Party 2. The Vsurper intruded and his Confederates And both sides will plead a just Title to the Crown The Lawfull Heir Excluded will urge and that most truly his Right thereunto by virtue of his Primogeniture according to the Law of God of Natural Reason and of Magna Charta And therefore to be sure He will Fight and that undauntedly for the Crown On the other hand the Vsurper will plead and that not without Reason his Title to the Crown by virtue of the New Law of the Nation to wit the New Statute of Exclusion which has setled the Royal Diadem upon his Head and therefore He will not easily part with it Wherefore no man need doubt but that the Vsurper will fight and that stoutly to keep what by Law he has got Thus any Man that has but half an eye may if he will plainly see That if the Bill of Exclusion should pass into a Law as the Anti-Yorkists so hotly desired that then War and Sedition will be established and continued by Law And now suppose this should ever happen to be which God forbid Then the Great Query and Case of Conscience will be scil Qu. What Party or Side ought the Pious and Dutifull Subject to take and follow Ans To deal plainly and faithfully in this Case where Conscience and Religion I mean Christianity are so deeply concerned We humbly conceive it to be the honest Subject's Duty in this case rather to Obey God and his Law and so to fight More Romano Couragiously for the Right and Lawfull Heir by Primogeniture unjustly Excluded This we ought to doe rather than to Obey Man and his New Law of Exclusion and so to engage for the Vsurper who Reigns and Governs not by Divine but onely by Humane Law and Appointment And we will Appeal to Conscience and Reason Whether it be not safer to follow God and his Law which cannot err than Man who may err and his Law of Exclusion which does grosly err in the very Sanction of it in that it manifestly opposes the above-mentioned Law of God which Commands That the Right Heir by Primogeniture should Reign and Govern although He hateth Right Object If it be as it is by all Anti-Yorkists and Common wealths Men objected That the Law of the Realm is above the King for that the Law made him King And therefore say they the Law has a power to Depose the King and to take away that Regal Authority which it gave him As that Great but to our thinking Factious Lawyer (a) Ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo sub Lege quia Lex facit Regem Non est enim Rex ubi dominatur Volumas non Lex c. Bract. l. 1. c. 8. Bracton argues And as is so often quoted from him and seditiously urged by the Authour of Julian Apostate p. 83. And the very same Argument was pleaded by all the late Regicides particularly by that Grand Regicide Bradshaw the Lawyer who had the Impudence to sit as Judge upon the Bench and to pronounce that Diabolical Sentence of Condemnation upon his own Dread Sovereign King Charles the First of Blessed Memory and he palliated over his and their Horrid Treason with this colour of argument to wit That the Law was above the King Ans It is hoped that all the Gentlemen of the Long-Robe will go on as they already have worthily begun to repair the Honour of their Noble Order and that none of them will any more advise or plead for Treason nor ever again deceive and seduce the silly ignorant People with their specious and fallacious Arguments But that they who have been disloyal will suffer themselves and their Youth to be better Disciplined in the Doctrine of the Church of England The neglect of which has too apparently caused some of that Honourable and most necessary Function and their Clients so grosly to err in point of Obedience But as for the above mentioned Objection it is already pithily Answered by the King 's Learned Sergeants at Law in Hilary-Term 1683 in their truly Loyal Motto A DEO REX A REGE LEX God made the King the King made the Law And therefore very false and Antiscriptural are the forementioned Positions scil 1. That the Law made the King 2. That the Law is above the King For although the Law of God indeed is above all Kings and if they wilfully transgress the same they are all accountable unto God and unto God onely for the same Yet in this Kingdom of England no Statute-Law is or can be above the King And that because It was the King who first gave Life and Being to the Law of the Land The King by his Royal Assent made the Law Salvâ Regiâ Praerogativâ to be what it is to wit a Law But the Law of the Land did not make the King to be what he is to wit a King For the King was King before the Law And so he became the principal efficient Cause of the Law And therefore the King was before the Law inasmuch as the Cause is ever before the Effect And it is to be noted