations of one kind more then the other or if any no doubt but he that transcendeth the limits of God's Law or goeth against the common rules of nature ought rather to be resisted then he
Alexander King of Macedon consulted often with Aristotle and sometimes with Diogenes the Cynick and King Pyrrhus with his dear friend Cineas So Pharaoh King of Egypt called and consulted with his Priests that were the Magicians and deemed the wise men of Egypt when Moses came to treat of God's Service And though Moses appointed 70. men of the choicest gravest and wisest men that could be found of all the Elders of Israel to be the Sanhedrim and as it were a standing Parliament to end all controversies and all the civil affairs of the Kingdom Yet when the Case of Religion came in question and the differences about God's Worship came to be decided neither the Kings of Israel nor the Kings of Juda to whom the principal care and custody of God's Laws and Service was committed did ever commend the same unto the Sanhedrim to be concluded and setled But as King David here calleth and consulteth with Nathan the Prophet about the building of God's House so when Religion was corrupted and the Service of the True God neglected in the time of King Ahab he calleth not the Sanhedrim to rectifie and redress the same but he leaves the same to be determined and adjudged betwixt the Priests of Baal 1. Reg. 18.17 18.19 20. 2 Chron. 15.2 8 c. and Elias the true Prophet of the Lord And so did King Asa Jehosaphat and Ezechias consulted not with their lay Lords or the Sanhedrim but with Azariah the son of Oded the Prophet and with Esay and the rest of God's Prophets Nay when the Wise-men came to inquire for Christ Mâ—th 2.4 Herod that sought to destroy Him and his Religion inquireth not of any but of the Chief Priests and Scribes Where Christ should be born And so all the Wise and Christian Emperours Constantine Theodosius Justinian and the rest as you may find it in Eusebius Socrates Zozomen and other Ecclesiastical Historians had always some special Bishops with whom they conferred and consulted about matters of Religion as Charles the Fifth did with Cassander and Henry the Eighth with Bishop Crammer For they conceived that their Crowns had the greater Lustre when it was in conjunction with the Miter And therefore in no great Councel was the Man of God ever baulked but that they might be sure to serve God before themselves and he assured that while the Church prospered the Bishops directed and they had God and his Messengers amongst them all would go right and be safe and therefore in all or most Courts of Conscience where the Law reached not they thought none so fit as these men of conscience to decide all differences Neither could I ever find that the Church of God was so much pestered with miseries and poisoned with Errors Heresies and Sects or Divisions until the lay Lords and Gentlemen like the Long Parliament neglected their proper Offices to look into the affairs of the Common-wealth and to see Justice and Judgement truly executed among the people and began immittere falcem in alienam messem to thrust their sickles into other mens harvest Esay 1.12 The Church of God never became more miserable then when the lay-people undertook to conclude and determine points of Religion and to intermeddle with that which concerns them not as to chop and change Articles of Religion and to set down and compose points of faith when the Lord saith Quis requisivit haec Who hath required these things at your hands It is your duty to come into the Temple and to perform the service that David and Nathan the King and the Bishops shall prescribe unto you and to confirm those Articles of Religion and cause them in all things to be observed as the Parliament did in Queen Elizabeth's dayes the 39. Articles of our Religion when they are as those were setled and concluded by the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy in their Convocation for the Lord tells us plainly That the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they that is the people be they what and whom you will Sanhedrim of the Jews or Parliament of any other Nation should seek the Law that is the Law of God at his mouth because he is the Mâ—ssenger of the Lâ—rd of Hosts that is to declare his will and to expound his Laws unto the people But what saith the Lord in this Case when the people be they what you will shall usurpe the Priests Office and begin to make new Orders and Ordinances for the Service of God that never required such things at their hands He tells them plainly You are departed out of the way and you have caused many to stumble at the Law that is by your false glosses and injoyned observations thereof and you have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts that is you have wronged and quite thrown out the Bishops and Priests from their Offices which is to consult with the King to see God rightly worshipped And therefore saith the Lord Malach. 2.7 8 9. I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as you have not kept my wayes but have been partial in the Law that is by making Religion and my Service like a nose of wax to turn which way you please when as every one should do the duties that belong unto him Curabit praelia Conon CHAP. VI. What the Rest and peaceable times of King David wrought The Prince's authority in causes Ecclesiastical and how they should be zealous to see that God should be justly and religiously served THirdly having seen the times and the persons 3. The matter about which they consulted that consulted and conferred together we are now to consider the fruits and effects that this quiet sitting at rest and peaceable times wrought in David and what was the matter that these two grave and great Persons do so seriously deliberate and consult about And most commonly we find What peace prosperity usually produce that rest and peace have been the bane and surfeit of the mind to puff it up with pride and prosperity hath often choaked piety and plenty hath made Religion to pine away and to be cast upon a bed of security as Jezabel was cast upon a bed of fornication For so Moses saith of the Israelites Dilectus meus impinguatus recalcitravit My beloved fed fatted and inlarged Deut. 32.15 kicked with their heels or Jesurun waxed fat and kicked and then he forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation And as the Poet saith Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis Ovid de arte Am. l. 2. Nec facile est aequâ commoda mente pati Our hearts do swell and our minds grow luxurious and riotous when our affairs do prosper and all things succeed as our hearts desire Our peace and plenty made us wanton and our wantonness brought our wars upon us and have rest and peace as now David had round
King And as Theodosius and Valentinian very Christian like called themselves the â—assâ—ls of Christ so Constantine was wont to say That he gloried more to be the servant of Christ than in being the Emperour of the World And as those pious Kings and godly Emperours were thus zealous to maintain the Christian Religion which bare up the Pillars of their Dominions and makes their names now to live glorious though they are dead So the Throne of this Empire and Kingdom of Great Britaine That this our kingdom had many zealous and most godly Kings hath not wanted devout Princes and most worthy Kings that have trod in the steps of King David to provide Houses for God's Service and to imitate the examples of the best of the aforesaid pious Princes to see the Religion of Christ and the True Faith purely maintained within their Kingdoms as you may find it in our Chronicles and the Statutes of King Inas King Alfred King Edward that for his devotion and zeal to the Christian Religion was rightly called Saint Edward King Ethelstane Vide Speed lib. 8. c. 3. and King Canutus the Dane that laid the foundation of his Building to compose the differences of Religion and to rectifie whatsoever he found amisse therein before he entred upon the causes of the Common-wealth For I read it Registred that after sundry Laws inacted touching our Religion and the Faith of Christ as the celebration of certain Holy-dayes the right form of Baptism the duty of Fasting the teaching of the Lords Prayer unto the people the administration of the Câ—mmon-prayer and the celebration of the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ thrice every year and some other Duties of our Religion this Title followeth Jam sequitur institutio legum saecularium which as Speed sheweth Speed quo supra pag. 384. are most excellent for the execution of Justice And it is Recorded that William the Conqueror in one of his Parliaments said That he being Vice-gerent to the King of kings holdeth his Kingdom to this end to defend his people and especially the people of God and his holy Church that is the Bishops and Priests to teach the people and to performe the Worship and Service of God in his Church And even in our own dayes the Holy Name of God be for ever blessed and praised for it we have had such pious Kings as I believe I may justly say The Christian World for Piety and Religion for love to God's Ministers and the care of God's Worship could shew but very few like them and none to precede them therein and that is King James and King Charles the First whose glorious name above all other Kings since Christ The rare and just commendation of King Charles the First I shall ever honour and extoll as the most constant Defender of the Christian Faith the most loving Patron of God's Ministers the Bishops and Preachers of his Word and the most faithful Witness and Martyr that lost his life for the preservation of God's Church and the Religion of Jesus Christ with whom I do alwayes when I think of him behold and see him Crowned with Eternal Glory The most Blessed of all our Kings and the Best of all our Saints CHAP. IX Of the chiefest Parts and Duties of Kings and Princes which they are to discharge for the maintenance of God's Service and the True Religion and the necessity of Cathedral-Churches and Chappels for the people of God to meet in for the Worship and Service of God YOu have heard how that God hath given the Power and Authority unto Kings and Princes to be the Supervisors Directors and Reprovers of things amiss as well in the Church as in the Common-wealth And how he requireth and commandeth them to discharge those Duties accordingly and to have a care to preserve his Religion as they do regard their own Salvation You have likewise heard how all Kings both Heathens Jews and Christians did execute that power and according to their ability discharged their Duties as well in the Spiritual jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical causes as in the decision of Civil causes It resteth that I should shew unto you the chiefest Parts and Duties that they owe to God and are to discharge for the promoting of his Service and the Religion of Jesus Christ And I conceive them principally to consist in these Four Points The four chiefest things that Kings Princes ought to do for the upholding of God's Religion and the Service of Jesus Christ which may be like the four Rivers of Paradise to water the Garden of God's Church to make it to bring forth plenty of fruits to the glory of God and the salvation of mens souls And they are 1. To take care and to cause that there should be Cathedral-Churches and Chappels fairly built and decently trimmed and adorned as befits the Houses of God for his people to meet in for the Worship and Service of God 2. To see that able honest and religious Bishops be placed in those Cathedrals and others the like pious and painful Ministers be appointed in all the Parochial Churches and Chappels to perform the true Service of God as they ought to do and to see those Drones that neglect it and those factious Sectaries and Hereticks that defile and corrupt it and those scandalous livers that do much prejudice unto their holy Calling to be punished and removed if they amend not for their negligence and transgressions 3. To provide by their good Laws such maintenance revenues and means for the Reverend and godly Bishops and the rest of the worthy Clergy whereby they may be inabled with joy and comfort to discharge their duties in God's Service to his glory and the good of his people 4. To put a bar and to hinder by their Regal power and authority all the sacrilegious violaters of holy things to rob the Church of Christ and his servants and to commit the horrible sin of Sacriledge which is so transcendently abominable in the sight of God and so infinitely destructive to the souls of men 1. The necessity of Cathedral-Churches and other Parochial Chappels for the Sâ—rvice of God These things ought to be done as I conceive by all good and godly Kings and Princes and whoso doth these things shall never fail And. 1. In defence of Cathedral-Churches we have to alleadge that till the time of Euaristus and Dionysius Popes of Rome no other kind of ministerial Church was ever heard of from the beginning of the World for from Adam unto Moses men did call upon the Name of the Lord and offered Sacrifices but without any ministerial Church at all And in Moses time Platina de vitis Pontif. Carrion annal Monarch Exod. 25.46 Acts 7.44 2 Sam. 7.6 Acts 7.47 God commanded him to erect a Tabernacle which stood instead of a Church for all the Land of Judea and that was Templum portatile as Josephus calls it to be carried up and
brought all them that followed him and his wayes to the like perdition And so Nimrod Esau and Ismael falling away from God and Jeroboam setting up his golden gods and many other Kings and Princes neglecting their duties apostatizing from God and misleading their people brought them in like manner to their utter ruine And as many times the people are brought to their ruine by the evil example Scilicet in vulgus manant exemplaregentum utque ducum lituos sic mores castra sequuntur Claud. 1. Stilic and wicked Government of their Prime-Leaders when as the Poet saith Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis And the Souldiers would imitate Alexander in his stoopings and in his vices as well and sooner than in his vertues So many times and oftner too they are brought to the same pass the same pathes of perdition through the lewd examples and neglect of the subordinate Magistrates of the Common-wealth and the Governours and Ministers of the Church of God As when the Princes Esay 1.23 Zephant 3.3 or Nobility are rebellious and companions of Thieves or as Zephany saith like Lions and the Judges are evening-Wolves that judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widdow come unto them And when the Prophets are leight and treacherous persons and the Priests have polluted the Sanctuary and have done violence to the Law either by corrupting it Prov. 29.18 with their false glosses or locking it up in prison and not publishing the same unto the people for where there is no vision the people perish saith the Wise-man And so by their false teaching or no teaching they thrust forward the poor people into perdition And therefore Kings and Princes to whom God in the first place hath committed the Soveraignty and Charge both of Church and Common-wealth Exod. 18.21 ought not only to chuse such Judges and Magistrates as Jethro described unto Moses Able men fearing God men of truth and hating covetousness But when the Cathedrals and Parochial-Churches are built and beautified for God's Worship and for the people of God to meet in them to serve God What manner of Judges and Bishops Kings ought to chuse as they ought to be they should also take care and see that such Bishops and Priests as S. Paul describeth in 1 Tim. 3.2 c. be setled in those Churches to worship God and to bring the people to do their duties that they may attain to eternal life Lest that which S. Hierom complained of in his time should be true in our time That the Altars shined with Gold and pretious Stones Bernard ad Abbat Cluniacen Sed ministrorum nulla erat electio There was no good choice made of good Ministers whereby it was said That they had golden Chalices but woodden Priests as S. Bernard saith it was not much better in his dayes there was not such care taken for good Ministers as they should do For as in Nature we see every thing for its Creation requires a Divine hand and a Miraculous power to produce it but the same being once produced God's hand is not so conspicuous but he leaves it to the soyl as it were to stand and grow by the innate vertue planted in it So it seems to fare with Religion it self which is such a superstructure above Nature that although it be planted by God as both the Jewish and Christian Religion were with signs and wonders and a strong miraculous hand yet men must now conserve it by those ordinary means that God appointed the Church of Christ being like the Garden of God in Eden which the Lord made and then set it to our Parents to keep it and to dress it And though this Religion which at first is thus powerfully planted by God and is the principal Pillar that upholdeth States and makes all Kingdoms happy yet after the inward vertue of the Doctrine of Christ the Bishops and Priests are the main props and the ordinary means that God hath appointed to uphold his Religion and to continue his Service in his Church because Religion can neither plant it self nor sustain it self alone and what support soever it hath from the Prince or the Laws of any Nation yet the Bishâ—ps and Priests are as it were the soul of that power in the execution thereof when as all the substance circumstance and ceremonies have their life from them and our consent and belief in their holy Calling is that which doth and should keep us from the singularity of our own misguided imaginations And therefore that Prince that is truly religious Kings ought to have a special care to chuse good Bishops and hath a special care of God's Service must likewise with King David and as good King Charles ever had have a special care to see that godly and learned Bishops and Priests be appointed in God's Church to instruct his people And you know what S. Paul saith That a Bishop must be blameless the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach not given to wine no striker not greedy of filthy lucre but patient not a brawler not covetous one that ruleth well his own house having his children in subjection with all gravity not a novice or a young new Divine lest being lifted up with pride as young men commonly are he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Moreover 1 Tim 2.1.2.2 4 5 6 7. he must have a good report of them that are without lest be fall into reproach and the snare of the Devil All which large description of those parts and vertues that every Bishop and faithful Minister of God's Church ought to have may for order and method sake be reduced into these two Heads Levit. 8.8 which are the Vrim and the Thummim that Moses put upon the Breast-plate of Aaron and for which he did so earnestly pray that God would grant them unto all the Tribe of Levi saying Let thine Vrim and thy Thummim be with thy holy one or with the man of thy mercy And they signifie The two special vertues that ought to be in every Bishop and Priest 1. The uprightness of his life and conversation 2. The sincerity of his doctrine teaching of his people For so Moses sheweth that Levi did as every Bishop and Priest should do 1. Carry himself most dutifully and obedient in his life and all his actions Vertue 1 towards God as when God proved him at Massa and strove with him at the waters of Meriba he said unto his father and to his mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his brethren nor knew his own children Verse 9. but he observed Gods word and kept his Covenant and preferred the keeping of God's Laws and walking dutifully according to his will before father or mother wife or children which every Christian and especially every Christian Bishop and true Levite ought to do 2. To teâ—ch Jacob the
