A SERMON PREACHED AT St MARIES IN OXFORD, the 5. of August: 1624. Concerning the Kingdom's Peace.  
BY JOHN RANDOL B: in D: of Brasen-nose College.  
Omne quod est, tam diu est, quamdiù unum est; ens enim & unum convertuntur:  'tis a Principle in the METAPHYSICS. 
If their hearts be divided, they shall be found guilty, and then follows destruction.  HOSEA 10.2. 
OXFORD, Printed by JOHN LICHFIELD and WILLIAM TURNER. 1624.   

MARK 3.24. 
And if a Kingdom be divided against itself, that Kingdom cannot stand.   
School-controversies mixed with points of devotion I sometimes delivered from this place; but now a Text that requires the divinity of a Prince, and th'exposition of a Soldier, rather than a School: Yetno man scandalise this Text, himself, or me: was not our Saviour an Orator upon't? and if our Saviour himself handle the Commonwealth 'tis possible then to be divinely handled: and if divinely handled, it can lose nothing by the handling: If a Kingdom be etc. Wherein you may please to observe, a State, the Quality of such a State, and the effects of such qualities: the State not of a private man, but the Compound aggregate State of a public Kingdom: a Kingdom; that's certain: then the Condition, the Quality, or casual actions of such a State, they are divisions against themselves; and they are uncertain; If a Kingdom be divided against itself; If divided, that's uncertain: Thirdly, the Issues and evil events of such divisions, & that's notstanding shall I say? nay, 'tis non-possibility of standing, and that's tootoo certain, God knows: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: it cannot stand if it be divided; that it cannot. To handle the State by itself, and the casualty of such a State after that; and so conclude with th'effects of all, were a pretty playing method, fit for easing of the breath; but very unfit for the serious discussion of the Cause: we must collect the whole, A divided Kingdom cannot stand. Had the time been as royal as the Text, I could have entertained ye all; but no— Yet not like those who professing a glorious magnitude are conversant in most inferior things: for I will open that vnt'ee, which every man will not unfold; Treason against a King as a bloud-guiltie sin, but against a Kingdom as much more, as any whole is greater than its part: Lo, I present vnt'ee the Changes of States, desolations of Kingdoms, the downfall of the whole full of Intemperance, unjustice, avarice, ambition, and whatsoever herein almost is worthy to be known; I present the causes and th'effects, together with the remedies of all, not without some more especial application to the time; only be favourable I pray, to this too much extemporary necessity of the man; so fare as the single nature of the Cause will bear, you shall have nothing more nor less, than the division of a Kingdom will afford. If a Kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  
When the Prophet would foretell th'expiration of the jewish reign, he prophecies of dissensions-shall arise; The Child against th'ancient, the base against the Honourable: Esay 3. chap. 5. ver. and it follows in a moment after; Cecidit Jerusalem, the Kingdom is fallen, i'th' 8th ver: divide it, and it falls: it came to pass (josephus gives it) in three deadly Sects, whose chiefs were Simon, john, and Eleazar: By civil discord did Carthage fall; by the like did old Rome her Empire ruin; while their dissension gave entrance to the Turk; the Kingdoms of Hungary, Rhodes, and other many States, have felt the torment of this Text: what needs any more? Interpreters say all, 'tis a popular argument our Saviour useth, and tootoo well known of all, that a divided kingdom cannot stand; If a Kingdom be divided against itself, that Kingdom cannot stand.  
As th'essence of God is one, so it behoves all things to be unite, that will subsist in him: take the most comely body in this learned Crown of men, and divide either the spirits or humours of that body one against another, and neither beauty, nor body can long subsist: out of the beauteous fabric of the World, if ye take that excellent correspondence away, whereby the Celestial Spheres, and the inferior Elements do lovingly agree together, the World itself can never long endure: except the heavens hear th'earth, and th'earth the heavens, and both agree unto the provision of the whole, the World itself can never well subsist: Hosea 2.21.  
The demonstrance is as plain; because division destroys the very Form itself: as if ye divide a man, there remains no longer forma hominis, but forma cadaveris: so if ye divide a Commonwealth, there remains no longer the form of a good Commonwealth; but the form of barbarousness and folly doth remain: there may result out of such a division, two armies of soldiers, two parties of a faction; but mean time, the fair, proper, entire bulk and beauty of a kingdom is destroyed: that cannot stand: which is the emphasis of the Text: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: that kingdom cannot stand. Neither were it of much consequence, if it destroyed form alone; but it perishes matter together with the form: division weakens the strongest public State that is: division calls in the foreign discontents of other Realms: division turns swords of the same man's making one against another's point: division destroys the very end, for which a Kingdom was ordained: For the very prime ordinance of a kingdom was, to unite all under one Head, one Law, one liberty, one profit and pleasure of good life, that so the unity being equally interested among all, all might with one accord more strongly combine themselves against the avarices', ambitions, tyrannies of other encroaching men: for the World will never want Nimrods': many Economical hunters there be, that hunt for the provision of their own houses; and as many Venatores Politici, that hunt after other men's Kingdoms: and therefore, vae si dividatur; woe unto that Kingdom is divided; for the hunter will take it: If a Kingdom be divided against itself, that Kingdom cannot stand: Wherefore, be we all united as firm as flesh is to the bone, cemented all together in love, glued unto the public welfare of the state: If any divisions have amongst us been, if any fallacy of self-love, if any poison of debate, it must be so no more: I'll open the remedies, do but you make righteous judgement, whether they be not better than the disease.  
Some have taken occasion to contrive a division upon mere REVENGE; so Coriolanus in Plutarch being exasperated by an unjust condemnation, did derive the war upon his own Country: So banished Alcibiades, how did he discover the whole Council of Athens to th'enemy? What a combustion did he make between th'oligarchy, and the Commonalty? So much revenge will do; and more than so; for smaller injuries, though they be no positive evils, but privatives only; as the ten Tribes against David, because he afforded juda all the honour of attendance at repossession to his Crown, and did not send as honourable a summons to invite them of Israel also; therefore in fierceness they arose, pleaded proportion, number, valour, abuse of all; and a great division, a great rebellion did they cause, 2 Sam. 19 and 20 chap. So much a little distaste, a privative dishonour can produce: and the remedy is, whether they be justly or unjustly punished; Superiors, Inferiors, to entreat all: Superiors, their authority I entreat to distribute their face and lawful favour as proportionably as they can. Give ten Tribes the respect of ten, & two that belongs to two; give five hundred Counties the honour of five hundred, & to the less number the less favour doth pertain. 'Tis lawful peradventure to favour these, not those, where both do equally deserve; but 'tis not expedient so to do: For a little distaste, a great division may arise: Achitophel will divert, and many a Politician more, unless they be employed: on th'other, the neglected inferior people, I entreat, to arm themselves with patience, considering the honour of it; for it argues them nobly sufficient of themselves; if they can live without the favour, aswel as the favour without them, but basely necessitous, if they stand in need of it: the profit likewise; for what are faces and favours of Potentate men, but as the face of the Sun? which many times dries and withers, & extracts more out of herbs, than ever it did infuse into them: and I have ever thought the men of Israel were mad unto the highest degree, in quarrelling who should carry the baggage after David, as if they had not trouble and tax enough beside: & let this persuade all neglected Counties and Incorporations; suffer Potentates with their favours; bestow them how they please; it should never cause a division among wise men, 'tis liberty and profit to be without them many times: But you say, there are no such, and God be thanked for it; I am very glad to hear the State of our own Kingdom doth so well agree with the State of the Kingdom in the Text: for this Text is no positive inferring against the present state: but a gentle referring of the caution to every man's conscience for time to come; If a Kingdom be vindictively divided against itself: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: and if it be divided, it can never stand.  
