Astraea Redeunt Saturnia regna progenies caelo Demittitur alto Bishops the Coâ—on prâ—â—ier Booke â—ewarded Sectaries reiected SALMASIUS HIS BUCKLER OR A Royal Apology FOR King CHARLES the MARTYR Dedicated to CHARLES the Second King of Great Brittain Salus Populi Salus Regis LONDON Printed for H.B. and are to be sold in Westminster-hall and at the Royal Exchange 1662. The Epistle to the Reader THere have been so many Wolves in sheeps-cloathing and so many Innocents by the reviling tongues of their Enemies robbing them of their good names as well as of their good estates made Malignants in this our worse than iron age that I know not what Epithite to give thee If thou art an Honest man Rara avis in terris I invoke thee to be my Patron If thou art not Noli me tangere But since St. Austin once perhaps as zealous a Reprobate as thy self was converted by looking on the Bible by chance I will not prohibit thee from eating of this fruit Though I believe to think that thy view of my Book will work the like conversion on thee is to have a better opinion of thee and the Book than both will deserve For though an Angel should come from heaven or a man arise from the dead yet could he not perswade our hot-headed Zealots but that they did God good service even when they rebell against his own Ordinance transgress his Commandements murther their Father the KING and pollute their once flourishing Mother the CHURCH Before this prodigious off-spring like Vipers destroyed the Mother by their birth The Jews indeed murthered the Lord of life because they did not know him and therefore thought it was pleasing to God But wo be to them who did not only with Ham see their Fathers nakedness and reproach him but commit Paricide see his heart naked and call the multitude to laugh at it En quo discordia Cives produxit miseros O the miserable effects of seditious men Who shall now cure the Kings evil Or who shall cure the evil of the People O purblind City how long will you enslave yourselves to ravenous woolves who by their often changing of their feigned Governments do but change the thief and still your Store-houses must be the Magazine to furnish them with plunder You must never look to enjoy your lives estates or Gods blessing with the fruition of your Wives and Children before your lawfull King and Soveraign CHARLS the II. unjustly banished by Rebells be restored to his Crown and Kingdom For what Comfort can any honest or conscientious man take in any thing so long as he seeth his own native Prince like King David driven from his own natural inheritance by the unjust force of a multitude of Traytors both to God and their King Who Judas-like acknowledging his Master with a kiss so they swore with their mouthes that King CHARLS the I. was their only lawfull King and Soveraign and had the Supreme power over them all and then delivered him to the Sword-men who came out with Clubbs and Staves against their Soveraign as against a Thief and as the Jews did the Lord our Saviour whom they did not acknowledge to be their King otherwise they would not have done it These men murthered their dread Soveraign whom they all acknowledged and vowed to be their only King Excelling the Jewes only in wickednesse Therefore since by the Laws of the Land there can be no Parliament without the King what difference is there between a Protector and one of their Parliaments but only number For their Protectors are but the head thieves and their Parliaments but a headless multitude of thieves For so long as the Royal Progenie of CHARLS the I. which God long preserve remain alive all other our Governours besides them will be but Rebells Traytors and Tyrants let them call themselves a Free State or by what names they please continue until the worlds end Therfore rouze up Citizens and take courage How long will you be the common Hackney to be ridden by every one that will stride you How long shall your Sanctuary be made a Stable and Den for Thieves Shall your Streets blush with the blood of Prophets and with the blood of your Citâ—zens and will not you change your colour where is the reverend Doctor Hewyt that Glory of your City that Glory of all Christians that Glory of the whole World whose fame shall out-live the Sun and his renown shine longer and brighter than the Moon or the lesser Stars Caesar the Usurper was wont to say Si violandum est jus regnandi causa esse violandum That if it is lawfull to forswear one self for any Cause the Cause of gaining a Kingdom is the most lawfull But there are those amongst us who have turned the Supposition into a Proposition and confidently by their practice affirm that it is lawfull to forswear one self for any thing and most sacred to be forsworn if by the perjury a Kingdom may be gained But I will not touch the Soars which lye raw before every mans eyes only this will I say which every one knoweth to be true that no Kingdom in the World was so happy both for peace and plenty law and religion and all other good things as our Kingdom of England was whilest due obedience was lawfully paid to our Soveraign Lord the King but now the King being murthered and all goodness with him no Nation under the Sun is more miserable and so it will continue untill King Charles the second be restored to his Crown The Sword of Gods word ought only to fight for Religion the Iron sword of Rebels did never establish Christian Religion nor ever will set up Christs Kingdom especially if it be unsheathed against Kings by their Subjects And to satisfie all Objections whatsoever against my writing I answer Si natura negat facit indignatio versum It was not to shew my self to the world for as in Tempests so in our daies he is best who is seen least abroad But it was to shew and prefer the Truth which hath been laid asleep by the Charmes of our Sins For to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnes to the truth every one that is of the Truth will hear the voice of the truth when I saw the many revolutions turnings of men like Weathercocks being presented almost every day with new strange and various shapes and forms of Government it caused me more diligently to search after the true reason of our changings which I found to be our Sins and the absence of our King also which was the best kind of Government which I found to be Monarchy and that all trayterous Tyrants sine titulo might most lawfully be killed by any privat hand but Kings only by God Truth often getteth hatred and it is the doom of serious books to be hooted at by those who have nothing