judgements of God and Israel his Laws to put Vertue 2 incense before the Lord and whole burnt-Sacrifices upon his Altar which is the second duty of every Bishop and every faithful Minister of Christ Verse 10. to teach the people of God and to administer his holy Sacraments For his first care and chiefest duty should be to look to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be blameless 1 Tim. 3.2 And his second care is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be apt and able to teach the people And so S. Paul tells and adviseth all the Clergy of Ephesus that they should first look and take heed unto themselves and then to all the flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers to feed the Church of God Acts 20.28 which he hath purchased with his own blood And therefore 1. How blameless Bishops and Ministers should be Luke 1.6 1. A Bishop and a Minister of Christ must have a special care to carry and behave himself so as that his life and conversation may seem blameless in the World like unto Zacharias the father of John Baptist that walked in all the Commandments of God without reproof And S. Hierom saith That talis tanta debet esse conversatio eruditio Pontificis ut omnes motus egressus universa ejus opera notabilia sint veritatem mente concipiat eam toto habitu resonet ornatu Hierom. in Epist 43. ut quicquid agit quicquid loquitur doctrina sit populorum The life and conversation of a Bishop and so likewise of every Minister of the Gospel should be such so grave and so holy that all his motions and progressions and all other his works should be notable and worthy to be observed he should conceive the truth in his mind and sound out the same by his habit and ornament that whatsoever he doth The mischief that the evil examples of Bishops and Ministers do produce and whatsoever he saith may be a lesson of instruction unto the people who do look more unto the examples that we give them and the actions that we do than to the Precepts that we preach or the Doctrine that we declare unto them And another Father saith that Nemo plus in Ecclesia nocet quà m qui perversè agens nomen vel ordinem sanctitatis habet delinquentem namque hunc redarguere nullus praesumit in exemplum vehementer culpa extenditur cum pro reverentia ordinis peccator honoratur No man doth or indeed can do more hurt in the Church of God than he that doth wickedly and lives dissolutely and hath the name or order of holiness that is holy Orders because no man presumeth or dares to reprove such an one when he offendeth and his fault exceedingly reacheth to the example of others to do the like when for the reverence of his Order they see such a wicked man so honoured And therefore I may say to such a one as Claudian saith to Honorius changing only but one word Hoc te praeterea crebro sermone monebo Claâ—dian de 4. Câ—nsolat Honorii Vt te totius medio telluris in orbe Vivere cognoscas cunctis tua gentibus esse Facta palam nec posse dari praesulibus unquam Secretum vitiis nam lux altissama fati Occultum nil esse sinit latebrasque per omnes Intrat abstrusos implorat fama recessus For such men are like a City that is set upon a Hill and all mens eyes are upon them and therefore their lives and their actions cannot be concealed but their doings are more conspicuous and their danger far greater than any other men And that as Aquinas saith in a threefold respect First because the Dispensers of the holy Sacraments and the holy Word of God which ought not to be handled but by holy men in which respect a holy Father saith Mallem sustinere poenam Caiphae Pilati Herodis quà m Sacerdotis indignè celebrantis That he would rather chuse to suffer the punishment of Caiphas and of Pilate and of Herod than of a wicked Bishop or Priest that doth unworthily administer the Blessed Sacrament Secondly because these men are to render their account more strictly being looked into more narrowly than other men because as S. Bernard saith Those faults and transgressions quae in aliis nugae sunt Cujâ—s vita despicâ—tu restaâ— ut ejus praedicatio contemnatur Gregor super Evangel l. 1. Hom. 6. in Sacerdotibus sunt blasphemiae And those â—iâ—s that in others seem to be but steps and triffles veniâ—â— digna and may easily be pardoned yet in Bishops and the Ministers of God's word they are heynous offences and worthy to be punished heavily with many stripes seeing they knew their Masters will and did it not And thirdly because that by their Places and Offiâ—es they are to teach other men not to offend and to answer for then sins if through their neglect they do offend and yet by their ill lives and examples they teach them to offend 2. As they are in these respects 2. How careful the Bishops Priests ought to be to teach the people Ezech. 3.17 c. 3.7 to have a special care of their own lives and conversations to live justly and holily as the servants of Christ ought to do so they are likewise obliged to be sedulous and diligent in the instruction and tuition of the people committed under their charge for they are made the Watchmen and Shepherds over God's people to teach them and instruct them what they should do and what they should believe even as our Saviour saith unto his Apostles Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son Matth. ult 19.20 and of the Holy Ghost and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commâ—nded you And therefore S. Paul chargeth Bishop Timothy before God and before Jesus Christ that he preach the word and be instant in season 2 Tim. 4 1 2. 1 Cor. 9.16 and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with all long sâ—ffering and doctrine and he saith Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel And S. Gregory saith Oportet ut praedicatores sint fortes in praeceptis compatientes infirmis Greg. in Mor. 30. super Job 39. terribiles in minis in exhortationibus blandi in ostendâ—ndo magisterio bumiles in rerum temporalium contemptu dominantes in tolerandis adversitatibus rigidi It behoves that Preachers should be strong and strict in their precepts compassionate and pitiful to the weak terrible in their threatnings to the impenitent smooth and gentle in their exhortations in shewing their power and authority humble in despising the world and all worldly things stout and domineering and in suffering and bearing adversities firm and constant And the same S. Gregory saith also Idem Moral l. 17. that Non debet praedicator infirmis insinnare cuncta
tythes that the Priests and Levites were to have without any diminution you may 3. Note that the Priests and Levites were to have a special share of all the first fruits of their Cattel of all kinds as of Bullocks Sheep Goats and the Fruits of their Trees and of their Corn both the Therumoth and Thenuphoth Exod. 13. their Heave-offering and Wave-offering and the firstlings or first-born of every man the Lord challenged as his own and they were to be redeemed for five silver shekels of the Sanctuary which were to be paid unto the Priests for each of them Num. 18.15 16. And so you see how God would be Honored and how great was the portion of the Priests which received Gods part by the firstlings of men and of Cattel and by the first fruits of the Trees and of the Earth in the Sheafe in the Threshing-floor in the Dough and in the Loaves which should teach us to Consecrate the prime of our years and of all that is good unto the service of the Lord. 3. The divers kinds of Sacrifices and Oblations of the Jews whereof the Priests had their part 3. Besides all this you must observe that the Jews had divers kinds of Sacrifices and Ceremoniall oblations instituted by God and administred by the Priests which were either 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prâ—pitiatory and Piacular that was also two fold 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reconciling which the Grecians called Holocaust because it was wholly burnt 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redeeming 1. Pro peccato 2. Pro delicto The 1. A sin-offering The 2. A trespass offering 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratulatory for the manifold benefits that they had received from God and this their thankfulness they attested three manner of waies 1. By their Peace-offering 2. By their Oblations 3. By their Sacrifice of praise And out of all these things and whatsoever things were devoted to God in any waies by Oblations or Vowes for their sin-offering Numb 18.9 10 11 12. or trespass-offering and all the gifts of the Children of Israel which were heaved waved or shaken and the Shew bread Ezech. 44.29 30. and all that was sacred and sequestred from the Common use the portion of the Priests must indispensably be laid out for them Because God had given it unto them by a Covenant of Salt for ever and so out of every Eucharistical Sacrifice Levit. 24.9 the breast and the right shoulder were the Levites fees and from every Holocaust or whole-burnt Sacrifice they had the skin And whensoever they detained any of these either in whole or in part Levit. 7 8. Levit. 5.15 the Lord required them to make a plenary satisfaction and to offer up a Ram for that detention Out of all which it is most evident that the maintenance of these Ministers of the law was both liberal and honorable and so much the better because it was perpetual and entailed to their posterity whereas our means is transient and dieth from our children when we die Yet you know how Saint Paul reasoneth if the Ministration of death written and ingraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses 2 Cor. 3.7 for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away How shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious For if the Ministration of Condemnation be glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in glory So if their Ministry which was the Ministration of the Law and of Death had such glorious allowance for their service I wonder how our Ministry which is the Ministration of the Gospel should be so meanly rewarded and our maintenance so far short of theirs when in respect of our more glorious service and far more beneficial unto our people it should exceed theirs in all glory CHAP. XV. That the payment of Tythes unto the Church is not a case of custome but of Conscience When as the tenth by a Divine right is the Teacher's tribute and the very first part of the wages that God appointed to be paid unto his Work men and therefore that it is as haynous a sin and as foul an offence to defraud the Minister of this due as it is to detain the meat or money of the Labouring-man which is one of the four crying sins HAving seen that it is a part of the duty and charge of all Christian Kings and Princes to have a special care to uphold Gods service and the true Religion and to that end 1. To cause Churches to be built and Beautified for the people to meet in them to serve God And 2. To appoint Worthy men Bishops and Priests to supply those Churches and to instruct the people And then 3. To see that those servants of God should have that allowance and wages which God himself hath appointed and commanded to be paid unto them for their pains and service of his Church We are now to examine what their means and maintenance should be that God appointed for their wages And I say that he is a most bountiful Master that takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants as King David speaketh The two speciall portions of the Clergy 1. Tythes 2. Donations and therefore gives them a very large reward which doth chiefly consist in these two things 1. The Tythes or tenth part of his peoples goods 2. The Free-will-offerings Oblations and Donations of the people The 1. He commandeth to be paid them And the 2. He alloweth to be given them and being given he requireth that they should not be alienated and taken from them no not by the givers themselves therefore much less by any other 1. That tythes are due to our Ministers 1. That Tythes or the tenth part of our goods and substance are due to them that discharge the service of God by the instruction of his people to Worship God as well under the New Testament as the Old it may be manifested by these Reasons Reason 1 1. Whatsoever nature and Humane Reason teacheth to be justly due to any man or society of men Antâ— legem datam â—acrificiorum impensis rebus aliis ad exâ—ernum Dei cultum conservandum pertinentibus decimae applicaban uâ— Fran. Sylvius the same doth the Scripture both the Law and Gospel teach to be due and ought to be paid unto them Nam sicut Deus est Scripturae it a Deus est Naturae for as God is the Author of the Scripture so he is the God of nature and whatsoever is true in nature I speak not of defiled nature but of pure nature the same is true in Scripture And therefore Saint Augustine saith that as Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus contra Ecclesiam nemo Catholicus No Christian will speak against the Scripture and no Catholick will gain-say the Church so Contra rationem nemo sobrius No sober man will
those their shadows are perfectly shewed unto us be any waies excused if we refuse and deny to pay our Tythes to him and to his Ministers that gather them Because it is an uncontroulable Maxim To whom much is given of them much shall be required And God having given us far better and far more perfect things then he gave unto the Jews he looks that we should be more thankful and more ready to pay our Tythes and to do him service then they were and therefore Christ saith That except our righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 5. we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And yet you know what they did fast twice every week and pay Tythes of all that they had even of the smallest things mint and annise and the least herbs they had and How doth our righteousness exceed their righteousness if we deny our Tythes to Gods Ministers I would we were as righteous as they were And as the Consideration of the Persons paying their Tythes so the consideration of the Persons to whom they were paid as to the substitutes of Christ as well before as after the coming of Christ doth sufficiently prove that we Christians have more reasâ—n to pay our Tythes now under the Gospel then the Jews had to pay them under the law for if the Tythes were payable and to be given to those servants of Christ that were of the lower degree and did the meaner offices and brought least benefit unto the people of Christ then certainly they should be much rather payable to those Ministers of Christ that are of a far higher degree and do the more honorable offices and bring the rarest and the greatest benefits unto the people but the Ministers of the Gospel in all the foresaid respects do far exceed and excel the Priest-hood of the law because as Saint Paul sheweth the Levitical Priests were but Lecturers of the letter which killeth but the Mininisters of the Gospel are the Interpreters of the Spirit which giveth life 2 Cor. 3 6 7 8 9 10 11. they expounded the shadows these the substance of Religion and they had committed unto them the Ministration of Condemnation and these have the Ministration of Righteousness and Glorification delivered unto their charge Therefore seeing the Ministers of the Gospel do thus far and in these repects excel the Priests of the Law there is no reason their hire and maintenance should be less then the hire and maintenance of the Levitical Priests but that the Tythes should be as well paid to these as the other §. 1. de decimis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est portio una ex decem Extra de decimis Cum non sit Augustinus de doctrina Christiana And the Civilians tell you that Decima est omnium bonorum mobilium licite quaesitorum pars decima Deo data Divinae constitutione debita The Tythe is the tenth part of all moveable goods lawfully gotten given unto God and due to be paid unto the Priests by the Ordinance of God And Innocentius saith that God by a special title hath reserved the Tythes unto himself in token of his Vniversal Dominion Power and Right that he hath over all And therefore Saint Augustine saith that the Tythes being thus due to God Ii qui dare nolunt alienas res invadunt They that will not pay their Tythes do take away others right and hold that which is none of their own And therefore Cum decimas dando coelestia terrena possis promereri pro avaritia tua denegando The dammage of detayning our Tythes duplici benedictione fraudaris When by paying thy Tythes to Gods Ministers thou mayst gain both Celestial and Terrestrial blessings according as the Prophet sheweth thou by thy Covetousness in denying thy Tythes doest deprive thy self of this double benefit because this is the most usual proceeding of the just God That Qui decimam non dederit ad decimam reducetur that many times the man that will not pay his Tythes shall be reduced unto the Tythe when either the fire or canker-worm and Caterpiller shall consume thy store or the wicked Souldier will Plunder and take from thee what thou wouldst not give to Gods Minister Therefore it is apparant that no wise man which loveth his own good will deny the payment of his Tythes unto the Ministers of Jesus Christ and that you may rightly understand this case concerning Tythes you must observe that they are of three sorts That all tythâ—s are of three sorts 1. Predial 2. Personal 3. Neutral 1. They are called Predial which do naturally arise out of the fruits and increase of the Earth 2. They are styled Personal which do accrew out of the fruits gain and labour of the person that getteth them either by Traffick Warfare Hunting or any other exercise of his hands 3. They are termed Neutral that are not simply of either of the two former kinds but do partly accrew from the increase and fruits of the Earth or the Cattle that are increased by their feeding thereon or otherwise are brought up under the care of mens hands And all these are the Tythes that are due and properly due to our High Priest Jesus Christ and ought to be justly paid to the Ministers of Christ for the Worship and Service of God CHAP. XVI The Answer to the choicest and chiefest Objection that the Schoole of Anabaptists have made and do urge against the payment of Tythes now in the time of the Gospel BUt though the truth of this point that all Tythes as well in the time of the Gospel as under the Law and before the law are continually due to Christ our eternal Priest and so at all times payable and to be given to his Substitutes and under-Priests is as clear as the Sun yet such hath been and is the malice of Satan against Christ and his Church that he hath raised up and stirred a whole Army of Sectaries Anabaptists and Worldlings that with might and main do fight against this Truth and labour with all their wits to suppress the same and to drive it quite out of the World And to that end they do Object 1. If all Tythes be thus due as you say by the Law of God Obj. 1 then they are every where due and all they do sin and grievously offend that do detain them But many Countreys and some Christian Common-wealthes no doubt pay no Tythes at all and are not acquainted with this fashion of paying Tythes and yet do sufficiently and honorably maintain their Ministers for the service of God Therefore questionless the payment of Tythes is not due by the Divine Law To this Objection I conceive Dr. Gardiner doth reasonably well answer Soâ— though I think not fully sufficient to take away the strength of this Argument in his large and rational discourse which he makes in answer to this their Objection for he saith and that
