see to enfeeble the whole Fabrick And here you may be instructed what you ought to say and do when a Prince as you phrase it shall put a border of Popery about his Picture which you would fain honour namely as these noble Confessors did We reverence your Person and Authoritie we will fight your Battles and follow your Commands but if you will draw us to Idolatry though by the Laws we might resist we will rather die at your Feet than do either This is the Faith and Patience of those exemplarie Souldiers and this may serve also to free you from those afflicting thoughts which had almost made you to forget a passage of great consequence which riseth up against all that you have said delivered by St. Augustine on Psal 124. to this effect That the Christian Souldiers served under this Heathen Emperour and where their Religion was not concerned made conscience of obeying him but where it came to the Cause of Christ there they made as much conscience of disobeying him True they would not obey him but neither would they rise up against him though as you take for granted they had the Law on their side They would lose their Lives rather than offend God or rebel against their Emperour which is the very thing that St. Augustin perswades having shewn that Servants must obey their froward Masters Quod de domino ac servo dixi hoc de Regibus intelligite commending Julians Souldiers who for the sake of their Master in Heaven did serve their Earthly master P. 26. You would have the Reader take notice that the whole Contest between Julian and those Christians was purely on the score of Religion and not from any lawless and ungovernable humour And certainly such lawless and ungovernable humours as you mention did no way become the Christian Religion for that instructs us to practice meekness and forbearance not to avenge our selves but to give place to wrath not to speak evil of Dignities or curse the Rulers of the people Whereas you present them under such a black Character as would make some believe that they were the Apostates and Persecutors and not Julian They are almost your own words p. 66. For how do they treat the Emperour reproaching him ruffling him vexing every Vein in his Royal Heart saying all their Prayers backward and calling down vengeance upon his head dancing and leaping for joy at his death and insulting over his Memory and but for the name of Christians he had better fallen among Barbarians and when he often put them in mind of their Christianitie they call him by the bloudiest names of the Devil for telling them they must not avenge themselves nor render evil for evil but pray for and wish well to those that injure and persecute them and tell him he must not think to drive all men up to the top and Pinacle of Virtue for there are several Commands in the Gospel which are no more than Counsels of perfection which bring Honour and Reward to them that keep them but to those that do not keep them no manner of danger at all Pudet haec Opprobria c. I am sorry to hear that distinction applied to the practice of those Vertues which do more especially discriminate Christians and shew them to be of a more excellent spirit than other men For we need such graces as these in our daily conversation and what do we more than others if we onely be kind and loving to them that are so to us Yet this distinction of Counsels and Precepts will be but a sorry excuse for such as neglect those Duties enjoyned Matth. 5.44 c. If these and such-like are Counsels and we may do as the Julian Christians are said to do the design of the Gospel is quite another thing than what all the learned and serious professors of it in all Ages have believed and practised Non tali auxilio aut defensoribus istis Christus egit I have heard of some that have turned the Gospel into Burlesque but it is more strange that one whom I suppose a Minister of the Gospel should make the grand design of it Ridicule P. 26. As for the Souldiers fighting under Julian against the Persians or any common enemy and obeying the word of Command when they received his Pay it is such a low part of Honesty that our Author would have done it himself for his Pay But he that would have fought for Julian will scarce sit down quiet under a Popish Prince which he thinks to be ten times worse than a Julian and probably would rejoyce as much at such a slippery trick as was shewed to Julian in Persia as he saies those Christians did that lived under him For why are these things propounded and applauded but to commend them as examples to the present Generation But I hope we shall not have many such Reformado's You say p. 26. Every body knows how the Church was rent in sunder by Arianism And there might be too much stiffness and rigidness on the other hand about words for ought I know but miserably rent it was which gave great advantage to Julian against the Christian Religion I know not what our Author means in excusing the Arians and charging the Orthodox with too much stiffness What more dangerous Errour could there be than to oppose the Deity of Christ and deny the Lord that bought them In such a Case and when almost the whole world was turned Arian the Orthodox could not be too stout and resolute and if there were so good an Effect of a bad Cause as the Vnion of Christians under Julian I wish our fears of what you call a greater evil might have the like effect on us whose Divisions have not so great a cause as abjuring the Deity of our Saviour was And he that shall extenuate that cause of dissention as if inconsiderable and but a mistake about words as our Author after Mr. Baxter hath done and yet aggravate the grounds of Division among our selves as if the Scrupulosity which the Dissenters so pertinaciously defend were as Mr. Hunt saies from God hath quite out-run the Men of Rippon for Contradictions Zeal like another Satyr he can blow hot and cold he is extremely hot in Punctilio's and as cold in Fundamentals he serves some other Interest than that of Peace Truth or Piety P. 27. Now what did the Christians do Did the Orthodox go and side with Julian to revenge the injuries which they received from the Arians in Constantius 's time or make use of Julians favour which he shewed in restoring them to crush their brethren which dissented from them No there was no seeking to him by either side Onely the Donastists of Africk complemented him and received some small favour from him The design of Julian's recalling the Orthodox Bishops was as Ecclesiastical Historians affirm either to cast an Odium on Constantius who had banished them or to dash them and the Arians and
and patience of Martyrs and Confessors and to applaud the insolencies and extravagancies of the seditious Rabble Let me whisper it softly in your ear I think Julian the Apostate did less prejudice the Christian Religion than such a one as Lucian the Scoffer Mr. Baxter Christian Direct p. 20. I do not think Nero or Dioclesian martyred near so many as the People turned loose would have done Much more was Julian a Protector of the Church from popular rage c. And you shall sooner wash a Black-more white than cleanse your self from that Contagious Leprosie which over-runs your whole Book and I pray God it hath not seized on your Heart which you do in vain endeavour by the following Discourse which I now consider P. 68. you say The truth of the Matter is this Their case differed very much and they were in quite other circumstances than the first Christians were When Julian came to the Crown he found them in full and quiet possession of their Religion which they had enjoyed without interruption for almost fifty years and which was such an inestimable blessing that they had plainly undervalued it if they had not done their utmost to keep it and then to have this treasure wrested out of their hands by one bred up in the bosom of the Church who professed himself a Christian and never pull'd off his Masque till it was too late for them to help themselves this was enough to raise not onely all their Zeal but all their Indignation too Your almost saves your computation of fifty years wherein the Christians enjoyed a full and quiet possession of their Religion without interruption from a great Untruth for it was a good while after Constantine came to the Empire that he did or could shew any great favour to the Christians he being brought up under Dioclesian and not being baptized himself until towards the end of his Reign That he banished Athanasius the great Pillar of the Christian Religion is not to be denyed nor that Constantius was himself an Arian and promoted those destructive errours in such a manner as that the Orthodox Bishops whom Constantius had banished and were recalled by Julian seemed to be in a better condition under him than under Constantius many Bishops being banished for refusing to subscribe against Athanasius and his Creed in the Council of Millain And Athanasius with many others of his perswasion lived in desart places until the death of Constantius So that though the fifty years did run out at length yet in all Constantius his time which was reckoned above twenty years the Orthodox were mightily afflicted by the Arians Donatists and Circumcellians And you may as well say the Church of England had a full and quiet possession of their Religion without interruption in the times of our late Confusion when every Mushrome-Sect sprung up above it as that it was so with the Primitive Christians during the time of Constantius I might add much more but desire the Reader to be satisfied with that one instance of the Arians dealing with old Hosius a Bishop of a hundred years old whom in a Council of theirs at Sirmium they so tormented that they forced him to subscribe to them to save his life And how ill it was with others even in the days of Constantine see the History of the Donatists lately printed But then for the poor Primitive Christians of all they were born to Persecution they neither knew better nor expected it The Laws of the Empire were alwaies in force against them their Religion at best was in the world but upon sufferance as Abraham in the Land of Canaan where he had no Inheritance no not so much as to set his foot on But as his afflicted Posteritie were afterward Lords of that Country so after another Egyptian Bondage Christianitie was advanced to be the established Religion of the Empire All this and much more is but Mr. Hunts Argument in other words for p. 46. he says The Reformed Religion hath acquired a civil Right and the protection of Laws if we ought not to lose our Lives Liberties and Estates but where forfeited by Law we ought much rather not to lose them for the profession of the best Religion which by Law is made the publick National Religion And it is strange that some men of the same Religion in profession can think that notwithstanding it makes no matter what is done to a man if he be Religious but if he be not so the least publick injuries and injustice may be resisted vindicated remedied and by right defended by old Laws or new ones to be made for that purpose The Christian Religion was publisht when the whole world was Pagan and therefore it was submitted to such usage as the Governours would give it But when the Christian Faith had by Miracles of patience declared it self to be of Heaven according to the Prophecies on that behalf it took possession of the Empire and Crowns and Scepters became submitted to the Cross and the Christians acquired a civil Right of protection and immunity which they ought not they cannot relinquish and abandon no more than they can destroy themselves Such as thus perish shall never wear a Martyrs Crown but perish in the next world for perishin in this This will be interpretatively Crucifying Christ afresh after that he is received up into Glory i. e. after his Religion is exalted into Dignity Honour and civil Authority c. Thus far Simeon and Levi are agreed and these were precious hints to our Julian for till he hit on this new Notion there was nothing in the whole Book that favoured of Common sence or had any shew of Reason but his Pages as the Builders of Babel misunderstand one another and what one builds up the other throws down and after a long evaporation of smoak and ashes and sometimes fire as ancient Historians relate of Aetna our modern Historian makes the same Mountain to pour out such a deluge of Water as drowns all the Faith and Patience Christian men and leaves onely Julian to triumph at the overthrow of Christianity If these men be not in too great haste and their Guilt and Fears drive them not into Corners I would expostulate with them a while Can the Laws of men make void the Law of God and have you Authoritie to distinguish where the Law of God makes no distinction Doth not that speak plain that we must submit not onely to Masters that are good and gentle but also to the froward 1 Pet. 2.18 and to Parents that correct us according to their pleasure and the believing Wife is to submit her self to her unbelieving Husband in every thing Eph. 5.24 not contrary to Gods Word and is it not true that what is said of the submission of Servants Children and Wives the same may be said of Subjects as St. Augustine affirms after Gregory Nazianzen Was a Heathen Emperour to be submitted to in all things and not a
such as our selves we cannot persecute So that either the Emperour's Will was a Law or else they suffered contrarie to Law Therefore the truth of the matter is this Our Author had committed an errour in the Foundation and now is forced to patch and daub for hiding of it He supposeth the Christians in Julian's time did generally do or approve of what he represents some few of the weak and ungovernable part to have done the contrarie whereof as to the sounder more learned and pious bodie of the Christians of that Age hath been sufficiently demonstrated So that I shall now appeal to the Judgement of the Reader and to the Conscience of the Author if it be not seared whether this be not the plain truth of the matter which follows The Primitive Christians for the first 300 years abounded in Christian simplicitie they never relished the pleasures of the World Ambition and Covetousness never possest nor adulterated their spirits the Bloud and Spirit of Christ and his Apostles ran warm in their Veins and leapt for joy as brisk as generous Wine when it was poured out for the Gospel sake to bear witness to the truths thereof Then it was that they were afraid to speak evil of Dignities in the Church or State then it was said Ecce quam se invicem diligunt Behold how they love one another Then it was that such Dissenters that betrayed any truth of the Gospel or any of their Fathers or Brethren were branded with the black character of Traditores or Traitors If ever we will learn puritie of Doctrine or innocencie of Life we must take our measures from the Example and Practice of those Primitive times whenas yet they had so many Apostolical Guides among them that sealed their Doctrine with their bloud as Clemens and Ignatius and Polycarp Justine Martyr Irenaeus c. And therefore we of all others should abhor the Doctrine of Resistance on pretence of the Laws when our Laws say We may not resist under any pretence whatsoever Again is not this the truth of the matter that when Constantine established the Church in outward splendour and Christianitie was the way to Preferment and Secular honours and advantages Hodie Venenum infusum est Ecclesioe From thenceforward the sins of Ambition Emulation and Contention imbittered and poisoned their Spirits they grew wanton and began to vex and disquiet their Governours to supplant bite and devour one another And Constantine himself favoured the Cause of Arius But when Constantius espoused and made it the established Religion then like Jonas Gourd Arianism and Donatism sprung up in a night and over-topt the whole Church Totus mundus miratur se factum Arianum Then it was that Christ was crucified afresh indeed when his Deity was openly denied and disputed and those few Christians that with Athanasius Basil Apollinaris and some others defended it were banished and accounted Impostors and Seducers of the people and dealt with accordingly And from hence most probably it was that Julian first learnt the Principles of his Apostacie which were improved by the Pagan Philosophers that were his Tutors who could disprove the Divinity of Christ from the Doctrine of the Arians that were the greatest part of Professing Christians and Julian made use of some of their Arguments against Christianity concluding that if he were not God he ought not to be worshipped And that Apostate often expressed a greater favour to Arius and particularly to George an Arian Bishop of Alexandria whose writings he made use of against the Christians ut Ecclesiam suis configeret telis than to any of the most pious learned Catholicks Moreover Julian perceived that the hatred and contention of Christians was so implacable that his giving them the reins would be a means to destroy them without his use of the Sword or Whip to drive them on as when the dogs and wolves had declared war the wolves sent a spy to discover their numbers who brought word their number was great but their colours were divers and they did so snarl and quarrel with each other that they were not to be feared at all But though the truth of the Matter appears yet we are not come to the root of the Matter for that is not grounded on Truth and the bitter root lieth deep under the ground and this it is saith our Author The first Christians suffered according to the Laws of their Country whereas these under Julian were persecuted contrarie to Law Against which though I have said enough already to convince impartial men yet I shall now add this further I wonder how such men can plead the Laws of the Country against Persecution who every day persecute those Laws and live in open defiance and opposition of them contriving and practising how to over-throw the Religion and Government established by those Laws If the Julian Christians did as you say pray for the Destruction of their Emperours reproach and brave them to their very beards and threaten to kick them I wonder what Law of the Land did maintain such practices or if they could have found out some such Law yet the Law of God being violated by such practices God might justly punish them for the breach of his Laws for no Law of man that is temporarie and mutable can indemnifie us against the Laws of God This is a Maxime with Lawyers as Lelius de privilegiis Eccl. Nulla lex valèat contra jus Divinum But p. 68. Julian found their Religion in quiet possession What Religion I pray was then in full and quiet possession If any it was the Arian which your self cannot call Christian except you add dissenting And if as it hath been said it were as bad as Popery it was worse than Paganism Perhaps this is the Religion of our Author for no man likely can deride the Doctrine but he that denies the Deity of Christ But I have so far a good opinion of you that you considered this and do not therefore give it the Appellative of Christian Religion but the proper name of their Religion viz. the Arians or dissenting Christians If this were not the Religion that was in full and quiet possession what was it to revile and threaten and pray for the destruction of the Emperour and to contend earnestly against the Divinity of Christ as Constantius Julian's predecessor did who as Bishop Vsher observes promoted that damnable errour with all his might Was this that which you call the reigning Religion So was that in Cromwels days when Iniquity was established by a Law such as that lawless Vsurper could procure Can you produce any Vniversal Laws made by Constantine that the Christian Religion should obtain throughout all his Dominions Licinius and Maximian cruelly oppressed them long after Constantine came to the Throne And his Senate consisted of unconverted Romans for a great part Eusebius chap. 55. of the Life of Constantine says he compelled none to turn Christians and chap. 59. forbid any one
