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
his People Therefore we must take away all pretences of the lawfulness of Resistance or we must grant All pretences to be lawful that the People shall judge so to be Therefore the Scripture hath forbidden resistance in any case as our Law grounded on Scripture and Reason hath also done on any pretence whatsoever It had been enough to oppose Bishop Vsher's sole Judgment against our Author's Bishop Vsher of the power of Princes p. 214. The patience of the Saints was not onely seen in the Primitive Persecutions but continued as well under the Arian Emperours who retaining the name of Christians did endeavour with all their power to advance that damnable Heresie but also under Julian himself who utterly revolted from the very profession of the Name of Christ. Sr. Augustine observed the same on Psal 124. Julian was an Infidel an Apostate and Idolater yet Milites Christiani servierunt Imperatori Insideli Christian Souldiers served this Heathen Emperour When they came to the Cause of Christ they would acknowledge no Lord but him in Heaven but when he said Go forth to fight Invade such a Nation they presently obeyed They were subject to their Temporal Lord for his sake that was their Eternal Lord. The Arian Persecution by Constantius who had also Apostatized from the true Faith was as violent and of much longer continuance than that of Julian yet though the Christians had then as you pretend the Laws on their side they made no resistance I am constrained to repeat this again because I meet with a contrary Assertion in Mr. Hunt p. 153. I must remember him saith he out of Socrates Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 38. when the Souldiers of the Arian Emperour Constantius were by his command sent to enforce them to become Arians they took Arms in defence of their Religion Where I perceive as great a Lawyer as Mr. Hunt is he hath taken honest John Milton into his Consult who says Chap. 44. of the Primitive Christians Idem bellum Constantio indixerunt quantum in se erat Imperio vita spoliarunt That they waged War with Constantius and as much as in them lay spoiled him of his Life and Empire This being said by Milton how notoriously false soever Mr. Hunt is ready to assert the truth of it and makes an offer of as good Authoritie for it as ever Milton did for the Kings Condemnation as will appear by the History This passage refers us to a horrible Relation of the Arian Persecution acted by Macedonius who procured Edicts from that Emperour to force the Christians to the Arian infidelity The History begins chap. 27. Macedonius after the death of Paul Bishop of Constantinople who was banished first and then slain in exile by the Arians Athanasius hardly escaping them enters on those Churches who having great power with the Emperour stirred up as great Wars and Cruelties between the Christians themselves as any that were acted by the Tyrants and he got his impious actings to be confirmed by the Emperours Edicts Presently he proclaims the Edicts in all the Cities and the Souldiers are enjoyned to assist him The Orthodox are banished not onely from their Churches but their Cities Then they constrain the people against their wills to communicate with the Arians and used as great violence as ever any of those used that forced the Christians to the worshipping of Idols applying Whips Tortures and all kind of Cruelties Some were Sequestred of all their Goods others Banished many died under their Torments and those that were to be Banished were slain in the way These Cruelties were practised throughout all the Cities of the East-part of the Empire especially at Constantinople This Persecution when Macedonius was made Bishop was increased more than before of which Socrates in chap. 38 gives a fuller relation p. 142 Edit Valesii That he then persecuted not onely Catholicks but the Novatians also who agreed with the Catholicks in the Consubstantiality Both were oppressed with intolerable mischiefs Agellius the Bishop of the Novatians is forced to flee but many eminent for their piety were apprehended and tormented for refusing to communicate with them and after other Tortures they gagg'd their Moueths with Wood and forced their Sacrament into them which was to those good men the greatest torment of all They also forced the Women and Children to receive their Baptism If any resisted they used Whips Bonds Imprisonment and other cruelties of which it shall suffice to relate one or two instances leaving the Auditors to judge by them of the inhumane actings of Macedonius and his Party Such Women as would not communicate with them they first squeezed their Breasts in a Box and then cut them off some with Iron and others with Causticks of scalding Eggs. A new kind of torment never used by the Heathen against us Christians was invented by these