Zachary did abselve the French from their Oath of Allegiance his reason is for Hottoman a French-man and a Lawyer denieth that Chilperick was deposed by the Popes authoritie or that his Kingdom was given to Pepin but that all this was transacted by the authoritie of the great Council of that Nation as appears by ancient Annals which shew that there was no need of absolving the Subjects from that Oath which also Pope Zachary utterly denied for in the French Histories it is recorded as Hottoman and Girardus witness That the French did from the beginning reserve to themselves a power as of chusing so of deposing their Kings and that they were not wont to swear any other Fidelitie to the Kings whom they created than that they would yield them Faith and Allegiance if their Kings did perform that which they also swore to do So that if the King by male-administration first broke his Oath there was no need of the Pope the perfidiousness of the King having absolved the subjects from their Oath Yet lest this Invention of Milton's own should not be of weight to clear his Holiness he brings the Popes infallible testimonie for himself Pope Zachary says he who you say did arrogate that authoritie to himself excuseth it and lays it on the People for the Popes words are these If the Prince be obnoxious to the People by whose beneficence he possesseth his Kingdom the People that make the King may depose him So that the result of all is the Pope and Fanatick are agreed in this Principle The Majestas realis is in the People as Bellarmine with Buchanan do assert and They that create the King may destroy him with the same breath How industrious this Mercenarie man is to vindicate the Pope whenas his own Creatures acknowledge that he was the Dux Gregis the grand Instrument of dethroning that King and sharing his Inheritance In a Dialogue between Theophilus a Christian and Philander a Jesuit Bishop Bilson p. 418. of Christian Subjection brings in Theophilus saying Your Law doth not stick to boast that Zacharias deposed Childerick King of France and placed Pepin in his room Philander answers And so he did Theoph. Who says so besides you Philand Platina saith Ejus authoritate regnum Franciae Pipino adjudicatur By Zachary 's authoritie the Kingdom of France was adjudged to Pepin And Frisingensis affirmeth that Pepin was absolved from the Oath of Allegiance by Pope Steven which he had given to Childerick and so were the rest of the Nobles of France and then the King being shaven and thrust into a Monasterie Pepin was anointed King which you think much the Pope should do in our days Theoph. Zachary was consulted with whether it might lawfully be done or no he did not openly intermeddle with the matter whatever his privie practices were though many of your Bishops and Monks to grace the Pope make it his onely act But hear Zachary 's own words when Volorade and Burchard were sent to understand his judgment I find saith he in the sacred storie of Divine Scripture that the people fell away from their wretchless and lascivious King that despised the Counsel of the Wise men of his Realm and created a sufficient man of themselves King This was likely the case of Jeroboam who had a special Warrant from God God himself allowing their doings All power and rule belongs to God Princes are his Ministers and therefore chosen for the people that they should follow the Will of God and not do what they list All that he hath as Power Glorie Riches Honour and Dignitie he receiveth of the People the People create the King and may when the cause requireth forsake the King It is therefore lawful for the Franks refusing this Monster Childerick to chuse one able in War and Peace by his wisdom to protect and keep in safetie their Wives Children Parents Goods and Lives This is the Popes Divinitie saith Bishop Bilson that Kings have their power of the People which the Scripture saith they have from God Now as to the Annals of France it is true that the Pope had not intirely grasped the power of deposing Princes in those days but made use of other Instruments yet this was done say the Annals Pontifice prius consulto as Sabellicus and the Gloss in verb. Deposuit i. e. deponentibus consensit The true reason was this Pepin was a man on whom the Pope relied to quell the Lombards and defeat the Grecians that he and Pepin might divide the Spoils of the West as it came to pass for the Emperour was turned out of Italy Now let the Reader judge how diligent an Advocate Milton is for the Pope that notwithstanding his own words advising it and the testimonie of his own creatures affirming it and the matter of fact and the event demonstrating it would yet excuse him from having a hand in deposing of that French King And is this a fit Guide for our Modern Writers Is it not possible as our Author says but to take many things from Doleman in the case of Succession and many more from Milton when you would irritate or defend the People of England in case of Resistance and Regicide Have the Boutefeus of this Age nothing to set the Nation into a flame but those Firebrands which were rak'd up in the Ashes of that prosligate Villain Milton who pleaded the Cause of the Pope Gratis and for money that of Good God! what a Spirit of Rebellion is spread over the Land when as it was observed by Dr. Heylen at the beginning of the last unnatural War No times were more full of Odious Pamphlets no Pamphlets more aplauded nor more dearly bought than such as do most deeply wound those Powers and Dignities to which the Law hath made us subject Methinks we are like the man in the Gospel Matth. 12.44 out of whom the unclean Spirit being cast out it walked up and down through drie places seeking rest and finding none then said he I will return to my house from whence I came out and finding it emptie swept and garnished he taketh with him seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first Deus avertat Omen I beg my Readers pardon that I may animadvert a little on these Libellers and acquaint them that to their Progenitors we owed the kindling fomenting and inflaming those late Wars that made us a confusion at home a scorn and a reproach abroad Prynne Burton and Bastwick were like so many Foxes let loose and encouraged like the Priests and Preco's of Mars to scatter Fire-brands through the Nation Nor would the times permit a little water to be sprinkled for the quenching of them but fed them with oyl The Laws were silenced and out-lawed then as they are now as if indeed we were inter Arma there wanted not scourges to punish them but an arm to inflict the legal
