joined with the Revolutionists in deposing his Prince If he joins with Mr. Johnson in his Argument it is Common-wealth all over if he take up with the other Arguments of his Brethren Julian hath fairly â—iss'd them out of Doors I did once think that Men who raved against the Evasions Equivocations Mental Reservations Dispensations and other deceitful Arts and Tricks of the Jesuits had been Men of Plain dealing Simplicity and Integrity But since I have discovered that those very Men who made the deposing Power their Bell-wether Argument against the Papists were at that same time busie in contriving how to depose their own lawful Prince I have been prone to think that if you should take a Latitudinarian Protestant and a Jesuit and put them both in a Bag and shake them well together it would be hard to determine whether he that came out â—irst or last was the greatest Knave After the deplorable Consusions Divisions Wars Devastations and Oppressions they are the Words of the Act wherewith these Kingdoms were harassed in the former Rebellion the Wickedness of which no Man would have thought could have been exceeded had he not seen this the People jâ—ded with their own Folly and Villany and seeing no â—nd of the Rapine Madness and Cruelty of their Oppressors call Home their Lawful Sovereign King Charles the Second And in the 12th Year of his Reign but of his actual governing the first an Act passed wherein his undoubted Hereditary Sovereign and Regal Authority was acknowledged a perpetual Thanksgiving for his Restoration ordered to be annually and publickly kept All Ministers are thereby bound to celebrate it and to give God Thanks and publickly declare the extraordinary Mercies Blessings and Deliverances received all People are bound on that Day to repair to some Church or Chappel where the Service appointed may be had all Ministers to give notice of it the Lord's Day before and upon the Day to read the Act pablickly and distinctly to the People And this is again confirmed the 13th Car. 2. cap. 11. Certainly no Man that had a Grain of Honesty could think that any People could be guilty of such fulsome Hypocrisie and such downright mocking of God as to keep a publick Thanksgiving for the restoring one Brother to his Right and at the same time to plead the lawfulness of driving away and keeping out the other Brother by force of Arms when the Right and Title of both Brothers was exactly the same By what Authority do they call the other Rebels when they do the same thing Or is it a wicked thing in Presbyterians and Independents to depose Kings but lawful and commendable in Latitudinarians But if forty Parliaments had laid their Heads together to secure their Sovereign from any Violence or Harm against any Man Men or body of Men whatsoever of his own Subjects or most effectually to confute Mr. Johnson's Argument I cannot imagine how they could do it in more apt proper and full terms than is done by the Act 12 Car. 2. cap. 30. wherein it is declared That by the undoubted and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom neither the Peers of this Realm nor the Commons nor both together in Parliament nor the People collectively or representatively nor any other Persons whatsoever ever had have hath or ought to have any Coercive Power over the Persons of the Kings of this Realm Here plainly by a full and free Parliament and by universal consent all sorts and all bodies of Men are restrained from using any Violence to their King and this not only at present enacted but declared to be so by the undoubted and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom If this be true Bracton must be mistaken Or shall we esteem his Authority above that of the High Court of Parliament Or what shall become of his respectuetur ad Magnam Curiam when that very Court in this case denies it And that too upon this very account that the undoubted and fundamental Laws are against it There are many other Statutes which seem to be pursuant of this as 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. where that Opinion is condemned That both Houses of Parliament or either of them have a Legislative Power without the King by which alone all the Acts of the Convention are overthrown and all the pretended Authorities thereupon founded Hence in the same Act they proceed to condemn the Proceedings in the former Rebellion declaring That the Oath usually called the Solemn League and Covenant was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the fundamental Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom and that all Orders and Ordinances and pretended Orders and Ordinances of both or either Houses of Parliament for imposing of Oaths Covenants or Engagements levying of Taxes or raising of Forces and Arms to which the Royal Assent either in Person or by Commission was not expresly had or given were in their first creation and making and still are and so shall be taken to be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever Now as if they had had a Spirit of Prophesie this Act seems to be more strongly levelled against the Convention than the long Parliament for the long Parliament were called by the King 's Writ and by