who professed Christianity These things I am informed of saith Socrates by Auxanontes a very old man a Presbyter of the Novatian Church who before he was made Presbyter endured many indignities being cast into Prison with one Alexander a Paphlagonian and beaten with many stripes whereof this Alexander died in prison but Auxanontes lived to endure more torments I have not time to translate the entire History which may be read in that Chapter I shall therefore come to that part of it related to by Mr. Hunt which is thus Macedonius hearing that in the Province of Paphlagonia especially at Mantinium there were such a multitude of Novatians as could not be expelled by the Arian Ecclesiasticks procures four Companies of Souldiers to force them to turn Arians They in defence of their Sect armed themselves with despair as with Weapons and gathering together in a Body with Hooks and Hatchets and what Weapons were at hand met the Souldiers in which scuffle many of the Paphlagonians and neer all the Souldiers were slain This I heard saith Socrates from a Paphlagonian that was in the Fight And he adds that the Emperour himself was offended with Macedonius for this action I should indeed have wondered at the confidence of Mr. Hunt in accusing from this story the Orthodox for arming themselves in defence of their Profession when it was onely a rout of Novatians that were by the Arian crueltie driven to despair that defended themselves against them But I am so transported at another saying of his that I have no admiration of any thing else how false or pernicious soever You shall find it p. 192. of his Treatise concerning the Succession where having suggested that if the D. be not excluded he doth certainly make us miserable and mincing the matter a little saying We exclude onely his Person not his Posteritie he is not afraid to add And we will not entail a War upon the Nation though for the Sake and Interest of the glorious Familie of the STVARTS The speech is so heinous that it cannot admit any aggravation Well may such men as he and his Plagiary seek to
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
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
Commands of God for obedience to the Higher Powers From all which Premises I shall onely conclude as to my self That it is much more desirable to perish by the hands of a known Enemie to God and the true Religion than to out-live that Religion and by a successful resistance against the Ordinance of God to live in the enjoyment of Temporal wealth and Honours and to deserve this Epitaph to be engraved on my Tomb. Plorate quotquot estis Pacis vitaeque placidae Pertaesi Conservator optimi Populi pessimus Legum Libertatis Religionis Protector Post Oliverum Primus nulli Secundus Deperditae Respublicae Instaurator Regum timendorum tremendus Judex Regiae Stirpis Extirpator Perfidus Juris Consultorum Doctor Ignoramus Qui Consentientibus dissentit ab omnibus Orthodoxis Antiquis Modernis Qui Dissentientibus consentit omnibus Papistis Anabaptistis Regicidis Scrutator Majestatis oppressus à Gloria Inglorius obiit OF Passive Obedience IT is a very hard Case that when the Scripture injoyns such as are of the Ministry in this Nation to put the people in mind to be subject to Principalities and powers and the Canons of the Church to which we have subscribed oblige us four times in the year at least to manifest open and declare in our Sermons and Lectures That the Kings power within his Majesties Realms c. is the highest power under God to whom all men born within the same do by Gods Laws owe most Loyaltie and Obedience afore and above all Powers and Potentates on Earth that for so doing we should be reproached as Time-servers and such as advance an Arbitrarie power and that such Doctrine is calculated and fitted on purpose for the use of a Popish Successour and to make us an easier prey to the bloudie Papists p. 89. And all this by those men who are equally obliged by Oaths and Subscriptions to do the same as we Of these things the Author accuseth a learned Doctor who had affirmed in a Sermon I suppose and he quotes p. 8. That the Gospel doth not prescribe any remedie but flight against the Persecutions of the lawful Magistrate allowing no other means when we cannot escape between denying and dying for the Faith This is in p. 80. and p. 85. for saying That the Gospel by its own confession is a suffering Doctrine and so far from being prejudicial to Caesars authoritie that it makes him the Minister of God and commands all its Professors to give him and all that are in authoritie under him their dues and rather die than resist them by force Now to remove the prejudice of such as are of our Author's Judgment I shall first propose the Judgment of Mr. Baxter as a preparative to the more candid entertainment of what I shall propound concerning Passive