weighty Wherefore since this Discovery has been already my task in this place upon like occasion I will onely touch at no more of that Argument than what may be considered under my third particular which was 3. TO inquire into the Original Progress and Issue of this breaking Fidelity or this Perjury by a supervening Covenant And because the Order undoubtedly as well as the Mind of the Text is Sacred I am not to be perswaded that these words have this place in the Prophets reproof without a mystery for they seem to express that consummate Iniquity to which the Israelites could not arrive without they had advanced by these four degrees 1. BY Hypocrisie and Dissimulation Implyed in these words Israel is an empty Vine v. 1. Symachus his * Apud Hieron in Loc. Version calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Vine luxuriant with fruitless branches is fitly accommodated to this meaning For its shoots were as forward its Shade as pleasant the Shew it made as plausible as well might be God could not visit but they were all humbled In Bonds they mourn look sad and penitent but after Redemption they are the same When Calamity has Invaded them they have howled but none of their Cryes are from their heart They Return but not to me says God Hosea 7.13 14 16. They feared God but no more than was consistent with their †2 Kings 17.33 serving Idols All the pains they were at in matters of Religion were only to contrive how to put Ironies upon Omniscience Their whole Religion would be staked down at any time to serve a Turn or a Lust Their stated Mortifications and holy Severities were but direfull Prognosticks of an after Riot Their being Jews they thought was enough to bear them out tho' they were Immoral below the Heathen Now when men have got this Art when they can as the Cynic said Vertutis stragula pudefacere when Vertue is made onely the Midwife to bring Villany to the birth and the Witchcraft of a Rebellious Itch has brought them to this even to cloath their Devil in the Prophets Mantle things are fairly a preparing for an Association For what can men want to ripen all their Mischief when they have already mockt and despised their God Turned all his Precepts and their Piety into Landschape as if the Dictates of the Sacred Canon had been no more than Directions to the Painter And when after God has dress'd and the Heavens have bedew'd it their Vine has born nothing but equivocate Fruit Like the Apples of Sodom Fair but Rotten 2. ANOTHER Step by which they advanc'd to this form'd Sedition and Rebellious Covenant was by being an Empty Vine in another sence Dum Vitis evacuat Israelem as a Critick in loc The Prophetick Spirit before he thus arraign'd and condemn'd Israel had observed a Party among them who set up as well for open Debauchery and brutish Riots as another that cherisht Impious Hypocrisie and a Rebellious one They were such as perhaps loved the King and to prevent all suspicion that they were no Conspirators against the Crown they proclaim'd to the World that they hated Thinking But these also carried about them the dreadful Symptoms of a publick Ruine For when Loyalty went no further than the Health and a Tavern-fierceness was all their Courage when all their Spirits were such as Wine not Vertue raised the Nakedness of the Government was near uncloathing It being Impossible the Fabrick should be supported when the Pillars Reel'd For such as loved at least the shew of Religion must needs hate and scorn them who openly did dishonour it and hence they commence into distinct Factions and each applauding himself in the Marks of discrimination from the other they all made a 3. THIRD Advance for their * V. 2. Hearts were divided and their †V. 1. Altars multiplyed some erected for Sacrifice to Bacchus others to sober Idols By this time the Administration of the Government was in the Hands not of Councils but Clubs Plots in one and Sots in t' other these hating them as Rebels and Traitors and they despising these as Beasts and Ideots IN short the whole Nation was reduced to nothing but the miserable pieces of a broken People who were universally Deaf to all the Charms of Honesty and Reputation and how could there be hopes that such dishonourable enterprizes should end in Safety AND here I cannot omit a Conceit of the Jewish Rabbies described by * Comment in loc St. Jerome who do generally Report that the only Reason why the Captivity was not brought upon them in the time of their worst Kings Reign but reserved till Hoshea's dayes the †Kings 17.2 best of all their Catalogue was this viz. That he was inclined to encourage the true Worship of God and restore again the old thô the long despised Profession of Religion but this the People would by no means Brook whereupon they divided statim eum a Rege discutit populus venit Interitus BUT be that as it will in the circumstances the Kingdom then stood it was impossible to prevent Invasion For when one and that a numerous side resolved to Licentiate all Religions but the right making that Sacred thing a Refuge for their Sin as the Philosophers did occult Qualities for their Ignorance and to that end would Court all Heresies and Factions into their Allyance and the other thô Professing well yet would live a Reproach to