THE King's cause Rationally, briefly, and plainly debated, as it stands De facto. AGAINST The irrational, groundless misprisions of a still deceived sort of People.  2. SAM. 2. Shall the Sword devour for ever? Know ye not that it will be bitterness in the end? 
Heu quantum potuit terrae pelagique parari,  
Hoc quem civiles hauserunt sanguine dextrae?  
Printed Ann. Dom. 1644.   

The King's cause rationally, and plainly debated, as it stands de Facto. &c.  
COncerning the nature or quality of these unhappy distractions we have long groaned under, & consequently by what name or title we may best decipher them, I need not to speak much: A civil war it is, who sees not, yea plusquam civil, more than so; an unnatural, bloody war, wherein friend stands engaged upon terms of defiance against his friend, brother against brother, even father against the son, making good by this means in these last and dreggish times of the world that inevitably true prediction of our Saviour, Luk. 12. 13. what the event or issue of this war so unluckely begun, and as obstinately still maintained, may be, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, God he knoweth. The best we can probably expect (Unless the same God be pleased by a timely prevention to make up the breach, must needs be a speedy overwhelming of this once flouris●ing Island in the general deluge of ruin and destruction.  
But enough of this; The truth herein is too notoriously apparent to our extreme sorrow, and rather requires the help of some kind of healing salve▪ then of a farther corrosive; It may be worth our consideration then in the first place to observe, against whom namely be these warlike arms taken up; Against the King questionless, Patrem patriae, our lawful sovereign, the Lord's anointed: That {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as one expresseth it, that supreme power placed in so near a distance under God himself, that whereas we in modesty term Kings or Rulers here upon earth, his vicegerents only, he hath pleased to advance them to an higher title, and plainly styles them Gods, I have said ye are God's. Ps. 82. 6. And hence further is it that we find in Scripture the seat of royal judicature, as usually termed the Throne of God, as the King's Throne; nor themselves barely the Deputies or Ministers of Men, but God's Ministers, his peculiar substitutes.  
All power is from God, I willingly acknowledge, by some way of derivation or other: but this for certain more immediately and in a nearer degree, as being the Supreme, 1. Pet. 2. 15. more determinatively too in that he alone is the disposer both of Kings and kingdoms saith the Prophet, Dan. 2. 21. Dan. 4. 17. 25. even to a particular designation of the person frequently, as we find it to have been (not to speak aught of exotic governments) in the Jewish commonwealth. The Heathen anciently by the very light of nature found out this truth.  {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, saith the Poet, and another yet more closely  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. The King (saith he) is the truest and liveliest reflex or image of God upon earth that may be; Humani joves', as the Latin comedian speaking of such persons in a strain beyond them both. And surely for this reason particularly amongst other (in my poor fancy) is that very title above mentioned of being called Gods bestowed upon them, to wit in regard of their dominion and sovereignty over the rest, which they still retain as a main relic as it were of that God's image at first stamped, and engraven upon the soul of man. Now as' I said, against this sovereign power nevertheless be these arms lifted up: a power so sacred, it seems, as not to be touched or but roughly meddled with; since Touch not mine anointed (not the chief then be sure) is the interdictive express caution of the almighty; David thus did but touch Saul by cutting off the skirt of his garment, and we see how his heart smote him straight; in as much, as, who can stretch forth his hand (saith he) against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless?  
For however to colour and disguise the business, the King hath been all along pretended to these harsh unusual proceedings of late, as if what were done, were not against him but for him, yet is this in truth such a strange piece of state-Sophistry, that men, though of mean capacity cannot I suppose at last but discern easily and see through it; Nuga & quisquiliae, unless they can possibly show pro & con: with and against, terms so widely opposite to be one and the same, which yet will neither good logic admit in the former, nor scripture phrase acknowledge in the latter: That saying of our Saviour, Mar. 10. touching matrimonial union, Quos Deus iunxit nemo separet, is in a good sense if read backwards appliable to the present divisions, Q. D. S. N. jung: whom God in his secret displeasure, as here, hath a while really divided & set at distance, let none go about in pursuance of their close unjustifiable designs by bare and empty terms to join together. You say you are for the King, entitle him to every act, the King saith no, disclaims it utterly, often and again hath protested against it: whom may we in reason rather believe? especially considering those gross & monstrous inconsequences which follow hereupon, as that thereby he is made to set forth Edicts, levy moneys, wage war, and all against himself.  
It is true (I confess) in some cases, as where the Prince is a Minor and under age; or where he is not compos sui through weakness of his intellectuals, this may well hold, and the seeming contradiction be easily closed up: The reason is, for that there the party is not Master of his own actions, nor can he, in a legal consideration be reckoned amongst those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} whether in Art, or Nature, which move of themselves, but as one rather who is moved from without. There both law and equity justly commit such a one to the tuition and guidance of another. But where there rules a judicious and discerning Prince, able to steer by the conduct of his own reason, there to plead your being for him, and yet go cross to his commands, is such a fine piece of artifice, as may serve perchance to ensnare the simple, but withal occasion the wise to smile.  
If it be here replied (as some have done) that this Resistance of theirs is merely against the King his Private, not his public, his personal, not his royal commands (for as so, say they, he must be supposed always to speak in the voice of his Parliament, or else that of the law.) A poor shift, when as they are fain to shape on this manner their evasions at the Romish forge; for thus deal they, labouring by a like art of sophistry to set up monarchical government in the Church, as these endeavour to pull it down in the Commonwealth. To this end have they divided (who knows not?) the Pope even from himself, by considering him as he is a Man, & as he is Pope; As he is a private man, say they, he may err, but as he is Pope and sitting in the chair, he is infallible. Such cobweb thin-spun distinctions as these, I have ever thought fitter for speculative disputes, than at any hand to be drawn into outward practice. They carry somewhat with them, the sound, but are altogether void of substance. Otherwise by the same rule I might slay my brother, not apprehending him as one of Adam's progeny, as myself am, but under the common notion of some sensitive kind of creature, or say I'll rob him of his substance, not conceiving of him as my neighbour, but as of some professed enemy: And yet again when or where will they be able, I marvel, to find the King on this wise divested of a royal influence into all commands of state, not repugnant to the laws already being? Or moreover not alike still, whether placed in his Throne or out of it, representative of a public person: These are niceties that require a ray or two of further illustration from them.  
