nevertheless he sat up and dictated his sense of it but the Earl was on a sudden by reason of the fight hurried away and whether the King had the Paper or no I cannot learn but the original or a Copy of it was by some zealous Man supprest no doubt because it condemn'd taking up Arms on the specious pretences of Religion and Liberty And according to his Sentiments was his usage he being plundred by the Parliament Army as well as the other so called Malignants SECT XI There was no little Clash between Arch-Bishop Laud and Bishop Davenant about other points but in this they agreed * Davenant deter qu. 4. p. 22. He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword i. e. He that usurps the Sword he that uses it without permission from the King who by God's Ordinance bears the Sword now who can believe that a Prince will give leave to draw his own Sword against himself all others ought to abstain from laying hands on him whose punishment God hath by a certain special priviledg reserv'd to himself the antient Christians being harass'd with most grievous persecutions never fled to these indirect means Pag. 23. but defended the Church by those means which God hath appointed viz. by the tears of her Christians the preachings of her Priests and the sufferings of her Martyrs and what Suarez say * V. p. 24. That there is no need of a Superiour Power to keep the Pope in order because Christ will in an especial manner in this case provide for his Church may be with much greater reason said of Kings Christ himself will in a more Eminent manner defend his Church not onely against the cruelty of persecutors but also against the gates of Hell. Resistance is unlawful and contrary to God's Ordinance for St. Paul says it is a sin and worthy of eternal damnation to resist the Powers ordained of God. Put the case that Princes will not only not purge the Church of Heresies and false worship but what is worse * Id. qu. 12. p. 58. will defend those corruptions by their Authority yet in this case the people ought not to reform 1. Because God requires from Subjects to suffer whatsoever the Magistrate can inflict rather than desert the true Religion but not to compel the Magistrate for Religion is to be defended not by killing others but by dying for it our selves not by cruelty but by patience not by wickedness but by fidelity says Lactantius 2. When the people undertake such an action without the Prince's consent it is Rebellion now evil is not to be done that good may come thereof let such Men take to themselves whatever Names they please they are Traytors not Christians L. there will be great danger in so doing for should they get the Power they cannot make Laws * Qu. 17. What shall be able to keep a Man within the duty of a good Subject who will not be bound by Oaths †Qu. 30. Criminals of the Superiour Order i.e. Kings c. God hath reserv'd to his own Court and Judgment SECT XII I will not quote Arch-Bishop Laud because the Adversaries to this Doctrine aver that it was of his inventing but instead of him I will call for an unquestionable witness Arch-Bishop Usher who expresly order'd * Clavi Trabales p. 52. That Loyalty should according to the Canon be four times every year preach'd to the people while his actions were a plain Comment upon his Opinions I need not mention the regard the forein Protestant Divines had to him and the Romanists too especially Cardinal Richelieu as well as those of our own Country * Apud eund Sanders pref to the Bishop's Book While I inform the Reader that in the beginning of our most unhappy Commotions the Lord Deputy of Ireland Strafford desired the Primate Usher to declare his judgment publickly concerning those Tumults which he did in two Sermons at Christ-Church in Dublin on Eccles 7.2 Whereupon the Deputy signified it would be acceptable to the King to print the Sermons or to write a Treatise on the Subject the latter the Arch-Bishop made choice of and sent it into England with an intent to have it printed as the Martyr Charles design'd that his Subjects might receive the satisfaction from the same as himself had done In the time of the Usurper Cromwel it was not thought fit to be printed lest it might have been perverted to the support of his Power For by this time the flatterers of that great Tyrant had learn'd by a new device upon the bare account of Providence without respect to the justice of the Title the only right and proper foundation to interpret and apply to his advantage whatsoever they found either in the Scriptures or in other Writings concerning the Power of Princes or the duty of Subjects profanely and sacrilegiously taking the Name of that holy Providence of God in vain and using it onely as a stalking Horse to serve the lusts and interests of ambitious Men. In the first part of that learned Treatise the Bishop proves that the Power of the Prince is from God and that * Part. 1. §. vi p. vi Our Government is a free Monarchy because the Authority resteth solely in the person of the King whereupon it is declar'd that the King is the onely Supreme Governour of these Realms in all Causes whatsoever which could not stand if either the Court of Parliament it self or any other power upon Earth might in any cause over-rule him I say any Power whither forein or domestick and then * §. 28. He discourses at large as of the original of Regal power from Heaven so of the Law of the King proceeding in the second part to treat of the Obedience of the Subject * V. p. 109. 111 134 c. In which he plainly shews that whither the Power be good or bad whosoever does resist it by withdrawing his service from it or denying Tribute or not giving that honour to it which he ought to give resisteth the Ordinance and disposition of God by whose appointment they bear Rule * P. 145. 146. Quest But how are Subjects to carry themselves when such things are enjoined as cannot or ought not to be done R. surely not to accuse the Commander but humbly to avoid the command and when nothing else will serve the turn as in things that may be done we are to express our subjection by active so in things that cannot be done we are to declare the same by passive obedience without resistance and repugnancy such a kind of suffering being as sure a sign of subjection as any thing else whatsoever He P. 147 c. that consults with flesh and bloud will hardly be induc'd to admit this Doctrine of passive Obedience and therefore if he will learn this Lesson he must make choice of better Masters and listen in the first place to Solomon Prov. 3.5
God sets over us So that Religion can never be pretended against Loyalty and therefore when I take a sad review of the Evil of our late Disturbances It ake not so much notice of the Loss of King Liberty Property Parliaments Blood tho very great as of impairing so far the Credit of Religion in the Violences offered to the person of his Sacred Majesty and that by persons so highly pretending to it I am sorry the Papists seem to have now a thirtieth of January Pag. 18. to return us for a fifth of November Christianity disowns all consecrated Daggers in Heathen Writers indeed nothing of more familiar occurrence than Panegyricks in commendation of the Assertors of publick Liberty by the assassinating of a Tyrant a thing easily pardonable in them being able by the dim Light of Nature to discover no more in a King than a Head of Gold supported by the Clayie Toes of popular Election and Acceptance but Scripture shews a higher Charter than so Pag. 19. by which Kings hold their Crowns Prov. 8.15 By me Kings reign c. the taking Arms to redress some Evils in the Government of a Nation proves generally but as the cutting off of the Hand to get rid of a cut Finger Pag. 23. It is a Truth of everlasting Faithfulness That can never be brought about safely by bad means which could not be by good SECT XXIV Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury * Letter to the Lord Russel Jun. 20. 1683. In tender compassion of your Lordship's Case and from all the good will that one man can bear to another I do humbly offer to your Lordships deliberate thoughts these following Considerations concerning the Point of Resistance if our Religion and Rights should be invaded ☞ 1. That the Christian Religion doth plainly forbid the resistance of Authority 2. That tho our Religion be established by Law which your Lordship urges as a Difference between our Case and that of the Primitive Christians yet in the same Law which establishes our Religian 14 Car. 2. c. 4. 14 Car. 2. c. 3. it is declared That it is not lawful 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 this ties the Hands of Subjects tho 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 human Society could not well subsist upon these Terms 3. Your Lordship's Opinion is contrary to the declared Doctrine of all Protestant Churches ☜ and tho some particular persons have taught otherwise that have been contradicted herein and condemn'd for it by the generality of Protestants I beg of your Lordship to consider how it will agree with an avowed asserting of the Protestant Religion to go contrary to the general Doctrine of the Protestants my end in this is to convince your Lordship that you are in a very dangerous and great Mistake and being so convinced that which before was a sin of Ignorance will appear of a much more heinous nature as in truth it is 〈◊〉 calls for a very particular and deep repentance which if your Lordship exercise by a particular acknowledgment of it to God and Man you will not only obtain forgiveness of God but prevent a mighty scandal to the Reformed Religion I am very loth to give your Lordship and disquiet in the distress you are in but am much more concern'd that you do leave the world in a delusion and false peace to the hinderance of your eternal happiness And in his Prayer on the Scaffold with the same Lord he hath this expression Grant O Lord that all we who survive by this and other instances of thy Providence may learn our Duty to God and the King. Dr. Stillingfleet Dean of S. Paul's Serm. on Jan. 30. 166 8 / 9 on Jude 11. p. 2 3. The Christian Religion above all others hath taken care to preserve the Right sof Sovereignty by giving unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's And to make resistance unlawful by declaring that those who are guilty of it shall receive to themselves damnation Of such men we have a description in this short but smart Epistle who believ'd it a part of their Saintship to despise Dominions c. P. 7 8. Whose design like that of Corah was the sharing the Government among themselves which it was impossible for them to hope for as long as Moses continued a King in Jeshurun nor were they awed by the solemn Vows and Promises they had made of Obedience to him for factious men know they must address themselves to the people and in the first place persuade them that they manage their interests against the usurpations of their Governors while the people take a strange pride in hearing and telling all the Faults of their Governors P. 11 12. The common grounds of all Seditions being usurpations upon the Peoples Rights ☜ arbitrary Government and ill management of Affairs as if they had said we appear only in the behalf of the Fundamental Liberties of the People both Civil and Spiritual That Moses was guilty of the Breach of the Trust committed to him so that now by the ill management of his Trust the Power was again devolved into the Hands of the People and they ought to take account of his Actions Pag. 21. Cons p. 22 23 c. There were then two great Principles among them by which they thought to defend themselves 1. That Liberty and a Right to Power is so inherent in the People that it cannot be taken from them 2. That in case of Usurpation upon that Liberty of the People they may resume the Exercise of Power b◠punishing those who are guilty of it And I believe they will be found to be the first Assertors of this kind of Liberty that ever were in the world ☞ and happy had it been for this Nation if Corah had never found any Disciples in it Of the later of the two Propositions Pag. 26 27 28 29. it is said that there can be no Principle imagined more destructive to Civil Societies and repugnant to the very nature of Government for it destroys all the Obligations of Oaths and Compacts it makes the solemnest Bonds of Obedience signifie nothing it makes every prosperous Rebellion just c. and if Corah Dathan and Abiram had succeeded in their Rebellion against Moses no doubt they would have been called the Keepers of the Liberties of ISRAEL The Supposition of this Principle will unavoidably keep up a constant Jealousie between the Prince and his People and there can be no such way to bring in an arbitrary Government into a Nation Besides this must necessarily engage a Nation in endless Disputes about the forfeiture of Power into whose Hands it falls whether into the People in common or some persons
Griffith Serm. 25. Mar. 1660. called fear God and the King p. 11. v.p. 39. and p. 8 9. If God command one thing and the King should command another then God's command is to be preferred and yet let me tell you that the King is not to be disobeyed for a true Christian is obliged to a twofold obedience Active and Passive Where the King commands things Lawful there yield Active Obedience and know that it is your duty to do them but if he should command such a thing as you may not lawfully do then you must not resist but suffer patiently for your not doing it and that is your Passive Obedience and in both these you may still keep a good Conscience for though God be to be preferred yet God will not have his Anointed to be disobeyed Dr. Jane Dean of Gloucester Ser. at the Consecr of Doctor Crompton Bishop of Oxon p. 30 31 32. Such is the peculiar genius of Christianity that where ever it is either Preacht or Received it can create no jealousie in the State. The ground upon which this Assertion stands is this that it disclaims all title to the Sword but leaves him that takes it to perish with it though it be drawn in defence of Christ himself In the Church then as of old in Israel there was no Smith to provide Swords and Spears though against their persecuting Philistines To obey Authority was taught and practised under a Nero and their Submissions were as unparallel'd as their Provocations And we may truly suppose under the Roman Emperors that had the Doctrine of Obedience been as truly received by their Heathen Subjects as it was Preacht by S. Paul and practised by the believing Romans they had effectually provided for the publick Tranquillity without any further need of Forts and Armies to secure it Dr. Outram The Glory of the King Ser. Jan. 30. 1664. p. 141 149. the Privileges of the Parliament the Liberty of the Subject the Purity of Religion these are written upon the Face of the design The Principle is doing evil that good may come of it and breaking Laws that we may the better observe them These Men went to Rome to whet the Ax and borrowed an Arrow out of the Roman Quiver secretly to shoot the Lord 's Anointed Were the Prince a Nero p. 160. Paul would charge us we should not resist and would charge resistance with damnation Sir Orlando Bridgman at the Tryal of the Regicides says Try. p. 10 12. v. p. 15 52 182 283. I must deliver to you for plain and true Law that no Authority no single Person no Community of Persons not the People Collectively or Representatively have any coercive Power over the King of England And this he proves at large in the same place The Crown of England is and always was an Imperial Crown Now I do not intend any Absolute Government by this It is one thing to have an Absolute Monarchy another thing to have that Government absolutely without Laws as to any coercive Power over the Person of the King. God is my witness what I speak V. p. 13 14. p. 280. V. p. 281 282. I speak from mine own Conscience that is that whatsoever the case was by the Laws of these Nations the Fundamental Laws there could not be any coercive Power over the King. And this he there proves from the obligation of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy c. Mark the Doctrine of the Church of England and I do not know with what spirit of Equivocation any Man can take that Oath of Supremacy Her Articles were the judgment not only of the Church but of the Parliament at the same time And the Queen and the Church were willing that these should be put into Latin that all the World might see the Confession of the Church of England So also Sir Heneage Finch P. 51. then the King's Sollicitor General The King is not accountable to any coercive Power See also the accurate Treatise See also Nalson's Counter p. 35 c. 3â—9 Com. Interest of Kings p. 139 c. p. 3. called the Harmony of Divinity and Law which proves that it is a damnable sin to resist Sovereign Princes and answers all the little objections of the Republicans to the contrary I shall here only mention Mr. Foulu's History of the Plots and Conspiracies of the pretended Saints and briefly transcribe a passage or two out of Dr. Sprat Bishop of Rochester his True account of the horrid Conspiracy At that time under the color of the only true Protestant the worst of all Unchristian Principles were put in Practice all the old Republican and Antimonarchical Doctrines whose effects had formerly proved so dismal were again as confidently owned and asserted as ever they had been during the hottest rage of the late unhappy Troubles p. 21. See p. 41. The Lord R was seduced by the wicked Teachers of that most Unchristian Doctrine which has been the cause of so many Rebellions That it is lawful to resist and rise against Sovereign Princes for preserving Religion p. 43 44. Other Principles were that the only obligation the Subject hath to the King is a mutual Covenant that this Covenant was manifestly broken on the King's part ☞ that therefore the People were free from all Oaths and other tyes of Fealty and Allegiance and had the natural Liberty restored to them of asserting their own Rights and as justly at least against a Domestick as against Foreign Invaders p. 131. v. p. 132. The whole design of A. S's Papers was to maintain That Tyrants may be justly Deposed by the People and that the People are the only Judges who are Tyrants That the general Revolt of a Nation from its own Magistrates can never be called a Rebellion which Positions the Historian calls with great Truth and Justice Villanous Opinions p. 133. and such as if allowed it will be impossible for the best Kings or the most happy Kingdoms in the World to be free from perpetual Treasons p. 164. and Rebellious Plottings But his Majesty hath just reason to acknowledge that the main body of the Nobility and Gentry stood by him so has the whole sound and honest part of the Commonalty so the great Fountains of Knowledge and Civility the two Universities so the wisest and most learned in the Laws so the whole Clergy and all the genuine Sons of the Church of England ☞ a Church whose glory it is to have been never tainted with the least blemish of disloyalty Dr. Pocock In ch 8. Hos 4. p. 388 389. Some Interpreters by Setting up Kings but not by me would understand Saul but that cannot with reason be imagined Others looking on the sin of the Israelites to be their defection from the House of David on which God had intayled the Right and Title of the Kingdom and their changing of the Kinghom and Priesthood of their own heads
that with a limitation which concerns not us nor do we pretend that any Man is infallible 2. Bishop Bilson had been in other things very much deceived tho a wise Man and a good Scholar for even upon such Men their Passions do many times impose witness the Nullity 3. For this very Opinion Bishop Bilson is censured by the †Third Paper to Henderson p. 85. op 2d Edit ann 1687. Martyr Charles For Bilson I remember well what Opinion the King my Father had of him for these Opinions and how he shewed him some favor in hope of his Recantation as his good nature made him do many things of that kind but whether he did or not I cannot say 4. At the time when Bilson's Book was written the Queen was assisting the Dutch against their and her common Enemy the Crown of Spain now if in the Low-Countries the Government was founded in Compact as many Learned Men say and that all their Privileges Sacred and Civil contrary to that Agreement were invaded and the Inquisition introduced all their Petitions slighted and some hundred thousands barbarously murdered this alters the Case while it can no way hold good in Governments where there is no such Compact 5. ‖ Ductor dubitant l. 3 ch 3. rule 3. n. 19. Bishop Taylor quotes Bilson with Barclay and others as an Assertor of the Doctrine of Non-resistance and Loyalty If the Opinion of Bishop Bilson were he never so venerable for his Learning and other Accomplishments be contrary to that of our Blessed Saviour and his holy Apostles we ought to renounce them and I have with a mixture of sorrow and shame reflected upon Cressy's Censure of that Book * Exomolog c. 12. Queen Elisabeth conceived it convenient for her wordly Designs to take on her the Protection of the Low-Countries against the King of Spain she imployed Dr. Bilson Bishop of Winchester to write his Book of Christian Subjection in which to justifie the Revolt of Holland he gave strange Liberty in many Cases especially concerning Religion for Subjects to cast off their Obedience but that Book which served Queen Elisabeth's wordly Designs by the just Judgment of God hath contributed much to the Ruin of her Successor King Charles for there is not any Book that the Presbyterians have made more dangerous use of against their present Prince than that which his Predecessor commanded to be written to justifie her against the King of Spain †Howel's Life of Lewis 13. And it was a smart Observation of Lewis the Thirteenth of France when that good King Charles was involved in a Civil War that perhaps God punished him for assisting the French Protestants at Rochel when in Arms against their Sovereign But after all let 's hear this Reverend Prelate where he determines rather than disputes upon this Case and none shall need to speak for him The Jesuit after long arguing with him about the Magistrate's being accountable for his Faults to the People The true Difference between Christian Subject c. part 3. p. 97 98. Ed. Lond. 1586. Id. p. 252 253. as well as the People to him comes at last to this Issue Then Princes says he have impunity to do what they list without fear of Laws To which he replies Princes appoint penalties for others not for themselves they bear the Sword over others not others over them Subjects must be punished by them and they by none but by God whose place they supply And in another place We deny that Princes have any superior and ordinary Judge to hear and determine the Right of their Crowns We deny that God hath Licensed any Man to depose them and pronounce them no Princes Princes have far greater honor and power over Subjects than any Man can have over Sons and Servants they have power over Goods Lands Bodies and Lives which no private Man may challenge They be Fathers of our Country to the which we be nearerbound by the very Confession of Ethnicks than to the Fathers of our Flesh how then by God's Law should Subjects depose their Princes to whom in most evident words they must be subject for conscience sake tho they be Tyrants and Infidels Pag. 277. And lastly in Answer to the Jesuit's Objection of the German Princes resisting the Emperor which was the Hinge on which all the difference in their Arguments did hang. They were Magistrates says he and bare the Sword in their own Dominions you are private Men and want lawful Authority to use the Sword their States be free and may resist any wrong by the Law of the Empire You be Subjects and simply bound by the Laws of the Country to obey the Prince or abide the pain which the publick State of this Realm hath prefixed The Queen of England inheriteth and hath one and the same right over all her Subjects be they Nobles or others So Mr. Perkins on the Fifth Commandment The Duties to Superiors in Authority are 1. Obedience to their Commandments Rom. 13.1 because every higher power is the Ordinance of God and the Obedience which we perform to him God accepteth it as tho it were done to himself Rom. 13.2 Qu. What if our Superiors be cruel and wicked Answ Yet we must yield Obedience to them but not in wickedness 1 Pet. 2.18 Act. 4.19 2. Subjection in suffering the Punishments inflicted by our Superiors Qu. What if the punishment should be unjust Answ Yet must we suffer it till we can get some lawful Remedy for the same 1 Pet. 2.19 20. And among the Sins against this Commandment he reckons the sixth to resist the lawful Authority of Superiors and the seventh to obey them in things unlawful In this Reign Mr. Hooker published his judicious Books of Ecclesiastical Polity from the first of which it must be confessed it is observed that he lays the Foundation of Government in Agreement Spalatens de Rep. Eccl. lib. 6. c. 2. n. 19. p. 526. Opinionem verò jam factam communem nostrorum Scholasticorum c. That the common Opinion of the Schoolmen and most other Divines which place the power of Government in the Body of the People as if it were given to them by God and the People might dispose of it to whom they pleased is false and altogether to be rejected he herein following the Schoolmen too strictly who had brought in the Terms and Notions of the Aristotelean Philosophy into the Christian Church while Aristotle is known to be a great Lover of a Democracy but whatever he laid down in Thesi I am sure he hated the Deductions that some Men make from him that because Government arose out of Compact therefore the People may call their Princes to an account for in those Fragments of his Eighth Book of Ecclesiastical Polity which were happily preserved by Archbishop Usher and published by Dr. Bernard in his Clavi Trabales who professes * Pag. 49 50. that by what art and upon what design
Intercession unto the King's Grace with all due Subjection that his Grace would release that commandment if he will not do it they shall keep their Testament with all other Ordinances of Christ and let the King exercise his Tyranny if they cannot fly and in no wise under the pain of Damnation shall they withstand him with violence but suffer patiently all the Tyranny that he layeth on them both in their bodies and goods and leave the vengeance of it unto their Heavenly Father But in no wise shall they resist violently neither shall they deny Christ's verity nor yet forsake it before the Prince neither shall they go about to Depose their Prince p. 295. as my Lords the Bishops were wont to do but they shall boldly confess that they have the verity and will thereby abide And this he proves by the examples of Peter and John and of Christ of the three Children and Daniel and then adds so that Christian Men are bound to obey in suffering the King's Tyranny but not in consenting to his unlawful commandment always having before their eyes the comfortable saying of Christ Fear not them that can kill the body which when they have done they can no more do c. The Weapons used by the Martyrs in those Days were Patience and Prayers and by those Arms they conquered their Adversaries So when the Martyr Bilney going to his death was upbraided Vid. Answer to Stephen Gardiner's Devilish Detection fol. 203. b. edit an 1547. that he being accounted an holy Man wrought no Miracles He answered with a mild voice and countenance God only works Miracles and Wonders and he it is that hath wrought this one Wonder in your Eyes that I being wrongfully accused falsly belied opprobriously and despitefully handled buffeted and condemned to the fire yet hitherto have I not once opened my mouth against any of you this passeth the work of nature and is therefore the manifest miracle of God who will by my death and suffering be glorified and have his Truth enhaunced This was the true way to get the Crown of Martyrdom and here you see the Patience of the Saints SECT II. The necessary Erudition of a Christian Man tho compiled anno Domini 1540 received not its Approbation in Parliament till ann 154◠being Printed in May following by the King Henry the Eighth's Order who thought it so useful that himself writes a Preface to it directed to all his faithful and loving Subjects with the Advice of his Clergy as a Doctrine and Declaration of the true Knowledge of God and his Word with the principal Articles of Religion allowed also by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Nether House of Parliament In which says our Historian Lord Herbert's Henry VIII p. 495. they handled all things with much moderation the King having labored first to make Tenents understood then to have them observed And tho there be in it Accounts given of the seven Sacraments the Doctrine of Purgatory c. yet the Ruin of the Popish Religion is unquestionably under the Providence of God much owing to the seasonable publishing and dispersing of this Book which came out both in Latin for the Instruction of Foreigners and English for the use of the Natives nor was it to be expected that Heterodoxies of so long continuance should all in a moment be condemned In this Book the Exposition of the Fifth Commandment teacheth us thus In this Commandment by these words Father and Mother is understood not only the natural Father and Mother which did carnally beget us and brought us up but also Princes and all other Governors Rulers and Pastors under whom we be nourished brought up ordered and guided And by this word Honor in this Commandment is not only meant a Reverence and lowliness in words and outward gesture but also a prompt and ready obedience to their lawful Commandments a regard to their Words a forbearing and suffering of them an inward love and veneration towards them c. this is the very Honor and Duty which not only the Children do owe unto their Parents but also all Subjects and Inferiors to their Heads and Rulers And after this having fully shewn the Duties of Children to their Parents and Parents to their Children from the Precepts and Examples of holy Scripture it proceeds This Commandment also containeth the Honor and Obedience which Subjects owe unto their Princes for Scripture taketh Princes to be as it were Fathers and Nurses towards their Subjects Then reckoning up the several Duties of Princes it adds And all their Subjects must again on their parts and be bound by this Commandment not only to honor and obey the said Princes according as Subjects be bound to do and to owe their truth and fidelity unto them as unto their natural Lords but they must also love them as Children do love their Fathers yea they must more tender the Surety of their Prince's Person and his Estate than their own or any others even like as the Health of the Head is more to be tendered than the Health of any other Member And by this Commandment also Subjects be bound not to withdraw their said Fealty Truth Love and Obedience toward their Princes for any cause ☞ whatsoever it be ne in any cause may they conspire against his person ne do any thing towards the hinderance or hurt thereof nor of his Estate And furthermore by this Commandment they be bound to obey also all the Laws c. made by their Princes and Governors except they be against the Commandment of God. They must also give unto their Prince aid ☞ help and assistance whensoever he shall require the same either for surety preservation or maintenance of his Person and Estate or of the Realm And further if any Subject shall know of any thing which is or may be to the noyance or damage of his Prince's Person or Estate he is bound by this Commandment to disclose the same with all speed to the Prince himself or to some of his Council for it is the very Law of Nature that every Member should employ himself to preserve an defend the Head. And that all Subjects do owe unto their Princes and Governors such Honor and Obedience as is aforesaid it appeareth evidently in sundry places of Scripture but especially in the Epistle of S. Paul Rom. 13. and S. Peter 1 Pet. 2. and there be many Examples in Scripture of the great Vengeance of God that hath fallen upon such as have been disobedient unto their Princes But one principal Example to be noted is of the Rebellion which Chore Dathan and Abiron made against their Governors Moses and Aaron For punishment of which Rebels God not only caused the Earth to open and to swallow them down but caused also the Fire to descend from Heaven and to burn up 250 Captains which conspired with them in the same Rebellion And the Explanation of the Sixth Commandment saith thus
the Covenant Printed at Lon. 1640. disproves their pretended conformity with the French Churches in the points of Church Discipline and Obedience to Superiors averring solemnly P. 2. that it was ever far from our wishes that your conformity with the Reformed Churches of France should be misapplyed as a pretence of your expelling your Bishops much less a president for you to take Arms against your Gracious Sovereign P. 37 38. take it for granted that the Orders imposed upon you by His Majesty are Ungodly and Antichristian are you therefore allowed to defend Religion with Rebellion will ye call the Devil to the help of God Sure it is a prodigious kind of Christian Liberty for a Subject to draw his Sword against his Sovereign you that stand so much upon the point of conscience ought ye not to be subject for Conscience sake ☞ Were your Sovereign unjust and froward and his commands injurious unto God had ye instead of our pious defender of the Faith a fierce Dioclesian illud solis precibus patientiâ sanari potest nothing will mend it but prayers and patience it is Beza's counsel to the discontented Brethren of England conformable to that of St. 1 Pet. 3.17 Peter for it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well doing than for evil doing if the Sovereign come to kill the Subject for his Religion the Subject must yield him his throat not charge his Pike against him and this he proves by Calvin's Practice and Writings P. 38 39 40. the Churches of France have lately declared to His Majesties Ambassador there their utter dislike of the Insurrection of Scotland under pretence of a Covenant with Christ P. 41. there can be no just cause to take Arms against a Lawful Sovereign after this he treats of the French Protestants taking Arms P. 46. and concludes that till the Reign of King Lewis the Arms of the Protestants were either justifiable or excusable but their Wars in his time were neither and they prosper'd accordingly P. 48. the French Protestants had to do with a King of a contrary Religion they were incens'd by many wrongs and oppressions they were in danger to lose with their Forts and Towns their Liberty their Religion and their Life the privileges which they enjoyed were rewards of their long Services by the Charter of Rochel when they yielded to Lewis XI it was granted to them that they should be no longer the King's Subjects ☞ than the King should maintain their immunities and yet these true reasons and just fears could not justifie their defensive Arms against their Sovereign but they were condemn'd by the best of their own and of their neighbors and God shewed his dislike by the ill success he gave them And much more to this purpose is to be seen in his answer to Philanax Anglicus and in his Regii sanguinis Clamor ad caelum contra Parricidas Anglicanos Hagae Com. 1652 C. 1. 〈◊〉 5. for that being is du Moulin juniors and not Alexander Morus's as was conjectured affirming with the Apostle that even the Jews would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory had they known him while the Parricides of King Charles I. wittingly and wilfully Murdered their Lawful King and with the King beheaded also the Church of England and brought upon the neighbouring Protestant Churches abundance of Dishonor and much danger while the same madness was imputed to all the Reformation which had only infected a few who falsly called themselves Reformed Nothing hath happened since the beginning of the World more contrary to the glory of God or that hath cast a greater blot upon holy Truth while the Wickedness defends it self by the Doctrin of the Gospel and is said to be perpetrated to vindicate the Protestant Religion to the just indignation and abhorrence of all the foreign Churches for which reason Salmasius P. 7. Heraldus Porree and others wrote smartly both against the Men P. 17. and their villanous Principles It is a Law not only written but born with us and springs from the most pure fountains of Nature That it is a most horrid crime for Subjects to punish their Princes and therefore we do too much honour to Parricides when we use Arguments against them for as Aristotle says they who doubt 1 Top. c 9 whether God is to be worship'd or Parents to be honoured are not to be convinc'd by Reasons but by Scourges and Salmasius hath proved by unanswerable Reasons by divine and human Authority that the Majesty of Kings is unaccountable and that Subjects have no manner of Authority over them Cap. 2. p. 29 30. There is no fallacy of Satan which more prevails upon good Men to engage them in an evil Cause than when Men contrary to God's Word believe that it is lawful to do evil that good may come thereof and that God hath need of our sinful assistance to promote his Kingdom and that whatever is design'd to promote God's Glory immediatly commences good P. 52. the Judges at Westminster were turn'd out by the Army because being consulted they had given this opinion that to judge the King was against the Laws of England Cap. 5. p. 107. to argue from Providence and Success to the goodness of a Cause is impudent one man is hang'd for that by which another gets a Crown Junius Brutus by expelling the Kings of the Family of Tarquin saved his Country another Brutus by murdering a Tyrant ruined it perhaps the later Brutus did an act of justice when he slew an Usurper but the first was very unjust who drove away a lawful King by the murder of King Charles I. Cap. 6. p. 121. the Parricides taught the rest of the World that Kings may be guilty of breach of trust to their People that the People are their Judges and may condemn and execute them and these Tenets they are not ashamed to own in their Writings that they had freed the World of its old Superstition that Kings are only obnoxious to God and can be punish'd only by him that they had set an example to all other Nations conducive to their safety and to be dreaded by all Tyrants as Cromwel wrote to the Scots after Dunbar fight what an occasion of insulting is hereby given to the Papists to say Cap. 7. p. 135. this is the Religion which brings down Reformation to us from Heaven these are the Men who cry out against the Usurpations of the Popes upon the Crowns and lives of Princes only that they might themselves have that power over Kings when they had snatched it from the Pope But the Papists would suggest this with less fierceness if they remembred that those few who left us in this point went to them and borrowed their Weapons from them C. 8 p. 148. these Monsters do not content themselves with being simple Parricides but they turn Rebellion into a
them when the rebellious Israelites in Moses's absence would needs make a God that is a Leader or Ruler to go before them they contributed their ear-rings to the carrying on that design but the effect and issue of that contribution was only a Calf I beseech you remember from all our contributory Plate from the silver basin even to the smallest bodkin whether we have any productions amongst us better than this P. 30. Men who decry the Pope yet cry up themselves into an Authority as great as his not only over the People Id. Visit Sermon at Lewis Octob. 8. 1662. p. 43. but over the Prince whatsoever therefore teacheth Children Obedience to their Parents Subjects Loyalty toward their Sovereign whatsoever teacheth the afflicted patience the happy temperance the faithful perseverance and all sorts of People Charity is that sound Doctrin which we must Preach the Congregation learn. Dr. Gardiner It is high time for Sovereign Majesty to send a strict injunction of taking heed Sermon at St. Mary's Ox. on Act Sund. 1622. p. 25 c. that we poyson not our studies with the Writings of Puritans and Jesuits for the one no less than the other under colour of Zeal and pretence of Holy Discipline corrupt and spoil green age before it can discern and season new Vessels with unseasonable liquor witness that detestable and trayterous instruction encouraging Subjects to resist their supreme Rulers when they are notoriously tax'd of injustice and cruelty so that Kings according to them shall be no longer Kings than they serve their turns are not these Gospellers where they broach such Tenets mere Popes are they not like to Antichrist that sits in the Temple of God but advanceth himself against all that is called God or do they not work like Sampson who laid hold on the Pillars whereon the house did stand that overthrowing them the house and the men might fall into a common ruin I am sure God's word says Touch not mine Anointed and do my Prophets no harm and this Commandment of Obedience is without distinction Jeremy chap. 29. commands the Israelites even those which were Captives under Heathen Kings not to resist but to pray for them and for the Peace of Babylon and it is acceptable to the Lord says St. Paul 1 Tim. 2. not that ye resist but that ye make supplications and prayers for Kings and for all that are in authority the Prophets the Apostles and Christ himself subjected themselves to the Power of Magistracy and therefore when the Disciple did draw his Sword in Christ's defence he was commanded to put it up the examples are not to be numbred of God's punishments upon those that have resisted authority by God ordain'd and establish'd In the Old Law it was death if a Man had resisted the Higher Power Corah with all his was consumed with fire Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up of the earth because they seditiously resisted Moses and Aaron We know what end Absalom came unto when he had expelled his Father out of his Kingdom what seem'd more goodly to the eye of the World than that notable act of Brutus and Cassius who destroyed Caesar reputed a Tyrant and yet that those their doings were not allowed of God the end declared wherefore it is not lawful to resist supreme Rulers the they swerve from the line of justice for it pleases God sometimes to punish his People by a tyrannous hand and in such a case to resist what else is it but tollere martyrium to take away the occasion the Glory and Crown of Martyrdom Anno 1647. Dr. Jasper Mayne publish'd his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 5. or the Peoples war examined c. and in it he affirms that suppose the King invade the Peoples Liberties which could not possibly be preserved but by Arms taken up against the Invader yet the King being this Invader unless by such an Invasion he could cease to be their King and they to be his Subjects I cannot see how such Rights could make their defence lawful and this he proves P. 6 7 c. by shewing the Divine Institution of Kings and what rights God allowed them particularly that of being supreme independently Lord of his own actions whether unjust or just as not to be accountable to any but God after which he proceeds to shew P. 12 c. wherein the supreme Power consists P. 16 17. and that those particular rights do belong to the Kings of England wherefore the Crown is Hereditary where the tenure is not conditional nor hangs upon any contract where the only obligation upon the Prince is the Oath that he takes at his Coronation to rule according to the known Laws of the place tho every breach of such an Oath be an offence against God to whom alone a Prince thus Independent is accountable for his actions yet 't will never pass for more than perjury in the Prince no warrant for Subjects to take up Arms against him were a King misled by evil Counsellors ☞ did actually trample upon the Laws of the Kingdom and the liberty of his Subjects yet unless some Original Compact can be produced where 't is agreed that upon every such incroachment it shall be lawful for them to stand upon their defence that where the King ceases to govern according to Law he shall for such Misgovernment cease to be King to urge such unfortunate Precedents as a deposed Richard or a dethroned Edward two disproportioned examples of popular fury the one forc'd to part with his Crown by resignation the other as never having had legal title to it may shew the injustice of former Parliaments grown strong never justifie the pitch'd Fields that have been fought by this If this supposition were true the King being bound to make the Law his rule by no other obligation Sect p. 20 21 c. but his Oath at his Coronation than which there cannot be a greater I confess and where 't is violated never without repentance scapes unpunish'd yet 't is a trespass of which Subjects can only complain but as long as they are Subjects can never innocently revenge but they will say they have all this while fought for the defence of the Protestant Religion c. all which resolves it self into this unchristian bloody conclusion P. 36. that an Assembly of profess'd Protestant Divines have advised the two Parliaments of England and Scotland confess'd Subjects to take up Arms against the King their lawful Sovereign have thereby set three Kingdoms in a flame Id. def of his Serm. against Cheynel p. 4. c. This Doctrin that it is not lawful to propagate Religion how pure soever it be by the sword is that Religion to which I profess my self ready to fall a Sacrifice is that defamed true Protestant Religion for which the Holy Fathers of our Reformation dyed before me Dr. Peter Heylyn Anno 1643. Print Oxf. p. 2 3 c. publish'd
