our Government which as the Enquirer acknowledges lodges the Militia i. e. the Power of the Sword singly in the King. So that without his Order none of his Subjects can Form themselves into Troops or carry the face of an Army without being lyable to the highest Penalties And whereas he urges That if we have a Right to our Property we must likewise be supposed to have a Right to preserve it He means by Force To this I Answer First That a Man may have an unquestionable Right to some Things which he has no Warrant to recover Vi Armis but must rest the Enjoyment of them with the Conscience and Prudence of another E. G. If the Father of a wealthy Person falls into deep Poverty he has an undoubted Right to a Maintenance out of his Sons Estate and yet he cannot fairly recover it by Force without a Legal Provision for this purpose To bring the Instance nearer home The Right of making War and Peace is an Indisputable Branch of the King's Prerogative yet unless his Subjects assist him this Authority can seldom be exerted to any Successful effect because his Majesty cannot Levy Money which is the Sinews of War without the consent of Parliament Farther every one who is injured in his Property and endeavours the regaining of it by course of Law has without doubt a Right to have Justice done him But if the Court where the Cause is depending happens to be mistaken or corrupted I desire to know whether it 's Lawful for him to raise his Arrier Ban upon such a Disappointment Our Author is obliged by his Principle to say no and therefore he must either Answer 1. That the Party aggreived ought to appeal to a higher Court to which it may be replyed That it 's possible for him to meet with the same misfortune theÌ„re for our Constitution does not pretend to any Insallible or Impecable Judges 2. His Second Answer must be that this is a Private Case and therefore a Man is bound to submit to ill usage rather than disturb the publick Peace But to this I return that we may suppose a general failure of Justice through Subornation Bribery c. and then the Oppression will be of a publick and Extensive Nature and yet if a grievance of this Magnitude should continue unredress'd after complains our Author will not allow us the benefit of any rougher Methods for he frankly tells us That it 's not lawful to Resist the King upon any Pretence of ill Administration in the Execution of the Law. Pag. 14. so that by his own Argument we may have some very considerable Rights which it 's not justifiable to demand of the Government with a drawn Sword. Secondly This Liberty of Resistance dissolves all Government For as I have already Observ'd when every man is the Judge of his own Priviledges i. e. when he is made the Authentick Interpreter of the Laws and may use all the force he can get at his discretion against the State he is then most certainly to be govern'd by no body but himself And therefore Thirdly This Liberty must be the worst security for Peace and Property imaginable as I shall shew more at large by and by As for his limiting Resistance To plain and visible Invasions This is a very feeble Remedy against Confusion For since every one is made Judge of the Evidence and the generality are naturally over credulous and apt to believe ill of their Governours when designing Men have once impos'd upon their understandings and almost har'd them out of their sences then every thing will be plain to them but their Duty Thus it was plain that Charles the First intended to introduce Popery though possibly never any Person since the Reformation gave â—etter proof of his Adherence to the Church of England than that â—rince Thus likewise at the beginning of this present Revolution it was plain to the greatest part of the Nation that his Majesty had made a League with the French King to Extirpate the Protestants and their Religion Though now the World sees there never was a more Malicious and unreasonable Calumny invented But though Reports of this Nature are never so monstrous and nonsensical yet at this rate we shall never want a Demonstration for a Rebellion as long as such loose Principles as the Enquirer advances are allowed His Thirteenth Section contains nothing but Objections which to do him Justice are fairly put considering the small compass they are drawn into How well he gets clear of the Difficulties he was sensible of the Reader must judge for now we are coming to his Fourteenth and Dead doing Paragraph in which he offers to take off all the Arguments which are made for Non-resistance Now before I reply distinctly to his Answers I shall endeavour to offer something more than I have urged already in Consutation of his main Principle And here it 's not amiss to observe That the Enquirer in his Ninth Section Makes the Measures of our Submission much shorter than those of the Ancient Christians because Our Religion is Established by Law. By vertue of which Distinction he makes our Faith fall under the consideration of Property and from thence concludes by Implication That we may resist our Prince in defence of it But we are to consider though our Religion has a legal Settlement yet we have no Authority to maintain it by Force Nay our Laws are express as it 's possible against all manner of Resistance as himself acknowledges Now the Law is certainly the Measure of all Civil Right and therefore to carve out our selves a greater Security than the Law allows is Destructive