Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	good_a	king_n	subject_n	3,003	5	6.4581	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96595	Vindiciæ regum; or, The grand rebellion that is, a looking-glasse for rebels, whereby they may see, how by ten severall degrees they shall ascend to the height of their designe, and so throughly rebell, and utterly destroy themselves thereby. And, wherin is clearly proued by holy Scripturs, ancient fathers, constant martyrs, and our best modern writers, that it is no wayes lawfull for any private man, or any sort or degree of men, inferior magistrates, peeres of the kingdom, greatest nobility, lo. of the councel, senate, Parliament or Pope, for any cause, compelling to idolatry, exercising cruelty, prastizing [sic] tyranny, or any other pretext, how fair and specious soever it seems to be, to rebell, take armes, and resist the authority of their lawfull king; whom God will protect, and require all the blood that shall be spilt at the hands of the head rebels. And all the maine objections to the contrary are clearly answered. / By Gr. Williams, L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2675; Thomason E88_1; ESTC R204121	92,613	114

1. c. 8. pag. 95. in English and the place is worth the noting no power to make Lawes without their King no right to meet without his Writ no liberty to stay any longer then he gives leave how then can you meet as you doe now in my Episcopall See at Kilkenny and continue your Parliament there to make warre against your lawfull King What colour of reason have you to doe the same you cannot pretend to be above your King you have with lies and falshoods most wickedly seduced the whole Kingdome and involved the same in a most unnaturall civill warre you are the actives the King is passive you make the offensive He the defensive war for you began and when he like a gracious King still cried for peace you still made ready for battell And I doubt not but your selves know all this to be true for you know that all Parliament men must have their elections warranted by the Kings especiall Writ you will say The letter sent from a Gentleman to his friend that so you were well and you were chosen but by subjects and intrusted by them to represent the affections and to act the duties of subjects and subjects cannot impose a rule upon their Soveraigne nor make any ordinance against their King and therefore if the representative body of subjects transcend the limits of their trust and doe in the name of the Subjects that which all subjects cannot doe That men intrusted should not go beyond their trust and assume that power which the subjects neither have nor can conferre upon them I see no reason that any subject in the world should any wayes approve of their actions for how can your priviledge of being Parliament men priviledge you from being Murderers Theeves or Traytors if you doe those things that the Law adjudgeth to be murders thefts and treasons Your elections cannot quit you and your places cannot excuse you because he that is intrusted cannot doe more then all they that doe intrust him and therefore all subjects should desert them that exceed the conditions and falsifie the trust which their fellow subjects have reposed in them Besides The King must needs be a part of every Parliament you know the King must needs be reputed part of every Parliament when as the selected company of Knights and Burgesses together with the Spirituall and Temporall Peeres are the representative body and the King is the reall head of the whole Kingdome and therefore if the body separates it selfe from the head it can be but an uselesse trunke that can produce no act which pertaineth to the good of the body because the spirits that give life and motion to the whole body are all derived from the head as the Philosopher teacheth And further you doe all know The power of dissolving the Parliament greater then the power of denying any thing that as the King hath a power to call so he hath a power to dissolve all Parliaments and having a power of dissolving it when he will he must needs haue a power of denying what he pleaseth because the other is farre greater then this And therefore all these premises well considered it is apparent that your sitting in Kilkenny without your King or his Lieutenant which is to the same purpose and your Votes without his assent are all invalid to exact obedience from any subject and for my part I deeme them fooles that will obey them and rebels that will take armes against their King at your commands and if you persist in this your rebellious obstinacy I wish your judgements may light onely upon your owne heads and that those which like the followers of Absolon are simply led by you may have the mist taken from their eyes that they may be able to discerne the duty they owe unto their King that they be not involved and so perish in your sin For though you be never so many and thinke that all the Kingdome Townes and Cities be for you yet take heed lest you imagine such a mischievous device which you are not able to performe Psal 21.11 for the involving of well-mearing