That although the Law may by Repeal or other ways be abolished and dye Yet in England the King never does nor can dye as long as there is alive any Lawfull Heir by Primogeniture though never so Remote Object But most if not all the Anti-Yorkists did and still do urge in favour of their Bill of Exclusion the Statute of 13 Qu Eliz. c. 1. When a Law was made to this purpose scil That it should be High-Treason for any to affirm the Right in Succession of the Crown to be in some other than the Queen Or to affirm that the Laws and Statutes do not bind the Right of the Crown and the Descent Limitation Inheritance and Governance thereof Whosoever shall during the Queens Life by book or work written or printed expresly affirm before the same be established by Parliament that any one particular person is or ought to be Heir and Successour to the Queen except the same be the natural issue of her body c. shall for the first offence be a whole year Imprisoned and forfeit half his Goods and for the second offence shall incur the penalty of Praemunire Polt Qu. El. 13. c. 1. This is the Act and these are the words of that Act which the Authour of Julian the Apostate and all the Factious Associatours have so stiffly pleaded in Justification of their Bill of Exclusion Ans But a little to undeceive the deluded People and to tell the Truth as far as we apprehend it First There was an Occasion if not a Necessity for such an Act in Queen Elizabeth's days but there is none in these of ours And the Reason for it is this scil Because in Her days many both Papists and Fanaticks disputed Queen Elizabeth's Right and Title to the Crown Nor was it certainly known who by Birth
THE PREROGATIVE OF Primogeniture SHEWING That the Right of SVCCESSION TO AN Hereditary Crown DEPENDS Not upon Grace Religion c. But Onely upon Birth-Right and Primogeniture AND That the Chief Cause of all or most Rebellions in Christendom is a Fanatical Belief That Temporal Dominion is founded in Grace By DAVID JENNER B. D. Prebendary of Sarum and Rector of Great Warley in Essex LONDON Printed for J. Hindmarsh Bookseller to His Royal Highness at the Black Bull in Cornhill 1685. TO THE Most Royal and High-Born PRINCE JAMES DUKE of YORK AND ALBANY EARL of VLSTER LORD High Admiral of ENGLAND IRELAND And all Foreign Plantations Constable of Dover-Castle Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports Governour of Portsmouth c. Most Royal Sir YOUR Unparallel'd Magnanimity and other Your most Eminent Vertues and Excellencies are so well known to the Christian World as that Envy it self cannot obscure them And whatever English Man does or shall hereafter audaciously presume to deny You his hearty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Euge is and ever will be unworthy any longer to be an Inhabitant of Great Britain Whose present Peace and Prosperity next unto Almighty God's Over-ruling Providence and unto Our most Gratious King 's Wise Conduct of Affairs is Owing unto Your Highness's Matchless Valour and Prudence The which You have most signally demonstrated in Vanquishing the King's and the Nation 's Enemies Abroad And in being highly instrumental in Suppressing them at Home So that if Fabius Maximus Deserved the Thanks of the whole Roman-Senate for his prudent Management of their Republick Concerns Then infinitely more has Your Royal Highness Merited not onely the Thanks of Our English Senate but over and above even Statues and Shrines of Gold Gratefully to be erected in perpetual Memory of Your most Glorious Atchievements But Ah ungratefull England That after Your most Illustrious Highness had Jeoparded Your Royal Person in many desperate and bloudy Battels at Sea and at Land onely for the Honour and Welfare of this Your Native Country whose Safety You oft times most Generously preferred before Your Own You should at last be so basely and so inhumanely requited As to have an Vnchristian and Unnatural Bill of Exclusion from Your Undoubted Birth-Right pass against You through the Prevalency of the Anti-Protestant and Factious Associatours in the late House of Commons who over-powering the Loyal Party in the said House Voted Sabbati 6. die Novembris 1680 and on Sabbati a day when surely those Fanatical Persons thought the Holy Jesus was again gone out of this World down into the Grave as to his Body and Descended into Hell as to his Soul doing Penance there for Mankind And so would not on a Saturday be present upon Earth to eye and behold their disloyal and disingenuous Actions and therefore They became Rampant and did what they pleased in spight of God and the King And being a Majority they Voted Nemine Contradicente Sabbati 26 die Martii 1681. Your Royal Highness's