they be evil not onely for Fear but also for Conscience-sake c. Our Saviour Christ himself and his Apostles received many and divers injuries of the unfaithfull and wicked men in Authority yet we never reade that they or any of them caused any Sedition or Rebellion against Authority we reade oft that they patiently suffered all troubles vexations slanders pangs and pains and Death it self obediently without Tumult or Resistence They knew that the Authority of the Powers was God's Ordinance and therefore both in their Words and Deeds they taught ever Obedience to it and never taught nor did the contrary c. We may not obey King Magistrates or any other though they be our own Fathers if they would Command us to doe any thing contrary to God's Commandments Ibid. p. 74. In such a case we ought to say with the Apostle We must rather obey God than Man But nevertheless in that case we may not in any-wise withstand violently or Rebell against Rulers or make any Insurrection Sedition or Tumults either by force of Arms or otherwise against the Anointed of the Lord or any of his Officers But we must in such cases patiently suffer all wrongs and injuries p. 75. referring the judgment of our Cause onely to God And elsewhere our Church says What shall Subjects doe then Serm. against Rebellion 1 Part. shall they obey valiant stout wise and good Princes and condemn disobey and rebell against Children being their Princes or against undiscreet and evil Governours God forbid For what a Perillous thing were it to commit unto the Subjects the judgment which Prince is Wise and Godly and his Government good and which is otherwise as though the Foot must judge of the Head And enterprize very heinous and must needs breed Rebellion Serm. against Wilfull Rebellion 1st Part. p. 279. This is you see the Pious and Loyal Doctrine of the Protestant Church of England which she received from Christ and his Apostles and from the Primitive Christians concerning the Subjects absolute Obedience to Kings and All in Authority whether Good or Evil. And the said Loyal Doctrine was ever preached and practised by the Protestants in England we mean those who owned the King's Supremacy in opposition unto Popery and Fanaticism for there never was nor are any other * Beausrons c. 1. Protestants in the World but such who protest for and defend the King's Supremacy This Doctrine of absolute Obedience was practised as well as preached by the Bishops Martyred in Queen Mary's days and by the most Reverend Jo. Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury and by the most Reverend William Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury who suffered Death by the late Rebels for nothing more than for maintaining this Primitive Doctrine of absolute Obedience to the King And since it has been urged upon the Peoples practice by several Learned Men of this our Church particularly by Dr. Faulkner in his Christian Loyalty And by the Right Reverend Seth Lord Bishop of Sarum in his most Learned Sermon before the King on Nov. 5.1661 against Resistence of Lawfull Powers Some of his Lordships words are these If harsh Administration of Power will exempt Men from Obedience p. 60. at that time when Claudius or Nero was Roman Emperour why should the Holy Ghost move St. Paul to write to the Romans scil Rom. 13.2 They that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation And p. 67. that other pretence scil That after a Lawfull Sovereign is established Ibid. p. 67 68. the Power still remains in the People in the dissused Body of them or their Representatives to alter the Government as they please it is in respect of Policy and Government what the sin against the Holy Ghost is to Religion it destroys the foundations of the peace and safety of men and makes that to be the Artifice of Man which is the Ordinance of God How much God abhorred this pretence will appear in the case of Corah and his Company The Reverend Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury in his Letter to the late Lord Russel has these expressions to wit That the Christian Religion doth plainly forbid the Resistence of Authority That though our Religion be established by Law yet in the same Law which establishes our Religion it is declared That it is not Lawfull upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms c. Besides that there is a particular Law declaring the Power of the Militia to be solely in the King and that ties the hands of Subjects though the Law of Nature and the General