of all Government If the Mobile get this hint it 's to be feared they will give him no occasion in their Second Expedition to admire them for Burning and Plundering with so much Temper and Moderation Further he grants by Consequence That the Roman Emperours were irresistable For I don't find that he allows the Primitive Christians a Liberty of Resistance though they were invaded in their Lives and Properties as well us in their Religion Now if these Emperours were irresistable I desire to know what made them so if he Answers the Laws I Reply That the English Constitution is as full against taking Arms to oppose the King as is possible If he Replies That it was unlawful to resist the Roman Emperours because the making of Laws was wholy in their own Power but where the Legative Authority is partly in the King and partly in the People the Case is otherwise To this I Answer That the Division of the Legislative Power does not weaken the Obligation of a Law when all the Distinct Authorities concur to the making of it E. G. I Question not but our Author will grant that the English Laws though the People have a share in Enacting them are as perfect and ought to be as inviolable as those in Turkey where all depends upon the Princes Will Therefore if the
of the Sphere of Royalty For though his Subjects are not to resist him when he Persecutes against Law yet his Actions having no Warrant from the Constitution are altogether Private and Unjustifybale Secondly and Thirdly The Application of this Remark will give the Decrees of Popes and Counsels relating to this matter a fair Interpretation For neither the Bulls of Paul the Fourth nor Pius the Fifth against Hereticks nor the Bulla Caenae of Urban the Eighth nor the Third Canon of the great Counsel of Lateran in which places if any where we have reason to expect this Severity of Doctrine I say it 's neither openly asserted nor can it be collected from any of these Authorities That a limitted Prince is obliged to break through the Establishment of his Country and Act Arbitrarily for the sake of Religion or which is all one that a private Man ought to propagate the Orthodox Faith Vi Armis though he violates the Laws of Civil Justice as well as Humauity by so doing Fourthly If the Point was dubious the Practice of the Roman Church ought to determine the Controversie Now matter of Fact carries it clearly for the favourable Side To begin with France It is certain that from the time of Henry the Fourth till within these few Years the Hugonots have had little or no disturbance about their Religion notwithstanding the Absoluteness of that Monarchy and the vast Majority of Roman Catholicks amongst them and yet this Indulgence of their Kings has never been condemn'd as a prevarication of their Duty To proceed In the Cantons of Switzerland the Protestants at this Day enjoy their Perswasion with Ease and Security enough Dr. Burnet's Travels The same Liberty is allowed the Reformed in Germany by several Princes of the Roman Communion viz. by the Duke of Newburgh the Bishop of Montz the Prince of Salzback and the Bishop of Hildershem c. And having shew'd that his Majesty is not obliged either by the Doctrine or Practice of his Church to push things to extremity I shall prove in the Second place That in all Humane probability such a Method must prove Unsuccessful and consequently the use of it is apparently against his Majesty's Interest He that considers the present Circumstances we are in and takes a full view of the State and Complexion of our Affairs must conclude it a Romantick Enterprize to endeavour the Establishing the Romish Faith in this Kingdom This Religion is not only against the Conscience but the Grain of the English Nation Many things they are firmly perswaded are Erroneous and Unaccountable and others they can very hardly reconcile their Temper to though they thought them True. In short there can be no danger that Popery should become the Religion of the Kingdom since the Abby Lands are possessed by the Layety and most of the Clergy by having Families are engaged in the same interest Besides some believe the Church of Rome too Indulgent and some too strict a Mother For we have enough among us who will neither stoop to the submissions of Consession nor bear the over-grown Grandeur of that Church So that if they had no other Arguments as they have the best imaginable their Spirit would secure their Protestancy Now when a People have such strong Convictions to keep them where they are and such an Unconquerable Aversion to the Roman Communion When Argument and Inclination lies the same way When there is Sense and Reason Scripture and Antiquity Numbers Humor and Interest all the Motives that Heaven and Earth can suggest against a Religion there is little likelihood of its prevailing Besides the circumstance of time would be no small Obstacle to a Design of this Nature For the Controversie between us has not only been lately handled at large and drawn down to every vulgar Capacity but the Victory has fallen indisputably and entirely on the Church of Englands Side And though the Roman Catholicks may think otherwise yet as long as the Protestants are of this Opinion the Effect will be the same Insomuch that if we had another Advantage the fresh Sense of Success and Triumph would almost make us Impregnable And when things stand in this Posture as every one that has but half an Eye must now see they