men into your bad businesses 1. Reg. 22.29 as Jehoshaphat was misled to warre against Ramoth Gilead doth not onely bring a punishment upon them that are seduced but a farre greater plague upon you that doe seduce them and God who hath at all times so exceeding graciously defended His Majesty and contrary to your hopes and expectation from almost nothing in the beginning of this rebellion hath increased his power to I hope an invincible Army will be a rock of defence unto his anointed For what causes the King suffereth because it is well known to all the world that whatsoever this good King hath suffered at the hands of his subjects it is for the preservation of the true Protestant Religion of the established Lawes of his Kingdoms and of those Reverend Bishops Grave Doctors and all the rest of the Learned and Religious Clergy that have ever maintained and will to the spilling of the last drop of their blood defend this truth against all Papists and other Anabaptisticall Brownists and Sectaries whatsoever And therefore if you that are his Parliament What a shame it is to use the power we have received against him that gave it us should like unthankefull vapours that cloud the Sunne which raised them or like the Moone in her interposition that obscures the glorious ' lampe which enlightens her in the least manner imploy that strength which you have received from His Majesty when he called you together against His Majesty it will be an ugly spot and a foule blemish both for your selves and all your posterities and if not suddenly prevented you may raise such spirits that your selves cannot lay downe and sow such deeds of discord and discontent betwixt the King and his people as may derive through the whole Race of all succeeding Kings such a disaffection to Parliaments as may prove a plague and poyson to the whole Kingdome For if the King out of his favour and grace call you together and intrust you with a power either of continuing concluding or enacting such things as may be for the good of the Commonwealth you abuse that power against him that gave it you I must needs confesse that I am of his mind who saith That it is lawfull to recall a power given when it is abused that the King were freed before God and man from all blame though he should use all possible lawfull means to withdraw that power into his owne hands which being but lent them hath bin so misapplyed against him for if my servant desireth to hold my sword and when I intrust him with it he seekes to thrust the same into my breast will not every man judge it lawfull for me to gaine my sword if it be possible out of his hand and with that sword to cut off his head that would

Magistrates Peeres The Conclusion of the whol Parliaments Popes or whatsoever you please to cal them to give so much liberty unto their misguided consciences so far to follow the desires of their unruly affections as for any cause or under any pretence to withstand Gods Vice-gerent and with violence to make warre against their lawfull King or indeed in the least degree and lowest manner to offer any indignity either in thought word or deed either to Moses our King or to Aaron our High Priest that hath the care and charge of our soules or to any other of those subordinate callings that are lawfully sent by them to discharge those offices wherewith they are intrusted This is the truth of God and so acknowledged by all good men And what Preachers teach the contrary I dare boldly affirme it in the name of God that they are the incendiaries of Hell and deserve rather with Corah to be consumed with fire from Heaven then to be beleeved by any man on Earth CHAP. X. Sheweth the impudency of the Anti-Cavalier How the Rebels deny they warre against the King An unanswerable Argument to presse obedience A further discussion whether for our Liberty Religion or Lawes we may resist our Kings and a patheticall disswasion from Rebellion I Could insert here abundant more both of the Ancient and Moderne Writers that doe with invincible Arguments confirme this truth Anti-Cavalier p. 17.18 c. but the Anti-Cavalier would perswade the world that all those learned Fathers and those constant Martyrs that spent their purest blood to preserve the purity of religion unto us did either belye their owne strength * Yet Tertul. Cypr. whom I quoted before and Ruffin hist Eccles l. 2. c. 1. and S. August in Psal 124. and others avouch the Christians were far stronger then their enemies and the greatest part of Iulians army were Christians or befoole themselves with the undue desire of overvalued Martyrdome but now they are instructed by a better spirit they have clearer illuminations to informe them to resist if they have strength the best and most lawfull authority that shall either oppose or not consent unto them thus they throw dirt in the Fathers face and dishonour that glorious company and noble army of Martyrs which our Church confesseth prayseth God and therefore no wonder that they will warre against Gods annointed here on Earth when they dare thus dishonour and abuse his Saints that raigne in Heaven but I hope the world will beleeve that those holy