Government before he obtained it And Ethelwolf a Monk a Deacon and a Bishop yet Elected King because they could not find a fitter Person for the Crown Edwin by his Miscarriage turn'd his Subjects Hearts and the Mercians and Northumbrians revolted and swore Fealty to his Younger Brother Edgar The Danish Kings were approved by the Lords during their short time of Reign here Edward the Confessor by general Consent was admitted King Harold chose himself and ravish'd a Crown and he fared accordingly for his Intrusion without the Consent of the People All that is intended by this short Account is only to shew That Succession was not always esteemed so Sacred and that Non-Resistance hath not been so stanch'd a Doctrine always as some now would pretend To come nearer to our present Case Let 's see the Opinion of Councels and Divines and perhaps we shall not need to be much out of Countenance for assisting the Prince of Orange in the Vindication of our Civil Rights and Religion and I believe the Church of England will stand by Us And Divines of great Reputation gave their Judgment for Subjects defending themselves against their Princes in Cases not near so strong as Ours Queen Elizabeth gave Countenance and Aid to the Revolt of the Low-Countries or Rebellion as it is call'd against the King of Spain and did it by Advice of Learned and Religious Divines as Dr. Bancroft c. And 't was for the sake of Religion Queen Elizabeth also assisted the Protestants in Scotland against the French Faction Cambden says she had a Consultation about that Matter and although it was urged That it was of Ill Example to patronise another Prince's Subjects in Commotion yet it seem'd to be an Impious thing to be wanting to them of the same Religion Bishop Bilson justifies the Defence which the French and Dutch made on supposition that it was for the Maintenance of the Laws If we look into the Affair of the King of Bohemia or Prince Palatine we find tho King James was backward i. e. fearful and had not Courage when the War broke out in Germany the Sense of the Archbishop in his Letter to Sir Robert Naunton Secretary of State when he advised the King to send Aid against the Emperor's Attempts of introducing Popery and Arbitrary Power he encourages the Prince Palatine as King of Bohemia by Election in the matter for propagation of the Gospel and to protect the Oppress'd and declares for his own part He did not dare but give Advice to follow where God leads apprehending the Work of God in This and That of Hungary and that he was satisfied in Conscience that the Bohemians had a Just Cause c. King Charles the First who appeared to be of as Scrupulous a Judgment in the Point as any By the Advice of Archbishop Laud not only assisted the King of Denmark who assisted others against the House of Austria to keep the King of Spain from overrunning the Western part of Christendom and sent Forces and Supplies for the Cause of Religion as his Reasons are emphatically express'd in the Declaration But also some time after published a Declaration of War against France chiefly on Account of that King's Protestant Subjects for Violation of Edicts and Breach of Articles and Contracts with them Whereas Contracts and Articles at other times with Us have by some been pronounced Prophane Absurdities c. The Revolt of Catalonia hath had its due Representation here as well as elsewhere The only Reason for their taking up Arms was in plain Terms to rid themselves of their Oppressors which the Nobility said was their Duty and to preserve their Ancient Form of Government from the Encroachments of the King of Spain who Oppress'd Rich and Poor by Arbitrary Taxations Religion was no Ingredient in their Rebellion Their Acclamations were Long live the new King D'Juan de Braganza and let them dye that govern ill His Accession to the Crown of Portugal was Congratulated and Countenanced by all the Kingdoms and States in Europe upon the Return of his Manifesto's only the Emperor whose Interest it was condemn'd it the Pope himself did not Resent it And they congratulated him upon the Merits as well as Success of the Attempt Where then is this Ambitious Prince Where is that Wicked and Ungodly People as they call Us We have done no more than what hath been done upon a Godly Consideration in like Cases nay not so much and our Case goes farther for these had only Edicts and Acts of Grace to maintain We defend our Religion Establish'd by the Laws of the Land This Family of the Nassaus have the hardest Measure under the Sun To be stiled Daring and Ambitious Spirits and to have Damnation thus Entailed upon them only for undertaking the Cause of the Oppress'd and Rescuing Abus'd Innocence from the Tyranny of Arbitrary and Barbarous Power Why then are the Gentlemen of the Church of England so resty upon this Revolution There is scarce any Reason to be imagined unless it be for those which they bring themselves such as the Convocation-Settlement Conquest c. If we should enquire into their Opinions and variety of Principles I doubt we shall find them so Un-uniform that we shall never ground any fixt Authority upon them in this Point or any other Tho it seems but an Ungrateful Task to expose their Contradictions and Contrarieties in all Ages But if they have differ'd amongst themselves in their Doctrines and Notions of Obedience or Resistance and the Settlement of Crowns I hope they will give Us leave in Equal Authorities to chuse which we will follow In truth he who will be at the pains to examine