Foundation of all other and I have ever thought God's Love and Kindness to Mankind did never appear in any thing more except in Man's Redemption than in Creating only one Man and out of him only one Woman So that Adam was a kind of a Father to his Wife That Marital as well as all other Power might be founded in Paternal Iurisdiction That all Princes might look upon the meanest of their Subjects as their Children And all Subjects upon their Prince as their Common Father And upon each other as the Children of one Man that Mankind might not only be United in one common Nature but also be of one Blood of one Family and be habituated to the best of Governments from the very Infancy of the World Were this well considered as there could be no Tyrants so neither would there be any Traitors and Rebels But both Prince and People would strive to outdo each other in the offices of Love and Duty And now do you or any Man living read Sir R. F's Patriarcha or other works and see if either he or I have ascribed one Dram of Power to Princes which will not Naturally Spring from this Supream-Paternal Power So that upon the whole I think reason it self would conclude that this way of Solving the first Rise of Government is true and that it is the Duty of all who by the Blessing of God are under Paternal Monarchies to be very thankful for the favour and to do the utmost that in them lies to preserve and transmit that best form of Government to their Children after them And surely there is no Nation under Heaven hath more reason for this than the English who are under a Paternal Monarchy which has taken the best care that can be to secure them not only from oppression and wrong but from the very fear of it F. Since you lay the chief stress of your assertion upon the Original of most of the Kingdoms and Monarchies now in the World and of our own in particular I think I may safely joyn issue with you on both points and in the first place affirm that an unjust Conquest gives the Conquerour no right to the Subjects Obedience much less over their Lives or Estates and if our Norman William and his Successours had no more right to the Crown of England than meer conquest I doubt whether they might have been driven out after the same manner they came in But I believe you will find upon second thoughts that Unjust Conquests and Usurpations of Crowns be no firm Titles for Princes to relye on lest the Old English Proverb be turned upon you viz. That which is Sauce for a Goose is Sauce for a Gander but I Shall defer this discourse concerning Titles by Conquest and in particular that of our Kings to this Kingdom to some other time when I doubt not but to shew that it is not only false in matter of fact but also that it will not prove that for which it is brought And therefore what you say in your conclusion in exaltation of God's Love and Kindness to Mankind in Creating one Man and out of him only one Woman that Adam might be a kind of Father to his Wife is a very pretty and indeed singular Notion and you would do very well to move the Convocation next time it sits that this explanation may be added to the fifth Commandment that Women may be taught in the Catechism that Obedience to Husbands is due by the Precept of Honour thy Father and thy Mother And therefore I need give no other Answer to all the rest you have said however Specious the Hypothesis may seem as you have drest it up for Princes and People yet till you have proved that all Paternal Power is Monarchical and that all Monarchical Power is derived from Fatherhood it signifies nothing Nor can these Piae Fraudes do any more good in Politicks than Religion For as Superstition can never serve to advance the True Worship of God but by creating false Notions of the Divine Nature in Meâ—s Minds which doth not render it as it ought to be the Object of their Love and Reverence but Servile Fear So I suppose this asserting of such an unlimited Despotical Power in all Monarchs and such an entire Subjection as Sir R. F. and you your self exact from Subjects can produce nothing but a flavish Dread without that esteem and affection for their Prince's Person and Government which is so necessary for the quiet of Princes and which they may always have whilst they think themselves obliged in Conscience and Honour to protect their Lives and Fortunes from Slavery and Oppression according to the just and known Laws of the Kingdom and not to dispense with them in great and Essential Points without the Consent of those who have a hand in the making of them And all false Notions of this Supreme Power as derived from I know not what Fatherly but indeed Despotick Power are so far from settling in Peoples Minds a sober and rational Obedience to Government that they rather make them desperate and careless who is their Master since let what Change will come they can expect no better than to be Slaves Nor are Subjects put in a better condition by this Doctrine of Absolute Non Resistance since all Princes are not of so generous a Nature as not to Tyrannize and Insult the more over those whom they suppose will not or else dare not resist them and therefore I cannot see how such a submission can soften the hearts of the most Cruel Princes in the World as you suppose much less how Resistance in some cases can inrage the mildest Princes to their Peoples Ruine since all Resistance of such mild and merciful Princes I grant to be utterly unlawful nor do I hold Resistance ever to be practised but where the People are already ruined in their Liberties and Fortunes or are just at the brink of it and have no other means left but that to avoid it To conclude I so far agree with you that I think it is the Duty of all that are born under a Kingly Government Limited by Laws to be very thankful to God for the Favour and to do the utmost that in them lies to preserve and transmit this best Form of Government to their Children after them without maintaining such unintelligible Fictions as a Paternal Monarchy derived from Adam or Noah And tho' I own that some of our former Kings have taken the best care they could to secure this Nation from Popery and Arbitrary Power yet whether the Method of our three last Kings have been the readiest way to secure us from the fears of it I leave it to your own Conscience if you are a Protestant to judge But since you defie me to shew you out of Sir R. F's Patriarcha that he hath ascribed one Dram of Power to Princes which doth not naturally arise from a Supreme Paternal Power and that this is
