King and by supposing in the next Paragraph That it was lawfull in a limitted Monarchy But is this the way of arguing against Resistance which not long ago was such a damnable sin especially on the 30th of January I protest to you Dr. should I hear you speak at this tender rate from the Pulpit against Adultery I should think you had a design upon some Ladies in the Congregation and that you intended they should understand by you that you thought it no sin Formerly on the 30th of January Resistance was a most damnable sin and the Doctrine of it Popish Diabolical Doctrine and the sin of the day was the Murder of a King but now it seems Dr. you will not dispute the lawfulness of resisting the King it may be lawfull for any thing you know to the contrary even on the 30th of January the sin of which day now it seems P. 19. lies in the Murder of a Good King who kept the Laws and was a Zealous Patron of the Church of England of a King of such Virtues as are rarely found in meaner Persons nay which would have adorned an Hermet's Cell But had he been a King that had broken the Laws and stretch'd his Prerogative to set up an Ecclesiastical Commission against the Church of England then the killing of him had been no Murder at least no such barbarous Murder But Dr. at this rate of Preaching on the 30th of January Kings and Queens had need take care of themselves for I do not see but they are upon their Behaviour Quam diu bene se gesserint and do not break the Laws but if they do so let them do it at their peril xxix p. 21. For every irregularity in their motions is soon felt and causes very fatal Convulsions in the State or as a much better Subject said by way of Apology for Charles I. There is no time past Judge Jenkins in his Works p. 28. present nor will there be time to come so long as Men manage the Laws but the Laws will be broken more or less So Dr. in your Temple-Sermon to exhort us to pray for Kings you tell us That it is very difficult to govern a Family xxix p. 24 25 26. and that Princes are liable to mistakes like other Men and that they are exposed to misinformations by Court-Flatterers and subject to greater Temptations than other Men But Dr. If it be lawfull to take up Arms against the King in a limitted Monarchy which you were contented to suppose before the House and others of your Brethren plainly assert then God help Kings of such Monarchies xxx p. 23. especially where the Springs and Fountains of Government are poysoned and where the Nation is already divided into Parties both in Church and State Such Kings be they by Providence only or Law and Providence together it matters not they had need look to their hits when their best pretended Friends are willing to suppose it is lawfull to take up Arms against them All your Apologies and Panegyricks upon their Majesties and Exhortations to pray for them can never make them amends for such a supposition and they must indeed stand in need of more and better Prayers than yours if they have no better a Title to the Crown than that of Possession which you have found out for them and that too no longer than they keep the Laws 4. These Dr. to use your own Language are very loose Notions of Government and Obedience and dangerous at such a time as this when so many Malecontents in both Kingdoms complain of the breach of Laws See h. If you will go to Scotland you shall hear two sort of discontented Men clamour loudly against the Government the Jacobite Episcoparians and the Presbyterians the latter are so impudent as to charge King William down right with the breach of the Original Contract and the former complain of torturing Strangers against Law and the Articles of Government of exercising illegal and unheard of Severities upon the complying Clergy worse than Dragooning of abolishing Episcopacy and thereby altering the Constitution of the Government and of the Murder and Massacre of a Laird and his Clan in cold blood after they had laid down their Arms and submitted to the Government And you cannot be ignorant of the Complaints which are made at home by restless and disaffected Spirits of pretended Illegal and Arbitrary Commitments of Men for High Treason and not to mention the Reflections which have been made in and out of Parliament upon Mr. Ashton's Trial you cannot but hear what a din this grumbling and disaffected Faction make of excessive Fines and Bail contrary as they clamour to our English Liberties and the Articles of Government And they bring one Example among others of a poor Boy about thirteen years old who was Arraign'd and Try'd at the Old-Baily and condemned to the Pillory and after he endured this Discipline and many other cruel hardships was Fined at the Court of the Old-Baily above threescore times more than he and his Parents are worth Sir These things considered you should have thundered with your old Zeal and demonstrations against Resistance as a damnable sin and taught Submission and Obedience to