Magistrate and so many other restrictions were made as Rules against such as could not otherwise well rule themselves and observe the just rules of Reason and moderation And thereupon the Church it self and those godly Bishops that desired no mans wealth but what made for the glory of God and the furtherance of the Gospel of Christ made Canons and cautions against such catching Covetousness as would too greedily incroach upon their neighbours estates Decret part 2. Caus 12. q. 2. Can 49. and too unreasonably hedge it in unto the Church as that Canon which beginneth Ecclesia rapacitatis ardore The Church with too much greediness must not snatch and pluck unto her self the Lands and Possessions of her Children The Reason of those Statutes and Canons two fold And the Reason of these Inhibitions and Statute of Mortmain and Canons of the Church seems to be two fold 1. Because as I said before the zeal of those Christians was so fervent Reason 1 and their desire to promote the service of God was so eager and vehement that they cared not how much they gave but thought all that they gave too little for that service So great was the difference betwixt their mind and the minds of our Souldiers and others Gentlemen of no mean rank and some generated and degenerated from the Church whose Covetousness and greedy hearts desire nothing more then to pull down our Cathedrals and other Churches and as it were Romana lege agraria by an Irresragable Law to pluck away their Lands and Possessions until they be left as bare as in the day wherein they were first brought forth into the World 2. Because that whatsoever Lands Houses or Possessions were once Reason 2 dedicated and offered unto God and for Gods service could not without committing the horrible sin of Sacriledge be taken away by any man or by any pretence from God or indeed because the Lands and Houses that were given unto the Church were freed in those times of Popery from all Taxes and Escheats so that neither the King nor Common-Wealth could have any help or assistance from them towards the defraying of the publick and most necessary charges of the State And therefore Henry the third and Edward the first his son and Richard the second seeing how many men not out of any love to Religion or zeale to Gods service but craftily to couzen the King and other chief Lords and the Common-Wealth did thus fraudulently convey their Lands unto the Church and then took Leases of them again from the Church meerly to be freed from the Publick Taxes made those Statutes Cap 36. against the giving of their Lands in Mort-main or in a dead hand that is the Church and it is enacted in the great Charter that it should not be lawful to any man from thence-forth to give his Lands to any Religious House and then to take the same again from the same H use the which thing being a meer Collusion and an apparent wrong to the King to the chief Lord of the Fee and the Common-Wealth no Bishop ever justified the same or held it lawful for the Church to hold such Lands as were so given contrary to those Acts of Parliament and those Canons that were made against such deceitful dealings But for those Lands and Houses that were truly Religiously and without any manner of deceit or wrong to any man given to the Church for the service of God and to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ I think them so sacred and so properly Gods right that as the Author of the Church Lands not to be sold hath Truly Religiously and most Learnedly proved so I assure my self that none but the Limbs of the Great Anti-Christ will think otherwise For Before these holy men have made the Donations of their lands or houses unto God and to his Church it was in their own power and they might without offence either give them unto the Lord or retain them still unto themselves and their posterity for so S. Peter tells Ananiâ— Whiles it remained that is un-sold was it not thine own And after it was sold was it not in thine own power that is either to offer it and give it to God and his Service Acts 5.4 or not to give it But now after thou hast sold it and dedicated the whole price of thy land for Gods Service To keep back some part of the price which formerly thou hadst given to God's Church is such a Sacriledge and so transcendent a sin as to lye unto the Holy Ghost and to rob God of that which now doth most properly belong to God and is no wayes in thy power to dispose of it And so it is in any other mans case Before thou givest thy land house or utensil unto the Church and for the Service of God it is thine own and thou mayst lawfully do what thou wilt with thine own either give it unto God or not give it but after thou hast once given it and consecrated it for God's Service it is none of thine and neither thou nor any man else can make an alienation or impropriation thereof without lying unto the Holy Ghost and a robbing of God of his right For so the Law saith Jastinian lib. 2. Tit. 1 Nullius sunt res Sacrae nam quod Divini juris est nullius in bonis est The Sacred and Dedicated things that are of Divine property are of no private mans right but God being the sole owner of them none but such as are his servants and assignes can have any thing to do with them So Charles the Great that was as good as he was great saith Bona Ecclesiae Deo sacrata sunt Capit. Car. l. 6. c. 28. Whatsoever we give unto the Church we offer and dedicate unto the Lord our God And so the style of all the Graunts in our Magna Charta runneth Magna Charta c. 1. We have given such and such lands or things unto God both for us and for our heires for ever And again the same Magna Chartae saith Privilegium Ecclesiae debet esse immune And so the Law of God saith The field when it goeth out in the year of Jubile shall be holy unto the Lord as a field devoted the possession thereof shall be the Priests because Levit. 27.21 28. as the Lord saith verse 28. No devoted thing that a man shall devote or give unto the Lord of all that he hath both of man and beast and of the field of his possession shall be sold or redeemed because every devoted dedicated or consecrated thing is most holy unto the Lord and the Lord hath given the same unto the Priests verse 21. And so the ancient Style of all Grants and Charters for these matters was Domino Deo nostro offâ—rimus dicamus cetera We give such and such things unto our Lord God And under the Law as God instituted the Tythes and lands
and strongest fort that although all others should want sufficient right to crosse the commands and resist the violence of an unjust and tyrannical Prince yet the Parliament that is the representative body of all his Kingdom and are intrusted with the goods estates and lives of all his people may lawfully resist and when necessity requireth take arms and subdue their most lawful King and this they labour to confirm by many arguments I answer that for the Parliament of England it is beyond my sphere and I being a transmarine member of this Parliament of Ireland And whatsoever I â—pâ—ak of Parliaments in all this Discourse I mean of Parliaments disjâ—yned from their King and understand only the prevalent faction that ingrosseth and captivateth the Votes of many of the plain honest minded party which hath been often seen both in general Councels and the greatest Parl aments I will only direct my speech to that whereof I am a Peer and I hope I may the more boldly speak my mind to them whereof I am a member and I dare maintain it that it shall be a benefit and no prejudice both to King and Kingdome that the Spiritual Lords have their Votes in this our Parliament For besides the equity of our sitting in Parliament and our indubitable right to vote therein and his Majesty as I conceive under favour be it spoken is obliged by the very first act in Magna Charta to preserve that right unto us when as in the Summons of Edw. 1. it is inserted in the Writ that * Claus 7. m. 3. dors Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari or tractari debet whatsoever affair is of publique concernment ought to receive publique approbation and therefore with what equity can so considerable a party of this Kingdom as are the Clergy who certainly cannot deserve to forfeit the priviledge of the meanest subjects and of Common men because they are more immediately the servants of the living God be denied the benefit of that which in all mens judgements is so reasonable a law and they onely be excluded from that interest which is common unto all I cannot see yet I say that besides this our right while we sit in Parliament this fruit shall alwayes follow that our knowledge and conscience shall never suffer us to vote such things against the truth as to allow that power or priviledge to our Parliament as to make Orders and Ordinances without the consent and contrary to the will of our King much lesse to leavie moneys and raise armes against our King Priviledges of Parliament what they are for I conceive the Priviledges of Parliament to be Privatae leges Parliamenti a proceeding according to certain rules and private customes and lawes of Parliament which no member of the Houses ought to transcend whereas the other is Privatio legum a proceeding without Law contrary to all rules as if our Parliament had an omnipotent power and were more infallible than the Pope to make all their Votes just and their sayings truth I but to make this assertion good that the Parliament in some cases may justly take arms and make warre upon their justest King if they conceive him to be unjust it is alledged that although the King be Singulis major greater then any one yet he is Vniversis minor lesse then all therefore all may oppose him if he refuse to consent unto them I answer that the weaknesse of this argument Pag. 11. 38 39 40. is singularly well shewed in the Answer to the Observations upon some of his Majesties late Answers and Expresses and I will briefly contract the Answer to say the King is better than any one doth not prove him to be better then two and if his Supremacy be no more then many others may challenge as much for the Prince is Singulis major a Lord above all Knights and a Knight above all Esquires he is singulis major though universis minor And if the King be universis minor then the people have placed a King not over but under them And Saint Peter doth much mistake in calling the King Supreme 2 Pet. 2.13 and they do ill to petition when they might command and I am confident that no records except of such Parliaments as have most unjustly deposed their Kings can shew us one example that the Parliament should have a power As Edw. Carnarvan and Richard the second which must of necessity over-rule the King or make their Votes Law without and against the will of the King for if their Votes be Law without his consent what need they seek and sollicit his consent But the clause in the Law made 2. Hen 5. cited by his Majesty that it is of the Kings regality to grant or deny such of their Petitions as pleaseth himself That the King is universis major greater then all proved and the power which the Law gives the King to dissolve the Parliament and especially the words in the Preface of cap. 12. Vices to Hen. 8. where the Kings Supremacy not over single persons but over all the body politique is clearly delivered doth sufficiently shew the simplicity of this Sophistry God having given and the people having yielded their power to th it King they can never challenge any power but what they have derived from their king 2. Reason Sol. and prove that the King being invested with all the powâ—â— of the people which is due to him as their King he is the onely fountain of all power and justice so that now they can justly claim no power but what is derived from him and therefore it is the more intolerable that any man should usurp the power of the King to destroy the King 2. They will say that Salus populi est suprema a lex The good of the people is the chiefest thing that is aymed at in all government and the Parliament is the representative body of all the people therefore if any thing be intended contrary to the good of the people they may and ought lawfully to resist the same I answer and confesse that there is no wise King but will carefully provide for the safety of his people because his honour is included therein and his ruine is involved in their destruction but it is certain that this principle hath been used as one of our Irish mantles to hide the rebellion of many Traytors and so abused to the confusion of many Nations for there is not scarce any thing more facile 2 Sam. 15.4 then to perswade a people that they are not well governed as you may see in the example of Absolon who by abusing this very Axiome hath stollen away the hearts of many of his fathers subj cts How easie it is to perswade the people to rebell for as Lipsius saith Proprium est aegri nihil diu pati It is incident to sick men and so to distempered minds to indure nothing long but foolishly to
would collect the testimonies of our best Writers I will adde but one of a most excellent King our late King James of ever blessed memory for he saith The improbity or fault of the Governour ought not to subject the King to them over whom he is appointed Judge by God for if it be not lawful for a private man to prosecute the injury that is offered unto him against his private adversary when God hath committed the sword of vengeance onely to the Magistrate how much lesse lawful is it think you either for all the people or for some of them to usurp the sword whereof they have no right against the publique Magistrate to whom alone it is committed by God This hath been the Doctrine of all the Learned The obedient example of the Martyrs in the time of Queen Mary of all the Saints of God of all the Martyrs of Jesus Christ and therefore not onely they that suffered in the first Persecutions under Heathen Tyrants but also they that of late lived under Queen Mary and were compelled to undergoe most exquisite torments without number and beyond measure yet none of them either in his former life or when he was brought to his execution did either despise her cruell Majesty or yet curse this Tyrant-Queen that made such havock of the Church of Christ and causelesly spilt so much innocent blood but being true Saints they feared God and honoured her and in all obedience to her authority they yielded their estates and goods to be spoyled their liberties to be infringed and their bodies to be imprisoned abused and burned as oblations unto God rather then contrary to the command of their Master Christ they would give so much allowance unto their consciences as for the preservation of their lives to make any shew of resistance against their most bloody Persecutors whom they knew to have their authority from that bloody yet their lawful Queen And therefore I hope it is apparent unto all men that have their eyes open and will not with Balaam most wilfully deceive themselves Numb 24.15 Gen. 19.11 or with the Sodomites grope for the wall at noon-day that by the Law of God by the example of all Saints by the rule of honesty and by all other equitable considerations it is not lawfull for any man or any degree or sort of men Magistrates Peers Parliaments Popes The conclusion of the whole or whatsoever you please to call them to give so much liberty unto their misguided consciences and so farre to follow the desires of their unruly affections as for any cause or under any pretence to withstand Gods Vice-gerent and with violence to make warre against their lawful King or indeed in the least degree and lowest manner to offer any indignity either in thought word or deed either to Moses our King or to Aaron our High Priest that hath the care and charge of our souls or to any other of those subordinate callings that are lawfully sent by them to discharge those offices wherewith they are intrusted This is the truth of God and so acknowledged by all good men And what Preachers teach the contrary I dare boldly affirm it in the name of God that they are the incendiaries of Hell and deserve rather with Corah to be consumed with fire from Heaven then to be believed by any man on Earth CHAP. X. Sheweth the impudencie of the Anti-Cavalier How the Rebels deny they warre against the King An unanswerable Argument to presse obedience A further discussion whether for our Liberty Religion or Laws we may resist our Kings and a pathetical disswasion from Rebellion I Could insert here abundant more both of the Ancient and Modern Writers that do with invincible Arguments confirm this truth But the Anti Cavalier would perswade the world Anti-Cavalier p. 17 18 c. that all those learned Fathers and those constant Martyrs that spent their purest blood to preserve the purity of religion unto us did either belye their own strength * Yet Tertul. Cypr. whom I quoted before and R ssiâ— hist Eccles l. 2. c. 1. and S. August in Psal 124. and others avouch the Christians were far stronger then their enemies and the greatest part of Julians army were Christians or befool themselves with the undue desire of over-valued Martyrdome but now they are instructed by a better spirit they have clearer illuminations to inform them to resist if they have strength the best and most lawful authority that shall either oppose or not consent unto them thus they throw dirt in the Fathers face and dishonour that glorious company and noble army of Martyrs which our Church confesseth praiseth God and therefore no wonder that they will warre against Gods annointed here on Earth when they dare thus dishonour and abuse his Saints that raign in Heaven but I hope the world will believe that those holy Saints were as honest men and those worthy Martyrs that so willingly sacrificed their lives in defence of truth could as well testifie the truth and be as well informed of the truth as these seditious spirits that spend all their breath to raise arms against their Prince and to spill so much blood of the most faithful subjects But though the authority of the best Authours is of no authority with them that will believe none but themselves yet I would wish all other men to read that Homily of the Church of England where it is said that God did never long prosper rebellious subjects against their Prince were they never so great in authority or so many in number yea were they never so noble so many so stout so witty and politique but alwayes they came by the overthrow and to a shameful end Yea though they pretend the redresse of the Common-wealth which rebellion of all other mischiefs doth most destroy The Homily against rebellion p. 390. 301. or reformation of religion whereas rebellion is most against all true religion yet the speedy overthrow of all Rebels sheweth that God alloweth neither the dignity of any person nor the multitude of any people nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for the which the subjects may move rebellion against their Princes and I would to God that every subject would read over all the six parts of that Homily against wilful rebellion for there are many excellent passages in it which being diligently read and seriously weighed would work upon every honest heart never to rebell against their lawful Prince And therefore the Lawes of all Lands being so plain to pronounce them Traytors that take arms against their Kings as you may see in the Statutes of England 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. And as you know it was one of the greatest Articles for which the Earl of Strafford was beheaded that he had actually leavied warre against the King The Nobles and Gentry Lords and Commons of both Houses of Parliament in all Kingdomes being convicted in their consciences with the
design How they strengthened themselves to make their orders fi m without the King Whereupon these men put their heads together to consult how they might strengthen themselves and make their ordinances firm and binding without the King and to that purpose having by their former doings gotten too great an interest as well in the faith as in the affections of the people in confidence of their own strength they came roundly to the businesse and what they knew was not their right as their former Petitions can sufficiently witnesse they resolve to effect the same by force but as insensibly as they can devise as 1. To seize upon the Kings Navie to secure the Seas 2. To lay hold upon all the Kings Magazine Forts Towns and Castles 3. To with-hold his moneys and revenues and all other means from the King 4. To withdraw the affections and to poyson the loyalty of all his Majesties Subjects from him And hereby they thought and it must have been so indeed except the Lord had been on his side they had made their hill so strong that it could not be moved and the King so weak and destitute of all means that he could no wayes subsist or relieve himself as a member of their own House did tell me for 1. Earl of Warwick made Vice-Admiral 1. They get the Earl of Warwick to be appointed Vice-Admiral of the Sea and to commit all the Kings Navie into his hand and to take away that charge from Sir John Pennington whom most men believed to be far the better Sea-man but more faithful to his King and the other purer to the Parliament 2. Sir John Hotham put into Hull for the Magazine 2. They send Sir John Hotham a most insolent man that most uncivilly contemned the King to his face to seize upon the Kings Magazine that he bought with his own money when they might as well take away my horse that I paid for and to keep the King out of Hull which was his own proper Town and therefore might as well have kept him out of White-Hall and was an Act so full of injustice as that I scarce know a greater 3. They detained the Kings moneys Esay 1.23 3. Because moneys are great means to effect any worldly affaire and the sinews of every warre when as men and arms and all other necessaries may be had for money some of them and their followers shew themselves to be just as the Peers of Israel companions of thieves meer robbers which forcibly take away a mans mony from him they take all the Kings treasure they intercept detain and convert all the Kings revenues and customes to strengthen themselves against the King 4. They labour to render the King odious by lyes 4. Because their former Remonstrances framed by this faction of the ill government of this kingdom though in some things true which the King ingenuously acknowledgeth and most graciously promiseth to redresse them yet in all things full of gall and bitternesse against the King could not so fully poyson the love and loyalty of the Kings Subjects as they desired especially the love of those that knew his Majesty who the better they knew him did the more affectionately love him and the more faithfully serve him they thought to do it another and a surer way with apparent lyes palpable slanders and abominable accusations invented printed and scattered over all the parts of this kingdom by their Trencher Chaplains and parasitical Preachers and other Pamphleters some busie Lawyers and Pettifoggers to bring the King into an odium disliked and deserted of all his loving Subjects And what created power under heaven was able to dissolve that wickednesse which subtilty and malice had thus treacherously combined to bring to passe Hereupon after many threatning votes 1. Lye that he intended to war against the Parliament and actual hostility exercised against his Royall person the King is forced to raise a guard for the defence of himself and those his good Subjects that attended him then presently that small guard that consisted but of the chief gentry of the Countrey was declared to be an Army raised for the subversion of the Parliament and the destruction of our native liberties an invincible Army is voted to be raised the Earl of Essex is chosen to be their Generall with whom they promise both to live and die the Earl of Bedford General of the Horse moneys are provided and all things are prepared to fetch the King and all delinquents or to be the death of all withstanders and that nothing might hinder this design though the King in many gracious Messages attested by the subscription of many noble Lords that were upon the place assured them he never intended any warre against his Parliament yet they proceed with all eagernesse and declare all those that shall assist the King either with Horse money or men to be malignants and enemies unto the King and Kingdome and such delinquents as shall be sure to receive condigne punishment by the Parliament Hoc mirum est hoc magnum And among the rest of their impudent slanders this was their Master-piece which they ever harped upon that he countenanced Papists and intended to bring Popery into this Kingdgm and to that end had an Army of Papists to assist him But to satisfie any sensible man in this point I would crave the resolution of these two Questions 1. Whether every Papist that is subject to his Majesty Two questions to be resolved is not bound to assist and defend his King in all his dangers 2. Whether the King should not protect his Subjects that are Papists in all their dangers so far as by the Law he ought to do it and accept of their service when he himself is invironed with dangers For first 1. All Papists bound to assist their King I believe there is no Law that inhibiteth a Papist to serve his King against a Rebellion or to ride Post to tell the King of a Design to murder Him or any other intended Treason against Him or being present to take away a weapon from that man that attempted to kill the King because his not coming to Church doth not exempt him from his Allegiance or discharge him of his duty and service unto the King and therefore if a Fleet from France or Spain or any other forreign part should invade us or any Rebellion at home should rise against his Soveraign and seek to destroy those Lawes and Liberties whereof himself and his Posterity hath as good an interest to as any other Subject I say he is bound by all Laws to assist his King and to do his best endeavour both with his purse and in his person not only to oppose that external Invasion but also to subdue as well that home-bred Rebellion as the forreign Invasion 2. If a Papist should be injured his estate seized upon 2. The King bound to protect dutiful Papists his house
devised here and damnation hereafter yet these men contrary to all Laws do injoyn us and compell us as much against our Consciences as if they should compell us with the Pagan Tyrants to offer sacrifice unto Idols to war against our most gracious Soveraign whom we from our hearts do both love and honour and they proscribe us as malignants and as enemies to the Common-Wealth Ps 50.22 Augu. contra Faust l. 22. c. 75. 76. if we contribute not Money Horse and Arms to maintain this ungodly War and so become deadly enemies unto our own souls O consider this yee that forget God lest for tearing us He tear you in pieces while there is none to help you for considering what the Apostle saith Rom. 13.1 2. and what Saint Augustine saith Ordo naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli Autoritas atque consilium penes principem sit and lest men should think they ought by force of Armes to resist their King for Religion he answereth that objection by the example of the Apostles Isti non resistendo interfecti sunt ut potiorem esse docerent victoriam pro fide veritatis occidi We conceive this to be so execrable an Act and so odious to God and man that we are made thus miserable and abused beyond measure to have our Religion which is most glorious our Laws The miserable consequences of their wicked doings that in their own nature are most excellent and our Liberties that make us as free as any Subjects in the World under false pretences and the shadows of Religion Laws and Liberties to be eradicated and fundamentally destroyed whereby Mischief 1 1. We are made a spectacle of scorn and the object of derision to our neighbour-Nations that formerly have envied at our happiness and we are become the Subject of all pitty and lamentation to all them that love us Mischief 2 2. As in the Roman Civil-Wars in the time of Metellus the Son did kill his own Father so now by the subtilty of this faction we are cast into such a War as is 1. A most unnatural War the Son against the Father and the Father against the Son The Earl of Warwick fighteth for the Parliament and my Lord Rich his Son with the King The Earl of Dover is with the King and my Lord Rochford his Son with the Parliament So one brother against another as the Earl of Northumberland with the Parliament and his brother with the King The Earl of Bedford with the Parliament and his brother with the King Master Perpoint with the Parliament and the Earl of Newark with the King Devoreux Farmer with the Parliament and his bâ—other Richard Farmer together with his brother in law my Lord Cokain with the King and the like and of Cosens without number the one part with the King and the other with the Parliament And if they do this in subtilty to preserve their Estates I say it is a wicked policy to undo the Kingdom which all wise men should consider 2. A most irreligious War when one Christian of the same professed Religion shall bathe his Sword and wash his Hands in the blood of his fellow Christian and his fellow Protestant that shall be coheir with him of the same Kingdom 3. A most unnatural irreligious and barbarous War when the Subject shall take Arms to destroy or unthrone their own Liege a Religious and most gracious King 3. The Service of God in most Churches is neglected when almost all Mischief 3 the ablest gravest and most Orthodox Divines and Preachers are persecuted plundered imprisoned and driven to flie as in the time of the Arian or Donatist which was worse than the Heathen perfection from City to City and to wander in Desarts from place to place to save themselves from the hands of these Rebels against the King and Persecuters of Gods Church which is a most grievous and a most cruel persecution far more general than that of the Anabaptists in Germany or of Queen Mary here in England The Lord of Heaven make us constant and give us patience to indure it 4. The whole Kingdom is and shall be yet more by the continuance Mischief 4 hereof unspeakably impoverished and plunged into all kind of miseries when the travailer cannot pass without fear nec hospes ab hospite tutus the Carrier cannot transport his commodity but it shall be intercepted the Husbandman cannot till his ground but his Horses as my self saw it shall be taken from the Plough and his Corn shall be destroyed when it is ready for the Sickle which must be the fore-runner of a Famine that is ever the Usher to introduce the Plague and Pestilence and all other kind of grievous diseases and these things put together do set wide our Gates and open our Ports to bring forraign foes into our Coasts to possess that good Land whereof we are unworthy because with the Israelites we loathed Manna we were weary of our peace and happiness we would buy Arms and be Voluntiers and every Town being too wanton would needs train and put themselves into a posture of defence as they termed it to be secured from their own shadows and though the King told them often there was no cause of their Jealousies and therefore forbade these disloyalties yet just like the Jews they were willing to be deceived by this miserable faction that contrived that Act whereby they have perfidiously over-reached both our good King and the rest of our wel-meaning brethren either to perfect their Design or else to make themselves perpetual Dictators and to betray the felicity of all our people under the name of Parliament which though as I said before I honour and love as much as any of the truest Patriots of either House both in the institution and the right prosecution thereof that is as it was constituted to be the great Council of the Kingdom graciously called by his Majesties-writ confidently to present the grievances of the people and humbly to offer their advice and counsels for their Reformation yet I do abhor those men that would abuse the word Parliament only as a Stalking-Horse to destroy all Acts of Parliament and I hate to see men calling the Fanatick actions of a few desperate seditious persons the proceedings of Parliament and others making an Idol of it as if their power were omnipotent or unlimitted and more than any Regal Power their judgment infallible their Orders irreprehensible and themselves unaccountable for their proceedings to be so besotted with the name of it that this bare shadow without the substance for it is no Parliament without the King and the Major part of both Houses is either banished or imprisoned or compelled to reside with his Majesty should so bewitch us as Master Smyth blushed not to say Nothing could free us from our dangers but the Divinity of a Parliament out of our own happiness to become more miserable Ingeniosus ad
fixt on him to be as God hath promised their nursing Father 2. To assure those that would suffer the Church to fall or perhaps sell the same out of a by-respect unto themselves That taking their rise from the fall of the Church or laying the foundation of their houses in the ruine of the Clergy they do but build upon the sands whence they shall fall and their fall shall be great when the successe thereof shalâ— be as the success of the City of Jericho that was built by Hiel who laid the foundation of it in Abiram his first-born and set up the gates thereof in Segub his youngest son and had her destiny described by Joshua and all the Poss ssions that they shall get shall prove Acheldama's fields of blood and we hope God will raise deliverance to his Church from some better men when as they and their Fathers House shall all perish and shall stink in the nostrils of all good men for their perfidiousness in Gods cause But if any man should demand why we suspect any Traytors or false Counsellours to be in Kings Courts I answer because Saint Paul saith Oportet esse hareses and I believe the purest Court hath no more Priviledge to be free from Traytors then the Church from Hereticks And you know there was one of eight in Noahs Ark and another of twelve in Christ his Court and he that was so near him as to dip his hand with him in the dish was the first that flew in his face and yet with a Hayl Master and with a Kiss two fair testimonies of true love Therefore let no King in Christendom think it strange that his Court should have Flatterers Traytors or evil Counsellours let not us be blamed for saying this and let not Pym so foolishly charge our King for evil Counsellours for certainly did he know them I make no question but he would discard them or could I or any other inform his Majesty who they are and that it were an easy matter dicâ—er Hic est we would not be affraid to pull off their veils and to say as Christ did to Judas Thou art the man but their Maeandrian windings their Syrens voyces and their Judas kisses are as a fair mantle to conceal and cover Joabs Treason even perhaps to betray some of the wisest in the Parliament as well as some of them have betrayed the King In such a case all I can say is this Memento diffidere was Epicarmus his Motto The honest plain dealing man that doth things for Religion not for ends is the unlikest man to betray his Master and few Counsellours are not so apt to breed so many Traytors as a multitude It was the indiscretion of Rehoboam that lost him ten parts of twelve to prefer young Counsellours before the ancient †Seldom discretion in youth attendeth great and suddain fortunes In vita Hen 3. and if we may believe that either paupertas or necessitas cogit ad turpia or the fable of the ulcerated Travailer They that are to make their fortunes are apter to sell Church and State and to betray King and Kingdom rather then those that have sufficiently replenished their coffers and inlarged their possessions But I assure my self the mouth of malice cannot deny but that our King hath been as wary and as wise in the choice of his Servants Officers and Counsellors so far as eyes of flesh can see Their design to change the Government of th State shewed in all respects as any Prince in Christendom and more by man cannot be done And for the second that is their Design to change the Government of the State and to work the subversion of the Monarchy he evinceth it Way 1 1. By that Declaration upon the Earl of Straffords suffering that this Example might not be drawn to a President for the future because they thought that themselves intending to do the like and to become guilty of the same Crimes might by virtue of this Declaration be secured from the punishment if things should succeed otherwise then they hoped Way 2. By the pulling down of so many Courts of Justice which may perhaps Relieve the Subjects from some pressures but incourage many more in licentiousness and prove the Prodroms to the ruine of our Monarchy Way 3. By those 19. Propositions whereby the King was in very deed demanded to lay down his Crown The Letter p. 11. and to compound with them for the same because as another saith therein there was presented to him a perfect Platform of a total change of Government by which the Counsellours indeed were to have been Kings and the King in name to have become scarce a Counsellour and nothing of the present State to have remained but the very Names and Titles of our Governours Way 4 4. By that expression so little understood by many men and yet so much talked of in many of their papers of a power of re-assuming the trust which is falsly pretended to be derived unto his Majesty by the meer human pactions and agreement of the Politick body of the people which I shewed unto you to be a most false and a meer invented suggestion Way 5 5. By their pretending to and according to this Doctrine their Vsurping of the power of the Militia both by Sea and Land Way 6 6. By their Actual exercising of this power in disposing of Offices Generals Colonels Captains and the like Places of Command in War and appointing their Speaker Master of the Rowls and other Officers of Peace Way 7 7. By the expression of one of them to Sir Edward Deering while he was yet of their Cabinet-Council that if they could bring down the Lords to the House of Commons and make the King as one of the Lords then the whole work were done that is to make the Government of this Kingdom popular Way 8 8. I may add to these as another unanswerable Argument of this Design the licencing of Master Pryn's Book of The Soveraign Authority of Parliaments and suffering the same to pass unquestioned to this very day because that book devesteth the King of all his Soveraignty and maketh our Government Aristocratical And this subversion of our Monarchical Government was the last Design if not the grand Design of this Faction not that all the Members which have voted all or most of those things that tended to this change or be still remaining in either House did intend any ill either to Church or State for I know many especially my ever honoured Lord the Earl of Pembrook and Montgomery who I dare avouch it in Truth and honesty did ever and as I believe doth still bear a most upright heart and as sincere intentions howsoever perhaps by a mis-understanding his Lordship and the rest of those well meaning men may be mis-guided as were those honest men that followed Absolon both to Gods Service the Kings Honour and the happiness both of Church and Common-Wealth as any man in the
Kingdom but that a Faction it may be very few at first have insensibly seduced the rest to effect their own Design and thia Faction is all that I mean by the name of Parliament throughut this whole Treatise because their subtilty hath prevailed over the plain Integrity of the other well-minded men to make up the major part of the House both of the Lords and Commons which thing hath often happened both in General Councils and great Parliaments as in the Council of Constans and Trent and many others and that Parliament which was branded with the name of Parliamentum insanum and the other somewhat like this in quo jugulum ecclesiae atrocius petebatur and the like Tempore Hen. 3. for otherwise I do both honour and reverence this Parliament rightly understood and every Member of the same as much as any discreet Member can desire And therefore having thus discovered and displayed the Plots and practices of these infernal instruments to insinuate their assistance unto the Scots and their allurements of them to invade our Kings Dominions to ensnare the Irish and to provoke the Papists to such a Rebellion as hath been the utter ruine and destruction of many millions of men to obscure the Glory of this noble Kingdom to alter the Discipline and corrupt the Doctrine of the most glorious and the purest Church that professeth the name of Christ and to bring us all and all our Posterity to extream miseries to suffer yet more than we have endured or that can be hitherto imagined And considering those bloody Treasons that have been publickly uttered and openly practised against the Sacred Person of our Soveraign I may justly say that as the sins of the Israelites and their impetuous calling for a King moved the Lord to send them a King in his anger so our sins and our impatient crying for a Parliament made our God to send us a Parliament in his Wrath that will never turn for our Blessing till we return to God from our sinnes for when I consider on the one side the Piety and goodness of our King the justness of his cause and the most ready and cordial valour as well in the Common Souldiers as the Commanders of a full and sufficient Army and on the other side the multitude of disloyal and seduced Subjects the vigilancy and subtilty of their Commanders with their unlimited waies to get Monies and on both sides the desire of too many not for the honour of the King nor the Peace of the Kingdom to end the War but to continue the same for their own advantage until the wealth of Lawyers Clergy and Gentry be transplanted to the possession of other Masters I am affraid it will prove an heavy Judgment And therefore lest our obstinacy in our sins should procure the continuance of Gods anger which being removed will soon remove all our miseries let me perswade all conscientious men especially the Gentry and all other understanding men howsoever the Citizens that deceive the Kingdom of their Wealth delight to be deceived in their Faith that would not be cheated of their Religion by these factious Mountebanks and that would not provoke God to say I have no pleasure in them to turn from their Rebellious courses to listen no longer to those furious fire brands that out of their new Divinity contrary to the Doctrine of all the ancient Fathers and all the Orthodox and grave Preachers of this Kingdom do incite the People unto this unnatural bloody War and to slander the footsteps of Gods Anointed because they know him not and to remember the Oathes of their Allegeance and Supremacy together with their late Protestation whereby they stand obliged to their uttermost power to maintain his Majesties Royal Person Crown and Dignity against all treacherous practices that may any waies dishonour or impair them and then I presume their consciences will disavow the proceedings of these Projectours protest against all their Ordinances that are made against or without the Kings consent advise all the Knights and Burgesses to Vote no more against their Soveraign and to make no further use of the trust they reposed in them to Murder us and our fellow Subjects under the pretence of shedding the blood of the ungodly or if they still go on to abuse that trust to make us yet more miserable to withdraw themselves and their trust and power of the representation from them and to joyn their uttermost assistance unto his Majesty to Protect him that he may be enabled to protect us and to overwhelm these Rebels into the same pit which they have made for us And this may be by dissolving the knot of factious members wherein we see our miseries involved and to make elections of new members into their places who with the rest of the Lords and Commons which were faithful both to the Church King and Kingdom shall call them to a strict account for betraying our Trust interrupting our Peace opposing his Majesty and violating all our ancient liberties Or if a better way may be found let us follow the same to God's glory and to produce the peace and happinesse of this Kingdom lest if we persist obstinately in this wilfull Rebellion to withstand God's Ordinance to oppose his Anointed and to shed so much innocent blood we shall thus fighting against Heaven so far provoke the wrath of the God of Heaven as that the Glory of Israel shall be darkned the Honour of this Nation shall be troden under-foot and be made the scorn of all other Nations round about us and the light of our Candlestick shall be extinguished and we shall all become most miserable because we would not hearken to the voice of the Lord our God Which I hope we will do and do most earnestly pray that we may do it to the Glory of God the Honour of our King and the Happinesse of this whole Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be Praise and Dominion both now and for ever Amen Jehovae Liberatori AN APPENDIX THe man of God speaking of transcendent wickednesse saith Their Vine is of the Vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah Deut. 32.32 their grapes are grapes of gall their clusters are bitter their wine is the poison of Dragons and the cruel vemon of Aspes And I believe never any wickednesse deserved better to be clad with this elegant expression than that threefold iniquity 1. The unparallel'd Vote 2. The intolerable Ordinance 3. The damnable Covenant which the rebellious Faction in Parliament have most impiously contrived to make up the full measure of their impiety since the writing of my Discoveries For 1. Omitting that horrible practice of those rebellious blood thirsty Souldiers that did their best to murder their own most gracious Queen this Faction seeing how God prevented that plot voted this most loving and most loyal Wife to be impeached of High Treason for being faithful to do her uttermost endeavour which will be
