are and not else Now I humbly conceive seeing the Writ De Haeretico comburendo is taken away in time and the Laws protect us in our Religion it is a needless thing to go to Smithfield and there be burnt for an Heretick It is better if it pleased God that we should die as Hereticks if with St. Paul we truly worship God in a way that is so called than to go to Tyburn and be hanged as Traitors and Regicides For though that Law be taken away yet the Law of God stands firm which enjoyns us to submit our selves not onely for fear but for Conscience sake and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter in the case of our submission for Conscience sake as well as for fear of wrath is determined by St. Paul with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye must needs be subject P. 77. And so far it is fit to inform the Popish Crew lest they should be mistaken in the good Protestant Religion of our good Church as Coleman calls it I pray let them not be informed that we obey more for fear than for Conscience sake No nor that we are afraid to dye for our Religion of God call us to do it As to your Parenthesis that we have no apprehension of persecution from any other quarter I tell you we have felt a greater persecution in our Age from Geneva than from Rome and if the one have since the Reformation in this Nation killed a thousand the other have slain ten thousand Your next Reflection is on the Pulpit-law as you say the Lord Faulkland called it of Sibthorp and Manwaring and complained it had almost ruined the Nation That noble Lord was indeed a great lover of his Religion and Country and therefore was an enemy to Arbitrary Government But when he perceived that the outcry against Arbitrarie power in the King was made with a designe to grasp it into other mens hands and they began to exercise it not onely on the Gentry Clergie and Nobility of the Land but the Royal Family also he repented and so faithfully adhered to the King in defence of his Authority that he lost his life in the Quarrel It was the Pulpit-law in 41. and 42. that destroyed us and brought in Arbitrary Power But how near doth our Author come to put a border of Treason on his impolitick discourse p. 78. where he says The Arbitrary Doctrine of those times to which both he and Mr. Hunt impute the beginning of the Late War did not bring any great terrour with it it was then but a Rake and served onely to scrape up a little paltrie passive money But now it is become a Murdering-piece loaden with I know not how many bullets Who are they I wonder that preach up such an Arbitrarie Power or who are they that make such a Murdering-piece of it Is it not rather a Fiction of some men who would find a pretence for a second War For if as Mr. Hunt says p. 52. That the Panick fear of a change of the Government that this Doctrine to wit of Arbitrary Power before 41. occasioned and the Divisions it made among us was the principal cause of the Late War is it not evident that the same fears are now made Panick or Popular to prepare the hearts of the People for another War What else mean the bleatings of the Sheep and the lowing of Oxen the Vulgar Murmurs and loud Cries of the Multitude as if it were intended we should be ruled by a Standing Armie and That his Majesties Guards are a grievance That the dissolution of a Parliament gave us cause to fear that the King had no more business for Parliaments Hunt p. 22. and p. 60. of our Author That Parliaments should sit till they have done that for which they were called i. e. says our Author in his Marginal Note till all Grievances are redressed and Petitions answered And then for ought I know they might sit for ever and so no more need of a King What means the denying him a Supply when Tangier was like to be lost and not onely with-holding their own but denying him to dispose of his Credit or Revenues for his just occasions What mean our new Associations and Bandying into Parties and advice even to the Clergie not to suspend all the legal securitie they have upon the life of our present King Hunt p. 49. All these strongly argue that they have a suspition of Arbitrary Power and that by our Author's confession was in 41 and therefore may be suspected to be made use of now as an incitement to Rebellion And though our Author p. 78. confesseth That the malignitie of this Doctrine cannot be discovered under his Majesties gracious Reign yet he thinks fit to put him in mind of the Securitie he hath given the Nation by his Coronation-Oath which all Protestant Princes value look upon as Sacred and likewise of many gracious Promises that he will govern according to Law All this caution argueth more than Suspition it looks like an Accasation though I know no defect but the neglect of executing the Laws against Transgressors But if it do not fall out in his Majesties Reign it will appear in its colours and we may feel the sting of it if it please God so sharply to punish us for our sins as to let us fall under a Popish Successour p. 78 79. We have I confess deserved such a punishment for kicking against our Protestant Princes but by the blessing of God we may not have such a One For who shall be King or Queen of this Realm of England hereafter you tell us none but God himself knows p. 21. of the Preface But you tell us of another may be the Successor may be a Papist and then he may persecute but he may not be or if he be so yet I have proved he may not persecute and our Author hath granted p. 75. That it can never happen but by our own Treacherie c. Such a formidable Persecution as you suggest is