his assent to a Bill were continued till they should dissolve themselves but the Convention was a Mushroom sprung up of it self and remaining without root or foundation They were so far from having any colour of Law to warrant them that when they had traiterously driven away their King with Lies Noise and Threats they met contrary to all Law at the invitation of a Stranger their King's Enemy against whom they ought to have defended him and therefore were Traitors in that very Act The long Parliament indeed boldly assumed the whole Authority to themselves but withal they seemed not before hand to be destitute of a very considerable Legal Authority but the Convention as they had no manner of Authority in that case so they pretend to give the Supream Authority to one who as a Stranger had less Authority than themselves But neither could they give what they never had nor he receive from them what they had not to give and therefore this Act as strongly makes null and void all the Oaths Acts Orders Ordinances and Proceedings whatsoever of the present Government as they call themselves as it did the Solemn League and Covenant and other the proceedings of the Rump Parliament and Olivâ—r the First 13 Car. 2. cap. 6. There is an Act wherein it is declared That within all his Majesty's Realms and Dominions the sole Supream Government Command and Disposition of the Militia and of all Forces by Sea and Land and of all Forts and places of Strength is and by the Laws of England ever was the undoubted Right of his Majesty and his Royal Predecessors Kings and Queens of England and that both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to
pretend to the same nor can nor lawfully may raise or levy any War offensive or defensive against his Majesty his Heirs or lawful Successors c. And in the same Act the grounds of contrary proceedings they call Rebellious Principles the Governments set up against the lawful King they stile usurped Governments and the effect of such doings they say was almost the Ruine and Destruction of this Kingdom But what was wanting then we have just cause to fear will be made up now we are within a little of leaving out the almost and are upon the very brink of utter Ruine and Destruction Now if the sole Supream Government was in King James and the whole power and disposition of the Militia and all Forts and places of Strength were undoubtedly his Right and no War offensive or defensive may be raised against him then all those places were wrongfully taken from him and all the present Rebellions Proceedings and Usurpations are as void as the former It were no hard matter to heap up many other Statutes to this purpose but I think these sufficient for this was the Constitution when King Charles the Second died this was the state of the Government when King James the Second his lawful Successor entred upon it and all these Acts were in their full force when he was driven away and they assert maintain keep up and secure his Right and Supream Power as well against his own Subjects as Foreigners And therefore the Supremacy Authority and Right being still his as all proceedings against him are null in Law and condemned by it so all Persons thus unlawfully divesting him of that his rightful Supremacy and Authority have incurred the Centure of the fore cited Canon made pursuant to these Constitutions and must be adjudged to stand ipso facto excommunicate I am not insensible that by a certain side-wind an Objection may be here brought in which both Prerogative and Commonwealth-men have as it served their Turn insisted on That the Statute-Law is super-induced and to be in force according to the tenour of the old preceding Laws and Customs of England and if repugnant to them void if obscure and doubtful to be explained by them And I am informed that the Paltry I should have said the Poultrey Doctor in his private Pleas in making Converts or rather Perverts doth farther alledg That the Statute-Law is utterly insignisicant in it self and that we are wholly to be guided by antecedent Laws and Customs Whether he means by this to warrantize Rebellion by the worst of Precedents or would have all swallowed up in the Prerogative I cannot tell for he is as much for William as he was against King James so tempting a thing is even the bare hopes of a Bishoprick But against this I desire these few things may be considered 1st I humbly request this bold Doctor or any of his Complices to tell me in plain English Whether the august Court of Parliament which is brought together with so much Charge appears in such State and is stiled the highest Court in the Kingdom sits in all that Formality and Solemnity only to devise New-Nothings or to make Rattles and Baubles for Fools and Children For if his Objection be true I see not what they do more but must be the meerest piece of Pageantry that ever was 2dly It is observable that this Argument if not first trump'd up yet was most warmly managed in the time of King Charles the First when the matter of the Petition of Right was under debate and though they threw Dust in one another's Eyes and amused the Kingdom with sine Harangues about old blind antecedent Laws which no Body knew