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
Sanctions Then it was first That Burton in a seditious Sermon compared that excellent Prince to Julian and his Chapel to Julian's Altar And tells the same storie of Maris Bishop of Chalcedon who called Julian Atheist and Apostate to his face as our Author hath done in print That Male-content having been admitted to the Kings Chappel for a while and defeated of a Bishoprick to which he aspired turned Apostate and defamed the whole Order as Antichristian He had served that excellent Prince in his Closer and missing of the Preferment in the Court for his turbulency being banished thence he began to court the People and sought it in the Camp not being ashamed to profess himself an old out-cast Courtier worn our of favour and Friends there which was the reason that he became a Professed enemy both to King and Court Then it was that he made his Pulpit a Drum to beat up for Sedition and War Prynne Bastwick Leyton and many others took the Alarm and dipping their Pens in Gall made way for the Sword that glutted it self with so much bloud He presumes to dedicate his Seditious Harangues as so many Fire-brands to the Houses of Parliament where finding too much combustible matter he made such a flame as warmed him a little but made a general conflagration through the three Kingdoms Had it not been much better that two or three such Boutefeus had suffered according to their deserts than that the whole Nation should fall a Sacrifice to those Idols of a Seditious party There wanted not then good Laws against such disturbers of the publick peace The Statute of Westm the first provided That no man should publish or tell any false News whereby discord or occasion of discord or slander may grow between the King and his People or Nobles And a Statute was made the second of Richard 2. ch 5 for punishing counterfeiters of false news and lyes of Prelates Earls Dukes c. of things which by them were never spoken to the slander of the Prelates c. And the punishment was left to the discretion of the King and Council And old Bracton records this ancient usage Si quis Machinatus fuerit vel aliquid fecerit c. If any one shall contrive or do any thing against the life of the King or to make Sedition in his Army or shall give consent or counsel thereto although they effect not the mischief which they designed he shall be guilty of Treason And accordingly one John Bonnet a Wool-man was drawn and hanged for scattering seditious Libels in London In the 4th year of Hen. 5. as Stow relates Sir William Stanly a person of great valour was condemned and executed as a Traitor for saying less than our Author doth That if he thought Perkin Warbeck to be the undoubted Son of Edward the 4th he would never bear Arms against him And in the 9th year of H. 7. Bagnal Scot Heath and Kennington who had taken Sanctuary in St. Martins le grand were taken out and three of them executed for forging Seditious Bills to the slander of the King and Council The like proceedings were made against Barrow Greenwood Penry Vdal and many others who were condemned and some of them executed for the like Seditious Writings against Queen Eliz. and her Government concerning which I shall present to our Authors Her Majesties Proclamation By the QUEEN A Proclamation against certain Seditious and Schismatical Books and Libels c. THE Queens most Excellent Majesty considering how within these few years past and now of late certain seditious evil-disposed persons towards her Majesty and the Government established for causes Ecclesiastical within her Majesties Dominions have devised written printed or caused to be seditiously and secretly published dispersed sundry schismatical and seditious Books diffamatory Libels and other phanatical Writings amongst her Majesties Subjects containing in them Doctrine very erroneous and other matters notoriously untrue and slanderous to the State and against the godly reformation of Religion and Government Ecclesiastical established by Law and so quietly of long time continued and also against the persons of Bishops and others placed in authority Ecclesiastical under her Highness by her authority in railing sort and beyond the bounds of all good humanity All which Books Libels and Writings tend by their scope to perswade and bring in a monstrous and apparent dangerous Innovation within her Dominions and Countries of all manner of Ecclesiastical Government now in use and to the abridging or rather to the overthrow of her Highness lawful Prerogative allowed by Gods Law and established by the Laws of the Realm and consequently to reverse dissolve and set at liberty the present Government of the Church and to make a dangerous change of the form of Doctrine and use of Divine Service of God and the Ministration of the Sacraments now also in use with a rash and malicious purpose also to dissolve the Estate of the Prelacy being one of the three ancient Estates of this Realm under