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
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
without breaking his Allegiance for bearing true Faith and Loyalty of life and limb or any way injuring the King for the King may be at Westminster when they are fighting against him in the Field And it is not Julian they resist but the Devil that is in him And yet I suppose that our Author as the Law requires hath declared his abhorrence of that traiterous Position of taking Arms by his authoritie against his person or against those that are commissionated by him But where shall we go to be resolved in this weighty Case shall we go to the Romish Casuists they are positively for killing the King Mariana and Bellarmine and many others own it in divers cases But we need not go so far our Author hath tanquam ex Tripode determined it in the Case of Julian that such a King is to be pursued as if he were a Midnight-Thief or a Highway Robber p. 73. and 't is as lawful to destroy him as for a hungrie Welsh man to eat up his Cheese and cry Chud eat meer an chad it p. 95. To this end Our Author quoteth Gregory calling on the Angels whose work it was to destroy the Tyrant who had not killed a Sihon King of the Amorites nor an Og the King of Basan but in so doing had killed the Dragon an Apostate the great Designer the common Enemy and Adversary of all with an c. p. 23. And again p. 61. If any one had killed Julian he was not to be blamed no but to be rewarded rather as one who shewed himself so courageous for God and for that Religion which he approves St. Chrysostom in his first Homily of David and Saul teacheth another Doctrine If we reverence and fear those Magistrates saith he that are elected by the King although they be wicked although they be Thieves and Robbers although they be unjust and whatever they be not despising them for their wickedness but standing in awe of them for the dignitie of him that did elect them much more ought we thus to do in the Case of God And Gregory Nazianzen speaks home to the Case in that 27 Oration p. 171. Continue faithful to your Kings but first of all to God and for him to them also to whom you have been committed by him And Elias Cretensis gives this Reason for it Because if ye fear God and studiously observe his Commandments you will be faithful also to your Kings for Gods sake Now Julian's Souldiers as our Author says p. 8. were men principl'd in the true Religion and therefore thought Julian stood in fear of them as he says yet they never did him hurt by Open Rebellion or Secret Conspiracies nor is our Author too old to learn of them P. 92. He sums up the strength of what hath been said in these Five PROPOSITIONS ANSWER 1. Christianitie destroys no mans Natural or Civil Rights but confirms them 1. Christianity obligeth us to prefer our Spiritual and Eternal Rights above our Temporal and Civil 2. All men have both a Natural and Civil Right and Property in their Lives till they have forfeited them by the Laws of their Country 2. Our Lives are to be parted with in obedience to God's Laws though not forfeited by the Laws of our Country 3. When the laws of God and of our Country interfere and it is made death by the Law of the Land to be a good Christian then we are to lay down our Lives for Christ sake This is the onely case wherein the Gospel requires Passive Obedience namely when the Laws are against a man And this was the Case of the first Christians 3. It is not the onely Case wherein the Gospel requires Passive Obedience when the Laws are against a man There was no Law of the Romans by which Christ might be put to death yet when he suffered he threatned not leaving us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.19 20 21. and hereunto we are called To what to suffer though wrongfully v. 19. and take it patiently for Conscience sake towards God 4. That killing of a man contrary to Law is Murder 4. If we suffer death wrongfully it is Martyrdom and acceptable to God though it be Murder in our Enemies 5. That every man is bound to prevent Murder as far as the Law allows and ought not to submit to be murdered if he can help it 5. We may so by our appeal to the Supreme Magistrate as St. Paul when he was like to be condemned contrary to Law appealed to Caesar having all the Law on his side Acts 25.8 Neither against the Law of the Jews nor against the Temple nor yet against Caesar have I offended yet doubtless if Caesar had condemned him he would have patiently submitted after the Example of his Master though he could have had Legions of Angels to defend him P. 93. Now I desire those men who of late have thundred in all publick places with the Thebaean Legion to keep that complete and admirable Example till they have got another Maximian and till that Maximian hath got authority at once to cut 6666 throats I think there was never more need than now to press that noble Example for though we have not a Maximian but another Constantine set over us no Julian that commands us to sacrifice to Idols but One that makes it his business that we should all with one consent worship God and our Saviour in the beauty of Holiness Though he have all the Laws of God and man to secure him from malitious and violent men yet how are the tongues of wicked men sharpned against him and all his Ministers in Church and State How are all those devilish arts of Calumny and Reproach the fears and jealousies of Arbitrary Power and Popery renewed which encouraged a Rebellious multitude to the cutting of the throats not of one Legion but of twenty at least and the cutting off the head of a most incomparable Prince too Would the Thebaean Legion that laid down their lives at the Command of a Maximian have murtered a word against so good a Governour And when the same things are attempted a second time shall we not bring forth the Thebaean Legion to withstand such impious practices and rise up in judgment against them who notwithstanding the Laws of God and our Country too would not onely decimate us but if it were in their power destroy us as Nero wisht that the Citizens of Rome had but one Neck that he might cut them all off at a stroke I would gladly add the consideration of the Thundering Legion to this of the Thebaean They by their Prayers obtained relief from Heaven and Victory too for the Army of a persecuting Heathen we are taught to pray for the Confusion of a Christian Prince But this shall suffice Under those cruel Emperours Dioclesian and Maximian that most illustrious example of Passive Obedience presenteth it self to our view which the Thebaean Legion shewed consisting of 6666
