the rule whereby God doth governe the best patterne of a Kings government and the reason is this Wee are to bee subject to our King in the performance of all due services by that bond or tye which not onely Gods Law and Ordinance but also the Kings Law doth put upon us You may remember I showed you before how Gods Law is the rule of our feare and service which wee performe unto his Majesty and to goe beside or transgresse this rule brings us under the guilt and penalty of rebellion I showed you also how wee are bound to serve God as our King by vertue of mutuall stipulation which God makes with us and we with him Semblably our subjection unto the King is to be regulated as by Gods Law the rule of universall obedience to God and man so by the good Lawes of the King And note the completenesse of this correspondence It stayes not here but holds also in that mutuall stipulation or Covenant which the King and his Subjects make at his Coronation Where the King taking an explicit solemne oath to maintaine the ancient Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome and so to rule and governe all his people according to those Lawes established So consequently and implicitly all the people of the Land doe sweare fealty allegiance subjection and obedience to their King and that according to his just Lawes To this purpose it is that his excellent Majesty in the Petition of Right which he subscribed with his owne royall hand hath these words worthy to be written in golden characters The King willeth that right be done according to the Lawes and Customes of the Realme and that the Statutes be put in due execution and His Subjects may have no cause to complaine of any wrong or oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties To the preservation whereof hee holds himselfe in Conscience as well obliged as of his Prerogative And after that in full Parliament he concluded with these words Soit droit fait come est desire Let right be done as is desired And then in his Majesties speech following And I assure you my Maxime is that the Peoples Libertie strengthens the Kings Prerogative that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties O blessed King ever may'st Thou live crowned with all blessings in Thy Royall selfe and Posterity being knit unto Thy people in this indissoluble bond And herein His Sacred Majestie shewed himselfe a Peereles Sonne to His Peerelesse Father who in his speech to the Parliament 1609. besides sundry other rare passages to the same purpose hath these words The King bindes himselfe by a double oath to the observation of the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Tacitly as being a King and so bound as well to protect the People as the Lawes of his Kingdome and expresly by his Oath at His Coronation So as every Just King in a setled Kingdome is bound to observe that paction made to his people by his Lawes in framing his government agreeable thereunto according to that paction which God made with Noah after the deluge c. And therefore a King governing in a setled Kingdome leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soone as hee leaves off to rule according to his lawes And a little after Therefore all Kings that are not Tyrants or perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their Lawes and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common Wealth Which words beseeming a just King I have heere set downe as an honourable testimony of such a Father of such a Sonne and all to be for the stronger reason to all subjects to performe all due obedience to their Soveraigne For if your Gracious King doe so solemnly by Sacred oath ratified againe in Parliament under His Royall hand bind himselfe to maintaine the Lawes of his Kingdome and therein the Rights and Liberties of His Subjects then how much are the people bound to yeeld all subjection and obedience to the King according to his just Laws So much of the proofe of the point Now to the Uses Here 1. Not onely Papists but the religion of Popery it selfe come under the guilt and condemnation of Rebellion forasmuch as the maine Principle of Popery is to exalt and acknowledge the Pope as supreme over all Powers as Emperors Kings Princes States c. And therefore not unworthily is their Religion branded for Rebellion and their faith for Faction and their practise murdering of soules and bodies And though some Papists will take the Oath of Allegiance as subjects to their King yet they refuse the Oath of Supremacy as acknowledging their subjection to the King upon no other termes but as subordinate to the Pope as Supreme And so the Pope and not the King is the Papists King and Soveraigne And yet how is their rebellious religion nay which is rebellion it selfe fostered and fomented in our Land to the infinite dishonour not onely of God but of the King and His Supremacy and danger of the Kingdom if God in mercy doe not prevent it The ancient Church before Antichrist the great usurper mounted aloft acknowledged no Supreme above the Emperour or every absolute Prince in his Kingdome but onely God 2. For Exhortation Heere let all good Christians and royall subjects learne to yeeld all feare honour obedience to their Soveraigne following the direction and exhortation of the Apostle Let every soule be subject to the higher powers And render to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Feare to whom feare Honour to whom honour And for the better stirring up of all those duties which subjects owe to their Soveraigne Let us often meditate of these reasons and motives fore-mentioned by the Apostle and especially considering That the King is Gods Minister to doe Iustice to punish the evill and to countenance and reward the good as also because hee attends continually upon this great office And lastly considering in speciall how our Gracious Soveraigne hath entered into Solemne and sacred Covenant with all his people to bee their King and Protector and to governe them according to his good and just lawes and to maintaine all their just Rights and Liberties and according to the Patterne of God himselfe whose vicegerent hee is to demaund of them no other obedience but what the good lawes of the Kingdome prescribe and require With what alacrity then and readinesse ought all Subjects to expresse their loyalty to their Prince and with all adde their dayly and fervent prayers and supplications for the life of our gracious King that under the shadow of his righteous and religious government wee may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty It followeth Feare the King that is with a filiall feare as the feare of the Lord is only keeping the difference that the one is a religious filiall
my course preaching upon the whole Chapter It was objected to me that therein I did contrary to the Kings Declaration To which I answered that I never take the Kings Declaration to be intended by him for the suppressing of any part of Gods truth neither durst I ever conceive a thought so dishonourable to the King at to thinke him to be an instrument of suppressing Gods truth And have I not good ground for it For in his Majesties Declaration to All his loving Subjects of the cause which mooved him to dissolue the last Parliament Published by his Majesties speciall Command his Majesty mentioning Richard Mountagues Appeale which did open the way to those Schismes and divisions which have since insued in the Church expresseth himselfe in these words we did for remedy and redresse thereof and for satisfaction of the consciences of our good people not only by our publick Proclamation call in that Book which ministred matter of offence but to prevent the like danger for hereafter reprinted the Articles of Religion established in the time of Queene Elizabeth of famous memory and by a Declaration before those Articles we did tye restraine all opinions to the sense of those Articles that nothing might be left for private fancies and innovation For we call God to record before whom we stand that it is and alwayes hath been our hearts desire to be found worthy of that title which we account the most glorious in all our Crowne Defender of the faith neither shal we ever give way to the authorising of any thing where by any innovation may steale or creep into the Church but preserve that vnity of Doctrine Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth whereby the Church of England hath stood florished ever since These be his Majesties expresse words Well for all this I was suspended from my Mistery Thus when they would insnare or oppresse us they lay all the burden upon the King which how injurious and dishonorable it is to his Majesty I referre to them that are best able to judge of matters of such moment Take another instance Another time namely then when I was brought to the High Commission board at London-house about that Booke of mine formerly mentioned though they had nothing at all against mee but rayling and reviling and charging me with sedition which I retorted upon themselves whereby I put them to silence for the time yet they recovering breath one of them sayd I must to prison If I must sayd I I desire to put in baile in regard of my Ministeriall charge being within three dayes of Easter No quoth my Lord of London that then was the King hath given expresse charge for YOV that no â—ale shall bee taken for YOV No my Lord Then I desire to know by what Law or Statute of the Land you doe imprison 〈◊〉 if it bee according to Law I humbly submit my selfe Otherwise I doe here claime the right and priviledge of a Subject according to the Petition of Right Well for all this to prison I must and if I found my selfe agrieved I might bring a writ of false imprisonment To the Fleet I went where I was a prisonner twelve dayes And when they sent for me forth to make me amends they put me into the High Commission out of the frying pan into the fire But blessed be God and my King by the benefit of whose good Lawes I obtayned a Prohibition against their illegall proceedings which fetcht mee off those shelves where else with the threatned storme of their Censure I must have suffered shipwracke But now I referre it to the sad consideration of the sagest whither that which hee fathered upon the King was not a most dangerous and seditious speech tending to possesse both me and the many by-standers and consequently all the people in the Land with a sinister opinion of the Kings justice constancy in keeping his solemne Covenant with his people as in that Petition of Right Though I blesse God I could never intertaine such a thought of my King that he should utter such a word as to deny his old Servant the hanfell-benefit of his gratious hand wherewith but a little before he had signed the Petition of Right for the maintenance not onely of myne but of every good Subjects just and honest cause Take yet another instance and that also at the high Commission Court where I was attending as a poore Client or rather an Innocent at the barre waiting for my Censure There a Rule for a Prohibition for Master Prinne being cendered in Court according to the course of the Kings Lawes in that behalfe presently my Lord of London then President of the Court stands vp and flyes in the face of Master Prinne and his Prohibition with great heat of passion even almost unto fury and after many threatnings to him hee uttered these words that whosoever should dare to bring the next Prohibition hee would set him fast by the heeles This was spoken alowd in open Court Now as I conceive this did not a little reflect and trench upon the Kings honor the Lawes of the Land and the Liberty of the subject What for any man to dare with open mouth and that in open Court to out-dare the Kings just goverment of his Subjects according to his good Lawes Or upon what ground did hee thus boldly beare himselfe Vpon the King His Majesty had not long before signed â—he Petition of Right Also his Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects of the causes which mooved him to dissolve the last Parliament Published by his Majesties speciall commaund 1628. Speaking in his name that for the Parliaments full satisfaction and security Hee did by an answer framed in the forme by themselves desired to their Parliamentary Petition confirme their ancient and just Liberties and Rights which saith his Majesty Wee resolve with all constancy and justice to maintaine Whereupon then did this man dare to utter such an insolent speech Not from the King I am sure Wee have his Royall Word and Hand to the contrary And yet some perhaps might surmise that hee durst not speake thus in open Court had hee not some better ground for it than his owne desperate boldnesse Or the best Apology hee can make is that his tongue did runne before his wit and that in the flames of his passion he sacrificed his best reason and loyalty To these Instances wee will adde two or three more very remarkable and whereof wee all at this very time are eye-witnesses for they are still in acting The first is That most outragious practise of the Prelates in making havocke of the Church and of Religion by suspending excommunicating outing of Ministers from their freehold and the like because they cannot dare not read the booke for sports on the Lords day Now the Prelates and their officers herein most insolently and with a high hand proceeding neither according to Law nor