the Rebel's Catechism wherein he shews that Lucifer was the first Author of Rebellion that the Rebellion even of the heart makes a Man guilty of Damnation in the sight of God much more that of the tongue or the hand that one branch of the Rebellion of the hand is the composing and dispersing of false and scandalous Books and Pamphlets tending to the dishonour of the King the other the taking up Arms against such Persons P. 6 7. cons p. 9 10 11 c. to whose Authority they are subject and it is worth our observation that not only the bearing Arms against the King is declared to be Rebellion by the Law of England but that it was declared to be Rebellion by the chief Judges of this Kingdom at the Arraignment of the Earl of Essex for any Man to seek to make himself so strong that the King should not be able to resist him although he broke not out into open act even defensive Arms are absolutely unlawful in the Subject against his Sovereign in regard that no defensive War can be undertaken but it carrieth with it a resistance in it to those Higher Powers to which every Soul is to be subject we find it thus resolved in Plutarch P. 12. that it was contrary both to positive Laws and the Law of Nature for any Subject to lift up his hand against the Person of his Sovereign with much more to the same purpose The same Author near about the same time See his Ecclesia Vindicata p 645 c Prâ—at Lon. 1681. wrote a Treatise intitled the stumbling-block of disobedience removed to shew that Kings ought not to be controuled by their Subjects either singly or in a body the whole of which learned Treatise as well as his other Vindications of the Doctrins and Rights of our Church will sufficiently repay the Reader 's expence of pains and leisure And in his Sermon on May 29. 1681. it is to be observed that such as draw their Swords upon God's Anointed use commonly to throw away the scabberds also and find no way of doing better but by doing worse no middle way for them to walk in but either to bear up like Princes or to dye like Traytors SECT VI. Of the same belief was Sir John Spelman in his Case of our affairs in Law c. that the Sovereignty is in the King's Person inseparably Pr. Oxf. 1643. p. 15 17 19. and the allegiance of the Subject by Law thereto inseparably annex'd fortifyed and enforc'd by Religion under the severe menace of damnation what streight then of humane Affairs can be so violent as to make Christian Subjects contrary to sworn Faith to Law and to Religion not only to disobey their Sovereign but resist and Invade the Sovereign Rights c. Anno 1641. Sir Tho. Ashton and many others Noblemen and Gentlemen of Cheshire tendred a Remonstrance to the Parliament against Presbyterian Government and in it they affirm that the donation of Sovereign Power is solely from God and so will he have the revocation too he doth not subject them to the question of inferiors but puts a Guard upon their Sacred Persons which to violate though in our own defence is a breach of his command even when persecuted as David was by Saul which precepts are renewed in the Gospel we see our selves bound by Oath to acknowledge and support that Regal Government our Statutes have establish'd our Laws approved History represents most happy to whom all Primitive times yielded full obedience to whose Throne Christ himself yields Tribute whose Persons God will have Sacred whose actions unquestionable whose Succession he himself determines and whose Kingdoms he disposes Tacitus tho a Heathen advises us to bear with the riots and covetousness of Kings as with barrenness and other infirmities of nature for while there are Men there will be vices but they cannot continue long and will be recompenc'd when better come In the 19th year of this King came forth a little book called an Appeal to thy Conscience as thou wilt answer it at the great and dreadful day of Jesus Christ p 2 3 c. the Author of which says that Subjects may not take up Arms against their lawful Sovereign because he is wicked and unjust no tho he be an Idolater and Oppressor 1. Because it were an high presumption in us to limit that command which God doth not limit now our obedience to Superiors is always commanded without limitation 2. We may not think evil of the King much less may we take up Arms against him 3. St. Paul saith recompence to no man evil for evil Rom. 12.19 If to no Man then certainly not to thy King 〈◊〉 That which peculiarly belongs to the Lord thou oughtest not without his Authority to meddle with but vengeance is his 5. Rom. 13. Every Soul none excluded must be subject there is no Power but of God if so then the Power of a wicked Prince is from God and the penalty of resisting is everlasting damnation both of Soul and Body in Hell-fire for ever 6. In Eccl. 8.1 2. the Covenant made by the People to obey their King is called the Oath of God and who dares break this Oath of God 7. God commands Touch not mine Anointed therefore thou mayest not smite him therefore thou mayest not bear Arms against God's Anointed 8. For Subjects to take up Arms against their own King tho an Idolater and an Oppressor is contrary to the practice of God's People in all Ages the Jews and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians 9. God's heavy judgments on those who have taken up Arms against their Prince tho an Idolater and Oppressor ought to be a warning to us how we do the like this is contrary to the Doctrin of the Church of England in her Homilies then he answers the usual objections for resistance resolves several doubts and removes other little scruples and in the close of all passionately advises all Men to return to the Lord and to do their duty P. 51. for 't is strange says he that God's Church can be no way preserved the Subjects liberty no ways maintain'd but by sin who ever heard unless from a Papist that the way to Heaven was through Hell shall we do evil that good may come Rom. 3.8 It would be a very needless labor to cite all the passages to this purpose that occur in the Books written between the year 1644. and the time of the King's Murther and therefore I shall refer the Reader to the Regal Apology Printed 1648. the Kingdoms brief answer to the Declaration of the Commons Pr. 1648. the Plea for the King and Kingdom 1648. with many other Treatises of the same kind only I shall mention Bishop Rainhowe who took the degree of Doctor of Divinity An. 1646. Vid. Bish Rainbow's life p. 41. when his chief Question on which he made his Thesis was Ecclesia Anglicana tenet
1. That those Serm. at St. Mary's Oxf Jan. 30. 1660. and before the King Jan. 30. 1661. who promise Obedience to the King only so far as he preserves the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom withal reckoning themselves Judges of what Religion is true what false and when these Liberties are invaded and when not do by this put it within their own Power to judge when Religion Faith and Liberties are Invaded as they think convenient and from such judgment to absolve themselves from their Allegiance 2. That those very Persons who thus covenanted had already from Pulpit and Press declared the Religion establish'd in the Church of England and then maintain'd by the King to be Popish and Idolatrous and withal that the King had actually Invaded their Liberties was there any thing in the Book of God to warrant this Rebellion Why yes Daniet dreamed a Dream and there is also somthing in the Revelation concerning a Beast and a little horn and a fifth Viol and therefore the King ought undoubtedly to dye ☜ others plead providential dispensations God's work it seems must be regarded before his Word as if when we have a Man's Hand-writing we should endeavour to take his meaning by the measure of his foot we have lived under that model of Religion in which nothing hath been counted impious but Loyalty nothing absurd but restitution the Church of England is the only Church in Christendom we read of whose avowed Practices and Principles disown all resistance of the Civil Power and with the saddest experience and truest Policy and reason will evince it self to be the only one that is durably consistent with the English Monarchy let Men look back into its Primitive Doctrin and it's History and they will find neither the Calvin's nor the Knox's the Junius Brutus's the Synods nor the Holy Common-wealths on the one side nor yet the Bellarmin's nor the Mariana's on the other SECT IX And here it is necessary to mention the several Addresses that own the same Doctrin and I shall begin with that of the two Universities that of Oxford runs thus being according to an Act of Convocation dated Febr. 21. 1685. May it please your Majesty c. We your Majesty's most dutiful c. as we can never swerve from the Principles of our Institution in this place and our Religion by Law establish'd in the Church of England which indispensibly binds us to bear all Faith and true Obedience to our Sovereign without any restrictions or limitations so we presume to assure your Majesty that no consideration whatsoever shall be able to shake that stedfast Loyalty and Allegiance which in the days of your Blessed Father that Glorious Martyr and in the late times of discrimination stood here firm and unalterable to your Royal Brother and your Self under the sharpest trials and that we shall constantly by God's assistance with our utmost zeal and sidelity improve all those advantages wherewith God and your Majesty have intrusted us in this ancient nursery of Learning to promote the quiet happiness and security of your Majesties Reign over us Thus also the University of Cambridge in their Address tendred by the Vice-Chancellor Gaznum 2019. c. Mar. 23. 1684. We do with all humble submission present to your Sacred Majesty our unfeigned Loyalty the most valuable Tribute that we can give or your Majesty receive from us this is a Debt which we shall be always paying and always owing it being a Duty naturally flowing from the very Principles of our Holy Religion by which we have been enabled in the worst of times to breed as true and stedy Subjects as the World can shew as well in the Doctrine as Practice of Loyalty from which we can never depart Many other Addresses Gaz num 2008. 2012. 2013. 2016. 2018 c. of the same kind were made by the University of Dublin by the Bishop and Clergy of the City of London the Bishop and Clergy of Chester the Bishops of Bath and Wells and of Hereford and in truth of all the Dioceses I think in England Scotland and Ireland besides such as were tendred by Lords Lieutenants Grand Juries and particular Societies For which Sense of the Nation in those days I must refer the Reader to the Prints while I only subjoin the memorable Close of the Address tendered by the Bishop Vicar-General and the Clergy of the Cathedral and City of Bristol The Church of England is peculiarly indeared to us for that above all that is called Religion in the World it twists Piety with Loyalty and without Reserve Recognizeth your Sacred Majesty as the Sovereign and Supreme Power within your Majesties Realms and Dominions against whom there is no rising up and only less than God himself According to the Dictates of that most excellent Religion we abhor all those Antimonarchical Persons and Principles which would either exclude Princes from their just Rights or disturb the peaceable enjoyment of them And we earnestly beseech the King of Kings that your Majesties Throne may not only be Established but raised still higher upon the ruins of those that shall endeavour to Subvert or Supplant it SECT X. Dr. Stillingfleet Origin Brit. c. 5. p. 319. inquiring into the Reasons why the Saxons were called into Britain by Vortigern quotes Gildas who affirms That after the Britains found themselves deserted by the Romans they set up Kings of their own and soon after put them down again and made Choice of worse in their room Adding it is plain that he supposes that the Britains in that Confusion they were in took upon them without regard to their Duty to place and displace them But withal he observes that then the Britains were left to their full liberty by the Roman Empire that there was no Line remaining to succeed in the Government nor so much as to determine their Choice which made them so easily to make and unmake their Kings who lost their Purple and their Lives together This must needs breed insinite confusions among them and every one who came to be King lived in perpetual fear of being served as others had been before him And the natural Consequence of this jealousie of their own Subjects was looking out for assistance from abroad which I doubt not was one great reason of Vortigern 's sending for the Saxons hoping to secure himself by their means against his own People although it proved at last the ruin both of himself and his People And whereas Cressy in his answer to my Lord of Clarendon's Vindicaon of the Dean of S. Pauls had objected That days of Thanksgiving were kept for the discovery and prevention of such personal Treasons as the Gunpowder Treason but none for the Deliverance of the whole Kingdoms from almost an Universal Rebellion as if their were no necessity of requiring from any a retraction of the Principles of Rebellion or a promise that they shall not be renewed Answ to the
first brought from another Country and is no way natural to our own tho the Infection hath been taken by too many who had an ill Temper prepared for it Cons Dr. Jackson's Works Tom. 3. l. 12. ch 8. p. 978. their Loyalty and Peaceableness may be the Fruits of their Education or their good temper but not of their Faith or as Dr. Sherlock says they may be loyal as Englishmen but they cannot be so as Papists Would we therefore judge of the Doctrine of our Church we must consult her Articles Canons publick Homilies publick Offices of Devotion General Orders of her Bishops Censures of her Universities and Writings of her greatest Men who have vindicated her Doctrine and explained her Belief and this Method I shall use to discover what hath been owned by the Church of England as to the Doctrine of Non-resistance or Passive Obedience CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Thirty nine Articles THE Articles of our Church have been always looked upon as the stated Doctrine of our whole Church to which all her Priests are obliged to make their Subscriptions they are allowed a place in the Body of the Confessions of the Protestant Churches and are highly commended by Foreigners as well as by our own Writers for * Bishop Ridley's Farewel Letter apud Fox tom 3. p. 506. this Church hath in matters of Controversie Articles so penned and framed after the Holy Scriptures and grounded upon the true understanding of God's Word that in short time if they had been universally received says Bishop Ridley the Martyr they should have been able to have set in Christ's Church much concord and unity in Christ's true Religion and to have expelled many false Errors and Heresies wherewith this Church alas was almost overgone Nor is this that excellent Prelate's peculiar Opinion but of the whole Church which ordains †Can. 3. an 1604. That whosoever shall affirm that the Church of England by Law establish'd under the King's Majesty is not a true and Apostolical Church teaching and maintaining the Doctrine of the Apostles let him be excommunicated ipso facto And Can. 5. Whosoever shall affirm that any of the thirty nine Articles agreed in the Synod 1562 are in any part superstitious or erroneous let him be excommunicate ipso facto Anno 1552. In the Convocation held at London Articles of Religion were agreed upon of which the Thirty sixth runs thus The Civil Magistrate is ordained and allowed of God and therefore is to be obeyed not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake And expresly asserts That the Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England In the Articles of our Church under Queen Elisabeth anno 1562. it runs thus and so continues to this day The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Foreign Jurisdiction And it is remarkable ‖ Rogers's Praef. to the 39th Artic. that these Articles of 1562. were published in the same year in which the Massacre at Vassey in France was committed by the Duke of Guise and when all the Protestants in the Country were sentenced to Death by the Parliament of Paris It is true this Doctrine is not limited to the particular Case of Subjects taking up Arms but it seems to me by two necessary Consequences to be deduc'd from it 1. Because if the Pope who pretended by a Divine Right had no power over Kings much less have the People any power who pretend to an inferior Right that of Compact 2. Because the Article makes no distinction but excludes all other Power as well as that of the Pope And in truth the Plea is the same on either side the Pope says as long as the Prince governs according to the Laws of God and the Church of which he is the Interpreter so long the Censures of the Church do not reach him and say the People as long as the Prince governs according to the Laws of the Land and of the meaning of those Laws themselves are the Interpreters so long are they bound to be obedient but as soon as the King doth any thing that may contradict the Pope then he is deservedly say the Romanists excommunicate deposed and murdered and when he usurps upon the Peoples Liberties then he ought to be deposed by the Peoples the Arguments on either side are the same and for the most part the Authorities for as * Moderat of the Church of England ann 17. §. 19. p. 481. Dr. Puller well observes both Papists and Dissenters deny the Supremacy of the King one attributes it to the Pope originally the other to the People and the same Arguments that the Pope useth for his Supremacy over Kings the Disciplinarians use for establishing their Sovereignty CHAP. II. The Doctrine of the Injunctions and Canons IN the Infancy of the Reformation under Henry the Eighth for there I begin the Restoration of Religion to her Purity in this Kingdom as Dr. Burnet does †Burnet hist Reform l. 3. p. 226. tom 1. And Fox tom 2. p. 387. Anno 1536. Injunctions were issued out the first of which is That every Man that hath Cure of Souls shall for the Establishment and Confirmation of the King's Authority and Jurisdiction sincerely declare manifest and open for the space of one quarter of a year next ensuing once every Sunday and after that at the least wise twice every Quarter in their Sermons and other Collations that the Bishop of Rome 's usurp'd Power and Jurisdiction having no Establishment or Ground in the Law of God was of most just Causes taken away and abolish'd and that the King's Power is in his Dominions the highest Power and Potentate under God to whom all men within the same Dominions by God's Commandment owe most Loyalty and Obedience afore and above all other Potentates in Earth Now if a King be above all other Powers then he cannot be accountable to any other Power and so ought not to be resisted Anno * Burnet's Collect. of Records p. 181. 1538. came out the Lord Cromwel's Injunctions as they were called wherein the same Duty is injoyned in the same Words This also is the first of the Injunctions of Edw. the Sixth †Sparr Collect. p. 1 2. An. 1547. the Preface to which Injunctions acknowledges that part of them were formerly set out by Henry the Eighth and the rest added by King Edward the Sixth This also was the first of the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth with a very little variation and accordingly in the Articles of Enquiry of Archbishop Cranmer in the Diocess of Canterbury under Edward the Sixth the first is Whether all Persons c. have preach'd against the usurp'd Power of the Bishop of Rome Secondly Whether they have preach'd and
is thus express'd From Civil Wars c. ☜ but not one Word of this could he ever find in the Roman Missals that have come to his hands it being the peculiar Glory of the Church of England that her Prayers and Practices have always been eminently loyal and Enemies to Treason and Rebellion And he says farther * Ib. p. 226 227. That Rebellion is a sin so contrary to Christianity that though the Primitive Christians had all the Provocations imaginable and Force sufficient they never offer'd to rebel So that they who do rebel have divested themselves of the Christian Principles and almost of their Humanity too In the Prayer for the Parliament We may say of our Princes as Pliny said of the good Emperor Trajan they have freely yielded to rule by those Laws to which nothing but their own goodness could oblige them and doubtless the People of England ought to take it as an Act of Grace that their Kings have consented to govern them on this manner In the Prayer after the Commandments the King is said to be God's Minister and we beg God that all his Subjects duly considering that he hath God's Authority may faithfully serve honor and humbly obey him according to God's blessed Word and Ordinance And this is admirably commented †Id. part 3. §. 4. p. 20. We are to consider that Kings bear God's Name and act by his Power and such as rebel do fight against God oppose his Word and resist his Ordinance c. In the occasional Office for Nov. 5. we pray God That the King may cut off all such workers of Iniquity as turn Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction And in the Office for May 29. when we thank God for the Restoration of the Royal Family we beseech God to accept of our unfeigned Oblation of our selves vowing all holy Obedience in Thought Word and Work unto the Divine Majesty and promising in him and for him all dutiful Allegiance to his anointed Servant and to his Heirs for ever And it is also observable the Proclamations relating to those solemn times are appointed to be read which are as full to this purpose as any thing can be and by our Canons when the Minister bids Prayer before his Sermon to continue the belief of this Truth he is bound to exhort the People when they pray to acknowledge the King to be in all Causes and over all Persons next and immediately under God supreme c. CHAP. V. The Orders of our Bishops BY the Orders of our Bishops I mean not so much the particular Injunctions or Enquiries of our Prelates within their own particular Dioceses though of such instances there is no want as I have shewn Chap. 2. from the Articles of Inquiry of Archbishop Cranmer and the Articles of Visitation of Bishop Ridley and could prove from many other such Instances but the general Orders which have been sent from the Metropolitan to the whole Church such Injunctions when obey'd ought to be look'd on as the sense of the whole Church unless we shall impeach either the Makers or the Complyers of dishonest Practices especially when the Adversaries of the Church have given occasion to such Injunctions thus when Knight of whom I shall treat in the next Chapter was censured at Oxford the same Year some Cautions concerning Preachers and Preaching were by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York with the King's Consent as the Law required sent to the several Bishops of their Provinces to be put in execution in their several Dioceses The Directions are dated Aug. 4. 1622. of which the first requires That no Preacher c. shall fall into any set course or common place otherwise than by opening the Coherence and division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in essence substance effect or natural inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth Ann. 1562. or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority c. The fourth is That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to declare limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Lecture or Sermon the Power Prerogative Jurisdiction Authority or duty of Sovereign Princes or therein meddle with Matters of State and Reference between Princes and People than as they are instructed in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth by Publick Authority These Injunctions were again renew'd and reinforc'd in the days of King Charles the Second and in the next Reign and in the Articles of the present Archbishop of Canterbury * July 16. 1638. Art. 7. the Clergy are expresly enjoyn'd That in their Sermons they should four times in the Year at least teach the People That the Kings Power being in his Dominions highest under God all Priests should upon all occasions persuade the People to Loyalty and Obedience to his Majesty in all things lawful and to patient Submission in the rest promoting as far as in them lies the publick Peace and Quiet of the World. And agreeably to this Doctrine were the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy especially the later framed which though particularly made against the Papists yet as Bishop Sanderson well observes where the Reason of making and imposing an Oath is particular Praelect 7. de juram but the words of the Oath are general there the Oath obliges according to the sense of the words in their utmost latitude as says he for Example in the Oath of Supremacy to the making of which the Usurpation of the Pope gave occasion the words being all general do exclude all Persons from exercising that Supreme Power in this Kingdom And every Clergy-man especially ought to reflect how often he hath solemnly profess'd and averr'd That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King or any commissioned by him c. and to remember that that Declaration was injoyned in opposition to the Doctrines of the year 1641 the Men of which age asserted That the Power of Kings was given them by the People and might be resumed by the Donors that the King was co-ordinate with the States and that his Politick differ'd from his personal Capacity Now the occasion of the making a Law and the preamble of it are look'd on as the best Interpreters of the words of a Law. CHAP. VI. The Censures of our Universities NOR are the Censures of our most famous Universities in this case to be neglected or look'd on slightly it is well known what a Repute the Judgment of the single College of the Sorbone hath at Paris and how much the Authority of the Foreign Universities together with our own sway'd with King Henry the Eighth and persuaded the Christian World to credit the Justice of his Divorce Now I shall not mention the Censure of the Mille manus Petition as it
was call'd in which both the Universities most amicably agreed resolving only to give an account of the Proceedings at Oxford in the Years 1â—22 1647 and 1683 the Decree of 1622 was made the 25th of June in full Convocation on this occasion †Antiqu. Oxon. l. 1. p. 326 327 c. Mr. Knight of Broadgate Hall now Pembroke College preaching at S. Peter's in the East on Palm-Sunday upon 1 Kings 19.9 What dost thou here Elijah started this Question Whether it were lawful for Subjects in the defence of themselves when persecuted for Religion to take Arms against their Prince which he held in the Affirmative for which Doctrine when he was convened by the Vice-Chancellor he pleaded the Authority of Paraeus in his Commentary on the xiii to the Romans and the Example of King James who assisted the Rochellers against their King and was for that reason sent to Prison the Vice-Chancellor making the Bishop of St. David's Laud who in May of the same Year had his Conference with Fisher the Jesuit acquainted with it from whom the King was inform'd who ordered Knight and his Sermon to be sent up the Author being committed a Prisoner to the Gate-house in Westminster where he lay two Years and at last by the intercession of one of his Fellow Prisoners with Bishop Williams was releas'd and having ask'd the King's Pardon went into Holland where in a short time he died When Knight was complain'd of the King sent to the Vice-Chancellor to injoin the Students of Divinity to lay the Foundation of their Studies next to the holy Scriptures in the Fathers and Councils and to abstain from the Writings of either Jesuits or Puritans and accordingly the Heads of Colleges the Professors c. met in Convocation the Bishops that were then about the Court having condemn'd the Doctrine and the Books that contain'd it as seditious and contrary to the holy Scriptures the Decrees of Councils and Dictates of the Fathers and to the Doctrine and Constitutions of the Church of England and censur'd among others this Proposition * Proposit 2. v. Antiqu. Oxon. p. 327. That Subjects not private Persons but inferior Magistrates may take Arms to defend themselves the Commonwealth the Church and true Religion against their Sovereign or the superior Magistrate upon these Conditions If 1. The Prince turn Tyrant 2. If he compel his Subjects to commit Idolatry or to blaspheme 3. When any great injury is done 4. If they cannot otherwise be safe in their Fortunes their Lives and Consciences upon condition also 5. That under the pretext of Religion or Justice they do not seek their own advantage and 6. That their Arms be managed with much moderation Moderamine inculpatae tutelae These are the Terms of the Proposition and the Censure of the University runs thus This Proposition is false and seditious and so craftily restrain'd under such Conditions annex'd as every seditious Person may make use of to vindicate himself And the third Proposition which is of the same kind is alike condemn'd so that it is no wonder that Gillespy in the Preface to his Sermon calls this Doctrine the new Oxford Divinity and I wish no worse had been ever broach'd or owned there Nor did the University rest here but withal decreed and declared That according to the Canon of the holy Scriptures Subjects ought by no means forcibly to resist their Prince and that it is not lawful to take Arms either offensive or defensive against the King upon the account of Religion or any other Pretence requiring all the Members of the Convocation to subscribe the Censures and enjoyning all that should be admitted to any Degrees to take an Oath to consent to the determinations of that Convocation while the Commentary of Paraeus was burn'd in the Church-yard of St. Mary's at Oxford at Paul's Cross in London as it was likewise burn'd at Cambridge that University joyning with her Sister of Oxford in the Condemnation of those seditious Doctrines For as a * Doublet Ep. ad Gerh. Voss learned Foreigner who at that time was upon the spot informs that Knight citing for his Opinion the Authority not only of Paraeus but also of Bucanus and Junius Brutus affirming further that it was the Opinion of all the Reformed Divines and illustrating it by this instance that If the King of France should while his Army laid Siege to any Town of the Protestants his Subjects happen to fall by the hand of any of the besieged he was justly slain nor was he that killed him guilty of any crime both the Universities condemn'd the Doctrine and though at Oxford only Paraeus's Book was burn'd yet at Cambridge they also burn'd Bucanus's Common places and Junius Brutus or Hubert Languet's Vindiciae and damn'd the Authors to perpetual Infamy my Author adding that the Cambridge Doctors were the more fierce of the two whether because they hated the Puritans or were the Majority of them at least Remonstrants the Censure of that University Doublet saw when he was at the Commencement it being put into his Hands by him who drew it up upon his promise not to transcribe it What hinder'd it's publication I know not while the same year Dr. David Owen publish'd his Anti-Paraeus seu Determinat de Jure Regio adv David Paraeum at Cambridge anno sc 1622. Octavo in which the Doctrine of Resistance is throughly confuted This Censure and the Execution done upon his Book much troubled the old Paraeus And his Son * Append. in Comment ad Rom 13.5 vit Paraei says that his Father meant what he wrote not of Kings endowed with an absolute power but of such as were admitted to their Crowns upon condition while the illustrious Hugo Grotius thought so well of it that he hath inserted it at large in his Works †Vot pro pace ad Art. 16. p. 661. with a high commendation affirming That the Reverend Memory of King James the first the wisest King of Great Britain and the honor which he owed to the University of Oxford which at that time foresaw the Calamities which England afterward suffered and a just fear lest the pernicious Doctrine might do more mischief ingaged him to reprint the Censure To which Determination Dr. Prideaux Dr. Abbot and the other eminent Men of that time gave their suffrage Anno 1647 June 1. The same famous Academy met in Convocation and declared their Judgment concerning the Solemn League and Covenant and a few of their Reasons why they could not take that Covenant I shall transcribe * Ad calc vit Sanderson p. 174. as they were drawn up by Bishop Sanderson 1. We cannot take the Oath without acknowledging in the Imposers a greater power than for ought appeareth to us hath been in former times challenged †P. 181. 3. We cannot take the Oath without manifest danger of Perjury ‖ P. 182. the Oath being contrary to the Oath of Supremacy by us taken
‡ P. 201 202. We are not satified in being obliged to preserve the King's person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdom forasmuch as 1. No such limitation of our Duty in that behalf is to be found either in the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which no Papist would refuse to take with such a Limitation nor in the Protestation nor in the Word of God. 3. Such a Limitation leaves the Duty of the Subject at so much loosness and the safety of the King at so great uncertainty ☞ that whensoever the People shall have a mind to withdraw their Obedience they cannot want a pretence from the same for so doing 4. Hereby we make our selves guilty of an actual and real diminution of his Majesties Power and Greatness which in the same Breath we call the World to witness with our Consciences that we had no thought to diminish c. P. 210 211. The Tyranny and Yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the Necks of Subjects by their lawful Sovereigns ☜ is to be thrown off by Christian Boldness in confessing the truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up Arms or violent resisting the higher Powers Pag. 217 Because some have inferred from the very Order that the Defence of the King's Person and Authority ought to be with subordination to the preservation of the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdom therefore we cannot take this Oath Especially being told in a late Pamphlet P. 219. that the King not having preserved the Liberties of the Kingdom c. as of duty he ought is thereby become a Tyrant and so ceaseth to be a King and consequently that his Subjects cease to be Subjects and ow him no longer Subjection which Assertion since we heartily detest as false and scandalous in the Supposition and in the Inference seditious and devilish we dare not by subscribing this Article give the least countenance thereto And that we may take the Covenant in our own sense is contrary to the nature and end of an Oath which must be full of simplicity P. 223. contrary to the end of Speech c. and will bring a scandal upon our Religion that we practise that our selves that we condemn in the Paqists viz. Swearing with Jesuitical Equivocations and mental Reservations that we play fast and loose with God in as much as what we swear to day in one sense we may swear the direct contrary to morrow in another P. 225. And if this would fatisfie the Conscience we might with a good Conscience not only take the Covenant but even subscribe to the Council of Trent also yea and to the Turkish Alcoran P. 229. if the King should not protect us but neglect his part too having power and ability to perform it his voluntary neglect ought not to free us from the faithful performance of what is to be done on our part Ann. 1683. July 21. in a full Convocation many opinions were condemn'd that had been publish'd in diverse Books and writings in English and also in the Latin tongue P. 2. repugnant to the holy Scriptures decrees of Councils writings of the Fathers the Faith and profession of the Primitive Church and also destructive of the Kingly Government the safety of his Majesties Person the publick Peace the Laws of Nature and Bonds of Humane Society as Proposition 1. All civil Authority is derived originally from the People Proposition 2. There is a mutual compact tacit or express between a Prince and his Subjects and if he perform not his Duty they are discharged from theirs Proposition 3. P. 3. that if Lawful 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 Prop. 7. Self-preservation is the Fundamental Law of Nature and supersedes the Obligation of all others when they stand in competition with it Prop. 8. The Doctrine of the Gospel concerning patient suffering of Injuries is not inconsistent with violent resisting of the higher Powers in case of Persecution for Religion Pr. 9. P. 4. There lies no obligation upon Christians to Passive Obedience when the Prince commands any thing against the Laws of our Country and the Primitive Christians chose rather to die than to resist because Christianity was not yet settled by the Laws of the Empire And besides the Condemnation of the Doctrines the Books of Milton P. 7. Baxter Goodwin Owen Johnson c. were ordered to be publickly burnt by the Hand of the Marshal in the Court of the Schools as Books that were fitted to deprave Mens Manners stir up Seditions and Tumults overthrow States and Kingdoms and lead to Rebellion Murther of Princes and Atheism it self And a Prohibition issued forbidding the Reading any of the said Books under great Penalties This Decree was drawn up by Dr. Jane Dean of Glocester and the King's Professor of Divinity at Oxon and subscribed by the Vicechancellor other Professors and the whole Convocation And pursuant to this Decree Parkinson a Fellow of Lincoln-College for maintaining that the Right and Foundation of all Power was in the People that Kings are accountable for their Maleadministration c. And particularly that King Charles the First was justly put to death for making War upon his Subjects was an 1684. expelled the University And it is observable that our excellent Homilies that so expresly require Obedience to Princes and condemn Rebellion and Resistance upon any pretence whatsoever were Printed at the Theatre the same year that the abovementioned Decree was made CHAP. VII The Opinions of Learned Men. WHen Men would know what are the Sentiments of any Church in her Articles or Sanctions the most rational Course is to make inquiry among those who were concern'd in making them or those who may be presumed best to understand them by reason of their nearness to the time their acquaintance with the Compilers or their extraordinary Sagacity and Honesty and of suchpersons in the Church of England must we make Inquiry concerning the Doctrine of Obedience and Non-resistance In * Burn. hist Ref. part 1. l. 3. p. 245. the Days of Henry the Eighth when the Reformation began to dawn an 1537. a Convocation was held upon the Conclusion of which there was Printed an Explanation of the chief Points of Religion signed by nineteen Bishops eight Arch-Deacons and seventeen Doctors of Divinity and Law in which there was an Exposition of the Creed the Ten Commandments c But this was but a rude Draught the beauteous Stroaks were given it †Id. p. 286. anno 1540. when a select number of Bishops sate by Virtue of a Commission from the King confirm'd in Parliament among which were Cranmer Ridley Redman and other extraordinary men their first work was to draw up a Declaration of the Christian Doctrine for the
Man was for the Lady Jane but besides his Temper I have this to say for him that the several and contrary Acts of Parliament limiting and changing the Succession according to the King's Pleasure in the latter end of Henry the Eighth's Reign might very well in such a juncture of Affairs as happen'd on the Death of Edward the Sixth stagger a wise Man and incline him to believe that the Son had the same Right that his Father had as unquestionably he had if it were a Right of the Crown especially while that Right was recogniz'd and confirm'd in Parliament To this excellent Prince was Sir John Cheek a Tutor as he also was the Restorer of the Greek Tongue in England he in his Advice of the True Subject to the Rebel Ed. Oxon. 1641. p. 2 3 4. or the hurt of Sedition thus bespeaks the Rebels of that Age For our selves we have great cause to thank God by whose Religion and holy Word daily taught us we learn not only to fear him truly but also to obey our King faithfully and to serve in our own Vocation like Subjects honestly ye which be bound by God's Word not to obey for fear like Men-pleasers but for conscience sake like Christians have contrary to God's holy will whose Offence is everlasting Death and contrary to the godly Order of Quietness set out by the King's Majesty's Laws the breach whereof is not unknown to you taken in hand uncalled of God unsent by Men unfit by reason to cast away your bounden Duties of Obedience c. yet ye pretend that partly for God's sake partly for the Commonwealth's sake ye do rise How do you take in hand to reform Be you Kings by what Authority or by what Succession Be you the King's Officers by what Commission Be you called by God by what Tokens declare you that Ye rise for Religion what Religion taught you that If you were offer'd Persecution for Religion you ought to fly so Christ teacheth you and yet you intend to fight if you would stand in the truth you ought to suffer like Martyrs and you slay like Tyrants thus for Religion you keep no Religion and neither will follow the Counsel of Christ nor the constancy of Martyrs whatever the Causes be that have moved your wicked Affections herein Pag. 11. as they be unjust Causes and increase your Faults much the thing it self the Rising I mean must needs be wicked and horrible before God and the usurping of Authority and taking in hand rule which is the sitting in God's Seat of Justice a proud climbing up into God's high Throne must needs be not only cursed newly by him but also hath been often punished afore of him and that which is done to God's Officers Pag. 12. God accounteth it done to him Ye be bound in God's Word to obey your King and is it no Breach of Duty to withstand your King See also Bishop Hooper's Comment on the Fifth Commandment SECT III. But the outward Felicity of the Church as it was very great under Edward the Sixth so it was short-lived a black Storm gathering under Queen Mary and at last falling severely upon her Protestant Subjects who dealt with her as they were in duty bound they assisted her chearfully till she got her Crown and when contrary to her Duty and her Promises she persecuted them some of them resolutely suffered Martyrdom others as our Saviour advises fled into Foreign Countries for Protection the great Men of that Party solemnly disowning the Principle of taking up Arms against their Sovereign even when she had falsified her promises to them And this is attested by more than a few of the greatest Men of that Reign ‖ Burn. Hist Res part l. 2. p. 285. the Bishops of Exeter S. Davids and Glocester Taylor Philpot Bradford Crome Sanders Rogers Laurence and others who having given an account of their Principles conclude thus as the Historian says These things they declared that they were ready to defend as they often had before offered and concluded charging all People to enter into no Rebellion against the Queen but to obey her in all points except where her Commands were contrary to the Law of God. But their own words will most properly give us their meaning as * Tom. 3. p. 100 c. Fox records Because we hear that it is determined to send us speedily out of the Prisons of the King's Bench c. where at present we are and of a long time some of us have been not as Rebels Traitors seditious persons Thieves or Transgressors of any Laws of this Realm Inhibitions Proclamations or Commandments of the Queen's Highness or of any of the Councils God's Name be praised therefore but only for the Conscience we have to God and to his most holy Word and Truth to one of the Universities there to dispute We write and send abroad this our Faith humbly requiring and in the Bowels of our Saviour Christ beseeching all that fear God to behave themselves as obedient Subjects to the Queen's Highness and the superior Powers which are ordained of God under her rather after our Example to give their Heads to the Block than in any point to rebel or once to mutter against the Lord's anointed we mean our Sovereign Lady Queen Mary into whose Heart we beseech the Lord of Mercy plentifully to pour the Wisdom and Grace of his Holy Spirit now and for ever Amen First we confess and believe all the Canonical Books of the Old Testament c. And having reckoned up what Doctrines they owned and what they condemned they go on thus And we doubt not but we shall be able to prove all our Confessions here to be most true by the Verity of God's Word and Consent of the Catholick Church In the mean season as obedient Subjects we shall behave our selves towards all that be in Authority and not cease to pray to God for them that he would govern them all generally and particularly with the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace and so we heartily desire and humbly pray all Men to do ☞ in no point consenting to any kind of Rebellion or Sedition against our Sovereign Lady the Queen's Highness but where they cannot obey but they must disobey God then to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer as the will and pleasure of the highest powers shall adjudge as we are ready through the goodness of the Lord to suffer whatsoever they shall adjudge us unto rather than we will consent to any Doctrine contrary to this which we here confess unless we shall be convinced thereof either by Writing or by Word c. and the Lord of Mercy endue us all with the Spirit of his Truth and Grace of Perseverance therein unto the end Amen May 8 Anno Dom. 1554. This Letter was subscribed by Bishop Ferrar Bishop Hooper and Bishop Coverdale and by nine others who were the Flower of Confessors at that time
far as they command lawful things but if it so fall out that the Prince or any in Authority under him command things unlawful against the Commandment of God then it is better to obey God than Man yet so that we be content to bear any punishment that shall be laid upon us even to death it self as Daniel when the King made a wicked Edict would not yield unto it but yet was content to yield unto the punishment with patience and never went about to gather a Power against the King in his own Defence c. so that if the Magistrates Command be lawful the Subject must obey if he require an unlawful Obedience he must not rebel but suffer the punishment without grudging ☜ even in heart Eccl. 10.20 If the King be unjust and wicked we must pray God to convert him that as our Sins have brought an ill Governor over us so our Prayers may either remove or better him Bishop Hall's Contemplations The Inauguration of Saul 1 Vol. fol. p. 1029. Earthly Monarchs must walk by a Rule which if they transgress they shall be accountable to him that is higher than the highest who hath deputed them Not out of care of Civility so much as Conscience must every Samuel labour to keep eaven terms betwixt Kings and Subjects prescribing just moderation to the one to the other Obedience and Loyalty which whoever endeavours to trouble is none of the Friends of God or his Church The Death of Saul Lib. 14. p. 1084. Saul was none of the best Kings yet so impatient are his Subjects of the Indignity offered to his dead Corps that they will rather leave their own bones amongst the Philistins than the Carcass of Saul Such a close Relation there is betwixt a Prince and Subject that the dishonour of either is inseparable from both but how unnatural is the Villany of those Miscreants that can be content to be Actors in the Capital Wrong offered to Sovereign Authority Page 1085. Every drop of Royal Bloud is Sacred for a Man to say that he hath shed it is mortal The Death of Absalom Lib. 16. 1128. Strangers shall relieve him whom his own Son persecutes Page 1129. O holy David what means this ill-placed love this unjust mercy deal gently with a Traytor but of all Trayors with a Son Who can want courage to fight for a righteous Sovereign and Father against the Conspiracy of a wicked Son The God of Hosts with whom it is all one to save with many or with few takes part with Justice and lets Israel feel what it is to bear Arms for a traiterous Usurper Let no Man look to prosper by Rebellion the very thickets and stakes and pits and wild Beasts of the Wood shall conspire to the punishment of Traytors Page 1131. Even at this day very Pagans and Pilgrims that pass that way cast each man a stone into that heap and are wont to say in a solemn Execution Cursed be the Parricide Absalom and cursed be all unjust persecutors of their Parents for ever Fasten your Eyes upon this woful Spectacle O all ye rebellious and ungracious Children which rise up against the loins and thighs from which you fell and know that it is the least part of your punishment that your Carcasses rot on the Earth and your Name in Ignominy these do but shadow out those Eternal sufferings of your Souls for your full and unnatural disobedience Sheba's Rebellion Page 1132. That a lewd Conspirator should breath Treason is no wonder but is it not wonder and shame that upon every mutinous blast Israel should turn Traytor to God's anointed Contemplations Lib. 18. p. 1171. In the Case of Succession into Kingdoms we may not look into the Qualities of the Person but into the Right No Bond can be surer than the natural Allegiance of Subjects I do not find that the following Kings stood upon the Confirmation of the People but as those that knew the way to their Throne ascended their steps without aid Page 1174. How durst these seditious Mouths mention David in defiance One would have thought that very Name had been bale to have temper'd their fury and to have contained them within the limits off Obedience Blessed be God for lawful Government Even a mutinous Body cannot want a Head If the Rebellious Israelites have cast of their true Sovereign they must chuse a false Jeroboam Page 1175. The Civil defection was soon follow'd by the Spiritual As there are near respects betwixt God and his Anointed so there is great Affinity betwixt Treason and Idolatry They cannot return to God and hold off from their lawful Sovereign They cannot return to Jerusalem and keep off from God from their Loyalty How can they be mine whiles the Priests and Levites shall preach to them the necessity of their due obedience and the abomination of their Sacrifices in their wilful disobedience Bishop Hall's second Vol. Christ and Caesar p. 416. It is Religion that teacheth us that God hath ordained Kingly Sovereignty Rom. 13.1 ordain'd it immediately That Position was worthy of a Red-hat Potestas Principis dimanavit à Populo Pontificis à Deo. Bellar. Recog What need I persuade Christian Kings and Princes that they hold their Crowns and Scepters as in fee from the God of Heaven Cyrus himself had so much Divinity Ezra 1.2 It is Religion that teaches us that the same Power which ordained Caesar enjoins all faithful subjection to Caesar Not for fear but for Conscience Bishop Hall's third Vol. Pag. 118. 3. A promissory Oath which is to the certain prejudice of another Man 's Right cannot be attended with Justice 4. No prejudice of another Man's right can be so dangerous and sinful as that prejudice which is done to the right of publick and Sovereign Authority 5. The right of Sovereign Authority is highly prejudiced when private Subjects encroach upon it and shall upon suspicion of the diavowed intentions or actions of their Princes combine and bind themselves to enact establish or alter any matters concerning Religion without and therefore much more if against the Authority of their Lawful Sovereign 6. A Man is bound in Conscience to reverse and disclaim that which he was induced unlawfully to engage himself by Oath to perform 7. No Oath is or can be of force that is made against a lawful Oath formerly taken so that he that hath sworn Allegiance to his Sovereign and thereby bound himself to maintain the Right Power and Authority of his said Sovereign cannot by any second Oath be tied to do ought that may tend to the infringement thereof and if he have so tied himself the Obligation is ipso facto void and frustrate And according to this Doctrine was Mr. Dod's practice * Sir H. Yelverton's Pref. to Bishop Moreton of Episc for a little before Naseby fight King Charles of blessed memory sent the Earl of Lindsey to Mr. Dod to know his opinion of the War his Lordship found him ill
