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england_n	book_n	church_n	doctrine_n	5,749	5	6.5670	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64277	The vindication of a late pamphlet (entituled 0bedience and submission to the present government demonstrated from Bp. Overal's Convocation-book) from the false glosses and illusive interpretations of a pretended answer / by the author of the first pamphlet.	Taylor, Zachary, 1653-1705.	1691 (1691)	Wing T602; ESTC R37878	32,401	41

THE VINDICATION OF A LATE PAMPHLET ENTITULED Obedience and Submission TO THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT Demonstrated from Bp. Overal's Convocation-Book From the False Glosses and Illusive Interpretations of a Pretended Answer By the Author of the First Pamphlet LONDON Printed for Ric. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms-Inn in Warwick-Lane MDCXCI THE PREFACE MAlice and Ignorance are very Spiteful and Opprobrious Words and such as the Author had little Comfort of since he saw them in the Printed Pamphlet for he had learnt That the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God And his design was not to provoke and exasperate but if he could to win and prevail upon his Non-juring Brethren with Calmness and Composedness to examine candidly whether what he had writ was the Sense of that Learned Convocation or no Hoping that if they found it was they might be brought over to comply with and increase the Happiness of this Present Government Far therefore was he from reproaching them with Malice or Ignorance for he Reverenced the Persons and Admired the Parts and lamented the loss of many of them So that the Truth is those words never fell from the Pen of the Author and therefore he desires that the Dissembling Stationer who abused him in Printing the Book without his knowledg may be examined about it for till those words were Printed he knew nothing of them Whoever therefore would be so abused may commit his Papers to Mr. C and from his Confederacy with the Non-Jurors Party he may expect to be so treated THE VINDICATION OF OBEDIENCE TO THE Present Government c. CHAP. I. Concerning the Imputation cast on those who took the Oaths before the Publication of the Convocation-Book THE first Effort of the Answerer is an Imputation of Guilt upon all the Jurors and that whether the Allegations of the Author from the Convocation p. 1. be true or false This is hard on many a good man that knew nothing either of the obscure Convocation or the obscurer Author But so it is For this can by no means justifie them being at the best but a Pretence taken up after the Fact and as a subsequent Law cannot condemn so neither can it justifie a Fact previous to it But doth he think the Author produced this for a Reason of what he had beforehand done The Answerer is not so soft but he knew this to be only an Inducement to such as himself that were more scrupulous of the Equity and Legality of it And the Case is this The Church of England had not by any Publick Act that we knew of interposed her Judgment on either side but every man was left to the Direction of his own Conscience guided by the General Principles of that Church and the Word of God And all the Obligation that the Church could lay upon them was only an acting consonantly to her declared Principles Hereupon some took the Oaths and some did not and yet I dare not think but that both Parties acted on a Principle of Conscience Afterwards an old convocation-Convocation-Book is produced and the Jurors perusing it discover the Doctrine of the Church of England to justify their Proceedings Now though the subsequent Discovery could not be produced as the Ground and Reason of their Previous Act yet sure I am it doth clear and vindicate them from that Scandal of their deserting their Old Principles which some men labour to cast upon them And that was all that was designed from it But if in the Innocency of our Souls we had acted besides the Principles of the Church of England which were not sufficiently declared to us could those who kept this Book so long private and afterwards publish'd it as if it had been meant for a Snare to our Consciences hold themselves excused Whatever they can do in this respect P. 2. we are call'd upon to shew any other Publick Act of the Church of England any Opinion of one of the approved Sons thereof the practice of any one that own'd her Principles in favour of the Doctrines we now teach and the Practices we now follow and then we shall be allowed to say something To obtain his favour though the Principles whereupon men took the Oaths were various yet I will instance some of them and oblige my Answerer by confirming them both by the Authority of Principles and Practice which is all that a Man can require Now 1. Some men took the Oaths upon a Supposition That the Violation of the Fundamental Laws of the Land did release them from the Duty of their Allegiance and though the Convocation-Book doth no where purposely discourse this Case P. 27. yet the Notion that it gives of Tyranny of which more presently and its vindicating the Jews in opposing Autiochus Epiphanes a Tyrant leaves us very doubtful of their sense herein But tho they be silent since the Opinion of one Church-of England-man that is a Man approved will satisfie the Answerer he shall have Bishop Bilson's Judgment in this Case who discoursing purposely of Christian Subjection P. 279. Ed. 1586. Dare not rashly pronounce all that resist to be Rebels because Cases may so fall out even in Christian Kingdoms where the People may plead their Right against their Prince and not be charged with Rebellion And being demanded to produce an Example he adds If a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdom to a Foreign Realm or Change the Form of the Commonwealth from Impery to Tyranny or neglect the Laws established by Common Consent of Prince and People to execute his own pleasure in these saith he and other Cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons joyn together to defend their Ancient and Accustomed Liberty Regiment and Law they may not well be counted Rebels This will justifie I think all those that deserted his Late Majesty had they done more than they did For an Embassy to Rome an Arbitrariness over Laws and before the Oaths were imposed yea probably before the Desertion an Open Negotiation with France which means our Slavery amounts to such a Vindication of us and them as cannot from this Principle be denied And this his Determination is not destitute of all Reason For if our Allegiance respect primarily the Government and then the Governour as the Head of it See his Case of the Engagement as Bishop Sanderson seems to intimate it sollows thence That by vertue of the Duty that we owe unto the Government Allegiance must although the Rightful Governour by withdrawing incapacitate himself to receive it be paid somewhere or other or else the Government must be dissolved And since this Learned Bishop judged thus I doubt not but as some others that built on the same Principles he would have practised so also 2. Others supposing that the King's Desertion or Abdication which you will left them in a State of Liberty thought their late Oath of Allegiance to him was vacated and so were free to oblige themselves anew And