Be it further urged, that notwithstanding this their resistance to his commands, yet they love and honour his person, as in duty they are bound to do. Not so certainly neither; I am sure our Saviour, Io. 5. 15. teacheth another doctrine, If ye love me, saith he, keep my commandments. Mark the consequence: and Jehu, 2. King's 9 30. about to destroy wicked Jezabel who is on my side, saith he, who? and immediately we find his commands fulfilled, V. 13. True love towards our governors ever begets an inward obedience or subjection of the soul, & obedience straight breaks forth into outward performances. Obedientia according to the etymology quasi Obaudientia: The word imports a willingness of harkening and ready submitting ourselves to the commands of our superiors. In brief it is our duty not over hastily to dispute, but obey their Mandates: otherwise of subjects we become judges both of them and their actions.  
Being thus driven from either of those two former holds, they betake themselves for refuge to a third, and that indeed the weakest. We have not taken up arms plead they, against the King, but against the Malignants and evil council which is about him. Here I cannot but remember the manner of certain Fencers or swashbucklers in Rome, anciently called the Retiarti, whose fashion it was in fight, when as pressing eagerly upon the adversary, and endeavouring to cast their net (wherewith they were fitted for the purpose) upon him, that so they might entangle him, to cry Piscem peto, non tepeto, I make at the fish (a fish it seems there being engraven on the others helmet) and not at thee. So these men, they pretend a war against the Malignants, but they pursue the King; yet doth not the King write them friends whom they term Malignants? Doth he not own and uphold them in their proceedings? So as their being against them, argues manifestly their being against him. It is a gospel inference, Mat. 25. 40. For in as much as ye have done it to one of these little ones, the least of these my brethren, saith our Saviour speaking of his poor distressed Saints, ye have done it unto me, so likewise; V. 45. Act. 9 4. Howbeit they still go on, seize on his ships and Magazines, force his towns and Castles from him, yea shut the gates against him; unless happily, as it befell Phaedria in the comedian from his kind Mistress, who pra amore exclusit foras, as it is there, They likewise may be thought to have done whatsoever hath been acted in these affronting ways, merely out of the zeal and tenderness of their pure affections.  
This was the first consideration I made choice of to propose, concerning the Person, namely against whom this war is undertaken, the King; next I would have it considered that as it is the King, so he is a King interressed to his crown by virtue of Inheritance, a King, as I may say, natus, non factus, borne so, not made; what the difference in this ease may be, as touching the validity of interest or right to their dominions, between an Elective and Hereditary King, (this for certain being the more Absolute and additional of the two; moreover the conditions what e'er condescended to essential there and Necessary constitutive to the very essence of sovereignty; here for the most part mere Volun●ary and Subsequent acts of grace, and so less censurable (by man) upon the breach and forfeiture, than there they are) I will not make it the argument of my present discourse; nor do I produce this topic as meaning thereby to add any strength of supportance to his sacred title; That needs not; but only as willing upon all true just grounds, to improve that duty and loyal respect in the minds of reasonable men, which they owe to their sovereign; It was somewhat surely (at leastwise the Poet thought it so) that Agamemnon doth so boast of the antiquity and descent of his sceptre, fetching it down from Vulcan to Jupiter, from Jupiter to Mercury, from Mercury to Pelops, and so onwards.  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}—  
We behold with a kind of Reverence some high and lofty long grown oak, yet not so much for its height, as for its continuance, and as it were conquest gained upon time; which since man himself by reason of his natural frailty cannot attain to, we reverence it in his offspring. Thus it fares in private families, and thus should it be much more in the line of Princes, who are Patres familiarum, and so commended to us in Scripture under the title of being the Heads of their Tribes. The point I drive at is this: Princes by inheritance, as they have taken deep root, and are firmly seated in their Throne, through virtue thereof, accordingly may they challenge a firmness of duty and allegiance in the hearts of their people.  
In the third place let it be considered, that as he is an Heaeditarie King; so he is a Good and Gracious KING; a Prince singularly accomplished throughout, Malice herself, for aught I could ever hear, hath not in this particular whereon she can justly discharge her envenomed rancour; look upon him in his own line up to the top of his ancient and long renowned pedigree, treading through the whole series of his famous predecessors; Or look upon him in a collateral line, and compare him with the neighbouring Princes about, and without offence, I suppose, (take him but in all respects) I may parallel, if not prefer him to the best. Quaeris Alcidae parem?  
Nemo est nisi Ipse; what Zenophen hath delivered of Princes in the Idea for moral virtues requisitely behooveful in them, and what Synesius with others for Christians, we have here in some sort fulfilled in the History. But I must be sparing in the point for fear of censure; Nor needs in truth a gem so resplendent and eminently apparent of itself much labour in the setting of; It is no more than whatinteffect I have observed to drop from the pen of one of their own party; Omni exceptione major, grants he: A Prince in his own naturals or proper constitution beyond all exception; Only thus much then by way of aphorism.  
O Fortunati nimium bona si sua!  
Thrice happy we of this nation, if we rightly knew how to value herein and esteem our own happiness; which on the by might well give check to many of our seditious pamphleteers & others in their crude indigested pasquils, who notwithstanding the scripture its so frequent Caveats in this kind against despising dominions, speaking evil of dignities, nay but ill thinking of them, they as it were, carried aloft in the strength of their unmannerly brainsick zeal, make at the highest, and as the Jews once dealt by our Saviour Christ, forbear not to spit in the face of majesty itself. Upon such as these hath the Apostle St Jude pronounced that heavy doom (which I could wish they did seriously consider of) allotting them as a just reward of their ill demeanours the blackness of darkness for ever Iud. 13.  
Fourthly, I wish it may be considered how that He is a peaceful King: Peace doubtless is a great blessing to a kingdom, and so is a peaceful King: O pray for the peace of Jerusalem, saith holy David, and St Paul, follow peace▪ Heb. 12. ver. 13. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the word implying thus much, that men should pursue and hasten after it, like as they do for the prize in some race or game of contention, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, in some such sense ofttimes in Homer. Now hath not the King been thus zealous for the peace of our Jerusalem; Hath not he likewise (though in vain) thus pursued and hasted after it? Witness the many overtures or rather entreaties for peace made by him: And all this really, unfeignedly; not dissemblingly, or under a vizard, as those of David's enemies, whom therefore he deservedly complained of, that whilst they spoke of peace, they had war in their hearts, Ps. 110 7. Had others been as forward as he, to embrace terms of peace, to tread in that viâ lacteâ, we had ere this (my conscience gives me) all closed in a peaceful end: yet no marvel in it, for a peaceful son to proceed out of the loins of a peaceful father; His Motto was Pacificus; neither doth our sovereign (I confidently believe it) desire rather to have his brows encircled about with the laurel of victory, then of peace and concord with his people.  
