in the Church liberty liberty hath cryed downe peace there This is the very engine whereby he doth usually convey sedition and faction into the body of the State liberty liberty it that popular voyce together with a pretence of Religion whereby the peace of the State hath beene so often demolished and cast downe for my part I wish there may be a perpetuall contract betweene peace and liberty but if one must goe we had farre better part with liberty then peace And therefore by the way we may note that they are no better Polititians then they are Christians that goe about to preserve or recover liberty by Sedition their first care should be to preserve the integrity of the body and then that it may be fat and well-liking And now it is very easie for me to bring it home unto you since it is as clear as the light That however the commands of His Majestie have been either with or against the Law of the Kingdome as concerning matter of priviledge liberty the disobedience and much more the active resistance of you and your party is most clearely to the great disturbance of the State yea even almost to the destruction thereof whither it is still drawing nearer and nearer by that meanes and how foone it may come to that unhappy period we know not And it is as cleare that it hath beene very scandalous to the Church and our profession and given as much or more occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme and exposed the Protestant Religion yea the whole profession of Christianity more to ignominy and reproach and to an odium with interesse than any action that hath beene publikely carried by the professours of the Protestant Religion since the Reformation hath ever done And therefore you must either professe your selves to be much more wise then our Saviour which I hope you dare not averre or to be much more wicked then becometh those that professe to be his Disciples which I doubt you will not admit But I pray you what commands doe you finde enjoyned you by His Majestie contrary to the Law of the Kingdome as concerning the commanding part thereof or when against the priviledge or liberty that he denyeth to them If you should aske me the like question on the other side I beleeve I could furnish you with store of instances Since I take it it may be easily proved that the whole businesse and the maine body of that designe which is now in hand against His Majestie is a bastard issue and can derive no pedigree from the Law either of God or man to make it legitimate As for His Majestie He desires nothing but that Authority to be acknowledged in Him which the Law hath placed in Him He desires to make the knowne Law of the Kingdome the onely rule of His rule and Government But it is by no meanes so on the other side if they can finde any colours from the Lawes that may put any plausible appearance of legality upon their businesse well and good but if not let the Law cry never so loud A monstrous headlesse vote of the dismembred Houses of Parliament or for a need of the House of Commons alone without or against the King and the House of Lords shall be countenance though to set forward the prosecution of their most illegall purposes And to make good their Protestation for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Honour and Estate of His Majestie the Priviledges of Parliament the Lawes of the Kingdome and the Liberty of the Subject The Protestant Religion must be scorned and reproached by Brownists Anabaptists and Atheists The Honour and State of His Majestie must be exposed to the contempt of the vilest of the people The Priviledges of Parliament must be perpetually trampled on at the pleasure of some few that are predominant in the Houses by casting out the Members by meere arbitrary Votes for nothing but because they make use of that priviledge which the Law allowes and the Houses themselves begged and obtained of His Majestie at their first entrance upon their consultation for a freedome of speech nay sometime a whole side as it were of the House of Lords first forced out by terrour and tumult and then voted out upon meere pleasure And the power and authority of the House of Commons to a most palpable abusing and betraying of the trust reposed in them by His Majestie and the people of the Land reduced to a close Committee of about 15 or 16 persons some strange designe sure that they have in hand that they must get into such corners and have such cloudes over them to cover it And they say the businesse is made a night-worke too it seemes they dare not trust the Sunne with it a fit time to consult about a worke of darkenesse But they must remember either now or hereafter that there is a light over them that they see not that discovers all their secrets There is one still amongst them that they cannot vote out neither to whom light and darkenesse are both alike and the night is as cleare as the day There is an invisible notary too that takes our records of all their determinations and plots and truely they had best finde him out and prevaile with him if they can to take an oath of secrecy which they can never doe before they proceed any farther in the businesse for as sure as they live hee 'le reveale all else and a thousand to one will undoe all their plots by some counter-plot or other and will be as bad as an Elisha to the King of Syria to defeat and disappoint their most secret designes They may guesse at some thing if they will by what hath already fallen out they have had divers experiments how unprosperously their counsels thrive And therefore methinks Master Pym might well propose that question that the King of Syria did unto his servants upon the severall defeats that hee observed to have befallen him in his enterprises against Israel Will yee not shew me which of us is for the King But to save him a labour let him but the next time they meet reade the 12 first verses of the 139 Psalme and a hundred to one that will be as good as any charme they can use to discover him who it is that doth thus secretly intrude into their counsels and that doth thus defeat and make voyde all their most subtile contrivances so that hitherto for the most part they have brought forth nothing but winde though I confesse it hath beene a whirle-winde that hath disturbed and shaken the frame both of Church and State Even the very same that defeated the Counsell of Achitophel against David little doe they thinke how he sits and laughs at their most wise plots and contrivances of wickednesse Let them but looke into the second Psalme and they may see him at it methinkes if they could but put on the spectacle of the Psalmist They
may there see him as it were deriding at them and laughing at their grave and prudent madnesse whilest they with such confidence sit together as if all the wisedome in the world were in their breasts striving to breake off from themselves and others the bonds and cords of the Lords Anointed Little do they see how he blasts all their consultations how he damps all their purposes even as fast as they give them issue reade Is 8.9 10. Oh that they would at length be wise indeed and remember that woe of the Prophet Is 29.15 Woe be to them that seeke deepe to hide their counsell from the Lord and their workes are in the darke and they say Who seeth us and who knoweth us Surely your turning of things upside downe shall be esteemed as the potters clay But is this to maintaine the priviledges of Parliament to devest the Members of that power and trust reposed in them by His Majestie and the people and to commit the managing of the affaires of the Kingdome to your new device of a close Committee And to make them not onely the Masters of the rest of the Members of the Houses and them their slaves and shadowes but to make them Lords Paramount over the King and the whole Kingdome to require oathes of Allegeance unto them as of late hath most insolently and impiously beene done in London if wee are not mis-informed and to put the lives liberties and estates of all the people of the Land into the disposing of a matter of 15 men that have no such power given them either by King or Subjects and those for ought we know neither Angels nor Saints nor of the best sort of men that they may sacrifice all at their pleasure to their passions and no man must so much as aske a reason of them for feare of pressing into a secret of State Was there ever a Nation so befooled Was there ever a people brought to such a passe Is the famous and flourishing Government of this Nation by the King and the States of the Kingdome under him brought now to an Oligarchy a meere usurpation a most tyrannicall and arbitrary rule of 15 men that are made as it were absolute Lords of the Lawes the liberties the lives and estates of the whole Nation Sure they have played their cards well they have shewed themselves excellent projectors so handsomely and undescried to set up a Monopoly in themselves both of Regall and Parliamentary power a Monopoly upon the point of all the wealth and estates of the Kingdome They have carried the businesse very cunningly to bring things unto this passe and when they have done to make such fooles of the poore people whom they ride in the businesse and likely enough laugh at them in their sleeves to see how silly and simple the poore fooles are to be led so gently by the nose of them as to get them out of conscience to undoe themselves their wives and children to furnish them with money and to expose their lives unto the greatest dangers to the losse of so many thousands of them and all to make good their owne bondage and slavery to these Masters of the Close Committee En quo discordia cives perduxit miseros We have quarrelled our selves into a pretty condition But shall we be mad still Have the people of the Land abjured their senses and reason with their consciences Will they never be weary of such a miserable slavery Now for the Liberty of the Subject and the Lawes of the Kingdome you may easily guesse what becomes of them when the Priviledges of Parliament are trampled on by their owne feet Qui sibi nequam cui bonus if they make so bold with their owne you may well imagine what they doe with ours Or where I beseech you is the Magna Charta is not that a Law of the Kingdome When contrary to the very first words of that Charter the liberties of the Church are professedly invaded c. Or what is become of the Petition of Right which was so much talk't of heretofore when at the pleasure of these men without any due processe at Law the estates nay the lives of the Subject must be taken away by force and violence witnesse the late murder of His Majesties Subjects at Bristol and at London by Martiall Law which no Law putteth into their hands either without or against His Majesties Authority for that loyall designe of theirs to have delivered up those Cities unto His Majestie Or where is the Law for the Militia or for the taking away of His Majesties Ships and Forts Or where is there any Law to enable them to command any of the Kings Subjects to take up Armes against the King whose Subjects they themselves confesse themselves to be in their language though they do indeed most clearly deny it in their practise Or is it subjection to seek the ruine of a Princes Authority and His life by open force and hostility if this be subjection I pray you tell me what is rebellion or why doe they dissemble with God and man in stiling themselves His Majesties most humble and obedient Subjects when they are in actuall opposition against Him and will neither obey Him nor the Law by which hee governes if this be subjection Jacke Cade had a great deale of wrong and Wat Tyler too And Percy and Catesby were a couple of fooles that they would not come in to justifie themselves to be the Kings humble and obedient Subjects But it seemes it is no wrong at all done by the people to themselves when they obey the most unlawfull and most unreasonable commands of your party But if you obey the King against the Law you consent unto your owne wrong but we cannot so much forget our reason as to beleeve it Or doe you meane to bring in a new reason as well as a new religion But I beseech you what if I am not bound to obey him nay what if I am bound not to obey him as in some cases I confesse I am if His Majestie should command me contrary to the Law of God c. must I needs then take up Armes no certainly in such case I must submit to His Authority in the willing suffering of that punishment he shall inflict as is afore-said Or did our Saviour wrong himselfe in submitting unto Pilate or did those good Christians in the Primitive times wrong themselves when they glorified God so much in their chearfull sufferings upon this very ground If you may be Judge they shall all have actions of the case against themselves and were Martyrs in their owne wrong indeed I doubt you 'le never be guilty of such a sinne And so I have done with your first Proposition that you propose to the Malignants as you most malignantly stile them that are the Kings good Subjects And now let us see what instruction you give us in your second Cum bonis avibus What is it The great