Saints were as honest men and those worthy Martyrs that so willingly sacrificed their lives in defence of truth could as well testifie the truth and be as well informed of the truth as these seditious spirits that spend all their breath to raise armes against their Prince and to spill so much bloud of the most faithfull Subjects But though the authority of the best authors is of no authority with them that will beleeve none but themselves yet I would wish all other men to read that Homilie of the Church of England where it is said that God did never long prosper rebellious subjects against their Prince were they never so great in authority or so many in number yea were they never so noble so many so stout so witty and politique but allwaies they came by the overthrow and to a shamefull end Yea though they pretend the redresse of the Common-wealth which rebellion of all other mischiefes doth most destroy or reformation of religion whereas rebellion is most against all true religion yet the speedy overthrow of all Rebels sheweth The Homily against rebellion p. 300 301. that God alloweth neither the dignity of any person nor the multitude of any people nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for the which the subjects may move rebellion against their Princes and I would to God that every subject would read over all the six parts of the Homilie against willfull rebellion for there are many excellent passages in it which being diligently read and seriously weighed would worke upon every honest heart never to rebell against their lawfull Prince And therefore the Lawes of all Lands being so plaine to pronounce them Traytors that take armes against their Kings as you may see in the Statutes of England 25. Edw. 3. c. 2. And as you know it was one of the greatest Articles for which the Earle of Strafford was beheaded that he had actually leavied warre against the King The Nobles and Gentry Lords and Commons of both Houses of Parliament in all Kingdomes being convicted in their consciences with the truth of this Doctrine doe in all their Votes and Declarations conlude and protest and I must believe them that all the leavies monies and other provision of Horse and Men that they raise and arm are for the safety of the Kings person and for the maintenance of his Crowne and Dignity Nay more then this the very Rebels in this our Kingdome of Ireland knowing how odious it is before God and man for subjects to rebell and take armes against their lawfull King do protest if you will believe them that they are the Kings Souldiers and doe fight and suffer for their King and in the defence of his Prerogatives But you know the old saying Tuta frequensque via est sub amici fallere nomen the Devill deceiveth us soonest when he comes like an Angel of light and you shall ever know the true subjects best by their actions farre better then by their Votes Declarations or Protestations for Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta When men doe come in sheepes cloathing and inwardly are ravening wolves when they come with honey in their mouthes and gall in their hearts and like Joab with peace in their tongue and a sword in their hand a petition to intreat and a weapon to compell I am told by my Saviour that I shall know them by their works not their words And therefore as our Saviour saith Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven So I say not he that cryeth peace peace is the sonne of peace but he that doth obey his Prince and doth most willingly whatsoever hee commandeth or suffereth most patiently for refusing to doe what hee commandeth amisse This is the true Subject Well to draw towards the end of this point That is when the Commonalty guide the Nobility and the Subjects rule their King of our obedience to our Soveraigne Governour I desire you to remember a double story the one of Plutarch which tels us how the tayle of the Serpent rebelled against the head because that did guide the whole body and drew the tayle after it whithersoever it would therefore the head yeelded that the tayle should rule and then it being small and wanting eyes drew the whole body head and all through such narrow crevises clefts and

thickets that it soone brought the Serpent to confusion The other is of Titus Livius who tels us Titus Livius Decad. 1. l. 2. that when the people of Rome made a factious combination to rebell against their Governours Menenius Agrippa went unto them and said that on a time all the members conspired against the stomack and alleadged that shee devoured with ease and pleasure what they had purchased with great labour and paine therefore the feet would walke no more the hands would worke no more the tongue would plead no more for it and so within a while the long fast of the stomack made weake knees feeble hands dimme eyes a faltering tongue and a heavy heart and then presently seeing their former folly they were glad to be reconciled to the stomack againe and this reconciled the people unto their Governours I need not make any other application but to wish and to advise us all with the people of Rome to submit our selves unto our heads