their Writings i. e. their General Councels themselves even from the first Four to the Last I 'm sorry to say it will I believe find but a Sandy Foundation to fix his Conscience or Judgment in Articles of Faith What have they been doing with the Trinity of late What have they not been doing to get the Government into the Church-Conusance by way of Success and Providence Tho I would have this Government setled to satisfy and please every one in their own way if it were possible for Men have different Ideas of things Yet I'am unwilling the Government should be trick'd and impos'd upon And that Men should advance their own Stations and Interest by publishing and mis-applying Notions which expose the Church and King both I must confess I think Dr. S Reasons for the Government have been the greatest against it with all Men of Reason and Honour and have hindred many from coming into it What stuff have we produced in a Convocation-Book the greatest Affront to a King and People that was ever offer'd with a salvo to the Church It is said Providence may actually and God will when he sees fit and can serve the Ends of his Providence set up Kings without any Regard to Legal Right or Human Laws and when they are thus set
up they are invested with God's Authority which must be obey'd and this supersedes all Legal Disputes of Right and our old Oaths and our old Allegiance are at an end For when God transfers Kingdoms and hath set over Us a New King and setled him and requires our Obedience to a New King he necessarily transfers our Allegiance c. And the Authority unjustly gotten and wrested from the True and Lawful Possessor being always God's Authority and therefore receiving no Impeachment from the Wickedness of those that have it is ever when any Alterations are truly setled to be obeyed Why all this tho as with a supposing to Us It seems by this That the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation have been bantering God Almighty with Prayers and Praises all this while whereas both Prince and People and All of Us should have been humbling our selves in Sackcloth and Ashes and doing Pennance for our Rebellion and Wickedness I shall not trouble a Serious Thought about this Convocation-Book or the Occasion of it enough hath been said about that and the Doctor already King James I. in his Letter to Dr. Abbot shews his Resentment of the Proceedings of that Convocation Only I will produce another Convocation to shew how the former hath setled the Government The first was in the time of James the First the other in James the Second Now you shall see the Judgment of the Famous University of Oxon They in their Convocation reflecting as they tell Us upon certain Pernicious Books and Damnable Doctrines viz amongst others Proposition 10. That Possession and Strength give a Right to Government and Success in a Cause or Enterprize proclaims it to be Lawful and Just Nota To pursue it Is to comply with the Will of God because it is to follow the Conduct of his Providence Hobbes Owen Baxter Jenkins c. And Proposition 15. If a People who by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Sovereign shall sinfully Dispossess him and contrary to their Covenant chuse and covenant with another they may be obliged by their Latter Covenant notwithstanding their Former Baxter H. C. c. by their Judgment and Decree Ann. 1683. pronounced these amongst many other such like Propositions Heretical and Decreed Judged and Declared them to be False Seditious and Impious Blasphemous and Infamous to Christian Religion and destructive of all Government in Church and State What a Blessed Establishment is here What an Honourable Title hath the King in what a Condition is the Subject Thus we see how unsafe 't is to imply or suppose a Providential Usurper or King de facto which is all one and then to secure him by Arguments out of the Clouds So 't is of a Forcible Usurper or King de facto t'other way to Establish him with a Providential Success as Conqueror without Right As if we come to measure the Mysteries of Providence by our narrow Comprehensions and Rules and tack it to every Success we shall make a very odd Business of it and put Providence upon very Irreverent Offices We know how That and Scripture hath been interpreted upon other Occasions In less than half a Century upon a Certain Revolution One Side said God shewd his Indignation in Thunder and Lightning T'other That he Congraturated the Success with his Guns and Fire-works from above Plato in his time said Lawyers and Physicians were the Pest of a Country Would he not have added Divines also had he lived in some other Ages When these Gentlemen were upon their Providential Disposal and Settlement of Kingdoms They might as justly have brought some Instances from Scripture which would have been for the Honour of the Revolution Where God vouchsaf'd his Assistance to a good Cause for a Blessing to a People as well as always for a Curse to a Bad and Sinful Nation Instances which comply and would have stood with the Ordinary Rules of Morality and Human Justice As the Case of Solomon and his Son between Hezekiah and Josiah and the succeeding Tyrants and Wicked Princes Also in the Case of Rehoboam where God seems to give a Countenance to the Revolt of the Ten Tribes and assist against his Tyranny and Oppression for God says 't was his doing there also David seems to agree with this He sufficiently differences his Expressions according to the Characters of Princes and Rulers as good or