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
Kindred who were never reported to design any such thing It had been most commendable in Constantius if as he provided a Royal Palace for the Education of his Kinsmen so being himself a Christian Emperour he had more carefully provided for their Christian Education That Age had as many Learned Bishops well skilled in all Humane Literature as any one before or since and yet Constantius permitted the Seeds of Superstition and Paganism to be sown in that rank Soyl as soon as those of Christianity and 't is no wonder if our corrupt nature being left at liberty prefer that Religion which is accommodated to its lusts to that which especially tends to the suppressing and extirpation of them And if Corn and Weeds be permitted to grow together in a fertile ground it is no wonder to see the weeds to outgrow the Corn. His Education AS soon as he was Seven years old he was committed to the Tuition of Mardonius an Eunuch by whom he was put to learn Grammar and Rhetorick in the publick Schools of Constantinople Nicocles a Lacedemonian taught him Grammar and the famous Turn-coat Ecebolius taught him Rhetorick Libanius the Heathen Philosopher had a famous School at that time in Constantinople whose Works Julian procured and read with great delight and in a little time becomes familiarly acquainted with him often frequenting his School and as the manner of the Grecian Scholars was he adventured to declaim publickly against the Christians and p. 4. our Author says he would dispute hard with his Brother in favour of the Heathen pretending that he only tryed how he could hold the weaker side of a Question He profited much in that sort of Philosophy which Iamblicus taught being a mixture of the Opinions of Plato and Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which he calls himself a zealot and shewed great honour and kindness to Iamblicus These were the Masters which Mardonius his Tutor procured for him and were the Corruptors of his Youth for being of a light and desultory Wit and withal very industrious and inquisitive after knowledge he hastily imbibed such Principles as his Tutors instilled He tells us himself in his Misopogon what he learnt under this Mardonius which he relates to the Athenians The Names of Plato Socrates Aristotle and Theophrastus are much talked of with derision This old Man Mardonius having foolishly he speaks by Irony observed their dictates perswaded me being a Boy desirous to learn that if I would tread in their paths I should be better not onely than other men but than my self And I for what could I do else obeying my old Tutor cannot change any thing though I desire it never so much And I accuse my self that I did open a more free admission to all the Vices of that old Man For thus he taught me out of Plato That Man is worthy of Honour who offends not but he that deters others from offending is worthy of more than double Honour The first is profitable to himself alone the others to many that brings the Delinquent before the Magistrates and if he also joyn in punishing the injurious this is a noble and complete Citizen and may be called a Conquerour in the conflict of Vertue This and some other Moral Vertues wherein Julian perceived the generality of Christians to be defective as to their practice raised in him a great opinion of his Pagan Tutors and from Lectures of Morality he proceeds to learn more curious Arts. For After this Maximus an Ephesian Philosopher who was by Valentinian put to death for his Impostures and Magical Arts taught Julian to cast Nativities and make Divinations and initiated him to the Mysteries of Magick And as if he had not enough of those devilisbs Arts he sollicites a Journey to Athens pretending to see Greece and to be acquainted with their Schools where he grew into a familiar acquaintance with the best of the Heathen Philosophers of that Age which abounded with many that were excellent Moralists A Heathen Writer Ammianus Marcell l. 22. c. 3. says that Julian from the very first instructions of his childhood was given to the Worship of the Heathen Gods and Idols It is no wonder if having such Tutors he became zealously affected to the same This was his study while his Brother Gallus was living and as soon as he understood of his death which was an unnatural barbarous action and raised great prejudices against the Christian Religion he was greatly discontented and diligently inquired by those who were skilled in Curious arts what would become of him Twenty years together he dissembled himself to be a Christian and attained to great knowledge in that Religion but rather that he might know how to oppose it for as St. Augustine observes l. 5. c. 21. De Civ Dei Cujus egregiam indolem decipit amore dominandi sacrilega detestanda curiositas A sacrilegious and accursed Curiositie perverted his excellent wit However his proficiency in Christianity preferred him to be a Reader of the Holy Scriptures to the people and those Arguments of his which were learnedly and satisfactorily answered by St. Cyril Bishop of Alexandria do demonstrate his Knowledge both of the Old and New Testament for which he was admitted into Holy Orders Now how could Constantius expect but that Julian being put to such Nurses he should suck in such milk as they yielded Neglectis urenda silex innascitur agris His Apostacie is imputed to these three causes First To the levitie of his Nature Secondly To his love of Magical Arts. Thirdly To his ambition of the Empire When Gallus was put to death the Emperour had such informations that Julian conspired also against him that he resolved to put him to death also but by the intercession of Eusebia the Empress he was sent for to appear at Court and by her intercession and favour was not only preserved but within a short time declared Caesar and the Emperor to ingratiate him the more gave him his Sister Helena to Wise Before we give an account of his Actions while he was Caesar it will be convenient to give the Reader A Character of his Person and Disposition HE was of a middle Stature his Hair soft and hanged down his Beard long and sharp a full and rolling Eye comely Eyebrows and a streight Nose his Mouth somewhat large his Under-lip seemed divided his Neck fat his Shoulders broad and large and from the Head to the Foot his Members were proportionable and well joyned so that he was made both for Strength and Activitie Gregory Nazianzene who knew him at Athens gives this description of him That his Neck inclined forward his Shoulders often in motion that he had a wandring Eye and furious Aspect his Feet unstable his Nose and Lineaments of his Face were ridiculous and signified scornfulness in his Apparel sordid his Laughter was loud and frequent his Grants and Denials were without reason his Speech slow and interrupted his Questions hastie and
his Charge There remains nothing to the perfecting our Establishment but the casting out those Jonahs which lie asleep in the bottom of the Ship I mean our sins which have caused the wrath of God to kindle those fires in the midst of us which may justly make us as desolate as Sodom or Gomorrha That with penitent Tears fervent and unanimous Prayers seasonable and serious reformation of our Lives we would deprecate Gods displeasure and that yet he would make us of one heart and mind in considering and doing the things that belong to our peace before they are hid from our eyes That in these things I may do some acceptable service to the Church of Christ on Earth and with it have my Reward in Heaven is the hearty Prayers and great Ambition of Your Graces most humble and most dutiful Servant Tho. Long. L. Cook 's third part of Institutes p. 36. PEruse over all Books Records and Histories and you shall find a Principle in Law a Rule in Reason and a Tryal in Experience That Treason doth ever produce fatal and final destruction to the Offender and never attains to the desired end two incidents inseparable thereunto And therefore let all men abandon it as the poysonous Bait of the Devil and follow the Precept in Holy Scripture Serve God and honour the King and have no company with the Seditious Mr. Hunt's Preface to the Argument for Bishops OUr Adversaries were treated too kindly and deserve sharper reflections than are made upon them for their false and perverse Reasonings and ought to lose that Reputation which they abuse to the hurt of the Government Nor is it for the honour of our Faculty that never fails to supply the worst Cause with Advocates ERRATA PAge 17. line 4. r. Or. In the Preface for Cyril r. Gregory in four places p. 46. l. 1. r. contradictious Zeal p. 49. r. Justitia p. 50. r. templa p. 90. r. Constantium p. 91. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 96. dele And Basil p. 107. r. Annum ibid. for Curtis r. Curtius p. 124. after patience add of p. 129. r. confirmed p. 152. r. though p. 185. r. atrocia p. 189. r. paries p. 205. r. Sumus p. 224. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 226. r. foretold p. 233. r. Reges ibid. r. Depravari p. 242. l. 25. r. Or. ibid. r. suppose p. 262. dele after the fifth line four lines which are doubled TO THE READER AS often as I consider the numerous Pamphlets which the Scribblers of this Age have brought forth it calls to my mind what I have read of a sort of Indian Rats which are said to be pregnant whilst they are in the belly of their Dams Every Libel propagates such a numberless Issue that as one observed of the increase of Faction the first Separation might say to its Off-spring Arise Separation and go to thy Separation for thy Separation's Separation hath a Separation But of all the Libels that have been lately written none are more fruitful as it is mostly with Venomous Creatures than those which have been written against the Established Government There was a Swarm of such in the Late Vnhappie Times and some of the Authors as well as that sort of Writings are yet alive or revived to create new Disturbances And as Horace observes Aetas parentum pejor avis Tulit progeniem vitiosiorem Every Pamphlet hath more of venome than that from whence it had its birth Prynne Burton and Bastwick were the Great Grandsires of this monstrous Progenie The Covenanters Nye Marshal and the Smectymnuans were their genuine Off-spring To these succeed notwithstanding the peremptory Vote for Exclusion John Goodwin Owen Harington and Baxter all right Commonwealths-men with Milton and May and many others whose Writings have by men of like Principles been reviewed reprinted and recommended to the present Age. I shall onely instance in the Treatise now under consideration which hath contracted and improved the Antimonarchical principles which lay scattered in the Authors last mentioned and in the Character of the Popish Successor Plato Redivivus and other seditious Pamphlets but especially from Mr. Hunt's Postscript for certainly our Author's teeth were set on edge by Mr. Hunt's sowre Grapes and he makes it his business to blow up the Coals which he had kinled The great Notion on which all his Discourse is builded is from Mr. Hunt p. 46 47. And facile est inventis addere Let no man says Mr. Hunt betray his Countrie and Religion by pretending the example of the patience and sufferings of the Primitive Christians for our Rule The Reformed Religion hath acquired a Civil right and the protection of Laws If we ought not to lose our Lives Liberties and Estates but where forfeited by Law we ought much rather not to lose them for the profession of the best Religion which by Law is made the Publick National Religion c. This gave occasion to the greatest part of his Book which is a loud and notorious Calumny against the Primitive Christians viz. their patient submission to their unjust and cruel Persecutors From Mr. Hunt he took his instance of Mary Queen of Scots of whom he speaks p. 48. and says Scarce a Child but hath heard what was done said and maintained by the Clergie of England in the case of Mary Queen of Scots a Popish Successor in the earliest time of our Reformation Vpon this our Author paraphraseth at large from p. 12. to the 18th of his Preface His deriding of the Succession in the right Line is taken from Mr. Hunt p. 47. If any be so vain as to say that a lawful course of Succession is established among us by Divine Right he is a man fitted to believe Transubstantiation and the Infallibility of the Pope And our Authors Comments on this fill many pages Concerning Arbitrary Power compare Mr. Hunt p. 42. and 52. with the 78. of our Author 's and p. 241. Mr. Hunt minded him of the Doctrine of Sibthorpe and Manwaring of which in p. 77. P. 47. Mr. Hunt's Comparison between Popery and Paganism gave him a Text for another part of his book and from a hint in p. 49. That we must not suspend all the legal security we have for our preservation upon the life of our present King there are a hundred hints for that one to prepare people for actual Resistance and Rebellion Thus the Leprosie of Naaman cleaves to this covetous Gehazi and spreads it self through the whole book so as it becomes a continued Scab And I pray God it may creep no farther But for this one thing our Author is very culpable that having got these and many other Materials for his Babel he never mentions his Founder Onely p. 88. he says A worthy person hath lately observed That one single Arm unresisted may go a great way in murdering a Nation But works of darkness hate the light and therefore he thought fit to conceal both their names The Author of the Life
for well-doing and take it patiently this is acceptable with God 1 Pet. 2.20 And if it be the Will of God if shall be so we must learn of David though in another case Psal 39.8 I was dumb and opened not my mouth for it was thy doing P. 5. You seem not satisfied with Hippocrates Receipt of Citò longè tardè which preserved many Confessors in the days of Queen Mary and is prescribed by a greater than Hippocrates in this very case If they persecute you in one City flee to another Matth. 10.23 You are for Fires and Fumes of Pitch and Tar c. for Imprisonment and close Confinement even of innocent persons The Papists indeed apply such Causticks in cases of Heresie Apostacy and Tyranny but I never read that the Primitive Christians used them against their Princes not against Dioclesian a Tyrant Constantius an Arian or Julian an Apostate Nay even the Doctors of Rome forbid such Medicines even in the case of Tyranny without which the other two may not much hurt a sound Christian till the Disease be universalis manifesta cum obstinatione i. e. till after they find all other means ineffectual and he is resolved to make a total overthrow of his People Concerning which we are yet in the dark as to our own Case and you give us some light to comfort us when you say p. 65. of Julian's Persecution That it was but a flea-biting a short and weak assault of the Devil and that he was rather a Tempter than a Persecutor which makes their behaviour towards him if it were so barbarous as you represent it the less excusable Until a Plague be epidemical and wasting it is not charitable nor just to confine suspected persons much less them that are sound and to deal with them as persons destined to destruction to bury them alive and to make their own Relations instruments of these severities who may justly fear the like are intended for themselves Though some intend onely to lop off a degenerate Branch yet having got the Ax in their hand others may make use of it to strike a blow at the Root and to answer your Parenthesis plain English is as well understood on this side Trent as the other so that there is more fear lest we should lose a Protestant King as we have once already than a Popish Successor for though such an one may be deprecated as a Judgment and may prove as a Plague to the Nation yet may we not presently cut Throats to prevent what may never come or if it should make use of a Remedy worse than the Disease for Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 That Remedy which you suppose may be effectual to prevent this mischief will prove to be of that nature which is a Compound of belying the Primitive Christians and betraying Modern ones into a sin of Rebellion which may do more hurt as Experience hath shewn us than all the Arts and Witchcrafts of Julian In writing of whose Life you have not I confess impoverished the Subject p. 6. for you have onely weeded it as Mr. Baxter hath done the Ecclesiastical History in his Profane one of the Bishops and Councils P. 7. You say you wrote this discourse onely to render that of Julian 's Succession intelligible It is a strange course you take to make his Succession intelligible which you your self confess was from God by a legal descent and most agreeable to the Laws of the Roman Empire and yet seek to overthrow it you had done more to your purpose if you had shewn what party of Christians they were and on what grounds of Religion or Law they went what Sedition or Armies the Christians had raised to oppose his Succession of all which you give us not the least notice you onely suppose that if Constantius had known Julian's Religion before he was Emperour he would have gotten a Bill of Exclusion or if not the Christians would have resisted him And from their behaviour towards him after he was Emperour which is scandalously represented as is also the carriage of former Christians you would reconcile the Christian Religion and Rebellion This you have done intelligibly enough but that the Christians did or would have resisted his Succession I find no shew of Argument or Historie onely you give us some Rhetorical expressions out of St. Cyril's Invectives from which you infer more than the Premises will bear And you do not report as it becomes an Historian but onely suggest adde and invent what may insnare your Readers I ingenuously confess I do not believe all that St. Cyril speaks in praise of Constantius nor against Julian Panegyricks and Stelliteuticks have not the authoritie of true Histories with discerning men P. 7. You say your business is to shew how wide a difference there was betwixt the Case of Christians in Julian 's time and that of the first Christians and make it as great as Laws for men and against men could possibly make it yet you confess that what you have written is contrary to what is commonly reported of them and to the carriage of former Christians It is then some such New Light as Jo. Goodwin's Doctrine of Resistance that is your Guide but you take no notice of the unalterable Laws of God which bind all men in all Ages to be subject to the Higher Powers without distinction not onely for fear of Wrath but for Conscience sake There are few men that intend a Rebellion but will pretend to have the Laws on their side and if they may be Judges in their own Case will as certainly condemn the Legislator as dispute his Laws It were well if you would keep close to your Principle That the Laws of your Country are the Measures of your civil Obedience I am sure you want none to require your active Obedience to the just Laws of your Prince nor your passive Obedience if at any time you suffer wrongfully And this is not injoyn'd by Mahomet but by Christ himself it is the Doctrine of the Cross and not of the Bow-string The violation of the Law on the Princes side doth not discharge the Obligation of the Subjects they are under a higher Law than that of the Land The chief Magistrate's obliging himself to certain Rules for administration of his Government is not the just Measure or chiefest Tye of the Subjects Obedience The eternal Laws of God and our Saviour that require Obedience and Submission even to wicked Princes and that for Conscience sake and threatning Resistance with Damnation is a safer Rule for the saving of our Souls though not for the preservation of our Lives and Estates When St. Peter drew a Sword to defend his Master in a way of resisting and revenging him against the Officers of a lawful Magistrate he was commanded to put up his Sword and threatned that they that use the Sword should perish by the Sword Matth. 26.52 And when some other Disciples