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding And to that Oracle of the Son of God himself Matth. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself c. then must he raise up his thoughts to the heigth of that beatitude which our Saviour's own mouth hath given assurance of to all such as will be ruled by him herein Matth. 5.10 11 12. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake c. and to look on the recompence of Reward and to encourage himself with the precedent of the Apostles and Prophets the innumerable company of Martyrs and Confessors and above all to look unto Christ himself Obj. P. 150 But suppose the King should command us to worship the Devil would you not give us leave to stand upon our Guard and if not what will become of God's Church and his Religion R. As if this had been a new Case never heard of before when the Devil-Worship i. e. that of Idols called Devils 1 Cor. x. 20. was so vehemently urged by the cruel Edicts of the persecuting Emperors did the Christians ever take Arms against them for the matter or betake themselves to any other Refuge but fervent Prayers unto Almighty God and patient suffering of what disgrace or punishment soever should be put upon them Pag. 152. c. But if Mens Hands be tied no Man's Estate will be secure c. I answer God's Word is clear Whosoever resisteth resisteth the Ordinance of God and thereby a necessity is imposed upon us of being subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake which may not be avoided by the pretext of any ensuing mischiefs whatsoever it becomes us in obedience to perform our part and leave the ordering of Events to God Pag. 177. whose part that is And so much both of active Obedience which in all things that may be done we are bound to perform unto our Sovereigns and of the passive which in other Cases with all Christian Fortitude we are tied to undergo ☞ without the least carnal thought either of resisting their Authority or conspiring against their Persons State and Dignity And then he closes his Discourse with an account of the Obligation of Oaths c. and the methods of the ancient Church when persecuted viz. ' Patient Sufferings and Prayers to God. Nor need I mention Dr. Heylin whose Opinions are well known and are remarkably to be seen in his Stumbling-Block of Disobedience discovered censured and removed c. Of which the Arguments are cogent and the Authorities good tho I do not like the sharpness of his Language nor the severity of his Reflections SECT XIII Archbishop * Oper. to 1. disc 2. The Serpentine-Salve p. 525 526. Bramhal who succeeded Usher both in his See and his Loyalty says there were Nonconformists in the Days of Queen Elisabeth and King James who severely protested in Print That no Christians gave more to the Royal Supremacy than they without limitation or qualification that for the King not to assume such a power or for the People to deny it is a damnable sin nay altho the States of the Kingdom should deny it him and if the King command any thing contrary to the Word of God yet we ought not to resist but peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue for Grace and when that cannot be obtained meekly to submit our selves to punishment abjuring all Doctrines repugnant to this as Anabaptistical and Antichristian they condemn all Practices contrary to this as seditious and sinful And then proceeds to give his own Opinion That Dominion is not from the Grant or Consent of the People but from God. Pag. 527 528. That absolute Power may be limited by Statutes c. without communicating Sovereign Power to subordinate or inferior Subjects or subjecting Majesty to Censure which Limitations do not proceed from mutual Pactions but from Acts of Grace and Bounty Pag. 531. If the People be greater than the King it is no more a Monarchy but a Democracy Our Oath binds us to acknowledge the King to be supreme in all Causes and over all persons to defend him against all Conspiracies and if to defend him much more not to offend him That Oath which binds us to defend him against all Attempts whatsoever presupposeth that no Attempt against him can be justified by Law against such evident Light of Truth to ground a contrary Assertion derogatory to his Majesty Pag. 532. upon the private Authority of Bracton and Fleta no authentick Authors were a strange degree of weakness or wilfulness that Subjects who have not the Power of the Sword committed to them may use force to recover their former liberty or raise Arms to change the Laws established Pag. 537. is without all contradiction both false and rebellious Surely Pag. 538. if any Liberty might warrant such force it is the Liberty of Religion but Christ never planted his Religion in Blood he cooled his Disciples Heat with a sharp Redargution Ye know not what spirit ye are of It is better to die innocent than to live nocent as the Thebean Legion all Christians of approved Valor answered the Emperor Maximian Pag. 542. If a Sovereign shall persecute his Subjects for not doing his unjust Commands yet it is not lawful to resist by raising Arms against him they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation But they ask Is there no Limits I answer where the Law doth not distinguish neither ought we to distinguish how shall we limit what God hath not limited Obj. But is there no Remedy for a Christian in this Case Yes three Remedies 1. To cease from sin remove our sin and God will take away his Rod. ☜ 2. Prayers and Tears S. Naz. lived under five Persecutions and never knew other Remedy The third Remedy is flight this is the uttermost which our Master hath allowed nor is this way so hard for Subjects this way hath ever proved successful to the Christian Religion SECT XIV With Archbishop Usher I will also join Bishop Brownrig a Man much of his primitive temper and approved Moderation even by the Enemies of our Church notwithstanding his Episcopal Character * Serm. to 1. Serm. 2. p. 26 28. The Writ by which Princes are made issues from Heaven Kings reign by God's Election not by his Permission only that is too weak and sandy a Foundation permission falls short of approbation c. †Serm. 3. p. 33. Darius was an Enemy to the Church one that kept the Church of God in Bondage and Captivity used them not as Subjects but as Slaves enthrall'd them to his Tyranny yet still acknowledged and honored by the Prophet as their rightful Sovereign the primitive Saints submitted to Julian that hateful Apostate S. Peter requires Subjection not only to the good and gentle but to the froward Governors Darius made a wicked Law forbidding Religion and
enforcing to Idolatry assumed all Religious Worship to himself yet the Prophet acknowledges and honors him as his King and Sovereign observe Religion requires Subjection to those Kings that deface the Worship of God and would compel to Idolatry Now if it be said that Idolatry was the Worship injoin'd by the Laws of the Land We answer that Idolatry is against the Law of God and so the Jews were under a superior Obligation and I think if Men may take Arms when any thing is done to them contrary to human Laws there seems to be more reason that they should do so when any thing is done contrary to the Laws of the great King of Heaven and Earth but the latter is by our Adversaries disallowed therefore with much more reason the former But it is time to return to Bishop Brownrig who avers That active and actual Obedience to ungodly Laws we may not we must not yield and perform thus to submit to Men were to rebel against God but yet protestation of Subjection must continue tho our particular active Obedience be denied or restrain'd tho we dare not perform our active Obedience in doing what they command Pag. 34. yet we must perform our passive Obedience in submitting to their punishments Papists teach that Heretical Kings forfeit their Crowns and Lives if they command against God. No we must here with Daniel honor their Persons and Calling when Conscience forbids us to fullfil their Commandments Darius also was now the Author of Daniel's destruction his Law ensnared him his Power condemn'd him his Seal shut him up in the Den of Lions yet for all this the holy Prophet honors him as his King. Observe No worng or injury can exempt or discharge our persons from our Lawful Sovereign ☜ He upbraids not the King with Tyranny and Impiety charges him not with the cruelty of his usage threatens him not with Vengeance and Judgments from God much less as a Prophet doth he denounce sentence of deprivation against him but fergetting his wrongs forgiving his Injuries sends up a devout Prayer for his life and welfare c. SECT XV. In Justice I ought to have given King Charles the First the Preference to some of the forecited Authors but I have reserved him to lead the Van of the remaining Writers who were particularly engaged in the Service of that Truth for which that great Prince became a Martyr and when I have mentioned this I have said enough to those who consider what he suffered by the Men who were Enemies to the Doctrine of Nonresistance and what he unanswerably wrote in Defence of that Doctrine being resolved at present to quote no more of him than that one Sentence in his Second Paper to Henderson that to reform as Grosthead said in ore gladii cruentandi is a wicked and ungodly saying This Prince shall be attended as he ought by his Chaplains and Dr. Hammond comes first of whom it were enough to say that he was a Member of the Convocation anno 1640 for that discovers his Sentiments since he gave his consent to those Canons But he hath more particularly declared his Opinion especially in his * L. 2. § 5. p. 53. Practical Catechism Some Wars are unjust as that of Subjects seditiously raised against the Supreme Power in a State. †Sect. 9. p. 69 70. But what may we fight for if we may not fight for Religion Resp It is the most precious thing indeed and that to be preserved by all lawful proper proportionable means but then War or unlawful resistance being of all things most improper to defend or secure or plant this and it being acknowledged unlawful for Peter to use the Sword for the Defence of Christ himself to do it meerly for Religion must needs be very unlawful Religion hath still been spread and propagated by suffering and not by resisting and indeed it being not in the power of Force to constrain my Soul or change my Religion or keep me from the Profession of it Arms or Resistance must needs be very improper for that purpose And the same Author in his Section of Meekness says if they be our lawful Magistrates then our Meekness consists in Obedience active or passive acting all their legal Commands and submitting so far at least as not to make violent resistance to the punishment which they shall inflict upon us I shall put you in mind of this great Truth that Christ and his Disciples were Id. sect 11. p. 79 80. of all the Doctors that ever were in the World the most careful to preserve the Doctrine and Practice of Allegiance even when the Emperors were the greatest Opposers of the Christian Religion and if ever you mean to be accounted a Follower of them you must go and do likewise S. But was not Tiberius an Usurper and yet Christ saith Render to Cesar the things that are Cesars C. Julius Cesar wrested the Power out of the Hand of the Senate but before the time of Tiberius the Business was accorded between the Senate and the Emperors that the Emperor now reigned unquestioned without any competition from the Senate Which Case how distant it is from other forcible Usurpations where the Legal Sovereign doth still claim his Right to his Kingdoms and to the Allegiance of his Subjects no way acquitting them from their Oaths or laying down his Pretensions tho for the present he be over-power'd is easily discernable to any who hath the Courage and Fidelity to consider it and is not by his own Interests bribed or frighted from the performance of his Christian duty And this Doctrine he ex professo maintains against S. Marshal Godwin and others in his Treatise of resisting the lawful Magistrate under the color of Religion c. in which he condemns Subjects taking Arms against their Prince * p. 54. c. by Arguments taken 1. From the nature of Religion 2. From the Examples of Christ and Christians 3. From the making of Christianity and particularly of the Protestant Doctrine 4. From the Constitution of the Kingdom affirming that in the New Testament there is no one Christian Virtue or Article of Faith more clearly deliver'd more effectually inforc'd upon our Understandings and Affections than that of Obedience to Kings Bishop Ferne hath written purposely on this Subject his Resolution of Conscience whether upon supposition the King will not discharge his Trust but is bent or seduced to subvert Religion Laws and Liberties Subjects may take Arms and resist Resolved That no Conscience upon such a Supposition or Case can find a clear ground for such Resistance whence it follows that the Resistance made against the higher Powers is unwarrantable and according to the Apostle damnable Rom. xiii You are told says Dr. Ferne the Gospel and your Liberties Epist and all you have are in most eminent danger and without taking Arms for the defence irrecoverably lost and that it is lawful by the fundamental Laws of
this Kingdom You must take all this upon trust without any express and particular warrant to rule and secure your Conscience against the express Words of the Apostle forbidding Resistance Rom. xiii * §. 3. 4. and then disproves that Tenet That Power is originally in and from the People and that if a Prince discharge not his Trust the Power devolves again upon the People †§. 5. shewing that most of their Weapons for Resistance were sharpned at the Philistines Forge their Arguments being borrowed from the Roman Schools and ‖ § 6. doth Religion stand in need of a Defence which it self condemns and which would be a perpetual Scandal to it But should I transcribe all that is to the purpose I should offer to the Reader the whole Book to which I must refer as I also refer him to the excellent Treatise of the Archbishop of Tuam Maxwell called Sacrosancta Regum Majestas written upon this very Subject Chillingworth Religion of Protestants a safe way c. p. 360. If I follow the Scripture I may nay I must obey my Sovereign in lawful things though an Heretick though a Tyrant and though I do not say the Pope but the Apostles themselves nay an Angel from Heaven should teach any thing against the Gospel of Christ I may nay I must denounce Anathema to him SECT XVI I might also only name Dudley Diggs's Book of the Unlawfulness of Subjects taking up Arms against their Sovereign in what case soever but then I should do wrong to my Subject and the Truth * Pag. 2. In the Service of which the Author shews That that one main Principle by which the seduced Multitude hath been tempted to catch at empty Happiness and thereby have pulled upon themselves Misery and Destruction That every Man being born free the Law of Nature doth justifie any Attempts to shake off those Bonds imposed upon him by Superiors if inconvenient and destructive of native Freedom is false since every Man is not born free all being by Nature subject to paternal Power and consequently to the Supreme Magistrate to whom divine Law confers the several Powers which Fathers resigned up and †p. 7. that those that will allow any Power to Subjects against their Ruler do thereby dissolve the Sinews of Government by which they were compacted into one and which made a Multitude a People for there cannot be two Powers and yet the Kingdom remain one Afterward he proves ‖ p. 13. by what Arts and Persuasives People are moved to Rebellion particularly ‡ p. 30 31. by being brought to believe That we are a mix'd State and that our Kings are accountable c. and then * p. 34 41 42. c. proceeds to prove the Doctrine of Nonresistance from Scripture proving that the same Obedience which God required from the Jews under the Law to be shewn to their Judges and Kings is now required and that Christ enjoyns his Followers under the Gospel as high a degree of Patience towards the higher Powers and that there is great reason that we should perform this duty more chearfully because our Saviour hath commended Persecution to all those that will live godly and that both by Precept and Example Rebellion in Christians being most prodigious The Jews wanted not some Colours of Reason to rebel their Blessings were temporal but a Christian cannot have any shadow of Scruple St. Peter failing in this Duty by resisting the Magistrate in defence of his innocent Master hath taken special care not to be imitated and therefore informs us largely with the full extent of Christian Patience Then ‖ p. 45. c. he makes an excellent Comment on St. Paul's Words Let every Soul be subject c. Here is a fair warning take heed what you do you have a terrible Enemy to encounter with it is a Fight against God you cannot flatter your selves with a prosperous issue for those that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation You have God's Word for it you are damn'd if you resist This same Year came out a Pamphlet called The late Covenant asserted printed on the day of Trouble Rebuke and Blasphemies for Thomas Underhil Ann. 1643. undertaking to prove That there is a sweet Agreement between the Protestation and Covenant and Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy did bind to the taking of the Covenant to take up Arms against their Sovereign c. and out of it I shall give an Instance how conscientious those Republican Reformers were and how obliged by Oaths ‡ p. 5. c. We have says he sworn that the King ruling by Law is the Supreme Power and so we have sworn Obedience to him we abjure any foreign Power we have sworn that neither Pope nor Cardinal nor the most Catholick King nor the most Christian shall over-rule our King and Kingdom if we can help it we have sworn and we do not repent ☜ for in pursuance of this Oath to repel foreign Power we are in Arms at this day To whom have we sworn Allegiance but to God and the King in reference to him We have sworn and will not repent to obey the King ☜ while he obeys God ruling his People by his Law and Book We have not sworn our selves Servants to Men their private Wills their Lusts c. and we will maintain the King the higher Power with our Lives and Fortunes We will obey all his lawful not personal Commands Look into these Oaths ☜ and you shall not there find a Word soberly understood contradicting the Covenant God forbid that we should vow our selves Servants to Men and Rebels to God. The Queen and the King are notoriously faulty touching both these Oaths the one doing her utmost to bring in and establish a foreign Power the other denying Allegiance to the most supreme Qu. But where have you any warrant to take up Arms against the King Answ We will never allow those Words against the King they are taken up for the King and for the defence of all that should be dearest to him but let it go against the King we have warrant for it when he bends all his force all his might sets open the Gates of Hell against the Parliament against Religion against our Laws c. we vow and covenant to take Arms against King Queen both setting themselves against God and the power of Godliness and we have as good Warrant as can be desired for so doing ‖ p. 19. Obj. But I cannot think it a lawful Vow for we vow to fight against our lawful Prince Answ It is not against him but for him to deliver his sacred Person out of the hands of Murtherers our Land from out of the hand of Spoilers and the Laws of God and Men from Sons of Belial who would make all void null and of none effect Obj. But we have taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy
already Answ You have vowed Allegiance to the King to obey him ruling by Law according to the Law of Heaven you have not vowed to obey his private Will for that is to obey the Lusts of Men breaking and making void the Laws of God the Rights and Privileges of a free People Obj. But the King hath promis'd to maintain the true Religion Answ p. 20. So did the Lady Mary to the Men of Suffolk c. To all which venomous Doctrine I will apply this Antidote Sir Edw. Coke in Calvin's Case says This damnable Opinion That Allegiance was due to the King upon the account of his politick Capacity more than his natural Person was invented by the two Spencers to cover their Treason and from thence they deduc'd these execrable Consequents 1. That if the King did not demean himself by reason in the Right of his Crown his Lieges were bound to remove him 2. That when the King could not be reformed by Suit of Law it ought to be done by the Sword. 3. That his Lieges be bound to govern in aid of him and in defect of him All which Positions were condemn'd in two succeeding Parliaments SECT XVII The Year after this the learned Dr. Gerhard Longbaine set out his Review of the Covenant Chap. 9. p. 56. and therein tells us That to labor the Advancement of Religion by way of force contrary to establish'd Laws and the Prince's Will hath no warrant by way of Command or Approbation from God's Word must be taken for granted till those who are otherwise minded can shew the contrary and will be needless to persuade if we shew in the second place that it is against the express Testimony of Scripture Our Saviour professeth My Kingdom is not of this World and adds for then would my Servants fight which words as they evince that it is lawful for Subjects to fight at the Command of their temporal King for the maintenance of his worldly Estate so they do insinuate that Christ's Kingdom being spiritual must not be advanced by temporal Arms. We have always deprecated the Aspersion which our Adversaries would cast upon us P. 60. professing we do not punish any Hereticks with Death but Seminaries for Sedition and Rebellion Here I must observe that the Lords and Commons in Parliament 1 Eliz. confess they had no means to free the Kingdom from the usurped Power and Authority of the Pope but with the assent of the Queen's Majesty so far were they from thinking it lawful to raise Arms for the Extirpation of Popery when it was establish'd by the Law of the Land. And lest this distinction might seem to invalidate his Objection he adds It is utterly destructive to all civil Government P. 61. for if any be allowed to take up Arms for Propagation or defence of their true Religion against the civil Laws and Will of their Prince whosoever hath a mind to rebel may do it upon the same pretence and ought not to be question'd by any humane Authority for tho they do but pretend Religion yet it is impossible for any Judge to convince them of such Pretences nor can any thing be urged in defence of the true Religion which may not be made use of by a false SECT XVIII Anno 1646. Richard Overton the famous Leveller deck'd with many fantastick Titles printed a Pamphlet intituled An Arrow against all Tyrants and Tyranny wherein the Original Rise Extent and End of Magisterial Power the Natural and National Rights Freedoms and Properties of Mankind are discover'd and undeniably maintain'd and the late Encroachments of the Lords over the Commons legally condemn'd Out of which that the Principles of such Men may be made known I shall transcribe a few passages To every individual in Nature is given an individual Property by Nature not to be invaded or usurp'd by any for every one as he is himself so he hath a self-propriety else he could not be himself No Man hath Power over my Rights and Liberties and I over no Man's If I presume any farther I am an Encroacher and an Invader upon another Man 's Right to which I have no Right for by natural Birth all Men are equal and alike born to like Property Liberty and Freedom No Man naturally would be fooled of his Liberty by his Neighbor's Craft or enslaved by his Neighbor's Might for it is Nature's Instinct to preserve it self from all things hurtful and obnoxious And from this fountain or root all just humane Powers take their Original not immediately from God as Kings usually plead their Prerogative but mediately by the hand of Nature as from the Represented to the Representers no more may be communicated than is conducive to a better Being more Safety and Freedom he that gives more sins against his own Flesh and he that takes more is a Thief and a Robber to his kind every Man being by nature a King Priest and Prophet in his own natural Circuit and Compass whereof no second may partake but by Deputation Commission and free Consent from him whose natural Right and freedom it is As by Nature no Man can abuse beat torment or afflict himself so by Nature no Man can give that Power to another So that such so deputed are to the general no otherwise than as a Schoolman to a particular his Mastership is by deputation and that ad beneplacitum and may be removed at the Parents pleasure upon neglect or abuse thereof and it may be conferr'd on another And speaking to the Parliament he continues If you think you have power over us to save or destroy us at your pleasure the edge of your own Arguments against the King in this kind may be turn'd upon your selves for if for the safety of the people he might in equity be opposed by you in his Tyrannies Oppressions and Cruelties even so may you by the same rule of right Reason be opposed by the people in general in the like cases of destruction and ruin by you upon them for the safety of the people is the Sovereign Law to which all must be subject and for which all powers humane are ordain'd by them And at last applies all to the pulling down of the House of Lords as Usurpers The Pamphlet is said to be printed at the backside of the Cyclopian Mountains by Martin Claw-clergy Printer to the Reverend Assembly of Divines and are to be sold at the sign of the Subject's Liberty right opposite to persecuting Court. SECT XIX As a Preservative against the infection of such dangerous Principles Bishop Sanderson gives us his Advice * Pref. to Arch-Bi Vsher's Book of the Power of Kings c. Some say it is not for Divines to meddle in these matters nor do they come within the compass of their Sphere that they ought to be left to the cognizance and determination of Statesmen and Lawyers who are to be presumed most able to judg the one by the constitution in whom the
but that one cursed Position alone wherein notwithstanding their disagreements otherwise they both consent That lawful Sovereigns may be by their Subjects resisted and Arms taken up against them for the Cause of Religion it were enough to make good the Charge against them both which is such a notorious piece of ungodliness as no Man that either feareth God or the King as he ought to do can speak of or think of without detestation pag. 134. Ad Aulam It were good if we did remember that they are to give up that account to God onely and not to us pag. 177. SECT XX. Doctor Bernard * Ser. on Rom. 13.2 in the Clavi Trabalea p. 21. affirms that some Expositors conceived one cause of the Apostle's Exhortation to be the Rumour then falsly rais'd upon them as if they had been seditious c. And that the Kingdom of Christ tended to the absolving of Subjects from their obedience to any other And then shews †p. 28 29. That it is a Popish Assertion that a people can never so far transfer their right over to a King but they retain the habit of it still within themselves averring * p. 30. That whoever have or shall resist do tread under their feet the holy Scriptures †p. 35. That as Kings receive their Power from God so are we to leave them only to God if they shall abuse it not but that they may and ought to be prudently and humbly reminded of their duties but yet without lifting up our Hands against them in the least resistance of them God wanteth not means whereby he can when he pleases remove or amend them ‖ Pag. 40. The Arms of the Primitive Christians were nothing but Prayers to God Petitions to the Emperor or Flight when persecuted c. To this purpose does Mr. Symmons in his Vindication of King Charles aver That * Sect. 8. p. 84. Rebels as for God they believe him as little as they do the King for they dare not trust him for protection they have more confidence in the Militia a great deal and stand more upon it beside if they did believe God they would also fear him Faith and Fear go together they would regard his Word more and not be so opposite in all their ways or endeavour to make it of none effect by their sinful Ordinances and Traditions besides Faith in God discovers it self by their doing the Works of God and they are not Hatred Strife Sedition Rebellion Murther Lying Slandering and speaking evil of Dignities Sect. 14. p. 146. c. Tell us O ye pretenders to Piety where is that Subjection to the King for conscience sake which S. Paul calls for and that Obedience for the Lords sake which S. Peter requires Pag. 257. c. Consider and call to mind whether those Teachers ☞ who have been most active and busie in drawing you into this way have not hereby contradicted their own former Doctrines As it was said of Stephen Gardiner that no Man in the Days of Henry the Eighth had spoken better for the King's Authority than he had done in his Book De verâ obedientid and yet no Man more violent in Queen Mary's Time in persecuting those that held fast to the same Truth and Doctrine may not the like be affirm'd of many of your Preachers that no Men taught the Duty of Obedience better or inveighed more against Rebellion Pag. 258 259. and sheedin of Blood than they heretofore have done but now none more violent Observe that Note out of Mr. Fox how Henry the Fourth that deposed Richard the Second was the first of all English Kings that began the burning of God's Saints for their standing against the Papists Pag. 260 261 262. As the Doctrine of Infallibility is the Root of all Error among the Papists so it is now among them that are the Worshipers of a Parliament for when it was believed that the Pope could not err then he might oppose Princes excommunicate Kings absolve Subjects from their Obedience c. so now this being swallowed that the Parliament cannot err they may raise Rebellion too absolve People from their Loyalty persecute the King c. Consider whether in any thing these Men have perform'd what at first they promised whether Religion be better settled the Church better reformed and united or the Commonwealth more flourishing c. SECT XXI Thus that good Man asserted the Rights of Princes and the Duty of Subjects in those evil Days * Bishop of Lond. 2d Letter ab the neglect of the Lord's Supper when under an usurped Power Sin was the Law and Transgression the Commandment When three once happy Nations wore the heavy Yoke of Slavery and Men felt to their cost what the power of the People could do till God of his infinite Mercy restored our Judges as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning under whom Truth appeared in its true Colours and the Mask of Hypocrisie would no longer hide the Deformities of the Traitor and here I will not mention the Acts of Parliament made just after the Restoration that condemn the Power of the People that assert their Authority Superiority and Unaccountableness of Princes and the Unlawfulness of taking Arms against them upon any pretence whatsoever and confine my self to the Writings of the eminent Divines of the Age and I will begin with the Bishop of Down and Conner Dr. Taylor †Ductor dubitant B. 3. c. 3. Rule 1. who proves That the supreme Power in every Republick is universal absolute and unlimited ‖ Rule 3. n. 1. That it is not lawful for Subjects to rebel or take up Arms against the Supreme Power of the Nation upon any pretext whatsoever He that lifts up his Hand against the Supreme Power or Authority that God hath appointed over him is impious against God and fights against him Rom. 13. The Apostle doth not say he that doth not obey is disobedient to God for that is not true in some Cases it is lawful not to obey but in all Cases it is necessary not to resist * Id. n. 2. I do not know any Proposition in the World clearer ☞ and more certain in Christianity than this Rule And in the fifteenth Number he answers at large that wild Question as he calls it If a King went about to destroy his People is resistance then lawful And concludes all †N. 15 17. We have nothing dearer to us than our Lives and our Religion but in both these Cases we find whole Armies of Christians dying quietly and suffering Persecution without murmur if the Prince doth not do his Duty that is no Warrant for me not to do mine To this pious Prelate now in Heaven I will join a pious Brother of his as yet on Earth †Bishop Kenn's Expos Ch. Cat. V. Comman Who thus addresses to God in the behalf of his Sovereign Thou
Religion I shall name but two Examples Tertullian tells the Emperor that his Cities Islands Castles Councils Armies Regiments and Companies the Palace the Senate the Courts of Judicature were filled with Christians and yet they submitted to Persecution And we read that the Thebean Legion consisted of six thousand six hundred sixty and six persons every Man Christian when they submitted to the Decimation of Maximinian for Religion MISHPAT HAMELEK Pag. 63. the Jus Regium the Fundamental Law of the Kings of Israel What then is the meaning of Mishpat hamelsk Surely it imports thus much that if all this hard usage should come upon them they might cry unto the Lord 1 Sam. viii 18. but that it would not dissolve Jus Regium the Right of Sovereignty or enable them to resist their Kings or rebel against them That Pretence Pag. 67. that after a lawful Sovereign is established the Power still remains in the People in the diffused Body of them or their Representatives to alter the Government as they please it is in respect of Policy and Government what the Sin of the Holy Ghost is to Religion These were their secret Griefs Pag. 69. for a Redress whereof they make a party in the Parliament they gain to them two hundred and fifty Men famous in the Parliament Men of Renown and in order to their ambitious Designs they remonstrate against Moses Numb xvi 13. and their Declaration was this Pretence which we are upon that all the Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were holy and that Moses and Aaron had lifted up themselves above them that is that their power was a contrivance of themselves not an Ordinance of God that notwithstanding what God had done to settle the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power it remained still in the People or their Representatives assembled together Now the Scripture tells us that since the World began God was never more highly provoked than upon this occasion Numb xvi 32. When he heard this he was wrath and greatly abhorred them he invented a new thing in the World for their sakes for the Earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the congregation of Abiram It tells us Pag. 71. in effect that Might is Right that every thing is just or unjust good or evil according to the pleasure of the prevailing Force whom we are to obey till a stronger than he cometh or we be able to go through with Resistance That in reference to this Life Pag. 71. Obedience is a matter of Wit and Prudence and after Life there remain for us no Concernments How stramineous is this Theory compared with the Christian Theory which speaks in this wise Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers It is but a little while since the Anointed of the Lord Pag. 74. the holiest the wisest the best of Kings was taken in the Snares of Men pretending to Reformation and sacrificed to the fury of Men possessed by an evil Spirit from the Lord. It is but a very little while since the Lamentation of Jeremy was in the mouth of all the Faithful in the Land Pag. 74. Lam. ii 9. Our Kings and our Princes were amongst the Gentiles It may be all these things have been done Pag. 75. that the Sayings of our Saviour might be fulfilled Matth. 18.7 ibid. 6. It cannot be but that Offences will come but woe be to them by whom they come it were better that a Mill stone c. It may be God suffered the late Rebellion to prevail Pag. 76. that he might not leave himself without witness but shew forth his Wonders in our days in the miraculous Restitution of our gracious Sovereign and the Church Surely these things were suffered Pag. 77. that the Faith and Patience and Loyalty of the Church of England might be made bright and glorious by the Flames of Persecution and that in the day when God shall have given our most gracious Sovereign the hearts or necks of all his Enemies it may not repent him of the kindness he hath shewn to Religion and Government in lifting out of the Dust the despised Head of that only Church for ought I know which makes Obedience without base Restrictions and Limitations an Article of its Religion Bish of Exeter's Serm. before the House of Lords Nov. 5. 1678. Certainly their Authority who lived in the Primitive Light and who bear witness to their own disadvantage teaching Submission to Magigrates though absolute Tyrants and who never took up any Arms against them but Prayers and Tears ought to beget in us a conformity to those innocent times when Christianity gained as much by Patience as 't is now like to lose by Rebellion The Emperors for the first three hundred years after Christ for the generality were very bad but especially to the Christians they were bloody and cruel and yet we never read of any Insurrection of the Christians against them tho they were in a condition to do it The Thebean Legion were all Christians when the Emperor commanded the whole Army to offer Sacrifice to false Gods they removed their Quarters that they might if possible avoid the occasion of displeasing the Emperor He summons them a second time to perform that Worship they return an humble denial The Emperor not content with that Answer puts them to a Decimation to which they submit with much chearfulness and dye praying for their Persecutors Not to trouble you with many Witnesses of this Truth take one for all Tertullian who wrote his Apologetick as the sense of the whole Church he makes there a bold Challenge and desires them to produce if they can any one Example of any Christian taking part with Rebels such as Cassius Niger and others were No he tells them the Christians were better instructed than to hold Resistance lawful Nos judicium Dei suspicimus c. We with patience submit and kiss the Rod that scourgeth us Though they have no just cause to torment us yet there is too much cause why we should suffer We must acknowledge our Sins against God and he may punish us in what way he thinks fit however resist we must not And again in his thirty seventh Paragraph of that Apologetick he tells the Emperor That his Cities Istands Castles Councils Armies his Palace and Courts of Judicature were fill'd with Christians Sic non deesset nobis vis Copiarum If we had a mind we could not want force to resist but we dare not save our Bodies to the eternal loss and perdition of our Souls We wish to the Emperor a long Life an happy Reign a valiant Army a faithful Council a sober People and a quiet World. Such as these were their Wishes towards their Emperors tho Heathens and Persecutors Thus you see the Minds of Christ his Apostles and the Primitive Christians in that great Point of Obedience to Magistrates Therefore they who raise Tumults abett Rebellions set on foot Plots and Conspiracies teach
their Doctrine to have been of God had their Actions been so contrary to all the Precepts of Natural Divinity And in this matter does the Learned Dr. Dr. Dove's Serm. before the Sons of the Clergy 1687. Dove vindicate the Integrity of our Church in a few but as significant Words as any of his Brethren when speaking of some who suffered much for their Constancy to the Faith and their Fidelity to the Crown he terms them Two inseparable Notes of a genuine Son of the Church of England Dr. Puller * Moderat of the Ch. of Engl. ch 12. § 5. Other Sects deny the King's Supremacy in Matters Ecclesiastical either claiming a Power of Jurisdiction over him or pleading a Privilege of Exemption from under him where as the Clergy of the Church of England like good Christians and good Subjects neither pretend to any Jurisdiction over the Kings of England nor withdraw their Subjection from them †Sect. 6 7. And then he vindicates that Expression of Can. 1. of the Synod 1640. That the Order of Kings is most high and sacred The Moderation of our Church doth not favour any Doctrines or Practices which are prejudicial to the safety of human Society in general It doth no where pretend to remit the Divine Laws or dispense with Oaths or transfer the Rights of Kingdoms c. Contrariwise it requires of all of its Communion to give the King such Security of their Allegeance and Fealty as may be a sufficient Security to his Government ‖ Chap. 17. The Romanists and Separatists extremely agree in their Principles against the Civil Magistrate according to that of Bishop Lany * Bishop Lany's Serm. on 1 Thess 4.11 The Papists and Presbyterians hunt in Couples against the King's Power and Supremacy It is admirable to see how the Commonwealths Men in the times of the late Rebellion received their Principles from the ancient and modern Writers of the Jesuits and other Papists and still agree with them in most of the Republican Doctrines and Tendencies of them to the like Practices Both deny the Supremacy of the King one attributes it to the Pope originally the other to the People and the same Arguments which the Pope useth for his Supremacy over Kings the Disciplinarians use for establishing their Sovereignty The Pretence of the King's Authority against his Person was hatch'd under the Roman Territories and was made use of in the Holy League of France The Rules for making a King to be a Tyrant and then ceasing to be a King that it may be lawful to attempt any thing against his Person and Life are so much the same §. 20. that they cannot be more I need not here relate how many Doctrines of the Romanists tend to dissolve the very Bonds of relative Duty one towards another absolving People from their Oaths and Allegiance No Faith to be kept with Hereticks c. How do many Principles of our Enthusiasts and Separatists tend to destroy the Relations of King and Subject Bishop and People c. SECT XXXII Dr. Scott * Serm. July 26. 1685. p. 2. P. 13 14. Absalom accomplish'd his design partly by declaiming against the Maleadministrations of his Father's Government partly by promising them a thorough Reformation if ever he arrived to be a Judge in Israel Every Man knows or might easily know if he were not extremely wanting to himself that his King is the Vicegerent of his God and that being so he is indispensibly obliged by all the ties of Reason and Religion to submit to his Will and reverence his Person and bow to his Authority and that he cannot lift up his hand against him without fighting against God himself the Truth of which is as obvious to our natural Reason and as plainly asserted in holy Scripture as of any Proposition in Religion ☜ so that I dare boldly affirm a Man may find as many Pretexts for any Vice whatsoever even for Drunkenness Whoredom or Perjury as ever were made for Rebellion and were I to set up for a publick Patron of Wickedness I hardly know a Villany in nature so black and monstrous which I could not more plausibly recommend to Mens Reason and Consciences than this of Resistance against lawful Authority which is such a complication of Villanies such a loathsome mixture of hellish Ingredients as is enough to nauseate any Conscience but a Devil 's And tho Conscience and Religion are the Colors it usually marches under yet is the imposture of this Pretence so fulsome and bare-fac'd that no Man in his Wits can be innocently abused by it for certainly that Man must have a great mind to rebel his Will must have a strong Byass of Pride or Discontent Faction or Ambition in it that in despite of all the evidence from Reason and Scripture to the contrary can persuade himself that it is lawful for him and much less P. 15 16. that it is his duty to lift up his hand against his Sovereign And therefore for Men to appeal to God in a Cause so apparently wicked is not submissively to refer themselves to him but openly to mock and affront him and to make a vexatious Appeal to God's Judgment again in a Case which he hath so often and so expresly judged already is a common Barretry 't is not to consult but to tempt him and under pretence of submitting to his determinations openly to defie his Authority in effect it is to appeal from his Will to his Providence and to bespeak him to declare himself against his own Declarations In the case of Rebellion there is not only a peremptory Disobedience to those Laws of God which require our dutiful Submission to our lawful Superiors ☞ but also a direct Renuntiation of the divine Authority it self for all Sovereign Power is immediately founded in the Dominion of God who being the supreme Lord of the World no person can have right to govern in his Kingdom under him but by Commission from him Kings therefore are only accountable to him P. 17.18 and if so then for any of their Subjects to presume to call them to account by a publick form'd resistance is to arraign God's own Authority and invade his peculiar it is to thrust him out of his Throne and set themselves down in it and then to summon his Authority before them and require it to submit its awful Head to their imperious doom and sentence While therefore we behave our selves factiously and rebelliously towards those whom God hath set over us we live as Out-laws in the Kingdom of God without any respect to that visible Authority by which he governs the World and if this be so then for Subjects to rebel against their Prince is neither better nor worse than to appeal to God against his own Authority and to put this impious Case to him Whether it be he or they that have the Right of Governing the World. I profess * Id. Serm.
