requisite for us to know that God hath granted unto him among other rights Two speciall rights and prerogatives of the King for the government of the Church these two speciall prerogatives 1. That he may and ought to make Lawes Orders Canons and Decrees for the well governing of Gods Church 2. That he may when he seeth cause lawfully and justly grant tolerations and dispensations of his owne Lawes and Decrees as he pleaseth For 1. To make Lawes and Canons 1. Not onely Solomon and Jehosaphat gave commandement and prescribed unto the chiefe Priests and Levites what forme and order they should observe in their Ecclesiasticall causes and method of serving God but also Constantine Theodosius Justinian and all the Christian Emperours that were carefull of Gods service did the like and therefore when the Donatists alleadged that secular Princes had nothing to doe to meddle in matters of religion and in causes Ecclesiasticall S. Augustine in his second Epistle against Gaudentius saith Aug. l. 2. c. 26 I have already proved that it appertained to the Kings charge that the Ninivites should pacifie Gods wrath and therefore the Kings that are of Christ's Church do judge most truly that it belongeth to their charge to see that men rebell not without punishment against the same Idem ep 48. ep 50. and Bonifaâ— because God doth inspire it into the mindes of Kings that they should procure the Commandements of the Lord to be performed in all their Kingdomes for they are commanded to serve the Lord in feare and how doe they serve the Lord as Kings but in making Lawes for Christ as man he serveth him by living faithfully So they are called the Kings Ecclesiasticall Lawes but as King he serveth him in making Lawes that shall command just things and forbid the contrary which they could not doe if they were not Kings And by the example of the King of Ninive Darius Nebuchadnezzar and others which were but figures and prophesies that fore-shewed the power duty and service that Christian Kings should owe and performe in like sort to the furtherance of Christs religion in the time of the New Testament when all Kings shall fall downe and worship Christ Psal 72.11 and all Nations shall doe him service he proveth Aug. cont lit Petil. l. 2. c. 92. that the Christian Kings and Princes should make Lawes and Decrees for the furtherance of Gods service Idem in l. de 12 abus grad grad 2. even as Nebuchadnezzar had done in his time And upon the words of the Apostle that the King beareth not the sword in vaine he proveth against Petilian that the power and authority of the Princes which the Apostle treateth of in that place is given unto them to make sharpe penall Lawes to further true religion and to suppresse all Heresies and Schismes And so accordingly we finde the good Emperours and Kings have ever done The good Emperours have made Lawes for the government of the Church 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 wholesome Lawes and godly Constitutions to restraine 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 Euseb in vita Const l. 2. 3. 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 injoyned all his Subjects that they should keepe holy certaine 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 Idem de vita Constant l. 1. 3. 4. c. 18. or the Lords day in like sort and so for the dayes that were dedicated to the memory of the Martyrs and other festivall times and all such things were done according to the ordinance of the Emperour Niceph. in prafation Eccles hist Nicephorus writing of the excellent vertues of Andronicus sonne to Immanuel Palaeologus and comparing him to Constantine the Great saith 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 Sozomenus l. 3. c. 17. Sozomen speaking of Constantines sonnes saith the Princes also concurred to the increase of these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewing their good affections to the Churches no lesse 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 owne against such as went about to sacrifice and to worship Idols or by any other meanes 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 Ecclesiasticall Theodor. l. 4. c. 5 6 7. and as ratifying those things that were done by the Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sent abroad to them that doubted thereof Distinct 79. 〈◊〉 dâ—â— Honorius at the request of Boniface the first made a Law whereby it might appeare what was to be done 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 Lawes and Decrees that Iustinian 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 Lawes for to rule the Church where it forbiddeth the Bishops to reiterate baptisme L. 1. tit 5. L. 1. tit 7. Novel 123. c. 10. Novel 58. Novel 137 c. 6. to paint 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 shall be annually held that the holy mysteries should not be celebrated in private houses that the Bishops should speake aloud 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
houses that are against it shall be destroyed because as S. Peter saith we have forsaken all to become his servants that otherwise might have served Kings with the like honour that they doe and we have left the world to build up his Church we put our trust under the shadow of his wings and being in trouble we doe cry unto the Lord and therefore he will heare our cry and will helpe us and we shall never be confounded Amen CHAP. X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensation is reasons for it to tolerate divers Sects or sorts of religions the foure speciall sorts of false professors S. Augustines reasons for the toleration of the Jewes toleration of Papists and of Puritans and which of them deserve best to be tolerated among the Protestants and how any Sect is to be tolerated 2. WHereas the Anabaptists and Brownists of our time 2. That the King may lawfully grant his dâ—spensation for Pluralities and Non-residency with what conscience I know not cry out that our Kings by their Lawes doe unreasonably and unconscionably grant dispensations both for Pluralities and Non-residency onely to further the corrupt desire of some few aspiring Prelates to the infinite wrong of the whole Clergy the intolerable dishonour of our religion the exceeding prejudice of Gods Church and the lamentable hazard of many thousand soules I say that the Pluralities and Non-residency granted by the King and warranted by the Lawes of this Land may finde sufficient reasons to justifie them â—n anno 112. for if you consider the first limitation of Benefices In anno 636. that either Euaristus Bishop of Rome or Dionysius as others thinke did first assigne the precincts of Parishes The first distribution of Parishes and appointed a certaine compasse to every Presbyter and in this Kingdome Honorius Archbishop of Canterbury was the first that did the like appointing the Pastorall charge and the portion of meanes accrewing from that compasse to this or that particular person whereas before for many yeares they had no particular charge assigned nor any Benefice allotted them but had their Canonicall pensions and dividents given them by the Bishop out of the common stocke of the Church according as the Bishop saw their severall deserts for at first the greater Cities onely had their standing Pastors and then the Countrey Villages imitating the Cities to allow maintenance according to the abilities of the inhabitants had men of lesser learning appointed for those places â—iuâ— auticâ— and Non residency no transgression of Gods Law Therefore this limitation of particular Parishes being meerly positive and an humane constitution it cannot be the transgression of a divine ordinance to have more Parishes then one or to be absent from that one which is allotted to him when he is dispensed with by the Law maker to do the same for as it is not lawfull without a dispensation to doe either because we are to obey every ordinance of the higher power for the Lords sake so for the higher power to dispense with both is most agreeable to reason and Gods truth Gods Law admitteth an interpretation not a dispensation of it 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 dispense 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 so far as they are meerly positive and humane Mans Law may be dispensed with it is in the power of their makers to dispense with â—hem and so quicquid fit dispensatione superioris non fit contra praeceptum superioris and he sinneth neither against the Law nor against his owne 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 sinne 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 and so Saint Augustine saith Aug. de libero arbit l. 1. Lex humana quamvis justa sit commutari tamen pro tempore justè 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 causae cognitione ab eo qui jus habet dispensandi Dispensation what it is 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 vertue 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 Ob. If you say the Law of the King which is made by the advice of his whole Parliament hath already determined what portion is sit for every one and what service is required from him Sol. I answer that the voice of equity and justice tells us 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 saith nothing of any priviledge yet seeing in all Lawes as
in cogendis pecunus quotidianoque victu sequebantur Aubanus What things kings have granted And there be some things which our Kings have granted unto their Subjects and restrained themselves from their full right as the use of that power which makes new Lawes or repeales the old or layeth any taxe or summes 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 Kings right made by themselves unto their people and therefore where the Law cannot be produced to confirme such and such Liberties and Priviledges granted unto them I say there the Kings 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 Kings grant as you may see in the ratification of Magna Charta where the King saith We have granted and given all these Liberties 9. Hen 3. But I could never see it produced where the King granted unto his Subjects that they might force him and compell him with a strong hand by an Army of Souldiers to doe what they will or else to take away either his Crowne 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 Armes against their King And therefore this present resistance is a meere usurpation of the Kings right a rebellion against his Lawes an High Treason against his person and a resistance of the ordinance of God which heape of deadly sinnes 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 Kings Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have beene procured and repealed 2. 2. The Kings obligation to observe his grants WE are to consider how farre the King is obliged to observe his promise and to make good these Liberties and Priviledges unto his Subjects where I speake not how farre the fathers grant may oblige the sonne or the predecessor his successor Peter de lâ Primandas saith Laws annexed to the Crowne the Prince cannot so abrogate them but his Successor may disanull whatsoever he hath done in prejudice of them p. 597. who cannot be deprived of his right dominion by any act of his precedessors but for the rights of his dominion how farre precedent grants and the custome of their continuance with the desuetude and non-claime 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 farre 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 keepe and observe them Touching which you must understand that these grants of immunities and favours are of three speciall kindes 1. Of grace 2. By fraud 3. Through feare For 1. The King that hath his full right 1. All grants of grace ought to be observed either by conquest or succession over his people to governe them as a most absolute Monarch and out of his meere 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 restraine 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 performe them and can never be freed from injustice before God and man if he transgresse them Quia volenti non fit injuria because they doe him no injury when he doth voluntarily either totally resigne or in some particularity diminish his owne right The true Law of free Monarchs p. 203. but after he hath thus firmely done it he can never justly goe 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 raigne because it cannot be but that the people seeing their King failing of his duty will be alwayes murmuring and defective in their fidelity And Yet the Kings breach of oath doth neither forfeit his right nor warrant their disloyalty because another mans sinne doth no way lessen mine offence and neither God nor the King granted this priviledge unto Subjects to rebell and take Armes against their Soveraigne when they pretend he hath broken his promise 2. Grants obtained through fraud which to be observed 2. When the King through the subtle perswasions of his people that pretend one thing and intend another shall be seduced to grant those things that are full of inconveniences 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 meere fraud that soonest over-reacheth the best meaning Kings I answer with the old Proverbe Caveat emptor he ought to have beene as wise to prevent them as they were subtle to circumvent him and therefore Josh 9.20 as Joshua being deceived by the Gibeonites could not alter his promise nor breake his league with them lest wrath should fall upon him so no more should any other King breake promise in the like case Psal 15.5 But you must observe that the Psalmist saith 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 owne hinderance marke though it were to his owne hinderance never so much Quicquid fit dolo malo annullat factum imponit poenam summa Angel he must performe it but what if he hath promised and sworne 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 Kingdome which is a great deale more then his owne hinderance is a King bound or is any man else obliged to performe such a promise or to keepe such an oath to tell you mine owne judgement I thinke he ought not to performe it and our owne Law tels us what grants soever are obtained from the King under the broad Seale 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
shed that is by the due course of Law and the power of the Magistrate that beareth not the sword in vaine but is bound to punish murders and the unlawfull putting of innocents to death with the sentence of a just death Ob. If you say Why may not this rebellion be concluded with the like peace by a generall pardon as the other in Ireland is like to be Sol. I answer the case is not alike because they had some shew of reason and were provoked by the faction and emissaries of this Parliament but our rebels had not the least colourable cause nor were provoked by any but their owne bloudy desire to root out Gods service and servants when they had almost all things that they desired I am sure more then should have beene granted unto them and therefore in these and in many other respects that I could but am ashamed to set downe I deeme this rebellion of our English and the invasion of the Scots ten times more odious then the insurrection of the Irish 2. The iniquity of Sodome was Pride fulnesse of bread Ezech. 16.49 2. The sinnes of Sodom among them abundance of idlenesse and contempt of the poore and I have already shewed how all these doe rule and raigne in them 3. For oppression 3. Their oppression let their ordinances to take away our goods without any colour of justice and their actions to make good their ordinances to take away our states and deprive us of our liberties be well examined and the world shall then see whether they be oppressors or I a transgressor for affirming it 4. For retaining of wages 4. The detaining of the wages of Gods servants letting passe their Souldiers that deserve not pay for fighting so disloyally aâ—â—inst their King and transgressing so undutifully the Commandement of God which so precisely biddeth them to honour the King I would faine know by what authority or law excepting their owne lawlesse Ordinances have they detained and alienated the wages meanes and maintenance of those faithfull Pastors whom they sent away and caused them to fly and wander like Pilgrims from place to place without any meanes or subsistence O let them never thinke that these things can be buried in oblivion but that the sighes and groanes of those faithfull servants of Christ doe continually cry 25. How they are filled with the most destructive sinnes against their soules And if I should parallel the wickednesses of this pretended Parliament with the Sicilian Vespers the Massacre of Parâ—s and the Gun-powder Treason it would exceed them all and cry aloud in the eares of God for vengeance to be powred downe upon the heads of these their persecutors which cannot escape Cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus 25. As there be three Theologicall graces that build up and compleat a Christian soule Faith Hope and Charity so there be three maine vices that do poyson and kill every soule Infidelity Presumption Philauty and three others that are destructive to all Christianity Prophanenesse Impudency and Sacriledge The time will not give me leave to tell you how they are chayned about with these linkes of sinne and how indeed they are as the Apostle saith filled with all unrighteousnesse The workes that they doe can sufficiently testifie what they are God forgive them the evill that they have done and give them grace to repent in time that they may not perish everlastingly Amen 2. The wicked Ordinances oâ— the pretended Parliament 2. Having treated a little of the wicked practices and abominable actions of the Puritane Faction of this Parliament I should according as I intended set downe some of their unjust impious and diabolicall Ordinances which I finde to be so many as would fill up a whole Volume and the poyson of their wickednesse having swelled my Booke to such a bulke already I must therefore crave leave to transmit the displaying of these dismall tragedies to some other scene onely I must remember which I beleeve will never be forgotten while any wickednesse can be remembred and that is 1. Their bloudy ordinance 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 2. Their sacrâ—â—â—gious 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 Deanes and Prebends and let them now in their old-age after they have wasted their strength and consumed their years with toylesome labours and indefatigable paines in the Church of God to save their soules either digge for bread or begge for almes or like out-worne 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 Devill himselfe 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 Jerem. Lament 4.5 c. 1.11 when as Jeremiah saith they that did feed delicately must stand desolate in the streets and they that were brought up in scarlet must embrace dunghills they must sigh and seeke their bread and give their pleasant things for meate to releeve their soules 3. Their unrighteous ordinances 3. Their unrighteous Ordinance and 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 him selfe 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 compell men by Oathes and Covenants to give themselves unto the Devill and to go to Hell in despight of their teeth and that which makes me wonder most of all is that their Synod or Assembly hath prefixed an exhortation to perswade sillie soules to take that wicked Covenant and to cast a mist before their eyes that they may not onely let downe little gnats but also swallow this great camell 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 Spaine 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 doe understand there shall be a full and a perfect answer made by one that hath undertaken the same ex
119. 3. The Law of God which is an undefiled Law and doth infallibly set downe what duties are to be performed and what Rights are to be yielded to every King for whatsoever things are written of the Kings of Israel and Judah in the holy Scriptures are not only written for those Kings and the government of that one Nation To what end the stories of the kings of Israel and Iudah were written Rom. 15.4 but as the Apostle saith They are written for our learning that all Kings and Princes might know thereby how to governe and all Subjects might in like manner by this impartiall 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 Lawes whereby we should live and set down those truths that we should believe The ordination of our government as beneficiall as our creation so he settled and ordained that Government whereby all men in all Nations should be guided and governed as knowing full well that we neither would nor could do any of these things right unlesse he himselfe did set down the same for us therefore though the frowardnesse of our Nature will neither yield to live according to that Law nor believe 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 reape the fruits of our faith and because it were as good to leave us without Rules and without Lawes Unwritten things most uncertain as to live by unwritten Lawes which in the vastnesse 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 Jewes for the government both of their Church and Kingdome 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 Jewes onely Rom. 3 2◠but of the Gentiles also because the Scripture in all morall and perpetuall precepts that are not meerly judicialia Judaica or secundae classis which the royall government was not because this was ordained from the beginning of the world to be observed among all Nations and to be continued to the end of the world nor the types and shadowes that were to vanish when the true substance approached was left as a perfect paterne and platforme for all Kings and People Pastours and Flockes Churches and Kingdomes throughout the whole world to be directed how to live to governe and to be governed thereby Such was the love and care of God for the Government of them that love and care as little to be governed by his government Every Government the better by how much nearer it is to the Government of the Scripture kings And therefore the dimme and dusky light of bleare eye'd Nature and the darke distracted inventions of the subtillest politickes must stoope and yield place in all things wherein they swerve from that strict rule of justice and the right order of government which is expressed necessarily to be observed in the holy Scripture either of the Kings part towards his People or of the Peoples duty towards their King And though each one of these faculties or the understanding of each one of these three Lawes requireth more than the whole man our life being too short to make us perfect in any one yet seeing that of all three the Law of God is abyssus magna like the bottomlesse sea and the supreme Lady to whom all other Lawes and Sciences are but as Penelopes handmaids to attend her service the Divine may farre better and much sooner understand what is naturall right The Divine is better able to understand Law than the Lawyer to understand Divinitie Psal 1.2 and what ought to be a just nationall Law and thereby what is the Right of Kings and what the duty of Subjects than any either Philosopher or Lawyer can finde the same by any other art especially to understand the same so fully by the Law of God as the Divine that exerciseth himselfe therein day and night may do it unlesse you thinke as our Enthusiasts dreame that every illiterate Tradesman or at least a Lawyers Latine I speak of the generality when I know many of them of much worth in all learning may easily wade with the reading of our English Bibles into the depth of all Divinity and that the greatest Doctour that spent all his dayes in studies can hardly understand the mysteries of these Camelion-like Lawes which may change sense as often as the Case shall be changed either by the subtlety of the Pleader or the ignorance or corruption of the Judges But we know their deepest Lawes discreetest Statutes and subtillest Cases cannot exceed the reach of sound reason and therefore no Reason can be shewed but that a rationall man meanly understanding Languages may sooner understand them and with lesse danger mistake them than that Law which as the Psalmist saith is exceeding broad Psal 119.96 and exceedeth all humane sense and the most exquisite naturall understanding 1 Cor. 2.14 when as the Apostle saith The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnes unto him neither can he know them because they ar◠spiritually discerned and being not discerned or misunderstood they make all such mistakers liable to no small punishment if God should be extreme to marke what is done amisse and this not understanding of God's Law is the errour of other Lawes and the cause of much mischiefe What causeth many men to rebell The Scriptures say more for the right of kings than any booke in the world D wning in his d scourse of the Ecclesiasticall State p. 91. for if men understood the Law of God or would believe us that do understand it I assure my selfe many of the Rebels such as rebell not out of pride disobedience or discontent are so conscientious that they would not so rebell as they do being seduced through their ignorance by the subtletie of the most crafty children of disobedience And therefore letting the usuall impatience of the furious fire-brands of sedition and the malicious incendiaries of Rebellion together with those treacherous Judasses that insensibly lurke in the King's Court and are more dangerous both to the Church and State than those open Rebels that are in the Parliament House to lay on me what reproach they please as some of them being galled and now gone have already done August Ego in bonâ conscientiâ teneo quisquis volens
the King how presumptuous then and injurious unto our King and prejudiciall to the Church of Christ was the faction of this Parliament without the Kings leave and contrary to his command to undertake the nomination of such a packe of Schismaticall Divines for such a Synod as might finally determine such points of faith and discipline as themselves best liked of let all the Christian world that as yet never saw the like president be the Judge and tell us what shall be the religion of that Church where the Devill shall have the power to prompt worldlings to nominate his prime Chaplaines Socinians Brownists Anabaptists and the refuse of all the refractary Clergy The quality of the Synod call men that seeme learned in nothing but in the contradiction of learning and justifying Rebellion against their King and the Church to compose the Articles of our faith and to frame a new government of our Church I am even ashamed that so glorious a Kingdome should ever breed so base a Faction that durst ever presume to be so audacious and I am sorry that I should be so unhappy to live to see such an unparallel'd boldnesse in any Clergy that the like cannot be found in any Ecclesiasticall Historie from the first birth of Christ's Church to this very day unlesse our Sectaries can produce it from some of the Vtopian Kingdomes that are so farre Southward In terra Incognita beyond the Torrid Zone that we whose zeale is not so fiery but are of the colder spirits could not yet perfectly learne the true method of their Anarchicall government or if our Lawyers can shew us the like president that ever Parliament called a Synod contrary to the Kings Proclamation I shall rest beholding to them produce it if they can credat Judaeus apella non ego The third thing requisite to a King for the preservation of true religion and the government of Gods Church 3 An authority and power to guide the Church and to uphold the true religion is power and authority to defend it for though the Prince should be never so religious never so desirous to defend the faith and never so well able in his understanding so well furnished with knowledge to set downe what Service and Ceremonies should be used yet if he hath not power and ability which doe arise from his right and just authority to doe it and to put the same in execution all the rest are but fruitlesse embryoes like those potentials that are never reduced into actions Psal 129.6 or like the grasse upon the house top that withereth before it be plucked up But to let you see that Kings and Princes should have this power and authority in all Ecclesiasticall causes and over all Ecclesiasticall persons we finde that all Ages and all Lawes have warranted them to doe the same 1. Reg. 2.27 35. Jerem. 26. for Solomon displaced Abiathar and placed Zadoc in his roome Jeremy's case was heard by the King of Israel Theodosius and Valentinian made a Decree that all those should be deposed which were infected with the impiety of Nestorius How all Kings and Emperours exercised this power over the Church and Justinian deposed Sylverius and Vigilius and many other Kings and Emperours did the like and not onely the Law of God whereof the King is the prime keeper and the keeper of both Tables but also the Statutes of our Land doe give unto our King the nomination of Bishops and some other elective dignities in the Church the custody of the Bishops Temporalties during the vacation the Patronage Paramount or right to present by the last lapse and many other furtherances and preservatives of religion are in terminis terminantibus deputed by our Lawes unto the King and for his care and charge thereof they have setled upon him our first fruits Tenths Subsidies and all other contributions of the Ecclesiasticall persons which the Pope received while he usurped the government of this Church these things being due to him that had the supreme power for the government And therefore seeing the examples of all good Kings in the Old Testament and of the Christian Kings and Emperours in the New Testament and all Lawes both of God and man excepting those Lawes of the Pontificials that are made against the Law of God and all Divines excepting the Iesuites and their sworne Brethren the Presbyterians do most justly ascribe this right and power unto Kings Cassâ—â— de â—â—caâ—â— l. 1. â— â— I may truly say with Cassianus that there is no place of audience left for them by whom obedience is not yeilded to that which all have agreed upon nor any excuse for those Subjects that assist not their Soveraigne to inable him to discharge this great charge that is laid upon him What then shall we say to them that pull this power and teare this prerogative out of the Kings hand and place it in the hands of mad men Pâ—l 65.7 How thâ— Disciplir 〈◊〉 the King of this right as the Prophet epithets the madnesse of the people for that furious Knox belcheth forth this unsavory Doctrine That the Commonalty may lawfully require of their King to have true Preachers and if he be negligent they themselves may justly provide them Knox to the Commonalty fol. 49 50 5â— maintaine them defend them against all that oppose them and detaine the profits of the Church Livings from the other sort of Ministers a point fully practised by the English Scotizers of these dayes and as if this Doctrine were not seditious enough and abundantly sufficient to move Rebellion Goodman publisheth that horrible tenet unto the world that it is lawfull to kill wicked Kings which most dangerous and more damnable Doctrine Deane Whittingham affirmeth to be the tenet of the best and most learned of them that were our Disciplinarians What true religion teacheth us But when as true religion doth command us to obey our Kings whatsoever their religion is aut agendo aut patiendo either in suffering with patience whatsoever they doe impose or in doing with obedience whatsoever they doe command Religion can be no warrant for those actions which must remaine as the everlasting blemishes of that religion which either commanded or approved of their doing I am sure all wise men will detest these Doctrines of Devils and seeing it is an infallible rule that good deserveth then to be accounted evill when it ceaseth to be well done it is apparent that it is no more lawfull for private and inferiour persons to usurpe the Princes power and violently to remove Idolatry or to cause any reformation then it is for the Church of Rome by invasion or treason to establish the Doctrine of that See in this or any other forraigne Kingdome because both are performed by the like usurped authority Yet these were the opinions and practises of former times The old Disciplinarians when Buchanan Knox Cartwright Goodman Gilby Penry Fenner
habet They were furiously bent against them and you know furor arma ministrat dum regnant arma silent leges all Lawes must sleepe while Armes prevaile Besides you may finde those Canons as if they had beene prophetically made fore-saw the increasing strength of Anabaptisme Brownisme Puritanisme most likely to subvert true Protestanisme and therefore were as equally directed against these Sectaries of the left hand as against the Papists on the right hand and I thinke the whole Kingdome now findes and feeles the strength of that virulent Faction and therefore what wonder that they should seeke to breake all those Canons to pieces and batter them downe with their mighty Ordinances for seeking to subdue their invincible errours or else because as they say the Ecclesiasticall 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 Kingdome which claime this priviledge to be tyed to the observation of no humane Lawes that themselves by their representatives have not consented unto 2. To grant dispensations of his owne Lawes 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 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 doe the same it is a most impudent scandall full of all malice and ignorance not to be endured by any well-affected Christian that the new brood of the old Anabaptists doe 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 scandall 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 soules the intolerable dishonour of Gods truth and the exceeding disadvantage of Christ his Church for seeing God hath principally committed and primarily commanded the care of his Church and Service unto Kings who are therefore to make Lawes and Orders for the well governing of the same I 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 doe these three things 1. Three speciall points handled To grant that grace and favour unto their Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall persons as to admit them of their counsell and to undertake secular authority and civill 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 dispense with the transgressions and to remit the fault of the transgressors For 1. Though the world relapsed from the true light 1. Point and declined from the syncere religion to most detestable superstition yet there remained in the people certaine impressions of the divine truth that there was a God The great respect of the Clergy in former ages 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 Sarawa l. 2. c. 2. p. 103. were had in singular account and supereminent authority among all Nations and as Saravia saith 1. Among the Gentiles they were compeeres with Kings in their government so that nothing was done without their counsell and consent and as Theseus was the first that Cives Atticos è pagis in urbem compulit Osor p. 231. and put the difference betwixt Nobles De tota Syria Palestina refert Dion l. 37. quòd rex summi Pontificis nomen habeat Husbandmen and Artificers so the Priests were alwayes selected out of the noblest families and were ever in all their publique 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 Strabo lib. 12. that the Priests of Bellona which were in Pontus and Cappadocia Apud Tertul. advers Valent. Hermetem legimus appellar◠Max. sacerdotem maximum regem for that Goddesse was honoured in both places were regarded with the greatest honour next to the King himselfe and the Romans that were both wealthy warlike and wise did almost nothing without the advice and counsell of their Priests I will omit what Valerius Maximus setteth downe of their care of religion and their great respect unto their Priests and religious persons and I will referre you onely to what Tully writeth of this point Cicero l. 2. de legibus Diotogenes apud Stob. dicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aethiopes reges suos deligebant ex numero sacerdotum Diodor l. 3. c 1. Tòtus Vespas Pontificatum maximum ideo sese professus est accipere ut puras servaret manus Sueton. in Tito c. 9. In Aritia regnum erat concretum cum sacerdotio Diana ut innuit Ovid. Ecce suburbana templum nemorale Dianae Partaque per gladios regna nocente manu De arte amandi lib. 1. Strabo l. 5. where he saith that the greatest and the 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 Magistracie it was in their intire power either to give leave or not to give leave to deale with the people or not to deale to repeale Lawes not lawfully made and to suffer nothing to be done by the Magistrate in peace or warre without their leave or authority this was their Law though I beleeve it was not alwayes 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 warre and he faith that their Druides determined of all controversies in a manner both private and publique and if there were any crime committed any murther attempted if any controversie about inheritance or the bounds of lands did arise they also did set downe
in all other actions the end is the marke that is aymed at The end of every Law is chiefly to be respected 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 then his residence upon his Charge could possibly be Reasons of dispensations as when his absence may be either for the recovery of his health or to discharge the Kings Embassage or to doe 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 principall care of religion and the charge of all the people is committed by God himselfe and the power of executing his owne 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 wils that he should not be able to doe 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 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 Matth. 25.15 and did not Joseph make Benjamins messe five times so much as any of his brethrens and have not some Lords 6 or 8 Gen. 43.34 or 10 thousand pounds a yeare and some very good men in the Common-wealth and perhaps higher in Gods favour not ten pounds a yeare 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 owne 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 vertue 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 yeares deserve better farre easier obtaine another little one to keepe with it then get what I dare assure you he would desire much rather * For who would not rather chuse one Living of a 100l a yeare then two of 50l a piece one Living of equall value to them both and shall the unlearned zeale of an envious minde so farre prejudice a worthy man that the Kings lawfull right shall be censured and his power questioned and clipped or traduced by this ignorant Zelot I will blesse my selfe from them and maintaine it before all the world that the Kings dispensations for Pluralities Non-residency and the like Priviledges not repugnant to common right are not against Law nor the giving or taking of them upon just causes against conscience but what the violence of this viperous brood proclaimeth an intolerable offence we dare warrant both with good reason and true Divinity to be no sinne no fault at all but an undoubted portion of the Kings right for the greater benefit both of the Church and State and the greater glory unto God himselfe And therefore most gracious King we humbly desire your Majestie The Authors Petition to His Majestie suffer not these children of Apollyon to pull this flower out of your royall Crowne to abridge you of your just right of granting dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency which the Lawes of your Land doe yet allow you and which they labour to annull to darken the glory of Gods Church and to bring your Clergy by depriving them of their meanes and honour into contempt lest that when by one and one they have robbed you of all your rights they will fairely salute you as the Jewes did Christ Haile King of the Jewes when God knowes they hated him and stript him of all power I speake not of his Divinity either to governe them or to save himselfe 3. As the King hath right and power to grant his dispensations both of grace and of justice of grace when it is meerely of the Kings Princely favour as in legitimations and the like and of justice when the King findeth a just cause to grant it so likewise it is in the Kings power and right to remit any offence that is the mâ—lct or penalty and to absolve the offender from any or all the transgressions of his owne Lawes from the transgression of Gods Law neither King nor Pope nor Priest nor any other can formally remit the fault and absolve transgressors but as God is the Law-giver so God alone must be the forgiver of the offence Mar. 2.7 so the Jewes say who can forgive sins but God onely Yet as God which gives the Law can lawfully remit the sinne and forgive the breach of the Law so the King which makes these positive Lawes cannot be denyed this power As David pardoned Absolon and Solomon Abtathar to pardon when he seeth cause or is so pleased the offenders of his Lawes as you see they do many times grant their pardons for the most haynous faults and capitall crimes as treasons Christ biddeth that the tares should grow Matth. 13.30 And the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there must be heresies therefore there must be a toleration of divers Sects 1 Cor. 11.19 murders felonies and the like And if they may grant their pardons for the breach of the Law and remit the mulct imposed for the transgression thereof it is strange if they should not have right to dispense with whom they please when they see cause from the bond of the Law and therefore we are to discusse how farre the King in these Lawes of the Church may give exemptions and tolerations unto them whose consciences cannot submit themselves to the observation of the established Lawes for seeing all men are not of the same faith nor doe professe the same religion and it is the nature of all men to dislike that which themselves will not professe and if opportunity serve to root out that which they dislike it is requisite it should be shewed how farre a prudent and a pious Prince may grant a toleration the Law in terminis not forbidding it unto
