is president to distribute eternall gifts to his servants Whereas the politicall Empire is but as it were an inferior bench wherein Iustice is administred according to the prescription of the Ecclesiasticall soveraignty Thus far Renecherus I will make an end with William Bucanus whose book was published at the request and with the approbation of Beza and Goulartius maine pillars of the Church of Geneva 1602. They saith Bucanus which have any part of Office is the publike administration of the Common-wealth Loco 76 p. 844. as the Overseers Senators Consuls Peeres or Tribunes may restraine the insolency of vill Kings Thus far he This Puritan dangerous error is directly repugnant to the Law the Gospell the precepts of the Apostles the practise of Martyrs and the doctrine of the Fathers Councels and other Clasicall Writers as I have proved in the 6 former Chapters wherin the holy Texts of Scripture which the Papists and Puritans do damnably abuse against the Ecclesiastical and Civil authority of Kings shal be answered by the godly Protestanes whose labour God used to reforme his Church since the yeare of our Lord 1517. and by the ancient Fathers and Orthodoxall Writers in every age of the Church Inferiour Magistrates saith Iohannes Baptista Ficklerus are the defenders and protectours of the Lawes and Rights of the State De jury magist fol. 18. and have authority if need require to correct and punish the supreame King So far Ficklerus An English fugitive which was the Author of the booke de justa abdicatione Henrici Tertij affirmeth That all the Majesty of the Kingdome is in the assembly of Statesmen to whom it belongeth to make Covenants with God to dispose of the asssises of the Kingdome to appoint matters pertaining to war and peace lib. 3 c. 8. to bridle the Kingly power and settle all things that belong to publike Government So far he And the most seditious Dolemon saith Part 1. c. 4. pag. 72. that all humane Law and order Naturall Nationall and Positive doth teach that the Common wealth which gave Kings their authority for the common good may restraine or take the same from them if they abuse it to the common ill so far Doleman and of this opinion are many other as may appeare by D. Morton by whom they are discovered and refuted How far this gangrene will extend I know not The Kings of Christendome are dayly crucified as Christ their Lord was between two theeves I meane the Papist and Puritan which have prepared this deadly poyson for Princes whom they in their own irreligious and traiterous hearts shall condemne for tyranny I hope neither Peeres nor People will be so fond to beleeve them or wicked to follow them which pretend the Reformation of Religion and defend he subversion of Christian States If inferiour officers or the publike assembly of all States will claime this power it standeth them upon as they will avoyd everlasting damnation not to derive a title from Rome Lacedemon or Athens as Calvin doth whom the rest follow but from the hill of Sion and to plead their interest from the Law or the Gospell Si mandatum non est praesumptio ad poenam proficiet non ad praemium August in quest mixt quia ad contumeliam pertinet conditoris ut contempto Domino colantur servi spreto Imperatore adorentur Comites If their opposition against Kings be not commanded of God it is presumption against God for it is a contumely against God the Creator of all States to despise Lords and honour servants to contemne the Soveraigne Emperour and to reverence the Peeres of the Empire So far Augustine My sonne saith Salomon feare God and the King Pro. 24.21 and meddle not with the seditious for their destruction shall come sodainly and who knoweth the end of them The conclusion of all is That Kings have supreame and absolute authority under God on Earth not because all things are subject to their pleasure which were plaine tyranny not Christian Soveraignty but because all persons Within their Dominions stand bound in Law allegiance and conscience to obey their pleasure or to abide their punishment And Kings themselves are no way subject to the controule censure or punishment of any earthly man but reserved by speciall prerogative to the most fearfull and righteous judgement of God with whom there is no respect of persons He whose servants they are will beat them with a rod of iron and breake them in peeces like a potters vessell if they abuse that great and soueraigne power which God hath endued them withall to support error to suppresse truth and to oppresse the innocent God of his great mercy grant us the spirit of truth to direct us in all loyalty that we being not seduced by these seditious Sectaries may grow in grace stand fast in obedience embrace love follow peace and encrease more and more in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ To whom be all praise power and dominion now and for ever Amen FINIS