bad He tells us the Fate of wicked ones not by executing upon them God's immediate personal Judgments or by the visible Hand of Providence but by Human Mediums of interposing Power to restrain them c. by the Favour of God's Assistance in an Ordinary Course of Providential Justice The Prophets did not preach Passive Obedience to the Idolatrous Kings of Israel and Judah but inveigh'd against them Did not David and his Adherents resist Saul though he spared his Person I do not pretend to plead for a Vindictive Account against the Person of Kings And the Story of Manasses methinks seems something toward ours He Set up Repaired Adorn'd and Furnish'd the Altars Temples and High Places in which the Devil was by the Heathen Worshipp'd forgetting the Piety of his Father and most abominably burnt his Sons for a Sacrifice to the Devil Moloch and shed so much innocent Blood that 't is said Jerusalem was replenish'd therewith And when after all he was reprehended by the Reverend Prophet Esai he caus'd him to be Saw'd asunder with a Wooden Saw Therefore for his Sins the Lord brought upon him the Captains of the Host of the Kings of Ashur who took Manasses and put him in Fetters and bound him in Chains and carried him to Babel where after he had lain Twenty Years as a Captive despoiled of all Honour and Hopes of doing Mischief God inspir'd him with Repentance and afterwards mov'd the Assyrians Heart to deliver him after which he forgot his Impieties and Villanies detested his Idolatry cast down the Idols of his own Erection repaired Jerusalem and at last Dyed in a Religious Peace But 't is not my Province to apply Scripture only to my self And I know not what Commission They have so familiarly to determine the Councils of the Almighty 'T is true as St. Augustin says Nothing is sensibly and visibly done in the World which cometh not from the Interior and Invisible Cabinet of God whether it be commanded or permitted though some will not allow a permissive Providence yet the Psalmist says Oh God! How profound are thy thoughts and how unsearchable to the ignorant and foolish Yet Man must be presently making Inferences Providence is said to take care of the most minute Creatures as well as the greatest And these great Texts and Stories of Prerogative and Supremacy with Complement to each other are only taken notice of whilst Others as positive lye dormant as Resist not evil Turn t'other Cheek and about giving the Cloak also These might do mischief and the Wicked of the World might take Advantage by returning them upon the
Inviting of him over and the Dissenting Archbishop who thought fit to draw back afterwards was pleased to Countenance his coming to London and to assist with his Counsels He was willing to be in the Sanhedrim upon the Vacancy which by his favour was as far from being Passive as Harnessing and Equipping c. and several Noblemen with their Chaplains at their Elbows agreed upon the first Overtures against King James who only differ'd after in the Form of Administration and supplying the Power There were those who would have been contented and satisfied with a Regency which by the by was as much against the late Notions of Loyalty and 't was once taught that it was as Damnable to put any Restraint upon a King or Fetter his Prerogative or to limit the Measures of our Obedience as to cancel and throw them off If then there be no steady Obstruction in our way no Irrefragable Arguments but what are Overturn'd or Embarrass'd Why may we not throw off the Mask and declare our selves frankly and sincerely And talk as becomes Gentlemen or Free-born Creatures of Reason and tell the World That King James was no longer fit to be entrusted with the Government That he could give no Adequate Security for his Administration That it was no more in his Power than his Will to Rule according to Law That it could not be therefore safe to Re-admit him on any Terms because he would not be restrain'd by any Qualifications In short That King Jamess Character and Administration are inconsistent and incompatible with the Laws of this Realm and that therefore it was necessary absolutely necessary That the Government should be supplied and some Other Person admitted and placed in the Throne from and by whom might be assur'd he would Observe and Maintain the Constitution in Church and State And that for these Reasons we have admitted King William to the Crown allow'd him to take the Government as King of England and consented to transfer our Allegiance to him and have Recognized Acknowledged and Declared His Majesty he having accepted the Crown and Royal Dignity To be of Right and by the Laws of this Realm our Sovereign Lord and King of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging c. If our Principles are just the Consequence must be so too If the Premises be true the Conclusion is warrantable Montaign says Authority is not given in favour of the Magistrate but of the People And 't is the general Opinion That Government was made for them whether originally it were made by them or not All the respective Schemes of it are contrived to provide for the Welfare of the Community and the Laws and Constitutions of Power are the Measures of Submission to it Thus the Notions of Providence and Human Right may be understood and consist in Human Understanding Kings and Subjects may know their Duties Kings may preserve their Rights so long as they continue to be Rational Men and Man may preserve his Native Honour in the Character of his first Creation