farre worse then the disease they suffered And I doubt not but ere long the Rebels in this Kingdom will feelingly confesse this to be too true when they shall more deeply taste of the like miseries as they have brought as well upon many of their own friends as others If you alledge the time of Richard the third how soon he was removed and how happily it câ—me to passe that Henry the seventh succeeded I answer briefly that Richard the third was not onely a cruel bloody Tyrant but he was also an unjust Usurper of the Crown and not the right King of England and that there is a great deal of difference betwixt rebelling against our lawful Kings which God hath justly placed over us and expelling an usurping Tyrant which hath unjustly intruded himself into the royal Throne This God often hath blessed as in the case of Eglon Athalia Henry the seventh and many more which you may obviously find both in the Greek and Roman stories and the other he alwayes cursed and will plague it whensoever it is attempted After I had answered these Objections I lighted upon one more Object Goodwin in his Anti-Cavalierisme p. 8 which is taken out of 2 Kings 6.32 where the Objector saith When Ahab sent a Cavalier a man of blood to take away the Prophet Elisha's head as he sate in his house among the Elders did Elisha open his dore for him and sit still till he took off his head in obedience to the King No he bestirred himself for the safeguard of his life and called upon others to stand by him to assist him And a little after he saith Surely he that went thus farre for the safety of his life when he was but in danger to be assaulted would have gone further if occasion had been and in case the Kings Butcher had got in to him before the dore had been shut if he had been able and had had no other means to have saved his own head but by taking away the others there is little question to be made but he would rather have taken then given a head in this case I answer that who this Goodwin is I know not Sol. The Ministers of Christ should not be the incendiaries of war I could wish he were none oâ— the Tribe of Levi 1. Because I find him such an incendiary of warre and an enemy unto peace whereas the messengers of Christ have this Elogie given them Qâ—Ã m speciosi pedes Evangelizantium pacem And the Scripture saith Blessed are the Peace-makers and we continually pray Give peace in our dayes O Lord and therefore I can hardly believe these incendiaries of warre to be the sonnes of the God of peace 2. Because his objection is full of falshoods and false grounds as 1. He saith that Ahab sent to take Elisha's head The first mistake in the front of his Speech 2 Kings 6.32 If any thing more when as Ahab was dead long before it was his ghost therefore and not he But it was his son and what then what did the Prophet he shut the dore and desired the Elders to handle the messenger roughly or hold him fast at the dore Thus saith the Text and the Prophet in my judgement doth herein but little more then what God and nature alloweth every man to do not to lay down his life if he can lawfully preserve it but as the Prophet did to shut the dore or as our Saviour saith When we are persecuted in one City to flye into another to save our lives as long as we can and in all this I find no violent resistance But 2. the Objector tells us Surely if the messenger had got in Elisha had taken off his head rather then given his own I demand What inspiration he hath from God to be sure of this for I am sure John Baptist would not do so nor Saint Paul nor any other of Gods Saints that I have read of but these men are sure of every thing even of Gods secret Counsel and that is more then the thoughts of mens hearts or if this be sure which I am not sure of I answer that Elisha was a great Prophet that had the spirit of Eliah doubled upon him and those actions which he did or might have done through the inspiration of Gods spirit this man may not do except he be sure of the like inspiration for God who is justice it self can command by wâ—rd as he did to Abraham to kill his son or by inspiration as he did to Elias to call fire from Heaven and it is a sin to disobey it whereas without this it were an horrible sin to do it And we must distinguish betwixt rare and extraordinary cases that were managed by special commission from God and those patterns that are confirmed by known and general Rules which passe through the whole course of Scripture and take heed that we make not obscure Commentaries of humane wisdom upon the clear Text of holy Writ Quia maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum Cursed be the gloss that corrupts the Text. But indeed the place is plain that Elisha made no other resistance but what every man may lawfully do to keep the messenger out of dores so long as he could and yet this man would inferre hence that we may lawfully with a strong hand and open warre resist the authority of our lawful Kings a Doctrine I am sure that was never taught in the School of Christ He makes some other Objections which I have already answered in this Treatise and then he spends almost two leaves in six several answers that he maketh to an objection against the examining the equity or iniquity of the Kings commands but to no purpose because we never deny but that in some cases though not in all for there must be Arcana Imperii and there must be Privie Counsellours and every Peasant must not examine all the Edicts of his Prince The commands of Kings may not onely be examined but also disobeyed as the three Children did the commands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Apostles the commands of the High-Priests but though we may examine their commands and disobey them too when they are contrary to the commands of God yet I would fain know where we have leave to resist them and to take arms against them I would he understood There is a great deal of difference betwixt examining their commands and resisting their authority the one in some cases we may the other by no means we may do CHAP. VIII Sheweth that our Parliament hath no power to make warre against our King Two main Objections answered The original of Parliaments The power of the King to call a Parliament to deny what he will and to dissolve it when he will Why our King suffereth BUt when all that hath been spoken cannot satisfie their indignation against true obedience and allay the heat of their rebellious spirits they come to their ultimum refugium best strength
and strongest fort that although all others should want sufficient right to crosse the commands and resist the violence of an unjust and tyrannical Prince yet the Parliament that is the representative body of all his Kingdom and are intrusted with the goods estates and lives of all his people may lawfully resist and when necessity requireth take arms and subdue their most lawful King and this they labour to confirm by many arguments I answer that for the Parliament of England it is beyond my sphere and I being a transmarine member of this Parliament of Ireland And whatsoever I â—pâ—ak of Parliaments in all this Discourse I mean of Parliaments disjâ—yned from their King and understand only the prevalent faction that ingrosseth and captivateth the Votes of many of the plain honest minded party which hath been often seen both in general Councels and the greatest Parl aments I will only direct my speech to that whereof I am a Peer and I hope I may the more boldly speak my mind to them whereof I am a member and I dare maintain it that it shall be a benefit and no prejudice both to King and Kingdome that the Spiritual Lords have their Votes in this our Parliament For besides the equity of our sitting in Parliament and our indubitable right to vote therein and his Majesty as I conceive under favour be it spoken is obliged by the very first act in Magna Charta to preserve that right unto us when as in the Summons of Edw. 1. it is inserted in the Writ that * Claus 7. m. 3. dors Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari or tractari debet whatsoever affair is of publique concernment ought to receive publique approbation and therefore with what equity can so considerable a party of this Kingdom as are the Clergy who certainly cannot deserve to forfeit the priviledge of the meanest subjects and of Common men because they are more immediately the servants of the living God be denied the benefit of that which in all mens judgements is so reasonable a law and they onely be excluded from that interest which is common unto all I cannot see yet I say that besides this our right while we sit in Parliament this fruit shall alwayes follow that our knowledge and conscience shall never suffer us to vote such things against the truth as to allow that power or priviledge to our Parliament as to make Orders and Ordinances without the consent and contrary to the will of our King much lesse to leavie moneys and raise armes against our King Priviledges of Parliament what they are for I conceive the Priviledges of Parliament to be Privatae leges Parliamenti a proceeding according to certain rules and private customes and lawes of Parliament which no member of the Houses ought to transcend whereas the other is Privatio legum a proceeding without Law contrary to all rules as if our Parliament had an omnipotent power and were more infallible than the Pope to make all their Votes just and their sayings truth I but to make this assertion good that the Parliament in some cases may justly take arms and make warre upon their justest King if they conceive him to be unjust it is alledged that although the King be Singulis major greater then any one yet he is Vniversis minor lesse then all therefore all may oppose him if he refuse to consent unto them I answer that the weaknesse of this argument Pag. 11. 38 39 40. is singularly well shewed in the Answer to the Observations upon some of his Majesties late Answers and Expresses and I will briefly contract the Answer to say the King is better than any one doth not prove him to be better then two and if his Supremacy be no more then many others may challenge as much for the Prince is Singulis major a Lord above all Knights and a Knight above all Esquires he is singulis major though universis minor And if the King be universis minor then the people have placed a King not over but under them And Saint Peter doth much mistake in calling the King Supreme 2 Pet. 2.13 and they do ill to petition when they might command and I am confident that no records except of such Parliaments as have most unjustly deposed their Kings can shew us one example that the Parliament should have a power As Edw. Carnarvan and Richard the second which must of necessity over-rule the King or make their Votes Law without and against the will of the King for if their Votes be Law without his consent what need they seek and sollicit his consent But the clause in the Law made 2. Hen 5. cited by his Majesty that it is of the Kings regality to grant or deny such of their Petitions as pleaseth himself That the King is universis major greater then all proved and the power which the Law gives the King to dissolve the Parliament and especially the words in the Preface of cap. 12. Vices to Hen. 8. where the Kings Supremacy not over single persons but over all the body politique is clearly delivered doth sufficiently shew the simplicity of this Sophistry God having given and the people having yielded their power to th it King they can never challenge any power but what they have derived from their king 2. Reason Sol. and prove that the King being invested with all the powâ—â— of the people which is due to him as their King he is the onely fountain of all power and justice so that now they can justly claim no power but what is derived from him and therefore it is the more intolerable that any man should usurp the power of the King to destroy the King 2. They will say that Salus populi est suprema a lex The good of the people is the chiefest thing that is aymed at in all government and the Parliament is the representative body of all the people therefore if any thing be intended contrary to the good of the people they may and ought lawfully to resist the same I answer and confesse that there is no wise King but will carefully provide for the safety of his people because his honour is included therein and his ruine is involved in their destruction but it is certain that this principle hath been used as one of our Irish mantles to hide the rebellion of many Traytors and so abused to the confusion of many Nations for there is not scarce any thing more facile 2 Sam. 15.4 then to perswade a people that they are not well governed as you may see in the example of Absolon who by abusing this very Axiome hath stollen away the hearts of many of his fathers subj cts How easie it is to perswade the people to rebell for as Lipsius saith Proprium est aegri nihil diu pati It is incident to sick men and so to distempered minds to indure nothing long but foolishly to