Exclusion from the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland c. Printed by the Order of Wi. Williams Speaker A Vote steep'd in so much Gall and Vinegar and attended with so much Disloyalty and Ingratitude As might justly have set All Your Noble and Heroick Passions on fire But God be praised In imitation of the Captain of our Salvation You have perfectly Conquered Your self Which personal Victory according to not onely the Stoical but also Christian Philosophy is more Memorable than All your other most Famous Conquests And Caesar like nay rather Jesu like You have forgot Nothing but to be Revengefull upon Your inveterate Enemies Which is Your Immortal Glory And one thing I most humbly suggest to Your Princely and most Christian Consideration as an undeniable Truth Scil. That Those Your Enemies who have or still do endeavour Your Royal Highness's Exclusion Contrary to the Divine and Natural Law of Your Birth-Right and Primogeniture neither were nor are Protestants nor any true Sons of the Church of England as now established by Law But they were and are onely a Company of Perjured Pseudo-Protestants Who under the specious pretence of being Vogued Protestants did and still do carry on their Diabolical Faction and Treasonable Association For in England onely He is a Protestant Beaufrons c. 1. who heartily believes and as heartily protests for and couragiously defends The King's Supremacy And who Christian-like Cordially declares for the Succession of the King 's Lawfull Heir according to Primogeniture whether He be Papist or Protestant whether Morally Good or Bad For This is the constant and professed Doctrine of the Apostolical-Protestant Church of England As I humbly conceive is sufficiently proved in the following Treatise The which does truly blush to approach Your Royal and most Illustrious Presence in its mean Dress and Country Garb. But forasmuch as it is the lively Draught of a most Loyal Heart towards His Majesty and of a most Faithfull and Devoted one towards Your Highness The Authour therefore most humbly begs Your Candid Acceptance of it Assuring Your Highness That He has no other Ambition in Publishing the same than where he lives to be instrumental in educating and instructing the People in the true Principles of Primitive Piety and Loyalty And whilst He lives be serviceable according to his Capacity unto God the King and the Church And to let the World know that He is Your Royal Highness 's Most Dutifull most Humble and Devoted Servant David Jenner THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Necessity of Government Page 1. CHAP. II. Monarchy the best Form of Government p. 6. CHAP. III. That all Kings and their Lawfull Heirs ought by Right of Primogeniture to Reign and Govern Successively whether they be Morally Good or Bad whether Infidels or Christians Papists or Protestants p. 18. SECT I. The Proposition proved by Humane Authority of Heathens ibid. SECT II. The Proposition That Succession to the Throne ought to be by Primogeniture and not by Grace proved by Divine Authority p. 21. SECT III. The Proposition proved by the Vnalterable Law of Inheritance by Primogeniture p. 25. SECT IV. The Proposition proved by Reason and the Common Sentiments of Religion p. 37. The Bill of Exclusion of the Duke of York proved to be unlawfull and sinfull p. 38. Atheistical and Factious ibid. Opposite to the known Law of God p. 41. The Cause of perpetual Civil Wars and Sedition p. 42. The chief Pleas and Arguments for it Answered p. 43 44 c. CHAP. IV. That all Subjects ought Actively to obey their Lawfull Prince in all things which be not Positively against some known Law of God although their said Prince be an Heathen Idolater and Apostate or never so Morally vitious p. 56. SECT I. The Duty of Obedience to Superiours whetheh Morally Good or Bad proved by the Law of Nature an of Natural Reason p. 57. SECT II. The Duty of Obedience to Superiours whether Christians or Heathens Good or Bad proved by Authority of
censure nor condemn an Earthly Prince who possibly may hate Right much less mayst thou censure and condemn the most just One even God who can never doe any unrighteous thing So that Elihu makes a Comparison between God and a King And he thus argues à Majore to wit That if Kings ought not to be Censured nor Controlled by their Subjects but ought to Govern and Rule notwithstanding any supposed Irregularity of their Lives and Actions Then much more ought Almighty God to Reign and Govern according to his own Beneplacet and no Man whatever ought in the least to murmure at his Providences though apparently never so thwart unto humane expectation For Shall even he that hateth Right govern and wilt thou condemn him that is most just The point of Interrogation in v. 17. Drus in Job 34.17 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall he is altogether Affirmative and implies that he who hateth Right shall and ought however to Govern But the point of Interrogation in v. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nunquid Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked or to Princes Ye are ungodly is wholly Negative and teaches all men this Loyal Lesson scil That it is not fit nor lawfull for any Subjects to say their King is wicked nor to revile and scandalize their Princes by opprobriously affirming that they want Grace and are Vngodly and that therefore they are unfit for Government Drusius in loc Non dicere convenit non honestum non par est It is not honest nor meet nor allowable to say so to Kings and Princes For let them be never so bad even Belials Idolaters as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Wicked in the Hebrew does signifie yet for all that their Idolatry they ought to Reign and Govern Yea this Truth scil That Kings and their Lawfull Heirs by Right of Primogeniture ought successively to Reign is farther evidenced by our Saviour's Answer unto Pontius Pilate St. Joh. 18.37 Pilate said to him Art thou a King then Jesus answered Thou sayest that I am a King to this end was I born c. In which Answer our Blessed Saviour asserts two Great Truths 1. That he himself was truly and indeed a King as Pilate had said 2. That He was King by Primogeniture and Birth-Right for unto this end to wit That he might be a King and might declare to all the World the same Truth Was He Born Thus the Holy Jesus rationally urges and pleads his own Birth as a sufficient Title to his Father's Kingdom inasmuch as his Father was a King and He was his First-born Which Answer of Christ's when Pilate rightly understood to wit that Jesus was indeed a King but not of this World and when he understood also that Jesus his being a King was no more prejudicial to Caesar's Crown and Dignity than was that internal Empire which the Stoick Philosophers attributed to every Wise Man Now when (a) Ex Jesu responso Pilatus concepit Regnum quod Jesus sibi tribuerit non magìs imperio Romano obesse quà m id quod Stoici Sapienti suo tribuunt qui docent solum Sapientem Regnare veram fortitudinem patiendo maximè probari c. Grot. in S. Jo. 18. Pilate clearly understood Jesus his meaning then He went immediately out of the Judgment-Hall unto the Jews and professed publickly to them That he found in Jesus no fault at all SECT III. The Proposition proved by the Vnalterable Law of Inheritance by Primogeniture THAT all Kings and their Lawfull Heirs whether good or bad whether Beloved or Hated ought successively to Reign is fully proved by the Ancient and Unalterable Law of Inheritance Which Law was and still is grounded 1. On God's exprss Command and so it is a judicial Law of God 2. On Natural Reason and so it becomes a positive Law of Nature obliging all Nations at all times to the Observation of it Which Law of Inheritance by Primogeniture we find recorded by Moses in Deut. 21. v. 15 16 17. and it runs thus If a Man have two Wives one Beloved The Law of Inheritance and another Hated and they have born him Children both the Beloved and the Hated and if the First-born Son be hers that was Hated then it shall be ☞ when he maketh his Sons to INHERIT that which he hath that he may not make the Son of the Beloved First-born before the Son of the Hated which is indeed the First-born But he shall acknowledge the Son of the Hated for the First-born by giving him a double portion of all that he hath c. By this Law it is undeniably evident that the First-born should ever be the Heir of his Father whether the said First-born were Good or Bad Beloved or Hated And the Reason which God gives for that Law is this scil v. 17. Deut. 21.17 Because the First-born is the Beginning of his Fathers strength and therefore the Right of the First-born is his that is to say the Right of Inheritance is his So that this Law of Inheritance by Primogeniture is not onely a positive and judicial Law made by God binding the people of the Jews but it is also a Moral Law founded on Natural Reason And therefore is for ever Obligatory and at all times Binds all Nations to observe and keep it For if among the Jews the First-born was therefore to Inherit because he was the Beginning of his Father's strength Then by the same force of Reason ought All First-born Sons of all men whatever to Inherit their Father's Substance because they all are the Beginning of their Father's strength And therefore The Right of Inheritance is theirs From which Concessions we thus argue to wit That if