What if a positive dishonour? the revenge appears more just, but the remedy is the same: Inferiors, superiors, to be detreated all; these to inflict such gentle punishments, as either may not exasperate great spirits to desire revenge, or else such mighty mortal strokes, as may utterly dis-enable them from all power to execute the same: for men of vindictive nature are hard to be restrained: this was Gowries' pretence, revenge: stop therefore beginnings; for if ever any Gowrie divide, there will never want Alexander's, and Logans; Bowers, and Sprotts to take his part: Those on the other, to consider how much deceived they are; propound revenge they do, and why? Melle dulcior est: 'tis sweeter than the honeycomb unto their souls: that's the old pretext, but 'tis an Heathen one: amicè amicis, inimicè inimicis, I find it only in Aristotle, and among the jews; but otherwise with CHRIST; Love your very enemies: alas, 'tis Satan's instigation, not their own: If it be unjust unto the death itself, yet he that's so most doing now, shall suffer most in th'end: 'Tis a pleasant damnation to be revenged d'ye say? Yes, so it is to others, but not unto yourselves: others indeed delight the combat to see you reciprocally pined and wasted, & perished with each others blows; but you yourselves, what pleasure can you take in being made the very fable, the disease, and slaves of other men? Quid tibi dulcedo si non conceditur uti? Quid tibi, si non tibi? There's no such crime, as is a studied sin; there's no such study to the head, nor pain unto the heart, as is the torment of revenge: 'Tis honourable to suffer & despise; but to seek revenge, that's a weakness of not being able to endure; and that with prejudice to a whole Commonwealth; 'tis Arch-divelishly inhuman: I know herein also you'll say, our Kingdom and the Text agree; and GOD be thanked for it; there needs no positive reproof; but however, a suppositive admonition is good against time to come; If a Kingdom be vindictively divided against itself, you know what follows, si modo dividatur, If ever it be divided it can never stand.  
Others in the LUCRATIVE kind have taken pains to generate a faction for money sake: Philip the father of Alexander besieges Olynthus, could not take it by force, but he corrupts Euthicrates the chief Governor by money, and so he roceives the Country betrayed into his hand: so much conetisme can do; and the remedy as before, to entreat all, that such corrumpues may never be employed, either in embassy abroad, or in office at home, whereby they shall have any power of selling their State-Intelligence for a pension, their Kingdom for a golden pound: Those of the suspected on the other, to consider the baseness of the sin, what a thrice-odious earthliness it is to sell a potent rich Kingdom for a little red earth: What, the Kingdom? why 'twere much to sell the virginity of one maiden, if she were a pure devoted good creature: but in betraying a Kingdom, the doctrine of Religion, the propagation of Laws, the orders of Cities, the Arts of Universities, the Institution of youth, the beauty, maidenhead of Humanity, Divinity, and all they sell, for a little handful of red earth; which when they obtain, their second generation shall never carry it to their grave, nor they themselves be ever buried without an Epitaph of the basest kind: Vendidit hic auro patriam; here lies the notorious corrumpue, that sold his whole Country to fill his own chest: or that of Saint Bernard: Viluit huic populi salus prae auro Hispaniae, in his 3d Book de consid. ad Eugenium. What cares he, when he is dead? no, nor the Devil neither; but GOD will make them both care, when he hath them together in Hell-fire: Yet ye say, there are no such neither, and who is not glad to hear? the State of our own Kingdom doth so well parallel with the Kingdom i'th' Text: for this is no peremptory reproof of any present State, but a loving advertisement against time to come: If a Kingdom be LUCRATIVELY divided against itself, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: such a King doom cannot stand; 'tis nothing to our own: there's the Emphasis at that Kingd me, not our own: that Kingdom cannot stand.  
Others by being ALLIED to foreign Nations, have been inclinable to divide: as in the Sicilian war, the Chalcidians said, they were anciently allied to Athens, and therefore reason would they should partake with them against their own Kingdom in the war. 'Tis i'th' 4th book of Thucydides, where you may see what the fancy of Alliance can do in the division of a State; and the remedy is for Chiefs in any kingdom, to make all their Allies of marriage and other interests of relation, as much as their wisdom may, among themselves: and if they chance otherwise to be allied abroad, yet know they must, they have but allied themselves to such a private family, to such a public Kingdom they cannot ally themselves, unless they'll be Traitors to their own: to such a Kingdom they cannot ally themselves, unless all ally: Give us your daughters to wife, say jacobs' sons, and we will render ye ours: Let it be a general alliance, & erimus quasi genus unum: Gen. 34.16: and unless it be general, it can be no just tye of union to another State; because the private good must ever give pre-eminence to the public weal; they may be defensive to another, but never offensive to their own: why should they? allied by wife? but you know not whether it be your wife or you they do so much respect: peradventure others are allied unto her, as near as you yourselves, yet never carry opinion to such respects as those: they respect not your kingdom for alliance unto them; why then should you theirs? If ever the enemy enter, there will be no time to deliberate of Allies: Pardon the General what he please, yet the Common Soldier will slay and rifle what he can: Suppose they should offer to exempt ye from the rest, as Sylla did some special friends of his, when Praeneste was besieged, yet were ye noble spirits, ye would scorn to accept the condition, ye would rush in among the troops, and choose rather to die for the honour of your Country, as those Praenestians did: But I hear you say, you fear no such Allies neither, and I am glad ye are so parallel in all things with the Text, which hath no absolute reproof of any, but only admonition against time to come; If a Kingdom be MATRIMONIALLY divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  
Yet give me leave, what say ye to Alliance in Religion, which is the grand of all? for division in Religion sets Preacher against Preacher; one Orator, one Lecturer against another; division in Religion sets Scribe against Scribe; one Hearer, one Reader against another; division in Religion sets Prince and People, Nobles and Gentry, Clergy and Commonalty, every man, and all together by the faces: the very name of Religion bearing show of honour in the profession, of merit in the defence, makes many most willing to dye for their Religion, if it be but Religio vitulorum, the Religion of Calves and Images, yet you know they'll suffer death for their Religion: if you know it not, yet jeroboam did, and that made him ally the ten Tribes to another Religion then that of judah, assuring himself they would not very soon comply with judah again: so much division of Religion can do; and what shall we say? that herein also we are parallel to the Text? certainly, either are, or may be very easily by redress: Let the order of Ministers be the same, Oath of Allegiance the same; divine service all the same; articles of Belief, number of Sacraments, authority of Scripture throughout the whole Kingdom the same, and let it be pain of death to him that will transgress, if he practise others but with a speaking countenance to do the like: so shall we soon be parallel to the Text: for if their idolatrous Priests be banished, who shall swear their Children to disobey the Crown? who shall marry them when they come to years? or what lawful issue shall they have, if they be not married as they ought? I speak it with a Deo gratias from my heart, you have a Law, than which there cannot be devised a more prudent, a more Christian, no not a more taking way to reduce the Religion of a Kingdom all to one: only let it have due execution; he is not Caesar's nor the Kingdom's friend, that will not zealously execute that Law, after the divided have been besought to consider the difference between our diviner solace, and their poor Roman joy? we pronounce full absolution from Hell & Purgatory, and all other secret torments whatsoever are unknown to mortal man, facilitating their