duty of such an injured Prince for the common good to resigne his Government and if he will not the People ought to judge him as made uncapable by Providence and not to seek his restitution to the apparent ruine of the Commonwealth Thes 147. If therefore the rightful Governour be so long dispossessed that the Commonwealth can be no longer without but to the apparent hazard of its ruine we i. e. the people that dispossessed him are to judge that Providence hath dispossessed the former and presently consent to another Thes 149. If a People that by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Soveraign shall sinfully dispossess him and contrary to their Covenants chuse and covenant with another they may be obliged by their later Covenant notwithstanding their former Thes 181. If a Nation injuriously deprive themselves of a worthy Prince the hurt will be their own and they punish themselves but if it â— necessary to their welfare it is no injury to him but a King that by War will seek Reparation from the Body of the People doth put himself into a Hostile state and tells them actually that he looks to his own good more than theirs and bids them take him for their Enemy and defend themselves if they can p. 424. Though a Nation wrong their King and so quoad men tum Cauiae they are on the worse side yet maâ—â— he not lawfully war against the common good oâ—â— that account nor any help him in such a War because propter finem he hath the worse Cause Thes 352. And p. 476. we were to believe the Parliaments Declarations and Professions that the War which they raised was nâ—â— against the King either in respect of his Authority or his Person but onely against Delinquent Subjects And yet they actually fought against the King's Person and Authority And We are to believe saith Mr. Baxter p. 422. That men would kill them whom the fight against Quam bene conveniunt Mr. Baxter never followed any Text that he preached on so closely as he hath done the Text of this Jesuit in the Commentary of his Holy Commonwealth John Milton printed a Book very well like this of Mr. White called The Tenure of King and Magistrates driving on this Maxime That it is lawful for any that have power to call to account depose and put to death wicked Kings and Tyrants after due conviction if the ordinary Magistrate neglect it We have lately had a Fanatical Lawyer following the Divine Mr. Baxter transcribing out of the same Book of Mr. White to the same end I shall observe onely this Note among others in Mr. White p. 158. where he answers some Objections of Divines concerning the Authority of Princes and Non-resistance Vp steps the Divine saith he to preach us out of Scripture the Duty 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 concludes 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 And p. 160. They alleadge 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 sence of Scripture The reason saith he 〈◊〉 this weak way of alleadging Scripture 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 These things are transcribed by Mr. Hunt to the same ends that Mr. White urged them p. 144. of his Postscript The nature of Government and its Original saith he hath been prejudiced by men that understanding nothing but words and Grammar-Divines 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 raign 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 After this Mr. Hunt rails against our Divines in the Jesuits Mr. White 's Language also 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 Philosophy 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 sence of Scripture From the Premises we may draw this Conclusion That the Papists and Fanaticks do agree and mutually lend and borrow Arguments to resist Kings elude the Scriptures defame the English Clergie and overthrow the Government in Church and State As 1. That to conclude from the sence of Scripture is a weak way of arguing 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 injoyned by the Word of God 4. That the Soveraign power being but of humane institution may be resisted and is alterable 5. That having cast off their Loyalty to the King and his Laws they are in a fair way to cast off God and his Laws 6. That the worst of Papists and their Atheistical Arguments are made use of by some that call themselves true Protestants against the express commands of God for Obedience to the Higher Powers There was printed 1650 an Answer to Dr. Ferne's Exercitation concerning usurped Powers in which the Answerer
HERETICKS are shut out by Law they will secretly contribute the utmost of their endeavours to make the sufferings of dissenting Protestants as grievous as possibly they can that in despite of them their own necessities may compel them to cry out for Liberty till they procured a common Toleration for all and opened the door for Papists and Hereticks as well as for themselves And he hath lived to make good his Prognostick like Nostredamus his Son who having prophesied that on such a day the City should be burnt he set it on fire himself As to the Toleration by which Papists were indulged as well as other Dissenters it is evident that it was obtained by the mutual endeavours of both Parties Coleman confesseth it in behalf of the Papists who thereby intended the ruine of our Church to which they thought it a most probable means And for the other Dissenters Mr. Humfrys in his peaceable Designe p. 