truly That many things are of such Nature 1. Answer though I think Tythes are not so as will not be fitting to every place or all places alike but may in some places be well performed and in some other places be prohibited because as Cicero saith Cicero in Orat. pro Balbo the different state of Cities inforceth a necessity of different Laws for as all meats are not alike pleasant to all Palats and every air agreeth not with all Constitutions so all manners belong not to all men but some Laws are sutable to some people and some other Laws are more convenient for some other and all or the same are not expedient for all And as every shooe will not be drawn on every foot We may alter the Ceremonies of the Church as the times and state of the Church do require and one kind of Medicine is not to be Administred to every Stomack but that Physick which may fit the younger age may be unkind for the same disease when old age hath seised upon us So one discipline may be fitting for a City which may not be so fitting either for another City or especially for a Kingdom and one Ceremony may sort with the Church in times of peace and prosperity which holdeth no correspondency with the seasons of War and Persecution Neither should we look that the same uniform regiment is to be observed In ecclesia Constituta as in Ecclesia Constituenda as well in an infant-Church as in a Church of riper age or in a Church persecuted when she flyeth with the woman into the Wilderness or is faign to lie desolate in the caves of the earth and a Church in peace when she sitteth as a Queen in her Throne or in a Church under Hâ—athen Emperours and a Church under Christian Governours when she so journeth as a captive in Bâ—bylon and when she dwelleth at liberty in Jerusalem for as no one garment can fit the Moon It is hard to make a fit coat for the Moon which is subject by nature to an often-change and is sometimes in the Full and afterward in the Wayn and never continuing in one stay So the Church of Christ being like the Moon sometimes high and sometime low often in the Full and as often in the Wayn it cannot be that the same uniform Government should fit the Church in all places and at all times And therefore the Prophet speaking of the Kings Daughter that signifieth the Church of Christ saith That although her chiefest glory is within yet her outward Attire is likewise glorious and it is of divers colours and so are the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of divers sorts as the times and places do admit them And Musculus to the same purpose saith Si illorum temporum mores revocas tum conditiones statum quoque illorum temporum primum revoca If thou wilt call back again the manners customes and practise of those times wherein the Apostles and primitive Christians lived then first call back again the state and conditions of those times that both the times and the manners may agree when as I told you before many things may serve at one time that will not serve at another time Vt musica in luctu est importuna narratio As Musick is unseasonable in the time of mourning saith the Wise-man And indeed what Tertullian saith is beyond all contradiction Regula fidei immobilis irreformabilis est The Rule and Canon of our Faith is and must alwayes be unmoveable and unreformable not to be altered at caetera disciplinae conversationis novâ—tatem correctionis admittunt Tertull. in l. De veland Virgin but all other things that appertain to discipline and government and conversation may admit the newness and change of a Reformation And so the Eucharist the holy Communion being to succeed for our Sacrament in the room of the Passeover it was most convenient that it should be celebrated by Christ at Supper-time in the evening because the P sseover was commanded by the Law to be eaten between the two evenings And yet the Church thought it more convenient to alter that fashion The first Christians did many things that we are not bound to do and we do many â—ood thin s that they did not and to take it in the morning So likewise Christ was baptized in Jordan and the Apostles baptized men in Rivers and Fountains of waters and would you have us to imitate their example to forsake the Christian Assembly in the holy Church and to carry our Infants with the fanatick Anabaptists to be baptized in the Rivers But seeing that in the Apostles time the good Christians sold their lands and possessions and laid down the prices and monies that they received for them at the Apostles feet I demand Why do not our Anabaptists that would have all things reduced to the Primitive time imitate them in this their Devotion and lay the prices of their lands at their Preachers feet I know they will answer That this extraordinary Devotion is not of necessity to be drawn into imitation and I confess it But in the Apostles time there were no Vniversities no Schools of Learning no Hospitals nor Alms-houses no Book of the Holy Scriptures divided into Chapters nor Chapters into Verses no distinction of Parishes and many other good things were not then in being And shall we now cast them all away because the Apostles and the first Christians had them not Or will not the giddy-heads understand that as the Sun in the firmament goeth higher and higher unto the noon and perfect day so the truth and knowledge of the Sun of Righteousness and the perfection of his Service groweth more and more unto the fulness of the knowledge of Christ and even as Christ himself increased in wisdom and knowledge 〈◊〉 â— 52 and in favour with God and men so doth the Church of Christ And so to return and to apply our selves to the case of Tythes though some places as it may be in the Low-Countries and the Reformed Churches in France have their immunities by themselves and are not charged with the payment of Tythes their state and condition not admitting it yet in lieu of their Tythes their Ministers are maintained with as sufficient supplies and necessity excuseth even in greater matters as in not praying and not receiving the Sacraments as well as in not paying Tythes when the case cannot be otherwise As S. Paul for some special exigency took no stipend of some Churches for his labours in the preaching of the Gospel Yet he tells them that by right he might have claimed it and therefore inferreth that what he did for some special causes should not be drawn into an example to prejudice and defraud others of that which was their due So we say That in those Churches which pay not their Tythes in kind there is an allowance equivalent to the Tythes The Ministers of the Reformed
notwithstanding pay them even to those Priests that had means enough of their own to live by it and had no need of Tythes to sustain them then much rather should we now pay them to those Ministers of Christ that have no other maintenance and therefore can not labour in Gods Vine-yard and discharge the duties of their calling without them especially considering how often and how earnestly Christ and his Apostles do command us and exhort us to do it and with such promises of Blessings if we do it and Cursings if we refuse it Obj. 4 4. They do Object That the Commandment for paying Tythes is not Moral but either Judicial or Ceremonial and we that are Christians are not obliged to observe either the Ceremonial or the Judicial Laws of the Jews because all the Ceremonial Laws were but shadows types and predictions shewing the coming doings and sufferings of Jesus Christ and when the true light and substance of those shadows the Sun of Righteousness was come all those shadows were at an end and vanished away and the Judicial Laws of the Jews were only proper and peculiar to that people and do not oblige other Nations to observe them And therefore the Christians are no wayes obliged to the payment of Tythes Sol. To this Objection which some of our opposers think to be invincible I answer and it may be contrary to the opinion of many Divines of no mean or usual Learning and I say for Tythes 1. That they are due to Christ as he is a Priest for ever by a Divine Natural and Moral right as I hope I have sufficiently proved to you before And if they do Object and say that if the precept of paying Tythes be of a Natural right and a Moral precept then the payment thereoâ— is or ought to be commanded within one of the ten Commandments of the Moral Law because all Moral precepts are comprehended within those ten Commandments but the precept of paying Tythes is not in any one of the ten Commandments of the Moral Law and therefore it is no Moral precept I answer That the payment of Tythes is commanded in four special Commandments of the Moral Law as in the first the fourth the sixth the eighth For as the Prophet David saith Thy Commandments O Lord are exceeding broad and do comprehend abundance of things more then you see prima facie in the outward letter of the Commandment as when the Commandment sayeth Honor thy Father and thy Mother it injoyneth thee to feed him and to maintain him as Joseph did his Father Jacob when he wants and is not able to maintain himself and when it saith Thou shalt do no murder it forbids us to hate or to be angry with our neighbour So when the Lord saith Thou shalt have none other gods but me he commands us to render unto God what is God's as well to maintain his outward service by tythes and offerings unto his Priests and alms unto his poor members as by serving him with our inward service of faith hope love fear and the like So when he commands us To keep Holy the Sabbath day he commands us to do all things that do further and do appertain to the Sanctifying of the Sabbath and Who can deny but that the payment of our Tythes to the Preacher and Minister of Christ is one of the most principal means to further and cause the Sanctifying of the Lords day When as the Artist cannot work without his tools Many things are included that are not so clearly expressed in the ten Commandments so the Minister cannot discharge his service on the Sabbath unless he is maintained all the week And so when he bids us to Honor our Father and Mother he means that we should as well or rather in the first place Reverence and with our Tythes and Offerings relieve and maintain our spiritual Fathers the Ministers of Christ and the Church our Mother as our natural Father and Mother and so likewise when he saith Thou shalt not steal he commands us not to detain and keep back the Tythes and Offerings from Gods Ministers Whereby you may see that this commandment of paying our Tythes is a Moral precept and implicitely contained and comprehended in the Moral Law And if you say Obj. The maintenance of the Ministers may be included in those Moral commandments to be commanded for the performance of Gods outward service and to uphold and further the Sanctifying of his Sabbath yet there is no proof that that maintenance which is implied in those precepts must be the Tenth part rather then the eleventh fifteenth or the twentyeth part of our goods I answer That I have proved already That the very Tythe Sol. or tenth part is the continual due that belongs to Christ as he is a continual Priest for ever and all the precepts of Christ and commandments of God being Brevia levia utilia very compendious and short that they might not be forgotten for which cause the Ten Commandments are styled The Commandments are very short that we should not forget them decem verba ten words and these ten words are contracted into one word which is but one syllable and all the Commandments of God are comprehended in that one syllable Love For love is the fulfilling of the Law There is no reason we should look that all the inclusive particulars contained in that one word or in those few short precepts should or could be particularly expressed therein But they are alwaies left to be understood and explained by the Preachers and Commentators As when he saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy God the Sanctifying of the Sabbath you must confess is therein concluded and yet that the Sabbath shall be the seventh day is not therein mentioned So when he saith Thou shalt have none other gods but me the Tythes that are a special means to uphold and further his outward service must of necessity be understood to be therein comprehended though in direct terms the tenth part is not expressed And Further I answer to their fourth Objection That although a Judicial and a Ceremonial consideration may be rendred for the payment of Tythes among the Jews As that equality might be preserved among the tribes of this people that because in the Division of the Land of Canaan the Levites had no part of the Land Moses thought it fit the Tythes which were to be paid to God should be given to them out of every tribe and that would make their estate and maintenance proportionable to the other tribes yet this judicial consideration of paying the Tythes unto the Levites doth no waies infringe or weaken the equity and morality of this precept for the perpetual payment of the Tythes to Christ and his Ministers to further and uphold the service of God Any Kingdom may take laws from other Kingdoms when they are seen good And besides the equity and morality of this precept seeing Moses was so