care of those who are put on an inevitable necessity of defending themselves c. How far a man that is assaulted and put on an inevitable necessity of defending himself against the injuries of private men is one thing and what he may do against his Prince of whom you seem to discourse is another In this case we may apply that in Rev. 13.10 He that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword This is the patience and faith of the Saints P. 11. This Doctrine of Passive Obedience you say quite alters the Oath of Allegiance which requires you to be obedient to all the Kings Majesties Laws Precepts and Process proceeding from the same I do not find those words in that Oath as set forth by King James but I find what you overlook viz. I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majestie his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the utmost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever And thus I find more particularly in a Declaration which I believe our Author hath subscribed thus amplified I do declare that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissionated by him P. 11. After a large Preface little to your purpose telling us That the Church of England reserves her Faith entire for the Canonical books of Scripture which I hope you also do and that she divides her Reverence between the Fathers and the first Reformers of this Church who partly were Martyrs that died for the Protestant Religion and partly Confessors that afterward setled it And now to the business How much the Fathers would have been for a Bill of Exclusion you say we have seen already No not one word of it from the beginning nor I believe any mention of it from one Argument tending to it to the end of the Book from any of the Fathers as will shortly appear But what say our Martyrs Confessors and Reformers First he tells us what some men would have perswaded King Edward to do if they could have had their wills confirmed by Act of Parliament They shewed what they would have done if they could saith our Author They never spake such bad English as our Author doth in his Taunton-Dean Proverb Chud eat more Cheese an chad it which being interpreted is We would rebel if we had power The Duke of Northumberland indeed did cause the Lady Jane Gray's Title to be proclaimed but here the Bishops must be the men that were chiefly engaged in that designe of Exclusion whereas I read not that any of them were ever consulted with nor ever declared any thing to that purpose but in their joynt and most solemn Writings enjoyn the clean contrary as shall now appear P. 12. The Bishops in Queen Elizabeth 's time to whom under God and that Queen we owe the settlement of our Church concurred to the making of that Statute which makes it High-Treason in her Reign and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels ever after in any wise to hold or affirm That an Act of Parliament is not of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and government thereof 13 Eliz. chap. 1. But our Author never considered the grounds and reasons of that Act Ex malis moribus bonae Leges it was the iniquity of those times and the traiterous practices of the Queen of Scots which gave occasion to that Statute for there were many Pamphlets written by Saunders and the Author of Doleman which deni'd the Title of Queen Elizabeth and proclaim'd her an Usurper and the Queen of Scots made actual claim to the Crown of England she assumed the Arms of England and other Regalia and by her Confederates endeavoured to raise a Rebellion and conspired against the life of the Queen for which causes she was condemned as may appear by her Sentence which was passed upon her viz. That divers things were compassed and imagined within this Kingdom of England with the privity of the said Queen who pretended a Title to the Crown of this Kingdom and which tended to the hurt death and destruction of the Royal Person of our Soveraign Queen Cambdens Eliz. p. 464. Leiden 1625. Such practices gave occasion to that Statute to prevent the Mischiefs that might befal Queen Elizabeth and the Nation And that Statute consists of many heads As first Whoever should compass imagine devise or intend the death or destruction or any bodily harm tending to death destruction or wounding of the Royal person of the Queen or deprive or depose her of or from the Stile Honour or Kingly name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm c. or leavy War against her Majesty within this Kingdom or without or move any Strangers to invade this Kingdom or Ireland c. or shall maliciously publish and declare by any printing writing word or sayings that our Soveraign Lady during her life is not or ought not to be Queen of this Realm c. or that any other person or persons ought of right to be King or Queen of the same or that our said Queen is a Heretick or Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or an Vsurper of the said Crown c. these shall he guilty of High-Treason Also if any after thirty days from the Session of this Parliament and in the life of our said Queen shall claim pretend declare or publish themselves or any other besides our said Queen to have Right or Title to have and enjoy the Crown of England or shall usurp the same or the Royal Stile Title or Dignity of the Crown or shall affirm that our said Queen hath not right to hold and enjoy the same such shall be utterly disabled during their natural lives onely to have or enjoy the Crown or Realm of England in Succession Inheritance or otherwise Then follows the Case of Succession That if any person shall hold or affirm that the Common Laws of this Realm not altered by Parliament ought not to direct the Right of this Crown or that our said Queen by the Authority of Parliament is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force c. as above Yet was not the Queen of Scots condemned upon the Statute of the 13 of Eliz. but on that made in the 27 of her Reign wherein it was provided That twenty four persons at least part being of the Privy Council and the rest Peers of the Realm should by the Queens Commission examine such as should make any open Rebellion or Invasion of this Realm or attempt to hurt the Queens person by or for any pretended Title to the Crown In which Commission I find no Bishop save the Archbishop who at first refused to act nor when the whole Parliament petitioned for the Execution do we find that the