dogmatically to the people committed to his charge we shall find him teaching and exhorting a different Doctrine and Practice from what is here delivered by him of which I shall speak at large hereafter and onely note by the way That the Oration was made long after Julian's death which savoured not very much of humanity and if it were upon occasion of some disappointment as is reported it had as little of Christianity And this will appear a truth that he did exceed as well in the praise of Constantius the first Arian Emperiour as in the dispraise of Julian and the misrepresentation of the Christians in his time All which circumstances considered and no other proof produced our Authour deserves to do publick Penance for abusing the Fathers and Primitive Christians and as he saies the whole Christian world And yet what can Gregory blame in Constantius but that which he calls his Ignorance or Mistake not being aware of his Apostacie And it was too unchristian to blame the Emperour not onely for making him a King but keeping him alive This you say p. 24. is enough to shew that Constantius would never have made Julian Caesar if he had known him to have been such And in my judgment here is as much said to prove that Constantius ought to have slain him when his Brother Gallus was slain Although this was a thing which he repented of in his Death-bed and would undoubtedly be more unworthy of a Christian Emperour to exclude him out of the life than to leave him to a Succession that descended by inheritance to him And if it be such a Bill of Exclusion that you contend for I am sure none of the Fathers nor any good Christian would ever consent to it P. 24. Is an Exclamation against the Emperour having first said that Constantius did far excel all other Kings in Wisdom and Vnderstanding p. 25. and that he was led by the Hand of God into every Counsel and Enterprize what in turning Arian and persecuting Athanasius and other Orthodox Bishops and putting Arians in their seats your wisdom was admired above your power and again your power more than your wisdom but your Piety was valued above them both Then he comes to blame the Emperour as the onely ignorant and inconsiderate person and which of the Devils stole in along with you at that Consult And yet again p. 26. he saies of this first Arian Emperour That he would have parted not onely with his Empire and all that he had in this world even his Life it self for the securitie and safetie of the Christian Religion c. And our Author saies that at his death he shewed with much earnestness the concernment he had for the true Religion p. 28 29. But for ought I yet see Julian's Apostacie was not yet known but he was generally accounted both a pious and a stout man and therefore his repenting of making Julian Caesar was not on the account of Religion but for some other respect Julian having been declared Augustus by his Souldiers who often disposed of the Empire and being then on his march to dispute the Title with Constantius for hitherto Julian kept to the Christian Assemblies and was not known to be a Pagan as you shew from Ammianus Marcellinus p. 28. After that Julian was declared Emperour he still feigned himself a Christian and though in private he performed his Heathenish Rites trusting some few with the secret yet he publickly went to Church on Twelfth-day and after he had been devout at the Service he came away again This was done at Vienna not quite Ten Moneths before the Emperour's death This is all that our Author produceth for the sense of the Fathers and primitive Christians for the Exclusion of Julian his Title was divine his Religion at most onely suspected not know Yet saies our Author p. 30. If this Doctrine concerning the alteration of Succession shall displease any which is contrary to what these Fathers which will not amount to one single person assert with so much vehemencie He thinks it reasonable that first they confute this Doctrine of Exclusion which they dislike And secondly That they would never fetch their Mountebank-Receipts of Prayers and Tears and suchlike encouragements to Arbitrarie Government out of the Writings of these very Fathers This our Author knew could easily be done and therefore he thought to prejudice his Readers against it by calling them Mountebank-Receipts and Antimonarchical Authors and encouragements to Arbitrarie Government Than which I scarce know any thing more profane but the down-right Blasphemie of the Doctrine of Christ and the practice of the best Christians who counted not their lives dear unto them that the Doctrine of the Gospel might not be evil spoken of as if Christianity were an utter Enemie to Caesar or as another Mahomet to establish his Kingdom by the Sword What an easie matter doth our Author think it to impose any falsehood on the Vulgar when he tells them of Fathers and primitive Christians with so much vehemencie asserting the lawfulness of excluding Julian and instead of all other proofs produceth onely a Rhetorical Expression of a person in some passion from which it might be proved as lawful to Murder Julian as to Exclude him from the Succession Hercules tuam fidem But to answer our Author's demand I shall endeavour to confute his Doctrine viz. That the Fathers and Primitive Christians of the whole World were for the Exclusion of Julian from the Empire Iraeneus Tertullian and St. Augustin you have seen to be of a contrarie Judgment 1. The true Christians could not be for it upon your Position That he had a right to it by the Law of Nature and the Hand of God gave it him which you seem to assert 2. It is certain the Arian Fathers were not as hath been alreadie shewn they congratulated Julian's advent to the Kingdom Much less could the Orthodox be for it upon Gregories surmise that Constantius would have excluded him out of the Life as well as the Empire 3. From their behaviour towards Constantius a vehement Arian the Orthodox Fathers shew they were not for Exclusion Constans his Brother was joyned with him in the Empire and he defended Athanasius and the Orthodox Bishops against Constantius yet these Christians never sided with Constans against Constantius they never resisted or sought to depose or exclude him although his Heresie was extreamly dangerous and propagated by Force and Persecution of more eminent Divines than any that suffered under Julian And as our Author says that Poperie is ten times worse than Paganism so I have heard as wise and good men as himself say that Socinianism is as bad as Poperie and the Arians who denied the Deity of the Son and the Holy Ghost were much like our Socinians Mr. Baxter hath so much Charitie as to think that some that died in the Communion of the Church of Rome are Saints in Heaven though he will scarce grant it to
Emperour seeing our Author confesseth that he who though it a small business to conquer the Persians thought it a great work to reduce the Christians And doubtless that Pagan wanted not malice to root them out but he distrusted his Power for even of that Army which he led into Persia the far greatest part if not all were Christians which appears not onely by their chusing Jovian to be their Emperour * Greg. p. 117. immediately after his death who had renounced all his Honour suffered exile for Christianity but by their unanimous * See Russ l. 2. c. 1. Socr. l. 3. c. 22. Theod. l. 4. c. 1. Acclamation when Jovian told them he was unwilling to undertake the Government of a Pagan Army We are all Christians we are all Christians This consideration drew from the Learned Mountague upon the relation of St. Gregory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Note It was not because they could not but because they would not resist for they had strength sufficient to have suppressed the Tyrant as St. Augustine and Gregory declare The Christian interest was so largely propagated and had taken such deep roots that it could not be destroyed unless the Empire had perished with it Tertullian says the Christians were pars pene major cujusque Civitatis vestra Omnia implevimus And if they had but deserted the Empire it would have been as a Wilderness Yet it appeared to be true That Christianus nullius est hostis nedum Imperatoris And St. Cyprian ad Demetr Nemo nostrum quando apprehenditur reluctatur nee se adversus injustam violentiam vestram quamvis nimius copiosus sit populus noster ulciscitur But those Christians had learn'd patience in the School of Christ as well by example as precept and not to overturn and bring all to confusion with a Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta movebo So the Learned Mountague So that when Gregory says they had no other defence but all was cut off from them he may be well understood concerning the use of any other means all violence and resistance being forbidden them for id possumus quod Jure possumus they were forbid to use the Sword for revenging themselves upon the Emperour And St Gregory in his 1. Orat. says that the enemy of Christianity was defeated by Gods mercy and the Christians tears which were many and shed by many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having no other remedy against that Persecutor Besides as they wanted not Souldiers so neither valiant and experienced Captains that had the entire affections of the Souldiers and which were approved Christians Jovianus Valentinian and Valens which three after the death of Julian were successively chosen Emperours could each of them have engaged Legions to follow them and how well the Souldiers were affected to them you have seen already by their choice of Jovian presently on the death of Julian So that it might be as truly objected that they wanted Souldiers and Commanders as that they wanted Arms Castles and Fortresses They had not indeed suprized any of the Imperial Forts or held them out in actual Rebellion against Julian as you know who did in the last Age but many of them were Garisoned with Christian Souldiers who doubtless would have declared for the Christian Religion against the Atheism and Persecution of Julian had not these renowned Confessors been restrained by the Command of Christ to fear God and honour the King Besides I have two other Considerations of great weight with me that it was not for want of Strength or doubt of Success that the Christians did not oppose Julian As first it was usual with the Roman Souldiers upon any disgust with their Emperours to kill their Emperours and set others in their Thrones Six of the twelve Caesars were slain pas some Historians account but never was there such a thing done by the Christian Souldiers For after such time as the Roman Strength was put into the hands of Christians they never deposed any one of their Emperours though there wanted no Strength on their parts nor Provocations on their enemies part many of them being Persecuting Arians And though Julian by his rashness against the advice of Sallustius a man of great experience and generally beloved of his whole Army was resolved on the Persian War and had foolishly exposed them to great hazards and danger by his following the directions of a Renegado Persian who led them into a barren and almost inaccessible Country and burning his Ships that might have served for a retreat yet was there no Associating or banding against him in his life-time but as soon as he was dead they all professed themselves Christians and chose a Christian Emperour Secondly The power which the Clergy had with the People who could hardly restrain then from tumults and fighting in their desence is another Argument with me for even at that time Athanasius convened in the great City of Alexandria a great number not onely of the Bishops of the Greek Church which were near at hand but from Italy Egypt Arabia and Libya which argues that the affairs of Christianity were in no low or despisable condition And if it be true that Gregories Father alone thought of braving the Emperour what might the united Interest of these Bishops and the Souldiery in their Sees have done But they thought it better to flee as Athanasius did or betake themselves to their Spiritual Armory of prayers and tears than to lift up a hand against Julian And I cannot but think that St. Gregory was of the same Judgment when he wrote without any passion to the Citizens of Alexandria being affrighted with the noise of Persecution in his 17th Oration to this effect N. B. this is one of our Laws and of those laudable ones most excellently ordained by the Spirit of God who knew best how to temper his Law with a mixture of what was possible to us and honest in it self That as Servants should be obedient to their Masters and Wives to their Husbands and the Church to our Lord and Disciples to their Pastors and Teachers So should we also be subject to all higher powers not onely for fear of punishment but also for Conscience sake St. Gregory also in a Funeral-Oration n. 20. for St. Basil records an Answer of his to Modestus Governour of his Country under Valens an Arian Emperour Where the Cause of God is in danger we neglect other things and look onely to him Fire Sword and Beasts are matters of rejoycing to us rather than terrour Reproach threaten and do to us what thou pleasest employ thy Authority let the Emperour also hear of this Thou shalt not overcome nor perswade us to consent to Impiety So that both Gregory and Basil the Divine and Basil the Great which were no Mountebanks but Great Doctors of the Church were for the prescription of prayers and tears although you would force them to the contrary I have reserved another