their Majesties upon the account of their Office and Character and not purely upon the account of their Virtues as you used to do in former Sermons And let me tell you Dr. that the most effectual way of serving their Majesties in the Pulpit and especially on the 30th of January is to Preach up the unconditional Duty of Subjects to Kings as Kings xxx p. 23. whether they be good or bad This was the Strict Loyalty and Obedience which you tell us was so earnestly pressed on the Consciences of Men before the Revolution and made the People so passive in it But by your favour Dr. not so passive for not to put you in mind of the vast numbers in the West and the North Mrs. Sherlock her self sent in a Man and Horse to the assistance of the Prince of Orange and whether it was with your Connivance or Approbation God and your own Conscience can best tell But however that was this is certain that it is most for the Interest of Princes as well as most becoming Divines to set the King as a King and not as an Hero before the People and to convince their Consciences of the inviolable Duty which results from their relation to him as Subjects independant of his moral Qualities but the other way of Preaching which you have taken up serves only to beget a precarious and doubtful sense of Duty in the People who as your Sermon before the House shews can soon be made to have the worst Opinion of the best of Kings 5. The Sandersons and Hammonds of former times who guarded the Pulpit from all suspicion of Flattery would never have Preached so much in commendation of their Royal Masters as you have Preached in the praise
and Son of Impiety and Injustice Edmund the Great Earl of Kent with some other persons began to Conspire against them Which Q. Isabel who deserves the name of Jesabel perceiving privately encouraged the Keepers of her Husband to murder him but his Son coming to Maturity of Understanding avenged his blood on Mortimer his Mother's Minion and his Accomplices whom the Lords of Parliament with his assent adjudged and condemned to be executed as Traitors for murdering the King after he was deposed The Queen her self also had like to have been questioned and in the Roll 4 Edw. III. which gives an account of this matter he is stiled by all the Lords and the young King himself their King and Leige Lord. And in the 21 R. II. N. 64 65. the Revocation of the Act for the two Spencers Restitution in the Parliament of 1 Edward III. was repealed because made at such a time by King Edw. III. as his Father being very King was Living and Imprisoned These two Acts of Parliament Doctor do not at all agree with your Reasonings for the Providential King but they agree most exactly with the Reasonings of Some Men which you say contradicts the general sense of Mankind For as Mr. Pryn well observes they shew that Edw. II. was King de jure or King in the Eye of the Law as much after his Deposition as before it and by consequence that his Deposition by the Estates who had no Authority to Depose him was a void Act and if he was very King when he was in Prison and his Regnant Son's King and Leige Lord at the time of his murder as the aforesaid Acts declare him then Doctor I fear it will follow that a pure Providential K. in Possession is no King at all 11. But from this Usurpation let us pass to that of Henry IV. who was set up by Providence and the Estates of the Realm who took upon them to depose Richard II. and place Henry in his Throne But Henry being conscious to himself that he wanted Legal Right though he had all the Right that Providence could give him yet not daring to trust to such an airy Tite nor his false pretences of being the right Heir caused Richard to be murdered but between his Deposition and Murder Thomas Merks Bishop of Carlisle a Brave and Godly Prelate preferring his Duty before his Safety took the courage to make a Speech in Parliament against the Validity of Richard's Deposition and the Justice of Henry's Election and if you please Doctor to read this Speech as it is at large in our Historians you will find in spight of all your prejudice that he was a very Wise and Considering Man and entirely of these Mens Opinion and produced those Reasons for it which you say Contradict the general sense of Mankind in all Revolutions The first part of his Speech is to prove that a King may not be deposed by his Subjects for any imputation of negligence and Tyranny and to make this out clearly he brings an ugly Arbitrary distinction betwixt Kings in a Popular or Consular State which really have not Regal Rights but are subject to a Superior Power and Kings in whom the Sovereign Majesty is as it formerly was in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea c. and now is in the Kingdoms of England Spain France and Scotland c. in which the Sovereignty or Supream Authority is in the King After this distinction which Some among us now use he asserts that in such Kingdoms where the Sovereignty