will ascend against their natural propension for the preservation of the Universe and if private men do submit themselves to some Violencies and Injustice for the preservation of the publick Peace it is but their duty and if the Prince do invade our Rights that is no ground for us to invade his in whom the happiness of the whole Nation doth consist St. Bernard was another Lachrymist Epist 221. speaking to Lewis then King of France Whatever it pleaseth you to do concerning your Kingdom Crown and Soul we that are the Children of the Church cannot conceal the injuries done to our Mother we will stand and fight even to death for our Mother if need be but Armis quibus licet non scutis gladiis sed precibus fletibusque ad Deum with such Arms as are allowed us not with Sword and Buckler but with Prayers and Tears to God I could multiply many Testimonies in this kind nor can any other than such as our Author produceth of some private passionate and mistaken Christians be pretended to the contrary until such time as the Pope erected the Standard of Antichrist against Christian Kings which was after the time of Gregory the Great or until Presbyterie as a Reformado fought under the same Banner Now to say as you do in the close of this Chapter p. 55. That in that Age the best Prayers and Tears were those which did best execution upon an Apostate Emperour and contributed most to his destruction and again p. 96. I do not find among the Ancients one single wish for Julian 's Conversion but all for his down-right Destruction is a very unchristian insinuation especially for one who pretends to say the Prayer for the Royal Family as heartily as any man in the Preface P. 93. Our Author by way of Postscript tells us he hath many more exceptions against the Artillery of Prayers and Tears than he can stay to insist on The first is a great exception indeed which makes St. Gregory to overthrow all that our Author had quoted from him for St. Gregory p. 57. of the first Invective Eaton-edition says thus Julian was hindered by the goodness of God and the Tears of Christians which were shed in great plentie by many who had this onely remedie against the Persecutor Now it is well observed by our Author here are no Prayers mentioned none at all for his confusion no such Prayers as are no better than Treason by our Law p. 95. Secondly Gregory doth not tell us here that they had no Arms or Walls or that these Lachrymists cried CHVD EAT CHEESE AN CHAD IT but that they had this onely Remedie against the Persecutor i. e. as our Author says They had no other way to help themselves And though here be no Prayers mentioned yet in other places St. Gregory mentions Prayers and was as great a Lachrymist at Prayer as any P. 96. Our Author parallels these Prayers with some which he says were made Treason in Queen Mary 's days of which the Act says Anno 1. and 2. of Philip and Mary lib. 9. That some prayed that God would turn her heart from Idolatrie to the true Faith or else to shorten her days or take her quickly out of the way Though they had used such Prayers in secret they should methinks for their own sakes have for born them in their Conventicles where the Act says they were used and where as you would have it such murdering Prayers are too frequent in our Age. And I doubt whether God might not have rejected such Prayers with a Quis requisivit I believe verily it was never in our Saviour's mind when he bids us to pray for them that persecute us nor of his Apostle when he injoyns that Prayers and Supplications c. be made for Kings and all that are in Authoritie 1 Tim 2.1 And whereas that Act saith Such a Prayer was never heard or read to have been used by any good Christian man against any Prince though he were a Pagan you think you have given presidents for it in the case of Julian where the Christians prayed for his Destruction not his Conversion If as you say you pray as heartily for his R. H. as any man in the Collect for the Royal Family you cannot but mind his Conversion And no president that ever I heard of will warrant any other Prayers but to this effect ENDVE THEM WITH THY HOLY SPIRIT INRICH THEM WITH THY HEAVENLY GRACE PROSPER THEM WITH ALL HAPPINESS AND BRING THEM TO THINE EVERLASTING KINGDOM c. Here is nothing at all for Destruction but all for Conversion And though I know you are a daring man yet pray do not think of reforming the English Liturgie by your Julian nor Gregorian Account and teach us by your example to say our Prayers backward Gregory himself was so great a Lachrymist that our Author if he have any spark of Grace or intention to repent must needs weep with him and as he did recant that as publickly in other more serious Writings which he delivered in a fit of Passion or to shew his Rhetorick Gregory Nazianzen Orat. 17. p. 267. to the Citizens of Nazianzum that were in great fear by reason of the displeasure of their Praefect perswades them to make use of these weapons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ps 34.17 If thou turn to the Lord with mourning thou shalt be saved Ye see saith Gregory how Salvation is annexed to Mourning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing can come between your Prayers and the Blessings that you ask Doth the Spirit of God prescribe Mountebank-Receipts in the opinion of Gregory or ought not he to repent that calls them Mountebank-Receipts Then minding them of the instability of Humane Affairs and of the great benefit they may reap by their patience and submission to Gods Chastisements he adds Let us submit our selves to God to one another and to those who have the Government on Earth the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that St. Paul useth Rom. 13.5 To God in all things to each other in brotherly charitie and to our Governours for the sake of good order He adds it is a hainous and dangerous thing to exhaust the Clemencie of the Ruler by needing daily pardon Among other Laws of our Religion we have this given us by the Spirit of God who hath joyned that which we are able to do to that which is just and honest and hath established it by a most laudable Law That as Servants obey their Masters and Wives their Husbands and the Church Christ and Disciples their Pastors so we also are commanded to obey the higher Powers not onely for Wrath but for Conscience-sake as being bound to yield them Tribute nor let us give occasion by our wickedness to bring the Law into contempt and to provoke the revenging Sword but rather being made better through our fears endeavour to obtain praise from the higher Powers Decies repetite placebit I wish I could