neere affinity or rather consanguinity they being sensible of the smart of his whip tooke it all upon themselves and so as Iudges in their owne cause passed their Episcopall censure upon him yea although he not only in his booke but openly before the whole Court professed and protested that hee medled not with those Prelates who received and acknowledged their Episcopall Iurisdiction from Kings and Princes and withall he alleadged and read in the audience of the Courts sundry Statutes as in King Henry the eight Edward thâ— sixt and Queene Elizabeth which doe annex all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction unto the Crowne of England So as no Prelate or other Person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. But he must have it immediately from the King and confirmed by Letters Patents under the great Seale of England This Iurisdiction annexed to the Crowne of England Doctor Bastwicke alledged in Court against that usurped Iurisdiction of the Hierarchy of Rome which they challenge from Christ. Notwithstanding they alledged for themselves that they had their Episcopall authority from Christ and if they could not proove it they would cast away their Rochets So they may cast their caps too for any such proofe they can bring for it But stopping the Doctors mouth that he might not plead his cause they proceeded to a most grievous censure of him in 1000. pound fine to the King for maintaining the Royalty of His Crowne against the Prelates usurpation who would plucke away that gemme from it Imprisonment Excommunication suspension from his practise in Prison and the many miseries depending thereupon and devolving upon his Wife and children So as it is plaine they usurpe professe and practise such a jurisdiction as is not annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of England but which with the Pope and Prelates of Italy they claime from Christ. And this is cleere by a threefold practise of theirs 1. Their censuring of Doctor Bastwick for this very cause that hee impugned all Episcopall Iurisdiction over Gods Ministers claimed from Christ or the Scripture So as they make it their owne cause with the Pope and his Prelates as all holding by that title and not from the authority of Kings and Princes And this is according to that in Dr. Pockâ—â—ngtons Sunday no Sabbath where hee saith pag. 48. Hereby wee may by Gods mercy make good the trueth of our Church For wee are able lineally to set downe the succession of our Bishops from St. Peter to St. Gregory and from him to our first Archbishops St. Austin our English Apostle downward to his Grace that now fits in his Chaire Primate of all England and Metropolitane So hee Thus wee see how our Prelates have no other claime for their Hierchie then the Popes of Rome have and doe make which all our Divines fince the Reformation till but yesterday have disclaimed and our Prelates cannot otherwise assume but by making themselues the very limbes of the Pope and so our Church a member of that Synagogue of Rome Secondly the constant practise of our Prelates proveth this for they neither have at any time nor have sought to have any the Kings Letters Parents under the great Seale of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations c. But doe all in their owne names and under their owne Seales contrary to the Law in that behalfe Thirdly in that they labour by all meanes possible to maintaine this their absolute and independed Iurisdiction as no way depending on the King and namely by stopping the ordinary course of Law that the Kings people may bee cut off from all benefit of the Kings good Lawes and of their native ancient Liberties so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obtaine a Prohibition against their illegall practises invexing oppressing the Kings good Subjects nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their Proceedings in the High Commission makes the Courts of Instice startle So as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed For example the Ministers of Surry who are suspended from their Ministery and outed of their meanes and freeholds against all Law or Conscience yet are so disheartned and overawed that they dare not contend in Law against the Prelate for feare of further vexations and they are out of hope of any fayre hearing in an ordinary Legall way Nay when Doctor Bastwicke had procured a Habâ—as corpus to remove him out of the Bishope stincking prison in the Gate-house unto the Kings Bench. and thereupon was removed thither-yet notwithstanding they procured the reversing of this Legall Order and brought the Prisonner backe againe with avengeance and triumph to his old lodging Thus wee see they have gotten such a power into their hands as doth overtop and countermaund the Kings Lawes and the peoples Liberties Now this power they have not from the Imperiall Crowne according to the Lawes of the Land but it is a meere usurpation So as being a power not derived from the King as the immediate fountaine of it it proves to bee at least a branch of that forraigne power altogether excluded in the Statute of 1. Elis. cap. 1. And it is flatly against the Oath of Supremacy in the same Statute which all Prelates take wherein they professe and promise faith and true allegiance to the Queenes Highnesse her Heires and lawfull Successors and to their power to defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges c. granted or belonging to the Queenes Highnesse her Heires c. Now all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction which the Prelates have authority to exercise being annexed to the Crowne as is cleere by the foresayd statute either they must not claime it by another title or if they doe they are all in a Tramunire and under the guilt of perjury And whither they bee not also in a Praemunire for practising their Iurisdiction as keeping of Courts visitations c. in their owne names not having the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seale of England I leave to the learned in the Law to judge But some will say that they defend and maintaine all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction to bee from the King For in the visitation Articles for Norwich by Mathew their Lord Bishop this is one Be there any in your Parish that have denyed or perswaded any other to deny withstand or impugne the Kings Majesties Authority and Supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall within this Realme First I answer this is a faire colour and pretence as if it were against Papists Secondly it is against their ordinary practise as in the former examples And thirdly admit they doe sincerely professe that they have or hold no Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction but from the King yet the question is whither they will say that all those outrageous courses they how hold and
in this book of the Proverbs as ye may see throughout It is a voice beseeming a father to his child or an ancient to a young man or a Pastor and Preacher to his hearer or God Himselfe to his people by his Minister as in this place So Prov. 23. 26. My sonne giue mee thine heart c. which cannot be understood but as spoken by Solomon both from and for God as who may justly challenge our heart and none but hee So heere Secondly for feare here what kind of feare is here meant There are in Scripture sundry kinds of feare as 1. a naturall feare which was in Christ himselfe as man and is in every man 2. a filiall feare as in genuine children to their Parents 3. a Servill feare as in all wicked men and in the divels themselves who tremble at God 4. a civill feare as of Subjects to their Prince 5. a religious feare as in true Christians towards God Now this feare in this place is to be distinguished though not in name yet in nature and kinde according to the difference of the severall objects of it So as when it is ascribed to God as the object of it it is a religious feare but as it is applyed to man as its object as here it is a civill feare The feare of the Lord then Iehovah that is God the Father and Christ as the ordinary Glosse is a religious feare the feare of the King is a civill feare And though these two feares differ in their kind yet in resemblance and similitude they are not unlike As the feare of the Lord is a filiall feare so is the feare of the King the feare of God comprehends in it all duties required of his children the feare of the King all duties required in Subjects towards their Prince there is a feare of universall obedience due to God and there is a feare of universall obedience next under and after God due to the King there is a feare of adherence to God and a feare of adherence to the King So much in briefe for the opening of this word feare Feare thou the Lord and the King Now for the admonition Meddle not It is not meant here that wee may not meddle at all by way of reproofe detection conuiction impeding or impeaching their wicked courses and practises but not to meddle that is haue no fellowship side not countenance not approoue not applawd not such men in their euill wayes As Gen. 49. 5. Iacob said of Simeon and Leui instruments of cruelty O my soule come not thou into their secret vnto their assembly mine honour be thou not vnited Or as Psal. 1. 1. not to walke stand sit with them in their Counsels wayes chaire Or as Pro. 1. 10. 15. My sonne if sinners intice thee consent thou not walke not thou in the way with them c. But who are these men we are admonished of Such as are giuen to change The best interpreters expound it of innouations either of Religion or of the Republick So Mercer and Lauater Pagnin renders gnim shonim cum iterantibus iniquitatis Vulg. cum detractoribus Tremellius Iunius cum varijs Such as change and breake the Commandement of God and of their Princes and fall away from the feare of God and the King in their rebellious life But we need goe no further then our owne translation which is very full meaning it of all such as are factious seditious giuen to change the Lawes of God and the King Lastly for the reason annexed one terme seemes somewhat difficult as being subject to different interpretations the ruine of them both wat's meant by them both Some as the Ordinary Glosse and Lyra referre it to detractors and those that intertaine and hearken vnto them to Arch-hereticks and those that are seduced by them to such as derogate from Christ and others that ioyne with them Others againe as Mercerus and Lauater vnderstand ruine of them both in an actiue sense referring the ruine of those that are giuen to change to God and the King who shall bring ruine vpon them as if it were expressed thus who knoweth the ruine that God and the King whose lawes they violated and innouated shall cause suddenly to arise and fall vpon them So as though these bee different interpretations yet they may well bee reconciled together and may serve for the mutuall amplification and illustration of each other For innouators are alwayes notorious detractors and sycophants derogating from those things which they goe about to innouate or abrogate that so they may establish their owne nouelties whither in Church or State or both And euer such ringleaders have their disciples and followers ready to be instruments of their wicked designes These ringleaders with their adherents and complices shall both fall and perish together and both God and the King that is the iustice of Gods Law and mans Law shall conspire together to root them out Lastly to shew the manner of their vnexpected ruine or calamity it is sayd It shall rise that is although they seeme to bee so high as to surmount all feare of dangers as trampling all vnder their feet yet calamity shall rise aboue them and bring them to ruine As the Lord saith Ier. 37. 10. Also Their calamity noteth that God hath layd up judgements in store proper and peculiar to the wicked This for the sense of the words wherein if I have beene a little the longer yet it is not fruitlesse both because we may take a view of the sense of the whole text together and also lay the better grounds for those sundry instructions which will naturally issue from the same Come wee then to points of instruction arising from this text The first is this from this compellation My sonne That every one ought so to addresse himselfe to the hearing of the Word of God as a Son of God Here we see God speakes unto us as unto sons My son feare c. My son heare the instruction of a Father as chap. 4. 1. 2. 1. c. So Heb. 12. 6. And yee have forgotten the Exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children My sonne despise not thou the chastning of the Lord c. This is that exhortation Prov. 3. 11. But how can poore men as we are be said to be the Sonnes of God In briefe not by nature for so Christ onely is the Son of God but by adoption and grace we are made the Sons of God through faith as Gal. 4. 5. Gal. 3. 26. Now this addressement as of sons to heare Gods Word is very effectuall and profitable in sundry respects As 1. It is a strong motive and sweet preparative to a reverend attention I will hearken saith David what the Lord God will speake for hee will speake peace unto his people and to his Saints And the Thessalonians are commended and Taul thanketh God that they received the Word not as the word of
thy fâ—are will I worship towards thy holy Temple So Psal. 2. 11. Serve the Lord in feare Which I say is such a feare as hath in it faith love affiance and other graces 5. Lastly wee are bound to performe all obedience to God in a holy feare by vertue of the Word of God as the rule and of the Covenant God hath made with us in his Word and we with him Gods Law is so the rule of our feare and obedience to God as it is death to feare or obey him otherwise then hee hath commaunded us in his Law Els it is rebellion not obedience will worship not service to God And this wee are bound to by mutuall Couenant 1. God binds himselfe to be our God and King by Covenant in his word as Exod. 20. Secondly wee bind our selves by a reciprocall Covenant as in our Baptisme to bee his Servants and to serve him as hee hath commaunded in his Law Vse of this point is first for reproofe and conviction of the whole Romane Synagogue as being altogether devoyd of the true feare of God and consequently is no true Church of Christ â—…one of the Kings Daughter none of his spowse Why For all her feare towards God is taught by the precept of men her service of God is a Masse of Idolatry and Superstition Will-worship of mans invention and therefore though they draw neere to God with their lipps yet their hearts are farre from him And so in vaine they worship him nay they worship the Devill and not God as the Apostle sheweth 1. Cor. 10. 20. For all Idolatry as that of the breaden god in the Masse is the worship of the Devill They will say they worship God in the Host So did the Pagans plead for themselues that they worshipped God in their Idols Yet saith the Apostle I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devills and not to God And God disclaimes all worship of Him that is not according to His Word and He abhorres such presumptuous worshippers as those that doe not feare him So as secondly heere are justly reprooved those men as wanting the true feare of God who in these dayes shew themselves Antichrists Factors both in teaching practising and pressing new Formes of worship Secundum usum Sarum and setting them up againe in Churches as Altar-worship Iesu-worship Image-worship Crosse-worship and the like A plaine evidence that these men what ever they most hypocritically pretend and would bee accounted as a new kind of Saints dropped downe out of the cloudes as most holy and devoute persons have no true feare of God in them Yea their hearts are far from God Their feare is more towards an Altar of their owne invention towards an Image and Crucifix towards the sound and sillables of Iesus then towards the Lord Christ. For did they truely feare Christ they would not as they doe so desperately and furiously persecute him in his faithfull Ministers and members and make havocke and turne upside-down the very glory of Christ's Kingdome in the Ministery of His Word and power of Religion and purity of his worship which they altogether trample under and defile with their Wolvish feete Therefore forasmuch as they set up and teach a false feare and worship of God in the Churches I saith the Lord will proceede to doe a marvellous worke among the people even a marvellous worke and a wonder for the wisedome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid And v. 16. Surely your turning of things upside-downe shall bee esteemed at the Potters clay But of these more in their proper place A 2. 〈◊〉 â—s for instruction to teach us wherein the true filiall feare of God consisteth namely in the true worship and service of God internall and externall according to the exact forme and prescript of his Word Not to swerve one haires bredth from it Againe that true feare of God stnads in an universall obedience to all and every of his Commandements not onely those of the first Table but those of the second nor onely those of the second but those of the first So as Thirdly this may condemne two sorts of grosse Hypocrites 1. Those that seeme exact and punctuall in observing the Commandements of the second Table they are no Adulterers no Drunkards no inordinate livers they are not notorious offenders and what then Hereupon they applaud themselves and would be esteemed of the World good Christians and with the Pharisee thanke God that in these things they are not as other men Extortioners Vnjust c. They live peacably with their Neighbors they pay every man his owne and the like But what 's all this without the feare of God Where is their Piety and Love to God expressed in the duties of the first Table Are they willingly and grosly ignorant of the knowledge of God Doe they hate contemne neglect his words Doe they despise his faithfull Ministers Doe they speake evill of the Way and Profession of Godlinesse Doe they profane the Lords Sabbaths Yea doe they comply with Idolaters in their Altar-worship and Iesu-worship and the like and yet would they bee accounted good honest men Can they be honest and good men that are enemies of God and of the Profession yea and name of holinesse and of the power of Religion and of the true Saints and servants of Iesus Christ Can they be good Christians which are enemies to the Crosse of Christ whose end is damnation whose God is their belly and which minde earthly things On the other side there is another sort of Hypocrites who place all their Religion in the outward performances and duties of the first Table professe a great deale of Religion would seeme very devout but yet are like the Pharisees who under a colour of long prayers devoure Widowes houses Of these Hypocrites there are two sorts 1. Of them that are all for outward formality but their hypocrisie bewrayeth it selfe two wayes First in that though they seeme very devoute in frequenting the Church yet it is in a false way mingling mens devices of will-worship with Gods Ordinance in dividing the Lords day betweene God and the Devill allowing to God onely two houres of the day for his publike worship and the rest of the day to the lusts of men Secondly in that they place all the service of God in reading of long Prayers and thereby exclude Preaching as unnecessary And yet they make no bones of oppressing Gods people and the Kings good Subjects with burthens intollerable to bee borne The second sort is of them that will seeme Religious and to give God his due but make no conscience of giving to all men their due they will make no scruple of Lying of over-reaching in bargaining of living in some secret raigning lust of oppressing of defrawding and the like These are so much the more to be abhorred because by their meanes Religion and the name of