that are our Governours lest if wee bee guided by the tayle we shall bring our selves with the Serpent unto destruction And to remember that excellent speech of S. Basil the people through ambition are fallen into grievous Anarchy whence it happeneth that al the exhortations of their rulers do no good no man hath any list to obey but every man would raigne being swelled up with pride that springeth out of his ignorance and a little after he saith that some sit no lesse implacable and bitter examiners of things amisse then unjust and malevolent Iudges of things well done Basilius de Spiritu Sancto c. ult scil 30. so that we are more bruitish then the very beasts because they are quiet among themselves but we wage cruell and bloudy warre against each other And let us never forget that the Lord saith Honour thy father and thy mother An argument of obedience drawne from the 5. commandement and I must tell you that by father in this precept you must not onely understand your naturall father but also the King who is your politicall father and the father of all his subjects and the Priest your spirituall father and those likewise that in loco patris 1 Chron. 2.24 doe breed and bring you up and though naturall affection produceth more love and honour unto those fathers that begat us yet reason and religion oblige us more unto the King that is the common father of all and to the Priest that begat us unto Christ then unto him that begat us into the world for that without our new birth which is ordinarily done by the office of the Priest we were no Christians and as good unborne as unchristened What wee are and should be without King or Priest that is unregenerated and without the King that is Custos utriusque tabulae the preserver both of publique justice and of the pure religion our fathers can neither bring us up in peace nor teach us in the faith of Christ and therefore if my father should plot any treason against the King or prove a Rebell against him I am bound in all duty and conscience to preferre the publique before the private and if I cannot otherwise avert the same to reveale the plot to preserve the King though it were to the losse of my fathers life and therefore certainely they that curse that is speake evill of their King are cursed and they that rebell against him shall never have their daies long in the land but shall through their owne rebellion be soone cut off from the land of the liuing For mine owne part Whether for the liberty of Subjects we can be warranted to rebell In the discourse of the differences betwixt King Parliament I have often admired why the subjects of King CHARLES should raise any civill war and especially turne their spleene against him if any say it is for their liberties I answer that I am confident his Majesty never thought to bring any the meanest of his subjects into bondage nor by an arbitrary government to reduce them into the like condition as the Peasants of France or the Boores of Germany or the Pickroes of Spaine as some doe most falsly suggest but that they should continue as they have beene in the dayes of his Father of blessed memory and of all others his most noble Progenitours the freest subjects under Heaven And I hope they desire not to be such libertines as those in the Primitive Church The libertines of the Primitive Church what they thought who because Christian liberty freed us from all Iewish Ceremonies and all typicall Rites which were such a burthen that neither we nor our fathers could undergo and also from the curse and malediction of the morall law would under this pretence of Christian liberty bee freed from the obligation of all lawes and give themselves the freedoms to doe what they pleased for this would prove to be not the liberty but the bondage and the base slavery of a people that are not governed by lawes but suffered to doe what they please because that neither God nor good lawes confine us but for our owne good and hee that forbids us to obey impious commands bids us to obey all righteous lawes and rather to suffer then to resist the most unrighteous Governours But I feare that under the name of the liberty of the subjects the licentiousnesse of the flesh is aymed at What is often aymed at under the name of the liberty of the subjects because you may see by what is already come to passe our civill dissention hath procured to many men such a liberty that few men are sure either of their life or estate and God blesse mee from such a liberty and send me rather to be the slave of Christ then such a libertine of the World And if religion bee the cause that moveth you hereunto Whether for the preservation of our redigion wee can bee warranted to rebell I confesse this should be dearer to us then our lives but this title is like a velvet maske that is often used to cover a deformed face decipimur specie recti for as that worthy and learned Knight Sir Iohn Cheeke that was Tutor to King Edward the sixth saith if you were offered Persecution for Religion you ought to fly and yet you intend to fight if you would stand in the truth yee ought to suffer like Martyrs and you would slay like Tyrants Thus for religion you keepe no religion and neither will follow the counsell of Christ nor the constancy of Martyrs And a little after he demands why the people should not like that Religion which Gods Word established the Primitive Church hath authorized the greatest learned men of this Realme and the whole consent of the Parliament have confirmed and the Kings Majesty hath set forth is it not truly set out Sir Iohn Check in the true subject to the rebell p. 4. 6. Dare you Commons

