THE CAMP OF CHRIST, AND THE CAMP OF ANTICHRIST, all Troopers after the LAMB. Revel. 10.11.14. or his two Horns, Rev. 13.11, 12.  
1. The Troopers for Christ are distinguished from the Troopers of Antichrist, by the end they aim, and the side they undertake; for the one must be against Christ, that's discussed and resolved: the other are encouraged for Christ, by the certainty of the victory in the end, proved all at large out of Scripture, but especially out of the Apocalypses.  
2. Here is likewise declared how the government of this Kingdom hath been since it had first a being till now.  
2. General, the Camp of Christ, called, chosen, faithful in fight with Antichrist and his Army.  
1. Declared to be fought under four Standards, reduced to four Ensigns, declared at large what they be: The Lamb's Camp compared to a Lion for courage and valour; to a Man for wisdom; to an Ox for patience and industry; to an Eagle for speed and expedition: Antichrist is the General of the Prelate's Army.  
2. Two Captains, two Camps, their fatal and final wars, an instance in our Kingdom, Revel. 17.14. They shall make war with the Lamb, showing the age of Antichrists it being, and her now Ruin.  
3. The War proved lawful from Scripture and Reason, from the breach of Law and its own duty to hinder the Kings coming to rule by Arbitrary and Tyranny, as for Hezekiah to oppose Senacheribs coming against Israel.  Wicked men take no notice of that which good men observe, viz. the time, times, and half a time of Antichrist. Dan. 12.7.10. 
THe War is wonderful that Antichrist should fight against the Lamb with his own Horns; for what are the horns of the Lamb but his own power? And what is that power, but the power of the keys? And what power have the keys, but to bind and lose, remit and retain sins? And to whom is this power given, but to the Pastors of the Church? And of them who challenge the ordination of all Ministers, and the jurisdiction over all persons, but the Bishops? And therefore of them we conclude, what they would have according to revelation. Apoc. 13.11. the second Beast had two horns like the Lamb, the honour of Episcopacy, but he spoke as a Dragon, the dread of their calling, and disgrace of so great a dignity. The ten horns, Dan 7.24. Rev. 17 12. are expounded to our hands to be ten Kings, that take away the Caesar's, 2. Thes. 2.6, 7. and succeed him in his kingdom, Rev. 13.1. the crowns were upon the sixth head, Rev. 12 3 that is one Cesar held them, and by civil and barbarous wars ten enjoy them to themselves, which is called an Apostasy from Cesar, 2. Thes. 2.3 and this is first in order, but in time we must join it with another from Christ, Revel. 17.12. and this is to Antichrist, to whom the other give their power, and both fight with the Lamb and his chosen Army, who as Troopers in white, and upon white horses, make their expedition against a cruel company with the greatest innocence and alacrity in the world. Antichrist is said to come out of the earth, Revel. 13 11. both for secrecy and silence. He is not seen so soon as the ten Horns that rise out of the Sea, for they are up in commotion, but he steals up in their troubled waters, and at their back subdues them, Dan. 7.25. Let my counsel be acceptable to the King and Kingdom, and consider our Camps, and how we have argued ourselves into a civil war, and from words are come to blows. Both cannot be innocent, or Caviiiers of the same condition. The Troopers in white must be known by the truth, and the truth by God and the Country. God, if we defend true Religion; and the Country, if we seek the peace of it.  
The misery of our war shall be the meditation of our misery, ever since we were a Kingdom. We have been ruled by Romans from the first King that ever we had, who having killed his own Father by accident, exiled himself into this Island. A thousand years and more before Christ, Brute a noble Roman ruled us, and some 58. years before Christ we fell into a civil war, and Julius Cesar conquered us, and when the Caesar's were conquered, we fell into a civil war, and the Saxons Fortiger sent for to help him conquered his son Vortimer, and themselves by a civil war fell into an Heptarchy, and in this time came the Monk from the Pope and mastered our Bishops, and by them our Kings, and at this time they are suspected to join with a Malignant Party, to part the King and his Council, and all because he cannot have a Monarchy of their making, which is stamped with that character, 1. Sam. 8 9 11. where the judgement, reason, or will of the King is tyranny, if the judgement of the Kingdom be not in it. Nineteen Propositions propounded by his Council have provoked him exceedingly, and made many to think his very Council would impose a tyranny upon him, and all this for want of a true distinction between justice distributive, and commutative. Distributive of honours to deserving persons, and in this the King's Prerogative cannot be violated. Privy Counsellors, Bishops, Judges, Soldiers, public Officers, Courtiers, Servants to the King are by him to be honoured, but not to the hurt of the Kingdom. His Majesty must look by distributive justice to the qualities of the persons he honours, that they be as himself, not for themselves, but the common good. Queen Elizabeth would say, Populus nihi preciocissimus, Courtiers, Maledictus, and when his Majesty says his beloved people, too many curse them, and say keep them under. By reason of the which oppression they cry to God, and we hope God will hear them, as he hath in this Parliament; which zealously seek the people's good, not to distribute honours the right of the King, but prevent their hurt the right of the Kingdom by commutative justice, that respects not persons but things; and if his Majesty mean to distribute hurtful honours, his Council may well request that commutative justice may not be exchanged into tyranny. Jus militiae ●●m bellum indicendi quam gerendi cum inimicis, pacis quoque contrahendae & paciscendae cum peregrinis est lex Regis. To proclaim and make war, to contract and make peace, are in distributive justice the Royalties of a King: but in commutative justice, the men and money the King would have to make war, must come from common consent. Let this be the carriage of the Commonwealth, and we shall soon be at peace.   