reports especially of Gods people who where ever they be are the Kings best subjects What a faire tale could Haman tell the King concerning the Iewes that they were a people scattered over his Provinces had their Lawes divers from other people so as they might hereby trouble the peace of his Kingdome and that they were factious for they observed not the Kings Lawes and therefore that it was not for the Kings profit to suffer them Hereupon seducing the King by his sycophants tōgue he procures a Decree for their utter extirpation It is observed by the Centurists in their Preface before the 5. and 6. Centurie that this arte of satan̄ was much practised in those times against those that were most religious and pious and that it prevayled much to the corrupting and overthrowing of Religion And herein were the Arrians the chiefe sticklers in Princes Courts I will set downe one passage for many Et hoc quoque c. This also is remarkable in this present Century that it presents before our eyes those artes whereby false teachers doe mount on high and afterwards obtaining their desire they domineere as they list For they creep into Courts and by their hypocrisy false tales and detractions of sincere teachers and by a kind of collusion with Courtiers they doe surprise the mindes of the great ones and Magistrates For there is no office or service that they promise not unto them For commonly grave constant faithfull Ministers Professors of the Word of God are hated in Courts and great mens houses because they defend the truth more stisfely and taxe sins more freely to which Courts and great ones are more obnoxious than to them seemes fit Parasites and Court Gnathoes interpret these things to redound to the reproach and diminution of the Magistrates authority and to tend to tumults and seditions And they speake pleasing and plausible things being blind watchmen dumbe dogs plagues of soules false Prophets ravening wolves the eves and robbers of soules c. Therefore with no great adoe they make havocke of the most able Ministers such as teach truly seriously gravely and savingly in the Church of God and such as are of their owne Sect they preferre and place them in the Chaires So there and much more to this purpose But what need wee turne over antiquity Have wee not examples enow neerer home What then 's more common in Amasiahses mouthes then declamations against the good Ministers of the Land the Kings most loyall loving dutifull faithfull obedient peaceable subjects How do they heare of such Declamers Factious Seditious Turbulent Disafected to the present goverment enemies of the Kings Prerogative and what not By this meanes oftē inculcated they seeke to ingratiate themselves and to bring into disgrace the true servants of Iesus Christ. Nor are they content to abuse our pious Princes eares in the Pulpit but also on the Stage O pyous holy reverend grave gracious Prelates whose Academicall Entertainment of pious and religious Kings and Princes in stead of learned and Scholasticall disputations or exercises intable to the condition of a learned Academy is a scurrilous Enterlude and this in disgrace of that which is the greatest beauty of our religion to wit true piety and vertue O blush at this ye Prelates and in your shrift confesse how unseemly this was for YOV that pretend to succeede the Apoles Eyther for shame mend your manners or never more imprison any man for denying that title of succession which you so bely by your vnapostolicall practise And may not that be applied to you which Bernard taxed Pope Eugenius with where telling him of his pompe Oves quid capiunt Si auderem dicere Demonum magis quam ovium passcua haec What good do the sheep receive If I durst speake these are the pastures rather of Devils then of the sheep Scilicet sic factitabat Petrus Sic Paulus ludebat Did Peter thus I pray you Did Paul play such play Surely for my part I am ashamed of you that ever it should be sayd I haue lived a Minister under such a Prelacy Nay as if this had not been sufficient this is done in the very heat and height of Gods Tragedy still in Acting in the Imperiall City when we were all mourning yea and every moment as dying men Was this a time then of Entertaining the Court and poysoning their eares with Enterludes and thereby provoking the Lord further to plague the Kings good people when you should rather have mooved his Majesty whō you wee al know to be forward enough to hearken to such a motion to have called a true Fast with Prayer and Preaching over the Land And was that a time of Enterludes Why did you not feare some Plague to grow in such a mighty assembly When notwithstanding Preaching is made dangerous by you for feare of the plague which should be a meanes as it hath beene formerly to drive away the plague by bringing the people to true humiliation and reformation Whereas your guelded Fast-book contrary to the Proclamation I am sure brought us for a hansell a double increase of the Plague that weeke to any weeke since the Plague began and most terrible weather withall to the Kings great losse and the Mercheants the angry countenāce of heaven ever since pouring Gods wrath upon this your hypocritical Mockfast But by the way take this with you As when the Lord calls to Fasting you fall a Feasting So there is a hand writing over you on the wall the Prophet Esay will tell you from the Lord Surely this iniquity shall never be purged away from you till ye dye sayth the Lord. But now do not exclame as if I spake against such intertainment of our Gracious Soveraigne his noble Court as is indeed honorable grave and sutable to such a Majesty Traine for whom I am ready to Sacrifice my deerest blood if need were Let not malice sucke poyson out of the sweet flower of candid sincerity But this by the way Secondly as Iesuites and their Faction the Popes Factors doe labour to divide the King from his good Subjects by poysoning his gentle eares with their Serpentine breath in their malicious detractions So on the other side they so carry the matter with the Subjects as to cause disunion of affection betwene them and their Soveraigne As first the Iesuites and Priests by seducing the people to their Superstition and Idolatry which of it selfe is a drawing of their hearts away as from their God so from their King Secondly the Prelates who do so interpret and presse the Kings Acts which his Majesty intendend for good as if hee prohibited the Ministers to preach of the saying Doctrines of grace Salvation without which the very Gospel is destroyed For example I my selfe was convented by a Pursivant to London house and there by his Lordship charged for preaching of the Goulden Chaine of Salvation Rom. 8. 29. 30. as it lay in
Canon upon what authority doe they goe Surely they lay all the load upon the King Why upon the King Doth the King commaund that Ministers shall read it in their Congregations No such thing The Booke Orders that it bee published in Churches but expresseth not that it bee read by the Ministers Indeed it saith Wee further wiâ—l that publication of this our Commaund bee made by order from the Bishops c. Now the publication of the Commaund differs from the reading of the Booke The commaundement may be published and yet not the Booke read Well but it pleaseth their Lordships so to extend their order Ministers must read it But they dare not doe it as being against their Consciences If not what then They must bee suspended and are By what Law or Canon That matters not their will is so But if they alledge the Kings authority as they doe where show they the King hath given them this authority to proceed so illegally and incanonically The Booke orders no such severe and wicked Censures to be inflicted upon any in that behalfe No nor yet gives the Bishops any expresse order or power at all to punish any Minister in this case And will no lesse Censure then serve the turne then suspension excommunication deprivation and the like but they are rebells against the King If so then there is a Law to punish them But how are they rebells They resist not they doe no violence to authority All disobedience is not rebellion For then Daniel and the three children had beene rebells for not obeying the Kings Commandement But the Ministers I say that refuse to read the Booke doe not therein directly disobey the King For first the Booke expresseth no such Commaundement that Ministers shall read the Booke as before Secondly no wife and honest man can ever imagine that the King should ever intend to commaund that which mainly tends to the publicke dishonour of God and his Word to the violation and annihilation of the holy commandement touching the Sabbath to the alteration of the Doctrine of the Church of England which in the Homily clearly fully grounds the sanctification of the Lords day which it calls our Christian Sabbath-day upon the fourth commaundement and conseqnently to the destruction of the peoples soules For this were against all those solemne royall Protestations of the King as where he sayth Neither shall we give way for the authorising of any thing whereby any innovation may steale or creepe into the Church but preserve that unity of Doctrine c. But the reading of this Booke by the Ministers is to bring in and that not creepingly and by stealth but by the head and shoulders as it were by a flood gate set open a mighty innovation of the unity or Doctrine concerning the Sabbath which hath beene ever since the Reformation and so from the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth of famous memory constantly universally and unanimously maintayned in the Church of England untill this late faction of Anti-Sabbatarians started up to cry downe all Sanctification all power and purity of Religion And indeed the innovation of the Doctrine of the Sabbath bring in with it an universall innovation of all Religion as experience is an eye-witnesse Therefore for certaine the King never gave authority to the republishing of this Booke in case it should any way tend to any innovation or violation of the unity of Doctrine professed and maintained in our Church Againe the profanation of the Sabbath or Lords-day which the Booke seemes to give allowance unto as in sundry sports there specified is directly against the very first Act of Parliament in the first of King Charles an auspicious beginning promising a religious and gracious Raigne where it is expressely sayd For as much as there is nothing more acceptable to God then the true and sincere service and worship of Him according to his holy will and that the holy keeping of the Lords day is a principal part of the true service of God and therefore all unlawfull exercises and pastimes are prohibited upon that day Now what are unlawfull exercises and pastimes prohibited on that day Namely not only those there specified but all other unlawfull pastimes as there it is sayd What are those By name all dancing leaping rebelling and such like in termes condemned by Imperiall Edicts Decrees of Councells writings of ancient Fathers of all learned Divines both Protestants and Papists in all ages And King Iames of famous memory in his Basilicon Doron to his Sonne hath these words Certaine dayes in the yeare would be appointed for delighting the people with publicke Spectacles of all honest games and exercises of armes as also for conveening of neighbours for intertaining friendship and heartlinesse by honest feasting and merrinesse as in making playes and lawfull games in May c. So that alwayes the Sabbaths be kept holy no unlawful pastimes be used By which words it is evident that all Sports on the Sabbaths or Lords dayes are condemned as unlawfull which yet are by King Iames allowed on other dayes Now will any say that our gracious Soveraigne the Peerelesse Sonne of so Peerelesse a Father doth herein disobey his Royall Fathers instruction as to allow May-games and the like as lawfull on the Sabbath which Hee expressely and by name forbids to bee used on that day Object But the Booke for Sports was first published in Print in K. Iames his name and therein May-games and other Sports are alowed on the Sabbath dayes Answ. It s too true But if wee consider the maner of putting forth of that booke at first we shall finde how light it is to hold waight or to preponderate that learned and judicious Booke honorably Stiled Basilicon Doron First it was procured compiled and published in time of his Majesties Progresse into Scotland when he was more then ordinarily merily disposed They that were the compilers of it for we must not thinke the Kings leasure served him to doe it for their officiousnesse Populo ut placerent God rewarded them the one not long after injoying his life the other surviving out-living both his favour place in Court Againe it was never read nor yet pressed upon any Minister to be read during King Iames his raigne which lasted six yeares after the publishing of the said Booke in Print Thirdly it was not ratified under the Kings broad Seale as publick royall Acts use to be to make them authenticall Fourthly this booke was not inserted in his royall works sent to Oxford as not sutable to be ranked among so many learned and pious workes Lastly it was never in his raigne used as a snare and engine to outt good Ministers out of their Ministry and living as it is now used by the Prelates Quest. But how came it to be revived republished K. Iames being dead and this book also having no place in his royall Workes to preserve the memory of it Answer By whose
