should be certainly true And every good man yea every reasonable man may have as great confidence that no such Case will really happen as can be had concerning the future state and condition of any thing in this world For which he there gives many Reasons to which I refer the Reader and proceed P. 80. In this case says our Author all Protestants cannot flie and many may be perswaded not to flie And men are taught that the Gospel doth prescribe no other remedy but slight allowing no other means between denying and dying for the Faith It is certain this is the special remedy prescribed by our Saviour though there be other means which may be as effectual as this Prayers and Tears and Fasting and Humiliation have done mighty wonders When God by Joel cap. 22. threatned his People with an Enemie great and strong there hath not been ever the like neither ever shall be even to the years of many Generations the chief means prescribed by God himself you may see was this vers 12. Therefore now saith the Lord turn ye unto me with all your heart and with fasting weeping and mourning who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him And vers 17. Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thy Heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them Wherefore should they say among the heathen Where is their God Then will the Lord be jealous over his Land and spare his people I hope our Author will not deride such Lachrymists if he do Solomon tells him who will laugh at him when calamitie comes on him Prov. 1. Again Supplications and Petitions to our Kings may have the desired success for hitherto the Kings of England have been merciful Kings nor have any of them taken delight in shedding bloud or designed the general ruine of their people their own interest being bound up in theirs Magnanimo satis est prosâ—…asse Besides it is the duty of the Chief Clergie to reprove them with meekness and lowliness to mind them of a Superiour Potentate who will judge all men without respect of persons which is excellently done by Gregory Orat. 17. You govern together with Christ and reign with him you are the Image of God and should imitate him in shewing mercie and not the Devil in exercising crueltie but should remember that he hath a Master in Heaven who will so judge him as he doth the people committed to his charge That whole Oration is worthy your perusal When Theodosius had made a great slaughter among the Thessalonians to the number of seven thousand and coming afterward to the Church St. Ambrose shuts the doors against him and minds him of his Cruelty and tells him That from dust he came and to dust he shall return Let not therefore the brightness of thy clothes hide from thee the weakness of thy flesh that is under them Thy subjects are of the same metal with thee and serve the same Lord wilt thou with those hands which yet drop with the bloud of Innocents receive the bodie of the Lord Depart and refuse not this sentence which the Lord doth ratifie in Heaven This wrought so with him that he repented and with much ado obtained Absolution The Church of Liege wrote an Epistle to Pope Paschal when he perswaded Robert Earl of Flanders to rebel against the Emperour and invade his Dominions wherein they told the Pope That Princes must be admonished and reproved gently and if they will not amend are to be left to the just judgment of God Omne sub Regno graviore Regnum Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis To the Assertion of an unnamed Doctor That the Gospel prescribes no other remedy but flight against the Persecutions of a lawful Magistrate our Author answers p. 80. It is one thing what the Gospel prescribes what it allows another As if the Gospel did allow any thing contrary to its Precepts This is that the Author would be at for none ever questioned but things in their nature indifferent and expedient are allowed by the Gospel without an express command But that which this Author contends for is Resistance of a lawful power in case of persecution which is against many express Precepts of the Gospel The Gnosticks held it lawful for the avoiding of persecution to deny Christ and to comply with either Jews or Gentiles And to resist the Ordinance of God rather than to suffer persecution will be interpreted a denial and betraying of our Religion i. e. of Christ himself An Argument of so low a Spirit as falls beneath the courage of a Heathen or the hearty professors of any Religion Seneca says of his wise man Placebit ei ignis per quem bona fides collucebit That he will embrace the Fire rather than betray his Faith And the Stoick says Tormenta à me abesse velim sed si sustinenda fuerint ut me in illis fortiter animosè honestè geram optabo How is the valour of a Souldier known but by following his Commander with a generous contempt of death and shall the Christian Souldier that hath so good a Captain be the onely coward and follow his Master at a distance and utterly forsake him when any Conflict is at hand When therefore he demands by what Law we must die I answer By the Law of God rather than resist a lawful Power we must submit to the Will of God and our Saviour who have promised that he that loseth his life shall preserve it Luke 17.33 and if we suffer we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.12 And herein Christ himself hath given us an example 1 Pet. 2.21 that we should walk in his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth yet when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously And to such a Passive Obedience we are called saith the Apostle And it is not our calling onely but an act of Grace and good will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given to us as to believe in Christ so to suffer for Christs sake Phil. 1.29 which they that refuse to do are said to deny Christ So that there is little difference between resisting the Command and Ordinance of Christ and denying him the sin is the same and the punishment also which St. Paul says is Damnation P. 82. As for the Kings Prerogative I dare not be so bold with that as you are the Disputes between that and Priviledge have cost us dear already if it were as well known as other parts of the Law are you would not make so bold with it though you set light by some other Laws But even other parts of the Law which are very well known and approved are yet disobeyed despised and opposed as well as the Kings Prerogative and
whose Authoritie alone the Laws are executed for it is he that beareth the Sword And Plutarch says of him that he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely govern according to the Laws but hath a power above them He hath so indeed for the good of his Subjects to whom the rigorous execution of the Laws in many cases would be an insupportable burden if by the Kings Authoritie they might not be moderated and interpreted by Rules of Equitie against which our Dissenters have the least reason of any men alive to object And if we grant him this power for our good how can we deny it to him for his own That Learned Casuist Bishop Sanderson whose modesty in other Resolutions is eminent in resolving this Question Whether it be lawful for the Prince in cases extraordinary to do any thing besides or against Law undertakes to prove the Affirmative with an extraordinary confidence and which is more to prove it by that abused Maxime which some would invert against the King Salus Populi Suprema Lex That the Peoples Safetie is the highest Law And if I prove not this as your selves shall confess from that very Maxime saith he then say that I cannot see at noon-day and censure me to have been not a Defender of this good Cause but a Betrayer and Praevaricator Which thus he doth First he tells us the Original of that Sentence viz. from Cicero de Legibus in these words l. 3. Regio Imperio duo sunto iique praeeundo judicando consulendo Praetores Judices Consules appellantur Militiae Summum Jus habento nemini parento Ollis Salus Populi Suprema Lex esto Now to whom doth this power belong to them says the very Letter of those Laws to whom the Imperial power was committed that is to the two Consuls for the time being Come now says the Bishop all you that are the Patrons of Popular confidence read weigh and examine every Word Syllable and Comma and shew where you can find the least hint of any power granted to Subjects against their Princes will either to judge concerning the safety of the people or to determine and do any thing against the Laws Doth not the whole series both of Things and Words loudly proclaim that the Supream Authoritie which is above all Law and that the care of the Publick safetie properly belongs to him alone to whom the Imperial power the right of the Militia and that Supream Authoritie which is subject to none is granted When the Law commands one thing says Aeneas Sylvius de Ortu Imperii c. 20. and Equity another it is fit the Emperour should temper the rigour of the Law with the bridle of Equity Seeing no Decree of the Law though made by never so deliberate advice can sufficiently answer the various and unthought-of plottings of mans nature and it is manifest that the Laws which aforetime were just in after-times may prove unjust harsh and unprofitable to moderate which it is needful that the Prince who is Lord of the Laws interpose his Authority And where it is said that a Law though it be severe should be observed this respects inseriour Magistrates not the Emperour to whom the power of moderating the Laws is so connexed that by no decrees of man it can be pull'd from him Bishop Sanderson gives a pertinent instance to this purpose in his Book de Oblig Consc p. 384. That when upon discovery of the Gunpowder-plot the Traitors fled some of them were pursued by the High Sheriff of Worcester-shire who having hunted them from place to place came to the Confines of his Countie beyond which he was not to pass with his Souldiers by the Law yet fearing that they might otherwise escape he pursues them into another County takes them and brings them Prisoners Yet knowing he had transgressed the Law and lest others in matters of less moment should be encouraged to do the like or himself be exposed to future trouble he presently goes to the King and obtains his Pardon What excellent Chymists were they who out of those golden Laws should draw out so many Swords and Axes against their Soveraign and Fellow-subjects on such a vile pretence And is not our young Empyrick neer of kin to them who by his Mountebank-Receipts would poyson the People with a conceit that they may by the Laws arm themselves against the King if they shall judge that he doth transgress those Laws that then he is no longer a Minister of God but of the Devil and may be persecuted as a Midnight-Thief or Highway-Robber or in the words of Gregory as a common Cut-throat pag. 25. And that he is hardly to be blamed who shews himself so courageous for God and for that Religion which he approves as to assassinate his Prince To conclude it is the judgement both of Divines Civilians and States-men that there must be in Kings and Governours a Supream Power to mitigate the rigour of the Laws and to suspend the execution of them to pardon some Delinquents and in case of necessity to provide for the safety of the People besides and against the Laws and that to arm the People and teach them on pretence of the Law to resist their Prince is a pernicious Tenet destructive to Government It is Criminal saith Mr. Hunt p. 41. and no less dangerous to the being of any Polity to restrain the Legislative Authority and to entertain principles that disable it to provide remedy against the greatest mischiefs that can happen to any Community No Government can support it self without an unlimited Power in providing for the happiness of the people No civil Establishment but is controlable and alterable to the Publick Weal Whatever is not of Divine Institution ought to yield and submit to this Power and Authority And this is all that I or any of my Brethren that I know of ever intended to say of the extent of the Kings Power That such distempers as are incurable by common and prescribed Remedies such as the Kings Evil usually is must have extraordinary applications such as the Kings hand and none but his may successfully administer Nor doth any among us plead that the King is above the Directive power of the Laws but onely that he is not under the Coercive power of them For which cause Antonie would not permit that Herod should be called to an account of what he did as a King for then he should in effect be no King at all for what power can judge him who is the Supreme power on Earth The Emperour saith Tertull. is solo Deo minor inferiour to God onely and under the power of God onely In cujus solius potestate sunt à quo sunt secundi post quem primi And St. Ambrose spreaking of David applieth it to other Kings He was a King and obnoxious to no humane Laws because Kings are free from punishment for their offences being secured by the power of their Empire If the People have power to
endure wicked Princes as we do Inundations or Scarcitie which are of Gods sending These you say p. 20. are full and pregnant proofs and I think ad hominem cogent for if as you observe from Eusebius the Empire was to descend as other Paternal Inheritances then it must be more unlawful to resist or exclude a Prince from enjoying his Inheritance than any private person And then surely no sound Christian could have joyned in an Address to Constantius to exclude a person appointed as it were by the Voice of God as you say of Constantine that he was declared absolute Emperour by the 〈◊〉 and long before that by God himself the great King of all p. 21. And St. Augustine says the same viz. God that gave the Empire to Constantine gave it to Julian Onely by the way I do not think that your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither will in the sence of the Greek Fathers bear your interpretation of the Law of Nature for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used by Greek Authors for Custom And I believe that Father whom you mention intended no more than a Right of Succession for two or three Generations which carried the name of a Law as it doth also in our Common Law where Consuetudo Lex est And it is well known that when the Heirs of the Emperors have been living the Roman Souldiers have created their Emperours out of Obscure Families but these are no Patterns for us Christians to follow nor for us in this Nation above others For William the Conqueror claimed the Crown not so much by his Sword as by Right of Succession if you will believe the Author of that Fanatical book called The Rights of the Kingdom to King Edward whose Kinsman he was and his Heir by Will as appears by the Laws of St. Edward and William p. 197. So that in this respect the Descent of the Crown of England is much more firm and established than that of the Empire having been continued through more Generations and confirmed by many Laws which whoever shall infringe takes off the Government from its Hinges and leaves all to Confusion For when a private Estate is intailed on a man and his Heirs it is necessary that to bar the Heir and alienate the Estate the original Intail must be cut off and then he that is in possession may dispose of the Inheritance to one or more And perhaps this was the intent of the Bill for Exclusion to make it an Act for the Dissolution of Monarchy and reduce us to a Commonwealth again And it were better we should suffer some Inconveniencies if the Will of God be so which yet are uncertain than against the Will of God to do things unjust and draw more certain troubles on our own heads For in the Contest between the Houses of York and Lancaster when the first alway pleaded the Right of Descent the other alleadged the Acts of Parliaments there were infinite troubles which cost the lives of above 200000 men whereof eight were Kings and Princes forty Dukes Marquesses and Earls besides Barons and Gentlemen and after all the Kingdom fixed on this Maxime Jus Sanguinis nullo Jure dirimi possit i. e. The Right of Bloud cannot be abrogated by any Law And the Author of the Rights of the Kingdom says that in the days of Henry the Third and Richard the First when was a motion of some great men that a Bastard might inherit the Parliament at Merton cried out Nolumus leges Angliae mutare p. 264. Therefore I wonder that the same Author p. 98. making a Supposition That if any one man of all the Commons in Parliament should usurp the Crown with all its dues He mentions not the whole House for that hath been done already What should I what may I do saith he and answers Nothing but mind my Calling and attend the Judgment of the highest Court that I know that may command my Body and Judgement much It is a Maxime in our Law That the King never dies The King and his Heirs are looked on in the eye of the Law as an Individual and to prevent Tumults and Disputes they are joyned in most of those Acts that concern the Dignity of the Crown and publick Peace and the Son hath sometime been Crowned in his Fathers life-time Yet we plead not Providence in the long continuance of the Succession nor the Law of the Land upon which for other matters you lay the stress of your whole Discourse but upon the Law of God Deut. 17.8 where it was ordained as a Statute of Judgment i. e. say Fagius and Munster a firm and immutable Law and as the Vulgar Sanctum Lege perpetua That IF A MAN DYE WITHOVT CHILDREN THE INHERITANCE MVST BE GIVEN TO HIS BRETHREN And Ainsworth from Solomon Jarchi says The Brother of him that was dead or his Brothers seed shall inherit All this hath been observed by the Law of Nations where Kingdoms are hereditary That as it is unjust so it hath been always unhappie to alter the Succession and even in private estates the disinheriting the right Heir hath been very much condemned and unfortunate And yet p. 22. you say the Fathers had the Conscience to set aside such a Title They could not do it with a good Conscience the thing being in it self evil for as the Law of God forbids to countenance a poor man in his Cause so doth it also to defraud the rich or follow a multitude to do evil neither to speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment None of us would judge it reasonable to be deprived of his right contrary to Law and why then should we think it lawful to deprive another of that right to which we owe the preservation of our own Athenagoras more clearly shews what was the consent of the Fathers in this case We pray for your Empire and that the Son as it is just may succeed in his Fathers Throne And yet they both were Pagans But what would the Consent of Fathers and the sense of the primitive Christians signifie against the Decree and Laws of Heaven who cannot more plainly declare his will to us than by the voice of Nature by his written Word by pointing out as by his finger in his Providence in making Heirs to Kingdoms as well as other Estates by a long and legal discent and as St. Augustine said God that gave the Empire to good Constantine gave it also to Julian So Tertullian Inde est Imperator unde Homo antequam Imperator And Irenoeus By whose command they were born Men by his they are ordained Kings And yet all this Crack of the Fathers and Primitive Christians and p. 31. the whole Christian world produceth nothing but a flash of Rhetorick from an Invective in Gregory Nazianzen against Julian from which if we appeal to the same Author in a more temperate and Christian Zeal when he delivered himself