The Camp of Christ, called, chosen, and faithful, in fight with Antichrist, and his Army.  
THe Camp of Christ consists of 144000, and the Camp of Antichrist of 666; not because Christ hath the greater number, but the better men, as being virgins undefiled with women, Rev. 14.4. The other is a round number of a name, of a Beast, of a man, Rev. 13.17, 18. There will be great wisdom to search them out, and as opposites compared together will more clearly show themselves. The 144000 is distributed into 12 Tribes, and the 12 Tribes into four Beasts, Rev. 4.6. and here we must begin our search, Domine, ediscere nobis parabolam istam, Mat. 15.15. We must in the allusion fetch our Camp from the Congregation in the Wilderness, Psal. 68.10. Thy Beasts dwelled therein; So our English ancient translation hath it, and the original word is so, and our new translation gives us the sense of it, for by the Beasts we must understand God's people, which in this book of the Revelation is the ordinary expression of that part of the Church, as the 24 Elders are of the Pastors, to whom the 24 thrones belong to judge the others, and the crowns of gold to show their rule. They are the presbyteries of the Church, from the which our Bishops are fallen into a temporal jurisdiction, worse than any other Lay-Eldership, under the which for this thousand years our Church hath groaned and if we will learn a true presbytery, we must find it in the first 600 years. St Paul speaks of it, 1 Tim. 4.14 and Cornelius and Cyprian use it in the same sense, and that without the Eldership they did nothing in the Consistory. Epist. 6.13.35. Presbyt. & Diacon. Cornel. Cypr. Ep. 46. doubtless the 24 Presbyteries allude to the 24 Ephemeries, 1 Chron. 24.4. Luke 1.8. But there is now no speaking of Consistories, we must follow the Camp, as David did from Hebron to take Jerusalem from the Jebusites, before we bring the Ark of God into any peaceable Tabernacle, and we have fixed ourselves in the Lamb's Camp under four Standards, that express both the order and excellency of it. The 12 Tribes of old were reduced to four Ensigns, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon to a Lion: Reuben, Simeon▪ and Gad to a Man: Ephraim, Manasses and Benjamine to an Ox or Bullock: Dan, Aser, and Nephtali to an Eagle. Thus were the Tribes quartered, and from them we take the spiritual meaning of the Lamb's Camp, for fortitude and courage in the Lion: for wisdom and prudence in a man: for patience and industry in the labouring Ox: for speed and expedition in an Eagle; and we may further take notice of the names of Beasts in this Book, to describe both the Camp of Christ, and the Camp of Antichrist. Beasts are Emblems for both, yet in Greeke their names are not the same. Zoa is for God's people, and the word signifies life. The other is Therion, and there be two of that kind, the Beast with ten horns, and the Beast with two: the first makes up Antichrists Army, as it consists of the people that follow him, and the second is Antichrist himself, or the Bishops that abuse the power of the Lamb in the two keys, turning them into so many horns to the hurt of the Saints; for if it were not so there should be no such cause to complain of them as now is done by all men, even those that are no enemies to their calling. If they had used the keys aright, and not made horns of them, long might they and their calling have flourished, but now the crowns on their heads, and thrones they have sitten upon, are like to be shaken; and as Simeon the prophetical Monk foreseeing an earth quake, whipped the pillars of the Church, bidding them stand fast, for they should be shaken; so might these pillars have foreseen their scourge, if they by whipping of others had not thought their standing had been out of the danger of a Parliament. I would wish them to struggle no longer, but to join their learning with others, and seriously observe the times, and what mischief they have done by the keys; which I cannot but honour in the Episcopal Dignity, and do verily believe that in the Presbytery, the Thrones and the Crowns do not equally belong to all the Elders. The thing I shall note is, that the Lamb's horns make Antichrist as well in England as at Rome; and since Austen the Monk meddled with us, our Episcopacy hath had too much of divine right, and by the excess of that is like to bring Church Government into a defect, if both extremes be not prevented; but I say we must have the fire of civil war quenched, before we can be quickened in the right use of the keys. I have begun the Camp at the four Standards, reduced the 12 Tribes to them, and now must number the Tribes as they are elsewhere no where numbered, Rev. 7. Each Tribe hath the like number, and that is completely twelve thousand, surmounting the Beasts almost one half, yet put them altogether, and they are above half short of his number, if we compare the great Court of the Temple with the Temple itself, as the holy Ghost hath done, Rev. 11.1, 2. What a number of Gentiles may stand in Atrio magno, in respect of the inwarp Temple, and therefore it we go on to view both Camps, we shall learn out in the end the mystery. Certainly, in six and twelve is some hidden secret. The great and grand Captain of our Camp hath his under-Captaines, and they are the 12 Apostles, in this book called 12 Stars, to give the Church light, Rev. 12.1. Secondly, they lie in the foundation with the Prophets, to bear it up for sinking in the sand of unsound doctrine, Ephes. 2.20. Rev. 21.14. Every building is reduced to its foundation, and all companies to their Captains; and in this Antichrist showeth himself that stands so much for Peter, that he would lay all upon him, because he is called Petros, which signifies a stone, and among 12 fundamental stones he is one, and perchance may be the first in order, but under none, and therefore they are laid orderly one by one, that the Tribes may build upon them all. So was it first, and since the 12 Apostles have left their cure to 24 Elders to be understood by the Ephemeries of the Priests and Levites, but I suppress my notion, and will set upon the hurtful horns of the Church, that is, Kings and Bishops. Kings and Kingdoms that make the Camp of Antichrist, and Bishops that make Antichrist to be their General. I hope Kings that have helped the Whore will hate her, and Bishops that are good, if any be so, for the most believe there are none, will no more horn it, but hate that office, and learn as brethren to exercise the keys.   