think every change to be a remedy therefore the people that are soon perswaded to believe the lightest burthen to be too heavie are easily led away by every seducing Absolon who promise them deliverance from all their evils so they may have their assistance to effect their ends and then the people swelled up with hopes cry up those men as the reformers of the State and so the craft and subtilty of the one prevailing over the weaknesse and simplicity of the other every Peer and Officer that they like not must with Teramines be condemned and themselves must have all preferments or the King and Kingdom must be lyable to be ruined Repl. But you will say the whole Parliament cannot be thought to be thus envious against the Officers of State or thus carelesse of the common good as for any sinister end to destroy the happinesse of the whole Sol. I answer that Parliaments are not alwayes guided by an unerring spirit but as Generall Councels so whole Parliaments have been repealed and declared null by succeeding Parliaments How a Faction many times prevaileth to sway whole Councels and Parliaments as 21. Rich. 2. c. 12. all the Statutes made 11 Rich. 2. are disanulled and this in the 21 Rich. 2. is totally repealed in 1 Hen. 4. c. 3. And 39 Hen. 6. we find a total repeal of a Parliament held at Coventry the year before and the like and the reason is because many times by the hypocritical craft of some Faction working upon the weaknesse of some and the discontent of others the worse part procuring most unto their party prevaileth against the better The original of Parliaments why they were at first ordained Besides all this I conceive the Original of Parliaments was as it is expressed in the Kings Writ to consult with the King De quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis regni they being collected from all the parts of the Kingdom can best inform His Majesty what grievances are sprung and what reparations may be made and what other things may be concluded for the good of His Subjects in every part and His Majesty to inform them of his occasions and necessities which by their free and voluntary Subsidies they are to supply both for his honour and their own defence In all this they have no power to command their King See Jo. Bodin de repub l. 1. c. 8. pag 95. in English and the place is worth the noting no power to make Lawes without their King no right to meet without his Writ no liberty to stay any longer then he gives leave how then can you meet as you do now in my Episcopal See at Kilkenny and continue your Parliament there to make warre against your lawful King What colour of reason have you to do the same you cannot pretend to be above your King you have with lyes and falshoods most wickedly seduced the whole Kingdom and involved the same in a most unnatural civil warre you are the actives the King is passive you make the offensive He the defensive warre for you began and when He like a Gracious King still cryed for peace you still made ready for battel And I doubt not but your selves know all this to be true for you know that all Parliament men must have their elections warranted by the Kings especial Writ You will say that so you were well The letter sent from a Gentleman to his friend and you were chosen but by subjects and intrusted by them to represent the affections and to act the duties of subjects and subjects cannot impose a rule upon their Soveraign nor make any ordinance against their King and therefore if the representative body of subjects transcend the limits of their trust and do in the name of the subjects that which all subjects cannot do and assume that power which the subjects neither have nor can conferre upon them I see no reason that any subject in the world should any wayes approve of their actions For how can your priviledge of being Parliament men That men intrusted should not go beyond their trust priviledge you from being Murderers Thieves or Traytors if you do those things that the Law adjudgeth to be murders thefts and treasons Your elections cannot quit you and your places cannot excuse you because he that is intrusted cannot do more then all they that do intrust him and therefore all subjects should desert them that exceed the conditions and falsifie the trust which their fellow-subjects have reposed in them Besides The King must needs be a part of every Parliament you know the King must needs be reputed part of every Parliament when as the selected company of Knights and Burgesses together with the Spiritual and Temporal Peers are the representative body and the King is the real head of the whole Kingdom and therefore if the body separates it self from the head it can be but an uselesse trunk that can produce no act which pertaineth to the good of the body because the spirits that gave life and motion to the whole body are all derived from the head as the Philosopher teacheth And further you do all know that as the King hath a power to call The power of dissolving the Parliament greater then the power of denying any thing so he hath a power to dissolve all Parliaments and having a power of dissolving it when he will he must needs have a power of denying what he please because the other is farre greater then this And therefore all these premises well considered it is apparent that your sitting in Kilkenny without your King or his Lievtenant which is to the same purpose and your Votes without his assent are all invalid to exact obedience from any subject and for my part I deem them fooles that will obey them and rebels that will take arms against their King at your commands and if you persist in this your rebellious obstinacy I wish your judgements may light onely upon your own heads and that those which like the followers of Absolon are simply led by you may have the mist taken from their eyes that they may be able to discern the duty they owe unto their King that they be not involved and so perish in your sin For though you be never so many and think that all the Kingdom Towns and Cities be for you Psal 21.11 yet take heed lest you imagine such a mischievous device which you are not able to perform for the involving of well-meaning men into your bad businesses 1 Reg. 22.29 as Jehosaphat was misâ—led to war against Ramoth Gilead doth not only bring a punishment upon them that are seduced but a far greater plague upon you that do seduce them and God who hath at all times so exceeding graciously defended His Majesty and contrary to your hopes and expectation from almost nothing in the beginning of this rebellion hath increased his power to I hope an invincible
Army will be a rock of defence unto his annointed because it is well known to all the world For what causes the King suffereth that whatsoever this good King hath suffered at the hands of his subjects it is for the preservation of the true Protestant Religion of the established Lawes of his Kingdomes and of those Reverend Bishops Grave Doctors and all the rest of the Learned and Religious Clergy that have ever maintained and will to the spilling of the last drop of their blood defend this truth against all Papists and other Anabaptistical Brownists and Sectaries whatsoever What a shame it is to use the power we have received against him that gave it us And therefore if you that are his Parliament should like unthankeful vapours that cloud the Sun which raised them or like the Moon in her interposition that obscures the glorious lamp which enlightens her in the least manner imploy that strength which you have received from his Majesty when he called you together against His Majesty it will be an ugly spot and a foul blemish both for your selves and all your pâ—sterities And if not suddenly prevented you may raise such spirits that your selves cannot lay down and sow such seeds of discord and disconteâ—t between the King and his people as may derive through the whole Race of all succeeding Kings such a disaffection to Parliaments as may prove a plague and poyson to the whole Kingdom For if the King out of his favour and grace call you together and intrust you with a power either of continuing concluding or enacting such things as may be for the good of the Common wealth and you abuse that power against him that gave it you I must needs confesse that I am of his mind That it is lawful to recall a power given when it is abused who saith That the King were freed before God and man from all blame though he should use all possible lawful means to withdraw that power into his own hands which being but lent them hath been so misapplyed against him for if my servant desireth to hold my sword and when I intrust him with it he seeks to thrust the same into my breast Will not every man judge it lawful for me to gain my sword if it be possible out of his hand and with that sword to cut off his head that would have thrust it into my heart or as one saith If I convey my estate in trust to any friend to the use of me and mine and the person intrusted falsifie the faith reposed in him by conveying the profits of my estate to other ends to the prejudice of me and mine no man will think it unlawful for me to annihilate if I can possibly do it such a deed of trust And therefore Noble Peers and Gentlemen of this ancient Kingdom of Ireland that your Parliament may prove successeful to the benefit of the Common-wealth let me that have some interest and charge over all the Inhabitants and Sojourners of Kilkenny perswade you to think your selves no Parliament without your King and that your Votes and Ordinances carrying with them the power though not the name of Acts of Parliament to oblige both King and Subjects to obey them are the most absolute subversion of our Fundamental Lawes the destructive invasion of our rightful Liberties And that by an usurped power of an arbitrary rule to dispose of our estates or any part thereof as you please to make us Delinquents when you will and to punish us as Malignants at your pleasure and through your discontent to dispossesse your rightful King though it were to set the Crown upon the head of your greatest One al is such a priviledg that never any Parliament hath yet claimed Or if you still go on for the inlargement of your own usurped power under the title of the priviledge of Parliament to Vote diminution of the Kings just Prerogative that your Progenitors never denied to any of his Ancestors to exclude us Bishops out of your Assemblies without whom your determinations can never be so well concluded in the fear of God and to invade the Liberties of your fellow-subjects under the pretences of religion and the publique good I will say no more but turn my self to God and put it in my Liturgie From Parasites Puritanes Popes and such Parliaments Good Lord deliver us CHAP. IX Sheweth the unanimous consent and testimonies of many famous learned men and Martyrs both ancient and modern that have confirmed and justified the truth of the former Doctrine ANd so you see that as for no cause so for no kind or degree of men be they what you will Peers Magistrates Heads of Families Darlings of the people or any other Patriots whom the Commons shall elect it is lawfull to rebell against or any wayes to resist our chief Princes and soveraign Governours This point is as clear as the Sunne and yet to make it still more clear unto them that will not believe that truth which they like not but as Tertullian saith Credunt Scripturis ut credant adversus Scripturas Testimonies of famous men do alledge Scriptures to justifie their own wilful opinions against all Scripture I will here adde a few testimonies of most famous men to confirm the same Henry de Bracton Lord chief Justice of the Kings Bench under Hen. 3. L. Elismer in orat habita in Camera Fiscali anno 1609. pag. 108. saith as he is quoted by the Lord Elismer That under the King there are free men and servants and every man is under him and he is under none but onely God If any thing be demanded of the King seeing no Writ can issue forth against the King there is a place for Petition that he would correct and amend his fact and if he shall refuse to do it he shall have punishment enough when the Lord shall come to be his revenger for otherwise touching the Charters and deeds of Kings neither private persons nor Justitiaries ought to dispute This was the Law of that time what new Lawes our young Lawyers have found since I know not I am not so good a Lawyer The Civil Lawyers do farre surpasse the Common Law herein for Corsetus Sic. tract de potestat reg part 5. num 66. Corsetus Siculus saith Rex in suo regno potest omnia imò de plenitudine potestatis And Marginista saith Qui disputat de potestate Principis utrum benè fecerit est infamis Hostiensis saith Princeps solutus est legibus id est quoad vim coactivam non quoad vim directivam Thom. 1. 2 ae q. 96. ar 5. ad 3. quia nulli subest nec ab aliis judicatur And to omit all the rest Marginista in Angelum Perusinum c. l. 9. tit 29. De crimine sacrilegii l. 2 Hostiens Sum. l 1. rubr 32. de effic legati Barclaius contra Monarchomach l. 3â— c. 14. Gulielmus Barclaius out of Bartolus Baldus Castrensis