first King of Israel was rather a monster than a man after the spirit of God had forsaken him the evil spirit was come upon him m 1 Sam. â—6 14 There were not many sins against God Man or Nature wherein he transgressed not yet his excesse was punished neither by the Sacerdotall Synod nor the secular Senate Who can loy his hand on the Lords Annointed and be guiltlesse n 1 Sam. 16 9 The very Annointment was the cause of Sauls immunity from all humane coersion as Augustine affirmeth Quaero si non habebat Saul sacramenti sanctitatem Aug. contr lit Petil l. 2 c. 48. quid in eo David venerabatur If Saul had not the holinesse of the Sacrament I aske what it was that David reverenced in him he honoured Saul for the sacred and holy unction while he lived and revenged his death Yea he was troubled and trembled at the heart because he had cut off a lappe of Saules garment Loe Soul had no innocency and yet he had holinesse not of life but of unction So far Augustine Who questioned David for his murther and adultery who censured Salomon for his idolatry though their câ—â—nes were capitall by the Law of God After that Kingdome was divided all the Kings of Israel and most of the Kings of Iudah were notorious Idolaters yet during those Kingdomes which endured above 200 yeares no Priest did challenge no States-men did claime power from the highest to punish or depose their Princes And the Prophets perswaded all men to obey and endure those idolatrous Princes whose impiety they reproved with the losse of their lives Christ sled when the people would have made him a King a Joh. 6.15 He payed tribute for himselfe and Peter b Mat. 17.27 When the question was propounded concerning the Emperours Subsidy he concluded for Caesar c Mat. 22.21 And standing to receive the judgement of death before Pilate he acknowledged his power to be of God d Ioh. 19.15 This Saviour of Mankind whose actions should be our instruction did never attempt to change that Government or to displace those Governours which were directly repugnant to the scope of information that he aymed at Iohn Baptist did indeed reprove King Herod with a Non licet e Mar. 6 18 but he taught not the Souldiers to leave his service or by strife and impatience to wind themselvs out of the band of allegiance wherin the Law had left them and the Gospell found them f Luk. 3.14 The Apostle delivered unto the Church the Doctrine of obedience and patience which they had learned by the Precept and observed by the practise of our Lord Christ Peter commandeth obedience to all manner of men in Authority g 1 Pet. 2.15 Paul forbiddeth resistance against any power h Rom. 13.1 2 3.4 And S. Iude maketh it blasphemy to revile Government or to speake evill of Governours i Iude 8. If therefore an Angell from heaven preach otherwise than they have delivered let him be accursed k Gal. 1.8 The second Chapter prooveth the same by the Fathers of the first 300 yeares THe true Church which had the Spirit of understanding to discerne the voyce of Christ from the voyce of a stranger never taught never practised never used or approoved other weapons than salt teares and humble prayers against the Paganisme Heresie Apostacy and Tyranny of earthly Kings Iustinus Martyr Tertullian and Cyprian shall beare witnesse for 300 years wherein the Kings and Potentates of the earth bathed themselves in the bloud of innocents and prosessed enmity against Christ and his servants Ad inquisitionem vestram Christianos nos esse profitemur c. At your inquisition we professe our selvs to be Christians though we know death to be the guerdon of our profession saith Iustin Martyr to the Emperor Antonius did we expect an earthly kingdom Second apolog ad Ant. Imp. p. 113. we would deny our Religion that escaping death we might in time attain our expectation But we feare not persecution which have not our hope fixed on the things of this life because we are certainly perswaded that we must dye As for the preservation of publike peace we Christians yeeld to you O Emperor more help and assistance than other men For we teach that no evill doer no covetous man nor seditious that lyeth in wait for bloud can have accesse to God And that every man doth passe to life or death according to the merit of his deeds Thus far he We saith Tertullian to Scapula the Viceroy of Carthage are defamed Tertull. lib. au Scap. for seditious against the Imperiall Majesty Yet were the Christians never found to be Albinians Nigrians or Cassians Albinus Niger and Cassius were traytors against Marcus Antonius Commodus Pertinax and Severus the Emperors but they that sweare by the Emperors deity the very day before they that vowed offred sacrifice for the Emperor's health