THE PRACTICE OF PRINCE'S.  
Published by A. Ar.  Prov. 29.4. 
The King by judgement stablisheth the Land: but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it.  
Printed in the year 1630.   

WHen the Children of Israel had sinned against the Lord, he delivered them over in the hands of spoilers, and sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not stand before them, Levit. 26. Deut. 28. judg. 2. Our estate is so, we have transgressed his laws with an high hand, and yet we have not hearts to lament it as we should, nor eyes to see the hand of God go out against us in all we set our hands unto, both in peace and war; but we attribute all to secondary causes, & look not to the Lord against whom we have sinned: some of us can see that our best Nobility and valiantest Captains and Soldiers, are cut off by indirect means, and our wealth and honour consumed, to our great reproach and ignominy. Yet we do not observe it as we should, and what a fearful estate our land now stands in, this short treatise doth show amongst them that bear sway, or at least might be heard by the rulers, All seek their own, and no man that is Christ's. Some of them pretend to be conversant for him in superficie boni, but it is indeed in alto mal●. Where is there amongst us any that will stand for the cause of Christ? so that I may say: there is but a step between us and death. Hester will interpose hirself for her country, and if she perish she perish; the fire of God's wrath is ready to break in upon us, therefore if the fuel of sin be not taken away the wrath of Gods will never cease till we be all consumed. What true heart will not bring help to quench this fire? alas it will be vain to bring water when the house is burnt to ashes.  
Who will not at least cry when he seeth his mother murdering, I will conclude with the Apostles words: Lord save us else we all perish.  
A. Ar.   

The practice of Princes.  
WISDOM in the Proverbs which all Divines acknowledge to be the Son of God, the eternal Word, by which the father made the world, 
Prov. 8.15.  saith there, by me Kings reign, and Princes decree justice: by me Princes rule, and the nobles and all the judges of the earth. Where, though it be true that God infused into diverse heathen Princes and judges zealous of virtue and justice, some beams of this Wisdom, who may therefore be said, in some sort, to rule by it; yet we are not to understand that every King and Governor, that ruleth & judgeth by unlawful policy or wicked counsel, 
1. King. 12 26.  doth it by this Wisdom. Jeroboam, vainly fearing that the people's going up to jerusalem would make them revolt, took counsel for the setting up of calves in Bethel and Dan, wherein he and his counsel did not rule by this Wisdom but by a devilish policy, which indeed was rather folly then true Wisdom, for it made God his enemy▪ and was the sudden overthrow of his house; as the like earthly policies were of the families of Saul, Ahab, Absalon, Achitophel, Haman and others. The meaning therefore of that place is, that all Kings, Princes, judges and Governors, that judge and rule well and happily, they judge by or according to that wisdom which is God's word: thereby keeping their people (what in them is) in the true worship and fear of God; as did David, jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah, wherein they are truly Gods Vicegerents, seeking his kingdom, and the righteousness thereof, and whereby their own kingdoms are kept in peace, and the neighbouring kingdoms come to fear them, as they did jehoshaphat, therefore wisdom saith, 
2. Chro. 17 10.  By me Kings reign: not by any polices or subtlety but by me, who am God's Wisdom. Which is there found most true, where Princes square their counsels by God's word, and labour that their people may be governed in all matters of faith and salvation by his revealed will; and where, as they ought, 
1. Chro. 29 ●3. ●●u. 11.15 ●●●l. 22.8  their own laws and government tend to the same end: for therefore the throne of a King is called, the throne of the Lord and the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.  
But besides those general rules in the Law and the Gospel, which show Princes what should be the end and scope of all their laws and government; 
Psa. 65.7 Psa. 110.2  and by which (where kings do so esteem of them) their people are bridled and kept in awe, as by that word, which stilled the raging of the sea, and the madness of the people; and which is the rod of his strength; this Wisdom in holy writ, and especially in that book of the Proverbs, hath left unto all Prince's diverse special Rules whereby they ought to square all their actions and government, which may be called The Prince's principles, or The practice of Princes: which should be regarded as Christ's charge to Christian Kings, and ever observed, because they are Gods immutable Wisdom, which he hath left to be a sure guide to all Princes to the end of the world; and whereof in a more special manner that may seem to be said, By me King's reign, etc. Now therefore hearken o Children unto me. If all the Children of Wisdom ought so to do, Princes more especially, their calling being of the greatest weight, deeply concerning so many thousands of people, 
Reu. 1.5.  and standing most in need of that Wisdoms help, which is the Son, and the Prince of the Kings of the earth. All Princes are as much bound to observe his laws and directions, as their meanest subjects are to regard theirs, for he is the King of kings, and all his Rules and directions are perpetual laws; so immutable and irrevocable that all designs and determinations that are contrary unto them, how fair a show soever they make of wisdom and a probable good, they are but mere wickedness, and can not establish the Prince that puts them in practice, but rather tend to his undoing: 
Prov. 12.3. Esa. 30.1. and chap. 31 1.  for that is one infallible principle left us by Wisdom, A man can not be established by wickedness, and therefore the Lord saith, Woe to the rebellious children, that take counsel, but not of me, and cover with a covering but not of my spirit: which walk to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, 