sole power of ordering and disposing all the Castles Forts and strong Holds and all the Ports Havens and all other parts of the Militia of this kingdom or otherwise it would follow that the king had power to proclaime war but not to be able to maintain it and that he is bound to defend his subjects but is denied the meanes to protect them which is such an absurdity as cannot be answered by all the House of Commons 6. The kings of Israel were unto their people their honour their Soveraigns their life and the very breath of their nostrils as themselves acknowledge and so the kings of England are the life the head and the authority of all things that be done in the Realm of England supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habentes Smith de Repub l. 2. Cambden Britan p. 132. nec in Imperii clientela sunt nec investituram ab alio accipientes nec praeter Deum superiorem agnoscentes and their Subjects are bound by Oath to maintain the kings Soveraignty in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that not onely as they are singularly considered but overall collectively represented in the body politick for by sundry divers old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world In the Preface to a Stat. 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12 governed by one supream head and king having the dignity and royal estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a body politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of spiritualty and temporalty have been bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience Respect 3 3. As the duty of every one of the kings of Israel was to be custos utriusque tabulae to keep the Law of God and to have a special care of his Religion and then to do justice and judgment according to the Law of nature and to observe all the judicial Laws of that kingdom so are the kings of England obliged to discharge the same duties The duty of the kings of England 1. To have the chiefest care to defend the faith of Christ and to preserve the honour of Gods Church as I shewed before 2. To maintain common right according to the rules and dictates of Nature And. 3. To see the particular Laws and Statutes of his own kingdom well observed amongst his people To all which the king is bound not onely virtute officii in respect of his office but also vinculo juramenti in respect of his Oath which enjoyneth him to guide his actions not according to the desires of an unbridled will but according to the tyes of these estabâ—ished Laws neither do our Divines give any further liberty to any king but if he failes in these he doth offend in his duty Respect 4 4. As the kings of Israel were accountable for their actions unto none but onely unto God Psal 51.4 and therefore king David after he had committed both murder and adultery saith unto God Tibi soli peccavi as if he had said none can call me to any account for what I have done but thou alone and we never read that either the people did call or the Prophets perswaded them to call any of their most idolatrous The kings of England accountable for their actions only to God tyrannical or wicked kings to any account for their idolatry tyranny or wickedness even so the kings of England are accountable to none but to God Reason 1 1. Because they have their Crown immediately from God who first gave it to the Conquerour through his sword and since to the succeeding kings by the ordinary means of hereditary succession Smith de repub l. 1. c. 9. Reason 2 2. Because the Oath which he takes at his Coronation binds him onely before God who alone can both judge him and punish him if he forgets it Reason 3 3. Because there is neither condition promise or limitation either in that Oath or in any other Covenant or compact that the king makes with the people either at his Coronation or at any other time that he should be accomptable or that they should question and censure him for any thing that he should do Reason 4 4. Because the Testimony of many famous Lawyers justify the same truth for Bracton saith if the king refuse to do what is just satis erit ei ad poenam quòd Dominum expectet ultorem The Lord will be his avenger which will be punishment enough for him but of the kings grants and actions nec privatae personae nec justiciarii debent disputare And Walsingham maketh mention of a Letter written from the Parliament to the Bishop of Rome wherein they say Bracton fol. 34. 2. b. apud Lincol anno 1301. that certum directum Dominium à prima institutione regni Angliae ad Regem pertinuit the certain and direct Dominion of this Kingdom from the very first institution thereof hath belonged unto the King who by reason of the arbitrary or free preeminence of the royal dignity and custome observed in all ages ought not to answer before any Judge either Ecclesiastical or Secular Ex libera praeeminentia Ergo neither before the Pope nor Parliament nor Presbytery Reason 5 5. Because the constant custome and practice of this kingdom was ever such that no Parliament at any time sought to censure their king and either to depose him or to punish him for any of all his actions save onely those that were called in the troublesome and irregular times of our unfortunate Princes No legitimate and just Parliment did ever question the kings of England for their actions and were swayed by those that were the heads of the most powerful Faction to conclude most horrid and unjustifiable Acts to the very shame of their Judicial authorities as those factious Parliaments in the times of Hen. 3. king John Rich. 2. and Hen. 4. and others whose acts in the judgment of all good authors are not to be drawn into examples when as they deposed their king for those pretended faults whereof not the worst of them but is fairly answered and all thirty three of them proved to be no way sufficient to depose him Heningus c. 4. p. 93. by that excellent Civilian Heningus Arnisaeus And therefore seeing the Institution of our kings is not onely by Gods Law but also by our own Laws Customs and practice thus agreeable to the Scripture kings they ought to be as sacred and as inviolable to us as the kings of Israel were to the Jews and as reverently honoured and obeyed by us as both the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul advise us to honour and obey the king CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto
and to be honest without knowledge or to have knowledge without experience especially in such places of eminency and for the affaires of importance may be as dangerous when their want of skill may counsel to do matters of much hurt but when both are met together in one person that man is a fit Subject to do good service both to God and the King and the King may be assured there cannot be a better furtherance to assist him for the well ordering of God's Church then the grave advice and directions of such instruments as it appeareth by that memorable example of King Ioas left to be remembred by all Kings who whilst the wise and religious Priest Jehoiada assisted and directed him had all things successefull and happy to his whole Kingdome 2 Reg. 12.2 but after Jehoiada's death the King destitute of such a Chaplain to attend and such a Priest to counsel him all things came speedily to great ruine Therefore I dare boldly avouch it they are enemies unto Kings and the underminers of God's Church and such instruments as I am not able to express their wickedness that would exclude such Jehoiada's from the Kings counsel for was not Saul a wicked King and Ahab little better yet Saul would have Samuel to direct him though he followed not his direction and Ahab would ask counsel of Micaiah though he rejected the same to his own destruction and King David 1 Reg. 22.16 though never so wise and so great a Prophet and Josias and Ezechias and all the rest of the good Kings had always the Priests and the men of God to be their Counsellors and followed their directions especially in Church causes Mar. 6.20 as the oracles of God so wicked Herod disdained not to hear John the Baptist and to be reformed by him in many things and happy had he been had he done it in all things And if you read Eusebius which is called Pamphilus for the great love he bare to that his noble Patron and Socrates and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Historians or the Histories of our own I and you shall finde that the best Kings and greatest Emperours had the best Divines and the most reverend Bishops to be their chiefest Counsellors and to be imployed by them in their weightiest affairs How then hath the Devil now prevailed to exclude them from all Counsels and as much as in him lyeth from the sight of Princes when he makes it a suspicion of much evil if they do but talk togethe How hath he bewitched the Nobility to yield to be deprived of their Chaplains Is it not to keep them that have not time to study and to finde out truth themselves still in the ignorance of things and to none other end then to overthrow the true religion and to bring Kings and Princes to confusion 2 To call Synods to discuss and conclude the harder things 2. When the King seeth cause God hath given him power and authority to call Synods and Councils and to assemble the best men the most moderate and most learned to determine of those things together which a fewer number could not so well or at least not so authoritatively conclude upon for so Constantine the Great called the great Council of Nice to suppress the Heresie of Arius Theodosius called the Council of Ephesus in the case of Nestorius Valentinian and Martian called the Council of Calcedon against Eutyches Justinian called the Council of Constantinople against Severus that renewed the Heresie of Eutyches Constantine the Fifth called the sixth Synod against the Monothelites and so did many others in the like cases God having fully granted this right and authority unto them for their better information in any point of religion and the goverment of the Church And therefore they that deny this power unto Kings or assume this authority unto themselves whether Popes or Parliament out of the Kings hand they may as well take his eyes out of his head because this is one of the best helps that God hath left unto Kings The unparallel'd presumption of the Faction to call a Synod without the king to assist and direct them in the chiefest part of their royal government how presumptuous then and injurious unto our King and prejudicial to the Church of Christ was the faction of this Parliament without the Kings leave and contrary to his command to undertake the nomination of such a pack of Schismatical Divines for such a Synod as might finally determine such points of faith and discipline as themselves best liked of let all the Christian world that as yet never saw the like president be the Judge and tell us what shall be the religion of that Church where the Devil shall have the power to prompt worldlings to nominate his prime Chaplains Socinians