The History of Self-Defence c. THere being nothing so natural to a Creature indued with life as by all means possible to endeavour the perserving of it it may be justly matter of admiration to the considering part of the World that some that seem to have improved their understandings many degrees beyond the reach of Ordinary Men in all manner of Knowledge should yet degenerate so far as to be more stupid than the Brutes themselves and not only endeavour to perswade men out of their senses and render them meer Statues but flout at yea represent them as persons not worthy to be suffered to live in the World who cannot be so far bewitched out of both their Reason and Sense but stand up for the Common Interest of Mankind and maintain the Common Liberties and Priviledges thereof than which none is more innate nor more approved either among Christians or Heathens some few self-designing and other weak persons hood-winkt by them excepted than that of Innocent self-defence is which if it could be removed from the minds of men what could be expected in the World but Tyranny and all manner of Injustice and Oppression And though many of late are sufficiently perswaded of the folly if not wickedness of those principles and returned to their right wits again yet how many are there still whom either the Vanity of being accounted constant in their Opinions or some worse principle keeps as Stiff and Tenacious of their mischievous Tenet as ever Yea so far have they blinded themselves that they cannot or at least will not see what mischiefs they have already brought upon these Kingdoms that 't was next to a Miracle that they had not been inevitably ruined and tho' a year ago many of them were sensible of their being too active in propagating such principles and seemed to resolve for the future not to be so instrumental in their own Thraldom yet no sooner was the Storm over but they straight licked up their Vomit again and have become as great Wonderers after that Beast as ever and as ready to condemn all those that maintain that great principle of Self-defence which is the only Bulwark against Slavery and Tyranny as Rebellious Seditious Enemies to Kings c. Wherein they bewray their Gross Ignorance since Rebellion as such must needs consist in the Offensive and not in the Defensive part as we may see from both Sacred and profane History to instance but a few that of the 5 Kings of the Cities of the Plain who had served Chedarlaomer 13 years and so owned him for their Lawful Soveraign and without any Acts of Oppression committed by him against them at that time rebelled That of Corah which has been so much insisted on when there was not the least injustice committed by Moses against them not to mention others there being no just reason in both cases why they should have rebelled seeing they enjoyed both their Priviledges and Lives As for their branding honest spirited men as being Enemies to Kings there is no man if he reflects impartially upon our Non-resistance men but must acknowledge that none have proved more mischievous to Kings than they Tho we have sufficiency of Instances to prove the Truth of this yet if we but look back to that unfortunate Prince the late King James as being freshest in our memory we may easily see it For who knows not that that Prince might have still been sitting upon his Throne and that whatever Zeal he might have had for his Religion yet would not have run so great a risque as Illegally to introduce it and to overturn the Constitution of our Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical had he not believed that because that Opinion had got such an Ascendant about his coming to the Crown that his Subjects would prove another Thebean Legion nay hold out their Throats to the Knife and unconcernedly suffer themselves to be bubbled out of their Religion Lives and Liberties Nay were not the Patrons of this Asinine Opinion opprobriously twitted by the Jesuits here when in their highest Elevation that tho' His then Majesty should introduce Popery and put all his Protestant Subjects to the Sword yet they must not resist him under the pain of damnation Nor do I believe that any Prince under the Size of a Tyrant will look upon such men as any other than self-seeking Parasites and equally Enemies both to him and his Subjects whom a Good Prince will cherish as his Children Nor will he fear notwithstanding it be the Received Opinion that in case a King should degenerate into a Tyrant and instead of maintaining his Subjects in their Rights and Priviledges should oppress and destroy them they may justly defend themselves against his Invading of their Rights seeing he never designs any such thing and 't is certain that while King confines himself to the Legal Exercise of his Office there is not the least ground to fear that any Party can be made against him but there shall be 40 to one for them and if he has reason to fear any I humbly conceive it is our passive Obedience men for as they do applaud even the worst of Princes in their most Arbitrary Actions if they find them for their purpose so as they may have some Ascendant over them and such as are like them as too plainly appears in their now Justifying and wishing success to that most Christian Tyrant not to mention others so it is more than probable that they do not