Two Captains, two Camps. Their fatal and final wars. An Instance in our Kingdom.  Rev. 17.14. These shall make war with the Lamb. 
THese ten horns given to the Beast with two horns shall make wars with the Lamb and his called, chosen, and faithful Servants. The ten horns are these, Vortimer and Hengist in England; Childerike, Gunderike, and Theodorike in France; Riciarius in Spain, Genserike in Africa; Theodemire in Panonia; Marcian in Greece. Cesar hinders the being of the Beast, and these ten Kings make war for him, and the Apostasy from him and Christ begin una hora, ver. 12. It is a rule in the Word that wrath should be feared when God does first inflict it, as in the captivity of the City and the Sanctuary, 2. King. 25.3.8. There be seven year's difference, and the judgement gins with the first to account the seventy year's captivity. But in Mercies it is clean contrary, the return of the people was a great blessing, Ezr. 1.1. but the building of the Sanctuary a greater, Ezr. 6.14. and so the sure account of 70. weeks for the welfare of the Jews must begin with the second year of Darius Nothus, Ezr. 4.24. Happy are the Nations that take notice of Christ when he is angry, lest it kindle into wrath and they perish, Psal. 2. 12. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Mercy is at hand to this Nation that with zeal seek to set up God's Sanctuary amongst us, and the time will be shortly when we shall see it, in the expulsion of those clouds that have fallen upon us since Reformation began amongst us; but by reason of the Samaritans that dwell amongst us, could not to this day be accomplished. You have heard that judgement should be speedily looked unto, and Antichrist was not of 700. years thought of, but began as Magnum mundo malum, when these ten Kings fell from one Cesar: They are the Apostles words, 2. Thes. 2.3. a falling away first, that is, of duty to Cesar, and faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Crowns depart from the heads of the Caesar's, Revel. 12.3. to the horns of these Kings, Rev. 13.1. This Apostasy of kingdoms is the evidence we must have for the other being a mystery, and not so manifest at the first. There are noted three divisions of the Roman Monarchy, the first by Constantine, the second by Theodosius, the third by Charles the great. We must begin at the second, for no sooner had Honorius and Arcadius the Empire shared between them, but the West part was quickly distracted and dilacerated as we have said, and Augustus Cesar breathed out the ghost in Augustulus, when Odoacer made him abdicate and divest himself of all Imperial dignity. The misery began by Alaricus, Ann. 395. was followed by Radagaisus, and the miseries of war like a Northern storm, Revel. 7. fell upon the people as grass, and the Princes of the Provinces as the taller Cedars, Zech. 11.2. and then the very mountain of the Monarchy was moved, Rev. 8.8. and cloven asunder into ten kingdoms, and the Western star falls out of the orb thereof, Revel. 8.10. so that between the first assault by Alaricus and this of Odoacer, Ann. 475. we may state the division to be made perfect in the number of ten Kings, Anno 456.  