extremity or else that the King should be thus invested with an irresistible Power of doing whatever he pleased with us I durst leave to any indifferent person to judge M. I confess you have told me more concerning the History of this Oath than ever I knew before but let the legal sense of it be what it will and setting aside the Precepts in Scripture for absolute Submission without any resistance I think I am able to prove from your own grand Topick of the common good and preservation of Mankind that it is much better to submit to the worst and greatest Tyrant that ever was than to resist him if he be our lawful Prince for if you consider what is the Subject of all Humane Happiness and Contentment it is certainly life now what Tyrant ever in his whole Reign destroyed so many Mens lives by force or unjust Prosecutions as a Civil War if carried on with violence and animosity does in a years time so vast a distance there is between the Evils of Tyranny and Rebellion and so much is the Remedy worse than the Disease the Cruelty of a Tyrant says one is like a Clap of Thunder it strikes with great terrour but Civil War is like an Inundation it sweeps away all before it without noise Thus one Man brought to the Scaffold by the Arbitrary Command of a Tyrant makes more noise than ten Thousand killed in the Field in a Civil War but that does not make the Evil the less but the greater Evil while we are made willing to destroy our selves and do it more effectually in one day than the bloodiest Tyrant could find in his heart to do in his whole Reign All the men put to death by the Arbitrary Commands of Tyrants since the beginning of the World in all the Kingdoms of it will not amount to half the number of those who have perish'd in the Roman or English Civil Wars so much safer are we in God's hands than in our own and in theirs under whom God hath placed us and tho' he often makes them like the Sun and Sea tho' highly useful in themselves scourges for our Sins yet he has promised to keep their hearts in his hand and to turn them as seemeth best unto him we have more Promises of safety there than when we are delivered over to the Beasts of the People whose madness David compares to the raging of the Sea In short The strict Restraint of the People by Government is their truest Liberty and Freedom since if they were at Liberty from Government they would be exposed to Combat one another which would be worse than the greatest slavery in the World the great mistake is in the foolish Notion we have of Liberty which generally is thought to consist in being free from the lash of Government as School-boys from their Master and proves in the consequence only a Liberty to destroy each other and yet it is for such a Liberty as this that men most commonly begin Civil Wars and fall a cutting of each others Throats Therefore tho' I grant it were much better for all Princes to let their Subjects live happily and enjoy a competent share of Ease and Plenty but on the other side if they will not permit them so to do but will tyrannically oppress them it were much better for them to sit down contented with poverty nay slavery it self rather than to destroy so great part of a Nation as may be lost in a Civil War whenever it begins Thus even the Poet Lucan tho' of Cato's party reckoning up the Miseries of the Civil Wars of Rome which were all for Liberty as if envying the happy Condition of those who lived under absolute Tyrants crys out Faelices Arabes Medioque Aeaque Tellus Quos sub perpetuis tenuerunt Fata Tyrannis I could give you instances of the truth of this in most Nations enough to make a History and if such a History were written of the Mischiefs of this false and pretended Liberty and good of the people I durst undertake the Comparison that more visible Mischiefs come upon the people more destruction of the publick good and greater loss of Liberty and Property by this one Method than by all the Tyranny and Violence of Mankind put together and consequently that there is no Comparison 'twixt the Evils of Tyranny and of a Civil War for publick good and that the Mischiefs of this pretence of publick good is infinitely less tolerable and a more Universal Ruine to the people than any Tyranny of lawful Governors that ever was in the World whereas this is by many degrees the greatest and most lawless Tyranny and always brings greater mischief along with it such as Confusion Rapin Violence Contempt of all Laws and legal Establishments with more intolerable Evils of all sorts than those it pretends to remedy But of all pretences for Rebellion Religion is the most ridiculous since a Man's Religion can never be taken from him or a false one imposed upon him whether he will or not and also because a Civil War introduces greater immorality and more loosens the Reins of Discipline and is more contrary to the Spirit of true Religion than any other Thing in the World true Religion is not propagated by the Sword it is a small still Voice that cannot be heard in War War confounds it and debauches it the most profligate and