love to have a Good Prince over them which is sufficiently verified by their carriage towards their present Majesties But to come to the matter I design since a late Anonymous Author has brought over some of his passive Commodities as he says from Amsterdam a place where that precious Pearl is as meer a Drug as in any Empory in the World which makes me think that our Author is so enamoured with his Strumpet Non-resistance that he has lost his senses or it may be drowned them with drinking of King James's Health In opposition thereto I shall only present the Reader with a short History of self-defence which shall not consist meerly of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that History does but a plain Relation of matters of Fact from Histories both Sacred and Profane and shew that however that has been traduced by weak men or men of depraved principles yet in all Ages of the World it has been received as the Soveraign Remedy against Oppression by as Wise Pious Learned men as any that are or have been in the World and in number infinitely exceeding the other and that they never questioned the Lawfulness thereof when necessity forced them thereto for otherwise it cannot be Self-defence and have by a timeous innocent use thereof preserved their Lives and freed themselves from the Oppressions they groaned under and have procured themselves such a lasting settlement that their Posterity since happily enjoys what they thus purchased for them The first
of several Learned Men. But his design is no less than since he sees that he and his Party cannot carry on their mischievous purposes to stir up and exasperate the minds of simple inconsiderate people against those Learned Men. For all men of consideration must acknowledge that the best and most Learned Men are not exempted from Errors as also that there is scarce any man so even tempered but that sometimes Passion and Prejudice against a Party may carry them out too far in a preposterous Zeal so as to utter not only many unbecoming expressions against the Opinions of a Party they have a dislike at but even to run too far upon the extream And this is no new thing in the World But that those Learned Men have remitted of that heighth of Loyalty which they maintained at the times when they published those sayings which he quotes seems to me clear from this That since the Restauration of King Charles II. that subject was mostly insisted on and that chiefly as I believe from a detestation of the Barbarous Murder of King Charles I. and especially towards the latter end of his Reign and the beginning of the late King James's when yet there was not half the danger of its being transgrest by those of the Communion of the Church of England at least as towards the latter end of King James's Reign when the generality of the Church of England was discontented and yet then when it was in most danger to be laid aside especially about the time when His Present Majesty was Undertaking his Expedition for our Delivery it was not in the least insisted on any where that I could hear of which if it had been effectually done and people practised accordingly who doubts but we had been in worse Circumstances than ever For the Army that was brought over could have signified nothing against King James's had not to give them our Authors denomination so many Rebellious Subjects joined them Now I can see no other reason why they did not insist on it then but that they saw the evil of running out too much upon it formerly and considered that if they should slight so favourable a Providence as God had offered for delivering them from Popery and Slavery they should justly have forfeited all share of the Compassion of God when their destruction would have been so manifestly of themselves and incurred the just hatred and indignation of all Protestants abroad whose security depended upon theirs and the derision even of Papists themselves And what reasonable Man will condemn them for renouncing a Doctrine which if they had at that time retained it would have ruined Three Kingdoms To conclude since what follows of his Preface is much the same with what has been taken notice of above I shall pass it Any understanding Reader may easily smell out the design of it as also of publishing the Declaration of a lately deceased Prelate the publishers whereof seem to have had little respect to his credit when they exposed what he wrote in his weakness to publick censure But I am very far mistaken if it carry any more weight in it than the dying words of some of the Cameronian party in Scotland since his Reasons he produces for it have no greater strength than theirs had and they died with as much comfort as he and which is more died actually for that which they gave Testimony to which he did not tho it 's true he was suspended for it But grant he had died for it yet should we embrace every Opinion upon our seeing some dye for it we should change as many Opinions as there are points in the Compass And seeing the great Argument they insist upon is that since they have Sworn Allegiance to the late King they cannot Swear to any other during his Life if some do not go further viz. the pretended Prince of Wales's and whither that would tend the Reader may judge I shall only adduce one Instance out of Scripture that seems to come