is not absurd nunquam mori regem that the King never dieth for assoone as ever the one parteth with this life the other immediately without expecting the consem either of Peeres or people doth by a just and plenary right succeed not onely as his fathers heire but as the lawfull governour of the people and as the Lord of the whole Kingdome not by any option of any men but by the condition of his birth and the donation of his God and therefore the resignation of the crowne by King John unto the Pope was but a fiction that could inferre no diminution of the right of his successor because no King can give away this right from him Tâ—ings that the King should not grant whom God hath designed for it And there be some things which no Christian King should grant away as any of those things that being granted may prejudice the Church of God and depresse the glory of the Gospell of Iesus Christ as the giving way for the diminution of the just revenues of the Church the prophanation of things consecrated to Gods service and the suppression of any of the divine callings of the Gospell which are Bishops Preists and Deacons because all Kings are bound to honour God and to hinder all those things whereby he is dishonoured either in respect of things persons or places And there be some things which the Kings of this realme have never granted away Things that Kings have not granted away but have still retained them in their owne hands as inviolable prerogatives and characteristicall Symboles and Properties of their Supremacy and the relicks of their pristine right as in the time of peace those two speciall parts of the government of the Common-wealth which doe consist 1. About the Lawes 1. About the Lawes 2. About the Magistrates The 1. whereof saith Arnisaeus containeth these particulars that is to make Lawes to create Nobility and give titles of dignity to legitimate the ill begotten to grant Priviledges to restore Offenders to their lost repute to pardon the transgressors and the like 1. Ius legislatiâ— vum Iohan. Beda pag. 25. 1. Then it is the right of the King jura dare to give Lawes unto his people for though as I said before the Subjects in Parliament may treat of Lawes and intreat the King to approve of them that they propose unto him yet they are no Lawes and carry with them no binding force till the King gives his consent and therefore out of Parliament The power of making Lawes is in the king you see the Kings Proclamation hath vim et vigorem legis the full force and strength of a law to shew unto us that the power of making lawes was never yeilded out of the Kings hands The case of our affaires pag. 11. Stat. West 1.3 E. 1.3 6. 42. Stat. ef Merch. 13. E. 1. Westm 3.18 E. 1.1 Stat. of Waste 20. E. 1. of appeale 28. E. 1.1 E. 2.1 and all the titles and acts of our Parliaments nor can it indeed be parted with except be part with His Majestie and Soveraignty for the limiting of his owne power by his voluntary concession of such favours unto his people not to make any Lawes without their consent doth no way diminish his Soveraignty or lessen his owne right and authority but as a man that yeildeth himselfe to be bound by some others hath the use of his strength taken from him but none of his naturall strength it selfe is lessened and much lesse is any part of it transferred to them that bound him but that whensoever his bonds are loosened he can worke againe by vertue of his owne naturall strength and not by any received strength from his loosers so the naturall right and interest of the Soveraignty being solely in the King and the Peeres and Commons by the Kings voluntary concession being onely interessed in the office of restraining his power for the more regular working of the true legitimate Soveraignty it cannot be denied but in whatsoever the Peeres and Commons doe remit the restraint by yeilding their consent to the point proposed the King worketh and acteth therein absolutely by the power of his owne inherent Soveraignty and all acts and lawes so passing doe virtually proceed from the King How the same acts may be said to be the acts of the king and of the Parliament as from the true and proper efficient author thereof and may notwithstanding be said to be the acts of the whole Court because the three estates contribute their power of remitting the restraint and yeilding their assent as well as the King useth his unrestrained power And therefore Suarez saith that as condere legem unus est ex praecipuâ—s actibus gubernationis reipublicae ita praecipuam superiorem requirit potestatem Suarez l. 1. c. 8. n. 8. to make Lawes is one of the cheifest acts of the government of a Common-wealth so it requireth the cheifest and supremest power and authority quae quidem potestas legislativa primariò in Deo est which legislative power is primarily in God and is communicated unto Kings saith he per quandam participationem according to the saying of the wise man Sapâ— 6. Heare O ye Kings because power is given unto you of the Lord. Aug. in Iohan. tract 6. And Saint Augustine calleth Jura humana jura imperatoruÌ„ quia ipsa jura humana per imperatores all humane laws are the lawes of Emperors or Kings because they are made by them and the Holy Ghost speaking of the Kings of Judah saith Gen. 49.10 The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor a Law giver from betweene his feete to teach us that whosoever swayeth the Scepter hath the right to be the Law-maker which is one of the prime prerogatives of Soveraignty 2. Ius nobilitandi 2. Jus nobilitandi the right of appointing the principall Officers of State to cry up any of all His Subjects whom the King will honour as Pharaoh did Ioseph and Ahasuerus did Haman and Mordecai and to give them titles of honour per codicillos honorarios aut per diplomata sua as to make Dukes Marquesses Barons Knights c. doth belong onely unto the King that hath onely the supreme Majestie But if the Dukes Earles It is the Doctrine of the Anabaptists and Puritans that there should be no Degrees of Schooles nor titles of honour among men and Barons be so plyable to the Puritan faction to put downe the spirituall Lords I doubt that e're long the King shall have but few Nobility when not onely the Mechanicks and Rusticks will all cry out against this Lordlinesse and say as they did in the rebellion of Jacke Cade and Wat Tyler When Adam delv'd and Eve span Who was then the Gentleman And why should we now indure so many titles of vanity and so many vaine honours to vapour it over us but the Puritan Clergy also seeing themselves deprived of
of them have belebed forth against the Divine Truth of God's Word and the sacred Majesty of Kings Calvin in Amos cap. 7. Master Calvin a man otherwise of much worth and worthy to be honoured yet in this point transported with his own passion calleth those Blasphemers that did call King Henry the Eighth the Supreme Head of this Church of England Stapâ—â— cont â—â—dorn l 1. p. 22. and Stapleton saith that he handled the King himselfe with such villany and with so spitefull words as he never handled the Pope more spitefully and all for this Title of Supremacy in Church causes and in his 54. Epist to Myconius he termeth them prophane spirits and mad men that perswaded the Magistrates of Geneva not to deprive themselves of that authority which God had given them Viretus is more virulent for he resembleth them not to mad men as Calvin did but to white devils because they stand in defence of the Kings authority and he saith they are false Christians though they cover themselves with the cloak of the Gospell How Viretus would prove the temporall Pope as he calleth the King vvorse then the spirituall Pope affirming that the putting of all authority and power into the Civill Magistrates hands and making them Masters of the Church is nothing else but the changing of the Popedome from the Spirituall Pope into a Temporall Pope who as it is to be feared will prove worse and more tyrannous than the Spirituall Pope which he laboureth to confirme by these three reasons Reason 1 1. Because the Spiritual Pope had not the Sword in his own hand to punish men with death but was fain to crave the aid of the Secular power which the Temporal Pope needs not do 2. Because the old Spirituall Popes had some regard in their Reason 2 dealings of Councels Synods and ancient Canons but the new Secular Popes will do what they list without respect of any Ecclesiasticall Order be it right or wrong 3. Because the Romish Popes were most commonly very Reason 3 learned but it happeneth oftentimes that the Regall Popes have neither learning nor knowledge in divine matters and yet these shall be they that shall command Ministers and Preachers what they list and to make this assertion good he affirmeth that he saw in some places some Christian Princes under the title of Reformation to have in 10 or 20 yeares usurped more tyrannie over the Churches in their Dominions then ever the Pope and his adherents did in 600 yeares All which reasons are but meere fopperies Viretus his scandalous reasons answered blowne up by the blacke Devill to blast the beauty of this truth for we speake not of the abuse of any Prince to justifie the same against any one but of his right that cannot be the cause of any wrong and it cannot be denyed but an illiterate Prince may prove a singular advancer of all learning as Bishop Wickham was no great Scholler yet was he a most excellent instrument to produce abundance of famous Clerks in this Church and the King ruleth his Church by those Lawes which through his royall authority are made with the advice of his greatest Divines as hereafter I shall shew unto you yet these spurious and specious pretexts may serve like clouds to hide the light from the eyes of the simple So Cartwright also T. C. l. 2. p. 411 that was our English firebrand and his Disciples teach as Harding had done before that Kings and Princes doe hold their Kingdomes and Dominions under Christ as he is the Sonne of God onely before all worlds coequall with the father and not as he is Mediator and Governour of the Church and therefore the Christian Kings have no more to doe with the Church government then the Heathen Princes so Travers saith that the Heathen Princes being converted to the faith receive no more nor any further increase of their power whereby they may deale in Church causes then they had before so the whole packe of the Disciplinarians are all of the same minde and do hold that all Kings aswell Heathen as Christian receiving but one Commission and equall authority immediately from God have no more to doe with Church causes the one sort then the other And I am ashamed to set downe the rayling and the scurrilous speeches of Anthony Gilby against Hen. 8. Gilby in his admonition p. 69. Knox in his exhâ—ta iâ—n to the Nobility of Scotland fol. 77. and of Knox Whittingham and others against the truth of the Kings lawfull right and authority in all Ecclesiasticall causes For were it so as Cartwright Travers and the rest of that crew doe avouch that Kings by being Christians receive no more authority over Christ his Church then they had before * Which is most false yet this will appeare most evident to all understanding men that all Kings aswell the Heathens as the Christians are in the first place to see that their people do religiously observe the worship of that God which they adore and therefore much more should Christian Princes have a care to preserve the religion of Jesus Christ The Gentile Kings preservers of religion For it cannot be denyed but that all Kings ought to preserve their Kingdomes and all Kingdomes are preserved by the same meanes by which they were first established and they are established by obedience and good manners neither shall you finde any thing that can beget obedience and good manners but Lawes and Religion and Religion doth naturally beget obedience unto the Lawes therefore most of those Kings that gave Lawes were originally Priests Synes ep 126. Vide Amis part 2. pag. 14. Ad magnas râ—spubl utilitates retinetur religio in civitatibus Cicero de divin l. 2. and as Synesius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priest and a Prince was all one with them when the Kings to preserve their Lawes inviolable and to keepe their people in obedience that they might be happy became Priests and exercised the duties of Religion offering sacrifices unto their gods and discharging the other offices of the Priestly function as our factious Priests could willingly take upon them the offices of the King or if some of them were not Priests as all were not Law-makers yet all of them preserved Religion as the onely preservation of their Lawes and the happinesse of their Kingdomes which they saw could not continue without Religion But 2. In the Parliament 2. The wisedome of our grave Prelates and the learning of our religious Clergie having stopped the course of this violent streame and hindered the translation of this right of Kings unto their new-borne Presbyterie and late erected Synods There sprang up another generation out of the dregs of the former that because they would be sure to be bad enough out of their envy unto Kings and malice unto the Church that the one doth not advance their unworthinesse and the other doth not beare with their
undutifulnesse will needs transferre this right of ruling Gods Church unto a Parliament of Lay-men the King shall be denuded of what God hath given him and the people shall be indued with what God and all good men have ever denyed them I deny not but the Parliament men as they are most noble and worthy Gentlemen so many of them may be very learned and not a few of them most religious and I honour the Parliament rightly discharging their duties Hugo de Sancto Vict. lib. 2. de sacr fid par 2. cap. 3. Laicis Christianis fidelibus terrena possidere conceditur clericis verò tantùm spiritualiâ— committuntur quae autem illâ— spiritualia sunt subjicit c. 5. dicent omnis ecclesiastica administratio in tribus consistit in sacramentis in ordinibus in praeceptis Ergo Laici nihil juris habent in legibus praeceptis condendis ecclesiasticit as much as their modesty can desire or their merit deserve neither doe I gain-say but as they are pious men and the greatest Councell of our King so they may propose things and request such and such Lawes to be enacted such abuses to be redressed and such a reformation to be effected as they thinke befitting for Gods Church but for Aarons seed and the Tribe of Levi to be directed and commanded out of the Parliament chaire how to performe the service of the Tabernacle and for Lay men to determine the Articles of faith to make Canons for Church-men to condemne heresies and define verities and to have the chiefe power for the government of Gods Church as our Faction now challengeth and their Preachers ascribe unto them is such a violation of the right of Kings such a derogation to the Clergy and so prejudiciall to the Church of Christ as I never found the like usurpation of this right to the eradication of the true religion in any age for seeing that as the Proverb goeth Quod medicorum est promittunt medici tractant fabrilia fabri what Papist or Athiest will be ever converted to professe that religion which shall be truly what now they alleadge falsely unto us a Parliamentary religion or a religion made by Lay men with the advice of a few that they choose è faece Cleri I must seriously professe what I have often bewayled to see Nadab and Abihu offering strange fires upon Gods Altar to see the sacred offices of the Priests so presumptuously usurped by the Laity and to see the children of the Church nay the servants of the Church to prescribe Lawes unto their Masters and I did ever feare it to be an argument not onely of a corrupted but also of a decaying State when Moses chaire should be set in the Parliament House and the Doctors of the Church should never sit thereon therefore I wish that the Arke may be brought backe from the Philistines and restored to the Priests to be placed in Shilo where it should be and that the care of the Arke which King David undertooke may not be taken out of his hands by his people but that he may have the honour of that service which God hath imposed upon him For 3. Opinion Of the Oâ—thodox Quia religio est ex potioribus reipublica partibus ut aâ—t Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. ipsa sola custodit hominum inter se societateâ— ut ait Lâ—ctant de ira Dei cap. 12. Veritura Troia perdidit primum Deos. 3. As nothing is dearer to understanding righteous and religious Kings then the increase and maintenance of true religion and the inlargement of the Church of Christ throughout all their Dominions so they have at all times imployed their studies to this end because it is an infallible maxime even among the Politicians that the prosperity of any Kingdome flourisheth for no longer time then the care of religion and the prosperity of the Church is maintained by them among their people as we see Troy was soone lost when they lost their Palladium so it is the truest signe of a declining and a decaying State to see the Clergy despised and Religion disgraced and therefore the provision for the safety of the Church the publique injoying of the Word of God the forme of Service the manner of Government and the honour and maintenance of the Clergie are all the duties of a most Christian King which the King of Heaven hath imposed upon him for the happinesse and prosperity of his Kingdome and whosoever derive the authority of this charge either in a blinde obedience to the See of Rome as the Jesuites doe or out of their too much zeale and affection to a new Consistory as the late Presbyterians did or to a Lay Parliament as our upstart Anabaptists and Brownists doe are most unjust usurpers of the Kings right which is not onely ascribed unto him and warranted by the Word of God but is also confirmed to the Princes of this Land by severall Acts of Parliament Therefore the Tyrians châ—yâ—â—d their gods lest if they fled thâ—y should be destroyed to have the supremacie in all causes and over all persons as well in the Ecclesiasticall as in the Civill governement which being so they are exempted thereby from all inforcement of any domesticall or forraigne power and freed from the penalties of all those Lawes both Ecclesiasticall and Civill whereunto all their Subjects Clergy and Laity Q. Curtius de rebus Alexand. Joh. Beda p. 22 23. and all inferiour Persons and the superiour Nobility within their Kingdomes are obliged by our Lawes and Statutes as hereafter I shall more fully declare Therefore it behoveth all Kings and especially our King at this time seriously to consider what prejudice they shall create unto themselves and their just authority if they should yeild themselves inferiour to their Subjects aggregativè or repraesentativè or how you will or liable to the penall Lawes for so they may be soone dethroned by the unstable affection and weake judgement of discontented people or subject to the jurisdiction of Lay Elders and the excommunication of a tyrannous Consistory who denounceing him tanquam Ethnicum Matth. 18.17 may soone adde a stranger shall not raigne over thee Deut. 17.15 and so depose him from all government For seeing all attempts are most violent that have their beginning and strength from zeale unto religion be the same true or false and from the false most of all and those are ever the most dangerous whose ringleaders are most base as the servile warre under Spartacus was most pernicious unto the Romans there can be nothing of greater use or more profitable either for the safety of the King How necessary it is for Kings to retaine their just rights in their hands the peace of the Church and the quiet state of the Kingdome then for the Prince the King to retaine the Militia and to keepe that power and authority which the Lawes of God and of our Land have granted
Ariamirus Wambanus Richaredus and divers other Kings of Spaine did in like manner And Charlemaine who approved not the decisions of the Greekish Synod wrote a booke against the same * Intituled A Treatise of Charlemaigne against the Greekish Synod touching Images whereby the King maintained himselfe in possession to make Lawes for the Church saith Iohannes Beda of which Lawes there are many in a booke called The capitulary Decrees of Charles the Great who as Pepin his predecessor had done in the Citie of Bourges so did he also assemble many Councels in divers places of his Kingdomes as at Mayens at Tours at Reines at Chaalons at Arles and the sixt most famous of all at Francfort where himselfe was present in person and condemned the errour of Felician and so other Kings of France and the Kings of our owne Kingdome of England both before and after the Conquest as Master Fox plentifully recordeth did make many Lawes and Constitutions for the government of Gods Church But as Dioclesian The saying of Dioclesian that was neither the best nor the happiest governour said most truly of the civill government that there was nothing harder then to rule well * That is to rule the Common-wealth so it is much harder to governe the Church of Christ therefore as there cannot be an argument of greater wisedome in a Prince nor any thing of greater safety and felicity to the Common-wealth then for him to make choice of a wise Councell to assist him in his most weighty affaires Tacitus Annal. lib. 12. saith Cornelius Tacitus So all religious Kings must do the like in the government of the Church and the making of their Lawes for that government for God out of his great mercy to them and no lesse desire to have his people religiously governed left such men to be their supporters their helpers and advicers in the performance of these duties and I pray you whom did Kings choose for this businesse but whom God had ordained for that purpose for you may observe that although those Christian Kings and Emperours made their Laws as having the supremacy and the chiefest care of Gods religion committed by God into their hands yet they did never make them that ever I could reade with the advice counsell or direction of any of their Peeres or Lay Subjects but as David had Nathan and Gad The good Kings and Emperours made their Lavves for the government of the Church onely by the advice of their Clergy Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel and the rest of the Jewish Kings and Heathens had their Prophets onely and Priests to direct them in all matters of religion so those Christian Kings and Princes tooke their Bishops and their Clergie onely to be their counsellors and directors in all Church causes as it appeareth out of all the fore-cited Authors and all the Histories that doe write thereof and Justinian published this Law that when any Ecclesiasticall cause or matter was moved his Lay officers should not intermeddle with it A good Law of Iustinian but should suffer the Bishops to end the same according to the Canons the words are Si Ecclesiasticum negotium sit nullam communionem habento civiles magistratus cum ea disceptatione Constit 123. sed religiosissimi Episcopi secundum sacros canones negotio finem imponunto For the good Emperours knew full well that the Lay Senate neither understood what to determine in the points of faith and the government of Christ's Church nor was ever willing to doe any great good or any speciall favour unto the Shepherds of Christ's flocke and the teachers of the true religion because the Sonne of God had fore-told it that the world should hate us John 15.19 that secular men and Lay Senators should commonly oppose crosse and shew all the spite they can unto the Clergy of whom our Saviour saith Matth. 10.16 Behold I send you forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sheepe in the midst of wolves Whence this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great distance between their dispositions being observed it grew into a Proverb that Laici semper infesti sunt Clericis How the Laity love the Clergie And Doctor Meriton in a Sermon before King James observed this as one of the good favours the Clergie of England found from our Parliaments since the reformation when many men first began to be translated from the seat of the scornefull to sit in Moses chaire A very memorable act Anno 39. Eliz. cap. 4. and to prescribe Lawes for Christ his Spouse to make an Act that all wandering beggars after their correction by the Constable should be brought to the Minister of the Parish to have their names registred in a booke and the Constable used to give to the Minister 2d for his paines for every one so registred but if he refused or neglected to doe it the Statute saith he should be punished 5 for every one that should be so omitted where besides the honourable office I will not say to make the Minister of Christ a Bedle of the beggars but a Register of the vagrants you see the punishment of one neglect amounteth to the reward of thirty labours therefore all the Christian Emperours and the wisest Kings considering this great charge that God had laid upon them to make wholesome Lawes and Constitutions for the government of his Church and seeing the inclinations of the Laity would never permit any of these Lay Elders and the Citizens of the world to usurpe this authority to be the composers contrivers or assistants in concluding of any Ecclesiasticall Law That the Laity should have no interest in making Lawes for the Church untill the fences of Gods vineyard were pulled downe and the wilde Boare out of the forrest the audacious presumption of the unruly Commonalty ventured either to governe the Church or to subdue their Prince since which incroachment upon the rights of Kings it hath never succeeded well with the Church of Christ and I dare boldly say it fidenter quia fideliter and the more boldly because most truly the more authority they shall gaine herein the lesse glory shall Christ have from the service of his Church and therefore Be wise ô ye Kings And consider how any new Canons are to be made by our Statute 25. Hen. 8. Ob. Ob. But then it may be demanded if this be so that the Laity hath no right in making Lawes and Decrees for the government of Gods Church but that it belongs wholly unto the King to doe it with the advice of his Bishops and the rest of his Clergy then how came the Parliament to annull those Canons that were so made by the King and Clergy because they had no vote nor consent in confirming of them Sol. Sol. Truely I cannot answer to this Objection unlesse I should tell you what the Poet saith Dum furor in cursu currenti cede furori Difficiles aditus impetus omnis
houses that are against it shall be destroyed because as S. Peter saith we have forsaken all to become his servants that otherwise might have served Kings with the like honour that they doe and we have left the world to build up his Church we put our trust under the shadow of his wings and being in trouble we doe cry unto the Lord and therefore he will heare our cry and will helpe us and we shall never be confounded Amen CHAP. X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensation is reasons for it to tolerate divers Sects or sorts of religions the foure speciall sorts of false professors S. Augustines reasons for the toleration of the Jewes toleration of Papists and of Puritans and which of them deserve best to be tolerated among the Protestants and how any Sect is to be tolerated 2. WHereas the Anabaptists and Brownists of our time 2. That the King may lawfully grant his dâ—spensation for Pluralities and Non-residency with what conscience I know not cry out that our Kings by their Lawes doe unreasonably and unconscionably grant dispensations both for Pluralities and Non-residency onely to further the corrupt desire of some few aspiring Prelates to the infinite wrong of the whole Clergy the intolerable dishonour of our religion the exceeding prejudice of Gods Church and the lamentable hazard of many thousand soules I say that the Pluralities and Non-residency granted by the King and warranted by the Lawes of this Land may finde sufficient reasons to justifie them â—n anno 112. for if you consider the first limitation of Benefices In anno 636. that either Euaristus Bishop of Rome or Dionysius as others thinke did first assigne the precincts of Parishes The first distribution of Parishes and appointed a certaine compasse to every Presbyter and in this Kingdome Honorius Archbishop of Canterbury was the first that did the like appointing the Pastorall charge and the portion of meanes accrewing from that compasse to this or that particular person whereas before for many yeares they had no particular charge assigned nor any Benefice allotted them but had their Canonicall pensions and dividents given them by the Bishop out of the common stocke of the Church according as the Bishop saw their severall deserts for at first the greater Cities onely had their standing Pastors and then the Countrey Villages imitating the Cities to allow maintenance according to the abilities of the inhabitants had men of lesser learning appointed for those places â—iuâ— auticâ— and Non residency no transgression of Gods Law Therefore this limitation of particular Parishes being meerly positive and an humane constitution it cannot be the transgression of a divine ordinance to have more Parishes then one or to be absent from that one which is allotted to him when he is dispensed with by the Law maker to do the same for as it is not lawfull without a dispensation to doe either because we are to obey every ordinance of the higher power for the Lords sake so for the higher power to dispense with both is most agreeable to reason and Gods truth Gods Law admitteth an interpretation not a dispensation of it for all our Lawes are either divine or humane and in the divine Law though we allow of interpretation quia non sermoni res sed rei sermo debet esse subjectus because the words must be applyed to the matter else we may fall into the heresie of those that as Alfonsus de Castro saith held it unlawfull upon any occasion to sweare because our Saviour saith sweare not at all yet no man King nor Pope hath power to grant any dispensation for the least breach of the least precept of Gods Law he cannot dispense with the doing of that which God forbiddeth to be done nor with the omitting of that which God commandeth but in all humane Lawes so far as they are meerly positive and humane Mans Law may be dispensed with it is in the power of their makers to dispense with â—hem and so quicquid fit dispensatione superioris non fit contra praeceptum superioris and he sinneth neither against the Law nor against his owne conscience because he is delivered from the obligation of that Law by the same authority whereby he stood bound unto it And as he that is dispensed with is free from all sinne so the King which is the dispenser is as free from all fault as having full right and power to grant His dispensations For seeing that all humane Lawes are the conclusions of the Law of nature or the evidences of humane reason shewing what things are most beneficiall to any society either the Church or Common-wealth and that experience teacheth us our reason groweth often from an imperfection to be more perfect when time produceth more light unto us we cannot in reason deny an abrogation and dispensation to all humane Lawes which therefore ought not to be like the Lawes of the Medes and Persians that might not be changed and so Saint Augustine saith Aug. de libero arbit l. 1. Lex humana quamvis justa sit commutari tamen pro tempore justè potest any humane Law though it be never so just yet for the time as occasion requireth may be justly changed dispensatio est juris communis relaxatio facta cum causae cognitione ab eo qui jus habet dispensandi Dispensation what it is and as the Civilians say a dispensation is the relaxation of common right granted upon the knowledge of the cause by him that hath the power of dispensing or as the etymologie of the word beareth dispensare est diversa pensare The reward of learning and vertue how to be rendered to dispense is to render different rewards and the reward of learning or of any other vertue either in the civill or the ecclesiasticall person being to be rendered as one saith not by an Arithmeticall but a Geometricall proportion and the division of Parishes being as I said before a positive humane Law it cannot be denyed but the giver of honour and the bestower of rewards which is the King hath the sole power and right to dispose how much shall be given to this or that particular person Ob. If you say the Law of the King which is made by the advice of his whole Parliament hath already determined what portion is sit for every one and what service is required from him Sol. I answer that the voice of equity and justice tells us that a generall Law doth never derogate from a speciall priviledge or that a priviledge is not opposite to the principles of common right and where the Law it selfe gives this priviledge as our Law doth it yet envy it selfe can never deny this right unto the King to grant his dispensation whensoever he seeth occasion and where the Law is tacite and saith nothing of any priviledge yet seeing in all Lawes as