Quia dum parva subtrahitis ubertatem possessionium vestrarum totam abundantiam frugum perdidistis Because that while you detain this small part which is the tenth you lose the plenty of your possessions and all the abundance of your fruits Sciatis enim vos ideò abundantiam perdidâ—sse quia fraudastis me parte mea For you may understand that you do therefore leese your plenty and abundance because you have deceived and deprived me of my part and therefore if you desire that I should blesse your labours Hieron in Gloss super Malach. 3. Moneo ut reddatis mihi mea ego restituam vobis vestra I advise you to render to me mine and I will bless yours which is a good counsel for our own good Thus you see what the Fathers say concerning the payment of Tythes to God's Ministers Quo autem tempore à quibus consuetudo invaluerit ut decimae ad Christianas Ecclesias pervenerint non satis certè liquet But at what time and by whom the custom of paying Tythes came to the Christian Churches it is not certainlie enough known saith Fran. Sylvius And Hermanus Gigas saith Constantine the Great was the first that by his Imperial Decree commanded Vt de rebus omnibus decimae Ecclesiis solverentur What the Councils and Synods do say concerning Tythes That out of all our goods the Tythes should be paid unto the Churches Yet ex Synodo Matisconensi 11. which was held about the year 587. it seemeth to me that they were usually paid by the Christians before Constantines time for in the 5th Canon of the said Synod we find such a Decree concerning Tythes Leges Divinae consulentes Sacerdotibus ac Ministris Ecclesiarum pro haereditaria portione omni populo praeceperunt Decimas fructuum suorum locis sacris praestare The Divine Laws counselling us have commanded all people to bring the Tythes of all their fruits unto the holy places that is the Churches for the Priests and Ministers of those Churches for their hereditary portion ut nullo labore impediti per res illegitimas spiritualibus possint vacare ministeriis That being no waies or by no labour hindred through unlawful affairs they might wholly apply themselves to their spiritual Ministeries Quas leges Christianorum congeries longis temporibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heap ot pile custodivit intemeratas which Laws the whole heap or multitude of Christians have of long times therefore no doubt but long before Constantines time observed inviolable Vnde statuimus ut decimas Ecclesiasticas omnis populus inferat quibus Sacerdotes aut in usum pauperum aut in captivorum redemptionem prorogatis suis orationibus pacem populo ac salutem impetrent si quis contumax nostris statutis fuerit à membris Ecclesiae omni tempore separetur Therefore we do ordain that all people shall and do bring their Ecclesiastical Tythes whereby the Priests bestowing what they can spare either upon the poor or for the redemption of those that are held captives might by their payers obtain at the hands of God peace and health unto the people and if any man will be refractory and not obey this our Decree let him at all times be separated from the Members of God's Church And so Duriensis Synodus held under Charles the Great about the year 779. ordained in the tenth Canon Vt decimae solvantur dare nolentes non Ecclesiasticis excommunicationibus tantum sed à Reipublicae quoque ministeriis coerceantur That the Tythes should be paid and they that would not do it should not only be forced by the Ecclesiastical Excommunications but also be compelled by the Magistrates of the Common-wealth to pay the same And in the Moguntine Synod held by the Command of the same Charles the Great Anno 813. we find it thus written in the 38th Canon Admonemus or as it is in some Copies Praecipimus ut decima de omnibus dari non negligatur quia Deus ipse sibi dari constituit ideò timendum est ut quisquis Deo debitum suum abstrahit ne forte Deus propter peccatum suum auferat ei necessaria sua We admonish or command that none neglect to pay their Tythes of all their goods because God himself hath commanded us to pay them to him and therefore it may be feared that as any man doth withhold his due from God so God will for his sins withdraw from that man those things that are needful for him And the Council of Aquisgrane saith Attende diligens lector Câ—ncil Aquisgranense l. 1. c. 34. quòd omnes primitiae quicquid ad Sanctuarium oblatum est Sacerdotis sint ad jus ejus pertineant Mark and attend thou diligent Reader that all the first-fruits and whatsoever is presented and brought unto the Sanctuarie as all the Tythes was wont to be pertained unto the Priest and doth by law and of right belong to him And so Concilium Cavilionense cap. 18. saith in one Canon That Quicunque decimas dare neglexerint excommunicentur And Concilium Ticinense that was held under Ludovicus Pius hath ordained Vt non pro libitu suo laici decimas clericis tribuerent That the lay-people should not pay their Tythes as they listed unto the Clergy but as the Augustane Synod saith Qui justas decimas non solvunt ter moniti eis neganda est Communio They that pay not their just Tythes being three times admonished let them be denied to receive the holy Communion And thus have these Councils and Synods determined concerning Tythes Et plurimae aliae extant de decimis Conciliorum Sanctiones And there are many other Sanctions and Decrees of Councils to the same purpose saith Francis Sylvius whereby you may see that the Tythes are determined to be a debt due to God and a duty of our obedience unto him Tythes a due debt and neither alms nor benevolence and therefore not to be detained from his Ministers nor to be given to them as alms or voluntary benevolence 1. Because God hath no need of alms who is Lord of all things and giveth all things unto us and requireth nothing but what is of right due unto him from us 2. Because almes do alwayes exceed the desert of him that receiveth them and they shew the benevolence and bounty of the Giver and not any worth or merit in the Receiver But the preaching of the Gospel and the works that the Ministers of Christ do for the people do exceed all Tythes and excell all the temporal gifts and oblations that the people can do for the Ministers And therefore the Apostle demandeth If we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great matter 1 Cor. 9.11 if we reap your carnal things And therefore seeing the Ministers gifts unto the people are far better and more excellent than the peoples gifts to them whatsoever they give is of desert and a due debt and no
of the Priests for his Service so he takes the Gifts and Donations and Oblations of the people unto himself saying Thou shalt give them me Exod. 22.30 So he calls the Church his House Matth. 21.13 and the Tythes his Tythes saying Will a man rob his God yet you have robbed me in Tythes and Offerings And for lands he saith You shall offer unto the Lord an holy portion Ezech. 45. 1. And the same Law S. Paul presseth under the Gospel as you may see in 1 Cor. 9.13 14. and 1 Tim. 5.17 18. For though we have some differences in the manner of God's Worship when as the Sacrifices and several Ceremonies are abolished yet there is the same substance for the Guides in God's Worship which is the reason of the Law as the Prophet Esay in the Name of the Lord hath foretold us when as prophesying of the state of Christ his Church and the Ministers thereof he saith And I will also take of them for Priests and Levites Esay 66.21 saith the Lord and not lay-men And therefore these things may not be sold away or alienated and impropriated from the Priests because that now God hath the best Interest therein and though before they were devoted given to him you might have told them alienated them or put them to what use you would yet now being God's proper goods even by your own Donation you may not without God's consent impropriate them from God and from his Service For As in the case of Marriage before the Marriage both the man and the woman are free to do what they please to marry or not to marry consensus partium and both their consents publickly attested by the Priest makes up the Marriage but after they are Marryed let them both consent as they will and as often as they will yet there desire and consent cannot dis-joyn them and dissolve the Marriage because that now God had a hand in the Marriage and whom God hath joyned together neither they themselves nor any man else may put assunder Even so it is in the case of devoted and consecrated things lands houses or what you will offered up as a Free-will-offering unto God Before you make your Oblation of them you may do with them what you please give them or not give them as the man might marry this woman or not marry her but when once they are offered and given unto God you must not make a mock of God and alienate or impropriate them from Him and his Service or if you do Solomon will tell you It is destruction and a snare to the man Prov. 20.25 which devoureth that which is sanctified or given to God and after vows to make inquiry and search for wayes to deprive God of them as now our men of War and many others do But if men gave 5 pound or 10 pound or other sum Obj. unto the Church for the furtherance of God's Service and to secure the same appointed lands worth 50 pound or a 100 pound to pay it unto the Bishop or other Ministers of the Church Will you have the lands and not rather still accept of the money that was to be paid out of those lands and was the true meaning of the Donor I answer God forbid that any man in such a case Sol. should desire to have any more than what was given and intended to be given for God accepteth of no unjust acquisitions and a just man requireth no unjust thing But when the whole is given to God no Bishop for love either to his wife or children or for any other gain should lett and lease that for 5 pound which is worth 50 pound or the like as I have shewed to you before But I know what our sacrilegious persons Obj. that take the Tythes of impropriations and the lands houses and possessions of the Church into their possessions will further object and say for themselves and against me That our Laws do allow them to do what they do and our Bishops that knew God's will as well or better than my self have formerly lett out the lands and houses belonging to the Church in fee-ferme and for a very small rent unto their Tenants and Fee-fermers and they do still lett out long leases of them unto their children and friends and therefore they are not to be blamed but if there be any fault herein it is in our selves and in our Predecessors To which Objection I shall answer but as I did before Sol. That tyrannical fierce and wilful Kings and Princes and wicked Governours See what I say in the Grand Rebellion c. 7. when they have once got power and authority into their hands as was King Henry the Eighth and the late Rebel and Usurper Crumwell will make what laws and force the people in their Parliament to give their consent to what Acts and â—â—tutes soever they please And do you think that such Laws can excuâ—â—â—ou for the breach of the Law of God And for our Bishops that do of have done such things to the prejudice of the Church and the great dishonour of our God I confess majus peccatum habent our sin is more than yours for we are but God's Stewards intrusted with the implements of his House and the revenues of his Church to be used and imployed not wastefully upon our selves in pride or upon our children to make them Knights or Lords and Ladies but for the best advantage and furtherance of God's Service and the honour of Jesus Christ as he hath commanded us to dispose of them and you know we must render an account of our Stewardship and how soon I know not and if we waste our Masters goods or take all or more than is due unto our selâ—â—â— â—hen we should dispose of it to other uses for the Service of our Masâ—â—r I know not how we shall answer it But I know that our greater sin in imbezelling and alienating our Masters goods and the Revenues of his Church will not quit and excuse you for your lesser sin in being copartners with us in this Sacriledge for as the receiver of any stollen goods is liable to the Law as well as the stealer of his neighbours goods so is the lessee as well as the lessor the detainer as well as the maker away of these unlawful Fee-ferms and long Leases of the Church-Revenues liable to the just judgement of God And therefore in this respect that the Donations and Free-will-offerings of religious and holy men were given not to men but to God and for the Honour and Service of God and the good of his Church the worthiest Bishops and best Prelates and Servants of Christ would rather suffer the greatest indignities and the heaviest wrath of the most powerful Commanders than they would yield to satisfie their desires that sought to take away or alienate the goods of God that were dedicated to him for the service of his Church For when at the instigation and
Country-men should be such as rather to spend our selves to relieve them then by lewd practices to destroy them when by our dissolute debauchment we have destroyed our selves 2. Of the same Tribe 2. These Rebels were of their own Tribe of the Tribe of Levi and so knit together indissolubili vinculo with the indissoluble bond of blood and fraternity and therefore they should have remembred the saying of Abraham their Father unto his Nephew Lot Let there be no dissention betwixt thee and me for we be brethren a good Uncle that would never drive his Nephew out of his house and home And we read that affinity among the Heathens could not only keep away the force and suppresse the malice of deadly foes but also retain pignora juncti sanguinis as Julia did Caesar and Pompey and as the Poet saith Lucan Pharsal l. 1. Vt generos soceris mediae junxere Sabinae And therefore why should not consanguinity and the bond of flesh and blood suppresse the envy of friends and retain the love of brethren But these prove true the old saying that Fratrum irae inter se inimicissimae the wrath of brethren is most deadly as it appeared not only in Cain against Abel Romulus against Remus and all his brethren against Joseph but especially in Caracalla that slew his brother Geta in his mothers armes and therefore Solomon saith A brother offended is harder to winne then a strong City Prov. 28.19 and their contentions are like the barrs of a Pallace not easily broken Nam ut aqua calefacta cum ad frigiditatem reducitur frigidissima est For as water that hath been hot being cold again is colder then ever it was before and as the Adamant if it be once broken is shivered into a thousand pieces so love being turned into hatred and the bond of friendship being once dissolved there accreweth nothing but a swift increase of deadly hatred So it happened now in the Camp of Israel that the saying of Saint Bernard is found true Omnes amici Bern. in Cant. Serm. 33. omnes inimici All of a house and yet none at peace all of a kindred and yet in mortal hatred And as Corah and his companions were so nearly allyed unto Moses of the Tribe of Levâ— so Dathan and Abiram were men famous in the Congregation noble Peers and very popular men heads of their families of the Tribe of Reuben A subtle practice of that pestiferous Serpent to joyn Simeon and Levi Clergy and Laity in this wicked faction of Rebellion the one under colour of dissembled sanctity the other with their power and usurped authority to seduce the more to make the greater breach of obedience And so it hath been always that we scarse read of any Rebellion but some base Priests the Chaplains of the Devill have begot it and then the Nobles of the people arripientes ansam taking hold of this their desired opportunity do foster that which they would have willingly fathered as besides this Rebellion of Corah that of Jack Cade in the reign of Henry the sixth and that of Perkin Warbeck in the time of Henry the seventh and many more that you may find at home in the lives of our own Kings may make this point plain enough But they should have thought on what our Saviour tells us that Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall not stand What a mischief then was it for these men to make such a division among their own Tribe and in their own Camp Nondum tibi defuit hostis had they not the Egyptians and the Canaanites and the Amalekites and enow besides to fight against but they must raise a civil discord in their own house Could not their thoughts be as devout as the Heathen Poet 's which saith Omnibus hostes Reddite nos populis civile avertite bellum Lucan Pharsal lib. 1. And therefore this makes the sin of home-bred Rebels the more intolerable because they bring such an Ilias malorum so many sorts of unusual calamities and grievous iniquities upon their own brethren 3. These Rebels were of their own Religion 3. Of the same Religion professing the same faith that the others did Et religio dicitur à religando saith Lactantius and therefore this bond should have tyed them together firmer then the former For if equal manners do most of all bind affections Et similitudo morum parit amicitiam as the Orator teacheth then hoc magnum est hoc mirum that men should not love those of the same Religion And if the profession of the same trades and actions is so forcible not onely to maintain peace but also to increase love and amity JACOB REX in Ep. to all Christian Monarchs as we see in all Societies and Corporations of any mechanick craft or handle work they do inviolably observe that Maxim of the Civill Law to give an interest unto those qui fovent consimilem causam so that as birds of the same feather they will cluster all in one and be zealous for the preservation of them that are of the same craft or society why then should not the profession of the same Religion if not increase affection yet at least detain men from dissention For though diversities of Religion non bene conveniunt can seldom contain themselves for any while in the same Kingdom without Civil distractions especially if each party be of a near equall power which should move all Governours to do herein as Hannibal did with his army that was a mixture of all Nations to keep the most s spected under and rank them so that they durst not kick against his Carthaginians or as Henry the fourth did with the Brittains to make such Laws that they were never able to rebell so should the discreet Magistrate not root out a people that they be no more a Nation but so subordinate the furthâ—st from truth to the best professors that they shall never be able any wayes to endanger the true Religion yet where the same Religion is universally profâ—ssâ—d excepting small differences in adiaphoral things quae non diversificant species as the Schoâ—â—s speak it is more then unnatural for any one to make a Schism and much more transcendently heynous to rebell against his Governours But indeed no sin is so unnatural no offence so heynous but that swelling pride and discontented natures will soon perpetrate no bonds nor bounds can keep them in and therefore Corah must rebell And ever since in all Societies even among the Levites and among the Priests the d sordered spirits have rebelled against their Governours fecerunt unitatem contra unitatem and erecting Altars against Altars as the Fathers speak they have made confederacies and conspiracies against the truth and thereby they have at all times drawn after them many multitudes of ignorant soules unto perdition This is no