as he was made after God's Image also Thus I hope this Present King may at last rest in Peace being setled by such a Recognition and guarded by an Association in Parliament Though 't is hard to imagine how the Voluntary one came to be boggled at after such a Declared Right in Parliament before and Oaths of Allegiance taken to it And long may He live to Assert the Rights of the People To administer Justice and to retrieve the Honour of Great Britain by vindicating it from the Encroachments suffer'd not to say consented to in the late Reigns FINIS CORRIGENDA PAge 3. Line 16. read we are p. 6. l. 2. r. off p. 8. l. penult for affecting r. offering at p. 18. l. 17. r. Sir Henry Spelman p. 22. l. 8. r. Aristotle p. 31. l. 15. r. Government p. 35. l. 4. r. they p. 116. l. 8. r. to make War p. 118. l. 5. r. n' avoit p. 123. l. 6. r. ever governed p. 137. l. penult r. souffert p. 152. l. 27. r. Revenue p. 153. l. 29. r. Opiniatreté p. 160. l. 5. r. Noble id l. 24. r. and he p. 161. l. 5. r. dimm p. 180. l. 28. for i e r and even
give the Remainder to their Subjects clogg'd and incumbred with a Condition to defend the Realm This is but an ill sign of a Limited Monarchy by Original Constitution or Contract At this rate a Man who writes with the Fancy of a Government may expose any thing even himself But why doth this necessarily follow May not several Privileges and Powers be lodged in the Crown for Conformity and Dignity of Government by Consent And so May not Estates or the Lands of a Kingdom be divided by Contract with the acknowledgment of the Tenure and to express the Service How come Lands to Escheat to the Crown for they are forfeited for Treason I mean of Cities but that there is no Heir How comes the King to have the Year Day and Waste of Lands which Escheat to the Lord By what Law if not of Contract To say they moved from the King and were Limitations of his Bounty is as much suppos'd on the other hand and gratis dictum If he had virtually all Lands Why not all Goods c. too No man will say that If he had I confess there would be then no use of Parliaments But to proceed the King by his Prerogative may Call and Prorogue and Dissolve Parliaments By what Law had he this Prerogative If not by Law of Compact and Consent of Necessity to avoid Confusion for if he could Command his Subjects Purses c. there could not otherwise be any Original use of them He might and would no doubt have call'd and made use of only a Privy or Cabinet Council or Cabal for after this way of Inference no King would certainly have Clogg'd himself with the impertinent Formalities of a Parliament their Predecessors were very Weak or Prodigal to Clip their own Wings and give their Subjects a share in the Legislative Power This is but an ill sign of an Original Absolute Arbitrary Power And 't was upon this pretence though those Gentlemen don't care to own it That they would have endeavoured to Disengage their King from the use of Parliaments and would conclude That the King might chuse whether he would ever call any or not at least in this Form Thus they would beg the Question and presume the Consequence on their side because equally absurd The King may Proclaim War c. Does it follow therefore that he may make it without other Heads and Hands Thus they confound the Executive and Legislative Authority They say Scribling is a sign of a Licentious Age and some think of a Decaying State too Ought not some Creaturs to be Muzled There were many odd sort of extravagant Books published on Subjects of this Nature in the Reign of King Charles the II d not without Reason as we may suppose But all these violent pursuits in both Extremes are suspitious and where all Parties mean nothing but the Publick Good there 's nothing of this nature worth contending for And whoever will reflect on the Circumstances and Occasions or Times of such Publications and the advancing these high-flown Notions with a little pains of Comparison will easily see through the Mystery of their Policy It is very extraordinary That Subjects make Kings Conquerors in spight of their Teeths and against their own Professions and Declarations on purpose to make themselves Slaves by their own Consequence though this really is neither the true Signification nor Import as Mr Spelman makes appear in his Glossary let them take it in their own sense but we may assure our selves they did not intend to inslave themselves They tell us That William the I st was a Conqueror and therefore we were all Slaves c. though at other times Force and Success will make no Right Yet afterwards they also tell us when we come to insist on our Rights as Subjects That Magna Charta was obtained by Force c. What then So had the Crown been before it seems by them Either the People of England had some Legal Rights before the Conquest or not If they had as is confess'd 't was time to endeavour the Restoring of them If William the I st were an Intruder and came in by Force of Arms only he was but a Successful Usurper and the People being under a Force could not lose their Rights If he came in with pretence of Title Title continued them in their Rights and either way was justifiable I am engaged in this matter before I am aware and beyond my first intention and I shall meet with these Gentlemen anon But not to forestal you in the History I can't avoid a Hint upon those times being upon Magna Charta and that being by that Act declared to be Declaratory of the Fundamental Rights and Common Laws of the Realm To shew the Arts