are and not else Now I humbly conceive seeing the Writ De Haeretico comburendo is taken away in time and the Laws protect us in our Religion it is a needless thing to go to Smithfield and there be burnt for an Heretick It is better if it pleased God that we should die as Hereticks if with St. Paul we truly worship God in a way that is so called than to go to Tyburn and be hanged as Traitors and Regicides For though that Law be taken away yet the Law of God stands firm which enjoyns us to submit our selves not onely for fear but for Conscience sake and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter in the case of our submission for Conscience sake as well as for fear of wrath is determined by St. Paul with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye must needs be subject P. 77. And so far it is fit to inform the Popish Crew lest they should be mistaken in the good Protestant Religion of our good Church as Coleman calls it I pray let them not be informed that we obey more for fear than for Conscience sake No nor that we are afraid to dye for our Religion of God call us to do it As to your Parenthesis that we have no apprehension of persecution from any other quarter I tell you we have felt a greater persecution in our Age from Geneva than from Rome and if the one have since the Reformation in this Nation killed a thousand the other have slain ten thousand Your next Reflection is on the pulpit-Pulpit-law as you say the Lord Faulkland called it of Sibthorp and Manwaring and complained it had almost ruined the Nation That noble Lord was indeed a great lover of his Religion and Country and therefore was an enemy to Arbitrary Government But when he perceived that the outcry against Arbitrarie power in the King was made with a designe to grasp it into other mens hands and they began to exercise it not onely on the Gentry Clergie and Nobility of the Land but the Royal Family also he repented and so faithfully adhered to the King in defence of his Authority that he lost his life in the Quarrel It was the pulpit-Pulpit-law in 41. and 42. that destroyed us and brought in Arbitrary Power But how near doth our Author come to put a border of Treason on his impolitick discourse p. 78. where he says The Arbitrary Doctrine of those times to which both he and Mr. Hunt impute the beginning of the Late War did not bring any great terrour with it it was then but a Rake and served onely to scrape up a little paltrie passive money But now it is become a Murdering-piece loaden with I know not how many bullets Who are they I wonder that preach up such an Arbitrarie Power or who are they that make such a Murdering-piece of it Is it not rather a Fiction of some men who would find a pretence for a second War For if as Mr. Hunt says p. 52. That the Panick fear of a change of the Government that this Doctrine to wit of Arbitrary Power before 41. occasioned and the Divisions it made among us was the principal cause of the Late War is it not evident that the same fears are now made Panick or Popular to prepare the hearts of the People for another War What else mean the bleatings of the Sheep and the lowing of Oxen the Vulgar Murmurs and loud Cries of the Multitude as if it were intended we should be ruled by a Standing Armie and That his Majesties Guards are a grievance That the dissolution of a Parliament gave us cause to fear that the King had no more business for Parliaments Hunt p. 22. and p. 60. of our Author That Parliaments should sit till they have done that for which they were called i. e. says our Author in his Marginal Note till all Grievances are redressed and Petitions answered And then for ought I know they might sit for ever and so no more need of a King What means the denying him a Supply when Tangier was like to be lost and not onely with-holding their own but denying him to dispose of his Credit or Revenues for his just occasions What mean our new Associations and Bandying into Parties and advice even to the Clergie not to suspend all the legal securitie they have upon the life of our present King Hunt p. 49. All these strongly argue that they have a suspition of Arbitrary Power and that by our Author's confession was in 41 and therefore may be suspected to be made use of now as an incitement to Rebellion And though our Author p. 78. confesseth That the malignitie of this Doctrine cannot be discovered under his Majesties gracious Reign yet he thinks fit to put him in mind of the Securitie he hath given the Nation by his Coronation-Oath which all Protestant Princes value look upon as Sacred and likewise of many gracious Promises that he will govern according to Law All this caution argueth more than Suspition it looks like an Accasation though I know no defect but the neglect of executing the Laws against Transgressors But if it do not fall out in his Majesties Reign it will appear in its colours and we may feel the sting of it if it please God so sharply to punish us for our sins as to let us fall under a Popish Successour p. 78 79. We have I confess deserved such a punishment for kicking against our Protestant Princes but by the blessing of God we may not have such a One For who shall be King or Queen of this Realm of England hereafter you tell us none but God himself knows p. 21. of the Preface But you tell us of another may be the Successor may be a Papist and then he may persecute but he may not be or if he be so yet I have proved he may not persecute and our Author hath granted p. 75. That it can never happen but by our own Treacherie c. Such a formidable Persecution as you suggest is a thing impracticable and morally impossible it hath never yet been acted by any Prince Papist or Heathen the Marian Tempest did not so destroy Protestants though it had been but newly planted but in Queen Elizabeth's Reign it grew up again and covered the Land in a few days Now to disturb our Peace and Settlement with two such may be 's as are more likely may not be to suppose such things as are morally impossible is unreasonable and to fear where no fear is saith Mr. Hunt p. 250. But such suppositions as our Author makes ought not at all to be supposed for there is greater hurt to be feared from them as Mr. Faukner says p. 545. of his Christian Loyaltie than from the thing supposed since it is much more likely that such designes should be imagined and believed to be true when they are false as they were in the unjust Outcries against our late gracious Soveraign than that they
without breaking his Allegiance for bearing true Faith and Loyalty of life and limb or any way injuring the King for the King may be at Westminster when they are fighting against him in the Field And it is not Julian they resist but the Devil that is in him And yet I suppose that our Author as the Law requires hath declared his abhorrence of that traiterous Position of taking Arms by his authoritie against his person or against those that are commissionated by him But where shall we go to be resolved in this weighty Case shall we go to the Romish Casuists they are positively for killing the King Mariana and Bellarmine and many others own it in divers cases But we need not go so far our Author hath tanquam ex Tripode determined it in the Case of Julian that such a King is to be pursued as if he were a Midnight-Thief or a Highway Robber p. 73. and 't is as lawful to destroy him as for a hungrie Welsh man to eat up his Cheese and cry Chud eat meer an chad it p. 95. To this end Our Author quoteth Gregory calling on the Angels whose work it was to destroy the Tyrant who had not killed a Sihon King of the Amorites nor an Og the King of Basan but in so doing had killed the Dragon an Apostate the great Designer the common Enemy and Adversary of all with an c. p. 23. And again p. 61. If any one had killed Julian he was not to be blamed no but to be rewarded rather as one who shewed himself so courageous for God and for that Religion which he approves St. Chrysostom in his first Homily of David and Saul teacheth another Doctrine If we reverence and fear those Magistrates saith he that are elected by the King although they be wicked although they be Thieves and Robbers although they be unjust and whatever they be not despising them for their wickedness but standing in awe of them for the dignitie of him that did elect them much more ought we thus to do in the Case of God And Gregory Nazianzen speaks home to the Case in that 27 Oration p. 171. Continue faithful to your Kings but first of all to God and for him to them also to whom you have been committed by him And Elias Cretensis gives this Reason for it Because if ye fear God and studiously observe his Commandments you will be faithful also to your Kings for Gods sake Now Julian's Souldiers as our Author says p. 8. were men principl'd in the true Religion and therefore thought Julian stood in fear of them as he says yet they never did him hurt by Open Rebellion or Secret Conspiracies nor is our Author too old to learn of them P. 92. He sums up the strength of what hath been said in these Five PROPOSITIONS ANSWER 1. Christianitie destroys no mans Natural or Civil Rights but confirms them 1. Christianity obligeth us to prefer our Spiritual and Eternal Rights above our Temporal and Civil 2. All men have both a Natural and Civil Right and Property in their Lives till they have forfeited them by the Laws of their Country 2. Our Lives are to be parted with in obedience to God's Laws though not forfeited by the Laws of our Country 3. When the laws of God and of our Country interfere and it is made death by the Law of the Land to be a good Christian then we are to lay down our Lives for Christ sake This is the onely case wherein the Gospel requires Passive Obedience namely when the Laws are against a man And this was the Case of the first Christians 3. It is not the onely Case wherein the Gospel requires Passive Obedience when the Laws are against a man There was no Law of the Romans by which Christ might be put to death yet when he suffered he threatned not leaving us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.19 20 21. and hereunto we are called To what to suffer though wrongfully v. 19. and take it patiently for Conscience sake towards God 4. That killing of a man contrary to Law is Murder 4. If we suffer death wrongfully it is Martyrdom and acceptable to God though it be Murder in our Enemies 5. That every man is bound to prevent Murder as far as the Law allows and ought not to submit to be murdered if he can help it 5. We may so by our appeal to the Supreme Magistrate as St. Paul when he was like to be condemned contrary to Law appealed to Caesar having all the Law on his side Acts 25.8 Neither against the Law of the Jews nor against the Temple nor yet against Caesar have I offended yet doubtless if Caesar had condemned him he would have patiently submitted after the Example of his Master though he could have had Legions of Angels to defend him P. 93. Now I desire those men who of late have thundred in all publick places with the Thebaean Legion to keep that complete and admirable Example till they have got another Maximian and till that Maximian hath got authority at once to cut 6666 throats I think there was never more need than now to press that noble Example for though we have not a Maximian but another Constantine set over us no Julian that commands us to sacrifice to Idols but One that makes it his business that we should all with one consent worship God and our Saviour in the beauty of Holiness Though he have all the Laws of God and man to secure him from malitious and violent men yet how are the tongues of wicked men sharpned against him and all his Ministers in Church and State How are all those devilish arts of Calumny and Reproach the fears and jealousies of Arbitrary Power and Popery renewed which encouraged a Rebellious multitude to the cutting of the throats not of one Legion but of twenty at least and the cutting off the head of a most incomparable Prince too Would the Thebaean Legion that laid down their lives at the Command of a Maximian have murtered a word against so good a Governour And when the same things are attempted a second time shall we not bring forth the Thebaean Legion to withstand such impious practices and rise up in judgment against them who notwithstanding the Laws of God and our Country too would not onely decimate us but if it were in their power destroy us as Nero wisht that the Citizens of Rome had but one Neck that he might cut them all off at a stroke I would gladly add the consideration of the Thundering Legion to this of the Thebaean They by their Prayers obtained relief from Heaven and Victory too for the Army of a persecuting Heathen we are taught to pray for the Confusion of a Christian Prince But this shall suffice Under those cruel Emperours Dioclesian and Maximian that most illustrious example of Passive Obedience presenteth it self to our view which the Thebaean Legion shewed consisting of 6666
to molest another for his Religion Our Author might have gone for one of the Godly partie in those daies I do not read that there was one Law extended throughout the whole Roman Empire which was almost Vniversal but that several Kingdoms and Cities were governed by their own Laws So were the Jews and Heathen as well as Christian Subjects in their several Cities and remote Provinces As Julian told the Bishops that were of several Perswasions that they should not disturb the publick peace of the Empire and then they might enjoy their own Liberties and Religion Constantine seemed to be almost of a like perswasion for why else did he not suppress the Arian Heresie which from Alexandria infected the whole Empire He did take care to prevent Schism and Sedition among Christians that the administration of the Government might be more easie But this great man banished Athanasius into France where he remained till Constantine his Son recalled him as Eusebius in his Chronologie But what if there were some Edicts for the establishment of Christian Religion in Constantine's days nothing was confirmed by the Senate that was accounted then a needless thing Nor did the Edicts of one Emperour bind another by the same Authoritie as Constantine might have setled the Orthodox Religion Constantius setled the Arian and after him Julian the Pagan Religion I mean by his own Imperial power and Edicts For the Roman Emperour was an Absolute Monarch their Will was a Law as Gregory Nazianzen quoted by you p. 13. The Will and Pleasure of the Emperour is an unwritten Law backed with Power and much stronger than written ones which were not supported by Authority So that though he did not as you term it fairly enact Sanguinary Laws yet had he the Law of the Sword in his hands And I think it was a great mercie of God to the Christians under him that he did not by publick Edicts put the Sword out of his own hands into the hands of his Heathen Magistrates who would have written them all in bloud Therefore Mr. Baxter saies p. 20. of 4th part of his Direct Julian was a protector of the Church from Popular Rage in comparison of other Persecutors though in other respects he was a Plague Valentinian was a right Christian Emperour and when he was chosen the Souldiers were importunate that he should assume another as an Associate in the Empire he tells them It lay in you to chuse me your Emperour but being chosen what you desire is not in your power but mine it belongs to you as Subjects to be quiet and rest contented and to me as your King to consider what is fit to be done Zozomen l. 6.86 Justinian was another good Emperour and he assumed the sole administration of the Empire to himself and demands in his Novels Quis tantae authoritatis ut nolentem Principem possit ad convocandos Patres caetorosque Proceres coarctare Who can claim so great Authority as to constrain the Prince to assemble the Senate against his will And Justinian Novel 105. excepts the Emperour from the coercive power of the Law to whom says he God hath subjected the Laws themselves sending him as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Law unto men And the Gloss noteth That the Emperour is the Father of the Law whereupon the Laws also are subject to him When Vespasian was Emperour it was declared by the Senate That he might make Leagues with whom he pleased And though Tiberius Claudius or Germanicus had made certain Laws yet Vespasian was not obliged by them And Pliny in his Panegyrick to Trajan tells him how happie he was that he was obliged to nothing So that the Christians had no more pretence of having the Laws on their side under Julian than under Dioclesian Maximus or Constantius nor did they ever plead them to justifie a Rebellion against him for want of such an Advocate or Leader as our Author Gregory Nyssene tells us also what the power of the King or Emperour was he defines him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that hath Absolute power in himself no Master nor Equal Cont. Eunomium l. 1. So that our Author 's great Babel is fallen viz. that the Julian Christians had their Religion established by Law and that they were long possessed of it For Laws or no Laws by the Lex Regia the Emperour could reverse the old and establish new as it pleased him and for want of Laws where the word of the Emperour was there was power and none might say to him What dost thou Thus it was with Constantine and Constantius and why not with Julian And now I hope the good Christians of our Age will no longer trust to such broken Reeds as our Author puts into their hands much less that they should take up the Sword which will be no other than a broken Reed also not onely to fail them but to pierce through their sides Now if we should turn the Tables and ask our Author Whether when Jovian and Valentinian were Emperours and had made some new Edicts for the Orthodox Christians as well as against the Arians and Pagans it had been lawful for the Arians or Pagans to rebel in defence of their Religion Or to come nearer home Whether when Queen Mary had established Popery by Law in this Nation it had been lawful for the Papists to have rebelled against Queen Elizabeth they having the Laws on their side yea and questioning her Right of Succession too yet we do not read that they did contrive a General Rebellion though for ought I see our Author would have justified them when he tells us from Zozomen what men may do for the Religion whereof they are well perswaded Or neerer yet when the Long too Long Parliament pretended against the King that their Religion was in danger by Poperie and Superstition their Laws and Liberties invaded by an Arbitrary Power did they well or ill from these pretences to raise that War against the King that turned the Nation to an Aceldama Were the Laws such as could justifie that Rebellion or no If they could not then I am sure they cannot now since the late Act for Treason in the 13th of our King and a Declaration of Parliament That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever c And by several Statutes it is declared That the King is the Onely Supreme Governour of his Dominions over all Persons and Causes whatsoever And the power of the Sword or Militia is put into his hands as well by the Law of the Nation as of God and I trust he will not bear it in vain Having thus stript this full-fac'd Bird of a few borrowed and painted Feathers how justly is he exposed to be hooted at by every boy or dealt with as in the Apologue of such another bird that seeing the Pidgeons to be well meated and live securely he would get himself to be coloured and arrayed like one of them and feed among
Commands of God for obedience to the Higher Powers From all which Premises I shall onely conclude as to my self That it is much more desirable to perish by the hands of a known Enemie to God and the true Religion than to out-live that Religion and by a successful resistance against the Ordinance of God to live in the enjoyment of Temporal wealth and Honours and to deserve this Epitaph to be engraved on my Tomb. Plorate quotquot estis Pacis vitaeque placidae Pertaesi Conservator optimi Populi pessimus Legum Libertatis Religionis Protector Post Oliverum Primus nulli Secundus Deperditae Respublicae Instaurator Regum timendorum tremendus Judex Regiae Stirpis Extirpator Perfidus Juris Consultorum Doctor Ignoramus Qui Consentientibus dissentit ab omnibus Orthodoxis Antiquis Modernis Qui Dissentientibus consentit omnibus Papistis Anabaptistis Regicidis Scrutator Majestatis oppressus à Gloria Inglorius obiit OF Passive Obedience IT is a very hard Case that when the Scripture injoyns such as are of the Ministry in this Nation to put the people in mind to be subject to Principalities and powers and the Canons of the Church to which we have subscribed oblige us four times in the year at least to manifest open and declare in our Sermons and Lectures That the Kings power within his Majesties Realms c. is the highest power under God to whom all men born within the same do by Gods Laws owe most Loyaltie and Obedience afore and above all Powers and Potentates on Earth that for so doing we should be reproached as Time-servers and such as advance an Arbitrarie power and that such Doctrine is calculated and fitted on purpose for the use of a Popish Successour and to make us an easier prey to the bloudie Papists p. 89. And all this by those men who are equally obliged by Oaths and Subscriptions to do the same as we Of these things the Author accuseth a learned Doctor who had affirmed in a Sermon I suppose and he quotes p. 8. That the Gospel doth not prescribe any remedie but flight against the Persecutions of the lawful Magistrate allowing no other means when we cannot escape between denying and dying for the Faith This is in p. 80. and p. 85. for saying That the Gospel by its own confession is a suffering Doctrine and so far from being prejudicial to Caesars authoritie that it makes him the Minister of God and commands all its Professors to give him and all that are in authoritie under him their dues and rather die than resist them by force Now to remove the prejudice of such as are of our Author's Judgment I shall first propose the Judgment of Mr. Baxter as a preparative to the more candid entertainment of what I shall propound concerning Passive Obedience P. 24 of the 4th part of Christian Directorie Direct 31. Resist not where you cannot obey and let no appearance of probable good that may come to your selves or to the Church by any unlawful means as Treason Sedition or Rebellion ever tempt you to it for evil must not be done that good may come by it But Sect. 61. it is objected If we must let Rulers destroy us at their pleasure the Gospel will be rooted out of the Earth When they know we hold it unlawful to resist them they will be emboldened to destroy us and sport themselves in our bloud as the Papists did by the poor Albigenses Answ All this were something if there were no God that can easilier restrain and destroy them at pleasure than they can injure or destroy you If God be engaged to protect you and hath told you that the hairs of your head are numbered and more regardeth his Honour Gospel and Church than you do and accounteth his Servants as the Apple of his eye and hath promised to hear them and avenge them speedily then it is but Atheistical distrust of God to save your self by sinful means as if God could not or would not do it Thus he that saveth his life shall lose it This Mr. Baxter speaks against Rebellion and unlawful Arms and Acts. To this purpose he quotes Grotius de Imperio p. 210. answering the like Objection viz. Mutato Regis Animo Religio Mutabitur That if the King change his mind the Religion will be changed also Answ In this case the onely remedie is in the providence of God who hath the hearts of all men in his hand but especially the Kings God worketh his ends both by good and evil Kings sometime a calm sometime a storm is most profitable to the Church If the King be of a perverse and corrupt Judgment it will be worse for him than for the Church But all this you will say is against unlawful acts and means which they that have the Laws on their side cannot be said to use To this Mr. Baxter answers p. 26. What power the Laws have they have it by the Kings Consent and Act. And it is strange impudencie to pretend that his own Laws are against him If any misinterpret them he may be confuted I suppose Mr. Baxter means by some other method than that of arguing as St. Augustine advised in the like case The Law and Ordinance of Government and especially of Monarchie is founded on the Law of God and Nature and no positive Laws or condescentions of Governours can make void the Law of God For though a righteous Prince will not violate those Laws which he hath consented to yet if he should it will not justifie those Subjects that shall violate the Law of God and Nature in resisting and rising up against him in Rebellion which would as it were argue great ingratitude to them who by Acts of Grace have obliged themselves for as St. Augustine observes our Prince like God himself becomes a Debtor to man Non aliquid à nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis largiendo Not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all good things to us So it is a certain way to bring us all to Confusion if the King should be judged as a Criminal upon every transgression of the Law And I would ask those who would bind their Kings in such Fetters By what authoritie they would proceed against him and judge him would they erect another High Court of Justice or bring him from his Throne to the Block Would they arm the people again on pretence of fighting for their Laws and Liberties The end of those things we have seen to be the death of a most righteous Prince and the general destruction of the Subjects Wherefore I commend to you that of your Bracton Omnem esse sub Rege ipsum sub nullo fed tantum sub Deo And if he contradict himself in this the suffrage of Nature and the Laws of all well-governed Nations will condemn him which agree in this That Principi non est Lex posita there is no Law above the Prince that makes the Law and by
