enforcing to Idolatry assumed all Religious Worship to himself yet the Prophet acknowledges and honors him as his King and Sovereign observe Religion requires Subjection to those Kings that deface the Worship of God and would compel to Idolatry Now if it be said that Idolatry was the Worship injoin'd by the Laws of the Land We answer that Idolatry is against the Law of God and so the Jews were under a superior Obligation and I think if Men may take Arms when any thing is done to them contrary to human Laws there seems to be more reason that they should do so when any thing is done contrary to the Laws of the great King of Heaven and Earth but the latter is by our Adversaries disallowed therefore with much more reason the former But it is time to return to Bishop Brownrig who avers That active and actual Obedience to ungodly Laws we may not we must not yield and perform thus to submit to Men were to rebel against God but yet protestation of Subjection must continue tho our particular active Obedience be denied or restrain'd tho we dare not perform our active Obedience in doing what they command Pag. 34. yet we must perform our passive Obedience in submitting to their punishments Papists teach that Heretical Kings forfeit their Crowns and Lives if they command against God. No we must here with Daniel honor their Persons and Calling when Conscience forbids us to fullfil their Commandments Darius also was now the Author of Daniel's destruction his Law ensnared him his Power condemn'd him his Seal shut him up in the Den of Lions yet for all this the holy Prophet honors him as his King. Observe No worng or injury can exempt or discharge our persons from our Lawful Sovereign ☜ He upbraids not the King with Tyranny and Impiety charges him not with the cruelty of his usage threatens him not with Vengeance and Judgments from God much less as a Prophet doth he denounce sentence of deprivation against him but fergetting his wrongs forgiving his Injuries sends up a devout Prayer for his life and welfare c. SECT XV. In Justice I ought to have given King Charles the First the Preference to some of the forecited Authors but I have reserved him to lead the Van of the remaining Writers who were particularly engaged in the Service of that Truth for which that great Prince became a Martyr and when I have mentioned this I have said enough to those who consider what he suffered by the Men who were Enemies to the Doctrine of Nonresistance and what he unanswerably wrote in Defence of that Doctrine being resolved at present to quote no more of him than that one Sentence in his Second Paper to Henderson that to reform as Grosthead said in ore gladii cruentandi is a wicked and ungodly saying This Prince shall be attended as he ought by his Chaplains and Dr. Hammond comes first of whom it were enough to say that he was a Member of the Convocation anno 1640 for that discovers his Sentiments since he gave his consent to those Canons But he hath more particularly declared his Opinion especially in his * L. 2. § 5. p. 53. Practical Catechism Some Wars are unjust as that of Subjects seditiously raised against the Supreme Power in a State. †Sect. 9. p. 69 70. But what may we fight for if we may not fight for Religion Resp It is the most precious thing indeed and that to be preserved by all lawful proper proportionable means but then War or unlawful resistance being of all things most improper to defend or secure or plant this and it being acknowledged unlawful for Peter to use the Sword for the Defence of Christ himself to do it meerly for Religion must needs be very unlawful Religion hath still been spread and propagated by suffering and not by resisting and indeed it being not in the power of Force to constrain my Soul or change my Religion or keep me from the Profession of it Arms or Resistance must needs be very improper for that purpose And the same Author in his Section of Meekness says if they be our lawful Magistrates then our Meekness consists in Obedience active or passive acting all their legal Commands and submitting so far at least as not to make violent resistance to the punishment which they shall inflict upon us I shall put you in mind of this great Truth that Christ and his Disciples were Id. sect 11. p. 79 80. of all the Doctors that ever were in the World the most careful to preserve the Doctrine and Practice of Allegiance even when the Emperors were the greatest Opposers of the Christian Religion and if ever you mean to be accounted a Follower of them you must go and do likewise S. But was not Tiberius an Usurper and yet Christ saith Render to Cesar the things that are Cesars C. Julius Cesar wrested the Power out of the Hand of the Senate but before the time of Tiberius the Business was accorded between the Senate and the Emperors that the Emperor now reigned unquestioned without any competition from the Senate Which Case how distant it is from other forcible Usurpations where the Legal Sovereign doth still claim his Right to his Kingdoms and to the Allegiance of his Subjects no way acquitting them from their Oaths or laying down his Pretensions tho for the present he be over-power'd is easily discernable to any who hath the Courage and Fidelity to consider it and is not by his own Interests bribed or frighted from the performance of his Christian duty And this Doctrine he ex professo maintains against S. Marshal Godwin and others in his Treatise of resisting the lawful Magistrate under the color of Religion c. in which he condemns Subjects taking Arms against their Prince * p. 54. c. by Arguments taken 1. From the nature of Religion 2. From the Examples of Christ and Christians 3. From the making of Christianity and particularly of the Protestant Doctrine 4. From the Constitution of the Kingdom affirming that in the New Testament there is no one Christian Virtue or Article of Faith more clearly deliver'd more effectually inforc'd upon our Understandings and Affections than that of Obedience to Kings Bishop Ferne hath written purposely on this Subject his Resolution of Conscience whether upon supposition the King will not discharge his Trust but is bent or seduced to subvert Religion Laws and Liberties Subjects may take Arms and resist Resolved That no Conscience upon such a Supposition or Case can find a clear ground for such Resistance whence it follows that the Resistance made against the higher Powers is unwarrantable and according to the Apostle damnable Rom. xiii You are told says Dr. Ferne the Gospel and your Liberties Epist and all you have are in most eminent danger and without taking Arms for the defence irrecoverably lost and that it is lawful by the fundamental Laws of
prostrated themselves for in your way of reasoning they have a right to preserve or delight themselves by any course of means and can be best protected by the prevailing side which because it hath more degrees of growing Power has it seems therefore more of right P. 158. thus it is in the choice of every Subject whom you make the Judge of the means to preserve himself to apply himself to the stronger side or for a Company combin'd in Arms and Counsel when an Heir and a Traytor are engag'd in Battel with equal success as was the practice of the Lord Stanley c. at Bosworth-field to give the day to the side they presume will most favour them but there is no tye so strong as that of Religion c. * Vid. 1. part of the Hist p. 93. and whereas Hobbs affirm'd that Covenants are but words and breath and have no force to oblige or constrain any Man but what it has from the Publick Sword he answers that thus the Prince is always in a State of danger P. 160. Society being like a State of Nature managed all by force because he cannot be a day secure of remaining uppermost seeing that the People are taught by you to believe that the right of Authority is a deceit and that every one would have as good a Title if he had as long a Sword for the many headed Beast will throw the Rider when he burthens and galls them Woe to all the Princes upon Earth if this Doctrin be true and becomes Popular if the Multitude believe this the Prince not Armed with the scales of the Leviathan i. e. with irresistible Power can never be safe P. 161. wherefore such as own these pernicious Doctrins destructive to all Societies of Men ☜ may be said to have Wolves Heads as the Laws of old were wont to speak concerning excommunicated Persons and are like those ravenous Beasts so far from deserving our love and care P. 192. that they ought to be destroyed at the common charge if the commands of Christ and his Apostles are not also Laws what means the common Doctrin in the Scripture of suffering for the sake of Christianity We are injoined to take up the Cross and to follow Christ c. Such commands and exhortations to dye rather than to obey Unchristian injunctions are deliver'd in vain yea they deserve the name of Impious if they be not a Royal Law without the stamp of Civil Authority it is therefore your opinion that it is our duty for the sake of outward safety to obey that which is the Law of our Country tho we live among the Heathens rather than to follow dangerous tho Evangelical Counsel This Doctor together with the Lords Bishops of Ely and Bath and Wells and Dr. Hooper were by the King appointed to attend the late Duke of Monmouth before his Execution and the great thing that they with reason prest him to was a particular repentance an acknowledgment that his Invasion was a Rebellion particularly urging him as the Printed account says more than once P. 1 2. if he were of the Church of England to acknowledge the Doctrin of Non Resistance to be true ☞ and therefore I believe that Pulton the Jesuit as †Pulton consider'd p. 67. himself says charg'd him unjustly that when he assisted Sir Thomas Armstrong before his Execution that he did not oblige him to an humble acknowledgment of his Crimes and particularly of the injury done to his King and Country for the * Account of the cons with 〈◊〉 p. â—3 Doctor even in the heigth of Popery thought his Loyalty more valuable than Mr. Meredith's because he as a Son of the Church of England profest he would not rebel against the King notwithstanding he might be of another Religion whereas Mr. M. being of the same Religion could not well separate Loyalty from Interest and ‖ 〈…〉 cons p. 89. avers that he is by Church Principle against resisting the Higher Powers and approves not of the excluding and deposing Doctrin taught in Mr. P's great Lateran Council before there were Jesuits and also after they arose by Bellarmine and Doleman and a long train of others in which some Popes some Synodical Men have pompously march'd To pass by General Complaints Id. exam of 〈◊〉 10 note 〈◊〉 holiness of life p. 243. we may furnish our selves with abundance of instances in the Lives of particular Men of that Communion who have been Infamous for Impiety I shall content my self with a few reflections upon two or three of this sort of Mâ—n with whom the more the World is acquainted the less veneration it will have for them Pope Gregory the Great fawn'd upon the Emperor Mauritius whilst he lived and prospered and own'd him as his Patron and the Maker of his Fortunes even before he had made his own But assoon as the Emperor and his Family were barbarously Murthered by the most Bloody Vassal and Usurper Phocas Gregory insulted over this dead Lion and flatter'd this living Monster and his Immoral Wife Leontia He used such words at his â—surped â—xaltation as he did at that which he called the Conversion of England singing profanely Glory to God in the Highest Let the Heavens rejoyce and the Earth be glad There are many things in the Roman Church it self P. 248. which by helping forward an ill life do in part deface this mark of her Sanctity Such as the Doctrins about Papal Supremacy Which last is very prejudicial to the quiet of the World especially in the Deposing Point concerning which I take leave to use the words of another with Relation to Bellarmine He was * Postscript to transl of 〈…〉 of the Leag p. 15 16 17. himself a Preacher for the League in Paris during the Rebellion there of King Henry IV. Some of his Principles are these following In the Kingdoms of Men the Power of the King is from the People because the People make the King. We hear Bellarmine in another place â—ositively affirming it as Matter of Faith if any Christian Prince shall depart from the Catholick Religion and shall withdraw others from it he immediatly forfeits all Power and Dignity even before the Pope has pronounced sentence on him And his Subjects in case they have Power to do it may and ought to cast out such an Heretick from his Sovereignty over Christians If therefore the Faith of Bellarmine be Faction whatsoever his Church is in it self it is certain as he has made it it can never he found out either as The Church or as A found Church so far as we are to look for it by the Note of Holiness SECT XII Dr. Patrick hath also fully declared his Opinion in this point for besides what hath been cited out of his works in the first part of this History he says Paraphâ— on on Ps 15. p. 75. that he who shall dwell in God's Tabernacle is a
them by second Causes and without them but because God doth this sometimes by the consent of the People as he transferr'd the Kingdom of Saul to David and the Kingdom of Joram to Jehu and sometimes doth it without the Peoples consent as he transferr'd the Kingdom of the Canaanites to the Jews that of the Medes to Cyrus that of the Persians to Alexander and of many other Kingdoms to the Romans will it therefore follow that it is lawful for the People without God without any express relation of his Will to dethrone their Kings and take from them their Authority ☜ If God and the People make Kings then the People without God and without an express revelation of his Will cannot depose their Kings God is the chief and principal Agent the People are only God's Instrument as therefore the Instrument doth nothing without the Artificer so whither can the People do any thing in this case without God. After this he proves Lib 2. cap. 20. pag. 614 615. that both the Jews and Christians did bear with as their Duty obliged them idolatrous and tyrannical Kings and then adds to this practice of the Church and of all Antiquity the best Interpreter of Scriptures I will subjoin the Institution of Kings All power is of God it is his Ordinance and whoso resists it resists the Ordinance of God From the same God had David and Samuel Solomon and Jeroboam Hezekiah and Ahab Manasses and Josiah Nero and Constantine Julian and Theodosius their Authority of good Kings it is said By me Kings reign Of evil Kings I have given them a King in my wrath Good Kings are given in mercy evill Kings in fury but all are given by God therefore all must be obey'd altho not in all things we must not resist any but must either do that which the King commands justly or suffer what he cruelly inflicts For the Obedience of Subjects falls under the divine Precept natural or moral in the Fifth Commandment which is also confirm'd by Christ in the Gospel by his Precept Give to Cesar the things that are Cesar 's and by his Example who paid Tribute and suffer'd a most shameful Death under Pilate who rather forfeited his Life than he would forfeit his Obedience and by his Apostles Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers to Heathens and infidel Persecutors who endeavour'd to draw their Subjects over to their Infidelity Such a one was Nero such were the rest of the Persecutors and yet these were to be submitted to not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake Fear God honour the King and of this Honour the chiefest part is Obedience These divine Precepts natural moral evangelical are indispensable and bind the Conscience nor is it likely that God and Christ and the Apostles would have deliver'd such Precepts as they would not have to be observ'd by Christians If thy King be good he is thy nursing Father if he be evil he tryes thee if he be a Persecutor he exercises thee if he be godly he is exercised with thee What can a Christian Soul here contemn Will it contemn its nursing Father who affords it Necessaries that it may be brought to Heaven Or will it contemn him who tryes it who exercises it under the Cross that it may shine gloriously in the Kingdom of Heaven The Enemies to this Doctrine are 1. the Anabaptists and Libertines who disown all Magistracy and throw off its Yoak and of Stephen of Hallestat who would have none but good Magistrates obey'd 2. All Seditions Tumults Wars c. by means of which the Christian Religion is evil spoken of among the Heathen as if it were a traiterous Religion and an Enemy to Kings the Name of God is blasphemed and the Enemies of the Gospel encouraged to persecute the Church As to the instance of Athalia Lib. 2. cap. 38. p. 919. he avers that she was Queen only de facto and not de jure having cruelly against Nature slain the Sons of Ahaziah her Son being incited by Ambition that she got the Kingdom by Tyranny without any Right or Title that she kept it by Force and Arms that she was not a lawful Queen but a most wicked Usurper There is a vast difference between a Tyrant that hath a just Title to his Crown and a Tyrant who hath no Right ☞ who hath usurp'd a Kingdom by force if a lawful King turn Tyrant neither his Bishops nor his Nobles nor his People can compel him to rule according to Law God only can restrain him who gives such a King in his fury and for the Sins of a Nation causes a Hypocrite to reign over them for such a Tyrant having a just Title to his Throne is ordained by God and he that resists him resists the Ordinance of God but if any Man usurp a Kingdom by Force and Tyranny he is not a King but an Enemy and it is lawful for any man to resist him as he would do an Enemy Francis Godwin Annâ—â—s of Q. Mary pag. 266 267. Bishop of Hereford publish'd his Annals An. 1616. and therein treating of the Lady Jane's assuming the Crown which he truly says she was forc'd by her Parents and Friends Ambition to accept and which she received with Tears but resigned with Joy and the march of the Duke of Northumberland's Army against Queen Mary to whom the Londoners when they march'd through the City did not wish success he observes the Londoners stood very well affected in Point of Religion so did also for the most part the Suffolk and the Norfolk Men and they knew Mary to be absolute for Popery ☞ but the English are in their due respects to their Prince so loyally constant that no regards no not pretext of Religion can alienate their Affections from their lawful Sovereign whereof the miserable Case of the Lady Jane will anon give a memorable Example for although her Faction had laid a strong foundation and had most artificially raised their Superstructure yet as soon as the true and undoubted Heir did but manifest her Resolution to vindicate her Right this accurate Pile presently fell and dissolved as it were in the twinkling of an Eye and that chiefly by their endeavour of whom for their Religion the Lady Jane might have presumed herself assured And the learned and godly Prelate Ridley who I wish ☜ had not err'd in this matter when he preach'd up the Lady Jane's Title P. 270. was scarce heard out with patience by those who were his particular Charge And as the Earl of Arundel said the Friends of Northumberland had no regard to the Apostolical Rules That Evil must not be done that good may come thereof and that we must obey even evil Princes not for Fear but for Conscience SECT XI Anno 1610. Dr. David Owen the only Batchelour of Divinity publish'd at Cambridge a little Treatise called Herod and Pilate reconciled to shew the Concord of Papist and
declared at the least four times in the year That the King's Majesties Power Authority and Preheminence within his Realms and Dominions is the highest Power under God Here the Injunction plainly distinguishes the claim of the Pope from other claims implying that our Church always believed that her Prince's Power was derived immediately from God and that they were superior to all their Subjects either singly or collectively and so were not accountable to them but only to God and among Bishop Ridley's Articles of Visitation An. 1550. one is Whether any do preach or defend that private persons may make Insurrection stir Sedition or compel Men to give them their Goods Anno 1564. being the seventh Year of Queen Elizabeth in the ‖ Sparr Collect. p. 123. Articles for Preaching it is injoyn'd That the Minister move all People to Obedience as well in observation of the Orders appointed in the Book of Common Service as in the Queen's Majesty's Injunctions as also of all other civil Duties due for Subjects to do and that all Preachers Preaching Matters tending to Dissention c. shall be complained At last the Injunctions were called Canons and the first Canon An. 1603. in the first Year of King James is the same in substance with the Injunction of Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth and for this reason Can. 55. it is ordained That every Minister should before his Sermon acknowledge the King to be in all Causes and over all Persons supreme Head and Governor in more express terms than were formerly used But particularly I look upon the Canons of the Year 1640. to be a full Explanation of the belief of our Church in this point Now Can. 1. injoyns all former Laws Ordinances and Constitutions formerly made for the acknowledgment and profession of the most lawful and independent Authority of our dread Sovereign Lord the King 's most excellent Majesty to be carefully observed and then descends to give an Explanation of the Royal Power and Authority That the most sacred Order of Kings is of divine Right being the Ordinance of God himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly establish'd by express Texts both of the Old and New Testament and for any Person or Persons to set up maintain or allow in any their said Realms or Territories respectively under any pretence whatsoever any independent coactive Power either Papal or Popular whether directly or indirectly is to undermine their great Royal Office and cunningly to overthrow that most Sacred Offfice which God himself hath establish'd and so is treasonable against God as well as against the King. For Subjects to bear Arms against their Kings See the Doctrine of these Canons vindicated in Dr. Puller's Moderat of the Ch. of Engl. c. 12. §. 6. p. 34. offensive or defensive upon any Pretence whatsoever is at least to resist the Powers which are ordained of God and though they do not invade but only resist St. Paul tells them plainly They shall receive to themselves Damnation while in the next Paragraph they shew that this Doctrine does not intitle the King to every Man's Estate But against the Synod that made these Canons lies a great Objection tho I should have thought that the hard Censures of it might have been spar'd because no Synod of our Church and perhaps none of any other Protestant Church hath so expresly condemn'd Popery and Socinianism the great Enemies of true Reformed Christianity as this Synod hath done ‖ V. Art. 3.4 that it was not a Lawful Synod because it was continued and sat after the Parliament was Dissolved and was by another Parliament Condemn'd not to answer that that very Parliament that first Condemn'd this Synod ruin'd even the Monarchy it self nor that the Synods of old Provincial or General were not dependent on the meeting of the States at the same time I answer First that these Canons were made and confirm'd in full Convocation of both Provinces of Canterbury and York and the making of Canons being a work properly Ecclesiastical these Canons were made by the Representatives of the whole Clergy of this Kingdom 2. The Canons were confirm'd by the King which was all that was of old required in such Cases and tho the Convocation sat after the Dissolution of the Parliament yet 1. This is not without President even in the happy Days of Queen Elizabeth not to look back into Henry VIII or the primitive Times And 2. the Persons who condemn'd this Synod are well known to have done it to justifie their own Proceedings being resolved to ruine Episcopacy and with it the Monarchy and afterward by their own power they called an Assembly of Divines and What a Confession of Faith what Discipline Rites and Methods did they Establish a Directory among other things out of which they left the Lord's Prayer perhaps because it 't was a Form the Apostles Creed because themselves thought they could make a better and the Ten Commandments because the fifth plainly accused them of Rebellion against their Lawful Prince And it is worth the observing that Sr. Edward Deering's Speeches that were spoken with so much Virulence against this Synod and afterwards Printed were by the Order of the same House who first applauded them decreed to be Burnt by the hand of the Common Hang-man And if it be still objected that the Canons were Reprobated since the Restitution of Charles II. I say that I quote them not as a Law that obliges the Church but as the known Sense of the Church of England at that time CHAP. III. The Doctrine of the Homilies THough the name of Homily hath been look'd upon and censured by unthinking People as ridiculous yet those admirable Sermons made by our first Reformers as a body of practical Divinity and a Confutation of the Errors and Idolatries of the Church of Rome are as Bishop Ridley said of the first Tome of them * Apud Fox To. 3. p. 506. Holy and wholsome Homilies Recommendations of the principal Virtues which are commended in Scripture and against the most pernicious and capital Vices that so alas do reign in this Realm of England These we subscribe to as containing wholsome Doctrine †Dr. Stanley's Faith and Pract. c. 7. p. 192. and every Man hereby sees what Opinions the Clergy are of for they subscribe and assent to the Book of Articles and Homilies and to the Book of Common Prayer Many also have some regard to the Articles of An 1640. They take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test c. and Johnson says That the Book of Homilies is the best Book in the World next the Bible And since a ‖ D. Welw Letter to M. March p. 10. late Author is so bold to say that Passive Obedience in the narrow sense we take it in was not so much as thought on at the time of the publishing the Homilies I must first ask him How he came to be so
is thus express'd From Civil Wars c. ☜ but not one Word of this could he ever find in the Roman Missals that have come to his hands it being the peculiar Glory of the Church of England that her Prayers and Practices have always been eminently loyal and Enemies to Treason and Rebellion And he says farther * Ib. p. 226 227. That Rebellion is a sin so contrary to Christianity that though the Primitive Christians had all the Provocations imaginable and Force sufficient they never offer'd to rebel So that they who do rebel have divested themselves of the Christian Principles and almost of their Humanity too In the Prayer for the Parliament We may say of our Princes as Pliny said of the good Emperor Trajan they have freely yielded to rule by those Laws to which nothing but their own goodness could oblige them and doubtless the People of England ought to take it as an Act of Grace that their Kings have consented to govern them on this manner In the Prayer after the Commandments the King is said to be God's Minister and we beg God that all his Subjects duly considering that he hath God's Authority may faithfully serve honor and humbly obey him according to God's blessed Word and Ordinance And this is admirably commented †Id. part 3. §. 4. p. 20. We are to consider that Kings bear God's Name and act by his Power and such as rebel do fight against God oppose his Word and resist his Ordinance c. In the occasional Office for Nov. 5. we pray God That the King may cut off all such workers of Iniquity as turn Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction And in the Office for May 29. when we thank God for the Restoration of the Royal Family we beseech God to accept of our unfeigned Oblation of our selves vowing all holy Obedience in Thought Word and Work unto the Divine Majesty and promising in him and for him all dutiful Allegiance to his anointed Servant and to his Heirs for ever And it is also observable the Proclamations relating to those solemn times are appointed to be read which are as full to this purpose as any thing can be and by our Canons when the Minister bids Prayer before his Sermon to continue the belief of this Truth he is bound to exhort the People when they pray to acknowledge the King to be in all Causes and over all Persons next and immediately under God supreme c. CHAP. V. The Orders of our Bishops BY the Orders of our Bishops I mean not so much the particular Injunctions or Enquiries of our Prelates within their own particular Dioceses though of such instances there is no want as I have shewn Chap. 2. from the Articles of Inquiry of Archbishop Cranmer and the Articles of Visitation of Bishop Ridley and could prove from many other such Instances but the general Orders which have been sent from the Metropolitan to the whole Church such Injunctions when obey'd ought to be look'd on as the sense of the whole Church unless we shall impeach either the Makers or the Complyers of dishonest Practices especially when the Adversaries of the Church have given occasion to such Injunctions thus when Knight of whom I shall treat in the next Chapter was censured at Oxford the same Year some Cautions concerning Preachers and Preaching were by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York with the King's Consent as the Law required sent to the several Bishops of their Provinces to be put in execution in their several Dioceses The Directions are dated Aug. 4. 1622. of which the first requires That no Preacher c. shall fall into any set course or common place otherwise than by opening the Coherence and division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in essence substance effect or natural inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth Ann. 1562. or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority c. The fourth is That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to declare limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Lecture or Sermon the Power Prerogative Jurisdiction Authority or duty of Sovereign Princes or therein meddle with Matters of State and Reference between Princes and People than as they are instructed in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth by Publick Authority These Injunctions were again renew'd and reinforc'd in the days of King Charles the Second and in the next Reign and in the Articles of the present Archbishop of Canterbury * July 16. 1638. Art. 7. the Clergy are expresly enjoyn'd That in their Sermons they should four times in the Year at least teach the People That the Kings Power being in his Dominions highest under God all Priests should upon all occasions persuade the People to Loyalty and Obedience to his Majesty in all things lawful and to patient Submission in the rest promoting as far as in them lies the publick Peace and Quiet of the World. And agreeably to this Doctrine were the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy especially the later framed which though particularly made against the Papists yet as Bishop Sanderson well observes where the Reason of making and imposing an Oath is particular Praelect 7. de juram but the words of the Oath are general there the Oath obliges according to the sense of the words in their utmost latitude as says he for Example in the Oath of Supremacy to the making of which the Usurpation of the Pope gave occasion the words being all general do exclude all Persons from exercising that Supreme Power in this Kingdom And every Clergy-man especially ought to reflect how often he hath solemnly profess'd and averr'd That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King or any commissioned by him c. and to remember that that Declaration was injoyned in opposition to the Doctrines of the year 1641 the Men of which age asserted That the Power of Kings was given them by the People and might be resumed by the Donors that the King was co-ordinate with the States and that his Politick differ'd from his personal Capacity Now the occasion of the making a Law and the preamble of it are look'd on as the best Interpreters of the words of a Law. CHAP. VI. The Censures of our Universities NOR are the Censures of our most famous Universities in this case to be neglected or look'd on slightly it is well known what a Repute the Judgment of the single College of the Sorbone hath at Paris and how much the Authority of the Foreign Universities together with our own sway'd with King Henry the Eighth and persuaded the Christian World to credit the Justice of his Divorce Now I shall not mention the Censure of the Mille manus Petition as it
‡ P. 201 202. We are not satified in being obliged to preserve the King's person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdom forasmuch as 1. No such limitation of our Duty in that behalf is to be found either in the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which no Papist would refuse to take with such a Limitation nor in the Protestation nor in the Word of God. 3. Such a Limitation leaves the Duty of the Subject at so much loosness and the safety of the King at so great uncertainty ☞ that whensoever the People shall have a mind to withdraw their Obedience they cannot want a pretence from the same for so doing 4. Hereby we make our selves guilty of an actual and real diminution of his Majesties Power and Greatness which in the same Breath we call the World to witness with our Consciences that we had no thought to diminish c. P. 210 211. The Tyranny and Yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the Necks of Subjects by their lawful Sovereigns ☜ is to be thrown off by Christian Boldness in confessing the truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up Arms or violent resisting the higher Powers Pag. 217 Because some have inferred from the very Order that the Defence of the King's Person and Authority ought to be with subordination to the preservation of the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdom therefore we cannot take this Oath Especially being told in a late Pamphlet P. 219. that the King not having preserved the Liberties of the Kingdom c. as of duty he ought is thereby become a Tyrant and so ceaseth to be a King and consequently that his Subjects cease to be Subjects and ow him no longer Subjection which Assertion since we heartily detest as false and scandalous in the Supposition and in the Inference seditious and devilish we dare not by subscribing this Article give the least countenance thereto And that we may take the Covenant in our own sense is contrary to the nature and end of an Oath which must be full of simplicity P. 223. contrary to the end of Speech c. and will bring a scandal upon our Religion that we practise that our selves that we condemn in the Paqists viz. Swearing with Jesuitical Equivocations and mental Reservations that we play fast and loose with God in as much as what we swear to day in one sense we may swear the direct contrary to morrow in another P. 225. And if this would fatisfie the Conscience we might with a good Conscience not only take the Covenant but even subscribe to the Council of Trent also yea and to the Turkish Alcoran P. 229. if the King should not protect us but neglect his part too having power and ability to perform it his voluntary neglect ought not to free us from the faithful performance of what is to be done on our part Ann. 1683. July 21. in a full Convocation many opinions were condemn'd that had been publish'd in diverse Books and writings in English and also in the Latin tongue P. 2. repugnant to the holy Scriptures decrees of Councils writings of the Fathers the Faith and profession of the Primitive Church and also destructive of the Kingly Government the safety of his Majesties Person the publick Peace the Laws of Nature and Bonds of Humane Society as Proposition 1. All civil Authority is derived originally from the People Proposition 2. There is a mutual compact tacit or express between a Prince and his Subjects and if he perform not his Duty they are discharged from theirs Proposition 3. P. 3. that if Lawful Governours become Tyrants or Govern otherwise than by the Laws of God and Man they ought to do they forfeit the Right they had unto their Government Prop. 7. Self-preservation is the Fundamental Law of Nature and supersedes the Obligation of all others when they stand in competition with it Prop. 8. The Doctrine of the Gospel concerning patient suffering of Injuries is not inconsistent with violent resisting of the higher Powers in case of Persecution for Religion Pr. 9. P. 4. There lies no obligation upon Christians to Passive Obedience when the Prince commands any thing against the Laws of our Country and the Primitive Christians chose rather to die than to resist because Christianity was not yet settled by the Laws of the Empire And besides the Condemnation of the Doctrines the Books of Milton P. 7. Baxter Goodwin Owen Johnson c. were ordered to be publickly burnt by the Hand of the Marshal in the Court of the Schools as Books that were fitted to deprave Mens Manners stir up Seditions and Tumults overthrow States and Kingdoms and lead to Rebellion Murther of Princes and Atheism it self And a Prohibition issued forbidding the Reading any of the said Books under great Penalties This Decree was drawn up by Dr. Jane Dean of Glocester and the King's Professor of Divinity at Oxon and subscribed by the Vicechancellor other Professors and the whole Convocation And pursuant to this Decree Parkinson a Fellow of Lincoln-College for maintaining that the Right and Foundation of all Power was in the People that Kings are accountable for their Maleadministration c. And particularly that King Charles the First was justly put to death for making War upon his Subjects was an 1684. expelled the University And it is observable that our excellent Homilies that so expresly require Obedience to Princes and condemn Rebellion and Resistance upon any pretence whatsoever were Printed at the Theatre the same year that the abovementioned Decree was made CHAP. VII The Opinions of Learned Men. WHen Men would know what are the Sentiments of any Church in her Articles or Sanctions the most rational Course is to make inquiry among those who were concern'd in making them or those who may be presumed best to understand them by reason of their nearness to the time their acquaintance with the Compilers or their extraordinary Sagacity and Honesty and of suchpersons in the Church of England must we make Inquiry concerning the Doctrine of Obedience and Non-resistance In * Burn. hist Ref. part 1. l. 3. p. 245. the Days of Henry the Eighth when the Reformation began to dawn an 1537. a Convocation was held upon the Conclusion of which there was Printed an Explanation of the chief Points of Religion signed by nineteen Bishops eight Arch-Deacons and seventeen Doctors of Divinity and Law in which there was an Exposition of the Creed the Ten Commandments c But this was but a rude Draught the beauteous Stroaks were given it †Id. p. 286. anno 1540. when a select number of Bishops sate by Virtue of a Commission from the King confirm'd in Parliament among which were Cranmer Ridley Redman and other extraordinary men their first work was to draw up a Declaration of the Christian Doctrine for the