deprivable by the Counsell So are Kings by the community of the people and so both the Papist and the Puritane doe agree to depose their Kings and as the Poet saith Claudian de 4. Consul Honorii Ausus uterque nefas domini respersus uterque Insontis jugulo never a barrell better herring both alike freinds to Kings But to this Blacvodaeus answereth most truly that although the Pope should be deprivable by the counsell which I am sure neither Pope nor Jesuite will allow yet for divers different reasons betwixt the examples Kings are not deposable by their Subjects especially if you coÌ„sider the great difference betwixt the Church of Christ that is guided by the Spirit of God and the representation thereof in the flower of her Clergy Blac v. cap. 23. p. 304. and a giddyheaded multitude that is led by their unruly and unreasonable passions and are represented by those that either basely bought their Votes as the Consulls and other great men did the votes of the people of Rome or that their partiall and most ignorant affection oftentimes without judgement have made choice of ex quo sequitur ut non sit eadem populi potestas in regem quae in pontificem est Ecclesiae So that the reason is farre unlike But though the Sorbonists to justifie their former tenet The Puritans opinion worse then the Jesuites in two respects were the first broachers of this uniust opinion of the deposition of Kings by the people from whence the Iesuites to subject the King unto the Pope suck't it afterward Yet in two maine respects I find this tenet as it is held by the Puritanes far worse then the doctrine of the Jesuites 1. Because some of them say that the people may not restraine Respect 1 the power which they have once transmitted unto the King when the Law of justice doth not permit that Covenants should be repealed or a donation granted should be revoked though it were never so prejudiciall to the donor and Bellarmine makes this good by the example of the soldiers Bellar. in tract cont Pat. Paul that had power to accept or reject their Emperour before he was created but being once elected they had no coactive power over him whereas all the Puritanes will make and unmake promise and breake doe and undoe at their pleasure 2. Because the Iesuites permit not the people nor any Peeres Respect 2 to depose their King untill the Pope as an indifferent judge deputed by Christ shall approve of the cause and our Sectaries depresse Kings so farre as to submit them to the weake judgement and extravagant power of the people who to day cry to Gideon raigne thou and thy sonne over us for ever and to morrow joine with the base sonne of Ierubbaal and the Sichemites to kill 70 of the Children of Gideon Judges 91 and to create Abimilech to be their King But though the Anti-Cavalier takes it ill Our Opinion proved Anti-Cav in Os Ossor p. 25. that I should affirme that the Kings power and right unto his government is immediately from God yet if he would beleeve learned authors he might find enough of this judgement for the sublime power and authority that resideth in earthly Potentates is not a derivation or collection of humane power scattered among many and gathered into one head but a power immediately granted by God to his Vicegerents * So acknowledged by Act of Parliament 25 H. 8. c. 12. 28. c. 10. quam nunquam fuisse populo demandatam legimus which God never communicated to any multitudes of men Dt Sarav fol. 175. Bellar. de Lâ—cis cap. 6. 8. saith Saravia And Bellarmine himselfe against the Anabaptists confuteth their error that denyed the power and authority of Kings to be immediately from God I. From Script Sap. 6. Esay 45. Hierom 27. Dan. 2. Rom. 13. 1. Pet. 2. II. from the Councell of Constans Sess 8. 15. III. from S. Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 21. where he saith non tribuamus dandi regni potestatem nisi Deo vero which giveth felicity in the kingdome of heaven onely to the godly but the earthly Kingdomes he giveth both to the godly and to the wicked nam qui dedit Mario ipse Caesari qui Augusto ipse Neroni Idem de Rom. Pont. l. 5. c. 3. Irvinus de jure regni c. 2. p. 40. qui Vespasianis vel patri vel filio suavissimis imperatoribus ipse Domitiano crudelissimo qui Constantino Christiano ipse Apostatae Iuliano And IV. it is proved from the confession of the Popes of Rome as Leo. ep 38. 43. Gelasius epist ad Anastasium Greg. l. 2. epist 61. Nicholaus epist ad Michaelem out of all which saith Irvinus it is apparent all and every King non multitudini aut hominibus sed Deo soli regum regi quicquid juris habent acceptum ferre And he might consider that a thing may be said to be immediately from God divers wayes as specially 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absque ullo signo creato 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum aliquo actu conjuncto that is 1. Solely from God and no other presupposing nothing praevious to the obtaining of it So Moses and Ioshua had their authority from God Heningus fusè c. 1. p. 4 5. de distinct duplici jurisdict Sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure Princept fiat Principitamen facto divinitus potestaâ—data est Cunerus c. 5. de â—ffic Princip 2. Jointly with an interposed act of some other instrument as the Apostolicall power of Matthias was immediately from God though his constitution was from the Apostles so Kings though some of them be after a sort elected by men yet as our Saviour saith to Pilate that his power was from above though he was deputed by Caesar So may they be said to have their authority immediately from God though they should be some wayes deputed by men for we must distinguish betwixt the soveraignty the Subject and the collation of the Soveraignty to the Subject the Soveraignty is immediately from God the Subject is from it's naturall causes and the unition of the Soveraignty to the Subject is likewise immediately from God not onely approving but appointing the same in all the Kings of his ordination or to speake with the Schooles we must distinguish betwixt deputationem personae and collationem potestatis the designation of the person which is sometimes done by men that is where the King is elective the donation of the power which is proper onely unto God for so the Psalmist saith God hath spoken once and twice Psal 62.11 I have also heard the same that power belongeth unto God and the Apostle saith Rom. 13.2 the powers that are are ordained of God which is to be understood of the regall or Monarchicall power because Saint Paules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 higher powers are
our Parliament do the like in case of male-administration I answer that I speake of the right of Kings Sol. 2. Reg. 19.37 and not justifie the wrongs done to Kings Adramelech and Sharezer killed Sennacherib their owne father is it therefore lawfull for other children so to doe Why should we therefore alleadge those things Qua insolentia populari quae vi quae furore non ad imitationem exemplo proponenda sed justo legum supplicio vindicanda sunt which should rather have beene revenged by the just punishment of the Law then proposed to be imitated by the example Therefore I say that whosoever abridgeth the King of this power robbeth him of that right which God and nature hath allowed him whereby you may judge how justly the Parliamentary faction would have dealt herein with our King by forcing Counsellors and great Officers upon him but I hope you see it is the Kings right to chuse his Servants Officers and Counsellors what manner of men he should chuse Jethro setteth downe And I have most fully described the qualities and conditions that they should be indued withall in my True Church True Church lib 6. c. 4. c. 2. Difference about the power of the subordinate Magistrates 2. As our Sectaries differ much from the true Divines about the choyce so they differ much more about the power of these subordinate Officers and inferiour Magistrates for we say they are alwayes to be obedient to the supreme power or otherwise ejus est deponere cujus est constituere he can displace them that hath appointed them or if you say no because I cited you a place out of Bellarmine where he saith the Souldiers had power to refuse their Emperour while he was in fieri to be elected but not when he was in facto fully chosen and made Emperour so the King hath power to chuse them but not to displace them I answer briefly that in creating or constituting our inferiours we may but our superiour we may not because inferiours in the judgement of all men have no jurisdiction over their superiours And therefore elective Kings are not deposeable in a Monarchicall government None can depose him in whom the supreme Majestie resideth where the supreme power resides in the Monarch though perhaps the Kings of Lacedemon might be justly deposed because by the constitution of their Kingdome the supreme power was not in their Kings but in their Ephori But our new Sectaries out of Junius Brutus Burcher Althusius R nox and Cartwright teach very devoutly but most falsely that in case of defailance to doe his duty they may with the Tribunes of Rome or the Demarchi at Athens censure and depose him too if they see just cause for the same Blaâ—vod l. 33. p. 285. To confute which blasphemous doctrine against God and so pernicious and dangerous to this State though others have done it very excellently well already I have formerly shewed the absurdity of it in my Grand Rebellion Grand Rebellion c. 7. p. 52. yet because all books come not to every hand I will say somewhat of it in this place If these Counsellors Magistrates Parliament call them what you will have any power and authority it must be either subordinate coordinate or supreme 1. If subordinate 1. Subordinate officers can have no power over their superiours 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. If they be supreme then S. Peter is much mistaken 2. That neither Peeres nor Parliament can have the supremacy None above the King at any time to say the King is supreme and they doe 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. doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highnesse 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 Author of The unlawfulnesse of Subjects taking up Armes against their Soveraigne that more needs not be spoken to any rationall man Yet because this point is of such great concernement and the chiefest argument they have out of Bracton is The Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton fully answered that he saith Rex habet superiorem legem curiam suam comites Barones quia comites dicuntur quasi socii regis qui habet socium habet magistrum ideo si rex fuerit sine fraeno 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 Physicke or the Pilot when he sayleth by Sea that is quoad rationem consulendi non cogendi they have superioritatem directivam non coactivam for so the teacher is above him that is taught How the Law and the Court of Barons is above the King 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 socâ—i they are as his fellowes or Peeres not simply but quasi and if they were simply so yet they are but socii not superiours and what can socii doe 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 more plaine he addes Si Rex fuerit sini fraeno id est sine lege if the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he means 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 doe 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 adrhombum these do abuse every author 3. That neither â—eeres nor Parliament are co-ordinate with the King 3. If their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speake not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their naturall strength and power but of their right and authority be co-ordinate and equall 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 Omnésque Philosophi jurisconsulit ponunt summum in eo terum genere quod dividi non possit Lactant. l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. 3.24 nam quod summum est unum est 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 Poët 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 foxe spake onely to descry his ill willers after some jests answered seriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that government must not be divided because you can never have any happinesse where the power is equally divided in two parts when according to the well knowne axiome to every one Par in parem non habet potestatem The Case of our Affaires p. 19 20. But to make the matter cleare and to shew that the Soveraignty is inseperably inherent in the person of His Majestie we have the whole current of our very Acts of Parliament acknowledging it in these very termes Our Soveraigne Lord the King The Lawes of our Land acknowledge all Soveraignty in 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 Crowne of England to have beene so free at all times that it hath beene in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the regality of the said Crowne and to none other And in the 2â— 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 Kingdome or in the knowne and published Lawes 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 and allegeance to the individuall person of the King and I doubt not but our learned Lawyers can finde much more proofe then I doe out of their Law to this purpose And therefore seeing divers supreme powers are not compatible in one State nor allowable in our State the conceit of a mixed Monarchie is but a fopperie to prove the distribution of the supreme power into two sorts of governours equally indued with the same power because the supreme power being but one must be placed in one sort of governours either in one numericall man as it is in Monarchie or in one specificall kinde of men as the optimates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Aristocracie or in the people as in Democracie but if by a mixed Monarchie you meane that this supreme power is not simply absolute quoad omnia but a government limited and regulated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we will not much quarrell with our Sectaries because His Majestie hath promised and we are sure he will performe it to governe his people according to the Lawes of this Land They deserve not to live in thâ— Kingdome that diminish the supremacy of the King And therefore they that would rob the King of this right and give any part of his supreme power to the Parliament or to any of all his inferiour Magistrates deserve as well to be expelled the Kingdome as Plato would have Homer to be banished for bringing in the Gods fighting and disagreeing among themselves when as Ovid out of him saith Jupiter in Trojam pro Troja stabat Apollo Because as the Civilians say Naturale vitium est negligi quod communiter possidetur utque se nihil habere putet qui totum non habeat fuam partem corrumpi patiatur dum invidet alienae and therefore the same Homer treating of our humane government Nec multos regnare bonum rex unicus esto Arist Metaph. lib. 12. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle doth so infinitely commend where he disputeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth Plato and all the wise Philosophers that followed after Statius Thebaid lib. 1. because as the Poët saith Summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis And as our owne most lamentable experience sheweth what abundance of miseries happened unto our selves by this renting of the Kings power and placing it in the hands of the Parliament and his owne inferiour officers and as those sad Tragedies of Etheocles and Polynices Numitor and Amulius Romulus and Remus Antoninus and Geta and almost infinite more do make it manifest to all the world §. The two chiefest parts of the regall governement the foure properties of a just warre and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property 4. The chiefest parts of the Regall governement which are two 4. HAving spoken of those assistants that should further and not hinder the King in the Common-wealth it resteth that I should now speake of the chiefest parts of this government when Moses killed the Egyptian that wronged the Israelite and the next day said unto the Hebrew that did injure his fellow Exod. 2.14 Wherefore smitest thou him the oppressour answered Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us 1. Sam. 8.20 and the people say unto Samuel we will have a King over us that our King may judge us and goe out before us and fight our battailes 2. Sam. 5.2 Out of which two places we finde two speciall parts of the Kings government 1. Principatum bellorum the charge of the warres Sigon l. 7. c. 1. in respect whereof the Kings were called Captaines as the Lord said unto Samuel concerning Saul Vnges eum ducem 1. Sam. 9.16 thou shalt annoint him to be Captaine over my people Israel 2. Curam judiciorum the care of all judgements in respect whereof David and Solomon 1. Reg. 3.9 Psal 72.2 and the other Kings are said to judge the
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 and after the Judges succeeded the Kings quorum potestas atque autoritas multo major ut quae non tam à legibus quà m ab arbitrio voluntate regis profecta sit Sigon de rep Heb. l. 7. c. 3. Hoc arbitrarium impertum expressit Deus 1. Sam. 8. David Ps 11. Reges eos in vâ—rga ferrea whose power and authority was farre 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 Idem ibidem quodam modo superior legibus fuit and was after a sort above the Law undertaking and making warre pro arbitratu suo according to his owne will And in his sixth booke he saith the Jewes had three great Courts or Assemblies Cap. 2. 1. Their Councell which contained that company 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 Cap. 3. 2. Their Synagogue or the meeting of the whole Congregation or people which no man might convocate but he which had the chiefe rule as Moses Joshua the Judges and the Kings Cap. 4. Numb 15. Plenum regnum vocatur quo cuncta rex sua voluntate gerit Idem 3. Their standing Senate which was appointed of God to be of the 70 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 owne 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 finde that the King judged the people two manner of wayes 1. Alone 2. Together with the Elders and Priests For it is said that Absolon when any man came to the King for judgement wished that he were made Judge in the Land 2. Sam. 15.2 6 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 and God said 1. Sam. 8.7 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 raigned over them because his Law did rule them but the rule and government being translated unto Kings God raigned 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 downe to the King legem regendi the Law by which he should governe the people without wronging them and Samuel setteth downe to the people legem parendi the Law by which they should obey the King without resisting him whatsoever he should doe to them And other Divines say Haec est potestas legitima non tyrannica nec violenta Spalat tom 2. fol. 251. ideo quando rex propria negotia non possit expedire per proprias res ac servos G. Ocham tract 2. l. 2. c. 25. possit pro negotiis propriis tollere res servos aliorum isto modo dicebat Deus quod pertinebat ad jus regis this is the lawfull and just right of the King Therefore to finde 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 owne 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 doe foure speciall things which are 1. Not to bring the people backe 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 Ioseph Anti. quit l. 4. And Josephus to the same purpose saith Si regis cupiditas vos incesserit is ex eadem gente sit curam omnino goraâ— justitiae allarum virtutum caveat vero ne plus legibus aut Deo sapiat nihil autem agat sine Pontificis Senator úmque sententia which Moses hath not neque nuptiis multis utatur nec copiam pecuniarum equorúmque sectetur quibus partis superleges superbia efferatur that is to be a Tyrant 2. The words of Samuel are set downe 1. Sam. 8.11 to the 18. Rex Iacobus in his true Law of free Monarchs 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 himselfe 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 doe require because every equivocall word of various signification
though he should faile of his duty which God requireth and doe that wrong unto the people which God forbiddeth yet he is solutus legibus free from all Lawes 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 governe their people as the father of the familie rules his houshold or the Pilot directs his Ship secundum liberum arbitrium according to his owne 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 But though this arbitrary rule continued long and very generall for Diodorus Siculus saith Diodor. Siculus l. 2. c. 3. that excepting the Kings of Egypt that were indeed very strictly tied to live according to law all other Kings infinita licentia ac voluntate sua pro lege regnabant ruled as they listed themselves Boemus Aubanus tamen asserit voluntatem regum Aegypti pro lege esse 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 governe their people according to the rules of those established lawes for though the supreme Majestie be free from lawes sponté tamen iis accommodare potest the King may of his owne accord yeild to observe the same and as the German Poet saith Nihil ut verum fatear magis esse decorum German vates de rebus Frid. l. 8. Aut regale puto quam legis iure solutum Sponte tamen legi sese supponere regem and according to the diversities of those lawes so are the diversities of government among the severall Kingdomes of the earth for I speake not of any Popular or Aristocraticall state How diversities of governement came up 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 beene Monarches but of Kings had made themselves Subjects Thus you see that rule which formerly was arbitrary is now become limited but limited by their owne lawes and with their owne wills and none otherwise for I shewed you elsewhere that the Legistative power resided allways in the King even as Virgil saith Virgil. Aeneid l. Gaudet regno Troianus Acestes Indicitque forum patribus dare jura vocatis And as that mirror of all learned Kings saith King Fergus came to Scotland before any Statutes or Parliament or Lawes were made Rex Iacobus in the true law of free Monarchs pag. 201. and you may easily finde it that Kings were the makers of the Lawes and not the Lawes the makers of Kings for the Lawes are but craved by the Subjects and made only by him at their rogation and with their advice so he gives the Law to them but takes none from them and by their owne Lawes Kings have limited and abridged their owne Right and power which God and nature have conferred upon them some more some lesse 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 concerning these grants of Kings unto their Subjects 1. Of the extent of these grants 2. Of the Kings obligation to observe them for 1. It is certaine that the people allwayes desirous of liberty though that liberty should produce their ruine are notwithstanding like the daughters of the Horse-leeche still crying unto their Kings give give give us liberties and priviledges more and more and if they may have their wills Prov. 30.15 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 governe 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 lesse 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 stomackefull Kings should remember the grave advice the father gave unto Phaeton Parce puer stimulis sed fortius utere loris Ovid. Met. l. 1. Sponte suâ— properant labor est inhibere volantes They must be strongly bridled 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 thinke and therefore not yeild that Who gives constrain'd but his owne 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 to gaine the more love and affection What moved Kings to grant so many priviledges to their Subjects 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 tied themselves by promises and oathes to observe those lawes which they made for the exemption of their Subjects Majora jura inseperabilia à Majestate nequeâ—nt indulgeri subditis ita cohaerent ossibus ab illo seperari si ne illius destructione non possunt Paris de puteo Arnisaus 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 transferre the right of succession to any other then the right heire to whom it doth justly belong quia non jam haereditas est sed proprium adeuntis patrimonium cujus ei pleno jure dominium acquiritur non a Patre non à populo sed à lege Because he hath this right unto the Crowne not from his father nor from the people but from the Law of the Land and from God himselfe which appointed him for the same saith the Civilian and therefore that vulgar saying
is not absurd nunquam mori regem that the King never dieth for assoone as ever the one parteth with this life the other immediately without expecting the consem either of Peeres or people doth by a just and plenary right succeed not onely as his fathers heire but as the lawfull 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 crowne by King John unto the Pope was but a fiction that could inferre no diminution of the right of his successor because no King can give away this right from him Tâ—ings that the King should not grant whom God hath designed for it And there be some things which no Christian King should grant away as any of those things that being granted may prejudice the Church of God and depresse the glory of the Gospell of Iesus 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 Gospell which are Bishops Preists 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 And there be some things which the Kings of this realme have never granted away Things that Kings have not granted away but have still retained them in their owne hands as inviolable prerogatives and characteristicall Symboles and Properties of their Supremacy and the relicks of their pristine right as in the time of peace those two speciall parts of the government of the Common-wealth which doe consist 1. About the Lawes 1. About the Lawes 2. About the Magistrates The 1. 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. Ius legislatiâ— vum Iohan. Beda pag. 25. 1. Then it is the right of the King jura dare to give Lawes unto his people for though as I said before the Subjects in Parliament may treat of Lawes and intreat the King to approve of them that they propose unto him yet they are no Lawes and carry with them no binding force till the King gives his consent and therefore out of Parliament The power of making Lawes is in the king you see the Kings Proclamation hath vim et 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 the Kings hands The case of our affaires pag. 11. Stat. West 1.3 E. 1.3 6. 42. Stat. ef Merch. 13. E. 1. Westm 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 of our Parliaments nor can it indeed be parted with except be part with His Majestie and Soveraignty for the limiting of his owne 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 owne right and authority but as a man that yeildeth himselfe to be bound by some others hath the use of his strength taken from him but none of his naturall strength it selfe is lessened and much lesse is any part of it transferred to them that bound him but that whensoever his bonds are loosened he can worke againe by vertue of his owne naturall strength and not by any received strength from his loosers so the naturall right and interest of the Soveraignty being solely in the King and the Peeres and Commons by the Kings voluntary concession being onely interessed in the office of restraining his power for the more regular working of the true legitimate Soveraignty it cannot be denied but in whatsoever the Peeres and Commons doe remit the restraint by yeilding their consent to the point proposed the King worketh and acteth therein absolutely by the power of his owne inherent Soveraignty and all acts and lawes so passing doe virtually proceed from the King How the same acts may be said to be the acts of the king and of the Parliament as from the true and proper efficient author thereof and may notwithstanding be said to be the acts of the whole Court because the three estates contribute their power of remitting the restraint and yeilding their assent as well as the King useth his unrestrained power And therefore Suarez saith that as condere legem unus est ex praecipuâ—s actibus gubernationis reipublicae ita praecipuam superiorem requirit potestatem Suarez l. 1. c. 8. n. 8. to make Lawes is one of the cheifest acts of the government of a Common-wealth so it requireth the cheifest and supremest power and authority quae quidem potestas legislativa primariò in Deo est which legislative power is primarily in God and is communicated unto Kings saith he per quandam participationem according to the saying of the wise man Sapâ— 6. Heare O ye Kings because power is given unto you of the Lord. Aug. in Iohan. tract 6. And Saint Augustine calleth Jura humana jura imperatoruÌ„ quia ipsa jura humana per imperatores all humane laws are the lawes of Emperors or Kings because they are made by them and the Holy Ghost speaking of the Kings of Judah saith Gen. 49.10 The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor a Law giver from betweene his feete to teach us that whosoever swayeth the Scepter hath the right to be the Law-maker which is one of the prime prerogatives of Soveraignty 2. Ius nobilitandi 2. Jus nobilitandi the right of appointing the principall Officers of State to cry up any of all His Subjects whom the King will honour as Pharaoh did Ioseph and Ahasuerus did Haman and Mordecai and to give them titles of honour per codicillos honorarios aut per diplomata sua as to make Dukes Marquesses Barons Knights c. doth belong onely unto the King that hath onely the supreme Majestie But if the Dukes Earles It is the Doctrine of the Anabaptists and Puritans that there should be no Degrees of Schooles nor titles of honour among men and Barons be so plyable to the Puritan faction to put downe the spirituall Lords I doubt that e're long the King shall have but few Nobility when not onely the Mechanicks and Rusticks will all cry out against this Lordlinesse and say as they did in the rebellion of Jacke Cade and Wat Tyler When Adam delv'd and Eve span Who was then the Gentleman And why should we now indure so many titles of vanity and so many vaine honours to vapour it over us but the Puritan Clergy also seeing themselves deprived of
Church and State when their pretence was very good though the goodnesse of his Majestie in the tendernesse of his conscience was still loath to allow himselfe the liberty to dissolve it untill he had other juster and more cleare 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 Soveraigne yet I believe he might safely have done it long agone without the least violation of Gods Law when their evill intentions were openly discovered by those Armies which they raised For I doubt not to affirme it with the Author of The sacred Prerogative of Christian Kings p. 144. if any good Prince or his royall Ancestors have beene cheated out of their sacred right by fraud or 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 Kings 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 feare 3. Grants gotten by force not to be observed not such as the Parliaments feare is who were afraid where no feare was and were frighted with dreames and causelesse jealousies but that feare which is reall and not little but such as may fall in fortem constantem virum doth passe any Law especially that is prejudiciall to the Church and injurious to many of his Subjects I say that when he shall be freed from that feare he is not onely freed from the obligation of that Law but he is also obliged to doe his uttermost endeavour to annull the same it is true that his feare may justly free him from all blame at the passing of it as the feare of the thiefe may cleare me from all fault in delivering my purse unto him because these are no voluntary acts and all acts are adjudged good or evill 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 turne him as she pleased The will must never consent to forced acts that are unlawfull His Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16. Iuliâ— p. 8. but when his feare is past 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 Majestie confessing which we that saw the whole proceedings of those tumultuous routs that affrighted all the good Protestants and the Loyall Subjects doe know that it could not be otherwise that he was driven out of London for feare 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 lawfull act and the King when he is more fully informed of many particulars about this act that is so preiudiciall 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 maintaine Ob. cannot continue it in my judgement and be innocent Pag 31. But this is answered by the answerer to Doctor Ferne that he is no more bound 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 Majestie confesseth there are two speciall questions demanded of the King at his Coronation 1 Sir Will you grant and keepe and by your oath confirme 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 keepe 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 iustice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in His Kingdome ought to be the protector and defendor 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 Then the King laying his hand upon the booke saith The Kings oath at His Coronation two fold the things which I have before promised I shall performe and keepe so helpe mee God and the contents of this Booke Where I beseech all men to observe that here is a two fold promise and so a two fold oath 1. The one to all the Commonalty and people of England The frst part of the oath Populo Anglicano Vide D. p. 165. 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 modis contrabitur 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 can not 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 principall party in the concession as it appeareth in the example of Ananias and is confirmed by all Casuists 2. The other part of the oath is made to the Clergy in particular and so also with their consent The second part of â—he oath Clericis Ecclesiasticis D. p. 165. some things I confesse may perhaps
power Legally placed in the two houses more then sufficient to prevent and restrain the power of Tyranny I answer first when it pleased the King of His grace to restrain His own power of making Laws to the consent of Peeres Commons that by this Regulating of the same it might be purged from all destructive exorbitances the very Law it self being tender of the legitimate rights of the King and considering the Person of the Soveraign to be single his power counterpoysed by the opposite wisdom of the two Houses allowed him to sweare unto himselfe a body of Councell of State and Counsellors at Law the Iudges also to advise him informe him so that as he should not doe any wrong by reason of the restraining Votes of the Houses so he might not receive any wrong by the incroachment of the Parliament upon his right The Kings concessions very large and the King being driven away from his learned Councell and forced to make the defence of his rights by writing it is no wonder if his concessions and Promises as well in this poynt as in other things especially in that concerning the Act of excluding the Clergy were more then was due to them or then he needed to grant or then he ought to observe being to the dishonour of God and the prejudice of his Church when as nothing in Parliament where the wrong may be perpetuall should be extracted from him but what he should well consider of with the advice of his Counsell and what he should freely grant and whatsoever is otherwise done is ill done to the great disadvantage of the King and his Posterity and the unjust inlarging of their power more then is due unto them yet 2. I say D. Ferne in his reply to sever treat p. 32 if these words of His Majesties be rightly weighed they give no colour of resisting Tyranny by any forcible armes but as D. Ferne saith most truly of Legall Morall and Parliamentary restraint for the words are there is a power legally placed in the Houses that is the Law hath placed a power in them but you shall never find any Law that any King hath granted whereby himselfe might be resisted and subdued by open force and violence Roffensis de potest Papae 291. Eophan to â—ythag l. De Regno apud stabaeum fol. 335. for as Roffensis saith Regis suo solius judicio reservavit Deus qui stans in Synagogâ deorum dijudicat eos God hath reserved Kings to his own judgement and the Heathen man could say as Stobaeus testifieth primum Dei deinde Regis est ut nulli subjiciatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first it is the priviledge of God next of the King to be subject unto none because the Regall power properly is unaccountable to any man A principle tenet of the Essaei And some think that the Common-wealth is happier under a Tyrant that will keep theÌ„ in awe then under too mild a Prince upon whose clemency they will presume to Rebell Iere. 27.5 6. A memorable place against resisting Tyrants as Suidas saith and Iosephus saith that the holiest men that ever were among the Hebrews called essaei or esseni that is the true practisers of the Law of God maintained that soveraigne Princes whatsoever they were ought to be inviolable to their Subiects for they saw there was scarce any thing more usuall in the holy Scripture then the prohibition of resistance or refusall of obedience to the Prince whether he were Iew or Pagan milde or tyrannicall good or bad as to instance one place for all where the Lord saith J have made the earth the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and have given it to whom it seemed meet unto me and now I have given all those Lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant and he was both a Heathen an Idolater and a mighty Tyrant and all Nations shall serve him and his sonne and his sonnes sonne and it shall come to passe that the Nation and Kingdome which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and that will not put their necks under the yoake of the King of Babylon that Nation will I punish saith the Lord with the Sword and with the Famine and with the Pestilence untill I have consumed them by his hands therefore hearken not ye unto your Prophets nor to your Diviners which speak unto you saying you shall not serve the King of Babylon for they prophesy a lye unto you which he repeateth again and again they prophesy a lye unto you that you should perish and may not I apply these words to our very time God saith I have given this Kingdome unto King Charles which is a mild just and most pious King and they that will say nolumus hunc regnare super nos I will destroy them by his hand therefore ô ye seduced Londoners believe not your false Prophets nay hearken not to your diviners your Anabaptists and Brownists that preach lies and lies upon lies unto you that you should perish for God hath not sent them though they multiply their lies in his name therefore why will you dye why will you destroy your selves and your posterity by refusing to submit your selves to mine ordinance and what should God say more unto you to hinder your destruction and it was concluded by a whole Councell that si quis potestati regiae quae non est teste Apostolo nisi à deo Concil Meldens apud Roffen l. 2. c. 5. de potest papae Ob. contumaci afflato spiritu obtemperare irre fragabiliter noluerit anathematizetur Whosoever resisteth the Kings Power and with a proud spirit will not obey him let him be accursed But then you will say this is strange doctrine that wholly takes away the liberty of the Subject if they may not resist regall tyranny I think there is no good Subject Sol. that loves his Soveraigne that will speake against a iust and lawfull liberty when it is a farre greater honour unto any King to rule over a free and gentile Subjects then over base and turkish slaves but as under the shadow and pretence of Christian liberty Many evills to lurk under fair shewes many carnall men have rooted out of their hearts all christianity so many Rebellious aspiring minds have under these colourable titles of the liberty of the Subjects and suppressing tyranny shaked of the yoke of all true obedience and dashed the rights of government all to pieces therefore as the law of God and the rules of his owne conscience should keep every Christian King from exercising any uniust tyranny over his Subjects so if men will transcend the rules of due obedience the Kings Power and Authority should keep them from transgressing the limits of their iust liberty but this unlawfulnesse of resisting our lawfull King I have fully proved in my Grand Rebellion