is by Law in the King although the Prince for his Vices be unprofitable to his Subjects yea hurtfull yea intollerable yet they cannot lawfully harm his Person or hazard his Power by Judgment or by Force because neither one nor all the Magistrates have any Authority over him from whom all Authority is deriv'd and whose only presence doth silence and suspend all inferior Jurisdictions and Power and as for force saith he what Subject can attempt assist or counsel or conceal Violence against his Prince and not incurr the high and heinous Crime of Treason Then he proceeds to prove this as you do in your Case of Non-resistance from Examples of Saul and Ahab in the Old Testament and many Texts of Scripture Then he proceeds to answer the great Objection thus Doth the King enjoyn Actions contrary to the Law of God We must neither wholly Obey nor violently Resist but with a constant courage submit our selves to all manner of Punishment and shew our subjection by enduring and not performing Oh how shall the World be pestered with Tyrants if Subjects may Rebel upon every pretence of Tyranny How many good Princes may be suppressed by those by whom they ought to be supported If they Levy a Subsidy or other Taxation it shall be claimed Oppression if they put any to Death for Traiterous attempts against their Persons it shall be exclaimed Cruelty if they do any thing against the lust and liking of the People it shall be proclaimed Tyranny Having shew'd as his words are that King Richard was deposed without Authority Then he proceeds to shew that Henry had no Title First Not as Heir to Richard which he pretended for then he ought to stay till King Richard was dead but then if K. Richard was dead it was well known there were Descendents from Lionel Duke of Clarence whose Offspring had been declared in the High Court of Parliament next Successor to the Crown in case K. Richard should die without Issue Secondly Not by Conquest because a Subject can have no right of Conquest against a Sovereign where the War is Rebellion and the Victory High Treason Nor thirdly by K. Richard's Resignation because he made it in Prison where it was exacted of him by force and therefore it had no force or validity to bind him Nor last of all by Election for saith he we have no Custom that the People at pleasure should Elect their King but they are always bound unto him who by Right of Blood is Rightfull Successor much less can they make good or confirm that Title which is before Usurped by violence Then he saith that the deposing of Edw. II. which the Barons produced for an Example to depose Richard was no more to be urged than the Poisoning of K. John or the Murdering any other lawful Prince and that we must live according to Laws and not according to Example and that the Kingdom however then was not taken from the lawfull Successor Then after saying many other things he concludes thus I have declared my mind concerning this Question in more words than your Wisdom yet fewer than the weight of the Cause requires and boldly conclude that we have neither Power nor Policy either to depose King Richard or to Elect Duke Henry into his Place and that K. Richard still remaineth our Sovereign Prince and that it is not lawfull for us to give Judgment upon him and that the Duke whom you call King
hath observed * b. p. 48. That you acknowledge St. Chrysostom to be of their Opinion and he hath cited St. Basil against you for saying expresly That the Higher Powers mention'd by the Apostle were such as attain to the Government by Humane Laws I hope Doctor you will grant that these two Fathers were sober and considering Men who understood the general sense of Mankind and according to this sense in which they understood the Apostle that Author goes on to shew that it was the constant practice of the Primitive Christians to side with that Emperor who had the Legal Title And to their practice I will add the Testimony of the Emperor Justinian in his Letters to * Procop. Caes de Bello Vandalico l. 1. c. 7 8. Gelimer King de Facto of the Kingdom of the Vandals in Affrica who deposed his Cousin Hildericus between whom and Justinian there was always great Friendship But to make you understand the Emperor's Letter to this Usurper the better I must acquaint you Doctor that Gizericus the Founder of that Monarchy who reigned Thirty Nine years settled the Succession in his Posterity upon the Male Descendents according to Seniority so that he should always come to the Crown who was the Eldest among them and accordingly the Crown had peaceably descended for four Successions to Hildericus whom Gelimer depos'd and shut up in Prison with his Brother's two Sons who were faithful to their Uncle As soon as Justinian heard of it he wrote to him to this effect Thou hast acted Gelimer against Right and Duty and contrary to the Testament of Gizericus in Imprisoning an Old Man and thy Kinsman and the King of the Vandals if the Establishment of