words of our Royal Martyr of ever Blessed Memory King Charles the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 295. with me Gods wise Providence we know often permits many Events which his revealed Word the only clear safe and fixed Rule of good Actions and good Consciences in no sort approves Let not the meanest in understanding mistake me I am not for Election every Reign but for Succession just as it is in England But I say Election is the true Title of all Government originally and this is the Foundation of all the various Forms in the World Power is Gods but the Form as St. Peter saith is an Humane Creation Constitution or Ordinance I never loved to lye for God's Cause it needs it not nor daub with untempered Mortar God forbids it For my part if I did not in Conscience believe that the late King by his Male-administration deserved what he hath suffered not only from the hand of God but also from the hand of his Subjects and that in this Revolution they are innocent who defended themselves and the Laws of their Country against his Arbitrary Proceedings I should think my self bound by the Oath of Allegiance to pray for his Restauration But because he hath broken his Covenant Coronation Oath and Promise I am sure our part of the Bond and Covenant is cancelled also And that Kings were at first by Election I prove thus in the words of a great Divine not much altered What first invested such a Family with Regal Power more than another It must be either God from Heaven designing it as David or man appointing it or taken by Force there is no fourth It was not the first and to say the third is right is an extream wrong to the King If meer Force can give right then whosoever is most forcible hath right It must therefore be something else What can that be but the consent of the People in Parliament to such a Family which is in effect all one with Election you may give it what name you will But saith this Gentleman P. 28. The Primitive Church in the best times took the words of S. Paul in their plain and literal sense The Powers that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. in Possession are ordained or ordered of God Rom. 13. They never formalize or make any Exception but Conquest Election Vsurpation were to them all alike if once the man was Established in the Throne Answ I will not here take occasion to consider what learned Criticks say about the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on which he seems to lay some stress but they say it signifies the True or Lawful Powers nor will I expatiate in Analyzing this Text tho' I have a Discourse upon this subject by me And I have read such Doctrine as this in some Oliverian Pamphlets in our late Anarchy and Confusion And if occasion be I can produce one which perhaps this Gent. hath seen and hath been corrupted by it or by some like it But sure he never read this Doctrine in any Book written by any Divine of the Church of England I have before distinguished between a Lawful and an Usurped Magistracy according to the best Divines of all Churches that ever I read insomuch that I wonder at this Gentleman who professeth himself of the Communion of the Church of England According to this Doctrine it is a poor weak thing to be a Martyr or to suffer for Loyalty to our King or Country Whereas it hath in all Ages not only among Christians but also among Heathens by the light of Nature been accounted a most Heroick Virtue to lay down our Lives for these If this Gent. had been alive and of years to advise no Subject should have suffered with King Charles the First if he had been their Counsel I am so angry that if I knew Thieves designed to rob this Gent. House I would not counsel one Neighbour to assist against these Rogues but would commit it to God to determine as he thought fit as his Cant is P. 3. which vergeth very near to Blasphemy And this very Phrase makes me think that this honest Gent. hath been misled by some Fanatick Book I cannot think that he ran into this Error wittingly and willingly and deliberately he is a good Christian surely because P. l. he speaks against those that despise all revealed Religion and that sort of Men who have their All in this world and pretend to nothing in the next and therefore I must in Charity believe he hath the Hope of a Christian but I cannot but explode his Doctrine O put'd Divinity Phy upon this gross Machiavelian and Hobbean Policy But to be serious seeing this Gent. hath advised us I will return kindness for kindness and for once be so free with him as to advise him Good Sir In the fear of God review that part of your Discourse which concerns God's Providence and the Government of Kingdoms and States and learn to distinguish between good and bad perhaps your second thoughts may be wiser Consult with some learned and conscientious Divine and see if he will tell