take upon you more learning then the chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realme have this was the judgement of that judicious man and I must tell you that Religion never taught Rebellion neither was it the will of Christ that faith should bee compelled by fighting but perswaded by preaching for the Lord sharply reproveth them that built up Sion with bloud Micah 3.10 and Hierusalem with iniquity and the practice of Christ and his Apostles was to reforme the Church by prayers and preaching and not with fire and sword and they presse obedience unto our Governours yea though they were impious infidels True religion never rebelleth and idolatrous with arguments fetched from Gods ordinance from mans conscience from wrath and vengeance and from the terrible sentence of damnation and this truth is so solid that it hath the cleare testimony of holy Writ the perpetuall practice of all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs and I dare boldly say it the unanimous consent of all the Orthodox Bishops and Catholique Writers both in England and Ireland and in all the World that Christian Religion teacheth us never with any violence to resist or with armes to withstand the authority of our lawfull Kings If you say the Lawes of our Land Whether the Lawes of our Land doe warrant us to rebell and the Constitutions of this our Kingdome doe give us leave to stand upon our liberty and to withstand all tyranny that shall bee offered unto us especially when our estates lives and religion are in danger to bee destroyed To this I say with Laelius Laelius de privileg Eccl. 112. that Nulla lex valeat contra jus divinam mans laws can exact no further obedience then may stand with the observance of the divine precepts and therefore wee must not so prefer them or rely upon them so much as to prejudice the other and for our feare of the losse of estate life or religion I wish it may not be setled upon groundlesse suspitions for I know and all the World may beleeve that our King is a most clement and religious Prince that never did give cause unto any of his subjects to foster such feares and jealousies within his breast and you know what the Psalmist saith of many men They were affraid where no feare was And Iob tels you whom terrours shall make affraid on every side Iob 18.11 12 and shall drive him to his feet that is to runne away as you see the Rebels doe from the Kings Army in every place and in whose Tabernacle shall dwell the King of feare for though the ungodly fleeth when no man pursueth him yet they that trust in God are confident as Lyons without feare they know that the heart of the King is not in his owne hand but in the hand of the Lord Prov. 21.1 as the rivers of waters he turneth it whithersoever it pleaseth him either to save them or destroy them even as it pleaseth God hee ordereth the King how to rule the people Bonav ad secundam dist 35. art 2. q. 1. And therefore in the name of God and for Christ Iesus sake let me perswade you to put away all causles feares and groundlesse jealousies and trust your King if not trust your God and let your will which is so unhappy in it selfe become right and equall by receiving direction from the will of God and remember what Vlpian the great Civilian saith that rebellion and disobedience unto your King is proximum sacrilegio crimen and that it is in Samuels judgement as the sin of witchcraft The remembrance of his oath should be a terrour to the conscience of every rebell whereby men forsake God and cleave unto the Devill and above all remember the oath that many of you have taken to bee true and faithfull unto your King and to reveale whatsoever evils or plots that you shall know or heare to bee contrived against his Person Crowne or Dignity and defend him from them Pro posse tuo to the uttermost of your power So helpe you God Which oath how they that are any wayes assistant in a warre against their King can dispence with I cannot with all my wit and learning understand and therefore returne O Shulamite returne lay downe thine armes submit thy selfe unto thy Soveraigne and know that as the Kings of Israel were mercifull Kings so is the King of England 1 King 20.32 thou shalt find grace in the time of need but delay not this duty lest as Demades saith the Athenians never sate upon treaties of peace but in mourning weeds when by the losse of their nearest friends they had paid too deare for their quarrels so thou be driven to doe the like for except the sinnes of the people require no lesse satisfaction then the ruine of the Kingdome I am confident and am ready to hazard life and fortunes in this confidence that the