on Prov. xxiv 21. Ep. ded P. 17 19 20 c. with the same sincerity as I would confess my Soul to God that my design in this Discourse was only to promote the Peace and Happiness of Men. These are the ways of knowing Men when they are given to change 1. When Men who have actually chang'd the Government already begin to re-advance their old Methods and Principles it 's a certain sign they are given to change 2. When Men make that a pretence for publick Clamor and Bustle which themselves have little or no claim to or regard for that is Religion it 's a certain sign they are given to change 3. When Men pretend Religion or publick Reformation but pursue it by sinful and indirect means it 's a certain sign c. Now Religion is as great an Enemy to Lying and Rebellion as it is to Popery 4. When under pretext of reforming the Government ☜ Men reproach and vilifie the Persons of their Governors 5. When Men shift their Principles with their Interests and to serve a turn can comply at one time with that which they condemn at another Tho in following our Principles we may sometimes indanger our worldly Interest and fall under the disgrace of a Rabble and the Persecutions of a prevailing Faction yet our very Enemies will be forc'd to revere and honor us to acknowledge that we are constant and brave and honest and resign'd to our own Principles 6. and lastly When Men who in the ordinary course of their Conversation are proud and quarrelsome and impatient of Contradiction set up Pretences of Religion against the Government †Id. Serm. on Rom. xiii 1. p. 25 26. Consider that upon our faithful Subjection to our Prince the safety of our Religion depends for there is nothing in the World can more indanger our Religion than our making it a pretence for Rebellion for hereby we inevitably expose it to the hatred of Princes and do what lies in us to arm their Power against it ‖ Id. Artillery Serm. p. 31. If you be courageous from a Principle of Righteousness you will honor the King as well as fear God and obey his Ordinances for God's sake you will never conduct a rebellious design under the sacred Banner of Religion nor pretend Loyalty to God to cover your Disloyalty to his Vicegerent you will never press the Scriptures to fight against the King Pag. 32. nor arm his political against his personal Capacity nor assume his Authority to cut off his Head nor on the other hand will you ever allow him to be unking'd by the sentence of a domineering Prelate c. In a word you will never confront those loyal Admonitions of S. Peter and S. Paul with the treasonous Canons of the Councils of the Ungodly nor levy Arms against your Prince upon that counterfeit Commission of his being pronounc'd a Heretick by a Congregation of Impostors who would fain fetch Pretences for their Treasons and Rebellions from the most loyal and peaceable Religion that ever was The ADDRESS of the University of Cambridge presented by Dr. Gower then Vicechancellor Sept. 18. 1681. to the King at Newmarket Sacred SIR WE your Majesties most faithful and obedient Subjects of the University of Cambridge have long with the greatest and sincerest joy beheld what we hope is in some measure the effect of our own Prayers the generous Emulation of our Fellow Subjects contending who should first and best express their Duty and Gratitude to their Sovereign at this time especially when the seditious Endeavours of unreasonable Men have made it necessary to assert the ancient Loyalty of the English Nation and make the World sensible that we do not degenerate from those prime Glories of our Ancestors Love and Allegiance to our Prince That we were not seen in those loyal Crowds but chose rather to stand by and applaud their honest and religious Zeal we humbly presume will not be imputed to the want of it in our selves either by your Majesty or your People for Sir it is at present the great honor of this your University not only to be stedfast and constant in our Duty but to be eminently so and to suffer for it as much as the Calumnies and Reproaches of factious and malicious Men can inflict upon us And that they have been hitherto able to do no more than vent the venom of their Tongues that they have not proceeded to Plunder and Sequestration to violate our Chappels rifle our Libraries and empty our Colleges as once they did next to the over-ruling Providence of Almighty God is only due to the Royal Care and Prudence of your most sacred Majesty who gave so seasonable a check to the arbitrary and insolent Undertakings But no earthly Power we hope no Menaces or Misery shall ever be able to make us renounce or forget our Duty We will still believe and maintain That our Kings derive not their Titles from the People but from God that to him only they are accountable that it belongs not to Subjects either to create or censure but to honor and obey their Sovereign who comes to be so by a fundamental hereditary Right of Succession which no Religion no Law no Fault or Forfeiture can alter or diminish Nor will we ever abate of our well-instructed Zeal for our most holy Religion as it is professed and established by Law in the Church of England that Church which hath so long stood and still is the envy and terror of her Adversaries as well as the beauty and strength of the Reformation It is thus Dread Sir that we have learned our own and thus we teach others their Duty to God and the King in the conscientious discharge of both which we have been so long protected and encouraged by your Majesties most just and gracious Government that we neither need nor desire any other Declaration than that Experience for our assurance and security for the future In all which Grace and Goodness Great Sir we have nothing to return we bring no Names and Seals no Lives and Fortunes well capable of your Majesties Service or at all worthy of your Acceptance nothing but Hearts and Prayers Vows of a zealous and lasting Loyalty Our Selves and Studies all that we can or ever shall be able to perform which we here most sincerely promise and most humbly tender at your Majesties feet a mean and worthless Present but such a one as we hope will not be disdained by the most gracious and indulgent Prince that Heaven ever bestowed upon a People SECT XXXIII Dr. Grove * Short def of the Church and Clerg of Engl. p. 81. p. 84. This is the main occasion for which so many of the Conformists are clamor'd against they are presently branded for medling with matters of State if they do but teach their Hearers to be obedient to Magistrates and are not furnish'd with Jesuitical Distinctions to shew in what Cases it may be lawful
to take up Arms against the King. They are not enamour'd with every fine Project that may be set on foot neither do they admire those for the wisest of all that think themselves excellent at new modelling of States They suppose the King's Title may be good enough tho they do not know exactly how many Acres of Land may be held sufficient to confer a Right to the Sovereign Power They understand very well that there will be some casual Miscarriages in the administration of all humane Affairs but they esteem it more becoming wise and good Christians to bear with those we are acquainted with than to hazard the infinite mischiefs and inconveniences of a change which it is impossible either to foresee or prevent and therefore among the great Uncertainties and Vicissitudes of these earthly Concerns they are verily persuaded that our common Safety will be best preserved by a pious dependance upon the divine Providence which they are not ashamed to own tho they should be laugh'd at for it by a few conceited scoffing Politicians Mr. Hesketh †Serm. on Jan. 30. bef Lord Mayor 167◠/ ◠p. 10. Cons also his Serm. on 1 Pet. 2.15 p. 10 11 c. An. 1684. P. 13 14. Subjects are as equally obliged to assist their Kings in all straights and dangers as not to resist or rise up against them to bring them into the same and their failure in the first is as criminal as their doing the second and only differs from it as the Cause from the Effect for therefore some Men are encouraged to attempt the latter because others are negligent and failing in the former Some Men are apt to claim the honor of Loyalty if they do not actually resist their King as others that venture their Lives and Fortunes to assist and vindicate them against those that do resist them But how pernicious this is to the Safety of Kings and how contrary to the true notion of Loyalty will soon be made appear All Nations have ever held the Persons of Kings to be sacred and he that considers those Oaths that Subjects bind themselves in to Princes will clearly see that thereby they are obliged not only not to do violence to them themselves but to do all that in them lies that others also may not do it And when Duty is tied on men by Oaths there to fail in it is not only common guilt P. 17. but died with a Perjury Tho much may be said for David's being actually in Arms against Saul considering some Circumstances yet considering the whole matter we may safely pronounce of it that it was certainly unjustifiable for there were safer ways of avoiding the Displeasure and Anger of Saul than by raisng an Army of Out-laws and vicious Persons and appearing in actual Rebellion against him But if none of this were true yet the least Evil that can be said is that he yielded not that Assistance unto Saul which he might have done and by which possibly he might have averted Saul's sad Fate c. P. 22. I think it neither difficult nor injurious to shew the Doctrines of the late Usurpers to be but the Transcripts of what the later Jews do fabulously report of the Power of their Sanhedrim over Kings P. 22. ☞ P. 35.37 The Parricide of Charles I. was committed by Men who must first offer Violence to their own Consciences chase all remains of Justice and Compassion out of their own Breasts before they could do this Murther and cease wholly to be Men that they might commence Devils for truly I do not know how they can expect a better Name whom no ties of Laws no Bands of Conscience no Obligations of Oaths can hold Were our Religion chargeable with this Fact there needed no other thing to be pleaded against it this alone could bar all its pretences of being a Christian for ever for it is most certain the Religion of the Blessed Jesus can be chargeable with no such thing nay it is most obvious that it takes all possible care to prevent them that it secures Subjection and chearful Obedience to Kings by the strongest ties possible and makes it impossible for a true Christian to become Rebel upon any pretence whatsoever Whatever Religion doth contrary to this P. 37 38. is by that only Argument detected to be perfectly Antichristian I could easily make manifest how very unsafe all of them make the condition of things and upon what weak and slippery grounds they found Subjection to them It is the honor of the Church of England that her Doctrines in this case are truly Christian and Primitive And it is certain when she fails to be so i. e. loyal she ceases to be degenerates from her self and doth justly forfeit their i. e. Prince's Protection Dr. Freeman * Sermon before L. Mayor 1682. on Psalm 34.12 13 14. P. 8. He that makes his Prince to be undervalued and despised raises a Rebellion against him in mens breasts beats him out of his Subjects hearts and fights him out of their Affections and having once dispossess'd him of this his strongest Hold 't will be no hard matter to strip him of all his other Garrisons neither his Person nor his Government can hope to be long in safety when once they have wounded his Honour and put his Reputation to flight but in the Name of God! What do people of this temper propose to themselves Do they think that their Governours are not Men of passion and infirmities as well as others Do they not know that the Employments they are engaged in are so infinitely various and difficult that they are scarce capable to be managed with that evenness and exactness as may exclude all inconveniences And is it not certain that how ill soever the administration of publick Affairs may at any time be under lawful Governours 't is yet far more tolerable than even the reformation of an usurping Populacy Dr. Littleton's Sermon at a Solemn meeting of the Natives of the City and County of Worcester p. 17. Blessed Jesu This Evangelium Armatum this Sanguinary Doctrine was no Gospel of thy making no Doctrine of thy teaching Thy Doctrine was sealed with no bloud but that of thy own who wast the teacher of it and that of thy Apostles and Martyrs who were the propagators of it and though thou said'st thou camest not to send peace but a Sword yet that Sword was not designed to fight with but to suffer by it was a Sword of a passive not of an active persecution as to thy Disciples by which they were to fall victims themselves and not to sacrifice the lives of others And p. 18. May God ever preserve his gracious Majesty and Us the sinful People of this Land from such villanous Attempts of his and our Enemies I am heartily sorry that any who delight to wear the name of Protestants should give a just occasion for such a Charge D. Morrice Chaplain to
his Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in his Sermon on the 30. of Jan. 1682. The English Nation had been long held in singular Reputation P. 24. for good Natur'd and Loyal Courage and not onely the neighbouring Nations but the more remote parts of the Earth have been witnesses of their Dutiful Affection to their Kings And p. 30. speaking of the Authors of that days wickedness saith Doubtless we have great reason to own the kindness of their Separation They went out from Us and would not be of Us because our Doctrine was too Loyal and Passive for Men of so fiery Temper and the greatest Tyranny they found in our Religion was the Restraint that it laid on the Conscience of Men from resisting against the Higher Powers c. Pag. 33. He who has no due Conscience of his Duty to his Prince and obeys not for Gods sake but his own is a Servant but during his own pleasure or Advantage Now let us learn the Necessity of joyning Religion to Loyalty to Fear God and the King together It is the same Power that is to be Reverenc'd in both they cannot be separated but to the manifest disadvantage of all humane Authority Learn to detect all the plausible beginnings and Witchcrafts of Rebellion and confirm our selves with stedfast Resolutions of perpetual Obedience to our Sovereign Dr. Lake's Sermon before the Lord Mayor c. Jan. 30. 1684. Tells us It was a usual saying among the Rabbies that no one can judge the King but he who is over all God blessed for ever and p. 22. The Reformed Religion of our Church gives no Rules prefers no Examples but what are obedient and Loyal ones If any will convince our Church as accessary to any others let them impeach our authentick Constitutions her Doctrine Worship or Discipline Her Doctrine is contained in the 39 Articles and Book of Homilies which are of Age and can speak for themselves p. 22. What our Articles do more concisely speak the Homilies do more fully teach With an exact agreement to this Doctrine is her Liturgy compos'd p. 23. Nor has the practice of the Children of this Church ever run Counter to those excellent Rules And speaking concerning the villany of that day He adds Shall we Curse shall we detest the Men who acted or encouraged this Murther No p. 24. But we will execrate those damnable Positions which gave occasion to it those Positions which fix the Government in the people and transfer to them a power to Curb to Correct to depose their Princes You bloudy you Antichristian you Hellish Doctrines let there be no more Dew nor Rain upon you let them not be diffus'd nor propagate any farther but wither and die p. 29. What remains but that we ever detest and accurse their villanous suggestions beware of the Witchcraft of Rebellion and not suffer our selves to be again charm'd and trick'd out of our Loyalty Mr. Lynford * Sermon 1679. bef L. Mayor on 2 Chr. 20.17 p. 12 13. c. Our great mistake is that we dote too much upon these present Enjoyments and are too fond of the things of this World by which means it comes to pass that we stretch the Principle of preservation too far and are often apt to conclude that whatsoever seems fit and proper to work our present security this we may lawfully and with a safe Conscience do Now although our present danger may seem great enough altho Life Fortune Religion all should appear to be at stake and we can imagine within our selves that if such and such courses were made use of we might escape Yet that we ought nevertheless to stand still and make use of no means but such as are honest and lawful I shall endeavour to evince from these following Considerations First Consider that by doing any unlawful action we deprive our selves of God's care and protection c. 2. Nothing can bring a greater scandal upon the Religion we profess than for us to do any thing which is unlawful although it be for our own preservation All Sects and Parties do in all their undertakings pretend Piety c. But our Saviour hath given us a Caution not to judg of Men by their pretences but by their actions c. Wheresoever therefore we observe Men to be covetous and full of ambition to allow Superstition and Idolatry to be Factors for Schism and Rebellion c. Let them talk as much as they please of the Glory of God by their Fruits we know them they are ravenous Wolves in Sheeps cloathing c. We see how the Papists have misrepresented all our Actions And therefore nothing could be a greater gratification to them at this time than to see us act any thing which is either contrary to that duty which we owe to God or that Allegiance which is due to our Soyereign what pleasure would they reap from an Insurrection Pag. 17. or popular Tumults c. In vain do we call our selves Protestants if we live otherwise than becomes true Christians neither shall we be ever able to excuse our selves either to God or Man if to keep out Popery we are not afraid wilfully to commit any sin or wickedness such a way of proceeding as it would on the one Hand confirm the Proselytes of Popery and hinder them from renouncing their gross absurdities so would it on the other Hand harden the Atheist in his loose and debaucht Principles who with more boldneses than formerly would assert that Religion was a trick of State since the most Zealous Professors of it took so little care to observe its Precepts and that Heaven and the pleasures of another World were only Fable and Romance since they who talk'd so much of them whether Papists or Protestants had nevertheless such a tender regard to the comforts of this life and so kind a respect to their present Estates and Fortunes that for the preservation of these later they did not scruple venturing the forfeiture of the former If therefore we have any kindness for that Religion we profess if we would not make the name of Protestants as despicable as that of Papists c. Let us keep within those bounds of Duty which are set us and although our condition may appear desperate ☞ let us resolve not to uphold it by any other means than what are allowed by God himself his glory will be sooner advanced and true Religion better propagated by suffering wrong than doing wickedly And therefore it was the constant practice of the Primitive Christians to submit to the most cruel Tortures rather than by any unwarrantable action strive to avoid them neither were there any more severely censured among them than such who at any time for fear of Persecution warpt from their Duty by tamely complying with any Heathenish Custom Nothing being more scandalous than for Religious Professors to be guilty of such practices as are most manifestly repugnant to their own Principles 3. Consider
was burdened the more still it spread And indeed what should hinder Religion from thriving in evil Times For the same Religious Duties which are practised with more ease in prosperous are exercised also but with greater honor in an afflicted state of things Nay some of its more eminent Parts and noble Instances are not capable of being exercised at other times It is not Religion then whatever Men may vainly pretend that makes them run into the Breach of Laws and Contempt of Duty lest they should suffer in the profession of it For God and Religion owe them no thanks for such a Course because he is not honored ☞ nor is strengthned and preserved but ruined and destroyed by it But the true and real Cause of such Disobedience whereof God and Religion are only the Color and false Pretence is plainly a great want of Religion and of the Love of God and too great a love of the World and of Mens own selves Mr. Pelling * Ser. on 30. Jan. 1683. on Rom. 13.2 p. 2 3 4. Had not this Duty been a prime part of the Christian Religion we cannot conceive why such great care should have been taken to inform the whole World of it especially in times which afforded not any common encouragement thereunto Were it not a sad Truth that some will believe no more of the Scripture than will serve the present turn we might wonder how it is possible for a Christian to be an undutiful Subject so that it is not either ignorance that can excuse or any allowable Principle of Christianity that can encourage Resistance nor is it Zeal or Conscience that doth it tho that hath been pretended but it is either a haughty and unmanageable Spirit or an hankering after Spoil c. that have been the true Causes of those Riots which have been so vexatious so fatal to Sovereign Princes It being otherwise impossible that Men whose Consciences are so enlightened by God's own Word should be so blind wicked and fool-hardy as to rise up against their Prince at the manifest hazard of the greatest and most intolerable of all Evils for that is the Rebel's portion Damnation By Resistance is meant all undutiful disobedient and contumacious Behaviour and in particular all open forcible and violent Opposition and by the Power is meant not only the Governor's Authority but the Governor himself Shall I take leave to give you a Paraphrase upon my Text. Why ☜ you shall have it not out of any single Commentator But out of an honest Statute of this Realm which makes S. Paul's Divinity to be Law too The Act declares That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever c. After that he proceeds upon the common Topicks that Power is God's Ordinance c. and how reproachful Rebellion is to the Gospel c. Pag. 25. Usurping and pretending Powers Men may be forced sometimes to be subject unto upon pain of Plunder and Sequestration but the Supreme Power the King is he whom we must not refist upon pain of Damnation Such was the Authority of Claudius Pag. 27. and such were his Ministers ☜ that they would not allow Christians either the Exercise of their Religion or the Liberty of their Native Countries or the protection of their own Houses Pag. 29.30 31. and yet both Claudius and his deputies must be submitted to Obj. But when Religion is established by Law then Resistance is not unlawful Answ 1. Religion was established among the Jews by the municipal Laws of that Country And yet tho several Kings introduc'd Idolatry among them they did not resist or if they rational and it is my Resolution to part with all that this World calls dear even Life it self rather than ever own their i. e. the Papists novel Doctrines for true or submit to their Usurpations or communicate in their idolatrous Worship but yet for all this neither for the Preservation of this our most holy and excellent Religion profess'd here in England nor for the keeping out of Popery it self and then I have named the worst thing that I can will I ever by the Grace of God go beyond the Duty of my Calling and that Station divine Providence hath placed me in nor will I ever lift up my finger or open my mouth against the Lord 's Anointed whatever his Religion be whether he hath any or none whether he be a Nero or a Constantine whether he rules by Law or against it we must not wish him evil no not so much as in our secret Thoughts whatever hard things we suffer from him we must not affront disturb or oppose his Government or resist his Authority and if we have not opportunity of flying from such a Persecution as I now suppose because I would put the worst Case that can happen or cannot by prudence decline it I know no other remedy the Gospel allows us but meek and patient Suffering for our Religion after the example of our blessed Lord and Master This is the plain loyal Doctrine of the Church of England which her Ministers have always preach'd and defended both against Papists and Fanaticks of all sorts and for which such an Outcry and Clamor of late years hath been raised against the Clergy and whenever we teach you otherwise give me leave in God's Name to charge you all to forsake us and despise us at as high a rate as our greatest Enemies can do P. 31. nay if an Angel from Heaven preach any other Doctrine let him be accursed Zeal for the best and the greatest things in the World will not excuse private Mens taking upon themselves to reform publick Abuses either against or without the consent of the supreme Magistrate nor will it hallow any Action for which we have not sufficient Warrant and Authority from God's Word For conclusion of all Would we engage God's favour and protection let us at all times adhere close to our duty as well when it is against our temporal Interest as when it is for it let us inviolably in all things observe the Commands of our Religion not only propose good ends but be as careful to choose lawful means SECT XXXVII I shall conclude this Chapter with the Doctrine of the Whole Duty of Man which Book I look upon as a body of practical Divinity owned by our Church and well spoken of even by our very Adversaries Sund. 14. §. 5. The Civil Parent is he whom God hath establish'd the supreme Magistrate who by a just Right possesses the Throne in a Nation this is the common Father of all those that are under his Authority and therefore we owe him Honor and Reverence c. and Obedience according to the Apostles 1 Pet. ii 13. Rom. xiii 1. and it is observable that these Precepts were given at a time when those Powers were Heathens and cruel Persecutors of Christianity to shew us ☜ That no pretence of the Wickedness of our Rulers can free
us of this duty an Obedience we must pay either Active or Passive the active in the Case of all lawful Commands But when the Prince commands any thing contrary to what God hath commanded we are not then to pay him this active Obedience we may nay we must refuse thus to act but even this is a Season for the Passive Obedience we must patiently suffer what he inflicts on us for such refusal and not to secure our selves rise up against him St. Paul's Sentence in this Case is most heavy Rom. xiii 2. They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Here is very small encouragement to any to rise against the lawful Magistrate for tho they should so far prosper here as to secure themselves from him by this means yet there is a King of Kings from whom no Power can shelter them and this Damnation in the close will prove a sad prize for their Victories Whatsoever the Duty of the Prince is ☜ or howsoever perform'd he is accountable to none but God and no failing of his part can warrant his Subjects to fail of theirs CHAP. VIII TO these eminent Divines of our own Church I shall add a few of the most eminent of the Reformed Divines beyond Sea to shew herein the Harmony of the Confessions as in other things between us and them against the Papists * In Rom. xiii 1. Erasmus I look upon to be one of the first Reformers and he plainly asserts That Christians ought to obey a Tyrant if he says Go to a Goal they ought to go if Lay their Head on a Block they ought to obey c. And to him I will joyn the other Writers whom Pool in †In loc his Synopsis hath quoted viz. Grotius Beza c. Every man ought to be subject i. e. to obey in things which are not against the Law of God. But if Princes shall punish those that so obey the Law of God they ought not to resist but to suffer patiently As to the Opinion of Luther I refer the Reader to what Dr. Patrick hath cited out of him p. 92 93. And whereas it is objected against this that Luther wrote a Book contra duo mandata Caesaris and approved of the League at Smalcald we must consider that the Empire was Elective and the Government upon condition as appears from the Bulla aurea ‖ Apud Goldast to 3. p. 429. where it is said Quod si nos ipsi quod absit c. But if we our selves which God forbid or any of our Successors which we hope will not happen should in process of time contradict this Ordinance retract it or presume to violate it we ordain That it may be lawful for all the Electors Princes Ecclesiastical and Secular Prelates Earls Barons Gentry and Commons of our sacred Empire without imputation of Rebellion or Infidelity to resist or contradict us and our Successors c. And till the German Lawyers convinc'd Luther * Sleid. lib. 8. an 1531. of this he refused to enter into the League and taught That Magistrates ought not to be resisted and wrote a Book on that Subject Nay the Elector of Saxony himself who was the Head of the League against Charles V. did openly declare that if Charles V. were a proper Sovereign in their Principalities then that it was unlawful to make a War against him But whatever was done by the German Princes in that Conjuncture I am sure it no way concerns us whose Government is hereditary and who have no such Authority to take Arms. Calvin himself tho so much censured for the Passage in the end of his Institutes yet elsewhere ‖ Ep. ded ad Fran. I. Reg. Fran. ante Instit answers the Objection made against the Reformation That it was the cause of many Tumults and Seditions by shewing that the best of Men had been so accused and that the Accusation was an ungrounded Calumny c. If any under the pretence of Religion do raise Tumults if any Man make the free Grace of God a Pretext for their Licentiousness let the Laws compel such Men to be quiet let not the Truth be evil spoken of for the †Id. l. 17. an 1546. Wickedness of some profligate Men. And if at last the Whispers of ill-minded Men shall fill your ears so that we still must be inured to Bonds and Whips and Tortures and Manglings and Burnings that like Sheep appointed to the Slaughter we must be reduced to the utmost extremity we will with patience possess our Souls and wait till the Lord will deliver us And in that very Chapter of his Institutes wherein he seems to make Kings accountable to their Subjects as the Lacedaemonian Princes were yet there he avers ‖ Inst l. 4. c. 20. § 25.29 That we ought to obey not only good Princes but those who do not their Duty and that as to the point of Obedience of Subjects there is no difference between the just King and the unjust That if we are severely tormented by a cruel Prince if we are robb'd by a covetous or a luxurious Prince if we are slighted and neglected to be protected by a slothful one nay if we are vex'd by an impious and sacrilegious Prince for the sake of Piety and Religion let us remember that our Sins have deserved such Scourges from God then let humility check our Impatience and let us afterward consider that we cannot help all this Evil that there is nothing left but to implore the help of God in whose hands are the Hearts of Kings c. When Princes do command any thing against God's Law we are to obey God and must in such Cases comfort our selves that we have obeyed God as we ought while we suffer every thing rather than desert our Religion Camero * In Rom. xiii 1. Vot pro pace p. 662 says Grotius is of the same mind and was much harrass'd for owning the Opinion for when he asketh the Question What shall we do with a Tyrant when he swerves from this rule of being a Minister for good He answers That it is our duty to submit Is Casaubon * Epist ad Front. Ducaeum p. 732. Ed. ult P. 749. Though no profest Divine yet to be reckoned here May God never permit the God by whom Kings Reign may he never permit that those Men who are not well inclined toward their Prince may light upon the Book of Mariana or take Counsel from him or any other such Writer There are many at this day acted by a preposterous Zeal who under the pretence of Religion and Piety dare ingage in Rebellions Treasons most cruel Murthers of the Innocent subversion of lawful Governments and the blackest Parricides of their Princes St. Paul the Apostle whom no Man will deny to have been acted by a most holy and fervent Zeal for Faith in the Son of God being admonish'd that there were some who boasted that they approved of that
old saying Let us do evil that good may come thereof cries out that they speak Blasphemy and that such mens damnation is just as if he were pronouncing an Anathema Maranatha against such profane Men. But our modern Zelots how contrary are they to St. Paul They seem to have minded that one thing that they might exclude the King from his rightful Succession due to him by Inheritance and by the Laws of the Land c. Peter du Moulin * Vit. Molinaei Lond. 4◠p. 707. When he returned into France from England with much grief saw the Protestants ingaged in the Party of the Prince of Conde against the Queen Mother which War was indeed raised against the King himself and endeavoured both by his Sermons and his Letters to remove them from so unlawful a design †V. Du Moulin answ to Philan. Angl. p. 37. and the King's Party owes it to him that not one Protestant Town on this side the Loire joyned it self to the Prince of Condé And when he was forc'd to leave France and fix at Sedan the first Letter that he wrote was to the Commonwealth of Rochel as it was then called ' To persuade them to Peace to dissolve their Covnention and to throw themselves as they ought on the Kings Mercy advising them to obey the King and thereby to take away all pretence from their Enemies And if God saw fit that they should suffer extremity for every one that feared God would be sure to suffer for no other cause but for the Profession of the Gospel c. Nay du Moulin the Son says Ubi Supr p. 45. that the actions of the Men of Rochel were disallowed by the best and the most of their Church That they were exhorted to their Duty by their Divines And that this was the Sense of the National Synod of which du Moulin was the President but two months before he wrote his Letter This also is du Moulin's Doctrine * P. 795 c. Ed. Genev. 1635. in his Buckler of Faith That the Government of Kings is by Divine Right and founded upon the Ordinance of God and that God hath required Obedience to Magistrates as to those whom he hath established and that whosoever resisteth them resisteth God and that those who affirm that the Authority of Kings is of Human Institution put Kings upon maintaining their Interests by force c. That that Allegiance of Subjects is firm which is incorporated in Piety and is esteemed a part of Religion and of the service which we owe to God. And whatever the learned Hugo Grotius might have said in his Books de Jure Belli Grot. in Mat. xxvi 52. Pacis in his later Works wherein it may presumed he speaks his truest Sense he asserts this Doctrine which it appears he had well studied as if he had been a Member of the English Church whose Articles and Politie he so well understood and in whose Communion he resolved to have lived had not God in his Providence ordered it otherwise If it be once admitted says he that private Men when they are injured by the Magistrate may forceably resist him all places would be full of Tumults and no Laws or Judicatures would have any Authority since there is no Man who is not inclined to favour himself To this purpose * Vot pro pace ad art 16. pag. 66 〈◊〉 662. he censures the Practices and Writings of many of the French Church still excepting Camero confirming his Opinion by the Authority of King James and the Reasons of the University of Oxford that condemned Paraeus's Book †Animadver in animadv Riveti art 16. p. 644. For both Christ and his Apostles Peter and Paul have Preached the Doctrine that no force is to be opposed to the Supreme Power and that we ought to own and retain the Doctrine to be of Divine Right and Institution The Opinion of Monsieur Bochart the glory of the French Churche sis fully seen in his Epistle to Bishop Morley who among other reasons refused to Communicate with the Reformed Church in France because he thought they asserted the Doctrine of Resisting and Deposing Kings but Bochart expresly avers That the King is Gods Anointed and Lieutenant and so not in any case to be Resisted since he is accountable to none but God. That he who rises against his Prince is one of those Giants that fight against God. That David could not take away the Wife of Uriah Nor Ahab seize Naboth's Vineyard without being guilty of great sin but that when Samuel 1 Sam. viii 9. says of the King He shall take your sons and your daughters c. He means that when Kings commit such transgressions they are as uncontrolable as if the Actions had been lawful That in such cases a Nation ought to call upon God since there are no Human remedies against the force of a King for if a King may be resisted he cannot be a Sovereign for where Subjects may Resist they may Judge and consequently the Sovereignty is in them That when Julian Persecuted contrary to Law none of his Soldiers rose up against him though nothing was more easie would they have undertaken it since at his death it was plain that almost the whole Army was Christian David Blondel * De Formula Regnante Christo Sect. 2. §. 16. p. 172. p. 184. chastises Pope Gregory VII as for many other Usurpations upon Princes so for this among the rest for saying That a Prince hath his Power from the People contrary to what S. Paul says expresly of Nero that he was ordained of God affirming further that lawful Kings being guilty of ill management of their Power are accountable to and shall be punished by God who gave them that Power Pag. 187 but not to Men. That this Opinion that Kings were subject to any human Authority was brought into the Church near 1100 years after our Saviour came into the World when the Church could not be presumed to be in a better condition than it was when it flourished in the former Ages of Christianity And that no Man before Greg. VII ever owned the Power of any Man over Kings And this he proves from the Testimonies of Tertullian Pag. 188. Hosius of Corduba Basil Ambrose Hierom Arnobius junior Cassiodore and others who say That King David was above the coercive power of the Law nor could be called to account for his Faults And therefore says in his Confession to God Against thee only have I sinned If Subjects offend against the Laws of Justice the King corrects them but if the King offends who shall correct him None but he who is Justice it self all other persons are under the Restraint of Laws but Kings only are reserved to the Tribunal of God and therefore while according to the Apostle it is a terrible thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God it will be more terrible to Kings who have none on
earth their Superior that may awe them if they sin more licentiously and heinously than others He that will read the Sentiments of Sam. Petit on this Doctrine let him consult his Treatise set out by his Nephew Sorbiere called Diatriba de Jure Principum edictis Ecclesiae quaesito c. while Monsieur Allix says Praefat. ad Determ Joh. Paris p. 61. That the Determination that Kings may be deposed is much worse than the most Heresies And Dr. Bourdieu †Serm. on 29. May. 1684. having asserted That Religion teaches men to give Obedience to Pagan Tyrannical Persecuting Heretical Princes in his Epistle to the King avers That it was reasonable that he should publish to the World the Opinion of their disconsolate Churches upon the Doctrine of Obedience which ought to be given to higher Powers Thus he was instructed in his Infancy and Youth thus he saw it practised in their Congregations and Assemblies thus for many years himself had taught it as he had read and found it contain'd in the Holy Scriptures And to mention one unblassed Authority out of that suffering Church instead of all the rest take a few words of a pious Minister of theirs smarting at the very time when he wrote under the Severity of his Sovereign and as himself testifies enjoying then the Protection of a Commonwealth * Le Droit Souv du Prince c. p. 15 16. No good man says he ought to resist a Prince for any earthly Interest whatsoever nay nor for Religion neither c. It may be objected that the Doctrine of such absolute Power in Princes should give occasion to the increase of misery in such passive Churches To which I answer 1. That were it so that such temporal misery should be increased by it yet that countervailed not the necessity of recovering so many Souls without number from death temporal first and afterwards from eternal And again speaking of the Authority of a Prince as to the Essentials of Religion †Pag. 33. If a Prince will use force and violence there all that we have to do is to suffer with humility and patience both his threats and the worst he can do not suffering his rigor to raise the least motion to Rebellion in us and transport us to the least degree of outward resistance any more than refusing to wound our Consciences with such Acts of Religion as are contrary to the Faith we profess and never had the Church of Christ had so many holy Champions as deserved the Name of Martyrs and Confessors if they had not thought this Rule inviolably true Pag. 36. We must suffer all their displeasure even in case of these Essentials without murmuring and sacrifice our Resentments to the Authority that afflicts us according to the Commandment of God which we keep in suffering so As for the things of this life Pag. 40. there is not one of them exempted from the Power of Princes for as the Judgment of Conscience upon the Account of being peculiar to God alone was the reason why the Essence of Religion was exempted from it so the Cognizance of these things belonging to Princes they are all of them capable to receive the impressions of their Power pag. 53 54. And again having described the Nature and Original of the most Sovereign and Absolute Power upon Earth he adds That in all States where that Power is either already established or where it is about to establish it self by such means as nothing but an unjust Rebellion of Subjects can prevent the Hand of God ought to be acknowledged in it and the Secrets of his Providence adored and our Sins forsaken which provoke the King of Kings to permit such an Increase of Power and try to obtain that Liberty of the Divine Mercy which it is not lawful for us to give our selves and if it please not God to take off that Yoke from them that bear it or to help them escape it that fly from it it is matter of Conscience to undergo it as a Chastisement of God's sending and against which we cannot struggle without opposing him who sends it In a word this Power is a Power of Impunity which Sovereigns have in respect of their People The CONCLUSION IT were easie to sum up the Arguments of these eminent Men That Power is only from God and therefore only accountable to him that suffering for Righteousness sake is the Glory of Religion that Resistance is a damnable Sin that no Evil is to be done that the greatest good may come of it and that true Religion is tender of the Rights of Princes and teaches Obedience to them for Conscience sake and that the Devil of Rebellion does commonly transform himself into an Angel of Reformation But these things are so plainly affirmed in the foregoing Discourse that the Reader must be very weak or very negligent that does not observe them FINIS Omitted by the Printer Pag. 84. Line 15. Dr. Stillingfleet In his Preface to the Jesuits Loyalty THE same Learned Author exposing the absurd and inconsistent pretences of Loyalty in the Jesuits makes choice of this method To run the Parallel between the Deposing Doctrine of the Church of Rome and the Commonwealth Principles which he undertakes to prove and effectually makes out to agree in these three particulars 1. Pag. 4. In setting up a Court of Judicature over Sovereign Princes 2. In breaking the Oaths and Bonds of Allegiance Men had entered into 3. In justifying Rebellion on the account of Religion As to the first The setting up a Court of Judicature over Sovereign Princes The Jesuit he observes had endeavoured to come off by the idle distinction of a direct and indirect Power And the Commonwealthsmen says he do herein agree with them For they do not say that the People have a direct power over their Prince which were a contradiction in its self for Subjects to command their Sovereigns but only breach of Trust the People have an indirect Power to call their Princes to an account and to deprive them of their Authority Pag. 5. The main thing to be debated is says he whether Sovereign Princes have a Supreme and Independent Authority inherent in their Persons or no or whether they are to be accountable to others That upon Male-Administration they may be deprived of their Government This is the first and chief Point and the Republicans and Asserters of the Pope's Deposing Power are perfectly agreed in the Affirmative of the latter Question and only differ as to the Persons in whom the Power of calling Princes to an account doth lie whether in the Pope or in the People And even as to this they do not differ so much as Men may at first imagin For however the Primitive Christians thought it no flattery to Princes to derive their Power immediately from God and to make them accountable to him alone as being Superior to all below him as might be easily proved by multitudes
Majesty fill all places with Slaughters Burnings of Towns and Robberies and run headlong into the contempt of all things Civil and Sacred to omit other Writers when I seriously reflected upon the tumultuary reformations in many Countries and the seditious Writings of Buchanan Knox Goodman Whittingham Junius Brutus and others I saw reason to cease my wonder at the accusation tho I can never enough admire the forehead of the Accusers who at the same time that they impeach'd the Protestants were themselves guilty of Writing most Traiterous Libels and promoting Sedition and Rebellion as much as in them lay against their lawful Sovereign But whomsoever this accusation might concern in those days I am sure it did not touch the Church of England of whose Loyalty her adversary Christopher Goodman gives a fair testimony Of Obed. ch 3. p. 30. Prat Gen. 1558. even when he complains of it The most part of Men says he yea and of those who have been both Learned and Godly and have given worthy testimony of their Profession to the Glory of God have thought and taught by the permission of God for our Sins that it is not lawful in any case to resist and disobey the Superior Powers but rather to lay down their Heads and submit themselves to all kinds of Punishment and Tyranny and in the Margin he sets this note this is dangerous Doctrin And tho it may be expected that every Age will produce such Boutefeau 's yet the Doctrin of the Cross and the benefits of a patient suffering of injuries will I hope be always so well understood in the World that all the attempts of the Jesuits and their Journeymen for it is from their shop that these Wares come will prove vain and the true Catholick Doctrin of Passive Obedience will be still owned still honored and when God calls to the performance of is practised the Christian Religion is soft and gentle its Foundation was laid in the blood of its institutor and our Holy Saviour the superstructure cemented with the blood of an innumerable Army of Martyrs and adorn'd with the patience of the Saints and the more truly reformed Christianity is the more like it grows to those admirable examples the more meek and humble it is and the better prepared for a state of suffering but when Mammon finds a way into the House of God and the Baptismal Vow is forgotten when Men depend on their own Arts and distrust Gods Providence when they dare fight for Religion because they are afraid to dye for it and can allow themselves to do evil that good may come thereof it is no wonder if Christianity be blended with the World and made a pretence to serve the ends of pride and covetousness of ambition and revenge Sir Will. Temple's Obs on the Netherl c. 1. p. 57. according to the observation of a wise Statesman with respect to the Netherlands that whereas the Spanish and Italian Writers attribute the Revolutions in the Low Countries to the change of Religion c. That Religion without mixtures of ambition and interest works no such violent effects and produces rather the examples of constant sufferings than of desperate actions How truly Ancient and Primitive the Doctrin of Passive Obedience is comes not within the limits of this present History but may be hereafter considered by deducing it through the Writings and Practices of the earliest Christians down to the days of King Henry VIII But those times in the esteem of John Goodwin were times of ignorance and the truth was but in its dawn and by a glimmering light Men were easily led out of their way for he says that the Primitive Christians and among them he must include the Apostles Anti-Cavalerism Sect. 6. tho guided by the Spirit of God which led them into all truth knew nothing of this useful Doctrin of Resistance that God had hid this liberty from the Primitive Christians of the Subjects Power and right to resist their Superiors which he hath manifested to us the commonalty of Christians doing contrary to the will of their Superiors being the Men that must have the Principal hand in executing God's judgments upon the Whore. Rev. 18 4 5. and as John Goodwin slanders the Ancient Fathers as a company of ignorant Men so John Milton accuses the first Reformers as the genuine assertors of the Doctrin of Resistance for Salmasius having truly alledged that the Doctrin of the Sacred and Inviolable Authority of Princes was preserved pure and uncorrupt in the Church till the Bishops of Rome attempted to set up a Kingdom in this World Paramount to all Kings and Emperors Milton replies Defens pro pop Angli p. 33. that Salmasius strove in vain to transfer the guilt upon the Pope which all free Nations every Religion all the Orthodox take upon themselves and that he had as many Adversaries in this point as there were most excellent Doctors of the Reformed Church While a third Writer boldly affirms Author of plain English p. 7. that the Doctrin of Non-Resistance is contrary to the Fundamental Liberties of the Nation and that they undid the Kingdom who required the Oath contrary to the Fundamental Liberty of the Nation whereby they would make the King and them who are commissioned by him to be as irresistible as there severity against Dissenters would argue the imposers infallible Thus in the Opinion of such Writers Passive Obedience was the weakness of the Ancient Christians and a sign they were under a lower dispensation and that to assert it necessary in this more inlightned Age is to contradict the most eminent Reformers and the Fundamental Liberties of Nature and if after all this some Men should be so resty as to quote St. Paul to the Romans for their submission to Princes Ubi sup p. 38. Goodman says that Men are deceived into this submission by misunderstanding this place of St. Paul and such like It behoveth every Soul to be subject to superior Powers because there is no Power but of God for the Powers that be are ordained of God and therefore he that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God which words he elsewhere thus comments Ch. 9. p. 410 c. that they require Obedience only to such Magistrates whom God hath ordained over us lawfully according to his word which rule in his fear according to their Office as God hath appointed and that Tyrants Idolaters Papists and Oppressors are not God's Ordinance if so Satan must be obeyed and his Infernal Powers for they are Powers and have their Powers also from God and yet we must resist the Devil for the Magistrate is ordained for good and to such only must every Person be subject and Obedient Such unhappy Commentaries do some Men write even on Holy Scripture it self when their Interests incline their minds to wrest the Sacred Oracles it were easie to prove this from Pope Hildebrand down through the School-men to the present time