Brownists Anabaptists and the refuse of all the refractory Clergy The quality of the Synodical men that seem learned in nothing but in the contradiction of learning and justifying Rebellion against their King and the Church to compose the Articles of our faith and to frame a new government of our Church I am even ashamed that so glorious a Kingdom should ever breed so base a Faction that durst ever presume to be so audacious and I am sorry that I should be so unhappy to live to see such an unparallel'd boldness in any Clergy that the like cannot be found in any Ecclesiastical History from the first birth of Christ's Church to this very day unless our Sectaries can produce it from some of the Vtopian Kingdoms that are so far South ward In terra incognita beyond the Torrid Zone that we whose zeal is not so fiery but are of the colder spirits could not yet perfectly learn the true method of their Anarchical government or if our Lawyers can shew us the like president that ever Parliament called a Synod contrary to the King's Proclamation I shall rest beholding to them produce it if they can Credat Judaeus appella non ego The third thing requisite to a King for the preservation of true religion 3. An authority and power to guide the Church and to uphold the true religion and the government of God's Church is power and authority to defend it for though the Prince should be never so religious never so desirous to defend the faith and never so well able in his understanding and so well furnished with knowledge to set down what Service and Ceremonies should be used yet if he hath not power and ability which do arise from his right and just authority to do it and to put the same in execution all the rest are but fruitless embryoes like those potentials that are never reduced into actions Ps 129.6 or like the grass upon the house top that withereth before it be plucked up But to let you see that Kings and Princes should have this power and authority in all Ecclesiastical causes and over all Ecclesiastical persons we
Christ nor reformed from their sins and so now when the Puritan faction prevailed in our Parliament Good to be excluded from the counsel of the wicked and our Sectaries disdained in their counsels to take the counsel of Religion and resolved to banish GOD from their assemblies to make the Church and Church-men a publick scorn unto the wicked and the Common-wealth a private gain to every broken Citizen and every needy Varlet I say happy are those Bishops that are excluded and well it is for those Ministers that are furthest off from such godless and irreligious not Parliament but Parricides even as the Psalmist testifieth Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornful Psal 1.1 and therefore if they had not been excluded I am sure that as the case now standeth they would have seceded themselves But when the civil Magistrates became Christians and the Christians consulted with God in all their actions then it was no indecorum for the servants of Christ to be seen in the Congregation of Saints and to sit as Judges among gods where the judgement shall pass for the glory of God neither is it any prejudice to our holy calling The giving of Caesar's due doth not hinder us to give to god his due to give unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's and that we owe unto him as our service and our counsel and whatsoever else lyeth in us to do for the good of the Common-wealth as we are his Subjects and the Tenants of the Common-wealth nor do the rendering of these things to Caesar any wayes hinder us to give unto God the things that are God's and that we owe to God as our prayers and our care over God's flock as we are Christians and Bishops over the Church of Christ but the same man if he will be faithful may justly perfoâ—m both duties without giving over or neglecting either And when our men shall return to God and take him along with them into their counsels and desire the assistance of his servants as I hope they will have grace to do I assure my self the Reverend Bishops will not refuse to do them service Ob. 4 But you will say the Emperours were good Christians when the Council of Calcedon put out their Canons Sol. I answer the Emperours were but all Kings were not besides that Canon cleares it self for it sheweth that Clergymen did at that time undertake secular imployments Propter lucra turpia ministerium Dei parvi pendentes for gaine neglecting their duty and therefore the Council forbade all Clergy-men negotiis secularibus se immiscere because the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 2.4 no man that warreth intangleth or insnareth himself with the affairs of this life and so neither the Apostle nor the Council doth absolutely forbid all secular affairs as inconsistent with this function but as the Council of Arles saith Concil Arelai Caâ— 14. The words of the Canon explained Clericus turpis lucri gratia aliquod genus negotiationis non exerceat so they forbid all Clerks to meddle with any business for the love of gain and filthy lucre that might insnare him to neglect his duty or as the Canon of the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishop should not assume unto himself or seeke after worldly cares but if either necessity or authority impose them on him I see not how he can refuse them because there is no absolute prohibition of such imployments in any place but as it might be a hinderance to discharge his office or otherwise Saint Paul's Tent-making was as much against the calling of an Apostle as the sitting in a secular tribunal is against the office of a Bishop because there is no reason we should deny that benefit to a publick necessitated community which we will yeeld to a private personal necessity And so indeed these very men that cry out against our Bishops The Presbyterians will be the directors of all affaires and other grave Prelates of the Church for the least medling in these civil affaires do not onely suffer their own Preachers to strain at a gnat but also to swallow a Camel when M. Henderson Marshal Case and the rest of their new inspired Prophets shall sit as Presidents in all their Counsels and Committees of their chiefest affaires and consultations either about War or Peace or of any other civil cognizance how these things can be answered to deny that to us which they themselves do practise I cannot understand when as the light of Nature tells us Quod tibi vis fieri mihi fac quod non mihi noli Sic potes in terris vivere jure poli * Vnde Baldus jubet ut quis in alios non aliter judicet quà m in se judicari vellet And therefore when as there is no politick Philosophy no imperial constitution nor any humane invention that doth or can so strictly binde the consciences of men unto subjection and true obedience as the Doctrine of the Gospel and no man can perswade the people so much unto it as the Preachers of Gods word as it appeareth by this Rebellion perswaded by the false Preachers because the Principles of Philosophy and the Laws of many nations do permit many things to be done against tyrants which the Religion of Christ and the true Bishops of Gods Church do flatly inhibit How requisite it is for Kings to delegate civil affaires unto their Clergie it is very requisite and necessary for all Christian Kings both for the glory of God their own safety and the happiness of the Common-wealth to defend this their own right and the right of the Clergy to call them into their Parliaments and Counsels and to demise certain civil causes and affairs to the gravest Bishops and the wisest of the Ministers and not suffer those Rebellious Anabaptists and Brownists that have so disloyally laboured to pull off the Crown from their Kings head to bury all the glory of the Church in the dust to bring the true Religion into a scorn and to deprive the King of the right which is so necessary for his safety and so useful for the Government of his people that is the service of his Clergy in all civil Courts and Councils And as it is the Kings right to call whom he pleaseth into his Parliaments and Councils That it is the Kings right to give titles of honour to whom he pleaseth and to delegate whom he will to discharge the office of a civil or Ecclesiastical magistrate or both wheresoever he appoints within his Realms and Dominions so it is primarily in his power and authority and his regal right to give titles of honour and dignity to those officers and magistrates whom he chooseth for though the Barbarians acknowledge no other distinction of Persons but of Master and Servants which was the first punishment for the first contempt of our Superiors Gen. 9.25
them the more odious both to God and man and their names the more infamous to all posterity that after they had filled themselves with all kind of wickednesse with incredible transgressions they should be sound contemners of so favourable a pardon But though it be the Kings right to pardon faults and to restore offenders yet herein all Princes should take great heed especially when they have power to take revenge 2. Sam. 3.39 for sometimes the sinners may be like the sons of Zervia too strong for David how they pardon those great crimes that are committed to the dishonour of God and do so far provoke him to anger as to plague both the doers and the sufferers of them because that although they be soluti legibus suis not bound to their own Lawes Arnisaeus l. 1. c. 3. pag. 69. yet they are not soluti ratione praeceptis divinis but they are bound to observe Gods Lawes and to punish the transgressors of his Commandments or if they do not when they can do it they shall render a strict account to God for all their omissions as they may see it in the example of King Saul 1 Sam. 15.9 6. Jus convocandi Synodos Parliamenta c. 6. Jus convecandi the right of calling Synods Parliaments Dyets and the like were the rights of the kings of Israel and are the just Prerogatives of the kings of England howsoever this faction of the Parliament hath sought to wrest it as they do all other rights out of the kings hands by their presumption to call their Schismaticall Synod to which they have no more colour of right then to call a Parliament 7. Jus mone tas excudendi Matth. 22.20 7. Jus excudendi the right of coyning mony to give it value to stampe his armes or his image upon it as our Saviour saith Whose Image and superscription is this and they say to him Caesars is the proper right of Caesar the prerogative of the king The second sort of the King 's right is circa Magistratus 2. About the Magistrates and containeth jurisdiction rule creation of officers appointing of circuits provinces judgements censures institution of Scholes and Colledges collation of dignities receiving of sidelities and abundance more whereof I intend not to speak at this time but refer my Reader to Arnisaeus de jure Majestatis if he desires to be informed of these particulars Arn s l. 2. c. 2. And as these and the like are jura Regalia the rights of Majesty in the time of peace so when peace cannot continue it doth properly belong unto the King and to none else but to him that hath the Sovereignty whose right it is alone to make war either to succour his allyes or to revenge great injuries or for any the like just causes and as he seeth cause to conclude Peace to send Ambassadours to negotiate with foreign States and the like are the rights of Kings and the indeleble Characters of Soveraignty which whosoever violateth and endeavoureth to purloin them from the King doth with Prometheus steal fire from Heaven which the Gods would not suffer as the Poëts feign to go unrevenged And these things so far as I can finde the King never parted with them unto his Subjects and therefore whosoever pretendeth to an inderived power to do any of these and exempteth himself from the King 's right herein resisteth the ordinance of God and is guilty of High-Treason Ioh. Beda 26. what pretext soever he brings saith the Advocate of Paris And there be some things which our Kings have granted unto their Subjects Ita itiam Reges Aegypti quibus voluntas pro lege est legum tamen instituta in cogendis pecuniis quotidianoque victu sequebantur Aubanus What things Kings have granted and restrained themselves from their full right as the use of that power which makes new Lawes or repeals the old or layeth any tax or sums of monies upon his Subjects