doe How well soever a Man may be assured of the Truth of his Religion he is no more bound to drive against all these Difficulties and Oppositions than he is to stand in a Sea Breach Those Spiritual Directors are fit for Bedlam who will run Princes upon such dangerous Impossibilities where there is so much hazard without the least glimpse of Success Since therefore his Majestys Communion does not force him upon such rigorous and impracticable Designs as his Enemies would make us believe since he has neither Duty to oblige nor Hopes to succeed nor for ought appears Inclination to execute It seems Uneasonable as well as Uncharitable to suppose he will disquiet his Age and disgust his Subjects and hazard his Kingdoms any more about Disputes of this Nature Can we imagine any Prince will venture upon an Expedient which is demonstratively Feeble and Insufficient and which to speak softly has proved so Unfortunate upon the bare presumption of a Tryal Will he stand a Course where he knows there are nothing but Rocks and Shallows without any prospect of Advantage by the Voyage No Self-Preservation and Common-Instinct will keep a Man from such Attemps as these But to return more directly to our Author though I hope this has been no unseasonable Digression Having shewn therefore what an insecure distracted Condition a State must be in if Subjects were permitted to take up Arms as often as they were abused or ill disposed I shall proceed to shew how much safer their Liberties are under the Protection of that Unreputable as well as Unpractis'd Vertue of Passive Obedience And here as has been already hinted We have the Honour and Conscience and Interest of Princes to secure us and how defective soever the Two former Principles may be the latter must certainly take a firm and universal hold of Mankind Few People in their Senses will pursue those Methods in which the hazard is so apparently over-proportioned to the probability of Success Now every one knows that Rigour and Oppression is apt to make the Subjects run Riot though they are under never such strict Obligations to submission And therefore Princes who have more to lose than others will be more cautious of giving a colourable Provocation Besides when they find their Subjects under peaceable Principles and aknowledging Themselves bound never to disturb their Governours upon any Pretence whatever This will make them have the less Temptation to Oppress them This will encourage them to enlarge the Freedom of their People when they are so well assured their Favours will not be abused But when Maxims of Resistance are strow'd and the whole Multitude Authorised to determine when this extraordinary Priviledge is to be used which must
who has seen any thing of our Hâ—stories so that this Notion of tâ—e Enquirers is perfectly Chimerâ—al as to us For granting as Mr. Hunton Observes Treatise of Monarchy pag. 16. That Subjection is not immediately founded in Conquest but in Consâ—rt yet Consent in such a Case is forced necessary and unavoidable and includes an entire Submission to the Conquerors pleasure 〈◊〉 when a King has his Enemies for a Canquered People are no 〈◊〉 at first 〈◊〉 such an Advantage he will scarcely be persâ—â—ded to put any conditions of Forfeiture into his Title and Reigâ—â—â—â— their Courtesy For how frank soever he or his Successors mâ—y be in other respects it 's unimaginable to suppose they will 〈◊〉 them any Dethroning Power in their Charter And 〈◊〉 tâ—e Case stands thus we may fairly conclude That that Magnificency of Style with which our Kings are always mentioned has a suitable Authority belonging to it that those August Names of Imperial Crown Sovereign Supream c. which we meet with so often in our Courts of Justice Conveyances and Acts of Parliament are no empty insignificant Sounds nor ever designed to describe a Precarious Prince who may be Resisted or Deposed at pleasure In his Sixth Section he will allow no Prince to have a Divine Authority unless he can prove his Delegation by Prophets c. And yet St. Paul calls the Roman Emperor the Minister of God and I believe the Enquirer will grant that neither Claudius or any of his Family were Proclaimed by Bath Coll. or Crowned by an Angel from Heaven I somewhat wonder that our Author should advance such Propositions as these who grants Sect. 10. That the Submission of the People together with a long Prescription makes a Prince a legal Governor and when his Power is once settled by Law he has a good a Right to it as any private Person can have to his Property And immediately after he affirms That though a Man has acquired his Property by Humane means such as Succession c. yet he has a security for the Enjoyment of it from a Divine Right Now if Prescription and Succession gives a Prince a good Humane Title and this Title is confirmed by the Rules of Natural and Revealed Religion One would think since he is thus secured in his Government by a Divine Right he had a Divine Right to govern But after all I freely yield the Enquirer That we cannot reasonably conclude from bare Possession that it is the Will of God such Persons should be our Governors for the most part we ought to conclude the contrary because as he well observes this Argument from Possession Iustifies all Usurpers when they are Successful By his Seventh Paragraph we are to take Our Measures of Power and by consequence of Obedience from the express Laws of the State from