the pranks that they play in many places of the Kingdome are by speciall warrant from the King or whither the King by some generall warrant dormant hath given them this unlimited power which they at their pleasure doe exercise For instance Will Mathew Lord Bishop of Norwich say that hee hath any warrant from the King speciall or generall for making such havocks and hurliburlies in those two great Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke to the intollerable dishonour of God injury to his Ministers and people and tending to most dangerous consequences If hee have not any warrant but doth it of his owne head or by the instigation of any other Arch-Prelate then let him looke to it least he come to suffer as an usurper a bringer in of a forraigne power an Innovator Oppressor Persecutor and troubler of the peace of the Church and Kingdome If he say he hath warrant for 〈◊〉 let him 〈◊〉 it But I hope hee will not father his desperate courses upon the King What will hee say that the King gives him a power to exercise such unheard of tyranny and injustice upon the Kings peaceable Subjects and Christs faithfull Ministers and that against the Kings Lawes and peoples Rights all which the King hath sworne againe and againe and solemnly protested to maintaine inviolable as his owne Crowne Never therefore let any man dare to pretend any such thing so dishonourable to his Majesty Againe suppose which yet is not to bee supposed that the Prelates should so farre prevaile as to procure a grant from the King to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of the Religion by Law established Yet whatsoever colour pretext or â—ow could they make for this the King to speake with all humble reverence cannot give that power to others which hee hath not himselfe For the Power that is in the King is given unto him by God and confirmed by the Lawes of the Kingdome Now neither God in his Law nor the Lawes of the Land doe allow the King a power to alter the State of Religion or to oppresse and Suppresse the faithfull Ministers of the Gospell against both Law and Conscience For Kings are the Ministers of God for the good of his people as wee shewed before But what doe I speake of this If all the Prelates in England did never so boldly affirme that what they doe in these extravagant courses of theirs it is by warrant from the King I would be so fat from giving any credit unto them herein that I should be the first that should addresse my humble complaint to his Majesty of such dishonour done unto him and humbly petition his Majesty to vindicate his honour from the least suspition of his giving way to or countenancing the Prelates in such their practises as cry up to heaven for vengeance upon their heads This I have urged the more both in reverence to his Sacred Majesty whose honour I cannot indure should receive the least blemish and also in reference to the point in hand because such usurpation of the Prelates cendeth directly to make a division betweene the King and his subjects cantrary to that which we teach here that good Subjects must cleave to their God and King without separation and defection which is by the ligaments of good Lawes which being broken they are as the resolution of the nerves in the naturall body or the cutting in sunder of the sinewes whereby the head and members are united and compacted in one intire body And therefore this claime which the Prelates make of their Prelation and Iurisdiction over Christs Ministers jure divino being repugnant not only to the cleare Scripture forbidding all such domination as they practise as Math. 20. 25. c. Marke 10. 42. c. 1. Pet. 5. i. c. for which they have neither the example of Christ nor of his Apostles nor of any ancient Bishops but principally of Diotrephes 3 Iohn 10. whom they imitate in affecting of preeminence in opposing Iohn the Apostle in exommunicating the Preachers in prating against them with malicious words and the like but also to the Kings Crowne to the Lawes of the Land and consequently to the Liberties of the Subjects I know not with what warrant or Conscience any Minister of Christ can submit to the Practises of these men tending to the ruine of the Kingdome of Christ in this Land and consequently of the whole Kingdome and State Now all these instances alledged are so notorious some of them fresh in memory and many witnesses of them yet living being done but the other day and others yet present before our eyes that they cannot bee denyed and their notoriousnesse makes them the more pernicious as teÌ„ding to corrupt the Kings good peoples hearts by casting into them feares and jealousies with sinister affections towards their King as if hee were the prime cause of all those grievances which the Prelates in his name doe oppresse the Kings good Subjects withall But Trust in the Lord as it is my dayly prayer that hee will preserve the hearts and affections of his people closse and intire to their King and that he will discover both to the King and his people these treacherous practises of the usurping Prelates that so neither the King may thinke evill of his good people nor they have the least jealousy that his Maiesty approveth and countenanceth much lesse willeth and commaundeth his Prelates to coÌ„mit these their intollerable outrages Well come weenow to a second use which is of Exhortation and admonition to all good Subjects above all things to beware of those that cunningly insinuate themselves betweene the barke and the tree that labour to divide the head from the body and the body from the head by casting bones betweene the King and his good Subjects And here Beloued let me in the name of the Lord admonish you that whatsoever passages or outrages you see to bee done by the Prelates although they doe never so boldly pretend the Kings name for it yee believe them not Let never any Sinister opinion concerning his Sacred Majesty creepe into the closset of your brests and as a Snake either sting or poyson your true loyal hearts towards him And therfore beware of all those Factors for Antichrist whose practise is to divide Kings froÌ„ their Subjects subjects from their King that so betweene both they may fairely erect Antichrists throne againe where it had beene in a good measure throwne downe and cast out yea by this time utterly rooted out of this Land if he had not had such strong Sticklers as his Iesuites and Priests yea the Prelates themselves as their practises plainly show to keep him in life and to set him upon his feet againe But yee Beloved abhorre these Factors And if ever they should so farre prevaile as to open a wide breach to let in a forraigne enemy which these their practises and proceedings pretend and tend unto then
shew your selues like those faithfull servants of David sticke close to your King and if any danger come neere his sacred Person step betweene and let the losse of your owne precious life rescue and secure his who is worth ten thousand of us And so much for this point The next point ariseth from the order of these words Feare thou the Lord and the King That is First Feare the Lord and then the King It imports thus much That all our obedience to Kings and Princes and other Superiors must be regulated by our obedience to God Wee must so obey men as wee doe not there in trench or dash upon Gods Commandement God must first be served Therefore in all Commandements of man wee must consult with Gods Commandements or Law that it be not repugnant unto it This is also intimated in the order of the two Tables the First concerning our duty to God and the Second to our Neighbour And Christ tell that Questionist in the Gospel This is the first and great Commandement to wit to Loue God with all our heart and the second is like unto it Thou shalt loue thy Neighbour as thy selfe And the like orders it set downe 1. Pet. 2. Feare God Honour the King First feare God And this stands with good reason For First the King is Gods Minister and Vicegerent and commands as for God so from God and in God So as it is his office to command nothing against God Secondly If Princes shall commaund any thing against God and his Law then we must remember that we are Gods servants too and therefore must obey man in nothing that stands not with our obedience first to God For this cause the same word of God is a rule both for the King how to cary himselfe in governing and for every Subject how to cary himselfe to the King and first unto God Thirdly otherwise to obey or feare man before God and so above or against God is to make an Idol of man in placing him in a throne above God This is that feare of man which bringeth a snare Pro. 29 25. but who so putteth his trust in the Lord shal be safe So as the feare of man which brings a snare argues a failing of faith in God And this is a plaine defection and falling from God when man is obeyed against and above God The vse hereof is manifold 1. For reprehension 2. For Instruction 3. For Consolation 1. For reprehension of refutation of these that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the funda mentall Lawes of the State yet so presse men to the obedience of them as they hold them for no better then Rebells and to deserue to be hang'd drawne quartered that refuse to obey them And the chiefe Masters of his Mystery are the Iesuites in their blind obedience and they have gotten too many Doctors to bee their Disciples and broachers of this new Doctrine New I call it because it is flat contrary both to the expresse Scriptures and to the judgement of all Divines in all ages of the Church And because this their doctrine is So briefe now adayes I will set downe some Examples of the ancient Doctors judgement in this point And I will relate them out of Gratian himselfe As out of Augustine It is not alwayes evill not to obey the Commaundement when a Lord commaundeth those things which are contrary to God Then he must not be obeyed And Hierome If a Lord command those things which are not contrary to the holy Scriptures let the Servant bee subject to his Lord but if hee commaund contrary things let him obey rather the Lord of his Spirit then of his body And a little after If it bee good which the Emperour commaundeth execute the will of the Commander If evill Answer It behooveth to obey God rather then men And this also concernes Servant to their Masters and Wives to their husbands and children to their Parents that they ought in those things onely to obey their masters and husbands and parents which are not contrary to Gods Commandements And Ambrose Iulian the Emperour although he were an Apostate yet he had Christian Souldiers under him to whom when hee said bring forth your army for the defence of the Commonweale they did obey him but when he sayd unto them Draw out your weapons against the Christians then they acknowledge the Emperour of heaven Againe Aug. Hee which resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God But what if that be commanded which thou oughtest not to obey Here surely regard not the Power Observe the degrees of humane Lawes If the Substitute shall commaund that which ought not to bee done Yet if the Proconsul command the contrary thou doest not contemne the power if thou choosest to obey the greater Nor ought the lesser bee angry if the greater bee preferred Againe if the Consul himselfe commaund one thing and the Emperour another If the Emperour commaund one thing and God another what thinkest thou the greater power is God Pardon O Emperour Thou threatenest a prison He hell Here then thou must take thy faith as a Shield wherein thou mayst quench all the fiery darts of the enemy And another Father If any consent to anothers error let him know he is to be judged as equally culpable with him And Isidor If any forbid you that which is commaunded of the Lord or againe commaund that to be done which the Lord forbiddeth let him be execrable to all that love God Also hee that ruleth if hee either prescribe or commaund any thing besides the will of God or besides that which hee evidently commandeth in the holy Scriptures Let him bee accounted as a false witnesse of God or a sacrilegious Person When therfore the people are excommunicated even because they cannot bee compelled to evill then they are not to obey the sentence because according to that of Gelasius neither with God nor with his Church doth a wicked sentence bind any man So in Gratian. I will adde one more out of Bernard O spouse of Christ so obey man as thou offend not the will of God In evill workes never be obedient Do not obey in evill any Power although penalty compell if punishments be threatned if torments bee set before thee It is better to suffer death then to fulfill wicked commands It is better for a man to bee killed then to be adjudged to eternall damnation So Bernard I shall need to say no more to convince the novell impiety of those who doe with all rigor impose and the sinfull infirmity at least if not base cowardise of them that obey such commaunds as not only Gods word but even their owne Consciences tell them they ought not to doe Blush then and be ashamed O all ye Iesuiticall novell Doctors that suspend excommunicate persecute with all fury Gods faithfull Ministers and all because they will not they
not abandon the Priviledges thereof from himselfe seeing hee conferres onely the exercise of ruling Seeing the direct dominion of the Empire is resident in God and consequently in the Pope And Iohn à Capistrano or of the halter saith It is for humility sake that the Pope is moved to say that he will not usurpe the regall dignitie nor the Imperiall authority Let every knee bow to the Pope as unto Christ. And Hee the Pope may excommunicate deprive the Emperor and absolve any man from his allegiance which he oweth to man by the plenitude of power which hee hath And Angelus Rocca in his Vaticana Bibliotheca pag. 5. The Chiefe Pontife or Pope is crowned with a Tiara or round bonnet which they call the Kingdome of the World and his 3. Crownes doe represent the Imperiall Regall and Sacerdotall that is the plenary and universall authority of the whole world By the round Bonnet the Imperiall power is signified by the Miter the Pontificall spirituall So hee Thus wee see this great Antichrist exalts himselfe above all that is called God or that is worshipped Thus hee intercepts from the King that feare and obedience which is due vnto him from the Subjects and takes it to himselfe And thus hee not onely separates the feare of God and of the King but destroyes them both in assuming and usurping them both to himselfe as being both God and the King Secondly They separate Gods feare from the King in this that they altogether free all their Votaries and infinit Orders from the terrene power of Kings and Princes As the Pharisees did nose-wipe Parents of the obedience of their Children by their device of Corban And as our Prelates right chips of the old blocke doe labour tooth and nayle to withdraw their necks from under the yoake of the Kings Lawes which their practise plainly prooveth as we touched before A second sort come here to be reprooved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if hee were God Almighty himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that Omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his Holinesse And this these Parasites and paramours of Kings Courts doe not for any true love or reverence they beare to the King but in speciall for these ends 1. That they may by this meanes nourish a heart-burning betweene the King and his good Subjects that so they may never meet together in Parliament for the redressing of those many enormities and grievances both in the Church and commonweale whereof these make-baites are the principall causes and so least they might bee brought Coram Secondly that so they may by their intoxicating flattery so indeere the King unto them as to his most intire and intimate friends and the onely Supporters of the Prerogative royall for as much as they have justly incurred the hatred of the whole Land and so lye open to all the hazards which envy may bring them into Thirdly by this meanes they are bold tousurpe a lawlesse and unlimited power