you that in the Primitive times their Loyalty was one of their lesser Virtues upon which they never valued themselves as you say P. 3. You discourse in so loose and extravagant a manner that I must beg leave to enter my Dissent and Protest against this Dose of Opium And I never read so much Poison administred with a good design before in my life And if any applaud you for this Discourse I will pray with our Church in the Litany Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us for surely we are not in our senses God save King William and Queen Mary from such Defenders of their Right and Title If you will not be admonished to revoke this in my Opinion you deserve to speak plain English for by God's Providence and King William's Protection we Priests of the Church of England breathe in a free Air. I wish all of us could see our own happiness I hope in time mens Prejudices will be removed and through the Clemency of His most Gracious Majesty chearfully perform their Duty I say you deserve not only to be Excommunicated the Church of England but also the whole Church of God for this wicked Error But I hope our English Blood is still Noble and will count it their Honour and the Glory of their Religion to die for their King and Country when occasion is and God shall call them thereunto And this is true Church of England Loyalty and approved by all the Churches of God But at the rate that you talk if Corah Dathan and Abiram had had success it had been God's Providence and Approbation and so farewel Moses If Absalom had been prosperous and in Possession of the Throne right or wrong see to thy house David What need we commend the Fidelity of Ittai that loyal Heart that noble and constant
Redress Grievances when he thought it necessary if Abishai would kill King Saul he might for him he is not bound to assist It is God's Providence who pulls down one and sets up another Doth not God and Man abhor such Sophistry and Collusion Well fare Passive Obedience it deserves contempt and scorn and to be rooted out of the world if this be it And Good men will make it their business to ridicule and confute it P. 37. for this is one of the worst and most exploded Doctrins of the whole World P. 35. I am sorry he gives such advice as I cannot hearken to to speak modestly of it especially as he hath represented it P. the last And indeed Passive Obedience began to be ridicul'd and exploded by divers of the Clergy and Laity in my hearing some Months before we dreamed of the Prince of Orange's coming to deliver us from our cruel Task-masters the Jesuits and Evil Councellors being convinced of this Error and the many Mischiefs thereof by sence and experience the Mistriss of Fools according to the Proverb as this Gentleman saith P. 22. And now I dare say without transgressing that Rule of Christianity of not rendring railing for railing we are even with this Gentleman for calling us Rebels and inferring this absurd Consequence from our Doctrine That it is Lawful for every man to rebel against his Lawful Prince whenever he thinks it necessary Object But if Defensive Arms are Lawful who shall be Judge when we are oppressed Answ In our Case this Gentleman hath already determined for us that never any Nation was more oppressed And if any man will not stand to his Determination he must I think be wilfully blind However there is no Judge but right Reason for what hath God made us reasonable Creatures but to Judge between Good and Evil Why even of your selves judge ye not what is right is our Saviour's question Luk. 12.57 But indeed great and universal oppression is commonly a thing sensible of which our Senses may be Judges We who justifie Defensive Arms in some Case are as zealous for Government in General and for Monarchy and the English Government and for King William in particular as this Gent. For we have ventured Lives and Fortunes with Him which the Author confesses he hath not And at the rate that he Writes all the Subjects of England or Scotland who came over in Arms with King William are Rebels all that Joyned with Him all that Prayed for his Good Success all the Protestants who defended themselves in Ireland especially Mr. Walker and the London-Derry Protestants are all Damned Rebels because they were Subjects and ought not in any Case to resist the late King And is this the manner of Man O Lord God as he saith But let this Gent. know that the Innocent I mean the Legally Innocent may defend themselves by the Law of Nature and this is written in his and every mans heart And he saith P. 1. The contrary Doctrine was dangerous to the Prince of Orange at his first Landing And indeed if half the People had believed Passive Obedience as most of the Clergy taught and most of the Army seemed to believe He might have lost his Head by venturing to Save us But blessed be God Englishmen would not be frighted