so much was expunged he knows not he fully declares his mind †Pag. 93 94. In the mighty upon earth which are not always so virtuous and holy that their own good minds will bridle them what may we look for considering the Frailty of Man's Nature if the World do once hold it for a Maxim that Kings ought to live in no Subjection that how grievous disorder soever they fall into none may have coercive power over them Yet so it is that this we must necessarily admit as a number of right well learned Men are persuaded c. Inducements leading Men to think the highest Magistrate should not be judged of any saving God alone are especially these 1. As in natural Bodies there could be no motion unless there were something that moves all things and it self continueth immoveable so there must be a supreme Head of Justice whereunto all are subject but it self in subjection to none which kind of preheminence if some ought to have in a Kingdom ☞ who but the King shall have it Kings therefore no Man can have lawful power and authority to judge if private Men offend there is the Magistrate over them which judgeth if Magistrates they have their Prince if Princes there is Heaven a Tribunal before which they shall appear on earth they are not accountable to any And here this admirable Discourse breaks off abruptly which is a great pity There is no need to give Arch-Bishop Bancroft a place in this Catalogue the naming of his Books of dangerous Positions c and the Survey of the pretended holy Discipline are a sufficient Proof of his Sentiments and by his Directions if I mistake not was the account of Hacket Coppinger and Arthington drawn up called Conspiracy for Pretended Reformation the Design of which Books is expresly against the Doctrine of taking up Arms against the Lords Anointed especially on the account of Religion Near Mr. Hooker therefore I shall place his dear Friend Adrian Saravia as the Ancients frequently quote St Basil and St Gregory of Nazianzen together who tho a Forreiner better understood both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Polity of these Kingdoms than some Natives And he thus pronounces in the behalf of truth ‖ Epist ante libr. de Imperandi autorit Christianâ obedient At this time the Authority of Kings is called in Question and many men Dispute that the Authority of the People or of the Senate the States is above the King and that from Reasons of Humane not of Christian and Divine Philosophy and what is much to be lamented not without great Scandall of the Church of Christ they having got by reading the Roman and Greek Historians Philosophers and Orators an Admiration and liking of their Manners and Laws so as to think that all other Governments ought to be Modell'd like them Many Books are written by our own Men and by the Papists on this Subject which incite the Nobility and Commons to take Arms whensoever Kings turn Tyrants which Doctrine since it is contrary to the Principles of Christianity which our Saviour and his Apostles deliver'd to the Church and brings ruine and desolation to Kingdoms and Commonwealths I have thought my self bound to confute And see the Madness of these People who write on this Subject the Papists oblige all Subjects to take Arms against an Heretical Prince i. e. one whom they call so and others they oblige Subjects to take Arms against a Prince that is a Papist and therefore refuses to Establish or Defend the Pretestant Religion so that of whatsoever persuasion a Prince be by some part of his Subjects he must be accounted a Tyrant while a true Christian is a Good Subject let his Prince be of what Religion he pleases It is Intolerable Impiety to abuse the Testimony of Holy Scripture to the Confirmation of so Pestilent an error while no Pagan Laws no institutes of the Philosophers can enjoin Subjects a more perfect and strict Obedience than the Doctrine of the Gospel c after this in the Book he shews that the Original of Government is from God and not from the People that the People when they have chosen a King have no Authority over him afterwards that a King is as much a King before his Coronation Oath as after it and many other such things he concludes his fourth Book ‖ p. 314. Ed. 1610. and it is great pity the other three Books are lost with this excellent passage Since God is the preserver of Mankind he cannot suffer a Tyrant longer to Reign than it is necessary for the punishment of the Sins of Men wherefore the best remedy against a Tyrant is the amendment of our Lives and constant Prayers to God. A serious Meditation upon the precepts of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ will easily teach us what is the Duty of Good Men toward evil Kings and Princes he who shall revolve with himself the precepts of loving Enemies can be no Mans Enemy much less his Kings he who is prepared to Bless them that Curse him and is resolved not to return rayling for rayling nor to pursue revenge of injuries will never speak irreverently nor Curse Crowned Heads nor lye in wait for their Life he who hath learnt that we must not resist evil but overcome evil with Good with Forbearance and Patience can never be a Rebel never be a Traytor These things the Apostles taught us these things the Fathers have deliver'd down to us and being bred up under these institutions they patiently suffer'd the most cruel Torments and by suffering overcame and to us their Posterity they have left this Example in whose steps it is much safer for us to tread than to give credit to the Authors of the new Doctrine that is contrary to it SECT V. King James when he came to the Crown brought learning enough with him to Vindicate his own Right and the Rights of other Princes and without vanity it may be Affirm'd that he hath managed that subject to Admiration in his Writings the greatest part of which were opposed to the Doctrines of the Romanists tho his Basilicon Doron smartly chastises the Disciplinarains This King in the Hampton-Court * p. 47 48. Conference severely Condemn'd some of the notes of the Geneva Bible as partial untrue seditious and savoring too much of dangerous and Trayterous Conceits as for Example the Marginal Note on 1. Exod. 19. alloweth disobedience to Kings on 2. Chron. 15.16 the Note taxeth Asa for deposing his Mother only and not killing her And to shew the agreement between Papists †P. 49 50. and some others in these Doctrines wereas Dr. Reynolds complain'd of a seditious Book written by one Ficlerus a Papist in behalf of the Pope against Queen Elizabeth called De jure Magistratûs in subditos the Bishop of London said that the Author of that Book was a great Disciplinarian whereby it did appear what advantage that sort of People gave
that those who suffer for asserting any other power over Kings are not Martyrs but Traitors †Id. Serm. 39. p. 391 392. We sin against the Father the Root of Power in conceiving amiss of the Power of the Civil Magistrate when God saith By me Kings reign there the Per is not a Permission but a Commission it is not that they reign by my Sufferance but they reign by my Ordinance a King is not a King because he is a good King nor leaves being a King as soon as he leaves being good all is well summed up by the Apostle Rom. 13.5 Ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake The Law of the Prince is rooted in the power of God ‖ Ser. 69. p. 698. the Root of all is Order and the Orderer of all is the King. SECT IX The Archbishop of Spalato came a Stranger into this Kingdom but in a little time became well acquainted with the Estate of our Church and spoke her Sense in his Books which were well received both here and abroad nor does his Apostacy afterward concern the Merit of the Cause for if we may believe a ‖ Bishop Cosens of Transub Reverend Prelate of our Communion the Archbishop of Spalato did make good what he promised here when he came to Rome that he would own and defend the English Church to be a true Church of Christ And that among other her Doctrines he very well understood this of Non-resistance or rather he understood it to be a Doctrine of the true Catholick Church for his Books were written tho not completed before he left Italy will easily appear when it is remembered that * Lib. de Rep. Eccles cap. 1. he shews to the confutation of all that can be said to the contrary That our blessed Saviour while he lived on earth had no temporal Kingdom ‡ Cap. 2. That the Power of Princes is immmediately from God proving it from Rom. 13.1 That thus God ordain'd the Affairs of the old World that God himself was the King of Israel till the Days of Saul that he transferred his power not to the people but to Saul that this Opinion that Kings were of God's Institution and not the peoples was the Belief of the ancient Christians which he proves from the Writings of Irenaeus Tertull. Chryst Optat. Didymus Hosius Ambrose Austin c. And from the Assertions of the elder Popes and Councils that the common opinion of the Schoolmen and other Divines that Government is in the Body of the People is false that there is no Revelation hath confirmed this Assertion that all that the Light of Nature says is that Men must be governed and that if the Government were originally in the Hands of the People all Governments ought to have been Democratical which says he is the worst and most imperfect Form of Government he proving also that if the People do elect they cannot call the Prince whom they elect to account after which †Cap. 10. n. 82. he proposes an Objection If Princes be so unaccountable then there is no Remedy against evil Princes no not tho they are Enemies to the true Faith and are guilty of Maleadministration of the Government and vex their Subjects both in their Civil and Sacred Properties for while Deposition is the only Remedy if they cannot be deposed there is no Remedy To which he answers 1. That we are to enquire after such a State not what is free from all Inconveniences but what is subject to the least and the least dangerous but much more pernicious and destructive of human Society are those Confusions which are wont to arise from the Rebellions of Subjects and from Civil Wars than those which happen from the Cruelty of an ungovernable King exercised upon his Subjects 2. That this is proper and peculiar to a supreme temporal Prince that he cannot lawfully be deposed for such Kings are only inferior to God and are his immediate Vicegerents c. And in his Confutation of the Errors of Suarez ‖ C. 3. n. 6. he shews the mistakes of that Jesuit that there is no Revelation that God hath given Princes such a power proving from S. Paul that there is no power but what is of God. And †N. 16. if a Crown happen to fall to an Infidel his Subjects are bound to obey him in which case says he we ought to acknowledge and reverence the Equity of the English ☞ who when they had freed themselves from the Papal Yoke and embraced the Reformed Religion under Edward the Sixth did notwithstanding after his Death set the Crown on the Head of his Sister Mary whom they knew to be a Papist and zealously affected towards the Pope which Succession the Peers did not only allow of but the Prelates also who expected nothing from her but Executions and Martyrdoms for they knew that Religion ought not to hinder the Admission of the lawful Heir to his Right ‖ N. 17. For the Power of a King is given him by divine positive Law and therefore there is no other but God who can take his power from him To this Archbishop I will join his bitter Adversary Bishop Montagu * Not. in Invect 2. Naz. in Jul. because herein they were both agreed When the Christians in Julian 's time betook themselves only to their Prayers and not to Force it was not because they could not but because they would not for they had sufficient force to subdue the Tyrant as both Greg. Naz. and S. Austin aver but they had learn'd patience in the School of their Master Christ who had recommended it to them both by his Words and by his Example not to confound Heaven and Earth c. Bishop Lake 's Sermon Preached in Trinity-Church in Winchester at An Assizes 1610. A false Religion doth not hinder him from being a lawful Sovereign To resolve the Conscience of such as doubt Whether a different Religion doth evacuate the Power of a lawful Sovereign It doth not says he tho it be a false Religion SECT X. Old Mr. Ded hath been censured as a Puritan but I am sure neither he nor his Copartner Clever were so in this point for in their * The 5th Commandment p. 216 217. Comment on the Commandments they thus declare themselves The first Duty of the Subject is Submission both inward and outward in heart to reverence and outwardly to obey the Magistrate and this is commanded Rom. 13. Let every soul be subject c. He commands not only a bodily Subjection which may be in many rebellious persons that resist Authority and lie open to the Curse of God for this sin but an inward submission of the Soul as unto a spark of God's Authority ☜ and an appointment of his For if this inward be not first this outward will fail upon every occasion there must be also an outward subjection in obeying their Commands as
far as they command lawful things but if it so fall out that the Prince or any in Authority under him command things unlawful against the Commandment of God then it is better to obey God than Man yet so that we be content to bear any punishment that shall be laid upon us even to death it self as Daniel when the King made a wicked Edict would not yield unto it but yet was content to yield unto the punishment with patience and never went about to gather a Power against the King in his own Defence c. so that if the Magistrates Command be lawful the Subject must obey if he require an unlawful Obedience he must not rebel but suffer the punishment without grudging ☜ even in heart Eccl. 10.20 If the King be unjust and wicked we must pray God to convert him that as our Sins have brought an ill Governor over us so our Prayers may either remove or better him Bishop Hall's Contemplations The Inauguration of Saul 1 Vol. fol. p. 1029. Earthly Monarchs must walk by a Rule which if they transgress they shall be accountable to him that is higher than the highest who hath deputed them Not out of care of Civility so much as Conscience must every Samuel labour to keep eaven terms betwixt Kings and Subjects prescribing just moderation to the one to the other Obedience and Loyalty which whoever endeavours to trouble is none of the Friends of God or his Church The Death of Saul Lib. 14. p. 1084. Saul was none of the best Kings yet so impatient are his Subjects of the Indignity offered to his dead Corps that they will rather leave their own bones amongst the Philistins than the Carcass of Saul Such a close Relation there is betwixt a Prince and Subject that the dishonour of either is inseparable from both but how unnatural is the Villany of those Miscreants that can be content to be Actors in the Capital Wrong offered to Sovereign Authority Page 1085. Every drop of Royal Bloud is Sacred for a Man to say that he hath shed it is mortal The Death of Absalom Lib. 16. 1128. Strangers shall relieve him whom his own Son persecutes Page 1129. O holy David what means this ill-placed love this unjust mercy deal gently with a Traytor but of all Trayors with a Son Who can want courage to fight for a righteous Sovereign and Father against the Conspiracy of a wicked Son The God of Hosts with whom it is all one to save with many or with few takes part with Justice and lets Israel feel what it is to bear Arms for a traiterous Usurper Let no Man look to prosper by Rebellion the very thickets and stakes and pits and wild Beasts of the Wood shall conspire to the punishment of Traytors Page 1131. Even at this day very Pagans and Pilgrims that pass that way cast each man a stone into that heap and are wont to say in a solemn Execution Cursed be the Parricide Absalom and cursed be all unjust persecutors of their Parents for ever Fasten your Eyes upon this woful Spectacle O all ye rebellious and ungracious Children which rise up against the loins and thighs from which you fell and know that it is the least part of your punishment that your Carcasses rot on the Earth and your Name in Ignominy these do but shadow out those Eternal sufferings of your Souls for your full and unnatural disobedience Sheba's Rebellion Page 1132. That a lewd Conspirator should breath Treason is no wonder but is it not wonder and shame that upon every mutinous blast Israel should turn Traytor to God's anointed Contemplations Lib. 18. p. 1171. In the Case of Succession into Kingdoms we may not look into the Qualities of the Person but into the Right No Bond can be surer than the natural Allegiance of Subjects I do not find that the following Kings stood upon the Confirmation of the People but as those that knew the way to their Throne ascended their steps without aid Page 1174. How durst these seditious Mouths mention David in defiance One would have thought that very Name had been bale to have temper'd their fury and to have contained them within the limits off Obedience Blessed be God for lawful Government Even a mutinous Body cannot want a Head If the Rebellious Israelites have cast of their true Sovereign they must chuse a false Jeroboam Page 1175. The Civil defection was soon follow'd by the Spiritual As there are near respects betwixt God and his Anointed so there is great Affinity betwixt Treason and Idolatry They cannot return to God and hold off from their lawful Sovereign They cannot return to Jerusalem and keep off from God from their Loyalty How can they be mine whiles the Priests and Levites shall preach to them the necessity of their due obedience and the abomination of their Sacrifices in their wilful disobedience Bishop Hall's second Vol. Christ and Caesar p. 416. It is Religion that teacheth us that God hath ordained Kingly Sovereignty Rom. 13.1 ordain'd it immediately That Position was worthy of a Red-hat Potestas Principis dimanavit à Populo Pontificis à Deo. Bellar. Recog What need I persuade Christian Kings and Princes that they hold their Crowns and Scepters as in fee from the God of Heaven Cyrus himself had so much Divinity Ezra 1.2 It is Religion that teaches us that the same Power which ordained Caesar enjoins all faithful subjection to Caesar Not for fear but for Conscience Bishop Hall's third Vol. Pag. 118. 3. A promissory Oath which is to the certain prejudice of another Man 's Right cannot be attended with Justice 4. No prejudice of another Man's right can be so dangerous and sinful as that prejudice which is done to the right of publick and Sovereign Authority 5. The right of Sovereign Authority is highly prejudiced when private Subjects encroach upon it and shall upon suspicion of the diavowed intentions or actions of their Princes combine and bind themselves to enact establish or alter any matters concerning Religion without and therefore much more if against the Authority of their Lawful Sovereign 6. A Man is bound in Conscience to reverse and disclaim that which he was induced unlawfully to engage himself by Oath to perform 7. No Oath is or can be of force that is made against a lawful Oath formerly taken so that he that hath sworn Allegiance to his Sovereign and thereby bound himself to maintain the Right Power and Authority of his said Sovereign cannot by any second Oath be tied to do ought that may tend to the infringement thereof and if he have so tied himself the Obligation is ipso facto void and frustrate And according to this Doctrine was Mr. Dod's practice * Sir H. Yelverton's Pref. to Bishop Moreton of Episc for a little before Naseby fight King Charles of blessed memory sent the Earl of Lindsey to Mr. Dod to know his opinion of the War his Lordship found him ill
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding And to that Oracle of the Son of God himself Matth. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself c. then must he raise up his thoughts to the heigth of that beatitude which our Saviour's own mouth hath given assurance of to all such as will be ruled by him herein Matth. 5.10 11 12. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake c. and to look on the recompence of Reward and to encourage himself with the precedent of the Apostles and Prophets the innumerable company of Martyrs and Confessors and above all to look unto Christ himself Obj. P. 150 But suppose the King should command us to worship the Devil would you not give us leave to stand upon our Guard and if not what will become of God's Church and his Religion R. As if this had been a new Case never heard of before when the Devil-Worship i. e. that of Idols called Devils 1 Cor. x. 20. was so vehemently urged by the cruel Edicts of the persecuting Emperors did the Christians ever take Arms against them for the matter or betake themselves to any other Refuge but fervent Prayers unto Almighty God and patient suffering of what disgrace or punishment soever should be put upon them Pag. 152. c. But if Mens Hands be tied no Man's Estate will be secure c. I answer God's Word is clear Whosoever resisteth resisteth the Ordinance of God and thereby a necessity is imposed upon us of being subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake which may not be avoided by the pretext of any ensuing mischiefs whatsoever it becomes us in obedience to perform our part and leave the ordering of Events to God Pag. 177. whose part that is And so much both of active Obedience which in all things that may be done we are bound to perform unto our Sovereigns and of the passive which in other Cases with all Christian Fortitude we are tied to undergo ☞ without the least carnal thought either of resisting their Authority or conspiring against their Persons State and Dignity And then he closes his Discourse with an account of the Obligation of Oaths c. and the methods of the ancient Church when persecuted viz. ' Patient Sufferings and Prayers to God. Nor need I mention Dr. Heylin whose Opinions are well known and are remarkably to be seen in his Stumbling-Block of Disobedience discovered censured and removed c. Of which the Arguments are cogent and the Authorities good tho I do not like the sharpness of his Language nor the severity of his Reflections SECT XIII Archbishop * Oper. to 1. disc 2. The Serpentine-Salve p. 525 526. Bramhal who succeeded Usher both in his See and his Loyalty says there were Nonconformists in the Days of Queen Elisabeth and King James who severely protested in Print That no Christians gave more to the Royal Supremacy than they without limitation or qualification that for the King not to assume such a power or for the People to deny it is a damnable sin nay altho the States of the Kingdom should deny it him and if the King command any thing contrary to the Word of God yet we ought not to resist but peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue for Grace and when that cannot be obtained meekly to submit our selves to punishment abjuring all Doctrines repugnant to this as Anabaptistical and Antichristian they condemn all Practices contrary to this as seditious and sinful And then proceeds to give his own Opinion That Dominion is not from the Grant or Consent of the People but from God. Pag. 527 528. That absolute Power may be limited by Statutes c. without communicating Sovereign Power to subordinate or inferior Subjects or subjecting Majesty to Censure which Limitations do not proceed from mutual Pactions but from Acts of Grace and Bounty Pag. 531. If the People be greater than the King it is no more a Monarchy but a Democracy Our Oath binds us to acknowledge the King to be supreme in all Causes and over all persons to defend him against all Conspiracies and if to defend him much more not to offend him That Oath which binds us to defend him against all Attempts whatsoever presupposeth that no Attempt against him can be justified by Law against such evident Light of Truth to ground a contrary Assertion derogatory to his Majesty Pag. 532. upon the private Authority of Bracton and Fleta no authentick Authors were a strange degree of weakness or wilfulness that Subjects who have not the Power of the Sword committed to them may use force to recover their former liberty or raise Arms to change the Laws established Pag. 537. is without all contradiction both false and rebellious Surely Pag. 538. if any Liberty might warrant such force it is the Liberty of Religion but Christ never planted his Religion in Blood he cooled his Disciples Heat with a sharp Redargution Ye know not what spirit ye are of It is better to die innocent than to live nocent as the Thebean Legion all Christians of approved Valor answered the Emperor Maximian Pag. 542. If a Sovereign shall persecute his Subjects for not doing his unjust Commands yet it is not lawful to resist by raising Arms against him they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation But they ask Is there no Limits I answer where the Law doth not distinguish neither ought we to distinguish how shall we limit what God hath not limited Obj. But is there no Remedy for a Christian in this Case Yes three Remedies 1. To cease from sin remove our sin and God will take away his Rod. ☜ 2. Prayers and Tears S. Naz. lived under five Persecutions and never knew other Remedy The third Remedy is flight this is the uttermost which our Master hath allowed nor is this way so hard for Subjects this way hath ever proved successful to the Christian Religion SECT XIV With Archbishop Usher I will also join Bishop Brownrig a Man much of his primitive temper and approved Moderation even by the Enemies of our Church notwithstanding his Episcopal Character * Serm. to 1. Serm. 2. p. 26 28. The Writ by which Princes are made issues from Heaven Kings reign by God's Election not by his Permission only that is too weak and sandy a Foundation permission falls short of approbation c. †Serm. 3. p. 33. Darius was an Enemy to the Church one that kept the Church of God in Bondage and Captivity used them not as Subjects but as Slaves enthrall'd them to his Tyranny yet still acknowledged and honored by the Prophet as their rightful Sovereign the primitive Saints submitted to Julian that hateful Apostate S. Peter requires Subjection not only to the good and gentle but to the froward Governors Darius made a wicked Law forbidding Religion and
this Kingdom You must take all this upon trust without any express and particular warrant to rule and secure your Conscience against the express Words of the Apostle forbidding Resistance Rom. xiii * §. 3. 4. and then disproves that Tenet That Power is originally in and from the People and that if a Prince discharge not his Trust the Power devolves again upon the People †§. 5. shewing that most of their Weapons for Resistance were sharpned at the Philistines Forge their Arguments being borrowed from the Roman Schools and ‖ § 6. doth Religion stand in need of a Defence which it self condemns and which would be a perpetual Scandal to it But should I transcribe all that is to the purpose I should offer to the Reader the whole Book to which I must refer as I also refer him to the excellent Treatise of the Archbishop of Tuam Maxwell called Sacrosancta Regum Majestas written upon this very Subject Chillingworth Religion of Protestants a safe way c. p. 360. If I follow the Scripture I may nay I must obey my Sovereign in lawful things though an Heretick though a Tyrant and though I do not say the Pope but the Apostles themselves nay an Angel from Heaven should teach any thing against the Gospel of Christ I may nay I must denounce Anathema to him SECT XVI I might also only name Dudley Diggs's Book of the Unlawfulness of Subjects taking up Arms against their Sovereign in what case soever but then I should do wrong to my Subject and the Truth * Pag. 2. In the Service of which the Author shews That that one main Principle by which the seduced Multitude hath been tempted to catch at empty Happiness and thereby have pulled upon themselves Misery and Destruction That every Man being born free the Law of Nature doth justifie any Attempts to shake off those Bonds imposed upon him by Superiors if inconvenient and destructive of native Freedom is false since every Man is not born free all being by Nature subject to paternal Power and consequently to the Supreme Magistrate to whom divine Law confers the several Powers which Fathers resigned up and †p. 7. that those that will allow any Power to Subjects against their Ruler do thereby dissolve the Sinews of Government by which they were compacted into one and which made a Multitude a People for there cannot be two Powers and yet the Kingdom remain one Afterward he proves ‖ p. 13. by what Arts and Persuasives People are moved to Rebellion particularly ‡ p. 30 31. by being brought to believe That we are a mix'd State and that our Kings are accountable c. and then * p. 34 41 42. c. proceeds to prove the Doctrine of Nonresistance from Scripture proving that the same Obedience which God required from the Jews under the Law to be shewn to their Judges and Kings is now required and that Christ enjoyns his Followers under the Gospel as high a degree of Patience towards the higher Powers and that there is great reason that we should perform this duty more chearfully because our Saviour hath commended Persecution to all those that will live godly and that both by Precept and Example Rebellion in Christians being most prodigious The Jews wanted not some Colours of Reason to rebel their Blessings were temporal but a Christian cannot have any shadow of Scruple St. Peter failing in this Duty by resisting the Magistrate in defence of his innocent Master hath taken special care not to be imitated and therefore informs us largely with the full extent of Christian Patience Then ‖ p. 45. c. he makes an excellent Comment on St. Paul's Words Let every Soul be subject c. Here is a fair warning take heed what you do you have a terrible Enemy to encounter with it is a Fight against God you cannot flatter your selves with a prosperous issue for those that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation You have God's Word for it you are damn'd if you resist This same Year came out a Pamphlet called The late Covenant asserted printed on the day of Trouble Rebuke and Blasphemies for Thomas Underhil Ann. 1643. undertaking to prove That there is a sweet Agreement between the Protestation and Covenant and Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy did bind to the taking of the Covenant to take up Arms against their Sovereign c. and out of it I shall give an Instance how conscientious those Republican Reformers were and how obliged by Oaths ‡ p. 5. c. We have says he sworn that the King ruling by Law is the Supreme Power and so we have sworn Obedience to him we abjure any foreign Power we have sworn that neither Pope nor Cardinal nor the most Catholick King nor the most Christian shall over-rule our King and Kingdom if we can help it we have sworn and we do not repent ☜ for in pursuance of this Oath to repel foreign Power we are in Arms at this day To whom have we sworn Allegiance but to God and the King in reference to him We have sworn and will not repent to obey the King ☜ while he obeys God ruling his People by his Law and Book We have not sworn our selves Servants to Men their private Wills their Lusts c. and we will maintain the King the higher Power with our Lives and Fortunes We will obey all his lawful not personal Commands Look into these Oaths ☜ and you shall not there find a Word soberly understood contradicting the Covenant God forbid that we should vow our selves Servants to Men and Rebels to God. The Queen and the King are notoriously faulty touching both these Oaths the one doing her utmost to bring in and establish a foreign Power the other denying Allegiance to the most supreme Qu. But where have you any warrant to take up Arms against the King Answ We will never allow those Words against the King they are taken up for the King and for the defence of all that should be dearest to him but let it go against the King we have warrant for it when he bends all his force all his might sets open the Gates of Hell against the Parliament against Religion against our Laws c. we vow and covenant to take Arms against King Queen both setting themselves against God and the power of Godliness and we have as good Warrant as can be desired for so doing ‖ p. 19. Obj. But I cannot think it a lawful Vow for we vow to fight against our lawful Prince Answ It is not against him but for him to deliver his sacred Person out of the hands of Murtherers our Land from out of the hand of Spoilers and the Laws of God and Men from Sons of Belial who would make all void null and of none effect Obj. But we have taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy
already Answ You have vowed Allegiance to the King to obey him ruling by Law according to the Law of Heaven you have not vowed to obey his private Will for that is to obey the Lusts of Men breaking and making void the Laws of God the Rights and Privileges of a free People Obj. But the King hath promis'd to maintain the true Religion Answ p. 20. So did the Lady Mary to the Men of Suffolk c. To all which venomous Doctrine I will apply this Antidote Sir Edw. Coke in Calvin's Case says This damnable Opinion That Allegiance was due to the King upon the account of his politick Capacity more than his natural Person was invented by the two Spencers to cover their Treason and from thence they deduc'd these execrable Consequents 1. That if the King did not demean himself by reason in the Right of his Crown his Lieges were bound to remove him 2. That when the King could not be reformed by Suit of Law it ought to be done by the Sword. 3. That his Lieges be bound to govern in aid of him and in defect of him All which Positions were condemn'd in two succeeding Parliaments SECT XVII The Year after this the learned Dr. Gerhard Longbaine set out his Review of the Covenant Chap. 9. p. 56. and therein tells us That to labor the Advancement of Religion by way of force contrary to establish'd Laws and the Prince's Will hath no warrant by way of Command or Approbation from God's Word must be taken for granted till those who are otherwise minded can shew the contrary and will be needless to persuade if we shew in the second place that it is against the express Testimony of Scripture Our Saviour professeth My Kingdom is not of this World and adds for then would my Servants fight which words as they evince that it is lawful for Subjects to fight at the Command of their temporal King for the maintenance of his worldly Estate so they do insinuate that Christ's Kingdom being spiritual must not be advanced by temporal Arms. We have always deprecated the Aspersion which our Adversaries would cast upon us P. 60. professing we do not punish any Hereticks with Death but Seminaries for Sedition and Rebellion Here I must observe that the Lords and Commons in Parliament 1 Eliz. confess they had no means to free the Kingdom from the usurped Power and Authority of the Pope but with the assent of the Queen's Majesty so far were they from thinking it lawful to raise Arms for the Extirpation of Popery when it was establish'd by the Law of the Land. And lest this distinction might seem to invalidate his Objection he adds It is utterly destructive to all civil Government P. 61. for if any be allowed to take up Arms for Propagation or defence of their true Religion against the civil Laws and Will of their Prince whosoever hath a mind to rebel may do it upon the same pretence and ought not to be question'd by any humane Authority for tho they do but pretend Religion yet it is impossible for any Judge to convince them of such Pretences nor can any thing be urged in defence of the true Religion which may not be made use of by a false SECT XVIII Anno 1646. Richard Overton the famous Leveller deck'd with many fantastick Titles printed a Pamphlet intituled An Arrow against all Tyrants and Tyranny wherein the Original Rise Extent and End of Magisterial Power the Natural and National Rights Freedoms and Properties of Mankind are discover'd and undeniably maintain'd and the late Encroachments of the Lords over the Commons legally condemn'd Out of which that the Principles of such Men may be made known I shall transcribe a few passages To every individual in Nature is given an individual Property by Nature not to be invaded or usurp'd by any for every one as he is himself so he hath a self-propriety else he could not be himself No Man hath Power over my Rights and Liberties and I over no Man's If I presume any farther I am an Encroacher and an Invader upon another Man 's Right to which I have no Right for by natural Birth all Men are equal and alike born to like Property Liberty and Freedom No Man naturally would be fooled of his Liberty by his Neighbor's Craft or enslaved by his Neighbor's Might for it is Nature's Instinct to preserve it self from all things hurtful and obnoxious And from this fountain or root all just humane Powers take their Original not immediately from God as Kings usually plead their Prerogative but mediately by the hand of Nature as from the Represented to the Representers no more may be communicated than is conducive to a better Being more Safety and Freedom he that gives more sins against his own Flesh and he that takes more is a Thief and a Robber to his kind every Man being by nature a King Priest and Prophet in his own natural Circuit and Compass whereof no second may partake but by Deputation Commission and free Consent from him whose natural Right and freedom it is As by Nature no Man can abuse beat torment or afflict himself so by Nature no Man can give that Power to another So that such so deputed are to the general no otherwise than as a Schoolman to a particular his Mastership is by deputation and that ad beneplacitum and may be removed at the Parents pleasure upon neglect or abuse thereof and it may be conferr'd on another And speaking to the Parliament he continues If you think you have power over us to save or destroy us at your pleasure the edge of your own Arguments against the King in this kind may be turn'd upon your selves for if for the safety of the people he might in equity be opposed by you in his Tyrannies Oppressions and Cruelties even so may you by the same rule of right Reason be opposed by the people in general in the like cases of destruction and ruin by you upon them for the safety of the people is the Sovereign Law to which all must be subject and for which all powers humane are ordain'd by them And at last applies all to the pulling down of the House of Lords as Usurpers The Pamphlet is said to be printed at the backside of the Cyclopian Mountains by Martin Claw-clergy Printer to the Reverend Assembly of Divines and are to be sold at the sign of the Subject's Liberty right opposite to persecuting Court. SECT XIX As a Preservative against the infection of such dangerous Principles Bishop Sanderson gives us his Advice * Pref. to Arch-Bi Vsher's Book of the Power of Kings c. Some say it is not for Divines to meddle in these matters nor do they come within the compass of their Sphere that they ought to be left to the cognizance and determination of Statesmen and Lawyers who are to be presumed most able to judg the one by the constitution in whom the
but that one cursed Position alone wherein notwithstanding their disagreements otherwise they both consent That lawful Sovereigns may be by their Subjects resisted and Arms taken up against them for the Cause of Religion it were enough to make good the Charge against them both which is such a notorious piece of ungodliness as no Man that either feareth God or the King as he ought to do can speak of or think of without detestation pag. 134. Ad Aulam It were good if we did remember that they are to give up that account to God onely and not to us pag. 177. SECT XX. Doctor Bernard * Ser. on Rom. 13.2 in the Clavi Trabalea p. 21. affirms that some Expositors conceived one cause of the Apostle's Exhortation to be the Rumour then falsly rais'd upon them as if they had been seditious c. And that the Kingdom of Christ tended to the absolving of Subjects from their obedience to any other And then shews †p. 28 29. That it is a Popish Assertion that a people can never so far transfer their right over to a King but they retain the habit of it still within themselves averring * p. 30. That whoever have or shall resist do tread under their feet the holy Scriptures †p. 35. That as Kings receive their Power from God so are we to leave them only to God if they shall abuse it not but that they may and ought to be prudently and humbly reminded of their duties but yet without lifting up our Hands against them in the least resistance of them God wanteth not means whereby he can when he pleases remove or amend them ‖ Pag. 40. The Arms of the Primitive Christians were nothing but Prayers to God Petitions to the Emperor or Flight when persecuted c. To this purpose does Mr. Symmons in his Vindication of King Charles aver That * Sect. 8. p. 84. Rebels as for God they believe him as little as they do the King for they dare not trust him for protection they have more confidence in the Militia a great deal and stand more upon it beside if they did believe God they would also fear him Faith and Fear go together they would regard his Word more and not be so opposite in all their ways or endeavour to make it of none effect by their sinful Ordinances and Traditions besides Faith in God discovers it self by their doing the Works of God and they are not Hatred Strife Sedition Rebellion Murther Lying Slandering and speaking evil of Dignities Sect. 14. p. 146. c. Tell us O ye pretenders to Piety where is that Subjection to the King for conscience sake which S. Paul calls for and that Obedience for the Lords sake which S. Peter requires Pag. 257. c. Consider and call to mind whether those Teachers ☞ who have been most active and busie in drawing you into this way have not hereby contradicted their own former Doctrines As it was said of Stephen Gardiner that no Man in the Days of Henry the Eighth had spoken better for the King's Authority than he had done in his Book De verâ obedientid and yet no Man more violent in Queen Mary's Time in persecuting those that held fast to the same Truth and Doctrine may not the like be affirm'd of many of your Preachers that no Men taught the Duty of Obedience better or inveighed more against Rebellion Pag. 258 259. and sheedin of Blood than they heretofore have done but now none more violent Observe that Note out of Mr. Fox how Henry the Fourth that deposed Richard the Second was the first of all English Kings that began the burning of God's Saints for their standing against the Papists Pag. 260 261 262. As the Doctrine of Infallibility is the Root of all Error among the Papists so it is now among them that are the Worshipers of a Parliament for when it was believed that the Pope could not err then he might oppose Princes excommunicate Kings absolve Subjects from their Obedience c. so now this being swallowed that the Parliament cannot err they may raise Rebellion too absolve People from their Loyalty persecute the King c. Consider whether in any thing these Men have perform'd what at first they promised whether Religion be better settled the Church better reformed and united or the Commonwealth more flourishing c. SECT XXI Thus that good Man asserted the Rights of Princes and the Duty of Subjects in those evil Days * Bishop of Lond. 2d Letter ab the neglect of the Lord's Supper when under an usurped Power Sin was the Law and Transgression the Commandment When three once happy Nations wore the heavy Yoke of Slavery and Men felt to their cost what the power of the People could do till God of his infinite Mercy restored our Judges as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning under whom Truth appeared in its true Colours and the Mask of Hypocrisie would no longer hide the Deformities of the Traitor and here I will not mention the Acts of Parliament made just after the Restoration that condemn the Power of the People that assert their Authority Superiority and Unaccountableness of Princes and the Unlawfulness of taking Arms against them upon any pretence whatsoever and confine my self to the Writings of the eminent Divines of the Age and I will begin with the Bishop of Down and Conner Dr. Taylor †Ductor dubitant B. 3. c. 3. Rule 1. who proves That the supreme Power in every Republick is universal absolute and unlimited ‖ Rule 3. n. 1. That it is not lawful for Subjects to rebel or take up Arms against the Supreme Power of the Nation upon any pretext whatsoever He that lifts up his Hand against the Supreme Power or Authority that God hath appointed over him is impious against God and fights against him Rom. 13. The Apostle doth not say he that doth not obey is disobedient to God for that is not true in some Cases it is lawful not to obey but in all Cases it is necessary not to resist * Id. n. 2. I do not know any Proposition in the World clearer ☞ and more certain in Christianity than this Rule And in the fifteenth Number he answers at large that wild Question as he calls it If a King went about to destroy his People is resistance then lawful And concludes all †N. 15 17. We have nothing dearer to us than our Lives and our Religion but in both these Cases we find whole Armies of Christians dying quietly and suffering Persecution without murmur if the Prince doth not do his Duty that is no Warrant for me not to do mine To this pious Prelate now in Heaven I will join a pious Brother of his as yet on Earth †Bishop Kenn's Expos Ch. Cat. V. Comman Who thus addresses to God in the behalf of his Sovereign Thou
may excuse themselves from their obligations to all the rest Will they plead that the Gospel is not a perfect Rule of Duty and that the inspired Writers did not foresee and provide for all cases c. Upon the same ground they dispense with one Law of Christ they may dispense with as many as they please P. 29. If the Magistrates be Ordained of God then it is no more lawful for an hundred thousand Men to resist him than for twelve and if we are bound to submit for Conscience sake no increase of our numbers or strength can alter the Rule of our Duty or take off the Obligation of Conscience ☜ So that had the Primitive Christians had more potent Arms than Nero or Julian yet no right ever could have accured to them thereby to oppose Gods Ordinance or to proceed against their Conscience P. 30. The Popes of Rome were the first pretenders from Scripture to a right not only of Resisting c. but of Deposing Kings Knox Milton Rutherford c. P. 40. could not have spit ranker venom at Kings or spoke with greater contempt of their Authority than Hildebrand And in another place thus P. 15. It always holds true with respect to the Sovereign Power in any Country what was said by Judge Creshald Legacy p. 5. both like a pious Christian and an able Lawyer concerning the Royal Authority of our Nation that the Jura Regalia of our Kings are holden of Heaven and cannot for any Cause Escheat to their Subjects nor they for any Cause make any positive or actual forcible resistance against them but that we ought to yield to them Passive Obedience by suffering the punishment albeit their commands should be against the Divine Law and that in such Case Arma nostra sunt preces nostrae nec possumus nec debemus aliter resistere for who can lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless And thus the Author of Jeremiah in Baca or a Fast-days Work Published for the Devout Members of the Church of England as a Preservative for all them against Perjury and Rebellion speaks Rebellious Perjuries pag. 40 41 42 43 44. A further branch of Perjury there is which in the late Rebellious days involved a great part of the three Nations over and over Some Popular wicked Men Sons of Belial contrary to the Oath of the Lord upon them rose up against the Lords Anointed drew in against their Allegiance also many and many thousands of the People into that Rebellion and bloody War and when through thy just judgment upon the three Kingdoms for former sins those Perjured Rebellious Men had very far prevailed and imbrued their Hands not only in the common blood of their fellow Subjects but also in the sacred blood of their Sovereign and driven all the Royal Family into Foreign parts the dayly practice was making and taking new Oaths and imposing them upon the People and then both breaking them themselves and compelling others to break them O God! ☜ how many Rebellious Oaths were there framed contrary to that one rightful Oath of Allegiance every of which later Oaths were direct and solemn Perjury The dreadful effects of that Rebellion and those Perjuries we now see and we have all reason to fear the guilt of them will not cease operating to further vengeance upon the Nations for that there are still left therein Men of like wicked Principles But O God! when thou makest inquisition for blood shut not up the innocent with the guilty The Established Church thou knowest all along abhorred and withstood unanimously as one Man those false Treasonable and bloody practices and chose the utmost sufferings rather than joyn therein or in the least comply therewith Notwithstanding we acknowledge the multitude of the Offenders was so great that both the Rebellion and the Perjuries may affect the whole Body of the Nation For if thou wilt by no means hold them guiltless who take thy name in vain what may we all expect SECT XXX Mr. Wake * Serm. at Paris Jan. 30. 1684 / 5. p. 3. Speaking of the Murder of Charles the Marty◠Had an Infidel Nation risen up against him or the chance of War cut him off we should soon have turned our sorrow into joy But that we who were obliged by all the tyes of God and Men to obey him should destroy that life for which we ought not to have refused any hazard of our own that we who were certainly his Subjects and pretend to be Christians too should violate all the Rights of Majesty trample under feet all the Laws of the Gospel this raises those Clouds that obscure so bright a Day P. 10. Long had the Trumpet been blown to War and to Rebellion the Church become Militant and our Pulpits instead of setting forth the Gospel of Peace spoke nothing but Wars and Seditions and Tumults to the People Is there any one among us that by the malignity of his Nature the desperateness of his Fortunes or a misguided Zeal hath been actually concerned in this guilt P. 17 18. Is there any one now present who though unconcerned in that black Parricide is yet involved in any of those Principles that lead to it ☞ hath assisted approved or encouraged those new Rebels the Progeny of the same Old Cause that have again so lately endeavoured to Crown the Son with the like Glory their Ancestors did the Father let me beseech them either to sanctifie the Fast with us or not to join in the Celebration A Crime Pag. 22. which I should doubt had exceeded the Power of any Repentance to expiate had not the Apostles left us an Example by exhorting the Jews to labor for a Forgiveness Pag. 29. even of their crucifying the Lord of Glory Was there ever Villany like this that a Christian Kingdom should break through all those Bonds of Duty and Obedience which the more righteous Heathens have reverenced as sacred and inviolable ☜ that so many Oaths and Vows repeated with that frequency taken with that solemnity should all be insufficient to preserve our Fidelity that Religion and Reformation two things than which none can be more excellent in themselves nor are any more easily and more dangerously abused should be able to cheat us into wickedness which the barbarous Scythians never heard of Wake 's Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux c. Licensed by C. Alston The Peace and Liberty which we enjoy Pag. 88. The Close we do not ascribe to their i. e. the Papists Civility it is God's Providence and our Sovereign's Bounty whom the Church of England has ever so Loyally served whose Rights she asserted in the worst of times When to use our Author 's own words Perjury and Faction for this very cause loaded her with all the Injuries Hell it self could invent But we gloried to
their Doctrine to have been of God had their Actions been so contrary to all the Precepts of Natural Divinity And in this matter does the Learned Dr. Dr. Dove's Serm. before the Sons of the Clergy 1687. Dove vindicate the Integrity of our Church in a few but as significant Words as any of his Brethren when speaking of some who suffered much for their Constancy to the Faith and their Fidelity to the Crown he terms them Two inseparable Notes of a genuine Son of the Church of England Dr. Puller * Moderat of the Ch. of Engl. ch 12. § 5. Other Sects deny the King's Supremacy in Matters Ecclesiastical either claiming a Power of Jurisdiction over him or pleading a Privilege of Exemption from under him where as the Clergy of the Church of England like good Christians and good Subjects neither pretend to any Jurisdiction over the Kings of England nor withdraw their Subjection from them †Sect. 6 7. And then he vindicates that Expression of Can. 1. of the Synod 1640. That the Order of Kings is most high and sacred The Moderation of our Church doth not favour any Doctrines or Practices which are prejudicial to the safety of human Society in general It doth no where pretend to remit the Divine Laws or dispense with Oaths or transfer the Rights of Kingdoms c. Contrariwise it requires of all of its Communion to give the King such Security of their Allegeance and Fealty as may be a sufficient Security to his Government ‖ Chap. 17. The Romanists and Separatists extremely agree in their Principles against the Civil Magistrate according to that of Bishop Lany * Bishop Lany's Serm. on 1 Thess 4.11 The Papists and Presbyterians hunt in Couples against the King's Power and Supremacy It is admirable to see how the Commonwealths Men in the times of the late Rebellion received their Principles from the ancient and modern Writers of the Jesuits and other Papists and still agree with them in most of the Republican Doctrines and Tendencies of them to the like Practices Both deny the Supremacy of the King one attributes it to the Pope originally the other to the People and the same Arguments which the Pope useth for his Supremacy over Kings the Disciplinarians use for establishing their Sovereignty The Pretence of the King's Authority against his Person was hatch'd under the Roman Territories and was made use of in the Holy League of France The Rules for making a King to be a Tyrant and then ceasing to be a King that it may be lawful to attempt any thing against his Person and Life are so much the same §. 20. that they cannot be more I need not here relate how many Doctrines of the Romanists tend to dissolve the very Bonds of relative Duty one towards another absolving People from their Oaths and Allegiance No Faith to be kept with Hereticks c. How do many Principles of our Enthusiasts and Separatists tend to destroy the Relations of King and Subject Bishop and People c. SECT XXXII Dr. Scott * Serm. July 26. 1685. p. 2. P. 13 14. Absalom accomplish'd his design partly by declaiming against the Maleadministrations of his Father's Government partly by promising them a thorough Reformation if ever he arrived to be a Judge in Israel Every Man knows or might easily know if he were not extremely wanting to himself that his King is the Vicegerent of his God and that being so he is indispensibly obliged by all the ties of Reason and Religion to submit to his Will and reverence his Person and bow to his Authority and that he cannot lift up his hand against him without fighting against God himself the Truth of which is as obvious to our natural Reason and as plainly asserted in holy Scripture as of any Proposition in Religion ☜ so that I dare boldly affirm a Man may find as many Pretexts for any Vice whatsoever even for Drunkenness Whoredom or Perjury as ever were made for Rebellion and were I to set up for a publick Patron of Wickedness I hardly know a Villany in nature so black and monstrous which I could not more plausibly recommend to Mens Reason and Consciences than this of Resistance against lawful Authority which is such a complication of Villanies such a loathsome mixture of hellish Ingredients as is enough to nauseate any Conscience but a Devil 's And tho Conscience and Religion are the Colors it usually marches under yet is the imposture of this Pretence so fulsome and bare-fac'd that no Man in his Wits can be innocently abused by it for certainly that Man must have a great mind to rebel his Will must have a strong Byass of Pride or Discontent Faction or Ambition in it that in despite of all the evidence from Reason and Scripture to the contrary can persuade himself that it is lawful for him and much less P. 15 16. that it is his duty to lift up his hand against his Sovereign And therefore for Men to appeal to God in a Cause so apparently wicked is not submissively to refer themselves to him but openly to mock and affront him and to make a vexatious Appeal to God's Judgment again in a Case which he hath so often and so expresly judged already is a common Barretry 't is not to consult but to tempt him and under pretence of submitting to his determinations openly to defie his Authority in effect it is to appeal from his Will to his Providence and to bespeak him to declare himself against his own Declarations In the case of Rebellion there is not only a peremptory Disobedience to those Laws of God which require our dutiful Submission to our lawful Superiors ☞ but also a direct Renuntiation of the divine Authority it self for all Sovereign Power is immediately founded in the Dominion of God who being the supreme Lord of the World no person can have right to govern in his Kingdom under him but by Commission from him Kings therefore are only accountable to him P. 17.18 and if so then for any of their Subjects to presume to call them to account by a publick form'd resistance is to arraign God's own Authority and invade his peculiar it is to thrust him out of his Throne and set themselves down in it and then to summon his Authority before them and require it to submit its awful Head to their imperious doom and sentence While therefore we behave our selves factiously and rebelliously towards those whom God hath set over us we live as Out-laws in the Kingdom of God without any respect to that visible Authority by which he governs the World and if this be so then for Subjects to rebel against their Prince is neither better nor worse than to appeal to God against his own Authority and to put this impious Case to him Whether it be he or they that have the Right of Governing the World. I profess * Id. Serm.
ancient Right to his Crowns that any King in the known Parts of the World hath P. 178. Where Government in general in Scripture is establish'd and Obedience to Governors injoin'd it ought to be reckoned as spoken of our Governors and Government Ecclesiastical and Civil as well as of any other in the World. Ch. 7. p. 198. Whatever discouragement the Clergy of England have found they still preach up and persuade Loyalty to the King and by the Doctrine of Passive Obedience to temporal Authority keep People from Rebellion notwithstanding they have so often been jeer'd and abused with it * Serm. 2. of the unlawfulness of resist Ep. Ded. Mr. Payn. I think it my duty as a Minister of that Church and Religion which hath been often the Mark but never the Author of any Treason to publish these Sermons And that none may be so malicious as to think we calculate our Sermons merely for the present Circumstances as if the Pulpit were but a kind of a Weather-glass wherein the Doctrine of Obedience to Governors is higher or lower to the temperature or variation of outward Affairs I have put out a plain Sermon without any Addition that was preach'd long before the Plot c. When the ancient Christians were persecuted P. 7 8 9. they endured unheard of cruelties from their Governors ☞ and this often as they complain'd of in their Apologies against Law too Such as would have stirred up those who had power to defend themselves had they not learnt such Principles from their Religion as forbad it we are under the obligation of Oaths though there have been some who have forgot all Oaths and could as easily unloose them as Sampson did his Wit hs and then set themselves free from the Precepts ☞ and Examples of Christ and his Apostles by this colour and pretence that the Government under which they lived was of another Nature than ours in England and that such is our Constitution as makes all this impertinent and of very little regard here And by the same way might they not discharge Wives and Children and Servants from those Duties the Gospel requires from each of them because there was a great difference between the State and condition of those among the Jews the Romans and the Grecians formerly and with us now And afterward he shews Serm. 2. p. 22. That neither in the Case of Religion nor of Legal Rights nor in the case of Natural Defence and the otherwise remediless case of Mankind by the encroachments of Princes P. 27. it 's any way lawful to take Arms. And proves that the Law of Nature or of Self-preservation does not allow of resistance c. And closes all with these good Prayers God preserve Christianity from that reproach P. 37. and blasphemy which these wicked Men have brought upon it God preserve the Protestant Religion from that advantage which is hereby given to our Enemies to destroy it J. Kettlewell 's Measures of Christian Obedience Book 2. c. 4. A Duty to Kings and Princes being God's Vicegerents here on Earth is a readiness and resolved industry to maintain and support them in their Persons and Government not plotting and endeavouring our selves to give away their Lives and Kingdoms unto others or consenting to them that do so not submitting and subjecting our selves to them but violently resisting and opposing them is called by S. Paul resisting of Power or standing up against it Rom. 13.2 And this when it is made by great numbers and goes on to extremities when men are as the Apostle there saith set in array and posture of Defence against it ☜ and ready by force of Arms to wage War with it is Rebellion Book 3. c. 6. The first pretence whereby men justifie to their own thoughts the indulgent Transgression of several Laws is because those Transgressions wherein they allow themselves are necessary for the preservation of their Religion and of themselves in those times of danger and persecution wherein God's Providence has placed them Religion is in danger and like to be undermined by the close and subtle Arts or overborn by the more open and powerful violence of strong and witty Enemies And this is God's Cause and Christ our Lord and Saviour's Interest So that whatever is done here we think is in Service of our Maker If we fight it is his Battels Some on one Hand that call us Hereticks think no means sinful whereby they can weaken and divide And others again even of our own selves who justly abhor these damnable Instances of Disobedience upon pretence of preserving or propagating Religion in some furious and firy spirited sort of Papists for God forbid that we should think them all to be of this temper do yet run into the same extravagance which upon so great reason they condemn in them For if we look into our zeal for the common Religion of Protestants we shall find that we transgress many and those most material and weighty Laws of it whilst we express our affection and concern to defend and preserve it For doth not this pretence of preserving our Religion carry us beyond all the Bounds of Peaceableness and good Subjection Yea I add further that these same Fears for our endangered Religion transport us into the Transgression of sundry weighty Laws which oblige us towards our very Enemies who have contrived to destroy us Thus full of Sin and Disobedience is this sanctified pretence It is the Cover for every Offence ☞ and the common shelter for all Transgressions for we boggle not at an◠sin so long as it tends to preserve us in the prosperous Profession of our endangered or oppressed Religion But if Men would consider calmly and have patience to look beyond the surface and bare outsides of things they would soon discern the vanity of this pretence and how far it will be from excusing any such sinful and disobedient Practices as they think to justifie and warrant by it For as for true and substantial Religion for protection whereof they would be thought to venture upon all these Transgressions it stands in no need of their help to preserve it in persecuting times altho they should use innocent and just means not such as are sinful and disobedient it would live then without their care and whether they went about by any politick means to preserve it or no. For Religion is not lost when Religious Men are persecuted it doth not suffer when they do that profess it seeing it is not one jot impaired when Men are buffeted and imprisoned nay when they bleed and die for it ☞ Could the violence of Persecution have oppressed our Religion it had been stifled in the Birth For it entered in a persecuting Age and yet was not over-born by the pressure of its Sufferings but bravely overcame them It begun grew up and conquered all the World in the very Heat of Affliction and Opposition the more it
Majesty fill all places with Slaughters Burnings of Towns and Robberies and run headlong into the contempt of all things Civil and Sacred to omit other Writers when I seriously reflected upon the tumultuary reformations in many Countries and the seditious Writings of Buchanan Knox Goodman Whittingham Junius Brutus and others I saw reason to cease my wonder at the accusation tho I can never enough admire the forehead of the Accusers who at the same time that they impeach'd the Protestants were themselves guilty of Writing most Traiterous Libels and promoting Sedition and Rebellion as much as in them lay against their lawful Sovereign But whomsoever this accusation might concern in those days I am sure it did not touch the Church of England of whose Loyalty her adversary Christopher Goodman gives a fair testimony Of Obed. ch 3. p. 30. Prat Gen. 1558. even when he complains of it The most part of Men says he yea and of those who have been both Learned and Godly and have given worthy testimony of their Profession to the Glory of God have thought and taught by the permission of God for our Sins that it is not lawful in any case to resist and disobey the Superior Powers but rather to lay down their Heads and submit themselves to all kinds of Punishment and Tyranny and in the Margin he sets this note this is dangerous Doctrin And tho it may be expected that every Age will produce such Boutefeau 's yet the Doctrin of the Cross and the benefits of a patient suffering of injuries will I hope be always so well understood in the World that all the attempts of the Jesuits and their Journeymen for it is from their shop that these Wares come will prove vain and the true Catholick Doctrin of Passive Obedience will be still owned still honored and when God calls to the performance of is practised the Christian Religion is soft and gentle its Foundation was laid in the blood of its institutor and our Holy Saviour the superstructure cemented with the blood of an innumerable Army of Martyrs and adorn'd with the patience of the Saints and the more truly reformed Christianity is the more like it grows to those admirable examples the more meek and humble it is and the better prepared for a state of suffering but when Mammon finds a way into the House of God and the Baptismal Vow is forgotten when Men depend on their own Arts and distrust Gods Providence when they dare fight for Religion because they are afraid to dye for it and can allow themselves to do evil that good may come thereof it is no wonder if Christianity be blended with the World and made a pretence to serve the ends of pride and covetousness of ambition and revenge Sir Will. Temple's Obs on the Netherl c. 1. p. 57. according to the observation of a wise Statesman with respect to the Netherlands that whereas the Spanish and Italian Writers attribute the Revolutions in the Low Countries to the change of Religion c. That Religion without mixtures of ambition and interest works no such violent effects and produces rather the examples of constant sufferings than of desperate actions How truly Ancient and Primitive the Doctrin of Passive Obedience is comes not within the limits of this present History but may be hereafter considered by deducing it through the Writings and Practices of the earliest Christians down to the days of King Henry VIII But those times in the esteem of John Goodwin were times of ignorance and the truth was but in its dawn and by a glimmering light Men were easily led out of their way for he says that the Primitive Christians and among them he must include the Apostles Anti-Cavalerism Sect. 6. tho guided by the Spirit of God which led them into all truth knew nothing of this useful Doctrin of Resistance that God had hid this liberty from the Primitive Christians of the Subjects Power and right to resist their Superiors which he hath manifested to us the commonalty of Christians doing contrary to the will of their Superiors being the Men that must have the Principal hand in executing God's judgments upon the Whore. Rev. 18 4 5. and as John Goodwin slanders the Ancient Fathers as a company of ignorant Men so John Milton accuses the first Reformers as the genuine assertors of the Doctrin of Resistance for Salmasius having truly alledged that the Doctrin of the Sacred and Inviolable Authority of Princes was preserved pure and uncorrupt in the Church till the Bishops of Rome attempted to set up a Kingdom in this World Paramount to all Kings and Emperors Milton replies Defens pro pop Angli p. 33. that Salmasius strove in vain to transfer the guilt upon the Pope which all free Nations every Religion all the Orthodox take upon themselves and that he had as many Adversaries in this point as there were most excellent Doctors of the Reformed Church While a third Writer boldly affirms Author of plain English p. 7. that the Doctrin of Non-Resistance is contrary to the Fundamental Liberties of the Nation and that they undid the Kingdom who required the Oath contrary to the Fundamental Liberty of the Nation whereby they would make the King and them who are commissioned by him to be as irresistible as there severity against Dissenters would argue the imposers infallible Thus in the Opinion of such Writers Passive Obedience was the weakness of the Ancient Christians and a sign they were under a lower dispensation and that to assert it necessary in this more inlightned Age is to contradict the most eminent Reformers and the Fundamental Liberties of Nature and if after all this some Men should be so resty as to quote St. Paul to the Romans for their submission to Princes Ubi sup p. 38. Goodman says that Men are deceived into this submission by misunderstanding this place of St. Paul and such like It behoveth every Soul to be subject to superior Powers because there is no Power but of God for the Powers that be are ordained of God and therefore he that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God which words he elsewhere thus comments Ch. 9. p. 410 c. that they require Obedience only to such Magistrates whom God hath ordained over us lawfully according to his word which rule in his fear according to their Office as God hath appointed and that Tyrants Idolaters Papists and Oppressors are not God's Ordinance if so Satan must be obeyed and his Infernal Powers for they are Powers and have their Powers also from God and yet we must resist the Devil for the Magistrate is ordained for good and to such only must every Person be subject and Obedient Such unhappy Commentaries do some Men write even on Holy Scripture it self when their Interests incline their minds to wrest the Sacred Oracles it were easie to prove this from Pope Hildebrand down through the School-men to the present time