Bishop Hacket P. 135 Dr. Plume ibid. Archbishop Sandcroft P. 136 Bishop Morley ibid. Bishop Wren P. 140 Bishop Laney ibid. Bishop Pearson ibid. Bishop Turner P. 141 Bishop Fell. P. 144 Bishop Thomas ibid. Earl of Clarendon ibid. Sir Robert Filmer P. 146 Sir Wid. Dugdale ibid. Dr. Lake Bishop of Chichester ibid. Dr. Allestrey P. 147 Dr. Sherlock ibid. Dr. H. Bâ—â—shaw P. 148 Dr. Falkner P. 149 Bishop Crofts P. 150 Dr. Griffith ibid. Dr. Jane P. 151 Dr. Outrant ibid. Sir Orlando Bridgman ibid. Sir Hencage Finch P. 152 The Harmony of Divinity and Law. ibid. Mr. Foulit ibid. Bishop Spratt ibid. Dr. Pâ—â—â—ck ibid. Dr. Fitz-Williams P. 153 Mr. Wagstaffe P. 154 Dr. Bisby ibid. Dr. Bernard ibid. Oxford notes on Josephus ibid. Dr. South P. 155 Several Addresses P. 156 Dr. Stillingfleet P. 157 Dr. Tennison P. 163 Dr. Patrick P. 166 Dr. Tillotson P. 167 Dr. Meggot P. 168 Dr. Hardy ibid. Dr. Goodman ibid. Dr. Burnet P. 169 Dr. Littleton P. 172 Dr. Will. Saywell ibid. Dr. Dove P. 174 Dr. Maurice P. 175 Dr. Williams P. 176 Dr. Grove P. 177 Dr. Staince ibid. Dr. Wake P. 180 Dr. Fowler P. 181 Mr. Evans ibid. Dr. Comber ibid. Dr. Pelling P. 182 Dr. Pierce P. 184 Dr. Whitby ibid. Mr. Lâ—ng P. 185 Dr. Fuller ibid. Dr. Sclater ibid. Dr. Hickman P. 186 Mr. Jos Pleydall ibid. Mr. Jemmat ibid. Mr. Stainforth ibid. Mr. David Jenner P. 187 Mr. Hancock ibid. John Goodwin P. 188 Mr. Smalridge ibid. Mr. Graile ibid. Mr. Pomfret P. 189 Mr. Nicholas Claget ibid. Dr. Carswell Vic. of Bray P. 190 CHAP. I. The Doctrine of Passive Obedience in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth when the Reformation of Religion was begun SECT I. THe two Hinges upon which the Papal Grandeur moves are the Supremacy and the Infallibility of S. Peter's Successor by the first they affright Princes from attempting a Reformation since no Man ought to controul his Superior who could excommunicate and depose him and by the second they exclude all complaints of inferior persons for what alterations ought to be made in a Church that cannot err Hereby they formerly kept the world in ignorance and a blind subjection for many Ages till it pleased God in great mercy to instruct the world that Princes were accountable to God alone whose Vicegerents they were and that all Bishops were in spiritual matters equally the Successors of our holy Saviour and his Apostles that no Man was free either from Vice or Error and that the Popes in a more especial manner had been guilty of both Idolatry and Heresie as well as gross and notorious Immoralities Among the Princes of Christendom King Henry the Eighth of England begun very early to assert his Rights and the he made not a complete Reformation himself dying in the Romish Communion as great Designs cannot be perfected in a moment yet the present Age owes to that great Prince its thanks for his abandoning the Peope his allowing the holy Scriptures in the English Tongue his abolishing many Shrines and Images to which the common People paid Idolatrous Worship and many other such Blessings In his days * Ann. 1536. Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester wrote his Book De Verâ Obedientiâ to which Bonner wrote a Preface a Book so well thought of by the eminent Protestants beyond Sea Printed in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Melchior Goldâ—sâ—us hath given it a place in his accurate Collection of Writers for the Power of Kings against the Papal Usurpations which Book was translated into English anno 1553. and therein we are taught this Doctrine In that place God hath set Princes whom as Representers of his Image unto men he would have to be reputed in the supreme and most high room and to excel among all other human Creatures as S. Peter writeth and that the same Princes reign by his Authority as the holy Proverbs make report By me saith God Kings reign insomuch that after Paul 's saying Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God. Which Paul opening that plainly unto Titus which he speaketh here generally commanded him to warn all men to obey their Princes Paul without difference biddeth men obey those Princes that bear the Sword. S. Peter speaketh of Kings by name Christ himself commandeth tribute to be paid unto Caesar and checked his Disciples for striving who should be the greatest Kings of the Nations quoth he bear rule over them declaring plainly in so great variety of Degrees and Orders which God doth garnish this world withal that the Dominion and Authority pertaineth to none but to Princes But here some man will say to me you travail about that that no man is in doubt of for who ever denied that the Prince ought to be obeyed It is most certain that he that will not obey the Prince is worthy to die for it as it is comprehended in the Old Law and also confirmed in the New Law. Obj. But we must see will he say that the King do not pass the Limits appointed him ☞ as tho there must be an Arbiter for the ordering of his Limits for it is certain that Obedience is due but how far the Limits of requiring Obedience extend that is all the whole Question that can be demanded What manner of Limits are those that ye tell me of Sol. seeing the Scripture hath none such but generally speaking of Obedience which the Subject is bounden to do unto the Prince the Wife unto the Husband or the Servant to the Master it hath not added so much as one syllable of Exception but only hath preserved the Obedience due to God safe and whole ☞ that we should not hearken unto any man's word in all the world against God else the Sentences that command Obedience are indefinite or without exception but are of indifferent force universally so that it is but lost labor for you to tell me of Limits which cannot be proved by any Testimony of Scripture We are commanded doubtless to obey in that consisteth our Office which if we mind to go about with the favour of God and man we must needs shew humbleness of heart in obeying authority how grievous soever it be for God's sake not questioning nor enquiring what the King what the Master or what the Husband ought or may command others to do and if they take upon them either of their own head or when it is offered them more than right and reason is they have a Lord unto whom they either stand or fall and that shall one day sit in Judgment even of them We have by testimony of God's Word shewn that a Prince's mighty Power is not gotten by flattery or by privilege of the people but given of God. Christ sought not an earthly Kingdom but the state of Orders remaining still he set forth and taught the Form of Heavenly Conversation which he by his own doings declared to consist in humility and contempt of worldly things when
he suffered the most bitter and cruel kind of Death for our sakes and the points of Office of him that is his Vicar are to be in subjection not to command Princes but to acknowledge himself to be under their power and commandment not only when they command things indifferent and easily to be done but also when they command things not indifferent so they be not wicked in checks in scourgings and beatings unto death yea even unto the death of the Cross Indeed these are Christs footsteps Now if it be objected against what hath been said that the Author of the Treatise Gardiner was a virulent Papist I answer this strengthens the Authority for the Testimony of an Enemy to the Truth of Religion is worth an hundred other Witnesses and it is very remarkable that a Romish Bishop should assert the Divine Right and unaccountableness of Kings when his Church teacheth him to believe that the Pope hath power to depose Princes and many of their eminent Writers affirm that all power is originally in and derived from the people And if it be further objected that Gardiner retracted and disowned this Doctrine in the Reign of Queen Mary I grant it and I wish that he and Bonner had been the only men in the world who had altered their Opinions for the worse being prevailed upon by the love of the world which is the root of all evil But Truth is never the less venerable because some Professors of it have turned Apostates Gardiner 's and Bonner 's Reasons * Vide Cranmer's Translat in praef before his Book of unwritten Verities being so pithy and Arguments so strong as neither they themselves nor any other after them shall be able at any time rightly to assoil and answer And it must be observed that before they condemned these their Orthodox Tenets they wilfully broke the Oaths which they had taken in the Days of Henry the Eighth and the venerable Dean * Reproof of Dorman p. 1.6 Lond. 1565. Nowel thus urges the Argument Ask your forsworn Fathers with what face they did give to the King the Title of Supreme Head did swear it to him and so long time continued so calling him If they did not so think as they said and had sworn but dissembled deeply ask of them with what face they played so false dissembling Hypocrites with their Sovereign Lord Ask of them what manner of Subjects they were all that while feigning in face in word in writing yea and taking a Solemn Oath to be with their Prince therein and being in heart and deed on his sworn Enemy his side But if they thought indeed as they pretended in words then ask of them with what face they did change their Copy ☞ and forswear the same and themselves withal so easily afterward yea and compelled all others to be forsworn with them for company Then you shall find who they were that changed their Copy and turned with the Wind as the Weather-cock that so falsly swear reswear trieswear and forswear themselves and not content therewith did by all most terrible Torments and dreadful Deaths compel others to Perjury with them And whoso considers Bonner's juggling Fox Martyrs To. 2. p. 1192 1193. Edit 1610. anno 1547. with King Edward the Sixth's Commissioners about the Injunctions at one time protesting against them at another recanting that his Protestation swearing Obedience to the King receiving his Injunctions giving his assent and consent to the State of Religion then established to the abolishing Images abrogation of the Mass setting up of Bibles in Churches giving the Sacrament in both kinds and such like And then two years afterward anno 1549. on the Death of the Lord High Admiral and the many tumultuous Insurrections of the King's Subjects neglecting to be present or to officiate in his Cathedral at Divine Service and permitting others to frequent the Mass may see his temper throughly and be convinced that his Authority is of no worth while his Reasonings are unanswerable it being unjust that his personal Faults should make void the weight of his Arguments especially when he spake not his own sense but the sense of the whole Church of England which will undeniably appear by the continuation of his story For when Bonner was for his prevarication suspected and complained of and convened before the King's Council among other Injunctions then given him one was that he should personally preach within three weeks after at Paul's Cross And among the special points and Articles that were to be treated of by him in his Sermon this was the first 1. That all such as rebel against their Prince get unto them damnation and those that resist the higher Powers resist the Ordinance of God and he that dieth therefore in Rebellion by the word of God is utterly damned and so loseth both body and soul and therefore those Rebels in Devonshire and Cornwal in Norfolk or elsewhere who take upon them to assemble a Power and Force against their King and Prince against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm and go about to subvert the State and Order of the Commonwealth not only to deserve therefore death as Traitors and Rebels but do accumulate to themselves eternal damnation even to be in the burning Fire of Hell with Lucifer the Father and first Author of Pride Disobedience and Rebellion what pretence soever they have as Corah Dathan and Abirom for Rebellion against Moses were swallowed down alive into Hell altho they pretended to sacrifice unto God. And 4. That our Authority of Royal Power is as of truth it is of no less authority and force in this our young Age than is or was of any of our Predecessors tho the same were much elder as may appear by example of Josias c. How Bonner discharged his Obedience to these Injunctions is not my present Province the Martyrology will inform the Reader but what is already related undeniably proves what was the Doctrine of the Church of England in those Days Anno 1541. was Dr. Robert Barnes martyred Vide his Life prefixed to his Works and at the stake he professed That he never to his knowledge taught any erroneous Doctrine but only those things which the Scripture led him unto and that in his Sermons he never maintain'd any Error nor gave occasion of any Insurrection but with all diligence did study evermore to set forth the Glory of God the Obedience to our Sovereign Lord the King and the true and sincere Religion of Christ desiring the People to bear witness that he detested and abhorred all evil Opinions and Doctrines against the Word of God. And his Writings are agreeable to his dying Protestation In his Supplication to King Henry the Eighth when condemned to die treating of the Cruelties of the Popish Clergy among other things he says If they cannot make a Man a Heretick P. 183. to colour and maintain their Oppression they add Treason against your Grace tho
Magistrates but suffer patiently death rather than to offend God or else our obedience is nothing but hypocrisie and dissimulation Who would accept his own Child's making of Courtesie when all his facts be contrary to his commandment What Masler would be content or think his Servant doth his duty in putting off his cap and in his doing contemneth all his Master's Laws and Commandments the Laws of a Magistrate if they be repugnant to the Word of God they should not be obeyed yet rather should a Man suffer death than to defend himself by force ☜ and violent resisting of the Superior Powers as Christ his Apostles and the Prophets did On verse 2. Because that naturally there is in every Man a certain desire of liberty and to live without subjection and all manner of Laws except such as please himself St. Paul is not content generally to exhort and command all Men to obedience of the Higher Powers but giveth many great and weighty causes wherefore Men should be obedient and in subjection to them The first is because the Office of a Magistrate is the Ordinance of God and therefore the Magistrate must be obeyed except we will say in some respects God is not to be obeyed therefore the Magistrates be called Gods in Scripture ungodly Princes God suffers and appoints for the sins of the People but let the King and Magistrate be as wicked as can be devised and thought ☜ yet is his place and office the Ordinance and Appointment of God and therefore to be obeyed and in case they do any thing in their Offices contrary to the Word of God although the Subjects may not nor upon pain of eternal Damnation ought not by force nor violence to resist the Officer in his High Power yet they are bound to think that God can and will as well revenge the abuse of his Office in them as punish the Subject for the disobedience of his ordinance towards the Higher Power If it be true that St. Paul saith the higher power to be the Ordinance of God it is very damnable iniquity that for any private affection or other unjust oppressions for any Man to depose the Magistrates from their Places and Honors appointed by God or else privily or openly craftily or violently to go about to change or alter the State and Ordinance of God c. The second cause is the great peril and danger it is to resist and disobey God's Ordinances They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation as tho he had said lest ye should think it a light thing but a trifling matter to withstand and disobey the Magistrates understand ye that in so doing ye stand and fight against God and therefore ye provoke Judgment and Vengeance against your selves and be culpable and guilty of God's everlasting displeasure if ye repent not Here St. Paul hath set forth the End and success of Sedition ☞ Treason Conspiracy and Rebellion that is to say destruction both of Body and Soul and who is able to contend and fight with God On verse 5. One cause wherefore we must obey is the fear of pain and punishment which the Magistrate must minister by the commandment of God unto all such as disobey and contemn the Ordinance of God the other is conscience for although the Magistrate do not see nor know how thou dost disobey and break the Order of God or else if thou could'st by power and strength overcome the Magistrates yet thy conscience is bound to obey there be some so indurate and past grace that think themselves not bound to obey this order and Higher Power appointed and commanded of God but doubtless those shall perish with their Captains as Achitophel did with his Absalom if the Higher Power command any thing contrary to God's Word they should not be obey'd notwithstanding there should be such modesty and soberness used as should be without all violence force rebellion as Peter and John used ☞ saying God is more to be obeyed than Man and so in saying of truth they continued in the truth without moving of Sedition and suffered death for the truth c. Nor was this only this excellent Bishop's Opinion while his King was of his Religion and friend to his Person and Principles but as Truth is eternal and unalterable so he persevered in this belief when Queen Mary persecuted the Church of God and this worthy Prelate in a particular manner The Martyrs Letters Lond. 1564. 4to p. 120. for in his Letters just before his death set out by Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon his fellow Confessor he frequently inculcates this Doctrin Remember ye be the workmen of the Lord and called into his Vineyard there to labour till eventide that ye may receive your peny which is more worth than all the Kings of the Earth but he that calleth us into his vineyard hath not told us how sore or how fervently the Sun shall trouble us in our labour but hath bid us labour and commit the bitterness thereof unto him who can and will so moderate all afflictions that no man shall have more laid upon him than in Christ he shall be able to bear these days be dangerous and full of peril p. 136. but yet let us comfort our selves in calling to remembrance the days of our forefathers upon whom the Lord sent such troubles that many hundreds yea many thousands died for the testimony of Jesus Christ both men and women suffering with patience and constancy as much cruelty as Tyrants could devise and so departed out of this miserable World to the Bliss everlasting p. 139. Who would not now rather than to offend so merciful a God fly this wicked Realm as your most Christian Brother and many other have done or else with boldness of heart and patience of the Spirit bear manfully the Cross even unto the death Albeit I know p. 141 / 2 that all those which seek God's honour and the furtherance of his Gospel be accounted the Queens Enemies altho we daily pray for her Grace and never think her harm but we must be content to suffer slander and patiently to bear all such injuries Nevertheless this is out of doubt that the Queens Highness hath no authority to compel any man to believe any thing contrary to God's word neither may the Subject give her Grace that Obedience in case he do his Soul is lost for ever Our bodies ☜ goods and lives be at her Highness commandment and she shall have them as of true Subjects but the Soul of man for Religion is bound to none but unto God and his holy Word p. 148 149 Seeing therefore we live for this life among so many and great perils and dangers we must be well assured by God's word how to bear them and how patiently to take them as they be sent to us from God we must also assure our selves that there is no other remedy for Christians in the time of
acknowledges to the World his Crime and begs God's and the Queen's pardon for what he had done as appears by more than one of his Letters which are preserved to this day being set out by Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon and some of them by John Fox and by this in particular Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury to Queen Mary Most lamentably mourning Coverd Collect. fol. 1 2 c. and moaning himself unto your Highness Thomas Cranmer altho unworthy either to write or speak unto your Highness yet having no person that I know to be Mediator for me and knowing your pitiful Ears ready to hear all pitiful Complaints and seeing so many before to have felt your abundant clemency in like case and now constrain'd most lamentably and with most penitent and sorrowful heart to ask mercy and pardon for my heinous Folly and Offence in consenting and following the last Will of our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth your Grace's Brother which Will God knoweth ☜ God he knoweth I never liked nor never any thing grieved me so much as that your Grace's Brother did and if by any means it had been in me to have letted the making of that Will I would have done it and what I said therein as well to his Council as to himself divers of your Majesties Council can report but none so well as the Marquess of Northampton and the Lord Darcy which two were then present at the Communication between the King's Majesty and me I desired to talk with the King's Majesty alone but I could not be suffered and so I failed of my purpose for if I might have communed with the King alone and at good leisure my trust was that I should have altered him from that purpose but they being present my labor was in vain Then when I could not dissuade him from the said Will and both he and his Privy Council also informed me that the Judges and his Learned Council said That the Act of entailing the Crown made by his Father could not be prejudicial to him but that he being in possession of the Crown might make his Will thereof this seemed very strange to me but being the Sentence of the Judges and other his Learned Council in the Laws of this Realm as both he and his Council informed me methought it became not me being unlearned to the Law to stand against my Prince therein and so at length I was required by the King's Majesty himself to set my hand to his Will saying that he trusted that I alone would not be more repugnant to his Will than the rest of the Council were which words surely grieved my heart very sore and so I granted him to subscribe his Will and to follow the same which when I had set my hand unto I did it unfeignedly and without dissimulation for the which I submit my self most humbly unto your Majesty acknowledging mine Offence with most grievous and sorrowful Heart and beseeching your mercy and pardon which my Heart giveth me shall not be denied unto me being granted before to so many which travelled not so much to dissuade both the King and his Council as I did And whereas it is containad in two Acts of Parliament as I understand that I with the Duke of Northumberland should devise and compass the Deprivation of your Majesty from your Royal Crown surely it is untrue for the Duke never opened his mouth unto me to move me any such matter nor I him nor his Heart was not such towards me seeking long time my Destruction that he would either trust me in such a matter or think that I would be persuaded by him It was other of the Council that moved me and the King himself the Duke of Northumberland not being present Neither before neither after had I any privy communication with the Duke about that matter saving that openly at the Council Table the Duke said unto me that it became not me to say to the King as I did when I went about to dissuade him from the said Will. Now as concerning the State of Religion as it is used in this Realm of England at this present if it please your Higness to license me I would gladly write my mind unto your Majesty I will never ☞ God willing be Author of Sedition to move Subjects from the Obedience of their Heads and Rulers which is an Offence most detestable If I have uttered my mind to your Majesty being a Christian Queen and Governor of this Realm of whom I am most assuredly persuaded that your Gracious Intent is above all other things to prefer God's true Word his Honor and Glory if I have uttered I say my mind unto your Majesty then I shall think my self discharged for it lieth not in me but in your Grace only to see the Reformation of things that be amiss To private Subjects it appertaineth not to reform things but quietly to suffer that they cannot amend yet nevertheless to shew your Majesty my mind in things appertaining unto God methink it my Duty knowing that I do and considering the place which in times past I have occupied Yet will I not presume thereunto without your Grace's Pleasure first known and your License obtained whereof I most humbly prostrate to the ground do beseech your Majesty and I shall not cease daily to pray to Almighty God for the good preservation of your Majesty from all Enemies bodily and ghostly and for the encrease of all Goodness Heavenly and Earthly during my life as I do and will do whatsoever come of me From Oxford Apr. 23. And in his Letter to the Lords of the Council Ibid. Fol. 16. apud Fox tom 2. p. 1331. a little before his Martyrdom sent by Dr. Weston and by him opened and kept he expresseth himself after the same manner In most humble wise sueth unto your Right Honorable Lordships Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury beseeching the same to be a means for me unto the Queen's Highness for her mercy and pardon Some of you know by what means I was brought and trained unto the Will of our late Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth and what I spake against the same wherein I refer me to the Reports of your Honors And if still this particular Act of the Archbishop be urged as an Argument what his persuasion was as to the Rights of Monarchs it may as well be argued that Popery was then the true Religion because he once signed the Articles of it whereas his Recantation and his voluntary burning of his Right Hand were a true Discovery of his disowning the one as this his reiterated Application to the Queen for her pardon is a demonstration of his renouncing the other SECT II. And as the Archbishop refused a long time to sign this Will so the Lord Chief Justice * Heylin ubi supr p. 152. Fuller Ch. hist l. 8. p. 2 3 c. Montague refused for a long time
of the pretended Holy Discipline And if I mistake not by his directions the Account of Hacket's Coppinger's and Arthington's Treason was drawn up and Printed in the Book called Conspiracy for pretended Reformation the Design of which is expresly against the Doctrin of taking up Arms against the Lord's anointed especially on the Account of Religion SECT V. Anno 1594 Dr. Richard Eedes Printed with five other Sermons London 1604. p. 70 72 73 74. Dean of Worcester Preached before the Queen on Isai 49.23 Wherein he says That the Strength even of Heathen States was in their Religion by the which they were persuaded that their Princes were the Children of their Gods and their Laws drawn from the Oracles of some Divine Power They found by experience how hard it was for men to be brought to obey men unless they had the authority of more than men c. And what doth more teach either Obedience or Peace than the Religion of Christ Obedience is rightly called Nervus Imperii the Sinew and Strength of a Kingdom as well because it is grounded upon the Obedience of Christ who as Bernard noteth Ne perderet Obedientiam perdidit vitam did rather chuse to lose his life than to leave his Obedience As also because it requires in Christians Obedience without respect of persons to all without difference of Degrees higher Powers Rom. 13.2 Without exception against their Qualities not only to them that are good and courteous but to them also who are froward 1 Pet. 2.18 ☜ And that in all things Tribute to whom tribute c. and that not with eye-service as men-pleasers c. and that not because of wrath but for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 That if all the Laws and Policies of States and Kingdoms were gathered into one they could not be so strong to work peace and to persuade Obedience as these few but very forcible Rules of the Religion of Christ How much therefore is it to be lamented that in so great Light there should be so little Fruit That whereas the Truth of Religion is the Preserver of Government and the Mother of Obedience the name of Religion is made the Firebrand of Kingdoms and the armor of disobedience and that not only to maintain the Tyranny of that Usurping Power who takes upon him to Depose Kings but also to bring in that Anarchy of factious Subjects who presume to give Laws to their lawful Princes Wherein besides that it is true which Leo wrote unto Theodosius private causes are handled with pretence of Piety and every Man makes Religion which should be the Mistress the Handmaid of his affections it is intolerable to see how far some busie heads fetch the beginning of Kingdoms p. 7â— Vindic contr Tyran Bachâ—n de juâ—e regin and so as they please the right of Kings from the pleasure of the People how contemptuously they term the titles of honour and reverence the solecisms of the Court how seditiously they give wings to ambitious humors to plead the right of a â—aconical Ephory against Kings but for themselves and to arm that beast of many heads the multitude which ever goes as Seneca not whither it should but whither the stream bears it against that which to want of judgment is ever most heavy the present Government Whereas the right rules of Religion give no remedy to Subjects against the Highest Authority ☞ but the necessity of either suffering or obeying and therefore they that open that gap whether it be to the Tyranny of ambitious Popes or to the Anarchy of seditious Subjects howsoever they pretend the name of Religion they shall sooner prove themselves to have no Religion than that there is any defence for them in the Religion of Christ which teacheth as to be thankful to God for good Princes so to be patient of those whom in anger as the Prophet Hosea speaks Hos 13.11 he setteth over us for the punishment of our sins and against whom the first Professors of our faith had no weapons but prayers and tears p. 2. the same Author in his first Sermon before King James saith that promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South but from God. Ps 73.6 that their power is of God Rom. 3.1 and their judgments God's judgments Deut. 1.17 and that therefore they who resist them not only by a consequence resist the ordmance of God Rom. 13.2 but God in them as he told Samuel they have not rejected thee but me 1 Sam. 8.7 The Reverend Bishop Moreton begun very early to assert this Doctime in his Writings and he lived long enough to assert it by his sufferings being a great sharer in that affliction which in the great Rebellion the Doctrine of resistance brought upon both the King and the Church Anno 1596. he publish'd his Solomon or a Treatise declaring the shake of the Kingdom of Israel pr. Lond. as it was in the days of Solomon Wherein he proves after the words as it was in the days of Solomon insert these following that the Kingdom of Israel was a most true and lively picture of the State and Crown one egg being not more like another than the State to that under which we live so that all his arguments without any further comment are applicable to our Kingdom and whereas he foresaw ‖ Ep. ad Lect. that it would be objected to him that he gives the Christian Magistrate especially in great and absolute Monarchies greater authority than seems to stand with the good of the Church or the truth of God's Word he desires the Reader not to attribute it to flattery but to a constant and settled persuasion he intending in publishing the Treatise the good and peaceable State of the Kingdom and the maintaining of that powerful and majestical Authority whereunto it hath pleased God to make us subject and in the discourse he affirms †Sect. 2. p. 4 5. that Magistracy is not a mere device of Man as they who contemn and labor to overthrow all Authority speaking evil of those things which they know not have imagined but an ordinance of God. Rom. 13. there is no power but of God he therefore that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. Obj. But it cannot be shewed that it was ever establish'd by God throughout the World except only among the Jews but was invented and continued by Men excelling others in strength and ambition Answ The abuses of Magistracy tho many and grievous p. 6. cannot take away the lawful use of it and altho Magistracy hath been by the express commandment of God establish'd only in the Church yet it belongs as much to Infidels for it is instituted by God not as he is the Saviour of his Church but as he is the Creator and Preserver of all Men. p. 7. God sets up this his Ordiannce among Infidels by the light of nature remaining in the minds of Men c.
When the People set one over them Sert. 4. p. 17. reserving to themselves Authority either to displace or controul him or if need be to rise up in arms against him and to lay violent hands upon him they give unto him but improperly the name of a King. Obj. Sert. 5. p. 18. But was there no authority to restrain a King if at any time he should be impious or unjust in his Government otherwise the People might be miserably oppress'd Religion defac'd yea all things turn'd upside down and in the end the Commonwealth utterly overthrown Wisdom therefore Reason and Necessity the Glory of God and the good of Men required that there should be in Israel some Authority either in the People Priests Senate or inferior Magistrates against those Kings who did degenerate into violent and bloody Tyrants Answ This reason hath carried many headlong in heat to condemn and reject utterly these absolute Monarchies as Tyrannical and Barbarous c. but we ought not to suffer our selves to be deceived by any appearance to judge that to be unlawful and profane ☞ which God by establishing it in his Church p. 19. hath showed to be holy and lawful the authority of a King over his People was no less than is the authority of a Father in his Family in respect of his Children who if he do injuriously intreat any of them or live any way disorderly it is the duty of his Children if not with silence to suffer it yet with great modesty to admonish him of it but if they should joyn together and offer any violence unto him especially if they should throw him out of his house all Men would count them rebellious and ungracious Children ☞ but if they should take his life from him they were to be esteemed notoriously wicked yea rather as Monsters p. 20. worthy to be abhorr'd of all Men no Subject of what place soever no not the whole People jointly could lawfully use any violence against the King's Person or proceedings and that the King might tho not lawfully in respect of the law of God of Men or of Nature yet safely and freely in respect of his Subjects p. 21. do whatsoever pleased him according as Jacob foretels Gen. 49.9 the dealing of God himself doth prove the same who when he purposed to preserve David against the fury of Saul ☞ would never suffer him to oppose Ceila or any other of Saul's Cities against him but made him fly first into the mountains and deserts and afterward out of the land to the Philistines yea David altho he were appointed by the express Word of God to succeed Saul in the Kingdom yet he was so far from laying violent hands upon him that his heart smote him 1 Sam. 24.6 i. e. his conscience did accuse him that he had behaved himself disloyally against the King in that he had offered violence to the King's Garment because that was as a threatning of death unto him and a great disgrace yea further we do not read that God did ever by any of his Prophets stir up his People to maintain his true worship by violence against the Kings or ever reprove them because they had suffer'd them to set up Idolatry ☞ which is an evident proof of this point for if it had been lawful to resist in any case then surely in the maintenance of the true worship of God p. 22. and of his Glory no Man no company of Men could for any offence committed by the King either against God or Man the first or second Table call him to account summon him to appear in judgment or use any manner of violence either in word or deed against him To the Kings of Israel neither the Kingdom was given Sect. 6. p. 23. Sect. 7. p. 28. nor the conditions imposed by Man but by God and therefore they could not forfeit their Kingdom to Man but only to God but what was the behavior of Loyal Subjects in such cases the weapons which God gave unto his People wherewith to defend themselves against the Tyranny of their lawful Kings were these 1. wisdom carefully to avoid all occasions of the King's anger and injury 2. to avoid and decline from the violence and injury it self by flying 3. the third remedy where the second is wanting is patience to suffer with a quiet mind the violence or injustice of the King which could not be by wisdom either prevented or avoided 4. the last remedy is to appeal from the unjust Sentence of the King not to any Man or to any Court here on Earth but to the King of Kings even to God himself whose ears are always open to hear those who are opprest this remedy is the last and therefore not to be used but in cases of greatest extremity whenas the violence is too too grievous shameful and to Man's infirmity altogether intolerable p. 29. this means did Samuel commend unto the People whereby they should ease themselves of those intolerable burthens of tributes which their King would lay upon them 1 Sam. 8.18 saying then you being thus opprest by your King shall not rebel against him but shall cry unto the Lord. Where it is added that God will not hear them when they cry this is meant that could not afterwards put down their Kings neither be freed from their Tyranny The same Reverend Prelate in his Encounter against Parsons p. 187. says diversity of Religion changeth not the natural right of Inheritance this ancient Doctrine the Protestants still follow they still acknowledged Henry the fourth of France when he revolted from them but the Romanists would not admit him while he profess'd himself a Protestant And in his Causa Regia his answer to Card. Bell. Lond. An. 1620. c. 1. §. 21. p. 26 book de Officio Principis Christiani written by him when he was Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield he shews how vain that compact whether tacit or exprest is whereby Kings as Bell. says stand bound to the Pope so that by virtue thereof whenever they turn Hereticks or would make their Subjects such he may deprive them of their Kingdoms and whereas the Cardinal cited that of our Holy Saviour whosoever doth not hate father and mother c. is not worthy of me he answers ☜ that only ' signifies that we ought not to obey our Parents in those things which they command contrary to the true Faith but by no means what Bell. compact implies to rob our Parents of their Possessions c. 2. §. 9. p. 73 74. that Christ exercised his Priestly Office not actively in Deposing Princes but passively by giving his life as became a good Shepherd for his Sheep and when the Apostle armed St. Timothy he gave him not a temporal Sword to hurt any Man but a Spiritual to be exercised in suffering for so he commands him 2 Tim. 4.5 Watch thou in all things endure afflictions †E
Greg. Tolesano de rep c. 7. §. 1â— And for 300 years after Christ though the Christians suffered innumerable and most cruel torments 20000 being slain at one time yet they never plotted against the Laws the Magistrate the Emperer or his â—â—enrity in the least degree but by this argument they personaded Men to turn to Christianity as to the best Religion because it tâ—â—k Men off from ambition and a desire of change and taught Men to obey Magistrates and accordingly as Nicephorus relates the Christian that but pulled down the Edict of Dioclesian at Nicomedia was lookt upon by his fellow Christians to be justly executed for the Fact it therefore behoves Princes to consider c. 2. Sect. 16. p 83. in what a slippery place their Sacred Majesty stands if this Principle of Deposing Princes unheard of in the Church of Christ for 1000 years be true and this he confirms by the authority of the Fathers c. 6. Sect. 14. p 255. especially St. Ambrose who is famous for this saying against the Goths My tears are my weapons such are the defence of a Bishop ☞ any otherwise I dare not resist Many other passages might be transcribed were not what is already cited more than enough since the Author's practice was so solemn and unquestionable a confirmation of his Opinion and his other Books especially his discovery of Romish Rebellious Positions with his full satisfaction against Parsons c. a proof that he never lived to repent of so truly Primitive and Apostolical Doctrine SECT VI. Mr. Greenham in his short form of Catechising Lond. 1599. 4 to p. 412 413.414 Qu. What do you understand by Father and Mother in the fifth Commandment Answ Not only my natural Parents but those whom God hath set over me for my good as Magistrates c. Qu. What be the duties of Servants toward their Masters Answ Servants ought in fear and trembling to submit themselves to the instructions commandments and correction of their Masters Qu. What if Parents or Masters do not their duty to their Children and Servants Answ Yet they must obey them for Conscience sake to God's Ordinance Qu. What if they command unjust things Answ Then they must obey God rather than Men and submit themselves to their corrections Archbishop Abbot An. 1600. publish'd his Lectures on Jonas Lon. 1600. lect 20. p. 432. and I shall only cite one Quotation out of him Athanaric King of the Goths seeing the triumph of the Emperor Justinian at Constantinople brake forth into these words The Emperor without doubt is a God upon Earth and whosoever shall stir his hand against him shall be guilty of his own blood In the same year on March 1st being the first Sunday in Lent Dr. William Barlow afterwards Bishop of Rochester Prâ—at Lon. 1601. and then of Lincoln Preach'd at Paul's Cross a little time after the Execution of the Earl of Essex on Matth. 22.21 and therein he well instructs us it pleaseth God to be called a King in Heaven Ps 20. and the King is called a God on Earth Ps 82. Therefore he which denieth his duty to the visible God his Prince and Sovereign cannot perform his duty to the God Invisible certainly a mind inclined to Rebellion was never well possest of Religion they therefore who with Sheba 2 Sam. 20.1 will make a secession from their Prince or with Jeroboam and the ten tribes will turn from him because he hath turn'd his Father's scourges into Scorpions 1 Reg. 12. They who think that they may either kill their Liege or sall from him or depose and thrust them out of their Seat or expose them to danger or fear are guilty not only of Rebellion but of Irreligion the Jesuit Parsons al. Doleman dedicates his Book to the Earl of Essex a Principal if not the only poyson of the Earl's heart wherein he would prove that it is lawful for the Subject to rise against his Sovereign c. my exhortation to you is beloved that you will believe Jesus rather than a Jesuit who willeth his Disciples and all Christians to possess their Souls in patience Luc. 10. albeit they be persecuted even to death by their Princes and St. Paul who adjudgeth him to damnation who resisteth the ordinance of God. Rom. 13. If you desire some stories of Scripture Saul an Apostate rejected by God not dejected by Samuel Jeroboam plagued not dispossess'd Ahab reproved by Elias not deprived Nebuchadonosor punished from Heaven not deposed by his Subjects the Law of God is streight in this case it bridles the mouth that it speak not evil of the King. Exod. 21. It binds the heart not to imagine evil against him Eccl. 10. the sum of this part is that of the Prophet Daniel 2.21 that the Inthroning and Deposing of Princes is God's only Prerogative Royal and the conclusion shall be an argument that if obedience be due unto Caesar a Tyrant and a Foreigner much more are we to perform it to our Prince c. SECT VII Thus also says Francis Marbury in his Sermon on Eccl. 10.20 〈◊〉 1602. at the Spittle on Tuesday in Easter Week Printed by authority the Principal question of this Chapter is that Subjects that are Godly wise ought to repress in themselves all insurrection of mind against the supposed scandals of civil administrations and against the doings of Princes and that a disloyal thought ought not to be lent thereunto it being insinuated by an evil subject that it is impossible to stand contented in a Government that perverts and inverts the use of preferments and abasements aiming perhaps at something done by Solomon in his uxoriousness at the instigation of his Idolatrous Wives and that the state of the Country is depraved by the riotousness and dissoluteness of the Governors but God gives us no dispensation for any cause to disreverence the Prince ☞ except that we be able to shew that we do it at God's Commandment the Men of God when they have by mistaking exceeded towards a Ruler though a wicked one have used diligence to excuse themselves and to avoid the scandal so St. Paul Act. 23 5. and David was cut in his heart because he had cut off the lap that was in Saul 's Garment ☞ so that if to refuse God be ungodliness then it must needs be so to admit a contemptuous thought of a Prince in whom God offereth himself unto us and it is sure that they are ungodly Men 1 Sam. 10.27 which offend in this kind that the Holy Ghost calleth them Sons of Belial i. e. unyoked Persons which refuse to be under the yoke of due obedience as for the allegation made by Hereticks of Conscience to God when no disobedience to God is required it is in great Hypocrisie that God is alledged for are they not put together in the Scripture fear God and the King and depart from the seditious or as the Text hath it from the various from those that