valiant Christians the tenth man of whom when Maximian had caused to be executed for refusing to slay their Fellow-Christians and to offer Sacrifice to his false Gods Mauritius taking the rest of the Legion aside used this Oration unto them as Eucherius Archbishop of Lions relateth in the Acts of their Martyrdom I congratulate your Vertue most worthy Fellow-Souldiers that for the love of Religion the Command of Caesar wrought no fear at all in you You have seen your Fellow-Souldiers in a manner with rejoycing minds to have been delivered up to a glorious death How did I fear lest any of you as it was easie for armed men to do under pretence of Defence should by lifting up his hands give interruption to their most blessed Funerals I had now readie at hand for the forbidding this attempt the Example of our Christ who by the Command of his own mouth Put up thy Sword which was unsheathed by his Apostle teaching thereby that the Vertue of Christian-Confidence is greater than all Weapons here Christ our God did clearly Prohibit our minds and hands that none with mortal hands should resist the Divine Work but rather with ever-continued Religion add a consummation to the work begun Hitherto we have read examples inserted into the Holy Scriptures but even now we our selves have beheld whom we ought to imitate After this Maximian having commanded a second decimation of those that remained among which it is likely that Mauritius suffer'd Exuperius taking the Ensigns of his Legion spake thus My most worthy Fellow-Souldiers I hold as you see the Ensigns of a secular warfare but to those Arms I provoke you not I excite not your Courage and Valour to such wars as these another kind of fight is to be chosen by us It is not by these Swords that you can make your way to the Kingdom of Heaven And then wisheth this Message might be returned to the persecuting Emperour We are thy Souldiers indeed but withal Gods Servants to thee we owe our imployment in the War to him our Innocence from thee have we received the reward of our labour to him we are beholding for the beginning of our life we cannot so follow thee in this though our Prince as to deny God who is our Maker and whether thou wilt or wilt not is thine also As for us even this necessitie of our Life doth not drive us to Rebellion Despair it self which most strengthneth men in dangers hath not been able to arm us against thee Behold we have our Weapons and yet resist not as willing rather to die than overcome and chusing rather to perish innocent than live Traitors If to what thou hast already decreed against us thou wilt add more be it Fire Torture or Sword we are ready for it WE ARE CHRISTIANS and such as our selves we cannot persecute Consider O Caesar the courage of this Legion our Weapons we cast away and thy Executioner shall find our hands unarmed but our breasts armed with the Catholick Faith Kill us down with us without all fear we offer our Necks to be cut off by the Swords appointed to slay us And so they were all cut in pieces and each of them were more than Conquerours obtaining a Crown and Kingdom infinitely more glorious than that of the Roman Empire Now suppose some Dissenting Apostate Chaplain of that noble Army that had rather lose his Religion than his Life and had more hopes to divide the spoils of a Temporal Crown than to trust his Saviour for an entire Eternal one had held forth to them after this manner My dearly beloved Brethren fellow-Souldiers and fellow-Saints we have hitherto hazzarded our Lives under a Pagan and Tyrannical Prince who hath employed us as a Forlorn Hope on all desperate designs purposely to destroy us and though he be drunk with the bloud of our Brethren now spilt before our Eyes yet doth he thirst after ours also having appointed us as so many Sheep for the Slaughter Hearken my beloved the Kings of the Earth ever were and ever will be Enemies to the King of Heaven It is not I but the Spirit of God by David tells you The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed but the same Spirit tells us that notwithstanding he hath set his King upon the holy hill of Sion who shall break the Kings of the Earth with a Rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel and his Saints shall have the honour of binding their Kings in Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron Moreover Brethren we read how in old time for the sake of his Elect God reproved Kings saying Touch not mine Anointed and do my Prophets no harm It is true that God hath appointed Government as his Ordinance but he hath not tied us up to Monarchie which all the Wise men of Greece have rejected and called them all by the name they deserved Tyrants And though our Emperours came in upon us by Conquest and Surprize yet we have been governed heretofore by a Senate and sometime the Senate and sometime the Souldiery have cut off their Emperours for their Arbitrary Government and set up others in the room So that if we grant the Office to be from God yet the person appointed to that Office is a Creature of man or a Humane Creature and they that set them up may pull them down for they are appointed to be a terrour to evil-doers and to be the Ministers of God to us for our good But when he is a Murtherer of them that do well as we see by this bloudy Execution on our Fellow-Souldiers he is the Devils Minister not Gods and in resisting we fight not against him but the Devil that is in him Besides that which this Tyrant intends is such an arbitrary Act of his own that the great Senate whose Counsel and Authority he hath rejected are afraid of the like cruelty and would be glad to be restored to their Authoritie Let us therefore be no longer Servants of such men but stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free Hath not he made us his First-born higher than the Kings of the Earth Are not we a Royal Priesthood and have not the Saints a promise that they shall inherit the Earth The Gentiles may permit Kings to exercise Lordship over them but it ought not to be so with us 'T is in vain to expect till the Emperours become Christians we Christians must make our selves Emperours at least we may divide the Empire among us and set up Christ alone to rule as King in the midst of us in a HOLY COMMON-WEALTH And now is the time or never If we should tamely submit to the Tyrants Sword our Religion which is bound up in our Lives will perish with us and the Generations yet unborn will curse us Did not Moses slay the Egyptian that assaulted his Brother and were not the
Dissentions if every Subject should be permitted to dispute the lawfulness of such Commands as are enjoyned him not by his Prince alone but by the mature deliberation of his Council especially when as it is with us every one hath his vote in chusing those Counsellor that in our names consent to the Laws This were to do what is foretold by Solomon Prov. 20.25 After vows to make enquiry It is a pernicious Opinion that hath infected too many of this Age That though we do not actively obey the Princes Commands yet if we submit to the Penalty the Law is satisfied and we are free from guilt In answer to which I say 1. That Obedience is more than Non-resistance it must be active and cheerful as in paying Tribute and Custom so in other parts of obedience to go and come and do what is commanded 2. Suffering or paying the penaltie is not the chief intention of the Law but the duty of Obedience without which the ends of Government will be frustrated viz. Peace and good Order 3. The Law of God enjoyns us to obey the Laws of men that are not contrary to his Law Now though we satisfie the Law of our Country by bearing the penalty yet the Law of God is not thereby satisfied that Law requires Repentance and Amendment i. e. that we do so no more As in that instance of frequenting Divine Service we do not think a Papist hath satisfied the Law when he pays Twelve pence neither indeed do others For it is Gods Law that is broken who commands us not to forsake the publick Assemblies and to obey them that have the rule over us For we are to obey for Conscience sake i. e. because of the obligation which the Command of God hath laid upon us And when the Magistrate calls for our obedience in this or that particular which is not against Gods Word God commands our obedience to him he having Gods Authority in such cases and to disobey is not onely to disobey man but God Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and for Conscience sake and the penalty of disobedience is damnation So that it is an Atheistical Suggestion that Rulers and Tyrants did first invent Religion to keep men in awe For although no other Terrours are sufficient to keep men in obedience but those of Hell and eternal Damnation because men may carry on their mischievous designs so secretly or with such a high hand as to escape punishment in this life yet it is not man but God that requireth obedience even to humane Laws under the Severest Sanctions of Eternal Death .. Object But what if the thing commanded be not good then we owe no Obedience for the Magistrate is no longer Gods Minister than he commands for God When he commands against God he commands without Authority and so we may disobey him without sin Answ There are but two Rules whereby we are to judge whether the Commands of our Superiours are good or not The first is the Law of God and when we make that our Rule we must be as sure that the Word of God condemns what the Magistrates command as we are sure that God commands us to obey our Magistrate And in all reason we should chuse what is our most plain and indispensable duty before that which is doubtful especially when the penalty of not obeying is no less than Damnation for that is the wages of sin or disobedience to Gods Law 2. A second Rule is the Laws of men which do bind the Conscience when the Command is not contrary to Gods Word So that the Case to be resolved is onely this What we must do when the Magistrate commands things which we judge not expedient In which case considering especially our circumstances the Laws established being such as we our selves have consented to it is too late for us to dispute the inexpediency of them for so there can never be an establishment it being impossible to make such Laws as may not be excepted against by some especially such as transgress the Laws In such cases therefore the Magistrate not the Subject is to expound the Law It is sufficient that the Laws have a tendencie to the publick and more general good though some private men may suffer in the Execution of them And when resisting those Laws which are made will do more hurt than good we ought to obey them though we suffer unjustly in so doing As Dr. Sanderson gives an instance in Souldiers who for their Cowardise or some other crime are adjudged to be punished in a way of Decimation i. e. every tenth man now although some of those that suffer may be guiltless and valiant men yet the private inconvenience must be endured rather than a publick mischief should be tolerated Of this the Learned Casuist speaks so largely and satisfactorily that I shall refer my Reader to his last Praelection p. 356. De Obligatione Conscientiae When we are commanded to do what we apprehend not to be for our good we must have a double consideration First to the person commanding who is Gods Minister and therefore may not be resisted though in the second place he abuse his power in commanding what is not good or lawful For if in this case we resist we usurp the Power and invade and destroy the Order and Government that God hath set over us If we might resist when we apprehend that we are commanded things against our Religion our Laws or Liberties then there could be no such thing as Rebellion and then there would not long be any such thing as Religion Libertie or Government in the world Doubtless the Apostle was sensible what kind of Governours were in Rome when he wrote his Epistle namely such as commanded for the most part things that were impious yet we read not of any resistance and doubtless those Primitive Christians best knew the Apostles mind and practised accordingly THE REASONS For not resisting Wicked Princes BEcause 1. He is Gods Minister For the Lords sake we must submit saith St. Peter and for Conscience sake i. e. for the Obligation that God hath laid upon us as he is Gods Minister This swayed with David He was the Lords Anointed and therefore he could not lift up a hand against him nor would St. Paul speak evil of any of the Rulers of the People For to speak evil of them is accounted as Blasphemy and Disobedience is as Sacriledge And as St. Paul A resisting of the Ordinance of God Obj. As he is Gods Minister for good we are ready to obey him but when he commands what is evil he is no longer Gods Minister but the Devils and we ought not to obey him Ans He is Gods Minister still as to his Office though in respect of the abuse of it by unrighteous Actions he do the work of the Devil And many times God placeth cruel and unrighteous Kings as a just Judgment over an unrighteous people
according to the Imprecation of David against those that were enemies to so good a King Set thou an ungodly man to have rule over them Regis quando boni sunt muneris est Dei quando mali sceleris est populi When good Kings bear rule it is a token of Gods Favour when wicked ones it is the effect of the peoples Iniquity As Job says Chap. 34.30 juxta Septuag Regnare facit Hypocritam propter peccata populi God takes away good Kings in his anger and sets evil ones in their rooms yea many times for the sins of the people he permits good Princes to fall as he did David in numbring the people that they and their King might suffer under a common Calamity It is an observation of Aeneas Sylvius de Ortu Imperij c. 16. Deus saepe propter peccata Subditorum deprivari permittit vitam Rectorum When Rehoboam hearkned to evil Counsellors 1 Kin. 12.15 The Cause was from the Lord that he might bring to pass his saying c. Now who shall judge whether the thing commanded be for our good or not We have very plain precepts which require our Obedience to Princes in all things that are not against the word of God And we ought to have as plain precepts Affirmative or Negative for the things that we resolve to do or not to do according to the Kings command i. e. Nothing can justifie our disobedience to our Prince except there be as plain Scripture-proofs for the intrinsecal evil of the action commanded as there are for the necessity of Christian Obedience Where is it said Ye must needs disobey your Prince when he commands you to worship God in the publick assemblies or to pray uncovered or to receive the Sacrament on your knees as it is said Let every soul be subject to the higher powers and Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man and Obey Magistrates and them that have the rule over you In this one Common Good of Order and Government many good things are included for as Cicero said de Legibus 3. Without Government neither House City or Nation nor Mankind nor Nature nor the World it self could subsist And St. Chrysostom on Rom. Hom. 23. Take away the higher Power and all goes to wrack neither City nor Family nor Assembly or any thing else can stand the stronger will devour the weaker and all things be turned upside down It is therefore concluded by all Wise men That a bad Prince is better than none For a demonstration whereof the Persians after their Kings death permitted the people to live in a Lawless manner for five days together that after the experience of the outrages and violences committed in the interregnum they might be the more endeared to their Prince Consonant to which is that in Judges chap. 21.16 when there was no King in Israel every one did that which was right in his own eyes which made them on any terms to desire a King 2. We are to obey them that we may silence the ignorance of foolish men that think and speak evil of Christianity as if it set up Christs Kingdom against Caesars and a good Christian could not be a good Subject which slanders we should confute by our peaceable conversations and this will gain us favour at home by mitigating the Princes displeasure or toleration abroad if we be put to flie for our lives when it shall be known that we are of peaceable and patient Conversations The Christian Religion was from the beginning reproached as a disturber of the Secular powers and therefore it was the Care of Christ to clear his Disciples from this Crime by paying tribute and living in subjection to the Rulers of this world that he might give them no offence And the Apostles knowing that they were reported to be Seditious and such as would turn the world upside down have taken all possible care to undeceive the enemies of the Gospel by obliging the professors thereof to obey their Rulers under the greatest obligations that the wit of men could invent So that in case the King do command such things as are evidently forbidden by God we see what is then to be done we must peacebly acquiesce in the providence of God as Tacitus said we may bonos Imperatores voto expetere quoscunq tolerare l. 4. Submit to them as Instruments and Rods in the hand of God correcting or punishing us for our sins God hath the devil himself in a Chain and hath set bounds unto him as in the case of Job whose life he could not take away nor go beyond Gods Commission Commit your selves therefore to God in well doing who hath said Vengeance is mine and I will repay it And as David to Saul 1 Sam. 24.12 The Lord judge between thee and me and the Lord avenge me of thee but my hand shall not be upon thee or as in 1 Sam. 26.10 The Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to dye or he shall descend into the battel and perish the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lords Anointed We may not impute all that we suffer to our enemies the hand of God is in it and we must as David did acknowledge it to be the Lords doing We must receive evil at the hands of God as well as good and bless him when he takes away as well as when he continues his Mercy to us Jer. 29.7 The Jews were commanded to seek the peace of that City though it were Babylon wherein they were Captives and to pray to the Lord for it for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace and doubtless in the disturbance of it they were like to be the first and greatest sufferers Obj. But may we not resist wicked Princes when they unjusty seek our destruction Ans This says our Author is the Mahometan Doctrine of the Bow-string which I think is a most scandalous if not blasphemous expression For this example our Saviour hath set us who though most innocent and most afflicted yet was most patient under all his sufferings and we must look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith And it is directly contrary to 1 Pet. 2.19 where in the judgment of all Expositors we are in the same manner to obey Magistrates as Masters i. e. though we suffer wrongfully to take it patiently as our Saviour hath given example who when he suffered he threatned not c. Read chap. 4.12 13. and chap. 3.14 15 c. Those Christians who wrote their Apologies to the Emperours and Governours that were then persecuting of them would not dare to speak any thing but what was an apparent truth yet they all disclaim the practice of Resistance as contrary to the Doctrine that they had received viz. to be Subject to the Higher Powers c. Thus Justine Martyr Lactantius Athenagoras Cyprian c. I shall name one for all We are defamed saith Tertull. ad Scapulam touching the Imperial