71. speaks in the name of his Brethren to this effect What shall we say then to the Papist Answ The Papist in our account is but one sort of Recusants and the conscientious and peaceable among them must be held in the same predicament with those among our selves that likewise refuse to come to Common-Prayer And p. 72. As for the common Papist who lives innocently in his way he is to us as other Separatists and so comes under the like Toleration And I saith Mr. Baxter so little fear the noise of the censorious that even now while the Plot doth render them most odious say freely 1. That I would have Papists used like men 2. I would have no man put to death for being a Priest 3. I would have no Writ de Excommunicato capiendo or any Law compel them to our Communion and Sacraments p. 19. of second Defence And p. 235. of his first Plea he says It is but reasonable if on such necessity i. e. the Penalties for Non-conformity they should accept of favour from any Papist that should save them c. So that they are resolved to live in compliance with the Papists rather than in conformity with the established Church And here it appears whether the Conformist or Nonconformist is the greater Friend to Popery Dr. Stillingfleet's Defence penned by an ingenious person says p. 68. I will tell Mr. B. a Secret which I have heard but hope he will not put me to prove it That the Parliament made good Laws the Papist out of a pretended reverence to tender Consciences hindred the execution of them and some leading Fanaticks had a private encouragement to say no more to set up a mighty cry of Persecution to cast all the odium on a persecuting Church and Diocesan Canoneers Dr. Owen takes this hint Some have reported says he that some of the Nonconformists do or have received money from the Papists to act their affairs and promote their interests which he calls a putrid Calumny c. and avows That never any person in Authority Dignity or Power in the Nation or that had any relation to pullick affairs nor any from them Papist or Protestant did once speak one word to him or advise with him about any Indulgence or Toleration to be granted to the Papists He says not That he never received any Moneys or Message to promote a general Toleration which he thinking himself particularly reflected on might have done in few words And my Author desires Dr. O. to resolve him why a Fast was appointed by a certain Independent Pastor at that time on the fifth of November which as he notes is no Popish Festival Mr. Hunt one of their Confederates says It is well known several of them i. e. the Nonconformists were in Pension to the D. And no men have been better received of the D. than J. J. J. O. E. B. and W. P. c. Ringleaders of the Separation And p. 98. Consider how the Church of England is used which is truly the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion If one Party saith Mr. Baxter viz. the Authority of the Nation would bring them to such a pass that they must be hanged imprisoned ruined or worse as if they were in the hands of Canibals unless the favour of the Papists deliver them and the other Party viz. the Nonconformists had rather be saved by the Papists than be hanged or ruined by Protestants they ought not to be suspected of Popery This is not onely to open a door to let the Papists in but upon meer Fears and Jealousies to flee out to them Now judge who is a greater friend to Popery the old Protestants who have made Law to keep it out or the Dissenters who would destroy those Laws to let it in And that their obstinate separation from the Church-Communion is an effectual means thereunto I shall give the judgment of Mr. Phil. Nye a great Covenanter who not long before his death foreseeing the mischievous consequence of those extravagant heats the people were running into wrote a Discourse on purpose to prove it lawful to hear the conforming Ministers and answers all the common Objections against it and wonders how the different Parties came to be so agreed in thinking it unlawful to hear us preach But he saith he is perswaded it is one constant designe of Satan in the variety of ways of Religion he hath set on foot by Jesuits among us Let us therefore be more aware of whatsoever tends that way So that Mr. Nye plainly acknowledgeth that the Jesuits were very busie among them and that they and the Devil joyned together in setting them at the greatest distance possible from the Church of England and that those who would countermine the Devil and the Jesuits must avoid whatever tends to that height of Separation Mr. Baxter seemed to be of the same judgment p. 17. of his Preface to the Defence of the Cure of Church-divisions where he saith Our Divisions gratifie the Papists and greatly hazard the Protestant Religion more than most of you seem to believe or regard And had Mr. B. regarded as he ought he would not have hardened the People in that Separation as he hath since done For he says again That among the many inconveniencies of Separation this is one that Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazard us all and we may lose that which the several Parties do contend about Yet as you have heard these men joyned interest with the Papists to procure this mischievous Toleration Coleman at his Tryal owned that he was of opinion That Popery might come in if liberty of Conscience had been granted And the Author of the two Conferences between Le Chese and the four Jesuits owns that the Declaration of Indulgence was procured by help of the Papists who were included in it but saith The Presbyterians presently suspected the kindness and like wise men closed with the Conformists when on the contrary they wrote in defence of it and so increased the Schism that we feel the