Succession and Inheritance be established upon the First-born in private Families because of his Primogeniture Then by the same Law the Right of Inheritance and of Succession unto the Crown is for ever setled upon the First-born of Kings For the First-born of Kings are the Beginning of their Royal Father's strength And therefore the Right of the First-born that is to say the Right of Inheritance and of Succession to their Father's Throne is Theirs And from this Moral Law of Inheritance by Primogeniture it came to pass that not onely the Jews but also all Civilized Nations among the Heathens did prefer their First born (a) Amplissimum verò dignitatis Gradum Primogenitus haereditario jure sibi vendicat c. Epist Indi Japan p. 145. Sons to be their Heirs and particularly the First-born Sons of their Kings to succeed and inherit their Father's Crown and Digities for Common and Natural Reason dictated this to be the First-born's Right And whenever as sometimes it did happen that some aspiring Domestick or Foreigner did attempt to put by the Right Heir from succeeding his Father that then War was immediately Commenced to defend the First-born's just Title to the Crown And it is no be
true and lawfull Prince and so run themselves into a Praemunire 6. This Doctrine of preventing Kings from Reigning and Governing for their want of Grace can be invented by Christians for no other end than to prevent all Passive Obedience unto Kings that shall prove Tyrannical and to avoid going to Heaven in the fiery Chariot of Martyrdom For as * Cum Reges pro falsitate contra veritatem constituunt malas leges probantur coronantur benè credentes Aug. Epist 50. St. Augustine writes there will be no need of dying for Religion if so be wicked and ungodly Kings who want Grace may not be suffered to Reign and by their evil Laws to try Believers faith whether sound or no and in such cases to experiment their fear of God rather than of Man for according to the Apostles there is a time when God is to be obeyed rather than Man and when we are to dye for Christ and for the Faith And that can be Lawfully done onely then when by the Supreme Authority we are commanded either to dye the Death or to deny Christ and his Religion In this case we are to obey the Supreme Magistrate Passively by dying the Death and not Actively by doing what he Commands Because what he Commands is expresly against the known Law and Word of God From which premisses we thus argue scil That if it be as in truth it is a bounden Duty and a noble Vertue in us Christians Passively to obey our Lawfull Princes by humbly and meekly submitting our Necks without all Resistence unto the stroke of that Death which they shall be pleased to lay upon us And if it be as most certainly it is a Sin in this case to Resist Our Princes Then from hence we may rationally conclude That Our Princes though supposed to be never so Wicked and Tyrannical Yet They have a Right to Command us and to Rule and Reign over us and to doe with our Bodies if we offend them what they please Otherwise there can be no such thing as Martyrdom And therefore Temporal Dominion is not founded in Grace SECT II. The Evil Effects and Consequences of this Position That Temporal Dominion is founded in Grace are such as these 1. COnventicles 2. Rebellion 3. A Confirmation of Heathen Kings and Princes in their Infidelity I. Conventicles For from a Belief that the King has not Grace And therefore ought not to Reign From hence is it That the People do not look upon any Laws which the King shall make to be valid or any ways Binding their Consciences especially in matters of Religion and of Church-Government And therefore it is that they declining the established and publick Ordinances of the Realm do run into private and unlawfull Conventicles which they the ignorant deluded people deem to be more Holy than the other Nor do they believe they do in the least sin by Conventicling contrary to the King's Laws The Reason is Because they are of full persuasion That it is no sin to violate and break the Laws and Orders of a King who in their opinion wants Grace And from hence also it is That the People who are not better Catechised and instructed do so frequently leave their own Parish-Churches and run abroad to the great Profanation of the Lord 's holy day either unto Conventicles or unto other Churches And all is Because they fansie that their own Parish Minister wants Grace at least that he is not so Powerfull in his Preaching nor so Holy though he walks by the Rubrick as is their Neighbour Minister Which is a very great errour destructive of all good Order and Conformity in the Church For the Minister's Sacred Office and not his Person obliges the People