for well-doing and take it patiently this is acceptable with God 1 Pet. 2.20 And if it be the Will of God if shall be so we must learn of David though in another case Psal 39.8 I was dumb and opened not my mouth for it was thy doing P. 5. You seem not satisfied with Hippocrates Receipt of Citò longè tardè which preserved many Confessors in the days of Queen Mary and is prescribed by a greater than Hippocrates in this very case If they persecute you in one City flee to another Matth. 10.23 You are for Fires and Fumes of Pitch and Tar c. for Imprisonment and close Confinement even of innocent persons The Papists indeed apply such Causticks in cases of Heresie Apostacy and Tyranny but I never read that the Primitive Christians used them against their Princes not against Dioclesian a Tyrant Constantius an Arian or Julian an Apostate Nay even the Doctors of Rome forbid such Medicines even in the case of Tyranny without which the other two may not much hurt a sound Christian till the Disease be universalis manifesta cum obstinatione i. e. till after they find all other means ineffectual and he is resolved to make a total overthrow of his People Concerning which we are yet in the dark as to our own Case and you give us some light to comfort us when you say p. 65. of Julian's Persecution That it was but a flea-biting a short and weak assault of the Devil and that he was rather a Tempter than a Persecutor which makes their behaviour towards him if it were so barbarous as you represent it the less excusable Until a Plague be epidemical and wasting it is not charitable nor just to confine suspected persons much less them that are sound and to deal with them as persons destined to destruction to bury them alive and to make their own Relations instruments of these severities who may justly fear the like are intended for themselves Though some intend onely to lop off a degenerate Branch yet having got the Ax in their hand others may make use of it to strike a blow at the Root and to answer your Parenthesis plain English is as well understood on this side Trent as the other so that there is more fear lest we should lose a Protestant King as we have once already than a Popish Successor for though such an one may be deprecated as a Judgment and may prove as a Plague to the Nation yet may we not presently cut Throats to prevent what may never come or if it should make use of a Remedy worse than the Disease for Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 That Remedy which you suppose may be effectual to prevent this mischief will prove to be of that nature which is a Compound of belying the Primitive Christians and betraying Modern ones into a sin of Rebellion which may do more hurt as Experience hath shewn us than all the Arts and Witchcrafts of Julian In writing of whose Life you have not I confess impoverished the Subject p. 6. for you have onely weeded it as Mr. Baxter hath done the Ecclesiastical History in his Profane one of the Bishops and Councils P. 7. You say you wrote this discourse onely to render that of Julian 's Succession intelligible It is a strange course you take to make his Succession intelligible which you your self confess was from God by a legal descent and most agreeable to the Laws of the Roman Empire and yet seek to overthrow it you had done more to your purpose if you had shewn what party of Christians they were and on what grounds of Religion or Law they went what Sedition or Armies the Christians had raised to oppose his Succession of all which you give us not the least notice you onely suppose that if Constantius had known Julian's Religion before he was Emperour he would have gotten a Bill of Exclusion or if not the Christians would have resisted him And from their behaviour towards him after he was Emperour which is scandalously represented as is also the carriage of former Christians you would reconcile the Christian Religion and Rebellion This you have done intelligibly enough but that the Christians did or would have resisted his Succession I find no shew of Argument or Historie onely you give us some Rhetorical expressions out of St. Cyril's Invectives from which you infer more than the Premises will bear And you do not report as it becomes an Historian but onely suggest adde and invent what may insnare your Readers I ingenuously confess I do not believe all that St. Cyril speaks in praise of Constantius nor against Julian Panegyricks and Stelliteuticks have not the authoritie of true Histories with discerning men P. 7. You say your business is to shew how wide a difference there was betwixt the Case of Christians in Julian 's time and that of the first Christians and make it as great as Laws for men and against men could possibly make it yet you confess that what you have written is contrary to what is commonly reported of them and to the carriage of former Christians It is then some such New Light as Jo. Goodwin's Doctrine of Resistance that is your Guide but you take no notice of the unalterable Laws of God which bind all men in all Ages to be subject to the Higher Powers without distinction not onely for fear of Wrath but for Conscience sake There are few men that intend a Rebellion but will pretend to have the Laws on their side and if they may be Judges in their own Case will as certainly condemn the Legislator as dispute his Laws It were well if you would keep close to your Principle That the Laws of your Country are the Measures of your civil Obedience I am sure you want none to require your active Obedience to the just Laws of your Prince nor your passive Obedience if at any time you suffer wrongfully And this is not injoyn'd by Mahomet but by Christ himself it is the Doctrine of the Cross and not of the Bow-string The violation of the Law on the Princes side doth not discharge the Obligation of the Subjects they are under a higher Law than that of the Land The chief Magistrate's obliging himself to certain Rules for administration of his Government is not the just Measure or chiefest Tye of the Subjects Obedience The eternal Laws of God and our Saviour that require Obedience and Submission even to wicked Princes and that for Conscience sake and threatning Resistance with Damnation is a safer Rule for the saving of our Souls though not for the preservation of our Lives and Estates When St. Peter drew a Sword to defend his Master in a way of resisting and revenging him against the Officers of a lawful Magistrate he was commanded to put up his Sword and threatned that they that use the Sword should perish by the Sword Matth. 26.52 And when some other Disciples
would have his consent to call for fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans he tells them they knew not what Spirit they were of The contrary Doctrines are not from the blessed Jesus but the accursed Jesuits and to be abhorred of all good Christians and yet it is that which you chiefly track and seek to bring into practice St. Aug. speaking of St. Peter's using the Sword and of Moses slaying the Egyptian says lib. 22. chap. 7. Contra Faustum Manicheum Vterque Justitiae regulam excessit hie fraterno ille Dominico amore peccavit P. 8. You say It is impossible in so short a Treatise as yours is to say the tenth part of what is to be said to shew how intolerable that Doctrine of Passive Obedience is and how contrary to the Gospel and the Law of the Land If you had not said the tenth part of what you have to shew how intolerable the Doctrine of Passive Obedience is and that it is contrary to the Gospel and the Law of the Land you had said too much as will appear hereafter Christianity indeed doth not enslave us or devest us of the Rights and Priviledges that we have but it teacheth us to exchange them for better Terrestria non eripit Sedulius qui regna dat Caelestia And it assures us that he that loseth his life for Christs sake shall save it Matth. 16.25 P. 8. To prove your Assertion from the Gospel you commend your Reader to Dr. Hammond's Paraphrase on 1 Cor. 7.21 22 23. which speaks little to your purpose it concerns onely such Christians as were in bondage to heathen Masters That if they could by any fair and regular means attain their freedom they might make use of them and prefer Liberty before Servitude which they might have done if they had never been Christians And that they who have obtained Liberty and were formerly Servants to Heathen should not sell themselves again and revert to that condition of slavery but prefer Liberty rather But what is this to that Exposition which he gives us of Rom. 13. in these words Then for the Judicial Laws that great supreme one ought to be taken into special care of all Christians that of Obedience to the Supreme Powers rightly established and constituted although they be not Jews but Romans Nothing in Christianity ought to be pretended or made use of to give any man immunity from Obedience which from all Subjects of what quality soever Apostles Teachers c. is due to those to whom Allegiance belongs contrary to the Gnosticks Doctrine and Practice Jude 8. but on the contrary every person under government of what Rank soever is to yield subjection to his Supreme Governour legally placed in that Kingdom as to him that hath commission from God as every Supreme Magistrate must be resolved to have though he be a Heathen Vers 2. From which Divine Commission it is directly consequent that he that makes any violent resistance or opposition to the Supreme Magistrate opposeth that violence to Gods Commission and shall accordingly receive that punishment which belongs to so sacrilegious a Contumacie the wrath and judgment of God belongs to it With more to that purpose As to St. Paul's dealing with the Centurion Acts 22.25 the Apostle neither spake nor acted any thing that tended to resistance he onely asked the Centurion Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned In like manner Acts 16.39 Paul and Silas onely made the Officers sensible of their wrongful imprisonment It is strange that any man that pretends to Sense or Religion should wrest these places to the countenancing of Resistance when the Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles taught and practised and which we have received from this great Apostle of the Gentiles is so opposite to it Maledicta Glossa quae corrumpit Textum What consequence is this St. Paul and Silas got their liberty by pleading their Priviledges Therefore it is lawful to resist It is against the yielding of Passive Obedience to the Supreme Magistrate that you urge it P. 9. As for the Laws of the Land that Doctrine you say overthrows Magna Charta Chap. 29. That Chapter says thus No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseized of his Freehold and Liberties c. but by lawful Iudgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land But if any or all these should happen to some particular man will that justifie a Rebellion When a Roman Emperour gave a Senator a Sword saying If I rule well use it for me if otherwise against me was it intended think you by him that gave or him that received it that an Act of Violence or a High Court of Justice should be employed against that Emperour upon every Transgression the Apostles rule of Submission non obstante It is a sad return of Gratitude when Christian Princes have granted the greatest Priviledges and Immunities to their Subjects that they should on all occasions be requited with Affronts and Severities P. 9. and 10. You propose the Case of a Pursevant slain in the execution of a Warrant out of the High-Commission-Court and then adde Any man may see that my Discourse doth not descend to such petty matters as false Arrests True it is evident enough you flie at a more noble Game the resisting of Princes and their lawful Successors I pray speak out When King CHARLES of blessed memory came to the House of Commons to demand Justice against the five Members against whom he had Articles of Treason prepared was it lawful for the Parliament to make resistance and to raise that War that cost so many thousand lives and millions of money on pretence of a breach of their Priviledges rather than to deliver them up to a legal Trial I doubt the man that killed the Pursevant did not well know whether his Authority were lawful or not if he did he might more safely have submitted than drawn the bloud of an unadvised man But however Currat Lex let the Law have its course and if by accident it be interrupted or overflow its just bounds we may not for that cause dam up the Fountain P. 11. You say you have honestly pursued the end of our Saviours coming into the world Luke 9.56 Not to destroy mens lives but to save them But doubtless whereas the Meekness Obedience and Patience which the Gospel teacheth hath destroyed one mans life and that our Saviour assures us is not lost but exchanged for a better the Doctrine of Resistance and Rebellion hath destroyed thousands And you may see plainly by the Context our Saviour commends Passive Obedience and not Resistance as the means to preserve mens lives You rather pursue another end which our Saviour mentions not as a proper effect of his Gospel but of the malice of men against it Matth. 10.24 I came not to send peace but a sword You say p. 11. That the Laws of the Land have taken particular
care of those who are put on an inevitable necessity of defending themselves c. How far a man that is assaulted and put on an inevitable necessity of defending himself against the injuries of private men is one thing and what he may do against his Prince of whom you seem to discourse is another In this case we may apply that in Rev. 13.10 He that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword This is the patience and faith of the Saints P. 11. This Doctrine of Passive Obedience you say quite alters the Oath of Allegiance which requires you to be obedient to all the Kings Majesties Laws Precepts and Process proceeding from the same I do not find those words in that Oath as set forth by King James but I find what you overlook viz. I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majestie his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the utmost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever And thus I find more particularly in a Declaration which I believe our Author hath subscribed thus amplified I do declare that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissionated by him P. 11. After a large Preface little to your purpose telling us That the Church of England reserves her Faith entire for the Canonical books of Scripture which I hope you also do and that she divides her Reverence between the Fathers and the first Reformers of this Church who partly were Martyrs that died for the Protestant Religion and partly Confessors that afterward setled it And now to the business How much the Fathers would have been for a Bill of Exclusion you say we have seen already No not one word of it from the beginning nor I believe any mention of it from one Argument tending to it to the end of the Book from any of the Fathers as will shortly appear But what say our Martyrs Confessors and Reformers First he tells us what some men would have perswaded King Edward to do if they could have had their wills confirmed by Act of Parliament They shewed what they would have done if they could saith our Author They never spake such bad English as our Author doth in his Taunton-Dean Proverb Chud eat more Cheese an chad it which being interpreted is We would rebel if we had power The Duke of Northumberland indeed did cause the Lady Jane Gray's Title to be proclaimed but here the Bishops must be the men that were chiefly engaged in that designe of Exclusion whereas I read not that any of them were ever consulted with nor ever declared any thing to that purpose but in their joynt and most solemn Writings enjoyn the clean contrary as shall now appear P. 12. The Bishops in Queen Elizabeth 's time to whom under God and that Queen we owe the settlement of our Church concurred to the making of that Statute which makes it High-Treason in her Reign and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels ever after in any wise to hold or affirm That an Act of Parliament is not of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and government thereof 13 Eliz. chap. 1. But our Author never considered the grounds and reasons of that Act Ex malis moribus bonae Leges it was the iniquity of those times and the traiterous practices of the Queen of Scots which gave occasion to that Statute for there were many Pamphlets written by Saunders and the Author of Doleman which deni'd the Title of Queen Elizabeth and proclaim'd her an Usurper and the Queen of Scots made actual claim to the Crown of England she assumed the Arms of England and other Regalia and by her Confederates endeavoured to raise a Rebellion and conspired against the life of the Queen for which causes she was condemned as may appear by her Sentence which was passed upon her viz. That divers things were compassed and imagined within this Kingdom of England with the privity of the said Queen who pretended a Title to the Crown of this Kingdom and which tended to the hurt death and destruction of the Royal Person of our Soveraign Queen Cambdens Eliz. p. 464. Leiden 1625. Such practices gave occasion to that Statute to prevent the Mischiefs that might befal Queen Elizabeth and the Nation And that Statute consists of many heads As first Whoever should compass imagine devise or intend the death or destruction or any bodily harm tending to death destruction or wounding of the Royal person of the Queen or deprive or depose her of or from the Stile Honour or Kingly name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm c. or leavy War against her Majesty within this Kingdom or without or move any Strangers to invade this Kingdom or Ireland c. or shall maliciously publish and declare by any printing writing word or sayings that our Soveraign Lady during her life is not or ought not to be Queen of this Realm c. or that any other person or persons ought of right to be King or Queen of the same or that our said Queen is a Heretick or Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or an Vsurper of the said Crown c. these shall he guilty of High-Treason Also if any after thirty days from the Session of this Parliament and in the life of our said Queen shall claim pretend declare or publish themselves or any other besides our said Queen to have Right or Title to have and enjoy the Crown of England or shall usurp the same or the Royal Stile Title or Dignity of the Crown or shall affirm that our said Queen hath not right to hold and enjoy the same such shall be utterly disabled during their natural lives onely to have or enjoy the Crown or Realm of England in Succession Inheritance or otherwise Then follows the Case of Succession That if any person shall hold or affirm that the Common Laws of this Realm not altered by Parliament ought not to direct the Right of this Crown or that our said Queen by the Authority of Parliament is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force c. as above Yet was not the Queen of Scots condemned upon the Statute of the 13 of Eliz. but on that made in the 27 of her Reign wherein it was provided That twenty four persons at least part being of the Privy Council and the rest Peers of the Realm should by the Queens Commission examine such as should make any open Rebellion or Invasion of this Realm or attempt to hurt the Queens person by or for any pretended Title to the Crown In which Commission I find no Bishop save the Archbishop who at first refused to act nor when the whole Parliament petitioned for the Execution do we find that the