have the supreme power over the people is proved in Adam and testifyed by the Law of God the Law of Nations The Law of Nature The Law of Reason The Law of the Realm and by the Oathes of all English men aswel Parliament men as other Magistrates though since broken by our Saviour by the Apostles by all the Fathers of the Church and by all Christian People and Religion The glory of the Martyrs which have sacrificed their lives in this just cause shall live for ever and the Rebells shall go out with stink like the snuffe of a Candle The Majesty and power of the King described Good subjects commended and the punishment of Traytors with Korah Dathan and Abiram manifested The sad effects if the people should have the supreme power and proved by reason that no Government could stand nor any man whatsoever live if the people had power to question the King or other their Governors Two supreme powers cannot stand together Trayterous Tyrants alwayes pretend Liberty and Religion with which they blinde the ignorant people The Oath of Supremacy by whom taken and by whom broken with all Gods Commandments with it How the People of England deal with their King HAving satisfied all but those whose profit it is to believe the contrary who have no other grounds for their belief than other mens grounds and estates that Kings receive their power from God and not from the people and are independent from all but the Almighty I shall now shew 1. That they have the Supreme power over the people 2. That they are above the Law 3. That they are not to give account of their actions to the people but only to God and so conclude that there can be no just cause for the subjects either to take up armes against their Soveraign to call him to the bar to accuse him to condemn him or to kill or murther him First with the first That the first King was made in Paradice your have already heard and that there he received his dominion and power but from whom did he receive his power from God hath not God therefore greater power than the Kingâ— he hath From whence do the people derive their power from the King Hath not the King therefore more power than the people he hath Constituens Constituto potior The Constituent is better and higher in place and dignity than the Constituted But the power of God Constituted the power of Kings Ergo the power of God is greater than the power of Kings And quod efficit tale magis est tale that which maketh any such or such is in it self much more such or such But the King giveth power to the people Ergo the power of the King is higher than the power of the people The King is the only fountain from whence all the streams of authority flow to the people It is he that is the Magazine from whence they derive their power And Derivativa potestas non potest esse major primitiva a Derived power can not be greater than the primitive Therefore those men who place Soveraignty in the palace of the peoples breasts must needs be more knaves than fools for so great ignorance cannot roust in their pates who are so worldly wise But let them glosse the text with what false Commentaries they please make white black and black white and muster up dark clouds of jugling riddles to dazle the purblind sight of the Rascal rable of the people who think the Gown makes the Lawyer That that must needs be Law which the Judge saith esteem all things by their exterior apperances and only know how to be ignorant whose deceived foolishnesse is the Chariot on which our men of war ride triumphant from one degree of wickednesse to another Yet notwithstanding Legibus eversis rerum natura peribit the Law of nature shall perish and the Heavens and Earth shall passe away before Lex Terrae the Law of the Land shall deny this Oracle Omnis sub Rege ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo All men are under the King and the King is under none but God this is that Divine sentence quod nec Jovis ira nec ignes Nec poterit ferrum necedax abolere vetustas which neither angry Jove nor fiery Vulcan neither devouring age nor the bloudy sword a worse devourer than that shall ever expunge out of our Law-Books or explode out of the memory of every pious man This is that which many worthies have written with their blouds and sealed with their lives To this have many died Martyrs whose fame shall out-live the Sun and their memories be engraven upon the marble of everlasting monuments whilest others their opposers would be glad to have the stench of their ignominious names buried in the grave of oblivion where leaving them let us return to our King For nullum tempus occurrit Regi It is alwaies seasonable to do allegiance to the King whose power like the Ocean is boundlesse and his authority like the wind goeth where it listeth he only can proclaim war and he only can conclude peace he only can call Parliaments and dissolve them when he pleaseth he appointeth what Magistrates he pleaseth and turneth out whom he pleaseth all Laws Customs Privileges and Franchises are granted and confirmed to the people by him He raiseth men that are dead to life again for those that are condemned to die by the Judges are dead in Law but the Kings pardon reviveth them again He hath the sole power of ordering and disposing all the Castles Forts strong Holds Ports Havens and all other parts of the Militia He is the breath of our Nostrils the life head and authority of all that we do Supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habens having the Supreme power and meer empire over our bodies members lives and estates he doth whatsoever he pleaseth to be short he is our King And where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou Eccle. 8.3 4. But so greedy is humane nature of dominion and covetous to rule that we have some amongst us who professe themselves to be born Kings they are Kings by birth nay greater than Kings are here For Par in parem non habet Dominium one King cannot command another King But these men use Kings as Children do birds in a string give him what Liberty and Authority they please clip his wings lest he should fly too high for them put pins in his eyes to make sport with him and clip off his head too to make known their authority But doubtless these men were never bred in Christs University Did they ever hear of him If they did it is the worse for them For they which know the will of God and do it not will fare never the better for their knowledge It is better to be an ignorant fool than a cunning knave Reddite quae sunt Caesaris