last passage with sweetness of the greatest hope, whereas they leave the most in fear of Purgatory, and many times in suspense of Hell itself: and is there no difference of gladness? we apply free remission while they are alive; they make them pay for it after they are dead; and is there no difference in the profit then? we carry them like noble men unto the Table of the greatest King, in the comely gesture of fellow-heires with CHRIST; but they make them creep like slaves unto it: we vnfoulding the whole Volume of GOD'S Word, make them fellow-Iudges of other men's lives, and of their doctrine too: but they lead them blindfold unto Hell: we make them partakers both of Bread and Wine; they give them only dry bread at the Communion Table, and is there no difference in the honour then? We translate the Bible for them to serve GOD in a well-known tongue; but they impose a language, which the people doth not understand; and is there no difference of difficulty then? thus you may detreate them peradventure without execution of the Law: but who? The Clergy dare not approach unto them without fear of poisoning, or that which is worse: Plebeïans have no power among them: great ones therefore, every man according to his acquaintance, his consanguinity, his any respect whatsoever should assay (the utmost he could) to have them all allied in the same Religion with us. O that Solomon or his Courtiers had been so industrious to woo and win the souls of idolatrous women, as they were their bodies to command, soon would the women have sided in the same Religion with them, and as soon their Priests been gone: though 'twere harsh at first, yet to posterity very grateful would it be, and many thankes would they surrender for it: thus wrought upon; thus allied in th'unity of the same Religion might they be: by Evangelicall persuasions in private, by legal executions in public: 'tis no Religion to abstain from division yourselves, unless ye endeavour to extinguish it in others also; that's true Religion indeed, saith St Augustine; parum est non excitare, nisi etiam extinguere coneris: There's no such excuse for tollerating two Religions in our Kingdom, as there is in some Lutherane Churches: for they are in peril of desolation, if not; but we (God be praised) in a safer case: wherefore if you'll do nothing else, yet let the royal Statutes have their force; and then herein also we shall be quickly equal to the Text, we shall not need any fierce reproof, only a gentle caution against time to come; beware of division in Religion above all; for if a Kingdom be MISRELIGIOUSLY divided against itself, that Kingdom of all others can never long stand.  
Will you have higher than these? the Poets moralise Saturn for chastizing his father Coelum; castravit patrem; and jupiter for deposing Saturn; and the natural causes, (the Stoics say) for deposing jupiter: The substance is, Caracalla practised against Severus, and Absalon against David and Solomon; the son against the father, or one Princely brother against another: This is the highest division, and the remedy as before; to beseech every sovereign father, he would not straighten his sons too much in losing them the flower of their age: rather resign some portion of his Kingdom, honours or offices before death, whereon to exercise the power of his regal skill; as David did the whole to Solomon, 1 Chron. 23.1: and if he have more sons then lawful wives or kingdoms to possess, then to compose the matter prudently before, lest otherwise the kingdom suffer a division by it; as't did in Absaloms' time, one half cleaving to the father, the other accomplicing with the son, wherein Absalon was chief offendor, yet David not altogether without sin: on th'other part those royal branches should consider the thorns that be annexed unto the Crown: O did a Prince apparent know, what slavish deadly troubles, what perils of poisons, what treasons are belonging thereunto; what bloody judgements, what hell itself, especially if it be not very rightly his; then would he soon throw down himself, his Crown & all, to adore such a piece of earth with a most religious kiss, as would but unburden him of so great a pain: as 'twas most elegantly advertised by our fourth King Harry to his son: But herein above all other ye may most justly say, our Kingdom is agreeable to the Text, there needs no present rebuke for such ambitious division, only a gentle admonition is good against time to come, If a kingdom be so CAPITALLY divided against itself, that kingdom can never stand.  
What more? Sometimes the division ariseth merely from the harshness of a King, as when Alexander passed over himself and all his favours by deed-of-gift into the Persian habit; so reprobating the very hopes of all his native Macedons at one act: or as when Rehoboam with one proud tyrannical answer, turned ten great Tribes into so many traitors at a breath: certainly the remedy is for Kings to forbear such needless provocations, but Subjects them to bear: what if once in seven generations come Rehoboams' course to wear the Crown? yet 'tis no warrant for Subjects to play the Traitors because their Sovereign plays the folly: What if once in seven generations? what's that to us? yet 'tis not so, nor likely to be so in our time: therefore there needs no reproof here neither, but however a gentle remembrance is good against time to come: If a Kingdom be TYRANNICALLY divided against itself, that Kingdom can never stand.  
These are provocations within, there are instigations without, as the Syracusan Orator taught the Camarins touching their neighbour Athenians, that they should beware them, because they did wholly apply themselves to work dissociations and divisions in other men's Kingdoms; ut alios ab alijs dissociarent: so I am afraid do some neighbour-Nations upon us, as well as others: I would to God 'twere otherwise, and that herein also we were equal to the Text: but there are strong presumptions to the contrary: Pompeius Trogus an ancient Historian says, there is a Kingdom near us of an unquiet mind, their weapons dearer than their blood unto them: women administer tillage to what they have already, but they seek abroad for more: of an unquiet mind? and seek abroad for more? here's presumption enough: can there be two greater incendiaries than Polupragmacy and avarice? unquietness of mind, and covetousness of goods? any one of them if it be well followed, doctis dolis, have a learned dissimulador for an Agent, 'tis enough to divide all the Kingdoms in the World, it is: what Kingdom is there, wherein you shall not find a Polupragmatist, one or other? an Antony that will make the war upon Octavius, be it never so unjust: alas this Inquietudo naturae, 'tis but his nature, he cannot be quiet unless he do divide: and when two such meet together, 'tis like the meeting of two winds, and what do they make but a whirlwind? and what does the whirlwind (says the Philosopher) but gather a company of leaves and feathers together? and what's that company, but one part of the division? What speak I of unquietness by nature? there is an unsatiable ambition of domineering over all: What mean those vulgar reports, that they can divide the Commons and the King, and so by a tolerable kind of treason blow up a Parliament without gunpowder, when ever they please? What mean those complaints from beyond the Seas, that their kingdoms have been divided from them? yet all this I know would seem fabulous to some, did not their more than too much audaciousness so lately refresh the verity of it, whenas in the face of the whole Realm they attempted a division between the Kingly Father and the Princely Son: what? attempt a division between the Trinity? 