The fifth consideration shall be, whether these arms so taken up, be Offensive, or Defensive, Defensive (say they) and will not be persuaded to the contrary; There is the maine {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the business with them, a special point indeed; let us a little examine it; Civilians teach us that a Defensive resistance is, when as the Defendant is no way the cause or occasion of the conflict, by some kind of former provocation, and then afterwards in the very Act, he doth but propulsare injuriam, stands merely upon his guard as▪ 'twere, aiming rather at his own safety, than the others ruin; In a word neither provokes, nor pursues his enemy. This is the nature of a true defensive resistance, Otherwise suppose I kill a man, to say I did it in mine own defence, having yet provoked, pursued, and then assaulted him, would prove, I fear me, but a slender kind of plea, even at the bar of Common justice. The case comes nearly home to our purpose, for be it examined on God's name with an impartial judgement, and let not Actions so apparently done in the face and eye of the world be either grossly denied, or cunningly shifted off. Who first ministered the occasion of this unnatural war, by tumults and seditious riots, in the open streets? Next, who first drew sword, & gave the onset, as it were, thus putting fire to the fuel now prepared and laid together? Who lastly hath ever since most hotly Pursued and followed the business at first so unfortunately begun? The King all this while almost, sueing and entreating for peace, if so peace might have been obtained upon fair and honourable terms consistent with majesty: what town or sort at the beginning did, or at least needed to have feared his entrance? Nay, what town or fort may yet justly fear it, if as they have unwarrantably taken up arms, so in acknowledgement of their error; they shall submit, & peaceably lay them down— Civilia bella— una acies patitur gerit Altera, All the offensiveness I can descry in the King as touching the whole matter is, that being at length enforced thereto, he would not suffer himself and his good subjects to be overborne with a tempest, and not make head against it: If this be it he is censured for, it calls to mind that story of him, who having first smitten his neighbour with his fist, afterwards sueth him, because his head was hard and hurt his hand: Passion, say Philosophers, in any subject is not without some manner of Reaction joined to it: nor can we defend ourselves but it is most likely we shall in some sort or other offend the assailant. But the nature (as I said) of a simply Defensive resistance, is to be tried at the test of the premised circumstances.  
Sixthly and lastly, it will be worth our consideration to examine upon what Grounds these arms be lifted up; ●t is an axiom in state policy, and ever hath been, that better to connive at and suffer some inconveniences in a Church or commonwealth, then to expose either to the manifold dangers of Alteration. And one of their own outlandish Doctors in a Tract of his upon the like argument (though pleading for Resistance) yet lays it down for a principle or sure maxim without all peradventure: I must confess mine own ignorance, as not having Lynceus his eyes about me; and therefore desire to be informed by others, whereupon this so urgent necessity of a civil war may be thought to have been grounded; otherwise I shall easily be induced to believe, that with him in the history, they do but pursue their own shadows, or shoot at a mark which themselves through the error of their weak fancies have set up. Is it for matter of Religion, as it was maintained in the best and purest times of a Reformation. The King hath promised it, himself doth practise it, and I heartily wish the best of his ill-affected subjects were but herein followers of his good Example. Is it for the liberty and freedom of our persons? The King hath likewise passed his word upon it; Is it for a Property in our goods and estates to be enjoyed by us according to the established wholesome laws of the kingdom? I must return the same answer. For what then? Davus sum, non Oedipu●: I desire that some good men or other would be pleased to help me out; where there occurs not danger of our Religion, nor of our Liberties, nor yet of our Estates to be invaded or trenched upon (as neither can the Master Architects of these miserable distractions, I suppose, though having artificially persuaded others, fully persuade themselves there is) there to take up hostile arms, you may if you please, style it a just Resistance, but what term it deserves of right, let the world judge.  
Besides then the groundless surmises, fears & jealousies of certain Melancholy overworking heads, as may be well imagined, since, Prona est timori semper in pejus fides. And those too many of them, it is to be thought, like false fires, raised of purpose, by the industry of cunning projectors, only to amuse the simpler people: no other ground or reason can I find of these public commotions, unless what remaineth, it may be the distempered and perverse ambition of some particular person; I burden none with this heavy charge; But so it is in the general, that men of discontented humours, or otherwise ambitiously disposed had at all times rather hazard the common peace and safety of the whole, then fail of their proposed private designs; Publicis incendiis patriae clarescere, as he speaks hath always been more for encouragement then a stop to the proceedings of such kind of spirits; chiefly whenneed & a decayednes of fortune, help to sharpen and whet on this froward ambitious humour of theirs; And as there; so likewise is it where men have casually embarked themselves further, into great affairs, then that they are able with safety to come off; There they stagger and falter up and down, as much uncertain what course to take, yet still make onwards, and rather than perish alone, desperately put all into a general confusion: with Samson taking his last Revenge against the Philistines, they pull down the house, though necessarily it fall upon their own heads, causing thus the guiltless ruin of a whole Nation oft-times to wait upon the hearse of their deserved overthrow.  
Notwithstanding all this the King, say they, for certain, hath formerly tran●gressed in the premises by declining from the manifest and known Rules of the Law. I will not here argue the just Prerogative of Kings, what they may happily challenge to themselves, either praeter or sup 〈…〉 a, besides or above the law. This would be censured straight (such is the malicious wit of jealousy) as a plea made for the establishment of an Arbitrary government; yet so Machiavelli may teach, or his associates perchance, but not I: Thus much only than I shall say in this matter; What ere privileges the Prince is possessed of, whether derived unto him by custom, or as grounded upon the law itself, favore amplianda sunt, is an authentic saying borrowed from Canonists; They ought of right rather to be improved, than any way diminished by us; without any curb or bounds at all imposed from law to regulate them by, did Kings (we find) anciently and in those heroic purer times of the world (thence rightly termed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with the like) govern the people subjected to them. But and this farther: There can be no state so exactly framed & composed according to the rule of law, but that it will require some kind of a moderating dispensative power left in the hands of the supreme Magistrate; Since the law is general, nor can it therefore possibly extend to a through determination of all particulars: And in such a case I had rather (if I needs must) be under the power & governance of one, then of many. Easier was it for Athens to suffer the arbitrary dominion of one Tyrant, then as they did a while, of Thirty: and for Rome upon emergent occasions the Dictatorship, or absolute government of a single Magistrate, then that of the Decemviri. It is confessed that where the way is plain and open, no obstructions or difficulties to hinder, there for the Magistratet o walk {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as the Philosopher prescribeth, is the safest course: But this cannot always be, I presume, in the best Commonwealth, though never so well ordered by the square and advice of the wisest Lawgiver.  