what to make of yet when they come to pen the Statutes they fairly leave them all to shift for themselves and found it wholly upon preceding Statutes as any Man may there see to his satisfaction 3 Car. 1. in initio 3dly That the fore-cited Statutes are so far from expressing any thing obscurely or doubtfully that they are as intelligible plain and easie as if they had been written with a Beam of the Sun Lastly and which indeed is most considerable all or most and the most pertinent of the fore-mentioned Statutes are not meerly constitutive but declaratory not barely telling us what for the future should be Law but informing us what by the old antecedent Laws were the undoubted Rights of the Crown and rule of Succession and indeed I can discover but two ways whereby the Crown can succeed according to our Constitutions viz. either bâ— Proximity of Bloâ—d in a lineal Succession or by the last Will and Testament of the present rightâ—ul Prince in Possession ratified in Parliament both which are mentioned in the Act of Settlement 35 Hen. 8. and made a rule of Succession for ever 1 Eliz. cap. 3. neither of which will do our Adversaries any Service And thus I think I have given as fair and full an answer to Mr Johnson as he hath done to the rest of his Brethren and the Obstacles being now removed may justly proceed to the Canon which declâ—res all such Persons as deny the Supremacy of their lawful King to be excommunicate ipso facto As to which I shall consider these several particulars First That this Canon is no Novelty but pursuant to and taking pattern from other Canons of the Church of Christ made all along for the security of Princes Secondly What is meant by Excommunication ipso facto Thirdly What is the State and Condition of Persons excommunicate Fourthly What ought to be the Behaviour of other Christians towards such as stand â—xcommunicate Lastly the particular restraint here laid as to reconciling such Persons who are censured by this Canon As to the first Christianity which not only teacheth but obligeth us to do good for evil took care of the Supremacy of the Supream Powers even when they were Persecutors but when Kings and Queens became Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers and took the Church into their Protection defending the Persons not only as Subjects but Christians and backing the Canons and Censures of the Church with Civil Laws and Penalties from thâ—nce the Church became bound not only in Duty but in Gratitude to contribute all she could to the protection of that lawful Government which protected her and to render the Civil Laws and Penalties more aweful and effectual did farther enforce them as occasion required but especially for the security of lawful Princes with the Threats and Terrors of Divine Vengeance which by Authority committed to her by God she had power to denounce against such Offenders The Doctrine of Obedience to lawful Powers has been a part of Christianity from its very first entrance into the World even then when it was the greatest Sufferer under them Thus our Blessed Saviour teacheth the Seditious Jews Mat. 22. 21. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are Gods Thus his Apostle St. Paul to the Romans
But to what purpose is all this Stuff Are we to judge of our Constitutions by the blind Tale of a little Historian or the contradictory Saying of an old Moth-eaten Lawyer who wrote in diâ—â—icult Times trod upon Thorns and was under a kind of Necessity to write so as that he might avoid the Rage of the several incensed Parties What a woful Condition are the People of England in if they must look five six seven or eight hundred Years downward for what they are to do now and to learn wherein and how far they are to obey their King Such Things fall in few Hands and are read by fewer and perhaps well considered by fewest of all Will Mr. Johnson have the present State of Affairs reduâ—ed to what was so long since Or will he be content that his Almighty House of Commons should be lâ—id aside because there was no such House at the time from whence he seâ—cheth several of his Authorities or at least not such a House as is now under the prâ—sent Constitutions And therefore I must beg his Pardon if in this case I little regard his far-fetch'd Stories and am bold to tell him that we are not to be ruled or guided by odd Remnants of Antiquity in this matter but by our present Constitution and if he can make that agree with his Old Stories he will go near to carry the Cause but if he cannot then both he and all the Revolutionists will stand for ever condemned by it Now I know not how to come to the knowledg of our Constitutions better than by our Laws and then for a Protestant Kingdom it may be convenient to look so high as the first establishment of Religion under that odd Title and to compare and view the agreement of our Laws all along from the first enterance of the Protestant Religion to the very time of King James's pretended Aâ—dication And here if I go so high as Henry the 8th 〈◊〉 I think I need go no farther than Queen Elizabeth and so trace Things to our own Time we shall thence learn the present Obligations we lay under when this Revolution came