the Religion they profess'd in such a posture of Affairs God will not and the * Math. 12.26 Devil cannot support a Kingdom upon its Legs For if Satan be divided against himself how then shall his Kingdom stand Whence we may note that Union of Hearts and Judgments must be of great Importance to the very being of a Christian Common-wealth when Christ borrowed an Argument to urge it from the oeconomy of the Damn'd WELL upon this division they who before would scarce venture to shew their Teeth did now unmask and make bare their Faces and came openly to Declare 4. THE Nullity of their King v. 3. Now they shall or will say We have no King the Pretender is become the Vassal of a Foreigner and his Title is lost which he cannot hold we will therefore regard none of his Commands he is an Innovator in Religion a Betrayer of his Countrey an Enemy to the Publick his Title was gotten by Parricide and Cruelty and our Allegiance extorted by Force and Necessity our Counsels are Rejected our Properties Invaded our Liberty Destroyed and shall such a man Reign over us No if any Let it be a King that we may trust a confiding man that we may all depend on NOW after these Pretences made by a People prepared to think them valid thô they had been more Absurd they forthwith renounce all Allegiance to the Prince and solemnly engage in a Rebellious Association And thô these were all their Pretences they had then to
constrain'd by the force of Reason to follow throughly no one of my Commentators WHEREFORE as I will freely acknowledge wherein I agree so I hope to shew cause why I venture to dissent AND First That the time which the Prophet points at when this Covenant was made was in the conclusion of their last Kings Reign is generally allowed for thô Hosea the Prophet lived in the dayes of * Hosea 1.1 Jeroboam the Son of Joash between whom and their last King Hoshea there were †2 Kings 14.15 16. ch five yet is it a warrantable License to Prophesie of things to come in the Preter-Tense Ob Evidentiam certitudinem summam * Glassius de verbo canon 46. Glassius 2. THAT this Covenant was a Political one is agreed on by the most I am sure by the Reputed best Commentators upon the place But with whom it was made their Conjectures differ FOR there are those who suppose the Prophet Taxt Israel of Perjury when they refused to pay Homage to the Assyrian King after he had long claim'd and received it the Story to which this referrs is 2 Kings 17. But this conceit is not only spoyl'd by the silence of that Narrative in the 2 Kings forequoted which sayes nothing of Israels making a Covenant with Shalmaneser the Assyrian as also by the Verse foregoing my Text as I shall shew anon but by the expression of the Text it self For they could not be Impleaded so properly of Perjury for the making as for the breaking of a Covenant made except this Covenant was a Renunciatory Instrument of their old Fidelity but this appears not For we are no where told the People of Israel had sworn any to the Assyrian and if they had yet the making a Covenant with him after and against their first Oath is Nonsence to suppose for how unlikely is it that he the Assyrian should be a party with Israel in a Covenant against himself If it be urged that their Swearing falsely consisted in their making a Covenant with Shalmaneser while they had yet a King of their own and so that Covenant was Perjurious being a breach of their Fidelity to Hoshea To this we Reply as before that the Text is silent and the Opinion is inconsistent with the Story in the 2 Kings and with the Context in this Prophesie for this Covenant provoked a Judgment of which the †Ver. 5 6 7. of this Ch. Assyrian was the dreadful Executioner and he might have spared his Siege had they taken this course to testifie their Subjection 'T IS true the Text may be as it often is Implicit and the breaking of a Covenant might be supposed but where the sence does not of necessity require to be supplyed I take it to be safest to be ruled by the Letter Hoshea indeed became the * 2 Kings 17.3 Servant of Shalmaneser and paid him Tribute which at last he withheld but I cannot find that Israel either was under Covenant with him or could be accused of Perjury for their Kings Conspiracy But 2. THERE are others among whom stand Grotius who Imagine this Covenant was made with their own King and afterwards was treacherously broken but neither to this can I assent for but just before v. 3. the Prophet tells us that Hoshea was the object of the Kingdoms Scorn nay by being under Tribute to the Assyrian his Subjects gave out his Regal Jurisdiction ceased For now they shall say We have no King †These words extorted from them English Annot. because we feared not the Lord what then should a King do to us Their Language was Non curamus Oseae Imperia Grot. Sumus perinde ac si Regem non haberemus Drusius Alii So that to make a Covenant with a King of paying Homage and Duty to him after they had vilified him like a Puppet is scarce to be Imagin'd of such a mutinous sawcy People as once had slighted the Government ot their God Moreover I cannot conceive how natural Liege men should break their Faith by making a Covenant with their natural Liege Lord for a Covenant so made must be supposed to corroborate