endeavoured to prove 1. That the present was no Vsurpation 2. That former Oaths obliged not against Obedience to present Powers 3. That Obedience is due to Powers in possession though unlawfully entred And for his Authority he is not ashamed to quote these words of the Jesuit Moline de Justitiâ Tract 3. Disput 6. to this purpose Two ways one may be a Tyrant 1. Because though he be the true Soveraign of the Commonwealth he doth unjustly govern it in this case it is a sin for private men to kill him but for his own defence it is lawful and the Commonwealth assembled by their Chieftains may depose him and being deposed kill him unless greater mischief would accrue to the Commonwealth by his murther for then he should offend against the love of the Common-wealth in killing of him Shortly after he quotes Sayr's Case Consc l. 7. c. 10. n. 4. Id curare debet Occisor ita caute consulto facere ut non pejores exitus scandala ex tali Occisione sperentur which I forbear to English You see how firmly the Jesuit and Presbyter are yoked to plow up the Field of the English Church and Government They must needs be their Disciples whose Principles and Practices they so zealously follow I go on to shew in the second place their agreement in practice for by their fruits also you may know them THE INTRIGUES OF THE Papists and Fanaticks Against the Government and Religion Established Historically related WHen the Church of England was established under Queen Elizabeth there was no considerable Separation from it by Papists or Fanaticks until some of the new Society of Jesus invented a method to divide and destroy the Church of Christ among us Which they endeavoured first by opposing those who were Parish-Priests in the days of Queen Mary but allowed of our Church-Communion and having prevaile against them they rested not there but endeavoured by new Artifices to draw off some zealous Protestants into separate Congregations under a pretence of greater purity of Ordinances and Worship than were practised in our Church And to this end they imploy some subtil and Eloquent men in the disguise of zealous Protestant-Ministers to exercise their gifts of Extemporary prayer which they reported to be by an extraordinary assistance and gift of the Spirit Their preaching also was designed to bring the Order of Bishops into contempt to which they were known enemies to lay aside the Liturgie as a stinting of their gifts of the Spirit and run down those few Ceremonies that were retained that we might not have the face of a Church or any decency among us They opposed also the Supremacy of the Queen over things and persons in Religious Administrations which they contended to belong to Ministers of their rank and order And although some of the Popish Priests at that time and afterward such as Widdrington Preston Watson and the Authors of the Jesuites Catechisme opposed them in these things as tending to provoke her Majesty to greater severity against them and wrote very learnedly against those Jesuits discovering their designs to be not only against the Protestants but the more moderate Papists yet were there some troublesome Ministers Goodman Gilby Whittingham c. and others that had been at Geneva and other Presbyterian Towns and submitted to that Discipline which took all those hints from the Jesuits and made such improvements that the Disciples in a short time exceeded their Masters Doctor Cox Horne and others who adhered to the Church of England and had known their turbulent behaviour at Geneva Frankfort and other places opposed their admission to the publick Ministry and so they and the Jesuits creep first into houses and lead captive silly women and beguile the hearts of simple men and afterward gather distinct and separate Congregations under pretence of purer Worship and a more holy Discipline Of which practice we have these undeniable instances In the Ninth year of Queen Elizabeth one Faithful Commin of the Order of St. Dominick got the reputation of a zealous Protestant Minister by railing against Pius Quintus the Pope and defaming the Liturgie as being the Mass in English in opposition to which the first set up the use of Extempore prayers as a gift of the Spirit which ought not to be stinted by Forms and Liturgies but one Mr. Clerkson Chaplain to the Archbishop discovered him to be a Popish Priest which was evidently proved before the Queen and Archbishop So that he being dismissed upon Bail to appear at a certain day and it hapning that on that day the Spanish Ambassador having publick Audience of the Queen he could not be admitted though he attended with his Bail he boasted to his followers that the Queen and Council had dismissed him But finding how uneasie it would be for him in England he told his Proselytes he was resolved to go beyond the Seas to preach the Gospel there and having acquainted his Disciples how poor he was and commended to them the Cause of God he got 130 l. which was collected among the Brotherhood besides what his compassionate Sisters bestowed on him and there was no farther news of this godly man until one John Baker Master