●. Chro. 16  and trust in the shadow of Egypt as Asa also sought a league with Syria, and relied on it, 
Pro 16.12.  and not on the Lord,, and was therefore punished, wherefore Wisdom saith, It is an abomination to Kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by justice: by carrying themselves justly towards God and their people, therefore state policies that stand not with piety must needs overthrow it. Such are all temporize. in matters of religion, with Princes and people of a contrary faith, and seeking, or favouring middle ways of reconcilement, such as halt between God and Baal, between Christ & Antichrist, like the Arminians of our time: which ever grow from bad to worse, & make but the adversaries abroad and at home more insolent, and God to give us over to be deceived by their practices. As we may see in the fruit of that treaty with Spain; wherein King james, who had ever favoured the Papists, and slacked the execution of laws against them, at last to attain his ends first with Spain, and then with France, permitted aid to go to the Archduches, and after to the French King against the Rochellers: more manifestly connived at popery, favoured the old Countess, diverse Lords, & others, the friends thereof; frowned on the religious opposers of their practices, in court & parliament; suffered not the laws, to be executed on Priests & jesuits but suffered them in a manner openly to dispute, preach and write, and in some sort forbade preaching & writing against them: all which could not but make Israel to sin, many to leave their love and zeal of the truth, others to fall to Popery, Arminianism, temporizing or neutrality; which things, it seems were also done and suffered, to bind them 
a The Papists.  by those favours from practising against his life, as they had done against the life of Queen Elizabeth. Howsoever neither by those favours, nor yet by urging and pressing fruitless traditions and ceremonies, and silencing such as groaned under them, were their number lessened, and drawn nearer to our religion; but rather multiplied and made to affirm, that the most learned, and wise on our side, did hereby show their good opinion of Popish religion. In so much that Fisher the jesuit grew so insolent in print, as to incite the King, by the example of the French King Henric 4. to let in the jesuits, saying, that besides thanks & presents from Peru, China, etc. he purchased 2000 pounds for his fame. 
See the Reply to Fishers Praefac.  But he knew the King's timorous nature; and therefore as B. White observed, He had his end in mentioning that instance known to the world direful and tragical, & a hope by that trope to intrude by terror for how they requited that Kings love the doleful catastrophe shown, therefore he addeth, male ominatis parcite verbis. Knowing that men would be ready to infer that King james was like to find no better requital of Papists for his politic favouring of them: which is always just with him to permit, who saith, 
Mat. 10. 3●  He that will save his life viz. by ungodly temporize shall lose it. The King knew that though he should call the best protestants, puritans, wrong them and their religion; yea see it suffer never so much injury and loss from others; yet there was no danger of them; (much less that a King should need to burn Paraeus his works; though he meant to deserve evil) for religion binds their hands. But must they therefore have the more injuries heaped on them to please the Papists? or because Papists are bloody, if crossed in religion, must Kings therefore temporise with them, and not rather trust in God's protection, 
Pro. 1.5.9.  as Queen Elizabeth did? That which men do, in an unjust policy, to prevent an evil, is in God's justice suffered to be the cause that brings it on them, as Gen. 11.4. joh. 11.48. And accordingly, it seemed so probable, that King James died by the practice of such papists and popelings, as every day lulled him asleep with tales, flatteries, wine, jests, songs, and catches, while the Palatinate was losing; that the Parliament desired to have it sifted out, but this proceeding for him was dashed in such sort, as he, to his own hurt, had oft crushed the endeavours of many Parliaments by prerogative, wherein he having by checks and scorns prevailed against the counsels and privileges of Parliaments, and refused to let them rid him of such flatterers and secret enemies, as neither truly feared the Lord nor the King, 
Pro. 24.21  but midled with jesuited Spirits, given to change, religion and government, as being of the Spanish faction, that was true in him which the Preacher saith, I saw a time that man ruleth over man to his own hurt. In so much that some said Better is a poor and wise child, 
Eccles. 8.9. chap. 4.13.  than an old and foolish King, that will be no more admonished. But certainly he had great abilities of understanding and judgement, if fear of the papists power and practices, and an unlimited desire of peace with them, had not made him use many temporizing policies, pleasing to them, and grievous to his best subjects. Howsoever his policies, of that kind, found no better fruit than the increase of papists and the emboldening of them here, the shameful loss of the Palatinate, the undoing of his posterity there, the danger of losing his only Sun in Spain, the more violent persecution of the protestants 〈◊〉 Germany and France, to the loss of many friends abroad, of 〈◊〉 Subjects hearts at home, and his own fame every where. In further proof whereof, I need say the less, seeing vox populi, votiva Angliae and Tom telltruth have said so much: yet some men make a god of him, and urge his Son to follow his father's wisdom, as if we had not yet had mischief enough by the reviveing Romish and Spanish factions. But God grant it may be a warning to him, and all other protestant Princes, to abandon all such fruitless and drangerons policies, as favour diverse religions, together with the treacherous promoters of them; & to hearken in such cases to that which the Wisdom of God saith. 