Obedience P. 24 of the 4th part of Christian Directorie Direct 31. Resist not where you cannot obey and let no appearance of probable good that may come to your selves or to the Church by any unlawful means as Treason Sedition or Rebellion ever tempt you to it for evil must not be done that good may come by it But Sect. 61. it is objected If we must let Rulers destroy us at their pleasure the Gospel will be rooted out of the Earth When they know we hold it unlawful to resist them they will be emboldened to destroy us and sport themselves in our bloud as the Papists did by the poor Albigenses Answ All this were something if there were no God that can easilier restrain and destroy them at pleasure than they can injure or destroy you If God be engaged to protect you and hath told you that the hairs of your head are numbered and more regardeth his Honour Gospel and Church than you do and accounteth his Servants as the Apple of his eye and hath promised to hear them and avenge them speedily then it is but Atheistical distrust of God to save your self by sinful means as if God could not or would not do it Thus he that saveth his life shall lose it This Mr. Baxter speaks against Rebellion and unlawful Arms and Acts. To this purpose he quotes Grotius de Imperio p. 210. answering the like Objection viz. Mutato Regis Animo Religio Mutabitur That if the King change his mind the Religion will be changed also Answ In this case the onely remedie is in the providence of God who hath the hearts of all men in his hand but especially the Kings God worketh his ends both by good and evil Kings sometime a calm sometime a storm is most profitable to the Church If the King be of a perverse and corrupt Judgment it will be worse for him than for the Church But all this you will say is against unlawful acts and means which they that have the Laws on their side cannot be said to use To this Mr. Baxter answers p. 26. What power the Laws have they have it by the Kings Consent and Act. And it is strange impudencie to pretend that his own Laws are against him If any misinterpret them he may be confuted I suppose Mr. Baxter means by some other method than that of arguing as St. Augustine advised in the like case The Law and Ordinance of Government and especially of Monarchie is founded on the Law of God and Nature and no positive Laws or condescentions of Governours can make void the Law of God For though a righteous Prince will not violate those Laws which he hath consented to yet if he should it will not justifie those Subjects that shall violate the Law of God and Nature in resisting and rising up against him in Rebellion which would as it were argue great ingratitude to them who by Acts of Grace have obliged themselves for as St. Augustine observes our Prince like God himself becomes a Debtor to man Non aliquid à nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis largiendo Not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all good things to us So it is a certain way to bring us all to Confusion if the King should be judged as a Criminal upon every transgression of the Law And I would ask those who would bind their Kings in such Fetters By what authoritie they would proceed against him and judge him would they erect another High Court of Justice or bring him from his Throne to the Block Would they arm the people again on pretence of fighting for their Laws and Liberties The end of those things we have seen to be the death of a most righteous Prince and the general destruction of the Subjects Wherefore I commend to you that of your Bracton Omnem esse sub Rege ipsum sub nullo fed tantum sub Deo And if he contradict himself in this the suffrage of Nature and the Laws of all well-governed Nations will condemn him which agree in this That Principi non est Lex posita there is no Law above the Prince that makes the Law and by
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
Testimony of Athanasius for this place being an account of the Publick Prayers made by himself for Constantius the Emperour though he had remeved him from his Pastoral charge In his Apologie to Constantius Witness hereof saith he is first the Lord who heard us and granted unto you the intire Empire which was left unto you by your Ancestors then those who at that time were present for the words I used were these onely Let us pray for the welfare of the most religious Emperour Constantius and the whole People with one voice cried presently O Christ be favourable to Constantius and so continued praying a long time And then he concludes Let truth take place with you and leave not the whole Church under a suspition as though such things as tended to the death of Constans should be thought on or written by Christians and especially by Bishops Athanasius was also accused for celebrating Publick Prayers in the Church of Alexandria which