of a Ship gave this account of him to the Queen That he had seen this Faithful Commin in the Low-Countries and that one Martin van Duval a Merchant of Amsterdam told him that Commin had been lately at Rome and there imprisoned by the Pope but upon his Letter to the Pope he was sent for the next day and being accused for reviling the Pope and railing against his Church among the Hereticks of England he confessed that his lips had uttered what his heart never thought and pleaded what considerable service he had done the Pope by preaching against set Forms of prayer and calling the English prayer English Mass perswading the people to pray Spiritually and Extempore by which means the Church of England was become as odious to them to whom he preached as the Mass was to the Church of England which would prove a stumbling-block to that Church while it was a Church Upon which the Pope commended him and dismissed him with a gratuity of 2000 Ducats for his good service The next Instance is of one Thomas Heath a Jesuite in the Eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth whose Brother Nic. Heath had been Bishop of Rochester in H. 8. days He comes to the Dean of Rochester desiring him to present him to the Bishop for some Preferment In order to which he pretending himself to be a poor Minister the Dean orders him to preach in the Cathedral which he did on that Text Acts 12.6 Peter therefore was kept in prison but prayers were made without ceasing in the Church to God for him on which he told the people that it was not those of the Church of England but Spiritual prayers that brought Peter out of prison and where said he have we Scripture for any set form in
horrid and treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for murthering of his Majesties sacred Person and for subverting the Protestant Religion and the ancient and well-established Government of this Kingdom Of which Coleman by several Evidences and his own Letters was found guilty in conspiring the death of the King and endeavouring to subvert the Protestant Religion and to bring in Popery by the aid of foreign Powers for which he was executed December 3. 1678. Ireland Pickering and Grove were executed for the like Treasons Jan. 24. Green Berry and Hill were condemned Feb. 10. for the Murther of Sir Edmond-bury Godfrey Whitebread Harcourt Fenwick Gauan and Turner were condemned on the 14th of June 1679. And Richard Langhorne was condemned the same day And the Lord Stafford was also executed for the same Plot and Conspiracy It is true that all these Coleman onely excepted whose Letters then produced were so plain that they admitted of no evasion denied their guiltiness to the last breath but it was a practice allowed to men under their circumstances and had been practised by other of their Perswasion in the like case for Garnet Whitebread's Predecessor a Principal of the Jesuits being accused for the Gunpowder-treason as holding correspondence with one Hall then in the Tower utterly denied it with horrid Imprecations which when Hall confessed he beg'd pardon and confessed he had offended if Equivocation did not help him Tresham another of the Conspirators had confessed that Garnet was privy to the Treason but afterward by the importunity of his Wife he protested a little before his death that his former Confession was false and that he had not seen Garnet in sixteen years before Which Protestation of his was afterward proved to be false and Garnet himself confessed that he had seen him many times within that space And in a Book called The Jesuits Catechism penned as is said by some Secular Priests Anno 1602 they say That a Jesuit being condemned to die after he hath made his Confession to a Priest he is not tyed to reveal his guilt to the Judge but it is lawful for him to stand in a stiff denial of it at the time of Execution as being clear before God although he persist in a Lye after he hath discharged his Conscience to his Confessor p. 166 167. The Author of Remarks on the Debates of the House at Oxford tells us That those Debates were as great a Witness for the King as any he had For R. M. says he said That the King 's telling them in his Speech that he would stick to his Resolutions as to the Succession and his proposing an Expedient is arbitrary and French and that it was the Kings designe to cow the Parliament to bring them to Oxford And that neither Bishops nor Counsellors nor Ministers of State nor those of the Gospel have endeavoured to preserve Religion or Safety T. B. says plainly They must let bloud Sir N. C. says As I understand it is proposed the Government shall be in Regency during the Duke's life I would be satisfied if the D. will not submit to that whether those that fight against him are not Traytors in Law H. B. says The same interest that passeth the Bill here will do it in Scotland Another insists That all about the King should be removed and that though Ministers have been altered yet the Government hath been in such hands as that the same Principles remain Sir W. C. says That the weight of England is the people and the more they know the heavier they will be and that in all Ages they have sunk ill Ministers of State And doubtless good ones too R. H. looks on the slipping the Bill for Repealing the Act of 35 of Eliz. to be a breach of the Constitution of the Government which if it had been moved in Queen Elizabeth 's days that motion would