Saul with his Spear to the ground David forbad him saying Kill him not for who shall lay his hands on the Lord's anointed and not be guilty c. * Pag. 111. Why did not David slay Saul seeing he was so wicked not in persecuting David only but in disobeying God's Commandments and in that he had slain Eighty five of the Priests wrongfully Verily for it was not lawful for if he had done it he must have sinned against God for God hath made the King in every Realm Judg over all and over him is there no Judg He that judgeth the King judgeth God and he that layeth hands on the King layeth hands on God and he that resisteth the King resisteth God and damneth God's Laws and Ordinance If the Subjects sin they must be brought to the King's Judgment if the King sin he must be reserved to the Judgment Wrath and Vengeance of God And as it is to resist the King so is it to resist his Officer which is set or sent to execute the King's Commandment When * Luk. 13. they shewed Christ of the Galileans whose Blood Pilate mingled with their own Sacrifice he answered Suppose ye that those Galileans were greater Sinners c. this was told Christ no doubt of such an intent as they asked him Matt. 22. Whether it were lawful to give Tribute to Cesar For they thought it was no sin to resist a Heathen Prince as few of us would think if we were under the Turk that it were Sin to rise against him and to rid our selves from under his Dominion so sore have our Bishops robb'd us of the true Doctrine of Christ But Christ condemn'd their Deeds and also the secret Thoughts of all others that consented thereto saying Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish as who should say I know that you are within your Hearts such they were outward in their Deeds and under the same Damnation except therefore ye repent betimes ye shall break out at the last into like Deeds and likewise perish as it came afterwards to pass Hereby seest thou that the King is in this World without Law and may at his lust do right or wrong and shall give Accounts but to God only The same Martyr in his Preface to the Practice of Popish Prelates set forth An. Dom. 1530. Unto all Subjects be it said if they profess the Law of God Pag. 342. and Faith of the Lord Jesus and will be Christ's Disciples then let them remember that there was never any Man so great a Subject as Christ was There was never Creature that suffer'd so great Unright so patiently and so meekly as he Therefore whatsoever they have been in times past let them now think that it is their parts to be subject in the lowest kind of Subjection and to suffer all things patiently If the High Powers be cruel unto you with natural Cruelty then with softness and patience ye shall either win them or mitigate their fierceness If they joyn them unto the Pope and persecute you for your Faith then call to mind that ye be chosen to suffer here with Christ that you may joy with him in the Life to come If they command that God forbiddeth or forbid that God commandeth then answer as the Apostles did That God must be obey'd more than man. Act. 5. If they compel you to suffer unright then Christ shall help you to bear and his Spirit shall comfort you But only see ☞ that neither they put you from God's Word nor ye resist them with bodily Violence but abide patiently c. And as for Wickedness whence it springeth and who is the cause of all Insurrection and of the fall of Princes and of the shortning of their days upon the Earth thou shalt see in the Glass following CHAP. II. The Doctrine of Passive Obedience in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth SECT I. IN the beginning of this pious Prince's Reign the Homily of Obedience was publish'd and in his Second Year Ann. 1548. the King Ch. Hist Cent. 16. lib. 7. pag. 38 8 / 9. says Fuller by his Proclamation did for a while prohibit all sort of Preaching that the Clergy might apply themselves to Prayer and the Layity to Prayer and hearing the Homilies So venerable an esteem had the wise and good Men of that Age of the now so much despised Homilies and I am enclinable to believe one great reason why they have since faln into Contempt is because they so earnestly press Subjection to Authority and forbid Sedition and Resistance Ann. 1550. Because of the scarcity of Preachers it was ordain'd Heyl. Hist of the Reform An. 1550. pag. 94. That of the King 's Six Chaplains two should be always about the Court the other four travelling abroad the first Year two in Wales and two in Lincolnshire the second Year two in the Marches of Scotland and two in Yorkshire the third Year two in Devonshire and two in Hamshire the fourth Year two in Norfolk and two in Essex c. and so till they had gone through the whole Kingdom so rare was Preaching in those days To supply the want of which the same Year a Postil or Collection of most godly Doctrin upon every Gospel through the Year was printed cum privilegio and in the Sermon on the Gospel for the Twenty third Sunday after Trinity the People are thus instructed in their Duty Here is to be noted the Difference that Christ maketh between the Kingdom of God and this World for he doth not only approve and allow this high Power and politick Life but also confirmeth it for the Kingdom of God or of Christ is spiritual and contrariwise the Kingdom of the Emperor is worldly it is visible in which the Emperor himself governeth and beareth rule mightily with his Lords and Princes Luc. 22. as the Scripture witnesseth in another place The Kings of the World have dominion over the People and they that bear rule over them are called Gracious Lords Nevertheless that Kingdom is of God and established by God's Ordinance in such wise that he that resisteth this Ordinance Rom. 13. resisteth God himself Thinkest thou that Princes and great Lords in the Scripture are called God's in vain and without a cause Psal 81. For if they be Gods and are made by God Partakers of his Magnificence then must they needs be in God's stead whose room they bear therefore seeing they rule in God's stead it is both meet and convenient to give them that we are bound to give them but what are those things S. Paul setteth them forth Rom. 13. and saith Give unto every Man his Duty Tribute to whom Tribute belongeth c. Here thou hearest what thou art bound to give to high Powers But peradventure thou wilt say Shall I give Obedience unto a Tyrant ☞ or to an ungracious Prince or Lord Yea truly thou art bound both to give and obey him for what
Now as touching that mine adversaries say that I and my Preachers teach disobedience unto the High Powers and encourage their Subjects rather to make Insurrection against them than they should lose any thing at all of their sensual pleasures I know not if mine Enemies in any point have utter'd their maliciousness against us than in this one thing that ye may know how they shame nothing at all to lie hear I pray you the sum of our Doctrine concerning this matter Rom. 13.1 Pet. 2. Let every Soul be obedient to the Powers that bear rule c. again be ye obedient to every humane creature c. here have I given you a tast of Doctrine concerning the duty of Subjects unto the High Powers what disobedience do ye perceive by these words that we teach do we move the Inferiors and the base commonalty or any other unto such carnal liberty that for defence of the same they should either shew disobedience or make Insurrection against the head Rulers as our adversaries falsly report of us who brought the Higher Powers again unto the true Authority which God from the beginning gave them but I and my Ministers contrariwise who usurp'd this Power and brought the Magistrates in Subjection but these Enemies of God's Word who goeth about to maintain it still but they only I alone and my Ministers have set the Princes again in their Authority and valiantly delivered them from the Tyranny of the Papists as ye may perceive not only in our Sermons but also in our Writings CHAP. IV. The History of Passive Obedience in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth SECT I. THE Jews say that before one Prophetick light was by death extinguish'd another was set up to illuminate a degenerate World and thus did God in his mercy order it in our Church tho many eminent Confessors commenc'd Martyr's under Queen Mary yet the divine goodness did not leave it self and the truth without Witnesses who for a while sung the Songs of Sion in a strange Land but upon the advancement of Queen Elizabeth to the Throne of these Nations they return'd to vindicate that faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints and for which they had earnestly contended being ready to resist unto blood and because the Churches most eminent and most envied Advocate was Bishop Jewel I shall begin the History of this Reign with an account of his Sentiments When I have recited a Passage or two out of the Homily against Rebellion which are omitted in the first part of this History The first Author of Rebellion the root of all vices p 4th and the Mother of all mischief was Lucifer first God's most excellent creature and most bounden Subject who by rebelling against the Majesty of God of the brightest and most Glorious Angel became the blackest and most foul Fiend and Devil and from the heighth of Heaven is fallen into the Pit and bottom of Hell tho not only great multitudes of the rude and rascal Commons but sometimes also Men of great Wit Nobility and Authority have moved Rebellion against their lawful Princes tho they should pretend sundry causes as the redress of the Common-wealth or Reformation of Religion ☜ tho they have made a great show of Holy meaning by beginning their Rebellion with the counterfeit Service of God and by displaying and bearing about divers Ensigns and Banners which are acceptable unto the rude ignorant common People great multitudes of whom by such false pretences and shows they do deceive and draw unto them yet were the multitudes of the Rebels never so huge and great the Captains never so noble politick and witty the pretences feigned to be never so good and holy yet the speedy overthrow of all Rebels of what number state or condition soever they were or what colour or cause soever they pretended is and ever hath been such ☜ that God doth thereby shew that he alloweth neither the dignity of any Person nor the multitude of any People nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for which Subjects may move Rebellion against their Princes and how severely the same Homilies censure p. 6. and condemn the Barons who broke their Oath of Fidelity to their natural Lord King John is acknowledged by all Men. Bishop Jewel in his justly admired Apology taking notice p. 34. c. edit Lond 1581. that among many other false accusations then laid to the Charge of the Church this was one that its members were turbulent snatching Scepters out of the Hands of Princes Arming their Subjeâ—â— against them rescinding their Laws and changing Monarchies into popular Government whereby the minds of Princes were exasperated to believe that every Protestant in their Jurisdiction was their Enemy and a Rebel subjoins that it would have been most troublesom to those good Men to be so odiously accused of so grievous a crime as Treason had they not known that Christ himself and his Apostles and an infinite number of pious Christians had been accused of the same crime for tho Christ had taught the World to render to Caesar the things that are Caesars yet he was accus'd of Sedition and the desire of reigning and it was loudly cried at the Tribunal If thou let this man go thou art no friend to Caesar and tho the Apostles constantly taught Men to obey Magistrates that every Soul ought to be Subject to the higher powers and that not only for wrath but for conscience sake yet they were said to stir up the People and to invite the multitude to Rebellion So did Haman accuse the Jews Ahab accuse Elias and Amasias the Priest accuse the honest Prophet Amos in short Tertullian says all the Christians of his time were so accused as also did the ancient Enemies of Christianity Symmachus Celsus Julian Porphyry accuse the Christians of their Ages so that the charge is not new nor can it seem strange tho our very Enemies cannot deny that in all our discourses and writings we diligently admonish the People of their duty to be obedient to Princes and Magistrates tho they are wicked p. 84 c. c. If we are Traytors who honour our Princes who pay them deference and obedience in all things as much as is lawful for us to do by the Word of God who pray for them c. what are they who have not only done all that we speak of but also have approved of such proceedings We neither throw off the Yoke nor disturb Kingdoms we neither set up Kings ☞ nor dethrone them nor transfer their Empires nor give them Poyson nor make them to kiss our Feet nor tread on their Necks This rather is our Profession this is our Doctrine that every Soul whosoever it be whether a Monk or Evangelist or Prophet or Apostle ought to be subject to Kings and Magistrates we teach publickly that obedience ought to be paid to Princes as to Men sent by God and that whosoever resisteth them
the deformity of your fault c. an unnatural hope it is and a beastly to joyn with any strangers to the spoil of their own Country but such is the nature of that false Religion to regard no Country faith nature or common honesty SECT II. Antonius Corranus of Sevil a Learned Spaniard an excellent Person as Dr. Patrick with reason calls him spent much of his time in England and as appears by his Writings very well understood our Doctrine after he left his Country for the sake of a good Conscience he Preach'd ten years in France as he did also for some time in Flanders still reserving himself when God should give him an opportunity to Preach to his own Countrymen which he afterwards did for two years in London till that Congregation of Exil'd Spaniards was dissolv'd after which an 1571. he was chosen by the Templers to read his Lectures among them and their choice was confirm'd by Edwin Lord Bishop of London In the first year of his Ministry he expounded the Epistle to the Romans and out of that larger Commentary he Printed an 1574. a Theological Dialogue between St. Paul and one of his Roman auditors for this among other reasons that it might witness the purity of his Doctrine and how much he abhorr'd the Opinions of the Sectaries that then disturb'd the Church In this Dialogue having shown from the close of the 12th Chap. that we ought to overcome our Enemies perversness and malign temper by our goodness and patience he continues to Paraphrase the 13th Chapter thus Rom. I could wish from my Soul that this Doctrine so useful and necessary to our quiet were embrac'd by all Men but O horrid wickedness many of our Church begin not only to revenge themselves on their Persecutors but dare take Arms and resist the Magistrates and Judges that hinder the Preaching of the Gospel Paul They who think that the sufferings of Christians hinder the propagation of the Gospel are extreamly deceived for the blood of the Martyrs waters the Garden of the Church but do you who love Religion mind this Precept that every one that hath given up his name to Christ be subject to the higher Powers for why are they placed in a superior Station but that their inferiors may be subject unto them Rom. But what if Princes either Hereditary or Elective be evil or cruel must we obey them Paul What should hinder for we are not to consider our Rulers as private Men but to reverence them as constituted by God for there is no power but what is of God if they inclined by the fear of God promote piety their example does great good but if they do otherwise we ought to consider the Vengeance of God who for the Sins of a Nation sets over them Hypocrites and Dissemblers But even this Dispensation of God brings with it advantage to the godly Rom. Then you S. Paul are of that opinion that it is not lawful to take Arms against Princes and Magistrates tho they hinder the Gospel and would Murther and destroy us Paul That is my opinion and this I add as a conclusion Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation and that justly for since God is the Author of this Order they who rebel against the Magistrates wage War against God himself and shall bring upon themselves great Calamities Rom. O the deplorable state of this Age In which we see so many civil Wars popular Seditions Treasons cruel Murthers of Princes and more than barbarous Massacres perpetrated on Subjects Paul All these things probably fall out for the Sins both of the People and Rulers The People forgetting their Duty despise the Authority of the Prince and the King on the contrary forgets his Obligations and rages like a cruel Tyrant Wouldest then therefore and when I speak to you I speak to all Men not dread the Power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise and a reward from it so far oughtest thou to be from opposing it Rom. A most excellent method of bearing this Yoak which would otherwise be insupportable but men are wise too late Would to God this Doctrine were as much engraven on Mens Hearts as it finds a place on their Tongues for by this means it would soon come to pass that the Minds of Christians would enjoy much inward Peace and the Commonweal much Advantage Paul Wheresoever you are inculcate this Sentence in season out of season beseech reprove and teach that the Magistrate is God's chosen Minister appointed and preferr'd by him to the Office of governing for the punishment of them that do evil and for the comfort of them that do well If therefore thou do evil fear for he bears not the Sword in vain for God who hath advanc'd those Powers hath arm'd them with the Sword of Justice That I may sum up all in a few words we ought to be subject to the Powers not only for wrath but for Conscience sake for it is the Duty of a Christian to be subject to his Superiors Rom. You therefore believe that we must obey Magistrates not only for fear of Punishment but for greater Reasons because tho the Magistrate have no power over Conscience yet because he is the Minister of God no one with a good Conscience can resist him Paul That is my Opinion and for this Reason to shew the inward Obedience of your Mind do you pay Tribute c. So that learned and pious Paraphrast in opposition to the many false Glosses put upon the Words of the holy Apostle John Young Doctor of Divinity preach'd before the Queen the Second of March 1575. on Psal 131. Lord I am not high minded and he tells us the occasion of writing the Psalm was That there were certain Parasites and Flatterers attending upon King Saul who maligning David because that by Almighty God's special appointment he was anointed King over Israel and seeking to bring him into discredit and into hatred with his Prince did insinuate that he did secretly practise the Deposing him from the Kingdom and the Advanceing of himself ambitiously to the same Therefore the Prophet declares their Suggestions to be most false and slanderous and himself to be innocent from that great Offence S. Austin saith He that will go about to satifie and fulfil as all other so that ambitious and arrogant desire shall find it a Toyl of all Toyls such a Labor as Samson or Hercules never atchiev'd This desire of Honor Rule Principality worldly Glory and Renown is in the Heart of Man if it be once possessed therewithal a Worm that dyeth not c. Now David when he saith He did not exercise himself in such great matters c. his meaning was that he did never seek as he was most falsly and unjustly charged by some to advance himself ambitiously to the Kingdom King Saul his Master being alive because he knew well enough that
of the pretended Holy Discipline And if I mistake not by his directions the Account of Hacket's Coppinger's and Arthington's Treason was drawn up and Printed in the Book called Conspiracy for pretended Reformation the Design of which is expresly against the Doctrin of taking up Arms against the Lord's anointed especially on the Account of Religion SECT V. Anno 1594 Dr. Richard Eedes Printed with five other Sermons London 1604. p. 70 72 73 74. Dean of Worcester Preached before the Queen on Isai 49.23 Wherein he says That the Strength even of Heathen States was in their Religion by the which they were persuaded that their Princes were the Children of their Gods and their Laws drawn from the Oracles of some Divine Power They found by experience how hard it was for men to be brought to obey men unless they had the authority of more than men c. And what doth more teach either Obedience or Peace than the Religion of Christ Obedience is rightly called Nervus Imperii the Sinew and Strength of a Kingdom as well because it is grounded upon the Obedience of Christ who as Bernard noteth Ne perderet Obedientiam perdidit vitam did rather chuse to lose his life than to leave his Obedience As also because it requires in Christians Obedience without respect of persons to all without difference of Degrees higher Powers Rom. 13.2 Without exception against their Qualities not only to them that are good and courteous but to them also who are froward 1 Pet. 2.18 ☜ And that in all things Tribute to whom tribute c. and that not with eye-service as men-pleasers c. and that not because of wrath but for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 That if all the Laws and Policies of States and Kingdoms were gathered into one they could not be so strong to work peace and to persuade Obedience as these few but very forcible Rules of the Religion of Christ How much therefore is it to be lamented that in so great Light there should be so little Fruit That whereas the Truth of Religion is the Preserver of Government and the Mother of Obedience the name of Religion is made the Firebrand of Kingdoms and the armor of disobedience and that not only to maintain the Tyranny of that Usurping Power who takes upon him to Depose Kings but also to bring in that Anarchy of factious Subjects who presume to give Laws to their lawful Princes Wherein besides that it is true which Leo wrote unto Theodosius private causes are handled with pretence of Piety and every Man makes Religion which should be the Mistress the Handmaid of his affections it is intolerable to see how far some busie heads fetch the beginning of Kingdoms p. 7â— Vindic contr Tyran Bachâ—n de juâ—e regin and so as they please the right of Kings from the pleasure of the People how contemptuously they term the titles of honour and reverence the solecisms of the Court how seditiously they give wings to ambitious humors to plead the right of a â—aconical Ephory against Kings but for themselves and to arm that beast of many heads the multitude which ever goes as Seneca not whither it should but whither the stream bears it against that which to want of judgment is ever most heavy the present Government Whereas the right rules of Religion give no remedy to Subjects against the Highest Authority ☞ but the necessity of either suffering or obeying and therefore they that open that gap whether it be to the Tyranny of ambitious Popes or to the Anarchy of seditious Subjects howsoever they pretend the name of Religion they shall sooner prove themselves to have no Religion than that there is any defence for them in the Religion of Christ which teacheth as to be thankful to God for good Princes so to be patient of those whom in anger as the Prophet Hosea speaks Hos 13.11 he setteth over us for the punishment of our sins and against whom the first Professors of our faith had no weapons but prayers and tears p. 2. the same Author in his first Sermon before King James saith that promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South but from God. Ps 73.6 that their power is of God Rom. 3.1 and their judgments God's judgments Deut. 1.17 and that therefore they who resist them not only by a consequence resist the ordmance of God Rom. 13.2 but God in them as he told Samuel they have not rejected thee but me 1 Sam. 8.7 The Reverend Bishop Moreton begun very early to assert this Doctime in his Writings and he lived long enough to assert it by his sufferings being a great sharer in that affliction which in the great Rebellion the Doctrine of resistance brought upon both the King and the Church Anno 1596. he publish'd his Solomon or a Treatise declaring the shake of the Kingdom of Israel pr. Lond. as it was in the days of Solomon Wherein he proves after the words as it was in the days of Solomon insert these following that the Kingdom of Israel was a most true and lively picture of the State and Crown one egg being not more like another than the State to that under which we live so that all his arguments without any further comment are applicable to our Kingdom and whereas he foresaw ‖ Ep. ad Lect. that it would be objected to him that he gives the Christian Magistrate especially in great and absolute Monarchies greater authority than seems to stand with the good of the Church or the truth of God's Word he desires the Reader not to attribute it to flattery but to a constant and settled persuasion he intending in publishing the Treatise the good and peaceable State of the Kingdom and the maintaining of that powerful and majestical Authority whereunto it hath pleased God to make us subject and in the discourse he affirms †Sect. 2. p. 4 5. that Magistracy is not a mere device of Man as they who contemn and labor to overthrow all Authority speaking evil of those things which they know not have imagined but an ordinance of God. Rom. 13. there is no power but of God he therefore that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. Obj. But it cannot be shewed that it was ever establish'd by God throughout the World except only among the Jews but was invented and continued by Men excelling others in strength and ambition Answ The abuses of Magistracy tho many and grievous p. 6. cannot take away the lawful use of it and altho Magistracy hath been by the express commandment of God establish'd only in the Church yet it belongs as much to Infidels for it is instituted by God not as he is the Saviour of his Church but as he is the Creator and Preserver of all Men. p. 7. God sets up this his Ordiannce among Infidels by the light of nature remaining in the minds of Men c.
When the People set one over them Sert. 4. p. 17. reserving to themselves Authority either to displace or controul him or if need be to rise up in arms against him and to lay violent hands upon him they give unto him but improperly the name of a King. Obj. Sert. 5. p. 18. But was there no authority to restrain a King if at any time he should be impious or unjust in his Government otherwise the People might be miserably oppress'd Religion defac'd yea all things turn'd upside down and in the end the Commonwealth utterly overthrown Wisdom therefore Reason and Necessity the Glory of God and the good of Men required that there should be in Israel some Authority either in the People Priests Senate or inferior Magistrates against those Kings who did degenerate into violent and bloody Tyrants Answ This reason hath carried many headlong in heat to condemn and reject utterly these absolute Monarchies as Tyrannical and Barbarous c. but we ought not to suffer our selves to be deceived by any appearance to judge that to be unlawful and profane ☞ which God by establishing it in his Church p. 19. hath showed to be holy and lawful the authority of a King over his People was no less than is the authority of a Father in his Family in respect of his Children who if he do injuriously intreat any of them or live any way disorderly it is the duty of his Children if not with silence to suffer it yet with great modesty to admonish him of it but if they should joyn together and offer any violence unto him especially if they should throw him out of his house all Men would count them rebellious and ungracious Children ☞ but if they should take his life from him they were to be esteemed notoriously wicked yea rather as Monsters p. 20. worthy to be abhorr'd of all Men no Subject of what place soever no not the whole People jointly could lawfully use any violence against the King's Person or proceedings and that the King might tho not lawfully in respect of the law of God of Men or of Nature yet safely and freely in respect of his Subjects p. 21. do whatsoever pleased him according as Jacob foretels Gen. 49.9 the dealing of God himself doth prove the same who when he purposed to preserve David against the fury of Saul ☞ would never suffer him to oppose Ceila or any other of Saul's Cities against him but made him fly first into the mountains and deserts and afterward out of the land to the Philistines yea David altho he were appointed by the express Word of God to succeed Saul in the Kingdom yet he was so far from laying violent hands upon him that his heart smote him 1 Sam. 24.6 i. e. his conscience did accuse him that he had behaved himself disloyally against the King in that he had offered violence to the King's Garment because that was as a threatning of death unto him and a great disgrace yea further we do not read that God did ever by any of his Prophets stir up his People to maintain his true worship by violence against the Kings or ever reprove them because they had suffer'd them to set up Idolatry ☞ which is an evident proof of this point for if it had been lawful to resist in any case then surely in the maintenance of the true worship of God p. 22. and of his Glory no Man no company of Men could for any offence committed by the King either against God or Man the first or second Table call him to account summon him to appear in judgment or use any manner of violence either in word or deed against him To the Kings of Israel neither the Kingdom was given Sect. 6. p. 23. Sect. 7. p. 28. nor the conditions imposed by Man but by God and therefore they could not forfeit their Kingdom to Man but only to God but what was the behavior of Loyal Subjects in such cases the weapons which God gave unto his People wherewith to defend themselves against the Tyranny of their lawful Kings were these 1. wisdom carefully to avoid all occasions of the King's anger and injury 2. to avoid and decline from the violence and injury it self by flying 3. the third remedy where the second is wanting is patience to suffer with a quiet mind the violence or injustice of the King which could not be by wisdom either prevented or avoided 4. the last remedy is to appeal from the unjust Sentence of the King not to any Man or to any Court here on Earth but to the King of Kings even to God himself whose ears are always open to hear those who are opprest this remedy is the last and therefore not to be used but in cases of greatest extremity whenas the violence is too too grievous shameful and to Man's infirmity altogether intolerable p. 29. this means did Samuel commend unto the People whereby they should ease themselves of those intolerable burthens of tributes which their King would lay upon them 1 Sam. 8.18 saying then you being thus opprest by your King shall not rebel against him but shall cry unto the Lord. Where it is added that God will not hear them when they cry this is meant that could not afterwards put down their Kings neither be freed from their Tyranny The same Reverend Prelate in his Encounter against Parsons p. 187. says diversity of Religion changeth not the natural right of Inheritance this ancient Doctrine the Protestants still follow they still acknowledged Henry the fourth of France when he revolted from them but the Romanists would not admit him while he profess'd himself a Protestant And in his Causa Regia his answer to Card. Bell. Lond. An. 1620. c. 1. §. 21. p. 26 book de Officio Principis Christiani written by him when he was Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield he shews how vain that compact whether tacit or exprest is whereby Kings as Bell. says stand bound to the Pope so that by virtue thereof whenever they turn Hereticks or would make their Subjects such he may deprive them of their Kingdoms and whereas the Cardinal cited that of our Holy Saviour whosoever doth not hate father and mother c. is not worthy of me he answers ☜ that only ' signifies that we ought not to obey our Parents in those things which they command contrary to the true Faith but by no means what Bell. compact implies to rob our Parents of their Possessions c. 2. §. 9. p. 73 74. that Christ exercised his Priestly Office not actively in Deposing Princes but passively by giving his life as became a good Shepherd for his Sheep and when the Apostle armed St. Timothy he gave him not a temporal Sword to hurt any Man but a Spiritual to be exercised in suffering for so he commands him 2 Tim. 4.5 Watch thou in all things endure afflictions †E
divide these duties so as if they could not consist together and did not both Peter and Paul require so much when Kings were Enemies of the truth and of the Salvation of their Subjects Verily when Men make their excuse by God in this they tell a lye for the Almighty as Job says in another matter for that which is Caesar 's may be given to Caesar without the least breach of allegiance to Almighty God and it is most true that Chrysostome saith on the 13th to the Romans subjection to Princes overturneth not Religion a point belike that in those days stood in need stall and successively to be urged for the Greek Scholiast likewise in his Collect on the same place to the Romans hath it near word for word and he saith after that St. Paul taketh great care to urge it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every where neither was this as Jerome supposeth by reason of the continuance of any old Heresie but because St. Paul saw that this sin would universally and successively assail and therefore as Men hinder the work of godliness in themselves they must keep tenderly in the reins of their consciences the reverence of their Prince Whosoever doth vilipend his Sovereign in his conscience is either an Atheist or a Hypocrite the causes of Sedition and Rebellion are 1. Pride there are that go under the name of resolute that give occasion to upbraid the Land as Ezekiel upbraided Jerusalem there are in thee that have despised father and mother Ez. 22 7. that speak scornfully both of Queen and Council 2. Lack of Wisdom in not discerning the policies of Princes 3. lack of compassion in not weighing their temptations and their necessities 4. lack of equity when the Subject blames his Prince for his own fault Lastly forgetfulness of their benefits which is unthankfulness in my Text the Lord threatens the depravers of Kings and Magistrates the foul of the Heaven shall carry the voice c. this notes the heinousness of the Sin for the Holy Ghost is not wont to bewray Men for trifles and is strong evidence that the maligning of Higher Powers is in the Catalogue of those sins which though they escape Man yet the vengeance of God doth pursue and as it were bring back again to the judgment seat it matters not what plausible shews there be to do such things for the event discovers that they are but shews Absalom seemed to have a just quarrel against Amnon for lying with his Sister especially his pernicious impunity consider'd by reason of David 's indulgence but Absalom 's matter was not Amnon 's incest but Amnon 's Seniority he was betwixt Him and the Crown for the Event declared what an hater of incest Absalom was by his behavior to his Father's Concubines and the Lord discovered by his Insurrection against his Father that it was ambition that made him to kill his Brother Dr. John Dove in his Sermon about divorcement at Pauls Cross 1601. says that some Men will prove Rebellion and High Treason out of the Scriptures that the People are above the King and cites in the Margin Vindiciae contra Tyrannos CHAP. V. The History of Passive Obedience during the Reign of King James SECT I. WHEN God of his great mercy had taken to himself our illustrious Queen Elizabeth in the beginning of the Year 1603. her undoubted Successor King James published the same Year a little but accurate Treatise intituled The true Laws of free Monarchies which is an exact Comment on 1 Sam. 8.11 c. where Samuel shews the Israelites what would be the manner of the King that should reign over them that if he made their free-born Children Bond-men vers 11 c. and seized their Estates by Injustice and Violence vers 14 c. they should be allowed no other remedy in that day of their Calamity but to cry unto the Lord vers 18. and to punish them for their Contempt of his immediate Conduct God threatens he will not hear them In this Book says the learned John Forbes Duplies to Henderson p. 20. he doth at length demonstrate That in a free Monarchy such as he proveth his Kingdom of Scotland to be the Subjects for no occasion or pretext whatsoever may take Arms without power from the King and much less against him whether he be a good King or an Oppressor c. and comprehendeth the sum of all his Discourse concerning this matter in these words following Shortly then to take up in two or three Sentences grounded upon all these Arguments out of the Law of God the Duty and Allegiance of the People to their lawful King Their Obedience I say ought to be to him as to God's Lieutenant on Earth obeying his Commands in all things except directly against God as the Commands of God's Minister acknowledging him a Judge set by God over them having power to judge them but to be judg'd only by God to whom only he must give account of his Judgment fearing him as their Judge loving him as their Father praying for him as their Protector for his continuance if he be good for his amendment if he be wicked following and obeying his lawful Commands eschewing and fleeing his Fury in his unlawful without resistance ☞ but by Sobs and Tears to God according to that sentence used in the Primitive Church in the time of the Persecution Preces lacrymae sunt arma Ecclesiae i. e. Prayers and Tears are the Arms of the Church And the Book it self speaks out The Wickedness of the King can never make them that are ordained to be judged by him to become his Judges And if it be not lawful to a private man to revenge his private Injury upon his private Adversary since God hath only given the Sword to the Magistrate how much less is it lawful to the People or any part of them who all are but private men to take upon them the use of the Sword whom to it belongeth not against the publick Magistrate whom to only it belongeth But should I transcribe every Passage out of that accurate little Treatise I should swell this Volume and tire the Reader whom I therefore refer for his further satisfaction to the Work it self in which and his other Works the King hath shewn himself as a learned man styles him A Pillar of the Church Oweni Antipar Pag. 117 118. a Support to a ruinous Commonwealth a brave Champion of Christ against Antichrist and the new Arians an invincible Defender of Kings against the Papal Tyranny the Impostures of the Cardinals and the Seditions of the Puritans the Restorer of the Episcopal Dignity and the Defender of it against Presbyterian Anarchy the Defender of the Catholick Faith and the truly peaceable King. R. Doleman i. e. Parsons having publish'd his Conference concerning the Succession to the Crown of England Ann. 1594. a Book from whence most of our modern Enemies of the true Rights of Princes have borrowed