say of our Author Et hinc illae Lacrymae but our Author hath other thoughts he thinks he hath much obliged the whole Nation turning their Mourning into Mirth and instructing them after the new fashions of Rome and France to exchange their Prayers and Tears for Fire and Sword for Gun-powder Pistols Poniards and therefore he first saies it was a Christian that killed Julian and from Zozomen that he was to be commended for the fact p. 60 61. Sigebert in his Chron. ad Anno 1088. tells us That this noveltie that I say not Heresie was not yet risen up in the world that the Priests of God who saith to a King Remove and maketh an Hypocrite to reign for the sins of a people should teach the people that they owe no subjection to wicked Kings and though they have given an Oath of Fidelity to them yet they owe no Fidelity to them nor are to be accounted perjured though they fight against them and that he that obeyeth the King shall be excommunicated and he that opposeth him shall be absolved from the guilt of Injustice and Perjurie So that although these Ancient Bishops were never in Scotland yet a man may think our Scotizing Presbyters have been at Rome whose Principles and Practices run such parallels as would sill a bigger Volume than I intend I shall onely shew that the Fathers give us a better Form of praying for Kings than your Directorie doth and the Law of God and Man enjoyns us Vniformitie in the use of it Tertul. Apol. c. 31 c. You that say we regard not the welfare of Caesar look into our Scriptures which command us to pray for our Enemies and Persecutors especially that we pray for Kings and all in authoritie For with them the whole Empire is shaken and we our selves as Members thereof are in hazard therefore we sacrifice for the safetie of the Emperour but to God and as God hath commanded with pure Prayer we pray for them and their Officers and Magistrates for faithful Armies seasonable Times and a quiet Age c. Having our arms spread to God let Hooks tear us Crosses hang us c. a praying Christian is prepared for any torment Come then you Praefects and force out our Souls praying for the Emperour Athenagoras in his Apologie to M. Aurelius We pray for your Empire that the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is most just may succeed the Father in the Kingdom and that your Empire may increase and flourish all being subject to you which would be much for our good that we leading a quiet and peaceable life may readily obey you in all your commands St. Cyprian to Demetrian We pray day and night propitiating and appeasing God for your peace and safetie and that the Reign of Valerian and Galien may continue unshaken So Eusebius observes l. 6. c. 11. Eccl. Hist of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria That he prayed for the same Emperours that their Kingdom might continue St. Sebastian lived under Dioclesian and Maximian and fought for them and prayed and assures us the rest of the Souldiers did the like The Priests of the Temples do possess your Majesties minds saith he with unjust surmises as if we the Christians were Enemies to the Commonwealth whereas by our Prayers the Commonwealth is bettered and increased for we cease not to pray for your Empire and the safetie of the Roman Armie See Surius on Jan. 20. Optatus l. 3. contra Parmen The Apostle teacheth us to pray for Kings and those that are in Authoritie etiamsi talis eslet Imperator qui Gentiliter viveret though he were a Pagan The Council of Paris 6th p. 534. of the Second Tome of the French Councils If Jeremy the Prophet admonished to pray for the Life of Nebuchadonozor that Idolatrous King how much more ought Supplications to be made for all Christian Kings Aphraates a zealous Christian being demanded by Valens an Arian Emperour whither he went I am going saith he to pray for your Empire Theophilus Bishop of Antioch I will honour the King not adoring him but praying for him So likewise in the Preamble of the Council of Agatha where the Catholick Bishops pray for an Arian King after this manner With Knees bended on the ground we pray for the continuance of your Kingdom and People that as you have granted us libertie to assemble our selves so God would extend your Kingdom with Happiness govern it with Justice and protect it with Virtue Prooemium Synodi Agathensis When by the instigation of Pope Paschal the Second the Emperour was unjustly deprived the Church of Liege blame the Pope for it saying If he were such as you describe him yet should we suffer him to reign over us because our Sins have deserved it and such a Prince ought not to be repelled by taking Arms against him but by pouring out our Prayers Resp Eccles Leoardensis ad Epistolam Pasch 2d So that whether our Author will or no it will still be owned as a Maxime among Christians Preces lachrymae sunt Arma Ecclesiae Prayers and Tears are the Churches Artillery and your new MILITIA will never prevail against this COMMISSION OF ARRAY An Answer to our Author's CHAP. VII Julian's Death THis Chapter is mostly the relation of two wonderful discoveries of Julian's Death the one of a Christian Schoolmaster for it seems the Christians at Antioch though it were the place that Julian most hated had Christian Masters to instruct their Children who being askt by Libanius the Sophister what the Carpenters Son was doing answered He is making a Coffin And yet perhaps he thought no more of Julian's death than Libanius whose expression of a Carpenters Son might give occasion to such a Reply Then for his other story of his double St. Julian Sabba for our Author hath Sainted him before and behind That he whilst he was praying should be in a Trance and cry out The wild Boar the Enemie of the Lords Vineyard hath suffered the punishment of his faults and lies dead I cannot admit such Miracles into my Creed 〈◊〉 but look on them no otherwise than such conjectures as Julian himself made when at the fall of the man that lifted him up to his horse he cried out He that raised me up is fallen and as the Historian says Constantius died at that very time But the merriest Scene is behind p. 58. That as soon as the Christians at Antioch heard of it they had publick joyful meetings and had not onely Dances in the Churches and Chappels of their Martyrs and then likely they had the musick of Organs or some other instruments too but likewise in the Theatre they proclaimed the Victorie of the Cross Such Thanksgivings we had in this Nation at the Butchery of the Royal Martyr But though they brought their Horse-guards into St. Pauls I do not find they danced in the Churches The manner of his death our Author reports p. 59. as an uncertainty but jumps in
