cannot be darkened or corrupted and our Affections so orderly as they cannot over-rule us in a wrong course to do against that is pious and just I was ever in opinion till now that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be secured from Sin was the onely propriety of God and that it is antichristian in the Pope to lay claim to an absolute Infallibility But this new Policy will find the like in the Parliament the collective Body or Community Thirdly consider attentively and impartially what you hold and you will find it resolve into Infidelity and Impatience Infidelity that we do not trust that God is able to do it Impatience that we will not wait patiently till he do it The Heathen are nearer to Christianity in this than our glorious Reformers Tacitus saith Quomodo sterilitatem aut nimios imbres caetera naturae mal◠ita luxum vel avaritiam dominantium tolerate vitia erunt donec homines sed neque haec continua meliorum interventu pensantur The safest way in the wise Historian's judgment is to endure the Tempests of ill Government patiently as we do other Tempests falling from Heaven while men are faults will be but will not be alwayes lasting and better things will come with compensation of our losses Fourthly It is much better for us that God hath reserved this as a peculiar case to himself to punish Sovereigns and to rectifie their Errours But for us on the other part to usurp upon his Right it is no less than intrusion upon his Divine Prerogative and carrieth along with it Morbum complicatum a number of Sins against many of his most glorious Attributes 1. It wrongeth God in his glorious Wisdom that he hath not prepared such a Remedy for us in this case nay it putteth foolishness upon him that in this case he hath commanded Patience and so left us totally remediless 2. It wrongeth God in his glorious Power by making him weak that by no other means he could set aright what is disjoynted in Church and State 3. It wrongeth his Holiness who for the necessary support of Church and State by these means is necessitated for effecting the Work most concerneth him and his Glory to have and use the help of sinful men nay even of their Sins 4. To what is said add this that this Principle of theirs dishonoureth Christian Religion it turneth Religion into Rebellion Faith into Faction and Christian obedience into disloyal Treason Nothing is more powerful to deter Kings from coming to the profession of Reformed Catholick Religion than to hold that such a Superintendent Power is in People or Parliament to censure and unking Christian Kings Fifthly Christian obedience and Sobriety teacheth us to leave all Evils in Church and State to be redressed by those means God himself hath appointed and when the ordinate means do it not or do to the contrary we are to keep our selves pure possess our selves with Patience and refer the Remedy to God who hath reserved this to himself We ought not to justle God out of his Right Before we have said that Scripture affords no warrant by Precept or Practice to the Community the collective or representative Body to do it But now we add for them to do it by opposing or resisting Sovereignty is in Scripture expresly forbidden Romans 13. 2. Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Of this more Quaest. 5. We must therefore closely adhere to what God hath commanded not turning to the left hand to obey unlawful things commanded by the Sovereign nor to the right hand with violence to resist lawful Authority Let all Subjects remember that in the day of their Accounts the charge will be to all singly or joyntly considered Who hath required these things at your hands Who hath made you Judges and Executers of matters of so high concernment And though it be pretended and possibly intended too that the work so done shall make much for the glory of God the good of the Church the liberty and happiness of the Subject it will not take us off We must not do evil that good may come of it Rom. 3. 8. To do God a piece of good service against his Will manifested is not to acquit our selves as his humble servants but to prove us his arrogant and proud Masters He is most glorified when his voice is obeyed 1 Sam. 15. 22. God standeth not in need of wicked man nor of his sinful wayes It was a pious Intention Vzza had when he put out his hand to save the Ark from falling yet because it was above his Charge God did strike him presently dead 2 Sam. 6. 6. 1 Chron. 13. 10. It is not enough for these Reformers to be assured in their Consciences that the work they intend and are about tends to a good religious and pious effect but they must have a sufficient Warrant from written Truth that they are warranted and called to this work Sixthly as it is against Piety it is against Prudence and the good of Policy Prudence doth not allow us to lose what real Good we have in present Possession for any future good which we have only in uncertain Expectation By this projected Course of our New-Statist-Divines we loose a good Conscience fall in actual Disobedience and Rebellion against the Lord and his Anointed We refuse Gods Tryal and with an unwarrantable indiscreet and unseasonable Zeal for Religion and our temporary Good come contrary to God and his Commandments We antevert nay shake off the Glory that God expecteth by our Tryals and cannot dare not expect Gods Blessing to our Endeavours If the Root be evil the Fruit can be no better Who may expect a Blessing to a sinful and rebellious Course Doth he allow us to do wrong and seek an Opportunity to do Good God acteth no Evil but only permitteth it and that because he is able to work Good out of Evil which is as inseparably proper to God alone as the immensity of his Power it is infinitely a superlative Presumption for us to presume upon the like We cannot expect any Blessing without a promise and have no Interest in the Promise but when our Acts and Works presuppose Obedience to his Precepts By such a Course as you prescribe we make the precept of God of none Effect Our excuse in this case will prove no better than the Pharisees who taught their Disciples doing things unlawful to say Corban God shall have Profit by it in the good we shall do to Church and State When we come to Judgment our Works shall witness against us and our good Intentions will not save us you know it is commonly and truly said Hell is full of good Intentions and Heaven of good works Seventhly if we look upon the practice recorded in Scripture when Gods people were delivered from Bondage or Captivity or when Grievances in Church and State were rectified and reformed God