a thing impracticable and morally impossible it hath never yet been acted by any Prince Papist or Heathen the Marian Tempest did not so destroy Protestants though it had been but newly planted but in Queen Elizabeth's Reign it grew up again and covered the Land in a few days Now to disturb our Peace and Settlement with two such may be 's as are more likely may not be to suppose such things as are morally impossible is unreasonable and to fear where no fear is saith Mr. Hunt p. 250. But such suppositions as our Author makes ought not at all to be supposed for there is greater hurt to be feared from them as Mr. Faukner says p. 545. of his Christian Loyaltie than from the thing supposed since it is much more likely that such designes should be imagined and believed to be true when they are false as they were in the unjust Outcries against our late gracious Soveraign than that they
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
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
of Julian seemeth very fit to describe an Apostate having himself apostatized from the Doctrine of the Church whereof he hath long professed himself to be a Member as also from the judgment and practice of the Primitive Christians against whom his book is a very notorious Libel and by which if it should be credited he would wound the Reputation of those Primitive Christians more than Julian hath done For he says himself That but for their name Julian had better have fallen among so many Barbarians than among them p. 66. These two things are what I designe first to wipe off the dirty Aspersions cast by the Author on the Christians in Julian's time which have more of an Invective against them than any thing that St. Cyril wrote against Julian himself And secondly to prevent the infection of those false and dangerous Opinions in the case of Obedience to Magistrates which this distempered Generation are too much disposed to receive and as is usual with infected persons to propagate and make them epidemical I intend not a Vindication of the Papists nor of Julian though as the Proverb says The Devil is not so black as he 's painted let Baal plead for himself I onely designe a short Apologie for the Primitive Christians whom our Author represents as so many Apostates from their Predecessors in the days of Dioclesian when by their patient sufferings they more honoured the Gospel than the Christian Emperours did by all the Priviledges and Largesses wherewith they endowed the Church And he might with equal truth have objected the same things against the Christians in the time of Constantius as he doth against Julâ—an for he being an Arian and violently persecuting many Orthodox Bishops setting the Arians in their places some of them did speak far otherwise of him than St. Cyril doth yet none attempted to resist him but pray'd for him and patiently submitted to his unjust Chastisements as being their lawful Governour Of which hereafter AN ANSWER TO THE PREFACE OF OUR Author's Life of JVLIAN OUr Author seems better read in the Alcaron than the Scriptures that hath found out a Comparison for his Majesties Subjects from a Vision of Mahomet when he might have found more suitable representations of them from the holy Scriptures as in David's Subjects who were careful not onely of his safety but all his house 2 Sam. 19.14 Christ himself and his Apostles have delivered for the good of all succeeding Ages such Precepts and Examples of Christian obedience and subjection as the most loyal Addressers even the men of Rippon themselves come short of It was their bounden duty at such a time to make their Profession to adhere to his Majestie his Heirs and Successors it was no more than what the Law of God and the Nation hath obliged them to so that they are neither Guelphs nor Gibelines nor Papists nor Phanaticks but such as are ready to render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar and unto God the things which are Gods nor could they sufficiently express their thankfulness to his Majestie when too many began to exercise an arbitrary way of vexing their fellow-subjects and supersede the established Laws for his gracious Declaration to govern according to the established Laws and which is that which gives offence to too many to cause others to do so too They know best how to reconcile Contradictions that could swallow Covenants and Engagements after the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and all their Obligations to God and his Church and knew how to make a glorious King by bringing him to the Block and to establish Religion by dividing it which our Saviour says is the readie way to destroy it for a Kingdom or house divided cannot stand If the men of Rippon had aâ— apprehension of the mischiefs that in all probability would follow upon a Bill of Exclusion I cannot see but their Fears were more reasonable than the groundless Jealousie of such as trouble themselves with what may never be or if it should is but a just judgment of God to punish those by some Rehoboam who were so malecontent with the pious and peaceable Governments of a David and Solomon And I have often thought that one reason why God set a Julian over the Christians of that Age was because in the times of Constantine and Constantius they degenerated into Heresies and Schisms such as the Arians and Donatists and began to bite and devour one another The Shepherds have generally observed that when Sheep push and chase each other it betokeneth an approaching Storm As to what you mind us of p. 4 5. That a Popish Successor will be an