Pro. 3.5. Pro. 23.4.  Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not to thine own understanding. Cease from thine own wisdom. Ask counsel of God at his oracles, for therefore Wisdom saith to such a one as hath not so consulted with God's word, as he ought; 
Pro. 19.20.  Hear council and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in the later end: 
vers. 27.  and for policies and counsels that stand not with God's word; My Son hear no more the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.  
Wisdom saith, 
Pro. 14.28  in the multitude of the people is the honour of a King, and for the want of people cometh the destruction of the Prince; that is, whether he lack people, or having multitudes want their hearts, which Rhehoboam found true, 
1. King. 12  when embracing evil counsel, and seeking to be a more absolute Lord over them, than his father, he thereby lost the most of them, and so his greatest strength under God, whereby he was exposed to the more danger of all foreign enemies. which proves it to be one of the most traitorous offices that can be, in counsellors to alienate the heart of a King from his subjects.  
Here therefore questionless, they can not be excused, who incensed the King against his subjects in Parliament. I know some lay great fault in the Knights and Burgesses for delaying the grant of the subsidy of tonnage and poundage, considering the King's wants. The truth is, they had been worthy of great blame, if the necessity, that compelled them to it, 
By depriving them of their privileges to reform abuses in church and Commonwealth.  had not pleaded for them: which was to get some things, before that grant, reform, which did eat at the root of religion & state, & which they thought they should never be once suffered to speak of, much less to question & sift out, if the customs were once granted, for they knew that many great crimes of lust, murder, oppression, & the like, could not get hearing, much less justice, when they had been laid to the Duke and his confederates in former sessions and sit of Parliament, as well since the death of King james, as before; & that also in matters of treachery in religion and state, as about the loss of the Palatinat, treasure, shipping, munition and honour, in the expedition to Cales, Rees, Rochel, and in other designs: wherein they of that faction, under public pretences seemed to be private Agents for Rome, France & the house of Austria, and diverse of them manifest introducers of Arminianism, which they used as a shooing-horn to draw on Popery & division, 
Mar. 3.24.  though they know that a Kingdom divided in itself can not stand. In this last sitting, diverse things of these kinds, were manifested against some Bishops and others, when now the house being ready to declare them to the King they that were sick of the Parliament, to shoulder out these proceedings and find them other work, animated the officers of the custom house, & some others, to use all extremity (& among others against a burgess then sitting in Parliament) who being therefore questioned in the house of commons, they that got them the king's protection on purpose to engage him in that cause as their manner is in others) had then pretence to cry out, that the King's prerogative was infringed, & he obliged to adjourn the Parliament: which well perceiving that by such divises & shifts they should be prevented (as they had often been) of questioning delinquents, & that the assembly was like to be therefore dissolved, began to protest more openly and plainly against such whisperers: who in the mean while, as men guilty, and unable to stand the trial, laboured uncessantly, by all the pretences that could be invented, to prove the Commons contemners of regal authority, & the King obliged on point of honour to dissolve that assembly. Yet afterwards their greatest enemies that counted them little better than traitors, could not prove their demur insuffifient, nor that they had done any thing against the laws, whence it came to be held honourable in them all to choose rather to abide in prison, then to gain offered liberty by being bound to the good behaviour: which may be an argument to the King, that those men, incensed him against them, to save their own treachery from coming to trial; & that this was the end of getting their friends chosen Knights and Burgesses, as also of all their intelligences in the house, guarding the King's ears, and preventing all Parliament complaints & proceedings, by a prevaricating exposition of them, & even of the very talk of another parliament. Many of them had got their honours and offices of the Duke by such services to him & therefore now, to save their own stakes, and maintain that pride, they have made all this division, and left the king to get money and hearts where and how he can; while in the mean time, they account these counsels and services trusty, honourable, and meritorious; and thus as wisdom saith, 
Pro. 20.6. and jer. 5.1 Pro. 13.10  Many will boast every one of his own goodness: but who can find a faithful man? Only by pride doth man make contention. And hence it was that they ever jeered and scorned the best endeavours of the Parliament: & therefore though they be many, and of great wit, no marvel, if yet their wisdom have failed them in many great designs, for as wisdom saith, 
Pro. 14.6. chap. 16.27 28.30.  A scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not. A wicked man diggeth up evil, and in his lips is like a burning fire: setting whole Kingdoms in division and combustion. A froward person soweth strife, and a tale-teller makes division among Princes: he divideth the head from the members, and the peeves and Princes one from another. He shutted his eyes to devise wickedness, he will not be brought to see what is evil, nor suffer others to see it, but to prevent good men with cunning speeches, he moveth his lips and bringeth evil to pass. If any thing be never so little amiss in his adversaries, he aggravates, and repeats it, to keep them from discovering his own greater faults: so he makes a man an offendor for a word, 
Isa. 29.21.  and turns aside the just for a thing of naught, and therefore Wisdom saith, He that justifieth the wicked, & he that condemneth the just, 