Martian in the East was a good King in those miserable times, and had peace, and died before he had fully reigned seven years, leaving behind him great grief in the hearts of the people, because they lost so good a man. He called the fourth general Council, wherein Leo and his Legates stormed at the honour done to the Patriarch of Constantinople, fearing some might advance him above the Pope, whose perking up in pride prepared for Antichrist, who prevailed least in the East till the second Nicene Council, which was the first that ever decreed the worship of Images. The Greek Emperors still retaining the name, as Leo Isaurus, Constantinus Cabalinus, Nicephorus, Stauratius, Leo A●menus, Michael Baldus, Theophilus, opposed, when Gregory the second, and third, Paul the first, Stephen the fourth, Adrian the first and second, Leo the third, Nicholas the first, etc. upheld them. 338. Bishops in a Council at Constantinople, Ann. 754 solemnly condemned them, and 787 their veneration was made a Law, which to that day was a private opinion, and as Irene, and after her Basilius gave Images their first honour, so God dishonoured their succession with the Saracens and Turks, and the next General Counsels, as the Papists call them, were all to make war with the judgements of God for the sins of the Church, and the children of God that repent, but none at all to pull down Idolatry, for the ten Counsels called by the Popes of Rome, are not one of them like the first, but are found to handle these matters, fit for a Council of War, than Consistory of Priests. First they consult of an holy War with the Saracens and Turks, and so pilgrims go out of the West into the East to purchase graves to themselves in the Holy Land by fight with God in his two woes, Revel 9 and the very sin that caused them is expressed, v. 20. of which they repent not, and prospered accordingly. Secondly, they are recalled again from the East into the West, to fight with the Waldenses, and Emperors that stood in the Pope's light, and lastly the Kings and Princes of Germany that have forsaken the Church of Rome, how are they persecuted as Lutherans, and so you have all the General Counsels held by the Church of Rome, and I wonder they do not blush at their words, for the first condemn them of horrible pride, and they have denied two of them in some Canons of Orders as if they had erred in a point of Faith, when they used their lawful liberty in such things as were most indifferent. The fifth General Council condemned Vigilius for a cursed Nestorian. The sixth judged Honorius for an Heretical Monothlite. The seventh and eighth manifest them to be guilty of Idolatry never decreed before by any Counsels, but condemned by all, and the ten last (the worst of all) are called by Popes against regal, and Imperial authority, and condemn truth for heresy, Saints for Heretics, and prove the Pope the greatest Tyrant in the world. If from Martian we cast our eyes upon the 9 Kings, I know not one of them to be good, and for our Nation before Vortimer I can say much both for Kings and Bishops. We had the first Christian King and Emperor in the world. An. 181. Lucius sent to Eleutherius for a Bishop, Rome being then famous, and his kingdom preserved pure religion to the days of Diocletian, & in that 10th persecution we were tried for it. Our nation is thought to receive the Gospel from the ministry of Joseph of Aramathea, which was purely maintained above 250. years. It was the only Sanctuary of the Saints, and for them being persecuted to flee unto. In the tenth Persecution Diaclesian found us out, as being the most general, cruel, fatal and final of all the rest, as we may fear this to be in which we are, and may be the last by Antichrist, as that was by the Pagans. This proved our faith, and I find it failed not till Austen the Monk came from Rome. And I pray you note it as being noted in the book of God. I would feign know seeing all the Seven Seals have their Indices, as four Beasts for the four first, and earthquake for the sixth, and Seven Trumpets for the last. What is meant by an Altar for the fifth, Rev. 6.9. certainly, Martyrdom, and of all the ten Persecutions that is called Aera Martyrum, the age of the Martyrs, as being the greatest an most remarkable, and ended in our Nation, because he that put an end to it under God, was the Great Constantine, borne in our Nation, and for the Church to deliver it. After him we fell into a division and the two Kings I mentioned began our misery, and of Britons we became Saxons, and fell into an Heptarchy, and from Rome comes Austen, and lands in Kent, the first part of our seven Kingdoms, and there gins as great a confusion in the Church, as there was in the State. He found many godly men of the Clergy which he insulted over, and being forsaken by them as used to no Roman pride, or Popish orders, but following such as came from the East, which Rome abhorred, they would none of his reformation, and therefore like a limb of Antichrist he gins their persecution, and by such Roman horns made war with the Lamb, which less or more hath continued to this day; for as the ten horns that have usurped the Crowns from the Caesars, so the two horns that the Bishops usurp from Christ are used against him, and have for 900 years, as a book taken out of the Records of the Tower hath showed unto us, plainly proving the keys of the Church by the Bishops to have been turned into horns to the hurt of it; for it is they that challenge the Lamb's horns, that is, the power of the keys, Rev. 13.11. to themselves, and by the Lambs own horns fight against him, and cause the ten horns so to do, who are rather seduced by them, then cruel to Christians, being Christians themselves; for it were unnatural for the members of the body to do so, except some Devil, or Divine inspired with his spirit should do it, and my conjecture is not in vain by the words of a Pope himself, which are these, Rex superbiae prope est, & quod dici nefas est, Sacerdotum est praeparatus exercitus, Greg. l. 4. Ep. 38. A King of pride is not the Pope alone, but a prepared Army of Priests, and therefore may in our Bishops extend to us, and yet it is not they as Bishops, but as they use their keys for horns, and cause Kings to use their Crowns so, to whom in the Lamb himself, I shall now yield a better example in their Wars.  
