A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO FRIENDS LICENSED James Fraser April 22 1689. A DIALOGUE BETWEEN Two Friends Occasioned by the late REVOLUTION OF AFFAIRS And the OATH OF ALLEGIANCE By W. K. A. M. Rom. 14. 22. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in what he alloweth LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXIX A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO FRIENDS A JACOBITE and a WILLIAMITE Jac. MEthinks we live in an Age of Wonders Affrica like every day producing aliquid novi But few Months since Suspension Degradation Imprisonment was too little punishment for refusal to read the King's as 't was stil'd Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience And now I am as much Disaffected to the Protestant Cause for making some Objections against the Oath of Allegiance Will. 'T is true the wonderful Revolution of a few days is so unfathomably Stupendious that an ordinary Capacity may easily be induc'd to believe that Miracles are not yet ceased Such signal Methods compassing such an unthought of Rescue loudly declare they are more than common And your obstinate refusal of a Deliverance written in such legible Characters your voluntary depriving your self of a share in so great and unparallel'd a Blessing is a second wonder to me incomprehensible Jac. 'T is not I protest from an affected singularity or a too high conceitedness of my own Opinion that like Athanasius I oppose the whole World by my self The only reason is that I may keep a Conscience void of offence both toward God and Man. I acknowledge the Prince of Orange has been the great Instrument of our Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and more highly deserves of the Nation than can be expressed yet I cannot forget those Tyes and Obligations that fix and river our Allegiance to our Dread Sovereign James the Second Will. What are these strong and binding Obligations Jac. In number ten thousand in nature superlatively Obligatory Will. Descend to Particulars and nominate one Jac. The Dictates of Nature bind me to Natural Allegiance being by Birth a Natural Subject to the King of Great Britain my Duty is to pay Homage and Obedience either Active or Passive to all his Commands Will. I readily grant that as you are a Subject to the King of Great Britain his Majesty hath an undoubted Right to challenge your Obedience but the Ground and Reason of this Right does not proceed as an Emanation from Nature as I shall immediately evince when I have gotten a right sence of your Notion of Passive Obedience Jac. By Passive Obedience I understand a submissive and patient suffering the Punishment due to the obstinate refusal of Actively obeying those Commands and Injunctions of my Superiors that are either inconsistent with or opposite to the Laws and Precepts of the Divine Creator Will. Patience under Punishment when Legally inflicted upon us and there is no lawful way to escape it is a Christian Duty as is clear and obvious both from the Doctrine and Example of our Saviour who despised the shame and endured the Cross. But if Passive Obedience as you interpret it be Sence Logicians are much mistaken in affirming ten Predicaments since in your account Actio and Passio are one Obedience in all Histories whether Sacred or Prophane has no relation to suffering but always signifies the doing things commanded Thus Exod. 15. 26. If thou wilt hearkâ—n to the voice of the Lord and do that is right in his sight Exod. 24. 7. After Moses had read the Book of the Law the People promised their Obedience to do all that was there injoyned them And 1 Sam. 28. 19. King Saul for not doing the Command of the Lord was stigmatized with the infamus Character of Disobedience notwithstanding his suffering the punishment of his Transgression Acts 5. 29. the Apostles affirm they ought to obey that is Do the Will of God rather than Man. And all those Express and Positive Commands for Wives Children and Servants to obey their Husbands Parents and Masters only import 't is their Duty to please them well by doing those things enjoin'd by them In opposition to this Passive naturally implies suffering the Penalty for not doing so that should we allow such a contradiction in Speech as Passive Obedience 't would naturally follow that those who have suffered the punishment of the Law are justified by the Law for if Suffering render Men obedient the Penalty being endured they are cleansed from their Guilt and become Immaculate And by virtue of this Argument Rebels Thieves Murtherers or the worst of Villians are after they have receiv'd the Reward of their Transgressions as honest Men as good Neighbours and as Loyal Subjects as your self I know 't is objected that Rebels Thieves c. are actual Transgressors of the Laws both Humane and Divine and so fall as Criminals but the others suffer because they refuse to violate or transgress those Laws But to this 't is replyed that according to your own Position they are Criminals alike for the Doctrine of Passive Obedience especially as by you defined doth sufficiently evidence notwithstanding what you talk of Laws that the Will of the Supreme Magistrate is