offence of Authority is whatsoever is committed against the State spoken like a Politician And what is this to your purpose The great offence of Authority you say is whatsoever is committed against the security of the State And I say so too and inferre upon it that therefore that designe which you are about and would justifie is one of the great offences against Authority for what greater offence against the security of the State then to incense a people to rebell against their Governour or to teach them to trample under foot that supreame power of the Magistrate and those Lawes of the Kingdome upon which the safety and security of the State is established Talke what you will of the danger and oppression of a tyranny you may see if you will in the fruit of this your bloudy designe that one rebellion and civill warre may bring in more mischiefe against the safety and security of the State then halfe a dozen Tyrants would likely have done for shew me any Tyrant that ever reigned in this or any other Kingdome that by his single oppression brought a Kingdome to the sixth part of that consusion that this ungodly designe now on foot hath brought our Kingdome unto Great complaint there was of the tyranny of Ship-money and Loanes c. and are they not all reduced But for my part I care not who knowes my minde though I cannot justifie the things nor those that advised them yet I conceive it had beene much better for us to have borne Ship-money Loanes Monopolies and many more oppressions then to have changed those burdens for such a confusion as is now brought into the State which is like without Gods great mercy to end in the ruine and destruction of the Nation And therefore you are no good Counsellor for the safety and security of the State for though that grand principle which is so much abused be admitted for true That Salus populi suprema lex yet I can tell you it will make little for your purpose since it is no way for the safety of the people as you see written in bloud before your eyes upon Edge-hill and at Braynceford many other places that they should enabled to take up Armes against their Prince as often as they shall fancy or be perswaded by any others that meane to plough with them for a crop to their owne ambition That the Prince hath broken his covenant with them or transgressed the limits and bounds of his Government The peoples safety is never at greater hazzard then when it is put into their owne hands shew me a Common-wealth that ever suffered so much in the gripe of a Tyrant as many have done by the feet of a multitude otherwise your Observation will be turned against your self And your owne penne will condemne you for a great offender against the security of the State when you incense the people to maintaine Sedition you see the Malignants are but little the wiser for this your second Proposition I come to your third Heathens tell us that the wise must give as much to the Law as may be but to the Law-giver as little for sayes he he is a man subject to passions may be miscarried c. Had I a minde to cavill I could quarrell at your Grammer But let that passe Heathens tell us you say Well said it is very well done Heathens are fit Authors for such an heathenish businesse But yet you must deale electively amongst them you may not take them all at adventure some are too honest to countenance your businesse and that 's not well where Heathens must correct Christians And truely I doubt you have mistaken your choice here for what I pray you doe these Heathens tell you That the wise must give as much to the Law as may be but to the Law-giver as little because he is a man subject to passions What doe you meane by the Law if you meane the authenticall constitutions of the Kingdome made by the King with advice of the two Houses of Parliament The quarrell is then His Majesties and ours who doe complaine that there is too little given unto the Lawes That they are vilified and despised battered downe and demolished by I know not what arbitrary and illegall Ordinances give you and your party the Law its due and there will be quickly an end of the quarrell then the King shall have His Rights and praeeminences acknowledged which the Lawes doe give Him and the Subjects shall have their rights and liberties made good and their lives secured from plunder and violence which the Lawes allow them then those offenders that have violated the Lawes shall be brought to condigne punishment Then Brownists and Separatists depravers of the Common-Prayer-Booke and all rebellious and seditious people shall have their due portions that the Law gives them and in that distribution I doubt you would have little cause to rejoyce Then the Militia of the Kingdome shall be restored into His hands unto whose trust the Law hath committed it Then new Lawes shall not be made without the royall assent of His Majestie Then treason shall be treason againe and loyalty shall be loyalty againe Then the good Subjects of His Majestie shall not be imprisoned or spoyled of their goods or deprived of their lives without a due and a legall tryall Then there shall be no Supersedeas'es sent out to prohibit or interdict a legall proceeding against any routs or riots in Southwarke Then Habeas Corpus'es shall be granted unto the Subject upon just and legall causes without any quarrell against the Judges But alas that 's the cause that we groane that you give so little to the Law I would you were so good an Advocate as to perswade those whose part you seeme to act to re-establish the Law in its full and authenticall force and I thinke the King and his party will aske no more of you But you deale deceitfully with the Law as well as with His Majestie you talke much of it you speake it faire you give it good words but in the meane time you make too little account of the force of it it is with your party no better then Sampsons withes or cords at best you use it but as a leaden Lesbian rule bending it and bowing it to your owne purposes and things never go right when the structure is made the measure of the rule But I would faine know what you here meane by the Law-giver whose portion you would have to be so straitened as little as may be to be given unto him Doe you meane by the Law-giver the King I thanke you for that then for sure that is your meaning But truely in my opinion you deserve to be complained of to the Close Committee for giving so much as that stile imports unto His Majestie for if the King be the Law-giver then the Legislative power is not in the Houses but in the King for there must be but one Law-giver
unlesse you meane to confound the body of the Common-wealth as indeed it seemes you doe and then what will become of your Ordinances of Parliament Sure you have much to answer for for this neither can I see how you will slip the collar unlesse you should say that by Law-giver here you understand the Houses of Parliament And then you runne into another errour that will deserve the Barre for sure it will be thought a strange doctrine there that as little as may be should be given unto the two Houses that we may give the more unto the Lawes It will seeme then that you would have them regulated by the Lawes and not to be left unto such a God-like power of arbitrary rule as some seeme to affect Sure this was not well considered otherwise Master Glyn might have beene sent upon another message unto you then to give you thankes for your Sermon even to have required you to make a recantation and the Order before your Booke should have ended there That no man should presume to print your Sermon and then Andrew Crooke might have had the more leisure but I see wise men may sleepe Indeed we may see plainly here how they that shoot upward against God or his Substitute make a marke of their owne heads and here you may note too what a scurvy scab this conscience is that will speake interlocutory truths for us even a-fore wee are aware even when we are bent to the most contrary falshoods You might have done well to have lookt a-fore you had leapt into this Dilemma if you had beene more constant in your errours they might perhaps have pass't the better But this reeling shewes you to be drunke whether with malice or ambition or popularity I know not you cannot walke steedily it seemes a giddinesse that many of your side are sicke of Now you are on one side now on another so here you have clearely forsaken your rote and reeled cleane over the gutter to the other side However you would be understood you are a very Royalist in this though indeed you confound your selfe too by contrarieties even in the same period so that I can scarce tell what to make of you neither do I beleeve you very well understood your selfe Do you meane the King must have as little as may be given to him then you acknowledge the King to be the Law-giver and that the Legislative power is in Him Or doe you meane the Houses of Parliament by the Law-giver then by your doctrine the Houses of Parliament must have as little given to them as may be See how you are caught in your owne spring see Pro. 18.7 But your good meaning may perhaps save you from the bar greater faults than these have been look't over in those in whose affection the Houses have confided They and we too know your meaning well enough your meaning is that the King must have as little as may be given unto him and perhaps you will leave the honest Philosopher to answer for the terme of the lawgiver but then you must have something to say for the application But let 's goe And I pray you tell me then would you have the King have lesse than he hath I hope those good men whose advocate you are by this time have done their endeavours to have left him a pretty naked Majestie They have taken a good