Gizericus be valid and deposing him by force from the Government to which thou mightest have lawfully succeeded Do not persit in thy Wickedness nor prefer the Name of a Tyrant before the Title of a King which a little time would give thee but let the Old Man who cannot live long enjoy the Royal Power and Dignity and do thou Administer under him and be content to wait a little while till thou mayest take upon thee the Title of King acording to the Law of Gizericus by doing this thou wilt please God and oblige me This Letter having no effect upon the Usurper he wrote again to this purpose I wrote my former Letter to thee hoping thou wouldst not persist to act contrary to my Advice but since thou art resolved to keep Possession of the Kingdom as thou hast acquired it take what will follow thereupon only send unto us Hildericus and Hoemer whose Eyes thou hast put out with his Brother Evagees that they may receive such Consolation from us the one for the loss of his Kingdom and the other for the loss of his sight as Men in their Condition are capable of It is in your power to do this if you do it quickly otherwise the confidence they have in Us will oblige Us speedily to help them nor will it be any infraction of the Peace which our Predecessors made with Gizericus for I shall not make War with one that is his Successor but avenge the injuries thou hast done But Gelimer was too Ambitious to make restitution and therefore Justinian sent his great General Balsarius to make War upon him in behalf of Hildericus the lawfull King but the first thing that Gelimer did after the Landing of Belisarius was to Murder Hildericus but God avenged his blood upon the Usurper whom Belisarius after some years War brought Captive to Constantinople where he cried out on the way as he was led to the Emperor Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity To this Testimony of a Christian Emperor I shall add another of a famous Heathen Prince Lycurgus King of Sparta who though he came lawfully to the Possession of the Crown yet refused to keep it longer than he was allow'd by Law as appears by the following Story which you may find in his Life written by Plutarch in the following words This Confusion and Disorder continued a long time in Sparta which occasion'd the death of the King the Father of Lycurgus for as he was endeavouring to quell a Riot in which the Parties were a fighting he was stab'd with a Cook 's Knife and left the Kingdom to his Eldest Son Polydectes but he too dying soon after the Right of Succession as all Men judged rested in Lycurgus and he Reigned untill it was perceived that the Queen his Sister in Law was with Child But as soon as this appear'd he declared that the Kingdom belonged to her Issue if it proved a Male and that he would administer the Government only as his Guardian and Regent Soon after a private offer was made him by the Queen that she would make her self miscarry upon condition he would Marry her when he was sure of the Crown He hated the Woman for this wicked Proposal yet wisely smothering his resentment he did not speak astainst it but seem'd to approve and accept it but diswaded her earnestly from making her self miscarry because it might endanger her Health or her Life assuring her that himself would take care that the Child as soon as it was born should be taken out of the way Thus having drawn on the Queen to the time of her Labour as soon as he heard she was in Travail he sent some to be present and observe the Birth with order that if it were a Girl they should deliver it to the Women but if a Boy they should bring it to him whatsoever he he happened to be a doing It happened that the Queen was delivered of a Boy while he was at Supper with the principal Magistrates and his Servants brought the Boy to him as he was at Table and he taking him into his Arms said to those about him Behold my Lords of Sparta here is your King and having said this he laid him down upon the Chair of State and named him Charilaus that is The Joy of the People because they were so much transported with Joy at the Birth of the young Prince and with Admiration at the Noble Mind and Justice of Lycurgus who I fear Doctor will rise up in Judgment against you and condemn you and your unrighteous Doctrine For though he had Providence on his side as much as ever Prince had yet he did not think the Providence of the Gods could give him a Right against the Laws of Nature and Sparta And therefore he became a Subject of a Sovereign and of a King a Regent because he could not justly wear a Crown which by the Law of his Countrey became another's and ceased to be his And to pass over other Kingdoms I will proceed to shew that there have been many Wise and Brave Men of that Opinion in our own I will begin with the Reign of Stephen who as Hoveden saith Invaded the Crown of England like a Tempest so that all the Nation was forced to
