humour was in his nature from the God of Nature and who hath resisted his Will The same Argument will the lascivious man who was born under the Planet of Venus and the Rebel and Murtherer who was born under Mars use in their defence as the scrupulous and obstinate who were born under Saturn And so any vice may be defended and the whole blame transferred on God who sent them into the world with such inclinations But on second considerations our Author might have told them that these wicked dispositions were the effects of the corruption of their natures contracted and propagated by original sin and that there is yet so much light from Nature but much more from the Grace of God as to discover and assist them in the correction of these unreasonable and ground less affections and passions and not to encourage them in them by telling them they are from God and infused into devout men that they may put a bar to such dangerous Innovations that are stealing on the Church and for the maintenance of the simplicity and purity of the Christian Religion and Worship This is a New Plea to encourage them to a New Rebellion as well as to justifie the Old And we know what slender pretences scrupulous and obstinate persons are wont to lay hold on to defend themselves in very unlawful practices in such cases as are confessedly unreasonable and dangerous and to which they have a natural inclination The Vulgar need a Curb to restrain them and not a Spur to provoke and haste them on When therefore you ask p. 86. What affrightment all this while either to Church or State from this weak and pitiful scrupulosity Where lies the Treason or Sacriledge Let our Author consult the History of the late War and Experience which some say is the Mistriss of Fools may resolve him It is no more agreeable to a scrupulous man about a Ceremony of the Church to depose and murder his lawful Prince than for a man of a nice Conscience to be impiously wicked p. 33. Pref. Yet Mr. Baxter and others will tell you that the greatest Impieties and Outrages have been committed by such men as pretended niceness and scruples of Conscience for their justification And who they were that would strain at Gnats and swallow Camels our Saviour told us long since But to return Upon this very Ground of a natural complexion c. p. 19. of the Preface he would excuse a vile sort of Presbyterians in Scotland as he calls them who have deservedly put that name under eternal infamy by their turbulent and contumacious carriage against the Kingly Authority Which yet he there says is not imputable so much to Presbytery as to the barbarous Manners and rough Genius of that Nation And is it not strange that neither the Learning and Knowledge of that Nation which afforded some men of all Ages of great excellency and which usually emollit mores nec sinit esse feros doth correct the brutish dispositions of men nor the power of Godliness and purity of Doctrine and Worship to which especially in latter times they pretended beyond all other Nations and was proposed by them and accepted by some of our own Nation as the great Rule next to if not above the Word of God for our Reformation could so far reform them as to teach them Obedience to their lawful Princes but they must still remain infamous as our Author observes for Disloyalty and a barbarous Treatment of their Kings And is it not yet more strange that we who are of a better Genius should learn of them who as you note do boast of one hundred and fifty Kings in succession in that Kingdom and you certainly aver that they really imprisoned deposed and murdered fifty at least before the time of Mary Queen of Scots that such an Original should be proposed to the English Nation that their Chronicles may also be defiled with the bloud of their Kings As for what you say p. 20. Pref. concerning the Queen of Scots that her prosecution was promoted by the English Bishops which putrid Vomit the Author of Julian's Life licked up and hath disgorged again to make the whole Nation stink I have said enough to vindicate the Bishops from that foul Aspersion It being designed by the Wisdom of the Parliament and by them justified for many Treasonable actions and Insurrections by her practised and contrived for which she was legally condemned not as a Queen nor as a Popish Successour much less as our Queen but as a professed Enemy to her Majestie that then happily reigned over us from whom she actually claimed the Crown and endeavoured by force to usurp it And she having first resigned her Crown and came hither for protection which she forfeited by her frequent practices of Treason was tried and condemned as the Wife of a Subject of this Land And happie had it been for this Nation if they had never learnt any other Regicide than this Fictitious one wherewith the Bishops are chiefly charged for no other reason that I can divine but because they will not give consent to another more unexcusable action now This rash Assertion of yours destroys all that laudible endeavour which you have worthily attempted for the vindication of our Bishops in other matters this is a Scandalum Magnatum with a witness and I hope you have yet so much ingenuity as to put your self to the voluntarie Penance of a Recantation the slander being so notoriously false And I am perswaded that the convictions of your Conscience will not give you any rest till you have made them as publick satisfaction as the injury you have done them is I proceed now to the third Head of his Discourse which leads me to shew the endeavours used to engage the Nation in a second unnatural War And I shall begin with that Speech of this Author p. 52. of Postscript The panick fear of the change of the Government that this Doctrine of the Divinitie of Kings occasioned and the divisions it made among us was the principal cause of the late War And p. 102. That War would have been impossible if the Church-men had not maintained the Doctrine that Monarchie was Jure Divino in such a sence as made the King absolute and they and the Church in consequence perished by it Now you have heard already how loudly the young Divines are accused for preaching this Doctrine And how false soever the Accusation be the Nation is called to stand upon her guard and the Royal Standard is feigned to be set up and perhaps the Seditious partie are really listed and associated And every man is called on to declare for what Partie he will engage The Neuters are accursed the Associators declared to be such as retain the old English Loyaltie after the taking of the Covenant and all that oppose these betrayers of their Religion their Countrie and the Laws yea they are told p. 149. that they ought not to subject
whose Authoritie alone the Laws are executed for it is he that beareth the Sword And Plutarch says of him that he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely govern according to the Laws but hath a power above them He hath so indeed for the good of his Subjects to whom the rigorous execution of the Laws in many cases would be an insupportable burden if by the Kings Authoritie they might not be moderated and interpreted by Rules of Equitie against which our Dissenters have the least reason of any men alive to object And if we grant him this power for our good how can we deny it to him for his own That Learned Casuist Bishop Sanderson whose modesty in other Resolutions is eminent in resolving this Question Whether it be lawful for the Prince in cases extraordinary to do any thing besides or against Law undertakes to prove the Affirmative with an extraordinary confidence and which is more to prove it by that abused Maxime which some would invert against the King Salus Populi Suprema Lex That the Peoples Safetie is the highest Law And if I prove not this as your selves shall confess from that very Maxime saith he then say that I cannot see at noon-day and censure me to have been not a Defender of this good Cause but a Betrayer and Praevaricator Which thus he doth First he tells us the Original of that Sentence viz. from Cicero de Legibus in these words l. 3. Regio Imperio duo sunto iique praeeundo judicando consulendo Praetores Judices Consules appellantur Militiae Summum Jus habento nemini parento Ollis Salus Populi Suprema Lex esto Now to whom doth this power belong to them says the very Letter of those Laws to whom the Imperial power was committed that is to the two Consuls for the time being Come now says the Bishop all you that are the Patrons of Popular confidence read weigh and examine every Word Syllable and Comma and shew where you can find the least hint of any power granted to Subjects against their Princes will either to judge concerning the safety of the people or to determine and do any thing against the Laws Doth not the whole series both of Things and Words loudly proclaim that the Supream Authoritie which is above all Law and that the care of the Publick safetie properly belongs to him alone to whom the Imperial power the right of the Militia and that Supream Authoritie which is subject to none is granted When the Law commands one thing says