Piè regnare, rectè judicare, justè pugnare, to reign religiously, to judge rightly, and righteously to make war, are proclaimed in Heaven by a divine Herald when the Captain of our Salvation goes out to war. He sits upon a white horse when he gives Crowns to the obedient, Rev. 6.2. and casts them down in the disobedient, Rev. 19.18. The Priests have Crowns and Thrones, Rev. 4.4. grant them to be the Bishops, and as we have said of their two horns, to be their honours from the Lamb, yet will not the Lamb spare them in the great day of his wrath, Rev. 6 16, 17. Let Princes and Prelates think of their powers and prerogatives as vain things with an angry Lamb; but why say I angry, when he calls to a nuptial Supper, Rev. 19.7.9 O but it is the Supper of the great God, ver. 17. and the fowls of Heaven must be filled with it, that is, the Devils and hell, for thither go alive the Beast and the false Prophet, ver. 20. and hellfire devoureth them, and because we meet them so coupled in their final & fatal ruin, let us see their combination in all their Wars, and the expression is thus. The Beast and his Image, the Beast and the false Prophet. The Beasts Prophets are the Bishops, and he is deceived with their horns, that is, with the keys, and by them they mould Kings into what Image they please, and therefore (good Reader) toties quoties, as often as thou meets them thus matched, make this their mystery. The Beast and his Image, by Beast understand the false Prophet, or the Bishop with two horns, and by his Image, all Kings and Kingdoms moulded by him, and then with ease thou wilt understand, that when Beast and false Prophet come together, the Beast must be Kings, and the false Prophets the Bishops that deceive them, which is no more dishonour to good Bishops, than the false Prophets of Baal, were to the Prophets of the lord Where are thy Prophets, Jer. 37.19. that is, thy deceivers, O Zedekiah; have not I told thee the truth, that the Chaldeans would come again, and though Pharaoh King of Egypt had wounded them all, yet should they rise up in their Tents, and borne the City, ver. 10. Where are the men of thy peace? Jer. 38.22. Thy Prophets that promised thee, that the King of Babylon should not return, have deceived by their counsel, and prevailed, and fastened thee in the mire, etc. Pedes tui defixi funt in luto, retro conversi, from my counsel thou art gone, and invincibly tied by flatterers in the mud of thy own mischief. Be wise therefore, ye Kings, how you fight for Antichrist by the Lambs own horns, or your own; let not the Bishops be your Counselors, as Austen was when he came from Rome, but let such as come from the Lord Jesus Christ, with the right use of the keys, command your Consciences, (not your Crowns) to use them for the Lamb, and by his example to make war; and give me leave first to begin with Piè regnare, to rule religiously, that is, from God as the cause, for God as the end, and by men as the means.  
And because his Majesty says the personal right is in him, as of any other thing he enjoys, I will show him plainly by God's Word his error, as the Parliament hath done by the Laws, confessing myself a Royalist for his crown to be from God, and a friend of the kingdom to hold their own by Law which they have from God as well as his Majesty means to maintain what God hath given him. Come we to the issue between David and all Israel for the kingdom and his wife. They restore her without conditions, as being absolutely David's, and injuriously both taken from him by Saul, and kept from him by Israel, and therefore well might David say, See not my face, except my right in her be restored to me. Wife, children, goods belong to a King by commutative justice, and in them all, he hath a personal right, and is injured in the detaining of them from him by any force, or fraud. By this right he may not claim his kingdom, and say to his people the land is mine in commutative justice, for so it is not his but theirs: yet in distributive justice it is his not theirs, for God hath distributed to him the honour of the kingdom, but not the goods. Every man by Law is the owner of what is his, and all being put together the kingdom may keep from the King whatsoever it hath, if by common consent it will not grant it him. The Historian says, Imperium iisdem modis tenetur, quibus paratur, a kingdom is kept as it is gotten, and that is but two ways, by conquest or by contract. The right of conquest, or rather the wrong, is obtained by the Sword and is so held, except people can by the same come to their right again. The Lord was with Hezekiah, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the King of Assyria, and served him not, 2. King. 18.7. The King is here in the case of his Subjects conquered by the sword, and the Rebellion is warranted by the Sword to recover what is lost by it, and therefore God's people need not to fear the title of the Sword, but courageously defend themselves against it, which conquerors may call rebellion, but it is such a rebellion as shall be prospered by God, and therefore let Kings be wise that hold their kingdoms by contract, and keep it as God hath given it unto them. The four Monarchies are so many tyrannies, because they are both kept and come by in the tempests, and tumults of war, Dan. 7.2.3. Winds, that is, wars strive, and Beasts, not men, appear as they can get out of the Sea when they seek their greatness.  
Come we to the second, Rectè judicare, the Lamb makes war in judgement, Revel. 19.11. and his word counsels all kings, Prov. 20.18. With good advice make war. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, unicum rectum consilium, magnam militum manum vincit, Eurip. It is said of Issachar, 1. Chron. 12.32. that the children of his Tribe were understanding men of the times to know what Israel ought to do. It's to be noted that all the Tribes that came to Hebron to serve David are set down by their several excellencies, and this Tribe is described, Gen. 49. by strength, compared to the bone of an Ass able to bear any burden, and it is the best so to do, when prudence with patience makes us content to rest quietly in a kingdom, and what we can to follow that judgement, that is the stay of all good government, and so he that is the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, is a meek and patiented Lamb, and stands first as an Angel at the Altar to receive petitions, Rev. 8.3. as also he stands by it when it is measured, Revel. 11 1. as the Judge of truth, and he that is Agnus occisus, a Lamb killed once for our sins, is likewise Leo occidens, a kill Lion to all his Enemies; but before he kill in fight, he is found in judgement, and so should all kings be. It's true, Armorum officia nisi jussu principis sint interdicta: that is, to private men, for God hath only given the sword to the Magistrate, Rom. 13.4. who is not the Master of Arms, but the Minister of God, and is to revenge for him. Men of war are the honour of the King, and the help of the Kingdom. It is in him by distributive justice to give the honour: but because they help at the charge of the kingdom, justice commutative calls for the Council thereof, and without common consent no war can be made. God had commanded his people to root out Amaleke from under heaven, and had laid his anathema or curse upon the seven Nations, and so for war with them no counsel was necessary, but they might at all times fight against them, and because when they overcame, they made them but Tributaries, Judg. 1.28. they were overcome and made Tributaries themselves, and met with iron chariots, ver. 19 they could not conquer, and the strong hold of Zion that the Jebusites maintained to the days of David, and yet God was with them, but because they were not wholly with him, he suffered them so often to fall into their hands that hated them, and yet helped them by Judges which for the most part were good, and honoured for faith, Hebr. 11.32. when the kings they desired were few of them good; for we are deceived in our thoughts of Monarchy, and do not distinguish it from an apparent Thearchie or divine dynasty, wherein not the will of men, but of God is followed, and the people are happy that are at the will of one man, when his will is ruled by the will of God: but when kings follow their own judgement their government is never good. There is one excellent reason why the Canaanites dwelled amongst them, Judg. 3.1, 2. to learn them war not as a blessing, for no war is good in itself, but to be wise and prudent is of excellent use, and to be taught by enemies, valour is virtue prized by God. I must tell my Nation the iron chariots, and the strong holds of the Jebusites that oppose it is for the sins thereof, and yet to try our manhood to expel them at the last. Commanded war needs no counsel, but where God is silent, no Israelite might fight but by the advice of their great Senate, Deut. 17.8. and to this the King was referred, verse 14. and by it to him war was permitted, and therefore Christ is an example of judgement in war, and for method to make my matter more plain, I will speak of a threefold judgement, Judicium legis, Regis & Regni, the Law, King, and Kingdom.  