heavie judgment of of God and ought to be deprecated by all good men As far as Prayers and Tears and other lawful endeavours may be employed all good men will readily joyn with you but if it shall please God for our wantonness and ungovernableness to lay that heavie Yoke upon us it is in vain to resist lest we be found to fight against God I shall at present onely send you to a Heathen to learn better behaviour Quomodo sterilitatem aut nimios imbres caetera naturae mala it à luxum vel avaritiam dominantium tolerate vitia erunt donec homines sed neque haec continua meliorum interventu pensantur i. e. As we endure scarcity or immoderate rain and other natural evils so ought we to bear with the luxury or avarice of our Rulers for there will be faults as long as there are men but neither are these still continued the interchange of what is good will make compensation for that which is evil as Tacitus says Our Saviour would have us to live without distracting fear of those events which are not in our power to prevent especially when our groundless fears may be the chief cause of drawing those evils on our selves Few Rebellions were ever hatcht but by the warmth of a pretended zeal for Religion and Reformation and Fears and Jealousies how groundless soever have animated it and given it growth and strength The panick fear of a change of Government he means Arbitrary Government was the principal cause of the late War saith Mr. Hunt in his Postscript p. 52. The noise of Popery to be brought in by the King and Archbishop Land who were the Heads of the Grotian Papists as Mr. Baxter says was another yet I hope neither Mr. Hunt nor our Author will warrant that Rebellion under their hands upon such false and ungodly pretences when they shall consider to what real evils these feigned Bugbears and Fancies did precipitate us It is true a Popish Successor will be an affliction to sincere Protestants in respect of temporal accommodations and spiritual advantages also yet that evil may be improved to our eternal advantages our Saviour having promised that great shall be their reward in heaven that are reviled persecuted and slandered for his sake Matth. 5.11 12. And St. Peter tells us If we suffer
care of those who are put on an inevitable necessity of defending themselves c. How far a man that is assaulted and put on an inevitable necessity of defending himself against the injuries of private men is one thing and what he may do against his Prince of whom you seem to discourse is another In this case we may apply that in Rev. 13.10 He that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword This is the patience and faith of the Saints P. 11. This Doctrine of Passive Obedience you say quite alters the Oath of Allegiance which requires you to be obedient to all the Kings Majesties Laws Precepts and Process proceeding from the same I do not find those words in that Oath as set forth by King James but I find what you overlook viz. I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majestie his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the utmost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever And thus I find more particularly in a Declaration which I believe our Author hath subscribed thus amplified I do declare that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissionated by him P. 11. After a large Preface little to your purpose telling us That the Church of England reserves her Faith entire for the Canonical books of Scripture which I hope you also do and that she divides her Reverence between the Fathers and the first Reformers of this Church who partly were Martyrs that died for the Protestant Religion and partly Confessors that afterward setled it And now to the business How much the Fathers would have been for a Bill of Exclusion you say we have seen already No not one word of it from the beginning nor I believe any mention of it from one Argument tending to it to the end of the Book from any of the Fathers as will shortly appear But what say our Martyrs Confessors and Reformers First he tells us what some men would have perswaded King Edward to do if they could have had their wills confirmed by Act of Parliament They shewed what they would have done if they could saith our Author They never spake such bad English as our Author doth in his Taunton-Dean Proverb Chud eat more Cheese an chad it which being interpreted is We would rebel if we had power The Duke of Northumberland indeed did cause the Lady Jane Gray's Title to be proclaimed but here the Bishops must be the men that were chiefly engaged in that designe of Exclusion whereas I read not that any of them were ever consulted with nor ever declared any thing to that purpose but in their joynt and most solemn Writings enjoyn the clean contrary as shall now appear P. 12. The Bishops in Queen Elizabeth 's time to whom under God and that Queen we owe the settlement of our Church concurred to the making of that Statute which makes it High-Treason in her Reign and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels ever after in any wise to hold or affirm That an Act of Parliament is not of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and government thereof 13 Eliz. chap. 1. But our Author never considered the grounds and reasons of that Act Ex malis moribus bonae Leges it was the iniquity of those times and the traiterous practices of the Queen of Scots which gave occasion to that Statute for there were many Pamphlets written by Saunders and the Author of Doleman which deni'd the Title of Queen Elizabeth and