the Oaths which are sworn by the Subject c. To make this reasoning applicable to the Case in hand I shall only observe at present that by his own Concessions Sect. 13. There are many express Laws made which lodge the Militia singly in the King that make it plainly unlawful upon any pretence whatever to take up Arms against his Majesty or any Commissionated by him and that these Laws have been put into the Form of an Oath and sworn by all those who have born any Employment in Church or State. How well he reconciles the Doctrine of Resistance with these Remarques will be seen afterwards The Eigth Section brings us from Natural Religion to the Scriptures of the Old Testament but it 's only to shew That they are not to be made use of in this matter Now under favour I conceive These Scriptures are not so foreign to the Point as the Enquirer supposes For though the Jewish Government was particularly designed for that People yet being settled by Divine appointment it ought to be highly esteem'd and imitated in its standing and general Maxims by the rest of the World. God perfectly understands the Tempers Weaknesses and Passions of Mankind which makes him infinitely more able to judge what sort of Polity best Answers the Ends of Society So that whatever is not of a peculiar and temporary Nature in his Establishment should be the Model of their Government And to apply this Observation since there were no allowances of Resistance in the Jewish Government But certain Death was the ordained Consequence of Disobedience to the Civil Power Deut. 17. 12. We ought to conclude that such a general Submission is most rational and advantageous for the publick Good and therefore are to take it for granted that all Christian States especially are settled upon this Passive Principle where there are not express Proofs of the contrary For it 's no Honour to the Memory of our Forefathers to infer by remote and strained Implications that they thought themselves wiser than God Almighty To the former part of his Ninth Section I have nothing to object but am ready to joyn Issue with him upon his Notion As to what he mentions concerning The State of the Primitive Christians I shall have occasion to touch upon it afterwards I shall pass over his Tenth Section as being in a manner comprehended in his Ninth and proceed to the Eleventh which brings us home to our English Government Where as a Corollary from his former Discourse he concludes That the Question in debate Must be determined by the fixt Laws and Regulations of the Kingdom Which is some comfort for then we ought not to be over-rul'd by any General Considerations from Speculations about Original Liberty or Arbitrary Constructions of Salus Populi Nor yet by the Authorities of Civilians especially those Foreign ones who have had a Republican Byass clap'd upon their Education In this Paragraph he informs his Reader That the King's Prerogative is bounded and that it's Injustice to carry it beyond it's Legal Extent which no one denies As for his Instance I cannot well imagine what he brought it for I hope it was not to try if he could make some People believe that his Majesty had Levy'd Money by his Army for this he knows is not True. But when any of this Violence happens he tells us the Principle of Self-Preservation seems to take place and to warrant as violent a Resistance It seems to take place i. e. he is not sure on 't But by his own Concessions he may be sure of the contrary if the exercise of this which he calls Self-Preservation be restrained by the Constitution whether it is or not besides what has been said already will appear farther afterwards There is nothing more certain than that as he observes Sect. 12. The English have their Liberties and Properties secured to them by the Constitution But an allowance of fighting their Prince in Defence of these Liberties c. is so far from being Reserved to them that it 's plainly forbidden by Many Possitive and Express Laws Indeed how is it possible such a Liberty should be Reserved in
the Patience and Constancy of its Professors To speak properly a Church can never flourish so much as when we have frequent Instances of Fortitude Resignation and Contempt of the World and all other unquestionable Marks of an Heroick and Invincible Honesty Secondly by our Religion therefore can only be meant the free and unmolested Profession of it which though it 's a very desirable Priviledge yet we must not contend for it in Opposition to the Laws of God and our Country To repel a Persecution by the assistance of Perjury and Treason is a most unjustifiable and fatal Remedy 'T is a Cure far above the Malignity of the Distemper and conveys Plague and Poyson in the Operation It makes us destroy the very Life and Essence of that which we are so zealous to maintain and damn our selves to secure our Religion The Primitive Christians were perfect Strangers to these Salves for Ease and Self-Preservation and yet their Laws could not be plainer against all manner of Resistance than ours Besides no State can subsist upon such Reserves of Interpretation as these For as has been observed already if Resistance is warrantable in any case then every individual Person must be made a judge of his Prince's Conduct and determine what sort of Provocations and Opportunities are sufficient to justify a Revolt Now if such a Liberty was granted the Foundations of the Earth would quickly be out of