sole power of ordering and disposing all the Castles Forts and strong Holds and all the Ports Havens and all other parts of the Militia of this kingdom or otherwise it would follow that the king had power to proclaime war but not to be able to maintain it and that he is bound to defend his subjects but is denied the meanes to protect them which is such an absurdity as cannot be answered by all the House of Commons 6. The kings of Israel were unto their people their honour their Soveraigns their life and the very breath of their nostrils as themselves acknowledge and so the kings of England are the life the head and the authority of all things that be done in the Realm of England supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habentes Smith de Repub l. 2. Cambden Britan p. 132. nec in Imperii clientela sunt nec investituram ab alio accipientes nec praeter Deum superiorem agnoscentes and their Subjects are bound by Oath to maintain the kings Soveraignty in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that not onely as they are singularly considered but overall collectively represented in the body politick for by sundry divers old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world In the Preface to a Stat. 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12 governed by one supream head and king having the dignity and royal estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a body politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of spiritualty and temporalty have been bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience Respect 3 3. As the duty of every one of the kings of Israel was to be custos utriusque tabulae to keep the Law of God and to have a special care of his Religion and then to do justice and judgment according to the Law of nature and to observe all the judicial Laws of that kingdom so are the kings of England obliged to discharge the same duties The duty of the kings of England 1. To have the chiefest care to defend the faith of Christ and to preserve the honour of Gods Church as I shewed before 2. To maintain common right according to the rules and dictates of Nature And. 3. To see the particular Laws and Statutes of his own kingdom well observed amongst his people To all which the king is bound not onely virtute officii in respect of his office but also vinculo juramenti in respect of his Oath which enjoyneth him to guide his actions not according to the desires of an unbridled will but according to the tyes of these estabâ—ished Laws neither do our Divines give any further liberty to any king but if he failes in these he doth offend in his duty Respect 4 4. As the kings of Israel were accountable for their actions unto none but onely unto God Psal 51.4 and therefore king David after he had committed both murder and adultery saith unto God Tibi soli peccavi as if he had said none can call me to any account for what I have done but thou alone and we never read that either the people did call or the Prophets perswaded them to call any of their most idolatrous The kings of England accountable for their actions only to God tyrannical or wicked kings to any account for their idolatry tyranny or wickedness even so the kings of England are accountable to none but to God Reason 1 1. Because they have their Crown immediately from God who first gave it to the Conquerour through his sword and since to the succeeding kings by the ordinary means of hereditary succession Smith de repub l. 1. c. 9. Reason 2 2. Because the Oath which he takes at his Coronation binds him onely before God who alone can both judge him and punish him if he forgets it Reason 3 3. Because there is neither condition promise or limitation either in that Oath or in any other Covenant or compact that the king makes with the people either at his Coronation or at any other time that he should be accomptable or that they should question and censure him for any thing that he should do Reason 4 4. Because the Testimony of many famous Lawyers justify the same truth for Bracton saith if the king refuse to do what is just satis erit ei ad poenam quòd Dominum expectet ultorem The Lord will be his avenger which will be punishment enough for him but of the kings grants and actions nec privatae personae nec justiciarii debent disputare And Walsingham maketh mention of a Letter written from the Parliament to the Bishop of Rome wherein they say Bracton fol. 34. 2. b. apud Lincol anno 1301. that certum directum Dominium à prima institutione regni Angliae ad Regem pertinuit the certain and direct Dominion of this Kingdom from the very first institution thereof hath belonged unto the King who by reason of the arbitrary or free preeminence of the royal dignity and custome observed in all ages ought not to answer before any Judge either Ecclesiastical or Secular Ex libera praeeminentia Ergo neither before the Pope nor Parliament nor Presbytery Reason 5 5. Because the constant custome and practice of this kingdom was ever such that no Parliament at any time sought to censure their king and either to depose him or to punish him for any of all his actions save onely those that were called in the troublesome and irregular times of our unfortunate Princes No legitimate and just Parliment did ever question the kings of England for their actions and were swayed by those that were the heads of the most powerful Faction to conclude most horrid and unjustifiable Acts to the very shame of their Judicial authorities as those factious Parliaments in the times of Hen. 3. king John Rich. 2. and Hen. 4. and others whose acts in the judgment of all good authors are not to be drawn into examples when as they deposed their king for those pretended faults whereof not the worst of them but is fairly answered and all thirty three of them proved to be no way sufficient to depose him Heningus c. 4. p. 93. by that excellent Civilian Heningus Arnisaeus And therefore seeing the Institution of our kings is not onely by Gods Law but also by our own Laws Customs and practice thus agreeable to the Scripture kings they ought to be as sacred and as inviolable to us as the kings of Israel were to the Jews and as reverently honoured and obeyed by us as both the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul advise us to honour and obey the king CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto
of it in this place If these Counsellours Magistrates Parliament call them what you will have any power and authority it must be either subordinate coordinate or supreme 1 Subordinate officers can have no power over their superiors 1. If subordinate 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. that neither Peers not Parliament can have the supremacy None above the king at any time 2. If they be supreme then Saint Peter is much mistaken to say the King is supreme and they do 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. do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highness 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 Authour of The unlawfulness of Subjects taking up armes against their Soveraigne that more needs not be spoken to any rational man Yet because this point is of such great concernment and the chiefest argument they have out of Bracton is that he saith Rex habet superiorem The Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton fully answered legem curiam suam comites Barones quia comites dicuntur quasi socii Regis qui habet socium habet magistrum ideò si Rex fuerit sine frano 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 Physick or the Pilot when he sayleth by Sea that is quoad rationem consulendi How the Law and the Court of Barons is above the King non cogendi they have superioritatem directivam non coactivam for so the teacher is above him that is taught 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 socii they are as his fellows or Peeres not simply but quasi and if they were simply so yet they are but socii not superiours and what can socii do 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 moâ—e plain he addes Si Rex fuerit sine fraeno id est lege if the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he meanes 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 do 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 forcing the King not a word of superiority nor yet simply of equality and therefore I must say hoc argumentum nihil ad rhombum these do abuse every author 3 That neither Peers nor Parliament are co-ordinate with the King If their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their natural strength and power but of their right and authority be coordinate and equal 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 nam quod summum est unum est Ommesque Philosoph jurisconsulti ponunt summum in eo rerum genere quod dividi non possit Lactant. l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. 3.14 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 Poet 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 fox spake onely to descry his ill willers after some jests answered seriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that government must not be divided because you can never have any happiness where the power is equally divided in two parts when according to the well known axiome to every one Par in parem non habet potestatem But to make the matter cleare The Case of our Affaires p. 19.20 The Lawes of our Land acknowledge all Soveraignty in the King and to shew that the Soveraignty is inseperably inherent in the person of His Majesty we have the whole current of our very Acts of Parliament acknowledging it in these very termes Our Soveraigne Lord 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 Crown of England to have been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the regality of the said Crown and to none other and in the 25. 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 Kingdom or in the known and published Laws 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 allegeance to the individual person of the King and I doubt not but our learned Lawyers can finde much more proofe then I do out of their Law to this purpose And therefore seeing divers supreme
them the more odious both to God and man and their names the more infamous to all posterity that after they had filled themselves with all kind of wickednesse with incredible transgressions they should be sound contemners of so favourable a pardon But though it be the Kings right to pardon faults and to restore offenders yet herein all Princes should take great heed especially when they have power to take revenge 2. Sam. 3.39 for sometimes the sinners may be like the sons of Zervia too strong for David how they pardon those great crimes that are committed to the dishonour of God and do so far provoke him to anger as to plague both the doers and the sufferers of them because that although they be soluti legibus suis not bound to their own Lawes Arnisaeus l. 1. c. 3. pag. 69. yet they are not soluti ratione praeceptis divinis but they are bound to observe Gods Lawes and to punish the transgressors of his Commandments or if they do not when they can do it they shall render a strict account to God for all their omissions as they may see it in the example of King Saul 1 Sam. 15.9 6. Jus convocandi Synodos Parliamenta c. 6. Jus convecandi the right of calling Synods Parliaments Dyets and the like were the rights of the kings of Israel and are the just Prerogatives of the kings of England howsoever this faction of the Parliament hath sought to wrest it as they do all other rights out of the kings hands by their presumption to call their Schismaticall Synod to which they have no more colour of right then to call a Parliament 7. Jus mone tas excudendi Matth. 22.20 7. Jus excudendi the right of coyning mony to give it value to stampe his armes or his image upon it as our Saviour saith Whose Image and superscription is this and they say to him Caesars is the proper right of Caesar the prerogative of the king The second sort of the King 's right is circa Magistratus 2. About the Magistrates and containeth jurisdiction rule creation of officers appointing of circuits provinces judgements censures institution of Scholes and Colledges collation of dignities receiving of sidelities and abundance more whereof I intend not to speak at this time but refer my Reader to Arnisaeus de jure Majestatis if he desires to be informed of these particulars Arn s l. 2. c. 2. And as these and the like are jura Regalia the rights of Majesty in the time of peace so when peace cannot continue it doth properly belong unto the King and to none else but to him that hath the Sovereignty whose right it is alone to make war either to succour his allyes or to revenge great injuries or for any the like just causes and as he seeth cause to conclude Peace to send Ambassadours to negotiate with foreign States and the like are the rights of Kings and the indeleble Characters of Soveraignty which whosoever violateth and endeavoureth to purloin them from the King doth with Prometheus steal fire from Heaven which the Gods would not suffer as the Poëts feign to go unrevenged And these things so far as I can finde the King never parted with them unto his Subjects and therefore whosoever pretendeth to an inderived power to do any of these and exempteth himself from the King 's right herein resisteth the ordinance of God and is guilty of High-Treason Ioh. Beda 26. what pretext soever he brings saith the Advocate of Paris And there be some things which our Kings have granted unto their Subjects Ita itiam Reges Aegypti quibus voluntas pro lege est legum tamen instituta in cogendis pecuniis quotidianoque victu sequebantur Aubanus What things Kings have granted and restrained themselves from their full right as the use of that power which makes new Lawes or repeals the old or layeth any tax or sums of monies upon his Subjects without the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and it may be some other particulars which the Lawyers know better then I. And all these Priviledges of the Subjects are but limitations and restrictions of the King 's right made by themselves unto their people and therefore where the Law cannot be produced to confirm such and such Liberties and Priviledges granted unto them I say there the King's power is absolute and the Subject ought not in such cases to determine any thing to the disadvantage of the King because all these Liberties that we have are injoyed by vertue of the King's grant as you may see in the ratification of Magna Charta where the King saith We have granted and given all these Liberties But I could never see it produced 9 Hen. 3. where the King granted unto his Subjects that they might force him and compel him with a strong hand by an Army of Souldiers to do what they will or else to take away either his Crown or his Life this Priviledge was never granted because this deprives the King of his supremacy and puts him in the condition of a Subject and would ever prove an occasion of rebellion when the people upon every discontent would take Arms against their King And therefore this present resistance is a meer usurpation of the King 's right a rebellion against his Lawes an High Treason against his Person and a resistance of the ordinance of God which heap of deadly sins can bring none other fruit then damnation saith the Apostle CHAP. XIV Sheweth the Kings grants unto his people to be of three sorts Which ought to be observed the Act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament discussed the King's Oath at his Coronation how it obligeth him and how Statutes have been procured and repealed 2. The Kings obligation to observe his grants Peter de la Primandas saith Laws annexed to the Crown the Prince cannot so abrogate them but his Successor may disannul whatsoever he hath done in prejudice of them p. 597. 2. WE are to consider how far the King is obliged to observe his promise and to make good these Liberties and Priviledges unto his Subjects where I speak not how far the father's grant may oblige the son or the predecessor his successor who cannot be deprived of his right dominion by any act of his predecessors but for the rights of his dominion how far precedent grants and the custom of their continuance with the desuetude and non-claim of his right may strengthen them unto the Subject and oblige the successors to observe them I leave it unto the Lawyers and Civilians to dispute but I am here to discusse how far the King that hath promised and taken his oath to observe his Lawes and make good all priviledges granted to his Subjects is bound in conscience to keep and observe them Touching which you must understand that these grants of immunities and favours are of three special kindes 1. Of
things abused and to distinguish betwixt that fault which proceedeth ex natura facti out of the nature of the fact and that which springeth ex abusu boni from the abuse of that which is good for if the thing be simply evil no circumstance no dispensation can make it good and therefore it should be wholly rejected and abolished because as Aristotle saith Cujus usus simpliciter malus est Arist Topic. 1. Si usus principalis alicujus rei sit mortifer mortiferam quoque rem ipsam efficiet ipsum quodque malum esse necesse est that thing whose use is simply evil must needs be likewise evil of it self but if the fault be not in the thing it self but adventitious in usu agentis in the use or rather in the abuse of the agent then certainly the thing it self as being good ought to be retained and the abuse only is to be removed or amended And therefore the endowing of Gods Church with means to maintain Gods service or the giving of our goods to the use of Gods Worship whether it be praying to him or preaching to his people Navar. Enchiâ—id c. 14. or relieving his members being not only simply good but also most excellently good both commanded and commended by God himself it is a Maxime Things once dedicated to God may not at any time by any body be alienated from the Church even in nature and confirmed by meer reason that Semel Deo dicatum non est ad usus humanos ulterius transferendum that which is once given and dedicated for and to Gods service which is a service acceptable to God ought not afterwards by any means be any more transferred to mans uses because as Plato saith Quae rectè data sunt eripi non licet those things that are well given ought not to be taken back again and because as the Fathers say Bis Dei sunt quae sic Dei sunt God hath in all dedicated things that are given to uphold his service a double right and interest 1. As his own Creatures and gift given to man And 2. As in a thankfull acknowledgment of Gods goodness the gift of man back again to God which twofold cord tieth them so strong that this sin deserves no less than the heavy curse of Anathema for any one not consecrated to do the service of God to challenge them and to take them away from Gods service and the donors first institution whereupon not only the Divines but also the Philosophers and Canonists have concluded 6. Decret de reg juris Plato Phileb 1 Chron. 29.14 Plin. 2. Ep. l. 10. Epist 74 75. that Si facta aedes sit licet collapsa sit jam religio tamen ejus occupavit locum If an house be once dedicated to God though afterwards it should fall down and be utterly demolished so that the ruines of it could scarce be seen yet the soil and ground of it is still holy and religious and not to be imployed to any civill or prophane uses And therefore I say that those men which have or do or shall under the colour of Reforming the Church and the pretence of any law rob the Church and deprive either the Bishops or Ministers of their houses lands or tythes or any other portion which hath been given to the Church and for the service of God are Thieves and Sacrilegious thieves be they who you will and their pretences what they will Two sorts of men guilty of Sacriledge under pretence of law And here I must tell you that I find two sorts of men that may be questioned for being guilty of this sin of Sacriledge 1. The Spirituall-men the Bishops and other Priests the Ministers of Gods Church that have made away the lands houses and goods of the Church 2. The Lay-Princes Lords and Gentlemen and others that take away the goods lands and houses of the Church and all as both these sorts of men pretend by the right and benefit of the Law and therefore no waies offending and so not to be taxed for any Sacriledge But to discuss these points and to find out the truth I say that although the Pope be not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist that was expected to come into the Church as I have fully shewed in my book de Antichristo yet I doubt not but that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Sacrilegus and the chiefest Sacrilegious person that ever these Kingdoms saw as hereafter I shall more fully declare unto you 1 Spirituall men Sacrilegious and how Next I say that others Bishops and Priests especially of his Church may be as indeed many of them have been very Sacrilegious and robbers of the Church of Christ as when they let out either by Lease or fee-farm to their children friends or for fine the lands houses or any other goods and possessions of the Church to the loss and prejudice of the Church and to disinable their successors to discharge their duties and the service of God as they ought to do Obj. But they will say with St. Paul that Where no Law is there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 and there was no Law to inhibite them to lease out their lands to whom they would nay the Law gave them leave and impowred them to do it and therefore no Sacriledge nor offence in them in all that they did when they did nothing but according to Law Sol. I answer that the Human law must not intrench nor can infringe the law of God nor any waies allow the thing that should prejudice the service of God neither do I believe that the laws of our Christian Kings and Princes ever intended so to do for it is an old rule in law that Praelatus ecclesiae statum possessiones meliorare potest sed deteriorare non potest nec debet But when it was alledged and manifested in Parliaments that the houses belonging to the Church being ruined or far out of reparation and the lands either wast or not well managed could not be improved to the best advantage and benefit of the Church without the Tenants and present Occupiers thereof had some competent time therein therefore the pious Kings enacted their laws not to force but to licence Cathedrals and Colledges to lease out their lands and possessions Why Bishope and Clergy-men weâ—e permitted to grant leâ—ses of the lands and revenues of the Church not to make their children and friends Knights and Ladies or to fill their own coffers with fines to the great prejudice of their successors and the neglect and treading down of Gods service but that the revenue and the inheritance of the Church might be improved and the best advantage made of it for the glory of God and the furtherance of Gods service by the instruction of his people and relieving his poor members for which ends it was first dedicated unto God Therefore when either Bishop or any other
Alexander King of Macedon consulted often with Aristotle and sometimes with Diogenes the Cynick and King Pyrrhus with his dear friend Cineas So Pharaoh King of Egypt called and consulted with his Priests that were the Magicians and deemed the wise men of Egypt when Moses came to treat of God's Service And though Moses appointed 70. men of the choicest gravest and wisest men that could be found of all the Elders of Israel to be the Sanhedrim and as it were a standing Parliament to end all controversies and all the civil affairs of the Kingdom Yet when the Case of Religion came in question and the differences about God's Worship came to be decided neither the Kings of Israel nor the Kings of Juda to whom the principal care and custody of God's Laws and Service was committed did ever commend the same unto the Sanhedrim to be concluded and setled But as King David here calleth and consulteth with Nathan the Prophet about the building of God's House so when Religion was corrupted and the Service of the True God neglected in the time of King Ahab he calleth not the Sanhedrim to rectifie and redress the same but he leaves the same to be determined and adjudged betwixt the Priests of Baal 1. Reg. 18.17 18.19 20. 2 Chron. 15.2 8 c. and Elias the true Prophet of the Lord And so did King Asa Jehosaphat and Ezechias consulted not with their lay Lords or the Sanhedrim but with Azariah the son of Oded the Prophet and with Esay and the rest of God's Prophets Nay when the Wise-men came to inquire for Christ Mâ—th 2.4 Herod that sought to destroy Him and his Religion inquireth not of any but of the Chief Priests and Scribes Where Christ should be born And so all the Wise and Christian Emperours Constantine Theodosius Justinian and the rest as you may find it in Eusebius Socrates Zozomen and other Ecclesiastical Historians had always some special Bishops with whom they conferred and consulted about matters of Religion as Charles the Fifth did with Cassander and Henry the Eighth with Bishop Crammer For they conceived that their Crowns had the greater Lustre when it was in conjunction with the Miter And therefore in no great Councel was the Man of God ever baulked but that they might be sure to serve God before themselves and he assured that while the Church prospered the Bishops directed and they had God and his Messengers amongst them all would go right and be safe and therefore in all or most Courts of Conscience where the Law reached not they thought none so fit as these men of conscience to decide all differences Neither could I ever find that the Church of God was so much pestered with miseries and poisoned with Errors Heresies and Sects or Divisions until the lay Lords and Gentlemen like the Long Parliament neglected their proper Offices to look into the affairs of the Common-wealth and to see Justice and Judgement truly executed among the people and began immittere falcem in alienam messem to thrust their sickles into other mens harvest Esay 1.12 The Church of God never became more miserable then when the lay-people undertook to conclude and determine points of Religion and to intermeddle with that which concerns them not as to chop and change Articles of Religion and to set down and compose points of faith when the Lord saith Quis requisivit haec Who hath required these things at your hands It is your duty to come into the Temple and to perform the service that David and Nathan the King and the Bishops shall prescribe unto you and to confirm those Articles of Religion and cause them in all things to be observed as the Parliament did in Queen Elizabeth's dayes the 39. Articles of our Religion when they are as those were setled and concluded by the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy in their Convocation for the Lord tells us plainly That the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they that is the people be they what and whom you will Sanhedrim of the Jews or Parliament of any other Nation should seek the Law that is the Law of God at his mouth because he is the Mâ—ssenger of the Lâ—rd of Hosts that is to declare his will and to expound his Laws unto the people But what saith the Lord in this Case when the people be they what you will shall usurpe the Priests Office and begin to make new Orders and Ordinances for the Service of God that never required such things at their hands He tells them plainly You are departed out of the way and you have caused many to stumble at the Law that is by your false glosses and injoyned observations thereof and you have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts that is you have wronged and quite thrown out the Bishops and Priests from their Offices which is to consult with the King to see God rightly worshipped And therefore saith the Lord Malach. 2.7 8 9. I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as you have not kept my wayes but have been partial in the Law that is by making Religion and my Service like a nose of wax to turn which way you please when as every one should do the duties that belong unto him Curabit praelia Conon CHAP. VI. What the Rest and peaceable times of King David wrought The Prince's authority in causes Ecclesiastical and how they should be zealous to see that God should be justly and religiously served THirdly having seen the times and the persons 3. The matter about which they consulted that consulted and conferred together we are now to consider the fruits and effects that this quiet sitting at rest and peaceable times wrought in David and what was the matter that these two grave and great Persons do so seriously deliberate and consult about And most commonly we find What peace prosperity usually produce that rest and peace have been the bane and surfeit of the mind to puff it up with pride and prosperity hath often choaked piety and plenty hath made Religion to pine away and to be cast upon a bed of security as Jezabel was cast upon a bed of fornication For so Moses saith of the Israelites Dilectus meus impinguatus recalcitravit My beloved fed fatted and inlarged Deut. 32.15 kicked with their heels or Jesurun waxed fat and kicked and then he forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation And as the Poet saith Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis Ovid de arte Am. l. 2. Nec facile est aequâ commoda mente pati Our hearts do swell and our minds grow luxurious and riotous when our affairs do prosper and all things succeed as our hearts desire Our peace and plenty made us wanton and our wantonness brought our wars upon us and have rest and peace as now David had round
Benefices and Tythes to lay persons as the Council of Lateran held under Pope Alexander the 3d decreed That Qui decimas laico Câ—ncil Lateran part 26. c. 8. Causa 16. q. 7. c. 3. Greg. 7. Causa 19 q 7. c. 1. Periculum animae in seculo manenti concesserit deponendus est The Priest which shall passe away the Tythes to any secular lay man is to be deposed And the Canon Si quia à modo Episcopus c. saith That if any Bishop hereafter do passe away the Tythes and Oblations to lay men let them be numbred amongst the greatest Hereticks And the lay men that receive the Tythes as to be their own proper inheritance either from the Bishops or Kings do run into the danger of their souls saith another Canon Yet as if all these were but tela aranea a Spider's web nothing would avail with the Pope to make him to desist his wicked practice of making these impropriations to whom he pleased Therefore the wrath of God being exceedingly kindled against the abominations of these wicked houses that were thus maintained with the Revenues of the Church and upheld in their wickedness by the usurped power of the Pope the good God that could bring light out of darknesse could likewise punish and destroy wickedness by wicked men As he did prophane Saul by the uncircumcised Philistines and Idolatrous Manasses by the idolatrous Babylonians So now he stirreth up a King bad enough Henry the Eighth to be as Nebuchadnezzar was unto the Jews the Rod of his fury to whip and scourge these idle loose and lewd wantons for when the King began to be weary of the same dish and to satisfie his palate desired licence of the Pope to change meat and to be divorced from his old Wife and the Pope rather for fear of offending the King of Spain than any true fear of God as some conceive knew not how to yield to his unlawful lust the King to be revenged deviseth to overthrow the Pope's former wickedness by a greater wickedness even as Physitians sometimes do allay poyson with a stronger poyson And because wickedness can never want Counsellors and Abettors the King had a Cromwell at his elbow a name as fatal unto the Church as Tarquin was to Rome and many others to please their Master gave their Vote to the same purpose That the only way to be throughly revenged was not to stand triffling about small matters that might soon have an end but to give such a perpetual wound as might not be cured and that was utterly to destroy the delights of the Pope by taking away and rooting out all the Abbies Monasteries Nunries and Religious houses within his Dominions so far as he could possibly reach and it is strange If the Lord himself had not been on our side that the Cathedrals and Bishops had not been destroyed likewise And lest the Pope by the perswasions slights and eloquence of his Emissaries and Clergy should gain them to be reduced and restored either to these Houses or to the Church again the only sure way to keep out the Popes fingers from them is to bestow both their Lands and all these impropriations upon his Nobility and Gentry and so he shall not only perpetually be revenged upon the Pope but he shall also most infinitely oblige his friends and his servants who will be tenacious enough to detain them and keep them ad Graecas calendas from returning unto their proper sphere any more and this Counsel pleased the King and his Master and though Arch-Bishop Craumer did what ever he could to get these impropriations restored unto the Church The Holy Table name and thing pag. 148. by his manifold perswasions unto the King and especially by a message purposely sent to Mr. John Calvin by one Mr. Nicholas to intreat Mr. Calvin likewise most earnestly to write to King Henry the 8th and to perswade him by all means to restore these impropriations unto the Church of God And so Mr. Bucer and all the godly Protestants of that time did their best to perswade him to restore them yet all could not prevaile to have them restored For that now 3. Covetousness and the greedy desire of wealth and love unto this present World hath seized upon the hearts and filled the souls of those Lords Knights and Gentlemen and the posterity of them likewise which had taken hold of these impropriations that they cannot endure to part with them any more But as Kites and Cormorants do seize upon a Carrion so do they engross unto themselves the portion of their God and the inheritance of the Church of Christ and such a sweet savour and pleasant taste of Tythes and Church goods hath been taken ever since the birth of this monstrous Sacriledge as that now many Noble men and almost every Knight and Gentleman of any note hath got to themselves the Tythes or some part of the Tythes of an impropriate Church for the inlarging of their Larder-house And that you need not doubt of this I must here set down what you may find in Mr. Crashaws Epistle to Mr. Perkins second Treatise of the Duties of the Ministry that in one County of the Kingdom of England the East riding of the County of York there are contained one hundred and five Parishes whereof nigh an hundred or the full number of an hundred are of this hateful name and bastardly title of Impropriations and some of them are of yearly value of four hundred pounds others worth three hundred pounds per annum others two hundred pounds and almost all worth one hundred pound a year and yet the Minister's part is ten pound stipend yea some have but eight pounds and some but six pounds and some but four pounds to live upon for the whole year and out of the Great Benefice of four hundred pounds a year the Minister had but eight pound per annum Dr. Gardiner in his Scourge of Sacriledge until of late with much labour ten pounds yearly for a Preacher And saith mine Author the most of the Churches in the properest Market-Towns of this Kingdom are thus held and retained by our Nobility and Gentry And so I found it in my Diocess of Ossory in the Kingdom of Ireland that the Impropriations had so swallowed up the Tythes and the Revenues of the Churches that as I shewed it in my Remonstrance to his Majesty six or seven Vicaridges united together will scarce make twenty pound a year for the Preacher Et durus est hic sermo for hereby the people perish and as the Prophet saith The poor Children cry for Bread and for want of means to maintain the Ministers there is none that is able to give it them I know King Henry the 8th that could cause his Parliaments as I ever understood from the old Parliament men of those times to make what Laws and to conclude what Acts of Parliament he pleased got many Laws to be made
of the Priests for his Service so he takes the Gifts and Donations and Oblations of the people unto himself saying Thou shalt give them me Exod. 22.30 So he calls the Church his House Matth. 21.13 and the Tythes his Tythes saying Will a man rob his God yet you have robbed me in Tythes and Offerings And for lands he saith You shall offer unto the Lord an holy portion Ezech. 45. 1. And the same Law S. Paul presseth under the Gospel as you may see in 1 Cor. 9.13 14. and 1 Tim. 5.17 18. For though we have some differences in the manner of God's Worship when as the Sacrifices and several Ceremonies are abolished yet there is the same substance for the Guides in God's Worship which is the reason of the Law as the Prophet Esay in the Name of the Lord hath foretold us when as prophesying of the state of Christ his Church and the Ministers thereof he saith And I will also take of them for Priests and Levites Esay 66.21 saith the Lord and not lay-men And therefore these things may not be sold away or alienated and impropriated from the Priests because that now God hath the best Interest therein and though before they were devoted given to him you might have told them alienated them or put them to what use you would yet now being God's proper goods even by your own Donation you may not without God's consent impropriate them from God and from his Service For As in the case of Marriage before the Marriage both the man and the woman are free to do what they please to marry or not to marry consensus partium and both their consents publickly attested by the Priest makes up the Marriage but after they are Marryed let them both consent as they will and as often as they will yet there desire and consent cannot dis-joyn them and dissolve the Marriage because that now God had a hand in the Marriage and whom God hath joyned together neither they themselves nor any man else may put assunder Even so it is in the case of devoted and consecrated things lands houses or what you will offered up as a Free-will-offering unto God Before you make your Oblation of them you may do with them what you please give them or not give them as the man might marry this woman or not marry her but when once they are offered and given unto God you must not make a mock of God and alienate or impropriate them from Him and his Service or if you do Solomon will tell you It is destruction and a snare to the man Prov. 20.25 which devoureth that which is sanctified or given to God and after vows to make inquiry and search for wayes to deprive God of them as now our men of War and many others do But if men gave 5 pound or 10 pound or other sum Obj. unto the Church for the furtherance of God's Service and to secure the same appointed lands worth 50 pound or a 100 pound to pay it unto the Bishop or other Ministers of the Church Will you have the lands and not rather still accept of the money that was to be paid out of those lands and was the true meaning of the Donor I answer God forbid that any man in such a case Sol. should desire to have any more than what was given and intended to be given for God accepteth of no unjust acquisitions and a just man requireth no unjust thing But when the whole is given to God no Bishop for love either to his wife or children or for any other gain should lett and lease that for 5 pound which is worth 50 pound or the like as I have shewed to you before But I know what our sacrilegious persons Obj. that take the Tythes of impropriations and the lands houses and possessions of the Church into their possessions will further object and say for themselves and against me That our Laws do allow them to do what they do and our Bishops that knew God's will as well or better than my self have formerly lett out the lands and houses belonging to the Church in fee-ferme and for a very small rent unto their Tenants and Fee-fermers and they do still lett out long leases of them unto their children and friends and therefore they are not to be blamed but if there be any fault herein it is in our selves and in our Predecessors To which Objection I shall answer but as I did before Sol. That tyrannical fierce and wilful Kings and Princes and wicked Governours See what I say in the Grand Rebellion c. 7. when they have once got power and authority into their hands as was King Henry the Eighth and the late Rebel and Usurper Crumwell will make what laws and force the people in their Parliament to give their consent to what Acts and â—â—tutes soever they please And do you think that such Laws can excuâ—â—â—ou for the breach of the Law of God And for our Bishops that do of have done such things to the prejudice of the Church and the great dishonour of our God I confess majus peccatum habent our sin is more than yours for we are but God's Stewards intrusted with the implements of his House and the revenues of his Church to be used and imployed not wastefully upon our selves in pride or upon our children to make them Knights or Lords and Ladies but for the best advantage and furtherance of God's Service and the honour of Jesus Christ as he hath commanded us to dispose of them and you know we must render an account of our Stewardship and how soon I know not and if we waste our Masters goods or take all or more than is due unto our selâ—â—â— â—hen we should dispose of it to other uses for the Service of our Masâ—â—r I know not how we shall answer it But I know that our greater sin in imbezelling and alienating our Masters goods and the Revenues of his Church will not quit and excuse you for your lesser sin in being copartners with us in this Sacriledge for as the receiver of any stollen goods is liable to the Law as well as the stealer of his neighbours goods so is the lessee as well as the lessor the detainer as well as the maker away of these unlawful Fee-ferms and long Leases of the Church-Revenues liable to the just judgement of God And therefore in this respect that the Donations and Free-will-offerings of religious and holy men were given not to men but to God and for the Honour and Service of God and the good of his Church the worthiest Bishops and best Prelates and Servants of Christ would rather suffer the greatest indignities and the heaviest wrath of the most powerful Commanders than they would yield to satisfie their desires that sought to take away or alienate the goods of God that were dedicated to him for the service of his Church For when at the instigation and
farre worse then the disease they suffered And I doubt not but ere long the Rebels in this Kingdom will feelingly confesse this to be too true when they shall more deeply taste of the like miseries as they have brought as well upon many of their own friends as others If you alledge the time of Richard the third how soon he was removed and how happily it câ—me to passe that Henry the seventh succeeded I answer briefly that Richard the third was not onely a cruel bloody Tyrant but he was also an unjust Usurper of the Crown and not the right King of England and that there is a great deal of difference betwixt rebelling against our lawful Kings which God hath justly placed over us and expelling an usurping Tyrant which hath unjustly intruded himself into the royal Throne This God often hath blessed as in the case of Eglon Athalia Henry the seventh and many more which you may obviously find both in the Greek and Roman stories and the other he alwayes cursed and will plague it whensoever it is attempted After I had answered these Objections I lighted upon one more Object Goodwin in his Anti-Cavalierisme p. 8 which is taken out of 2 Kings 6.32 where the Objector saith When Ahab sent a Cavalier a man of blood to take away the Prophet Elisha's head as he sate in his house among the Elders did Elisha open his dore for him and sit still till he took off his head in obedience to the King No he bestirred himself for the safeguard of his life and called upon others to stand by him to assist him And a little after he saith Surely he that went thus farre for the safety of his life when he was but in danger to be assaulted would have gone further if occasion had been and in case the Kings Butcher had got in to him before the dore had been shut if he had been able and had had no other means to have saved his own head but by taking away the others there is little question to be made but he would rather have taken then given a head in this case I answer that who this Goodwin is I know not Sol. The Ministers of Christ should not be the incendiaries of war I could wish he were none oâ— the Tribe of Levi 1. Because I find him such an incendiary of warre and an enemy unto peace whereas the messengers of Christ have this Elogie given them Qâ—Ã m speciosi pedes Evangelizantium pacem And the Scripture saith Blessed are the Peace-makers and we continually pray Give peace in our dayes O Lord and therefore I can hardly believe these incendiaries of warre to be the sonnes of the God of peace 2. Because his objection is full of falshoods and false grounds as 1. He saith that Ahab sent to take Elisha's head The first mistake in the front of his Speech 2 Kings 6.32 If any thing more when as Ahab was dead long before it was his ghost therefore and not he But it was his son and what then what did the Prophet he shut the dore and desired the Elders to handle the messenger roughly or hold him fast at the dore Thus saith the Text and the Prophet in my judgement doth herein but little more then what God and nature alloweth every man to do not to lay down his life if he can lawfully preserve it but as the Prophet did to shut the dore or as our Saviour saith When we are persecuted in one City to flye into another to save our lives as long as we can and in all this I find no violent resistance But 2. the Objector tells us Surely if the messenger had got in Elisha had taken off his head rather then given his own I demand What inspiration he hath from God to be sure of this for I am sure John Baptist would not do so nor Saint Paul nor any other of Gods Saints that I have read of but these men are sure of every thing even of Gods secret Counsel and that is more then the thoughts of mens hearts or if this be sure which I am not sure of I answer that Elisha was a great Prophet that had the spirit of Eliah doubled upon him and those actions which he did or might have done through the inspiration of Gods spirit this man may not do except he be sure of the like inspiration for God who is justice it self can command by wâ—rd as he did to Abraham to kill his son or by inspiration as he did to Elias to call fire from Heaven and it is a sin to disobey it whereas without this it were an horrible sin to do it And we must distinguish betwixt rare and extraordinary cases that were managed by special commission from God and those patterns that are confirmed by known and general Rules which passe through the whole course of Scripture and take heed that we make not obscure Commentaries of humane wisdom upon the clear Text of holy Writ Quia maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum Cursed be the gloss that corrupts the Text. But indeed the place is plain that Elisha made no other resistance but what every man may lawfully do to keep the messenger out of dores so long as he could and yet this man would inferre hence that we may lawfully with a strong hand and open warre resist the authority of our lawful Kings a Doctrine I am sure that was never taught in the School of Christ He makes some other Objections which I have already answered in this Treatise and then he spends almost two leaves in six several answers that he maketh to an objection against the examining the equity or iniquity of the Kings commands but to no purpose because we never deny but that in some cases though not in all for there must be Arcana Imperii and there must be Privie Counsellours and every Peasant must not examine all the Edicts of his Prince The commands of Kings may not onely be examined but also disobeyed as the three Children did the commands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Apostles the commands of the High-Priests but though we may examine their commands and disobey them too when they are contrary to the commands of God yet I would fain know where we have leave to resist them and to take arms against them I would he understood There is a great deal of difference betwixt examining their commands and resisting their authority the one in some cases we may the other by no means we may do CHAP. VIII Sheweth that our Parliament hath no power to make warre against our King Two main Objections answered The original of Parliaments The power of the King to call a Parliament to deny what he will and to dissolve it when he will Why our King suffereth BUt when all that hath been spoken cannot satisfie their indignation against true obedience and allay the heat of their rebellious spirits they come to their ultimum refugium best strength