licentious Court bears no proportion in wickedness to the lewdness blasphemy and contempt of all that is Sacred which reigns and overflows in Camps It was an old and true Saying Nulla sides Pietasque viris qui Castra sequuntur F. I see when neither the Scripture nor the Law can justifie your absurd Doctrine of Passive Obedience then you fly back to your old Topick the Law of Nature and common good of Mankind I allow your Principles but not the deductions you draw from thence which are indeed but Paralogisms as I will shew you by and by but I see there is nothing so false and absurd which Prejudice and Education will not make men swallow I confess you have made a long and ingenious Harangue in a Commendation of the Benefits of Tyranny and Slavery which had you done only for an exercise of your Wit I should have ranked it with Cardan's Panegyrick of Nero and the praise of the Government but if you vent such Notions in good earnest I cannot forbear shewing you the absurdity of them First therefore admitting what you say for truth that a Civil War does destroy more men in one Battel than the greatest Tyrant hath ever done in his whole Reign Is this an Argument that no man may defend either his Life or Liberty against Arbitrary Power if this were true Reason it were the greatest folly in the World for the Poles or any other Nation that are at Wars with the Tartars ever to resist them for their Emissaries might thus make use of your Argument to make them submit to
established Religion of his Countrey and to introduce a different one by his own sole Authority whilst the Major part of the People continue of another Opinion In this Case I suppose you will not affirm that the Subjects have a Right to resist their Prince for so doing For then the Romans might justly have rebelled against Constantine when he shut up the Heathen Temples and forbad all publick Sacrifices to their Gods and thereby made the Christian Religion the established Profession of the Empire F. But pray Sir give me leave to interrupt you a little might not Constantine have a Right to do this because the Christian Religion is the only true one and that the Idolatry the Romans then practised was against the Law of Nature M. Whatever weight there may be in this answer yet you have no reason to put this Question now since you have already viz. at our first Conference asserted that an Erroneous Conscience gives men a Right to follow it during the time they are under this Ignorance of the Truth And therefore if the Roman Emperours had not a Right to do this by their own Authority without any resistance the Subjects whilst they believed the Worship of their God to be thereby destroyed might nay ought to have resisted the Emperour rather than to have suffered him to have altered the antient Religion of the Empire and to have brought in another which they look't upon as an upstart and it is very natural for Men to do so since nothing ought to be more dear to them than the Worship and honour of God F. I do not desire at present to Embark my self in this tedious and troublesome dispute about the Authority of the Supream Powers in matters of Religion and therefore I shall say no more to it at present but if your Assertion be true that an absolute Monarch may set up what Religion he pleases without being resisted by the Subjects whom I suppose to be of another perswasion it will then follow that if the French King or Emperour of Muscâ—vy should turn Mahometan and should set up that Superstition by force for the Publick and National Religion of the Countrey tho' with the Destruction of all that should oppose it none of their Subjects might resist them in so doing and if so I desire you to consider what you have gained to Religion by thus asserting such an unlimited Prerogative to all Monarchs But laying aside this Dispute till another time I pray go on to the rest of those Cases in which the People do take upon them to resist the Supream Powers M. I shall comply with your desires and therefore a Third Pretence of Subjects to rebel is when the Supream Powers shall think it necessary to levy upon their People more heavy and grievous Taxes and Impositions than the People are willing or it may be able to pay Now if your Principle be true that they may rise in Arms and resist the Supream Powers whenever they think themselves thus intolerably oppressed and if they shall be sole Iudges of this oppression then all the Rebellions that ever were made in England or elsewhere by reason of such excessive Tributes or Taxes whould be Lawful Which would be a perpetual Ground of Anarchy and Confusion For private Subjects not being admitted into the Privy Councils of Princes or States can never be supposed to understand whether the necessities of the Common-wealth may require them or not And indeed the People do so often repine and murmur at the Government when the Publick Necessities require to impose greater Taxes or Gabels than they think they can well bear that the Mobile of any great City or Province for Example who think themselves thus oppressed beyond what they are able or perhaps willing to bear may rise in Rebellion and throw off all Obedience to Civil Authority and they may have a very good Pretence for it according to your Principle because they may look upon themselves as a very considerable nay necessary part of the Common-wealth And thus the Common People of Kent might have justified their Rebellion in Richard the seconds time under Wat Tyler and Iack Straw and the People of Devonshire and Somerset-shire might likewise have justified their Insurrection in Henry the sevenths Reign under Flammock the Black smith And I could mention others of the like Nature but I forbear because you may say they were upon account of Religion And lastly this Principle might