Sacro-sancta Regum Majestas OR THE SACRED and ROYAL Prerogative OF Christian Kings Wherein Sovereignty is by Holy Scriptures Reverend Antiquity and sound Reason asserted by discussing of five Questions AND The Puritanical Jesuitical Antimonarchical Grounds are disproved and the untruth and weakness of their new-devised-State-principles are discovered Rom. 13. 1 2. The Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Powâ—â— resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist â—â—all receive to themselves damnation Dei Gratia Mea Lux. London Printed for Tho. Dring over against the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street 1680. TO THE DUKE of ORMOND MY LORD PIety and Policy Church and State Prince and Priest are so nearly and naturally conjoyned in a mutual Interest that like to Hippocrates his Twins they rejoyce and mourn flourish and perish live and dye together Sound Reformed Catholick Protestants deny justly such a Subordination of the Prince to the Priest as by any direct or indirect over-ruling Power the Crown and Scepter are under any coactive directive we acknowledge over-ruling Power of the Mitre and that Kings by any Church-man or men whatsoever Pope or Presbytery are censurable dethronable deposable Notwithstanding it is certain Religion hath a mighty Influence upon State Governour and Government that from the happiness and quiet of Religion issueth forth necessarily the happiness and quiet of the Civil State The Heathen did see this that Religion rightly ordered is the Base and Bottom upon which King and State are founded Religion is the cement of all Societies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it bindeth Families together and Cities too and is their greatest splendour and ornament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That one saith Religion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a Christian to the same purpose Religio timor Dei solus est qui custodit hominum inter se Societatem Religion and the Fear of God and nothing else preserveth all Societies amongst men Religion teacheth Kings how to rule and Subjects how to obey maketh Obedience complete universal entire in all things not partial in some things onely it teacheth our Reverence Service and Obedience not to be outward with Eye-service but sincere for Conscience sake as in the sight of the Lord. Religion hath a powerful influence upon Laws the Heathen who termed Religion the Cement of all Society calleth it too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cement the Strength the Vigour the Life of all Laws This made Zoroaster authorise the Laws by Horomasis Zamolxis by Vesta Trismegistus by Mercurius Minos by Jupiter Charondus by Saturnus Draco and Solon by Minerva and Apollo and Numa Pompilius by Aegeria Religion is the Nurse of the Quiet of State and Common-wealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If all living in one Society and Kingdom were pious and religious none would wrong themselves or others Take it more fully from a Christian Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Religion be preserved in Peace it rights and facilitates all the rest of the Government Religion is the Walls Strength and Safeguard of King and Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Overthrow me Sion Civitatem Veritatis Sanctitatis and you cannot but overthrow Ierusalem Civitatem justitiae all this is much more and solely verified of the Christian Religion a strange Wonder then it is that so many Achitophels and Achans in the World should promise to themselves undertake to Christian Kings by sacrificing the Church undoing the Solemnity of the Service and Worship of God destroying Christ his Ordinances robbing him of his Patrimony and Right to establish King and Kingdom Peace and Quiet in the Land How is it probable or possible Religion being the Base and Bottom upon which all Happiness of King and Kingdom are grounded and founded the Cement and Bond that tieth all together the Rule of Right ruling the Mother of entire and hearty Obedience the life of Laws the use of Quiet and Strength of all Defence that it being disordered King Kingdom and State can be well and enjoy any kind of Happiness If neither the Dictate of Nature nor sacred Truth revealed in holy Word should confirm this Truth the sad and doleful Experience we find we feel this day in the Acheldama of these Kingdoms has laid it open to our Eyes in Letters of Blood that he that runneth by may read it Consider how since the Sacred Hierarchy the Order instituted by Christ for the Government of his Church constituted by the Apostles and continued against any prevalent Opposition for fifteen Ages and upwards without Interruption hath been opposed that in some places it is totally overthrown in other places disgraced weakened and threatned with Abolition of Root and Branch what is the Condition of Sovereignty and Subject You shall find that the Course against it hath been a preparatory Destructive to Royalty to the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject Many are deceived and think it skilleth not what Government be in the Church it is enough if the Essentials and Fundamentals of Faith and Worship be preserved They are infinitely deceived no Society can subsist without Government and if you destroy the Government neither can the sound Faith nor the true Worship be long maintained The Apostle intimateth this Col. 11. 5. that he joyed to behold their Order and the stedfastness of their Faith in Christ. First their Order then the stedfastness of their Faith in Christ implying where right Order is non maintained stedfastness of Faith in Christ cannot continue A Holy Father to this purpose saith well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is the Mother and Security of the Being of all things that have Being Do we not see that the Order and Government of the Roman Church doth this day preserve their Humane Inventions and unwarrantable Superstions in such Safety that alas Truth doth not prevail much upon them are within her Communion and on the other part our Disorder and not setled Government maketh us lose too too much and gain too too little Look a little upon the Parallel and consider how since Episcopacy hath been infested and way too much given to a prevalent Faction what malign Influence this course hath had upon Sovereignty and it will make it appear that the Mitre cannot suffer and the Diadem be secured It was maintained that Episcopacy was none of Christ's Institution it was onely the positive constitution of man Hath not Royalty been thus entertained Do not our Sectaries impudently maintain that Kings are the onely Extract of the People having their Being and Constitution by derivation from them Do they not hold that howsoever Episcopacy is a tolerable government of the Church yet it is mutable at the pleasure of the Church And do they not answerably aver that the collective or representative Body of the Community may upon any real or fancied Exigent mould themselves into an Aristocracie or Democracie Others more desperately have reached higher and give out that the Sacred