interpreted by Saint Peter 2. Pet. 2.13 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings that are supreme where Saint Peter makes an excellent distinction betwixt the superiour and the inferiour Magistrates Saint Peters description betwixt the King and the inferiour Magistrates A two fold royalty in a King 1 Merum imperium the superiour is that which Saint Paul saith is ordained of God the inferiours are they which St Peter calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are sent by the King for the better explanation of which place you must know that in every King or supreme Magistrate we may conceive a double royalty The 1 is merum imperium or regni potestas summa plenissima and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this fulnesse of power and independent of any creature and immediately received of God which the Civilians call jus regis or munus regni is in the person of the King indivisible not to be imparted by the King to any creature because he cannot divest himselfe divide this power or alienate the same to any subject no not to his owne son How the King cannot doe unjustly without renouncing or dividing his Kingdome and by this the Civilians say the King may governe sine certa lege sine certo jure sed non fine aequitate justitia without Law but not without equity whereupon it is a rule in the Common Law hoc unum rex potest facere quod non potest injustè agere 2 Imperium dispositi vum which is to be applied to this inseperable regality of the King and hath beene often alleadged by other Parliaments to justifie the King from all blame The 2 is imperium dispositivum or jus gubernandi vel jurisdictio the right of governing or jurisdiction and distribution of justice and this may be derived and delegated from the King legatis vitalitiis either for terme of life or during the Kings pleasure But how not privativè when the King doth not denude himselfe thereof but cumulativè and executivè to execute the same How the King delegates his power to his inferiour Magistrates as the Kings Instruments for the preservation of peace and the administration of justice as it appeareth in their patent and this subordinate power is not inherent in their persons but onely committed unto them for the execution of some office because that when the supreame power is present the power of the inferiour officers is silent it is in nubibus fled into the clouds and like the light of the moone and starres vanishing whensoever the Sun appeareth for Kings when they doe transferre any actuall power to the subalternate Officers retaine the habituall power still in their owne hands which upon any emeregent occasion they may actually resume to themselves againe which they could not do if they parted with the habite and forme of this despoticall power of government that they have immediately received from God The words of the Apostles vindicated from the false glosses of the Sâ—ctaries Rom. 13.3 And as the Scriptures make it plaine that the Kings right and power to governe is immediately from God so they make it as plaine that it is the greatest right and most eminent highest power that is on earth for though the cavillers at this power translate the words of Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not potestatibus sublimioribus or supremis but potestatibus superexcellentibus and say that the word or particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where S. Peter bids us submit our selves to the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the cheife intends a resemblance onely and not a reall demonstration to prove the King to be the cheife Yet the malice of these men and the falshood of these glosses will appeare if you consider that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habens se super alios or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the powers that are ordained of God must needs signifie not any subordinate power but the supremest power on earth because the other powers are directly said by Saint Peter to be sent by the King 1 Pet. 2.13 and the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as really expresse the matter there as in John 1.14 where the Evangelist saith and we beheld his glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The testimony of the Fathers for the Soveraignty of Kings as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God And I hope our Sectaries will not be so impudent as to say that this signifieth but a resemblance of the Son of God But to make this point more plaine you shall heare what the fathers and the learned say for I told you before Tertullian saith of Kings and Emperours Tertul. ad Scap. in apologeâ— c. 30. Iâ—en advers haeres Valent l. 5. c. 20. Optat. contr â—armen l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost tom 6. orat 40. orat 2. Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 21. Q Curtinâ— l. 9. inde potestas unde spiritus and he is solo Deo minor inferiour to none but God Saint Chrysostome saith he hath no peere on earth but is the top of all men living Athanasius saith there is none above the Emperour but onely God that made the Emperour Saint Cyrill in a Sermon upon that text I am the vine commendeth the answer of a King whom Quintus Curtius affirmeth to be Alexander that being shot his Subjects would have him bound to pull out the arrow said non decet vinciri Regem Bern. Tractat. de pass Dom. c. 4. it becomes not Kings to be bound because none is superiour unto them Agapetus a Deacon of Constantine saith as much and because it is a rule in the Civill Law testem quem quis inducit pro se tenetur recipere contra sese the testimony of our adversaries is most convictive therefore I beseech you heare what they say for Rosellus a great Catholique saith it is hereticall to affirme that the universall administration of the temporall affaires is or must be in the Pope when the King hath no superiour on earth but the Creator of heaven and earth Caninus also saith that the Apostle Rom. 13. spake of the Regall and secular power Cassani Catal. glor mundi p. 8. considers 28. Card. Cusan concord Cathol l. 3. c. 5. Vide Arnis p. 5. de dist dupl iurisdict and not of the Ecclesiasticall and Cassanaeus saith that Kings are the highest and most paramount secular power and authority that ever God appointed on earth and denies that either the old or the new Testament makes any mention of an Emperour juris utriusque testimonia manifestè declarant imperialem dignitatem potestatem immediatè a filio Dei ab antiquo processisse said Philip King of France in Constit de potest elect Imperat. Irvin p. 33 34 35. quoteth many authors to confirme the same truth Lombard Gratian Melancton Cranmer Tyndall and abundance
forcing the King not a word of superiority nor yet simply of equality and therefore I must say hoc argumentum nihil adrhombum these do abuse every author 3. That neither â—eeres nor Parliament are co-ordinate with the King 3. If their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speake not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their naturall strength and power but of their right and authority be co-ordinate and equall with the Kings authority then whether given by God which they cannot prove or by the people there must be duo summa imperia two supreme powers which the Philosophers say cannot be Omnésque Philosophi jurisconsulit ponunt summum in eo terum genere quod dividi non possit Lactant. l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. 3.24 nam quod summum est unum est from whence they prove the unity of the God-head that there can be but one God and if this supreme power be divided betwixt King and Parliament you know what the Poët saith Omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit Or you may remember what our Saviour saith If a Kingdome be divided against it selfe it cannot stand and therefore when Tiberius out of his wonted subtilty desired the Senate to appoint a colleague and partner with him for the better administration of the Empire Asinius Gallus that was desirous enough of their Pristine liberty yet understanding well with what minde the subtle foxe spake onely to descry his ill willers after some jests answered seriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that government must not be divided because you can never have any happinesse where the power is equally divided in two parts when according to the well knowne axiome to every one Par in parem non habet potestatem The Case of our Affaires p. 19 20. But to make the matter cleare and to shew that the Soveraignty is inseperably inherent in the person of His Majestie we have the whole current of our very Acts of Parliament acknowledging it in these very termes Our Soveraigne Lord the King The Lawes of our Land acknowledge all Soveraignty in the King and the Parliament 25. Hen. 8. saith this your Graces Realme recognizing no superiour under God but your Grace c. And the Parliament 16. Rich. 2.5 affirmeth the Crowne of England to have beene so free at all times that it hath beene in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the regality of the said Crowne and to none other And in the 2â— of Hen. 5. the Parliament declareth that it belongeth to the Kings regality to grant or deny what Petitions in Parliament he pleaseth and so indeed whatsoever authority is in the constant practice of the Kingdome or in the knowne and published Lawes and Statutes it concludeth the Soveraignty to be fixed in the King and all the Subjects virtually united in the representative body of the Parliament to be obliged in obedience and allegeance to the individuall person of the King and I doubt not but our learned Lawyers can finde much more proofe then I doe out of their Law to this purpose And therefore seeing divers supreme powers are not compatible in one State nor allowable in our State the conceit of a mixed Monarchie is but a fopperie to prove the distribution of the supreme power into two sorts of governours equally indued with the same power because the supreme power being but one must be placed in one sort of governours either in one numericall man as it is in Monarchie or in one specificall kinde of men as the optimates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Aristocracie or in the people as in Democracie but if by a mixed Monarchie you meane that this supreme power is not simply absolute quoad omnia but a government limited and regulated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we will not much quarrell with our Sectaries because His Majestie hath promised and we are sure he will performe it to governe his people according to the Lawes of this Land They deserve not to live in thâ— Kingdome that diminish the supremacy of the King And therefore they that would rob the King of this right and give any part of his supreme power to the Parliament or to any of all his inferiour Magistrates deserve as well to be expelled the Kingdome as Plato would have Homer to be banished for bringing in the Gods fighting and disagreeing among themselves when as Ovid out of him saith Jupiter in Trojam pro Troja stabat Apollo Because as the Civilians say Naturale vitium est negligi quod communiter possidetur utque se nihil habere putet qui totum non habeat fuam partem corrumpi patiatur dum invidet alienae and therefore the same Homer treating of our humane government Nec multos regnare bonum rex unicus esto Arist Metaph. lib. 12. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle doth so infinitely commend where he disputeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth Plato and all the wise Philosophers that followed after Statius Thebaid lib. 1. because as the Poët saith Summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis And as our owne most lamentable experience sheweth what abundance of miseries happened unto our selves by this renting of the Kings power and placing it in the hands of the Parliament and his owne inferiour officers and as those sad Tragedies of Etheocles and Polynices Numitor and Amulius Romulus and Remus Antoninus and Geta and almost infinite more do make it manifest to all the world §. The two chiefest parts of the regall governement the foure properties of a just warre and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property 4. The chiefest parts of the Regall governement which are two 4. HAving spoken of those assistants that should further and not hinder the King in the Common-wealth it resteth that I should now speake of the chiefest parts of this government when Moses killed the Egyptian that wronged the Israelite and the next day said unto the Hebrew that did injure his fellow Exod. 2.14 Wherefore smitest thou him the oppressour answered Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us 1. Sam. 8.20 and the people say unto Samuel we will have a King over us that our King may judge us and goe out before us and fight our battailes 2. Sam. 5.2 Out of which two places we finde two speciall parts of the Kings government 1. Principatum bellorum the charge of the warres Sigon l. 7. c. 1. in respect whereof the Kings were called Captaines as the Lord said unto Samuel concerning Saul Vnges eum ducem 1. Sam. 9.16 thou shalt annoint him to be Captaine over my people Israel 2. Curam judiciorum the care of all judgements in respect whereof David and Solomon 1. Reg. 3.9 Psal 72.2 and the other Kings are said to judge the
though he should faile of his duty which God requireth and doe that wrong unto the people which God forbiddeth yet he is solutus legibus free from all Lawes quoad coactionem in respect of any coaction from the people but not quoad obligationem in respect of obedience to God by his obligation for though Kings had this plenitudinem potestatis to rule and governe their people as the father of the familie rules his houshold or the Pilot directs his Ship secundum liberum arbitrium according to his owne arbitrary will yet that will was to rule and to guide all his actions according to the strict Law of common equity and justice as I have often shewed unto you But though this arbitrary rule continued long and very generall for Diodorus Siculus saith Diodor. Siculus l. 2. c. 3. that excepting the Kings of Egypt that were indeed very strictly tied to live according to law all other Kings infinita licentia ac voluntate sua pro lege regnabant ruled as they listed themselves Boemus Aubanus tamen asserit voluntatem regum Aegypti pro lege esse Yet at last corruption so prevailed that either the Kings abusing their power or the people refusing to yeild their obedience caused this arbitrary rule to be abridged and limited within the bounds of lawes whereby the Kings promised and obliged themselves to governe their people according to the rules of those established lawes for though the supreme Majestie be free from lawes sponté tamen iis accommodare potest the King may of his owne accord yeild to observe the same and as the German Poet saith Nihil ut verum fatear magis esse decorum German vates de rebus Frid. l. 8. Aut regale puto quam legis iure solutum Sponte tamen legi sese supponere regem and according to the diversities of those lawes so are the diversities of government among the severall Kingdomes of the earth for I speake not of any Popular or Aristocraticall state How diversities of governement came up therefore as some Kings are more restrained by their lawes then some others so are their powers the lesse absolute and yet all of them being absolute Kings and free Monarchs are excepted from any account of their actions to any inferiour jurisdiction because then they had not beene Monarches but of Kings had made themselves Subjects Thus you see that rule which formerly was arbitrary is now become limited but limited by their owne lawes and with their owne wills and none otherwise for I shewed you elsewhere that the Legistative power resided allways in the King even as Virgil saith Virgil. Aeneid l. Gaudet regno Troianus Acestes Indicitque forum patribus dare jura vocatis And as that mirror of all learned Kings saith King Fergus came to Scotland before any Statutes or Parliament or Lawes were made Rex Iacobus in the true law of free Monarchs pag. 201. and you may easily finde it that Kings were the makers of the Lawes and not the Lawes the makers of Kings for the Lawes are but craved by the Subjects and made only by him at their rogation and with their advice so he gives the Law to them but takes none from them and by their owne Lawes Kings have limited and abridged their owne Right and power which God and nature have conferred upon them some more some lesse according as their grants were unto their people §. The extent of the grants of Kings what they may and what they may not grant what our Kings have not granted in seven speciall prerogatives and what they have granted unto their people ANd here I would have you to consider these two points Two things considerable about the priviledged grants of Kings 1. The extent of the grants of kings concerning these grants of Kings unto their Subjects 1. Of the extent of these grants 2. Of the Kings obligation to observe them for 1. It is certaine that the people allwayes desirous of liberty though that liberty should produce their ruine are notwithstanding like the daughters of the Horse-leeche still crying unto their Kings give give give us liberties and priviledges more and more and if they may have their wills Prov. 30.15 they are never satisfied Till Kings by giving give themselves away And even that power which should deny betray For the concessions and giving away of their right to governe That it is to the prejudice of government to grant too many priviledges to the people is the weakning of their government and the more priviledges they give the lesse power they have to rule and then the more unruly will their Subjects be and therefore the people being herein like the horses the Poets faigne to be in Phaebus chariot proud and stomackefull Kings should remember the grave advice the father gave unto Phaeton Parce puer stimulis sed fortius utere loris Ovid. Met. l. 1. Sponte suâ— properant labor est inhibere volantes They must be strongly bridled and restrained or they will soone destroy both horse and rider both themselves and their Governours Yet many Kings Constrained gifts not worthy of thanks either forcibly compelled by their unruly Subjects when they might thinke and therefore not yeild that Who gives constrain'd but his owne feare reviles Not thank't but scorn'd nor are they gifts but spoiles Or else as some intruding usurping Kings have done to retaine their unjustly gained crownes without opposition or as others out of their Princely clemency and facility to gaine the more love and affection What moved Kings to grant so many priviledges to their Subjects and as they conceived the greater obligation from their Subjects have many times to the prejudice of themselves and their posterity to the diminution of the rights of government and often to the great damage of the Common-wealth given away and released the execution of many parts of that right which originally most justly belonged unto them and tied themselves by promises and oathes to observe those lawes which they made for the exemption of their Subjects Majora jura inseperabilia à Majestate nequeâ—nt indulgeri subditis ita cohaerent ossibus ab illo seperari si ne illius destructione non possunt Paris de puteo Arnisaus l. 2. c. 2. de jure ma. Blacvod c. 7. pag. 75. Things that the King cannot grant But there be some things which the King cannot grant as to transferre the right of succession to any other then the right heire to whom it doth justly belong quia non jam haereditas est sed proprium adeuntis patrimonium cujus ei pleno jure dominium acquiritur non a Patre non à populo sed à lege Because he hath this right unto the Crowne not from his father nor from the people but from the Law of the Land and from God himselfe which appointed him for the same saith the Civilian and therefore that vulgar saying
in cogendis pecunus quotidianoque victu sequebantur Aubanus What things kings have granted And there be some things which our Kings have granted unto their Subjects and restrained themselves from their full right as the use of that power which makes new Lawes or repeales the old or layeth any taxe or summes 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 Kings right made by themselves unto their people and therefore where the Law cannot be produced to confirme such and such Liberties and Priviledges granted unto them I say there the Kings 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 Kings grant as you may see in the ratification of Magna Charta where the King saith We have granted and given all these Liberties 9. Hen 3. But I could never see it produced where the King granted unto his Subjects that they might force him and compell him with a strong hand by an Army of Souldiers to doe what they will or else to take away either his Crowne 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 Armes against their King And therefore this present resistance is a meere usurpation of the Kings right a rebellion against his Lawes an High Treason against his person and a resistance of the ordinance of God which heape of deadly sinnes 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 Kings Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have beene procured and repealed 2. 2. The Kings obligation to observe his grants WE are to consider how farre the King is obliged to observe his promise and to make good these Liberties and Priviledges unto his Subjects where I speake not how farre the fathers grant may oblige the sonne or the predecessor his successor Peter de lâ Primandas saith Laws annexed to the Crowne the Prince cannot so abrogate them but his Successor may disanull whatsoever he hath done in prejudice of them p. 597. who cannot be deprived of his right dominion by any act of his precedessors but for the rights of his dominion how farre precedent grants and the custome of their continuance with the desuetude and non-claime 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 farre 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 keepe and observe them Touching which you must understand that these grants of immunities and favours are of three speciall kindes 1. Of grace 2. By fraud 3. Through feare For 1. The King that hath his full right 1. All grants of grace ought to be observed either by conquest or succession over his people to governe them as a most absolute Monarch and out of his meere grace and favour to sweeten the subjection of his people and to binde them with the greater love and affection to his obedience doth minuere sua jura restraine his absolute right bestow liberties upon his people and take his oath for their security that he will observe them is bound in all conscience to performe them and can never be freed from injustice before God and man if he transgresse them Quia volenti non fit injuria because they doe him no injury when he doth voluntarily either totally resigne or in some particularity diminish his owne right The true Law of free Monarchs p. 203. but after he hath thus firmely done it he can never justly goe from it and therefore King James saith that a King which governeth not by his Lawes can neither be accountable to God for his administration nor have a happy and established raigne because it cannot be but that the people seeing their King failing of his duty will be alwayes murmuring and defective in their fidelity And Yet the Kings breach of oath doth neither forfeit his right nor warrant their disloyalty because another mans sinne doth no way lessen mine offence and neither God nor the King granted this priviledge unto Subjects to rebell and take Armes against their Soveraigne when they pretend he hath broken his promise 2. Grants obtained through fraud which to be observed 2. When the King through the subtle perswasions of his people that pretend one thing and intend another shall be seduced to grant those things that are full of inconveniences as our King was over reached and no better then meerly cheated by the faction of this Parliament to grant the continuance of it till it should be dissolved with the consent of both Houses and the like Lawes that are procured by meere fraud that soonest over-reacheth the best meaning Kings I answer with the old Proverbe Caveat emptor he ought to have beene as wise to prevent them as they were subtle to circumvent him and therefore Josh 9.20 as Joshua being deceived by the Gibeonites could not alter his promise nor breake his league with them lest wrath should fall upon him so no more should any other King breake promise in the like case Psal 15.5 But you must observe that the Psalmist saith The good man which shall dwell in the Tabernacle of the Lord is he that sweareth unto his neighbour and disappointeth him not though it were to his owne hinderance marke though it were to his owne hinderance never so much Quicquid fit dolo malo annullat factum imponit poenam summa Angel he must performe it but what if he hath promised and sworne that which will be to the great dishonour of God to the hinderance of thousands of others and it may be to the ruine of a whole Kingdome which is a great deale more then his owne hinderance is a King bound or is any man else obliged to performe such a promise or to keepe such an oath to tell you mine owne judgement I thinke he ought not to performe it and our owne Law tels us what grants soever are obtained from the King under the broad Seale by fraud and deceit those grants are void in Law therefore seeing the act for the perpetuity of this Parliament was obtained dolo pessimo to the great dishonour of God and the ruine both of