over the Kings good Subjects as if their advancing of Kingly power above its limites were but to serve their owne turne in executing their lawlesse tyranny by a kind of borrowed and abused regall power And lastly that they may by this meanes trample the Lawes and Liberties of the Subjects under their feet and in fine bring the whole State of the Kingdome King and all under their gâ—â—dle For they must be true to their Principles whereof this is one principall Episcopus non debet subesse Principibus sed praeesse A Bishop ought not to be subject to Princes but to rule over them And this they have sufficiently proved by their late practises wherein they exercise a transcendent power over all Lawes both of God and man but whence they have it I suppose themselves want good evidence and I hope will be afraid to say the King hath given them that Power which himselfe would never either practise or yet challenge as which God never dispensed to any humain Creature and which his Majesty hath so often solemnly protested against as we showed before And thus I say these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his throne downe to the ground Let this then in the least place teach men how to keep this knot of the feare of the Lord and of the King inviolable For to separate them destroyeth both And this is both the doctrine practise of true Christians and that of old For Tertullian saith that though the Christians were traduced to the Emperour as if they were enemies to the State yet those traducers as the Albiniani Nigrani c. Were found to be those enemies But a Christian saith hee is enemy to none much lesse to the Emperour whom knowing to be ordayned of his God hee must of necessity both love and feare and honour and wish him safe Wee therefore love the Emperour so farre as it is both lawfull for us and expedient for Him as a man next under God And whatsoever he is he hath it of God being lesse then God alone And this hee himselfe willeth For hee is so greater then all while hee is lesse then the onely true God Therefore we Sacrifice for the safety of the Emperor but to our God and his but as God hath commanded by pure prayer For the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Masse was not knowne in those primitive times And againe the same Author in another place speaketh to this purpose thus Placing the Majesty of Casar beneath God I doe the more commend him to God to whom alone I subject him and I doe subject him to whom I doe not equall him For I will not call the Emperor God either because I know not how to lie or because I dare not deride him or because neither himselfe will bee called God if hee bee a man It behooves man to give place to God Let it suffice him to bee called Emperour This also is a great name which is given of God Hee denyes him to bee Emperor that calls him God Vnlesse he be man he is no Emperor But saith he what need I speake more of Christian Religion and Piety towards the Emperour Quem necesse est suspiciamus c. Whom wee must of necessity honour as Him whom our Lord hath chosen that I may truely say he is the more our Caesar as hee is appointed of our God therefore as being mine I doe the more labour for his safety So Tertullian So wee also And herein may all true Christians triumph and make a holy boast against all Iesuiticall Sycophants that doe traduce them to Kings and Princes as enemies to their goverment What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason
against his King or lifted up a hand against his Sacred Person But wee can fill large volumes of Examples if need were of Iesuites Priests and Prelates that have beene notorious traitors to their Emperours and Kings and some of them that have laid violent hand upon the Lords anointed And howsoever they cry thiefe first and their cry being lowder prevailes most especially being ushered in with the very name of Puritan as of old the very name of Christians was crime enough yet they which thus abuse the eares of pious Princes both by base flattery and mallicious traducing of good men the Kings good Subjects unto His Majestie incensing him against them that so they may more easily worke their owne mischievous ends these will be found to bee the great theeves as will appeare by that which now followeth in these words And meddle not with them that are giuen to change These words are an admonition to all that feare the Lord and the King not to meddle with them that are given to change that is not to have fellowship or partnership with them as before was opened The point we learne hence is That the true servants of the Lord subjects of the King ought not to joyne with those that are given to change whither it bee in the State of Religion or of the Common-weale This is confirmed first with sundry places of Scripture As Prov. 22. 28. Remove not the ancient Land-marke which thy Fathers have Set. This alludes as Divines interprit to the alteration of the State of the true Religion of good Laws So Eccl. 10. 8. Who so breaketh an hedge a Serpent shall bite him An hedge is a bounder or fence betweene man and man This is forbidden with a curse Deutr. 27. 17. And the Princes of Iuda were reprooved as those That remooved the Bound to wit of the Lawes Hose 5. 10. Which Zanchie expounds as the other And the Ordinary Glosse expounds it of Trelates which would be accounted Princes that remoove the bounds that is Preach other doctrine then they have received from the Apostles So as the Doctrines of the Apostles are the ancient Bounds which must not bee remooved Now with Innovators such as feare the Lord and the King must not meddle nor pertake and that for sundry waighty reasons 1. Because the accessory is equall with the principall both in fact and punishment As Obad. 11. Edom is as deepely charged as the Heathen actors for but looking on while they spoiled his brother Iacob and took no compassion on him much les ayded him against his enemies And in our Law misprison of Treason that is concealement of it is punishable as treason So when wee see wicked men goe about by their Innovation to undermine and overthrow the State of Religion and of the Common-weale if wee be silent and doe not detect them nor labour to defeate them but out of a base feare hold our peace when the State of things cal upon us to speak we shal be found guilty before God though the State take no notice of it of the same Sinne with them and so pertake of the like punishment 2. Because Innovation of Religion and the Republike is and ever hath beene held dangerous to a State especially when the change is for the worse As 1. in point of civill government to change a Kingdome setled on good Lawes into Tirany is very dangerous And ever States have beene wary hereof Insomuch as the Locrians ordained that who so would moâ—ion a nâ—w Law should come with an halter about his necke that is it were not liked hee should be hanged in his halter And it was the speech of Heraclitus Ephesius That Citizens ought to fight no lesse for their Lawes then for their walls Because a City may stand without walls but without Lawes it cannot For a State can no more stand without good Lawes as it were the Soule of it then the body can live without the soule Lycurgus therefore to preserue his Lawes unto perpetuity covenanted with his Citizens that they should alter nothing till his returne whereupon he voluntarily became a perpetuall exile from his Countrey Aristotle compares changes in a State which at first seeme but small and insensible to the expenses of a howse and the wasting of a mans substance by little and little which in a short time consumes all And in his Third Booke ibid. Shewing the difference betweene a King and a Tyrant hee saith The Citizens defend with Armes their King but Strangers a Tyrant For Kings doe rule according to Law and over willing Subjects But Tyrants against their wills So as Kings have a Guard of their people but Tyrants against them So hee Whereby we see the usefulnesse of good Lawes as combining King and peoples as the head and members Secondly in point of Religion A notable example hereof we have in Deut. 13. Where if Sonnes of Belial have drawne a City of Israel to Idolatry upon the inquiry of the Truth all Israel is to smite the Inhabitants of that Citie with the sword destroying utterly all therein both man and beast with the edge of the sword and the whole City with all the spoile therein shall be consumed with Fire and made a heape for ever that so Israel may be guiltlesse and blessed of God So for all Ieroboams policy which yet to carnall judgement seemed very subtily and safe for his Kingdome the erecting of his Calues proved the bane of his House and Kingdome for ever And the like ruine fell upon Ierusalem afterward with the Babilonian Captivity for 70. yeeres And the cause was partly changing of the Lawes whereof before and partly and especially changing of Religion as these two changes goe commonly hand in hand together So Iere. 2. 36. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way So vers 11. Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods But my people have changed their glory for that which doeth not profit And Esay puts all together Saying The earth is befiled under the Inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Lawes changed the ordinance broken the Everlasting Covenant Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth and they that dwell therein c. Innovation in Religion breeds oftentimes troubles and distractions especially after a long settling And for this cause the first Reformers of our Religion were very tender of settling such an exact reformation in all things as perhaps they desired As the Lord Cromwell having set forth the Psalter in English with omission of the Letany there was such discontent about it as hee was forced to put it in againe Some indulgence must be given According to that observation of Beatus Rhenanus upon Tertullian it was needfull saith hee in ancient times to give indulgence to Christians in many things who commonly when they were old were converted from Paganisme to our Religion with great difficulty relinquishing
thosethings unto which throughout their whole life they had bene accustomed So he And although but a few Ceremonies were retained and so limited by Act of Parliament yet old Doctors popishly affected doe so doate upon their humane inventions and their old mother of Rome her superstitions that they cannot bee in quiet till res novas moliendo they may set up Popery againe in her full equipage though thereby they hazard not only the peace and welfare of the State which every good Patriot ought to bee more tender of then of his owne life but themselves too as followeth in the next reason For thirdly its dangerous to meddle with these Novellers because such doe bring commonly an old house upon their owne heads and so consequently upon them that joyne with them First upon themselves Ecel 10. 8. Hee that diggeth a pit shall fall into it and who so breaketh an hedge a Serpent shall bite him So Hos. 5. 10. Princes of Judah were like them that remoove the bound therefore will I powre out my wrath upon them as water And Esay 29. 16. Surely your turning of things upside downe shall be esteemed as the Potters clay What befell Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16 What Achitophel What Absolom And not only the principall actors but the fautors and complices such as partake with them are served with the same sawce the same punishment Therefore Moses warneth the people to avoid not to come neere the tents of those rebels least they be swallowed up with them As the voyce from heaven warnes Gods people to come out of Babylon saying Come out of her my people that yee be not partakers of her sinnes and that yee receive not of her Plagues It is historied of Tarquinius Superbus that because hee went about to turne the Regall governement into a Tyranny and so committed many outrages the Romans for that cause banished the very name of Tarquinius out of their dominions And King Iames doth in two words excellently expresse both the nature and event of such as would turne the Regall goverment established upon good lawes into a lawlesse Tyranny by terming them as was touched before Vipers and Pests Vipers eate through their dams belly and Pests the Pestilence destroyeth not onely the house where it is but all that adjoyne unto it And Esay saith They hatch Cocatrice egges and weave the Spiders webbe hee that eaâ—th of their egges dieth and that which is crushed breaketh out into a Viper Nothing but destruction and calamity is in their paths The Spiders webbe is to catch the flyes And notwithstanding the Spider loves to be in Princes Palaces as Salomon sayth where shee may fasten her netts on high and bee out of the reach of the broome Yet as the Lord saith though they make their nest as high as the Eagle in the rocks or among the Starres thence will hee bring them downe All Hamans Cobwebbs could not preserve him from his owne gallowes but make a halter for him And the calamity and ruine of these innovators is described in the 22. verse first by the suddainenesse unexpectednesse of it for their calamity shall rise suddainly 2. By the manner of it shall rise as it were from beneath them whereas their heighth seemes to secure them from all danger as trampling all under their feet and who shall be able to bring them downe yet by that which seemes to them most contemptible shal they fall from that which is below them shall their calamity arise as we see Hamans did froÌ„ Mordechai whom he so scorned 3. By the certainty of it It shal arise there is no preventing of it and 4. By the efficient causes of it And who knoweth the ruine of them both where as was opned before ruine actively understood as noting whence it cometh namely from them both to wit both from God and from the King as in the former verse who shall both jointly bring ruine upon those that bee given to change As we see in the example of Haman whom God did ruine by so ordering the Kings heart and so disposing of things as all conspired thereunto For the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water he turneth it whither soever he will Histories furnish us with infinit examples in this kind but this suffice A fourth reason why good Christians and subjects should not meddle with them that be given to change is because they feare not God but are enemies unto him For here wee see how these are set in opposition to those that feare God My sonne feare thou the Lord and meddle not with them that are given to change implying that they which are given to change doe not feare the Lord. And yet who make fairer pretence in their kind of way of Religion devotion and the feare of God How holy would they seeme to bee in their new guise of devotion and in a curious formality and punctuall observance of their holy rites as in a lowly bowing at the name Iesus in an humble adoration to the Altar in standing bolt upright at the Gloria Patri and at the Gospel and the like Would not the world believe these men to be very regular very religious deuout holy Surely if true religion and holinesse stood in outward rites of mans devising and in false showes and will-worship in a kind of Courtship in a complement in a Congee in making of a legge in bowing of the body or the like these were very religious men And ignorant persons who are not able to judge of colours take them to bee so and have them in great admiration But bring these counterfeit coynes to the touch and by and by they are discovered And the touch is Gods Word which saith In vaine they worship me teaching for doctrines the Commaundements of men Yea if we compare their showes of devotion to their other practised there need no other triall to discover them They pretend great love and reuerence to Iesus while they are so zealous and devout for bowing to his Name and so to their Altar as who so refuseth to doe it Minister or people must bee excommunicated Pious men sure But while they pretend such extraordinary respect to Iesus and persecute and crucify Christ in his Ministers and members also in his Word and the Ministry of it by labouring tooth and nayle to oppresse and overthrow it and in the power of religion by crying downe all true piety and in the worship of God by corrupting it with their Superstitious and Idolatrous rites and so trampling under their feet Christs Kingdome that they may set up Antichrists throne againe If this bee piety if this holinesse then is Popery piety and Superstition holinesse as they would faine make it as wee shall see anone But all their holinesse is but Pope-holinesse The last reason why we may not meddle or partake with these men is because they are also enemies to the King