Pro. 17.15  even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Now since it is apparent, that such are the Achans' that trouble our Israel, through the secret love they bear to the wedge of gold & babylonish garments, to honours, profits and Romish superstition, and that many such are got about the King; partly by reason of King james his treaty for a match with Spanie, which made him broock none, but such as praised and furthered it, his favouring of papists, both which drew them, and other church-papists, lukewarne newters and temporisers about him, partly through the craft of Gondomar, the Duke his mother and other Agents of Rome, Spain and France who intruded, into places of counsel and trust, instruments best fitting themselves and their own ends, partly through the match with France, for seeing the French King is such a manifest friend & champion of Antichrist, a Protestants peace and alliance with him can not be so safe as it was with his father, nor much better than with Spain; partly by suffering the Duke, the Papists, Arminians and their supporters, Bishops and others; with other delinquents to pass unquestioned, or at least unpunished; & principally by reason that by lies & devises, they have daubed up matters, as they did the losses at the I'll of Ree, guarded the King's ears and suffered them to give effectual hearing to none but themselves; hence it came to pass with him, as Wisdom saith, Of a Prince that hearkens to lies, all his servants are wicked. Every one grows, 
Pro. 29.12  and hopes to shuffle off his wickedness, as others have done: and even those, who, if they lived where religion and justice were truly maintained, would be honest men; they yet, to keep their places, profits and honours, and to get greater, are not only fain to connive at the practices of such as the Duke was, who could help them to honour & offices, but even to excuse and justify many of them; as Wisdom saith. Every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts, 
Pro. 19.6. Isa. 1.23.  they blind the eyes of the wise: So that when the wicked come up the man is tried, what he is, as many Lords spiritual and temporal have been who are found too light, while (though it be true) that He that receiveth gifts overthroweth the Land, yet for honour or profit they temporise or connive when delinquents prevail and a Romish or Spanish faction is revived, 
Pro. 28.12. Pro. 29.4.  though God, religion, Prince, people, state & all loose by it, which hath filled the Land with many secret murmurs and groans; in so much that some, who are reckoned wise men, have not sticked to infer, that there is no likelihood that God shoult ever give a blessing to such men's counsels, as have either assisted the Duke and his faction in their projects of betraing the Palatinate, the French Protestants and the religious endeavours of Parliament men and other good Subjects; or connived at these vile practices, and so justified him and his confederates: for (say they) such counsellors as could not see these practices, which every mechanical fellow and very ploughmen perceived (being so many, so frequent and so apparent) they are blind guides unfit to be about Kings: and such (say they) as percived them, and did not lay themselves and their fortunes down at the King's feet, to show him the treachery and danger, but connived to get or keep preferment, they were cowardly and mercinarily base, and unfaithful to God, religion, their King country and the very State, wherein they were chosen watchmen. Where in policy popery is connived at, neutrality and Arminianism favoured, delinquents borne out, and Parliaments for their sakes dissolved, the King must needs have such Servants, and them ever false Cum privilegio: for if he harken to them that say that these are good policies, to hearkens to lies: & God saith Of a Prince that hearkens to lies, 
Pro. 29.  all his servants are wicked. Men, that take his word, say, that therefore as their root must needs prove rotten, so things can never go well with the Christian world, much less with the religion and state of England, till the council which hath been so Dukified, be in a manner wholly changed, they therefore count them fools, who think if God should take the King away issueless, & that the injured King and Queen of Bohemia should come to the crown, things must needs mend; saying that could not be, unless the council were also changed, and made examples to keep others from the like treachery and temporizing, for (say they) if a King be constant to religion, they also can make great show of defending religion (as the Duke and others d●d) thereby to get trust, that they may under hand betray it. And people (say they) had the like hopes when King james died, seeing our King, that now is, make great preparations, and for aught we know with sincerity: but, by the practice of the Duke and his faction, retaining all his father's counsel which for the most part were Hispanolished, Frenchified, Roman●sed or Newtralised, and suffering some worse, both spiritual and temporal, to be added unto them, all those forces were soon brought to nothing, things are grown a great deal worse, and, to the greater grief of all goodness and good men, without God's special mercy remediless; seeing that a king who only hears and sees things in such men's reports can not know the truth, and that no man dares speak for a free Parliament, that may sift it out, much less for an effectual reformation, for as Wisdom saith of such potent counsellors, When the wicked rise up, 
Pro. 28. 2●  men hide themselves: but when they perish the righteous increase. A man that hardeneth his neck when he is rebuked shall suddenly be destroyed, and can not be cured (as God manifested in the Duke) when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people sigh. Rehoboam was not strengthened by such counsellors, but weakened. A King and his people are a body politic, and the Parliament his representative body: Now as in a body, if the faculty of the brain in one side be stopped, that it can not descend through the sinews to the senses of moving in the limbs and members, than those parts have the dead palsy, and the man becomes as it were half dead, and as unable to do any service effectually, as our men were at the Palatinate, Cales, Ree, Rochel and in the Parliament house: so is it with the body politic of great Britain, through the practice of some jesuited Spirits, who, being disguised in the sheep's clothing of a protestant outside, & gotten into the place of favourits & counsellors, have cunningly infected many; both Bishops and others; In whom and by whom, the brain for the most part, is ill affected and the reciprocal passages between the head and the members are stopped; so that the right faculty can not descend, through the sinews, the peers, judges and Bishops, to the senses of moving in the King's body the Parliament; and so his Majesty's tie. giving no life and strength to that body and the best members thereof, nor they means to him, the whole body is half dead, & so unable to offend adversaries, that it can not defend itself, but must needs perish, if those ill humours in the brain of counsel be not by his majesty purged and removed, whereas if he did agree with the Parliament, and had a counsel favouring the moving endeavours of the same, he must needs grow dreadful to them, who now hope to see his kingdom (by these continued divisions) easily conquered; witness the Pope's Bull to the present French King, given at Rome, Septemb. 