other Potentate play the Kite with them both as the Turks did with the Hungarians c. 3. p. 57 c. That Princes may be chastised by their Subjects your Proofs are Two one is drawn from certain Examples the other from the good Success and Successors which usually have followed Slender Threds to draw any Man to your Opinion There is no Villany so vile which wants Example and by the secret yet just Judgment of God divers evil Actions are carried with appearance of good success Pag. 61. When Saul persecuted David he defended himself no otherwise than by flight During this pursuit Saul fell twice into his power once he did not only spare but protect him the other time his Heart did smite him for that he had cut away the Lap of his Garment lastly he caused the Messenger to be slain who upon request and for pity had further'd as he said the Death of that sacred King. We have a Precept of Obedience which is the Mould wherein we ought to fashion our Actions God only is superior to Princes who useth many Instruments in the execution of his Justice but his Authority he hath committed unto none Pag. 68. The Examples of Suintilla and other Gothick Kings in Spain is answer'd by saying that the Kingdom was not then setled in Succession And then he shews the illegality of the Proceedings against King John Pag. 72 73 74 75. Edw. 2. and Rich. 2. and adds Three Causes are commonly insinuated by you for which a King may be deposed Tyranny Insufficiency and Impiety But what Prince could hold his State what People their Quiet assured if this your Doctrine should take place How many good Princes doth Envy brand with one of these Marks What Action of State can be so ordered that either blind Ignorance or set Malice will not easily strain to one of these Heads Every execution of Justice every demand of Tribute or Supply shall be claimed Tyranny Every unfortunate Event shall be exclaimed Insufficiency Every kind of Religion shall by them of another Sect be proclaimed Impiety But are not Princes subject to Law C 4. p. 81 82 c. and Order Answ I will not deny but there is a Duty for Princes to perform but how prove you that their Subjects have power to depose them if they fail The people may so give away their Authority that they cannot resume it and few Princes in the World hold their Estates by Grant of the people If the Prince hath no power but by Commission from the People then all Estates are popular Our Laws do acknowledge supreme Authority in the Prince within the Realm and Dominions of England neither can Subjects bear themselves either superior 1 El. 1. or equal to their Sovereign or attempt violence either against his Person or Estate No Prince is Sovereign C. 5. p. 92. who acknow ledgeth himself either subject or accountable to any but to God. Did David bear Arms against his Anointed King ☜ Did he ever lift up his Eye lids against him Did he ever so much as defend himself otherwise than by flight What then shall we say unto you who to set up Sedition and Tumult abuse all Divine and Human Writings in whatsoever you believe will advance your purpose who spend some Speech of Respect unto Kings for Allurement only to draw us more deep into your deceit c. The Coronation Oath is only a free P. 102. Royal Promise to discharge that Duty which God doth impose The Prophets P. 105. the Apostles Christ himself hath taught us to be obedient to Princes ☜ tho both Tyrants and Infidels This ought to stand with us for a thousand Reasons to submit our selves to such Kings as it pleaseth God to send unto us without either judging or examining their Qualities their Hearts are in God's Hand they do his Service sometimes in preserving sometimes in punishing us If they abuse any part of their power let them assuredly expect that God will dart his vengeance against them with a most stiff and dreadful Arm. In the mean season we must not oppose our selves otherwise than by humble Suits and Prayers acknowledging that those Evils are always just for us to suffer which are many times unjust for them to do If we break into disorder we resemble the Giants who sealed the Skies C. 6. 116 117. It was alledged in behalf of some Cities in France that they were not Rebels because they had not professed Allegiance unto Henry the Fourth but the chiefest Lawyers of our Age did resolve that forasmuch as they were original Subjects even Subjects by Birth they were Rebels in bearing Arms against their King altho they had never professed Allegiance But the admission of the people say you hath often prevailed against Right of Succession ☞ So have Pyrates against Merchants so have Mutherers and Thieves against true meaning Travellers Chap. 8 p. 146 147. But may not a man trespass on such Laws for the good of the Realm Answ What Conscience can any men have in defiling their Faith Such Consciences you endeavour to frame in all men P. 156 157. to break an Oath with as great facility as a Squirrel can crack a Nut. In what a miserable condition should Princes live if their State depended upon the pleasures of the people in whom company takes away shame and every man may lay fault on his Fellow How could they command P. 164. Who would obey c. It seems strange to reason to plant Religion under the Obedience of Kings not only careless thereof but cruel against it But when we consider that the Jews did commonly forsake God in prosperity and seek him in distress that the Church of Christ was more pure more zealous more entire I might also say more populous when she travelled with the storm in her face than when the wind was either prosperous or calm We may learn thereby no further to examine but to admire and embrace the unsearchable Wisdom and Will of God. P. 170. c. God hath taught by the Apostle S. Paul that whosoever resists the higher powers which at that time were Infidels receive unto themselves damnation ☞ You teach that whosoever doth not in the like case resist doth damnably offend were not the Spirit of Division otherwise called the Devil seated in your Soul you would not thus openly oppose the Settlings of your rotten Brain against the express and direct Sentence of God. The Apostle teacheth us to be obedient to higher powers for conscience sake and not for any private respect P. 173 c. You whose Office is to pray to instruct Men in pure Devotion to settle their Souls in piety and peace you take upon you the Policies of State you read and deface the Reputation of Kings you make your selves both Judges and Moderators of all their Actions allowing them to flie no further than you give them Wings
and Prophets submitted their persons to those wicked Princes whose Idolatry they reproved with the loss of their lives P. 359. If the Prince wilfully maintain Heresie and open Impiety the Bishops are to reprove admonish c. but still they must serve him honor him pray for him and teach the People to do the like ☜ and with meekness enduring what the wrath of the Prince shall lay upon them without annoying his person resisting his power discharging his Subjects or removing him from his Throne Which says he to the Jesuit is your way of censuring Princes P. 366. P. 382. The Church of Christ offers not any Example of resisting and deposing Princes for a thousand years ☜ It is not enough for you to have Laws of your own making to license you to bear Arms against your Prince you must have God's Law for your Warrant or else you may come within the compass of heinous and horrible Rebellion Theoph. P. 384. that is the Protestant Interlocutor That 's the Case which you take in hand that the People may punish the Prince offending as the Prince may the People Phil. i. e. the Jesuit Either the people or none must do it Theoph. And seeing the people may not do it it is evident that God hath reserved the Magistrate to be punished by himself and not given the people power over their Prince P. 502. Do not with violence restrain them but in patience possess your own souls This is the way for all Christian Subjects to conquer Tyrants and this is the Remedy provided in the New Testament against all Persecutions not to resist Powers which God has ordain'd lest we be damn'd but with all meekness to suffer that we may be crowned P. 512. If Princes presume to violate the Dominion which God hath reserved to himself we may not rebel that 's your Jesuitical Doctrine but disobey them in that or any point that is prescribed by man against the will of God and submit our selves to endure persecution for righteousness sake P. 541. If Princes embrace the Truth you must obey them if they pursue Truth you must abide them And these Passages with what hath been formerly cited out of the said Book will I think sufficiently vindicate both the Author and his Doctrine from all that is usually objected against them Especially if we consider that when the Jesuit had quoted Goodman's Book of Obedience as applauding Wyat's Rebellion the Protestant answers It is much that you measure the whole Realm by one man's merit Par. 3. p. 273 274. and more that you draw the words which he spake from the meaning which he had to warrant your Rebellions The party ☞ which you name at the same time took Queen Mary for no lawful Prince which particular and false supposal beguiled him and made him think the better of Wyat's War but our Question is of lawful Princes not of violent Intruders and therefore Goodman's Opinion which himself hath long since disliked is no way serviceable to your Seditions or as it is in the Margin Goodman's private Opinion long since corrected by himself cannot prejudice the whole Realm Goodman did not hold that lawful Princes might be thrust from their Crowns but that Queen Mary was no lawful Magistrate One of his great Arguments against her being taken from her Sex which was made by God as he dreamed uncapable of Government this being one of his and Knox's beloved Paradoxes but he lived to repent and retract them SECT III. To give the King at his entry into England a Specimen of the temper of the Zealots they tender'd him a Petition called the Mille manus Petition as if they would have intermixed their desires with threatnings by telling the King that 1000 Ministers An. 1603. as they loved to be called had influence enough on many thousands of People to incline them to give disturbance to his Government if he did not comply with their requests to which the University of Oxford wrote a full and satisfactory answer wherein they affirm that the Presbyterians allow the King not potestatem Juris p. 29. but only facti while they make him a maintainer of their proceedings but no commander in them and all the while the King submits his Scepter unto the Scepter of Christ and licks the dust of the Churches feet for which they Quote T. C. lib. 1. p. 180. This assertion they condemn together with the other Antimonarchical Antiepiscopal Doctrins of that Petition nor was this the sole judgment of that Famous University but of her Famous Sister at Cambridge whose Epistle is published at the end of that answer and wherein they aver Quicunque Ecclesiae Anglicanae doctrinam vel disciplinam vel ejus partem aliquam legibus publicis stabilitam c. that whosoever shall by writing speaking or any other way publickly oppose the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England or any part thereof established by publick Laws shall be uncapable of taking any Degree and suspended from any Degrees he hath formerly taken Dated Octob. 7. 1603. Dr. Anthony Rudd Bishop of St. pr. at Lond. 1604. Davids Preach'd before the King May 13. 1604. on Ps 101. v. 2. and in it gives an account of David's demeanor both before and after he attained the Crown of Israel and among other things he commends him for his patient waiting on God till Saul's Death p. 26 27. David had given proof of his rare patience in his distressed Estate during the expectancy of the Kingdom of Israel for though in that Interim of sundry years attendance after that Samuel had Anointed him ☜ before the Crown fell unto him by the death of King Saul he sustain'd many grievous troubles inconveniences and dangers yet he still possessed his Soul in patience without seeking unlawful means to hasten his own advancement by the making away of his Sovereign Insomuch as though Saul who deadly pursued him was twice by the Providence of God offer'd into his hands that he might have dâ—ne his pleasure with him first in the Wilderness of Engedi and secondly in the desert of Zâ—ph yet he spared his life and did no violence to his Person leaving him to God's Judgment and referring his own cause to God's merciful providence patiently attending the Lord's leisure till he should vouchsafe to come and put him in possession of the Kingdom To King James at his first coming to the English Throne the Learned Dr. Feild was a Chaplain as he was also an eminent Champion for the Church against her adversaries of Rome and his arguments against the Usurpations of the Popes are equally cogent against the Republicans * of the Church l. 5. c 45. p. 610. If they shall say that Sovereign Princes are subject to none while they use their authority well but that if they abuse it they lose the independent absoluteness thereof their saying will be found to be Heretical
☜ for if upon abuse of mdependent Authority they that have it lose and forfeit it ipso facto then authority and abuse of authority at least extreme abuse of it cannot stand together which is contrary to that of St. Augustine where he saith nee tyrannicae factionis perversitas laudabilis erit de bono consugali c. 14. si regiâ clementâ—â— tyrannus subditos tractet nec vituperabilis ordo regiae potestatis si rex crudelitate tyrannicâ saeviat aliud est namque injustâ porestate justè velle uti aliud est justâ potestate injustè velle uti i. e. â—â—ther shall the perversness of Tyrannical Usurpation ever be praise worthy ☞ though the Tyrant use his Subjects with all Kingly clemency nor the order of Kingly Power be ever subject to just reprehension thâ—ugh a King grow fierce and cruel like a Tyrant for it is one thing to use an unlawful Power lawfully and another thing to use a lawful Power unrighteously and unjustly SECT IV. After the happy discovery of the damnable Gun-powder Treason and the just execution of the wretched miscreants that were engaged in it the Parliament met at Westminster which had been first summoned Anno 1603. and with it a Convocation the Members of which reslecting upon the horrid design of Garnet and his Accomplices thought themselves in justice to their Sovereign and their own Principles obliged when they met to censure and condemn such Doctrins as led Men to such Rebellious Practices hereupon the Prolocutor of the lower house Dr. Overall then Dean of St. Pauls afterwards Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield then of Norwich whose vast learning gives him a character beyond all that can be said of him here drew up a Treatise which being reviewed by the Upper House of Convocation was mutually agreed on and declared to be the Sense of the Church of England in that very Svnod which made the Canons that as yet are lookt upon as the Code of our Church a Manuscript of which Acts This Book is since Printed by W. Kettilby an 1690. lib. 1. c. 2. and Canons having been happily put into my hands I cannot but think my self obliged to transcribe some Passages that discover the belief of our Church representative at that time They positively assert that God having created our first Parents and purposing to multiply their seed into many Generations for the replenishing of the World with their Posterity did give to Adam for his time and to the rest of the Patriarchs and chief Fathers successively before the Flood Authority Power and Dominion over their Children and Offspring to Rule and Govern them adding further Can. 2. if any Man shall affirm that Men at the first without all good Edacation or civility ran up and down in Woods and Fields as wild creatures resting themselves in Caves and Dens and acknowledging no Superiority one over another until they were taught by experience the necessity of Government and that thereupon they chose some among themselves to order and rule the rest giving them power and authority so to do and that consequently all civil Power Jurisdiction and Authority was first derived from the People and disorder'd Multitude or either is originally still in them or else is deduc'd by their consents naturally from them and is not God's Ordinance originally descending from him and depending upon him he doth greatly err Thus they account for the Government of the old World nor did the Flood alter the nature of Authority or alienate the Rights of Princes for say they If any Man shall affirm Can. 6.11 that the civil Power and Authority which Noah had before the Flood was by the deluge determin'd or that it was given unto him again by his Sons or Nephews or that he received from them the Sword of his Sovereignty or that the distribution of the World to his three Som did depend upon their consents or received from them any such authority as without the same it could not lawfully have been made or that this Power c. did not proceed from God or were not properly his Ordinance but that they had the same from the People their Offspring he doth greatly err Besides it is generally agreed upon cap. 16. that obedience to Kings and Civil Magistrates is prescrib'd to all Subjects in the 5th Commandment Ex 20.12 where we are enjoyn'd to Honour our Parents whereby it follows that subjection of Inferiors unto their Kings and Governors is founded upon the very law of Nature and consequently that the sentence of Death awarded by God himself against such as shewed themselves incorrigibly disobedient to their Parents or cursed them or struck them was likewise due unto those who committed any such offences against their Kings and Rulers being the Heads and Fathers of their Commonâ—ealths and Kingdoms which is not only apparent by way of consequence but likewise by example practice and precept as where Shimei is judged to die for cursing of David the Lords Anointed where David himself appointed by God to succeed King Saul would not be induced by any perswasions to lay violent hands upon his Master the King. If any Man therefore shall affirm Câ—n. 16. that it was lawful in the Old Testament either for Children or Nephews to have been disobedient to their Fathers being their chief Governâ—rs from the Creation till Moses 's time or afterward either for the Children of Israel either under Moses Joshua the Judges or their Kings to have been disobedient to them in their lawful commandments or to have murmured or rebelled against them or that it was in those times more lawful unto Subjects for any cause whatsoever either to curse their Princes Kings or civil Governors ☞ or to bear arms against them or to depose them from their Kingdoms or Principalities or to lay violent hands upon their Persons than it was in the said times lawful upon any occasion for Children either to have cursed their Parents or to have rebelled against them when they did reprove or correct them or to have withdrawn themselves from their subjection saying unto them they being private Men we will be no more your Children or you shall be no more our Fathers or bearing civil authority over them we will depose you from your Government over us and will be no longer ruled by you or to have offered any violence to them or to have beaten them and much less to have murder'd them he dâ—th greatly err After this they deduce the Scheme of Paternal and Regal Government through the several Ages of the Church down to the time of the Jewish Kings and when they considered the case of Uzziah who for offering to burn Incense on the Altar which was peculiarly the Priests Office was by God smitten with leprosie â— 1. Can 22 they aver if any Man shall affirm that Azariah and the other Priests used or that they lawfully might have used any violence or force against the
King's Person either in hindering him for burning of Incense ☞ or in thrusting him out of the Temple or in compelling him to dwell apart in a house as he did though he was a leper if he had not of himself yielded to the observation of the law in that behalf or that he was deprived of his Kingdom either by the said streke of God or by his dwelling in a house apart or that any thing which the Priests then did might have been a lawful warrant to any Priest afterward in the Old Testament either to have deposed by sentence any of their Kings from their Kingdoms for the like offences or to have used arms or repressed such their unlawful attempts by forcible ways though they had imagined the same might have tended to the preservation of Religion or that either before that time or afterward ☜ any Priest did resist by force of Arms or depose any of the Kings either of Israel or of Judah from their Kingdoms tho the Kings of Israel all of them and fourteen of the Kings of Judah were open and plain Idolaters he doth greatly err Can. 23. l. 1. And because against this the Case of Athaliah might be objected they say further if any Man shall affirm that Jehoiada and his Wife did amiss in preserving the life of their King Joash or that Athaliah was not a Tyrannical Usurper the right Heir of that Kingdom being alive or that it was neither lawful for Jehoiada and the rest of the Princes Levites and People to have yielded their subjection unto their lawful King nor having so done and their King being in possession of his Crown to have joyn'd together for the overthrowing of Athaliah the Usurper or that Jehoiada the High Priest was not bound as he was a Priest both to inform the Princes and People of the Lords promise ☜ that Joash should Reign over them or that this fact either of the Princes Priests or People was to be held for a lawful warrant for any afterward either Princes Priest or People to have deposed any of the Kings of Judah who by right of Succession came to their Crowns or to have killed them for any respect whatsoever and to have set another in their places according to their own choice or that this example of Jehoiada or any thing else in the Old Testament did give them to the High Priest any Authority to dispute determine or judge whether the Children of the Kings of Judah should either be kept from the Crown because their Fathers were Idolaters or being in possession of it should be deposed from it in this respect or any other respect whatsoever he â—oth greatly err Can. 25. If any Man shall affirm that it is lawful for any Captain or Subject high or low whosoever to bear Arms against their Sovereign cap. 28. or to lay violent hands upon his Sacred Person he doth greatly err and this Doctrine is earnestly inculcated in many other places The Israelites in Aegypt after Joseph's death being opprest very tyrannically many ways did never rebel against any of those Kings but submitted themselves to their authority tho their burthens were very intolerable both in respect of the impossible works imposed on them and because also they might not offer sacrifices unto the Lord a special part of God's Worship without apparent danger of stoning to death besides it may not be omitted when God himself sent Moses to deliver them from that servitude he would not suffer him to carry them thence till Pharaoh their King gave them licence to depart When Alexander the Great l. 1. cap. 30. having overthrown Darius sent to Jaddus the High Priest and Prince of the Jews to assist him in his Wars and become tributary to the Macedonians as he had been to the Persians Jos Ant. l. 11. c 8. he return'd for his answer that he might not yield thereunto ☞ because he had taken an Oath for his true Allegiance unto Darius which he might not lawfully violate while Darius lived being by flight escaped when his Army was defeated Can. 30. If any Man shall affirm that Jaddus the High Priest did amiss in binding his obedience to King Darius by an Oath or that he had not sinned if he had refused being thereunto required so to have sworn or having so sworn he might lawfully have born Arms against Darius or have sollicited others whether aliens or Jews thereunto he doth greatly err And agreeable hereunto they tell us was the belief and practice of our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles under the Gospel If therefore any Man shall affirm Can. 2. l. 2. that our Saviour did exempt himself from the obedience due to the civil Magistrate or did any way or at any time encourage the Jews or any other directly ☞ or indirectly to rebel for any cause whatsoever against the Roman Emperor or any of his subordinate Magistrates or that he did not very willingly both himself pay tribute to Caesar and also advise the Jews so to do or that when he willed the Jews to pay Tribute to Caesar including therein their duty of obedience unto him he did not therein deal plainly or sincerely but meant secretly that they should be bound no longer to be obedient unto him but until by force they should be able to resist him or that he did not utterly and truly condemn all devises conferences and resolutions whatsoever either in his own Apostles or in any other Persons for the using of force against civil Authority or that by Christ's Word all Subjects of what sort soever without exception ought not by the law of God to perish with the Sword that take and use the Sword for any cause against Kings and Sovereign Princes under whom they were born or under whose Jurisdiction they do inhabit or that Christ did not well and as the fifth Commandment did require in submitting himself as he did to Authority altho he was first sent for with Swords and Staves as if he had been a Thief and then afterward carried to Pilate and by him albeit he found no evil in him condemn'd to death or that by any Doctrine or Example which Christ ever taught or hath left upon good record ☜ it can be proved lawful to any Subjects for any cause of what nature soever to decline either the Authority and Jurisdiction of their Sovereign Princes or of any their lawful Deputies and inferior Magistrates ruling under them he doth greatly err If any Man shall affirm Can. 6. l. 2. that the Subjects of all the Temporal Princes in the World were not as much bound in St. Paul's time to be subject unto them as the Romans were to be subject to the Empire not only for fear but even for conscience sake or that St. Paul's commandment by virtue of his Apostleship and assistance of the Holy Ghost of obedience to Princes then Ethnicks is not of as great force to bind
makes a Hypocrite to reign for the sins of a people Now the Supremacy of Kings and the subjection of every Soul to them are so joined that the King cannot be said to be supreme unless every Soul be subject to him nor will the duty of subjection agree to every Soul unless the King be invested with this Supremacy Sect. 3. p. 21. for all Men universim omnes sigillatim singuli whether singly or contained in a body are bound in conscience by this Apostolical Precept to pay the duties of subjection and observance to Kings and whereas Bellarmin as others urged the deposition of Athaliah Sect. 5. p. 33. to prove the lawfulness of Dethroning Princes he answers that Athaliah had no right to the Crown that she had the Kingdom by violence that the true King lay hid that by her Parricide and Treason she had made herself guilty of death by the Law and ought to have suffered Prelect 4. Sect. 3. p. 44. p. 47. and that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Power which St. Paul uses never signifies force and violence but a just Power which must be lawful because it is from Heaven that Christ was subject by the law to the Power of Pilate and the Apostles to the Heathen Princes Prel 5. Sect. 1.2 p. 70 71. and that in the Primitive Church there were no Traytors who either openly or privately contrived or attempted any thing against the Life or Crown of the Emperor when they wanted neither numbers nor force but they durst not turn Rebels or Traytors ☜ lest by breaking the command of Christ they should lose Heaven and Bellarmin belies them when he says they wanted not a right nor good will to depose Kings but only forces sufficient P. 73. it was of old their Doctrine that the Church ought not to rebel against Princes and this the Gospel taught them let them therefore shew from the Gospel that it is lawful for else let a Man pretend to Inspiration if he speaks from himself and not from the Gospel believe him not says St. Chrysostom Prelect 8. Sect. ult p. 96. and having shewn from David's saying against thee only have I sinned that Kings are accountable only to God he closes his Lecture with these words a King is under the coercion of no Laws because there is no power among Men on Earth that can punish him so that when Kings transgress we must expect the judgments of God upon them SECT XIV In the same year Dr. Lewis Bayly Bishop of Bangor set forth the Practice of Piety ‖ P. 479. edit 1675. in the end of which he shews that the Doctrine which St. Paul taught the Ancient Church of Rome is diametrically opposite in 26 fundamental points of true Religion to that which the new Church of Rome teacheth and maintaineth and the 24th is this that every Soul must of conscience be subject and pay tribute to the Higher Powers i.e. the Magistrates which bear the Sword. Rom. 13.1 2 c. and therefore the Pope and all Prelates and by parity of reason all other Subjects must be subject to their Emperors Kings and Magistrates unless they will bring damnation upon their Souls as Traytors that resist God and his Ordinance and therefore let the Jesuits P. 480. c. take heed and fear lest it be not Faith but Faction not Truth but Treason not Religion but Rebellion which is the cause of their deaths ☜ because they cannot be suffered to persuade Subjects to break their Oaths and to withdraw their Allegiance from their Sovereign to raise Rebellion to move Invasion to stab and poyson Queens to kill and murder Kings c. Some years before this Dr. Richard Crackenthorp Preach'd at Pauls Cross viz. Mar. 24. 1608. and in his Epistle Dedicatory he affirms pr. Lond. 1609. that his desire therein was to testifie his unfeigned love first to God's truth and then to the Peace of our Jerusalem and in the Sermon he commends King James's Book of Free Monarchies but especially his Learned Apology for the Oath of Allegiance and proves that as Solomon had his Kingdom neither from the Priest nor the People but immediatly from God so the Scriptures call Kings the Ministers or Lieutenants of God Rom. 13. and that all the Ancient Fathers did believe that the Imperial Authority of Kings was immediatly and only derived of God immediatly depending of God and of God alone this was the judgment and just defence of all the Christians and of the Church at that time and to prove this to be agreeable to the Law he cites a Statute made 16. Ric. 2. c. 5. of purpose to keep sacred and inviolable the Sovereignty and regality of this Kingdom ☞ it was therein declared that the Crown of England hath been so free at all times not then only but which is specially to be remembred at all times that it hath been in subjection to no Realm but immediatly subject to God and to none other in all things touching the regality of the same in defence of which Statute they in the Parliament then Assembled promised to live and dye as it is there noted by all which it is evident that this Doctrine which is now at Rome counted most ridiculous it in it self most sacred as being grounded on the Scriptures of God and as most sacred hath been embrac'd by all the Christians in the Primitive Church taught and maintained with a general consent by the Ancient and Godly Fathers in their several Ages and Successions constantly defended by whole Kingdoms and Empires and that under pain of High Treason to the Gainsayers thereof even in those latter times also when superstition had dimin'd but not quite extinguish'd and put out the Truth that cannot possibly be true loyalty or sincere obedience which ever attending to an higher command includes in it as in a Trojan Horse that condition of rebus sic stantibus durante beneplacito or the like out of which if strength and opportunity might serve they might let out whole Armies and Troops of Armed Men suddenly to surprize both Church and Kingdom and much more to that purpose To Dr. Crackenthorp it is requisite to join his Friend Dr. P. 334 ed. Lon. 1675 Daniel Featly who in his Handmaid to devotion on the Feast of the Fifth of November gives all good Christians this useful admonition All that fear God ought to abhor and detest all Traiterous and Bloody conspiracies against the Prince and State because God strictly forbids dreadfully threatens miraculously discovers and severely punishes all Treasons and Conspiracies as we see in Corah Absalom Adonijah Zimri the Servants of Ammon Sullam Haman the servants of the Nobleman in the Parable Judas for God forbids conspiracies Touch not mine Anointed c. SECT XV. The Famous Peter du Moulin the Father the Cicero of the French Churches was by King James made a Prebendary of the Church of Canterbury and
gave that Prince no reason to repent of his favors to him vindicating on all occasions both the interests of the Church and the Person Power and Writings of the King nor were his Books and his Actions dissonant one to the other for he never sided with never encouraged the Commonwealth of Rochel as it was called and in his works Orthodoxly States the Catholick Doctrine of Government and confutes the objections of its adversaries thus in his Buckler of Faith c. Buckler of Faith. He lays down briefly but fully ‖ Lib. 2. Sect. ult p. 556 557. Lon. 1623 in Engl. first the Opinion of the Romanists and then the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches as to the right of Kings Thomas the chief Schoolman says he avers that the Power of Princes and Sovereign Lords is but a humane constitution and proceedeth not from God and with him agree Bellarmin and Arnoux their reasons are 1. That the first King that was in the World Nimrod made himself King by force 2. That the greatest part of Empires were erected by Conquest 3. That Kings are established by humane means whether they attain to the Crown by Hereditary Succession or by Election since there is no rule in the Word of God that bindeth to follow an Hereditary Succession more than an Election 4. That there is no express command set down to obey Henry or Lewis or to acknowledge this or that Man more than another to be King. 5. That for these reasons St. Peter calls the Obedience to Kings an Humane Order while we on the contrary maintain that Obedience due to Kings proceedeth from the Divine Law and is grounded upon the Ordinance of God and whom no Man may resist without resisting God. Rom. 13.1 2. and St. Peter in the same place which they object against us will have us yield Obedience to the King for the Lord's sake and altho Nebuchadnezzar was an ungodly King a scourge used by God to destroy Nations nevertheless God speaks thus unto him by his Prophet Dan. 2.37 Thou O King art a King of Kings c. as to their reasons 1. It is false that Nimrod was the first King in the World for the Fathers and Heads of Families were Kings Priests and Sovereign Princes of their Families Men living after the Flood Five or Six hundred Years long enough to see a multitude of their own Children over whom they were to exercise their paternal Power 2. As to the establishment of Government in Conquest I say that those whose Countries a strange Prince seeketh to invade do well to defend themselves and if in that defensive War the Usurper chance to be slain he is justly punished but if he get the upper hand if the Race of the Ancient Possessors of the same Country be clean extinguished if the States of the Country assembled together do agree upon a new form of Government and if all the Officers throughout the Country have taken their Oaths of Fidelity to the New King then we must believe that God hath established such a Prince in that Kingdom then I say that the People ought to yield to the will of God who for the sins of Kings and of their People transposeth Kingdoms and disposeth of the Issues of Battels at his will and pleasure as to the third it belongs not to the Question whether a King succeed by Inheritance or by Election but whether by the Ordinance of God we ought to obey him when he is established therein while our Adversaries will have the Power of Popes to proceed from the Ordinance of God tho they enter into the Papacy by Election and too often by indirect means c. 4. Tho there be no command to obey Henry or Lewis it sufficeth there is a commandment to obey the King and to keep our Oaths of Fidelity made to the King and by consequence to be faithful to that King to whom we swear Obedience and Loyalty nay by this argument no King of this age were to be obeyed because we do not find his name expresly set down in Holy Writ nay no Man were bound to fear God or to believe in Jesus Christ because the Scripture doth not particularly ordain that Thomas Anthony or William should fear God or believe in Jesus Christ it sufficeth that the Word of God containeth general rules which bind particular Persons without naming them 5. St. Peter calls the Obedience that Men owe to Kings an humane Order either because Kings command divers things which by their own nature are not derived from the Divine Law as suppose to forbid to go by night without a Candle or because they attain to that Power by humane means which hinders not but that their Power is grounded upon the Word of God after they are once established for the Question is not touching the means whereby a Prince attains his Kingdom i. e. whether by Hereditary Succession or Election but what Obedience is due to him after he hath attained thereunto whosoever buildeth the Authority of Kings upon Man's Institution and not upon the Ordinance of God cuts off three parts of their Authority and bereaveth them of that which assureth their Lives and their Crowns more than the guards of their Bodies or puissant Armies which put terror into Subjects instead of framing them to Obedience then the Fidelity of Subjects will be firm and sure when it shall be incorporated into piety and esteemed to be a part of Religion and of the service which we owe unto God. The same excellent Person in his rejoinder to de Balzac after he had asserted that the Jesuits teach the Murder of Princes ‖ Letter 2d ed. Lon 1636. Eng p. 73 94 95. and that their Schools have produced many King-killers he proceeds to vindicate the French Church from de Balzac's imputation who professes himself incens'd against the Authors of the troubles in France tho he acquits du Moulin's Person as one who made the subjection due to Sovereignty a part of the Religion which he taught affirming that Obedience to our Sovereigns is a thing just and necessary that to find out an occasion of Rebellion either in a Man 's own Religion or in that of his King is to make insurrections to defend Religion by courses condemn'd by the same Religion such as these being perplext in their own particular Affairs hope to find ease in troubled waters and to save themselves amidst a confusion never yet did the cause of God advance it self that way Moses had power to inflict grievous punishments on Aegypt and her King notwithstanding he would never deliver the Children of Israel out of Aegypt without the permission of the King. SECT XVI And tho this famous Man Peter du Moulin had one Son Lewis who applauded the Regicides translated Milton and bespatter'd the best Church in Christendom yet God blest him with another of his own Name and Principles who in his Letter as he calls it of a French Protestant to a Scotchman of