Christian Shall the Priviledges which Christian Princes grant us be used as Weapons to fight and rebel against them Was it lawful for the Catholicks to rebel against Constantius when he was a declared Heretick and by great violence promoted that damnable Heresie as Bishop Vsher calls it suppressing and banishing the Orthodox and setting up the Arian Is it not said that if we suffer wrongfully i. e. against Law and Equity and take it patiently this is thank-worthy with God Can you without Sacriledge take away the Crowns from all the Martyrs that died ever since Julians time and tell us they died like Fools or mad men and were felo's de se for not selling their Lives at a dearer rate and like Sampson pull down the Pillars of the Empire with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I must perish let the whole world perish with me Or can you think that they perished in the next world for perishing in this when Christ tells them he that loseth his life shall save it If it be unjust in the Prince to deprive us of our Rights against the Law of the Land is it not much more so for us to deprive him of his against the Law of God as well as that of the Land too And have we not generally I mean the Clergie at least Subscribed That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever not of Religion nor of the Laws to take up Arms c. Non debet minor potestas irasci si major praelata sit The Laws of the Land must give place to the Law of God The contrary to all these are the monstrous Consequences of your new distinction that allows of Rebellion when we suppose the Laws of the Land to be on our side I say suppose them for Wars have been raised and maintained on such a false Supposition And if when the Prince declares that he doth and will govern by the known Laws we shall Remonstrate that he doth not and suggest our groundless and unreasonable Fears and Jealousies that he will not who shall be Judge in this Case Shall the people take the Sword in their hands to cut this Gordian-knot and cut us all in pieces We have God be thanked many good Laws for our security and a gracious Prince that hitherto hath and will govern by them but we have one great Law of God and another of the Land that though he should not yet we may not rebel That excessive commendation which our Author gives of Constantius makes me think he hath exceeded also in the dispraise of Julian p. 70. Never any man in this world set his heart so much upon any other thing as he did to see the Christians flourish and to have all the advantages of glorie and power And neither conquered Nations nor a well-govern'd Empire nor great Treasures nor excessive Glorie nor being King of Kings nor all other things which make up other mens notions of Happiness did delight him so much as to have the honour of bringing honour to the Christians and of leaving them established for ever in the possession of Power and Authoritie And yet as it was said of Naaman that mightie man of Valour But he was a Leper so it is recorded of Constantius he was an Arian and persecuted the Church of God I think I have said enough already to confute the insignificant Instances produced by our Author when I gave you the more sober sence of St. Gregorie himself of St. Basil Ambrose and Bernard all which lived when they had the Laws on their side and the best Religion in the world to defend and yet they durst not do it by the Sword if they could have done it for I shall not now question their power Tertullian did assert that of old and the Learned Hammond hath put the truth of it out of question in his Answer to Mr. Stephen Marshal But says our Author p. 70. For Julian who by his Baptism first and entring into Orders after and going to Church after that sufficiently engaged himself to maintain Christianitie to endeavour on the other hand to dispossess them of their Freehold is an insupportable injurie It was so indeed and I would have our Author consider whether for a man that hath been received into the Bosom of the Church and hath eaten of her Bread and approved of her Doctrine to become an Apostate from that holy Profession and expose that Church and Christianity it self to scorn and contempt be not to out-do Julian I shall desire the Reader patiently to look on while I remove those few Blockadoes which our Author hath laid in my way and then I shall attack that inchanted Castle wherein those two Giants think themselves so secure as to laugh at all opposition that can be made against them That of Juventinus and Maximus mentioned a third time in p. 72. is already level'd if there were a Sham-plot against them our Author seems to be one of their accusers for talking too boldly against the Emperour which they utterly denied A second Sham-plot was of Sacriledge p. 72. but I see no man concerned in that neither shall I fight with Shadows as our Author doth P. 73. Old Bracton is conjured up and he presently flies in the face of the Conjurers and tells them that when Laws are made by the consent of the people and the Royal Authority they cannot be altered or destroyed without the joynt consent of all those by whom they were concerned And yet the Laws of Queen Elizabeth for keeping her Subjects in due obedience are exploded as some of the Grievances of the Nation With what face can they plead the Laws of the Land for their security who daily violate and contemn them and teach others to do so And in p. 74. our Author is surprised with the Thebaean Legion which appeared to him as a Legion of Noon-day Devils and he wonders who should raise them up he cries out as that Legion Matth. 8.22 Art thou come to torment us What have we to do with thee O Thebaean Legion what have we to do with their Example No I 'll warrant my Author he shall never die for his Religion as they did he hath parted with that already for fear of what might come And this Thebaean Legion is such a terrible immortal Army as will defeat all Rebels to the worlds end Are we says our Author to go to Mass to morrow or else to have our Throats cut No nor are we to cut our Princes Throat to day for fear lest he should compel us to go to Mass to morrow Such fears were as groundless in the daies of Charles the First as of Charles the Second yet we see what was then done Again Are we under a Sentence of Death according to the Laws of our Country if we do not presently renounce our Religion No but if we presently renounce our Religion as our Author hath done and then contrive a Rebellion we are under a Sentence of a
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