he confesseth he did being urged thereto by the importunity of the People that they might pray for the welfare of the Emperour in that Church which he himself had builded being ready otherwise to go out of the City and to assemble themselves in the Desarts But thus he expostulates with the Emperour And you O King most beloved of God where would you have had the People stretch out their hands and pray for you there where the Pagans did pass by or in the place which bore your name and which from the first foundation thereof all men did call a Church And then he prays thus for the Emperour O Lord Christ who art indeed King of kings the onely begotten Son of God the Word and Wisdom of the Father because the People have implored thy goodness and by thee called upon thy Father who is God over all for the welfare of thy most religious servant Constantius I am now accused And then speaking to the Emperour You do not forbid but are willing that all men should pray knowing that this is the Prayer of all that you may live in safetie and continually reign in peace And as for you O Emperour beloved of God many years I pray you may live and accomplish the Dedication of this Church for those Prayers that are made therein for your welfare do no way hinder the solemnitie of the Dedication And whereas Athanasius was accused also for not obeying the Emperours Command to depart from Alexandria he says I do not oppose the Command of your Majestie God forbid I am not such a man as would oppose the very Treasurer of the Citie much less so great an Emperour I was not so mad as to oppose such a Command of yours I neither did oppose it nor will enter into Alexandria until you of your humanitie be pleased I shall so do If old Gregory was of another mind it was but one Doctors Opinion And I think our Author in the same case is a Dissenter from all Christian Divines as well as from the Church of England and from Mr. Baxter too who saies that hurtful prayers and desires are seldom from God and he speaks it in the very case of Julian p. 17. of his Direct part 4. I shall here add the example of that Legion which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Thundring Legion consisting of 6666 Christians under marcus Aurelius of whom Zephiline speaks thus The Emperours Army being in great distress for want of water and being compassed about by their Adversaries the Praefect of the Praetorians told Marcus That there was nothing which those Christians could not obtain by their Prayers Marcus therefore desired the Praefect that he would intreat them to pray unto their God which they had no sooner done but the Lord by thunder and lightning discomfited their enemies and with seasonable showers refreshed the whole Army which otherwise might have perished St. Ambrose was another of those Lachrymists which our Author derides he lived under Valentinian the younger another Arian Emperour and yet as Ruffinus says of him Hist Eccless l. 2. c. 26. he did not defend himself by his hand or weapon but with fastings and continual watchings and remaining under Gods Altar by his Prayers prevailed with God to be a Defender both of him and his Church I will give you St Ambrose his own words to his Church at Millain I will never forsake you willingly being constrained I know not how to make opposition Dolere potero potero flere potero gemere adversus arma Milites Gothos Lachrymae meae arma sunt talia enim munimenta sunt Sacerdotis aliter NEC DEBEO NEC POSSUM RESISTERE I can sorrow I can weep I can sigh against Arms Souldiers and Goths Tears are my weapons for such is the Munition of a Priest in any other manner I OVGHT NOT I CANNOT RESIST And his People were much of the same mind as he describes it Epist. 33. or as in some Editions the 13. Ad Marcellinam What could have been better spoken by Christian men than that which the Holy Ghost spake in you this day Rogamus Auguste non pugnamus We entreat O Emperour we fight not we are not afraid yet we entreat This saith St. Ambrose doth become Christians that both the tranquillity of peace be desired by them and their constancie in faith and truth should not be deserted no not with the peril of death And in his Tract de Renovatione fidelium Laude magis scribendum est non tam male facere non posse quam nolle whereof St. Peter told us the sence long before 1 Pet. 2.19 This is thank-worthie to God if a man endure grief suffering wrongfully And that man doth certainly suffer wrongfully that hath the Laws of God and man on his side But there is no Law of God for resistance of a lawful Magistrate The Apostle did not calculate his Doctrine for the three first Centuries under Heathen and that it should expire under Christian Magistrates the Spirit of God foresaw that Kings should be nursing Fathers to his Church and made good Laws for the securitie thereof but he never meant that Princes