King's Person either in hindering him for burning of Incense ☞ or in thrusting him out of the Temple or in compelling him to dwell apart in a house as he did though he was a leper if he had not of himself yielded to the observation of the law in that behalf or that he was deprived of his Kingdom either by the said streke of God or by his dwelling in a house apart or that any thing which the Priests then did might have been a lawful warrant to any Priest afterward in the Old Testament either to have deposed by sentence any of their Kings from their Kingdoms for the like offences or to have used arms or repressed such their unlawful attempts by forcible ways though they had imagined the same might have tended to the preservation of Religion or that either before that time or afterward ☜ any Priest did resist by force of Arms or depose any of the Kings either of Israel or of Judah from their Kingdoms tho the Kings of Israel all of them and fourteen of the Kings of Judah were open and plain Idolaters he doth greatly err Can. 23. l. 1. And because against this the Case of Athaliah might be objected they say further if any Man shall affirm that Jehoiada and his Wife did amiss in preserving the life of their King Joash or that Athaliah was not a Tyrannical Usurper the right Heir of that Kingdom being alive or that it was neither lawful for Jehoiada and the rest of the Princes Levites and People to have yielded their subjection unto their lawful King nor having so done and their King being in possession of his Crown to have joyn'd together for the overthrowing of Athaliah the Usurper or that Jehoiada the High Priest was not bound as he was a Priest both to inform the Princes and People of the Lords promise ☜ that Joash should Reign over them or that this fact either of the Princes Priests or People was to be held for a lawful warrant for any afterward either Princes Priest or People to have deposed any of the Kings of Judah who by right of Succession came to their Crowns or to have killed them for any respect whatsoever and to have set another in their places according to their own choice or that this example of Jehoiada or any thing else in the Old Testament did give them to the High Priest any Authority to dispute determine or judge whether the Children of the Kings of Judah should either be kept from the Crown because their Fathers were Idolaters or being in possession of it should be deposed from it in this respect or any other respect whatsoever he â—oth greatly err Can. 25. If any Man shall affirm that it is lawful for any Captain or Subject high or low whosoever to bear Arms against their Sovereign cap. 28. or to lay violent hands upon his Sacred Person he doth greatly err and this Doctrine is earnestly inculcated in many other places The Israelites in Aegypt after Joseph's death being opprest very tyrannically many ways did never rebel against any of those Kings but submitted themselves to their authority tho their burthens were very intolerable both in respect of the impossible works imposed on them and because also they might not offer sacrifices unto the Lord a special part of God's Worship without apparent danger of stoning to death besides it may not be omitted when God himself sent Moses to deliver them from that servitude he would not suffer him to carry them thence till Pharaoh their King gave them licence to depart When Alexander the Great l. 1. cap. 30. having overthrown Darius sent to Jaddus the High Priest and Prince of the Jews to assist him in his Wars and become tributary to the Macedonians as he had been to the Persians Jos Ant. l. 11. c 8. he return'd for his answer that he might not yield thereunto ☞ because he had taken an Oath for his true Allegiance unto Darius which he might not lawfully violate while Darius lived being by flight escaped when his Army was defeated Can. 30. If any Man shall affirm that Jaddus the High Priest did amiss in binding his obedience to King Darius by an Oath or that he had not sinned if he had refused being thereunto required so to have sworn or having so sworn he might lawfully have born Arms against Darius or have sollicited others whether aliens or Jews thereunto he doth greatly err And agreeable hereunto they tell us was the belief and practice of our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles under the Gospel If therefore any Man shall affirm Can. 2. l. 2. that our Saviour did exempt himself from the obedience due to the civil Magistrate or did any way or at any time encourage the Jews or any other directly ☞ or indirectly to rebel for any cause whatsoever against the Roman Emperor or any of his subordinate Magistrates or that he did not very willingly both himself pay tribute to Caesar and also advise the Jews so to do or that when he willed the Jews to pay Tribute to Caesar including therein their duty of obedience unto him he did not therein deal plainly or sincerely but meant secretly that they should be bound no longer to be obedient unto him but until by force they should be able to resist him or that he did not utterly and truly condemn all devises conferences and resolutions whatsoever either in his own Apostles or in any other Persons for the using of force against civil Authority or that by Christ's Word all Subjects of what sort soever without exception ought not by the law of God to perish with the Sword that take and use the Sword for any cause against Kings and Sovereign Princes under whom they were born or under whose Jurisdiction they do inhabit or that Christ did not well and as the fifth Commandment did require in submitting himself as he did to Authority altho he was first sent for with Swords and Staves as if he had been a Thief and then afterward carried to Pilate and by him albeit he found no evil in him condemn'd to death or that by any Doctrine or Example which Christ ever taught or hath left upon good record ☜ it can be proved lawful to any Subjects for any cause of what nature soever to decline either the Authority and Jurisdiction of their Sovereign Princes or of any their lawful Deputies and inferior Magistrates ruling under them he doth greatly err If any Man shall affirm Can. 6. l. 2. that the Subjects of all the Temporal Princes in the World were not as much bound in St. Paul's time to be subject unto them as the Romans were to be subject to the Empire not only for fear but even for conscience sake or that St. Paul's commandment by virtue of his Apostleship and assistance of the Holy Ghost of obedience to Princes then Ethnicks is not of as great force to bind
the hearts of Princes like Rivers of Waters You know how before the coming of Christ the Jewish Church by the command of Ahasuerus was to be destroy'd Esth 4. both young and old c. here the whole Church by the barbarous designment of Ahasuerus seem'd to be in the very Jaws of death yet they take no arms they consult not how to poyson Ahasuerus or Haman they animate no desperate Person suddenly to stab them but there was only great sorrow among them and fasting and weeping c. This Book gave so much disgust to a party of Men in this Kingdom that they could not be quiet till something was Printed under the name of an answer to it tho every Pamphlet that is so called does not deserve that name and to make it pass the more plausibly it assumes the same title Deus Rex and is said to have been Printed at Colen An. Dom. 1618. the Author of which tho unquestionably a Papist as appears by many passages in the Book affirms p. 13. that the Scots had undoubtedly the true spirit of the Gospel who profess'd and for it he quotes Knox 's History of the Scotch Church that they would be Subjects to no one unless they could enjoy their desired Reformation p. 19. and that the former Dialogue falsly asserts that Kings have their Power only from God and are accountable only to him and that the duty of Subjects cannot be dissolv'd if the King turns Tyrant Infidel Heretick or Apostate and that Kings are not to be deposed or resisted unless by prayers and tears tho they are fall'n into so much impiety and madness as to seek the ruin of the Church and the destruction of Religion Which Assertions the Author condemns but with no reason and a great deal of injustice while he owns and improves the Romish Doctrins of resisting and deposing Princes in many places so easily are Men inclined to be despisers of Dignities and blasphemers of Dominions Gabriel Powel says De Adiaplyris Lond. 1606. c 8. §. 34 p. 69 that when St. Paul bids us be obedient for conscience sake that he means we must no way offend the Magistrate by rebelling against him but that we must keep a good Conscience in his sight who hath set the Magistrate over us ‖ §. 93. p. 71. for his Power is from God and to the just praise of our Reformation he adds * c. 9 Sect. 35. p. 79 that no Church in Europe reform'd her self more orderly than the Church of England in which nothing was done tumultuarily by force and arms or by fraud but all alterations were made by the supreme Power of the Nation agreeable to the Word of God and the Example of the Primitive Church Oliver Oâ—mered in his picture of a Papist It is not lawful for Subjects to attempt the murthering of their Sovereign for Religion sake or for any pâ—etence whatsoever Go with cresset and torchlight throughout the whole Book of God and throughout the spacious volumes of the Ancient Fathers and tell me whether any Priest Levite Evangelist Apostle Ancient Father ever hath taught counsell'd and much less practised the like I say not against Lawful Magistrates ☜ but tyrannous Rulers and such as were reprobated of God p. 176. the Prophet Isaiah complain'd of the Exactions and Oppressions of the Kings of Israel shew'd them their faults and admonish'd them of God's vengeance but he did not animate encourage and incite the People to avenge themselves of their Princes and to lift up Arms against them the Prophets Amos Micah and Zephaniah give sufficient testimony that the Rulers in their times were very wicked Men and such as did grind the faces of the Subjects and yet all this notwithstanding they did not advise the Subjects to mutiny or rebel against their Princes When Rome was pure and primitive you shall find p. 179. the arms of the Church were tears and prayers but now they are degenerate from their former purity and openly threaten the lives of Kings the ancient Romans shall in judgment rise against you and condemn you for they conspired not the death of Pagans Infidels and Tyrants that made havock of the Church of God c. SECT VI. Among these Divines I will place one Civilian the famous Albericus Gentilis who tho Born in Italy yet lived long in England the King's Professor of the Laws in the most Famous University of Oxon of which he was one of the greatest Ornaments I shall not mention what he says on this subject in his Books de Jure belli since he hath undertaken it professedly in his three Royal Disputations London 1605. 4 to as he calls them in the first of which treating of the absolute power of a King wherein his Notions are very agreeable to the Sentiments of his Master King James in his true law of free Monarchies to which he refers he affirms that he is absolutely supreme p. 9 10 17. who acknowledges nothing above him but God to whom only and not to any other he is to render an account he confesses there were some Magistrates improperly called Kings such as the Kings of Sparta and of Egypt to which last there were laws set how far they should walk and how often bath themselves who might be accus'd when they were dead and being convicted be denied decent Burial but those do not deserve to be called Kings whose Subjects pay them no more obedience than they please A Prince is a God upon Earth his Power is greater than either that of a Father of old over his Children or that of a Master over his Servants All Princes are feudataries to God p 17. to whom they ought to render an account of their Government who is their only Judge p. 34. 't is a Maxim in the Civil Law Princeps legibus solutus est a Prince is free from laws the Greek Interpreters understand it of his freedom from Penal Laws for a Prince hath no Judges who can compel him others that he is exempt from the coaction not from the direction of the law but all agree against any force to be used against him This and much more to this purpose the Reader will meet with in that first disputation while the third treats largely how unjust any violence is p 39. p. 100. which Subjects use against their King by King he says he means such a Prince as hath no Superior no Judge or Governor over him he means also a lawful Prince not a Tyrant but such a lawful Prince who rules Tyrannically i.e. seeks the destruction of the Commonwealth It is a fundamental and unquestionable Law that Men ought to honour their Prince p. 101 102. and not to speak evil of him and that what injuries ought not to be done to a Parent parad 3. ought much less to be done to a Prince but no Man says Tully can take away the life of his Father without
Hereticks his anointing may be wiped off or scraped off then you may write a Book de justa abdicatione make a holy League c. but it is not Religion nor Virtue nor any spiritual Grace this Royal Anointing Christus Domini is said not only of Josias a King truly Religious but of Cyrus a mere Heathen not only of David a good King but of Saul a Tyrant even when he was at the worst Unxit in Regem Royal Unction gives no Grace but a just Title only it includes nothing but a just Title it excludes nothing but usurpation God's claim never forfeits his Character never to be wiped out or scraped out nor Kings lose their Rights no more than Patriarchs did their Fatherhood P. 809. Never was any truly partaker of the inward anointing of a Christian Man but he was ever fast and firm to the Royal Anointing The same excellent Prelate in his Answer to Tortus or Cardinal Bellarmin's Book against King James's Apology for the Oath of Allegiance says That Subjects are bound to obey their Prince by all Law London 1609. p. 16. 36. Natural Moral Civil Municipal That Christ never interdicted any Subjects Obedience his Father sent him not into the World on this Errand nor did he send any of his Followers P. 43. Let the King be a Heathen he ceases not to be a King let him be a Julian an Apostate which is worse than a Heathen yet he is a King still ☜ and against even such it is not lawful to take Arms nay it is a sin not to take Arms in their defence when they command us P. 110. Both Papists and Puritans conspire the hurt of Kings as Herod and Pilate agreed to murther Christ both being equally injurious to Kings in striving to rob them of their Authority Kings in their Kingdoms are God's Vicars P. 158 161. And the ancient Christians cheerfully obeyed them A forced Obedience rather becomes the Devil than a Christian for they are subject against their wills but to the praise of Christianity the Christians in the Infancy of the Church were so sincerely obedient that their Enemies could not bespatter them and so cheerfully patient that their Enemies were forced to admire them And it is blasphemy against Christ to think or say P. 321. that he would have any one that is his Vicar to hinder Subjects from being true to their Prince or Kings from being safe P. 384 385. Kings derive their Authority from God the people confer nothing upon them they are God's anointed not the people's the Form of Government may be from men but the Authority is always from Heaven Anno 1610 The same Learned Prelate published his Answer to Cardinal Bellarmin's Apology and therein avers †C. 2. p. 58. That every Subject is bound by his Allegiance not to suffer any one who shall endeavour either to depose his Prince or to dispose of his Kingdom he is bound to oppose himself against any Invader neither to absolve himself from his Allegiance nor to suffer himself to be absolved by any other not to take Arms against his Sovereign but to defend him from all violence in his Crown and Person and to discover all Conspiracies P. 132. To render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's The Apostles did so to Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Domitian The Martyrs did so to Commodus Severus Decius Dioclesian The Fathers did so to Constantius Valens and Anastasius Nay the Popes themselves did so to the Arians to Theodoric and the Goths in their times the contrary Doctrin was reckoned to be Heresie These were the Sentiments of that great man than whom while he lived the King had not a more Loyal Servant nor the Church a more Learned Prelate as the Editors ‖ Ep. Ded. Râ—gi of his Opuscula with Justice aver When Becanus a busie Jesuit had undertaken to answer this admirable Prelate's Books against Bellarmin Rich. Thompson an 1611. wrote his Vindication P. 20. and smartly censures his Adversary for saying That in England we swear Allegiance to our Kings upon these two conditions 1. As long as we stay in England 2. As long as he maintains the true Religion Both which Propositions as he says are most false and then he proceeds to confirm his Hypothesis proving in pursuance of his Design P. 27. That to the Oath of a Papist no regard ought to be had for who can believe ☞ whether he swears truly and from his Heart who defends the Lawfulness of a mixt Proposition of which one part is spoken P. 44. the other reserved The Text Touch not mine anointed only concerns Kings and in the whole Bible none are called the Lord's anointed but Kings And Rabbi Levi Ben Gershon the Jew hath commented more honestly and more like a Christian on 1 Sam. 12.24 than the Fathers of the Society of the Jesuits P. 78 79 83. All Princes even Pagans have a supreme Power over all their Subjects and in all Causes and Proscribere non posse proscribi propria sunt Regum timendorum in proprios greges ad ipsos coelitùs delapsâ autoritate ac peculiari quâdam ratione spectant i. e. To punish others and not to be punishable themselves is the peculiar Right of Kings derived unto them from above Nor was Becanus the only Antagonist that Bishop Andrews met with in this Cause Eudaemon Johannes a Cretan and a Jesuit and he needs no other Character undertakes the Defence of Garnet and the Censure of Allegiance him Dr. Samuel Collins the publick Professor of Divinity at Cambridge Cantab. 1612. undertakes wherein he averrs * Par. 2. p. 52. That the Jesuit had belyed King James when he called him a Follower of Knox to whose Opinions he was always most averse detesting both him and his Followers whom he upon all occasions rather punished than countenanced †Par. 3. c. 72. p. 252. Shew me that there is any such power I do not mean only in private persons but in the Pope or in any other mortal to depose ☞ or to murder a King. If a King do not his Duty he is to be left to the Divine Tribunal Against thee only have I sinned says David for he was a King says S. Hierom and had no one whom he might fear Understand it of coercive power not only not to punish but also not to upbraid him for who shall say to a King why dost thou so Eccl. 8.4 And who can resist him Prov. 30. P. 2.3 But you have found out this pretty Distinction that as long as a King remains a King let him be never so tyrannical his Subjects dare not oppose him but when the Pope deposes him then it is lawful boldly to oppose him And I would fain know where the odds is if the Pope or the people depose him so that if the Commons have power and the Pope consent and no danger of scandal
infant Age of the Church whom Tortures made happy Infamy glorious the Contempt of Gold rich and the Crown not of a Kingdom but Martyrdom made august And as Truth is the same in all Climates so was this learned Man in whatsoever place Providence fixt for when he came into England he had the same Notions as fully appears by his Epipistle to Fronto Ducaeus written Ann. 1611. wherein discoursing of S. Gregory Nazianzen's Observation of old that Mens preposterous Zeal had destroy'd their Charity he adds But Good God! Pag. 82 Lond. 1611. Had the Father lived in our Age what Complaints would he have made To see so many Men acted by a preposterous Zeal under the pretext of Religion and Piety most wickedly and irreligiously not only break the Peace of the Church about Trifles but undertake Rebellions Treasons most cruel Massacres of innocent People overthrowing of lawful Governments and the Murther of Princes this is your privilege at this time of day as he addresses himself to the Roman Catholicks that not only the grave Citizens and Senators of a Nation assembled in a general Convention tho what they should do of this kind is unlawful but even the Mobile assume to themselves a Power of Abdicating Kings forfeiting their Kingdoms and giving them to whom they please and of abolishing all Laws under the pretext of Piety which Villany no Religion tho never so profane and impious except yours meaning the Popish ever allows P. 100 c. or hath ever formerly allowed Garnet 's chief Crime was that he had either forgotten or neglected S. Paul 's Advice consenting to the doing of evil that good might come thereof this he ought not to have done had he demonstrated himself a true follower of Jesus Christ for what Precept or Example bad he of our holy Saviour for his so doing Who was a Lamb without blemish and reprov'd the preposterous Zeal of James and John the Apostles with You know not what spirit you are of i. e. You think your Zeal is commendable which hates the Samaritans and would destroy them but I do not require such a cruel sanguinary and destructive Zeal from my Followers what I require is Charity that is Patient Edifying and which covers a multitude of Sins this I approve of and this I would have practised by those to whom I am to leave my Peace This he would not have done had he remembred P. 104 105. how severely our holy Saviour chastised Peter when he rashly cut off Malchus 's Ear. But Zealots are very seldom removed from their purposes by any consideration of Laws either divine or humane whatever School teaches this Doctrine is not Christian it is the School of Antinhrist and of Satan for the Devil was a Murderer from the beginning ☞ a true Abeddon and Apollyon but the Doctrine of our holy Saviour Jesus Christ is perfectly contrary to this for he prescribed no other remedy to his Disciples against all manner of Injuries but Flight Patience and Prayers that rejoycing in hope being patient in Tribulation and praying continually as the Apostle advises they might triumph over all their Adversaries These were the only Arms that the Apostles used wherever they laid the foundations of the Gospel these were the only Weapons which the Fathers of the ancient Church only knew no man took Arms or raised Rebellion against his Prince these were the fruits of the Hildebrandine Doctrine which flyes at the Crowns of Emperors Kings and Princes c. SECT IX Against this modest and learned Epistle of Isaac Casaubon did Eudaemon Johannes write which Dr. Prideaux * Pr. at Oxford 1614. c. 2. p. 76. afterward the King's Professor of Divinity and Bishop of Worcester answered in which he compares the Jesuits and Buchanan and Knox together branding them justly with the name of Traytors as King James had done before him and avers P. 107. that the Popish Writers bred in the School of Hildebrand call a lawful King a Tyrant if excommunicated by the Pope whereas a Tyrant according to the Doctrine of the Sorbon and of the Men of ancient sincerity and simplicity is opposed to a lawful Prince and signifies one who hath invaded an Empire that is not his own by Force and evil Arts and then adds If an Apostate should reign in France P. 109. or England who exceeded Julian or the Grand Signior it is not the duty of his Subjects to dethrone him For who can lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed and be innocent ☜ Did the Israelites attempt any thing against Nebuchadnezzar or the Christians against Julian and the Heathen Emperors Did they use any other Weapons besides their Prayers and their Tears Let us use these Arms and if the King do amiss let us expect when God will punish him let not his Subjects tumultuously oppose him And whereas Mariana had affirmed P. 123. that when Princes openly invade the Rights of their Subjects and there is no other way left to maintain the publick Safety then it is lawful to take Arms and murder Kings he replies here is no mention made of the Patience of the Subjects the just Judgments of God the Obligation of Oaths the sacred Authority of Princes conferr'd on them immediately by God the Duty of Subjection not only when we live easie under the Government for our Profit but when we suffer under it for Conscience sake by the Maxims of the Jesuits P. 130 131. the People are made the King's Judges to enquire into his Faults and to punish him as they think fit when he does amiss What difference is there if this be true between the Rights of Princes and their Subjects A Subject breaks the Laws and he is punish'd by the King the King violates his Promises and his Subjects tell him We will not have this Man longer to rule over us Admirable security of the Persons and Crowns of Princes We obey our Princes for Conscience sake P. 60. we believe them to be immediately constituted by God if they rule well they are God's greatest Blessing if they degenerate into Apostasie or Tyranny they are God's Scourges to punish the Sins of a People as * Rom. 13. and in 1 Pet. 2. Calvin says truly If a King abuse his Power he shall render an account to God in time but for the present he doth not lose his Authority We urge not Compact but we pour out our Prayers our Bishops do advise not threaten †Id. Serm. on Gowry's Conspir p. 4 6 7. The same learned Bishop in his Sermon on the 5th of August at S. Maries before the University preaches the same Doctrine When occasion is offer'd howsoever they otherwise strive to appear good Subjects Traytors will be ever ready to vent their Treasons Hypocritical Traytors watch their times and are ready to vent their Villany upon the least advantage In the 2 Kings 19.37 where we read that Adrammelech and Sharezer slew their
Puritan against Scripture Fathers Councils and other Orthodoxal Writers for the Coercion deposition and killing of Kings and the Title is a sufficient declaration what the Author's judgment was the Book it self being in many places both as to Argument and Style very agreeable to the Treatise called Deus Rex set forth by the King's Order he proves in the First Chapter that Kings are not punishable by man but reserv'd to the Judgment of God by the Testimony of the Holy Scriptures and in the subsequent Chapters he proves the same by the Testimony of the Fathers and other ancient Writers and he briefly gives his Opinion * P. 24. Chap. 4. but very fully Be the King for his Religion impious for his Government unjust for his Life licentious the Subject must endure him the Bishop must reprove him the Counsellor must advise him all must pray for him and no mortal man hath Authority to disturb or displace him The same Author Ann. 1622. printed at Cambridg his Anti-Paraeus in confutation of †Ambergae 1612. David Paraeus's Book De Jure Regum Brincipum contra Bellarminum Becanum c. who disallowing the Pope's Claim invested the Power over Princes in the People In the Preface of this Book the Dr. shews the consonancy and agreeableness of the Popish and Disciplinarian Principles and in the Book refutes from the dictates of nature Thes 1. p. 3 c. the laws of Nations Civil and Canon Scriptures Fathers and most eminent Reformed Divines that the Power and Jurisdiction of Kings is not founded in compact as if the Majesty of Princes were derived from the People and limited by them but that P. 16 17. as God is the Supreme Lord of all who judges all his Creatures and is judged of none so Kings and Princes who judge and punish others can be judg'd and punish'd by no one save God alone to whose only power they are subject this David understanding though guilty of Adultery and Murder implores the divine mercy against thee only have I sinned for I acknowledg no other Superior on Earth but thee who can call me to account give sentence against me or punish me for my sin the reason is the King is the head of the body politick but the members ought not to judge the head because they are subject nor to cut it off for then they cease to be members and this the Heathen Poet knew and averred that Kings have a power over their several Subjects but God only hath an Empire and Authority over Kings Nor will the publick safety and tranquillity be maintain'd without such an unaccountable power in Kings for the Monarch who is opposed by his rebellious Subjects although they are much too strong for him will call to his assistance all his neighbouring Kings and Confederates will list Foreign Forces to vindicate himself and the miseries of such a War will be a poor comfort to such an infatuated Nation P. 18. but suppose there were such a power in the People to call their Kings to account which we ought not to grant ☞ Nero perish'd but the case of Rome was not better'd by it for in the next year after his death it felt more calamities and was imbrued in more blood than in the whole nine years of Nero 's Tyranny Rome when she cast off her Kings did not abrogate p. 19. but change the Tyranny and Athens drove out one Tyrant and brought in thirty ☞ I do confidently assert that all Tyranny whether it uses violence against God or Man ought to be suffer'd ought not to be abrogated till he puts an end to it who alone girds and ungirds the loins of Kings p. 20. Solomon was guilty of Polygamy and Idolatry but lost not his Crown and Dignity Ahab slew Naboth Tyrannically Banished and put to death the Prophets persecuted the true Religion and established the Worship of Baal by his Authority but neither the inferior Magistrate nor the People presumed to resist his Tyranny it is true Jehu did so but it was not by any power that the Laws gave him but by an extraordinary Commission from Heaven and that which could not then be done without an Oracle from Heaven cannot now be done without the contempt of God's Majesty the contumely of Kingly Power and the ruin of the Commonwealth Christ who lived under the Empire of Tiberius the Authority of Herod and Government of Pilate p. 22. the Apostles who flourish'd under Caligula Claudius Nero and Domitian the Primitive Christians who lived under Persecutors for three hundred years Liberius Hosius Athanasius Nazianzen and many other Fathers who for a thousand years after the Birth of Christ watered the Church with their holy Lives and sound Doctrine were all ignorant of this Mystery that Princes may be resisted by their Subjects if they are blessed who suffer persecution for righteousness sake p. 25. then they undoubtedly shall not be blessed who refuse to suffer persecution for righteousness sake for in that they will not suffer but rise against their Persecutors they are convinc'd of sin and acquire to themselves damnation But are not Princes under the power of the Law Yes P. 41. under the directive not under the compulsive power of the Law. P. 43. but have not Princes given their Subjects many and must they be suffered to invade them it is very hard that Princes own voluntary concessions should be made use of to their detriment to encourage their Subjects to Rebellion and Parricide but whatever Princes do as the Laws are derived from them and they are the interpreters of them so though they voluntarily submit to their direction they cannot be compell'd so to do the concessions of a Prince to his Subjects P. 55. do not give them a right to call him to account Tyrants who are in possession of lawful power over us we are commanded to obey forbidden to resist ☜ for in the Holy Scripture we find no distinction between a good Prince and an evil Tyrant as to the honour reverence and obedience that is due to them it is not lawful therefore to draw the Sword against them because they that resist resist God and shall receive to themselves damnation but no law of God or Man hath set over us private Tyrants Usurpers or Domestick Thieves we are under no obligations to them we owe them no obedience nor are we any way either out of reverence to their power or necessity of submission but that we may repel force by force P. 65. one Apostle forbids all resistance another commands obedience to Superiors neither of them make any distinction between good and bad and they speak to all Inferiors indifferently to Lay and Clergy to Men of all Orders Degrees and Dignities that Man therefore distinguishes ill where the Law of God admits of no distinction in such a case God allows us flight P. 80. and patience and prayers and tears
Christ provided for his own safety by flight the Martyrs by patience offered their Souls to God and the prayers of the Church have always prevailed over its Tyrannical Persecutors SECT XII Anno 1613. Dr. John Downham's sum of Sacred Divinity was publish'd in * Commen on the 5th Command P. 177. which starting the usual objection what must be done if Princes command things unlawful such as with a good conscience we cannot yield unto he answers in such cases we are patiently to abide the punishment in which doing we no way violate the obedience due to them as the Apostle directs 1 Pet. 2.19 20. Anno 1614. Printed at Oxford 1614. P. 86. Lancelot Dawes sometime Fellow of Queens College Preach'd two Sermons at the Assizes held at Carlile the second of which had for its subject Psalm 82.6 7. I have said ye are Gods c. and in it we are informed that Princes have their Authority only from God for ‖ Ja. 1.17 if every good and perfect Gift be from above even from the Father of Lights much more this excellent and supereminent gift of governing God's People must proceed from the fountain the reason of all the sins that were committed in Israel is often in the Book of Judges ascribed unto this Judg. 17.6 18. c. P. 99. that they wanted a Magistrate there was at that time no King in Israel by me Kings reign c. it is not for a Magistrate to debase himself neither is it for others of what reputation soever to equalize themselves with the Judge whom God hath placed over them and this is not only meant of Godly and Religious Magistrates P. 100 101. 1 Sam. 8. but of Wicked and Ungodly Governors too such as are described by Samuel which take Mens Sons and Fields and Vineyards c. the reason is because the bad as well as the good are of God the one he gives in his love the other in his anger and be they good or bad we have no commandment from him but parendi patiendi of obeying them when their Precepts are not repugnant to God's Statutes and of suffering with patience whatsoever they shall lay upon us it was a worthy saying of the Mother of the two Garacs when they kept Sigismond in Prison Bentin â—er Hung. â—ec 3. l 2. that a Crowned King if he were worse than a beast could not be hurt without great injury done to God himself a lesson which she learn'd from David whose heart smote him when he had out the lap of Saul 's garment because he was the Anointed of the Lord altho he himself was before that time Anointed to be King over Israel and was without cause hunted by Saul like a Pelican in the wilderness and an Owl in the desert Then to draw thy sword and to seek perforce to depose such as God hath placed over thee either because they are not suitable to thy affections or not faithful in their places what is it but with the old Gyants to fight with God the weapons of a Christian in this case when such a case doth happen must be preces lacrymae prayers that either God would turn the heart of an evil Magistrate or set in his room a Man David like after his own heart and tears for his sins which as they are the cause of War Famine Pestilence and all other calamities so are they also of Wicked and Ungodly Magistrates P. 102. SECT XIII To what hath been cited out of Dr. Bois in the first part of this History may be added In Holy Bible we read Bois on Ps 47. P. 936. that David would not suffer his Enemy Saul tho a wicked King to be slain when he was in his hands for that he was the Lord's Anointed he had sanctitatem unctionis albeit he had not sanctitatem Vitae i. e. he had an holy calling tho not an holy carriage wherefore David said who can lay hands on the Lord 's Anointed and be guiltless and if Heathen Emperors in the Primitive times and ungodly Kings in all Ages ought to be thus obeved how much more a Christian and Virtuous Prince c. After the death of Robert Abbot Bishop of Salisbury were his Academick exercitations against Bellarmine Lon. 1619. and Suarez concerning the supreme power of Kings printed a work as it is called in the Epistle dedicatory agreeable to the Laws of Nature and Religion and very seasonable the Author of which having been the King's Professor of Divinity at Oxford * Prelec 1. Sect. 4. p. 4. vindicates the power of Kings and affirms * Prelec 1. Sect. 4. p. 4 that Pope Hildebrand Hellbrand Luther calls him that the first who assumed to himself the Power of Deposing Princes and absolving their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance which Doctrine Sigebert a Writer of that Age calls Novelty and Heresie Sect. 5. p. 6 7. and when he treats of Rom. 13.1 be subject to the higher powers c. he says by Powers are meant Kings and Monarchs as the Word is used Luc. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that exercise authority c. in which words Kings by a certain circumscription are defined because power belongs only and properly to them thus Origen Ambrose and Aquinas understood the words and Kings are not only called powers but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter 1. ep 2. supereminent powers because in their Kingdoms they have power over all Persons being constituted the supreme and over all and to whom it is given to exercise that power over all for Kingly Majesty is absolutely eminent and above all being so constituted by a supreme right for as * in Rom. 13. St. Ambrose says it hath the Image of God that all others might be under one to whom because he is God's Vicegerent every Soul ought to be subject as unto God. This Sentence of St. ☞ Ambrose lays the unquestionable foundation of Kingly Power for it expresses that in the Power of a Monarch the Image of the Divine Majesty appears and that Kings exercise a Power over Men delegated unto them in God's stead and therefore must be superior to all Men because nothing can be higher than God whose Deputies Kings are P. 12. this also is the Doctrine of Optatus St. John Chrysostom Agapetus and other Fathers and so destructive have the Romanists thought it to their pretensions ☞ that the Spanish Index Expurgatorius hath ordered this sentence to be blotted out of Antonius his Melissae tho the sentence be in two other Fathers viz. Agapetus and Maximus A King hath no superior on Earth Prelec 2. Sect. 4. p. 19. and tho Kings may be made by Men yet their Power is from God by whose Providence and Conduct they are advanc'd to those dignities by Men and whom God either in Mercy Job 34. Prelect 3. Sect. 1. p. 25. or in anger decrees to rule even that God who
makes a Hypocrite to reign for the sins of a people Now the Supremacy of Kings and the subjection of every Soul to them are so joined that the King cannot be said to be supreme unless every Soul be subject to him nor will the duty of subjection agree to every Soul unless the King be invested with this Supremacy Sect. 3. p. 21. for all Men universim omnes sigillatim singuli whether singly or contained in a body are bound in conscience by this Apostolical Precept to pay the duties of subjection and observance to Kings and whereas Bellarmin as others urged the deposition of Athaliah Sect. 5. p. 33. to prove the lawfulness of Dethroning Princes he answers that Athaliah had no right to the Crown that she had the Kingdom by violence that the true King lay hid that by her Parricide and Treason she had made herself guilty of death by the Law and ought to have suffered Prelect 4. Sect. 3. p. 44. p. 47. and that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Power which St. Paul uses never signifies force and violence but a just Power which must be lawful because it is from Heaven that Christ was subject by the law to the Power of Pilate and the Apostles to the Heathen Princes Prel 5. Sect. 1.2 p. 70 71. and that in the Primitive Church there were no Traytors who either openly or privately contrived or attempted any thing against the Life or Crown of the Emperor when they wanted neither numbers nor force but they durst not turn Rebels or Traytors ☜ lest by breaking the command of Christ they should lose Heaven and Bellarmin belies them when he says they wanted not a right nor good will to depose Kings but only forces sufficient P. 73. it was of old their Doctrine that the Church ought not to rebel against Princes and this the Gospel taught them let them therefore shew from the Gospel that it is lawful for else let a Man pretend to Inspiration if he speaks from himself and not from the Gospel believe him not says St. Chrysostom Prelect 8. Sect. ult p. 96. and having shewn from David's saying against thee only have I sinned that Kings are accountable only to God he closes his Lecture with these words a King is under the coercion of no Laws because there is no power among Men on Earth that can punish him so that when Kings transgress we must expect the judgments of God upon them SECT XIV In the same year Dr. Lewis Bayly Bishop of Bangor set forth the Practice of Piety ‖ P. 479. edit 1675. in the end of which he shews that the Doctrine which St. Paul taught the Ancient Church of Rome is diametrically opposite in 26 fundamental points of true Religion to that which the new Church of Rome teacheth and maintaineth and the 24th is this that every Soul must of conscience be subject and pay tribute to the Higher Powers i.e. the Magistrates which bear the Sword. Rom. 13.1 2 c. and therefore the Pope and all Prelates and by parity of reason all other Subjects must be subject to their Emperors Kings and Magistrates unless they will bring damnation upon their Souls as Traytors that resist God and his Ordinance and therefore let the Jesuits P. 480. c. take heed and fear lest it be not Faith but Faction not Truth but Treason not Religion but Rebellion which is the cause of their deaths ☜ because they cannot be suffered to persuade Subjects to break their Oaths and to withdraw their Allegiance from their Sovereign to raise Rebellion to move Invasion to stab and poyson Queens to kill and murder Kings c. Some years before this Dr. Richard Crackenthorp Preach'd at Pauls Cross viz. Mar. 24. 1608. and in his Epistle Dedicatory he affirms pr. Lond. 1609. that his desire therein was to testifie his unfeigned love first to God's truth and then to the Peace of our Jerusalem and in the Sermon he commends King James's Book of Free Monarchies but especially his Learned Apology for the Oath of Allegiance and proves that as Solomon had his Kingdom neither from the Priest nor the People but immediatly from God so the Scriptures call Kings the Ministers or Lieutenants of God Rom. 13. and that all the Ancient Fathers did believe that the Imperial Authority of Kings was immediatly and only derived of God immediatly depending of God and of God alone this was the judgment and just defence of all the Christians and of the Church at that time and to prove this to be agreeable to the Law he cites a Statute made 16. Ric. 2. c. 5. of purpose to keep sacred and inviolable the Sovereignty and regality of this Kingdom ☞ it was therein declared that the Crown of England hath been so free at all times not then only but which is specially to be remembred at all times that it hath been in subjection to no Realm but immediatly subject to God and to none other in all things touching the regality of the same in defence of which Statute they in the Parliament then Assembled promised to live and dye as it is there noted by all which it is evident that this Doctrine which is now at Rome counted most ridiculous it in it self most sacred as being grounded on the Scriptures of God and as most sacred hath been embrac'd by all the Christians in the Primitive Church taught and maintained with a general consent by the Ancient and Godly Fathers in their several Ages and Successions constantly defended by whole Kingdoms and Empires and that under pain of High Treason to the Gainsayers thereof even in those latter times also when superstition had dimin'd but not quite extinguish'd and put out the Truth that cannot possibly be true loyalty or sincere obedience which ever attending to an higher command includes in it as in a Trojan Horse that condition of rebus sic stantibus durante beneplacito or the like out of which if strength and opportunity might serve they might let out whole Armies and Troops of Armed Men suddenly to surprize both Church and Kingdom and much more to that purpose To Dr. Crackenthorp it is requisite to join his Friend Dr. P. 334 ed. Lon. 1675 Daniel Featly who in his Handmaid to devotion on the Feast of the Fifth of November gives all good Christians this useful admonition All that fear God ought to abhor and detest all Traiterous and Bloody conspiracies against the Prince and State because God strictly forbids dreadfully threatens miraculously discovers and severely punishes all Treasons and Conspiracies as we see in Corah Absalom Adonijah Zimri the Servants of Ammon Sullam Haman the servants of the Nobleman in the Parable Judas for God forbids conspiracies Touch not mine Anointed c. SECT XV. The Famous Peter du Moulin the Father the Cicero of the French Churches was by King James made a Prebendary of the Church of Canterbury and
gave that Prince no reason to repent of his favors to him vindicating on all occasions both the interests of the Church and the Person Power and Writings of the King nor were his Books and his Actions dissonant one to the other for he never sided with never encouraged the Commonwealth of Rochel as it was called and in his works Orthodoxly States the Catholick Doctrine of Government and confutes the objections of its adversaries thus in his Buckler of Faith c. Buckler of Faith. He lays down briefly but fully ‖ Lib. 2. Sect. ult p. 556 557. Lon. 1623 in Engl. first the Opinion of the Romanists and then the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches as to the right of Kings Thomas the chief Schoolman says he avers that the Power of Princes and Sovereign Lords is but a humane constitution and proceedeth not from God and with him agree Bellarmin and Arnoux their reasons are 1. That the first King that was in the World Nimrod made himself King by force 2. That the greatest part of Empires were erected by Conquest 3. That Kings are established by humane means whether they attain to the Crown by Hereditary Succession or by Election since there is no rule in the Word of God that bindeth to follow an Hereditary Succession more than an Election 4. That there is no express command set down to obey Henry or Lewis or to acknowledge this or that Man more than another to be King. 5. That for these reasons St. Peter calls the Obedience to Kings an Humane Order while we on the contrary maintain that Obedience due to Kings proceedeth from the Divine Law and is grounded upon the Ordinance of God and whom no Man may resist without resisting God. Rom. 13.1 2. and St. Peter in the same place which they object against us will have us yield Obedience to the King for the Lord's sake and altho Nebuchadnezzar was an ungodly King a scourge used by God to destroy Nations nevertheless God speaks thus unto him by his Prophet Dan. 2.37 Thou O King art a King of Kings c. as to their reasons 1. It is false that Nimrod was the first King in the World for the Fathers and Heads of Families were Kings Priests and Sovereign Princes of their Families Men living after the Flood Five or Six hundred Years long enough to see a multitude of their own Children over whom they were to exercise their paternal Power 2. As to the establishment of Government in Conquest I say that those whose Countries a strange Prince seeketh to invade do well to defend themselves and if in that defensive War the Usurper chance to be slain he is justly punished but if he get the upper hand if the Race of the Ancient Possessors of the same Country be clean extinguished if the States of the Country assembled together do agree upon a new form of Government and if all the Officers throughout the Country have taken their Oaths of Fidelity to the New King then we must believe that God hath established such a Prince in that Kingdom then I say that the People ought to yield to the will of God who for the sins of Kings and of their People transposeth Kingdoms and disposeth of the Issues of Battels at his will and pleasure as to the third it belongs not to the Question whether a King succeed by Inheritance or by Election but whether by the Ordinance of God we ought to obey him when he is established therein while our Adversaries will have the Power of Popes to proceed from the Ordinance of God tho they enter into the Papacy by Election and too often by indirect means c. 4. Tho there be no command to obey Henry or Lewis it sufficeth there is a commandment to obey the King and to keep our Oaths of Fidelity made to the King and by consequence to be faithful to that King to whom we swear Obedience and Loyalty nay by this argument no King of this age were to be obeyed because we do not find his name expresly set down in Holy Writ nay no Man were bound to fear God or to believe in Jesus Christ because the Scripture doth not particularly ordain that Thomas Anthony or William should fear God or believe in Jesus Christ it sufficeth that the Word of God containeth general rules which bind particular Persons without naming them 5. St. Peter calls the Obedience that Men owe to Kings an humane Order either because Kings command divers things which by their own nature are not derived from the Divine Law as suppose to forbid to go by night without a Candle or because they attain to that Power by humane means which hinders not but that their Power is grounded upon the Word of God after they are once established for the Question is not touching the means whereby a Prince attains his Kingdom i. e. whether by Hereditary Succession or Election but what Obedience is due to him after he hath attained thereunto whosoever buildeth the Authority of Kings upon Man's Institution and not upon the Ordinance of God cuts off three parts of their Authority and bereaveth them of that which assureth their Lives and their Crowns more than the guards of their Bodies or puissant Armies which put terror into Subjects instead of framing them to Obedience then the Fidelity of Subjects will be firm and sure when it shall be incorporated into piety and esteemed to be a part of Religion and of the service which we owe unto God. The same excellent Person in his rejoinder to de Balzac after he had asserted that the Jesuits teach the Murder of Princes ‖ Letter 2d ed. Lon 1636. Eng p. 73 94 95. and that their Schools have produced many King-killers he proceeds to vindicate the French Church from de Balzac's imputation who professes himself incens'd against the Authors of the troubles in France tho he acquits du Moulin's Person as one who made the subjection due to Sovereignty a part of the Religion which he taught affirming that Obedience to our Sovereigns is a thing just and necessary that to find out an occasion of Rebellion either in a Man 's own Religion or in that of his King is to make insurrections to defend Religion by courses condemn'd by the same Religion such as these being perplext in their own particular Affairs hope to find ease in troubled waters and to save themselves amidst a confusion never yet did the cause of God advance it self that way Moses had power to inflict grievous punishments on Aegypt and her King notwithstanding he would never deliver the Children of Israel out of Aegypt without the permission of the King. SECT XVI And tho this famous Man Peter du Moulin had one Son Lewis who applauded the Regicides translated Milton and bespatter'd the best Church in Christendom yet God blest him with another of his own Name and Principles who in his Letter as he calls it of a French Protestant to a Scotchman of