Majestie yet never were Christians found to be Albinians Nigrians or Cassians i. e. they never sided with any Factions against the Emperours though if they had so done their numbers were so great that they might have overthrown his Forces They might in one night with a few Fire-brands avenge themselves if they held it lawful to revenge evil with evil Had we been minded to profess open Hostilitie could we want numbers of men or force of Arms we have filled your Islands Castles Towns Tents Tribes and Wards yea even the Palace Senate and place of Judgement For what War were not we able though fewer in number than you who go so willingly to our Martyrdom if it were not more lawful in our Religion to be slain than to slay And yet under all their Persecutions they multiplied Ligabantur includebantur torquebantur urebantur laniebantur tamen multiplicabantur saith St. Augustine de Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 6. Grotius l. 1. c. 4. de Jure Belli c. speaking of that Sacred Maxime of the Apostles Acts 4. It is better to obey God than man discourseth thus If either for this i. e. our obedience to God or for any other cause he that hath the Soveraign power offer us an injurie it ought rather to be patiently tolerated than forcibly resisted for although we do not owe an Active Obedience to such Commands of Princes yet we do owe a Passive we may not transgress the Laws of God or Nature for the pleasure of the greatest Monarch yet ought we rather patiently to submit to what shall be inflicted on us for disobeying than by resistance to disturb our Countries peace The best and safest course in such a case is either to preserve our selves by flight or resolutely to undergo whatever shall be imposed on us His Reason is cogent Because Civil Societies being instituted for the preservation of Peace there accrues to that Commonwealth a greater Right over us and ours so far as is necessarie for that end And if a promiscuous Right of forcible Resistance should be tolerated it would be no longer a Commonwealth i. e. a Sanctuarie against Oppression but a confused Rabble For this among other things he quotes that noted Saying Principi Summum rerum arbitrium dii dederunt subditis obsequii gloria relicta est God hath given to Princes the Soveraign power leaving to us the glorie of Obedience If a Souldier resist his Captain striking him and but lays hold of his Weapon he is casheered if he break it or strike again he shall be put to death That this was the Hebrew Law he proves from Josh 1.18 1 Sam. 8.11 Deut. 17.14 which he so expounds That the Governours may not be resisted though they command what is not right And therefore it is added in that place of Samuel v. 18. that when the people are so oppressed by their King that there is no remedie they are to invoke his help who is the Supreme Judge of Heaven and Earth And when our Saviour commands in the New Testament to give Caesar his due he intended doubtless that they should yield as great if not greater Obedience both Active and Passive unto the Higher Power than what was due from the Jews which St. Paul Rom. 13. expounds more largely and chargeth those that resist the power of Kings with no less Crime than rebellion against Gods Ordinance and with a Judgment as great as their sin So that as there is a necessitie for our Subjection there is also for our Not Resisting Wherefore the Powers set over us are to be obeyed not servilely superstitiously or out of fear but with free rational and generous Spirits tanquam à diis dati as being Gods Ordinance and being commissioned by him cannot do more or less than he orders and permits them to do Another reason is drawn from our benefit the Government being constituted for our good and therefore in conscience not to be resisted for the Apostles Argument respects that universal good for which Government was first instituted i. e. the publick Peace wherein every one is concerned more than in his private Now he that resists doth as much as in him lies dissolve his Countries Peace and so will burie himself in the Ruines of it at the end and were it not for Governmens a Kingdom would be but like a great Pond wherein the bigger Fishes devour the lesser Omnia erit fortiorum Object The Commands of Princes do not alway tend to the publick good and when they decline from that end they are not to be obeyed Answ Though the Supreme Magistrate doth sometime through fear anger lust or other passions swerve from the path of Justice and Equitie yet these hapning but seldom are to be past by as personal blemishes which as Tacitus observes are abundantly recompensed by the benefit of better Princes Laws may be called good though they fit not every mans case if they obviate such disorders as are frequently practised and so do good to the generalitie of the People Thus Grotius If the People may resist their Prince I would know in what Cases it may be done It may be done say some in case of Religion when that is in danger in case of Libertie when that is invaded in case of Oppression when that is heavie in case of the King 's exercising an Arbitrarie power in case of his denying his Peoples Priviledges and Immunities Nay we have known that meer Fears and Jealousies which were fancied onely to promote a Rebellion have been used as an Argument to justifie it But will any of these things justifie the resistance of a Son against his Father or a Servant against his Master Or if we may make the People Judges of the lawfulness of resisting in one or more of these Cases why may they not in all and in as many more as they shall please to be sufficient But if any cause can justifie Resistance it must be that of Religion and if any Religion that which is the true Religion Now if we admit the Christian Religion to be the truest Religion that condemns Resistance above any other as hath been demonstrated by its Precepts and the practice of those Primitive Christians who best knew the sence and the mind of our Saviour in those Precepts and if any Christians should maintain the contrarie it would give the Princes of the World a just occasion to be jealous of it and root it out of their Dominions for what Prince would permit any such number of men to abide and multiply in their Dominions that profess it to be lawful to make resistance against them Besides there are few men bred up in any Religion but they think their own to be the true Religion and then they may resist their Prince how false and destructive soever it be and so a Papist or Anabaptist a Jew or a Pagan may think it lawful for them to resist and so no Prince can be secure of the Obedience of
call the King to an account the Estate is Democratical if the Peers it is Aristocratical but if indeed it be Monarchical neither nor both can judge their Prince In the first Homily against Rebellion p. 1. our Church says that in reading of the Holy Scriptures we shall find in very many places as well of the Old Testament as the New That Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do reign by Gods Ordinance and that Subjects are bound to obey them The Augustan Confession Article 16. Christians must necessarily obey the present Magistrates and Laws except when they command to sin French Confession Article 11. We ought to obey Laws and Statures pay Tribute and bear other burdens of Subjection and undergo the Yoke with a good will although the Magistrates should be Infidels so that Gods soveraign Authoritie remains inviolate The Belgick Confession All men of what dignitie qualitie or state soever they be must subject themselves unto the lawful Magistrates pay them Imposts and Tributes and please and obey them in all things not repugnant to the Word of God Also pray for them that God would be pleased to direct them in all their actions that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life under them in all pietie and honestie The Helvetick Confession Let all Subjects honour and reverence the Magistrate as the Minister of God Let them love and assist him and pray for him as their Father let them obey him in all his just and equitable Commands and pay all Imposts Tributes and other Dues faithfully and willingly And in case of War let them also lay down their lives and spill their bloud for the good of the Publick and of the Magistrate willingly vailiantly and cheerfully For he that opposeth himself to the Magistrate provoketh the heavie wrath of God upon himself The Bohemian Confession Let every one yield subjection in all things not contrarie to God to the Higher Powers and their Officers whether good or bad The Saxonick Confession The more a Christian is sincere in Faith the more he ought to subject himself to the publick Laws But I shall end where I began with the Doctrine of our Martyrs and Confessors who sealed with their bloud the Truths that they published with their Pens for whom in vain do we build and garnish Monuments of Fame to their memories while we are Apostates from their Doctrine and Practice The first Reformers of our Religion in the Institution of a Christian man on the Fifth Commandment say That Subjects be bound not to withdraw their Fealtie Truth Love and Obedience from their prince FOR ANY CAVSE WHATSOEVER IT BE ne for any cause may they conspire against his person ne do any thing towards the hinderance or hurt thereof or of his estate And by his Commandment they are bound to obey all the Laws Proclamations Precepts and Commandments made by their Princes and Governours except they be against the Commandment of God And likewise they be bound to obey all such as are in Authoritie under their Prince as far as he will have them obeyed They must also give unto their Prince aid help and assistance whensoever he shall require the same either for suretie preservation or maintenance of his Person and Estate or of the Realm or of the defence of any of the same against all persons And there be many examples in Scripture of the vengeance of God that hath fallen upon RVLERS and such as have been disobedient to their Princes But one principal example to be noted is of the Rebellion of Core Dathan and Abiram made against their Governours Moses and Aaron For punishment of which Rebels God not onely caused the Earth to open and to swallow them down and a great number of other people with them with their houses and all their substance but caused also a fire to descend from Heaven and to burn up two hundred and fiftie Captains which conspired with them in the Rebellion And again on the Sixth Commandment No Subjects may draw their Sword against their Prince for what cause soever it be nor against any others saving for lawful defence without their Princes license And it is their dutie to draw their Swords for the defence of their Prince and Realm whensoever the Prince shall command And although Princes which be the chief and supreme Heads of Realms do otherwise than they ought yet God hath assigned no Judges over them in this world but will have the judgment of them reserved to himself Sir John Cheek who was Tutor to King Edword the Sixth and a person of great Learning and Integrity in his Book called The true Subject to the Rebel speaks to this purpose If you were offered persecution for Religion you ought to fly for it and yet you intend to fight If you would stand in the truth you ought to suffer like Martyrs and you would slay like Tyrants Thus for Religion you keep no Religion and neither will follow the Council of Christ nor the Constancy of Martyrs And then asking the people why they should not like that Religion which Gods word established the Primitive Church authorized and the whole consent of the Parliament confirmed and his Majesty had set forth he says Dare you Commons take upon you more Learning than the Chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realm have I suppose that the Author of Julians Life might transcribe that Act of Queen Mary above-mentioned out of Mr. Prynnes second part of the Loyalty of pious Christians c. where we have it printed at large p. 65. from whence he might very honestly have told us Mr. Prynnes Judgment of such Prayers as were made against the Queen who p. 64. says That Queen Maries zealous Protestant Bishops Ministers and Subjects likewise made constant prayers for her But some over-zealous Anabaptistical Fanaticks using some unchristian expressions in their prayers against her That God would cut her off and shorten her daies occasioned this special Act against such prayers And having repeated the Act he adds p. 66. These prayers were much against and direstly contrary to the Judgment of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Farrer Bishop Hooper Rowland Taylor John Philpot John Bradford Edward Crome John Rogers Laurence Sanders Edward Laurence Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon and others of our Godly Protestant Bishops and Ministers who soon after suffered as Martyrs They in their Letter May 8. 1554. professing that as Obedient Subjects we shall behave our selves towards Queen Mary and all that be in authority and not cease to pray to God for them that he would govern them all generally and particularly with the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace and so we heartily desire and humbly pray all men to do in no point consenting to any kind of Rebellion or Sedition against our Soveraign Lady the Queens Highness but where they cannot obey but they must disobey God there to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer as well what the will and pleasure
of the higher Powers shall adjudge as we are ready through the goodness of the Lord to suffer whatsoever they shall judge us unto And Bishop Hooper wrote an Apologie against the Slanderous report made of him that he should encourage and maintain such as cursed Queen Mary printed 1552. wherein his Innocence and Loyalty to the Queen in praying for her are vindicated at large So far Mr. Prynne Take the sence of one Marian Martyr more Mr. William Tindal in a Book de Christiani hominis Obedientia saying In every Kingdom the King which hath no Superiour iudgeth of all things and therefore he that endeavoureth or intendeth any mischief or calmity against the Prince that is a Tyrant or a Persecutor or whosoever with a forward hand doth touch the Lords Anointed he is a Rebel against God and resisteth the Ordinance of God And as it is not lawful upon any pretence to resist the King so it is not lawful to rise up against the Kings Officer or Magistrate that is sent by the King for the execution of those things that are commanded by the King And Mr. Barus in Tract de Humanis Constitut saith That the Servants of Chrict rather than commit any evil or resist any Magistrate ought patiently to suffer the loss of their goods and the tearing of their members Nay the Christian after the example of Christ his Master ought to suffer the bitterest death for Truth and Righteousness sake and therefore who ever shall rebel under pretence of Religion aeternae damnationis erit reus Now these men gave their Opinions for Passive Obedience even before Queen Mary had altered the Laws i. e. their Religion was by the established Laws of the Land the onely allowed Religion yet they were far from defending it by resistance and Rebellion It is a difficult matter to perswade them to suffer that never knew what it was to obey such as were educated in a time of Rebellion and instead of being catechized in the Principles of the Gospel were from their childhood taught how to stand on their guard and defie their Governours and being become wealthie by the Spoils wrested by themselves or their Ancestors from the King the Church or their more Religious and Loyal Brethren think that Providence will justifie them in all their Seditious attempts and that the Millennium of Christs reign upon Earth is begun and that all Laws now must be subservient to the support of that Perswasion of theirs and that their Religion hath been in full and quiet possession ever since 42 at least and therefore to teach men now that they ought to suffer rather than resist their lawful Princes is the Mahometan Doctrine of the Bow-string which is indeed the whole Oeconomie of the Gospel as will appear by what followeth If we compare Deut. 28. with Matth. 15. it will appear that as Prosperitie was the Blessing of the Old Testament so Persecution is of the New And there is no Robberie in the Exchange for though we are called to forsake house friends and lands for Christs sake we shall receive in this time a hundred fold though with persecution Mark 10.40 besides the Aureola or double Crown in the life to come How comes it then to pass that the Doctrine of the Cross is become Foolishness and a Stumbling-block to us Christians as it was to the Jews and Greeks That which was the Glorie of the Apostles and esteemed above earthly Kingdoms by the Primitive Christians even the Crown of Martyrdom is now trampled on despised and discredited as the reward of Fools and men wearie of their lives The Gnosticks drew tears from the Apostles eyes when he considered how they both taught and practised the lawfulness of denying Christ in times of persecution Phil. 3.18 Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you with weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ Such were crept in among the Galatians who by all art and industrie increased their numbers that they might not suffer persecution for the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.12 But God forbid saith the Apostle that I should rejoyce save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified to me and I unto the world The Scars that Souldiers receive in the service of their Prince are esteemed Marks of Honour and every pettie Prince can lead forth Legions to look Death in the face at his command Every new Sect can boast of their Dipticks and Martyrologies and there is scarce a good man in the world but some or other would even dare to die for him And what difficulties do affright men of resolution when they contend but for a Garland of Flowers or Laurel fading and unsatisfactorie rewards And hath our blessed Redeemer onely so ill deserved of us for all the great things that he hath done both for our Souls and Bodies or is he only so unable to requite our service and labour of love that we should forsake him when a small Storm threatneth us or falls upon our heads When Henry the Fourth of France was engaged in fight against his Enemies and his Friends began to give ground he minds them what a Reproach it would be to the Nobilitie and Gentrie of France that of all their numbers there were not fiftie that stood by him in the Camp that had thousands waiting on him in his Court Pudet haec opprobria c. It is no rash fruitless or desperate designe that our Saviour calls us to He forewarned us at our first entrance to our Holy Profession that we could not be his Disciples except we deny our selves and take up the Cross and follow him and he that doth not so saith our Saviour is not worthy of me Matth. 10.38 Matth. 16.24 Luke 14.27 Nor is it fruitless he hath wise and great ends not onely for the glorie of his Father but the good of his Church in every affliction that Vine as well as the common ones spreads and prospers the more when it is at the wisdom of the Vine-dresser watered with blood As in lesser afflictions God chastiseth us for our good that we may be partakers of his Holiness so doth he with greater that he may bring us to glory Many a man might have perished eternally if they had not perished temporally God by his Righteous judgments calling their sins to remembrance and working in them repentance unto life Behold saith St. James we count them happy that endure You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pittiful and of tender mercy Jobs Graces had not given so great a light and ground of Consolation to the world if they had not been tryed in the fire of affliction which is so needful for the purging out our Corruption that we are told All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and that we must through Many tribulations enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