should be resisted though in some things they should act contrary to those Laws So that when our Author demands by what Law we must die p. 81. and answers Not by the Law of God for being of that Religion which he approves I answer Yes 1. By the Law of God rather than make resistance that we may bear testimony to that Law by suffering of death for our Religion rather than to violate it by our Rebellion 2. By the Laws of our Country too for though by the favour of Christian Princes many good Laws are made for obedient Subjects which the Prince may not violate without his great sin against God yet hath the Supreme Authority of the Land provided especially for the security of the Prince who is a Common good We see how in Nature light things do sometimes descend and things that are heavie
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
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
call the King to an account the Estate is Democratical if the Peers it is Aristocratical but if indeed it be Monarchical neither nor both can judge their Prince In the first Homily against Rebellion p. 1. our Church says that in reading of the Holy Scriptures we shall find in very many places as well of the Old Testament as the New That Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do reign by Gods Ordinance and that Subjects are bound to obey them The Augustan Confession Article 16. Christians must necessarily obey the present Magistrates and Laws except when they command to sin French Confession Article 11. We ought to obey Laws and Statures pay Tribute and bear other burdens of Subjection and undergo the Yoke with a good will although the Magistrates should be Infidels so that Gods soveraign Authoritie remains inviolate The Belgick Confession All men of what dignitie qualitie or state soever they be must subject themselves unto the lawful Magistrates pay them Imposts and Tributes and please and obey them in all things not repugnant to the Word of God Also pray for them that God would be pleased to direct them in all their actions that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life under them in all pietie and honestie The Helvetick Confession Let all Subjects honour and reverence the Magistrate as the Minister of God Let them love and assist him and pray for him as their Father let them obey him in all his just and equitable Commands and pay all Imposts Tributes and other Dues faithfully and willingly And in case of War let them also lay down their lives and spill their bloud for the good of the Publick and of the Magistrate willingly vailiantly and cheerfully For he that opposeth himself to the Magistrate provoketh the heavie wrath of God upon himself The Bohemian Confession Let every one yield subjection in all things not contrarie to God to the Higher Powers and their Officers whether good or bad The Saxonick Confession The more a Christian is sincere in Faith the more he ought to subject himself to the publick Laws But I shall end where I began with the Doctrine of our Martyrs and Confessors who sealed with their bloud the Truths that they published with their Pens for whom in vain do we build and garnish Monuments of Fame to their memories while we are Apostates from their Doctrine and Practice The first Reformers of our Religion in the Institution of a Christian man on the Fifth Commandment say That Subjects be bound not to withdraw their Fealtie Truth Love and Obedience from their prince FOR ANY CAVSE WHATSOEVER IT BE ne for any cause may they conspire against his person ne do any thing towards the hinderance or hurt thereof or of his estate And by his Commandment they are bound to obey all the Laws Proclamations Precepts and Commandments made by their Princes and Governours except they be against the Commandment of God And likewise they be bound to obey all such as are in Authoritie under their Prince as far as he will have them obeyed They must also give unto their Prince aid help and assistance whensoever he shall require the same either for suretie preservation or maintenance of his Person and Estate or of the Realm or of the defence of any of the same against all persons And there be many examples in Scripture of the vengeance of God that hath fallen upon RVLERS and such as have been disobedient to their Princes But one principal example to be noted is of the Rebellion of Core Dathan and Abiram made against their Governours Moses and Aaron For punishment of which Rebels God not onely caused the Earth to open and to swallow them down and a great number of other people with them with their houses and all their substance but caused also a fire to descend from Heaven and to burn up two hundred and fiftie Captains which conspired with them in the Rebellion And again on the Sixth Commandment No Subjects may draw their Sword against their Prince for what cause soever