justifie resistance of lawful Powers having in effect not onely drawn the Sword but cast away the Scabbard We are told of one that was ready to kick an Emperour and of others that play'd with his Beard but this is little less than kicking at the Crown and striking a blow at the root to render the whole Family as glorious as they made the Father of it Unless he can give some other sence of it than this Rather than not exclude the D. we will exclude the glorious Family of the Stuarts And in what sence he calls it a glorious Family needs his explication But will the Exclusion of the D. as certainly prevent our misery as his Succession effect it Did you never read how zealous some Priests and Pharisees were for a Bill of Exclusion against a far better person John 11.47 48. What do we for this man doth many Miracles if we let him thus alone all men will believe on him the Romans will come take away both our place nation And did not the passing that Bill make way for the Romans to bring all their fears on their own heads And was not our late dear King excluded from Crown Kingdom and life upon such fears and was that a means of our Peace and Happiness I wish I could say our fears now are as false as they were then We have his R. H. Declaration for our Security viz. That the Members of the Church of England are the best supporters of the Crown Insomuch that if it fall to him to be concerned he will ever countenance and preserve them and it And p. 225. Why may we not suppose that a Popish Successor will defend his Regalia against the Pope Our Ancient Kings did so in the Reign of Rich. 2.16 c. 5. In a Statute of Praemunire the Parliament declares That the Crown of England against the Encroachments of the Pope hath been so free at all times that so hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regalty of the same Crown and to none other And God defend say they that it should be submitted to the Pope and the Laws and Statutes of the Realm be by him defeated and avoided at his will in perpetual destruction of the Soveraignty of the King our Lord his Crown Regalty and of all his Realm And I hope his Royal Highness will say as they did God defend Moreover the Commons say That the things so attempted viz. purchasing Bulls from Rome executing Judgments given in the Court of Rome translating of Prelates out of the Realm or from one Preferment to another be clearly against the Kings Crown and Regalty used and approved of the time of all his Progenitors Wherefore they and all the siege Commons of the same Realm will stand with our said Lord the King and his Crown and Regalty in the Cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against him and his Crown and Regalty in all points to live and to dye And moreover they pray the king and him require by way of Justice that he would examine all the Lords in the Parliament as well Spiritual as Temporal severally and all the Estates of the Parliament how they think of the Cases aforesaid which be so openly against the Kings Crown and in derogation of his Regalty how they will stand in the same cases with our Lord the King in upholding the rights of the said Crown and Regalty The like promises were made by the Lords Temporal and Spiritual and the default was to be punished by a Praemunire which is To be put out of the King protection and their Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels forfeited to the King and that they be attached by their bodie if they may be found and brought before the King and his Council there to answer to the Cases aforesaid c. Now if these professed Papists did so resolutely and unanimously contest the Regalia against the Pope what greater zeal and resolution may we justly expect from a Protestant Parliament for such we may have if it be not our own fault if the Pope or any Agents of his should attempt to destroy the foundations of our established Religion and Laws Moreover in the days of Queen Mary we read how much time and what contrivances and largesses it cost that Queen to form a Parliament to lier liking though then the Nation were mostly Papists and how much they contended still for the Regalia against the Pope and reserving of Abby-lands c. to the Purchasers nor when all was done did any man suffer without publick process in form of Law there were no throats cut nor bloudshed by private Messengers or Assassinates as we are taught to expect from every Justice of Peace and Tything man p. 85. and by I know not what Janizaries and that we shall be slain to see what Grimaces we make p. 89. Besides the number that suffered in her five years were not comparable to the number that have been slain in one hours fight during the Rebellion nor indeed to those that were Martyred for their Religion and Loyalty by illegal proceedings in the Mock-Courts of Justice during that Vsurpation the number of the Marian Martyrs being not above three or four hundred though they were too many Now a Wise man should look back upon the mischiefs that have befallen the Nation by resisting the lawful Prince and the endeavours to alter the Succession from the right Heir as well as forward upon the mischiefs that may never be and which upon a supposition of a Popish Successour are aggravated almost beyond a possibilitie of being effected Remember what it cost the Nation when the Succession to the Crown was disputed between the Houses of York and Lancaster There perished in