whom he bestowes it and this made Shemaiah the man of God 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 murther to have done it and when he commanded the Israelites to rob the Aegyptians it was no breach of the eighth Commandement 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 Rehoboam's finger which moved them to this Rebellion I can no ways justifie their action and though God by this Rent did most justly revenge the sinne of Solomon and paid for the folly of Rehoboam yet this doth no wayes excuse them for 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 away from the true God into Idolatry and not long after to be led into an endlesse Captivity Which is a fearful example to see how suddenly men do fall away from God and from their true religion after they have rebelled against their lawful King and how to avoid imaginary grievance they do often fall into a real 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 transgression of the Law of God 6. For Vzziah that was taken with a grievous sicknesse so that he Example answered 6 could not be present at the publique affaires of the Kingdom 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 sonne 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 sonne did neither affect the name nor assume the title of a King 7. For the deposing of Athalia I see nothing contrary to equity because Example answered 7 she was not the right Prince but an unjust Vsurper of the Crown and therefore Jehoida the chief Priest having gathered together the principal Peers of the Kingdome and the Centurions and the rest of the people shewed them the Kings sonne 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 sonne 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 heir unto the Kingdom they put to death the cruel Queen that had so tyrannically slain the Kings children and so unjustly usurped the Crown 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 Vsurpers that held the Jewes under them in ore gladii with the edge of their swords and were not their lawful 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 Example answered 8 8. For the example of Thrasibulus Juniuâ— Brutus and other Romans or whosoever that for their faults have deposed their Kings I answer with Saint Augustine Examples not to be imitated that Exempla paucorum non 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 expell a mischief and to admit a greater as besides what I have shewed you before this one most memorable example out of our own Histories doth make it plain The ill successâ— of resisting our superiours In the time of Richard the second the Nobility and Gentry murmured much against his government in brief they deposed him and set the Crown upon the head of the Duke of Lancaster 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 and dispossesse their lawful 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 pains was served as Saint 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 blood-shed the miseries and mischiefs that this one unjust and unfaithful act produced had never any period never an end till that well nigh a hundred thousand English men were slain in civil warres whereof two were Kings one Prince ten Dukes two Marquesses 21. Trussel in his supplement to Daniel's History Earles 27. Lords two Viscounts one Lord Prior one Judge 139. Knights 421. Esquires and Gentlemen of great and ancient Families a farre greater number a just revenge for an unjust extrusion of their lawful King whose greatest misery came from his great mildnesse And therefore these things being well weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary All the pressures that we have suffered since the first year of our king are not comparable to the miseries that one years civil warre hath brought upon us in the scales of true wisdom it had been better for them as it will be for us and 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 sinnes 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 from hard usage that we impatiently conceived to most base cruel 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 Romans when for their liberty and priviledges as they termed it in Pompey's time Excessit medicina modum The remedy that they procured hath proved
Champions to enlarge his Kingdom would fain have our Souls to remain among Lions and all the means or defence to be taken from us our enemies to be our Judges and our selves to be murdered with our own weapons In the time of Popery there were many Laws de immunitate Clericorum whereby we were so protected that the greatest Prince could not oppress us as you may find in the Reign of King John and almost in all our Histories and when we renounced the Pope God made Kings our nursing Fathers and Queens our nursing Mothers and we putting our selves under their protection have been hitherto most graciously protected but now by this Act we are left naked of all defence and set under the very sword of our Adversaries and as the Psalmist saith They that hated us are made Lords over us to call us to assess us to undo us 3. Debarred of that right that none else are 3. Hereby they are made more slavish than the meanest Subject and deprived of that benefit and priviledge which the poorest Shoomaker Tailer or any other Tradesman or yeoman hath most justly left unto him for to be excluded debarred and altogether made uncapable of any benefit is such an insupportable burden that it is set upon no mans shoulders but upon the Clergy alone as if they alone were either unworthy to receive or unable to do any good 4. Made more contemptible than all others 4. Hereby they are made the unparalleled spectacle of all neglect and scorn to all forraign people for I can hardly believe the like Precedent can be shewed in any Age or any other Nation of the World no not among the very Infidels or Indians for in former times the Bishops and Clergy-men were thought the fittest instruments to be imployed in the best places of greatest truth and highest importance in the Common-Wealth and Kings made them their Embassadours as the Emperour Valentinian did Saint Ambrose And our own Chronicles relate how former times respected the Clergy and how our Kings made them both their Counsellours and their Treasurers Chancellours Keepers of the Great Seal and the like Officers of the chiefest concernment as Ethelbert in the year of Christ 605. Vt refert in tractatu suo de Episcopatu p. 61 62. M. Theyer Sir Henry Spelman p. 118. Idem p. 403. Idem p. 219. saith I Ethelbert King of Kent with the consent of the Reverend Arch Bishop Augustine and of my Princes do give and grant c. And the said Ethelbert with the Queen and his Son Eadbald and the most Reverend Prelate Augustine and with the rest of the Nobility of the Land solemnly kept his Christmass at Canterbury and there assembled a Common Councel tam cleri quà m populi as well of the Clergy as of the People And King Adelstan saith I Adelstan the King do signify unto all the Officers in my Kingdom that by the advice of Wolfelm my Arch-Bishop and of all my Bishops c. In the great Councel of King Ina An. 712. The Edicts were Enacted by the Common Councel and consent omnium Episcoporum Principum Procorum Câ—mitum omnium sapientum seniorum populorum totius regni per praeceptum regis Inae And in the second Charter of King Edward the Confessour How former times respected the Clergy granted to the Church of Saint Peter in Westminster it is said to be Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum Optimatum With the Counsel and Decree of the Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls and other Potentates And so not only the Saxon Kings but the Norman also ever since the Conquest had the Bishops in the like or greater esteem that they never held Parliament or Councel without them And surely these Princes were no Babes that made this choice of them neither was the Common-Wealth neglected nor justice prejudiced by these Governours And whosoever shall read Mores gentium or the pilgrimage of Master Purchas Livy Plutarch Appian and the rest of the Greek and Latin Histories I dare assure him he shall find greater honour given and far less contempt cast upon the Priests and Flamins the Prophets of the Sybils than we find of this Faction left to the Servants of the Living God who are now dâ—it withall worse than Pharaoh dealt with the Israelites that took away their straw and yet required their full tale of Bricks For these men would rob us of all our means and take away all our Lands and all our Rights and yet require not only the full tale of Sermons and Services as was used by our Predecessours but to double our files to multiply our pains How the Clergy are now used and to treble the Sermons and Services that they used to have of our forefathers more than ever was done in any Age since the first Plantation of the Gospel And when we have done with John Baptist the utmost of our endeavours like a shining and a burning lamp that doth waste and consume it self to nothing while it giveth light to others they only deal with us as Carriers use to do with their pack-horses hang bels at their ears to make a melodious noise but with little provender lay heavy loads upon their backs and when they can bear no more burdens take away their Bells withdraw their praises call them Jades exclaim against their laziness and then at last turn them out to feed upon the Commons and to die in a ditch And thus we have now made the Ministers of Christ to be the Emblems of all misery and in pretending to make them more glorious in the sight of God we have made them most base in the eyes of all men And therefore the consequence of this Act is like to prove most lamentable when the people considering how that hereby we are left naked of all comfort and subject to all kind of scorn and distresse and how that this being effected is but the Praeludium of a far greater mischief they will rather with no great cost make their children of some good Trade and their children will chuse so to be than with such great cost and more care and yet little hope to bring them up to worse condition than the meanest of all Trades or the lowest degree of all rusticks When as they can challenge and it shall not be denied them to have the priviledges of the Law The Clergy alone are deprived of Magna Charta and a property in their goods which without their own consent yielded in their persons or their representours cannot be taken from them And the Clergy only of all the people in this Kingdom shall be deprived of the right and benefit of our great Charter which so many famous Kings and pious Princes have confirmed unto us and when we have laboured all the dayes of our lives with great pains and more diligence to instruct our people and to attain to some competency of means to maintain
yet blameing them for any thing But for any Subject of England to enterchange Messages and to keep private intelligence with any that seem to be in Arms against their King and the invaders of his Dominions to animate them to come and advance forward to refuse their Soveraigns Service and the Oath of their fidelity which was tendered unto them and to hinder the Kings Souldiers to do their duties either by denying to go with him or refusing to fight for him when they went which if some men were brought to their Legal tryal I believe would be more than sufficiently proved against them can be no lesse than heynous Crimes perhaps within the compasse of high Treason Or were these things but our jealousies and fears which do wear the garments of Truth yet their proceedings in Parliament do add more fuell unto the fire of our suspicion as for our men whom we have chosen to plead for us and to treat with them to respect them more than us to enrich them by impoverishing us How they behaved themselves towards the Scots giving them no lesse than 300000. l. who had entered into our Land and brought upon us such fears of I know not how many mischiefs that might succeed and not only so but also to shew what love they bare to them and how little regard they had of us their Native Brethren that put such trust and confidence in their fidelity as to commit all our fortunes and liberties into their hands paying weekly such a Pension for their provision besides the maintenance of our own Army which were forced to carry them their monies when themselves were unpaid as in a short time was able to exhaust all the wealth of this Kingdom and yet for all his Majesties continual calling upon them to dispatch their discharge and to finish the Treaty for the good of both Kingdoms keeping them here so exceeding long and making so very much of them which in truth we envyed not but admired what it meant when we saw with what continual feastings they were entertained in London and their lodgings frequented as the Kings Court till all the people began to murmur and to wax weary of so great a charge and such a burden as they knew must at last light upon their shoulders which must needs be matters worthy of our best examinations But as yet the common people that seeth no further than the present tense Why they detained them here so long and the outside of things did little know what many wise men did then foresee that these men aimed further than they seemed to do and delayed the businesse purposely till they had attained many of their desires and had fully endeared themselves into the affections of the Scots that if need required that they could not effect all the residue of their design as they intended which now could not so suddenly be brought unto perfection they might recall them here again to assist them to do that by force which by their craft and subtilty they should fail to do as now by their sending for them going unto them and alleadging the Act of Pacification for their assistance to withstand their King and to overthrow our Church it is apparent to all the World how perfidiously they dealt with God and man and how treacherous their thoughts were from the beginning both to the King and Kingdom Yet As we found our Brethren of Scotland howsoever these men behaved themselves in their secret intentions to have carried themselves none otherwise than as wise rational and religious men in all the Treaty So I assure my self they will hereafter still continue both faithful unto God and loyal unto their King and as they perceived not their intentions at the first so they will not now joyn with them in any Association of Rebellion to withstand their own Liege Lord and to change the established Laws and Religion of our Kingdom but will rather live in peace and happiness in their own Land than by forsaking their enjoyed quietness to involve themselves in the unhappiness of a desperate War in another Country 2. The compelling of all people to take their new framed Protestation 2. After they had thus endeared themselves unto their Brethren of Scotland they framed a Protestation to maintain and defend as far as lawfully they might with their lives powers and estates the True Reformed Protestant Religion his Majesties Royal Person Honour and Estate the power and priviledge of Parliament the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subjects and every person that should make the Protestation in whatsoever he should do in the lawful pursuance of the same and to their power and as far as lawfully they might to oppose and by all good means endeavour to bring to condign punishment all such as shall either by force practice counsels plots conspiracies or otherwise * Which word is like the c. in the Canonical Oath do any thing to the contrary of any thing in the said Protestation contained and neither for fear hope nor other respect to relinquish this Promise Vow and Protestation In which Protestation though no man can espy the least shadow of ill prima facie at the first reading thereof yet if you look further and search narrowly into the intentions of the composers the frame of the Protestation and the practice of these Protestors ever since the framing of it you shall find that Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè these men are no Changelings but as like themselves as ever they were For 1. To terrifie the Papists to raise a Rebellion in Ireland 1. As it was intended so it succeeded it terrified the Papists and made them so desperate as almost to despair of their very Being as concerning the place where or the manner how they should live Which thing together with many other harsh and hard proceedings against many of them and the small countenance which they shewed unto a very moderate Petition that the Papists exhibited unto them hath driven abundance of them into Ireland whom I saw my self and there consulting with the Irish which were then also threatened by the Agents of this Faction there that ere long they should be severely handled and brought to the Church whether they would or no or pay such a Mulct as should make them poor what course they should take in such a desperate condition wherein they were all like to be ruined or to be rooted out of all the Kings Dominions they concluded what they would do To defend themselves by a plain Rebellion So this course against them hath been the leading-card as some of them confessed of that great Rebellion which being kindled as some Sectaries in England expected they thought they would so much the more weaken the King by how much the more combustion should be raised in each one of his Dominions And therefore notwithstanding all the Kings gracious Messages and wishes unto the House of