goodnesse of our King The Authors confidence of the Kings victory the justnesse of his cause and the prayers of all honest and faithfull Ministers for him and our Church will in the end give him the victory over all those his rebellious enemies that with lyes slanders and false imputations have seduced the Kings subjects to strengthen themselves against their Soveraigne and all the World shall see that as Christ so in Sensu modificato this Vicegerent of Christ shall rule in the midst of these his enemies and shall raigne untill hee puts them all under his feet And because we never read of any rebellion not this of Corah here A rebellion that the like was never seen which of above six hundred thousand men had not many more then 250. Rebels nor that of Absolon against David who had all the Priests and Levites and the best Counsellours and a mighty Army with him such as was able to overthrow Absolon and twenty thousand men in the plaine field nor Israel against Rehoboam because they did but revolt from him and not with any hostile Armes invade him nor the Senate of Rome against Caesar though hee was the first that intrenched upon their liberty and intended to exchange their Aristodemocracy into a Monarchy nor any other that I can remember except that Councell which condemned Christ to death that was growne to that height to bee so absolute and so perfect a rebellion in all respects as that a whole Parliament in a manner and the major part of the Plebeians of a whole Kingdome should make a Covenant with Hell it selfe yea and which is most considerable that as I understand the beginning of this rebellion in this Kingdome of Ireland was the Commenalty therein should so fascinate the Nobility as to allure them so long to confirme their Votes till at last they must bee compelled in all thhings to adhere unto their conclusions that they whose power was formerly most absolute without them must now bee subordinate unto them that the strength of the people may defend

be good he doth not punish the well-doer but loveth him because he doth well but if the Prince be evill Alex. Hales p. 3. q 48. memb 2. art 1. de offic subd erga Prine and punisheth the well-doer he hurteth him not but purgeth him and therefore he is not a terrour to him that doth well but the wicked ought to seare because Princes are appointed that they should punish evill Aquinas saith the faith of Christ is the beginning and the eause of righteousnesse and therefore by the faith of Christ the order of Justice is not taken away but rather setled and strengthened because as our Saviour saith It became him to fulfill all righteousnesse But the order of justice doth require that all inferiours should obey their superiours otherwise the estate of humane affaires could no wayes be preserved Thom. secunda secundae q. 104. art 6. and therefore by the faith of Christ the godly and the faithfull Christians are neither exempted nor excused but that they are tyed and bound by the Law of Christ to obey their secular Princes Where you see the Christian faith doth not submit the superiour to the inferiour contrary to the rule of justice neither doth it any wayes for any cause permit the power of the sword to any subiect to be used against his Prince because this inordinate power would turne to the ruine of mankinde and the destruction of all humane affairs which can no otherwise be preserved but through the preservation of the order of justice Indeed many times there may happen some just causes Wherein we may disobey and how for which we are not bound to obey the commands of our Magistrates as when they command any thing contrary to the commandements of God and yet then there can be no cause why we should withstand him that executeth the uniust sentence of our condemnation or requireth the punishment that an uniust malitious Magistrate under the colour of his power and authority hath most unjustly laid upon us because he hath as our Saviour saith unto Pilate this ordinary power from God which if he doth abuse he is to be refrained not by the preparation of armes and the insurrection of his subjects to make impressions upon their Soveraigne but by those lawfull meanes which are appointed for them that is Petitions unto him and prayers and tears unto God for him because nothing else remaineth to him that is guilty or condemned as guilty for any fault but to commit his cause to the knowledge of the omnipotent God and to expect the iudgement of him which is the King of Kings and the Judge of all Judges and will undoubtedly chastise and correct the iniquity of any unjust sentence with the severitie of eternall justice Barcl l. 3. c. 10. as Barclay saith These testimonies are cleare enough and yet to all these I will adde this one memorable example Berthetus in explicat contro ver Gallicanae cap. 7. which you may read in Berchetus and Joh. Servinus which tell us that in France after the great Massacre at Paris when the reformed Religion did seeme as it were forsaken and almost extinguished a certain King powerfull in strength rich in wealth and terrible for his Ships and navall Force which was at enmitie and hatred