of Debauching Kings and the end of such Attempts in one previous Instance Hubert de Burgo as you may see in Sir Edward Coke's Preface to Magna Charta c. meaning to make his step to Ambition which ever Rideth without Reins persuaded and humoured that King That he might avoid that Charter of his Father King John by Duress and his own great Charter and Charta de Foresta also for that he was within Age whereupon the King got one of the great Charters and that of the Forest into his Hands and by his Councel unjustly Cancell'd both the said Charters though this Hubert de Burgo was Primier Witness of all the Temporal Lords to both the said Charters whereupon he became in high Favour with the King c. But soon after for Flattery and Flatterers have no sure Foundation he fell into the King's heavy Indignation and after many fearful and miserable Troubles he was Justly and according to Law Sentenc'd by his Peers in open Parliament and as justly Degraded of the Dignity which he had unjustly obtained c. So that other Notion of Paternal Right is as Extraordinary This takes a short way and makes Mankind Rebels from the Creation or from the Flood Who could have imagined That this Paternal Dominion from Adam could have been inferr'd from that Expression of the Psalmist The earth hath he given to the children of men Which Sir Robert Filmer learnedly says Doth shew that the Title of Government comes from Fatherhood Methinks it seems a more plausible and literal Argument to Exclude Fathers or to lay them aside as they do in some Countries at such an Age Why have not this Party a scruple of Conscience about all other Variations of Government even by God himself At this rate they ought to procure Masses for the Souls of their Progenitors who lived in the Heptarchy It is certain no body living under any Commonwealth can hope to be Saved as remaining in a continued state of Rebellion Thus they create a double Obligation on Men and harrass their very Souls between their Natural and Political Parents in virtue of the Fifth Commandment But as much a Frenchman as he seems to be I know not how he will excuse
Kings such our Ministers and such were the People to be But all these Kings of the Scotch Line seem to have differ'd in their Ideas and Methods of Government King James the First Philosophised upon it Charles the First Reason'd on it with too much Opiniatretie and King Charles the Second Banter'd it and I 'm sure King James the Second did not Moralize upon it JAMES II. IF what Sir William Temple says of King Charles the II d be true and he gives good Authority for it viz. That the Prince of Orange upon Discourse c. said to him That the King Charles II d was as he had reason to be confident in his Heart a Roman Catholick though he durst not profess it It will go a great way towards the justification of those Gentlemen and their Conduct in the Oxford Parliament c. in relation to the past King and much more the Behaviour of the Nation towards King James of whom there was no doubt of being one and who dar'd own it at last though he very meanly prosecuted One upon a Scandalum Magnatum for having said so once For no doubt they both came over as much Papists as they ever were and if the first dyed such I can't but believe he had lived one for Thirty Years at least and they will both stand in need of a very great Dispensation somewhere else for their Hypocrisy so many Years If King Charles believ'd nothing of the Popish Plot as is said I know not whether it will diminish the Credit of it But 't is certain his Successor King James abundantly confirm'd its Credibility even so much as to give a Reputation to the intended Bill of Exclusion though the Loyalty of the People then ran so high that they were not willing to part with him without Experience nor then neither it seems by some vainly imagining that the Honour of a Popish King could supersede and take place of his Religion The Books and Pamphlets of that Season have sufficiently exposed or demonstrated the Character of this King and the Principles of that Religion And 't was as Evident to any body that would see what he had been doing in his Brother's Reign as what he did in his own Whether we conclude his Practice from his Principles or his Principles from his Practice there 's enough to convince for the past and to caution for the time to come If Declarations repeated with so much Solemnity and broke through with so much Ease and a Coronation-Oath Discharged and Violated so plainly though with an impertinent Distinction of the Judges to keep up a feeble Countenance of Law For what will not Judges in Commission during pleasure say or do For our Judges are not Sworn as those Judges whom the Kings of Egypt made solemnly to take an Oath that they would not do any thing contrary to their Conscience though commanded to it by themselves If the Business of the Irish at Portsmouth If the sending the Lord Castlemain to Rome and receiving a Nuntio here which was never suffer'd in a Protestant Country nor at Treaties where Protestant Ministers have been If the Letters from Liege to the Jesuits at Friburg If sending the Lord Preston to France which sufficiently implies a French League to mention no other Evidence of it nor the Story of sending out the Fleet Half-Mann'd If these or any of these did not unvail the Designs of that King we shall ever be in the Dark and nothing on this side of Dragooning could have open'd their Eyes they must also be persuaded That the Pope King Lewis and King James were