which is not subject too but resisteth the power shall receive damnation but whosoever with defensive arms resisteth the King is not subject to but doth resist the power Therehe which with defensive arms resisteth the King shall receive damnation The Major no man can deny the Minor is inviolable and the Conclusion is perfect and sound There be those indeed who do confidently averr and have written a book too that there were men before Adam but I could never see any Scripture but their own interpretations and meanings to warrant their averments And untill Mr. Pryn can produce Texts of Scripture to warrant and maintain his confident averment he must excuse me if I still hold St. Paules Doctrine Canonical and his averment meer Apocripha For suppose the King subverteth both Law and Religion yet doth not that take away his supreme power he is still a King and Gods ordinance Saul was a King though an impious sinner and there have been wicked Kings as well as wicked Subjects to do evil saith one is no power but impotency therefore if the King command me to murther my self my Father to destroy my Country or to do any other wicked act I will not do it but obey God not him because it is his corruption not any power he hath from whence his commandment proceedeth and therefore I am not obliged to obey him because I must be a Subject to his power not to his sins yet if he should run after me with a naked Sword to kill me my Father my Mother ruine my Country Laws and Religion Yet would not I with defensive arms lift up my hands against him to resist hurt and destroy him because he is still my King and hath still that supreme power which God placed in him although he doth not then execute it and therefore if I should with defensive Arms lift up my hands to resist hurt and destroy him I should with defensive Arms lift up my hands to resist hurt and destroy the Ordinance of God and so receive damnation for my reward Not to perform the Kings command is a resistance although we suffer death Therefore if it be the Kings power and not his wicked will which commandeth me to do an evil thing if I did not perform his evil commandment I should resist his power and so be lyable to damnation although I patiently and meekly suffered death But doubtlesse the Kings power cannot command me to do any evil but it must proceed from his sinfull will for God is not the Author of any unrighteousnesse and there is no power but what God is the Author of therefore according to venerable Bede the Apostle doth not say Non est cupiditas nisi a Deo est enim mala cupiditas quae non est a deo nocendi autem voluntas potest esse a suo quoque animo pravo That there is no concupiscence but what is of God for there is an evil concupiscence which is not from God and the evil will of sinning proceedeth from our own depraved mindes therefore if the King command me to do an evil thing I ought to obey God not his wicked will but rather than to lift up my hands against him though in my defence I ought cheerfully and meekly to suffer a thousand deaths for by dying unjustly here I shall live eternally in Heaven and since the Glory of a Christian is the Crosse by suffering and dying a Martyr I shall obtain everlasting Glory and by my thus doing well I shall get praise even of the Power which the Kings wicked will made use of to destroy me but defence against the power of a King is offence therefore if with defensive arms I should fight against him I should resist Gods Ordinance and so receive damnation for by Gods Ordinance the King hath the power over all and his Actions ought not to be questioned or resisted by any but the Almighty But for my part I hold clearly that when the King executeth Tyranny taketh away the Lives or Estates of his Subjects unjustly that he doth it not only by reason of his wicked will according to the precedent distinction but by force and virtue of his power which God hath given him and that this is the power which St. Paul commandeth us to be subject unto which if we resist we shall receive damnation and that for several reasons It is most certain that there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God for by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16 Which expressions in the Abstract do expresse existents in the Concrete from whence it followeth that bad Kings have their power from God and are Gods Ordinance as well as good And it is manifest in Scripture that wicked Kings are often sent for the punishment of a Nation as in Hosea 13.11 I gave them a King in my wrath and took him away in mine anger And God commandeth us to pray for and be subject not only to the good but also to the bad Kings I exhort you that Prayers and Supplications and Thanksgiving be made for all men for Kings and such as are in Authority 1 Tim. 2.1 Thus Abraham prayed for King Abimeleck Gen. 20.17 And Jacob blessed the King of Aegypt Gen. 47.10 Yet the Kings of those times were Infidels and most notoriously wicked No man is ignorant that Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Jerusalem was a great spoyler and oppressor yet the Lord tells us by Ezekiel that he had given unto him the Land of Aegypt for the good service he had done in laying it waste on his Commandement And Daniel said unto him thus Dan. 2.37 Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom Power and Strength and Glory and wheresoever the Children of men dwell the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of Heaven hath he given into thy hand and hath made thee Ruler over them all Again to Belshazzar his Son Dan. 5.18 The most high God gave unto Nebuchadnezzar thy Father a Kingdom and Majesty and Glory and Honour and for the Majesty that he gave him all people Nations and Languages trembled and feared before him And again Jer. 27.6 I have made the Earth saith the Lord the Man and the Beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my outstretched Arm and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me And now have I given all these Lands into the Hands of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon my Servant and the Beasts of the Field have I given him also to serve him and all Nations shall serve him and his Son and his Sons Son untill the very time of his Land come And it shall come to passe that the Nation and Kingdom which will not serve the same Nebcchadnezzar