erring and deceived Multitude who loath things present and at hand and promise to themselves foolishly greater and better things by a Change Not unlike to a man sick of a burning and raging Fever imagineth this or that Bed he lyeth in is the cause of his Pain change him to another Bed in his Fancy he expects to recover Health yet is disappointed and putteth himself in a worse Condition It is easie for subtle and crafty Spirits to make people apprehend so because of the present sense of some little Pressures or Incommodities in the Government Which is unavoidable here because we are not to expect to enjoy a Plato's Republick or a More 's Vtopia an Eutopia indeed that were Heaven upon Earth that is there is no Government no where so compleatly perfect that it wanteth altogether its Incommodities and none so imperfect which hath not with it it 's own Commodities I may say of the most perfect and best ordered Government what the Father 's said against the Pelagians Omnis nostra perfectio imperfecta perfectio there is none so happy that hath not with the greatest Commodities some Incommodities and so we may say with the Comick aut haec cum illis habenda aut illa cum istis admittenda We must resolve to endure some Inconveniencies in the best Government rather than disturb and destroy Government and lose the excellent and sweet Fruits we have by it Hence they press upon the weaker and less Understanding but more numerous People the present seen and felt Inconveniences and possess them with Fears and Jealousies of more and greater ensuing dangers Fraus in parvis saith Livie sibi fidem praestruit ut cum operae-precium est magnâ cum mercede fallat that they ought not to lie under these Burdens and to be nakedly exposed to more imminent Dangers lest unprovided they be taken up and destroyed When these Male-contents have laid this Foundation then they raise the work by liberal undertaking and like the Devil their Father promise to the gulled people Matth. 4. Omnia haec tibi dabo to deliver them from all their Pressures incumbent Burthens and imminent fansied Dangers The People by their big words and promises conceive great Hopes cry up those Achitophels those Absalons those Shebaes as the only Worthies upon whom should be devolved the whole Trust and Care of State and Kingdom of Reformation of State of Church To entertain these false Hopes which are but false Conceptions Molaas they personate such as had no private ends were only publick Souls resolved to spend themselves nay offer themselves a Sacrifice for the People they speak as smooth as Absalon and will be thought to desire nothing but Piety and Purity in the Church and Justice Peace Liberty and plenty in the State When the multitude are thus bewitched then they advance the Work they desire the Assistance of the numerous and popular part to bring this glorious Reformation to effect pretending the Glory of God the Purity of Religion the Liberty of the Persons and the Propriety of the Goods of the Subjects The poor people follow Absalon in his Treason usurping the Crown pretending he is about to offer a great Sacrifice to God but intended to pull the Crown from his Fathers head Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus when they have thus gained the popular Affection and are Masters of their Hearts and Lives They strike not first at Royalty but express their Zeal and Courage in accusing the great States-men of purpose to leave the good Prince naked and destitute of all Good Counsel and by fierce accusing of them and charging them with all the Evils they fancy in the Government to flow from the Influence their Counsels and Courses have upon Sovereignty they prove themselves innocent to the World They hope having set them by their places they shall make place for themselves to make King and Government at their own Devotion and before they fail in this another Government they will erect They set on the furious multitude against men not only innocent but well deserving making the people believe that they are the Authors and Abettors of all Evil and Mischief whether real or fancyed present and that these are the only Rubs stand up betwixt them and an happy Government If they can make no relevant Endictment no legal proof against them before some of them be not gone new Laws new Presidents shall be made never to be a leading case hereafter and others shall suffer first as Papistical but if that appear not then as Praelatical but if this cannot be charged upon them a high Crime truly to be accounted a maintainer of that Order Christ hath established to preserve his Church they are Incendiaries in State Malignants in Church disaffected to the true Protestant which what it is but negatively we could never yet know for ten of them cannot agree upon a positive Faith Religion And such say the Achitophels of this time are the close Enemies of Church of State of Religion c. and so much the more dangerous because they carry their malignant Purposes Designs and Courses so closely that no Proofs can be made against them The People thus engaged thus by Fury enraged cry out crucifie them crucifie them are made guilty and run so far upon the score as they cannot be taken off again If it fall forth so that these Worthies miss their ends and others succeed in the places of the displaced then they cry out the malignant Party prevaileth still The Pilots are changed not the Tempest There is no Remedy Power must do it the Kingdom must put it self in a Posture of Defence Salus Populi the Safety of all of Religion of Liberty of Property and what is dear to us calleth for it for it is extremus necessitatis casus it hath come to the last Push But I pray you who are the competent Judges to determine that our case is such None else but those Worthies those who are animated with a publick Soul who are dead to private ends have no more life but what is to be spent for the Publick for the safety of it who have already as good Patriots layed their Lives their Honours their Fortunes at the stake There must then be a Power in some hands God knoweth the worst and that have least right to command men raise Arms seize all Ammunition command what Supplies of money is necessary for so great so glorious a Reformation to rectifie what is amiss to right what is disjoynted in Church and State to repell the dangers incumbent and imminent otherwise they are not sufficiently enabled for the great Work the preservation of the King and Kingdom Church and State Law and Liberty and what else is really or imaginably dear to us In end an Arbitrary Government that terrour of all popular terrours is introduced is practised true Sovereignty and Royalty is wrested from the true Sovereign and the thing we fear most is placed in a wrong