upon us I am not willing to create a Quarrel whether Henry the 8th were Papist or Protestant I will freely give the Papists my share in him For he that so â—obb'd the Churches that many Parishes have not Revenues to find a Minister Bread and burnt Protestants because they would not become Papists I think is much fitter for them than for us But be he what he will I cannot find that either he or his Parliament owned Mr. Johnson's Doctrine In the â—â—th of his Reign cap. 12. you will find it thus Enacted Where by divers sundry old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed That this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by one â—upream Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divided in Terms and by Names of Spirituality and Temporality been boundâ—n and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble Obedience Here a Parliament declares him 〈◊〉 subjects him to none but God and in the next following Words gives him plenary whole and intire Power Pre-eminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction And this they declare to be no new thing but to be taught by old Histories and Chronicles whose authentickness they vouch Now one would think that such authentick Histories and such Vouchers should make a better Authority thâ—n Mr. Johnson's Knighton But it is so well known what Authority Henry the 8th challenged and was owned by his Subjects that I need not insisâ—â—pon it Had our Author come abroad then with his new Inventions he himself perhaps would have found little better usage than Dr. Burnet's Pastoral Letter As for King Edward the Sixth we do not find that he any ways departed from the Authority his Father left him but though a Prince of great Hopes and pious Inclinations yet by the Seducements of some ill Persons about him entered farther upon the Ecclesiastical Authority than ever his Father did how justly I leave others to judge I cannot commend it And then for Queen Mary all Dignities Prerogative Royal Power Pre-eminence Priviledges Authorities and Jurisdictions are as fully wholly absolutely and entirely invested in her as in her Father or any her Predecessors by the Statute 1 Mariae Par. Sec. Cap. 1. To avoid tediousness I shall only touch upon such Statutes as speak home to this purpose and now we come to that which all sorts of Persons except Papists as with one Month stile the best Reign I mean the admired times of Queen Elizabeth in the first Year of whose Reign the Oath of Supremacy was enacted or rather revived in which amongst others are these two things asserted 1st That the Queen's Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal 2dly That no Foreign Prince Person I relate State or Potentate hath or â—ught to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Pre-eminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm By the first her own Subject's Hands are tied up by the second the Usurpations of Foreignes are excluded She could not be Supream much less only Supream if any Men or body of Men in her own Dominions had a Superior Power to depose her and it being not only their Duty but they also farther obliged by Oath to assist and desend her in this Supremacy and this Oath and Statute being transmitted in force to all her Successors any attempt by them to the contrary must necessarily be invalid and unlawsul And those who have a mind to know the Penalties which the Law insticts on Offenders in this kind may at their leisure read them in the same Statute Let us now desâ—â—â—d from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of King James the First and in the Act of Recâ—grâ—tion Anno 1. Jac. 1. cap. 1. after a long dutiful and humble Prâ—â—mble it is thus said We being bounden thereunto both by the Laws of God and Man do recognize and acknowledg and thereby express our unspeakable Joys That immediately upon the Dissolution and Decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood-Royal of this Realm as is aforesaid And that by the Goodness of God Almighty and lawful Right of Descent under one Imperial Crown your Majesty is of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty King and by God's
Goodness more able to protect and govern us your Loving Subjects in all Peace and Plenty than any of your noble Progenitors and thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our Selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever until the last drop of our Bloud be spent And do beseech your Majesty to accept the same as the First-Fruits in this High Court of Parliament of our Loyalty and Faith to your Majesty and your Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever Which if your Majesty shall be pleased as an Argument of your gracious Acceptation to adorn with your Majesty's Royal Assent without which it can neither be compleat and perfect nor remain to all Posterity according to our most humble Desires as a Memorial of your Princely and tender Affection towards us we shall add this also to the rest of your Majesty's unspeakable and inestimable Benefits Here they plainly acknowledg these two things 1st That the Crown descends by Proximity of Bloud and that immediately even before any Ceremony