And now for their objection more particularly. Grant the King hath heretofore somewhat swerved from the known Dictates of the law (yet not to that height, neither will themselves say, as either of tyranny, or gross Idolatry, howbeit the only just causes of Resistance doubtless, were there any just) what? find we not David and Solomon, the best and wisest of Kings to have digressed oft-times into sundry by-paths of sin, and error from the law of God, even to the highest pitch? Take in Ahab, Manasses, with others of the worser sort (nor yet questioned thereupon by their subjects straight for their foul and truly insufferable misdemeanours in point of regal government; yet were they as strictly bound by solemn covenant, both towards God and Man, entered into at their several inaugurations, to a performance of certain conditions, as Kings at present be; nor do we generally find God's Priests and Prophets then, the ordinary sole interpreters of his hidden pleasure, upon any terms what ere freeing the people in the least degree from that indissoluble tye of their duty and subjection to their lawful sovereign: unless occasionally, by virtue of some particular express, or other from the very mouth of the almighty, as it happened in Jehues' case rising up against Joram. 2. King's 9 or in that of Jeroboam doing the like by his Liege Lord, 1. King's 11. which with the like extraordinary and immediate commands from God (Unusual for these times) our Enthusiastis themselves will not, I hope, in modesty offer to pretend to in their present undertakings.  
And say, must Princes than be brought upon the stage, and subjected to the danger of being Resisted by the people, upon a supposal of every slip or petty error committed by them? Princes (they may be pleased to know) as they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or Patres familiarum, as was said before, so have they a large family to govern and supervise. Add hereto the many intricate and perplexed mysteries, those Arcana imperii, which they have to deal with in the management of the sat; so as they see not always what they do (neither can they) but by other men's eyes, nor hear they, but by the ears of others, but are forced to use the subservient help and assistance of their Ministers. Can they show me wherein the King hath knowingly and willingly broken in upon the received laws of the Land, and that without a full persuasion of what he did, to be just and warrantable; Hic nodus vindice dignus; for as so, I am confident, he may safely proclaim it aloud with old 1. Samuel. 22. 3. Whose ox have I taken, or whose ass have I taken, or whom have I done wrong to? And with St Paul, though in another sense, I am pure from the blood of all men, Acts. 20. 26. Errors till now of late were not wont to be accounted crimes, not in the meanest, much less in Princes, wholly so high, at leastwise should do, above the level & pitch of common censure.  
And yet again, hath not the King long since been pleased to descend, as 'twere, from his Throne of majesty, yielding to a gracious revocation of whatsoever but suspectedly might seem heretofore to have been carried in a wrong course? He who by virtue of his place is, & hath been always so esteemed of in former times, not only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the chief framer and withal dispenser of laws, but also {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the very life and soul of the law: A point therefore which majesty useth but seldom to stoop to; Princes accounting of none as competent Judges of them and their Actions, save God alone; since it is a true saying, Rex est qui Regem, maxim, non habeat, He is truly a King who acknowledgeth no commanding power upon earth above himself. Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned; we know whose submission it was, and to whom he tendered it; nevertheless our King He hath done it, his royal Declarations on the one hand, and his real transactions on the other, extant in so many Gracious bills passed for the good of his Subjects, may serve as a sufficient pledge of this truth. Had but Rehoboam done the like, notwithstanding his precedent so offensively gross extravagancies indeed, mentioned. 1, Kings, 12. the revolted Tribes, (as it is imagined by the best) had soon returned to their due obedience; even among private Persons a man's word backed with real performances hath ever been esteemed of as a sure testimony of his true and sincere intendments.  
For all this, there be some so impudently fearful that they dare not Trust his majesty; And it is this Diffidence, amongst other things, which hath been a chief incentive to these public disturbances; Although a vain one, if rightly considered of: when as men shall go about to undo a Commonwealth, only because they fear and weakly suspect, it may be undone,  
Furor est, ne moriare mori:  
There being moreover provided, as there is, a most sure and sovereign remedy against all such danger, an effectual {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, for what ere distempers casually arising or happening in the State, that of a triennial Parliamentarte Convention; But say, I beseech you, Not trust him? Not your King? So religious and just a King? Not him whom the Lord himself hath trusted? Whom God and the law both have entrusted with the charge, of so great a people? Whence Kings they are usually styled in Scripture, Pastors, Fathers, terms of themselves importing much trust and affiance to be had in them: That too after such solemn Protestations, such effectual imprecations made to this purpose, and published by him? Lastly, after the many Acts of grace; done by him already, as sure pawns of his real intentions for the time to come? Yet after all, not to afford your sovereign so much credit, as but what either Turk, or Pagan upon like terms might rightly challenge at your hands? Wondrously strange! Especially that men so credulously given in matters of highest consequence, should prove so diffident and distrustful here! So confident God-wards, and so suspicious of his Vicegerent. Strange if not an offence, happily, (besides its arguing further, some {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or innate fraudulency of self-disposition) against the rule of common Charity, which lessoneth us to entertain a favourable conceit of all men, 1. Cor. 13. Nay a trespass against the known laws of nature, that prompts us to deal with other men, as we would be dealt with ourselves, to mete out to them the same measure, we desire should be meted back to us. The truth is, yield them so much power into their hands, whereby they may be enabled to command if not as Masters of the kingdom, yet as the Master's Mate, keeping the scales upright in an equal poise, ready to turn at their own pleasure. In a word, able when they list, to bind their Kings in chains, and their Nobles with links of iron, as the Psal. mystically deliver it. And then 'tis probable they will be induced to trust him, but not till then. I may add it as a Corollary here: Never better Prince, upon no better grounds, so harshly and uncivilly entreated by his subjects.  
Yet some moreover there be, who stick not to complain, that he is still misled; So runs the phrase; But for God's love by whom, or how? Do they mean so, as each man is drawn away and tempted, as S. James teacheth, of his own lusts and untamed desires? His known moderation and temperance in all respects will free him, as much as may be, from this imputation; By those then in private which are about him? If it be so, without more ado; and that the old pernicious stratagem of galing and wounding the Prince through the sides of his nearer attendants, be kept up; (although this exception might now at leastwise well be spared, a greater part of the two Houses being present to assist him) howbeit were it so, as they pretend, it seemeth in time it may prove a criminal offence to be nigh his sacred person; and that which hitherto hath been accounted an honour, shall be imputed as the greatest aspersion; and so by degrees every loyal true Subject, at what distance soe'er shall in fine become a delinquent; Time was when disloyalty or but disaffection towards the sovereign was made to be crimen crimine vacantium, saith the observant Historian; a punishable fault in such that wanted faults of accusation besides: but now we may expect and justly fear the contrary; It hath already thus befallen the Ministry in their kind, most of the conformable worthier sort of them in all places, being thereupon, and for no other reason commonly, strangely Metamorphized, through a wrong interpretation, into a new shape, and so presented to the world under the title of Popish or scandalous; But therefore let us rather know in what? why thus, as far as my weak apprehension will carry me. The King is not pleased to grant whatsoever is demanded of him though never so unreasonable, ergo he is misled; Because His Majesty will not yield to an hocksing and laming of his own Reg●ll authority transmitted unto him entire from the hands of his illustrious predecessors: To a new moulding of the state after the Venetian platform: To a new building of the Church suitable to the Genevian model. In brief to the creating of a new Heaven and a new Earth here amongst us, that is a new Church and a new Commonwealth, he is misled, he is seduced by wicked counsel.  