hath more offended against the King and the Realm than the King hath done against him or us Thus Sir spoke that Heroick Prelate in the Court of Parliament and his practice was answerable to what he spoke For he chose not the safer but the juster side as all good Men ought to do He knew while he spoke that Bonds and Persecutions would attend him nevertheless he spoke freely and after speaking was committed to Prison and after that was crushed with many other brave Men by the Usurper against whom they rose up Afterwards about the sixth year of his Reign Rich. Scroop A. B. of York with the L. Maubray Marshal of England H. Piercy E. of Northumberland L. Bardolf and * As I suppose the Earls of Salisbury Huntington Glocester the Lords Clarenden Roper with divers other Knights and Esquires and after that the Lord Thomas Piercy Earl of Worcester and Lord Henry Piercy Son and Heir to the Earl of Northumberland many others published an Excommunication and †In the first Volume of Fox's Acts and Monuments in the Reign of H. IV. Remonstrance consisting of several Articles against Henry which they fixed upon the doors of Churches and Monasteries to be read of all It begins thus IN THE NAME OF GOD Amen Before the Lord Jesus Christ Judge of the quick and the dead We not long since became bound by Oath upon the Sacred Evangelical Book unto our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England that we as long as we lived should bear true Allegiance and Fidelity towards him and his Heirs succeeding him in the Kingdom by just Title Right and Line according to the Statutes and custom of this Realm have here taken unto us certain Articles subscribed in form following to be proponed heard and tried before the just Judge Christ Jesus and the whole World but if which God forbid by Force Fear or Violence of wicked Persons we shall be cast in Prison or by violent death be prevented so as in this World we shall not be able to prove the said Articles as we wish then we do appeal to the High Coelestial Judge that he may judge and discern the same in the day of his Supream Judgment First We depose say and except and intend to prove against Lord Henry Darby commonly called King of England himself pretending the same but without all Right and Title thereunto and against his Adherents Fautors Complices that they have ever been are and will be Traitors Invaders and destroyers of God's Church and of our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England his Heirs his Kingdom and Commonwealth as shall hereafter manifestly appear In the second Article they declare him forsworn perjured and excommunicate for that he conspired against his Sovereign Lord King Richard In the fourth they recite by what wrong illegal and false means he exalted himself into the Throne of the Kingdom and then describing the miserable State of the Nation which followed after his Usurpation they again pronounce him Perjured and Excommunicate In the fifth Article they set forth in what a barbarous and inhumane manner Henry and his Accomplices imprisoned and murdered K. Richard and then cry out Wherefore O England arise stand up and avenge the Cause the Death and Injury of thy King and Prince if thou do not take this for certain that the Righteous God will destroy thee by strange Invasions and Forreign Power and avenge himself on thee for this so horrible an Act. In the seventh they depose against him for putting to death not only Lords Spiritual and other Religious Men but also divers of the Lords Temporal there Named for which they pronounce him Excommunicate In the ninth they say and depose that the Realm of England never flourished nor prospered after he Tyrannically took upon him the Government of it And in the last they depose and protest for themselves and K. Richard and his Heirs the Clergy Commonwealth of the whole Realm that they intended neither in Word nor Deed to offend any State of Men in the Realm but to prevent the approaching Destruction of it and beseeching all Men to favour them and their Designs whereof the first was to exalt to the Kingdom the true and lawfull Heir and him to Crown in Kingly Throne with the Diadem of England Upon publishing these Articles much people resorted to the Archbishop but he being circumvented by the Earl of Westmoreland who pretended to join with him dismissed his Forces at his persuasion upon which he was immediately made Prisoner and beheaded at York with the Earl Marshal and divers York shire Gentlemen and Citizens of York who had joined with him The Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolph escaped and held out two years longer before they were crushed by the Usurper but at last they were both slain Fighting in the Field against him You see Doctor in this Remonstrance how the Archbishop and Lords that joined with him contrary to the general sense of Mankind unking'd this Providential King for want of a Legal Title and Remonstrated against him as a Perjured Traytor and Vsurper and when he lay upon