out of their senses by a causeless Curse from some weak Prophets or full of prejudice And how any man could declare too soon for the Prince of Orange his now Majesty and so forget his Duty as he saith P. 3. is a Mystery that I would have this Gent. unfold If his Cause was good and just as this Author acknowledgeth who could declare too soon for him Passive Obedience deserves to be rooted out of the World if for no other reason yet for this because it hath blinded this honest Gentleman that he cannot speak well of his best Friends I mean of those who have been Instruments of his Deliverance from that Infatuated Monarch as he writes under whose Government he dreads to live again I hope we have no Court-Parasites and Flatterers who follow the old Maxim Oblige your Enemies Neglect and slight your Friends Cursed be such Policy I confess I am for forgiving Enemies and encouraging the Penitent I hate Cruelty or Severity especially considering so many misled Souls as we have had in England May the King's Throne be Established in Righteousness and may Mercy and Truth preserve the King But let not those who have cheerfully spent their strength in this Cause be slighted or exposed to the Malice of their Enemies Object Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians did not resist the Heathen Roman Persecuting Emperors And this was true Doctrine in Tertullian's time Apol. 1. Cap. 37. as he quotes Pag. 10. If we Christians would become your publick and declared Enemies or secret Revengers of our own Wrongs should we want Force and Number to support it We exceed the Moors the Marcomans and the Parthians or any other one single Nation in the whole World we are but of Yesterday and yet we have filled all your Places your Cities your Islands Castles Corporations Councels Tribes Companies Palace Senate and Forum or Market-Place and we have left you nothing to Enjoy alone but your Temples Now we who so willingly lay down our Lives are we not thereby fitted and prepared do you think to manage any War tho' we were very much inferiour in Number if our Religion did not oblige us rather to suffer Death than to Inflict it We might without Arms or Resistance barely by disagreeing with you and the Envy of a Separation very much endanger and disquiet you for if so great a part of the Empire as we now make should break it self off from the rest and retire into any remote Corner of the World it would certainly confound your Dominions to lose so many Subjects be their quality what it will yea our very departure from you would be a severe Punishment the Desolation and Silence we should leave behind us would strike you with an Horror and Amazement as if the World were expiring you would be forced to seek for new Subjects to supply our places and perhaps we should leave you more Enemies than Subjects or Defenders This place hath been often cited to prove the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and in truth it is a Noble Testimony of the Faith and Patience of those Saints Answ The Laws of the Empire were against them Now Christ came not to destroy or alter Political Government but left it as he found it And he sent his Apostles to reform the world to turn men from darkness to light and from the Power of Satan unto God And accordingly their Weapons were not Carnal but Spiritual They did not like Mahomet and his Followers Conquer the World by force of Arms but did Convince and Convert Jews and Gentiles by working Miracles by the Sword of the Spirit by the Word of God and by Reason Disputation
an offensive way especially such a King who had his Call immediately from Heaven what farther Consequence that concerns our business in hand let any shew from this place that can And some say That David arose with a purpose to slay Saul but changed his Mind in the midst of his Proceedings But I think that David was but a private Person and so had no Authority It is plain that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's Skirt v. 5. Some think his Conscience checked him for the thought of his heart to kill the King But still his Conscience never checked him for keeping men in Arms to defend himself from Saul's oppression for this he did many Years The Person of the King ought to be Sacred but our persons and lives also ought to be defended We may zealously defend our own Innocence Secondly The Subjects may be said to take up Arms as against the King's Command for their own Preservation so we affirm it That it is lawful for Subjects Conjunctively considered or when the Laws of the Country are generally violated and the Oppression is almost Epidemical to take up Arms for Self-preservation against the King's Commands And justifie their Cause by the Law of Nature and right Reason which is not only the Common Law of England but of all Nations For the Law of Nature as Alex. de Ales saith is