Aeneas Sylvius de Ortu Imperii c. 20. and Equity another it is fit the Emperour should temper the rigour of the Law with the bridle of Equity Seeing no Decree of the Law though made by never so deliberate advice can sufficiently answer the various and unthought-of plottings of mans nature and it is manifest that the Laws which aforetime were just in after-times may prove unjust harsh and unprofitable to moderate which it is needful that the Prince who is Lord of the Laws interpose his Authority And where it is said that a Law though it be severe should be observed this respects inseriour Magistrates not the Emperour to whom the power of moderating the Laws is so connexed that by no decrees of man it can be pull'd from him Bishop Sanderson gives a pertinent instance to this purpose in his Book de Oblig Consc p. 384. That when upon discovery of the Gunpowder-plot the Traitors fled some of them were pursued by the High Sheriff of Worcester-shire who having hunted them from place to place came to the Confines of his Countie beyond which he was not to pass with his Souldiers by the Law yet fearing that they might otherwise escape he pursues them into another County takes them and brings them Prisoners Yet knowing he had transgressed the Law and lest others in matters of less moment should be encouraged to do the like or himself be exposed to future trouble he presently goes to the King and obtains his Pardon What excellent Chymists were they who out of those golden Laws should draw out so many Swords and Axes against their Soveraign and Fellow-subjects on such a vile pretence And is not our young Empyrick neer of kin to them who by his Mountebank-Receipts would poyson the People with a conceit that they may by the Laws arm themselves against the King if they shall judge that he doth transgress those Laws that then he is no longer a Minister of God but of the Devil and may be persecuted as a Midnight-Thief or Highway-Robber or in the words of Gregory as a common Cut-throat pag. 25. And that he is hardly to be blamed who shews himself so courageous for God and for that Religion which he approves as to assassinate his Prince To conclude it is the judgement both of Divines Civilians and States-men that there must be in Kings and Governours a Supream Power to mitigate the rigour of the Laws and to suspend the execution of them to pardon some Delinquents and in case of necessity to provide for the safety of the People besides and against the Laws and that to arm the People and teach them on pretence of the Law to resist their Prince is a pernicious Tenet destructive to Government It is Criminal saith Mr. Hunt p. 41. and no less dangerous to the being of any Polity to restrain the Legislative Authority and to entertain principles that disable it to provide remedy against the greatest mischiefs that can happen to any Community No Government can support it self without an unlimited Power in providing for the happiness of the people No civil Establishment but is controlable and alterable to the Publick Weal Whatever is not of Divine Institution ought to yield and submit to this Power and Authority And this is all that I or any of my Brethren that I know of ever intended to say of the extent of the Kings Power That such distempers as are incurable by common and prescribed Remedies such as the Kings Evil usually is must have extraordinary applications such as the Kings hand and none but his may successfully administer Nor doth any among us plead that the King is above the Directive power of the Laws but onely that he is not under the Coercive power of them For which cause Antonie would not permit that Herod should be called to an account of what he did as a King for then he should in effect be no King at all for what power can judge him who is the Supreme power on Earth The Emperour saith Tertull. is solo Deo minor inferiour to God onely and under the power of God onely In cujus solius potestate sunt à quo sunt secundi post quem primi And St. Ambrose spreaking of David applieth it to other Kings He was a King and obnoxious to no humane Laws because Kings are free from punishment for their offences being secured by the power of their Empire If the People have power to
in him That he may if he please use the consent of Parliaments to assist the Reason of his Laws when he shall give any but it is a great condescention in Kings to give a Reason for what they do and a diminution to their most unaccountable Prerogative That they are for a Popish Successor and no Parliament and do as much as in them lies give up our ancient Government and the Protestant Religion the true Christian Faith to the absolute Will of a Popish Successor giving him a Divine Right to extirpate Gods true Religion established among us by Law and to evacuate our Government by his absolute pleasure Then after a little pause having almost run himself out of breath to tell the Nation these Falshoods he thus inlargeth himself p. 2. That just now when we are under the dread of a Popish Successor some of our Clergie are illuminated into a Mysterie That any Authoritie in the Government not derived from the King and that is not to yield to his absolute Will was rebellious and against the Divine Right and Authoritie of Kings in the establishment against which no Vsage or Prescription to the contrarie or in abatement of it is to be allowed That all Rights are ambulatorie and depend for their continuance on his pleasure So that though the Reformation was made here by the Government established by Law and hath acquired Civil Rights not to be altered but by the King and the three Estates these men yet speak says our Lawyer as if they envied the Rights of their own Religion and had a mind to reduce the Church back again into a state and condition of being persecuted and designed that she should be stripped of her legal Immunities and Defensatives and brought back to the deplorable helpless condition of Prayers and Tears do utterly abandon and neglect all the provisions that Gods providence hath made for their protection Nay by this their new Hypothesis they put it by Divine Right in the power of a Popish Successour when he pleaseth at once by a single indisputable and irresistable decree to destroy our Religion and Government That they believe no Plot but a Presbyterian Plot for of them they believe all ill and call whom they please by that hated name and boldly avow that Popery is more eligible than Presbytery for by that they shall have greater Revenues and more authority and rule over the Lay-men A heavy Charge this saith Mr. Hunt p. 4. if true but he is sure it is imputable but to a few though he had told us in the Preface that many too many were so corrupted and in many places he speaks indefinitely of the whole Order Now our Lawyer cannot but know that it lies on him who hath divulged these slanders to make proof of them though he pretends they were objected by others And all the Conforming Clergy are cast under the suspition of these unsufferable Crimes If Mr. Hunt had any regard to the welfare of the Church he would have singled out such Criminals and brought them to shame and condign punishment there being sufficient Laws for the punishment of them and it being the interest of the Magistrates to free the Church and State from such pests A Judas may creep in among Christs own Disciples and a Jonah hide himself in the bottom of the Ship But doubtless it is the interest of all that are in such a Ship to have them discovered and cast out that the storms which threaten their common destruction may be allayed especially when as Mr. Hunt says they come often under observation frequent publick houses and talk loud He that doth not according to his power seek to prevent these evils is consenting to and contracts the guilt of them Qui non vetat cum potest jubet But it consists not with Mr. Hunts design to do the Church such a real Service as to free her from such miscreants but to involve the whole Clergy under the same defamation that they may fall under the same condemnation To this end instead of extenuating the number of such he aggravates their faults as 1. Being such as may choak the Constancy Resolution and Zeal of the most addicted to the Service of the Church-men 2. That they are acted by the Papists 3. That they are agreeable to and indeed make up the most modern Project and Scheme of the Popish Plot. And 4. That They deserve to suffer as the betrayers of their Country and to be prosecuted with greater shame and ignominy than the Traditores were by the Ancient Christians And thus having breathed a while he this ill-natured Lawyer begins to lash our good-natured Divines again Vpon such scandalous and false Suggestions as these it is saith he that the generality of the Clergie who any way appear for a Christian Subjection to the King and a defence of the established Government of the Church are represented as Popishly affected and betrayers of the True Protestant Religion and the Laws c. I would have Mr. Hunt to answer his own Question p. 101. What Fines and Imprisonments Pillories and Scourgings do