'tis only that is greater than this? now woe upon such devil's incarnate, such forges, such firebrands, such bellowes, such very winds of Hell! never cease coveting of other men's Valtolines? O say the Inhabitants, if they were once altogether in that Valtoline, where they might covet a drop of English water to cool their tongues, than they would surcease: still making divisions by their minerals amongst us? If they were once in that division of places among the sulphur's and the minerals, from whence there is no redemption; where the fire divides between the joints & the marrow; there they should have division enough; their fill:— Good ye unerring jewry remember these when ye come to fit upon the twelve Tribes; what compound sinners! ambitious, unjust, intemperate, unnameable transgressors! censure them deep enough: but can the malignant aspect of Planets & blazing stars do nothing i'th' mean time? Thou that rulest from the supremest or be to the centre of the earth, shall such a kingdom stand, as seeks the ruinous division of all other Christian kingdoms in the world, and that at such a time, as they stand in greatest need to combine all against the common adversary of Christ? They would cut all thy servants throats: they would burn all the professors of thy truth: they would toss, they would tear thy dearest children's tender limbs on cold hearted iron spears: they would crucify them beyond eternity, if they could. All these things hast thou seen! But when? did ever our agents seek to make a division in their state? or their own best authors legitimate their making of it in ours? Stratagems in time of war, solicitations to rebel, than peradventure lawful in some case; but when in peace, in time of league wast ever heard? speak thou that ruind'st jehoiakim for not keeping his faith with an heathen king, i'th' 2. of K. 24. chap and when thou speak'st revenge thyself, not us, thy dear Apostolical truth: thou that hast numbered hatred and variance, strifes and sedition, i'th' 5th to the Galat. among such operations as shall never inherit everlasting life: thou that hatest six things and accountest the seaventh a very abomination to thy soul, Prov. 6.16. a proud look, a lying tongue, bloody hands swift feet (from Indieses to Indies) and that soweth discord among brethren; are they not all in them? for when they are amongst us, they take season, and they sow, and they sow discord, and that which is the most abstract abomination of all, they sow discord among brethren; among natural, among spiritual brethren, nay between the subject & the king between father and son they sow it: If Scripture move not, what says their own Secunda 2 ae in his 37th question? that is at discord sins, but that introduceth discord is a greater sinner, and therefore the greater damnation he shall receive. But return to Scripture again, and S. Paul did induce discord between the Sadduces and the Pharisees. Acts 23. but return to exposition again and their own authors shall condemn them; for Aquinas forecited says, and Caietan upon Aquinas says, and Lorinus the man whom they all reverence says, that S. Paul did not purposely intent it, but accidentally procure it to be done: or if purposely; yet 'twas an evil heretical concord, not a good correspondency the Apostle did divide: or if a good concord he did divide, yet he did it by true allegations, not by false; or if by false allegations; yet 'twas with open profession of distaste, not under colour of goodwill: whereas they do it of studied purpose, to divide the best concord, and that by most devilish false detractions, and that under profession of peace and league they do it: there's the height, but where's the remedy? unless as before, to entreat others Highness, lownes, all: Those that they suffer no such nation (whosoever it be) to hold any farther knowledge or correspondency in our kingdom, than they can take by force of arms: 'twas the counsel of Don Bernardino to Philip Prince of Castille: these that they give no farther credit to their accusations against one or other, than God himself did, when the Devil accused job: ad mutuam diffidentiam inducere (faith Thucydides) there's nothing strengthens the enemy more, then for people to distrust each other: nothing strengthens a people more than to distrust the enemy: therefore believe them no farther, than the Philistines did Achish, 1 Samuel, 29.3. Where they still cried out: What do the Hebrews here amongst us? So long as they are enemies, there's no other pleading, but quid hic Hebraei? Why not we as wise in our generations, as they in theirs: Imò quid hic Romani? What do our mortal enemies the Romans here amongst us? If they'll departed, we'll accompany them to the shore; that was ever the wisdom of the ancient, least by communication of language, they should corrupt the people, says the historian: per commercium linguae: if not departed, yet bridle them from speaking into the common people's ears, as Eliakim besought Rabsekah, 2 K. 18 to estrange his language, lest the people should revolt: If none of these, but that they will remain, and will make division amongst us; let every plot have his counterplot, as the Plataans' served the Lacedæmonians, let them have division for division, let their bowels be divided in the midst: nec lex est aequior ulla: or if that too severe, yet let their tongues be divided in the midst: the affinity of the punishment doth so aptly resemble the sin; never would nation more be guilty of such crime, as whose mocking punishment should be so wittily the accuser of itself. Something must be done, and the safest is to keep them out with iron hailstones, grandine ferreo, as that Queen of heaven did after 88: Never kingdom so well stated, but discontents would arise through naughty administration of justice, partialities in choice of officers, one way or other; if people refrain their appetites, yet always not a Prince; if a Prince refrain his passions, yet always not a people. 'Tis to be noted, saith Bernardino, in this matter of malcontents, that they are to be found in all kingdoms, Provinces, and the very Courts of Princes themselves, ye may find men to work upon. It being annexed to humane nature, that men are never satisfied, no not with the goverments, which our Lord God himself ordains: no marvel then if they be discontented with the rules of more ordinary kings; such is the corruption of universal nature, every one to imagine he could govern better, than the man whosoever he be that is in place. These are the humours to be wrought upon: Say they so? Therefore something of necessity must be done shall I say? Nay therefore many things are done by men of potentate place: the Firebrands are removed; the provoking cause is taken away, all that were given to incense division are now restrained; there needs no positive reproof, for herein also are we equal to the Text; yet a cautelous admonition is good against time to come: If a kingdom do admit such stirrers of divisions to reside among them, that kingdom never long can stand.  
Howsoever our own present care must be, that we ourselves belong not to the number of those that will by any means be provoked to such a sin. 'Tis all th'adversary desires in any state, to find such matter to work upon: 'tis their open profession, to fish in troubled waters: If you'll be tinder, they'll be Fire: If you'll be Waves, they'll be quickly Winds: If you'll be discontented, they'll quickly seduce ye to divide: If you'll float, they'll quickly contrive ye to their own side: Wherefore I beseech ye receive a gentle persuasive remedy for this disease also: what does the unfortunately necessitous conceive? That his case is desperate? Or what the prodigal waster of his substance? that he cannot satisfy by making payment of the debt? What then? Can he therefore satisfy by making a division in the land? Will one sin expiate another? No more than one punishment will ease another: better therefore he fall into the Creditors hands alone, then into the devils too, where he shall be sure to pay the utmost farthing for both, & yet never shall come forth: Or what th'ambitious malcontent? That he is not officed according to his worth? What then? that's another's default, 'tis none of his: but if he make a division upon it, than the sin is his own, and then he may quickly be officed according to his worth: Are unworthies promoted? Stomach it he may; declare it seasonably to precedents of state he may; but make a division for it among the multitude that he may not: 'twere a most foolish indiscretion, and more than a deadly sin: Or what the vainglorious discontent, whose self-love will never be satisfied, what attributes soever ye bestow upon him; unless that Country, that Shire, and that very part of the shire, wherein he was borne be preferred before all other Countries and kingdoms i'th' world beside: unless that book, that method, and that exposition which he likes, be deified before all other methods and expositions that are; unless that rank, that condition whereto he belongs be magnified above all other ranks and conditions whatsoeere they be. Thus they set Oxford and Cambridge, Northern & Southern at variance among themselves. Thus they make Nobles to despize Commons, and Commons to distaste Nobles, and King and Clergy to be divided from them both: Are these the ingenuous men ye speak off? Now I beseech them, what Poet or Orator, what Historian or Divine did ever teach them this wit to divide a powerable kingdom againt