pretty near our case viz. that when Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and made Zedekiah his Prisoner tho' that King was of a different Religion and Foreign Nation which was of great weight among the Jews yet all the honest Men of the Jewish Nation owned his Authority and were justified by the Scripture for so doing Tho' there was a Party of them that would not set on work by the King of the Ammonites who designed no less in it than the utter destruction of that People as we know a Neighbouring Tyrant that is and has been no less active in stirring up People here with the same design as that King did then yet we see from Jer. 42. what sort of Men they were And tho' I doubt not but some of those that refuse to take the Oaths do it in the sincerity of their Soul yet it is too plain that there are too many of the same sort of men amongst theâ— But I hope that all true hearted Englishmen and good Protestants will in thâ—â— their day know the things that belong to their Peace before they be hid from their Eyes and as they have hither to appeared for their Religious and Civil Liberties in devolving the Government upon their present Majesties so they will concur with them in setting the three Kingdoms and endeavour to bring to exemplary punishment all such as disturb the Peace of our Israel FINIS
it that King went home displeased but did not intend to proceed any further in it tho Jezabel found out a trick to take away both his Life and it by suborning persons to swear Treason against him So that this Argument bears not that force in it which they would perswade themselves it has I shall add a 3d Scripture to the former which is likewise stretched beyond its native meaning viz. that in the Psalms Touch not mine Anointed do my Prophets no harm For it is plain from the words preceding that these words were directed to Kings themselves to shew them that tho' they were called the Lords Anointed yet he in a special manner owned the Children of Israel his peculiar People as his Anointed and they being then but few in Number and the Kings designing to cut them off he thereupon shewed them that he would maintain their cause against those Kings and if they wronged them he would take it as done to himself and redress it And the words may very well be rendred thus with a Supplement and then they shew how remote their sense is that apply it immediately to Kings viz. Yea he reproved Kings for their sakes saying unto those Kings O ye Kings Touch you not mine Anointed and do you my Prophets no harm And I wonder if any Non-resistance man can say that this is not the Immediate and native sense of the words How far fetcht then must the Consequences be which those Gentlemen have made from them A 2d Instance from Scripture and which imports a greater Opposition than a meer self-defence is that of the 10 Tribes of Israels revolting from Rehoboam upon his harsh return to their complaint of the Grievances of his Fathers Reign and desire that he would redress them 1 Kin. 12.1 c. For that King rejecting the good advice of his Fathers sage Counsellors and following the Council of Young Loyal Tory Dammee boys would own his Authority from none but God and for that insignificant Mob he did not value them but said that his little finger should be heavier than his Fathers Loins whereupon they fell away from him and made choice of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat for their King And yet we no where hear them condemned for it in Scripture as we find they were for Idolatry and other crying sins So that it seems our Passive Obedience Gentlemen have found out new Scriptures who will have whatever they are pleased to interpret Rebellion one of the grievousest sins that can be committed And this thing was done by the Lord himself as is clear from the Text and therefore if it was a sin God must be the Author of it which those Gentlemen are very far from asserting Yea when Rehoboam had like a brave-spirited Prince raised a great Army to reduce them again to Obedience to him their Natural Soveraign the Lord forbid him by Shemajah the Prophet in 1 Kings 12.19 Thus saith the Lord you shall not go up nor fight against your Brethren the Children of Israel return every man to his house it is of me As for that word 1 Kings 12.19 So Israel rebelled against the House of David it may be as well rendred as it is in the Margent the Dutch fell away and Junius renders it they made defection and tho the word Rebellion had been used here it would not have imported a sinful Rebellion no more than 2 Kings 18.7 Where Hezekiah is said to have rebelled against the King of Assyria which was a fruit and effect of the Lords being with him and prospering him in all his undertakings Now since by this Instance we see that the People without sin otherwise no doubt they would have been severely reproved for it in the Scripture did thus as to the 10 Tribes unking Rehoboam because he would not promise to redress their just Grievances or to apply it to our Custom because he would not take the Coronation Oath whereby Princes bind themselves not to oppress their Subjects but to exercise as Gentle a Gevernment over them as possibly they can how much more is it lawful for Subjects to defend themselves against the unjust Invasions and Oppressions of one who designs not only