it be nor against any others saving for lawful defence without their Princes license And it is their dutie to draw their Swords for the defence of their Prince and Realm whensoever the Prince shall command And although Princes which be the chief and supreme Heads of Realms do otherwise than they ought yet God hath assigned no Judges over them in this world but will have the judgment of them reserved to himself Sir John Cheek who was Tutor to King Edword the Sixth and a person of great Learning and Integrity in his Book called The true Subject to the Rebel speaks to this purpose If you were offered persecution for Religion you ought to fly for it and yet you intend to fight If you would stand in the truth you ought to suffer like Martyrs and you would slay like Tyrants Thus for Religion you keep no Religion and neither will follow the Council of Christ nor the Constancy of Martyrs And then asking the people why they should not like that Religion which Gods word established the Primitive Church authorized and the whole consent of the Parliament confirmed and his Majesty had set forth he says Dare you Commons take upon you more Learning than the Chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realm have I suppose that the Author of Julians Life might transcribe that Act of Queen Mary above-mentioned out of Mr. Prynnes second part of the Loyalty of pious Christians c. where we have it printed at large p. 65. from whence he might very honestly have told us Mr. Prynnes Judgment of such Prayers as were made against the Queen who p. 64. says That Queen Maries zealous Protestant Bishops Ministers and Subjects likewise made constant prayers for her But some over-zealous Anabaptistical Fanaticks using some unchristian expressions in their prayers against her That God would cut her off and shorten her daies occasioned this special Act against such prayers And having repeated the Act he adds p. 66. These prayers were much against and direstly contrary to the Judgment of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Farrer Bishop Hooper Rowland Taylor John Philpot John Bradford Edward Crome John Rogers Laurence Sanders Edward Laurence Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon and others of our Godly Protestant Bishops and Ministers who soon after suffered as Martyrs They in their Letter May 8. 1554. professing that as Obedient Subjects we shall behave our selves towards Queen Mary and all that be in authority and not cease to pray to God for them that he would govern them all generally and particularly with the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace and so we heartily desire and humbly pray all men to do in no point consenting to any kind of Rebellion or Sedition against our Soveraign Lady the Queens Highness but where they cannot obey but they must disobey God there to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer as well what the will and pleasure
the Professors of the true Religion again as if they had once done it already to Slaughters Fire Faggots Tortures Inquisitions and Massacres When the Bishops and Loyal partie were they who suffer'd these or as great tortures as these for their Religion and Loyaltie from the irreligious and Rebelpartie But to undeceive the multitude let them consider by what arts a new War is contrived As 1. By slandering all such as oppose the Association and popular torrent of Sedition and Rebellion as p. 27. of Preface that the number of Addressers may be reduced to the Duke's Pensioners and Creatures That the Addresses have been obtained by application and the design was to make voices for the discontinuance of Parliaments and for a Popish Successor That such as write for the established Government and Religion are a hired sort of Scaramouchy Zanies Merry Andrews and Jack Puddings P. 12. and impeacheth a Secretary of State as a Traytor not considering that one such as John Milton is the chief Engineer and encourager of all Rebellion and Treason 2. By divulging abroad p. 22. That the Nation begins to grow impatient by the delays of publick justice against the Popish Plot though it be well known at whose door that lies That the dissolution of Parliaments gives us cause to fear that the King hath no more business for Parliaments ibid. and p. 17. 