without the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and it may be some other particulars which the Lawyers know better then I. And all these Priviledges of the Subjects are but limitations and restrictions of the King 's right made by themselves unto their people and therefore where the Law cannot be produced to confirm such and such Liberties and Priviledges granted unto them I say there the King's power is absolute and the Subject ought not in such cases to determine any thing to the disadvantage of the King because all these Liberties that we have are injoyed by vertue of the King's grant as you may see in the ratification of Magna Charta where the King saith We have granted and given all these Liberties But I could never see it produced 9 Hen. 3. where the King granted unto his Subjects that they might force him and compel him with a strong hand by an Army of Souldiers to do what they will or else to take away either his Crown or his Life this Priviledge was never granted because this deprives the King of his supremacy and puts him in the condition of a Subject and would ever prove an occasion of rebellion when the people upon every discontent would take Arms against their King And therefore this present resistance is a meer usurpation of the King 's right a rebellion against his Lawes an High Treason against his Person and a resistance of the ordinance of God which heap of deadly sins can bring none other fruit then damnation saith the Apostle CHAP. XIV Sheweth the Kings grants unto his people to be of three sorts Which ought to be observed the Act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament discussed the King's Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have been procured and repealed 2. The Kings obligation to observe his grants Peter de la Primandas saith Laws annexed to the Crown the Prince cannot so abrogate them but his Successor may disannul whatsoever he hath done in prejudice of them p. 597. 2. WE are to consider how far the King is obliged to observe his promise and to make good these Liberties and Priviledges unto his Subjects where I speak not how far the father's grant may oblige the son or the predecessor his successor who cannot be deprived of his right dominion by any act of his predecessors but for the rights of his dominion how far precedent grants and the custom of their continuance with the desuetude and non-claim of his right may strengthen them unto the Subject and oblige the successors to observe them I leave it unto the Lawyers and Civilians to dispute but I am here to discusse how far the King that hath promised and taken his oath to observe his Lawes and make good all priviledges granted to his Subjects is bound in conscience to keep and observe them Touching which you must understand that these grants of immunities and favours are of three special kindes 1. Of
were many times swayed by the heads of the most powerfull faction The case of our affairs p. 17. How powerfull factions have procured Parliaments to doe most unjust things Turba tremens sequitur fortunam ut semper odit damnatos Juven Satyra 10. When Kings were most powerfull they could get the Parliaments to yeeld to what Statutes they thought best when the Lords or faction were most powerful they forced their Kings to make what Statutes they liked best which are instances rather of their unsteady weaknesse then of their just power when forsaking the guidance of their lawfull head they suffered themselves to be led by popular pretenders as when Canutus prevailed by his armes he could have a Parliament to resolve that his title to the Crown was the best when Hen. 4. had an army of 60000 men he could have a Parliament to depose Rich. 2. and confer the Crown upon himself when Edw. Duke of Yorke grew powerfull he could have a Parliament to determine the reigne of Hen. 6. and leave him only the name of king for his life but give the very Kingdome unto the Duke under the names of Protector and Regent and then he could procure the Parliament to declare that Hen. 4. Hen. 5. and Hen. 6 were but kings de facto non de jure so Rich. the 3. as meere an Usurper as any could notwithstanding procure a Parliament to declare him a lawfull king and Hen. 7. could procure the forementioned acts that were made in favour of Edw. 4. and Rich. 3. to be annulled and Hen. 8. could have a Parliament to justifie and authorize his divorces and Queen Elizab. could have a Parliament to make it high treason for any man to say that the Queen could not by Act of Parliament bind and dispose the rights and titles which any person whatsoever might have unto the Crown when as we know it was adjudged in Hen. 7. that no Act of Parliament nor yet an Attainder by Parliament can disable the right heire to the Crown because the descent of the Crown upon him purges all disabilityes whatsoever and makes him every way capable thereof Thus as the Parliaments when they were most prevalent caused their kings unwillingly to yeeld many things against right so the kings growing most powerfull prevailed to work the Parliament to consent to very unjust conclusions and therefore it is inconsequent to say this exclusion must be just because it is past by an Act of Parliament The case of our affaires p. 20. And therefore as in the 15 yeare of Edw. 3. the king being unwillingly drawn to consent to certain Articles prejudiciall to the Crown and to promise to seale the Statute thereupon made lest otherwise his affairs in hand might have been ruinated which we conceive to be just in like manner now the king very unwillingly drawn to passe this Act for the exclusion of the Clergy which is most prejudiciall both to the Crown and the Church and a mighty dishonour unto God himself lest otherwise more mischiefe might have followed when he hoped that this would have appeased the fury of that prevalent faction which now the kingdome seeth it did not Another Statute was made the same year reciting the former matter Statutes unwillingly procured from the king repealed that was enacted in these words It seemed to the said Earls Barons and otherwise men that since the Statute did not of our free will proceed the same to be void and ought not to have the name nor strength of a Statute and therefore by their counsell and assent we have decreed the said Statute to be void c. So I hope our Earles and Baron and the rest will be so wise and so just both to the king and to the Church that seeing this Statute proceeded not of the kings free will as I beleeve their own conscience knoweth and do presume His Majesty will acknowledge they likewise will consent that the king may make it void again §. Certaine Quaeres discussed but not resolved the end for which God ordained Kings the prayse of a just rule Kings ought to be more just then all others in three respects and what should most especially move them to rule their people justly AND here I must further craue leave to be resolved in certain Quaeres and doubts wherein I would very gladly be satisfied for seeing as I told you before there are some rights of royalty which are inseperabilia à majestate which the king ought not and which indeed he cannot grant away as there be some things which he may forgoe though he need not I demand Quaere 1 1. Whether any positive Act Statute or Law that is either ex diametro or ex obliquo either directly or by consequent or any other way contradictory or transgressive to the Law of God ought to be kept and observed wherein I beleive and constantly maintain that it ought not and I say further that by the Word of God not any Lay men be they never so noble never so learned and never so many but the Clergy be they never so poore and never so much dis-esteemed ought to be the resolvers of this point what is repugnant and what consonant to the Law of God Malach. 2.7 because the Priests lips must preserve knowledge and the people must seek the Law at his month therefore it may be conceived no Statute can be rightly made that is not assented to and approved as all our former Statutes were by the Bishops that are the chiefest of the Clergy to be no wayes contrary to the Law of God Quaere 2 2. Whether the king that is an absolute Monarch to whom God hath committed the charge and government of his people can without offence to God change this forme of government from a Monarchicall to an Aristocraticall or a Democraticall forme of government which may be beleived he cannot because though as I shewed out of Saint Augustine the worser forme invented by man may lawfully be changed into a better yet the best which is onely and primarily ordained by God cannot be changed into a worser without offence Quaere 3 3. Whether the king can passe away that power authority and right which God hath given him and without which he cannot govern and protect his people that God hath committed under his charge wherein it may be conceived he cannot because God must discharge him from the charge that he imposed upon him before he can be freed and excused from it but as the Bishop on whom the Lord hath laid the charge of soules cannot lay aside this charge when he pleaseth so no more can the King lay aside the charge of the Government nor paâ—t with that power and right * Otherwise then by substitution Rege absente durante beneplacito or quamdiu se benè gesserint substituti whereby he is inabled to govern them and without which he cannot governe them untill God that laid this charge
the Captain of the hoast of the Lord so I say to you that are his Lieftenant Ride on with your honor or ride prosperously Because of the word of truth of meekness and righteousness the people shall be subdued unto you and because the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in the mercy of the most Highest he shall not miscarry especially while he fighteth as he doth the battail of the Lord in defence of the Church of Christ who hath promised to be his shield and buckler which is the daily faithful prayer of Your Majestie 's most loyally devoted Subject and most faithfully obliged servant Gryffith Ossory THE DISCOVERY OF MYSTERIES OR The Plots and practices of a prevailing Faction in this present Parliament to overthrow both Church and State CHAP. I. Sheweth the Introduction the greatness of this Rebellion the Original thereof the secret plots of our Brownistical faction and the two chifest things that they aymed at to effect their Plot. I Have long wandered in a region of Rebellion among seduced Subjects and discontented Peers and now at last after I had passed the raging Seas and very hardly escaped the storms and dangers of the surging waves I am arrived in my native soyle where I find my self incompassed with far greater storms and more violent winds then ever I thought could be on any Land for though that Grand Rebellion which you may find lately described was both magna mira very great and very grievous such as I supposed could not be exceeded by any humane malice yet now me thinks I hear the Spirit saying unto me as he did unto Ezâ—kiel Son of man stand up and I will show thee greater abominations and a Rebellion far greater and more odious then either Popish Irish or any other Sect or Nation of the World hath hitherto produced and therefore I may now say with the Poet Barbara Pyraemidum sileat miracula Memphis Let proud Babylon cease to boast Of her Pyramid's stately spires This Rebellion is more strange Surmounting all infernal fires No age the like hath ever bred Nor shall when these Rebels be dead The seed and original of this Rebellion The seed of it was unseasonably sown in the Northern storm and the Original of those Boreal blasts either why or by whom those spirits were raised is not so well known to me therefore how justly the King did undertake the quarrel I will not at this time determine or with what equity the Scots made their approach into England it is not my purpose to discuss yet I must needs say that our English Sectaries and Amsterdam Recusants which hated our Church and loved not our King justum quia justum only because he is so good too good for them did from hence arripere ansam take hold of this opportunity by procuring those to proceed that were coming on and discouraging the others of the Kings side that were Cowardly enough to say no worse of themselves to betray both King and Kingdom into the hands of the Invaders So the good King was now with King