the Covenant Printed at Lon. 1640. disproves their pretended conformity with the French Churches in the points of Church Discipline and Obedience to Superiors averring solemnly P. 2. that it was ever far from our wishes that your conformity with the Reformed Churches of France should be misapplyed as a pretence of your expelling your Bishops much less a president for you to take Arms against your Gracious Sovereign P. 37 38. take it for granted that the Orders imposed upon you by His Majesty are Ungodly and Antichristian are you therefore allowed to defend Religion with Rebellion will ye call the Devil to the help of God Sure it is a prodigious kind of Christian Liberty for a Subject to draw his Sword against his Sovereign you that stand so much upon the point of conscience ought ye not to be subject for Conscience sake ☞ Were your Sovereign unjust and froward and his commands injurious unto God had ye instead of our pious defender of the Faith a fierce Dioclesian illud solis precibus patientiâ sanari potest nothing will mend it but prayers and patience it is Beza's counsel to the discontented Brethren of England conformable to that of St. 1 Pet. 3.17 Peter for it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well doing than for evil doing if the Sovereign come to kill the Subject for his Religion the Subject must yield him his throat not charge his Pike against him and this he proves by Calvin's Practice and Writings P. 38 39 40. the Churches of France have lately declared to His Majesties Ambassador there their utter dislike of the Insurrection of Scotland under pretence of a Covenant with Christ P. 41. there can be no just cause to take Arms against a Lawful Sovereign after this he treats of the French Protestants taking Arms P. 46. and concludes that till the Reign of King Lewis the Arms of the Protestants were either justifiable or excusable but their Wars in his time were neither and they prosper'd accordingly P. 48. the French Protestants had to do with a King of a contrary Religion they were incens'd by many wrongs and oppressions they were in danger to lose with their Forts and Towns their Liberty their Religion and their Life the privileges which they enjoyed were rewards of their long Services by the Charter of Rochel when they yielded to Lewis XI it was granted to them that they should be no longer the King's Subjects ☞ than the King should maintain their immunities and yet these true reasons and just fears could not justifie their defensive Arms against their Sovereign but they were condemn'd by the best of their own and of their neighbors and God shewed his dislike by the ill success he gave them And much more to this purpose is to be seen in his answer to Philanax Anglicus and in his Regii sanguinis Clamor ad caelum contra Parricidas Anglicanos Hagae Com. 1652 C. 1. 〈◊〉 5. for that being is du Moulin juniors and not Alexander Morus's as was conjectured affirming with the Apostle that even the Jews would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory had they known him while the Parricides of King Charles I. wittingly and wilfully Murdered their Lawful King and with the King beheaded also the Church of England and brought upon the neighbouring Protestant Churches abundance of Dishonor and much danger while the same madness was imputed to all the Reformation which had only infected a few who falsly called themselves Reformed Nothing hath happened since the beginning of the World more contrary to the glory of God or that hath cast a greater blot upon holy Truth while the Wickedness defends it self by the Doctrin of the Gospel and is said to be perpetrated to vindicate the Protestant Religion to the just indignation and abhorrence of all the foreign Churches for which reason Salmasius P. 7. Heraldus Porree and others wrote smartly both against the Men P. 17. and their villanous Principles It is a Law not only written but born with us and springs from the most pure fountains of Nature That it is a most horrid crime for Subjects to punish their Princes and therefore we do too much honour to Parricides when we use Arguments against them for as Aristotle says they who doubt 1 Top. c 9 whether God is to be worship'd or Parents to be honoured are not to be convinc'd by Reasons but by Scourges and Salmasius hath proved by unanswerable Reasons by divine and human Authority that the Majesty of Kings is unaccountable and that Subjects have no manner of Authority over them Cap. 2. p. 29 30. There is no fallacy of Satan which more prevails upon good Men to engage them in an evil Cause than when Men contrary to God's Word believe that it is lawful to do evil that good may come thereof and that God hath need of our sinful assistance to promote his Kingdom and that whatever is design'd to promote God's Glory immediatly commences good P. 52. the Judges at Westminster were turn'd out by the Army because being consulted they had given this opinion that to judge the King was against the Laws of England Cap. 5. p. 107. to argue from Providence and Success to the goodness of a Cause is impudent one man is hang'd for that by which another gets a Crown Junius Brutus by expelling the Kings of the Family of Tarquin saved his Country another Brutus by murdering a Tyrant ruined it perhaps the later Brutus did an act of justice when he slew an Usurper but the first was very unjust who drove away a lawful King by the murder of King Charles I. Cap. 6. p. 121. the Parricides taught the rest of the World that Kings may be guilty of breach of trust to their People that the People are their Judges and may condemn and execute them and these Tenets they are not ashamed to own in their Writings that they had freed the World of its old Superstition that Kings are only obnoxious to God and can be punish'd only by him that they had set an example to all other Nations conducive to their safety and to be dreaded by all Tyrants as Cromwel wrote to the Scots after Dunbar fight what an occasion of insulting is hereby given to the Papists to say Cap. 7. p. 135. this is the Religion which brings down Reformation to us from Heaven these are the Men who cry out against the Usurpations of the Popes upon the Crowns and lives of Princes only that they might themselves have that power over Kings when they had snatched it from the Pope But the Papists would suggest this with less fierceness if they remembred that those few who left us in this point went to them and borrowed their Weapons from them C. 8 p. 148. these Monsters do not content themselves with being simple Parricides but they turn Rebellion into a
had been specifyed and annext to the Command Law or Ordinance of Almighty God c. Anno 1643. Dr. Thomas Swadlyn Printed three Sermons intitled the Sovereign's desire and Subjects duty and himself was a Confessor at that time being Imprisoned for his Loyalty as he declares in his Epistle which he dedicates to the World wherein having proved that all Power is from God especially Monarchy he shews that every Soul is to be subject howsoever a King may deal unjustly with them Serm. 2. on Rom. 13 1. p. 25. either 1. By violating the Laws and inforcing their Consciences or 2. By depriving them of their Goods by extortions and imprisoning their Persons and though in the former of these cases he may not be obeyed yet in neither of these cases may he be resisted But what are we to do then Why we may either fly away as David did from Saul if we do not then we must suffer but at no hand may we resist When St. Paul says let every soul be subject he means 1. Let every Soul honour the King. 2. Let every Soul obey the King in things lawful and indifferent 3. Let every Soul be subject to the King in commands unlawful i. e. let every Soul patiently suffer when he cannot actually do If the commands violate the Conscience Id. Ser. 3. p. 29. 31 â—3 38. yet there the Power may not be resisted for to resist the Power is a sin second to none but Sacrilege the highest crime against Heaven is Sacrilege and the next crime to this is Rebellion against or disobedience unto the Majesty of Earth and whosoever resists the Higher Powers resists both God and the King the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies whosoever contrary orders or orders against the Laws or the Arms of the chief Magistrate he resists the Higher Powers whether it be in subtilty of counsel or obloquy of speech and if so much more a heinous crime is it to take up Arms against the King. I have not spoken this to flatter Kings no they shall dye like Men but to inform you he that presumes sins against the justice of God he that despairs sins against his Mercy but he that resists the Power sins against the Power of God and he that dares take Arms against the King would if he could take Arms against God too and therefore as damnation is due to every sin Sermon at Whitehall March 22 1639. p. 18 19. so especially to this sin the sin of Rebellion Dr. B. Holyday Archdeacon of Oxford to strike one's Father was death by the Law to curse one's Father was death by the Law c. the Law then for the Son and the Subject being the same where is the love where is the fear where is wisdom where is grace where is nature are they not all fled from a rebellious heart had zeal antiently armed it self against Sovereignty we had never heard of a Calendar of Saints P. 28. Salus populi suprema lex includes in it the safety of the head and for the members of the body to rise against the head is it not unnatural is it not frenzy let them remember the breach of Israel P. 30. which did first wilfully depart from their Sovereign and afterwards unwillingly whilest perforce from their Country and that afterwards in two hundred years they had both many more and worse Kings than Judah had and were at last seized on by the divine judgment to the instruction of others but their own ruin we may not do evil Id. Serm. at Oxf. May 21. 1643. p 42 Sermon at St. Mary's May 19. 1644. p. 65 66. that good may come thereof royalty must not down for the advancement of Religion object Rebellion and ye object all crimes it is nearer to a flout than a truth to call a Rebel a Christian they will ask what is the final cause of a King and they will answer the Peoples welfare certainly a true answer and as certain an imperfect one the People's good is an inferior purpose of Majesty the representation of the Divine Majesty is the highest purpose of Humane Majesty when in all causes a King is next under God Supreme Governor how can the People whether single or united P. 91. be the Governor of that Governor a great Council may be the adviser of a Prince but as the Statute Law of our Prayer binds us to confess before God it is God that is the only Ruler of Princes Id. Serm. at Chr. Ch. Nov. 10. 1644. p. 106. a King Absalom would be not of God's making for he had made David not of David's making a King then he could be made only by the People and the Devil whilest by the People and Treason whilst against the consent of God and David Mr. Berkenhead Serm. on Nov. 3. 1644. at Chr. Ch. Oxon. p. 13. However we must perform active Obedience to such Princes only as far as lawfully we may so long as they are not set in competition with God yet we must perform Passive Obedience and absolute subjection even if they should command the most unjust superstitious idolatrous profane and irreligious things which can be imagined yet I say we must not Rebel unless we will renounce Christianity but we must let this be the touchstone of our subjection even our patient and constant sufferings SECT V. Dr. Henry King Lord Bishop of Chichester They Sermon at St. Paul's Mar. 21. 1640. p. 11. that lift up their hands against the King in publick Rebellion or their tongues in murmur against his Commands or their hearts in disobedient and discontented thoughts are as ill Subjects to God as to the King you need not ask whom have they resisted St. Paul tells you Rom. 13. they have resisted the Ordinance of God for he hath his Power from God. Men like the mutinous Israelites P. 36. upon all occasions of pretended discontent cry down Moses and set up an Idol made out of popular votes and contributions Id. Serm. before the King May 29. 1661. p. 22 c. to what Votes soever Elective Rulers owe their Scepters Succession is the Vote of God who both declares the right and then continues it as his donation Crowns conferr'd by other hands sit loose and tottering upon the head of such as wear them I will give it keeps them fast this is the great Charter by which Kings hold the right to their Kingdoms by me Kings rule where are those then who place the right to dispose Kingdoms in the Popes or those in another extreme who intitle the People to this power a strange prodigy in opinion not heard of till those Men came into the World who as was falsly alledged of the Apostles at Thessalonica Act. 17.6 turn'd the World upside down placing the feet above the head and subjecting the Higher Powers contrary to the rule of God to the People who by his command ought to be subject unto
them when the rebellious Israelites in Moses's absence would needs make a God that is a Leader or Ruler to go before them they contributed their ear-rings to the carrying on that design but the effect and issue of that contribution was only a Calf I beseech you remember from all our contributory Plate from the silver basin even to the smallest bodkin whether we have any productions amongst us better than this P. 30. Men who decry the Pope yet cry up themselves into an Authority as great as his not only over the People Id. Visit Sermon at Lewis Octob. 8. 1662. p. 43. but over the Prince whatsoever therefore teacheth Children Obedience to their Parents Subjects Loyalty toward their Sovereign whatsoever teacheth the afflicted patience the happy temperance the faithful perseverance and all sorts of People Charity is that sound Doctrin which we must Preach the Congregation learn. Dr. Gardiner It is high time for Sovereign Majesty to send a strict injunction of taking heed Sermon at St. Mary's Ox. on Act Sund. 1622. p. 25 c. that we poyson not our studies with the Writings of Puritans and Jesuits for the one no less than the other under colour of Zeal and pretence of Holy Discipline corrupt and spoil green age before it can discern and season new Vessels with unseasonable liquor witness that detestable and trayterous instruction encouraging Subjects to resist their supreme Rulers when they are notoriously tax'd of injustice and cruelty so that Kings according to them shall be no longer Kings than they serve their turns are not these Gospellers where they broach such Tenets mere Popes are they not like to Antichrist that sits in the Temple of God but advanceth himself against all that is called God or do they not work like Sampson who laid hold on the Pillars whereon the house did stand that overthrowing them the house and the men might fall into a common ruin I am sure God's word says Touch not mine Anointed and do my Prophets no harm and this Commandment of Obedience is without distinction Jeremy chap. 29. commands the Israelites even those which were Captives under Heathen Kings not to resist but to pray for them and for the Peace of Babylon and it is acceptable to the Lord says St. Paul 1 Tim. 2. not that ye resist but that ye make supplications and prayers for Kings and for all that are in authority the Prophets the Apostles and Christ himself subjected themselves to the Power of Magistracy and therefore when the Disciple did draw his Sword in Christ's defence he was commanded to put it up the examples are not to be numbred of God's punishments upon those that have resisted authority by God ordain'd and establish'd In the Old Law it was death if a Man had resisted the Higher Power Corah with all his was consumed with fire Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up of the earth because they seditiously resisted Moses and Aaron We know what end Absalom came unto when he had expelled his Father out of his Kingdom what seem'd more goodly to the eye of the World than that notable act of Brutus and Cassius who destroyed Caesar reputed a Tyrant and yet that those their doings were not allowed of God the end declared wherefore it is not lawful to resist supreme Rulers the they swerve from the line of justice for it pleases God sometimes to punish his People by a tyrannous hand and in such a case to resist what else is it but tollere martyrium to take away the occasion the Glory and Crown of Martyrdom Anno 1647. Dr. Jasper Mayne publish'd his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 5. or the Peoples war examined c. and in it he affirms that suppose the King invade the Peoples Liberties which could not possibly be preserved but by Arms taken up against the Invader yet the King being this Invader unless by such an Invasion he could cease to be their King and they to be his Subjects I cannot see how such Rights could make their defence lawful and this he proves P. 6 7 c. by shewing the Divine Institution of Kings and what rights God allowed them particularly that of being supreme independently Lord of his own actions whether unjust or just as not to be accountable to any but God after which he proceeds to shew P. 12 c. wherein the supreme Power consists P. 16 17. and that those particular rights do belong to the Kings of England wherefore the Crown is Hereditary where the tenure is not conditional nor hangs upon any contract where the only obligation upon the Prince is the Oath that he takes at his Coronation to rule according to the known Laws of the place tho every breach of such an Oath be an offence against God to whom alone a Prince thus Independent is accountable for his actions yet 't will never pass for more than perjury in the Prince no warrant for Subjects to take up Arms against him were a King misled by evil Counsellors ☞ did actually trample upon the Laws of the Kingdom and the liberty of his Subjects yet unless some Original Compact can be produced where 't is agreed that upon every such incroachment it shall be lawful for them to stand upon their defence that where the King ceases to govern according to Law he shall for such Misgovernment cease to be King to urge such unfortunate Precedents as a deposed Richard or a dethroned Edward two disproportioned examples of popular fury the one forc'd to part with his Crown by resignation the other as never having had legal title to it may shew the injustice of former Parliaments grown strong never justifie the pitch'd Fields that have been fought by this If this supposition were true the King being bound to make the Law his rule by no other obligation Sect p. 20 21 c. but his Oath at his Coronation than which there cannot be a greater I confess and where 't is violated never without repentance scapes unpunish'd yet 't is a trespass of which Subjects can only complain but as long as they are Subjects can never innocently revenge but they will say they have all this while fought for the defence of the Protestant Religion c. all which resolves it self into this unchristian bloody conclusion P. 36. that an Assembly of profess'd Protestant Divines have advised the two Parliaments of England and Scotland confess'd Subjects to take up Arms against the King their lawful Sovereign have thereby set three Kingdoms in a flame Id. def of his Serm. against Cheynel p. 4. c. This Doctrin that it is not lawful to propagate Religion how pure soever it be by the sword is that Religion to which I profess my self ready to fall a Sacrifice is that defamed true Protestant Religion for which the Holy Fathers of our Reformation dyed before me Dr. Peter Heylyn Anno 1643. Print Oxf. p. 2 3 c. publish'd
the Rebel's Catechism wherein he shews that Lucifer was the first Author of Rebellion that the Rebellion even of the heart makes a Man guilty of Damnation in the sight of God much more that of the tongue or the hand that one branch of the Rebellion of the hand is the composing and dispersing of false and scandalous Books and Pamphlets tending to the dishonour of the King the other the taking up Arms against such Persons P. 6 7. cons p. 9 10 11 c. to whose Authority they are subject and it is worth our observation that not only the bearing Arms against the King is declared to be Rebellion by the Law of England but that it was declared to be Rebellion by the chief Judges of this Kingdom at the Arraignment of the Earl of Essex for any Man to seek to make himself so strong that the King should not be able to resist him although he broke not out into open act even defensive Arms are absolutely unlawful in the Subject against his Sovereign in regard that no defensive War can be undertaken but it carrieth with it a resistance in it to those Higher Powers to which every Soul is to be subject we find it thus resolved in Plutarch P. 12. that it was contrary both to positive Laws and the Law of Nature for any Subject to lift up his hand against the Person of his Sovereign with much more to the same purpose The same Author near about the same time See his Ecclesia Vindicata p 645 c Prâ—at Lon. 1681. wrote a Treatise intitled the stumbling-block of disobedience removed to shew that Kings ought not to be controuled by their Subjects either singly or in a body the whole of which learned Treatise as well as his other Vindications of the Doctrins and Rights of our Church will sufficiently repay the Reader 's expence of pains and leisure And in his Sermon on May 29. 1681. it is to be observed that such as draw their Swords upon God's Anointed use commonly to throw away the scabberds also and find no way of doing better but by doing worse no middle way for them to walk in but either to bear up like Princes or to dye like Traytors SECT VI. Of the same belief was Sir John Spelman in his Case of our affairs in Law c. that the Sovereignty is in the King's Person inseparably Pr. Oxf. 1643. p. 15 17 19. and the allegiance of the Subject by Law thereto inseparably annex'd fortifyed and enforc'd by Religion under the severe menace of damnation what streight then of humane Affairs can be so violent as to make Christian Subjects contrary to sworn Faith to Law and to Religion not only to disobey their Sovereign but resist and Invade the Sovereign Rights c. Anno 1641. Sir Tho. Ashton and many others Noblemen and Gentlemen of Cheshire tendred a Remonstrance to the Parliament against Presbyterian Government and in it they affirm that the donation of Sovereign Power is solely from God and so will he have the revocation too he doth not subject them to the question of inferiors but puts a Guard upon their Sacred Persons which to violate though in our own defence is a breach of his command even when persecuted as David was by Saul which precepts are renewed in the Gospel we see our selves bound by Oath to acknowledge and support that Regal Government our Statutes have establish'd our Laws approved History represents most happy to whom all Primitive times yielded full obedience to whose Throne Christ himself yields Tribute whose Persons God will have Sacred whose actions unquestionable whose Succession he himself determines and whose Kingdoms he disposes Tacitus tho a Heathen advises us to bear with the riots and covetousness of Kings as with barrenness and other infirmities of nature for while there are Men there will be vices but they cannot continue long and will be recompenc'd when better come In the 19th year of this King came forth a little book called an Appeal to thy Conscience as thou wilt answer it at the great and dreadful day of Jesus Christ p 2 3 c. the Author of which says that Subjects may not take up Arms against their lawful Sovereign because he is wicked and unjust no tho he be an Idolater and Oppressor 1. Because it were an high presumption in us to limit that command which God doth not limit now our obedience to Superiors is always commanded without limitation 2. We may not think evil of the King much less may we take up Arms against him 3. St. Paul saith recompence to no man evil for evil Rom. 12.19 If to no Man then certainly not to thy King 〈◊〉 That which peculiarly belongs to the Lord thou oughtest not without his Authority to meddle with but vengeance is his 5. Rom. 13. Every Soul none excluded must be subject there is no Power but of God if so then the Power of a wicked Prince is from God and the penalty of resisting is everlasting damnation both of Soul and Body in Hell-fire for ever 6. In Eccl. 8.1 2. the Covenant made by the People to obey their King is called the Oath of God and who dares break this Oath of God 7. God commands Touch not mine Anointed therefore thou mayest not smite him therefore thou mayest not bear Arms against God's Anointed 8. For Subjects to take up Arms against their own King tho an Idolater and an Oppressor is contrary to the practice of God's People in all Ages the Jews and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians 9. God's heavy judgments on those who have taken up Arms against their Prince tho an Idolater and Oppressor ought to be a warning to us how we do the like this is contrary to the Doctrin of the Church of England in her Homilies then he answers the usual objections for resistance resolves several doubts and removes other little scruples and in the close of all passionately advises all Men to return to the Lord and to do their duty P. 51. for 't is strange says he that God's Church can be no way preserved the Subjects liberty no ways maintain'd but by sin who ever heard unless from a Papist that the way to Heaven was through Hell shall we do evil that good may come Rom. 3.8 It would be a very needless labor to cite all the passages to this purpose that occur in the Books written between the year 1644. and the time of the King's Murther and therefore I shall refer the Reader to the Regal Apology Printed 1648. the Kingdoms brief answer to the Declaration of the Commons Pr. 1648. the Plea for the King and Kingdom 1648. with many other Treatises of the same kind only I shall mention Bishop Rainhowe who took the degree of Doctor of Divinity An. 1646. Vid. Bish Rainbow's life p. 41. when his chief Question on which he made his Thesis was Ecclesia Anglicana tenet
omnia ad salutem necessaria a point which he durst defend in the worst of times when that Church was so much oppress'd for asserting her Loyalty to God and the King for her agreement with the Primitive Church in not rebelling against the lawful Magistrate and in owning the Jus Divinum of Episcopal Hierarchy and Liturgy To what is quoted out of Mr. Edw. Symmons's Vindication of King Charles in the first part of this History let these Passages be added by virtue of the Canon Romanus Episcopus say the Jesuits Sect 4. p. 46. v. p. 47. the Pope hath power to depose Kings be they Heretical or Catholick of vicious or virtuous lives if in his judgment he finds them unfit and some others more capable of Government and do not these Men believe the Authority of Parliament to be as irresistible as that of the Pope and their Votes to be as full of virtue as his Canons and altogether as authentick even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of their Kingdoms have they not loosen'd People from their Oath of Allegiance to the King and then put them in Arms persuading them that 't is no Rebellion to fight against him Sect. 16. p. 160 161. the next thing they mention wherein they triumph indeed and glory is their late extraordinary success in the Field some perhaps may wonder how these three can agree together great sufferings strange patience and extraordinary good success prosperity and good success which of old went current only among the Papists for a note of the true Church is now admitted also by these Men to be a special mark of the goodness of their Cause but in regard our Religion hath hitherto taught that sufferings and patience were rather the marks of Christ's true Flock than extraordinary success in the World therefore c. these two names of suffering and patience shall from henceforth be rejected and wholly disclaimed P. 168. cons loc as infallible marks of Loyalty and Malignity success is the weakest Argument that can be alledged to prove the goodness of a Cause and the wickedest Men have most used it this Book was written Anno 1645. tho not published till the year 1648. CHAP. VII The History of Passive Obedience under King Charles II. c. SECT I. WHen the execrable Parricide was committed on the Martyr Charles and his Family driven into Exile this Truth did not want its Confessors tho they smarted bitterly for owning it of which number Mr. Sheringham publish'd his accurate treatise of the King's Supremacy wherein as he says in his Introduction he exposes and confutes those Principles and Grounds whereby the Rebels endeavour'd to justifie the War against the King the first of which was that it was lawful for the People to resist their Sovereign and Supreme Governors by force of Arms in case they be Tyrants and bent to subvert the Laws and Religion establish'd or by illegal Proceedings invade the Lives Estates or Liberties of their Subjects This dangerous position he fully and learnedly confutes in his Book proving the Supremacy of our Kings and that they are neither coordinate nor subordinate to the People both by the Statute and common Law of this Land and clearly answers all the objections from either reason or authority concluding all with this remarkable saying P. 118. To speak my desires I wish unfeignedly the Salvation of all the pretended Parliamentarians ☞ but to speak my thoughts I conceive more hopes of the honest Heathen than of any Man that shall dye a Rebel or not make restitution as far as he is able of all that he hath gained by oppression and injustice Mr. Allington in his Grand Conspiracy Sermon 3. p. 106 107. Vid. Serm. 2. p. 60 81. Caiaphas pleaded the exigencies of the State for the Murther of our Saviour and which of us is there that hath not a Caiaphas in his bosom Which of us is there that doth not rather consider the expediency than the justice of an action which of us do not consider whether what we do be not rather secure than conscionable Men who will sacrifice both Judgment Loyalty Conscience and all Honesty to avoid an inconvenience P. 115 116. it is a Law much commended in this Land of ours that no Man shall be tryed but by his Peers now a King must be above the judgment of his Subjects because among them he can have no Peers such an heir as Christ was in the Parable Sermon 4. p. 179. Luc. 20.14 could not be robb'd of his Birth-right nor deprived of his Inheritance but it must be done with violence and that violence could never had hands enough without an Association the Husbandmen without any mask of Religion P. 205. or cloak of Godliness without any pretence of freeing themselves from Tyranny Arbitrary Government or any manner of Oppression they declare clearly what more subtle Rebels would not that the reason they prosecute bought arraign'd and kill'd the heir P. 208 and P. 210 211. it merely was for his Inheritance that the Inheritance may be ours this Lord had power to call the Labourers but the Labourers had none to call him to account Anno 1651. Mr. Jane Father to the present Regius Professor at Oxon if I am rightly informed Printed his Answer to Miltons Iconoclastes and in it fully and on all occasions avers this truth Exam. of the Pref. p. 5. v. p. 11 It is hateful in any to descant on the misfortunes of Princes but in such as have relation to them by Service or Subjection as the Libeller Milton to the late King is the compendium of all unworthiness P. 28 v. p. 34. and unnatural Insolence had His Majesty's faults been as palpable as this Author's falshood it could not diminish his Subjects duty nor excuse the Rebels imprety Rebels never wanted pretensions P. 36 37. but liberty and justice were the common masks of such Monsters so this Man will have the World believe Rebellion is dearer to this Author than Religion and he will rather commend superstitious actions of a blind Age and the very dregs of Popery than want an ingredient to the varnish of that horrid sin P. 39. Superstitious Churchmen had their hands in the old Rebellions and in our days we find they have Successors that teach the People Doctrins of Devils and seduce them from Obedience to those that had the rule over them P. 47. Obedience and Sufferings are the servility and wretchedness which Milton calls the Pulpit stuff of the Prelates we may shortly expect that as these Miscreants have altered State and Church ☜ so they will compose an Index Expurgatorius of the Bible for it cannot be imagined that they will object this heinous crime of Preaching Passive Obedience to the Prelates and leave so many places in the Gospel which command it and themselves need not the Gospel to make Men obedient they have the Sword and this