greater Soloecism of an Emperour of the world awed and terrified with the fear of a kicking But it will not do No the Proverb hinders it None so blind as he that will not see It might have been done easily enough if you had not committed a Soloecism your self in translating the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Brought but had kept the righter sence of that word which Billius the learned Interpreter of Gregory Nazianzen translates immiserat he sent or which your Elias Cretensis useth concitabat he stirred up or compelled to go against that Church which if the Emperour had been in person he need not to have done And therefore I suppose Gregory Nazianzen meant it of the Captain of the Archers that demanded the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not pro imperio by virtue of a Mandamus or Commission from the Emperour for sure the Emperour himself needed no such Commission Nor is it probable that the Emperour himself would in his March against Persia trot up and down from one Church to another for you say he had assaulted many others to make a seizure of them Nor is it a Soloecism to say the Emperour seized those Churches which another did seize by his command Our Author I suppose was led into this errour by taking the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth induco to lead or introduce whereas the Interpreters that render it immitto or concito being better Grecians than himself understand it to be from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which every Lexicon will give him such a sence as that without a wresting of it it must refer to the Captain of the Archers But we are come to the end of this Tragi-comedy The Emperour kept himself in a whole skin the Bishops Anger vented it self some other way and all was husht and calmed But certainly our Author who hath first begun this Quarrel between the Emperour and the Bishop is much to be blamed whether he did it ignorantly which is the best construction that his Friends can make or else maliciously which appears by forsaking the Translations of Billius and Cretensis and preferring another that might favour his designe And I challenge him to be as big as his word and make satisfaction for this base Coinage And that you may not be guilty of such a wilful mistake for the future I shall give you this Token to be worn as a Frontlet on your brow That from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Instigator P. 44. Here you have a description of one of the Lachrymists of old c. How far this Bishop was a Lachrymist we shall see hereafter It were fitter for the Wit of a Julian than the Piety of a Christian to deride the Prayers and Tears of those ancient Christians Whatever Garlands and Trophies Nazianzen or Basil erected for that old Bishop are now pulled down by the hands of a young P who represents him as a Hector and a Striker expresly contrary to our Saviour's Example and St. Paul's Injunction You adde p. 44. And now I know no more than the Pope of Rome what to make of all this what they meant by it or on what Principles they proceeded I question not the Principles of those in whom you have instanced it sufficeth me that you say it was done in a fit of boiling anger But when speaking of the Principles of such as offer violence to their lawful Emperours you say you know nò more than the Pope of Rome I say it is pity that you should know or divulge half so much For what you have suggested concerning these pretended Violences offered by Primitive Christians to their lawful Emperours hath a very malign influence on the present Age and for this and other such Reasons as I said I would rather lose my right hand than be the Author of them But if you know their Principles as well as the Pope of Rome you know he holds it lawful to depose or kill any Prince whom he shall judge and Excommunicate as a Heretick or Tyrant and he can teach you to distinguish between resisting Julian and resisting the Devil that was in him That the King is Vniversis minor and that the people who gave him his power may resume it c. You say p. 45. none of those Bishops had ever been in Scotland nor had learnt to fawn upon an Apostate and a mortal Enemie to Religion Parcius ista For though some may think you are reflecting only on a Popish Successor yet others considering you speak of Julian who was now a lawful Emperour may stretch this line too far Scotland indeed hath been glutted with the bloud of their Kings whereof about Thirtie have sussered violent Deaths I acquit those Bishops from confederacie with Scotland they never contributed to the destruction of any I wish I could do so by the Presbyterians Yet I perceive you know how to yoak the Popes Bull and the Scotish Heifer together and with them to make large Furrows on the backs of Kings There was I remember for above Forty years since a great Correspondence between Rome and Scotland who then communicated their Principles to each other and though none of the old Bishops were acquainted with them yet some late Presbyters have espoused them and can on all occasions for the disturbance of our English Nation talk as Whiggishly as ever Knox or Buchanan did But they are so disingenuous as to conceal the names of their good Teachers from whom they learned to distinguish not onely between Julian and the Devil in him but between Charles Stuart and the King that they might destroy him in a double capacity first as a King and then as a Man And if as you say the Laws of our Land do not allow any one to imagine violence to their lawful Emperour And if as Bracton says fama apud graves bonos viros is a proof of Treason I fear an Indictment may lie against the Author of Julian's Life for that Not having the fear of God before his Eyes but being moved c. It is therefore a most profane and Reproachful inference with which you conclude Chap. 6. That in that Age the best Prayers and Tears were those that contributed most to Julian 's destruction An Answer to our Author's CHAP. V. Of their Devotions And first of their Psalms THis was indeed the Devotion of our late Times to begin with a Psalm not regarding the Scriptures or as much as the Commandments Creed or Lords Prayer and then to preach in their Prayers and pray in their Preaching or if you will in our Authors Language to say their Prayers backward In their Devotions you say p. 45. It might be expected we should see the flights of their self-denying and suffering Religion and one may expect they should lay aside their annimositie against Julian though he were their Ememie and for that reason pray the harder
Emperour seeing our Author confesseth that he who though it a small business to conquer the Persians thought it a great work to reduce the Christians And doubtless that Pagan wanted not malice to root them out but he distrusted his Power for even of that Army which he led into Persia the far greatest part if not all were Christians which appears not onely by their chusing Jovian to be their Emperour * Greg. p. 117. immediately after his death who had renounced all his Honour suffered exile for Christianity but by their unanimous * See Russ l. 2. c. 1. Socr. l. 3. c. 22. Theod. l. 4. c. 1. Acclamation when Jovian told them he was unwilling to undertake the Government of a Pagan Army We are all Christians we are all Christians This consideration drew from the Learned Mountague upon the relation of St. Gregory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Note It was not because they could not but because they would not resist for they had strength sufficient to have suppressed the Tyrant as St. Augustine and Gregory declare The Christian interest was so largely propagated and had taken such deep roots that it could not be destroyed unless the Empire had perished with it Tertullian says the Christians were pars pene major cujusque Civitatis vestra Omnia implevimus And if they had but deserted the Empire it would have been as a Wilderness Yet it appeared to be true That Christianus nullius est hostis nedum Imperatoris And St. Cyprian ad Demetr Nemo nostrum quando apprehenditur reluctatur nee se adversus injustam violentiam vestram quamvis nimius copiosus sit populus noster ulciscitur But those Christians had learn'd patience in the School of Christ as well by example as precept and not to overturn and bring all to confusion with a Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta movebo So the Learned Mountague So that when Gregory says they had no other defence but all was cut off from them he may be well understood concerning the use of any other means all violence and resistance being forbidden them for id possumus quod Jure possumus they were forbid to use the Sword for revenging themselves upon the Emperour And St Gregory in his 1. Orat. says that the enemy of Christianity was defeated by Gods mercy and the Christians tears which were many and shed by many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having no other remedy against that Persecutor Besides as they wanted not Souldiers so neither valiant and experienced Captains that had the entire affections of the Souldiers and which were approved Christians Jovianus Valentinian and Valens which three after the death of Julian were successively chosen Emperours could each of them have engaged Legions to follow them and how well the Souldiers were affected to them you have seen already by their choice of Jovian presently on the death of Julian So that it might be as truly objected that they wanted Souldiers and Commanders as that they wanted Arms Castles and Fortresses They had not indeed suprized any of the Imperial Forts or held them out in actual Rebellion against Julian as you know who did in the last Age but many of them were Garisoned with Christian Souldiers who doubtless would have declared for the Christian Religion against the Atheism and Persecution of Julian had not these renowned Confessors been restrained by the Command of Christ to fear God and honour the King Besides I have two other Considerations of great weight with me that it was not for want of Strength or doubt of Success that the Christians did not oppose Julian As first it was usual with the Roman Souldiers upon any disgust with their Emperours to kill their Emperours and set others in their Thrones Six of the twelve Caesars were slain pas some Historians account but never was there such a thing done by the Christian Souldiers For after such time as the Roman Strength was put into the hands of Christians they never deposed any one of their Emperours though there wanted no Strength on their parts nor Provocations on their enemies part many of them being Persecuting Arians And though Julian by his rashness against the advice of Sallustius a man of great experience and generally beloved of his whole Army was resolved on the Persian War and had foolishly exposed them to great hazards and danger by his following the directions of a Renegado Persian who led them into a barren and almost inaccessible Country and burning his Ships that might have served for a retreat yet was there no Associating or banding against him in his life-time but as soon as he was dead they all professed themselves Christians and chose a Christian Emperour Secondly The power which the Clergy had with the People who could hardly restrain then from tumults and fighting in their desence is another Argument with me for even at that time Athanasius convened in the great City of Alexandria a great number not onely of the Bishops of the Greek Church which were near at hand but from Italy Egypt Arabia and Libya which argues that the affairs of Christianity were in no low or despisable condition And if it be true that Gregories Father alone thought of braving the Emperour what might the united Interest of these Bishops and the Souldiery in their Sees have done But they thought it better to flee as Athanasius did or betake themselves to their Spiritual Armory of prayers and tears than to lift up a hand against Julian And I cannot but think that St. Gregory was of the same Judgment when he wrote without any passion to the Citizens of Alexandria being affrighted with the noise of Persecution in his 17th Oration to this effect N. B. this is one of our Laws and of those laudable ones most excellently ordained by the Spirit of God who knew best how to temper his Law with a mixture of what was possible to us and honest in it self That as Servants should be obedient to their Masters and Wives to their Husbands and the Church to our Lord and Disciples to their Pastors and Teachers So should we also be subject to all higher powers not onely for fear of punishment but also for Conscience sake St. Gregory also in a Funeral-Oration n. 20. for St. Basil records an Answer of his to Modestus Governour of his Country under Valens an Arian Emperour Where the Cause of God is in danger we neglect other things and look onely to him Fire Sword and Beasts are matters of rejoycing to us rather than terrour Reproach threaten and do to us what thou pleasest employ thy Authority let the Emperour also hear of this Thou shalt not overcome nor perswade us to consent to Impiety So that both Gregory and Basil the Divine and Basil the Great which were no Mountebanks but Great Doctors of the Church were for the prescription of prayers and tears although you would force them to the contrary I have reserved another
Testimony of Athanasius for this place being an account of the Publick Prayers made by himself for Constantius the Emperour though he had remeved him from his Pastoral charge In his Apologie to Constantius Witness hereof saith he is first the Lord who heard us and granted unto you the intire Empire which was left unto you by your Ancestors then those who at that time were present for the words I used were these onely Let us pray for the welfare of the most religious Emperour Constantius and the whole People with one voice cried presently O Christ be favourable to Constantius and so continued praying a long time And then he concludes Let truth take place with you and leave not the whole Church under a suspition as though such things as tended to the death of Constans should be thought on or written by Christians and especially by Bishops Athanasius was also accused for celebrating Publick Prayers in the Church of Alexandria which he confesseth he did being urged thereto by the importunity of the People that they might pray for the welfare of the Emperour in that Church which he himself had builded being ready otherwise to go out of the City and to assemble themselves in the Desarts But thus he expostulates with the Emperour And you O King most beloved of God where would you have had the People stretch out their hands and pray for you there where the Pagans did pass by or in the place which bore your name and which from the first foundation thereof all men did call a Church And then he prays thus for the Emperour O Lord Christ who art indeed King of kings the onely begotten Son of God the Word and Wisdom of the Father because the People have implored thy goodness and by thee called upon thy Father who is God over all for the welfare of thy most religious servant Constantius I am now accused And then speaking to the Emperour You do not forbid but are willing that all men should pray knowing that this is the Prayer of all that you may live in safetie and continually reign in peace And as for you O Emperour beloved of God many years I pray you may live and accomplish the Dedication of this Church for those Prayers that are made therein for your welfare do no way hinder the solemnitie of the Dedication And whereas Athanasius was accused also for not obeying the Emperours Command to depart from Alexandria he says I do not oppose the Command of your Majestie God forbid I am not such a man as would oppose the very Treasurer of the Citie much less so great an Emperour I was not so mad as to oppose such a Command of yours I neither did oppose it nor will enter into Alexandria until you of your humanitie be pleased I shall so do If old Gregory was of another mind it was but one Doctors Opinion And I think our Author in the same case is a Dissenter from all Christian Divines as well as from the Church of England and from Mr. Baxter too who saies that hurtful prayers and desires are seldom from God and he speaks it in the very case of Julian p. 17. of his Direct part 4. I shall here add the example of that Legion which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Thundring Legion consisting of 6666 Christians under marcus Aurelius of whom Zephiline speaks thus The Emperours Army being in great distress for want of water and being compassed about by their Adversaries the Praefect of the Praetorians told Marcus That there was nothing which those Christians could not obtain by their Prayers Marcus therefore desired the Praefect that he would intreat them to pray unto their God which they had no sooner done but the Lord by thunder and lightning discomfited their enemies and with seasonable showers refreshed the whole Army which otherwise might have perished St. Ambrose was another of those Lachrymists which our Author derides he lived under Valentinian the younger another Arian Emperour and yet as Ruffinus says of him Hist Eccless l. 2. c. 26. he did not defend himself by his hand or weapon but with fastings and continual watchings and remaining under Gods Altar by his Prayers prevailed with God to be a Defender both of him and his Church I will give you St Ambrose his own words to his Church at Millain I will never forsake you willingly being constrained I know not how to make opposition Dolere potero potero flere potero gemere adversus arma Milites Gothos Lachrymae meae arma sunt talia enim munimenta sunt Sacerdotis aliter NEC DEBEO NEC POSSUM RESISTERE I can sorrow I can weep I can sigh against Arms Souldiers and Goths Tears are my weapons for such is the Munition of a Priest in any other manner I OVGHT NOT I CANNOT RESIST And his People were much of the same mind as he describes it Epist. 33. or as in some Editions the 13. Ad Marcellinam What could have been better spoken by Christian men than that which the Holy Ghost spake in you this day Rogamus Auguste non pugnamus We entreat O Emperour we fight not we are not afraid yet we entreat This saith St. Ambrose doth become Christians that both the tranquillity of peace be desired by them and their constancie in faith and truth should not be deserted no not with the peril of death And in his Tract de Renovatione fidelium Laude magis scribendum est non tam male facere non posse quam nolle whereof St. Peter told us the sence long before 1 Pet. 2.19 This is thank-worthie to God if a man endure grief suffering wrongfully And that man doth certainly suffer wrongfully that hath the Laws of God and man on his side But there is no Law of God for resistance of a lawful Magistrate The Apostle did not calculate his Doctrine for the three first Centuries under Heathen and that it should expire under Christian Magistrates the Spirit of God foresaw that Kings should be nursing Fathers to his Church and made good Laws for the securitie thereof but he never meant that Princes should be resisted though in some things they should act contrary to those Laws So that when our Author demands by what Law we must die p. 81. and answers Not by the Law of God for being of that Religion which he approves I answer Yes 1. By the Law of God rather than make resistance that we may bear testimony to that Law by suffering of death for our Religion rather than to violate it by our Rebellion 2. By the Laws of our Country too for though by the favour of Christian Princes many good Laws are made for obedient Subjects which the Prince may not violate without his great sin against God yet hath the Supreme Authority of the Land provided especially for the security of the Prince who is a Common good We see how in Nature light things do sometimes descend and things that are heavie