her Highness whereof her Majesty mindeth to have such a reverend regard as to their places in the Church and Commonwealth appertaineth All which said lewd and seditious practices do directly tend to the manifest wilful breach of great number of good Laws and Statutes of this Realm inconveniencies nothing regarded by such Innovations In consideration whereof her Highness graciously minding to provide some good and speedy Remedy to withstand such notable dangerous and ungodly Attempts and for that purpose to have such enormous Malefactors discovered and condignly punished doth signifie this her Highness misliking and indignation of such dangerous and wicked Enterprizes and for that purpose doth hereby will and also straightly charge and command that all persons whatsoever within any her Majesties Realms and Dominions who have or hereafter shall have any of the said seditious Books Pamphlets Libels or Writings or any of like nature already published or hereafter to be published in his or their custody containing such matters as above are mentioned against the present Order and Government of the Church of England or the lawful Ministers thereof or against the Rites and Ceremonies used in the Church and allowed by the Laws of the Realm That they and every of them do presently after with convenient speed bring in and deliver up the same unto the Ordinary of the Diocess or of the place where they inhabit to the intent they may be utterly defaced by the said Ordinary or otherwise used by them And that from henceforth no person or persons whatsoever be so hardy as to write contrive print or cause to be published or distributed or to keep any of the same or any other Books Libels or Writings of like nature and quality contrary to the true meaning and intent of this her Majesties Proclamation And likewise that no man hereafter give any instruction direction favour or assistance to the contriving writing printing publishing or dispersing of the same or such like
them that he might no longer be forced to prey abroad for his livelihood but having fed with the Pidgeons a while they perceived that neither head nor beak nor claws were like theirs and therefore they expel him out of their societie and then thinking to return to his old manner of life the rest fall on him and banish him from them also so that he was forced to remain alone as one in the Desart The Moral is onely this Though some men may for their own concerns and for a little time love the Treason yet generally all men hate the Traitor For my part I cannot see any one particular that did so justly render Julian odious to the Primitive Christians as that he had been an Apostate Lecturer in an Assembly of Christians And if any such shall for ambitious covetous or vainglorious ends seek Protection and Encouragement from some Great men in this our Age I shall earnestly beseech them to consider that as some have entertained good Angels unawares so others have evil ones to be their Familiars who usually drive them over Precipices to perish in the deep and by their fruits you may know them For as our Saviour said Joh. 8.44 Ye are of your father the devil because they did the works of the devil so they certainly that by lyes and falshood provoke to Envie Contention and Bloudshed they that falsely accuse innocent and pious persons and bring railing Accusations against their Governours such as Michael the Archangel durst not bring against Satan himself however they may pass for Angels of light with some deluded people will appear to sober and discerning persons not as an evil Spirit under a Prophets Mantle but in his proper colours and terrours breathing out Flames of fire raising Storms and Earthquakes and at last vanish leaving an infectious and noisome stench behind them If this Reflection savours too much of an Invective it is what our Author 's two great Leaders have suggested So Bracton says of a wicked King that he is Minister Diaboli dum declinat ad injuriam he is the Devils Minister that acts injuriously and Gregory says it not onely of Julian That the Devil was in him but even of Constantius That some Devil he knows not of what kind stole in with him to his Consultations p. 25. And when our Author calls the Prayers and Tears of the Primitive Christians Mountebank-prescriptions And p. 74. Much wonders at those who trouble the Nation at this time of the day with the unseasonable prescriptions of Prayers and Tears and the Passive Obedience of the Thebaean Legion And p. 75. That they throw away their lives and are certainly wearie of them who practise any such Passive Obedience And p. 77. That he is a felo de se and guiltie of his own Murder And thereupon prepares men for resistance of a lawful Power though it be exercised unlawfully with an Ei qui vult viribus uti erit viriliter resistendum applying what was spoken by Bracton against the violent attempts of one private person against another to the actions of lawful Princes and so doth