JVRA MAJESTATIS THE RIGHTS OF KINGS BOTH In CHVRCH and STATE 1. Granted by God 2. Violated by the Rebels 3. Vindicated by the Truth AND The wickednesses of the Faction of this pretended PARLIAMENT at VVestminster 1. Manifested by their Actions 1. Perjury 2. Rebellion 3. Oppression 4. Murder 5. Robberie 6. Sacriledge and the like 2. Proved by their Ordinances 1. Against Law 2. Against Equity 3. Against Conscience PUBLISHED 1. To the eternall honour of our just God 2. The indeleble shame of the wicked Rebels And 3. To procure the happy peace of this distressed Land Which many feare we shall never obtaine untill 1. The Rebels be destroyed or reduced to the obedience of our King And 2. The breaches of the Church be repaired 1. By the restauration of Gods now much prophaned service And 2. The reparation of the many injuries done to Christ his now dis-esteemed servants By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS Lord Bishop of OSSORY Impij homines qui dum volunt esse mali nolunt esse veritatem qua condemnantur mali Augustinus Printed at Oxford Ann. Dom. 1644. Carolus D G Mag Brittaniae Fra et Hiberniae Rex â—â—r TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE Most gracious Soveraigne WIth no small paines and the more for want of my books and of any setled place being multùm terris jactatus alto frighted out of mine house and tost betwixt two distracted Kingdomes I have collected out of the sacred Scripture explained by the ancient Fathers and the best Writers of Gods Church these few Rights our of many that God and nature and Nations and the Lawes of this Land have fully and undeniably granted unto our Sveraigne Kings My witnesse is in Heaven that as my conscience directed me without any squint aspect so I have with all sincerity and freely traced and expressed the truth as I shall answer to the contrary at the dreadfull judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore with all fervency I humbly supplicate the divine Majestie still to assist Your Highnesse that as in Your lowest ebbe You have put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and with an heroick resolution withstood the proudest waves of the raging Seas and the violent attempts of so many imaginary Kings so now in Your acquired strength You may still ride on with Your honour and for the glory of God the preservation of Christ his Church and the happinesse of this Kingdom not for the greatest storme that can be threatned suffer these Rights to be snatched away nor Your Crowne to be throwne to the dust nor the sword that God hath given You to be wrested out of Your hand by these uncircumcised Philistines these ungracious rebels and the vessels of Gods 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 Majestie standing in the truth and for the right for the honour of God and the Church of his Sonne 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 maintaine his owne cause and by this warre that is so undutifully so unjustly made against Your Majestie so Giant like fought against Heaven to overthrow the true Church You shall be glorious like King David that was a man of warre whose deare sonne raised a dangerous rebellion against him and in whose reigne so much bloud was spilt and yet notwithstanding these distempers in his Dominion he was a man according to Gods owne heart especially because that from α to ω * As in the beginning by reducing the Arke from the Philistines throughout the midst by setling the service of the Tabernacle in the ending by his resolution to build and leaving such a treasure for the erecting of the Temple the beginning of his raigne to the end of his life his chiefest endeavour was to promote the service and protect the servants of the Tabernacle the Ministers of Gods Church God Almighty so continue Your Majestie blesse You and protect You in all Your wayes Your vertuous pious Queene and all Your royall Progenie Which is the daily prayer of The most faithfull to Your Majestie GRYFFITH OSSORY The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this TREATISE CHAP. I. Sheweth who are the fittest to set downe the Rights which God granted unto Kings what causeth men to rebell the parts considerable in S. Peter's words 1. Pet. 2.17 in fine How Kings honoured the Clergy the faire but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefely ayme at and their malice to Episcopacie and Royaltie Pag. 1 CHAP. II. Sheweth what Kings are to be honoured the institution of Kings to be immediately from God the first Kings the three chiefest rights to Kingdomes the best of the three rights how Kings came to be elected and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracie and Democracie issued out of Monarchie Pag. 12 CHAP. III. Sheweth the Monarchicall Government to be the best forme the first Government that ever was agreeable to Nature wherein God founded it consonant to Gods owne Government the most universally received throughout the world the immediate and proper Ordinance of God c. Pag. 20 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 c. Pag. 29 CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himselfe before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecuting Emperours Pag. 41 CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three severall opinions the strange speeches of the Disciplinarians against Kings are shewed and Viretus his scandalous reasons are answered the double service of all Christian Kings and how the Heathen Kings and Emperours had the charge of Religion Pag. 48 CHAP. VII Sheweth the three things necessary for all Kings that would preserve true Religion how the King may attaine to the knowledge of things that pertaine to Religion by His Bishops and Chaplains and the calling of Synods c. Pag. 62 CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Lawes by the advice of their Bishops and Clergy
and not of their Lay Counsellors how our late Canons came to be annulled c. Pag. 72 CHAP. IX Sheweth a full answer to foure speciall Objections that are made against the Civill jurisdictions of Ecclesiasticall persons their abilities to discharge these offices and desire to benefit the Common-wealth why some Councels inhibited these offices unto Bishops c. Pag. 86 CHAP. X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensation is reasons for it to tolerate divers Sects or sorts of Religions the foure speciall sorts of false Professors S. Augustines reasons for the toleration of the Jewes toleration of Papists and of Puritans and which of them deserve best to be tolerated among the Protestants and how any Sect is to be tolerated Pag. 101 CHAP. XI Sheweth where the Protestants Papists and Puritans do place Soveraignty who first taught the deposing of Kings the Puritans tenet worse then the Jesuites Kings authority immediately from God the twofold royalty in a King the words of the Apostle vindicated from false glosses c. Pag. 116 CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their government to whom the choyce of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peeres nor Parliament can have supremacy the Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton answered our Lawes prove all Soveraignty to be in the King Pag. 127 § The two chiefest parts of the regall government the foure properties of a just warre and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property Pag. 134 CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first government of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deut. 17. and of Samuel 1. Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of government came up Pag. 142 § 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 granâ—â—◠〈…〉 Pag. â—47 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 Kings Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have beene procured and repealed Pag. 155 § 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 Pag. 163 CHAP. XV. Sheweth the honour due to the King 1. Feare 2. An high esteem of our King how highly the Heathens esteemed of their Kings the Marriage of obedience and authority the Rebellion of the Nobility how haynous 3. Obedience fourefold divers kindes of Monarchs and how an absolute Monarch may limit himselfe Pag. 169 CHAP. XVI Sheweth the answer to some objections against the obeying of our Soveraigne Magistrate all actions of three kindes how our consciences may be reformed of our passive obedience to the Magistrates and of the Kings concessions how to be taken Pag. 181 CHAP. XVII Sheweth how tribute is due to the King for six speciall reasons to be paid the condition of a lawfull tribute that we should not be niggards to assist the King that we should defend the Kings Person the wealth and pride of London the cause of all the miseries of this Kingdome and how we ought to pray for our King Pag. 190 CHAP. XVIII The persons that ought to honour the King and the recapitulation of 21 wickednesses of the Rebels and the faction of the pretended Parliament Pag. 203 CHAP. XIX Sheweth how the Rebellious faction have transgressed all the ten Commandements of the Law and the new Commandement of the Gospell how they have committed the seven deadly sinnes and the foure crying sinnes and the three most destructive sinnes to the soule of man and how their Ordinances are made against all Lawes equity and conscience Pag. 212 CHAP. XX. Sheweth how the rebellious Faction forswore themselves what trust is to be given to them how we may recover our peace and prosperity how they have unking'd the Lords Annointed and for whom they have exchanged him and the conclusion of the whole Pag. 223 The Rights of Kings both in CHURCH and 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. 2.17 in fine How Kings honoured the Clergie the faire 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 Schoolman to a great Emperour which M. Luther said also to the Duke of Saxonie Tu protege me gladio ego defendam te calamo Guliel Ocham Ludov. 4. 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 knoweth how to use Rom. 13. v. 4. the Sword better than the Preacher and the King may better make good his Rights by the Sword than by the pen which having once blotted his papers with mistakes and concessions more than due though they should be never so small if granted further than the truth would permit as I feare 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 pennes of a ready Writer and thereby to display the duties and to justifie the Rights of Kings and if they faile in either part the King needeth neither to performe what undue Offices they impose upon him The Divine best to s t down the Righ s of k ngs nor to let passe those just honours they omit to yield unto him but he may justly claime his due Rights and either retaine 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 1. Nature teaching every King to governe his People according to the common rules of honesty and justice 2. The politique constitution of every severall State and particular Kingdome shewing how they would have their government to be administred Psal
what they purchased with the edge of their swords which notwithstanding must needs be a very good right as the same commeth from God which is the God of war Psal 144 10. and giveth the victory unto Kings when as the Poet saith Victrix causa Deo placuit and he deposeth his Vicegerents and translateth the government of their Kingdomes as he seeth cause and to whom he pleaseth 3. When either the Kings neglected their duty 3. The right of elective kings and how they came to be elected and omitted the care of their People so farre as that the People knew not that they had any Kings or who had any right to be their Kings or upon the incursions of invading foes the Nations being exceedingly multiplied and having no Prince to protect them did change the orderly course of right belonging unto the first-borne which their rude and salvage course of life had obliterated from their minds unto the election and choice of whom they thought the better and the abler men to expell their enemies and to maintain justice among themselves so the Medes being oppressed with the insolencies and rapines of enemies and the greater men said it cannot be that in this corruption and lewdnesse of manners we shall long enjoy our Countrey and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us appoint over us a King Herodot lib. 1. that our Land may be governed by good Lawes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we turning our selves to our owne affaires need not be oppressed by the rage and violence of the lawlesse and finding by their former experience of him that Deioces was the justest man amongst them they chose him for his equity to be their King which is the first elective King that I do reade of Cicero in Offic. pag 322. and Cicero saith Mihi quidem non apud Medos solùm sed etiam apud majores nostros justitiae fruenda causâ videntur olim benè morati reges constituti even as Justin said before And when the People do thus make choice of their King it is most true which Roffensis and our most learned Divines do say Roffensis de potestate Papae fol. 283. that Licet communicatio potestatis quandoque sit per consensum hominum potestas tamen ipsa immediatè est à Deo cujus est potestas though the power be sometimes conferred by the consent of men yet it is immediately giâ—en from God Spalet tem 2. 529. whose power it is Et communitas nihil sui confert regibus saith Spalet nisi ad summum personam determinet potiùs personam applicat divina potestati quà m divinam potestatem persona ita Winton Resp. ad Matth. Tort. fol. 384. saith Christi Domini non Christi populi sunt Why kings were rejected by the people But as their justice and goodnesse moved the People to exalt them to this height of Dignity so either their own tyranny when change of place did change their manners or their Peoples inconstancy that are never long pleased with their governours caused them to be deposed againe and many times to be murdered by those hands that exalted them Then the People perceiving the manifold evils that flow from the want of government How the Aristocracie and Democracy issued out of Monarchy do erect other governments unto themselves and rather than they will endure the miserable effects of an Anarchie they resigne their hurtfull liberty and their totall power sometimes into the hands of few of the best of the flocke which we call Aristocracie or optimacy and sometimes into the hands of many which we call Democracie or a popular state In all which elections of Magistrates and resignations of the Peoples power voluntarily to the hands of their governours Each forme of government lawfull call them what you will Senate Consuls Duke Prince or King though I dare not any way reject any of them as a forme utterly disallowed and condemned of God yet comparing them together I dare boldly say the farther men go from God's first institution the more corruption we shall finde in them and therefore it must needs follow that Democracy is the next degree to Anarchie Democracy the worst kinde of Government and Aristocracie farre worse than Monarchy for though it may seem very unreasonable that one man should have all the power toto liber in orbe Solus Caesar erit And many plausible reasons may be alleadged for the rule of the Nobles or of the People yet the experience Inter patres plebemquâ— certamina exercere modo turbulent tribuni medò consules praevalidi in urbe ac foro tentamenta civilium beâ—lorum mon è plebe infima C. Marius nobilium sae vissimus L. Sylla victam armis libertateÌ„ in dominationem vâ—rterunt Tac. l. 2. hist p. 16. usque 28. Prov. 28.2 that the Roman state had in those miserable Civill Warres that so frequently and so extremely afflicted them after they had put down their Kings as when Caius Marius the meanest of the Commonalty and Lucius Sylla the cruellest of all the Nobility destroyed their liberty and rooted â—â—t all property by their Civill faction and the assistance of an illegall Militia and a multitude of unruly voluntiers and the fatall miscarriages of many businesses and the bad successes of their Armies when both the Consuls went forth Generals together with the want of unity secrecy and expedition which cannot be so well preserved amongst many do sufficiently shew how defective these Governments are and how farre beneath the excellency of Monarchie as it is most fully proved in the unlawfulnesse of Subjects taking up armes against their Soveraigne and more especially by the wisest of men that tels us plainly that for the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof but by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof shall be prolonged and in another place he crieth Ecclesiast 10 16. Woe to that Land whose king is but a childe either in knowledge or in yeares for that during his infancy and the want of ability the government will be managed by many others which can produce nothing else but woes to that Common-wealth Aug. de l. arbiâ— l. 1. c. 6. and therefore Saint Augustine saith that if they who beare rule in Democracy do corrupt justice a good powerfull man may lawfully change that Democraticall goverment into an Aristocraticall or Monarchicall but you shall never finde it in any Christian Authour that any man be he never so good never so powerfull may lawfully upon any occasion or pretence change the Monarchie into an Aristocracy or Democracy because it is lawfull for us to reduce things from the worst and remotest state to the better and the nearer to the originall forme but not from the better to a worser and remoter from its originall institution which is then soundest when it is nearest to its first ordination CHAP. III. Sheweth the
the people grew weary of God's Ordinance and loath to be contained within the bounds of obedience when they found strength and oportunity they withstood their lawfull but degenerated Kings and then they deposed them from their estates and deprived them of their lives so that as the Poet saith Juvenai Satyr 10. Ad generum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Descendunt reges sicca morte tyranni And thinking to finde a better way than that which they found so thorny and a better government than that which formerly they found so bad they elected those men whom they thought would make them happy sometimes more The unconstancy of the people in the choice of their governours and sometimes fewer as their disposition was to be their governours so after the expulsion of Tarquinius the Romans chose two Consuls and these giving not a plenary content unto the People they added the Tribunes to bridle the disorders of the Consuls and when all this would not satisfie their unsatiable expectation they must have their Decem viros and in great dangâ—â— their Dictator then comes the Triumvirat of Antony The government never setled till it came as all things in nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Monarchy Lepidus and Augustus who at last takes upon him the name of an Emperour but the full power of a King and governes all as the sole Monarch thus they ran in a maâ—e and turned round like a wheele and I should but weary my Reader to trace the Greek Histories to set down the state of Athens under the thirty Tyrants or of the Lacedemâ—nians under those Ephâ—râ—â— that bore a faire shew to restrain their Kings Lacedaemoniorumaristocratia ex duobus Regibusquinque Ephoriâ— octo viginti senatoribus compositaâ— but were indeed a scourge and plague unto the People so that in truth the remedy proved farre worse than the disease excessit medicina modum and the change of Government never brought any other good but an exchange of miseries the greater for the lesser unto the People as for that one rape of Lucrece by Tarquinius to undergo a thousand greater insolencies under the new erected Government of the Consuls and Tribunes and the Israelites for preventing the snatching of the flesh out of their pots 1 Sam. 2.14.15 by the sonnes of Eli and growing weary of the sonnes of Samuel Chap. 8.11 to have a Saul that shall teare their own flesh in pieces and take their sonnes and their daughters for his vassals 2. Reason that Monarchy is the best forme of government 2. As the hereditary Monarch is the first kinde of Government so it is the principall and best government because it is the immediate Ordinance of God that he set down for the Government of his People for this was ordained by God himselfe and so continued among his People even in an hereditary way unlesse the same God designed another person by those Prophets that he inspired for that purpose as it was in the case of David Solomon and Jehu and it is certain that the wisest of men cannot devise a better Forme of Government than God ordained therefore the choice of one or more made by the People to be their King or Governour cannot be if not without sin yet I am sure without folly but seeing as our Saviour saith a Sparrow cannot light upon the ground without the providence of our heavenly Father Matth. 10 29 so I must confesse hac non sine numine divûm Eveniunt This election of Kings and change of the first Ordinaâ—â—e happened not without God's providence either for the tyranny of the evill Kings or the punishment of the rebellious people and therefore as Moses for the hardnesse of those mens hearts that hated their wives to prevent a greater mischiefe either continuall fighting or secret murdering one another suffered them to give their wives a bill of divorcement Deut. 24.1 but as our Saviour saith Non erat sic ab initio Matth. 19.8 it was not any primary Ordinance of God but a permissive toleration of the lesser evill so when the People out of their froward disposition to God's first Institution of the Regall Right and presuming to like better of their owne choice do alter this hereditary Right and divine Ordinance into the election of one or more Governours How God allowed the Aristocraticall and Democraticall Government and why either annuall as among the ancient Romans or vitall as it is in the present state of the Venetians God out of his infinite lenity to our humane frailty rather than his People should be without Government and so many hainous sinnes should go unpunished doth permit and it may be allow and approve the same though sometimes not without great anger and indignation for our contempt and distaste of his heavenly institution Deut. 33.5 as when the Israelites weary of the Judges that succceded Moses who was a King in Jesurun and that God raised still to rule as Kings amongst them to make War against their enemies and to judge them according to the Law in the time of peace which are the two chiefest Offices of all Kings desired to have a King to judge them like all the Nations 1 Sam. 8.5 not a King simply for so they had indeed though not in name but a King like all the Nations that is a King of a more absolute power than the Judges had as Samuel sheweth and they seem contented therewith God sent them a King in his wrath because they had rejected him that he should not reigne over them that is vers 7. they had refused to submit themselves to his Ordinance and to obey the Kings that he appointed over them but they must needs be their own carvers and have a King of their owne election or such a King invested with a more absolute power as they desired though notwithstanding they did most hypocritically seem to desire none but whom God appointed over them and therefore perceiving their own errour and seeing their own offence by the anger that God shewed they confessed their fault The lamentable successe of the first elective Kings and did alwayes thereafter accept of their Kings by succession but onely when their Prophets by the sacred Ointment had ordained another by God's speciall designation But I cannot finde it in all the Scripture or in any other Writings authenticall where God appointed or commanded any People to be the choosers of their Kings but rather to accept of him and submit themselves to him whom the Lord had placed over them Rossen de â—otest Papae 282. For I would very fain know as Roffensis speaketh An potestas Adami in filios ac nepotes adeoque omnes ubique homines ex consensu filiorum ac nepotum dependet an à solo Deo ac natura profluit And if this autority of the Father be from God without the consent of his children then
to governe God's People is their indubitable right and the immediate prime principall Ordinance of God therefore it concernes every man as much as his soule is worth to examine seriously whether to fight against their owne King be not to resist the Ordinance of God for which God threatneth no lesse punishment than 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 Rebells transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themselves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their owne 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 2. All Kings are to be honoured in respect of God's precept considered two wayes so likewise in respect of God's precept 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 1. 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 1. To thinke no â—ll of the King Curse not the King no not in thy thought Eccles 10.30 and workes are imprisoned and chained up in the linkes of God's strictest prohibition that they should no wayes peepe 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 thinke no ill of the King let the King be what he will the precept is without restriction you must thinke no ill that is you must not intend and purpose in your thoughts to doe the least ill office or disparagement unto the King that â—â—leth 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 wickednesse 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 tyrannicall King To saâ— no â—ll of thâ— King â—xod 22.28 Act. 23. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The same Spirit saith Thou shalt not revile the Gods that is the Judges of the Land nor curse that is in Saint Pauls phrase speake evill of the Ruler of the people and what can be more evill then to bely his Religion to traduce his Government and to make so faithfull a Christian King as faithlesse as a Cretan which is commonly broached by the Rebels and preached by their seditious teachers 3. To doe no hurt to the King â—â—al 105.15 1 â—am 24.4 5. 3. The great Iehovah gives this peremptory charge to all Subjects saying Touch not mine Annointed which is the least indignity that may be and therefore Davids heart smote him when he did but cut off the lap of Saules garment What then can be said for them that draw their swords and shoot their Canons to take away the life of Gods Annointed which is the greatest mischiefe they can doe I believe no distinction can blind the judgement of Almighty God but his revengefull hand will finde them out that so maliciously transgresse his precepts and thinke by their subtilty to escape his punishments 2. What we should doe to honour the King Eccles 8 2. 1. To observe the Kings commands 2. The Scriptures doe positively and plainly command us to shew all honour unto our King For 1. Salomon saith I counsell thee to keepe the Kings commandement or as the phrase imports to observe the mouth of the King that is not onely his written law but also his verball commands and that in regard of the oath of God that is in respect of thy religion or the solemne vow which thou madest at thine initiation and incorporation into Gods Church to obey all the precepts of God whereof this is one to honour and obey the King or else that oath of allegiance and fidelity Et si religio to â—â—â—litur nullà nâ—beâ— cum coelo ratio est Lactant Inst l. 3. c. 10. which thou hast sworne unto thy King in the presence and with the approbation of thy God which certainly will plague all perjurers and take revenge on them that take his name in vaine which is the infallible and therefore most miserable condition of all the perjurod Rebels of this Kingdome For if morall honesty teacheth us to keepe our promises yea though it were to our owne hinderance then much more should Christianity teach us to observe our deliberate and solemne oathes whose violation can beare none other fruit then the heavy censure of Gods fearefull indignation But when the prevalent faction tooke a solemne Oath and Protestation to defend all the Priviledges of Parliament and the Rights of the Subjects How the prevalent Faction of the Parliament forswore themselves and then presently forgetting their oath and forsaking their faith by throwing the Bishops out of the House of Peeres which all men knew to be a singular Priviledge and the House of Lords acknowledged to be the indubitable right of the Bishops and their doctrine being to dispense with all oathes for the furtherance of the cause it is no wonder they falsifie all oathes that they have made unto the King 2. The people said unto Joshuah 2. To obey the Kings commandements Josh 1.18 Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandement and will not hearken to the words of thy mouth in all that thou commandest he shall be put to death surely this was an absolute government and though martiall yet most excellent to keepe the people within the bounds of their obedience for they knew that where rebellion is permitted there can be no good performance of any duty and it may be a good lesson for all the higher powers not to be too clement which is the incouragement of Rebels to most obstinate Trayterous and rebellious Subjects who daring not to stirre under rigid Tyrants doe kicke with their heeles against the most pious Princes and therefore my soule wisheth not out of any desire of bloud but from my love to peace that this rule were well observed Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandement he shall be put to death * Quia in talibus non chedientes mortaliter peccant nisi foret illud quod praecipitur contra praceptum Dei vel in salutis dispendium Angel summa verb. obedientia 3. To give the King no just
〈◊〉 cause of anger 3. The wisest of all Kings but the King of Kings saith The feare of a King is as the roaring of a Lion Prov. 2.2 who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his owne soule And I beleeve that the taking up of Armes by the Subjects against their owne King that never wronged them The Rebels have given him cause enough to be provoked and the seeking to take away his life and the life of his most faithfull servants is cause enough to provoke any King to anger if he be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too Stoically given to abandon all passions and that anger should be like the roaring of a Lion to them that would pull out the Lions eyes and take away the Lions life 4. To speake reverently to the King and of the King Eccles 8.4 4. The King of Heaven saith of these earthly Kings That where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what doest thou And Elihu demands Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes you are ungodly Truly if Elihu were now here he might heare many unfitter things said to our King by his own people and which is more strange by some Preachers for some of them have said but most maliciously and more falsely that he is a Papist he is the Traytor unworthy to raigne unfit to live good God! doe these men thinke God saith truth Where the word of a King is there is power that is to blast the conspiracies and to confound the spirits of all Rebels who shall one day finde it because the wrath of God at last will be awaked against their treachery and to revenge their perjury by inabling the King to accomplish the same upon all that resist him Jerem. 27.8 as he promised to doe in the like case 5. To pray for the King Ezra 6.10 5. The Israelites being in captivity under the King of Babylon were commanded to pray for the life of that Heathen King and for the life of his sonnes And Saint Paul exhorteth Timothy to make supplications 1. Tim. 2.1 2. prayers intercessions and giving of thankes for Kings and for all that are in authority and how doe our men pray for our King in many Pulpits not at all and in some places for his overthrow for the shortning of his life and the finishing of his dayes nullum sit in omine pondus and they give thankes indeed not for his good but for their owne supposed good successe against him thus they prevaricate and pervert the words of the Apostle to their owne destruction Psal 109.6 when as the Prophet saith Their prayers shall be turned into sinne 6. 6. To render all his duâ—s unto him Christ commandeth us to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars that is as I shall more fully shew hereafter your inward duties of honour love reverence and the like and your outward debts toll tribute custome c. and the Rebels render none unto him but take all from him and returne his Armes 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 parum est if they beleeve not Moses neither will they beleeve if one should arise from the dead Luke 16.31 and if these things cannot move them then certainly all the world cannot remove them from their wickednesse 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 you shall finde this doctrine practised by the perpetuall demeanour of all Nations For 1. If you looke upon the children of Israel in the Land of Egypt it cannot be denyed but Pharoah was a wicked King and exercised great cruelty and exceeding tyranny against Gods people yet Moses did not incite the Israelites to take armes against him though they were more in number Exod 12.37 Exod. 1.9 being six hundred thousand men and abler for strength to make their party good then Pharoah was as the King himselfe 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 owne piety and aggravate King Pharaohs obstinacie and especially magnifie Gods glory then their undutifull rebelling could any wayes illustrate the least of these 2. Davids demeanour towards Saul is most memorable 2. Under Saul The loyall Subjects beliefe p. 55. for though as one saith King Saul discovered in part the described manner of such a King as Samuel had fore-shewed 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 3. Under Ahab and Elias that had as good repute with the people 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 illegall commands of a most wicked King 1. Reg 21.25 that as the Scripture testifieth had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse and became the more exceedingly sinfull by the provocation of Jezabell his most wicked wife and harlot but he honoured his Soveraignty and feared his Majestie when he fled away from his cruelty Two examples of the whole Nation under Heathen kâ—ngs 1. Under Arâ—â—xerxes Ezrâ— 1.1 c. And because these are but particular presidents I will name you two observable examples of the whole Nation 1. When Cyrus made a Decree and his Decree according to the Lawes of the Medes and Persians should be unalterable that the Temple of Jerusalem should be re-edified and the adversaries of the Jewes obtained a Letter from Artaxerxes to prohibit them the people of God submitting themselves to the personall command of the King contrary to that unalterable Law of Cyrus pleaded neither the goodnesse of the worke nor the justnesse of the cause but yeilded to the Kings will and ceased from their worke untill they obtained a new Licence in the second yeare 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 trowell 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. Under Ahashuerus Hester 3.10 2. When Ahashuerus to satisfie the unjust desire of his
proud favorite had wickedly decreed and most tyrannically destined all the Nation of the Jewes to a sudden death yet this dutifull people did not undutifully rebell and plead the King was seduced by evill counsell and misguided by proud Haman therefore nature teaching them vim vi pellere to stand upon their owne defence they would not submit their necks to his unjust Decree but being versed in Gods Lawes and unacquainted with these new devices they returne to God and betake themselves to their prayers Hester 8.11 untill 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 dutifull unresisting Subjects an example of such piety as would make our Land happy if our zealous generation were but acquainted with the like Religion But here I know what our Anabaptist Brownist and Puritane will say that I build Castles in the aire The author of the Treatise of Monarchie p. 33. and lay downe my frame without foundation because all Kings are not such as the Kings of Israel and Judah were as the Kings that God gave unto the Jewes and prescribed speciall Lawes both for the Kings to governe and the people to obey them but all other Nations have their owne different and severall Lawes and Constitutions according to which Lawes their Kings are tyed to rule and the Subjects bound to obey and no otherwise I answer Henric. Stephan in libello de hac re contendit in omneâ— respull debere leges Hebraerum tanquam ab ipso Deo profectas per consequens omnium optemas â—educi that indeed it is granted there are severall constitutions of Royalties in severall Nations and there may be Regna Laconica conditionall and provisionall Kingdomes wherein perhaps upon a reall breach of some exprest conditions some Magistrates like the Ephori may pronounce a forfeiture aswell in the successive as in the elective Kingdomes because as one saith succession is not a new title to more right but a legall continuance of what was first gotten which I can no wayes yeild unto if you meane it of any Soveraigne King because the name of a King doth not alwayes denotate the Soveraigne power as the Kings of Lacedamon though so called yet had no regall 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 regall government ordained by God but either an Aristocraticall or Democraticall governement instituted by the people 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 regall 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 well of other Nations as of Israel doe raigne and of their full power and inviolable authority over the people which have no more dispensation to resist their Kings then the Iewes had to resist theirs And therefore Valentinian though an elected Emperour yet when he was requested by his Electors to admit of an associate answered Sâ—zom hâ—stor l. 6. c. 6. Niceph. hist l. 11. c. 1. 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 Vobis 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 solemne vow past in the presence of God that he shall love cherish and maintaine her yet if he breakes this vow The wife may not forsake her husband though hee break hâ—s vow and neglect his duty 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 breakes them they have no more power to abdicate their King then the wife hath to renounce her husband nor so much because she may complaine and call her husband before a competent Judge and produce witnesses against him whereas there can be no Iudge 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 Iudges to condemne him or were it so that all other Kings have not the like constitution which the Scripture setteth downe for the Kings of Israel yet I say that excepting some circumstantiall Ceremonies in all reall points the Lawes of our Land are so farre as men could make them in all things agreeable to the Scriptures in the constituting of our Kings An Appeale to thy conscience pag. 30. according to the livelyest patterne of the Kings of Israel as it is well observed by the Author of the Appeale to thy conscience in these 4 speciall respects 1. In his Right to the Crowne 2. In his Power and Authority Our kings of the like Institution to the kings of Israeâ— 3. In his Charge and Duty 4. In the rendering of his Account For 1. As the Kings of Israel were hereditary by succession and Respect 1 not elective unlesse there were an extraordinary and divine designation as in David Salomon Iohn Kings of England are kings by birth Proved so doe the Kings of England obtaine their Kingdomes by birth or hereditary succession as it appeareth 1. By the Oath of Allegeance used in every Leete that you Reason 1 shall be true and faithfull to our Soveraigne Lord King Charles and to his Heires 2. Because we owe our legeance to the King in his naturall Reason 2 capacity that is as he is Charles the Sonne and Heire apparent of King Iames Coke l. 7. Calvins case when as homage cannot be done to any King in his politique capacity the body of the King being invisible in that sense 3. Because in that case it is expresly affirmed that the King Reason 3 holds the Kingdome of England by birth-right inherent by descent from the bloud-royall therefore to shew how inseperable this right is from the next in bloud Hen. 4. though he was of the bloud-royall being first cozen unto the King and had the Crowne resigned unto him by Rich. 2d Speed l. 9.