not to violate their Fidelity THESE then being hitherto the two current Opinions upon the place and for the Reasons given neither being now passable I come Right Honourable and Reverend to suggest my own and 't is this THAT the Covenant here meant was the very thing which according to the Style of our dayes must be call'd an Association which to Evince I humbly offer you this brief Paraphrase THAT Israel was divided is evident from the Context and one part siding with their King in giving Countenance and Toleration to the Worship of God and 't was no more the other stuck fast to their Idolatrous Imaginations and the Rent being made thus first for Religion it became impossible to be united in their political Affairs The Assyrian took the Cue improved the occasion and no sooner came up but Hoshea became his Servant whereupon the Factious Band quickly withdrew their Tribute from Hoshea We have no King say they He we had can neither Protect nor Harm us there are enough of us to disown his Prerogative with Impunity for in his present circumstances What can he do unto us v. 3. 'T IS true we are by nature and we have by Oath bound our selves unto Allegiance * Grot. in Loc. Uti moris erat a thing of ancient custom among us as Grotius observes but we have now no way to prove but to enter upon a solemn Covenant of Association Swearing to one another our mutual assistance for our mutual defence and vowing to assert our Rights and Liberties in defiance to the Prerogative of our pageant King as well as to the Title of the Assyrian Usurper IN this desperate Pinch the poor King was forc'd to take desperate measures He therefore sent to the †2 Kings 17.4 Egyptian Monarch to solicit his Allyance for being denyed the Tribute of his Subjects he could not make good the Payment to the Assyrian which when Shalmaneser had plainly Discovered he presently shut up Hoshea in Prison and brought Samaria into a streight Captivity THUS upon comparing this of the Prophet with that Historical Narrative in the 2 Kings no other sence can I make than this on 't and I only humbly beg that this might prevail till some body offers a better to supplant it which I cannot fear since the Septuagint Version seems also to favour me For whereas we say They have spoken words Swearing falsely they thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prophet they found had censured their Traiterous Covenant and they put it off with a lying pretence and a false excuse which * Hier. in Loc. St. Jerom Imagines to be this viz. They Pleaded for themselves that what between their own Kings wants and the Usurpers demands those dura majorum Imperia they were forc't to ingage in a seditious Association THE words
rest Yea Hence it 's manifest That he has not only a Right to our Homage but such an One as makes us from our Birth uncapable of making an Engagement to pass any on 't away WHEREFORE when the Supream is not only in Pacto prior but also in Jure Solus in reference to all matters falling under his Prerogatives the very Attempt of the People to defraud him by making those Regalities over to other men or reserving them to themselves is an Incroachment upon his Right and a Violation of their Oath BY the Oath we swear to defend his Rights by the Covenant we engage to spoyl them By the Laws of Nature the Jews without an Oath were bound to Assist Hoshea by the Association they vow to Imploy their Wealth and Weapons only for themselves THE Folly of which was as Desperate and Rash as it was Flagitious and unjust For if Rei illicitae nulla sit Obligatio If whatever is unlawful is held Impossible the Covenant made to the prejudice of their Oath was a Bond only binding to * Interdum scelus est Fides Seneca the guilt and punishment of Perjury and of no force to oblige them to the thing they promised For 3. 'T WAS Impossible the Covenant so made should obtain any obligatory force or be made valid by the consent of the King himself For upon supposition that Hoshea for any perswasion should have quitted his Right to the Defence of his Subjects and by an open Declaration have bidden them to be onely Faithfull to one another yet this had been no Absolution from their Allegiance nor had it given any vertue to their Federal Association it being not in the Power of the Prince to evacuate and null their Obligation by Oath to Allegiance The Reason of which seems to be Founded not only in the Formality of the Oath which makes God concerned in the Bond and therefore must he be in the Dispensation too but also in the unalterable Laws of Nature and on the positive Institutions of God Unalterable I say and no more repealable than the Jewish Corban could null the Fathers Right to the Childs Obedience no more than the Parent can give up his parental Jurisdiction and License his Son in an unnatural Rebellion no more than the Husband the Woman's Lord can absolve her after Marriage from her Conjugal Duty and bid her be disloyal For as these Relations so that between the Magistrate and the Subject is the Institution of God whereby the Soveraign is not only Invested in a Dignity but obliged to a Duty and bound to Govern till he has a call from God to relinquish his Dominion and indeed his Prerogatives are inseperable from his Person and not