This is the sum and total of the business, as far as I can understand, or if there be more in it, I wish it may be made appear, and the minds of the moderator sort of people thereby better satisfied; Neither yet would I be so understood in these last passages, as if I desired that matters whether in Church or Common wealth should altogether stand as they have done, unmoved, unquestioned. Not so perchance, (albeit this be a point without the reach of my decision,) since what Church or State was ever known to have long continued free from the creeping in of sundry pernicious and destructive abuses. Like as some garden or other, we see how it becomes overgrown with weeds straight, if not carefully and often looked to or as the body which quickly superabounds with noxious humours, unless now & then it be cleansed by wholesome physic. But there is, I conceive, a wide difference to be found between a reforming of what is amiss in either, and the absolute transforming the whole into a new shape; betwixt pruning or lopping off the excrescencies of some over luxuriant vine, and a quite digging of it up by the roots; This is destructive, that useful, the former may well be tolerated, nay is some times very requisite. But it is this latter which sober understanding men do so abominate, whereby not only the old and sour leavin is to be purged forth,, as Saint Paul's counsel is, but both batch and laevin, are in danger to be done away together;  
And now a little to recollect in one those short imperfect considerations, which have hitherto been delivered upon this argument, as 'twere gathering together the dispersed handfuls, and making them up into one entire bundle. Here is you see a war continued, a cruel bloody war, this too against the King without question; yet this King an hareditary, a good, and peaceful King; withal the arms taken up and used in this war, they are not, as it is pretended defensive, but offensive plainly; then lastly upon what occasion or ground ariseth all this; certainly upon none as yet, that hath not at leastwise been graciously retracted to the full: and as for the future there's none imaginable, unless the bare furmises and lealousies of men, as was formerly said, working them into a needless distrust of the King's fidelity towards a performance of his promises, may be held a lawful and sufficient ground▪ And tell me, what soul endued but with common reason can approve of such irregular horrid proceedings, which no age, I believe, since the times of Christian Rule and Subjection first instituted amongst men (if taken with all circumstances of aggravation) look over the remaining Annals, peruse the choicest Records, can fully pattern or exemplify; what heart can choose but bleed upon a serious consideration of these groundless intestine broils, broken forth within the bowels of this once flourishing Common wealth, which (as that Ignis sacer with physicians, raging in the bones) of all diseases and annoyances to a State, is the most dreadful.  
I have done with the first branch of my intended discourse, concerning the King; I come next to speak somewhat of the 2d, the People; The King and his people as Subjects, are Relatives, and so may well be comprised within the Lists of the same Argument; now the people may be considered either disjoy ntedly and apart, or else as they make up one entire representative body in that highest Court: In this latter capacity or consideration I shall not say much of them: I love not walking upon precipices, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things above us deserve rather to be reverenced by us, than over boldly meddled with; But yet this I may safely say, and without offence, I Imagine, that the wisest Assemblies in this kind that may be, cannot amongst the rest of their privileges what ere challenge to themselves a privilege of being altogether free from errors and mistakes. It hath been so in the gravest counsels of the Church as hitherto; (true counsels indeed, and those truly and legally summoned together) one solely accepted, and that the first, wherein the holy Ghost after a more immediate manner did sit at stern, moderating and directing their present consultations. To pretend either here or there to an absolute infallibility would ●avour too much of Popish arrogancy: yet a blemish which neither the Lay nor ecclesiastic part of this kingdom will be willing I hope, in any considerable number to acknowledge themselves much guilty of.  
Again we find in counsels how there hath swayed oft-times a prevailing faction or party: so as they deserved not so much to have been termed Concilia, as Conciliabula, rather Conventicles then lawful assemblies, and accordingly the result of their consultations hath usually tasted strong of the prevailing side: nay, we have heard of counsels or Synods, that for a great part there sitting, in the first choice or constitution of them, have not always been, 'twas thought, so impartially assigned to the place, as not consisting of the best, the ablest, and every way fittest for the work that might be found: witness the many examples of counsels both ancient and modern too, which might be called upon in attestation of these truths; I apply not the one, nor the other: but this I may perhaps inoffensively say: what hath often happen happened to a council, may at some time be fall a Senate: those of the short robe are not more exempted than those of the long; Howbeit I wave the point, with a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} there, wishing, though no ways hoping, all to be well.  
Yet one thing more, which I had almost forgotten, & it is this; what power soever the representative body hath at best, questionless it hath it from the body at large, the people; As the sunbeams contracted into the narrow concave of some burning glass, they are the same with the beams in open air, though some what more vigorous and active by reason of this contraction; not boundless or uncontrollable can such a power then be, for that were more than the people have in themselves under any capacity, as being Subjects still. And nihill dat quod non habet, is a maxim in Philosophy, as true, as common; should the people pretend to the bequeathing of such an unlimited power, as our Saviour bespoke the two brethren sueing for preceducy of place in Heaven, ye ask ye know not what; the like might I say of them, ye presume to give ye know not what: So than the power both inherent and derived from the people, is bounded, and aught to move regularly; not beyond the scope it was intended for▪ I gave my vote to the erecting of this power, not meaning it should recoil upon myself, to the subversion either of my estate or liberty; nor yet against the sovereign power whereto it is subordinate, as being absolutely the highest, if Saint Peter mistake not. 1 Peter 2. 15. To talk of a coordination hereof the three estates (as some have wisely done) making the King one of them, (who yet indeed is none, but properly and truly (will the learned in Law soon tell us) head of those three, viz. the Lords spiritual, temporal, and Commons of this land, according to the ancient usage and contrivance heretofore of Parliaments.) But grant it were as they would have it, to talk I say, of a coordination of the 3 estates in this case, were in effect, besides other absurdities following thereupon, (if the result be throughly looked into) to constitute a supreme without inferiors, a King for the time not having Subjects; the people all of them (as it must needs follow) being implicitly involved under the other two; How much better would a soft compliable motion do betwixt the three, and forward the dispatch of businesses most effectually: It should be like that motion in the Prophet Ezekiel's vision rota in rota; or as of the spheres above, which move one within another. That cross contrariant motion of the nether spheres to the first movable, we know how it begets a slowness or tardity in them of their proper and natural procession; and we see by woeful experience what a stop, if not a retrograde declination of civil affairs, the clashing or banding of one power against the other hath wrought of late in this miserably distracted commonwealth.  