in us without our Cooperation and of God's putting in and impression Thus having heard my Judgment and our present Cause defended pray have a little Patience to hear my Affection It is written Psal 2.11 Rejoyce with trembling First Let us rejoyce that God of his infinite goodness hath delivered us from our merciless Enemies from a Religion so false and from such foolish Counsellors as would have made us Slaves But Secondly Let it be with trembling when we consider First Our own sinfulness and unworthiness of so good and gracious a Providence Secondly When we consider the dismal Calamities that have befallen His Sacred Majesty through evil Counsellors Let us rejoyce that the snare is broken and we are delivered let us tremble to think of God's righteous Judgments O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the calamities that have befallen this Nation and the Royal Family as the Prophet speaks Jer. 9.1 Our Religion teacheth us Love Goodness Mercy and Compassion Let us not rejoyce at the Calamities of our Enemies but at God's wonderful Mercy to us that our Religion our Laws our Liberties our Lives and our Posterity should be freed from the sink of all Mankind the Tyranny of Jesuits and blood-thirsty Papists Let us bewail our Sins the Cause of Afflictions Necessity nothing but Necessity to defend our selves and our Religion and our Posterity from Popery and Slavery forced us to this last Remedy I rejoyce that we are escaped I am sorry even for the trouble of our very Enemies Well then let us Sin no more lest a worse thing befall us It is true as the Prophet saith The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores Isai 1.5 6. Sacred Majesty laid in the dust requires our Tears our Religion and our Laws revived require our joy Let us be grieved that the Crown is fallen from our Heads for we have sinned Let us rejoyce that God's Honour and Glory is manifested in the Salvation of his Church And as a Testimony of our Thankfulness to God First Let us be humble and lowly in heart ascribing all our Deliverances to God's gracious Providence over his Church Secondly Let us be merciful to others in their distress Let us lighten every burden and break every yoke Let us be patient towards all men and zealous of nothing more than good works and easie to be intreated in a good Matter Let us not oppress the Poor and Needy Let us ease Tender Consciences and perform our Vows made in our distress and do as we would be done by Let us be wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves Let us practice that Religion which we have defended with our utmost Zeal and Lives And this consists in Faith and Good Works Love and Peace Courtesie and Mercy that Glory may be to God in Heaven on Earth Peace and good Will towards Men. Thirdly Let us strive for Union among our selves A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Let us joyn against the common Enemy of our Faith and Religion Let us lay aside our Animosities and not strive for private Interest but for the Publick good Let us seek Peace and insue it as those who love life and may see good days Let us imitate David's Example not seeking private Revenge but the Peace of our Jerusalem and the Prosperity of our Sion that is the Happiness of Church and State Let us heap Coals of Fire on our Adversaries giving them what they denied to us the tenderest thing in the World except God's Glory even Liberty of Conscience It is true as Solomon saith He that winneth Souls is wise But this must be done by Arguments convincing the Judgment not by force and violence He that wins the Heart gains a sure Friend but he that forceth the outward man loseth with great disadvantage what he seemed to have gained when the Compulsion ceaseth Faction may be promoted by rigorous Execution of Laws but Religion never got footing but by Reason and Argument Not that I am against preserving true Religion by Civil Laws if any be so wicked as to invade the Rights of the Established Religion but I am against Persecution for Conscience sake We have all suffered for our Divisions Let this not be a price in the hand of a Fool as Solomon saith Prov. 17.16 to get wisdom seeing he hath no heart to it I hope God hath taught all Protestants by their Afflictions to lay hold of this present Opportunity to Unite else we are very mean Proficients in the School of Christ It is true very few or perhaps none of us here present this day before God have suffered in our Persons Estates or Livelihoods But if we are Christians we should have a Sympathy and Fellow-feeling with our Brethren in Affliction we should be grieved for the Afflictions of Joseph I mean for the Calamities Disgraces Reproaches and Imprisonment of our Fathers and Brethren of the Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commons who opposed Popish Innovations and Arbitrary Power And even we our selves were just at the Pits brink almost fallen but God who heard the Publican's Prayer hath been merciful to us Sinners If we are stubborn obstinate and will nothing relent God can yet consume us by sending an evil Spirit among us but I hope there is a Blessing behind for us and our Posterity If we are Atheists Neuters or Luke-warm like the Church of Laodicea neither hot nor cold if