Course Such lose Maxims as these do no less than Proclaim an Indulgence for Anarchy and Licentiousness and tear up the very Principles of Society by the Roots For granting the People were generally Honest though this I am afraid is a supposition which has much more of Charity than Judgment in it yet in regard of distance into experience credulity and shortness of Thought they are neither fit to pronounce upon the Administration of their Governors nor capable of distinguishing Imposture from Truth nor discerning enough to foresee what Plunderings and Rapes what Faction and Atheism what extensive Ruin and Desolation are the inevitable consequences of a Civil War. Now what can we expect but frequent returns of such a Scene of Misery if every Man may hang out the Flag of Defiance against his Prince whenever his Weakness or his Wickedness shall promt him to it When the Subtle and Ambitious can practise without controul upon the unstable and unthinking Multitude and play their Spleen and their Rhetorick against the Government When Men of Turbulent and Tempestuous Spirits who love to live in a Storm that they may gratify their Malice with the Wreck and their Avarice with the Booty When such Men are allowed to blow up the Simple and over-credulous into Jealousie and Discontent and all the Seditious Incendiaries may throw their Flambeaus and their Wild-fire about a Nation When such dangerous Freedoms as these which yet are no more than the Natural consequences of the Doctrine of Resistance are given and varnished over with the specious Titles of The Laws of Nature and Self-Preservation We may then easily imagine that Justice and Peace would soon take their leaves of this World and Mankind would need no other Judgment but the Effects of their own Vice and Folly to destroy them But Thirdly Supposing extremity of rigour in Governours would absolve us from our Allegiance which we see it will not yet this was none of our Case Indeed if we were to form an Idea of his Majesties Government by the Tragycal Harangues of some Men we could not imagine any thing less than the Ten Persecutions had been amongst us and that a great part of the Nation had been Massacred and yet God be thanked we lived in great Prosperity free from the Exactions and Tributary Burthens of other Reigns and if nothing but his Majesties Severity could have taken us off we might for ought appears have been all Immortal Well say they Though we were not actually swallowed up yet we were upon the brink of Destruction and if our Deliverers had not timely Interposed the King's Dragoons were just going to make their Fire upon the Bible and the Statute Book and we must either have been converted to Popery or Ashes But First I would gladly know of these Men why they always twist Popery and Slavery together For this I can imagine no other reason except it be to make their Monster more frightful to the People For it 's certain there is no such inseparable Connexion between these Two things as is pretended For had our ForeFathers nothing which they could call their own till the Reformation Is not Magna Charta a Popish Law And are there not many liberal Concessions from the Crown before Edward the Sixth And as their Argument has notoriously failed for the time past so I hope it will never be tryed for the future Secondly This supposal of Severity has as little reason as Duty and Decency in it The Clemency and Goodness of his Majesty's Temper which Character his Enemies are so Just to allow him The generous Protection and Assistance he gave the Hugonots his Employing the Protestants in his Court and Camp and Trusting them with the most important Places and Secrets those are mighty Evidences that nothing of this horrid Nature was intended Besides what Force was there to perform this extraordinary Exploit I suppose few People are so far over-grown with the Spleen as to fancy the Protestants would have helped to destroy one another Now before the certainty of the Invasion I believe I may safely say there was not above 10000 Papists in Arms in the Three Kingdoms and probably not much more than the Tenth part of those in England Oh but the Irish came over Not above a Regiment or Two till the Dutch were ready to make a Descent upon us and when they were most numerous the English Roman Catholicks and themselves scarcely held the Propotion of One to Two hundred Protestants And I believe they did not perceive we were so charmed with the Spirit of Loyalty or Religion as to let them cut our Throats without Opposition For we Protestants at that time gave broad Signs that though our Principles were Passive yet our Hands upon a provocation would be as Active as our Neighbours Therefore as to those Irish who were last sent over the Kingdom was then threatned with such a powerful Enemy and the necessity of Affairs was such that there needs no manner of Apology for their coming and as for the others who were Transported before their Numbers were very inconsiderable and though we did not foresee the Dutch Storm it 's likely his Majesty did This is certain the preparations in Holland were visible long before their Design was owned and therefore his Majesty had reason to be upon his Guard. Besides at that time the English were under apparent Discontents for then the Mistery of Iniquity began to work and those Hellish Stories which drove his Majesty out of his Dominions were reported with great confidence and a Man