are found to be the Emperor's enemies A Christian is enemy to no man much lesse to the Emperor knowing that the Imperiall Majesty is ordained of God and therefore necessarily to be loved reverenced and honored whose prosperity together with the welfare of all the Roman Empire they desire so long as the world standeth We do therfore honour the Emperor in such sort as is lawfull for us and expedient for him we reverence him as a mortall man next unto God of whom he holdeth all his authority only subject to God and so we make him soveraigne our all in that we make him subject but to God alone So far Tertullian S. Cyprian sheweth many good reasons for the patience of the Saints in his book against Demetrianus God saih he is the revenger of his servants when they are annoyed Wherefore no Christian when he is apprehended doth resist or revenge himself against your unjust violence though the number of our people be very great The confidence we have that God will reward doth confirm our patience the guiltlesse give way to the guilty the innocent rest content with their undeserved punishment and tortures being certainly assured that the wrong done to us shall not be unrewarded The more injury we suffer the most just and grievous shall God's vengeance be on them that persecute us It is therfore cleare and manifest that the plagues which comed own from Gods indignation do not come through us poore persecured Christians but from him whom we serve for the wrong done unto us So far Cyprian As many as lived according to Christ's institution did never revile the government of Tyrants much lesse by force resist their violence following the patience of Christ who could by his own power the might of his Angels or the strength of his creatures have at the first withstood or at the last revenged the injury of the people Ioh 19.15 Iohn 8.22 Luk. 23.11 Mar. 15 15 Mat. â—7 27 28 29. the buffet of the Priests servant the
A Persvvassion to Loyalty OR THE SVBIECTS DVTIE VVherein is proved that resisting or deposing of Kings under what specious pretences soever coached is utterly unlawfull Collected by D. O. Dedicated to all dutifull Subjects LONDON Printed 1642. To the dutifull Subject THe Puritan-Church-Policie and the Iesuitical society began together a See M. Heokers preface And the preface of Cheâ—â—nic before his examen against the 〈…〉 of the Councell of Trent the one in Geneva 1536. and the other in Rome 1537. since their beginning they have bestirred themselves busily as he that compasseth the b Iob. 1.7 Earth or they that coasted sea and land each one in his order The Puritan to breake downe the wall of Sion by disturbing the peace of the Reformed Church the Iesuite to build up the ruines of Babilon by maintaining the abhomination of the deformed Synagogue These though brethren in sedition and heady are head-severed c Mat. 23.15 the one staring to the Presbytery and the other to the Papacy but they are so fast linked behind and tayle-tyed together with firebrands betweene them that if they be not quenched by the power of Majesty they cannot chose when the meanes are fitted to their plot but set the Church on fire and the state in an uprore Their many and long prayers their much vehement preaching and stout opposition against orders established their shew of austerity in their conversation and of singular learning in their profession as the evil fiend transformd into an angell of light brought them first to admiration Whereby they have not only robbed widowes houses under pretence of prayer ransacked their seduced disciples by shew of devotion but also battered the courts of Princes by animating the Peers against Kings and the people against the Peeres for pretended reformation And wheras God hath inseparably annexed to the Crown of earthly Majesty a supreme Ecclesiastical soveraignty for the protection of piety and an absolute immunity from the juditiall sentence and Martiall violence for the preservation of policie These sectaries bereave Kings of both these their Princely prerogatives exalting themselves as the sonne of perdition above all that is called God 2 Thel 2.3 4. Least they might seeme sine ratione insanire to sow the seeds of Sedition without shew of reason Caedem faciunt Scripturarum as the heretikes in Tertullians time were wont to do in materiam suam they kill the Scripture to serve their turnes and pervert the holy Word of the eternall God by strange interpretation and wicked application against the meaning of the Spirit by whom it was penned the Doctrine of the Church to whom it was delivered and the practice of all the Godly as well under the Law as the Gospel that did beleeve understand and obeyit to maintaine their late and lewd opinions I have in my hand above forty several places of the old and new Testament