But falling down, as I was about, to a lower pin, let us next consider the people in a disgregative sense or notion: those who hitherto upon all occasions have so firmly everywhere (whether voluntarily or invited to it, I meddle not) adhaered as a strong support to the higher powers; I mean not here to enter the lists of a particular comparison, by poising man with man, person with person on either side; but as we may find divers of good note (be it confessed) on that part, so are there many more, let me say it, on this: If Saul hath slain his thousands, David can boast of his ten thousands: The muster roll if looked over would better determine this Quaere, then I can; well may they confide and rest themselves upon the affections of the vulgar sort who (besides their natural proneness towards Innovations ever) as most an end they understand but little, so are they easiliest seduced, and engaged in preposterous undertakings: But for those of better rank, such as be either knowing, or otherwise of more considerable quality, here they must needs acknowledge themselves to be upon terms of disadvantage; Some hereupon I have heard to term this war with reference to the opposite side, as that of old, Bellum Rusticum, the Helio●s or the peasants war. And questionless it is some encouragement when as it chanceth thus, we excel not only in the goodness of the cause, but likewise in the worthiness of the abettors. But passing by what ere other sorts of Men in their several ranks and stations as they might be summoned up, let us in our passage touch at the Divine. Can they show me any of their chief Scribes or Teachers (take him forth of the highest classis with them) that may be thought in point of sound and deep knowledge an equal March for divers but of the second or third here: Yet is Resistance (the centre namely whereunto this whole discourse doth bend itself) not merely a point of state-policy, but of Conscience also, even in the highest degree: and being so, who so fit to direct the conscience, as is the Divine, and of Divines the learnedst, the best able?  
Next take but into consideration the zeal, or rather the fury of many of their chief Ministers or Agents in these affairs; Religion is pretended, but certainly Malice acts the business: or if it be zeal, it is a zeal I fear set on fire by a coal from beneath. Those who have felt their scourge can best judge of it, and had rather, I believe, fall into the hands (if they needs must) of some unbelieving Ismaelite, then of a too too believing zealot: No spleen or bitterness of spirit like that of your hot professor; none more cruel, because he persecutes & wrongs his neighbour, yet thinks he does God good servicein doing so; Paul was not more Paul afterwards in the ways of truth & sincerity, than he was Saul before, a fierce & eager persecuter of the Church; Such was the bitter rage or fury of the Circumcelliones or preciser sort of Donatists heretofore, against their dissenting, yet orthodox brethren of the African Church, as sundry of the Fathers make mention, not without their deserved censures thereupon: Although they be not all Saints neither I conceive, who appear on that behalf. Many there are, doubtless, who do but Denis in diem assibus vitam aestimare, as the saying is, fight for pay and no more. And some, I understand, that are not of the Protestant Religion (object they back what they please branding their Adversaries with the opprobrious nickname of Popish army; and yet were it so, nevertheless true native subjects they must needs confess them; enough to justify both the tender and acceptance of their bounden service in a time of exigency) nor for it therefore more than others.  
Fourthly, observe their manner of proceeding in furtherance of the public cause, what by forging, by falsifying, & then imposing their falsehoods upon the world; The press with them of late hath been so enured to this Cretian Dialect; that there is question, when or whether happily it may hereafter recover its ancient guise of speaking truth: news of Plots and dangerous Conspiracies one while (those too most an end strained to a very ridiculous height of panic affrightments) which yet as hitherto, God be thanked, neither we nor they have felt, nor had at first, it may be, much cause to fear; news of some Notable victory, or other achieved every day. yet as it hath proved afterwards got ofttimes (if not by Treachery) then in a dream, without a battle. Lying wonders, I have often read of, but not of Lying Victories till now. News of Popery and Popish Ceremonies begun of late to be set up, and countenanced in several places. A fiction, in truth, well befitting the Popish Legend, and thither I commend it; what may we think of these men, with their Mountebansk-like devices, who under a mask of pretended zeal, thus shamefully trade in falsehoods (all to cheer up their poor deluded followers, and keep them still in heart) but that even their profession itself is but a kind of lie or grand imposture. Nor can they therefore, if they mark it well, so safely tax their adversaries, as they do, with those heinous crimes of swearing & profaneness, since Lying & Swearing are sins surely near allied, and yet lying too (it may seem) carries a more immediate relation to Satan the author of all sin, who for this, is expressly entitled the Father of lies. Io. 15. 44.  
Unto this moreover note in the fifth place their bitter railings and invectives usually against Church and State, which is another by-path they use to tread in, thereby labouring to stick an indelible character of disgrace upon the present Government in either; Ere while the Bishop's mitre shrewdly troubled them, and now the nearer interest and powerfulness with the King of some our new State Pilots. (Not the faults of either, it may be giving so much offence, as the eminency of their places.) Now the Prelates, than the Statists. What can I say more or less concerning this unquiet barking humour of theirs, but this, the Lord rebuke them? Especially for some among them, and those of the levitical Tribe too, the Firebrands and chief Incendiaries, to speak truth, in these bloody disturbances. Those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or certain Minor Prophets of the times, as the great critic was wont to term such. Indeed the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the chaff & outcast of the clergy. Those Pulpit Barraters, I mean, whose Religion usually is Faction, and zealous Ignorance. That have turned preaching into flat railing, and instead of disseminating the word of saving Truth in the ears of their hearers, do nought but sow sedition; forcing them on by their powerfully delusive persuasions, like silly Sheep as they are (almost without the help of a Metaphor) into daily slaughters, and unless God of his mercy shall please to intercede, certain destruction at once) (I fear) both of soul and body. If than what philosophy hath taught us, the end may be guessed at by the means conducent thereunto, for that the means and end be wontedly Inter se commensurabilia, as they say, and do each answer one another I know not how I may conceive or hope well of the end in this case, where I see the means to be so foul and altogether unwarrantable.  