competent care that his Highnesse should not surfet either of revenue or authority They have not only beene frugall in their gifts or indeed in their no gifts but they have done the best they could to purge him of all superfluities Good faire attempts have beene made by some to have drawne out his very blood As long as his Majestie hath such carefull Physitians you need not feare his being Plethoricall But why doe you spend time and Paper briefly sir you may know this That his sacred Majestie whom we believe against all those slanders and blasphemies that have beene raifed against him hath professed his intention to governe by the lawes only And we find not that he desires any other power than such as the law gives him and his ancestours have quietly enjoyed and such as may enable him to give life unto the law if this be so then for ought I know the more we give to the King the more we give to the law and the more unto the law the more unto the King if this be not so prove the contrary for they that are wife will not take your jealousies for proofes yea with his Majesties favour I durst almost be bold to lay him before you at your mercy thus farr Take not from the law of the Kingdome and spare not the King take as much from him as you can But then you must leave him as much as the law allows him and I am confident he will be well content with it Indeed the Philosopher was wise and honest in his rule and puts us in minde that the safety of a State doth much depend upon this That all cases as neere as may be that fall under consideration in Government should have their cleer full and positive rules set downe in the received lawes of the common-wealth wherby they are to be ruled and managed that as little as possibly may be may be left to arbitrary government Where the rule of the magistrate is only his owne will and judgement which is subject to be misguided by passions which the law is not lyable unto And we finde not but that this is his Majesties earnest desire Perswade you if you can the houses of Parliament to joyne with him in these designes by leaving of all arbitrary government by ordinances or otherwise in opposition to the knowne constitutions of the Kingdome and then you need goe no further for an umpire The law will be the dayes man of this great quarrell and will send every one home in peace with his owne portion The King the Parliament the Subject shall have all their owne The King shall be the supreme governour The Parliament the great Councell The Subjects shall have their lives and liberties secured excepting only such as have forfeited their titles And God shall have his service duely and peaceably performed And then instead of a deformation of the Church and a destruction of the Common-wealth we may have a full and happy reformation of the one and a reparation of the other Quod faxit Deus And I intreat you in the meane time to remember that the houses of Parliament are neither Gods nor Angels sure some of them are men subject to passions as well as others otherwise there would never have beene such doing and undoing as there hath beene no nor halfe that adoe amongst us that there now is And therefore I pray you intreat them not to challenge absolute power to themselves but that they as well as his Majestie may make the lawes their rule too for there is some doubt made I can tell
You may see there though he deserveth favour yet his necessity doth not exempt him from being a thiefe not from the crime no nor yet from the punishment and God doth not use to prescribe penalties where there 's no offence he shall be fined in a seven fold restitution And therefore though men be truly engaged in duty to supply such exigencies you before speake of yet this doth not destroy their property as if that ceased as you imply whensoever such occasion or necessity is present but obligeth their duty And therefore in those cases where you have not or cannot gaine their consent you must leave them to performe their owne duties or else you will transgresse yours whether you be King or Parliament or a single Subject But perhaps you will say that the Parliament hath in them a devolution of all the Subjects propriety so as to dispose of their estates to publique purposes if you meane by the Parliament the King and the Houses I grant so that they doe it by Act of Parliament And you must take in the body of the Convocation if the Clergy be Subjects or have any liberty or property for the disposing of the estates of the Clergy But if you meane by the Parliament the two Houses without the King I deny that they have the consent of the Subjects for the disposing of their estates since they were chosen by the Subjects not to manage the publique affaires of themselves but in a Parliamentary manner order and motion to joyne with His Majestie and to doe things by His consent by Act of Parliament and therefore since they have not His consent for the disposing of the estates of the Subjects as they now doe Nor doe it by Act of Parliament which cannot be without the King They can plead no consent of the Subject who gave them their power onely in that sense and to that purpose as afore-said If you are rationall you understand this if impartiall honest you will acknowledge it give over abusing the people with your Observations And here the people may see who meane best unto their properties and liberties since you put us to plead for them whilest you oppose them for the advantage of your party And yet will they never open their eyes but still runne on madding upon their owne ruine I pray you speake to them to have a little more wit and honesty let them have your example it may be it may worke much with them But what if I should grant you your Theses in your owne sense Yet it will trouble you exceedingly to prove your Hypothesis you are so farre from doing it that for ought appeares you were ashamed to mention it You leave us to collect it but prove it I pray you for your credit is not so great that we are bound to take your bare word though you gave it us never so plainly Prove it then that the money and goods that is forced by your party from the poore Subjects is for the supply of any of those necessities you speake of Is it for the supply of the necessity of the Lord to maintaine a Warre against his Substitute acknowledged so by the Scots in their late Petition to His Majestie and directly contrary to Gods command Rom. 13. Is it for the supply of the necessity of the Lord to maintaine practises of Sacriledge demolishing of Churches violating of Sepulchres to set forward a disturbance of Gods Service in his house to abandon the daily use of publike Prayers where they have beene used and whereby God hath received so much glory and the people so much comfort and to bring in prophanenesse or at the best to undertake a reformation by a way God allowes not when it hath beene offered in a peaceable and fit manner or where doe you finde that the sword is to be moderator or that reformation in Religion is to be founded in bloud Or is it for the supply of the necessity of the Law to nourish a Warre clearely against Law both in it selfe and in the purpose and drift of it in it selfe as being without and against the Kings command and against His Person and Authority who is declared by Law the supreame Governour and so the supreame Moderator of the Sword in the drift or purpose which we understand not at all if it be not to abridge the King of that preeminence and authority which His Ancestours have and He ought to enjoy by the Law of the Kingdome As the power of the Militia of consenting or with-holding His assent to the allowance or dis-allowance of Acts of Parliament of choosing Privie Counsellors c. Some say necessity hath no Law but I am sure the Law hath no necessity of the plunder of mens estates to any such purpose Is it for the supply of the necessity of liberty of the Subject that their liberty should be taken away to cure men of their diseases by killing them or to cast them into the Sea for feare they should suffer ship-wracke Is it for the necessity of the cause or the defenders what cause is it I beseech you that doth necessitate any such thing is it Religion have wee not beene Protestants all this while why doe you not confute the Articles of the Church of England it may be indeed your new Synod will doe it for you Hath not the truth flourished amongst us all this while till of late you your selfe seeme to confesse it if there be any sense in your words in your next Paragraph as wee shall see anon Who is it than that goes about an alteration might you not have thanks if you would let it flourish still as heretofore it hath done or if any thing be to be mended hath it not been offered what 's that cause then the necessity whereof doth lay such fanges upon the Estates of the Subjects or who are those defenders you speake of I am sure I know who is the Defender of the Faith under God and then remember who it is that you oppose surely you had need explaine your selfe for for ought we can yet learn by you the Subjects have good right to keepe their goods unto themselves for any necessity that you can plead it doth neither alter their Property nor engage them in duty to impart for the maintainance of this dismall Warre against His Majesty They are much more engaged to impart them to Him that stands for the defence of the true Protestant Religion together with the Law and Liberty of the Subjects This is the cause and this is the defender that may much better plead necessity of supply But you have two strings to your bow and so you had need for you see one of them will not hold And what 's your second let us see what that will doe Your money shall not helpe to kill That 's the resolution of the squint-eyed multitude well say you when you meane ill but what 's your answer why you tell them that