which both the brethren of the enraged opposite faction do indifferently quote and seditiously apply in defence of their dangerous opposition and damnable error against the Ecclesiasticall supremacy and the indeleble character of royal inunction Vnto the which places falsly expounded perverted and applyed I have added the interpretation of the learned Protestants since the time of Martin Luther who began to discover the nakednesse of the Romish Church 1517. More especially insisting in the a K. Henry 8. K. Iames. The Cranmer Io. Whitgist Rich. Bancrost Archb. of Cant. Henry Earle of Northampton Robert Earle of Salisbury most mighty Kings the most reverend Prelats The L. Burleigh L. Treasurer of England The L. Elsmere L. Chancelor of England The L. Stafford The L Cooke B. Jewell B. Horne B. Pilkington B Elmere B. Couper B. Bilson B. Babington B. Andrews B Barsow B Bridges D. Ackworth D. Saravia D. Cosens D Surcliffe D. Prythergh D. wilkes D. Morton D. Tocker M Bekinsaw M. Foxe M. Nowell M. Hooker and many others honourable Lords loyall Clergy and other worthy men that have in the Church of England learnedly defended the Princely right against disloyall and undutifull opponents I protest in all sincerity that I have not detorted any thing to make either the cause it selfe or the favourers of it more odious than their own words published with the general approbation of their severall favorits do truly infer and necessarily inforce I hope the loyall Subject and Godly affected will accept in good part my endeavour and industry intended for the glory of God the honor of the King and the discovery of the seditious The displeasure of the Malecontented-factious which can no more abide the truth then the owles can light or the frantique the Physitian I neither regard nor care for Farewell The Table of the Book The duty of Prelates Peeres People by Scripture Chap. 1. Pag. 1. Fathers of the first 300 yeares cap. 2 pag. 3 second 300 yeares cap. 3 pag. 6 third 300 yeares cap. 4 pag. 14 fourth 300 yeares cap. 5 pag. 16 fift 300 yeares cap. 6 pag. 20 Sedition of Putitans Papists Concord in the matter of sedition cap. 7. p. 24. Discord in the manner of sedition cap. 7. p. 24. Danger of their doctrine to Prince People cap. 8. p. 26 Puritan-Jesuitisme or the generall consent of the principall Puritans and Iesuits against Kings from the yeare 1536 untill the yeare 1602 out of the most authentique Authors cap 9. p. 27. The first Chapter proveth by the test mony of Scripture that Kings are not punishable by man but reserved to the Judgement of GOD. KINGS have their Authority from God a Rom. 13.1 and are his Vicegerents in earth b Pro. 8.15 to execute justice and judgement for him amongst the sonnes of Men c 2 Chron. 196. All Subjects as well Prelates and Nobles as the inferiour people are forbidden with the tongue to revile Kings d Exo. 22.28 with the heart to thinke ill of them e Eccl 10.20 or with the hand to resist them f Rom. 13.2 The great King of Heaven doth impart his owne Name unto his LIEUTENANTS the Kings of the Earth and calleth them Gods with an ego dixi g Psal 8 2.6 Whose Word is Yea and Amen with this only difference that these Gods shall dye like men h Psal 82.7 and fall like other Princes Wherefore Nathan the man of God must reprove David i 2 Sam. 12.7 that he may repent and be saved And the Sages Iudges and Nobles without feare or flattery must advise and direct Roboam k 1 Reg. 12.7 Other attempts against Kings the King of Kings hath neither commanded in his Law nor permitted in his Gospel David saith Ambrose nullâ—s Legibus tenebatur c. David though he were an Adulterer Apolog. David cap. 10. and an Homicide was tyed to no Law for Kings are free from bonds and can by no compulsion of Law be drawn to punishment being freed by the power of Government Thus far Ambr. Saul the
the grace of God that he is to Lewes the noble Prince with instance of prayer offreth himselfe in all things serviceable Concord is profitable to every Realme and Iustice much to be desired these vertues are the mother of devotion and the consecration of all honesty But whosoever seeketh after civill dissention and incenseth other to the effusion of bloud he is a murtherer and partaketh with him who gaping for bloud goeth about seeking whom he may devoure The worthy vessell of election that was taken up to the third Heaven protesteth saying Let every soule submit himselfe to the higher power there is no power but from God He that resisteth power resisteth the ordinance of God If that be true which some men prate among women and the vulgar sort that we ought not to be subdued to the Kingly power Then it is false which the Apostle teacheth that every soule must submit himselfe under power and superiority Can the truth lye Epist Wald. quae