Commons which I wish all men would remember how affectionately he desired it to hasten to relieve that bleeding Kingdom yet still they protracted and neglected their redresse and at last passed such Votes made such Orders and procured such Acts as rather respected themselves and their posterity to get all the land and goods of the Rebels to themselves that were the Adventurers than the relieving of us that were distressed and would as I told some of the House of Commons rather increase the Rebellion than any wayes quench that destroying flame And this was as it succeeded and as you see hereby most likely intended a most detestable Plot for the kindling of that Rebellion and continuing of that bloody War in Ireland without which they knew this Rebellion in England could never have gained so much strength as it hath 2. By their large expression of what Religion they protested to defend 2. To gain all Sectaries to their side not the Protestant Religion as it is established by Law and expressed in the 39. Articles of the Church of England but as it is repugnant to Popery and taught perhaps by Burton Burges Goodwin Burrows or the like Amsterdamian Schismaticks they opened the gap so wide and made Heaven-gate so broad that all Brownists Anabaptists Socinians Familists Adamites and all other New-England-brood and Out-landish Sectaries whatsoever that opposed Popery might return home and joyn with them as they have done since to overthrow our established Church and State And this Plot to increase their own strength was as craftily done and is as Detestable as the other which to weaken the King in England caused a Rebellion in Ireland 3. By their illegall compelling 3. To descry their own strength and forcible inducing of all the people in the Kingdom to take the same or to be adjudged ill-affected and popish and after the Lords had rejected the imposing of it they by their Declaration which shewed That what person soever would not take it was unfit to bear Office either in Church or Common-wealth prevailed in this Plot so that they descryed the number of their own Party they understood their own strength and they perceived thereby many things which they knew not before for now they had with David numbred Israel and so far as the wit and policy of the Devil had instructed them they had searched into the secrets of all hearts 4. Having compelled the people to take it 4. To insnare all the simpler sort to adhere unto them they have hereby insnared all the simpler sort and tender consciences to stick unto them when they tell them and presse it upon their souls That they have made a Protestation to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject and therefore they are bound to adhere to the Parliament to the uttermost of their power and so by this equivocall Protestati n they have seduced thousands into their Rebellion and led them blindfold unto destruction But to let you see not the sincerity of their hearts The mystery of their iniquity but the mystery of their iniquity by this their Protestation you shall never find them urge it unto others or remembring it themselves For the defence of the Kings Person Crown or Dignity or for the liberty of any Subject but only such Subjects as will be Rebels with them For how can they be said to defend any of these when they do their very best to destroy His Person and deprive him of all his Royal Dignities and to plunder and imprison all true Subjects for being true Subjects unto their King Whereby you see how these Rebels are likewise perjured and have weaved this Protestation like a Spiders web That the rebels are all perjured through which themselves might passe when they pleased and like Vulcans Net to catch the simpler sort to adhere most eagerly to their Designs and so it is but a circle of all subtilties and not unwittily questioned An protestatio Parliamentaria deterior sit juramento cum c. For if there be any thing injoyned to be done by that Protestation which was unlawful to be done before the Protestation was taken it is no more to be justified by that Act than any other unlawful thing is by a rash and wicked vow and it ought not to be urged to do mischief and if there be nothing to be injoyned thereby but what was every mans duty before there was but small need to draw any argument from any Protestation but if they intended to draw men from the duty of alleageance to which they were legally sworn all men understood to do somewhat which the ignorant did not understand then such a voluntary Protestation might do the deed for they have protested to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament And yet the wisest of us now may justly protest we cannot tell what those Priviledges are or how far they should extend in the judgement of the House of Commons for they are multiplied like the Rats of Egypt And as Pharaohs lean Kine did eat up all his fat Cows Priviledges of Parl. multiplyed and are like Pharaohs kine so these meager Priviledges have eaten up all our goodly Laws And therefore the unlimited universality of these Priviledges in the Protestation extending it self as far as the caetera in the Canonical Oath was but a mischievous plot in the Contrivers to catch the simple to adhere unto them And it is a madness in any man that hath legally sworn to defend the King's Person Crown and Dignity which he knoweth and hath irregularly protested to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament which he knoweth not immediately to draw his sword against his known Soveraign or to Rebel against his well-known lawful Authority in the behalf of some thing he knoweth not what but is told by these men It is a Priviledge of Parliament O ye unwise among the people When will you understand Who hath bewitched you that you should not believe the truth CHAP. VII Sheweth how the Faction was inraged against our last Canons What manner of men they chose in their new Synod And of six special Acts of great prejudice unto the Church of Christ which under false pretences they have already done 3. The condemning of our last Canons 3. FOr the Canons that were last made I must confess my self and many others of my Brethren were very averse unto our sitting to make any at that time yet many Reasons were shewed us that we might sit and we had the Judges of the Common-Laws opinion under their hands shewed us for the legality of our sitting and conclude such Canons as might be for the glory of God and the good of his Church but of those that are made though I assure my self the worst of them is not so ill as they alleadge nor near so bad as most I might say the best of their illegall Orders yet there were many of us that never gave our votes
the Church and the Lands of the Bishops is that golden Wedge and the brave Babylonish garment which the Anabaptistical Achans of our time do most of all thirst after in this their pretended holy Reformation I must here sistere gradum stay awhile and let you know 1. Sacriledge what it is 1. That the taking away of any Lands or goods given and consecrated to holy uses and to convert the same to any other purpose than which they were dedicated is termed sacriledge that is the stealing of holy goods from the right owners to our selves and others to whom we leave them 2. That this sacriledge is a sin for it is a snare to the man 4. That it is a sinne who devoureth that which is holy and after vowes to make inquiry that is whether such a service be needful or such a taking away be a sin 3. That this sinne is a very great sinne for Saint Paul saith 3. A great sin Thou that abhorrest Idols committest thou sacriledge And Idolatry is the giving of our goods and service to false gods Sacriledge the taking away of goods dedicated to the service of any God especially of the true God And this seemeth by the Apostles words to be a greater sinne than the other because the devill laboureth more to take away the service of the true God than to establish his own service for he knoweth that as light taken away darknesse must needs follow so the true Religion being destroyed Hosea 2.8 Ezech. 16. 1 Reg. 18.19 Gen. 22. Idolatry must needs succeed and he knoweth that Idolatry hath been bountiful enough to the service of Idols that he needeth not so much to fear the taking away of their goods as to care that the goods dedicated to Gods service be taken away 4. That this sin is a very dangerous sinne both to 1. The Persons that commit it 2. 4 A most dangerous sin Joshua 7. Act. 5.4 1. To the sacrilegers To the Common-wealth that suffers it for 1. Not onely Achan Ananias and Sapphira and other private men perished for this sinne but the proudest Kings and greatest Peers that became sacrilegious were plagued and destroyed by God as Belshazzar the great Monarch of Assyria William Rufus and abundance more that you may find in our Histories for the curse of God like Damocles sword by a slender thred hangs over their heads and makes them like those that perished at Endor and became as the dung of the earth And I beseech you mark it Make them like a wheel and as the stubble before the wind persecute them with thy tempest let them be confounded and be put to shame and perish which say Let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession and if this be the guerdon of them that say it I wonder what shall be the plague of them that do it and I wonder more that the very thought of this Curse doth not make their hearts to tremble if their consciences were not seared to be senselesse of all fear 2. The sin of sacriledge extendeth it selfe not onely to the persons committing it but also to the whole Nation that suffereth it 2. To whole Nations as the sin of Achan was not onely a snare to catch him to be destroyed but it troubled all Israel so that they were still discomfited and never prospered till the sacrileger was punished and the Lord appeased If you say The sinne is taken away when the Parliament takes these things away I answer that we must not idolize the Parliament as if it were a kind of omnipotent Creature and like the Pope such an infallible Lord God upon earth as that their Votes and Sanctions were the supremest rule of justice that cannot be unjust because they are enacted by the whole State because as no conclusions are therefore truths because determined by a whole Councell so no Lawes are therefore just because done by a whole Parliament but when they do agree with the common rules of truth and justice which God hath given unto men and shewed the same in his holy Word which he hath left to be the right rule of our actions And therefore if the greatest Assemblies Parliament or Councell make not the will of God the rule to guide their proceedings thereby their Sanctions are so farre from taking away the nature of the sin that they do increase the evill and make it the more out of measure sinfull and to become a national sin that before was but personal and the more exceedingly sinful when the same is confirmed by a Law so that none dares speak against it and the sinners are become senselesse in their sinnes and therefore the Prophet demandeth how any man that feareth God dares meddle with such a people that will thus justifie their sinnes saying Shall the throne of iniquity that is any unjust course have fellowship with thee which framest mischief by a Law And the Lord doth extremely threaten them that walk after unrighteous ordinances as that they should sow much Mich. 6.15 16. but not reap tread the Olives but not annoint themselves therewith and sweet wine but not drink it because the Statutes of Omri are kept and all the works of the house of Achab and they walked in their counsels Hos 5.10 11. and the Prophet Hosea doth more fully set down the wrath of God both against the makers and the observers of all unrighteous Laws Object If you say The Lands and Lordships of the Bishops were not the patrimony of the Church but were onely in superstitious times given by our Kings and others unto the Church-men and therefore now the King being in want they may be restored to the Crown again Sol. I confesse the Lands of the Church are the free bequests of godly Kings and of other pious men dead long agoe with most fearful imprecations made against all those that should seek to alter their Wills and Testaments Gal. 3.15 and the Apostle saith If it be but a mans Testament no man altereth it that is no honest man ought to alter it though perhaps his Will might have been made wiser and his goods bestowed to better use for our Saviours Maxim when he gave a Penny to him that laboured but one hour and but a Penny to him that had endured the heat of the day is unanswerable Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own And therefore 1. As others daily leave their estates of great Amount to whom they please many times to strangers and perhaps to idiots or debauched persons of wicked lives and noxious manners and yet no man grudgeth or endeavoureth to take away those just Legacies which their good Benefactours had bestowed upon these unjust men so there is no reason that any mans eyes should be evill for the goodnesse of their Ancestours unto the Clergie but that their Wills should stand to those uses after their death as intemerate as if they were
blasphemiam then heretofore this Kingdom hath ever been by any Civil War for if you will consider the Treasons and Rebellions the Injustice Cruelty and Inhumanity the Subtilty Hypocrisie Lying Swearing Blasphemy Prophaneness and Sacriledge in the highest pitch and many other the like fearful sins that have been committed since the beginning of this Parliament by the sole means of this Faction and observe the ill Acts that have been used by them to compass things lawful the wicked Acts that have been daily practised to procure things unlawful when by blood and rapine and the curses of many Fatherless and Widdows they have gotten the Treasure of the Kingdom and the Wealth of the Kings loyal Subjects into their hands and wasted it so that their wants are still as notorious as their crimes we may admire the miracles of Gods mercy and the bottomless depth of his goodness that the stones in the streets have not risen against them or the fire from Heaven had not consumed these Rebels that thus far and thus insolently had tempted Gods patience and provoked him to anger with such horrible abominations Mischief 5 5. As Jerusalem justified Samaria so this Faction hath justified all the Romanists and shewed themselves worse Christians less Subjects and viler Traytors than all the Papists are for these factious Rebels justify their Rebellion and to the indelible shame of their Profession they maintain that it is not only lawful but that it is their duty to bear Arms and to wage War against their King when the King doth abuse his Power whereas the Doctrine of the Church of Rome * Christopherson tract contr rebell Rhemist in Nov. Test p. â—01 Goldastus de Monarchia S. Imp. Rom. tom 3. Dr. Kellison in his Survey Aquin. de Regim Princip c. 6. Concil Constan Sess 15. Stephan Cantuar anno 8. H. 3. Tolet. in summa l 5. c 6. Gr. Valentia p. 2. q 64. Bellar. Apol. c. 13 Lessiâ—â— l. 2 c. 9. Serrarius Azorius c. utterly denieth the same and concludes them no Children of the Church that do it and Doctor Kellison giveth this reason for it because Faith is not necessarily required to Jurisdiction or Government neither is Authority lost by the loss of Faith therefore it is not lawful for any Subjects to Rebel against their King though their King should prove a Tyrant or should Apostate from the Faith of Christ so that now the Papists boast they are better Subjects than these Rebellious Protestants and thefore I fear that this Faction Defendens Christum verso mucrone cecidit by their unjust Design to propagate the Gospel have most grievously wounded the Faith of Christ and given a more deadly blow to the Protestant Religion than ever it had since the Reformation when it is impossible that the true Religion should produce Rebellion And therefore seeing we are free-born Subjects and persons interessed in the good and safety of this Kingdom as well as any of them we must crave liberty to express our grievances and to crave redresses and seeing my self am called to be a Preacher of Gods Word and a Bishop over many of the souls of my Brethren for which I must render an account to my God both for my silence when I should speak and speaking any thing that should not be spoken I resolved to fear my God and neither out of flattery to the King and his party nor out of hatred or malice to those factious men but as I am perswaded in my Conscience fully satisfied and guided by Gods Truth to set forth this Discovery of these Mysteries what danger soever I shall undergo and if I shall become their Enemy for speaking Truth I shall fare no worse than Saint Paul did and it shall be with them if they do not repent as it was with the Israelites When their destruction cometh Ezech. 7.25 27. they shall seek peace and shall not have it but calamity shall come upon calamity CHAP. XV. Sheweth a particular recapitulation of the Reasons whereby their Design to alter the Government of the Church and State is evinced And a pathetical disswasion from Rebellion ANd thus I have set down not any thing to render these men more odious than they are or to abuse my Reader with falshood If I have been misinformed of any thing that shall appear false I shall not blush to retract it by an ingenuous confession or uncertainties but to report what I knew and what I collected out of the present writings of best credit and attested by men of known truth and integrity whereby it is most apparent to any discerning eye That the Faction of Anabaptists and Brownists and some other of the subtilest heads in the House of Commons had from the first Convention of this Parliament secretly projected this Design and insensible to the rest of their well-meaning Brethren prosecuted the same to alter and change the ancient Government both of the Church and Kingdom Sober Sadnesse p. 44 45 46. which the Author of Sober-Sadness proveth by these subsequent Reasons as for the first 1. By suspending all Ecelesiasticall Laws and Censures Their Design to change the Church Government proved 4. wayes which indulgence of all Vices hath drawn all Offenders to comply with them 2. By setting the people on work to petition against the present Government and the Service of the Church 3. By the Bill concluded for the abolishing of our Government 4. By the chief persons countenanced and imployed by them in that businesse who are Anabaptists and Brownists and all sorts of Sectaries he evinceth their Design to change our Church-Government and to convert the Patrimony of the Church which our religious Ancestors dedicated for the advancement of God's Worship not to establish Learning and a preaching Ministery as they pretended but to dis-ingage their Publick-faith which otherwise would never prove a saving faith And I wish there might be none about His Majesty that pretending great loyalty unto him do comply with them herein and either to raise or to secure their own Fortunes would perswade Saint Paul to part with Saint Peters keyes so he may still hold the sword in his hand or to speak more plainly to purchase the peace of the Common-wealth with the ruine of God's Church But for this let me be bold 1. To crave leave to tell His Majesty It was not His sword that hath brought him from a flying Prince out of Westminster and as yet unsecured at Nottingham to be a victorious King at Edge hill and immediately to be the terrour of all the Rebels in London But it was God whose Church and Church Service he defended that protected him hitherto and gave him the Victory in Battel And let him be assured that He which is Yea and Amen will be his Shield and Buckler still to defend him from the strivings of his people and to subdue them that rise against him while he defendeth them whose eyes next under God are only