grantable to his Subjects because of their incapacity also to receive them THE Lords Anointed cannot Retreat or sink from his Office or his Honour so as to devolve them on one or more of his natural Subjects no more than his Oyl the Emblem of Supremacy can Subside or Incorporate with the Liquors under it For they were born to Obey and therefore he can no more make them Supream than Reverse their Birth or make that Oath that was declarative of their Homage when broken to be no Perjury WHEREFORE that Treachery or Violence which strips the Crown of its Prerogatives must be such as masters Religion and the Laws of God too since the King himself neither by his Grace nor for his Pleasure may warrantably put them off And this holds always true except the Authority be relinquisht to the next Heir who is therefore I think capable of receiving the Regalities because his Blood and Birth bespeaking him somewhat more than a Subject do naturally qualifie him for the successive Rule But in this I subscribe to the Oracles of the Laws THE Position being thus maintain'd I shall only stay to reflect upon the Sottishness and Iniquity of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Romish Dotard who by a kind of a religious Errantry assaults our Kingdom and undertakes to dissolve the Bonds both of Oaths and Equity of Justice and Religion and is not this literally to †2 Thes 2.4 exalt himself above all that is call'd God within whose Omnipotence it lyes not to consecrate the Witchcraft of a Rebel to make Perjury to be no Sin nor the Breach of Lawful possible Oaths to be no Perjury But to shew you the weakness and the wickedness of his pretence at once I will clearly evince THAT any Bull or Instrument of his which pretends to Absolve any English Subject from his Oath of Allegiance is 1. VAIN and Impertinent for if the Rights of the Crown are Feudatory to and justly invested in him our Oath of Allegiance to the King is actually void and can pass no Obligation and if no Obligation there 's no need of any solemn Absolution for the Oath it self would bind to nothing but Repentance But if in Justice what he claims be yet the Kings as it is most certainly for whom the admirable * E collatione duarum Potestatum egregiè conficitur Regiam aequè à Deo institutam fuisse ac spiritualem solidam humanarum rerum administrationem illi demandatam Petr. De Mar. Archiep. Paris lib. 2. de concor Imp. c. 2. §. 1. De Marca is an Advocate in this matter then his pretences to absolve from the Oath which promises to render them is 2. IMPIOUS and unnatural for no power can take anothers Right without Injustice nor can any man Absolve me of a Debt the Creditor to whom 't is due denying to quit his claim But of this enough for I have neither time for nor pleasure in exposing the Nakedness of such a Communion whose Zeal is Cruelty whose Worship 's a Prophanation and whose Proselytes are in truth the Trophies of the Churches Fraud or Violence and the wretched Monuments of Apostasie from Religion 'T is no Calumny but this Character †De Magistratibus Eccles Lib. Vanit Scient cap. 61. Corn. Agrippa a learned man and a Friend to some of their very absurdities has utterly superseded by one much Sharper COME we now 2. TO examine the pretences that Israel or any other People may take up to Countenance their Perjury i. e. their entring into a Covenant of Association for mutual defence against or without a regard to their Soveraign and here I confess I ought to rank them together and shew them in their united force that if possible they might like their Doctors and Fautors be valued for their Numbers they being very inconsiderable for their Intrinsick worth I am in earnest I have seen and examined mighty Labours in Vindication of Anarchy Levelling Sedition and Rebellion thô these perhaps are not ever their Christen-names and all together they make a Mist thick at some distance and seemingly impassable but when you are in 't it clears up and there 's no Impediment but to heave twice at a Mole-hill would give Suspicion it were
urge excepting onely their obstinate Will which was beyond all Argument and made all the other but pretences yet these were enough to engage the Faction They had then none of the Reasons ready which have been since in Fashion There was then no †Tho' the Levity of Greece was such that they shifted their first Monarchy for a Government by many yet that was so natural to them that the Cretian Boyes could not play without their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Monarchs to rule each company Ex Herac. de Polit. Cretens apud Aelian State of Venice or Amsterdam to give a President of Democratic Confusion or Aristocratic Ambition they never pleaded against the Divine right of Monarchy and Kings for they knew they * 1 Sam. 8 5. beg'd one at the Oracle of God they knew too that 't was for the †Prov. 28.2 Iniquity of a Land that many were the Governours thereof so that if there had been no Sin in any Nation no Nation would have had more Governours than one at once Supream and consequently Government by plurality is not originally from Nature or from God but from Iniquity and Transgression and therefore Monarchy is peculiarly Divine Again can I believe Israel could remonstrate against their King