with the King of France dispatched a solemne Embassie and Message unto Henry King of Navarre and other Protestant Lords and commanded his Embassadours to do their best to set the Protestants against the Papists and to arme Henry the Prince of Navarre which then lived at Bearne under the Dominion of the most Christian King against his Soveraigne the French King which thing the Embassadours endeavoured to do with all their art and skill but all in vaine An er ample o a faithfull and excellent Subject for Henry being a good subject as it were another David to become a most excellent King would not prevent the day of his Lord yet the Embassadours offered him many ample fair and magnificent conditions among the rest abundance of money the sum of three hundred thousand Aureorum scutatorum French Crownes which were readie to be told for the preparation of the warre and for the continuation of the same there should be paid every moneth so much as was necessarie but Henry being a faithfull Christian a good Prince a widower and though he was displaced from the publique government of the Common-wealth and for his sake for the dislike the King bare towards him the King had banished many Protestants from his Countrey and had killed many faithfull Pastours yet would not he for all this lift up his hand against the Lords anointed Joh. Servinus pro libertat Ecclesiae statu Regni tom 3. Monarchiae Rom. p. 202. but refused their gold rejected their conditions and dismissed the Embassadours as witnesses of his faith to God his fidelitie and allegeance to his King and peaceable minde towards his Countrey Where you see this prudent and good Prince had rather patiently suffer these intolerable injuries that were offered both to himself to the inferiour Magistrates and to many other good Christians for his sake then any wayes undutifully resist the ordinance of God And surely this example is most acceptable unto God most wholsome for any Common-wealth and most honourable for any subordinate Prince for I am certain this is the faith of Christ and the religion of the true Protestants not to offer but to suffer all kinde of injuries and to render good for evill and rather with patience love and obedience to studie to gaine the favour of their Persecuters then any wayes with force and armes to withstand those that God hath placed in authority which must needs be not onely offensive unto God whose ordinance they do resist but also destructive to the Common-wealth which can never receive any benefit by any insurrection against the Prince 3. 3. Not for any tyranny that shall be offered unto us Though the King should prove to be Nerone Neronior worse then Phalaris and degenerating from all humanitie should prove a Tyrant to all his people yet his subjects may not rebell against him upon this pretence for if any cause should be admitted for which subjects might rebell that cause would be alwayes alledged by the Rebels whensoever they did rebell and whom I and many others should deeme a good Prince and most pious the Rebels would proclaim him tyrannicall and idolatrous And therefore in such a case The difference betwixt King and people to be determined onely by God when some men think their King most gratious and others think him vitious some beleeve him to be good others beleeve him to be evill shall we think it fit that the disaffected party shall presently with armes decide the controversie and not rather have the accused the accuser and the witnesses before a competent Judge to determine the truth of this question Surely this seems more reasonable and more agreeable

you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And as he said unto Saul when he persecuted the servants of Christ Act. 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me when as hee was then in Heaven farre above the reach of Saul yet because there is such a mysticall union betwixt Christ and his Church the head and members as is betwixt man and wife no man can be said to injure the one but he must wrong the other so whosoever resisteth the Kings Lieutenant Deputy or any other Magistrate or Officer that he sendeth with Commission to execute his commands resisteth the King himselfe and all the indignities that are offered to the Kings Embassador or servant that he thus sendeth 2 Sam. 10. are deemed as indignities offered to the King himselfe as we see the base usage of Davids servants by King Hanun David revenged as an abuse offered unto himselfe because the Kings person cannot be in all places where justice and judgement Whatsoever is done to any Messenger is deemed as dont to him that sent him and many other offices and actions are necessarily to be done throughout the latitude of his Dominions but his power and his authority deputed to those his servants and officers that he sendeth are as the lively representatives of the King in every part of his Kingdome and whatsoever favour payment neglect or abuse is shewed unto any of them the same in all Nations is accounted and therefore punished or rewarded as a service done unto the King himselfe as our Saviour when but the Tole-gatherer came for the Tribute