his Death-bed he himself also began to be of their Opinion contrary to the general sense of Mankind when his guilty Conscience forced him to tell his Son That he had no good Title to the Crown but he not inferior to his Father in Ambition snatched it from his Pillow and plainly told him That as he had got it by the Sword so by the Sword he would keep it And in truth Doctor your Title by Providence against Law is Sword Title and your Providential Kings sword-Sword-Kings for in all Kingdoms the Sword is King where their lawfull Prince is not the Sword or Supream Force Rules all and that Supream Crushing Force which by God's permission gets and keeps possession makes your Providential Kings 12. I have hitherto shewed you what Opinion many Wise and Considering Men had of Henry IV. and his Reign for want of Legal Right and Title And I now proceed to shew the sense that a whole Parliament had of him and of his Son and Grand-Son's Succession the latter sitting in the Throne This appears from Roll. Parl. 39 Henry VI. as it is in Cotton's Abridgement or rather from the Record at large as it is to be seen as it was lately printed in an Answer by a skillful and faithful hand to The unreasonableness of the new Separation upon account of the Oaths This Roll gives an account how Richard Duke of York Father of Edward IV. brought to the Parliament Chamber in writing not a Petition but a Claim to the Crown of which Henry had been long fully and quietly possessed and his Title which was only Succession by Birth-right being fully made appear it was the Opinion of all the Lords that it could not be defeated That single Title by Proximity of Blood was thought sufficient to supersede all the patch'd Titles of Henry and all that could be said in
Bishop aaa Chronology about Jaddus from him and he 'll help you out in both alike And in the mean time Doctor take this with you That your pure Providential King in Policy are no better than counterfeit Medals in Antiquity or Bristol-stones among Diamonds they shew and glister like Kings but are not Kings but Usurpers And the distinction between them and Kings by the help of the Word lawful or unlawful is as real and natural as that of the Nummists between real and forged Medals or that of the Jewellers between true and false Diamonds or that of all the World between true and counterfeit Silver and Gold It is the Appearance of Things without Reality that is the Ground of this distinction and to discover real from apparent true from false and right from wrong in the moral and natural World makes these distinctions useful that otherwise would be useless and when Authors do not use them in speaking of Things they are supposed to speak of real true and right things of every kind and not of things of another Nature that for some shew likeness or false Pretensions are called by their Names You think you speak finely when you say it is matter of Sense to know who is King because a Man may see who administers the Government by Regal Authority But if it be matter of Sense Doctor how came you to lose your Senses so long And what made you so blind that you could not see it when other Men did This shews Doctor that it is not matter of Sense but of Reason for Sense can onely perceive the supream external Force that is administred in any Kingdom but to discern the Right or Authority to exercise the supreme Force of Power which makes a King is the work of Reason because Authority is a moral Quality as hath been * c. ch 20. excellently proved to you of which Reason and Conscience is Judge O but then say you it must be a matter of Wit p. 18. or Law or Philosophy to know who is King It is so Doctor but of no more Wit Law and Philosophy than every common Understanding hath and no more than is needful to know who is Husband Entituled The Resurrection of Loyalty and Obedience out of the Grave of Rebellion by the sacred Force of the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance Printed for Will. Shears in Bedford street near Covent-Garden at the blue Bible and inscribed to Gen. Monk or Master of any Family or Parson of any Parish or Mayor of any Corporation The World knows saith an excellent little Book who it is that the Law and Custome of this Nation states to be the Heir and Successor of the King even the eldest Son of the Predecessor In truth Doctor there is no difficulty in it there is not a Countrey Fellow in any Kingdom but knows by what Title the Crown is held and in an hereditary Kingdom there is no great need of Wit or Law or Philosophy to know the Royal Family and the next Heir in it But you have had enough of this in your learned Answerers and none but a Man that is desperate and past blushing would preach the same Stuff again P. 19. especially before such an Audience when he knew he could not defend what he said But you tell us you will not dispute the Matter and the Reason is plain because you cannot dispute it though you are one of the Disputers