that War as Historians do account two Kings one Prince ten Dukes two Marquesses twentie one Earls twentie seven Lords two Viscounts one Lord Prior one Judge one hundred thirtie nine Knights four hundred twentie one Esquires and of the Gentrie and Commons an incredible number So that in such cases the Remedie is generally worse than the Disease I have not said this God is my witness to abate the just and honest care of the Nation to keep out Poperie by such timely provision as his Majestie and his great Council shall see most probable but to allay the inordinate Hearts which may set the whole Kingdom in a sudden flame onely to prevent the fear of the suffering a Trial of our Faith if God should call us to it And I cannot consider without some horror what sore and long Wars and Devastations may follow upon a Bill of Exclusion as well as on a Popish Successor And if of two evils the least is to be chosen I should rather if the Will of God so be submit to my lot how hard soever under such a One than that the whole Nation should be rent in pieces again either by a Rebellion at home or Invasions
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
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
lived and governed as he did before without the least animosity of his Subjects for his change or any endeavour to introduce any to his Government or People and dying the last Spring left the peaceable and undisturbed Rule of his Subjects to the next Successour his Brother the Bishop of Osnaburg who is a Protestant Now as Solomon says there is no new thing under the Sun but what hath been may be and if we do our duties we may be the more confident of the success of our Prayers That God will endue the Royal Family with his Holy Spirit c.. You do very naughtily therefore to represent the case as impossible and desperate as if God himself could not or would not order this great affair for the good of his People I am almost perswaded that the sins of the Nation to which this clamour against Succession hath given occasion by planting in the hearts of too many malice bitter enmity revilings and even abhorrence of one another is a greater evil than we are yet like to suffer from a Popish Successor And did we think he might prove to be such a one as he is too boldly represented we do very ill to exasperate and imbitter his Spirit by such Libels Slanders and such unlawful Contrivances as in all probability made Julian worse than he would have been I therefore heartily wish that you had spared that Grinning Complement to use your term which you borrowed from Dr. Howel in his life of Julian That if it stand with his H.'s good liking he would enjoy that Religion to the greatest advantage and take his fill of it at the Fountain-head I shall rather pray he may never go thither There are too many Crowned heads at the devotion of his Holiness already Such Complementers I am sure do not pray heartily that God would prosper him with all happiness here and hereafter What to perswade him to cast himself down over some precipice as Curtis did p. 19. of the Character of a Popish Successour or like that mentioned by our Author to be presented to Cromwel p. 87. that to kill himself is no Murther If it be out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh none but men of murtherous intentions will so speak P. 23. You are throughly satisfied you say that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy are Protestant Oaths as a great Assertor of our Religion and Laws now with God thought fit to term them Sir W.J. I confess was a good Lawyer but how he could call them Protestant Oaths I know not * See L. Cooks Reports N. 7. fol. 6. and fol. 7. in Calvins Case And his Institutes Sect. 94. and 259. The Oath of Allegiance was long before the name of Protestants came up King James onely enlarged it and appointed it to be taken of all in Court-Leets at Sixteen Years of age as you have observed Nor is there any new thing at all in that Oath more than what all Protestant Princes do generally require of their Subjects And as for that of Supremacie it is one of the ancient Regalia of the Kings of England which our Parliaments still defended against the encroachments of the Pope so that the thing was in being long before King Henry the Eighth brought it into a form and he was yet a Popish Prince when he did it And I have read that Queen Mary her self would hardly part with the acknowledgement of her Supremacie It is not peculiar then to Protestants or if it were I am afraid that some who term themselves the true Protestants would be found no great Friends to it For there are many other Sects as well as the Anabaptists who are now called sound Protestants refuse it And the late Sanctions were intended equally against them all I agree with you that we are all bound by them to endeavour in our place to keep out Poperie but not by Rebellion and the bringing in of Confusion As to what you say of twisting a Popish Interest with these Oaths as Julian endeavoured to entangle the Christians There are matters more pertinent and more fully related by St. Gregory Nazianzene than by you There was saith he an Anniversarie-day wherein the Emperour bestowed Donatives of Gold on his Souldiers when at the same time he had provided Fire Frankincense and several persons to perswade the Souldiers to kindle the Incense as an ancient Rite and more becoming the Imperial Dignity