namely the Sanctity of the life of the authors and prime Fathers of their Religion But as the heathen Seneca saith Qui genus jactat suum aliena jactat The Iewes were never a whit the more holy for calling Abraham Father But alasse our new Masters account those Martyrs fooles in suffering for such toyes as the denyall of the Reall Presence and the like wherein they of Rome and our new Romanists can well agree and for which they never meane to bee but to make Martyrs Come wee therefore to those usurpations of the Prelates in succeeding ages For wee meddle not with that rigidnesse and stiffenesse which hath beene used all along with all extremity against such godly and peaceable ministers whose conscience could not yeeld to that Conformity which the Law of the Land seemes to require And yet this I confesse if such bee the affinity or rather consanguinity between our Prelates and those of Rome that neither Gods Law nor mans Law nor Religion nor Conscience can containe them within those lists which humane Lawes have confined them unto but according to that Principle which they derive from their originall and that Spirit of Rome which breatheth in them they are so stroÌ„gly biassed to wheele about to their Roman mistresse as every element hath a naturall effection and inclination to its proper place and resteth not out of it and if it bee not possible for them to governe as Fathers as the Law intended but that they must needs tyrannize as Lawlesse Lords and lift themselves up in a transcendent degree above the Kings Lawes so comming betweene Him and his people as they intercept from the people that gratious influence of protection which properly and by right appertaines unto euery good Subject from his naturall Prince against all such usurping Tyrants and if they can doe no other but show what kind they come of in labouring to overthrow the true Religion to corrupt the worship of God with Superstition and Idolatry to trouble the peace of the Church to captivate mens consciences with their humane invention and their bodies with their vexatioÌ„s in persecuting God faithfull Ministers lawlessely in stopping the course of the Gospell by all the wiles and wayes which eyther the pollicy or power of man can take and if they cannot choose but hate the power of Religion and the very name of holinesse and cry against it and downe with it with might and maine because it crosseth the course of their lives and if they cannot but seeke the ruine of Christs Kingdome being altogether Spirituall and a Kingdome of righteousnesse and not of this world because their owne is of this world a Kingdome of pride and pompe a Kingdome of outward riches and glory no way sutable to the Kingdome of grace and so they cannot stand together but the one must fall and in a word if they cannot content themselves with that title of Iurisdiction which the King by his Lawes hath conferred upon them but they must needs pretend to hold it from Christ and his Apostles than which nothing is more derogatory to the honor of Christ nothing more contrary to his Word nothing more opposite to the example of Christ and his Apostles while under pretence of their jurisdiction from Christ they exercise such Lordly tyranny as the Gentiles did which Christ prohibited to his Apostles So as such a claime from Christ is blasphemous as making Christ the author of their Antichristian usurpations All these things and many more well considered I confesse were it a Law in England as it was once amongst the Locrians that whosoever would propound a new Law should come with a halter about his necke that if it pleased not the Senate the hang-man was ready to doe his office and the oportunity served I should come with an halter about my necke with this Proposition that it would please the great Senate of this Land to take into their said consideration whither upon such wofull experience it were not both more honorable to the King and more safe for his Kingdome and more conducing to Gods glory and more consisting with Christian Liberty and more to the advancement of Christs Kingly office which by usurping Prelates is troden downe that the Lordly Prelacy were turned into such a godly government as might suite better with Gods Word and Christs sweet yoake I speake not this God is record out of any base envy to their Lordly honour and Pompe which is farre beneath my envy but rather for the good of their soules Brunâ— Sigâ—inas when a Bishopricke was offered him refused it saying A Bishopricke was altogether to bee forsaken of that man that would not bee set at Christs left hand And Pope Marcellus 2 as Onuphrius relates in his life smiting his hands upon the table sayd I doe not see how they who possesse this high place can bee saved And one saith Hee who loveth primacy upon earth shall find confusion in heaven And how many doe wee read of that have some refused and others disburdened themselves of their Bishopricks Claudius Espencâ—â—â— in Timotheum Digress lib. 3. cap. 4. presents us many notable examples of pious and learned men who refused Bishopricks in good earnest and not with a counterfeit Nolo Nolâ— And our Saviour Christ saith It is hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heaâ—â—n But this is strange Divinity in these dayes But I speake this wishing their salvation not destruction And this by the way But according to our Text wee are professedly against all those usurpations and innovations which the Prelates of later dayes have haled in by the head and shoulders being besides and agaisnt the Law of the Land and much more against the Law of God And these innovations or changes wee may reduce to eight generall heads 1. Innovation in Doctrine 2. Innovation in Discipline 3. Innovation in the worship of God 4. Innovation in the Civill governement 5. Innovation in the altering of Books 6. Innovation in the meanes of knowledge 7. Innovation in the rule of faith 8. Innovation in the rule of manners First they have laboured to bring in a Change in Doctrine as appeareth by these instances 1. By procuring an Order from King Iames of famous memory to the Vniversities that young Students should not read our moderne learned writers as Calvin Beâ—â— and others of the reformed Churches but the Fathers and Schoolemen This I say must needs bee of the Prelates procuring it being no part of that noble Kings meaning that Schollers should bee debarred from the reading of those excellent and orthodox authors whom himselfe so much approoved and magnified both for their great learning sound judgement and religious lives For did not that excellent King give the right hand of fellowship to those reformed Churches which those authors had either planted or watered with their famous labours when hee sayd Hee would exhort all those reformed Churches to joyne with HIM in a Common Councell
this last it saith Christ ordained the authority of the Keâ—es to excommunicate notorious sinners and to absolve them which are truly penitent They abuse this power at their owne pleasure as well in cursing the godly with Bell Booke and Candle as also in absolving the reprobate which are knowne to be unworthy of any Christian society And what can the Prelates and their Court say for theÌ„selues why that of Bernard may not be applied to them which hee spake of the Prelates in his time Quem dabis mihi de numero Episcoporum qui non plus invigilet subditorum evacuendis marsupijs quaâ— vicijs extirpandis Vbi est qui flectat iram Vbi est qui praedicet annum placabilem Domini Propterea relinquamus istos quia non sunt Pastores sed traditores imitemur illos qui viventes in carne plantâ—verunt Ecclesiam sanguine suo Successores omnes cupiunt esse imitatores pauci Whom wilt thou shew mee of all the Bishops who is not more vigilant to empty the peoples purses then to root out their vices Where is hee that seekes to appease wrath Where is hee that preacheth the acceptable yeere of the Lord Wherefore let usabandon these men because they are not Pastors but Traytors and let us imitate those who living in the flesh have planted the Church with their blood So hee I will not speake of their domesticall discipline but for the present and for brevity sake passe it over But from the beginning it was not so Hierome saith A negotiating Clerke and of poore rich of ignoble glorious fly from as from a kind of plague The 3. Change is in the worship of God which they goe about to turne inside outward placing the true worship which is in Spirit and Trueth in a Will-worship of mans devising consisting in some externall complements and gesticulations as cringing crouchings bowing or standing upright at some Scriptures more than at others also a punctuall observance in these formalities as in bowing to the name of Iesus to the Communion table or rather Altar as to the Mercy-seat as they teach in their books praying with their faces towards the East thus tying God to a fixed place standing at reading of the Gospell and the like Also reading their second service at their Altar as we touched before many the like And who so wil not worship after their new fashion their new discipline is to excommunicate them or to bring them into the High-coÌ„mission a place which they make worse theÌ„ Purgatory it selfe Al which oppression being an innovation is directly contrary to the Act of Conformity before the CoÌ„munion Booke bringing the Prelats into little lesse then a Praemunire The 4. change is in the civill govermeÌ„t which they labor to reduce transferre to Ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample upon the Lawes of the Land step between the King his people exercising such a lawlesse tyranny over their bodies goods as also over their coÌ„sciences as is more intollerable then the Egyptian servitude of Israel under their Taskmasters in regard wherof the Prelates power over-swaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes the people of the Land are used rather as vassals slaves to the Prelates then as the free subjects of the King And this is the case of all England at this day the people every where groaning sighing for this their boÌ„dage their miserable vexations in the Ecclesiasticall Courts Well could they but cry mightily to the Lord and make their just complaints to his vicegerent their King as their cause requireth hee would quickly send a Moses to deliver them And so much the more should they bee sensible of this evill by how much the glory of the Kings governement over a free people according to his righteous Lawes is lamentably eclipsed his power infringed and his regall Prerogative undermined The fifth innovation is in the altering of Prayer-Bookes set foorth by publicke authority And first in the Communion Booke set forth by Parliament and commaunded to bee read without any alteration and none other they have altered Sundry things as in the Collect for the Queene and the Royall Progeny they have put out Father of thine elect and of their Seed as it were excluding the King Queene and Seed Royall out of the number of Gods Elect. Also in the Epistle for Sunday before Easter That in the name of Iesus they haue turned into At the name of Iesus that so it may make the fairer colour for their forced bowing to the name of Iesus for which there is neither Scripture nor ancient Father The second Booke is the Prayers set forth by authority of Parliament for Solemne thankesgiving for our deliverance from the Gun-powder Treason of the Papists on every Fifth of November where in stead of this passage Root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalem c. They in the last Edition 1635. set it downe thus Root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect OF THEM which say of Ierusalem c. Now whereas the words of the Originall copy doe plainely meane That all Iesuites Seminary Priests and their confederates are that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalem c. This latter Booke either restraines it to some few that are of that mind or else mentally transferres it to those Puritans that cry Downe with Babilon that is Popery which these men call Ierusalem and the true Catholike Religion Againe in the same Prayer the old copy hath these words And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with Iudgement Iustice to cut off these workers of iniquity whose religion is rebellion whose faith is faction whose practise is murdering of soules and bodies and to root them out of the confines of this Kingdome c. But the new Booke hath it thus And to that end strengthen the hands of our Gratious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with Iudgement and Iustice to cut off these workers of iniquity WHO TVRNE RELIGION INTO REBELLION AND FAITH INTO FACTION Thus these Innovators would not have the Popish Religion to be termed Rebellion and their faith Faction as the ancient copy plainly shewes it to bee but turne it off from the religion to some persons which turne religion into rebellion and faith into faction So as by this turning they plainly imply that the religion of Papists is the true religion and no rebellion and their faith the true faith and no faction Thus with altering of a word they have quite perverted the sence and so turned the Cat in the Pan so as the blame is quite taken off from the Church of Rome and laid upon a few who ever they bee who turne Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction Thus what dare not these men doe that are not afraid to alter those things which are