Rules of Scripture had left us at liberty which I believe they do not because the Government and Peace of Humane Society could not well subsist upon those Terms As thus these abovementioned Persons so indeed all the learned Men of the Church of England who have wrote any thing largely of the Subjects Duty towards their Prince have unanimously declared contrary to the Factious Authour of Julian the Apostate scil That all Lawfull Kings and their Lawfull Heirs by Primogeniture of what Religion or Manners soever Good or Bad they be ought successively to Reign and Govern and to be honoured and obeyed by all their Subjects either Actively by chearfully doing whatever they shall Command or Passively by humbly and peaceably submitting to whatever punishment their said Princes shall think fit to inflict upon them for not obeying their Royal Commands Actively And if any Prince should after he is seated in the Throne prove Tyrannical we may not Rebell nor plot his Deposition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian Orat 1. c. Our onely Remedy is what was Nazianzen's and the Christians in the Reign of Julian the Apostate to wit Prayers Fastings and Tears This was the practice of the Primitive Christians and ever has been the Profession and Practice of the Protestant Church of England And therefore whoever lives in Rebellion against his Lawfull Prince and dies in and for the same without publick and hearty Repentance Acknowledgment and Confession to God and to Man of that his Rebellion or secret plotting of Rebellion Neither does such a man live nor any true way can he be said to dye in Communion with the Protestant Church of England But as he lived So he dies either a Popish or a Fanatick Recusant And No Protestant And thus died most of the late Fanatical Associatours and Rebels inasmuch as most of them died without the least expression of their sorrow and penitence for and without humble and publick Confession of their Horrible Plot and Treason for which they were Condemned As appears by their own Papers given to the Sheriffs and Published by Authority And here it will be requisite that we as far as we are able undeceive the people and tell the Naked Truth to wit That the abovementioned Persons abused the World and imposed upon the ignorant people a notorious falsity when at their Executions they declared they died Protestants and in
has power not onely to Excommunicate but also to Depose and Remove all Emperours (c) Papa habet dominium seu imperium temporale in omnes homines quantaecunque eminentiae ac dignitatis sint ita ut Imperatores Reges his Inferiores si Religioni justitiae Christianae adversentur non solùm excommunicare sed ab officiis removere ac deponere possit c. Jod Lorich Flagell Papa p. 443. Kings and Secular Magistrates that are Irreligious and Heretical And if such Emperours Kings and Princes so excommunicated and deposed shall resist the Pope's Authority and endeavour to continue themselves in their Thrones then the Pope (a) Si autem nolint potest ipsemet Papa conscribere exercitum Rebelles pro viribus subjugare ibid. has power to raise an Army and by force to subdue the said Rebellious Kings and Princes And the said Lorichius nominates several Emperours and Princes that have been Excommunicated and Deposed by several Popes For instance Leo Isauricus the Emperour excommunicated by Pope Gregory the Second Childeric King of France Deposed by Pope Zacharias and his Kingdom given away to Pipin Henry the Emperour was Deposed by Pope Gregory the 7th Frederic the Emperour was Deposed by Innocent the 4th Otto the Emperour was Deposed by Pope Innocent the 3d. And as for the rest of Emperours and Kings deposed by the Popes Lorichius refers his Reader to Baronius his Annals and to Bellarmine de Pont. Sum. l. 5. c. 8. And we will refer our Reader to the Histories and Lives of Hen. 8. Edw. 6. Qu. Eliz. K. James Who were all Excommunicated by the Pope though God bethanked they were all strong enough to keep themselves in their thrones Suarez who is an Antesignanus among the Jesuits declares in several places of his Book intituled Defensio Fidei That the Pope has power to depose (a) Post sententiam latam omninò privatur regno ita ut non possit justo titulo illud possidere ergo ex tunc poterit tanquam omnioò Tyrannum tractari consequenter à quacunque privata persona poterit intersici Suarez defens fid l. 6. c. 4. any Heretical King and that when any King is deposed by the Pope then any private person may lawfully kill such