for Invading of their Rights after they had so eagerly Solicited they might have a King even against all their Precautions of the severity of his Rule and after Samuel had told them what the 1 Sam. 8. Jus Regis was what Inviolable Claim and Title their King had to them Can we Imagine they thought his different Opinions his strange Religion would give them Warrant to seize his Throne that the Violations of his own Engagements unto them would justify their resistance against him No they knew that if these were perswasives to Rebellion the best of Men and Kings would be obnoxious to feel their Arms for a Libel upon his Fame or Jealousies fomented by Letters to Friends weekly Intelligences seditious Courants against his Administration would be enough to Stimulate the People into a Rebellion thô the Prince were †Numb 16.1 2. a Moses * 2 Sam. 15.13 a David or †1 Sam. 8.7 a God They knew Obedience followed the Paternity not the Man and that a morose Parent remain'd a Parent i. e. Invested still in his Right to Govern thô his Regiment were Intolerable they knew the Charter of Subjection was not for Liberty but Obedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Homil. 6. Ad Popu. Antiochenum Chrysos After this rate could I destroy all the force of those Arguments which have been ever since obtruded upon the World I 'le Instance in one more than which I know no Pretence for an Association more plausible or more rational and 't is this that the Laws of Nature countenance it when it seems necessary for our self-preservation Thô I believe this in Samaria had no Foundation real there being no mercenary Forces about the King to strike a Terror into the good People Now I would fain ask whether it be a Law of Nature that men should form an unnatural Conspiracy onely for fear their Persons may be harm'd or whether it be more natural for me to go to a Witch for Counsel rather than trust Omnipotence for my Protection whether it be Natures Law that I think Ill of my own Head Conspire against the Breath of my Nostrils whom I am positively forbid to Curse even in my Thought It is a repeated Precept this of Divine Authority And if after all it be Natures Law to make me Jealous Envious False and Treacherous against my Parent and my Soveraign Gods positive Laws are a contradiction to his Laws of Nature reconcile the Blasphemy then or abjure the Association MUCH such another Weapon have I seen sharpened for Resistance by a Scotch Philistine but no Gyant I mean Buchanan a leading Leaguer he †Buchan de Jure Regni apud Scotos p. 50 56. sayes the Primitive Christians shew'd no Resistance onely because they were too weak to maintain it OH the Hypocrisie of the great Apostle of the Gentiles if this were true yea which of all Gods Precepts either Moral or Evangelical could find Observance if they were designed to oblige such onely as were Incapacitated to break them 'T IS as if the Prohibition of Adultery had been Dictated to the Sick and violent Assaults were forbidden only the Bedrid and the Cripple This indeed gives Indication that their Spirit of Enthusiasm is that which worketh in the Children of Disobedience This shews what Fathers taught these men for none of the Primitive ones but would have Scourged their Blasphemy and for this let those who have leisure consult the 5th 6th and 7th Homilies of St. Chrysostome to the People of Antioch and Tertullians Apologeticks where they shall find 't was not Cowardice nor Weakness but Piety and Courage engaged them to Subjection and Tertullian tells us that in his dayes the Christian Martyrs were enough to Conquer all their Tyrants thô they had used no other Weapons than the Stakes they dyed at IN short such Doctrines rifle the Tombs of Saints and rob them of their Crowns of Martyrdome as well as aim at that other Sacriledge of Stripping Kings of their Crowns of Honour Nor is such Divinity less absurd than the Roman Legends for to reconcile Piety to God with disloyalty to his Ministers to Incorporate Perjuries and Seditions with Authentick Canons is as odd a Conceit as that other Miracle in Masquerade their Trasubstantiation TO conclude if such Enemies to the Government had not somewhat more to trust to beside their Arguments their Cause would vanish there being no fear of a real Tragedy when the Actors and the Instruments are all Theatrical FOR neither Reason nor Religion give any thing away from the Lord to the Servant he might Rob him of somewhat by denying his Obedience and defending his Guilt by an Association but his Disloyalty must press him with a complicated Guilt and consequently Subject him under Gods Curses in Proportion For as it takes rise in Hypocrisie Hatred and unnatural Impiety so it ends in Ruine Shame and Captivity and the Rebel Associates are by their Covenant link't only to Miseries Epidemical for sayes our Prophet in the last Clause of this Verse Their Judgment comes up as Hemlock in the Furrows of the Field Which is such an Issue of Perjury and Sedition we ought to dread and with all Intention of Devotion deprecate for the sake of that Prince of Peace who shed his Blood for us even Jesus Christ To whom with God the Father of Mercy and the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Concord be all Honour c. FINIS