ratio the most formal and compleat Eâ—â—ence of Government The third is Whether or not Sovereignty and Royalty be in a King by Conveyance of Trust fiduciary and conditionate issuing from the People by a Trust devolved upon him in that portion it pleaseth them to proportion In which will be evident that the Trust of Sovereignty and Government is by God devolved upon the King That all Sovereignty related to God is fiduciary and conditionate but related to the People is absolute The fourth is Whether or not by divine Institution any man or men some few or many have any co-ordinate co-equal or collateral Power with the Sovereignty of Royalty Or whether or not in any case or exigent a King can be subordinate In the Resolution of which Question fitly and conveniently will be discussed that In quo formale Imperii consistit that in which the essence of Sovereignty doth consist and without which it cannot subsist as that it is supreme perpetual and freed from all coercive and coactive Power which the Hebrews call Imperium majus the Politicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fifth and last is Whether or not in any case it is lawful for Subjects one any more or all to oppose a Prince Quaestio prima Whether or not the King be only and immediately dependent from God and independent from the Body of the People diffusive collective representative or vertual CHAP. I. The Affirmative is maintained the contrary Opinion is explained the Authors and Assertors some of them with their Differences are recited WE hold the Affirmative that the King is only and immediately dependent from Almighty God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and independent in his Sovereignty and Power from the Community in what Notion soever you conceive it either as a diffusive collective representative or vertual Body The Jesuit and Puritan to depress Kings aver that all Power is originally radically and formally inherent in the People or Community and from thence is derived to the King In the explaining of this Proposition there is amongst those who lay this Foundation for the building of their Babel a great Latitude of Diversity Lately I read in one who is the Author of the Tract concerning Schism and Schismaticks pag. 29. We have believed him that hath told us that in Christ Iesus there is neither high nor low and that in giving Honour every man should be ready to prefer another before himself which saying cuts off all claim certainly of Superiority by Title of Christianity except men think that these things were spoken only to poor and private men Nature and Religion agree in this that neither of them hath an hand in this Herauldry of Secundùm sub supra all this comes from Composition and Agreement amongst themselves I have given you his words I should be glad to be mistaken and crave him Mercy But as I conceive him this Position is worse than any I know of the Jesuits or more moderate Sectaries both of them acknowledge a Necessity of Government is taught by Nature and Grace and that the Distinction of Superiority and Inferiority is the dictate of common Reason and Religion Otherwise neither Nature nor Religion may avoid Confusion or Destruction God who is the God of Order and not of Confusion is the Author of this Herauldry of Secundum sub supra in the whole Universe in Church in State Hath not God in the moral Law taught it Honora Patrem c. Honour thy Father c Do not St. Paul and St. Peter Rom. 13. 1. Pet. 2. 14. v. command this as the Will of God And did not our Saviour practise it and his Apostles after him and after them all the Christian Church You must take away humane Society in Church and State if you take away this Herauldry of Superiority and Inferiority Sure I am the Jesuits do hold that Government is ex jure naturae by the Law of Nature I hope our Sectaries think no worse in this point than the Jesuits I return to the Jesuit and Puritan who are very like-in this Tenet but give me Leave to say for as bad as the Jesuit is in my conceiving the Puritan is worse Let us make a parallel 1. First the Jesuit says that all Power civil is radically and originally seated in the Community or Multitude God having made it the Primum subjectum the first Subject in which it is seated The Puritan joyneth hands here with the Jesuit 2. Next both of them say it is from the Multitude by way of Collation and Donation to one as in Monarchy to some as in Aristocracy to many as in Democracy so that immediately it is from the People and mediately from God and not so much by Collation as by Approbation How the Jesuit and Puritan walk along in an unequal pace See Bellarmine l. de Laicis cap. 6. Suarez Defens Doctrinae Orthod contra Sectam Anglicanam l. 3. 3. Thirdly that the People may change Monarchy into Aristocracy or Democracy or an Aristocracy into a Monarchy or Democracy or è contrae which way you will for ought I know they differ not in this neither 4. But some of our new State-Divines do hold that this Power is derived to the King from the People Cumulativè or Communicativè non Privativè by way of Communication or Cumulation but not by way of Privation that is howsoever the People communicate this Sovereignty to the King by trust yet they denude not themselves of this Sovereignty To make it plain it is in their Opinion no otherwise than as when the King of England appoints a Lieutenant Deputy or High Commissioner of Ireland or Scotland he denudes not himself of his Royal Power but delegates them with Power and Trust for his Service If this be their mind for I cannot conjecture at any other and if they have any other Sense I wish they would make it plain the King is in a poor case by such a derived Power for then as the King of England giving to his Deputy or Deputies that power only cumulativè he cannot by Reason or Law seeing Potior est delegantis quam delegati authoritas that the Principal his Authority is more excellent than he delegate's nor can he be debarred from that right the Law of Nations giveth him Anticipatione concursu or evocatione by procognition his own proper entire Right or Evocation to determine or judge in any thing that concerneth that His Kingdom If they authorize the People so let any that hath common Sense judge in what Condition these new-state-divines do put Kings 4. They aver which maketh me the more inclinable to conceive that to be their mind which before we have expressed that the same Sovereign Power is Howsoever derived from the Community to the King in the people suppletivè that is that if the King be deficient in necessary Duties of Government for the good of the Church and State the People by their innate power may do