4. 1626. Now then seeing that it is clear, that in these things, the Kings Ma tie. himself (who is ruled and abused by them) is not the least sufferer; but hath cause to say of them, as old jacob did of Simeon and Levi brethren in evil; Into their secret let not my Soul come; 
Gen. 49.6.  and that thus divided from his people, which under God are his strength, he must needs be in more danger of foreign enemies, & forced to treat with them on harder conditions, which is one of the secret ends, that some of these whisperers had to help the Catholic cause (at least under a pretext of zeal to the King's prerogative, which zeal they used both as an instrument to work division, and a cloak to cover their treachery to our religion, and their secret favour to Rome and her champions) what true Subject but will pray and endeavour that the King may see & expel these dangerous counsellors? which is the end of these few collections, and reflecting the light of that wisdom, 
Mat. 11.6.19.  on their practices, which saith, Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me but wisdom is justified of her children, practices so desperately persisted in, that there seenes to be enivitie, jealousy and emulation between France and Spain, whether shall (by their means) hold the continued honour of cozening, & in the end of conquering us, wherein yet I should abhor to be so plain, & indeed to meddle at all, if the many great and manifest wrongs done to God, religion, my King & country, with the extreme danger the three later stand in, did not seem to cry out of silence & banking, & to call to me for plain dealing what ever it cost me, as Isa. 1.23. Ezech. 22.27. for 1. What a miserable thing it is, to see wicked counsellors get such a hand over their King, that he is wholly ruled by them, and dares not do or say any thing, but what they like? nor favour a good man and his cause further than they admit? as it was with Zedekiah, 
Ier, 38. 2●.  who durst not be known of the talk he had with jeremy, but was forced to feign a business, and an answer to stop the mouths of his Princes and Councillors, so very a child they made of him; though it be said, 
Eccles. 10.16.  woe to thee o Land whose King is a child: when with a courageous & constant frown, he might have dispersed them all, and have saved himself and the city, by being persuaded by jeremy. 2. 
Pro. 14.35.  Wisdom saith of a true king The pleasure of a King is in a wise servant (this wise man is one truly religious, not an Achitophel) but his wrath shall be toward him that is lewd. Such as are our seditious whispers, the seedesmen of division. Righteous lips are the delight of Kings, 
chap. 16.13.  and the King loveth him that speaketh right things. And again: 
chap. 20. ●,  A King that sitted in the throne of judgement, chaseth away all evil with his eyes. He looks with indignation on wicked men, as considering, that he sits in the throne of the Lord, to do that which is right, and best for God's service and kingdom. 
20.26.  A wise King scattereth the wicked, 
Pro. 21.1.  and causeth the wheel to turn over them. And why should we not pray and hope that God may give our King this grace, seeing Wisdom saith, The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, 
chap. 22.10 11.  as the rivers of water: he turneth whithersoever it pleaseth him? for he saith to Kings, Cast out the scorner, and strife shall go out: so contention & reproach shall cease, and on the other side, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the King shall be his friend. Wisdom also showeth that it is for a King's honour and safety to have wicked men sifted out, and cut off or expelled, saying, 
Pro. 25.1.2  The glory of God is to conceal a thing: but the King's honour is to search out a thing: to let such come to trial. Take the dross from the silver, and there shall proceed a vessel for the finer. Take away the wicked from the King, and his throne shall be established in righteousness; as if he said, otherwise it must needs totter. O but these cunning Achitophel's have many goodly pretences, showing, that it is wisdom in Kings to keep down and suppress these Puritans, as they were ever pleased to call the gentlemen of the lower house, and all that cry out for reformation, or trouble themselves with such matters as the treaty and match with Spain, the increase of popery and Arminianism, the loss of the Palatinate, and of Shipping and honour in the Seas; transportation of mumunition and corn, the Rochellers, or the like, and thereby (say they) tax the wisdom and government of their King and his council, when indeed this suggestion, & the like, is but a cloak to cover their treachery, love to superstition, and hate of our religion, yet want they not a disguise of pretended love to the book of common prayer, the hierarchy, and such traditions and ceremonies thereof, as do not offend popery; as if that were sufficient to make them protestants and good states men whose hearts and practices are for Rome: for as wisdom saith, Hatred may be covered by deceit, 