c. 16. and confirmed unto him by Act of Parliament yet upon his death-bed confessed he had no right thereunto as Speed writeth 4. Because it was determined by all the Judges at the Arraignment Reason 4 of Watson and Clerke 1. Jacobs that immediately by descent his Majestie was compleatly and absolutely King without the Ceremony of Coronation which was but a royall ornament and outward solemnization of the descent And it is illustrated by Hen. 6. Speed l. 9. c. 16. that was not crowned till the ninth yeare of his reigne and yet divers were attainted of High Treason before that time which could not have beene done had he not beene King And we know that upon the death of any of our Kings The right heire to the Kingdome is King before he is crowned his Successor iâ— immediately proclaimed King to shew that he hath his Kingdome by descent and not by the people at his Coronation whose consent is then asked Why the peoples consent is 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 Respect 2 2. As the Kings of Israel had full power and authority to make warre and conclude peace to call the greatest Assemblies as Moses Joshua David Iehosaphat and the rest of the Kings did to place and displace the greatest Officers of State as Solomon placed Abiathar in Sadoc's roome 2. Chron 19.11 and Iehosaphat appointed Amariah and Zebadiah rulers of the greatest affaires and had all the Militia of the Kingdome in their hands The absolute authority of the Kings of England Coke 7. rep fol 25. 6. Pâ—lyd Virgil. lib. 11. Speed Stâ—w c. so the Kings of England have the like for 1. He onely can lawfully proclaime warre 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 Hen. 1. so they cannot meet but by the Kings Writ 3. All Lawes Customes and Franchises are granted and confirmed unto the people by the King Rot. Claus 1. R. 2. n. 44. Smith de repub Angl. l. 2. c. 4. c. 5. 4. All the Officers of the Realme whether Spirituall or Temporall are chosen and established by him as the highest immediately by himselfe and the inferiour by an authority derived from him The absurdities 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 Kingdome or otherwise it would follow that the King had power to proclaime warre but not to be able to maintaine 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 Soveraignes 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 Realme of England Smith de Repub. l. 2. Cambden Britan p. 132. supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habentes nec in Imperii clientelâ sunt nec investituram ab alio accipientes nec praeter Deum superiorem agnoscentes and their Subjects are bound by oath to maintaine the Kings Soveraignty in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill and that not onely as they are singularly considered but over all collectively represented in the body politique for by sundry divers old authentique Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realme of England is an Empire and so hath beene accepted in the world In the Pâ—eface to a Staâ— 24. Hen. 8. c. 12. governed by one supreame Head and King having the dignity and royall estate of the Imperiall Crowne of the same unto whom a body politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in termes and by names of spiritualty and temporalty have beene bounden and owen to beare next to God a naturall and humble obedience 3. As the duty of every one of the Kings of Israel was to be Respect 3 Custos utriusque tabulae to keepe the Law of God and to have a speciall care of his Religion and then to doe justice and judgement according to the Law of nature and to observe all the judiciall Lawes of that Kingdome so are the Kings of England obliged to discharge the same duties 1. To have the chiefest care to defend the faith of Christ The duty of the Kings of England and to preserve the honour of Gods Church as I shewed before 2. To maintaine common right according to the rules and dictates of nature And 3. To see the particular Lawes and Statutes of his owne Kingdome 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 established Lawes neither doe our Divines give any further liberty to any King but if he failes in these he doth offend in his duty 4. As the Kings of Israel were accountable for their actions Respect 4 unto none but onely unto God and therefore King David after he had committed both murder and adultery saith unto God Psal 51.4 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 that the Prophets perswaded them to call any of their most idolatrous tyrannicall or wicked Kings to any account for their idolatrie The kings of England accountable for their actions onely to God tyrannie or wickednesse even so the Kings of England are accountable to none but to God 1. Because they have their Crowne immediately from God Reason 1 who first gave it to the Conquerour through his sword and since to the succeding Kings Smith de repub l. 1. c. 9. by the ordinary meanes of hereditary succession 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 doe Reason 4 4. Because the testimony of many famous Lawyers justifie the same truth for Bracton saith if the King refuse to do what is just satis erit ei ad paenam quòd Dominum expectet ultonem the Lord will be his avenger which will be punishment enough for him Bracton fol 34. a. b. apud Lincol anno 1301. 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 that certum directum Dominium à prima institutione regni Angliae ad Regem pertinuit the certaine and direct Dominion of this Kingdome from the very first institution thereof hath belonged unto the King who by reason of the arbitrary or free preeminence of the royall dignity and custome observed in all ages Ex liberâ praeminentiâ ought not to answer before any Judge either Ecclesiasticall or Secular Ergo neither before the Pope nor Parliament nor Presbyterie 5. Because the constant custome and practice of this Kingdome Reason 5 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 Parliament did ever question the Kings of England for their actions and were swayed by those that were the heads of the most powerfull Faction to conclude most horrid and unjustifiable Acts to the very shame of their judiciall authorities as those factious Parliaments in the times of Hen. 3. King John Rich. 2. and Hen. 4. and others whose acts in the judgement of all good authors are not to be drawne into examples when as they deposed their King for those pretended faults whereof not the worst of them but is fairely answered and all 33 of them proved to be no way sufficient to depose him by that excellent Civilian Heningus Arnisaeus Heningus c. 4. p. 93. And therefore seeing the institution of our Kings is not onely by Gods Law but also by our owne Lawes Customes 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 Jewes 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 Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himselfe before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecuting Emperours 2. The Heathens Persa quidem olim aliquid coeleste atque divinum in regilus inesse statuebant Osor de Instit regis l. 4. p. 106. 2. WE finde that not onely the Jewes that were the people of God a royall Priesthood that had the Oracles of God and therefore no wonder that they were so conformable in their obedience to the will of God but the Gentiles also that knew not God knew this by the light of nature that they were bound to yeild all honour unto their Kings For Quintus Curtius tells us that the Persians had such a divine estimation and love unto their King that Alexander could not perswade them either for feare or reward to tell him where their King was gone or to reveale any of his intentions or to doe any other thing that might any wayes prejudice the life Justin l. 4. or the affaires of their King And Justin tells us that the Sicilians did beare so great a respect unto the last Will and Testament of Anaxilaus their deceased King that they disdained not to obey a slave whom he had appointed Regent during the minority of his sonne Herodet l. 8. And Herodotus saith that when Xerxes fled from Greece in a vessell that was so full of men of warre What great respect men in former times did beare unto their kings that it was impossible for him to be saved without casting some part of them into the Sea he said unto them O ye men of Persia let some among you testifie that he hath care of his King whose safety is in your disposition then the Nobility which accompanied him having adored him did cast themselves into the Sea till the vessell was unburthened and the King preserved And I feare these Pagans will rise in judgement to condemne our Nobility that seeke the destruction of their King And the Macedonians had such a reverent opinion of their King that being foyled in warre before they returned againe to the battaile they fetched their cradle wherein their young King lay and set him in the midst of the Campe as supposing that their former misfortune proceeded Justin l. 7. because they neglected to take with them the good augure of their Kings presence And Boemus Aubanus speaking of the Egyptian Kings saith that they have so much good will and love from all men Aubanus de Africa l 1. p. 39. Reges divinos Iove genitos à Iove nutritos Homerus â—esiâ—dus appellarunt ut non solùm sacerdotibus sed etiam singulis Aegyptiis major regis quà m uxorum filiorúmque aut aliorum principum salutis inesset cura that not onely the Priests but also all the Egyptians have a greater care of the safety of their King then of their wives or children or any other Princes of the Land And the same Author describing the manner how the Tartars create their King saith the Princes Dukes Barons and all the people meet then they place him that is to be their King on a Throne of gold and prostrating themselves upon the ground they cry with an unanimous and loud voyce Rogamus volumus praecipimus ut domineris nobis We entreat you and beseech you to raigne over us and he answereth if you would have this of me it is necessary that you should be obedient to doe whatsoever I shall command you when I call you to come whethersoever I shall send you to goe whomsoever I shall command you to kill to do it immediately without feare and to commit the whole Kingdome into my hands then they doe all answer we are willing to doe all this And then he saith againe therefore from hence-forth oris mei sermo gladius meus erit the word of my mouth shall be the sword of my power then all the people doe applaud him And a little after he saith in ejus manibus seu potestate omnia sunt Aubanus l. 2. p. 141. all things are in his hands and power no man dare say this is mine or that is his no one man may dwell in any part of the Land but in that which is assigned unto him by the King Nomini licet imperatoris
verba mutare nemini latae ab illo sententiae qualicunque modo contraire and no man dares alter the Kings words nor gain-say his sentence whatsoever it is And we reade that the Turke is as absolute in his Dominions and as readily obeyed in his commands as the Tartar and yet these Subjects learne this duty of honour and obedience unto their Kings onely by the light of nature and if grace and the Gospell hath made us free from this slavish subjection should we not be thankefull unto our God and be contented with that liberty which he hath given us but because we have so much we will have more * And as the Poët saith Like Subjects arm'd the more their Princes gave They this advantage tooke the more to crave Lucan lib. 1. and seeing God hath delivered us from the rage of tyrannous Kings we will free our selves from all government and disobey the commands of the most clement Princes We may remember the fable of the Frogs when they prayed unto Jupiter to have a King and what was the successe thereof omnia dat qui justa negat and he that undutifully denyeth his due obedience may unwillingly be forced to undue subjection as the Israelites not contented with just Samuel shall be put under an unjust Saul So God may justly deale with us for our injustice towards our King to deny that honour unto him which God commanded to be given and the very Heathens have not detained from their Kings But 3. Christians 3. Lest with Saint Paul we should be blamed though unjustly for bringing the uncircumcised Greeks into the Temple for alleadging the disorderly practice of blinde Heathens to be a patterne for these zealous Christians which thing notwithstanding our Saviour did when he preferred Sodome and Gomorrah before Capernaum Matth. 11.21 yea Tyrus and Sydon before Corazin and Bethsaida we cannot want the example of good Christians and a multitude of most holy Martyrs to shame the practice of these prophane hypocrites For 1. Christ hâ—mselfe exhibited all duâ— honour unto wicked Kings 1. Christ himselfe the author and the finisher of our faith never left any plainer marke of his religion then to propagate the fame by patience as on the other side there cannot be a more suspicious signe of a false religion then to inlarge it and protect it by violence and therefore when the Inhabitants of a certaine Samaritane village refused to admit Christ and his Disciples into their Towne Luke 9.54 and so renounced him and his religion James and John two principall members of his Court remembring what Elias did in the like case 1. Reg. 18. 2. Reg. 1. asked if they should not command fire to consume them as Elias did that is if they should not use their best endeavours and be confident of Gods assistance to destroy those prophane rejecters of Christ and refusers of his religion Our Saviour though ever meeke yet now moved at this their unchristian thought rebuked them with that sharpnesse as he did Saint Peter when he committed the like errour Matth. 16.23 and said You know not what manner of spirit you are of as if he had said you understand not the difference betwixt the profession of Elias and my religion for he was such a zelot that jure zelotarum and the extraordinary instinct of Gods Spirit that was in him might at that time when the Jewes were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus saith and God presiding as it were their King amongst them and interposing rules by his Oracles and other particular directions that should oblige and warrant them as well as their standing Law doe this or the like act though not authorized by any ordinary Law and those actions thus performed are as just and as legall as any other that proceed legally from the authority of the supreame Magistrate but that dispensation of the Prophets is now ended and the profession of my Disciples must be farre otherwise for I doe not authorize my servants to pretend to the spirit of Elias or to doe as Phineas and others extraordinary men among the Jewes have done but they must learne of me to be meeke and lowly in heart Matth. 11.29 and rather to suffer wrong of others then to offer the least injury unto their meanest neighbour much lesse to resist their supreame Magistrate And when Christ was apprehended How Christ carried himselfe before Pilate and the High-Priests not by any legall power of the supreme Magistrate but by the rude servants of the High Priests and Saint Peter as zealous for his Master as our Zealots are for their Religion drew his sword and smote off Malchus eate a most justifiable and commendable act a man would thinke to defend Christ and in him all Christianity our Saviour bids him put up his sword and he addes a reason most considerable to all Christians for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword that is all they that without lawfull authority take the sword to defend me and my religion with the sword they deserve to suffer by the sword and it is very well observed by the Author Pag. 6. of resisting the lawfull Magistrate upon colour of religion that the two parallel places quoted in the margent of our Bibles are very pertinent to this purpose for that Law concerning the effusion of bloud Gen. 9.6 being not any prohibition to the legall cutting off of Malefactors is notwithstanding urged against S. Peter to shew that his shedding of bloud in defence of religion was altogether illegall and prohibited by that Law and the other place where immediately after these words Revel 13.10 He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword the Holy Ghost adjoyneth here is the patience and the faith of the Saints doth most clearely shew that all forcible resistance is inconsistent with the religion of the Saints because their faith must be ever accompanied with their patience and it is contrary to their profession to save themselves by any violent opposition of them that have the lawfull authority But that example which is unparallel'd is the suffering of Christ under Pontius Pilate for the whole course of their proceeding against Christ was illegall when as no Law can be found to justifie the delivering up of an innocent person to the will of his accusers John 19.16 as Pilate did our Saviour Christ and our Saviour had ability and strength enough to have defended himselfe for he might have commanded more then 12 Legions of Angels to assist him yet our Saviour acknowledging the legall power of Pilate to proceed against him John 19.11 that it was given him from above makes no resistance either to maintaine his doctrine or to preserve his life but in all things submits himselfe to their illegall proceedings and gives unto the Magistrates all the honour that was due unto their places and you know the rule
Omnis Christi actio debet esse nostra instructio we ought to follow his example And therefore not onely Christ but also all good Christians have imitated him in this point for the Apostles prayed for their persecuting Tyrants exhorted all their followers to honour even the Pagan Kings and most sharplâ— reproved all that spake evill of authority much more would they say against them that commit evill and proceed in all wickednesse against authority How the Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecutors And Tertullian speaking of the behaviour of the Primitive Christians towards the Heathen Emperours and their cruell persecutors saith that because they knew them to be appointed by God they did love and reverence them and wish them safe with all the Romane Empire yea they honoured the Emperour and worshipped him as a man second from God solo Deo minorem and inferiour onely unto God and in his Apologetico he saith Deus est solus in cujus solius potestate sunt reges à quo sunt secundi post quem primi super omnes homines ante omnes Deos God alone is he by whose power Kings are preserved which are second from him first after him above all men and before all gods that is all other Magistrates that the Scripture calleth Gods So Justin Martyr Minutius Felix Nazianzen which also wrote against the vices of Julian S. Augustine and others of the prime Fathers of the Church have set downe how the Primitive Christians and godly Martyrs that suffered all kinde of most barbarous cruelty at the hands of their Heathen Magistrates did notwithstanding pray for them and honour them and neither derogated from their authority nor any wayes resisted their insolencie Beda p. 15. And Iohannes Beda Advocate in the Court of Parliament of Paris saith that the Protestants of France in the midst of torments have blessed their King by whom they were so severely intreated and in the midst of fires and massacres have published their confession in these words Artic. 39. 40. confess eccles Gal. refor For this cause he that is God put the sword into the Magistrates hand that he may represse the sinnes committed not onely against the second table of Gods Commandements but also against the first We must therefore for his sake not onely endure that Superiours rule over us but also honour and esteeme of them with all reverence holding them for his Lieutenants and Officers to whom he hath given in commission to execute a lawfull and a holy function We therefore hold that we must obey their Lawes and Statutes pay Tributes Imposts and other duties and beare the yoke of subjection with a good and free will although they were Infidels Ob. But against this patience of the Saints Ob. and the wisedome of these good Christians it is objected by Goodwin and others of his Sect that either they wanted strength to resist or wanted knowledge of their strength or of their priviledge and power which God granted them to defend themselves and their religion or were over-much transported with an ambitious desire of Martyrdome or by some other misguiding spirit were utterly mis-led to an unnecessary patience and therefore we having strength enough as we conceive to subdue the King and all his strength and being wiser in our generation then all the generation of those fathers as being guided by a more unerring spirit we have no reason to pray for patience but rather to render vengeance both to the King and to all his adherents Sol. This unchristian censure Sol. and this false imputation laid upon these holy Fathers by these stabborne Rebels and proud Enthusiasts are so mildly and so learnedly answered by the Author of resisting the lawfull Magistrate upon colour of religion Where they are fully answered that more need not be said to stop the mouthes of all ignorant gain-sayers Therefore seeing that by the institution of Kings by the precept of God and by the practice of all wise men and good Christians Heathen Kings and wicked Tyrants are to be loved honoured and obeyed it is a most hatefull thing to God and man to see men professing themselves Christians but are indeed like those in the Revel Revel 2 9. which say they are Jewes and are not in steed of honouring transcendently to hate and most violently to persecute their owne most Chrâ—stian and most gracious King a sinne so infinitely sinfull that I doe not wonder to see the greatnesse of Gods anger to powre all the plagues that we suffer upon this Nation but I doe rather admire and adore his wonted clemency and patience that he hath not all this while either sent forth his fire and lightning from Heaven as he did upon Sodome and Gomorrah Gen. 19.24 Numb 16.31 to consume them or cause the earth to swallow them as it did Corah Dathan and Abiram for this their rebellion against their King or that he hath not showred downe farre greater plagues and more miserable calamities then hitherto we have suffered because we have suffered these Antichristian Rebels to proceed so farre and have with the Merozites neglected all this while to adde our strength to assist the Lords Annointed Judges 5.23 to reduce his seduced Subjects to their obedience and to impose condigne punishments upon the seducers and the ringleaders of this unnaturall and most horrible Rebellion CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three severall opinions the strange speeches of the Disciplinarians against Kings are shewed and Viretus his scandalous reasons are answered the double service of all Christian Kings 2. Christian Kings are to have double honour in respect of their double duty and how the Heathen Kings and Emperours had the charge of Religion 2. AS all Kings are to be honoured in the fore-said respects so all Christian Kings are to have a double honour in respect of the double charge and duty that is laid upon them As 1. To preserve true religion and to defend the faith of Dutie 1 Christ against all Atheists Hereticks Schismaticks and all other adversaries of the Gospell within their Territories and Dominions 2. To preserve their Subjects from all forraigne adversaries Dutie 2 and to prevent civill dissentions to governe them according to the rules of justice and equity which all other Kings are bound to doe but neither did nor can doe it so fully and so faithfully as the Christian Kings because no Law either Solons Lycurgus Pompilius or any other Greeke or Latine nor any Politique Plato Aristotle Machiavil or whom you will old or new can so perfectly set downe and so fairely declare quid justum quid honestum as the Law of Christ hath done and therefore seeing omnis honos praesupponit onus the honour is but the reward of labour and that this labour or duty of Kings to maintaine true religion well performed
and faithfully discharged brings most glory unto God and the greatest honour to all Kings when it is more to be with Constantine a nursing father to Gods Church then it is to be with Alexander the sole Monarch of the known world I will first treat of their charge and care and the power that God hath given them to defend the faith and to preserve true religion And 1. 1. Care of Kings to preserve true Religion Aug. de utilitate credendi cap. 9. Religion faith a learned Divine without authority is no Religion for as Saint Augustine saith no true Religion can be received by any meanes without some weighty force of authority therefore if that Religion whereby thou hopest to be saved hath no authority to ground it selfe upon or if that authority whereby thy Religion is setled be mis-placed in him that hath no authority at all what hope of salvation remaining in that Religion canst thou conceive but it is concluded on all sides that the right authority of preserving true religion must reside in him and proceed from him by whose supreme power and government it is to be enacted and forced upon us To whom the charge of preserving religion is commited and therefore now the question is and it is very much questioned to whom the supreame government of our Religion ought rightly to be attributed 3 Opinions whereof I finde three severall resolutions 1. Papisticall which leaneth too much on the right hand 2. Anabaptisticall which bendeth twice as much on the left hand 3. Orthodoxall of the Protestants that ascribe the same to him on whom God himselfe hath conferred it Opinion 1 1. That the Church of Rome maketh the Pope solely to have the supreme government of our Christian Religion is most apparent out of all their writings Vnde saepè objiciunt dictum â—lâ—su ad Constantium Tibì Deus impertum commisit nobis quâ— sunt ecclesiastica concredidit Sed hâ—c intelligitur de executione officij non de gubernatione ecclesiae Sicut ibi manifestum est cum dicitur ne que fai est nobis in terris imperium tenere neque tibi thymiamatum soâ—rorum potestatem habere i e. in pradicatione Evangelij administratione Sacramentorum similibus and you may see what a large book our Countrey-man Stapleton wrote against Master Horne Bishop of Winchester to justifie the same And Sanders to disprove the right of Kings saith Fatemur personas Episcoporum qui in toto orbe fuerunt Romano Imperatori subjectas fuisse quoniam Rex praeest hominibus Christianis verùm non quia sunt Chrstiani sed quia sunt homines episcopis etiam ea ex parte rex praeesset So Master Harding saith that the office of a King in it selfe is all one every where not onely among the Christian Princes but also among the Heathen so that a Christian King hath no more to doe in deciding Church matters or medling with any point of Religion then a Heathen And so Fekenham and all the brood of Jesuites doe with all violence and virulencie labour to disprove the Princes authority and supremacy in Ecclesiasticall causes and the points of our Religion and to transferre the same wholly unto the Pope and his Cardinals Neither doe 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 Hierarchie to maintaine that usurped authority which he held with so much advantage to his Episcopall See though with no small prejudice to the Church of Christ when the Emperours being busied with other affaires 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 knowledge lesse and their honesty least of all all things were ruled with greater corruption lesse 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 Gospell shined and Christian Princes had the leisure to looke and the heart to take hold upon their right the learned men opposing themselves against the Popes usurped jurisdiction have soundly proved the Soveraigne authority of Christian Kings in the government of the Church that not onely in other Kingdomes but also here in England this power was annexed by divers Lawes unto the interest of the Crowne and the lawfull right of the King and I am perswaded saith that Reverend Archbishop Bancroft had it not beene that new adversaries did arise Survey of Discip c. 22. p. 2â—1 and opposed themselves in this matter the Papists before this time had been utterly subdued for the Devill seeing himselfe so like to lose the field How the Devill raised instruments to hinder the reformation stirred up in the bosome of Reformation a flocke of violent and seditious men that pretending a great deale of hate to Popery have notwithstanding joyned themselves like Sampsons 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 doe most specially concerne her government and governours and though in the fury of their wilde â—eale they do no lesse maliciously then falsly cast upon the soundest Protestants the aspersion of Popery and Malignancie yet I hope to make it plaine unto my reader that themselves are the Papists indeed or worse then Papists both to the Church and State For 2. As the whole Colledge of Cardinals Of the Anabaptists and Puritans and all the Schooles Opinion 2 of the Jesuites doe most stiffely defend this usurped authority of the Pope which as I said may be with the lesse admiration because of the Princes concession and their owne long possession of it so on the other side there are sprung up of late a certaine generation of Vipers the brood of Anabaptists and Brownists that doe most violently strive not to detaine what they have unjustly obtained but a degree farre worse to pull the sword out of their Prince his hand and to place authority on them which have neither right to owne it Where the Pâ—ritans place the authority to maintaine religion 1. In the Presbyterie nor discretion to use it and that is either 1. A Consistory of Presbyters or 2. A Parliament of Lay men For 1. These new Adversaries of this Truth that would most impudently take away from Christian Princes the supreme and immediate authority under Christ in all Ecclesiasticall 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 chiefe
of them have belebed forth against the Divine Truth of God's Word and the sacred Majesty of Kings Calvin in Amos cap. 7. Master Calvin a man otherwise of much worth and worthy to be honoured yet in this point transported with his own passion calleth those Blasphemers that did call King Henry the Eighth the Supreme Head of this Church of England Stapâ—â— cont â—â—dorn l 1. p. 22. and Stapleton saith that he handled the King himselfe with such villany and with so spitefull words as he never handled the Pope more spitefully and all for this Title of Supremacy in Church causes and in his 54. Epist to Myconius he termeth them prophane spirits and mad men that perswaded the Magistrates of Geneva not to deprive themselves of that authority which God had given them Viretus is more virulent 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 cloak of the Gospell How Viretus would prove the temporall Pope as he calleth the King vvorse then the spirituall Pope affirming that the putting of all authority and power into the Civill Magistrates hands and making them Masters of the Church is nothing else but the changing of the Popedome from the Spirituall Pope into a Temporall Pope who as it is to be feared will prove worse and more tyrannous than 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 2. Because the old Spirituall Popes had some regard in their Reason 2 dealings of Councels Synods and ancient Canons but the new Secular Popes will do what they list without respect of any Ecclesiasticall Order be it right or wrong 3. Because the Romish Popes were most commonly very Reason 3 learned but it happeneth oftentimes that the Regall Popes have neither learning nor knowledge in divine matters and yet these shall be they that shall command Ministers 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 10 or 20 yeares usurped more tyrannie over the Churches in their Dominions then ever the Pope and his adherents did in 600 yeares All which reasons are but meere fopperies Viretus his scandalous reasons answered blowne up by the blacke Devill to blast the beauty of this truth for we speake not of the abuse of any Prince 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 Lawes which through his royall 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 So Cartwright also T. C. l. 2. p. 411 that was our English firebrand and his Disciples teach as Harding had done before that Kings and Princes doe hold their Kingdomes and Dominions under Christ as he is the Sonne of God onely before all worlds coequall with the father and not as he is Mediator and Governour of the Church and therefore the Christian Kings have no more to doe 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 increase of their power whereby they may deale in Church causes then they had before so the whole packe of the Disciplinarians are all of the same minde and do hold that all Kings aswell Heathen as Christian receiving but one Commission and equall authority immediately from God have no more to doe with Church causes the one sort then the other And I am ashamed to set downe the rayling and the scurrilous speeches of Anthony Gilby against Hen. 8. Gilby in his admonition p. 69. Knox in his exhâ—ta iâ—n to the Nobility of Scotland fol. 77. and of Knox Whittingham and others against the truth of the Kings lawfull right and authority in all Ecclesiasticall causes For were it so as Cartwright Travers and the rest of that crew doe 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 appeare most evident to all understanding men that all Kings aswell 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 Gentile Kings preservers of religion For it cannot be denyed but that all Kings ought to preserve their Kingdomes and all Kingdomes are preserved by the same meanes 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 Synes ep 126. Vide Amis part 2. pag. 14. Ad magnas râ—spubl utilitates retinetur religio in civitatibus Cicero de divin l. 2. and as Synesius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priest and a Prince was all one with them when the Kings to preserve their Lawes inviolable and to keepe their people in obedience that they might be happy became Priests and exercised the duties of Religion offering sacrifices unto their gods and discharging 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 they saw could not continue without Religion But 2. In the Parliament 2. The wisedome of our grave Prelates and the learning of our religious Clergie having stopped the course of this violent streame and hindered the translation of this right of Kings unto their new-borne Presbyterie 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 unworthinesse and the other doth not beare with their