will ascend against their natural propension for the preservation of the Universe and if private men do submit themselves to some Violencies and Injustice for the preservation of the publick Peace it is but their duty and if the Prince do invade our Rights that is no ground for us to invade his in whom the happiness of the whole Nation doth consist St. Bernard was another Lachrymist Epist 221. speaking to Lewis then King of France Whatever it pleaseth you to do concerning your Kingdom Crown and Soul we that are the Children of the Church cannot conceal the injuries done to our Mother we will stand and fight even to death for our Mother if need be but Armis quibus licet non scutis gladiis sed precibus fletibusque ad Deum with such Arms as are allowed us not with Sword and Buckler but with Prayers and Tears to God I could multiply many Testimonies in this kind nor can any other than such as our Author produceth of some private passionate and mistaken Christians be pretended to the contrary until such time as the Pope erected the Standard of Antichrist against Christian Kings which was after the time of Gregory the Great or until Presbyterie as a Reformado fought under the same Banner Now to say as you do in the close of this Chapter p. 55. That in that Age the best Prayers and Tears were those which did best execution upon an Apostate Emperour and contributed most to his destruction and again p. 96. I do not find among the Ancients one single wish for Julian 's Conversion but all for his down-right Destruction is a very unchristian insinuation especially for one who pretends to say the Prayer for the Royal Family as heartily as any man in the Preface P. 93. Our Author by way of Postscript tells us he hath many more exceptions against the Artillery of Prayers and Tears than he can stay to insist on The first is a great exception indeed which makes St. Gregory to overthrow all that our Author had quoted from him for St. Gregory p. 57. of the first Invective Eaton-edition says thus Julian was hindered by the goodness of God and the Tears of Christians which were shed in great plentie by many who had this onely remedie against the Persecutor Now it is well observed by our Author here are no Prayers mentioned none at all for his confusion no such Prayers as are no better than Treason by our Law p. 95. Secondly Gregory doth not tell us here that they had no Arms or Walls or that these Lachrymists cried CHVD EAT CHEESE AN CHAD IT but that they had this onely Remedie against the Persecutor i. e. as our Author says They had no other way to help themselves And though here be no Prayers mentioned yet in other places St. Gregory mentions Prayers and was as great a Lachrymist at Prayer as any P. 96. Our Author parallels these Prayers with some which he says were made Treason in Queen Mary 's days of which the Act says Anno 1. and 2. of Philip and Mary lib. 9. That some prayed that God would turn her heart from Idolatrie to the true Faith or else to shorten her days or take her quickly out of the way Though they had used such Prayers in secret they should methinks for their own sakes have for born them in their Conventicles where the Act says they were used and where as you would have it such murdering Prayers are too frequent in our Age. And I doubt whether God might not have rejected such Prayers with a Quis requisivit I believe verily it was never in our Saviour's mind when he bids us to pray for them that persecute us nor of his Apostle when he injoyns that Prayers and Supplications c. be made for Kings and all that are in Authoritie 1 Tim 2.1 And whereas that Act saith Such a Prayer was never heard or read to have been used by any good Christian man against any Prince though he were a Pagan you think you have given presidents for it in the case of Julian where the Christians prayed for his Destruction not his Conversion If as you say you pray as heartily for his R. H. as any man in the Collect for the Royal Family you cannot but mind his Conversion And no president that ever I heard of will warrant any other Prayers but to this effect ENDVE THEM WITH THY HOLY SPIRIT INRICH THEM WITH THY HEAVENLY GRACE PROSPER THEM WITH ALL HAPPINESS AND BRING THEM TO THINE EVERLASTING KINGDOM c. Here is nothing at all for Destruction but all for Conversion And though I know you are a daring man yet pray do not think of reforming the English Liturgie by your Julian nor Gregorian Account and teach us by your example to say our Prayers backward Gregory himself was so great a Lachrymist that our Author if he have any spark of Grace or intention to repent must needs weep with him and as he did recant that as publickly in other more serious Writings which he delivered in a fit of Passion or to shew his Rhetorick Gregory Nazianzen Orat. 17. p. 267. to the Citizens of Nazianzum that were in great fear by reason of the displeasure of their Praefect perswades them to make use of these weapons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ps 34.17 If thou turn to the Lord with mourning thou shalt be saved Ye see saith Gregory how Salvation is annexed to Mourning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing can come between your Prayers and the Blessings that you ask Doth the Spirit of God prescribe Mountebank-Receipts in the opinion of Gregory or ought not he to repent that calls them Mountebank-Receipts Then minding them of the instability of Humane Affairs and of the great benefit they may reap by their patience and submission to Gods Chastisements he adds Let us submit our selves to God to one another and to those who have the Government on Earth the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that St. Paul useth Rom. 13.5 To God in all things to each other in brotherly charitie and to our Governours for the sake of good order He adds it is a hainous and dangerous thing to exhaust the Clemencie of the Ruler by needing daily pardon Among other Laws of our Religion we have this given us by the Spirit of God who hath joyned that which we are able to do to that which is just and honest and hath established it by a most laudable Law That as Servants obey their Masters and Wives their Husbands and the Church Christ and Disciples their Pastors so we also are commanded to obey the higher Powers not onely for Wrath but for Conscience-sake as being bound to yield them Tribute nor let us give occasion by our wickedness to bring the Law into contempt and to provoke the revenging Sword but rather being made better through our fears endeavour to obtain praise from the higher Powers Decies repetite placebit I wish I could
say of our Author Et hinc illae Lacrymae but our Author hath other thoughts he thinks he hath much obliged the whole Nation turning their Mourning into Mirth and instructing them after the new fashions of Rome and France to exchange their Prayers and Tears for Fire and Sword for Gun-powder Pistols Poniards and therefore he first saies it was a Christian that killed Julian and from Zozomen that he was to be commended for the fact p. 60 61. Sigebert in his Chron. ad Anno 1088. tells us That this noveltie that I say not Heresie was not yet risen up in the world that the Priests of God who saith to a King Remove and maketh an Hypocrite to reign for the sins of a people should teach the people that they owe no subjection to wicked Kings and though they have given an Oath of Fidelity to them yet they owe no Fidelity to them nor are to be accounted perjured though they fight against them and that he that obeyeth the King shall be excommunicated and he that opposeth him shall be absolved from the guilt of Injustice and Perjurie So that although these Ancient Bishops were never in Scotland yet a man may think our Scotizing Presbyters have been at Rome whose Principles and Practices run such parallels as would sill a bigger Volume than I intend I shall onely shew that the Fathers give us a better Form of praying for Kings than your Directorie doth and the Law of God and Man enjoyns us Vniformitie in the use of it Tertul. Apol. c. 31 c. You that say we regard not the welfare of Caesar look into our Scriptures which command us to pray for our Enemies and Persecutors especially that we pray for Kings and all in authoritie For with them the whole Empire is shaken and we our selves as Members thereof are in hazard therefore we sacrifice for the safetie of the Emperour but to God and as God hath commanded with pure Prayer we pray for them and their Officers and Magistrates for faithful Armies seasonable Times and a quiet Age c. Having our arms spread to God let Hooks tear us Crosses hang us c. a praying Christian is prepared for any torment Come then you Praefects and force out our Souls praying for the Emperour Athenagoras in his Apologie to M. Aurelius We pray for your Empire that the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is most just may succeed the Father in the Kingdom and that your Empire may increase and flourish all being subject to you which would be much for our good that we leading a quiet and peaceable life may readily obey you in all your commands St. Cyprian to Demetrian We pray day and night propitiating and appeasing God for your peace and safetie and that the Reign of Valerian and Galien may continue unshaken So Eusebius observes l. 6. c. 11. Eccl. Hist of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria That he prayed for the same Emperours that their Kingdom might continue St. Sebastian lived under Dioclesian and Maximian and fought for them and prayed and assures us the rest of the Souldiers did the like The Priests of the Temples do possess your Majesties minds saith he with unjust surmises as if we the Christians were Enemies to the Commonwealth whereas by our Prayers the Commonwealth is bettered and increased for we cease not to pray for your Empire and the safetie of the Roman Armie See Surius on Jan. 20. Optatus l. 3. contra Parmen The Apostle teacheth us to pray for Kings and those that are in Authoritie etiamsi talis eslet Imperator qui Gentiliter viveret though he were a Pagan The Council of Paris 6th p. 534. of the Second Tome of the French Councils If Jeremy the Prophet admonished to pray for the Life of Nebuchadonozor that Idolatrous King how much more ought Supplications to be made for all Christian Kings Aphraates a zealous Christian being demanded by Valens an Arian Emperour whither he went I am going saith he to pray for your Empire Theophilus Bishop of Antioch I will honour the King not adoring him but praying for him So likewise in the Preamble of the Council of Agatha where the Catholick Bishops pray for an Arian King after this manner With Knees bended on the ground we pray for the continuance of your Kingdom and People that as you have granted us libertie to assemble our selves so God would extend your Kingdom with Happiness govern it with Justice and protect it with Virtue Prooemium Synodi Agathensis When by the instigation of Pope Paschal the Second the Emperour was unjustly deprived the Church of Liege blame the Pope for it saying If he were such as you describe him yet should we suffer him to reign over us because our Sins have deserved it and such a Prince ought not to be repelled by taking Arms against him but by pouring out our Prayers Resp Eccles Leoardensis ad Epistolam Pasch 2d So that whether our Author will or no it will still be owned as a Maxime among Christians Preces lachrymae sunt Arma Ecclesiae Prayers and Tears are the Churches Artillery and your new MILITIA will never prevail against this COMMISSION OF ARRAY An Answer to our Author's CHAP. VII Julian's Death THis Chapter is mostly the relation of two wonderful discoveries of Julian's Death the one of a Christian Schoolmaster for it seems the Christians at Antioch though it were the place that Julian most hated had Christian Masters to instruct their Children who being askt by Libanius the Sophister what the Carpenters Son was doing answered He is making a Coffin And yet perhaps he thought no more of Julian's death than Libanius whose expression of a Carpenters Son might give occasion to such a Reply Then for his other story of his double St. Julian Sabba for our Author hath Sainted him before and behind That he whilst he was praying should be in a Trance and cry out The wild Boar the Enemie of the Lords Vineyard hath suffered the punishment of his faults and lies dead I cannot admit such Miracles into my Creed 〈◊〉 but look on them no otherwise than such conjectures as Julian himself made when at the fall of the man that lifted him up to his horse he cried out He that raised me up is fallen and as the Historian says Constantius died at that very time But the merriest Scene is behind p. 58. That as soon as the Christians at Antioch heard of it they had publick joyful meetings and had not onely Dances in the Churches and Chappels of their Martyrs and then likely they had the musick of Organs or some other instruments too but likewise in the Theatre they proclaimed the Victorie of the Cross Such Thanksgivings we had in this Nation at the Butchery of the Royal Martyr But though they brought their Horse-guards into St. Pauls I do not find they danced in the Churches The manner of his death our Author reports p. 59. as an uncertainty but jumps in
Christian Shall the Priviledges which Christian Princes grant us be used as Weapons to fight and rebel against them Was it lawful for the Catholicks to rebel against Constantius when he was a declared Heretick and by great violence promoted that damnable Heresie as Bishop Vsher calls it suppressing and banishing the Orthodox and setting up the Arian Is it not said that if we suffer wrongfully i. e. against Law and Equity and take it patiently this is thank-worthy with God Can you without Sacriledge take away the Crowns from all the Martyrs that died ever since Julians time and tell us they died like Fools or mad men and were felo's de se for not selling their Lives at a dearer rate and like Sampson pull down the Pillars of the Empire with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I must perish let the whole world perish with me Or can you think that they perished in the next world for perishing in this when Christ tells them he that loseth his life shall save it If it be unjust in the Prince to deprive us of our Rights against the Law of the Land is it not much more so for us to deprive him of his against the Law of God as well as that of the Land too And have we not generally I mean the Clergie at least Subscribed That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever not of Religion nor of the Laws to take up Arms c. Non debet minor potestas irasci si major praelata sit The Laws of the Land must give place to the Law of God The contrary to all these are the monstrous Consequences of your new distinction that allows of Rebellion when we suppose the Laws of the Land to be on our side I say suppose them for Wars have been raised and maintained on such a false Supposition And if when the Prince declares that he doth and will govern by the known Laws we shall Remonstrate that he doth not and suggest our groundless and unreasonable Fears and Jealousies that he will not who shall be Judge in this Case Shall the people take the Sword in their hands to cut this Gordian-knot and cut us all in pieces We have God be thanked many good Laws for our security and a gracious Prince that hitherto hath and will govern by them but we have one great Law of God and another of the Land that though he should not yet we may not rebel That excessive commendation which our Author gives of Constantius makes me think he hath exceeded also in the dispraise of Julian p. 70. Never any man in this world set his heart so much upon any other thing as he did to see the Christians flourish and to have all the advantages of glorie and power And neither conquered Nations nor a well-govern'd Empire nor great Treasures nor excessive Glorie nor being King of Kings nor all other things which make up other mens notions of Happiness did delight him so much as to have the honour of bringing honour to the Christians and of leaving them established for ever in the possession of Power and Authoritie And yet as it was said of Naaman that mightie man of Valour But he was a Leper so it is recorded of Constantius he was an Arian and persecuted the Church of God I think I have said enough already to confute the insignificant Instances produced by our Author when I gave you the more sober sence of St. Gregorie himself of St. Basil Ambrose and Bernard all which lived when they had the Laws on their side and the best Religion in the world to defend and yet they durst not do it by the Sword if they could have done it for I shall not now question their power Tertullian did assert that of old and the Learned Hammond hath put the truth of it out of question in his Answer to Mr. Stephen Marshal But says our Author p. 70. For Julian who by his Baptism first and entring into Orders after and going to Church after that sufficiently engaged himself to maintain Christianitie to endeavour on the other hand to dispossess them of their Freehold is an insupportable injurie It was so indeed and I would have our Author consider whether for a man that hath been received into the Bosom of the Church and hath eaten of her Bread and approved of her Doctrine to become an Apostate from that holy Profession and expose that Church and Christianity it self to scorn and contempt be not to out-do Julian I shall desire the Reader patiently to look on while I remove those few Blockadoes which our Author hath laid in my way and then I shall attack that inchanted Castle wherein those two Giants think themselves so secure as to laugh at all opposition that can be made against them That of Juventinus and Maximus mentioned a third time in p. 72. is already level'd if there were a Sham-plot against them our Author seems to be one of their accusers for talking too boldly against the Emperour which they utterly denied A second Sham-plot was of Sacriledge p. 72. but I see no man concerned in that neither shall I fight with Shadows as our Author doth P. 73. Old Bracton is conjured up and he presently flies in the face of the Conjurers and tells them that when Laws are made by the consent of the people and the Royal Authority they cannot be altered or destroyed without the joynt consent of all those by whom they were concerned And yet the Laws of Queen Elizabeth for keeping her Subjects in due obedience are exploded as some of the Grievances of the Nation With what face can they plead the Laws of the Land for their security who daily violate and contemn them and teach others to do so And in p. 74. our Author is surprised with the Thebaean Legion which appeared to him as a Legion of Noon-day Devils and he wonders who should raise them up he cries out as that Legion Matth. 8.22 Art thou come to torment us What have we to do with thee O Thebaean Legion what have we to do with their Example No I 'll warrant my Author he shall never die for his Religion as they did he hath parted with that already for fear of what might come And this Thebaean Legion is such a terrible immortal Army as will defeat all Rebels to the worlds end Are we says our Author to go to Mass to morrow or else to have our Throats cut No nor are we to cut our Princes Throat to day for fear lest he should compel us to go to Mass to morrow Such fears were as groundless in the daies of Charles the First as of Charles the Second yet we see what was then done Again Are we under a Sentence of Death according to the Laws of our Country if we do not presently renounce our Religion No but if we presently renounce our Religion as our Author hath done and then contrive a Rebellion we are under a Sentence of a
counted the Grievance of a great Partie P. 82. Old Bracton appears again and is made to eat his own words for whereas he had said of the King That every one is under him and he under none but God and that he can have no equal in his Kingdom for so he should lose his command because one equal hath no power over another now he is made to contradict himself That Rex est sub lege quia lex facit Regem c. which is utterly false not onely because the Kings Predecessors came in by Conquest but also because it is the Royal Assent that passeth all Bills into Laws Mr. Baxter answers this p. 14. part 4. of Christian Directory That Lex being taken for the signification of the Soveraigns will to oblige the Subject the Law doth not make the King but the King the Law For which he quoteth Grotius lib. 8. p. 195. Neminem sibi imperare posse à quo mutatâ voluntate nequeat recedere And Grotius quotes S. Augustine Imperatorem non esse subjectum Legibus suis And doubtless this is true in every Free Monarchie as England is by Historians and Lawyers granted to be Now consider that Bracton wrote in the Reign of Henry the Third when his Earls and Barons often confederated and rose actual War against him and made him to capitulate with them having got the strength of the Nation in their hands in favour of whom he seems to write and calls them the Kings higher Court not as some higher than the King but than other of the Kings Courts Yet was this no Parliament for the Commons are not mentioned by Bracton Now let any judge when Bracton was in the right and when in the wrong opinion by what followeth in the same Chapter for as our Author blames the Doctor for not reading on so do I much more blame him because he came nearer to it And thus Bracton says Si autem ab eo peccatur locus erit supplicationi quod factum suum corrigat emendat quod si non fecerit satis sufficit ei ad poenam quod Dominum expectet Vltorem Nemo quidem de factis suis praesumat disputare multo fortius contra factum suum venire i. e. If the King do offend there is libertie of petitioning that he would amend what is amiss which if he will not do there is no punishment for the King but to expect God to be his Avenger but let no man presume to dispute of his doings much less to make opposition against what he doth And this is agreeable to that Scripture Eccles 8.4 Who may say to him What dost thou If therefore we should grant it to be true what Bracton says according to practice rather than Law in those lawless times yet Now as Plowden as great a Lawyer as Bracton says the Case is altered And the Oath of Supremacie against the Pope which Bracton would by no means admit and the Oath of Allegiance and Act of Parliament for not taking up Arms on any pretence whatsoever would have quite overthrown Bracton's Opinion if he had not done it himself Our Author seems to apply the Premises onely against a Popish Successor and freely grants that when he is lawfully possest of the Crown he is inviolable and unaccountable as to his own person and ought by no means to have any violence offered to him p. 84. To what purpose then hath he given Instances of reproach proachful and provoking Language Prayers and Devotions that helpt on his death all for his Destruction none for his Conversion threatning to kick him and from Zozomen encouraging the Assassination of him when Julian was in quiet possession of the Empire P. 94. You quote a Saying of Asterius How great a resort is there from the Church to the Altars c. This is answered by Bishop Bilson p. 502. of Christian Subjection You find saith he that multitudes ran from Christ to Paganism after Julian to Arianism after Valens but do you find that the Godly did rebel against them What presumption is this in you to controul the Wisdom and Goodness of God sifting his Church by the rage and fury of wicked Princes and crowning those that be his as patient in Trial and constant in Truth Were you throughly perswaded that the hearts of Kings are in the hands of God and that the hairs of our heads are numbered so that no persecution can apprehend his which he disposeth not for the experience of their faith or recompence of their sins you would as well honour the Justice of God in erecting Tyrants that our unrighteousness may be punished in this world as embrace his Mercie in giving rest to his Church by the favour of good Princes Experto Crede This good Bishop says We have these twenty seven years endured all sorts of calamities that may befal men in exile therefore charge not us to be worldly minded p. 501. See Mr. Baxter to this purpose part 4. of the Christian Directory What our Author says concerning Passive Obedience p. 85. c. shall be considered anon P. 89. He is very angry that the Doctor should reflect on some dangerous Pamphlets as that of the History of Succession The Dialogue between Tutor and Pupil and another that affirms That Parliaments should sit till they have done that for which they were called And contrariwise so far commends the treasonable Popish book of Doleman as that it was impossible to write a Historie of Succession without borrowing from it Their Tools are so dull they must needs be beholding to the Philistines to set an edge on them upon their Whetstones of Lyes and Forgeries Quam bene conveniunt P. 91. The Thebaean Legion like a malus Genius meets him again and for their sakes he is resolved rather to die a Murtherer than a Martyr for p. 85. he puts the Case though he confesseth it to be a rare Case for bad Princes seldom stoop so low as to be Executioners of their own cruelty But the Question is if they should How far notwithstanding men may endeavour to save themselves without breach of their Allegiance and of that true Faith and Loyaltie which they ought to bear of life and limb and terrene honour If they have a mind to know they may ask advice i. e. How far notwithstanding the Oath of Allegiance men may resist their Prince For the Authors part he is resolved already but will not discover to every one what is in his heart if he thought it unlawful to resist the Kings person in case he should offer violence to a Subject he would certainly have published it but his Silence speaks his Consent Now if the King be forced for his defence to take an armed Guard as our Late Soveraign was And our Author with other Malecontents that think themselves highly wronged because they are not rewarded according to their deserts should meet him with another Armed Company and fight him he may kill his person