decaying State when Moses chaire should be set in the Parliament House and the Doctours of the Church should never sit thereon therefore I wish that the Ark may be brought back from the Philistines and restored to the Priests to be placed in Shilo where it should be and that the care of the Ark which king David undertook may not be taken out of his hands by his people but that he may have the honour of that service which God hath imposed upon him For Opinion 3 3. As nothing is dearer to understanding righteous and religious Kings then the encrease and maintenance of true religion Of the Orthodox Quia religio est ex potioribus reipublicae partibus ut ait Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. ipsa sola custodit hominum inter se societates ut ait Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 12. Peritura Troja perdidit primùm Deos. Therefore the Tyrians chayned their gods lest if they fled they should be destroyed and the inlargement of the Church of Christ throughout all their Dominions so they have at all times imployed their studies to this end because it is an infallible maxime even among the Politicians that the prosperity of any Kingdome flourisheth for no longer time then the care of Religion and the prosperity of the Church is maintained by them among their people as we see Troy was soon lost when they lost their Palladium so it is the truest sign of a declining and a decaying State to see the Clergy despised and religion disgraced and therefore the provision for the safety of the Church the publick injoying of the word of God the form of Service the manner of Government and the honour and maintenance of the Clergy are all the duties of a most Christian King which the King of Heaven hath imposed upon him for the happiness and prosperity of his Kingdom and whosoever derive the authority of this charge either in a blinde obedience to the See of Rome as the Jesuites do or out of their too much zeal and affection to a new Consistory as the late Presbyterians did or to a Lay Parliament as our upstart Anabaptists aad Brownists do are most unjust usurpers of the Kings Right which is not onely ascribed unto him and warranted by the Word of God but is also confirmed to the Princes of this Land by several Acts of Parliament to have the supremacy in all causes and over all persons as well in the Ecclesiastical as in the Civil government which being so they are exempted thereby from all inforcement of any domestical or forraign power and freed from the penalties of all those Laws both Ecclesiastical and civil whereunto all their Subjects Clergy and Laity Q. Curtius de rebus Alexand. Joh. Beda p. 22 23. and all inferiour persons and the superiour Nobility within their Kingdomes are obliged by our Laws and Statutes as hereafter I shall more fully declare Therefore it behoveth all Kings and especially our King at this time seriously to consider what prejudice they shall create unto themselves and their just authority if they should yeild themselves inferiour to their Subjects aggregativè or repraesentativè or how you will or liable to the penal Laws for so they may be soon dethroned by the unstable affection and weak judgment of discontented people or subject to the jurisdiction of Lay Elders and the excommunication of a tyrannous Consistory who denouncing him Matth. 18.17 tanquam Ethnicum may soon add Deut. 17.15 a stranger shall not raign over thee and so depose him from all government For seeing all attempts are most violent that have their beginning and strength from zeal unto Religion be the same true or false and from the false most of all and those are ever the most dangerous whose ringleaders are most base as the servile War under Spartacus was most pernicious unto the Romans there can be nothing of greater use How necessary it is for Kings to retain their just rights in their hands or more profitable either for the safety of the King the peace of the Church and the quiet state of the Kingdome then for the Prince the King to retain the Militia and to keep that power and authority which the Laws of God and of our Land have granted to and intailed upon him in his own hands unclipped and unshaken for when the multitude shall be unbridled and the rights of the Kings are brandished in their hands we shall assuredly taste and I fear in too great a measure as experience now sheweth of those miserable evils which uncontrouled ignorance furious zeal false hypocricy and the merciless cruelty of the giddy-headed people and discontented Peeres shall bring upon us and our Prince But to make it manifest unto the World what power and authority God hath granted unto Kings for the government of the Church and the preservation of his true Religion we finde them the worst men at all times and in all places that mislike their Government and reject their authority and we see those Churches most happy The Kings that maintain true religion make their Kingdoms happy and those Kingdoms most flourishing which God hath blessed with religious Kings as the State of the Church of Judaea makes it plain when David Ezechias Josias and the other virtuous Kings restored the Religion and purified that Service which the idolatry of others their predecessours had corrupted and we know that as Moses * Exod. 14 31 Num. 12.7 8 Deut. 34.5 Josh 1.1 2. so kings are called the servants of God in a more special manner then all others are that is not onely because they serve the Lord in the Government of the Common wealth but especially because he vouchsafeth to use their service for the advancement of his Church and the honour of his Son Christ here on earth or to distribute their duties more particularly we know the Lord exspecteth and so requireth a double service from every Christian king 1. The one common with all others to serve him as they are his creatures and Christians The double service of all Christian kings and therefore to serve him as all other Christians are bound to do 2. The other proper and peculiar to them alone to serve him as they are Kings and Princes 1. As they are Christians In the first respect they are no more priviledged to offend then other men but they are tyed to the same obedience of Gods Laws and are obliged to performe as many virtuous actions and to abstain from all vices as well as any other of their Subjects and if they fail in either point they shall be called to the same account and shall be judged with the same severity as the meanest of their people and therefore Be wise O ye Kings be learned ye that are Judges of the earth Psal 2.10 Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce unto him with reverence for with God there is no respect of persons but
directors in all Church causes as it appeareth out of all the fore-cited Authors and all the Histories that do write thereof and Justinian published this Law that when any Ecclesiastical cause or matter was moved his Lay officers should not intermeddle with it but should suffer the Bishops to end the same according to the Canons the words are Si Ecclesiasticum negotium sit nullam communionem habento civiles magistratus cum ea disceptatione sed religiosâ—ssimi Episcopi secundum sacros canones negotio finem imp nunto For the good Emperour knew full well that the Lay Senate neither understood what to determine in the points of faith and the government of Christ's Church nor was ever willing to do any great good or any special favour unto the Shepherds of Christ's flock and the teachers of the true religion because the Son of God had fore-told it that the world should hate us that secular men and Lay Senatours should commonly oppose John 15.19 cross and shew all the spite they can unto the Clergy Matth. 10.16 of whom our Saviour saith Behold I send you forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sheep in the midst of wolves Whence this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great distance between their dispositions being observed it grew into a Proverb that Laici semper infesti sunt Clericis And Doctour Meriton In a Sermon before King James How the Laity love the Clergy A very memorable act Anno. â—9 Eliz. cap. 4. observed this as one of the good favours the Clergie of England found from our Parliaments since the reformation when many men first began to be translated from the seat of the scornefull to sit in Moses chaire and to prescribe Lawes for Christ his Spouse to make an Act that all wandering beggars after their correction by the Constable should be brought to the Minister of the Parish to have their names registred in a Book and the Constable used to give to the Minister 2d for his paines for every one so registred but if he refused or neglected to do it the Statute saith he should be punished five shillings for every one that should be so omitted where besides the honourable office I will not say to make the Minister of Christ a Bedle of the Beggars but a Register of the vagrants you see the punishment of one neglect amounteth to the reward of thirty labours therefore all the Christian Emperours and the wisest Kings considering this great charge that God had laid upon them to make wholesome Lawes and Constitutions for the government of his Church and seeing the inclinations of the Laity would never permit any of these Lay Elders and the Citizens of the world to usurp this authority to be the composers contrivers or assistants in concluding of any Ecclesiastical Law until the fences of God's vineyard were pulled down That the Laity should have no interest in making Laws for the Church and the wilde Boar out of the forrest the audacious presumption of the unruly Commonalty ventured either to govern the Church or to subdue their Prince since which incroachment upon the rights of Kings it hath never succeeded well with the Church of Christ and I dare boldly say it fidenter quia fideliter and the more boldly because most truly the more authority they shall gain herein the less glory shall Christ have from the service of his Church and therefore Be wise ô ye Kings And consider how any new Canons are to be made by our Statute 25 Hen. 8. Ob. But then it may be demanded if this be so Ob. that the Laity hath no right in making Lawes and Decrees for the government of God's Church but that it belongs wholly unto the King to do it with the advice of his Bishops and the rest of his Clergy then how came the Parliament to annul those Canons that were so made by the King and Clergy because they had no vote nor consent in confirming of them Sol. Truely I cannot answer to this Objection Sol. unless I should tell you what the Poet saith Dum furor incursu currenti cede furori Dâ—fficiles aditus impetus omnis habet They weâ—e furiously bent against them and you know furor arma ministrat dum regnant arma si lent leges all Lawes must sleep while Armes prevaile besides you may finde those Canons as if they had been prophetically made fore-saw the increasing strength of Anabaptisme Brownisme Puritanisme most likely to subvert true Protestantisme and therefore were as equally directed against these Sectaries of the left hand as against the Papists on the right hand and I think the whole Kingdom now findes and feels the strength of that virulent Faction and therefore what wonder that they should seek to break all those Canons to pieces and batter them down with their mighty Ordinances for seeking to subdue their invincible errours or else because as they say the Ecclesiastical State is not an independent society but a member of the whole the Parliament was not so to be excluded as that their advice and approbation should not be required to make them obligatory to the rest of the Subjects of the whole Kingdom which claim this priviledge to be tyed to the observation of no humane Lawes that themselves by their representatives have not consented unto 2. As the King is intrusted by God to make Lawes for the government of the Church of Christ so it is a rule without question 2. To grant dispensations of his own Lawes that ejus est dispensare absolvere cujus est condere he hath the like power to dispense with whom he pleaseth and to absolve him that transgresseth as he hath to oblige them therefore our Church being for reformation the most famous throughout all the parts of the Christian world and our King having so just an authority to do the same it is a most impudent scandal full of all malice and ignorance not to be endured by any well-affected Christian that the new brood of the old Anabaptists do lay upon our Church and State that they did very unreasonably and unconscionably by their Lawes grant Dispensations both for Pluralities and Non-residency The scandals of the malicious ignorants against the worthier clergy onely to further the corrupt desires of some few to the infinite wrong of the whole Clergy besides the hazard of many thousands of souls the intolerable dishonour of Gods truth and the exceeding disadvantage of Christ his Church for seeing God hath principally committed and primarily commended the care of his Church and service unto Kings who are therefore to make Laws and Orders for the well governing of the same iâ— shall make it most evident that they may as they have ever done most lawfully and more beneficially both for Gods Church and also for the Common-wealth do these three things Three special points handled 1. To grant that grace and favour unto their Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons as to
admit them of their counsel and to undertake secular authority and civil jurisdiction 2. To allow dispensations of Pluralities and Non-residency which they may most justly and most wisely do without any transgression of the Law of God 3. To give tolerations where they see cause of many things prohibited by their Law to dispence with the transgressions and to remit the fault of the transgressours For 1 Point 1. Though the world relapsed from the true light and declined from the sincere Religion to most detestable superstition yet there remained in the people certain impressions of the divine truth The great respect of the Clergy in former ages Saravia l. 2. c. 2. p. 103. 1. Among the Gentiles Osor p. 231. De tota Syria Paâ—estina refert Dion l. 37. quòd rex summi Pontificis nomen habeat Strâ—bo lib. 12 Apud Tertul. advers Valent. Hermetem legimus appellari Max. sacerdotem maximum regem Cicero l. 2. de legibus Diotogenes apud Stob. d cit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aethiopes reges suos del gebant ex numerâ— sacâ—rdotum Di odor l 3. c. 1. Titus Vespas Pontification maximum ideo sele prosessusest accipere ut puras servaret manus Sution i't Tito cap. 9. In Aricia regnum erat concretum cuâ— sacerdotio Danae ut iunuit Ovid De arte amandi lib. 1. Ecce suburbanae templum nemorade Dianae Paraiáque per gladios regna nocente manu Strabo lib. 5. that there was a GOD and that this God was religiously to be worshipped and those men that taught the worship of that God how fowly soever they did mistake it were had in singular account and supereminent authority among all Nations and as Saravia saith they were compeers with Kings in their Government so that nothing was done without their counsel and consent and as Theseus was the first that Cives Atticos è pagis in â—rbem compulit and put the difference betwixt Nobles Husbandmen and Artificers so the Priests were always selected out of the noblest families and were ever in all their publick counsels as the Divines sate among the Athenians and the South-sayers sate with the King among the Lacedemonians in all their weightiest consultations and Strabo tells us that the Priests of Bellona which were in Pontus and Cappadocia for that Goddess was honoured in both places were regarded with the greatest honour next to the King himself and the Romans that were both wealthy warlike and wise did almost nothing without the advice and counsel of their Priests I will omit what Valerius Maximus setteth down of their care of Religion and their great respect unto their Priests and religious persons and I will refer you onely to what Tully writeth of this point where he saith that the greatest and worthiest thing in their Common-wealth was the priviledge and preheminence of the Divines which was joyned with the greatest authority for they dismissed the companies and the Councels of the chiefest Empires and the greatest Potentates when they were proposed they restrayned them when they were concluded they ceased from the affaires which they had in hand if but one Divine did say the contrary they appointed that the Consuls should depose themselves from their Magistracy and it was in their intire power either to give leave or not to give leave to deale with the people or not to deal to repeal Laws not lawfully made and to suffer nothing to be done by the Magistrate in peace or war without their leave or authority this was their Law though I beleive it was not always observed by their proud Consuls and unruly Magistrates Cicero de nat deorum l. 2. In like manner Caesar writeth of the Gaules and Britons that they had two sorts of men in singular honour the one was their Druides or Divines the other was their Souldiers or men of war and he saith that their Druides determined of all controversies in a manner both private and publick and if there were any crime committed any murther attempted if any controversy about inheritance or the bounds of lands did arise they also did set down their Decree and appointed the penalty and whosoever rejected their order or refused their judgement they excommunicated him from all society and he was then deemed of all men as an ungodly and a most graceless person Thus did they that had but the twilight of corrupted Nature to direct them judge those that were most conversant with the minde and will of the gods to be the fittest Counsellors and Judges of the actions of men and I fear these children of nature will rise in judgement to condemne many of them that profess themselves to be the sons of grace for comming so short of them in this point 2. The Jewes also which received the oracles of God 2. Among the Jewes were injoyned by God to yeild unto their Priests the dispensation both of dâ—vine and humane Lawes and the Lord enacted it by an irrevocable Law that the judgement of the High Priest should be observed as sacred Deut. 17. and inviolable in all controversies and if any man refused to submit himselfe unâ—o it his death must make recompence for his contumacy And Josephus saith Si judices nesciunt de rebus ad se delatis pronunciare integram causam in urbem sanctam mittent convenientes Pontifex Propheta Senatus quod visum sit Joseph contra Appi. lib. 2. pronuntient and in his second book against Appian he saith Sacerdotes inspectores omnium judices controversiarum punitores damnatorum constituti sunt à Moyse The Priests were appointed by Moses to be the lookers into all things the Judges of controversies and the punishers of the condemned And they were of that high esteem amongst the Jewes that the royall blood disdained not to match in marriages with the Priests as Jehojada married the daughter of King Jehoram 2 Chron. 22.11 and in the vacancie of Kings they had all the affaires of the Kingdome in their administration and when they became tributaries unto the Romans after Aristobulus the royall government was often annexed to the Priesthood and S. Paul argueth from hence 2 Cor. 3.7 8 9. that if the administration of death was glorious how shall not the administration of the spirit be rather glorious for if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory or otherwise it were very strange that the Ministers of the Gospel should be deemed more base and contemptible because their calling is far more glorious and excellent yea so excellent that to all good Christians the Prophet demandeth quà m speciosi pedes eorum Esay 52.7 Priests imployed in secular affaires 1 Among the Jewes Psal 99.6 Priests and Prophets among the Jewes exercised secular jurisdiction And for the discharging of secular imployments we have not onely the example of the Priests and Prophets of the Old Testament but we have also