they deserve that persecute the Church with revilings when they themselves are tolerated It must be some large Bribe or promise of the publick Faith that thus ingageth our Lawyer to support a dying Cause and to take part as well with Papists as Fanaticks to bring the English Reformation into contempt For what neerer way is there to effect it than first to represent those who he says established our Religion in Queen Elizabeths days to be assertors and promoters of the Doctrine of King-killing Secondly to affirm That in the days of King Charles the first by preaching up the Divinity of Kings and their Absolute power that unnatural War was begun And Thirdly p. 7. That at his Majesties return Fanaticism had expired if some peevish old and stiff Church-men had not studied obstacles and some craftie States-men had not projected that the continuance of the Schism would be of great service to destroy the Church And for the present Age the Clergy great and small are all under the same condemnation Great Friends to Popery and Arbitrary Government such as have no sense of Reason or Religion such as will not when it is in their power prevent the ruine of their Nation but are either accursed Neuters or else wilful Actors in drawing down the Judgments of God upon us And we are like to have no other the Fountains being corrupted can send forth nothing but unclean streams I pray God preserve the Honourable Inns of Court from such Impostors as Mr. Hunt Let not Mr. Hunt think to hide his Malice against the Clergy by a seeming commendation of their Offices as Apostolical when he adds that Religion may subsist without it and when by all manner of evil arts he seeks to inrage the multitude against them Nor that he is to be taken as a Friend to their persons or maintenance who labours so much to
A VINDICATION OF THE Primitive Christians In point of Obedience to their Prince AGAINST The Calumnies of a Book intituled THE Life of Iulian Written by ECEBOLIUS the Sophist As also the Doctrine of Passive Obedience Cleared in Defence of Dr. HICKS Together with an APPENDIX Being a more full and distinct Answer to Mr. Tho. Hunt's Preface and Postscript Unto all which is added The Life of Julian enlarg'd LONDON Printed by J. C. and Freeman Collins and are to be sold by Robert Kettlewell at the Hand and Scepter over against St. Dunstan's Church 1683. TO THE Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archb p of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan And one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council c. May it please your Grace ALthough as Solomon says Every thing is beautiful in his season and there was a time when a Cup of cold Water was an acceptable Present to an Emperour yet should I not have presumed to offer so mean a Present to so Great a Person as a little Water in a homely Vessel taken up in haste and disorder as men are wont to do when the Neighbourhood is on fire had it not been that the Fire-brands which I endeavour to extinguish have not onely been scattered up and down among combustible matter through the Nation but that the Boutefeus have been so desperately bold as to throw some of their Fire-balls into the August Assembly of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council Such was the Barbarous Celeusma the Answers to Dr. Stillingfleet c. and now a Traiterous Preface and Postscript dedicated by one Tho. Hunt to the Right Honourable John Earl of Radnor c. Lord President of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council I am well assured that that Judicious and Noble Lord hath either so contemned those seditious and treasonable Libels as not to vouchsafe them the Reading or if he hath read them that they kindled a just indignation in his loyal breast and condemned them to the fire as designed to set the Nation in a flame The Author tells us truly that the reason of his Dedication was to create a Prejudice and the thing is self-evident that the greatest Adversaries which that Noble Lord hath if at least he hath any for I know he can have none but among the factious and seditious Rabble that are acted by such Seducers could not have offered a greater Affront to a Person of his known Wisdom and Integrity than such a Dedication amounts unto and therefore I doubt not but those fiery Darts which that Author hath shot against so firm a Fortress of Religion and Loyalty will recoil on his own head If men of such fiery tempers have presumed of favour from so Great Persons I cannot but hope for your Graces pardon who have endeavoured though in a hasty and rude manner to extinguish those Wilde-fires which they have kindled for God onely knows how great a matter a little such fire blown as it is with popular breath may kindle if not timely prevented The Devil was wont to carry on his designes formerly as an Angel of Light and then the deluded Instruments deserved some pity But now that he appears in his proper Colours a Noon-day-Devil breathing our flames of fire and a horrible stench none but such as are by his Sorceries and Witchcrafs become his covenanted Servants would seek to bring others under the same sins and condemnation with themselves as being already self-condemned and having sinned away all hopes of mercy from God or man All those Coals of Sedition and Rebellion which were raked up under the Ashes of this ruined Nation and which we might in reason hope had been quite extinguished by the enjoyment of Peace and Truth Prosperity and Plenty for twenty years together have been secretly fomented and are now publickly scattered to cause a New Conflagration I humbly beg your Graces patience to mind the present Age how ready they are to be led over the same Precipices by the same Impostures and by some of the same men by whom the former Age was ruined onely they were led on by degrees and colourable pretences the Snare was not spread in their sight as it is now in ours who are perswaded with open eyes and a dreadful prospect of Rebellion and Damnation before us to cast our selves headlong into them both It was after a long Progress and unhappy success of the former War that John Goodwin and others published his Evangelium Armatum his new Gospel-liberty affirming That the lawfulness of Resistance is now discovered to Gods Church as the necessary means to ruine Antichrist for the Kings of the Earth saith he will never be perswaded to effect this great and holy work and therefore the People must He in the 30 31 32 pages of his Anti-Cavalierism among many other Passages hath these words which every Christian that reads them must abhor Amongst many other Truths which were of necessity to be laid asleep for the passing of this Beast Antichrist unto his great power and authority and for the maintaining and safe guarding of him in the possession thereof this is one of special consideration That Christians may lawfully in a lawful way stand up to defend themselves in case they be able against any unlawful Assaults by what Assailants or by what pretended Authority soever made upon them for had this Opinion been timeously enough and substantially taught in the Church it would certainly have caused an Abortion in Antichrists birth and so have disappointed the Devil of his first-born had not the Spirits and Judgments and Consciences of men been as it were cowed and marvellously embased and kept under and so prepared for Antichrists Lure by Doctrines and Tenets excessively advancing the power of Superiours over Inferiours and binding Iron yokes and heavie burdens on those that were in subjection doubtless they would never have bowed down their backs so low as to let such a Be â—â—…rule over them they would neâ—… have resigned up their Judgements and Consciences into the hands of such a Spiritual Tyrant as he So that you see there was a special necessity for the letting of Antichrist into the world yea and for the continuance of him in his Throne that no such Opinion as this which we speak of whether truth or untruth should be taught and believed I mean which vindicateth and maintaineth the just Rights and Liberties and Priviledges of those that live under authority and subjection to others Whereas now on the contrary that time of Gods preordination and purpose for the downfal of Antichrist drawing neer there is a kind of necessity that those truths which have slept for many years should now be awakened and particularly That God should reveal and discover unto his faithful Ministers and other his servants the just bounds and limits of Authority and Power and consequently the just and full extent of the lawful Liberties of those that live in subjection Evident it