of this World your Adversaries having put the Controversie beyond all reasonable Dispute But if you will not dispute it why should you meddle any more with it Or is it because you are a great Man and a great Rabbi that ought not to dispute with such little Writers 14. Well but though you will not dispute them yet you 'l vouchsafe to chatechise them Ibid. and ask them some hard Questions about Certainty And before I answer for them I must beg leave Doctor tho' of late you do not love distinctions to distinguish about Certainty and I hope it is no arbitrary distinction that hath no Foundation in Reason and Nature Certainty then Doctor is of two sorts absolute of which no doubt can possibly be made and against which there lies no Objection or such which though it be not free from all doubts and Objections yet it is such as the nature of the Thing will bear and such as command a firm assent of the Mind without doubting of the truth of what it believes The first is a Mathematical or Metaphysical Certainty and with this absolute mathematical and metaphysical Certainty you and I and all the World are sure that two and two make four and that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time The second is moral Certainty which results from Reasons on one side in every Matter and Question that visibly preponderate the Reasons on the other and so commands the Assent of a Man's Understanding that he hath either no doubt or very weak ones of the truth of the thing which he believes This indeed is a sort of Certainty inferior to the other but yet such a one as you and I and all Men have of most of the things of which we are certain as that there was such a Man as Moses and upon this sort of Certainty and no other we make no doubt of venturing our Lives and Estates in this World and our Souls in the next I presume Doctor you will allow this for a good distinction and if you do then with submission I must ask you Which Certainty do you mean in the Questions you have put to these Men. I dare say you do not mean the former for some ill Consequences I need not mention but if the latter then Dr. for once permit one of the little Writers to shew you the Folly and Vanity of this way of arguing in Questions about Certainty from a few Questions of the same Nature Are you certain then that your Text is the Words of St. Paul or that they were written by divine Inspiration Are you certain that there are there Persons in the holy Trinity That there is such a Continent as America Or to jest and argue together are you certain that your Priests Orders are valid that your Marriage with your incomparable Lady was lawfull or that your Children are your own The answering these Questions Dr. will help to convince you to what little purpose you put so many of the same nature about Certainty however I will answer them in order To the first then they say that they are as certain that by all Powers Rom. 13.1 the Apostle only means such as have legal Right and Title to Power as they are that he expresly teaches that all Power is of God But 2. They also say that tho' they were not so certain which is not necessary yet they are so certain of it as that they make no doubt of it and venture their All here and hereafter upon the truth
favour of him from the Oath of Allegiance which the People had made to him from divers Acts of Parliament whose Authority was laid against his Title from the Entail of the Crown made by the Parliament upon his Father and his Heir and lastly from his Grandfather's Claim to the Crown as right Inheretor from Henry III. which Richard proved to be false And here Doctor I cannot but observe unto you that among all the Pleas which Henry and his Counsellors made use of to defeat Richard's Title they never thought of your Divine Title from Providence being so infatuated as not to attend to the General Sense of Mankind Wherefore Doctor either your Principles of Government are not the general Sense of Mankind or this Providential King with his Privy-Council and Great Council in Parliament were all bewitch'd that they could not think of them to stop the Duke of York's Mouth He advised with the greatest Divines and with the greatest Men both among the Common and Civil Lawyers and yet not one of them suggested the Title of Providence or full Providential Possession but had they hit upon it and urged it Richard would have answered them as he did to their Plea taken from their Oaths viz. that God's Commandments which prefer Right and Truth and Justice and not the Events of Providence are the Rule for them to walk by and that all Acts of the Estates against Law Truth and Justice are void and of no effect The same is as true of all Possession against Law Truth and Justice let it come by never such amazing Providences and therefore Doctor either your Notion of Providential Right is not agreeable to the general sense of Mankind or else Henry and his whole Council were out of their Wits and