think every change to be a remedy therefore the people that are soon perswaded to believe the lightest burthen to be too heavie are easily led away by every seducing Absolon who promise them deliverance from all their evils so they may have their assistance to effect their ends and then the people swelled up with hopes cry up those men as the reformers of the State and so the craft and subtilty of the one prevailing over the weaknesse and simplicity of the other every Peer and Officer that they like not must with Teramines be condemned and themselves must have all preferments or the King and Kingdom must be lyable to be ruined Repl. But you will say the whole Parliament cannot be thought to be thus envious against the Officers of State or thus carelesse of the common good as for any sinister end to destroy the happinesse of the whole Sol. I answer that Parliaments are not alwayes guided by an unerring spirit but as Generall Councels so whole Parliaments have been repealed and declared null by succeeding Parliaments How a Faction many times prevaileth to sway whole Councels and Parliaments as 21. Rich. 2. c. 12. all the Statutes made 11 Rich. 2. are disanulled and this in the 21 Rich. 2. is totally repealed in 1 Hen. 4. c. 3. And 39 Hen. 6. we find a total repeal of a Parliament held at Coventry the year before and the like and the reason is because many times by the hypocritical craft of some Faction working upon the weaknesse of some and the discontent of others the worse part procuring most unto their party prevaileth against the better The original of Parliaments why they were at first ordained Besides all this I conceive the Original of Parliaments was as it is expressed in the Kings Writ to consult with the King De quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis regni they being collected from all the parts of the Kingdom can best inform His Majesty what grievances are sprung and what reparations may be made and what other things may be concluded for the good of His Subjects in every part and His Majesty to inform them of his occasions and necessities which by their free and voluntary Subsidies they are to supply both for his honour and their own defence In all this they have no power to command their King See Jo. Bodin de repub l. 1. c. 8. pag 95. in English and the place is worth the noting no power to make Lawes without their King no right to meet without his Writ no liberty to stay any longer then he gives leave how then can you meet as you do now in my Episcopal See at Kilkenny and continue your Parliament there to make warre against your lawful King What colour of reason have you to do the same you cannot pretend to be above your King you have with lyes and falshoods most wickedly seduced the whole Kingdom and involved the same in a most unnatural civil warre you are the actives the King is passive you make the offensive He the defensive warre for you began and when He like a Gracious King still cryed for peace you still made ready for battel And I doubt not but your selves know all this to be true for you know that all Parliament men must have their elections warranted by the Kings especial Writ You will say that so you were well The letter sent from a Gentleman to his friend and you were chosen but by subjects and intrusted by them to represent the affections and to act the duties of subjects and subjects cannot impose a rule upon their Soveraign nor make any ordinance against their King and therefore if the representative body of subjects transcend the limits of their trust and do in the name of the subjects that which all subjects cannot do and assume that power which the subjects neither have nor can conferre upon them I see no reason that any subject in the world should any wayes approve of their actions For how can your priviledge of being Parliament men That men intrusted should not go beyond their trust priviledge you from being Murderers Thieves or Traytors if you do those things that the Law adjudgeth to be murders thefts and treasons Your elections cannot quit you and your places cannot excuse you because he that is intrusted cannot do more then all they that do intrust him and therefore all subjects should desert them that exceed the conditions and falsifie the trust which their fellow-subjects have reposed in them Besides The King must needs be a part of every Parliament you know the King must needs be reputed part of every Parliament when as the selected company of Knights and Burgesses together with the Spiritual and Temporal Peers are the representative body and the King is the real head of the whole Kingdom and therefore if the body separates it self from the head it can be but an uselesse trunk that can produce no act which pertaineth to the good of the body because the spirits that gave life and motion to the whole body are all derived from the head as the Philosopher teacheth And further you do all know that as the King hath a power to call The power of dissolving the Parliament greater then the power of denying any thing so he hath a power to dissolve all Parliaments and having a power of dissolving it when he will he must needs have a power of denying what he please because the other is farre greater then this And therefore all these premises well considered it is apparent that your sitting in Kilkenny without your King or his Lievtenant which is to the same purpose and your Votes without his assent are all invalid to exact obedience from any subject and for my part I deem them fooles that will obey them and rebels that will take arms against their King at your commands and if you persist in this your rebellious obstinacy I wish your judgements may light onely upon your own heads and that those which like the followers of Absolon are simply led by you may have the mist taken from their eyes that they may be able to discern the duty they owe unto their King that they be not involved and so perish in your sin For though you be never so many and think that all the Kingdom Towns and Cities be for you Psal 21.11 yet take heed lest you imagine such a mischievous device which you are not able to perform for the involving of well-meaning men into your bad businesses 1 Reg. 22.29 as Jehosaphat was misâ—led to war against Ramoth Gilead doth not only bring a punishment upon them that are seduced but a far greater plague upon you that do seduce them and God who hath at all times so exceeding graciously defended His Majesty and contrary to your hopes and expectation from almost nothing in the beginning of this rebellion hath increased his power to I hope an invincible
Army will be a rock of defence unto his annointed because it is well known to all the world For what causes the King suffereth that whatsoever this good King hath suffered at the hands of his subjects it is for the preservation of the true Protestant Religion of the established Lawes of his Kingdomes and of those Reverend Bishops Grave Doctors and all the rest of the Learned and Religious Clergy that have ever maintained and will to the spilling of the last drop of their blood defend this truth against all Papists and other Anabaptistical Brownists and Sectaries whatsoever What a shame it is to use the power we have received against him that gave it us And therefore if you that are his Parliament should like unthankeful vapours that cloud the Sun which raised them or like the Moon in her interposition that obscures the glorious lamp which enlightens her in the least manner imploy that strength which you have received from his Majesty when he called you together against His Majesty it will be an ugly spot and a foul blemish both for your selves and all your pâ—sterities And if not suddenly prevented you may raise such spirits that your selves cannot lay down and sow such seeds of discord and disconteâ—t between the King and his people as may derive through the whole Race of all succeeding Kings such a disaffection to Parliaments as may prove a plague and poyson to the whole Kingdom For if the King out of his favour and grace call you together and intrust you with a power either of continuing concluding or enacting such things as may be for the good of the Common wealth and you abuse that power against him that gave it you I must needs confesse that I am of his mind That it is lawful to recall a power given when it is abused who saith That the King were freed before God and man from all blame though he should use all possible lawful means to withdraw that power into his own hands which being but lent them hath been so misapplyed against him for if my servant desireth to hold my sword and when I intrust him with it he seeks to thrust the same into my breast Will not every man judge it lawful for me to gain my sword if it be possible out of his hand and with that sword to cut off his head that would have thrust it into my heart or as one saith If I convey my estate in trust to any friend to the use of me and mine and the person intrusted falsifie the faith reposed in him by conveying the profits of my estate to other ends to the prejudice of me and mine no man will think it unlawful for me to annihilate if I can possibly do it such a deed of trust And therefore Noble Peers and Gentlemen of this ancient Kingdom of Ireland that your Parliament may prove successeful to the benefit of the Common-wealth let me that have some interest and charge over all the Inhabitants and Sojourners of Kilkenny perswade you to think your selves no Parliament without your King and that your Votes and Ordinances carrying with them the power though not the name of Acts of Parliament to oblige both King and Subjects to obey them are the most absolute subversion of our Fundamental Lawes the destructive invasion of our rightful Liberties And that by an usurped power of an arbitrary rule to dispose of our estates or any part thereof as you please to make us Delinquents when you will and to punish us as Malignants at your pleasure and through your discontent to dispossesse your rightful King though it were to set the Crown upon the head of your greatest One al is such a priviledg that never any Parliament hath yet claimed Or if you still go on for the inlargement of your own usurped power under the title of the priviledge of Parliament to Vote diminution of the Kings just Prerogative that your Progenitors never denied to any of his Ancestors to exclude us Bishops out of your Assemblies without whom your determinations can never be so well concluded in the fear of God and to invade the Liberties of your fellow-subjects under the pretences of religion and the publique good I will say no more but turn my self to God and put it in my Liturgie From Parasites Puritanes Popes and such Parliaments Good Lord deliver us CHAP. IX Sheweth the unanimous consent and testimonies of many famous learned men and Martyrs both ancient and modern that have confirmed and justified the truth of the former Doctrine ANd so you see that as for no cause so for no kind or degree of men be they what you will Peers Magistrates Heads of Families Darlings of the people or any other Patriots whom the Commons shall elect it is lawfull to rebell against or any wayes to resist our chief Princes and soveraign Governours This point is as clear as the Sunne and yet to make it still more clear unto them that will not believe that truth which they like not but as Tertullian saith Credunt Scripturis ut credant adversus Scripturas Testimonies of famous men do alledge Scriptures to justifie their own wilful opinions against all Scripture I will here adde a few testimonies of most famous men to confirm the same Henry de Bracton Lord chief Justice of the Kings Bench under Hen. 3. L. Elismer in orat habita in Camera Fiscali anno 1609. pag. 108. saith as he is quoted by the Lord Elismer That under the King there are free men and servants and every man is under him and he is under none but onely God If any thing be demanded of the King seeing no Writ can issue forth against the King there is a place for Petition that he would correct and amend his fact and if he shall refuse to do it he shall have punishment enough when the Lord shall come to be his revenger for otherwise touching the Charters and deeds of Kings neither private persons nor Justitiaries ought to dispute This was the Law of that time what new Lawes our young Lawyers have found since I know not I am not so good a Lawyer The Civil Lawyers do farre surpasse the Common Law herein for Corsetus Sic. tract de potestat reg part 5. num 66. Corsetus Siculus saith Rex in suo regno potest omnia imò de plenitudine potestatis And Marginista saith Qui disputat de potestate Principis utrum benè fecerit est infamis Hostiensis saith Princeps solutus est legibus id est quoad vim coactivam non quoad vim directivam Thom. 1. 2 ae q. 96. ar 5. ad 3. quia nulli subest nec ab aliis judicatur And to omit all the rest Marginista in Angelum Perusinum c. l. 9. tit 29. De crimine sacrilegii l. 2 Hostiens Sum. l 1. rubr 32. de effic legati Barclaius contra Monarchomach l. 3â— c. 14. Gulielmus Barclaius out of Bartolus Baldus Castrensis
truth of this Doctrine do in all their Votes and Declarations conclude and protest and I must believe them that all the leavies moneys and other provision of horse and men that they raise and arm are for the safety of the Kings person and for the maintenance of his Crown and Dignity Nay more then this the very Rebels in this our Kingdom of Ireland knowing how odious it is before God and man for subjects to rebell and take armes against their lawful King do protest if you will believe them that they are the Kings souldiers and do fight and suffer for their King and in defence of his Prerogatives But you know the old saying Tuta frequensque via est per amici fallere nomen The Devil deceiveth us soonest when he comes like an Angel of light and you shall ever know the true subjects best by their actions farre better then by their Votes Declarations or Protestations for Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta When men do come in sheeps cloathing and inwardly are ravening wolves when they come with honey in their mouths and gall in their hearts and like Joab with peace in their tongue and a sword in their hand a petition to intreat and a weapon to compell I am told by my Saviour that I shall know them by their works not their words And therefore as our Saviour saith Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven So I say not he that cryeth peace peace is the son of peace but he that doth obey his Prince and doth most willingly whatsoever he commandeth or suffereth most patiently for refusing to do what he commandeth amisse This is the true subject Well to draw towards the end of this point That is when the Commonalty guide the Nobility and the Subjects rule their King of our obedience to our Soveraign Governour I desire you to remember a double story The one of Plutarch which tells us how the tayle of the Serpent rebelled against the head because that did guide the whole body and drew the tayle after it whithersoever it would therefore the head yielded that the tayle should rule and then it being small and wanting eyes drew the whole body head and all through such narrow crevises clefts and thickets that it soon brought the Serpent to confusion The other is of Titus Livius Titus Livius Decad. 1. l. 2â— who tells us that when the people of Rome made a factious combination to rebell against their Governours Menenius Agrippa went unto them and said that on a time all the members conspired against the stomack and alledged that she devoured with ease and pleasure what they had purchased with great labour and pain therefore the feet would walk no more the hands would work no more the tongue would plead no more for it and so within a while the long fast of the stomack made weak knees feeble hands dimme eyes a faltering tongue and a heavie heart and then presently seeing their former folly they were glad to be reconciled to the Stomack again and this reconciled the people unto their Governours I need not make any other application but to wish and to advise us all with the people of Rome to submit our selves unto our Heads that are our Governours lest if we be guided by the tayle we shall bring our selves with the Serpent unto destruction And to remember that excellent speech of S. Basil The people through ambition are fallen into grievous Anarchie whence it happeneth that all the exhortations of their rulers do no good no man hath any list to obey but every man would reign being swelled up with pride that springeth out of his ignorance And a little after he saith Basilius de Spiritu Sancto c. ult scii 30. An argument of obedience drawn from the fifth Commandement that some sit no lesse implacable and bitter examiners of things amisse then unjust and malevolent Judges of things well done so that we are more brutish then the very beasts because they are quiet among themselves but we wage cruel and bloody warres against each other And let us never forget that the Lord saith Honour thy father and thy mother and I must tell you that by father in this precept you must not onely understand your natural father but also the King who is your political father and the father of all his subjects and the Priest your spiritual father 1 Chron. 2.24 and those likewise that in loco patris do breed and bring you up and though natural affection produceth more love and honour unto those fathers that begat us yet reason and religion oblige us more unto the King that is the common father of all and to the Priest that begat us unto Christ then unto him that begat us into the world for that without our new birth which is ordinarily done by the office of the Priest we were no Christians What we are and should be without King or Priest and as good unborn as unchristened that is unregenerated and without the King that is Custos utriusque tabulae the preserver both of the publick justice and of the pure religion our fathers can neither bring us up in peace nor teach us in the faith of Christ and therefore if my father should plot any treason against the King or prove a Rebel against him I am bound in all duty and conscience to preferre the publick before the private and if I cannot otherwise avert the same to reveal the plot to preserve the King though it were to the losse of my father's life and therefore certainly they that curse that is speak evil of their King are cursed and they that rebel against him shall never have their dayes long in the land but shall through their own rebellion be soon cut off from the land of the living Whether for the liberty of Subjects we can be warranted to rebell In the discourse of the differences betwixt King and Parliament For mine own part I have often admired why the subjects of King CHARLES should raise any civil warre and especially turn their spleen against him If any say it is for their liberties I answer that I am confident His Majesty never thought to bring any the meanest of his subjects into bondage nor by an arbitrary government to reduce them into the like condition as the Peasants of France or the Boores of Germany or the Pickroes of Spain are as some do most falsely suggest but that they should continue as they have been in the dayes of his Father of blessed memory and of all other his most noble Progenitors the freest subjects under Heaven And I hope they desire not to be such Libertines as those in the Primitive Church The Libertines of the Primitive Church what they thought who because Christian liberty freed us from all Jewish Ceremonies and all typical
their nearest friends they had paid too dear for their quarrels so thou be driven to do the like for except the sinnes of the people require no lesse satisfaction then the ruine of the Kingdom I am confident The Authours confidence of the kings victory and am ready to hazard life and fortunes in this confidence that the goodnesse of our King the justnesse of his cause and the prayers of all honest and faithful Ministers for him and our Church will in the end give him the victorie over all those his rebellious enemies that with lyes slanders and false imputations have seduced the Kings subjects to strengthen themselves against their Soveraign and all the world shall see that as Christ so in sensu modificato this Vicegerent of Christ shall rule in the midst of these his enemies and shall reign untill he puts them all under his feet A rebellion that the like was never seen And because we never read of any rebellion not this of Corah here which of above six hundred thousand men had not many more then 250. Rebels nor that of Absolon against David who had all the Priests and Levites and the best Counsellors and a mighty Army with him such as was able to overthrow Absolon and twenty thousand men in the plain field nor Israel against Rehoboam because they did but revolt from him and not with any hostile Arms invade him nor the Senate of Rome against Caesar though he was the first that intrenched upon their libertie and intended to exchange their Aristo-democracie into a Monarchie nor any other that I can remember except that Councel which condemned Christ to death that was grown to that height to be so absolute and so perfect a Rebellion in all respects as that a whole Parliament in a manner and the major part of the Plebeians of a whole Kingdom should make a Covenant with Hell it self yea and which is most considerable that as I understand the beginning of this rebellion in this Kingdom of Ireland was the Commonalty therein should so fascinate the Nobility as to allure them so long to confirm their Votes till at last they must be compelled in all things to adhere unto their conclusions that they whose power was formerly most absolute without them must now be subordinate unto them that the strength of the people may defend the weaknesse of the Nobility from that desert which they merited by their simplicity to be seduced to joyn with them to rebell against their King Therefore if any faction in any Parliament should thus combine against the Lord and against his annointed there is no question but their reducement to obedience will make that Majesty which shall effect it more glorious to posterity than were any of all his Predecessors And therefore I say again Return O Shulamite return and remember I pray thee remember lest my words shall accuse thy conscience in the day of judgement that we are often commanded in many places of the Scriptures to obey our Kings but in no place bidden nor permitted to rise up and assist any Parliament against our King If thou sayest Thou dost not do it against thy King but against such and such that do abuse the King I told you before that whosoever resisteth him that hath the Kings authority resisteth the King and therefore the whole world of intelligible men laugheth at this gullery and he that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh it to scorn when with such equivocation men shall think to justify their rebellion and I hope the people will not still remain so simple as to think that all the Canon and the Musket shot which the enemies of a King should make at him must be understood to be for the safety of his person And as neither private men nor any Senate nor Magistrate nor Peers That the Pope hath no power to licence any man to make war against the King nor Parliament can lawfully resist and take Arms against their King so neither Synod nor Councel nor Pope have any power to depose excommunicate or abdicate or to give immunities to Clergy or absolution to subjects thereby to free them from their duty and due allegiance and to give them any colour of allowance to rebell and make warre against their lawful King And this point I should the more largely prosecute because the natives of this Kingdome are more addicted to the Pope and his Decrees then any others of all the Kings Dominion Pareus in Rom. 13. Johan Bede in the Right and Prerogatives of Kings And the Treatise intituled God and the King But the bulk of this Treatise is already too much swelled and I hope I may have hereafter a fitter opportunity to inlarge this Chapter and therefore till then I will onely referre my Reader unto Pareus John Bede and abundance more that have most plentifully written of this Argument And so much for the persons against whom they rebelled Moses their King and Aaron their High-Priest or chief Bishop both these the prime Governours of Gods people whom they ought by all laws to have obeyed and for no cause to have rebelled against them CHAP. XI Sheweth what these Rebels did How by ten several steps and degrees 1. Pride 2. Discontent 3. Envy 4. Murmuring 5. Hypocrisie 5. Lying 7. Slandering 8. Rayling 9. Disobedience 10. Resistance they ascended to the height of their Rebellion and how these are the steps and the wayes to all Rebellions and the reason which moveth men to rebell 3. WE are to consider Quid fecerunt what these Rebels did 3. Part. What these Rebels did Cajetan saith Zelati sunt Tirinus saith Irritaverunt The vulgar Latin saith Aemulati sunt Our vulgar English saith They angred Moses and our last English saith They envied Moses And indeed the large extent of the original word and the diversity of the Translation of it sheweth the greatnesse of their iniquity and the multiformity or multiplicity of their sin And therefore that you may truly understand it you must look into the History * Numb 16. and there you shall see the whole matter the conception birth strength and progresse of their sin for 1. This sinne was begotten by the seed of Pride they conceived an opinion of their own excellency Excellency that bewitcheth men to rebell thinking that they are inferiour to none equall to the best if not superiour unto all and therefore they disdained to be governed and aspired to the government of Gods people And then Pride as the father Pride the beginning of rebellion begat Discontentment as his eldest sonne they liked not their own station but would fain be promoted to higher dignity and because Moses and Aaron were setled in the government before them and they knew not how either to be adjoyned with them or advanced above them therefore discontent begat Envy and they began to pine away at their felicity and so our last English reads it They envied Moses 2. This
bow unto him And discontent may as well invade the highest as the lowest for as none is so bare but he hath some benefits so none is so full The commâ—n condition of man to be ever wanting something but he wanteth something as the Israelites had Manna but they wanted water and when they had water they wanted flesh and this want made them discontented so these Rebels had the dignity to be Levites and to be Peers of high places and heads of all their families which was more then they deserved but they wanted the honour to be Priests and to be Kings the chief Governours of Gods people which they desired and therefore were discontented because their conceit was unsatiable and their desires unsatisfied 3. As Pride makes men discontented to be inferiour unto any 3 Envy so Discontent makes them alwayes to envy their superiours and therefore Envy is the third head of this monster and the third step unto rebellion How monstrous a sin is Envy a most hateful vice before God and man That I should pine away with grief because God is gracious unto another and I must be angry with God because he will not be guided by me in the disposing of his favâ—urs and therefore Saint Augustine calleth this a devillish vice which caused Cain to kill Abel Gen 4.8 Acts 7.9 the Patriarchs to sell Joseph the Medes to molest Daniel and the Nobility of Jury to persecute good King David Cyprian in Serm. de Livors and to crucifie the sonne of David Christ himself Et ideo periêre quia malucrunt Christo invidere quà m credere And yet herein I must commend Envy that as the Poet saith Sit licèt injustus Livor Though it be unjust to others yet is it very just to destroy them first that would destroy others as the envy of these rebels did Sampson-like pull down the house upon their own heads and will most likely bring destruction unto those that follow them in rebellion 4. Murmuring 4. Murmuring is a secret discontented muttering one to another of things that we dislike or persons that we distaste and the very word in all languages seems as harsh unto our ears as the sinne is hateful unto our souls for in Greek it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latin Murmurare in English to Murmure in Brittish Grwgnach a sad word and a sowre sinne Exod. c. 15. c. 16. c. 17. therefore the wise man saith Beware of murmuring which is nothing worth and yet this sinne was frequent among the Israelites three times in three Chapters that they could never leave it till as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 10. they were destroyed of the destroyer 5. Hypocrisie 5. Hypocrisie is when a man seems to be what he is not for as Saint Hierom saith Qâ—i foris Cato intus Nero hypocrita est he that talks of peace and prepares for warre that protesteth loyalty and yet hates his King that in his words will advance the Church but in his actions will overthrow the Church-men that commends all piety but commits all iniquity that will not swear for a Kingdom but deceipe for a penny that pretends the safety of the Kings person but purloyneth away all his power that will bend his knee and say Hayle King but will spit in his face and crown him with thorns he is an hypocrite So these rebels say they are all holy they love all their brethren they hate usurpation and cannot endure the tyranny of these Governours but indeed though they cryed Templum Domini Templum Domini all for the King and all for the Church all for Moses and all for Aaron yet notwithstanding this voyce of Jacob they had the hands of Esau and they would have brought Moses and Aaron to confusion as they brought themselves to destruction This is the property of an Hypocrite and therefore Job speaking of an hypocrite saith and it is excedingly well worth the observing Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him that is they which came out to see his pomp and his greatnesse and have admired at the greatnesse of his glory shall say Where is he or How chance he doth not ride on with his honour Job 20.6 7 8 9. Job answereth The eye which saw him shall see him no more that is in the like Majesty neither shall his place any more behold him for He shall flee away as a dream and shall not be found yea he shall be chased away as a vision in the night And our Saviour knowing as well the cruelty as the subtlety of hypocrites biddeth us to beware of hypocrites Matth. 7.15 as the Poet saith ut atri limina Ditis Shun hypocrites as the gates of Hell Hypocrisie how odious it is and believe their actions rather then their protestations for as in the Old Testament Sodom and Gomorrah are the patterns of all beastlinesse so in the New Testament the greatest sinners are threatned to have their portion with the hypocrites 6. Lying 6. Lying must follow Hypocrisie at the heels for were it not for the heaps of lyes that hypocrites spread abroad the world could not possibly be so easily seduced by their hypocrisie and I read it in a Sermon of a learned Divine That now adayes some phanatique Sectaries of desperate opinions and despicable fortunes whom the Church and State find to be a malignant party having little else to do make it their trade to lye both by whole sale and retayle they invent lyes and vent lyes they tell lyes and write lyes and print lyes yea I may adde and more palpable lyes and more abominable then either Bourn or Butter ever published of the affairs of Germany and this they do as confidently and impudently as if they were informed by that lying spirit which entred as a Voluntier into Ahab's Prophets and by lying and raising false rumours they beget jealousies and feares in the people and by blowing the coales which themselves kindled and inlarging the difference betwixt King and Parliament they set all in a combustion and bring all into confusion and that which grieves me most he saith that they are Preachers which in the exuberancie of their mis-grounded and mis-guided zeal do both preach and pray against publique peace as inconsistent with the Independencie or rather Anarchie that they ayme at 7. Slandering may be coupled unto their Lying 7. Slandering because we can slander none with that which is truth therefore these Rebels say All the Congregation is holy and that is a lye when there can be no holinesse in the Rebels and The Lord is among them which is another lye for he will forsake all those that forsake him then they say Moses and Aaron take too much upon them which is an apparent slander and they adde that they lifted up themselves
above the Congregation of the Lord which is another slander as false as the Father of lyes could lay upon them for I shewed unto you before how truly they were called and how justly they behaved themselves in their places but as Absolon knew well enough that to traduce his Father's Government was the readiest way to insinuate and to winde himselfe into a good opinion among the people and to make the King odious unto his subjects so these and all other Rebels will be sure to lay load enough of lyes and slanders upon their Governours and so the namelesse Authour of the Soveraign Antidote Goodwin Goodwin in his Anti-Caval Buâ—roughs in his Sermon upon The glorious name of the Lord of Hosts Burroughs and abundance more such scandalous impudent lying libels have not blushed which a man would think the brazen face of Satan could not chuse but do so maliciously and reproachfully to lay to his Majesty's charge the things which as the Prophet saith he never knew and which all they that know the King do know to be apparent lyes and most abominable slanders against the Lord's Vicegerent but Quid domini facient audent cum talia fures You know the meaning of the Poet and you may know the reason why these grand Lyars these impudent slanderers do so impudently bely so good a King so pious and so gracious a Majesty for Lay on enough Et aliquid adhaerebit and throw dust enough in their faces and let the Governours be never so good the King as milde and as unreproveable as Moses and the Bishops like Aaron the Saints of the Lord yet some thing will stick in the opinion of the simple that are not able to discern the subtilty of those distractors And as they diminish and undermine the credit and reputation of the best Governours by no other engine then a lying tongue and a false pen so with the same instruments they do magnifie their own repute and further their unjust proceedings by deceiving the most simple with such equivocal lyes as any sensible man might well wonder A strange equivocation that they should be so insensibly swallowed down as when they say They fight for him whom they shoot at and they are for the King when with all their might and main they strive to take away his power to pull the sword out of his hand and to throw his Crown down to the dust which is so strange a kind of equivocation as might well move men with Pilate to ask What is truth which we can never understand if any of these things can be true which as one saith most truly is one of the absurdest gulleries that ever was put upon any Nation much like that Anabaptist which I knew that beat his wife almost to death The tale of an Anabaptist and said He beat not her but that evill spirit that was in her Therefore the Lord hateth this abominable sinne because it is unpossible the people should be so soon drawn into rebellion if they did not credit these defamations But the wise man tells us that Stultus credit omni verbo therefore no wise man will believe those false and wicked slanders that such malicious Rebels do spread abroad against their King Prince or Priest or any other Governour of Gods people 8. Rayling 8. After they had thus slandered these good men they fell to open rayling against them as you may see Num. 16.13 14. For now they had eaten shame and drunk after it and therefore they cared not what they said and so now we find how the Rebels deal with our King and with our Bishops too with our Moses and with our Aaron for here in Ireland they rebell against their Soveraign because he is no Papist and will not countenance the Papists as they desire And in England they rayle at him and rebell against him because they say He is a Papist and doth connive at Popery and hath a design to bring in Popery into the Kingdome which is as flat a lye as the father of lyes hath ever invented So the Bishops here are driven out of all as my self am expelled aedibus sedibus and left destitute of all relief because we are no Papists but do both preach and write against their errours as much as any and more learnedly then many others And in England we are persecuted and driven to flee from place to place or to take our place in a hard prison as my self have been often forced to flee and to wander in the cold and dark long nights because we are Papists and Popishly given Good God! what shall we do whither shall we go or what shall we say for Nusquam tuta fides nec hospes ab hospite tutus We cannot confide in the confiders to whom we are become malignant enemies for speaking truth neither dare we trust in the followers of the publique faith nor in the professors of the Catholique faith whereof men maliciously rejecting their godly Bishops rebelliously fighting against their lawful King and mortally wounding their own souls have made a shipwrack But If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub if they said he was a glutton and a drunkard what wonder if they say these things of us and if Christ the King of Kings was crucified between two Thieves what marvel if this servant of Christ our King be thus pressed opposed and abused betwixt two rebellious factions And when we see our Saviour and our King thus handled it is lesse strange to find the Bishops and the Priests persecuted and crucified betwixt two heretical and tyrannical parties Well Jerusalem Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee take heed lest the King of peace shall say unto thee Verily thou shalt see me no more till thou sayest Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. 9 Disobedience 9. When they were grown thus impudent from bad to worse both over shooes and over boots then Disobedience must needs follow and therefore now putting on their brazen foreheads they tell Moses plainly We will not come to thee we will do nothing that thou willest but will crosse thee in all that thou intendest this is our most peremptory resolution And so we see that Nemo repentè fit pessimus but the wicked grow worse and worse first you must lend then you must give if not we will take or if you deny your goods we will have your bodies so at first what soever we do it is for the King and because this is so palpable a mockery that as every man knoweth they that fight against the Earl of Essex and his Army do warre against the Parliament so they that fight against the Kings Army do as certainly war against the King then we grow so impudent as to justifie any rebellion against our King as in England Goodwin and that seditious Pamphleter in opening The glorious name of the Lord of Host do
his head was off this new manner of proceeding should end and be no Law for any other that came after And a Deâ—laration must be made That the course prosecuted for his punishment shall not afterward be drawn into an Example it must be produced for no Pattern but for him alone and none other lest perhaps Complaint to the House of Commons p. 6. if the same course should be still practised the contrivers of this Plot might have the like payment to fall ere long upon their own heads Therefore some say this may well draw a suspicion upon the justice of the Sentence though I will not censure any man for any injustice therein The Earle's words at his death But as the Earl said at his death which he undertook like a good Christian full of Charity and no less Piety it was an ill Omen to this Nation that they should write the Frontispiece of this Parliament with letters of Blood which if unjustly done or unduly prosecuted I fear may with Abels blood cry for vengeance in the ears of God against the Contrivers of this mischief to produce our miseries And the God of Heaven doth only know how much of the blood of this Kingdom must be squeezed out to expiate all the mis-proceedings and the fearfull projects of our people God Almighty turn his anger from us and let not the righteous perish with the wicked not the sins of some few be laid upon us all This was the first impediment that was to be removed before they could proceed any further in this Tragedy and thus it was most artificially acted And I say He was a great and a very great impediment of their design which made me the larger in the prosecution thereof because he was a person of that great ability and so great fidelity both to the Church and State and the taking off of his head made a very wide gap for our enemies to enter into the Vineyard of Christ and a large breach into the City of God to deface the Church and to destroy this Kingdom CHAP. III. Sheweth how they stopped the free judgment of the Judges procured the perpetuity of the Parliament the consequences thereof and the subtle device of Semiramis 2. THe next Let that might hinder their design was the great learning The second impediment of their design long experience and free judgment of the grave Judges to declare what is Truth and what is Law in every point for these men being skilful in the Laws and Statutes of our Land knew how contrary to the same and how repugnant to the fundamental Constitutions of our Government the erecting of a new Church and the framing of a new Common-Wealth would be and their judgment being to be inquired in any emergent Doubt might prove very prejudicial unto their plots and a hinderance of their Desin except it were diverted by some course Therefore to stop this stream to put a gagg in their mouthes How they stopped the free judgment of the Judges to imprison all truths that might make against them and to make these Judges yield to whatsoever they do or at least not to contradict any thing they say they get many of them to be accused of High-Treason and they do but accuse them and not proceed to any trial against them which was a pretty plot of their policy because that hereby they kept them and the rest of their fellow-Judges that had any finger in the mis-sentencing of the Ship money and were therefore in the same predicament and to be under the same Censure under the last and to be still silent for very fear of their proceeding against them for they saw by many presidents that those men which favoured their design or contradicted not their waies were winked at by this Faction though they were the greatest Delinquents and therefore redimere se captos to free themselves out of the hands of these men they might conceive it their safest course to gain-say none of their conclusions which was a Plot of no small value to further their design by this removal of this second impediment 3. The third impediment of their design The third Let that stood in their way to make stop of their impious design was the Royal power to dissolve the present Parliament as formerly to dissolve any other which they knew to be an inseparable flower of the Crown Timor undique nostris this brought them in fear on every side lest if they were too soon discovered they might suddenly be prevented and their plot might prove abortive Like the untimely fruit of a woman that perisheth before it seeth the Sun or as the apples of Sodome vanishing when they are touched into Nothing or at the best but to stinking blasts Therefore to escape this rock they sail about and like cunning Water-men they look towards you when they â—ow from you their eyes and mouthes are one way when their hearts and minds are another way for they tell the King that the discontinuance of Parliaments hath produced abundance of distempers in this State and a world of grievances both in the Church and Common-wealth besides they say what the King and every man else saw to be true That the Scots were entred into our Land The fair pretences for the continuance of the Parliament and setled in the bosom of this Kingdom and though perhaps if some things had been better looked into we mought at first most easily have kept them out yet now duriùs ejicitur quà m non admittitur hostis it was too late to shut the door and it is not so easy to expel and drive them out except we made them a bride of gold to pass over the river and so to go homewards again And this cannot be done without a great deal of money which moneys though the Parliament should grant them as we are most willing to do to free your Majesty from these guests and to prevent the dangers of an intestine war yet they cannot suddenly be levied and collected as the times and occasions now required therefore it must be borrowed to supply our present necessities and lenders we shall find none except we can shew them a way how they shall be repaid again and the expeperience we have lately had in these latter years of so many Parliaments so unhappily and suddenly dissolved puts us out of all hope to find any way to secure their debts except your Majesty will pass an Act for as yet they durst not say they needed not His assent to what they did that this Parliament shall not be dissolved until it be agreed upon by the consent of both houses How the King was seduced by their pretences This and the like were their fair pretences like the Syrens voyces very sweet and very good and the good King that ever spake as he thought could not think that His great Councel whom He trusted with all the Affairs of His Kingdom meant
any otherwise then they said or looked any further then they shewed Him He never dream'd that they intended to have an everlasting Parliament and so perfidiously to over-reach both the King and the Kingdom But though our gracious King being not so much versed with the dissembling subtilty and serpentine windings of wicked hypocrites that are to be removed from the King and expelled out of his House supposed all them to mean sincerely and to deal fairly as they seemed to do yet I do admire that the wisdom of the Kings Counsel but that they which as the Apostle saith are not ignorant of the devices of Satan are not permitted by these men to be of His Councel could not espy what mischief might lurk under this fair shade or what might be the Consequences of such a Parliament that is inconsistent with a Monarchy and therefore must in a convenient time be ended or else will make an end of all Monarchical Government Why then might not a year or two or three or more so the years were limited suffice to determine all businesses but that the life of this Parliament should be endless and the continuance thereof undetermined This is beyond the age of the Counsel of Trent What the faction could be contented with Complaint p. 19. that they say lasted above forty years for I presume if some of the contrivers of this Design might have their desires the youngest of us should hardly see the Dissolution of this Parliament Til the earthly Houses of our Tabernacles be dissolved for it is likely they could be well contented as one saith to make an Ordinance that both Houses should be a Corporation to take our Lands and Goods to themselves and their successours and when any of that Corporation dieth toties quoties the surviver and none else should choose a successour to perpetuity so they should be Masters of our Estates and disposers of all we have as they are now for ever And therefore this was a Plot beyond the Powder-plot and beyond the device of Semiramis The plot of Semiramis that with a lovely face desired her husband she might rule but three daies to see how well she could mannage the State and obtaining her request in the first thereof she removed all the Kings Officers in the second she placed her own minions in all the places of Power and Authority as now the saction would do such as they confide in in all places of strength and in the third day she cut off the Kings head and assumed the Government of all the Kings Dominions into her own hands for not three daies nor three years will serve their turn for fear they shall not have ability in so short a space to finish all their strange intended projects and therefore that they might not be hindered their request is unlimited that the Parliament should not be dissolved till both Houses gave consent which they were contented should be ad Graecas Calendas Yet God that knew best what punishments were due to be inflicted for their former Actions and for all the subtle Devices of their hard hearts gave way for this also that this third Impediment of their projects might be removed that so at last their sins like the sins of the Amorites by little and little growing unto the full might undergo the fulness of Gods vengeance which as yet I fear was not fully come to pass for till the Parliament was made perpetual the things that they have done since were absolutely unimaginable How the faction hath strengthened it self because that while it was a dissolvable body they durst not so palpably invade the known rights either of King or Subjects whereas now their Body being made indissoluble they need not have the same apprehension of either having strengthened themselves by a Bill against the one and by an Army against the other and therefore all the dissolutions of Parliaments from the beginning of them to this time have not done half that mischief as the continuance of this one hath done hitherto and God only knowes what is to succeed hereafter But seeing themselves have publickly acknowledged in their Declarations that they were too blame if they undertook any thing now which they would not undertake if it were in His Majesties power to dissolve them the next day and they have since used this means which was given them to disburthen the Common-Wealth of that debt which was thought insupportable What many wise men do say to plunge it irrevocably into a far greater debt to the ruine of the whole Kingdom to change the whole frame of our Government and subjecting us to so unlimited an arbitrary power that no man knows at the sitting of the House what he shall be worth at the rising or whether he shall have his liberty the next day or imprisonment Many wise men do say they see no Reason that this trust being forfeited and the faith reposed in them betrayed the King may not immediatly re-assume that power of dissolving them into his own hands again and both our unjustly abused King and our much injured people declare this Act to be voyd when as contrary to their own Faith and the trust of the King they abuse it to overthrow the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom though I could heartily wish that because it still carrieth the Countenance of a Law the faction would be so Wise to yield it to be presently dissolved by a Law CHAP. IV. Sheweth the abilities of the Bishops the threefold practice of the Faction to exclude them out of the House of Peers and all the Clergy out of all Civil Judicature The fourth impediment of their design 4. THere was one stop more that might hinder or at least hardly suffer their plots to succeed according to their hearts desire and that is the Bishops Votes in the Vpper House nay they cannot endure to call it so but in the House of the Lords for they rightly considered therein these two special things 1. Their Number 2. Their Abilities Which are two main things to stop and hinder many evils For 1. They had Twenty six Voyces which was a very considerable number and might stop a great gap and stay the stream or at least moderate the violence of any unjust prosecution 2. They were men of great Learning men of Profound knowledge both in Divine and Humane Affairs and men well educated à cunabulis that spent all their time in Books and were Conversant with the dead that feared not to speak the truth and have wearied themselves in reading Histories The abilities of the Bishops comparing Laws and considering the Affairs of all Common-wealths and so were able if their modesty did not silence them to discourse de quolibet ente to untie every knot and to explain every riddle and being the immediate servants of the living God set apart as the Apostle speaketh to offer Sacrifice and to administer the Sacraments of God to prepare