undutifulnesse will needs transferre this right of ruling Gods Church unto a Parliament of Lay-men the King shall be denuded of what God hath given him and the people shall be indued 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 Hugo de Sancto Vict. lib. 2. de sacr fid par 2. cap. 3. Laicis Christianis fidelibus terrena possidere conceditur clericis verò tantùm spiritualiâ— committuntur quae autem illâ— spiritualia sunt subjicit c. 5. dicent omnis ecclesiastica administratio in tribus consistit in sacramentis in ordinibus in praeceptis Ergo Laici nihil juris habent in legibus praeceptis condendis ecclesiasticit as much as their modesty can desire or their merit deserve neither doe I gain-say but as they are pious men and the greatest Councell 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 thinke befitting for Gods Church but for Aarons seed and the Tribe of Levi to be directed and commanded out of the Parliament chaire how to performe the service of the Tabernacle and for Lay men to determine the Articles of faith to make Canons for Church-men to condemne heresies and define verities and to have the chiefe 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 prejudiciall 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 tractant fabrilia fabri what Papist or Athiest will be ever converted to professe that religion which shall be truly what now they alleadge falsely 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 professe what I have often bewayled to see Nadab and Abihu offering strange fires upon Gods 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 feare it to be an argument not onely of a corrupted but also of a decaying State when Moses chaire should be set in the Parliament House and the Doctors of the Church should never sit thereon therefore I wish that the Arke may be brought backe from the Philistines and restored to the Priests to be placed in Shilo where it should be and that the care of the Arke which King David undertooke 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 3. Opinion Of the Oâ—thodox Quia religio est ex potioribus reipublica partibus ut aâ—t Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. ipsa sola custodit hominum inter se societateâ— ut ait Lâ—ctant de ira Dei cap. 12. Veritura Troia perdidit primum Deos. 3. As nothing is dearer to understanding righteous and religious Kings then the increase and maintenance of true religion 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 soone lost when they lost their Palladium so it is the truest signe 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 publique injoying of the Word of God the forme of Service the manner of Government and the honour and maintenance of the Clergie are all the duties of a most Christian King which the King of Heaven hath imposed upon him for the happinesse and prosperity of his Kingdome and whosoever derive the authority of this charge either in a blinde obedience to the See of Rome as the Jesuites doe or out of their too much zeale and affection to a new Consistory as the late Presbyterians did or to a Lay Parliament as our upstart Anabaptists and Brownists doe 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 severall Acts of Parliament Therefore the Tyrians châ—yâ—â—d their gods lest if they fled thâ—y should be destroyed to have the supremacie in all causes and over all persons as well in the Ecclesiasticall as in the Civill governement which being so they are exempted thereby from all inforcement of any domesticall or forraigne power and freed from the penalties of all those Lawes both Ecclesiasticall and Civill 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 Lawes 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 penall Lawes for so they may be soone dethroned by the unstable affection and weake judgement of discontented people or subject to the jurisdiction of Lay Elders and the excommunication of a tyrannous Consistory who denounceing him tanquam Ethnicum Matth. 18.17 may soone adde a stranger shall not raigne over thee Deut. 17.15 and so depose him from all government For seeing all attempts are most violent that have their beginning and strength from zeale 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 warre under Spartacus was most pernicious unto the Romans there can be nothing of greater use or more profitable either for the safety of the King How necessary it is for Kings to retaine their just rights in their hands the peace of the Church and the quiet state of the Kingdome then for the Prince the King to retaine the Militia and to keepe that power and authority which the Lawes of God and of our Land have granted
to and intayled 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 tast and I feare in too great a measure as experience now sheweth of those miserable evils which uncontrouled ignorance furious zeale false hypocrisie and the mercilesse 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 find them the worst men at all times and in all places that mislike their government The Kings that maintaine true religion make their Kingdoms happy and reject their authority and we see those Churches most happy and those Kingdomes most flourishing which God hath blessed with religious Kings as the State of the Church of Judaea makes it plaine 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 Numb 12.7 8 Deut. 34.5 Josh 1.1 2. so Kings are called the servants of God in a more speciall 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 sonne Christ here on earth or to distribute their duties more particularly we know the Lord expecteth The double service of all Christian Kings 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 and therefore to serve him as all other Christians are bound to doe 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 Lawes and are obliged to performe as many virtuous actions and to abstaine from all vices as well as any other of their Subjects and if they faile 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 Psal 2.10 be learned ye that are Judges of the earth Serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce unto him with reverence for with God there is no respect of persons Rom. 2.11 Psal 149.8 but if they doe offend he will binde Kings in fetters and their Nobles with linkes of iron and we dare not flatter you to give you the least liberty to neglect the strict service of the great God In the second respect 2. As they are Christian Kings and that is twofold the service of all Christian Kings and Princes hath as I told you before these two parts 1. To protect the true religion and to governe the Church of Christ 2. To preserve peace and to governe the Common-wealth For 1. It is true indeed that the Donatists of old 1. To protect the Church the grand fathers of our new Sectaries were wont to say Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia what have we to doe with the Emperour Aug. cont lit petil l. 2. or what hath the Emperour to doe with the Church but to this Optatus answereth that Optat. Melivet lib. 3. Ille solito furore accensus in haec verba prorupit Donatus out of his accustomed madnesse burst forth into these mad termes Prima omnium in republ functionum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 7. c. 8. for it is a duty that lyeth upon all Princes because all both Christians and Pagans ought to be religious as I shewed to you before not onely to be devout but also to be the meanes to make all their Subjects so farre as they can to become devoted to Gods service as the practice of those Heathens that had no other guide of their actions then the light of nature doth make it plaine for Aristotle saith Aristot Polit. l. 3. c. 10. that Quae ad Deorum cultum pertinent commissa sunt regibus magistratibus those things that pertaine unto the worship of the gods are committed to the care of Kings and civill Magistrates and whatsoever their religion was as indeed it was but meere Superstition yet because Superstition and Religion hoc habent commune doe this in common Vt faciant animos humiles formidine divum Therefore to make men better the more humble and more dutifull the transgression thereof was deemed worthy to receive punishment among the Pagans and that punishment was appointed by them that had the principall authority to governe the Common-wealth The chiefâ— Mâ—gistrates of the Heathens had the charge of religion as the Athenian Magistrates condemned Socrates though he was a man wiser then themselves yet as they conceived very faulty for his irreligion and derision of their adored gods And Tiberius would set up Christ among the Roman gods though the act added no honour unto Christ without the authority and against the will of the Senate to shew that the care of religion belonged unto the Emperour or chiefe Magistrate and therefore as the Lord commanded the Kings of Israel to write a copie of his Law in a booke Deut. 17 18 19. and to take heed to all the words of that Law for to doe them that is not onely as a private person for so every man was not to write it but as King to reduce others to the obedience thereof so the examples of the best Kings both of Israel and Juda and of the best Christian Emperours doe make this plaine unto us Josh 24 23. for Ioshua caused all Israel to put away the strange gods that were among them The care of the good Kings of the Iewes to preserve the true religion and to incline their hearts unto the Lord God of Israel Manasses after his returne from Babylon tooke away the strange gods and the Idols out of the house of the Lord and cast them all out of the Citie and repaired the Altar of the Lord and commanded Iuda to serve the Lord God of Israel And what shall I say of David whose whole studie was to further the service of God and of Iehosaphat Asa Iosias Ezechias and others that were rare patternes for other Kings for the well government of Gods Church and in the time of the Gospell Quod non tollit praecepta legis sed perficit which takes not away the rules of nature nor the precepts of the Law but rather establisheth the one perfecteth the other because Christ came into the world non ut tolleret jura seculi sed ut
Martyn Travers Throgmorton Philips Nicholls and the rest of those introducers of Out-landish and Genevian Discipline first broached these uncouth and unsufferable tenets in our Land in the Realme of England and Scotland and truely if their opinions had not dispersed themselves like poyson throughout all the veines of this Kingdome and infected many of our Nobility and as many of the greatest Cities of this Kingdome as it appeareth by this late unparallâ—'d rebellion these and the rest of the trayterous authors of those unsavory bookes which they published and those damnable tenets which they most ignorantly held and maliciously taught unto the people should have slept in silence their hallowed and sanctified Treason should have remained untouched and their memoriall should have perished with them But seeing as Saint Chrysostome saith of the Heretiques of his time that although in age they were younger yet in malice they were equall to the ancient Heretiques and as the brood of Serpents though they are of lesse stature Our rebellious Sectaries farre worse then all the former Disciplinarians yet in their poyson no lesse dangerous then their dammes so no more have our new Sectaries our upstart Anabaptists any lesse wickednesse then their first begetters nay we finde it true that as the Poët saith Aetas parentum pejor avis Tulit nos nequiores These young cubbes prove worse then the old foxes for if you compare the whelpes with the wolves our latter Schismatickes with their former Masters I doubt not but you shall finde lesse learning and more villany lesse honesty and more subtilty hypocrisie and treachery in Doctor Burges Master Marshall â—â—se Goodwin Burrowes Calamy Perne Hill Cheynell and the rest of our giddy-headed Incendiaries then can be found in all the seditious Pamphlets of the former Disciplinarians or of them that were hanged as Penry for their treasons for these men doe not onely as Sidonius saith of the like apertè invidere 〈…〉 â—pâ—sâ— abjectè fingere serviliter superbiro openly envy the state of the Bishops basely forge lyes against them and servilely swell with the pride of their owne conceited sanctity and appâ—â—â—ut ignorance but they have also most impudently even 〈◊〉 their Pulpits slandered the footsteps of Gods Annointed and to brought the abhomination of their transgression to stand in the holy place they have with Achan troubled Israel and tormented the whole Land yea these three Kingdomes England Scotland and Ireland and for inciting provoking and incouraging simple ignorant poore discontented and seditious Sectaries For which their intolerable villanies if I be not deceived in my judgement they of all others and above all the Rebels in the Kingdome deserve the greatest and severest punishment God of Heaven give them the grace to repent to be Rebels and Traytors against their owne most gracious King they have not onely with Jerusalem justified Samaria Sodome and Gomorrah but they have justified all the Samaritanes all the Sodomites all the Schismaticks Hereticks Rebels and Traytors Papists and Atheists and all that went before them Iudas himselfe in many circumstances not excepted and that which makes their doings the more evill and the more exceedingly wicked is that they make religion to be the warrant for their evill doings the packe-horse to carry and the cloake to cover all their treacheries and thereby they drew the greater multitudes of poore Zelots to be their followers And therefore seeing it is not onely the honour but also the duty as of all other Kings so likewise of our King to be as the Princes of our Land are justly stiled the Defenders of the Faith and that not onely in regard of enemies abroad but also in respect of those farre worse enemies which desire alteration at home it behoves the King to looke to these home-bred enemies of the Church and seeing the King though never so willing for his piety and religion What Gods faithfull servants and the Kings loyall Subjects must doe in these times 1. To justifie the Kings right never so able for his knowledge and understanding yet without strength and power to effect what he desires cannot defend the faith and maintaine the true religion from the violence of Sectaries and Traytors within his Kingdome it behoves us all to doe these two things 1. To justifie the Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his authority and right to be the supreame governour and defender of the Church and of Gods true religion and service both in respect of Doctrine and Discipline and that none else Pope or Parliament hath any power at all herein but what they have derivatively from him which I hope we have sufficiently proved 2. 2 To assist Him against the Rebels To submit our selves unto our King and to adde our strength force and power to inable his power to discharge this duty against all the Innovators of our religion and the enemies of our peace for the honour of God and the happinesse of this Church and Common-wealth for that power which is called the Kings power and is granted and given to him of God is not onely that heroicke vertue of fortitude which God planteth in the hearts of most noble Princes as he hath most graciously done it in abundant measure in our most gracious King but it is the collected and united power and strength of all his Subjects which the Lord hath commanded us to joyne and submit it for the assistance of the Kings power against all those that shall oppose it and if we refuse or neglect the same then questionlesse whatsoever mischiefe idolatry barbarity or superstition shall take root in the Church and whatsoever oppression and wickednesse shall impaire the Common-wealth Heaven will free His Majestie and the wrath of God in no small measure must undoubtedly light upon us and our posterity even as Debora saith of them that refused to assist Barac against his enemies Curse ye Meroz Judg. 5.23 curse bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not forth to helpe the Lord against the mighty CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Lawes by the advice of their Bishops and Clergie and not of their Lay Counsellors how our late Canons came to be annulled that it is the Kings right to admit his Bishops and Prelates to be of his Councell and to delegate secular authority or civill jurisdiction unto them proved by the examples of the Heathens Jewes and Christians OUt of all this that hath been spoken it is more then manifest that the King ought to have the supreme power over Gods Church and the government thereof and the greatest care to preserve true religion throughout all his Dominions this is his duty and this is his honour that God hath committed not a people but his people and the members of his Son under his charge For the performance of which charge it is
Ariamirus Wambanus Richaredus and divers other Kings of Spaine did in like manner And Charlemaine who approved not the decisions of the Greekish Synod wrote a booke against the same * Intituled A Treatise of Charlemaigne against the Greekish Synod touching Images whereby the King maintained himselfe in possession to make Lawes for the Church saith Iohannes Beda of which Lawes there are many in a booke called The capitulary Decrees of Charles the Great who as Pepin his predecessor had done in the Citie of Bourges so did he also assemble many Councels in divers places of his Kingdomes as at Mayens at Tours at Reines at Chaalons at Arles and the sixt most famous of all at Francfort where himselfe was present in person and condemned the errour of Felician and so other Kings of France and the Kings of our owne Kingdome of England both before and after the Conquest as Master Fox plentifully recordeth did make many Lawes and Constitutions for the government of Gods Church But as Dioclesian The saying of Dioclesian that was neither the best nor the happiest governour said most truly of the civill government that there was nothing harder then to rule well * That is to rule the Common-wealth so it is much harder to governe the Church of Christ therefore as there cannot be an argument of greater wisedome in a Prince nor any thing of greater safety and felicity to the Common-wealth then for him to make choice of a wise Councell 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 lesse desire to have his people religiously governed left such men to be their supporters their helpers and advicers in the performance of these duties and I pray you whom did Kings choose for this businesse but whom God had ordained for that purpose for you may observe that although those Christian Kings and Emperours made their Laws as having the supremacy and the chiefest care of Gods religion committed by God into their hands yet they did never make them that ever I could reade with the advice counsell or direction of any of their Peeres or Lay Subjects but as David had Nathan and Gad The good Kings and Emperours made their Lavves for the government of the Church onely by the advice of their Clergy Nebuchadnezzar 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 Christian Kings and Princes tooke their Bishops and their Clergie onely to be their counsellors and directors in all Church causes as it appeareth out of all the fore-cited Authors and all the Histories that doe write thereof and Justinian published this Law that when any Ecclesiasticall cause or matter was moved his Lay officers should not intermeddle with it A good Law of Iustinian 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 Constit 123. sed religiosissimi Episcopi secundum sacros canones negotio finem imponunto For the good Emperours 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 doe any great good or any speciall favour unto the Shepherds of Christ's flocke and the teachers of the true religion because the Sonne of God had fore-told it that the world should hate us John 15.19 that secular men and Lay Senators should commonly oppose crosse and shew all the spite they can unto the Clergy of whom our Saviour saith Matth. 10.16 Behold I send you forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sheepe 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 How the Laity love the Clergie And Doctor Meriton in a Sermon before King James 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 A very memorable act Anno 39. Eliz. cap. 4. 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 booke 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 doe it the Statute saith he should be punished 5 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 usurpe this authority to be the composers contrivers or assistants in concluding of any Ecclesiasticall Law That the Laity should have no interest in making Lawes for the Church untill the fences of Gods vineyard were pulled downe and the wilde Boare out of the forrest the audacious presumption of the unruly Commonalty ventured either to governe 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 gaine herein the lesse 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. Ob. But then it may be demanded if this be so that the Laity hath no right in making Lawes and Decrees for the government of Gods Church but that it belongs wholly unto the King to doe it with the advice of his Bishops and the rest of his Clergy then how came the Parliament to annull those Canons that were so made by the King and Clergy because they had no vote nor consent in confirming of them Sol. Sol. Truely I cannot answer to this Objection unlesse I should tell you what the Poet saith Dum furor in cursu currenti cede furori Difficiles aditus impetus omnis
especially considering that the discharging of those good duties to give counsell to doe justice to relieve the distressed and the like are more acceptable recreations unto them as it was meate and drinke to Christ to doe his fathers will then the other fore-named exercises are or can be to any others and considering also John 4.34 that where the Bishop or Pastor hath great affaires and much charge he may have great helpes and much aid to assist him You will allow us an houre for our recreation why will you not allow us that houre to doe justice 2. If you say they are spirituall men and therefore cannot Ob. 2 have so great a care of the temporall State and Common-wealth I answer that as now the Common-wealth is the Church Sol. 1 The ability of thâ— Clergy to manage civill affaires 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 understand what is beneficiall to the Common-wealth as any other for Ignatius saith Ignat. epist ad Ephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Kings ought to be served by wise men and by those that are of great understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to be attended upon by weake 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 unprofitably consumed themselves with their time in their head pain vigils and heart-breaking studies in traversing over all the Common-wealths of the world The Clergy of better ab lities to benefit the Common-wealth thâ—n many others that now swâ—y it if they have learned nothing whereby they may benefit their owne Common-wealth or doe understand lesse what belongeth unto the good of their Countrey especially in matters of equity and right then illiterate Burgesses and meere Chapmen for if you reade but the bookes of the Prophets you shall finde how plentifull they are in the precepts of peace in the policies of warre and in the best counsels for all things which concerne the good of the Common-wealth and doe not the Divines reade 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 civill affaires is the good of the Common-wealth that are stronger then any one man can rule and would quickly despise Heaven and destroy the earth if their consciences were not awed with religion or would you damme up the channels of those benefits that should flow from them to the Common-wealth for it is not the addition of any honour to the calling of a Bishop but the Kings interest and the peoples good that is aymed at when we assert the capacity of the Clergy to discharge the offices of the most publique affaires Petrus Blesensis ep 84. because as Petrus Blesensis saith it is the office of the Bishops to instruct the King to righteousnesse to be a rule of Sanctity and sobriety unto the Court to mixe the influences of Religion with the designes of State and to restraine the malignity of the ill-disposed people and all histories doe relate unto us that when pious Bishops were imployed in the Kings Counsells the rigor of the lawes was abated equity introduced the cry of the poore respected their necessities releived the liberties of the Church preserved pride depressed religion increased the devotion of the Laity multiplied the peace of the Kingdome flourished and the tribunals were made more just and mercifull then now they be And therefore the sacred histories doe record of purpose how the people of God never adventured upon any action of waight and moment before they had well consulted with the Preists and Prophets as you see in the example of Ahab No Nation attempted any great matter without the advice of their Priests that was none of the best Kings yet would not omit this good duty and such was the custome of all other Countries wheresoever there was any religion or reverence of God Quae enim est respub ubi ecclesiastici primum non habeant locum in comitiis publicis de salute reipub deliberationibus for which is that Common-wealth where the Ecclesiasticall persons had not the first place in all meetings and publique consultations about the welfare of the Common-wealth as in Germany the three spirituall Electors are the first in France the three Ecclesiasticall persons were the first of all the Peeres in England till this unhappy time the two Archbishops and in Poland as many were wont to have the chiefest place and not unworthily quia aequum est Apud Euseb Paphilum l. 11. antestent in concilio qui antestant prudentia nec videtur novisse res humanas nisi qui divinas cognitas habet Strabo l. 4. Caesar de bello Gallico lib. 6. as the Indian said unto Socrates and therefore the Chaldeans the Egyptians the Grecians the Romanes the French and the Britons thought it alwayes ominous to attempt any notable thing in the Common-wealth without the sad and sage advice of their Priests and Prophets for they knew the neglect of God was never left without due revenge and though their false gods were no gods yet the true God was found to have beene a sharpe revenger of the contempt of the false gods because that to them they were proposed for the true gods and they believed them so to be as Lactantius sheweth and therefore all antiquity that bare any reverence to any Deity shewed all reverence and respect unto the teachers of his religion but now men desire to throw learning over the Barre because it should not discover the ignorance of the Bench or rather piety is excluded because it should not reprove their iniquity And the Clergy must not sit on the seat of judgement that the Laity may doe injustice without controule or perhaps revenge themselves upon their Ministers on the Bench for reproving their vices in the Church so the Devill gaineth whatsoever piety looseth by their depression 2. As the Clergy-men are as able 2. The desire of the Clergy to do good to the State so they are as willing and as carefull to provide for the good of the State as any other for themselves are members of the Common-wealth and they are appointed by God to be watchmen and over-seers to fore tell what mischiefes or felicities are like to
and deporment in it yet it may be so with you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is with the sonne of man whom no man can exceed in humility and yet in his greatest humility he saith ye call me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master and Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ye say well for so I am Iohn 13.13 And therefore he forbad not this title no otherwise then he forbad them to be called Fathers Doctors and Masters and I hope you will confesse he doth not inhibit the Children to call them Fathers that begat them nor forbid us to call them Doctors unto whom the Lord himselfe hath given the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Doctors in his Church Ephe. 4.11 otherwise we must know why S. Paul doth call himselfe the Doctor of the Gentiles 1 Tim. 2.7 and why doth the Law command us to honour our Father and our Mother if we may call no man Father But Christ comming not to diminish the power of Princes nor to make it unlawfull for Christian Kings to honour his servants which the heathen Princes did to the servants of God as Nebucchadnezzar preferred Daniel among the Babylonians and Darius advanced Mordecai among the Persians nor to deny that honour unto his sevants which their owne honest demerits and the bounty of their gracious Princes do confer upon them What Christ forbiddeth to his Ministers it is apparent that it is not the condition of these names but the ambition of these titles and the abuse of their authourity is forbidden by our Saviour Christ For as Elias and Elizaeus in the old Test suffered themselves with no breach of humility to be called Lords 3. Reg. 18.1 as where Abdias a great officer of King Ahab sayeth art not thou my Lord Elias the Shunamite called Elizaeus Lord. 4. Reg. 4.16 So in the new Test Paul and Barnabas that rent their cloathes when the people ascribed unto them more then humane honour yet refused not the name of Lords Act. 16.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it was given them by the keeper of the prison that said Lords what shall I do to be saved which title certainly they would never have indured if this honour might not be yeelded and this title received by the Ministers of the Gospell S. Peter tels us that Christian women if they imitate Sarah that obeyed Abraham * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he propoundeth to them as a patterne may and should call their husbands though meane mechanicks Lords or else he proposeth this example to no purpose and therefore me thinkes they should be ashamed to thinke this honour may be afforded to poore Trades-men and to deny it to those eminent pillars and cheife governours of Gods Church And as the Script gives not onely others the like eminent and more significant titles of honour unto the governours of the Church as when it saith they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 presidents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rulers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princes as where the Psalmist sayth in steed of thy Fathers thou shalt have children whom thou mayest make Princes in all lands Origen ho. 19. in Math Hier. in Psal 45.16 which the best interpreters do expound of the Apostles and Bishops that are called the Princes of Gods Church but also giveth and alloweth this very title of Lord unto them as I shewed before so the fathers of the Primitive Church did usually ascribe the same one to another as S. Hierome writing to S. Aug. saith Domine verè sancte Sozom. lib. 3. c. 23. and the Letters sent to Julius Bishop of Rome had their superscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to our most blessed Lord. And Nazian sayeth Nazian in ep ad gr Nyssen let no man speak any untruth of me nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Lords the Bishops and in all antiquity as Theodoret sheweth Theodor. l. 1. c. 4. 5. l. c. 9. this title of Lord is most frequently ascribed unto the Bishops S. Chrysostome in Psal 13. as he is cited by Baronius Anno 58. n. 2. sayeth that Hereticks have learned of the Devill to deny the due titles of honour unto their Bishops neither is it strange that he which would have no Bishops should deny all honour unto the Bishops but they can be contented to transferre this honour though to cover their hypocrisie in another title that shall be as Emperor instead of King from the Episcopacie to the Presbytery so that indeed it is not the honour which they hate but the Persons of the Bishops that are honoured Therefore though for mine owne perticular I do so much undervalue the vanity of all titles that were it not the duty of the people to give it more then the desire of the Bishops to have it I should have spared all this discourse yet seeing it is the right of Kings to bestow honors and it is an argument of their love to Christ to honour them that honour God to magnifie the order of their Religion and to account the chiefe Ministers of the Gospell among the chiefe States of the Land I could not passe it over in silence but shew you how it belongs to him to give this honour to whom he will and because this dignity cannot be given to all that are in the same order it is wisely provided by the King that the whole order or Ministry should be honoured in those few The whole order honoured in few whose learning and wisedome he hath had most use and experience of or is otherwise well informed thereof and it is no small wonder unto me that any learned man should be so blinded with this error as any wayes to oppose this truth or that any Christian should be like the sons of Jacob so transported with envy when they see any of their brethren made more honourable then themselves for they ought to thinke themselves honoured in the honour of their brethren but that pride is such a beast that thinketh himselfe the most worthy and envy is such a monster that cannot endure any happinesse to any other When the Lord Bishops are downe the Lords Teâ—porâ—ll shall not continue long for as Geneva put away their Bishop thâ—t Prince so the Cantons and Switzers put away all Lords A just judgement of God that they which will have no sâ—irituall Lords should not be any temporall Lords but should be as little regarded by their creatures as thâ—y regard the servâ—nts of their Creator And that which makes me wonder most of all is to see those Lords whose honours scarce saw the age of a man and some pretending great loyalty to His Majestie and wishing happinesse to His Posterity so farre yeilding to the mis-guided Faction to darken the glory of Gods Church and to undervalue Christs Ministers as to obliterate that dignity and rase out those titles which are inherent to the Ministrie from the foundation of