very well justifie the Insurrection of the People of Naples under Massaniello which besides the vast spoil it made upon the Goods and Palaces of the Nobility ended at last whatsoever they pretended at first to the contrary in delivering up themselves to the King of France who refusing to protect them they were soon reduced to their former Obedience to the King of Spain In short if the People should take upon them to Resist or Rebel whenever they thought themselves intolerably injured and oppressed in their Estates by immoderate Taxes there would be no End of such Rebellions especially considering the advantage which Wicked Crafty and Ambitious men would thereby take to excite the People to rise and depose their Lawful Governours and set up themselves in their Room upon Pretence of better Government and greater Liberty And how prone the Common People have been to receive such Impressions He is but meanly aâ—â—dâ—ed in Antient and Modern History who is not convinced of it F. To answer this Objection before you proceed farther my opinion in short is that tho' such Taxes may often prove an Universal Dammage and a great impoverishment to the Subjects yet if they are such as may be born with less trouble than can follow from a Civil War or the change of the Government there is no just or sufficient cause of Resistance of the Soveraign Magistrates commands or Edicts concerning them As for Example such great Taxes as the Subjects pay and perhaps may bear it well enough in Holland and other Countries since there may be a necessity for such Taxes and of this I grant the Supream Authority of the Nation can be the only Iudges And how far this may extend I cannot positively determine For suppose you should ask me if the Supream Powers should borrow all the Ready Money the Subjects had for the necessary uses of the State so that they would give them Leather or Brass Money instead of it to go at the same value for the necessary uses of Commerce yet if they did not take away their Property in their Lands Corn or Living Stock which are the necessary means of their Subsistance I do not think it were a sufficient Cause to take up Arms against their Governours for so doing beâ—ause the Subjects cannot tell but that the necessities of the State for their necessary defence against a Potent Forreign Enemy may require it And sure it is a much greater Evil to fall into a Civil War or to be subdued by Strangers than to
being forbidden by the Laws of our Country I shall answer that when you urge those Laws to me M. I hope I shall be able to prove that by and by but in the mean time give me leave to observe that it seems very strange to me that you should own Christ hath obliged his Disciples to submit without any resistance in some Cases to the Supreme Powers when they persecute them and put them to death for Religion and that they might not take up Arms in their own defence and that of their Religion which is the greatest concern that men ought to have in this World and yet that they might do it for much less considerable Matters viz. their Lives Liberties or Estates which sure ought to be of much less importance than the Glory of God which is chiefly maintained by his true Worship but I see you have found a Salvo for this and will not allow Princes the irresistible Power of Persecution when the Religion is once setled by Law that is when the Christians were strong enough to resist which certainly would be no thanks at all for their Submission since Men who are weak and unable to resist must needs obey and suffer which were matter of force and not of Duty whereas we find by Tertullian and all the Ecclesiastical Historians that though the Christians were strong and numerous enough in the Roman Empire yet they chose rather to dye than to resist as I shall shew you more particularly anon when I come to those Quotations but I will if you please now proceed to the two last Texts I have to cite to you out of St. Paul and St. Peter F. That we may not confound things one with another I pray give me leave now to answer what you have objected against what I said last before you proceed to any fresh places of Scripture for though in the first place I doubt whether the Non-Resistance which Tertullian and other Primitive Fathers so strictly preached up was sounded upon any express Command of our Saviour or his Apostles yet granting at present that Christ and his Apostles enjoyn'd it both by their Example and Precept yet this does not reach the case now before us for there may be very good Reasons why our Saviour might enjoyn an absolute Submission to the 〈◊〉 Powers without any Resistance though they persecute us nay put us to 〈◊〉 for Matters of Religion and yet he may allow us greater Liberty for the defence of our Lives Liberties and Estates when assaulted by the unjust violence of the supreme Powers For First our Saviour ordaineth his Religion to be suitable to his Person viz. a meek humble Suffering Messiah to be an Example of a meek and suffering Religion Secondly Religion is a thing that no Power in the World can take from us Persecution indeed may encrease it and render it more fervent but can never diminish it if it be real And God hath expresly promis'd so great a Reward in another Life for our sufferings for it in this that it will infinitely outweigh all that ever we can suffer on that Account and Lastly our Saviour Christ was pleased to ordain his Doctrine to be propagated by Miracles and Sufferings to distinguish it from all the false Religions that had been in the World before his or that should be set up in opposition to it afterwards since neither the Pagan nor Mahometan Superstitions nor yet the Iewish Religion can shew the like to subsist nay encrease for above three hundred years under such great and cruel Persecutions