AN ANSWER TO Certaine Observations of VV. BRIDGES concerning the present Warre against His MAJESTIE VVhereby hee pretends to justifie it against that Hexapla of Considerations viz. Theologicall Historicall Legall Criticall Melancholy and Foolish Wherein as he saith it is look't upon by the squint-eyed multitude Printed in the Yeare 1643. To the READER ALthough I am not much in love with Apologies yet for the prevention of objections in this cavilling age give me leave to premise a word or two It may be thought here that I have done too much and too little Too much in that I have been so large in my Answer unto so short a Preface Too little in that I have not proceeded to a reply unto the Sermon it selfe as well as to the Prooeme To the first I confesse it hath beene thought that my paines therein hath exceeded the merit of the Preface Neither did I intend to bestow the fifth part of that paines about it that I have done but if I have erred herein I hope it may deserve a pardon in that it hath proceeded from a desire to satisfie nor need it be any wonder that the wedge is so much greater than the knot since it is the wisest way for them that cannot endure the light to wrap up themselves as close as they can in obscure brevity They that are to speake in an ill cause had best to take heed they say not too much for the more they say of it the more they betray it Since it is a hard thing for them that have such a taske to be so vigilant over their pennes but that in many expressions some discoveries will intrude it is very difficult to be constant in falshood and therefore errours had need have but a narrow way to walke in lest they betray themselves by their reeling You can hardly give a lye so good a tire but if you ty it not up it will betray it selfe But for the truth which is my businesse the more it is unfolded the more it is preserved and indeed the more closely errour is wrapt up and intangled the more worke is necessary for the unraveling it The worke of Master Bridges as it is a worke of darkenesse so it is a worke of thicke darkenesse like a thicke compacted cloud of errours incorporated one into another and my worke is to disperse this cloud and to lay open these errours And if the dispersion of a cloud take up more roome than the thickning or condensation of it I hope the light that did it is no way to be blamed Besides in the persecution of one or a few falshoods we are many times led into the view of many profitable and necessary truths and if I have made my journey so much the longer to take them along with me so that I have not gone much out of my way I presume the Readers profit may excuse my labour For the second objection my answer is briefe That the truth is I finde nothing in the Sermon of any danger and therefore as a toothlesse dogge I might well trust it amongst the nakedst people without a muZZle And so having said thus much for thy satisfaction I intreat thee to reade without prejudice with an upright unengaged judgement with a resolution to embrace the truth where thou find'st it and to relinquish errour where thou discover'st it And so I commend thee to God and rest An earnest defirer of thy salvation and of the peace of the Church and State THO. WARMSTRY AN ANSVVER TO CERTAINE OBSERVATIONS of W. BRIDGES concerning the present Warre against His MAJESTIE whereby he pretends to justifie it against that Hexapla of considerations viZ. Theologicall Historicall Legall c. NOt to trouble my selfe much with those impertinencies in the beginning of your Preface where you most rashly and impiously set our blessed Saviours name in the stile of this unchristianlike designe calling it the businesse of Christ Jesus his Kingdome And as you transgresse against Piety there so against Charity too in the same clause as if your malice were not active enough if you did not in the same breath and sentence blaspheme God and injure man You stile the good and obedient people of the Land by that scornfull title of The squint eyed multitude as if every eye were asquint that is not bloudshotten like yours And to let passe your slighting of those bookes that have beene set forth which you say have had their answers though I could tell you that all have not beene answered that we know of And for those answers of yours and some others to Doctor Ferne whom you bite in the margine their answers have had replyes too nor yet to insist upon your vaine promises of delivering the sense of the whole in that of Rom. 13. He that resisteth c. which it may be you were afraid to speake out lest your owne pen should transcribe your sentence and allot unto you that judgement or damnation which the Apostle there denounceth against resisters of the higher powers and in that of the Evangelist resist not evill c. And to give you leave to passe over and let goe Fathers Councells the Doctrine of our owne Bishops since they are so little for your turne I leave all these upon your score and come to observe upon your Observations which you commend unto your Reader And first in the Theologicall consideration you observe thus 1. That the King must command not onely according to Gods Law but mans also Answ It is most true That the King is bound in duty to regulate his commands by the rules of the Law of God and the Kingdome and if he doth otherwise he sinnes and is answerable to God for it But it doth by no meanes follow that he is answerable unto the Subjects or corrigible by them for all correction is to proceed from a Superiour and the King who is acknowledged to be supreame hath no Superiour on earth to judge him 2. That if he doe not so command the resistance is not a resistance of power but will Answ Though the King doe exceed the limits of his duty yet the resistance may be a resistance of his power for they that judge not superficially of things may easily discerne That a Kings power is larger then his duty And he may exceed his duty in commanding and yet his authority may injoyne the Subject to obey Pharoah exceeded his duty in commanding the Israelites to make brick without straw And Casar's Officers exceeded the limits both of the Law of God and man when against the liberty of the Subject they require tribute of our Saviour yet wee have examples of obedience in both There are somethings unlawfull for a Governour to command which are not unlawfull for the Subject to obey as in the cases before named and in all tyrannous and frivolous commands in such cases we may petition and some admonish and reprove the King with reverence and put him in minde of his duty
or in case he will not heare we may use the weapons of the Church Preces lachrymas we may complaine to God who is above the King and the sole Moderator betwixt Him and Subjects but we must obey and remember that such commands are the Governours sinne but our punishment Indeed if the Governour command the Subject to doe that which the Law of God forbids him to do he must not yeild active obedience but obey God rather than men But yet he must not resist by taking up Armes or the like but patiently submit to suffer the punishment Otherwise I pray you resolve me why the three children yeilded their bodies to the furnace when Nebuchadnezzar commanded them against the Law of God to worship the golden Image if they had held it lawfull to resist they might as well have looked for assistance from Heaven to have made good their party against the Tyrant as that God should preserve them in the midst of the fire But the Text notes it of them that they yeilded their bodies which implyes a voluntary submission And yet the command was against the Law of God and Nebuchadnezzar aswell as King CHARLES ought to have commanded not onely according to the Law of God but of man also If you are wise and peaceable you ought to consider that as the Kings duty is to regulate him upon paine of Gods displeasure so his power is to regulate us sometimes where he exceedes his duty and if where he transgresses the Law of God much more where he transgresses the limits of humane Lawes which notwithstanding he is bound in conscience to observe 3. That to say such a resistance must be onely defensive is non-sense for so a man may be resisting ever and never Resist like the silly women of whom the Apostle saith They are ever learning and never attaine the truth Answ Nor never are like to doe unlesse they meet with better teachers than you appeare to be for indeed here you speake the plainest falshood of any the most impudent advocate that for ought I know hath pleaded in that cause you are fee'd in and we are to thanke you for your plaine dealing it is honestly done however that you will speake your minde if all men should doe so I am perswaded we should have a speedy end of the businesse I was in doubt the people should have beene borne in hand that this warre against the King had beene onely defensive but you have drawne the curtaine and will justifie it seemes the legality of it as an offensive warre That it is lawfull to set up an offensive resistance against the King in case he command either against the Law of God or man And your reason indeed drawne from non-sense Argumentum ab absurdo it is I confesse it is non-sense say you to hold that we may in such case resist the King onely by a defensive resistance This if any is the sense of your Observation and how doe you make this good Why thus an 't please you for so say you a man may be resisting ever and never resist Indeed I confesse that is plaine non-sense to say that a man should be ever resisting and yet never resist as well you may be ever a good Subject and yet never obey your Prince Yea indeed upon the point it is the very same to be ever resisting and never resist as to be ever resisting and yet to be a good Subject since not to resist is essentiall to a good Subject And therefore in stiling this non-sense you accuse your selfe since that is the maine businesse You are about to make us beleeve that resistance and subjection may well stand together so that if that be non-sense as you stile it there is but little sense in the maine attempt of your discourse And I can see no more reason for you to say that it is no more sense to admit of desensive resistance without an offensive then to say a man may ever and never resist Or is there no difference betweene a shield and a sword nature and reason allowes a servant to save his head if he can from his masters cudgell and I know no Law either of God or man that forbids it But yet you must take heed how you allow a servant to deale offensively against his master lest you set houses on fire as well as the common-wealth It is no non-sense to admit of one thing with the denyall of another in assertion or discourse which may and ought sometimes to be done without the other in action and performance But it seemes there is no sense reason nor religion that doth not comply with your purposes Those are the onely rules of truth and falshood good and evill yet methinkes you might have done well to have spared the Apostle for you seeme to be very bold in quoting that saying of his nay of the Holy Ghost as a parallell to that which you call non-sense as if the Apostles saying of silly women such as your faction leadeth away That they are ever learning and never attaine to the truth were no better sense than for a man to be said to be ever resisting and yet never to resist It is no wonder that you are over-bold with Gods Substitute when you are so sawey with God himselfe Remember you have something to answer another day for this your calling might have admonished you to have dealt more reverently with the Scripture then to have brought in any part of that as an instance or parallell of non-sense but howsoever we may know your meaning by this that if the people please to quarrell at the Kings government or to conceive any of his commands to be against or not according to the Lawes of God or man they may not onely defend their owne rights or persons by force and armes but even offer violence to his Sacred Person in a vindictive way and in allowing an offensive resistance without any restraint or limitation you lay a faire ground for ought any man can see even for killing the King either by force or treachery for this without all question lyeth within the generality of an offensive resistance it was pity you did not live or were not better knowne in the beginning of King James his reigne you would have made an excellent Chaplaine to Guy Faux or the rest of the Gunpowder-Traytors What though they were Papists that had beene no great matter They whose stomachs can digest such iron principles as these like enough would not have been very squeamish in point of religion But for your Argument Assertion Observation or what you will call it truely it scarce deserves an answer yet the wise man may seeme to admonish me to give you one lest you should be wise in your owne conceit And therefore I tell you that the Apostle forbids that any resistance at all should be made against the higher power and the higher the power is the more wicked the resistance and