omnia ad salutem necessaria a point which he durst defend in the worst of times when that Church was so much oppress'd for asserting her Loyalty to God and the King for her agreement with the Primitive Church in not rebelling against the lawful Magistrate and in owning the Jus Divinum of Episcopal Hierarchy and Liturgy To what is quoted out of Mr. Edw. Symmons's Vindication of King Charles in the first part of this History let these Passages be added by virtue of the Canon Romanus Episcopus say the Jesuits Sect 4. p. 46. v. p. 47. the Pope hath power to depose Kings be they Heretical or Catholick of vicious or virtuous lives if in his judgment he finds them unfit and some others more capable of Government and do not these Men believe the Authority of Parliament to be as irresistible as that of the Pope and their Votes to be as full of virtue as his Canons and altogether as authentick even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of their Kingdoms have they not loosen'd People from their Oath of Allegiance to the King and then put them in Arms persuading them that 't is no Rebellion to fight against him Sect. 16. p. 160 161. the next thing they mention wherein they triumph indeed and glory is their late extraordinary success in the Field some perhaps may wonder how these three can agree together great sufferings strange patience and extraordinary good success prosperity and good success which of old went current only among the Papists for a note of the true Church is now admitted also by these Men to be a special mark of the goodness of their Cause but in regard our Religion hath hitherto taught that sufferings and patience were rather the marks of Christ's true Flock than extraordinary success in the World therefore c. these two names of suffering and patience shall from henceforth be rejected and wholly disclaimed P. 168. cons loc as infallible marks of Loyalty and Malignity success is the weakest Argument that can be alledged to prove the goodness of a Cause and the wickedest Men have most used it this Book was written Anno 1645. tho not published till the year 1648. CHAP. VII The History of Passive Obedience under King Charles II. c. SECT I. WHen the execrable Parricide was committed on the Martyr Charles and his Family driven into Exile this Truth did not want its Confessors tho they smarted bitterly for owning it of which number Mr. Sheringham publish'd his accurate treatise of the King's Supremacy wherein as he says in his Introduction he exposes and confutes those Principles and Grounds whereby the Rebels endeavour'd to justifie the War against the King the first of which was that it was lawful for the People to resist their Sovereign and Supreme Governors by force of Arms in case they be Tyrants and bent to subvert the Laws and Religion establish'd or by illegal Proceedings invade the Lives Estates or Liberties of their Subjects This dangerous position he fully and learnedly confutes in his Book proving the Supremacy of our Kings and that they are neither coordinate nor subordinate to the People both by the Statute and common Law of this Land and clearly answers all the objections from either reason or authority concluding all with this remarkable saying P. 118. To speak my desires I wish unfeignedly the Salvation of all the pretended Parliamentarians ☞ but to speak my thoughts I conceive more hopes of the honest Heathen than of any Man that shall dye a Rebel or not make restitution as far as he is able of all that he hath gained by oppression and injustice Mr. Allington in his Grand Conspiracy Sermon 3. p. 106 107. Vid. Serm. 2. p. 60 81. Caiaphas pleaded the exigencies of the State for the Murther of our Saviour and which of us is there that hath not a Caiaphas in his bosom Which of us is there that doth not rather consider the expediency than the justice of an action which of us do not consider whether what we do be not rather secure than conscionable Men who will sacrifice both Judgment Loyalty Conscience and all Honesty to avoid an inconvenience P. 115 116. it is a Law much commended in this Land of ours that no Man shall be tryed but by his Peers now a King must be above the judgment of his Subjects because among them he can have no Peers such an heir as Christ was in the Parable Sermon 4. p. 179. Luc. 20.14 could not be robb'd of his Birth-right nor deprived of his Inheritance but it must be done with violence and that violence could never had hands enough without an Association the Husbandmen without any mask of Religion P. 205. or cloak of Godliness without any pretence of freeing themselves from Tyranny Arbitrary Government or any manner of Oppression they declare clearly what more subtle Rebels would not that the reason they prosecute bought arraign'd and kill'd the heir P. 208 and P. 210 211. it merely was for his Inheritance that the Inheritance may be ours this Lord had power to call the Labourers but the Labourers had none to call him to account Anno 1651. Mr. Jane Father to the present Regius Professor at Oxon if I am rightly informed Printed his Answer to Miltons Iconoclastes and in it fully and on all occasions avers this truth Exam. of the Pref. p. 5. v. p. 11 It is hateful in any to descant on the misfortunes of Princes but in such as have relation to them by Service or Subjection as the Libeller Milton to the late King is the compendium of all unworthiness P. 28 v. p. 34. and unnatural Insolence had His Majesty's faults been as palpable as this Author's falshood it could not diminish his Subjects duty nor excuse the Rebels imprety Rebels never wanted pretensions P. 36 37. but liberty and justice were the common masks of such Monsters so this Man will have the World believe Rebellion is dearer to this Author than Religion and he will rather commend superstitious actions of a blind Age and the very dregs of Popery than want an ingredient to the varnish of that horrid sin P. 39. Superstitious Churchmen had their hands in the old Rebellions and in our days we find they have Successors that teach the People Doctrins of Devils and seduce them from Obedience to those that had the rule over them P. 47. Obedience and Sufferings are the servility and wretchedness which Milton calls the Pulpit stuff of the Prelates we may shortly expect that as these Miscreants have altered State and Church ☜ so they will compose an Index Expurgatorius of the Bible for it cannot be imagined that they will object this heinous crime of Preaching Passive Obedience to the Prelates and leave so many places in the Gospel which command it and themselves need not the Gospel to make Men obedient they have the Sword and this
were to subvert order and measure it is High Treason by the Law of the Land to levy War against the King to compass or imagine his death c. follow the Monition and Counsel of the Lord Cook 3. P. 141. part Instit p. 36. peruse over all Books Records and Histories and you shall find a Principle in Law a Rule in reason and a Tryal in experience that Treason doth ever produce fatal and final destruction to the Offender and never attains to the desired end two incidents inseparable thereunto and therefore let all Men abandon it as the poysonous bait of the Devil and follow the Precept in Holy Scripture Serve God Honour the King and have no Company with the Seditious Dr. Stewart in his Sermon Preach'd at Paris called Hezekiah's Reformation P. 38 39. he can be no Martyr for the first Table of the Law who is in the same deed a transgressor of the second nor will God at all thank him as a Reformer of his Church who in the self same act is no less than a Traytor to his Deputy so that as for Subjects to take up Arms against their Kings is by the Doctrin of St. Peter ☞ and St. Paul in all cases damnable so especially to do this in point of our Religion which so much commends and blesses Patience and Sufferings and Martyrdom either upon pretence to plant it where now it is not or to reform it where it hath been planted is of all other kinds of contentions or Wars most Turkishly Antichristian Rabshakeh himself was grown so much a Divine as to aver openly that he P. 54. who puts his hand to overturn that Religion he professes yea that puts his hand to overturn it too at the same time while he likes it pretend what he will he trusts not in God he trusts perhaps in the Syrians or in Aegypt To what is quoted in the first part of this History out of Bishop Brownrig's Sermons may be added a remarkable Passage or two of his life P. 183 186 187. recorded by Bishop Gauden the first that having Preach'd at Cambrige that Christians had neither Christ's Precept nor any good Christians practice to resist their Sovereign Princes but that there was only left them the choice to obey actively or passively to do or suffer he was immediatly for this Doctrin proscribed and outed of his places in the University and deprived of his liberty and put in Prison the second that when O. P. with some shew of respect to him demanded his judgment in some publick Affairs then at a non plus his Lordship with his wonted gravity and freedom replyed My Lord the best counsel I can give you is that of Our Saviour render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods with which free answer O. P. rested rather silenc'd than satisfied There are many observations worth the noting made by Bishop Hacket on this Subject in his Sermon on the day of the Coronation of King Charles I. on Ps 118.24 but I refer the Reader to the Discourse it self while I relate what is recorded of him in his life written by Dr. Plume that in the time of the great Rebellion P. 17. no Man Preach'd more boldly against the licentiousness of those times than he challenging the boutefeu's to shew where ever the Scripture gave countenance to Uproars and Rebellions Julian the Apostate reading the Bible with a malicious intention to quarrel at it said that Christianity was a Doctrin of too much patience but he could never find any place in it to object that it was a Doctrin of Rebellion If the administration of a Kingdom be out of frame it is better to leave the redress to God than to a seditious Multitude the way to continue purity of Religion being not by Rebellion but by Martyrdom to resist lawful Powers by seditious Arms and unlawful Authority was not the Primitive and Apostolical Christianity but Popish Doctrin not taught the first three hundred years but much about a thousand years after Our Saviour's Ascension into Heaven by the Pope of Rome the very time the Spirit of God says Satan should be let loose viz. by Gregory VII who first taught the Germans to rebel against the Emperor Henry IV. this poyson was given the English People to drink out of the Papal cup tho they pretended quite contrary but Bishop Hacket ever asserted this was not the way to pull down Antichrist but Protestant Religion and therefore he warn'd the Non-conforming Divines to have a care how they cryed up a War and became famous in the Congregation only as Erostratus by setting the Temple on fire SECT IV. Thus the truth was asserted in the days of distress till God was in his infinite mercy pleased to restore the King under whom the Confessors for Loyalty who had during his Exile Preach'd this truth by their sufferings asserted it as vigorously from the Pulpit and Press and among them the most Reverend Primate Dr. Sancroft challenges an Eminent Station who in his most Learned Sermon Preached at the Consecration of Seven Bishops comparing the State of our Native Country with that of the Island of Crete adds have we not outvyed the Cretans lyed for God's sake P. 31. and talk'd deceitfully for him what pious frauds and holy cheats what slandering the footsteps of God's Anointed when the Interest was to blacken him Pliny hath observ'd it nullum animal maleficum in Cretâ and Solinus adds nec ulla serpens but they should have excepted the Inhabitants and I wish there were no other Island could shew Vipers too many that have eat out the Bowels of their common Mother and slown in the face of their Political Father without whose benigner influence their chill and benumm'd fortunes had not warmth enough to raise them to so bold an attempt fulness of bread was also one of their sins and now I cannot wonder if it be observ'd from the Records of History as Grotius assures us who knew them well that the Cretans were and I wish there were no other such a mutinous and a seditious People and had but too much need to be put in mind by Titus to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates The Devil of Rebellion and Disobedience Id. lex ignea p. 15. which not long since possess'd the Nation rent and tore it till it foam'd again and pin'd away in lingring Consumptions that cast it oft-times into the Fire and oft-times into the Water calamities of all sorts to destroy it this ill spirit this restless fury this unquiet and dreadful Alastor the Eldest Son of Nemesis and heir apparent to all the terrors and mischiefs of his Mother walks about day and night seeking rest and finds none and he says in his heart I will return sometime or other to my house from whence I came out Oh! let us take heed of provoking that God who alone
chains up his fury lest for our sins he permit him to return once more with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and so our last Estate prove worse than the former Dr. Pr. 1661. P. 34. v. p. 14 19 21. Morley Bishop of Winchester's Sermon at the Coronation of King Charles II. is full to this purpose as no Man can take upon himself the Honor or Office of a Priest so much less can any Man take to himself the Honor or Office of a King but he must have it from God himself either by God's own immediate designation as Moses and the Judges had for the Judges were Kings and as Saul and David had or by God's ordinary way of Dispensation which was by Succession of Children unto their Fathers according unto which method as Families grew into Nations so Paternal Government grew into Regal and consequently an Usurper as he hath no claim to Divine Institution so he hath no title to Divine Benediction or Protection and besides because what is gotten by the Sword must be maintained by the Sword an Usurper must be a Tyrant whether he will or no. Lastly a Monarchy by Usurpation is res sine titulo a possession without a title which seldom lasts long or ends well for he that takes the Sword shall perish by the Sword says Our Saviour Mat. 26.52 Again as Monarchy by Usurpation is res sine titulo so Monarchy by Election is titulus sine re for Elective Kings are but conditional Kings and conditional Kings are no Kings besides P. 35. a King is to have the power of life and death which none that have it not themselves can give unto him and therefore how he that is Elected by those that have not the power of life and death comes to have the power of life and death and consequently how he comes to be a King is I conceive not easie to imagine the best and surest way for Prince P. 38. State and People is to protect cherish and allow of that Religion and that only which allows of no rising up against or resisting Sovereign Power no not in its own defence nor upon any other pretence whatsoever but tho Princes are called Gods yet they shall die like Men P. 46. says one that was a Prince himself Ps 82.7 and tho they be accountable to no Tribunal here yet they are to be judged hereafter by one who is no respecter of Persons a Prince therefore is to take care to govern himself not according to that licence which his exemption from the penalty of humane Laws may prompt him to but according to that strictness which the severity of the Divine Justice doth require of him The same Prelate in his Vindication of himself against Baxter P. 29 c. among Baxter's Maxims of Treason Sedition and Rebellion reckons these That unlimited Governors are Tyrants and have no right to that unlimited Government If God permits Princes to turn so wicked as to be uncapable of Governing so as is consistent with the ends of Government he permits them to depose themselves If Providence disableth a Prince from protecting the just c. it deposeth him if any Army of Neighbours Inhabitants P. 31. or whoever do tho injuriously expel the Sovereign and resolve to ruin the Commonwealth rather than he shall be restored and if the Commonwealth may prosper without his Restoration it is the duty of such an injured Prince for the Common good to resign his Government and if he will not the People ought to judge him as made uncapable by Providence and not to seek his restitution to the apparent ruin of the Commonwealth If a People that by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Sovereign P. 33. shall sinfully dispossess him and contrary to their Covenants chuse and covenant with another they may be obliged by their later Covenant notwithstanding their former and particular Subjects that consented not in the breaking of their former Covenants yet may be obliged by occasion of their later choice to the Person whom they chuse with many more such Rebellious Treses all which the Bishop with great reason censures and to the Book it self I must refer the Reader where he will find ample satisfaction in a Manly confutation of the abovecited and other such popular errors And among these venerable Fathers of the Church I must beg leave to introduce a Lay-man concern'd in the same controversie for when Baxter had publish'd his Key for Catholicks and in it p. 321. treated of the King's murder of which he says Providence had so order'd it that it could not be laid on the Protestants with much more to that purpose John Nanfan Esq in those worst of times writes a censure of the Passage P. 3. and in it avers that all War taken up by Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever or by whatsoever caution or limitation evermore in the nature of it intends the destroying of King and Kingdom P. 4. that all the bringing the People into a body by Covenant is unlawful because Government merely consists in having no contracts of the People acting of themselves that in such Covenants Men swear things contradictory as to fight against the King and to be true to him there is no such thing in nature as a defensive War against the King by Subjects to subdue a King and deprive him of his Power P. 5. is the same thing as killing it stays but the acting I should be very glad P. 7. that the World should be satisfied that Supreme Power should be unquestionable I would trust God and Man and Humane casual events with my share out of it because I see pretended Reformations never countervail the mischief of Rebellions nothing in nature can go higher than its first cause P. 9. a Power derived out of the King cannot be understood to be against the King for no Power can create a Power against it self P. 10 11. all attempts to bring a King under the Power of his People are the same as to destroy him and this was resolved in the case of the Earl of ‖ Cambd. Annal. p. 547 548. Essex and it never came into the conceit of any Person to except a Parliament for committing Treason the nature of Man is to think any thing that hath been done P. 12. may be done and so never finds end of wickedness but to make it infinite any extraordinary or transcendent acting upon Government tho never so unlawful and violent yet if it become powerful it commonly creates somthing to others to derive from it thus the Long Parliament declared long before that execrable murder was committed that in case they should act to the highest president they should not fail in duty or trust ☞ having their eye and aim upon the deposing of Kings Edw. 2. and Ric. 2. and the last actors that completed the Tragedy conclude power of Parliaments from former destroying Kings and
these Laws p. 14. v. loc and p. 21 22 c which he gave to us Under the most barbarous and persecuting Emperors no Christian ever suffered as a Rebel they gave no other disturbance to the Government than by confessing themselves Christians and suffering for it Their numbers indeed were very formidable but nothing else The same Doctor wrote his Case of Resistance when the Doctrine of Non-Resistance and Passive Obedience were not Confuted but laught out of Countenance Ep. Ded. p. 109. When whoever hath been so hardy as to assert the Doctrine of Non Resistance hath been thought an enemy to his Country one who tramples on all Laws who betrays the Rights and Laberties of the Subject and sets up for Tyranny and Arbitrary Power p. 3. In this accurate Treatise he proves 1. That God himself set up a Sovereign and iresistible power in the Jewish Nation and that during all that time v. p. 13 14. it was unlawful for Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever to resist their Princes 2. That our Saviour taught the same Doctrine both by his Example and Precepts as did also St. Peter and St. Paul. p. 133. The sum of St. Paul's Doctrine is this that all Men whatever their rank and condition be must be subject to Sovereign Princes i. e. must obey all their just and lawful commands and patiently submit even to their unjust violence for Sovereign Princes are made and advanced by God and therefore he that resisteth resisteth not Man but God and how prosperous soever such Rebels may be in the World they shall not escape the Divine Vengeance and Justice which will follow them into another World They shall receive to themselves damnation p. 221. The last Judgment weighs down all other considerations and certainly Rebellion may well be said to be as the sin of Witchcraft when it so inchants Men that they are resolved to be Rebels though they be damned for it So Dr. H. Bagshaw Serm. on Isa 1.26 p. 8. Should Magistrates omit Works of Justice and Mercy they are no more Gods but Idols nay the worst sort of Idols that being made to represent do yet foully reproach Divine Power but should People resist libel or abuse them and so strive to deface the marks of their greatness they strike at the Majesty of the Supreme We may all learn Duty from considering that God is the founder of human Government So also the learned Dr. Faulkner V. Christian Loyalty l. 1. c. 5. p. 183 184. The truth is Maximus was a Rebel and had wicked murdered Gratian the Emperor and invaded the Territories of Valentinian and for this cause S. Martin though often requested for a long time refused to come to his Table and avoided all converse with him and did also foretel his ruin And Marcellinus Socrates Theodoret and Sozomen in their Histories often give him the stile of Maximus the Tyrant And Symmachus a Roman Senator was found guilty of Treason by Theodosius for publishing a Panegyrick upon Maximus S. Ambrose not only refused Maximus the salutation of a Kiss from him but withdrew himself from those Bishops who Communicated with him c. Chap. 6. p. 233. The same Author confuteing the claim of the Pope to this Kingdom on the account of the surrendry made by King John to Pandulphus the Pope's Legat adds I shall chuse to observe in general that this Case is the same as if any Seditious persons or Usurpers should by fraud or force reduce the King to straits and difficulties and should then by like methods gain a promise from him that he should be under their Government and shall order the Affairs of his Realm in complyance with them and subjection to them Now all such Acts are wholly void and utterly unobligatory Because 1. No part of Royalty can be gained by Possession upon an unjust Title against the right Owner upon a sure Title this being a parallel Case to a Thief being possest of an honest Man's Goods 2. No Sovereign King unless by voluntary relinquishing his whole Authority to the next Heir can transfer his Royal Supremacy to any other person whomsoever c. p. 383. v. loc Another ground of Subjects security though they may not take Arms against their Sovereign is from God being the Judg and Governor of the World and shall not the Judgment and Authority of God over Princes be thought valuable and considerable though he is more righteous and more able to help the oppressed than any Judge upon Earth p. 393. V. p. 395 397 456 457 463 490 491. Unless all things be in utter confusion and Anarchy it is not possible but that there must be acknowledged such an Authority which none have power of resisting but this can no where be so well placed for the Subjects Interest as in their Sovereign Prince and Supreme Governor Christians are Baptized into that Doctrine which makes great provision for the security of Kings and against all manner of resistance But though the directions of our Religion be plain History will acquaint us that there have been many contrary Practices as matters of Fact. But these are no more to be urged against the Rules of Duty in this than in other Actions of disobedience and swerving from God's Commandments p. 507. It was truly observed by Barclay that Valentinian the younger who was an Arian might as easily have been Resisted and Deposed by the Catholick Christians as any King or Emperor whatsoever if they would have undertaken any such thing for then the strength of the Eastern part of the Empire was then in the Hands of Theodosius who was a zealous promoter of the True Faith the Western Empire was over-run by Maximus an Enemy to the Arians The Army of Valentinian then at Milan were so disaffected to the Emperor that they declared they would go over to those Ambr. Ep. 33. ad Marcellin to whom S. Ambrose should direct them unless the Emperor would Communicate with them who embraced the True Faith. But in this case Theodosius protected and assisted Valentinian and S. Ambrose disclaimed all resistance against him and espoused his Interest to the utmost against Maximus Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford Pr. Lond. 1688. in his Defence of the Reading the late Declaration asserts the same Truth for though he pleads for the Reading of the Decclaration p. 5. Because when we are bid to Honor the King we ought to observe that express command of God in every thing that is not expresly contrary to the word of God or at least most evidently deduced from it so that every common understanding must needs see it p. 15. Yet he subjoyns that it is impossible that a true Son of the Church of England should have any disloyal thoughts in his Heart his Principles commanding him unto intire Obedience either Active or Passive without any Equivocation or Mental Reservation whatsoever SECT VIII Dr. Matthew
prostrated themselves for in your way of reasoning they have a right to preserve or delight themselves by any course of means and can be best protected by the prevailing side which because it hath more degrees of growing Power has it seems therefore more of right P. 158. thus it is in the choice of every Subject whom you make the Judge of the means to preserve himself to apply himself to the stronger side or for a Company combin'd in Arms and Counsel when an Heir and a Traytor are engag'd in Battel with equal success as was the practice of the Lord Stanley c. at Bosworth-field to give the day to the side they presume will most favour them but there is no tye so strong as that of Religion c. * Vid. 1. part of the Hist p. 93. and whereas Hobbs affirm'd that Covenants are but words and breath and have no force to oblige or constrain any Man but what it has from the Publick Sword he answers that thus the Prince is always in a State of danger P. 160. Society being like a State of Nature managed all by force because he cannot be a day secure of remaining uppermost seeing that the People are taught by you to believe that the right of Authority is a deceit and that every one would have as good a Title if he had as long a Sword for the many headed Beast will throw the Rider when he burthens and galls them Woe to all the Princes upon Earth if this Doctrin be true and becomes Popular if the Multitude believe this the Prince not Armed with the scales of the Leviathan i. e. with irresistible Power can never be safe P. 161. wherefore such as own these pernicious Doctrins destructive to all Societies of Men ☜ may be said to have Wolves Heads as the Laws of old were wont to speak concerning excommunicated Persons and are like those ravenous Beasts so far from deserving our love and care P. 192. that they ought to be destroyed at the common charge if the commands of Christ and his Apostles are not also Laws what means the common Doctrin in the Scripture of suffering for the sake of Christianity We are injoined to take up the Cross and to follow Christ c. Such commands and exhortations to dye rather than to obey Unchristian injunctions are deliver'd in vain yea they deserve the name of Impious if they be not a Royal Law without the stamp of Civil Authority it is therefore your opinion that it is our duty for the sake of outward safety to obey that which is the Law of our Country tho we live among the Heathens rather than to follow dangerous tho Evangelical Counsel This Doctor together with the Lords Bishops of Ely and Bath and Wells and Dr. Hooper were by the King appointed to attend the late Duke of Monmouth before his Execution and the great thing that they with reason prest him to was a particular repentance an acknowledgment that his Invasion was a Rebellion particularly urging him as the Printed account says more than once P. 1 2. if he were of the Church of England to acknowledge the Doctrin of Non Resistance to be true ☞ and therefore I believe that Pulton the Jesuit as †Pulton consider'd p. 67. himself says charg'd him unjustly that when he assisted Sir Thomas Armstrong before his Execution that he did not oblige him to an humble acknowledgment of his Crimes and particularly of the injury done to his King and Country for the * Account of the cons with 〈◊〉 p. â—3 Doctor even in the heigth of Popery thought his Loyalty more valuable than Mr. Meredith's because he as a Son of the Church of England profest he would not rebel against the King notwithstanding he might be of another Religion whereas Mr. M. being of the same Religion could not well separate Loyalty from Interest and ‖ 〈…〉 cons p. 89. avers that he is by Church Principle against resisting the Higher Powers and approves not of the excluding and deposing Doctrin taught in Mr. P's great Lateran Council before there were Jesuits and also after they arose by Bellarmine and Doleman and a long train of others in which some Popes some Synodical Men have pompously march'd To pass by General Complaints Id. exam of 〈◊〉 10 note 〈◊〉 holiness of life p. 243. we may furnish our selves with abundance of instances in the Lives of particular Men of that Communion who have been Infamous for Impiety I shall content my self with a few reflections upon two or three of this sort of Mâ—n with whom the more the World is acquainted the less veneration it will have for them Pope Gregory the Great fawn'd upon the Emperor Mauritius whilst he lived and prospered and own'd him as his Patron and the Maker of his Fortunes even before he had made his own But assoon as the Emperor and his Family were barbarously Murthered by the most Bloody Vassal and Usurper Phocas Gregory insulted over this dead Lion and flatter'd this living Monster and his Immoral Wife Leontia He used such words at his â—surped â—xaltation as he did at that which he called the Conversion of England singing profanely Glory to God in the Highest Let the Heavens rejoyce and the Earth be glad There are many things in the Roman Church it self P. 248. which by helping forward an ill life do in part deface this mark of her Sanctity Such as the Doctrins about Papal Supremacy Which last is very prejudicial to the quiet of the World especially in the Deposing Point concerning which I take leave to use the words of another with Relation to Bellarmine He was * Postscript to transl of 〈…〉 of the Leag p. 15 16 17. himself a Preacher for the League in Paris during the Rebellion there of King Henry IV. Some of his Principles are these following In the Kingdoms of Men the Power of the King is from the People because the People make the King. We hear Bellarmine in another place â—ositively affirming it as Matter of Faith if any Christian Prince shall depart from the Catholick Religion and shall withdraw others from it he immediatly forfeits all Power and Dignity even before the Pope has pronounced sentence on him And his Subjects in case they have Power to do it may and ought to cast out such an Heretick from his Sovereignty over Christians If therefore the Faith of Bellarmine be Faction whatsoever his Church is in it self it is certain as he has made it it can never he found out either as The Church or as A found Church so far as we are to look for it by the Note of Holiness SECT XII Dr. Patrick hath also fully declared his Opinion in this point for besides what hath been cited out of his works in the first part of this History he says Paraphâ— on on Ps 15. p. 75. that he who shall dwell in God's Tabernacle is a
Man who hath such a respect to Religion that whatsoever he promiseth by Oath he will perform tho be loses never so much by keeping his faith and * in Ps 51. p. 361. that David confess'd to God against thee only have I sinned not because I stand in fear of punishment from Men who have no Power over me but because I am so obnoxious to thee whose judgments I ought to dread the more the less I am lyable to give an account of my actions unto others O how it afflicts me that I presumed because I had none to controul me here on Earth to offend thy Majesty thy All-seeing Majesty at whose Tribunal ☜ the highest must be judged Politicians when they do unwarrantable actions Id. Jewish Hypocrisie p. 371 372. Lond. 1660. think to excuse themselves with the Reason of State and pretence of Common good and therefore will break their Faith and their Oaths and at the rate of their honesty purchase the common welfare as if God had need of Mens sin or we could tell what is his Interest better than himself I am somthing angry at this vile abuse of his Holy Name that tho God hath told us what is his mind and pleasure yet they will instruct him and teach him what is more for his benefit and shew him a way that he thought not on for the advancement of his Glory The same Author in his Epitome of Man's duty annex'd to his Treatise of the Jewish Hypocrisie is of the same mind as we love our selves P. 41. let us endeavour to live in all good conscience before God let us not do the least evil for to avoid the suffering of the greatest evil and let us not neglect any good for the purchasing of the best good the World affords it cannot be long before thou feelest that hidden Whip the cords of which thou art continually twisting for to lash thy self all impatience comes by pride P. 67 68. and our murmurings are bred by too goodly thoughts of our own selves but if we thought with our selves what we are c. we should become very humble i. e. meek and patient and contented under all that befalls us one act of humility begets another and he that thinks meanly of himself will not be angry that he is afflicted Be peaceable and obedient to Governors who are Gods in the World and to whom God hath bidden us that we should submit our selves submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake c. 1 Pet. 2.13 It is an high act of Pride and Insolency to controul the Authority that is over us and to set up our own wills above God's Vicegerents for it is a great contempt of the Majesty of God whose Image they more remarkably bear and with whose Effigies they are more visibly stampt than other Men we must always therefore do what they command us or else suffer what they inflict upon us ☜ and if we chuse the latter we must suffer as meekly and peaceably as if it was an immediate hand of Heaven upon us for if Solomon says of every Man that proud and haughty scorner is his name who decleth in proud wrath Prov. 21.24 Then much more is he to be branded in the forehead for a Man superlatively proud who cannot endure to be touch'd in Body or Estate but it casts him into the highest Inflammations of anger even against the Highest Powers Dr. Tillotson There is a Spirit in the World which is not only contrary to Christianity Ser. on Nov. 5. 1678. p. 17 18. but to the common Principles of natural Religion and even to humanity it self which by falshood and persidiousness by secret Plots and Conspiracies or by open Sedition and Rebellion by Deposing and Killing Kings in a word by dissolving all the bonds of humane Society and subverting the Peace and order of the World i. e. by all wicked ways imaginable doth incite Men to promote and advance their Religion P. 19. When Religion once comes to supplant Moral Righteousness and to teach Men the absurdest things in the World to lye for the truth P. 20. and to kill Men for God's sake and to be a bond of Conspiracy better it were there were no revealed Religion ☜ and that humane nature were left to the conduct of its own Principles and Inclinations which are much more mild and merciful than to be acted by a Religion that inspires Men with so wild a fury and is continually supplanting Government and undermining the Welfare of Mankind In short such a Religion as teaches Men to propagate and advance it self by means so evidently contrary to the very nature and end of all Religion how much better Teachers of Religion were the Old Heathen Philosophers P. 21 22. in all whose Books and Writings there is not one Principle to be found of Treachery and Rebellion Panaetius Antipater and Diogenes the Stoick Tully and Plutarch P. 28. and Seneca were much honester and more Christian Casuists than the Jesuits are c. I am not sure that the Pope is Antichrist but I challenge Antichrist himself whoever he be and whenever he comes to do worse and wickeder things than these Serm. on 1 Cor. 3.15 p. 11 15. I hope no body expects that I should take the pains to shew that this was not the Doctrin of our Saviour and of his Apostles nor of the Primitive Christians viz. the Doctrin of deposing Kings our Church hath this peculiar advantage above several Professions P. 3â— 34. that we know in the World that it acknowledgeth a due and just subordination to the Civil Authority and hath always been untainted in its Loyalty Dr. Meggor Serw. before the L. 〈◊〉 on Ps 11.3 〈◊〉 30 p. 14. Altho there were Laws to guide and direct the Kings of Judea and Aegypt yet if they forgot themselves so much as to violate and break through them there were none by which they might resist and punish them their Ministers and Instruments were ever accountable but as to themselves it was a Maxim every where that they could do no wrong P. 16. he who resists Kings is in danger of receiving to himself damnation in the other World for such unjustifyable and forbidden practices there never yet was any Rebellion where Religion or Liberty were not one or both pretended yet he who examineth the most judicious and impartial Wâ—â—ters of Story will be hugely put to it to produce an instance of any one where Personal disgusts and selfish designs were not the first Promoters and Fomentors of it they P. 28 29. v. p 43 44 c. that can dispense with their Oaths and comply with Usurpers be instruments of the illegal Innovations and Zealous for the Statutes of Omri may receive some wages for their unrighteousness and ravish to themselves fortunes as unexpected as ignominious but for those that dare not debauch their Consciences nor be partakers
of other Mens sins that will retain their integrity and rather than do would suffer evil P. 〈…〉 what can there do These are they that are so pityed in the Text down then ☞ down to the place of darkness from whence it came with that Antichristian Principle that it is lawful for the People upon the ill managers and abuse of their Power by Arms and force to depose and punish their Princes this once admitted layeth the Ax to the Root of all Civil Society c. Dr. 〈…〉 p. 37. Nath. Hardy D. R. The Enemies of the King accuse him for being a Traytor to his People which was so far from being true that it was impossible since he never received any trust from them after which addressing himself to the Lord Mayor and his Brethren he adds you have taken care that Rebellion may be destroyed in that which was its Principal Engine the illegal League and Covenant and in its rotten Principles those Doctrins which give Power to the two Houses of Parliament in some cases to take up Arms without and against the Kings command and distinguish between the Personal and Politick capacity of the King as to the point of resistance c. Dr. Serm. before Lord Mâ—yer Fâ—â— 11. 16 Sâ— p. 22 24. Goodman Kings are God's Vicegerents and he maintains and upholds them in their Offices under himself a King hath the Stamp and Character of Divine Authority upon him it is the Divine Providence that is the Peoples caution and security against the weaknesses passions and extravagances of Princes so that they shall not need to resort to Arms or any seditious and unlawful means in their own defence we use to appeal to an Higher Court when we are opprest in an inferior Judicatory and this is our proper refuge when our Rights and Properties are invaded to look up to God the Supreme Potentate of the World that he will restrain the exorbitances of his Ministers P. 25 26. God is the King of Kings the safety of Religion Liberty and Property are mighty Concerns but certainly they are not too great a Stake to trust in the hands of God unless the means we use be as certainly and manifestly lawful as the cause we pretend to shall be just and honorable we shall but provoke Providence instead of subverting it P. 34. let the People be quiet not listen to noice and rumors but be sure to Banish all disloyal thoughts of resorting to irregular means for the asserting their pretensions Is not God in the World c. SECT XIII Dr. Burnet in his modest and free conference †Printed Ann. 1669. p. 6 7. Shew me one place in either Testament that warrants Subjects fighting for Religion you know I can bring many against it yea tho the old dispensation was a more carnal and fiery one than the new one is yet when the Kings of Israel and Judah made Apostasie from the Living God into Heathenish Idolatry some of the Kings of Judah polluting the Temple of Jerusalem as did Ahaz and Manasseh so that God could not be Worship'd there without Idolatry yet where do we find the People resisting them or falling to popular Reformations neither do the Prophets that were sent by God ever provoke them to any such courses and you know the whole strain of the New Testament runs upon suffering it seems you are yet a Stranger to the very design of Religion which is to tame and mortifie nature and is not a natural thing but supernatural therefore the Rules of defending and advancing it must not be borrowed from nature but grace are not Christ's injunctions our Rule Since then he forbad his Disciples to draw a Sword for him with so severe a threatning that whosoever will draw the Sword shall perish by the Sword this must bind us and what he says to Pilate on this head my Kingdom is not of this World c. is so plain language P. 24. that I wonder it doth not convince all Pope Gregory VII Armed the Subjects of Germany against Henry IV. the Emperor upon the account of Religion because the Emperor laid claim to the Investiture of Bishops they being then Secular Princes and this prospering so well in the hands of Hildebrand other Popes made no bones upon any displeasure they conceived either against King or Emperor to take his Kingdom from him and free his Subjects from their Obedience to him the Authors who plead for this are only Courtiers Canonists and Jesuits now are you not ashamed in a matter of such Importance to symbolize with the worst gang of the Roman Church for the soberer of them condemn it yet fill Heaven and Earth with your clamors Burn. Vind. of the Authority c. of the Ch. of Scotland ad Lector if in some innocenter things the Church of England seem to symbolize with them one great rule by which the peace and order of all humane Societies is maintain'd and advanc'd is Obedience to the Laws and submission to the Authority of those whom God hath set over us to govern and defend us to whose commands if absolute Obedience be not paid ever till they contradict the Laws of God there can be neither peace nor order among Men now it cannot be denyed to be one of the sins of the Age we live in that small regard is had to that Authority God hath committed to his Vicegerents on Earth the Evidence whereof is palpable since the bending or slackning of the Execution of Laws is made the measure of most Mens Obedience and not the Conscience of that duty we owe the commands of our Rulers for what is more servile and unbecoming a Man not to say a Christian than to yield obedience when overawed by force and to leap from it when allured by gentler methods hence it appears how few there are who judge themselves bound to pay that reverence to the Persons and that Obedience to the commands of those God hath vested with his Authority which the Laws of Nature and Religion do exact and the root of all this disobedience and contempt can be no other but unruly and ungovern'd Pride which disdains to submit to others and exalts it self above those who are called Gods ☜ the humble are tractable and obedient but the self-will'd are stubborn and rebellious yet the heigth of many Mens pride rests not in a bare disobedience but designs the subverting of Thrones and the shaking of Kingdoms unless governed by their own measures Among all the Heresies which this Age hath spawned there is not one more contrary to the whole design of Relligion and more destructive of Mankind than is that Bloody Opinion of defending Religion by Arms and of forcible resistance upon the colour of preserving Religion ☞ the Wisdom of that policy is earthly sensual devilish savouring of a carnal unmortified and impatient mind that cannot bear the Cross nor trust to the Providence of God and