the House by the martial violence of the Souldiers their Masters whose Journy-Men they are yet no sooner do they find the door open but in they slip again like Dogs into the Buttery where they sit and eat the fat of the Land and the fruits of our labours for which they now and then shite us an Act of Parliament whereby they destroy our fundamental Laws and Liberties and invent new high Treasons against them such as our Law-Books nor Statutes never told us of by which they maintain themselves in their Robbery and the people in their Slavery As for the oath of Supremary Vows Protestations and Covenants which they made in the presence of God with hands lift up to heaven for vengeance if they did not perform them and all other oathes of Homage Fealty and Allegiance which the People took to be true and faithfull to the King These they discharge themselves and the People of by an Act of Parliament as if these Caterpillers could discharge debts due to the Almighty But to make God amends they passed another Act that the People should swear to be true and faithfull unto them To go about to number their villanies deceits treacheries perjuries and other their wicked Actions were to go about to number the sands of the Sea or the fraudulent devices of Belzebub their Master they being the Genus generalissimum of all Treason Rebellion Murther Blasphemy Hypocrisie Lying Swearing and For-swearing abounding in Wâ—oredom Drunkenness Leachery Treachery Covetousnesse Pride Ambition and all other detestable vices They are a pack of rotten putrefied Members glued together in the stinking body of sin And if I should give you a Character of each Simple wherewith this Compound is contracted it would fright you out of your wits for I speak really I think they are the very Quintessence of all the Devils in Hell And although this beast cannot well agree which horn or legge shall go foremost they being somwhat troubled in dividing the spoil and their usurped authorities which is caused by their pride and covetousness and although they differ in Ceremonies and Ciâ—cumstances yet they make it one of their Fudamentals upon which themselves and all their proceedings are builded to murther Charles the second as they did Charles the first when they can lay their unhallowed Claws upon him and although they hate and bark and snarle at one another like dogs yet in the great work of their Salvation like Pilate and Herod they all agree to be Traytor and Rebels against their King And so long as these Mastives Lord it over us we must never expect peace but alwayes live like dogs fighting and biting for what we have We must with them account vice vertue and vertue vice we must hold their words more canonical than Gods word and say that is law which they say is law though it be neither law truth nor reason Unlawfull wars set them up and we shall alwayes have wars and rumours of wars amongst us untill they are pulled down To be short we must resolve to forsake God and serve the Devil if we intend to keep any thing safe so long as this Phalaris the Tail of the House of Commons domineereth over us For the Children of this world being in their Generation wiser than the Children of Light Luke 16.8 These Worldlings are so wise and subtil to do mischief that when they commit the most deadly sin They make it passe to the world as the best service done to God and when they themselves make plots to murther honest Royalists then they get some of their hirelings to discover it and swear that the Royalists invented the plot against them and presently forsooth they vote and command that their three Kingdomes give God thanks for their great deliverance ascribing that which was done by their own providence to the Providence of the Almighty Nay they have their Lillies and other lying Astrologers whom they consult with before they commit any great wickednesse and make them publish to the world that the Heavens ruled and voted what these Beagles please to perform It is as natural for their Judges to judge unjustly if it be for the profit or pleasure of their Masters at Westminster as it is for them to live For how many innocent Gentlemen have they condemned to death for doing their duty in defending the King from unjust violence which we are all bound to do by the law of God Nature and of the Realm They have their Balaam Prophets and Priests too almost in every parish and pulpit which they make the Organs to sound forth their own praises so that the ignorant country multitudes who scarce know that there is a God but that they heard their Minister tell them so thinking that he doth God the best service and credit who hath the finest ribbond on his hat or that weareth the best cloaths on his back at Church these Momusses believe that the Saints at Westminster are the only supreme power on Earth and that no men in the world for some of them think that the sea side is the end of the world are to be compared to them either for wisdome learning or honesty and the only reason of their thoughts is Ipse dixit their Minister said so but last Sunday And this was the chiefest reason wherefore the countrey Peasants flocked in so fast to the Armies of those Neroes at Westminster raised against the King who alwayes made the ignorance of the people their greatest Champion And lest we should see the superiority of the King above and over the Knaves and other Cards they abolish and prohibit Card-playing as a great sin in their Commonwealth Why did they not give the superiority to the Knaves How these godly Villains stumble at strawes and leap over blocks They prohibit innocent recreations on the Sabbath day purposely because they would have the people esteem them zealous in Religion and stricter observers of Gods Commandments than the King But in truth they serv'd God only to serve themselves In nomine Domini incipit omne malum acting all their wickednesse in the name of the Lord. For when they have got a good name amongst the people they think under that shadow to act any wickednesse and yet to the world seem saints Murther their King too and yet be accounted good Christians nay Reformers of the Christian Religion O Religious Impostors To these Quacksalvers belongeth two Speakers alias dictos Lyars viz. the private Speaker Lenthall now called by the common souldiers the Father of their Country Can you blame the little Thieves if they applaud the great Thief and the publick Speaker Needham the one rough hammereth lyes at the forge the House of Commons the other fashioneth them in his Mercurius Politicus Thus they fill our eares with as many lies as their breasts be yet forsooth none must dare not to believe what they publish by authority Now the Presbyterian Judasses when they saw that the King