certainly have been so thought B. W. says of the King's Speech That it was none of his that it had nothing of his in it that it is flat and short That his Majesty was a better man and a better Protestant than to make it himself and that they who advised it must answer for it And yet to shew on whom he meant to throw this Dirt he says afterward The King hath gone on in a resolution as far as this in his Speech in his Declaration formerly Sir W. J. observes That no man knowing in Laws or History but can tell us that to Bills grateful and popular the King gives his consent L. G. is dissatisfied with these hands in which the Government is and fears the Kings being Absolute And therefore Sir F. W. says The same Authority that can make a descent of the Crown can modifie it All their Votes and Speeches must be Printed to shew they are not ashamed of what they do Col. M. hopes that his Posterity will do as he among the rest hath that Meeting and the former done This Bill of Exclusion to alter the Succession and modifie the Crown and the Repeal of the Act 35 Eliz. is the means used to secure the King's Person and the Protestant Religion Though the King and the established Church are of a quite contrary judgment And the Act 13 Car. 2. 1660 which says That by the undoubted fundamental Laws of this Kingdom neither the Peers of this Kingdom nor the Commons nor both together in Parliament nor any other person whatsoever ever had hath or ought to have any Coercive power over the persons of the Kings of this Realm And by the person of the King is meant all such persons to whom the Crown legally descends The mischiefs of altering the Succession hath cost too dear already to attempt another Experiment The Dispute between the Houses of York and Lancaster cost the Nation the lives of Eight Kings and Princes Forty Dukes Marquesses and Earls Two hundred thousand of the People besides Barons and Gentlemen and so much Money and Spoil as cannot be valued So that it is sufficiently evident that these irregular and violent Proceedings were a Prologue to some intended Tragedy There were hot Irons on the Forge we heard the blows throughout the Nation and sparks of fire flew about our ears But God be thanked none of those Weapons which were forged against the King or the Church have prospered Hitherto the Lord hath helped us The Fanatick Party carried on their designes more openly than the Papists insomuch that they thought to bear down all before them by the numbers and strength of their Party The Pulpits and Presses do not onely sound Alarms but cry Victoria Their Peaceable designe had divided the Bishopricks between Presbyterian Independent and Anabaptist They promise the true Protestant Peacemakers more favour than they had from their Conforming Brethren because they joyned in a Complaint of Persecution Mr. Baxter in his Book of Obedience and Patience p. 265. tells us That Persecutors are not immortal but
Papist and by foreign Alliances and Assistance they may be able to succeed in their wicked and villanous designes And forasmuch as the Parliaments of England according to the Laws and Statutes thereof have heretofore for great and weighty reasons of State and for the publick good and common interest of this Kingdom directed and limited the Succession of the Crown in other manner than of course it would otherwise have gone but never had such important and urgent Reasons as at this time press and require their using their extraordinary power in that behalf Be it therefore enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same and it is hereby enacted accordingly That James Duke of York Albany and Ulster having departed openly from the Church of England and having publickly professed and owned the Popish Religion which hath notoriously given birth and life to the most damnable and hellish Plot by the most gracious providence of God lately brought to light shall be excluded and disabled and is hereby excluded and disabled for ever from possessing having holding inheriting or enjoying the Imperial Crowns and Governments of this Realm and these Kingdoms and of all Territories Countries and Dominions now or which shall hereafter be under his Majesties subjection and off and from all Titles Rights Prerogatives and Revenues with the said Crowns now or hereafter to be enjoyed And that upon the demise or death of his Majesty without Heirs of his body whom God long preserve the Crowns and Governments of this Kingdom and all Territories Countries and Dominions now or which shall hereafter be under his Majesties subjection with all the Rights Prerogatives and Revenues therewith of right enjoyed and to be enjoyed shall devolve and come upon such person who shall be next lawful Heir of the same and who shall have always been truly and professedly of the Protestant Religion now established by Law within this Kingdom as if the said Duke of York were actually dead And that whatever acts of soveraign power the said Duke of York shall at any time exert or exercise shall be taken deemed and adjudged and are hereby declared and enacted High-Treason and to be punished accordingly And forasmuch as the peace safety and well being of these Kingdoms do so intirely depend upon the due execution of and obedience to this Law Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if any person shall in any-wise at any time during the King's life which God long preserve or after his