Mattathias his Claim is preferred before it Of whom though there neither was nor could be our Answerer's Prescription nor a long undisturbed Possession the last Owner in our Answerer's words being actually at Law with him nor any Legal Right or Title but barely the Submission and Consent of the People whence he may also learn how necessary their Consent is to a Government yet of him Can. 31. p. 68. After the Jews were delivered from their Servitude under the Kings of Syria and the Government over them was setled in Mattathias 's Posterity the Convocation teacheth that it was not lawful for the People upon any occasion to have rebelled against them or to have offered violence to their Persons I know the Answerer pretends that Antiochus had no Right and 't is true he had not the Right which the Peoples Submission would invest him with but he had Possession and that is such a Right as our Answerer confesseth ought to carry it P. 19. If then you desire to know from the Convocation what they mean by a thorough Settlement beside the natural Signification of their words Can. 28. you hence may see That they suppose that Government to be Thoroughly setled which hath Authority and Power to support it self especially when owned and acknowledged by the general Submission of the People and very cautiously is the word General made use of for in such Revolutions an universal Submission is not to be expected Thus I have done with my Answerer and I think Plainly demonstrated Submission and Obedience to the present Powers to become the Answerer's Duty as well as mine if he dare stick to the Principle of the Convocation for we have a Government so thoroughly setled that it can never be unhing'd but with the utter Ruin of our Laws and Liberties and the Desolation of the whole Kingdom A Government founded upon an Appeal to God for Truth and Justice and so founded upon a Divine Right A Government where if there be any Marks and Notes in Providence of God's positive Will and Pleasure is so characterized and remarked by them as the Pamphlet doth evidence that the Answerer could not deny them In short I hope a Government that is the Reward of our steadiness and perseverance in the late Times of Tryal and may God continue his Blessings to us in continuing it But laying aside the Convocation the Answerer proceeds to shew the Absurdity of my Interpretation from other Topicks Now if what I have offered be indeed the sense of the Convocation and let the Reader judge of it but if it be so what he bespatters me with are but so many virulent and base Reflections upon these Venerable Persons whereof the Convocation did consist The Reply therefore swelling larger than I did expect I am content to sit down and hear their Reproach Only from what I have said let the Reader speak if he think the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance to be what the Answerer asserted the whole design of that part of the Book that concerns Civil Government P. 21. Then for those Worthies of the Church of England that suffered between the years 42 and 60. a far worthier Pen hath already and will more fully represent the difference betwixt our Case and theirs And as for the Absurdity of this Doctrine which he saith is That the Permission of Providence is a Rule of Practice and a sufficient Warrant to act contrary to the Rule of Right and Justice amongst Men. P. 23. I tell him this is not the Consequence but a vile Aspersion cast upon the Convocation for the utmost that can be extorted from it is That the Permission of Providence is a Rule of Practice and a sufficient Warrant to Act. Besides the Laws of Civil Right and strict Justice when it hath placed Men in such Circumstances that it is not possible for them to discharge some other Duties and observe these Laws And let him touch here if he can or dare and therefore denying his Consequence till he can better prove it and I will give him to latter-Lammas to do it in I am not accountable for all that putrid stuff that follows P. 23. As if I taught that Men must direct their Lives not by fixed and stated Rules but by God's Permissions and Providential Occurrences and the like All which want as much Honesty as they do Ingenuity I purposely pass by his undutiful Insinuation of a Thief 's having stoln a Purse and giving it his Neighbour to keep and then Querying upon it Whether since he came by it by Providence he may not keep it P. 24. The Account I have already given when it is that Providence is a Rule of Practice removes this Doubt Which indeed deserves another kind of Answer than a Pen can give As also something worse than this that in his Answer may more than once be met with But I do not mean to turn Informer nor have I any Stomach to recriminate else I could charge him and that truly for building the Doctrines of Right to Crowns in New erected Governments upon Violence Bloodshed and Murther for he again and again intimates that if the Royal Line were but extinct i. e. had they Murthered King James and brought him to a Scaffold when they desired him but to withdraw then the present Government had acquired a Right and he could have taken the Oaths with a safe Conscience Now I believe his Master King James will ken him no Thanks for this his Doctrine Before I close I must observe one thing from the Answerer That after all his discarding Providence from being an Intimation of God's Will and Pleasure in any Revolutions yet upon my Assertion That Predictions themselves without this Interposition of Providence are not rashly to be executed P. 26. for that David refused to stretch forth his Hand against the Lords Anointed waiting his Way and Pleasure he confesseth ibid. That he left it to Gods Providence so to order and dispose of things and to bring it about in such a manner as he might take the Crown without the Violation if any Duty that he owed or of any former Engagement he made to King Saul Now when Providence saith he proceeds in this manner and so makes a clear passage to Submission then and then only it is a justifiable ground to act upon I am glad that it is ever a justifiable ground to act upon and doubt not but to shew in our case something of a parity to this for if the taking of the Crown in such a manner as not to violate any Duty that he owed to others does make a clear passage to Submission and is a justifiable ground then to act upon pray Sir speak what Duty was violated by his Sacred Majesty or by such as by Oath gave him Assurance of their Fidelity when Providence in such a visible Divine manner had advanced him to the Throne They durst not oppose God