the shame of this impiety Providence bestoweth her blessings with blinde hands Prosperity doth not alwayes joyn hands with goodness neither is Adversity a true sign of illegality Good Kings may perish whilest wicked Rebels flourish David was forced by ungodly Traytors to flee from his Country Therefore our King may be a man after Gods own heart yet wrongfully driven from his own HAving given the unfortunate an Antidote Let us apply this Cordial That goodness is not an unseparable incident to prosperity success is no invincible argument that the cause is good Goodness and greatness are not alwayes companions Though Foxes have holes and Birds of the air have nests yet our Saviour the King of Kings had not where to lay his head King David though a man after Gods own heart was not without his troubles but had many infoelicities Though the subtile Foxes with their deceitful wiles banish our King from his Sacra Patrimonia his sacred Patrimony for so the possessions of Kings are called and make him wander up and down like a Pelican in the wilderness yet this is but like Jobs afflictions to make him the more glorious The top which is most scourged spinneth the better and the blustering windes make the Tree take the deeper root The Camomile the more it is trodden on the better it groweth and the Palm depressed riseth the higher so the afflictions of our Soveraign shall extol his renown the higher and like a ball thrown against the ground shall rebound and fly with more lofty Majesty For why his goodness doth increase by his misery and his Royal virtue like grass after a shower shall florish more gloriously God let Daniel be thrown into the Den to encrease his honour and chasteneth the Children which he loveth onely for their good What though cross gales drive us from our intended Haven And our hearts fail of all our desired injoyments so that blinde Fortune only striveth to make us miserable in prohibiting us from all our pleasing wishes Yet is this no argument that we are sinfull or that our desires are prophane What though a man be born blinde and so continue from his birth to his death Yet neither may this man have sinned nor his parents But that the John 29 works of God might be made manifest Can any one have the impudence to say that the King is wicked and that his cause is naught because the multitude of reprobates prevail and through the mightiness of their villanies subdue all that is good So may they argue that the Jews were Saints when they murthered our Saviour and that the Devil was an Holy Angel when he spoiled Job No God correcteth the pious that he may preserve them and permitteth the designs of the wicked to coach them to their own destructions He letteth Rebels dethrone their Soveraign and pull the earthly Crown from off his head that he may crown him in Heaven with everlasting glory The meanness of the case doth not diminish the lustre of the Jewel and Christ was a King though in the manger Seneca in Hyppolito Res humanas ordine nullo Fortuna regit spargitque manu Numera caeca pejora fovens Fortune doth not alwayes signally attest the design of such a party or the justnes of such an action to be righteous by permitting it to prosper and taper up into the world the Sun shines upon the bad aswell as the good and the rain makes their corn to grow oftentimes more plentiful than the righteous mens which makes the wicked glory in their actions and scorn all those as Atheists who will not Canonize them for Saints Honesta quaedam scelera successus facit If success doth but attend their enterprises let them be never so impiously wicked all the Logick and Rhetorick in the world cannot perswade them but that they are most sacred and righteous such is their profound ignorance and blind zeal That if the Devil put it into their hearts to murder their lawful King and Soveraign and likewise assist them to effect it they think they do God good service and punish all those with an Egyptian slavery who will not be of their opinion although expresly against God his Commandments viz. Fear God honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 They make God to be even altogether such a one as they are in crying that it is Gods cause even when they commit the greatest Sacriledge Persperum ac faelix scelus virtus vocatur a mischief neatly effected is one of their chiefest virtues This indeed made King David to stagger nay his steps had wellnigh slipt when he saw the prosperity of the wicked when he considered that they were not in trouble as other men nor plagued like other men Their Eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish This made him cry out Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence But when he went into the Sanctuary of God Then understood he their end For Surely thou didst set them in slipery places Thou castedst them down in destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors as a dream when one awaketh So O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image was his next vote Prov. 1.30 They would none of my Counsell they despised all my reproof Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices for the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of Fools shall destroy them Thus you see that prosperity is sometimes a curse and no blessing To those beasts we intend to kill we commonly allow the best pasture And surely those men are better acquainted with Mahomets Alchoran than our Saviours Gospel who will not be convinced but that temporal happiness is the true index of Divine favour God scattereth his outward blessings upon the wicked aswell as on the good because if Virtue and Religion should only appropriate riches more men would become virtuous and religious for the love of mony and wealth than out of any love they did bear either to Virtue or Religion Maro O fortuna potens quam variabilis Tantum juris atrox quae tibi vindicas Evertisque bonos erigis improbos Nec servare potes muneribus fidem Fortua immeritos auget honoribus Fortuna innocuos cladibus afficit Justos illa viros pauperie gravat Indignos eadem divitiis beat Haec aufert juvenes retinet senes Injusto arbitrio tempora dividens Quod dignis adimit transit ad impios Nec discrimen habet rectaque judicat Inconstans fragilis perfida lubrica Nec quos deseruit perpetuo premit Therefore let not those despair whom blind Fortune hath kicked into any mishap nor measure the justness of their actions by the quantity of success Though the voyce of the world censure it For it is not the event which makes it good or bad Careat successibus opto Quisquis