therefore to resist your Prince which is your Supreame is the most wicked of all resistance And the Apostle gives you a reason because it is the ordinance of God and it is shewed before that resistance even in such case where the Magistrates commands are not according to the Law of God or man is a resistance of the power as well as of the will of the Magistrate and therefore is not to be undertaken sub poenâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under paine of judgement or damnation and they that like the wages let them set up the worke Besides this is to put a sword as it were into every offenders hand to provide for his owne life or freedome even by the ruine and destruction of the King or Magistrate if he can but have faith enough to perswade himselfe that he is condemned contrary to the Law either of God or man and certainly he had a very dull braine that could not finde colour enough for such a perswasion in the worst case almost we can imagine especially if that old note be true Quod quisque vult id ipsum putat There needs no great strength of argument to perswade a theefe or murderer that hee ought not to be hang'd but I doubt I shall take too much paines with you There 's an end of your three Observations of the businesse as it is look't on as you say in a Theologicall consideration and for ought I see the people may looke asquint still for any thing you have yet applyed for the rectifying of their sight The next survey you are pleased to take of the matter is to correct the errours of the people in their Historicall view of it you conceive their complaints to be groundlesse when they conceive and say Never such times such taxations such presidents such a warre c. never Yes you can tell them of the twentieth part fifteenth part seventh part as in the reigne of King John and others And you cite the Chronicle too of Edw. 2. in the margent truly I have scarce leisure for the present to examine the Chronicle to confute you We reade indeed of a sixth penny levied of temporall mens goods in the time of Edw. 2. and what others you have found out in your Historicall translations it makes no great matter if they be of the same stampe But can you finde a president of a twentieth part imposed by an Ordinance of the two Houses of Parliament without and against the King and for the maintenance of so unnaturall a warre can you finde any president for those legall robberies that authenticall thee very under the name of plundering and that working of iniquity by a Law But however you seeme to take the people for pretty easie and tame fooles while you would perswade them to lie downe whil'st they are loaded because their forefathers perhaps have gone before them in suffering the like or more grievous pressures What doe you meane to prescribe for tyranny and oppression But to come to your Observations you will have those that are willing to learne to know 1. That if some be taken away it is to preserve them and the rest Answ That 's more then you can assure them rather it may seeme to be for the destruction both of themselves and the residue of their estates since it is but oyle cast into that fire which is likely if not quenched to expose all unto desolation And if those mad-men that have hitherto fed that flame with the expence of their estates were they not jurati in insaniam they have had experience enough to have beene as good as a Bedlam to them and make them now at length to grow wiser and e'en let that goe which is already gone untill the publique faith shall come to her lands and make much of that wit they have received for interest and shut up their hungry purses and coffers with that motto of the Poet Scelus est post omnia perdere naulum That they may at least keep something to bury them Yea it may prove a great blessing if those purges they have received of that over-much fulnesse which hath made them swell so much with pride to the disturbance of the State may now leave them in a more healthfull temper of humility to the quieting thereof This would enrich them much more in their mindes then they are impoverished in their estates and be an excellent recompense for all their losses But little doe you thinke what an excellent Observation this of yours might have beene had you vented it but two or three yeares sooner for the justification of Ship money And yet I doubt it would scarce have gone for weight then and we had best looke well to the scales e're we accept it for so now lest if this once goe for currant it be made a common colour for the greatest oppressions and most injurious and perpetuall taxations of the people though if it be possible more illegall than that of the imposition of the twentieth part if it be enough to beare the people in hand That if some be taken away it is to preserve them and the rest But what an age of fancies doe we live in can you tell the people who it is that would take away either their estates or their lives or if you could is there any honesty in it That you should take away the peoples goods without Law and please them by telling them no body else should robbe them Or to perswade them to throw their estates into the fire to keepe them out of the hands of theeves small comfort in this What is the next Observation to make the matter faire in the Historicall prospect The second Observation is by way of question Whether they had rather part with it to the Parliament or that and their lives too to the Cavaleirs Answ Truely this is a hard question A pittifull necessity that the poore people are brought into it were worth the while to consider who they are that have shut them up into such an uncomfortable Dilemma and what is the cause that they are so concluded and sure it is no hard matter to discerne Wee can yet remember that there was a time not long since when there was no necessity of either of these when the Royall Authority of His Majestie and the knowne Lawes of the Kingdome were in force and yeilded the due protection to the Subjects and they returned their due obedience unto them till these hedges were broken downe under the pretence of mending the gaps in them there was no roome for so sad a question And therefore the people may know whom they have to thank for it even those that for the bringing to passe of their owne ambitious and turbulent designes have removed those ancient land-markes and demolished those knowne and certaine bounds and fences and instead thereof brought in a new ambulatory uncertaine Government by Ordinances of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in opposition to
a greater And therefore this your Observation is a very poore allay either unto the peoples misery and oppression or unto the guilt of those that act it upon them and your question upon the matter in the Historicall consideration Whether they had rather part with it that is with their estates to the Parliament or that and their lives too to the Cavaliers makes not a mite either to the comfort of their wretched condition or to the justice of their illegall taxations which yet we beleeve in all things considerable is unparallelled in any History And therefore notwithstanding all that you have said they may still cry out never such times such taxations such precedents such a warre And so I have done with your second sort of Observations The third classis of your Commentations is upon the businesse in a legall consideration wherein you offer some Propositions to those your Malignants as you call them that are skilled in the Law The first is Whether you had better trust to your owne strength or another mans favour for your defence Answ This question I can scarce see how it is very pertinent to the businesse in hand but whilst you are obscure you thinke perhaps that wee are bound to take you to be wise but as it is you may take this answer to it That it is not very good for you to trust either to your owne strength or another mans favour for your safety and I would advise you to write more divine like hereafter then to build upon such suppositions of carnall considence The best way is for you to trust God alone for your safety and that you may have comfort in that to live in that subjection and obedience to your lawfull Soveraigne his immediate substitute as the Lord requires at your hands and that 's the safest way for the people too for they are like to find but little advantage to themselves that goe about to worke out their owne security by resisting the divine ordinance leave therefore these carnall contrivances and if you are wise and honest shew it in advising the people to live in that obedience unto His Majesty that God who hath placed Him over them looks for from them teach them without consulting with the flesh to doe that God requires of them who is best able to secure them against all dangers that can befall them in their duties unto Him and yet let me tell you withall that though wee must not trust upon the favour of any other for our safety yet where God hath so ordered it in his providence and enjoyned it by his authority wee must make use of the favour of another or at least of the justice and authority of another for our defence and safeguard and not altogether of our owne strength or otherwise what confusion would it not bring into the world if every man must stand or fall by his owne strength the weakest would be sure then to goe to the wall and every man that were more powerfull then another might be ready to build up his owne security by the danger and ruine of others that had lesse strength then he though farre greater right but you tell us what you meane here by strength My strength say you is the Law against which if the Government command it does me wrong if I obey I doe my selfe wrong To this I answer that it is true in some sense that the strength of the Subject is the Law under God but yet this strength which is the law is not to be managed or inforc't by every private hand but by him principally to whom God hath principally given the charge of it within this Kingdome is his Majesty whose authority and power is to give life unto the law either immediately by himselfe or by his subordinate instruments unto whom authority is derived from him to that purpose for the law is dead in a sort but when it is in the Magistrates hand whose power is as it were the soule of the law otherwise the law would quickly become destructive unto it selfe if every private man might take upon him to set the force of it in motion And therefore though private men know the law never so well yet they may not ordinarily be their owne carvers by it but must be content to receive the benefit thereof from the Magistrates hand otherwise our Saviour might seeme to aske an impertinent question who made me a Iudge or a Ruler over you And therefore though the law be the strength of the people yet the people must expect to receive this their strength by the dispensation of the supreme Magistrate and his substitutes and not at their pleasure to carve it out unto themselves otherwise the office of a Magistrate were to little purpose in the Common-wealth But yet this law is to be the rule of government and as you say truly if the Government command against it does you wrong if you obey you do your selfe wrong and why then doe you countenance those illegall Ordinances and other commands that are now on foot which are directly contrary to the knowne law of the Kingdome and so clearely and directly injurious to the Subject Or why doe you woo the people to obey them and so to become accessaries to their owne wrong And yet let me tell you as for the supreame Magistrate who hath none above him upon earth that can authorize you against him this will by no meanes inferre the lawfulnesse of a resistance such a one as is now on foot for though it be true that if he command contrary to the Law of the Kingdome he therein doth the Subject wrong yet hee is not accountable therefore unto us but unto God since he hath no superiour upon earth that hath corrective power over him and therefore to his judgement we must leave him who onely is above him since he is acknowledged by Parliament to be supreame upon earth in the government of his Kingdomes That saying of one herein may seeme much to the purpose Reges si aliquando potestate sibi concessâ abutuntur non sunt à nobis graviter exasperandi sed ubi sacerdotum admonitionibus non acquieverunt Domino judicio sunt reservandi And therefore it is not in the power of any to take up Armes against him to force him to doe right but we must learne of David to leave them unto God 1 Sam. 24.12 15. And though in some cases perhaps you may be said to doe wrong unto your selfe if you should obey the command of the King contrary to the Law yet it is not so in all cases for we finde examples and one most authenticall one of active obedience unto the Magistrate even commanding contrary to Law and right for we finde our Saviour paying tribute unto the Officers of Caesar though they required it unjustly and contrary to Law and right and against the liberty of the Subject as our Saviour intimates Matth. 17.25 First there our Saviour shewes