all well-wishers to the Protestant Religion and to the Heretick Prosperity of England as by Law Establish'd That inviduous little Management of Magdalen-College Affair with Huffing a parcel of poor naked Fellows of a College for not swallowing Perjury without a Dispensation shews his good Nature equally with his Policy and sets forth in Epitome his Devout Observation of an Allowance to Church-of-England Consciences The prosecuting the Bishops so Barbarously First One for refusing to do what was not in his power by Law and then the rest for humbly begging to be allowed to have Souls The turning all the Nobility and Gentry out of all Commissions Offices and Places for pretending to Honour and refusing to concur in Dissolving the Reformation was a Master-stroke that we might be subdued and over-run with Jesuits Councels and Irish Courage and Conduct Some of his Friends are so Hardy to fancy and pretend to say He could not have introduced Popery if he had endeavoured it they should have put in Arbitrary Power too For what cannot a King do over a passive People Disarm'd in Power and Defective in Notion and Thought Cependant les Anglois se doivent souvenir le Massacre D'Ireland c. says a late French Author but I forbear to give you any Account from the French Refugees 'T is true he could not subdue our Understandings but he might exercise a fatal Tyranny over our Wills Besides King James never tried fair means which would have went a great way he went the false way to work upon Englishmen I doubt we are not so much Temptation-proof And it might for ought I know have been a dangerous Experiment to have trusted the Church with it self so long in an Enemy's Quarter We see King James hath lived a great many Years enow to have gone a great way with us with the Assistance of French and Irish and such Subjects as were inclinable to be of the King's Religion at Home and he must have gone as far as he could No doubt the Nation had been as easily supplied as Magdalen-College But it happen'd very luckily for England that King James discover'd his Temper of Spirit a little too soon We all knew of what force Edicts-had been in Hungary and France the Copies whereof our Kings had been so apt to follow and what the Duke of Savoy had been doing in the Valleys of Piedmont but we would not believe King James was Cruel was a Persecutor scarce that he was a Papist because he had the Art to Conceal and Disguise himself a little before it was in his power to use the Rod. But presently Father Petre shew'd that he would do as much in England as la Chaise had done in France and the first was observ'd to be the hottest of the two And not to aggravate or mince Matters They must all have done what lay in their power in Obedience to what their Councils Decree towards the Extirpation of Hereticks But God be thanked King James did not shew himself that Prince of Resolution at least he fail'd them in one Character as they would have had him deceiv'd us by another He was pleased for some Considerations whether of Fear or Guilt to leave us abruptly and we have taken that Advantage of parting with him fairly And I wish him all the Happiness that is consistent with the Welfare of England Only let us as
that And Dr Hicks says also Only the Laws of Men are God's Ordinances St. Paul speaking of Authority in general says Ordinance of God St. Peter of the particular Persons administring Authority calls it the Ordinance of Man Sir Robert Filmer upon that Render unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are God's divides all between God and the King and leaves nothing to the poor Subject which doth not very well consist with our Saviour's Advice to him whom he bid Sell All that he had and give to the poor which grieved the Young Man for he had Great possessions It seems by this our Saviour implies the Subject had Property otherwise he could not have Sold it Thus they make their own Idol We see then by the better Opinions of Divines and Learned Men all Forms of Power are Authentick with respect to the Laws and Constitutions of Places and submit to all Powers imports only Obedience according to Law the Ordinance of Man To render unto Cesar c. implies certainly that something was left in him who rendred It is not said Give all to Cesar So no Man will controvert the submitting to every ordinance with the Context for Rulers are a Terror to the Evil and not to the Good There never was any King in Israel but had some Engagement and Tye upon him Formally with God or by Covenant with Man To keep the Laws to judge righteously to seek the Good of the People c. Besides the Case of the Apostles is wonderfully different in all respects As to Property c. the Government of the Roman Emperors was Absolute taking it at worst and therefore Christians who had no Law on their side could not resist This is said by some tho' our Saviour does not seem to mean it so whereas Ours under our Kings is limited and mixt therefore not the same foundation to apply the Injunctions of Non-resistance from the Apostles As to Religion the Apostles came counter to all Laws and therefore were to submit to them Not to raise Rebellion on account of a new Religion which had no foundation in any Law And the proper Talent and Business of the Apostles was suffering for the sake of the Gospel therefore impertinent as well as prophane and wicked for them to think of resisting any Powers What is this to the maintaining a Religion established by a Law But this Construction imposed upon Us