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A58226
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Reasons against petitioning the King for restoring the deprived bishops without repentance by a divine of the Church of England.
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A. B.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing R474; ESTC R14464
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9,255
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8
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for which they stand justly deprived by Law And so it is not a Petition for Order and Unity and Concord and the common Good but quite contrary namely for the countenancing and encouraging and upholding of a Faction Sect and Party of Men in the Nation against Order Unity and the common Good that they may have leave and license by Law and publick Authority to ridicule and libel the Government to let in the common Enemy to make their own terms with him and betray the Nation For this one Principle that their present Majesties are Usurpers and that it is sinful to swear Allegiance to them and pray for them as rightful King and Quen is against the very Being and Foundation of the Government it is pregnant of a thousand seditious and disloyal Practices it is as Fire in the Thatch and carries universal Desolation and Confusion in its Bowels The Petitioners do not at all desire an Act of Union and Comprehension for all such of their Majesties Subjects as agree in all Fundamentals towards God and towards the King and differ but in variable Rites and Forms not necessary to the Being of Church and State such an Act would be a blessed Act but thiâ— they are against this they dread they only desire an Act for restoring a few peccant Bishops to their Profits and Places whose deluded Consciences will not permit them to swear Allegiance to their present Majesties that so being in Place and having obtained the establishment of their wicked Principle by Law they may by Law undo the Government and bring in Confusion 7. The Petitioners are Men that have sworn Allegiance to their present Majesties and in their publick Prayers pray daily From all Sedition Good Lord deliver us Now if this be not a seditious Principle that their present Majesties are Usurpers and that it is sinful to swear Allegiance to them there is no such thing as Sedition neither can it be declared what Sedition and Disloyalty is Why halt ye betwe 〈…〉 〈…〉 o Opinions between Loyalty and Disloyalty If their present Majesties â—e not rightful King and Queen before God and all the World why do you swear Allegiance to them Why do you in your publick Prayers Morning and Evening each day beseech God for them as rightful King and Queen and for their Prosperity and good Success against all their Enemies and thereby notoriously dissemble with God and Men and give occasion to all both Friends and Foes both Protestants and Papists to think and speak of you as perfidious and false Men If their present Majesties be in your Judgment rightful King and Queen why are you not zealous for them and their Government Why do you lean to their Enemies Why do you petition for the countenance and upholding those who by their refusal to swear Allegiance to them declare to all the World that they think them to be Usurpers and that it is horrible Perjury to swear Allegiance to them and separate and divide your selves from your dissenting Brethren whom you acknowledg to agree with you in all Fundamentals respecting God and their present Majesties 8. It will perhaps be said That the Persons petitioned for are Reverend Fathers of the Church Men of great Wisdom Conscience and Integrity and if they had not just grounds for their Non-conformity we may well think they would conform To which besides what is already said I return these following Answers 1. It is a saying of Luther's Nunquam periclitatur Religio nisi inter Reverendissimos the State of the Church is never in so much danger as from those who are stiled Most Reverend 2. There be others of their Order stiled Most Reverend Fathers of the Church who do conform and have given as good proof of their Wisdom Conscience and Integrity as those that do not conform Now both cannot be in the right of necessity one of the two must be in an Error and it is no small Error it is an Error against the Foundation of the present Government both of Church and State 3. As to Things Spiritual and Eternal we know no Father but our Father which is in Heaven Mat. 23. 9. and as to Worldly and Temporal Government the Nation knoweth no Father but King William No Bishop no Apostle is more than a Member of Christ's Body the Church Jesus Christ is the sole Head and the King is his Vicegerent who ruleth all Estates as to Temporal Rule by the Sword 4. There are conscientious Heathens Jews Mahometans Papists Arians Socinians Quakers Hereticks and Persecutors of God's Saints who think they do God Service in killing God's most faithful Servants John 16. 2. such an one was Paul before his Conversion Error and Superstition and false Zeal hath perverted and corrupted the Consciences of the Persons petitioned for Their Conscience will give them leave to strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel to be for an Oath of Obedience from Presbyters to Bishops but not for an Oath of Allegiance from all the Subjects of England to their present Majesties to silence anathematize suspend imprison and undo multitudes of wise and good and useful Men for Non-conformity to things indifferent and in their own nature not necessary in the Judgment of the most rigid Conformists moderate Conformists confess them to be inconvenient tho not flatly sinful and the Dissenters conceive them to be flatly sinful Their Conscience will give them leave to dispense with and keep up Ministers Non-residency and Pluralities which even the Council of Trent condems and selling Spiritual Pardons and Indulgences for Money in their Courts by Commutation of honest Repentance for filthy Lucre it will give them leave not to labour in the Word and Doctrine and yet to expect and receive double Honour and to prefer Ordination by unlearned ungodly idolatrous persecuting Popish Bishops before Ordination by learned ancient godly orthodox and most reverend Protestant Presbyters From such a Conscience I pray God bless me 9. The Persons petitioned for and their Adherents have stood much upon their Loyalty to the Higher Powers and have boasted of it and gloried in it as tho they had been the only Loyal Persons and now by God's just Judgment themselves are fallen into the Pit of Disloyalty and their deluded Conscience will not suffer them to come forth and so it is not in our power to help them Let them in God's Name repent imitate Dr. Sherlock shame themselves before God and the World by honest and wholsome Repentance and Confession of their false Principles concerning the Government and then they will merit Pardon and we shall not need to petition Authority for them 10. Whether King William be rightful King or no is not lawful to dispute because such a Dispute in the nature of it doth suppose the matter doubtful and questionable Whereas it is unquestionably plain that he is rightfully King for he is in full Possession of the Throne by common Consent and disâ—enseth Law and Justice to all the Realm