cause lest we should think it lawfull to swallow a Camell because we are able to streane a gnat and let us not be afraid where no feare is and think those things sinfull that are most lawfull A heavy judgement upon this Nation by mistaking sinnes 6. From perplexity which is a heavy judgement of God upon the wicked and hath now lighted very sore upon many of the Inhabitants of this land who thinke it Popery to say God blesse you and judge it idolatry to see a Crosse in Cheap-side 6. If it be of perplexity when a man is close as he conceives betwixt two sinnes where he seeth himselfe vnable though never so willing to avoyd both let him peccare in tutiorem partem which though it takes not away the sinne yet it will make the fault to be the lesse sinne as the casting away of the corne which is the gift of God and the sustenance of mans life is an unthankfull abuse of Gods creature Act. 27.38 yet as S. Paul caused the same to be cast into the Sea for the safeguard of their lives so must we doe the like when occasion makes it necessary as now rather to kill our enemies the Rebells though we should think it to be ill then suffer them to wrong our King and to destroy both Church and Kingdome because that of two things which we conceive evill When things are to be judged inevitable and are not both evitable the choice of the lesser to avoyd the greater is not evill but they are then to be judged inevitable when there is no apparent ordinary way to avoid them Hooker Eccles pol. l 5. p. 15. because that where counsell and advice doe beare rule we may not presume of Gods extraordinary power without extraordinary warrant saith iuditious Mr Hooker 7. If it be of too much humility 7. From too much humility which is an error of lesse danger yet by no meanes to be fostered lest by gathering strength it proves most pernitious they should pray to God to preserve them from too much feare Multos in summa periculamisit venturi timor ipse mali Lucan l 7. for though as S. Gregory saith bonarum mentium est ibi culpas agnoscere ubi culpa non est yet as J said before it is a heavy Iudgement and a want of Gods grace to be afraid where no feare is and it makes men to commit many sins many times for feare of sinne And thus having rectified our conscience in the understanding of all these things we are bound by the commandement of God to be obedient unto the commands of our King for it is a paradox to say Christians are free from the Lawes of men Act. 15.20 Rom. 13.2.3 1. Peter 2.13 because it was a human law touching things strangled blood and the Apostles doe exact our obedience unto human lawes even the Lawes of Heathen and Idolatrous Emperours and therefore being bound to obey them they cannot be freed in conscience from the Religion of them and so Dr Whitaker saith that as the Lawes of God must be simply obeyed without any difference of time place and circumstance so must the Lawes of men be obeyed as the circumstances doe require for example he that is a Roman and liveth at Rome must obey the Roman Lawes and he saith that the authority of the Magistrate which is sacred and holy cannot with any good conscience be contemned because it is the commandement of God that we should obey them Whitaker contra Camp p. 258. Ob. and this saith he doth binde the conscience when as the Apostle saith he is to be obeyed for conscience sake But you will say what if the King forbids me to doe what God commandeth as the high Priest did to the Apostles or commandeth me to doe what God forbiddeth as Julian did unto the Christians and Nebuchadnezzar to the three children We have often answered that in such a case Sol. it is better to obey God then man for it is sometimes lawfull not to obey Act. 5.25 but it is never lawfull to resist Ob. What if he compells us by force and violence to doe what God forbids us to do if he play 's the Tyrant violates our Laws and corrupts the true Religion with Idolatry and superstition may we not then as our forefathers did heretofore unto Chilperick King of France to Richard the second of this Kingdom and others bridle them and Depose them too if they will not be ruled by their Great Councell the Parliament I. â—â—gus â—â—â—saeus de â—â—thor princi 〈◊〉 Pop. I answer first Non spectandum quid factum sit sed quid fieri debuerit we are not so much to regard what hath been done as what ought to have been done as Arnisaeus proveth at large and sheweth most excellently with a full answer to all the articles that were alleadged against those Kings how unjustly they were handled and deposed contrary to all right and I wish that book were translated into English 2. Of our passive obed 2. I say that when our active obedience cannot be yeelded our passive obedience must be used for were our Kings as Tyrannicall as Nero as Idolatrous as Manasses as wicked as Achab and as Prophane as Iulian yet we may not resist wheÌ„ as Arnisaeus proveth by many many examples Idâ—m cap. 3. p. 68. that the Rebellion of Subjects against their King doth overthrow the order of nature and Justinian saith quis est tantae autoritatis ut nolentem principem possit coarctare but in such a case we must doe as all the Saints did before us not as the Heathens which thought them worthy of divine honour Cicero pro Milone Seneca in Hercul fur which did kill a Tyrant and said with Seneca victima haud ulla amplior Potest magisque opima mactari Iovi Quà m Rex iniquus But Christ and his Apostles suffered but never resisted the lawfull Magistrate as Christ himselfe suffered under Pontius Pilate a most wicked Magistrate and registred in the breviary of our Faith that we might never forget our duty rather to suffer then to resist the authority that is from Heaven and as Saint Ambrose answered the Emperour that would have his Church delivered to the Arians I shall never be willing to leave it coactus repugnare non novi if I be compelled I have not learned to resist I can grieve and weep and sigh and against the Armes and Gotish Souldiers my teares are my weapons for those are the Bulworkes of the Priest who in any other manner neither can neither ought he to resist so must all Christians rather by suffering death then by resisting our King to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven But 't is objected by our Sectaries Ob. The Author of the Treatise of Monarchy p. 31. Sol. The Law provides that the King should not be circumvented and wronged that His Majesty confesseth there is a
JVRA MAJESTATIS THE RIGHTS OF KINGS BOTH In CHVRCH and STATE 1. Granted by God 2. Violated by the Rebels 3. Vindicated by the Truth AND The wickednesses of the Faction of this pretended PARLIAMENT at VVestminster 1. Manifested by their Actions 1. Perjury 2. Rebellion 3. Oppression 4. Murder 5. Robberie 6. Sacriledge and the like 2. Proved by their Ordinances 1. Against Law 2. Against Equity 3. Against Conscience PUBLISHED 1. To the eternall honour of our just God 2. The indeleble shame of the wicked Rebels And 3. To procure the happy peace of this distressed Land Which many feare we shall never obtaine untill 1. The Rebels be destroyed or reduced to the obedience of our King And 2. The breaches of the Church be repaired 1. By the restauration of Gods now much prophaned service And 2. The reparation of the many injuries done to Christ his now dis-esteemed servants By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS Lord Bishop of OSSORY Impij homines qui dum volunt esse mali nolunt esse veritatem qua condemnantur mali Augustinus Printed at Oxford Ann. Dom. 1644. Carolus D G Mag Brittaniae Fra et Hiberniae Rex â—â—r TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE Most gracious Soveraigne WIth no small paines and the more for want of my books and of any setled place being multùm terris jactatus alto frighted out of mine house and tost betwixt two distracted Kingdomes I have collected out of the sacred Scripture explained by the ancient Fathers and the best Writers of Gods Church these few Rights our of many that God and nature and Nations and the Lawes of this Land have fully and undeniably granted unto our Sveraigne Kings My witnesse is in Heaven that as my conscience directed me without any squint aspect so I have with all sincerity and freely traced and expressed the truth as I shall answer to the contrary at the dreadfull judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore with all fervency I humbly supplicate the divine Majestie still to assist Your Highnesse that as in Your lowest ebbe You have put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and with an heroick resolution withstood the proudest waves of the raging Seas and the violent attempts of so many imaginary Kings so now in Your acquired strength You may still ride on with Your honour and for the glory of God the preservation of Christ his Church and the happinesse of this Kingdom not for the greatest storme that can be threatned suffer these Rights to be snatched away nor Your Crowne to be throwne to the dust nor the sword that God hath given You to be wrested out of Your hand by these uncircumcised Philistines these ungracious rebels and the vessels of Gods wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse they do most speedily repent for if the unrighteous will be unrighteous still and our wickednesse provoke God to bring our Land to desolation Your Majestie standing in the truth and for the right for the honour of God and the Church of his Sonne is absolved from all blame and all the bloud that shall be spilt and the oppressions insolencies and abhominations that are perpetrated shall be required at the hands and revenged upon the heads of these detested rebels You are and ought in the truth of cases of conscience to be informed by Your Divines and I am confident that herein they will all subscribe that God will undoubtedly assist You and arise in his good time to maintaine his owne cause and by this warre that is so undutifully so unjustly made against Your Majestie so Giant like fought against Heaven to overthrow the true Church You shall be glorious like King David that was a man of warre whose deare sonne raised a dangerous rebellion against him and in whose reigne so much bloud was spilt and yet notwithstanding these distempers in his Dominion he was a man according to Gods owne heart especially because that from α to ω * As in the beginning by reducing the Arke from the Philistines throughout the midst by setling the service of the Tabernacle in the ending by his resolution to build and leaving such a treasure for the erecting of the Temple the beginning of his raigne to the end of his life his chiefest endeavour was to promote the service and protect the servants of the Tabernacle the Ministers of Gods Church God Almighty so continue Your Majestie blesse You and protect You in all Your wayes Your vertuous pious Queene and all Your royall Progenie Which is the daily prayer of The most faithfull to Your Majestie GRYFFITH OSSORY The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this TREATISE CHAP. I. Sheweth who are the fittest to set downe the Rights which God granted unto Kings what causeth men to rebell the parts considerable in S. Peter's words 1. Pet. 2.17 in fine How Kings honoured the Clergy the faire but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefely ayme at and their malice to Episcopacie and Royaltie Pag. 1 CHAP. II. Sheweth what Kings are to be honoured the institution of Kings to be immediately from God the first Kings the three chiefest rights to Kingdomes the best of the three rights how Kings came to be elected and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracie and Democracie issued out of Monarchie Pag. 12 CHAP. III. Sheweth the Monarchicall Government to be the best forme the first Government that ever was agreeable to Nature wherein God founded it consonant to Gods owne Government the most universally received throughout the world the immediate and proper Ordinance of God c. Pag. 20 CHAP. IV. Sheweth what we should not do and what we should do for the King the Rebels transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themselves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their own Kings of Israel c. Pag. 29 CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himselfe before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecuting Emperours Pag. 41 CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three severall opinions the strange speeches of the Disciplinarians against Kings are shewed and Viretus his scandalous reasons are answered the double service of all Christian Kings and how the Heathen Kings and Emperours had the charge of Religion Pag. 48 CHAP. VII Sheweth the three things necessary for all Kings that would preserve true Religion how the King may attaine to the knowledge of things that pertaine to Religion by His Bishops and Chaplains and the calling of Synods c. Pag. 62 CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Lawes by the advice of their Bishops and Clergy
and not of their Lay Counsellors how our late Canons came to be annulled c. Pag. 72 CHAP. IX Sheweth a full answer to foure speciall Objections that are made against the Civill jurisdictions of Ecclesiasticall persons their abilities to discharge these offices and desire to benefit the Common-wealth why some Councels inhibited these offices unto Bishops c. Pag. 86 CHAP. X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensation is reasons for it to tolerate divers Sects or sorts of Religions the foure speciall sorts of false Professors S. Augustines reasons for the toleration of the Jewes toleration of Papists and of Puritans and which of them deserve best to be tolerated among the Protestants and how any Sect is to be tolerated Pag. 101 CHAP. XI Sheweth where the Protestants Papists and Puritans do place Soveraignty who first taught the deposing of Kings the Puritans tenet worse then the Jesuites Kings authority immediately from God the twofold royalty in a King the words of the Apostle vindicated from false glosses c. Pag. 116 CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their government to whom the choyce of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peeres nor Parliament can have supremacy the Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton answered our Lawes prove all Soveraignty to be in the King Pag. 127 § The two chiefest parts of the regall government the foure properties of a just warre and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property Pag. 134 CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first government of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deut. 17. and of Samuel 1. Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of government came up Pag. 142 § The extent of the grants of Kings what they may and what they may not grant what our Kings have not granted in seven speciall prerogatives and what they have granâ—â—◠〈…〉 Pag. â—47 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 Kings Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have beene procured and repealed Pag. 155 § 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 Pag. 163 CHAP. XV. Sheweth the honour due to the King 1. Feare 2. An high esteem of our King how highly the Heathens esteemed of their Kings the Marriage of obedience and authority the Rebellion of the Nobility how haynous 3. Obedience fourefold divers kindes of Monarchs and how an absolute Monarch may limit himselfe Pag. 169 CHAP. XVI Sheweth the answer to some objections against the obeying of our Soveraigne Magistrate all actions of three kindes how our consciences may be reformed of our passive obedience to the Magistrates and of the Kings concessions how to be taken Pag. 181 CHAP. XVII Sheweth how tribute is due to the King for six speciall reasons to be paid the condition of a lawfull tribute that we should not be niggards to assist the King that we should defend the Kings Person the wealth and pride of London the cause of all the miseries of this Kingdome and how we ought to pray for our King Pag. 190 CHAP. XVIII The persons that ought to honour the King and the recapitulation of 21 wickednesses of the Rebels and the faction of the pretended Parliament Pag. 203 CHAP. XIX Sheweth how the Rebellious faction have transgressed all the ten Commandements of the Law and the new Commandement of the Gospell how they have committed the seven deadly sinnes and the foure crying sinnes and the three most destructive sinnes to the soule of man and how their Ordinances are made against all Lawes equity and conscience Pag. 212 CHAP. XX. Sheweth how the rebellious Faction forswore themselves what trust is to be given to them how we may recover our peace and prosperity how they have unking'd the Lords Annointed and for whom they have exchanged him and the conclusion of the whole Pag. 223 The Rights of Kings both in CHURCH and STATE And The Wickednesses of this pretended PARLIAMENT manifested and proved CHAP. I. Sheweth who are the fittest to set down the Rights which God granted unto Kings what causeth men to rebell the parts considerable in S. Peter's words 1 Pet. 2.17 in fine How Kings honoured the Clergie the faire but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefly aime at and their malice to Episcopacie and Royaltie IT was not unwisely said by Ocham that great Schoolman to a great Emperour which M. Luther said also to the Duke of Saxonie Tu protege me gladio ego defendam te calamo Guliel Ocham Ludov. 4. do you defend me with your Sword and I will maintain your right with my pen for God hath committed the Sword into the hand of the King and his hand which beareth not the Sword in vain knoweth how to use Rom. 13. v. 4. the Sword better than the Preacher and the King may better make good his Rights by the Sword than by the pen which having once blotted his papers with mistakes and concessions more than due though they should be never so small if granted further than the truth would permit as I feare some have done in some particulars yet they cannot so easily be scraped away by the sharpest sword and God ordered the divine tongue and learned Scribe to be the pennes of a ready Writer and thereby to display the duties and to justifie the Rights of Kings and if they faile in either part the King needeth neither to performe what undue Offices they impose upon him The Divine best to s t down the Righ s of k ngs nor to let passe those just honours they omit to yield unto him but he may justly claime his due Rights and either retaine them or regain them by his Sword which the Scribe either wilfully omitted or ignorantly neglected to ascribe unto him or else maliciously endeavoured as the most impudent and rebellious Sectaries of our time have most virulently done to abstract them from him And seeing the Crown is set upon the head of every Christian King and the Scepter of government is put into his hand by a threefold Law 1. Of Nature that is common to all 2. Of the Nation that he ruleth over 3. Of God that is over all As Every Christian king established by a threefold Law 1. Nature teaching every King to governe his People according to the common rules of honesty and justice 2. The politique constitution of every severall State and particular Kingdome shewing how they would have their government to be administred Psal
119. 3. The Law of God which is an undefiled Law and doth infallibly set downe what duties are to be performed and what Rights are to be yielded to every King for whatsoever things are written of the Kings of Israel and Judah in the holy Scriptures are not only written for those Kings and the government of that one Nation To what end the stories of the kings of Israel and Iudah were written Rom. 15.4 but as the Apostle saith They are written for our learning that all Kings and Princes might know thereby how to governe and all Subjects might in like manner by this impartiall and most perfect rule understand how to behave themselves in all obedience and loyalty towards their Kings and governours for he that made man knew he had been better unmade than left without a Government therefore as he ordained those Lawes whereby we should live and set down those truths that we should believe The ordination of our government as beneficiall as our creation so he settled and ordained that Government whereby all men in all Nations should be guided and governed as knowing full well that we neither would nor could do any of these things right unlesse he himselfe did set down the same for us therefore though the frowardnesse of our Nature will neither yield to live according to that Law nor believe according to that rule nor be governed according to that divine Ordinance which God hath prescribed for us in his Word yet it is most certain that he left us not without a perfect rule and direction for each one of these our faith our life and our government without which government we could neither enjoy the benefits of our life nor scarce reape the fruits of our faith and because it were as good to leave us without Rules and without Lawes Unwritten things most uncertain as to live by unwritten Lawes which in the vastnesse of this world would be soon altered corrupted and obliterated therefore God hath written down all these things in the holy Scriptures which though they were delivered to the People of the Jewes for the government both of their Church and Kingdome yet were they left with them to be communicated for the use and benefit of all other Nations God being not the God of the Jewes onely Rom. 3 2◠but of the Gentiles also because the Scripture in all morall and perpetuall precepts that are not meerly judicialia Judaica or secundae classis which the royall government was not because this was ordained from the beginning of the world to be observed among all Nations and to be continued to the end of the world nor the types and shadowes that were to vanish when the true substance approached was left as a perfect paterne and platforme for all Kings and People Pastours and Flockes Churches and Kingdomes throughout the whole world to be directed how to live to governe and to be governed thereby Such was the love and care of God for the Government of them that love and care as little to be governed by his government Every Government the better by how much nearer it is to the Government of the Scripture kings And therefore the dimme and dusky light of bleare eye'd Nature and the darke distracted inventions of the subtillest politickes must stoope and yield place in all things wherein they swerve from that strict rule of justice and the right order of government which is expressed necessarily to be observed in the holy Scripture either of the Kings part towards his People or of the Peoples duty towards their King And though each one of these faculties or the understanding of each one of these three Lawes requireth more than the whole man our life being too short to make us perfect in any one yet seeing that of all three the Law of God is abyssus magna like the bottomlesse sea and the supreme Lady to whom all other Lawes and Sciences are but as Penelopes handmaids to attend her service the Divine may farre better and much sooner understand what is naturall right The Divine is better able to understand Law than the Lawyer to understand Divinitie Psal 1.2 and what ought to be a just nationall Law and thereby what is the Right of Kings and what the duty of Subjects than any either Philosopher or Lawyer can finde the same by any other art especially to understand the same so fully by the Law of God as the Divine that exerciseth himselfe therein day and night may do it unlesse you thinke as our Enthusiasts dreame that every illiterate Tradesman or at least a Lawyers Latine I speak of the generality when I know many of them of much worth in all learning may easily wade with the reading of our English Bibles into the depth of all Divinity and that the greatest Doctour that spent all his dayes in studies can hardly understand the mysteries of these Camelion-like Lawes which may change sense as often as the Case shall be changed either by the subtlety of the Pleader or the ignorance or corruption of the Judges But we know their deepest Lawes discreetest Statutes and subtillest Cases cannot exceed the reach of sound reason and therefore no Reason can be shewed but that a rationall man meanly understanding Languages may sooner understand them and with lesse danger mistake them than that Law which as the Psalmist saith is exceeding broad Psal 119.96 and exceedeth all humane sense and the most exquisite naturall understanding 1 Cor. 2.14 when as the Apostle saith The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnes unto him neither can he know them because they ar◠spiritually discerned and being not discerned or misunderstood they make all such mistakers liable to no small punishment if God should be extreme to marke what is done amisse and this not understanding of God's Law is the errour of other Lawes and the cause of much mischiefe What causeth many men to rebell The Scriptures say more for the right of kings than any booke in the world D wning in his d scourse of the Ecclesiasticall State p. 91. for if men understood the Law of God or would believe us that do understand it I assure my selfe many of the Rebels such as rebell not out of pride disobedience or discontent are so conscientious that they would not so rebell as they do being seduced through their ignorance by the subtletie of the most crafty children of disobedience And therefore letting the usuall impatience of the furious fire-brands of sedition and the malicious incendiaries of Rebellion together with those treacherous Judasses that insensibly lurke in the King's Court and are more dangerous both to the Church and State than those open Rebels that are in the Parliament House to lay on me what reproach they please as some of them being galled and now gone have already done August Ego in bonâ conscientiâ teneo quisquis volens
the good Husbandman had no sooner sown his pure Wheat but immediately Inimicus homo the evill and envious man superseminavit zizania sowed his poysonous Tares amongst them so God had no sooner thus honoured his servants but presently the Devill which is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4.4 the god of this world began to throw dirt in their faces and to deprive them of both these honours for 1. He stirred up ignorant men of small learning but of great spirits of no fidelity but of much hypocrisie that as Pope Leo wrote unto Theodosius Leo papa Epist 23. Privatas causas pietatis agunt obtentu and under a faire pretext did play the part of Aesop's Fox who being ashamed that his taile was cut off began to inveigh against the unseemly burthensome tayles of all the other Foxes What the factious Preachers pretended and to perswade them to cut theirs off that so by the common calamity he might be the better excused for his obscenity for so they cried downe all Learning as prophane they railed at the Schoolmen they scorned the Fathers and esteemed nothing but that nothing which they had themselves and although they professed to the Vulgar that they aimed at no end but the purity of the Gospell they desired nothing but the amendment of life and reformation of Ecclesiasticall Discipline and hated nothing but the pride and covetousnesse of the Bishops and the other dignified Prelates which stopped their mouthes and imprisoned the liberty of their conscience yet the truth is that because their worth was not answerable to their ambition to enable them to climbe up to some height of honour their envy was so great that they would faine pull downe all those that had ascended and exceeded them And therefore with open mouthes that would not be silenced they exclaimed against Episcopacie and as the Apostle faith spake evill of Dignities imploying all their strength like wicked birds to defile their owne nests to disrobe us of all honour and to leave us naked yea and as much as in them lay What the Factious ayme at to make us odious and to stinke as the Israelites said to Moses in the eyes of the people Then 2. As Plutarch tells us Plutarch in lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a certaine Sicilian Gnatho and Philoxenus the sonne of Erixis that were slaves unto their gutts and made a god of their bellies to cause all the other guests to loath their meat that they alone might devoure all the dainties did use Narium mueum in catinis â—mungere so doe these men spit all their poyson against the revenues of the Bishops and that little maintenance that is left unto the Ministers and are as greedy to devoure the same themselves as the dogs that gape after every bit they see us put into our mouthes for so I heard a whelpe of that litter Doctor Burges making a bitter invective in the House of Commons against Bishops Deanes and Chapters and the greatnesse of their revenue and concluding that all they should be degraded their meanes should be sequestred and distributed all without any diminution of what they now possessed but with the restitution of all Impropriations unto himselfe and the rest of his factious fellow Preachers which speech as it pleased but few in the latter clause so no doubt it had fautâ—rs enough in the former part when we see this little remnant of our fore-fathers bounty this testimony of our Princes piety is the onely mote that sticks in their eye the undigested morsell in their stomacks and the onely â—ait that they gape after for did our King yeild this garment of Christ to be parted among their Souldiers and this revenue of the Church to be disposed of by the Parliament I doubt not but all quarrels about the Church would soone end and all other strife about Religion would be soone composed What many men would willingly undergoe to procure peace But would this end all our civill warres would the unbishoping of our Prelates bring rest unto our Prince and the taking away of their estates settle the State of the Common-wealth and bring peace and tranquillity unto this Kingdome If so we could be well contented for our owne parts to be sacrificed for the safety of the people for though we dare not say with Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.6 that we could wish our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or seperated from Christ for our Country-men yet I can say it with a syncere heart that I beleeve many of us could be well contented our fortunes should be confiscated and our lives ended so that could procure the peace of the Church which is infinitely troubled redeeme His Majesties honour which is so deepely wounded and preserve this our native Country from that destruction which this unparallel'd Rebellion doth so infallibly threaten The abolishing of Episcopacie would not satisfie the Factious but the truth is that the abolishing of Episcopacie root and branch the reducing of the best to the lowest ranke and the bringing of the Clergie to the basest condition of servility to be such as should not be worthy to eat with the dogs of their flocke as Job speaketh will not doe the deed because Iuven. Sat. 2. as the Satyrist saith nemo repentè fit turpissimus but as vertues so vices have their increase by use and progression primum quodque flagitium gradus est ad proximum and every heynous offence is as an iron chaine to draw on another For as Seneca saith Seneca de Clem. lib. 1. nunquam usque adeo temperata cupiditates sunt ut in eo quod contigit desinant sed gradus à magnis ad majora fit spes improbissimas complectuntur insperata assecuti our desires are never so farre temperated that they end in that which is obtained but the gaining of one thing is a step to seek another And therefore cùm publicum juâ— omne positum fit in sacris Plato de legibus lib. 12. as Plato saith how can it be that they which have prophaned all sacred things and have degraded their Ministers should not also proceed to depose their Magistrates if you be diffident to beleeve the same let the Annals of France Germany England and Scotland be revised and you shall finde that Charles the fifth was then troubled with warre when the Bishops were turmoyled and tumbled out of their Seas Scoti uno eodémque momento numinis principis jugum excusserunt nec justum magistratum agnoverunt ullum ex quo primum tempore sacris sacerdotibus bellum indixerunt and the Scots at one and the selfe-same moment did shake off the yoke of their obedience both unto their God and to their King neither did they acknowledge any for their just Magistrate after theâ— had once warred against Religion and religious men which were their Priests and Bishops saith Blacvodaeus
