almost as good be failing in all I must pray as they do either not mentioning the King at all or speake of him in a defameing way I must preach as they do and cry Cursed be the Parent that diswades his Child Cursed be the wife that withholds her Husband Cursed be the Master that hinders his servant from going to this warre to helpe the Lord against the mighty that is to say against the King for so I must interpret it yea I must turne my pulpit into mount Eball and curse with Bell Booke and Candle with the great curse and the little curse with Meroz Curse the most bitter Curse under the name of Malignants that is to say Devills and enemies to God and truth all persons of what ranke soever that have set their hands to the petition for peace I must argue that the King is not an absolute God therefore he is mortall and may be resisted He shall dy like a man and therefore we may fight against him though my conscience did never yet learne such Logick And then too in stead of Gods word I must tell some fearfull tales of the Cavaliers how bloudy they be in their actions and how blasphemous in their expressions to fright and imbitter the good womens spirits that so they may solicite their Husbands to be more liberall of their purses in maintaining the warre against them and then I must to comfort them again and further to incourage them relate some valiant exploits done by some of Gods poore ROUNDHEADS accordingly as they say they are scoffingly termed affirming all to be as true as God is in heaven thus must I beautify and adorne my sermons or else they will not be worth a rush nor shall I be free from being suspected But Sir nobis non licet esse tam disertis qui musas colimus sacratiores I dare not in that place relate any thing as matter of faith but what I know is in Gods word or grounded thereupon Nay and further yet I must not onely follow thus but also approve of what ever injury and wrong is done by others of that side to those whom my Conscience thinks to be Honest and Conscionable men I must allow of all rifling plundering robbing and stealing and commend the actors though never so vile in life and carriage as friends to the good cause I must delight to see reverend grave and aged Divines for preaching obedience haled from their Churches flockes and families to prisons and insulted over and shamefully abused by the basest men even as the Christians were by those bloudy wretches under the Heathen Emperours and as the Martyrs were in Queene Maries daies I must joy to beare that they are turned out of meanes and maintainance unheard and perhaps unseene only upon the bare information of some malicious and beastly drunkard whom the same Minister hath formerly indeavoured to reclaime from sinne and I must laugh when I heare they are hunted and pursued as the Indians were by the Spaniards Doggs in the fields and Highwaies by the ungodly Soldiers with swords and Polaxes unhorsed and forced to betake themselves to woods to hide themselves though I know them to be Godly learned holy and unblameable yet I must deny such my knowledge and conclude of them as some did of Christ that they are justly smitten of God even because they are not of our opinion and I must beleeve all the rude people that are imployed to do this mischeife and delight therein to be very zealous for God and worthy of thanks for their care of the cause And I must also rejoyce to see noble worshipfull and gallant Gentlemen that have borne the office of Magistracy with Honour many yeares who have spent themselves and their estates to do their Country service fetch'd from their houses by the rabble of men and haled to prison spoiled of their goods or forced to fly from place to place only for their Conscience sake because they beleeve that according to Gods Command they are bound to love and Honour their Soveraigne and not to joyne in a mortall resistance against him these things and many such like must I approve on which Sir I professe I cannot I dare not I had rather loose my life then my Conscience Nay Sir let mee adde one thing more if I should imitate my Brethren and humour the people in this their heady way I should but like the foole in the Gospell build upon a Sandy foundation for vulgus est mobile you know they that cry Kill the King today will upon better information cry hang up the Seditious Preachers to morrow when they come home lamed from the Battaile and frustrate of all their expectations or have well payed with their purses for their ungodly and inconsiderate undertakings who doe we thinke they will cry out upon but on those that provoked them to the businesse even the Ministers that promised Heaven and assurance of Victory and rich spoiles out of the estates of Delinquents whom shall the desolate widow curse that hath lost her husband in the Battaile or the fatherlesse childe that hath lost his parent or the childlesse old man that hath lost the staffe of his age in the