The judgement of the Law is this, Id Rex attribuat legi, quod Lex attribuit ei, Let the King yield that to the Law, which the Law hath yielded to him. His Crown, his Council, his Kingdom, the Church, and Laws of both are in his custody. Rex leget in libro legis, etc. Deut. 17.19. the copy of the Law must be in his keeping, and for his learning; First, to live by it; secondly, not to lift up himself above his brethren; thirdly, to beware of Apostasy; fourthly, to prolong his life; lastly, to leave his Kingdom to his children. The King's Crown is not so much his by any inherence in himself, or inheritance from others, as adherence to the Law. It both sets on and keeps on his Crown. He that reads the seven Seals of five judgements, hath but two mercies interlaced. The Gospel in the first Seal, and the Law in the third. Of the Gospel the Emblem is White; of the Law Black, and both for expedition are well mounted, and well armed. The first with a Bow and Crown, to give honour to the conqvered, for whosoever obeys the Gospel is crowned with felicity. Law is severe and appears in black with Balances to measure out all things. The two Horses that oppose these are red and pale, blood and death, war and woe, to teach us all the true causes of our misery. Leu. 26.25. I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my Covenant. The Crown is not safe that keeps not the Covenant of the Law and Gospel with Christ. Idolatry consented unto by Christian Kings, and oppression not regarded by them, hath deprived them of their Crowns, and caused so many alterations in all States.  
For the second, no King is above his Council, but in it as a member. In solio Rex est sine pars, In the royal seat the King hath no Peers, but in Concilio habet pares, but in his Council he hath Peers, not to command him, but to agree with him, Consilio, consensu, & votis. We may resolve two doubts: The first of a negative vote; the second of the King's Supremacy. That the King hath a negative vote, quoad interesse suum, no man can deny it, and the Lords and Commons have as much, and the reason is good, no one part can be injurious to another; but quoad interesse regni, of the common good of all the members, they are all bound to consent to what is good, and to descent from what is evil. The privy Council, Judges of the Land, Men of War, Officers of State, etc. must all receive their honours from the King. What shall be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour? Esther 6.6. Royal favours must come from his Majesty, but not with the hurt of the Subject. Ahasuerus reading the Chronicles of his Kingdom, and finding Mordecai to have done him good service; will have him rewarded, and Haman that had prepared the Gallows for him, must be the Herald of his enemy's praise; and when Hamon is found unworthy of his honour for the hurt he had done his Subjects, the King commands him to be hanged for Mordecai. Here is right distributive justice, and it is only the Kings to give: But to deny his Council hearing in the hurts of his people is most unjust, and commutative justice pleads the Parliaments providence to provide for all these, and no King can deny it, and the contention riseth that the King may not give honours, which is true when they hurt his Subjects, and the Parliament may see he be punished whosoever hath such honours, and if by that Council they may be deprived of them, doubtless to save labour, they may advise the King not to give them, except he mean greater hurt to his people, than honour to his favourites. In point of Supremacy, we may thus be resolved. Rex est Major singulis, the King is greater than his Subjects, Minor universis, less than his Kingdom, and his Council that represents it. No King needs to fear his Supremacy, for he both hath it sine pari, and cum paribus. The Kingdom is his, but not by conquest but contract. The Church is his to nurse it with the sincere milk of the Word, but not with the poison of Popery. The Laws are his to keep them, but not command them at his will. The judgement of the King in the distribution of rewards & penalties is properly his, as the provision in the vacancy of Parliament, for such accidents as happen above Law, beside the Law, or beyond the reach of it. Vltra, supra, praeter legem, the Prerogative is as necessary, as Ordinances are to provide where Law is defective: but contra legem terrae, or fundamental Laws commonly and constantly received in this Kingdom, neither King nor Council are warranted at all, for both are to build upon that foundation. Furthermore, the King hath no legislative power, contra statuta regni.  