it to be a freedome belonging unto him What thinkest thou Simon saith our Saviour unto Peter of whom doe the Kings of the earth take custome or tribute of their owne children or of strangers Peter saith unto him of strangers Jesus said unto him then are the children free Where our blessed Saviour proves that Caesar could not justly require tribute of him as is cleare unto any man of judgement Well what doth our Saviour doe then doth he stand upon his termes doth he send Peter unto them with an harsh denyall or command him to draw his sword and set them packing No he condescends with a non obstante to his owne freedome notwithstanding saith that blessed Master of obedience to the silencing of all rebellious mouthes least wee should offend them What Why he will have it paid both for himselfe and Peter and yet we doe not finde that so much was required but onely of our Saviour himselfe as if our Saviour would even almost supererrogate in obedience nay hee will worke wonders but he will doe it And he that would not doe a miracle to feed himselfe when he was hungry by turning a stone into bread yet he will doe a miracle to give us an example of obedience and to pay tribute to Caesar though requiring it against right by making a fish become his treasurer to supply his wants for so good a purpose The riches of the Sea shall be ransackt for it rather than he will give the least countenance to disobedience and his watry Subjects shall pay tribute unto him that was King of Kings and Lord of Lords That he being now in the forme of a servant might pay it to his vassall an earthly Prince Notwithstanding least we should offend them saith he to Peter Goe thou to the Sea and cast in thy hooke and take up the fish that first commeth up and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt finde a piece of money that take and give unto them for thee and me Marke I beseech you though he might have pleaded his liberty and so as you speak might seeme to wrong himselfe in condescending yet saith he lest we should offend them Vnicuique licet renunciare privilegio suo and therefore hee will rather dispence with his owne priviledge then give offence by causing a disturbance in the Kingdome or by making the least shew or appearance of disobedience to Governours thereby to bring a scandall upon the doctrine that he taught or upon the Christian religion that he came to plant in the world from whence for your conversion if it may be if not for your confusion I doubt it will be I collect this Observation against yours That wee may and ought to obey the Magistrate though commanding against the Law and so wrongfully to our owne private injury where the disobedience is like to be offensive in causing a disturbance in the State or scandall in the Church Will you have the point clearely discussed take it then thus The question is and indeed it is a maine one how the Subject is to carry himselfe toward His Majestie in case he command contrary to the Law I hope I shall give you a right determination of this doubt in these severall propositions First I grant it clearely that the King in duty ought not to command any thing contrary to the Law for the Law is unto the King as the Rule unto the Builder the Compasse unto the Pilot the Map or Card unto the Travailer whereby he ought to gage and square out all his motions and actions of regality and government and wheresoever his operations are disproportioned unto this rule they are irregular 2. The command of the King or supreame Magistrate may be said to be against the Law two severall wayes either so as that it enjoynes me to doe something which the Law forbids me or forbids me to doe that which the Law enjoynes me Which is against my duty that I owe unto the Law or else in that it commands me to doe or leave undone something which the law gives me freedome not to doe or not to leave undone which is against the priviledge that the law allowes me in the first case I ought not to obey him actively for the law of the Kingdome is the declared and deliberate will of the supreme Magistrate and therefore so to obey him were to disobey him since thereby as one hath well sayd I should disobey his deliberate will to obey his suddaine will which is unreasonable Yet in this case I must obey him passively by submitting unto the punishment that hee shall inflict upon me at least so farre as to forbeare all forcible resistance In the second case I may and ought sometimes to obey him since therein though he indeed may seeme to breake the law in commanding yet I doe not breake it in obeying sith the law though it allow me yet it doth not tie me to my priviledge and therefore forgoing it I doe not contradict my duty to the law but onely forgoe the liberty that the law gives me which I may and must forgoe sometimes at least that I may obey the command of the supreme Magistrate in case it may make for the obtaining or preserving of some greater good or for the prevention of greater evill then the preservation of my liberty can recompence As where the forgoing my freedome or priviledge in my estate may preserve some greater good unto my selfe or may make for the peace of the Common-wealth or for the preservation of some great and notable disturbance in the State or where it may further the peace of the Church or prevent scandall from our profession or impediment from the preaching of the Gospell or the like I prove it thus First à fortiori If I ought for these causes to depart from the liberty which the law of God allowes me much more then ought I in such cases to depart from the liberty which I am invested in by the law of man if from my christian liberty much more from my civill liberty But the former is cleere much more then the latter for there is no man that can reasonably deny but for peace sake and to avoid scandall I ought to dispense with my christian liberty for this wee have both precept and example precept 1. Cor. 8.8 9. Galat. 5.13 Rom. 14. from vers 12. to the end Examples wee have too and those pregnant ones as that of Paul dispensing with that liberty which he had in Christ from the ceremonies of the law for peace sake and to further the Gospell and for prevention of scandall and this wee have both in his practice and profession in his practice Act. 16.3 where wee find him circumcising Timothy for peace sake with the Jewes and that the Gospell might not be hindered and upon the same ground wee find him purifying himselfe Act. 21.26 and that by the advice of Saint Iames and the Elders his profession you may see also to
this purpose 1 Cor. 8.13 if meate make my brother to offend I will eate no flesh while the world standeth lest I make my brother to offend yea in Act. 15. in that famous Apostolicall Synod we finde the Apostles for peace sake and to avoid scandall making a constitution for the abnegement of that freedome in meates and drinks which the Church had obtained in Christ as you may see in that first and most authenticall decretall Epistle which is there recorded sent from the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church by the hands of Paul and Barnabas together with Iudas and Silas unto the brethren which were of the Gentiles in Antioch Syria and Cilicia which examples and precepts if they were well considered they would teach us more moderation and charity then is found in too many in these dayes who are ready to turne the Church upside downe upon every fancyed inconvenience that they apprehend in the discipline or ceremonies of the Church they cry up liberty liberty but in the meane time they make havock of the Church in that that more neerly concernes us which is peace and unity whereas the Apostles teach us both by precept and example that wee are rather to part with liberty then peace and that many other inconveniences even as great ones as Circumcision was after Christ may be admitted rather then the peace disturbed or the preaching of the Gospell hindred And if wee may and ought upon such termes to part with our christian liberty then surely it is most reasonable that upon the like termes i. e. for the peace of the Common-wealth to prevent disturbance to avoid scandall or to make way for the Gospell wee ought to depart from our civill liberty for sicut se habet libertas christiana ad pacem Ecclesiae sic se habet libertas civilis ad pacem reipubl And therefore in such case the command of the supreme Magistrate is to be obeyed though it be contrary to the law in that that concernes the priviledge or liberty of the Subject Secondly this is more precisely confirmed here by the example of our Saviour who to avoid scandall obeyed Caesars Officers and made Peter joyne with him therein although it were against his liberty and priviledge as our Saviour seemes to intimate So it appeares cleerly that our Saviour was free by the law or custome of that Nation and yet to avoid scandall or offence he obeyed Caesars Officers requiring tribute of him though contrary to the liberty of the Subject and Christi actio nostra instructio you cannot walke more safely then in the footsteps of Christ in those things that concerne either your civill or spirituall conversation this will be a farre more authenticall guide unto the people then any rules you can prescribe against it especially in those things which he did of ordinary dispensation as this which was not a matter of power but submission c. And therefore I may aske did Christ well or no in paying tribute against the liberty of the Subject and so in obeying Caesars Officers command against the law of the Kingdome I doubt not but you will answer yes unlesse you are out of love with him too because he is a King but here he presents himselfe to us as a subject well why than I say unto