an Heretical King Lessius and Filliucius jointly affirm That any private man may for the propagation of Religion kill any King or other man who shall oppose the Growth of true Religion though as the Lord Bishop of St. Asaph well observes Lesstus says Talis * Lessius de jur just l. 2. c. 9. dub 8. sect 47. in Republica benè constituta ut Homicida plecteretur c. Few men will attempt to doe it for fear they should be hanged for their pains And very confidently Father Campian declares That all the Jesuits throughout the whole World are enter'd into a solemn League and Vow to make away and destroy all Heretical Kings in any manner whatsoever nor will they despair of effecting it Camp in Ep. ad Concil Reg. Angl. p. 22. as long as there shall be one Jesuit remaining in the World We might produce Paulus de palatio and many other Writers of the Roman Church to the same purpose But these are sufficient to prove our Assertion to wit That the Doctrine and Practice of Deposing and Killing Lawfull Kings and of precluding their Lawfull Heirs from reigning for their Heresie or for want of Grace or for their Moral Wickedness is grounded and first founded Upon Popery And was preached and practised first of all by the Popes and Papists of the Church of Rome SECT II. The Doctrine and Practice of Resisting Lawfull Kings and of Deposing and Killing them and of Excluding their Right Heirs for want of Grace or for ill Government or for being Idolaters or for being of a different Religion from themselves is also grounded on Fanaticism BY Fanaticks Rodolph Gualter means all those who Deny the King's Supremacy and set up some other power above the King which may controll him in matters Ecclesiastick and Civil although they be not Papists in profession And these Fanaticks (a) De Christi Ecclesia Isaias vaticinans Reges ejus nutritios Reginas nutrices fore pollicetur sunt haec observanda non solùm propter Anabaptistas horum similes Fanaticos homines qui omnem cùm Politicum tum Ecclesiasticum ordinem è medio sublatum volunt verum etiam propter Pontifices c. qui in Ecclesia omnem potestatem ad se transtulerunt nefas esse clamant ut Reges atque Principes quicquam in illa constituant aut ad reformandum cultum Dei manum admoveant Rod. Gualter in Div. Luc. Homil. 177. p. 468. And again he says Fateor tamen hujus mali culpam non minima ex parte in Phanaticis quibusdam haerere qui religionis libertatis Christianae praetextu abutuntur ut Ordinem politicum turbent indignum esse dicunt Hominem Christianum pura Regem gladio armatum esse quo alios suae professionis homines coerceat ibid. Hom. 195. p. 515. are not onely Anabaptists and Quakers but they are also the Classical Divines commonly called Presbyterians and the Congregational Divines aliàs Independents All which do deny the King's Supremacy and do set up another power above that of the Kings Such as the Consistorian Power among the Presbyterians And the Congregational-Church Power among the Independents These are the men What is meant by Fanatick and what by Fanaticism we mean by Fanaticks and their Doctrine and Practice of Deposing and Destroying Kings for their supposed Tyranny Idolatry or want of Grace and of Precluding their Right Heirs for any such Reason Is the Sum of what we mean by Fanaticism And because These men pretend to be against Popery But yet do deny the King's Supremacy and do maintain the Popish Doctrine and Practice of Deposing and Killing Kings and of Debarring their Lawfull Heirs from Reigning for their Tyranny Heresie and want of Grace We therefore call them Fanatical-Recusants and not Protestants Of this Number of Anti-Protestants we cannot but reckon these that follow John Calvin who in his Sermon 131 on Job 34. writ in French has these words as they are Translated into English by Arth. Gilding Anno Dom. 1573. Whereas God hath forbidden private persons to rail upon their Rulers Jo. Calvin Serm. 131. in Job 34. p. 675. it is to make us to live in peace and without trouble and to yield some Reverence to the seat of Justice But if there be evil and wicked Governours they must be sharply rebuked according to their Deservings And we must pull down all Loftiness that lifteth up it self against our Lord Jesus Christ Those then that will needs be spared and have their Vices untouched because they be in Authority must coin a new Gospel Of which number are the Kings in our days which will needs be called Anointed and Holy