are and not else Now I humbly conceive seeing the Writ De Haeretico comburendo is taken away in time and the Laws protect us in our Religion it is a needless thing to go to Smithfield and there be burnt for an Heretick It is better if it pleased God that we should die as Hereticks if with St. Paul we truly worship God in a way that is so called than to go to Tyburn and be hanged as Traitors and Regicides For though that Law be taken away yet the Law of God stands firm which enjoyns us to submit our selves not onely for fear but for Conscience sake and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter in the case of our submission for Conscience sake as well as for fear of wrath is determined by St. Paul with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye must needs be subject P. 77. And so far it is fit to inform the Popish Crew lest they should be mistaken in the good Protestant Religion of our good Church as Coleman calls it I pray let them not be informed that we obey more for fear than for Conscience sake No nor that we are afraid to dye for our Religion of God call us to do it As to your Parenthesis that we have no apprehension of persecution from any other quarter I tell you we have felt a greater persecution in our Age from Geneva than from Rome and if the one have since the Reformation in this Nation killed a thousand the other have slain ten thousand Your next Reflection is on the Pulpit-law as you say the Lord Faulkland called it of Sibthorp and Manwaring and complained it had almost ruined the Nation That noble Lord was indeed a great lover of his Religion and Country and therefore was an enemy to Arbitrary Government But when he perceived that the outcry against Arbitrarie power in the King was made with a designe to grasp it into other mens hands and they began to exercise it not onely on the Gentry Clergie and Nobility of the Land but the Royal Family also he repented and so faithfully adhered to the King in defence of his Authority that he lost his life in the Quarrel It was the Pulpit-law in 41. and 42. that destroyed us and brought in Arbitrary Power But how near doth our Author come to put a border of Treason on his impolitick discourse p. 78. where he says The Arbitrary Doctrine of those times to which both he and Mr. Hunt impute the beginning of the Late War did not bring any great terrour with it it was then but a Rake and served onely to scrape up a little paltrie passive money But now it is become a Murdering-piece loaden with I know not how many bullets Who are they I wonder that preach up such an Arbitrarie Power or who are they that make such a Murdering-piece of it Is it not rather a Fiction of some men who would find a pretence for a second War For if as Mr. Hunt says p. 52. That the Panick fear of a change of the Government that this Doctrine to wit of Arbitrary Power before 41. occasioned and the Divisions it made among us was the principal cause of the Late War is it not evident that the same fears are now made Panick or Popular to prepare the hearts of the People for another War What else mean the bleatings of the Sheep and the lowing of Oxen the Vulgar Murmurs and loud Cries of the Multitude as if it were intended we should be ruled by a Standing Armie and That his Majesties Guards are a grievance That the dissolution of a Parliament gave us cause to fear that the King had no more business for Parliaments Hunt p. 22. and p. 60. of our Author That Parliaments should sit till they have done that for which they were called i. e. says our Author in his Marginal Note till all Grievances are redressed and Petitions answered And then for ought I know they might sit for ever and so no more need of a King What means the denying him a Supply when Tangier was like to be lost and not onely with-holding their own but denying him to dispose of his Credit or Revenues for his just occasions What mean our new Associations and Bandying into Parties and advice even to the Clergie not to suspend all the legal securitie they have upon the life of our present King Hunt p. 49. All these strongly argue that they have a suspition of Arbitrary Power and that by our Author's confession was in 41 and therefore may be suspected to be made use of now as an incitement to Rebellion And though our Author p. 78. confesseth That the malignitie of this Doctrine cannot be discovered under his Majesties gracious Reign yet he thinks fit to put him in mind of the Securitie he hath given the Nation by his Coronation-Oath which all Protestant Princes value look upon as Sacred and likewise of many gracious Promises that he will govern according to Law All this caution argueth more than Suspition it looks like an Accasation though I know no defect but the neglect of executing the Laws against Transgressors But if it do not fall out in his Majesties Reign it will appear in its colours and we may feel the sting of it if it please God so sharply to punish us for our sins as to let us fall under a Popish Successour p. 78 79. We have I confess deserved such a punishment for kicking against our Protestant Princes but by the blessing of God we may not have such a One For who shall be King or Queen of this Realm of England hereafter you tell us none but God himself knows p. 21. of the Preface But you tell us of another may be the Successor may be a Papist and then he may persecute but he may not be or if he be so yet I have proved he may not persecute and our Author hath granted p. 75. That it can never happen but by our own Treacherie c. Such a formidable Persecution as you suggest is a thing impracticable and morally impossible it hath never yet been acted by any Prince Papist or Heathen the Marian Tempest did not so destroy Protestants though it had been but newly planted but in Queen Elizabeth's Reign it grew up again and covered the Land in a few days Now to disturb our Peace and Settlement with two such may be 's as are more likely may not be to suppose such things as are morally impossible is unreasonable and to fear where no fear is saith Mr. Hunt p. 250. But such suppositions as our Author makes ought not at all to be supposed for there is greater hurt to be feared from them as Mr. Faukner says p. 545. of his Christian Loyaltie than from the thing supposed since it is much more likely that such designes should be imagined and believed to be true when they are false as they were in the unjust Outcries against our late gracious Soveraign than that they
to molest another for his Religion Our Author might have gone for one of the Godly partie in those daies I do not read that there was one Law extended throughout the whole Roman Empire which was almost Vniversal but that several Kingdoms and Cities were governed by their own Laws So were the Jews and Heathen as well as Christian Subjects in their several Cities and remote Provinces As Julian told the Bishops that were of several Perswasions that they should not disturb the publick peace of the Empire and then they might enjoy their own Liberties and Religion Constantine seemed to be almost of a like perswasion for why else did he not suppress the Arian Heresie which from Alexandria infected the whole Empire He did take care to prevent Schism and Sedition among Christians that the administration of the Government might be more easie But this great man banished Athanasius into France where he remained till Constantine his Son recalled him as Eusebius in his Chronologie But what if there were some Edicts for the establishment of Christian Religion in Constantine's days nothing was confirmed by the Senate that was accounted then a needless thing Nor did the Edicts of one Emperour bind another by the same Authoritie as Constantine might have setled the Orthodox Religion Constantius setled the Arian and after him Julian the Pagan Religion I mean by his own Imperial power and Edicts For the Roman Emperour was an Absolute Monarch their Will was a Law as Gregory Nazianzen quoted by you p. 13. The Will and Pleasure of the Emperour is an unwritten Law backed with Power and much stronger than written ones which were not supported by Authority So that though he did not as you term it fairly enact Sanguinary Laws yet had he the Law of the Sword in his hands And I think it was a great mercie of God to the Christians under him that he did not by publick Edicts put the Sword out of his own hands into the hands of his Heathen Magistrates who would have written them all in bloud Therefore Mr. Baxter saies p. 20. of 4th part of his Direct Julian was a protector of the Church from Popular Rage in comparison of other Persecutors though in other respects he was a Plague Valentinian was a right Christian Emperour and when he was chosen the Souldiers were importunate that he should assume another as an Associate in the Empire he tells them It lay in you to chuse me your Emperour but being chosen what you desire is not in your power but mine it belongs to you as Subjects to be quiet and rest contented and to me as your King to consider what is fit to be done Zozomen l. 6.86 Justinian was another good Emperour and he assumed the sole administration of the Empire to himself and demands in his Novels Quis tantae authoritatis ut nolentem Principem possit ad convocandos Patres caetorosque Proceres coarctare Who can claim so great Authority as to constrain the Prince to assemble the Senate against his will And Justinian Novel 105. excepts the Emperour from the coercive power of the Law to whom says he God hath subjected the Laws themselves sending him