nor yet is the Glory of God at all diminish'd but rather encreas'd under Persecution since none are then firm to it but such as are really perswaded of its Truth and that they ought to suffer the worst that can befall them rather than forsake it And certainly nothing can tend more to the Glory of God than to see it subsist and encrease under a cruel and bloody Persecution nor is it the same reason that we should suffer Persecution after Religion is become the setled Constitution of a Nation because then every man hath the same Right to it as he hath to his Property or Freedom And though a man may part with either the one or the other yet is he not obliged to give them up by force and whether he will or no so likewise neither that Right which he hath to enjoy his Religion according to the Laws of his Country And therefore I do not resolve the Obligation to Non-Resistance in matters of Religion into the being the major party in a Kingdom as you suppose for if the Government of England were Popish that is the Legislative part of it and the Major part of the Common People were Protestants perhaps in that Case they were under all the Obligations of enduring Persecution without resistance as they were under the Heathen Emperours but indeed the Primitive Christians were obliged to Non-resistance because they lived under a Government in which Christianity was forbid and Paganism established by Law And though it is true Constantine made several Laws enjoyning the free Exercise of the Christian Religion and forbidding the Heathen Sacrifices and that the Pagan Temples should be shut up yet was not the Christian Religion for all that the sole Religion of the State the Senators of Rome and the Major part of the Common People continuing Pagans still So that it seems the Christian Religion was all this while rather established together with Heathenism than that this was wholly forbid since all Civil Offices and Preferments were equally conferred upon Pagans as well as Christians if they deserved them and therefore it was no hard matter for Iulian the Apostate to revoke so many of those Edicts his Uncle had made in Favour of Christianity and to abrogate those which had been publish't against the publick Sacrifices to the Heathen Gods and shutting up their Temples so that no wonder if they were now again under the same Obligations to suffer as they were before Constantine's Time since the Christian Religion was never the only One establish't by Law so as to exclude the open Profession of any other till the Time of Theodosius after which as also before according as the Christian Religion encreas'd and as they got greater Priviledges from the Emperours so were they more stout and bold in standing up for and defending the just Rights of their Religion when ever they thought them invaded by the Arian or other Heretical Emperours as I shall shew you by several Instances out of Church-History when we come to it but you may now if you please proceed to the rest of those places of Scripture which you have to produce against this Doctrine of Resistance in those Cases I have put M. I have many things still to object against your last Discourse but since it grows late I shall now continue my self to the Doctrine of the Apostles concerning Non-resistance not as if the Authority and Example of
sâ—aunch in this matter as you would make them In opposition therefore to your Thebaean Legion I may set those Legions that composed the Army in Gaul and which saluted Iulian afterwards the Apostate Emperour contrary to their Allegiance to the Emperour Constantius renouncing which they took an Oath of Allegiance to the former whilst the latter was yet alive and had certainly fought against him and resisted him with a Witness had he not chanced to have 〈◊〉 by the way before they could meet to decide the Quarrel M. Pray give me leave Sir to interrupt you a little tho' I cannot deny the matter â—f Fâ—ct to be as you say and likewise that this Army was for the most 〈…〉 yet they were I suppose drawn in partly â—ut of hatred to Constantius beâ—ause he was an Arian and pâ—rtly out of Compassion to Iulian who was at that time upon very ill Terms with Câ—nstâ—â—tius â—is Kinsman the whole Army Suffering many 〈◊〉 for his sake for whom they had a great Love and Esteem But certainly their Loyalty to Iulian is very commendable for tho' immediately after the Death of Constantius he openly declared himself to be a Heathen yet notwithstanding that and his Persecution of the Christians during his whole Reign We cannot find that either the Sâ—ldiers or any other Christian ever resisted or rebelled against him but that they look't upon it as unlawful to resist him may appear by several Authorities out of the Fathers of that time F. Since you cannot deny the matter of Fact you strive to extenuate it by their hatred to Constantius for his Apostacy from the Catholick Faith and the severe and rigid Treatment of Constantius But if their hatred to Him because he was an Arian could make them joyn with Iulian to rebel against him pray tell me why they might not have rebelled also against Iulian after he had declared himself an Apostate from the Christian Faith could they have had such another Leader as Iulian himself But he reigned too small a time and was too constantly himself at the Head of his Army to give them any opportunity to serve him as he had served his Predecessor And indeed this Army of Iulians was but too obedient to him since we find that tho' they had been Christians before yet at the time of Iulian's Death they were then in Profession Heathens for you will find in all the Historians that when after the Death of Iulian they chose Iovian Emperour he at first refused it saying that he being a Christian would not command Heathens whereupon