proclaim'd her an Usurper and the Queen of Scots made actual claim to the Crown of England she assumed the Arms of England and other Regalia and by her Confederates endeavoured to raise a Rebellion and conspired against the life of the Queen for which causes she was condemned as may appear by her Sentence which was passed upon her viz. That divers things were compassed and imagined within this Kingdom of England with the privity of the said Queen who pretended a Title to the Crown of this Kingdom and which tended to the hurt death and destruction of the Royal Person of our Soveraign Queen Cambdens Eliz. p. 464. Leiden 1625. Such practices gave occasion to that Statute to prevent the Mischiefs that might befal Queen Elizabeth and the Nation And that Statute consists of many heads As first Whoever should compass imagine devise or intend the death or destruction or any bodily harm tending to death destruction or wounding of the Royal person of the Queen or deprive or depose her of or from the Stile Honour or Kingly name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm c. or leavy War against her Majesty within this Kingdom or without or move any Strangers to invade this Kingdom or Ireland c. or shall maliciously publish and declare by any printing writing word or sayings that our Soveraign Lady during her life is not or ought not to be Queen of this Realm c. or that any other person or persons ought of right to be King or Queen of the same or that our said Queen is a Heretick or Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or an Vsurper of the said Crown c. these shall he guilty of High-Treason Also if any after thirty days from the Session of this Parliament and in the life of our said Queen shall claim pretend declare or publish themselves or any other besides our said Queen to have Right or Title to have and enjoy the Crown of England or shall usurp the same or the Royal Stile Title or Dignity of the Crown or shall affirm that our said Queen hath not right to hold and enjoy the same such shall be utterly disabled during their natural lives onely to have or enjoy the Crown or Realm of England in Succession Inheritance or otherwise Then follows the Case of Succession That if any person shall hold or affirm that the Common Laws of this Realm not altered by Parliament ought not to direct the Right of this Crown or that our said Queen by the Authority of Parliament is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force c. as above Yet was not the Queen of Scots condemned upon the Statute of the 13 of Eliz. but on that made in the 27 of her Reign wherein it was provided That twenty four persons at least part being of the Privy Council and the rest Peers of the Realm should by the Queens Commission examine such as should make any open Rebellion or Invasion of this Realm or attempt to hurt the Queens person by or for any pretended Title to the Crown In which Commission I find no Bishop save the Archbishop who at first refused to act nor when the whole Parliament petitioned for the Execution do we find that the
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
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
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
Constitution of our Government of which they are utterly ignorant P. 8. These like Dotterels Apes and Parrets who have no more understanding than those Animals are perpetually repeating any thing though never so destructive to Church and State that is suggested by any Popish Mercenarie Writer if he hath but the cunning to bestow an idle Complement upon the Church or calls Rogue or Villain seemingly or in pretence for their sakes I hope our Bishops have not hired any for such purposes especially if he can furnish to their young Invention any Topicks of Raillerie against an Imaginary Presbytery and against the Parliaments c. a very fair Capacitie and Recommendation this as they imagine to Preferment These are the men I confess for whose sake I writ the Postscript The Preface then it seems was writ for the Bishops But this unmerciful man hath not yet done lashing our young Divines P. 10. Too many of the young Clergie says our Aristarchus do assist the Gentrie in their Loyal Debauches most scandalously for the service of the Church and maintaining the honour of their Order These degenerate Levites are magnifying perpetually the priviledges of their Tribe extolling their Order yet in terms that disgrace it and by their lives they vilifie it And now like the old Persecutors he hath wearied himself to torment poor Innocents I hope our young Divines have yet so much of their Grammar-learning for the Subject is scarce capable of the more serious Stelliteuticks of the Vniversity-studies as to return some Reflections on the laborious Travels of this infamous Tom Coriat and make him feel what it is Ludere cum Sanctis in our Lawyers Latine i. e. to play with Edge-tools In the mean time his own folly and impietie will chastise him it being evident that Mr. Hunt deals with the Bishops not onely as men use their Dogs who feed them with a bit and a knock but as Butchers are wont to use their Hogs who claw them and scrape them a little that they may with more conveniencie cut their Throats He advanceth them as it were on a Pinacle of the Temple that he may cast them down the more irrecoverably He tells us p. 15. that Calvin Beza and P. du Moulin Monsieur Moyne Claude and de l'Angle highly approved of the Order and Office of Bishops And from Grotius that Non debent res bonae damnari quia sunt qui iis abutuntur That good