Having then found out the main matter of the King's Prerogative in praemiis & paenis, we will to his honours add potestatem vitae & necis, and instance in that Indictment of Felons, Contra coronam & dignitatem regis, etc. It is the Scripture phrase, Vir es mortis, thou art worthy to die, Non morieris, thou shalt not die, is the King's mercy, and yet here his Majesty is limited, and his pardon proves void when there comes in interest viri, the right of any one man, much more interest regni.  
Come we then to the judgement of the Kingdom, 1 Sam. 10.25. where we have the same word Mishphat, but applied to a more universal subject, as the judgement of the Kingdom, and so it is in the great Council, Deut. 17.8, 9.11. There is a judgement in that place inferior both to the King and Council, and therefore what is too hard for inferior Courts comes to the supreme, and that must be heard and feared of all. The great Charter of this Kingdom granted by Henry the Third, hath in it these three fundamental Laws, that completely secure every free man in this Kingdom, yet now most grossly trodden down by our Caviliers, and his Majesty should think how they eclipse his Protestation, in a violation of it and all good Laws. There is jus personarum, nullus liber homo capietur, imprisonetur, the Law is that no free person be arrested, imprisoned, or compelled to do or suffer any thing, further than may justly be required by Law, Secondly, Jus rerum, quae nostra sunt sine nostro consensu à nobis tolli non possunt, fine furto Latricinio. Thirdly, Jus actionum, nulli justitiam negabimus, etc. How are these Laws observed in the King's Army? What man can resist violence done to his person? save his goods from rapine, thievery and latrociny? What action or suit of Law can he have with lawless men?  
Our last Point taken from our Captain, is justè pugnare, to make war in righteousness. This appears in four things, in his vesture which he puts on, in his thigh which gives him issue, in his name which gains him glory, and the inscription of it both upon vesture and thigh, to perpetuate his honour and fame to the world's end. He puts not on the vesture of blood, he is Dominus in albis, he and his appear not like bloody Soldiers, but Saints in the purest white, which may be dipped in blood by others, yet is it not their natural dye. From his thigh spring forth millions of men to be saved, though he smite his enemies, as Samson did hip and thigh with a great slaughter. His name in so doing is above all names, and Kings and Lords must come under it. The inscription of this honour remains to this day on his vesture and thigh, maugre the malice of Antichrist and all his members, whose reign is most wicked, judgement corrupt, and war cruel. They that cannot abide to be servants to God, are willing to be the greatest slaves to the Devil. Gideon knowing the best Government to be a Thearchie, would not make himself a Monarch at the request of the people, Judg. 8.23. neither he nor his should alter the form of the Kingdom. God for him and them should rule over his own Nation, all that he will request of them are the golden earrings gotten from the Ishmaelites, amounting to a thousand seven hundred Shekles of Gold, which the people give, and what will they not give to make an Idol? They give beside them, Ornaments, Collars, and Purple raiment, that was on the Kings of Midian, and beside these the chains also that were about the Camel's necks. A mass of costly materials to make an Ephod for a Monument of their deliverance. David danced in one not so costly as this for it seems to rise as high as Aaron's Ephod. But gideon's good intention for God proved superstition in the people, who went a whoring after it, as soon as he was dead, and what he made for God, that they speedily dedicated to Baal. Ready they were to change their Government, and to take any man for God that did them good, though he were but the instrument, and God to show how the best men may fall, gives them over in some things, to show they are but men. Thus was it with the Bishops of the Church, who by the keys of the Lamb gained power with his people, and might command ears and earrings, hearts and hands to set up any monument to God, and time turned all humane inventions into gross Idolatry, and the very keys of Bishops prevailed with Princes to go higher than their ears, even to the top of their heads, and take off their crowns and cast them into the laps of Bishops, which have so handled their keys, that they are become horns held as upon the head of the Lamb, but made to fight against him, and having gotten such interest in the Kings of the earth, and their Crowns, work them as horns with theirs to wage war with the Lamb, and he is blind that sees it not in that part of the Street of the great City that is in our Kingdom. Brute, a Roman, for killing of his Father was banished into this Land 1108 years before Christ, the first King we read of in our Nation, and some 58 years before Christ, Julius Caesar being twice beaten out of the field, and having his sword taken from him by a valiant Duke, and Labianus a Roman Tribune slain by it, yet civil wars gave Caesar the Conquest in the end, and when he lost his Crowns in all his Monarchy, he had the same fortune with us, and Vortiger, a murderer of his lawful Prince to hold that Crown craves aid of the Saxons, and Hengist for his good service marries his Daughter, and brings in the Saxons so fast, that as tumbling stones they came upon us, and at the last overbare us, and then in this division comes in the Monk, and finds horns fitted for him, and so the ten and two in all Kingdoms agree to war with the Lamb, and these miserable slaves to Satan, hold up his Sovereignty against Christ, and not like Gideon grant Christ his due, but as the people will have it, take all to themselves.  