as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Law unto men And the Gloss noteth That the Emperour is the Father of the Law whereupon the Laws also are subject to him When Vespasian was Emperour it was declared by the Senate That he might make Leagues with whom he pleased And though Tiberius Claudius or Germanicus had made certain Laws yet Vespasian was not obliged by them And Pliny in his Panegyrick to Trajan tells him how happie he was that he was obliged to nothing So that the Christians had no more pretence of having the Laws on their side under Julian than under Dioclesian Maximus or Constantius nor did they ever plead them to justifie a Rebellion against him for want of such an Advocate or Leader as our Author Gregory Nyssene tells us also what the power of the King or Emperour was he defines him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that hath Absolute power in himself no Master nor Equal Cont. Eunomium l. 1. So that our Author 's great Babel is fallen viz. that the Julian Christians had their Religion established by Law and that they were long possessed of it For Laws or no Laws by the Lex Regia the Emperour could reverse the old and establish new as it pleased him and for want of Laws where the word of the Emperour was there was power and none might say to him What dost thou Thus it was with Constantine and Constantius and why not with Julian And now I hope the good Christians of our Age will no longer trust to such broken Reeds as our Author puts into their hands much less that they should take up the Sword which will be no other than a broken Reed also not onely to fail them but to pierce through their sides Now if we should turn the Tables and ask our Author Whether when Jovian and Valentinian were Emperours and had made some new Edicts for the Orthodox Christians as well as against the Arians and Pagans it had been lawful for the Arians or Pagans to rebel in defence of their Religion Or to come nearer home Whether when Queen Mary had established Popery by Law in this Nation it had been lawful for the Papists to have rebelled against Queen Elizabeth they having the Laws on their side yea and questioning her Right of Succession too yet we do not read that they did contrive a General Rebellion though for ought I see our Author would have justified them when he tells us from Zozomen what men may do for the Religion whereof they are well perswaded Or neerer yet when the Long too Long Parliament pretended against the King that their Religion was in danger by Poperie and Superstition their Laws and Liberties invaded by an Arbitrary Power did they well or ill from these pretences to raise that War against the King that turned the Nation to an Aceldama Were the Laws such as could justifie that Rebellion or no If they could not then I am sure they cannot now since the late Act for Treason in the 13th of our King and a Declaration of Parliament That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever c And by several Statutes it is declared That the King is the Onely Supreme Governour of his Dominions over all Persons and Causes whatsoever And the power of the Sword or Militia is put into his hands as well by the Law of the Nation as of God and I trust he will not bear it in vain Having thus stript this full-fac'd Bird of a few borrowed and painted Feathers how justly is he exposed to be hooted at by every boy or dealt with as in the Apologue of such another bird that seeing the Pidgeons to be well meated and live securely he would get himself to be coloured and arrayed like one of them and feed among
and the other at the left hand of some Great person when he shall come into his Kingdom Or if the hopes of the translation of the Kingdom should fail and degenerate into a Commonwealth one of them may be as Milton was a mercenarie Historian or under-Secretarie of State But now I think on it they will never be so fit as Milton was of whom they come as short in accuracie of Stile as they may in time exceed him in other of his Vertues and Preferments I would advise our Divine Lecturer to take a Doctor 's degree at Salamanca for he may despair of it here in England and then he may be the fitter to be a Casuist and Confessor to the States General to resolve their Cases of Conscience And for our Lawyer if he do but read one Lecture more on Doleman and pursue his Argument as he hath begun he that is yet esteemed of but as the Pick-lock of the Law and speaks things doubtfully and mysteriously as the Devils Oracles were wont may come to that Top of Preferment which Mr. Br. a Quondam Brother attained And though he never sit in Judgment as he did yet he shall if his Friends will be at the cost have that Inscription on his Tomb which was provided for the other Mr. Hunt speaking of his Adversary says p. 152. he observes for our imitation that the Orthodox did not depose the Arian Emperours And answers We ought undoubtedly to imitate them therein for that no man much less a Prince ought to lose any right for a Speculative errour or meer misbelief But onely for wicked practices and opinions that promote excite and encourage them As if Opinions that overthrow the Doctrine of Christs Divinity did not directly tend to wicked practices Hath not this Lawyer been fee'd by the Socinians to become their Advocate But might not an Arian Emperour be resisted and One who is truly Christian and a Defender of the Apostolick Faith be opposed And doth our Author know of any more than a Speculative errour if so much in him whom he prosecutes so violently Or was not Constantius his being of the Arian perswasion the cause of many actual cruelties practised against the Orthodox not in remote places onely but chiefly at Constantinople where he mostly resided and were not many of those Cruelties acted by the authoritie of his Edicts as I have noted concerning Macedonius his Cruelties And so for the Sitting of Parliaments till all Grievances are redressed Milton p. 80. Si Rex Parliamentum prius dimiserit quam ea omnia transigantur quorum causa Concilium indictum erat perjuris reus erit Mr. Hunt resembles him in this as well as if there had been a transmigration of Souls Let his Majestie satisfie his people never so well by Reason and Authoritie and serious promises of frequent Parliaments yet this man insinuates that he acts as if there were no intent to call a Parliament any more And that the design of the Addressers was for discontinuance of Parliaments and for a Popish Successor though he himself observes that in thanking his Majestie for his promise of frequent Parliaments they do desire them See his Preface P. 152. He says as our Author doth after him That the behaviour of the Church towards the Roman Pagan Emperours was much different from that which they bore to Julian who succeeded to Christian Emperours was educated a Christian and sometime bore a place in the Church for whereas the Apostles had enjoyned the Christians to pray for the Pagan Emperours though actual persecutors of the Church yet THE WHOLE CHVRCH did curse and Anathematize Julian with an Anathema Quo Deus rogatur ut aliquem è medio tollat In Julianum cum defectioni adderet Machinationes evertendi Christianismi usa est Ecclesia isto extremae necessitatis telo a Deo est audita Grotius on Luk. c. 6. v. 22. The whole of Grotius his Note to this purpose is in these words Sunt quaedam delicta tam atriocia ut si contumacia accedat nemo non videat esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro talibus dum tales manent Ecclesia non intercedit precum suffragio quod solis poenitentibus patet Generaliter tamen his ut infidelibus mentem optat meliorem Chrysostomus ubi anathema pronunciandum ait adversus facta non adversus homines intelligit districtum illud anathema quo Deus rogatur ut aliquem e medio tollat Hujus sanè rarior est usus non tamen Nullus nam in Julianum cum defectioni adderet machinationes evertendi Christianismi usa est Ecclesia isto extremae necessitatis telo a Deo est exaudita If our Author had not been afraid to discover from what Writers he collected his Posie of Daisies as he calls it p. 95. he would have repeated this of Mr. Hunt which seems to carry more of Reason and Authority than any thing else in all his Treatise of Julian And because I suspect that he may keep this for a Reserve for I have heard that he intends to pursue his design against all Opposers if he bring no other weapons but such as these of the Church-Censures we shall not fear for these are Spiritual weapons which the Church makes use of and that onely against incorrigible offenders that had committed a sin to death as their last refuge in extream necessity yet of these he onely says the Church doth not intercede by supplications proper to the penitents yet generally even to these as also to Infidels it prays for a better mind St. Chrysostome says Grotius speaking of the Anathema that is to be pronounced against the Actions not the Persons understands this severe Anathema whereby God is intreated to take away the offender from the midst of the people c. So that Grotius and Chrysostome having delivered their Judgements clearly in other places concerning Prayers for Heathenish and Persecuting Emperours they cannot be understood here to write against their own and the judgement of all those other Christians afore-mentioned To which I adde this of Tertull ad Scapulam Christianus Nullius est hostis nedum Imperatoris quem sciens à Deo suo constitui NECESSE EST ut eum diligat revereatur salvum velit And in his Apol. We reverence in our Emperours Gods judgement that made them Governours for we know that to be in them which God would have and of this we make account as of a great Oath And the Oath of Christian Souldiers as Vegetius de re Militari l. 2. c. 5. was Per Deum per Christum per Spiritum Sanctum per Majestatem Imperatoris c. By God and Christ and by the Holy Ghost and by the Majestie of the Emperour who next to God was to be loved and reverenced they swore to yield him faithful Devotion and vigilant Service c. And he gives this reason for it For a man whether private or military doth serve God