to governe God's People is their indubitable right and the immediate prime principall Ordinance of God therefore it concernes every man as much as his soule is worth to examine seriously whether to fight against their owne King be not to resist the Ordinance of God for which God threatneth no lesse punishment than damnation from which Machiavel cannot preserve us nor any policy of State procure a dispensation CHAP. IV. Sheweth what we should not do and what we should do for the King the Rebells transgressing in all those how the Israelites honoured their persecuting King in Egypt how they behaved themselves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their owne Kings of Israel and how our Kings are of the like institution with the Kings of Israel proved in the chiefest respects at large and therefore to have the like honour and obedience 2. AS every lawfull King is to be truly honoured in regard of God's Ordinance 2. All Kings are to be honoured in respect of God's precept considered two wayes so likewise in respect of God's precept which commandeth us to honour the King and this duty is so often inculcated and so fully laid upon us in the holy Scripture that I scarce know any duty towards man so much pressed and so plainly expressed as this is 1. Negatively what we should not do 1. What we should not do to deprive him of his Honour 2. Affirmatively what we should do to manifest and magnifie this Honour towards him for 1. Our very thoughts words 1. To thinke no â—ll of the King Curse not the King no not in thy thought Eccles 10.30 and workes are imprisoned and chained up in the linkes of God's strictest prohibition that they should no wayes peepe forth to produce the least dishonour unto our King for 1. The Spirit of God by the mouth of the wisest of men commands us to thinke no ill of the King let the King be what he will the precept is without restriction you must thinke no ill that is you must not intend and purpose in your thoughts to doe the least ill office or disparagement unto the King that â—â—leth over you be the same King virtuous or vitious milde or cruell good or bad this is the sense of the Holy Ghost For as the childe with Cham shall become accursed if he doth but dishonour and despise his wicked father or his father in his wickednesse whom in all duty he ought to reverence so the Subject shall be liable to Gods vengeance if his heart shall intend the least ill to his most tyrannicall King To saâ— no â—ll of thâ— King â—xod 22.28 Act. 23. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The same Spirit saith Thou shalt not revile the Gods that is the Judges of the Land nor curse that is in Saint Pauls phrase speake evill of the Ruler of the people and what can be more evill then to bely his Religion to traduce his Government and to make so faithfull a Christian King as faithlesse as a Cretan which is commonly broached by the Rebels and preached by their seditious teachers 3. To doe no hurt to the King â—â—al 105.15 1 â—am 24.4 5. 3. The great Iehovah gives this peremptory charge to all Subjects saying Touch not mine Annointed which is the least indignity that may be and therefore Davids heart smote him when he did but cut off the lap of Saules garment What then can be said for them that draw their swords and shoot their Canons to take away the life of Gods Annointed which is the greatest mischiefe they can doe I believe no distinction can blind the judgement of Almighty God but his revengefull hand will finde them out that so maliciously transgresse his precepts and thinke by their subtilty to escape his punishments 2. What we should doe to honour the King Eccles 8 2. 1. To observe the Kings commands 2. The Scriptures doe positively and plainly command us to shew all honour unto our King For 1. Salomon saith I counsell thee to keepe the Kings commandement or as the phrase imports to observe the mouth of the King that is not onely his written law but also his verball commands and that in regard of the oath of God that is in respect of thy religion or the solemne vow which thou madest at thine initiation and incorporation into Gods Church to obey all the precepts of God whereof this is one to honour and obey the King or else that oath of allegiance and fidelity Et si religio to â—â—â—litur nullà nâ—beâ— cum coelo ratio est Lactant Inst l. 3. c. 10. which thou hast sworne unto thy King in the presence and with the approbation of thy God which certainly will plague all perjurers and take revenge on them that take his name in vaine which is the infallible and therefore most miserable condition of all the perjurod Rebels of this Kingdome For if morall honesty teacheth us to keepe our promises yea though it were to our owne hinderance then much more should Christianity teach us to observe our deliberate and solemne oathes whose violation can beare none other fruit then the heavy censure of Gods fearefull indignation But when the prevalent faction tooke a solemne Oath and Protestation to defend all the Priviledges of Parliament and the Rights of the Subjects How the prevalent Faction of the Parliament forswore themselves and then presently forgetting their oath and forsaking their faith by throwing the Bishops out of the House of Peeres which all men knew to be a singular Priviledge and the House of Lords acknowledged to be the indubitable right of the Bishops and their doctrine being to dispense with all oathes for the furtherance of the cause it is no wonder they falsifie all oathes that they have made unto the King 2. The people said unto Joshuah 2. To obey the Kings commandements Josh 1.18 Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandement and will not hearken to the words of thy mouth in all that thou commandest he shall be put to death surely this was an absolute government and though martiall yet most excellent to keepe the people within the bounds of their obedience for they knew that where rebellion is permitted there can be no good performance of any duty and it may be a good lesson for all the higher powers not to be too clement which is the incouragement of Rebels to most obstinate Trayterous and rebellious Subjects who daring not to stirre under rigid Tyrants doe kicke with their heeles against the most pious Princes and therefore my soule wisheth not out of any desire of bloud but from my love to peace that this rule were well observed Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandement he shall be put to death * Quia in talibus non chedientes mortaliter peccant nisi foret illud quod praecipitur contra praceptum Dei vel in salutis dispendium Angel summa verb. obedientia 3. To give the King no just
c. 16. and confirmed unto him by Act of Parliament yet upon his death-bed confessed he had no right thereunto as Speed writeth 4. Because it was determined by all the Judges at the Arraignment Reason 4 of Watson and Clerke 1. Jacobs that immediately by descent his Majestie was compleatly and absolutely King without the Ceremony of Coronation which was but a royall ornament and outward solemnization of the descent And it is illustrated by Hen. 6. Speed l. 9. c. 16. that was not crowned till the ninth yeare of his reigne and yet divers were attainted of High Treason before that time which could not have beene done had he not beene King And we know that upon the death of any of our Kings The right heire to the Kingdome is King before he is crowned his Successor iâ— immediately proclaimed King to shew that he hath his Kingdome by descent and not by the people at his Coronation whose consent is then asked Why the peoples consent is asked not because they have any power to deny their consent or refuse him for their King but that the King having their assent may with greater security and confidence rely upon their loyalty Respect 2 2. As the Kings of Israel had full power and authority to make warre and conclude peace to call the greatest Assemblies as Moses Joshua David Iehosaphat and the rest of the Kings did to place and displace the greatest Officers of State as Solomon placed Abiathar in Sadoc's roome 2. Chron 19.11 and Iehosaphat appointed Amariah and Zebadiah rulers of the greatest affaires and had all the Militia of the Kingdome in their hands The absolute authority of the Kings of England Coke 7. rep fol 25. 6. Pâ—lyd Virgil. lib. 11. Speed Stâ—w c. so the Kings of England have the like for 1. He onely can lawfully proclaime warre as I shewed before and he onely can conclude peace 2. There is no Assembly that can lawfully meet but by his Authority and as the Parliament was first devised and instituted by the King as all our Historians write in the life of Hen. 1. so they cannot meet but by the Kings Writ 3. All Lawes Customes and Franchises are granted and confirmed unto the people by the King Rot. Claus 1. R. 2. n. 44. Smith de repub Angl. l. 2. c. 4. c. 5. 4. All the Officers of the Realme whether Spirituall or Temporall are chosen and established by him as the highest immediately by himselfe and the inferiour by an authority derived from him The absurdities of them that deny the Militia to the King 5. He hath the 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 Kingdome or otherwise it would follow that the King had power to proclaime warre but not to be able to maintaine 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 Soveraignes 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 Realme of England Smith de Repub. l. 2. Cambden Britan p. 132. supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habentes nec in Imperii clientelâ sunt nec investituram ab alio accipientes nec praeter Deum superiorem agnoscentes and their Subjects are bound by oath to maintaine the Kings Soveraignty in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill and that not onely as they are singularly considered but over all collectively represented in the body politique for by sundry divers old authentique Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realme of England is an Empire and so hath beene accepted in the world In the Pâ—eface to a Staâ— 24. Hen. 8. c. 12. governed by one supreame Head and King having the dignity and royall estate of the Imperiall Crowne of the same unto whom a body politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in termes and by names of spiritualty and temporalty have beene bounden and owen to beare next to God a naturall and humble obedience 3. As the duty of every one of the Kings of Israel was to be Respect 3 Custos utriusque tabulae to keepe the Law of God and to have a speciall care of his Religion and then to doe justice and judgement according to the Law of nature and to observe all the judiciall Lawes of that Kingdome so are the Kings of England obliged to discharge the same duties 1. To have the chiefest care to defend the faith of Christ The duty of the Kings of England and to preserve the honour of Gods Church as I shewed before 2. To maintaine common right according to the rules and dictates of nature And 3. To see the particular Lawes and Statutes of his owne Kingdome 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 established Lawes neither doe our Divines give any further liberty to any King but if he failes in these he doth offend in his duty 4. As the Kings of Israel were accountable for their actions Respect 4 unto none but onely unto God and therefore King David after he had committed both murder and adultery saith unto God Psal 51.4 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 that the Prophets perswaded them to call any of their most idolatrous tyrannicall or wicked Kings to any account for their idolatrie The kings of England accountable for their actions onely to God tyrannie or wickednesse even so the Kings of England are accountable to none but to God 1. Because they have their Crowne immediately from God Reason 1 who first gave it to the Conquerour through his sword and since to the succeding Kings Smith de repub l. 1. c. 9. by the ordinary meanes of hereditary succession 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 doe Reason 4 4. Because the testimony of many famous Lawyers justifie the same truth for Bracton saith if the King refuse to do what is just satis erit ei ad paenam quòd Dominum expectet ultonem the Lord will be his avenger which will be punishment enough for him Bracton fol 34. a. b. apud Lincol anno 1301. 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 that certum directum Dominium à prima institutione regni Angliae ad Regem pertinuit the certaine and direct Dominion of this Kingdome from the very first institution thereof hath belonged unto the King who by reason of the arbitrary or free preeminence of the royall dignity and custome observed in all ages Ex liberâ praeminentiâ ought not to answer before any Judge either Ecclesiasticall or Secular Ergo neither before the Pope nor Parliament nor Presbyterie 5. Because the constant custome and practice of this Kingdome Reason 5 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 Parliament did ever question the Kings of England for their actions and were swayed by those that were the heads of the most powerfull Faction to conclude most horrid and unjustifiable Acts to the very shame of their judiciall authorities as those factious Parliaments in the times of Hen. 3. King John Rich. 2. and Hen. 4. and others whose acts in the judgement of all good authors are not to be drawne into examples when as they deposed their King for those pretended faults whereof not the worst of them but is fairely answered and all 33 of them proved to be no way sufficient to depose him by that excellent Civilian Heningus Arnisaeus Heningus c. 4. p. 93. And therefore seeing the institution of our Kings is not onely by Gods Law but also by our owne Lawes Customes 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 Jewes 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 Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himselfe before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen persecuting Emperours 2. The Heathens Persa quidem olim aliquid coeleste atque divinum in regilus inesse statuebant Osor de Instit regis l. 4. p. 106. 2. WE finde that not onely the Jewes that were the people of God a royall Priesthood that had the Oracles of God and therefore no wonder that they were so conformable in their obedience to the will of God but the Gentiles also that knew not God knew this by the light of nature that they were bound to yeild all honour unto their Kings For Quintus Curtius tells us that the Persians had such a divine estimation and love unto their King that Alexander could not perswade them either for feare or reward to tell him where their King was gone or to reveale any of his intentions or to doe any other thing that might any wayes prejudice the life Justin l. 4. or the affaires of their King And Justin tells us that the Sicilians did beare so great a respect unto the last Will and Testament of Anaxilaus their deceased King that they disdained not to obey a slave whom he had appointed Regent during the minority of his sonne Herodet l. 8. And Herodotus saith that when Xerxes fled from Greece in a vessell that was so full of men of warre What great respect men in former times did beare unto their kings that it was impossible for him to be saved without casting some part of them into the Sea he said unto them O ye men of Persia let some among you testifie that he hath care of his King whose safety is in your disposition then the Nobility which accompanied him having adored him did cast themselves into the Sea till the vessell was unburthened and the King preserved And I feare these Pagans will rise in judgement to condemne our Nobility that seeke the destruction of their King And the Macedonians had such a reverent opinion of their King that being foyled in warre before they returned againe to the battaile they fetched their cradle wherein their young King lay and set him in the midst of the Campe as supposing that their former misfortune proceeded Justin l. 7. because they neglected to take with them the good augure of their Kings presence And Boemus Aubanus speaking of the Egyptian Kings saith that they have so much good will and love from all men Aubanus de Africa l 1. p. 39. Reges divinos Iove genitos à Iove nutritos Homerus â—esiâ—dus appellarunt ut non solùm sacerdotibus sed etiam singulis Aegyptiis major regis quà m uxorum filiorúmque aut aliorum principum salutis inesset cura that not onely the Priests but also all the Egyptians have a greater care of the safety of their King then of their wives or children or any other Princes of the Land And the same Author describing the manner how the Tartars create their King saith the Princes Dukes Barons and all the people meet then they place him that is to be their King on a Throne of gold and prostrating themselves upon the ground they cry with an unanimous and loud voyce Rogamus volumus praecipimus ut domineris nobis We entreat you and beseech you to raigne over us and he answereth if you would have this of me it is necessary that you should be obedient to doe whatsoever I shall command you when I call you to come whethersoever I shall send you to goe whomsoever I shall command you to kill to do it immediately without feare and to commit the whole Kingdome into my hands then they doe all answer we are willing to doe all this And then he saith againe therefore from hence-forth oris mei sermo gladius meus erit the word of my mouth shall be the sword of my power then all the people doe applaud him And a little after he saith in ejus manibus seu potestate omnia sunt Aubanus l. 2. p. 141. all things are in his hands and power no man dare say this is mine or that is his no one man may dwell in any part of the Land but in that which is assigned unto him by the King Nomini licet imperatoris
destruction of the Common-wealth As the neglect thereof brought ignorance unto the Church and ruine to the Romane Empire for as in Augustus time learning flourished and in Constantines time piety was much embraced because these Emperours were such themselves so when the Kings whose examples most men are apt to follow either busied with secular affaires or neglecting to understand the truth of things and the state of the Church do leave this care unto others then others imitating their neglect doe rule all things with great corruption and as little truth whereby errours and blindnesse will over-spread the Church and pride covetousnesse and ambition will replenish the Common-wealth and these vices like the tares that grow up in Gods field to suffocate the pure Wheat will at last choake up all vertue and piety both in Church and State Therefore to prevent this mischiefe the King on whom God hath laid the care of these things ought himselfe what he can to learne and find out the true state of things and because it is far unbefitting the honour and inconsistent with the charge of great Princes whose other affaires will not permit them to be alwayes poring at their bookes as if they were such critiques as intended to exceed all others in the theorick learning like Archimedes that was in his studie drawing forth his Mathematicall figures when the Citie was sackt and his enemies pulling down the house about his eares How Kings may attaine unto the knowledge of religion and understand the state of the Church and how to governe the same therefore it is wisedome in them to imitate the discreet examples of other wise Kings and religious Emperours in following the meanes that God hath left and using the power and authority that he hath given them to attaine unto more knowledge and to be better instructed in any religious matter then themselves could possibly attaine unto by their owne greatest studie and that is 1. To call able Clergy-men about them 1. As Alexander had his Aristotle ready to informe him in any Philosophicall doubt and Augustus his prime Orators Poëts and Historians to instruct him in all affaires so God hath granted this power unto his Kings to call those Bishops and command such Chaplaines to reside about them as shall be able to informe them in any truth of Divinity and so direct them in the best forme of government of Gods Church and these Chaplaines should be well approved both for their learning and their honesty for to be learned without honesty as many are is to be witty to doe evill which is most pernitious and doth often times make a private gaine by a publique losse or an advantage to themselves by the detriment of the Church and to be honest without knowledge How they should be qualified or to have knowledge without experience especially in such places of eminencie and for the affaires of importance may be as dangerous when their want of skill may counsell to doe matters of much hurt but when both are met together in one person that man is a fit Subject to doe 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 Gods Church then the grave advice directions of such instruments as it appeareth by that memorable example of King Ioas left to be remembred by all Kings who whilest the wise and religious Priest Jehoiada assisted and directed him had all things successefull and happy to his whole Kingdome but after Jehoiada's death 2. Reg. 12.1 the King destitute of such a Chaplaine to attend and such a Priest to counsell him all things came speedily to great ruine Therefore I dare boldly avouch it they are enemies unto Kings and the underminers of Gods Church and such instruments as I am not able to expresse their wickednesse that would exclude such Jehoiada's from the Kings counsell 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 aske counsell of Micaiah though he rejected the same to his owne 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 alwayes the Priests and the men of God to be their Counsellors and followed their directions especially in Church causes as the oracles of God Mar. 6.20 so wicked Herod disdained not to heare John the Baptist and to be reformed by him in many things and happy had he beene had he done it in all things And if you reade Eusebius which is called Pamphilus for the great love he bare to that his noble Patron and Socrates and the rest of the Ecclesiasticall Historians or the Histories of our owne Land 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 affaires How then hath the Devill 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 evill if they do but talke together How hath he bewitched the Nobility to yeild to be deprived of their Chaplaines Is it not to keepe them that have not time to studie and to find 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. When the King seeth cause 2. To call Synods to discusse and conclude the harder things God hath given him power and authority to call Synods and Councels 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 Councell of Nice to suppresse the Heresie of Arius Theodosius called the Councell of Ephesus in the case of Nestorius Valentinian and Martian called the Councell of Calcedon against Eutyches Justinian called the Councell 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 governement 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 helpes that God hath left unto Kings to assist and direct them in the chiefest part of their royall government The unparallel'd presumption of the Faction to call a Synod without
the King how presumptuous then and injurious unto our King and prejudiciall 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 packe of Schismaticall 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 Devill shall have the power to prompt worldlings to nominate his prime Chaplaines Socinians Brownists Anabaptists and the refuse of all the refractary Clergy The quality of the Synod call men that seeme 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 Kingdome 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 boldnesse in any Clergy that the like cannot be found in any Ecclesiasticall Historie from the first birth of Christ's Church to this very day unlesse our Sectaries can produce it from some of the Vtopian Kingdomes that are so farre Southward In terra Incognita beyond the Torrid Zone that we whose zeale is not so fiery but are of the colder spirits could not yet perfectly learne the true method of their Anarchicall government or if our Lawyers can shew us the like president that ever Parliament called a Synod contrary to the Kings Proclamation I shall rest beholding to them produce it if they can credat Judaeus apella non ego The third thing requisite to a King for the preservation of true religion and the government of Gods Church 3 An authority and power to guide the Church and to uphold the true religion 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 so well furnished with knowledge to set downe what Service and Ceremonies should be used yet if he hath not power and ability which doe arise from his right and just authority to doe it and to put the same in execution all the rest are but fruitlesse embryoes like those potentials that are never reduced into actions Psal 129.6 or like the grasse 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 Ecclesiasticall causes and over all Ecclesiasticall persons we finde that all Ages and all Lawes have warranted them to doe the same 1. Reg. 2.27 35. Jerem. 26. for Solomon displaced Abiathar and placed Zadoc in his roome Jeremy's case was heard by the King of Israel Theodosius and Valentinian made a Decree that all those should be deposed which were infected with the impiety of Nestorius How all Kings and Emperours exercised this power over the Church and Justinian deposed Sylverius and Vigilius and many other Kings and Emperours did the like and not onely the Law of God whereof the King is the prime keeper and the keeper of both Tables but also the Statutes of our Land doe give unto our King the nomination of Bishops and some other elective dignities in the Church the custody of the Bishops Temporalties during the vacation the Patronage Paramount or right to present by the last lapse and many other furtherances and preservatives of religion are in terminis terminantibus deputed by our Lawes unto the King and for his care and charge thereof they have setled upon him our first fruits Tenths Subsidies and all other contributions of the Ecclesiasticall persons which the Pope received while he usurped the government of this Church these things being due to him that had the supreme power for the government And therefore seeing the examples of all good Kings in the Old Testament and of the Christian Kings and Emperours in the New Testament and all Lawes both of God and man excepting those Lawes of the Pontificials that are made against the Law of God and all Divines excepting the Iesuites and their sworne Brethren the Presbyterians do most justly ascribe this right and power unto Kings Cassâ—â— de â—â—caâ—â— l. 1. â— â— I may truly say with Cassianus that there is no place of audience left for them by whom obedience is not yeilded to that which all have agreed upon nor any excuse for those Subjects that assist not their Soveraigne to inable him to discharge this great charge that is laid upon him What then shall we say to them that pull this power and teare this prerogative out of the Kings hand and place it in the hands of mad men Pâ—l 65.7 How thâ— Disciplir 〈◊〉 the King of this right as the Prophet epithets the madnesse of the people for that furious Knox belcheth forth this unsavory Doctrine That the Commonalty may lawfully require of their King to have true Preachers and if he be negligent they themselves may justly provide them Knox to the Commonalty fol. 49 50 5â— maintaine them defend them against all that oppose them and detaine the profits of the Church Livings from the other sort of Ministers a point fully practised by the English Scotizers of these dayes and as if this Doctrine were not seditious enough and abundantly sufficient to move Rebellion Goodman publisheth that horrible tenet unto the world that it is lawfull to kill wicked Kings which most dangerous and more damnable Doctrine Deane Whittingham affirmeth to be the tenet of the best and most learned of them that were our Disciplinarians What true religion teacheth us But when as true religion doth command us to obey our Kings whatsoever their religion is aut agendo aut patiendo either in suffering with patience whatsoever they doe impose or in doing with obedience whatsoever they doe command Religion can be no warrant for those actions which must remaine as the everlasting blemishes of that religion which either commanded or approved of their doing I am sure all wise men will detest these Doctrines of Devils and seeing it is an infallible rule that good deserveth then to be accounted evill when it ceaseth to be well done it is apparent that it is no more lawfull for private and inferiour persons to usurpe the Princes power and violently to remove Idolatry or to cause any reformation then it is for the Church of Rome by invasion or treason to establish the Doctrine of that See in this or any other forraigne Kingdome because both are performed by the like usurped authority Yet these were the opinions and practises of former times The old Disciplinarians when Buchanan Knox Cartwright Goodman Gilby Penry Fenner