they confâ—ssed themselves to be all Christians but certainly this had been a very impertinent Objection had they been publickly known so at that time And tho' I grant Iulian countenanced the doing of a great many violent things towards the Christians Yet it is certain that he never made any Sanguinary Laws against them but rather forbid them to be put to Death or to suffer any hardship on the account of their Religion tho' I confess the Heathens because they thought it would be acceptable to him put many Christians to death by Force and Violence So that however he might be pleased with it and connive at it Yet did he never enact it by any publick Law or Edict or if he had do I allow the Christians a Liberty to have taken Arms and resisted him upon the account of Religion For tho' I own the Christian Religion had been establish'd by Law by Constantine the Great yet was it not so throughly settled as to forbid the free and open Profession of the Pagan Superstition the Heathens being admitted to all Offices and Commands as well as the Christians and might freely perform all the Rites of their Superstition publick Sacrifices to their false Gods only excepted so that if Constantine by his Edict could without any Rebellion shut up the Heathen Temples and give the Christians the publick Liberty of Proâ—â—ssing â—â—eir Religion why should not Iulian have the like Prerogatiâ—◠〈◊〉 â—is Power was alike Suprâ—am and absolute to recall those Eâ—icts and to make quite contrary ones if he had so pleased And tho' I also own that the Christians did not actually rise in Arms against Iulian yet that there were many of them wouâ—d have done so is very likeâ—â— since they openly pray'd for his Dâ—struction and gave him very undictâ—◠〈…〉 â—ay reproachâ—ul â—angitage upon the account of his Apostacy wheneâ—er 〈◊〉 came 〈◊〉 their way And thus some of those who are called Fathers were 〈◊〉 opinion that an Apostate tho' an Empeâ—our might be put to Death pray Pread what I have lately transcribed out of the Writings of Lucifer â—aâ—aritâ—nus whom St. Ierom calls a Man 〈◊〉 a wonderful Constancy and of a Mind prepared for Martyrdom who writing to the Emperour Constantius says thus to him Pray shew but one of the Worshippers of God that ever spared the Adversaries of his Religion And then he reads him his own Doom out of Deut. 13.1 If there rise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of Dreams saying let us go after other Gods for the Orthodox always charged the Arians with Idolatry that Prophet or Dreamer of Dreams shall be put to Death You see what you are commanded to suffer And again Hear what God hath ordained by Moses is to be done with you for perswading me to revolt from God Deut. 13.6 If thy Brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son c. Intice thee secretly saying Let us go and serve other Gods thou shalt surely kill him c. Here it is commanded that my Brother shall be put to Death for inviting me to forsake God And in pursuance of this Doctrine he tells him little farther to this purpose That if he had been in the hands of Mattathias or Phineas and should have gone to live after the manner of the Heathens without doubt they would have killed him with the Sword which he repeats twice for fear he should forget it And this Treatise being sent for by the great Athâ—â—asius and being by him perused he was so far from condemning any thing in it that as you may see in his Letter to this Lucifer which is in the same Volume from whence I transcribed this he highly praiseth him for Writing it and calls his Book the Doctrine of the true Faith besides many other Commendations too long here to be repeated And as for Iulian himself Sozomen the Ecclesiastical Historian writing of the manner of his Death says that it was believed by many that he was killed by some Christian Soldier of his Army whom he applauds for so doing M. I cannot deny but the carriage of some Christians of those times even of those who are called antient Writers or Fathers might be too undutiful and may be attributed to the Morose Monastick temper of the Father you have quoted tho' a great deal of this sort of carriage may be attributed to that Christian Zeal which the Iews called the
Man hath in an Estate which is his Right let him be what he will or let him mannage it how he will Whereas in the Right to a Kingdom I take it to be a true Maxim That the Representatives of a Nation as the Convention was ought to have more regard to the happiness and safety of the whole People or Common-wealth than to the Dignity or Authority of any particular Person whosoever or howsoever nearly related to the Crown when it is evident that the advancement of such a Person to the Throne will prove destructive to our Religion Civil Liberties and Properties Now give me leave to apply what I have said to the Point now in question Let us therefore at the present suppose that your Prince of Wales is true and lawful Son to King Iames and Queen Mary and let me also farther suppose that in his late passage over Sea he was taken by the Pyrates of Argiers or Tunis and by them been carried to one of those places and been bred up in the Mahometan Religion and after he had been Circumcised and fully grounded in that abominable Superstition the Grand Seignior together with the Kings of Argier and Tunis should send this Nation word that if they would not admit him quietly for their King and allow him all those Priests he should bring with him a free exercise of their Religion in England they would then make War upon this Nation with all the Forces they could raise I ask you what we ought to do in this case whether we should receive him for our King or keep him out M. I must confess it is a nice Question and since it is a thing that never did yet nor I hope will ever