of Coronation or otherwise so that there can be no Inter-regnum or Vacancy of the Throne And accordingly it is a Maxim in Law that Rex non moritur 2dly That the assent of the King is that which gives the Life Being and Vigour to Laws without which they are of no force Now how the late Proceedings which were directly against both these can be valid ought to be made very clear at least it ought to be better proved than by the capricious Opinion of one single private Person against a full and lawful Parliament In the Third Year of the same King James was Enacted the Oath commonly called the Oath of Allegiance not but that the same thing was practised before though not in the same Words which may be tendered to any above the Age of eighteen which restraining the Subject not only from deposing but from offering the least violence or harm to the King and obliging all Subjects so faithfully to assist their King against both Domestick Traitors and Foreign Usurpers and being so directly contrary to and utterly inconsistent with Mr. Johnson's Doctrine I think fit to insert it here at large I A B do truly and sincerely acknowledg profess testifie and declare in my Conscience before God and the World That our Sovereign Lord King James is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of all other His Majesty's Dominions and Countries and that the Pope neither of himself nor by any Authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any Power or Authority to depose the King or to dispose of any of his Majesty's Kingdoms and Dominions or to authorise any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance and Obedience to his Majesty or to give licence or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise Tumults or to offer any Violence or Hurt to his Majesty's Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesty's Subjects within his Majesty's Dominions Also I do swear from my Heart That notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the â—ope or hiâ— Successors or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs or Successors or any Absolution of the said Subjectâ— from their Obedience I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to â—he uttermost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Contempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and Traiterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them I do farther swear That I do from my Heart abhor detest and abjure as Impious and Heretical this damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murdered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any Person whatsoever hath Power to absolve me of thiâ— Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledg by good and full Authority to be lawfully ministred unto me And do renounce all Pardons and Dispensations to the contrary And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledg and swear according to these express Words by me spoken and according to the plain and common Sense and Vnderstanding of the same Words without any Equivocation or Mental Evasion or Secret Reservation whatsoever And I do make this recognition and acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly upon the true Faith of a Christian So help me God If foolish wicked Men did not make their Reservations and endeavour to put Tricks even upon God whom they call to be a Witness of the Truth of what they swear and an Avenger if they swear falsly there would need nothing more to coâ—â—in Subjects in their Loyalty But still to improve this matter farther 7 Jac. 1. cap. 6. an Act tells us That this Oath tends only to the Declaration â—f such Duty as every true and well-affected Subject not only by Bond of Allegiance but also by the Commandment of Almighty God ought to bear to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors So that though this Act obliges all Persons of the Age of eighteen Years upon pain of incurring a Praemunâ—â—â— to take this Oath if tendered yet it gives us to understand that it is only a super added Obligation to secure our lawâ—ul Prince and keep the Subject to his Duty and that though the Oath be not taken yet the natural Allegiance of every Subject binds him to the same thing And though it was principally yet not only made with relation to the Bishop of Rome but to all others as expressing that Allegiance which obliges Subjects to stand by their Prince against all his Opposers Enemies and Underminers whatsoever I do not know that any Foreign Powers the Pope excepted so much as pretend to a Right to depose lawful Princes nor did even the Prince of Orange when he came over pretend to any such Power by his Declaration and it seems to me to be no better than an impudent Contradiction when Men acknowledg that no Foreign Power can depose a lawful Prince to say that his own Subjects who by the Laws of God and Man owe him Allegiance and are bound with the utmost hazard of their Lives to defend him may do it And it see us to me worth Observation that Dr. Stillingfleet in his Preface to the Jesuit's Loyalty proves that the Pope deposes Princes upon Common-wealth Principâ—es Now I would willingly know upon what Principle the Doctor hath