Last of all, let it be laid to heart the many unspeakable Miseries, which these unhappy differences instead of a redress of some former sufferings have brought upon us; Quite contrary, as it were ex Professo, to what we had reason to expect: the Remedy as hitherto proving much worse, than the disease was. Loss in the liberty of our Persons. For as now what man can be securely safe in any place? And which is the truest symptom (as the orator somewhere tells us) of a people or Nation, running further into slavery, we groan and complain under the burden, as sensible of it, and yet Contend not against it with an unanimous consent, as it were benumbed in our Resolutions. Loss in the property of our goods. For as times are, Ius omne in ferro est, not the Law but the Sword is made the Master of our estates. To speak nothing of the new Egyptian burdens or taxes beyond all sufferance daily increasing upon us. Loss in the purity of our Religion. So many brainless impious positions are crept in, which like that Abomination of Desolation spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, Dan. 9 27. have greatly polluted the house of God. Great care of late hath there been taken for the suppression and avoidance of popery, and 'tis well, if so it end not (which yet may be feared) in making room for the introducement of senseless Anabaptism, or utter libertinism. loss in the beauty of our Discipline, or Liturgy; no decency of order observed now. Every man's private spirit, or rather fancy, will needs be a rule unto itself. And how far this irregularity may chance to proceed is hard to determine, since Conscience not balanced with a sound judgement is commonly boundless, and never ceaseth till it shut up its progress in a plain frenzy; I remember to this effect a remarkable passage in that story of those mad Anabaptists of Munster in Germany. They began at first upon pretence of reforming somewhat amiss in Luther's Doctrine, about certain few Articles there. Thence they go on to an utter abolishing of the then present liturgy. That would not serve the turn, but ere long the written word must be th●owne by as too straight, and concludent to the Spirit, and this moreover with a scoff by crying Bibel, Bubel, Babel; A Scheme much like to that in the old Poet, Titi, Tute, Tati, Tibi, &c.  
Now again, as before, let us put the premises together; The infallibility, as hath been argued of the greatest assemblies, The partiality ofttimes apparent in some, the bounded and circumscribed limitedness of all, the fuller concurrence of able Personages on this side; the preposterous indirect ways of proceeding by the fomenters, and other Agents on that; the inexpressible calamities, which have and are like to fall upon us in lieu of an hoped for Reformation. Join hereto as a close of the rest, that which yet indeed fills up the Ephath of these mischiefs full, the bringing in of a foreign power: As if the fire of dissension ourselves had kindled, were not speedy enough to consume a State, unless Others from abroad be solemnly invited, and drawn in, under pretence of quenching the flames, to pull down the House. And the scale methinks seems still and still to weigh down lower: the King's cause more cleared, and the people's more liable to just misprision.  
Thus have I in short drawn forth, as 'twere, a true copy of the business, as it stands de facto between the King, and some of his people. Should I now put from shore a little, and go on further from the Thesis to the Hypothesis, from the History of the matter to a problem, as whether supposing the King were truly misled, and that he did notably fail the trust reposed in him, whether in such a case he might be lawfully resisted, would be a point as easily argued, and Polemically concluded on the King's part, as it hath been hitherto treated of in a plain and positive discourse; For at a word, take but away that grand Phenomenon of theirs, that regal power is originally from the people, and therefore upon occasion may be reassumed by them (which yet both in the Antecedent and Consequent is utterly false.) This principle too as it is further backed with certain general Maxims, as Quicquid efficit tale est majus tale, and, Totum est majus suis partibus; again, Salus populi suprema Lex, with the like. Axioms, as it is evident of large extent or compass, subject to divers and sundry Limitations, and accordingly as so, fitter for young Sophisters to wrangle out their disputes with, then as meet engines to overturn monarchical Government; Take away, I say, but these and the like supposita laid down as an unshaken foundation by them (which yet hath been a task already sufficiently performed, by the learned industry of divers worthy undertakers in that kind) and the whole frame of their weak built discourses quickly falls to ground.  
What they urge concerning the fundamental laws of the kingdom; what likewise touching the usage and customary manner of proceeding by general assemblies in such like cases heretofore, both at home and abroad, trusting to these amongst the rest, as forts of safe retirement; briefly for the former (if so it be not a mere chimaera of Imagination barely) it is to be wondered at that laws of so high concernment in the present business, should lie hid so low under ground, as not to be found out & produced all this while; whereas the contrary, I understand, have been and many be still exhibited, without any such labour or pains of disquisition; or grant such laws might be produced and made appear, yet surely with me the law of man shall evermore submit to the law of God; This is, or should be, I am sure, the touchstone for all laws; where the divine law and human chance to cross & thwart each other, my conscience directs me the safer way; and tells me I had best keep close to the former: It is so in the Discipline or outward form of church-government: I appeal to themselves for a testimony; There they cry up to a tittle verbum Domini: still the Word, the Word. And why not so according to some proportion, at least, if occasion require it, in the rectifying of secular and state affairs, I see not the least show of reason, that can be yielded to the contrary; yet now for the word of God they have so little comfort thence, such small hopes of any express warrant for their proceedings (savouring over strongly of Jesuitish principles) to be found there, as that they scarcely meddle with it, unless as they be casually drawn thereto, in their replies and unsatisfactory answers, Nothing to be heard of there, more than prayers and patience in such cases; God as then must be entreated to incline the heart of the sovereign, not the people encouraged to enforce him; little mention made of Resistance, except it be against the devil, or so; but still of obedience and Christian-like subjection; For the latter, that of practice and example, it is an Anthenticke classical saying, Exempla paucorum non sunt trahenda in Leges universorum: we must if we do well, not suffer ourselves to be governed altogether so much by precedents or Examples, as by reason. And it is chiefly true of the examples of latter times, where they recede from the fountain, the purity of ancienter and better ages, and so grow more suspiciously corrupt: If some before us have done amiss, we must not straight make their example the rule or pattern for us to err by.  
By resistance so often forementioned (to go no further at present) I mean an active resistance first undertaken, and then pursued in an hostile offensive way: for and such a resistance is this, say they what they please, both deluding themselves and others. And yet such a resistance none of them of the later hach (as far as I have seen yet) dare in their writings offer to maintain with open face. Just in the method of those of Rome (whom they so much abhor) their practice here no way keeps pace with their doctrine: For why? neither scripture nor reason, nor yet any precedent of the primitive or better times, they know could be brought with the least semblance to speak for them: They are for the King too (if we may believe them) as well as we, and merely stand upon their own defence; nor this neither against the King in his own person, but against some invisible enemies of the commonwealth about him; so as to enter the lists of a dispute by putting the business to an ungranted height on the King's side; where yet the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or main point in controversy, as things do stand in themselves, is (though but for credit's sake) denied on theirs, were (as they say) to beat the air, or for want of other work to seek out an Adversary. Let the premises be duly observed, being no otherwise then according to the true condition of the present affairs, and the question if rightly propounded would be this; whether or no, it may be lawful to take up Compulsory or offensive arms, against a rightful gracious Prince, professing to govern in all respects by the known established laws of the land, only upon terms of mere jealousy; and distrust to his regal promises, thereby embroiling broiling their native country in a bloody and miserably destructive war. Quod restat probandum.  