to overturn their Religion and to introduce an Idolatrous Worship but likewise expose all their Lives to the mercies of those who have been guilty of the horridest cruelties that ever were perpetrated upon Earth And not only the People were never reproved for this but even the Arch Rebel himself Jeroboam was never charged with any guilt in this Action tho' he was severely checked for setting up the Golden Calves from whence he had the denomination of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin which he did meerly upon a Political account lest the 10 Tribes resorting yearly to the Passover and other Feasts at Jerusalem should at last be perswaded to forsake him and return to the House of David That he was never in the least charged with any sin in this appears from the Words of Ahijah the Prophet when Jeroboam sent his Wife in disguise to him about his Child that was sick 1 Kings 14.7 8 9. c. A 3d is that of Elisha's resisting those commissionated by the King to kill him 2 Kings 6.32 Saying to the Elders who sate with him in his House See ye how this Son of a Murtherer hath sent to take away my head look when the Messenger cometh shut the door and hold him fast at the door is not the sound of his Masters feet behind him You see here that the King offered unjust Violence to the Innocent Prophet and sent a Ruffian to take away his life without just cause and the Prophet defendeth himself against him as well as he could in such circumstances for he causeth hold him at the door and violently press him or press him betwixt the door and the Wall which speaketh violent Resistance The Dutch Annotations render it Keep him by force at the door And Josephus is of Opinion that the King followed quickly after lest the Prophet should have killed his Servant By which it would seem that private persons for the Prophet was such might sometimes lawfully defend themselves against unjust violence offered them by Kings or their Emissaries And if so there cannot remain the least doubt of the Lawfulness of a Community or Body of the Peoples defending themselves against the Unjust Encroachments of a King upon their Religion Lives and Liberties when he is endeavouring to subvert the fundamental Constitutions on which the Preservation of all depends 4. The City of Libna 2 Chron. 21.10 Revolted which is the highest degree of resistance from wicked King Jehoram who when he obtained the Kingdom of his Father strengthned himself and slew all his Brethren with the Sword and likewise several of the Princes of Israel v. 4. and walked in the way of the Kings of Israel as the house of Ahab did for he took Ahabs Daughter to Wife and wrought that which was
themselves to what defence they could make by the Sword of the Word and Patience The City Tabor which they had built was likewise Sackt and they dispersed But Rokyzana when he saw the Pope tantalized him with the vain hopes of the Archbishoprick began to thunder out afresh against the Pope as Antichrist and to separate from the Latin and unite with the Greek Church But the Pope knowing that the only way to stop a Dogs Mouth when he is a snarling is to throw him a Bone gave him his Bishoprick after which this good Bishop was pleased to interceed with King George to grant them free Liberty to dwell in the Mountainous parts of Silesia whither they went in the year 1459. Giving themselves wholly to the reading of the Scriptures and Prayer their Faith and Lives being framed according to Apostolical simplicity But their Peace was not long lived as it seldom ever was in a Church when it had no other means left it but Prayers and Tears for that good Bishop it's like out of a pious design to nip so dangerous a faction as that was in the bud and to advance Mother Churches peace informing the King what dangerous men those were perswaded him to use his fatherly Chastisement to reduce his Rebellious Subjects to their due Obedience which could not be done without an Uniformity in matters of Religion and Ceremonies So that they were forced to betake themselves to the Woods and Caves where they durst not kindle fire in the day time in the extremity of Cold lest the smoke should discover them to their Enemies See Regensvolc Hist Slavon p. 2.29 c. Who relates a great many things of these Brethren even till the times of Erasmus who himself did not disapprove their Opinion 3. When in the year 1529 a Meeting of the States of the Empire was held at Spire Sleidan l. vi vii xvii Thuan l. iv Hist a Decree was published which very much straitned the Liberty of the Protestants Joh. Elector of Saxony Geo. of Brandenburgh Ernest and Fran. of Lunenburgh Phil. of Hassia protested publickly against it on April 19. And several Cities as Strasburg Norimberg Ulme and others subscribed their Protestation from which time they had the name of Protestants And when they were threatned a War by the Emperor the rest of the States of the Empire and all the Popish Faction they entred into a League at Smalcald on Nov. 23. to defend their Religion and Liberties against their unjust Invasions And afterwards in the Year 1547. The Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hassia gave the Emperor battel at Mulberg where they were routed by his Army and Friderick Elector of Saxony after he had received several wounds was taken Prisoner And