money saith Give unto Caesar what belongeth unto Caesar And therefore it is but an idle simple and most foolish frivolous distinction of men to deceive children and fooles to say they love and honour their King and they fight not against their King but against such and such whom notwithstanding they know to be the Kings chiefest officers and to be sent with the Kings Power Commission and Authority to doe those things that they doe this is such a foppery that I know not what to say to undeceive those that are so desirous to be deceived when the Devill * S. Paul saith God sendeth them strong delusions 2 Thess 2.11 But what God sendeth justly as the punisher of their sin the Devill sendeth maliciously as the guider of them to Hell which knoweth how neare their destruction hangeth over their heads sends them strong delusions that they should so easily and so sillyly believe such palpable lyes as to make them thinke they love him dearely whom they murder most barbarously Barnesius Barnesius in tract de humanis constitut a very godly and learned man treating of the same Argument saith in a manner the same thing that the servants of Christ rather then either commit any evill or resist any Magistrate ought patiently to suffer the losse of their goods and the tearing of their members nay the Christian after the example of his Master Christ ought to suffer the bitterest death for truth and righteousnesse sake and therefore saith he whosoever shall rebell under pretence of Religion aeternae damnationis reus erit he shall be found guilty of eternall damnation Master Dod saith Master Dod upō the Commandements that where the Prince commandeth a lawfull act the subjects must obey and if he injoynes unlawfull commands we must not rebell but we must be content to beare any punishment that shall be laid upon us even unto death it self and we should suffer our punishment without grudging even in heart and this he presseth by the example of the Three Children and of Daniel that was a mighty man and of very great power in Babylon yet never went about to gather any power against his King though it were in his own defence Master Byfield expounding the words of S. Peter Master Byfield upon 1 Pet. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Supreame saith this should confirme every good subject to acknowledge and maintaine the Kings supremacy and willingly to binde himselfe thereto by oath for the oath of supremacy is the bond of this subjection and this oath men must take without equivocation mentall evasion or secret reservation yea it should binde in them the same resolution that was in Saint Bernard who saith if all the world should conspire against me to make me complot any thing against the Kings Majesty yet I would feare God and not dare to offend the King ordained of God I might fill a volume if I would collect the testimonies of our best Writers I will adde but one of a most excellent King our late King Iames of ever blessed memory for he saith The improbity or fault of the governour ought not to subject the King to them over whom he is appointed Judge by God Serenissimus Rex Jacobus de vera lege liberae Monarchiae for if it be not lawfull for a private man to prosecute the injury that is offered unto him against his private adversary when God hath committed the sword of vengeance onely to the Magistrate how much lesse lawfull is it thinke you either for all the people or for some of them to usurpe the sword whereof they have no right against the publike Magistrate to whom alone it is committed by God This hath beene the Doctrine of all the Learned of all the Saints of God of all the Martyrs of Jesus Christ The obedient example of the Martyrs in the time of Queene Mary and therefore not only they that suffered in the first Persecutions under Heathen Tyrants but also they that now of late lived under Queene Mary and were compelled to undergoe most exquisite torments without Number and beyond Measure yet none of them either in his former life or when he was brought to his execution did either despise her cruell Majesty or yet curse this Tyrant Queene that made such havock of the Church of Christ and causelesly spilt so much innocent bloud but being true Saints they feared God and honoured her and in all obedience to her authority they yielded their estates and goods to he spoyled their liberties to be infringed and their bodies to be imprisoned abused and burned as oblations unto God rather then contrary to the command of their Master Christ they would give so much allowance unto their consciences as for the preservation of their lives to make any shew of resistance against their most bloudy Persecuters whom they knew to have their authority from that bloudy yet their lawfull Queene And therefore I hope it is apparent unto all men that have their eyes open Numb 24.15 Gen. 19.11 and will not with Baalam most wilfully deceive themselves or with the Sodomites grope for the wall at noone day that by the Law of God by the example of all Saints by the rule of honesty and by all other equitable considerations it is not lawfull for any man or any degree or sort of men