common Senses not to perceive it but in truth Doctor it became the general Sense of Mankind only since the Victory of the Boyn made it become yours From this Judgment of the Parliament 39 Hen. VI. I send you to the Judgment of another 1 Edward IV. which after reciting the Lineal Title of Edward Son of Richard Duke of York from Lionel Duke of Clarence and declaring how Henry Darby did rear War against Richard II. contrary to his Faith and Allegiance 2dly That he took upon him Usurpously the Crown and Name of King King Richard being in Prison and living 3dly That against God's Law Man's Legiance and Oath of Fidelity and in a most unnatural Tyranny he put him to Death They then declare That Edward rightfully amoved Henry VI. from his Occupation Intrusion and Vsurpation of the Realm and that he and no other ought to be their Lord and Sovereign by God's Law Man's Law and the Law of Nature and that Henry Darby called K. Hen. IV. his Son called K. Hen. V. and his Son called K. Henry VI. had against all Law Conscience and Custom of the Realm usurped the Crown and exercised the Government by unrighteous Intrusion and Vsurpation and if they did so then they had no Providential Divine Right I must also observe unto you that it was in this King's Reign that the distinction between the K. de facto to signifie the Usurper and the K. de jure to signifie the true legal K. was first used in Parliament and I appeal to your own Conscience if it be not yet feared whether that be an Arbitrary distinction and to be * XXIX p. 17 20. rejected as having no solid Foundation in Reason and Nature I will maintain that it hath as much Foundation in Reason and Nature as that famous distinction in the Civil Law betwixt Malae fidei and Bonae fidei Possessor But if your Reasons about Providential Right be true then this distinction also must be Arbitrary as to Possession of Kingdoms because no Man in full Possession can be Malae fidei Possessor of a Crown To these Authorities let me add those of the generality of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy of the late Usurpations They used the same distinction of Powers which you call Arbitrary the same reasoning which you call uncertain and were of the same Opinion which you say contradicts the general Sense of Mankind Dr. Sanderson whose Authority will be venerable and much greater than yours * Praelect V. is for that unchangeable Allegiance to the Legal K. out of Possession which you most prophanely call Stupid and Slavish Allegiance and in his Censure of Ashcham as one of your learned Answerers hath observed charges your Opinion with the these immoral Consequences 1. That it evidently tends to the taking away of all Christian Fortitude and Suffering 2. To the encouraging of daring and ambitious Spirits to attempt continual Innovations with this confidence that if they can possess themselves of the Supream-Power they ought to be submitted to 3. To the obstructing unto the Oppressed Party all possible means without a Miracle of recovering his just Right of which he shall have been illegally and unjustly dispossessed And lastly to the bringing in of Atheism and the contempt of God and Religion The Bishop of St. Asaph was very sensible of this last Consequence since he took the Oath for he told the A. B. with great Gravity and Seriousness That he could not but admire the Providence of God that so many took the Oath and some among whom saith he there are great and considerable Men have refused to take it for we saith he to my Lord who have taken the Oath have preserved our Religion from Popery and you who stand out preserve it from Atheism and if they do Doctor as you also once thought then their Opinion cannot contradict the general Sense that Mankind have of Right and Wrong I am sure the old Caviliers had the very same Sense that these Men to their sorrow have now for they both called Charles II. King and thought him to be so tho' he was out of Possession and out of the Land too Nay they took Commissions from him as King of England and sought for him as their King and not to make him so as you Sophistically speak in your * p. 27. first Letter concerning the French Invasion Nay the Convention that call'd him home call'd him in as King not to make him so and dated their first Session in the Twelfth year of his Reign which according to your Principles and Reasonings was but the First Mr. Pryn was one of the Members of it and his Sense and Opinion was point blank against yours as you may find at large in his * p. 463. to 498. Plea for the Lords and his Concordia Discors and I cite him because it was his studied Opinion and the Practice of his latter years was according to it as appears also from a Paragraph or two in his Preface to Cotton's Abridgment which I here declare I produce against no Person nor no Authority but yours That all Parliaments and Ambitious Self-seekers in them who under pretence of a Publick Reformation Liberty the Peoples