Warre against his Soveraigne who hath preserved him and his hitherto in safety under the arme of his protection but onely the Ministers that scared them with the curses of God if they did not yeild them up to that service The Lord in mercy deliver me from the curse of the aged the fatherlesse and the widow Sir it hath beene observed of some that being maimed have with much difficulty returned from Edge-hill Battaile where if their Soveraignes fatherly bowels had not yearned with pitty towards them when they were taken in regard of their simplicity they had beene hanged according to their merits when they have come for reliefe to the rich of the Parish discovering their wounds they have beene sleighted with this Answer Who bad you goe Who bad you goe now whom shall these poore afflicted cry out upon but on the Preachers whose seducing tongues wrought most upon their ignorance and good meaning And alas should I be thus cruell to impoverish men to lame their bodies to defile their soules to undoe them every way the Lord keepe me from doing such a thing When Abigail disswaded David from slaughtering Nabal and his family she used this Argument Ne sit in singultum cordis Domini mei in posterum lest it be a corrosive to my Lords spirit afterward and I professe unto you I do beleeve that had I beene at Edge hill as some Ministers were against his Majestie all the bloud that was there shed would roare continually night and day in my conscience but the Lord I hope will ever preserve the soule of his poore Minister from the hearing of so hideous a cry Nay Sir may it not be imagined that all the bloud that hath beene shed throughout the Land in this unchristian and unnaturall Warre
A Loyall Subjects Beliefe EXPRESSED IN A LETTER TO Master STEPHEN MARSHALL Minister of Finchingfield in Essex from EDWARD SYMMONS a neighbour Minister occasioned by a conference betwixt them WITH The Answer to his Objections for resisting the Kings Personall will by force of Armes AND The Allegation of some Reasons why the Authors Conscience cannot concurre in this way of resistance with some of his Brethren 1 COR. 4.2 It is required in Stewards that every one be found faithfull ROM 14.12 For we shall all appeare before the Judgement seat of Christ Oxford Printed for VV. VVebb M.DC.XLIII TO MY REVEREND BRETHREN OF THE MINISTRY and the rest of my Christian friends and acquaintance in the Counties of Essex and Hartford Grace and Peace in Jesus Christ be multiplyed Reverend and welbeloved THese uncharitable times have made a breach in our holy Communion a separation of me from the acquaintance of some of you because I dare not serve them insomuch that I may say with the Prophet I am become a stranger unto my Brethren my lovers and friends stand afarre off they will not know me 't is counted a prime note of a Malignant to be seene speaking to me and yet you know I have beene some body heretofore as well as some of you O but the report goes I am now growne an Apostate and why so because I am still the same man obstinate in my way will not conforme to the example of such and such of my worthy Brethren preach to promote the warre as they call it for the Parliament Sirs I am a Minister of the Gospell of Peace and 't is against my calling and my conscience to doe so the Kings expresse command also being to the contrary I may loose my credit mine outward estate the comfort of wife and children as I have already done yea and my life too which is in mercy yet preserved but I am resolved by Gods grace to keep my Conscience the enemy shall not spoile me of that let him doe his worst Truly friends I must confesse like you I have alwayes loved my credit well and perhaps too well with the people but when my Saviours truth conjoyned with my Soveraignes honour came in question I was glad I had loved it so well and kept it intire till then to sacrifice in that quarrell What I am you know and what my Doctrine and conversation hath beene Had it beene formerly bad my selfe in these times had fared better for I was plainly told at the beginning of my troubles that I must suffer the punishment of an hundred knaves because being an honest man I did more hurt to the cause then so many which since then I have found true be your selves the Judges and say whether you know any in these Counties that were marked for scandalous lazy or superstitious and complained of as such that have suffered in any measure so much as I first heare and then determine The Apostle sayes Receive not an accusation against an Elder but by the testimony of two or three witnesses yet upon the bare information of one malicious varlet * One Samuel â—â—rrowes some â—nes of Colâ—ester brother 〈◊〉 Master Burâ—wes the Miâ—ster whom many of you know to be most notorious for false swearing publicke drunkennesse and blasphemy for which the last yeare at the publicke Sessions he was bound to his good behaviour I was voted a Delinquent by some of