if not Gratia Dei as our stile hath it yet Decreto ac Dono Divino when Pilate himself who condemned Christ had his power given him from above I wondered to read this in a man that had shewed much diligence and reading as to matters of Law in his Treatise concerning the Bishops Right thus to faulter and prevaricate in asserting p. 36. that Kings have no Charter from God And my wonder is yet increased when I read his confident conclusion That these two places could not be reconciled by any other interpretation but his own I am much inclined to think that Mr. Hunt knew a better way of reconciling these Scriptures onely finding no other offering themselves willingly to serve his Hypothesis he thought to press this of St. Peter to it Now the designe that he drives is against the Succession p. 42. which says he is of a Civil nature not established by any Divine Right and the several limitations of the Descent of the Crown must be made by the People in conferring the Royal Dignitie and Power Had Mr. Hunt talked at this rate in Cromwel's days when he was about to make himself a King it had been tolerable but to talk thus in a Kingdom so long continued in a Legal Succession and so well constituted that nothing but such new suggestions are like to disturb it needeth Pardon though he expects Praise for it In other things I thought Mr. Hunt an ingenuous and bold man that spake his own Sentiments as if he were in Civitate libera and I would willingly have excused him upon that account here or as a man labouring under the common fate of such as meddle with matters out of their Spheres for seldom meet we with such Blunderers as Divines when they attempt the work of Lawyers and States-men or Lawyers when they invade the Office of the Divine But none of these things can be pleaded in Mr. Hunt's excuse for no doubt he had consulted with such Divines as wrote in the time of the Late War at least such as had a hand in that War and yet survived The Assemblies Annotations were at his hand and I suppose he would have consulted them or such as they were i. e. no great friends to Kingly Government Hear then what they say on the words Ordinance of man By Ordinance is meant the framing and ordering of Civil Government called the Ordinance of man not because it is invented by or hath its original from men for all power is from God Rom. 13.1 2. though sometime he useth men as means to derive Power or Government to such or such a person or persons that so they might be the more willing to yield Obedience but because it is proper to men or because it is discharged by men And on the word Supreme they note There is therefore no other Supreme on Earth above the King in his Dominions Pareus is another common Author and one whom Mr. Hunt probably would have consulted about this Opinion above others he having written such things against the power of Kings as deserved to be committed publickly to the flames 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apellatio ad Deum primum autorem nos revocat The word Creature recalleth us to the consideration of God who is the Prime Author of Magistracie for though Magistrates are said to be created that is ordained by men yet their first Creator properly is God alone Thus he in the Appendix to his Comment on Rom. 13. Dubio 3. And there he teacheth you plainly how to reconcile St. Peter with St. Paul whom you make to contradict each other The Apostle says he calls Magistracie a humane Ordinance not causally as it is devised by men and set up at their pleasure but subjectively as it is administred by men and objectively as exercised about the government of humane Societies or lastly in respect of the end as constituted of God for the benefit of men Calvin and Beza and generally all the Modern Expositors say the same and whoever reads the words following where this Ordinance of man is divided to the King as Supreme and to Governours sent by him must needs acknowledge that the Apostle speaks not of the thing but the persons Omni personae omni principatui cui nos divina dispositio subdi voluit saith Bede on that place Dr. Hammond's Paraphrase I think is beyond all exception because it perfectly reconciles the sence of St. Peter with that of St. Paul for by every Ordinance of man he understands every Heathen Governour every mortal Prince And his learned Notes do evince the truth of his interpretation which being too long to insert I refer the Reader to them and shall onely give you his Reason which is this That the Gnosticks who had so early troubled the Church taught that Christian Servants and Subjects were not bound to obey their Heathen Masters and Magistrates whereas the Apostle enjoyns them to obey both not onely if they be good and gentle but also if they be froward if they be unbelievers We may not make our Libertie a cloak for Ambition or Rebellion and pretend to vindicate our Countrie when we intend to enslave it As Antiochus who brought a great Armie into Greece pretending to deliver it when it was in a condition of Freedom and Prosperitie And thus the Lacedemonians endeavouring to free themselves from one Tyrant made way for Thirtie to domineer over them But Mr. Hunt's demand is what Scripture we have for the Kings Charter I answer That Saul had a Charter 1 Sam. 8. for God chose him and how far it extended read there and Skiccard de Jure Regum apud Hebraeos And after God had rejected Saul who had first rebelled against God yet he hath the Title and the Reverence of the Lords Anointed given him by David still And God himself calls Cyrus his Anointed though a Heathen And Daniel acknowledged of Nebuchadnezzar The God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom power strength and glorie Dan. 2.27 These then had it not from the People Pilate himself though an Inferiour Magistrate had his Charter owned and submitted to by Christ himself And when it is said in the Old Testament By me Kings reign Prov. 8.15 and in the New even of the Roman Emperours such as Nero and Claudius that they are ordained by God and that our Obedience is due to them for the Lords sake and for Conscience sake He must be an Ignoramus or worse that can see in Scripture a Charter for the Peoples rights and power even to resist their Prince and none for the Prince to vindicate his Authoritie over the People It would be irksome to the Reader to relate what is obvious in Heathen Writers concerning the Original of Kingly power Nature did at first find out a King saith Seneca And Aristotle says That by nature not onely the Father hath rule over his Children but also the King over those that are within his Kingdom This is the Government that
God himself erected from the beginning giving to Adam a Patriarchal which is tantamount to a Monarchal power This he granted to Israel and continued to the coming of Christ To this power in the Romans Christ and his Apostles submit themselves and command every Soul to follow their examples and all the Primitive Christians did so till the Pope of Rome to the great scandal of Christianitie invaded the Thrones and usurped the power of their lawful Emperours Gregory the Seventh Pope Vrbane and Paschal were the first that stirred up Subjects against their Princes and the Son against his Father We are taught saith Polycarp to yield Obedience to all Principalities under God except in things destructive to our Souls Therefore do as you please cast me to wild beasts or the fire which is not to be compared to that eternal fire prepared for the ungodly In the Constitutions of Clemens it is declared a hainous sin to resist the Prince and the Councils for 1200 years taught no other Doctrine And when those Popes first turned Rebels and proceeded so imperiously as to Excommunicate the Bishop and Church-men of Liege for adhering to the Emperour and stirred up Robert Earl of Flanders to destroy all that Clergie they wrote a most excellent Epistle declaring That they never had heard of any such Doctrine or Practice from any of the Fathers and that they had observed fearful Judgments of God falling on such as did rebel against their Princes And so it fell