chains up his fury lest for our sins he permit him to return once more with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and so our last Estate prove worse than the former Dr. Pr. 1661. P. 34. v. p. 14 19 21. Morley Bishop of Winchester's Sermon at the Coronation of King Charles II. is full to this purpose as no Man can take upon himself the Honor or Office of a Priest so much less can any Man take to himself the Honor or Office of a King but he must have it from God himself either by God's own immediate designation as Moses and the Judges had for the Judges were Kings and as Saul and David had or by God's ordinary way of Dispensation which was by Succession of Children unto their Fathers according unto which method as Families grew into Nations so Paternal Government grew into Regal and consequently an Usurper as he hath no claim to Divine Institution so he hath no title to Divine Benediction or Protection and besides because what is gotten by the Sword must be maintained by the Sword an Usurper must be a Tyrant whether he will or no. Lastly a Monarchy by Usurpation is res sine titulo a possession without a title which seldom lasts long or ends well for he that takes the Sword shall perish by the Sword says Our Saviour Mat. 26.52 Again as Monarchy by Usurpation is res sine titulo so Monarchy by Election is titulus sine re for Elective Kings are but conditional Kings and conditional Kings are no Kings besides P. 35. a King is to have the power of life and death which none that have it not themselves can give unto him and therefore how he that is Elected by those that have not the power of life and death comes to have the power of life and death and consequently how he comes to be a King is I conceive not easie to imagine the best and surest way for Prince P. 38. State and People is to protect cherish and allow of that Religion and that only which allows of no rising up against or resisting Sovereign Power no not in its own defence nor upon any other pretence whatsoever but tho Princes are called Gods yet they shall die like Men P. 46. says one that was a Prince himself Ps 82.7 and tho they be accountable to no Tribunal here yet they are to be judged hereafter by one who is no respecter of Persons a Prince therefore is to take care to govern himself not according to that licence which his exemption from the penalty of humane Laws may prompt him to but according to that strictness which the severity of the Divine Justice doth require of him The same Prelate in his Vindication of himself against Baxter P. 29 c. among Baxter's Maxims of Treason Sedition and Rebellion reckons these That unlimited Governors are Tyrants and have no right to that unlimited Government If God permits Princes to turn so wicked as to be uncapable of Governing so as is consistent with the ends of Government he permits them to depose themselves If Providence disableth a Prince from protecting the just c. it deposeth him if any Army of Neighbours Inhabitants P. 31. or whoever do tho injuriously expel the Sovereign and resolve to ruin the Commonwealth rather than he shall be restored and if the Commonwealth may prosper without his Restoration it is the duty of such an injured Prince for the Common good to resign 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 ruin of the Commonwealth If a People that by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Sovereign P. 33. 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 and particular Subjects that consented not in the breaking of their former Covenants yet may be obliged by occasion of their later choice to the Person whom they chuse with many more such Rebellious Treses all which the Bishop with great reason censures and to the Book it self I must refer the Reader where he will find ample satisfaction in a Manly confutation of the abovecited and other such popular errors And among these venerable Fathers of the Church I must beg leave to introduce a Lay-man concern'd in the same controversie for when Baxter had publish'd his Key for Catholicks and in it p. 321. treated of the King's murder of which he says Providence had so order'd it that it could not be laid on the Protestants with much more to that purpose John Nanfan Esq in those worst of times writes a censure of the Passage P. 3. and in it avers that all War taken up by Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever or by whatsoever caution or limitation evermore in the nature of it intends the destroying of King and Kingdom P. 4. that all the bringing the People into a body by Covenant is unlawful because Government merely consists in having no contracts of the People acting of themselves that in such Covenants Men swear things contradictory as to fight against the King and to be true to him there is no such thing in nature as a defensive War against the King by Subjects to subdue a King and deprive him of his Power P. 5. is the same thing as killing it stays but the acting I should be very glad P. 7. that the World should be satisfied that Supreme Power should be unquestionable I would trust God and Man and Humane casual events with my share out of it because I see pretended Reformations never countervail the mischief of Rebellions nothing in nature can go higher than its first cause P. 9. a Power derived out of the King cannot be understood to be against the King for no Power can create a Power against it self P. 10 11. all attempts to bring a King under the Power of his People are the same as to destroy him and this was resolved in the case of the Earl of ‖ Cambd. Annal. p. 547 548. Essex and it never came into the conceit of any Person to except a Parliament for committing Treason the nature of Man is to think any thing that hath been done P. 12. may be done and so never finds end of wickedness but to make it infinite any extraordinary or transcendent acting upon Government tho never so unlawful and violent yet if it become powerful it commonly creates somthing to others to derive from it thus the Long Parliament declared long before that execrable murder was committed that in case they should act to the highest president they should not fail in duty or trust ☞ having their eye and aim upon the deposing of Kings Edw. 2. and Ric. 2. and the last actors that completed the Tragedy conclude power of Parliaments from former destroying Kings and
setting up others the deposition of Edw. 2. was as horrid Treason as was imaginable or possible to be in nature and does doing wickedly create a lawfulness if so all sins and villanies by the perpetrating them lose their natures to be evils and become lawful wickedness can be no president p. 16. no such thing as Government can be if the governed may judge and execute their Governor I wonder how Mr. Baxter can dispense with the Scriptures against using force to Kings or destroying them his distinction of Parliamentary right will not serve the turn since it is absolutely forbidden as is proved from Exod. 22.28 Ezr. 6.10 Ps 51.4 Eccl. 10.20 Prov. 24.21 1 Sam. 26.9 Rom. 13. 1 Tim. 2. 1 Pet. 2.13 P. 19. 17. which texts having some of them a relation to very Tyrants shew directly the nature of supreme Governors to be born by the People whatsoever their condition be to call them Gods is an exemption from all humane Tribunals above the condition of Mankind subject to God only as Supreme Governors cannot in nature be other I think that God would take it ill that we should mock him p. 20. ☜ p. 22. to set up a King to govern and then to reserve a Power to destroy him God doth somtimes give evil Governors and doth he not likewise give them power God himself forespake in Saul and then concluded the People in these words 1 Sam. 8.18 then i.e. when they were oppressed by their King shall they cry out i. e. seek help of God because there are no humane remedies as Grotius expounds it and call to God for help i. e. there was no means of resistance to be used on their part Kings were when Parliaments were not P. 23. we cannot suppose here in England any time of Government without Kings the Parl. therefore was a creature merely of the King's will and creating the King is the sole judge of the safety p. 27. or danger of the Republick Supremacy is the sole governing Power p. 53. and Government is a constant being the other that of Parl. but at times and by occasion that must needs be a strange Government p. 54. where the Sovereignty is divided and lying in divers powers when they differ the People are distracted in their obedience therefore the 11. of Henr. 7. was made to avoid the mischief of a divided commanding Power tho it be a gross Law and against truth many times ☜ because Usurpers did possess the Throne it is not possible to fansie governing power with a power in the People p. 57. ☜ or any Party out of the King to resist his power for then he should govern no longer than the governed Party were disposed to obey and so no Government at all there can be no such thing as a conquest of Subjects over their King p. 64. p. 65. it is Desertion or Treason not Conquest there is no footstep or mark from God of the Peoples title over Kings or their making them or giving them their Power Parliaments have declared for titles p. 69. but never can make any nor deprive right it is true divers Usurpers have had Parliament Test for their Warrant for those have most need of it but still it was acted under power enforcing and so it was nothing p. 70. but merely so long as the Power lasted Conquest is only a great Riot and multiplying of Rapines and Man slaughters it is all wickedness which is only distinguish'd from common wickedness as it transcends all other actings of Wickedness and such is conquest by excess of Wickedness to make it self above offending and punishment and if so then it cannot be in the submission of the People who are first conquer'd before they consent none of these things make right for if the outed Prince can recover and regain power these things vanish as unlawful one instance with us in England of sixty years discontinuance yet when it recovered power to act all the Usurpation went for nothing and the old came in as Right not as Conquest SECT V. Bishop Wren in his abandoning of the Scotch Covenant P. 49 50. God disposed of the Kingdom of Abiah but otherwise by Man it could never else have been done rightly nor would it ever have held no Man not all the Men in the Kingdom whatsoever is told you of the Power of the People by those that worship that many headed Monster had Power or Authority to alter that Covenant of God with David more than they had to alter that Covenant of day and night in their Seasons says God himself if Men would believe him Jer. 33.21 they were never to meddle with it unless God himself gave order expresly in it Bishop Laney We were in a sad case not long since in this Kingdom by a Civil War. Sermon at Whitehall Mar. 18. 1665 / 6. p. 19 c. they Covenanted first to extirpate the Government of the Church in this they were too bold with the King's Scepter at the next turn they take hold of his Sword too and engage themselves to a mutual defence against all opposition tho a self defence may be allowed as natural to all it is against private not publick opposition and then too as Divines generally resolve Cum moderamine inculpatae tutelae never to the hurt of others every Man may defend himself clypeo but not every one gladio the Sword is the Kings and he that takes it from any hand but his where God hath placed it shall perish with the Sword. Bishop Pearson aggravating the sin of the Gunpowder Traytors Serm. No. 5. 1673. p. 14 20 25. says Touch not mine Anointed is the voice of God nor must we do evil that good may come thereof such Mens damnation is just I cannot chuse but remember those words which I read so frequently in the Scriptures God save the King God save the King God save him from the open Rebellion of the Schismatical Party the ruin of his Father God save him from the secret Machinations of the Papal Faction the danger of his Grand-father God save the King and let all the People say Amen SECT VI. Francis Lord Bishop of Ely hath frequently asserted the same great truth The Church of Rome 's Fifth-Monarchy-Men assertors ‖ Serm. bef the King Jan. 30. 168 0 / 1. p. 13 P. 17. I mean of the Papal Universal Monarchy in the Murder of Conradine King of Naples and Sicily were beforehand with our Fanaticks and taught the Art of killing a King ceremoniously the Life and Person of the King his Office his Crown and Dignity ought to have been inviolable and sacred in the Eyes of all his Subjects if he be the soul of the Nation then it follows P. 18. that his Power is derived from above and is held from none under Heaven and as none but God can judge both Soul and Body so none but God is a competent judge
of the King. P. 20. David spake by the Spirit of God to the Amalekite wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thy hand against the Lord 's Anointed What! afraid of a conquer'd King unable to defend himself much less afford protection to any Subject is not that enough to Unking him yes if we owe him least assistance when he needs it most tho flying nigh breathless panting and gazing round to beg his death of some friendly hand he was formidable he was sacred still P. 23 24. for still he had a signal impress of the Deity upon him I will only put the case of Julian the Apostate Emperor after so clear conviction after so full instruction as he had in the Christian Religion having as some Historians report taken one of the lower Orders in the Clergy before he came to the Throne after all this he renounc'd his Baptism he turn'd a very plague to the Church he proved the most formidable Persecutor that is a tempter of his Christian Subjects to Apostasie he offended with that malicious wickedness that the Catholick Church and all her guides justly supposed he had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost they look'd upon him as one that had cut himself off from their body with the greatest Excommunication even to Anathema Maranatha i. e. till the Lord come to judgment now in this case was it lawful for Christians to cast him off that had so openly and maliciously cast off his Christianity We have the judgment of the whole Church to the contrary they thought themselves obliged by St. Paul 's Apostolical Canon to make prayers and supplications even for him that whatsoever he was and howsoever he behav'd himself towards them they might still lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty and they had the Grace they pray'd for they did live peaceably under him they never took upon them to Unking him they drew out no Forces against him but only their thundring Legion of prayers and tears St. Paul exhorting to make prayers for all Men Id. Serm. before L. Mayor May 7. 1682. p. 10 P. 11 12. for Kings c. has left no room for any to evade it as if he had foreseen there would be a sort of Men and they lived within our memories Men who instead of praying for their King would learn to pray against him there is a sin unt o death saith St. John I do not say that ye shall pray for it but St. Paul in my text hath provided even against this supposition tho the charity that hopeth all things were overcome so that the spiritual welfare of a Nero c. were in a manner despair'd of yet such Provision is made that as their Prince he was to be pray'd for still that they might lead a peaceable and quiet life thus it was in the case of that impious Wretch Licinius P. 13 14 15. c. and if our lives ought to be answerable to our prayers since praying for peace is but mocking of God without keeping the King's peace too then let not any pretend to be good Christians and sound Members of Christ's Church unless they be also good Subjects my aim is against the Power of Deposing Kings that has been often claimed by the Bishops of Rome and there is another Party of Men who have introduc'd a distinction of taking Arms by the Kings Authority against his Person whereas wheresoever the King's Person is P. 16 17. there is also his greatest Authority but they tell us the Primitive Christians wanted not Authority and Right but strength to resist the civil Powers but did our Saviour want Power when he controuled evil spirits and cast out devils did he want Power then when he commanded Universal nature when even the Winds and Seas obey'd him c. he had more than twelve Legions of Angels at his call why did he not strike Herod or Pilate but that he confesses himself Subject to him the Men P. 30 31. that first broke the Peace of the Church were the first that gave the leading foul example of waging War against their lawful Prince as did the Novatians of Paphlagonia who fought with the Arian Emperor Constantius 's Forces sent against them to compel them to receive the Arian confession Such as will not trust in God Id. Serm. Sept. 9. 1683. p. 10 P. 17. as a deliverer from any dangers they fear but will take the Sword against their lawful Prince upon any pretence whatsoever their sentence is read in the words of our Blessed Saviour they that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword the Jews shedding innocent blood brought upon them a deluge of blood and their second desolation under Titus says Josephus came upon them in the same month on the same day of the month that the former fell upon and when by the same division of Priests and Levites the same Divine Service was reading in course viz. that Psalm P. 24. which was written in admiration of God's vindictive justice O God to whom vengeance belongeth c. there are complying Men who resolve to thrive under all Governments they are animals incombustible for Religion as one defines them and whatever interest prevails in the State they laugh at the notion of being State-Martyrs honesty is true policy unless Men mean to revive that old abominable Gnostick Principle of complying with any Usurpations or Impositions for fear of suffering St. Paul declares their damnation is just and righteous Id. Serm. Nov. 5. 1684. p. 5 6. who persevere in charging the Blessed Gospel with admitting so cursed a Principle as if it were lawful to do any one known evil tho with an eye to the best and noblest designs and with an aim at no other consequences but such as were most beneficial to the publick for this was no Apostolical Canon but a maxim from Hell. such Men are apt to conceit P. 10. that they have made themselves necessary as if God Almighty could not do his work without them I have heard that the case of Jacob's wrestling with God was Preach'd upon to our late Great Usurper and this Doctrin raised that God's Jacobs or glorious Wrestlers with God ☜ might for great ends do some things contrary to his declared Will which things might yet be acceptable to his secret Will and procure a blessing 't is a Jesuit's Salvo P. 20. P. 27. that a Man of wit never sins against his conscience we believe it a preposterous way of securing our Religion by giving up the peculiar Doctrin of our Church the Doctrin of Obedience unto Kings and we judge it a strange means of barring out Popery by letting in the Doctrin of translating and disposing of Kingdoms For a King and People to be happy Id. Coron Ser. April 23. 1685. p. 15 16. the King must have a right to his Kingdom for how can an Usurper expect to reign prosperly how mise
rable is a King and Kingdom when every Man that is but audacious enough has a fair pretence if he can but gather force to overturn any settlement that can be in such a case such a Pirate Prince must be always exposed to Tempests King Stephen was none of our worst Princes and one of the most valiant but an Intruder he was and he sped accordingly his reign was the most turbulent of any except that of King John another Usurper c. But be the title of a King P. 18. as good as a Warrant from Heaven can make it be it so undoubted as Hell it self can find no pretence to question it be the King like an Angel of God yet if his Subjects will be Sons of Belial Sons of the Devil so Rebels are called in Scripture Men that will bear no yoke 't is still in their power to be as miserable as they please therefore I commend your strict adherence to your former Protestations P. 27. and to your Oaths of Allegiance take heed of destroying your Country to build your own House destruction and death is not all you are like to get by it take heed of that which follows there is another death to come after ☜ God has warn'd you of it they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation as you would avoid this take heed of that which leads to it thus that great Prelate who as it is justly said of him ‖ Thom. Brown. Ep. praefi conc Jun. 11. 1687. in the whole course of his life and in all the varieties of times and fortune still maintain'd his fidelity to his Prince in an illustrious manner SECT VII And of this opinion was that great promoter of piety and learning Bishop Fell who having in his †On 2 Pet. 3.3 Anno 1675. p. 21 22. Ox. 1675. Sermon before the King asserted that nothing can be so unhappy as Authority when baffled that the Coffee-house rebel is more mischievous than he that takes the Field and that a Prince is sooner murdered with a Label than a Sword and in his * Dec. 22. 1680. p. 3 4. on Mat. 12 25. Oxf. 1680. Sermon before the Lords exprest his astonishment by what Enchantment but that Rebellion is the sin of Witchcraft Men should be perswaded to disturb their own and the publick Peace forfeit all the advantages they enjoy in a settled Government which cannot be so bad as not to be much better than the confusion which sedition brings and run upon that sudden destruction which the Wiseman says is the end of those who are given to change he continues to give the same advice in his Sermon before the Sons of the Clergy wherein having told them that a great part of them present were the Sons of the persecuted Clergy ‖ On Act. 3.16 p. 61 63 68 69. a sort of Men that hazarded their lives unto the death and their Estates to the greater cruelty and grave of sequestration for the cause of God and of their Prince He adds 't is their glory that in the day of trial they did all they pretended to they forsook Father and Mother Houses Brethren and Sisters and those more endearing names of Wife and Children let it therefore be the strict concern of every one here present to maintain a faithful Loyalty to his Prince and Sovereign It is the peculiar glory of the Church of England ☞ that She above all others Principles her Children in Obedience to Superiors and most supports the ends and interests of Government which had so visible an effect in the late unhappy revolutions that the Royal Martyr who fell a Sacrifice to the misguided zeal of his rebellious Subjects ☞ made it his observation that none forfeited their duty to him who had not first deserted their Obedience to the Church nor can you any way more remarkably approve your selves to be Orthodox in your Religion and good Sons of the Church than if you are Loyal in your Principles and good Subjects to the King. On the 23. of June of the same year Dr. Thomas Bishop of Worcester dyed having two days before sent for a Reverend Divine to whom after he had discours'd an hour about the new Oath of Allegiance which he thought altogether inconsistent with the Doctrin of the Church and his former Oaths he said if my own heart deceive me not and God's grace fail me not I think I could dye at a Stake rather than take this Oath The Earl of Clarendon in his Animadversions on Mr. Cressy 's answer to the Dean of St. Paul's P. 72. as a very competent witness avers that there were very few who did so much as pretend to have a reverence for the Church of England that were ever active in the late Rebellion and that it were to be wish'd rather than hop'd that the Profession of Christian Religion in any Church had that impulsion in it as it ought to have that it preserv'd the Professors of it from entring into Rebellion and the practice of any other iniquity and speaking of Archbishop Cranmer who sign'd King Edward the Sixth's Will he adds if that unhappy P. 80. and ill advised Queen who had just reason to be offended highly with that Archbishop could have found that the Law would have condemn'd him for Treason she rather desired to have had him hang'd for a Traytor than to have him burnt for his Religion but the Law would not extend to serve her turn that way if it would no body would have blamed her for having prosecuted him with the utmost rigor whereas many good Men then did and since have for proceeding the other way with him The Popes who have assumed Authority to depose Princes P. 151 152. have caused more Christian blood to have been spilt more horrible Massacres of Kings and Princes and People than all the Heresies in the World and all other politick differences have produced much the greatest part of this destruction ☜ and ruin proceeded from the perjury of Popes themselves after they had promis'd and sworn to observe such parts and agreements voluntarily entred into by themselves or from the dispensation they granted to others to break their faith and not to perform the contracts they had entred into The same noble Person even when under the displeasure of his Prince and in Banishment thought himself still obliged to be unalterably Loyal as he professes in his Epistle to the King I thank God from the time I found my self under the insupportable burthen of your Majesties displeasure and under the infamous brand of Banishment I have not thought my self one minute absolved in the least degree from the strictest duty to your Person And whereas T. H. in his Leviath p. 114. had affirm'd that the obligation of Subjects to their Sovereign is understood to last as long and no longer than the Power lasts to protect them he rejoins P. 90. hereby he gives
Subjects leave to withdraw their obedience from their Sovereign when he hath most need of their assistance so that assoon as any Town City or Province of any Prince's Dominions is invaded by a Foreign Enemy or possess'd by a rebellious Subject that the Prince cannot for the present suppress the Power of the one or the other the People may lawfully resort to those who are over them and for their protection perform all the Offices and Duties of good Subjects to them whereas the duty of Subjects is and all good Subjects believe they owe another kind of Duty and Obedience to their Sovereign than to withdraw their subjection because he is opprest and will prefer poverty and death it self before they will renounce obedience to their natural Prince or do any thing that may advance the service of his Enemies P. 92. surely this woful desertion and defection which hath always been held criminal by all Law that hath been current in any part of the World hath received so much countenance and justification by Mr. Hobbs's Book ☞ that CROMWELL found the submission to those Principles produc'd a submission to him and the imaginary relation between protection and allegiance so positively proclaim'd by him prevailed for many years to extinguish all visible fidelity to the King whilst he persuaded many to take the Engagement as a thing lawful and to become Subjects to the Usurper P. 135 136. as to their legitimate Sovereign Kings themselves can never be punish'd for their casual or wilful errors and mistakes let the consequences of them be what they will but if they who maliciously lead or advise or obey them in unjust resolutions and commands were to have the same indemnity there must be a dissolution of all Kingdoms and Governments but as Kings must be left to God whose Vicegerents they are to judge of their breach of trust so they who offend against the Law must be left to the punishment P. 163. the Law hath provided for them if all Sovereigns be subject to the Laws of Nature because such Laws are divine and cannot by any Man or Commonwealth be abrogated they then are obliged to observe and perform those Laws which themselves have made and promis'd to observe for violation of faith is against the Law of Nature ☞ Nor doth this obligation set any Judge over the Sovereign nor doth any Civil Law pretend that there is any power to punish him it is enough that in justice he ought to do it and that there is a Sovereign in Heaven above him tho not on earth To this great Minister of State I should join Sir Robert Filmer but that it is needless the Enemies of the unaccountableness of Kings having branded him with the mark of a State Heretick for his Orthodox Opinions which among all good Men make his Memory reverend and his works Eminent to which I advise the Reader to make his recourse particularly his short but excellent Treatise of the Power of Kings c. See also Sir William Dugdale's Preface to his view of our late troubles c. The Late Bishop of Chichester Dr. Lake having Aug. 27. 1689. received the Sacrament on his Death-bed did in the presence of Dr. Hicks Dean of Worcester Dr. Green and some others make this protestation being as himself worded it ingaged in the most sacred and solemn act of conversing with God See the Paper and the vindication of it not knowing to the contrary but that he might appear with those very words in his mouth at the dreadful Tribunal That I was Baptized into the Religion of the Church of England and sucked it in with my Milk I have constantly adhered to it through the whole course of my life and now if so be the will of God shall dye in it and had resolved through Gods Grace assisting me to have dyed so tho at a Stake And whereas that Religion of the Church of England taught me the Doctrine of Non-Resistance and Passive Obedience which I have accordingly inculcated upon others and which I took to be the distinguishing Character of the Church of England ☜ I adhere no less firmly and stedfastly to that and in Consequence of it have incurred a Suspension from the exercise of my Office and exspected a Deprivation I find in so doing much inward satisfaction and if the Oath had been tendred at the peril of my life I could only have obeyed by suffering c. Manu propriâ Subscripsit Jo. Cicestrensis To this great Man I should add his bosome Friend Dr. Allestrey who speaks fully and consonant to sound Doctrine on this Head but I must refer the Reader to his Sermon Novemb. 5. 1665. on Luc. 9.55 Vol. 1. p. 127. and Vol. 2. p. 60. and p. 253 276. Thus the acute Dr. Sherlock Some Men pretend great Oppression Serm. on Ps 18.50 p. 2. and Male-Administration of Government though their licentious noises and clamors sufficiently confute it for Men who are most opprest dare say the least of it The Liberties and Properties of the Subject is an admirable pretence to deprive the Prince of his Liberties and Properties Others make Religion the pretence for their Rebellion Religion the greatest and the dearest Interest of all but methinks it is a dangerous way for Men to Rebel to save their Souls when God hath threatned damnation against those who Rebel No Men fight for Religion who have any Religion is a quiet peaceable governable thing it teaches Men to suffer patiently but not to Rebel It is evident it is not Religion such Men are zealous for but a liberty in Religion i. e. that every one may have his liberty to be of any Religion or of none which serves the Atheist's turn as well as the Sectaries but is not much for the honor or interest of true Religion So that whatever the pretences are it is an ambitious p. 3. v. p 6 7. discontented revengeful spirit an uneasie restless fickle and unchangeable humor which disturbs Politick Government and undermines the Thrones of Princes In the time of the Fanatick Plot p. 7 8. p. 11. but to Talk or Write or Preach about Obedience to Government or patient Suffering for a good Cause was to betray the Protestant Interest God may sometimes suffer Treason and Rebellion to be prosperous p. 11. but it can never prosper but when God pleases and it is impossible Rebels should ever know that and therefore it is impossible they should have any reasonable security of Success There is nothing more expresly contrary to the revealed Will of God than Treasonable Plots and Conspiracies against Sovereign Princes Christian Religion indeed is the greatest security of Government both in its Precepts and Examples It requires us to obey our Superiors in all lawful things and quietly to submit and suffer when we cannot Obey And the blessed Jesus who was the Author of our Religion and our great Pattern and Example did himself practise
these Laws p. 14. v. loc and p. 21 22 c which he gave to us Under the most barbarous and persecuting Emperors no Christian ever suffered as a Rebel they gave no other disturbance to the Government than by confessing themselves Christians and suffering for it Their numbers indeed were very formidable but nothing else The same Doctor wrote his Case of Resistance when the Doctrine of Non-Resistance and Passive Obedience were not Confuted but laught out of Countenance Ep. Ded. p. 109. When whoever hath been so hardy as to assert the Doctrine of Non Resistance hath been thought an enemy to his Country one who tramples on all Laws who betrays the Rights and Laberties of the Subject and sets up for Tyranny and Arbitrary Power p. 3. In this accurate Treatise he proves 1. That God himself set up a Sovereign and iresistible power in the Jewish Nation and that during all that time v. p. 13 14. it was unlawful for Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever to resist their Princes 2. That our Saviour taught the same Doctrine both by his Example and Precepts as did also St. Peter and St. Paul. p. 133. The sum of St. Paul's Doctrine is this that all Men whatever their rank and condition be must be subject to Sovereign Princes i. e. must obey all their just and lawful commands and patiently submit even to their unjust violence for Sovereign Princes are made and advanced by God and therefore he that resisteth resisteth not Man but God and how prosperous soever such Rebels may be in the World they shall not escape the Divine Vengeance and Justice which will follow them into another World They shall receive to themselves damnation p. 221. The last Judgment weighs down all other considerations and certainly Rebellion may well be said to be as the sin of Witchcraft when it so inchants Men that they are resolved to be Rebels though they be damned for it So Dr. H. Bagshaw Serm. on Isa 1.26 p. 8. Should Magistrates omit Works of Justice and Mercy they are no more Gods but Idols nay the worst sort of Idols that being made to represent do yet foully reproach Divine Power but should People resist libel or abuse them and so strive to deface the marks of their greatness they strike at the Majesty of the Supreme We may all learn Duty from considering that God is the founder of human Government So also the learned Dr. Faulkner V. Christian Loyalty l. 1. c. 5. p. 183 184. The truth is Maximus was a Rebel and had wicked murdered Gratian the Emperor and invaded the Territories of Valentinian and for this cause S. Martin though often requested for a long time refused to come to his Table and avoided all converse with him and did also foretel his ruin And Marcellinus Socrates Theodoret and Sozomen in their Histories often give him the stile of Maximus the Tyrant And Symmachus a Roman Senator was found guilty of Treason by Theodosius for publishing a Panegyrick upon Maximus S. Ambrose not only refused Maximus the salutation of a Kiss from him but withdrew himself from those Bishops who Communicated with him c. Chap. 6. p. 233. The same Author confuteing the claim of the Pope to this Kingdom on the account of the surrendry made by King John to Pandulphus the Pope's Legat adds I shall chuse to observe in general that this Case is the same as if any Seditious persons or Usurpers should by fraud or force reduce the King to straits and difficulties and should then by like methods gain a promise from him that he should be under their Government and shall order the Affairs of his Realm in complyance with them and subjection to them Now all such Acts are wholly void and utterly unobligatory Because 1. No part of Royalty can be gained by Possession upon an unjust Title against the right Owner upon a sure Title this being a parallel Case to a Thief being possest of an honest Man's Goods 2. No Sovereign King unless by voluntary relinquishing his whole Authority to the next Heir can transfer his Royal Supremacy to any other person whomsoever c. p. 383. v. loc Another ground of Subjects security though they may not take Arms against their Sovereign is from God being the Judg and Governor of the World and shall not the Judgment and Authority of God over Princes be thought valuable and considerable though he is more righteous and more able to help the oppressed than any Judge upon Earth p. 393. V. p. 395 397 456 457 463 490 491. Unless all things be in utter confusion and Anarchy it is not possible but that there must be acknowledged such an Authority which none have power of resisting but this can no where be so well placed for the Subjects Interest as in their Sovereign Prince and Supreme Governor Christians are Baptized into that Doctrine which makes great provision for the security of Kings and against all manner of resistance But though the directions of our Religion be plain History will acquaint us that there have been many contrary Practices as matters of Fact. But these are no more to be urged against the Rules of Duty in this than in other Actions of disobedience and swerving from God's Commandments p. 507. It was truly observed by Barclay that Valentinian the younger who was an Arian might as easily have been Resisted and Deposed by the Catholick Christians as any King or Emperor whatsoever if they would have undertaken any such thing for then the strength of the Eastern part of the Empire was then in the Hands of Theodosius who was a zealous promoter of the True Faith the Western Empire was over-run by Maximus an Enemy to the Arians The Army of Valentinian then at Milan were so disaffected to the Emperor that they declared they would go over to those Ambr. Ep. 33. ad Marcellin to whom S. Ambrose should direct them unless the Emperor would Communicate with them who embraced the True Faith. But in this case Theodosius protected and assisted Valentinian and S. Ambrose disclaimed all resistance against him and espoused his Interest to the utmost against Maximus Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford Pr. Lond. 1688. in his Defence of the Reading the late Declaration asserts the same Truth for though he pleads for the Reading of the Decclaration p. 5. Because when we are bid to Honor the King we ought to observe that express command of God in every thing that is not expresly contrary to the word of God or at least most evidently deduced from it so that every common understanding must needs see it p. 15. Yet he subjoyns that it is impossible that a true Son of the Church of England should have any disloyal thoughts in his Heart his Principles commanding him unto intire Obedience either Active or Passive without any Equivocation or Mental Reservation whatsoever SECT VIII Dr. Matthew