By such arts and perswasions many of the inconsiderate Souldiers were circumvented and kindled the Frankincense but at their return and feasting together they drank to each other and with Eyes lifted up and using the Sign of the Cross they made mention of Christ Whereupon one of their Companie said What strange thing is this Do ye call on Christ after you have denied him At which they being astonished said How have we denied him what is your meaning He answered By throwing Frankincense into the Fire which is a denial of Christ Whereat leaping up speedily from their Feast they ran forth as so many distracted men into the Market-place proclaiming We are Christians we are Christians in our hearts Let all men hear us and God above all to whom we live and to whom we will die We have not broken our Covenant with thee O Christ our Saviour nor abjured our blessed Profession If our Hands have offended our Minds are not guilty It was not the Gold but the Emperour's fraud that circumvented us We have put off impiety having been purged in bloud Then hasting to the Emperour and with great resolution casting their Gold at his Feet said We have not receiv'd a Donary O Emperour but a Condemnation You called us not to receive marks of Honour but a brand of Ignominy Let your Souldiers receive such Largesses slay and sacrifice us to Christ to whose Empire onely we submit our selves Revenge one fire with another and reduce us to dust for the dust that we have cast into the fire Cut off those hands which we have unhappily stretched out and those Feet that carried us to it Give your Gold to such as may not repent the receiving it Christ alone sufficeth us whom we value above all things Having said thus and informing others of the fraud and exhorted them to recover themselves out of this snare and satisfie Christ even with their Bloud The Emperour though highly provoked would not make a publick slaughter of them who as much as in them lay were desirous of it he commanded them to be banished Methinks here is much of the resolution of the Thebaean Legion who voluntarily offered themselves to death rather than have the guilt of kindling Incense though without any evil intention at the command of the Emperour From whence I gather that these Heroick Christians thought themselves under the same obligation in Julian's time as the Thebaeans did in that of Maximian Which is your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an errour in your foundation as we shall
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-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-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
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
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
your sence nor for being reduced to a State of Bondage through the Wilderness of a new War We are for standing still keeping our places and doing our duties and wait for the Salvation of God Though we were by the wickedness of unreasonable and cruel men deprived of our Moses yet God hath sent us a Josua and with him are the Priests of the Lord and the Ark of his Covenant to which we doubt not the swelling streams of Jordan will give way and we shall yet pass to Canaan on dry land Now let the Reader judge who do abuse the Scripture to serve their turn as Mr. Hunt doth advise p. 46. P. 35. Mr. Hunt becomes an Advocate for a sort of Gibeonites that they may have an act of Comprehension and represents them as a very harmless and friendly people The Dissenters says he have neither power nor will to destroy our RELIGION or Government they are already of our Church and it is expected that they should be Petitioners to the Bishops for their intercession towards the obtaining some indulgence in some little matters that they may bring them into an intire communion with us And again That they are in profession as Loyal as any that boast themselves true Sons of the Church of England p. 19. But though some profess an irreconcileable hatred even in their pleas for Peace the great question is what their practice is and hath been Postscr p. 89. Can any man imagine says he that any prejudice can accrew to the Church of England if she did enlarge her Communion by making the Conditions of it more easie And p. 90. Is it fit that the Peace should be hazarded or the Nation put with reason or without in fear of it or a Kingdom turned into a Shambles for a Ceremony or a Ritual in our publick Worship c. What is it the Advocate of these men pleads for hath he full instructions from his Clients doth he know their minds and what will give them satisfaction What he contends for hath by several men of the Church been granted to them Why may not say you standing at the Sacrament be granted And the signing with the Cross in Baptism be dispensed with when desired When the Dean of St. Pauls and the Bishop of Cork have made some overtures for conceding these things Mr. Baxter answers the first that he made them sibi suis for the advantage of himself and others of his own Perswasion and without taking any notice of them in the latter answers his Discourse with scorn and contempt But our Liturgie must also be altered for their sakes p. 91. you would have more Offices and those we have not so long though some complain they are too many and too short already And for the Rubrick that must be altered not for the present onely as general scruples shall arise and