and Mary than of Christ and that they out of their Fear and Weakness not able to do better did flee Herod and his malicious intent If any think so let him consider that he hath not learned as yet that all Christ's Actions and Passions are full of Mysteries and nothing acted or suffered by him in which there was not an over-ruling wonderful Providence of God in Mercy and Wisdom and withal let him consider that all his Acts and Sufferings are our Instructions But leaving this Did he not in his Ministry teach and practise it Teach it when he commanded to render to Caesar the things that are Caesars when he convinced the Iews who would gladly have shaken off Caesar and his Right arguing that they were by God's Law bound to pay Caesar Tribute because he was their King and this he proved by their Coin which with all sound knowing Politicians is inter jura Majestatis which was printed with Caesar's Face and Superscription Again in his Death Did not our Saviour Christ acknowledge Pilate's Power that is the Roman of which he was Deputy to be from above Did he not rebuke Peter who with his Sword would have in a Defensive way saved him from those bloudy Persecutors Did he not tell him He that killeth by the Sword shall perish by the Sword that is Peter although thou think thou hast a good cause that thou wilt defend me and by resisting open force preserve me thy Master thy Saviour deceive not thy self it is not lawful by Arms in the best Cause for my Cause for my Life to resist Lawful Authority if thou kill in my Defence thou art worthy to suffer Death by the Sword by him that beareth the Sword not in vain When Peter over-reached himself in this distempered zeal cut off Malchus his Ear Christ before that Offence should have been done by any of his in his company for his Cause will be at the pains to cure this wound miraculously Would God Pope and Papeling Jesuit and Sectary Puritan and Presbyterian would fix their hearts upon these Practices of Christ by a singular Wisdom of God so clearly and fully recorded practised in Christ's Nativity Childhood practised and taught in his Ministry practised and taught when he was a dying when he was looking Death in the face at which time the most sinful man will neither dissemble nor temporize I doubt much if in any act of Christ during his coming into the World and his going home again to his Father you can instance any to parallel this to exceed it sure I am you cannot And what I pray you can the Pope challenge more than to be Minister Evangelii a Minister of the Gospel as our Lord was Circumcisionis of the Circumcision He shall never be accounted with me the true Vicar of Christ who teacheth contrary to Christ and practiseth contrary to his Practices Me thinketh he looketh more like and hath nearer alliance with the man mentioned 2 Thes. 2. Who exalteth himself above every thing is called God It is very considerable likewise that in the Apostolical Creed which is so full so brief and nothing in it but what is necessary to be believed to Salvation that I say in this short Creed Pontius Pilate whose memory is accursed by the Spirit of God which ruled his Church in setting this down is recorded It is not for his Honour certainly but for our good and edification that there it is said Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate that we may learn if we expect Salvation by Faith in Christ we must submit to Authority by obedience to what they command if it be lawful and submitting humbly and suffering if Authority urge that which is unlawful and against God And that this we are bound to although the Magistrate be as opposite to Christianity as a Heathen and the Cause for which we suffer be for Christ and his Church We will never help Christ nor his Church by Arms against Authority or Religion by Rebellion If our Sectaries give us a new Creed it will concern them near with the expunging of Christs descent to Hell and the Communion of Saints to raze out this He suffered under Pontius Pilate If their Practices be so contradictory to Christ's they cannot but consequutivè by consequence be destructory of the Christian Faith where the Reward of those are to be expected you know too well It were better for you not only to expunge Christ's Descent into Hell but to annihilate Hell it self which by a close Committee you may resolve upon if your omnipotent power can be able to do it I mean your fansied coordinate power which you have of late erected against Sovereignty fixed in the Lord 's Anointed as in the Church you have erected Altar against Altar God open your Eyes to see your monstrous Sins and Errours and to give to you and to us all true Repentance that the fearful vengeance of God overtake us not and in the World to come be forced by sensible eternal and horrible pains to acknowledge the Truths which now we reject although plainly in Scripture declared in the most Authentick Apostolical Creed determined and by the current and not interrupted suffrage of the Fathers above seven hundred years believed Lord have mercy upon us and turn his Wrath and fearful Indignation from us I dare not to express what I fear when I look upon these outrages committed against Sacred Truth How God and his Word are abused His Sanctuary defiled His Ordinances repealed Mischief framed by the Law Sacred Persons violated and the Lords Anointed fearfully rebelled against My resolution is to dissolve unto Tears and Prayers and with my Master say daily say hourly Lord forgive them for they know not what they do The weakness of this Assertion that Kings are not Christ's Vicegerents we have as we hope sufficiently proved It is high time now to discover the wickedness of it The purpose they have by this and the like Assertions is to reserve the managing of all Religious Affairs in their largest latitude to themselves vindicating it as peculiar and proper quarto modo to their Conventicles Presbyteries and Assemblies This Sovereignty they make so Sovereign and Independent that all Kings and Sovereigns whatsoever must submit to it This Sovereignty Ecclesiastical may restrain and constrain the King at pleasure It may repeal his Laws correct his Statutes reverse his Judgments It may establish its own urge Obedience Cite Convent and Censure in case of Disobedience And if they be not of Power to execute what they decree they may call for or command the help and assistance of the People in whom is that underived Majesty and to this purpose may promise covenant swear to stand to the maintenance of their Fancies against all whatsoever and to defend each another contra omnes mortales with their Goods Lands Fortunes Honours Lives to admit no divisive motion which is real and to be such if the Authority of this Church declare it