Letter Apologet. c. 5. p. 334. The Dean smartly rejoyns By this we might think Mr. Cressy a stranger in his own Country and that he had never heard of the 30. of January or the 29. of May which are solemnly observed in our Church and the Offices joyned with that of the 5. of November and are purposely intended for that very thing ☜ which he denies to be taken notice of by us in such a manner what doth Mr. Cressy think the Renunciation of the Covenant was intended for if not to prevent the mischief of the former Rebellion After his he gives an Historical account of the Controversie in England about the Power of Princes and the Usurpations of the Pope over them p. 348. and having cited Pope Gregory the Seventh's Letter wherein he avers That Kings had their beginnings from Men who gained their Authority over their equals by blind Ambition and intolerable Presumption by Rapines and Murders by Perfidiousness and all manner of Wickedness ☞ He subjoins Is not this a very pretty account of the Original of Civil Power by the Head of the Church The Oath of Allegiance sworn to the Pope p. 366. leaves no room for Allegiance to Princes any more than a person who hath already sworn Allegiance to one Prince hath liberty to swear the same thing to another p. 370. which it is impossible he should keep to both And discoursing of King Stephen he says that his Title being very bad he saw it necessary for him to strengthen it by the Pope's Authority and that during his Usurpation all the Rights of the Crown were lost p. 373. p. 452. Again he says If depriving Sovereign Princes of their Crown and Dignity endeavouring by open Rebellions and secret Conspiracies to take away their Lives be not Treasons there are none such in the World. p. 463. If the Primitive Christians had been guilty of so many horrible Treasons ☞ and Conspiracies if they had attempted to deprive Emperors of their Crowns and absolved Subjects from their Allegiance to them if they had joined with their open and declared Enemies and imployed Persons time after time to assassinate them what would the World have said of their sufferings Would Men of any common sense have said they were Martyrs for Religion but that they dyed justly and deservedly for their Treasons the late Regicides pleaded the cause of God and Religion The Scripture attributes the great revolutions of Government to a particular Providence of God Id. Ser. on 1 Cor. 12.24 25. p. 17. God is the Judge or the Supreme Arbitrator of the Affairs of the World he putteth down one and setteth up another which holds with respect to Nations as well as particular Persons which doth not found any right of Dominion as some fansied till the Argument from Providence was return'd with great force upon themselves but it shews that when God pleases to make use of Persons or Nations as the scourges in his hand to punish People with he gives them success above their hopes or expectations but that success gives them no right Suppose a Prosperous Usurper in this Kingdom Id. ans to the first royal paper p. 23. and vindicat of that ans p. 64. had gained a considerable Interest in it and challenged a Title to the whole and therefore required of all the King's Subjects within his power to own him to be rightful King upon this many of them are forc'd to withdraw because they will not own his Title is this an Act of Rebellion and not rather of true Loyalty ‖ Id. Vindi. p. 37. and ans to the 1st part p. 19. the Doctrins of deposing Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance are errors in matters of practice of the highest importance * Id. ans to 2d royal paper p. 40 55. if fancy only keeps us firm to the Church of England might it not as well have been said that the Protestants of the Church of England adhered to the Crown in the times of Rebellion out of fancy and not out of judgment and that if their fancy chang'd they might as well have joyned with the Rebels as we have cause to be thankful to God when Kings are Nursing Fathers to our Church so we shall never cease to pray for their continuing so and that in all things we may behave our selves towards them as becomes Good Christians and Loyal Subjects and whereas the Defender of the Royal Papers p. 80. argued against this that Subjects were no longer according to this Doctrin to be Loyal than their King is a Nursing Father to their Church the Doctor wipes off the Aspersion by telling him †Vindic. of the ans p. 101. ☜ P. 86. that he had put an ill construction on his words far from the intention of the Author who thinks it a part of a good Christian to be always a Loyal Subject I desire this Gentleman to resolve me whether in the late times of Usurpation this had been good Doctrin that those who enjoy or pretend to Supreme Power are to be judges in their own case if so then it had been impossible for Men to have justified their Loyalty to the Royal Family then very unjustly put out of possession P. 88 89. it is some comfort that our Church is confessed to teach the Orthodox Doctrin of Loyalty and her practice to be conformable thereto in the worst of times and so the Doctor hopes it will always be But it hath been said by some body ☜ that we have nothing peculiar to our Church but our Doctrin of Non-Resistance this might have given occasion to inquire whether the Church which pretends to be infallible doth teach it so Orthodoxly or not or whether those who do think themselves obliged to believe what she teaches are thereby obliged to the strictest Principles of Loyalty ☜ this our Church doth not only teach them as her own Doctrin but which is far more effectual as the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles and of the Primitive Church which I think ought to have more force on the Consciences of Men P. 99. than the pretence to Infallibility in any Church in the World. ☜ Is it any argument that the constitution of our Government is not firm or that Loyal Subjects cannot be certain of their duty because Men of ill Principles have run away with false notions of a Fundamental contract and coordinate power and whereas it might be objected that propositions as dangerous as those of the Jesuits were held by some among our selves witness those condemn'd at Oxford July 26. 1683. We cannot deny says he but that there have been Men of ill Minds and disloyal Principles Factious and Disobedient Enemies to the Government both in Church and State but have these Men ever had that countenance from the Doctrins of the guides of our Church which the deposing Doctrin hath had in the Church of Rome To
the Conscience and indispensible because the King's Power is from God pag 62. to whom only Kings are accountable They pray for him three or four times by Name in all their solemn Offices their Sermons are frequent and pressing upon this Theme and their Books are numerous against Papists and their factious Scholars for the Right of Kings yea and their Actions being always Loyal do justifie they sincerely believe as they teach Dr. Sec. Edit ad Lectorem Pelling's Apostate Protestant Those Republicans who were the Movers of the Bill of Exclusion very well knew that by the sam ePower which they pretended to have to dispose of the Heir they might pretend afterwards to have to devest and destroy the Possessor of the Crown And I will presume to declare on my own and my Brethrens behalf too without begging their pardon that we still act ☞ and by the Grace of God resolve stedfastly to act upon the same loyal Principles wherewith we have hitherto endeavor'd to season the Kingdom The People cannot but be tickled at the heart p. 6 7. when they are told that they have a Sovereign Power in them which they did not dream of that they can make and unmake Kings that Crowns and Scepters lye at their Worship's Feet must make Court to them for Succession and that they can if they will bar them out and come like the Tribunes of the People of Rome with an uncontroulable Veto I am grieved at the heart and 't is enough to raise the indignation of every honest Man to find that so many among us do so inconsiderately not to say maliciously run altogether upon this Jesuit's Principles c. V. p. 9 10 11. p. 14. Doleman confidently insists on this that the Crown is not a bare Inheritance but an Inheritance accompanying an Office of trust and that if a Man's defects render him uncapable of the trust he hath also forfeited the Inheritance and from this Principle he concludes that even a true King may be deposed when he answers not the trust which the People had reposed in him This Jesuitical Doctrin did not long ago cost one of our Kings his Throne and his life too I pray God it be not so chargeable to another but t is ominous when pretending Protestants will be nibling at such Jesuitical Principles Observe that the Power of Deposing a King P. 19. naturally follows from the Doctrin of the People's Power to chuse one if any of our Clergy hold our Kings to be Divine they hold no more than what all Christians have ever held P. 21. V. p. 24 25. P. 33 34. v. loc p. 36. no more than what the Church of England hath declared no more than what the Laws of our Country do own and will bear them out in Doleman is positive that Princes may lawfully be deposed and he observes too is a remarkable instance as he calls it that God hath wonderfully concurred for the most part with such judicial Acts of the Commonwealth against their evil Princes not only in prospering the same but by giving also some notable Successor in the place of the deposed had Father Parsons been alive in our days perhaps he would have instanc'd in that blessed Bird Oliver Cromwell among the rest I happen'd to read a new Assemblies Catechism called a Political Catechism p. 38. v. p. 40 41 c. and I found it as full of the Jesuit's Venom as if it had been spit out of Doleman's own Mouth these are some of the Principles in it word for word 1. That the Government being a regulated Monarchy the King is not above the Law but is accountable to the Law and not to God only 2. That whatsoever is done by the King without and beyond the limits of the Regulation is not Regal Authority 3. That to resist the notorious transgressions of that regulation is no resisting the Regal Authority that the immediate Original of the King's Power is from the People and many other such Principles upon which the late Rebellion was raised and maintained After this he proceeds to shew that the little arts made use of to evade the obligations to Passive Obedience have been also borrowed from the Jesuits and to vindicate Dr. Hicks's Sermon on that Subject as also to shew the Parallel between the Jesuit and the Puritan particularly in their disobedience to Government violation of Oaths c. And then subjoins that when once Men are Jesuited P. 50. they will never stick at any manner of wickedness Lying Libelling Sedition defaming of Government Perjury c. you see how basely partial these Folks are in their ordinary censures P. 51. let a Man be a true Friend to the King and to the Establish'd Government and presently forsooth he is a Papist let him resuse to do evil that good may come tho that was St. Paul's way and he is called a Papist let him be for subjection to a Lawful Prince ☜ and when time serves for Passive Obedience and he is a Papist with a witness but let these Men profess the Faith and Doctrins of the Jesuits let them lye and equivocate like the Jesuits let them violate Oaths v. p 52 53 57 58. or construe them in their own sense like the Jesuits let them dispense with one another in doing any wickedness that is serviceable to their cause as the Jesuits do yet who but they the true Protestants we dare not be dishonest unless we will be Hypocrites nor be Rebels P. 54. unless we will be damn'd Some in Solomon's time were given to change out of 〈◊〉 strange kind of levity and inconsistency of mind Id. Serm. on Prov 24.21 1632. p. 25. and therefore some Expositors render the place thus cum inconstantibus with Men that are fickle and unsteady in their Loyalty would we not think it strange that Men who have shewed their fidelity all along Men who have acted taught suffered and ventur'd their Lives for the sake of Majesty should such I say start aside and suffer themselves to be wheadled into Faction at last Truly we might wonder at it the less when we consider that it was the case of several Men in the Reign of David and especially two very eminent Persons Abiathar the Priest and Joab that brave Commander the former had been David's secret and sure Friend and the later had not turn'd after Absalom both of them had been faithful hitherto but when Adonijah usurp'd the Kingdom both of them were concern'd in that Plot the Priest turn'd an Apâ—state and the General a Renegado upon what provocations I do not know nor can I gather any reason thereof unless it be that I now have mention'd a strange inconstancy of Spirit in Men who in David's Old Age thought it their best cunning to take up the Persian custom and worship the Rising Sun. Thus the Letter to a dissenter on occasion of the Declaration of Indulgence We are
Sclater What a joy will it be to thy Spirit and a lightning to thy Heart Royal pay paymaster on Rom. 2.10 p. 6 7 1â— when thou canst say thou didst not cowardly yield tho thou hast been disarm'd sequestred decimated and unrewarded for it 't was of God's mercy to be kept faithful to the righteous cause of God and the King when there were so many temptations to witdraw us from our Loyalty Fidelity and Loyalty is in a more especial manner required in a Subject towards his Sovereign 't is Treason in a Subject to fight against his Sovereign but how long must this Fidelity last a day or two or so Oh no I this Commandment is like that heavy saying in Matrimony till death us do part Dr. Hickman Serm. before Lâ—rd Mayor Juâ— 27. 1680 p. 17 18. The honor of God and the defence of his Worship are glorious Undertakings yet even here the excess of zeal is a crime and the great importance of the end cannot justifie any unlawfulness in the means the will of God as it is exprest in his Word is the standard of good and evil and he will not suffer his eternal Laws to be violated tho in his own defence if it should please him to give his and our Enemies such advantage over us as may endanger the exercise of our Religion we have our Prayers and other lawful endeavours for our redress but we must not defend our Church by an unlawful return of evil for evil nor like our Adversaries commit any Act of Impiety or Injustice tho under the most specious pretence of fighting the Battels of the Lord The goodness of the Cause here is so far from justifying the Act that it only aggravates the offence when a Law is violated or any injustice done for the sake of our Religion both the scandal and the Crime become conspicuous they are then laid at the door of our Church and bring a publick and perpetual blot upon our cause P. 19 v. p. 20 33. what can our Religion profit us or what honor can it bring to the Almighty when our Sacrifice comes polluted with blood and violence of its own how can it attone for our transgressions therefore it is necessary to obey not only for wrath ☞ but also for Conscience sake St. Peter who was the first that drew his Sword In his Master's quarrel was the first that denyed his name and forsook his cause and doubtless whosoever fights for his Religion against his Prince can never pass the muster without a Romish dispensation Mr. Ser. at Bath Aug. 7. â—631 p. 4 5 c. Jos Pleydall Arch-Deacon of Chichester Plebeians and Hobbists proceed upon one and the same Principle making the People the Fountain of all Power whereas Subjects owe a natural and inviolable Allegiance but if a Prince prove a Tyrant does he not by Male-administration forfeit the trust reposed in him in whose Opinion in the Opinion of Mariana or Knox Hobbs or Bradshaw i. e. in the judgment of Papists P. 8. Sectaries Atheists or Rebels 't is impossible there should be a Rebellion while the Principles of the Church of England are revered and owned that Kings may be Deposed and Murdered P. 11. we may reckon under the Apostles strange and monstrous Doctrins or rather under his Doctrins of Devils Mr. Assize Ser. p. 21 22. v. p. 5 78 16. Kimberley No pretences of Conscience or Religion can Authorize our Resistance of the lawful Powers which God hath set over us they never knew what it was in the times of the Primitive Christianity to oppose expel or destroy any Pagan Persecuting Arian or Apostate Emperor Mr. Assize Ser. p. 21. Jemmat None but God can absolve Subjects from that Allegiance and Obedience which they owe to their natural Lords neither the Male administration of Government nor their own fears jealousies nor the decay of Trade no nor the hazard of Religion it self can justifie the Acts of Rebellion they to whom God hath given his own Power are accountable to none but himself c. Mr. Serm. on 2 Chr. 13.5 p. 6. v. p. 8 15 18. Camfield The King is in the highest place and highest power and consequently all in his Dominions Every Soul of them are obliged to be subject to him none may presume to judge or resist him violently there can be nothing justifyable on the Subjects part but obedience and Submission the rest must be referred to God alone the only Ruler of Princes c. Mr. Ser. at York Aug 3. 1685. p. 16 24. 〈◊〉 loc Stainforth We have great reason to pity and pray for Kings for the eminency of their Station and uncontroulableness of their Power if Princes are bad Men and oppress their Subjects against reason and against Law we have no reason left us but Prayers to God in whose hands are the hearts of Kings Whatsoever Injuries they heap upon us whatsoever Violences and Persecutions we suffer under them we must not suffer our Passions to rise and swell againvt them much less must we take up Arms and by force resist their Persons or Authority P. 34. Those who take up Arms against their Sovereign's Authority fight against Heaven Mr. Graile Rector of Blickling in Norfolk publish'd four Sermons Lond. 1685. P. 44 45. For Loyalty to our Prince is a thing commanded by God himself together with Piety and Devotion towards himself yea and commanded in the very next place to it so that the one is a part an inseparable part a very considerable part of the other And it follows from hence by an apparent Consequence that Mens Disloyalty is a clear indication of their irreligion if they fear not the King they fear not God. ☜ If any Man seem to be religious and bridles not his Tongue from speaking evil of Dignities or Higher Powers Jam. 1.26 2 Pet 2.10 Rom. 13.2 P. 53 54 55. that Man's Religion is vain and 't is much more so if he holds not his hands from resisting these Powers Our Law will have no Error no Injustice no Folly no Imperfection whatsoever to be found in the King. All the States of the Realm joyned together all the Nobles and Commons and the whole Body of the People have not a Power and Authority equal to his For otherwise he would not be the King of a Kingdom but of single Men separately taken P. 56. The King is no substitute of the People but the Minister of God and his Power is the Ordinance of God. It is a contradiction to be Sovereign and to have a Superior The Lords P. 57. both Spiritual and Temporal together with all the Commons assembled in Parliament do by a solemn Oath acknowledg the King to be Supreme and themselves to be his Subjects And they have in publick Statutes particularly declared That both or either Houses of Parliament cannot nor lawfully may raise or levy any War offensive or
defensive ☜ against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Neither is the King accountable to them or to any other besides God These are the Essentials of Sovereignty There is but one Case wherein a good and loyal Subject will refuse to obey his Prince and that is p. 60 61 v. p. 66 96 97 119 120 154. when such Obedience will by no means consist with his Obedience to God But there is no Case whatsoever wherein he dares either to resist or reproach the Person or Authority of the King or to offer any Indignity to him To fight against him is to fight against God whom the King represents upon any pretence whatsoever it cannot be done without open Perfidiousness and Rebellion Such are Monsters of Men and are as natural brute Beasts made to be taken and destroyed So S. Peter describes them 2 Pet. 2.10 12. Mr. David Jenner in his Prerogative of Primogenitures * Lond 1635 P. 48. asserts the same Cause Altho the Law of God is indeed above all Kings and if they wilfully transgress the same they are all accountable unto God and unto God only for the same yet in this Kingdom of England no Statute Law is or can be above the King because it was the King that first gave life and being to the Law of the Land the King by his Royal Assent made the Law to be what it is viz. a Law But the Law of the Land did not make the King to be what he is viz. a King for the King was King before the Law. That the Doctrin and Practice of Deposing lawful Kings P. 122. and Excluding the right Heir from succeeding in the Throne for his being an Heretick Idolater ☜ tyrannical and wicked is grounded upon nothing but Popery and Fanaticism Mr. Hancock in his Answer to the Viscount Stafford's Memoires Lond. 1682. p. 31. I could make it evident that the same Maxims of Political Divinity the same Arguments and many times the same Phrases and Expressions are to be found in the Heads of both Factions I know 't is disputed whether the Ring-Leaders of Sedition among us poyson'd the Jesuits or the Jesuits them but I do not envy the Bishops of Rome the Honor of having first poyson'd them both with Antimonarchical Doctrins If Milton the great Oracle of one of the Factions had own'd himself to be a Papist there had been no reason to wonder at the Impiety of his Doctrins which he either did or might have learnt from the Popes and greatest Divines of the Roman Church It was truly alledg'd by Salmasius that the Doctrin of the sacred and inviolable Authority of Princes was preserved pure and uncorrupt in the Church till the Bishops of Rome attempted to set up a Kingdom in this World paramount to all Kings and Emperors but he with his usual Confidence acquits the Popes and charges his Antimonarchical Principles on Luther Zuinglius Calvin Bucer Martyr Parcus and all the Reformed Divines Bellarmine P. 50. Parsons Creswel Suarez c. are the Men that furnish'd the leading Faction among us with Principles and Precedents with Arguments and Texts of Scripture ☞ out of whom they either did or might have derived the Grounds of the War against the King of erecting an High Court of Justice and of bringing him to the Block John Goodwin P. 53. in one of his Pamphlets hath this remarkable Expression As for offering Violence to the Person of a King or attempting to take away his Life we leave the Proof of the lawfulness of it to those profound Disputers the Jesuits P. 166 c. I have fairly represented those Doctrins and Principles which strike at the very root of our establish'd Religion and Government with the Arts and Instruments which have been used by the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church for the Subversion of them ☞ And I know no stronger Argument against the truth and goodness of any Religion than that it supplants moral Righteousness and serves to be a Bond of Conspiracy allowes of Sedition and Treachery Injustice and Cruelty for how can that Religion be from God which maketh Men unlike to God as had or worse than if they were left to the Principles and Inclinations of their own Natures Of the Church of England I will only say It hath establish'd the Right of Kings upon such sure and unalterable Foundations that it is the Interest as well as the Duty of the Civil Power to support and defend it Mr. Animadv on Ob. Ch. Govern. Preface Smalridge Certainly that Doctrin which invades the just Rights of Princes can hope but for few Proselytes among those who have constantly defended them in their Writings asserted them in their Decrees and upon all occasions vindicated them with their Swords For we do not lye open to the imputation of a condition'd and distinguishing Loyalty who have shewed our readiness to imitate the glorious Examples of our Fathers and were prepar'd had not God's good Providence prevented our Service to have transcribed that Copy lately at Sedgmore which they set us formerly at Edg-hill And in truth our steady Fidelity to the Prince is so unquestionable that our Enemies have been pleased to ridicule what they could not deny and have made Passive Obedience bear a part in our Character when the Muse hath been enclin'd to Satyr Thus also the Person of Quality who wrote the Reasons Why a Protestant should not turn Papist P. 30 31. I am then quite out of conceit with your Religion since I cannot embrace it without endangering my Loyalty by reason of the Deposing Doctrin in case I live up to the pitch of its real Principles But 't is all one to me so long as I remain a Protestant what Religion my Prince is of tho I could wish he were of the same I profess because his Authority over me and my indispensible Obligation to submit to him do not depend upon his Opinion or Religion but upon his Birth-right yet have we not reason to doubt if the zealous sort of Roman Catholicks would not think it lawful to take Arms against their Prince turn'd a Heretick since the French League against Henry the 4th was upon this very account styled Holy and had I not been particularly acquainted with the Principles of the Church of Rome I had never conceived how it came to pass that such great Numbers of learned and well-meaning Men too could be guilty of such a horrible wickedness as that was and forget themselves so far as to pretend Holiness in an open Rebellion against their lawful Prince I am then more satisfied with the Loyalty of a Protestant especially of the Church of England who acknowledgeth the Prince to be a Supreme Governour over all his Subjects and Sovereign Judg in all Cases than with that of a Roman Catholick who seems to set limits to his Power by such restrictions as neither Reason nor Scripture can warrant Mr. Pomfret
Griffith Serm. 25. Mar. 1660. called fear God and the King p. 11. v.p. 39. and p. 8 9. If God command one thing and the King should command another then God's command is to be preferred and yet let me tell you that the King is not to be disobeyed for a true Christian is obliged to a twofold obedience Active and Passive Where the King commands things Lawful there yield Active Obedience and know that it is your duty to do them but if he should command such a thing as you may not lawfully do then you must not resist but suffer patiently for your not doing it and that is your Passive Obedience and in both these you may still keep a good Conscience for though God be to be preferred yet God will not have his Anointed to be disobeyed Dr. Jane Dean of Gloucester Ser. at the Consecr of Doctor Crompton Bishop of Oxon p. 30 31 32. Such is the peculiar genius of Christianity that where ever it is either Preacht or Received it can create no jealousie in the State. The ground upon which this Assertion stands is this that it disclaims all title to the Sword but leaves him that takes it to perish with it though it be drawn in defence of Christ himself In the Church then as of old in Israel there was no Smith to provide Swords and Spears though against their persecuting Philistines To obey Authority was taught and practised under a Nero and their Submissions were as unparallel'd as their Provocations And we may truly suppose under the Roman Emperors that had the Doctrine of Obedience been as truly received by their Heathen Subjects as it was Preacht by S. Paul and practised by the believing Romans they had effectually provided for the publick Tranquillity without any further need of Forts and Armies to secure it Dr. Outram The Glory of the King Ser. Jan. 30. 1664. p. 141 149. the Privileges of the Parliament the Liberty of the Subject the Purity of Religion these are written upon the Face of the design The Principle is doing evil that good may come of it and breaking Laws that we may the better observe them These Men went to Rome to whet the Ax and borrowed an Arrow out of the Roman Quiver secretly to shoot the Lord 's Anointed Were the Prince a Nero p. 160. Paul would charge us we should not resist and would charge resistance with damnation Sir Orlando Bridgman at the Tryal of the Regicides says Try. p. 10 12. v. p. 15 52 182 283. I must deliver to you for plain and true Law that no Authority no single Person no Community of Persons not the People Collectively or Representatively have any coercive Power over the King of England And this he proves at large in the same place The Crown of England is and always was an Imperial Crown Now I do not intend any Absolute Government by this It is one thing to have an Absolute Monarchy another thing to have that Government absolutely without Laws as to any coercive Power over the Person of the King. God is my witness what I speak V. p. 13 14. p. 280. V. p. 281 282. I speak from mine own Conscience that is that whatsoever the case was by the Laws of these Nations the Fundamental Laws there could not be any coercive Power over the King. And this he there proves from the obligation of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy c. Mark the Doctrine of the Church of England and I do not know with what spirit of Equivocation any Man can take that Oath of Supremacy Her Articles were the judgment not only of the Church but of the Parliament at the same time And the Queen and the Church were willing that these should be put into Latin that all the World might see the Confession of the Church of England So also Sir Heneage Finch P. 51. then the King's Sollicitor General The King is not accountable to any coercive Power See also the accurate Treatise See also Nalson's Counter p. 35 c. 3â—9 Com. Interest of Kings p. 139 c. p. 3. called the Harmony of Divinity and Law which proves that it is a damnable sin to resist Sovereign Princes and answers all the little objections of the Republicans to the contrary I shall here only mention Mr. Foulu's History of the Plots and Conspiracies of the pretended Saints and briefly transcribe a passage or two out of Dr. Sprat Bishop of Rochester his True account of the horrid Conspiracy At that time under the color of the only true Protestant the worst of all Unchristian Principles were put in Practice all the old Republican and Antimonarchical Doctrines whose effects had formerly proved so dismal were again as confidently owned and asserted as ever they had been during the hottest rage of the late unhappy Troubles p. 21. See p. 41. The Lord R was seduced by the wicked Teachers of that most Unchristian Doctrine which has been the cause of so many Rebellions That it is lawful to resist and rise against Sovereign Princes for preserving Religion p. 43 44. Other Principles were that the only obligation the Subject hath to the King is a mutual Covenant that this Covenant was manifestly broken on the King's part ☞ that therefore the People were free from all Oaths and other tyes of Fealty and Allegiance and had the natural Liberty restored to them of asserting their own Rights and as justly at least against a Domestick as against Foreign Invaders p. 131. v. p. 132. The whole design of A. S's Papers was to maintain That Tyrants may be justly Deposed by the People and that the People are the only Judges who are Tyrants That the general Revolt of a Nation from its own Magistrates can never be called a Rebellion which Positions the Historian calls with great Truth and Justice Villanous Opinions p. 133. and such as if allowed it will be impossible for the best Kings or the most happy Kingdoms in the World to be free from perpetual Treasons p. 164. and Rebellious Plottings But his Majesty hath just reason to acknowledge that the main body of the Nobility and Gentry stood by him so has the whole sound and honest part of the Commonalty so the great Fountains of Knowledge and Civility the two Universities so the wisest and most learned in the Laws so the whole Clergy and all the genuine Sons of the Church of England ☞ a Church whose glory it is to have been never tainted with the least blemish of disloyalty Dr. Pocock In ch 8. Hos 4. p. 388 389. Some Interpreters by Setting up Kings but not by me would understand Saul but that cannot with reason be imagined Others looking on the sin of the Israelites to be their defection from the House of David on which God had intayled the Right and Title of the Kingdom and their changing of the Kinghom and Priesthood of their own heads
will have the words to concern their setting up of Jeroboam and his Successors in opposition to the House of David as appears by their carriage 1 Kings 12.16 when not liking Rehoboam's answer to them they cryed what portion have we in David c. no command or instructions were for ought we find given them by Abijah or any other from God neither did they in what they did consult with God by that Prophet or any other means to know his pleasure therein but what they did was of their own heads out of a rebellious humour of casting off their lawful Sovereigns of the House of David in which God had settled the right of the Kingdom so that tho they so fulfilled the Will and Counsel of God yet they did it not in obedience to them but with contrary intentions and plain disobedience and so were no more justifiable in it than the Jews in murthering Christ than Judas in betraying Innocent Blood that it was determin'd by God. and the setting up of his Successors was a continuance of defection from the House of David and a Rebellion against God. others by setting up Kings without me c. would mean their seeking to Foreign Kings and Princes for help as to the Assyrians and King Jareb ch 5.13 to Aegypt ch 7.11 so forsaking God and their dependence on him and setting up them as Patrons and Protectors to themselves Dr. Fitz Williams Serm. of the duties of fearing God and the King. p. 4 v. p. 5 6. Subjects withdrawing their obedience from their lawful Prince is a denying God's Authority Treason against him is a kind of Sacrilege a revolt from him an Apostacy from God a resisting him an opposing God rebelling against him fighting with God the setting up the title of a Counterfeit Prince against the true one an introducing a plurality of Godheads the obeying of an Usurper Idolatry the slandering his Anointed and his Footsteps a Blaspheming God the blaming his conduct P. 15. a quarrelling with Providence breaking through all Oaths Oaths in which they deposited with them the richest pawn it was possible for them to stake down and gave them the strongest security that others could require of their fidelity and obedience their Salvation Oaths in which they called God's Omniscience to witness these engagements and his justice and power to revenge the breach of them can it be thought that he P. 23. who will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain should connive at the violation of all obligations of duty and fidelity contracted in that name if Men shall be in danger of Hell-fire for calling their Brother Fool shall they be in none for railing against their Superiors invested with Authority from above and acting by a Commission from Heaven St. Peter and St. Jude have taught us that God reserves such who speak evil of dignities unto the day of Judgment to be punish'd in the blackness of darkness for ever Mr. Wagstaffe Serm. Sep. 9. 1683. p. 11 12. It is the glory of our Reformation that as it proceeded by the most peaceable and orderly steps so it held the most peaceable and orderly Doctrins the first Reformers pleaded as the Primitive Christians did that they always paid subjection to the powers set over them that they always complyed with the will of their Rulers where they lawfully might and where they might not they submitted with patience and always chose rather to suffer than to be seditions turbulent and unquiet this was the first Reformation and this the true Protestant Doctrin but alas since that time there hath risen up another Protestant Religion P. 33 34. See also his Serm. July 26. 1685 p. 18 19 21 22 c. and another Reformation c. it is the peculiar glory of the Church of England that it never hath either by Doctrin or Practice in the least encouraged or countenanc'd any thing tending to Treason Sedition or Rebellion it is impossible that any Man so lâ—â—g as he continues in the Communion of the Church of England should be a Matineer or a Traytor Of this Opinion also are the Authors of the Remarks †P. 32 33 34 35. on Popery represented c. as to the deposing Doctrin * Pâ—â—â— Prosecution â—o persecution p 21. See his mod Pharisee p. 4 23. Id misch of Anarchy p. 13. v. p 33 55 56 57 c Exposit 5. Comm. in private devot Ox. 1089. In lib. 4. antiquit p. 294. con loc and of the Catholick balance Dr. Bisby Formy part I wish as well to my Religion as any Man and pray as heartily for the continuance of it but to put by my lawful Prince because I suspect he will call me to account for my Religion and thereby make me worthy of suffering for Christ nay blessed this my Duty my Conscience my Oaths my Religion will not suffer me to do a King supposes a Power Sovereign accountable to none but to God who is the King of Kings and the last Judge of Men. Dr. Ed. Bernard I will obey I will reverence all my Superiors Spiritual and Temporal and in all things not plainly repugnant to God's Word and whenever they command any thing contrary thereto if I may not according to Law Righteousness and Honor appeal to a superior Power on Earth I will patiently submit to their censures and penalties The Oxford Notes on Josephus treat largely of this Subject and say that the Pharisees were the Men who under the doubtful and linsey woolsey Government of the Maccabees brought in these Maxims that the King could do nothing without the High Priest and the Sanhedrim because in weighty matters he used to consult them of his own choice that his luxury and other vices ought to be maturely corrected and that an Aristocracy was a better Government than that of a single Person that they themselves might be concern'd in the Government although in that very Age it was a celebrated Axiome among the Jews that the Majesty of their Kings was so sublime that it ought not to be stoopt to the Senate the King gives judgment but no Man judges him that God only calls the King to account but no mortal Person with many other citations out of the Rabbinical Writers to the same purpose Such Doctrins therefore contrary to the Rights of Kings Josephus would never have vented if he had been less addicted to the Opinions of Hillel and Shammai and had remembred the Golden Times of David and Solomon or the flourishing State of Judea in other Reigns for the Posterity of David down to the Assyrian Captivity exercised a full Power a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as truly such as any that Asia ever saw in all Affairs Sacred and Civil c. beware therefore O you Princes of the Doctrin of the Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites of the Rabbies Jesuits and Presbyterians Dr. South with great smartness censuring the solemn League and Covenant observes these two things