towards Passive Obedience is a Conceit against the Opinion of most Learned Men and also contrary to the Common Practise of the Christian World Grotius Selden c. understand submission to every ordinance to be to the Government and the Laws thereof And so in common construction and intendment those Texts may be taken a Direction from the Apostles to their Missionaries and Correspondents who were to travel through variety of Governments to pay all Duties and Civil Respects to Kings and Magistrates and may be satisfied with that particular application of Obedience They were enjoined not to enquire into the Fundamental Rights of Power but to take them as they found them being only Powers of this World with proper Laws for keeping Mankind in Peace and Order in general according to the Respective Customs and Constitutions I believe besides the Gospel is an Universal Instruction for Obedience to the Laws on the severest punishment of disobedience to them 'T was intended to make them good Subjects but not Slaves 'T is too much to be Passive and Martyrs by whole Nations with the Laws and Religion bleeding by our Sides Let 's look into the Customs and Usages of other Ages and Places and enquire into and examine the Principles and Opinions of Learned Divines on the Occasions of Power and the Exercise or Abuse of it If a man should consult the Histories of the first Kings of France and Spain both before and since those Nations receiv'd the Light of the Gospel and the hudled abrupt Succession besides the very odd Partnerships in Kingdoms he will find matter but of small Veneration for Titles to Crowns of Old Times whatever he may fancy is due to the Present Establishments And I doubt we should discover but a faint blind Track of Active Providence in the transferring Kingdoms as 't is call'd but only rather the Effects of a Ludicrous Fortune Suppose we should be free and tell the World we have Elected Made or Appointed call it what you will King William King of Great Britain instead of King James without the formality of Deposing or taking off his Crown or Head to make a Vacancy or without the Ens Rationis of a Vacancy it would be no more than what may be justified by Precedents of no Bad Times in other Countries and our Own too In France the Instance of Childerick degraded and Aegidius or Gillon Master of the Roman Militia who was a Stranger but in Reputation for Probity and Wisdom Elected in his stead It is said the French according to their Ancient Rights conferr'd upon Pepin after Thierry was stripp'd of his Royalty the Sovereignty of Austrasia And afterwards Pepin his Grandson Son of Charles Martel and Father of Charlemain by a Parliament assembled was appointed King although there was One of the Marovignian Race remaining but Young Stupid and Witless And for the Honour of the Church Pope Zachary confirm'd him Upon which in another Parliament at Roymes they degraded Childerick and Elected Pepin And the Archbishop of Mentz Boniface declared to them the Validity of the Pope's Answer And after at the Assembly at Carbonnat the Austrasian Lords and Estates acknowledged Charlemain their King They might do says the History this and if he had not had That Right he had been an Usurper for the Children of Charlemain were living Hugh Capet's best if not only Title was Election For Charles Duke of Lorrain was of the Carolovinian Race and Heir but as is said of little merit In Spain the Visigoths about 1200 years since made and unmade their Kings as they pleas'd I suppose 't will not be said They were the worse Christians for being nearer the time of our Saviour and his Apostles So it was in Denmark too till they lately changed from Elective to Hereditary from a Limited to an Absolute Government and so for ought we know it may again when that Arbitrary Power hath had its full swing To look back here at home formerly it was so And I know not why we may not be permitted to go upwards as far as we please since those on t'other side think fit to go backward to Henry the Third for the beginning as they say of our Constitution Egbert the First sole Saxon King upon the Report of the Death of Britric with great speed returned out of France where during the time of his abode he had serv'd with good Commendation in the Wars under Charles the Great by means whereof his Reputation encreasing amongst his own Countrymen he was thought worthy of the
himself whether Frighted or not is not material upon which the Prince together with his Consort the next Heir Indisputable to the Crown in a full and due Representation of the whole Community and Body of the Kingdom is and are Declared and Appointed King and Queen Now let us see what we have done upon the whole matter to deserve that harsh Language of the Convocation-Book produced by Dr Sherlock Whether we have done more or so much as all other Nations have done in a Case any thing like Ours Whether we have done more than becomes Good Christians or Men of Honour And what it is that stands in our way to hinder or bar such an Attempt and Action First Setting aside at present those Texts of St. Paul and St. Peter which are the only discouraging Impediments and which have been sufficiently as I think answered and avoided by several Pens Upon the Law of Nature no Man I believe can pretend to say here is any Natural Injustice or Moral Injury done Certainly Nature and Reason prompt us to Defend Injuries and to Repel Force Nature will preserve it self in its Being No Man will say a King of England hath power of