Besides that such scholastic hypothetical velitations as these one way or other, howbeit they right the King in point of due obedience, yet by reason of the supposal they take in, malicious and captious heads may be apt to misconstrue them to somewhat a prejudicial conceit of him in matter of his goodness and integrity; whereas, God be thanked; Non defensoribus istis, we need no such strained helps, having so Religious, so just, so understanding, so every way complete a Prince; Be this ground firmly and strongly still maintained; what needs much arguing the lawfulness, or unlawfulness of Resistance in some Dioclesian his time, when as there reigneth a good and godly Constantine? Or of clashing and banding together in set disputes, the Supreme sovereign power residing in the King, (a point sufficiently evidenced by the several, and those public Acts of State extant to this purpose: as also farther confirmed by the very title of majesty appropriated unto him as chief: this having been in all States evermore the peculiar badge or cognizance of sovereignty wheresoever it lay) with that of Parliaments; where the Prince freely and ex mero motu denies them nothing, that either Reason, Law, or his own just Rights may give way to? A Prince whose heart is truly in the hands of God (not of evil counsellors) to order and dispose of, if any Kings upon earth be; Of whom briefly it may be said perhaps without our better deservings, as the Apostle speaks, Heb. 11. of some especial Saints and Servents of the Almighty in times past, that this Island of ours, or lesser World will prove itself unworthy.  
Mean while the premised considerations, as I have committed them to paper for mine own satisfaction, so shall they suffice me until a surer and more real ground be offered of a disputative inquiry. And did others, I wish, whom it may concern, propose the like to themselves, annexing them as a label to that sacred oath of Allegiance they have taken; add hereunto the late solemn Protestation made for defence of his royal person & dignity, either of which how they can possibly dispense with in their proceedings so diametrally opposed (maugre their sundry senseless Evasions) be it between God & their own consciences: for my part I must profess, I am yet to learn; Let them consider the sacrilege, the Murders, the Rapines done (nay commanded, justifiable legal offences you may now call them, as far as an human Ordinance will carry) in these wild licentious times of Anarchy; Strange beginnings of an intended Reformation, one would think; I have read of Religion in the Primitive times planted, yea propagated in blood, under Pagans and infidels: but for Christians amongst themselves, professing one and the same faith, to advance the supposed purity of God's worship by such harsh means, I have not so frequently heard of, until these later and frantic days of ours; It is the fruit of a doctrine well becoming the Turkish Alcoron, and there accordingly ofttimes inculcated, but nowhere surely to be found in the gospel of Christ: not taught by his Apostles, nor afterwards abetted by any of the Orthodox Fathers; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Prayer and Preaching were the appointed weapons of their warfare; Notwithstand●ng more outrages, I dare say, more heinous and crying sins in all kinds unpunishably committed under this pretext chiefly these last two years, then have been acted formerly, (set them altogether) within the circuit of this our English Clime, since the first establishment of the Protestant Religion here amongst us; As if with us now indeed were the time when Satan that great Master of misrule and of all impiety were let loose into the world, according to St John that his apocalyptical prediction, Rev. 20. 7. Consider they, I say, and that seriously, lest as our Saviour speaks concerning the Jews, Mat. 22. 34. burdening them with all the righteous blood which was shed upon earth, from the blood of Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias; So (in as much as between two parties disagreeing, the one must needs be faulty) all the crimes forementioned may come upon them likewise, and be added to the score of their offences. And yet if one small transgression, in any of the premises be, as it is, enough to sink the guilty; what will an huge heap do? If Caines own sin alone was heavier than he could bear, what may we think of the numerous sins of a whole Nation?  
These or the like considerations then, if throughly & impartially weighed, might be of great force in rectifying the precipitate disloyal inclinations of a still misguided sort of people; Certainly it hath been want of a serious animadversion on this behalf, which hath hitherto blindly led them on: A strong though groundless conceit with many of the justice, nay necessariness of the cause, swaying them aside from the course of their bounden duty: As if their Religion, their laws, and Liberties, lay all at stake, (true for certain, it is to be feared the Contrary side) which yet as here, God knows is nothing so: When Absalon rose up in arms against his Lord and Father David. 2. Sam. 15. no question but the Heads of the then devised conspiracy made good use (the text insinuates as much) of some such specious pretences, wherewith to cozen the weak and ignorant people; so, for that causeless insurrection of Corah with his complices against Moses and Aaron together, Num. 16. thereby at once discovering their rancorous disaffection towards the established government both in Church and State; ye take too much upon you, cry these discontented Reformers, ye entrench too close upon our pretended privileges, our Liberties, our Consciences; Never any Rebellion wanted a cloak or cover of this kind of making. And therefore men should have done well, carefully to have pondered aforehand, by debating over and again, a business of so high consequence (as that whereon depends the hazard of eternal Damnation, Rom. 13. 2.) before they had rashly engaged themselves in a blind and obstinate defence of the same; Or if it hath been duly prepended, as it ought, yet without effect: then nought to be said but this, Quis furor O Cives, God, I fear, as his usual way of proceeding is in such like cases, hath strangely besotted and infatuated the understandings of this sinful Nation, meaning to scourge us still after a most severe manner, with the rod of our own fury; like as it befell the Ammonites, and Moabites, in fight against the Israelites, who helped thus to destroy one another, as we find it recorded, 2. Chron. 20. 23.  
Exemploque pari ruit Anglica turba, suoque  
Marte cadent coefi per mutua vulnera fratres.  
I conclude the whole with that sage advice of the wisest of men next to Christ himself, Prov. 24. 21. worthy of a deliberate poising by all, but especially those of the disaffected party. Fear God and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change: for their calamity shall rise suddenly, and who knoweth the ruin of them both? where it is to be observed, how you have God and the King set a breast as 'twere, the obedience we owe to the King joined with that Duty which we owe unto God: & suitably a neglect of our performance in the one, threatened with certain destruction alike, as in the other. And the reason for both holds parallel still, because as by the former we offend God in his own person, so by the later we injure him in the Person of his substitute or immediate Vicegerent here appointed over us.  
FINIS.   
Gildas de excidio Britanniae. Moris continui gentis erat, sicut & nunc est, ut infirma esset ad retundenda hostium tela, & fortis ad civilia bella: Infirma, inquam, ad exequenda pacis ac veritatis insignia, & fortis ad Scelera & mendacia.