Zachary did abselve the French from their Oath of Allegiance his reason is for Hottoman a French-man and a Lawyer denieth that Chilperick was deposed by the Popes authoritie or that his Kingdom was given to Pepin but that all this was transacted by the authoritie of the great Council of that Nation as appears by ancient Annals which shew that there was no need of absolving the Subjects from that Oath which also Pope Zachary utterly denied for in the French Histories it is recorded as Hottoman and Girardus witness That the French did from the beginning reserve to themselves a power as of chusing so of deposing their Kings and that they were not wont to swear any other Fidelitie to the Kings whom they created than that they would yield them Faith and Allegiance if their Kings did perform that which they also swore to do So that if the King by male-administration first broke his Oath there was no need of the Pope the perfidiousness of the King having absolved the subjects from their Oath Yet lest this Invention of Milton's own should not be of weight to clear his Holiness he brings the Popes infallible testimonie for himself Pope Zachary says he who you say did arrogate that authoritie to himself excuseth it and lays it on the People for the Popes words are these If the Prince be obnoxious to the People by whose beneficence he possesseth his Kingdom the People that make the King may depose him So that the result of all is the Pope and Fanatick are agreed in this Principle The Majestas realis is in the People as Bellarmine with Buchanan do assert and They that create the King may destroy him with the same breath How industrious this Mercenarie man is to vindicate the Pope whenas his own Creatures acknowledge that he was the Dux Gregis the grand Instrument of dethroning that King and sharing his Inheritance In a Dialogue between Theophilus a Christian and Philander a Jesuit Bishop Bilson p. 418. of Christian Subjection brings in Theophilus saying Your Law doth not stick to boast that Zacharias deposed Childerick King of France and placed Pepin in his room Philander answers And so he did Theoph. Who says so besides you Philand Platina saith Ejus authoritate regnum Franciae Pipino adjudicatur By Zachary 's authoritie the Kingdom of France was adjudged to Pepin And Frisingensis affirmeth that Pepin was absolved from the Oath of Allegiance by Pope Steven which he had given to Childerick and so were the rest of the Nobles of France and then the King being shaven and thrust into a Monasterie Pepin was anointed King which you think much the Pope should do in our days Theoph. Zachary was consulted with whether it might lawfully be done or no he did not openly intermeddle with the matter whatever his privie practices were though many of your Bishops and Monks to grace the Pope make it his onely act But hear Zachary 's own words when Volorade and Burchard were sent to understand his judgment I find saith he in the sacred storie of Divine Scripture that the people fell away from their wretchless and lascivious King that despised the Counsel of the Wise men of his Realm and created a sufficient man of themselves King This was likely the case of Jeroboam who had a special Warrant from God God himself allowing their doings All power and rule belongs to God Princes are his Ministers and therefore chosen for the people that they should follow the Will of God and not do what they list All that he hath as Power Glorie Riches Honour and Dignitie he receiveth of the People the People create the King and may when the cause requireth forsake the King It is therefore lawful for the Franks refusing this Monster Childerick to chuse one able in War and Peace by his wisdom to protect and keep in safetie their Wives Children Parents Goods and Lives This is the Popes Divinitie saith Bishop Bilson that Kings have their power of the People which the Scripture saith they have from God Now as to the Annals of France it is true that the Pope had not intirely grasped the power of deposing Princes in those days but made use of other Instruments yet this was done say the Annals Pontifice prius consulto as Sabellicus and the Gloss in verb. Deposuit i. e. deponentibus consensit The true reason was this Pepin was a man on whom the Pope relied to quell the Lombards and defeat the Grecians that he and Pepin might divide the Spoils of the West as it came to pass for the Emperour was turned out of Italy Now let the Reader judge how diligent an Advocate Milton is for the Pope that notwithstanding his own words advising it and the testimonie of his own creatures affirming it and the matter of fact and the event demonstrating it would yet excuse him from having a hand in deposing of that French King And is this a fit Guide for our Modern Writers Is it not possible as our Author says but to take many things from Doleman in the case of Succession and many more from Milton when you would irritate or defend the People of England in case of Resistance and Regicide Have the Boutefeus of this Age nothing to set the Nation into a flame but those Firebrands which were rak'd up in the Ashes of that prosligate Villain Milton who pleaded the Cause of the Pope Gratis and for money that of Good God! what a Spirit of Rebellion is spread over the Land when as it was observed by Dr. Heylen at the beginning of the last unnatural War No times were more full of Odious Pamphlets no Pamphlets more aplauded nor more dearly bought than such as do most deeply wound those Powers and Dignities to which the Law hath made us subject Methinks we are like the man in the Gospel Matth. 12.44 out of whom the unclean Spirit being cast out it walked up and down through drie places seeking rest and finding none then said he I will return to my house from whence I came out and finding it emptie swept and garnished he taketh with him seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first Deus avertat Omen I beg my Readers pardon that I may animadvert a little on these Libellers and acquaint them that to their Progenitors we owed the kindling fomenting and inflaming those late Wars that made us a confusion at home a scorn and a reproach abroad Prynne Burton and Bastwick were like so many Foxes let loose and encouraged like the Priests and Preco's of Mars to scatter Fire-brands through the Nation Nor would the times permit a little water to be sprinkled for the quenching of them but fed them with oyl The Laws were silenced and out-lawed then as they are now as if indeed we were inter Arma there wanted not scourges to punish them but an arm to inflict the legal
his People Therefore we must take away all pretences of the lawfulness of Resistance or we must grant All pretences to be lawful that the People shall judge so to be Therefore the Scripture hath forbidden resistance in any case as our Law grounded on Scripture and Reason hath also done on any pretence whatsoever It had been enough to oppose Bishop Vsher's sole Judgment against our Author's Bishop Vsher of the power of Princes p. 214. The patience of the Saints was not onely seen in the Primitive Persecutions but continued as well under the Arian Emperours who retaining the name of Christians did endeavour with all their power to advance that damnable Heresie but also under Julian himself who utterly revolted from the very profession of the Name of Christ. Sr. Augustine observed the same on Psal 124. Julian was an Infidel an Apostate and Idolater yet Milites Christiani servierunt Imperatori Insideli Christian Souldiers served this Heathen Emperour When they came to the Cause of Christ they would acknowledge no Lord but him in Heaven but when he said Go forth to fight Invade such a Nation they presently obeyed They were subject to their Temporal Lord for his sake that was their Eternal Lord. The Arian Persecution by Constantius who had also Apostatized from the true Faith was as violent and of much longer continuance than that of Julian yet though the Christians had then as you pretend the Laws on their side they made no resistance I am constrained to repeat this again because I meet with a contrary Assertion in Mr. Hunt p. 153. I must remember him saith he out of Socrates Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 38. when the Souldiers of the Arian Emperour Constantius were by his command sent to enforce them to become Arians they took Arms in defence of their Religion Where I perceive as great a Lawyer as Mr. Hunt is he hath taken honest John Milton into his Consult who says Chap. 44. of the Primitive Christians Idem bellum Constantio indixerunt quantum in se erat Imperio vita spoliarunt That they waged War with Constantius and as much as in them lay spoiled him of his Life and Empire This being said by Milton how notoriously false soever Mr. Hunt is ready to assert the truth of it and makes an offer of as good Authoritie for it as ever Milton did for the Kings Condemnation as will appear by the History This passage refers us to a horrible Relation of the Arian Persecution acted by Macedonius who procured Edicts from that Emperour to force the Christians to the Arian infidelity The History begins chap. 27. Macedonius after the death of Paul Bishop of Constantinople who was banished first and then slain in exile by the Arians Athanasius hardly escaping them enters on those Churches who having great power with the Emperour stirred up as great Wars and Cruelties between the Christians themselves as any that were acted by the Tyrants and he got his impious actings to be confirmed by the Emperours Edicts Presently he proclaims the Edicts in all the Cities and the Souldiers are enjoyned to assist him The Orthodox are banished not onely from their Churches but their Cities Then they constrain the people against their wills to communicate with the Arians and used as great violence as ever any of those used that forced the Christians to the worshipping of Idols applying Whips Tortures and all kind of Cruelties Some were Sequestred of all their Goods others Banished many died under their Torments and those that were to be Banished were slain in the way These Cruelties were practised throughout all the Cities of the East-part of the Empire especially at Constantinople This Persecution when Macedonius was made Bishop was increased more than before of which Socrates in chap. 38 gives a fuller relation p. 142 Edit Valesii That he then persecuted not onely Catholicks but the Novatians also who agreed with the Catholicks in the Consubstantiality Both were oppressed with intolerable mischiefs Agellius the Bishop of the Novatians is forced to flee but many eminent for their piety were apprehended and tormented for refusing to communicate with them and after other Tortures they gagg'd their Moueths with Wood and forced their Sacrament into them which was to those good men the greatest torment of all They also forced the Women and Children to receive their Baptism If any resisted they used Whips Bonds Imprisonment and other cruelties of which it shall suffice to relate one or two instances leaving the Auditors to judge by them of the inhumane actings of Macedonius and his Party Such Women as would not communicate with them they first squeezed their Breasts in a Box and then cut them off some with Iron and others with Causticks of scalding Eggs. A new kind of torment never used by the Heathen against us Christians was invented by these who professed Christianity These things I am informed of saith Socrates by Auxanontes a very old man a Presbyter of the Novatian Church who before he was made Presbyter endured many indignities being cast into Prison with one Alexander a Paphlagonian and beaten with many stripes whereof this Alexander died in prison but Auxanontes lived to endure more torments I have not time to translate the entire History which may be read in that Chapter I shall therefore come to that part of it related to by Mr. Hunt which is thus Macedonius hearing that in the Province of Paphlagonia especially at Mantinium there were such a multitude of Novatians as could not be expelled by the Arian Ecclesiasticks procures four Companies of Souldiers to force them to turn Arians They in defence of their Sect armed themselves with despair as with Weapons and gathering together in a Body with Hooks and Hatchets and what Weapons were at hand met the Souldiers in which scuffle many of the Paphlagonians and neer all the Souldiers were slain This I heard saith Socrates from a Paphlagonian that was in the Fight And he adds that the Emperour himself was offended with Macedonius for this action I should indeed have wondered at the confidence of Mr. Hunt in accusing from this story the Orthodox for arming themselves in defence of their Profession when it was onely a rout of Novatians that were by the Arian crueltie driven to despair that defended themselves against them But I am so transported at another saying of his that I have no admiration of any thing else how false or pernicious soever You shall find it p. 192. of his Treatise concerning the Succession where having suggested that if the D. be not excluded he doth certainly make us miserable and mincing the matter a little saying We exclude onely his Person not his Posteritie he is not afraid to add And we will not entail a War upon the Nation though for the Sake and Interest of the glorious Familie of the STVARTS The speech is so heinous that it cannot admit any aggravation Well may such men as he and his Plagiary seek to
call the King to an account the Estate is Democratical if the Peers it is Aristocratical but if indeed it be Monarchical neither nor both can judge their Prince In the first Homily against Rebellion p. 1. our Church says that in reading of the Holy Scriptures we shall find in very many places as well of the Old Testament as the New That Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do reign by Gods Ordinance and that Subjects are bound to obey them The Augustan Confession Article 16. Christians must necessarily obey the present Magistrates and Laws except when they command to sin French Confession Article 11. We ought to obey Laws and Statures pay Tribute and bear other burdens of Subjection and undergo the Yoke with a good will although the Magistrates should be Infidels so that Gods soveraign Authoritie remains inviolate The Belgick Confession All men of what dignitie qualitie or state soever they be must subject themselves unto the lawful Magistrates pay them Imposts and Tributes and please and obey them in all things not repugnant to the Word of God Also pray for them that God would be pleased to direct them in all their actions that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life under them in all pietie and honestie The Helvetick Confession Let all Subjects honour and reverence the Magistrate as the Minister of God Let them love and assist him and pray for him as their Father let them obey him in all his just and equitable Commands and pay all Imposts Tributes and other Dues faithfully and willingly And in case of War let them also lay down their lives and spill their bloud for the good of the Publick and of the Magistrate willingly vailiantly and cheerfully For he that opposeth himself to the Magistrate provoketh the heavie wrath of God upon himself The Bohemian Confession Let every one yield subjection in all things not contrarie to God to the Higher Powers and their Officers whether good or bad The Saxonick Confession The more a Christian is sincere in Faith the more he ought to subject himself to the publick Laws But I shall end where I began with the Doctrine of our Martyrs and Confessors who sealed with their bloud the Truths that they published with their Pens for whom in vain do we build and garnish Monuments of Fame to their memories while we are Apostates from their Doctrine and Practice The first Reformers of our Religion in the Institution of a Christian man on the Fifth Commandment say That Subjects be bound not to withdraw their Fealtie Truth Love and Obedience from their prince FOR ANY CAVSE WHATSOEVER IT BE ne for any cause may they conspire against his person ne do any thing towards the hinderance or hurt thereof or of his estate And by his Commandment they are bound to obey all the Laws Proclamations Precepts and Commandments made by their Princes and Governours except they be against the Commandment of God And likewise they be bound to obey all such as are in Authoritie under their Prince as far as he will have them obeyed They must also give unto their Prince aid help and assistance whensoever he shall require the same either for suretie preservation or maintenance of his Person and Estate or of the Realm or of the defence of any of the same against all persons And there be many examples in Scripture of the vengeance of God that hath fallen upon RVLERS and such as have been disobedient to their Princes But one principal example to be noted is of the Rebellion of Core Dathan and Abiram made against their Governours Moses and Aaron For punishment of which Rebels God not onely caused the Earth to open and to swallow them down and a great number of other people with them with their houses and all their substance but caused also a fire to descend from Heaven and to burn up two hundred and fiftie Captains which conspired with them in the Rebellion And again on the Sixth Commandment No Subjects may draw their Sword against their Prince for what cause soever it be nor against any others saving for lawful defence without their Princes license And it is their dutie to draw their Swords for the defence of their Prince and Realm whensoever the Prince shall command And although Princes which be the chief and supreme Heads of Realms do otherwise than they ought yet God hath assigned no Judges over them in this world but will have the judgment of them reserved to himself Sir John Cheek who was Tutor to King Edword the Sixth and a person of great Learning and Integrity in his Book called The true Subject to the Rebel speaks to this purpose If you were offered persecution for Religion you ought to fly for it and yet you intend to fight If you would stand in the truth you ought to suffer like Martyrs and you would slay like Tyrants Thus for Religion you keep no Religion and neither will follow the Council of Christ nor the Constancy of Martyrs And then asking the people why they should not like that Religion which Gods word established the Primitive Church authorized and the whole consent of the Parliament confirmed and his Majesty had set forth he says Dare you Commons take upon you more Learning than the Chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realm have I suppose that the Author of Julians Life might transcribe that Act of Queen Mary above-mentioned out of Mr. Prynnes second part of the Loyalty of pious Christians c. where we have it printed at large p. 65. from whence he might very honestly have told us Mr. Prynnes Judgment of such Prayers as were made against the Queen who p. 64. says That Queen Maries zealous Protestant Bishops Ministers and Subjects likewise made constant prayers for her But some over-zealous Anabaptistical Fanaticks using some unchristian expressions in their prayers against her That God would cut her off and shorten her daies occasioned this special Act against such prayers And having repeated the Act he adds p. 66. These prayers were much against and direstly contrary to the Judgment of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Farrer Bishop Hooper Rowland Taylor John Philpot John Bradford Edward Crome John Rogers Laurence Sanders Edward Laurence Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon and others of our Godly Protestant Bishops and Ministers who soon after suffered as Martyrs They in their Letter May 8. 1554. professing that as Obedient Subjects we shall behave our selves towards Queen Mary and all that be in authority and not cease to pray to God for them that he would govern them all generally and particularly with the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace and so we heartily desire and humbly pray all men to do in no point consenting to any kind of Rebellion or Sedition against our Soveraign Lady the Queens Highness but where they cannot obey but they must disobey God there to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer as well what the will and pleasure