Pro. 26.26  but the malice thereof shall be discovered in the congregation; that is, in an public and free assembly; which shows the good use and necessity of Parliaments, which these men's practice could never endure, and therefore they have still got them dissolved, by hook or by crook, let what would follow, either at home to the joy and furtherance of the Papists and Arminians, & the extreme weakening of the King and kingdom; or abroad to the undoing of our friends and religion in Germany, the Palatinate, France and Denmark: whereby our Bishops, and their abettors, have showed they had rather all these should fall, than their own faction and glory, though popery and pelagianism have every where thriven by it, what care they? that being in many of them the main end of these their practices; witness Cousins protected for all his cozening devotions published, and palpable superstition erected; and their suffering the Appealers' book to pass two or three years, and the Author to be rewarded, that so scholars in the universities, to get promotion, might in like manner corrupt and be corrupted, and so corruption might spread from these fountains to all parts of the Land, watered by them and when they doubted that in Parliament, it might be questioned and they for suffering and furthering it; to prevent that, they get the King to call it in sleigthly (not a search to be made for it, as for other books, not left as this to be freely sold in shops by any that would) and to forbid all disputes, preaching and writing on both sides, knowing they could thereby hinder all that should write against those errors, and let books and disputes pass, which defended the same; as they after did Dr. jackson's second part, printed before the Parliament, but somewhat kept in till it was dissolved, whence it appears that though these were points they durst not maintain in Parliament, and therefore errors; yet their drift was to save and further them, and to engage the king further and further in the cause, that so the Parliament might not meddle with them, or if they did, it might be pretended, the house took the matter out of his hand, taxed his government, and undervalved his prerogative, that so he, incensed thereby, might show the Arminians more favour. And the like ends have they that get Kings, in pretended policy, to connive at popery, and stay the execution of laws against Papists, suffer ordinance, victuals and other provision of war, to be daily transported to the enemies of our religion; that so if never so little show be made of reforming these things before a Parliament, and yet Parliaments complain of them, or of their agents in court, church-papists treacherous favourits & delinquents, strait it might be pretended the matter is taken out of the King's hand, and his government and prerogative is taxed and infringed, thereby to put off reformation, incense his majesty and get them more favour. And still to save these practices from coming to trial, and therewithal to put men out of heart in their trading, make them sell their ships and therein the walls of the land, they ever find the Parliaments other work in case of customs privileges and other matters, and then inform the king that in those things his prerogative is by them grossly infringed, and he obliged to dissolve the assembly.  
The reasons, why the house of Austria and the French have of late prevailed, are chiefly two, first because they had care to suffer none to be of their council of state, Agents abroad, nor Generals and Commanders in war; but such as they knew were sure to their religion, and would strive all they could to maintain and propagate the same. In all their treaties and wars, this was ever one main end, they aimed at, as appear by Gondomars practices in his treating with England; and the care and zeal of their Generals of Bavaria, Tillie, Spinola and the rest; as he saith that writes the siege of Breda; Against them it was thought fit our forces should be bend, 
●eidge of Breda pa. 8  not for affectation or desire of Sovereignty, but for the reestablishing of religion, and regaining what they usurped. Now if they had seen like true zeal and care in the English council and Generals, for the Protestant religion, they never durst have attempted so much as they have: but they grew confident that England, than the strongest of all protestant States (and most likely to work, Rome's Ruin if truly zealous) could not to any purpose help the Palatinate, the French Protestants, nor the King of Denmark; much less hurt the proceedings and conquests of Rome's champions spiritual or temporal, knowing the King's disposition, and that she and they had the Duke and other secret friends in England, who one while would hold the King's hands (easily kept from drawing his sword) under vain pretexts of hope to set all right by treaty, while they of the Palatinate and the French Protestants were losing and bleeding; and another while when they could with no colour use that course any longer, would in counterfeit zeal get forces raised, with great show of aiding and defending religion and the friends thereof, but with secret purpose to bring them, for Rome's sake, to nothing; as besides delays, the lame commissions procured, the popish leaders and instruments employed, and munition and victuals to the enemies transported, sufficiently manifested; that so at last England might be glad of peace with France and Spain on hard conditions. And in the mean while, they could, with gifts, presents, flatteries, promises, and some small supplies and services, make show that they were great friends and Agents to the King for the King and Queen of Bohemia, their issue, the King of Denmark, and the Rochellers; the easier to cousin them all, and get the fault laid on the Parliament, that strove most to remove such deceitful practisers, as by working these things, seemed to hope a rebellion would follow; and than Romish champions might be called from France or Spain to take a side, and get all, as wisdom saith, 
Pro. 17.11.  A seditious person seeketh only rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. King's can not bind them from such practices by showing them favour: for papists will forfeit all other bands to strengthen those of their religion. Secondly because in Germany France and Spain, the Popish clergy, high and low, have ever had free liberty to speak and write unto Princes, and others for the defence and propagation of their own religion, and rooting out of their adversaries, and to reprove all such as failed therein, and get them punished, while in the mean time, the Duke and other their secret friends in England, so laboured, and by the help of the Bishops obtained, that protestant preachers writers should not do the like for their religion, no not though it were by God's undeniable word; and that if any did, it should be never the better, yet till there be the like care & zeal both in the counsel of state and in the clergy, things can never go well with our religion and state, nor they be enabled to stand against the zeal and practices of a contrary religion and kingdom. 