Books Libels or Writings whatsoever as they tender her Majesties good favour will avoid her high displeasure and as they will answer the contrary at their uttermost perils and upon such pains and penalties as by the Law any way may be inflicted upon the offenders in any of these behalfs as persons maintaining such seditious actions which her Majesty mindeth to have severely executed And if any person have had knowledge of the Authors Writers Printers or Dispersers thereof which shall within one month after the publication hereof discover the same to the Ordinary of the place where he had such knowledg or to any of her Majesties Privy Council the same person shall not for his former concealment be hereafter molested or troubled Given at her Majesties Palace at Westminster the thirteenth of February 1588. In the One and thirtieth year of her Highness Reign God Save the Queen Imprinted at London by the Deputies of Christopher Barker Printer to the Queens most Excellent Majesty 1588. Now either our Authors knew these things or no if not they may give me thanks for minding them of these Laws some of which are still in force which ought to bind up their hands from the like practices lest they meet with the like punishment Sure I am they are obliged in Conscience if not in Interest timely to beg pardon and make their Recantations as publick as their Crimes But if they did know these things and yet act so considently and industriously against them Miror admodum ut quorum facta imitantur eorum exitus non pertimescunt Certainly these men think themselves in some Vtopian Commonwealth ubi sentire quoe velis quoe sentias loqui licet where they think according to their own lusts and talk as lavishly as they think In magna fortunâ minima licentia Every action of our Superiours every word yea the very thoughts and intentions of their hearts are arraigned censured and condemned as if they onely were to be accountable But as for the Mobile Nos numerus summus magno dominamur Atridi The confidence of their numbers makes them confident of impunity and the Priviledges of the People far exceed the Prerogative of the Prince Quidvis impune facere hoc Regium est Though other Restraints have proved ineffectual all the wholsome Laws of the Land all the sad experiences of the national plagues of the Sword Fire and Pestilence which have fallen or rather have been drawn down on our own heads by our Ingratitude and Rebellion against God and our Superiours have been baffled yet those stronger ties of Gods Commandments so plainly so frequently and under such intolerable penalties bound upon our very Souls and Consciences should yet constrain us to live more piously and peaceably than hitherto we have done Or at least the Mercies of God who saved and redeemed us with an out-stretched Arm and hath set over us the meekest and most merciful Prince on the Earth His patience and long-suffering towards us after so long and heinous provocations his defeating the hellish Plots of our Adversaries who unweariedly watch for an opportunitie to devour us should at last lead us to Repentance and cause us to consider and do in this our day the things that belong to our peace before they are hid from our eyes Against the Sophistrie of such unreasonable men for Resistance I shall oppose the Doctrine of the Apostle for Obedience and Subjection which he delivers Rom. 13. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers For there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation v. 5. Wherefore we must needs be subject not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake OF OBEDIENCE ACTIVE PASSIVE Due to our SUPERIOURS THose few directions of the Apostle Rom. 13.1 2 c. are so full and plain that there needs no Comment on them if men were not resolved against their dutie and employed their wits to palliate their sins and destroy their Souls For from that Text we are taught 1. That all lawful Government the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from God The powers that be are ordained of God 2. That God often gives this Power to wicked men The Powers that were in being when the Apostles wrote were such as Nero and Claudius Heathen Persecutors 3. That in every Government there is a Supream or higher Power that judgeth all and can be judged of none for without such a Power no Government can subsist 4. That such Powers must be cheerfully obeyed in all things not contrary to the Will of God paying them Custom Tribute Honour and Fear as to Gods Ministers 5. That in things contrarie to the Will of God as we ought not to obey so we ought not to resist 6. That the penaltie of Resistance is the Wrath of God eternal Damnation 7. That we are obliged as well not to resist in things contrarie to God's Will as cheerfully to obey in things agreeable thereunto for conscience sake that is in consideration of the Command of God which layeth an Obligation on our Conscience 1. That all Government is originally from God This seems to be granted by our Author and therefore I shall say the less concerning it Mr. Hunt also asserting p. 38. that it is impossible any thing can be of mans appointment which is of Gods ordination There can be no such thing as a Co-legislative power of men with their Maker Government therefore says he is of God but the Specification thereof is of men and the best definition that can be made of Government is in the words of both the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is Gods Ordinance but a Humane Creature Wherein he contradicts himself as it were even in the same breath having said immediately before It is impossible any thing can be of mans appointment which is of Gods ordination understanding it as he doth not of the Species but of the Original Right and Authoritie of Government For p. 36. he demands Where is the Charter of Kings from God Almighty to be found for nothing but the declared Will of God can warrant us to give up the Rights and Liberties of the people If they are lawful I am sure it is villanie to betray them Here you plainly see the people are encouraged to resist their Prince on pretence of defending their Rights and Liberties or else they are declared Villains and Traitors But let us examine the ground of this Assertion He quotes 1 Pet. 2.13 Where he says the Apostle stiles Kings as well as Governours under them the Ordinance of man which cannot have any other sence but that men make them and give them their power and therefore says he when the Apostle calls the power of Government Gods Ordinance it is because in general God approves of Governments as if there were any Governours which were advanced
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