yet with how much Zeal is this Doctrin maintain'd and propagated as if on it hung both the Law and the Prophets neither is the zeal used for its defence only meant for the Vindicating of what is past but on purpose advanc'd for reacting the same Tragedies indeed the consideration of these evils should call on all to reflect on the evident signatures of the Divine displeasure under which we lye from which it appears that God hath no pleasure in us nor will be glorified among us that so we may discern the signs of the times we must consider wherein ye have provok'd God to chastise us in this fashion by letting loose among us a Spirit of uncharitableness giddiness cruelty and sedition The Question is in general 1st Confer P. â—â—0 if Subjects under a Lawful Sovereign when appress'd in their 〈◊〉 Religion may by Aâ—â—s defend themselves and resist the Magistrates To which 〈…〉 he Nonconformist answers consider if there can be any thing more evident from the Law of Nature than that Men ought to defend themselves when unjustly assaulâ—ed he is a self Murderer who does not defend himself from unjust force besides what is the end of all Societies but mutual protection did not the People at first clâ—â—se Princes for their protection c it was then the end of Societies that Justice and Peace might be maintain'd so when this is inverted the Subjects are again to râ—â—me their own conditional suâ—â—â—der and excoerce the Magistrate who forgetful of the ends of his Authority doth so corrupt it to this Basilius the Oâ—thodox Aâ—â—ertor of the King's Authority gives the Answer which you find in the 〈◊〉 part of this History p. 73. distinguishing between the Laws of Nature and the perâ—â—ions of nature It is like the sacredness of the Megistrate's Power P. 12. was a part of the Traditional Religion conveyed from Noah to his Posterity as was the practice of expiatory Sacrifices P. 17 18. certainly the defence of Religion by Arms is never to be admitted for the nature of Christian Religion is such that it excludes all carnal weapons from its defence and when I consider how expresly Christ forbids his Disciples to resist evil Mat. 25.39 how severely that resistance is condemn'd by St. Paul and that condemnation is declared the punishment of it ☞ I am forc'd to cry out Oh! what times are we fallen in in which Men dare against the Laws of the Gospel defend that practice upon which God hath passed his condemnation if whosoever break the least of these commandments and teach Men so to do shall be called the least in the Kingdom of God what shall their portion be who teach Men to break one of the greatest of these commandments such as are the Laws of Peace and Subjection and what may we not look for from such Teachers who dare tax that Glorious Doctrin of patient suffering as brutish and irrational and tho it be expresly said 1 Pet. 2.21 that Christ by suffering for us left us his example how to follow his steps which was followed by a Glorious Cloud of Witnesses yet in these last days what a brood hath sprung up of Men who are lovers of their own selves P. 35. traytors heady high-minded c. I must confess my self amazed when I find St. Peter saying expresly 1 Pet. 2.21 that Christ suffer'd leaving us an example that we might follow his steps and applying this to the very case of suffering wrongfully and that notwithstanding that you would study to pervert the Scripture so grosly I confess P. 58. there is no piece of story I read with such pleasure as the accounts are given of the Martyrs for methinks they leave a fervor on my mind which I meet with in no study that of the Scriptures being only excepted say not then they were not able to have stood to their own defence when it appears how great their numbers were It was then no Legend P. 61. or shall I here tell you the known story of the Thebaean Legion which consisted of 6666 who being by Maximinus Herculeus an 287 c. Consider how Maximinus came in the â—â—g end of that great Persecution begun by Dioclesian and Herculeus continued by Galesius and consummated by Maximinus himself in which for all the numbers of the Martyrs and the cruelty of the Persecution there was not so much as a tumult which makes it evident ☜ that Christians of that time understood not the Doctrin of resistance the whole course of our Saviour's Life Id. Serm on Rom. 13.5 p. 25 26. was a perpetual tract of doing good and bearing ill and when he was accused to Pilate of being an Enemy to Caesar and pretending to set up another Kingdom he did in the plainest style was possible condemn all practisings against Government upon pretence of Religion by saying my Kingdom is not of this World if my Kingdom were of this World then would my Servants fight c. the Blessed Apostles followed their Master's steps in this P. 27. as in all other things and therefore having learn'd of our Saviour that Lesson of bearing the Cross and suffering patiently St. Peter doth at full length once and again call on all Christians to prepare for sufferings and to bear them patiently c. P. 29. profane as well as Ecclesiastical Writers assure us ☜ the numbers of the Christians became very soon so vast that nothing but the Conscience of the duty they owed the Supreme Powers obliged them to be Subject ‖ Id. myst â—y of Iniq. 8vo p. 73 75. The Bishops of Rome not content with their Usurpations over their Brethren and Fellow Churchmen their next attempt was upon Princes they pretended to a Power of deposing Princes disposing of their Dominions to others and dispensing with the Oaths of Fidelity their Subjects had sworn to them but I cannot leave this particular without my sad regrets ☜ that too deep a tincture of this Spirit of Anti Christianisme is among many who pretend much aversion to it since the Doctrin of resisting Magistrates upon colours of Religion is so stifly maintain'd and adhered to by many who pretend to be highly Reformed tho this be one of the Characters of the Scarlet-coloured Whore. ☜ Their contempt of the fifth commandment follows upon the Doctrin of the Pope's Power of deposing Princes and freeing their Subjects from their obligation to them by which they are taught to rebel and resist the Ordinance of God. we hold P. 152. that the Civil Powers are of Christ whose Gospel binds the duty of Obedience to them more closely on us and therefore if they do wrong we leave them to Christ's Tribunal who set them up but pretend to no power from his Gospel to coerce or resist them while we have a Zeal against Popery as a bloody rebellious and cruel Religion Serm. at the Rolls Nov. 5. p. 25 27 c. we
must do nothing to shew that we are acted by the Spirit of Popery we must never forget the Station in which God hath put us â—s we are Subjects under a Lawful Prince to whom we are tyed both by Divine and Humane Laws and even the Lion's Mouth it self opening to devour us ☜ can never excuse us from our obligation to submit and suffer if God had so ordered it by his Providence that we were born under a Prince that would deliver us up to the Lion. the late Rebellion as it was managed with a Popish i. e. a bloody Spirit so many of the Arguments that were used to defend it were taken from Popish Authors P. 28. When we go out of the way of patience and submission of obedience and of bearing the Cross when we give scope to passion and rage to jealousie and mistrust and upon this fermentation in our minds we break out into Wars and Rebellion we forget that the God whom we serve is Almighty and can save us either from a devouring Fire or a Lion's Mouth we forget that the Saviour whom we follow was made perfect by sufferings and that we become then truly his Disciples when we bear his Cross even tho we should be crush'd under it we forget that our Religion ought to inspire us with a contempt of Life and the World and with meekness and lowliness of mind c. P. 29. we are not to share with the Papists in their cruelty not imitate them in their Rebellion SECT XV. Dr. Adam Littleton in his Catechism Printed Lon. 1662 â—p ded or the Grounds of Religion An ungrounded Christian will be easily peâ—suaded to give him self up to any wild Opinion or loose practice to turn Heretick or Rebel P. 334. and prove a fit instrument for the managery of Satan's designs the fifth commandment is the hinge of the two Tables and concerns the Magistrate who is God's Vicegerent on Earth and the keeper of both the Tables wherefore some assign it a place in the first Table P. 336 337. See his Ser. on Nov. 5 1675. p. 221 223 224 226. and Ser. on Jan. 30. 1677. p. 236 237 c. God having a special care of civil order and Peace in the Societies of Men honour thy Father and Mother whether thy natural Parents or the Civil Magistrate disobedience dissolves and unloosens or â—er and peace which are the bands of Society whereas oppression does but strain and gird the tyes of Government too close no Tyranny of the most wicked Prince can be so mischievous and destractive to the Publick as the Rebellion of Subjects let them pretend never so much Religion for it the great interest of society is to obey since the resisting of a Lawful Governor will in the end destroy Government it self and bring all things into consusion ☞ then he introduces God thus speaking thou inferior whoever thou art that art under anothers Power P. 343 344. thou shalt be subject to him and yield a ready and chearful obedience to him as to the Lord in all things that are just and lawful and hear with his humors and his harshness ☞ remembring that the he be a Man of like passions with thy self yet he is in God's stead and if he at any time swerve from his rule in commanding yet do not thou decline thy duty in obeying but when be biddeth thee do any thing coutrary to my will carry thy self with submission and resolve to suffer for a good conscience rather than to resist where thou canst not with a good conscience obey thou shalt not withdraw or grudge thy obedience P. 347. much less shalt thou take upon thee to call him to account thou Subject shalt honor and obey the King and his Ministers thou shalt not raise sedition to bring an odium upon the Magistrate's Person his Authority or his Council nor shew any discontent to the disturbance of the publick Peace nor take up Arms against thy Lawful Sovereign nor maintain or assist Rebellion nor meddle with those that are given to change thou shalt not offer any violence to the King 's Sacred Person but if at any time unrighteous commands are imposed upon thee have recourse to thy Prayers and make thy appeals to Heaven to God the King of Kings to whom alone they are accountable and who will in his dut time remove the oppression and call the Oppressor's to an account P. 352 353. when the hedge of Government is broken down neither Religion nor Law shall bound us this hath been England 's Case in the wicked times of Anarchy and Confusion when we complyed with Illegal Powers when our Oaths of Allegiance were eluded with the solemn cozenage of a League and sinful Combination when we were bewildred with the Witchcrafts of Rebellion and knew not the things which belong'd to our Peace but pretended to reform abuses by destroying the Offices when we rais'd War against our dread Sovereign and offered violence to the Lord 's Anointed what need have we therefore to pray fervently with the Church Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law. The same Author in his Sermon Pt. Lond. 1669. p. 24 25. called The Churches Peace asserted upon a Civil account Preach'd July 4th An. 1669. says the same thing The best Party of the Dissenters have such Principles of Policy and Government as are utterly inconsistent and incompatible with Monarchy whereas there is no one thing that the English Church doth in her Doctrin more positively affirm ☞ or in her Offices more â—ealously express than Obedience to Governors and her duty to her Sovereign thanked be God we live not now under Heathen Emperors and Pagan Governors tho if we did it were our duty to pray for them and to thank God for them too and to obey them in all lawful commands An Original of all Plots Lond. 1680. 810. cap. 1. p. 2. and where we cannot safely obey chearfully to suffer for a good Conscience Dr. William Saywel Still it hath fallen out that Men of more zeal than discretion of greater reading than judgment have struck in with the Politicians and wrote that which would most please the Men in Authority and was likely to get them most favor and reputation amongst those who could satisfie their ambition and by these means have rather served themselves than God tho with the confusion and disorder of the Church Athelsm breach of common faith and honesty P. 3. violations of all Oaths and Contracts Murders Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions long and bloody Wars Massacres Fires Underminings Poysons P. 4 5. and Subversions of Governments are the sad consequences of such dissensions in Religion that these Parts of Christendom for some Ages past have been an Aceldama or Field of Blood and many horrid and barbarous Murders have been acted upon pretence of Religion is evident from all Modern Histories and tho the Romish
Strength hath made it possible and so at length the Robbers Sword and Pistol will come to be the only Standard of Justice all other Power must be cancell'd and we must come at last to make the Power of doing wrong to be the only measure of Equity and Right All these things are at least true pag. 28. when there is any Person in being to whom the Title or Succession of the Supremacy does belong which blessed be God is our Case at present And therefore that great Argument which was brought to vindicate the Usurpation of the successful Rebels in the late Wars namely that the People were not bound to adhere to their Prince when the Prince was disabled to defend the People supposes no other Obligation upon Subjects than mere Interest and so evacuates and makes null all Obligations of Conscience We shall therefore before we part from this Inference fix it as a certain Rule by which every conscientious Subject may and ought to guide his Practice That so long as there is any Person of the Royal Race ☜ to whom by the Course of Succession according to the Tenor of the Law of the Land the Crown does belong so long we have a lawful Supremacy and so long we shall be bound in Conscience to be in Subjection 3. Are we bound to be subject to the Higher Powers for Conscience sake and does the Obligation of Conscience come only from God Then I do infer that to bind the People to be in Subjection to their Prince there is no necessity of any Bargain or Contract between them and the reason is because that Obligation that binds the Subject to Obedience in this Case is founded immediately and directly upon the Law of God. Lastly Are we obliged to be subject to the Higher Powers out of Conscience pag. 31. and is this Obligation â—id upon our Conscience by God Then I do infer That no worldly Inconventence that we can possibly suffer by such our Subjection can be a sufficient warrant for our Resistance And the Reason is plain and easie because our secular Interest be it what it will can never be a sufficient Counterpoise to our Duty and he that will break God's Commands because it is for his secular Advantage can at best but make that foolish Bargain in the Gospel that is to gain the whole world and in exchange for his Purchâ—se to lose his own Soul. Mr. Wake is also of the same mind Answ to the B. of Oxâ—â—'s Reasons l. 34 c. for when the Bishop of Oxon charges the Church of England as if she set up the Charge of Idolatry as a Standard against Monarchy he replies That it is a Calumny upon the whole Body of the Reformed and that he might dare venture to say that there is not the least reason to be apprehensive of Violence he knows very well how free the Christians of the Three first Centuries were in laying the very same Charge against the Gentile World and yet we do not find that ever they shewed themselves the less obedient to their Emperors upon the account of it And tho I am verily perswaded that the Romanists are guilty of Idolatry yet I thank God I am not conscious to my self of one Disloyal Thought to my King. And what I can thus truly profess in my own behalf I doubt not but I may do for all others the true and genuine Members of the Church ☞ and who by being such must I am sure by Principle be obedient Subjects As for this Author he has made a broad Sign that he intends to leave us by insinuating that the Charge of Idolatry ought to be followed by Blowes We who do protest against certain Practices as idolatrous do also protest against violating Loyalty upon the account of Religion Did we indeed profess that of Idolatry which some others do of Heresie that it is a sufficient ground for the Excommunicating of a King and the absolving his Subjects of their Allegiance had we ever been caught not in Oatesian Conspiracies but in real Plots against our Sovereign upon this account there might then have been just cause for such an insinuation But whilst our Principles are so loyal that we have even been laught at for our asserting them it was a very unreasonable apprehension to think that the Charge of Idolatry should in the bottom have been the design against the Monarchy which we have so often declared and in the Person of our present King have shewn we think our selves obliged to support whatever his Religion be who is to sit upon the Throne The truth is when I consider how heinous a Suggestion this is and what little Foundation there is either from our Principles or our Practices to support it I am under some temptation to reply to this Author Nemo hoc potest credere nisi qui possit audere and this I hope may serve for my excuse if I have at this time appear'd in defence of a Charge in which every true Member of the Church of England is so highly concern'd Let the same Mind be in us pag. 15 16. which was also in those Primitive Christians before mention'd Let us still be careful to maintain the Character of the best Subjects as we have long asserted the most Loyal Principles that as the Prosperity of our King makes up a considerable part of our daily Prayers so by a sincere discharge of all humble Obedience towards him he may effectually see that excepting only our Duty towards God we are much more forward and ready to do his Majesty effectual Service than any Man can be whose Loyalty is not supported by Religion We set before our People the Examples of the Primitive Christians with what an humble Obedience they submitted themselves to their idolatrous Emperors and underwent the most cruel Persecutions for their Religion sake even when they had Power sufficient to have asserted their Faith and to have destroyed both the Idolaters and their Idols together and by these Maxims we exhort them to walk God be thanked Id. 2d Def. against the Bish of Condem est Part. p. 75 76. the Pulpits Zeal hath ever been employed to keep up in the Subjects that Duty which by God's Command they owe to their Prince and nothing is at this day next to our Zeal for our Religion more our desire and endeavour than to make Men Loyal to their Sovereign Our Pulpits still speak the same Principles of Subjection ☞ they ever did We are neither asham'd of the Doctrin of Passive Obedience nor afraid of its Practice tho some of your accquaintance have endavoured to laugh both that and us out of countenance Our steadiness to our Religion shall never make us fail in our Duty to our King. In one word We will both by our Preaching and Actions make it our business to fulfil that great Evangelical Precept of rendering unto Cesar the things that are Cesar 's and unto
God the things that are God ' s. Dr. Fowler There is nothing more certain than that for any of us to be false Dâ—sign of Christianity p. 243 251 252. and perfidious to be ungovernable rebellious or seditious upon the account of Religion it self is most unsufferable and inexcusable For if it be lawful to behave our selves after this manner upon any account whatever Religion would be the most useless thing in the World and if this were lawful upon the account of Religion only ☜ I will not stick to say that it will not be more useless and unprofitable than mischievous and hurtful Nor would the Christion Religion it self be worthy our profession if it would give us leave upon any design to allow our selves in the forementioned Immoralities or in any one whatsoever Thus to do is no other than to be irreligious to promote Religion to be unchristian to do service to Christianity and therefore to go the directest way to destroy it by the means we use for its preservation Thus to do is to oppose the Interests of our Religion to that of our Souls Id. Discour of Christian Liberty p. 175. â—ee his Discourse of Offences p. 9 10 11. and to cast these away in the defence of that It is come to that sad pass that preaching Obedience to Authority is as unacceptable Doctrin as can be to even many great Pretenders to Christianity altho it be done never so prudently and agreeably to the express Doctrin of our Saviour and his Apostles And the Notion of Obedience for Conscience sake seems almost lost among not a few which is one of the great Sins for which we have too great reason to fear there is a heavy Scourge near us Mr. Evans A moderate Man when the Honor of God or the King when Religion Sermon of Moderat 1682. p. 12. and the Welfare of his Country lye at stake then thinks it a most worthy and weighty occasion of imploying his Zeal and Activity in their Service of defending them with Courage and Resolution with his Life and Fortunes He never breaks the second Table to preserve the first nor make use of any ways to secure Religion that are contrary to or destructive of its Principles What Men esteem great Falshoods pag. 23. and call Toryism and Popery are really as true as Gospel pag. 34. I will conclude all with this Remark We may and shall if we do not timely take up bring in Popery by a heady and extravagant Zeal against it ☜ and ruin and enslave our selves by our fierce and passionate Contentions for Liberty Property and Safety p. 48. Give me the Man that is honest and constant to his Principles and to what he professes whatsoever Party or Perswasion he is of he is much more valuable to me than he that plights his Faith to the Church and gives all the Security that can be taken for his Conformity to it and then after he hath wound himself into its Communion and Preferments plays booty and acts like a Non-Conformist These are the treacherous Friends that like Vipers prey upon the Bowels of their Mother and betray her as Judas did our Lord with a Kiss Dr. Comber in his Religion and Loyalty Sec. Edit 1683. p. 8 3. v. pag. 12 13 c. If the Church of England did make worldly Interest the sole measure of her Actions they would never consider what was honest but only what was expedient and never stick at ill means to accomplish that which they account good Ends. We of this Church are perhaps the only Christians since the Primitive Ages who never dispens'd with our Loyalty to serve our worldly Ends. And if this do not commend our Policy I am sure it declares our Honesty and Integrity and must needs recommend us to all good Men as those who prefer our Duty and our Conscience before all earthly Advantages p. 39. No Religion in the World teaches and practises more Loyalty than that which is truly called Protestant and we doubt not but that if ever his R. H. should attain the Crown he will not blame our Church for that which was the Opinion of those who endeavoured to subvert it after they had renounc'd all Communion with it pag. 52. especially when it is further considered how constantly the true Protestants of the Church of England have loved and how faithfully they have served the Royal Family in all Fortunes how closely they have adher'd to the Interests thereof upon all Occasions so that whoever were true Sons of this Church our Kings have always reckon'd them their certain and undoubted Friends And when a Rebellion was designed against the blessed Father of his Royal Highness the Contrivers of it found it necessary first to seduce Men from the Church of England before they could engage them in so wicked an Action p 〈…〉 And since the happy Restoration they have incurr'd the Hatred of the bigotted Fanaticks for their perpetual standing for the King's Prerogative and their zealous promoting his and his Royal Highness's Interest The Pamphlets written in defence of the Bill of Exclusion p. 57. â—â— frequently transcribe whole Passages out of Doleman's Book Take some of their accursed Principles The Commonwealth hath Power to chuse their own fashion of Government as also to change it upon reasonable Causes The Commonwealth hath Power not only to put back the next Inheritors upon lawful occasions but also to dispossess them that have been lawfully put in possession if they fulfil not the Laws and Conditions by which and for which their Dignity was given them The Republick may cure or cut off their Heads if they infest the rest Princes are subject to Law and Order and the Commonwealth which gave them their Authority for the good of all may also restrain or take the same away again if they abuse it to the common evil The whole Body to superior to the Prince neither so giveth the Common-wealth her Authority and Power up to any Prince that she depriveth herself utterly of the same when need shall require to use it for her defence for which she gave it The Prince's Power is not absolute but delegate from the Commonwealth and is given with such Conditions and Oaths on both Parties as if the same be not kept by either Party the other is not bound With many other such Popish Positions So also the Apost Prâ—â— p. 4 5. and it is very observable that this wicked Libel of Doleman was in part reprinted Anno 1648. under the feigned Title of Several Speeches deliver'd at a Conference concerning the Power of Parliaments to proceed against their King's form of Government pag. 61. But the Protestant Church of England is not only better in all other accounts but doth hold teach and practise Loyalty above all others in the World the Divines thereof generally holding Monarchy to be of divine Right and Allegiance to be an Obligation on
Sclater What a joy will it be to thy Spirit and a lightning to thy Heart Royal pay paymaster on Rom. 2.10 p. 6 7 1â— when thou canst say thou didst not cowardly yield tho thou hast been disarm'd sequestred decimated and unrewarded for it 't was of God's mercy to be kept faithful to the righteous cause of God and the King when there were so many temptations to witdraw us from our Loyalty Fidelity and Loyalty is in a more especial manner required in a Subject towards his Sovereign 't is Treason in a Subject to fight against his Sovereign but how long must this Fidelity last a day or two or so Oh no I this Commandment is like that heavy saying in Matrimony till death us do part Dr. Hickman Serm. before Lâ—rd Mayor Juâ— 27. 1680 p. 17 18. The honor of God and the defence of his Worship are glorious Undertakings yet even here the excess of zeal is a crime and the great importance of the end cannot justifie any unlawfulness in the means the will of God as it is exprest in his Word is the standard of good and evil and he will not suffer his eternal Laws to be violated tho in his own defence if it should please him to give his and our Enemies such advantage over us as may endanger the exercise of our Religion we have our Prayers and other lawful endeavours for our redress but we must not defend our Church by an unlawful return of evil for evil nor like our Adversaries commit any Act of Impiety or Injustice tho under the most specious pretence of fighting the Battels of the Lord The goodness of the Cause here is so far from justifying the Act that it only aggravates the offence when a Law is violated or any injustice done for the sake of our Religion both the scandal and the Crime become conspicuous they are then laid at the door of our Church and bring a publick and perpetual blot upon our cause P. 19 v. p. 20 33. what can our Religion profit us or what honor can it bring to the Almighty when our Sacrifice comes polluted with blood and violence of its own how can it attone for our transgressions therefore it is necessary to obey not only for wrath ☞ but also for Conscience sake St. Peter who was the first that drew his Sword In his Master's quarrel was the first that denyed his name and forsook his cause and doubtless whosoever fights for his Religion against his Prince can never pass the muster without a Romish dispensation Mr. Ser. at Bath Aug. 7. â—631 p. 4 5 c. Jos Pleydall Arch-Deacon of Chichester Plebeians and Hobbists proceed upon one and the same Principle making the People the Fountain of all Power whereas Subjects owe a natural and inviolable Allegiance but if a Prince prove a Tyrant does he not by Male-administration forfeit the trust reposed in him in whose Opinion in the Opinion of Mariana or Knox Hobbs or Bradshaw i. e. in the judgment of Papists P. 8. Sectaries Atheists or Rebels 't is impossible there should be a Rebellion while the Principles of the Church of England are revered and owned that Kings may be Deposed and Murdered P. 11. we may reckon under the Apostles strange and monstrous Doctrins or rather under his Doctrins of Devils Mr. Assize Ser. p. 21 22. v. p. 5 78 16. Kimberley No pretences of Conscience or Religion can Authorize our Resistance of the lawful Powers which God hath set over us they never knew what it was in the times of the Primitive Christianity to oppose expel or destroy any Pagan Persecuting Arian or Apostate Emperor Mr. Assize Ser. p. 21. Jemmat None but God can absolve Subjects from that Allegiance and Obedience which they owe to their natural Lords neither the Male administration of Government nor their own fears jealousies nor the decay of Trade no nor the hazard of Religion it self can justifie the Acts of Rebellion they to whom God hath given his own Power are accountable to none but himself c. Mr. Serm. on 2 Chr. 13.5 p. 6. v. p. 8 15 18. Camfield The King is in the highest place and highest power and consequently all in his Dominions Every Soul of them are obliged to be subject to him none may presume to judge or resist him violently there can be nothing justifyable on the Subjects part but obedience and Submission the rest must be referred to God alone the only Ruler of Princes c. Mr. Ser. at York Aug 3. 1685. p. 16 24. 〈◊〉 loc Stainforth We have great reason to pity and pray for Kings for the eminency of their Station and uncontroulableness of their Power if Princes are bad Men and oppress their Subjects against reason and against Law we have no reason left us but Prayers to God in whose hands are the hearts of Kings Whatsoever Injuries they heap upon us whatsoever Violences and Persecutions we suffer under them we must not suffer our Passions to rise and swell againvt them much less must we take up Arms and by force resist their Persons or Authority P. 34. Those who take up Arms against their Sovereign's Authority fight against Heaven Mr. Graile Rector of Blickling in Norfolk publish'd four Sermons Lond. 1685. P. 44 45. For Loyalty to our Prince is a thing commanded by God himself together with Piety and Devotion towards himself yea and commanded in the very next place to it so that the one is a part an inseparable part a very considerable part of the other And it follows from hence by an apparent Consequence that Mens Disloyalty is a clear indication of their irreligion if they fear not the King they fear not God. ☜ If any Man seem to be religious and bridles not his Tongue from speaking evil of Dignities or Higher Powers Jam. 1.26 2 Pet 2.10 Rom. 13.2 P. 53 54 55. that Man's Religion is vain and 't is much more so if he holds not his hands from resisting these Powers Our Law will have no Error no Injustice no Folly no Imperfection whatsoever to be found in the King. All the States of the Realm joyned together all the Nobles and Commons and the whole Body of the People have not a Power and Authority equal to his For otherwise he would not be the King of a Kingdom but of single Men separately taken P. 56. The King is no substitute of the People but the Minister of God and his Power is the Ordinance of God. It is a contradiction to be Sovereign and to have a Superior The Lords P. 57. both Spiritual and Temporal together with all the Commons assembled in Parliament do by a solemn Oath acknowledg the King to be Supreme and themselves to be his Subjects And they have in publick Statutes particularly declared That both or either Houses of Parliament cannot nor lawfully may raise or levy any War offensive or
defensive ☜ against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Neither is the King accountable to them or to any other besides God These are the Essentials of Sovereignty There is but one Case wherein a good and loyal Subject will refuse to obey his Prince and that is p. 60 61 v. p. 66 96 97 119 120 154. when such Obedience will by no means consist with his Obedience to God But there is no Case whatsoever wherein he dares either to resist or reproach the Person or Authority of the King or to offer any Indignity to him To fight against him is to fight against God whom the King represents upon any pretence whatsoever it cannot be done without open Perfidiousness and Rebellion Such are Monsters of Men and are as natural brute Beasts made to be taken and destroyed So S. Peter describes them 2 Pet. 2.10 12. Mr. David Jenner in his Prerogative of Primogenitures * Lond 1635 P. 48. asserts the same Cause Altho the Law of God is indeed above all Kings and if they wilfully transgress the same they are all accountable unto God and unto God only for the same yet in this Kingdom of England no Statute Law is or can be above the King because it was the King that first gave life and being to the Law of the Land the King by his Royal Assent made the Law to be what it is viz. a Law But the Law of the Land did not make the King to be what he is viz. a King for the King was King before the Law. That the Doctrin and Practice of Deposing lawful Kings P. 122. and Excluding the right Heir from succeeding in the Throne for his being an Heretick Idolater ☜ tyrannical and wicked is grounded upon nothing but Popery and Fanaticism Mr. Hancock in his Answer to the Viscount Stafford's Memoires Lond. 1682. p. 31. I could make it evident that the same Maxims of Political Divinity the same Arguments and many times the same Phrases and Expressions are to be found in the Heads of both Factions I know 't is disputed whether the Ring-Leaders of Sedition among us poyson'd the Jesuits or the Jesuits them but I do not envy the Bishops of Rome the Honor of having first poyson'd them both with Antimonarchical Doctrins If Milton the great Oracle of one of the Factions had own'd himself to be a Papist there had been no reason to wonder at the Impiety of his Doctrins which he either did or might have learnt from the Popes and greatest Divines of the Roman Church It was truly alledg'd by Salmasius that the Doctrin of the sacred and inviolable Authority of Princes was preserved pure and uncorrupt in the Church till the Bishops of Rome attempted to set up a Kingdom in this World paramount to all Kings and Emperors but he with his usual Confidence acquits the Popes and charges his Antimonarchical Principles on Luther Zuinglius Calvin Bucer Martyr Parcus and all the Reformed Divines Bellarmine P. 50. Parsons Creswel Suarez c. are the Men that furnish'd the leading Faction among us with Principles and Precedents with Arguments and Texts of Scripture ☞ out of whom they either did or might have derived the Grounds of the War against the King of erecting an High Court of Justice and of bringing him to the Block John Goodwin P. 53. in one of his Pamphlets hath this remarkable Expression As for offering Violence to the Person of a King or attempting to take away his Life we leave the Proof of the lawfulness of it to those profound Disputers the Jesuits P. 166 c. I have fairly represented those Doctrins and Principles which strike at the very root of our establish'd Religion and Government with the Arts and Instruments which have been used by the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church for the Subversion of them ☞ And I know no stronger Argument against the truth and goodness of any Religion than that it supplants moral Righteousness and serves to be a Bond of Conspiracy allowes of Sedition and Treachery Injustice and Cruelty for how can that Religion be from God which maketh Men unlike to God as had or worse than if they were left to the Principles and Inclinations of their own Natures Of the Church of England I will only say It hath establish'd the Right of Kings upon such sure and unalterable Foundations that it is the Interest as well as the Duty of the Civil Power to support and defend it Mr. Animadv on Ob. Ch. Govern. Preface Smalridge Certainly that Doctrin which invades the just Rights of Princes can hope but for few Proselytes among those who have constantly defended them in their Writings asserted them in their Decrees and upon all occasions vindicated them with their Swords For we do not lye open to the imputation of a condition'd and distinguishing Loyalty who have shewed our readiness to imitate the glorious Examples of our Fathers and were prepar'd had not God's good Providence prevented our Service to have transcribed that Copy lately at Sedgmore which they set us formerly at Edg-hill And in truth our steady Fidelity to the Prince is so unquestionable that our Enemies have been pleased to ridicule what they could not deny and have made Passive Obedience bear a part in our Character when the Muse hath been enclin'd to Satyr Thus also the Person of Quality who wrote the Reasons Why a Protestant should not turn Papist P. 30 31. I am then quite out of conceit with your Religion since I cannot embrace it without endangering my Loyalty by reason of the Deposing Doctrin in case I live up to the pitch of its real Principles But 't is all one to me so long as I remain a Protestant what Religion my Prince is of tho I could wish he were of the same I profess because his Authority over me and my indispensible Obligation to submit to him do not depend upon his Opinion or Religion but upon his Birth-right yet have we not reason to doubt if the zealous sort of Roman Catholicks would not think it lawful to take Arms against their Prince turn'd a Heretick since the French League against Henry the 4th was upon this very account styled Holy and had I not been particularly acquainted with the Principles of the Church of Rome I had never conceived how it came to pass that such great Numbers of learned and well-meaning Men too could be guilty of such a horrible wickedness as that was and forget themselves so far as to pretend Holiness in an open Rebellion against their lawful Prince I am then more satisfied with the Loyalty of a Protestant especially of the Church of England who acknowledgeth the Prince to be a Supreme Governour over all his Subjects and Sovereign Judg in all Cases than with that of a Roman Catholick who seems to set limits to his Power by such restrictions as neither Reason nor Scripture can warrant Mr. Pomfret
Serm. called Subjection for Conscience sake p. 16. Must the free-born Subject break in upon the Birthrights and Liberties of the Crown and reduce it to Submission and Slavery that the humersom Christian may enjoy what he is pleased to call his Christian Liberty Christ gave not his Blood for this end nor did he make a purchase of a disobedient and gainsaying People Be confident no man can be God's Servant unless he be also a good Subject P. 22. Some mens Opinions and other mens Interests is the Conscience they so much talk of and then it is no wonder at all they cannot for their hearts obey when they themselves are setting up for Superiority Id. Pass Ob. stated and asserted pag. 3. P. 15. Passive Obedience is a patient and mild Suffering the hard and unjust Usages of Kings being both the Christian's Duty and Profession But this meek and Christian Principle was of late called to an account and with Arguments of Railery and Contempt endeavour'd to be hooted out of the World. Under the old Law when the King should usurp upon their Lands and Wives and Children 1 Sam. 8.11.18 all their Remedy was Ye shall cry out unto the Lord in that day c. They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation p. 17 18 19 21. It is in vain to say more being so plain to any Man to understand that seriously thinks of a day of Judgment when all the dawbing of Liberty and Property and Religion shall be wiped off and no pretence nor distinction satisfie against the evidence of Truth and so plain Expressions Mr. Nicolas Claget Disloyal Principles dispose Men to be unquiet Subjects Serm. on 1 Thes 4.11 p. 27. p. 22 23 38 39 40. such as these That all Power is from the People and is put into the King's hands upon trust that it is lawful for Subjects to enter into Covenants and Associations for the defence of themselves and their Religion against the Command of the Prince c. which are the Doctrins of Jesuits and Fanaticks See also Wilson's Disourse of Monarchy p. 15. 22 70 72.81 82. 106. 198. 207. 209. 248. 258 259. Mr. John Cook Serm. before the L. Mayor May 13. 1683. pag. 8 9. it 24 25. Dr. Jo. Price Seem Sept. 9. 1683. pag. 2. 12. 15. 18. Mr. Will. Bolton Coreh Redivivus pag. 9. 14. 29. Mr. Higham on Prov. 24.21 pag. 45 c. 86. 108. 123. 137. 157. 160. 175. c. Mr. Whitfield's Sermon before the L. Mayor Jul. 30. 1632. on Jude 8. Mr. Gifferd's Assize Sermon p. 12. Mr. Hyrick's Sermon July 26. 1685. p. 6 10 23 26. Mr. Brown's Sermon at the Visitation Apr. 12. 1681. p. 27 34. Dr. Smith Prebendary of Norwich Assize Serm. Sept. 13. 1668. p. 8 9. c. Id. Assize Serm. Feb. 27. 1672. p. 28. B. Rively's Sermon at Norwich July 19. 1679. on Rom. 13.4 p. 6 7. Dr. Thompson Dean of Bristol Serm. June 21. 1685. on Tit. 3.1 p. 3 5 6 14. 16 17 18 c. Mr. Bura's Serm. May 29. 1684. p. 25 27 c. Mr. Ethorowe's Scriptural Catechism p. 59. Mr. Alsop's Serm. on Exod. 20.12 p. 9 10 12 13 15 c. 24 25 30. Dr. Fr. Gregory's Serm. Nov. 5. 1679 p. 6 9 25. Mr. Will. Godman's Sermon May 24. 1660. p. 21 22 c. Mr. Luce's Serm. on 1 Pet. 2.16 p. 14 17 18. Mr. Fisher's Serm. Jan. 30. 1672. p. 11 13. Mr. Sayer's Assize Serm. Feb. 25. 1672. p. 38 40. Dr. Barnes's Serm. before the Univers of Cambr. p. 10 19 20 Mr. Crisp's Visir Serm. 1686. And very many other such Discourses and I have reason to suppose that if the Sermons of all the Divines of the Ch. of England on this subject were in Print the very Catalogue would swell to a very great bulk Doctrines of so pernicious a consequence to the publick Peace that it is enough to make us reject them as false without examining them further Such impious Doctrins and Principles as are destructive of the State and do leave Governments and Governors insecure * P. 44. And is Religion and God's Cause a Pretext for Treason and Rebellion This is next to Blasphemy and is an impious Reflection on the Wisdom and Power of God as if to bring about his own Designs he stood in need of our Devilish Devices I shall close this Chapter with the Testimony of Dr. Carswell Vicar of Bray Serm. at she Assize Mar. 3. 1683 / â— p. 25. in his State Reformer enquir'd into Designing Men still cunningly hide the disloyal Treachery in their Hearts their ambitious Designs their Disgusts and Disgraces at Court their Discontents for missng Places of Trust Command Profit or Honor under the Vizard or fair-fac'd Pretences of Religion or Justice P. 3â— they are only concern'd as Patriots of their Religion and Country c. If our Judges are unjust or the King had deputed none to hear p. 44. or none that would do Justice it were not then lawful to oppose or revile Be wise now therefore O ye Kings c. Tho the People may not daâ—e to revile p. 41. or presume to call you to an account yet the King of Kings whose Deputies you are will exact an account of your Stewardship God made not the People Judg of Moses's Actions but him of theirs The End of the Second Part. Some grosser ERRATA of the First Part. IN the Catal. of Authors read B. Montague p. 7. for primitive r. more early p. 18. for subscribed v. assented to for An. 1684. r. the same Year p. 32. r. Ficlerus p. 35. r. Al Kum p. 43. after or better him add the Paragraph in p. 46. And according to this Doctrin unto Malignants p. 54. r. Goodwin p. 74. for L. r. lastly p. 88. r. irreligious ERRATA of the Second Part. PAg. 1. for ought to read would willingly p. 5. l. 12. r. do deserve p. 9. r. an 1542 / 3. p. 11. marg r. Barnes p. 14. l. 18. r. as they p. 20. r. a Friend p. 32. l. 24. r. as he p. 36. must p. 53. how much p. 57. l. 1. the state dele after the words to following p. 59. l. 26. they could p. 70. l. 31. p. rend c. p. 79. l. 27. r. then p. 82. l. 36. for which r. and. p. 84. r. or Merode p. 88â— as if he p. 91. r. sorer p. 94. Abbadon p. 95. l. 2. r. whom p. 96. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 101. r. then only B. p. 104. marg Bowsin p. 105. l. 28. r. was the first p. 109. dele the Cicero of the Fr. Church dele Buckler of Faith. p. 112. l. 37. r. that Book is p. 127. r. 1661. p. 138. r. Theses p. 144. after B. Fell should be placed D. Allestry who is placed p. 147. and instead of Dr. Allestry should be placed p. 147. B. Thomas p. 149. r. wickedly The rest the Reader is desired to correct ADVERTISEMENT The Power communicated by God to the Prince ☞ and the Obedience required of the Subject Briefly laid down and confirmed out of the Holy Scriptures the Testimony of the Primitive Church the Dictates of right Reason and the Opinion of the wisest among Heathen Writers By the most Reverend Father in God James late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland Faithfully published out of the Original Copy written with his own hand by the Reverend Father in God Robert Saunderson L. Bishop of Lincoln with his Lordships Preface thereunto Sold by the Booksellers in London
☜ and bear all the ill administration that might be in the Government but never to rise in Arms upon that account * Id. third Letter to the E. of Middl. p. 168. I will do that which I think fit for me to do to day though I were sure to be assassinated for it to morrow but to the last moment of my life I will pay all duty and fidelity to his Majesty * Ans to the New Test c. p. 48 49. The Church of England may justly expostulate when she is treated as seditious after she hath rendred the highest Services to the Civil Authority that any Church now on Earth hath done she hath beaten down all the principles of Rebellion with more force and learning ☜ than any body of Men hath ever yet done and hath run the hazards of enraging her Enemies and losing her Friends even for those from whom the most learned of her Members knew what they might expect We are the only Church in the World that carries these principles to the highest We acknowledg that some of our Clergy miscarried in it upon King Edward's death yet at the same time others of our Communion adhered more steadily to their Loyalty in favour of Queen Mary than she did to the promises that she made to them The Laws of Nature are perpetual P. 51. and can never be cancell'd by any special Law so that if these Gent. own so freely that this is a Law of Nature that every individual might fight in his own defence they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much P. 52. As we cannot be charg'd for having preach'd any seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the preaching of the duties of Loyalty P. 55. even when we see what they are like to cost us Of all the Maximes in the World there is none hurtful to the Government in our present circumstances than the saying That the King's promises and the people's fidelity ought to be reciprocal and that a failure in the one cuts off the other for by a very natural consequence the Subject may likewise say that their Oaths of Allegiance being founded on the assurance of his Majesty's protection the one binds no longer than the other is observed and the Inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible if the Loyalty of the so much decryed Church of England does not put a stop to them But for that we may cite the Testimony of the Right Reverend Bishop of S. Asaph in his Seasonable Discourse c. We are Members of a Church Pag. 4. which above all other Constitutions in the Christian World enforces the great Duties of Obedience and Submission to the Magistrate and teaches to be subject not only for Truth but Conscience sake And among other Motives which he mentions in the behalf of the Established Religion The fourth says he is this The Safety of the King's Person and the Prerogative of the Crown which hath no higher or more necessary Appendent than his Supremacy in his Dominion in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Secular according to the Powers invested in the Jewish Kings under the Law ☞ and exercised by the first Christian Emperors To whom we may add the Right Reverend Doctor Sprat in his Sermon before the House of Commons Jan. 30. 1677 / 8. by them ordered to be Printed Where speaking of King Chalres the Martyr Who saith he not only by his Birth had a Successive Right to the Crown which he could not forfeit but also by his Personal Vittues might have deserved another Title to it if his Crown had been elective and as his Murderers impudently pretended at the Disposal of his Subjects pag. 3. So that he terms him the Vicegerent of God's Power ibid. pag. 44. He pleaded and prayed for his Enemies at the Bar of Heaven which only was above him And pag. 47. May all of us be most industriously watchful that the same Schismatical Designs and Antimonarchical Principles which then inspired so many ill Men misled some good Men and cost our good King so dear may not once more revive and insinuate themselves again under the same or newer and craftier Disguises and find an opportunity to attempt the like mischiefs And in another Sermon of his at White-Hall Pag. 44 45. December 22. 1678. Let us withdraw our thoughts and lift up our minds to the imitation of the most Christian Examples As of our Saviour himself so of his Apostles and Disciples in the first and therefore the best Ages How were they zealous for the Glory of God Not by violence or malice or revenge against any not eve nagainst their Oppressors but only by their own Labors and Prayers and Patience and Magnanimity in suffering How were they zealous in respect to their Temporal Governors Not to resist for conscience sake but rather to be subject for that very reason not by open Rebellion not by private Machinations but in blessing and serving and submitting to their Emperors tho they were Idolaters and obeying them in all things except their Idolatry Whom to imitate is our Duty SECT XXIII Mr. Thorndyke * Apud Falkner's Christian Loyalty p. 429. from the Instance of the Maccabees avers that it was lawful for Subjects to take Arms in Defence of their Religion under the Jewish State tho in that he be mistaken but expresly condemns taking Arms upon that or any other pretext under the Christian State. Dr. Spencer †Serm. at S. Mary's Cambr. Jun. 28. 1660 p. 4. the now Dean of Ely The Gospel doth very sparingly meddle with State matters but when it doth it engageth to Obedience by as obliging Principles as it doth to Religion even a Principle of Conscience we must be subject for conscience-sake not barely for safety's sake and a principle of highest fear They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation A Doctrine taught the World in the Type long before by that Fire and Earthquake which destroyed the Opposers of lawful Authority Numb xvi 33 34. P. 11 12. God hath attested unto Sovereignty by suffering none of his Servants in Scripture few or none in story to be guilty of willful opposing lawful Authority We find many a wicked Man guilty of this Sin but as Reverence to other Divine Commands wore off in time as the power that exalteth it self above all that is called God obtained in the world so to this among the rest of Obedience to lawful Authority P. 14. The Heathens used to reproach the Gospel on this account but the Pulpit was never intended to be a Circle in which to raise up the evil Spirits of Sedition and State-Commotions no Religion in the Doctrine of it so greatly secures the Power of Kings and the Peace of States ☜ as the Christian doth we are bound by the Gospel to be obedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. ii 18. to the crookedest and frowardest Masters