out for all the Popes great Instruments Radolphus and Herman and Egbert were cut off and gave the World magnum Documentum a severe Caution not to rise up against their Princes no not for the sake of an Infallible Pope This was the sence of the Primitive Fathers Irenaeus proves it by Scripture and concludes By whose command they are born men by his command they are made Princes So Tertul. Inde Imperator unde homo inde potestas unde Spiritus It is God saith Origen who setteth up Kings and removeth them and in his own time raiseth up such a one as is useful to the State Contra Celsum Theophilus Bishop of Antioch I will honour the King not adoring him but praying for him knowing that by God the King is ordained So Athenagoras of Aurelius and his Son Commodus says They had received the Kingdom from above St. Basil also on Psal 32. The Lord setteth up Kings and removeth them and there is no power but what is ordained of God And to conclude with Greg. Nazianzen concerning the Power of the Governor of his Province Orat. 17. to the Citizens of Antioch That together with Christ he did rule the people committed to his charge that from him he had received the Sword and was to be accounted as the Image of God So S. Chrysostom And if we reverence those Officers that are chosen by the King though they be wicked though they be Thieves and Robbers not despising them for their wickedness but standing in awe of them for the dignitie of him that elected them much more ought we thus to do in the case of God and the King chosen by him Serm. 1. of David and Saul So that even wicked Princes have a Charter from God So our Saviour said of Pilate Joh. 19.11 Thou couldest have no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authoritie or power against me except it were given thee from above And St. Paul of the Roman Emperors There is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God and he that resists resisteth the Ordinance of God And that St. Peter says the same though in other words hath been made evident Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as supreme for so is the will of God 1 Pet. 2 13-15 St. Augustine de Civitate Dei l. 5. c. 21. Regnum terrenum dat Deus piis impiis Qui Mario ipse Caio Caesari qui Augusto ipse Neroni c. God gives an Earthly Kingdom both to good and evil Princes He that gave it to Marius gave it to Caius Caesar he that gave it to Augustus gave it to Nero he who gave it to the Vespasians Father and Son most mild and loving Emperours gave it likewise to that most cruel man Domitian And not to recount them all he that gave it to that Christian Prince Constantine gave it to that Apostate Julian These things without doubt that one and true God doth rule and govern as he pleaseth although for secret causes yet not for unjust So the Prophet Dan. 2.37 Thou O King art a King of kings for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom power strength and glorie And chap. 5.21 The most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will chap. 4. And as God setteth them in the Throne so he rules by them and over-rules them guiding all their actions to his own just and wise ends If all the Princes of the World should conspire they can do no more than what Gods hand and counsel have determined before to be done Acts 4.28 God knows how to effect good and gracious ends even by wicked Kings He made Cyrus an Instrument to build him a House in Jerusalem 2 Chron. 36.23 and calls Nebuchadnezzar his Servant Jer. 25.9 The heart of the King is in the hands of the Lord as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he pleaseth He can restrain the spirits of Princes as he did Abimelech and not suffer them to touch his People He can cause the wrath of man to turn to his praise He stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to deliver the Jews from the Captivitie of Babylon Ezra 1.1 He made Darius and Artaxerxes instrumental in building and beautifying the House of the Lord Ezra 6.22 and chap. 7.27 Wherefore as the Psalmist says Psal 97.1 The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof For though Clouds and Darkness are round about him and we cannot see the reason or end of his Providences yet Righteousness and Judgment are the habitation of his Throne v. 2. Were the Almightie like the Epicureans God that could not intend the affairs of the world without great trouble and therefore retired himself and left all to Chance we might then think it fit to chuse for our selves but when every Choice and every Chance is ordered by the Almightie and wise God when it is said Sam. 18.18 The people had chosen Saul chap. 10.24 it is said The Lord had chosen him And if the Magistrate be chosen by Lot yet as Solomon says Prov. 16.33 The Lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. We may not say therefore as that Prince did 2 King 6.33 when God had sent a Famine in Samaria This evil is from the Lord why should I wait on him any longer much less should we resist the established Ordinance of Heaven
Dissentions if every Subject should be permitted to dispute the lawfulness of such Commands as are enjoyned him not by his Prince alone but by the mature deliberation of his Council especially when as it is with us every one hath his vote in chusing those Counsellor that in our names consent to the Laws This were to do what is foretold by Solomon Prov. 20.25 After vows to make enquiry It is a pernicious Opinion that hath infected too many of this Age That though we do not actively obey the Princes Commands yet if we submit to the Penalty the Law is satisfied and we are free from guilt In answer to which I say 1. That Obedience is more than Non-resistance it must be active and cheerful as in paying Tribute and Custom so in other parts of obedience to go and come and do what is commanded 2. Suffering or paying the penaltie is not the chief intention of the Law but the duty of Obedience without which the ends of Government will be frustrated viz. Peace and good Order 3. The Law of God enjoyns us to obey the Laws of men that are not contrary to his Law Now though we satisfie the Law of our Country by bearing the penalty yet the Law of God is not thereby satisfied that Law requires Repentance and Amendment i. e. that we do so no more As in that instance of frequenting Divine Service we do not think a Papist hath satisfied the Law when he pays Twelve pence neither indeed do others For it is Gods Law that is broken who commands us not to forsake the publick Assemblies and to obey them that have the rule over us For we are to obey for Conscience sake i. e. because of the obligation which the Command of God hath laid upon us And when the Magistrate calls for our obedience in this or that particular which is not against Gods Word God commands our obedience to him he having Gods Authority in such cases and to disobey is not onely to disobey man but God Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and for Conscience sake and the penalty of disobedience is damnation So that it is an Atheistical Suggestion that Rulers and Tyrants did first invent Religion to keep men in awe For although no other Terrours are sufficient to keep men in obedience but those of Hell and eternal Damnation because men may carry on their mischievous designs so secretly or with such a high hand as to escape punishment in this life yet it is not man but God that requireth obedience even to humane Laws under the Severest Sanctions of Eternal Death .. Object But what if the thing commanded be not good then we owe no Obedience for the Magistrate is no longer Gods Minister than he commands for God When he commands against God he commands without Authority and so we may disobey him without sin Answ There are but two Rules whereby we are to judge whether the Commands of our Superiours are good or not The first is the Law of God and when we make that our Rule we must be as sure that the Word of God condemns what the Magistrates command as we are sure that God commands us to obey our Magistrate And in all reason we should chuse what is our most plain and indispensable duty before that which is doubtful especially when the penalty of not obeying is no less than Damnation for that is the wages of sin or disobedience to Gods Law 2. A second Rule is the Laws of men which do bind the Conscience when the Command is not contrary to Gods Word So that the Case to be resolved is onely this What we must do when the Magistrate commands things which we judge not expedient In which case considering especially our circumstances the Laws established being such as we our selves have consented to it is too late for us to dispute the inexpediency of them for so there can never be an establishment it being impossible to make such Laws as may not be excepted against by some especially such as transgress the Laws In such cases therefore the Magistrate not the Subject is to expound the Law It is sufficient that the Laws have a tendencie to the publick and more general good though some private men may suffer in the Execution of them And when resisting those Laws which are made