Martyn Travers Throgmorton Philips Nicholls and the rest of those introducers of Out-landish and Genevian Discipline first broached these uncouth and unsufferable tenets in our Land in the Realme of England and Scotland and truely if their opinions had not dispersed themselves like poyson throughout all the veines of this Kingdome and infected many of our Nobility and as many of the greatest Cities of this Kingdome as it appeareth by this late unparallâ—'d rebellion these and the rest of the trayterous authors of those unsavory bookes which they published and those damnable tenets which they most ignorantly held and maliciously taught unto the people should have slept in silence their hallowed and sanctified Treason should have remained untouched and their memoriall should have perished with them But seeing as Saint Chrysostome saith of the Heretiques of his time that although in age they were younger yet in malice they were equall to the ancient Heretiques and as the brood of Serpents though they are of lesse stature Our rebellious Sectaries farre worse then all the former Disciplinarians yet in their poyson no lesse dangerous then their dammes so no more have our new Sectaries our upstart Anabaptists any lesse wickednesse then their first begetters nay we finde it true that as the Poët saith Aetas parentum pejor avis Tulit nos nequiores These young cubbes prove worse then the old foxes for if you compare the whelpes with the wolves our latter Schismatickes with their former Masters I doubt not but you shall finde lesse learning and more villany lesse honesty and more subtilty hypocrisie and treachery in Doctor Burges Master Marshall â—â—se Goodwin Burrowes Calamy Perne Hill Cheynell and the rest of our giddy-headed Incendiaries then can be found in all the seditious Pamphlets of the former Disciplinarians or of them that were hanged as Penry for their treasons for these men doe not onely as Sidonius saith of the like apertè invidere 〈…〉 â—pâ—sâ— abjectè fingere serviliter superbiro openly envy the state of the Bishops basely forge lyes against them and servilely swell with the pride of their owne conceited sanctity and appâ—â—â—ut ignorance but they have also most impudently even 〈◊〉 their Pulpits slandered the footsteps of Gods Annointed and to brought the abhomination of their transgression to stand in the holy place they have with Achan troubled Israel and tormented the whole Land yea these three Kingdomes England Scotland and Ireland and for inciting provoking and incouraging simple ignorant poore discontented and seditious Sectaries For which their intolerable villanies if I be not deceived in my judgement they of all others and above all the Rebels in the Kingdome deserve the greatest and severest punishment God of Heaven give them the grace to repent to be Rebels and Traytors against their owne most gracious King they have not onely with Jerusalem justified Samaria Sodome and Gomorrah but they have justified all the Samaritanes all the Sodomites all the Schismaticks Hereticks Rebels and Traytors Papists and Atheists and all that went before them Iudas himselfe in many circumstances not excepted and that which makes their doings the more evill and the more exceedingly wicked is that they make religion to be the warrant for their evill doings the packe-horse to carry and the cloake to cover all their treacheries and thereby they drew the greater multitudes of poore Zelots to be their followers And therefore seeing it is not onely the honour but also the duty as of all other Kings so likewise of our King to be as the Princes of our Land are justly stiled the Defenders of the Faith and that not onely in regard of enemies abroad but also in respect of those farre worse enemies which desire alteration at home it behoves the King to looke to these home-bred enemies of the Church and seeing the King though never so willing for his piety and religion What Gods faithfull servants and the Kings loyall Subjects must doe in these times 1. To justifie the Kings right never so able for his knowledge and understanding yet without strength and power to effect what he desires cannot defend the faith and maintaine the true religion from the violence of Sectaries and Traytors within his Kingdome it behoves us all to doe these two things 1. To justifie the Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his authority and right to be the supreame governour and defender of the Church and of Gods true religion and service both in respect of Doctrine and Discipline and that none else Pope or Parliament hath any power at all herein but what they have derivatively from him which I hope we have sufficiently proved 2. 2 To assist Him against the Rebels To submit our selves unto our King and to adde our strength force and power to inable his power to discharge this duty against all the Innovators of our religion and the enemies of our peace for the honour of God and the happinesse of this Church and Common-wealth for that power which is called the Kings power and is granted and given to him of God is not onely that heroicke vertue of fortitude which God planteth in the hearts of most noble Princes as he hath most graciously done it in abundant measure in our most gracious King but it is the collected and united power and strength of all his Subjects which the Lord hath commanded us to joyne and submit it for the assistance of the Kings power against all those that shall oppose it and if we refuse or neglect the same then questionlesse whatsoever mischiefe idolatry barbarity or superstition shall take root in the Church and whatsoever oppression and wickednesse shall impaire the Common-wealth Heaven will free His Majestie and the wrath of God in no small measure must undoubtedly light upon us and our posterity even as Debora saith of them that refused to assist Barac against his enemies Curse ye Meroz Judg. 5.23 curse bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not forth to helpe the Lord against the mighty CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Lawes by the advice of their Bishops and Clergie and not of their Lay Counsellors how our late Canons came to be annulled that it is the Kings right to admit his Bishops and Prelates to be of his Councell and to delegate secular authority or civill jurisdiction unto them proved by the examples of the Heathens Jewes and Christians OUt of all this that hath been spoken it is more then manifest that the King ought to have the supreme power over Gods Church and the government thereof and the greatest care to preserve true religion throughout all his Dominions this is his duty and this is his honour that God hath committed not a people but his people and the members of his Son under his charge For the performance of which charge it is
for the least medling in these civill affaires doe not onely suffer their owne Preachers to straine at a gnat but also to swallow a Camell when M. Henderson Marshall 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 Warre or Peace or of any other civill cognizance how those things can be answered to deny that to us which they themselves do practice I cannot understand when as the light of nature tels 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 politique Philosophy no imperiall 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 Gospell 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 Lawes 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 civill affaires unto their Clergie it is very requisite and necessary for all Christian Kings both for the glory of God their owne safety and the happinesse of the Common wealth to defend this their owne right and the right of the Clergie to call them into their Parliaments and Counsels and to demise certaine civill causes and affaires to the gravest Bishops and the wisest of the ministers and not to suffer those Rebellions Anabaptists and Brownists that have so disloyally laboured to pull off the Crowne from their Kings head to bury all the glory of the Church in the dust to bring the true Religion into a scorne and to deprive the King of the right which is so necessary for his safety and so usefull for the government of his people that is the service of his Clergie in all civill Courts and Councels And as it is the Kings right to call whom he pleaseth into his Parliaments and Councells 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 Civill or Ecclesiasticall magistrate or both wheresoever he appoints within his Realâ—â— and Dominions so it is primarily in his power and authority and his regall 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 therefore their Kings do raigne and domineere over their Subjects as Masters do over their servants Saravia c. 28. p. 194. and the Fathers of families have the same authority over their Wives and Children as over their slaves and vassals and the Muscovites at this day do rule after this manner neither is the great Empire of the Turke much unlike this government and generally all the Easterne Kingdomes were ever of this kind and kept this rule over all the Nations whom they Conqâ—ered and many of them do still retain it to these very times Yet our Westerne Kings whom charity hath taught better and made them milder and especially the Kings of this Iland The mild government of our Kings which in the sweetnesse of government exceeded all other Kings as holding it their cheifest glory to have a free people subject unto them and thinking it more Honourable to command over a free then a servile nation have conferred upon their subjects many titles of great honour which the Learned Gentleman M. Selden hath most Learnedly treated of and therefore I might well be silent in this point and not to write Iliads after Homer if this title of Lord given by His Majesty unto our Bishops for none but he hath any right to give it did not require that I should say something thereof Of the title of Lord touching which you must observe that this name dominus is of divers significations and is derived à domo as Zanchius observeth where every man is a Lord of that house and possession which he holdeth and it hath relation also to a servant so that this name is ordinarily given among the Latinists to any man that is able to keep servants and so it must needs appeare how great is the malice I cannot lay the ignorance when every school-boy knowes it of those Sectaries that deny this title to be consistent with the calling of a Bishop which indeed cannot be denyed to any man of any ordinary esteeme But they will say that it signifieth also rule and authority and so as it is a title of rule and Dominion it is the invention of Antichrist the donation of the Devill and forbidden by our Saviour where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 22.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 16.30 that is in effect be not you called gratious Lords or benefactors which is the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore these titles of honour are not fit for the Preachers of the Gospell to puffe them up with pride and to make them swell above their brethren It is answered That there is a double rule or dominion that if our Saviours words be rightly understood and his meaning not maliciously perverted neither the authority of the Bishops nor the title of their honour is forbidden for as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of dominion so it is fit to be ascribed to them unto whom the Lord and author of all rule and dominion hath committed any rule or government over his People and our Saviour forbiddeth not the same because you may find that there is a double rule and dominion the one just and approved the other tyrannicall and disallowed and the tyrannicall rule or as S. Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Peâ— 5.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the domineering authourity over Gods inheritance both Christ and his Apostles do forbid but the just rule and dominion they deny not because they must do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the son of man doth it so the manner of their rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Kings of the nations rule with tyranny he prohibiteth but as the servants of Christ ought to rule with charity not with austerity with humility and not with insolencie he denieth not and so he denyeth not the name of Lord as it is a title of honour and reverence given unto them by the King and ascribed by their people but he forbiddeth an ambitious aspiring to it and a proud carriage
people God is the governour and Kings are but Gods instruments Psal 77.20 for Kings are but Gods instruments and God himselfe is the ruler of his people even as the same King David sheweth saying still to God Tu deduicisti populum tuum Thou leadest thy people like sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron God was the leader and they were but the hands by which he led them for where God hath not a hand in the government of the people it is impossible for the best and most politique heads to doe it and this Solomon knew â—ull well when God bade him aske what he should give him and he said Thou hast made me King he doth not say the people hath made me and I know not how to goe out or in that is to governe them 1 Reg. 3.7.9 therefore I pray thee give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discerne betweene good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great a people that is what one man is able to governe an innumerous multitude of men Thou therefore must be the governour and I am but thine instrument and that I may be a fit instrument to doe thy worke I desire thee to give me a docible heart Wherefore O you Subjects without obedience They that reject their King reject God and you Divines without Divinity how dare you put any instruments into Gods hands and refuse nay reject the instrument that he chuseth for the performance of his owne worke to rule the people you may as well refuse God himselfe even as God saith unto Samuel They have not rejected thee 1 Sam. 8.7 but they have rejected me so you that doe rebell and cast away your King that God hath chosen as his hand to guide you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 10.16 and his instrument to governe you I pronounce it to all the world you have rebelled against God and you have cast away your God for the rule of Christ must stand infallible he that rejecteth or despiseth him that is sent rejecteth him that sent him CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their government to whom the choyce of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peeres nor Parliament can have supremacy the Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton answered our Lawes prove all Soveraignty to be in the King the two chiefe parts of the regall government the foure properties of a just Warre and how the Parliamentary Faction transgresse in every property 3. SEeing it is so hard and difficult a matter 3. The assistance that God alloweth unto Kings to helpe them in their government of two sorts ars artium guberuare populum the Mistresse of all Sciences and the most dangerous of all faculties to governe the people that Saturninus said truly to them that put on his Kingly ornaments they knew not what an evill it was to rule because of the many dangers that hang over the rulers heads which under the seeming shew of a Crowne of gold doe weare indeed a Crowne of thornes therefore ut rarò eminentes viros non magnis adjutoribus ad gubernandam fortunam suam usus invenies saith Paterculus as great men of a wealthy and vast estate are seldome without great counsell to assist them to governe and to dispose of that great fortune so Kings having a great charge laid upon them are not onely permitted but advised and counselled by God to have 1. Wise Counellors 1. Faithfull and wise Counsellors to direct them 2. Subordinate Magistrates to assist them in the government of the people Tacit. annal lib. 2. 1. Tacitus as I said before saith There cannot be an argument of greater wisedome in a Prince nor any thing of greater safety to the Common-wealth then for him to make choyce of a wise and religious Counsell because the most waighty labours of the Prince doe stand in need of the greatest helpes therefore Agamemnon had his Nestor and Chalcas â—â—s Hali. â— â—ib 2. Augustus had Mecoenas and Agrippa two wise Counsellors to direct him in all his affaires David had Nathan Gad Achitophell and Hushai and Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel Shadrac Meshac and Abednego and so all other Kings in all Nations do chuse the wisest men that they conceive to be their Counsellors â— Subordinate Magistrates 2. For subordinate Magistrates Jethro's counsell unto Moses and Moses hearkning unto him as to a wise and faithfull Counsellor makes it plaine how necessary it is for the supreme Magistrate to chuse such assistants as may beare with him some part of the great burthen of government Thus farre it is agreed upon on all sides but the difference betwixt us and our new State-Divines consisteth in these two points A twofold difference 1. About the choice 2. About the power of these officers For 1. About the choice of inferiour Magistrates and Officers 1. We say that by the Law of nature every master hath right to chuse his owne servants this is Lex gentium ever practiced among all Nations why then should not the King make choice of his owne Counsellors and Servants they will say because he is the servant of the Common-wealth But how is that I hope none otherwise then the Minister is the servant of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Cor. 4.5 for Christ his sake and shall he therefore that is your King lose the priviledges of a common Subject Besides hath not God committed the charge of his people into the Kings hand Exod. 18. â—1 and will he not require an accompt of him of their government how then shall he give an account to God when the government is taken out of his hands and subordinate officers and servants put upon him I am sure when the 70 grand Senators of Israel the great Sanhedrim of the Jewes were to be chosen Jethro saith unto Moses Thou shalt provide out of the people able men marke I pray you thou and not the people shalt provide them neither shall you find it otherwise in any Historie Pharaoh and not his people Gen. 41.41 made Joseph ruler over all the land of Egypt Nebuchadnezzar and not his people made Daniel ruler over the whole Province of Babylon Dan. 2.48 and Darius set over his Kingdome a hundred and twenty Princes Cap. 6.1 2. and made Daniel the first of the three presidents that were over all these And what shall I say of Ahashuerus All Kings chuse their owne Officers and all other Kings Heathens Jewes or Christians that ever kept this power to chuse their owne servants Counsellors and Officers except they were infant Kings in their nonage and so not able to chuse them But you will say that our Histories tell you how Rich. 2. Ob. Edw. 2. and others of our Kings had their Officers appointed and themselves committed unto Guardians by the Parliament therefore why may not
our Parliament do the like in case of male-administration I answer that I speake of the right of Kings Sol. 2. Reg. 19.37 and not justifie the wrongs done to Kings Adramelech and Sharezer killed Sennacherib their owne father is it therefore lawfull for other children so to doe Why should we therefore alleadge those things Qua insolentia populari quae vi quae furore non ad imitationem exemplo proponenda sed justo legum supplicio vindicanda sunt which should rather have beene revenged by the just punishment of the Law then proposed to be imitated by the example Therefore I say that whosoever abridgeth the King of this power robbeth him of that right which God and nature hath allowed him whereby you may judge how justly the Parliamentary faction would have dealt herein with our King by forcing Counsellors and great Officers upon him but I hope you see it is the Kings right to chuse his Servants Officers and Counsellors what manner of men he should chuse Jethro setteth downe And I have most fully described the qualities and conditions that they should be indued withall in my True Church True Church lib 6. c. 4. c. 2. Difference about the power of the subordinate Magistrates 2. As our Sectaries differ much from the true Divines about the choyce so they differ much more about the power of these subordinate Officers and inferiour Magistrates for we say they are alwayes to be obedient to the supreme power or otherwise ejus est deponere cujus est constituere he can displace them that hath appointed them or if you say no because I cited you a place out of Bellarmine where he saith the Souldiers had power to refuse their Emperour while he was in fieri to be elected but not when he was in facto fully chosen and made Emperour so the King hath power to chuse them but not to displace them I answer briefly that in creating or constituting our inferiours we may but our superiour we may not because inferiours in the judgement of all men have no jurisdiction over their superiours And therefore elective Kings are not deposeable in a Monarchicall government None can depose him in whom the supreme Majestie resideth where the supreme power resides in the Monarch though perhaps the Kings of Lacedemon might be justly deposed because by the constitution of their Kingdome the supreme power was not in their Kings but in their Ephori But our new Sectaries out of Junius Brutus Burcher Althusius R nox and Cartwright teach very devoutly but most falsely that in case of defailance to doe his duty they may with the Tribunes of Rome or the Demarchi at Athens censure and depose him too if they see just cause for the same Blaâ—vod l. 33. p. 285. To confute which blasphemous doctrine against God and so pernicious and dangerous to this State though others have done it very excellently well already I have formerly shewed the absurdity of it in my Grand Rebellion Grand Rebellion c. 7. p. 52. yet because all books come not to every hand I will say somewhat of it in this place If these Counsellors Magistrates Parliament call them what you will have any power and authority it must be either subordinate coordinate or supreme 1. If subordinate 1. Subordinate officers can have no power over their superiours I told you before they can have no power over their superiour because all inferiour Magistrates are Magistrates onely in respect of those that are under their jurisdiction because to them they represent the King and supply the office of the King but in reference to the King they are but private persons and Subjects that can challenge no jurisdiction over him 2. If they be supreme then S. Peter is much mistaken 2. That neither Peeres nor Parliament can have the supremacy None above the King at any time to say the King is supreme and they doe ill to disclaime this supremacy when in all their Petitions not disjunctively but as they are an united body they say Your Majesties humble Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament and besides they are perjur'd that deny it after they have taken the Oath of supremacy where every one saith I A. B. doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highnesse is the onely supreme Governour of this Realme c. But this is further and so fully proved out of Bracton the nature of all the Subjects tenures and the constitution of this government by the Author of The unlawfulnesse of Subjects taking up Armes against their Soveraigne that more needs not be spoken to any rationall man Yet because this point is of such great concernement and the chiefest argument they have out of Bracton is The Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton fully answered that he saith Rex habet superiorem legem curiam suam comites Barones quia comites dicuntur quasi socii regis qui habet socium habet magistrum ideo si rex fuerit sine fraeno id est sine lege debent ei fraenum ponere nisi ipsimet fuerint cum rege sine fraeno and all this makes just nothing in the world for them if they had the honesty or the learning to understand it right for what is above the King the Law and the Court of Earles and Barons but how are they above him as the Preacher is above the King when he preacheth unto him or the Physician when he gives him Physicke or the Pilot when he sayleth by Sea that is quoad rationem consulendi non cogendi they have superioritatem directivam non coactivam for so the teacher is above him that is taught How the Law and the Court of Barons is above the King and the Counsellor above him that is counselled that is by way of advice but not by way of command and to shew you that this is Bractons true meaning I pray you consider his words Comites dicuntur quasi socâ—i they are as his fellowes or Peeres not simply but quasi and if they were simply so yet they are but socii not superiours and what can socii doe not command for par in parem non habet potestatem that is praecipiendi otherwise you must confesse habet potestatem consulendi therefore Bracton addes qui habet socium habet magistrum that is a teacher not a commander and to make this yet more plaine he addes Si Rex fuerit sini fraeno id est sine lege if the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he means by the bridle and thinke he meanes force and armes the Law they ought to put this bridle unto him that is to presse him with this Law and still to shew him his duty even as we doe both to King and people saying this is the Law this should bridle you but here is not a word of commanding much lesse of
Majestie and so much trust reposed in him and would notwithstanding prove so unthankfull as to kick with his heeles against his Master and so follow whom you know passibus aequis whose example any other man that were not robb'd of his understanding would make a remora to retaine him from rebellion and what are the other heads but a company either of poore needy Who the Rebells are and what manner of persons they be and meane condition'd Lords and Gentlemen or discontented Peeres that are misled or such factious Sectaries whose blind zeale and furious malice are able to hurry them headlong to perpetrate any mischeife for their Captaines and their Officers I beleeve they fight neither for the Anabaptists creed nor against the Roman faith nor to overthrow our Protestant Church but for their pay for which though they cannot be justified to take their hire for such ill service to rebell against their King and to murder their innocent brethren Yet are they not so bad as their grand Masters and for their common Souldiers I assure my selfe many of them fight against their wills many seduced by their false Prophets others inticed by their factious Masters and most of them compelled to kill their brethren against their wills and therefore in some places though their number trebled the Kings yet they had rather run away then fight and what a miserable and deplorable case is this when so many poore soules shall be driven unto the Devill by Preachers and Parliament against their wills 4. The supreme authority 4. If you consider qua authoritate by what authority they wage this warre they will answer by the Authority of Parliament and that is just none at all because the Parliament hath not the supreme authority without which the warre is not publique nor can it be justified for a warre is then justifiable when there is no legall way to end the controversie by prohibiting farther appeales which cannot be but onely betwixt independent States and severall Princes Albericus Gentilis de jure belli l 1. c. 2. that have the supreme power in their owne hands and are not liable to the censure of any Court which power the Parliament cannot challenge because they are or should be the Kings lawfull Subjects and therefore cannot be his lawfull enemies but they will say Master Goodwin Burroughes and all the rest of our good men zealous brethren Subjects can never make a lawfull warre against their king and powerfull Preachers doe continually cry out in our eares it is bellum sanctum a most just and holy warre a warre for the Gospell and for our Lawes and Liberties wherein whosoever dies he shall he crowned a Martyr I answer that for their reward they shall be indeed as Saint Augustine saith of the like Martyres stultae Philosophiae when every one of them may be indicted at the barre of Gods justice for a felo de se a Malefactor guilty of his owne untimely death Res dura ac plena pericli est regale occidisse genus and for their good Orators that perswade them to this wickednesse I pray you consider well what they are men of no worth rebellious against the Church rebells against the King factious Schismatiques of no faith of no learning In what condition their Preachers are and of what worth that have already forfeited their estates if they have any and their lives unto the Kingâ— and will any man that is wise hazard his estate his life and his soule to follow the perswasions of these men my life is as deere to mee as the Earle of Essex his head is to him and my soule deerer and I dare ingage them both that if all the Doctors in both Universities and all the Divines within the Kingdome of England were gathered together to give their judgement of this warre there could not be found one of ten it may be as I beleeve not one of twenty that durst upon his conscience say this warre is lawfull upon the Parliament side It is contrary to the doctrine of all the Protestant Church for Subjects to resist their king for though these Locusts that is the German Scottish and the English Puritane agreeing with the Romane Jesuite ever since the reformation harped upon this string and retained this serpentine poison within their bosome still spitting it forth against all States as you may see by their bookes Yet I must tell you plainely this doctrine of Subjects taking up armes against their lawfull King is point blanke and directly against the received doctrine of the Church of England and against the tenet of all true Protestants Paraeus in Rom. 13. Boucher l. 2. c. 2. Keckerm Syst pol. c. 32 â—un Brut. q. 2. p. 56. Bellar. de lâ—â—c c. 6 Suar. dâ—f fid cathol c. 3. and therefore Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuite that cast this aspersion upon the Protestants that they jumpe with them in this doctrine of warring against and deposing Kings saith that no Protestant doth maintaine that damnable doctrine and that rashnesse of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto Juell and Bilson and all the Doctors of our Church are of the same minde and Lichfield saith no Orthodox father did by word or writing teach any resistance for the space of a thousand yeares and Doctor Feild saith â—ichfield l. 4. c â—9 § 19 â—ield l. 5. c. 30 that all the worthy fathers and Bishops of the Church perswaded themselves that they owed all duty unto their Kings though they were Heretiques and Infidells and the Homilies of the Church of England allowed by authority do plainely and peremptorily condemne all Subjects warring against their King for Rebells and Traitors that doe resist the ordinance of God and procure unto themselves damnation and truly I beleeve most of their own consciences tell them so they that think otherwise I would have them to consider that if they were at a banquet where twenty should averre such a dish to be full of poyson for every one that would warrant it good would'st thou venture to eate it and hazard thy life in such a case O then consider what it is to hazard thy soule upon the like termes So you see the justnesse of the warre on the Parliament side But 1. On the Kings side it cannot be denied but his cause is most just for his owne defence for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion that is established by our Lawes and for the rights of the Church and the just liberties and property of all his loyall Subjects this he testifieth in all his Declarations and this we know in our owne consciences to be true and therefore 2. As His Majestie professeth so we beleeve him that he never intended otherwise by this warre but to protect us and our Religion and to maintaine his owne just and unquestionable rights which these Rebells would