with all Religions but be sure to lead the Van in the most prevalent it matters not whether it be true or false let them look to that who intend to obtain eternal advantages of it we look no further than to enjoy the temporal A Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush It is the greatest obstacle to generous actions not to personate that Religion which will serve ones purpose best be it Canonical or Apocrypha and doubtless that Religion which brings the greatest profit and largest incomes is the most sacred and most consonant to Scripture But why should I blur my paper with the Description of this deceitfull Parliament the Theory whereof is become practical almost in every City Let us therefore lament at the funeral of our Laws and Religion and throw one sprig of rosemary into the grave where all our Rights Libertyes are buried That Son giveth cause of suspition of his Legitimation who will not mourn at his Mothers death And surely he was never a true born Son of the Church or Law that will not shed a tear when they are both fell to ruin Some though very few good Eleazors amongst us have lost their heads and lives for our Laws and Religion And although I am not worthy to dye a Martyr for them Haud equidem tali me dignor honore Yet whilst I live it living tears shall fall from mine eyes for them For Qâ—is talia fan do Mrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Vlyssis Temperet a lacrymis Who what Puritan Independent Anabaptist Presbyterian Quaker c. Or Red-coat as bad though not worse than any of them can restrain his Adamantine heart from grief and his eyes from tears when he considers the deplorable conditions which they have brought upon our Kingdom Who as it now plainly appeareth had no other quarrel against King than because they were not Kings themselves nor no other reason against Episcopacy than because each of them was not a Bishop They could never yet produce any argument sufficient unless the sword to prove that King or Bishop was not Jure Divino And now behold what the sword hath brought them unto I remember Cadmus sowed the teeth of a Serpent which sprung up armed men who presently destroyed one the other I will not determine that the seed of these men came from a Serpent but sure I am they cannot deny themselves but that they destroy each the other like Cadmus his men They kick the Government of our Kingdom about from one to the other like a foot ball And it will be marvail if some of them do not break their shins a swell as their consciences before the game is ended They make the Government Proteus-like to turn into what shape they please a true Common-wealth indeed being common to so many Rivalls And as the unruly Quadrupedes whirried about the Chariot Phoebus their lawfull Soveraign being absent untill they had set the whole world on fire so it is to be doubted that these headstrong Bears having cast away the rains of true obedience will not leave to wurry us untill they have brought us to utter ruine O England England Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatus ab illo How is thy fame besmeared and thy honour laid in the dust Once the envy of the whole world for the glory of thy Laws and Religion now become a by-word and a laughing-stock to all Nations Venit summa dies ineluctabile tempus The Sentence is already past and the decree is gone forth and nothing can avert the wrath of an angry Deity Tantaene animis caelestibus irae Can the Almighty be so passionate We want a Moses and we want an Aaron to intercede and make an attonement for us We want a Jonah to preach repentance And we want the hearts of Nineveh to entertain it We have done worse than to touch the Lords annointed and have killed his Prophets all the day long We have not reverenced his Sanctuary But have made it a den of Theeves and Stable for Beasts not altogether so bad as our selves O God why hast thou cast us off for ever why doth thine anger smoak against the Sheep of thy pasture O deliver not the soul of thy Turtle Dove unto the multitude of the wicked Forget not the Congregation of thy poor for ever Fuimus Trâ—es fuit Ilium ingens Gloria Toucrorum Remember thy old mercy and remember our former estate For though now like People like Priest The Prophets lye and the People would have it so Yet like Bethlehem we have not heretofore been the least amongst the Princes of the World We have had those who have thought it Melius tondere qaam deglubere oves better to trimm us than to flea us and Melius servare unum quam occidere mille better to preserve one than kill a thousand Who have been Tardus ad vindictam ad benevolentiam velox slow to do evill and revenge but swift to do good and reconcile Loving Pax bello potior peace better than war and esteeming it Pro patria mori pulchrum honourable to dye for their Country Which they have done and all Law Religion Justice and Equity with them Cum uno paricidio junxerunt juris divini naturalis juris gentium omnium legum publicarum privatarumque eversionem reipublicae perturbationem libertatis populi oppressionem Senatus abolitionem nobilitatis exterminationem innocentium damnationem peculatum aerarii publici direptionem solennis conventionis infractionem perfidiam jurisjurandi violationem statuum omnium confusionem immo subversionem Tempora mutantur nos mutamur in illis Sal. Therefore let no man be offended if I attend the funeral and say something on the behalf of the deceased It is a Christian duty and none will account it superstition to give an Encomium at burialls where it is due unless those who account it superstition to deserve well themselves De mortuis nil nisi bonum We must say nothing but good of the dead Therefore behold the Monument in these insuing political Aphorisms The Monument of the Laws or Regal and Political Aphorisms whereby the Prerogative of the King and the just liberties of the People are set forth and authorized by the Law of God and the Law of the Land KIngs are Jure Divino by Divine right to be obeyed and not by violent force of subjects to be resisted although they act wickedly Prov. 8.15 By me Kings raign Dan. 2.21 He removeth Kings and setteth up Kings Prov. 16.10 A Divine Sentence is in the lips of the King Prov. 21.1 The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord. Job 34.18 Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly Prov. 24.21 Fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change Eccl. 8.2 I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment Exod. 22.28 Thou shalt not speak evil of thy Prince