will do more hurt than good we ought to obey them though we suffer unjustly in so doing As Dr. Sanderson gives an instance in Souldiers who for their Cowardise or some other crime are adjudged to be punished in a way of Decimation i. e. every tenth man now although some of those that suffer may be guiltless and valiant men yet the private inconvenience must be endured rather than a publick mischief should be tolerated Of this the Learned Casuist speaks so largely and satisfactorily that I shall refer my Reader to his last Praelection p. 356. De Obligatione Conscientiae When we are commanded to do what we apprehend not to be for our good we must have a double consideration First to the person commanding who is Gods Minister and therefore may not be resisted though in the second place he abuse his power in commanding what is not good or lawful For if in this case we resist we usurp the Power and invade and destroy the Order and Government that God hath set over us If we might resist when we apprehend that we are commanded things against our Religion our Laws or Liberties then there could be no such thing as Rebellion and then there would not long be any such thing as Religion Libertie or Government in the world Doubtless the Apostle was sensible what kind of Governours were in Rome when he wrote his Epistle namely such as commanded for the most part things that were impious yet we read not of any resistance and doubtless those Primitive Christians best knew the Apostles mind and practised accordingly THE REASONS For not resisting Wicked Princes BEcause 1. He is Gods Minister For the Lords sake we must submit saith St. Peter and for Conscience sake i. e. for the Obligation that God hath laid upon us as he is Gods Minister This swayed with David He was the Lords Anointed and therefore he could not lift up a hand against him nor would St. Paul speak evil of any of the Rulers of the People For to speak evil of them is accounted as Blasphemy and Disobedience is as Sacriledge And as St. Paul A resisting of the Ordinance of God Obj. As he is Gods Minister for good we are ready to obey him but when he commands what is evil he is no longer Gods Minister but the Devils and we ought not to obey him Ans He is Gods Minister still as to his Office though in respect of the abuse of it by unrighteous Actions he do the work of the Devil And many times God placeth cruel and unrighteous Kings as a just Judgment over an unrighteous people
this Recognition declare so often as he doth particularly in p. 198. that the Succession of the Crown is the right of the whole Community their appointment their constitution and creature in Parliament Did he never read what is said by Grotius de Jure belli He says If a Kingdom descend by Succession an Act of Alienation is in itself null l. 1. c. 4. s 9. Which agrees with what Bishop Sanderson delivered before And Mr. Hunt himself says Grotius is more than ten witnesses and if you add the Bishops I think them of more value than a hundred In quâ tandem Civitate Catilina arbitraris te vivere saith Cicero you that make Hue and cry after such as write for Religion and Loyalty as if they were ready to banish themselves or prove felo's de se consider I pray under what Government you are and though you may escape the Magistrates wrath yet you ought to be solicitous 〈◊〉 you may escape the wrath of God to which you have made your self obnoxious I have but one Remark more on Mr. Hunt which is that he hath consulted another famous Author one Mr. Thomas White who being a Romish Emissary made it his business to continue our distractions This man wrote a Book entituled The Grounds of Obedience and Government And his Motto is Salus Populi Suprema Lex esto whereof I have given you the genuine sence already Now among many other Notes transcribed by Mr. Hunt from this Jesuitical Writer p. 158. he comes to answer the Objections of Divines concerning the Authoritie of Princes and non-resistance Vp steps the Divine saith he to preach us out of Scripture the Dutie we owe to Kings no less than Death and Damnation being the guerdons of Disobedience and Rebellion And p. 159. They will speak Reason too telling us that God by nature is high Lord and Master of all That whoever is in power receiveth his right from him That Obedience consists in doing the Will of him that commandeth and conclude that his Will ought to be obeyed till God taketh away the Obligation i. e. till he who is to be obeyed himself releaseth the Right Besides p. 160. They alledge that God by his special command transferred the Kingdom from Saul to David from Rehoboam to Jeroboam So that in fine all that is brought out of Scripture falleth short of proving that no time can make void the right of a King once given him by the hand of God Now mark what Mr. White says to overthrow the sense of these Scriptures The reason says he of THIS WEAK WAY OF ALLEADGING SCRIPTVRE is that when they read that God commandeth or doth this they look not into Nature to know what this Commanding or Doing is but presently imagine God commands it by express and direct words and doth it by an immediate position of the things said to be done whereas in Nature the Commands are nothing but the natural Light God hath bestowed on Mankind and which is therefore frequently called the Law of Nature Likewise Gods doing a thing is many times onely the course of natural second Causes to which because God gives the Direction and Motion he both doth and is said to do all that is done by them Now to the same end viz. to prove that Kingly Government is not from God but the People and therefore may be altered and resisted and in the same words for the most part doth Mr. Hunt deliver this black invention of Mr. White p. 144. The nature of Government and its Original hath been prejudiced by men that understand nothing but words and Grammar-divines that without contemplating Gods Attributes or the Nature of man or the reasonableness of moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sence of Scripture and infer that Soveraign Power is not of Humane Institution but of Divine Appointment because they find it there written That by him Kings reign Imagining that when the Scripture saith God commands or doth this that God commanded it by express words or doth it by an immediate position of the thing done whereas in nature his Commands are nothing but the natural Light God hath bestowed on Mankind Likewise Gods doing a thing is onely the course of natural and second Causes to which because God gives Direction and Motion he doth both and is said to do all that is done Likewise Gods doing a thing is onely the course of natural and second Causes to which because God gives the Direction or Motion he doth both and is said to do all that is done All this is verbatim Mr. White So is his Raillerie in the same Phrase to bring an Odium on Divines that would prove Government out of the Scripture White calls them Grammar-Divines Verbal and wind-blown Divines p. 162. And Mr. Hunt calls them Men that understand nothing but Words and Grammar-divines Who saith Mr. White without Logick Philosophie or Morality undertake to be Interpreters of the Sacred Bible Who saith Mr. Hunt without contemplating Gods Attributes or the Nature of man or the Reasonableness of Moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sense of the Scripture It is not strange to me having read a Defiance to the Royal Family to read the like against the Clergie But that the Scripture also should suffer and the uncertain and mutable Traditions and Effects of natural Causes be made equivalent with the immediate Commands of God in the Scripture though it be no new thing among Jesuits yet a true Protestant should abhor it The man is so angry that he hath done the ungrateful Bishops any right that he will have satisfaction right or wrong from the rest of the Clergie And though he call the younger sort onely Coxcombs yet his design is to bring the whole Clergy into contempt But any young Divine may draw such Conclusions out of the Premises as might exclude him out of the Society of all good and learned men 1. That to conclude from the sence of Scripture is a weak way of Arguing In this Mr. White and Mr. Hunt consent 2. That non obstante what the Scripture says of Divine Right of Soveraign Power it is not of Divine but Humane Institution 3. That Providence and the Effects of second Causes being influenced by God are of equal Authority with the Precepts enjoyned by the Word of God 4. That the Soveraign Power being but of Humane Institution may be resisted and is alterable 5. That they who mock the Messengers of God do go on to despise the Word of God and abuse his Prophets a sin which often stirs up the Wrath of God so as there is NO REMEDY And this I observe in the behalf of the abused Clergie 6. That having cast off our Loyaltie to our Governours and their Laws puts us in a fair way to cast off the Soveraignty of God and his Laws 7. That the worst of Papists and their most Atheistical Arguments are made use of by some that call themselves true Protestants against the express