193. as it is marked in my Copy is verbatim this Speaking of the Duke Let him attempt the Crown notwithstanding an Act of Parliament for his Exclusion he is all that while but attempting to make us miserable if he be not excluded he doth it certainly we exclude onely his Person not his Posterity And WE WILL NOT ENTAIL A WAR VPON THE NATION THOVGH FOR THE SAKE AND INTEREST OF THE GLORIOVS FAMILY OF THE STVARTS Is not this spoken Dictator-like Did Cromwel say more when he bragg'd that he had the Parliament in his pocket Then We will have this and we will not have that We will proclaim the Family of the Stuarts Traitors and we will have our own will His premise is this If the Duke be not excluded he doth certainly make us miserable by entailing a War upon the Nation which may be false if the ancient Proverb be true Gen. 22.12 In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen it was spoken when the knife was lifted up to make Isaac a Scrifice and we know that the burning bush was not consumed But the Conclusion is certainly most impious We will not entail a War up-the Nation though for the sake and interest of the glorious Family of the Stuarts To let pass that Irony of THE GLORIOVS FAMILY OF THE STVARTS The plain sence of the words to a Logician is this Rather than not exclude the Duke of York who will certainly make us miserable we will exclude the glorious Family of the Stuarts This is as much as need to be said at present to cure the preiudice of a deluded and unthinking people as Mr. Hunt calls them Had. Mr. Hunt's Preface and Postscript come to my hands before I had well-nigh finished my Answer and sent some sheets to the Press the rest being called for with all expedition that the Printer might not be prejudiced by the edition of other Tracts on this subject I should have taken a more particular view of all that is contained in them whereas I can now onely cursorily make a few Remarks and leave the Reader to judge Ex ungue leonem We live saith he p. 150. in an Age of mystery and prodigie producing things monstrous and unnatural and our language must be agreeable to the things we speak And so it is very obscure and yet unnatural But I shall endeavour to drag this Author to the light and present him with his three heads The first is his Invective against the Clergy This poureth forth flouds of Contempt upon the whole Order The second is his Justification of the late Vnnatural War and this Head breaths out an horrible and infectious stink The third his endeavour to promote another such War as that was And this Head casteth out Firebrands and Swords to alarm and arm all the Malecontents in the Nation for a resistance of their Governours I know he doth not want his lurking holes and Subterfuges to hide these monstrous deformities but all in vain Treason will out and Magna est veritas prevalebit The first Head breaths out a contempt of the Clergie to which he makes way by a Preamble that will rather aggravate than excuse the Crime 1. Our Author complains that his honest design as he calls it to serve the Church hath been by many perverted p. 1. of the Preface and p. 5. that some have endeavoured to set his two Discourses viz. his Argument for Bishops and his Postscript at variance that the first was written to set off the latter with some advantage and that the Author designed to get from the Argument a more pardonable libertie of inveighing against the Church-men in the Postscript Habetis consitentem Reum Doubtless the Argument did not effect that grateful Acknowledgement from the Bishops which he expected They knew him perhaps to be a mercenary man one that had or would write as much falsely against them as he had done truly for them if it might tend to his better advantage and therefore he was resolved to pull down what he had built up and to seek more beneficiary Patrons Let us therefore consider who they were that thus resented and complained of Mr. Hunt p. 5. If it had been says he the conceit of the Popish Faction onely and not also of those Gentlemen whom I principally designed to serve and in them the Church of England c. Here it is as plain as if it had been written with a Sun-beam that he means the Bishops who were mostly if not onely concerned in that Argument But how maliciously doth he suggest that they were influenced by the Popish Faction who p. 6. he says had corrupted some of our Church-men with Principles that subvert our Government and betray the Rights of our people They have debauched the manners of our Church-men and lessened their Athoritie and Esteem with the people The Order is inslaved by collation of Preferments upon less worthy men Qui beneficium accepit libertatem amisit Is not this a stout Advocate for Bishops that tells the world that those of that Order indefinitely are contemptible slaves that have sold their Libertie for Preferment that they are corrupted in their Principles to the subverting of our Government and betraying the Rights of the people and so debauched in their manners as that they have lessened their esteem and authoritie with the people Is not this the old Censor Morum or Cato Redivivus And is it possible that a learned man should thus prevaricate and contradict himself so grosly as it were in the same breath Let not Mr. Hunt think to evade this and say he speaks this of our younger Divines of which we shall hear enough by and by to make all good mens ears tingle at the horrid falsehood of it he speaks this of the Order and particularly of the dignified men of that Order of these it is that he speaks p. 7. for he is not yet come to his distinction of young and old Divines those that are inslaved by the Preferment they have and those that seek Preferment by other arts of which anon That they lick up the Vomit of Popish Priests and whatever is said maliciously by them against the first Reformers is daily repeated by now come in our young Clerks out of the Pulpit with advantages of immodestie and indiscretion Now for our young Divines whom p. 50. of the Postscript he calls good-natur'd Gentlemen of the Clergie Tom Triplet is the onely young man that I knew who was so lasht after he came from the University Old Gill never laid on so unmercifully as this Demagogue doth p. 9. We have a sort of young men that have left nothing behind them in the Vniversitie but the taint of a bad example and brought no more Learning with them thence than what serves to make them more assured and more remarkable Coxcombs who will undertake to discourse continually of the Interest of Religion of which they have no manner of sense and of the
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