Mr. Hunt's Preface and Postscript THe Author of the life of Julian having taken his Measures and chief Materials from the late Libels of Mr. Hunt and both of them their whole Scheme from John Milton's Defence of that most execrable Murther committed on the Royal Martyr by those whom he calls the People of England who were indeed the very scum and off-scouring the reproach and pests of the Nation I shall make my way to the Confutation of the first by some Remarks on the Writings of the other And whereas I did onely occasionally reflect on some passages of the Postscript of Mr. Hunt in my Answer to the Life of Julian I shall now more particularly examine those other seditious and treasonable Writings of Mr. Hunt which since came to my hand The first Pamphlet which I have answered in the precedent Papers is the Life of Julian He begins his Preface to the Reader with a story of Mahomets Horns half Fire and half Snow which by altering the phrase he borrowed from a parallel expression of Mr. Hunt's upon the like occasion for he compares the Addressers to those pleasant Knaves that cry with one side of the face and laugh with the other Postscr p. 13. And to him that acted a grave Spaniard with one side of his body and a brisk French-man with the other This drew on his conceit of Guelphs and Gibellines and it was very easie by so strong a Chain of thoughts as our Author hath to pass from Spain and France into Turky with the Religion and Manners of which Country he seems better acquainted than with that of Christendom or else he would never have compared the Doctrine of the Cross with the Mahometan Doctrine of the Bow-string p. 8. of his Preface But sure he stretcht his Chain very much when from the Address of the men of Rippon thanking his Majestie for his Declaration to govern by Laws and to maintain the established Religion and to call frequent Parliaments and desiring that the Crown might descend in the right Line he concludes that they prayed against all these and made it their humble request that they might be sure of a Popish Successour and were weary of their Religion p. 5 6. But he broke every link of this Chain when though he put on his considering-Cap he could not find any Precedent or Example for such an Address But presently had an imperfect remembrance for such indeed it was of the contrary Carriage of tho Primitive Christians towards Julian whereas our Author might more easily and fitter to his purpose have remembred the Behaviour of some other Christians as they professed themselves towards King Charles the First and then he might have deserved the Office of a City-Remembrancer But he wickedly and I hope by what I shall discover in vain endeavours to impose his Seditious Doctrine on the Nation For this Notorious Plagiary hath taken his whole design as Mr. Hunt had done before him from an Argument of that profligate Villain John Milton whereby he attempted to defend the Murther of our Royal Martyr and that some passages in the Life of Julian have the same malignant aspect and influence I have shewn in my Observations on a passage quoted by our Author out of Sozomen in commendation of Regicide So that his Chain of Thoughts will hang no more together than a Rope of Sand for he runs so far from the Loyal Addressers as to fall in with Rebels and Regicides His whole design is to justifie Resistance of Lawful Powers in defence of that Religion which we profess and allow of especially when we are in possession of that Religion and it is established by Law though by the way both the established Religion and Christianity it self as well as the Laws of the Land are ipso facto destroyed by resistance This Leviathan fancying to himself a wide difference between the Case of those Christians that lived under Julian and the Case of the first Christians sports himself in the depth of this great Invention and scoffs at all the Arguments brought for Obedience and Subjection from the Primitive Christians before Constantine as the Leviathan in Job 41. who esteemed Iron as Straw and Brass as rotten wood and laugheth at the shaking of the Spear Their case saith he of the Christians in Julians time and that of the Primitive Christians was as widely different as Laws for men and against men can possibly make them Yet for ought I see be the Laws for or against his Doctrine of Resistance it must be swallowed for though he tells us that our Laws do not admit of such thoughts as his Julian Christians did put in practice yet the design must on or the whole labour of our Author must perish And who can help it when men will build on the Sand and daub with untempered Mortar such as blood and slime whatever cost or time is bestowed on such a Fabrick is cast away and the fall of it will be great On this false supposition these two Master-builders with whom I am now accounting do with an unaccountable Confidence lay the stress of all their Discourses And though I have said enough to destroy this false Hypothesis in the Answer yet because they think to supersede the Arguments brought for Obedience from the practice of the first Christians for three hundred years and perswade the present Age that they do not at all concern us but that we may rather do as the Julian Christians did that is rail at and resist our Superiours having our Religion established by Law though both our Religion and Law declare precisely that we may not resist for any pretence whatsoever I shall add somewhat here to prevent that prejudice and preoccupation which our Authors have falsly and maliciously insinuated And to this end I shall prove that the Christians in Julians time were under the same Government and circumstances abstracted from the Christian Religion with those of the first three hundred years and if they had resisted it was altogether as unjustifiable as that of those Primitive Christians would have been or ours now can be Cicero acquaints us wherein the Imperial Power did consist when it was first founded among the Romans l. 3. de Legibus in these words Regio Imperio duo sunto iique praeeundo judicando consulendo Praetores Judices Consules appellantor Militiae Summum jus habento nemini parento Ollis salus Populi Suprema Lex esto i. e. Let there be two persons in the Royal Empire and let them be called from their precedence Praetors from their Judicature Judges from their Consultations Consuls Let them have the highest command of the Militia Let them obey no man Let the safety of the people be to them the Supream Law How this latter Clause is to be understood is fully resolved in the preceding Discourse But all these do certainly amount to an Absolute uncontrolable power which being first setled in the two Consuls was afterward by the Senate conferred
on Augustus and called the Lex Regia by which it was declared that Quicquid per Epistolam statuit cognoscens decrevit aut per Edictum propalavit Lex esto Whatever he should determine by his Epistle whatever he should decree upon Cognizance or declare by his Edict should be a Law This very power of the Empire was in being when our Saviour and his Apostles lived on the Earth who though they were far remote from Rome yet precisely submitted to the Roman Emperours and did indispensibly oblige his Disciples in all times to come to do the same because the powers that then were though an Augustus Nero or Claudian Heathen and Persecutors were ordained of God to be his Ministers to bear the Sword to receive Tribute and Custom Fear and Honour c. And that therefore they must needs be subject not onely for fear of wrath but for the Lords sake and for Conscience sake And the obedience which was to be given them is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be at their Command as Souldiers are to their General and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to obey them at a word Titus 3.1 Hence it was I mean from the Roman Laws not from the Scripture that Dion says of Augustus that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Free and of absolute Authoritie both over himself and over the Laws for Rex est Lex viva reipsa praecipit ut Lex per scriptum That the Emperour is a living Law and commands as much by word as the Law doth by writing and the S.P.Q.R. by their own abbreviation became an unintelligible Cypher Thus the Roman Empire continued until the Reign of Constantine or else he could not have propagated the Christian Religion so much as he did by his Edicts there being as is supposed many strict Laws against it And it is not to be credited by Christians that the Imperial power should be disanulled by their becoming Christians If it be said that they themselves did consent to the abridgment of it let the Records be produced and let the Donation of Constantine in this respect be more probable than that fictitious one which the Pope produceth for the Western Empire of which I have spoken in another place See the History of the Donatists What was done by Constantine who was not baptized till the latter end of his Reign and made many Edicts for the toleration of all Religions as is shewn in the foregoing Papers will scarce amount to an Establishment of the Christian Religion But granting that he had to the utmost of his power established the Christian Religion yet his Successor thought himself not at all obliged by his Edicts for by the same Reason that Constantius should be bound by the Edicts of Constantine Constantine should be bound by the Edicts of Dioclesian for the persecution of Christians But as our Author hath observed from Gregory Nazianzen who speaking of Julian's Souldiers who were most of them Christians and yet besides the Law of God knew no other Law than the Will of their Prince Invective 1. p. 75. And in truth if the Christian Emperours had been explicitly and absolutely bound up to their Subjects to maintain their Religion and Priviledges which by the favour and grace of those Emperours were granted to them and the Subjects left at liberty to defend and obey their Emperours the Emperours had been in a worse condition than their Subjects for upon the Peoples changing of their Religion as we know they did when almost the whole World became Arians they might have resisted their most Orthodox Emperours as Mr. Hunt affirms they actually did in the Reign of Constantius But what Religion could the Christians plead that they were long in possession of and was established by Laws When Constantius nothing regarding the Constitutions of his Predecessor did with all his might and frequent Edicts establish the Arian Religion and suppress the Orthodox hath been already shewn Besides there were Vrbes liberae not onely free Cities but free Nations under the Romans who were govern'd by their own Laws and Magistrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they held inviolable Of this nature Josephus l. 16. c. 4. of his Antiquities observes the Asian Churches mentioned in the Revelations to be who had jus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a right of Liberty and legal Priviledges yet did none of those Churches ever plead their Priviledges or plead exemption from the Emperours Edicts Yea Christ himself who might have pleaded exemption from paying tribute unto Caesar the Children as he says being free yet to avoid scandal he works a Miracle for the payment of it and enjoyns his Disciples to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars The weight of these and those other Arguments which follow will I doubt not sink that Triumphant Arch which our Author hath raised into those Quick-sands on which he grounded it And I shall now proceed to erect a lasting Pillar to the perpetual Infamy of this Author upon such firm and impregnable grounds as shall continue against all the impetuous but impotent blasts of this Boreas It hath been accounted a good method for refuting of Errours to reduce them to their first Principles and Originals Be it known then to all men that our Author hath bid defiance to the Laws of God and Man in teaching the Doctrine of Resistance which was never taught among any Christians until Popery was come to its perfection That he hath as much as in him lierh scandalized and even condemned the Primitive Christians as allowing of and practising that intolerable Doctrine of Resistance That both he and Mr. Hunt have defended this Doctrine by the same Arguments as the Jesuits John Milton and other Regicides have done That John Milton c. received the same Principles from Mr. Burton Mr. Burroughs Bridge Marshal and others in defence of the late Vnnatural War against Charles the First That their design is to raise another War on the same grounds against their present Prince And though they seem to blind their designs by preparing onely to exclude a Popish Successour yet 't is beyond denial that all the Arguments of the Author of Julian are levelled against the Prince that is in possession and that he doth with the shew of Authority recommend the assassination of such a Prince and that Mr. Hunt's Original far exceeds the Transcript in such impious designs If this Character be not black enough let him that reads and understands onely subscribe the name of the Author of the Life of Julian with that of Mr. Hunt In perpetuam Rei memoriam and you have all in two words As for Mr. Hunt if this passage which I shall name do not amount to more direct Treason than those for which he says he would indite a great person no less than a Secretary of State of Treason in a plea for the Succession I think there can be no such thing The Paragraph p.
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
Obedience when the Laws do allow us to make resistance in defence of our Religion our Liberties and Lives Item For insufficiencie not being able to pray ex tempore or to preach without book Witness Dr. Pocock Bishop Sanderson c. Item For administring the Sacrament to all that desired it and for using the Lords Prayer as a Charm Such were the Articles by which a great part of that Clergie was destroyed of whom the world was not worthy With such our Gentleman is still in travel but I hope his labour will be in vain Read some of those Sermons and Treatises which of late years have been published by such as you call young Coxcombs Consider the strains of Piety and Moderation of Reason and Judgement of Industrie and acquired Knowledge and I am confident you will find so little hopes to be believed by others that you will see reason enough not to believe your self Let him talk of the persecution of Julian and other Pagans this which our Author promotes exceeds them all Others did but Occidere Episcopos this man seeks Occidere Episcopatum and under a pretence of pleading and praying for them he contrives how to prey upon them What else meaneth that insinuation which he quotes from Grotius to gain it some Authoritie having bankrupted his own Verso in morem abusu intermitti res ipsas non est infrequens p. 13. of Preface which he applieth to the Episcopal Office Nomen eminentia Episcopalis eorum culpa quibus obtigerat omnem sui perdiderat reverentiam in odium venerat plebis I greatly wondered to hear that Prayer of his against Sacriledge p. 103. He that designs contrives or consents to spoil the Church of any of her Endowments may a secret Curse waste his substance let his Children be Vagabonds and beg their bread in desolate places But when I call to mind Mr. Humphries project for increasing the number of our Bishops whom he would have to be chosen by the several Factions Presbyterian Independent c. and these whether Lay-men or Clergie-men to preside over those Parties it remembred me of a passage of Mr. Hunt's p. 90. of his Postscript where he demands thus Will it be any prejudice that the number of her Bishops be increased and that Suffragans be appointed and approved by the present Bishops c. So that when other Trades fail Mr. Hunt as well as Mr. Humphries may have some hopes of being made Suffragans at least For the Order of Episcopacie may be laid by as he intimates and then some Lay-superintendents may succeed and enjoy their Honours and Revenues Therefore to his Curse I shall add my Prayer for a blessing on Levi Deut. 33.11 Bless Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands smite through the Loins of them that rise up against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again The second Head contains a justification of the late unnatural War p. 6. It is difficult he saith to tell how that late unhappie War began or how it came to issue so tragically in the death of the late King And being to speak in so difficult a case he enters his caution p. 50. I would not be perversly understood by any man as if I went about to justifie our late Wars But it will appear to be Protestatio contra factum P. 102. He says That War would have been impossible if the Churchmen had not maintained the Doctrine that Monarchie was Jure Divino in such a sence that made the King Absolute This was a fiction of Mr. Baxters and through the Loins of the Clergie they strike at the King as if that glorious Prince intended Tyranny But that good Prince was far from any design of ruling by an Arbitrarie power he had no Army nor Mony to raise one but by the contrivance of some men his Father was engaged in an expensive War for the recoverie of the Palatinate which exhausted all the Exchequer and reduced the Royal Family to great necessities and then they failed in their promised Supplies and left him to a precarious way of subsisting and to stretch his Prerogative for the preservation of himself and Family He would have parted with the half of his Power and Prerogative as he often offered to have preserved or restored peace to his Subjects But when he spake to them of Peace they made themselves ready for Battle But were there not some other Doctrines preached in those days which contributed more to the beginning of that War than that of the Divinity of Kings What think you of the Doctrine of the lawfulness of Resistance then preached and printed under the same Arguments as now it is by Mr. Marshal Burton c. What think you of that Doctrine which according to the Jesuits taught That the rise and Original of Government is in the People and that as they gave so they might recall it as they saw cause You know who layeth down the same Principle in a certain Preface That Government is the perfect creature of men in Societie made by pact and consent and not othorwise most certainly not otherwise and therefore most certainly ordainable by the whole Communitie for the safety and preservation of the whole P. 38. of Preface To what tended this other Doctrine That the Authoritie of the King was in the two Houses when they had frighted away his Person That the King was Singulis major but Vniversis minor That Episcopacy was an Antichristian Order and to be stub'd up root and branch That the King Court and Bishops were designing to bring in Popery That our Liturgy was but the Mass-book translated These Doctrines with such Remonstrances Votes and Ordinances began that unhappy War The Associations made in City and Country seizing the Forts and Magazines and Royal Navy and answering all his Messages of Peace with reproaches of his Male-administrations This is that which you call the English Loyalty When they sent out Armies to fight him when they had him Prisoner and voted no more Addresses they were if you will believe them or Mr. Hunt his Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects still Such as these I could as easily prove to be the Doctrines of those times as that they are the Opinions and Practices of too many in these our days though most absurd and dangerous as they are now published by too many besides our two Authors P. 20. Pref. There is little reason to charge the guilt of the unexpiable Murther of our late Excellent King upon Presbyterie which was not thought of here in England till the War was begun And p. 21. Sure this Gentleman hath read very little or dissembleth very much Mr. Cambden in the Life of Queen Elizabeth is full of the Projects and Practices of such as planted the Geneva-Discipline here in England what troubles they occasioned to the Government both in Church and State and what deserved punishments some of them received as Penry and Vdal