(a) Ita nihil mali contra Imperatorem faciebat Nicomedensis Patricius qui Edictum publicè propositum concerpsit Melancth in Dan. c. 6. p. 101. Edict although the said Edict was possibly not so good as the generality of Reformers would have had it For that passionate and rash Action was no other than Rebellion against the Emperour's Person and Authority And the man might as Lawfully have torn into pieces the Emperour's Person as his Edict And in truth the countenancing such a Rebellious Action does very much encourage disaffected men unto a General Rebellion For if it be Lawfull for One private man then is it Lawfull for every man to Rebell and in like manner to tear the King's Proclamations Laws and Edicts into pieces Which to affirm or to doe is directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel and to the Profession and Practice of the Apostles and Primitive Christians Unto the above-mentioned Foreign Writers we will add The late and present Covenanters and Fanatical Associatours of both Scotland and England Whose Disloyal and Factious Tenents and Positions the Famous and Loyal Vniversity of Oxford have Sum'd up and have printed them with the Authours of them and have by a Vote of their Congregation on July 24. 1683 Decreed That their said Fanatical and Seditious Positions and Doctrines Oxfords Decree and the Books containing them be publickly Burnt by the hand of their Vniversity-Marshall in the Court of their Schools Some of which Seditious Positions were these that follow 1. That if Lawfull Governours become Tyrants or Govern otherwise than by the Laws of God and Man they ought to do they forfeit the Right they had unto their Government Lex Rex Jo Milton Jo. Goodwin Rich. Baxter H. C. And we will add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliàs Jo. Blackbdell 2. That the Sovereignty of England is in the Three Estates scil King Lords and Commons The King has but a co-ordinate Power and may be over-ruled by the other two Lex Rex Hunton of limited and mixed power Rich. Baxter H. C. And note that they took this false Doctrine from Calvin Beza and the rest abovementioned 3. That Proximity of Bloud and Birth-Right give no Title to Rule or Government and that it is Lawfull to preclude the next Heir from his Right and Succession to the Crown Lex Rex Doleman Julian Apostate and we may add the Votes of the late Associatours against the present Duke of York's Succession to the Crown of England 4. That it is Lawfull for the Subjects without the Consent and against the Command of the Supreme Magistrate to enter into Leagues Covenants Associations for defence of themselves and their Religion Solemn League and Covenant and the late Association 5. That the Presbyterian Government is the Sceptre of Christ's Kingdom to which Kings as well as others are bound to submit And the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs asserted by the Church of England is injurious to Christ the sole King and Head of his Church Altare Damascenum Cartwright Travers add Presbyt General Assembly in Scotaland 1592. Jam. Guthry's first Speech to the Parliament in Scotland 6. That wicked Kings and Tyrants ought to be put to death and if the Judges and Inferiour Magistrates will not doe their Office the power of the Sword devolves to the People if the major part of the people refuse to exercise this power then the Ministers may excommunicate such a King after which it is Lawfull for any of the Subjects to kill him as the people did Athaliah and Jehu Jezabell Buchanan Knox Goodman Gilby 7. That King Charles the First was Lawfully put to death and his Murtherers were the Blessed Instruments of God's glory in their generation Jo. Milton Jo. Goodwin Jo. Owen and we will add John Blackbdell aliàs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By these and the like Instances which may be brought it is proved to a very Demonstration That the wicked Doctrine and Practice of Resisting Lawfull Kings and of Deposing and Killing them and of Excluding their Right Heirs from Succeeding in their Thrones for ill Government Heresie or want of Grace is Grounded on Fanaticism And was never preached nor practised by any Episcopal Protestants but onely by the Papists and Fanaticks who ever denied The King's Supremacy The English Churche's Episcopacy CHAP. VI. A Paralle or A Brief and True Account of some Plots and Treasons of Papists and Fanaticks against the Kings and Queens of England since the Reformation and Abrenunciation of Popery EVER since the Abrenunciation of the Pope's Jurisdiction in England the Papists and