and staves and other unfashionable though not inconsiderable weapons to cry No Papists no Bishops and if they had added No God no Devil no Heaven no Hell then surely these men had obtained if the Parliament could have granted their requests the summ of their desires and they would have thought themselves better than either King or Bishop but as yet they go no farther than No Papist no Bishop and by this they put the good Bishops in great fear and well they might be possest of that fear qui cadit in fortem constantem virum for mine eyes did see them and mine ears did hear it said What Bishop soever they met they would be his death and I thanked God they knew not me to be a Bishop Their furious assault upon Saint Peters Church in Westminster Then they set upon Saint Peters Church of Westminster burst part of the door to pieces and had they not been most manfully withstood by the Arch-Bishop of York his Gentlemen and the Prebends Servants together with the Officers of the Church they had entred and likely ransacked spoyled and defaced all the Monuments of the Ancient Kings broken down the Organs and committed such Sacriledge and prophanation of that Holy place as their fellow Rebels have done since in Canterbury Winchester Worcester and other places whereof I shall speak hereafter the like was never seen among the Turks and Pagans and after these things what rage cruelty and barbarity they would have shewed to the Dean and Prebends we might well fear but not easily judge I am sure the Dean was forced to hire Armed Souldiers to preserve the Church for many daies after for seeing these riotous Tumults could not as yet obtain their ends they came nay they were brought again and again and they justled and offered some violence unto the Arch-Bishop's Grace as he went with the Earl of Dover into the Parliament House which made him and the rest of his brethren justly to fear what might be the issue of these sad beginnings which they conceived must needs be very lamentable if timely remedy were not applied to prevent these untimely frights and unchristian tumults Therefore when no Complaints either to the House of Lords or Commons could produce any safe effects but rather a frivolous excuse than a serious redress that they came to petition against the Government and not to seek the destruction of the Governours the Bishops were inforced and in my judgment flesh and blood could take no better course in such a case in such distress and I believe it will be found wisdom hereafter to make their Petition for their security and Protestation against all Acts as null they might have added to them and whom they represented that should be enacted in their unwilling absence while they were so violently hindered from the House and it may be some word might pass in this Protestation that might be bettered or explained by another word yet on such a suddain in such a fright when they scarce had time to take Counsel of their pillows or to advise with their second thoughts quae semper sunt saniores To watch for iniquity Esay 29.20 21. to turn aside the just for a thing of nought to take advantage of a word or to catch men for one syllable to charge them with High Treason to bring them unto death so many Reverend Bishops to such a shameful end was more heavy than ever I find the Jews were to the old Prophets or the Pagan Tyrants unto the Primitive Fathers nor do I believe you can Parallel the same charge in any History yet 3. For this one necessitated Act of the Bishops 3. How they were committed to Prison the House of Commons do suddainly upon the first sight thereof charge twelv of them with High Treason they were not so long in Condemning it as the Bishops in Composing it and accordingly the Lords commit them unto Prison And if this was Treason I demand why could they not prove it so to be Or if it was not why should such an House Flos Medulla regni the greatest and the Highest Court of Justice from which the King consenting with them there lieth none appeal but only to the Court of Heaven accuse them of High Treason I would not have that Court to charge a man with any thing that were not most true for certainly whosoever unjustly compasseth my death is justly guilty of death himself when as the Poet saith Lex non justior ulla Quà m necis artifices arte perire suâ It may be they would have us to believe this Treason was not proved nor the charge so fully followed as they intended out of some mercy to save their lives but I could sooner believe they rejoyced to see them fear and were glad of their mistake that they might charge them and by such a charge cast them into prison that so they might the more easily work their Design to cast them out of the Parliament which now they have soon effected and procured an Act for their exclusion And you must know that to cast out from doing good or serving God is a work of the Divel and not of God so the wicked Husbandmen did cast out the right Heir of the Vine-yard out of his own inheritance The consequences of this Act. so the Jews did cast out the blind man and all that professed Christ out of their Synagogue But you may better judge of this good Act by these consequences which are like to be the fruits thereof 1. Hereby they are all made incapable to do any good 1. Made incapable of doing any good either for Gods honour or their neighbours benefit by executing justice or pronouncing judgment in any cause in any temporal Court and justice which long agon hath fled to Heaven and wanders as a stranger here on earth must be countenanced and entertained only by the sons of men by secular Lords and Gentlemen and the Spiritual Lords the Servants of God and messengers of Heaven must have nothing to do with her not because they are not as well able as any other to do justice but because the others cannot endure to let them see it for fear they should hinder their injustice and therefore justice and judgment are like to speed well on earth when their chiefest friends are banished from them and it may be worldlings oppressours or most ignorant youths rather than any just understanders of their natures must be their Judges 2. 2. Made unable to defend themselves Hereby they are made unable to defend themselves or their calling from any wrong their respect was little enough before and their indignities were great enough and yet now we are exposed to far greater miseries and to unresistable injuries when a Bishop hath not so much Authority as a Constable to withstand his greatest affronts But hoc Iâ—hacus est this is that which the Devil and his great Atreides's his prime
Champions to enlarge his Kingdom would fain have our Souls to remain among Lions and all the means or defence to be taken from us our enemies to be our Judges and our selves to be murdered with our own weapons In the time of Popery there were many Laws de immunitate Clericorum whereby we were so protected that the greatest Prince could not oppress us as you may find in the Reign of King John and almost in all our Histories and when we renounced the Pope God made Kings our nursing Fathers and Queens our nursing Mothers and we putting our selves under their protection have been hitherto most graciously protected but now by this Act we are left naked of all defence and set under the very sword of our Adversaries and as the Psalmist saith They that hated us are made Lords over us to call us to assess us to undo us 3. Debarred of that right that none else are 3. Hereby they are made more slavish than the meanest Subject and deprived of that benefit and priviledge which the poorest Shoomaker Tailer or any other Tradesman or yeoman hath most justly left unto him for to be excluded debarred and altogether made uncapable of any benefit is such an insupportable burden that it is set upon no mans shoulders but upon the Clergy alone as if they alone were either unworthy to receive or unable to do any good 4. Made more contemptible than all others 4. Hereby they are made the unparalleled spectacle of all neglect and scorn to all forraign people for I can hardly believe the like Precedent can be shewed in any Age or any other Nation of the World no not among the very Infidels or Indians for in former times the Bishops and Clergy-men were thought the fittest instruments to be imployed in the best places of greatest truth and highest importance in the Common-Wealth and Kings made them their Embassadours as the Emperour Valentinian did Saint Ambrose And our own Chronicles relate how former times respected the Clergy and how our Kings made them both their Counsellours and their Treasurers Chancellours Keepers of the Great Seal and the like Officers of the chiefest concernment as Ethelbert in the year of Christ 605. Vt refert in tractatu suo de Episcopatu p. 61 62. M. Theyer Sir Henry Spelman p. 118. Idem p. 403. Idem p. 219. saith I Ethelbert King of Kent with the consent of the Reverend Arch Bishop Augustine and of my Princes do give and grant c. And the said Ethelbert with the Queen and his Son Eadbald and the most Reverend Prelate Augustine and with the rest of the Nobility of the Land solemnly kept his Christmass at Canterbury and there assembled a Common Councel tam cleri quà m populi as well of the Clergy as of the People And King Adelstan saith I Adelstan the King do signify unto all the Officers in my Kingdom that by the advice of Wolfelm my Arch-Bishop and of all my Bishops c. In the great Councel of King Ina An. 712. The Edicts were Enacted by the Common Councel and consent omnium Episcoporum Principum Procorum Câ—mitum omnium sapientum seniorum populorum totius regni per praeceptum regis Inae And in the second Charter of King Edward the Confessour How former times respected the Clergy granted to the Church of Saint Peter in Westminster it is said to be Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum Optimatum With the Counsel and Decree of the Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls and other Potentates And so not only the Saxon Kings but the Norman also ever since the Conquest had the Bishops in the like or greater esteem that they never held Parliament or Councel without them And surely these Princes were no Babes that made this choice of them neither was the Common-Wealth neglected nor justice prejudiced by these Governours And whosoever shall read Mores gentium or the pilgrimage of Master Purchas Livy Plutarch Appian and the rest of the Greek and Latin Histories I dare assure him he shall find greater honour given and far less contempt cast upon the Priests and Flamins the Prophets of the Sybils than we find of this Faction left to the Servants of the Living God who are now dâ—it withall worse than Pharaoh dealt with the Israelites that took away their straw and yet required their full tale of Bricks For these men would rob us of all our means and take away all our Lands and all our Rights and yet require not only the full tale of Sermons and Services as was used by our Predecessours but to double our files to multiply our pains How the Clergy are now used and to treble the Sermons and Services that they used to have of our forefathers more than ever was done in any Age since the first Plantation of the Gospel And when we have done with John Baptist the utmost of our endeavours like a shining and a burning lamp that doth waste and consume it self to nothing while it giveth light to others they only deal with us as Carriers use to do with their pack-horses hang bels at their ears to make a melodious noise but with little provender lay heavy loads upon their backs and when they can bear no more burdens take away their Bells withdraw their praises call them Jades exclaim against their laziness and then at last turn them out to feed upon the Commons and to die in a ditch And thus we have now made the Ministers of Christ to be the Emblems of all misery and in pretending to make them more glorious in the sight of God we have made them most base in the eyes of all men And therefore the consequence of this Act is like to prove most lamentable when the people considering how that hereby we are left naked of all comfort and subject to all kind of scorn and distresse and how that this being effected is but the Praeludium of a far greater mischief they will rather with no great cost make their children of some good Trade and their children will chuse so to be than with such great cost and more care and yet little hope to bring them up to worse condition than the meanest of all Trades or the lowest degree of all rusticks When as they can challenge and it shall not be denied them to have the priviledges of the Law The Clergy alone are deprived of Magna Charta and a property in their goods which without their own consent yielded in their persons or their representours cannot be taken from them And the Clergy only of all the people in this Kingdom shall be deprived of the right and benefit of our great Charter which so many famous Kings and pious Princes have confirmed unto us and when we have laboured all the dayes of our lives with great pains and more diligence to instruct our people and to attain to some competency of means to maintain
water which accompanied the persons accused to Westminster the next day after His Majesties departure as if they had passed in a Roman Triumph conceived the danger to be so great that I call Heaven to witness they blessed God that so graciously put it in the Kings heart rather to passe away over-night though very late than hazard the danger that might have ensued the day following The meaning therefore of both Houses may be That there was nothing done which they confessed to be a tumult And no marvel Because they received incouragement as we believed from their defence and no reproof that we found was made for this indignity offered unto the King But if I be constrained and in danger it is not enough for me that I am voted free and safe For if that which looks as like a tumult as that did or as the representation of my face in the truest Glasse is like my face doth come against me and incompasse me about though I may be perhaps in more safety yet I shall think my self in great fear and in no more security than His Majesty was at Edge-hill 3. Because as the viewer of the Observat hath very well exprest it Reason 3 p. 7. No Act of Parliament can prevail to deprive the King of His Right and Authority as an Attainder by Parliament could not bar the Title to the Crown from descending on King Hen. 7. Nor was an Act of Parliament disabling King Hen. 6. to re-assume the Government of his people of any force but without any repeal in it self frustrate and void 7. Rep. 14. Calvins case an Act of Parliament cannot take away the protection or the Subjects service which is due by the Law of Nature 11. rep Sur de la Wares case William de la Ware although disabled by Act of Parliament was neverthelesse called by Queen Elizabeth to sit as a Peer in Parliament for that it seems the Queen could not be barred of the service and counsel of any of Her Subjects 2. H. 7. 6. a Statute that the King by no non obstante shall dispence with it is void because it would take a necessary part of Government out of the Kings hand And therefore I see not how this Act can deprive the King of the service and counsel of all his Bishops and Clergy but that it is void of it self and needeth no repeal or if otherwise yet seeing that besides all this 13. of the Bishops were shut in prison when this Act passed and their protestation was made long before this time and it was so unduly framed so illegally prosecuted and with such compulsive threats and terrours procured to be passed I hope the wisdom of the next Parliament together with their love and respect to the Church and Church-men will nullifie the same CHAP. VI. Sheweth the Plots of the Faction to gain unto themselves the friendship and assistance of the Scots And to what end they framed their new Protestation How they provoked the Irish to rebell and what other things they gained thereby ANd thus the Sectaries of this Kingdom and the Faction in this Parliament have by their craft and subtilty prevailed to have all the chiefest impediments of their Design to be removed So now the hedge is broken down and all the Boars of the Forrest may now come into the vineyard to destroy the vine and to undermine the City of God But into their counsels let not my soul come 2. When they had taken away these stops and hinderances of their projects 2. The furtherances of their Design were five they were to recollect and make up the furtherances that might help to advance their Cause for the founding of their new Church and the establishing of their famous Democratical Government and popular Common-wealth And these I find to be principally five 1. The gaining of their Brethren of Scotland to become their fast and faithful friends 2. The framing of a Protestation to frighten the Papists and to insnare the simple to be led as they listed to prosecute their Design 3. The condemning of our late Canons as abominable in their judgement and inconsistent with their Religion 4. The appointing of a new Synod the like whereof was never heard in the Church since Adam to compose such Articles as they liked and to frame such Discipline as should be most agreeable to their own dispositions 5. The setling of a Militia a word that the vulgar knew not what it was for to secure the Kingdom as they pretended from those dangers that they feared that is from those Jacks of Lent and men of Clouts which themselves set up as deadly enemies unto the Church and State but indeed insensibly to get all the strength of the Realm into their own hands and their Confederates that so they might like the Ephori bridle the King and bring him as they pleased to abolish and establish what Laws and Government they should propose whereby perhaps he might continue King in Name but they in Deed. These were the things they aimed at and they effected the first three before they could be discryed and their Plots discovered but in the other two they were prevented when God said unto them as he doth unto the Sea Hitherto shalt thou go and no further here shalt thou stay thy proud waves And therefore I am confident and I wish all good Christians were so that their purposes shall never succeed nor themselves prosper therein while the World lasteth because God hath so mercifully revealed so much so graciously assisted our King and so miraculously not only delivered him from them but also strengthened him against them contrary to all appearing likely-hood to this very day which is a sufficient argument to secure our faith that we shall by the help of our God escape all the rest of their destructive Designs But to display their Banners to discover their Projects and to let the World see what they are and how closely and yet cunningly they went about to effect their work I will in a plain manner set down what I know and what I have collected from other Writings and from men that are fide digâ—i for one mans eyes cannot see all things nor infallibly perceive the Mysteries of all particulars for to confirm the faithful Subjects in their due obedience both to God and their King and to undeceive the poor seduced people that they perish not in the contradiction of Corah 1. It is believed not without cause 1 The indeering of themselves unto the Scots Our Sectaries the inviters of the Scots to England with far greater probabilities than a bare suspicion that our own Anabaptistical Sectaries and this Faction were the first inviters of those angry spirits that conceived some cause to be discontented and were glad of secret entertainers to enter into the bosom of this Kingdom Whatsoever those our Brethren of Scotland did I will bury it according to their Act in oblivion neither approving nor
Commons which I wish all men would remember how affectionately he desired it to hasten to relieve that bleeding Kingdom yet still they protracted and neglected their redresse and at last passed such Votes made such Orders and procured such Acts as rather respected themselves and their posterity to get all the land and goods of the Rebels to themselves that were the Adventurers than the relieving of us that were distressed and would as I told some of the House of Commons rather increase the Rebellion than any wayes quench that destroying flame And this was as it succeeded and as you see hereby most likely intended a most detestable Plot for the kindling of that Rebellion and continuing of that bloody War in Ireland without which they knew this Rebellion in England could never have gained so much strength as it hath 2. By their large expression of what Religion they protested to defend 2. To gain all Sectaries to their side not the Protestant Religion as it is established by Law and expressed in the 39. Articles of the Church of England but as it is repugnant to Popery and taught perhaps by Burton Burges Goodwin Burrows or the like Amsterdamian Schismaticks they opened the gap so wide and made Heaven-gate so broad that all Brownists Anabaptists Socinians Familists Adamites and all other New-England-brood and Out-landish Sectaries whatsoever that opposed Popery might return home and joyn with them as they have done since to overthrow our established Church and State And this Plot to increase their own strength was as craftily done and is as Detestable as the other which to weaken the King in England caused a Rebellion in Ireland 3. By their illegall compelling 3. To descry their own strength and forcible inducing of all the people in the Kingdom to take the same or to be adjudged ill-affected and popish and after the Lords had rejected the imposing of it they by their Declaration which shewed That what person soever would not take it was unfit to bear Office either in Church or Common-wealth prevailed in this Plot so that they descryed the number of their own Party they understood their own strength and they perceived thereby many things which they knew not before for now they had with David numbred Israel and so far as the wit and policy of the Devil had instructed them they had searched into the secrets of all hearts 4. Having compelled the people to take it 4. To insnare all the simpler sort to adhere unto them they have hereby insnared all the simpler sort and tender consciences to stick unto them when they tell them and presse it upon their souls That they have made a Protestation to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject and therefore they are bound to adhere to the Parliament to the uttermost of their power and so by this equivocall Protestati n they have seduced thousands into their Rebellion and led them blindfold unto destruction But to let you see not the sincerity of their hearts The mystery of their iniquity but the mystery of their iniquity by this their Protestation you shall never find them urge it unto others or remembring it themselves For the defence of the Kings Person Crown or Dignity or for the liberty of any Subject but only such Subjects as will be Rebels with them For how can they be said to defend any of these when they do their very best to destroy His Person and deprive him of all his Royal Dignities and to plunder and imprison all true Subjects for being true Subjects unto their King Whereby you see how these Rebels are likewise perjured and have weaved this Protestation like a Spiders web That the rebels are all perjured through which themselves might passe when they pleased and like Vulcans Net to catch the simpler sort to adhere most eagerly to their Designs and so it is but a circle of all subtilties and not unwittily questioned An protestatio Parliamentaria deterior sit juramento cum c. For if there be any thing injoyned to be done by that Protestation which was unlawful to be done before the Protestation was taken it is no more to be justified by that Act than any other unlawful thing is by a rash and wicked vow and it ought not to be urged to do mischief and if there be nothing to be injoyned thereby but what was every mans duty before there was but small need to draw any argument from any Protestation but if they intended to draw men from the duty of alleageance to which they were legally sworn all men understood to do somewhat which the ignorant did not understand then such a voluntary Protestation might do the deed for they have protested to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament And yet the wisest of us now may justly protest we cannot tell what those Priviledges are or how far they should extend in the judgement of the House of Commons for they are multiplied like the Rats of Egypt And as Pharaohs lean Kine did eat up all his fat Cows Priviledges of Parl. multiplyed and are like Pharaohs kine so these meager Priviledges have eaten up all our goodly Laws And therefore the unlimited universality of these Priviledges in the Protestation extending it self as far as the caetera in the Canonical Oath was but a mischievous plot in the Contrivers to catch the simple to adhere unto them And it is a madness in any man that hath legally sworn to defend the King's Person Crown and Dignity which he knoweth and hath irregularly protested to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament which he knoweth not immediately to draw his sword against his known Soveraign or to Rebel against his well-known lawful Authority in the behalf of some thing he knoweth not what but is told by these men It is a Priviledge of Parliament O ye unwise among the people When will you understand Who hath bewitched you that you should not believe the truth CHAP. VII Sheweth how the Faction was inraged against our last Canons What manner of men they chose in their new Synod And of six special Acts of great prejudice unto the Church of Christ which under false pretences they have already done 3. The condemning of our last Canons 3. FOr the Canons that were last made I must confess my self and many others of my Brethren were very averse unto our sitting to make any at that time yet many Reasons were shewed us that we might sit and we had the Judges of the Common-Laws opinion under their hands shewed us for the legality of our sitting and conclude such Canons as might be for the glory of God and the good of his Church but of those that are made though I assure my self the worst of them is not so ill as they alleadge nor near so bad as most I might say the best of their illegall Orders yet there were many of us that never gave our votes
all these points are taught by every one of their Teachers but that all these and many more are taught and maintained by some one or other of them as I could easily expresse it if it were not too tedious for my Reader but the bulk of my Book swells too big and their fancies are but Dreams fit for laughter and I brought these onely as Vinegar to be tasted and then to be spit out again CHAP. X. Sheweth the great Bug-bears that affrighted this Faction the four speciall means they used to secure themselves the manifold lyes they raised against the King and the two speciall Questions that are discussed about Papists 5. The setling of the Militia 5. FOr the setling of the Militia and putting the whole Kingdom in a posture of Defence as they termed it 1. They dreamed of a desperate Disease 2. They devised an Emperical way to cure it and 1. The disease 1. The Disease was a monstrous fear of Popery and the re-establishment of abolished superstitions in our Church to invade their consciences and of the Papists with fire and sword to waste their estates and to take away their lives and liberties and through that groundlesse fear they looked on the innocent Ceremonies that were established in the Church as dangerous Innovations and introductions to Idolatry And in the State they feared the practised wayes and endeavours to produce an arbitrary government by our advancing of a boundlesse Prerogative even to the dispoyling of the Subject of his property and robbing him of the benefit of the laws these were their fears And the grounds of these fears were lying fictions and most scandalous detractions and defamations for their invented Letters that should come from Holland and from Denmark and some other places beyond the Seas where we were better believe them then go try whether they were true which informed them sometimes of a Fleet of Danes sometimes of another Nation that should come to assist the King for the setting up of Popery and the securing of himself in a tyrannical and arbitrary government over them What terrible things frighted them and every day almost produced a discovery of new treacheries against the Parliament what terrible things frighted them as the stable of Horses under ground for indeed they were invisible Horses such as Elisha's servant saw terrifying their guilty consciences and that of the Taylors in Moor-fields and the like horrid machinations that were to come against them I know not from whom and God knowes from whence which things how false they were time which is the mother of truth hath long agone made manifest and ridiculous to any man that is not bewitched with these lying fancies therefore lest these dreams of their distempered brains should be too soon descryed and so prove defective to produce their intended project they alledge The Queen is a Papist and I would to God they were so truly religious and void of hypocrisie in their profession as she most gracious Queen is in her religion then they say The Bishops are all Papists Deans and Prebends are of the same stamp and all the Kings Chapleins that were preferred by the Arch-Bishop were either close Papists or profest Arminians which are but Cosen-germans unto the other Arminianism being but a Bridge to passe over unto Popery And with these and the like false slanders against the King Queen and Clergy they so bewitched most of their well meaning brethren of the same house and amazed all the simpler sort of people of this Kingdom with these fears and filled them with such jealousies with those Pamphlets that they caused to be printed and dispersed every where that they were at their wits end for fear of this lamentable alteration of their religion and deprivation of their liberties 2. The disease being thus spread like a Gangrene 2. The Cure over all the parts of the body of this Kingdom they like skilful Physitians devise the cure and that is the preparation of a Militia and this Militia they would have put into such hands as they pleased such as they might confide in and I wish the whole Kingdom knew who those men were and who they are that they do confide in for I know 1. Some of them are poor men of most desperate fortunes if Bank-rupters may be termed such 2. Others to be most factious and schismatical men addicted to Anabaptism and Brownism and other worser Sects as amongst the London Commanders Ven Manwaring Fowke Nâ—rington Bradly Best and the rest whereof there are twice as many schismatical and as it is conceived beggarly Sectaries as are right honest men among them and if we looked among their Lords and all the rest of their nomination throughout the Kingdom I doubt we shall find some of them to be just of the same condition And because the King to whose care and trust God had committed all the people of this Kingdom and not to them that are called by the King and chosen onely by men and that onely for this time and of whom he will require an account of the laws and religion whereof he made him keeper and defender and not of them thought most rightly that this Militia should be committed rather to such men as he might confide in as it was in the raign of Queen Elizabeth and His Father of ever blessed memory rather than to any that they should name which was to dis-robe himself of all his regal power of the chiefest garland of his royal Prerogatives without which he could hold his Crown by no better a tenure then durante beneplacito and to put the sword out of his own hand into the hands of them that could not love him because they could not trust him as they alledged and what reason had he to trust them that were causelesly so distrustful of him they startled at this deniall And because the King of heaven had by this time opened the Kings eys God openeth the Kings eyes to let him see what hitherto he could hardly imagine that these men to whom he had granted for the good of his kingdom so many Acts of grace and favour as never any King of England did before and had very graciously offered to commit to the hands of their own choosing so large a share of the Militia as might have rendred the whole kingdom most secure if security in a just and legall way had been all that they sought for had their intentions far otherwise then they pretended and that not onely the government of the Church was intended to be altered and the Governours thereof destroyed but himself also was hereby dis-robed of those rights which God and the Lawes of the Land had put into his hands and the Kingdom brought either into a base Tyranny or confused Anarchy when all things shall be done according to the arbitrary power of these factious and schismatical men therefore he utterly refused to grant their desires and most wisely withstood their
the whole Kingdome in an unnatural civill War and to maintain the same against the will and contrary to the desires both of the King and Kingdom and it is almost incredible what wicked courses and how unjust and insufferable Orders and Ordinances you shall find recorded that they have made 1. Against the King 2. Against the Subjects 3. Against the Law Which are all said to be exceedingly abused by them for 1. Against the King it is registred to Posterity that they have proceeded besides many other things in all these particulars 1. They possesse all the Kings Houses Towns and Castles 1. Their proceedings against the King 1. Wrong Matth. 8 20. but what he gets by the strength of his sword and detain them from him so that we may say with our Saviour The Foxes have holes and the fowles of the air have nests but the King of England hath not an house allowed him by the Houses of Parliament wherein to put his head and they take not onely his Houses but also his rents and revenues and as I understood when I was in Oxford his very clothes and provision for his Table that seeing they could not take away his life by the sword they might murder him with cold or famin when he should not have the subsistence if they could hinder him to maintain life and soul together which is the shame of all shame and able to make any other men odious to all the world The complaint to the House of Commons Pag. 19. thus maliciously and barbarously to deal with their own most gracious King neither doth their malice here end but they with-hold the Rents of the Queen and seize upon the Revenues of our Prince which I assure them my Countrey-men takes in great scorn and I believe will right it with their lives or this Parliament-Faction shall redeem their errours with no small repentance when as we find no Prince of Wales was ever suffered by his Subjects to have such indignities offered him by the greatest Peers of England And here I cannot omit what Alderman Garraway saith of the reproach of Master Pym touching the maintaining of the Kings other Children which he professeth made his heart to rise and hoped it did so to many more Alderman Garraway his Speech Is our good King fallen so low that his Children must be kept for him It is worth our inquiry Who brought him to that condition We hear him complain that all his own Revenue is seized and taken from him Is not his Exchequer Court of Wards and Mint here his Customes too are worth somewhat and are his Children kept upon Alms How shall We and our Children prosper if this be not remedied And I pray God these things rise not up in judgement against them and this Nation but hereby they intended to verifie that disloyal Speech which One of them uttered in a Tavern and God will avert it from his Servant Sober Sadnesse pag. 22. 2. Wrong That they would make the King as poor as Job unlesse he did comply with them 2. If any man which they like not attends the Kings Person though he be his sworn servant or assist him in his just defence which he is bound to do by the Law of God and man yet he is presently voted and condemned for a Malignant Popish dis-affected evill Counsellour and an enemy to the State and that is enough if he be catched to have him spoyled and imprisoned at their pleasure nay my self was told by some of that Faction that because I went to see the King I should be plundered and imprisoned if I were taken 3 Wrong 3. Though they do solemnly professe that his Majesties personal safety and his royal honour and greatnesse are much dearer unto them then their own lives and fortunes The Petition to his Majesty the 16. of July 1642. which they do most heartily dedicate and shall most willingly imploy for the support and maintenance thereof yet for all this hearty Protestation they had at that very time as the King most accurately observeth in his Answer directed the Earl of Warwick to assist Sir John Hotham against him Non turpe est ab eo vinci quem vincere est nefas neque ei inhonestè aliquem submitti quem Deus super omnes extulit Dictum Armenii Pompeii appointed their Generals and as Alderman Garraway testifieth raised ten thousand armed men out of London and the Neighbour-Countries before the King had seven hundred and afterwards though the King sent from Nottingham a gracious Message and sollicitation for Peace yet they supposing this proceeded from a diffidence of his own strength or being too confident of their own force sleighted the Kings Grace and most barbarously proceeded in the most hostile manner waged warre and gave battail against the Kings Army where they knew he was in his own Person and as one of their Preachers taught the Sunday before the Battail that they might with a good conscience as well kill the King horresco dicere as any other man so according to Captain Blagues directions as Judas taught the High-Priests servants we know what Troops and Regiments were most aimed at whereas they do most ridiculously say they have for the defence of his person sent many a Cannon-bullet about his eares which he did with that Kingly courage and Heroick magnanimity yea and that Christian resolution and dependance on Gods assistance pass through that it shall be recorded to his everlasting honour and their indelible shame and reproach so long as the world endureth 4. 4 Wrong They have most Disloyally and Traiterously spoken both privately and publickly such things against his Majesty as would make the very Heathens tear them in pieces that should say the like of their Tyrannous Kings and such as I could not believe they proceeded from the mouth of a Christian against so Christian a King but that I find most of them were publickly uttered made known unto his Majesty and related by himself and those that were Ear-witnesses thereof Sober sadness p. 3. The Viewer p. 4. His Majesties Declaration Trussel in the supplement to Daniels History as Horresco referens that he was not worthy to be our King not fit to live that he was The Traitor that the Prince would govern better and that they dealt fairly with him they did not depose him as their fore-fathers had deposed Richard the second whom all the World knoweth to be most Traiterously Murdered and the whole progress of that Act whereby he was deposed is nothing else but the Scandal of that Parliament and an horrid treason upon the fairest relation of any Chronicle and the good Bishop of Carlile was not then affraid in open house to tell the Lords so to their faces and I would our Parliament men would read his Speech 5. They command their own Orders Ordinances 5. Wrong and Declarations to be Printed Cum privilegio and to be published
in Publick throughout the whole Kingdom and they are not a little punished that neglect it and whatsoever Message Answer Declaration or Proclamation cometh from the King to inform his Subjects of the Truth of things and to undeceive his much seduced people they streightly forbid those to be Printed and imprison if they can catch them all that publish them as they did many worthy Ministers in the City of London and in many other places of this Kingdom 6. They have publickly voted in their House 6. Wrong and accordingly indeavoured by Messages to perswade our brethren of Scotland to joyn in their assistance with these grand Rebels to rebel against their Soveraign but I perswade my self as I said before that the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland are more Religious in themselves more Loyal to their liege Lord and indeed wiser in all their actions then while they may live quietly at home in a happy peace to undertake upon the perswasions of Rebellious Subjects such an unhappy war abroad 7. It is remonstrated and related publickly that 7. Wrong as if they had shaken off all subjection and were become already a State Independent they have Treated by their agents with forraign States and do still proceed in that course which if true is such an usurpation upon Soveraignty as was never before attempted in this Kingdom and such a Presumption as few men know the secret mischiefs that may lurk therein 8. They suffer and licence their Pamphleters Pryn Goodwin Burges 8. Wrong Marshal Sedgwick and other emissaries of wickedness to publish such Treasons and Blasphemies and abominable Aphorisms As that the negative vote of the King is no more then the dissent of one man the Affirmative vote of the King makes not a Law ergo the Negative cannot destroy it and the like absurd and sensless things that are in those Aphorisms and in Prins book of the Soveraign power of Parliament whereby they would deny the Kings power to hinder any Act that both the Houses shall conclude and so taking away those just prerogatives from him that are as Hereditary to him as his Kingdom compell him to assent to their conclusions for which things our Histories tell us that other Parliaments have banished and upon their returns they were hanged both the Spencers the Father and the Son for the like presumption Why the two Spencers died as among other Articles Per asperte vid. Elismere post-nati p. 99. for denying this Prerogative unto their King and affirming that if he neglected his duty and would not do what he ought for the good of the Kingdom he might be compelled by force to perform it which very thing divesteth the King of all Soveraignty overthroweth Monarchy and maketh our government a meer Aristocracy contrary to the constitution of our first Kings and the judgment of all ages for we know full well Pag. 48. from the Practise of all former Parliaments that seeing the three States are subordinate unto the King in making Laws wherein the chiefest power consisteth they may propound and consent but it is still in the Kings power to refuse or ratify and I never read that any Parliament man till now did ever say the contrary but that if there be no concurrence of the King in whom formally the power of making of any Law resideth ut in subjecto to make the Law the two Houses whose consent is but a requisite condition to compleat the Kings power are but a liveless convention like two Cyphers without a figure that of themselves are of no value or power but joyned unto their figures have the full strength of their places which is confirmed by the Viewer of the Observations out of 11. Pag. 19 20 21. Hen. 7.23 per Davers Polydore 185. Cowel inter verbo Praerog Sir Thomas Smyth de republ Angl. l. 2. c. 3. Bodin l. 1. c. 8. For if the Kings consent were not necessary for the perfecting of every Act The Letter to a Gentleman in Gloucestershire p. 3. then certainly as another saith all those Bils that heretofore have passed both Houses and for want of the Royal assent have slept and been buried all this while would now rise up as so many Laws and Statutes and would make as great confusion as these new orders and ordinances have done And as the Lawyers tell us that the necessity of the assent of all three States in Parliament is such as without any one of them the rest do but lose their labour Lamberts Archeion 271. Vid. the Viewer p. 21. so Le Roy est assentus ceo faict un Act de Parliament and as another saith Nihil ratum habetur nisi quod Rex comprobarit Nothing is perfected but what the King confirmeth But here in the naming of the three States I must tell you that I find in most of our Writers about this new-born question of the Kings power a very great omission that they are not particularly set down that the whole Kingdom might know which is every one of them and upon this omission I conceive as great mistake in them that say the three States are Which be the three States of England 1. The King 2. The House of Peers 3. The House of Commons For I am informed by no mean Lawyer that you may find it upon the Rowls of Henry the fifth Speed l. 9. c. 19. p. 712. Anno. 1 Ric. 3. as I remember and I am sure you may find it in the first year of Richard the third where the three States are particularly named and the King is none of them For it is said That at the request and by the assent of the three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and Commons of the Land Assembled it is declared that our said Soveraign Lord the King is the very undoubted King of this Realm Wherein you may plainly see the King that is acknowledged their Soveraign by all three can be none of the three but is the head of all three as the Dean is none of the Chapter but is Caput capituli and as in France and Spain so in England I conceive the three Estates to be 1. The Lords Spiritual that are if not representing yet in loco in the behalf of all the Clergy of England that till these Anabaptistical tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field were thought so considerable a party as might deserve as well a representation in Parliament as old Sarum or the like Borough of scarce twenty Houses 2. The Lords Temporal in the right of their Honor and their Posterity And to make the World believe how justly and sufficiently legal they could do this they made another Ordinance for the inhabitants of the Counties of Northampton Rutland Derby c. to pay the twentieth part and to be assessed by the Assessors that they name in imitation of the Statute lately made for the four hundred