that may be to the worlds end But to answer more particularly you say the Dissenters have neither power nor will to destroy our Religion and Government Answ When they were less considerable for their numbers than now being as you say four fifths of the Nation they had both power and will to effect both What hath been done may be done and Mr. Baxter justly feared that they were Nati ad bis perdendam Remp. Anglicanam That they are the trading and wealthie part of the Nation is generally boasted by themselves We know Mr. Baxter urgeth in the name of his Brethren that there are many hainous sins in our present Constitution that hinder their Conformitie the taking off of which will be an acknowledgement of our guilt and their justification As for the prejudice that may accrue by altering the conditions of our Communion you give us a fair warning p. 93. telling us of the Church of Rome that their Doctrine of Comprehension is so large that they destroy their Religion to increase the number of their Professors by granting the demands of some we shall but encourage others and make them presume to be Judges in their case and quarrels And we have found by sad experience the inconvenience of admitting such as the Country-conformist and the Author of the Life of Julian into our Communion And you say p. 35 and 36 of the Preface That the King and States of the Realm will never suffer so excellent an Ecclesiastical Constitution as we enjoy to be subverted Yet the Dissenters project in Mr. Humphrey's Half-sheet intended to be presented to the Parliament doth certainly tend to her destruction as hath been shewed elsewhere And if the King and States will not admit an alteration you know the Bishops cannot and if the States will not and the Bishops cannot ought not they that would make themselves wiser than their Rulers to submit notwithstanding their scruples against a Ceremony rather than to hazard or disturb the peace of the Kingdom And is it not an unjust complaint of yours of turning it into a Shambles for a Ceremony or a Ritual And to conlude if as you observe p. 92. a discourse managed with almost irresistible Reason Candour Temper and Address be matter of exasperation and they turn again and be more confirmed in their separating way what condescentions will reclaim them P. 36. It is added That absurd Opinion that Dominium fundatur in gratia is charged on those that are for the Exclusion of the Duke And they think that by pronouncing that absurd piece of Latine they have at once put to silence and shame all reasons of Nature Religion and State that urge and require it How we can maintain the Negative against the Papists if we should practise the same as they do on this Position I cannot perceive and therefore we must charge it impartially on all that deserve it Bishop Davenant admits it for good Latine and I think that you quarrel at the words to avoid the sence of the Thesis which that learned Bishop maintained against the Papists concluding that the Pope could not challenge the power of Deposing Kings by any Title but that of Antichrist whose Founder was Hildebrand who like Satan claimed a power to dispose of all the Kingdoms of the World And you your self think that our Saints ought not to do so We come now to the Postscript which he hath told us was written for the sake of our young Divines those good-natur'd Gentlemen who doubtless will return his Civilities His pretence is to answer some Objections that were made against them but in truth they are his own accusations of them which he prosecutes with all the might and malice he can upon this ground because the Bishops must be made out of them and being so bad already he hath foretold how much worse it will be when they sell their Liberty for that Preferment It is said then p. 1. our Author knows by whom That they affirm it to be in the power of a Prince by Divine Right to govern as he pleaseth That the power of the Laws is solely
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
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
the Professors of the true Religion again as if they had once done it already to Slaughters Fire Faggots Tortures Inquisitions and Massacres When the Bishops and Loyal partie were they who suffer'd these or as great tortures as these for their Religion and Loyaltie from the irreligious and Rebelpartie But to undeceive the multitude let them consider by what arts a new War is contrived As 1. By slandering all such as oppose the Association and popular torrent of Sedition and Rebellion as p. 27. of Preface that the number of Addressers may be reduced to the Duke's Pensioners and Creatures That the Addresses have been obtained by application and the design was to make voices for the discontinuance of Parliaments and for a Popish Successor That such as write for the established Government and Religion are a hired sort of Scaramouchy Zanies Merry Andrews and Jack Puddings P. 12. and impeacheth a Secretary of State as a Traytor not considering that one such as John Milton is the chief Engineer and encourager of all Rebellion and Treason 2. By divulging abroad p. 22. That the Nation begins to grow impatient by the delays of publick justice against the Popish Plot though it be well known at whose door that lies That the dissolution of Parliaments gives us cause to fear that the King hath no more business for Parliaments ibid. and p. 17. 