interpreted by Saint Peter 2. Pet. 2.13 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings that are supreme where Saint Peter makes an excellent distinction betwixt the superiour and the inferiour Magistrates Saint Peters description betwixt the King and the inferiour Magistrates A two fold royalty in a King 1 Merum imperium the superiour is that which Saint Paul saith is ordained of God the inferiours are they which St Peter calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are sent by the King for the better explanation of which place you must know that in every King or supreme Magistrate we may conceive a double royalty The 1 is merum imperium or regni potestas summa plenissima and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this fulnesse of power and independent of any creature and immediately received of God which the Civilians call jus regis or munus regni is in the person of the King indivisible not to be imparted by the King to any creature because he cannot divest himselfe divide this power or alienate the same to any subject no not to his owne son How the King cannot doe unjustly without renouncing or dividing his Kingdome and by this the Civilians say the King may governe sine certa lege sine certo jure sed non fine aequitate justitia without Law but not without equity whereupon it is a rule in the Common Law hoc unum rex potest facere quod non potest injustè agere 2 Imperium dispositi vum which is to be applied to this inseperable regality of the King and hath beene often alleadged by other Parliaments to justifie the King from all blame The 2 is imperium dispositivum or jus gubernandi vel jurisdictio the right of governing or jurisdiction and distribution of justice and this may be derived and delegated from the King legatis vitalitiis either for terme of life or during the Kings pleasure But how not privativè when the King doth not denude himselfe thereof but cumulativè and executivè to execute the same How the King delegates his power to his inferiour Magistrates as the Kings Instruments for the preservation of peace and the administration of justice as it appeareth in their patent and this subordinate power is not inherent in their persons but onely committed unto them for the execution of some office because that when the supreame power is present the power of the inferiour officers is silent it is in nubibus fled into the clouds and like the light of the moone and starres vanishing whensoever the Sun appeareth for Kings when they doe transferre any actuall power to the subalternate Officers retaine the habituall power still in their owne hands which upon any emeregent occasion they may actually resume to themselves againe which they could not do if they parted with the habite and forme of this despoticall power of government that they have immediately received from God The words of the Apostles vindicated from the false glosses of the Sâ—ctaries Rom. 13.3 And as the Scriptures make it plaine that the Kings right and power to governe is immediately from God so they make it as plaine that it is the greatest right and most eminent highest power that is on earth for though the cavillers at this power translate the words of Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not potestatibus sublimioribus or supremis but potestatibus superexcellentibus and say that the word or particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where S. Peter bids us submit our selves to the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the cheife intends a resemblance onely and not a reall demonstration to prove the King to be the cheife Yet the malice of these men and the falshood of these glosses will appeare if you consider that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habens se super alios or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the powers that are ordained of God must needs signifie not any subordinate power but the supremest power on earth because the other powers are directly said by Saint Peter to be sent by the King 1 Pet. 2.13 and the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as really expresse the matter there as in John 1.14 where the Evangelist saith and we beheld his glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The testimony of the Fathers for the Soveraignty of Kings as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God And I hope our Sectaries will not be so impudent as to say that this signifieth but a resemblance of the Son of God But to make this point more plaine you shall heare what the fathers and the learned say for I told you before Tertullian saith of Kings and Emperours Tertul. ad Scap. in apologeâ— c. 30. Iâ—en advers haeres Valent l. 5. c. 20. Optat. contr â—armen l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost tom 6. orat 40. orat 2. Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 21. Q Curtinâ— l. 9. inde potestas unde spiritus and he is solo Deo minor inferiour to none but God Saint Chrysostome saith he hath no peere on earth but is the top of all men living Athanasius saith there is none above the Emperour but onely God that made the Emperour Saint Cyrill in a Sermon upon that text I am the vine commendeth the answer of a King whom Quintus Curtius affirmeth to be Alexander that being shot his Subjects would have him bound to pull out the arrow said non decet vinciri Regem Bern. Tractat. de pass Dom. c. 4. it becomes not Kings to be bound because none is superiour unto them Agapetus a Deacon of Constantine saith as much and because it is a rule in the Civill Law testem quem quis inducit pro se tenetur recipere contra sese the testimony of our adversaries is most convictive therefore I beseech you heare what they say for Rosellus a great Catholique saith it is hereticall to affirme that the universall administration of the temporall affaires is or must be in the Pope when the King hath no superiour on earth but the Creator of heaven and earth Caninus also saith that the Apostle Rom. 13. spake of the Regall and secular power Cassani Catal. glor mundi p. 8. considers 28. Card. Cusan concord Cathol l. 3. c. 5. Vide Arnis p. 5. de dist dupl iurisdict and not of the Ecclesiasticall and Cassanaeus saith that Kings are the highest and most paramount secular power and authority that ever God appointed on earth and denies that either the old or the new Testament makes any mention of an Emperour juris utriusque testimonia manifestè declarant imperialem dignitatem potestatem immediatè a filio Dei ab antiquo processisse said Philip King of France in Constit de potest elect Imperat. Irvin p. 33 34 35. quoteth many authors to confirme the same truth Lombard Gratian Melancton Cranmer Tyndall and abundance
more without number do likewise most peremptorily affirme that the Kings power is the supreme power on earth and as the mirror of our time the Bishop of Winchester observeth the Scripture testifieth that their Throne their Crowne their Sword their Scepter their Judgement their Royalty their power their Charge their Person and all in them are of God from God and by God to shew how sacred they are and ought to be unto us all and so the very Heathens teaching sounder Divinity then our Sectaries thought Homer Plutarch Ovid Fast l. 5. Quia a love nutriti ab eo regnum adeptisunt Scapula in verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and said that Kings were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministers of God and not the servants of the people Good God! what shall we say then to those children of Adam that will not onely with Adam be content to be like God but with Antichrist this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Many headed beast as Plato calleth them will exalt themselves above all that is called God They will divest the King and invest themselves with his right and therefore 2. The difficulty of governement 2. This sheweth how difficult a thing it is to rule and governe this unruly aspiring and ambitious multitude for the fuller understanding of which difficult duty Osorius saith that two things are to be considered 2 Things shewing the difficulty of governement 1. Suscepti muneris amplitudo the greatnesse of the charge which is of that weight that we can scarce thinke of a greater in all our life the care of Church and Common-wealth and to rule millions of men farre and neare 2. Gubernandorum qualitas the quality and conditions of those men that are to be governed which if there were nothing else to prove it will sufficiently shew the difficulty of their government for if it be a very hard thing to governe a mans selfe how much harder is it to governe such a multitude of mad men Cicero Tusc 3. de sinibus lib. 2. Plutarch in Alcâ—biad for Cicero saith the multitude is the greatest teacher of errour the unjustest judge of dignity being without counsell without reason without judgement and Plutarch calleth them possimam veritatis interpretem whereunto agreeth the answer of that Pope who being demanded what was furthest from truth answered populi sententia the opinion of the people and as they are the weakest for judgement so they are most instable in their resolutions to day crying Hosanna and to morrow Crucifige this is the nature of the people of whom these our Sectaries are the very dregs Osorius his description of the factious Puritans most plainly seene verified in our Rebels the worst and the basest of all I must crave leave to set downe what Osorius saith of them long agoe and you may finde that this rebellion proves his words most true for he saith the desire and end of this faction is too much liberty then which nothing can be more averse to the office and government of Kings for it is the duty of a King to cut off all haynous offences with just punishments the unbridled people desires to be free from all feare of punishment the King is the Minister of the Law the Keeper of it and the avenger of the transgression thereof the people as much as possibly they can with an impetuous temerity pulleth downe all Lawes the King laboureth to preserve peace and quietnesse the people with an untameable 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 equall 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 boldnesse being confirmed by daily impunity breaketh forth to the destruction of the royall Majestie Osorius in op Regina Elizabethae prafin l. de relig And a little after he saith adde to these things the abolition of Lawes the contempt of Rule the hatred of royall Majestie and the cruell lying in wait which they most impiously and nefariously do endeavour for their Princes adde also their clandestine and secret discourses where their confederacies are made for the extirpation of their Kings and to plot with unspeakable mischiefe the death of them whose health and safety they ought most heartily to pray to God for and then he addeth cum immodica libertatis cupiditate rapiantur leges oderunt judicia detestantur regum majestatem extinctam cupiunt Pagina 24. 25. 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 and killed others with the sword Revera mihi videtur esse arâ— artium hominem regere qui certè est inter omnes animantes maximè moribus vartus voluntate diversus Nazian in Apol. 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 Jewes by their continuall rebellions and murmurings against Moses and Aaron and we see it as plainly in our owne time when our people hath confirmed all that this Bishop said it is not an easie matter to governe such an unruly people But we finde that the rod of government is a miraculous rod that being in Moses hand was a faire wand but cast unto the ground turned to be an ugly and a poysonous Serpent to shew that the people being subject to the hand of government is a goodly thing and a glorious society A people well governed very glorious but let loose out of the Princes hands they are as Serpents crooked wriggled versipellis 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 worke of God Psal 65.7 when speaking unto God he saith Thou rulest the rage of the Seas the noyse of his waves and the madnesse of the
people God is the governour and Kings are but Gods instruments Psal 77.20 for Kings are but Gods instruments and God himselfe is the ruler of his people even as the same King David sheweth saying still to God Tu deduicisti 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 politique heads to doe it and this Solomon knew â—ull 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 goe out or in that is to governe them 1 Reg. 3.7.9 therefore I pray thee give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discerne betweene good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great a people that is what one man is able to governe an innumerous multitude of men Thou therefore must be the governour and I am but thine instrument and that I may be a fit instrument to doe thy worke I desire thee to give me a docible heart Wherefore O you Subjects without obedience They that reject their King reject God 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 owne worke to rule the people you may as well refuse God himselfe even as God saith unto Samuel They have not rejected thee 1 Sam. 8.7 but they have rejected me so you that doe rebell and cast away your King that God hath chosen as his hand to guide you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 10.16 and his instrument to governe you 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 choyce of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peeres 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 chiefe parts of the regall government the foure properties of a just Warre and how the Parliamentary Faction transgresse in every property 3. SEeing it is so hard and difficult a matter 3. The assistance that God alloweth unto Kings to helpe them in their government of two sorts ars artium guberuare populum the Mistresse of all Sciences and the most dangerous of all faculties to governe the people that Saturninus said truly to them that put on his Kingly ornaments they knew not what an evill it was to rule because of the many dangers that hang over the rulers heads which under the seeming shew of a Crowne of gold doe weare indeed a Crowne of thornes therefore ut rarò eminentes viros non magnis adjutoribus ad gubernandam fortunam suam usus invenies saith Paterculus as great men of a wealthy and vast estate are seldome without great counsell to assist them to governe and to dispose of that great fortune so Kings having a great charge laid upon them are not onely permitted but advised and counselled by God to have 1. Wise Counellors 1. Faithfull and wise Counsellors to direct them 2. Subordinate Magistrates to assist them in the government of the people Tacit. annal lib. 2. 1. Tacitus as I said before saith There cannot be an argument of greater wisedome in a Prince nor any thing of greater safety to the Common-wealth then for him to make choyce of a wise and religious Counsell because the most waighty labours of the Prince doe stand in need of the greatest helpes therefore Agamemnon had his Nestor and Chalcas â—â—s Hali. â— â—ib 2. Augustus had Mecoenas and Agrippa two wise Counsellors to direct him in all his affaires David had Nathan Gad Achitophell and Hushai and Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel Shadrac Meshac and Abednego and so all other Kings in all Nations do chuse the wisest men that they conceive to be their Counsellors â— Subordinate Magistrates 2. For subordinate Magistrates Jethro's counsell unto Moses and Moses hearkning unto him as to a wise and faithfull Counsellor makes it plaine how necessary it is for the supreme Magistrate to chuse such assistants as may beare with him some part of the great burthen of government Thus farre it is agreed upon on all sides but the difference betwixt us and our new State-Divines consisteth in these two points A twofold difference 1. About the choice 2. About the power of these officers For 1. About the choice of inferiour Magistrates and Officers 1. We say that by the Law of nature every master hath right to chuse his owne servants this is Lex gentium ever practiced among all Nations why then should not the King make choice of his owne Counsellors and Servants they will say because he is the servant of the Common-wealth But how is that I hope none otherwise then the Minister is the servant of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Cor. 4.5 for Christ his sake and shall he therefore that is your King lose the priviledges of a common Subject Besides hath not God committed the charge of his people into the Kings hand Exod. 18. â—1 and will he not require an accompt of him of their government how then shall he give an account to God when the government is taken out of his hands and subordinate officers and servants put upon him I am sure when the 70 grand Senators of Israel the great Sanhedrim of the Jewes were to be chosen Jethro saith unto Moses Thou shalt provide out of the people able men marke I pray you thou and not the people shalt provide them neither shall you find it otherwise in any Historie Pharaoh and not his people Gen. 41.41 made Joseph ruler over all the land of Egypt Nebuchadnezzar and not his people made Daniel ruler over the whole Province of Babylon Dan. 2.48 and Darius set over his Kingdome a hundred and twenty Princes Cap. 6.1 2. and made Daniel the first of the three presidents that were over all these And what shall I say of Ahashuerus All Kings chuse their owne Officers and all other Kings Heathens Jewes or Christians that ever kept this power to chuse their owne servants Counsellors and Officers except they were infant Kings in their nonage and so not able to chuse them But you will say that our Histories tell you how Rich. 2. Ob. Edw. 2. and others of our Kings had their Officers appointed and themselves committed unto Guardians by the Parliament therefore why may not
people So Arnisaeus saith Arnisaeus de jure Majest l. 2. c. 1. p. 214. Majestatis potestas omnis consistit vel in defendenda repub vel in regenda all the power of royalty consisteth either in defending or in governing the Common wealth according as Homer describeth a perfect King Homer Iliad γ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so you see the two principall parts of the Kings government are the Offices 1. Of a Captaine in the time of Warre 1. Ducis in bello gerendo 2. Iudicis in jure reddendo 1. Part. In the time of Warre Ordo ille naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli autoritas atque consilium apud principes sit Aug. cont Faust l 22. Arnis l. 2. c. 5. p. 345. Plato de legib lib. 2. Arnisaus lib. 2. cap. 5. p. 345. Luc. 14.31 Vers 32. 2. Of a Judge in the time of Peace 1. Then it is the proper right of the King and of none but the King or he that hath the regall and supreme power to make warre and to conclude peace for Plato in his Common-wealth ordained that Si quis pacem vel bellum secerit cum aliquibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Julian Law adjudgeth him guilty of High Treason Qui injussu principis bellum gesserit delectúmve habuerit exercitum vel comparaverit that either maketh Warre or raiseth an Army without his Kings command And to this part of the regall government which consisteth in the Militia in Armes for the defence of the Kingdome pertaineth 1. The proclaiming of Warre which our Saviour properly ascribeth unto the right of Kings when he saith not what State or Common-wealth but What King going to warre with another King c 2. The concluding of Peace which our Saviour ascribeth also unto the King in the same place 3. The making of leagues and confederacies with other forraigne States Aristot polit l. 7. c. 8. 4. The sending and receiving of Ambassadors 5. To raise Armes and the like which the Lawes of God and of all Nations justifie to be the proper right of Kings Arnis l. 2. c. 1. and to belong onely unto the supreame Majestie Judges 11.11 But then you will say did not the Judges Moses Joshua Gedion Jephta Barac Sampson and the rest make warre and yet they were no Kings Why then may not the Nobles make warre as well as Kings I answer that they doe indeed make warre and a miserable wretched warre but I speake of a just warre and so I say that none but the King or he that hath the Kings power can doe it for though the Judges assumed not the name of Kings nor Captaines sed à potiore parte vocati sunt judices but from the sweetest part of the royall government were termed Judges yet they had the full power ducendi judicandi populum both of warre and peace saith Sigonius and so the men of Gilead said unto Jephthe veni esto princeps noster and they made him their head by an inviolable covenant Deut. 33.5 And of Moses it is plainly said He was King in Jesurun and when there was no Judge it is said there was no King in Israel Judges 17.6.18.1.19.1 for I stand not about words when some were called Kings for the honour of the people and yet had no more power then Subjects as the Kings of Sparta and others had not the name of Kings and yet had the full power of Kings as the Dictator and the Emperour and the great Duke of Muscovie and the like But when a warre is undertaken by any Prince how shall we know which party is in the right for to make an unjust warre cannot be said to be the right of any King yet as the Poët saith Lucan lib. 1. Quis justius induit arma Scire nefas summo se judice quisque tuetur Every one pretends his cause is just he fights for God for the truth of the Gospell the faith of Christ and the liberty and Lawes of his Countrey how then shall those poore men that hazard their lives and their fortunes yea and soules too if they warre on the wrong side understand the truth of this great doubtfull and dangerous point I answer all the Divines that I reade of speaking of warre Dambo ◠d in praxi criminal cap. 82. doe concurre with what Dumbauderius writeth of this point that there must be foure properties of a just warre 1. A just cause Foure properties of a just Warre 2. A right intention 3. Meet Members 4. The Kings authority Sine qua est laesa Majestas without which authority the Warriours are all Traytors And I would to God our Rebels would lay their hands upon their hearts and seriously examine these foure points in this present Warre 1. What cause have they to take Armes against their King 1. A just causes and to kill and murder so many thousands of their owne Brethren they will answer that they doe it for the defence of their Liberty Lawes and Religion but how truly let God himselfe be the Judge for His Majestie hath promised and protested they shall enjoy all these fully and freely without any manner of diminution and we know that never any rebellion was raised but these very causes were still pretended And therefore 2. Consider with what intent they doe all this 2. A right intention and I doubt not but you shall finde foule weeds under this faire cloake for under the shadow of liberty and property they tooke the liberty to rob all the Kings loyall Subjects that they could reach of all or most of their estates and to keepe them fast in prison because they would not consent to their lawlesse liberty and to be Rebels with them against their conscience And under the pretence of Lawes they aymed not to have the old Lawes well kept which was never denyed them but to have such new ones made as might quite rob the King of all his rights and transferre the same unto themselves and their friends so he should be like the King of Sparta a royall slave What Lawes and Religion the Rebels would faine hav◠and they should be like the Ephori ruling and commanding Subjects And for the religion you may know by their new Synod which are a Synod not of Saints but of Rebels what religion they would faine have not that which was profest in Q. Elizabeths times that was established by the Lawes justified by the paines and confirmed by the bloud of so many worthy men and faithfull Martyrs but a new religion first hatched in Amsterdam then nourished in New England and now to be transplanted into this Kingdome 3. Meete Members 3. Who are the persons that are imployed in this warre he first of all that is the more disloyall because he was a person of honour that had so much honour conferred upon him by His
Majestie and so much trust reposed in him and would notwithstanding prove so unthankfull as to kick with his heeles against his Master and so follow whom you know passibus aequis whose example any other man that were not robb'd of his understanding would make a remora to retaine him from rebellion and what are the other heads but a company either of poore needy Who the Rebells are and what manner of persons they be and meane condition'd Lords and Gentlemen or discontented Peeres that are misled or such factious Sectaries whose blind zeale and furious malice are able to hurry them headlong to perpetrate any mischeife for their Captaines and their Officers I beleeve they fight neither for the Anabaptists creed nor against the Roman faith nor to overthrow our Protestant Church but for their pay for which though they cannot be justified to take their hire for such ill service to rebell against their King and to murder their innocent brethren Yet are they not so bad as their grand Masters and for their common Souldiers I assure my selfe many of them fight against their wills many seduced by their false Prophets others inticed by their factious Masters and most of them compelled to kill their brethren against their wills and therefore in some places though their number trebled the Kings yet they had rather run away then fight and what a miserable and deplorable case is this when so many poore soules shall be driven unto the Devill by Preachers and Parliament against their wills 4. The supreme authority 4. If you consider qua authoritate by what authority they wage this warre they will answer by the Authority of Parliament and that is just none at all because the Parliament hath not the supreme authority without which the warre is not publique nor can it be justified for a warre is then justifiable when there is no legall way to end the controversie by prohibiting farther appeales which cannot be but onely betwixt independent States and severall Princes Albericus Gentilis de jure belli l 1. c. 2. that have the supreme power in their owne hands and are not liable to the censure of any Court which power the Parliament cannot challenge because they are or should be the Kings lawfull Subjects and therefore cannot be his lawfull enemies but they will say Master Goodwin Burroughes and all the rest of our good men zealous brethren Subjects can never make a lawfull warre against their king and powerfull Preachers doe continually cry out in our eares it is bellum sanctum a most just and holy warre a warre for the Gospell and for our Lawes and Liberties wherein whosoever dies he shall he crowned a Martyr I answer that for their reward they shall be indeed as Saint Augustine saith of the like Martyres stultae Philosophiae when every one of them may be indicted at the barre of Gods justice for a felo de se a Malefactor guilty of his owne untimely death Res dura ac plena pericli est regale occidisse genus and for their good Orators that perswade them to this wickednesse I pray you consider well what they are men of no worth rebellious against the Church rebells against the King factious Schismatiques of no faith of no learning In what condition their Preachers are and of what worth that have already forfeited their estates if they have any and their lives unto the Kingâ— and will any man that is wise hazard his estate his life and his soule to follow the perswasions of these men my life is as deere to mee as the Earle of Essex his head is to him and my soule deerer and I dare ingage them both that if all the Doctors in both Universities and all the Divines within the Kingdome of England were gathered together to give their judgement of this warre there could not be found one of ten it may be as I beleeve not one of twenty that durst upon his conscience say this warre is lawfull upon the Parliament side It is contrary to the doctrine of all the Protestant Church for Subjects to resist their king for though these Locusts that is the German Scottish and the English Puritane agreeing with the Romane Jesuite ever since the reformation harped upon this string and retained this serpentine poison within their bosome still spitting it forth against all States as you may see by their bookes Yet I must tell you plainely this doctrine of Subjects taking up armes against their lawfull King is point blanke and directly against the received doctrine of the Church of England and against the tenet of all true Protestants Paraeus in Rom. 13. Boucher l. 2. c. 2. Keckerm Syst pol. c. 32 â—un Brut. q. 2. p. 56. Bellar. de lâ—â—c c. 6 Suar. dâ—f fid cathol c. 3. and therefore Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuite that cast this aspersion upon the Protestants that they jumpe with them in this doctrine of warring against and deposing Kings saith that no Protestant doth maintaine that damnable doctrine and that rashnesse of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto Juell and Bilson and all the Doctors of our Church are of the same minde and Lichfield saith no Orthodox father did by word or writing teach any resistance for the space of a thousand yeares and Doctor Feild saith â—ichfield l. 4. c â—9 § 19 â—ield l. 5. c. 30 that all the worthy fathers and Bishops of the Church perswaded themselves that they owed all duty unto their Kings though they were Heretiques and Infidells and the Homilies of the Church of England allowed by authority do plainely and peremptorily condemne all Subjects warring against their King for Rebells and Traitors that doe resist the ordinance of God and procure unto themselves damnation and truly I beleeve most of their own consciences tell them so they that think otherwise I would have them to consider that if they were at a banquet where twenty should averre such a dish to be full of poyson for every one that would warrant it good would'st thou venture to eate it and hazard thy life in such a case O then consider what it is to hazard thy soule upon the like termes So you see the justnesse of the warre on the Parliament side But 1. On the Kings side it cannot be denied but his cause is most just for his owne defence for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion that is established by our Lawes and for the rights of the Church and the just liberties and property of all his loyall Subjects this he testifieth in all his Declarations and this we know in our owne consciences to be true and therefore 2. As His Majestie professeth so we beleeve him that he never intended otherwise by this warre but to protect us and our Religion and to maintaine his owne just and unquestionable rights which these Rebells would
most unjustly wrest out of his hands and under the shew of humble Petitioners to become at last proud Commanders for as one saith They whom no deniall can withstand Seeme but to aske while they indeed command 3. His Assistants learned honest and religious 3. For the persons that warre with him they are the cheifest of the Nobility all the best Gentry that hazard their lives not for filthy lucre for the Kings Revenues being so unjustly detained from him they are faine to supply his necessities and to beare their owne charges and the poore common Soldiers are nothing wanting to doe their best endeavours neither need they to feare any thing because 4. The King hath a just right to give them full power and authority to doe execution upon these Rebells as I have proved unto you before 4. His authority sacred and unquestionable And therefore the result of all is that the Parliament side under the pretence of Religion fighting if not for the Crowne yet certainely for the full power and authority of the King who shall have the ordering of the Militia that is What the pretended Parliament is who shall have the government of this Kingdome which is all one as who shall be the King they or King CHARLES and which is the very question that they would now decide by the sword in taking away our goods are theeves and robbers in killing their brethren are bloudy murderers and in resisting their King are rebellious traytors that as the Apostle saith purchase to themselves damnation when as the Prophet Esay speaketh of the like Rebells being hardly bestead and hungry Esay 8.21.22 as I beleeve thousands of them are in London and other rebellious Cities they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and looke upward as I feare many of them doe curse the King with their tongues and God in their hearts and they shall looke unto the earth and behold trouble and darknesse dimnesse and anguish and they shall be driven to darkenesse even to utter darkenesse where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 8.12 if by a true repentance they doe not betimes rent their hearts and forsake their fearefull sinnes And the Kings side in this warre doing no further then the King gives Commission do no more then what God commandeth and therefore living they shall be accounted Loyall Subjects worthy of honour and dying they shall be sure to be everlastingly rewarded CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first government of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deut. 17. and of Samuel 1. Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of government came up 2. Part of the regall governement in the time of peace 2. HAving thus shewed you Potestatem ducendi the Kings right and power of making warre it resteth that I should speake De potestate judicandi of his power and right of judgeing and governing his people in the time of peace touching which we finde none denying his right but all the difference is about the manner where Master Selden in his titles of Honour p. 15. 1. I finde Master Selden rejecting as ridiculous the testimony of Justine which saith Populus nullis legibus tenebatur sed arbitria regum pro legibus erant That the first government of Kings was arbitrary 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 subtle and very mindfull of his owne 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 consute the reason that some alleadge for the denyall of those times to be governed by any Law because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be found in all Homer Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hymnis ad Apoll. but wheresoever he speakes of Justice 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 Ioseph advers Appion l. 5. yet all this may be answered and Justines opinion prove most true for Talus his time must needs be uncertaine Plutarch in lib. de Hero and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer meanes 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 Radamantus or any other Law-maker that you reade of Moses was the first that I finde either giving Lawes or inventing Letters and yet there were many Kings before Moses Gen. 14.1 2. nine Kings named in one Chapter and what Lawes had they to governe their people besides their owne 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 and pag. 4. Pompon de origine juris ff l. 1. § 2. he saith the people seeing the inconveniences of popular rule chose one Monarch under whose arbitrary rule their happy quiet should be preserved Iosephus regnū appellat imperium summum unius hominis non ex lege sed ex arbitrio imperanti◠Antiquit l. 4. where also you may observe his great mistake in making the Monarchie to spring out of the Democracie when as I have proved before the Monarchicall government was many hundred of yeares before we heare mention of any other forme of government but in any governement Doctor Saravia saith and he saith most truly Quisquis summum obtinet imperium sive is sit unus rex sivè pauci nobiles vel ipse populus universus supra omnes leges sunt Saravia de imperand autor l. 2. c. 3. 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 scipso superior Barclaius l. 3. c. 16. nemo à seipso cogi possit leges à superiore tantum sciscantur dentūrque inferioribus And so Arnisaeus saith and proveth at large Arnis l. c. c. 3◠p. 49 50. Majestatis essentiam consistere in summa absoluta potestate that the being of Majestie and Soveraignty consisteth in the highest and most absolute power Irvinus cap. 4. p. 64 65 And Irvinus alleadgeth many testimonies out of Aristotle Cicero Vlpian Dio Constant Harmenopolus and others to prove that Rex legibus non subjicitur And