contrary to the practice of all former Parliaments and contrary to the Honour of any Parliament things were herein debated and carried not by strength of argument but by the most voices and the greater number were so far from understanding the validity of the alleadged Reasons that after the Votes passed they scarce conceived the state of the Question but thought it enough to be Clerks to Master Pym and to say Amen to Master Hampden by an implicite faith 3. When they deny the Members of their House or any other imployed by them in this horrid Rebellion should be questioned for Felony Treason 3. Denying their Members to be legally tried for any capital Crime Vide Dyer p. 59. 60. Crompton 8. b. 9 10 11. Elism post-nati 20 21. The viewer p. 43. Murder or the like capital Crimes but only in Parliament or at least by the leave of that House whereof they are Members or which doth imploy them for by this means any Member of their House may be a Traitor or a Murderer or a Robber whensoever he please and may easily escape before the party wronged or complainant can obtain this leave of the House of Commons and therefore this is as unreasonable and as sensless a Priviledge as ever was challenged and was never heard of till this Parliament For why should any man refuse his Tryal or the House deny their Members to the justice of the Law when as the deniall of them to be tryed by the Law implyeth a doubt in us of the innocency of those whom we will not submit to justice and their Tryal would make them live gloriously hereafter if they were found innocent and move the King to deliver those men that had so wickedly conspired their destruction to the like censure of the Law But for them to cry out The King is mis-informed and we dare not trust our selves upon a Tryal may be a way to preserve their safety but with the losse of their reputation and perhaps the destruction of many thousands of people If they say They are contented to be tried but by their own House which in the time of Parliament is the highest Court of justice It may be answered said a plain Rustick with the old Proverb Ask my fellow if I be a Thief For mine own part I reverence the justice of a Parliament in all other judgements betwixt party and party yea betwixt the King and any other Subject yet when the party accused shall be judged by his own Society his Brethren and his own Faction I believe any indifferent Judge would see this to be too great partiality against the King that he shall not have those whom he accuseth to be tried by the Laws already established and the ordinary course of Justice and if the Judges offend in their Sentence the Parliament hath full power undenied them by his Majesty to question and to punish those Judges as they did for that too palpable in justice as they conceived in the case of the Ship money but they will be judged by themselves and all that dissent from them must be at their mercy or destruction And yet it is said to be evident That no Priviledge can have its ground or commencement unlesse it be by Statute Grant or Prescription And by the Stat. 26. Hen. 8. cap. 13. it is enacted That no offender in any kind of high Treason shall have the priviledge of any manner of Sanctuary So all the Grants of such a priviledge if any such should be made are meerly void 1 Hen. 7. Staffords case and not one Instance could hitherto be produced whereby such a Priviledge was either allowed or claimed but the contrary most clearly proved by his Majesty out of Wentworths case And therefore seeing your own Law-books tell us That the Priviledge of Parliament doth not extend to Treason the breach of the Peace and as some think against the Kings debt it is apparent how grossely they do abuse the People by this claim of the Priviledge of Parliament 4. 4. Conniving with their Faction for any fault When they connive with their own compeers for any breach of priviledge as with Master Whitakers for searching Master Hampdens pockets and taking away his papers immediately after the abrupt breaking up of the last unhappy Parliament and those that discovered the names of them that differed in opinion from the rest of the Faction in the business of the Earl of Straffords and specially with that rabble of Brownists and Anabaptists which with unheard-of impudency durst ask that question publickly at the Bar Who they were that opposed the well-affected party in that House as if they meant to be eeven with them whosoever they were And likewise that unruly multitude of zealous Sectaries that were sent as I find it by Captain Ven and Isaac Pennington to cry Justice Justice Justice and No Bishops no Bishops and this to terrifie some of the Lords from the House and to awe the rest that should remain in the House as they had formerly done in the case of the Earl of Strafford and when others that they like not are for the least breach of pretended Priviledge either imprisoned or expelled for I assure my self there cannot be higher breaches of Priviledges than these be nor greater stains to obscure the Honour and vilifie the repute of this Parliament 5. The ingaging one another in civil causes 5. When there is such siding and ingaging one another in civil causes that they may be conglutinated together for their great Design to do things not according unto Justice but for their own ends contrary to all right and their favour is scarce worth the charge of attendance to them that speed best by their Ordinances but the complaint is that m n have the greatest injuries done them in this that themselves call the highest Court of Justice which others say hath now justified all other inferiour Courts and made all unrighteous Judges most just 6. The surreptitious carrying of businesses 6. When as we have been informed a matter of the greatest importance hath been debated and put unto the question and upon the question determined and the Bill once and again rejected yet at another time even the third time when the Faction had prepared the House for their own purpose and knew they could carry it by most voices the same question hath been resumed and determined quite contrary to the former determination when the House was more orderly convened as it is said they did to passe the Ordinance for the Militia which many men dare avouch to their faces to be no Priviledge of Parliament but a great abuse of their fellow-Members and a greater injury unto all their fellow-Subjects 7. Their partiall questioning of some men and no questioning of some others 7. When the elections of some of their Members have been questioned and others have been accused for no lesse than capital Crimes as Master Griffith was yet if these men
incline and conspire with this Faction to confirm those Positions which they proposed to themselves to overthrow the Church and State and to uphold their usurped Government and tyrannical Ordinances they will pretend twenty excuses as The great Affairs of the State The multiplicity of their businesses The necessity of procuring monies The shortnesse of their time though they sate almost three years already that they have no leisure to determine these questions which in truth they do purposely put off lest they should leese such a friend unto their party but when any other which dissenteth from their humours doth but any thing contrary to the straitest Rules of the House they do presently notwithstanding all their greatest affairs call that matter into question The L Digby in his Apolog. and it must be examined and followed with that eagernesse as in my Lord Digby's case that he must be forthwith condemned and excluded for we say This cannot be any just Priuiledge but an unjust proceeding of this Parliament 8. The delegating of their power to particular men 8. When they delegate their power to some men to do some things of themselves without the rest as it seems they did unto Master Pym when an Order passed under his sole test for taking away the Rails from the Communion Table for this is a course we never heard of in former time 9. The multiplying of their Priviledges 9. When their Priviledges are so infinitely grown and inlarged more than ever they were in former Parliaments and so swelled that they have now swallowed up almost all the Priviledges of other men so that they alone must do what they please and where they will in all Cities and in all Courts because they have the Priviledge of Parliament 10. When according to the great liberty of language 10. Their speaking and sitting in other Courts which we deny them not within their own wall they take the Priviledge to speak what they list in other places and to govern other Courts as they please where as they did in Dublin and do commonly in London they sit as Assistants with them that are priviledged by their Charters to be freed from such Controllers 11. When above all that hath been or can be spoken 11. Their close Committee they have made a close Committee of Safety as they call it which in the apprehension of all wise and honest men is not only a course most absurd and illegall but also most destructive to all true Priviledges and contrary to the equitable practice of all publick meetings that any one should be excluded from that which concerneth him as well as any of the rest And this Committee only which consisteth of a very few of the most pragmatical Members of their House must have all intelligences and privy counsels received and reserved among themselves and what they conclude upon must be reported to the House which must take all that they deliver upon trust and with an implicite Roman faith believe all that they say and assent to all that they do only because these forsooth are men to be confided in upon their bare word The greatnesse of this abuse when their House hath no power to administer an Oath unto any man in the greatest affairs happiness or destruction of the whole Kingdom for this is in a manner to make these men Kings more than the Roman Consuls and so as great a breach of Priviledge and abuse of Parliament as derogatory to his Majesty that called them to consult together and as injurious to all the people as can be named or imagined CHAP. XIV Sheweth how they have transgressed the publike Laws of the Land three wayes and of four miserable Consequences of their wicked doings 2. FOr those publike written and better known Laws of this Land 2. Against the publick laws of the Land they have no lesse violated and transgressed the same than the other and that as well in their execution and exposition as in their composition For 1. When they had caused the Archbishop of Canterbury to be committed to the Tower Judge Berkeley to the Sheriff of London 1. In the execution of the old Laws Sir George Ratcliffe to the Gate-house for no lesse crimes than high Treason and many other men to some other prisons for some other faults yet all the World seeth how long most of them have been kept in prison some a year some two some almost three and God only knoweth when these men intend to bring them to their legal tryal which delay of justice is not only an intolerable abuse to the present Subjects of this Kingdom to be so long deprived of their liberty upon a bare surmise but also a far greater injury to all posterity when this President shall be produced to be imitated by the succeeding Parliaments and to justifie the delayes of all inferiour Judges 2. Whereas we believe what Judge Bracton saith and Judge Britton likewise which lived in the time of Edward the first 2. In expounding the Laws Si disputatio oriatur justiciarii non possunt eam interpretari sed in dubiis obscuris Domini regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas Citatur à Domino Elism in post-nati p. 108. cùm ejus sit interpretari cujus est condere If any Dispute doth arise the Judges canot interpret the same but in all obscure and doubtful questions the interpretation and the will of the King is to be expected when as he that makes the Law is to be the expounder and interpreter of the Law Yet they have challenged and assumed to themselves such a power that their bare Vote without any Act of Parliament may expound or alter a known Law which if it were so they might make the Law as Pighius saith of the Scripture hke a nose of wax that may be fashioned and bended as they pleased but we do constantly maintain That the House of Commons hath no power to adjudge of any point or matter but to inform the Lords what they conceive and the House of Peers hath the power of Judicature which they are bound to do according to the Rules of the known established Laws and to that end they have the Judges to inform them of those cases and to explain those Laws wherein themselves are not so well experienced though now they sit in the House for cyphers even as some Clergy did many times in the Convocation and if any former Statute be so intricate and obscure that the Judges cannot well agree upon the right interpretation thereof then as in explaining Poynings Act and the like either in England or Ireland the makers of the Act that is the King and the major part of both Houses must explain the same 3. In composeing and setting forth new laws 3. Whereas we never knew that the House had any power to make Orders and Ordinances to bind any besides their own Members to observe them as Laws
yet they compell us to obey their Orders in a stricter manner than usually we are injoyned by Law and this course to make such binding Ordinances as they do to carry the force though not the name of an Act of Parliament or a Law is a mighty abuse of our Laws and Liberties for Sir Edward Cook tells us plainly That as the constitution of our Government now standeth neither the House of Commons and King L. Cook in the Preface of the Stat. of Westminster the second Lamberts Archeion 271. can make any binding Law when the Peers dissent nor the Lords and King when the Commonalty dissenteth nor yet both Houses without the Kings consent but all three King Peers and Commons must agree before any coactive Law can be composed Nay more it is sufficiently proved that Dare jus populo or the legislative power being one principall end of Regall Authority was in Kings by the Law of Nature while they governed the people by naturall equity long before municipall Laws or Parliaments had any beeing For as the Poet saith Remo cum fratre Quirinus Jura dabat populo Hoc Priami gestamen erat cum jura vocatis More daret populis Because this was the custom of the Kings of Scythia Assyria Aegypt c. long before Moses and Pharonaeus when Municipall Laws first began to give Laws unto their people according to the Rules of Naturall equity which by the Law of Nature they were all bound to observe And though some Kings did graciously yield and by their voluntary oathes for themselves and their successors bind themselves may times to stricter limits than were absolutely requisite as William Rufus King Stephen Henry the fourth Richard the third and the like granted many Priviledges perhaps to gain the favour of their Subjects against those which likely had a better Title to the Crown than themselves or it may be to satisfie their people as the guerdon or compensation for the sufferance of some fore-passed grievances as Henry the first Edward the second Richard the second and the like yet these limitations being agreeable to equity and consistent with Royalty and not forcibly extracted ought in all truth and reason to be observed by them And hence it is that the Kings of this Realm according to the oathes and promises which they made at their Coronation can never give nor repeal any Law but with the assent of the Peers and People But though they have thus yielded to make no Laws nor to repeal any Laws without them yet this voluntary concession of so much grace unto the people doth no waies translate the legislative power from the King unto his assistants but that it is formaliter and subjectivè still in the King and not in them else would the government of this Kingdom be an Aristocracy or Democracy and not a Monarchy because the Supreme power of making and repealing Laws and Governing or judging decisively according to those Laws are two of those three things that give being to each one of these three sorts of Government Therefore the King of England Cassan in cata◠gloria mundi 2 2 Ed. 3. 3. pl. 25. Vid. The view of a Printed book intituled Observations c. Where this point is proved at large p. 18 19 21 22. being an absolute Monarch in his own Kingdom as Cassaneus saith and no man can deny it the Legislative power must needs reside solely in the King ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that power but only a condition yielded to be observed by the King in the use of that power and so both the Oath of Supremacy and the form of all our ancient Statutes wherein the King speaks as the Law-maker do most evidently prove the same unto us Le Roy voit Neither durst any Subjects in former times either assume such a power unto themselves or deny the same unto their King for you may find how the House of Commons denying to pass the Bill for the Pardon of the Clergy which Henry the 8th granted them when they were all charged to be in a Premunire unless themselves also might be included within the pardon received this answer from the King that He was their Soveraign Lord and would not be compelled to shew his mercy nor indeed could they compel him to any thing else but seeing they went about to restrain him of his Liberty he would grant a pardon unto his Clergy by his great Seal without them though afterwards of his own accord he signed their pardon also which brought great commendation to his judgment Sir Rich. Baker in vita Hen. 8. to deny it at first when it was demanded as a right and to grant it afterward when it was received as of grace And yet the denyal of their assent unto the King is more equitable to them and less derogatory to him then to make orders without him And this manner of compulsion to shew grace unto themselves is more tolerable than to force him to disgrace and displace his most faithful servants only because others cannot confide in them when no criminal charge is laid against them And therefore for the Lords and Commons to make Orders and Ordinances without the King and in opposition to the King is a meer usurpation of the Regal power a nullifying of the Kings power and a making of the Royal assent which heretofore gave life to every Law to be an empty piece of formality which is indeed an intolerable arrogancy in the contrivers of these Orders and the makers of these Ordinances a monstrous abuse of the Subjects and a plain making of our good King to be somewhat like him in the Comedy A King and no King And whereas no Subject yea under favour be it spoken nor the King himself after he hath taken his Oath at his Coronation is free from the observation of the established Laws yet they make themselves so far above the reach of Law that they freed him which the Lord chief Justice Bramston had committed to Newgate for felony in stealing the Countess of Rivers goods they hindered all men as we found in their journal from proceeding against Sir Thomas Dawes they injoyned the Judges by their Orders to forbear to proceed in their ordinary courses in the Courts of Justice contrary to the Oathes of those Judges and some Parliament-men came to the Bench to forbid the Judges to grant Habeas Corpus's which is as great an iniquity and as apparent an injustice as ever was done by any Parliament The most abominable wickedness of these factious Rebels And that which is a Note above Ela above all that could be spoken whereas the Law of God and man the bonds and obligations of Civility and Christianity tye us all to be dutiful and obedient unto our King in all things either Actively or Passively and no wayes for no cause violently to resist him under the greatest penalties that can be
You to be wrested out of Your hand by these uncircumcised Philistines these ungracious Rebels and the Vessels of God's 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 Majesty standing in the truth and for the right for the honour of God and the Church of his Son 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 maintain his own cause and by this war that is so undutifully so unjustly made against Your Majesty so Giant-like fought against Heaven to overthrow the true Church You shall be glorious like King David that was a man of War whose dear son raised a dangerous rebellion against him and in whose reign so much bloud was spilt and yet notwithstanding these distempers in his Dominion he was a man according to God's own heart especially because that from α to ω * As in the beginning by reducing the Ark from the Philistins throughout the midst by setling the service of the Tabernacle in the ending by his resolution to build leaving such a treasure for the erecting of the Temple the beginning of his reign to the end of his life his chiefest endeavour was to promote the service and protect the servants of the Tabernacle the Ministers of God's Church God Almighty so continue Your Majesty bless You and protect You in all Your wayes Your vertuous pious Queen and all Your royal Progeny Which is the dayly prayer of The most faithful to Your Majesty GRYFFITH OSSORY THE RIGHTS OF KINGS Both in CHURCH 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. ii 17. in fine How Kings honoured the Clergie the fair 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 Scholeman to a great Emperour which M. Luther said also to the Duke of Saxonie Tu protege me gladio Guliel Ocham Ludov. 4. ego defendam te calamo 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 Rom. 13. v. 4 knoweth how to use the Sword better than the Preacher and the King may better make good His Rights by the Sword then by the Pen which having once blotted His papers with mistakes and concessions more then due though they should be never so small if granted further than the truth would permit as I fear 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 pens of a ready Writer and thereby to display the duties and to justifie the Rights of Kings and if they fail in either part The Divine best to set down the Rights of kings the King needeth neither to performe what undue Offices they impose upon him nor to let pass those just honours they omit to yield unto him but he may justly claime his due Rights and either retain 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 Psal 119. 1. Nature teaching every King to governe his People according to the common rules of honesty and justice 2. The politique constitution of every several State and particular Kingdom shewing how they would have their government to be administred 3. The Law of God which is an undefiled Law and doth infallibly set down what duties are to be performed and what Rights are to be yielded to every King To what end the stories of the kings of Israel and Judah were written Rom. 15.4 for whatsoever things are written of the Kings of Israel and Judah in the holy Scriptures are not onely written for those Kings and the Government of that one Nation but as the Apostle saith They are written for our learning that all Kings and Princes might know thereby how to govern and all Subjects might in like manner by this impartial 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 Laws whereby we should live and set down those truths that we should beleive so he settled The ordination of our government as beneficial as our creation and ordained that Government whereby all men in all Nations should be guided and governed as knowing full well that we neither would or could do any of these things right unless he himselfe did set down the same for us therefore though the frowardness of our Nature will neither yield to live according to that Law nor beleive 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 reap the fruits of our faith and because it were as good to leave us without Rules Unwritten things most uncertain and without Laws as to live by unwritten Laws which in the vastness 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 Jews for the government both of their Church and Kingdom 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 Jews onely Rom. 3 29. but of the Gentiles also
because the Scripture in all morall and perpetual precepts that are not meerly judicialia Judaica or secundae classis which the Royal 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 shadows that were to vanish when the true substance approached was left as a perfect patern and platforme for all Kings and People Pastours and Flocks Churches and Kingdoms throughout the whole world to be directed how to live to govern 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 And therefore the dim and dusky light of bleare-ey'd Nature Every Government the better by how much nearer it is to the Government of the Scripture kings and the dark distracted inventions of the subtillest politicks must stoop 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 Laws 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 bottomless sea and the supreme Lady to whom all other Laws and Sciences are but as Penelopes handmaids to attend her service the Divine may far better and much sooner understand what is naturall right and what ought to be a just nationall Law and thereby what is the Right of Kings The Divine is better able to understand Law then the Lawyer to understand Divinity Psal 1.2 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 unless you think as our Enthusiasts dream 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 Divinty and that the greatest Doctour that spent all his days in studies can hardly understand the mysteries of these Camelion-like Laws 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 Laws discreetest Statutes and subtillest Cases cannot exceed the reach of sound reason and therefore no Reason can be shewed but that a rational man meanly understanding Languages may sooner understand them and with less danger mistake them than that Law which as the Psalmist saith is exceeding broad and exceedeth all humane sense Psal 119.96 1 Cor. 2.14 and the most exquisite natural understanding when as the Apostle saith The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are 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 amiss and this not understanding of God's Law is the errour of other Laws and the cause of much mischief for if men understood not the Law of God What causeth many men to rebell The Scriptures say more for the right of kings then any book in the world Downing in his discourse of the Ecclesiasticall State p. 91. or would beleive us that do understand it I assure my self 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 treaecherous 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 Ego in bona conscientia teneo quisquis volens detrahit famae meae nolens addit mercedi meae August I shall beleive it in a good conscience that whosoever shall wittingly detract from my repute and unjustly load me with undue disgrace shall unwillingly add to my reward neither shall I ever think Plus ponderis esse in alieno convicio Ambrose quà m in testimonio meo that there is more account to be had in the foule slander of another mans malice then in the spotless testimony of mine own conscience but considering as Saint Hierome saith that Apud Christianos non qui patitur sed qui facit contumeliam miser est among Christians not he that suffereth but he that offereth injuries and reproaches is wretched Osor in Epist Reginae Eliz. pag. 7. though as Osorius faith Multae insidiae principibus à suis domesticis intenduntur multae fraudes in aula Regia quaestus compendii gratiâ suscipiuntur multa partim adulatione perfidiâ partim offensionis periculosà formidine dissimulantur ità ut rarò inveniantur qui Regibus liberè loqui audeant many snares are laid for Princes by their own domestique servants many deceitfull tricks and cunning plots are undertaken in the King's Court for gain and honours sake and many things partly for fear of offending How kings are deluded by their own Courtiers and the truth concealed from them The Authours Resolution with God's Assistance and partly through a persidious and false flattery are dissembled and the truth of things is imprisoned from the sight of the King so that he that seeth with these Courtiers eyes and heareth with their ears can hardly know the certain state of his own affairs especially when their flattering Parasites shall bear so heavy a hand over the faithfull servants that few of them shall dare freely to declare the Truth yet I am resolved to set down the plain face of Truth without either flattering of my Royal Master or fear either of the Court flatterers hatred or the Parliamentary Factions cruelty And though my eldest Brethren that are abler than my self should reprove me 1 Sam. 17.28 and say unto me as Eliab said unto David yet I will take my staff in my hand mine own integrity to uphold me and my fidelity to my King and to the King of kings to protect me and I will gather a few stones out of the Brook of living
God of their bellies to cause all the other guests to leath their meat that they alone might devour all the dainties did use Narium mucum in catinis emungere so do 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 devour the same themselves as the dogs that gape after every bit they see us put into our mouths for so I heard a whelp of that litter making a bitter invective in the House of Commons against Bishops Deans and Chapters and the greatness of their Revenue Doctor Burges and concluding that all they should be degraded their means 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 fauters 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 bait 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 soon end and all oâ—her strife about Religion would be soon composed What many men would willingly undergo to procure peace But would this end all our civil Wars 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 Kingdom If so we could be well contented for our own parts to be sacrificed for the safety of the people for though we dare not say with Saint Paul that we could wish our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separated from Christ for our Country-men yet I can say with a syncere heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.6 that I believe 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 deeply wounded and preserve this our native Country from that destruction The abolishing of Episcopacy would not satisfie the Factious which this unparallel'd Rebellion doth so infallibly threaten but the truth is that the abolishing of Episcopacy root and branch the reducing of the best to the lowest rank and the bringing of the Clergy to the basest condition of servility to be such as should not be worthy to eate with the dogs of their flock as Job speaketh will not do the deed because as the Satyrist saith nemo repentè fit turpissimus but as virtues so vices have their encrease by use and progression Juven Sat. 2. primum quodque flagitium gradus est ad proximum and every heynous offence is as iron chain to draw on another For as Seneca saith nunquam usque adeò temperatae cupiditates sunt Seneca de Clem lib. 1. ut in eo quod contigit desinant sed gradus à magnis ad majora fit spes improbissimas complectuntur insperata assecuti our desires are never so far 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 jus omne positum sit in sacris as Plato saith how can it be that they which have prophaned all sacred things Plato de legibus lib. 12. and have degraded their Ministers should not also proceed to depose their Magistrates if you be diffident to believe the same let the Annals of France Germany England and Scotland be revised and you shall find that Charles the fifth was then troubled with War 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 primùm tempore sacris sacerdotibus bellum indixerunt and the Scots at one and the self-same moment did shake off the yoke of their obedience both unto their God and to their King neither did they acknowledg any for their just Magistrate after they had once warred against Religion and religious men Blacvod Apolog pro regibus pag. â—3 which were their Priests and Bishops saith Blacvodaeus and in Fran e saith he the same men were enemies unto the King that were adversaries unto the Priests quia politicam dominationem nunquam ferent qui principatum Ecclesiae sustulerunt nec mirum si Regibus obloquantur qui sacerdotes flammâ ferro persequuntur because as I have shewed at large in my Grand Rebellion they will never endure the Political Magistrate to have any rule The haters of the Bishops ever enemies unto kings when they have shaken off the Ecclesiastical government neither is it any wonder that they should slander rage against and reject their King when they persecute their Bishops with fire and sword And I think the sad aspect of this distracted Kingdom at this time makes this point so clear that I need not add any more proof to beget faith in any sober man for doth not all the World see that as soon as the seditious and trayterous faction in this unhappy Parliament had cast most of the Bishops How soon the Faction fell upon the King after they had cast off their Bishops the gravest and the greatest of all with Joseph into the dungeon a thing that no story can shew the like president in any age and had voted them all contrary to all right out of their indubitable right to sit in the House of Peers an act indeed so full of incivility as hath no small affinity with that of the Gergesites who for love of their swine drave not out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 8.34 but desired Christ to depart out of their coasts they presently began to pluck the sword out of the Kings hand and endeâ—voured to make their Soveraign in many things more servile then any of his own Subjects so that he should be gloriosissimè servilis as Saint Augustine saith that Homer was suavissimè vanus and to effect this you see how they have torn in peices all his Rights they have trampled his Prerogatives under foot they have as much as they could laid his honour in the dust and they have with violent warr and virulent malice sought to vanquish and subdue their own most gracious Soveraign which cannot chuse but make any Christian heart to bleed to see such unchristian and such horrid unheard of things attempted to be done by any that would take upon him the name of a Christian Therefore to manifest my duty to
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 regal 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 wel of other Nations as of Israel do reign and of their full power and inviolable authority over the people which have no more dispensation to resist their Kings then the Jews had to resist theirs And therefore Valentinian though an elected Emperour yet when he was requested by his Electours to admit of an associate Sozom. histor l 6. c. 6. Niceph hist l. 11. c 1. answered 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 Vòbis 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 solemn vow past in the presence of God that he shall love cherish and maintain her The wife may not forsake her husband though he break his vow and neglect his duty yet if he breaks this vow 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 breaks them they have no more power to abdicate their King then the wife hath to renounce her husband nor so much because she may complain and call her husband before a competent Judge and produce witnesses against him whereas there can be no Judge 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 Judges to condemn him or were it so that all other Kings have not the like constitution which the Scripture setteth down for the Kings of Israel yet I say that excepting some circumstantial Ceremonies in all real points the Laws of our Land are so far as men could make them in all things agreeable to the Scriptures in the constituting of our Kings according to the livelyest pattern of the Kings of Israel as it is well observed by the Authour of the Appeal to thy conscience An Appeal to thy conscience pag 30. Our Kings of the like Institution to the kings of Israel in these four special respects 1. In his Right to the Crown 2. In his Power and Authority 3. In his Charge and Duty 4. In the rendring of his Account For 1. As the Kings of Israel were hereditary by succession and not elective Respect 1 unless there were an extraordinary and divine designation as in David Kings of England are kings by birth Proved Salomon Jehu so do the Kings of England obtain their Kingdoms by birth or hereditary succession as it appeareth 1. By the Oath of Allegiance used in every Leete that you shall be true Reason 1 and faithful to our Soveraign Lord King Charles and to his Heires 2. Because we owe our legeance to the King in his natural capacity that is Reason 2 as he is Charles the Son and Heir apparent of King James when as homage cannot be done to any King in his politique capacity Coke l. 7. Calvin's case the body of the King being invisible in that sence 3. Because in that case it is expresly affirmed that the King holds the Kingdom Reason 3 of England by birth-right inherent by descent from the bloud-royal therefore to shew how inseperable this right is from the next in bloud Hen. the 4. though he was of the bloud-royal being first cozen unto the King and had the Crown resigned unto him by Rich. the 2. and confirmed unto him by Act of Parliament yet upon his death-bed confessed he had no right thereunto Speed l. 9. c. 16. as Speed writeth 4. Because it was determined by all the Judges at the Arraignment of Watson Reason 4 and Clerke 1. Jacobi that immediately by descent his Majesty was compleatly and absolutely King without the Ceremony of Coronation which was but a Royal Ornament and outward Solemnization of the descent And it is illustrated by Hen. 6. that was not crowned till the ninth year of his Reign Speed l. 9. c. 16. and yet divers were attainted of High Treason before that time which could not have been done had he not been King And we know that upon the death of any of our Kings The right heir to the Kingdom is King before he is crowned Why the peoples consent is asked his Successor is immediately proclaimed King to shew that he hath his Kingdom by descent and not by the people at his Coronation whose consent is then 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 2 As the Kings of Israel had full power and authority to make war and Respect 2 conclude peace to call the greatest Assemblies as Moses Joshua David Jehosaphat and the rest of the Kings did to place and displace the greatest Officers of State as Solomon placed Abiathar in Sadoc's room and Jehosaphat appointed Amariah and Zebaediah rulers of the greatest Affaires 2 Chron. 19.11 The absolute authority of the kings of England Coke 7 rep fol. 25. 6. Polyd. Virgil. lib 11. Speed Stow c. and had all the Militia of the Kingdom in their hands so the Kings of England have the like for 1. He onely can lawfully proclaim war 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 Henry the first so they cannot meet but by the king's Writ 3. All Laws Customs and Franchises are granted and confirmed unto the people by the King Rot. Claus 1. R. 2. n. 44. 4. All the Officers of the Realm whether Spiritual or Temporal Smith de repub Angl. l. 2. c. 4. c. 5. are chosen and established by him as the highest immediately by himself and the inferiour by an authority derived from him The absurdiâ—ies of them that deny the Militia to the King 5. He hath the
Viretus his scandalous reasons answered 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 Laws which through his royal 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 T. C. l. 2. p. 411. So Cartwright also that was our English firebrand and his Disciples teach as Harding had done before that Kings and Princes do hold their Kingdoms and Dominions under Christ as he is the Son of God onely before all Worlds coequal with the Father and not as he is Mediator and Governour of the Church and therefore the Christian Kings have no more to do 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 encrease of their power whereby they may deale in Church causes then they had before so the whole pack of the Disciplinarians are all of the same minde and do hold that all Kings as well Heathen as Christian receiving but one Commission and equal Authority immediately from God have no more to do with Church causes the one sort then the other And I am ashamed to set down the railing and the scurrilous speeches of Anthony Gilby against Hen. 8. and of Knox Gilby in his admonition p. 69 Knox in his exhortation to the Nobility of Scotland fol. 77. Whittingham and others against the truth of the King 's lawful right and authority in all Ecclesiastical causes For were it so as Cartwright Travers and the rest of that crew do 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 appear most evident to all understanding men that all Kings as well 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 Gentilee Kings preservers of religion For it cannot be denyed but that all Kings ought to preserve their Kingdoms and all Kingdoms are preserved by the same means 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 and as Synesius saith Synes ep 126. Vide Arnis part 2. pag. 14. Ad magnas reipubl utilitates retinetur religio in civitatibus Cicero de divin l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priest and a Prince was all one with them when the Kings to preserve their Laws inviolable and to keep their people in obedience that they might be happy became Priests and exercised the duties of Religion offering sacrifices unto their Gods and discha ging 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 thye saw could not continue without Religion But 2. The wisedom of our grave Prelates and the learning of our religious Clergie having stopped the course of this violent stream 2. In the Parliament and hindred the translation of this right of Kings unto their new-born Presbytery 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 unworthyness and the other doth not bear with undutifullness will needs transfer this right of ruling God's Church unto a Parliament of Lay-men the King shall be denuded of what God hath given him and the people shall be endued 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 as much as their modesty can desire or their merit deserve neither do I gain-say but as they are pious men and the greatest Council 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 think befitting for Gods Church but for Aaron's feed and the Tribe of Levi Hugo de Sancto Vict. l b 2. de sacr fid par 2. cap 3. Laicis Christianis fidelibus terrena possidere conceditur clericis verò tantum spiritualia committuntur quae aâ—tem illa spiritualia sunt subjicit c. 5. dicens omnis ecclesiastica administratio in tribus consistit in sacramentis in ordinibus in praeceptis Ergo Laici nihil juris habent in legibus praeceptis condendis ecclesiastâ—cis to be directed and commanded out of the Parliament chair how to perform the service of the Tabernacle and for Lay men to determine the Articles of faith to make Canons for Church-men to condemn heresies and define verities and to have the chief 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 prejudicial 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 practant fabrilia fabri what Papist or Atheist will be ever converted to profess that religion which shall be truly what now they alleadge falsly 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 profess what I have often bewayled to see Nadab and Abihu offering strange fires upon God's 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 fear 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 Doctours of the Church should never sit thereon therefore I wish that the Ark may be brought back from the Philistines and restored to the Priests to be placed in Shilo where it should be and that the care of the Ark which king David undertook 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 Opinion 3 3. As nothing is dearer to understanding righteous and religious Kings then the encrease and maintenance of true religion Of the Orthodox Quia religio est ex potioribus reipublicae partibus ut ait Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. ipsa sola custodit hominum inter se societates ut ait Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 12. Peritura Troja perdidit primùm Deos. Therefore the Tyrians chayned their gods lest if they fled they should be destroyed 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 soon lost when they lost their Palladium so it is the truest sign 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 publick injoying of the word of God the form of Service the manner of Government and the honour and maintenance of the Clergy are all the duties of a most Christian King which the King of Heaven hath imposed upon him for the happiness and prosperity of his Kingdom and whosoever derive the authority of this charge either in a blinde obedience to the See of Rome as the Jesuites do or out of their too much zeal and affection to a new Consistory as the late Presbyterians did or to a Lay Parliament as our upstart Anabaptists aad Brownists do 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 several Acts of Parliament to have the supremacy in all causes and over all persons as well in the Ecclesiastical as in the Civil government which being so they are exempted thereby from all inforcement of any domestical or forraign power and freed from the penalties of all those Laws both Ecclesiastical and civil 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 Laws 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 penal Laws for so they may be soon dethroned by the unstable affection and weak judgment of discontented people or subject to the jurisdiction of Lay Elders and the excommunication of a tyrannous Consistory who denouncing him Matth. 18.17 tanquam Ethnicum may soon add Deut. 17.15 a stranger shall not raign over thee and so depose him from all government For seeing all attempts are most violent that have their beginning and strength from zeal 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 War under Spartacus was most pernicious unto the Romans there can be nothing of greater use How necessary it is for Kings to retain their just rights in their hands or more profitable either for the safety of the King the peace of the Church and the quiet state of the Kingdome then for the Prince the King to retain the Militia and to keep that power and authority which the Laws of God and of our Land have granted to and intailed upon him in his own hands unclipped and unshaken for when the multitude shall be unbridled and the rights of the Kings are brandished in their hands we shall assuredly taste and I fear in too great a measure as experience now sheweth of those miserable evils which uncontrouled ignorance furious zeal false hypocricy and the merciless cruelty of the giddy-headed people and discontented Peeres shall bring upon us and our Prince But to make it manifest unto the World what power and authority God hath granted unto Kings for the government of the Church and the preservation of his true Religion we finde them the worst men at all times and in all places that mislike their Government and reject their authority and we see those Churches most happy The Kings that maintain true religion make their Kingdoms happy and those Kingdoms most flourishing which God hath blessed with religious Kings as the State of the Church of Judaea makes it plain when David Ezechias Josias and the other virtuous Kings restored the Religion and purified that Service which the idolatry of others their predecessours had corrupted and we know that as Moses * Exod. 14 31 Num. 12.7 8 Deut. 34.5 Josh 1.1 2. so kings are called the servants of God in a more special manner then all others are that is not onely because they serve the Lord in the Government of the Common wealth but especially because he vouchsafeth to use their service for the advancement of his Church and the honour of his Son Christ here on earth or to distribute their duties more particularly we know the Lord exspecteth and so requireth a double service from every Christian king 1. The one common with all others to serve him as they are his creatures and Christians The double service of all Christian kings and therefore to serve him as all other Christians are bound to do 2. The other proper and peculiar to them alone to serve him as they are Kings and Princes 1. As they are Christians In the first respect they are no more priviledged to offend then other men but they are tyed to the same obedience of Gods Laws and are obliged to performe as many virtuous actions and to abstain from all vices as well as any other of their Subjects and if they fail in either point they shall be called to the same account and shall be judged with the same severity as the meanest of their people and therefore Be wise O ye Kings be learned ye that are Judges of the earth Psal 2.10 Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce unto him with reverence for with God there is no respect of persons but