the chiefest Rule we are to walk by for whatever Command brings with it Authority to require Obedience that very Authority doth plainly impress upon it the Character of a Law. Now Criminals upon the account of Omission are equally guilty with those that have render'd themselves so by Sins of Commission it being equally the same as to matter of Crime not to do those things Commanded and to act or do those things Prohibited So that by parity of Reason if the one be justified so will the other for facinus quos inquinat aequat Jac. I had no design to enter into a Controversie about Passive Obedience I asserted that Nature enjoined me to pay Allegiance to the Supreme Magistrate and my Reason was because I was by Birth a Natural Subject Will. That Nature obliges you to Obedience is a great Mistake for the constitutes no Subordination among Men as we are produced by her we are all Equals she ordains neither King or Peasant Lord or Slave Her Actions are only internal such as respect not those outward Adjuncts or external Qualifications The Laws she designs for our Guide are her own Precepts viz. those Innate Notions of Good and Evil those Common Sentiments of Vertue and Vice that are proper to all men as they are Rational Creatures The Governour she appoints over us is every man 's own Reason the Judge our particular Consciences 'T is indeed by the Force or Energy of Nature we are made Men but we are born free This is evident from that absolute Authority every particular Man hath over himself viz. an independent Power in disposing of his own person Thus by Compact or Bargain any Man I speak of Subjects may become a Covenant-Servant an Apprentice or a Slave without Nature's being concern'd in the Contract For
though a King's Eldest Son be a Prince by Birth and the first legitimate Male Offspring of an Earl a Lord the Day of his Nativity yet those are Birthright Priviledges accruing to them not from Nature but the Laws of the Nation Thus Royal Blood and Descent from Ancient Progenitors are only imputative Qualities and have so little Relation to Nature that they are only Praemia Virtutis Rewards for Heroick and Generous Actions that the persons concern'd or their Forefathers were eminent for Jac. These Commands that are Moral and perpetually to oblige are esteemed as Natural but the Duty of Obedience is Moral and perpetually to oblige if the Fifth Commandment be so which makes me account it Natural Will. As we are Subjects the Duty of Obedience is a perpetual Obligation and after a manner essential to us But our Allegiance has not its Foundation in Nature or her Operations but in the Relation we bear to a Soveraign And more than this the Fifth Commandment doth not evince This Precept is Moral and perpetually to oblige but the Rational part of it is grounded not in Nature but in Gratitude For as Aristotle observes Man is a Sociable Animal and there is nothing more destructive to Society than Ingratitude and Unthankfulness And since Children have not only their very Being but their Well-being also from their Parents no Obligation can be greater or more obligatory to the foresaid Duties So that were our Filial Obedience founded in Nature as you fondly imagine the Obligation to that Duty would not be half so strong and valid Besides Natural Duties have respect to the whole Species and by this Argument the Bonds and Obligations to Obedience are General and every man that is a Parent may challenge as strict a Duty of Obedience from us as our immediate Parents that begat us and the Reason of this is because Nature is equally concern'd for the whole Species as for an Individium But the Doctrine contrary to this is so plain and evident from the general practice of the World that it needs no proof For though we are by Nature equally allied to all being first in the Loins of Adam afterwards in Noah yet this Relation is never term'd more than Common Humanity And how firm or lasting soever we esteem those Ties and Obligations you mention which is really nothing but Friendship the Second or Third Age commonly expunges them if disobliging Carriage distance of Place or want of Converse effect it not in much less time That Paternal Love and Filial Affection is not founded in Nature seems plain and evident from those different Degrees of Love Men generally bear to the Legitimate and Spurious Issue and that 't is cherished by Converse and made firm and solid by process of Time is more than probable from the affectionate Nurse whose Excess of Love to the tender Babe does often transcend the affectionate Mothers Yet 't is clearly manifest Man has a Natural Appetite or Desire to survive in his Posterity as irrational Creatures have of preserving their Species But this proves nothing against the Argument because the Issue of the latter in riper years are not by Nature obliged to the Duties of Gratitude and Obedience That the Fifth Commandment enjoyns us Obedience to our Superiors is beyond all controversie true and the Reason is because in the beginning of Government Soveraighty was part of the Paternal Power but to speak in our common Language if the Duty of Obedience in a Natural Son to a Natural Father be not a