in the year 1552 Maisrice of Saxony made War upon the Emperor to procure the Landgrave of Hassia his Father in Law his Liberty And he made so great Expedition that he was upon the Emperor before he was aware and did so surprize him that he made him fly from Mulhousia in the Middle of the Night and set at Liberty both the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave And when Maurice had almost over-run all Germany a Peace was concluded at Passaw by the Mediation of Ferdinand King of Hungary and Bohemia wherein Liberty of Religion according to the Auspurg Confession was established 4. It is no less certain that the French Protestants defended themselves against Authority Thuan. Slâ—id Contin Gallasius c. when they saw that they were designed as sheep for the Slaughter and that great Armies were raised there and much blood shed so that Rivers are said to be coloured with Blood And when it pleased God so to defend those distressed Protestants that their Bloody Enemies could not obtain their ends by open Hostility they betook themselves to that Inhumane way of Massacring and having gathered together most of the leading Protestants of France under pretence of solemnizing the Marriage of that Kings Daughter with the King of Navar they cut them off in one night to the number of 70000 that so the Countrey People being destitute of their Leaders might be a Prey to them Now had our so much magnified Doctrine of Non-resistance been in force there there had been no need of having recourse to such Inhumane a Method as this for there needed no more if so be they would have made no Opposition in their own defence but stringed them up in hundreds and thousands 5. It is likewise sufficiently known how the Protestants of the Netherlands defended themselves against the Tyrannical Oppressions and Cruelties of the King of Spain and the Duke de Alva his Governour Stad de Bello Belg. Grot. Meteran Redan when the Inquisition was set up there whereby several of their Nobles were cut off and that at that time William of Nassaw Prince of Orange made his Escape to his Father in Law Maurice Elector of Saxony At the news of whose escape Granvellan said that it signified little that the Counts of Horn and Egmond were taken since that Quiet thinking William had made his Escape He returned afterwards and was made use of by God as the Great Instrument of the Delivery of Gods Church and People there and defended them against their Bloody Enemies And had not God stirred up this great Prince to put a stop to that Tyrants fury and to resist his unjust Incroachments upon the Peoples Liberties and defend the true Apostolick Faith against the Romish Innovations 't is a great Question whether that had not still been a Land of graven Images And had Non-resistance been in Vogue there we had been deprived of that Great Mercy we now enjoy in having a Prince descended of his Loyns to reign over us For that Noble Family had then been undoubtedly destroyed 6. To name no more tho' several others might be instanced It is likewise known how in the beginning of the Reformation in Scotland the same Method was taken there viz. that some of the Nobility and People when they saw that Queen wholly abandoned to the Counsel of her Priests and when no Petitions could avail any thing entred into a mutual League to defend themselves against what unjust force should be attempted against them tho' in the mean while they treated that Queen very honourably and would have given her all deference possible but only they found it as much for her good as theirs to prevent her embruing her hands in the Blood of the Saints and her making opposition to God in that great work he was bringing about there And it pleased God so to espouse their Quarrel that they freed themselves from that Romish Yoke under which they had so long groaned and revived the pure Apostolick Religion there By all which Instances it appears that the Doctrine of Self-Defence is not such a Bugbear as our Non-resistance men would make it But that it has been more or less practiced in all Ages nor can they shew half
betwixt them and the People which were to be mutually observed for 't is very improbable that People would give up themselves as Bondslaves to that Prince but entrusted him with the Government meerly that they might under him lead quiet and peaceable Lives and since he had no right to Tyrannize over People his Successors could have no more right than he and if he or they did endeavour to oppress the Subjects encroach upon their Liberties and Priviledges they might lawfully defend themselves But this Subject is too large to insist upon and therefore I must leave it tho' in our Gentlemans opinion one of the Fundamental Points of Christianity Another Damnable Doctrine that makes this good Mans hairs stand an end is That when Religion is a part of our Property it may be defended Ibid. But why should this be such a Bugbear For what has been more dear to all Nations in the World than Religion If Civil Priviledges may be maintained and if we enjoy as them helps to us in our Religion or serving God then it will follow that we may much more maintain our religious Priviledges Nothing can be more dear or more worth the preserving in a Land than the freedom of our Religion Has not the Scripture it self reckoned it the greatest