Fanaticks have gone hand in hand in plotting and raising Sedition and Rebellion against our Kings and Queens upon the Pretence of Religion As for instance The Papists having Sir Francis Bygott for their General raised War against King Henry the Eighth for his being a Protestant and for Marrying a Lutheran The Fanaticks having Sir Thomas Wyat for their Commander made War against Queen Mary for her being a Papist and for Marrying a Papist The Papists Humfrey Arundell being their chief Captain Rebelled at Excester in Devonshire upon the account of Religion in King Edward the Sixth's Reign exclaiming bitterly against Protestantism The Fanaticks Robert Kett being their chief Leader made War and Rebelled at Norwich in Norfolk against the same King Edw. the Sixth under the pretence of Religion exclaiming Loudly against Popery The Papists plotted several times but were not able to effect the Deposition and Death of Queen Elizabeth a Protestant The Fanaticks plotted and effected the Deposition and Expulsion of Mary Queen of Scotland a Papist The Papists plotted the Alteration of the Protestant Religion that they might introduce Popery in Queen Elizabeth's Reign The Fanaticks in her Reign plotted the Alteration of the established Protestant Religion Some as Cartwright Travers c. that they might bring in their Genevan-Discipline Others as Hacket Barrow Brown Coppinger Penry Thacker c. that they might usher in their Libertinism Enthusiasm and Donatism The Papists plotted to alter Religion and to destroy King James by Gunpowder and other ways The Fanaticks particularly George Brook Henry Brook Lord Cobham Lord Gray of Wilton c. joyning in Conspiracy with the two Popish Priests Watson and Clark plotted to destroy King James to alter Religion to subvert the State and to procure Foreign Invasion The Papists in Ireland upon the account of Religion openly Rebelled against King Charles the First and most barbarously Massacred thousands of his Protestant Subjects thereby endeavouring to bring in Popery The Fanaticks in England and Scotland upon the account of Religion openly Rebelled against the same King Charles the First and caused a bloudy Civil War in which thousands of the King 's Loyal Subjects were Butchered and Murthered they hoping thereby to extirpate the established Protestant Religion and to bring in their Genevan Presbytery or Belgick Consusion The Papists in France Murthered King Henry the Third and King Henry the Fourth of that
killing his said Sovereign King Zachariah than what God aforehand had decreed should be done to the House of Jehu for his and their Hypocrisie and Wickedness Yet notwithstanding Shallum's executing God's Decree He was deservedly Condemned for a Traytor and at length Vengeance seized upon him By these and other Instances which might be alledged it is evident That Treason and Rebellion although Commenced upon never so Religious a pretence very seldom if ever went unpunished And therefore we Christians may pertinently urge in this case of Treason and Rebellion what Christ alledged in that of Offences Matth. 18.7 Woe to the World because of Offences for Offences will come but Woe to them by whom the Offence cometh So here Woe to the World because of Treasons and Rebellions for Treasons and Rebellions will happen as long as Youth are not duely Catechised and men are not better and more Loyally Principled But Woe to those Men by whom Seditions Treasons and Rebellions do come For the Divine Nemesis will undoubtedly pursue and over-take them either in this World or in that to come SECT IV. The Proposition proved by Reason and the Common Sentiments of Religion REason and Religion dictate it to be a thing absolutely sinfull and unlawfull for any Subjects whatever High or Low if they be Subjects in Parliament or out of Parliament to Depose their Lawfull Prince And that it is also unlawfull for any Subjects The Bill of Exclusion unlawfull by a Bill of Exclusion or by any other Means to put by the Lawfull Heir from the Crown for fear as was lately pretended He should alter Religion and so bring many Evils upon the Nation Now that it is utterly unlawfull and sinfull for any Subjects to doe thus Reason dictates Because to preclude a Lawfull Heir from the Crown for fear of future Evils which may happen in his Reign and Government is truly 1. Malitious To suppose a fault in the Right Heir before there is one and to Act upon such a Supposal savours of the height of Malice and Dis-ingenuity In truth so to doe in our apprehension