3. By animating the multitude to perplex his Majesty with new Addresses telling them p. 30. of Preface So strong is the tye of duty upon him from his Office to prevent publick Calamities as no respect whatsoever no not of the Right Line can discharge nor will he himself ever think if DVLY ADDRESSED that it can And p. 34. At this time if ever the APPLICATIONS of an Active Prudence are required from all honest men And he himself hath given them a Precedent in that Application which he intended it seems for the Seditious rabble We will not entail a War upon the Nation no not for the sake and interest of the Glorious Family of the STUARTS 4. By acquainting the Malecontents that their number is four fifths of the Nation who are such as love and adhere to our Government and Religion though they are rendred suspected of destroying again the English Monarch and the Protestant Religion p. 10. of Postscript And therefore he doth but profane the Name of God p. 95. when he says God be thanked they the Dissenters who are imagined very numerous neither make our Grand-Jury-men nor the Common-halls of the City for choosing the Lord Mayors or Sheriffs 5. By Reprinting such Books as were written in defence of the late War and improving the Arguments for that Rebellion 6. By his pleading for Comprehension and Indulgence which p. 98. he says about ten years since was designed to slight the Churches Works and demolish her by a general Indulgence and Toleration and now they intend to destroy her Garison those that can and will defend her against Popery 7. By publishing it as an undoubted truth and evident in it self That the Succession to the Crown is the people Rights p. 201. 8. By making large Apologies in behalf of those men of whom he speaks p. 96. What animations did their people receive to defie the Church and her Authoritie when their Preachers despised Fines and Imprisonment to their seeming out of pure zeal against her Order And yet he adds It is well know several of them were in Pension and no men have been better received by the Duke than J. J. J. O. E. B. and W. P. c. Ringleaders of the Separation And again p. 98. Consider how the Church of England is used which is truly the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion And it is a pitiful evasion to say that these Fanaticks are acted by the Papists or if it were true they were much more intolerable for that reason and therefore I do with all my heart agree to your Method for rooting out the Popish Plot prescribed p. 99. By suppressing that contumacie that is grown so rife in the Dissenters against the Church of England by putting the revilers of her Establishment and Order under the severest penalties But then Caveat Author To conclude we are certainly as Mr. Hunt calls us a foolish people and unwise a stupid and perverse Generation if we shall reject that gracious and gentle Government whereby God hath hitherto led and preserved us a flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron and exchange for a Saturn or a Moloch that will devour their own Children and make them pass through the fire at their pleasure But From all such Men-monsters from all Sedition Perjurie Conspiracie and Rebellion from all false Doctrine Heresie and Schism from hardness of Heart and contempt of thy Word and Commandments Good Lord deliver us THE Life of Julian INLARGED His Birth and Parentage JVLIAN was Born at Bizantium now called Constantinople His Fathers Name was Constantius Brother to Constantine the Great His Mothers Name was Basilina of a very ancient and Noble Family among the Romans Now although the Empire was intirely devolved on Constantius the Second Son of Constantine his two Brothers Constantine and Constans being dead yet for securing the Empire to himself having a jealous Spirit he contrived the death of his nearest Kindred viz. Constantius Father of our Julian Anniballianus and Dalmatius Caesar which our Author would impute to the outrages of the Souldiery forgetting what he tells his Reader p. 29. That the slaughter of his Kindred was one of those three things whereof Constantius repented him at his death For which he rightly quoteth Naz. Orat. in laudem Athanasii p. 389. How Julian and Gallus his Elder Brother escaped that Massacre our Author leaves uncertain for having said that Gallus being very sick the Souldiers concluded that the disease would kill him and save them the labour and that they thought not Julian dangerous being but five years old yet he would have it attributed to Constantius the Emperor who for ought we read gave no Commission to spare them and had they then dyed would doubtless have found cause to repent of their deaths as well as of the rest of his Kindred That Constantius shewed kindness to his two Cousins after the Death of their Father and Vnkles was no more than Nature and especially the Religion he professed required of him nor could all his kindness to the Children expiate his Cruelty to their Father But that he should cause Gallus to be slain who is noted p. 3. to have been sincerely pious and that after he had given him his * Constantina Sister in Marriage and declared him Caesar and found him a Man of Personal valour and good Conduct and Success I may say of it as our Author doth it was a rash act and yet if it be true that he designed to Invade the Empire not content with the Title and Authority of Caesar it was more excusable than the Death of his other