itself? Were there any depth of wisdom in them, they would never desire all of their shire, all of their condition to be so highly extolled above the rest: because then there is no excellency left for him: If all be such, where I pray is the difference of acumen that is belonging unto him? All these are fit materials for a division. Their conferences, news, letters, verses, speeches, Sermous, resenting of nothing more, then of desire to divide; whereat the enemy doth much rejoice, and hopes to suck no small advantage out of such divisions ith'end. Wherefore they are often to be entreated, that they would abandon all discontent, leave off such foolish factious words, partake with neither side to the prejudice of the whole; but in a loveable prudent kind render to every place his due; affection to whom affection, and subjection to whom subjection is due, yet still keeping the correspondency of the whole together; not so subject to a King as to talk tyranny against a state, nor so affected to a state as to speak treason against a king: not so partake with Nobles as to oppress the Commons, nor so with Commons as to scandal Nobles: not so with City, as to incense the Country, nor so with Country as to enrage the City: not they vilify our Clergy to magnify their Laitee, nor we vilify their Laitee, to deisie our Clergy; because all these are the beginnings of division: but every man being humble in his own eyes, let him esteem another better than himself, & the preservation of the whole to be greater than all; so shall we be all free from the greatness of this national sin, The division of a land. If any be otherwise minded, and will maintain a faction still, that Man-divell is neither Caesars nor the kingdom's friend: for he doth but prepare the Fuel of division to th'adversaries' hand; be doth but maintain such engines, as when any subtle plot-master meets withal, that kingdom can never long stand. Some of them the Magistrate may meet withal: if their number gather head and troop together, ye know the remedy is in the law: ye have prisons for wand'ring rogues; houses of correction for idle tongued parties, mysteries of trades for indigent men of occupation: let the multitude be looked unto, and each man entertained in his own proper place: 'tis always best walking in the safest way. The hitory of Florence can report vnt'ce, what insolent divisions have arisen from certain distastes about the mysteries of wool. The history of the Turks, what armies have grown from exiles & malcontents. The history of the Kings instead of all; Every one that was in distress, every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented gathered themselves to David, and he became a Captain over them: says the Text, 1. Sam. 22.2 These things ye know: happy are ye if ye do them: as superiors have done their part, so let us do ours; they have taken the FIRE away: let us remove the FVELL too. For if a Kingdom retain but the fit fuel of division within it selfe, that kingdom can never long stand— So ye have corruptions within, provocations without, and the particular remedies of both. Two other more general remedies there are, Meditation and Prayer. Consider how UNPLEASANT it is to nourish a division in any kind: whether you sit at your daily meals, walk in the private recreations of your gardens, or hold a parley in any other perambulations that ye make, come there a pleasant conceit into your head, you dare not utter it; come there a lofty censure, you dare not utter it; for fear of misprision, misinterpretation, condemnation, you dare not utter any thing: writ any thing, it shall be censured; say any thing, it shall be censured; nay think any thing, or if you please think nothing, yet will they censure the very non-imaginations of your thoughts: o what a life is this? you have a precedent of it at Samus; Thucydides sets it forth by three as unpleasant things as ever mortality did endure, suspicion, silence, death: a hurly burly; every man suspected his dearest friend, and in that suspicion kept silence in the deep of his heart; but— pain and grief unto them; and that which was the plague of all, their silence was their death, because they durst not answer of what faction they did partake: ye gentle sweet dispositions of amity and peace, who would not hate, abhor the authors of divisions? disturbers of all your Christian quiet, troublers of your hearts, impeachers of all your joy; that Christian liberty, that sweetness of conversation, that honest cheerfulness, that tranquillity of body and mind, wherein God allows every man to pass his time away; how do they hinder all? O had you ever lived in house or kingdom where divisions are, you would say it were a certain kind of hell to be deprived of that solace, which in peaceable loving societies ye might enjoy. Stand ye neutral, partake neither side, yet will the one strangle ye with smoke, the other slander ye with base kitchenstuff, says Alphonsus, ye were as good dwell in the middle chamber of an house, which is sure to be abused of either side: but if ye be farther interested to bear a part in the study of revenge, how vexatious a torment is it then unto the brain, heart, & soul of man? what plodding, plotting, carking, caring, contriving must there be? A man were better uphold the building of 9 several houses with his shoulders; then bear up the burden of one such division with his head. Therefore for the odious unpleasantness of it let all men avoid this sin of division: for the very sorrow & discontent thereof is enough to kill the greatest, goodest part of men: If a kingdom be divided against itself, it can never stand in temper long, for very sorrow that it cannot.  
Who would not cover his face with a shameful blush, to be the author of so many uncomely disorders in a state? Bring in a division once, & ye disrobe the kingdom of all graceful meetings whatsoever they be: no such Acts of Parliament; no such Commencements i'th' University, no such festivals of country pomp, no such solemn celebrations at the Court; no such assemblies of scarlet at the market, no such glorious congregations of Divines at Churches, as now adays there are. Bring in a division, ye set son against father, servant against master, the vassal against the king himself: what irreverent gestures, unseemly words, sawere actions? Alexander flies into the king's royal face, grasps him by the tender soft throat, thrusts two or three of his homeliest reprobate fingers into the King's sweet eloquent mouth, to stop the passage, that he might neither call on God nor man for succour. So and no otherwise will your inferiors serve you all: every strong handed base fellow will kick ye, and tear ye, and trample ye, & all the good report ye have into utter reproach, if ever ye introduce a division into the state: no beauty of body, no good friendship of mind, no good report abroad, no contentment at home, no true felicity of any kind can ye secure unto yourselves, if ever ye bring a division into the land; whose heart then is not filled with holy indignation against such as are the authors of division? that one ill-favoured fellow should undo so many rare comely beauties: one base neuter undo so many true loyal hearts! What? take away the form & beauty of our kingdom from us? 'tis all one, as if they should confuse the order of the states; or take the spring from our the glory of the year: for shame of dishonour than do not a division breed: if a kingdom be divided against it self, it can never stand long in the excellency of its former glory, that it cannot: and then as good it never stood at all: If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom can never stand in any good fashion as it ought to do.  
If I should open the DISPROFITS of it; how it embaseth and impoverisheth the whole commonwealth:- traffickes of wine, trafficks of rarer merchandise, it is division sets the greater impost on them: dealings in Cartle, trade in cloth, it is division sets the greater price upon them: it is division many times that makes the price of corn to rise: It is division of competitors that makes the Landlord state his farmage at so high a rate: 'tis division makes Gold and jewels to be exported into other lands: 'tis division makes each man betray his neighbour into the enemy's hands; to the Pirate; to the robber, the murderer; what not? And I wonder the authors of it do not foresee, that it will be ith'end as prejudicial to themselves as others; for the ruin of particulars will prove the ruin of the universal in the end, and a wise Counsellor did long ago advertise the Sicilian state.  