their due honour and made all equall all as base as Jeroboams Priests will be apt enough to blow up this conceit and to put it into the Creed of all the vulgar that God made us all equall and to be Lords is but to be tyrants over their Brethen and the Presbytery whose pride could not obey the authority of their Bishops will not abide the superiority of any Lords but if they cannot Lord it themselves will be sure to take away the Lordship from all others And therefore if the Nobility be not wiser then to lay our honours in the dust as I see some about His Majestie that would faine be the Priests to bury it which meere policie though they wanted piety should prohibit they shall finde that Jam tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet Virgil. Aeneiâ— l. 1. When our Cottages are burnt their next Pallaces shall not escape the fire but through our sides their Honours shall be killed and buried without honour 3. Jus legitimandi 3. Ius legitimandi the right of legitimation belongs unto the King without which legitimation the Lawyers tell us that as the world now standeth a mighty emolument would happen unto the Crowne if the King granted not this grace to them that want it 4. Jus appellationes recipiendi 4. Ius appellationes recipiendi the right of taking notice of causes and of judging the same by the last appeale definitively doth alwayes belong to the supreme Majestie because that as Saint Paul appealed unto Caesar Act. 25.11 so the last appeale is to the highest Soveraigne from whom there lyeth none appeale but onely to him that shall judge all the Judges of the earth 5. Honores restituendi 5. Jus restituendi in integrum the right to restore men attainted or banished or condemned to death unto their Country wealth and honour is likewise a part of the royall right So Osorius saith Osorius de rebuâ— Imman p. 6. that Immanuel King of Portugall restored James sonne of Fernandus and his brother Dionysius and others unto their forfeited honours and so not onely the Scripture sheweth how David pardoned Absolon and Shimei 1. Reg. 2.26 two wicked Rebels and Solomon pardoned Abiathar that were all worthy of death Veniam criminosis indulgere but also Saint Augustine speaking of other Kings and Emperours saith judicibus statuendum est ne liceat in reum datam sententiam revocare the Judges may not pardon a man condemned to death numquid ipse Imperator sub hac lege erit but shall not the Emperour or King pardon him are they likewise under this Law of restraint by no meanes Nam ipsi soli licet revocare sententiam reum mortis absolvere ipsi ignoscere for he and he alone that is the Emperour or King may revoke the sentence and absolve him that is guilty of death And so our King according to this his undenyable right Our Kings unparalâ—ll'd clemency and prety towards the Rebels hath most graciously and not seldome offered his pardon unto these intolerable Rebels a pardon not to be parallel'd in any Historie nor to be beleeved unlesse we had seene it that a man could be so farre inclined to clemency and mercy as to remit such transcendent impiety which will render 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 kinde of wickednesse with incredible transgressions they should be found 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 for sometimes the sinners may be like the sonnes of Zervia 2. Sam. 3.39 too strong for David how they pardon those great crimes that are committed to the dishonour of God and doe so farre 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 owne Lawes Arnisaus l. 11 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 Commandements or if they doe not when they can doe 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 the right of calling Synods Parliaments 6. Jus convocandi Synodos Parliamenta c. 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 excudendi the right of coyning money 7. Ius monetas excudendi to give it value to stampe his armes or his image upon it as our Saviour saith Whose Image and superscription is this Matth. 22.20 and they say to him Caesars is the proper right of Caesar the prerogative of the King The second sort of the Kings right is circa magistratus 2. About the Magistrates and containeth jurisdiction rule creation of officers appointing of circuits provinces judgements censures institution of Schooles and Colledges collation of dignities receiving of fidelities and abundance more whereof I intend not to speake at this time but referre my Reader to Arnisaeus Arnis l 2. c. 2. de jure Majestatis if he desires to be informed of these particulars And as these and the like are jura Regalia the rights of Majestie 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 Soveraignty whose right it is alone to make warre 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 Ambassadors to negotiate with forreigne States and the like are the rights of Kings and the indeleble characters of Soveraignty which whosoever violateth and endeavoureth to purloine them from the King doth with Prometheus steale fire from Heaven which the Gods would not suffer as the Poets faigne to goe unrevenged And these things so farre as I can finde the King never parted with them unto his Subjects and therefore whosoever pretendeth to an inderived power to doe any of these and exempteth himselfe from the Kings right herein â—oh Beda p. 26. resisteth the ordinance of God and is guilty of High-Treason what pretext soever he brings saith the Advocate of Paris Ita etiam reges Egypti quibus voluntas pro lege est legum tamen instituta
have decreed the said Statute to bee void c. So I hope our Earles and Barons 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 owne conscience knoweth and doe presume His Majestie will acknowledge they likewise will consent that the King may make it void againe §. 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 crave leave to be resolved in certaine 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 1. Whether any positive Act Statute or Law that is either Quare 1 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 believe and constantly maintaine 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 seeke the Law at his mouth 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 2. Whether the King that is an absolute Monarch to whom Quare 2 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 believed 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 Quare 3 3. Whether the King can passe away that power authority and right which God hath given him and without which he cannot governe 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 part with that power and right * Otherwise then by substitution Rege absente durante beneplacito or quamdiu se benè gesserâ—nt sub stituti whereby he is inabled to governe them and without which he cannot governe them untill God that laid this charge upon him and gave him full power and authority to doe it by some undenyable dispensation gives him his Writ of ease to discharge him 4. Whether such an Act or Statute which disinableth any King to dissolve his Dyet Councell Assembly or Parliament Quare 4 and inableth some subtle faction of his Subjects in some sort to countermand their King be not derogatory to the inseperable right of Majestie destructive to the power of government and prejudiciall to all the loyall Subjects and therefore void of it selfe The Act for the indissolubility of any Parliament beleeved by many to be of it selfe void and not to be observed because such an act ought not to have beene concluded wherein I leave the resolution to be determined by the Judges and the Bishops of this Land and I will onely crave leave to set downe what may be thought herein viz. that such an Act or Statute is clearely and absolutely void Reason 1 1. Because that hereby the King may be said after a sort and in some kinde to change the fundamentall constitution and government of his Kingdome from an absolute Monarchie to another species and forme of government either Aristocraticall or Democraticall or some other forme emergent out of all these such as we know not how to terme it and such as was never knowne from the beginning of the world a mixture indeed which I told you before no absolute King can be thought to doe without offence unlesse he can prove his licence from God to doe the same 2. Because that hereby he may be said to denude himselfe of Reason 2 his right and by depriving himselfe of this power to disinable himselfe to discharge that duty which God doth necessarily require at his hands that is to governe his people by protecting the innocent and punishing the wrong doer and when God shall call the King to an account why he did not thus governe his people and defend those poore Subjects that were loyall and faithfull both to God and their King according to the charge that he laid upon him and the right and power which he gave him to discharge it It may be feared it will be no sufficient answer for any King to say but I have so laid away that power and parted with that right unto my Lords and Commons that I could not doe it for it may be asked where doth God require him or when did he authorize him to divest himselfe of that authority wherewith he indued him how then can he doe it to the undoing of many people without an assured leave from God therefore as that Act which was made unrepealable was adjudged no Act but immediately void because it was destructive to the very power of Parliament * Which may repeale their owne Acts but not destroy their just power nor themselves as it seemes the the Act of excluding the Bishops doth and takes away as it were the soule of the Parliament and if any act should be made to destroy common right or to hinder the publique service of God or to disinable the right heire to injoy the Crowne or the like those Acts are void of themselves so any Statute that disinableth the Kings government must needs be void ipso facto as I have partly shewed in my Discovery of Mysteries p. 32. 3. Because it may be believed no King would ever grant such an Act unlesse he were either subtilly deceived and seduced or forcibly compelled thereunto for feare of some inavoidable extremity which according to all outward appearance Reason 3 could not otherwise be
unrighteousnesse Injustice destroyeth Kingdomes the same being as it was said of Carthage fuller of sinnes then of people as you see the Monarchy of the Assyrians was translated unto the Medes and Persians and the most famous republ of the Romanes was spoiled when forgetting their pristine honesty they became unjust Lucan l. 1. Mensuraque juris Vis erat And the law was measured by strength and he had the best right which was most powerfull and so the ancient nation of the Britons came to utter ruine and destruction propter avaritiam principum injustitiam judicum negligentiam episcoporum luxuriam populi saith Gildas Ezechiel â—3 11 and 18.32 And therefore God that desireth not the death of a sinner much lesse the ruine of any nation would have us to seeke for justice and to live uprightly one among another but as the sheepe that are without a shepheard wander where they list so as you read often in the booke of Judges when the people were without a King there was no justice amongst them but every man did that which was right in his owne eyes therefore to prevent oppressions and wrongs Judges 17.6 God out of his infinite love and favour unto mankind from the beginning of the world called and appointed Kings to be his vicegerents to judge the earth Dan. 2.21 37 1. Chron. 2 84 1. Sam. â—0 1 1. Reg. 19.15 Romans 13.4 Tertull. ad Scap. c. 2. Optat. cont Parmen l. 3. p. 8 5. Auson in monâ—syll Et id possumus quod iure possumuâ— Chrysost ad Pop. Antioch hom 2. Ambros apol pro Davide c. 4. c. 10. Aug. de civit l. 4. c. 33. Greg. epis l. 2 ep 110. Autor libelli cui inscriptio brevis narratio quomodo Hen. 4. c. Bellar. de laic c 5. Rhem. anno 1. Pet. 2.23 â— De la Cerda in Virgil. l. 11. p. 560. c. Herod l. 2. Plut. in vit Cicero 2. orat in Anton. Ovid Mei 6. Suet. de act c. â— and to see that the poore and the fatherlesse have right for besides many other places that might be alleadged the Spirit of God saith directly ego dixi Dii estis and by me Kings do reigne that is by my appointment by my direction and by my protection they doe and shall rule and reigne over my people as Tertull Optat. S Chrysost S. Ambrose S. Aug. S. Gregory and the rest of the most Orthodox fathers have ever taught and maintained and therefore this is not inventum humanum as the Puritanes have dreamed and the Popes flatterers have maintained but it is an ordination of God that we have Kings given unto us not to domineere and to satisfy their untamed wills and sensuall appetites but to administer justice and judgment unto their people and so to guide them to live in all peace and tranquillity for as Auson saith Qui rectè faciet non qui dominatur erit rex And therefore Plinius Secundus in his panegyricks saith ut faelicitatis est posse quantum velis sic magnitudinis est velle quantum possis bonitatis facere quantum justum as it is a great felicity to be able to doe what we will so it is a most heroicke resolution to will no more but what we should and to doe nothing but what is just Claudian saith to Honorius Nec tibi quid liceat sed quid fecisse decebit Occurrat mentemque domet respectus honesti and so Homer saith that Sarpedon preserved Licia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through justice and fortitude whereupon the old Scholiast citeth the words of Aeschilus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that vertue and justice are ever coupled together and Dio Chrysost faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is the best of men that is the most valiant and most just Orat. 2. and Herodian saith of Pertinax that he was both loved and feared of the Barbarians as well for the remembrance of his vertues in former battels as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that wittingly or willingly he never did injustice to any man at time Plutarch ascribeth these vertues 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 Iames of famous and ever blessed memory we may truly say Cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides nudaque veritas Quando ullum invenient parem Horat. l. 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 himselfe for his Coadiutor But here you must observe that which indeed is most true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is not a iust man that doth no hurt but he that is able to do hurt Who rightly termed just and will not doe 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 doe 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 mind of their duties to what end God hath made them Kings for they are but base flatterers quibus omnia principum honesta atque inhonesta laudare mos est Tacit. annal l. 3. Plut. in Apotheg Eustach ad Iliad β. Salust in Orat. â—as cont Catil that will commend all the doings of Princes be they good or bad and which say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things are honest and just that Kings doe as that flattering Sycophant said to Antigonus or like those Chirodicai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who thinke justice lieth 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 For 1. Where God hath conferred much honour Kings ought to be more just then all otherâ— in 3 respects there he expecteth much equity and the more goodnesse where he bestowed the more grace ideo deteriores estis quia meliores esse debetis and will men therefore be the more sinfull Luke 12.48 Salvian de Provid 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 looke through them so their actions can no more be hid then
the Citie that is placed upon an hill but their least and lightest acts are soone seene 3. Their places are as slippery as they are lofty when as one saith height it selfe maketh mens braines to swimme Seneca in Agamemn 2.1 nunquam solido stetit superba foelicitas and proud insolency never stood sure for any certaine space for as God hath made them gods so he can unmake them at his pleasure Aug. ho. 14. and as S. Augustine saith Quod contulit immerentibus tollit malè merentibus quod illo donante fit nostrum nobis superbientibus fit alienum what God hath 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 owne pride and not onely so but as he hath heaped honours upon their heads that they might honour him so if they neglect him he can powre contempt upon Princes Job 12.21 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 flocke and then Quanto gradus altior Job 30.1 â—anto casus gravior the higher they were exalted the more will be their griefe when they are dejected as it was with those Kings that being wont to be carried in their royall Charets were forced like horses to draw Sesostris Coach Quia mâ—serrimum est suisse felicem because it is a most wretched thing to have beene happy and not to be or as the Poet saith Ovidius Trist l. 3. Eleg. 4. Qui cadit in plano vix hoc tamen evenit unquam Sic cadit ut tactà surgere possit hâ—mo At miser Elpenor tecto dilapsus ab alto Occurrit regi flebilis umbra suâ— And therefore all Kings should be ever mindfull of the words of King David 2. Sam. 23.3 He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the feare of God and all these things that I have set downe should move all Kings and Princes to set their mindes upon righteousnesse Psal 58.1 to judge the thing that is right and to live to raigne and rule according to the straight rule of the Law What should move all Kings to rule justly according to Lawes 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 trie your workes 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 for a sharpe judgement shall be to them that are in high places for mercy will soone pardon the meanest but mighty men shall be mightily tormented Sap. 6. usque ad vers 9. for he that is Lord over all shall feare no mans person neither shall he stand in awe of any mans greatnesse for he hath made the small and the great and careth for all alike but a sore tryall shall come upon the mighty Heb. 10.31 And the Apostle saith It is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God which things should make their eares to tingle and their hearts to tremble whensoever they step aside out of Gods Commandements And thus we set downe the charge of Kings and the strict account that they must render unto God how they have discharged the same whereby you see we flatter them not in their greatnesse but tell them as well what they should be as what they are and presse not onely obedience unto the people but also equity and justice unto the Prince that both doing their duty both may be happy CHAP. XV. Sheweth the honour due to the King 1. Feare 2. An high esteem of our King how highly the Heathens esteemed of their Kings the Marriage of obedience and authority the Rebellion of the Nobility how haynous 3. Obedience fourefold diverse kinds of Monarchs and how an absolute Monarch may limit himselfe 2 I Have shewed you the person that we are commanded to honour the King 2 The honour that is due to the King I am now to shew you the honour that is due unto him not only by the customes of all Nations but also by the Commandement of God himselfe Where first of all you must observe that the Apostle useth the same word here to expresse our duty to our King as the holy Ghost doth to expresse our duty to our father and mother for there it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and here S. Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew indeed that the King urbi pater est urbique maritus is the common Father of us all and therefore is to have the same honour that is due to our father and mother The same that is due to our Father and Mother and I have fully shewed the particulars of that honour upon that fift commandement I will insist upon some few poynts in this place and as the ascent to Solomons throne was per sex gradus by sixe speciall steps so I will set you down six main branches of this honour that are typified in the six ensignes or emblems of Royall Majesty for 1 The Sword exacteth feare Six speciall branches of the honour due to the King and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as much 2 The Crowne importeth honour because it is of pure gold 3 The Scepter requireth obedience because that ruleth us 4 The Throne deserves Tribute that his Royalty may be maintained 5 His Person meriteth defence because he is the Defender of us all 6 His charge calleth for our Prayers that he may be inabled to discharge it 1. Feare 1. Kings are called Gods and all the Royall Ensignes and Acts of Kings are ascribed to God as their Crown is of God whereupon they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 21.3 crowned of God their sword is of God Psal 18.39 Iudg. 7 17. Exod. 4.20.17.9 whereupon the Psalmist saith thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle their Scepter is the Scepter of God for so Moses rod which signifieth a Scepter as well as a rod is called the rod of God their throne is
maker hath appoynted 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 reproofe 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 only because their weake heads or false hearts doe account the commandement of the King to be against right and what themselves doe to be most holy and just Ob. Diverse kinds of Monarchies But our City Prophets will say that although the King be the supream Monarch whom we are commanded to obey yet there are diverse kinds of Monarchies or Regall governments as usurped lawfull by conquest by inheritance by election and these are either absolute as were the Easterne Kings and the Roman Emperours or limited and mixed which they terme a Politicall Monarchie where the King or Monarch can do nothing alone but with the assistance direction of his Nobility 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 compell him to the other to which I answer 1. As God himselfe which is most absolute Sol. Absolute Monarchs may limit themselves liberrimum agens may notwithstanding limit himselfe and his own power as he doth when he promiseth and sweareth that he will not fail David and that the unrepentant Rebells should never enter into his rest so the Monarch may limit himselfe 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 poynt of a needle just like the Papist that saith he is a Roman Catholike that is a particular universall a black white a polumonarcha a many one governour when we say he is a Monarch joyned in his government with the Parliament for he can be no Monarch or supream King Soveraign that hath any sharers with him or above him in the governmeÌ„t 2. There is no Monarch that can be said to be simply absolute but only God yet where there is no superior but the soveraignty residing in the King he may be said to be an absolute Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. because there is none on earth that can controule him 2 Because he is free absolute in all such things wherein he is not expresly limited and therefore 3. Seeing no Monarch or Soveraigne is so absolute No Monarch so Absolute but some way limited but that he is some way limited either by the Law of God or 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 Kingdome there is no reason they should resist their King for transgressing the limitations of one kinde more then the other or if any no doubt but he that transcendeth the limits of Gods Law or goeth against the common rules of nature ought rather to be resisted then he that observeth not his own voluntary concessions but themselves perceiving how peremptorily the Apostle speaketh against resistance of the Heathen Emperours that then ruled doe confesse that absolute Monarchs ought not to be resisted wherein also they are mistaken because the histories tell us those Emperours were not so absolute as our Kings till the time of Vespasian when the lex Regia transferred all the power of the People upon the Emperour No Monarch ought to be resisted Vlpian de constit Principis therefore indeed no Monarch ought to be resisted whatsoever limitations he hath granted unto his Subjects And the resisters of authority might understand if their more malitious then blind leaders would give them leave that this virtue of obedience to the supream power maketh good things unlawfull when we are forbidden to doe them as the eating of the forbidden tree was to Adam and the holding up of the Arke was to Vzza and it maketh evill things to be good and lawfull when they are commanded to be done as the killing of Isaack if he had done it had been commendable in Abraham and the smiting of the Prophet was very laudable in him that smote him when the Prophet commanded him to doe it and therefore Adam and Vzza were punished with death because they did those lawfull good things which they were forbidden to doe Rebels should well consider these things and the others were recompenced with blessings because they did and were ready to doe those evill things that they were commanded to doe when as he that refused to smite the Prophet 1. Reg. 20.38 being commanded to doe it was destroyed by a Lion because he did it not whereby you see that things forbidden when they are commanded è contra cannot be omitted without sinne Ob. Mandatum imperantis â—ollit peccatum obedientis Aug. Sol. You will say it is true when it is done by God whose injunction or prohibition his precept or his forbidding to doe it or not to doe it maketh all things lawfull or unlawfull I answer that we cannot think our selves obedient to God whilest we are disobedient to him whom God hath commanded us to obey and therefore if we will obey God we must obey the King because God hath commanded us to obey him and being to obey him non attendit verus obediens quale fit quod praecipitur sed hoc solo contentus quia praecipitur he that is truly obedient to him whom God commanded us to obey never regardeth what it is that is commanded so it be not simply evill for then as the Apostle saith it is better to obey God then man were he the greatest Monarch in the World but he considereth and is therewith satisfied that it is commanded Bernard in l. de praecept dispensat and therefore doth it saith St Bernard in l. de praecept dispensat CHAP. XVI Sheweth the answer to some objections against the obeying of our Soveraigne Magistrate all actions of three kinds how our Consciences may be reformed of our passive obedience to the Magistrates and of the Kings concessions how to be taken BVt against this our sectaries and Rebells will object Ob. that their conscience which is vinculum accusator testis judex their bond their accuser their witnesse and their judge against whom they can say nothing and from whom they cannot appeale unlesse it be to a severer Iudge will not give them leave to obey to doe many things that the King requireth to be done and
cause lest we should think it lawfull to swallow a Camell because we are able to streane a gnat and let us not be afraid where no feare is and think those things sinfull that are most lawfull A heavy judgement upon this Nation by mistaking sinnes 6. From perplexity which is a heavy judgement of God upon the wicked and hath now lighted very sore upon many of the Inhabitants of this land who thinke it Popery to say God blesse you and judge it idolatry to see a Crosse in Cheap-side 6. If it be of perplexity when a man is close as he conceives betwixt two sinnes where he seeth himselfe vnable though never so willing to avoyd both let him peccare in tutiorem partem which though it takes not away the sinne yet it will make the fault to be the lesse sinne as the casting away of the corne which is the gift of God and the sustenance of mans life is an unthankfull abuse of Gods creature Act. 27.38 yet as S. Paul caused the same to be cast into the Sea for the safeguard of their lives so must we doe the like when occasion makes it necessary as now rather to kill our enemies the Rebells though we should think it to be ill then suffer them to wrong our King and to destroy both Church and Kingdome because that of two things which we conceive evill When things are to be judged inevitable and are not both evitable the choice of the lesser to avoyd the greater is not evill but they are then to be judged inevitable when there is no apparent ordinary way to avoid them Hooker Eccles pol. l 5. p. 15. because that where counsell and advice doe beare rule we may not presume of Gods extraordinary power without extraordinary warrant saith iuditious Mr Hooker 7. If it be of too much humility 7. From too much humility which is an error of lesse danger yet by no meanes to be fostered lest by gathering strength it proves most pernitious they should pray to God to preserve them from too much feare Multos in summa periculamisit venturi timor ipse mali Lucan l 7. for though as S. Gregory saith bonarum mentium est ibi culpas agnoscere ubi culpa non est yet as J said before it is a heavy Iudgement and a want of Gods grace to be afraid where no feare is and it makes men to commit many sins many times for feare of sinne And thus having rectified our conscience in the understanding of all these things we are bound by the commandement of God to be obedient unto the commands of our King for it is a paradox to say Christians are free from the Lawes of men Act. 15.20 Rom. 13.2.3 1. Peter 2.13 because it was a human law touching things strangled blood and the Apostles doe exact our obedience unto human lawes even the Lawes of Heathen and Idolatrous Emperours and therefore being bound to obey them they cannot be freed in conscience from the Religion of them and so Dr Whitaker saith that as the Lawes of God must be simply obeyed without any difference of time place and circumstance so must the Lawes of men be obeyed as the circumstances doe require for example he that is a Roman and liveth at Rome must obey the Roman Lawes and he saith that the authority of the Magistrate which is sacred and holy cannot with any good conscience be contemned because it is the commandement of God that we should obey them Whitaker contra Camp p. 258. Ob. and this saith he doth binde the conscience when as the Apostle saith he is to be obeyed for conscience sake But you will say what if the King forbids me to doe what God commandeth as the high Priest did to the Apostles or commandeth me to doe what God forbiddeth as Julian did unto the Christians and Nebuchadnezzar to the three children We have often answered that in such a case Sol. it is better to obey God then man for it is sometimes lawfull not to obey Act. 5.25 but it is never lawfull to resist Ob. What if he compells us by force and violence to doe what God forbids us to do if he play 's the Tyrant violates our Laws and corrupts the true Religion with Idolatry and superstition may we not then as our forefathers did heretofore unto Chilperick King of France to Richard the second of this Kingdom and others bridle them and Depose them too if they will not be ruled by their Great Councell the Parliament I. â—â—gus â—â—â—saeus de â—â—thor princi 〈◊〉 Pop. I answer first Non spectandum quid factum sit sed quid fieri debuerit we are not so much to regard what hath been done as what ought to have been done as Arnisaeus proveth at large and sheweth most excellently with a full answer to all the articles that were alleadged against those Kings how unjustly they were handled and deposed contrary to all right and I wish that book were translated into English 2. Of our passive obed 2. I say that when our active obedience cannot be yeelded our passive obedience must be used for were our Kings as Tyrannicall as Nero as Idolatrous as Manasses as wicked as Achab and as Prophane as Iulian yet we may not resist wheÌ„ as Arnisaeus proveth by many many examples Idâ—m cap. 3. p. 68. that the Rebellion of Subjects against their King doth overthrow the order of nature and Justinian saith quis est tantae autoritatis ut nolentem principem possit coarctare but in such a case we must doe as all the Saints did before us not as the Heathens which thought them worthy of divine honour Cicero pro Milone Seneca in Hercul fur which did kill a Tyrant and said with Seneca victima haud ulla amplior Potest magisque opima mactari Iovi Quà m Rex iniquus But Christ and his Apostles suffered but never resisted the lawfull Magistrate as Christ himselfe suffered under Pontius Pilate a most wicked Magistrate and registred in the breviary of our Faith that we might never forget our duty rather to suffer then to resist the authority that is from Heaven and as Saint Ambrose answered the Emperour that would have his Church delivered to the Arians I shall never be willing to leave it coactus repugnare non novi if I be compelled I have not learned to resist I can grieve and weep and sigh and against the Armes and Gotish Souldiers my teares are my weapons for those are the Bulworkes of the Priest who in any other manner neither can neither ought he to resist so must all Christians rather by suffering death then by resisting our King to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven But 't is objected by our Sectaries Ob. The Author of the Treatise of Monarchy p. 31. Sol. The Law provides that the King should not be circumvented and wronged that His Majesty confesseth there is a