of Priviledges when it said Blessed are they that hear the Joyful sound And if it be such a Mercy may we not at least use all the means for maintaining of it that we may do for a Mercy of an Inferiour Nature But I would fain know if a King should go about to put down the Hierarchy and Ceremonies of the Church of England what our Author and his Party would do whether or no they would defend their Religion He that would think they would patiently sit with it would I doubt not be mightily mistaken Nay have we not sufficiently seen of late what they would do by the practice of their Brethren in Scotland and their publick Approbation of it here in most Coffee-houses For none have been so Industrious of late and that with a mischievous Design to stir up people against the Government as those very Men in buzzing it about here that the turning out of the Bishops in Scotland was the only occasion of Dundee's Rebellion there And why have so many of them Vindicated them for so doing Of all men of the World it least became them had they considered how contradictory that behaviour is to the Doctrine of Non-resistance they would have had more prudence whatever they thought than to have said so So that by this we may see however Heterodox this Opinion is That Religion when it is a part of our Property may be defended yet those Gentlemen would maintain it when it makes for their Turn He concludes this Paragraph with telling you that he speaks this God knows to confute the Calumny Page 5. and with the deepest sence of the Interests of a poor despised Church which is still and will be the best the most Orthodox and most Primitive of all Christendom Magisterially spoken But why despised I know no Man despises her but it would seem our Author by his despised Church means only those persons that have refused to take the Oaths And it is no wonder if that party of it be despised that out of a humour or some sinister Arbitrary design advance such Doctrines in the World as have such a tendency to the enslaving and Oppression of Mankind in General But this Gentleman talks more like a Son of Infallibility than one that acknowledges a Church to be fallible For why should he thus extol the Church of England so highly beyond all other Churches That she is a famous Church none will deny and also that she has as Learned and Pious men in her Communion as any other Church But it is always a sign both of Prudence and Modesty not to run out too much in our own Praise The Proverb holds still Laus proprio fordescit in ore I could wish it were more minded by those men when they thus claim to themselves an Excellence beyond all other Churches This more becomes a Church that pretends to Infallibility than any other We have heard of a Church that said she was rich and well clothed and stood in need of nothing when yet she wanted every thing I do not say this as If I thought that her case were the same with that of that Church but only that she and every other Church should not think of themselves so as to despise all others But he not only says that she is but that she will be which yet savours more of Infallibity Could our Author spare so much time from reading those places in the Scripture which he thinks make most for Non-resistance I would desire him to read the second and third Chapter of the Revelation and there he would find that the Seven Churches of Asia which the Spirit of God called the Seven Golden Candlesticks were once as famous Churches as ever the Church of England or any other Church was and yet many years ago there has been little resemblance of a Church there And the same may befal her or any other Church But if it do not I am sure she need not thank this Author or any of his Party for it for could they bring about their designs she would quickly be brought to that pass when we had the Romish Crew again brought in amongst us That Citation he quotes out of Cressy is as little to his purpose and he mentions it only to make us believe that Mr. Calvin and other Protestants abroad were Champions for Non-resistance Ibid. but if so how came so many Pulpits to thunder out against Calvin and other Foreign Protestants as the Broachers of Sedition And why were several of their Works burnt at Oxford An. 1683. when Non-resistance was culminant However it seems he is a very good-natured Gentleman and would make Mr. Calvin some redress for the Injury that has been done to his Reputation But to let you know the sincerity of his Undertaking he tells you that he intends no Disturbance by it Ibid. since he only does the Office of an Historian in barely citing his Authors and so he excuses himself from making good every Argument therein since the Authors most of them being alive are obliged to manage that wherein he is to be commended for his Prudence for I am afraid it would have been too difficult a Task for him But I thought that the Evidence of Scripture and Reason was to be a Protestants Rule and not blindly to believe as the Church or generality of her Fathers believe And therefore he would have done much more for his Cause had he himself demonstrated the Necessity of Non-resistance by solid Arguments taken from Scripture and Reason and the universal practice of all sober men than by thus setting down a multitude of it may be not a few of them wrested expressions