Besides other dangers, which are possible enough: for whom will you call in to decide the cause, if a division should arise? I will only inform ye what I have read touching Philip King of Macedon, reputed a man of clemency, yet when ever he was called in to be a judge of differences in any kingdom, he did always (not Venire but) supervenire, says the Text, ad iudicium tanquam ad bellum: he came upon them always with an Army ready furnished, and I beseech you mark the event, for so he devoured the Empire from them both: 'tis i'th' 8th book of justin: Sic utrunque regno spoliavit: And are there now none as greedy after other men's kingdoms, as ever Philip was? I would it were not too well known, that those which are the right male Catolici indeed do acknowledge another Catholic king in temporals to be above our Sovereign, as well as the Pope in spirituals to be above our Archbishop: and is not this dangerous? Who knows not how constant Flanders was to the kingdom of France, till a great misleader persuaded them, there was another King of France beside Philip? then presently they revolted from him: and to speak all, the Grecian Provinces were in an uproar, for want of expression to their joy, and thought they had accusation enough against the Apostles, when they found them teaching, there was another King beside Caesar, Act. 17.7 and for certain it had been a dangerous doctrine, if of a temporal King: as you'll take them teaching it of a temporal King, that there is another Sovereign beside our Caesar: wherefore be not miscarried to their bed of sleep: ye know the disprofit, ye know the danger of it: suppose the enemy were approaching to the walls: the City arm themselves; the valiant men of war marching forward with greater fury than the rest, encounter the enemy at the gates; and now they charge and then look back again; and now they fight, and then again look back, for fear their greatest enemies be behind them, a division of their own: yet still they make good the wall, until the heat of skirmish be began, & then the mystery of discord also gins to work, and here a Captain flags, and there another falsifies his fire: and one man shoots the enemy; & another shoots his fellow Citizen that is next unto him; thus the division works: and then to handy strokes they come amongst themselves: the throat that's next him then, each bloody blade bereaves him of his life: then their glittering swords are sheathed into each others guts: the hewing Axe and wounding Petronel set blood for blood abroach: no matter though the enemy do prevail, saith the dissentious man, yet howsoever this villain my neighbour shall never live to triumph over me again, and down he beats him to the ground: thus each butchers other, while the enemy is glad to enter on so rich a spoil: and thus a City and thus a kingdom is too too often lost: whereas if they were unanimous among themselves, the enemy might sacrifice his powder to the empty air; and feed upon the sound thereof instead of richer spoils. Alas, saith Solomon, The children of mine own mother, mine own mother's children have fought against me, no marvel if I fall.— If thus you stand affected against each other; Alas the frustrate enterprises of our former Queen! Alas the failing hopes of peaceable men! the too much deceived expectation of us all: for I see you fight, weeping, bleeding, dying; standing wet-shooed up to the very ankles in each others blood, and more fearfully than so, 'tis deep blood, 'tis very dreadful goarebloud I see; if so! I say; if so! For I delight not these heavy descriptions, I had rather divine happy things vnt'ee: yet weigh well the danger, that's the best preventing way: know ye not that the furious Devil walks his rounds? the whole world is his family at hand and beck: non infans unius diei, imo non infans unius Dei: not an infant of a day old, but he labours to make it child of wrath, and of division as well as others. 
Tu potes vnanimes armare in Praelia fratres,  
tibi nominae mille— mille nocendi arts:  A thousand several arts he hath to make division in a land, he hath false teachers of every kind, & varieties of furies at command: the world full of ambition without; we of unconstancy within: each gaping after change. 'tis no age for Tacitus his Prince to commit neighbour Provinces against each other: that's when he fears a conspiracy within, but we most without: they are all grown Machiavellians now: divide & impera; 'tis the precept, the practice of them all: safe for them; dangerous for us: if none of these will move; go then ye Pilot-marriners and make ye a tumult in the ship, let the winds blow, and the surging waves arife, and the enemy come upon ye, yet still be ye roaring mad against each other; there is no fear of robbing drowning, dying; there is no danger in it: Alas, yes; nothing more; unless ye stand constant to the whole, unanimously affected to each other, with one heart and hand to live and die together; there's no preservation neither of ship nor kingdom, that there is not: unless ye be all like Nestor and Achilles, whom neither Court nor Country did ever hear to jar. Fly therefore faction, renounce debate; sharp is the enemy's stomach set with choler of ambition and revenge: why will ye gratify the Roman power by committing your tongues, your swords one against another? never talk against division, but live against it: never say peace, peace; but do it: pacatiùs loqueris, quàm vivis: put up your two-edged words into their sheaths: leave off invective Sermons; and each intemperate, bloody, good name-killing abuse: each man be reconciled to his foe: great Babylon itself can never stand, if Euphrat●s be divided into three hundred sluices, as 'twas in Cyrus' time: put legal remedies in execution, and by all evengelicall sweetness let us study to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace: one law, one religion, one King, and one kingdom let us by; ye all mioy the same air, which makes your complexions to be liker to each other, than ye are to any other kingdom in the world beside: ye all partake the same blood by interveining marriages with each other: ye all partake the same diet, the same studies; the same tutelary Angels do defend ye all: why should there be any division amongst ye? because ye hate to be reconciled? But Division will reconcile ye, whether ye will or no: See the shallowness: for division at home doth ever call in some warlike nation from abroad, and they will make you Amici inimicis, & inimici amicis; friends with your utterest enemies, which would make a wise man mad; and I would to God it would make mad men wise also, for it will make you enemies with your best friends too, whether you will or no; as the wise Hermocrates did easily fore see: so that if neither for displeasure, nor dishonour, nor disprofir, nor danger neither, yet for necessity itself each man of prudence division should avoid.  
What higher? but their execution here, & the tormentive punishments of hell hereafter: Read Suidas, peruse the Athenian, the Roman Commonwealth; they were ever banished or imprisoned, or put to more shameful deaths. Remember Phryno, Philocrates, Theagenes, & the rest: escape the common Soldier's knowledge, yet the magistracy found means against them: escape the magistracy, yet the Commous drew them to the market place, cut off their hands and bade them go now & divide more kingdoms, betray more Cities, if they could: escape both Commons & Magistracy; yet can they never escape the judgements of God: that divides a man is murderer of one; that a pregnant woman of more than that a man; and that a Church of more than that a woman: but he that a kingdom doth divide, is a greater sinner than them all: he destroys truth, customs, chastity, religion, from mothers, from Churches, elect, and reprobate altogether: this is more than parricide, or tyrant, or the devil himself did ever do: the sin of a whole kingdom, and the sorrows of a whole kingdom are his guilt; & therefore his doom, as much as the punishment of a whole kingdom shall it be: o did such a divisioner see, what an intolerable sum they make, when they come altogether: put Divesses punishment to judasses, and judasses to Ahabs', and Ahabt to Hieroboams', that made all Israel to sin: put the adulterer's pains to the bloody murderer's tortures, and both unto the Idolaters sufferings; and whose flesh and blood is ever able to endure it? Nay suppose all the pains, that are hellishly inflicted upon a whole kingdom of reprobates, were all laid upon one man: even such shall the punishment be of all them, that kingdoms do divide: and will not this dissuade neither? Farther than this we cannot go, only we have access to him, that can go farther, by prayer, which is the last remedy. Among twenty Commentators there's one says, Precemur ergo deum: O ye that are chosen to collegiate life's; increase ye the number, I beseech ye: what d'ye think, is the primitive institution of the Founder, or what the expediency of such a pious place? that ye should wax old in studying superfluous questions of Materia prima, and whether puncta be entia realia in continuo, or no? admiring only the Man in the Moon, and studying the question, till— as wise as he. Ye have no pastoral charges to converse withal: ye are sequestered from all the World beside: ye are the only fit men and place for prayer unto God: O recommend this cause in your petitions often to his Throne: Patria prae patre: The Philosopher was wont to say, he loved his doom dearer than his own father: and I that could make mine own interests (being a single man) upon foresight of advantage as well as others, yet having conscience of the public, I so far prefer my Country's good before mine own, that I baseech you all often to pray against division, both in your private and public devotions unto God: that it would please him evermore to preserve us from all mercenary pensioners, as he hath at any time done heretofore, from all false Catholics & contrarieties to the truth, from all temptations to rebellion by foreign alliance whatsoever it be: that he would so direct the kingdom's government, as no revengeful spirit may have any matter to work upon, either within themselves, or abroad among the multitude of the Commonwealth: you have your injunction the 1. Ep. To Tim. 2. Chap. 1. ver. That prayers and intercessions be made for all: for Kings and Kingdoms, and all that are in eminent place, that so we may lead a quiet and a peaceable, a peaceable life. Peace is the fruit of prayer: Peace is the preservation, the augmentation of the Church: pray therefore that our kingdom's peace fail not; because the preservation, the augmentation of the Church depends upon the kingdom's peace: these are the causes, effects, and remedies, which in a Theological modesty we can be permitted to declare vnt'ce: other there are more political, which if ye know them, happy are ye, if ye do them; For if a kingdom be divided against itself that kingdom can never stand.  