you and to every other man as our Saviour once in another case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the demand of tribute against the law was sinfull in the Officers but our Saviours obedience was good and laudable as he did all things well and therefore imitable by us Thirdly this will appeare by the rule of reason in three conclusions which I hope you will not deny the first is this That wee may and ought to dispense with our private right where it cannot likely be preserved without a publique ruine nature teacheth the arme to expose it selfe to a blow to save the head and the whole body for the generall safety is alwayes to be preserved afore the particular though never so neere us Secondly That the preservation of the Church from scandall or the Common-wealth from division is the preservation of a publique good and the prevention of a publique evill and both these are in themselves full as good or better then liberty and therefore especially when they are enlarged by the advantage of the gratuity of them in respect of a private freedome and this is according to the rule of charity for as Mr Calvin well hath it sicut charitas fidei ita libertas subjicienda est charitati and therefore although it be granted that where nothing else is to be considered the Magistrate doth an injury in commanding you contrary to the law of the Kingdome and that you doe wrong unto your selfe in obeying such a command yet if the command enjoyne you nothing that is contrary to the commanding part of the law of God or the Common-wealth but onely against the permissive part thereof not against duty but priviledge you ought to obey in such case rather then give occasion of scandall upon the Church or bring reproach to your profession or disturbance to the peace of the State wherein you live And in such case your obedience is no wrong to your selfe but your disobedience a wrong to the Church and Common-wealth Thirdly By way of corollary to prevent an evasion least any should object that the publique liberty is endangered by suffering entrenchments to be made upon the private The third conclusion is this that as publique good is to be preferred afore private so amongst publique and private goods peace is more necessary than liberty as that which concerneth the very being of a body is more necessary then that which concerneth onely the well being now that peace concerneth the very being of a State our Saviour himselfe seemes to instruct us when he tells us That a Kingdome divided cannot stand But we cannot say so of liberty and therefore even the publike liberty is to be dispens'd with for publike peace we must dispense with commodities for preservation of essences Besides that we have learnt by lamentable experience that when liberty is built up upon the ruines of peace it cannot stand long upon such a foundation but is quickly buried in the ruines which it hath made Pax est custos libertatis The peace of the Kingdome is the nurse and guardian of the liberty and freedome of the State and if you take away that to preserve this it is as if you should pull downe the foundation to inlarge the building or as if you should send away the nurse for the preservation of the childe or remove the fuell to maintaine the fire And truly I conceive this rule may be well observed for the discovery and prevention of one maine plot of the Devill who hath beene ever and anon setting liberty against peace and exposed this to ruine by the intemperate desire of that This is the ordinary stratagem of Satan to set Schisme a-foot
you that some of them are carried and so may be miscarried by more passions than their owne or else aske the Londoners Give me leave only to mind you of one thing more and I have done with this proposition That if there be little to be given to the Law-giver by that wise rule of the heathen surely much lesse is to be given to the Subject and then your proposition is not much for your turne Hitherto you see you edifie but little the malignants may be as malignant as ever for ought you have said yet for their conversion But perhaps there 's more weight behind well we 'll endeavour to poyze it if there be let us see then what 's your fourth proposition The law say you is the common surety betweene the King and the subject I say so too and wish its credit had beene so good that its word might have beene taken something better than it hath beene it might have beene better security both to King and Subject as some thinke than the publike faith I pray you restore it unto its credit if you can and the King will be no looser by it no nor the subject neither But to helpe our dull understandings you tell us what you meane when you say the law is the common surety c. that is to say say you it binds me to pay the King tribute That 's strange why doe you not doe it then and perswade others thereunto Sure you nodded here you had sate up late about the contrivance of these propositions so zealous were you for the good of the poore foolish malignants if they would but be guided And here your eyes grew heavie and your pen it may be for want of their guidance fell a wandring towards the truth for you seeme here to speak here in the person of a subject And your sense is equivalent to this that the law bindes the subject to pay the King tribute what is it then I beseech you tell me for though I am a malignant I am willing to learne what is it I pray you that bindes or allowes the Subject not only not to pay the King tribute but to rob him of his revenue to interrupt his rents to make seizure of his goods to ransack make spoyle of his exchecquer Do you know what you have said or whom you here accuse surely if the law binde the subject to pay the King tribute there is no law that allowes the subiect to rob him of his rights Nay you are not content with that neither but you say it bindes you to pay the King tribute c. What are you mad now Take heed of that I beseech you why as sure as can be you are hired by the malignants to plead the Kings cause under pretence of opposing him Doe you not yet know what a danger us thing an c. is certainly you stole this out of the late Canons The Law bindes you to pay the King tribute c. why in this c. you may binde the subiect to pay obedience too as well as tribute and so bring in the heresie of the Christians amongst us againe and root out that wholesome doctrine of the Galileaus Nay by this c. you may take off the edge of all those swords that are lifted up against him I pray you bethinke your selfe hath not the Correctour of the Presse abused you you may doe well to get an order for the turning him out of his place if he hath for this is directly the language of Ashdod as some thinke but we take it indeed to be the language of Canaan if it be rightly interpreted and the very sense of our Saviour sure you forgot what you had lately written out of your heathen That this law giver must have as little as may be given unto him But perhaps you 'll make him pay deare enough for it and that ere you have done he shall have little reason to brag of your bounty I confesse I thinke so Well but how doe you make amends why you have bonds for the King too I pray you let them be golden chaines and then I doubt not but he 'll be willing to weare them The law you say bindes the King that I shall enjoy my protection your meaning is that the subject shall enjoy his protection for I hope you doe not meane to monopolize protection your sense then is that the King is bound by the law to protect the subject take heed then you prove not a rebell for then I shall tell you that your proposition will not hold in those termes that you render it The King is not bound to protect rebels but the subiect he is I doubt not but he 'll confesse it yea I am confident would most willingly yeeld it But I pray you mistake not the law bindes the King so that in dutie he is bound to performe it and if he doth it not he is answerable unto God for it who will most certainly bring him to an account But let me tell you withall once more for your instruction that he is answerable unto God alone since he who is acknowledged to be supreme Governour and only supreme Governour in all his dominions hath none other above him but God alone nay none in his dominions equall unto him And sure they that are below him have no power to judge him and if not to judge him neither to correct him or who I pray you hath made the subject his ruler or is a Common-wealth reversed now the onely fashion for a State what authority hath the inferiour to call the superiour to an account doth the Steward use to call the Master to a reckoning or where is the Tribunall at which the King must be judged Or in whose name shall the Indictment be made against him or the Writs goe forth for the execution of judgement Or what if the King please to grant himselfe a pardon sure you must ee'ne be content to leave the King unto the judgement of the Lord yea and to leave his heart unto his guidance too The last refuge of the Subject is to make his complaint unto God And Kings have reason to take good heed how they give occasion of such complaints for they are like to meet with an impartiall Judge that regardeth not the person of Princes But for the Subject to take upon them to force the King their supreame Governour to his duty or to take upon them to correct him is to thrust into Gods office who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords the onely ruler of Princes See whose property this is Revel 1.5 17.14 19.16 See whose vertue it is that hath that name written upon it King of Kings and Lord of Lords And take heed how you goe about to cloath any other in his garment or to part it amongst any Or how you invest any other with His Authority for He will not give His glory to another But alas His Majestie is