habetur in appendice Marian Scot. Did not Christ the Lord speake by the Apostle Why do we provoke the Lord Are we stronger than he Doth not he thinke himselfe stronger than the Lord the resisteth the ordinance of God Seeing there is no power but of God What saith the Prophet Confounded be they that strive against the Lord and they that resist him shall perish Rodolphus Hermanus Egbertus with many other Princes resisted the ordinance of God in Henry the Emperor but loe they are confounded as though they had never beene for as their end was ill their beginning could not be good c. Haec ille Pope Paschalis seeing the bad successe of those seditious subjects which his predecessors Gregory and Vrbanus had armed against Henry that worthy Emperor did perswade the Emperor's own son against all Law of God Nature and Nations to rebell against his father The Bishop of Leige tooke the Emperors part against this young Prince for the which he was excommunicate his Church interdicted and Robert Earle of Flaunders commanded by the Pope as he hoped to have the forgivenesse of his sins and the faof the Church of Rome to destroy that Bishop and his false Priests The Churchmen of Leige terrified with the Popes excommunication and fearing the Earles oppression wrote an Apology for themselvs about the yeare 1106. Epist Leodiensium apud Simonem Scard We are excommunicate say they because we obey our Bishop who hath taken part with his Lord the Emperor These are the beginnings of sorrow for Satan beeing loosed compasseth the earth and hath made a division between the Prince and the Priest who can justly blame the Bishop that taketh his Lords part to whom he hath sworn allegiance Perjury is a great sin whereof they cannot be ignorant that by new schisme and novell traditions do promise to absolve subjects from the guilt of perjury that forsweare themselves to their Lord the King c. In the progresse of their Apology they determine three great questions First whether the Pope hath power to excommunicate Kings Secondly to whom it belongeth to inflict temporall punishment when Church-men offended against Faith unity or good manners And thirdly what remedy subjects have against their Kings that are impious or tyrannous Si quis respectu sancti Spiritus c. If any man having respect to the Spirit of God shall turn over the old and new Testament he shall plainly find that Kings ought not at all or very hardly be excommunicate whether we consider the etimology of their names or the nature of their excommunication Even til this day hath this point been questioned and never determined Kings may be admonished and reproved by such as be discreet and sober men for Christ the King of Kings in earth who hath placed them in his own stead hath reserved them to his own judgement c. Their answer to the second question is grounded on the testimony of Saint Augustine the practise of Princes and the authority of Paul Kings say they and Emperors by their publique Lawes have forbidden heretiques to enjoy any wordly possession Wherfore seeing we are no heretiques and that it belongeth not to the Pope but to Kings and Emperors to punish heresies why doth our Lord Paschalis send Robert his armour-bearer to destroy the possessions and to overthrow the villages of the Churches which in case they deserved destruction ought to be destroyed by the Edict of Kings and Emperors which cary the sword not without good cause c. For answer to the third question they shew by sundry places of Scripture that there is no other helpe against evill Princes than prayer and patience Nihil modo pro Imperatore nostro dicimus c. We will for the present say nothing in defence of our Emperor but this we say though he were as bad as you report him to be wee would endure his government because our sins have deserved such a Governor Even such a Prince ought not to be resisted by violence but endured by patience and prayer Moses brought many plagues upon Pharaoh whose heart God had hardened but it was by prayer and the lifting up his hands to heaven And S. Paul requireth prayers to be made for all men for Kings and such as are in authority which Kings were neither Catholikes nor Christians Baruch also from the mouth of the Prophet Jeremy wrote unto the Iews which were captives unto the King of Babylon that they must pray for the life of Nabuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and Balthazar his son that their dayes in earth may be as the dayes of Heaven Epist Leod. c. S. Paul teacheth why we ought to pray for evill Kings namely that under them we may lead a quiet life It would becom an Apostolike man to follow the Apostles doctrin it were propheticall to follow the Prophet c. Thus far they in their Epistle Apologeticall He that wrote the life of this Emperor Henry the 4 Vita