is no better than to Hang a Man first and then to Try him afterward 2. Atheistical So to doe is to trust more to Man's Policy than to God's Wisedom more to Man's Care than to God's Providence for the prevention of suture Evils The Holy Scriptures assure us that the Heart of the King and of his Right Heir is in the hand of the Lord Prov. 21.1 and as the Rivers of Water he turneth it whither soever he will But this late Fanatical Doctrine of Deposing Kings and of Excluding the Right Heir from the Crown for want of Grace and for fear of future Evils that may possibly be done by Him speaks the contrary For this their Doctrine avouches for a Truth that the Heart of the King and of his Successour is not in the hand of the Lord Or if it be that then God will not turn it so as to doe any Good to the People And therefore the People especially in Parliament for the Good of the Common-wealth ought to Usurp God's Prerogative and take the Heart of the King and of his Lawfull Heir into their own hands and dispose of it as they the People shall judge best Now What is all this but in effect not onely to Depose and Dethrone an Earthly Prince and his Lawfull Heir but also to Depose and Dethrone Almighty God himself Nay What is it in plain English but for the People to take the Reins of Government out of God's hand into their own and to Rule the World according to their own exuberant fancies Nay What is it at the best but to doe an apparent Evil that a Contingent Good may come on it Which Principle is Antichristian and Condemned for such by Saint Paul who assures us That they who maintain such an irreligious Tenet scil Let us doe Evil Rom. 3.8 that Good may come Their Damnation is just And here it is to be farther noted That if it be as has been proved to be a sin for the Subjects upon any pretence whatever to Depose their King and to Exclude his Lawfull Heir from the Throne for fear of any Evil that may happen through his ill Government Now if this be a sin Then to be sure much more is it a sin for any Subjects to endeavour That a Law might be made to Disinherit the Lawfull Heir of the Crown upon the pretences aforesaid For 1. To make such a Law is truly to make a Law directly to oppose and contradict the unalterable Law of Inheritance which says that the Right Heir by Primogeniture shall Inherit and the other known Law of God That He who hateth Right shall Govern And therefore it was a notorious Sin Opposite to God's Law of Inheritance an Antichristian Act in the late Shaftsburian-Associators to move for a Bill of Exclusion of his present Royal Highness James Duke of YORK from Succeeding in the Throne notwith-standing his undoubted Right thereunto by Primogeniture upon a presumptive jealousie that He would not be a Friend to the true Episcopal-Protestant Religion of the Church of England as now by Law Established For by this Attempt they endeavoured to have set up a New Law of Man against the Ancient Law of God which Commands as we have heard already that the Right Heir shall Govern although he hate Righteousness and although he be a Belial an Idolater And the Law of God is so far from either Deposing a Lawfull King or Precluding the Right Heir as that it will not suffer any Subjects whatever to say Their King is Wicked or that their Princes are Vngodly 2. The Cause of Civil Wars and Sedition To make a Law for the Exclusion of the Lawfull Heir from the Crown is to establish Sedition and Faction by Law And it is not onely to cause but also to perpetuate an Intestine and Civil War by Law as our present most Wise and most Gratious King prudently and too truly urged in his late Declaration giving that for one Reason why neither in Honour nor in Conscience could He give his Royal Fiat unto that unnatural and irreligious Bill of Exclusion For if such a Bill should pass into a Law then there must inevitably follow a Bloudy Civil War Which can please none but them who delight in Bloud and love to sish in troubled waters And which will be worse The said War will in all likelihood continue untill the longest Sword shall have carried all before it And who knows but that Might may once again overcome Right as it did at Worcester Fight and in the late Cruel Rebellion Now Reason assures us That upon passing the Bill of Exclusion into a Law there most certainly will follow a Civil War and that because There will be in the Kingdom two Opposite irreconcilable Abettors for the Crown and their Adherers such as 1. The Right Heir by Primogeniture Excluded and his