things ought not to be condemned because there are some that do abuse them Yet p. 11. he tells them also the Apostolicalness of their Order will not secure it if they do not fill up the dutie of their Office i. e. if they do not fully comply with his designe And p. 12. he remembers them that there are Churches of Christ that do make a shift without their Order and Religion need not perish though the Order fail So that it is plain that by the word Order he means Episcopacy and insinuates that it is a needless thing it may be grub'd up root and branch And is not this a fair Apologie for his real intention to serve the Bishops P. 23. He complains that too many eminent men in our Church are brought to a dead Neutralitie and thereby we are brought to this pass That Religion it self must be the devoted thing to the rage and folly of the Priests of that Religion As if they had all conspired to be felo's de se And on this ground he proclaims his Curse ye Meroz against them as execrable Neuters P. 6. he says They have raised a bitter Zeal against that Separation which themselves have contrived fomented and promoted and it is brought to that pass that those are accounted Church-Fanaticks though Conformists that cannot contentedly see and endure the neerer approaches of ruine both of Church and State These are their fear and their hate the Sons of Anak the Giants of the Land that they imagine so insuperable that they are for making themselves a Captain and returning back into Egypt p. 7. This he repeats p. 46. where he endeavours to lay the sin of Corah c. upon those who in our days do most faithfully adhere to Moses and Aaron and would excuse those who having lost their Corah and other renowned Leaders by an exemplary Divine Judgement did the very next day murmur again against Moses and Aaron falsely accusing them who were the meekest men upon Earth of taking too much upon them i. e. of ruling by an Arbitrary power and making themselves absolute For so v. 13. of that 16th Chapter they accuse Moses of seeking to make himself altogether a Prince and v. 14. he is accused of seeking to put out the eyes of the People as Mr. Hunt also doth p. 13. Postscr We are used saith he as Sampson bound and our eyes put out and made sport for the Philistimes I fear Mr. Hunt will hardly have his eyes opened till as the mole he comes to die With such murmurings as these they so provoked Moses that the Lord was angry with him for their sakes and as the Author of Julian's life observed of the Prayers of the Christians in Julians time they contrived and effected his death for he dyed in the Land of Moab and was not to enter into Canaan Who they are that murmur at the Conduct of Moses and Aaron is too visible to be denied viz. they that accuse them of Arbitrary Government that proclaim themselves the Holy People they who hearken to those false Spies that discourage the people with stories of Insuperable evils of being certainly miserable and having a War entailed on the Nation fire and faggot and an Inquisition c. For my part I think these murmuring Prognosticators are they who are for making another Captain in the room of Corah and going back again to Egypt And though we do not look on these as the Sons of Anak invincible Giants yet are they as the Canaanites were to Israel thorns in our sides They are still troubling us with their wiles and their lyes their Associations and Consults their Seditious Libels and Pamphlets such as these of our two Authors their Doleman and the Rights of the Kingdom Their Plato Redivivus their No Plot and Sermons of Persecution and Daniel in the Den which like the Frogs and Plagues of Egypt are croaking in every corner and infecting every part of the three Nations They which cry up those for the godly Party and devout Men that are inspired with Scruples from God himself on purpose to put a bar against the proceedings of Moses and Aaron By such men and means the truth is we are brought into a great strait we have a deep Sea before us and a howling Wilderness behind us And yet we murmur not our Sins have deserved these things Nor do we think of making any other Captains to our selves than those whom God in great mercy and by many Miracles hath preserved and continued unto us We are not for Egypt in
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
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
the Professors of the true Religion again as if they had once done it already to Slaughters Fire Faggots Tortures Inquisitions and Massacres When the Bishops and Loyal partie were they who suffer'd these or as great tortures as these for their Religion and Loyaltie from the irreligious and Rebelpartie But to undeceive the multitude let them consider by what arts a new War is contrived As 1. By slandering all such as oppose the Association and popular torrent of Sedition and Rebellion as p. 27. of Preface that the number of Addressers may be reduced to the Duke's Pensioners and Creatures That the Addresses have been obtained by application and the design was to make voices for the discontinuance of Parliaments and for a Popish Successor That such as write for the established Government and Religion are a hired sort of Scaramouchy Zanies Merry Andrews and Jack Puddings P. 12. and impeacheth a Secretary of State as a Traytor not considering that one such as John Milton is the chief Engineer and encourager of all Rebellion and Treason 2. By divulging abroad p. 22. That the Nation begins to grow impatient by the delays of publick justice against the Popish Plot though it be well known at whose door that lies That the dissolution of Parliaments gives us cause to fear that the King hath no more business for Parliaments ibid. and p. 17. 