demise or decease aid assist counsel or hold correspondence with the said Duke of York who is and ought to be esteemed a perpetual Enemy to these Kingdoms and Governments either within these Kingdoms or out of them or shall endeavour or contrive his return into either of them or into any of the Territories or Dominions of the same or shall during the King's life publish or declare him to be the lawful or rightful Successor apparent presumptive or other Heir to the Crown of England or shall after the demise or decease of the King that now is proclaim publish or declare the said Duke of York to be King or to have right or title to the Crown or Government of England or Ireland or shall by word writing or printing maintain or assert that he hath any manner of right or title to the Crown or Government of these Kingdoms and shall be therefore convict upon the evidence of two or more lawful and credible Witnesses shall be adjudged guilty of High-Treason and shall suffer and forfeit as in cases of High-Treason And forasmuch as the Duke's return and coming into any of the foresaid Kingdoms Countries Territories or Dominions will naturally conduce to bring vast mischiefs and all the evils hereby provided against upon them in War and Slaughter and unspeakable Calamity which therefore the said Duke must be presumed to designe by such his return or coming into any the foresaid Kingdoms c. Be it therefore likewise enacted and it is hereby enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said Duke do at any time hereafter return or come into any of the foresaid Kingdoms c. he shall be and hereby is thereupon attainted of High-Treason And all manner of persons whatsoever are authorised and required to apprehend secure and imprison his person and in case of resistance made by him or any of his Complices to subdue c. imprison him or them by force of Arms. Now let any considering man judge whereto these violent proceedings tended when the King 's necessary Guards be thought a grievance and the executing the penal Laws on Dissenters be made a grievance of the Subjects an encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom when the King may not raise moneys on his own Revenues and his People will give him none nay they shall be accounted Enemies to the Peace of the Nation that assist him when his Customs shall be taken from him and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy dispensed with the Bill for excluding the lawful Successor resolutely insisted on and a War threatned by some if it did not pass when the D. of M. must be restored to his Offices and all that should oppose the Bill of Exclusion shall be dealt with as Betrayers of the King the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom of England and Pensioners of France and it must be taken as a favour that the D. of Y. was onely to be excluded and another would perswade him to destroy himself and another threatneth in print that rather than not exclude him they would exclude the whole glorious Family of the Stuarts when seditious Petitions were counted part of the Liberty of the People and no Addresses to the King by the Loyal Party to be tolerated and publicâ— thanks given to a seditious Party of the City for their manifest Loyalty to the King their care charge and vigilancy for the preservation of his Majesties person and the Protestant Religion and the King's Prerogative to call or dismiss his Great Council questioned and they who infused fears and groundless jealousies of the Kings ruling by an Arbitrary power did in an arbitrary manner fine and imprison divers loyal Subjects And when it was published That if the King should die a violent death they would avenge it on the Papists when the chief Ministers of State the Bishops the Lord Mayor and Magistrates and all that were eminent for their Loyalty were already condemned as being Popishly affected and the Clergie branded as Projectors for the Church of Rome Hereupon a Discovery being made by one of the Conspirators the Kings Majesty issueth his Declaration 27 of July 1683. to inform his Subjects of a Plot contrived by persons of several Perswasions to make a general Insurrection in this Kingdom and Scotland And that while this Designe
accused our Church and Government of Popery for retaining those innocent and indifferent things agreeable to the primitive practice to make a publick declaration of their abhorrence of Romish principles and practices such as I have already charged them withal To which I may adde their claiming of a Supremacy above Princes and Parliaments in matters Ecclesiastical and divers other things which are the most pernicious and Antichristian Doctrines and Practices of that Church which have drawn the greatest reproach and odium on the Reformation And if they would heartily perform this duty I doubt not but they would see a necessity of returning to the Communion of the Church as it is now established and to assist her in her conflicts against the Church of Rome than which there is no means more probable to keep out that Popery against which they pretend so great an aversion And to induce them hereunto I shall recommend to their serious consideration how far the Principles and Practices of the Jesuits under the name of Doleman and of the old Regicides under that of Bradshaw and our new Conspirators under the Notions of Sidney do agree as it is fitted to my hand in this Parallel THE