Hen. 4 quo supra an auncient a modest and an impartiall relator of such occurrents as happened in his time declareth his dislike of the Popes practises and the Germaines tumults against their said Soveraigne Lord. Magnum mundo documentum datum est A great instruction was given to the World that no man should rise against his master For the hand of Rodolph being cut off shewed a most just punishment of perjury he feared not to violate his fidelity sworn to the King and his right hand was punished as if other wounds had not beene sufficient to bring him to his death that by the plague of the rebellious the fault of rebellion might be perceived Thus far he The sixth Chapter proveth the same by the testimony of the Writers from the 1200 yeares downward I Will for conclusion produce Otho Frisingensis Thomas Aquinas Gratianus Philip the faire King of France the Parliament of England in the time of Edward the 1 Vincentius and Aeneas Silvius that afterward was Pope by
the name of Pius Secundus Otho Frisin in his Epistle dedicatory before his Chronicle Otho Frisin gensis hath an excellent saying in his Epistle dedicatory to Frederick Barbarossa Cum nulla persona mundialis inveniatur quae mundi Legibus non subjaceat c. Although no earthly man can be found that is not subject to the Laws of the World and in respect of subjection liable to correction Kings as it were placed over Laws are not restrained by them but reserved to the examination of God according to the words of the King and Prophet Against thee only have I sinned Psal 51.5 It becommeth therfore a King both in respect of the noble disposition of his mind and the spirituall illumination of his soule to have God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ever in his mind and by all meanes possible to take heed that he fals not into the hands of God seeing it is as the Apostle saith a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God It is more fearefull for Kings than for any other because Kings have none but God himselfe above them whom they need feare It shall be so much more horrible for them by how much they may offend more freely than other men So far Otho Thomas Aquinas Aquin de regimine prin lib. 1. cap. 6. if the tractate de Regimine Principum be his maketh three sorts of Kings Kings by Election Kings by Subordination and Kings by Succession For the first he saith that they which did establish may abolish For the second we must have our recourse to him that did surrogate the subordinate King as the Iews did to Caesar against Herod for the last his resolution is Recurrendum esse ad omnium Regem Deum that we must fly to God the King of all Kings in whose only power it is to molifie the cruell heart of a Tyrant And that men may obtaine this at the hands of God they must cease from sin for wicked Princes by Divine permission are exalted to punish the sins of the people tollenda est igitur culpa ut cessat tyrannorum plaga we must therefore remove our sins that God may take away his punishment Thus far Thomas Gratianus which compiled the Decrees is very peremptory that the Bishop of Rome ought not to medle with the temporall sword the state of Common-wealths or the change of Princes He saith nothing indeed de Regni ordinibus which in his time and a 100 yeares after him never dreamed of any such authority Cum Petrus qui primus Apostolorum à Domino fuerat electus materianlem ladium exerceret When Peter whom the Lord had first chosen of all the Apostles drew the material sword to defend his Master froÌ„ the injuries of the Iews he was commanded to shearh his sword Mat. 26.52 For all that take the sword shall perish by the sword As if Christ should have said Hitherto it was lawfull for thee and thine auncestors to persecute Gods enemies with the temporall sword hereafter thou must put up that sword into his place and draw the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God to slay the old man Caus 23. quest 8. paâ—ag 1. Rom. 13 4. whosoever beside the Prince and without his authority that hath lawfull power and as the Apostle teacheth beareth not the sword in vaine to whom every soule must be subject whosoever I say without or beside the Princes authority beareth the sword shall perish by the sword Thus far Gratian. About the yeare 1300 began a quarrell between Boniface 8 and Philipus Pulcher the French King about the collation of Benefices Prebends and other Ecclesiasticall promotions Whereupon the Pope wrote unto the said King as solloweth Boniface Bishop the servant of Gods Servants to his well-beloved Son Philip by Gods grace King of France greeting and blessing Apostolicall Feare God and keepe his Law We give thee to understand that thou art subject to us both in Spirituall things and Temporall and that no gift of benefices or prebends