teach the Doctrine of Devils for as St. James says Such wisdom comes not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish Though this might excuse the sharpness of my Reflections on the Author yet when I shall shew the provocation I had thereunto I think every truly Christian Reader will justifie me And this it was When I had read that passage in our Author quoted by him out of Zozomen p. 60. it came to my remembrance that Milton Cromwel's Secretarie in his Defence of the People of England for murthering King Charles the First of blessed memorie made use of the same quotation totidem verbis p. 44. From him also he took the Theme on which he declaims in so many Chapters For thus Milton Quid Antiocheni homines apprime Christiani What did the Antiochians who were the chiefest Christians did they pray for Julian the Apostate to whom they came publickly and rent him or as our Author interprets it vext every vein in his Royal heart with their reproaches and scoffing at his long Beard bid him make Ropes of it And when they heard of his death appointed publick Supplications Feastings and Mirth can you think that they ever prayed for his life and safetie What when it is also reported that he was slain by a Christian Souldier These are the Pillars on which our English Solomon hath raised to himself that Temple of Honour which yet may prove but as so many Pillars of Smoak to the eyes of all that shall inspect them and perhaps may have a worse effect which smoak that hath so much fire under it is wont to have upon the Author But let us observe what worthie Lectures our Author reads us on these Texts of Milton Chap. 3. They reproached him in words This Chapter consists of 7 pages Chap. 4. Of their Actions This hath about 7 more Chap. 5. and 6. Of their Prayers and their other Devotions makes 11 pages Chap. 7. His Death by a Christian Souldier where you have the passage at large out of Zozomen commending such as kill Tyrants 6 pages Chap. 8. How they used his memorie by joy and feasting at his death by calling him Persecutor Traitor Killer of Christ c. with other Reflections on their Behaviour Chap. 9. Ad finem He quotes also the same passages out of Bracton which Milton made use of p. 81. Non est Rex ubi dominatur voluntas non Lex exercere debet Rex potestatem Juris ut Vicarius Minister Dei potestas autem injuriae Diobali est non Dei cum declinat ad injuriam Rex Diaboli Minister est And as if these Arguments which that Mercenarie man made use of to justifie the death of Charles the first were not enough our Author adds more to them to what end he best knows But certainly if that Execrable Book deserved to be burnt by the common Hangman in France this book deserves to be used so by every Loyal Subject in England it being of much worse consequence than that of Milton Milton's book being written when the Father was in his Grave and this when the Son by many miracles of mercie is setled and preserved in the Throne where God long preserve and prosper him And this I suppose is the reason that our Author and Mr. Hunt cannot endure the mention of 48 no more than that of the Thebaean Legion because these men are the very Marshals and Miltons the Contrivers and Justifiers of whatever shall be done according to that pattern in the Mount as the old Phrase was A Mount like that which is described Heb. 12.18 So full of terrours as made Moses himself to tremble exceedingly Perhaps they finding no Preferment in the Established Government hope to get a Bootie by fishing in troubled waters and like the two Sons of Zebedee for they were Fishermen also to sit the one at the right
from abroad which may happen upon such an Exclusion for Regum afflictae fortunae facile multorum Opem alliciant ad misericordiam maximeque eorum qui aut Reges sunt aut vivunt in Regno quod Regale iis nomen magnum sanctum esse videatur The oppressed estate of Kings easily moves many to pitie especially them who are either Kings themselves or do live in a Kingdom to whom the name of a King is August and Sacred Saith the great Orator Pro lege Manil. Let us therefore leave the King and his Great Council to their free Determinations and acquiesce in the sage advice of Gamaliel St. Paul's Master Acts 5.39 Let us refrain from these things for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God And I shall conclude the business of Exclusion with the Determination of Bishop Sanderson whose single Judgment will outweigh in an equal balance all the Opinions of the Opposers You have it p. 350. of his book de Obligatione Conscientiae I think saith he that an Hereditarie Kingdom may not lawfully be changed for an Elective as in and by the Exclusion it is like to be nor for any other form of Government either by the People alone nor by the People and Nobles joyntly nor by the whole bodie of the People in their greatest latitude that is the People Nobles and the King consenting together unless perhaps the Royal Progenie should so totally fail