David brought into a strait either to take counsel and follow the advice of those secret Sectaries So now I fear more the secret enemies both of Church and State that may luâ—k in Court then those that lie in the Earl of Essex his Camp and the masked enemies both of the Church and State that as yet insensible unto him were such in the bosome of his Court and most slily aymed at a further mischief then his Majesty could have imagined as now it appeareth by the consequences of this Parliament or else to hazard the dangers that his then open foes were like to bring upon his people And I assure my self eyes of flesh that cannot pierce into the mysteries of the hearts and our secret thoughts could see no further nor make any better election then His Majesty did that is to call a Parliament which the hearts of all the Kingdom called and cryed for and which in former times by the wise institution and right prosecution thereof was found to be the Pancreston or as the Weapon salve an antidote to cure all the diseases and to heal all the bleeding wounds of this Kingdom though of late we have sensibly felt the unhappy ending of some of them which perhaps may be some accidental cause of some part of this unhappiness here was His Majesties fair mind and an act of special grace for which all His Subjects ought most thankfully to shew themselves Loyal unto Him when He preferred their safety before the prosecuting of his own resolutions But Decipimur specie recti we are many times deceived by the shadow of the truth and betrayed under the vizard of virtue for as God produceth light out of darkness and good out of evil so wicked men like the spiders do suck poyson from those flowers whence the Bees do extract honey and these subtle-headed Foxes whereof many of them had unduly got themselves elected into the House of Commons and there factiously combined themselves together to do their great exploit to overthrow the Government both of Church and Sate and minded to make the Parliament-House like Vulcans Forge where they intended to contrive their Iron-net that should be able to hold fast all sorts of people from him that sitteth upon the Throne to him that wallowed in dust and ashes turned the hopes of our redresses to our extream miseries when in stead of rectifying our abuses they intended principally to work our ruine in our just apprehension though perhaps our happiness in their own mistaken conception And as the Apostle saith Known unto God are all his works from the beginning and he hath eternally decreed how and by what means to bring them all unto perfection so the Devil being God's Ape and the wicked treading in his steps do first mold their designs and intentions in the Idea of their own brains and conclude the works they would have done in their own conceits and then they frame to themselves the means and wayes whereby they are resolved to produce and perfect all those mis-shapen embryoes that they conceived and so these factious men this brood of vipers that would gnaw through the bowels of their mother from the first convention of this Parliament had resolved upon their plot and contrived among themselves what great good work they would by such and such means bring to passe And that was as I hope this subsequent discourse will make it plain to all The design 〈◊〉 plot of the faction of Seâ—aries that will not be wilfully blind the subversion of the ancient government both of this Church and Kingdom and to introduce a new Ecclesiastical Discipline and to frame a new Common-wealth much like if not worse than that of our neighbours in the Low-Countries Gratum opus agricolis a brave exploit and a great work indeed beyond the adventure of Junius Brutus that expelled the Kings but left the Priests
water which accompanied the persons accused to Westminster the next day after His Majesties departure as if they had passed in a Roman Triumph conceived the danger to be so great that I call Heaven to witness they blessed God that so graciously put it in the Kings heart rather to passe away over-night though very late than hazard the danger that might have ensued the day following The meaning therefore of both Houses may be That there was nothing done which they confessed to be a tumult And no marvel Because they received incouragement as we believed from their defence and no reproof that we found was made for this indignity offered unto the King But if I be constrained and in danger it is not enough for me that I am voted free and safe For if that which looks as like a tumult as that did or as the representation of my face in the truest Glasse is like my face doth come against me and incompasse me about though I may be perhaps in more safety yet I shall think my self in great fear and in no more security than His Majesty was at Edge-hill 3. Because as the viewer of the Observat hath very well exprest it Reason 3 p. 7. No Act of Parliament can prevail to deprive the King of His Right and Authority as an Attainder by Parliament could not bar the Title to the Crown from descending on King Hen. 7. Nor was an Act of Parliament disabling King Hen. 6. to re-assume the Government of his people of any force but without any repeal in it self frustrate and void 7. Rep. 14. Calvins case an Act of Parliament cannot take away the protection or the Subjects service which is due by the Law of Nature 11. rep Sur de la Wares case William de la Ware although disabled by Act of Parliament was neverthelesse called by Queen Elizabeth to sit as a Peer in Parliament for that it seems the Queen could not be barred of the service and counsel of any of Her Subjects 2. H. 7. 6. a Statute that the King by no non obstante shall dispence with it is void because it would take a necessary part of Government out of the Kings hand And therefore I see not how this Act can deprive the King of the service and counsel of all his Bishops and Clergy but that it is void of it self and needeth no repeal or if otherwise yet seeing that besides all this 13. of the Bishops were shut in prison when this Act passed and their protestation was made long before this time and it was so unduly framed so illegally prosecuted and with such compulsive threats and terrours procured to be passed I hope the wisdom of the next Parliament together with their love and respect to the Church and Church-men will nullifie the same CHAP. VI. Sheweth the Plots of the Faction to gain unto themselves the friendship and assistance of the Scots And to what end they framed their new Protestation How they provoked the Irish to rebell and what other things they gained thereby ANd thus the Sectaries of this Kingdom and the Faction in this Parliament have by their craft and subtilty prevailed to have all the chiefest impediments of their Design to be removed So now the hedge is broken down and all the Boars of the Forrest may now come into the vineyard to destroy the vine and to undermine the City of God But into their counsels let not my soul come 2. When they had taken away these stops and hinderances of their projects 2. The furtherances of their Design were five they were to recollect and make up the furtherances that might help to advance their Cause for the founding of their new Church and the establishing of their famous Democratical Government and popular Common-wealth And these I find to be principally five 1. The gaining of their Brethren of Scotland to become their fast and faithful friends 2. The framing of a Protestation to frighten the Papists and to insnare the simple to be led as they listed to prosecute their Design 3. The condemning of our late Canons as abominable in their judgement and inconsistent with their Religion 4. The appointing of a new Synod the like whereof was never heard in the Church since Adam to compose such Articles as they liked and to frame such Discipline as should be most agreeable to their own dispositions 5. The setling of a Militia a word that the vulgar knew not what it was for to secure the Kingdom as they pretended from those dangers that they feared that is from those Jacks of Lent and men of Clouts which themselves set up as deadly enemies unto the Church and State but indeed insensibly to get all the strength of the Realm into their own hands and their Confederates that so they might like the Ephori bridle the King and bring him as they pleased to abolish and establish what Laws and Government they should propose whereby perhaps he might continue King in Name but they in Deed. These were the things they aimed at and they effected the first three before they could be discryed and their Plots discovered but in the other two they were prevented when God said unto them as he doth unto the Sea Hitherto shalt thou go and no further here shalt thou stay thy proud waves And therefore I am confident and I wish all good Christians were so that their purposes shall never succeed nor themselves prosper therein while the World lasteth because God hath so mercifully revealed so much so graciously assisted our King and so miraculously not only delivered him from them but also strengthened him against them contrary to all appearing likely-hood to this very day which is a sufficient argument to secure our faith that we shall by the help of our God escape all the rest of their destructive Designs But to display their Banners to discover their Projects and to let the World see what they are and how closely and yet cunningly they went about to effect their work I will in a plain manner set down what I know and what I have collected from other Writings and from men that are fide digâ—i for one mans eyes cannot see all things nor infallibly perceive the Mysteries of all particulars for to confirm the faithful Subjects in their due obedience both to God and their King and to undeceive the poor seduced people that they perish not in the contradiction of Corah 1. It is believed not without cause 1 The indeering of themselves unto the Scots Our Sectaries the inviters of the Scots to England with far greater probabilities than a bare suspicion that our own Anabaptistical Sectaries and this Faction were the first inviters of those angry spirits that conceived some cause to be discontented and were glad of secret entertainers to enter into the bosom of this Kingdom Whatsoever those our Brethren of Scotland did I will bury it according to their Act in oblivion neither approving nor
thousand pound and it is more than probable that this proceeding is but the praeludium of the like exaction to be extended when their need requireth to all the other parts of the Kingdom which is a most miserable course and injustice not to be paralleld to cast themselves into a necessity of getting money to maintain an impious War against their King and then out of that necessity to compel their fellow-Subjects and those peaceable men that do abominate this War to maintain the same yea and to fight in the same to kill men against their consciences in despite of their teeth or if they refuse to do it to send or at least to permit a party of Horse Dragooneers and other strength to go to fetch their Money Plate or other goods as if they were the goods of the deadly enemies of the Common-wealth and this for none other reason but for that the owners thereof are good Subjects to the King and not well-affected to their unjust and ungodly proceedings But let me perswade all men that do fear God still to suffer any thing which they cannot avoid from the violence of these wicked men rather than to contribute any thing unto them to further such abominable courses as they prosecute against the Law of God and man Because the Lord commandeth us to fear none of those things that we shall suffer Rev. 2.10 but to stand in our integrity unto death and we shall be crowned with the crown of life 3. 