very hardly dealt with He is required to protect His people and yet he is not allowed that Authority or Power or Revenue which is requisite thereunto They doe all they can to disarme Him and then require Him to defend them They binde His hands and when they have done they quarrell with Him that He doth not use them in his defence is not this a very Egyptian oppression to bid him make Brick without straw or indeed rather it may seeme to be a meere jeere of his Majestie but they had best take heed how they mock at Gods Substitute This I hope may serve for your fourth proposition Your fifth and last is definitive And you give us the character of a good Subject in it In a word he is a good subject say you that lookes upward to see what in God Gods Vicegerent commandeth and secondly That lookes downeward to see whom the obedience thereunto doth either hurt or hinder Why now it seemes you would teach them to looke a squint for he that lookes upward and downeward at once must needs doe so but however I observe that you would have the subject have his eyes about him that he may looke and see And so would I it is my prayer unto God that he would open the eyes of the subject of you and all the rest that they may see in this designe against his Majestie and themselves how they runne headlong upon their owne ruine And I wish they may see with their owne eyes and not with the eyes of other men only to take all things upon trust that shall be imposed upon them magisterially by those that seeme to deny the use of reason Secondly I observe that you would have them first looke upward and so would I and to see what in God the Lords Vice-gerent doth command And wheresoever any thing is commanded by the Vicegerent contrary unto the Lords command I advise them take that counsell of the Apostles rather to obey God than men but yet in such case I advise you and them according to the example of the Apostles to submit by passive obedience where they cannot by active performance of his commands Thirdly I observe that the King according to your confession is Gods Vicegerent and therefore to despise him is to despise God and therefore none can devest him but God whose substitute he is Fourthly you would have the Subiect looke downward too to see whom the obedience to the Superiours command doth either hurt or hinder I am afraid there hath beene too much looking downeward to worldly ends and purposes to private aymes and contrivances which have made us forget our duty to God and his ordinance and our regard to the publique safety And this is the ground of all our mischiefe and this looking downeward is no good posture if we beleeve the Psalmist Psal 17.11 But yet I would have them to looke downeward too in a good sense and first in humility with the Publican and secondly in Christian charity with the good Samaritane that with a Christian warinesse they may as much as lies in them frame their obedience to the good of others but not so as to take upon them the power to moderate the commands of their Superiour as if wheresoever they shall be pleased to fancy an inconvenience either to the publique or any private concernment it should be in their power to deny obedience for that is the Governours charge to looke hee commands nothing that may disadvantage the Common-wealth or any part or member thereof it is not for every private man nor indeed for any to be the Judge of that otherwise there could never want pretences for disobedience There can hardly be found any such inconvenience that can be answerable to that succession of mischiefe that is like to accrue upon the dissolution of Government or the exposing the Magistrates command unto the examination of the rude and ignorant multitude so as to enable them to resist where they shall dreame of some hurt or hinderance that may therein accrue unto others or themselves We must remember here that the fifth Commandment is the first of the second table And that that is indeed the guardian of all the rest and the Kings Throne stands highest there even at the very foot-stoole of the Throne of God which is set up as it were in the first Table of the Law And therefore so that we doe not any act that lieth contrary unto the rest wee must be content to suffer and leave consequences to God however you cannot bring in active resistance or rebellion to the definition of a good Subject So I have done with your Propositions and come to your confirmation of this last You tell us that Papists grant you this and your margent points me to Bellarmine That in the Superiour three things are concurrent 1. The place which is from Christ alone 2. The person which is from the choosers 3. The union of these two which is from Christ but by the mediation of a humane act let Protestants then say you have their eyes in their fore-head I could answer you very briefely by excepting against the force of your argument which seemes to runne à majori as if what Papists say in derogation from Magistrates must much more be granted by Protestants or as if they gave more unto obedience then we which is no such matter for I would have you know that maugre all your seditious doctrines it is yet the glory of the true Protestant Church which neither you nor Papists shall ever deprive us of that we according to the judgement and practise of Christ our Master and the Apostles our leaders and the Primitive Christians are the best maintainers of obedience to Kings and Magistrates and herein we leave behinde us both Papists and Schismaticks as two kindes of Foxes tayled together with firebrands of Rebellion betwixt them And therefore you must not thinke to drive us from our station by telling us that Papists yeild this or that We abhorre Popery in this and all other points Doe not you know that the Throne of the Romane Antichrist must be built up upon the ruine of the civill Authority of Emperours and Princes take heed you play not his game for him The truth is you may be ashamed to lay such a scandall upon the Protestant Church as to give Papists the precedency in point of Allegeance I doe here in the name of the whole Protestant Church of England enter my Protestation against your admission and doe avow it to be clearely against the tenet of the true Protestant Church That Subjects may upon any pretence take up Armes against their lawfull Prince If any that have called themselves by the name of Protestants have said or done any thing to the contrary we doe so farre disclaime them Your miscarriages in this point have brought a scandall and reproach upon the name of Protestants and have opened the mouthes of Papists against us as if
if they hinder the killing quelling of those who would both kill and quell you yours your Religion Kingdome They become friends of Gods enemies and ours and resolve to make peace with them with whom God hath resolved to have warre How doe you prove that why Exod. 17. ult what saith that place why these are the words which you leave us to finde out there for he sayd because the Lord hath sworne to have warre with Amalek from generation to generation Go to now where does your great strength lie or how may a man doe to bind this Sampson of yours This invincible perswasive or reply or what you will call it wherewith you doe so unmercifully seize upon the judgments of the poore blear-eyed people Wee 'le examine it a little Your drift is or should be to shew that the resolution of the people is not good that their money shall not help to kill in your designe for that must be your meaning now how do you drive them from this resolution why thus you shew them very learnedly that their money must help to kill c. how prove you that why because they may not hinder the killing quelling of them c. well it seemes then you are all for killing and quelling wee might have hoped of more favour you might have given the people leave to have thought you more mercifull but is this good Logique they may not hinder therefore their money must help is there no meane betweene helping and hindering consider it well and you 'l finde there is but that 's your weaknesse or perhaps your hast wee 'l pardon it and allow it that force it wants But how doe you prove they may not hinder the killing quelling of the Kings Party for that 's your meaning without all question why because they are those that would both kill and quell you yours your Religion your Kingdome wee need your help a little here wee understand you in part your Us there stands for your Party I conceive and your Ours for your Wives Children Friends Family and the like but we cannot tell yet what you meane by our Religion nor very well what you meane by our Kingdome your Commentary here a little I beseech you doe you meane by Your Religion the Brownists or the Anabaptists or the Familists or the Seperatists or the Libertines or the Papists for it is thought you have of all these sorts in your Party so that your party is very party-coloured or doe you meane that which wee doubt you have too little to doe with the true knowne Protestant Religion or what do you meane by Your Kingdome is this Kingdome any more yours then His Majesties or ours or what Kingdome is it that you meane I presume you will say that by Your Religion you meane the true Protestant Religion and by Your Kingdome this Kingdome of England that is so denominated a Kingdome from that good King that God hath set over it and if so then give me leave to aske you first how it appeares to you that the Kings party would kill you or yours or that they would quell you doe you but quell your rebellious spirits and I dare warrant you for either killing or quelling by His Majesty or His Party if He can help it any further then the Law armes Him against you nay you may assure your selves His Majesty hath that grace and clemency in Him that will moderate the severity of the Law too and it is not best for you to deny Him that power you have had good experience of His Majesties mercy if you would thinke on 't some have thought He hath beene cruell to Himselfe in being mercifull to you I but I hope all His mercy will returne at length into His owne bosome you had best take heed you slight it not too much lest if it be kept too long before you make use of it that good and pleasant Wine turne Vinegre You may doe well to remember that mercy loves not to stand too long at the doore clemency is not easily wearied but if it once grow throughly angry it may prove the greatest fury If you will needs put His Majesty to His choice which of the two He will have spilt He knowes there is difference of price and value betweene rebellious and loyall bloud And if there be no help for 't but that you will worke your ruine the price of the safety and preservation of His faithfull people you may thanke your selves for setting up such a Market I know not how to helpe you but in truth I shall be sorry for you But you may prevent it if you will it is but returning to your obedience and loyalty and I doubt not but shall find His Majesties sword that is now most unwillingly drawn against you for your correction ready most cheerfully to exercise it selfe in your protection and so you and yours may be safe if you please and the Subjects may keepe their money for better purposes then to imploy it to set forward the killing of men it was sure ordained for a meanes of preservation not for the instruments of ruine and destruction But your Religion your Religion That will be kill'd and quell'd if this cry were not in your mouthes I could scarce thinke you to be Rebels for is not this the usuall accoutrement of rebellion to march under the colours of Religion at least in pale or in quarter with some others as liberty perhaps or some such like because Religion will not of it selfe take with all palats but I pray you doe not beleeve that this vizour will alwayes be undiscovered this velvet maske hath beene so much used that the nap is all worne of almost and the bare face may be seene through it This pretence of Religion is growne so stale and hath beene so often made the lure of sedition that the very boyes can almost spy out the imposture and therefore your wiser way will be to get some new fashion for your strumpet unlesse you meane to have them throw stones and rotten apples at her alas this is an old trick to begin mischiefe in the name of God In nomine Domini incipit omne malum is too old and too true a saying but let them take heed that set it forward in such a stile for this is something worse then to take Gods name in vaine and then they are not like to be held guiltlesse And amongst others you had best be wary for whilst you make God and Religion the stile of this horrid businesse your whole progresse is a kind of a running blasphemy nay perhaps I could easily show you that in many of you is a running perjury in those that have taken the Oaths of Alleageance and Supremacy further answer I cannot give you so fully as perhaps I might if I did but know what stamp you are of onely this let me tell you first for the Protestant Religion as it hath been for these many yeares in this