and to be honest without knowledge or to have knowledge without experience especially in such places of eminency and for the affaires of importance may be as dangerous when their want of skill may counsel to do matters of much hurt but when both are met together in one person that man is a fit Subject to do good service both to God and the King and the King may be assured there cannot be a better furtherance to assist him for the well ordering of God's Church then the grave advice and directions of such instruments as it appeareth by that memorable example of King Ioas left to be remembred by all Kings who whilst the wise and religious Priest Jehoiada assisted and directed him had all things successefull and happy to his whole Kingdome 2 Reg. 12.2 but after Jehoiada's death the King destitute of such a Chaplain to attend and such a Priest to counsel him all things came speedily to great ruine Therefore I dare boldly avouch it they are enemies unto Kings and the underminers of God's Church and such instruments as I am not able to express their wickedness that would exclude such Jehoiada's from the Kings counsel for was not Saul a wicked King and Ahab little better yet Saul would have Samuel to direct him though he followed not his direction and Ahab would ask counsel of Micaiah though he rejected the same to his own destruction and King David 1 Reg. 22.16 though never so wise and so great a Prophet and Josias and Ezechias and all the rest of the good Kings had always the Priests and the men of God to be their Counsellors and followed their directions especially in Church causes Mar. 6.20 as the oracles of God so wicked Herod disdained not to hear John the Baptist and to be reformed by him in many things and happy had he been had he done it in all things And if you read Eusebius which is called Pamphilus for the great love he bare to that his noble Patron and Socrates and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Historians or the Histories of our own I and you shall finde that the best Kings and greatest Emperours had the best Divines and the most reverend Bishops to be their chiefest Counsellors and to be imployed by them in their weightiest affairs How then hath the Devil now prevailed to exclude them from all Counsels and as much as in him lyeth from the sight of Princes when he makes it a suspicion of much evil if they do but talk togethe How hath he bewitched the Nobility to yield to be deprived of their Chaplains Is it not to keep them that have not time to study and to finde out truth themselves still in the ignorance of things and to none other end then to overthrow the true religion and to bring Kings and Princes to confusion 2 To call Synods to discuss and conclude the harder things 2. When the King seeth cause God hath given him power and authority to call Synods and Councils and to assemble the best men the most moderate and most learned to determine of those things together which a fewer number could not so well or at least not so authoritatively conclude upon for so Constantine the Great called the great Council of Nice to suppress the Heresie of Arius Theodosius called the Council of Ephesus in the case of Nestorius Valentinian and Martian called the Council of Calcedon against Eutyches Justinian called the Council of Constantinople against Severus that renewed the Heresie of Eutyches Constantine the Fifth called the sixth Synod against the Monothelites and so did many others in the like cases God having fully granted this right and authority unto them for their better information in any point of religion and the goverment of the Church And therefore they that deny this power unto Kings or assume this authority unto themselves whether Popes or Parliament out of the Kings hand they may as well take his eyes out of his head because this is one of the best helps that God hath left unto Kings The unparallel'd presumption of the Faction to call a Synod without the king to assist and direct them in the chiefest part of their royal government how presumptuous then and injurious unto our King and prejudicial to the Church of Christ was the faction of this Parliament without the Kings leave and contrary to his command to undertake the nomination of such a pack of Schismatical Divines for such a Synod as might finally determine such points of faith and discipline as themselves best liked of let all the Christian world that as yet never saw the like president be the Judge and tell us what shall be the religion of that Church where the Devil shall have the power to prompt worldlings to nominate his prime Chaplains Socinians Brownists Anabaptists and the refuse of all the refractory Clergy The quality of the Synodical men that seem learned in nothing but in the contradiction of learning and justifying Rebellion against their King and the Church to compose the Articles of our faith and to frame a new government of our Church I am even ashamed that so glorious a Kingdom should ever breed so base a Faction that durst ever presume to be so audacious and I am sorry that I should be so unhappy to live to see such an unparallel'd boldness in any Clergy that the like cannot be found in any Ecclesiastical History from the first birth of Christ's Church to this very day unless our Sectaries can produce it from some of the Vtopian Kingdoms that are so far South ward In terra incognita beyond the Torrid Zone that we whose zeal is not so fiery but are of the colder spirits could not yet perfectly learn the true method of their Anarchical government or if our Lawyers can shew us the like president that ever Parliament called a Synod contrary to the King's Proclamation I shall rest beholding to them produce it if they can Credat Judaeus appella non ego The third thing requisite to a King for the preservation of true religion 3. An authority and power to guide the Church and to uphold the true religion and the government of God's Church is power and authority to defend it for though the Prince should be never so religious never so desirous to defend the faith and never so well able in his understanding and so well furnished with knowledge to set down what Service and Ceremonies should be used yet if he hath not power and ability which do arise from his right and just authority to do it and to put the same in execution all the rest are but fruitless embryoes like those potentials that are never reduced into actions Ps 129.6 or like the grass upon the house top that withereth before it be plucked up But to let you see that Kings and Princes should have this power and authority in all Ecclesiastical causes and over all Ecclesiastical persons we
be Rebels and Traytors against their own 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 Judas himself in many circumstances not excepted and that which makes their doings the more evil and the more exceedingly wicked is that they make Religion to be the warrant for their evil doings the pack-horse to carry and the clokt 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 only in regard of enemies abroad but also in respect of those far 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 never so able for his knowledge and understanding What Gods faithful servants and the kings loyal Subjects must do in these times 1. To justifie the kings right yet without strength and power to effect what he desires cannot defend the faith and maintain the true Religion from the violence of Sectaries and Traytors within his kingdome it hehoves us all to do these two things 2. To justifie the kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his authority and right to the supreme Governour and defender of the Chuch 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 derivately from him which I hope we have sufficiently proved 2. To submit our selves unto our king and to add our strength force 2. To assist Him against the Rebels 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 happiness 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 Heroick virtue of fortitude which God planteth in the hearts of most noble Princes as he hath most grasiously 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 joyn 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 questionless whatsoever mischief idolatry barbarity or superstition shall take root in the Church and whatsoeuer oppression and wickedness shall impair the Common-wealth Heaven will free His Majesty and the wrath of God in no smal 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 curse bitterly the Inhabitants thereof Jud. 5.23 because they came not forth to helpe the Lord against the mighty CHAP. VIII Sheweth it is the right of Kings to make Ecclesiastical Lawes and Canons proved by many authorities and examples that the good Kings and Emperours made such Laws by the advice of their Bishops and Clergy and not of their Lay Counsellours how our late Canons came to be annulled that it is the Kings right to admit his Bishops and Prelates to be of his Council and to delegate secular authority or civil 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 requisite for us to know that God hath granted unto him among other rights these two special prerogatives Two special rights and prerogatives of the King for the government of the Church 1. To make Laws and Canons 1. That he may and ought to make Lawes Orders Canons and Decrees for the well governing of Gods Church 2. That he may when he seeth cause lawfully and justly grant tolerations and dispensations of his own Laws and Decrees as he pleaseth 1. Not onely Solomon and Jehosaphat gave commandment and prescribed unto the chief Priests and Levites what form and order they should observe in their Ecclesiastical causes and methode of serving God but also Constantine Theodosius Justinian and all the Christian Emperours that were careful of Gods service did the like and therefore when the Donatists alleadged that secular Princes had nothing to do to meddle in matters of Religion and in causes Ecclesiastical Aug. l. 2. c. 26. Saint Augustine in his second Epistle against Gaudentius saith I have already proved that it appertaineth to the Kings charge that the Ninivites should pacifie Gods wrath and therefore the Kings that are of Christs Church do judge most truely that it belongeth to their charge to see that men Rebel not Idom ep 48. ep 50. ad Bonifac without punishment against the same because God doth inspire it is to the mindes of Kings that they should procure the Commandments of the Lord to be performed in al their Kingdomes for they are commanded to serve the Lord in fear and how do they serve the Lord as Kings but in making Laws for Christ So they are called the kings Ecclesiastical Lawes as man he serveth him by living faithfully but as King he serveth him in making Laws that shal command just things and forbid the contrary which they could not do if they were not kings And by the example of the king of Ninive Darius Nebuchadnezzar and others which were but figures and prophesies that foreshewed the power duty and service that Christian kings should owe and performe in like sort to the furtherance of Christs Religion in the time of the New Testament when al kings shall fall down and Worship Christ Psal 72.11 Arg. cont lit Peul l. 2. c 92 and all Nations shall do him service he proveth that the Christian kings and Princes should make Laws and Decrees for the furtherance of Gods service even as Nebuchadnezzar had done in his time And upon the words of the Apostle Idem in l. de 12. abus grad grad 2. that the king beareth not the sword in vain he proveth against Petilian that the power and authority of the Princes which the Apostle treateth of in that place is given unto them to make sharpe penall Lawes to further
directors in all Church causes as it appeareth out of all the fore-cited Authors and all the Histories that do write thereof and Justinian published this Law that when any Ecclesiastical cause or matter was moved his Lay officers should not intermeddle with it 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 sed religiosâ—ssimi Episcopi secundum sacros canones negotio finem imp nunto For the good Emperour 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 do any great good or any special favour unto the Shepherds of Christ's flock and the teachers of the true religion because the Son of God had fore-told it that the world should hate us that secular men and Lay Senatours should commonly oppose John 15.19 cross and shew all the spite they can unto the Clergy Matth. 10.16 of whom our Saviour saith Behold I send you forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sheep 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 And Doctour Meriton In a Sermon before King James How the Laity love the Clergy A very memorable act Anno. â—9 Eliz. cap. 4. 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 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 Book 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 do it the Statute saith he should be punished five shillings 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 usurp this authority to be the composers contrivers or assistants in concluding of any Ecclesiastical Law until the fences of God's vineyard were pulled down That the Laity should have no interest in making Laws for the Church and the wilde Boar out of the forrest the audacious presumption of the unruly Commonalty ventured either to govern 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 gain herein the less 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. But then it may be demanded if this be so Ob. that the Laity hath no right in making Lawes and Decrees for the government of God's Church but that it belongs wholly unto the King to do it with the advice of his Bishops and the rest of his Clergy then how came the Parliament to annul those Canons that were so made by the King and Clergy because they had no vote nor consent in confirming of them Sol. Truely I cannot answer to this Objection Sol. unless I should tell you what the Poet saith Dum furor incursu currenti cede furori Dâ—fficiles aditus impetus omnis habet They weâ—e furiously bent against them and you know furor arma ministrat dum regnant arma si lent leges all Lawes must sleep while Armes prevaile besides you may finde those Canons as if they had been prophetically made fore-saw the increasing strength of Anabaptisme Brownisme Puritanisme most likely to subvert true Protestantisme and therefore were as equally directed against these Sectaries of the left hand as against the Papists on the right hand and I think the whole Kingdom now findes and feels the strength of that virulent Faction and therefore what wonder that they should seek to break all those Canons to pieces and batter them down with their mighty Ordinances for seeking to subdue their invincible errours or else because as they say the Ecclesiastical State is not an independent society but a member of the whole the Parliament was not so to be excluded as that their advice and approbation should not be required to make them obligatory to the rest of the Subjects of the whole Kingdom which claim this priviledge to be tyed to the observation of no humane Lawes that themselves by their representatives have not consented unto 2. As the King is intrusted by God to make Lawes for the government of the Church of Christ so it is a rule without question 2. To grant dispensations of his own Lawes that ejus est dispensare absolvere cujus est condere he hath the like power to dispense with whom he pleaseth and to absolve him that transgresseth as he hath to oblige them therefore our Church being for reformation the most famous throughout all the parts of the Christian world and our King having so just an authority to do the same it is a most impudent scandal full of all malice and ignorance not to be endured by any well-affected Christian that the new brood of the old Anabaptists do lay upon our Church and State that they did very unreasonably and unconscionably by their Lawes grant Dispensations both for Pluralities and Non-residency The scandals of the malicious ignorants against the worthier clergy onely to further the corrupt desires of some few to the infinite wrong of the whole Clergy besides the hazard of many thousands of souls the intolerable dishonour of Gods truth and the exceeding disadvantage of Christ his Church for seeing God hath principally committed and primarily commended the care of his Church and service unto Kings who are therefore to make Laws and Orders for the well governing of the same iâ— shall make it most evident that they may as they have ever done most lawfully and more beneficially both for Gods Church and also for the Common-wealth do these three things Three special points handled 1. To grant that grace and favour unto their Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons as to
Christ nor reformed from their sins and so now when the Puritan faction prevailed in our Parliament Good to be excluded from the counsel of the wicked and our Sectaries disdained in their counsels to take the counsel of Religion and resolved to banish GOD from their assemblies to make the Church and Church-men a publick scorn unto the wicked and the Common-wealth a private gain to every broken Citizen and every needy Varlet I say happy are those Bishops that are excluded and well it is for those Ministers that are furthest off from such godless and irreligious not Parliament but Parricides even as the Psalmist testifieth Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornful Psal 1.1 and therefore if they had not been excluded I am sure that as the case now standeth they would have seceded themselves But when the civil Magistrates became Christians and the Christians consulted with God in all their actions then it was no indecorum for the servants of Christ to be seen in the Congregation of Saints and to sit as Judges among gods where the judgement shall pass for the glory of God neither is it any prejudice to our holy calling The giving of Caesar's due doth not hinder us to give to god his due to give unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's and that we owe unto him as our service and our counsel and whatsoever else lyeth in us to do for the good of the Common-wealth as we are his Subjects and the Tenants of the Common-wealth nor do the rendering of these things to Caesar any wayes hinder us to give unto God the things that are God's and that we owe to God as our prayers and our care over God's flock as we are Christians and Bishops over the Church of Christ but the same man if he will be faithful may justly perfoâ—m both duties without giving over or neglecting either And when our men shall return to God and take him along with them into their counsels and desire the assistance of his servants as I hope they will have grace to do I assure my self the Reverend Bishops will not refuse to do them service Ob. 4 But you will say the Emperours were good Christians when the Council of Calcedon put out their Canons Sol. I answer the Emperours were but all Kings were not besides that Canon cleares it self for it sheweth that Clergymen did at that time undertake secular imployments Propter lucra turpia ministerium Dei parvi pendentes for gaine neglecting their duty and therefore the Council forbade all Clergy-men negotiis secularibus se immiscere because the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 2.4 no man that warreth intangleth or insnareth himself with the affairs of this life and so neither the Apostle nor the Council doth absolutely forbid all secular affairs as inconsistent with this function but as the Council of Arles saith Concil Arelai Caâ— 14. The words of the Canon explained Clericus turpis lucri gratia aliquod genus negotiationis non exerceat so they forbid all Clerks to meddle with any business for the love of gain and filthy lucre that might insnare him to neglect his duty or as the Canon of the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishop should not assume unto himself or seeke after worldly cares but if either necessity or authority impose them on him I see not how he can refuse them because there is no absolute prohibition of such imployments in any place but as it might be a hinderance to discharge his office or otherwise Saint Paul's Tent-making was as much against the calling of an Apostle as the sitting in a secular tribunal is against the office of a Bishop because there is no reason we should deny that benefit to a publick necessitated community which we will yeeld to a private personal necessity And so indeed these very men that cry out against our Bishops The Presbyterians will be the directors of all affaires and other grave Prelates of the Church for the least medling in these civil affaires do not onely suffer their own Preachers to strain at a gnat but also to swallow a Camel when M. Henderson Marshal Case and the rest of their new inspired Prophets shall sit as Presidents in all their Counsels and Committees of their chiefest affaires and consultations either about War or Peace or of any other civil cognizance how these things can be answered to deny that to us which they themselves do practise I cannot understand when as the light of Nature tells us Quod tibi vis fieri mihi fac quod non mihi noli Sic potes in terris vivere jure poli * Vnde Baldus jubet ut quis in alios non aliter judicet quà m in se judicari vellet And therefore when as there is no politick Philosophy no imperial constitution nor any humane invention that doth or can so strictly binde the consciences of men unto subjection and true obedience as the Doctrine of the Gospel and no man can perswade the people so much unto it as the Preachers of Gods word as it appeareth by this Rebellion perswaded by the false Preachers because the Principles of Philosophy and the Laws of many nations do permit many things to be done against tyrants which the Religion of Christ and the true Bishops of Gods Church do flatly inhibit How requisite it is for Kings to delegate civil affaires unto their Clergie it is very requisite and necessary for all Christian Kings both for the glory of God their own safety and the happiness of the Common-wealth to defend this their own right and the right of the Clergy to call them into their Parliaments and Counsels and to demise certain civil causes and affairs to the gravest Bishops and the wisest of the Ministers and not suffer those Rebellious Anabaptists and Brownists that have so disloyally laboured to pull off the Crown from their Kings head to bury all the glory of the Church in the dust to bring the true Religion into a scorn and to deprive the King of the right which is so necessary for his safety and so useful for the Government of his people that is the service of his Clergy in all civil Courts and Councils And as it is the Kings right to call whom he pleaseth into his Parliaments and Councils That it is the Kings right to give titles of honour to whom he pleaseth and to delegate whom he will to discharge the office of a civil or Ecclesiastical magistrate or both wheresoever he appoints within his Realms and Dominions so it is primarily in his power and authority and his regal right to give titles of honour and dignity to those officers and magistrates whom he chooseth for though the Barbarians acknowledge no other distinction of Persons but of Master and Servants which was the first punishment for the first contempt of our Superiors Gen. 9.25
every ordinance of the higher power for the Lords sake so for the higher power to dispence with both Gods Law admitteth an interpretation not a dispensation of it is most agreeable to reason and Gods truth 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 dispence 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 Mans Law may be dispensed with so far as they are meerly positive and humane it is in the power of their makers to dispence with them and so quicquid fit dispensatione superioris non fit contra praeceptum superioris and he sinneth neither against the Law nor against his own 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 sin 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 Aug. de libero arbit l. 1. and so Saint Augustine saith Lex humana quamvis justa sit commutari tamen pro tempore juste 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 causâ— cognitione ab eo Dispensation what it is qui jus habet dispensandi 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 virtue 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 If you say the Law of the King Ob. which is made by the advice of his whole Parliament hath already determined what portion is fit for every one and what service is required from him I answer that the voice of equity and justice tells us Sol. 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 faith nothing of any priviledge yet seeing in all Lawes The end of every Law is chiefly to be respected as in all other actions the end is the marke that is aimed at and this end is no other then the publique good of any society for which the Law is made if the King which is the sole Law-maker so as I shewed in my Discovery of Mysteries seeth this publique good better procured by granting dispensations to some particular men doth he not performe thereby what the Law intendeth and no wayes breake the Law of common right as if a mans absence from his proper Cure should be more beneficiall to the whole Church Reasons of dispensations then his residence upon his Charge could possibly be as when his absence may be either for the recovery of his health or to discharge the Kings Embassage or to do his best to confute Heretiques or to pacifie Schismes or to consult about the Church affaires or some other urgent cause that the Law never dreamt of when it was in making shall not the King whom the Lawes have intrusted with the examination of these things and to whom the principal care of Religion and the charge of all the People is committed by God himselfe and the power of executing his own Lawes have power to grant his dispensations for the same Certainly they that would perswade the world that all Lawes must have such force that all dispensations are transgressions of them as if generall rules should have no exceptions would manacle the Kings hands and binde his power in the chaines of their crooked wills that he should not be able to do that good which God and Right and Law it selfe do give him leave and their envy towards other mens grace How God doth diversly bestow his gifts Matth. 25.15 Gen. 43.34 is a great deale more then either the grace of humility or the love of truth in them for doth not God give five talents to some of his servants when he gives but one to some others and did not Joseph make Benjamins messe five times so much as any of his brethren's and have not some Lords six or eight or ten thousand pounds a year and some very good men in the Common-wealth and perhaps higher in God's favour not ten pounds a year and shall not the King double the reward of them that deserve it in the Church of God or shall he be so curbed and manacled that he shall neither alter nor dispense with his own Law though it be for the greater glory unto God and the greater benefit both to the Church and Common-wealth Besides who can deny but that some mens merits virtue paines and learning are more worthy of two Benefices then many others are of one and when in his younger time he is possessed of a small Benefice he may perchance afterwards when his years deserve better far easier obtain another little one to keep with it then get what I dare assure you he would desire much rather * For who would not rather chuse one Living of an
is immediately from God yet if he would believe learned Authours he might find enough of this judgment for the sublime power and authority that resideth in earthly Potentates is not a derivation or collection of humane power scattered among many and gathered into one head but a power immediately granted by God to his Vicegerents * So acknowledged by Act of Parliament 25 H. 8. c. 12.28 c. 10. Dr Sarav sol 175. Bellar. de Laicis cap. 6. 8. quam nunquam fuisse populo demandatam legimus which God never communicated to any multitudes of men saith Saravia And Bellarmine himself against the Anabaptists confuteth their error that denyed the power and authority of kings to be immediately from God I. From Script Sap. 6. Esay 45. Hierem. 27. Dan. 2. Rom. 13.1 Pet. 2. II. From the Councill of Constans Sess 8. 15. III. From S. Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 21. where he saith non tribuamus dandi regni potestatem nisi Deo vero which giveth felicity in the kingdome of Heaven onely to the godly but the earthly kingdomes he giveth both to the godly and to the wicked nam qui dedit Mario ipse Caesari qui Augusto ipse Neroni qui Vespasianis vel patri vel filio Idem de Rom. Pont. l. 5. c. 3. Irvinus de jure regni c. 2. p. 40. suavissimis imperatoribus ipse Domitiano crudelissimo qui Constantino Christiano ipse Apostatae Juliano And IV. it is proved from the confession of the Popes of Rome as Leo. ep 38. 43. Gelasius epist ad Anastasium Greg. l. 2. epist 61. Nicholaus epist ad Michaelem out of all which saith Irvinus it is apparent all and every king non multitudini aut hominibus sed Deo soli regum regi quicquid juris habent acceptum ferre And he might consider that a thing may be said to be immediately from God divers wayes as specially 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absque ullo signo creato 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum aliquo actu conjuncto that is 1. Solely from God and no other presupposing nothing praevious to the obtaining of it So Moses and Joshua had their authority from God Heningus fusè c. 1. p. 4 5. de distinct duplici jurisdict Sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure Principi tamen facto divinitùs potestas data est Cunerus c. 5. de offic Princip 2. Joyntly with an interposed act of some other instrument as the Apostolicall power of Matthias was immediately from God though his constitution was from the Apostles so Kings though some of them be after a sort elected by men yet as our Saviour saith to Pilate that his power was from above though he was deputed by Caesar So may they be said to have their authority immediately from God though they should be some wayes deputed by men for we must distinguish betwixt the soveraignty the Subject and the collation of the Soveraignty to the Subject the Soveraignty is immediately from God the Subject is from it's naturall cause and the unition of the Soveraignty to the Subject is likewise immediately from God not onely approving but appointing the same in all the Kings of his ordination or to speak with the Schooles we must distinguish betwixt deputationem personae and collationem potestatis the designation of the person which is sometimes done by men and that is where the King is elective and the donation of the power which is proper onely unto God for so the Psalmist saith Psal 62.11 God hath spoken once and twice I have also heard the same that power belongeth unto God and the Apostle saith the powers that are are ordained of God Rom. 13.2 which is to be understood of the regall or Monarchicall power because Saint Paules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2.13 Saint Peters description betwixt the King and the inferiour Magistrates A twofold royalty in a King 1 Merum imperium higher powers are interpreted by Saint Peter to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings that are supreme where Saint Peter makes an excellent distinction betwixt the superiour and the inferiour Magistrates the superiour is that which Saint Paul saith is ordained of God and the inferiours are they which Saint 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 devest himself divide this power or alienate the same to any subject no not to his own son without renouncing or dividing his Kingdome How the King cannot do unjustly and by this the Civilians say the King may governe sine certa lege sine certo jure sed non sine 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 which is to be applyed to this inseperable regality of the King 2 Imperium dispositivum and hath been 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 himself thereof but cumulativè and executivè to execute the same as the Kings Instruments for the preservation of peace How the King delegates his power to his inferiour Magistrates 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 Moon and Stars vanishing whensoever the Sun appeareth for Kings when they do transfer any actuall power to the subalternate Officers retain the habituall power still in their own hands which upon any emergent occasion they may actually resume to themselves again which they could not do if they parted with the habite and forme of this despoticall power of government The words of the Apostles vindicated from the false glosses of the Sectaries Rom. 13.1 1 Pet. 2.13 The testimony of the Fathers for the Soveraignty of Kings Tertul. ad Scap. in apologet
duty of a King to cut off all haynous offences with just punishments the unbridled people desires to be free from all fear of punishment the King is the Minister of the Law the Keeper of it and the auenger of the transgression thereof the people as much as possibly they can with an impetuous temerity pulleth down all Laws the King laboureth to preserve peace and quietness the people with an untamcable lust turmoileth and troubleth the peace of all men lastly the King thinkes not fit to distribute rewards and compensations indifferently to all men alike but the people desire to have all difference of worth and dignity taken away infima summis permisceri and to make the basest equal with the best whence it happeneth so that they hate all Princes and especially all Kings quos immani odio persequuntur whom they persecute with a deadly hate for they cannot endure any excellency or dignity and to that end they use all endeavour ut principes interimant vel saltem in turbam conjiciant either utterly to take away and destroy their Princes or to implunge them into a World of troubles which thing at first doth not appeare but when the multitude of furious men hath gathered strength then at last their impudent boldness being confirmed by daily impunity breaketh forth to the destruction of the royal Majesty And a little after he saith Osoriu in ep Reginae Elizabethae praefix l. de relig add to these things the abolition of Laws the contempt of Rule the hatred of royal Majesty and the cruel lying in wait which they most impiously and nefariously do endeavour for their Princes add also their clandestine and secret discourses where their confederacies are made for the extirpation of their Kings and to plot with unspeakable mischief the death of them whose health and safety they ought most heartily to pray to God for and then he addeth Pagina 24. 25. cum immodica libertatis cupiditate rapiantur leges oderunt judicia detestantur regum majestatem extinctam cupiunt ut licentiùs impuniùs queant per omnia libidinum genera vagari and this is most manifest saith he all their endeavours ayme at this end that Princes being taken away they may have an uncontroulable leave and liberty to commit all kinde of villanies and to that purpose they have poysoned some kings Revera mihi videtur esse ars artium hominem regere qui certè est inter omnes animantes maximè moribus varius voluntate diversas Nazian in Apol. and killed others with the sword and to root out all rule Consilia plena sceleris inierunt they are full of all wicked counsels And therefore this being the condition of the people as the Scripture sheweth plainly in the Jews by their continual Rebellions and murmurings against Moses and Aaron and we see it as plainly in our own time when our people hath confirmed all that this Bishop said it is not an easie matter to govern such an unruly people But we finde that the rod of Government is a miraculous rod that being in Moses hand was a fair wand but cast unto the ground turned to be an ungly and a poysonous Serpent to shew that the people being subject to the hand of Government is a goodly thing and a glorious society but let loose out of the Princes hands they are as Serpents crooked wriggled versipelles A people well governed very glorious and as full as may be of all deadly poyson and the Prophet David makes the ruling of the people to be as great a miracle as to appease the raging of the Seas and therefore he ascribes this Government to be the proper work of God psal 65.7 God is the governour and Kings are but Gods instruments psal 77.20 when speaking unto God he saith Thou rulest the rage of the Seas the noyse of his waves and the madness of the people for Kings are but Gods instruments and God himself is the ruler of his people even as the same King David sheweth saying still to God Tu duxisti 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 politick heads to do it and this Solomon knew full 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 go out or in that is to govern them 1 Reg. 3.7 9. therefore I pray the give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great a people that is what one man is able to govern an innumerable multitude of men Thou therefore must be the Governour and I am but thine instrument and that I may be a fit instrument to do thy work I desire thee to give me a docible heart They that reject their King reject God Wherefore O you Subjects without obedience 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 own work to rule the people you may as well refuse God himself even as God saith unto Samuel 1 Sam. 8.7 They have not reiected thee but they have reiected me so you that do rebel and cast away your King that God hath chosen as his hand to guide you and his instrument to govern you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 10.16 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 choice of inferiour Magistrates belongeth the power of the subordinate officers neither Peers 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 chief parts of the regal government the four properties of a just War and how the Parliamentary Faction transgress in every property 3. The assistance that God alloweth unto Kings to help them in their government of two sorts 3. SEeing it is so hard and difficult a matter ars artium gubernare populum the Mistresse of all Sciences and the most dangerous of all faculties to govern the people that Saturninus said truly to them that put on his Kingly ornaments they knew not what an evil it was to rule because of the many dangers that hang over the rulers heads which under the seeming shew of a Crown of gold do wear indeed a Crown of thornes therefore Vt
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 counsel to assist them to govern 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 Counsellors 1. Faithful and wise Counsellors to direct them in the government of the people 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 choice of a wise and religious Counsel because the most weighty labours of the Prince do stand in need of the greatest helpes therefore Agamemnon had his Nestor and Chaleas Dionys Halicar lib. 2. Augustus had Mecoenas and Agrippa two wise Counsellors to direct him in all his affairs David had Nathan Gad Achitophel and Hushai and Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel Shadrach Meshac and Abednego and so all other Kings in all Nations do chuse the wisest men that they conceive to be their Counsellors 1. Subordinate Magistrates 2. For subordinate Magistrates Jethro's counsel unto Moses and Moses hearkning unto him as to a wise and faithful Counsellor makes it plain how necessary it is for the supreme Magistrate to chuse such assistants as may bear with him some part of the great burthen of government Thus far it is agreed upon on all sides but the difference betwixt us and our new State-Divines consisteth in these two points 1. About the choice 2. About the power of these officers A twofold difference For 1. We say that by the Law of nature every master hath right to chuse his own servants this is Lex gentium ever practiced among all Nations 1. About the choice of inferiour Magistrates and Officers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4 5. Exod. 18.11 why then should not the King make choice of his own 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 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 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 mark I pray you thou and not the people shalt provide them neither shall you find it otherwise in any History 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 Cap. 6.1 2. and Darius set over his Kingdome a hundred and twenty Princes and made Daniel the first of the three Presidents that were over all these And what shall I say of Ahashuerus and all other kings All kings chuse their own Officers Heathens Jewes or Christians that ever kept this power to chuse their own servants Counsellors and Officers except they were infant Kings in their non-age and so not able to chuse them But you will say that our Histories tell you Ob. how Ric. 2. 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 speak of the right of kings Sol. 2 Reg. 19.37 and not justifie the wrongs done to Kings Adramelech and Sharezer killed Sennacherib their own Father is it therefore lawfull for other children so to do Why should we therefore alleadge those things Quae insolentiâ populari quae vi quae furore non ad imitationem exemplo proponenda sed justo legum supplicio vindicanda sunt which should rather have been 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 down True Church lib. 6. c. 4. c. And I have most fully described the qualities and conditions that they should be indued withall in my True Church 2. As our Sectaries differ much from the true Divines about the choyce 2. Difference about the power of the subordinate Magistrates 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 judgment of all men None can depose him in whom the supreme Majesty resideth have no jurisdiction over their superiours And therefore elective Kings are not deposeable in a Monarchicall government 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 Knox and Cartwright teach very devoutly but most falsely that in case of defailance to do 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 Blacvod c. 33. p. 285. Grand Rebellion c. 7. p. 52. To confute which blasphemous doctrine against God and so pernicious and dangerous to this State though others have done it very excellently well already and I have formerly shewed the absurdity of it in my Grand Rebellion yet because all books come not to every hand I will say somewhat
powers are not compatible in one State nor allowable in our State the conceit of a mixed Monarchy is but a foppery 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 Monarchy 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 Monarchy 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 Majesty hath promised and we are sure he will performe it to govern his people according to the Lawes of this Land And therefore they that would rob the King of this right They deserve not to live in the Kingdom that diminish the supremacy of the King 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 útque se nihil habere putet qui totum non habeat suam partem corrumpi patiatur dum invidet alienae and therefore the same Homer treating of our humane Government saith Nec multos regnare bonum rex unicus esto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle doth so infinitely commend Arist Metaph. lib. 1. Statius Thebaid lib. 1. where he disputeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth Plato and all the wise Philosophers that followed after because as the Poët saith Summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociÃsque comes discordia regnis And as our own most lamentable experience sheweth what abundance of miseries happened unto our selves by this renting of the King's power and placing it in the hands of the Parliament and his own 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 regal Government the four properties of a just war and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property 4. The chiefest parts of the Regal government which are two Exod. 2.14 4. HAving spoken of those assistants that should further and not hinder the King in the Common-wealth it resteth that I should now speak of the chiefest parts of this government when Moses killed the Aegyptian that wronged the Israelite and the next day said unto the Hebrew that did injure his fellow Wherefore smitest thou him the oppressor answered Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us 1 Sam. 8.20 2 Sam. 5.2 and the people say unto Samuel we will have a King over us that our King may judge us and go out before us and fight our battails Out of which two places we finde two special parts of the King's government Sigon l. 7. c. 1. 1. Principatum bellorum the charge of the wars in respect whereof the Kings were called Captains as the Lord said unto Samuel concerning Saul Vnges eum ducem 1 Sam. 9.16 thou shalt anoint him to be Captain over my people Israel 1 Reg. 3.9 Psal 72.2 Araisaeus de jure Majest l. 2. c. 1. p. 214. 2. Curam judiciorum the care of all judgments in respect whereof David and Solomon and the other Kings are said to judge the people So Arnisaeus saith Majestatis potestas omnis consistit vel in defendenda repub vel in regenda all the power of royalty consisteth either in defending or in governing the Common-wealth according as Homer describeth a perfect King Homer Iliad γ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so you see the two principal parts of the King's government are the Offices 1. Ducis in bello gerendo 2. Judicis in jure reddendo 1. Part. In the time of War Ordo ille naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli autoritas atque consilium apud principes sit Aug. cont Faust l. 22. Arnis l. 2. c. 5. p. 345. Plato de legib lib. 2. 1. Of a Captain in the time of War 2. Of a Judge in the time of Peace 1. Then it is the proper right of the King and of none but the King or he that hath the regal and supreme power to make war and to conclude peace for Plato in his Common-wealth ordained that Si quis pacem vel bellum fecerit cum aliquibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Julian Law adjudgeth him guilty of High Treason Qui injussu principis bellum gesserit delectúmve habuerit exercitum vel comparaverit that either maketh War or raiseth an Army without his Kings command And to this part of the regall government Luc. 14.31.32 Aristot Polit. l. 7. c. 8. which consisteth in the Militia in Armes for the defence of the Kingdome pertaineth 1. The proclaiming of War which our Saviour properly ascribeth unto the right of Kings when he saith not what State or Common-wealth Arnis l. 2. c. 1. but What King going to war with another King c. 2. The concluding of Peace which our Saviour ascribeth also unto the King in the same place 3. The making of leagues and confederacies with other forraigne States 4. The sending and receiving of Ambassadors 5. To raise Armes and the like which the Lawes of God and of all Nations justifie to be the proper right of Kings and to belong onely unto the supreame Majesty But then you will say did not the Judges Moses Joshua Gideon Jephta Judges 11.11 Barac Samson and the rest make war and yet they were no Kings Why then may not the Nobles make war as well as Kings I answer that they do indeed make war and a miserable wretched war but I speak of a just war and so I say that none but the King or he that hath the Kings power can do it for though the Judges assumed not the name of Kings nor Captains sed à potiore parte vocati sunt judices but from the sweetest part of the Royall government were termed Judges yet they had the full power ducendi judicandi populum both of war and peace saith Sigenius and so the men of Gilead said unto Jephthe veni esto princeps noster and they made him their head by an inviolable covenant And of Moses it was plainly said He was King in Jesurun Deut. 33.5 and when there was no Judge it is said there was no King in
Israel for I stand not about words when some were called Kings for the honour of the People Judges 17.6.18.1.19.1 and yet had no more power then Subjects as the Kings of Sparta and others had not the name of Kings and yet had the full power of Kings as the Dictator and the Emperour and the great Duke of Muscovie and the like But when a war is undertaken by any Prince how shall we know which party is in the right for to make an unjust war cannot be said to be the right of any King yet as the Poet saith Quis justius induit arma Lucan lib. 1. Scire nefas summo se judice quisque tuetur Every one pretends his cause is just he fights for God for the truth of the Gospell the faith of Christ and the liberty and Lawes of his Countrey how then shall those poore men that hazard their lives and their fortunes yea and soules too if they war on the wrong side understand the truth of this great doubtfull and dangerous point I answer all the Divines that I read of speaking of war Dambaud in praxi criminal cap. 82. do concur with what Dambauderius writeth of this point that there must be foure properties of a just war 1. A just cause 2. A right intention Foure properties of a just War 3. Meet Members 4. The Kings authority Sine qua est laesa Majestas without which authority the Warriours are all Traytors And I would to God our Rebels would lay their hands upon their hearts and seriously examine these foure points in this present War 1. What cause have they to take Armes against their King 1. A just cause and to kill and murder so many thousands of their own Brethren they will answer that they do it for the defence of their Liberty Lawes and Religion but how truely let God himselfe be the Judge for His Majesty hath promised and protested they shall enjoy all these fully and freely without any manner of dimunution and we know that never any rebellion was raised but these very causes were still pretended And therefore 2. Consider with what intent they do all this 2 A right intention and I doubt not but you shall finde foul weeds under this fair cloak for under the shadow of liberty and property they took the liberty to rob all the King 's loyal Subjects that they could reach of all or most of their estates and to keep them fast in prison because they would not consent to their lawless liberty and to be Rebels with them against their conscience And under the pretence of Lawes they aimed not to have the old Lawes well kept which was never denyed them but to have such new ones made as might quite rob the King of all his rights and transfer the same unto themselves and their friends so he should be like the King of Sparta What Lawes and Religion the Rebels would fain have a Royal Slave and they should be like the Ephori ruling and commanding Subjects And for the religion you may know by their new Synod which are a Synod not of Saints but of Rebels what religion they would fain have not that which was professed in Q. Elizabeth's times that was established by the Lawes justified by the paines and confirmed by the bloud of so many worthy men and faithful Martyrs but a new religion first hatched in Amsterdam then nourished in New-England and now to be transplanted into this Kingdom 3. Meet Members 3. Who are the persons that are imployed in this war he first of all that is the more disloyal because he was a person of honour that had so much honour conferred upon him by His Majesty and so much trust reposed in him and would notwithstanding prove so unthankful 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 rob'd of his understanding would make a remora to retain him from rebellion and what are the other heads but a company either of poor Who the Rebels are and what manner persons they be needy and mean condition'd Lords and Gentlemen or discontented Peers that are misled or such factious Sectaries whose blind zeal and furious malice are able to hurry them headlong to perpetrate any mischief for their Captains and their Officers I believe they fight neither for the Anabaptists creed nor against the Romane 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 rebel 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 self 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 wils 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 poor soules shall be driven unto the Devil by Preachers and Parliament against their wills 4. The supreme authorrity 4. If you consider quâ authoritate by what authority they wage this war 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 war is not publique nor can it be justified for a war is then justifiable when there is no legal way to end the controversie by prohibiting farther appeales which cannot be Albericus Gentilis de jure belli l. 1. c. 2. Subjects can never make a lawful war against their King but onely betwixt independent States and several Princes that have the supreme power in their own hands and are not liable to the sensure of any Court which power the Parliament cannot challenge because they are or should be the King 's lawful Subjects and therefore cannot be his lawful enemies but they will say Master Goodwin Burroughs and all the rest of our good men zealous brethren and powerful Preachers do continually cry out in our eares it is bellum sanctum a most just and holy war a war for the Gospel and for our Lawes and Liberties wherein whosoever dies he shall be crowned a Martyr I answer that for their reward they shall be indeed as Saint Augustine saith of the like Res dura ac plena pericli est regale occidisse genus Martyres stultae Philosophiae when every one of them may be indicted at the bar of God's justice for a felo de se a Malefactour guilty of his own untimely death and for their good Oratours that perswade them to this wickednesse I pray you consider well what they are men of no worth rebellious against the Church Rebels against the King factious Schismaticks In what