2. Cor. 5.20.  Ministers are Christ's Embessadors and Agents: and therefore aught to have free liberty to speak in the word of the Lord to Kings & statesmen (so it be in good and reverend sort) for things pertaining to the furtherance of Christ's Kingdom, and against such practices as hinder the same. They ought rather to have had this privileidge than Gondomar, the Duke's mother, & such others as on the contrary laboured for the kingdom of Antichrist, and till they have it, princes can not say rightly that Christ hath his Ambassadors or Kingdom received in their courts. Which some undertake to prove, can not be till the hierarchy and dominion of the Lord Bishops (never by Christ ordained but forbidden) be overthrown, 
Mat. 20.2 1. Pet. 5.3  as dangerous to protestant Princes and states; because the great places thereof, are only baits to make some divines temporisers, instruments and friends of such treacherous Arminians, church-popelings and delinquents, as can prefer them; and others to spend their zeal in maintaining the hierarchy and the fruitless dominion, traditions and ceremonies thereof. Out of all which, he that will, may see, that the losses, dishonours and troubles that have befallen this Land, and indeed our religion and brethren also in the Palatinate, Germany, France and other parts, have chiefly sprunge from these two fountains. 1. A corrupt council and clergy in England, that were more for the Duke and his confederates that helped them to honours, offices and preferments, them for the religion and state divided, and kept low, by his and their practices; which the Pope, the house of Austria, and the French King, perceiving, took that for a time of persecuting, conquering and depelling all Protestants. 2. A vain policy of suppressing such preachers, writers and Parliament men, as sought to discover the mischief of treachery, and obtain effectual reformation. In the later (if not in both) the power and flattery of the Bishops were principal helps, their seeming holy habit, reverence, and authority, countenanced the projects of the Duke and his confederates, while for preferment, they stuck fast to him and them in court and Parliament: and their power and hierarchy served to terrify, suppress and stop the mouths of such ministers & writers, who otherwise might by their sermons and books have discovered the homebred enemies, and obtained relief for the friends of our religion, which is the service Christ gets by Lord Bishops and their hierarchy; who hereby showed, that they will sooner let religion, Prince, State and all go down, than their own usurped dignities and hopes of further preferment, for these and other courtiers and Dukanists, that have still pretended the King's power and prerogative, have not strengthened, but rather weakened and debased the same. 1. By those fruitless expeditions that they caused abroad; which were so forecasted that the Sailors and Soldiers, neither coming to good service nor their pay, should refuse to serve the King any more, or to be governed by his officers, but be readier to spoil their country when they returned. 2. By those dangerous divisions that they have procured and nourished at home. And while they got his majesty to suffer diverse ambitious divines for advancement, to broach anew, the doctrines of Pelagius, and to erect popish superstition, to the treading under foot as well of the divine law, as of the Parliament, have they by all these things gotten the King and his laws to be more reverenced, or less? Surely less witness the general murmurs of his subjects throughout the whole Land, and diverse bold outrages of Sailors and unpaide Soldiers. Would it not grieve any true Subject to see how the King's authority was of late despised in that outrage in Fleetstreet, backed by the Templars? 
Mat 22.34 2, Tim. 2.4  wherein some observed a just judgement of God, that as the King suffered divines, who are, or should be, God's lawyers and Soldiers, to tread God's authority & law under foot, by slighting some proofs of Scripture, and sophisticating others; so God suffered Soldiers, Templars and other Inns of court men to spurn against his laws and authority. God, that oft pays by retaliation, suffers people to deal so with Princes, as they deal with him, and their Servants to be alike faithful to them in their service, as they are to him in his. If people see their Princes cast away the word of the Lord in diverse things, they wickedly grow as careless of God's word, which enjoines subjection to Princes, and which otherwise stilleth the madness of the people, and keeps them in awe, God causeth the Prince that fears him, and sincerely furthers his word preached, to be by his people reverenced, loved, 
2. Chro. 17 5.  feared and enriched with presents and gifts, as Jehoshaphat was: He therefore that doth it not, but rather the contrary, he must needs find the contrary; him he suffers to be molested with enemies, and the rebellions of his own vassals, as were Solomon, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, joram and others, wherein that is fulfilled, which the Lord saith, 
1. King. 11.14. chap. 26 12.15 2. King. 9.14. 1 Sam. 2.30.  Those that honour me, I will honour, and those that despise me shall be lightly esteemed: Look then on the dishonours and losses of the State abroad, the troubles, divisions and outrages at home, and confess them to be the fruits of their counsels, who stand for connivance at popery, favouring of Arminians, and protection & honouring of delinquents temporal & spiritual.  
But though I should reckon up all the fruits of their counsels, some men would yet commend them for wise counsellors, as our Arminians, and ambitious temporisers and popelings do, who have all thriven by them, for as wisdom saith, They that forsake the law praise the wicked: 
Pro. 28.4.5  but they that keep the law set themselves against them. Wicked men understand not judgement, but they that seek the Lord understand all things. It is fit indeed that Kings should have their counsel: 
Pro 11.14. & chap. 15.22.  for where no counsel is, the people fall: but where many counsellors are, there is health, that is, if they be honest men, and true as the old men that counselled Rehoboan faithfully; diverse great matters of state may be better carried by such privy counsellors, then by a Parliament, which is more public & open: but if they be Achitophel's, and as the young men that gave wicked counsel, temporisers or false to the religion and State, they seem to serve; then the more they are, and the more wit they have, by so much the worse they being such as Wisdom describeth. 