Life and Death over his Subjects We say he hath no Power other than by the Law of the Land the Moral as well as Legal Consequence must be That we may Defend our Lives against all Assaults 't is the same of Liberty and Property for there is a Meum and Tuum in all Christian Commonwealths as Archbishop Abbot said before subject only to the Laws of the Place therefore I can't defend my self or House against the King Arm'd with Legal Power as upon a Cap. Vtlagatum or upon a Duty due to him c. but I may where I am out of the compass of a Legal Prosecution If the consequence of Self-defence and Preservation be denied it 's vain trifling to talk of Laws and to value our selves upon Living in a Country where the Measures of Right are ascertain'd and the Limits of Government and Subjection the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and the Bow String will be the same if Laws are only a simple Direction for Information and not an Obligation We must owe our Lives c. at this rate to Fortune not to Justice But since the Restoration it 's said we are under another Tie not to take up Arms by the Extravagant Compliment to King Charles the II d and the Declaration pursuant to that Act. Be it so though all Laws made in Extraordinary Heats are not a regular Obligation but let them take that State-Artificial Obligation into the Bargain the King Swears too and this was not designed to let loose the King's Hands and tie the Subjects for all Obligations whether Natural or Artificial are Reciprocal and Mutual and always so taken and understood in common Intendment There can be no other Notion of Justice Natural Moral or Political and whatever Preference and Advantage is allowed to One above the Other 't is an Authority upon Supposition of Care Protection and for Order and centers in the Good of the Community And I think the Lacedemonians had a Law to Punish Parents who did not their Duty towards their Children Let us therefore take in the highest Instance of Obedience and Duty from Children to Parents No Man I suppose will pretend now that a Father may Castrate Sell or Kill a Child the Inference must be That in any Case of such open Violence a Son may Resist a Father in his own necessary Defence and Self-preservation without offering Reproach Injury or Vindictive Force So in the Case of Lunacy in a Parent or any fatal Extravagance no doubt a Son may lay Hands on a Father by way of Restraint and must take a continued Commanding Care over him in case of Relapse c. This is agreed on all hands to be the severest Tie of Obedience and therefore Kings are endeavoured to be brought within the Fifth Commandment to make our Chains the faster not in the mean time considering that they make them looser by putting an inconsistent double Duty upon us Thus we are told Religion stands positively in our way and fetters us with an Absolute Obedience to Kings without Reserve c. It seems hard that Religion should weaken our Arm in Defence of it self and force our Obedience and Submission to Laws and Absolute Power in the same breath For where there is Absolute Power there is no Law and where there are Laws there is no Absolute Power But Scripture is to be our Guide I agree it But what Authority shall I rely on Where shall I apply my self for an Interpreter 'T is manifest our own Church cannot settle me that is divided against it self Some bring Instances from the Old Testament Others tell us That is nothing to the purpose those Kings being by God's Designation c. Some tell us these Texts of St. Peter and St. Paul oblige us to Passive Obedience on peril of Damnation And Others as boldly and magisterially inform us That the New Testament gives no Rules for Submission to Forms of Government but only Rules of Justice Order and Peace That those Texts are nothing to Our purpose for the Apostles spoke to those under Heathen Emperors where Paganism was Established by a Law and that those Texts are to be only Expounded against the Jews who still believed themselves under the Divine Authority and thought they could not become the Subjects of any other Power As to the Scripture-Examples we are Taught by a very great Divine and Bishop not to rely on them and he says Those who place the Obligatory Nature of these Examples from Scripture must either produce the Moral Nature of those Examples or else a Rule binding us to follow those Examples especially when these Examples are brought to found a New positive Law Obliging all Christians Some say in general the Bible is a Miscellaneous Book where Dishonest and Time-serving Men may ever in their loose way find a Text for their purpose Sir Robert Filmer upon the Dispute of the Form of Powers for these Texts are sometimes applied to the Form and sometimes to the Quality of Power takes Power only in the Singular Number Powers in the Plural is a damnable Sin and he will have all Governments but the Patriarchal to be Illegal and Abominable but this is so Extravagant that I think none of our Divines pretend to justify him in it and therefore Others on the contrary are of Opinion That Submit to all Powers infers That all Forms of Government are admitted to be good and do not allow that Power in the Singular is to be taken restrictive and so there is no Authority if not of God and the Authorities which are of God's Institution are ordered under God Sir Robert Filmer Dr Hicks c. will have the Legislative Power to be in the King alone And the First says all Legislative Powers are Arbitrary But where is the necessity for