3. How they discharged the Apprentices compelled them to fight They have discharged the Apprentices and servants from their Masters services and have either compelled or perswaded them to serve in their Army against the King and that without the consent and against the will of their Masters and Dames yea sometimes against the commands of their own Parents which I speak from their own months 4. They have imprisoned very many hundreds of most able 4. How they imprisoned our men without cause and most honest men even so many that the Prisons are not able to contain them but they are fain to consecrate the greatest houses in London to become Prisons as the Bishop of London's house Ely-house Winchester-house Lambeth-house Crosby-house the Savoy and the like And this they do for none other cause but either for performing the duties of their places and discharging their obedience to his Majesty as the last Lord Maior Gurney which deserved rather to be commended than committed if we believe many that were present at his Tryal or petitioning unto them as Sir George Bynion and Captain Richard Lovelace and Sir William Boteler of Kent because they did not therein flatter Complaint p. 8 and approve their present wicked courses or intending to petition unto the King for relief of these lamentable distresses as those Gentlemen of Hertford-shire and Westminsters or for being as they conceived disaffected unto their disloyall Orders A strange thing and injustice beyond president not the like to found among the Pagans That where no Law can condemn a man for his affections when no action is committed against Law men shall be robbed of their estates and adjudged for Malignants which is also a crime most general and without the compasse of any Statute and then for this new-created sin to be condemned and imprisoned and therein to remain without Tryal of his offence perhaps as long as the Archbishop of Canterbury And this wonder is the rather to be wondered at because it is the sense of both Houses M. Pym in his Speech at the Guild hall if we may believe Master Pym That it is against the Rules of Justice that any man should be imprisoned upon a general Charge when no particulars are proved against him For never Charge can be more general than to be ill-affected or a Malignant or a man not to be confided in whereof you find ten thousand in the City of London and many hundred thousands in the Kingdom and therefore when we find so many persons of Honour and Reputation imprisoned only upon this surmise without any other particular Charge so much as once suggested against them as was the Lord of Middlesex the Lord of Portland and abundance more and detained in prison because they were ill-affected in that they have not contributed to the maintenance of this War we see how insensibly they have accused themselves to have laid this insupportable punishment beyond the desert of the transgressors and against the Rules of all Justice and how they have forgotten their Protestation and exceedingly infringed the liberty of the Subjects whereof they promised to be such faithful Procurators CHAP. XIII Sheweth the proceedings of this Faction against the Laws of the Land the Priviledges of Parliament transgressed eleven special wayes 3. Their proceedings against the Laws 3. FOr the Laws of our Land which are either private as those chiefly which belong unto the Parliament and are called the Priviledges of Parliament or Publick which are the Inheritance of every Subject you shall find how they have invaded and violated each one of these For 1. Against the Priviledges of Parliament 1. Touching the Priviledges of Parliament We confess that former Kings have graciously yielded many just Priviledges unto them for the freedom of their persons and the liberty of their speeches so they be free from Blasphemy or Treason or the like unpardonable offence but such a freedom as they challenge though for my self I confess my skill in Law to be unable to distinguish the legitimate from the usurped yet in these subsequent particulars I find wise men utterly denying it them As 1. Denying us to dispute of them L. Elismer in post-nati 1. When they forbid us to dispute of their Priviledges and say That themselves alone are the sole Judges of them when as in former Ages they have been adjudged by the Laws of the Kingdom when Thorpe the Speaker of the House of Commons hath been committed and detained Prisoner upon an Execution and the House confirmed that Act. 2. Committing and putting out their Members 2. When the Members of the House of whose elections and transgressions against the House or any of their fellow-Members or the like the House is the proper Judge which ought to have as free liberty as any of the rest upon any emergent occasion are committed as Master Palmer and others were Complaint p. 11. or put out of the House as Sir Edward Deering the Lord Faulkland Sir John Culpepper Sir John Strangwayes and others have been voted hand over head for speaking more reason than the more violent party could answer or in very deed for speaking their minds freely against the sense of the House or rather against some of the prevalent Faction of the House which we say is no Priviledge but the pravity of the House to deny this just Priviledge unto those Members that were thus committed or expelled For hereby it doth manifestly appear that
devised here and damnation hereafter yet these men contrary to all Laws do injoyn us and compell us as much against our Consciences as if they should compell us with the Pagan Tyrants to offer sacrifice unto Idols to war against our most gracious Soveraign whom we from our hearts do both love and honour and they proscribe us as malignants and as enemies to the Common-Wealth Ps 50.22 Augu. contra Faust l. 22. c. 75. 76. if we contribute not Money Horse and Arms to maintain this ungodly War and so become deadly enemies unto our own souls O consider this yee that forget God lest for tearing us He tear you in pieces while there is none to help you for considering what the Apostle saith Rom. 13.1 2. and what Saint Augustine saith Ordo naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli Autoritas atque consilium penes principem sit and lest men should think they ought by force of Armes to resist their King for Religion he answereth that objection by the example of the Apostles Isti non resistendo interfecti sunt ut potiorem esse docerent victoriam pro fide veritatis occidi We conceive this to be so execrable an Act and so odious to God and man that we are made thus miserable and abused beyond measure to have our Religion which is most glorious our Laws The miserable consequences of their wicked doings that in their own nature are most excellent and our Liberties that make us as free as any Subjects in the World under false pretences and the shadows of Religion Laws and Liberties to be eradicated and fundamentally destroyed whereby Mischief 1 1. We are made a spectacle of scorn and the object of derision to our neighbour-Nations that formerly have envied at our happiness and we are become the Subject of all pitty and lamentation to all them that love us Mischief 2 2. As in the Roman Civil-Wars in the time of Metellus the Son did kill his own Father so now by the subtilty of this faction we are cast into such a War as is 1. A most unnatural War the Son against the Father and the Father against the Son The Earl of Warwick fighteth for the Parliament and my Lord Rich his Son with the King The Earl of Dover is with the King and my Lord Rochford his Son with the Parliament So one brother against another as the Earl of Northumberland with the Parliament and his brother with the King The Earl of Bedford with the Parliament and his brother with the King Master Perpoint with the Parliament and the Earl of Newark with the King Devoreux Farmer with the Parliament and his bâ—other Richard Farmer together with his brother in law my Lord Cokain with the King and the like and of Cosens without number the one part with the King and the other with the Parliament And if they do this in subtilty to preserve their Estates I say it is a wicked policy to undo the Kingdom which all wise men should consider 2. A most irreligious War when one Christian of the same professed Religion shall bathe his Sword and wash his Hands in the blood of his fellow Christian and his fellow Protestant that shall be coheir with him of the same Kingdom 3. A most unnatural irreligious and barbarous War when the Subject shall take Arms to destroy or unthrone their own Liege a Religious and most gracious King 3. The Service of God in most Churches is neglected when almost all Mischief 3 the ablest gravest and most Orthodox Divines and Preachers are persecuted plundered imprisoned and driven to flie as in the time of the Arian or Donatist which was worse than the Heathen perfection from City to City and to wander in Desarts from place to place to save themselves from the hands of these Rebels against the King and Persecuters of Gods Church which is a most grievous and a most cruel persecution far more general than that of the Anabaptists in Germany or of Queen Mary here in England The Lord of Heaven make us constant and give us patience to indure it 4. The whole Kingdom is and shall be yet more by the continuance Mischief 4 hereof unspeakably impoverished and plunged into all kind of miseries when the travailer cannot pass without fear nec hospes ab hospite tutus the Carrier cannot transport his commodity but it shall be intercepted the Husbandman cannot till his ground but his Horses as my self saw it shall be taken from the Plough and his Corn shall be destroyed when it is ready for the Sickle which must be the fore-runner of a Famine that is ever the Usher to introduce the Plague and Pestilence and all other kind of grievous diseases and these things put together do set wide our Gates and open our Ports to bring forraign foes into our Coasts to possess that good Land whereof we are unworthy because with the Israelites we loathed Manna we were weary of our peace and happiness we would buy Arms and be Voluntiers and every Town being too wanton would needs train and put themselves into a posture of defence as they termed it to be secured from their own shadows and though the King told them often there was no cause of their Jealousies and therefore forbade these disloyalties yet just like the Jews they were willing to be deceived by this miserable faction that contrived that Act whereby they have perfidiously over-reached both our good King and the rest of our wel-meaning brethren either to perfect their Design or else to make themselves perpetual Dictators and to betray the felicity of all our people under the name of Parliament which though as I said before I honour and love as much as any of the truest Patriots of either House both in the institution and the right prosecution thereof that is as it was constituted to be the great Council of the Kingdom graciously called by his Majesties-writ confidently to present the grievances of the people and humbly to offer their advice and counsels for their Reformation yet I do abhor those men that would abuse the word Parliament only as a Stalking-Horse to destroy all Acts of Parliament and I hate to see men calling the Fanatick actions of a few desperate seditious persons the proceedings of Parliament and others making an Idol of it as if their power were omnipotent or unlimitted and more than any Regal Power their judgment infallible their Orders irreprehensible and themselves unaccountable for their proceedings to be so besotted with the name of it that this bare shadow without the substance for it is no Parliament without the King and the Major part of both Houses is either banished or imprisoned or compelled to reside with his Majesty should so bewitch us as Master Smyth blushed not to say Nothing could free us from our dangers but the Divinity of a Parliament out of our own happiness to become more miserable Ingeniosus ad