We see in our day's jurisdiction without Empire to do well in the Low-countrieses, and the State's rule, and their General the Prince of Orange wars for them and they prosper, and may be some think they should do better, if the Prince of Orange were their Emperor and the States changed to be his servants. There is Empire with Jurisdiction, & this is twofold, merum and mixtum Imperium. Mere Empire is absolute Monarchy, and that is divine or humane. Divine, when God alone rules, the Lord shall rule over you, Judg. 8.23. yet at this time was there an aristocraty assisting this Thearchie, for Elders left by Moses, Numb. 11.17. and that outlived Joshua, Judge, 2.7. kept the people to God, and might have done without kings in all ages; for we are mistaken to tye God to them as by a Law of nature to rule the world. The Apostle says not be subject to kings, but to the higher powers, Rom. 13.1. and to confirm us in them all, says, Th' re is no power but of God: and therefore to resist one power with another is as well damnation, as to withstand one alone; and therefore the forms of Government must be obeyed, as well as the men. In the Thearchie of God the Elders as well as the Judges were to be obeyed, and may be with the disobedience of God, the people disobeyed their Elders, and for both were punished. Judges successively one by one are raised, and for the life of their judge they are said to obey, and being dead the people presently sin again, and I may think if they had been constant the people would have been the worse, for if God had not humbled them by oppression, and so for a time made them sensible of their sorrow, they would, as they were in the wilderness, have kicked at their Commanders, Deut. 32.15. And it appears so at the last, as the book of the Judges ends their story for Thearchie, that when they had no kings, that is, no Judges, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. This is arbitrary Government, when no form is observed, and as his Majesty accuseth the Parliament thereof, I dare say if we forsake that Government, our government will be as the King saith, an arbitrary Government, for mere Monarchy is no other. The two Horns have long struggled for it, and the Pope hath gotten it over all Bishops, and what is his Government but an arbitrary rule to rule all men, as if all men should rule themselves, and because Cesar kept Antichrist from this mere Empire to the thraldom of all the world: so Antichrist having gotten it from Cesar, cannot endure one king to reign in Italy, Dan. 7.24. till he have subdued them all. I told you of Martian a good Emperor in the East, and the story of him is that the Goths, Vandals, Huns, and Herules, gained from him the West, which in the days of Theodosius belonged to Constantinople, and from them it was gained again by the valour of Belisarius, Mundus and Narses, and lost again to the Lombard's, and by Antichrist assisted, by the French they are expelled, and the French too, and the two Horns evidently the absolute Lord of Rome, and hath used his horns so well, that he hath by one means or another tamed all the ten horns, and either by power or policy makes them serve him. It's true hatred is spoken of, Revel. 17.16. and in point of Supremacy, Princes have since Luther looked to this two horned Beast, but their hatred as yet is not hot enough to eat the flesh of the Whore that Antichrist labours to cherish in all countries'. I said this Whore ends her street with us; for Brute a Roman, and Cesar, Rome's perpetuus Dictator have given us more than Ireland and Scotland our denomination to be in the Roman jurisdiction, and I see Historians this way carry it no further than us, which makes me suspect this our present time to agree with Revel. 11.7. The street that from Jerusalem stretcheth to us receives our dead bodies, that is, the Church and kingdom which politically are taken for the two witnesses, for blessed be God, in spite of all that Antichrist, but Church and Kingdom do witness against him, and he must do to us as he hath done in other parts of this street over-seas, bring us into straits with them, and the time is when they and we shall be about to finish our testimony, and then riseth the last war to lay us as low as the graves mouth, but not to be able to bury us, and the reason is the same that we have, 2. King. 13.21. The invasion of the Moabites make the Israelites cast by the dead body, and fall to their Arms. It is thought our Bishops the worst of them intended again to bury us in the grave of Popery, and would have done it solemnly in an honourable mixture of their sweet spices and ointments; and if Scotland had liked well of their preparation, we had gone down together into the grave without redemption. But Scotland tasted the Myrrh and Aloes to be too bitter to be born by them, and there is no Nation up to hinder the burial, and Ireland and England follow, and over-seas the waters preceded, and God hath so tempered them, that if the Papists were at peace amongst themselves, they would put hard but they would heave us into their grave again, and make their own peace by our burial. They are glad they have such an opportunity to kill us, but their joy will not be long to hurt us with their horns. That the horns of Antichrist are in it is more than manifest, and our Bishops so blinded that they see it not, and if his Majesty cannot through the thick mist see it, God of his goodness expel the clouds that hinder it. Admiration it is, to see Papists flock to the Church, take the oath of Supremacy by some dispensation from the Pope, for certain it is he loves mere Monarchy, and may persuade Kings so to do; for if his Majesty would come to mixed Monarchy, and consider that his Parliament by the form of Government in this Kingdom must join with him, he would not forsake it, or suffer Papists to abuse his Crowns, to be as horns to gore his own body to prevent an arbitrary Government where it cannot be, to set up one where it ought not to be. I say it is impossible to make the Parliament an arbitrary Government, for all the world cannot invent a better means against it, and his Majesty says the power of it is sufficient to prevent tyranny, and therefore it cannot set it up: But Anarchy, and absolute Monarchy that is not Thearchie, is and ever will be an arbitrary form of Government, the good God of heaven preserve us from both for we are in the way to fall into them.   
FINIS.