such whatsoever to suppress whatsoever is contrary to the good intended in this Covenant and association if it be in their power so that this Sovereign maketh every man armatum magistratum to be armed with Power and the way left to himself for ought we know it may be Ravilliac's way or Guido Faux's way Surely here is a Despotical Sovereignty and more than ever was challenged by any the Turk or King of Spain without Europe This is to tyrannize over mens Souls for no man must be suffered to live or enjoy any Freedom or Life there who dissenteth in the least point of their voluminous Greed from them and if he assist not with his Monies his Arms his Hands to the loss of his Life for his Religion he is either Prelatical or Papistical and for his affection to the States a word incompatible with Monarchy and of highest Treason he is at best a Malignant At pleasure of this Sovereignty every man must give the Quota this Sovereignty prescribeth the Twentieth the Tenth the Fifth part c. must give loan of what moneys they have by them or upon Bank for the good Cause upon security of the Publick Faith a non ens which is like if God prevent it not to ruine the Reformed Orthodox Catholick Faith and moral Faith and Truth amongst men or what other they specifie and ordain What a vast Sovereignty is this the extent of it is immense for nothing shall be without the Sphere of this Power which hath no motion but eccentrick no Person without the verge of this Scepter And good reason for all this for this is God and Christ's Institution this Sovereignty is the indâ—vidual companion of the Gospel the holy discipline the discipline of Christ half the Kingdom of Christ the undoubâ—ed Note of the Church the eternal Counsel of God it is 〈◊〉 Scepter of the Son of God You see the Effect of it whâ—aâ— happy what a glorious Reformation it hath brought with it the like was never seen since the Apostles dayes this Reformation will pull down Antichrist from his Throne the hearing of the beginning of it how it enlarges it self now to be sworn too in England will make the Pope of Rome and his Cardinals knees smite one against another Quid verba audiam cum facta non videam Judge of the Tree by its Fruits as our Master hath taught us and we will find all their good words are as Jurists say Protestatio contraria facto solemn Protestations liberal Promises you know whose custom this is but slack Performances Would to God that had been allâ— no a world of mischiefs have followed upon it and it is to be feared that what is past is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginnings of troubles The most glorious Church amongst the Reformed the staff and strength of Reformed Religion is broken in shivers where all things are lawful except to serve God and all Sects all Schisms allowed except the Orthodox Truth and Ordinances of God This Reformation is written in Letters of Bloud acted with the greatest Cruelty against not onely Innocent but Deserving men with Calumnies Rapine Robbery Cruelty that Father Mother and young ones if they have not been starved with hunger and cold have been exposed to extreamest indigency contempt and mockery I dare to say no Persecution that ever was can parallel this Persecution for Impiety Injustice and Cruelty What heart bleedeth not to see these Kingdoms happy before to the Envy of other Kingdoms and States to be the mocking-stock of the World that the Canaanite and Perizzite rejoyceth to look upon our Misery to see the Desolation standing in the Holy place and those Kingdoms of late the desire of all the Earth turned into an Akeldama and no other fruit of this glorious Reformation but to kill Christians for Christ's sake and to plunder for Religions sake Lord forgive them for Christ's sake and remove our Sins and those fearful Judgments and I beg pardon of the Reader for this Digression or Regret which I have poured out with a sad heart and wish them no worse than speedy Repentance For all we have said of this Antichristian Sovereignty whereby the Puritan and Factious would exalt the Presbytery and Representative Body above all that is called God Let no man imagine that we ran to the other Extreme to privilege a King from the direction and just Power of the Church or that we would encourage him or set him on like Vzziah to intrude upon Sacred actions proper to Ecclesiastical Persons Ex vi ordinis In direction by the Word administration of the Sacraments binding and loosing in interiori foro conscientiae or in exteriori by the Spiritual Censures annexed to the Keys Sure I am no pious or knowing King as blessed be God our Sovereign is will by right of his Crown which he holdeth immediately of Christ usurp upon this but on the contrary as a Son of the Church will submit to the Church his Mother or rather Christ in Church-men reconciling him to God Elsewhere by Gods Grace if God give us Life and Leisure in a several Treatise by it self we intend to lay open this point In sum briefly we say that men in Sacred Orders In rebus purè spiritualibus in things meerly and intrinsecally of themselves Spiritual have from Christ immediately a directive and authoritative Power in order to all whatsoever although ministerial onely as related to Christ But this giveth them no Coercive Civil Power over a Prince either per se or per accidens either primarie or secundarie either principaliter or consecutive directâ— or indirectè simple or absolute that either the one way or the other directly or indirectly absolutely or respectively by it self or in ordine ad spiritualia any or many in sacred orders Pope or Presbytery can convent cite censure in case of Defailance Supply and in case of not obeying what God in Scripture hath commanded to covenant associate swear and take Sacrament upon it to resist him oppose him and force him to submit to the Scepter of Christ. This Power over man God Almighty useth not much less hath he given it to man Psal. 110. His People are a willing People Suadenda non cogenda religio nihil minùs Religionis quà m Religionem cogere Nor doth that spiritual Power which entirely we give to Bishops Priests and Deacons rob the King as he is the nursing Father of the Church of the power Christ hath endowed him with as a Christian King in externa gubernatione Ecclesiae We must not look on Kings as on others of the Flock of Christ although we may neither preach nor administer the Sacraments nor bind nor loose nor give sacred Orders nor excommunicate these are things only proper to Priests Primi secundi ordinis of the first and second Order and Degree Yet the exercise of these things freely within his Kingdom what concerneth the decent and orderly doing of all and what concerns