PARALLEL 1. DOLEMAN THere can be no doubt but that the Commonwealth hath power to chuse their own fashion of Government as also to change the same upon reasonable Causes In like manner is it evident that as the Commonwealth hath this Authority to chuse and change her Government so hath she also to limit the same with what Laws and Conditions she pleaseth Conference about Succession part 1. cap. 1. pag 12 13. All Law both Natural National and Positive doth teach us That Princes are subject to Law and Order and that the Common-wealth which gave them their Authority for the common good of all may also restrain or take the same away again if they abuse it to the common evil The whole Body though it be governed by the Prince as by the Head yet is it not Inferiour but Superiour to the Prince Neither so giveth the Commonwealth her Authority and Power up to any Prince that she depriveth her self utterly of the same when need shall require to use it for her defence for which she gave it Part 1. cap. 4. pag. 72. And finally the Power and Authority which the Prince hath from the Common-wealth is in very truth not Absolute but Potestas vicaria delegata i. e. a Power Delegate or Power by Commission from the Commonwealth which is given with such Restrictions Cautels and Conditions yea with such plain Exceptions Promises and Oaths of both Parties I mean between the King and Commonwealth at the day of his Admission oâ— Coronation as if the same be not kept but wilfully broken on either Part then is the other not bound to observe his Promise neither though never so solemnly made or sworâ—â— Part 1. cap. 4. p. 73. By this then you see the ground whereon dependeth the righteous and lawful Deposition and Chastisement of wicked Princes viz. Their failing in their Oath and Promises which they made at their first entrance Then is the Commonwealth not onely free from all Oaths made by her of Obedience or Allegiance to such unworthy Princes but is bound moreover for saving the whole Body to resist chasten or remove such evil Heads if she be able for that otherwise all would come to Destruction Ruine and publick Desolation Part 1. cap. 4. p. 77 78. 2. BRADSHAW THe People of England as they are those that at the first as other Countries have done did chuse to themselves this Form of Government even for Justice sake that Justice might be administred that Peace might be preserved so Sir they gave Laws to their Governours according to which they should govern and if those Laws should have prov'd inconvenient or prejudicial to the Publick they had a Power in them and reserved to themselves to alter as they shall see cause Kings Tryal p. 64. CHARLES STUART King of England The Commons of England assembled in Parliament according to the fundamental Power that rests in themselves have resolved to bring you to Tryal and Judgment p. 29. If so be the King will go contrary to the end of his Government Sir he must understand that he is but an Officer of Trust and he ought to discharge that Trust and they are to take order for the Animadversion and Punishment of such an Offending Governour p. 65. Sir Parliaments were ordained for that purpose to redress the Grievances of the People And then Sir the Scripture says They that know their Masters will and do it not what follows The Law is your Master the Acts of Parliament p. 66 67. This we know to be Law Rex habet superiorem Deum Legem etiam Curiam and so says the same Author and truly Sir he makes bold to go a little further Debent ei ponere fraenum They ought to bridle him p. 65. That the said Charles Stuart being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a limited Power Vid. Char. p. 30. The House of Commons the Supream Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kingdom p. 48. Which Authority requires you in the name of the People of England of which you are elected King to answer them p. 36. Sir you may not demur the Jurisdiction of the Court they sit here by the Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you are responsible to them p. 44. For there is a Contract and Bargain between the King and his People and your Oath is taken and certainly Sir the Bond is reciprocal Sir if this Bond be once broken farewel Soveraignty p. 72. Sir though you have it by Inheritance in the way that is spoken of yet it must not be denied that your Office was an Office of Trust Now Sir if it be an Office of Inheritance as you speak of your Title by Descent let all men know that great Offices are seizable and forfeitable as if you had it but for a year and for your Life p. 73. And Sir the People of England cannot be so far wanting to themselves which God having dealt so miraculously and gloriously for they having Power in their hands and their Great Enemy they must proceed to do Justice to themselves and to You. p. 75. 3. SIDNEY And other of The True Protestant Party GOd hath left Nations unto the liberty of setting up such Governments as best pleased themselves The Right and Power of Magistrates in every Country was that which the Laws of that Country made it to be Sidn Pap. p. 2. St. Peter 1 Pet. 2.13 14. stiles Kings as well as the Governours under him the Ordinance of Man which cannot have any other sence but that Men make them and give them their Power Hunt's Postsc p. 37. By all which it is evident That the Succession to the Crown is the Peoples Right And though the Succession to the Crown is Hereditary because