c. It is not possible but this Gentleman hath heard of if not read the things controverted between Archbishop Whitgift and T. C. between the judicious Hooker and Mr. Travers and Bishop Bilsons dangerous Positions P. 21. He jumps with Mr. Baxter in his Opinion That the Parliament in the course of the War which was managed says he by such means and measures as were necessary and possible in their distress pray'd aid of the Scottish Nation They refused them any assistance except they would enter into their Covenant AND AFTER THE COVENANT WAS THVS IMPOSED THEY STILL RETAINED THE ENGLISH LOYALTY remonstrated against the Kings feared Murther and declared out of their Pulpits against the Actors of that detestable Tragedy If they did preach against his Murther out of Loyalty and Conscience why had they not preached against Fighting and pursuing him with fire and sword where he might have fallen as one of his Subjects Why not against his Imprisonment there the Covenanters were the Loyal Party the ROYALISTS were the REBELS and the guilt to be sure says he belongs to the Rebelside p. 21. And as it was in the beginning of that War so it is now and by our Authors principles so it will be ever they that with their lives and fortunes adhere to their Prince though he be neither Apostate or Tyrant are pronounced Rebels And they who fight against him on any pretence whatsoever are the true English Loyalists I would not have them called the true Protestants lest the Papists should insult over them and prove themselves more Loyal Subjects It is another very memorable speech of Mr. Hunt's p. 171. Speaking of the Bill of Exclusion If this Bill do not pass they will take him for a wicked King too and will say he hath no lawful Issue to succeed him for his own Sins and many other remarks of wickedness they will make upon him What he means by the word too may be explained by the I and we which he speaks of just before and now of others too that will count the King wicked c. It is somewhat obscure also to guess what he means when he says the passing of the Bill is the onely means of the Kings Salvation from their traiterous designs and again p. 172. If he will follow the Counsel of that excellent Bill he may live long and see good days As if he could not be safe without it Of such obscure places we may conjecture by those other plain ones wherein he hath manifested how great respect he hath for his Majesty and the Royal Family Nor indeed can we expect better things from a Republican who speaking of our Kings Father as he calls him sans Ceremony makes him and his Party the Delinquents and upbraids him with all the Calamities which a Rebellious people brought upon him and adds p. 55. If there were twenty Trojans derived from one Stock that had reigned in an uninterrupted Succession Two immediate Successors that should have their Reigns successively attended with civil Wars were enough to efface their own and the glories and merits of such Ancestors And so if another Rebellion should succeed which God forbid farewel to the glorious Family of the Stuarts For notwithstanding the glories of that great Prince his unhappy death and the admired devotions of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stories of the Calamities of his people all his three Kingdoms involved in War during his Reign which is a lye by thirteen years and the remembrance of them will be with some men of the same bran with Mr. Hunt i.e. not very loyal a stain and a diminution of the glories of the Royal Family p. 53. Although others more loyal do think that it added another Crown to them more glorious than the other three i. e. the Crown of Martyrdom In Princes says Mr. Hunt their Calamities are reckoned among the abatements of their Honour and meer Misfortunes are Disgraces and have the same influence on the minds of the common people as they have on Mr. Hunt's as real faults and male administrations So that the Royal Martyr who suffered so many barbarous Indignities with invincible patience and Christian fortitude must suffer another Martyrdom in his Reputation and the Regicides be renowned because of their success as men of real Vertues and Patriots of their Country Careat successibus Opto Quisquis ab eventu facta nefanda putat I cannot perceive any instance of the least respect to the Royal Family except that deference which he bestows on Dr. Titus Oates and Captain Bedlow the Kings Evidence on whom he writes a full Panegery p. 24 25. which he thus concludes The undoubted truth of their Evidence hath given them the civil respect of all honest men and will give the Doctor the publick honours of the Nation in due time For my part I live at too great a distance from such men to ken them aright and I would commend Mr. Hunt's own Rule to them that know their conversation whereby to judge of them p. 52. of the Preface That their vertue of Loyalty will bear the same proportion as their other vertues do to the Canon of Morality To this Head of justifying the former War belongs his Apologie for such as were then called Presbyterians which he as a faithful Advocate and Orator still prosecutes P. 13. Pref. Our old Puritans and late Dissenters he excepts onely the Fools and Knaves sent among them and spirited by the Roman Priests have not disliked the Episcopal Government If all the Covenanters and others that disliked the Episcopal Government were Fools and Knaves spirited by the Romish Priests we have great reason to be jealous of the present Dissenters as such and the rather because you tell us p. 19. of a vile sort of Presbyterians in Scotland with whom some in England do conspire who have deservedly put that name under eternal infamie by their turbulent and contumacious carriage against the Kingly Authority Yet even for these this Gentleman makes an Apologie First in respect of their scrupulositie p. 86. Though the scruples of Nonconformists be as he thinks groundless and unreasonable and often moves his passion against them yet upon consideration he thinks their scrupulosity may be of God and that some men are by him framed to it Take courage then all you men of Scruples the Good Old Cause is still Gods Cause he hath provided this your scrupulosity saith this Stoick as a bar and obstacle in the natures and complexions of DEVOVT MEN against any Innovations whatsoever that dangerous ones may not steal upon the Church for the better maintaining the simplicity and purity of the Christian Religion and Worship Bene dixisti Thoma But thus the Predestinated Thief could plead for himself that he was born under the thievish Planet Mercury and could not resist his fate Steal he must and repent of it he could not nor be sorry for his fault though he were to be hanged for it This pilfering
humour was in his nature from the God of Nature and who hath resisted his Will The same Argument will the lascivious man who was born under the Planet of Venus and the Rebel and Murtherer who was born under Mars use in their defence as the scrupulous and obstinate who were born under Saturn And so any vice may be defended and the whole blame transferred on God who sent them into the world with such inclinations But on second considerations our Author might have told them that these wicked dispositions were the effects of the corruption of their natures contracted and propagated by original sin and that there is yet so much light from Nature but much more from the Grace of God as to discover and assist them in the correction of these unreasonable and ground less affections and passions and not to encourage them in them by telling them they are from God and infused into devout men that they may put a bar to such dangerous Innovations that are stealing on the Church and for the maintenance of the simplicity and purity of the Christian Religion and Worship This is a New Plea to encourage them to a New Rebellion as well as to justifie the Old And we know what slender pretences scrupulous and obstinate persons are wont to lay hold on to defend themselves in very unlawful practices in such cases as are confessedly unreasonable and dangerous and to which they have a natural inclination The Vulgar need a Curb to restrain them and not a Spur to provoke and haste them on When therefore you ask p. 86. What affrightment all this while either to Church or State from this weak and pitiful scrupulosity Where lies the Treason or Sacriledge Let our Author consult the History of the late War and Experience which some say is the Mistriss of Fools may resolve him It is no more agreeable to a scrupulous man about a Ceremony of the Church to depose and murder his lawful Prince than for a man of a nice Conscience to be impiously wicked p. 33. Pref. Yet Mr. Baxter and others will tell you that the greatest Impieties and Outrages have been committed by such men as pretended niceness and scruples of Conscience for their justification And who they were that would strain at Gnats and swallow Camels our Saviour told us long since But to return Upon this very Ground of a natural complexion c. p. 19. of the Preface he would excuse a vile sort of Presbyterians in Scotland as he calls them who have deservedly put that name under eternal infamy by their turbulent and contumacious carriage against the Kingly Authority Which yet he there says is not imputable so much to Presbytery as to the barbarous Manners and rough Genius of that Nation And is it not strange that neither the Learning and Knowledge of that Nation which afforded some men of all Ages of great excellency and which usually emollit mores nec sinit esse feros doth correct the brutish dispositions of men nor the power of Godliness and purity of Doctrine and Worship to which especially in latter times they pretended beyond all other Nations and was proposed by them and accepted by some of our own Nation as the great Rule next to if not above the Word of God for our Reformation could so far reform them as to teach them Obedience to their lawful Princes but they must still remain infamous as our Author observes for Disloyalty and a barbarous Treatment of their Kings And is it not yet more strange that we who are of a better Genius should learn of them who as you note do boast of one hundred and fifty Kings in succession in that Kingdom and you certainly aver that they really imprisoned deposed and murdered fifty at least before the time of Mary Queen of Scots that such an Original should be proposed to the English Nation that their Chronicles may also be defiled with the bloud of their Kings As for what you say p. 20. Pref. concerning the Queen of Scots that her prosecution was promoted by the English Bishops which putrid Vomit the Author of Julian's Life licked up and hath disgorged again to make the whole Nation stink I have said enough to vindicate the Bishops from that foul Aspersion It being designed by the Wisdom of the Parliament and by them justified for many Treasonable actions and Insurrections by her practised and contrived for which she was legally condemned not as a Queen nor as a Popish Successour much less as our Queen but as a professed Enemy to her Majestie that then happily reigned over us from whom she actually claimed the Crown and endeavoured by force to usurp it And she having first resigned her Crown and came hither for protection which she forfeited by her frequent practices of Treason was tried and condemned as the Wife of a Subject of this Land And happie had it been for this Nation if they had never learnt any other Regicide than this Fictitious one wherewith the Bishops are chiefly charged for no other reason that I can divine but because they will not give consent to another more unexcusable action now This rash Assertion of yours destroys all that laudible endeavour which you have worthily attempted for the vindication of our Bishops in other matters this is a Scandalum Magnatum with a witness and I hope you have yet so much ingenuity as to put your self to the voluntarie Penance of a Recantation the slander being so notoriously false And I am perswaded that the convictions of your Conscience will not give you any rest till you have made them as publick satisfaction as the injury you have done them is I proceed now to the third Head of his Discourse which leads me to shew the endeavours used to engage the Nation in a second unnatural War And I shall begin with that Speech of this Author p. 52. of Postscript The panick fear of the change of the Government that this Doctrine of the Divinitie of Kings occasioned and the divisions it made among us was the principal cause of the late War And p. 102. That War would have been impossible if the Church-men had not maintained the Doctrine that Monarchie was Jure Divino in such a sence as made the King absolute and they and the Church in consequence perished by it Now you have heard already how loudly the young Divines are accused for preaching this Doctrine And how false soever the Accusation be the Nation is called to stand upon her guard and the Royal Standard is feigned to be set up and perhaps the Seditious partie are really listed and associated And every man is called on to declare for what Partie he will engage The Neuters are accursed the Associators declared to be such as retain the old English Loyaltie after the taking of the Covenant and all that oppose these betrayers of their Religion their Countrie and the Laws yea they are told p. 149. that they ought not to subject
imprudent and his Answers no better one following upon another without Gavitie good Order or Method Upon consideration of this Physiognomie the Bishop thus exclaims What a mischief doth the Roman Empire nourish for the inconsistencie both of his Manners and Behaviour and the great commotion of his Mind made me to give this prediction of him and as I foretold of him to those that were with me before he had acted any thing so I found him to be by his Actions afterward and I wish I had been in this a false Prophet for that were better than that such a Monster should exist and fill the World with such evils as never were in any other Age though there were many Deluges Conflagrations Earthquakes and Cruel men and prodigious Beasts of divers kinds Some Writers give him a different Character from others That in Courtesie and Clemencie he was comparable with Titus and as much exceeded his Brother Gallus in those virtues as Titus exceeded Domitian in fortunate successes against the Germans they equal him with Trajan in Temperance and Modestie to Marcus Aurelius in Justice with Antoninus and in Knowledge with the ancient Philosophers Vir egregius saith Eutropius Rempublicam insigniter Moderaturus A person of excellent parts and like to rule the Empire with excellent Moderation His Actions while he was Caesar WHen he was about the age of 23 Constantius declared him Caesar at such time as the Barbarians had spoiled Gaul the Emperour being doubtful to carry on the War himself Marcellinus l. 15. saith that daily Messengers brought him tidings of the deplored condition of the Gauls whose Country was over-run with the Armies of the Barbarians without any resistance For remedy whereof he residing in Italy and not willing to expose himself to the hazards of that War having made Julian CAESAR sends him to relieve that Countrie But Julian being ignorant of Martial Affairs and considering what dangers he was sent to encounter looks on himself as one designed for Death rather than Honour Neither of us saith Julian were pleased with this Honour not Constantius who gave it unwillingly nor he that received it against his will for which he calls the Gods to witness And at that very time when the Purple Robes were put on him he uttered this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and told his Friends that he should gain nothing more by his Honour than to die in a great Enterprize and that he was sent to the Gauls Germans and Hercynian Wood to fight as a Hunter with wild Beasts Marcellinus says the same that it was a common report that Julian was chosen not so much to relieve the distresses of the Gauls as that he might perish in those cruel Wars he being then unskilful scarce enduring the noise of Arms. As he marched before his Army in Militarie Accountrements This saith he is right as the Proverb speaks A Pack-saddle on a Cows back It hapned that as he was exercising in the Fields at Paris the Pins that joyned his Buckler fell out and the pieces flew about his ears which some taking for an ill Omen he holds up the handle and bid them not be dismay'd for what he laid his hands on he held fast Yet did this young man not onely defend that part of the Country which was yet free but expelled the Barbarians from those parts which they had possessed and in a short time regained many ancient Cities and in one battle at Strasburg overthrew Seven of the most potent Princes of Germany and sent Chodonomarius the chief of them to Constantius at Rome He also subdued the Almains took their King Badomarius and cleared the bounds of the Empire from all its Enemies and this he did saith Aurelius Victor with a few Souldiers against infinite Armies of the Enemies But these Victories of his did so exalt him that he believed that the Soul of Alexander was infused into his Body as Socrates relates His Souldiers also had so great an opinion of his Valour and Conduct that they all resolved to proclaim him Emperour which though in an Apologie to Constantius he says was done against his consent yet as well his ambitious Spirit as his future Actions demonstrate it to have been his design Which Constantius being informed of commands him to return And this he willingly obeyed but carries with him his whole Armie to secure him from the rage of the Emperour The Emperour also prepared all the Force he possibly could to give Julian battle To which Julian was encouraged by his Southsayers especially by Aprunculus an Orator in Gaul who had instructed him in the knowledge of the Intrails of Beasts and flying of Birds and from the Liver of a Beast inclosed in a double Caul foretold Success and Victory to him When he came to Vienna an old Woman that had lost her sight hearing that Julian was come cried out that it was he that should repair the Temples of the Gods About this time he sent to the Senate an Apologie for himself accusing Constantius of many faults and miscarriages which notwithstanding the Senate by Tertullius their Praefect answered his Messenger Autori tuo Reverentiam Rogamus We have a great respect for your Master It hapned that Julian being about to take horse the Souldier that lifted him up fell to the ground At which accident he said in the hearing of many that he was fallen who had raised him to his Dignitie And this saith Marcellinus p. 189. was done at the same instant when Constantius died in Cilicia Of whose death Theolaiphus and Alligildus brought him speedy Notice declaring that Constantius by his last words named him his Successour Am. Marcell l. 22. c. 1. Though the contrary be not only affirmed by Gregory Nazianzen but confirmed by the battel that was intended between them of which Julian gives this account to his Uncle Epist 13. calling his Gods to witness that he never intended the death of Constantius but rather wished for his life and that he came with his Army against him onely to obtain the easier terms of Peace or because he was condemned as an Enemy he came prepared to decide the quarrel by a battel if he could not otherwise make his peace Of his Actions while he was Emperour JVLIAN being without any opposition setled in the Imperial Throne sought to gain the affections of all sorts of people by acts of Clemencie and Justice And though he had been long since an Apostate from the Christian Religion yet did not appear so till after some time in his Epistle to the Alexandrians he says he had lived Twenty years in the Christian and Twelve years in the Pagan Religion p. 200 of his Works He entred on the Government as a Lamb however he had the Appetite of a Lion to devour the Church of Christ but he kept on the sheeps clothing that he might with more subtilty worry that innocent flock He frequented the publick Assemblies of the Christians and re-called those Orthodox