the Members of the House of Commons and published in a Diurnall over the Nation to preach such foolish stuffe which none I hope that know me suspect of me hereupon being sent for by a Messenger and committed to custody I was at last referred to the Committee for scandalous Ministers that so I might afterward be reckoned in that number and disabled thereby from doing Christ any more service for a Minister marked with that badge by them they call the Parliament is more odious then he that is made such a one by sinne or Satan so that when I returned home the drunken Crew whose vicious lives I had oft inveighed against and their children too would point at me as I went in the streets and say there goes a scandalous Minister there goes he that was in the Gaole with his fellow Rogues the other day After this when by Master Marshall's friendship and testimony of me I obtained to put in Baile I was forced to make many journeys this last winter-time to London being almost forty miles from mine habitation for preaching against Lying and Slandering Pride and Malice sinnes notorious in my neighbours who had now got the tricke because all was beleeved against me which they said to affirme that what-ever I preached was against the Parliament so making that and their owne sinnes all one for that indeed was able to doe me more hurt then they and though I never failed upon the least intimation to appeare yet I was sent for againe by a Pursevant as if I had not beene bailed because that was most chargeable whereby a great part of that little money which in ten yeares space I had saved to keepe my wife and children if I should die was expended And now at last when it was perceived that neither by threats nor molestations nor charges nor weary journies I would be forced to deny the truth of God my debauched adversary knowing as should seeme the intentions of his powerfull friends layed wagers that he would quite put me by from preaching and turne me out of my Living wherefore having forced many of my simple people to make a purse to beare his charges by threatning them else with plundering and the imputation of being counted Cavaliers he repaires againe unto London and on the third of March in the name not onely of the Commons but also of the Lords before whom I never appeared nor was ever summoned hee obtained a Sequestration to be granted to some others my deadly enemies of his owne knot to seize upon my Parsonage-House Glebe and Tythes and a power withall to apprehend my person to doe with me God knowes what And as the words of the Sequestration are for the better supply of an able and godly man in the Church they sent downe a stranger to officiate as Parson in my place whom they call a godly learned and orthodox Divine intimating thereby unto the world that he whom they cast out was not to be accounted any such a one what I am or have beene my Christian friends I referre to your judgements who have knowne me I thanke God I am able to say with the Apostle I have walked in all good conscience both before God and man unto this day I have constantly preached twice upon the Lords day and oft on Holydayes when I could intreat my people to come to Church But if that their godly learned and orthodox Divine be such a one as is their Lecturer whom in despight of me they did in the beginning of my troubles set up to preach against
The Lord strooke him with leprousie vers 19. and then the Priests thrust him out of the holy place because of his uncleannesse according to the Law Nay sayes the Text vers 20. himselfe hasted also to goe out because the Lord had smitten him this example therefore makes nothing at all for the lawfulnesse of resisting the Kings person commanding against his owne Lawes Other examples as little to the purpose are also alleadged by those that would faine winde Gods Word to speake the language of their owne spirits but these onely were mentioned at our conference and therefore I will not spend time to answer any other which indeed are already answered by abler pens then mine Sect. 11 Now I come to the Argument from reason which in your thoughts as it seemes if you be in earnest doth imply a necessity of resistance in such a case Salus populi which is Suprema lex doth require it for thus you argue It is according to reason that every particular man should endeavour the preservation of his owne being yea 't is Lex naturae every member of the body every creature in the world will doe it ergo much more man who hath also the use of Reason to perswade him to defend himselfe against an unjust violence Indeed say you Christianity commands us patiently to submit when we are wronged by the Law but if against Law then we may stand upon our owne guard by all the Lawes of Nature and Nations As for example say you if a father or master whose commands are to be bounded within the compasse of their particlar relations shall by unjust violence require things unsuteable