and it is so excellently well done by many others that I shall but acta agere to say any more of it CHAP. XVII Sheweth how tribute is due to the King for sixe speciall reasons to be paid the condition of a lawfull tribute that we should not be niggards to assist the King that we should defend the Kings Person the wealth and Pride of London the cause of all the miseries of this Kingdome and how we ought to pray for our King 4. TRibute is another right and part of that honour which we owe unto our King The great charge of Princes Negotia enim infinita sustinet equabile ius omnibus administrat periculum à republica cùm necessitas postulat armis virtute propulsat bonis pramia pro dignitate constituit improbos suppliciorum acerbitate coercet patriam denique universam ab externis hostibus ab intestinis fraudibus tutam vigilantia sua praestat haec quidem munera aut opere tuetur aut quoties opus fuerit tuenda suscipit qui autem existimat haec tam multa munera sine maximis sumptibus sustineri posse mentis expers est atque vitae communis ignarus idcirco hoc quod communi more receptum est ut reges populi sumptibus alantur non est humano tantum iure sed etiam divino vallatum Osorius de rebus Emanuel lib. 12. p. 386. saith Eloquent Osorius For he undergoeth infinite affaires he administreth equall right to all his people he expelleth and keepeth away from the Common-wealth all dangers when necessity requireth both with armes and prowesse he appointeth rewards to the good and faithfull according to their desarts he restraineth the wicked with the sharpenesse and severity of punishments and he preserveth his Country and Kingdome safe by his care and watchfulnesse both from Forraigne foes and intestine fraudes and these offices he dischargeth indeed and undertaketh to discharge them as often as any need requireth And he that thinketh that all these things so many and so great affaires can be discharged without great cost and charge is voyd of understanding and ignorant of the common course of life and therefore this thing which is received by a common custome that Kings should be assisted and their royalty maintained by the publique charge of the people is not only allowed by humane law but is also confirmed by the divine right Men should therefore consider that the occasions of Kings are very great abroad for intelligence and correspondency with Forraigne States that we may reap the fruit of other Nations vent our owne commodities to our best advantage and be guarded secured and preserved from all our outward enemies and at home to support a due State answerable to his place to maintaine the publique justice and judgements of the whole Kingdome and a hundred such like occasions that every private man cannot perceive and thinke you that these things can be done without meanes without mony if you still poure out and not poure in your bottle will be soon empty and the Ocean sea would be soon dried up if the Rivers did not still supply the same and therefore not only Deioces that I spake of before when he was elected King of the Medes caused them to build him a most stately Palace and the famous City of Ecbatana and to give him a goodly band of select men for the safeguard of his Person and to provide all other things fitting for the Majesty of a King and all the other Kings of the Gentiles did the like as well they might if it be true that some of them thought Quicquid habet locuples quicquid custodit avarus Gunterus Jure quidem nostrum est populo concedimus usum But also Solomon 1. Reg. 12.4 and all the rest of the Kings of Israell required no small ayd and tribute from their Subjects for though Tertull. out of Deut. 23.17 reads it Tertull. to 3. de pudicit c. 9. Pamel in Tertull. there shall not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vectigal pendens a payer of tribute of the sonnes of Israell yet Pamelius well observes it that these words are not in the originall but are taken by him out of the septuagint which also saith not of the sons but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the daughters of Israell that is ex impudicitia lupanaribus for their dishonesty as it is said in the next verse Deut. 23.18 that the hire of a whore and the price of a dogge are an abominatâ—on unto the Lord Aug. de Civit. dei l. 10. c. 9. and so S. Aug. useth the word Teletae for those unchast sacrifices wherewith such women did oblige themselves and so doth Theodoret likewise but that the Iewes paid tribute it is manifest out of 1. Sam. 17.24 where this reward is promised to him that killed Goliah 1. Sam. 17.25 in vulgata editione that his fathers house should be absque tributo free from all tribute in Israell therefore certainly they paid tribute and to make it yet more plaine Solomon appointed Jeroboam super tributa universae domûs Joseph 2. reg 11.28 saith the vulgar lat over all the charge or burthen of the house of Joseph that is of the tribe of Ephraim and Manasses as our translation reads it Barrad to 2. l. 5. c. 21. p. 34â— and he appointed Adoniram the son of Abda over the tribute 1. Reg. 4.6 Yea though the Iewes were the people of God and thought themselves free and no wayes obliged to be taxed by Forraigne Princes that were Ethnicks yet after Pompey took their City they paid tribute to the Romans Iosephus l. 15. c.. 8 and our Saviour bids us not only to obey but also to render unto Caesar what is Caesars that is not determining the quota pars how much as he doth the tenth unto the Priest but indefinitely some part of our goods for subsidies imposts aids loanes or call it by what name you will and rather then himselfe would omit this duty though he never wrought any other miracle about mony yet herein when he had never a peny Barrad to 2. l. 10. c. 32. p. 317. he would create mony in the mouth of a fish as S. Hierome and the interlin glosse do think and command the fish to pay tribute both for himselfe and his Apostle Therefore we should render unto Caesar what is Caesars that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greekes take promiscuously though the Civilians distinguish them de solo fundo de bonis mobilibus de mercibus of our grounds of our goods of our merchandize we ought to pay subsidies aid and tribute unto our King and that not sparingly nor by way of benevolence as if it were in our power to doe it or not to doe it sed ex debito but as his due iure divino regulâ iustitiae as his proper importance annexed unto his Crowne for
I take it infallibly true which Suarez faith Suarez de leg l. 5. c. 17. n. 3. fol. 316. acceptationem populi non esse conditionem necessariam tributi ex vi iuris naturalis aut gentium neque ex iure communi quia obligatio pendendi tributum ita naturalis est principi per se orta ex ratione iustitiae ut non possit quis excusari propter apparentem iniustitiam vel nimium gravamen Tribute due to the King the consent of the people is not any necessary condition of tribute because the obligation of paying it is so naturall springing out of the reason of justice that none can be excused for any apparent injustice or grievance and therefore the Parliaments that are the highest representations of any Kingdome doe not contribute any right unto Kings to challenge tribute but doe determine the quota pars and to further the more equall imposing and collecting of that which is due unto Kings by naturall and originall justice as a part of that proper inheritance which is annexed unto their Crownes And therefore our Saviour doth not say give unto Caesar but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 22. the same word which S. Paul useth when he biddeth us to pay our debts and to owe nothing to any man saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. Latimer in Mat. 22.21 pay to every man that which you owe and Father Latimer saith if we deny him tribute custome subsidy tallage taxes and the like aid and support we are no better then Theeves and steale the Kings dues from him Navar. apud Suarez de legibus fol. 300. fol. 311. because the Law testifieth tributa esse maximè naturalia prae se ferre justitiam quia exiguntur de rebus propriis and Suarez saith penditur tributum adsustentationem principis ad satisfaciendum naturali obligationi in dando stipendium iustum laboranti in nostram utilitatem tribute is most naturall and iust to be paid to the King for our own good therefore Christ pleading for the right of Caesar that was a Tyrant saith not give unto him quia petit because he demands it but pay unto him quae illius sunt the things that are his and are due unto him even as due as the hirelings wages which we are commanded not to detaine for one night Deut. 24.15 because this is a part of that reward and wages which God alloweth him for all his pains and cares that he takes to see Iustice administred in the time of Peace and to protect us from our enimies in the time of Warre which makes the life of Kings to be but a kind of splendid misery wearing may times with Christ a Crowne of Thornes a Crowne full of cares while we lap our heads in beds of downe and therefore it is not only undutifulnesse to deny him or unthankefulnesse not to requite the great good that he doth unto us but it is also a great iniustice especially if we consider that as Ocham saith Qui est Dominus aliquarum personarum est Dominus rerum ad easdem personas spectantium omnia quae sunt in regno sunt regis quoad potestatem utendi eis pro bono communi Ocha tract 2. l. 2. c. 22. 25. to detaine that right from him which God commands us to pay unto him and that indeed for our own good as Menenius Agrippa most wittily shewed unto he People of Rome when they murmured mutined for these axes that whatsoever the stomack received either from the â—and or mouth it was all for the benefit of the whole body so whatsoever the King receiveth from the People it is for the â—enefit of the people and it is like the waters that the Sea receiâ—eth from the Rivers which is visibly seen passing into the Oâ—ean but invisibly runneth through the veines of the earth into â—he rivers againe so doth all that the King receiveth from the People returne some way or other unto the People again And there be sixe speciall reasons why or to what end we should pay these dues unto the King Six reasons for which we pay Tribute unto the King 1. For the Honour of His Majesty 2. For the security of His Person 3. For the protection of his Kingdome 4. For the succour of His confederates 5. For the securing of our 1. Goods 2. Estates 3. Lives 6. For the propagating of the Gospell and defence of our Religion But for the further clearing of this poynt you must know that every just and Lawfull tribute must have these three essentiall conditions that are proprietates constitutivae Three conditions of every lawfull Tribute 1. Legitima potestas that is the Kings power to require it 2. Iusta causa an urgent necessity or need of it 3. Debita portio a due proportion according to the Kings necessities and the peoples abilities that he be not left in need nor the people overcharged For As the Subjects are thus bound to supply the necessities of their King so the King is not to over-charge his Subiects for the King should be the Sheapheard of his People as David calls himselfe and Homer tearmeth all good Kings and not the devourer of his people Kings should not overcharge their Subjects as Achilles calleth Agamemnon for the unreasonable taxes that he laid upon them therefore good Kings have been very sparing in this poynt for Darius inquiring of the governours of his Provinces whether the tributes imposed upon them were not too excessive and they answering that they thought them very moderate he commanded that they should raise but the one half thereof A worthy speech of Lewis 9. which had Rehoboam bin so wise to do he had not lost ten parts of his Kingdom and Lewis the ninth of France which they say was the first that raised a taxe in that Kingdome directing his Speech to his sonne Philip and causing the words to be left in his Testament which is yet to be found Registred in the chamber of accounts said be devout in the service of God have a pittifull heart towards the poore and comfort them with thy good deeds observe the good Lawes of thy Kingdome take no taxes nor benevolences of thy Subjects unlesse urgent necessity and evident commodity force thee to it and then upon a just cause and not usually if thou doest otherwise thou shalt not be accounted a King but a Tyrant and it is one of the gratious apothegmes of our late noble and never to be forgotten Soveraigne King Iames his golden apothegme Basilicon doron l. 2. p. 99. worthy to be written in letters of gold where speaking to his sonne he saith inrich not your selfe with exactions from your Subiects but think the riches of your Subiects your best treasures Artaâ—er said it was a great deale more seemlier for the Majesty of a King to give then to take by polling to cloath then to uncloath which belongeth to Theeves
not to Princes unlesse they will stain their names for as Apollonius saith that gold which is taken by Tyranny is farre baser then any iron because it is wetted with the teares of the poor Subjects and therefore Peter de la Primauday saith they are unworthy of the title of Prince that lending their eares to such as invent new wayes to get monies from their Subiects and having against all humanity Pet. de la primauday cap. 60. p. 670. spoyled them of their goods do either miserably consume them upon their pleasures or prodigally bestow them upon undeserving flatterers that fat themselves by the overthrow of others And therefore it behoveth all Kings to consider that all mens goods are theirs only quoad tuitionem defentionem and their Subjects quoad possessionem proprietatem as you may see Gen. 47.46 where Ioseph bought all the Land of the Egyptians for King Pharaoh and then let it them againe in Fee farme to give the King the fift part of the fruit of it and as you may conclude it from the eight Commandement which saith as well to the King as to the Subject thou shalt not steale for if all be his he cannot be said to steale it and if this precept concernes not Kings then have they but nine Commandements and therefore be wise ô ye Kings and remember what Saint Augustine saith remota justitia quid sunt Regna nisi Latrocinia for though you may iustly demand Tribute and Taxes yet you must have iust occasions to use them and you must take but a iust proportion or else they may come uniustly unto you But who shall be the Judges of the Kings iust occasions in many Kingdoms his conscience as the Roman consuls imposed what taxes they thought meet upon the Provinces they subdued so Marc. Antonius being in Asia doubled their Taxe and laid a second charge upon the People which was very unreasonable The saying of Hebreas to M. Antonius as Hebreas told him saying if thou wilt have power to lay upon us two taxes in one yeare thou must have also power to give us two Summers and two Autumnes two Harvests and two Vintages and yet if our King doe thus unreasonably taxe us with more then we are able to beare we may reason with him Kings herein not to be resisted as Hebreas did with M. Antony refell his arguments and repell his oppressions according to the course of Law but we may not in any case with the Sword make any resistance either actuall or habituall against him Reason 1 1. Because God hath not made us Judges of the Kings occasions and we know not his necessities and therefore we cannot determine what is Iust and uniust Reason 2 2. Were it granted that the superior demanded without right yet the inferior not only may rightly render it without offence unto his conscience but also ought to pay it without resistance unto the Magistrate for if the Iewes were not free and the Romans had no right to demand Tribute of them yet by our Saviours question unto S. Peter and his replication unto the Apostles answer it is apparent that our Saviour was most free and was no way bound to pay any thing unto the Romans not only quà deus as Hesselius saith but also as he was a man Hesselius in Matth. 18. Barrad 10 2. l. 10. c. 32. p. 718. as Barradius more truly proveth yet lest he should offend them as he saith tributum solvit quia voluit he doth most willingly discharge it to teach us that we may and ought iustly and without any scruple of conscience pay that which may be uniustly demanded and the best Authors that I have read are of the same judgement Greg. Tholos l. 26. de repub c 5. n. 25. we have no other remedy but to cry to God who can iudge them for their iniustice non caret modis quibus possit quando voluerit huiusmodi principes tollere vel emendare But though in most of the Easterne Countries the Kings imposed upon their Subjects what taxes and tributes pleased themselves as Augustus taxed all the world as much as he would at his own pleasure Osor de rebus Emanuel l. 12. p. 386. and Charles the fifth saith Osorius praeter pecunias quibus illum hispani juverant immania tributa populis imperavit besides those monyes wherewith the Spaniards assisted him laid most heavy taxes upon the people which is indeed a branch of the absolute right of Kings and was originally practised by most of them yet here with us our Kings out of grace and favour unto their people What the Kings of England promised to their Subjects granted such a priviledge unto their Subjects and divested themselves of this right to lay no impositions or taxes upon their Subjects without the consent of their three States convened in the two Houses of Parliament and this Princely concession being truly observed may procure a great deale of love and peace unto the King and as much tranquillity and happinesse unto the people Neither doe I think that he loves his King but am sure that he hates his Countrey that would perswade him for all the wealth of the Kingdome to violate his owne grant and faith herein but as our Kings granted this favour to impose no taxes without the consent of his Parliament so his Parliament in all duty ought alwayes with all thankfulnesse to acknowledge this speciall grace and in requitall thereof most fully to supply his wants and support his necessities That we should not be niggâ—rds to assist our King whensoever he acquaints them therewith And therefore we ought not to be like those hide-bound Sectaries and close-fisted Puritans and Brownists that are so miserably covetous and extreame niggards that when the King makes knowne his wants and demands his due for it is still his due though he granted not to cesse it without their consent for his royall supportation and the safety of his Kingdome they will find a hundred excuses to deny him but never a penny to give him out of all their wealth and this is the cause of our misery and may prove as fatall to us as it hath been to the Constantinopolitans whose churlishnesse and niggardlinesse towards their Emperour was the chiefest cause of the losse of that great Empire and to make the Turke sit in Christ his Chaire to have Mahomet adored where the Gospell was formerly published How Constant was lost what the Turke then said by as many famous Fathers as now England hath Preachers for the Emperour foreseeing the Siege made many motions for contributions towards the repairing of the walles and continue the military charge but the Subjects drew back and pleaded want untill it was too late and the City lost for though the enemy having a long time besieged it was intended to give over the Siege and to be gone yet tydings and intelligence being given him that
Clergy will performe no duty unto their King because their function is spirituall but to all these I may truly say as our Saviour doth to the leaud servant ex ore tuo out of the Fathers whom they acknowledge and out of their owne Authors they are confuted for S. Chrysostome saith that whether he be an Apostle or Evangelist or Prophet Seu quisquis tandem fuerit or whosoever else he be Pope Cardinall or Deacon he is commanded to be subject to the higher power and that you may see what power he meanes he pointeth out the same by the symbol that is of him that carryeth the sword which you know must be the secular Prince and not the spirituall Pope and so not onely Euthym. Theophylact. Oecumenius and other Greek Commentators doe avouch but also those Epistles which are recorded by Binius and quoted by the Bishop of Durham as Leo 1. ep 26. 35. Simplicius 1. ep 4. Felix 3. ep 2. Anastasius 1. ep 78. Pelagius 1. ep 16. Martinus 1. ep 3. Agatho 1. ep ad Herac. Hadrian 1. ep ad Constant doe make this most manifest unto us Espens in Tit. 3.1 Digres 10. p. 5. 13. Paris 1568. and therefore Espencaeus convinced by such a cloud of witnesses confesseth very honestly that the Apostle here Docet omnes credentes mundi potestatibus esse subjectos nempe sive Apostolus sive Evangelista c. ut tenet Chrysost Euthym qui non Graeci The wickednesses of the pretended Parliament shewed by their actions And as the Popelings will be free so the Presbyterians and the faction of this Parliament will be as free as they and because every wickednesse laboureth to exceed that which preceded these doe not agree with the Catholiques as Herod and Pilate did to crucifie Christ in the same conclusion and tenet of exemption but they will goe a note beyond Ela and surmount both Jesuite and Pope and therefore they not onely dishonour and disobey their King but they have violated and incroached upon all his rights and assumed the same into their owne hands for to recapitulate some of their choycest wickednesses 1. As the Church of Rome and the Jesuites teach in Aphorismis confessariorum ex Doctorum sententiis collectis p. 249. that Rex potest per rempublicam privari ob tyrannidem si non faciat officium suum cum est causa aliqua justa eligi alius à majore parte populi which falshood their owne Divines confute when Royard saith Rege constituto Royard in dom 1. advent They teach the deposition of Kings non potest populus jugum subjectionis repellere so these men maintaine that diabolicall tenet that the Regall power is primarily in the collective body and derived to the King cumulativè not privativè and therefore upon the Kings neglect or male-administration it comes backe againe to the collective body in whom it resideth suppletivè to discharge the royall duty when the King faileth to doe the same and then the King so falling from his right they may refuse obedience and if they see cause which they can soone do they may depose him from his office which impudent falshood I have fully consuted in this Treatise 2. They say the Regall Majestie is a humane creature or the ordinance of men primarily and therefore may be deposed by men when as Cunerus could say Sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure princeps fiat principi tamen facto divinitus potestas adest and therefore they have no power to take away that which God hath given him 3. They have with Nadab and Abihu adventured to offer strange fire upon Gods Altar and with Vzza to lay their prophane hands upon Gods holy Arke they have rejected the Lawes that the King with the advice and consultation of all his learned Clergy hath made * Though now I reckon not this among their wickednesses and they themselves sit in Moses chaire and have undertaken to reforme the Church to make Lawes and compose Articles of our faith with the advice of a few factious men that were never esteemed otherwise then faex Cleri not worthy to be the Curates of those worthy Divines whose feet they hurt in the stocks and send the iron into their soules 4. They have cast out all the Bishops and all the faithfull Ministers of Christ out of all offices How they persecute the Bishops and the best of the Clergy that might further the Gospell and administer justice unto the people they doe rob them of their meanes and count sacriledge to be no sinne and in very deed they have persecuted the worthiest Clergy in many particulars farre worse then ever Julian that wicked Apostata did the Lord of Heaven give us patience to indure it and suffer us not for feare of any villanie or calamity to be dejected and so fall away from his truth 5. They have called and continued an Assembly which the Pope would not doe without the Emperours leave contrary to the Kings command which is a meere and mighty usurpation of the Regall right 6. They have seized upon the Kings Revenues Castles Forts Townes Ships and all that they could lay hand on and doe in a hostile manner with all violence detaine them from him but what he gaines by his sword to this very day 7. They have fought against him shot at his sacred Person and sought most Barbarously to kill him under the colour to preserve him which is the finest piece of Logicke that ever was read 8. They have rayled at him slandered him and most apparently and falsly belyed him and laid to his charge the things which we his Majesties Subjects and Servants that attend Him doe know that He neither did nor knew 9. They incouraged and countenanced their ignorant brazen-faced Chaplains most uncivilly to rayle at Gods Annointed in the Pulpit and so they brought the abhomination not of desolation but of most horrible transgression into the holy place and made Moses chaire the seat of raylers 10. They taxe the Subjects at their pleasure and have raised infinite summes of money and no man but themselves knowes how they have disposed or what they have done therewith 11. They discharged Apprentices they send out their Warrants and their Edicts without and against the Kings authority which are but nugae and the minims of their doings 12. They averre that the King hath no negative voyce in making Lawes but they may conclude them and make them obligatory without the Kings approbation or ratification and that they may doe any thing conducible to the good of the Church and Common-wealth any Law Statute or provision made to the contrary notwithstanding What they say of their Covenants 13. They are not ashamed to teach as they doe practice that it is lawfull for them to make Covenants Combinations and Confederacies of mutuall defence and offence against any person whatsoever whom themselves judge malignant not
that they destroy all images and are just such as the Prophet David speakes of which have done evill in Gods Sanctuary and have broken downe all the carved worke thereof with axes and hammers that have set fire upon his holy places and have defiled the dwelling place of Gods name even unto the ground for it is almost incredible how barbarously worse then any Turkes or Jewes they have broken down those rare and sweet instruments of Musick the Organs of our Churches and have defaced those excellent pieces of worke that to the honour of God were made and set up in the windowes of our Churches in Canterbury Winchester Lincolne and the other Cathedrals by the best Artists in Christendome which is a most horrible fact no wayes commanded in this precept and an irreparable losse to us and our posterity and therefore the Prophet David calleth these defacers of such carved and painted workes set up in his house the adversaryes and enemies of God vers 4 and 5. vers 11. foolish people vers 19 and 23. the haters of God vers 24. and the blasphemers of his name vers 11. for none but such would have done such Prophanations as is done in Gods house but let them take heed lest the Prophets prayer should light upon them lift up thy feete O God that thou mayest utterly destroy every one of these enemies which hath done this evill in thy Sanctuary 3. For swearing not vainely but falsly most wickedly Ps 74. v. 4. 3. How they forswear themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menand perjurium est nequiter decipere credentem Aug. 4 How they prophaned the Sabboth and for-swearing themselves over and over againe and againe and having more dispensations and absolutions for their perjuries by their holy Prophets then ever the Popes gave for adulteries it is incredible to thinke and impossible to number the heads of these transgressions and therefore if you beleive that God was in earnest when he gave this precept you may be assured he will not hold them guiltlesse that are such transgressors of it 4. For the day wherein we should serve our God in his Church most reverently some of them worship him more unmannerly then some of those blinde Indians that worship the Devill himselfe and others of them muster their men plunder their neighbours and murder their brethren which they beleive to be the best way to sanctify the Sabbath and for which resting from their worke thus religiously to serve the Lord let them take heed left God should sweare in his wrath that they shall never enter into his rest 5. How they curse their Fathers and Mothers 5. They curse their Father and their Mother that their dayes may be long in the Land which their pretended Parliament hath promised to give them for the King is the Prince and Principall Father of us all and the Prophet saith of such men they shall curse their King and their God Esay 8.21 and the Bishops are their Fathers too and they have cursed them long agone and I feare they will not cease to curse them till their curses fall upon their owne heads and for all other bonds of duty and relations of Wives unto their Husbands Children unto their Parents Servants unto their Masters they are Preached asunder to make way for the liberty of the Subject to Rebell by authority against his Soveraigne 6. How many they have murdered 6. Whereas God saith thou shalt doe no murder they gave that first commission though they had not the least colour of any authority to give it to kill slay and destroy and it is most lamentable to consider how many thousands they have murdered and how they are thought worthy of the greatest honour and the best reward that have killed most of Gods faithfull servants and the Kings loyall Subjects 1. How they loosened the reins to all lust ho◠fonte deri vata clades in patriam populumque fluxit Horat. car l. 3. 7. For adulteries Fornications and all Uncleannesse they may now freely doe it lust may flow like the river whose bankes are broken downe when they have overthrowen those courts of Justice and were never at rest till they had most violently suppressed the power and execution of all Ecclesiasticall censures that were the chiefest barres and hinderances of these unlawfull lusts 8. How they are like Argivi fures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. For stealing they have changed the name but not the nature of it for under the pretence of preserving to us the propriety of our goods they have not stollen but plundered away that is robbed us of all our goods and carried them into those Rebellious Townes that are now the dens of these theeves and are stronger in their wickednesse then the hils of the robbers and that which makes this sinne most sinfull Ps 94.12 is that it is established by a Law 9. They have justified the Cretans 9. How they belyed all sorts of good men Quomodo Deus pater genuit filium veritatem nempe sic diabolus lapsus genuit quasi filium mendaciū Aug. super Ioh. Habac. 2.9 and proved themselves the right bastard sonnes of the father of lyes filling all and every corner of this Kingdome with palpable intolerable and incredible lyes slanders and false witnesse-bearing against God against his Annointed against the Church and against all the reverend governours of the Church all religious Protestants and all the loyall Subjects of this Nation that the Angels doe now blush and the Devils doe laugh and rejoyce to see they are so fruitfull in begetting so many children so perfectly formed and so compleatly perfected in their owne image and likenesse and if ever the saying of Gildas was true they have proved it now Moris continui gentis erat sicut nunc est Gildas de excidio Britan. ut infirma esset ad retundenda hostium tela fortis ad civilia bella infirma inquam ad exequenda pacis ac veritatis insignia fortis ad scelera mendacia 10. They have coveted an evill covetousnesse 10. The extent of their covetousnesse when they coveted all evill unto themselves not onely their neighbours houses goods and lands and all that are theirs but also the patrimonie of the Church the revenues of the Clergy and all the rights and prerogatives of the King to be intayled upon themselves and their faction that so they and theirs might be both Kings and Priests and all not to God but to themselves and their fellow Rebels in the government of this Kingdome And as they have thus transgressed all the old Commandements of the Law How they transgressed the new Commandement of the Gospell Gen. 4.9 so they come no wayes short in transgressing the new Commandement of the Gospell for their love to their brethren is now turned to perfect hatred when they say not with Cain am I my brothers keeper but with Apollyon I will be