Natural Duty much less can this Argument prove Natural Allegiance due to our Civil Parents Jac. The Parliament Conven'd in the Twenty Fourth Year of King Henry the Eighth's Reign stiles England an Empire govern'd by a Soveraign Head to which there is a Body Politick joyn'd composed of all sorts and degrees of People who are bound next under God to render unto their King Natural Allegiance Will. Natural Allegiance in that Act of Parliament is only a Rhetorical Flourish spoken after the largest acceptation of that Word not that Allegiance flows from Nature but because 't is a Duty so proper intrinsical and Essential to a Subject quâ talis For mens very incorporating themselves into a Civil Society without the Obligation of Formal Oaths doth sufficiently evidence a tacit acknowledgment of Allegiance to the Caput Communitatis because without it 't is impossible to defend and preserve the Body Politick Jac. This Discourse I confess is somewhat Rational but I can't suddenly digest a thing so Novel Will. What you term Novelty proceeds from the vulgar Expressions of Men and want of a more serious and weighty Inspection into the Doctrine And this will appear more Rational if we consult the Specimen of Government in general The great and fundamental Law of Nature is Self-Preservation 't is the Magna Charta of all Constitutions and the very End and Design of Government it self 't is a Principle so deeply radicated in Nature that 't is engraven upon every man's heart Had indeed our First Parents maintain'd the Original Beauty and Brightness of their Creation and preserved Nature in her state of Rectitude Justice had been our Director Innocence our Guide But by that Fall of theirs the Nature of Man was so depraved and vitiated his Passions so transporting his Desire so covetous his Revenge so implacable that Meum and Tuum were measured only by Strength and Power the Longest Sword was the best Law a securer Title than Prescription it self Thus the more powerful preyed upon and devoured the weaker so that Nature destroyed her own works And the best course to countermand those Hostile Proceedings and preserve this grand Principle of Nature was mens moulding themselves into Tribes associating into Colonies Thus when a Company of Men whether many or few it matters not for Majus Minus non variant Speciem are unanimously incorporated into one Society for the securer Maintainance of Peace Correction of Vice Reformation of Manners and the more equal Administration of Justice Laws were enacted Constitutions made and Statutes provided to redress all private Grievances among themselves and to protect the Society from the open Hostility of Publick Invaders And since neither Plaintiff or Defendant was fit to be Judge of his own Plea nor the Mobile Vulgus easily induced to a joynt Method a Unanimous Consent in opposing the Common Enemy a single person if Monarchical Government or several in other Constitutions of such Vertue Prudence and Fortitude as the whole Society thought fit to confide in was elected as an Impartial Arbitrator in all Cases whether private or publick And to him or them was committed the sole Executive Power of these Laws in all Differences the Definitive Sentence was according to Law to be expected from his or their mouth And this Supream Authority being both Judge and Protector of the whole Corporation to advance the Grandeur of such Authority and compleatly to capacitate him or them for the Execution
the publick Footsteps of an extraordinary Divine Designation as in all Changes was apparently visible in that Government where commonly the Almighty chose the Prophets consecrated and the People obeyed But in opposition to this the Government of England is a Paction and Contract between the Supream Authority and the People the former to govern according to those Rules the Laws prescribe and the latter quietly without Resistance to submit to be governed by the Laws Established and to support with their Lives and Fortunes the Regal Power And this Agreement with the Subjects does not lessen or depress the Authority of the Supream Magistrate but rather advanceth it for 't is the Honour of a King not to be capable of doing wrong and 't is the Safety and Happiness of the People to be under such a Magistrate â—s only commands lawful things which capacitates the Subject to obey with safety sub clipeo legis nemo decipitun Whilst the Execution of illegal Commands is dangerous to the People that being an high Offence to the Publick and by Consequence no small Transgression against the Supream Magistrate For the King being a principal part of the Body Politick must necessarily have a principal share in that grand Affront And this is the Reason of that Maxim The King can do no wrong all his lawful Injunctions being Just and Righteous and his illegal Mandates must not be obeyed So that would Court Earwigs leave off to flatter and be exact and impartially honest in their Duty both to King and People the first would be renown'd great and glorious and the second being free from oppression and violence would be loving loyal and dutiful Subjects Jac. But the Doctrine of the Gospel is so positive and express ' in commanding Obedience to Superiors that if all other Arguments were away this is sufficient to turn the scale against all that can be said to the contrary Will. You mistake the very End and Design of my Intentions I purpose not to annihilate or destroy our Obedience but to reduce it to its due proportion assign'd it both by God and Man cause it calmly to run down within the Banks of its own Channel By which we shall be fitly capacitated to follow our Saviour's Advice viz. to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's The Evangelical Precepts confine us to no particular Platform of Civil Government in general it provides for the preservation of Honesty Justice and Peace frequently inculcates our Duty of Obedience pressing it by many cogent and rational Arguments and exhorts us patiently to bear all Calamities or Oppressures we have no lawful way to avoid but it does not oblige us to be Vassals and Slaves to an Arbitrary Power This is evident from pregnant Examples in the New Testament especially from the Epistles of the Two Famous and Renowned Apostles Peter and Paul and particularly the last part of the 12th Chapter to the Romans and the beginning of the 13th were penn'd wholly upon this account Jac. The Scriptures you mention are so Diametrically opposite to the Doctrine you teach that 't is impossible to find a more cogent Argument or positive Command for Absolute Obedience than those are The Texts are largely insisted upon by our Divines and from thence they rationally evince an unlimited Duty of Obedience Will. For the more clear Explication and better understanding of the particular Scripture above mention'd we must enquire what was the End and Design of that Epistle and especially this place formerly quoted And the Reasons of that together with the knowledge of the Persons for whom 't was written their Estate Condition and Circumstance will give us a very great light towards a Right Apprehension of it The grand End and Design of this Epistle was not to plant the Gospel at Rome or prescribe all the Doctrines requisite to the Foundation of Christianity but rather to refute those false Doctrines that Hereticks had super-induced and to condemn and reform those wicked and revengeful Practices that tho Christians upon some mistakes were highly guilty of The Persons for whose sake and instruction this Epistle was written were chiefly Jews proselyted to the Christian Religion but yet still strongly tinctur'd with their former Leaven John 8. 33. that they were Abraham's Seed and by that Foederal Pact between God and him were so immediately under the Government of Divine Providence that no Heathen Potentate could have Authority or Lordship over them further than urgent Necessity or meer Compulsion forced them And being at that time subjugated by force of Arms to the Yoak of the Roman Empire and by reason of Traffick Commerce and other occasions necessitated to inhabit at Rome where the very Exercise of their Religion was an high Transgression of the Imperial Laws which together with their refusal to pay the accustomed Tribute and to render some respect of Honour the Laws conferr'd upon the Heathens the Imperial Officers frequently dealt very severely with those Christian proselytes and the Christians upon the aforesaid Principle used all opportunities as severely to revenge themselves which rendered the Christian Religion very odious at Rome and was a great block to the propagation of the Gospel So that the Christians resisting those imperial positive Laws and their opposition to the Execution of them was the only Reason the alone Cause that moved the Apostle to write this Portion of Scripture to them as appears from Chap. 12. v. 17. Recompence no man evil for evil v. 19. Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place to wrath That is rather suffer the punishment of the Law and the Injuries that those who inflict it offer to you than resist Because as he assures them Chap. 13. Obedience to the Established Laws is a Christian Duty though it be to the Laws of a Heathen Prince And when these Laws are opposite or repugnant to the Divine Precepts quietly to submit and patiently to suffer the punishment of Transgressors verily believing that God will cause all such afflictions and calamities to work for the benefit and advantage of his People Jac. What 's this but Passive Obedience you so much condemn'd in the beginning of this Discourse Will. 'T is so far from Obedience that 't is suffering for righteousness sake And indeed 't is the only suffering that has a Promise annexed to it in Sacred Scripture for those lively Oracles authorize us not to cut our own Throats in Obedience to the Supream Magistrate if he enjoyn it nor to sit still whilst others illegally act such violence The Gospel does not destroy the grand Principle of Nature viz. Self-preservation but cherishes and encourages it But in respect of the Publick if Wrongs be personal or Injuries peculiar to particular Men such as portend not destruction or grand detriment to the whole Body Politick such must be patiently submitted to rather than by resisting disturb the publick Peace or Tranquility of the Nation