belongeth to thee If thou have in thy hand any vacant keep the profits of them to the Successors and if thou hast bestowed any we decree the collation voide and recall it how far soever it hath proceeded Whosoever beleeveth otherwise we account him a foole Dated at Lateran the fourth of the Calends of December and in the 6. yeare of our Papacy King Philip returned his hautinesse a correspondent answer viz. Philip by the grace of God King of France to Boniface bearing himselfe for Pope Philip. Pulcher. Salutem modicam sive nullam Sciat tua maxima fatuitas Lattle health or none at all Let thy great fooleship know that in temporall things we are subject to no man And that the gifts of prebends and Ecclesiasticall promotions made and to be made by us were and shall be Lawfull both in time past and in time to come For such collations belong to us in the right of our Crown wherefore we will manfully defend the possessours of the said dignities and do judge them that thinke otherwise fooles and mad men Given at Paris the Wednesday after Candlemasse 1301. Questionlesse this King that did so scornefully reject the Popes chalenge pretended from Christ would little regard the claime of the Nobles derived but from the people The same busie Boniface of whom some write that he came in like a Foxe craftely raigned like a Lion cruelly and dyed like a Dog miserably would take upon him the decision of a controversie between the Kings of England and Scotland and commanded King Edward of England either to cease his claime or to send his procurators to the Apostolike sea to shew his right and to receive such order from the Pope as justice and equity would require The Lords and Commons then assembled in Parliament at Lincolne sent Boniface this answer in the Kings behalfe Whereas our most dread Lord Edward by the grace of God the Noble King of England caused your Letters to be read openly before us touching certaine occurrents of state between him and the King of Scotland we did not a little marvaile at the contents thereof so strange and wonderfull as the like hath never been heard of We know most holy father and it is well known in this Realme and also to other nations that the King of England ought not to make answer for his right before any judge Ecclesiasticall or secular by reason of the free estate of his Royall dignity and custome Parliament at Lincolne quoted by M. Beken-shaw without breach at all times unviolably observed Wherefore after treaty had and diligent deliberation this was our resolution that our said King ought not to answer in judgement nor send procurators or messengers to your court seeing that tendeth manifestly to the disinheriting of the right of the Crown the overthrow of the state of the Kingdome and the breach of the Liberties Customes and Lawes of
ornament of learning observeth The fly saith that noble Earle setting on the cart-whele might as well wonder at the dust raised in the way as Gregory or Zachary draw counsell to power and make that fact their own which was hammered in the forge of ambition contenanced with the colour of necessity and executed by Pepin a minister that being weary of subordination resolved by this trick when the meanes were fitted and prepared to the plot to make himselfe absolute The case of Kings were pitifull if ex factis singularibus it were lawfull to draw leaden rules in their disgrace Thus fas the Earle The eight Chapter sheweth the danger of this Doctrine and the Originall of the Puritan position concerning the power of statesmen to punish and depose Princes in Monarchies THese desperate attempts suggested by the Devill executed by the people encouraged by the State and approved by the Pope must serve as admonitions to Princes to humble themselves before God Qui non dabit Sanctos suos in captionem dentibus corum who will not give his Saints for a pray to their teeth For it is not heard as our great King remembreth That any Prince forgeteth himselfe in his duty to God Law of Monarch pag. 60. or in his vocation But God with the greatnesse of the plague revengeth the greatnesse of his ingratitude These practises therefore must be no president for Peers or People to follow because God hath forbidden Christian subjects to resist though Kings raigne as Tyrants and commanded them to endure with patience though they suffer as Innocents And also because that in stead of releeving the Commonwealth out of distresse which is ever the pretence of seditions practitioners they shall heape mischief on it and desolation on themselves as Aquinas if he be the Author of the book de regim principum sheweth manifestly Esset multitudini periculosum ejus rectoribus de reg prin l. 1. c. 6. It were dangerous to subjects and governors that any should attempt to take away the life of Princes