that there is not one surviving who may claim it as his due by Right of Inheritance And let it be considered that he wrote this before the Bill of Exclusion was ever dreamt of And now I cannot but reflect upon the Prognosticators and Wizards of our Time that amuse the people with the fancies and fears which their own guilt hath created as if we should be all swallowed up in a moment and there were a fatal necessitie of endless miseries attending us such as Mr. Baxter in his Prognostication and our Author who p. 89. tells us of such a dismal prospect as makes every honest mans heart to shake I remember some years since upon the great Eclipse of the Sun Lilly and some others made such a dismal representation of it as struck a terror into a great part of the Countrie and made them take home their Cattel to their houses and seek Sanctuary themselves in the Churches as if Dooms-day were come when the cause was natural and nothing fell out but according to that course which God had appointed for the Motion of the Heavenly bodies Though wise men are not moved at such bugbears yet they have an ill Aspect on the people to dispose them for such Commotions as may promote the interest of discontented and designing men For my part I shall continue to pray for his Royal Highness as our Liturgy directs and if it be the will of God to send us a Popish Successor to punish us for our resistance of a Protestant King whose bloud still cries for Vengeance I had rather die for not resisting him than to be as instrumental in procuring a Bill of Exclusion as this man would be and as successful as he can hope to be at my death to have it written on my Tomb Here lieth the first Author of this Sentence RATHER THAN THE DVKE OF Y. SHOVLD NOT BE EXCLVDED WE WILL EXCLVDE THE GLORIOVS FAMILY OF THE STVARTS And I will yet pray against the wickedness of these men Lord cloath all such his enemies with shame but upon his head and the heads of his seed let the Crown flourish I perceive Mr. Hunt to be a great devoto to some kind of Parliaments and that which was convened in the first of King James was one that consisted of Wise Loyal and Pious persons I intreat him therefore to consider what was Enacted by them in their Recognition 1o. Jacobi where after the Preamble it is thus declared We therefore your most humble and Loyal Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled do from the bottom of our hearts yield to the Divine Majesty all humble thanks and praises not onely for the said unspeakeable and inestimable benefits and blessings above-mentioned but also that he hath further enriched your Highness with a most Royal Progeny of most rare and excellent gifts and forwardness and in his goodness is like to encrease the happy number of them And in most humble and lowly manner do beseech your most excellent Majesty that as a memorial to all Posterities amongst the records of your High Court of Parliament for ever to endure of our Loyalty Obedience and hearty and humble Affection it may be published and declared in this High Court of Parliament and enacted by the authority of the same That we being bounden thereunto N. B. by the Laws of God and man do recognize and acknowledge and thereby express our unspeakable Ioyes that immediately upon the dissolution and decease of Elizabeth sate Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same and by inherent Birth-right N. B. and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most Excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood-Royal of this Realm as is aforesaid And that by the goodness of God Almighty and lawful right of Descent under one Imperial Crown your Majesty is of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty King and by Gods goodness more able to protect and govern us your loving Subjects in all peace and plenty than any of your noble Progenitors and thereunto we most humbly and faithfully submit and oblige our selves our heirs and posterities for ever until the last drop of our bloods be spent And we beseech your Majesty to accept the same as the first-fruits in this High Court of Parliament of our Loyalty and Faith to your Majesty and your Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever Now as Grotius says a People may be presumed to be the same that they formerly were till some publick act shew that their judgments are altered How dares Mr. Hunt then to say p. 47. If any man is so vain as to say that an unalterable course of Succession is established among us by Divine Right I say he is a man fitted to believe Transubstantiation and the Infallibility of the Pope c. And if any man shall add that this is the Doctrine of the Reformation and adventure to tell the people so they are the most impudent falsaries that ever any Age produced when there is scarce a Child but hath heard what was done and maintained by the Clergy in the Case of Mary Queen of Scots How can this man who doubtless is an Ignorâ—mus if he never knew