Pro. 29.16.  When the wicked are increased, transgression is increased, but the righteous shall see their fall. Such as neither, Fear the Lord nor the King, 
Pro. 24.21  but meddle with them that are given to change religion and government; for such while they rule their King are all Princes to his hurt: and so wisdom saith, For the transgression of the Land many are the Princes thereof. 
Pro. 28.2.  They are the sins of the Land, which reign in the light of the Gospel, as drunkenness, adultery, profaneness, oppression and the like, that provoke God to suffer them to be intruded, & to prevail against the zeal and care of so many Parliaments. Not all the base treachery of delinquents, nor the wisdom of so many hundred men, oft set in Parliament, to discover them, suffice to make the King, see their practices, and the danger of defending them, much less the necessity of expelling them, when the sins of the nation hold them up. If our sins had not supported them, to plague us, God, that maketh men to be of one mind in a house, 
Psa. 68.6.  would have made our Kings, as our Parliaments, to hear see and abhor them; and not have suffered them to be so deaf and blind on that side, to the breeding of such long and dangerous divisions between the head and members of the Parliament: 
joh. 12.20.  but for sin, He taketh away the speech from the faithful counsellors, and judgement from the ancient. Hence it was that God suffered the Duke to get so many to be created and made Earls, Viscount's, Barons and Bishops, & them to be brought into the parliament to uphold his faction, and carry out his party in the upper house by multitude of voices, after the Pope's example in the counsel of Trent. A strange way and merit to achieve honour, if I miscall it not, being so attained by them that justify the wicked for a reward, what true honour have such men? It is ● great honour indeed to a man to be made a Peer of the Realm, and by virtue thereof, to sit as a judge in Parliament, to hear causes, and to establish and ordain laws; matters so greatly concerning a nation: but that is, if it be for the right furtherance of God's kingdom, true religion and justice, 
Psa. 82.1 6.  and the manifest good of the common wealth; herein they are Gods, in a laudable sense and worthy reverence: but if by them these things shall go backward, and the contrary be brought forward; If a man shall attain and hold honours for favouring popery Arminianism, or neutrality, or for conniving at such practices as those of the Duke, or for justifying delinquents, and getting Parliaments for their sakes dissolved, or for overthrowing their laws and privileges, is there true honour in such a one? It is indeed as if one attained or held honours by murders, treasons, adulteries, thefts, lies and the like; or by slobering them over, as some write of the smothered murder of Marques Hambleton and others, and as if a man should get the honour to be a judge by overthrowing the laws. And they that get or hold honours and offices by getting Parliaments thus dissolved, and providing that there may be no more, or at least not free to touch all ill practices and persons; it is, as if one should get the honour of a judge for overthrowing the court of justice, or for providing that no causes might be heard, or at least that diverse might not come to true judgement, but either be smothered and thrown out, or carried by corrupted voices. What poor ploughman having the knowledge and fear of God, is not much happier than such great ones with their thus bought offices and honours? And yet who sees not, that those who for such services to the Duke and his faction, have been made Earls, Viscount's and Barons are exceeding many, and three fold more than the ancient nobility? at least than those of them that have constantly distasted such vile practices, and all communion with them? the like might be said of Bishops, Deans and heads of colleges. And therefore I am persuaded, that who so lives but a few years shall see a greater rot of Nobility and Princelike clergy, than ever was seen in this Land, which I write not as prophesying (for God forbid that I should be so arrogant, 
Isa. 5.20.23.24.  as to make myself a Prophet or the Son of a Prophet) but as gathering it from the never failing word and Truth of God in such places of that of Isaiah, woe unto them that speak good of evil, and evil of good, which justify the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous man from him. 
Psa. 1.4.  Therefore as the flame devoureth the stubble, and as the chaff is consumed of the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their bud shall rise up like the dust, etc. A good Christian should rather refuse & lay down offices and honours, then take or hold them on such conditions. And yet God knows very few have of late years attained or hold any great offices or honours, but on such terms, or at least by reason of some participation with them. Witness those furthest from court, and least infected, the Lieutenants, Deputie-leiftenants', judges, justices, Majors, Aldermen and other officers, made to further or exact, and wring from the people, benevolences and loans, and to strain for them or imprison such as stood out, or make them serve as Soldiers, or lodge and maintain such unruly and unpaide Soldiers, as were billeted, in their towns and villages, for no other service then to punish them: things set a foot to hinder the calling of Parliaments, breed divisions, if not rebellions, make the Land weary of wars for defence of religion; and so to save the treachery of the Duke and his confederates from coming to trial: who in the mean while have ever found the commons new greivances to put the old accusations and proofs out of their minds. Many great complaints have been made against such men: God grant the King, may give them an effectual hearing in a free parliament, lest otherwise men fearing to be imprisoned & crushed, as others have been, should not speak what they know; and so treachery should still prevail, and hinder the King of the happiness following the due execution of justice: for the throne is established by justice. 
●ro. 29.14  A King that judgeth the poor in righteousness his throne shall be established for ever.