to a Multitude of Tyrants and the dreadfull events if the Tyrants do not restore the King to his own again The murder of the late King Charles is proved to be most illegal and how the Rebels use the liberty of the people only as a Cloak for their wickednesse and their Knavery discovered in pretending the supreme power to be in the people whereas they use it themselves and so Tyrannize over us The Laws of England described and proved that our Soveraign Charles the 1. was unjustly killed against the Common Law Statute Law and all other Laws of England WE have already clearly proved that Kings are by Divine institution that they have their power from the Heavens and not from terrestrial men and that their power is above the people and Laws We are now come to see whether the people the Kings subjects have power to destroy and put assunder that which God hath thus created and joyned together It is a sound conclusion which naturally and of necessity floweth from the premisses that they have not and having shewed 1. That God made the first King Adam in Paradise 2. That there he received his regal power from God not from the people And 3. That there he arbitrarily made Laws according to his will where he had reigned a Monarch for ever as Divines hold had not he transgressed Let us now see what became of him after his transgression for King Adam did transgress and he must give an account of his Stewardship But to whom must he give his account To man he cannot for the King hath no superiour on earth Therefore he must to God who in the 19 th verse of Gen. cap. 2. challengeth his praerogative And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him Where art thou No sooner did Adam hear God call but he presently gave an account of himself saying verse the 10. I heard thy voyce in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self Where note That God taketh an account chiefly of the king for his subjects offences The king is Gods Steward and God will reckon with him God sent him from Paradise out of the garden of Eden to till the ground Therefore that he may make a good account he must Parcere subjectis debellare superbos cherrish the flowers and root up the weeds He must be a nursing Father to his loyal subjects but he must batter down the swelling pride of Traytors The true Protestant Religion must florish as the best flowet in his Garden But the Anabaptists Independents Presbyterians Papists Jesuits and other wicked Sectaries must be pulled up as weeds lest they overspred and choak the good flower They must be extirpated by the root whilest they are young lest theâ— grow up and seed and their seed be sowen up and down in the whole World He must set the Bishops again in their natural soyl which is now grown over with these weeds and rubbish That that stone which these new builders refused may become the head stone of the Corner and the Bishops Lands which they did not refuse must be given to the Church again The Common Prayer Book now rejected as fit for none but the use of Papists He must bring in and make those Papists read it who now reject it as Popery for no other cause but that there is no Popery in it He must turn the Horses and other unclean beasts out of his Sanctuary now made a Stable St. Pauls c. and put in holy Bishops and reverend Pastors in their room And since our Saviour hath commanded it He must make the Lords Prayer current amongst us That our Ministers may leave off piping what they list and pipe the true tune which the Lord of life the best Musician taught them that all Gods people may dance For how can we dance when the instrument is out of order and the wrong tune is piped Good God! what a superstitious and Papistical age do we live in when we account it superstition and Popery to say the Lords Prayer the Common Prayer the ordinary means of our salvation O blessed Iesus Hast not thou commanded us not to use vain repetitions But when we pray to pray thus Our Father c Dost not thou know what we want better than our selves and hast thou not prescribed us a set form of prayer to ask it with And shall we cast thy prayer behind our backs and presume to come before thee without it are we wiser than the Lord of life or is there any nearer way to Heaven than that which he hath taught us shall we present the Lord with our own husks and trample on the Manna which he hath prepared for us Is there any other spirit to teach us to pray than the Spirit of the Lord which taught us in his Gospel When we petition to any of our superiours on earth then we premeditate and cull out filed and curious words worthy of his personage But when we should pray to the Almighty then any thing which lyeth uppermost is shot out at him like water out of a squirt and what pleaseth our foolish phantasies that we pretend to be the Spirit of the Lord. O God arise vindicate thy own cause Let not the soul of thy Turtle Dove be given into the power of the wicked For how is the Mother reviled by her Children and it grieveth thy servants to see her stones lye in the dust But rege venienti hostes fugierunt It is Gods Steward otherwise called Stewart with must remedy all this He must turn our spears into pruning hooks and our swords into plow-shares and so consequently our sword-men into plow-men The love of his Subjects must be the Magazine of his Artillery and their Loyally and obedience must be their chiefest good and honour O fortunatos nimium sua sâ— bona norint O happy multitude if they did but know their summum bonum their chiefest good which is loyalty and due obedience to their Soveraign For he will not break the Charters of their Corporations nor invade their rights and liberties He will not distrain for excessive Taxes nor impose great burdens on his Subjects The Law shall be to him as the apple of his eye and the true Protestant Religion as his dearest heart Learning shall florish and the Vniversities shall not be destroyed He will not murder the Prophets nor massacre the Citizens before their own doors He will not contrive plots with his Impes and Emissaries to catch honest men with their estate Justice shall run down the streets like streams and peace shall make the Land flow with milk and honey Every man shall eat the fruits of his vineyard under his own vines and enjoy the presence of his family with the absence of a Souldier He will not build up his throne with bloud nor establish his royal state with lyes and dissembling Flatterers will he abandon from his Court and those who keep other mens estates