3. By animating the multitude to perplex his Majesty with new Addresses telling them p. 30. of Preface So strong is the tye of duty upon him from his Office to prevent publick Calamities as no respect whatsoever no not of the Right Line can discharge nor will he himself ever think if DVLY ADDRESSED that it can And p. 34. At this time if ever the APPLICATIONS of an Active Prudence are required from all honest men And he himself hath given them a Precedent in that Application which he intended it seems for the Seditious rabble We will not entail a War upon the Nation no not for the sake and interest of the Glorious Family of the STUARTS 4. By acquainting the Malecontents that their number is four fifths of the Nation who are such as love and adhere to our Government and Religion though they are rendred suspected of destroying again the English Monarch and the Protestant Religion p. 10. of Postscript And therefore he doth but profane the Name of God p. 95. when he says God be thanked they the Dissenters who are imagined very numerous neither make our Grand-Jury-men nor the Common-halls of the City for choosing the Lord Mayors or Sheriffs 5. By Reprinting such Books as were written in defence of the late War and improving the Arguments for that Rebellion 6. By his pleading for Comprehension and Indulgence which p. 98. he says about ten years since was designed to slight the Churches Works and demolish her by a general Indulgence and Toleration and now they intend to destroy her Garison those that can and will defend her against Popery 7. By publishing it as an undoubted truth and evident in it self That the Succession to the Crown is the people Rights p. 201. 8. By making large Apologies in behalf of those men of whom he speaks p. 96. What animations did their people receive to defie the Church and her Authoritie when their Preachers despised Fines and Imprisonment to their seeming out of pure zeal against her Order And yet he adds It is well know several of them were in Pension and no men have been better received by the Duke than J. J. J. O. E. B. and W. P. c. Ringleaders of the Separation And again p. 98. Consider how the Church of England is used which is truly the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion And it is a pitiful evasion to say that these Fanaticks are acted by the Papists or if it were true they were much more intolerable for that reason and therefore I do with all my heart agree to your Method for rooting out the Popish Plot prescribed p. 99. By suppressing that contumacie that is grown so rife in the Dissenters against the Church of England by putting the revilers of her Establishment and Order under the severest penalties But then Caveat Author To conclude we are certainly as Mr. Hunt calls us a foolish people and unwise a stupid and perverse Generation if we shall reject that gracious and gentle Government whereby God hath hitherto led and preserved us a flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron and exchange for a Saturn or a Moloch that will devour their own Children and make them pass through the fire at their pleasure But From all such Men-monsters from all Sedition Perjurie Conspiracie and Rebellion from all false Doctrine Heresie and Schism from hardness of Heart and contempt of thy Word and Commandments Good Lord deliver us THE Life of Julian INLARGED His Birth and Parentage JVLIAN was Born at Bizantium now called Constantinople His Fathers Name was Constantius Brother to Constantine the Great His Mothers Name was Basilina of a very ancient and Noble Family among the Romans Now although the Empire was intirely devolved on Constantius the Second Son of Constantine his two Brothers Constantine and Constans being dead yet for securing the Empire to himself having a jealous Spirit he contrived the death of his nearest Kindred viz. Constantius Father of our Julian Anniballianus and Dalmatius Caesar which our Author would impute to the outrages of the Souldiery forgetting what he tells his Reader p. 29. That the slaughter of his Kindred was one of those three things whereof Constantius repented him at his death For which he rightly quoteth Naz. Orat. in laudem Athanasii p. 389. How Julian and Gallus his Elder Brother escaped that Massacre our Author leaves uncertain for having said that Gallus being very sick the Souldiers concluded that the disease would kill him and save them the labour and that they thought not Julian dangerous being but five years old yet he would have it attributed to Constantius the Emperor who for ought we read gave no Commission to spare them and had they then dyed would doubtless have found cause to repent of their deaths as well as of the rest of his Kindred That Constantius shewed kindness to his two Cousins after the Death of their Father and Vnkles was no more than Nature and especially the Religion he professed required of him nor could all his kindness to the Children expiate his Cruelty to their Father But that he should cause Gallus to be slain who is noted p. 3. to have been sincerely pious and that after he had given him his * Constantina Sister in Marriage and declared him Caesar and found him a Man of Personal valour and good Conduct and Success I may say of it as our Author doth it was a rash act and yet if it be true that he designed to Invade the Empire not content with the Title and Authority of Caesar it was more excusable than the Death of his other