their owne lives and the dictates of their writings the Summe whereof is to make a mixed Religion conversation of Christians which is partly holy in an external forme of godlinesse without the power thereof partly in admitting allowing approving applauding countenancing and dispensing by Episcopall authority of a heathenish kinde of life and that especially in most Sacred times as the Lords day which though dedicated wholly to the worship and service of God yet the rule of the Sanctification hereof which is the 4th Commaundement and the example of Christs and his Apostles these novellers do altogether reject as abolished instead thereof advance their new Traditions which is to allow one part of the Day for God and the rest to mans carnall Lusts Sin the world the Devil as our Homily Saith So as the due observation and Sanctification of the Lords day being a platforme and patterne of a Christian Conversation a Christian being that in his whole life in a proportion which he is on the Lords day and this platforme being defaced and broken by our Anti-Sabbatarians it followeth that together with their impions crying downe of the 4th CoÌ„maundement and so accordingly the due Sanctification of the Lords day intire without mixture of heathenish Sports and Pastimes they deface and destroy the very face beauty power of all religion so do set up a new Forme of it never allowed of as by a Law in the world before And herein doe our Apostates out strip the very Pontificians themselves who did never yet mak a Law nor take upon them to allow any other rule of Christian life than the Scriptures although they have with our innovators denyed the Scripture to be the onely and absolute rule of faith independent upon any humain power For even Bellarmine exclameth against and disclameth that dissolute profanation of Sacred dayes in practise among the Papists in their vaine Sports and Pastimes for which cause the very Turkes do scorne saith he the Christian Religion Saying O what a God have the Christians what a famous Law giver who â—ither commandeth or permitteth these things Now if the Turkes should upbrayd us in England and cast vs in the teeth with our Lord Lawgiver Iesus Christ as if he eyther commaunded or allowed Sports Pastimes upon the Lords day our answere must be that our great Lawgiver Christ doth not any way tolerate much lesse commaund any Sports or Pastimes on his Sacred day as wherewith both God is dishonoured his day profaned but out Lord-Prelates are they who doe usurpe unto themselves a Lawlesse power to dispense with that part of the Lords-day as they please wherein men may runne riot and keep their Bacchanals and their Floralia without controwle such as Christ and his word forbids to be done on any day Much more might be spoken of the Late Changes but this suffice for the present But what speakewe of Changes Our Changes doe plead that they bring in no changes but revive those things which ancient Canons have allowed and prescribed as standing up at Gloria Patri and at the reading of the Gospell bowing at the nameing of Iesus and to the High Altar remooving the Communion Table to stand Altarwise at the East-end of the Chancell praying with the face towards the East where the Altar standeth placing of Images in Churches erecting of Crucifixes over the Altars commanding of long Martins instead of Preaching and the like To this we answere that we in this Land are not to be ruled by the Popes Canons or the Canon Law but by the Law of God of the King Although I once heard a Papall Canon was alledged in opposition to a Parliamentary Statute in K. Edw. 6. his raigne alledged by the adverse Advocates it passed for Currant none gain-saying it But as for those Rites Ceremonies to be used in our Church they are by an Act of Parliament prefixed to the CommunioÌ„ booke restrained to those only which are expressed in the same booke and if any by private authority shall presume to introduce into practise any other besides these he is to suffer imprisonment for a time and if he persist perpetuall imprisonment and losse of all his spirituall promotions during his life But besides all this these men have one speciall Sancturary to fly unto that is their Cathedrall Churches where they may lay hold upon the hornes of their Altars These be their old high places not remooved These as they are commonly used bee the ancient dennes of these old Foxes to which they flie being this pursued of whom the Scripture saith Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoile the Vines These bee those nests and nurceries of Superstition and Idolatry wherein the old Beldame of Rome hath nuzzled up her brood of Popelings and so preserved her usum Sarum in life to this very day And now these are be come impregnable bulworkers to patronize our Re-builders of Babell in all their innovations Innovations Say they Wee bring in no innovations no new rites but what hath beene in use ever since the Reformation and that in the most eminent Places even the Mother Churches of the Land Now all that wee goe about is to reduce inferiot churches to an unity and conformity to their Mother Churches So as thus bringing all to unity wee shall take off that reproach which the adversaries cast upon us in this kinde and which wee shall then retort upon themselues for their diffentions betweene their Regulars and Seculars Thus doe our Master-builders plead and so by their cunning insinnuations under a pretence of Piety and peace of unity and uniformity preaching peace peace when nothing but warre is in their heart hand as Psal. 55. 21. and 59. 7. doe so farre prevaile that before wee bee aware they will by this meanes pretrily reduce us to a perfect peace and unity with old Mother Rome againe For these Mother Churches to which all Danghter Churches must conforme are they not the naturall daughters of Rome Doe they not from top to toe exactly resemble her Her pompous Service her Altars Palls Copes Crucifixes Images superstitious gestures and Postures all instruments of musicke as at the dedication of the King of Babylons Image Long Babylonish Service so bellowed and warbled out as the heareers are but little the wiser Are not these high Places also the receptacles and nurceries of a number of idle bellies to say no worse Doe not the fat Prebends So cramme their Residenciaries that the while their starveling Flocks in the countrey doe famish for want of spirituall Food But as Erasnius said of Luther how his fault was that he meddled with the Popes Miter and the Monkes bellies But this I note by the way to show how all those that are maintained by Cathedralls are ingaged to helpe forward those Innovations that are now on foot because they make much for the supporting of their Papall Pompe But let us a
little examine what force there is in this Argument Cathedralls are so and so therefore all other Churches must conforme to them I deny the Argument Legibus vivendum est non exemplis We must live by lawes not by examples The rites and ceremonies of all our Churches are prescribed and precisely limited by the Lawes of the Land by Act of Parliament and are not left at large to the Example of Cathedralls Nay how comes it about that Cathedralls have usurped that Lawlesse and boundlesse Liberty of conforming themselves to Rome in all those their ceremonies What law can they show for this Will they plead prescription For how long time What prescription can Durhams Cathedrall-Church plead for her new service new Copâ—s new Images of Saints and Angels new rites on Candlemas day with their hundreds of tapers and candles and instead thereof bringing a Spirituall darkenesse upon mens soules by shutting out the ancient morning Prayers and other meanes of true knowledge and devotion Are not the authors of this innovation yet alive What Prescription of long custome can the Cathedrall Church of Bristow plead which now of late also hath set up new Images of the Apostles and other Saints What Prescription can Pauls Cathedrall bring for those mitred Images and Statues newly erected and for those winged Angels round about the Quire What Prescription can that Cathedrall Church at Woâ—verhampton in Staffordshire plead for her goodly costly new Altar with the Dedication thereof within these 2. or 3. yeares last past in which Dedication all the Romane rites were observed as Censings washings bowings Copes though but borrowed from Lichfeild chantings abusing of Scripture as Iohn 10. 22. to prove dedication of Altars and the like or what custome can the Same Church plead for erecting their new Altar and throwing out of their ancient and painfull Preacher What warrant have they for setting up such Altars for Baal such dumbe gods and casting downe the throne and stopping the mouth of the living God The like may be said of many other Cathedrals if not all which within these few yeares yea but Yesterday have beene strangely metamorphosed into a Curtizan-like garbe and now must be Like Mother Like Daughter Must therefore all Churches conforme to their new Romish Pashions Must therefore the Cathredrals in Oxford I meane these Câ—lledge-Churches as Magdaleâ—s Christs Church Queenes S. Iohns and others as also those Chappels in Cambridge as Peter-house Chappell S. Iohns Kings Queenes become the â—â—rceries and Springs of Superstition and Idolatry to the whole Land because of late dayes they have crested goodly new Altars Images Crucifires and such like ornâ—ments of the Romish where And because they both practise and presse the bowing to those Idols must therefore all Scholars bow unto them To what end then shall men send their Sons to the Universities if there they must be trained up to the Superstition and Idolatrie of Popery Thus we see how unlike our Cathedrals be to that they were formerly being newly set out with a Romish dresse according to those Spirits which rule in the ayre so as their examples ought to be no Lawes to bring in an universall conformity to these yesterday innovations in Mother-Cathedrals Againe by what title doe Cathedrals came to be Mothers to other Churches what Mothers Except Step-Mothers For they never bore nor brought forth those Churches whom they call daughters And right Step-Mothers they be that cheat the children of their Fathers inheritance as these would doe who rob the Spowse of her Iewels and put upon her the cast attyre of the whore But they alledge the Order for St. Gregories by Paules wherein there is an imitation of this conformity of other Churches to their Mother-Cathedrals I answere our gratious King at that as at other times as still likâ— himselfe plainly said that he would have no innovations Nor can we imagine that it was any part of his meanning that all Churches should in all things conforme to Cathedralls much lesse that all Cathedralls should bring in new rites that so other Churches might conforme to them What Must other Churches have Organs Singing Quires Altars Images Crucifixes Tapers Copes and the like because such is the guise of Cathedralls Must long chanting Service goe up and preaching goe downe because it is So in Wolverhampton Durham and other Cathedralls But by what Law By the Popes Canon Doth not our Law exclude out of all Churches all other rites besides those in the Communion Booke Doth not the Homily fore-cited prayse God for the purging of our Parish Churches from piping chanting and the like as wherewith God is so sore displeased and the house of Prayer defiled And doth not another Homily coÌ„demne the setting up of Images Crucifixes and such Reliques in Churches and all for the perill of Idolatry which doth necessarily attend the same And doth not the Queenes Injunctions forbid all skrines and reliques of Idolatry and Superstition And doth not another Homily condemne many Altars Images and Idols as heathenish and Iewish abuses How then will our new Masters our Innovators make good the bringing in of these things afresh into Cathedrals forcing all petty churches to coÌ„forme thereunto would the Prelates thus make the Mother Cathedrals thus by theÌ„selves made adopted Romes daughters their Concubines whereon to beget a new bastard generation of sacrificing Idolatrous Masse-Priests throughout the Land which our good Lawes and all our learned and pious Divines proclaimed illegitimate and abominable So as I cannot but wonder though I hope better that these desperate and all daring Popish Innovators turning off the State of the Kingdome and Church upside downe beating themselves either upon the Popes Canon-Law overtopping the Regall power or upon the evill example of their lately metamorphosed Cathedrals conformed to Rome that so they may finely or furiously inforce all the Churches in England to the like conformity and so reduce England under the Papall yoake againe they being now dead that felt the intollerable pressure of it and a new generation sprung up that affect novelty and to trade with Rome againe and nothing can now stay them but they will either breake all in pieces or their owne neckes that they are not cited before the Royall Tribunalls of Iustice and the Iudges and Iustices in their Circuits and assises doe not take Cogniscance of such perturbers who undermine and overthrow the State of Church and Common weale and mingle heaven and earth together and so condignely punish them for their intolerable usurpations So should my text be here made up My Son feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddainly and who knoweth the ruine of them both But alas have they not got the Lawes under their girdles and doe they not trample them as durt under their feet And therefore with what chaines shall wee bind these men How shall wee
nought and defaced Gods glory are utterly abolished as they most justly deserved So the Homily Point 1. Pet. 2. 17 1. Pet. 1. 3. * Popes of old were subject to Emperours when they withdrew their necks and trampled on their Masters necks and they held the stirrops theÌ„ hee became Antichrist mounted on Horseback fullfilling that of the Apostle 2. Thess. 2 3. 4. King Iames 〈◊〉 Speech at Whithall to the Lords and Commons of the Parliament there assembled 1609. Which Speech is printed with his Royall Workes in aeternam reimemoriam ‡ In the first Collect in the publike Prayer-booke of thankesgiving for our deliverance from the Powder-Treason on the 5. of No. 1605. set forth by Act of Par. Though this be altered turned another way in a new impression 1635. Tertull. adversus Marcionem lib. 1. Rex câ—sâ— summus est in suo folio usque Deum tamen infra Deum †And Ad Scapulam lib. Sic omnibus major est dum solo vero Deo minor est 1. Tim. 2. 2. Point * Eph. 6. 4. Col. 3. 21. Pater Patrâ—â— Mr. Perkinâ— in his Commentary on the Galat. chap. 5. v. 14. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe Poiâ— * Milites Christiani servâ— fuerunt Imperatori infidâ—… Aâ—… Idolatrae 1. Iuliano Vbi venicâ—ant aâ— causam Christi non agnoscâ—bant nisi illum quâ— in caelo erat quando volebat ut idolacolerent thurific rent prâ—ponebant illi Deum quando antem diccbat Producite aciem 〈◊〉 contra illâ—… gentem statim obtemperabant distinguebant Dominum aeternum à Domino temporali Gratian Causa 11. Q. 3. Imperatores Divide impera Foeâ—icester amâ—… quos irrupta tenet copula nec 〈◊〉 Divâ—… quorimoâ—… suprâ—…â—…ius solvet amor die Horat. * That intituâ—ed Babel no Bethel * This was presently â—fter the â—issolution of the last Parliament ‡ Blandissiâ—ni adulatores mordacissims detractores Bren. De consid ad Eugenium lib. 4. c. 2. Hester 3. 8. Est hoc quoque in praesenti Centuria insigne quod artes nobis ob oculos ponit quibus falsi Doctores in altum surgant postea voti compotes facti pro libitu dominantur faciunt omnia Nam in Aulas irrepunt ac Potentum ac Magistratuum animos occupant hypocrysi delationibus obtrectationibus Sincerorum Doctorum collusione quadam cum Politicis Nihil enim officij non pollicentur Nam plerumque sunt in odio Aularum atque Potentum graves constantes fidi Ministri ac Professores verbi Dei quia rigidius quam Aulis ac Politicis commodum videatur veritatem tutentur liberius peccata taxent quibus Aulae ac Potentes sunt obnoxij Parasiti Gnathones Aulici interpretantur ista redundare in contumeliam diminutionem Authoritatis Magistratuum Spectare ad turbas Seditiones Et sunt mollia placentia loquentes vigiles câ—ci canes muti pestes animarum Pseudoprophetâ— lupi rapaces fures ac latrones animarum c. Itaque levi momento Potentiores recte serio graviter cum salute plurimorum in Ecclesia Dei docentes profligunt suae fartnae homines in Cathedras collocant c. * Vides omnem Ecclesiasticum Zelum fervere sola pro dignitate tuenda Honoâ—…â—…um dâ—tur Sanctuati niâ—il â—â—t parum Absit inâ—… temporâ— non 〈◊〉 Bern. De onsâ—d lib. 4. â—p 2. * Indeede if to Prelats practises in this present age no mar voile Bernard De Considerat ad Eugenium lib. 4. cap. 2. Esay 22. 12 13. 14. * A dangâ—rous and false charge laid upon the King Pag. 11. 