condition their Preachers are and of what worth of no faith of no learning that have already forfeited their estates if they have any and their lives unto the king and will any man that is wise hazard his estate his life and his soul to follow the perswasions of these men my life is as deare to me as the Earle of Essex his head is to him and my soul dearer and I dare ingage them both that if all the Doctors in both Vniversities and all the Divines within the kingdome of England were gathered together to give their judgement of this War there could not be found one of ten it may be as I beleive not one of twenty that durst upon his conscience say this war is lawful upon the Parliament side for though these Locusts that is the German It is contrary to the doctrine of all the Protestant Church for Subjects to resist their king 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 plainly this doctrine of Subjects taking up armes against their lawful King is point blanck and directly against the received doctrine of the Church of England and against the tenet of all true Protestants and therefore Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuite Paraeus in Rom. 13. Boucher l. 2. c 2. Keckerm Syst pol. c. 32. Jun. Brut. q. 2. p. 56. Bellar. de laic c. 6. Suar. de fid cathol c. 3. Lichfield l. 4. 19. sect 19. Field l. 5. c. 30. 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 maintain that damnable doctrine and that rashness of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto Juel and Bilson and all the Doctors of the 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 Field saith that all the worthy fathers and Bishops of the Church perswaded themselves that they owed all duty unto their kings though they were Hereticks and Infidels and the Homilies of the Church of England allowed by authority do plainly and peremptorily condemne all Subjects warring against their King for Rebels and Traytors that do resist the ordinance of God and procure unto themselves damnation and truely I beleive most of their own consciences tell them so and they that thinke otherwise I would have them to consider that if they were at a banquet where twenty should aver 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 justness of the War on the Parliament side But. 1. On the Kings side it cannot be denied but his cause is most just for his own defence for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion that is established by our Laws and for the rights of the Church and the just liberties and property of all his loyal Subjects this he testifieth in all his Declarations and this we know in our own consciences to be true and therefore 2. As his Majesty professeth so we beleive him that he never intended otherwise by this war but to protect us and our Religion and to maintain his own just and unquestionable rights which these Rebels 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 denial can withstand Seeme but to aske while they indeed command 3. For the persons that war with him they are the chiefest of the Nobility 3 His assistants learned honest and religious all the best Gentry that hazard their lives not for filthy lucre for the Kings Revenues being so unjustly detained from him they are fain to supply his necessities and to bear their own charges and the poor common Soldiers are nothing wanting to do their best endeavours neither need they to fear any thing because 4 His authority sacred and unquestionable What the pretended Parliament is 4. The King hath a just right to give them full power and authority to do execution upon these Rebels as I have proved unto you before And therefore the result of all is that the Parliament side under the pretence of Religion fighting if not for the Crown yet certainly for the full power and authority of the King who shall have the ordering of the Militia that 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 Rebels being hardly bestead and hungry Esay 8.21 22. as I believe 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 fear many of them do curse the King with their tongues and God in their hearts and they shall looke unto the earth Matth. 8.12 and behold trouble and darknesse dimnesse and anguish and they shall be driven to darknesse even to utter darknesse where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth if by a true repentance they do not betimes rent their hearts and forsake their fearful sinns And the Kings side in this war doing no further then the king gives Commission do no more then what God commandeth and therefore living they shall be accounted loyal 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 Deu. 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 regal government in the time of peace Master Selden in his titles of Honour p. 15. That the first government of Kings was arbitrary 2. HAving thus shewed you potestatem ducendi the Kings right and power of making War it resteth that I should speake De potestate judicandi of his power and right of judging 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 1. I finde Master Selden rejecting
some respect that in other respects may be allowed and many things lawfull in some wayes which otherwayes may be most sinfull as it is most lawfull to drink ad satietatem but not ad obrietatem and many other the like things so it is lawfull for the king to do all that Samuel saith ad supplendam reipubl necessitatem supportandam regiam majestatem but not ad satisfaciendum suo fastui luxui lucro vanitati aut carnali voluptati which is the thing that Moses forbiddeth So that in briefe the meaning is if the Subjects should be unwilling to do what Samuel saith then the king when just necessity requireth may for these lawfull ends lawfully assume them And if he takes them any other way or for any other end then so habet Deum judicem conscientiae ultorem injustitiae But then it may be said Ob. Ahab did not offend in taking away Naboths vineyard if Samuel did properly describe the right of kings I cannot say that Ahab sinned in desiring Naboths vineyard Ans neither do I finde that the Prophet blames him for that desire there is not a word of that in the text but for killing Naboth and then taking possession for this he might not do the other he might do so he do it to a right end and in the right manner wherein he failed Ahâ—bs sin 1. In being so discontented for his denyal because his conscience telling him that he had no such urgent necessity whereby he could take it and Naboth being unwilling to sell it he should have beene satisfied 2. In suffering his wife whom he knew to be so wicked to proceed in her unjust course against Naboth Naboths fault 3. In going down to take possession when he knew that by his Wifes wicked practice the poore man was unjustly murdered when he should have rather questioned the fact and have punished the murderers Lex posterior derogat priori specialis generali ceremonialia atque forensia cedunt moralibus And yet Ahabs sin doth not excuse Naboths fault both in the denyal of the Kings right if the king had a just necessity to use it and also for his uncivil answer unto the King far unlike the answer of Arauna to King David but nearer like the answer of Nabal which the Holy Ghost seemes to take notice of when after he had said The LORD forbid it me which was rather a prayer and postulation that God would forbid it as we say absit when we hear of any displeasing likelyhood then any declaration of any inhibition of God to sell it who never denyed them leave to sell it until the yeare of redemption the Prophet tells us in the next verse that Naboth said 1 Reg 21.4 Whâ—ch very answer seemes to be the cause why Ahab was so much displeased I will not give thee the inheritance of my father But whether this speech of Samuel sheweth the just right of a King what he might do or his power what he would do what belongs to him of equity or what his practice would be by tyranny I will not determine but I say that although it should not be a just rule for him to command yet it is a certain rule for them to obey and though it should not excuse the king from sin yet it wholly disables and disavowes the peoples resisting their king because in all this the Prophet allowes them none other remedy but to cry unto the Lord for seeing God hath given him directum dominium The kings absolute power not given him to inable him for oppression but to retaine his Subjects from rebellion absolutum imperium though he should fail of his duty which God requireth and do that wrong unto the people which God forbiddeth yet he is solutus legibus free from all Laws 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 govern their people as the father of the family rules his houshold or the Pilot directs his Ship secundum liberum arbitrium according to his own 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 Diodor. Siculus l. 2. c. 3. Boemus Aubanus tamen asserit voluntatem regum Aegypti pro lege esse But though this arbitrary rule continued long and very general for Diodorus Siculus saith that excepting the Kings of Egypt that were indeed very strictly tied to live according to Law all other Kings infinit â licentiâ ac voluntate suâ pro lege regnabant ruled as they listed themselves 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 govern their people according to the rules of those established lawes for though the supreme Majesty be free from all Lawes spontè tamen iis accomodare potest the king may of his own accord yeild to observe the same and as the German Poet saith German vates de rebus Frid. l. 8. Nihil ut verum fatear magis esse decorum Aut regalt puto quà m legis jure solutum Sponte tamen legisese supponere regem and according to the diversities of those Laws How diversities of government came up so are the diversities of government among the several kingdoms of the earth for I speake not of any Popular or Aristocratical state 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 been Monarchs but of Kings had made themselves Subjects Thus you see that rule which formerly was arbitrary is now become limited but limited by their own lawes and with their own wills and none otherwise for I shewed you else-where that the Legislative power resided alwayes in the King even as Virgil saith Virgil Aeneid l. Gaudet regno Trojanus Acestes Indicitque forum patribus dare jura vocatis And as that mirror of all learned Kings saith Rex Jacobus in the true Law of free Monarchs p. 201. King Fergus came to Scotland before any Statutes or Parliament or Lawes were made and you may easily finde it that Kings were the makers of the Laws and not the Lawes the makers of Kings for the Lawes are but craved by the Subjects and made onely by him at their rogation and with their advice so he gives the Law to them but takes none from them and by their own Lawes Kings have limited and abridged their own Right and Power which
God and nature have conferred upon them some more some less 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 Prov. 30.15 concerning these grants of Kings unto their Subjects 1. Of the extents of these grants 2. Of the Kings obligation to observe them for 1. It is certain that the people alwayes desirous of liberty though that liberty should produce their ruine are notwithstanding like the daughters of the Horse-leech still crying unto their Kings give give give us liberties and priviledges more and more and if they may have their wills 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 govern 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 less 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 stomackfull Kings should remember the grave advice the Father gave unto Phaeton Parce puer stimulis sed fortiùs utere loris Sponte sua properant labor est inhibere volantes Ovid. Met. l. 1 They must be strongly bribled 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 think and therefore not yield that Who gives constrain'd but his own 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 What moved Kings to grant so many priviledges to their Subjects to gain the more love and affection 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 tyed themselves by promises and oaths to observe those Laws which they made for the exemption of their Subjects Majora jura inseperabilia à Majestue ne queunt indulgeri subditis ita cohaerent ossibus ab illo separari si ne illius destructione non possunt Paris de puteo Arnisaeus 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 transfer the right of succession to any other then the right heir to whom it doth justly belong quia non jam haereditas est sed proprium adeuntis patrimonium cujus ei pleno jure dominium acquiritur non à Patre non à populo sed à lege Because he hath this right unto the Crown not from his Father nor from the people but from the Law of the Land and from God himself which appointed him for the same saith the Civilian and therefore that vulgar saying is not absurd nunquam mori Regem That the King never dyeth for as soone as ever the one parteth with this life the other immediately without exspecting the consent either of Peeres or people doth by a just and plenary right succeed not onely as his fathers heir but as the lawful 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 Crown by King John unto the Pope was but a fiction that could infer no diminution of the right of his successour because no King can give away this right from him whom God hath designed for it And there be some things which no Christian King should grant away as any of those things things that the King should not grant that being granted may prejudice the Church of God and depresse the glory of the Gospel of Jesus 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 Gospel which are Bishops Priests 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 Things that kings have not granted away And there be some things which the Kings of this realm have never granted away but have still retained them in their own hands as inviolable prerogatives and characteristical Symboles and Properties of their Supremacy and the relicks of their pristine right as in the time of peace those two special parts of the gouernment of the Common-wealth which do consist 1. About the Lawes 1. About the Laws 2. About the Magistrates The first 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. Then it is the right of the King jura dare to give Laws unto his people for though as I said before the Subjects in Parliament may treat of Lawes 1. Jus Legislativum Johan Beda Pag. 25. The power of making Lawes is in the King and intreat the King to approve of them that they propose unto him yet they are no Laws and carry with them no binding force till the King gives his consent and therefore out of Parliament you see the Kings Proclamation hath vim 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 Kings hands nor can it indeed be parted with The case of our affaires pag. 11. except he part with His Majesty and Soveraignty for the limiting of his own 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 own right and authority Stat. West 1. 3. E. 1. 3. 6. 42. Stat. of Merch. 13. E. 1. West 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 but as a man that yeildeth himself to be bound by some others hath the use of his strength taken from him but none of his naturall strength it self 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 work again by vertue of his own 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 denyed but in whatsoever the Peeres and Commons do remit the restraint by yeilding their consent to the point proposed the King worketh and acteth therein absolutely by the power of his own 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 pracipuis actibus gubernationis reipublicae ita praecipuam superiorem requirit potestatem to make Lawes is one of the chiefest acts of the government of a Common-wealth Suarez l. 1. c 8 n. 8. 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 Heare O ye Kings because power is given unto you of the Lord. Sap. 6. And Saint Augustine calleth Jura humana jura imperatorum quia ipsa jura humana per imperatores Aug. in Joan tract 6. all humane lawes are the lawes of Emperors or Kings because they are made by them and the Holy Ghost speaking of the Kings of Judah saith The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet to teach us Gen. 49.10 that whosoever swayeth the Scepter hath the right to be the Law-maker which is one of the prime prerogatives of Soveraignty 2. Jus nobilitandi the right of appointing the principall Officers of State 2. Ius nobilitandi to cry up any of all his Subjects whom the King will honour as Pharaoh did Joseph 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 Majesty But if the Dukes Earles and Barons be so plyable to the Puritan faction It is the Doctrine of the Anabaptists and Puritans that there should be no Degrees of Schooles nor titles of honour among men to put down the spiritual 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 Jack 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 vain honours to vapour it over us but the Puritan Clergy also seeing themselves deprived of 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 Brethren 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 Majesty that would faine be the Priests to bury it which meere policy though they wanted piety should prohibit they shall find that Virgil. Aeneid l. 1. Jam tua res agitur paries cùm proximus ardet When our Cottages are burnt their next Palaces shall not escape the fire but through our sides their Honours shall be killed and buried without honour 3. Jus legitimandi 3. Jus 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 Crown if the King granted not this grace to them that want it 4. Ius appellationes recipiendi Act. 25.11 4. Jus 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 Majesty because that as Saint Paul appealed unto Caesar 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 Osorius de rebus Imman p. 6. So Osorius saith that Immanuel King of Portugall restored James son 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 Ventam crimiuosis 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 unparallel'd clemency and piety 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 History nor to be beleived unlesse we had seen it that a man could be so far inclined to clemency and mercy as to remit such transcendent impiety which will render
grace 2. By fraud 3. Through fear For 1. The King that hath his full right either by conquest or succession over his people 1. All grants of grace ought to be observed to govern them as a most absolute Monarch and out of his meer 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 restrain 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 perform them and can never be freed from injustice before God and man if he transgresse them The true Law of free Monarchs p. 203. Quia volenti fit non injuria because they do him no injury when he doth voluntarily either totally resign or in some particularity diminish his own right but after he hath thus firmely done it he can never iustly go 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 Raign because it cannot be but that the people seeing their King failing of his duty will be always murmuring and defective in their fidelity And Yet the King's breach of oath doth neither forfeit his right nor warrant their distoyalty because another mans sin doth no way lessen mine offence and neither God nor the King granted this priviledge unto Subjects to rebel and take Armes against their Soveraign when they pretend he hath broken his promise 2. Grants obtained through fraud which to be observed 2. When the King through the subtile perswasions of his people that pretend one thing and intend another shall be seduced to grant those things that are full of inconveniencies 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 meer fraud that soonest over-reacheth the best meaning Kings I answer with the old Proverb Caveat emptor he ought to have been as wise to prevent them as they were subtile to circumvent him and therefore as Joshua being deceived by the Gibeonites could not alter his promise Josh 9.20 nor break his league with them lest wrath should fall upon him so no more should any other King break promise in the like case But you must observe that the Psalmist saith Psal 15.5 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 own hinderance mark Quicquid fit dolo malo annullat factum imponit poenam summa Angel though it were to his own hinderance never so much he must perform it but what if he hath promised and sworn 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 Kingdom which is a great deal more then his own hinderance is a King bound or is any man else obliged to perform such a promise or to keep such an oath to tell you mine own judgement I think he ought not to perform it and our own Law tels us what grants soever are obtained from the King under the broad Seal 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 Church and State when their pretence was very good though the goodness of his Majesty in the tenderness of his conscience was still loath to allow himself the liberty to dissolve it until he had other justeâ— and more clear 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 Soveraign yet I believe he might safely have done it long agone without the least violation of God's Law when their evil intentions were openly discovered by those Armies which they raised For I doubt not to affirm it with the Authour of The sacred Prerogative of Christian Kings p. 144. if any good Prince or his royal Ancestors have been cheated out of their sacred right by fraud oâ— 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 King's 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 fear not such as the Parliaments fear is 3. Grants gotten by force not to be observed who were afraid where no fear was and were frighted with dreames and causelesse jealousies but that fear which is real and not little but such as may fall in fortem constantem virum doth passe any Law especially that is prejudicial to the Church and injurious to many of his Subjects I say that when he shall be freed from that fear he is not onely freed from the obligation of that Law but he is also obliged to do his uttermost endeavour to annul the same it is true that his fear may justly free him from all blame at the passing of it as the fear of the thief may clear me from all fault in delivering my purse unto him because these are no voluntary acts and all acts are adjudged good or evil 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 turn him as she pleased but when his fear is past The will must never consent to forced acts that are unlawful His Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16. Julii p. 8. 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 Majesty confessing which we that saw the whole proceedings of those tumultuous routs that affrighted all the good Protestants and the Loyal Subjects do know that it could not be otherwise that he was driven out of London for fear 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 lawful act and the King when he is more fully informed of many particulars about this act that is so prejudicial 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 maintain cannot continue it in my judgement and be innocent But this is answered by the answerer to Doctour Ferne Ob. Pag. 31. 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 Majesty confesseth there are two speciall questions demanded of the king at His Coronation 1. Sir Will you grant and keep and by your oath confirm 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 keep 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 justice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in His Kingdome ought to be the protector and defender 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 The Kings Oath at His Coronation two-fold Then the king laying his hand upon the book saith the things which I have before promised I shall performe and keep so helpe me God and the contents of this Book Where I beseech all men to observe that here is a two-fold promise and so a two-fold oath The first part of the Oath Populo Anglicano Vide D. p. 165. 1. The one to all the Commonalty and people of England 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 medis contrahitur 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 cannot 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 principal party in the concession as it appeareth in the example of Ananias and is confirmed by all Casuists The second part of the oath Clericls Ecclesiasticis D. p. 165. 2. The other part of the oath is made to the Clergy in particular and so also with their consent some things I confess 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 do 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 again and they without mine assent shall vote the remission of this debt for some great benefit The party to whom the bond is made must release the bonds that they conceive redounding to the Common-Wealth by which vote I should beleive my selfe to be no better then meerely cheated or as if the Parliament without the assent of the Londoners should pass 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 justitia veritas non servarentur inter homines and it is their common tenet Suarez de juramento promiss l. 2. c. 12. n. 14. 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 me of my right This point is so cleare that neither Scholer nor any man of reason or conscience will deny it Therefore to perswade the king that is bound by his oath to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Church and Clergy to cast out the Bishops out of their rights or to take away their Lands without their own consent whom the king by his oath hath obliged himself to protect I cannot see how they can do it without great iniquity or His Majesty 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 do 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 self 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 and not suffered to informe him nor to answer for themselves will still arme His Majesty with that resolution as shall never yeild to their impetuousnesse to transcend the limits of his own 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 wisdome of the whole State and the king should not desire it to be altered I answer that all Parliaments are not alwayes guided by an unerring spirit Sol. but
were many times swayed by the heads of the most powerfull faction The case of our affairs p. 17. How powerfull factions have procured Parliaments to doe most unjust things Turba tremens sequitur fortunam ut semper odit damnatos Juven Satyra 10. When Kings were most powerfull they could get the Parliaments to yeeld to what Statutes they thought best when the Lords or faction were most powerful they forced their Kings to make what Statutes they liked best which are instances rather of their unsteady weaknesse then of their just power when forsaking the guidance of their lawfull head they suffered themselves to be led by popular pretenders as when Canutus prevailed by his armes he could have a Parliament to resolve that his title to the Crown was the best when Hen. 4. had an army of 60000 men he could have a Parliament to depose Rich. 2. and confer the Crown upon himself when Edw. Duke of Yorke grew powerfull he could have a Parliament to determine the reigne of Hen. 6. and leave him only the name of king for his life but give the very Kingdome unto the Duke under the names of Protector and Regent and then he could procure the Parliament to declare that Hen. 4. Hen. 5. and Hen. 6 were but kings de facto non de jure so Rich. the 3. as meere an Usurper as any could notwithstanding procure a Parliament to declare him a lawfull king and Hen. 7. could procure the forementioned acts that were made in favour of Edw. 4. and Rich. 3. to be annulled and Hen. 8. could have a Parliament to justifie and authorize his divorces and Queen Elizab. could have a Parliament to make it high treason for any man to say that the Queen could not by Act of Parliament bind and dispose the rights and titles which any person whatsoever might have unto the Crown when as we know it was adjudged in Hen. 7. that no Act of Parliament nor yet an Attainder by Parliament can disable the right heire to the Crown because the descent of the Crown upon him purges all disabilityes whatsoever and makes him every way capable thereof Thus as the Parliaments when they were most prevalent caused their kings unwillingly to yeeld many things against right so the kings growing most powerfull prevailed to work the Parliament to consent to very unjust conclusions and therefore it is inconsequent to say this exclusion must be just because it is past by an Act of Parliament The case of our affaires p. 20. And therefore as in the 15 yeare of Edw. 3. the king being unwillingly drawn to consent to certain Articles prejudiciall to the Crown and to promise to seale the Statute thereupon made lest otherwise his affairs in hand might have been ruinated which we conceive to be just in like manner now the king very unwillingly drawn to passe this Act for the exclusion of the Clergy which is most prejudiciall both to the Crown and the Church and a mighty dishonour unto God himself lest otherwise more mischiefe might have followed when he hoped that this would have appeased the fury of that prevalent faction which now the kingdome seeth it did not Another Statute was made the same year reciting the former matter Statutes unwillingly procured from the king repealed that was enacted in these words It seemed to the said Earls Barons and otherwise men that since the Statute did not of our free will proceed the same to be void and ought not to have the name nor strength of a Statute and therefore by their counsell and assent we have decreed the said Statute to be void c. So I hope our Earles and Baron and the rest will be so wise and so just both to the king and to the Church that seeing this Statute proceeded not of the kings free will as I beleeve their own conscience knoweth and do presume His Majesty will acknowledge they likewise will consent that the king may make it void again §. Certaine Quaeres discussed but not resolved the end for which God ordained Kings the prayse of a just rule Kings ought to be more just then all others in three respects and what should most especially move them to rule their people justly AND here I must further craue leave to be resolved in certain Quaeres and doubts wherein I would very gladly be satisfied for seeing as I told you before there are some rights of royalty which are inseperabilia à majestate which the king ought not and which indeed he cannot grant away as there be some things which he may forgoe though he need not I demand Quaere 1 1. Whether any positive Act Statute or Law that is either ex diametro or ex obliquo either directly or by consequent or any other way contradictory or transgressive to the Law of God ought to be kept and observed wherein I beleive and constantly maintain that it ought not and I say further that by the Word of God not any Lay men be they never so noble never so learned and never so many but the Clergy be they never so poore and never so much dis-esteemed ought to be the resolvers of this point what is repugnant and what consonant to the Law of God Malach. 2.7 because the Priests lips must preserve knowledge and the people must seek the Law at his month therefore it may be conceived no Statute can be rightly made that is not assented to and approved as all our former Statutes were by the Bishops that are the chiefest of the Clergy to be no wayes contrary to the Law of God Quaere 2 2. Whether the king that is an absolute Monarch to whom God hath committed the charge and government of his people can without offence to God change this forme of government from a Monarchicall to an Aristocraticall or a Democraticall forme of government which may be beleived he cannot because though as I shewed out of Saint Augustine the worser forme invented by man may lawfully be changed into a better yet the best which is onely and primarily ordained by God cannot be changed into a worser without offence Quaere 3 3. Whether the king can passe away that power authority and right which God hath given him and without which he cannot govern and protect his people that God hath committed under his charge wherein it may be conceived he cannot because God must discharge him from the charge that he imposed upon him before he can be freed and excused from it but as the Bishop on whom the Lord hath laid the charge of soules cannot lay aside this charge when he pleaseth so no more can the King lay aside the charge of the Government nor paâ—t with that power and right * Otherwise then by substitution Rege absente durante beneplacito or quamdiu se benè gesserint substituti whereby he is inabled to govern them and without which he cannot governe them untill God that laid this charge
upon him and gave him full power and authority to do it by some undeniable dispensation gives him his Writ of ease to discha ge him Quaere 4 4. Whether such an Act or Statute which disinableth any King to dissolve his Dyet Councill Assembly or Parliament and inableth some subtle faction of his Subjects in some sort to countermand their King be not derogatory to the inseperable right of Majesty destructive to the power of government and prejudicial to all the loyall Subjects and therefore void of it selfe and not to be observed because such an act ought not to have been concluded The Act for the indissolubility of any Parliament beleived by many to be of it selfe void wherein I leave the resolution to be dete mined by the Judges and Bishops of this Land and I will onely crave leave to set down what may be thought herein viz. that such an Act or Statute is clearly 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 Monarchy 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 known from the beginning of the world a mixture indeed which I told you before no absolute King can be thought to do without offence unless he can prove his licence from God to do the same Reason 2 2. Because that hereby he may be said to denude himselfe of 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 govern 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 loyal and faithful 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 do it for it may be asked where doth God require him or when did he authorize him to devest himselfe of that authority wherewith he indued him how then can he do 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 not themselves as it seemes 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. Reason 3 3. Because it may be beleived no King would ever grant such an act unless he were either subtilly deceived and seduced or forcibly compelled thereunto for feare of some inavoidable extremity which according to all outward appearance 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 premises considered Quaere 5 5. The Quaere is whether any King should be bound and obliged to observe such grants and make good such Acts In all these Quaeries I conclude nothing whatsoever I beleive 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 beleived he is not but that 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 reluctancy to his own 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 not 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 annul 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 Quid prodest tibi nomen usurpare alienum vocari quod non es when of Counsellors for the King 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 soul 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 carkase that is deprived of his soul 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 interita subjecti and may be ad benè esse but are as Punctilio's in respect of the end and essence of a Parliament And therefore as God promiseth infallibly to do a thing for example that He will not fail David Psal 89.34 1 Sam. 2.30 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 Anointed Psal 89.37 1 Sam. 2.30 and art displeased at him and of his promise to Eli God saith in the same place now be it far from me so it may be conceived that when any Parliament changeth its nature I should never acknowledge Judas 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 Jerusalem to be the house of God so long as it continued the den of theeves faileth in its very being and of a preservative becomes a poyson both to the King and Kingdome the King and Kingdome may then without any
voluntary and not extorted obedience is that which is better then sacrifice 2. Blinde obedience 2. The second is a blinde obedience such as the young youths that being commanded by their Abbat to carry a basket of figs and other Juncates unto a solitary Monke or Hermite that lived in his cave and loosing their way in that unfrequented wilderness chose rather to dye in the desert then taste of those acates that they had in their Basket and such obedience is most frequent in the proselites of Rome who will do whatsoever they are commanded by their superiors though both they and their superiors do thereby commit never so great a wickednesse where notwithstanding I must confesse that this blinde obedience is far better both for Church and State then a proud resistance when as the one produceth nothing but some particular inconveniencies and the other proceedeth to an universall destruction 3. Hypocriticall obedience 3. The third is an hypocriticall and dissembled obedience that is an obedience for a time till they see their time to do mischiefe which is the worst of all obedience and therefore most hatefull both to God and Man because it is but catenus usque dum vires suppetunt untill they have the opportunity and have gotten sufficient strength to shake off their subjection and to maintain their Rebellion The obedience of our Rebells and this was the obedience of all our Rebells our Sectaries and Puritans here in England who would also face us down but most falsely that it was the obedience of the Primitive Christians for so the grand impostor John Goodwin in his Anticavalierisme saith they were onely obedient to those persecuting Tyrants because as yet they wanted strength and were not able to resist them but O thou enemy of all goodness that so hatest to become a Martyr for thy God that was martyred for thee is it not enough for thee to play the dissembling hypocrite thy selfe but thou must taxe those holy Martyrs those true Saints The Authour more out of patience for the wrong offered to the Martyrs then for his own abuse that raigne with Christ in Heaven of hypocrisie and disobedience in their hearts to the Ordinance of God I could willingly beare with any aspersion thou shouldest cast in my face but I am out of patience though sorry that I am so transported to see such false and scandalous imputations so unjustly laid upon such holy Saints yet this you must do to countenance your Rebellion to get the Rhetorick of the Divell to bely Heaven it selfe and therefore what wonder is it that you should bely your King on earth when you dare thus bely the martyrs that are in Heaven 4. The obedience of the Saints two-fold 4. The fourth is a voluntary hearty and well ordered obedience which is the obedience of the Saints and is also Two-fold 1. Active 2. Passive For 1. The Saints knowing the will of God that they should obey their King 1. Active obedience and those that are sent ot him they do willingly yield obedience to their superiours and no marvel because there cannot be a surer argument of an evil man then in a Church reformed and a Kingdom lawfully governed to resist authority and to disobey them that should rule over us especially him whom God immediately hath appointed to be his vice-gerent his substitute and the supreme Monarch of his Dominions here on earth for all other things both in heaven and earth do obsere that Law which their maker hath appointed 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 reproof 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 onely because their weak heads or false hearts do account the commandment of the King to be against right and what themselves doe to be most holy and just But our City Prophets will say Ob. Diverse kinds of Monarchie◠that although the King be the supreme Monarch whom we are commanded to obey yet there are diverse kinds of Monarchies or Regal governments as usurped lawful by conquest by inheritance by election and these are either absolute as were the Eastern Kings and the Roman Emperours or limited and mixed which they term a Political Monarchy where the King or Monarch can do nothing alone but with the assistance and direction of his Nobility and 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 compel him to the other to which I answer 1. As God himself which is most absolute liberrimum agens Sol. Absolute Monarchs may limit themselves may notwithstanding limit himself and his own power as he doth when he promiseth and sweareth that he will not fail David and that the unrepentant Rebels should never enter into his rest so the Monarch may limit himself 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 point of a needle just like the Papist that saith he is a Roman Catholick that is a particular universal a black white a polumonarcha a many one governor when we say he is a Monarch joined in his government with the Parliament for he can be no Monarch or supreme King and Soveraign that hath any sharers with him or above him in the government 2. There is no Monarch that can be said to be simply absolute but onely God yet where there is no superiour but the soveraignty residing in the King he may he said to be an absolute Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Because there is none on earth that can controul him 2. Because he is free and absolute in all such things wherein he is not expresly limited and therefore 3. Seeing no Monarch or Soveraign is so absolute No Monarch so absolute but someway limited but that he is some way limited either by the Law of God or by 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 Kingdom there is no reason they should resist their King for transgressing the limitations of one kind more then the other or if any no doubt but he that transcendeth the limits of God's Law or goeth against the common rules of nature ought rather to be resisted then he
the commandment of God that we should obey them Whitaker contra Camp p. 258. 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 do what God commandeth Ob. as the high Priest did to the Apostles or commandeth me to do what God forbiddeth as Julian did unto the Christians and Nebuchadnezzar to the three children We have often answered that in such a case it is better to obey God then man Sol. Act. 5.25 for it is sometimes lawfull not to obey but it is never lawfull to resist What if he compells us by force and violence to do what God forbids us to do if he playes the Tyrant violates our Laws Ob. and corrupts the true Religion with dolatry and superstition may we not then as our fore-fathers did heretofore unto Chilperick King of France and to Richard the second of this Kingdome and others bridle them and depose them too if they will not be ruled by their Great Counsell the Parliament I answer first Non spectandum quid factum sit sed quid fieri debuerit Sol. Heningus Arnisaeus de author princi in Pop. 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. I say 2. Of our passive bedience that when our active obedience cannot be yeilded our passive obedience must be used for were our King as Tyrannicall as Nero as Idolatrous as Manasses as wicked as Achab and as prophane as Julian yet we may not resist when as Arnisaeus proveth by many examples Idem 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 coactare but in such a case we must do as all the Saints did before us not as the Heathens which thought them worthy of divine honour Cicero pro Milone which did kill a Tyrant and said with Seneca victima haud ulla amplior Potest Seneca in Hercul sur magisque opima mactari Jovi Quà m Rex iniquus But as Christ himselfe suffered under Pontius Pilate a most wicked Magistrate Christ and his Apostles suffered but never resisted the lawfull 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 Bulwarkes 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 that His Majesty confesseth Ob. The Author of the Treatise of Monarchy p. 31. there is a power Legally placed in the two houses more then sufficient to prevent and restrain the power of Tyranny Sol. The law provides that the king should not be circumvented and â—â—ronged I answer first when it pleased the King of His grace to restrain His own power of making Laws to the consent of Peeres and Commons that by this Regulating of the same it might be purged from all destructive exorbitanâ—es the very Law it self being tender of the legitimate rights of the King and considering the Person of the Soveraign to be single and his power counterpoysed by the opposite wisdome of the two Houses allowed him to swear unto himself a body of Council of State and Counsellors at Law and the Judges also to advise him and informe him so that as he should not do any wrong by reason of the restrayning Votes of the Houses so he might not receive any wrong by the incroachment of the Parliament upon his right The Kings concessions very large and the King being driven away from his learned Counsel and forced to make the defence of his rights by writing it is no wonder if his concessions and promises as well in this point as in other things especially in that concerning the Act of excluding the Clergy were more then was due to them or then he needed to grant or then he ought to observe being to the dishonour of God and the prejudice of his Church when as nothing in Parliament where the wrong may be perpetual should be extracted from him but what he should well consider of with the advice of his Counsel and what he should freely grant and whatsoever is otherwise done is ill done to the great disadvantage of the King and his Posterity and the unjust inlarging of their power more then is due unto them yet 2. I say if these words of His Majesties be rightly weighed they give no colour of resisting Tyranny by any forcible armes but aâ— Doctor Ferne saith most truly of a Legal D Ferne in his reply to sever treat p. 32. Moral and Parliamentary restraint for the woâ—ds are there is a power legally placed in the Houses that is the Law hath placed a power in them but you shall never find any Law that any King hath granted whereby himself might be resisted and subdued by open force and violence for as Roffensis saith Roffensis de potest Papae 291. Eâ—phanta Pythag l. De Regno apud Stobaeum fol. 335. Reges suo solius judicio reservavit Deus qui stans in Synagoga deorum dijudicat eos God hath reserved Kings to his own judgement and the Heathen man could say as Stobaeus testifieth primùm Dei deinde Regis est ut nulli subriciatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first it is the priviledge of God next of the King to be subject unto none because the Regal power properly is unaccountable to any man as Suidas saith and Josephus saith that the holiest men that ever were among the Hebrews called essaei or esseni that is the true practisers of the Law of God maintained that soveraigne Princes whatsoever they were ought to be inviolable to their Subjects A principle tenet of the Essaei And some think that the Common-wealth is happier under a Tyrant that will keep them in awe then under too mild a Prince upon whose clemency they will presume to Rebel Jer. 27.5 6. A memorable place against resisting Tyrants for they saw there was scarce any thing more usual in holy Scripture then the prohibition of resistance