come to pass I think I may freely Answer you That supposing this Prince could be proved to be the very same who was carried away so many years ago we ought notwithstanding his false Belief to receive him especially if he would solemnly Swear only to worship God in private after his own way and that he would Swear not to violate our Religion or invade our Liberties and Properties and this being done I think we ought then to admit him for our lawful Sovereign since as you your self have already acknowledged at our third Meeting the Supreme Powers are not to be resisted because they are of a different Religion from that of the People or Nation they Govern F. Very well But let me tell you In this you are much more kind to Mahometan and Heretical Princes than the Church of Rome who have decreed That no Prince ought to be received as right Heir to a Crown who is a Pagan Turk or Heretick and upon this ground it was that the States of France during the time of the League by the Pope's Decree refus'd to own Henry King of Navarre for their Sovereign and also that the Papists of the Nuntio Party in Ireland during the late Rebellion refused to own the late Duke of Ormond for Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom because the King was a Protestant But pray answer me a Question or two further Suppose this Prince refus'd to promise these or such things or else if he did promise and Swear them pray tell me how could we be assured that according to the Principles of that Religion he had been bred under and those Arbitrary Notions he had learned concerning the Absolute Power of Kings in Barbary and which he would believe due to himself as being as Absolute a Monarch as any of them I say how such a Prince ever could be trusted Since if he had the whole Power of the Militia in his hands he might bring in what number of Turkish or Moorish Guards he should think fit who might easily set up that Religion and Government too in this Nation since according to your Principles of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance no Man ought to lift up so much as a Finger against him though he went about to make us all Turks and Slaves M. Well supposing all this as long as it is his Right he ought to have it let the consequence be what it will F. You have said enough I desire no more but I hope every true Protestant and English man will be of another mind if ever such a case should happen but indeed it appears very strange to me that a natural Disability such as Ideocy or Lunacy should be esteem'd sufficient in all Kingdoms to debarr the next Heir from the Government and yet that a Moral or a Religious Disability should not have the same effect and though I grant that a King ought not to be Rebelled against or resisted meerly because he is of a different Religion from that of his Subjects for I was never for resisting King Iames meerly upon that score yet it is another thing when a Prince is not actually possessed of the Throne but is to be admitted to it upon such Conditions as may appear safe for the Religion and Civil constitution of a Kingdom In this case if a Prince be certainly infected with such pernicious Principles either in relation to Religion or Civil Government it is much otherwise as for Example That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks That his own Religion is to be propagated by Arms Blood or Persecution That no Government can be safe for the Prince or in which he can appear Great or Glorious but as an absolute Monarch let such a Prince be either a Christian or a Mahometan I think it would be a certain ruine to a Kingdom to be obliged to receive such a Prince when they were morally sure that he would not only subvert their Religion but destroy the very professors of it and not only those but alter the Civil constitution too by turning it from a limited Kingdom into an absolute despotick Tyranny To conclude I shall only desire you to consider into what a Country your Prince of Wales is carry'd and what Instructors he is like to have and what Principles he will receive from them and then pray tell me if he continues there till he is a Man what difference there will be between this young Prince bred up in such a Religion and such Principles and the same if he had been carried away by Pyrates to Argier as I at first suppos'd M. This is a very invidious Comparison for though I do not approve of the Roman-Catholick Religion yet sure there is a great deal of difference between that which professes all the Articles of our Creed and in which we of our Church own Salvation may be obtained and the Mahometan Superstition which denies that fundamental Article of our Creed viz. That Jesus Christ is the Son of God and as for Civil or Political Principles I hope the King his Father will take care to have him instructed by some of those English Noblemen or Gentlemen who are now with him in the Customs and Constitutions of the English Government and wherein it differs from the French