12. * A most pernicious practise * A most impious disgracefull speech to bring the people into a hard conceit of his Majestie who but a little before had signed the Petition of Right N. B. * A most audacious presumtuous speech of a Prelate setting his prowde foote upon the Kings Lawes as the Pope did once on the Emperours neck an Emblem of perpetuall servitude p. Dan. 3 6. * Homily of the Place and time of Prayer Part. 1. * See before the Declaration for dâ—ssolution of the last Parliament Basilicon Doron Booke 2 in his Works pag. 164. Printed 1616. * Bellarmine in his Sermons in many plates copiously declameth against such profanationsâ—as we have elsewhere expressed at large A pâ—… pâ—…nt well to be waâ—ghed by the wisest N. B. Hâ—…ly 3. against wilfull Rebellion Râ—x est 〈◊〉 stos uâ—…vs â—ue Tabulae Qui non veâ—at mori cum potest â—ubet Seneca * 1. Eliz 1. Anno 1636. Chap. 1. a 2. Point Exod 20. Math. 22. 38. Vse * As one sayd to a Minister in Suffolke for refusing to doe that which was not agreeable to Gods Commandment See before Causa 11. Qu. 3. Non semper malum est non obedire praecepto cum Dominus jubet ca quae sune conerarse Deo Tune ei obediendum non est Augustinus And Hieron in Epist. ad Ephes. Si Dominus ea jubet quae non sunt adversa Sanctis Scripturis subijciatur Domino servâ—â—s Si vero contraria pracipit magis obediat spiritus quam corporis Domino Et infra Si bonum est quod pracipit Imperator jubentis exequere voluntatem Sy malum responde Oportet Deo magis obedire quam hominibus Hoc ipsum de Servis apud Dominos de uxoribus apud viros de filijs apud Patres quod in illis tantum debeant Dominis Viris Parentibusque esse subjecti quae contra Dei mandata non sunt Ambros Iulianus Imperator quamvis esset Apostata habuit tamen sub se Christianos Milites quibus cum dicebat producite aciem cum defensione reipublicae obedicâ—ant ei cum autem diceret eis Producite arma in Christianes tunc cognoscibant Imperatorem Caeli Aug. ibid. Qui resistit potestati Dei ordinationi resistit Sed quod si illud jubeatur quod non debeas facere Hic sane contemne potestatem Ipsos humanarum legâ—m gradus adverte Si aliquid jusserit Curator faciendum est tamen si contra Proconsul jubeat non utique contemnis potestatem si eligis majori servire Nec his minor debet irasci si major praelatus est Rursus si ipse Consul aliquid jubeat aliud jubeat Imperator vel si aliud jubeat Imperator aliud Deus quid judicas Major Potestas Deus Da veniam O Imperator tu carcerem ille Gehennam minatur Hic jam tibi assumenda est fides tua tanquam Scutum in quo possis omnia ignâ—a â—acuâ—a inimici extinguere Et aliuâ— Pater Si quis alterius erreri consentit siat se cum illo simili modo culpabilem iudicandum Et Isidorus Si quis prohibet vobis quod à domino praeceptum est vel rursus imperat fieri quod Dominus prohibet execrabilis sit omnibus qui diligunt Deum Item is qui praeest se praeter voluntatem Dei
hath to Pauls and that the daughter may be somewhat like the mother Ezech. 16. 44. As is the mother so is the daughter though the table doe not stand end-wayes an as Altat but with the end to the wall Well yet a rayle must be made about it to infinuate into the peoples mindes an opinion of some extraordinary sanctity in the Table more then in other places of the Church as the Pew Pulpit or Font. Yet all this may seeme tolerable and without danger Well the like is done in other places But this growes further on in many places adorations practised to this new Altar-God yea pleaded for in pulpits and in printed books yea that in sundry Colledges in the Universities the seminaries and seed plotts of learning and Religion so farre pressed as the exemplary practises of those that bee the Heads or Superiors there may any way draw and induce the inferior Students to their imitation either through feare of displeasure or for hope of preferrement Which how perillous it is tending to corrupt the whole land with superstition and Idolatry every one may see Well now what 's the next Thus farre wee now see Popery like a thiefe stollen in upon us step by step when wee as men asleep in our beds suspected no danger And perhaps the next degree will bee the placing of their God-Almighty in the Host or Pix visibly and conspicuously upon the Altar and a Masse with the piping of the Organs chanted unto it as the Israelites did about their Calfe Exodus 32. Therefore doth it not concerne Gods Ministers and people too even from the highest to the lowest as one man to stand out against this creeping gangrene that having begun but in the least member never ceaseth creping till at length it hath prevailed over the principall parts so brought death to the whole body and this such a death as kills the soule and bringe us all backe againe under the most intollerable yoake and bondage of Satan and Antichrist from the which the Lord had so mightily and mercifully delivered us Thus much of the feare of the Lord. Come we now to the next point which is the feare of the King In which we are to observe 1. The kind of this feare 2. The order of it next to the feare of the Lord 3. The Connexion of it with the feare of the Lord being so combined that the one cannot stand without the other First then for the kind of this feare I told you in the opening of the text that it is a Civill feare differing from the feare of the Lord which is a religious feare and so a part of his worship and consequently incommunicable to any creature Yet so as I told you there is a similitude betweene this Civill feare to the King and that religious feare of the Lord. As 1. as the true feare of the Lord comprehends in it all duties and services due from us to God so the feare of the King contaynes all duties due from Subject to their King 2. as the feare of the Lord is a filiall feare so the feare of the King 3. As the feare of the Lord is a feare of adherency so the feare of the King Of these in order and of the points of instruction thence arising Every true Subject and every true servant of God ought to feare his King that is performe all duties and offices whatsoever due from a subject to his Prince For the opening hereof wee must know that the feare of the King containes all duties of a Christian Subject to his King For that which is sayd here Feare the Lord and feare the King is expressed by Peter thus Feare God Honour the King As in the fifth Commandement Honour thy Father and thy Mother Here as by Father and Mother all Superiors that stand in a bond of relation to inferiours as Parents Masters Magistrates Ministers and above all the chiefe Magistrate the Prince is meant so under this word honor all kindes of duty and service due from all inferiours to their Superiours respectively are comprized This is expressed also by Peter Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whither it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evill doâ—rs and for the prayse of them that doe well This is yet more fully and amply set downe by the Apostle Paul Rom. 13. Where this doctrine is not only prooved but pressed and confirmed by many strong reasons First the doctrine is propounded in the duty injoyned vers 1. Let every soule bee subject to the higher powers The Precept is universall to every creature not Pope nor Cardinall nor Prelate excepted All living under the Kings Dominion must bee subject to the King And the reasons are there rendred 1. Because those higher Powers are of God So as hee that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God Secondly the penalty upon rebells They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rebells shall not escape eyther the just hand of man or of God whose ordinance is resisted in resisting of the power Thirdly from the excellent office that the Powers doe beare which is to execute justice and judgement betweene Subjects For Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to the evill And as he rewards the evill with punishment so the good with prayse For wilt thou not be affrayd of the power Doe that which is good and thou shalt have prayse of the same For hee is the Minister of God to thee for good but if thou doe that which is evill bee affrayd for hee beareth not the sword in vaine for hee is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill Fourthly there is a necessity of this subjection vers 3. Wherefore ye must bee subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake So as if feare of wrath be not a bond strong enough yet conscience is which will dispense with no man For Gods ordinance bindes the Conscience Fifthly from the end of paying tribute vers 6. For for this cause pay yee tribute also For what cause That is for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing That is for the execution of justice in punishing the evill in praysing and countenancing the good And hereupon the Apostle reinforceth his exhortation as an use of the point Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome feare to whom feare honour to whom honour Againe to the former reasons expressed by the Apostle wee may adde one more answerable and correspondent to that fore-alledged of our obedience unto God for as I said in all things the feare of the King holds a resemblance with the feare of the Lord as being the most exact and perfect patterne of it even as God is the best patterne for a King and
feare the other a Civill filiall feare The point in briefe is True Subjects beare to their King such a feare as children to their parents Not a feare with terror as the Apostle sayth to Parents Provoke not your children to wrath The name of a Father is a name of love and hath in it the bowels of a naturall affection which is above all other kinds of humaine affections Now a King is the Father of his Countrey and all his loving and loyall Subjects are as so many Children into him Hee is the Father of the great family of his Kingdome Hee is the great Lord Steward whom God hath set over his family to provide for them and to protect them He is the Shepherd of the people to feed them rule them as Dauid Psal. 78. 71. 72. Now the sheep are affrayd of the wolfe not of the Shepherd Therefore saith the Apostle If thou doest evill be affrayd So as a good Subject so feareth as hee is not affrayd because he lives in obedience to God and his King Againe this filiall feare in a Subject towards his Prince doth necessarily imply an excellent and eminent love towards the King yea greater love then naturall Children beare unto their Parents namely as they are members of the great politicke body united to the King as the Head There being a neerer tye of affection betweene the Head and the members then betweene a Father and his child And therefore it is worthily sayd by that faithfull servant of God M. Perkins A good Subject is more to love the life of his Prince then his owne life And great reason for the King is the breath of our nostrills Lam. 4. 20. Hee is more worth than ten thousand of us 2. Sam. 18. 3. Vse 1. Let this be for exhortation to all good Subjects to feare their King as Sonnes their Father as their carefull Shepherd to provide for them under God and to preserve them from wolves 2. This may condemne those that would perswade Kings to rule in a terrible and formidable manner as over a sort of slaves Contrary to the Apostle Rulers are not a terror to the good Rom. 13. 3. Such are dangerous persons that would turne filiall feare in Subjects to servile For according to the old saying Oderunt dum metuunt Againe hereunto wee may fitly joyne the next Point which is That the true feare of a King as it is a filiall feare so it is a feare of adherency a feare full of loyalty and fidelity which makes a true Subject to sticke so close to his Prince at all times and in all conditions as nothing can make a separation The King and his Subjects are united with strong ligaments as the head and body And this feare of adherency is a speciall gift of God as we reade 1. Sam. 10. 26. There went with Saul a band of men whose hearts God had touched But such as cleave not unto the King are branded for children of Belial who despisâ—d their King vers 27. So wee read also of David when hee was in great distresse and straits by reason of his unnaturall and traiterous Sonne Absalom and those many tribes of Israel that had revolted to him from their King yet some cleave unto him as 2. Sam. 15. 15. The Kings servants said unto the King Behold thy servants are ready to doe whatsoever my Lord the King shall appoint And vers 21. Ittai said to the King when hee went about to perswade him to goe back and to take care for his safety as verse 19. 2â— As the Lord liveth and as my Lord the King liveth Surely in what place my Lord the King shall bee whether in death or life even there also will thy servant bee Here was a faithfull servant and loyall subject indeede And great reason every good subject should sticke close to his King in all difficulties First we are bound hereunto by a strong bond of conscience as before Rom. 13. 5. And this Conscience is grounded upon the true Religion and feare of God which is the surest bond of all obedience This was that bond which tyed the Christians of old to performe such faithfull military service unto the heathen Emperours and those also who where otherwise cruell persecuters of the Church and Apostates from Christ. As wee see in the Example of Iulian who when hee commanded his band of Christians to march against his enemies those of the heathen they straight obeyed and put their lives in hazard But if he commanded them to fight against the Christians their brethren then they layd downe their Armes and cast themselves downe at the Emperors feete and offered their naked bodies rather to suffer whatsoever torments A second reason why a good subject ought to sticke close to his King in all difficulties because this is the meanes to make a Kingdome invincible and terrible to the enemies Therefore it was an old saying Divide and Rule Divisions in a state expose it to forraigne enemies But unity of heart and affections betweene the subjects and their Soveraigne makes a Common-Wealth happy and perpetuall When my selfe was once at the High Commission falsly charged by a great Prelate of Sedition in that said hee I had dedicated a Booke to the Lower house of Parliament thereby to incense the Commons against the King I presently answered No my Lord I dedicated my Booke to the whole Parliament to wit to the King and both the Howses I doe not divide the head from the body my Lord but I pray God unite them together Hereat he was mute and all his raylings and false charges were at an non-plus So it seem'd some there were not farre off who went about at that time to divide the King from his people And yet another of them said Amen to my prayer being convinced of this trueth that divisions or heart-burnings betweene the King and his subjects are most perillous Vse 1. Here then those are justly and severely censurable even as traytors to the King and State who play the make-baites betweene the Prince and people And these are the Iesuites and Seminary Priests or else those of their faction who herein combine with them as Samsons foxes tyed tayle to tayle with a fire-brand to set the whole State in a combustion by stirring up and fomenting the fire of dissention betweene our gratious Soveraigne and his loving and loyall Subjects And this they labour to doe two wayes either by incensing the King with a hard opinion of his best Subjects those especially that are most religious and pious humble and peaceable in his Kingdome or else on the other side by incensing the people with a sinister opinion of their Soveraigne thus playing lack of both sides being Ambidexters and know to make advantage every way The first of these wayes it hath beene an old practise of Satan the Accuser of the brethren to suggest and whisper into Kings eares evill and false