of the higher Powers shall adjudge as we are ready through the goodness of the Lord to suffer whatsoever they shall judge us unto And Bishop Hooper wrote an Apologie against the Slanderous report made of him that he should encourage and maintain such as cursed Queen Mary printed 1552. wherein his Innocence and Loyalty to the Queen in praying for her are vindicated at large So far Mr. Prynne Take the sence of one Marian Martyr more Mr. William Tindal in a Book de Christiani hominis Obedientia saying In every Kingdom the King which hath no Superiour iudgeth of all things and therefore he that endeavoureth or intendeth any mischief or calmity against the Prince that is a Tyrant or a Persecutor or whosoever with a forward hand doth touch the Lords Anointed he is a Rebel against God and resisteth the Ordinance of God And as it is not lawful upon any pretence to resist the King so it is not lawful to rise up against the Kings Officer or Magistrate that is sent by the King for the execution of those things that are commanded by the King And Mr. Barus in Tract de Humanis Constitut saith That the Servants of Chrict rather than commit any evil or resist any Magistrate ought patiently to suffer the loss of their goods and the tearing of their members Nay the Christian after the example of Christ his Master ought to suffer the bitterest death for Truth and Righteousness sake and therefore who ever shall rebel under pretence of Religion aeternae damnationis erit reus Now these men gave their Opinions for Passive Obedience even before Queen Mary had altered the Laws i. e. their Religion was by the established Laws of the Land the onely allowed Religion yet they were far from defending it by resistance and Rebellion It is a difficult matter to perswade them to suffer that never knew what it was to obey such as were educated in a time of Rebellion and instead of being catechized in the Principles of the Gospel were from their childhood taught how to stand on their guard and defie their Governours and being become wealthie by the Spoils wrested by themselves or their Ancestors from the King the Church or their more Religious and Loyal Brethren think that Providence will justifie them in all their Seditious attempts and that the Millennium of Christs reign upon Earth is begun and that all Laws now must be subservient to the support of that Perswasion of theirs and that their Religion hath been in full and quiet possession ever since 42 at least and therefore to teach men now that they ought to suffer rather than resist their lawful Princes is the Mahometan Doctrine of the Bow-string which is indeed the whole Oeconomie of the Gospel as will appear by what followeth If we compare Deut. 28. with Matth. 15. it will appear that as Prosperitie was the Blessing of the Old Testament so Persecution is of the New And there is no Robberie in the Exchange for though we are called to forsake house friends and lands for Christs sake we shall receive in this time a hundred fold though with persecution Mark 10.40 besides the Aureola or double Crown in the life to come How comes it then to pass that the Doctrine of the Cross is become Foolishness and a Stumbling-block to us Christians as it was to the Jews and Greeks That which was the Glorie of the Apostles and esteemed above earthly Kingdoms by the Primitive Christians even the Crown of Martyrdom is now trampled on despised and discredited as the reward of Fools and men wearie of their lives The Gnosticks drew tears from the Apostles eyes when he considered how they both taught and practised the lawfulness of denying Christ in times of persecution Phil. 3.18 Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you with weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ Such were crept in among the Galatians who by all art and industrie increased their numbers that they might not suffer persecution for the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.12 But God forbid saith the Apostle that I should rejoyce save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified to me and I unto the world The Scars that Souldiers receive in the service of their Prince are esteemed Marks of Honour and every pettie Prince can lead forth Legions to look Death in the face at his command Every new Sect can boast of their Dipticks and Martyrologies and there is scarce a good man in the world but some or other would even dare to die for him And what difficulties do affright men of resolution when they contend but for a Garland of Flowers or Laurel fading and unsatisfactorie rewards And hath our blessed Redeemer onely so ill deserved of us for all the great things that he hath done both for our Souls and Bodies or is he only so unable to requite our service and labour of love that we should forsake him when a small Storm threatneth us or falls upon our heads When Henry the Fourth of France was engaged in fight against his Enemies and his Friends began to give ground he minds them what a Reproach it would be to the Nobilitie and Gentrie of France that of all their numbers there were not fiftie that stood by him in the Camp that had thousands waiting on him in his Court Pudet haec opprobria c. It is no rash fruitless or desperate designe that our Saviour calls us to He forewarned us at our first entrance to our Holy Profession that we could not be his Disciples except we deny our selves and take up the Cross and follow him and he that doth not so saith our Saviour is not worthy of me Matth. 10.38 Matth. 16.24 Luke 14.27 Nor is it fruitless he hath wise and great ends not onely for the glorie of his Father but the good of his Church in every affliction that Vine as well as the common ones spreads and prospers the more when it is at the wisdom of the Vine-dresser watered with blood As in lesser afflictions God chastiseth us for our good that we may be partakers of his Holiness so doth he with greater that he may bring us to glory Many a man might have perished eternally if they had not perished temporally God by his Righteous judgments calling their sins to remembrance and working in them repentance unto life Behold saith St. James we count them happy that endure You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pittiful and of tender mercy Jobs Graces had not given so great a light and ground of Consolation to the world if they had not been tryed in the fire of affliction which is so needful for the purging out our Corruption that we are told All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and that we must through Many tribulations enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
Mr. Hunt's Preface and Postscript THe Author of the life of Julian having taken his Measures and chief Materials from the late Libels of Mr. Hunt and both of them their whole Scheme from John Milton's Defence of that most execrable Murther committed on the Royal Martyr by those whom he calls the People of England who were indeed the very scum and off-scouring the reproach and pests of the Nation I shall make my way to the Confutation of the first by some Remarks on the Writings of the other And whereas I did onely occasionally reflect on some passages of the Postscript of Mr. Hunt in my Answer to the Life of Julian I shall now more particularly examine those other seditious and treasonable Writings of Mr. Hunt which since came to my hand The first Pamphlet which I have answered in the precedent Papers is the Life of Julian He begins his Preface to the Reader with a story of Mahomets Horns half Fire and half Snow which by altering the phrase he borrowed from a parallel expression of Mr. Hunt's upon the like occasion for he compares the Addressers to those pleasant Knaves that cry with one side of the face and laugh with the other Postscr p. 13. And to him that acted a grave Spaniard with one side of his body and a brisk French-man with the other This drew on his conceit of Guelphs and Gibellines and it was very easie by so strong a Chain of thoughts as our Author hath to pass from Spain and France into Turky with the Religion and Manners of which Country he seems better acquainted than with that of Christendom or else he would never have compared the Doctrine of the Cross with the Mahometan Doctrine of the Bow-string p. 8. of his Preface But sure he stretcht his Chain very much when from the Address of the men of Rippon thanking his Majestie for his Declaration to govern by Laws and to maintain the established Religion and to call frequent Parliaments and desiring that the Crown might descend in the right Line he concludes that they prayed against all these and made it their humble request that they might be sure of a Popish Successour and were weary of their Religion p. 5 6. But he broke every link of this Chain when though he put on his considering-Cap he could not find any Precedent or Example for such an Address But presently had an imperfect remembrance for such indeed it was of the contrary Carriage of tho Primitive Christians towards Julian whereas our Author might more easily and fitter to his purpose have remembred the Behaviour of some other Christians as they professed themselves towards King Charles the First and then he might have deserved the Office of a City-Remembrancer But he wickedly and I hope by what I shall discover in vain endeavours to impose his Seditious Doctrine on the Nation For this Notorious Plagiary hath taken his whole design as Mr. Hunt had done before him from an Argument of that profligate Villain John Milton whereby he attempted to defend the Murther of our Royal Martyr and that some passages in the Life of Julian have the same malignant aspect and influence I have shewn in my Observations on a passage quoted by our Author out of Sozomen in commendation of Regicide So that his Chain of Thoughts will hang no more together than a Rope of Sand for he runs so far from the Loyal Addressers as to fall in with Rebels and Regicides His whole design is to justifie Resistance of Lawful Powers in defence of that Religion which we profess and allow of especially when we are in possession of that Religion and it is established by Law though by the way both the established Religion and Christianity it self as well as the Laws of the Land are ipso facto destroyed by resistance This Leviathan fancying to himself a wide difference between the Case of those Christians that lived under Julian and the Case of the first Christians sports himself in the depth of this great Invention and scoffs at all the Arguments brought for Obedience and Subjection from the Primitive Christians before Constantine as the Leviathan in Job 41. who esteemed Iron as Straw and Brass as rotten wood and laugheth at the shaking of the Spear Their case saith he of the Christians in Julians time and that of the Primitive Christians was as widely different as Laws for men and against men can possibly make them Yet for ought I see be the Laws for or against his Doctrine of Resistance it must be swallowed for though he tells us that our Laws do not admit of such thoughts as his Julian Christians did put in practice yet the design must on or the whole labour of our Author must perish And who can help it when men will build on the Sand and daub with untempered Mortar such as blood and slime whatever cost or time is bestowed on such a Fabrick is cast away and the fall of it will be great On this false supposition these two Master-builders with whom I am now accounting do with an unaccountable Confidence lay the stress of all their Discourses And though I have said enough to destroy this false Hypothesis in the Answer yet because they think to supersede the Arguments brought for Obedience from the practice of the first Christians for three hundred years and perswade the present Age that they do not at all concern us but that we may rather do as the Julian Christians did that is rail at and resist our Superiours having our Religion established by Law though both our Religion and Law declare precisely that we may not resist for any pretence whatsoever I shall add somewhat here to prevent that prejudice and preoccupation which our Authors have falsly and maliciously insinuated And to this end I shall prove that the Christians in Julians time were under the same Government and circumstances abstracted from the Christian Religion with those of the first three hundred years and if they had resisted it was altogether as unjustifiable as that of those Primitive Christians would have been or ours now can be Cicero acquaints us wherein the Imperial Power did consist when it was first founded among the Romans l. 3. de Legibus in these words Regio Imperio duo sunto iique praeeundo judicando consulendo Praetores Judices Consules appellantor Militiae Summum jus habento nemini parento Ollis salus Populi Suprema Lex esto i. e. Let there be two persons in the Royal Empire and let them be called from their precedence Praetors from their Judicature Judges from their Consultations Consuls Let them have the highest command of the Militia Let them obey no man Let the safety of the people be to them the Supream Law How this latter Clause is to be understood is fully resolved in the preceding Discourse But all these do certainly amount to an Absolute uncontrolable power which being first setled in the two Consuls was afterward by the Senate conferred
on Augustus and called the Lex Regia by which it was declared that Quicquid per Epistolam statuit cognoscens decrevit aut per Edictum propalavit Lex esto Whatever he should determine by his Epistle whatever he should decree upon Cognizance or declare by his Edict should be a Law This very power of the Empire was in being when our Saviour and his Apostles lived on the Earth who though they were far remote from Rome yet precisely submitted to the Roman Emperours and did indispensibly oblige his Disciples in all times to come to do the same because the powers that then were though an Augustus Nero or Claudian Heathen and Persecutors were ordained of God to be his Ministers to bear the Sword to receive Tribute and Custom Fear and Honour c. And that therefore they must needs be subject not onely for fear of wrath but for the Lords sake and for Conscience sake And the obedience which was to be given them is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be at their Command as Souldiers are to their General and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to obey them at a word Titus 3.1 Hence it was I mean from the Roman Laws not from the Scripture that Dion says of Augustus that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Free and of absolute Authoritie both over himself and over the Laws for Rex est Lex viva reipsa praecipit ut Lex per scriptum That the Emperour is a living Law and commands as much by word as the Law doth by writing and the S.P.Q.R. by their own abbreviation became an unintelligible Cypher Thus the Roman Empire continued until the Reign of Constantine or else he could not have propagated the Christian Religion so much as he did by his Edicts there being as is supposed many strict Laws against it And it is not to be credited by Christians that the Imperial power should be disanulled by their becoming Christians If it be said that they themselves did consent to the abridgment of it let the Records be produced and let the Donation of Constantine in this respect be more probable than that fictitious one which the Pope produceth for the Western Empire of which I have spoken in another place See the History of the Donatists What was done by Constantine who was not baptized till the latter end of his Reign and made many Edicts for the toleration of all Religions as is shewn in the foregoing Papers will scarce amount to an Establishment of the Christian Religion But granting that he had to the utmost of his power established the Christian Religion yet his Successor thought himself not at all obliged by his Edicts for by the same Reason that Constantius should be bound by the Edicts of Constantine Constantine should be bound by the Edicts of Dioclesian for the persecution of Christians But as our Author hath observed from Gregory Nazianzen who speaking of Julian's Souldiers who were most of them Christians and yet besides the Law of God knew no other Law than the Will of their Prince Invective 1. p. 75. And in truth if the Christian Emperours had been explicitly and absolutely bound up to their Subjects to maintain their Religion and Priviledges which by the favour and grace of those Emperours were granted to them and the Subjects left at liberty to defend and obey their Emperours the Emperours had been in a worse condition than their Subjects for upon the Peoples changing of their Religion as we know they did when almost the whole World became Arians they might have resisted their most Orthodox Emperours as Mr. Hunt affirms they actually did in the Reign of Constantius But what Religion could the Christians plead that they were long in possession of and was established by Laws When Constantius nothing regarding the Constitutions of his Predecessor did with all his might and frequent Edicts establish the Arian Religion and suppress the Orthodox hath been already shewn Besides there were Vrbes liberae not onely free Cities but free Nations under the Romans who were govern'd by their own Laws and Magistrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they held inviolable Of this nature Josephus l. 16. c. 4. of his Antiquities observes the Asian Churches mentioned in the Revelations to be who had jus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a right of Liberty and legal Priviledges yet did none of those Churches ever plead their Priviledges or plead exemption from the Emperours Edicts Yea Christ himself who might have pleaded exemption from paying tribute unto Caesar the Children as he says being free yet to avoid scandal he works a Miracle for the payment of it and enjoyns his Disciples to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars The weight of these and those other Arguments which follow will I doubt not sink that Triumphant Arch which our Author hath raised into those Quick-sands on which he grounded it And I shall now proceed to erect a lasting Pillar to the perpetual Infamy of this Author upon such firm and impregnable grounds as shall continue against all the impetuous but impotent blasts of this Boreas It hath been accounted a good method for refuting of Errours to reduce them to their first Principles and Originals Be it known then to all men that our Author hath bid defiance to the Laws of God and Man in teaching the Doctrine of Resistance which was never taught among any Christians until Popery was come to its perfection That he hath as much as in him lierh scandalized and even condemned the Primitive Christians as allowing of and practising that intolerable Doctrine of Resistance That both he and Mr. Hunt have defended this Doctrine by the same Arguments as the Jesuits John Milton and other Regicides have done That John Milton c. received the same Principles from Mr. Burton Mr. Burroughs Bridge Marshal and others in defence of the late Vnnatural War against Charles the First That their design is to raise another War on the same grounds against their present Prince And though they seem to blind their designs by preparing onely to exclude a Popish Successour yet 't is beyond denial that all the Arguments of the Author of Julian are levelled against the Prince that is in possession and that he doth with the shew of Authority recommend the assassination of such a Prince and that Mr. Hunt's Original far exceeds the Transcript in such impious designs If this Character be not black enough let him that reads and understands onely subscribe the name of the Author of the Life of Julian with that of Mr. Hunt In perpetuam Rei memoriam and you have all in two words As for Mr. Hunt if this passage which I shall name do not amount to more direct Treason than those for which he says he would indite a great person no less than a Secretary of State of Treason in a plea for the Succession I think there can be no such thing The Paragraph p.