Crown of France as ever they have been in former Times if ever our Kings should go about to revive their ancient pretentions to France or Normandy or make War upon some other Quarrel and thefore I think it will be more far the Interest of France to leave us our Laws Liberties and Priviledges as we now enjoy them nay to make an express Capitulation for them and when he has done to foment those Jealousies and Disputes that are still like to arise between the King and Us about them thereby to hinder us from joining against him then by rendring the King Absolute to take them quite away and put the sole power of the Purse as well as of the Sword wholly into his Hands To Conclude you do also very much misrepresent the matter in supposing that though the King cannot now be restor'd without falling into a new Civil War yet that does it not therefore follow that such a War is not to be desir'd for the Publick Good of the Nation since we shall thereby not only restore the Crown to its right Owner and the Succession of it to the lawfull Heir but also shall restore Episcopacy in Scotland and prevent the Church of England from falling into a dangerous Schism by depriving the Arch Bishop of Canterbury and as many other of the Bishops who are so Honest as not to take the new Oath for standing out against it by the Temporal Power of a pretended Parliament without the Judgment of a Lawfull Convocation who are the only proper and legal Judges You likewise as much mistake in supposing that this War can no ways be finisht but by so great a Concussion as shall so much weaken the Kingdom as to render it expos'd to the Invasionâ— of Foreign Enemies in which you may be very much deceived for who can tell but the hearts of this Nation may come to be so inclin'd to receive their lawful King and his right Heir and may be so weary of the present Usurpation as upon his first appearance in England with an Army sufficient to defend those who shall come into him so many of his Subjects will take this advantage as will be more than enough to restore him with as little Blood-shed as when he was driven out and then I think no indifferent Man but will acknowledge that such a War would prove for the best since it will not only setle the Government upon in ancient Foundation of a lineal Succession but will also extinguish those fatal causes of War not only from among our selves but also from Foreign Princes as long as the King and the Prince of Wales and his lawful Heirs shall continue in being which I hope will be much longer then those upon whom your Convention has setled the Crown either in Present or Reversion F. I doubt not but to show you that all you have now said is either built upon false Principles or else deduced by very uncertain Consequences for in the first place though you doubt my Principle that the People of this Nation are not bound to restore King Iames to the Throne if it cannot be done without the evident Destruction both of our Religion and Civil Liberties which certainly is true granting it to be never so much our duty to restore him when with safety we may for if the obligation of all Moral Duties whatsoever is only to be judged of according as they more or less conduce to the Happiness or Destruction of the common good of Mankind whereof this particular Nation makes a part it will necessarily follow that this Duty of restoring King Iames is not to be practised if it cannot be brought about without the Destruction of our Religion and Civil Liberties since it is only for the maintenance of those that even Kings themselves were first ordain'd in this Nation and it is evident that this Kingdom may be sufficiently Happy and subsist in the State it is now in though neither King Iames nor your Prince of Wales be ever restor'd to Reign over us So that then all the Difficulty that remains is That since his Restoration being not otherwise to be brought about without the assistance of great numbers of French or Irish Forces whether it be not only so small a hazard as you make it but twenty to one that his coming in upon these Terms will produce those dreadfull Effects which I say will certainly happen from it and though I grant that future things especially in the Revolutions of Government are not capable of Demonstration as Mathematical Propositions yet if all the circumstances of Time and the Temper and Disposition of the King himself and those who are to join with Him in bringing Him in again be considered it shall appear that Morally speaking nothing less then the evident Destruction of our Religion and Civil Liberties will follow I think I may still positively affirm that we are not oblig'd to restore Him till this Temper of Mind be alter'd and that he can be restor'd without these Fatal Consequences I now mention and if these cautions are not observ'd I deny that God hath any way promis'd to protect either our Religion or Civil Liberties or that he is bound to provide us a way to escape as you suppose if to perform this suppos'd Duty of Allegience thus unseasonably we slight the onely means God has ordained for our Preservation But as for the patience under those Sufferings that may then happen that is a very sorry reason to embrace them since God may give us that Grace if he pleases as the only Comfort we can have left us when by our own Folly and mistaken Notions of Duty we have brought all those Evils upon our selves I shall therefore now proceed to show you that these Evils I speak of must necessarily happen to us in Case King Iames be restor'd by the French or Irish Papists In the first place therefore it is very falsly suppos'd that this Alteration can be brought about without an entire Subduing or Conquest not only of their present Majesty's but the whole Nation is apparent since none but the Papists and some few of the Clergy Nobility and Gentry desire his Restoration and who if they were put altogether will not I believe amount to the hundredth Man who would be either willing or capable to come in to his Assistance with Men or Money and therefore it is a vain Supposition to believe as you do that this new Revolution can be brought about without any more Dificulty or Blood-shed then the last as long as the present King and Queen continue to Govern us according to the Declaration they subscrib'd upon their acceptance of the Crown and the Coronation Oath they have since taken which I hope they will always do since nothing but following King Iames's Example as well as to Religion as Civil Liberties can ever make this Nation willing to receive Him or your Prince of Wales with so little difficulty as you are