And if ye do them, receive a word of consolation to your souls, all you that are not guilty of this Nation-falling sickness, this kingdome-killing sin: you have neither taken pension to betray the kingdom, nor for revenge encouraged others to make a faction in the land: ye have not for schism sake engendered any other religion, then that which is the main orthodoxal of the state: solace yourselves, you can be no causes of the kingdom's fall. But ye say ye have been discontented at the present state, and that ye fear is division: you have sometimes spoken a word against the disorders of the Realm, and that is division, ye sear: ye have said 'twere good we had wars, & is not that division too? No I beseech ye; mark but the emphasis: if divided against itself! there is a division that makes for the good of the whole: so the mouths of Disputants are many times divided in pursuit of deliberative argument for finding out the truth, and yet they accord well enough in the unity of the same conclusion all at last: and such a division is like a division of notes in music: it is not divided against itself, it makes the sweeter sound. Your discontented eyes gush out with tears, because men keep not the law; this is not to make, but mar the division of a land: your tongue reports unto the Church some disorders you have seen; but in words of sweetest charity; in the abundance of lovely desires, not in any bitterness do ye report the same: and so peradventure ye procure the evil to be taken away by man, or pardoned by God, because ye are so zealous against the sin: in all such estates of causes the division is not against itself, but for the whole; such a kingdom is not divided against itself: you desire wars, but foreign not civil wars; and that's no division against itself, but a firmer union of the whole. And many other cases there are, wherein it is not only lawful, but most necessary to be divided for the public good; and one man's tongue to move one way, and another's in a second path, as the Orbs do in the Firmament: The primun mobile runs West, the next particular Spheres East, the lower Planets obliquely take another course: yet all tempering sweetly together for the commodity of the whole: otherwise if they should run all one may, they would hurry the earth and all to pieces, and spoil the natural growth of all: So runs the King our Primum Mobile, in motions all aloft: the Nobles as the next Spheres seem another way: the Clergy and Courts of equity like the nearer Planets take a third course: but all working sweetly for the commodity of the whole: otherwise, if all one way; the Commons which are terra Reipub: would be hurried all to pieces, & it would spoil the public growth of all: You know how Lucan describes the over-whelming of a Ship: dum nimium pugnax: while they ran all to one side topsy-turvy by unequal poise they ouer-weighed the Ship: they must divide themselves therefore, that mean to preserve the Commonwealth, that floating Ship: but still they must agree in managing such a division very circumspectly, for the welfare of the whole: If any man hath been guilty of indiscretion to the contrary, let him hereafter temper himself in a wiser kind: if he'll endeavour to make us sing the 133 Psalm in a pleasanter tune than ever we did before: O how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! then shall his presence be as acceptable to our eyes, as Music itself is to our ears: O how beautiful is the presence of them that preserve peace among us: Music is no music to be compared with that sweet reciprocal conversation of body and soul, of flesh and blood, which is most lively displayed every hour between each other in time of Peace: Music only glorifies the ear; but this the whole body of a Kingdom doth adorn: 'tis like the precious ointment on the head, which runneth down to the skirts of all the Kingdom: Music preserves from Melancholy only for a while: but this for evermore: for there the Lord promised his blessing, and life for evermore: Music cannot make a little town a great City: but small and contemptible beginnings have grown into great Kingdoms by concord, whereas mighty Empires by division have been overturned: who than not honour those that do preserve our peace? to them the comfort: Ye have prayed against divifion, and there's no sign in that of dividing a Kingdom against itself: ye have hated the Societies of the seditious, as the King himself commands, Prov. 24.21: and that's no sign of dividing the Kingdom against itself: ye have scorned pension, alliance, revenge, ambition, all to preserve the Kingdom in unity with itself: you have preserved the union of the Kingdom, and the union of the Kingdom shall preserve you: you shall not be guilty of this foul Kingdome-killing sin: But you say there are other destructions of a Kingdom from without: 'tis true, yet I never love to wander from my Text: my Text concerns only dissipations within: If a Kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom can never stand: Wherefore to sum up all; whether Princes be divided against themselves, or Subjects against themselves; or Prince and People one against another: whether about superiority, or any other pretensive matter of pleasure, profit, or revenge: whether the subtlety of any other kingdom instigate, or they be the beginners of it themselves: whether it arise from the Clergy, and so proceed to the Laity, or from Laity to Clergy: however it be, if it be absolutely divided against itself, it can never long subsist, for it will turn the Physutian against the Patient, Son against Father, Servant against Master, Flock against Minister; it turns tongues and pens, hearts and hands, swords and spears of one against another: makes them betray, murder each other behind their backs: disgrace the meetings, solemnities, orders, attributes of each other, and therefore it can never stand: a kingdom divided against itself can never stand.  