most unjustly wrest out of his hands and under the shew of humble Petitioners to become at last proud Commanders for as one saith They whom no deniall can withstand Seeme but to aske while they indeed command 3. His Assistants learned honest and religious 3. For the persons that warre with him they are the cheifest of the Nobility all the best Gentry that hazard their lives not for filthy lucre for the Kings Revenues being so unjustly detained from him they are faine to supply his necessities and to beare their owne charges and the poore common Soldiers are nothing wanting to doe their best endeavours neither need they to feare any thing because 4. The King hath a just right to give them full power and authority to doe execution upon these Rebells as I have proved unto you before 4. His authority sacred and unquestionable And therefore the result of all is that the Parliament side under the pretence of Religion fighting if not for the Crowne yet certainely for the full power and authority of the King who shall have the ordering of the Militia that is What the pretended Parliament is who shall have the government of this Kingdome which is all one as who shall be the King they or King CHARLES and which is the very question that they would now decide by the sword in taking away our goods are theeves and robbers in killing their brethren are bloudy murderers and in resisting their King are rebellious traytors that as the Apostle saith purchase to themselves damnation when as the Prophet Esay speaketh of the like Rebells being hardly bestead and hungry Esay 8.21.22 as I beleeve thousands of them are in London and other rebellious Cities they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and looke upward as I feare many of them doe curse the King with their tongues and God in their hearts and they shall looke unto the earth and behold trouble and darknesse dimnesse and anguish and they shall be driven to darkenesse even to utter darkenesse where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 8.12 if by a true repentance they doe not betimes rent their hearts and forsake their fearefull sinnes And the Kings side in this warre doing no further then the King gives Commission do no more then what God commandeth and therefore living they shall be accounted Loyall Subjects worthy of honour and dying they shall be sure to be everlastingly rewarded CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first government of Kings was arbitrary the places of Moses Deut. 17. and of Samuel 1. Sam. 8. discussed whether Ahab offended in desiring Naboths Vineyard and wherein why absolute power was granted unto Kings and how the diversities of government came up 2. Part of the regall governement in the time of peace 2. HAving thus shewed you Potestatem ducendi the Kings right and power of making warre it resteth that I should speake De potestate judicandi of his power and right of judgeing and governing his people in the time of peace touching which we finde none denying his right but all the difference is about the manner where Master Selden in his titles of Honour p. 15. 1. I finde Master Selden rejecting as ridiculous the testimony of Justine which saith Populus nullis legibus tenebatur sed arbitria regum pro legibus erant That the first government of Kings was arbitrary the people were kept under by no Lawes but the will of their Kings was all the Law they had but as oportet mendacem esse memorem so it behoves him that opposeth the truth to be very subtle and very mindfull of his owne discourse otherwise a meaner Scholler having such advantage as the truth to assist him may easily get the victory for though he goeth about to consute the reason that some alleadge for the denyall of those times to be governed by any Law because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be found in all Homer Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hymnis ad Apoll. but wheresoever he speakes of Justice he expresseth the same by the word Themis and saith that this is false which he proveth from Homers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sheweth that there were Lawes before Homers time from Talus his Lawes that were written in brasse in the Isle of Crete Ioseph advers Appion l. 5. yet all this may be answered and Justines opinion prove most true for Talus his time must needs be uncertaine Plutarch in lib. de Hero and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer meanes the just measure of riming but never useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the set Law of living besides there were many ages and many Kings before Homers time and before Talus Minos Radamantus or any other Law-maker that you reade of Moses was the first that I finde either giving Lawes or inventing Letters and yet there were many Kings before Moses Gen. 14.1 2. nine Kings named in one Chapter and what Lawes had they to governe their people besides their owne wils and therefore Master Selden vi veritatis victus confesseth that in the first times in the beginning of States there were no Lawes but the arbitrements of Princes as Pomponius speaketh and pag. 4. Pompon de origine juris ff l. 1. § 2. he saith the people seeing the inconveniences of popular rule chose one Monarch under whose arbitrary rule their happy quiet should be preserved Iosephus regnū appellat imperium summum unius hominis non ex lege sed ex arbitrio imperanti◠Antiquit l. 4. where also you may observe his great mistake in making the Monarchie to spring out of the Democracie when as I have proved before the Monarchicall government was many hundred of yeares before we heare mention of any other forme of government but in any governement Doctor Saravia saith and he saith most truly Quisquis summum obtinet imperium sive is sit unus rex sivè pauci nobiles vel ipse populus universus supra omnes leges sunt Saravia de imperand autor l. 2. c. 3. ratio haec est quòd nemo sibi ferat legem sed subditis suis se legibus nemo adstringit huc accedit illa ratio quòd neque suis legibus teneri possit scil rex cum nemo sit scipso superior Barclaius l. 3. c. 16. nemo à seipso cogi possit leges à superiore tantum sciscantur dentūrque inferioribus And so Arnisaeus saith and proveth at large Arnis l. c. c. 3◠p. 49 50. Majestatis essentiam consistere in summa absoluta potestate that the being of Majestie and Soveraignty consisteth in the highest and most absolute power Irvinus cap. 4. p. 64 65 And Irvinus alleadgeth many testimonies out of Aristotle Cicero Vlpian Dio Constant Harmenopolus and others to prove that Rex legibus non subjicitur And
their due honour and made all equall all as base as Jeroboams Priests will be apt enough to blow up this conceit and to put it into the Creed of all the vulgar that God made us all equall and to be Lords is but to be tyrants over their Brethen and the Presbytery whose pride could not obey the authority of their Bishops will not abide the superiority of any Lords but if they cannot Lord it themselves will be sure to take away the Lordship from all others And therefore if the Nobility be not wiser then to lay our honours in the dust as I see some about His Majestie that would faine be the Priests to bury it which meere policie though they wanted piety should prohibit they shall finde that Jam tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet Virgil. Aeneiâ— l. 1. When our Cottages are burnt their next Pallaces shall not escape the fire but through our sides their Honours shall be killed and buried without honour 3. Jus legitimandi 3. Ius legitimandi the right of legitimation belongs unto the King without which legitimation the Lawyers tell us that as the world now standeth a mighty emolument would happen unto the Crowne if the King granted not this grace to them that want it 4. Jus appellationes recipiendi 4. Ius appellationes recipiendi the right of taking notice of causes and of judging the same by the last appeale definitively doth alwayes belong to the supreme Majestie because that as Saint Paul appealed unto Caesar Act. 25.11 so the last appeale is to the highest Soveraigne from whom there lyeth none appeale but onely to him that shall judge all the Judges of the earth 5. Honores restituendi 5. Jus restituendi in integrum the right to restore men attainted or banished or condemned to death unto their Country wealth and honour is likewise a part of the royall right So Osorius saith Osorius de rebuâ— Imman p. 6. that Immanuel King of Portugall restored James sonne of Fernandus and his brother Dionysius and others unto their forfeited honours and so not onely the Scripture sheweth how David pardoned Absolon and Shimei 1. Reg. 2.26 two wicked Rebels and Solomon pardoned Abiathar that were all worthy of death Veniam criminosis indulgere but also Saint Augustine speaking of other Kings and Emperours saith judicibus statuendum est ne liceat in reum datam sententiam revocare the Judges may not pardon a man condemned to death numquid ipse Imperator sub hac lege erit but shall not the Emperour or King pardon him are they likewise under this Law of restraint by no meanes Nam ipsi soli licet revocare sententiam reum mortis absolvere ipsi ignoscere for he and he alone that is the Emperour or King may revoke the sentence and absolve him that is guilty of death And so our King according to this his undenyable right Our Kings unparalâ—ll'd clemency and prety towards the Rebels hath most graciously and not seldome offered his pardon unto these intolerable Rebels a pardon not to be parallel'd in any Historie nor to be beleeved unlesse we had seene it that a man could be so farre inclined to clemency and mercy as to remit such transcendent impiety which will render 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 kinde of wickednesse with incredible transgressions they should be found 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 for sometimes the sinners may be like the sonnes of Zervia 2. Sam. 3.39 too strong for David how they pardon those great crimes that are committed to the dishonour of God and doe so farre 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 owne Lawes Arnisaus l. 11 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 Commandements or if they doe not when they can doe 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 the right of calling Synods Parliaments 6. Jus convocandi Synodos Parliamenta c. 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 excudendi the right of coyning money 7. Ius monetas excudendi to give it value to stampe his armes or his image upon it as our Saviour saith Whose Image and superscription is this Matth. 22.20 and they say to him Caesars is the proper right of Caesar the prerogative of the King The second sort of the Kings right is circa magistratus 2. About the Magistrates and containeth jurisdiction rule creation of officers appointing of circuits provinces judgements censures institution of Schooles and Colledges collation of dignities receiving of fidelities and abundance more whereof I intend not to speake at this time but referre my Reader to Arnisaeus Arnis l 2. c. 2. de jure Majestatis if he desires to be informed of these particulars And as these and the like are jura Regalia the rights of Majestie 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 Soveraignty whose right it is alone to make warre 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 Ambassadors to negotiate with forreigne States and the like are the rights of Kings and the indeleble characters of Soveraignty which whosoever violateth and endeavoureth to purloine them from the King doth with Prometheus steale fire from Heaven which the Gods would not suffer as the Poets faigne to goe unrevenged And these things so farre as I can finde the King never parted with them unto his Subjects and therefore whosoever pretendeth to an inderived power to doe any of these and exempteth himselfe from the Kings right herein â—oh Beda p. 26. resisteth the ordinance of God and is guilty of High-Treason what pretext soever he brings saith the Advocate of Paris Ita etiam reges Egypti quibus voluntas pro lege est legum tamen instituta
Church and State when their pretence was very good though the goodnesse of his Majestie in the tendernesse of his conscience was still loath to allow himselfe the liberty to dissolve it untill he had other juster and more cleare causes to pronounce it no Parliament as the abusing of his grant to the raising of an Army and the upholding of a Rebellion against their Soveraigne yet I believe he might safely have done it long agone without the least violation of Gods Law when their evill intentions were openly discovered by those Armies which they raised For I doubt not to affirme it with the Author of The sacred Prerogative of Christian Kings p. 144. if any good Prince or his royall Ancestors have beene cheated out of their sacred right by fraud or force he may at the fittest opportunity when God in his wise providence offereth the occasion resume it especially when the Subjects do abuse the Kings concessions to the dammage of Soveraignty so that it redounds also to the prejudice either of the Church or Common-wealth 3. When the King through feare 3. Grants gotten by force not to be observed not such as the Parliaments feare is who were afraid where no feare was and were frighted with dreames and causelesse jealousies but that feare which is reall and not little but such as may fall in fortem constantem virum doth passe any Law especially that is prejudiciall to the Church and injurious to many of his Subjects I say that when he shall be freed from that feare he is not onely freed from the obligation of that Law but he is also obliged to doe his uttermost endeavour to annull the same it is true that his feare may justly free him from all blame at the passing of it as the feare of the thiefe may cleare me from all fault in delivering my purse unto him because these are no voluntary acts and all acts are adjudged good or evill according to the disposition of the will the same being like the golden bridle that Minerva was said to put upon Pegasus to guide him and to turne him as she pleased The will must never consent to forced acts that are unlawfull His Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16. Iuliâ— p. 8. but when his feare is past and God hath delivered him from the insurrection of wicked doers if his will gives consent to what before he did unwilling who can free the greatest Monarch from this fault Therefore His Majestie confessing which we that saw the whole proceedings of those tumultuous routs that affrighted all the good Protestants and the Loyall Subjects doe know that it could not be otherwise that he was driven out of London for feare of his life I conclude that the act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament being past after his flight out of London can be no free nor just nor lawfull act and the King when he is more fully informed of many particulars about this act that is so preiudiciall to the Church of Christ and so injurious to all his servants the Clergy whose rights and priviledges the King promised and sware at His Coronation to maintaine Ob. cannot continue it in my judgement and be innocent Pag 31. But this is answered by the answerer to Doctor Ferne that he is no more bound to defend the rights of the Clergy by his oath then the rest of the lawes formerly enacted whereof any may be abrogated without perjury when they are desired to be annulled by the Kingdome Sol. His Majesties answer to the remonstrance or declaration of the Lords and Commons 26. of May. 1642. To which I say that as His Majestie confesseth there are two speciall questions demanded of the King at his Coronation 1 Sir Will you grant and keepe and by your oath confirme to the people of England the lawes and customes to them granted by the Kings of England your lawfull and religious predecessors And the King answereth I grant and promise to keepe them 2. After such questions as concerne all the commonalty of this Kingdome both Clergy and Laity as they are his Subjects one of the Bishops reads this admonition to the King before the people with a loud voice Our Lord and King we beseech you to pardon and to grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to our charge all Canonicall priviledges and due law and iustice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in His Kingdome ought to be the protector and defendor of the Bishops and the Churches under their government And the King answereth With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my pardon and that I will preserve and maintaine to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonicall Priviledges and due law and justice and that I will be your protector and defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in His Kingdome in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government Then the King laying his hand upon the booke saith The Kings oath at His Coronation two fold the things which I have before promised I shall performe and keepe so helpe mee God and the contents of this Booke Where I beseech all men to observe that here is a two fold promise and so a two fold oath 1. The one to all the Commonalty and people of England The frst part of the oath Populo Anglicano Vide D. p. 165. Clergy and Laity and so whatsoever he promiseth may by the consent of the parties to whom the right was transferred be remitted and altered by the representative body in Parliament quia volenti non fit injuria and the rule holds good quibus modis contrabitur contractus iisdem dissolvitur and therefore as any compact or contract is made good and binding so it may be made void and dissolved mutuo contrahentium assensu by the mutuall assent of both parties that is any compact where God hath not a speciall interest in the contract as he hath in the conjugall contract betwixt man and wife and the politicke covenant betwixt the King and His Subjects Contracts wherein God is interessed can not be dissolved without God which therefore cannot be dissolved by the consent of the parties untill God who hath the cheifest hand in the contract gives his assent to the dissolution and so when things are dedicated for the service of God or Priviledges granted for his honour neither donor nor receiver can alienate the gift or annull that Priviledge without the leave and consent of God that was the principall party in the concession as it appeareth in the example of Ananias and is confirmed by all Casuists 2. The other part of the oath is made to the Clergy in particular and so also with their consent The second part of â—he oath Clericis Ecclesiasticis D. p. 165. some things I confesse may perhaps
be revoked but without their consent not any thing can be altered in my understanding without injustice for with what equity can the Laity vote away the rights of the Clergy when the Clergy dâ—e absolutely deny their assent just as if the Clergy should give away the lands of the Laity or as if I had lent the King ten thousand pounds upon the publique assurance of King and both Houses to be repaid againe and they without mine assent shall vote the remission of this debt for some great benefit that they conceive redounding to the common wealth The party to whom the bond is mâ—de must release the bonds by which vote I should beleeve my selfe to be no better then meerely cheated or as if the Parliament without the assent of the Londoners should passe an act that all the money which they lent should be remitted for the releiving of the State I doubt not but they would conclude that act very unjust and so is this act against the Bishops because the Kings obligation to a particular body personall or politique cannot be dispensed with by the representative Kingdome without the releasement of that body to whom the King is obliged For I find that all the Casuists will tell you that juramentum promissorium ita obligat ut invito creditore non potest in melius commutari quia aliter iustitia veritas non servarentur inter homines Suarez de iuramento promiss l. 2. c. 12 n. 14. and it is their common tenet that it cannot be dispensed with quia per promissum acquiritur jus ei cui fit promissio utilitas unius non sufficit ut alter suo jure privetur the benefit of others must not deprive mee of my right This point is so cleare that neither Scholler nor any man of reason or conscience will denie it Therefore to perswade the King that is bound by his oath to preserve the Rights Priviledges of the Church Clergy to cast out the Bishops out of their rights or to take away their lands without their owne consent whom the King by his oath hath obliged himselfe to protect I can not see how they can do it without great iniquity or His Majestie consent to it and be innocent when he is fully informed of the rights of his Clergy whereas otherwise the most religious Prince may be subject to mistakings and so nesciently admit that which willingly he would never have granted And if they can not perswade him to doe this without iniquity how dare they goe about to force and compell him against conscience to commit this and such other horrible impiety but I assure my selfe that God who hath blessed our King and preserved him hitherto without blame as being forced to what he did or not throughly understanding what was our right the Bishops being imprisoned not suffered to informe him nor to answer for themselves wil still arme His Majestie with that resolution as shall never yeild to their impetuousnesse to transcend the limits of his owne most upright conscience Yet still it is urged they were excluded by act of Parliament Ob. therefore their exclusion cannot be unjust as being done by the wisedome of the whole State and the King should not desire it to be altered I answer that all Parliaments are not allwayes guided by an unerring spirit Sol. The case of our affairs p. 17. but were many times swayed by the heads of the most powerfull faction which are instances rather of their unsteady weakenesse then of their iust power when forsaking the guidance of their lawfull head they suffered themselves to be lead by popular pretenders as when Canutâ—s prevailed by his armes he could have a Parliament to resolve that his title to the Crowne was the best when Hen. 4. How powerfull factions have procured Parliaments to doe most unjust things had an army of 60000 men he could have a Parliament to depose Rich. 2. and conferre the Crowne upon himselfe when Edw. Duke of Yorke grew powerfull he could have a Parliament to determine the raigne 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 iure so Rich. the 3. Turba tremenâ— sequitur fortunam ut semper odit damnatoâ— Iuven. Satyra 10. 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 Queene Elizab. could have a Parliament to make it high treason for any man to say that the Queene could not by Act of Parliament binde and dispose the rights and titles 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 powerfull they forced their Kings to make what Statutes they liked best which any person whatsoever might have unto the Crowne 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 Crowne because the descent of the Crowne upon him purges all disabilities 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 worke 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 And therefore as in the 15 yeare of Edw. 3. the King being unwillingly drawne to consent to certaine Articles The Case of our affâ—ires p. 20. prejudiciall to the Crowne and to promise to seale the Statute thereupon made lest otherwise his affaires in hand might have beene ruinated which we conceive to be just in like manner now the King very unwillingly drawne to passe this Act for the exclusion of the Clergy which is most prejudiciall both to the Crowne and the Church and a mighty dishonour unto God himselfe 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 yeare Statutes unwillingly procured from the King repealed reciting the former matter that was enacted in these words It seemed to the said Earles Barons and other wise 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 wee
have decreed the said Statute to bee void c. So I hope our Earles and Barons 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 owne conscience knoweth and doe presume His Majestie will acknowledge they likewise will consent that the King may make it void againe §. 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 crave leave to be resolved in certaine 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 1. Whether any positive Act Statute or Law that is either Quare 1 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 believe and constantly maintaine 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 seeke the Law at his mouth 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 2. Whether the King that is an absolute Monarch to whom Quare 2 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 believed 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 Quare 3 3. Whether the King can passe away that power authority and right which God hath given him and without which he cannot governe 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 part with that power and right * Otherwise then by substitution Rege absente durante beneplacito or quamdiu se benè gesserâ—nt sub stituti whereby he is inabled to governe them and without which he cannot governe them untill God that laid this charge upon him and gave him full power and authority to doe it by some undenyable dispensation gives him his Writ of ease to discharge him 4. Whether such an Act or Statute which disinableth any King to dissolve his Dyet Councell Assembly or Parliament Quare 4 and inableth some subtle faction of his Subjects in some sort to countermand their King be not derogatory to the inseperable right of Majestie destructive to the power of government and prejudiciall to all the loyall Subjects and therefore void of it selfe The Act for the indissolubility of any Parliament beleeved by many to be of it selfe void and not to be observed because such an act ought not to have beene concluded wherein I leave the resolution to be determined by the Judges and the Bishops of this Land and I will onely crave leave to set downe what may be thought herein viz. that such an Act or Statute is clearely and absolutely void Reason 1 1. Because that hereby the King may be said after a sort and in some kinde to change the fundamentall constitution and government of his Kingdome from an absolute Monarchie to another species and forme of government either Aristocraticall or Democraticall or some other forme emergent out of all these such as we know not how to terme it and such as was never knowne from the beginning of the world a mixture indeed which I told you before no absolute King can be thought to doe without offence unlesse he can prove his licence from God to doe the same 2. Because that hereby he may be said to denude himselfe of Reason 2 his right and by depriving himselfe of this power to disinable himselfe to discharge that duty which God doth necessarily require at his hands that is to governe his people by protecting the innocent and punishing the wrong doer and when God shall call the King to an account why he did not thus governe his people and defend those poore Subjects that were loyall and faithfull both to God and their King according to the charge that he laid upon him and the right and power which he gave him to discharge it It may be feared it will be no sufficient answer for any King to say but I have so laid away that power and parted with that right unto my Lords and Commons that I could not doe it for it may be asked where doth God require him or when did he authorize him to divest himselfe of that authority wherewith he indued him how then can he doe it to the undoing of many people without an assured leave from God therefore as that Act which was made unrepealable was adjudged no Act but immediately void because it was destructive to the very power of Parliament * Which may repeale their owne Acts but not destroy their just power nor themselves as it seemes the the Act of excluding the Bishops doth and takes away as it were the soule of the Parliament and if any act should be made to destroy common right or to hinder the publique service of God or to disinable the right heire to injoy the Crowne or the like those Acts are void of themselves so any Statute that disinableth the Kings government must needs be void ipso facto as I have partly shewed in my Discovery of Mysteries p. 32. 3. Because it may be believed no King would ever grant such an Act unlesse he were either subtilly deceived and seduced or forcibly compelled thereunto for feare of some inavoidable extremity which according to all outward appearance Reason 3 could not otherwise be