set down some of their uniust impious and diabolical Ordinances which I finde to be so many as would fill up a whole Volume and the poyson of their wickednesse having swelled my Book to such a bulk already I must therefore crave leave to transmit the displaying of these dismal tragedies to some other scene onely I must remember which I believe will never be forgotten while any wickedness can be remembred and that is 1. Their bloudy Ordinance to kill and slay while we were all in peace and all praying for the Houses of Parliament 2. Their sacrilegious Ordinance of taking away not the twentieth part nor the tenth nor yet nine parts of ten but all and every part of the goods and revenues of the Bishops Deaâ—es and Prebends and let them now in their old-age after they have wasted their strength and consumed their years with toylsome labours and indefatigable paines in the Church of God to save their souls either dig for bread or beg for almes or like out-worn Jades die in a ditch their care for these men was to leave them not one penny to relieve themselves while they lived and I believe the prophanest Pagan it may be the Devil himself could not shew greater malice or inflict a severer censure upon the Clergy then these zealous Christians have ordained because such a miserable life must needs prove far worse then a glorious death when as Jeremiah saith Jerem. Lament 4.5 c. 1. v. 11. They that did feed delicatly must stand desolate in the streets and they that were brought up in scarlet must embrace dunghills they must sigh and seek their bread and give their pleasant things for meat to relieve their soules 3. Their unrighteous Ordinance and ordinances 3. Their unrighteous ordinances to take away what part they pleased of their Neighbours goods and all from them whom they deemed Malignants and I had almost said that God himself which is Lord of all could not more justly take them then these men have unjustly decreed to take them from us 4. Their impious odious and abominable Ordinance 4. Their impious ordinance to compel men by oaths and Covenants to give themselves unto the Devil and to go to Hell in despite of their teeth and that which makes me wonder most of all is that their Synod or Assembly hath prefixed an exhortation to perswade silly souls to take that wicked Covenant and to cast a mist before their eyes that they may not onely let down little gnats but also swallow this great camel they would justifie the doing thereof by a twofold example The first of the Jewes in Ezra's time Ezra 10.5 8. Nehem. 9.38.10.1 that made a Covenant to serve the Lord and to put away their strange Wives according to the Law The second of Christians and indeed of most Christian Kings and Princes that is of Queene Elizabeth's assisting the Hollanders against the King of Spain and of King Charles assisting the Rochellers against the King of France To both which examples and all other things that are conteined either in the Covenant it selfe or the exhortation of the Assembly thereunto annexed I do understand there shall be a full and a perfect answer made by one that hath undertaken the same ex professo yet give me leave in the interim to say this much 1. What vows and covenants are allowable First touching Covenants and Vowes it is plain enough that although the superior may with Ezra cause the inferior to Vow or swear the performance of his duty Gen. 24.3 that he is bound by the law of God and nature to performe so Abraham caused his servant to swear fidelity when he sent him for Isaack's Wife Numb 30. per totum And so the King may cause his Subjects to take the Oath of their Allegiance and the lawful General cause his Souldiers to swear their fidelity unto him yet the inferior subject can not swear or if he swears he ought not to observe it when he doth it contrary to the command of him that hath command over him as you may see in Numb 30. throughout Therefore as children may not vow any thing though it be never so lawful contrary to their Fathers command or if they do they ought not to keepe it so no more may any Subject Vow or make a Covenant contrary to their Kings command or if they do they ought not to observe it and they are as you see absolved by God himself Ob. Sol. If you say Ezra and the Jewes did it contrary to the command of Artaxerxes that was then their King I answer that it is most false for 1. Ezra was the Priest Nehem. 8.2 and 9. and the chief Prince that was then over them and Nehemiah had his authority from the King and he was the Tirshatha that is their governour saith the text Nehem. 10.1 and therefore they might lawfully cause them to take that Covenant 2. They had the leave and a large commission from Artaxerxes to do all that they did as you may see * See Ezra 7.11.22 c. neither can you finde any syllable that Artaxerxes forbad them to do this in any place For so the text saith Let it be done according to the Law Ezra 10.3 3. This Covenant of Ezra and his people and Nehemiah's was to do those things that they had covenanted before to do which God had expresly commanded them to do and which they could not omit though they had not covenanted to do it without great offence so if our covenanters swear they will serve God and be loyal unto their King as they vowed in their baptisme they shall never finde me to speak against them but to propose a lawfull Covenant to do those things that God commandeth and is made with the leave and commission of the supreme Prince to justifie an unlawfull Covenant to do those things that were never done before never commanded by God but forbidden both by God and especially by the King in the expressest termes and most energeticall manner that might be is such a piece of Divinity as I never read the like and such an argument 2. The examples of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles answered 1. By way of Divinity a dissimili that never schollar produced the like 2. For the examples of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles assisting Subjects for their Religion sake against their lawfull princes two things may be said the one in Divinity the other in Policy First for Divinity I say vivendum est praeceptis non exemplis we have the sure word of God to teach us what we should do and no examples unless they be either commended or allowed in Gods word ought to be any infallible patterne for us to follow 2. By way of Policy Secondly for Policy which may be justified to be without iniquity I doubt not but those men which knew the secrets of State and were privy to the causes of
Magistrate and so many other restrictions were made as Rules against such as could not otherwise well rule themselves and observe the just rules of Reason and moderation And thereupon the Church it self and those godly Bishops that desired no mans wealth but what made for the glory of God and the furtherance of the Gospel of Christ made Canons and cautions against such catching Covetousness as would too greedily incroach upon their neighbours estates Decret part 2. Caus 12. q. 2. Can 49. and too unreasonably hedge it in unto the Church as that Canon which beginneth Ecclesia rapacitatis ardore The Church with too much greediness must not snatch and pluck unto her self the Lands and Possessions of her Children The Reason of those Statutes and Canons two fold And the Reason of these Inhibitions and Statute of Mortmain and Canons of the Church seems to be two fold 1. Because as I said before the zeal of those Christians was so fervent Reason 1 and their desire to promote the service of God was so eager and vehement that they cared not how much they gave but thought all that they gave too little for that service So great was the difference betwixt their mind and the minds of our Souldiers and others Gentlemen of no mean rank and some generated and degenerated from the Church whose Covetousness and greedy hearts desire nothing more then to pull down our Cathedrals and other Churches and as it were Romana lege agraria by an Irresragable Law to pluck away their Lands and Possessions until they be left as bare as in the day wherein they were first brought forth into the World 2. Because that whatsoever Lands Houses or Possessions were once Reason 2 dedicated and offered unto God and for Gods service could not without committing the horrible sin of Sacriledge be taken away by any man or by any pretence from God or indeed because the Lands and Houses that were given unto the Church were freed in those times of Popery from all Taxes and Escheats so that neither the King nor Common-Wealth could have any help or assistance from them towards the defraying of the publick and most necessary charges of the State And therefore Henry the third and Edward the first his son and Richard the second seeing how many men not out of any love to Religion or zeale to Gods service but craftily to couzen the King and other chief Lords and the Common-Wealth did thus fraudulently convey their Lands unto the Church and then took Leases of them again from the Church meerly to be freed from the Publick Taxes made those Statutes Cap 36. against the giving of their Lands in Mort-main or in a dead hand that is the Church and it is enacted in the great Charter that it should not be lawful to any man from thence-forth to give his Lands to any Religious House and then to take the same again from the same H use the which thing being a meer Collusion and an apparent wrong to the King to the chief Lord of the Fee and the Common-Wealth no Bishop ever justified the same or held it lawful for the Church to hold such Lands as were so given contrary to those Acts of Parliament and those Canons that were made against such deceitful dealings But for those Lands and Houses that were truly Religiously and without any manner of deceit or wrong to any man given to the Church for the service of God and to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ I think them so sacred and so properly Gods right that as the Author of the Church Lands not to be sold hath Truly Religiously and most Learnedly proved so I assure my self that none but the Limbs of the Great Anti-Christ will think otherwise For Before these holy men have made the Donations of their lands or houses unto God and to his Church it was in their own power and they might without offence either give them unto the Lord or retain them still unto themselves and their posterity for so S. Peter tells Ananiâ— Whiles it remained that is un-sold was it not thine own And after it was sold was it not in thine own power that is either to offer it and give it to God and his Service Acts 5.4 or not to give it But now after thou hast sold it and dedicated the whole price of thy land for Gods Service To keep back some part of the price which formerly thou hadst given to God's Church is such a Sacriledge and so transcendent a sin as to lye unto the Holy Ghost and to rob God of that which now doth most properly belong to God and is no wayes in thy power to dispose of it And so it is in any other mans case Before thou givest thy land house or utensil unto the Church and for the Service of God it is thine own and thou mayst lawfully do what thou wilt with thine own either give it unto God or not give it but after thou hast once given it and consecrated it for God's Service it is none of thine and neither thou nor any man else can make an alienation or impropriation thereof without lying unto the Holy Ghost and a robbing of God of his right For so the Law saith Jastinian lib. 2. Tit. 1 Nullius sunt res Sacrae nam quod Divini juris est nullius in bonis est The Sacred and Dedicated things that are of Divine property are of no private mans right but God being the sole owner of them none but such as are his servants and assignes can have any thing to do with them So Charles the Great that was as good as he was great saith Bona Ecclesiae Deo sacrata sunt Capit. Car. l. 6. c. 28. Whatsoever we give unto the Church we offer and dedicate unto the Lord our God And so the style of all the Graunts in our Magna Charta runneth Magna Charta c. 1. We have given such and such lands or things unto God both for us and for our heires for ever And again the same Magna Chartae saith Privilegium Ecclesiae debet esse immune And so the Law of God saith The field when it goeth out in the year of Jubile shall be holy unto the Lord as a field devoted the possession thereof shall be the Priests because Levit. 27.21 28. as the Lord saith verse 28. No devoted thing that a man shall devote or give unto the Lord of all that he hath both of man and beast and of the field of his possession shall be sold or redeemed because every devoted dedicated or consecrated thing is most holy unto the Lord and the Lord hath given the same unto the Priests verse 21. And so the ancient Style of all Grants and Charters for these matters was Domino Deo nostro offâ—rimus dicamus cetera We give such and such things unto our Lord God And under the Law as God instituted the Tythes and lands
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 Caius 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 Rebels 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 discern 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 royal Father was a most peaceable Prince so hath he shewed himself 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 turn the mildnesse of a Lamb 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 seen the uglinesse of this sin 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 himself disclaimed it makes our hearts to bleed and our spirits angry within us yea though the King were as gentle and as meek as Moses the meekest man on earth and the Bishops as holy as Aaron Tirinus in ◠Psal the Saint of the Lord yet such disobedience and rebellion would anger Saints for so Tirinus faith Irritaverunt They angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord Nay more then this they angred God himself so farre that fire was kindled in his wrath and it burned to the bottom of hell And as these rebels were Lords and Levites Clergy and Laity so God did proportion their punishments according to their sinnes for the Levites that were to kindle fire upon Gods Altar and should have been more heavenly and those two hundred and fifty men which usurped the Office of the Priests He sent fire from heaven to devour them and the Nobility that were Lay-Lords the Prophet tells you The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the Congregation of Abiram A most fearful example of a just judgement for to have seen them dead upon the earth as the Aegyptians upon the shore had been very lamentable but to see the earth opening and the graves devouring them quick was most lamentable and so strange that we never read of such revenge taken of Israel never any better deserved and which is more Saint Basil saith Basilius hom 9. quòd descenderunt in infernum damnatorum they fell into the very pit of the damned which doleful judgement though they well deserved it yet I will leave that undetermined And if these rebels proceeding not so farre whatsoever they intended as to offer violence and to make an open warre against Moses were so heavily plagued for the Embrio of their rebellion what tongue shall be able to expresse the detestation of that sin and the deserts of those Rebels that by their subtilty and cruelty would bring a greater persecution upon the Church then any that we read since the time of Christ and by a desperate disobedience to a most Gracious King would utterly overthrow a most flourishing State A rebellion and persecution the one against the King the other against the Church that in all respects can scarce be parallel'd from the beginning of the world to this very day And therefore except they do speedily repent with that measure of repentance as shall be in some sort proportionable to the measure of their transgression I fear God in justice will deal with them as he did with the Jews deliver them into the hand of their Enemies that will have no compassion upon young man or maiden 2 Chron. 36 17. old man or him that stoopeth for age or rather as he did with Pharaoh King of Aegypt deliver them up to a reprobate sense and harden their hearts that they cannot repent but in their folly and obstinacy still to fight against Heaven untill the God of heaven shall overthrow them with a most fearful destruction the which I pray God they may foresee in time and repent that they may prevent it that God may be still merciful unto us as he useth to be to those that love his Name And so much for the words of this Text. The application of all Now to Apply all in brief if God shall say to any Nation I will send them a King in my wrath and give them Lawes not good let them take heed they say not We will take him away by our strength for we have read that He hath authority to give us a King in his displeasure but you shall never read that we have authority to disobey him at our pleasure and to say Nolumus hunc regnare super nos or if any do let them know that he which set him up and setled him over them is able to protec◠him against them and they that struggle against him do but strive against God and therefore they have no better remedy then to pray to God which hath the hearts of all Kings in his hand that he would as the Psalmist saith Give the King his judgements and his righteousnesse unto the King's Son that he would either guide his heart aright and direct his feet to the way of peace or as he hath sent him in his fury so he would take him away in his mercy But for our selves of these Islands we have a King and I speak it here in the sight of God and as I shall answer for what I say at the dreadful judgement not to flatter him that hears me not but to inform those of you that know him not so well as I that had the happinesse to live with my ever honoured Lord the Noble Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery 16 or 17. years in the Kings house and of them 6 or 7. years in the Kings service He is a most just pious and