Parliament who condemned and executed him for his thought Philip the first of Spain seeing a Falcon killing an Eagle commanded his head to be wrung off saying let none presume above their Soveraigne and in the Raigne of Henry the fourth of England one was hanged drawn and quartered in Cheapside London for jesting with his son that if he did learne well he would make him heire of the Crowne meaning his owne house that had the Signe of the Crowne to prove the Proverbe true non est bonum ludere cum sanctis it is not safe jesting with Kings and Crowns and it is lesse safe to resist them if you will believe wise Solomon And I have read of another King that passing over a river his Crowne fell into the water one of his water-men lept in and dived to the bottome and taking up the Crown put it upon his head that it might not hinder his swimming and so brought it to the King again who rewarded him well for his pains but caused his head to be chopt off for presuming to weare his Crown And all this is but an inanswerable argument to condemne our Rebels that neither reverence the Majesty of their King nor respect the commandment of their God 3. 3. Obedience Obedience is another principall part of that honour which we owe unto the king and this obedience of the inferiours joyned with the direction of the superiors doe make any state most successefull but when these are divorced The marriage of obedience and authority and the issue Aeschylus All must be obedient then nothing goeth right in that Common-wealth for so the Sages of Greece exprest it by the marriage that Jupiter made between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose child brought forth betwixt them was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew unto us that when authority is married to obedience and obedience proves a dutifull and good wife to authority the fruit of that match will be happinesse to the whole Kingdome And therefore if we would be happy we must be obedient and our obedience must be universall in all things in the Lord. Jussa sequi tam velle mihi quà m posse necesse est Lucan l. 1. So the people say unto Joshua all that thou commandest us we will do Josh 1.16 and all must do it the greater aswell as the lesser the noble man as well as the meane man yea rather then the meane man for though Rebellion in any one is as the sin of witchcraft yet in a vulgar man it may admit of vulgar apologies but in a man of quality in noble men in Courtiers bred in the Kings house Noble mens Rebellion more abominable to God and man then any other in the Kings service and raised by the Kings favour it is Morbus complicatus a decompound sin a transcendent ingratitude and unexpressable iniquity the example more spreading and the infection more contagious because more conspicuous and the giddy attempts of an unguided multitude are but as Cardinal Farnesius saith like the Beech tree without his top soon withered and vanishing into nothing without leaders when they become a burthen unto themselves and a prey unto others therefore the contradiction of Corah Dathan and Abiram that were so eminent in the congregation was a sin so odious unto God that he would have destroyed all Israel for their sake as now he punisheth all England for the sins of those noble men that have rebelled against their King Rom. 13.1 and were alwayes like Sejanus as wayward pleased as opposed And therefore St. Paul saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every soul must be subject to the higher power and he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you must needs be subject or be obedient Rom. 13.5 Obedience pressed by a three fold argument and he presseth this obedience with many arguments as 1. From Gods ordinance because God hath set them over us and commanded us to be obedient unto them and therefore whosoever resisteth them warreth against God 2. From mans Conscience which telleth us Rom. 13 4. that he is the minister of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for good and therefore virtutis amore if we have any love to goodnesse we ought to obey our King 3. For feare of vengeance because he beareth not the sword in vain but is v. 4. How we ought to behave our selves towards wicked Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill therefore this obedience to our King is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing of indifferency but of necessity for be our King for his Religion Impious for his government unjust and for life licentious as cruell as Nero as prophane as Julian and as wicked as Heliogabalus yet the Subjects must obey him the Bishops must admonish him the counsell must advise him and all must pray for him but no mortall man that is his Subject hath either leave to resist him or license to reject him unless they reject the ordinance of God and so fight against God and you know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is hard to vanquish God It is truly said by a learned Bishop si bonus est Princeps nutritor est tuus Ardua res homini est mortali vincere numen Why God sendeth evil kings if thy King be good he is thy nursing Father and it is a great happinesse to his Subjects sin malus est tentator est tuus but if he be evill he is either for the punishment of thy sins or for the triall of thy faith and therefore receive thy punishment with patience or thy triall without resistance and Aquin saith tollenda est culpa cessabit tyrannorum plaga do thou take away thy sins and God will soon take away thy punishment otherwise as for our sins we do often suffer droughts floods unseasonable weather sicknesses plagues and many other evills of nature ita luxum avaritiam deminantium tolerare debemus so when God setteth up hypocrites or tyrants to reigne over us to be the scourges of his wrath and the rods of his fury we must not struggle against God but rest contented to indure the vices of our rulers as a just punishment of our wickednesses saith Cornelius Tacitus * Et Michael Palatinus Hungariae dicebat rege coro nato etiamsi bos esses nobis obtemperandum est Bonfin dec 4. lib. 3. Foure kindes of obedience 1. Forced obedience Rom. 12.1 1 Sam. 15.22 But here you must observe that there are diverse kindes of obedience especially 1. Coacta 2. Caca. 3. Simulata 4. Ordinata 1. Forced 2. Foolish 3. Faigned 4. Well ordered 1. The first is a forced and compelled obedience meerly for feare of wrath as Children learne or Slaves do their duty for fear of the rod and this is better then resâ—stance though nothing like to that obedience which S. Paul calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because this
mend his glasse-windowes that were all full of holes where the faces of the pictures were plucked out and in other Churches thereabouts that they should so honour and obey their King as God commandeth us for which refusal to be admonished I believe they are now and perhaps will be more hereafter sufficiently punished But the Committee there finding in me no cause worthy of death or of bonds Gods providence so mercifully watching over me that it stopped their eyes that they looked not on my Grand Rebellion which they had in their hands and would no doubt have utterly undone me had they but espied the Capitall title that I was dismissed and I confesse courteously used by Sir John Norwich Then afterwards when time served I repaired to His Majesty and having delivered my Letters I spake to Him and drew a Petition and I think I was the first that petitioned in this kind I do not repent it neither am I ashamed to confesse it and got some hands unto it as that worthy and noble Gentleman Colonel Oneale can beare witnesse the sum whereof was that the Parliament having betrayed the trust that was reposed in them wholly deserted our relief and giving us none other comfort then what I expressed in my Discovery of Mysteries c. 12. p. 24. His Majesty would be pleased to consider that we were his Loyall Subjects and that the care of us was committed by God to him not to his Parliament who had left us in a worse condition then the Rebels had made us and therefore as he justly required our faith and alleageance so we humbly besought him that he would graciously vouchsafe unto us his princely care and assistance some waies to relieve us otherwise then by leaving us still in their hands till we and our families in the languishing expectation of our redresse should finally and irrecoverably perish while these crafty Merchants thus bought and sold us and under the pretence of reformation used all their endeavours to bring both Kingdomes to destruction CHAP. XIX Sheweth how the Rebellious faction have transgressed all the ten Commandments of the Law and the new Commandment of the Gospel how they have committed the seven deadly sins and the foure crying sins and the three most destructive sins to the soul of man and how their Ordinances are made against all Lawes Equity and Conscience 22. THey have in no small measure transgressed all the Commandments of God the ten Commandments of the Law 1. They adore and put their trust in that creature Ps 74. v. 4.7 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quis tibi in mentem dolorem imposuit ut haec perficias magni Dei ore relicto 2. How they have abused Gods house and the new Commandment of the Gospel For 1. The factious Rebels have other gods besides the God of Israel when they adore the creatures and ascribe the incommunicable attributes of the creator unto their Parliament by calling it omnipotent infallible invincible and most blessed Parliament as some of them have most blasphemously termed it for which blasphemies no doubt but as we by their Declarations and Ordinances know they are not infallible so God I feare me by their destruction will shew they are neither blessed nor invincible 2. They not onely make an idoll of their Parliament but are so far from making to themselues any graven image that they destroy all images and are just such as the Prophet David speaks of which have done evil in Gods Sanctuary and have broken down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers that have set fire upon his holy places and have defiled the dwelling place of Gods name even unto the ground for it is almost incredible how barbarously worse then any Turkes or Jewes they haue broken down those rare and sweet instruments of Musick the Organs of our Churches and have defaced those excellent pieces of work that to the honour of God were made and set up in the windowes of our Churches in Canterbury Winchester Lincoln and the other Cathedrals by the best Artists in Christendom which is a most horrible fact no wayes commanded in this precept and an irreparable loss to us and our posterity and therefore the Prophet David calleth these defacers of such carved and painted works set up in his house the adversaries and enemies of God v. 4 and 5. and v. 11. foolish people vers 19 and 23. the haters of God vers 24. and the blasphemers of his name vers 11. for none but such would have done such Prophanations as is done in God's house but let them take heed lest the Prophets prayer should light upon them Ps 74. v. 4. Lift up thy feet O God that thou mayest utterly destroy every one of these enemies which hath done this evil in thy Sanctuary 3. How they forswear themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menan l. perjurium est nequiter decipere credentem Aug 4. How they prophaned the Sabbath 3. For swearing not vainly but falsly most wickedly and forswearing themselves over and over again and again and having more dispensations and absolutions for their perjuries by their holy Prophets then ever the Popes gave for adulteries it is incredible to think and impossible to number the heads of these transgressions and therefore if you believe that God was in earnest when he gave this precept you may be assured he will not hold them guiltlesse that are such transgressors of it 4. For the day wherein we should serve our God in his Church most reverently some of them worship him more unmannerly then some of those blinde Indians that worship the Devil himself and others of them muster their men plunder their neighbours and murder their brethren which they believe to be the best way to sanctifie the Sabbath and for which resting from their work thus religiously to serve the Lord let them take heed lest God should swear in his wrath that they shall never enter into his rest 5. How they curse their Fathers and Mothers Esay 8.21 5. They curse their Father and their Mother that their dayes may be long in the Land which their pretended Parliament hath promised to give them for the King is the Prince and Principal Father of us all and the Prophet saith of such men they shall curse their King and their God and the Bishops are their Fathers too and they have cursed them long agone and I fear they will not cease to curse them till their curses fall upon their own heads and for all other bonds of duty and relations of Wives unto their Husbands Children unto their Parents Servants unto their Masters they are preached asunder to make way for the liberty of the Subject to rebel by authority against his Soveraign 6. How many they have murdered 6. Whereas God saith thou shalt do no murder they gave that first commission though they had not the least colour of any authority to give it to kill slay and destroy and