prevented without the concessions of such unspeakable disadvantages as a man gives away his sword when he seeth his life in danger if he deliver it not Therefore the premisses considered 5. The Quaere is whether any King should be bound and obliged Quaere 5 to observe such grants and make good such Acts In all these Quaries I conclude nothing whatsoever I believe as are thus fraudulently obtained or forcibly wrested from him and are thus contradictory to Gods will thus prejudiciall to the power of government and thus destructive to his Subjects which for the fore-said reasons is by many men believed he is not but as this right was unduly procured from him so when God inableth him he may justly acquire it and re-assume it without any offence to God or the least reluctancie to his owne conscience And if this Act that hath passed in our Parliament makes it immediately to be no Parliament * As I know not whether it doth or noâ— neither will I determine it as being now another forme of government which the Divines hold ought not to be effected then certainly all Acts that passed since are no Acts but are void and invalid of themselves Or be it granted that the Act for the perpetuity of Parliament doth not annull the Parliament yet it is doubted by many whether the Parliament may not themselves without the Kings pronouncing it void or dissolved make it no Parliament when of Counsellors for the King Quid prodest tibi nomen usurpare altonum vocari quod â—on ei they become Traytors unto the King and of Patriots that should protect the Common-wealth they become Parricides and Catilines unto the same because these duties being as the soule the life and the end of Parliaments when these are changed to be the bane and death of King and Kingdome it is doubted how it can be a Parliament any more then a dead carkasse that is deprived of his soule can be said to be a man for the circumstances and ceremonies of times places and the like are not essentialia Parliamenti but as accidentia quae possunt adesse abesse sine interitu subjecti and may be ad benè esse but are as Punctillio's in respect of the end and essence of a Parliament And therefore as God promiseth infallibly to doe a thing for example Psal 89.34 1. Sam. 2.30 that He will not faile David his seed shall endure for ever and of Eli he said indeed that his house and the house of his father should walke before him for ever yet this unchangeable God when the change is wrought in David or his seed or in Eli his house David doth immediately say Thou hast abhorred and forsaken thine Annointed Psal 89 37. and art displeased at him and of his promise to Eli God saith in the same place now be it farre from me 1. Sam. 2.30 so it may be conceived that when any Parliament changeth its nature faileth in its very being and of a preservative becomes a poyson both to the King and Kingdome I should never acknowledge Iudas after he betrayed his master and resolved to persist in his wickednesse to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ no more then I should take the Temple of Ierusalem to be the house of God so long as it continued the den of theeves the King and Kingdome may then without any change in themselves or failing of their former promises justly say they are no Parliament but as the Romans said unto a worthy Patriot that had formerly saved them from the Senones and at last became an enemie to the State We did honour thee as our deliverer when thou didest save us from the Senones sed jam nobis es quasi unus ex Senonibus so may we say of any Parliament that turnes to be the destruction of a Common-wealth that it is but a shadow and no substance a den of theeves and no Parliament of Counsellors And I assure my selfe much more may be spoken and many inanswerable arguments may be produced to confirme this to be most true so I have set downe what I conceive to be true about the Kings grants and concessions unto his people and his obligations to observe them And if His Majestie whom I unfainedly love and heartily honour and in whose service as I have most willingly spent my slender fortunes so I shall as readily hazard my dearest life be offended with me for setting downe any of these things that my conscience tels me to be true and needfull to be knowne and my duty to declare them I must answer in all humility and with all reverence that remembring what Lucian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many men shunning the smoake fell into the fire and that Job saith Timentes pruinam opprimentur à nive which S. Gregory moralizeth of them that fearing the frost of mans anger which they may tread under foot shall be overwhelmed with the snow of Gods vengeance that fals from Heaven and cannot be avoided I had rather suffer the anger of any mortall man then endure the wrath of the great God for now I have freed my soule let what will come of my body I will feare God and honour my King 5. 5. The end for which God ordained Kings We are to consider the end for which God ordained the King to rule and governe his people and that is to preserve justice and to maintaine peace throughout all the parts of his dominions for as the Subjects may neither murmure not resist their Soveraigne at any time for any cause so the King must not doe any wrong or injustice to his meanest Subject neither doe we presse the obedience of the Subjects to give licence unto the King to use them as he listeth but we tell Kings their duties as well as we doe to the Subjects and that is to doe justice unto the afflicted and to execute true judgement among all his people Psal 82.3 Zâ—char 7.9 for as Plato saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all men cry out with one mouth how beautifull a thing is temperance and righteousnesse Cicero calleth her the Lady and Mistresse of all vertues and Pindarus saith Cicero offic l. 3. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a golden eye and a golden countenance are allwayes to be seene in the face of justice and that Jupiter Soter dwelleth together with Themis whereby he would give us to understand regem servatorem esse iustum â—indar apud Athan Cl. Alexand Strom. l. 5. that a King must preserve his people by justice as Clemens Alexand. expoundeth it because as Theognis pag. 431. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justice is that vertue which comprehends all vertues in it selfe and therefore Solomon saith that the Kings throne is established by righteousnesse Prov. 16.12 and justice exalteth a Nation making it to flourish famous injustice destroyeth the people when a Kingdome is translated from nation to nation because of
and the like as too many of our Sectaries most falsely most malitiously have done is rather to vilifie and disgrace him to worke an odium against him and a tediousnesse of him then to procure an honourable esteeme and reverence of him Cassiodorus saith stipendium tyranno penditur praedicatio non nisi bono Principi Tribute is due to Tyrants and ought to be paid unto them but honour and reverence much more to a good Prince the spirit of God bids us blesse them that persecute us and our Saviour saith Rom. 12.14 blesse them that curse you that is speake well of Tyrants that oppresse us Matth. 5.44 and speak not ill of them that speak ill of you especially if they be your Magistrates or your King whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are commanded to honour even with the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore no doubt The fifth Commandement is the most obliging of all the Commandements of the second Table Ephes 6.2 How the heathens honoured their Kings C. Tacitus lib. 14. but with the same honour as we are commanded to honour our Father and our Mother because the King is our Politicall Father and is therefore commanded to be reverenced by this precept which as the Divines observe is of greater moment and more obliging then any of the rest of the Commandements of the second Table not only because it keepeth the first place of all these precepts but is also the first Commandement with promise as the Apostle observeth And not only the Scriptures command us thus to honour and to reverence our King but the very Heathens also did so reverence them that they did adore the Statues and Images of their Kings and Caesars as Tacitus reporteth and it was Treason for any man to pull away or violate them that fled unto them for sanctuary yea it was capitall for a man that had the Image of his Prince stamped in silver or ingraven in a Ring to goe to any uncleane or unseemly place and therefore Seneca saith Seneca de benefic l. 30. that under the Empire of Tiberius a certain Noble man was accused of Treason for moving his hand The reason of their reverence that had on his finger a Ring whereon was ingraven the portraiture of the Prince unto his privie parts when he did Vrine and the reason of this great reverence which they bare unto their Princes was that they beleeved there was in Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some divine thing which above the reach of man was ingraffed in them and could not be derived from them for so Raderus tells us Raderus Comment in Quint. curt that this divine Majesty or celestiall sparke was so eminent in the countenance of Alexander that it did not only terrifie his enemies but also moved his best Commanders and greatest Peeres to obey his commands and the like is reported of Scipio Africanus and I find the Macedonians had a law that besides the Traitors condemned to death five of their next Kinsfolkes A Macedoninian law that were convicted of conspiracy against their King and a Gentleman of Normandy confessing to his Frier how such a thought came once in his mind to have killed King Francis the first A gentleman hanged for his thought but repenting of his intention he resolved never to doe it the Frier absolved him of his sinne but told the King thereof and he sent him to his Parliament who condemned and executed him for his thought Philip the first of Spaine seeing a Falcon killing an Eagle commanded his head to be wrung of saying let none presume above their Soveraigne and in the raigne of Henry fourth of England one was hanged drawne and quartered in Cheapside London for jesting with his sonne 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 beleeve 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 Crowne put it upon his head that it might not hinder his swimming and so brought it to the King againe who rewarded him well for his paines but caused his head to be chopt of for presuming to weare his Crowne And all this is but an inanswerable argument to condemne our Rebells that neither reverence the Majesty of their King nor respect the commandement of their God 3. Obedience 3. 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 The marriage of obedience and authority and the issue doe make any state most successefull but when these are divorced then nothing goeth right in that Common-wealth for so the Sages of Greece exprest it by the marriage that Iupiter made between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aescylus whose child brought forth betwixt them was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All must be obedient 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. Iussa sequi tam velle mihi quà m posse necesse est Lucan l. 1. So the people say unto Ioshua all that thou commandest us Iosh 1.16 we will doe and all must doe 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 sinne of witchcraft yet in a vulgar man it may admit of vulgar apologies but in a man of quality in noble men in Courtiers Noble mens Rebellion more abominable to God man then any other bred in the Kings house in the Kings service and raised by the Kings favour it is Morbus complicatus a decompound sinne 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 Cardinall 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 sinne so odious unto God that he would have destroyed all Israell for their sake as now he punisheth all England for the sinnes of those noble men that have rebelled against their King and
maker hath appoynted for them when as the Psalmist saith he hath given them a Law which shall not be broken therefore this must needs be a great reproofe and a mighty shame to those men that being Subjects unto their King and to be ruled by his Lawes will notwithstanding disobey the King and transgresse those Lawes that are made for their safety and resist that authority which they are bound to obey only because their weake heads or false hearts doe account the commandement of the King to be against right and what themselves doe to be most holy and just Ob. Diverse kinds of Monarchies But our City Prophets will say that although the King be the supream Monarch whom we are commanded to obey yet there are diverse kinds of Monarchies or Regall governments as usurped lawfull by conquest by inheritance by election and these are either absolute as were the Easterne Kings and the Roman Emperours or limited and mixed which they terme a Politicall Monarchie where the King or Monarch can do nothing alone but with the assistance direction of his Nobility Parliament or if he doth attempt to bring any exorbitancies to the Common-wealth or deny those things that are necessary for the preservation thereof they may lawfully resist him in the one and compell him to the other to which I answer 1. As God himselfe which is most absolute Sol. Absolute Monarchs may limit themselves liberrimum agens may notwithstanding limit himselfe and his own power as he doth when he promiseth and sweareth that he will not fail David and that the unrepentant Rebells should never enter into his rest so the Monarch may limit himselfe in some points of his administration and yet this limitation neither transferreth any power of soveraignty unto the Parliament nor denieth the Monarch to be absolute nor admitteth of any resistance against him for 1. This is a meer gull to seduce the people I cannot devise words to expresse this new devised government that cannot distinguish the poynt of a needle just like the Papist that saith he is a Roman Catholike that is a particular universall a black white a polumonarcha a many one governour when we say he is a Monarch joyned in his government with the Parliament for he can be no Monarch or supream King Soveraign that hath any sharers with him or above him in the governmeÌ„t 2. There is no Monarch that can be said to be simply absolute but only God yet where there is no superior but the soveraignty residing in the King he may be said to be an absolute Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. because there is none on earth that can controule him 2 Because he is free absolute in all such things wherein he is not expresly limited and therefore 3. Seeing no Monarch or Soveraigne is so absolute No Monarch so Absolute but some way limited but that he is some way limited either by the Law of God or the rules of nature or of his own concessions and grants unto his people or else by the compact that he maketh with them if he be an elective King and so admitted unto his Kingdome there is no reason they should resist their King for transgressing the limitations of one kinde more then the other or if any no doubt but he that transcendeth the limits of Gods Law or goeth against the common rules of nature ought rather to be resisted then he that observeth not his own voluntary concessions but themselves perceiving how peremptorily the Apostle speaketh against resistance of the Heathen Emperours that then ruled doe confesse that absolute Monarchs ought not to be resisted wherein also they are mistaken because the histories tell us those Emperours were not so absolute as our Kings till the time of Vespasian when the lex Regia transferred all the power of the People upon the Emperour No Monarch ought to be resisted Vlpian de constit Principis therefore indeed no Monarch ought to be resisted whatsoever limitations he hath granted unto his Subjects And the resisters of authority might understand if their more malitious then blind leaders would give them leave that this virtue of obedience to the supream power maketh good things unlawfull when we are forbidden to doe them as the eating of the forbidden tree was to Adam and the holding up of the Arke was to Vzza and it maketh evill things to be good and lawfull when they are commanded to be done as the killing of Isaack if he had done it had been commendable in Abraham and the smiting of the Prophet was very laudable in him that smote him when the Prophet commanded him to doe it and therefore Adam and Vzza were punished with death because they did those lawfull good things which they were forbidden to doe Rebels should well consider these things and the others were recompenced with blessings because they did and were ready to doe those evill things that they were commanded to doe when as he that refused to smite the Prophet 1. Reg. 20.38 being commanded to doe it was destroyed by a Lion because he did it not whereby you see that things forbidden when they are commanded è contra cannot be omitted without sinne Ob. Mandatum imperantis â—ollit peccatum obedientis Aug. Sol. You will say it is true when it is done by God whose injunction or prohibition his precept or his forbidding to doe it or not to doe it maketh all things lawfull or unlawfull I answer that we cannot think our selves obedient to God whilest we are disobedient to him whom God hath commanded us to obey and therefore if we will obey God we must obey the King because God hath commanded us to obey him and being to obey him non attendit verus obediens quale fit quod praecipitur sed hoc solo contentus quia praecipitur he that is truly obedient to him whom God commanded us to obey never regardeth what it is that is commanded so it be not simply evill for then as the Apostle saith it is better to obey God then man were he the greatest Monarch in the World but he considereth and is therewith satisfied that it is commanded Bernard in l. de praecept dispensat and therefore doth it saith St Bernard in l. de praecept dispensat CHAP. XVI Sheweth the answer to some objections against the obeying of our Soveraigne Magistrate all actions of three kinds how our Consciences may be reformed of our passive obedience to the Magistrates and of the Kings concessions how to be taken BVt against this our sectaries and Rebells will object Ob. that their conscience which is vinculum accusator testis judex their bond their accuser their witnesse and their judge against whom they can say nothing and from whom they cannot appeale unlesse it be to a severer Iudge will not give them leave to obey to doe many things that the King requireth to be done and
I take it infallibly true which Suarez faith Suarez de leg l. 5. c. 17. n. 3. fol. 316. acceptationem populi non esse conditionem necessariam tributi ex vi iuris naturalis aut gentium neque ex iure communi quia obligatio pendendi tributum ita naturalis est principi per se orta ex ratione iustitiae ut non possit quis excusari propter apparentem iniustitiam vel nimium gravamen Tribute due to the King the consent of the people is not any necessary condition of tribute because the obligation of paying it is so naturall springing out of the reason of justice that none can be excused for any apparent injustice or grievance and therefore the Parliaments that are the highest representations of any Kingdome doe not contribute any right unto Kings to challenge tribute but doe determine the quota pars and to further the more equall imposing and collecting of that which is due unto Kings by naturall and originall justice as a part of that proper inheritance which is annexed unto their Crownes And therefore our Saviour doth not say give unto Caesar but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 22. the same word which S. Paul useth when he biddeth us to pay our debts and to owe nothing to any man saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. Latimer in Mat. 22.21 pay to every man that which you owe and Father Latimer saith if we deny him tribute custome subsidy tallage taxes and the like aid and support we are no better then Theeves and steale the Kings dues from him Navar. apud Suarez de legibus fol. 300. fol. 311. because the Law testifieth tributa esse maximè naturalia prae se ferre justitiam quia exiguntur de rebus propriis and Suarez saith penditur tributum adsustentationem principis ad satisfaciendum naturali obligationi in dando stipendium iustum laboranti in nostram utilitatem tribute is most naturall and iust to be paid to the King for our own good therefore Christ pleading for the right of Caesar that was a Tyrant saith not give unto him quia petit because he demands it but pay unto him quae illius sunt the things that are his and are due unto him even as due as the hirelings wages which we are commanded not to detaine for one night Deut. 24.15 because this is a part of that reward and wages which God alloweth him for all his pains and cares that he takes to see Iustice administred in the time of Peace and to protect us from our enimies in the time of Warre which makes the life of Kings to be but a kind of splendid misery wearing may times with Christ a Crowne of Thornes a Crowne full of cares while we lap our heads in beds of downe and therefore it is not only undutifulnesse to deny him or unthankefulnesse not to requite the great good that he doth unto us but it is also a great iniustice especially if we consider that as Ocham saith Qui est Dominus aliquarum personarum est Dominus rerum ad easdem personas spectantium omnia quae sunt in regno sunt regis quoad potestatem utendi eis pro bono communi Ocha tract 2. l. 2. c. 22. 25. to detaine that right from him which God commands us to pay unto him and that indeed for our own good as Menenius Agrippa most wittily shewed unto he People of Rome when they murmured mutined for these axes that whatsoever the stomack received either from the â—and or mouth it was all for the benefit of the whole body so whatsoever the King receiveth from the People it is for the â—enefit of the people and it is like the waters that the Sea receiâ—eth from the Rivers which is visibly seen passing into the Oâ—ean but invisibly runneth through the veines of the earth into â—he rivers againe so doth all that the King receiveth from the People returne some way or other unto the People again And there be sixe speciall reasons why or to what end we should pay these dues unto the King Six reasons for which we pay Tribute unto the King 1. For the Honour of His Majesty 2. For the security of His Person 3. For the protection of his Kingdome 4. For the succour of His confederates 5. For the securing of our 1. Goods 2. Estates 3. Lives 6. For the propagating of the Gospell and defence of our Religion But for the further clearing of this poynt you must know that every just and Lawfull tribute must have these three essentiall conditions that are proprietates constitutivae Three conditions of every lawfull Tribute 1. Legitima potestas that is the Kings power to require it 2. Iusta causa an urgent necessity or need of it 3. Debita portio a due proportion according to the Kings necessities and the peoples abilities that he be not left in need nor the people overcharged For As the Subjects are thus bound to supply the necessities of their King so the King is not to over-charge his Subiects for the King should be the Sheapheard of his People as David calls himselfe and Homer tearmeth all good Kings and not the devourer of his people Kings should not overcharge their Subjects as Achilles calleth Agamemnon for the unreasonable taxes that he laid upon them therefore good Kings have been very sparing in this poynt for Darius inquiring of the governours of his Provinces whether the tributes imposed upon them were not too excessive and they answering that they thought them very moderate he commanded that they should raise but the one half thereof A worthy speech of Lewis 9. which had Rehoboam bin so wise to do he had not lost ten parts of his Kingdom and Lewis the ninth of France which they say was the first that raised a taxe in that Kingdome directing his Speech to his sonne Philip and causing the words to be left in his Testament which is yet to be found Registred in the chamber of accounts said be devout in the service of God have a pittifull heart towards the poore and comfort them with thy good deeds observe the good Lawes of thy Kingdome take no taxes nor benevolences of thy Subjects unlesse urgent necessity and evident commodity force thee to it and then upon a just cause and not usually if thou doest otherwise thou shalt not be accounted a King but a Tyrant and it is one of the gratious apothegmes of our late noble and never to be forgotten Soveraigne King Iames his golden apothegme Basilicon doron l. 2. p. 99. worthy to be written in letters of gold where speaking to his sonne he saith inrich not your selfe with exactions from your Subiects but think the riches of your Subiects your best treasures Artaâ—er said it was a great deale more seemlier for the Majesty of a King to give then to take by polling to cloath then to uncloath which belongeth to Theeves