us into the hands of men as cruel as the Irish were in 41. At which time King Charles I. said Those barbarous Rebels practised such inhumane and unheard of outrages upon his miserable People that no Christian Ear can hear witthout horrour nor Story parallel Let us conclude with Application 1. This teacheth us the vanity and uncertainty of all worldly things Kingdoms themselves are not so fixed as not to be subject to change God changeth the times and seasons saith Dan. c. 2. v. 21. he removeth Kings and sets up Kings God hath rejected many Kings for their wickedness He rejected Saul and took his Kingdom from him The most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will c. 4. v. 25. God hath an hand in all these changes His Providence ruleth over all Of this no Christian doubts And this some call how properly I need not dispute a Providential Right which is by God's Permission Traitors and Usurpers have this Right to the Thrones that they possess This Right as one saith a Slave through God's just Judgment on a Nation may have to the Throne for not a Sparrow falls to the ground without God's Permission This Right both lawful Kings and Usurpers have to the Thrones they possess Athaliah that Murderer of the Royal Family had only this Providential Right which she made appear only by Possession But this Right being neither by Succession nor Conquest nor Compact nor lawful Call of the People gives not just Title nor can expect any Subjection meerly upon that and no other right And the Reason is because when Providential Right crosseth Civil Right a man is not bound to follow Providence but to guide himself by Moral and Divine Precepts For Divine Precepts are perpetual standing Laws by which the Actions of men ought to be guided But Providential Acts were never ordained for Laws or Rules by which men should walk and therefore to such a Right there is no Subjection due 2. It teacheth us the heinous nature and ill consequent of Pride It is enough to ruin a whole Nation the King as well as his Subjects A proud Man is not under God's Protection but forsaken of Him 3. It teacheth the great Mischief of Tyranny and Oppression God and Man hate Oppressors who obstinately refuse good and reasonable Advice Any Bishop or Teacher saith Dr. Bilson P. 3. pag. 1. may reprove Princer when they violate the Precepts of God For God hath placed them in his Church to teach reprove correct and instruct in righteousness 2 Tim. 3.16 as well Princes as others and chargeth them not to conceal one word of that he hath spoken neither for favour nor terrour of any Prince The Will of God must be declared to all and Sin reproved in all without dissembling or flattering any sort or state of men And that is most expedient for all even for Princes themselves rather to hear with Humility what God hath decreed for their Salvation than to run to their own destruction without recalling or warning So Samuel reproved King Saul 1 Sam. 15. Ahijah King Jeroboam 1 Kings 14. Elijah King Ahab 1 Kings 21. Elisha King Jehoram 2 Kings 3. John Baptist King Herod Mar. 6. Neither were wicked Princes only but also the good and virtuous Kings of Judah reproved by the Prophets As namely King David by Nathan 2 Sam. 12. King Jehosaphat by Jehu 2 Chro. 19. And Hezekiah by the Prophet Isaiah 2 Kings 20. But this reproof reached no farther than to putting them in mind of God's Grace and Mercy towards them and their Duty again towards him c. 4. It teacheth Kings to rule justly for otherwise their wickedness will flnd them out If in stead of saving the lives of their Subjects they endeavour to destroy them if instead of punishing the wicked they punish the good and God's Servants if instead of reasonable and lawful Commands they will have their Lusts their Wills and strive to ruin the People committed to their charge without Law or with cruelty rigour and severity without mercy rage against their Subjects they may well expect Divine vengeance and the Judgments of God either immediately or by the hand of their own Subjects who have been threatned or cruelly used and unmercifully or illegally dealt with God hates Oppression in all even in Princes especially the Persecution of his Servants for his true worship and renouncing Idolatry Kings must give Account to God as well as meaner Men for there is no respect of persons with him God is the Judge and he putteth down one and setteth up another as he pleaseth To him be Glory and Dominion for ever Amen FINIS