3. By animating the multitude to perplex his Majesty with new Addresses telling them p. 30. of Preface So strong is the tye of duty upon him from his Office to prevent publick Calamities as no respect whatsoever no not of the Right Line can discharge nor will he himself ever think if DVLY ADDRESSED that it can And p. 34. At this time if ever the APPLICATIONS of an Active Prudence are required from all honest men And he himself hath given them a Precedent in that Application which he intended it seems for the Seditious rabble We will not entail a War upon the Nation no not for the sake and interest of the Glorious Family of the STUARTS 4. By acquainting the Malecontents that their number is four fifths of the Nation who are such as love and adhere to our Government and Religion though they are rendred suspected of destroying again the English Monarch and the Protestant Religion p. 10. of Postscript And therefore he doth but profane the Name of God p. 95. when he says God be thanked they the Dissenters who are imagined very numerous neither make our Grand-Jury-men nor the Common-halls of the City for choosing the Lord Mayors or Sheriffs 5. By Reprinting such Books as were written in defence of the late War and improving the Arguments for that Rebellion 6. By his pleading for Comprehension and Indulgence which p. 98. he says about ten years since was designed to slight the Churches Works and demolish her by a general Indulgence and Toleration and now they intend to destroy her Garison those that can and will defend her against Popery 7. By publishing it as an undoubted truth and evident in it self That the Succession to the Crown is the people Rights p. 201. 8. By making large Apologies in behalf of those men of whom he speaks p. 96. What animations did their people receive to defie the Church and her Authoritie when their Preachers despised Fines and Imprisonment to their seeming out of pure zeal against her Order And yet he adds It is well know several of them were in Pension and no men have been better received by the Duke than J. J. J. O. E. B. and W. P. c. Ringleaders of the Separation And again p. 98. Consider how the Church of England is used which is truly the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion And it is a pitiful evasion to say that these Fanaticks are acted by the Papists or if it were true they were much more intolerable for that reason and therefore I do with all my heart agree to your Method for rooting out the Popish Plot prescribed p. 99. By suppressing that contumacie that is grown so rife in the Dissenters against the Church of England by putting the revilers of her Establishment and Order under the severest penalties But then Caveat Author To conclude we are certainly as Mr. Hunt calls us a foolish people and unwise a stupid and perverse Generation if we shall reject that gracious and gentle Government whereby God hath hitherto led and preserved us a flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron and exchange for a Saturn or a Moloch that will devour their own Children and make them pass through the fire at their pleasure But From all such Men-monsters from all Sedition Perjurie Conspiracie and Rebellion from all false Doctrine Heresie and Schism from hardness of Heart and contempt of thy Word and Commandments Good Lord deliver us THE Life of Julian INLARGED His Birth and Parentage JVLIAN was Born at Bizantium now called Constantinople His Fathers Name was Constantius Brother to Constantine the Great His Mothers Name was Basilina of a very ancient and Noble Family among the Romans Now although the Empire was intirely devolved on Constantius the Second Son of Constantine his two Brothers Constantine and Constans being dead yet for securing the Empire to himself having a jealous Spirit he contrived the death of his nearest Kindred viz. Constantius Father of our Julian Anniballianus and Dalmatius Caesar which our Author would impute to the outrages of the Souldiery forgetting what he tells his Reader p. 29. That the slaughter of his Kindred was one of those three things whereof Constantius repented him at his death For which he rightly quoteth Naz. Orat. in laudem Athanasii p. 389. How Julian and Gallus his Elder Brother escaped that Massacre our Author leaves uncertain for having said that Gallus being very sick the Souldiers concluded that the disease would kill him and save them the labour and that they thought not Julian dangerous being but five years old yet he would have it attributed to Constantius the Emperor who for ought we read gave no Commission to spare them and had they then dyed would doubtless have found cause to repent of their deaths as well as of the rest of his Kindred That Constantius shewed kindness to his two Cousins after the Death of their Father and Vnkles was no more than Nature and especially the Religion he professed required of him nor could all his kindness to the Children expiate his Cruelty to their Father But that he should cause Gallus to be slain who is noted p. 3. to have been sincerely pious and that after he had given him his * Constantina Sister in Marriage and declared him Caesar and found him a Man of Personal valour and good Conduct and Success I may say of it as our Author doth it was a rash act and yet if it be true that he designed to Invade the Empire not content with the Title and Authority of Caesar it was more excusable than the Death of his other