to a constant Attendance on his Ministery especially as long as he their Minister is Conformable unto the Orders and Canons of the Church both for Doctrine and Manners And if any Parish-Minister be vitious in his Life which is a great Scandal to the Gospel and is a crying sin in a Man that is in Holy Orders yet if any be so then his Ordinary upon complaint and proof ought to punish him And not the People as too oft they do by departing from his Ministery Contrary to Christ's Rule Which Commanded Attendance on the Ministery of the Scribes and Pharisees although they were vitious and wicked And Christ gave this Reason for it scil Because They the Scribes and Pharisees sate in Moses his Chair Mat. 23.3 All therefore says Christ whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and doe But do not ye after their works for they say and doe not II. REBELLION For from a strong Belief of this Position scil That Temporal Dominion is founded in Grace Have sprung most if not all the Seditions and Rebellions made against Christian Princes by either Papists or Fanaticks It is evident by History That the Popes of Rome never sent out their Bulls nor ever stirred up Subjects unto Rebellion against any Secular Princes whatever but onely against such as were by them judged to be Hereticks and void of Grace And therefore not fit to Govern Nor ever was there either King Emperour or any Supreme Magistrate Deposed or Murthered by the Papists But it was upon the account of the said Prince his want of Grace Hence arose the Spanish Invasion against Queen Elizabeth The Gun-powder Plot against King James And the Irish Rebellion against King Charles the First And Oates his Popish Plot against King Charles the Second All arose from a Belief That the aforesaid Princes were Hereticks and void of Grace and therefore had no just Right unto any Temporal Dominion In like manner All the above-mentioned Plots of the Fanaticks took their Rise from this One false Notion scil That Temporal Dominion is founded in Grace And because they were of opinion that the King and Governours were Wicked Tyrannical and void of Grace That therefore they had no Right to Govern But it was Lawfull for the Subjects to depose and destroy them by force of Arms. The Belief of this false Notion made the Fanaticks as was said before to wage War against King Charles the First and at last to Murther him To Banish King Charles the Second and afterward Rebelliously to Fight against him at Worcester This made Venner and his Confederates to draw the Sword against our present most Gratious King under the Notion that he wanted Grace and was an Enemy to King Jesus This made Stephen Colledge at Oxford with his Protestant Flail William Hone and his Conspiratours at Rye-House with their Blunderbusses to Plot the Murther both of our Dread Sovereign the King and of the Illustrious Prince James Duke of York Though one of them to wit Hone thought his Royal Highness to have had some nay more Grace than His Majesty And therefore Hone confessed that at last he was for sparing the Duke but for killing the King Though for ever blessed and praised be Almighty God who wonderfully spared and delivered them both King and Duke from the hands of their bloudy Enemies And we hope and pray that He will ever deliver them And we farther pray that the People may be undeceived and thoroughly convinced of their aforesaid great errour for untill they be convinced the King has no Security from them whether Papists or Fanaticks of either his Crown or his Life For although the King be truly never so Orthodox Vertuous and Pious Yet upon the least failing they will clamour and give out that he is fallen from Grace and therefore ought to be Deposed and no longer to have Dominion over them for according to their Belief Temporal Dominion is founded in Grace III. A Confirmation of Heathen Kings and Princes in their Infidelity For this pernicious Doctrine That Temporal Dominion is founded in Grace Discourages Heathen and Unbelieving Princes from believing in Christ and from embracing Christianity Because if they should become Christians Then they are not sure to hold their Crowns long on their Heads no nor their Heads long on their Shoulders For although they should not renounce Christianity nor turn Heathens again Yet if through natural infirmity or prevalency of temptation or excess of Passion they should become vitious in their lives Or if through contrary persuasion they should not Believe as the Papists and Fanaticks Believe Then they must be adjudged to have no Grace And therefore to have no Right of Dominion over their Subjects But must be Deposed and Dethroned For Temporal Dominion is say they founded onely in Grace FINIS