fidei but they are bound to another as propugnatores fidei that is to see that the Purity of Faith and Worship be preserved with that Solemnity and Decency of sacred Places sacred Things sacred Persons sacred Gestures as God hath prescribed and the holy Catholick Church hath practised and allowed The Preservation of the sacred Right and Prerogative royal is that secureth and preserveth the Right and Liberty of the Subject and it is the maintaining and preserving of God's and holy Church's Right that preserveth Kings and their Crowns Happy is the King who with David can say Psal. 26. 8. Lord I have loved the Habitation of thy House and the place where thine Honour dwelleth upon this he may with David confidently pray vers 9. Gather not my Soul with Sinners nor my Life with bloody men If the King's delight be in the Sanctuary of the Lord although Trouble fall upon him yet Help will come to him out of the Sanctuary that will save both him and his Crown Psal. 20. The highest Honour the greatest Happiness that ever David attained to was to bring back again the Ark of God to leave a great Treasure for building of the Temple 1 Chron. 13. 15. 28. and to raise the Church and establish the Worship and Order in it's height of Perfection 1 Chron. 24. 25 26. when he finished this Work he rejoyced more than ever Then he said Psal. 84. 10. A day in thy Courts is better than a thousand elsewhere it was better be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the Tents of Wickedness It was this that made God send to his King Deliverance out of his Troubles Psal. 18. vers ult It was this that established his House and Kingdom for ever it was this that crowned him with a Crown of pure Gold here and of immortal Glory in Heaven Kings at their Coronation offer their Crowns Scepters and Swords to God at his Altar and receive them from thence the one Ceremony signifieth that their Sovereignty cometh to them immediately from God the other signifieth that they offer all first for the Service of God It is a Vow or Dedication of themselves and their Power for the Advancement of Gods Glory To this add that this is solemnly sworn by them to maintain the Purity of the Faith and Worship and the Priviledges and Rights of holy Church and lastly all is sealed with the receiving of the Sacrament off the Altar What then can free Kings from these Ties And how fearful a thing is it for them to be principal Actors or accessary to bad Counsels and Courses to give up a Church or to wrong Christ and his Rights There be a great many that practise Machiavel's Politicks affirming Princes are no more tyed to Church and Religion than as both of them are subordinate and subservient to the politick Government and good Temporal These are truly Atheists who Ierobâ—am like care not at all for God nor Religion who abuse them to their own private ends they may for a short time flourish but in the end God will root out them and their Posterity and their Memory shall be had in Execration as Pilate is remembred in the Creed and Iudas recorded in the Gospel There be others who seem more moderate whose Counsels are no less pernicious because they seem to speak in a favourable and more specious way like to the Devil transforming himself into an Angel of Light these advise Kings to maintain a Worship an Order a Church but that it is not best to be too sumptuous and prodigal in the Maintenance or endowing the Church richly nor is it necessary punctually and precisely to adhere to all Gods Ordinances and in some cases say they a Prince at some Times at some Exigences may give way to the undoing of some Ordinances of God and Christ he may permit some of the Beauty and Solemnity of the Worship to be eclipsed devest the Church and Church-men of some Priviledges and Rights which by immemorial Possession they and their Pedecessors have enjoyed and to which besides Dedication and Consecration the Church is by all positive Civil Law and Right entituled no less if not more than Noblemen Gentlemen Corporations or any Subject or Subjects whatsoever These Counsels for a time may prevail and the Church may be a little for a little time suppressed and depressed but if God have Mercy in Store for that Kingdom it will not continue long These Achitophels tell Kings that if Moses's ten Commandments the Apostles twelve Articles of the Creed and the six Petitions of the Lord's Prayer be preserved it skilleth not for other things whether Bishop or no Bishop whether good Christians preach and do ministerial Acts or only men in sacred Orders authorised by Consecration and Imposition of hands whether any Solemnity in the publick Worship or not whether in sacred Church consecrated or in a private House or Barn whether Christ have a Patrimony or his Servants be allowed only a Competency at the Disoretion of Lay-men c. These Counsels and Courses if they be not repented forsaken and the Church righted will prove destructive to Kings to their Crowns to their Posterity and to their Authors and Abettors King Saul for ought we read did not restrain nor pollute the Worship he found nor took from their Priests what was their due but it is manifest he did neglect God and his Church his Worship and his Servants had less Esteem of God's Servants than of any of his Subjects besides and yet this is punished with the Forfeiture of Crown and Kingdom to him and his Posterity and God provideth a man a King according to his Heart to right the Church to order the Service aright which established his Kingdom and Crown for ever The Church was the Alpha and Omega of his Government he consecrated the beginning of his peaceable Reign with bringing home the Ark he spent the most of his Reign in ordering and establishing the Service of God with it's Solemnity and ended his Life and Reign exhorting Solomon to do the like to build the Temple and leaving by Legacy a great immense Treasure consecrated to this purpose If any will look upon these Counsellors he will find that they have a mighty Zeal and Care of their own Honour and Wealth how much they remit their Zeal towards God and his House they intend it as much for themselves and what concerneth their private they will not willingly dwell but in Houses of Cedar and can see the Ark of God within Curtains this maketh them that they can suffer the Church to be spoiled if by her Spoils they or theirs can be enriched Christians they cannot be whatsoever they profess they are in a contrary a contradictory way to Christ of him it was said The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up of them it is verified that their Zeal hath eaten up the house of God If these men can enjoy their own make