to be done the childe or servant may and ought to defend himselfe even to the disarming of his Governour so if a Prince shall command any thing beyond or beside the relation of his Kingly office as for example when a sentence is passed by a triall at Law for me against him he shall notwithstanding in his passion send to my house to do me violence I must defend my selfe and disarme him if I can for if in such a case I shall yeild my throat to his fury to be cut I shall be guilty of selfe murder and if this may be done for the safety of a private man then much more when Salus populi wrich is suprema lex doth require it These in breife as I remember were your Arguments and illustrations to which I thus answer First in generall Reason I grant ruleth well when Religion opposeth not but 't is her duty to vaile unto faith and therefore as you and I have often taught even reason her selfe must be denied in some cases as well as nature a Christian as well as another creature may and must looke to his owne preservation but we are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 and so are not our owne nor must be in the first place for our selves the Honour of that profession which he that bought us hath entrusted us to maintaine must be preserved by us before life it selfe if selfe defence will blemish my Holy profession if resisting the King speakes rather the doctrine of the Iesuits then of Iesus I had rather by patience possesse my soule in safety then by opposing endeavour the preservation of my body Ob. But for the particular instances every member of the body say you will defend it selfe Answ True and all the Head yea every one of them will defend the Head before it selfe 't is naturall to them and if wee be right members of the Commonwealth the King is our Head Ob. Every Creature will endeavour the preservation of its own being Answ So will a reasonable man and a Christian in speciall ought so to do that he may do his Creator the more service but onely in that way and by those meanes as may not crosse the end of his beeing Ob. But Christianity commands to submit with patience onely when wronged by the Law Answ It hath beene already answered that Christian patience is not so limited if the Law be on my side when the King wrongs me my wrong is the greater and my patience in such a case is more glorious and comes nearer to perfection Ob. But the Kings Commands are bounded as those of a Father or master within the compasse of their particular relations Answ That is already denyed and must be better proved before I answer further onely this I adde that the similitude of a father or master is not to this case corresponding for 1. I am equall to my father or master as I am a Subject though their inferiour in my particular relation to them but so I am not to my Prince 2. I have a Law to warrant me to stand upon mine owne defence against them and to disarme them when they breake the Kings peace upon mee but I have not to justify me in my so doing against my Prince 3. The King hath not given a father or master potestatem vitae et necis over those that in their relations are under them as God hath given the King therefore although I may defend my selfe against them yet not against him to whom being the publick father and Lord I owe the greater duty and obedience and am to forsake them to serve him Answ 2 Besides I do not wholely yeild to the lawfulnesse of resisting a father or master onely for the unsuteablenesse of their command or perhaps because jujurious to the childe or servant if it be not impious in it selfe for that place of the Apostle seemeth to gainsay it servants bâ— subject to your Masters with all feare 1 Pet. 1 18.19 not onely to the good and gentle but also to the froward for this is thanke worthy if a man for Conscience sake toward God indure griefe suffering wrongfully q. d. when in the frowardnesse of their Spirits they command things unsuteable submit your selves and resist not now if subjection in such a case be due to Masters much more is it unto a Prince Answ 3 Or lastly I answer there is a medium between obeying and resisting in a case of that nature and that is complaining to those that are above them for fathers and masters are themselves also under Authourity unto which their children or servants may appeale for their own defence when unreasonable commands with violence are forced upon them and so may and must the Subjects do appeale to God in such a case 1 Sam. 8.18 who onely is above their Prince 1 Sam. 8.18 Ob. But suppose the streight be such that the Son or servant cannot appeale to the Magistrate hee must either yeild to the thing unlawfull or be killed if he do not resist Answ The case is never so between us and God Gen. 22.14 hee is every where to whom we may appeale yea providebit in monte our extremity is his best oportunity Quest But what warrant for this Answ I know your selfe at leasure can finde many I 'le minde