and protecteth his Subjects in their Civil Rights and in the free exercise of their Religion and it cannot be proved that he is an Usurper All that can be alledged is but Conjecture and uncertain Opinion and doubtful Disputation which in a Point of this nature signifies nothing at all For unless it be plain and clear as the Sun at Noon-day that he is not rightful Possessor of the Throne if the Evidence be not so clear and plain as fully to convince the Consciences of all impartial Men sincerely studious of their Duty to God and the King if there be twenty Reasons for and as many Reasons against King William the Consciences of all in the Nation are bound to own and submit to him as rightful King and to renounce and disclaim Allegiance to the late King James as having no Right at all to the Throne 11. The Nation hath not deposed the late King but he hath deposed himself and abdicated himself from the Government by invading the Fundamental Laws of the Nation whereby the mutual Rights of Prince and People do consist particularly by going about to impose on three Kindoms a suppo 〈…〉 〈…〉 ce of Wales in order to bring in the Papacy and subjecting them to a Foreign Ju 〈…〉 ction as to Ecclesiastical Causes and enslaving them as to their Civil Rights and excluding the right Heir Against this Invasion of the Fundamental Laws and Rights of the Nation the Nation having no other Remedy did by the Prince of Orange their Head and Chieftain whom it principally concerned in right of his Princess justly appeal to God the supream Judg with their Swords in their Hands and God received their Appeal gave Sentence for them in wonderful manner and made the late King by real Abdication to quit all Right to the Throne and the whole Nation unanimously by their Representatives lawfully and peaceably assembled to fill the Throne with their present Majesties Not they who fight for but they who fight against the Fundamental Laws of the Nation by which the mutual Rights of Prince and People do conâ—ist are to be esteemed and judged Fighters against God's Ordinance and just Authority 12. Earthly Kingdoms and Monarchies are an Image and Resemblance of God's Kingdom over all Now God claims no Allegiance and Subjection from any Man but in consideration of those Benefits and Favours which he affordeth in common to all Men as their Creator and Upholder and to all elect Men in special as their gracious God in Christ and if he shall not perform his Oath and Covenant to all Men in general to all elect Men in special he is contented that we esteem him no God and renounce all Subjection and Allegiance to him and he makes our own Consciences Judges between him and us Isa 5. 3. Gen. 9. 8 9 c. and 18. 23 24 25. Heb. 11. 6. 1 Joh. 1. 9. There is therefore a mutual Covenant tacit or express in every legal Monarchy whereby the mutual Rights of Prince and People consist which Covenant being broken and made void in the substantial Branches of it the innocent Party hath ground of Appeal to God the supream Judg and Disposer of Crowns and Kingdoms in whose Decision all Sides and Parties are to acquiesce But where this Appeal cannot be made by the Sword without ruine of the State and doing more hurt than good it is not to be attempted no Remedy can be eligible which is worse than the Disease 13. This is the true Mean between the Doctrine of resisting Authority supream and subordinate and the Doctrine of not resisting those who pretend Authority but really have none but are Cut-throats Murderers Assassins and Invaders of just and lawful Rights having no Authority so to do To resist Authority supream and subordinate is not to resist Man but God and they who resist him are guilty of Folly and Impiety and can look for nothing but Damnation Not to resist those who pretend Authority but really have none when we are sufficiently able to resist them and to save our selves from their unjust Violence is not to be Martyrs but Fools unworthy of God and those Blessings and good things he doth beâ—rust us with which he will call us to account for and damn us if we have not been wâ—se and faithful Stewards thereof Now the Undertaking of the Prince of Orangâ— and his Adherenâ—s was not a resisting of Authority but a just Vâ—â—dication of those Rights which the late King James without all Authority did seek by Force and Fraud to deprive them of For the Question between the late King on one side and the Prince of Orange and his Adherents on the other side being plainly this Whether the supposed Prince of Wales was really born of the Queen or not Here it is evident that the late King was not Judg but a Party And it is unreasonable and against all Laws of God and Man for any Man yea for the Emperor himself to be Judg in his own Cause as â—p Vsher grants in his Book of the Power of the Prince pag. 162. The late King being no Judg as to this Point he could have no Authority his refusal to give the Nation just and reasonable Satisfaction was a refusal of common Right contrary to the Law of Nations and to the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom whereby the Throne is upheld and upon which as a Foundation the Crown stands which F 〈…〉 tion falling the Crown must needs fall with it and the Conscience of the Subject â—â— discharged from all Ties and Bonds of Allegiance 14. Admitting the Prince of Wales to be feigned the Consciences of the late King and all his Partakers both Foreign and Domestick will compel them to yield that it was a Complication of horrible Crimes against all Law both Divine and Human that all the Subjects of these three Nations and Kingdoms were bound in their several places all that in them lay to withstand and hinder such a Villany and Injustice from taking effect and that all who fight and take up Arms in defence thereof are Fighters against God against common Honesty against those Fundamental Laws of the Nation which secure the mutual Rights of Prince and People and which the late King was sworn to observe inviolate and that they who fight against the Authors and Abettors of this Villany under the Conduct of the Prince of Orange in right of his Princess and the next Heir to the Crown are fighters for God and for common Honesty and have Law and Conscience on their side Now the late King refused to give the Nation just and reasonable Satisfaction and put himself upon trial and decision of his Cause by the Sword and sinking in his Undertaking withdrew himself left the Throne and the Nation to shift for it self and see to its own Safety which accordingly it did by placing their Majesties in the Throne and thereby securing publick Peace and laying a sure Foundation for future Peace and