doth most willingly discharge it to teach us that we may and ought justly and without any scruple of conscience pay that which may be unjustly demanded and the best Authors that I have read are of the same judgement we have no other remedy but to cry to God who can judge them for their injustice non caret modis Greg. Tholos l. 26. de repub c. 5. n. 25. quibus possit quando voluerit hujusmodi principes tollere vel emendare But though in most of the Eastern 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 and Charles the fifth saith Osorius praeter pecunias quibus illum Hispani juverant immania tributae populis imperavit besides those monyes wherewith the Spaniard assisted him Osor de rebus Emanuel l. 12. p. 386. What the Kings of England promised to their Subjects 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 granted such a priviledge unto their Subjects and devested 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 truely observed may procure a great deale of love and peace unto the king and as much tranquility and happinesse unto the people Neither do I thinke that he loves his King but am sure that he hates his Country that would perswade him for all the wealth of the kingdome to violate his own grant and faith herein That we should not be niggards to assist our king but as our king granted this favour to impose no taxes without the consent of his Parliament so his Parliament in all duty ought alwayes with all thankfulness to acknowledge this special grace and in requital thereof most fully to supply his wants and support his necessities 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 extream niggards that when the king makes known his wants and demands his due for it is still his due though he granted not to cesse it without their consent for his royal supportation and the safety of his kingdome they will finde 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 fatal 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 Turk sit in Christ his Chaire to have Mahomet adored where the Gospel was formerly published by as many famous Fathers as now England hath Preachers How Constant was lost and what the Turk then said for the Emperour foreseeing the Siege made many motions for contributions towards the repairing of the Walls and continue the military charge but the Subjects drew back and pleaded want until 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 Souldiers within the Town were grown very thin and discontented for want of their pay the enemy returned and in a short space took the City and there found in private mens hands such infinite store of gold and all manner of treasure the hundred part whereof would have paid all the Souldiers kept out the enemy and preserved them all that the Turk seeing the basenesse of the Citizens so foolishly hiding their wealth and denying just aid unto their Emperour stood amazed and lifting up his hands to heaven lamented their folly and asked what they meant that having such a store of wealth they would suffer themselves to be thus destroyed onely for want of wit or of grace to use it and thence grew the Proverb among the Turkes unto this day when one becommeth very rich you have been at the Siege of Constantinople And I p ay God it may not so fall out with us for our covetousnesse that we prove not Lucans speech to be true omnia dat qui iust a negat to lose all unjustly unto strangers unto rebels because we deny what is just unto our King But I will conclude this point with the Poët Astra Deo nâ—l majus habent nil Caesare terra Sic Caesar terras ùt Deus astra regit Imperium regis Caesar Deus astra gubernat Caesar honore suo dignus amore Deus Dignus amore Deus dignus quoque Caesar honore est Alter enim terras alter astra regit Cum Deus in caelis Caesar regat omnia terris Censum Caesaribus solvite vota Deo 5. Defence of the kings person 5. Defence of his Person is another princâ—pal part of that honour which we owe unto our King And the very heathens did think their lives well bestowed for their Gods their family and the father of the Country how much more willing should the Christians be to hazard their lives in defence of their King 2 Sam. 21.17 Lament 2.4 Ps 78.71.72 vide Hos 3.4 c. 10.3 and Lament 2.9 which is quasi unus è decem millibus worth ten thousands of us being as the Scripture termes him the Light of Israel and the breath of our nostrils the head of his Subjects the shepheard and Pastor of the people and as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of the people without which they must all fall unto the ground for where there is no governour all must perish and there will be no Priest no Prince no Religion no Nobility no good 1 Joh. 3.16 but anarchy and confusion and the destruction of all things And if we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren as S. John saith how much rather ought we to do it for our King it is recorded in our annals to his eternal praise Nulla gent ità sollicita est circa regem suum sicut apes unde rege incolumi omnibus mens una est quando nequit volare seri ipsum turba apum si moritur moriuntur ipsae that Sir Hubert Syncler at the Seige of Bridge-north seeing an arrow that was shot at his Master King Henry the second stepped betwixt the shaft and his Soveraign and receiving the arrow into his body was therewith shot through to death that he might preserve the life of his King which otherwise had been slain in his stead So Turnbull had his name for killing a Bull that had otherwise slain one of the Kings of Scotland and we
to set down how the factious and malicious Preachers of the rebâ—llious Cities either neglect to pray at all or pray most seditiously and unchristianly for their own Liege Lord and gracious King and therefore the curse of Judas lights upon them that their prayer is turned into sin which should make them pray that Judas his end should not fall unto them But we that desire to follow the Apostles Precept considering the greatnesse of his cares and charge thaâ— he doth undergo and the multitude of dangers that he is lyable to will most heartâ—ly 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 Lilly that he may raign long and happily here and raign 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 one and twenty Wickednesses of the Rebels and the faction of the pretended Parliament 3 The persons that must honour the King 3. HAving seen the Person that is to be honoured 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 universal and so Saint Paul doth more plainly express it Rom. 13.1 saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let every soul be â—ubject to the higher powers which is an Hebrew Ideome or Synecdochical speech s gnifying the whole man the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being usually taken in Scripture pro toto composito for the whole man composed of body and soul as where it is said Gen. 46 62·27 Act. 2. that Jacob went down into Aegypt 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 â—eeth outwa d but really and indeed ex animo from our soules and the bottome of our hâ—arts as Aquinas glosseth it and the concrete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added unto it makes it the more energetical to shew that all mortal men none excepted are ob iged to do this honour and to yield this subjection unto their King for seeing every man both spiritual and temporal and every sex both man and woman and every degree of men young and old rich and poor one with another hath an immortal soul as well as a mortal 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 The Pope and his Clergy would be freed from the subjection of Kings for the Pope will be freed because he hath a power above all powers to depose Kings and to dispose of their Kingdomes at his pleasure and the Popish Clergy will perform no duty unto their King because their Function is spiritual but to all these I may truly say as our saviour doth to the lewd servant ex ore tuo out of the Fathers whom they acknowledge and out of their own Authors they are confuted for Saint Chrysostome saith that whether he be an Apostle or Evangelist or Prophet Seu quisquis tandem fuerit or whosoever else he be Pope Cardinal or Deacon he is commanded to be subject to the higher power and that you may see what power he meanes he pointeth out the same by the symbol that is of him that carryeth the sword which you know must be the secular Prince and not the spiritual Pope and so not onely Euthym. Theophylact Oecumenius and other Greek Commentators do avouch but also those Epistles which are recorded by Binius and quoted by the Bishop of Durham as Leo 1. ep 26. 35. Simplicius 1. ep 4. Felix 3. ep 2. Anastasius 1. ep 78. Pelagius 1. ep 16. Martinus 1. ep 3. Agatho 1. ep ad Herac. Hadrian 1. ep ad Constant do make this most manifest unto vs and therefore Espencaeus convinced by such a cloud of witnesses confesseth very honestly that the Apostle here Espenc in Tit. 3. 1. Digres 10. p. 5. 13. Paris 1568. The wickednesses of the pretended Parliament shewed by their actions Docet omnes credentes mundi potestatibus esse subjectos nempe sive Apostolus sive Evangelista c. ut tenet Chrysost Euthym. qui non Graeci And as the Popelings will be free so the Presbyterians and the faction of this Parliament will be as free as they and because every wickednesse laboureth to exceed that which preceeded these do not agree with the Catholiques as Herod and Pilate did to crucifie Christ in the same conclusion and tenet of exemption but they will go a note beyond Ela and surmount both Jesuite and Pope and therefore they not onely dishonour and disobey their King but they have violated and incroached upon all his rights and assumed the same into their own hands for to recapitulate some of their choycest wickednesses 1. As the Church of Rome and the Jesuites teach in Aphorismis confessariorum ex Doctorum sententiis collectis p. 249. that Rex potest per rempublicam privari ob tyrannidem si non faciat officium suum cum est causa aliqua justa eligi alius à majore parte populi which falshood their own Divines confute when Royard saith Rege constituto non potest populus jugum subjectionis repellere so these men maintain that diabolical tenet that the Regal power is primarily in the collective body and derived to the king cumulativè not privatiuè and therefore upon the kings neglect or male-administration it comes back again to the collective body in whom it resideth suppletivè to discharge the royal duty when the king faileth to do the same and then the king so falling from his right they may refuse obedience and if they see cause which they can soone do they may depose him from his office which impudent falshood I have fully confuted in this Treatise 2. They say the Regall Majesty is a humane creature or the ordinance of men primarily and therefore may be deposed by men when as Cunerus could say Sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure princeps fiat principi tamen facto divinitùs potestas adest and therefore they have no power to take away that which God
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 Policy which we that are so far 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 Monarchs How wickedly they deceive the simple the one against the other to justifie the actions of Subjects against their Soveraigne is such Logick as the other example was Divinity Queen Elizabeth did so against the King of Spain 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 Spain ergo the Earl of Essex may do that which we do 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 falsehood under a shew of truth but I hope ere long you shall have these things more fully manifested unto you 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 anointed 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 Angels can expresse I am perswaded many of them seeing the miraculous mercies of our God in protecting and assisting His Majesty far beyond their thoughts and imaginations do begin to think on peace and accommodation which they presuming on the Kings lenity made sure to themselves whensoever they pleased and indeed dulce nomen pacis Esay 52.7 and the feet of them that bring tydings of peace are more specious then the fairest countenance of Aurora 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 deare friends saith S. Aug. so deare 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 and forsworne themselves over and over as at their baptisme that they would keep Gods Commandments whereof this is one Rom. 13.1 1 Pet. 2.13 How the Rebels swore and forswore themselves to be obedient unto our Kings at their admittance to any office to beare faith and true alleagiance to His Majesty at the beginning of this last Parliament to maintain the Kings just rights and all the priviledges of Parliament together with the liberty and property of the Subjects and yet immediately to forget their faith to break all these oathes and to make ship-wrack 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 Holland and Bedford shew'd what trust is to be given them and then to assure the Divel they would be faithfull unto him which were thus faithlesse unto God to sweare again 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 Angel of God that hath the Kings heart in his hand Proverb 21. and turneth it like the Rivers of waters where he pleaseth knoweth best what to do as God directeth him yet for mine own part either in Peace or War No trust to be given to lyars and perjurers 2 Sam. 20.20.16 I I would never trust such faithlesse perjured creatures for a straw and seeing that to spare transcendent wickedness is to encrease wickednesse and to incourage others to the like Rebellion upon the like hope of pardon if they failed 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 Gibeah and delivered not unto the King the chiefe of those Rebells that rose up against him I feare that Gods wrath will not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still Judg. 20. until he hath fullfilled his determined visitation upon this Land and consummated all with their deplorable destruction even as he did those obstinate men of Gibeah and Benjamin How the King desired the good of the Rebels 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 exceedingly great beyond all that I can finde in any history Rebellion it selfe being like the sin of witchcraft the Rebellion of Christians far 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 The unspeakable greatness of their sins refusing all clemency despisâ—â—g 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 wickedness 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 accept and imbrace their own happiness till they be purged with the floods of repentant teares or destroyed with the steames of Gods fearefull 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 to returne back the same way as we proceeded hitherto to make up the breaches of the Church How we may recover the peace and prosperity of this Land 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 down his benefits upon us but till we do these things I do assure my selfe and I beleive you shall finde it that his wrath shall not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still and still untill we either do these things or be destroyed for not doing them King James his speech made true by the Rebells Thus it is manifest to all the World that as it was often spoken by our sharpe and eagle-sighted Soveraigne King James of ever blessed memory no Bishop no King so now I hope the dull-ey'd 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 How the Rebells have unking'd our King shut him out of all his Townes dispossest him of his owne houses took away all his sâ—ips detained all his revenues vilified all his Declarations nullified his Proclamations hindered his Commissions 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 else His Majesty 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 Hos 8.4 so they have unking'd 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 What kings they would have to rule us but whom have they made Kings even themselves who in one word do and have now exercised all or most of the regall power and their Ordinances shall be as firm as any Statutes and what are they that have thus dis-robed King Charles and exalted themselves like the Pope as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 * Whâ—ch S. Peter never bade us honour The Rebells brave exchange Psal 146.20 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 royal exchange would the Rebels of this Kingdome make just such as the Israelites made when they turned their glory into the similitude of a Calfe that cateth hay and said these be thy Gods Psal 146.20 O Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt for now after they have changed their lawful King for unlawful Tyrants and taken Jothams bramble for the cedar of Lebanon the Devils instruments for Gods Anointed Judg. 9.15 they may justly say these be thy Kings O Londoners O Rebels that brought thee out of a Land that flowed with milke and hony out of those houses that were filled with all manner of store into a land of misery into houses of sorrow that are filled with wailings lamentations and woes when we see the faithful City is become an harlot our gold drosse and our happinesse turned to continual heavinesse But as the Rutilians considering what fruit they should reape by that miserable war wherein they were so far ingaged cried out at last Virgil Aeneid l. 12. Scilicet ut Turno contingat regiae conjux Nos animae viles inhumata infletáque turba Sternamur campis We undo our selves our wives and our children to gain a wife for Turnus so our seduced men may say we ingage our selves to dye like doggs that these rebels may live like Kings who themselves sit at ease while others endure all woes and do grow rich by making all the Kingdome poore and therefore O England quae tanta est licentia ferri lugebit patria multos when as the Apostle saith evill men and seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived for God is not mocked but whatsoever a man soweth 2 Tim. 3.13 Gal. 6.7 that shall he also reape for though we for our sins may justly suffer these and many other more miseries we do confesse it yet the whole world may be assured that these Rebels the generation of vipers being but the Rod of Gods fury The Rebels sure to be destroyed Contemptrix superûm sevaeque avidissima caedis violenta fuit scires è sanguine natam 2 Sam. 7.1 to correct the offences of his children such seeds of wickedness as they sow can produce none other harvest then ruine and destruction to all these usurping Kings and Traytors who thinke to please God by doing good service unto the Devil and to go to Heaven for their good intention after they are carried into Hell for their horrid Rebellion God Almighty grant them more grace and our King more care to beware of them and when God doth grant him rest with David on every side round about him to restore his Bishops and Clergy to their pristine station that when these bramble rods are burnt and these rebels fallen the King and the Bishops may still stand like Moses and Aaron to guide and gouerne Gods people committed to their charge And thus I have shewed thee O man some of the sacred rights of royal Majesty granted by God in his holy Scriptures practised by Kings from the beginning of the world yeilded by all nations that had none other guide but the light of nature to direct them I have also shewed thee how the people greedy of liberty and licentiousnesse have like the true children of old Adam that could not long endure the sweet yoke of his Creator strived and strugled to withdraw their necks from that subjection which their condition required and their frowardnesse necessitated to be imposed upon them and thereby have either graciously gained such love and fauour from many pious and most clement Princes as for the sweetning of their well merited subjection to grant them many immunities and priviledges or have most rebelliously incroached upon these rights of Kings wresting many liberties out of the hands of Government and forcibly retaining them to their own advantage sometimes to the overthrow of the royal government as Junius Brutus and his associates did the Kings of Rome sometimes to the diminution of the dimidium if not more then halfe his right as the Ephori did to the kings of Lacedemon but alwayes to the great prejudice of the king and the greater mischief to the Common-wealth because both reason and experience hath found it alwayes true that the regal
whom the choice 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. 70 § The two chiefest parts of the Regall Government the foure properties of a just war and how the Parliamentary Faction transgress in every property Pag. 74 CHAP. XIII Sheweth how the first Gouernment 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 Gouernment came up Pag. 78 § 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 Pag. 83 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 been procured and repealed Pag. 88 § Certain quaeries discussed but not resolved the end for which God ordained Kings the praise 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. 92 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 foure-fold divers kindes of Monarchs and how an absolute Monarch may limit himselfe Pag. 98 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 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. 116 CHAP. XVIII The persons that ought to honour the king and the recapitulation of 21 wickednesses of the Rebells and the faction of the pretended Parliament Pag. 121 CHAP. XIX Sheweth how the Rebellious faction have transgressed all the ten Commandments of the Law and the new Commandement of the Gospell how they have committed the seaven deadly sins and the foure crying sins and the three most destructive sins to the soul of man and how their Ordinances are made against all Lawes equity and conscience Pag. 213 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 un-king'd the Lords Annointed and for whom they have exchanged him and the conclusion of the whole Pag. 127 PSAL. 39.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily every man living or in his best estate is altogether Vanity Sela. OUR Blessed Lord and Saviour saith the night cometh John 9.4 when no man can work therefore I must work the Works of him that sent me whilst it is day and S. Paul tels us the time will come when men will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves Teachers that is 2 Tim. 4.3 Teachers enough in every place and every time so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth but what kind of Teachers shall they heap unto themselves the Apostle tels you they shall be teachers after their own lusts that is such Tub-teachers of the new Order as will study rather to satisfie their lusts and to preach what they please best than to edifie their soules And I believe all wise men see that time is now and not till now fully come therefore it behoves all the true Teachers to bestir themselves to work the works of him that sent them while it is day while they have any time and while there is any true Light yet remaining before the sad night and darksom clouds of Errours and Heresies be grown so far and to prevail so much against the Truth that you shall scarce find any place or person where or by whom the new lights may be confronted and the old Truth confirmed unto us So it behoveth me and it is my duty to employ my Talent to the uttermost of my power against these false Prophets of the Great Antichrist that is now come into the world and by these heaps of his Emissaries laboureth quite to overthrow the Church of Christ And as Clement recordeth that when Barnabas came to Rome to preach the Gospel of Christ and divers rejected it he briefly said In vestra potestate est vel recipere quae annuntiamus vel speruere It is in your choice either to receive what we teach or to reject it but we may not be silent and not speak quod vobis expedire novimus what we know to be expedient and necessary for you quia nobis si taceamus damnum est vobis quae dicimus si non recipiatis pernicies est Ciem Recog l. 1. p. 6. so say I. And therefore that you may be somthing and so happy I beseech you listen to these words that testifie that in your selves you are nothing but Vanity For verily every man And the nearest way to exchange this Vanity for Eternity and so to make us happy that are in misery is to know our own vanity and to understand our own misery For Knowledge saith Hugo Card. is the way to God and understanding saith the Prophet David Psal 49.12 20. is that which distinguisheth and differenceth man from beast for man though he be never so great in honour never so powerful in place and never so rich in wealth yet if he hath no understanding he is compared to the beasts that perish And the two chiefest parts which are like the Body and Soul of all the Knowledge that makes us happy are these two Precepts so much commended and so often urged unto us even by the Heathens themselves that yet notwithstanding were destitute of all true Knowledge that could make them happy because they knew rightly neither of those two things that they so much commended which were 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know God 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self For John 17.3.1 to know God the only way to make us happy 1. Our Saviour tels us this is eternal Life to know God i.e. to know the Father to be the only true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ For the Heathens knew that God alone is the summum bonum and the only true
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 enemy to the State We did honour thee as our deliverer when thou didst 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 Counsellours And I assure my selfe much more may be spoken and many inanswerable arguments may be produced to confirm this to be most true so I have set down what I conceive to be true about the Kings grants and concessions unto his people and his obligations to observe them And if His Majesty 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 down any of these things that my conscience tells me to be true and needful to be known 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 Saint 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 mortal man then endure the wrath of the great God and now I have freed my soule let what will come of my body I will fear God and honour my King 5 The end for which God ordained Kings 5. We are to consider the end for which God ordained the King to rule and govern his people and that is to preserve justice and to maintain peace through out all the parts of his Dominions for as the Subjects may neither murmur nor resist heir Soveraign at any time for any cause so the King must not do any wrong or injustice to his meanest Subject neither do we presse the obedience of the Subject to give licence unto the King to use them as he listeth but we tell Kings their duties as well as we do to the Subjects and that is to doe justice unto the afflicted and to execute true judgement among all his people for as Plato saith Psal 82.3 Zachar. 7 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all men cry out with one mouth how beautiful a thing is temperance and righteousnesse Cicero calleth her the Lady and Mistresse of all virtues and Pindarus saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cice o offic l. 3. a golden eye and a golden countenance are always 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 justum Pindar apud Athen Cl. Alex. and Sirom 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 virtue which comprehends all virtues in it self and therefore Solomon saith that the Kings throne is established by righteousnesse and justice exalteth a Nation Prov. 16.12 c. 14 34. injustice destroyeth Kingdomes making it to flourish and famous and justice destroyeth the people when a Kingdome is translated from nation to Nation because of unrighteousnesse the same being as it was said of Carthage fuller of sins then of people as you see the Monarchy of the Assyrians was translated unto the Medes and Persians and the most famous repub of the Romanes was spoiled when forgetting their pristine honesty they became unjust Lucan l. 1. Mensuráque juris Vis erat And the Law was measured by strength and he had the best right which was most powerful and so the ancient nation of the Britons came to utter ruine and destruction propter avaritiam principum injustitiam judicum negligentiam Episcoporum luxuriam populi saith Gildas Ezechiel 33.11 and 18.22 Judges 17.6 Dan. 2.21.37 1 Chron. 2 84. 1 Sam. 10.1 1 Reg. 19 15. Romans 13.4 Tertul. ad Scap. c. 21. Optat. cont Parmen l. 3. p. 8. 5. Auson in Monosyll Et id possumus quod jure possumus Chrysost ad Pop. Antioch hom 2. Ambros apol pro Davide c. 4. c. 10. Aug. de civit l. 4. c. 33. Greg. epis l. 2. ep 110. Autor libelli cui inscriptio brevis narratio quomodo Hen. 4. c. Bellar. de laic c. 5. Rhem. anno 1 Pet. 2.23 Dela Cerda in Virgil. l. 11. p. 560. c. Herod l. 2. And therefore God that desireth not the death of a sinner much lesse the ruine of any Nation would have us to seeke for justice and to live uprightly one among another but as the sheepe that are without a shepheard wander where they list so as you read often in the booke of Judges when the people were without a King there was no justice amongst them but every man did that which was right in his own eyes therefore to prevent oppressions and wrongs God out of his infinite love and favour unto mankind from the beginning of the World called and appointed Kings to be his Vicegerents to judge the earth and to see that the poore and the fatherlesse have right for besides many other places that might be alleadged the Spirit of God saith directly ego dixi Dii estis and by me Kings do reign that is by my appointment by my direction and by my protection they do and shall rule and reign over my people as Tertull. Optat. Saint Chrysost St Ambrose St Aug. Saint Gregory and the rest of the most Orthodox Fathers have ever taught and maintained and therefore this is not inventum humanum as the Puritans have dreamed and the Popes flatterers have maintained but it is an ordination of God that we have Kings given unto us not to domineere and to satisfy their untamed wills and sensual appetites but to administer justice and judgement unto their people and so to guide them to live in all peace and tranquillity for as Auson saith Qui rectè faciet non qui dominatur erit Rex And therefore Plinius Secundus in his panegyricks saith ut foelicitatis est posse quantum velis sic magnitudinis est velle quantum possis bonitatis facere quantum justum as it is a great felicity to be able to do what we will so it is a most heroick resolution to will no more but what we should and to do nothing but what is just Claudian saith to Honorius Nec tibi quid liccat sed quid fecisse decebit Occurrat mentémque domet respectus honesti and so Homer saith that Sarpedon
these Rebels not out of any love to shed bloud but out of a desire to preserve Peace not for any natural inclination to diminish their Nobility by their decollation but from an earnest endeavour to suppresse the community from unnatural Rebellion ut poena in paucos metus ad omnes that the punishment of some might have bred fear in the rest What effects the Kings clemency wrought and that fear of the King in them might keep his good Subjects from fear of being undone by them But all the World seeth our King is more merciful and hath sought all this while to draw them with the cords of love which hath bred more troubles to himself more afflictions to us and made them the more cruel and by their Oaths and Protestations Leagues and Covenants to do their best to bring the King and all his loyal Subjects into fear if they may not have their own desires But we are not afraid of these Bug-beares because we know this hath been the practice of all Rebels to linke themselves together with Leagues and Covenants as in the conjuration of Cateline and the holy league in France and the like and many such Covenants and Leagues have been made with Hell to the utter destruction of the makers as when more then forty men vowed very solemnly and they intended to do it very cunningly that they would neither eat nor drinke until they had killed Paul for so they might be without meat until the day of judgement Act. 23.12 if they would keep their Oath and so these Covenanters may undo themselves by such hardening their faces in their wickednesse The Rebels Covenants shew they are grown desperate because this sheweth they are grown desperate and are come to that pass that they have little hope to preserve their lives but by the hazarding of their soules as if they thought the Devil for the good service they desire to do him to overthrow the Church to destroy thousand souls may perchance do them this favour to preserve their lives for a time to bring to passe so great a worke whereas we know the Church is built upon a Rock and God hath promised to defend his Anoynted so that all the power of hell shall never prevail against any of these Wherefore to conclude this point seeing God hath put a sword into the hand of the king and the King bears not the sword in vain Rom. 13.4 but though it be long in the sheath he can draw it out when He will and recompence the abuse of His lenity with the sharpnesse of severity let us fear or if you would not fear do well saith the Apostle return from your Rebellion V. 3. and from all your wicked wayes and you may yet finde grace because you have both a merciful God and a gracious king 2. To have an high and good esteeme of our King and to make others to have the like 2 Sam. 15.6 2. As we are to feare so we are to reverence our King that is to have an high esteeme of His Majesty and to manifest the same in our termes speeches and communications accordingly to gain the love of the rest of His Subjects towards Him and not as Absolon did by cunning and sinister expressions to steale away the hearts and affections of His People for to make mention of him either in our prayers or Sermons or in any other familiar talke so as if he were a friend to Popery an enemy to the Gospell and carelesse of Justice and the like as too many of our Sectaries most falsely and most malitiously have done is rather to vilifie and disgrace him to work an odium against him and a tediousness 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 Rom. 12.14 Matth. 5.44 and the spirit of God bids us bless them that persecute us and our Saviour saith blesse them that curse you that is speak well of Tyrants that oppress us 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 but with the same honour as we are commanded to honour our Father and our Mother The fifth Commandment is the most obliging of all the Commandments of the second Table Ephes 6.2 How the heathens honoured their kings C. Tacitus lib. 14. Seneca de benefic l. 30. The reason of their reverence 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 Commandments of the second Table not onely because it keepeth the first place of all these precepts but is also the first Commandment with promise as the Apostle observeth And not onely 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 go to any uncleane or unseemly place and therefore Seneca saith that under the Empire of Tiberius a certain Noble man was accused of Treason for moving his hand that had on his finger a Ring whereon was ingraven the portraiture of the Prince unto his privie parts when he did urine and the reason of this great reverence which they bare unto their Princes was that they beleived there was in Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some divine thing which above the reach of man was ingraffed in them and could not be derived from them Raderus Comment in Quint. Curt. for so Raderus tells us that this divine Majesty or celestiall sparke was so eminent in the countenance of Alexander that it did not onely terrifie his enemies but also moved his best Commanders and greatest Peeres to obey his commands and the like is reported of Scipio Africanus A Macedonian Law and I finde the Macedonians had a Law that besides the Traitors condemned to death five of their next Kinsfolkes 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 minde to have killed King Francis the first A Gentleman hanged for his thought but repenting of his intention he resolved never to do it the Frier absolved him of his sin but told the King thereof and he sent him to his
Parliament who condemned and executed him for his thought Philip the first of Spain seeing a Falcon killing an Eagle commanded his head to be wrung off saying let none presume above their Soveraigne and in the Raigne of Henry the fourth of England one was hanged drawn and quartered in Cheapside London for jesting with his son that if he did learne well he would make him heire of the Crowne meaning his owne house that had the Signe of the Crowne to prove the Proverbe true non est bonum ludere cum sanctis it is not safe jesting with Kings and Crowns and it is lesse safe to resist them if you will believe wise Solomon And I have read of another King that passing over a river his Crowne fell into the water one of his water-men lept in and dived to the bottome and taking up the Crown put it upon his head that it might not hinder his swimming and so brought it to the King again who rewarded him well for his pains but caused his head to be chopt off for presuming to weare his Crown And all this is but an inanswerable argument to condemne our Rebels that neither reverence the Majesty of their King nor respect the commandment of their God 3. 3. Obedience Obedience is another principall part of that honour which we owe unto the king and this obedience of the inferiours joyned with the direction of the superiors doe make any state most successefull but when these are divorced The marriage of obedience and authority and the issue Aeschylus All must be obedient then nothing goeth right in that Common-wealth for so the Sages of Greece exprest it by the marriage that Jupiter made between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose child brought forth betwixt them was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew unto us that when authority is married to obedience and obedience proves a dutifull and good wife to authority the fruit of that match will be happinesse to the whole Kingdome And therefore if we would be happy we must be obedient and our obedience must be universall in all things in the Lord. Jussa sequi tam velle mihi quà m posse necesse est Lucan l. 1. So the people say unto Joshua all that thou commandest us we will do Josh 1.16 and all must do it the greater aswell as the lesser the noble man as well as the meane man yea rather then the meane man for though Rebellion in any one is as the sin of witchcraft yet in a vulgar man it may admit of vulgar apologies but in a man of quality in noble men in Courtiers bred in the Kings house Noble mens Rebellion more abominable to God and man then any other in the Kings service and raised by the Kings favour it is Morbus complicatus a decompound sin a transcendent ingratitude and unexpressable iniquity the example more spreading and the infection more contagious because more conspicuous and the giddy attempts of an unguided multitude are but as Cardinal Farnesius saith like the Beech tree without his top soon withered and vanishing into nothing without leaders when they become a burthen unto themselves and a prey unto others therefore the contradiction of Corah Dathan and Abiram that were so eminent in the congregation was a sin so odious unto God that he would have destroyed all Israel for their sake as now he punisheth all England for the sins of those noble men that have rebelled against their King Rom. 13.1 and were alwayes like Sejanus as wayward pleased as opposed And therefore St. Paul saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every soul must be subject to the higher power and he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you must needs be subject or be obedient Rom. 13.5 Obedience pressed by a three fold argument and he presseth this obedience with many arguments as 1. From Gods ordinance because God hath set them over us and commanded us to be obedient unto them and therefore whosoever resisteth them warreth against God 2. From mans Conscience which telleth us Rom. 13 4. that he is the minister of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for good and therefore virtutis amore if we have any love to goodnesse we ought to obey our King 3. For feare of vengeance because he beareth not the sword in vain but is v. 4. How we ought to behave our selves towards wicked Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill therefore this obedience to our King is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing of indifferency but of necessity for be our King for his Religion Impious for his government unjust and for life licentious as cruell as Nero as prophane as Julian and as wicked as Heliogabalus yet the Subjects must obey him the Bishops must admonish him the counsell must advise him and all must pray for him but no mortall man that is his Subject hath either leave to resist him or license to reject him unless they reject the ordinance of God and so fight against God and you know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is hard to vanquish God It is truly said by a learned Bishop si bonus est Princeps nutritor est tuus Ardua res homini est mortali vincere numen Why God sendeth evil kings if thy King be good he is thy nursing Father and it is a great happinesse to his Subjects sin malus est tentator est tuus but if he be evill he is either for the punishment of thy sins or for the triall of thy faith and therefore receive thy punishment with patience or thy triall without resistance and Aquin saith tollenda est culpa cessabit tyrannorum plaga do thou take away thy sins and God will soon take away thy punishment otherwise as for our sins we do often suffer droughts floods unseasonable weather sicknesses plagues and many other evills of nature ita luxum avaritiam deminantium tolerare debemus so when God setteth up hypocrites or tyrants to reigne over us to be the scourges of his wrath and the rods of his fury we must not struggle against God but rest contented to indure the vices of our rulers as a just punishment of our wickednesses saith Cornelius Tacitus * Et Michael Palatinus Hungariae dicebat rege coro nato etiamsi bos esses nobis obtemperandum est Bonfin dec 4. lib. 3. Foure kindes of obedience 1. Forced obedience Rom. 12.1 1 Sam. 15.22 But here you must observe that there are diverse kindes of obedience especially 1. Coacta 2. Caca. 3. Simulata 4. Ordinata 1. Forced 2. Foolish 3. Faigned 4. Well ordered 1. The first is a forced and compelled obedience meerly for feare of wrath as Children learne or Slaves do their duty for fear of the rod and this is better then resâ—stance though nothing like to that obedience which S. Paul calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because this
Government or Monarchical State though it might sometimes happen to prove tyrannical is far more acceptable unto God as being his own prime and proper ordinance most agreeable unto nature and more profitable unto all men then either the Aristocratical or Popular Government either hath or possibly can be for as it is most true that praestat sub malo principe esse quà m sub nullo it is better to live under an ill Governour then where there is no Gove nment so praestat sub uno tyranno vivere quà m sub mille it is better to be under the command of one tyrant then of a thousand as we are now under these Rebels who being not faex Romuli the worst of the Nobilty but faex populi the dregs of the people indigent Mechanicks and their Wives captivated Citizens together with the rabble of seduced Sectaries have so disloyally incroached upon the rights of our King and so rebelliously usurped the same to the utter subversion both of Church and Kingdom if God himself who hath the hearts of all Kings in his hand and turneth the same wheresoever he pleaseth had not most graciously strengthned his Majesty with a most singular and heroick resolution assisted with perfect health from the beginning of their insurrection to this very day to the admiration of his enemies and the exceeding joy and comfort of his faithfull Subjects and with the best aide and furtherance of his chiefest Nobility of all his learned and religious Clergy his grave and honest Lawyers and the truly worthy Gentry of his whole Kingdom to withstand their most treacherous impious barbarous and I know not how to expresse the wickednesse of their most horrid attempts so thou hast before thee life and death fire and water good and evil And therefore I hope that this will move us which have our eyes open to behold the great blessings and the many almost miraculous deliverances and favours of God unto his Majesty and to consider the most horrible destruction that this war hath brought upon us to fear God and to honour our King to hate the Rebels and to love all loyal Subjects to do our uttermost endeavour to quench this devouring flame and to that end with hand and heart and with our fortunes and with the hazard of our lives which as our Saviour saith shall be saved if they be lost to assist his Majesty to subdue these Rebels Luk. 9.24 to reduce the Kingdom to its pristine government and the Church to her former dignity that so we may have through the mercy of God peace and plenty love and unity so we may have through the mercy of God peace and plenty love and unity faith and true religion and all other happinesse remaining with us to the comfort of our King and the glory of our God through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with his Father and the Holy Spirit be all honour thanks prayse and dominion for ever and ever Amen Amen Jehovae liberatori FINIS Errata PAge â— lin 3.5 dele not p. 5. l. 50. for make r. made p. 9. l. 23. for hand r. had p. 27. l. 53. dele can p. 39. l. 25. r. right to be p. 51. l. 54. r. this day p. 54 l. 37. dele and p. 61. l. 21. r. that denyed repentance p. 62. l. â—â— r. the same hope p. 95. l. 18. for justice r. injustice p. 100. l. 49. for ye r. yet The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in the RIGHTS of KINGS 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 Clergy the faire but most false pretences of the refractary Faction what they chiefly ayme at and their malice to Episcopacy and Royalty 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 kingdoms the best of the three Rights how Kings came to be elected and how contrary to the opinion of Master Selden Aristocracy and Democracy issued out of Monarchy Pag. 7 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 own Government the most universally received throughout the world the immediate and proper Ordinance of God c. Pag. 11 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 themseves under Artaxerxes Ahashuerus and under all their own Kings of Israel c. Pag. 17 CHAP. V. Sheweth how the Heathens honoured their Kings how Christ exhibited all due honour unto Heathen and wicked Kings how he carried himself before Pilate and how all the good Primitive Christians behaved themselves towards their Heathen Persecuting Emperours Pag. 23 CHAP. VI. Sheweth the two chiefest duties of all Christian Kings to whom the charge and preservation of Religion is committed three several 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. 27 CHAP. VII Sheweth the three things necessary for all Kings that would preserve true Religion how the King may attain to the knowledge of this that pertain to Religion by His Bishops and Chaplains and the calling of Synods c. Pag. 34 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 of their Bishops and Clergy and not of their Lay-Counsellors how our late Canons came to be annulled c. Pag. 40 CHAP. IX Sheweth a full answer to four 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. 47 CHAP. X. Sheweth that it is the Kings right to grant Dispensations for Pluralities and Non-residency what Dispensations 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 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. 64 CHAP. XII Sheweth the assistants of Kings in their Government to