in him That he may if he please use the consent of Parliaments to assist the Reason of his Laws when he shall give any but it is a great condescention in Kings to give a Reason for what they do and a diminution to their most unaccountable Prerogative That they are for a Popish Successor and no Parliament and do as much as in them lies give up our ancient Government and the Protestant Religion the true Christian Faith to the absolute Will of a Popish Successor giving him a Divine Right to extirpate Gods true Religion established among us by Law and to evacuate our Government by his absolute pleasure Then after a little pause having almost run himself out of breath to tell the Nation these Falshoods he thus inlargeth himself p. 2. That just now when we are under the dread of a Popish Successor some of our Clergie are illuminated into a Mysterie That any Authoritie in the Government not derived from the King and that is not to yield to his absolute Will was rebellious and against the Divine Right and Authoritie of Kings in the establishment against which no Vsage or Prescription to the contrarie or in abatement of it is to be allowed That all Rights are ambulatorie and depend for their continuance on his pleasure So that though the Reformation was made here by the Government established by Law and hath acquired Civil Rights not to be altered but by the King and the three Estates these men yet speak says our Lawyer as if they envied the Rights of their own Religion and had a mind to reduce the Church back again into a state and condition of being persecuted and designed that she should be stripped of her legal Immunities and Defensatives and brought back to the deplorable helpless condition of Prayers and Tears do utterly abandon and neglect all the provisions that Gods providence hath made for their protection Nay by this their new Hypothesis they put it by Divine Right in the power of a Popish Successour when he pleaseth at once by a single indisputable and irresistable decree to destroy our Religion and Government That they believe no Plot but a Presbyterian Plot for of them they believe all ill and call whom they please by that hated name and boldly avow that Popery is more eligible than Presbytery for by that they shall have greater Revenues and more authority and rule over the Lay-men A heavy Charge this saith Mr. Hunt p. 4. if true but he is sure it is imputable but to a few though he had told us in the Preface that many too many were so corrupted and in many places he speaks indefinitely of the whole Order Now our Lawyer cannot but know that it lies on him who hath divulged these slanders to make proof of them though he pretends they were objected by others And all the Conforming Clergy are cast under the suspition of these unsufferable Crimes If Mr. Hunt had any regard to the welfare of the Church he would have singled out such Criminals and brought them to shame and condign punishment there being sufficient Laws for the punishment of them and it being the interest of the Magistrates to free the Church and State from such pests A Judas may creep in among Christs own Disciples and a Jonah hide himself in the bottom of the Ship But doubtless it is the interest of all that are in such a Ship to have them discovered and cast out that the storms which threaten their common destruction may be allayed especially when as Mr. Hunt says they come often under observation frequent publick houses and talk loud He that doth not according to his power seek to prevent these evils is consenting to and contracts the guilt of them Qui non vetat cum potest jubet But it consists not with Mr. Hunts design to do the Church such a real Service as to free her from such miscreants but to involve the whole Clergy under the same defamation that they may fall under the same condemnation To this end instead of extenuating the number of such he aggravates their faults as 1. Being such as may choak the Constancy Resolution and Zeal of the most addicted to the Service of the Church-men 2. That they are acted by the Papists 3. That they are agreeable to and indeed make up the most modern Project and Scheme of the Popish Plot. And 4. That They deserve to suffer as the betrayers of their Country and to be prosecuted with greater shame and ignominy than the Traditores were by the Ancient Christians And thus having breathed a while he this ill-natured Lawyer begins to lash our good-natured Divines again Vpon such scandalous and false Suggestions as these it is saith he that the generality of the Clergie who any way appear for a Christian Subjection to the King and a defence of the established Government of the Church are represented as Popishly affected and betrayers of the True Protestant Religion and the Laws c. I would have Mr. Hunt to answer his own Question p. 101. What Fines and Imprisonments Pillories and Scourgings do they deserve that persecute the Church with revilings when they themselves are tolerated It must be some large Bribe or promise of the publick Faith that thus ingageth our Lawyer to support a dying Cause and to take part as well with Papists as Fanaticks to bring the English Reformation into contempt For what neerer way is there to effect it than first to represent those who he says established our Religion in Queen Elizabeths days to be assertors and promoters of the Doctrine of King-killing Secondly to affirm That in the days of King Charles the first by preaching up the Divinity of Kings and their Absolute power that unnatural War was begun And Thirdly p. 7. That at his Majesties return Fanaticism had expired if some peevish old and stiff Church-men had not studied obstacles and some craftie States-men had not projected that the continuance of the Schism would be of great service to destroy the Church And for the present Age the Clergy great and small are all under the same condemnation Great Friends to Popery and Arbitrary Government such as have no sense of Reason or Religion such as will not when it is in their power prevent the ruine of their Nation but are either accursed Neuters or else wilful Actors in drawing down the Judgments of God upon us And we are like to have no other the Fountains being corrupted can send forth nothing but unclean streams I pray God preserve the Honourable Inns of Court from such Impostors as Mr. Hunt Let not Mr. Hunt think to hide his Malice against the Clergy by a seeming commendation of their Offices as Apostolical when he adds that Religion may subsist without it and when by all manner of evil arts he seeks to inrage the multitude against them Nor that he is to be taken as a Friend to their persons or maintenance who labours so much to
this Recognition declare so often as he doth particularly in p. 198. that the Succession of the Crown is the right of the whole Community their appointment their constitution and creature in Parliament Did he never read what is said by Grotius de Jure belli He says If a Kingdom descend by Succession an Act of Alienation is in itself null l. 1. c. 4. s 9. Which agrees with what Bishop Sanderson delivered before And Mr. Hunt himself says Grotius is more than ten witnesses and if you add the Bishops I think them of more value than a hundred In quâ tandem Civitate Catilina arbitraris te vivere saith Cicero you that make Hue and cry after such as write for Religion and Loyalty as if they were ready to banish themselves or prove felo's de se consider I pray under what Government you are and though you may escape the Magistrates wrath yet you ought to be solicitous 〈◊〉 you may escape the wrath of God to which you have made your self obnoxious I have but one Remark more on Mr. Hunt which is that he hath consulted another famous Author one Mr. Thomas White who being a Romish Emissary made it his business to continue our distractions This man wrote a Book entituled The Grounds of Obedience and Government And his Motto is Salus Populi Suprema Lex esto whereof I have given you the genuine sence already Now among many other Notes transcribed by Mr. Hunt from this Jesuitical Writer p. 158. he comes to answer the Objections of Divines concerning the Authoritie of Princes and non-resistance Vp steps the Divine saith he to preach us out of Scripture the Dutie we owe to Kings no less than Death and Damnation being the guerdons of Disobedience and Rebellion And p. 159. They will speak Reason too telling us that God by nature is high Lord and Master of all That whoever is in power receiveth his right from him That Obedience consists in doing the Will of him that commandeth and conclude that his Will ought to be obeyed till God taketh away the Obligation i. e. till he who is to be obeyed himself releaseth the Right Besides p. 160. They alledge that God by his special command transferred the Kingdom from Saul to David from Rehoboam to Jeroboam So that in fine all that is brought out of Scripture falleth short of proving that no time can make void the right of a King once given him by the hand of God Now mark what Mr. White says to overthrow the sense of these Scriptures The reason says he of THIS WEAK WAY OF ALLEADGING SCRIPTVRE is that when they read that God commandeth or doth this they look not into Nature to know what this Commanding or Doing is but presently imagine God commands it by express and direct words and doth it by an immediate position of the things said to be done whereas in Nature the Commands are nothing but the natural Light God hath bestowed on Mankind and which is therefore frequently called the Law of Nature Likewise Gods doing a thing is many times onely the course of natural second Causes to which because God gives the Direction and Motion he both doth and is said to do all that is done by them Now to the same end viz. to prove that Kingly Government is not from God but the People and therefore may be altered and resisted and in the same words for the most part doth Mr. Hunt deliver this black invention of Mr. White p. 144. The nature of Government and its Original hath been prejudiced by men that understand nothing but words and Grammar-divines that without contemplating Gods Attributes or the Nature of man or the reasonableness of moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sence of Scripture and infer that Soveraign Power is not of Humane Institution but of Divine Appointment because they find it there written That by him Kings reign Imagining that when the Scripture saith God commands or doth this that God commanded it by express words or doth it by an immediate position of the thing done whereas in nature his Commands are nothing but the natural Light God hath bestowed on Mankind Likewise Gods doing a thing is onely the course of natural and second Causes to which because God gives Direction and Motion he doth both and is said to do all that is done Likewise Gods doing a thing is onely the course of natural and second Causes to which because God gives the Direction or Motion he doth both and is said to do all that is done All this is verbatim Mr. White So is his Raillerie in the same Phrase to bring an Odium on Divines that would prove Government out of the Scripture White calls them Grammar-Divines Verbal and wind-blown Divines p. 162. And Mr. Hunt calls them Men that understand nothing but Words and Grammar-divines Who saith Mr. White without Logick Philosophie or Morality undertake to be Interpreters of the Sacred Bible Who saith Mr. Hunt without contemplating Gods Attributes or the Nature of man or the Reasonableness of Moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sense of the Scripture It is not strange to me having read a Defiance to the Royal Family to read the like against the Clergie But that the Scripture also should suffer and the uncertain and mutable Traditions and Effects of natural Causes be made equivalent with the immediate Commands of God in the Scripture though it be no new thing among Jesuits yet a true Protestant should abhor it The man is so angry that he hath done the ungrateful Bishops any right that he will have satisfaction right or wrong from the rest of the Clergie And though he call the younger sort onely Coxcombs yet his design is to bring the whole Clergy into contempt But any young Divine may draw such Conclusions out of the Premises as might exclude him out of the Society of all good and learned men 1. That to conclude from the sence of Scripture is a weak way of Arguing In this Mr. White and Mr. Hunt consent 2. That non obstante what the Scripture says of Divine Right of Soveraign Power it is not of Divine but Humane Institution 3. That Providence and the Effects of second Causes being influenced by God are of equal Authority with the Precepts enjoyned by the Word of God 4. That the Soveraign Power being but of Humane Institution may be resisted and is alterable 5. That they who mock the Messengers of God do go on to despise the Word of God and abuse his Prophets a sin which often stirs up the Wrath of God so as there is NO REMEDY And this I observe in the behalf of the abused Clergie 6. That having cast off our Loyaltie to our Governours and their Laws puts us in a fair way to cast off the Soveraignty of God and his Laws 7. That the worst of Papists and their most Atheistical Arguments are made use of by some that call themselves true Protestants against the express
take away their good names which like precious Oyntment I hope will send forth the better savour for being thus Chafed Alas we are not so very Dolts but that we know such little Arts to be the daily practice of every Sycophant and Tale-bearer who being minded to disgrace a person useth the same method as Mr. Hunt doth toward the Clergie first to invent then to spread abroad and aggravate their supposed faults or personal infirmities as pretended Friends For thus they insinuate Do you know such a person and do you hear nothing concerning him There is a strong Report that he hath done such and such evil things as will ruine him and all his Family I am heartily sorrie to hear such things of him but they cannot be hid or denied I am much troubled to hear of such gross miscarriages He was in a very good Way and had many advantages of benefitting himself and others but he hath abused them and outlived them all and his high Place and Calling doth but discover his nakedness the more and will precipitate his ruine It could hardly enter into my belief that a person that knows and professeth better things could ever have been guiltie of such Crimes And perhaps you will be as incredulous as I was but they are too true I perceive it is not all gold that glisters How a man may be deceived by an outward form and fucus of Honestie and Religion I thank God I am undeceived my self and hope others will be so too He is a very Wolf in Sheeps clothing a Persecutor of the Righteous who seemed a Preacher of Righteousness c. Have no fellowship or communion with him he is in the very gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity If such Insinuations are vile and odious in a vulgar mouth against a single person how much more vile are they in the printed Harangues of a man of understanding against the whole Order of the Clergie with a malicious designe first to disgrace and then to destroy them Either this Gentleman is well acquainted with the Vniversities and the generality of those that from thence are admitted to the Priesthood or not If he be not he is inexcusable for printing such Scandals against them if he be he cannot but know that there was never better Discipline in the Vniversity never greater Circumspection used concerning such as are admitted to Holy Orders than now there is and that if ever Clerus Anglicanus est stupor Mundi it was true that the English Clergie were the admiration of the world it is so now And therefore the Author of these oblique Reflections strikes at all the Heads of the Vniversities and at all the Bishops in their several Diocesses as if they were the Causers and Promoters of all these Disorders I do therefore appeal first to his own Conscience whether the far greater number both in the Vniversitie and in the Clergie be not men of Learning Integrity Piety and Loyalty and then he should in justice have given them such a character as the major part doth deserve Denominatio sumitur à majore And then I appeal to the testimony of more equal and indifferent men And such a one I take Dr. Burnet to be who for his late Writings had the Thanks of the Nation in a Parliament-way and he deserved it if he had written nothing else but the Testimony which he gives of the present Clergie God hath not so left this Age and Church but there is in it a great number in both the Holy Functions who are perhaps as eminent in the exemplariness of their lives and as diligent in their labours as hath been in any one Church in any Age since Miracles ceased The humility and strictness of life in many of our Prelates and some that were highly born and yet have far outgone some others from whom more might have been expected raiseth them far above censure though perhaps not above envie And when such think not the daily instructing their Neighbours a thing below them but do it with as constant a care as if they were to earn their Bread by it when they are so affable to the meanest Clergie-men that come to them when they are nicely scrupulous about those whom they admit into Holy Orders and so large in their Charities that one would think they were furnished with some unseen ways these things must needs raise great esteem for such Bishops and seem to give some hopes of better times Of all this I may be allowed to speak the more freely since I am led to it by none of those Bribes either of Gratitude or Fear or Hope which are wont to corrupt men to say what they do not think But I were much to blame if in a Work that may perhaps live some time in the world I should onely find fault with what is amiss and not also acknowledge what is so very commendable and praise-worthy And when I look into the inferiour Clergie there are chiefly about this great City of London so many so eminent both for the strictness of their Lives the constancie of their Labours and plain way of Preaching which is now perhaps brought to as great a perfection as ever was since men spoke as they received it immediately from the Holy Ghost the great gentleness of their Deportment to such as differ from them their mutual love and charity and in a word for all the qualities that can adorn Ministers or Christians that if such a number of such men cannot prevail with this debauched Age this one thing to me looks more dismally than all the other affrighting symptoms of our condition That God having sent so many faithful Teachers their labours are still so ineffectual If any man think the Doctor speaks partially let him hear Mr. Hunt's own Testimonie p. 48. of the Postscript Our Age is blessed with a Clergie renownedly learned and prudent And p. 105. he commends our Church for the purity of her Doctrine prudence of her Discipline and her commendable decent and intelligible Devotion This Testimony is true and therefore they who contradict it cannot be too sharply rebuked But what reason can be conceived for these contradictory proceedings This Gentleman I conceive might fancie himself to be Chairman of the Committee for Trial of Ministers and hath taken his Measures for proceeding in that case from the practice of his Predecessors who formed Articles of the like nature against the Clergie of that Age. Imprimis For adhering to the King against his Parliament Item For preaching a necessitie of obedience to the King as Supream and thereby endeavouring to introduce an Arbitrary Power Item For disobeying the Votes and Ordinances of Parliament for demolishing of Superstition and keeping out of Popery Item For defending Episcopacie and Liturgie for not keeping the daies of Fasting and Humiliation appointed to crave a blessing on the Parliaments Forces and the days of Thanksgiving for defeating the Kings designs Item For preaching up Passive
Obedience when the Laws do allow us to make resistance in defence of our Religion our Liberties and Lives Item For insufficiencie not being able to pray ex tempore or to preach without book Witness Dr. Pocock Bishop Sanderson c. Item For administring the Sacrament to all that desired it and for using the Lords Prayer as a Charm Such were the Articles by which a great part of that Clergie was destroyed of whom the world was not worthy With such our Gentleman is still in travel but I hope his labour will be in vain Read some of those Sermons and Treatises which of late years have been published by such as you call young Coxcombs Consider the strains of Piety and Moderation of Reason and Judgement of Industrie and acquired Knowledge and I am confident you will find so little hopes to be believed by others that you will see reason enough not to believe your self Let him talk of the persecution of Julian and other Pagans this which our Author promotes exceeds them all Others did but Occidere Episcopos this man seeks Occidere Episcopatum and under a pretence of pleading and praying for them he contrives how to prey upon them What else meaneth that insinuation which he quotes from Grotius to gain it some Authoritie having bankrupted his own Verso in morem abusu intermitti res ipsas non est infrequens p. 13. of Preface which he applieth to the Episcopal Office Nomen eminentia Episcopalis eorum culpa quibus obtigerat omnem sui perdiderat reverentiam in odium venerat plebis I greatly wondered to hear that Prayer of his against Sacriledge p. 103. He that designs contrives or consents to spoil the Church of any of her Endowments may a secret Curse waste his substance let his Children be Vagabonds and beg their bread in desolate places But when I call to mind Mr. Humphries project for increasing the number of our Bishops whom he would have to be chosen by the several Factions Presbyterian Independent c. and these whether Lay-men or Clergie-men to preside over those Parties it remembred me of a passage of Mr. Hunt's p. 90. of his Postscript where he demands thus Will it be any prejudice that the number of her Bishops be increased and that Suffragans be appointed and approved by the present Bishops c. So that when other Trades fail Mr. Hunt as well as Mr. Humphries may have some hopes of being made Suffragans at least For the Order of Episcopacie may be laid by as he intimates and then some Lay-superintendents may succeed and enjoy their Honours and Revenues Therefore to his Curse I shall add my Prayer for a blessing on Levi Deut. 33.11 Bless Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands smite through the Loins of them that rise up against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again The second Head contains a justification of the late unnatural War p. 6. It is difficult he saith to tell how that late unhappie War began or how it came to issue so tragically in the death of the late King And being to speak in so difficult a case he enters his caution p. 50. I would not be perversly understood by any man as if I went about to justifie our late Wars But it will appear to be Protestatio contra factum P. 102. He says That War would have been impossible if the Churchmen had not maintained the Doctrine that Monarchie was Jure Divino in such a sence that made the King Absolute This was a fiction of Mr. Baxters and through the Loins of the Clergie they strike at the King as if that glorious Prince intended Tyranny But that good Prince was far from any design of ruling by an Arbitrarie power he had no Army nor Mony to raise one but by the contrivance of some men his Father was engaged in an expensive War for the recoverie of the Palatinate which exhausted all the Exchequer and reduced the Royal Family to great necessities and then they failed in their promised Supplies and left him to a precarious way of subsisting and to stretch his Prerogative for the preservation of himself and Family He would have parted with the half of his Power and Prerogative as he often offered to have preserved or restored peace to his Subjects But when he spake to them of Peace they made themselves ready for Battle But were there not some other Doctrines preached in those days which contributed more to the beginning of that War than that of the Divinity of Kings What think you of the Doctrine of the lawfulness of Resistance then preached and printed under the same Arguments as now it is by Mr. Marshal Burton c. What think you of that Doctrine which according to the Jesuits taught That the rise and Original of Government is in the People and that as they gave so they might recall it as they saw cause You know who layeth down the same Principle in a certain Preface That Government is the perfect creature of men in Societie made by pact and consent and not othorwise most certainly not otherwise and therefore most certainly ordainable by the whole Communitie for the safety and preservation of the whole P. 38. of Preface To what tended this other Doctrine That the Authoritie of the King was in the two Houses when they had frighted away his Person That the King was Singulis major but Vniversis minor That Episcopacy was an Antichristian Order and to be stub'd up root and branch That the King Court and Bishops were designing to bring in Popery That our Liturgy was but the Mass-book translated These Doctrines with such Remonstrances Votes and Ordinances began that unhappy War The Associations made in City and Country seizing the Forts and Magazines and Royal Navy and answering all his Messages of Peace with reproaches of his Male-administrations This is that which you call the English Loyalty When they sent out Armies to fight him when they had him Prisoner and voted no more Addresses they were if you will believe them or Mr. Hunt his Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects still Such as these I could as easily prove to be the Doctrines of those times as that they are the Opinions and Practices of too many in these our days though most absurd and dangerous as they are now published by too many besides our two Authors P. 20. Pref. There is little reason to charge the guilt of the unexpiable Murther of our late Excellent King upon Presbyterie which was not thought of here in England till the War was begun And p. 21. Sure this Gentleman hath read very little or dissembleth very much Mr. Cambden in the Life of Queen Elizabeth is full of the Projects and Practices of such as planted the Geneva-Discipline here in England what troubles they occasioned to the Government both in Church and State and what deserved punishments some of them received as Penry and Vdal