Now to refresh ye with another word of special application to the time, and so an end: To day is this Scripture doubly fulfilled in all your ears: had the Court with them, or the Clergy with us, been absolutely divided against the Kingdom's good, the Kingdom had perished then, the glory of it now; ye had been both destitute of such a King, and such a glorious celebration of the day: the one well known among ourselves, the other all abroad: For as on this day Gowrie and his brother set both upon the King— But GOD gave the victory, determined the question, sent his servants to rescue him; and Ramsay thrust Gowrie through the heart: he strooke him, & he strooke him dead, and he strooke him dead at a blow, and I am somewhat afraid he strooke his soul down dead to hell: For he died in a moment, without crying either to the King or GOD for mercy:— the division of a Kingdom, of his own kingdom, and that against so great an Anointed of the Lord, as our Sovereign is, whose Seed was to govern in so many opulent Kingdoms after him; I see the rheum of Ireland, the confusion of Scotland, the division of England, the suppression of all Protestant Religion in Germany, and what not? all in this one more than Nationall sin of Gowries' Conspiracy; & therefore may I not justly fear he strooke his soul down dead to hell?— divisions are tootoo often in every State, and that upon small occasions many times: what says Traitor Gowrie for himself? 'Twas to revenge his father: to revenge your father? what, upon the man that never wronged your father? upon the King himself? your father was a tainted man; the King was but in his young minority; a merely gentle passive in those affair: They were the Protectors and the hand of justice cut your father off, 'twas not the King: and if he were justly executed, why should you not endure it? if unjustly, yet endure it; for then Heaven would revenge him without any such sinful help of yours: your Tutor Rollocke (Mr Alexander) and a greater than Rollocke, what saith he? Tell me says Chrysostome, when Cain put Abel unjustly death, which of those two was the dead man? dic quaeso uter illorum erat mortuus? whether Abel, 
Ad Rom. cap. 4. serm. 8.  whose blood did after live to triurnph in a victorious cry, or Cain whose blood did after live in servile fear of every aspen leaf? bloud-guilty cain's countenance waxed pale, and speechless, and dead, while alive; but innocent Abel's blood was fresh and lively, & triumphant in a glorious cry: witness the Law; it is the crying child, that doth enjoy the state of life, and therefore cain's blood was dead, but Abel's was alive, because it cried unto the Lord: so that if your father were an Abel, unjustly put to death, than was your father alive, and being alive, his blood should have commenced the suit, his blood have sought revenge, not you: but being justly executed, much less: 'tis reprobat-like to injure those that injure you; but pure damnation to injure those that never injured you: Is any man culpable? witnesses are produced; be it the appearance of his own actions, or other men's suffrages to condemn him: however if he suffer, let him blame the witness, not the Commonwealth: if he seek revenge by the division of a kingdom for it, he injures those that never injured him, and the height of damnation shall be his due. No, no, there was somewhat more than the private revenge of his father that urged the Traitor to it: he was brought up in Italy, the very place where the most King-killing doctrine is taught to be the true meaning of the Gospel: I should misreport the probability of all story, if I should arraign Earl Gowry for a Praecisian before ye, rather than a Papist in this fact-for he was a notorious Magician; the Characters found about his, searched in the presence of the King: a very usual thing with Papists, but where did ye ever know a Praecisian that was so magically given? brought up in Italy? common among Papists; but where ever Praecisian that was Italianly given? his plausible popularity argues him Papist, or carnal Protestant at least: but where ever sowre-faced Praecisian, that was so popularly given? his daily complices Logan and Bour, men of no Religion at all, by Sprotts own 
* Sprott at his Arraigment exhorted all to take heed how they kept company with such as made no profession of Religion: acknowledging before them all, that his haunting so much with the Lo: Logan, a man without Religion, and subject to many other vices; as also his continual being in company with the Lo: Bour, who was as irreligious as the other, and without fear of God, had ensnared him thereunto: and therefore he desired them all again, to beware of evil company, especially those that were void of Religion: they are his own very words: published by authority.  Confession, his divine correspondency with jesuits also, who did ever know Praecisian so irreligiously, so jesuitically given? peradventure some mis-praecisians did adhere too much unto the fairness of his tongue, because they dis-affected the King's Episcopal government of the Church: peradventure some allied by blood or service or other affection to the man can not so well digest the mention of that treason unto this day: peradventure the ignorance of others do to this hour mistake his intendments, as if they were really belonging to their own side; but mistakes be they never so many, cannot satisfy the arguments alleged; nor will the nature of the cause ever bear it to be defined upon him as a Praecisians' fact: The history is known, and I have heard this pulpit speak so much about 14 years ago, that his outlandish education was the chiefest cause of all: For there ye have the height of all pride; there ye have professed schools and methods of revenge; there factions are taught by rules, and treasons by a kind of Law. I would to God I had but freedom to speak: but what ever the cause was, the sin is a crying, kill, deadly, damning sin: Is this your Catholic training up of children beyond the seas, to prepare them for after-treasons and divisions in a State? Is this your hypocritical wearing of CHRIST'S Cross about your necks, that so ye may more cunningly crucify others? is this the recompense ye return him for all the merits of his passion? How often did he endure the buffetting fist, the bloody spear, and many a tormenting division more? & why? but that we might live and flourish in the fullness, the fatness of our peace: Peace he brought down from Heaven with him: Peace he recommended being about to die: But Logan will none of his peace, he says, he will hazard life, lands, and honour; nay, Hell itself shall not affright him, but he will be revenged upon the King, they are his own words. Not Hell itself affright him? yes, the grisly ghastly looks of one tormenting fire-flaming devil would make his traitorous bones tremble into so many several anguishes, as an Angell-Oratour were never able to express: Irons, fires, chains, prisons, gibbets, wheels, tortures, yell, howl, crucifyings, and every moment they suffer the multiplication of a thousand several deaths: and that which is the horror of all, those savage spiries are so furious about them, it seems GOD doth not restrain their malice in that world to come; but they may torment a man beyond all infiniteness, if they will: For do ye not see the wheel upon them? and the worm that never dies gnawing their conscience about the heart? do ye not see the fire that never goes forth, parching their tongues with burning thirst? and foul coale-blacke sprights tearing their flesh with red-hot iron instruments of vengeance for their sin? just as they did offer to pull and tear the visage of the King: O the intolerable painful punishment they do endurel every hour a new addition to their old hell! do ye not he are them cry sometimes, if ye listen well about the dead time of the night? for certain it may well be some of that company; It any of them did departed this world unrepented of so great a sin: And still they say, oh that they might have a little ease, if it were but a very little ease, if but never so little peace with those infernal fiends; they would willingly return to their former pain again about an hour after with all their hearts: no, they were full of division and blood, and vengeance, and all tormentive imaginations while they were alive, and therefore it is but justice now that the full vials of God's vengeance should be poured out upon them.  
Beware ye spirits of sedition, that ye come not to this burning lake: do not effect those outlandish fashions of ambition and revenge: 'tis not your characters of Magic can secure you from the pains of hell, no nor from stroke of execution neither, if ye deserve the blow: division of any kingdom is a deadly sin, but the greater, if your own; and in your own the greatest is against the King: seven times hotter shall be your hell: if he were reprobate, yet your God on earth; but being regenerate, he partakes the blood-royal of JESUS CHRIST himself: for him ye must fight, as on this day loyal Ramsay did; for him give thankes, for him pray: Come I beseech you, and let us bind ourselves again by faith and Sacrament unto him: by prayers we'll be his thundering Army, and if need require, those your fair learned hands shall be his Praetorian band; faithful to the death! with whom can ye be in charity, if not with him? you desired the pre-eminence should be taken from your sister, and bestowed upon yourselves; it was so: a new reformation by Parliament ye did desire; to that his Majesty did consent: you desired the forgiveness of old debts, it was so: that excessive bands of Usury might be released, to that also he did consent: one while you desired there might be peace in your own days, and it was so; anotherwhile war, and to that also he did consent: one while to be stewards of your own lands and monies; it was so: anotherwhile commanders of your own waters, & thereto also he did consent: Now what can he do more for his Vineyard, that he hath not done? even that also shall be perfited in aftertime: Wherefore, long may he rule over us, and never too long may we obey his prosperous reign; and living in unity one with another, Let the world grow olds, but never this Kingdom know what division means: If ye agree, no hostile power shall unarm ye; if divide, every small enemy shall take your kingdom from ye: give me your spears, give me strong cords, and I will break them before your faces, if ye divide them; but keep them united, and Samson himself shall not do the deed.  
The time commands me: take only S. Bernard with ye, & I have done: Ante mihi contingat mori, quam audire in vobis aliquem iustè clamantem; fily matris meae pugnaverunt contra me Let me die, ere ever I hear any man justly complaining amongst ye, that the sons of his own mother have fought against him. Ye are all children of the same Kingdom, of the same Congregation all; and all brothers to each other; neither is any man so like himself in all things, as ye are all in some things like to one another: Love therefore but within yourselves; nothing without ye shall ever be prejudicial vnt'ee: the 29 Serm: on the Canticles.— O thou heavenly concord, that dwellest above the Orbs, descend into the hearts of such as hear me this day: or give them concord, or else thou blottest me out of the book of life; or give them concord, or else thou wilt divide me; or give them concord, or else we all shall die: Hear us good Lord, and answer us according to the multitude of thy mercies for JESUS CHRIST'S sake, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory now and evermore, AMEN.  
FINIS.