not to Princes unlesse they will stain their names for as Apollonius saith that gold which is taken by Tyranny is farre baser then any iron because it is wetted with the teares of the poor Subjects and therefore Peter de la Primauday saith they are unworthy of the title of Prince that lending their eares to such as invent new wayes to get monies from their Subiects and having against all humanity Pet. de la primauday cap. 60. p. 670. spoyled them of their goods do either miserably consume them upon their pleasures or prodigally bestow them upon undeserving flatterers that fat themselves by the overthrow of others And therefore it behoveth all Kings to consider that all mens goods are theirs only quoad tuitionem defentionem and their Subjects quoad possessionem proprietatem as you may see Gen. 47.46 where Ioseph bought all the Land of the Egyptians for King Pharaoh and then let it them againe in Fee farme to give the King the fift part of the fruit of it and as you may conclude it from the eight Commandement which saith as well to the King as to the Subject thou shalt not steale for if all be his he cannot be said to steale it and if this precept concernes not Kings then have they but nine Commandements and therefore be wise ô ye Kings and remember what Saint Augustine saith remota justitia quid sunt Regna nisi Latrocinia for though you may iustly demand Tribute and Taxes yet you must have iust occasions to use them and you must take but a iust proportion or else they may come uniustly unto you But who shall be the Judges of the Kings iust occasions in many Kingdoms his conscience as the Roman consuls imposed what taxes they thought meet upon the Provinces they subdued so Marc. Antonius being in Asia doubled their Taxe and laid a second charge upon the People which was very unreasonable The saying of Hebreas to M. Antonius as Hebreas told him saying if thou wilt have power to lay upon us two taxes in one yeare thou must have also power to give us two Summers and two Autumnes two Harvests and two Vintages and yet if our King doe thus unreasonably taxe us with more then we are able to beare we may reason with him Kings herein not to be resisted as Hebreas did with M. Antony refell his arguments and repell his oppressions according to the course of Law but we may not in any case with the Sword make any resistance either actuall or habituall against him Reason 1 1. Because God hath not made us Judges of the Kings occasions and we know not his necessities and therefore we cannot determine what is Iust and uniust Reason 2 2. Were it granted that the superior demanded without right yet the inferior not only may rightly render it without offence unto his conscience but also ought to pay it without resistance unto the Magistrate for if the Iewes were not free and the Romans had no right to demand Tribute of them yet by our Saviours question unto S. Peter and his replication unto the Apostles answer it is apparent that our Saviour was most free and was no way bound to pay any thing unto the Romans not only quà deus as Hesselius saith but also as he was a man Hesselius in Matth. 18. Barrad 10 2. l. 10. c. 32. p. 718. as Barradius more truly proveth yet lest he should offend them as he saith tributum solvit quia voluit he doth most willingly discharge it to teach us that we may and ought iustly and without any scruple of conscience pay that which may be uniustly demanded and the best Authors that I have read are of the same judgement Greg. Tholos l. 26. de repub c 5. n. 25. we have no other remedy but to cry to God who can iudge them for their iniustice non caret modis quibus possit quando voluerit huiusmodi principes tollere vel emendare But though in most of the Easterne Countries the Kings imposed upon their Subjects what taxes and tributes pleased themselves as Augustus taxed all the world as much as he would at his own pleasure Osor de rebus Emanuel l. 12. p. 386. and Charles the fifth saith Osorius praeter pecunias quibus illum hispani juverant immania tributa populis imperavit besides those monyes wherewith the Spaniards assisted him laid most heavy taxes upon the people which is indeed a branch of the absolute right of Kings and was originally practised by most of them yet here with us our Kings out of grace and favour unto their people What the Kings of England promised to their Subjects granted such a priviledge unto their Subjects and divested themselves of this right to lay no impositions or taxes upon their Subjects without the consent of their three States convened in the two Houses of Parliament and this Princely concession being truly observed may procure a great deale of love and peace unto the King and as much tranquillity and happinesse unto the people Neither doe I think that he loves his King but am sure that he hates his Countrey that would perswade him for all the wealth of the Kingdome to violate his owne grant and faith herein but as our Kings granted this favour to impose no taxes without the consent of his Parliament so his Parliament in all duty ought alwayes with all thankfulnesse to acknowledge this speciall grace and in requitall thereof most fully to supply his wants and support his necessities That we should not be niggâ—rds to assist our King whensoever he acquaints them therewith And therefore we ought not to be like those hide-bound Sectaries and close-fisted Puritans and Brownists that are so miserably covetous and extreame niggards that when the King makes knowne his wants and demands his due for it is still his due though he granted not to cesse it without their consent for his royall supportation and the safety of his Kingdome they will find a hundred excuses to deny him but never a penny to give him out of all their wealth and this is the cause of our misery and may prove as fatall to us as it hath been to the Constantinopolitans whose churlishnesse and niggardlinesse towards their Emperour was the chiefest cause of the losse of that great Empire and to make the Turke sit in Christ his Chaire to have Mahomet adored where the Gospell was formerly published How Constant was lost what the Turke then said by as many famous Fathers as now England hath Preachers for the Emperour foreseeing the Siege made many motions for contributions towards the repairing of the walles and continue the military charge but the Subjects drew back and pleaded want untill it was too late and the City lost for though the enemy having a long time besieged it was intended to give over the Siege and to be gone yet tydings and intelligence being given him that
the midst of thine enemies and some thinke that it were but just if our King though he be never so loath should now at last turne the leafe and follow the example of God himselfe who when his children regard not his grace and set at naught all his counsels will laugh at their calamity Prov. 1.16 17. and mocke when their destruction commeth as a whirle-winde and should make London as Hierusalem and as other the like rebellious Cities that the Lord in his just revenge of their iniquity hath suffered to be destroyed and to be made an heape of stones The wealth pride of the Citie of London have brought this misery and calamity upon all the Kingdome of England because the Londoners have shewed themselves in many things worse then the Jews and for rebellion have justified all the Cities of the world or if the King will not do this though I dare not say of them as Antoninus after he had heard the confession of a miserable covetous wretch said unto him Deus miscreatur tui si vult condonet tibi peccata tua quod non credo perducat te in vitam aeternam quod est impossibile yet seeing their sinnes are so intolerable among men and so abhominable in the sight of God it is much feared that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.5 after their hard hearts which cannot repent they will still proceed to heape upon themselves the heavy wrath of God till there be no remedy to preserve them from utter ruine and destruction though from my heart I wish them more grace and pray to Almighty God that Nullum sit in omine pondus Or if this cannot be that they may escape that damnation Rom. 13.2 which the Apostle threatneth to all them that resist this ordinance of God 6. 6. Prayers for the King The last but not the least part of that honour which is due to our King is our prayers to God for him and as the other duty was to be performed by the practice of all good Subjects Aâ—nâ—saeâ—â— c. 2. p. 38. so is this to be observed by the precept of the Apostle who though the Kings were Ethnicks and Tyrants yet commandeth us to pray for them and that you may know what manner of prayer the Christians made for their persecuting Kings Tertul. ad Scapâ—ta Marcus Aurelius Christianarum nalitum erationibus ad Dâ—â—m faâ—â—is â—â—bres vt â—â—eriam in expeditione Gâ—rmâ—ntâ—a â—â—pâ—travit Tertullian that lived under the Emperour Severus saith in the behalfe of all the Church Omnibus Imperatoribus precamur vitam prolixam imperium securum domum tutam exercuus fortes senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque hominis Caesaris vota sunt and I feare me our Rebels pray for none of these things to a most Christian King Nam orare pro aliquo in exitium ejus machinari annon haec sunt sibi contraria for to pray for ones health and long life and to doe our best to worke his destruction Non bene conveniunt can never proceed from a true heart but as the uncharitable Papists prayed for the successe of the Gun-powder Plot which was a Treason sine exemplo quia crudelis sine modo saying Gentem auferto persidam Credentium de finibus Vt Christo preces debitas Persolvamus alacriter So the practice of these Rebels makes us believe their prayer is Regem auferto persidum Credentium de finibus * I am ashamed to set dowâ—e how the factious and malicious Preachâ—rs of the rebellious Cities either neglect to pray at all oâ— pray most seditiously and unchristianly for their owne Liege Lord and gracious King and therefore the curse of Iudas lights upon them that their prayer is turned into sinne which should make them pray that Iudas his end should not fall unto them c. But we that desire to follow the Apostles Precept considering the greatnesse of his cares and charge that he doth undergoe and the multitude of dangers that he is liable to will most heartily pray to God both in our Morning and our Evening Prayers both at our sitting and at our rising from our meat Vt vivat Rex exurgat Deus dissipentur inimici that God would give his Angels charge over him to preserve him in all his wayes that he dash not his foot against a stone that his enemies may be cloathed with shame and that he may flourish as the â—â—â—liâ— that he may raigne long and happily here and raigne for ever in Heaven this shall be my prayer for ever CHAP. XVIII The persons that ought to honour the King and the recapitulation of 21 wickednesses of the Rebels and the faction of the pretended Parliament 3. HAving seene the Person that is to be honoured 3. The persons that must honour the King and the honour that is due unto him we are now to consider in the last place who are to honour him included in this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honour ye him which being unlimited and indefinite is equivalent to an universall and so S. Paul doth more plainly expresse it saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13.1 Let every soule be subject to the higher powers which is an Hebrew ideome or Synecdochicall speech signifying the whole man the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being usually taken in Scripture pro toto composito for the whole man composed of body and soule as where it is said Gen. 46.26 27. Act. 2. that Jacob went downe into Egypt with 70 soules and S. Peter by one Sermon converted 3000 soules and the abstract word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew that our subjection obedience and honour which we are to ascribe unto our King must be not as hypocrites render it in shew from the teeth outward but really and indeed ex animo from our soules and the bottome of our hearts as Aquinas glosseth it and the concrete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added unto it makes it the more energeticall to shew that all mortall men none excepted are obliged to doe this honour and to yeeld this subjection unto their King for seeing every man both spirituall and temporall and every sex both man and woman and every degree of men young and old rich and poore one with another hath an immortall soule as well as a mortall body it must needs follow that all cujuscunque gradûs sexûs conditionis are obliged both in soule and body to honour and obey their King And yet it is strange to see how many men can exempt themselves and grant a dispensation unto their soules for the performance of this duty for the Pope will be freed The Pope and his Clergie would be freed from the subjection of Kings because he hath a power above all powers to depose Kings and to dispose of their Kingdomes at his pleasure and the Popish
professo yet give me leave in the interim to say this much First touching Covenants and Vowes it is plaine enough 1. What Vowes and Covenants are allowable that although the superiour may with Ezra cause the inferior to Vow or sweare the performance of his duty that he is bound by the law of God and nature to performe so Abraham caused his servant to sweare fidelity when he sent him for Isaack's Wife And so the King may cause his Subjects to take the Oath of their Alleageance Gen. 24.3 and the lawfull Generall cause his Soldiers to sweare their fidelity unto him yet the inferior subject can not sweare or if he sweares he ought not to observe it when be doth it contrary to the command of him that hath command over him Numb 30. per totum as you may see in Numb 30. throughout Therefore as children may not vow any thing though it be never so lawfull contrary to their fathers command or if they doe they ought not to keepe it so no more may any Subject Vow or make a Covenant contrary to their Kings command or if they doe they ought not to observe it and they are as you see absolved by God himselfe Ob. If you say Ezra and the Jewes did it contrary to the command of Artaxerxes Sol. that was then their King I answer that it is most false for 1. Ezra was the Priest Nehem. 8.2 9. and the chiefe Prince that was then over them and Nehemiah had his authority from the King and he was the Tirshatha that is their governour saith the Text Nehem. 10.1 and therefore they might lawfully cause them to take that Covenant 2. They had the leave and a large commission from Artaxerxes to doe all that they did as you may see * See Ezra 7.11.22 c. neither can you finde any syllable that Artaxerxes forbad them to doe this in any place 3. This Covenant of Ezra and his people and Nehemiah's was to doe those things that they had covenanted before to doe For so the text saith Let it be done according to the Law Ezra 10.3 which God had expressely commanded them to doe and which they could not omit though they had not covenanted to doe it without great offence so if our covenanters sweare they will serve God and be loyall unto their King as they vowed in their baptisme they shall never finde me to speake against them but to propose a lawfull Covenant to doe those things that God commandeth and is made with the leave and commission of the supreme Prince to justifie an unlawfull Covenant to doe those things that were never done before never commanded by God but forbidden both by God and especially by the King in the expressest termes and most energeticall manner that might be is such a piece of Divinity as I never read the like and such an argument a dissimili that never schollar produced the like 2. The examples of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles answered 2. For the examples of Queen Elizabeth King Charles assisting Subjects for their Religion sake against their lawfull Princes two things may be said the one in Divinity the other in Policy 1. By way of Divinity First for Divinity I say vivendum est praeceptis non exemplis we have the sure word of God to teach us what we should doe and no examples unlesse they be either commended or allowed in Gods word ought to be any infallible patterne for us to follow Secondly for Policy 2. By way of Policy which may be justified to be without iniquity I doubt not but those men which knew the secrets of State and were privie to the causes of their actions are able to justifie the proceedings of these Princes in their assistance which perhaps they did not so much simply in respect of their Religion as of some other State policie which we that are so farre from the helme have no reason to prie unto Besides you may know that neither King Charles nor Queen Elizabeth were Subjects to the other Kings but were every way their equall if not more and independent Princes And to bring the actions of such absolute Monarches the one against the other How wickedly they deceive the simple people to justifie the actions of Subjects against their Soveraigne is such Logicke as the other example was divinity Queen Elizabeth did so against the King of Spaine ergo any Subject may do so against his King or rather Queen Elizabeth did that which for ought we know was most lawfull to be done against the King of Spaine ergo the Earle of Essex may doe that which we doe know to be most unlawfull against King Charles This is the doctrine that they teach their Proselytes but that they give this poyson in a golden cup and hide their falshood under a shew of truth but I hope ere long you shall have these things more fully manifested unto you CAP. XX. Sheweth how the rebellious Faction forswore themselves what trust is to be given to them how we may recover our peace and prosperity how they have unkingd the Lords annointed and for whom they have exchanged him and the conclusion of the whole ANd now having committed all these things and much more wickednesse then I though I had the tongue of Angells can expresse I am perswaded many of them seeing the miraculous mercies of our God in protecting and assisting His Majesty farre beyond their thoughts and imaginations doe begin to thinke on peace and accommodation which they presuming on the Kings lenity made sure to themselves whensoever they pleased and indeed dulce nomen paciâ— and the feet of them that bring tydings of peace are more specious then the fairest countenance of aurora Esay 52.7 then the sweet face of Helen Psal 85.10 Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 3. 2 Cor. 2. c. But seeing righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other and the Apostle joyneth grace and peace alwayes together as two deere friends saith S. Aug. so deere that si amicam pacis non amaveris neque te amabit pax ipsa and these men are filled with all unrighteousnesse and have trampled the grace of God and their King under feet and having sworne forsworn themselves over and over as at their baptisme that they would keep Gods commandements whereof this is one to be obedient unto our Kings at their admittance to any office to beare faith and true alleagiance to His Majesty Rom. 13.1 1 Pet. 2.13 at the beginning of this last Parliament to maintaine the Kings just rights and all the priviledges of Parliament How the Rebels swore and forswore themselves together with the liberty and property of the Subjects and yet immediately to forget their faith to breake all these oathes and to make shipwracke of their conscience to drive the Bishops out of their House which is one of the first and most fundamentall priviledges of the
Parliament they being the first of the three Estates of this Kingdome to take away not some but all the Kings rights out of his hands and to make him no King indeed to take away all our goods our liberties and our lives at their pleasure and then to assure the Devill they would be faithfull unto him Holland and Bedford show'd what trust is to be given them which were thus faithlesse unto God to sweare againe and make a solemne Covenant with Hell they would never repent them of their wickednesse but continue constant in his service till they have rooted out whom they deemed to be Malignants though the King who is wise as the Angell of God that hath the Kings heart in his hand and turneth it like the rivers of waters Proverb 21.1 where he pleaseth knoweth best what to doe as God directeth him yet for mine owne part No trust to be given to lyers and perjurers 2 Sam. 20.20 16. either in peace or warre I would never trust such faithlesse perjured creatures for a straw and seeing that to spare transcendent wickednesse is to increase wickednesse and to incourage others to the like Rebellion upon the like hope of pardon if they fayled of their intention if our great Metropolis of London partake not rather of the wise spirit of the men of Abel then of the obstinacy of the men of Gibeâ—h and deliver not unto the King the chiefe of those rebells that rose up against him I feare that Gods wrath will not be turned away Judg. 20. but his hand will be stretched out still untill he hath fulfilled his determined visitation upon this Land and consummated all with their deplorable destruction How the King desired the good of the Rebels even as he did those obstinate men of Gibeah and Benjamin for though the King beyond the clemency of a man and the expectation of any rebell hath most christianly laboured that they would accept of their pardon and save themselves and their posterity yet their wickednesse being so exceeding great beyond all that I can finde in any history rebellion it selfe being like the sinne of witchcraft the rebellion of Christians farre worse and a rebellion against a most christian pious Prince worst of all and such a rebellion ingendered by pride fostered by lyes augmented by perjury continued by cruelty refusing all clemencie The unspeakeable greatnesse of their sins despising all piety and contemning God their Saviour when they make him with reverence be it spoken which is so irreverently done by them the very pack-horse to beare all their wickednesse being a degree beyond all degrees of comparison hath so provoked the wrath of God against this Nation that I feare his justice will not suffer their hearts that can not repent to accept and imbrace their owne happinesse till they be purged with the floods of repentant teares or destroyed with the streames of Gods fearfull vengeance which I heartily beseech Almighty God may by the grace of Christ working true repentance in them for themselves and reducing them to the right way be averted from them And the best way that I conceive to avert it to appease Gods wrath and to turne away his judgements from us is Hâ—w we may recover the peace and prosper ty of this land to returne back the same way as we proceeded hitherto to make up the breaches of the Church to restore the Liturgie and the service of our God to its former purity to repeale that Act which is made to the prejudice of the Bishops and Servants of God that they may be reduced to their pristine dignity to recall all Ordinances that are made contrary to Law and derogatory to the Kings right and to be heartily sorry that these unjust Acts and Ordinances were ever done and more sorry that they were not sooner undone and then God will turne his face towards us he will heale the bleeding wounds of our land and he will powre downe his benefits upon us but till we doe these things I doe assure my selfe and I beleeve you shall find it that his wrath shall not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still and still untill we either doe these things or be destroyed for not doing them Thus it is manifest to all the World that as it was often spoken by our sharpe and eagle sighted Soveraigne King Iames his speech made true by the Rebels King James of ever blessed memory no Bishop no King so now I hope the dull-eyd owle that lodgeth in the desart seeth it verifyed by this Parliament for they had no sooner got out the Bishops but presently they laid violent hands upon the Crowne seized upon the Kings Castles shut him out of all his Townes dispossest him of his owne houses tooke away all his ships detayned all his revenues vilified all his Declarations nullified his Proclamations How the Rebells have unkingd our King hindered his Commmissions imprisoned his faithfull Subjects killed his servants and at Edge-hill and Newbury did all that ever they could to take away his life and now by their last great ordinance for their counterfeit Seale they pronounce all honours pardons grants commissions and whatsoever els His Majestie passeth under his Seale to be invalid void and of none effect and if this be not to make King Charles no King I know not what it is to be a King so they have unkingd him sine strepitu and as the Prophet saith they have set up Kings but not by me they have made Princes and I knew it not but whom have they made Kings even themselves who in one word Hos â— 4 doe and have now exercised all or most of the regall power and their Ordinances shall be as firme as any Statutes and what are they that have thus dis-robed King Charles and exalted themselves like the Pope as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What kings they would have to rule us the great Antichrist above all that are called Gods truly none other then king Pym king Say king Faction or to say the truth most truly and to call a spade a spade king perjurers king murderers king traytors * Which S. Peter never bade us honour and I am sorry that I should joyne so high an office so sacred a thing as King to such wicked persons as I have shewed them to be And what a royall exchange would the Rebells of this kingdome make just such as the Israelites made The Rebels brave exchange when they turned their glory into the similitude of a Calfe that eateth hay and sayd these be thy Gods ô Israel Psal 146.20 which brought thee out of the land of Aegypt for now after they have changed their lawfull King for unlawfull Tyrants Judg. 9.15 and taken Jothams bramble for the cedar of Lebanon the Devills instruments for Gods annointed they may justly say these be thy Kings ô Londoners ô Rebells that brought
proud favorite had wickedly decreed and most tyrannically destined all the Nation of the Jewes to a sudden death yet this dutifull people did not undutifully rebell and plead the King was seduced by evill counsell and misguided by proud Haman therefore nature teaching them vim vi pellere to stand upon their owne defence they would not submit their necks to his unjust Decree but being versed in Gods Lawes and unacquainted with these new devices they returne to God and betake themselves to their prayers Hester 8.11 untill God had put it into the Kings heart to grant them leave to defend themselves and to sheath their swords in the bowels of their adversaries which is a most memorable example of most dutifull unresisting Subjects an example of such piety as would make our Land happy if our zealous generation were but acquainted with the like Religion But here I know what our Anabaptist Brownist and Puritane will say that I build Castles in the aire The author of the Treatise of Monarchie p. 33. and lay downe my frame without foundation because all Kings are not such as the Kings of Israel and Judah were as the Kings that God gave unto the Jewes and prescribed speciall Lawes both for the Kings to governe and the people to obey them but all other Nations have their owne different and severall Lawes and Constitutions according to which Lawes their Kings are tyed to rule and the Subjects bound to obey and no otherwise I answer Henric. Stephan in libello de hac re contendit in omneâ— respull debere leges Hebraerum tanquam ab ipso Deo profectas per consequens omnium optemas â—educi that indeed it is granted there are severall constitutions of Royalties in severall Nations and there may be Regna Laconica conditionall and provisionall Kingdomes wherein perhaps upon a reall breach of some exprest conditions some Magistrates like the Ephori may pronounce a forfeiture aswell in the successive as in the elective Kingdomes because as one saith succession is not a new title to more right but a legall continuance of what was first gotten which I can no wayes yeild unto if you meane it of any Soveraigne King because the name of a King doth not alwayes denotate the Soveraigne power as the Kings of Lacedamon though so called yet had no regall authority and the Dictator for the time being and the Emperours afterwards had an absolute power though not the name of Kings for I say that such a government is not properly a regall government ordained by God but either an Aristocraticall or Democraticall governement instituted by the people though approved by God for the welfare of the Common-wealth 1. Sam. 8.4.20 but as the Israelites desired a King to judge them like all the Nations that is such a King as Aristotle describeth such as the Nations had intrusted with an absolute and full regall power as Sigonius sheweth so the Kings of the Nations if they be not like the Spartan Kings were and are like the Kings of Israel both in respect of their ordination from God by whom all Kings as well of other Nations as of Israel doe raigne and of their full power and inviolable authority over the people which have no more dispensation to resist their Kings then the Iewes had to resist theirs And therefore Valentinian though an elected Emperour yet when he was requested by his Electors to admit of an associate answered Sâ—zom hâ—stor l. 6. c. 6. Niceph. hist l. 11. c. 1. it was in your power to chuse me to be an Emperour but now after you have chosen me what you require is in my power not in you Vobis tanquam subditis competit parere mihi verò quae facienda sunt cogitare it becomes you to obey as Subjects and I am to consider what is fittest to be done And when the wife takes an husband there is a compact agreement and a solemne vow past in the presence of God that he shall love cherish and maintaine her yet if he breakes this vow The wife may not forsake her husband though hee break hâ—s vow and neglect his duty and neglects both to love and to cherish her she cannot renounce him she must not forsake him she may not follow after another and there is a greater marriage betwixt the King and his people therefore though as a wife they might have power to chuse him and in their choice to tye him to some conditions yet though he breakes them they have no more power to abdicate their King then the wife hath to renounce her husband nor so much because she may complaine and call her husband before a competent Judge and produce witnesses against him whereas there can be no Iudge betwixt the King and his people but onely God and no witnesses can be found on earth because it is against all lawes and against all reason that they which rise against their King should be both the witnesses against him and the Iudges to condemne him or were it so that all other Kings have not the like constitution which the Scripture setteth downe for the Kings of Israel yet I say that excepting some circumstantiall Ceremonies in all reall points the Lawes of our Land are so farre as men could make them in all things agreeable to the Scriptures in the constituting of our Kings An Appeale to thy conscience pag. 30. according to the livelyest patterne of the Kings of Israel as it is well observed by the Author of the Appeale to thy conscience in these 4 speciall respects 1. In his Right to the Crowne 2. In his Power and Authority Our kings of the like Institution to the kings of Israeâ— 3. In his Charge and Duty 4. In the rendering of his Account For 1. As the Kings of Israel were hereditary by succession and Respect 1 not elective unlesse there were an extraordinary and divine designation as in David Salomon Iohn Kings of England are kings by birth Proved so doe the Kings of England obtaine their Kingdomes by birth or hereditary succession as it appeareth 1. By the Oath of Allegeance used in every Leete that you Reason 1 shall be true and faithfull to our Soveraigne Lord King Charles and to his Heires 2. Because we owe our legeance to the King in his naturall Reason 2 capacity that is as he is Charles the Sonne and Heire apparent of King Iames Coke l. 7. Calvins case when as homage cannot be done to any King in his politique capacity the body of the King being invisible in that sense 3. Because in that case it is expresly affirmed that the King Reason 3 holds the Kingdome of England by birth-right inherent by descent from the bloud-royall therefore to shew how inseperable this right is from the next in bloud Hen. 4. though he was of the bloud-royall being first cozen unto the King and had the Crowne resigned unto him by Rich. 2d Speed l. 9.