though they were Tyrants for commonly not the well disposed but the ill affected men do thrust themselves into that danger And the government of good Kings is as odious to bad men as the rule of Tyrants to good people Wherefore the Kingdome by this presumption would be rather in danger to forgo a good Prince than a wicked Tyrant So far Thomas They that are the authors or abettors of sedition can neither avoyd shame in Earth nor escape eternall damnation Though God the great Iudge do sometime permit Rebels in his Iustice to prevaile against Kings for their contempt of the Law of the highest and the neglect of their own duty The reward of Rebellion shall be no better than the recompence of Satan who is the instrument of the Lords wrath for the punishment of all disobedience It is most true that as sick men neer their death have many idle fancies Chrysoss so the World before the end thereof shall bee troubled with many errours In these declining dayes of the World many Countreys Cities and Cantons renounced their old government and submitted themselves to such a new regiment as they best liked for confirmation of which practises there wanted not politike Divines what wine is so soure that some hedgegraps will not yeeld to invest the people and Nobles with the power over Kings to dispose of their Kingdomes Marsilius Patavinus saith the deposition of a King Marsilius Patav. de translat Imporii c. 6. and the institution of another in his place belongeth not to the Bishop of Rome to any Priest or to the Colledge of Priests but to the universall multitude of the Subjects So far he From these the Puritans have learned their error of the power of States-men over Kings then which no opinion can be more dangerous where the Nobility are as ready to practise as the Puritan preachers are to prescribe What presumption is it in men to passe the bounds which God hath set them to controll the wisdome of the Lord and his unspeakable goodnesse when he maketh tryall of the patience of his Saints by the out rage and tyranny of cruell Kings that they which are found patient in trouble constant in truth and loyall in subjection may be crowned with glory Were we perswaded that the hearts of Kings are in Gods hand that the haires of our head are numbred and that no affliction can befall us which God doth not dispose to the exercise of our Faith the tryall of our constancy or the punishment of our sin we would as well admire the Iustice of God in permitting Tyrants that our sins may be judged and punished in this world as praise his mercy and favour in giving rest to his servants under the protection of godly and gracious Princes The ninth Chapter sheweth the generall consent of the Modern Puritans touching the coercion deposition and killing of Kings whom they call Tyrants THe Citizens of Geneva changed the Government from a Monarchy to a Democrity in the year of Christ 1536 In the which yeare John Calvin came into that City to visit his friend Farellus And was chosen the publike reader of Divinity At his first comming thither he published his Teologicall Institutions Wherein he doth very learnedly and Christianly intreat of the authority of Princes and the duty of Subjects One only place is harsh and dangerous delivered in obscure and doubtfull tearmes to excuse as I conceive the outrage of the Citizens against their soveraigne Magistrates Instit l. 4. c. 20. § 31. His words are these Si qui sunt populares Magistratus ad moderandam regum libidinem constituti Christopher Goodman published a Treatise of obedience at Geneva Pag. 119. not without the very good liking and approbation of the best learned in that City 1557 Wherein he affirmeth That if Magistrates transgresse Gods Law themselves and command others to do the like they lose that honor and obedience which otherwise is due unto them and ought no more to be taken for Magistrates but to be examined and punished as private transgrestors So far Goodmā 1577 Pag. 206. Came forth the Vindiciae contra Tyrannos with this resolution That Princes are chosen by God established by the people every privat man is subject to the Prince the Multitude and the Officers of State which represent the Multitude are Superiors to the Prince yea they may judge his actions and if he make resistance punish him by forcible meanes So far he Anno 1588 Hermanus Renecherus published observations upon the 1 Psalm wherin he investeth the Presbitery with all the Popes prerogatives Concerning the Presbiterian power over Kings this is his notable annotation Pag. 72. God saith he hath ordained the Civill Magistrate for the good of the Ecclesiasticall order therefore the Ecclesiasticall State is the highest throne of Gods earthly Kingdome the supreame Seate of all excellency and the chiefest Court wherein God himselfe