person of any Tyrant Pax â—um hominibus bellum vitiis but I hate his Tyyrannie I freely forgive them all the injuries they have done to me or any of my friends and for their good I have written this Treatise but they are Gods enemies and God would be offended if we should let them sleep in their villanies Our Laws and Religion ought to be more dear to us than all things in the world for without them we should be worse than beasts and who more subverteth our Laws and Religion than Tyrants Vt imperium evertant libertatem preferunt cum perverterunt ipsam aggrediuntur saies Tacitus That they may pervert the legal Government they pretend liberty for the people and when the Government is down they then invade that libertie themselves Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium atque ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellent To rob to murther to plunder Tyrants falsely call to Govern and to make desolation they call to settle peace These are they which God sayes Hosea 8.4 Ipsi regnaverunt sed non ex me They have reigned but not by me They have made Princes and I knew it not and have cast off the thing that is gâ—od There is no power indeed but of God but the abuse of power is from the Devil These men do not rightly use but abuse the power and as Satan is called the Prince of the world so these men are called Governors of the Realm not because they are so by right but by Treacherie Rebellion and Treason their power is by Gods permission not by his Donation Therefore these are not the Dignities and higher powers which the Apostle commands us to be subject to for then we must be subject to the Devil too for Tyrants and Devils have powers both alike lawfull and both by Treason and Rebellion No we should resist and arm our selves against these enemies it is Disobedience to obey them Rebellion not to rebell against them and Treason not to plot Treason against them Therefore let everie one be readie with his dagger like Jodes to stab this devourer of mankind Bad Kings must be converted onelie with praiers and tears but Tyrants must be subdued with clubs and swords for Quis constituit te virum Principem Judicem super nos Exod. 2.14 Who made them Princes and Judges over us the King we know and the Kings son we know but who are they They are not of Gods making but of Beelzebubs their Master and their own making Therefore let everie good Christian arm himself against these Caterpillers devotion and action must go together let him not bribe his Conscience with self interests but take courage and fight the good fight that so he may deliver himself and his Countrie from slaverie and bring the Tyrants to the Rope their best winding sheet All other Governments are but the corruption and and shreds of Monarchy which is the most glorious and most profitable of all sorts of Governments when and how Aristocracy and Democracy begun rather by Gods permission than institution The proper Character of a Common-wealths man or the Definition of an English Changeling with his flexible and mutable qualities The absence of our King is the cause of the presence of our many sins and divisions IF you remember in my Division of Governments I made mention of Aristocracy and Democracy c. which indeed had their first Original from the corruption of Monarchy and are but shreds of Monarchy as all Politicians hold Therefore I will not spend time and paper to abuse your patience with anie thing but a Description of them For Virg. Verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes Quantum lent a soleni inter viburna cupressi Monarchy doth as far excell all other sorts of Government in glory profit conveniencie for the people and in all other good qualities as the Sun doth the Moon or the Moon the twinckling stars and is like the lofty Cedar amongst the servile shrubs Hence it cometh that even the Republicans who hate a King because he is their Soveraign Master are compelled to suffer and use Petite Monarchies as one may say under them as one Master over everie Familie one Maior over everie City one Sheriff over everie Countie one Rector over everie Parish Church one Pilot over every ship one Captain over everie Troop one Admiral over the Fleet and manie other Offices of trust and places wherein Pluralitie of persons would prove most obnoxious But Monarchie is and alwaies hath been proved and approved the best and most absolute lie good Aristocracy is the Government of a Common-wealth by some select number of the better sort of the people preferred for their wisdome and other vertues for the publick good Oligarchy is the swarving or distortion or Aristocracy or the Government of a few rich yet wicked men whose private end is the chiefest end of their Government tyrannizing over Law Religion and the people Democracy or popular estate is the Government of the multitude Where the people have the supream power and Soveraign autority Ochilocracy or a Common-wealth is the corruption and deprivation of Democracy where the rascal Rabble or viler sort of the people govern by reason of their multitude These kinds of Government were not heard of a long time after Monarchy began and the impulsive causes of them were contention and confusion and were rather permitted than ordained by God as the bill of Divorce was by Moses For non erat sic ab initio there was no such Government at the beginning for God did not create it as he did Monarchy when he made all things but the people being stragled up and down in the world and so in processe of time became out of the knowledge of their lawfull King rather than they would indure the miserable effects of Anarchy for Plebs fine Rege ruit there can be no family no society indeed no living without rulers they reâ—igned up their whole power and libertie to some few select men or else to many who made Laws for them and so tied up the hands of the unrulie and wicked and defended the just from the violent tempests and storms of the unjust to which before they lay open and naked which God seeing that it was better for them to have such a Government than none at all did allow of it but it hath no comparison with Monarcâ—y becuase that was instituted by Gods primarie Ordinance and the further men go from Gods original institution they have the more corruption Nay if compared to Monarchy it is a curse for Solomon saith Prov. 28.2 For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis How sweetlie doth the Poet sing when he saith that it is most sweet for one to govern for a companie of Governors