Bishops from Exile which Constantius being himself of the Arian Perswasion had banished thereby to lay an Odium on Constantius And it hath been observed That not long after Constantius declared against the Deity of the Son of God the Empire was taken from him and given to Julian Julian professed it to be his Opinion That no man ought to force another to be of his Opinion and charged the people not to injure the Christians or reproach them or draw them to sacrifice against their wills Sozom. l. 5. c. 4. And many Outrages committed by the Heathen upon the Christians were done without his order Theodoret l. 3. c. 6. But as it is known that he did not persecute the Christians with fire and Sword as Dioclesian did yet he contrived more mischievous ways to destroy Christianity it self than others did to destroy the professors of it and as one probable means to accomplish it he summons the Bishops of the several Factions enjoyning them to do nothing to the prejudice of the Empire and on those terms permits them to enjoy their own Opinions and different Modes of Worship Eo modo saith St. Aug. Epist 166. nomen Christi de terris perire putavit si Sacrilegas dissentiones liberas esse permisit Thereby to keep them in a balance till he had setled his affairs or to permit them to destroy one another as in Constantius time the Arians had begun and to save him the labour He seemed averse from putting any to death for their Religion not so much perhaps through any innate clemency as through a devilish Polity for he had observed that the Church multiplyed under the greatest Persecutions and the Faith Fortitude and invincible patience of Christians appeared admirable to their Enemies so that he envyed them the glory of Martyrdome To this purpose he wrote an Epistle to Ecebolius declaring his mind concerning the Galilaeans as he called the Christians That none of them should have any force offered them or be compelled into the Temples nor be reproached by the Pagans and p. 213. writing to the Bostrians he minds them How he had re-called such as were banished and by an Edict restored their Goods which were forfeited And though he practised the ruine of the Christians yet he seemed to have a reverence of their Religion for when he assumed the Title of Pontifex Maximus he wrote to his Idol-Priests and tells them That the reason why the Temples of their Gods were so much forsaken and the Christians frequented was their different behaviours The Christians delighting in works of mercy providing their Hospitals for the Poor the Widows and Fatherless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but his Priests were barbarous and cruel inhospitable to strangers or their own poor And to his reproof adds an exhortation that they would imitate the Christians And to the people he writes That they should learn of the Christians to reverence their Priests and obey their Magistrates and Governours And he perswades the Priests not to gad abroad without leave of their Superiours and communicatory Letters and such as did notoriously offend he would have them suspended for a time from their Communion in things sacred and partaking of their Sacrifices Of this he speaks at large in his 49 Epistle p. 202. And although he were a bitter Enemy to Athanasius concerning whom he by an express Edict to Edicius Praefect of Egypt gives command to banish him not only out of the City of Alexandria where he had won over many Noble persons to the Christian Religion and caused the Pagan Temples to be quite deserted but also out of all Egypt yet did he hold a good correspondence by Letters with divers Christian Bishops particularly with George an Arian Bishop whose Library after his death he charged Porphyry to preserve intirely for his use p. 176. As also with Aetius another Bishop exhorting him to come and live with him p. 164. But he had still a hatred to their Religion though he loved them for their Learning and peaceableness to which he endeavoured to oblige them by kindness being yet afraid to exercise cruelty towards them And that he might avoid the Name of a Persecutor himself he gave countenance and incouragement to the Jews in their opposition of the Christians and gave them leave to rebuild Jerusalem of which Amm. Marcell l. 23. c. 1. Eusebius l. 3. ch 17. write thus Julian desiring to propagate the memorial of his Empire by some great work intended the reedifying of the Temple at Hierusalem committing the work to Alipius of Antioch who was assisted by the Praefect of Judea But when they began to dig the foundations terrible Fire-balls issued out of the Earth destroyed many Workmen forcing them to desert the work With this Heathen Writer Eusebius agrees and relates more at large That by an Earth-quake the old foundations were cast up which many came from far to behold and that there came down fire from Heaven which consumed all their Tools and working Instruments for a whole day together And that the night following the forms of Crosses were visible in their Garments shining like the Sun-beams Yet those hardned Jews notwithstanding these three Miracles which forced many of them to confess that Christ was an Omnipotent God believed not He had indeed so invincible a prejudice against the Christian Religion that though he were convinced of the learning and peaceableness of the Christians yet could not his heart be moved to embrace it When that excellent Apology of Apollinaris was presented him in behalf of the Christians he returned to them with contempt I have read I have considered and rejected it Yet although he did connive at and tolerate many indignities and violences against the Christians and made some Edicts against them they did multiply and increase under him as Titus Bishop of Bostria remonstrated to him that their number was nothing inferiour to that of the Gentiles and in Antioch in Alexandria and in his very Army the greater part were Christians And although his designs were as bad as wit and malice could make them I do not find that he wrote any of his Laws in bloud nor in a Judiciary manner did execute any upon the account of their Christianity which we must ascribe wholly to the Providence of God who though he set this wicked Prince over them as a punishment for their revolt from the true Faith into Arianism and for their Divisions and Cruelties practised among themselves this common Enemy being a probable means to unite them both in faith and love yet the Divine Clemency who hath the hearts of all kings in his hands permitted him not to make that havock of the Church which he intended And Athanasius was a true Prophet when he told the Suffering Christians that Julian was Nubecula cito transitura a cloud that threatned a Storm but would be soon blown over And ought not we also who as yet conflict onely with our own fears acquiesce in the
with a stout mind for this is the property of good men to do their duty and to be of a good hope and to accommodate themselves to what ever fatal necessity shall impose p. 218. And as men of true valour and magnanimity are seldom cruel he expressed a natural clemency in all his actions those against the Christians towards his later end only excepted which yet I cannot perceive to be executed but upon some great provocations by the rash and ungovernable among the vulgar sort of Christians Of which the Historians of that time given many instances But all these vertues were sullyed with that one vile act of his in becoming an Apostate from the best Religion after that he had professed it for Twenty years together and attained a competent knowledge therein His Vices AS his Vertues were great so were his Vices and that which was most predominant was his levity and unsetledness of mind For having been false to his Redeemer he was never true to any of his false Gods He was so displeased with Mars the God of War that he solemnly vowed never to sacrifice to him more He was talkative to excess and boasted of his own Atchievements Popularity and vain-glory being that which he especially aimed at Marcellinus who was a Heathen a great friend and observer of his actions says l. 25. c. 6. That he was rather Superstitious than a devout observer of any Religion He offered costly Sacrifice rather to honour himself than his Gods and though given to Divinations yet contemned such as boded ill So resolute and self-willed he was in the business of Persia that against all good advice and ill presages he cast himself away He shewed himself unmerciful in this one Edict that he forbad the Professors in Rhetorick and Grammar to teach Christians lest they should wound the Heathen by their own darts Among his Edicts those are especially noted which he set forth against the Christians As first his forbidding the Children of Christians to be brought up in the knowledge of Philosophy lest as is noted by Socrates they might be better enabled to confute the Heathen Sophisters 2. His forbidding Christians to bear any Office in his Guards or Government in his Provinces 3. His Edicts for seizing the Christian Churches and imposing Mulcts on such as would not Sacrifice to his Pagan Gods As for Sanguinary Laws our Author observes that he enacted none Greg. Nazianzen who knew Julian hath sufficiently recorded his Vices in his Stelliteuticks from whence our Author hath taken his History But as I would not believe all as truth which some deliver in Panegyricks of their Heroes so neither all that is said in such Orations against Professed Enemies Of his Works ALthough we might wish that Julian had never known Letters because of those virulent Satyrs which he wrote against Christianity yet the Poison wherewith his Writings do abound having excellent Remedies prepared against the venome of them by the Learned Fathers of that Age such as Greg. Naz. and St. Cyril there being also some remarkable passages concerning History and Christianity interspersed they may be read with some benefit by Learned Men. He says of himself in an Epistle to Ecdicius Praefect of Egypt in which he desired him to send the Books of George an Arian Bishop of Alexandria Some delight in Horses others in Birds others in wild Beasts but I from my Childhood have been a great lover of Books His proficiency in variety of Learning will appear by what is now extant although it is supposed that he wrote many things before he was Caesar that are now lost as several Orations sent to Iamblicus the loss whereof he bewayls in an Epistle to him yet extant My opinion is that Julians Vices were real and deep rooted that he had but the umbrage and appearance of Vertue which he therefore retained that he might make them serve his Pride Popularity and vain-glory After he came to be Caesar he redeemed what time he could for his study dividing the night into three parts one for sleep another for his Books and the third for his Military Affairs and usually he would pen one of his Orations in that part of the night Suidas gives this account of his Writings First his Book call'd the Caesars containing a short and sharp account of them all from Augustus to his own time Secondly his Saturnalia and discourse of Three figures Thirdly his Misopogon written against the Antiochians and another Tract shewing the original of Evils another against Heroclitus shewing how to live Cynically and many Epistles of several sorts of which 63 are now extant He wrote his Misopogon to revenge himself upon the Antiochians who had abused him in words calling him Monkie Goats-beard and Butcher for killing so many Bulls for Sacrifices and that which most provoked him was the Impress upon some Coyn viz. A Bull lying upon his Back upon the Altar which the Antiochians interpreted to signifie that the World was turned up-side-down by Julian For these reasons he upbraids them with their Intemperance and their fondness of Plays and Theatres Secondly for their Religion which he calls Impiety though they worshipped God and Christ instead of Jupiter and Apollo Thirdly the iniquity of their Magistrates who countenanced the avarice of the Rich to the impoverishing of the People For these things he blames them speaking as of himself And when he comes to apologize for himself he confesses that his life was void of all Pleasure that he was too religious and severe in Judicature for which he prays their pardon imputing these faults to his Master by whom he was taught from his youth to live temperately religiously and justly and that he had spent his youth amongst the Gauls a rough and warlike people ignorant of delicacies The sum of this accusation we have in this Syllagism He that lives contrary to the manners of other men is deservedly accused by them Julian liveth contrary to the manners of the Antiochians in contemning Pleasures and restraining Impiety and Injustice which they allow and defend Therefore he 's justly accused by them To which if we add one Syllogism more you have the sum of that whole Book viz. He that bestows benefits upon ungrateful men is a Fool. Julian hath bestowed benefits on ungrateful men in commending cherishing and increasing the Antiochians Therefore he is a Fool. Concerning his account of the Caesars Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History lib. 3. c. 1. says That he blamed every one of them not sparing Marcus the Philosopher And Zonaras in his third Tome observes his ingratitude to Constantius blaming him for his prodigalitie feigning that Mercury asking him what was the propertie of a good King he should answer To have and to consume much The Books now extant are these 1. His Orations in praise of Constantius the Emperour and of Eusebia his wife 2. In praise of the Sun and of the Mother of the Gods Against unlearned Dogs To Heraclius concerning the Sect of the Cynicks and a Consolatory Oration at the departure of Salust His Caesars his Misopogon and sixty three Epistles besides that to Themistius and the Athenians But the most pestilent of all his Works were those which he wrote against the Christian Religion which are mentioned and answered by St. Cyril Bishop of Alexandria in Ten Books consisting of 362 Pages in the sixth Tome of his Works set forth in Greek and Latine by Johannes Aubertus printed at Paris 1638. to which for his full satisfaction I refer the Reader THE CONCLUSION IT appears by what hath been said That Julian was a perfidious and detestable Apostate A malicious and subtile Persecutor who designed much more against the Christians than God permitted him to practise But as there is an open and declared Apostacie and Opposition of the Truth by professed Enemies so is there a secret and real revolt from the Truth and persecution of its Disciples by some that profess themselves Friends to the same And in our own Age we have known some not only of the Roman but other Perswasions who may be parallel'd with and in some circumstances exceed Julian For Julian being a Great Prince had the unhappiness of being bred in forein Countries among subtile Pagans who tempted him to their impieties in his youth There are some who have had their whole Education among learned and sincere Professors of the Christian Faith and yet revolt from it Julian for Six years together faithfully served the Emperour in his Wars to the great hazard of his Life Others even in times of peace study to involve their Prince in unnatural Wars to the endangering of his and their own Lives Julian had a power to have executed his malicious designs but was restrained Others live under a just power and enjoy Protection and Peace yet their perverse Wills admit of no restraint Julian employed his Wit in writing against his Christian Subjects Others employ theirs in writing against their Christian Governours He wrote Panegyricks of a Constantius who had contrived his death Others write Satyrs and Libels against their Princes to whom they owe their Lives In a word the greatest aggravation of Julian's Apostacie was that he had been a Lecturer of the Holy Scriptures the truths of which he renounced and wrote against them And there are some who have been long in the Order of Priesthood that have so far revolted from their Profession as to write point-blank against the plain and most necessary practical duties of the Holy Scriptures And whether Julian or such as these be the greater Apostates I leave to the Judgement of the Impartial Reader FINIS