to be powerful Intercessors with God to remove his Plagues to say Quid meruere oves what have the poor sheep done smite me and my Fathers house 2 Sam. 24. Like to the good shepherd to lay down his life for his sheep Ioh. 10. And this will work â—in the People such zeal and affection to their Sovereign that they will be ready to lose Lands Riches Honour Life before their King suffer in Honour in his Sacred Power Sacred Right and Sacred Person If the Head â—e well the Body fareth the better and when the Body is in good health and constitution the Head is the better less trouble no pain For proof of this I refer you to that noble passage of Iustin Martyr cited before quaest respons ad Orthod q. 138. Read the whole passage it is an expression in de propria in a convenient and proper place In Sum the Result of all is that from this truth that Kings are immediately from God and Christ independent from all others there issueth a great many excellent and useful Corollaries as first That the excellency of their Dignity is not a motive if it be well weighed to make them swell Lucifer-like in Pride for the weight of their great and difficult Charge will force them of all men to be most humble Officiis quis idoneus istis Their Crowns are dependent from Christ and his Crown and truly considered are onely Crowns of thorns such as Dionysius said an understanding man would not take up if it were lying at his feet Secondly as Kings are nearer to God than any Creatures in the low Universe so are they tied to approach nearest to him in Holiness and all Humane and Christian Perfection Thirdly they are bound to all care endeavour and zeal for Christ's Glory his Truth the Sincerity and Solemnity of his Worship and that not onely as men and Christians but as Kings and Fathers of the State and Nurse-fathers of the Church Fourthly howsoever exempted from Humane Law and coercion yet they are to live and reign according to the Law and Prescript of God and Christ which if they transgress they shall receive Punishment proportionable to their high Dignity and according to their Demerit for betraying the high Trust put upon them Fifthly Although the Royal Right be not founded in saving holiness and sanctity but is sacred in another respect by a delegate Power and Trust yet the way to secure their Crowns their Posterity in the Right transmissible from them and to make their Kingdoms happy is to live piously in Private and Publick Devotions and to intend at first and do it most in their Sacred Government Sixthly next to Almighty God the highest Honour Reverence and Obedience is due to him Seventhly and Maintenance from their Subjects proportioned to their high Dignity and to inable them to act and do what is necessary and expedient for God's Glory the good of the Church and Peace Plenty and Protection of the Subject Eighthly to resist him oppose him in thought word or deed is Rebellion against God himself Ninthly it is high Sacrilege and not onely Royal but Divine Usurpation to trench upon the Kings Sacred Right To shut up all that concerneth this first Question I humbly beg pardon to intreat in all reverence my Lord the King to look upon a Speech of St. Augustine worthy of the reading and meditation of all and the best of Christian Kings he will find it Tom. 5. lib. 5. de Civ Dei cap. 24. which verbatim is thus Reges foelices eos dicimus si justè imperant siâ—inter linguas sublimiter honorantium obsequia nimis humiliter salutantium non extollantur sed se homines esse meminerint suam potestatenm ad Dei cultum maxime dilatandum Majestati ejus famulam faciant si Deum timent diligunt colunt si plus amant illud regnum ubi non timent habere consortes si tardiùs vindicant si facilè ignoscunt si eandem vindictam pro necessitate regendae tuendae Reip. non pro saturandis inimicitiarum odiis exerunt si eandem veniam non ad impunitatem iniquitatis sed ad spem correctionis indulgent si quos asperè aliquando coguntur decernere misericordiae lenitate beneficiorum largitate compensant si luxuria tantâ— eis est castigatior quanto possit esse liberior si malunt cupiditatibus pravis quam quibuslibet gentibus imperare si haec omnia faciant non propter ardorem inanis gloriae sed propter charitatem foelicitatis aeternae si pro suis peccatis humilitatis miserationis orationis sacrificium Deo suo vero immolare non negligunt Tales Christianos principes dicimus esse foelices interim spe postea re ipsa futuros cùm id quod expectamus evenerit O golden expressions worthy to be set in Letters of Gold with most precious Stones and Diamonds and then put upon all Royal Crowns It is a short but a thousand-fold better expression of what we have said Plato Aristotle Cicero Xenophon in his fancied Cyropaedia had never the like it is worth all they have said all they have written on this subject in this kind Let me add a word or two to our selves who are Subjects Let us learn to give to the Lord 's Anointed his due if we will approve our selves good Christians like to our Master the Lord Iesus Christ like to his Apostles like to the ancient and holy Fathers and Martyrs of the Church Let us never deceive our selves like to the Iews who claimed to be the Sons of Abraham when they wrought the Works of their Father the Devil Ioh. 8. Let us not shame our selves and Reformed Catholick Religion by turning Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction and deter all Kings in the Christian World to come to the Profession of Reformed Truth and Communion of our Church And that this may be done the more successfully Let us all pray LOrd hear our King in the day of trouble The Name of the God of Jacob defend him Send him help out of the Sanctuary and strengthen him from Sion Remember all his Offerings and accept his burnt Sacrifices Give him according to his own Heart and fulfil all his Councel that we may rejoyce in thy Salvation Teach us his Subjects to fear thee and the King and not to meddle with them are given to change Continue the Loyal in Revâ—rence Obedience and Subjection Reduce the Sons of Belial to their Obedience make thy Spirit fall upon all that we may say thine are we O King and on thy side that the Peace and Beauty of thy Sion may be restored thine Anointed with his Sacred Right re-seated upon his Throne the bleeding wounds of the Land may be bound up the Peace of the Kingdom re-established 〈…〉 soever else is disjoynted may be set aright Do it do it good Lord not for us or for our merits but for thy Names sake the All-sufficient merits of thy Son and 〈…〉 of our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST And let everâ— good Christian all loyal-hearted Subjects who pray for the Peace of Sion and building up of the walls of Ierusalem say Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS Eurypides in Bacch Idem ibidem Plutarch Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 1. Rom. 13. Plutarch Xenophon in Cyropoedia lib. 8. l. 16. in qualibet de Episc. Cleric C. Theod. Iustinian Novel 42. Trismegistus apud Lactantium l. 2. Instit c. 16. Gr. Naz. Orat. de mod in disp servanda Plutarch in Probl. Prob. 72. Cassiod l. 8. Var. c. 19. 1 de nat anim c. 1.